will@cvradio.com The Utah State Democratic Party is holding its 2017 organizing convention on Saturday, June 17, and new Cache County Democratic Party Chairman Danny Beus is hoping a lot of local delegates and other residents will attend. He said the event will take place on the Weber State University (WSU) campus in Ogden, and new state leadersa state chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer will be elected. They will lead our party in the future, Beus said. Its very important for Cache Democrats and delegates to show up. On KVNUs For the People program Monday, Beus said Rob Miller had filed for the office of Utah State Democratic Party chair, but he has withdrawn his candidacy and will not be seeking the position. Beus said eight candidates remain. Its quite the process, he said. We have a lot of people to look at and a lot of people who are qualified and who would do a good job running the party and directing the party, and so its really important for us to show up, to listen to what they have to sayto do our homework, to visit their websites, look at their Facebook pages, whatever it may be. This is a big deal. Beus said Democrats have the opportunity to gain a lot of room in Utah. He said the role of chair is very important because whoever is elected will lead the Democratic Party in that direction. This is an important time for Utah Democrats, he said. We invite the delegates to be there to cast their votes, but also we invite people who want to go and be part of the process and get involved. Issue caucuses are big in the Democratic Party, and they will be meeting and electing their officials as well. If youre passionate about Latino rights or youre passionate about the environment, you can go and meet likeminded people and enjoy being with them and see the progress were making as Democrats. Beus said doors open at 8 a.m., but the actual convention will begin at noon in WSUs Shepard Union Building. The Utah State Republican Party is also holding its nominating convention this weekend. LOGAN A judge has sentenced a registered sex-offender, Azadeen Altom, to one-year in jail, refusing a lighter sentence of three-months that was recommended by probation officers. The 42-year-old former Nebraska man was arrested and charged with harassing young girls at a middle school and later at a department store. First District Court Judge, Thomas Willmore called Altom an extreme danger to society. He said, if there was one place children should be safe it is at school. State attorney Aaron Jossie told the court that in March, Altom walked into Mt. Logan Middle School. Surveillance video showed him sitting in the schools cafeteria, watching a group of girls for five-minutes. Police later arrested the defendant in April after officers were called to the south Walmart on report that Altom was harassing a teenage girl inside the store. The customer claimed he approached her, getting inside her personal space, and asking for a ride home. When officers made contact with Altom, they found him to be very intoxicated. He had also failed to register as a sex offender, since moving from Nebraska. Court records show, Altom pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in May, failing to register as a sex offender and being in a protected area. During Mondays sentencing, public defender Michael McGinnis said Altom understood what he did was wrong, but has had a hard time understanding the guidelines of being a sex offender, especially when he is intoxicated. He asked the court to follow the probation guideline of three-months in jail and give the defendant credit for the 50-days he had already served. Through an interpreter, Altom told the court he never remembered going into the school. Judge Willmore also sentenced Altom to undergo therapy while in jail. Nebraska records show Altom was convicted of sexually assaulting another adult individual in January 2013.
will@cvradio.com Setting the course before Brexit Published on June 14, 2017 Story by euro topics Translation by: euro topics en de es pl British voters headed to the polls last week to elect a new parliament and by extension the leader who will negotiate the Brexit deal. Which leader did supporters of a soft Brexit choose? A tactical vote against a hard Brexit - The Irish Times, Ireland British Europhiles should vote for the centre-left candidate with the best prospects in their constituency, The Irish Times urges: The next general election had not been due until 2020, a year after the UK's scheduled departure from the EU, but voters now have the chance to slam on the brakes. It's true Labour has committed to following through with Brexit, but they are open to a 'softer' version. Were they to end up in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, they would almost certainly hold a second referendum on the final deal. That is why everyone against a hard Brexit should vote tactically for the candidate who is best-placed to beat the Tory in their constituency. (07/06/2017) Pro-Europeans need strong Tories - Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland Gazeta Wyborcza, by contrast, advises the pro-European camp to vote for the Tories: The issue now is whether they will gain an absolute majority - which is very likely - and how big that majority will be. Paradoxically a sweeping Tory victory would be better for the pro-European camp than a narrow victory - because such a victory would make May independent of the Eurosceptic hardliners in her party and give her more leeway in the negotiations with the EU. If May wins by a narrow margin the country will face laborious coalition negotiations and political chaos. Unless the Labour Party wins a sensational victory. (08/06/17) May needs a good slap in the face - Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy Failure at the polls might bring Theresa May to her senses on the Brexit, Il Sole 24 Ore writes hopefully: In the meantime Trump's silence in Brussels on Article 5 of the Nato Treaty not only throws into doubt Atlantic solidarity in the case of an attack on a Nato member, but has also besmirched the traditionally privileged British-American ties. And that's not all. Not only is the Brexit no longer greeted with enthusiasm in Washington, there is also no longer any talk of bilateral free trade agreements. ... While Merkel's Germany is calling on Europe to take its fate into its own hands, May's Britain is discovering that isolation wouldn't be all that wonderful. Will this be enough to bring about a change of heart? That would be the logical move. Only Brexit was never a well-considered, rational step, making it hard to turn back. But doubts are being voiced, and a resounding slap in the face for May could do more to make them heard. (08/06/2017) Don't forget globalisation's losers - Berlingske, Denmark Europe's politicians must shape globalisation in a way that is beneficial to all, Berlingske urges on the morning of the British vote: If the right political conditions for historic growth are created, one can be sure that everyone - the economy, the people and the welfare state - will benefit from the blessings of globalisation. The anti-globalist stance that has influenced a string of elections in the West is not constructive. But those running for office would do well to recognise that globalism has also created losers, even if society as a whole has benefited. ... It's important that everyone, and not just Chinese workers and London bankers, should benefit. Otherwise the people - as the Brexit referendum showed - will vote with their thumbs down. (08/06/17) Prime minister on the defensive - Deutschlandfunk, Germany Theresa May will now be wondering whether the snap election really was a good idea, Deutschlandfunk suspects: Because the Brexit is not the most contentious topic in the parliamentary elections. There are three powerful issues that will influence the way people vote: Brexit, social policy and now also terrorism. Clearly she was so fixated on the idea of being elected as a shining beacon capable of managing Brexit, the project of the century, that she has now ended up on the defensive on what, as former home secretary, is her very own domain. Prime Minister Theresa May got off to a good start and carefully steered British politics through the first storms after the referendum. But now that the country is experiencing one of its worst crises she unfortunately hasn't been able to maintain her poised stance. (06/06/17) May has lost her room for manoeuvre - Kaleva, Finland Just like Cameron before the Brexit referendum May miscalculated her chances in the election, writes Kaleva: Once again a British prime minister has severely misjudged the situation with the decision to call the population to the polls. Like her predecessor David Cameron, who, confident of a victory, decided to hold the referendum on continued EU membership, May has seen her popularity wane in the same fateful way. In the spring it looked like May would score a landslide victory. She had a lead of over 20 percentage points against her opponents. But then the Conservatives' lead began to shrink and the Labour Party started catching up. A narrow victory against Labour would be a major defeat for May. It would result in the two parties having almost equal power in domestic and foreign policy and dominate the Brexit negotiations. (07/06/17) --- 30 Countries, 300 Media Outlets, one press review. euro|topics presents the issues affecting Europe and reflects the continent's diverse opinions, ideas and moods. Story by euro topics Translated from Wahlen: Beglaubigen die Briten den Brexit? On a recent visit to Japan, I was told by a Tokyo-based investor that they were worried China might soon repeat a regrettable chapter in Japans trade history. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the United States had a major trade deficit with Japan, and trade between the two countries was marred by continuous friction. In 1985, pressure from the U.S. led Japan to sign the Plaza Accord, which resulted in significant appreciation of the yen and paved the way for Japans subsequent economic bubble. Today, the United States greatest trade deficit is with China could China be heading in the same direction? I believe the answer is no there are currently many factors that will prevent China from falling into the same situation as Japan. To begin with, if the United States tries to initiate a trade war with China, it will have to face the cost of potentially losing access to the Chinese market, which is far more important to U.S. businesses than Japan ever was. In 2016, Chinas total domestic retail sales amounted to 33.2 trillion yuan ($4.74 trillion), far less than the United States total domestic retail sales in the same period, which came up to $5.5 trillion. But disposable income in China has grown at four times the rate in the U.S. over the past 10 years, and the Chinese save a total of more than double what Americans save. Companies around the world, including U.S. firms, are optimistic about the growth prospects of the Chinese market. Chinas smartphone, civil aircraft, automobile, and travel industries have developed rapidly in recent years. China has even become the largest market by sales volume for General Motors Co., overtaking the U.S. in 2010. In comparison, Japans retail market during its trade war with the U.S. was far smaller, and its consumers had a smaller appetite for imports and tended to buy more domestically manufactured products. Even at its 1985 high of $435 billion, the Japanese retail market was only one-third the size of the U.S. market in the same year. In the 1990s, after its bubble burst, Japans retail industry gradually shrank. In 2016, retail sales in Japan came up to a total of around $1.2 trillion, or one-third the size of sales in the U.S. Another factor working in Chinas favor is the kinds of goods the country exports to the U.S. At the moment, around half of Chinas exports come from businesses with foreign investors, and nearly half of these businesses are American. If the U.S. attempts to undermine Chinas exports through protectionist measures, U.S. businesses in China will suffer the indirect repercussions. As Premier Li Keqiang told reporters at this years two sessions the annual plenary meetings of the National Peoples Congress and the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference that although China has a trade surplus with the U.S., more than 90% of the profits arising from exports by China-based U.S. companies are kept by the companies themselves, with Chinese manufacturers receiving as little as 2 to 3 percent. Japans exports to the U.S., on the other hand, were mostly Japanese brands, so the impact of protectionist measures against Japan on U.S. businesses was negligible. This was partly because Japans higher labor costs in the late 20th century pushed U.S. companies to set up factories elsewhere, such as in the four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea) or neighboring Mexico. The third factor is how China is unlikely to respond with U.S. pressure by voluntarily limiting its own exports. In contrast, the 30-year history of trade friction between Japan and the U.S. has been marked by unilateral concessions from Japan with the exception of the early 1970s. In the early 1970s, Japanese textile makers like Asahi Kasei Corp. were engaged in a serious battle against U.S. textile companies, with neither side willing to compromise. But in January 1972, the U.S. and Japanese governments reached an agreement on the textile trade, placing strict quotas on Japanese textile exports to the U.S. Since then, Japan has been making concessions and opening its markets in areas like steel, semiconductors, color TVs and automobiles while placing voluntary restrictions on its exports to the United States. The trade war became an impetus for Japans industrial hollowing-out. As the yen appreciated in the years following the Plaza Accord, Japan began investing extensively in factories abroad, with many companies in the industries affected by trade friction heading to the U.S. to set up facilities. China is unlikely to respond to trade friction with the U.S. by limiting its exports. Rather, the Chinese government will seek to further open the countrys markets while promoting fair competition, reform of state-owned enterprises, and opening-up of financial markets to increase imports from the United States. The fourth point is that China and Japans exchange-rate policy choices will be very different. In 1985, when the Plaza Accord was signed, a dollar was worth 240 yen. Ten years later, the yens value had doubled and a dollar could buy you only 120 yen. The yens dramatic appreciation led the Japanese government to adopt an overly loose monetary policy, resulting in the bubble economy and its eventual collapse. In contrast, the Chinese government has been striving since last year to keep the yuans value stable, and has avoided using changes in exchange rates to adjust trade. Finally, the United States massive levels of direct investment in China, the fact that China holds $1.12 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, and the United States current $333 trillion services surplus with China all point to the conclusion that China has greater room to maneuver than Japan did. Shen Jianguang is the chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities. Me Francis Sama W. Musa The former president of the Cameroon Bar Council, Barrister Sama Francis has come under strong criticism over statements he made on the court resumption. Members of the outlawed consortium have maintained he must tender a disclaimer to the Anglophones for allegedly saying that he was ready to resume work, they said We are maintaining that Barrister Sama is a traitor until we received a disclaimer from him. Some of his family members have contacted us to indicate he is not, until we have a signed disclaimer we shall continued to main that stand. We wrote that he is a traitor and we have the facts. Once we received the video we will also publish it!!! He has the right to change his position as an individual or Southern Cameroons Bar Council. Let those of them that have benefit from the system be very careful. Why has he not been arrested? Off course La Republique cannot arrest everybody. Meanwhile speaking to Cameroon News Agency, Barrister Sama Francis said people misinterpreted his interview with The Post Newspaper and asked that the news organ could do a rejoinder. Threats on his life have been made and the banned consortium insists that he made the statements, Should Barrister Sama disagrees with the post, he is a learned Barrister, we expected him to issue a signed response or disclaimer so that we can be sure. The post newspaper will thereafter published his disclaimer and apologize officially for the misleading caption. As of now, we take it to mean that Barrister Sama has decided to stand against the people of Southern Cameroons. A position which comes with consequences now or in the future. The June session of the 2017 General Certificate of Education, GCE examinations has begun in all centers previewed across Cameroon but met with ghost town, tension in GBHS Down Town and low turnout. According to reports on Equinoxe Radio, many students did not show up in day one of the exams, at GBHS Down Town about over 4000 students were expected to write the exams but only an approximate of over 1000 answered present with over 16 centers. Most centers were merged but the expected results have not been attained. There was tension at GBHS Down Town where some students who did not register came to take part in the exams were denied access. They threatened to disrupt the process if they are not allowed in, insisting that the recommendations were given by Secondary education minister. They were later allowed to write in a special room. In Buea, several schools were merged especially boarding schools, the BGS Molyko hosted most of the students. However day one of the GCE has reportedly been successful despite the low turnout. Another major obstacle encountered by candidates in the ghost town phenomenon. Movement was practically difficult for the candidates and some are reported to have left home as early as 6am to start trekking before 8am. | BY Ricki Green | Havas Sydney has today announced the appointment of Ant Melder (left) as joint executive creative director alongside Seamus Higgins (right). Following an extensive search for the right fit to match Havas and Seamus creative ambitions, the move will reunite a creative duo who first worked together more than ten years ago in London. Melder will replace the incumbent joint executive creative director Stuart Turner, who is leaving the agency after four years to join DDB Melbourne. Melder commences his new role at Havas following his tenure as creative partner at DDB Sydney, heading up creative for major clients including Expedia, Wrigley and Streets. Melder has built an impressive portfolio with more than 20 years experience as a creative director and copywriter in both his native UK and Australia. His work has been recognised internationally with more than 50 awards at Cannes, D&AD, One Show, AWARDs and Spikes Asia. Melder has established himself as a sought-after creative leader through notable work such as the Game of Balls campaign for the Blue Balls Foundation. Says Higgins: Since taking the reins with Stu over a year ago, its been great fun getting the creative fires burning at Havas again. I thank him personally for all of his passion and I know hell kill it in Melbourne. Now its all about increasing that momentum. Our goal is to make our clients and ourselves famous around the world for truly innovative thinking, and I am incredibly excited to work with someone as dynamic and hungry as Ant to continue on that mission. Were just getting started. Says Melder: It was a bittersweet decision to leave a brilliant agency thats absolutely on fire but I simply couldnt turn this down. Im passionate about the intersection of creativity, technology and culture and thats exactly where Havas are playing. Its one of the most forward-thinking, innovative agencies in the region, so the opportunity to be an integral part of it, working with Seamus and the wider Havas Village team, was irresistible. | BY Ricki Green | In 2015, New Zealands Police force was 85% white and 80% male. They wanted to move towards a mix that better reflected todays society. This meant we had to appeal not just to a different target, but a completely different mindset. To achieve this, we had to overcome negative, tough white guy perceptions of the police. (Perceptions that were being heightened by almost daily media attention about police brutality in the US, even though New Zealand police officers dont carry guns.) The brief was to portray policing as a job that required empathy and compassion. As well as addressing the gender & ethnic balance, we wanted to attract a more empathetic, compassionate batch of recruits. People to join the force not just to fight crime but help improve the lives of people in their communities. The idea behind this campaign was to pose the question Do You Care Enough To Be A Cop?. This idea is all about seeing policing in a completely different light. It puts aside the drug busts, car chases and cop show aspects of policing and places all the value on qualities like empathy and compassion. Its all about helping people in need. | BY Ricki Green | How will New Zealand perform at Cannes this year? In the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the work we hope will impress the judges Special Group, Auckland A totally designed and created from the ground up pop-up sandwich shop for Molenberg in the heart of Auckland city. It sold sandwiches created by consumers (through a social media campaign) and professionally prepared by Molenberg. The winning contestants got to keep all the money their sandwiches made through the sales. At the end of the 5 weeks there was a sandwich-off where the weekly winners went head to head for top honours and a big money prize. Special Group, Auckland | BY Ricki Green | WPP AUNZs Ikon has announced a new national structure supported by changes to its senior teams in Sydney and Brisbane, as the agency moves to take a broader, cross-city focus. In Sydney, managing partner Pat Crowley (far left) has stepped aside from his management position to undertake a role focussed solely on the CBA account. As a result, James Sawyer (centre), a 10-year Ikon veteran has been promoted to managing partner, Sydney. Says Crowley: It has been an absolute pleasure to lead this office for the last five years but it is now time for me to plan my next move and allow me to continue to focus on our foundation client, the Commonwealth Bank. Im excited about the change and the chance for our fantastic young talent to lead what is a successful team here in Sydney. Ikon national COO David Gerrie (above, right) said Crowleys move was a result of his long standing and highly regarded relationship with the bank, a foundation client of the agency. He said Crowley was committed to work part-time on the account to ensure a smooth transition and continuity for the client he has spent the past 11 years working with. Says Gerrie: Pat is looking forward to continuing to be at the coal-face of the banks business. The CBA is one of our most valued clients, and Pat has spent considerable time and effort on the account during the past 11 years. Ikon Group Sydney is in great shape and continues to provide best-in-class work for clients across its full service offering, and we can thank Pat for successfully developing and managing the business to the point it is today. We appreciate his ongoing commitment to work with the CBA in this new capacity. As part of the changes Ikon Brisbane managing partner Lesley Edwards (middle, right) will take up the newly created position of chairperson, Ikon National, working closely with national COO David Gerrie to focus on the long term position of the business. Says Mike Connaghan, CEO, WPP AUNZ: From Ikons inception it has been a great success in the marketplace. Its innovative thinking, first to market approaches have been driven by constant evolution to ensure it keeps ahead of the curve. With this in mind, Lesley, David and the national leadership team will be charged to evolve Ikon so that its offering can continue to be ground breaking. While Edwards will be based in Brisbane, the office has been restructured following the change to her role. National head of performance Chris Ernst (above, left) has been promoted into the role of managing partner, Ikon Brisbane, charged with overall commercial responsibilities. A search is now underway for a new national head of performance. Other changes in the Brisbane office include agencies directors, Shelley Cook (middle, left) and Adam Hickey (above, right) both taking on broader responsibilities. Cook to lead partnerships and strategy, Hickey responsible for client leadership, people, culture and processes. Says Edwards of the changes: We have nurtured a strong leadership team in Brisbane and I am very confident they will continue to build upon the brands growth in this market. I am also really looking forward to working with the national management team in taking Ikon to its next phase of growth and the ongoing evolution of its market offering. Adds Connaghan: Its a great testament to Ikon that we have people across the business who can step up to new positions and are excited to take Ikon to the next stage of its evolution. Its a bold move that reflects the Ikon approach to building its market offering while developing staff and growth opportunities. | BY Ricki Green | The 2017 PANPA Advertising & Marketing Awards finalists were announced today for news media publishers from around the Asia-Pacific region. The prestigious PANPA Advertising & Marketing Awards recognise and celebrate advertising and marketing campaigns created by the news media industry, as well as leadership in advertising sales and marketing teams in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Asia. The awards are presented in conjunction with the annual news media industry conference. The Advertising & Marketing Awards recognise the outstanding talent and work that is reshaping how the news media industry markets and sells itself to readers, advertisers and media agencies, a NewsMediaWorks spokesperson said. The entries for this years awards were once again outstanding, and demonstrated why our region is seen as one of the most innovative in the world when it comes to advertising and marketing within news media publishers. The high calibre of submissions made selecting the winners a very challenging decision for our judges. Congratulations to all the finalists in a very competitive field. The Advertising categories recognise publishers in-house work only, while both agency and in-house executions are eligible for the Marketing categories. | BY Ricki Green | TBWA\Australia has joined forces with Omnicom Media Groups data science agency, Annalect, to create CLUE an evidence-led insights platform, which will inject more data science into the collectives strategic and creative outputs. CLUE an abbreviation for Consumer Learning and Understanding Engine leverages Annalects best in class technology, deterministic data sets and robust reporting platform to drill deeper into macro and granular level insights. Kimberlee Wells, CEO of TBWA\Melbourne, says CLUE has been designed to better understand peoples current and future behaviours and translate those predictions and understanding into insights that drive stronger creative outcomes. Says Wells (right): Its not a panacea for getting creative right, but it can trigger an opportunity or validate an idea. Creativity is and always will be TBWAs superpower but CLUE is our new compass. We will continue to inspire with ideas, but CLUE will ensure were always landing with logic. Wells says, TBWA will be the disruptor to the long held, unwritten belief that creative hot shops dont get data: When considering the options of bringing data in-house at TBWA, we rejected the idea of acquiring a specialist agency or building a bolt on offering. If you bolt it on or buy it in, the body is likely to reject the organ. A cultural collision is almost guaranteed. You also restrict its influence and we have no interest in being selective about who uses CLUE and who doesnt. We arent building a data ghetto here were infusing the discipline of data practice into the life blood of the agency. Annalect was a natural partner to this ambition. They are the brains behind some of the new agency models coming out of the US like Hearts and Science. But importantly, they also understand creativity. Martin Orliac (left), general manager of Annalect Australia, says hes inspired by the potential of powering creativity with data and technology. Says Orliac: We can think of so many ways we can inform the creative process and deliver better outcomes for clients. We already had the data and the technology, but it took months to build the bespoke approach and infrastructure that TBWA required. Its a very different setup from what we were using in media, but were able to apply the same advanced analytics and AI techniques to entirely different purposes. Working with Kimberlee and her team has been great, were very excited to see what comes out of this unique partnership. Paul Bradbury, CEO TBWA\Australia and New Zealand, says CLUE will be rolled out over time across all offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. Says Bradbury: The partnership with Annalect has been brilliantly led by Kimberlee Wells, who is one of Australias most credentialed data and direct marketing practitioners. CLUE is not just a product, its a fundamental shift in our entire operating model. We have re-engineered our processes to ensure every brief begins and ends with CLUE. Weve also made some formidable hires. Catherine Graham, formerly head of customer experience at Clemenger Melbourne, is a career direct and data strategist. Billy Loizou joined us in September last year from his role of chief marketing technologist at Digital Logic. Will Nichols Sydneys planning director for data & direct has played a pivotal role working with Annalect to build bespoke data cakes for our clients. And, of course, theres the analysts themselves, which are Annalect staff embedded into our creative agency environments. The arrival of CLUE is heavily supported by TBWA\Melbournes chief creative officer, Paul Reardon, who believes that whilst creativity is, and always will be, the key differentiator for brands data plays an important role within the ideation process. Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 9:45PM Google Pixel XL review There has been rumours going around that Google is looking to design its own processors for its Pixel smartphone line and there might be some truth behind it with its recent hire. The company has brought on Manu Gulati, a veteran chip architect at Apple. Gulati, who has worked for Apple for the past eight years, is now the lead system-on-chip architect at Google. According to MacRumors, Gulati has been instrumental for the Apples development of its custom chips for the Apple TV, iPad, and iPhone. Its expected that his expertise in the field will help Google create its own custom chips. Job listings from Google have also been spotted online for a mobile SoC CPU architect and other similar roles. "We'd also ask if you are this male person to, please, come to the police station and talk to us rather than us have to come and look for you." Jenny described her portrait of Stasia as "a journey" and dreamed during 30 hours of painting of one day handing it over to its rightful owner. With the guidance of CIT art teacher Jodie Cunningham, and a frame donated by Fyshwick business Exhibition Centre, Jenny was able to do just that. It would appear that in the eyes of at least some on the extreme right of the Coalition revenge and ideology trump energy security and the welfare of the environment every time. Yet this small number of inflexible legislators should not have the right to obfuscate and hold the country to ransom every time there is an attempt to have a sensible, facts-based debate about our future energy needs. By the time the new submarines we have ordered have been built and are in service in 50 years' time, there will very probably exist technology capable of detecting them: they will no longer possess the invisibility that is their main asset. To reinforce his point, Stuart gives many other examples of new weapons that have been effective only until technology devises an answer to them. "We want power prices going down, not up, we want Australian coal to continue to be usable in this country, as it is in other countries and we want Australia to have a strong manufacturing sector," he said, adding that Labor was the party of "greenie posturing". PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Food News Local Restaurant Expanding ABQ-based Cielito Lindo (416 San Pedro SE) will be opening two new locations. The first will be on Sixth Street and Lomas, and the second will be at Central and 52nd Street. The owner says the first restaurant should be finished by February 2018, but didn't give any details on the second. We Can Ferment That The New Mexico Fermentation Festival is June 24. There will be a series of workshops covering chocolate, kombucha, fermented cocktails, hot sauces, fermented cheese and other preserved goodness. The fermentation process preserves foods and creates enzymes and probiotics. Sometimes, it makes beer. Bugs Aren't Vegan So Thai Vegan Nob Hill (3804 Central SE) was shut down by inspectors with the ABQ Environmental Health Department after they were found to have a terrible cockroach infestation. Get this: It was their second notice for the violation. It was reported that in the past, they've received violation notices for accumulation of food debris and soiled residue under equipment and floor drains. After a followup inspection, the restaurant is now open and running again. Not-So-Delicious Confession Last week, I told you about a couple of suspects in a local shooting making a getaway in a food truck. Turns out the driver was the owner of the truck. He reportedly told police that he'd shot a man after an altercation, and his nephew (who was in the truck with him) had nothing to do with it. The food truck owner is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on $7,500 bail. Be Prepared Watch Chef Daniel Morgan of Peppers Ole Fashion BBQ giving some grilling tips as we near Father's Day. Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. The Maharashtra government's MSBSHSE SSC Class 10 board exam 2017 results yielded 193 students who have scored cent per cent marks in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam. When was MSBSHE SSC Class 10 results declared? The MSBSHE SSC Class 10 results were declared on June 13 Why have students scored more marks in MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams? Students have scored more marks in MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams especially because of the 25 extra marks given for various parameters such as performance in sports, arts and culture. Pass percentage of students the MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 However the pass percentage in MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 has gone down about 0.82 with 88.74 per cent students clearing the exam. Number of students who scored more than 90 per cent in MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 48,470 students have scored above 90 per cent in MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017, lower in comparison to the last year's 51,281. Also Read: MSBTE Summer 2017 Result Announced: Check Now! Total number of candidates registered for the MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 In total, 16.44 lakh students had appeared for the MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 When did MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 happen? MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 took place between March 7 and April 1. In order to check out the MSBSHE SSC Class 10 exams 2017 results, read Maharashtra SSC Class 10 Results 2017 Announced: Check Now! Just as Toyota Motor Philippines updated the specs of the Hilux pickup truck , theyve done the same for the Fortuner as well. About 220,000 drivers from Netherlands and the UK are joining forces against the VW Group, seeking compensation over the diesel emissions scandal. More specifically British law firm Harcus Sinclair and Dutch Foundation Stichting Volkswagen Car Claim, a class action that represents 180,000 Dutch VW owners, have teamed up in a move that could spark a pan-European lawsuit against the German company, as reported by AutoNews. The VW Group has already agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the United States to settle claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and to buy back around 500,000 diesel-powered U.S. cars. However the German company hasnt reached a similar deal in Europe and now faces billions of euros in claims from customers and investors. The Dutch Foundation says its been trying to reach a reasonable settlement with VW since 2015 and claims that its also cooperating with other partners representing drivers from countries like Austria, Germany, Switzerland and is in talks with others in Spain, France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia. We are delighted to be teaming up with Harcus Sinclair UK Limited, who have done an excellent job in paving the way for car owners to seek redress from VW through the courts, said Guido van Woerkom, director of the foundation. To date, the owners of the 8.5 million affected European cars remain in the cold, said Harcus Sinclair, which has signed up about 41,000 UK VW drivers. A London trial is expected in early 2019. VW on the other hand says it took the trust of its customers very seriously, but it saw no legal basis for consumer lawsuits as they plan to fix the affected models in Europe. All vehicles affected are and have been technically safe and roadworthy. They can be driven on roads without any limitations and can be sold without loss in residual value, VW said in a statement. Even if we were to hold talks with law firms we would maintain this position. PHOTO GALLERY Two young people were seriously injured when the 22-year old driver of a BMW M2 smashed into a tree at high-speed, near a car meet in Scotland. Moments before the impact, the powerful coupe, which was attending a car meet in Aberdeenshire, Scotland last weekend, as several videos showed, was filmed hooning and reaching extreme speeds on public roads. According to BBC, the 22-year old male driver, along with his 20-year old female passenger, had to be cut free from the wreckage by emergency responders. Both of them suffered serious injuries and were taken to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The images posted by forum member ElusiveJim on PistonHeads reveal the severity of the accident, which left the BMW M2 completely unrecognizable, and a tree sitting in the middle of the B9119 Tarland to Echt road, near Midmar, a few meters away from cars remains. The Scotland Police are asking those that witnessed the accident to contact them: I would appeal for anyone who was in the area, or saw the collision, to contact the police. We are particularly looking to speak to the occupants of a silver-colored motor vehicle, which was passing in the moments prior to the collision. The area was particularly busy with persons attending the nearby supercar event, and I would ask anyone who has video connected to the incident to also contact Police Scotland, said Sgt. Rob Warnock. PHOTO GALLERY VIDEOS Chevrolet recently implemented a host of cooling improvements on the 2017 Corvette Z06 but that isnt sitting well with lawyers who are accusing the company of selling customers unreliable cars with a performance-limiting defect. According to a class action lawsuit by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, the Corvette Z06 cannot be operated safely on a racetrack as the vehicles are prone to overheating and entering into limp mode. When this occurs, the Corvettes power is drastically reduced and the lawsuit claims this creates a dangerous situation when the car is surrounded by other speeding vehicles. The lawsuit says GM deceived customers and violated state and federal laws by failing to ensure the Z06 functions safely. It also alleges the company committed fraudulent concealment, breach of warranty, and unjust enrichment. In a statement, managing partner Steve Berman said We believe weve found GM to be guilty of a classic bait and switch one that cost thousands of consumers dearly, up to $120,000, and broke state consumer protection laws. Berman added The defect in question markedly limits the cars performance the sole reason these hotrod enthusiasts bought the Corvette Z06 in the first place. If theyd known of this defect at the time of purchase, they likely wouldnt have spent six figures on the Z06. The law firm estimates there could be more than 30,000 affected models from the 2015-2017 model years. GM hasnt commented on the lawsuit but when the cooling improvements were announced, Corvette executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter told Motor1 only a small number of customers reported overheating issues and the exact number might have been less than five percent. Photo Gallery The 2018 Hyundai Sonata arrives this summer in U.S. dealerships, with the company revealing pricing and range details. The new 2018 Hyundai Sonata features an extensive exterior redesign, with highlights including the cascading front grille and the overall cleaner shape. The rear end is also all-new, with the license plate relocated in the bumper. Hyundai has used all-new sheet metal for the hood, front fenders and trunk, along with redesigned alloy wheels to give the new Sonata a more dynamic appearance. The interior benefits from a renewed center stack and instrument panel which aim to give the cabin a more premium feel. A new sporty three-spoke steering wheel, piano-key buttons for the HVAC controls and a standard seven-inch display are also present. The chassis has been upgraded with 21 percent thicker trailing arms, new bushings and a revised steering rack. Range-topping 2.0T models also get a new eight-speed automatic transmission for improved performance and efficiency. The range of driver assistance systems has been enhanced with Blind Spot Detection with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert as standard, with a rearview backup camera and a Lane Departure Warning system available as well. Prices for the new 2018 Hyundai Sonata kick off at $22,050 for the SE 2.4L models and reach up to $32,450 for the Limited 2.0T version. PHOTO GALLERY Honda have finally announced the official starting price of the 2017 Civic Type R in the USA, where it goes on sale today. Sold on this side of the pond for the first time ever, the compact hot hatch, which is currently in its fifth generation, has an MSRP of $33,900, as we learned at the end of May when a leaked picture disclosed its price. The 2017 Civic Type R is also the most powerful production Honda ever sold in America, using a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine that makes 306hp (310PS) and 295lb-ft (400Nm) of torque. It sends the output to the front axle through a six-speed stick shift, via a limited slip differential, a combo that allowed it to set a new Nurburgring lap record for FWD cars of 7:43.80. Some of the key features of the car are the dual-axis strut front suspension and multi-link rear, front and rear anti-roll bars, exclusive springs, bushings, and damper mountings, new Adaptive Damper System, Brembo brakes, 208.5-inch rims wrapped in 245/30 Continental SportContact 6 tires, high-flow exhaust system, all-aluminum hood, added structural rigidity, and others. A 7-inch display, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, sat-nav, voice recognition, 540-watt stereo and sport seats take center stage inside. Honda has also equipped the new Civic Type R with a range of driver assistance features such as Vehicle Stability Assist with Traction Control, Electronic Brake Distribution, Brake Assist, and tire pressure monitoring system. All units of the hot hatch destined for the US market are produced exclusively at the brands plant in Swindon, UK, while the engine is made in Anna, Ohio. PHOTO GALLERY Cartoon Brew: The Breadwinner is quite naturalistic in style. What was this choice based on? Nora Twomey: More than I had done before, [this story] was about characters it was about the simplicity of their faces, and little gestures that they made. That informed the look of the film. We always wanted to make something thats very inviting-looking. Something that the audience doesnt have to work too hard to feel a part of it. Because the subject matter is challenging; its about a little girl growing up in a time of conflict thats hard enough. So we wanted to kind of sugar the pill in a way that made it feel beautiful, and that you had a sense of the breadth of Kabul, and the beauty of the place. Was this style choice set from early development onward, or did it evolve? Nora Twomey: Reza Amirraihi, who has been the art director, designed the characters in a very kind of graphic style[So] we started out with a very kind of graphic style of animation, where we were fitting our characters into the compositions, and fitting them into their poses. And as we got into production, we began using a much more naturalistic style of animation because it just seemed to fit the story that we were telling. Little tiny gestures like somebody scratching their head or whatever. These subtle things that really may give the performance a kind of human anchor point became really important. It was a very organic progression. We knew we really wanted [the film] to be led by the performance of the cast. As much as we could, wed cast within the Afghan community. Id say about 50% were cast of Afghan descent; they gave a lot of depth to the film. We had some actors coming in and telling us about their childhood, growing up in Afghanistan. And then they went out to give performances to [characters] that sounded like somebody from their village. So that gave us a lot to go with. We filmed everybodys performances so that the animators could get a different kind of sense of physicality. Because the way that the body is used is different. Like, Afghan people, wouldnt use their hands as much as I would. Besides the hand-drawn frame-by-frame style for the real world, theres another world in cut-out, which visualizes the stories the main character tells others. Whats the technique behind the cut-out? Nora Twomey: We did a lot research on [real] cut-out, but the actual animation is digital. We wanted to give the sensation of somebody spending, like, 20 years on a cut-out film, without spending 20 years. [laughs] I knew that we couldnt afford the warehouses and the rigs, so [sequence director] Jeremy Purcell used Moho for the rig characters, and with Guru Studio in Toronto they lit them in such a way that it looks like cut-out animation. It went way beyond my expectations. A look at the different stages of the cut-outanimation process for Cartoon Saloons The Breadwinner. What did the research process look like for the cut-out style? Nora Twomey: We had a cut-out animator [at Cartoon Saloon], Janis Aussel, who worked here in the basement and was kind of a seed for everything. Whatever she shot, we looked to see if we could replicate that. We would try to give ourselves the boundaries of cut-out animation; if we couldnt do it in cut-out, we didnt want to do it with Moho. The Breadwinners characters have a different culture than yourself. Besides studying the performances of actors from Afghan descent, how did you connect with your characters? Nora Twomey: I had to find the things I have in common with the characters that Im trying to show in the film. Coming from Ireland where my own mother had to quit her job when she got married, because it was illegal to hold down a state job and be married at the same time, were not too many generations away from the kind of struggles that our main character has. But our main character doesnt express herself the way that I might express myself, or the way somebody from my country might express herself. We found out all these things from the consultants, like the sense of responsibility that Afghan children have for their friends and family, more than an individualist kind of culture. All of these things were very new to me, and to try and find a story in that, that I can relate to, or trying to make it as universal as I can, was a challenge. A look at the different stages of the animation process for Cartoon Saloons The Breadwinner. With European feature budgets you have choose what to spend your money on. What kind of choices did you make in that regard? Nora Twomey: You know, this is our third time around at this point. So weve become very good with identifying [production] partners that will want to put the money on the screen as much as we do. So [we worked] with Studio 352 in Luxembourg, and with Aircraft Pictures and Guru Studios in Canada studios that were really wanting to make the project look as beautiful as we possibly could. You cant buy that, I think, no matter whether youve got 100 million to spend, or 10 million. Thats the kind of commitment to a story that you cant buy thats got to do with peoples enthusiasm. And we were so lucky with this project, that we found so many people with such great enthusiasm for the film. As the director, what creative choices did you make during production to stay on budget? Nora Twomey: I suppose its retakes how can I minimize retakes? Theyre so expensive. As a director, if youre not communicating in a way that minimizes the amount of retakes that somebody has to do, then youre not doing a good job and youre wasting money. I acted out the whole film, so that at least the animators that I might never meet the animators that are working in Luxembourg [for example], who come on and off the project without me having met them knew how I wanted the performances to go through the whole film. Because again, its anchor the performance; the film is led by characters 100%. I had to make sure that the character arcs were consistent so no matter where the animator was coming from, what project they had worked on last, I needed them to hit the ground running and to be able to know what we want out of the acting how [the main character] holds herself at the beginning of the film versus how she holds herself at the end of the film; how much eye contact she makes at the beginning of the film versus how much eye contact she makes at the end of the film. All of these things were crucial to get across. What would you say is your directing style? Nora Twomey: In some ways Im a control freak In terms of the early on part of the production the animatic. On those first four or five passes of storyboards, Im an utter control freak. So Id do the whole temp track myself. Ive done every sound and piece of music, for temp, and managed the whole film myself until I felt I knew it when I knew it enough that I could communicate to all the heads of departments. And then Id hope I can be generous with that. Because you have to trust them. Im not a person who wants to spend 10 years on making a film myself. I want to see whats best in my heads of departments, and then they can see whats best in their animators, or their background painters, or the comp people. Working on a production like this made me so aware of the talent I was surrounded with: Ciaran Duffy and Reza Amirraihi on the films art direction, Jeremy Purcell, Sheldon Lisoy, and Sanatan Suryavanshi working on the look for the storyworld segments, Fabian Erlinghauser on animation, John Walsh on clean-up, Darragh Byrne on edit, Mark Mullery as TD each of these headed up a team of highly skilled people. And Stuart Shankly, my incredible assistant director. As a director, your film will live or die on the dedication of those around you and I was privileged to be surrounded by such a team. What are the big challenges of being a first-time feature film director? Nora Twomey: A lot of the job is saying no to people[A feature film production] is kind of like a big swarm of bees or something [laughs], that have to move all at once, in one direction. Every day you see brilliant, great ideas, but [it doesnt work] if theyre not exactly in the style of art direction or the style of character animation or the style of composition even. All of these things have to move in this one direction. These are things that might be acceptable, or almost acceptable, as an audience member watching it, but again anything that shifts away from the unity of the whole project, my job is to kind of say no. Its a difficult thing. Besides being the director of The Breadwinner, you also co-own the studio that produces it. How do you combine those roles? Nora Twomey: As a director you want to push for something, but you know the financial situation as a studio owner on the other side. So yeah, its tough, but weve been doing that ever since the first e-cards that we made. As a director you cant think, Nothing is impossible. You have to realize your limitations and then [find a way of] existing within those limitations. And make the most of them. You co-own the studio with Paul Young and Tomm Moore. Whats your creative cooperation like with Tomm and Paul? Nora Twomey: Tomm and Paul are my closest creative confidants. And that has always been the case for our nearly 20 years now together. Weve fallen into a way of working together, which is very easy, I suppose, and natural and honest. And its a friendship at the end of the day. I can imagine its tricky nowadays to make time together for creative feedback is it? Nora Twomey: It is and it isnt. I mean, were all in the same building. I come down to make my cup of tea and walk into Paul. And Tomm is across the way from me. Were literally in the same room. So no, its not that hard. [laughs] The days are tough, and as the business becomes more successful, our time, or each person, is spread a little thinner. But we can [handle it] because we have a deep history together at this point now. Its hard to shake that kind of a core understanding. Photo: NBC News Rates of smoking are much higher for those with mental illness than in the general population. One survey of psychiatric patients outpatients in the U.S. reported 88 per cent of those with schizophrenia were smokers as well as 70 per cent of those experiencing mania and 49 per cent of those with depression. Along with increased rates of smoking, those with mental illness also tend to smoke more heavily than others (with intake increasing along with the severity of their mental illness) and have a harder time quitting. All of this contributes to a reduced life expectancy in this group. Some estimates suggest people with severe mental illness die about 25 years earlier than the general population. Contrary to assumptions, the increased mortality in this group is not directly caused by mental illness, but is largely due to smoking 60 per cent of these deaths are due to smoking related illnesses such as cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Unfortunately, those with mental illness are often not offered help with smoking cessation when they visit a health care provider. Quitting can be difficult for those with mental illness. These smokers tend to have higher nicotine dependence, heavier smoking and chronic stress. Other barriers might include a lack of supports, cognitive impairment or difficulty coping. Still, quitting is possible and is more likely to be successful with support from health care providers. For those with bipolar disorder, I usually recommend nicotine replacement therapy as an initial strategy to avoid abrupt nicotine withdrawal. Abrupt nicotine withdrawal can trigger a mood switch. Also, the use of Zyban (bupropion) for smoking cessation can be problematic in people with bipolar disorder as can the use of all antidepressants. It can trigger mood switches, mania and mixed states. Even though there are some risks in smoking cessation with bipolar disorder and with other disorders, it is still worthwhile to attempt to quit considering the health consequences of doing nothing. If possible the time to try is during periods of relative stability and with supervision so that support and medication adjustments can be implemented as necessary. The vastly increased mortality rate for those with serious psychiatric conditions should not simply be accepted. If up to 60 per cent of these premature deaths and many health complications could be prevented with supported smoking cessation, it should be one of the primary goals of health care providers treating this population This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Photo: Angus Reid Institute Canadian and U.S. flyers say the airline industry is broken. Whether its beating, bumping, or merely aggravating passengers, North American airlines are landing at the bottom of the customer service list in the minds of their customers. A viral video of a passenger refusing to be bumped from his seat and being dragged from a United Airlines flight generated millions of views and brought the issue to the top of both airline and government agendas. But beyond the negative headlines, a new study from the Angus Reid Institute finds Canadian and American air travellers say incidents like this one really are a symbol of a bigger problem permeating the air travel industry. And, while a majority of residents in both nations agree the industry is broken, they have differing perspectives on what should be done about it. Canadians are more supportive of government regulation, while Americans are inclined to say the free market will punish subpar airlines, and governments should stay out of the industry. Southwest Airlines and JetBlue emerged as the top-rated airlines for American travellers, while United received the worst ratings. Among Canadian respondents, WestJet fared significantly better than Air Canada, with customers three times more likely to say their experience was excellent. Two-in-three Canadians (65 per cent) and six-in-10 Americans (58 per cent) said airlines operate as a cartel, restricting competition and holding prices higher than they should be. Few respondents from either country saw the airline industry moving in the right direction. Roughly four-in-10 Canadians (44 per cent) and Americans (38 per cent) said it has worsened in the last 10 years, while only one-in-10 Canadians (nine per cent) and 15 per cent of Americans say it has improved. Photo: SilverStar Mountain Resort Skiers will be able to ride to the top of SilverStar Mountain in style once the new gondola is up and running. Skiers will be able to ride to the top of SilverStar Mountain in style once the new gondola is up and running. The North Okanagan ski hill announced the Doppelmayr gondola will go from the Village to the summit and will replace the Summit fixed grip double chair, which has been loading guests since 1970. The new high-speed, detachable gondola cabins each provide seating for eight and the provision of ski and board racks are provided outside, on door-mounted racks. These new cabins will whisk guests from the bottom to the top of the Summit in a third of the time of the existing double chair. The ride will now take four and a half minutes from Village to summit traveling at five meters per second over a distance of 1063 metres with a vertical rise of 293 metres says Brad Baker, director of operations and maintenance for SilverStar. The gondola will feature floor-to-ceiling glass to provide the most spectacular views SilverStar has to offer. Initially, the lift will have 21 cabins with an uphill capacity of 1,200 people per hour with the capacity increasing to 43 cabins as per design in the future. The gondola will service more than 16 per cent of the existing terrain, plus provide the fastest access to the Comet and Alpine Meadows terrain pods from the Village. The gondola installation facilitates additional future capital improvement projects, such as the addition of an Alpine Restaurant between the Comet and the Gondola lift, installation of a lift in the Terrain Park, and options for a summer coaster or pipe, said Ken Derpak, managing director. The work is to commence this month with the engineering and design for an installation of the tower, top and bottom terminal foundations, as well as the targeted installation of the top station to be completed this Summer. The second and final stage of construction will resume ahead of a grand opening in July 2018. All of SilverStar is excited to celebrate our milestone 60th anniversary year with the completion of our new gondola; this delivers a world-class improvement to our guest experience for both winter and summer offerings, says Jane Cann, chairperson/president. Photo: Contributed The Penticton RCMP is looking into a rash of vehicle burglaries in a neighbourhood over the weekend. On Sunday morning, police received reports of four thefts from vehicles on McDonald Street, where cars were rummaged through with change and sunglasses stolen. Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth says the thefts are suspected to have occurred at around 4 a.m. when three males were seen in the area, one on a bicycle. The thefts are also possibly linked to a smaller black pickup truck spotted by neighbours. Police continue to investigate. Photo: Contributed Mare and Jeremy A public funeral service for Jeremy McGoran will take place on June 19 at 2 p.m. inside the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre. McGoran, a former Penticton radio host and mental health advocate, took his own life on June 9, leaving behind his wife, Mare, and six-year-old son, Thomas. McGoran spoke publicly about his battle with depression last year, and had been working with the Canadian Mental Health Foundation to organize the local Ride Dont Hide fundraiser. An online fundraiser has been launched to support the Mare and her son. Photo: Contributed A woman, high on methamphetamine and GHB, spent the night in jail after losing her keys and creating a scene in the Penticton Walmart parking lot on Monday night. Police were called to the store about 9:45 p.m. for a report of a possibly impaired woman trying to enter a vehicle. The female had lost her keys and was not able to get into the rental vehicle, which incidentally was supposed to be returned to the rental company on May 17, said Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth, who added two dogs were sitting comfortably inside the car. Wrigglesworth said the woman admitted to taking GHB, commonly known as the date rape drug, and methamphetamine within the hour, and told police she did not know how she got to Walmart. She was placed in cells until she sobered up and released without charge. The dogs were seized. Photo: RDCO Stage 2 water restrictions kick in Friday. Despite record lake levels, the Regional District of Central Okanagan is going ahead with Stage 2 water restrictions. The restrictions affect customers of six water systems operated by the RDCO and take effect Friday. These include Star Place, Falcon Ridge, Killiney Beach, Sunset Ranch, Upper Fintry-Shalal Road/Valley of the Sun and Westshore systems. "Every year, from June 16 to Sept. 15, Stage 2 water restrictions are in place," says RDCO communications officer Bruce Smith. "Stage 2 means outdoor watering is restricted on those six systems to two days each week. RDCO water customers with even number addresses may irrigate outdoors on Saturday and Tuesday, while those with odd addresses may only water outside on Sunday and Wednesday." Smith adds customers with automated irrigation systems can only water on designated days between midnight and 6 a.m., while those with manual irrigation are restricted to watering between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. to midnight. "If you don't need to water outdoors on your allotted day, or time period, please don't waste water." The rest of the year, Stage 1 restrictions are in place, allowing customers to water on alternating, even and odd days. Photo: Contributed Water customers supplied by the Delcliffe Water Utility can drink up after Interior Health has given the all clear. Greater Vernon Water and IH has rescinded a water quality advisory for those living in the Delcliffe Road and Cameron Road. Turbidity levels have returned to normal. Water quality monitoring has shown the water supply has returned to a good rating, allowing for this Water Quality Advisory to be rescinded. Staff continues to monitor water quality and work closely with IH. Photo: Contributed The Spoke Literary Festival returns to Vernon in August. An Okanagan literary festival takes place in Vernon this summer with award-winning writers in the lineup. The second annual Spoke Literary Festival is open to writers of all calibre and has a number of professional names hosting workshops. You dont have to go to a big centre to get a really high quality writing workshop experience, said Kerry Gilbert, festival organizer. Everyone is a professional writer who has experience in the publishing industry, and so it doesnt matter what level youre at in your writing career, theres something for you to learn and be inspired by. From a a novelist whos written a bestseller about Daniel Boone to a non-fiction writer who voyages to Antarctica and with an award-winning playwright in the mix, there is much to learn. Workshops will cover all literary genres, from poetry and fiction to non-fiction and playwriting, as well as other elements of the writing life. The festival is being held Aug. 11-13 in Vernon. Workshops include: Alix Hawley Pulling out the Plums: Using Research in Fiction Jay Ruzesky True Stories, Well Told Corinna Chong Making a Scene: Structure and Transitions in Short Stories Heidi Garnett Writing as Dream Work Mike Poirier The Structure of Writing a Play Melanie Murray Unlocking the Vault of Memory Laisha Rosnau Narrative Therapy John Lent Phrasing in Contemporary Poetry The festival weekend begins with a writing circle led by Vernon poet Michelle Doege at the Caetani Cultural Centre, and Saturday evening features a reading by all workshop writers hosted by poet and UBC Okanagan professor emeritus Sharon Thesen. Growing a strong writing community is a big focus for this festival, said organizer Hannah Calder. In addition to the workshops, the evening events are a chance to make those connections and pick writers brains. The work of writing can be quite isolating, but attending readings and events like this, thats part of being a writer. Last years festival drew participants from across the valley and beyond, and organizers are hoping even more writers will participate this year. Information about the workshops and prices can be found online. A team of engineers are digging up the timber piles of Memorial Arena in Penticton this week, testing them as a part of a larger audit of the buildings health. Essentially we have to excavate down enough to get a sampling of the timber, they are going to drill into it, pull out a wood sample, take it back to their lab and determine what kind of condition its in, said Bregje Kozak, Penticton Manager of Facilities. The team is going to be working its way around the building, digging up every reachable piling one by one, backfilling behind them. Kozak says the city doesnt have a good copy of the original drawings of the building, completed in 1951, so they have learned as they dig. It turns out there are four piles under each arch base, and there is nine arches, so 18 bases, she said. The results of the study into the arena footing will be released as a part of the overall Memorial Arena assessment study which is due out in a couple of weeks. The City of Penticton is also carrying out a detailed study on McLaren Arena, and a feasibility study for a new arena on the SOEC campus. The whole project was commissioned by the Arena Task Force after it determined the City of Penticton needs at minimum, four arenas to properly serve the community. Photo: The Vancouver Sun Jonathan Bacon was gunned down outside the Delta Grand Hotel on Aug. 14, 2011. Surveillance footage of men believed to have been hunting Jonathan Bacon prior to his murder was shown in court Tuesday. The murder trial for Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones continued in Kelowna Supreme Court Tuesday with Julianna Masson, RCMP forensic video analyst, back on the stand. Masson identified several individuals in surveillance footage from around Kelowna on the night before the infamous midday shooting outside the Delta Grand Hotel. One man, who can't be named due to a publication ban, was shown entering Sapphire nightclub at 1:36 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2011, wandering through the bar, and leaving five minutes later. At 1:46 a.m., the same man, along with two other men who can't be named due to the ban, were shown outside Sapphire. Fifteen minutes later, the same three men were shown entering Roses Pub, and leaving shortly after their arrival. At 2:15 a.m., the first man who had previously entered Sapphire, was dropped off at the front entrance of the Delta Grand Hotel, getting out of a Jeep Cherokee. The man then walks through the hotel for about six minutes, before leaving by way of the Lake City Casino. Surveillance footage shows the Cherokee driving in the area around the Delta until about 4:45 a.m. The three men have since become co-operating witnesses with the Crown, and are expected to testify at the trial. Masson also commented on footage showing a Ford SUV crossing the William R. Bennett Bridge into Kelowna at 3:30 that morning, and driving to the Prospera Place parking lot, opposite the Delta. The Crown believes the three accused arrived in Kelowna early that morning, after learning Bacon was in town. Eleven hours later, two gunmen jumped out of the Ford SUV in the Delta drop-off roundabout, shooting and killing Bacon and injuring Hells Angel Larry Amero, Lyndsey Black and Leah Hadden-Watts. A 2.5-hour video was shown in court Tuesday of the Ford SUV waiting in the Prospera Place parking lot from noon to about 2:30 p.m., on Aug. 14. The shooting took place just after 2:30. Photo: RDOS Flooded lands The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen says it is stepping up its fight against mosquitos in response to the amount of standing water and flood conditions throughout the region. Crews are heading back out in a helicopter on Wednesday to drop larvicide into standing water that ground crews are not able to reach. The larvicide kills mosquito and biting black flies while they are still in the water, and does not harm other insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds or mammals. This is the second time this season the RDOS has taken to the air to fight the bugs. Due to this year's flooding, the region will likely experience increased nuisance mosquito issues in 2018, as mosquitos lay eggs in wet ground, an RDOS news release reads. Those eggs stay viable, even in dry conditions, for up to a decade, waiting for the next high water when they will hatch and begin to develop. Residents are urged to clear their property of all standing water, and check for items such as tires, pool covers, ponds and plant pots. Photo: City of Vernon City workers will be carrying out work at the airport after bids came in too high. B.C.'s booming economy has led to a slight change in plans for a City of Vernon project. The bids were too high for runway work at Vernon Airport, but the work has not been cancelled. Instead, city crews will carry out resurfacing of the runway rather than an outside company. The tenders came in way too high, said Mayor Akbal Mund. Tenders are coming in high because of the economy of British Columbia. It's booming and we can't do anything about that, it is supply and demand. When you have the demand, people are going to raise their prices. According to a staff report, the lowest bid came in at $1.5 million, about one-half million over the estimated cost. Instead of cancelling the work, city council approved a plan to get its own workers to carry it out even if it requires extra cash in overtime. That's in an effort to ensure that an $823,700 grant from the BC Air Access Program is spent on the project in a case of use it or lose it. If we can get the job done and save the money from the grant, that's the important part. We didn't want to lose the grant," said Mund. Photo: File photo A child psychiatrist and a psychologist say it's not clear why a teen killed four people and injured seven in a shooting that devastated the northern Saskatchewan community of La Loche in January 2016. Dr. Declan Quinn, who met with the teen four times, testified for the Crown as a court hearing resumed Tuesday to determine whether the teen will be sentenced as an adult or a youth. "I'm as puzzled now as I was the first day I met him," Quinn said. The teen pleaded guilty last fall to killing brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine in a home in La Loche before shooting up the high school where teacher Adam Wood and teacher's aide Marie Janvier died. Quinn told court that the teen "did not come across as being clearly developmentally delayed or slow," although his vocabulary wasn't very good because of his poor educational progress. "He interacted, for the most part, quite appropriately with me and seemed to be able to follow the conversation. At no time did he seem to be confused, mixed up or not understand what was going on when I was talking with him," said the doctor. Quinn said the teen described himself as "quite unhappy and quite depressed and very anxious." "He also expressed a terrible attitude towards school ... and he did not like school." Quinn said he was concerned that the teen was preoccupied with school shootings in the United States, specifically in Columbine, but the youth didn't want to talk about those shootings or his own. "I couldn't get any indication about why he wanted to do it, what led to it happening, but he seemed to have got it planned as how he was doing it and didn't want to give me details." Court has already heard details about the shooter's murderous path from the home to the high school. Dayne Fontaine, 17, pleaded for his life and said "I don't want to die" before he was shot 11 times, including twice in the head. Drayden, 13, was shot twice, including in the back of the head. The shooter then posted messages online: "Just killed 2 ppl," and "Bout to shoot ip the school." Surveillance footage captured his frightening walk through the halls, his shotgun raised, as students and staff ran in fear. When police arrived, the shooter ran into a women's washroom where he put down his weapon and gave himself up. Clinical psychologist Dr. Katelyn Harker testified Tuesday that the teen told her that he was thinking about shooting up the school for six months. But the teen also wouldn't tell her why. Harker said he expressed remorse about shooting the Fontaine brothers but showed "empathy impairments" to others. "He's also reported to me that he does care about what happened to the victims at the school, but there have been other times when he says that he doesn't, so it's hard to know exactly where he stands on that," Harker said. Harker has met with the teen on a bi-weekly basis since September 2016. In a report to the court, Harker wrote that the teen said he's still interested in firearms, "that he enjoys how it feels to shoot a gun ... and that shooting a gun puts him in a good mood." "I was surprised he still viewed them so favourably," Harker testified. Harker said she believes the teen has some cognitive limitations, that he denies personal problems and does not see a need to change, which she acknowledged could be an impediment to rehabilitation. Crown prosecutor Lloyd Stang said after court that the motive may remain a mystery Photo: The Canadian Press Bridgewater Police Chief John Collier in a file photo when he was a sergeant. A Nova Scotia police chief is due in court today to face charges of sexual exploitation and sexual assault involving a 17-year-old girl. John Collyer of the Bridgewater police force was suspended with pay for 60 days in May after being charged. The police commission in Bridgewater passed a motion to suspend Collyer on May 4, the same day it was announced he was facing charges. The 53-year-old was placed on administrative leave by the commission in August after the province's Serious Incident Response Team confirmed it was investigating the alleged sexual assault. The independent police watchdog laid one charge of sexual assault and two charges of sexual exploitation against Collyer over allegations dating between April 1 and July 31 of last year. Collyer, a 26-year veteran of the police force, had been chief for five years when the original allegations surfaced. Photo: The Canadian Press RCMP in Whitehorse have opened an investigation into an act of vandalism on a newly painted rainbow crosswalk installed by the city in support of the LGBTQ community. Witnesses say a white truck stopped on the crosswalk on Monday and burned rubber, leaving long black marks across the rainbow. Whitehorse Mayor Dan Curtis says he's embarrassed for the person who did the burnout, adding there will always be a small portion of the community that is intolerant and fearful of others. Curtis says he's actually glad it happened because it emphasizes the need for tolerance and the obvious point that more work has to be done in the community. Chase Blodgett, the founder of All Genders Yukon, says the incident highlights what those who live on the gender or sexual orientation diversity spectrum have to deal with in their lives. The rainbow crosswalk was painted just a few weeks ago across the city's Main Street. Photo: Contributed A Salmon Arm woman was transported to hospital after her vehicle went off a Hwy. 1 embankment. A 44-year-old Salmon Arm woman is lucky to be alive after a crash early Wednesday morning, when her vehicle went off Highway 1 and plunged over a 50-foot embankment. Officers responded to the single vehicle crash in Tappen today about 4:30 a.m. At that location they located a female driver and sole occupant associated to a vehicle that was over a 50 foot embankment, said Staff. Sgt. Scott West, head of the Salmon Arm detachment. The vehicle had left the highway and rolled a number of times before coming to rest at the bottom of the embankment. The driver told police she had overcorrected while driving and lost control of the vehicle sending it off the road. Thankfully the driver suffered injuries that were relatively minor and was transported to hospital by ambulance to be checked out, West said. Photo: Google Street View Police in the Lower Mainland say a man struck by a train Tuesday night in Langley has succumbed to his injuries. The man, who police believe was homeless, was walking along the tracks on the 6100 block of Glover Road about 10:30 p.m. Information at the scene suggests he was wearing headphones at the time, and likely did not hear the train coming. Crew members sounded the horn and attempted to stop the locomotive but the male was struck from behind. He was transported to hospital, but died early this morning. RCMP are attempting to identify the man so next of kin can be notified. Photo: The Canadian Press UPDATE: 10:10 a.m. Police say the death toll in the London tower blaze has risen to 12, and that the figure was expected to rise. Steve Apter of the London Fire Brigade said pockets of fire were still blazing at west London's Grenfell Tower, a high-rise apartment block, more than 16 hours after first reports of fire early Wednesday. He said crews have rescued 65 people from the building, and that firefighters have searched most of the tower and reached the top floor. Police commander Stuart Cundy said Wednesday he did not anticipate further survivors. Police declined to say how many people were missing. ORIGINAL: 8:40 a.m. Reports of the fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, west London, came in just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday. The first fire crews arrived at the scene within minutes, and the London Fire Brigade soon declared it a major incident. The brigade sent 45 fire engines and over 200 firefighters to the scene. Residents say the blaze appeared to start in an apartment on a lower floor and spread upward rapidly. The block was covered in thick black smoke and parts of it were still ablaze by midday Wednesday. Police confirmed Wednesday that six people died but they expect to toll to rise after a complex recovery operation that will last days. Ambulance officials say 74 people were being treated in hospitals across London for a range of injuries and smoke inhalation. Of those patients, 20 are in critical care. Authorities say the cause of the fire is not yet known and declined to speculate about how it started and spread so quickly. Grenfell Tower is a 24-storey public housing block containing 120 homes that is part of the Lancaster West Estate. It was built in 1974 and owned by the local authority, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Residents say fire alarms didn't ring, and that they had complained for years to local authorities about building safety in vain, including maintenance of firefighting equipment and blocked emergency accesses. Photo: Contributed An online directory for community social resources is expanding across the province. First launched in 2010 in partnership with the United Way of the Lower Mainland, bc211.ca is a searchable database for for non-clinical health, social and government services. The website includes online chat, available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Information on addiction services, employment support, legal help, shelter locations and more is available. British Columbians need and deserve reliable information and help they can trust. Were here to ensure that people dont have to rely solely on Google to deal with sometimes difficult and often very personal situations, said Nathan Wright, Executive Director, bc211. Sometimes the biggest barrier to getting help is knowing where to look, said Kathy Conway, Board Chair for United Way CSO. bc211.ca breaks down that barrier. United Way CSO is proud to support the expansion of bc211.ca across our region. Previously available in just the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, Squamish-Lillooet and Sunshine Coast, bc211 had more than 287,000 unique visitors in 2016. It's not everyday you can sip on some wine next to a juvenile T- Rex. But the Okanagan Science Centre is presenting the chance to do just that Thursday during the Drinks with Dinosaurs event. The adult-only evening goes from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Polson Park facility. Several dinosaur and jurassic displays will be at the science centre until August as part of Dinosaurs Unearthed. Drinks with Dinosaurs is for those 19 and older and will feature a cash bar. Photo: Darren Handschuh The Multicultural Mural will be rededicated during the Diversity Mural Bead Project, Multicultural Block Party. Multiculturalism will be the focus of festivities planned for later this month. On June 27 the Greater Vernon Museum & Archives and Route Blue Wayfinder are presenting the Diversity Mural Bead Project, Multicultural Block Party. The event goes from 5-8 p.m. on Canadian Multiculturalism Day at Civic Plaza, located on the Vernon Museum grounds in downtown Vernon. We are so thrilled with the response from the community and the excitement that is building for this celebration said Denise Marsh, marketing and communications co-ordinator for the museum. Tracy Satin, museum director/curator, has been working closely with internationally renowned muralist Michelle Loughery, Stacey Phinnemore of Route Blue along with Gabriel Newman and Jean Manifold, both of the museum, to plan the event. Satin said the event will step outside the conventional museum box and highlight the connection we all have to culture and our community. A focal point in the festivities, funded by the Government of Canada, will be a rededication of the Multicultural Mural painted by Loughery, as part of a youth engagement program. The multicultural mural was created in response to a letter from a group of students requesting a multicultural mural be created, and also honours Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his contributions to multiculturalism in Canada. said Loughery. Throughout the evening, there will be dance and skill demonstrations by a selection of community multicultural groups. Canada is known as a melting pot for cultures from around the world and it is exciting to see multiculturalism being so widely celebrated in our community for Canadas 150th birthday. Mel Arnold MP, North Okanagan Shuswap. Spearheaded by Michelle Loughery, a Canada 150 Diversity Mural Bead Community Engagement Public Art Installation, will also be unveiled during the block party. The temporary installation features 150 painted reclaimed ocean floatation buoys, which have been provided by the Ocean Legacy Foundation, a Canadian-based non-profit which conducts clean-up expeditions to mitigate ocean plastic pollution. The buoys, painted by youth, elders, artists and community members will create unique storytelling exchanges, of where we come from and celebrate Canadian diversity, said Loughery. Photo: Cindy Brassard The Brassards are reinforcing their moat system after a wind event. A windstorm last night caused more damage to a lakeshore property on the Louis Estates where a couple continue to battle flooding after all of their nearby neighbours have left. Fences on both sides of our property were torn away and the lakeside of our front sandbag wall was tumbled, said Cindy Brassard on Wednesday morning. Water from Okanagan Lake got into the moat they'd built but they haven't given up. Cindy and her husband, Jerry, have been back out in the yard, reinforcing the front wall to stop the water. I've been hauling sandbags to Jerry and the water has slowed down. I couldn't believe the damage. Our last section of deck is now sitting in the neighbour's yard. That took off last night. Brassard said Jerry cracked a rib hauling sandbags early in the fight for their land. Photo: The Canadian Press At a kindergarten on the edge of the world's largest refugee camp, there are no notebooks. When it's time to practice writing skills, children sit under a tree to doodle in the dirt while teachers use a blackboard. "Maybe this term we will provide the books," said Kevin Afura, who teaches at the school for 500 children operated by the aid group Save the Children. "They write on the ground." Schooling is the latest challenge in this overcrowded refugee settlement where basic facilities like toilets are in short supply. This school's only classroom is a tent in which dozens of kids swarm an overwhelmed teacher. She soon releases them to the playground, where they either swing and slide or simply go home. The sprawling Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in northern Uganda is home to over 270,000 refugees from neighbouring South Sudan's civil war, most of them women and children. There is an urgent need to keep the thousands of children in school despite funding shortages that have slowed the pace of humanitarian work, including a reduction in food rations for some refugees. This month Uganda hosts a United Nations-backed summit at which it hopes to raise global awareness of the crisis. Authorities have said they need about $2 billion as thousands of South Sudanese continue to pour in. At Ombechi Primary School, supported by Uganda's government, head teacher Olega Drangu said some children attend in tattered clothes. Pencils and notebooks are few. Nearly half its 1,470 students are refugees. A UPS employee opened fire at a San Francisco package delivery facility on Wednesday, prompting a massive police response in a neighbourhood near downtown, officials said. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told The Associated Press that an employee fired inside the facility before the drivers were sent out to do their normal daily deliveries. Gaut said four people were injured and that he believed the shooter "turned the gun on himself." ABC News is reporting four people are dead, plus the gunman. Gaut did not have immediate information about anyone's condition. Nor did Brent Andrew, spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which had received the victims. He did not know exactly how many people. Auto shop owner Robert Kim said he heard about five to eight rapid gunshots. The next thing he knew, he said, "a mob of UPS drivers" was running down the street screaming "shooter, shooter." Police confirmed the shooting at the facility in the Potrero Hill neighbourhood, about 2 1/2 miles from downtown San Francisco but didn't release further information. The signs are good but for people living on the edges of Kalamalka Lake, their troubles are probably not over. It has gone down a little but when we get weather events, like we had last night, it could have some impact, said Matthew Treit, the District of Coldstream's protective services co-ordinator. We could have some rain events. Treit said strong winds, such as those that occurred Tuesday night, could still cause erosion lakeside and sandbags should remain in place. As well, the Kalavista Lagoon remains at a high level, Treit said. Some residences near the lagoon have experienced flooding. The lake has reached its maximum. There is not going to be a lot more runoff from the snow (but) in a wind event, the water can still do damage. He said the lake level has dropped a few centimetres from its highest point. It's a good sign but I wouldn't say we are out of the woods. The costs of sandbagging and overtime due to flooding have not yet been tallied in Coldstream but Treit said they are recoverable from the province and will be made public. NDP in, taxes up, nothing new, however faster then ever before. And what gets me is the same all over again Fuel price increases and Carbon taxes. Are any of these guys ever watching the news? Of course they do, just the wrong ones. YouTube has hundreds of articles debunking the Global warming BS and Climate change BS. Well known scientists and environmentalists have to use YouTube because nobody in the mainstream media publishes what they have to say. 30,000 professionals want to sue Al Gore for the BS he put out and made a cool 200 million profit on it. It is time to rethink what has been said and written mostly by people that dont know a single thing about it but figured that it could be a nice way to add a few more layers of our hard earned money into their pockets. Global warming and the effects of CO2 is the biggest global lie so far and it is time to fight it all the way. Why are we believing all that garbage? Al Gore had a movie made that shows Manhattan under water, parts of San Francisco under water and then he bought property at or near Fishermans Wharf! Or David Suzuki who is against anything that has to do with oil, but owns properties together with an oil company. It is time to shut down all those hypocrites once and for all. Roger von Dach Metalheads will be gathering in the North Okanagan next month for the ninth annual Armstrong Metalfest. The quiet farming community will be turned into the largest gathering of heavy metal fans in Western Canada July 14-15. Held at the Hassen Arena, Metalfest features Boston's tech death/thrash titans Revocation, Vancouver's reggae-metal fusion Ninjaspy, Canadian '80s thrash legends Aggression and Vancouver Whammy Award Best Local Metal Artist winner Golers, plus many more from across the country A weekend pass is available for $120 with camping included in ticket price. The weekend of festival, the weekend pass will be $160 at the festival gate. Day passes will be available at the festival gate only for $70. Camping is an additional $20 for day pass per night. More details and ticket purchases can be found online. Photo: Contributed Mare and Jeremy This years Canadian Mental Health Association Ride Dont Hide event will carry extra significance in Penticton on June 25, with the recent death of one of the events organizers. Jeremy McGoran took his own life on June 9, leaving behind his wife, Mare, and six-year-old son Thomas. McGoran was a former local radio personality who publicly spoke last year about his battle with depression. Before his death, he was a board member of the local CMHA branch and spokesman for the Ride Dont Hide event. Jeremys passing is a huge loss to the community, the CMHA family and to the many people who were impacted and inspired by his personal story, says Colleen Caron, Board President, CMHA South Okanagan Similkameen. Jeremy will be forever remembered for his bravery and honesty in speaking openly about his struggles in the hope of motivating others to do likewise. On June 25, an estimated 150 people from the Penticton community will join tens of thousands across the nation to pedal towards ending the stigma of mental illness. "The tragic loss of Jeremy McGoran this past weekend both saddens me and galvanizes me to take further action, says Michael Schratter, founder and national spokesperson for Ride Dont Hide. Schratter says male suicide is the leading cause of death across several age categories, with 3,000 families impacted each year. I strongly believe that the high mortality rate is in a large part a result of a society that still teaches the false and foolish notion that men should stay silent when in times of emotional turmoil. It is my hope that events such as Ride Dont Hide will address these unhealthy stereotypes and put an end to the shame and stigma experienced by too many men," he said. Registration remains open online for cyclists of all ages and skill levels. Cost is $45 for adults and youth, and free for kids 12 and under. You can also register on the day of the event at 8:00 a.m., with the ride starting at 8:30 a.m. at Pentictons KVR Middle School. A free BBQ is included. A public funeral service for Jeremy McGoran will take place on June 19 at 2 p.m. inside the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre. An online fundraiser has also been launched to support the Mare and her son. Photo: Colin Dacre Highway 97 Brewing Penticton has become the latest community to join the B.C. Ale Trail. With five craft breweries and one of the provinces longest running craft beer festivals, the Okanagan Fest of Ale, the city has become a leader in B.C. craft beer. Tin Whistle Brewing and the Barley Mill Brewpub ignited the local scene two decades ago, with new energy provided by Cannery Brewing, Bad Tattoo Brewing and the latest addition, Highway 97 Brewing. Penticton has been a leader of the Okanagan craft beer scene for more than 20 years and we are very proud of our breweries, which include some of BC's oldest and newest craft breweries, said Thom Tischik, executive director of Travel Penticton. Many of our visitors love to soak up the sunshine on one of our fabulous beaches, while walking along the boardwalks, or during a leisurely afternoon float down the river channel. Regardless of the activity you choose, a delicious and refreshing craft beer from Penticton enhances the experience. Were excited to be on the BC Ale Trail. The B.C. Ale Trail website provides suggestions for tourists who want to sample local beer, pointing them towards the breweries and complimentary tours or activities. It's a partnership between Destination British Columbia and the BC Craft Brewers Guild. Other brewing hot spots like Port Moody and Victoria are listed, with more communities, like Kelowna, to be added this summer. There is a funny saying amongst winemakers that a gallon of beer is needed to produce a bottle of wine. So having an ale trail right in the heart of wine country makes a lot of sense, said Paul Kamon, executive director, Sunshine Coast Tourism. Seeing the BC Ale Trail growing and connecting our communities is very exciting to see. It offers a novel and authentic way to experience our regions world-class breweries while exploring one of the planets most diverse and inspiring landscapes. Both the railroads and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division say the extension will help all parties make the best decision on how to proceed with the outstanding tentative labor agreements. BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE Jessica Sheridan, daughter of Louise Campbell, of Auburn, and the late Daniel Sheridan, was awarded an Associate of Applied Science degree in the criminal justice studies program, summa cum laude. During the graduation ceremony, Sheridan was also honored as a member of Who's Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges, an elite group of national outstanding campus leaders based on academic achievement, service to the community, leadership in extracurricular activities and potential for continued success. She was installed in Alpha Beta Kappa, a national honor society for academic excellence in independent colleges and schools. She was also presented with the Program Award for the highest average in her program. CLARKSON UNIVERSITY The following Cayuga County students graduated May 13: Christopher Ellis, of Locke, received a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction in mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering. Connor Kilmer, of Auburn, received a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Irene Ryan, of Auburn, received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering. Frances Smith, of Union Springs, received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Keefe Wallace, of Cato, received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. ELMIRA COLLEGE Jonathan Pilat, of Port Byron, graduated cum laude June 4. As part of commencement weekend, the nurse education program hosted the annual Nurse Pinning Ceremony in Speidel Gymnasium. The ceremony recognized Elizabeth Gleason, of Auburn, and other students who have completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. FINGER LAKES HEALTH COLLEGE OF NURSING Finger Lakes Health College of Nursing graduated its eighth class with a pinning ceremony and commencement exercises in May. Forty-eight students were pinned and graduated this year. Local graduates include: Danielle Albring, of Skaneateles Cassandar Catalfano, of Auburn Sherrie Clancy, of Auburn Sarah-Anne Rindfleisch, of Union Springs Emilie Salato, of Auburn Mackenzie Stanley, of Red Creek Allen Tratt, of Auburn Lucia Vassallo, of Auburn GROVE CITY COLLEGE Katherine Taylor was one of 606 seniors to earn their degree May 20. Taylor earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and is from Auburn. HAMILTON COLLEGE Dean's list Nicholas A. Falcone, son of Jodi and Michael Falcone, of Auburn. Falcone, a rising junior majoring in chemistry, is a graduate of Jordan-Elbridge Central High School. SOUTHERN VERMONT COLLEGE Cierra Katlin Mincher, of Locke, was among more than 100 candidates for graduation. Mincher earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing. SUNY CORTLAND Tyler Weslowski, of Auburn, graduated cum laude with a degree in physical education. UNION SPRINGS CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT The Cayuga-Onondaga School Board Association's annual dinner and awards banquet was held on June 1 at the Aurora Inn. Each year, COSBA honors outstanding students, support staff, teachers, administrators and school board members for their accomplishments. Three individuals from Union Springs Central School District were recognized this year: Amanda Walter, senior and valedictorian of Union Springs High School Class of 2017, earned an Outstanding Student Award. Susan Haag, social studies teacher at Union Springs High School, earned an Outstanding High School Teacher Award. Michael Wurster, Union Springs Middle School principal, earned an Outstanding School Administrator Award. "These three individuals work very hard and are very deserving of their awards," Union Springs Superintendent Jarett Powers said in a news release. "The district is extremely proud of their accomplishments." VALDOSTA STATE UNIVERSITY Dean's list Courtney Powers, of Auburn ALFRED STATE Graduates Brettney Bannon, Auburn, Associate in Applied Science, interior design/electrical construction and maintenance Daniel Burns, Auburn, Associate in Occupational Studies, electrician Gwendolyn Church, Auburn, Associate in Applied Science, agricultural technology Stephanie Milewski, Auburn, Bachelor of Science, forensic science technology/electrical construction and maintenance Brandon Davis, Genoa, Associate in Occupational Studies, electrician Owen Davis, Genoa, Associate in Science, sport management Dustin Wellman, King Ferry, Associate in Occupational Studies, welding technology Ryan Hargett, Moravia, Associate in Occupational Studies, building trades-building construction/electrical construction and maintenance Branden Staniec, Moravia, Associate in Occupational Studies, electrician Paul Wells, Moravia, Associate in Applied Science, surveying engineering technology Zackery Huttar, Weedsport, Bachelor of Science, construction management engineering technology SUNY GENESEO Dean's list Bradley Berry, son of John and Patty Berry, of Auburn CORNELL PRO-DAIRY JUNIOR DAIRY LEADER PROGRAM Graduating Aug. 9 at Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls will be Megan Bunnell, of Aurora, and Abigail Cox, of Cato. The statewide Cornell program is for youth ages 16 to 19 with an interest in learning more about career opportunities in the dairy industry, and gaining hands-on experiencei n the field. BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY Katie Cooper, of Auburn, daughter of Cherie and Harry Cooper, graduated magna cum laude with a degree in both neuroscience and biology. She was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and will attend medical school in fall 2018. BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY Erin Pine, a junior majoring in Spanish language and literature with a pre-law concentration. She will study in Spain next fall. ONONDAGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE President's list Zubaidah Alkhazraji, Skaneateles Andrew Bayless, Skaneateles Garrett Bellows, Marcellus Emily Brewer, Skaneateles Falls Eric Canute, Skaneateles Falls Breigh Cobb, Weedsport Roy Converse, Marietta Taylor Cottrill, Skaneateles Michael Elliott, Auburn Nathan Johnson, Elbridge Delaney Keenen, Elbridge Sandra Kinzman, Marcellus Robert Leslie, Auburn Jacob Manrow, Elbridge Jonathon Mecomber, Skaneateles Falls Jesika Perkins, Marcellus Amber Preston, Moravia Brettlyn Robinson, Elbridge Annissia Rowland, Moravia John Scheuermann, Marietta Jacquelyn Sammon, Marcellus Molly Stanton, Auburn Sally Van Ostrand, Skaneateles Daniel Wayne, Skaneateles Provost's list Jordan Bandera, Marcellus Kierston Brown, Cato Tanner Cain, Skaneateles Stephanie Cator, Auburn Maxwell Collier, Skaneateles Sydney Fiscer, Union Springs Bridgette Fitzgerald, Auburn Shaun Godfrey, Skaneateles Eric Gross, Skaneateles Falls Keith Hale, Marcellus Haley Hurst, Auburn Mackenzie Keller, Skaneateles Oleg Kuksgauzen, Auburn Robert Mayers, Marcellus Michael McNaney, Marcellus Bridget Moore, Auburn Breann O'Connor, Port Byron Peter Ricci, Auburn Kaitlin Root, Weedsport The city of Auburn was represented at a statewide cultural tourism conference last week as an example of how different entities can collaborate to promote historical tourism within a city. The New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Network's spring conference took place June 7 at Colgate University. City Councilor Jimmy Giannettino and City Clerk Chuck Mason, both members of the Auburn Historical and Cultural Sites Commission, represented Auburn in a panel discussion called "Public Private Partnerships: Examples of best practices that you could model in your organization." Representatives from Rochester were also on the panel to discuss their city's history of women's suffrage. Giannettino said he and Mason discussed the city's Historic and Cultural Sites Commission, which was formed in 2000. Mason was on the board that initially formed the commission in the late '90s. "We hear all the time the need to collaborate," Giannettino said. "[The commission] is really an example of that." During the presentation, Giannettino and Mason gave examples of different collaborative projects in the city, such as the Passport Project. This project was a collaboration between the Auburn School District and Auburn's historical and cultural sites, such as the Seward House Museum, the Auburn Public Theater and the Willard Memorial Chapel, to encourage students and their families to visit them. Community organizations donated prizes for the students who participated. "I think if there's one thing in today's world that benefits us all, its networking and partnership," Mason said. They also discussed how the commission has integrated social media into its work. Giannettino said the commission is making the switch from a more traditional, print-based marketing campaign to an online one. "Auburn has got these great historic treasures and cultural institutions," Mason said. "The stories of Harriet Tubman and William Seward are great stories and we want to share them with the world." Eileen McHugh, the executive director of the Cayuga Museum, was originally scheduled to be on the panel, but was unable to make it after the conference was rescheduled from March due to winter storm Stella. The sea floor may look barren, but Qi Fu, an experimental geochemist at the University of Houston, says there are places where it is teeming with life. Hydrothermal vents, fissures on the sea bottom which release fluids heated by volcanic rocks, are particularly rich, but science can't yet explain how the organic compounds found there are formed. Fu, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has received a five-year, $516,575 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to pursue the study of how organic compounds are formed in hydrothermal environments on the sea floor. "The sea floor isn't a desert," he said. "There is a lot there." Carbon-bearing fluids and gases -methane and other organic compounds - are often found issuing from hydrothermal vents, and scientists know they are important components of microbial communities. Understanding how the compounds are formed is crucial to learning more about life in its most basic forms, Fu said. "The origin of life may have been on the sea floor," he said. But there's a gap between what researchers can observe in natural systems and what they have been able to replicate in a laboratory. Fu's work seeks to bridge the gap. The research involves simulating the conditions of hydrothermal vents on the sea floor - temperature, pressure, chemical composition and other variables - and attempting to generate organic compounds from inorganic components. His collaborators are marine geochemist William Seyfried Jr. of the University of Minnesota and Shuhei Ono, an isotope geochemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. NSF CAREER awards are granted to promising junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars, and recipients also do educational outreach to promote a better understanding of science and technology. Fu will work with students at Yates High School and those at other Houston Independent School District, offering mini lectures at the schools and bringing students to the UH campus to tour Earth and Atmospheric Sciences labs and learn more about the University. He said he also will work with the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences for their World Oceans Day program. Five Minutes With Damien Geter Audio Article Vocalist, composer and Richmond Symphony artist in residence Damien Geters musical roots sprouted when he was a boy in the Matoaca District of Chesterfield County, where he was raised and... Enterprise CarShare encouraged members to contact Enterprise Rent-A-Car branch offices "for alternate mobility solutions" because the operation has had a lack of available vehicles for the past six weeks due to vandalism, theft and fraud. (James A. Finley / AP) Chicago crime has led Enterprise's car-sharing operation to cancel existing reservations in the area and stop taking new ones, the company says. Enterprise CarShare has had "a lack of vehicle availability" for the past six weeks, as "a direct effect of significant vandalism, theft and fraud," the company told its members via email Tuesday. Advertisement About 40 percent of Enterprise CarShare's fleet had been involved in theft or vandalism, a company spokesman said. A Chicago Police Department spokesman could not immediately comment on whether the department was conducting a broad investigation of the incidents. The Enterprise CarShare email encouraged members to contact traditional Enterprise Rent-A-Car branch offices "for alternate mobility solutions." Advertisement "Enterprise will continue to focus on meeting the transportation needs of Chicagoland, regardless of whether you need a vehicle for an hour, a week or longer," the email said. The company is working with rental branches to provide CarShare members with discounts, spokespeople told Blue Sky. The spokesman said they expected to provide members with an update, including information on potential discounts, within the next week or so. The company has not said if the service will be shut down permanently. Car-sharing allows for by-the-hour rental of vehicles parked in locations throughout the city. Users find and reserve cars through the web or apps and access them with membership cards or smartphones. Gas and insurance are typically included. Others offering the service in Chicago include Zipcar and General Motors' Maven. Zipcar, which entered the local market in 2006 and has about 500 vehicles throughout the city, hasn't experienced similar vehicle security challenges in Chicago, a spokeswoman said. Zipcar was acquired by Enterprise competitor Avis Budget Group in 2013. Enterprise CarShare began its life in Chicago as I-Go CarSharing, backed by the local nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology. I-Go was first to bring the modern car-sharing concept to Chicago in 2002, with a mission to provide affordable transportation to everyone regardless of neighborhood or income. St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings bought I-Go in 2013. At the time of the sale, I-Go had about 250 cars in its fleet and 15,000 members in 40 neighborhoods. Enterprise did not immediately respond to questions about the current size of its fleet. Advertisement Enterprise CarShare also currently operates in Manhattan, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Operations are still active in those cities, but Chicago members are not able to use cars in other markets. Former I-Go chief executive Sharon Feigon, who's now executive director of the Shared Use Mobility Center, said that under her watch, I-Go occasionally encountered theft and cases in which members used the gas cards to fuel vehicles outside its fleet, but tech was put in place to avert losses. "Periodically, things would happen," she said. "But 98 percent of the people who used I-Go were careful and looked out for the cars. We never pulled out of anywhere because of problems like that." Feigon said the car-sharing industry has been impacted by the proliferation of ride-hailing, with more people opting to use Lyft or Uber for the short trips they might have used hourly rental services for in the past. Cheryl V. Jackson is a freelance writer. Twitter @CherylVJackson Kitchen Chicago is a shared kitchen that functions as an incubator for small food businesses, including food trucks, meal delivery services, caterers and vendors to Whole Foods Market. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) Kim Mesa wanted to sell her cheesecakes in the new Englewood Whole Foods Market long before it opened last fall. Driving past the construction site, shuttling her kids to and from school, she saw an opportunity for herself and for the neighborhood. "I didn't have any assurances it was going to happen, but it was more of a desire and a vision of what I wanted for myself," said Mesa, 47, founder of KimmyKakes and mother of four living in the Ashburn neighborhood. Advertisement There was a missing ingredient, though: She didn't have a commercial kitchen. Mesa has since found her culinary home and support system alongside some 30 other food businesses at Kitchen Chicago, one of six licensed shared kitchens in the city. Since 2012, the number of food businesses licensed to operate in a shared kitchen has grown almost 75 percent, from about 150 licenses to 265, including some that are short-term and supplemental, according to the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. Advertisement Jonathan Mesa, 14, and his sister Moriah, 12, help their mother Kim Mesa box up cheesecakes May 31, 2017, at Kitchen Chicago, a shared kitchen in Chicagos West Town neighborhood. The KimmyKakes cheesecakes are sold at nine Chicago-area Whole Foods stores. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) At Kitchen Chicago, tucked away in an industrial area of the West Town neighborhood, a rotating cast of food truck operators, caterers, meal delivery services, farmers market vendors and others make food and chase their respective dreams. Many of them are women, minorities or both, and lack access to financing for ventures that may or may not succeed, said operations manager Nicole Faust. Kitchen Chicago and other shared kitchens provide a low-cost, low-risk way to give it a shot. "Without the shared kitchen model, it would be difficult for many of us to start our businesses," said Mesa, who now sells her cheesecakes in nine Chicago-area Whole Foods stores. At Kitchen Chicago, users pay hourly rates ranging from $14 to $24 depending on the time of day. There are also monthly rates for rolling storage cages and for shelf space in the walk-in cooler and freezer. The facility is available 24/7, but most frequently used during the day. The rules are pretty simple: Users must respect one another and clean up after themselves. Time must be booked in advance so there's not too many cooks in the kitchen. The hands-off approach is a draw for some. "The nice thing is it's enough support and no more support than you need," said Paul Hitalenko, owner of Huegah Catering Co., as he made flatbreads for an upcoming wedding. Alexis Leverenz of Kitchen Chicago describes what it's like running a shared kitchen for more than 30 food businesses. June 14, 2017 (Greg Trotter / Chicago Tribune) (Greg Trotter / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) Still, the arrangement can at times be chaotic. On a recent afternoon, Kitchen Chicago owner Alexis Leverenz and her only employee, Faust, provided a tour and a glimpse of the careening daily bustle. Advertisement Leverenz began: "There are some days, like a pipe bursts, then somebody unexpected comes in, somebody else stays late and then a health inspector shows up and there's a delivery truck blocking everyone else in " "And then you fix the garbage disposal and it's like climbing a mountain," Faust said. "And then you go sit in the office and everything's fine again," Leverenz said. The two women laughed. Leverenz started the business about 13 years ago when she was at her own professional crossroads. Having left a her job as a portfolio analyst for Merrill Lynch to attend pastry school, Leverenz discovered she didn't really like cooking, not enough to make it a career, anyway. But she saw a real demand for kitchen space for small food businesses. Leverenz opened her first kitchen in Ravenswood Manor, a 1,500-square-foot space, then five years later moved to her current 4,000-square-foot facility. Advertisement Shared commercial kitchens, a relatively recent phenomenon spawned in part by the increased demand for local food, are regulated in different ways depending on the city. Los Angeles and New York both offer shared kitchen licenses; Houston does not. Moriah Mesa, 12, washes and dries baking equipment May 31, 2017, at Kitchen Chicago, a shared kitchen in Chicagos West Town neighborhood. Moriah had helped her mother, KimmyKakes founder Kim Mesa, box up cheesecakes. (Terrence Antonio James/ Chicago Tribune) Chicago's relationship with shared kitchens has evolved over time. Prior to 2011, when the City Council passed an ordinance establishing the shared kitchen license, Kitchen Chicago users were able to obtain retail food licenses but doing so subjected the kitchen to more frequent inspections. The perplexing arrangement culminated in 2010 when inspectors destroyed thousands of dollars worth of food at Kitchen Chicago, an incident that garnered media attention. After that, Leverenz worked with the city to establish the licensing in place today, she said. "It was a hard-fought battle but we finally got there," Leverenz said. Making it in the food industry is harder than many people expect, Leverenz said. But some, including businesses like Evanston-based Hoosier Mama Pie Co., go on to find success. Like Mesa, Hoosier Mama founder Paula Haney learned to love baking as a child and made a bold mid-life decision to start her own business. Haney and her husband, Craig Siegelin, launched Hoosier Mama at Kitchen Chicago in 2005. Advertisement Now they have two locations, in Evanston and Chicago, and 40 employees. The shared kitchen was a "godsend" in helping them get their business off the ground, Haney said. "If you had a question, all you had to do was walk around the corner and ask someone," she said. "And that was really good." gtrotter@chicagotribune.com Twitter @GregTrotterTrib Indian Prairie District 204 School Board members want local election commissions or county clerks pick up the tab when districts hire security to protect students and staff at schools used as polling places. ( George Thompson/Chicago Tribune ) The Indian Prairie District 204 School Board will crusade again this year to remove election polling places from schools that don't want them there. This time the group is focusing on saving taxpayers money. Advertisement Indian Prairie board members want local election commissions or county clerks pick up the tab when districts hire security to protect students and staff at schools that are used as polling places. Board member Justin Karubas said school districts would provide information on the costs and it would be up to the election commissions or county clerks to deterimine if the security costs are worth it. Advertisement election groups are more likely to look for alternate locations to save money, which in the long run is in the best interest of taxpayers who ulitmately are paying for the extra protection for students, Karubas said. As it stands, Indian Prairie spends roughly $10,000 for police officers from the Aurora, Bolingbrook, Naperville and the DuPage sheriff's departments to protect students and staff in 20 of the district's 33 schools that house polling places. When police can't make it, as was the case this past consoliated election, school administrators are taken from their duties to ensure the public does not wander into areas of the school where students are located, board member Cathy Piehl said. Student safety on election days has been a pet cause for Piehl for years. Last year Piehl and the board tried to get the backing of the Illinois Association of School Boards to call for legislation declaring schools as off-limits as polling places. The measure failed in a 143-to-173 vote of IASB member districts. IASB has long held the safety of students should be considered in the decision to use school buildings as polling places, and the group's existing position supports legislation giving schools the right to refuse the use of their school buildings as polling places. Indian Prairie board members said they've tried for years to refuse to have their schools used as polling places and always are told there were no other options. Board member Mark Rising, who presented Indian Prairie's position at last year's IASB conference, said district leaders who voted against the measure either couldn't understand why Indian Prairie couldn't refuse use of the building or schedule a day off. Some viewed schools as public buildings that should be used as polling places and a visible lesson for students on democracy in action, he said. Advertisement The change in emphasis could garner more support from IASB member districts, Rising said. The resolution approved by the board Monday night has a ways to go before being voted on at the November IASB conference. Before making it's presented to the association's resolutions committee at its Aug. 4 meeting, IASB staff will evaluate the resolution based on current school law and ability to get legislative backing. Wording frequently is tweaked and returned to a board for review before it is taken up by resolution committee, which consists of representatives from 21 geographic areas. If approved, the resolution would go before the full IASB delegate assembly for a vote. subaker@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @SBakerSun1 The train fried rice from Bangkok is an example of rail dining (which) was all about luxurious imported items that werent available to everyday people, says the author. (Food styling by Lisa Schumacher.) (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune ) "Bangkok" is Leela Punyaratabandhu's detailed portrait of the bustling metropolis she grew up in. Though she eventually moved to Chicago for college, the food of her youth always remained important. She started writing the wildly popular blog She Simmers (www.shesimmers.com) about cooking Thai food and now splits her time between Chicago and Bangkok. RELATED: Leela Punyaratabandhu named one of 100 best home cooks of all time. Advertisement As its name suggests, "Bangkok" (10 Speed Press, $35) doesn't spend any time on other parts of Thailand. "It's a snapshot of Bangkok," says Punyaratabandhu. "There are dishes that are older than the city itself and dishes from my family." She also mostly avoids the cliched images of street food hawkers and characters milling about Khaosan Road. She focuses on the everyday experiences, from a turbulent boat ride on the Chao Phraya River to the many family meals at her grandparents' house that is "big enough for the entire clan should anyone need a place to stay in times of need." Though this is her second book after 2014's "Simple Thai Food," she's been thinking about writing it for five years. "This is the book I wanted to write before my first book," she says. In the end, Punyaratabandhu and her publisher decided to release the relatively leaner "Simple Thai Food" first. "The goal was to ease people into traditional Thai food," she says. "The book ended up being just as authentic, but the mission of the book was to pare down the recipes to ones that were easier to make." Advertisement "Bangkok" makes no such concessions. The hefty book includes recipes with ingredients you'd be hard pressed to track down at your local grocery store, unless you regularly can find fermented red tofu, pandan leaves or winged beans. Fortunately, you do have options. You can order most ingredients online now, and Chicagoans can find everything at Golden Pacific Market (5353 N. Broadway). "If Golden Pacific Market doesn't have it, you don't need it," says Punyaratabandhu. Even with the focus, Punyaratabandhu wasn't able to include everything she wanted. "It was like trying to fit an ocean into a shot glass," she says. "Paring down the list of foods was painful. I actually cried when making the final decision." What finally made the cut differs from what most people might associate with Bangkok. There's no basic red curry or tom kha gai soup, but you will find recipes for 24-hour chicken matsaman curry and braised chicken in coconut-galangal cream sauce. Pad Thai pops up, albeit wrapped in an omelet and requiring 24 ingredients, including fresh shrimp tomalley. No matter what your level of comprehension of Thai cuisine is, you'll inevitably learn something new. It also turns out that the city of Bangkok is much more diverse and varied than you might imagine. As Punyaratabandhu writes in the beginning of the book, Bangkok cuisine can be described as an "indigenous Central cuisine" of Thailand with "Chinese, Mon (a state in Burma), Persian, Portuguese, modern European, North American, and more " Leela Punyaratabandhu's Bangkok: Recipes and Stories From the Heart of Thailand is her second book and the one she wanted to write first. ( Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune ) That means some dishes that made the cut look surprisingly inauthentic to outsiders. "Every race and cuisine and ethnic culture that has come through Bangkok, we retain that and come up with something unique," says Punyaratabandhu. "A lot of recipes you can't find anywhere else, even in Thailand." For example, a recipe for train fried rice includes ketchup, not exactly an ingredient one considers authentically Thai. As she explains in the book, in the early 20th century, "rail dining was all about luxurious imported items that weren't available to everyday people." At that time, "butter, sausage, peas, and European seasoning sauces" were as prized as "foie gras, burrata, or lobster is today." "Bangkok" presents a more complicated and intriguing portrait of the city, one that differs from the general stereotypes. Turns out, lard used to be used extensively, before vegetable oils were adopted because they were considered healthier. This trend is reversing, as more people embrace the classic ingredient. Punyaratabandhu hopes the book corrects some misconceptions about the food in Bangkok, specifically the idea that people there only eat street food. "When people think of Bangkok, they think of street food, but Bangkok is a lot more than that," says Punyaratabandhu. "The best food is not found on the street at all. There is destination street food, but those are rare. We have more to offer. Look deeper into the parts of the city that (tourists) don't normally get to see. Especially the food cooked in homes." nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Twitter @nickdk The spicy beef tenderloin stir-fry is flavored with a soy-oyster-fish sauce and finished with lime leaves and holy basil leaves. (Food styling by Lisa Schumacher.) ( Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune ) Spicy beef tenderloin stir-fry with holy basil Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 6 minutes Makes: 4 servings 1 tablespoon Thai thin soy sauce or thin soy sauce Advertisement 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 1 teaspoon fish sauce 1/4 cup chicken stock 1 teaspoon grated palm sugar 8 large cloves garlic 8 to 10 fresh bird's eye chiles or to taste Advertisement 1 1/2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil 1 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin, sliced against the grain on a 40-degree angle into small pieces, about 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 1/4 inch thick 3 or 4 makrut lime leaves, lightly bruised and torn into small pieces 1 1/2 cups fresh holy basil leaves 1 Stir together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, stock and sugar in a small bowl. In a mortar or small chopper, grind together the garlic and chiles into a coarse paste. 2 Put the lard in a large wok or a 14-inch skillet and set over medium-high heat. Add the paste and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. (Lower the heat a little bit if the garlic turns brown.) Add the beef, and stir-fry to separate. With a rubber spatula, scrape every bit of the sauce into the wok and stir-fry until the beef is only barely pink, about 2 minutes. Stir in the lime leaves, and continue to stir-fry until no pink remains on the beef, about 1 minute longer. Remove the wok from the heat, and stir in the basil leaves, which will be wilted by the residual heat. If desired, pick out the lime leaves (which you won't be eating); transfer to a serving plate and serve with rice. Advertisement Nutrition information per serving: 476 calories, 35 g fat, 14 g saturated fat, 109 mg cholesterol, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g sugar, 31 g protein, 570 mg sodium, 0 g fiber Train fried rice Prep: 30 minutes Cook: 10 minutes Makes: 4 servings 2 teaspoons Thai thin soy sauce or regular thin soy sauce Advertisement 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper, plus more for dusting 1/4 cup liquid from red fermented tofu 1/4 cup ketchup 2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil 1 tablespoon pork cracklings 4 large cloves garlic, minced Advertisement 3 eggs, lightly beaten 8 ounces yellow or white onions, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide wedges 1 Roma tomato, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide wedges 1 pound pork shoulder, sliced thin against the grain into bite-size pieces 3 cups tightly packed cooked Thai jasmine rice, cold Sauce: Advertisement 2 or 3 fresh bird's eye chiles, thinly sliced crosswise 1/4 cup fish sauce Sides: 1 small pickling cucumber, peeled and sliced crosswise 1/4-inch thick Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > 4 green onions, trimmed 2 limes, halved lengthwise around the core Advertisement 1 In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, pepper, tofu liquid and ketchup. Set it near the stove. 2 Put the lard, cracklings and garlic in a wok or 14-inch frying pan, and set it over high heat. Stir until the garlic is fragrant, 30 to 40 seconds. Add the eggs and scramble until partially set. Add the onions and cook without stirring too much, 2 to 3 minutes. You want them to brown a little and the moisture in the wok to evaporate. Add the tomato wedges and pork, and cook them the same way you cooked the onion until the pork has firmed up with some pink still remaining, about 3 minutes. Use a rubber spatula to scrape every bit of the prepared soy sauce mixture into the wok, then add the rice and stir-fry until well blended and heated through. Turn off the heat. 3 To make the sauce, in a small serving bowl, stir together the chiles and fish sauce and set it on the table for anyone who may want this Thai equivalent of salt and pepper shakers. 4 Divide the warm fried rice evenly among four dinner plates. Arrange some cucumber slices, a green onion, and a lime half on each plate. Invite diners to squeeze the lime over their rice and to eat bites of the cucumber and green onion alternating with bites of the rice. Nutrition information per serving: 448 calories, 15 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 188 mg cholesterol, 52 g carbohydrates, 7 g sugar, 24 g protein, 1,875 mg sodium, 2 g fiber Lin-Manuel Miranda performs songs from best original song nominee "How Far I'll Go" from "Moana" at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Oscar Lopez Rivera, the Puerto Rican nationalist whose prison sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in January, told the Chicago public radio station WBEZ on Tuesday night that he expects to be in the audience at the Chicago production of "Hamilton" in late August, watching the author play the title role. Rivera's statement, made after an interview on the station, was an apparent reference to a promise made on Twitter by show creator and original star Lin-Manuel Miranda that he would "play (Alexander) Hamilton the night (Rivera) goes." Rivera a terrorist to some, a freedom fighter to others was a leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, also known by the Spanish acronym FALN. His presence at the hit musical would no doubt court the kind of controversy that makes many commercial enterprises uncomfortable, as did his prominent appearance last weekend in New York's Puerto Rican Day parade. But Miranda has been one of the 74-year-old Rivera's most dependable supporters. And to many at the parade in New York, he was a hero come home. Advertisement Rivera spent much of his youth in Chicago and was first apprehended by the authorities in a Chicago suburb. Some of his incarceration was spent in the federal prison in Marion, Ill. Miranda's schedule has been busy. But filming now has been largely completed on the upcoming, U.K.-based "Mary Poppins" reboot (he plays lamplighter Jack in "Mary Poppins Returns"), and Miranda was back in New York on Sunday night, appearing on the Tony Awards telecast. On the face of it, getting back up to speed to again play the role he originated on Broadway would take considerable effort on Miranda's part, and it's possible that it would not be just a one-night phenomenon. That's likely to add to the value of the tickets to the show for performances in late August. Advertisement However, this is not the first time that Rivera's camp has said a Miranda performance is forthcoming, and the dates are not confirmed. The producers of the Chicago "Hamilton" had no comment Wednesday morning on Rivera's statement. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@chicagotribune.com Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox) Jon Michael Hill as Moses and Julian Parker as Kitch in Steppenwolfs 2017 world premiere production of "Pass Over," written by Antoinette Nwandu and directed by Danya Taymor. (Michael Brosilow) Steppenwolf Theatre's artistic and executive directors said Wednesday they are working on an "official institutional response" to Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss for her "Pass Over" review, which has drawn criticism online. "We denounce the viewpoints expressed in some of these reviews as they fail to acknowledge the very systemic racism that 'Pass Over' addresses directly. Particularly egregious are the comments from Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss, whose critical contribution has, once again, revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country's historic racism. Her contribution is actively working against the kind of theater we are striving to be," Steppenwolf artistic director Anna D. Shapiro and executive director David Schmitz said in a statement e-mailed to the Tribune. Advertisement Playwright Antoinette Nwandu's "Pass Over" follows two young black men struggling to survive as they encounter a white man in their space. In her Tuesday review of the production, Weiss wrote that "Nwandu's simplistic, wholly generic characterization of a racist white cop (clearly meant to indict all white cops) is wrong-headed and self-defeating. Just look at news reports about recent shootings (on the lakefront, on the new River Walk, in Woodlawn) and you will see the look of relief when the police arrive on the scene. And the playwright's final scenes including a speech by the clueless white aristocrat who appears earlier in the story and who could not be more condescending to Steppenwolf's largely white 'liberal' audience further rob the play of its potential impact." Advertisement Weiss and representatives for Nwandu did not respond to a request for comment, while Sun-Times editor and publisher Jim Kirk declined to comment. An online petition calling for theaters to stop giving Weiss tickets to review their productions because "she is not willing to work with us to create a positive environment" had garnered more than 2,300 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. "We're not saying that she can't buy tickets to the show. That is never, ever our intention. We're just saying that maybe no longer open that door by giving her free tickets to come and discriminate against the people that are performing because that happens to be what's kind of going on," said Chicago stage actor Sasha Smith, a representative for the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition, which created the petition. Kirstin Franklin, co-artistic director of Akvavit Theatre, said an invite went out to the Sun-Times for the theater's upcoming production of "Hitler on the Roof" before the petition was posted this week. Franklin said she prefers the Sun-Times send a different reviewer instead of Weiss if the newspaper decides to review or Weiss can purchase a ticket. "I agree that it's important that we have freedom of press, and that they're able to speak their opinion, but it's also important for editors to really look at what is being printed and to say, 'Will words from this hurt a specific person?' or 'Will words from this review hurt a specific group of people?' I think that's important," she said. RELATED STORIES: 'Pass Over' writer takes the waiting in 'Godot,' adds danger Advertisement The 2017 Tony Awards are a love letter for 'Dear Evan Hansen' Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP) Seated around a sleek conference table, 20 men jot down their hopes and fears. There are the usual hopes for a healthy, happy child, the usual fears about sleep deprivation and accidentally hurting the baby, but also these: "I hope the baby is better than me." Advertisement "I hope to figure out how to support my wife and be as involved as my wife." "I fear I will be crowded out by my wife and in-laws." Advertisement "I fear my kid will be a (total jerk)." Expectant fatherhood gets real at the dads-only class at Northwestern Memorial's Prentice Women's Hospital, where pediatrician and dad Craig Garfield shares practical information and personal anecdotes, and fields questions about everything from Velcro swaddling blankets (he's on the fence) to the strange color of a newborn (yes, they can initially look a little blue). "This is very much a new frontier," Garfield said of the class, which he has taught for six years. "One, because we're thinking about including dads, and two, because we're thinking uniquely about the concerns these dads might have while they're transitioning into fatherhood. To me, that's what makes it an exciting class: that we can talk about why they might be more involved than their father was or their grandfather was, and what that brings up for them, and then how to be involved from the very beginning." Dads-only newborn classes have been offered in the Chicago area since at least 1996, when an expert told the Tribune they were rare. Today, they're fairly common, both locally and nationally. About 400,000 dads nationwide have gone through the most popular dads-only workshop, Boot Camp for New Dads, according to founder Greg Bishop. The numbers tend to wax and wane at individual sites due to issues such as funding, he said, but in Denver, where the class is particularly popular, 25 percent of new dads now participate. "Almost all the hospitals in Denver do it," Bishop said. Advertisement Dads-only newborn classes offer men a chance to ask their own questions and express their own concerns. They also reflect the increasingly hands-on nature of modern fatherhood. Fathers more than doubled their time spent on child care between 1965 and 2011, according to a Pew Research on Social and Demographic Trends report, and father-focused books and blogs have become increasingly popular in the past few years. Expectant fathers list their hopes and fears during the fathers-only baby preparatory class. ( Allison Terry/Chicago Tribune ) There was no joking about dodging diaper duty at the Prentice class; men listened intently during a 2 1/2-hour workshop with no breaks, and many took notes. "I was really looking for things that would enhance my knowledge of both what to expect from the pregnancy from the father's perspective and some steps after that, after bringing our children home," said Eric Metelka, 32, a Chicago product manager who is expecting twins. "The other things that I found whether it be in books or online were really, for lack of a better adjective, 'bro-y,' and I was just looking for something that was more relatable." Garfield began the Prentice class by asking the men to sit in order of due date. The father of two, an attending physician at Lurie Children's Hospital, said he knows how hard to is to bring up new dad concerns in a class that includes pregnant women: "You're really going to speak up in (a co-ed) class about how hard things are for you when you know what she's going through?" Advertisement The men wrote down their hopes and fears anonymously, and talked about the ones that surprised them: fear of how hard it would be to raise your kids in a different culture, with family far away; fear of bringing up a jerk. Garfield was calm and reassuring, but he didn't sugarcoat the reality that you don't have total control over who your kid will turn out to be. Among his tips for today's hands-on fathers: bring a pillow to the hospital with a colored or patterned pillowcase, so housekeeping won't accidentally take it away. And pack snacks, a change of clothes, and slippers or flip-flops. "No one is (there) to take care of you," he said. "So one of the things you can do is to keep up your energy." He went through options for chronicling the big event, including voice recording, which he said can be surprisingly powerful. In the case of photos, he told the dads, the black and white filter is your friend. It's flattering to exhausted moms and diminishes the visual impact of blood. He also encouraged the dads to look beyond birth, telling them how to support their partners during breastfeeding: You can be the one who helps keep the mom hydrated or who brings the baby in for breastfeeding at night and changes the diapers. "There are certain things that you are going to do that are going to be special," he said, urging dads to carve out their own niches. Advertisement At the end of the class, the men gave Garfield a round of applause. "The part where everybody put their hopes and their fears up there, that was really interesting," expectant dad Doug Gottfried, 39, said afterward. "And I just think the parts about taking the burden off of your wife, like when you come home, and your wife's been there all day, that part about immediately taking the baby for a walk, so that your wife can take a shower: that role that a father can do to be supportive, particularly in those first few months." After the class, Metelka went home and talked to his wife about carving out his own baby care niche. "Maybe I'm just the one who always cleans up the poop, and, you know, that's my role, and I'm involved, and I'm interacting with my children, and I have something to do," he said. Metelka said the class also inspired him to talk to his dad friends about watching the birth, which he hadn't considered before. Advertisement "There are some things (my wife) has to do, but where can I fit in?" Metelka said of parenthood. "The class really helped me think about that." nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com Twitter @nschoenberg RELATED STORIES: After losing a baby, parents feel lossand gainon bittersweet Father's Day Fathers sing more to daughters and roughhouse with sons, study finds Camping with your kids is cheap, easy and fun. Here's how to do it. Attorney General Jeff Sessions puts on his glasses while testifying before the Senate intelligence committee on the FBI's investigation into the Trump administration and its possible collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign June 13, 2017. (Michael Reynolds / EPA) Watching Attorney General Jeff Sessions confound Senate Democrats during his intelligence committee testimony was like watching a puppet show. Sessions was the hand. Advertisement And the Democrats were the socks. Oh, they flapped their mouths, occasionally twisting their necks, and grimaced before the TV cameras as part of their performance. Advertisement But that was about it. It is the way of things in a sock puppet show. The socks are limited. Republicans know what that's like. They've played the sock puppets, too. But on Tuesday before the Senate intelligence committee, it was the Democrats' turn. They didn't like it. But there was little they could do. Sessions challenged them by refuting unfounded allegations that he may have colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election, invoking his honor and his service and using that Alabama drawl, and after that they couldn't really push back. "Let me state this clearly, colleagues," said the former Alabama senator. "I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference in any campaign or election in the United States. "I was your colleague in this body for 20 years," he said. "And the suggestion that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government, or hurt this country which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie." And Democrats just sat there, turning their sock heads this way and that, moving their mouths, perplexed. They tried pushing him on what the president told him about firing former FBI Director James Comey. Trump had publicly stated that he had wanted Comey fired for his handling of the investigation into Russian collusion. Comey had testified to the fact he told the president three times that he was not a target of the investigation, but Comey wouldn't go public with the information. And Trump sacked him. Advertisement But Sessions declined to answer particulars, preferring to reserve the president's right to perhaps later claim executive privilege. Such confidentiality was respected by Democrats when they had the White House. So Democrats sputtered on, some accusing Sessions of "obstruction" and "stonewalling," though many of them are lawyers. As such, they knew there were no sharp teeth in their arguments. Then again, sock puppets have no teeth. Democratic U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich, Kamala Harris, Angus King and the theatrically disgusted Ron Wyden tried repeatedly to have Sessions break that confidence. He refused. At least Harris, a former prosecutor and potentially a Democratic candidate for president in 2020, had the smarts and the style to smirk a bit. She understands how this works. Unfortunately, a few journalists apparently do not, and while scanning a few of their tweets, I could feel the absolute rage emanating from their sockless thumbs on Twitter. Advertisement Executive privilege isn't absolute. And it is historically a point of contention between the legislative and executive branch. But it's been that way almost since the beginning of the republic. Washington Democrats weren't all that upset a few years ago, when one of their own, Attorney General Eric Holder, and others from the Obama White House didn't want to say much about their failed and tragic Mexican gunrunning operation in the Fast and Furious scandal. And there was a loud silence about Republican allegations that the White House used the Internal Revenue Service to target and intimidate grass-roots conservative groups before the 2012 elections. The interesting thing that probably won't make headlines was this: The Senate committee is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, but few if any questions about this were asked by Democrats. For months and months, and 24/7 on breathless cable news networks, all we heard and read were allegations without evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians. It helped derail his legislative agenda. And it provided cover for Hillary Clinton's pathetic campaign. But now the Russian thing doesn't seem to excite Democrats anymore. Advertisement They've moved away from collusion with Russians to process, and have pushed the obstruction of justice angle. But what happened to the Russians and those damning emails hacked out of the Democratic National Committee the emails that demonstrated collusion between Democrats and Beltway journalism that so embarrassed Hillary Clinton? That's what Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton wanted to know. "Did Donald Trump or any of his associates in the campaign collude with Russia in hacking those emails and releasing them to the public?" Cotton asked. "That's where we started six months ago, and we have now heard six of the eight Democrats on this committee, and to my knowledge I don't think a single one of them asked that question. "They've gone down lots of other rabbit trails but not that question," Cotton said. Months ago, the news was filled with shrieking reports that Sessions had secretly met with the Russians and tried to hide it from the committee. It turned out that the two times he met Russians in 2016 were at public receptions, with journalists and other diplomats in attendance. Advertisement So Sessions didn't meet privately with the Russians in an alley cafe like some tinker, tailor, soldier or spy. Still, Cotton did ask Sessions about his favorite spy fiction, John LeCarre or Jason Bourne movies, and that got a laugh. "It's just like 'Through the Looking-Glass,'" Sessions said. No, actually, it's more like a puppet show. And in Washington, every few years depending on who's in and who's out, the socks change hands. Listen to "The Chicago Way" podcast at wgnradio.com/category/wgn-plus/thechicagoway. jskass@chicagotribune.com After a Monday night caucus vote, Democrat Don Ensign returned to the Hebron Town Council to represent the town's 2nd District. The spot opened after Mike Mantai resigned last month because he moved out of his district. Ensign formerly served 12 years on the council in an at-large seat. Advertisement Four precinct committeemen were eligible to vote on the council seat, including Ensign; his son, Shawn Ensign, William Sopko; and his son, Kyle Sopko. "(Don Ensign) recused himself, which I thought was a smart move on his part," said Jeff Chidester, chair of the Porter County Democratic Party, adding the three remaining committeemen voted for Ensign. Advertisement The other two candidates in the caucus, Jamie Uzelac and Steve Dujmovich, said last week they were concerned about the propriety of Ensign being able to vote for himself for the open council seat. Chidester appointed Don Ensign and Kyle Sopko to their precinct spots because they were open, something he has the power to do as party chair. Don Ensign filled a post opened when the previous precinct committeeman moved, and no one ran for the seat now held by Kyle Sopko. Ensign said he recused himself because "I felt that's what I should do." He wanted to return to the council, he said, to serve the community as he has for many years. He lost a 2015 re-election bid. "There are projects that I worked on prior to my not being re-elected that I would like to see completed that the council is working on," including a drainage plan, he said. All of Hebron's town council seats will be up in 2019, Chidester said, and the county's 124 precinct committee seats are up for election to four-year terms in the May 2018 primary. Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. Saul Arellano walks in Humboldt Park after his shift at the Barreto Boys & Girls Club in Humboldt Park, where he works after school, on June 7, 2017. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) Saul Arellano gets a boost every time a stranger recognizes him on the street, pinches his cheeks and calls him "Saulito." It reminds him of the Chicago community that raised him, and what he owes them and his country. A decade ago, Saul's mother, Elvira Arellano, became a lightning rod in the nation's immigration debate when she sought sanctuary in a Humboldt Park church while fighting her second deportation back to Mexico. Her son, born in the U.S., has joined her as an immigration advocate, serving as a symbol of why so many people live in the U.S. illegally to find better opportunities for their children. Advertisement After his mother was deported in 2007, young Saul who went to live with her in Mexico took up her mantle, traveling back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico, lobbying for immigration reform. In 2014, Elvira Arellano returned to the U.S. illegally with Saul and his then-infant brother. Crossing the border a third time to secure a brighter future for her sons was worth the risk, she said. On Friday, Saul Arellano is set to fulfill his mother's dream of seeing her son graduate from high school. He hopes to attend Northeastern Illinois University in the fall with tuition provided by an unexpected donor. He plans to pursue a career fighting for justice. Advertisement "People actually believe in what we're doing," said Saul Arellano, now 18. "That's all I need, just one person who believes that I'm doing something right." Saul Arellano, 18, is about to graduate from high school, after which he plans to follow his activist mother in advocating for immigrants rights. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) Saul was born in 1998 in Yakima, Wash., where his mother first went to live and work with her cousins, one year after she was first deported for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Saul came with his mother to Chicago more than two years later. She got a job cleaning at O'Hare International Airport and bought a house. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, federal agents came to her home at dawn as part of Operation Tarmac, a nationwide sweep of airport employees living in the U.S. illegally. In addition to re-entering the country illegally after a prior deportation, Elvira Arellano had been working with a fake Social Security number. She fought every turn of her case and won at least three stays of deportation. But in August 2006, instead of showing up at the Department of Homeland Security for removal, she stepped up to the pulpit of Adalberto United Methodist Church in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, vowing to stay in the church indefinitely with her son. The move catapulted the mother and son to the front lines of an international debate. Critics of illegal immigration believed Elvira Arellano was using her son to justify staying in the U.S. and exploiting him by putting him before TV cameras and politicians. During news conferences, 7-year-old Saul stood at his mother's side, playing with his action figures. He missed his own bed and the Nintendo game he left behind at their home in Pilsen, he said. Still, whenever Elvira Arellano proposed giving up and going to Mexico, young Saul said no. He wanted to stay and become a Chicago firefighter. "I want to help people," he told the Tribune in 2007. Roberto Lopez interprets for Elvira Arellano and her son Saul as they speak during a news conference at Adalberto United Methodist Church on Aug. 22, 2006. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) Beti Guevara, the assistant pastor of the church where the Arellanos took refuge, said the year living inside Adalberto robbed Saul of some of his childhood. He lashed out, often kicking and punching anyone who came near his mother. Guevara relied on the nearby Union League Boys & Girls Club as an outlet for his pent-up angst. Advertisement "This kid lived in fear," said Guevara. "The only relief he had was the Boys & Girls Club. I snuck him through the back door and then he became a kid." Unlike his mother, Saul could come and go from the church freely. He attended second grade at Cooper Elementary School in Pilsen and went to occasional sleepovers. The child spoke at immigration reform rallies outside the White House, and in Los Angeles, Boston and Miami. He went to Mexico City to address the Mexican parliament, which adopted a resolution opposing the U.S. effort to deport his mother. In August 2007, a year after taking sanctuary in the church, Elvira Arellano was arrested in Los Angeles, where she and Saul had traveled for an immigration reform rally. Because of her prior deportation and the attention her case had drawn, she was deported that same day. Saul joined her to live in Mexico a month later, after attending a number of other immigration reform rallies around the country. As the mother and son's activism continued in Mexico, Elvira Arellano dodged gunfire at rallies, received death threats and locked the doors of her home in Michoacan to prevent kidnappers from taking Saul, she said. Saul's classmates in the southwestern Mexican state spoke wistfully of life in America, he said. But the hatred he says he has experienced here did not match what they imagined. In 2014, Elvira Arellano escorted a group of Central American asylum seekers to the U.S. border and encouraged them to cross. She called her then teenage son Saul and suggested he join her in doing the same. They both crossed the border and were detained. As a U.S. citizen, he was released right away. His mother, having crossed the border illegally a third time, was released a few days later pending a ruling on her asylum. They returned to Humboldt Park where the largely Puerto Rican community had rallied around them years earlier. Advertisement I've come to realize everything my mom has told me was right. Everything she fought for was right. She did it for me. Saul Arellano Saul enrolled in Pedro Albizu Campos High School, a charter school affiliated with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. It was Virginia Boyle's first year teaching at the school. Saul remembers in the six weeks left of his freshman year, she assigned him 10 novels to help perfect his English and give him some perspective. She immediately recognized his drive to succeed and create a better world. "Even then he knew that his life was different and that he was actually living his own life, but that he was playing a role in a larger social drama," said Boyle, who has taught him off and on ever since and still serves as one of his mentors. "That involved his mother, of course, but involved so many issues immigration, family separation, policy. Saul, of course with his mother, was right there alongside all of that." Later, because he kept up his grades, Saul was part of a select cohort of students invited to take advanced placement exams, for which Boyle helped him prepare. He earned 12 units of college credit. Saul has remained an activist both alongside his mother and on his own. The day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump who has said illegal immigration endangers public safety and has vowed a crackdown Saul joined a student walkout during the school day. In April, he protested Trump's immigration policies on Capitol Hill with more than a dozen other Chicago-area children, all U.S. citizens, who have a parent who has been deported or is at risk of deportation. Advertisement "I feel this is our calling," Saul said. "We all have a reason why we're here. I strongly believe we're setting ourselves up to do better. I'm hoping in the future I can do way better." Saul Arellano supervises children playing speed stack at the Barreto Boys & Girls Club in Humboldt Park. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune ) Saul said he has struggled to balance the demands of being a student and an activist with helping his mother pay the bills and raise his 3-year-old brother Emiliano, a Mexican citizen, who, like his mother, has a pending application for asylum. Saul holds down multiple part-time jobs waiting tables at a seafood restaurant and mentoring 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds with their homework at the Boys & Girls Club. Hector Perez, vice president of club services for Union League Boys &Girls Club, said many kids Saul's age are often on their phones, hanging out, having a good time. "You don't see Saul doing any of that," Perez said. "He's so mature. ... He's got a really powerful message of not giving up the fight for your rights and stand for what you believe in." That work ethic is what led Jim and Ginger Meyer to make an offer Saul could not refuse. Earlier this spring, Saul competed for a college scholarship from the Boys & Girls Club that he did not win. But the Meyers were so moved by his story that they offered to cover tuition at the college of his choice. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > "He's a role model," said Ginger Meyer, whose husband, Jim, is on the board of the Boys & Girls Club. "We are just helping someone who is doing something much bigger. He's already given so much to our country through what he has done in the Boys & Girls Club. ... This is what we would want from all of our citizens." Advertisement After a three-year wait, Elvira Arellano presents her case for asylum to an immigration judge this September. If she loses, she will have to leave her older son behind. "Saul has a lot of dreams to study at the university," she said in Spanish through a translator. "He's independent. I don't have to worry as much for him." Saul does not want her to give up the fight. He wants his brother to have the same opportunities. "I've come to realize everything my mom has told me was right," he said. "Everything she fought for was right. She did it for me." mbrachear@chicagotribune.com Twitter @TribSeeker Police say a Chinese scholar visiting the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus has been missing for days. Yingying Zhang's friends contacted police Saturday to say they hadn't heard from the 26-year-old woman since Friday afternoon. Police say Zhang was headed to an apartment complex to sign a lease. University of Illinois police released surveillance video on Monday showing Zhang entering a black Saturn Astra vehicle in Urbana about 2 p.m. Friday, shortly after getting off a bus. University police spokesman Patrick Wade tells The Champaign News-Gazette that authorities need the public's help to identify the vehicle. A former Crystal Lake attorney apologized Wednesday before he was sentenced to four years in prison for secretly recording a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom of an Algonquin health club while she was changing her clothes. "I profusely apologize to anyone I hurt," said James T. Zeas, who was found guilty by McHenry County Judge Michael Feetterer in February of one count of felony child pornography. "This is not who I am, and this is not who I want to be." Advertisement Zeas, who wept after learning his sentence, also will have to register as a sex offender for life. The Lake Barrington resident was accused of hiding a camera in a changing area of the gym in 2009 to film the teen girl as she put on her bathing suit. Prosecutors said that Zeas is seen on the video readjusting the camera's angle, and that he then took additional footage of the girl after realizing he didn't catch her in full view the first time. Advertisement Authorities said the video, which shows the girl's breasts, was discovered in 2011 on Zeas' laptop by his wife. The footage was turned over to authorities in 2015 during the couple's divorce, authorities said. In court Wednesday, Assistant State's Attorney Sharyl Eisenstein asked that Zeas receive seven years in prison. She likened him to a peeping Tom, said he took away the girl's "innocence and privacy" and called his acts a "complete violation." Eisenstein also said Zeas has "no remorse" and that she believes he still has a copy of this video. Zeas' attorney Barry Lewis said his client is remorseful, has no criminal record, is a value to society and wants to be free to care for his children and elderly parents. He said the girl did not know what was happening and therefore has not been victimized by what Zeas did. Zeas has "had a lifetime of good behavior, in general," Lewis said. "This act harms no one. The victim didn't know anything." Advertisement Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Lewis asserted that the there was "no hint of sex" in the video and that, because Zeas lost his wife and his career, he has been punished enough. "He is a highly educated, good person, good father," Lewis said. State records show Zeas' license to practice law has been suspended indefinitely. In handing down the sentence, Judge Sharon Prather noted Zeas' lack of a criminal history but said his crime was "very premeditated (and) despicable." It was "a total invasion of privacy of a young lady," Prather said. Referring to the defense's argument that the girl did not know the video was being filmed, the judge said: "She knows now and is probably psychologically damaged." Zeas must serve 50 percent of his sentence and will receive credit for time served in jail since his February conviction. Advertisement Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter. Nicole Gayfield leaned on relatives for support as she watched Chicago police standing around a man lying dead on a sidewalk in front of a Woodlawn church. "I feel dizzy," she shouted. "They just killed my uncle. They just shot my uncle. I can't leave him like this. I'm not leaving him like this." Advertisement Charles Smith was shot in the head and right side just steps from his South Side home in the 6400 block of South Maryland Avenue about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to police. He was on his way home from a laundromat around the corner, his family said. He was one of four people killed and four others wounded in shootings in Chicago from Tuesday through Wednesday morning. Advertisement Gayfield said her uncle was 47 and worked as a hair stylist and barber. "He was very caring," Gayfield said. "He had good wisdom. ... I'm his only niece. I went to hair school because of him." Gayfield last saw her uncle the night before when he cooked soul food and brought it to her building, she said. He enjoyed cooking and feeding others. "He didn't bother anybody," said a cousin in the group. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Officers found Smith after responding to a call of a "man down," police said. He was pronounced dead on the scene, next to the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer. A neighbor in Smith's building heard the shots, discovered him outside and called police, Gayfield said. As neighbors gathered at the edge of the crime scene, they remembered Smith as someone who often sat in the back of his family's restaurant, a nearby Harold's Chicken Shack. They talked about the recent murder of a 23-year-old man four blocks away during a robbery of a cellphone. Xavier Joy, a public school teacher, was fatally shot in the 6200 block of South Ingleside Avenue. Advertisement "It's messed up," one man said. "They will kill for a pill." As workers loaded Smith's body onto a stretcher and into a white van, Gayfield groaned. "Why? Why? Why?" The state's highest court has rejected an appeal from Karl Karlsen, a 56-year-old Seneca County man who admitted to killing his son so he could collect insurance money. According to the Seneca County District Attorney's Office, Karlsen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2013. At the time, Karlsen admitted to killing his 23-year-old son, Levi Karlsen, in 2008, when he intentionally caused a pickup truck to fall off a jack and land on his son's chest. During his plea, Karl Karlsen said he had obtained a $700,000 life insurance policy on his son's life roughly two weeks before the murder. Then, on Nov. 20, 2008, Karl Karlsen took Levi Karlsen to the bank to sign a will that left him his son's estate. Later that day, Karl Karlsen said he solicited his son to work on his pickup truck. While Levi Karlsen was underneath the truck, Karl Karlsen admitted making the truck collapse on his son, killing him. Levi Karlsen's death was originally ruled an accident. However, in 2012, Karl Karlsen allegedly told his estranged wife and police that he caused the truck to fall on his son, and left him to die. Karl Karlsen pleaded guilty shortly after a jury trial had begun in Seneca County Court. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. In an appeal, attorney John Cirando argued that Karl Karlsen was improperly denied an attorney during police interrogations and that his statements to police were not voluntary. In addition, Cirando said his client's statements to his estranged wife should have been precluded under the spousal privilege law, that he did not waive his Miranda rights and that his guilty plea was not knowing or intelligent due to a lack of effective counsel. On June 6, the state Court of Appeals denied the appeal, upholding the rulings of the lower courts. Karl Karlsen is currently awaiting trial in Calaveras County, California, where he has been charged with murdering his first wife, Christina Karlsen. She died in a house fire in 1991, one month after Karl Karlsen had taken out a $200,000 insurance policy on her life. Similar to Levi Karlsen, Christina Karlsen's death was originally ruled an accident. However, authorities reopened the case in 2012 after Karl Karlsen was arrested in the death of his son. Two Chicago police officers performed CPR, reviving a baby after she was born unresponsive in the Little Village neighborhood on June 13, 2017. The newborn has had her condition stabilized. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) Two Chicago Police officers were able to save a premature newborns life Monday by using CPR. The officers, Mark Palazzolo and Maritza Bautista, were called to a house near the 2300 block of South Lawndale Avenue, where a 26-year-old woman had called 911 to say her baby was not breathing after she gave birth in the 34th week of pregnancy. The woman, whom Bautista said was horrified, gave birth to the baby in her basement, and the umbilical cord was still attached, the officers said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Ogden Police District. When Palazzolo called Chicago Fire Department paramedics about the unresponsive infant, the officer was told to remove the umbilical cord before performing CPR. "Being a mom myself, it helped me keep calm," Bautista said. A federal class-action lawsuit is filed by a host of civil rights organizations seeking to force sweeping reforms in the troubled Chicago Police Department. The lawsuit aims to force Court oversight and enforcement of police reform, both of which are opposed by Mayor Emanuel. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune) Days after Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed away from a pledge to have a judge monitor efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department, a host of civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit seeking to spur sweeping changes in the troubled department that would be enforced by the courts. About 15 lawyers from Chicago and New York filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago on behalf of six African-American plaintiffs who allege they were victims of excessive force and other abuses at the hands of Chicago police. The plaintiffs also include groups such as Black Lives Matter Chicago. Advertisement The roughly 130-page lawsuit which seeks class-action status invokes police uses of force dating to the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the killing of Black Panther Fred Hampton in arguing that violence and racial discrimination remain structural features of the department to this day. The suit contends that police routinely beat, deploy Tasers on and shoot African-Americans and Latinos with the protection of a "code of silence" and little risk of discipline. Though the suit seeks money for the individual plaintiffs, it is distinct from most litigation filed against police because it also seeks an injunction to force the department to adopt reforms. Those reforms are not fully specified in the lawsuit but would be hammered out if the litigation succeeds. Advertisement Indeed, the lawsuit's chief goal is an order empowering a judge to enforce reforms that could include those endorsed by the Obama administration's U.S. Department of Justice in its report from January criticizing Chicago police as badly trained, poorly supervised and prone to using excessive force, said Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor and a member of the plaintiffs' legal team. Without court oversight, Futterman said, "We'll be having the same conversation after the next scandal." Mayor Emanuel at City Club doesn't answer directly when asked whether he might pursue a court-enforceable Police Dept consent decree with plaintiffs in lawsuit against his police oversight plan. June 14, 2017 (John Byrne / Chicago Tribune) (Videolicious - Chicago Tribune) Neither Emanuel nor his top lawyer, Edward Siskel, directly addressed questions about the suit's demands, instead saying that the administration is committed to reform and reiterating points in support of the administration's new plan, which calls for monitors to oversee changes without the court supervision the lawsuit seeks. Early this month, Emanuel backed away from his vow made in January to negotiate a consent decree a judicially enforced agreement for reform with the Justice Department. The agency investigated the Police Department following the scandal sparked 19 months ago when a judge ordered the release of video of a white officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. The Justice Department said in its report that a consent decree would be the best and likely the only way to correct the Police Department's deep and long-standing problems. President Donald Trump's inauguration, however, brought in a new administration skeptical of federal intervention in local law enforcement. Since Emanuel announced his new approach, former Justice Department officials have blasted the plan, saying stable, long-term court oversight is essential to fixing a police force as large and dysfunctional as Chicago's. The mayor and allies have defended his approach by saying Emanuel's political will for change is evident in the reforms he has made so far, including embracing body cameras and moving to fix the city's primary police disciplinary agency. They have portrayed Emanuel's plan as the best option after losing a more enthusiastic partner for reform in the Obama administration. Advertisement The new lawsuit seeks court enforcement whether the city wants it or not. But Futterman said Emanuel could also agree to work with the plaintiffs on a court-monitored consent decree. Futterman's call for cooperation echoes the recommendation that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has made that Emanuel should partner with advocates on a consent decree.She described the idea of negotiating reforms with a presidential administration outwardly skeptical of them as "ludicrous." Emanuel has not directly responded to Madigan's points. "He wants a dance partner? He's got one," Futterman said. "If he's serious about ending police civil rights abuses in Chicago, he will agree as he already did before to binding court oversight and enforcement." At a news conference at police headquarters after the suit was filed, Siskel would not say if the Emanuel administration would consider working with the plaintiffs, saying the city is "exploring models" for reform. "We wish that the Department of Justice would have followed through with their commitment to a consent decree, but we are not there," he said. Kevin Graham, president of Chicago's largest police union, said: "Despite the vast gulf between what the anti-police movement claims and what is actually taking place on our city's streets, our officers are doing a phenomenal job in extremely dangerous circumstances, day in and day out. I am confident the general public supports the police." Advertisement If the lawsuit finds early success in court, it could put Emanuel in a political bind. He's said repeatedly that he is committed to serious reform, but he now has to decide how to handle a lawsuit from some of the city's best known reform advocates and his loudest critics. There is precedent for activists suing and forcing court-monitored police reform. Tambrasha Hudson, left, mother of Pierre Loury, who was killed by Chicago policelast year, is held by her aunt Arewa Karen Winter after civil rights lawyers announced a federal class-action lawsuit seeking to force sweeping reforms in the Chicago Police Department, at the McArthur Justice Center on June 14, 2017. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) In Oakland, Calif., litigation filed in the early 2000s by citizens led to court-enforced reforms without Justice Department intervention. Oakland, however, is not considered a complete success; scandals have continued as millions of dollars in costs have piled up over some 15 years. In Cincinnati in the early 2000s, African-American activists and civil rights groups sued the police over alleged racial profiling and sought reforms. As the litigation was pending, officers shot an unarmed man, sparking riots and a Justice Department investigation. The city settled the litigation and addressed the Justice Department's findings by entering into a court-monitored agreement for reforms. Though a federal judge stepped in to force compliance with the agreed reforms, Cincinnati's reform process is generally seen as a success. One key challenge of litigation seeking police reform is proving that the plaintiffs have legal standing, said Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati civil rights attorney who sued that city for reforms. U.S. Supreme Court case law, Gerhardstein noted, holds that plaintiffs suing for an injunction under federal civil rights statutes must be able to show they are at ongoing risk of harm. Advertisement "If the city wants to just hunker down and fight, these standing arguments are a good tool for them," he said, adding that fighting the suit would do nothing to improve police relations with residents. "You might win that legal battle but at what cost?" he asked. This excerpt from video released to the public shows the most complete version of the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. It is edited for length by the Chicago Tribune. Warning: This video contains graphic images. (Chicago Tribune) Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > The new suit in Chicago asserts that the plaintiffs would be in danger of future injury, as would the people represented by the groups pressing the suit. The individuals named in the suit range from a man who alleges he was thrown to the ground and beaten by police during a peaceful protest to a pregnant woman who alleges she was pinned to the ground without cause. The suit cites the Justice Department report as well as the report from the mayor's own Police Accountability Task Force in arguing that the department has a history and current practice of discrimination. It also notes dozens of other pending lawsuits and disciplinary cases in justifying calls for federal oversight. "Time and again, the city has revealed that it is institutionally unable to end its years-long practice of civil rights violations. Federal judicial intervention is the only means by which the rights of plaintiffs and the class they represent will be vindicated," the suit reads. Advertisement Chicago Tribune's Bill Ruthhart, John E. Byrne and Jeremy Gorner contributed. dhinkel@chicagotribune.com Twitter @dhinkel Emily Rodriguez, 4, left, and Allison Castillo, 2, play on 31st Street beach in Chicago after a rainstorm on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. (Alexandra Wimley / Chicago Tribune) Severe thunderstorms moved through parts of the Chicago area Wednesday afternoon, in some cases packing 60 mph winds and torrential rain. Storms also included quarter-size hail in some areas. After storms blew through Chicago and nearby suburbs and McHenry and Lake counties mid-afternoon, another storm hit the southwest suburbs late in the afternoon. Before reaching the immediate Chicago area, the storm destroyed two barns in LaSalle County, according to the weather service. A thunderstorm watch originally scheduled to remain in effect until 8 p.m. for all of northern Illinois and parts of Wisconsin and Indiana was cancelled in Illinois and southern Wisconsin about 6:50 p.m. Advertisement By just after 6 p.m., O'Hare International Airport was reporting average delays of about an hour for flights, with almost 350 cancellations. The Chicago Fire Department was called to help people who were stuck on a scaffold on a high-rise at Van Buren and Green streets Wednesday afternoon during the storm, accordig to the department. The workers were able to make it down safely. Advertisement Mid-afternoon storms dumped almost 2 inches of rain near Beach Park in Lake County, according to the weather service. Storms that hit the Woodstock area before 1:45 p.m. downed trees near Woodstock and Wonder Lake, blocking some roads, according to the weather service. Hail of 1.25 inch diameter was reported in Belvidere, which also had standing water of about a foot in some areas. Chicago residents should expect scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, and there is a possibility of winds reaching 60 mph and about 1-inch hail, the weather said. People are advised to stay indoors if they hear thunder and to watch the weather channel or listen for weather updates on the radio. University of Illinois police say they believe Yingying Zhang, 26, has been killed. A 28-year-old Champaign man has been charged with the Chinese scholar's kidnapping at the University of Illinois. (Chicago Tribune) University of Illinois police are asking the public's help to find a visiting scholar from China who has been missing from the Urbana-Champaign campus since Friday. Yingying Zhang, 26, was last seen June 9 near the north end of campus. Advertisement Zhang boarded a Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus around 1:35 p.m. Friday, police said. She took the Teal line bus from Orchard Downs and exited at West Springfield and North Mathews avenues at 1:52 p.m., police said. Security camera footage released by university police shows a black Saturn Astra approaching Zhang on the sidewalk just after 2 p.m. near a parking deck on West University and North Goodwin avenues, about five blocks from where she got off the bus. She can be seen talking for several moments to the driver, who cannot be identified from the footage, then getting in the vehicle, which then heads north on Goodwin Avenue. Advertisement She has not been seen or heard from since. Attempts to contact her by phone and at her home were unsuccessful, police said. University police spokesman Patrick Wade said Zhang apparently was heading to an apartment complex in Urbana to sign a lease when she went missing. "She texted the apartment manager that she was going to be late, and then she never showed up," Wade said in a email. "Her friends and coworkers tried unsuccessfully to contact her for a while after that, and that's when they became concerned and called us." Zhang was wearing a charcoal-gray hat with a white logo on the front, a white-and-pink flannel print long-sleeve shirt, a white undershirt, jeans, white shoes and a navy backpack. She has shoulder-length brown hair and wears glasses. Yingying Zhang, 26, a visiting scholar from China at the University of Illinois, went missing from the Champaign-Urbana campus on June 9, 2017. (Provided by University of Illinois Police) Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Zhang, originally from southeastern China, arrived in the U.S. in late April as part of a yearlong appointment to collaborate on faculty research in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, university spokeswoman Robin Kaler said. Police are interviewing Zhang's friends and colleagues, searching area surveillance footage, checking local hospitals and coordinating with area ride-hailing companies as part of their investigation. Authorities also are looking into reports of a black vehicle whose driver invited other women into the car, police said. Chief Jeff Christensen said in a campus message that it was not known whether Zhang was in danger, but he asked the public to contact the police at (217) 333-1216 or police@illinois.edu with any information. "We are deeply concerned anytime someone cannot be contacted for an extended period of time," officials wrote on the university police website. "While we are exploring a number of possible scenarios which may have contributed to this incident, we are treating this as a very urgent matter." Advertisement Zhang's appointment at U. of I. is through April 2018 and she is considering entering a doctoral program, Kaler said. drhodes@chicagotribune.com Twitter @rhodes_dawn Gov. Bruce Rauner, seen here at an Amazon order center in Romeoville last week, will be part of an Illinois Republican Party fundraiser. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune) Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here. Topspin The Illinois Republican Party is holding a Monday night fundraiser featuring all seven members of the state's GOP delegation to the U.S. House plus what organizers are calling a "special guest" in Gov. Bruce Rauner. Advertisement The event is called "Cocktails with the Congressmen" and tickets start at $100 per person, with $10,000 required to play "host" at the Rosemont outpost of Gene & Georgetti. Those paying $2,500 or more per person will gain access to a special hourlong reception prior to the general reception cattle call. Along with Rauner, scheduled to attend are Republican U.S. Reps. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, Randy Hultgren of Plano, Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, Rodney Davis of Taylorville, John Shimkus of Collinsville, Darin LaHood of Peoria and Mike Bost of Murphysboro. Advertisement Rauner has almost singlehandedly revived the Illinois Republican Party as a political force, largely through his own wallet. Rauner and his campaign fund have given the state GOP at least 72 percent of the $42.5 million it has raised since he took office as governor. (Rick Pearson) What's on tap *Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make a schools announcement in the morning and introduce Procurement Commissioner Jamie Rhee before a City Club of Chicago lunch speech. *Gov. Rauner's public schedule was not available. *Could this be the latest chess move in the budget stalemate ahead of the June 30 end of the fiscal year? House Republican leader Jim Durkin and Republican state Sen. Karen McConnaughay will hold a morning news conference at the Thompson Center to "establish a path forward on the state budget," according to an advisory sent out Tuesday night. Other GOP lawmakers are expected to attend. *The House Democrats will hold another hearing in Chicago to discuss the impact of the lack of a state budget. This time it's the House Appropriations-General Services Committee. *There's a Downstate court hearing on the Pay Now Illinois lawsuit on unpaid state service provider bills. (The St. Clair County version of the suit, not the Cook County one.) From the notebook *Trump tweets: A couple of quick updates to Monday's story on U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley's bill to add "social media" to the Presidential Records Act that codifies what must be kept. (Quigley dubbed it the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act, a play on the apparent COVFEFE typo President Donald Trump tweeted and deleted in late May.) --- One lingering question was whether Twitter posts were being preserved from both the official @POTUS account and the personal account, @realDonaldTrump. On Tuesday, the National Archives and Records Administration said the White House has told the agency that staffers are preserving tweets from both. That's per Miriam Kleiman, a National Archives spokeswoman. Earlier this year, the Archives advised the White House that it should "capture all tweets that the President posts in the course of his official duties, including those subsequently deleted." --- Quigley, a North Side Democrat, took to the House floor to tout his COVFEFE bill and claimed Trump has deleted 18 tweets since taking office. "It is equivalent to him destroying a record," the congressman said. Advertisement --- Some other tidbits: Under the Presidential Records Act, White House records management authority is vested in the president, and the National Archives says it doesn't make "determinations" with respect to whether something is or isn't a presidential record. But it does give advice when the White House asks. The law also says the president must obtain the views in writing of the nation's archivist before disposing of any presidential records. The archivist, David Ferriero, said in March that employees of federal agencies who use a personal email account to conduct agency business must copy or forward it to their official email account within 20 days. The archives, he stated, advises using personal devices or accounts to conduct official business only in "exigent circumstances." (Katherine Skiba) *Potential Soto successor in Illinois House: Iris Millan of Humboldt Park, a longtime worker for Ald. Joe Moreno, 1st, has announced she's running for the Democratic nomination for the Illinois House seat now held by Rep. Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago. Soto has filed papers with the State Board of Elections in advance of an expected bid for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. If Soto runs for that office, she has to give up her House seat. Millan currently works as community affairs liaison for City Colleges of Chicago and has been active in the 1st and 26th Ward communities that make up the overwhelming portion of the 4th House District. (Rick Pearson) What we're writing *Chicago property tax bills going up 10 percent this year to pay for police, fire, teacher pensions. Advertisement *Chicago Board of Ethics finds two more individuals violated city lobbying rules. *Emanuel ducks on AG Madigan's call for federal court oversight of Chicago police reforms. *Emanuel's police home-buying plan advances despite aldermen's misgivings. *Sears cuts 400 jobs, no longer qualifies for state tax breaks. What we're reading (Mostly CPD Edition) *Rookie Chicago cop rescues dog from Lake Michigan. Advertisement *CPD asks officers to design look of new patrol vehicles. (How about a return to the old-school design?) *But can they see Russia from their houses? Follow the money *Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here. Beyond Chicago *Sessions denies collusion with Russians as "detestable lie." *WaPo: How Trump could fire the special counsel. Advertisement *Mattis: "We are not winning in Afghanistan," new strategy is weeks away. *North Korea frees American student said to be in coma. Two individuals who contacted Mayor Rahm Emanuel through his personal email broke the city's lobbying laws, the Chicago Board of Ethics determined Tuesday. The panel voted without dissent to find the two people violated the law by seeking to influence City Hall action without registering as a lobbyist. Ethics board President William F. Conlon said the individuals would be identified on a city website, but not until later this week after they are notified of the ruling. Advertisement The two new lobbying violations come as the ethics board has seen a sharp increase in potential cases after a Chicago Tribune report in March found that Emanuel's personal email accounts have served as a private avenue for lobbyists, corporate executives and campaign donors who sought action from or access to the mayor. The Tribune found 26 possible instances where individuals contacted the mayor or city officials but did not register as a lobbyist or report that contact to the ethics board. Tuesday's decisions bring to three the total number of cases in which the ethics board found lobbying violations. In February, the board issued a record $90,000 fine to former Uber executive David Plouffe for illegally lobbying Emanuel on the city's ride-sharing ordinance. Uber was hit with a $2,000 fine for a single instance of employing a lobbyist who failed to register. Advertisement The ethics board has determined probable cause for at least 12 other possible lobbying violations, and its review of those cases is ongoing. While the board will notify the two new violators, it has yet to make a final determination on how much they'll be fined. That matter will be discussed at the board's July meeting, Conlon said. An individual faces fines if they seek to influence a city official without registering or reporting their activities. The largest fine is $1,000 a day for lobbyists who fail to register within five days of contacting city officials a penalty designed to create immediate transparency as to which interests are seeking to influence potential government actions as city officials weigh those decisions. The Tribune found the 26 potential lobbying violations it identified in March could carry in excess of $14 million in fines based on how much time had passed and the $1,000-a-day tab. The city's lobbying law does not take into account the nature or frequency of the lobbying, just whether the registration happened. In Plouffe's case, the board issued a maximum $90,000 fine based on the 90 days the former Obama campaign manager had failed to register after first emailing Emanuel asking for help on regulations for picking up travelers at the city's airports. Conlon, however, said Tuesday that the board had the authority to reduce fines from the $1,000-per-day amount called for in the ethics law. Board members, he said, wanted to take more time to determine how much the fines should be for the two new violations. "Obviously, fines need to be appropriate. Under the ordinance, the fines are $1,000 a day. For some folks, that is an extraordinary amount. ... It's taken us awhile to determine, as we talk about this, that we don't want to be punitive," Conlon said. "We're not going to be unreasonable or vindictive about what the fines are." The board also announced it expected to find up to 62 city employees, 10 appointed officials and five elected officials in violation of ethics rules for failing to file their annual economic interest statements. Those individuals also will be identified later this week, the board said, and could face a $250-per-day fine until they file their statements, which include information on political donations, gifts and financial investments among other items. Advertisement bruthhart@chicagotribune.com Twitter @BillRuthhart Gov. Bruce Rauner arrives for a press conference on the last day of the Illinois General Assembly's spring session at the State Capitol in Springfield on Wednesday, May 31, 2017. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) With Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner under attack from Democrats who say he refuses to compromise, his legislative allies on Wednesday sought to reframe stalled negotiations with a proposal they said could provide a way out of the nearly two-year stalemate. House and Senate Republican lawmakers unveiled a seven-measure blueprint for what they said would be acceptable to Rauner in exchange for raising taxes to balance the budget. Illinois has been spending more than $6 billion beyond what it takes in for the past two years while Rauner has dug in and pressured Democrats to approve his economic agenda, which includes many of the items contained in the Republicans' offer. Advertisement "We are trying, the governor is trying, to bring resolution to the problem we have in the state of Illinois," said House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. "Our business community is struggling. We are asking for reforms in the business community. I'm not sure how many opportunities down the road we'll have the ability to have these actually completed. So this is the time to do it." Democrats led by House Speaker Michael Madigan contend that raising taxes is a necessity for closing a gaping budget hole, not a Democratic agenda item to be used as a bargaining chip. Advertisement "Who are they compromising with?" asked Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. He said House Democrats would "take a hard look at the proposal," but also noted the chamber had already approved several pieces of legislation that he contended address Rauner's requests. The Republican proposal came after weeks of relative calm from lawmakers and the governor since the General Assembly left the Capitol at the end of May without approving a budget. An end-of-month deadline looms to pass a spending plan in time for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, with Wall Street ratings agencies threatening to downgrade the state's credit to junk status. As both sides try to maneuver away from taking the blame if no deal is reached, Democrats have pushed the idea that resistance to compromise by Rauner-led Republicans is what's held up the deal-making process. While Republicans billed their proposal as "The Capitol Compromise," that notion apparently only goes so far. Durkin said Republicans expect "substantial compliance" from Democrats, warning that he would reject "reform light or anything that is significantly diluted." Why should Madigan take the new Republican plan seriously? Democrats now need a three-fifths majority to pass a budget, Durkin said. "The question is whether or not the speaker is committed to breaking the impasse, because he needs my votes," Durkin said. "His members are frustrated. I talk to them. There's pressure building up in the House Democratic caucus to get this to resolution." A spokesman for Democratic Senate President John Cullerton was cautious about the sincerity of the GOP offer. Advertisement "We hope this is a serious, real step toward that compromise by House and Senate Republicans," John Patterson said in an email. "But a Republicans-only, mid-June news conference doesn't exactly scream bipartisan compromise." It's an open question whether Rauner or Madigan are interested in putting an end to their budget fight. Doing so would require approval of a tax hike before the 2018 elections in which Rauner is seeking a second term and Madigan's control of the House is at stake. Rauner already is campaigning on the idea he blocked a Democratic tax hike, while Madigan headed into overtime without calling a budget for a vote. A stopgap budget remains more likely than a full-year spending plan. That's what happened last year, when Rauner and Democratic legislative leaders waited until June 30 before approving a plan that fully funded schools and provided partial funding to universities and social services. Rauner again has come out against another stopgap budget, though the pressure point of education funding still looms. School districts like to know they will be receiving state funding before opening their classroom doors in August and September. The new GOP proposal builds off of months of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans that fell apart last month, said state Sen. Karen McConnaughay of St. Charles. Democrats say Rauner worked behind the scenes to tank the effort, while Republicans say Democrats walked away from the talks unexpectedly. What came of the talks was a Senate Democrat-passed budget that included $5.4 billion in new revenue, which would be raised by increasing the personal income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent and the corporate income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 7 percent, extending the state's share of the 6.25 percent sales tax to services like tattooing and piercing and imposing new taxes on satellite television and streaming services such as Netflix. Advertisement The money would help fund a $37.3 billion spending plan that includes a $330 million increase in funding for elementary and high schools. Most state agencies would see a 5 percent cut in spending, except universities, which would face a 10 percent cut. Senate Democrats contend that they followed the taxing and spending parameters laid out by Rauner. "We held spending where he wanted, kept the tax rate that he asked for, cut $3 billion in spending and ultimately eliminated the nearly $5 billion deficit in his proposed budget," Patterson said. "If Republicans now think they can improve on their governor's budget, we look forward to seeing their plans." Under the Republican proposal unveiled Wednesday, GOP House lawmakers promised votes in favor of the tax package already approved by the Senate Democrats, but only if those tax hikes were limited to four years starting in July, and were tied to a four-year property tax freeze. The Senate Democrats' plan makes the tax hikes permanent and applies them retroactively to the beginning of 2017. Additionally, Rauner's Republicans outlined their terms for legislation that would freeze local property taxes, change regulations on insurance for workers who are injured on the job, allow for consolidation of local governments, rewrite the way tax dollars are doled out to schools, impose term limits on elected officials and make cost-saving changes to the state pension systems. House and Senate Democrats already have approved bills to change the school funding formula, update the rules on worker injury insurance, and allow for consolidation of local governments, but Rauner is dissatisfied with the bills. On property taxes, the two chambers have each passed their own versions of a two-year property tax freeze while Rauner has been pushing for a four-year freeze. Advertisement kgeiger@chicagotribune.com Twitter @kimgeiger Police are set to announce charges against a dozen Turkish security agents who were involved in a violent altercation when Turkey's president visited Washington last month, a U.S. official said Wednesday. The DC police are expected to say that seven men are being charged for felonies, and another five for misdemeanors. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke only on condition of anonymity ahead of a Thursday news conference that includes Washington's mayor and police chief. The action is likely to exacerbate what has become a major irritant in U.S.-Turkish ties. Relations were severely strained even before the May 16 clash, which happened as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived at the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump. The NATO allies are still at odds over a U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish rebels fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. Turkey considers the fighters to be an extension the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey known as the PKK, and claims without evidence that protesters who showed up during Erdogan's visit to Washington last week were themselves associated with the group. U.S. officials have said law-abiding Americans were affected. Erdogan's security detail returned with him to Turkey after his visit, so it is unclear if any will face legal repercussions in the United States. However, they could end up being threatened with arrest if they return to the U.S. If any are still in the country, they could be expelled if Turkey refuses to waive diplomatic immunity. Video of the protest showed security guards and some Erdogan supporters attacking a small group of protesters with their fists and feet. Men in dark suits and others were recorded repeatedly kicking one woman as she lay curled on a sidewalk. Another wrenched a woman's neck and threw her to the ground. A man with a bullhorn was repeatedly kicked in the face. After police officers struggled to protect the protesters and ordered the men in suits to retreat, several of the men dodged the officers and ran into the park to continue the attacks. In all, nine people were hurt. Earlier Wednesday, police said two men were arrested for their role in the fracas. The Metropolitan Police Department said in a brief statement that Sinan Narin had been arrested in Virginia on an aggravated assault charge. It said Eyup Yildirim had been arrested in New Jersey on charges of assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. Yildirim made his first appearance before Federal Magistrate James Clarke in Newark, N.J., who ordered him held without bail pending his next court date in Washington. Public defender David Holman sought home confinement, arguing that Yildirim wasn't a flight risk and had never been convicted of anything before. Clarke said he was less concerned with him being a possible flight risk and more concerned about the nature of the crime. Holman told the judge that Yildirim has received death threats because of the case. He said Yildirim is a business owner with three kids and ties to the local community. Prosecutors told the judge Yildirim had been arrested twice in the late 90s on simple assault charges, but the charges were later dismissed. Narin and Yildirim were both participants in the protests, according to a U.S. official familiar with the case. On the day of the violence, police detained two members of Erdogan's security detail but released them shortly afterward. Two other men were arrested at the scene one for aggravated assault and the other for assaulting a police officer. The U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the matter and demanded anonymity, said DC police had identified 34 of 42 people who were involved in the fight, and are seeking their arrests. Police are expected to release photos of the other eight possible suspects and appeal to the public for information on their identities, the official said. American officials strongly criticized Turkey's government and Erdogan's security forces for the violence; the State Department summoned Turkey's U.S. ambassador to complain. The Turkish Foreign Ministry then summoned America's ambassador to address about the treatment of the detained security guards. Turkey's U.S. embassy alleged the demonstrators were associated with the PKK, which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey and is considered a terrorist group by the United States. Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said they chanted anti-Erdogan slogans, and that the Turkish president's team moved in to disperse them because "police did not heed to Turkish demands to intervene." The Turkish Embassy claimed the demonstrators were "aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the president. The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense and one of them was seriously injured." MILWAUKEE A black man killed by Milwaukee police after fleeing a traffic stop was unarmed and defenseless when an officer shot him "point blank," a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, while defense attorneys said the officer believed the man still had a gun. Both sides said police body-camera video of the shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith will be key to their cases. The trial will provide the public the first look at the video. Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm called it the "most essential evidence" jurors will see. Defense attorneys said that same footage will explain why Dominique Heaggan-Brown feared for his life when he shot Smith in the chest on Aug. 13. Advertisement Heaggan-Brown, 25, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide for Smith's death, which ignited riots in the predominantly black neighborhood where he was shot. Heaggan-Brown was fired in October after being charged with sexual assault in an unrelated case. The shooting happened after Heaggan-Brown, who is also black, and two other officers pulled up next to Smith's car, noticing his vehicle parked about a foot from the curb. Smith ran away from the car, holding a gun with Heaggan-Brown in pursuit. At one point Smith slipped and fell, dropping his gun. Advertisement What happened over the next few seconds is interpreted differently by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Chisholm said Smith reached for his gun and was throwing it over the fence when Heaggan-Brown first shot him in the arm. Then, standing over Smith, the officer fired a second, fatal shot into his chest, "in point-blank range." "Sylville Smith is on the ground, his hands by his head, unarmed with nowhere to go," Chisholm told the jury. Heaggan-Brown said he thought Smith was reaching for a gun in his waistband when he shot him again. Defense attorney Jonathan Smith said Sylville Smith's hands were moving forward when he was shot. Both shots were fired in less than two seconds. "These are literally split-second decisions that Mr. Heaggan-Brown is making," Heaggan-Brown's attorney said. When Heaggan-Brown shot Smith a second time, "he did so fearing for his safety" his attorney said. Jurors are being sequestered for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last about a week. The jury began with 16 people, including four alternates, but one of them was dismissed before opening statements without a cause given. Four men and 11 women are on the jury now, including three black men and two black women. Heaggan-Brown faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted. At the time of the shooting, Heaggan-Brown had been an officer for three years a recruit from the Sherman Park neighborhood where the riots occurred. Advertisement Within hours of Smith's shooting, demonstrators flocked to Sherman Park and began throwing rocks, bricks, and bottles at police officers. That night and the next, protesters burned eight businesses and a police car. When it was over, police had arrested about 40 demonstrators and multiple officers were hurt. The violence mirrored unrest that followed the killings of black men by police in other cities, including the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions had a hard time shaking questions about his refusal to testify about his conversations with President Trump, which has forced him to invoke a circuitous interpretation of the president's right to executive privilege. Not long after Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, grilled him about "impeding this investigation" by declining to answer questions, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, took a shot. Advertisement It's not up to Sessions to invoke executive privilege. It's up to the president, making it tricky for Sessions to use that right to avoid answering questions. "I understand" the right to executive privilege, King said. "But the president hasn't asserted it," King told Sessions after he refused to discuss his conversations with Trump about the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey. Advertisement "I am protecting the right of the president to exert it if he chooses," Sessions replied. That struck King as confusing. How could Sessions use an executive privilege that has not been invoked? "I don't understand how you could have it both ways," he said. Sessions said he was keeping Trump's options open for him. "It would be premature to deny the president a full and intelligent choice about executive privilege," he said. But King found an inconsistency. Sessions had just testified about a conversation with Trump, revealing that the president asked him for an opinion about Comey's job performance before he fired him. Sessions said he only discussed the conversation because he believed Trump had disclosed it publicly already. "If he hasn't, then I'm in error," Sessions said. "You're being selective," King responded. Two women and a 5-year-old girl who had been missing since Monday were found dead in a central New York pond, the state police announced in a news release. The bodies of Melissa M. Avery, 26, Jamie A. Bell, 34, and Maryssa F. Houston, 5, were recovered from inside a vehicle that was submerged in Gatehouse Pond. The pond is located near Route 80 and Gatehouse Road in the town of Tully. The search for the missing trio focused on that area of Onondaga County after a state trooper discovered damage to a guard rail and a speed sign Tuesday. The investigation led authorities to the vehicle's location in the pond. State police divers assisted in the recovery of the vehicle. Autopsies will be conducted to determine the official cause of death for each of the three occupants, police said. The investigation is continuing. Decades ago, when Ross Kellan headed the Music Department at his alma mater, Glenbard East High School in Lombard, he tapped a sophomore trumpet player to perform her first solo for an upcoming concert. The student, a recent transfer to the school, was a talented musician who came from a troubled home and was reluctant to take up the challenge. During a rehearsal, as she struggled through her solo, she suddenly stood up, slammed down her trumpet and stormed out of the room. Advertisement "It was a tough situation for this student," said Joanne May, a colleague of Kellan's who was at the rehearsal that day. "Her frustrations were being played out in front of everybody." Kellan followed the student out into the hallway, where he listened and talked and then listened some more. He reaffirmed his faith in her and later spoke with her family. "Ross talked her off the ledge that day," May said. Advertisement The student went on to deliver a flawless performance and continued to excel in the band, according to May. She also learned to play the French horn and viola, and as a senior she tutored other music students. Kellan would share the story in later years to motivate students who wanted to become teachers when he was chair of the music department at Elmhurst College, where he also served as director of Music Education and conductor of the Symphonic Band. "He was the kind of teacher that saw potential in every student and would do whatever it took to help them reach their goals," said May, who is now director of orchestras at Elmhurst College. "Simply put, he was the best." Kellan, 68, died of cancer on June 4 in his Lombard home, his family said. "One of his favorite sayings whenever we'd hit an obstacle would be, 'Our work is not yet done,' " said Peter Griffin, Kellan's successor as chair of the music department at Elmhurst College. "But that also applied to when we had fun. He put his whole self into everything he did. For Ross, it was all or nothing." A 1966 graduate of Glenbard East, Kellan played the trumpet in the school's band. He received a bachelor's degree in music education, and later a master's degree in music performance, from Eastern Illinois University in the early 1970s. He taught for a year at a high school in Decatur and in 1972 began teaching at Glenbard East, where he remained for 33 years and served as chair of its music department. "He was very proud to have the opportunity to teach at his own high school," his wife said. "In many ways, it was a coming home for him." Advertisement During his tenure at Glenbard East, the band was selected to perform for the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, the National Band Associationnational convention, the American School Band Directors Association national convention and the Illinois Music Education Association state convention. The Symphonic Band was selected three times as the Honor Band at the Illinois SuperState Concert Band Festival in Urbana-Champaign. In 2010 he received the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching at Elmhurst College. In 2012, the music wing at Glenbard East was named in his honor. Kellan left Glenbard East in 2005 to join the faculty at Elmhurst College, where he was chair of the music department from 2009 to 2011 and remained until his health began to fail last month. "Wherever he taught, Ross set the standard," May said. "He had an incredible ability to inspire students to greater heights." Kellan is survived by his wife of 45 years, Geri; a daughter, Erin; a brother, Kurt; and a sister, Jayne. Services have been held. Advertisement Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter. A coal miner shines his headlamp on the front end of a continuous miner machine at the American Coal Company's New Future Coal Mine during a tour Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016 in Galatia, Ill. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune) In the run-up to World War I, German general Erich Ludendorff was said to have described his country's alliance with the decaying Austro-Hungarian empire as like being "shackled to a corpse." That phrase aptly describes the situation the U.S. will find itself in if it continues to bet on coal as the fuel of the future. The coal industry is dying. The number of coal mining jobs in the U.S. plummeted in the 1980s and 1990s, paused for a while, then plunged again in recent years. Meanwhile, after decades of playing second fiddle to coal, natural gas has emerged as the nation's dominant method of generating electricity. Advertisement The change is global, not just in the U.S. China, by far the world's biggest user, is cutting its coal capacity by hundreds of millions of tons a year. India is canceling coal plants before they're ever built. BP Energy Outlook forecasts world coal use to start falling in the early 2030s. QuickTake Coal Power Why is coal in decline? The obvious culprit is climate-change mitigation efforts. Governments around the world are worried that burning coal is accelerating global warming, and hence have acted to slow the threat. Advertisement In the U.S., many Republicans are climate-change skeptics. Some see the effort to reduce coal use as a needless government interference with legitimate business interests. Others, including President Donald Trump, see coal mining jobs as a traditional way of life -- a symbol of masculine dignity and small-town vitality -- and have promised to preserve that livelihood. Trump recently issued an executive order that lifts carbon-emission limits on power plants, authorizes the sale of coal from federal lands, and instructs government agencies not to worry about climate change. He is working to roll back the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, an initiative designed to speed the transition from coal to renewable energy. Meanwhile, Ohio legislators are actually trying to increase subsidies for some coal-fired power plants. This is a terrible idea. Despite the publicity and emotion of the battles over climate change, coal isn't on the wane because of environmental regulation. It's dying because it's an inferior technology whose time has come and gone. Trying to prop up this sunset industry might save a few jobs in West Virginia, but many more Americans in other industries and other parts of the country will be hurt. A new study from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research confirms this. Researcher Charles D. Kolstad takes a detailed look at recent developments in the coal industry, and examines a number of factors that might account for coal's decline -- environmental regulation, railroad deregulation, the development of hydraulic-fracturing (fracking) technology, automation and changes in financial markets. Kolstad discovers that different factors have mattered at different times. Automation and other productivity improvements reduced coal employment in the mid-20th century, even as production levels were maintained. In the 1970s, rules intended to limit air pollution -- not carbon dioxide, but sulfur that blackens the skies, causes acid rain and leads to lung diseases -- were a factor, although many high-sulfur coal plants were granted exceptions from the rules. More recently, though, natural gas has been replacing coal. Fracking, a technology many years in development, was broadly commercialized in the past decade. Fracking is estimated to have created about 1.7 million jobs in the U.S., and the cheap energy it provides has helped some companies bring manufacturing back from overseas. And now, with the construction of new facilities for storing and transporting gas around the world, natural gas promises to become an important export industry for the U.S. Subsidies to prop up the coal industry will take a bite out of the thriving, growing natural gas industry. Meanwhile, loosening restrictions on carbon emissions might also hurt natural gas, since gas emits less carbon than coal does. Meanwhile, giving coal subsidies and a free pass on carbon emissions could damage an even faster-expanding industry -- solar. As is clear from the graph above, solar is still small but growing at a very fast rate. Already, solar installation jobs are an important source of employment for many Americans. And in the long run, solar promises to make energy cheap enough to fuel a sustained economic boom. So the actions Trump and some Republicans are taking to try to keep the coal industry on life support also threaten to make the U.S. an energy backwater. Instead of betting on natural gas and solar, the fuels of today and tomorrow, Trump wants to force the country back to the fuel of yesterday. Advertisement Bloomberg View Noah Smith is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., asserted last week that if the president were a Democrat, the House wouldn't be pursuing impeachment. He must know that's not true. If FBI Director James B. Comey had angered a President Hillary Clinton by restarting the investigation into her private email server and she had fired him, Republicans would be howling. Rightly so. Advertisement Instead, Donald Trump won the election. Comey was pursuing an investigation into Russian meddling. It angered President Trump, and he fired Comey. But rather than howling, Republicans are whimpering. The chair of the Republican National Committee has even called for a halt to all investigations of collusion with Russia. That's a problem. I was on the House Judiciary Committee that began the consideration of impeaching of President Bill Clinton. Armed with information from independent counsel Kenneth Starr, we were convinced the president had lied under oath. We drafted articles of impeachment, and a majority of the House concurred with our assessment. The Senate subsequently determined that there wasn't sufficient cause to remove him from office. In retrospect, a public censure or reprimand may have been more advisable. Advertisement Regardless, Clinton was impeached for charges less serious than the ones before us now. In the current case, Comey was exploring the possibility of American involvement in the Russian plot, a treasonous offense. While it's not time to start drafting articles of impeachment, it is time to pursue this investigation into Russian meddling in our presidential election with vigor, without friends to reward and without enemies to punish. Confronting Trump will take more courage than it took when Republicans told President Richard Nixon that it was time for him to leave office. Not that Trump is more imposing than Nixon; Nixon was a serious president with significant accomplishments. The difference, now, is the presence of sycophantic media. When Republicans confronted Nixon in 1974, they faced three, 30-minute, nightly news broadcasts. The networks competed, but their newscasts and the facts presented were virtually identical. Those Republicans knew that their political futures rested upon their maintenance of credibility. Today, Fox News, talk radio, Breitbart and others fawn over Trump, Vice President Pence and the rest of the administration. They amplify the White House's words while defying the journalistic calling to test and to probe the government's claims. Recall, for example, how those outlets immediately affirmed Trump's unsubstantiated morning tweets about President Barack Obama's wiretapping of Trump Tower. With Fox and others clogging the media landscape, Republicans' political futures now rest on feeding the passions and proclivities of Trump's hard-core base the 39 percent of the electorate that likes him and responds to his code of grievance. That 39 percent is the dominant force in Republican primaries today. Cross them and you die. That's why Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for example, used his time at last week's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to ask Comey questions that excused, lessened and dismissed the possible connection between the Russians and Trump. It's not that Trump has wooed Rubio; it's that the Florida senator is aware of the power of the 39 percent. Of course, the 39 percent will ultimately kill the Republican Party unless we can turn them around. A dead GOP would deprive a generation of Americans of the free-enterprise and individual-accountability solutions that thoughtful people such as Rubio would like to offer. Furthermore, a hostile foreign power has struck at the heart of our constitutional republic. As Comey said with passion last week, "If any Americans were part of helping the Russians do that to us, that is a very big deal." Republicans must be prepared to follow those facts all the way to the president, his family and his campaign, if that's where the facts lead. Fox News alerts play it down, the RNC says drop it, and the 39 percent shrugs, but we need real courage from real Republicans and a real investigation. Washington Post Advertisement Bob Inglis, a Republican, represented South Carolina in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999 and 2005 to 2011. What to read next: Could ignorance be Trump's excuse? Who would deny it? Trump fired Comey. Why not Mueller too? Don't expect spineless Republicans to defy Donald Trump Trump's Cabinet meeting competition: 'I love you more, Mr. President' Facing backlash over the Tribune's series on Cook County property taxes, Assessor Joseph Berrios stood before the microphones on Monday and maintained that the system he oversees is "as fair and accurate as possible." An out-of-state tax expert was on hand to second those claims. Those assurances ring hollow in the face of the Tribune's analysis, which showed that low-income, mostly minority homeowners are disadvantaged by a system that assesses their properties at higher values than they're actually worth. Wealthier property owners catch a break, the Tribune's Jason Grotto reported, through assessments that lowball the value of their homes and through an appeals process they are more likely to access. Advertisement You can find the series at www.chicagotribune.com/taxdivide The stories also confirmed that Cook County's property tax racket is oxygenated by money and clout. As assessor, Berrios plays a crucial role in determining residents' tax bills. He also has the authority to lower an assessment if errors were made. Advertisement If taxpayers are to have confidence in those decisions, the assessor an elected countywide official needs to scrupulously avoid the appearance that campaign contributions or political relationships are a factor. But we're talking about Berrios, who also is chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. Since 2009, Berrios has raised more than $5 million in campaign donations, more than half of it from lawyers and firms that make money appealing assessments, the Tribune reported. His primary campaign fund as of March 31, the most recent reporting period, held a balance of $1.09 million more than three times as much as County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The Cook County Board of Review, which hears appeals from property owners who aren't satisfied with the assessor's decisions, also is an elected board. As of March 31, the three-person panel Democrats Larry Rogers Jr. and Michael Cabonargi and Republican Dan Patlak had a combined total of more than $700,000 in their campaign accounts, much of it from property tax lawyers. Barbara Garner bought her Melrose Park house for $75,000 in 2010, a few months after the Cook County Assessor's Office estimated its value at $164,640. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune) It's a baked-in conflict of interest. And it undermines the integrity of a system that openly encourages appeals. In 2015, Cook County property owners challenged assessments on 370,000 parcels, and won reductions from Berrios' office 50 percent of the time. Asked about that conflict, Berrios said he is no different from other elected officials. He's right, to a point. Special interest groups donate to politicians to influence their decisions. For example, energy giant ComEd sprinkled more than $72,700 into the accounts of state lawmakers between October and the end of December. Surely the vigorous check-writing had nothing to do with legislation ComEd sought to raise rates. Yet the controversial bill passed on Dec. 1 and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed it a week later. Special interest groups have the right to try to influence decisions that affect them. By law, political contributions must be publicly disclosed so voters can draw their own conclusions about what role money might have played in setting public policy. Advertisement Taxpayers ought to question the money dropped into Berrios' campaign account, especially since Berrios' office in 2015 announced it was moving to a new computer model that would improve the accuracy of assessments then didn't fully implement it. Here's why that matters: When one property owner gets a break on their assessment, the rest of the taxpayers pick up the slack. Government still demands the money. The tax burden just gets shifted to everyone else. That fluidity supports an army of property tax attorneys. Berrios could take the high road and refuse to accept campaign contributions from the property tax industry. On Monday, he said he'd continue to take the money. That conflict is what makes the property tax racket particularly offensive. It is a point Democratic candidate for governor Chris Kennedy has been raising. He says he would ban elected officials from holding side jobs as property tax attorneys. Why? Because lots of people have been getting rich off of broken systems. Cook County's property tax structure is just one of them. Those in power could offer fixes. But why would they? It's working just fine for them. Advertisement Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. Become a subscriber today to support editorial writing like this. Start getting full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Donald Trump is an amazing president probably the best, I'd say and he did a remarkably brilliant thing, something I fear may have gone unnoticed because everyone was distracted by fake news and activist judges and lies and losers and whatnot. It happened during the president's Cabinet meeting Monday. With the dishonest fake news media present, Trump smartly went around the table and had each member of his Cabinet say something about how incredibly great Donald Trump is at being president. Advertisement It was quite a spectacle, roughly 10 minutes of basting Trump in adulation, all broadcast live. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said: "It was a great honor traveling with you around the country for the last year and an even greater honor to be here serving on your Cabinet." Advertisement Vice President Mike Pence extolled: "It is just the greatest privilege of my life is to serve as vice president to the president who's keeping his word to the American people and assembling a team that's bringing real change, real prosperity, real strength back to our nation." And White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus got downright biblical: "On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda and the American people." All fantastic, truly spot-on and authentic comments. And yet, they're still not good enough. The following day, Gallup's daily presidential poll showed Trump had scored a new high of 60 percent disapproval, with only 36 percent approving of him. How is that possible? His approval rating in that Cabinet meeting was right where it should be, around 125 percent. I have yet to see Trump do anything wrong ever, in history so clearly the people around him are not praising the president with sufficient effusiveness. They need to step up their lionization game so their appreciation for Trump's awesomeness trickles down to regular Americans. Normally, a lickspittle could just sell his or her soul to Satan in exchange for a supernatural knack for flattery. But Trump's Cabinet members have no souls left to barter with, so they're stuck. Or at least they were stuck until I came along. Having received a doctorate in Superlative Studies from the highly regarded North American Institute of Eminent Excellence, I am uniquely (and handsomely) qualified to train the president's Cabinet and staff in the art of exaltation. Advertisement Let's begin with titles. Referring to Trump simply as "President Trump" fails to capture his stature. Here are some more appropriate honorifics: President God-Trump Infinite Overseer of all Things President-Supreme Donald Trump in Excelsis Healer of Nations Advertisement Broad-Shouldered Power Man All-High Potentate His Most Royal and Virile King Among Kings Magnus Trump, Slayer of Haters You get the idea. Amp that title up to something more befitting a man of such nobility and the American people will follow. Next, rather than using simple, clunky praise to highlight Trump's many fine qualities and characteristics, consider reciting epic poems that detail the president's heroic deeds and conquests. Advertisement Something along the lines of this: "Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous crook named Hillary. Many cities did he, the Trump king, visit, and many hats did he hand out to the adoring masses who chanted his name. And he spake, and quickly they hearkened to his words. He saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days. And America he did make great again." (When deciding whether to write your heroic Trump narrative in dactylic hexameter or iambic pentameter, refer to recent polling to make sure you latch onto the hottest meter of the day.) Lastly, all praise of President Trump should be fittingly robust. Something like "thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda" is fine, but it lacks the oomph deserved by a man who has others go around a table praising him. A more appropriate line might be: "Thank you, President-Supreme Donald Trump in Excelsis, for the humbling opportunity of which I'm certainly not worthy, given your greatness and the mighty blessing from the only being more powerful than you and many say you're gaining on Him! that has allowed us, your faithful and unworthy servants, a chance to implement your brilliant and faultless agenda, which is the best agenda any president has ever come up with, no other president has even been close, agenda-wise. Trump be praised." Follow these simple steps and the next time All-High Potentate Trump the Hater-Slayer bestows upon you an opportunity to praise him on live television, you won't make such a fool of yourself. Advertisement It's pretty easy once you get the hang of the language and adapt to completely abdicating any sense of self-respect or decency. All hail Trump! Or else. rhuppke@chicagotribune.com Twitter @RexHuppke A North Aurora man is accused of stealing $375 in posted bail money while working for the DuPage County Circuit Clerk's office. Ronald Marcelin, 30, of the 100 block of Hettinger Lane, has been charged with one count of theft not exceeding $500 from a government institution, a Class 4 felony; and one count of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony. Advertisement On Tuesday, Marcelin turned himself in to DuPage County authorities and was released after posting the necessary bond. As an employee, Marcelin had access to cash within the circuit court clerk's office, according to a press release from the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office. It is alleged that on May 9, Marcelin stole $375 of posted bail money received by the office. Advertisement "What Mr. Marcelin is accused of doing is, in essence, stealing from the citizens of DuPage County," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said. Chris Kachiroubas, clerk of the circuit court, said the incident is troubling. "When I was informed of possible lost funds after our internal audit, I asked for a comprehensive investigation, taking it wherever it leads. Sadly, the investigation ended with a circuit clerk employee as the central target," he said. "In light of this unfortunate incident we have taken necessary steps to ensure this situation will not be repeated." A doctor from Lemont has been sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison after admitting to soliciting bribes, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago. Neil Sharma, 37, also will serve a year of probation, according to a news release. Advertisement Sharma has been a licensed Illinois physician since March 2011, and between September 2013 and March 2015 was the medical director of a managed care services company that contracted to provide health care services to Medicare and Medicaid patients, according to the release. The firm was identified in court records only as "Company A." Illinois contracted with Sharma's firm to provide skilled nursing services to patients in certain facilities, and Sharma's company subcontracted with other firms, according to the release. In a plea agreement entered earlier this year, Sharma admitted that, for a period of a month in early 2015, he solicited bribes from an owner of one of the three subcontractors, according to the release. Advertisement In exchange for the bribes, Sharma stated that he would provide the subcontractor with more skilled nursing patients and with additional Medicaid and Medicare patients through his company's anti-depressant monitoring program and hospital re-admission program, the government said. Sharma accepted cash payments totaling $10,000 from the owner of the subcontracting firm before being arrested and charged in March 2015. Cancer survivors kick off Friday's Relay For Life at Lincoln-Way East High School by taking the first lap around the track. The event was delayed because of rain, but many stuck it out to raise money for research and to benefit others fighting cancer. (Alicia Fabbre/Daily Southtown ) Neal Glaser stood out by his tent after a heavy downpour of rain with his team of 20 or so, all who gathered in honor of Karen Simmons, Neal's long-time partner. They were among the many people assembled last week at Lincoln-Way East High School for the American Cancer Society's annual Relay For Life. Glaser, like others at the walk, had fought his battle against a blood cancer, which now is in remission. Last summer, cancer claimed Simmons, a woman he described as "the best part of my life." Advertisement Despite the rain, Glaser and others weren't going home. They were there to remember lost loved ones, celebrate victories and raise money to fight against a disease that had touched each of them. "We cannot let up," said Kathy Goss, a Frankfort woman who spent 12 years in the cancer research field after losing her father to brain cancer. Advertisement Glaser had recently wrapped up chemo treatments when Simmons, a critical care nurse, told him she didn't feel well. She visited her doctor and was later diagnosed with stage 4 uterine cancer. She died last summer. "Cancer is tough," said Glaser, a Peotone man who was participating in the walk for the first time. "We keep saying we're going to get it cured." Glaser's team wearing black t-shirts with "Not all cancer survivors wear pink" written on the back raised more than $2,500 through the relay. The money raised from the event will be used toward research and to help families battling cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The society hosts the Relay For Life Cancer Walk every year in more than 4,200 cities across 27 countries, according to the organization's website. The walk brings cancer survivors, caregivers and other supporters together to raise money for research and to help families dealing with cancer. This month, several Chicago suburbs are hosting relays. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Organizers for Friday's event at Lincoln Way East said some 400 people were registered to walk and they had already raised more than $50,000. "We want a cure for cancer," said Joe Simmons, Karen's brother, who also was at the walk Friday with Glaser. "There's probably not a single person here that hasn't been affected." Others at the walk shared similar sentiments. "We're just hoping that less families have to experience losing a family member or watching a family member be sick," said Lauren Gilligan. The Tinley Park woman was participating for her first time in the event to honor her aunt, Diane Gillooley,who lost her battle against leukemia and multiple myeloma. Advertisement In addition to raising research funds, the relay also brings people together. Cancer survivors were treated to a special dinner before the walk. Cancer survivors also took the first lap around the track with caregivers joining for the second lap. At dusk, luminaries were lit to honor those who have died from cancer or are battling the disease. "You can go do a 5K for whatever charity you want, but this is about a community coming together to support each other and fight against cancer," Goss said. Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Bult Field was acquired by Illinois in 2014 as it assembled land to be used for the South Suburban Airport. (Gary Middendorf/Daily Southtown ) More than 30 area elected officials have written to Gov. Bruce Rauner urging him to "move forward quickly in seeking a development partner" for the long-planned South Suburban Airport. The letter, dated June 9, is signed by area mayors as well as state and federal legislators "to express our collective support" for construction of the airport. Advertisement The Illinois Department of Transportation recently gauged interest from private firms that could potentially partner with the state to build and run the airport. In submitting information to IDOT a precursor to the state seeking formal development proposals firms cited assurances of strong political support for the project as one of the factors in determining their interest level. The six firms that responded to IDOT also wanted a solid feasibility study of the airport and specifics about how it would be financed and what sort of revenue it would generate. Advertisement Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Daily Southtown had previously obtained and reviewed copies of the documents submitted to the state by the six firms. In the questionnaire, firms were asked about their experience, what incentives, terms and conditions they would require, what they considered to be the primary risks in this project, and what were the key factors in determining if they would participate. Most said they needed the state's political leaders to make a strong and clear commitment to a well-defined project, and that requirement served as the "genesis" for the letter to Rauner, according to James Lewis, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson. The letter urges the governor to take the next step in the process and seek formal proposals from potential development partners, Lewis said. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > A spokeswoman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter noted the airport "has enjoyed bipartisan support from the previous five governors, scores of elected officials, and business leaders from South Cook, Will and Kankakee counties." The airport would complement, rather than compete with, the metro area's two existing airports and would "create tens of thousands of new private-sector jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually in new property, income and sales taxes," the letter states. IDOT has spent nearly $96 million acquiring more than 4,400 acres for the airport, and three years ago acquired Bult Field and renamed it the South Suburban Airport. Advertisement But the state's financial woes, such as the budget impasse and sinking credit rating, have raised questions as to what sort of financial partner Illinois could be in such a project were it to move forward. One company that responded to the state's request for information said a "substantial amount of governmental funding" would be a factor in whether it would team up with the state on the project. mnolan@tribpub.com Twitter @mnolan_J Remember the panic of the ACT test? Remember the anxiety, the pressure, and the tight grip on the freshly sharpened number 2 pencils? Catherine Rogers, 17, of the Beverly community of Chicago, not only conquered the panic and fear but managed to score a perfect 36 on the test. Advertisement "This was my second time taking the ACT," Rogers said. "I scored a 35 the first time, and then my counselor said that I might as well go for it. "I was way less nervous taking it the second time, because I knew I had something to fall back on. I figured that all I could do was try. I'm really happy I listened to my counselor." Advertisement Rogers, who has three brothers and one sister, is a busy high school student ready to enter her last year of school. As an incoming senior at Mother McAuley High School, she will likely continue to participate in cross country, track, the book club and math Macs, which is a type of math team. "I like math," Rogers said. "I like physics also. I like figuring out how different units relate to one another." Rogers said her parents, Joan, an assistant principal at Mount Greenwood Elementary School, and Bill, an IT professional with Bank of America, read to her when she was small. "My parents always read to me, and I read a lot," Rogers said. "They were always there to help, and I read a lot and still read a lot today." It was Rogers' mother who called to tell her of the good news. "We were on vacation to see my dad's family. My mom had to work, so she called me and told me sort of laughing. My jaw just dropped. I was quiet for a while and then I said 'Really?' "I let it sink it, and didn't tell anyone until I got back, and then everyone was so excited. It's crazy and my counselor was so excited, too. Everyone has been really supportive." Rogers' mother was very happy for her daughter. Advertisement "School has always been Catherine's thing, and it is so nice to see all her hard work paying off," Joan Rogers said. Nichole Carey, a counselor at Mother McAuley High School, wrote an enthusiastic email about Rogers' accomplishment. "We are so excited for her and her accomplishments," Carey wrote. "Catherine is undoubtedly one of the brightest and most talented students I have ever encountered as a college counselor; she is math-minded, has incredible critical thinking skills and a work-ethic second-to-none. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > "Catherine's natural ability partnered with her intellectual depth and curiosity lead me to believe her college search process will be quite exciting. I am looking forward to all that is to come for Catherine." Rogers is thinking about her choices for college but has not made a final decision. "I want to study engineering and maybe math," Rogers said. "I like medium to big size campuses, and I think I like college campus towns like U of I. I want to stay within a few hours of home, but I don't know if I will stay in-state or out." Advertisement Jill McManus is the college counselor for Mother McAuley that suggested Rogers try the ACT again. McManus wrote in an email that she was excited for Rogers' college career. "An ACT score of 36 correlates to the top one-tenth of the first percentile of testers, nationwide," McManus wrote. "I anticipate her college search process will be broad and exiting." Accolades are not new to Rogers. In her freshman year, Rogers received the Sr. Agatha O'Brien Memorial Scholarship which recognizes students who sore in the top five percent on the high school placement test. She was also one of 16 students to receive the Tradition of Excellence Scholarship for legacy students. Rogers was also named a Mac with Merit, an award that recognizes students for their honorable character, diligent work ethic, and notable contributions to McAuley's community. In her sophomore year, she was honored with the Irish Fellowship Educational and Cultural Foundation Scholarship. Patti Ahern is a freelance columnist and can be emailed at PattiRMA@aol.com. President Donald Trump can't open his mouth without a lie coming out. All the people he has working for him are under orders to lie also and they're all good at it. You can't get a straight answer out of anyone. If you ask Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Trump, a question she can do all kinds of flip-flops and never give you an answer. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is almost as good as she is. This is what we're going to have to put up with for the next four years while these people steal our country, and the U.S. House of Representatives is all for it because they're dipping into it too now. Baby boomers saved the United States by coming out in historically high numbers to vote for President Donald Trump. Baby boomers have been America's backbone since World War II. They're the ones that made America great. Now they'll make it great again with Trump. Generation X voters gave us 16 years of stupidity and weakness: eight years of George W. Bush, who should go down as one of the dumbest presidents, and eight years of Barack Obama, one of the weakest presidents. Baby boomers stopped millennials from electing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton or former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Millennials almost destroyed America, but boomers had the final say. Advertisement Rock, Homer Glen To those who want their wages raised to $15 per hour: In the 1950s, I was fortunate to get $15 an hour but, of course, I worked 31 years with the same company to get it. Then I retired because I was over 65 years old. I was an offset pressman, a skilled occupation. I wasn't pushing somebody in a wheelchair. I wasn't serving hamburgers over a counter. I wasn't carrying people's bags. I only got $15 an hour after 31 years so if you want $15 an hour work for 31 years and perhaps you'll get that much doing an unskilled job. I'm sorry that you're not getting what you want. I believe you first must work for it. Advertisement John, Bridgeport Here we go again. Democrats telling you that Republicans are not for the people. Well watching the news yesterday, it said Democrats are raising your property taxes once again. As long Democrats are in power, Illinois is going to be obsolete. Doesn't matter if a Republican is governor, Mike Madigan and his cronies runs everything. Wake up people of Illinois. What's Speak Out? Speak Out allows readers to comment on the issues of the day. Email Speak Out at speakout@southtownstar.com or call 312-222-2427. Please limit comments to 30 seconds or about 120 words and give your first name and your hometown. With fire season ramping up, Flagstaff police have issued 10 warning for illegal camping inside the city limits. I would say our patrols definitely increase when we are more at risk for forest fires, Deputy Chief Dan Musselman said. An unattended campfire is a danger to the public so we have to make sure no one is camping in the woods in the city. Police responded to 65 camping incidents in 2016 and 51 in 2015. But the number of arrests for illegal camping has been low, with only eight total arrests in 2016 and 2015. Camping within the city limits is defined by a number of things, such as creating temporary structures, storing personal belongings, or making a fire for the purposes of temporary residency. Musselman said that the main purpose of the camping ordinance was not to push away the homeless population, but to keep publicly accessible spaces safe and to prevent potential wildfires during the summer. The Flagstaff Police and Fire Department are already dealing with the dangers of unattended campfires in the city limits. A wildfire north of Route 66 near central Flagstaff started by an unattended campfire burned less than an acre on June 4 before fire crews could put it out. The fire department noted high amounts of trash in the area of fire, indicating transient activity. Transient people seen camping in the city are referred to a shelter or told about campgrounds outside the city limits, according to Musselman. The camping ordinance only applies to public spaces, meaning that camping is allowed on private property as long as the owner does not object. Police Public Information Officer Corey Runge said that if people were camping in the Walmart parking lot for example, police would "not enforce the camping ordinance unless Walmart did not want people camping there." We mandate that if an officer sees someone camping in the city they give them a warning, Musselman said. A lot of people are just looking for a place to stay and dont know about the camping ordinance so we tell them about a shelter or tell them about campgrounds like Fort Tuthill where they can camp. The U.S. Forest Service allows people to camp in the woods for up to 14 days before they are required to move. Coconino County Sheriff Jim Driscoll said the county does not have a camping ordinance and while sheriffs deputies sometimes patrol camp areas that the county owns, enforcement is almost always a Forest Service matter. Our job is not to enforce camping laws in the city or the county, Driscoll said. As long as we arent getting a call about a disturbance we are not going to stop people from camping in the woods. FEW HASSLES Many people in the Flagstaff transient community know about the camping ordinance and have had little to no bad interactions with local police. Amanda, a panhandler from Oregon, said she and the police have always had a good relationship with each other when it comes to sleeping in the right place. I know the rules so I know we arent supposed to be sleeping in the city, Amanda said. Whenever I come through Flagstaff I usually sleep in the woods outside the city and if I have to sleep in the city I never make a campfire. Sticker, a panhandler who hangs out in front of the Walmart on Woodlands Village Boulevard, said that while the camping ordinance is a burden on him, officers have always tried to help out. I cant sleep anywhere in this city. I am old and it is hard for me to get out of the city for the night, Sticker said. I dont like the rules, but the police always tell me where I can stay. They always ask me to leave and never throw me out. Garret Morgan, who was panhandling in his van near the Safeway on South Plaza Way, said he doesnt worry about the camping ordinance because he currently has a camping spot near Lake Mary. I got a tent pitched out at the lake because it is just not worth having to hide in the city just to sleep, Morgan said. My current campsite is really nice and I am allowed to be there so I have no need to break the law. Morgan went on to say that when he did sleep in the city limits, police always directed him to a shelter where he could get something to eat. Boebert now leading Frisch by 1,200 votes in CD-3 race Frisch had been in the lead, which was declining as more counties in CD-3 continue to report results after election day Kenya is seeking to expand its list of sites under the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites, officials said on Tuesday. State-owned Kenya National Commission for UNESCO (KNATCOM) CEO Evangeline Njoka told Xinhua in Nairobi that Kenya currently has six World Heritage sites including the Lamu old town, Miji Kenda Kaya Forests, Mount Kenya and the Lake Turkana National Parks. "So far we have identified a tentative list of 20 cultural sites that are potential candidates as World Heritage sites," Njoka said on the sidelines of the UNESCO Sub-Regional Workshop on Mobilizing Higher Education and Distance Learning Assets. Njoka said that Kenya has already submitted to UNESCO, the Thimlich Ohinga wall which was built in the 14th century to be classified as a cultural site. The East Africa nation has also applied to the UN body for the male rights of passage of the Maasai culture to be enlisted in the Urgent Safeguarding Cultural list under the 2003 Culture Convention of Safeguarding Intangible Culture. Njoka noted that most of the proposed UNESCO sites are associated with cultural beliefs and practices of various communities in Kenya. Njoka said that they are also talking to county governments to identify additional sites that can be endorsed by the UN body as cultural sites. KNATCOM added that Kenya plans to increase its number of cultural sites in order to boost the country's tourist sector. "The cultural sites will attract world attention and hence bring international visitors to Kenya," he said. Chinese aviation authorities said Tuesday that they will join the investigation into the emergency landing of a China Eastern flight in Australia, and will consider issuing an airworthiness directive if it was caused by a design or manufacturing fault. China Eastern Airlines flight MU736, heading to Shanghai Sunday night, was forced to return to Sydney when the crew noticed "cracks" on the Airbus A330's engine cowling shortly after takeoff. The crew made the "right decision" to return, and the plane landed safely with no reported injuries, according to Tang Weibin with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will look into the incident in accordance with the international civil aviation convention, while the CAAC and Rolls-Royce, manufacturer of the plane's engine, will also participate in the investigation, he said. There have been reports of similar trouble with the UK-produced Trent-700 engine, according to Tang. The CAAC will be informed of the latest investigation findings, and will consider issuing an airworthiness directive if the incident was caused by a design or manufacturing fault, said Wang Jingling, another CAAC official. Chinese aviation authorities said Tuesday that they will join the investigation into the emergency landing of a China Eastern flight in Australia. [File Photo] Chinese aviation authorities said Tuesday that they will join the investigation into the emergency landing of a China Eastern flight in Australia, and will consider issuing an airworthiness directive if it was caused by a design or manufacturing fault. China Eastern Airlines flight MU736, heading to Shanghai Sunday night, was forced to return to Sydney when the crew noticed "cracks" on the Airbus A330's engine cowling shortly after takeoff. The crew made the "right decision" to return, and the plane landed safely with no reported injuries, according to Tang Weibin with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will look into the incident in accordance with the international civil aviation convention, while the CAAC and Rolls-Royce, manufacturer of the plane's engine, will also participate in the investigation, he said. There have been reports of similar trouble with the UK-produced Trent-700 engine, according to Tang. The CAAC will be informed of the latest investigation findings, and will consider issuing an airworthiness directive if the incident was caused by a design or manufacturing fault, said Wang Jingling, another CAAC official. South China's Guangdong Province signed three agreements with the University of Birmingham recently in the UK. Hu Chunhua, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangdong Provincial Committee, and Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou City, joined China's UK Ambassador Liu Xiaoming to lead the 20-strong delegation. The leaders and their fellow delegates attended a special ceremony hosted by Birmingham City Council, where the University of Birmingham Provost Professor Tim Jones signed agreements with three partners from Guangzhou to further strengthen the university's research and teaching presence in the province. Professor Jones signed an agreement with senior leaders from Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU) to establish a primary care training centre at the First Affiliated Hospital of SYSU that will help to boost the numbers of Chinese doctors in general practice. The University of Birmingham will help to provide high-quality training, education and academic projects. He joined academics from the Guangdong Academy of Sciences (GDAS) to launch a partnership that will see Chinese research students joining their Birmingham counterparts to explore a range of areas in metallurgy and materials, as well as mechanical engineering. The Provost also formalized a new partnership with Jinan University that will allow students to study in China and receive degrees from each university. Students will be able to take dual degrees in economics, information computer science, pure mathematics, and statistics - taught by both Jinan and Birmingham academics on site. Professor Jones said: "I am delighted to meet the delegation from Guangdong, the region in which the University of Birmingham has particularly strong links with China. "Today marks another milestone of the university's development in Guangzhou, as we are signing three major projects with our partners, which allow us to bring both our research and teaching excellence into Guangzhou. "Through these projects, we are pleased to contribute to Guangdong's regional social and economic development by nurturing talent for the big data economy, upgrading manufacturing technologies, and enhancing innovation for health. "The University of Birmingham is playing a pivotal role in helping to deliver China's 85 billion health reform investment, which is focused on developing primary care and training an extra 300,000 GPs by 2020." Under the leadership of Professor KK Cheng, Director of the Institute of Applied Health Research, the University of Birmingham has delivered training programmes, both locally and in the UK, to some 500 senior managers, over 4,000 doctors and 1,000 GP trainers. It has also jointly established six "China-UK Collaborating Centres for General Practice Training" in Guangzhou, three of which are officially listed among the "Best 100 Community Health Centres" in China. The university has been participating in joint research programmes with GDAS since 2013, especially in the fields of new materials, advanced manufacturing, and hydrogen storage. GDAS is the largest research-focused academy in Guangdong province, with six major institutes. Its main research areas include: resources and environment, materials and chemical industries, advanced manufacturing, electronics and IT, biotechnology and health, and industrial services. The launch of dual degrees with the Jinan University further expands the University of Birmingham's global teaching offer, with academic partnerships already well established with institutions in China and Singapore. Birmingham has also recently unveiled plans to develop a branch campus in Dubai. Birmingham City Council Leader, Councillor John Clancy, said: "We've forged many links between Birmingham and Guangdong province over the last decade, working together in the world of business, local government, culture and, of course, education. So I'm delighted to welcome such a high profile delegation to the city. "The three agreements with the University of Birmingham further cement those strong ties and I have no doubt that this special relationship will continue to deliver for both Birmingham and Guangdong province." Professor Jon Frampton, Director of the university's China Institute and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (China), said: "The University of Birmingham has achieved a great deal since opening our Guangzhou office in 2011. We've launched 28 joint research projects with our Guangzhou partners and established collaborations with all major education institutions in Guangdong. "We look forward to bringing our collaboration with Guangzhou to a new level in research, education and public health, as well as expanding our impact wider in the Guangdong region thanks to the continued support of the Guangzhou and Guangdong governments." Liu Xianlin, a well-known scientist on surveying and mapping, focuses on his work on a high-speed train, June 12, 2017. [Photo from the Weibo account of People's Daily] Liu Xianlin, an expert on surveying and mapping, was seen being preoccupied with his work on a high-speed train on June 12, the People's Daily posted on its account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The 78-year-old was preparing for a report to be delivered in Beijing, said the post. The photo shows Liu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, wearing a pair of old leather shoes, with one of the trouser legs rolled up and his eyes glued to a piece of paper. The academician's plain clothes and dedication to his job won applause from many internet users. "He's truly the soul of the nation, the backbone of the country," said one web user. "Hats off to the spirit of the older generation!" said another. Liu graduated from the School of Geodesy and Geomatics in Wuhan University in 1962. Since then, he has been devoted to developing and improving China's domestically built surveying and mapping instrument, and has played a key role in ending China's reliance on foreign equipment. In 2009, Liu led a program to complete the high-resolution three-dimensional map of moon, which paved the way for the country's lunar probe projects. Liu has received the National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology Award, one of China's top prizes in recognition of scientific contributions, three times. "All the people in France and even in the world had been Gaullists, are Gaullists or will become Gaullists one day." I was a bit shaken, not fully knowing what my interviewee implied. I looked up from my notebook. Jacques Godfrain grinned at me, as if sensing my curiosity. "Gaullism is like the metro, it is for everyone," he said. Godfrain is the president of the Paris-based Charles de Gaulle foundation, a nonprofit organization charged with promoting the legacy and thought of the late French president and statesman Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), both at home and abroad. Sitting at a coffee table in DPark, the first economic and cultural hub for foreign-owned small and medium enterprises, approved by the Yangpu District government, the 74-year-old ex-French Minister for Cooperation under Jacques Chirac explained why he thought Gaullism is "timeless" and "universal." The DPark, founded by French entrepreneur Antonio Duarte, 68, also houses the China liaison office of the Charles de Gaulle Foundation. According to Godfrain, it was de Gaulle who wanted to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1964, despite strong hostility in the capitalist West towards the communist country. In fact, France was the first major Western country to establish ties with China during the Cold War. The resolution, vision and ability to "see higher" best illustrates what Gaullism stands for: independent thinking and decision-making, said Godfrain. As heir to that legacy, he expressed the hope that it can transcend borders and be understood by more people abroad, especially young students. It is with this purpose that a delegation led by Godfrain recently visited a handful of Chinese academic institutions, including Shanghai-based Fudan University and Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University, where they discussed ways of cooperation with local faculty. Track two diplomacy One important aspect of collaboration, in the words of Godfrain, is "track two diplomacy," meaning the non-governmental, informal and unofficial contacts and activities between private citizens or groups. They can be scholars, retired politicians and entrepreneurs. In terms of its exercise in "track two diplomacy," the foundation plans to organize exchange programs for students from both countries, so as to enhance their knowledge of each other. These programs, mainly catered for those students of social sciences and the humanities, will likely begin in October or November. Exchange programs of this kind proliferate. In fact, there already are quite a number of foreign foundations with a long history of engagement in China. Asked if his foundation is a latecomer to China, Godfrain shook his head and replied, "is it relevant for us to be part of this dialogue that already exists? Our answer is yes." He is confident that the spirit of de Gaulle is still alive and well and many of France's current problems can be understood through the prism of Gaullism. Besides, the mission of the foundation, founded one year after de Gaulle's death, is not to "compete with other institutions, but to add to this ongoing dialogue with China." And it is the intention of de Gaulle, and the foundation, to bring together people from every background to be part of a force for greater good, Godfrain noted. To accentuate this Gaullist message about non-partisan politics, Godfrain remarked that even the last French president, Francois Hollande, who is a Socialist Party member, once paid homage to de Gaulle by invoking the line that Gaullism is universal. One ingenuous way of promoting the Gaullist legacy abroad, in China in particular, where de Gaulle is affectionately remembered for his affinity toward the country, is to encourage Chinese tourists in France to "stray off the beaten track." It is strongly advised, suggested Godfrain, to explore the life of the great French visionary by visiting his childhood residence in Lille, the foundation in Paris and the memorial in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, where the general spent his final days with his family and where his remains were interred. Work has already begun on promotion of the de Gaulle heritage tourism. "We hope Chinese tourists will not only visit Paris, the Cote d'Azur or Versaille. France is about a lot more than that. A journey to the de Gaulle memorial, for example, will help you know how France has arrived at where it stands now," said Godfrain. Convinced that all Frenchmen are deeply indebted to de Gaulle, he sang praises of de Gaulle's foresight in "putting the French economy back on the world map by signing, among others, the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community in 1957, the precursor to the European Union. On Monday, Chinese and American experts gathered for a meeting of minds at the U.S.-China Think Tank Symposium held in the World Food Prize headquarters in Des Moines, capital of the State of Iowa. This was the same venue that hosted then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in 2012. Mondays meeting was to discuss China-U.S. relations after President Donald Trump's warm meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida last April. However, it was more than just another meeting where people talk; rather, it was a small victory for China-U.S. relations. In his speech at the opening of the symposium, Zhao Qizheng, former minister of China's State Council Information Office, made an important point about China-U.S. relations that is sometimes missed by misinformed people: Both countries have benefited from the bilateral economic and trade relationship and the benefits are likely to continue. Zhao then stressed the importance of maintaining frequent communications and bolstering economic cooperation in which think tanks could provide useful reference and rational consultation. Think tanks bring together groups of experts who conduct research and produce policy-relevant knowledge. The organizations generally fill a void between the academic world and the realm of government, and their work plays an important yet somewhat under-appreciated role in the formation of policy. In the U.S., home to a large number of influential think tanks, policymakers often rely on their cutting-edge ideas when trying to understand other countries or when crafting government policies. The Chinese government also attaches great importance to the crucial role these organizations play for good governance and the intellectual resources they produce. In 2014, for example, President Xi Jinping called for the development of a new kind of think tank befitting China's unique political landscape as a way to help the country modernize its governance and to strengthen its soft power. At the same time, China is trying to make its think tanks more influential. Given the important role think tanks play in both countries, based on an official desire to increase communications and bolster economic ties and cooperation between the two sides, it makes perfect sense for the two governments to encourage communication between their leading think tanks, since their research can change the perception of policymakers and help leaders better respond to both challenges and opportunities in the bilateral relationship. Think tanks can support the development of economic and trade cooperation by establishing an unimpeded dialogue and cooperation mechanism. For example, it was reported earlier this year that cooperation between think tanks in the original five BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa plays a growing role in facilitating the bloc's efforts. The example shows how enhanced communication at the think tank level can be used to influence the development of a relationship, and as we saw at the symposium in Des Moines, Chinese think tanks are using such discussions to help China better understand America and for the latter to better understand China. Such communication at the think tank level can also help solidify a foundation for cooperation in other areas of the relationship, including the security realm. For example, the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) and the Beijing-based China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) have held nine formal meetings as well as several informal discussions on cybersecurity since 2009. This has become a way to reduce misperceptions and to increase understanding on how each country approaches cybersecurity, as well as to identify other areas of cooperation. According to the CSIS website, agreements by the two think tanks have "directly promoted" cybersecurity cooperation between the two countries. As we can see, communication at the think tank level is important for China-U.S. relations, because think tanks have a unique and an important role to play in the development of new thinking and in the formulation of policy. The unique space they occupy between the world of ideas and the world of government gives them both freedom to think and the power to influence. Enhancing communication between Chinese and American think tanks will not only help fill the gap between the world of ideas and the world of action, but narrow differences and continue to build mutual trust between the world's two largest economies, so that the benefits of the bilateral relationship can be maximized for years to come. Flash U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday that the United States is still "not winning" the longest U.S. war in Afghanistan. "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now," said Mattis here at a congressional hearing. "And we will correct this as soon as possible." According to Mattis, the Pentagon defines the winning in Afghanistan as a situation where the Afghan government, with international help, will be able to handle the violence and drive it down to a level that local security forces can handle it. "It would probably require residual force doing training and maintaining the high-end capability," said Mattis. "It's going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we're to get it to that position." Mattis was not the first senior official of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to publicly warn of a dire prospect for the security situation in Afghanistan. U.S. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats also warned last month that the security situation in Afghanistan would most likely deteriorate in the future even if the United States and its allies offer more military aid. The warnings came as Trump was reportedly considering whether or not to send additional hundreds of U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Former U.S. President Barack Obama had planned to reduce the current number of 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to some 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when his presidency came to an end. However, given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Obama administration repeatedly postponed the withdrawal. Currently, there are about 8,400 U.S. troops and another 5,000 forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the ground in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan forces against the Taliban, and conduct counter-terrorism missions. Flash The Chinese Embassy in Namibia jointly with the National Youth Council in Namibia held its first ever China-Namibia youth dialogue forum in Windhoek on Tuesday. The dialogue attended by representatives from various youth organizations in Namibia are aimed at creating an avenue for deepening understanding between the two countries' youth. According to Li Nan, Charge d' Affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Namibia, as the largest developing country, China is willing to develop friendly relations with all countries in the international community, and African countries are a priority. "Chinese and Namibian Youth face similar challenges such as youth unemployment. Facing common challenges, youths from both countries need to work together to find solutions. The aim is therefore to enhance our traditional friendship and bilateral cooperation," he said during his official address at the event. Mandela Kapere, chairperson of the National Youth Service in Namibia said that the China-Namibia youth dialogue is expected to lead to robust dialogue in possible areas of cooperation, including trade. "Through the dialogue, we wish to enlighten the youth leaders in areas of cooperation, convey emerging challenges between the two parties and further enhance understanding of FOCAC and other initiative to see how Namibian youth can benefit and participate," Kapere said. Youth coordinator Aaron Nekongo identified innovation, social entrepreneurship and manufacturing as some of the areas in which the Namibian youth can greatly learn and benefit from their Chinese counterparts. "Namibian youth are keen to innovate and have demonstrated key skills to do that and the Chinese youth are advanced at innovation and technology. As such, Namibian youth who lack capital and technical or industry support can collaborate with Chinese youth- to forge forward and break trade barriers. Assistance for Namibian youth by China is therefore a welcome in this regard," said Nekongo. "It is my sincere hope that the youths from China and Namibia work together to carry the China-Namibia friendship forward. And thus, today's dialogue is not the last. It's a start of more engagements amongst the youth of both countries," according to Li Nan. China started its economic assistance to Namibia after the country's independence. China has invested over an estimated 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in Namibia, and more than 10,000 local jobs have been created, said Li. Flash French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May attend a joint press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 13, 2017. [Photo/China Daily] Visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday said that talks to launch procedures of Britain's divorce from the European Union will start as scheduled next week. In a joint press meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, May stressed that the "timetable has not changed and negotiations will begin next week," dismissing fears of a possible delay in Brexit talks after she lost parliamentary majority in a snap general election. "We will find an agreement that is both in the interest of the United Kingdom but also of the 27 countries that will remain in the European Union," she added. For his turn, Macron wished "negotiations on the exit from the European Union and then on the future relations with the United Kingdom will start as soon as possible." "The door of course is still open as long as Brexit negotiations have not been concluded," he said. "But, let us be clear and organized and once the negotiations have started we should be well aware that it'll be more difficult to move backwards," he noted. Talks for a new relationship between London and Brussels will start on June 19. Flash The U.S. is working to stabilize its relationship with Russia, which is "at an all-time low," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday. "Our relationship is at an all-time low, and it's been deteriorating further. Our objective is to stabilize that," Tillerson told lawmakers at a Senate hearing. The top U.S. diplomat's remark came amid tensions between the U.S. and Russia as the two countries hold differences on a slew of issues, including the Syrian conflict, the Ukrainian crisis and the expansion of NATO. "We are working in a couple of areas in particular to see if we can establish that there is a basis for reestablishing some type of working relationship with the Russian government that is in our interest," Tillerson said. Tillerson noted that efforts for Washington and Moscow to cooperate are "underway" in Syria. "Those are, I would say, progressing in a positive way, but it is far too early in the process to say whether they're going to bear fruit," he said. U.S. President Donald Trump said in April that the U.S. was "not getting along with Russia at all" and the relations between the two countries "may be at an all-time low." Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Washington in mid-May, he expressed his desire to build a better relationship between the two countries. Flash Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday said Iraq rejects isolation of any state in the Gulf region, calling for cooperation to halt financing terrorism. "We have common interests with the neighboring countries and we want to put out the fire in the region," Abadi said at a press conference after his weekly cabinet meeting. "We are not part of the (Gulf) crisis, but Iraq is against any blockade on any Gulf state. It is not a political stance; it is a matter of principle," he said. Abadi said in the televised press conference that Iraq has witnessed 13 years of sanctions and "our people had suffered too much and we don't want that happen to others." "Regimes are not affected by the blockade; the blockade hurts people," Abadi said, referring to the crisis between some Arab nations and Qatar. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and some other countries announced cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the Gulf state of supporting and financing "terrorism" as well as interfering in their internal affairs. Qatar denies the accusations. Observers believe that the crisis created serious crack in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Abadi also said that he will visit Saudi Arabia soon and his visit has no relation to the recent Gulf crisis. He also said the Iraqi forces continue their victories against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, asserting that there is only 3.5 to 4 square km left in the hands of IS militants in the western side of Mosul. Abadi's comments on Mosul came as Iraqi security forces, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, were simultaneously conducting a major offensive to dislodge IS militants from their major stronghold in western Mosul in northern Iraq. Flash Macedonian government will start work on drafting a new roadmap which will define its duties as regards to the reform process that is essential for the Euro-Atlantic integration path, it said in a release Tuesday. Newly elected government gathered Tuesday to define the guidelines needed to fulfill the urgent reform priorities, said the release. Starting from Wednesday, working groups will be set up at various governmental levels to draft a set of measures for a 3-month short-term plan and medium-term plans for 6 and 9 months, to fulfill the country's key reform priorities. During the meeting, PM Zoran Zaev said the European Union had demonstrated a serious interest into the Euro integration perspectives of Macedonia. Therefore, he demanded serious commitment of all the ministers to the required reform process. Some of the key measures include the establishment of professional institutions, rule of law, conditions for unbiased functioning of the media, and anti-corruption, said the release. It was also concluded that defense reforms, laying the foundation for a modernized and professional army, are a necessity, stated the release. The meeting came a day after Zaev's visit to Brussels where he met EU and NATO's representatives, said local media. Flash U.S. President Donald Trump's job approval rate edged down to 37 percent this week, one percentage point below the previous week's rating and the lowest weekly average of his administration, according to a new poll released Tuesday. Meanwhile, the president's disapproval rating for the same week hit 58 percent, his highest to date, the Gallup poll showed. The poll finds during the week ending June 11, only eight percent of Democrats approve Trump's job, contrasted with 83 percent of Republicans. The U.S. president has averaged 40 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval across the 20 full weeks of his administration since he was sworn in on January 20. Trump's approval rating started out as the lowest for any new president in Gallup's records. His weekly approval and disapproval ratings have remained consistent, for the most part registering within three points above or below their overall averages. The Trump administration has been roiled by controversies in the past weeks. On June 1, Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate accord. The June 8 testimony of former FBI director James Comey before Congress has also placed the president under significant political scrutiny. Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted June 5-11, 2017, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 3,552 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The margin of sampling error is two percentage points. Flash Moon Jae-in of the liberal Minjoo Party waves during a celebration event in Seoul, South Korea, on May 9, 2017. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin) The White House announced on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in late this month for talks on the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue. During the June 29-30 talks, Trump and Moon will "coordinate on" the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-related (DPRK) issues, including countering the "growing" DPRK nuclear and missile threats, said a White House statement. The two leaders will also discuss ways to further strengthen the "ironclad U.S.-ROK alliance," advance cooperation on economic and global issues, the statement added. Moon, who took office about a month ago, was widely forecast to inherit a so-called "Sunshine Policy" of trying to enhance relations with the DPRK through economic cooperation and civilian exchanges. Tension has remained high on the Korean Peninsula over the past months between the United States and the DPRK over the U.S. threat to stage military attacks against Pyongyang in response to its nuclear and missile programs. The United States and South Korea also held their largest-ever joint military exercises in the past months. At the end of April, the USS Carl Vinson nuclear aircraft carrier task group arrived in the waters off the Korean Peninsula for a separate joint naval exercise with South Korea. However, a joint statement by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said in April that Trump aims to use economic sanctions and diplomatic measures to pressure the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs. The statement also said that the United States remained "open to negotiations" toward peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while staying "prepared to defend ourselves and our allies." You are here: Home Flash The plane carrying American college student Otto Warmbier who had been held in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) touched down in Cincinnati, Ohio, local media reported Tuesday night. The DPRK has released jailed U.S. university student Otto Warmbier, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on the same day. "Mr. Warmbier is en route to the United States, where he will be reunited with his family," Tillerson said earlier in a statement. The U.S. State Department continues to have discussions with the DPRK regarding three other U.S. citizens reported detained, Tillerson said. Warmbier's parents told U.S. media that he was medically evacuated from the DPRK in a coma. Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, had been charged with subversion by the DPRK and was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in 2016. You are here: Home Flash India test-fired its anti-tank guided missile namely Nag, Defense Ministry officials said on Wednesday. The missile was test-fired in desert ranges of western state of Rajasthan on Tuesday by India's Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). "The anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) Nag was successfully flight tested in the desert ranges of Rajasthan," Defense Ministry officials said. "The fire and forget 3rd generation ATGM Nag is incorporated with many advanced technologies including the imaging infrared radar (IIR) seeker with integrated avionics, a capability which is possessed by few nations in the world." According to defense officials, capabilities of the top attack ATGM Nag are unique in nature and successfully destroyed the target. "The successful flight test of 3rd generation ATGM Nag further strengthens the country's defence capabilities," G Satheesh Reddy, director general of Missiles and Strategic Systems in the DRDO said. Senior officials from the Indian military participated in the tests, officials said. Flash Governor Jerry Brown of the U.S. state of California was named Tuesday special advisor for states and regions at the forthcoming 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties, or COP23, to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A vocal opponent of U.S. President Donald Trump's environmental policies, Brown was named by Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama at a ceremony where Fiji became the latest government to join the Under2 Coalition, an international pact among cities, states and countries to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius. While Bainimarama will be incoming president of COP23, Brown has announced his decision to attend the gathering in Bonn, Germany, to represent subnational jurisdictions under the Under2 Coalition that remain committed to climate action despite the recent U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. The ceremony in Sacramento, state capital of California, was attended by Governor Kate Brown of Oregon and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state, who also announced their decisions to attend the COP23 scheduled for Nov. 6-17. "California is proud to partner with Fiji, an island nation that is experiencing firsthand the impacts of climate change and this year is the leader of the U.N. Conference of Parties," Brown said in a statement. "I look forward to taking the next step later this year with Governor Kate Brown and Governor Jay Inslee when we join Prime Minister Bainimarama in Bonn to show that states and regions will fulfill the Paris commitment." While the Paris Agreement, a treaty within the UNFCCC, calls on all nations to respond to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees. The Under2 Coalition was formed in 2015 by California and the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg to help galvanize subnational action in the same direction. On his part, Bainimarama said "Fiji looks forward to working with this group of states and regions in the global effort to advance climate action at every level of society. This is true now more than ever following the Trump Administration's announcement that the U.S. will be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement." "This decision has redoubled our commitment to forge a Grand Coalition that includes all levels of government, businesses and civil society, to take climate action forward with the urgency it deserves," he said. Brown has been vocal against U.S. President Donald Trump's environmental policies and vowed on June 1, the day the administration announced the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, that California will "resist." With the addition of Fiji, Under2 Coalition now includes 15 nations, and its total 176 members in 36 countries on six continents collectively represent more than 1.2 billion people and 28.8 trillion U.S. dollars in GDP, equivalent to over 16 percent of the global population and over 39 percent of the global economy. Flash Vladimir Putin said Moscow would react to the Washington's attempts to encircle Russia with missile defense systems, Russian News Agency Tass reported Wednesday. "The U.S. missile defense systems will be installed in Eastern Europe, Mediterranean and the northern seas. The systems have already been installed in Alaska, so practically the entire Russian territory will be surrounded by these systems," said Putin in an interview with American film director Oliver Stone. Putin indicates that this is another major strategic mistake because Russia will respond adequately to all these actions. "It will mean nothing more than another round of arms race," he declared. The Russian leader also noted that after the United States exited the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT) in 2002, Russia was forced to develop its missile strike capabilities in order to maintain the strategic balance of forces in the world. Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had requested Moscow support the United States withdrawing from the ABMT, said Putin. He stressed that "there was no reason for these," although the American side interpreted as alleged threat from Iran. The Russian president also said that Moscow was seeking to continue dialogue with Washington on issues related to maintaining nuclear balance and disarmament. Putin said that a large-scale conflict between the United States and Russia with the use of nuclear weapons would be a defeat for both sides. "I think no one would be able to survive in such a conflict. The missile shield would not have protected the U.S. territory," said Putin, noting that it is important to prohibit unilateral actions. Officials attack a Christian woman. (Photo: China Aid) China Aid Reported in Chinese by Qiao Nong. Translated by Carolyn Song. (Puyang, HenanOct. 25, 2016) Public security bureau officials in Chinas central Henan province beat a local Christian on Sept. 25. A Christian witnessing the beating used the word miserable to describe the scene. According to believers, Nanle County Public Security Bureau also detained and beat more than 20 other Christians and arrested them all because of their religious beliefs. Zhang Mingxuan, a pastor and president of the Chinese House Church Alliance, expressed his indignation at the beating by Nanle police. He said, It is against the national constitution and laws for house church believers to be beaten by Nanle County Public Security Bureau. A lot of problems have been caused because they [the public security bureau personnel] control, attack and persecute Christianity in Henan. I hope the international community will pray for them. ChinaAid Media Team Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985 Email: [email protected] For more information, click here About 20 members of Taiwan's "legislative yuan" on Monday launched a "platform" in Taipei designed to connect "pro-democracy" groups in Taiwan with their "allies" in Hong Kong in the name of promoting democracy in both places against "suppression" by Beijing. Not surprisingly five men representing the opposition camp in Hong Kong, including three "pan-democrat" members of the Legislative Council and two leaders of radical student organizations, were on hand to seal the deal, widely seen as a token of defiance to the overwhelming support for national reunification, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country. Obviously they did their best to omit any perceivable link to separatist or secessionist ideas in the paperwork for their cross-regional alliance, but people familiar with the political situations in Taiwan and Hong Kong have no problem understanding why they have publicly come together at this juncture. The Taiwan side in this marriage of convenience is led by the New Power Party, which is as "pro-independence" as they come; while the Hong Kong side is well-known for its dubious label of "localist self-determination", which of course embraces "independence". The NPP rode the Sunflower Student Movement of March 2014 to prominence while some of its Hong Kong allies are poster boys of the illegal Occupy Central movement, also known as the "umbrella revolution". But their media stardom came at the expense of their local societies' overall interests, and both camps have been experiencing waning public support lately as a result of their highly divisive and destructive political stunts. The biggest victim of their activities has been democracy itself, as evidenced by the mess that is the "legislative yuan" in Taiwan and non-stop filibustering by opposition lawmakers in Hong Kong just so they can undermine the SAR government at all costs in total disregard to people's well-being. People who believed the Sunflower Movement was all about democracy should have realized by now it was designed to put the "pro-independence" Democratic Progressive Party in power. The DPP got what it wanted, but Taiwan's economy and ultimately the local society are now suffering in its name. Hong Kong, fortunately, has avoided a political disaster like Taiwan's, thanks to the principle of "One Country, Two Systems", but there are groups funded by foreign governments and forces hostile to China trying everything they can to achieve their aim of declaring it at least an independent political entity. They are sacrificing the city's stability and prosperity and residents' well-being for their doomed and selfish cause. Workers inspect the engine of the C919 after its test taxing two days before its maiden flight at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Friday. [Photo/China Daily] The C919, China's first homegrown large passenger plane, on Tuesday netted another 30 orders from Everbright Financial Leasing Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Everbright Bank Co Ltd, lifting its total orders to 600. On Tuesday, the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd, the manufacturer of the C919, signed an agreement with Everbright Financial Leasing in Beijing. So far, the C919 has received orders from 24 Chinese and overseas clients, and China Eastern Airlines will be the first to take the delivery. Zhang Jinliang, president of China Everbright Bank Co Ltd, said the research and development of large commercial aircraft in China is a critical move to meet the surging demand for domestic and international civil aviation transportation. "Everbright Financial Leasing has been paying close attention to the research and development of the C919 aircraft. Its successful maiden flight on May 5 has been a milestone in the history of China's aviation industry," Zhang said. "We will support the development of homegrown commercial aircraft, and contribute to the growth of domestic aircraft manufacturing," he added. "In the future, we plan to launch further and deeper cooperation with COMAC." COMAC Chief Accountant Tian Min said his company had received the trust and support from Everbright Financial Leasing and others since the initial development of the C919. Founded in 2010, Everbright Financial Leasing is registered in Wuhan, Hubei province. Its parent, China Everbright Bank Co Ltd, holds 90 percent of the company's shares. Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst and columnist at Carnoc.com, one of China's largest civil aviation web portals, said the C919's entry into the world's aviation market won't take place for a while. New Zealand writers making waves at home and abroad will present their work and participate in the prestigious Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. A new partnership between the festival, WORD Christchurch and Creative New Zealand has resulted in the talented line-up of New Zealand writers, all with acclaimed books, set to make an impression at the renowned literary event. The writers are award-winning and wildly popular Wellington poet Hera Lindsay Bird, critically acclaimed Auckland poet, playwright and fiction writer Courtenay Sina Meredith, and best-selling Wellington novelist, comic artist and blogger Sarah Laing. They will be accompanied by Rachael King, author and programme director of WORD Christchurch, who has worked with the festival to select the writers and curate their events. Participation in the festival is part of the New Zealand at Edinburgh 2017 season which sees the return of a New Zealand season across the various Edinburgh festivals taking place in August. This follows an ambitious and successful presentation in 2014. With the theme of Brave New Words, this years book festival programme features more than 1000 authors from 45 countries. Hera Lindsay Bird will appear with recent Ted Hughes prize-winner Hollie McNish in Poetry Superstars , and perform in a late night spoken word showcase. Courtney Sina Meredith will join a 21st Century Women panel, curated by guest selectors Roxane Gay and Jackie Kay. Meredith will also appear alongside Scottish poet and musician MacGillivray in Reshuffling the Pack . Sarah Laing will host a reading workshop of Katherine Mansfield stories, as well as talk about her book Mansfield & Me alongside English comic creator Hannah Berry in Graphic Novels of Influential Women . Rachael King will also appear in the childrens programme. We are thrilled that the relationships developed during previous seasons have resulted in this new partnership. It will expose the Edinburgh International Book Festivals audiences to new and talented voices from Aotearoa and provide a dynamic international networking opportunity for the writers, said Creative New Zealand senior manager for international, Cath Cardiff. The festival expressed an interest in working with a local partner to bring New Zealand authors to its programme. This worked well with WORD Christchurchs aspirations to engage more with international partners and to promote New Zealand literature overseas. , said Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Nicky Barley. We are delighted to be working with WORD Christchurch this year and we are very much looking forward to welcoming some of New Zealands wonderful writers to the book festival in August said Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Nicky Barley. It has been a pleasure to work with Edinburgh International Book Festival on programming New Zealand writers into some fantastic events that will showcase their talents and ensure maximum exposure for their work, said Rachael King. The Edinburgh International Book Festival began in 1983 and is now a key event in the August festival season. It has grown rapidly in size and scope to become the largest and most dynamic festival of its kind in the world. In its first year the book festival hosted 30 events, now it programmes more than 800 events attracting around 220,000 visitors. To support the writers to attend the festival Creative New Zealand has provided $20,000 towards airfares, accommodation and administration costs. Biographies: Hera Lindsay Bird HERA LINDSAY BIRD was published in July 2016 by Victoria University Press (VUP). It has become the fastest selling, most popular book of poetry the VUP has ever published, and won Best First Book of Poetry at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. has an MA in poetry from the International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington where she won the 2011 Adam Prize for best folio. Her debut, self-titled book of poetrywas published in July 2016 by Victoria University Press (VUP). It has become the fastest selling, most popular book of poetry the VUP has ever published, and won Best First Book of Poetry at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Courtney Sina Meredith Rushing Dolls (2010) won a number of awards and was published by Playmarket in 2012. She launched her first published book of poetry, Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick (Beatnik), at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, and has since published a short story collection, Tail of the Taniwha (2016) to critical acclaim. She has been selected for a number of international writers' residencies. Meredith describes her writing as an ongoing discussion of contemporary urban life with an underlying Pacific politique. She is of Samoan, Mangaian and Irish descent. is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and musician. Her play(2010) won a number of awards and was published by Playmarket in 2012. She launched her first published book of poetry,(Beatnik), at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, and has since published a short story collection,(2016) to critical acclaim. She has been selected for a number of international writers' residencies. Meredith describes her writing as an ongoing discussion of contemporary urban life with an underlying Pacific politique. She is of Samoan, Mangaian and Irish descent. Sarah Laing is the author of two novels, Dead Peoples Music and Fall of Light, and a short story collection, Coming Up Roses. With a background in illustration and design, she runs the popular comic blog Let Me Be Frank Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Womens Comics. Her latest book, Mansfield & Me, is a graphic biography and memoir, which compares the life of New Zealands most famous writer Katherine Mansfield, to Sarahs own life of creativity, insecurity and celebrity obsession. , which she started when she held the Frank Sargeson Fellowship in 2008. She has contributed comics to magazines, illustrated childrens books, and co-edited. Her latest book,, is a graphic biography and memoir, which compares the life of New Zealands most famous writer Katherine Mansfield, to Sarahs own life of creativity, insecurity and celebrity obsession. Zhejiang Meili High Technology Co Ltd plans to increase its research and development budget as it bids to become a global power. The spring manufacturer will invest 47 million yuan ($6.9 million) into expanding its technology center in Zhejiang province. "It's important to be involved in research and development when it comes to cutting-edge technologies," said Zhang Bihong, chairman of the company. "That will help us participate on the global stage." Founded in 2002, the company employs more than 600 workers, according to its website, and is "the backbone of China's spring industry". With a range of products, Meili supplies parts to the automotive and motorcycle sectors as well, industries such as engineering machinery, petroleum transport, precision instruments and sport equipment. The A-share listed company owns 20 patents and developed a new material called ML1900, which can reduce the weight of spring products. "We are already considering setting up new plants in Chengdu and Chongqing to meet the requirements of our clients such as automotive part suppliers," said Zhang. Meili's products are sold in 30 countries and regions across the world, the company's website revealed, while the manufacturer's clients include global automotive part suppliers Mando Corp, Faurecia, Delphi Automotive Plc and Leggett & Platt. Other customers are direct suppliers to car companies such as Volkswagen AG, Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co Ltd, Geely and Changan. Zhang stressed that the company will continue to expand its sales distribution network and develop cooperation with more clients at home and abroad. "Our development program is looking good as the market is very large and we have technological advantages," said the 46-year-old chairman. Last year, the production and sale of automobiles in China increased rapidly, hitting 28.1 million and 28 million units respectively, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Meili's revenue in 2016 was 359.2 million yuan, a rise of 20.7 percent compared to the previous year. Profit came in at 55.4 million yuan, an increase of 15.6 percent year-on-year, the company's financial report highlighted. Yu Te, an analyst at Founder Securities in Beijing, described Meili as a "high-end automotive spring manufacturer" and felt the company was capable of competing with major world players. "Meili has core technologies in producing high value-added power system springs, which make it possible to achieve the goal of import substitution in the long term," said Yu. Established global giants such as Mubea Group and Scherdel cashed in on the booming automotive industry in Europe, the United States and Japan at the end of the 20th century. But now a batch of Chinese spring manufacturers, such as Meili, China Spring Corp Ltd and Guangzhou Huade Automotive Spring Co Ltd, are challenging their supremacy. Hangzhou Administrative Service Center in Zhejiang province is one of the first in the country operating under the newly-instated "At Most One Visit" reforms. [Photo provided to China Daily] 'At Most One Visit' has seen several key government departments and offices integrated Being bogged down in government red tape is something business people have come to expect as part of their daily lives if they are in big cities. The public sector is too often the slowest to adapt to the latest in technology and innovation. This usually leaves businesses to suffer through long queues and inefficiency just to get that tax credit or renew a business license. But that seems set to change in East China's Zhejiang province. Earlier this year it began piloting a system aimed at streamlining and bringing such services online, as well as making sure that if you have to visit a government department, you only do it once. The scheme, loosely dubbed "At Most One Visit", has seen the integration of several government departments and placed them all under one roof at new administrative service centers throughout the province. Wang Haiming, chief executive officer of Beyond Electronic Technology, a manufacturer of massage chairs based in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, has experienced the new system at Fenghua district's administration service center. "It took less than one month to get all of our documents processed on our latest project," said Wang. "Previously we would be waiting three to four months." He claimed that the streamlined processing has allowed his business to save time and money in the building ofa new 72,000-square-meter manufacturing base. Zhejiang has been making efforts to improve its investment environment, with the newly-launched "At Most One Visit" at the fore, according to Zhuo Yongliang, chief researcher of the Research Center of Information Technology & Economic and Social Development, an independent academic institute. The Zhejiang Statistics Bureau reported GDP for the East China province of 1.06 trillion yuan ($155 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 8 percent on the same period in 2016. It was also higher than the national average of 6.9 percent. From January to April, gross profit of industrial enterprises in Zhejiang with annual revenue above 20 million yuan each reached 133.3 billion yuan, an increase of 18 percent compared with the first four months of 2016. High-end manufacturing and information technology businesses were key to driving the economic engine. Zhuo attributed the fast growth in Zhejiang, amid a general global slowdown, to the provincial government's efforts in upgrading its administrative services. Companies are also supporting the scheme. The "At Most One Visit" reform is taking advantage of Alipay, an online mobile payment system owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, established in Hangzhou, the provincial capital, in 1999. According to Alipay in February, the app has 400 million registered usersmore than the entire population of Europe. From the city of Hangzhou to Nanhu district in Jiaxing, services such as social security payments, travel permits to Hong Kong and Macao, company registrations and births, deaths, and marriage certificates can now all be processed in one place. It is all part of the central government's concept of putting people first, announced by President Xi Jinping at the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, in October 2015. "With the integration of online elements and payment facilities, people can get administrative processes completed much faster," said Dong Jihong, head of the administrative reform department of Zhejiang. Information technology, online service platforms, and mobile apps are a key element of streamlining government and business administrative affairs. This creates a more flexible and efficient service as well as reducing costs. China, in particular, is well placed to take advantage of such technological reforms in the public sector, adapting well to and embracing the latest trends in innovation. "Since Zhejiang introduced a mobile app and website for tax declaration on March 1, over 90 percent of people deal with their tax affairs onlinea staggeringly quick takeup of people," Dong said. "The service allows Zhejiang residents to check their social security fees and taxes, declare their income if they earn above 120,000 yuan annually, and make any payment needed using Alipay," Dong added. So far, thousands of government services can be carried out completely electronically. Up to 80 percent of all services will move online by the end of the year, according to Zhejiang officials. One of the most time-consuming and complicated procedures endured by any homeowner is that of exchanging contracts when buying a house. In the county of Changxing, the process which previously took a matter of weeks and included visits to the Department of Land and Resources, the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Provincial Tax Bureau, can now all be done at the county's newly-built Administrative Service Center. Jiang Weihong, an official from Changxing, stressed that the entire process can be carried out in less than an hour if all of the correct documents are supplied. The latest figures from the Zhejiang government official website show that 370,000 land registration applications have been lodged using the "At Most One Visit" system in Zhejiang since the beginning of the year, of which 338,000 have been closed. As the pilot province for the rest of China, it has not been entirely plain sailing for Zhejiang in the first few months. Reports showed that some "At Most One Visit" procedures required more than one visit. In some centers, reports have highlighted that more guidance needs to be given to people on how to make the most of the system, as well as greater cooperation in sharing data. With government services moving into the online economy of the future, officials from Zhejiang assure that those with less access or ability with technology will not be left behind. "Even though we want people to access their services online, there will always be a place to go to ask a staff member for help if it's needed," Dong said. Zhang Xiang contributed to this story Facts and figures behind the policy Zhejiang initiated "At Most One Visit" service reform in Febuary 2017. It is aimed to streamline administrative procedures for people and business. As of March, 59 provincial departments have simplified 958 services. So far, each city and county-level department has streamlined 1,002 and 862 services, respectively on average. More than 80 percent of Zhejiang's civic services will be simplified by the end of 2017. Administrative processes can now be accessed via digital channels such as websites and mobile apps. More than 50 percent of services can be accessed online. The app can provide more than 100 services, benefiting more than 10 million people. About 649,000 enquiries each month are processed via the service hotline 12345. BEIJING - China announced Tuesday it will continue tax breaks for financial institutions lending to rural households to support the development of financial services in the countryside. Financial institutions will be exempt from value-added taxes for interest income from small loans to rural households from Jan 1, 2017 to Dec 31, 2019, according to a notice from the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation. In addition, only 90 percent of such income will be subject to income taxes, according to the notice. Similarly, only 90 percent of insurance firms' premium income from policies sold to rural agricultural businesses will be taxable. Under the preferential tax policy, small loans refer to loans of no more than 100,000 yuan ($14,713) borrowed by a rural household at one time. Total outstanding loans for the household should also not exceed 100,000 yuan. Outstanding loans to China's rural sector stood at 29.23 trillion yuan as of the end of the first quarter this year, up 8.9 percent year on year, according to the central bank. BEIJING - China's top economic planner Tuesday issued a risk warning as some Chinese companies have issued offshore corporate debt without filing registrations to the government. The companies on the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) warning list included China Water Affairs Group and Mengniu Dairy, one of the country's dairy giants. The NDRC said companies who seek to issue offshore corporate bonds should strictly follow government rules and complete registration before the issuance or file reports afterwards. The NDRC urged companies to complete the registration process as soon as possible. Chinese authorities have tightened financial regulations nationwide in recent months to ward off systemic risks in the sector and guarantee long-term growth. China's Global Newspaper Sorry, the page you requested was not found. Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Chinadaily.com.cn, try visiting the Chinadaily home page A worker repairs the shipping containers at Port of Dalian on Sept 10, 2013 in Dalian of Liaoning province.[Photo/VCG] A unified port operating platform will be established in Northeast China's Liaoning province, unveiling a new round of port resource integration, Shanghai Securities News reports. Trading in shares of Dalian Port, Yingkou Port and Jinzhou Port was suspended on Monday morning. Later, the three companies all issued similar statements, saying Liaoning provincial government and China Merchants Group have signed port cooperation framework agreement. According to the agreement signed on Saturday, Liaoning provincial government and China Merchants Group will join hands to build a unified port operating platform. Based on Dalian Port Co Ltd and Yingkou Port Group Corp, a new Liaoning Port Group will be set up to realize integrated operation of coastal ports in Northeast China's Liaoning province. The two sides plan to complete the establishment of Liaoning Port Group and mixed ownership reform by the end of this year, as well as integration of other ports' business entity by the end of 2018. Media earlier reported that Liaoning province has put effort to build a port cluster which put Dalian port in the center, Yingkou, Dandong, Jinzhou and Huludao ports on the wings to realize cooperation meanwhile complement each other with advantages. Zheshang Securities analyst Han Jun told the newspaper that port resource integration will be a big event this year. The Ministry of Transport Spokesman Wu Chungeng said at a press conference in March that the ministry plans to boost port supply-side reform by optimizing port layout and promoting resource integration. Dalian port, a major container port in Northeast China, owns more than 100 container trade lines in the country and overseas. Last year, cargo throughput of Dalian Port reached 355 million tons, up 5.5 percent from a year ago. Visitors examine an autonomous driving car at an auto show in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily] China is planning to draw up standards on smart, internet-connected vehicles as well as autonomous driving, one of the nation's latest efforts to take the lead in the fast-evolving sector. By 2020, the country is expected to formulate at least 30 sets of standards which will basically be capable of supporting driving assistance and low-level autonomous driving, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in a document released on Tuesday. The standards will cover aspects including function safety, information safety, human to machine interfaces, information recognition and interaction, and auxiliary controls. More than 100 sets of standards will be formulated by 2025 so that they can support high-level autonomous driving. China is working to build a globally competitive automotive industry, with smart cars as one of its priorities, according to an industry guideline released earlier this year. Among other targets, 80 percent of new cars in China will feature some driving assistance and low-level autonomous driving functions by 2025. Li Jun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said: "Countries worldwide are exploring smart, internet-connected cars' technical standards and business models, so if China makes them part of its national strategy in a timely way, its car industry will see unprecedented opportunities." Li, also a deputy chief engineer of FAW Group, made the remarks on Monday when the China Industry Innovation Alliance for the Intelligent and Connected Vehicles was established in Beijing. The alliance, composed of both the country's major automakers and technology giants, will serve as a think tank for the sector's development, and facilitate the application of technologies to production. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a member of the alliance, said it will focus on information communication technology and advocate intensive cooperation with automotive manufacturers. Zhang Jian, CEO of BoChen Technology, speaks at a blockchain forum in Guiyang, Guizhou province, May 27, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] Blockchain-based application scenarios will become prosperous in the next five to 10 years as the technology continues to improve, Zhang Jian, CEO of BoChen Technology, said. BoChen Technology focuses on the infrastructure creation of the blockchain industry, and will announce its own underlying architecture of blockchain on Saturday. Blockchain is a computer technology that composites distributed data storage, point-to-point transmissions, a consensus mechanism and encryption algorithm. As one blockchain "ramification", digital currencies like bitcoin and ETH are remarkable due to their constantly climbing prices. According to Coinmarketcap, a website that provides information on digital currencies, the price of ETH surged to a record high of $407.1 on Monday, which was an increase of 5,001 percent from $7.98 on Jan 1 this year. On the same day, bitcoin also briefly hit $3,000, up 200 percent from the beginning of this year. For some people, the digital currency has become a financial tool to maintain their asset value. Blockchain can improve efficiency and security in financial areas. The technology can eliminate fake financial notes from circulating, Zhang said. Currently, some financial institutions like Barclays, Citi, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank are testing a blockchain technology that will be used in their financial services. Based on BoChen's technology, the central bank of China's Nanjing branch also tested out the use of blockchain in its financial activities. In February, China Merchants Bank announced that it had successfully incorporated the blockchain technology into its business regarding global cash management, cross-border direct settlement and unified account management. The move shortens information transmission time between the head office and overseas branches while avoiding falsified information. However, the current blockchain is not a completely mature technology. It still faces problems that need to be solved, Zhang added. "The technology's massive uses involve three key nodes,which are breaking out the technical bottleneck, popularizing digital currency and building supervision system." A C919 aircraft undergoes checks in Shanghai after a test flight. [Photo/China Daily] Editor's note: In the run-up to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Daily will cover a series of key projects and advanced equipment of national importance, showcasing the country's huge improvements and relentless efforts in manufacturing upgrading and innovation. The C919 aircraft, China's first homegrown large passenger jet, boasts a global sourcing model that is similar to that of Boeing Co and Airbus Group SE. The model is believed to increase production efficiency and save costs, but aircraft manufacturers retain control of key technologies. The C919 plane also has several significant technical breakthroughs. Intense research and development was conducted before production, and it uses a large amount of composite materials. For instance, 85 percent of its tail section is made from composite materials, according to Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd, manufacturer of the C919. In China, the technology to apply composite materials is still in its infancy, and the application requires mould manufacturing, temperature control and other techniques. Harbin Hafei Industry Co Ltd, an aviation manufacturer in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, is mainly responsible for the manufacturing of some parts that mainly use composite materials, including the hatch door for the front landing gear and the main landing gear, as well as the vertical tail of the C919. Li Wei, deputy chief engineer of the C919 project at Hafei, said: "We cooperated with Boeing, Airbus and Embraer before. The design capabilities, quality system, and the supplier management capability of COMAC are in line with international standards, when compared with established aircraft manufacturers." With more than 100,000 components required for the plane, more than 240 local Chinese companies have served as suppliers and manufacturers for the C919. More than 460,000 people have been involved in its research and development, and 37 higher education institutions joined the C919 project, COMAC said. Once the C919 plane starts mass production and delivery, it is expected to drive the rapid growth of the upstream and downstream industry chains and other high-end manufacturing sectors, such as metal materials, mechanical manufacturing, electronic information and chemistry. Wu Xingshi, a member of the State Council's large passenger aircraft program's expert advisory committee, said the C919 model has applied for airworthiness certificates with the industry's regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, as well as the Europe Aviation Safety Agency, and China aims to accelerate the approval process for the C919. "For the ARJ21, the nation's first domestic commercial regional aircraft, it took about six to seven years of test flights before it received the airworthiness certificate, which was the longest period for commercial aircraft in history," he said. "The ARJ21 serves as a pioneer in China, and the test flight process of the C919 should be faster and more smoothly, until it proves that it can meet the operational requirements for commercial use." Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst and columnist at Carnoc.com, one of China's largest civil aviation web portals, said China serves as the initiator and host of the C919 project. He said China is responsible for the original design, assembly and supplier management, and those responsibilities are seen as the key parts of large commercial aircraft manufacturing. "The capability of producing large commercial aircraft is a critical index to assess the industrial manufacturing and technological strengths of a country," Lin said. "We don't need to label the C919 as 100 percent made-in-China. Our aim is to integrate the most advantageous resources and latest technologies, and produce aircraft that will be competitive in the global market." Despite the promising prospects, Lin said the C919's entry to the market won't occur very soon. It is expected to go into operation between 2020 and 2022, and it ultimately aims to break the global market duopoly of Boeing and Airbus. Boeing Co earlier lifted its forecast for China. It said in the next two decades, the nation is likely to become the first country with an aviation market exceeding $1 trillion. During that period, Chinese airlines are estimated to purchase 6,810 airplanes valued at $1.025 trillion. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge under construction in April.LI JIANSHU/CHINA DAILY Editor's note: In the run-up to the 19th Communist Party of China National Congress, China Daily will cover a series of key projects and advanced equipment of national importance, showcasing the country's huge improvement and relentless efforts at innovation. Builders of the massive Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridgewhich, when completed, will be the world's longest bridge over waterovercame one of the most complex challenges ever to confront engineers. The Y-shaped span, which will link the three cities, incorporates the latest engineering technology and design, enabling the structures to withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake, a super typhoon or a strike by a cargo vessel weighing 300,000 metric tons. Engineers were confronted with complex geological and topographical conditions, taking into account prevailing winds and tidal forces. From an artificial island near Hong Kong International Airport, the structure runs west to another artificial island off the eastern shore of Macao, a distance of 55 kilometers, 20 times the length of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The new bridge will also connect to a town being built on a reclaimed land in Macao. A journey by land, which can take up to four hours, will be shortened to as little as 30 minutes once the bridge is completed, according to official projections. The bridge, which is expected to be put to use by the end of this year, is actually a series of bridges and tunnels crossing the Pearl River estuary30 km above water, 7 km of underwater tunnels and a number of artificial islands. The major section will provide a dual three-lane expressway to handle traffic up to speeds of 100 km/h. The total bridge width is 33.1 meters, with two 14.25-meter tunnels and a vertical clearance of 5.1 meters. As many as 4,000 ships a day are expected to navigate waters above the tunnel, serving ports around the estuary. The artificial islands constructed at the ends of the sea tunnel are reinforced by 120 giant steel cylinders, each 22.5 meters in diameter and 55 meters high, equivalent to the height of an 18-story building. Each cylinder weighs 550 tons, about the same as an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet. A total of 400,000 tons of steel were used in the massive project, equivalent to 60 times the steel used to build the Eiffel Tower. The bridge is designed for a 120-year life span. Most big, cross-sea bridges were designed to last 100 years, according to historical data. The new bridge also required close attention to environmental issues in the Pearl River Delta, including corridors that sustain marine life. That meant the bridge design had to take into account river channels, fundamental hydrology and navigation routes to ensure the natural ecosystem was not disrupted and channels blocked. Su Quanke, chief engineer at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, said in a briefing that his team had overcome more than 80 technical obstacles to lay a solid foundation for the bridge. "All its major units are standardized. The manufacturing is industrialized. The installation can be implemented on a large scale with refinement of detail," he said. Moreover, it uses a digital control system and its maintenance can be easy and efficient, he added. "These practices have received recognition from the bridge design and construction industry around the world," he said. Meng Fanchao, chief designer of the bridge, said the design team solicited advice of experts in various fields, including environmental protection, navigation, hydrology, aviation, social economy, bridge engineering, engineering technology and weather. Finally, the team selected the route from among a dozen final proposals after scientific appraisals, Meng said. A blueprint for the massive infrastructure project was introduced in 1983 almost as a fantasy of Hong Kong tycoon Gordon Wu Ying-sheung. His vision was to accelerate integration of the two sides of the Pearl River. Originally, the project was not supposed to include tunnelsonly bridgesbetween Hong Kong's Tuen Mun and Zhuhai, Guangdong province. Zhuhai was in its early stages of development at the time. As one of the first special economic zones set up by the central government in the 1980s to attract foreign investors, the city needed more convenient transportation to Hong Kong, Wu said in his proposal. After 1997, the authorities saw potential in the plan. The original design was dropped, and planning started on a link from Zhuhai and Macao, linking to Hong Kong's new international airport. After rounds of negotiations between the three cities' authorities, in 2009, the State Council nailed down the final plan and kicked off construction the same year. The cost of the bridge was estimated to exceed 115.9 billion yuan ($17 billion), according to the bridge authority. Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 An environmental inspector tests the exhaust emissions of a truck at a logistics park in Beijing's Tongzhou district in November.Guo Qian / For China Daily Only trains will be allowed as part of effort to reduce air pollution Authorities have put the brakes on diesel trucks transporting coal to and from seaports in northern China. It's one of a series of new measures to cut vehicle exhaust emissions, a senior environmental official said on Tuesday. Since April, only trains are allowed to carry coal to Tianjin Port. Other ports, including Cangzhou and Tangshan ports in Hebei province, will follow suit in September, under an air pollution action plan for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Before the ban, diesel trucks were making 6,000 to 7,000 journeys a day to Tianjin Port, Liu Bingjiang, head of air pollution control at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on Tuesday at the Environmental Protection Industry Innovation and Development Conference. Emissions from a heavy diesel truck are equal to those of 200 gasoline-powered cars, he said, adding that the move will significantly lower the concentration of PM2.5, fine particulate matter in the air that can harm health. Diesel trucks make about 2 million trips to deliver around 60 million metric tons of coal a year to Tianjin Port, according to the ministry. The coal usually comes from Shanxi and Hebei provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, via Beijing, making the trucks significant polluters of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions. "It wasn't an easy decision, but we have to push forward despite the huge economic loss if we want to combat air pollution," Yuan Yi, manager of the port's logistics company, was quoted as saying by Tianjin Daily. In April, 16 shipments came to the port by train, up from 10 shipments in March. In addition to the truck ban, the ministry "will take tougher measures to control vehicle exhaust emissions, which have contributed more pollutants in recent years," Yuan said. Last year, China had 295 million registered vehicles; and in 15 major cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, exhaust emissions contributed between 13.5 percent and 41 percent of all airborne pollutants, according to ministry figures. About 33 percent of all registered vehicles in China, including trucks and cars, are in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The ministry plans to halt all truck transportation for companies whenever the region issues an emergency warning for air pollution next winter. It also issued the National VI standard for exhaust emissions - the strictest in the world - which could cut emissions by 90 percent from the National I standard, Liu said. In addition, along major expressways in the region, new stationary remote-sensing equipment will test moving cars' emission levels by the end of this year, he said. China has seen a significant rise in the number of residents filing - and winning - lawsuits against government departments after a shake-up in the law, the top court said on Tuesday. Last year, courts nationwide resolved 225,020 such lawsuits, known as administrative cases, an annual increase of 13.2 percent, according to the Supreme People's Court. More than half were related to the plaintiff's livelihood, such as disputes over demolitions. "In the past, it used to be difficult just to file an administrative case with a civil court, let alone win," said Wang Zhenyu, deputy chief judge of the top court's Administrative Tribunal. But things have changed since the Administrative Procedure Law was revised in 2015, he said. Governmental departments lost 32,895 administrative cases in 2016, a loss rate of 14.62 percent, up by 0.84 percentage points on the previous year, according to the Supreme People's Court. "The loss rate was about 7 percent before the law was revised," Wang said. "Some government offices were sued because they abused their powers or disobeyed procedures while handling administrative affairs, while others were accused of inaction." Zhang Yan, a judge who handles administrative case hearings at Beijing No 4 Intermediate People's Court, said she noticed the change. She said the rapid increase in cases is the result of the revised law requiring courts to accept all cases immediately, while before, cases were first subject to a review. That gave government officials an opportunity to interfere, she said. "In the past, my record for handling cases was 150 a year, but since 2015 the number has been over 200 a year," Zhang said. She said she does not think losing a lawsuit is a "bad thing" for governmental departments. It is good for them to understand how to tackle administrative affairs by rule of law, she added. For example, a traffic police team in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, lost a lawsuit after impounding a resident's car without any written explanation for a long time, according to a case cited in materials released by Supreme People's Court on Tuesday. "The resident submitted materials several times to say why his car had no visible certificate to show it had gone through a yearly service when it was impounded, but the police still held onto it," Wang said, adding that this was an abuse of power. "It was OK to check the resident's car to keep roads safe, but the more important thing is to clarify the line between law enforcement and abuse of power," he added. Liang Fengyun, a judge of the top court, agreed. But he also said residents who abuse appeals of their rights or try to make money through fake lawsuits will be punished. The top court will issue a guideline to avoid improper lawsuits this year, he added. Liu Xianlin, a well-known scientist on surveying and mapping, focuses on his work on a high-speed train, June 12, 2017. [Photo from the Weibo account of People's Daily] A geomatics scientist's dedication to work has moved a lot of people Liu Xianlin, an expert on surveying and mapping, was seen being preoccupied with his work on a high-speed train on June 12, the People's Daily posted on its account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The 78-year-old was preparing for a report to be delivered in Beijing, said the post. The photo shows Liu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, wearing a pair of old leather shoes, with one of the trouser legs rolled up and his eyes glued to a piece of paper. The academician's plain clothes and dedication to his job won applause from many internet users. "He's truly the soul of the nation, the backbone of the country," said one web user. "Hats off to the spirit of the older generation!" said another. Liu graduated from the School of Geodesy and Geomatics in Wuhan University in 1962. Since then, he has been devoted to developing and improving China's domestically built surveying and mapping instrument, and has played a key role in ending China's reliance on foreign equipment. In 2009, Liu led a program to complete the high-resolution three-dimensional map of moon, which paved the way for the country's lunar probe projects. Liu has received the National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology Award, one of China's top prizes in recognition of scientific contributions, three times. Video: Uygur Maxirap performance in Kashgar Although Maxirap is a form of traditional Uygur dance, people from all ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region enjoy it. Every evening, a large number of people gather at the people's park in southern Xinjiang's Kashgar city for a Maxirap party. Wu Yuxiang, 97, has been learning the dance for a year. He said Maxirap has helped him lose 12 kilograms. "Maxirap beats any other weight-loss program that I've tried. Most importantly, the atmosphere here just makes me happy," he said. Taiwan's current administration increasingly disturbs cross-Straits exchange: spokesman Xinhua | Updated: 2017-06-14 16:08 BEIJING - Taiwan's current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has increasingly stymied cross-Straits communication and cooperation, a spokesman from the Chinese mainland said at a news briefing Wednesday. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to concerns that the trips of some mainland personnel in Taiwan were being strictly controlled by the DPP administration. The spokesman said that the mainland encouraged and supported cross-Straits people-to-people exchange and cooperation in various fields. "Since May 20 last year, the DPP administration has undermined the political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and impeded exchange and cooperation between cross-Straits compatriots," Ma said. A screen capture shows Chen Keyu, a primary student, trying to catch a boy falling from a residential building. A video that shows a primary student attempting to catch a 2-year-old boy falling from a residential building circulated online and moved many netizens, who praised the girl as a Samaritan. During morning rush hour on May 9, a 2-year-old boy was crying next to the window on the third floor of a residential building, about 10 meters above the ground, in Xingyang, central China's Henan province, reported Dahe Daily, a Zhengzhou-based newspaper. He attracted the attention of passing pedestrians. Among them was 12-year-old Chen Keyu, who was on her way to school. She stopped to watch the toddler. Without a cover on the window, the boy fell and Chen stretched out her arms and rushed toward him. "I attempted to catch him without a second thought, but failed to do so," said Chen. Fortunately, the boy fell on a food delivery box on a motorcycle next to the building and his fall was cushioned before he landed on the ground. Chen immediately picked the boy up from the ground. The boy was then sent to the hospital and was found to have only minor injuries. The scene was captured by a surveillance camera in a nearby shop and the video was published online by the shop owner. "I'm teary-eyed after watching the video. It's so heartwarming to see a 12-year-old girl [try to] catch a falling toddler with her bare hands," said a netizen. The girl deserves praise for her bravery, but it is very dangerous to catch falling things with your bare hands, said Zhu Mingyang, a police officer. He said that one should rescue others while protecting himself or herself. Chen holds the injured boy in her arms. Mainland mulls preferential policies for Taiwan residents Xinhua | Updated: 2017-06-14 16:10 BEIJING - The Chinese mainland is considering a series of new preferential policies for Taiwanese residents, ranging from access to public provident funds to better tourism services, a mainland spokesman said Wednesday. The move is the latest in a string of goodwill efforts by the mainland to boost the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations. Taiwanese residents working on the mainland will be granted equal rights to housing provident funds to help them purchase homes and settle on the mainland, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference. Under current regulations, urban residents on the mainland, together with their employers, pay a portion of their incomes into the housing provident fund to be eligible for low-interest housing loans. The fund can also be used for rent, renovations and major illnesses. The spokesman said human resources authorities on the mainland are deliberating policies to give Taiwanese people who live, work or study on the mainland access to social security. Meanwhile, finance and education authorities are expected to provide Taiwanese students on the mainland with more scholarships and better employment services, he said. The National Tourism Administration asked tour companies to make travel more convenient for Taiwanese tourists and not to set any unusual restrictions for them, Ma said. Banks on the mainland have revised or will adjust their policies to facilitate credit card applications for Taiwanese compatriots, he said. Prior to these policies, the Chinese mainland published preferential policies for Taiwan residents in May, including easier access to transportation, employment, education and legal services. Smuggled wine bottles which have been seized by Huangpu Customs in Guangdong province are seen in this picture taken on June 12, 2017.[Photo by Xie Zheng/chinadaily.com.cn] Huangpu Customs said it has busted several gangs accused of smuggling wine worth 230 million yuan ($34.4 million) into China. Big data analysis in March led authorities to four companies, including a wine trader in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong province, suspected of deflating import prices for wine by using fake documents or obtaining goods from parallel traders. Huangpu Customs launched a crackdown on smuggling on June 12 in Zhuhai, Dongguan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, detaining 29 suspects and seizing 490 metric tons of wine, including well-known brands such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Chateau Mouton Rothschild. An initial investigation found one gang had smuggled 210,000 bottles through parallel trading since 2011, while four gangs had smuggled more than 1,800 tons combined by deflating import prices. liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn BEIJING - The Chinese mainland hopes Taiwan's current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration will make wise decisions on issues related to the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, a mainland spokesman said Wednesday. "There is only one China in the world. It has been the universal consensus of international society to adhere to the one-China principle," Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a news briefing. Ma's remarks came after China and Panama signed a joint communique Tuesday to establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. Ma stressed that the move accords with the will of the people and that there is no so-called "exchange of commercial interests." The spokesman called on the DPP administration to clearly understand the situation and make the right choice to lay a solid foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. From 2008 to May 20, 2016, both sides across the Taiwan Strait, acting on the common political foundation of adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence," embarked on the path of peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, the spokesman said. However, the political foundation for peaceful development of cross-Strait relations has been damaged since the DPP administration took office in May last year as the DPP refused to adhere to the 1992 Consensus and angered people on both sides of the Strait. "It is clear who is changing the status quo of cross-strait relations and who lacks sincerity to pursue the path of peaceful development," Ma said. Stakeholders in Montanas largest coal-fired power plant expect to operate Colstrips two least-dated units into the 2030s, even as consumers demand cleaner energy and the federal government softens the regulation of greenhouse gasses. Three of Colstrip Power Plants six owners are being edged by climate change policy in Washington and Oregon, which is where most of the consumers live who are reliant on Colstrip power. The exodus is expected to begin in the early 2030s, with two utilities servicing Oregon Portland General Electric and Pacificorp under agreement to stop selling coal power to customers there. Washington utilities Puget Sound Energy and Avista Corp. face consumer pressure to get out of Colstrip, but not a state mandate. Nonetheless, the plan for Puget Sound Energy is to get out of Colstrip in the 2030s as well. Our view of our future is that Puget Sound Energy involvement will be finished in the 2030s based on what we know now, said Grant Ringel, a PSE spokesman. PSE, based in Bellevue, Washington, has the largest Colstrip stake of the power plants six owners. The company owns half of the four-unit power plants two original generators, Units 1 and 2. It also owns a 25 percent share in Units 3 and 4, the least dated generators, which are equipped with better pollution controls. Units 1 and 2 are scheduled to be shuttered no later than 2022, perhaps sooner as Colstrip stakeholder Talen Energy considers an earlier exit. Talen has said it is losing millions of dollars on the older units, of which the Pennsylvania utility, now owned by a holding company, has 50 percent ownership. Among Colstrips supporters, who worry about the loss of more than 300 power plant jobs, and the future of the surrounding community that bears the power plants name, theres always concern the power plant will close earlier than expected. Those concerns were stirred Tuesday by a Seattle Times story about the power plants owner re-mediating a contract with the mine that supplies coal to Colstrip. The current contract with Westmoreland Coal Co. for coal from Rosebud Mine expires in 2019. The next contract, now being negotiated, would end in 2029. The power plants owners are asking that they be allowed to walk away from the deal before 2029 should demand change. The power plants demand for coal will change as Units 1 and 2 shut down and demands for Colstrip power change, Ringel said, though Units 3 and 4 arent eyed for closure in the 2020s. The 2030s will bring big changes, mostly likely beginning with the utilities selling power in Oregon. PacificCorp, based in Salt Lake City, owns 10 percent of Colstrip Units 3 and 4. At 148 megawatts, PacifiCorps electricity from Colstrip is enough to power more than 100,000 homes. PacifiCorp is the smallest shareholder at the power plant. In Oregon, PacifiCorp must stop selling coal power by 2030 because of the Oregon Clean Electricity and Coal Transition plan. However, PacifiCorp sells power in several Western states with no coal power restrictions. PacifiCorp has indicated to Washington state regulators that it could be getting out of Colstrip as early as 2032 because of regulatory challenges. Portland General Electric, Based in Portland, Oregon, owns 20 percent of Colstrip Units 3 and 4. At 296 net megawatt capacity, its power can light nearly 300,000 homes. PGE is getting out of Colstrip by 2035. Thats the date set by an Oregon Clean Electricity and Coal Transition plan signed into law in March 2016. Its a law PGE supported as an alternative to a citizen petition forcing Oregon utilities to cut coal power from their portfolios much sooner. It will begin tapering off coal power by 2025 and be almost off by 2030. Renewable energy must also be half of PGEs portfolio by 2040. In Washington, Puget Sound Energy faces consumer demand for power generated without producing greenhouse gasses. It has also agreed, in partnership with Talen Energy, to shutter Colstrip Units 1 and 2 in order to settle a pollution lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club and Montana Environmental Information Center. Consider this: Coal burning releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which then traps the sun's heat causing the earth to warm and climate conditions to change. Colstrip emits roughly 13.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases annually, according to EPA. PSEs 667-megawatt share of Colstrip capacity is enough to power more than 600,000 homes. Washington has created a law allowing PSE to nest egg money for the closure and clean up of Units 1 and 2. It has already estimated the cost of closing Units 1 and 2 at between $130 and $200 million, including environmental cleanup. The cost to customers of keeping Colstrip online is a big issue. Avista Corp., based in Spokane, Washington, owns 15 percent of Colstrip Units 3 and 4. Unlike Puget Sound Energy, Avista Corp. hasnt been under pressure by the state Legislature or its customers to get out of Colstrip. It was under pressure under the federal Clean Power Plan to cut its cord on coal power, but President Donald Trump has killed that environmental mandate. Consumer pressure in Washington state to cut ties to coal power, hasnt gone away. In Montana, the states largest regulated utility, NorthWestern Energy, owns 30 percent of Colstrip Unit 4 and has an agreement for power from Unit 3 if needed. Like Avista, NorthWestern Corp. hasnt been under pressure by the state government or its customers to get out of Colstrip. It has insisted Units 3 and 4 will last into the 2040s. Chinese FM responds to 'end of diplomatic truce' with Taiwan Xinhua | Updated: 2017-06-14 20:51 BEIJING - A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that Taiwan would find itself in a dead end if it denies the 1992 Consensus that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily press briefing when asked whether the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Panama Tuesday means the end of a "diplomatic truce" between the mainland and Taiwan. The one-China principle not only concerns the core interest of China and the feelings of the 1.3 billion Chinese, but also is the prerequisite and political foundation of developing relations between China and foreign countries, said Lu. Stressing that China has more and more friends now, Lu said there is "no way out" for Taiwan to refuse to accept the 1992 Consensus. Only by acknowledging the consensus could cross-Strait relations develop peacefully and the people on both sides of the Strait realize common development, said Lu. Mainland says 'independence' factions jeopardizing region's stability, prosperity A spokesman for the Chinese mainland expressed strong opposition on Wednesday to what he said was an attempt by separatists to disturb Hong Kong Speical Administrative Region's stability and prosperity. "We resolutely oppose the collusion between the forces of 'Taiwan independence' and 'Hong Kong independence', as they disturb the implementation of the 'one country, two systems' principle in Hong Kong and jeopardize Hong Kong's prosperity and stability," said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, at a biweekly news briefing. "This conspiracy runs counter to the common aspirations of the people. It will never succeed." According to media reports, some members of Taiwan's "legislative yuan" formed an alliance on Monday purportedly to support "calls for democracy" in Hong Kong. Ma also criticized Taiwan's current Democratic Progressive Party administration for having increasingly stymied cross-Straits communication and cooperation. In response to concerns that the activities of mainland personnel who are in Taiwan for exchanges were being strictly scrutinized and managed by the DPP administration, Ma said the mainland encouraged and supported cross-Straits people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in various fields. "Since May 20 last year, the DPP administration has undermined the political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and impeded exchanges and cooperation between compatriots," Ma said. At the briefing, Ma announced that China's top political adviser, Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will take part in the weeklong 9th Straits Forum, starting on June 17 in Fujian province. Hung Hsiu-chu, chairwoman of the Taiwan-based Kuomintang party, will also attend the event. "This year marks the 30th anniversary since the two sides broke their isolation and started people-to-people exchanges across the Straits," Ma said, adding that "cross-Straits economic and social integration have become the direction for further cooperation". According to Ma, more than 8,000 delegates from Taiwan will take part in the forum. Hung announced on Wednesday that she would resign from all posts in the Kuomintang party at the end of this month. The party's new chairman, Wu Den-yih, was elected on May 20. Xinhua contributed to this story. Engineers from Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group test 5G terminal technologies in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese giants aim to gain advantage in expansion of ultra-fast technology Chinese telecom companies are accelerating their research and development of 5G, as they scramble to establish a beachhead in the next-generation mobile communication technology. China Mobile Communications Corp, the world's largest telecom carrier by subscribers, said it aims to deploy more than 10,000 5G base stations by 2020, in a move to launch a commercial 5G service. With less than 1 millisecond needed for data to get from one point to another, 5G is expected to allow consumers to download an 8-gigabit movie in seconds, and make remote surgery and autonomous driving a reality. The Beijing-based company is building facilities for system verification and the development of pre-commercial 5G prototypes. China Mobile's move is part of broad efforts by the nation to evolve from being a follower in the 3G era to an active participant that seeks to outcompete foreign firms in the 5G era. The mobile technology is so important that it was highlighted in this year's Government Work Report. According to a report by the US firm Qualcomm Inc, 5G will help the global telecom industry create $3.5 trillion of output and generate 22 million jobs by 2035. To accelerate the development of 5G technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a draft proposal on Tuesday that the low-frequency bandsthe 3,300 to 3,600MHz spectrum and the 4,800 to 5,000 MHz spectrumwill be used for 5G networks in China. "A frequency band is as important to telecom carriers as land is in the real estate industry," said Xiang Ligang, a telecom expert and CEO of telecom industry website cctime.com. "Specifying the designated frequency band for 5G tests will motivate enterprises to channel resources to that band, thus promising faster development. According to Xiang, a low-frequency band can cover a larger area, which can lower the initial investment in 5G network construction. "But the proposal does not mean that no other bands will be used for 5G. High-frequency bands will be used later to boost the internet speed," Xiang said. China United Network Communications Group, the country's second-largest telecom carrier, is also scrambling to make a breakthrough in the technology. It recently set up the country's first pre-5G base station in Jilin province by partnering with telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. The base station delivers a peak internet speed of 945 megabits per second, six times faster than the 4G network. Earlier this year, China established the world's largest 5G test field to gain an edge in the race to standardize the mobile communication technology. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, around 30 telecom base stations have been built in that test field, in which China Mobile, Huawei and ZTE Corp are conducting China's second phase of 5G R&D tests. The second phase focuses on testing technology solutions for the 5G mobile internet and the internet of things, with the goal of developing 5G pre-commercial prototypes, the IMT-2020(5G) Promotion Group, a body set up by China to guide 5G development. Huang Yuhong, deputy head of the China Mobile Research Institute, said: "5G will no longer be a simple technology or a system. Instead, it is a platform in which the telecom industry needs to be deeply linked with other sectors. That is a fundamental difference between 5G and 4G." In November, China Mobile outgunned foreign rivals to lead the global 5G System Architecture project, which will determine the "structure of 5G networks". It came shortly after polar coding, a technology backed by Huawei, was approved as part of the global standard for 5G. "The progress highlights Chinese firms' rising influence in the global telecommunication arena. It is a recognition of both their technological prowess as well as their brand influence," said Fu Liang, an independent telecom analyst. A cruise ship enters a shipyard in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, for maintenance in April. The first cruise liner to be built in China is expected to be delivered in 2023. SHEN LEI / FOR CHINA DAILY Editor's note: In the run-up to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Daily will cover a series of key projects and advanced equipment of national importance, showcasing the country's huge improvements and relentless efforts in manufacturing upgrading and innovation. Historic vessel, costing estimated $1 billion, will be delivered to HK buyer in 2023 The first cruise liner to be built in the Chinese mainland is expected to be delivered to a Hong Kong-based buyer in 2023, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of the nation's shipbuilding industry. It is also expected to boost a plethora of supplier segments as well as domestic tourism, experts said. The vessel will be used in the Chinese market. The as-yet unnamed ship will be built at Waigaoqiao, Shanghai, by a joint venture between the State-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp and Italy-based Fincantieri SpA, the world's largest cruise shipbuilding company. There is no official word on the cost and cost advantages, if any, compared to European shipbuilders that dominate the industry. But Chen Gang, vice-president of Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, a company controlled by CSSC, said he expects the vessel to cost about $1 billion. The cruise ship, reportedly 323.6 meters long and 37.2 meters wide, can hold nearly 5,000 passengers in 2,000 cabins. For perspective, Harmony of the Seas, built by the STX France yard in Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast for US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, is regarded as the world's largest cruise ship, according to a London Guardian report. The vessel, which cost close to $1 billion, has 16 decks and can carry 6,360 passengers and 2,100 crew members. According to Wu Qiang, general manager of CSSC, the China-made vessel will be the first of five to be delivered on a yearly basis from 2023 onward. Wu Zhenglian, a cruise ship design expert with CSSC's research institute, said, "The vessel is the outcome of a decade of efforts by the Chinese shipbuilding industry to satisfy the rising demand for water-based travel among the country's humongous and upwardly mobile middle class." Some 2.1 million Chinese tourists traveled in cruise liners in 2016, taking the third position in the annual global passenger rankings, according to data from the Cruise Lines International Association. The rise to the third spot took over a decade. China's cruise economy took off in 2006, posting about 45 percent compound annual growth rate ever since. Building homegrown cruise ships is part of the natural evolution of the industry, observers said. Currently, Italy, Germany and France dominate the world's luxury cruise shipbuilding sector. In all, they make and deliver eight large cruise ships per year, lagging the world's demand for 13 ships. This is where CSSC sees future potential. In October 2015, it signed an agreement with China Investment Corp, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, and Carnival Corp & Plc, the world's largest leisure travel company with global operations, to form a joint venture in Hong Kong. The latter will place orders with the CSSC-Fincantieri joint venture for cruise ships. In February, Carnival announced the Hong Kong company had signed an agreement to order the first-ever cruise ship to be built in the Chinese mainland. The Hong Kong company will order two new liners from the CSSC-Fincantieri joint venture. It has an option to order four more home-built ships. The construction of China's first cruise ship will help improve various sectors of the domestic shipbuilding ecosystem, said Chen of Waigaoqiao. According to Wu Zhenglian, in spite of China's strength in building other types of vessels, the construction of a cruise ship would be a new experience as it has special requirements in craftsmanship, quality and other specifications. Preparation for the project began in 2014. The design of the vessel would need at least 1 million man-hours. The construction requires more than 3,000 skilled workers with professional education and technical knowledge, according to Chen. Wu Zhenglian said the building process of the first two vessels would need extra time as it involves professionals from different cultures, who may take some time to learn to work together. That also presents a great opportunity for Chinese manufacturers to gather experience of multicultural workplaces and learn foreign shipbuilding techniques. To meet the stiff deadline and avoid any time overrun that would result in huge losses, the shipbuilder needs to access a global supply chain as well as a network of domestic suppliers that can provide high-quality components, Wu said. Events and stories coming up in the next few days BRICS Sherpas to meet ahead of Xiamen summit China, which holds the BRICS presidency this year, will host the second BRICS Sherpa meeting in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Wednesday and Thursday. The meeting will be chaired by Vice-Foreign Minister Li Baodong, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. BRICS Sherpas help coordinate the bloc's annual gatherings. This year's BRICS Summit will be held in Xiamen, Fujian province in September. The capital of Hubei province has started a program to allow businesses to flourish in run-down and abandoned villages. Zhou Lihua and Liu Kun report from Wuhan, with Chen Mengwei in Beijing. At a time when large cities are still sucking in rural residents from across the nation, a major city in Central China is working hard to reverse the trend by encouraging people to move to the countryside. In April, Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, proposed a program - the "20 Golden Terms", as it was dubbed by the media - that would allow urban residents to conduct business in the city's rural areas. Despite being an inland province, Jilin has actively integrated into the Belt and Road Initiative to give new impetus to the prosperity of Northeast China, local officials said. Electronic devices can now be more easily exported from Changchun, capital of Jilin province, to Europe because of the Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe train line. The line, which had its trial run in August 2015, leaves China via the rail port in Manzhouli in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and passes through Russia, Belarus and Poland before finally arriving in Germany. The line extends about 9,800 kilometers and takes 14 days to transport goods from Changchun to Schwarzheide, Germany, saving more than 20 days compared with maritime transport. The route has become a new bridge for trade relations in Eurasia, Xinhua News Agency reported. Zhang Hongming, an executive at Fuyao Group Changchun, said that the company previously transported cargo by sea from Dalian, Liaoning province in Northeast China, to Hamburg in Germany. Sea transportation was not only time-consuming but also made it easy to lose the cargo's value because of high humidity and high variations in day and night temperature during transportation, Zhang added. In late April, the company's 48 paper boxes of front windscreens, used for Audi automobiles, were loaded into the Changchun-Manzhouli-Europe train to be transported to Heilbronn, Germany. Noted companies such as Volvo, Huawei and Samsung Electronics also use the freight line. It saw exported and imported cargo worth $110 million in the first quarter of 2017. Some important areas in Jilin aim to help the province to better participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and promote international cooperation. Among them is Jilin city and the Jilin City Bonded Logistics Center, which saw the volume of traded goods reach 13,063 metric tons in the first three months since it began operation on Jan 17. Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, a large manufacturer of acrylic fibers based in Jilin city, has expanded in overseas markets and become an important client in the logistics center. In Hunchun, which borders Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, you can find foreign businesspeople on the streets and signboards in Russian and English. A development and opening-up pilot zone, which comprises the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture and some regions in Changchun and Jilin cities, is an important strategy for Jilin province to integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative, local officials said. The Sino-Singapore Jilin Food Zone in Jilin city is an important cooperation project between the two countries in the agriculture and food safety fields. The zone focuses on six areas, ranging from food processing, international logistics and scientific research services, to leisure and travel. Companies in Jilin province have also furthered their international business presence, local media reported. CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles has exported its trains to Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States. Jilin Universal Machinery acquired several advanced European aluminum product companies. Jilin Northeast Peasant Madame has become a sweet corn supplier of US Dole Food. songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn US workers visit CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles to learn about subway manufacturing techniques.Provided To China Daily (China Daily 06/14/2017 page7) Heads of the world's five largest intellectual property offices have decided to optimize their work-sharing system, and improve patent quality management and information services in their future cooperation, as discussed at an annual meeting held earlier this month. Officials from the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the European Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office - commonly referred to as the IP5 - held the meeting in Valletta, Malta, to celebrate a decade of cooperation, take stock of their achievements to date and decide the future direction of their initiatives. According to the IP5 Joint Statement, released on June 1, the five offices have envisioned patent harmonization through practices and procedures, enhanced work-sharing, high-quality and timely research and examination results and seamless access to patent information to promote an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly international patent landscape. Based on the 2015 and 2016 joint statements, the IP5 heads restated the vital importance of industrial involvement in the organizations' cooperation and renewed their commitment to strengthening dialogue with industry stakeholders from the involved regions, thus ensuring that their efforts effectively support the needs of users. The offices will "endeavor to strengthen their efforts to explore the potential for harmonizing aspects of their patent practices and procedures to reduce the workload and costs for applicants filing their applications in multiple jurisdictions in parallel" against the backdrop of growing numbers of cross-filings, the joint statement said. They will work toward the continuous improvement of patent quality and the delivery of high-quality products and services. Recognizing the Patent Cooperation Treaty as one of the most successful international frameworks for work-sharing, the offices will continue to work with the World Intellectual Property Organization to optimize the functions of the PCT system. The group will establish a collaborative concept for international searches under the PCT and explore other worksharing options tailored to the changing examination environment. They will also intensify work on the Global Dossier, taking into account users' needs and promoting easy access to and in-depth utilization of patent information. The Global Dossier is a public service that enables users to monitor how a family of patent applications is progressing at the IP5 offices via a single online source. It is one of the many products developed by the IP5 to allow the offices to share work and speed up patent processing. Cooperation among the five offices started in 2007 in response to the increasing globalization of the patent process, marked by growing numbers of patent applications and companies increasingly filing their patents with multiple offices. Accounting for more than 80 percent of patent applications worldwide and about 95 percent of all PCT work done, the IP5 mechanism focuses on the elimination of unnecessary work through improved efficiency, alignment of procedures and the development of shared tools to increase the quality of the patent system while reducing costs for users. zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn ZTE Corp's booth at the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The company filed 4,123 international patent applications via the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2016, ranking No 1 worldwide. Lluis Gene / For China Daily (China Daily 06/15/2017 page17) [Photo/Xinhua] Greek and Chinese audience gave a warm welcome to the traditional Shanghai Chinese Orchestra for holding an exquisite concert with traditional Chinese musical instruments, as well as magic performances on Monday evening in Piraeus. The acclaimed orchestra brought to the stage of the Piraeus Municipal Theater a taste of Chinese culture with the melodies of the Erhu, the Pipa and the Gudi in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Greece-China Diplomatic Relations. The event was organized by the Chinese embassy in Greece, the Shanghai Municipal Government and China COSCO Shipping to mark the anniversary of Sino-Greece diplomatic relations this year. Addressing the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli praised the bilateral strategic cooperation in all sectors. "Greece and China will remain good friends in good and bad times, good partners for mutual progress. China and Greece will walk hand in hand to the future to revive the two ancient civilizations by writing a new chapter to the mutually effective cooperation and contributing to world peace and growth," Zou said. A painting displayed at Art Life Home exhibition [Photo provided to China Daily] To encourage people to take art home, Artally, an online art shopping platform, and a home furnishing company held an exhibition on June 10 at a design center in Beijing. The show, Art Life Home, had paintings of eight established artists at Easyhome Design Center. Dozens of works were also displayed in model bedrooms and living rooms. Artally, a Beijing-based company that runs an art shopping app Buybuyart, provides both the original works and their prints. The prices of the prints range from 99 yuan ($14.5) to hundreds of yuan. Painter Zeng Jianyong's work Cosplay The Preacher No. 3, which was sold in 2014 for more than 1 million yuan, was displayed at the event. Those who scanned the QR code beside the painting were able to buy a print of the painting online. According to Jin Jun, the founder of Artally, the online art shopping platform aims to enable the public to enjoy art at home by swiping their finger on a smartphone. Jin's company works with art colleges in China, museums and art foundations to attract artists to register on his app and sell both original art and prints. Besides, it also works with decoration companies and hotels across China to display artworks in public spaces, which is another way to educate the public on how to decorate their home with art, according to Jin. A challenge is issued in the independent feature film Neither Wolf Nor Dog. A Lakota elder summons a white author from 1,000 miles away to help him write a book. When the writer balks, the elder taunts, I called and you came. If you are too small or too weak, it is too late. The moment captures the essence of this drama, which is based on the award-winning novel by Kent Nerburn. In the book, Nerburn uses his own name as the fictional author who is invited to write the elders story. In a life-mirrors-art moment, the author appealed to Scottish filmmaker Steven Lewis Simpson to bring his story to the big screen after it stalled in Hollywood for almost a decade. The feature-length film has earned high praise from audiences and critics alike. Neither Wolf Nor Dog opens Friday, June 16, at the Art House Cinema and Pub and runs for a week. It will be the first showing of the film in Montana, but Simpson is working on bringing it to theaters in other Montana cities, including Helena and Missoula. Simpson said in a telephone interview that Minneapolis theaters are going on their fourth week of screening his film, unheard of with an independent film in the hot summer season of blockbusters. Were opening in multiplex theaters in Arizona and Oklahoma. Its surreal; its this magical thing that is happening. Simpson said the film ended up being a six-year journey for him because it was self-funded with help from fans and friends. As it turned out, the key thing is I was crazy enough to do it, said Simpson, who has been making films for more than 20 years. Simpson's most well-known project is the documentary, A Thunder Being Nation, the story of Ogalala Lakota living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It was that film and Rez Bomb, the rez thriller as he describes it, that established Simpson's reputation among Native Americans for taking the time to get the story right. The most important character in Neither Wolf Nor Dog is the elder Lakota man. To portray him, Simpson found the perfect actor who was 95 years old when he worked on the film. Dave Bald Eagle died before the final edits were done, but he was able to see it in a rough-cut screening with family and friends. Dave was a well-known character in the Dakotas. He rode in the parade in Deadwood for 70 years and was much loved. With Dave, he was more the character than even the character was. Some of Bald Eagles ancestors had been killed at the Wounded Knee Massacre, and Simpson made the bold decision to stray from the screenplay, which was written by himself and Nerburn, and let Bald Eagle improvise in a powerful climactic scene at Wounded Knee. That moment almost fuses the best of documentary and the best of fiction. The audience, when they listen to him, their hearts are wide open. Hes 100 percent real and we are standing with him. Thats why the film is resonating with so many people. Simpson said Bald Eagles character reminds audiences of a magical grandpa, a glorious figure that defined an era. Hes gone, everyone from that era is gone. It makes the film culturally historic. The filming was done over 18 days and the production schedule revolved around Bald Eagles energy level. Simpson did not know at the start of filming that Bald Eagle had been using a scooter to get around because it was so difficult for him to walk. Yet he walked on his own in all of his scenes in the film. Filming was hard on him, but Bald Eagle never complained. In between takes, Bald Eagle would sit with his wife in their car with the heater on. Every time we filmed at Wounded Knee, its like he drew a power that wasnt there on other days. Dave had a remarkable life, but this is the most incredible thing he did. Young people take art courses offered by L-Art University, a new online-education institute, taught by lecturers from across the world. Photos provided to China Daily Lecturers of the courses are experienced teachers and artists Living in a digital and globalized world means one can learn things at any time and any place. The recent launch of an online-education institute aims to offer courses taught by lecturers from across the world. L-Art University started operating on May 20 to provide training to China's professionals in the field of art and culture. It also caters to art lovers and collectors, who visit museums. Those interested can take the courses by visiting the university's website at lart.org or download its app. On offer now are 10 courses, including 3-D animation, filmmaking, exhibition design, 20th-century European art and museum management. Each course takes seven to 14 classes, each of which is a 30-minute film uploaded once a week, and the course prices start at a few hundred yuan. The lecturers are from Hong Kong, Paris, London and Los Angeles and are experienced teachers at art schools. Some are also artists. Meanwhile, the curriculum is set to be enriched as more courses on design, architecture and the art market are composed, filmed and produced. About 180 courses will be available by the end of 2018, according to Lyu Peng, the Chinese art historian who heads L-Art University. Lyu does a 12-session course on the history of modern Chinese art. Panama's Vice-President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pose with their documents after signing a joint communique on establishing diplomatic relations during a press briefing in Beijing, June 13, 2017. [Photo/VCG] Panama's decision on Monday to establish formal diplomatic relations with Beijing and switch its recognition from Taiwan is a welcome move that accords with the historical trend and best serves the national interests of both China and the Central American nation. Panama is the second country to switch its recognition to Beijing since pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party chief Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan leader last year, following a similar move by Sao Tome and Principe in December. This, in addition to the World Health Organization's rejection of Taiwan representatives attending its annual conference in May, suggests that the principle of one China is now widely accepted by the international community and the space for Taiwan to continue to flaunt its banner of independence is rapidly shrinking. Taipei has been pointing an accusing finger at Beijing for persuading Panama, a country with a strategic location that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to break its ties with the island. A sovereign nation with a quarter of its population living in poverty, Panama has the right to choose its own path of development. Chinese ships are now the second most frequent users of the Panama Canal, the main source of revenue for Panama, and as China has already been the leading provider of merchandise to a free trade zone in the Panamanian city of Colon, it is natural for the two sides to step up efforts to tap their cooperation potential by establishing formal ties. That a COSCO freighter from the Chinese mainland was the first vessel to pass through the newly expanded canal in June last year was an indication of their strengthening relationship of mutual benefits, which is bound to prosper further now that Panama is welcome to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative. Taipei has only itself to blame for what it sees as "suppression" of its international space. Tsai, who likes to call herself "president of Taiwan", has so far rejected the 1992 Consensus that maintains both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are part of one China, thus undermining the cornerstone for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations. In response, Beijing is obliged to take moves to counter separatist forces on the island. National reunification is China's core interest that tolerates no challenge. So long as Tsai continues to drag her feet on accepting the 1992 Consensus, the prospects for peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits will remain dim. Approved by the Central Military Commission, China has established its highest military honor, the Order of August 1, the first recipients of which will be selected this year. According to the Central Military Commission, bestowing the Order of August 1 on those who have made outstanding contributions to safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests, and advancing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces will be one of the activities to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. This year, about 10 people are to receive the award from a list of 17 candidates nominated by the PLA, the armed police force and public security force. The names of the nominees were made public to solicit comments from both the military rank and file and the general public. Several scientists and engineers that have made great contributions to China's military are on the list, along with Chinese astronaut Jing Haipeng, commander of the Shenzhou XI spacecraft. Police cars close off north entrance to London Bridge next to monument station after van ploughed into pedestrians. [Wang Bo / China Daily] After eight people were killed and 48 injured in the London Bridge terrorist attack on June 3, a man attacked three policemen in Paris on June 6, shouting, "This is for Syria". Both attacks took place within two weeks of the May 22 terrorist attack in Manchester, in which 22 people were killed and more than 50 injured. And on June 8, some unidentified people threw explosives at the United States embassy in Ukraine, which, despite not causing any casualties, reflected the serious terrorist threats countries face today. The fight against terrorism is becoming tougher. The recent attacks show the anti-terrorism mechanisms of European countries still have many loopholes. Before the Manchester attack, some US officials had warned the United Kingdom that Salman Abedi, the man suspected of carrying it out, received training from Islamic State terrorists, but the British authorities failed to properly monitor his activities. Since the terrorist attacks come at a time when the IS group has suffered one blow after another in Syria and Iraq, they should be a warning to allthat the IS group can orchestrate more attacks elsewhere. Besides, to spread fear and cover its defeats in Iraq and Syria, the IS group might launch more attacks in the coming months. As the main destination of the refugees fleeing the Middle East, Europe is also the main target of such attacks, and European governments need to be prepared for that. As such, the attacks are likely to influence European countries' domestic as well foreign policies. For example, in the UK, some people have been asking the British government to review its roles in the civil wars in Libya and Syria. The British government's failure to prevent terrorist attacks might also have influenced voters in the UK election last week, which saw the ruling Conservative Party losing absolute majority in parliament. Increasingly, European countries have been taking stricter border control and other security measures. After a man from Uzbekistan drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm on April 7, killing four people and wounding 15, many European countries strengthened border control; the Manchester, London and Paris attacks have made them impose even stricter control. Worse, the attacks will further divide European public opinions on granting asylum to refugees, especially from the Middle East. When the photograph of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who (along with his mother and elder brother) drowned in the waters off Turkey while fleeing the civil war in Syria, was flashed across newspapers and news channels in Europe in September 2015, all Europeans were united in grief and seemed in favor of allowing refugees into their countries. But as more terrorists in the garb of refugees seem to have entered Europe, many Europeans are losing sympathy for the refugees. On social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, for example, those sympathizing with the refugees find themselves cornered by the comments of many of their compatriots, who want safety and security for themselves and their families. If terrorist attacks continue, anti-refugee sentiments could rise in Europe, which in turn would prompt their governments to further strengthen border control. The recent terrorist attacks may have taken place in Europe, but they are a lesson for China, too, especially as it pushes ahead with the Belt and Road Initiative. Two Chinese citizens, who were abducted by the Islamic State group from Quetta in Pakistan's southwest province of Balochistan at the end of May, have reportedly been executed. Such incidents should prompt China to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation with other countries and regions, so as to better protect all Chinese citizens, whether at home or abroad, from terrorist attacks. Security is the prerequisite of prosperity. That's something we should never forget while pushing forward the Belt and Road Initiative. The author is a professor at the International Politics Department of the University of International Relations in Beijing. China and Pakistan are still investigating in the kidnapping of two Chinese who were abducted from Quetta in the southwestern province of Balochistan last month. They may have been killed after Islamic State militants claimed to have "executed" them last week. Their deaths, if confirmed, are a tragedy, to say the least. Unfortunately, some media outlets are using this tragedy to highlight the risks of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, especially the Belt and Road projects in Pakistan. It was during President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan two years ago that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) formally began implementation. Xi described that trip as a visit to a brother's home. Indeed, the expression most appropriately conveyed how the Chinese leadership views its relations with Pakistan and highlighted the real spirit behind the CPEC. From a purely economic point of view, Pakistan of 2015, despite all its potential, could not have been viewed as an ideal destination for foreign investment. Politically it appeared unstable and its security situation was at its worst. The ongoing conflicts in the region that had a direct influence on country's affairs, too, presented a dismal picture. Under those circumstances, the announcement of the CPEC and the immediate initiation of its process could not have taken place without the deep-rooted mutual trust between the two sides, which Xi referred to while describing the nature of his visit. And how Pakistanis view this relationship can be seen in the opinion surveys conducted from time to time. According to PEW Research Center survey in November 2015, 86 percent Pakistanis view China favorably. Importantly, this is not specific to 2015. In fact, such a view has been quite consistent among Pakistanis since 2005 when PEW started conducting such surveys. Things have quite visibly changed during the past two years. The political process is moving forward and the security situation has substantially improved. The complex security situation in the region is still a challenge but new openings Pakistan's entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization along with India's is just one recent example are emerging. More important, the CPEC has progressed from an idea to reality. Not only are frameworks and mechanisms for decision-making in place, but also several early harvest projects are likely to to be completed in the coming months. Thus, Pakistan of 2017 presents a much favorable environment for the CPEC. However, there has emerged a new, though not unexpected, challenge. The adversaries within and outside the country are targeting the spirit of mutual trust and understanding between Pakistan and China. This is not unexpected in this age of perception management. Initial negative themes such as the "CPEC is not doable as it is too ambitious", or "political instability and consequently, the change in government might change the whole scenario", or "poor state of governance would cause difficulties and confusions in priorities" and "how the costs would be reimbursed" have now given way to "there's no free Chinese lunch", or "China expands influence in 'economic colony' Pakistan". The possible killing of the two Chinese citizens in Quetta should also be seen in the same context. While apparently a security lapse, it has targeted the goodwill between the two countries and peoples. Indeed, in this era of perception management, constant efforts are needed on the part of all stakeholders to maintain and endure a strong relationship for sustainable long-term cooperation. Moreover, while the CPEC has rightly gained a symbolic status in China-Pakistan ties, it represents only one aspect of their relations. Bilateral ties, in reality, go well beyond the CPEC as they encompass many other important dimensions, including political and strategic ones, which are set to have a greater impact on contemporary regional and global dynamics. Thus, China-Pakistan relations should be viewed in a much broader perspective. Safeguarding and further promoting the spirit of the relationship, against this backdrop, is a test for all concerned and the real key to success. The author is director general of Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad. Prof. John Yang, Co-dean at BiMBA at National School of Development, Peking University and Xin Guo, President&CEO at Career International debate several HR critical issues during the meeting. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] While companies race into the digital age at a breakneck speed, the HR departments attached to those companies are often running to catch up. However, they can function as an engine to differentiate successful firms from struggling ones. As one of AmCham Chinas largest professional gatherings, the 18th annual Human Resource Conference was held in Beijing on Wednesday. The conference attracted more than 200 HR professionals and experts to discuss how to transform the way they recruit, develop and engage their employees, and utilize technology to address future challenges. This has been one of the largest and most successful HR conferences AmCham China has ever held, said Alan Beebe, president of AmCham China. Beebe also mentioned a new wave of digital tools that can help companies focus not only on hiring but also on managing, retaining and developing employees. What takes all of us, as leaders, mentors, people managers, and who guide the process of identifying, developing and working with human talents, to ensure technology does the great thing that not only is it capable of doing but also what we want it to do, embodies our history, core values, corporate cultures and social norms, and above all, humanity, is the key question we ought to answer. This new era demands business leaders who are technologically savvy, agile entrepreneurial, and well-informed about global developments, said Professor Anil K. Gupta, Michael Dingman Chair in Strategy, Globalization & Entrepreneurship, Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Its clear that the HR function is becoming ever-more important, ever-more strategic. Professor Anil K. Gupta also argues that companies can capture substantial value by applying digital innovation to some of the most critical organizational challenges - matching the supply and demand for labor, boosting productivity, and getting the most out of people. Stephen Shih, a partner in Bain & Companys Beijing office, who contextualized the challenges of HR professionals working in China by reporting on a recent study conducted by Bain in conjunction with LinkedIn. Their analysis of more than 25,000 LinkedIn profiles of professionals in China helped attendees better understand the rapid changes and fierce competition within the domestic labor market. During the meeting, executive debates were featured around critical topics. They tried to answer questions such as should business leaders involve HR in large decision-making processes and should HR contribute directly to business performance? Website's birthday discounts coming up on June 18. For Sergey Olanoff, a young Russian man who lives in St. Petersburg, glancing through the JD.com, a major online Chinese shopping platform, to check out the sales has become an everyday routine. "There are many Chinese goods on JD, including mobile phones and intelligent watches. They are high quality and are not too expensive," Olanoff said. Mobile phones, computers, electronic accessories and household articles were among the most popular Chinese goods in foreign countries, according to JD's 2017 cross-border e-commerce along the Belt and Road report released in May. "Since the company expanded its business worldwide, many Russian suppliers have begun to seek cooperation with us," said Hanna Antsyferava, manager of the overseas business department of JD from Belarus. Antsyferava joined the company in 2015 when the Russian version of JD.com launched. She said they talked with many local logistics companies and payment enterprises about further business cooperation. "Customers from different countries may have a different understanding of e-commerce, but they all have the same great interest in it," she said. "Through the online platform, they can buy high-quality and low-price products, which is a significant advantage over traditional channels." Chinese tea, auto parts, mobile phones and electronic products were sold to countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland through the e-commerce platform. Cotton from Egypt, jade from Myanmar, crystal wine glass sets from the Czech Republic and rose essence oil from Bulgaria in turn were imported to the Chinese market through these channels, she said. Antsyferava has been busy in the run up to JD's birthday on June 18, when massive discounts will be offered for a whole month, she said. "The day won fame even in overseas markets," she said. "We began to prepare for the event earlier this year. You see, I just finished a day full of conferences." Antsyferava came to China at the age of 19 to study international trade and the Chinese language. After graduation, she chose to stay while her classmates went back to their home countries. "There are many ways in which China has gone further than European countries. The promotion of entrepreneurship, for example, has generated many new commercial models that could spread to foreign countries." According to the JD report, Chinese products have been sold to more than 54 countries involved in the Belt and Road initiative through the e-commerce platform and about 50 of those countries have brought their products to China. China plans to resume US beef imports, which were halted in 2003, in a move to boost economic ties and further balance the trade surplus with the United States. The two countries finalized protocol details that mean US exporters can prepare for their first shipments in 14 years. It was set to take effect in mid-July. Building on this progress, closer economic and trade ties are expected between China and the US, said Wei Jianguo, vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. "Sino-US trade will likely boom this year, with China's imports from the US growing faster than its exports. The US trade deficit with China is predicted to decrease significantly," he said. As part of the 100-day action plan decided on by President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, the negotiations were "important steps" toward commercial shipment ofUS beef to China for the first time since 2003, Xinhua News Agency said, citing the US Department of Agriculture. During their April meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, Xi and Trump agreed to establish a comprehensive economic dialogue and initiate a 100-day economic cooperation plan. In May, the two nations announced initial results in areas like agriculture, electronic payments, financial services and energy. US beef was banned in China in 2003 after a scare over mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Since then, US producers and government bodies have been making attempts to reopen the market. Mandy Ning, sales and marketing manager for Asia with Morton's The Steakhouse, a US-based chain with outlets in China, said the agreement is good news because the price of imported beef may drop. Craig Uden, president of the US National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the terms reflect China's trust in the safety and quality of US beef. "We hope that by getting our foot in the door, we can develop a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship," he said. According to the USDA, US producers must track the origin of the US-born cattle destined for export to China. Shipments must come from cattle less than 30 month sold, and the meat should not contain growth promoters. China has become one of the largest import markets for beef. Beef imports exceeded 1.02 million metric tons in 2016, up 12.6 percent from the same period the previous year, according to the General Administration of Customs. China also is working on importing more US soybeans and cotton as well as advance manufactured items, officials said. Sino-US trade increased from $2.5 billion in 1979 to $524.3 billion last year. The US trade deficit with China was $164.8 billion in 2016. Xu Junqian in Shanghai and Xinhua News Agency contributed to this story. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Arlene Foster, stands on the steps of 10 Downing Street before talks with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, in central London, Britain June 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May held talks lasting two hours at Downing Street Tuesday to discuss an agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to prop up her minority Conservative government. May and the leader of the DUP, Arlene Foster, were both tight lipped after the crucial meeting, but later Foster said on her social media site: "Discussions are going well ...and we hope soon to be able to bring this work to a successful conclusion". The Northern Ireland party has come to May's aid after last week's general election left the prime minister eight seats short of the 326 seats needed in the House of Commons to command an overall majority. The DUP's 10 MPs at Westminster would give May the working majority she needs to keep the Conservatives in power. The deal is complicated by a row between the DUP and the pro-republican Sinn Fein party which led earlier this year to the collapse of the power-sharing Northern Ireland devolved assembly. The border between Britain's Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is also a major issue in the talks over Britain's departure from the European Union. With Ireland being a member of the EU, its border would be the only land border between the EU and Britain. It makes a working deal between the British government and the DUP controversial in both Northern Ireland and the neighboring Republic of Ireland. In another intervention Tuesday, former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major warned against a pact between May and the DUP. Commenting during a radio interview, Major warned May a parliamentary deal with the DUP could risk Northern Ireland's peace process and cause resentment in other parts of Britain. Before meeting Foster, May chaired her first cabinet meeting since the general election. Later, a Downing Street spokesperson said: "In the first Cabinet meeting since the election, ministers discussed the forthcoming Queen's Speech, including the legislative program required to deliver the best possible Brexit deal for the whole United Kingdom." The cabinet also discussed the ongoing talks with the DUP to secure a confidence and supply arrangement, added May's official spokesperson. Media in London reported Downing Street sources saying there had been "significant progress" made during the talks with the DUP leader, adding the talks had constructive. Camera crews gathered outside Number 10 expecting Foster to address the media at the end of her talks with May. Instead the DUP team left by a back door, while May emerged from the front door without making any comment to waiting journalists. It caused feverish speculation there may have been a hiccup in the discussions, but this was quickly dispelled. It is now expected the supply and confidence arrangement will be finalised and signed Wednesday. It is still unclear whether that will give enough time to enable Queen Elizabeth II to perform the formal state opening of parliament on Monday. It has already been indicated the ceremony could be delayed by several days. MPs, including more than 80 parliamentarians making their debuts after being elected last week, gathered in the House of Commons Tuesday to choose their chairperson, or Speaker, for the coming new parliament. The outgoing speaker, John Bercow, was re-elected unopposed by the MPs, prompting May to raise laughter when she said: "At least someone got a landslide". It was a reference to the May's government which started their election campaign at the end of April expecting a landslide victory, only to emerge losing their majority. French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May attend a joint press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] PARIS - Visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday said that talks to launch procedures of Britain's divorce from the European Union will start as scheduled next week. In a joint press meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, May stressed that the "timetable has not changed and negotiations will begin next week," dismissing fears of a possible delay in Brexit talks after she lost parliamentary majority in a snap general election. "We will find an agreement that is both in the interest of the United Kingdom but also of the 27 countries that will remain in the European Union," she added. For his turn, Macron wished "negotiations on the exit from the European Union and then on the future relations with the United Kingdom will start as soon as possible." "The door of course is still open as long as Brexit negotiations have not been concluded," he said. "But, let us be clear and organized and once the negotiations have started we should be well aware that it'll be more difficult to move backwards," he noted. Talks for a new relationship between London and Brussels will start on June 19. The day after Jon Keippel had his aortic valve in his heart replaced, he was up and walking around his property, surprised he felt so strong. "I was amazed," he said. "I was just full of energy." For cardiovascular surgeon Scott Millikan, his doctor, that's the point of the whole procedure. "You get the benefits immediately," he said. Last year Billings Clinic introduced the transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure, which allows doctors to scope a patient's heart and replace the diseased valve without having to perform open-heart surgery. The procedure is aimed at people doctors judge to be inoperable, those who are otherwise too weak or sick to undergo a major invasive operation like open-heart surgery. "It changes the whole treatment paradigm," Millikan said. In the past, if someone had a diseased or faulty aortic valve and couldn't withstand open-heart surgery, they had few options for treatment in Billings, and quality of life, along with life expectancy, was low. Keippel, who had open-heart bypass surgery 20 years ago, ended up in bad shape as his aortic valve started to deteriorate over the past few years. He couldn't walk across the room without ending up short of breath. His feet were often cold and he had tingling and numbness in his fingers. Another open-heart surgery was too risky, and so the transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure was deemed the right move. The procedure changed Keippel's life. "The hope was I'd get back to the kind of way I was before," he said. "And that's what happened." In the first year, the Billings Clinic transcatheter aortic valve replacement team has performed the procedure 59 times. "That's a very high number," said Per Sommer, the team's cardiologist. Generally, he said, when a major new procedure is introduced at a hospital the expectation is that it'll be performed a couple dozen times. Sommer and Millikan quickly discovered the demand was higher than they'd anticipated. Part of that has to do with the regional role that health care providers in Billings play. Billings draws patients from a wide swath of eastern Montana and northern Wyoming. But also a factor are those patients who have long needed the procedure and have avoided traveling to Denver or Salt Lake to get it done. "Patients don't have to travel as far now," Sommer said. "I think it's one of the most important things." With the option now available in Billings, they've come to town to seek it out. To mark the one-year anniversary, Billings Clinic held a small celebration on Tuesday, which gave Millikan a chance to sit and chat with Keippel in a more relaxed setting. Millikan performed Keippel's open-heart surgery two decades ago, and he was on the team that inserted the new aortic valve into Keippel's heart last year. Keippel formed a close bond with Millikan and says the only reason he's around today is because of Millikan's care. "Seeing you here made my day," Millikan told him. A photo of Zhang Yingying released by the police. A Chinese student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has not been seen for four days after she was last caught on security footage getting into a car on Friday. A massive search continues to be carried out by both police and at the grassroots level. "We are doing everything we can to search for her, including the use of resources offered by our partner law enforcement agencies and the FBI," UIUC Police Department Chief Jeff Christensen said on Tuesday. Zhang Yingying, 26, a visiting scholar from Fujian, had been in the US for about a month. She was conducting research at UIUC's department of natural resources and environmental sciences and living in university housing. According to local media, Zhang had sent a text message last Friday confirming to a prospective landlord that she was on her way to Urbana to sign a lease on an apartment, but she never showed up. Her last phone activity was at 1:30 pm the same day saying that she was running late and would not be there until around 2:10. The last message on her phone was from the landlord delivered at 2:38 pm. "Hey Yingying! Just checking in to see if you're on your way." There was no reply. University police released security camera footage on Monday showing Zhang getting into a black Saturn Astra, which then continued north on Goodwin Avenue. On UIUC's Reddit page, a user named "rosabel34" said the driver of a black sedan had approached a friend of hers on Friday as well and "she reported it to the police." According to her friend's Facebook post, the man had a badge on a chain under his shirt and claimed to be an undercover police officer. He "asked me to come up to his car so he could ask me a few questions, which I refused to do," she wrote in her post. "We have received many pieces of information and our detectives continue to work around the clock to develop new information," Chief Christensen said in his latest statement. "We continue to work with rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, cellphone companies, check vehicle records and we have pursued other information offered to us by members of the public." The Chinese Consulate General in Chicago has been in touch with police, the school and Zhang's parents, mobilizing all available resources to help find her. The consulate is also helping Zhang's parents get an emergency visa to come to the US. Chinese student groups are also gathering whatever information they can about Zhang's disappearance. "We're doing what we can, using all of our resources, and people here to help," Robin Huang of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association told Illinois homepage. net. "We really hope that we can speed things up and we really hope the girl is safe." According to the Beijing News, Zhang's friends and schoolmates in China are also making an effort to raise awareness of Zhang's disappearance. Investigators tried electronic positioning of Zhang's cellphone but it was shut down and it has been difficult to break through the phone's ID to locate it. Zhang's boyfriend in China, Hou Xiaolin, is collecting information and disseminating it on as many platforms as he can, hoping to raise awareness of his girlfriend's plight. "I wish the search process in the US could be faster," Hou said. "Everything is moving too slow." xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com WASHINGTON - The plane carrying American college student Otto Warmbier who had been held in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) touched down in Cincinnati, Ohio, local media reported Tuesday night. The DPRK has released jailed US university student Otto Warmbier, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on the same day. "Mr. Warmbier is en route to the United States, where he will be reunited with his family," Tillerson said earlier in a statement. The US State Department continues to have discussions with the DPRK regarding three other US citizens reported detained, Tillerson said. Warmbier's parents told US media that he was medically evacuated from the DPRK in a coma. Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, had been charged with subversion by the DPRK and was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in 2016. Former Minister of the State Council Information Office Zhao Qizheng speaks in the US-China Think Tank Symposium in Des Moines,Iowa, the United States, June 12, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] DES MOINES, the United States - The prospects of US-China relations are promising in various fields including economic and trade cooperation, agricultural exchange, education and investment, according to participants in the US-China Think Tank Symposium held Monday. More than 20 Chinese and US experts and scholars gathered Monday in Des Moines, the capital of the midwest US state of Iowa, to deliberate on such topics as China-US relations, local cooperation and the prospects of the relationship between the two countries. In a speech at the opening ceremony, Former Minister of the State Council Information Office Zhao Qizheng said rapid development of China-US economic and trade cooperation is not only an epitome of China-US relations, but also helps build up a solid foundation for China-US cooperation in other fields. Statistics show that China-US trade volume grew from $2.5 billion in 1979 to $524.3 billion in 2016, a rise of 209 times, according to Chinese Consul General in Chicago Hong Lei. China is the United States' largest export market outside North America, and is also one of the fastest growing major export markets of the United States. "People of both countries have benefited from this economic and trade relationship," said Zhao, "China-US economic and trade cooperation promises huge opportunities and potentials, and the prospects are very promising." The relationship between China and the United States has experienced ups and downs all the way along but has kept forging ahead as economic and trade cooperation played the roles of "ballast stone" and "propeller," Hong said. In 2016, bilateral service trade volume between the two countries exceeded $100 billion, and two-way investment totaled $170 billion. "China-US relationship is one of the most important bilateral relations in the world, for which economic and trade cooperation is the most active and lasting driving force," Hong said. WASHINGTON - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday denounced as a "detestable lie" the idea he colluded with Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and he clashed with Democratic lawmakers over his refusal to detail his conversations with US President Donald Trump. Sessions, a senior member of Trump's Cabinet and an adviser to his election team, had a series of tense exchanges with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee during more than two hours of high-stakes testimony as they pressed him to recount discussions with the Republican president. "You raised your right hand here today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich said. "Now you're not answering questions. You're impeding this investigation." Sessions refused to say whether he and Trump discussed former FBI director James Comey's handling of an investigation into possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia during the election campaign before the president fired Comey on May 9. He declined to say whether Trump expressed concern over Sessions' decision in March to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, and he refused to say if Justice Department officials discussed possible presidential pardons of individuals being looked at in the probe. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told Sessions, "I believe the American people have had it with stonewalling. Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant questions are privileged." "I am not stonewalling," Sessions replied, saying he was simply following Justice Department policy not to discuss confidential communications with the president. Sessions' testimony did not provide damaging new information on any Trump campaign ties with Russia or on Comey's firing, but his refusal to discuss conversations with Trump raised questions about whether the White House has something to hide. Last week, Comey told the same Senate committee that Trump had fired him to undermine the FBI's investigation of the Russia matter. Sessions had recommended that Comey be fired, and Trump's decision prompted critics to charge that the president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation. Sessions on Tuesday defended his involvement in Comey's firing despite recusing himself from the Russia probe. Reuters The European Commission announced on Tuesday a plan that could see the City of London stripped of its right to act as a clearing house for euro transactions. London clears contracts worth around 1 trillion euros ($880 billion) each day. Any change could cost banks 63 billion pounds and deprive the United Kingdom of more than 80,000 jobs. Clearing houses act as intermediaries among derivatives traders. They also take down payments, in case parties go bankrupt. Rules governing them were strengthened after the 2008 financial crisis. The proposed reforms are meant to ensure the financial stability of the European Union after its largest financial centerLondonleaves its jurisdiction. It would mean the City of London and the financial institutions that clear euro transactions would continue to be subject to close EU supervision after the UK leaves the bloc. The proposal also said that some clearing houses may be too significant to conduct their business in the EU without being based there. The announcement was almost unnoticed in the UK amid the fallout from last week's general election. Meanwhile, former Conservative prime minister John Major warned that an alliance between his party and the Democratic Unionist Party could ignite a new bout of violence in Northern Ireland. Major spoke to the BBC on Tuesday as Prime Minister Theresa May sat down with Arlene Foster and Peter Dodds of the DUP in a bid to negotiate a deal that would secure the DUP's support for May's government. May failed to get a majority in the general election last week and needs the DUP's MPs to add to the Conservative's 318 MPs to get more than the 325 seats needed to pass legislation in Parliament. Major said that a deal with the DUP could damage the UK government's central role in the Northern Ireland peace process, and risk alienating other areas of the UK, which would be angry at the transfer of resources that the DUP are sure to seek in return for electoral support. The DUP's Foster suggested that the talks with May had gone well but had not been concluded. She tweeted: "Discussions are going well with the government and we hope soon to be able to bring this work to a successful conclusion." Meanwhile in Brussels, the chief negotiator for the EU warned the UK to hurry up and begin its negotiations to leave the EU or risk crashing out without an agreement. Michel Barnier pointed out that it had been three months since the UK triggered the Brexit process by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which offers a period of two years of negotiations before departure. "Next week, it will be three months after the sending of the Article 50 letter. We haven't negotiated. We haven't progressed," he told reporters in Brussels. Fire engulfed a 24-storey block of government-owned apartments near Notting Hill, in west London Wednesday morning, killing at least 6 people and injuring 50 people, police and fire services said. Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. [Photo by Lei Xiaoxun/chinadaily.com.cn] Flames could be seen racing through the building from the fire, which started at about 00.54 am local time. More than 250 firefighters tackled the blaze through the night. Police confirmed six fatalities but said the death toll is likely to rise as firefighters search the building fully over the next few days. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said she had never seen anything like it in her 29 years of experience. This is a major fire that has affected all floors of this 24 storey building, from the second floor upwards, she said. Eyewitnesses told China Daily that they heard screaming and people calling for help. Majid Mahdi, who lives close by, said: I live next door. I ran to help, we could hear people screaming and crying for help. The fire just got bigger and bigger. It has been a very sad night. Another resident, Dani Smith, who lives in the neighboring tower said it was an inferno. There have been fatalities, families, children and old people. Everyones been evacuated. We were in the block right next to it. Ive been told it could take up to three days before we can get back in, because the block next door could be unsafe. Local residents said the building, which contains 120 apartments, had recently been refurbished. The cause of the fire is still unknown. London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident and Londons ambulance said they had taken 50 people to five hospitals in the area. Others were treated at the scene by paramedics. The block was built in 1974 and is owned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, and managed by a contracting company on its behalf. The refurbishment in 2014 cost 10 million pounds and followed complaints by residents of faulty wiring, poor ventilation and blocked fire exits. The fire has dominated international news and may also set back the announcement of a deal between the Conservatives and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party on managing the government, the BBC reported. DUP sources told the BBC the talks were not in trouble but the London tower block fire made any announcement on Wednesday inappropriate. Kevin Wang in London also contributed to this report. To contact the reporters: liwensha@chinadaily.com and chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com COPENHAGEN - Denmark's iconic sculpture of Little Mermaid was vandalized again on Tuesday night, two weeks after it was painted red in an apparent protest against whale hunting in the country's autonomous Faroe Islands. A police officer inspects the Little Mermaid statue, seen covered in paint, for the second time in weeks, in what local authorities say is an act of vandalism, in Copenhagen, Denmark June 14, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] The sculpture was partly sprayed with blue paint, with a message left on the pavement in front of the statue saying "Befri Abdulle" (Free Abdulle in Danish).Copenhagen police confirmed the vandalism on twitter, saying they were looking for a suspect "blonde girl" of around 170cm in height.Police officer Michael Andersen was quoted by local newspaper Ekstra Bladet as saying that a local resident walking the dog in the night caught the statue being defaced.Tourist guide Cui Lin said the area had been cordoned off when she took a group of tourists there early on Wednesday morning.Xia Guangpu, owner of a Chinese restaurant, also said he saw community workers trying to clear up the statue.It was the second time that the statue has been painted within weeks. The bronze work by sculptor Edvard Eriksen was painted red two weeks ago, and the stainer also left messages demanding that the Danish authorities shall "defend the whales of the Faroe Islands."In 1964, the original head of Little Mermaid was sawn off and stolen. In 1998, she was beheaded again. Also in 1984, she lost her right arm, which was returned days later by two young men. A delegation from Southeast China's Guangdong province, led by provincial Party chief Hu Chunhua, hosted a business and trade convention in London on Wednesday attended by 400 British enterprises where deals were signed worth $1.8 billion. Hu also attended a launch ceremony for China General Nuclear Power Corporation's three new UK companies. The parent company is one of China's major nuclear power players. Hu said 20 projects would be approved at the convention, which was attended by officials from the UK's Department for International Trade and senior executives from a raft of multinational companies. The UK's innovation agent Innovate UK and the Guangdong government signed an agreement to match grant funding for UK businesses in the Chinese province. For almost 40 years, Guangdong has been at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up. In 2016, the last complete year for which figures are available, the province's GDP reached $1.2 trillion, with a growth rate of 7.5 percent, one-ninth of China's total. The UK has become Guangdong's largest export market in Europe, accounting for $17.65 billion in 2016, which was about a quarter of total trade between China and the UK. By the end of 2016, accumulated mutual investment exceeded $4.2 billion, and more than 850 projects. In 2016, direct investment from the UK to the province increased three-fold, while Guangdong direct investment to the UK increased 17.7 times. Lord Sassoon, chairman of the China-Britain Business Council and an executive board member of Hong Kong trading house Jardines, spoke at the conference to encourage UK companies to invest in the province. "Guangdong is a good place to do business," Sassoon said. "The free-trade zone arrangements facilitate the transfer of goods. Guangdong has liberalized services in a way that has enabled us to set up our insurance business in the province." He said Guangdong is home to some of the world's most innovative companies, including Huawei, Tencent, and automaker BYD, which is delivering 51 electric buses to London. Greg Hands, minister of state in the Department for International Trade, said: "Never has the China-UK relationship been as strong as it is today, with such potential for growth. China is the UK's third-largest export market, with exports growing by 63 percent since we took office in 2010." Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, told attendees: "Globally, the Guangdong economy is the 15th-largest in the world; that's the size of Spain." He pointed out that several Guangdong companies had linked with the UK through major projects, including China General Nuclear, a partner in the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project. Also at the summit, BYD agreed to help develop the UK's energy storage market with Avic International Renewable Energy Co. And TianAn Cyber Park Group agreed to establish a Guangdong Products Exhibition and Trade Center in the UK. Several institutes signed agreements to collaborate, including University College London, which will work with Invest Shenzhen. Guangzhou University will work with Keele University. And Cardiff University will collaborate with Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital. The Bristol and the West of England China Bureau committed to help create an action plan regarding international exchanges. And Pharmaceutical and healthcare company GSK and the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases agreed to co-develop a "health big-data system"to serve 5,000 patients in China. China's goal of boosting its nuclear technology sector took a big step forward on Wednesday with the creation of three new companies in the UKby China General Nuclear Power Corporation. Hinkley Point C nuclear power station site is seen near Bridgwater in Britain, September 14, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] The newentities are:Bradwell Power Corp, which will be responsible for the 100 percent Chinese-built Bradwell B nuclear plant; General Nuclear System Ltd, which will shepherd China's Hualong technology through the exacting five-year UK approval process; and General Nuclear International, which will manage CGN's projects in the UK. He Yu, CGN chairman, said: "The unveiling of three companies is a solid step forward for CGN to expand its operation in the UK.With its new subsidiaries unfolding, the company is confident that it will grow steadily in the field of nuclear technology in Britain." The United Kingdom will formally assess the Hualong One technology as part of a deal reached last year,in which Chinese investment will help build the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, in which France's EDF is a major participant, and which will feature French technology. CGN and EDF have been working together for more than 30 years on nuclear development and construction in China. Under last year's agreement, CGN and EDF will collaborate on three UK nuclear plants: Hinkley Point C, in Somerset; Sizewell C, in Suffolk; and Bradwell, in Essex. CGN intends to use Hualong One technology at Bradwell, which could be the first nuclear plant in a developed economyto use Chinese technology. Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C will use French technology. EDF holds 66.5 percent of the shares in Hinkley Point C, and Chinese enterprises led by CGN hold 33.5 percent. The companies will seek to get the Hualong One technology approved in the UK via an assessment known as the Generic Design Assessment process. It usually takes about five years to complete. China hopes that UK approval of its technology will open the door to its use in other countries because the UK's appraisal regime is considered by industry experts to be the strictest in the world. "We plan to submit the preliminary security report to the British government by mid-November and wrap up all the first phase examination work by then," He said. The Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency, the UK's nuclear regulators, will conduct the assessment. All nuclear operators in the UK must work within thenation's strict regulatory framework, and all reactor designs must satisfy the safety, security and environmental requirements of the GDA process. The proposed Bradwell project is in an early pre-planning stage, something that is likely to continue for many years, via investigative work and public consultation, before detailed proposals will be produced, allowing a planning application to be made. CGN's investment in the Hinkley Point C project is the largest Chinese investment to date in Europe and will comprise an initial investment of 6 billion pounds. It is likely to generate 25,000 jobs and the power station will meet 7 percent of Britain's power needs when it goes online in 2025. The plant is expected to have a lifespan of 60 years. Last year,Liu Xiaoming,China's ambassador to the UK, described the Hinkley Point C contract as an example of "the golden fruit" that comes from China-UK collaboration. The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday raised its economic forecast for China while calling for the government to speed up its reform agenda. The IMF projected China's gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 6.7 percent this year, from its previous estimate of 6.6 percent. It also predicted GDP growth of 6.4 percent during the 2018-2020 period. "China continues to transition to a more sustainable growth path, and reforms have advanced across a wide domain," IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton said in a statement on Wednesday after his staff completed its annual Article IV mission to China. Article IV review is IMF's annual assessment of the health of an economy. An IMF mission visited Beijing and Lanzhou from June 1-14 to discuss the annual review. Lipton joined the final policy discussions and met with Vice-Premier Ma Kai, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan and other senior Chinese economic officials. "Our discussions in the past two weeks focused on the policies needed to ensure China's successful transition, which is vital to its own people and the rest of the world and the urgency of accelerating the pace of reforms," Lipton said. He said that policy support, especially expansionary credit and public investment, has helped China maintain strong growth. China's economy grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2017, faster than expected. "China has the potential to safely sustain strong growth over the medium term," Lipton said. But he stressed that as also recognized by Chinese government reform plans, it requires deep reforms to transition from the current growth model that relies on credit-fed investment and debt. "It is critical to start now while growth is strong and buffers sufficient to ease the transition," he said. Lipton said that Chinese authorities are fully aware of the challenges and have taken crucial and welcome measures. According to Lipton, important supervisory and regulatory action is being taken against financial sector risks. Corporate debt is growing more slowly, reflecting restructuring initiatives and overcapacity reduction. The housing-price boom is being gradually contained, and excess inventory reduced. Local government borrowing frameworks are being improved, and a blueprint for reforming central-local fiscal relations has been published. The creation of new businesses has tripled since the 2014 reform. Data weaknesses have been recognized, with actions taken to improve integrity. "While some near-term risks have receded, reform progress needs to accelerate to secure medium-term stability and address the risk that the current trajectory of the economy could eventually lead to a sharp adjustment," he said. "This means switching faster from investment to consumption; increasing the role of market forces; implementing a more sustainable macro policies mix, continuing the regulatory tightening; tackling nonfinancial sector debt; and further improving policy frameworks," he said. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com Ruling out the possibility of renegotiating the Paris climate agreement, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday pledged that the EU will cooperate with China in tackling global warming despite the US withdrawal from the pact. Juncker told the European Parliament that implementing the Paris deal was a key topic at his summit meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on June 2. Hours ahead of the meeting, US President Donald Trump announced that United States would drop out of the Paris agreement, in which his predecessor Barack Obama had put tremendous efforts. "As the European Union, we will step up our climate diplomacy and collaboration with other partners," said Juncker at a debate on Trump's withdrawal. "For instance, climate action was a key topic of the EU-China summit." Juncker has said that China, the EU and Canada will be organizing a major conference in September to implement the Paris agreement and accelerate the clean energy transition. China and the EU have both included deepened cooperation on climate change in their documents on the summit though they had not made public an anticipated joint statement on climate change during the summit. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last week that while preparing for the summit, the Chinese side acted in a positive, practical and flexible manner and engaged in negotiating a joint statement with the EU on climate change. "Although negotiation at the working level over the text of the statement was not finished in time, it did not stop China and the EU from reaching consensus and achieving positive outcomes at the summit," she said. "China and the EU have so much consensus on combating climate change that having not released a joint statement won't hamper bilateral cooperation in this regard." Hua said China stands ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the EU in such fields as combating climate change, clean energy and green and low-carbon economy and promoting the implementation of the Paris agreement and working for progress on global climate governance. Juncker also said the EU is disappointed and regrets the decision by Trump, but the abandonment of Paris agreement by the US administration will not mean the end of the accord. "I am convinced that it will make the rest of the world more united and determined to work towards the full implementation of the Paris Agreement," Juncker said. "The European Union will not renegotiate the Paris agreement. The 29 articles of the agreement must be implemented and not renegotiated." Juncker said climate action does not need more distractions as the world has spent 20 years negotiating. "Now it is the time for action, now it is the time for implementation," he said. Juncker said the European Union will be ready to send a clear message on climate change at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, in early July. "We will work hard to have a clear message coming out of the G20 summit in July or at least from 19," Juncker said. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani also said climate change is one the most pressing global challenges that the world faces. "Simply put, the US administration's decision is a mistake. By working together with nations around the world we can successfully deliver a cleaner and safer planet to our citizens," he said. Montana State Parks will host a program in honor of the 141st anniversary of the Battle of the Rosebud at Rosebud Battlefield State Park on Saturday, June 17, at 2 p.m. Special guests will include Northern Cheyenne President Lawrence Jace Killsback, Vice President Conrad Fisher, and executive assistant Brandon Woodenlegs. Also known as Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, the site is a National Historic Landmark. The program will be presented in Cheyenne and English. Following the presentation visitors are invited to a picnic lunch and can hike to the petroglyphs and explore the park. A 21-year-old man has been rushed to a hospital after being severely burned after a fall into a Yellowstone National Park hot spring late Tuesday. The incident occurred in the Lower Geyser Basin off Fountain Flat Drive just north of the Old Faithful area. Gervais Dylan Gatete, a Xanterra Parks and Resorts employee from Raleigh, North Carolina, was with seven other people when he fell. The group began driving Gatete to receive medical aid but just before midnight they flagged down a ranger near Seven Mile Bridge on the West Entrance Road. Park staff provided medical assistance and transported Gatete via ambulance to the airport in West Yellowstone. From there he was flown to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. Hospital spokeswoman Suzanne Winchester said he was in critical but stable condition. Since rangers were not at the scene when Gatete was injured it is not yet clear where and how it occurred, so the investigation is continuing. Yellowstones thermal features are dangerous, said park superintendent Dan Wenk. We continually stress that people must stay on trails and boardwalks in geyser basins, not only to protect resources, but for their own safety. The ground in hydrothermal areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface. This is the first serious injury in a thermal area this year in Yellowstone. Last June, 23-year-old Oregon tourist Colin Scott left the boardwalk and died after slipping into a hot spring in Norris Geyser Basin. In August 2000 a man died after he and two people received severe burns from falling into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin. To learn about safety in thermal areas log on to nps.gov/yellsafety. The Associated Press contributed to this report. (Photo : US Navy) USS Sterett. Advertisement Less than a week after conducting a provocative freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) off the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, the U. S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG-104) docked today at Zhanjiang, China, headquarters of the South Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Sterett on June 9 conducted the first "joint training mission" over the South China Sea involving a coordinated patrol by two Rockwell B-1B Lancer strategic heavy bombers of the U.S. Air Force and the navy. The Sterett and USS Dewey (DDG-105) were together deployed to Asia last March. These destroyers comprise the Surface Action Group of the United StatesThird Fleet now operating in Asia. On May 25, the Dewey sailed to within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef (Panganiban Reef to Filipinos) located in the Spratly Islands some 250 west of Palawan Island in The Philippines. The navy said the USS Dewey carried out a "maneuvering drill" when it sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef to show China it isn't entitled to a territorial sea around it, said U.S. officials. The operation near Mischief Reef was the boldest U.S. challenge yet to Chinese island-building in the strategic waterway -- and apparently indicates the Trump administration's willingness to use military force against China. The Sterett is in Zhanjiang for a port visit and low level interactions with the PLAN, said the United States Third Fleet. "During the course of the port visit, sailors will conduct sporting events, ship tours, and a community relations event, along with leadership office calls and receptions with the PLAN," said a navy statement. Sterett's port visit is the first visit of a U.S. Navy warship to Zhanjiang since 2015 and the first port visit by a U.S. ship to a mainland Chinese port this year. "This visit is an exciting opportunity to promote maritime cooperation and reinforce a navy-to-navy relationship with our People's Liberation Army Navy counterparts," said Commander Claudine Caluori, Sterett's commanding officer. The Third Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and constantly coordinates with the United States Seventh Fleet to plan and execute missions based on their complementary strengths to promote peace, security, and stability throughout the Pacific theater of operations. Advertisement TagsUSS Sterett (DDG 104), Freedom of Navigation Operation, FONOP, South China Sea, Zhanjiang, South Sea Fleet, People's Liberation Army Navy, USS Dewey (DDG 105), United StatesThird Fleet (Photo : Philippine Navy) Two Beechcraft TC-90 surveillance aircraft from Japan arrive in the Philppines. Advertisement Japan's strategy of building-up its military strength to counter China also includes a plan to boost sales of its military equipment to Southeast Asian countries, especially those standing-up to China. Japan will host a meeting on June 15 with defense officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss the sharing of military equipment and technology, said Hideaki Watanabe, head of the Acquisition Technology and Logistics Agency of the Japan Ministry of Defense. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Watanabe said there have been aggressive attempts by China in recent years to change the status quo, a reference to China's building of artificial islands in disputed areas of the South China Sea and China's claim ownership of Japan's Sekaku Islands in the East China Sea. "It is essential to maintain the open and stable sea under the rule of law," said Watanabe. "Ensuring safety of navigation and flight contributes to the peace and prosperity of Japan and international society. Japan's research and development of high-quality defense equipment contributes to the defense of Japan and elsewhere." Japan's defense industry is worth $16.3 billion annually. Japan, however, restricts arms exports under its post-World War II pacifist Constitution. The threat from China has seen a relaxing of these prohibitions. Japan is vigorously promoting the transfer of defense equipment to Southeast Asian countries. These equipment sales or donations are intended to boost the maritime security capabilities of ASEAN member states amid China's illegal aggression into the South China Sea. Japan, however, had had only one military transaction with ASEAN nations thus far: the lease of Beechcraft TC-90 surveillance aircraft to the Philippines. The TC-90 is the military version of the Beechcraft King Air family of utility aircraft. Under the agreement with the Philippines, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) will lease at least five TC-90 aircraft that will conduct maritime patrols. Philippine Navy pilots will also be trained in Japan to fly the aircraft. The first two TC-90s were delivered to the Philippines in March with the remaining three to be delivered by March 2018. Advertisement TagsJapan, southeast asia, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, Hideaki Watanabe, Beechcraft TC-90 surveillance aircraft, Philippines, Philippine Navy (Photo : Chinamil) Gen. Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, meets with Spanish soldiers. Advertisement The People's Liberation Army (PLA) announced its willingness to strengthen cooperation with the Spanish Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Espanolas) and to elevate the military relations between both armed forces. The intent was made known by Gen. Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), who is currently in Spain at the invitation of the Spanish Armed Forces. Gen. Fan has met with Spanish Defense Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal in Madrid. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Military-to-military relations are an important part of China-Spain relations, said Gen. Fan. He also noted that bilateral military relations between both armed forces have developed smoothly in recent years, and their pragmatic cooperation in such fields as military training, exchange of naval ship visits and military education has yielded remarkable results. Cospedal said Spain attaches great importance to developing the military-to-military relations with China. The country hopes to carry out pragmatic cooperation in anti-terrorism and peacekeeping operations. It also looks forward to the bilateral defense cooperation agreement to be signed in the future so as to push forward better relations between the two armed forces. Gen. Fan also met with high-ranking Spanish defense officials and visited the Defense Staff Headquarters; the Naval Staff Headquarters and a unit of the Spanish Army (Ejercito de Tierra). On non-military matters, Gen. Fan pointed to the developing momentum of China-Spain relations over the past few years. He said that Chinese President Xi Jinping met recently with King Felipe VI of Spain in Astana and Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy in Beijing. He said these leaders reached important consensuses on pushing forward cooperation in the implementation of Belt and Road Initiative, and deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. Cospedal spoke highly of the Belt and Road Initiative. She said Spain thinks positively of China's important role in maintaining world peace and regional stability. Advertisement TagsPeople's Liberation Army, Spanish Armed Forces, Fuerzas Armadas Espanolas, Gen. Fan Changlong, China-Spain relations, Spanish Defense Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal A pastor who is imprisoned in Vietnam recently reported to U.S. officials the torture he has been forced to undergo. According to Christian Today, Pastor Nguyen Chinh was arrested and imprisoned in Vietnam in 2011. He was charged with evangelizing and sentenced to 11 years in prison. His wife Tran Thi Hong revealed that her husband had spoken with officials from the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh city last month even though he was advised by prison officers not to do so. He told the delegation his experiences of torture, threats and mistreatment that he has endured over six years, said Hong. I am very concerned about his poor health in solitary confinement because he is suffering severe sinusitis and high blood pressure. Chinh reported has been beaten, put in stocks, and has had shards of glass put into his food. His wife Hong also suffered under Vietnamese authorities. She was questioned and beaten for meeting a U.S. delegation on religious freedom back in March. Vietnamese officials also reportedly told Chinh that his wife was committing adultery, which she says is completely untrue. I was shocked when my husband said on May 11 that public security officials from Hanoi came to the camp and told him that I had been unfaithful. The officials asked him, Don't you know anything about your wife? and said She is committing adultery with a man. Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/PeterHermesFurian Publication date: June 14, 2017 Genie Cabrera was riding her bicycle on Rosebud Drive on April 2, carrying groceries to her home. She later reported, as she lay in the hospital with spine injuries, that she heard honking before a car rammed her, crushing her spine and leaving her paralyzed, according to court documents. Prosecutors have charged Tammy Lee Miller, 53, with running her car into Cabrera. Miller appeared in court Wednesday for a felony count of failure to stop or remain at an accident scene involving death or serious injury. After getting hit, Cabrera was sent flying off of the bicycle. Her sweatshirt was found covered in blood and hair fibers, court documents say. Using skid marks as a reference, officers determined that Miller was driving at least 41 mph, charges state. Police say Miller left the scene, but witnesses described her dark-colored Honda Accord. Another witness told police that the car was at a nearby Starbucks. The windshield on the passenger side was "caved in," court documents say. The car was spotted again at a McDonald's, where police caught up and impounded it. The registration belonged to Miller. An officer found hair fibers in the front bumper, charges state. Police arrested Miller coming out of the McDonald's. She showed no signs of alcohol impairment, charges state. According to court documents, Cabrera went into surgery with an exploded disk, head lacerations and a spine that was crushed in two places. She was paralyzed from the waist down, the documents state. Cabrera told an officer that she remembered seeing a dark Honda driving away from the crash scene as she lay on the ground. An online fundraising page was set up to benefit her. Miller will enter a plea at a later date. Suspected Al Shabaab militants walked into an elementary school compound in northeastern Kenya on May 31 and shot a Christian teacher to death, sources said. Elly Oloo Ojiema was shot at Fafi Primary School in Fafi, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Garissa. The suspected Al Shabaab militants entered the school compound and right away fired on the teacher who was teaching the pupils, one of the sources said. The suspected members of the Somali rebel group kidnapped another Christian teacher, Joseph Kamau, along with a Muslim teacher who tried to defend him, the sources said. Trying to shield the Kenyan Christian, the Muslim teacher of Somali descent told the assailants he would die with him, according to a Somali Muslim teacher who requested anonymity. The Al Shabaab got angry, the teacher told Morning Star News, and told the teacher, We are going to teach you a lesson for protecting the infidels, and immediately the two were carried away to unknown destination. Ojiema was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Kamau belongs to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). Before escaping with Kamau, the militants beat Muslims of Somali descent at the school for housing Kenyan Christians. We are sounding a warning to you that we shall not take lightly you who are accommodating these infidels, one of the attackers said, according to a local source. The incident has increased fears among Christians in Garissa, already on edge after years of guerrilla assaults by Somali rebels fighting the government in Somalia. A pastors fellowship in Garissa met on June 2 and called on the Kenyan government to provide more security, the chairman of the fellowship told Morning Star News by phone. Officials promised to send security guards to protect worship services, he said. Kenya Defense Forces personnel have been deployed in the area to defend against Al Shabaab attacks. We are living in a very fragile environment where Al Shabaab attacks can happen at any time, he said. Al Shabaab militants have ramped up attacks on Kenyan soil this month, targeting Kenyan workers from the interior and security personnel and increasingly planting Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) along roadsides. IEDs reportedly claimed the lives of at least 10 people, most of them police officers, in a three-week period starting in late May. The attacks have caused an education crisis in Garissa County, on the border with Somalia, as many teachers have fled the area. The county also lost many teachers after a massacre of 148 people at Garissa University College on April 2, 2015. Rebels from Al Shabaab, which is allied with Al Qaeda, have launched several attacks in northeast Kenya since Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in October 2011 in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenyas coast. Kenya ranked 18th on Christian support organization Open Doors 2017 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.o rg/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/don ate/ ? Dozens of Iraqi nationals have been arrested for potential deportation, many of them including Christians, in Detroit on Sunday, according to numerous reports. Many estimates say about 40 have been arrested, while some reports estimate as many as 80. The arrests come as a result of an agreement made between the U.S. and Iraq. Though Iraq was initially one of the countries from which Trumps executive order banned travel, the U.S. had taken the country off the list in a new, revised executive order. In return, Iraq told the U.S. it would receive Iraqi nationals that were deported from the U.S. For many of those who were arrested over the weekend, however, being sent back to Iraq a country they may not have been to in decades means certain torture or death, advocates say. Their lack of fluency in the language is one of the telltale signs of their life in America, and those who are Christian face an even greater risk. These are Christians that will be slaughtered as they arrive in Iraq, Mark Arabo, president of the Minority Humanitarian Foundation, told CNN. Its inhuman, its unfathomable, its unbelievable and we will file a federal lawsuit asking for a stay. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said in a statement that those who have been arrested have criminal records. As part of ICEs efforts to process the backlog of these individuals, the agency recently arrested a number of Iraqi nationals, all of whom had criminal convictions for crimes including homicide, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, drug trafficking, robbery, sex assault, weapons violations and other offenses, ICE said. Each of these individuals received full and fair immigration proceedings, after which a federal immigration judge found them ineligible for any form of relief under U.S. law and ordered them removed. Advocates argue that many have already completed sentences for their crimes. I understand these are criminals, but they paid their dues, Eman Jajonie-Daman, a Detroit immigration attorney, told Reuters. But we cannot send them back to die. Nahidh Shaou, a U.S. veteran who served a 35-year sentence for shooting and wounding a police officer, is among those who may be deported, Christianity Today reports. Shaous niece, Tiara Shaya, told Christianity Today that his Christian faith, his Chaldean ethnicity, his veteran status will be among the reasons he will be targeted if he is sent back to Iraq. I see it as a death sentence. I really dont know how he could survive with the combination of targets on his back, she added. Reports say that about 1,400 Iraqi nationals are currently on the docket to be deported, and some estimate that over 300 of those listed are Christians. The Scottish Episcopal Church voted on June 8 to remove language in its canon which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and opening up marriage within the denomination to same-sex couples, making it the first mainstream denomination in the UK to do so. Previously, the denominations Canon on Marriage included a clause defining marriage as a physical, spiritual and mystical union of one man and one woman. The vote removes this clause, and includes a new clause saying, In the light of the fact that there are differing understandings of the nature of marriage in this church, no cleric of this church shall be obliged to conduct any marriage against their conscience. The change required a two-thirds majority vote in the General Synod, and the vote showed a significant majority in favor of removing the definition of marriage. Eighty percent of bishops, 68 percent of clergy, and 80 percent of laity voted in favor of doing so. We affirm that we are a church of diversity and difference, bound together by our oneness in Christ, the Scottish Episcopal Church said in a statement. We shall carry forward in our life two honourable and historic understandings of marriage one which sees the marriage of same sex couples as an expression of Christ-like acceptance and welcome and another which says that the traditional view of marriage is God-ordained and scripturally defined. That is the journey. That is now the calling of this church. We must and we shall address it with truth, graciousness and acceptance of one another, it added. The change also marks the Scottish Episcopal Churchs departure from the official position of the Anglican Communion, which sanctioned the U.S. Episcopal Church in 2016 when it decided to accept same-sex marriages. Advocates of authorizing same-sex marriages applauded the move. Jayne Ozanne, an advocate for LGBT rights in the Church of England, said that she is thrilled, and praised the Scottish Episcopal Church for making the change in a graceful and sensitive way, recognizing the differing views on how we interpret scripture, she was quoted as saying by The Guardian. Meanwhile, upholders of the traditional definition of marriage expressed they are broken by the change, as the Rev Canon Ian Ferguson of the Aberdeen dioscese was quoted as saying by the Telegraph. The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion said the recent move is a departure from the faith and teaching upheld by the overwhelming majority of Anglican provinces on the doctrine of marriage. Kristie Anyabwile is glad to be a pastors wifebut if theres one thing shes wary of, its being a churchs first lady. Of course, when she married her husband Thabiti after his conversion to Islam in 1991, few prospects could have been further from Kristies mind. But then the unexpected happened: After hearing the gospel preached during a visit to the neighborhood church, Kristie and Thabiti both became Christians. By 2005, Thabiti had joined their churchs pastoral staffand Kristie, whod never envisioned herself as a pastors wife, suddenly became one. She was understandably apprehensive. In the Baptist churches she attended growing up, ministers spouses faced a good deal of pressure themselves. Co-pastors, piano players, and childrens ministry leaders, their place at their husbands sides was more than an unpaid support role: It was a second job piled high with expectations and weighed down by scrutiny. I didnt want that stereotype, she says. Instead of falling prey to labels and pigeonholes, shes since rooted her identity in her calling as a Christian, wife, mother, and servant of the local churchspecifically, she notes, in that order. She now supports Thabiti as he pastors Washington, D.C.s Anacostia River Church, discipling other women even as she writes and speaks about her own experiences as a wife, mother, and follower of Jesus. On todays episode of The Calling, CT managing editor Richard Clark sits down with Kristie to learn more about how she balances the public expectations of supporting her husband with the private demands of raising a familyall while still ... 1 Australia is one of the most secular countries in the world. While 60 percent of the population identifies as Christian, only 15 percent are connected to a church, and probably even fewer attend a church with any regularity. Australia has more Buddhists than Baptists, and 22 percent of its people claim no religion. What is more, Australia has never had a glorious Christian heritage. Except perhaps for Billy Grahams 1959 visit, which did lead to a temporary spike in church affiliation, the country has no great tradition of revival. It helps to remember that Australia was originally founded as a British penal colony, not settled by English Puritans or French Huguenots looking for religious liberty. Since federation in 1901, Australia has also been self-consciously secular, not wanting to import the Protestant-Catholic divide of the British Isles. The universities of Sydney and Melbourne were founded with explicit rules against teaching theology, and clergy were forbidden to hold academic positions. Australian secularism has been a key element in fashioning Australias unique multi-cultural and multi-faith identity. On the other hand, Australian churches have always been very important in the education and welfare sectors, operating schools, hospitals, orphanages, and hospices with government support. Australian charities like the Salvation Army are well regarded by the public, and the federal government continues to provide partial funding to faith-based schools. Soft Persecution Australia, like most Western nations, has experienced intense divisions and heated debates over legalizing same-sex marriage. (Australia does not yet recognize same sex marriage.) The debates have largely pitted religious conservatives ... 1 I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up. The most-talked-about resolution at this years annual meeting of Southern Baptists initially didnt even make it to the floor. But after some late-night scrambling the night before, about 5,000 denominational leaders voted Wednesday to explicitly condemn the alt-right movement. Earlier in the day, a wave of tweets from the biggest names in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), from Washington pastor Thabiti Anyabwile to Houston Bible teacher Beth Moore, made their convictions on the issue clear. They know whats at stake. Such a resolution could send a powerful message on their Christian opposition to hatred and bigotry; skipping over such a proposal could do the opposite. For years, Southern Baptists have grappled with their denominations past history of racism, and continue to work towards racial reconciliation. Failing to take the chance to condemn white supremacy could imply to outsidersand the growing non-white minority within the SBCthat Americas ... 1 Liberty Counsel Hosts Internships in Washington, D.C., VA, FL and Israel Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit ORLANDO, Fla., June 14, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Liberty Counsel is providing valuable experience through a variety of internship opportunities in Florida, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Israel. This summer, there are seven students who attend Liberty University Law School, two who attend Liberty University, as well as individual students from Antonin Scalia Law School, John Hopkins University, Taylor University and Southeastern University. Photo: 2017 Washington D.C. and Virginia Interns In Washington, D.C, students work on national and state public policy. They attend legislative hearings, research legislation, write articles and receive media training. The subject matter varies but covers the gamut of domestic and international public policy. Law students participate in litigation internships, and some participate in the Constitutional Litigation Clinic, where they work on actual cases that have national importance. Other college students receive valuable internship experience in areas of Israel, public relations, religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and marriage and family. This year, Liberty Counsel's affiliated ministry, Covenant Journey, will also host an intern from Liberty University in Israel. The internship program in Israel began last year with students who participated in a Covenant Journey tour. Liberty Counsel created Covenant Journey to take Christian college students who have leadership potential to Israel to strengthen their Christian faith and equip them to be goodwill ambassadors for the Holy Land and the Jewish people. "Liberty Counsel provides unique, practical experience to prepare students for careers in law, public policy, communications, and anything related to Israel," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "It is critical that we invest in our future generation to equip them to be world-changers," said Staver. Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics. Share Tweet Holle der Vogel (Birds Hell) Max Beckmanns Guernica In the above video actor Alan Cumming recites W. H. Audens poem, Epitaph on a Tyrant. Below, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art Jay Vincze considers Max Beckmanns ferociously visceral response to his homelands subjugation to Nazi rule In a claustrophobic cellar, all possible exits are blocked. A nightmarish episode unfolds: the torture of a naked, shackled man by a crazed pod of anthropomorphic birds, an operation overseen by a multi-breasted female, who can be seen emerging from a huge eggshell like a nightmarish jack-in-the-box. Welcome to Holle der Vogel (Birds Hell), a painting by Germanys Max Beckmann from 1937-38. His nationality and the date are crucial: Beckmann completed this scene an allegory of Nazi rule while in exile in Amsterdam. Its as ferociously visceral a work as youre ever likely to see, says Jay Vincze, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christies in London, where the painting will be offered on 27 June. This was Beckmanns personal response to the brutality and collective madness wrought by the Nazis. The artist doubtless identified with the pictures victim, who is having lines carved into his back with a knife or perhaps even being skinned. In July 1937, Hitler had launched an attack on avant-garde artists, threatening them with imprisonment or castration. Open a larger version of this image Max Beckmann (1884-1950), Holle der Vogel, 1937-38. Oil on canvas. 47 63 in (119.7 160.4 cm). Estimate on request. This work is offered in the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 27 June at Christies London DACS 2017 Nearly 600 works by Beckmann were confiscated from German galleries, and he was one of the principal artists included in the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition staged by the Nazis in Munich in a bid to name and shame those deemed to be driving forces of corruption. Fearful of further persecution, the 53-year-old Beckmann fled with his wife Mathilde to the Netherlands on 19 July 1937 the same day on which the show opened. The victim in Birds Hell, however, surely represents the decent, average German. To his left is a table on which we can see some of the good things he enjoyed before the torturers entered: a book (symbol of learning), a bunch of grapes (symbol of charity) and a candle (symbol of enlightenment). To 21st-century viewers, this scene of unhinged, ornithological attack calls to mind Alfred Hitchcocks classic movie, The Birds. For Beckmann, his artistic inspirations were the hellish, medieval visions of Northern European painters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Matthias Grunewald. The demon-in-chief in Birds Hell occupies centre stage. Its not entirely clear whether she's screaming or smiling crudely. She doesnt represent Adolf Hitler so much as personify the National Socialist party as a whole, raising her right arm in a Sieg Heil salute. Newly hatched, she signifies a horrifying new era. It was an artistic response to the destruction of his homeland by a political evil. But it works on both a specific and a universal level For some celebrity dads, a caterer might be needed for the Father's Day cookout just to help make enough food for all of their children. Being a dad is one thing, but being a celebrity dad to five or more kids deserves another level of attention. Despite talks of declining fertility rates in the U.S., these famous fathers are working overtime to repopulate where their peers may have lapsed. Before the Rev. Jayson Nicholson went to seminary, he had another career in mind. I was going to go to physician assistant school, he said recently, sitting in a conference room at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Laurel. I was starting to work on the prerequisites for that. But a combination of mentoring by a campus pastor at San Diego State University and the opportunity to help a grieving family pushed him in a new direction. He became a pastor. I realized that I have certain gifts and talents to be present for people in a time of need, to provide comfort, he said. That got me thinking of a different path and that ended up leading to seminary. Nicholson, in his first assignment at the small Laurel church, is bucking a trend. The 30-year-old is part of an increasingly rare breed of young clergy who are leading churches in the United States. According to a Barna study, conducted in partnership with Pepperdine University, the median age of Protestant pastors in 2017 is 54 up from 44 in a study conducted in 1992. Other statistics Barna shared: Only one in seven pastors is younger than 40, and half are older than 55. The percentage of church leaders 65 and older has nearly tripled, which means there are more pastors in the oldest age bracket than those under 40. Aging pastors in Montana A check with a trio of religious leaders in Montana shows the trend holds up among Methodists, Lutherans in at least one denomination and the United Church of Christ. Among 34 UCC pastors in the Montana-Northern Wyoming Conference, 20 are older than 55 and only one is 35 or younger. Among the ELCA clergy in the Montana Synod, eight are 30 or younger and 79 are 60 or older. In the UMCs Yellowstone Conference, the average age is 56, with the youngest pastor 29 and the oldest, 69. The majority of pastors fall into the 61 to 70 age group, said the Rev. David Burt, assistant to the bishop of the UMCs Mountain Sky Area. This month, more UMC pastors retired than were ordained at the conferences annual meeting. Were losing five and gaining three, so were still working backwards, Burt said. Thats sort of our reality. There are different reasons for the increasing number of older pastors and why fewer younger clergy are coming in to take their place. One, Barna said, is that people are living longer, and another is that the percentage of second-career clergy has been increasing over the past two decades. Additionally, Burt said, the economic downturn the United States experienced in 2008 had an impact. Ive had some people look at do I want to retire now? Maybe Ill put in a few more years, Burt said. Theres also the Baby Boomer bulge, said the Rev. Jessica Crist, bishop of the ELCAs Montana Synod. A lot of Boomers went to seminary in the 1970s for reasons ranging from a draft deferral to a genuine desire to improve society and do the Lords work. Also in the 70s, our denomination opened our doors to women pastors, Crist said. Not that women came to seminary in droves, and not that it was easy, but there was more of a sense that this career is available to other people than white men. Marc Stewart, conference minister for the UCCs Montana-Northern Wyoming Conference, suggests another economic factor might keep congregations from choosing a young pastor. As churches are not as large as they used to be, they cannot afford a seminary-educated pastor, he said. Particularly those right out of seminary that may have $40,000 to $80,000 in school loans. A lot of UCC churches also have gone from full-time to part-time ministers, Stewart said. So they are no longer able to afford somebody with a family, maybe a young family looking to settle down, looking for more than part-time, he said. And larger churches may be more inclined to hire a seasoned pastor over one with less experience. Education cost The cost of seminary may also be a reason fewer young people are seeking to become pastors, or at least going through the traditional route to get there, Crist said. When I went to divinity school people came out debt-free because it was cheaper and there was a lot of help to get through, she said. Now it costs as much to go to seminary as it does to go to law school. You go to law school, you have income potential; you go to seminary, you have debt potential. Overall, enrollment in seminary is down, and far fewer people are going, Crist said, adding its that way across denominations. The Rev. Mark Morgenstern, 64, pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Shepherd, retired after a full career as a pastor and then returned at the behest of Crist as interim pastor at Emmanuel. With Crists approval, the congregation asked him to stay on, and he agreed. "They couldn't afford my years of experience, but we worked out a deal," Morgenstern said. "Financially (my wife and I) weren't wealthy, but we weren't hurting, and I've always loved rural ministry." He recalls that for him, seminary tuition originally was about $400 a semester, and then maybe went up to $600 by the time he was done. They encouraged home congregations you grew up in to help pay for your education, which mine did, with the main expense being books, he said, sitting inside the small, white clapboard church building. I actually came out with very little debt at that time. Contrast that with Nicholson and the Rev. Sami Pack-Toner, 29, newly ordained pastor with the United Methodist Church. She just completed two years on a probationary status serving Choteau United Methodist Church, was ordained on Saturday and will soon co-pastor two churches in Helena. Pack-Toner, active in her Sheridan church growing up, attended Duke Divinity School in North Carolina, where she earned her master of divinity degree. She also is left with quite a bit of debt. Its just the reality of seven years of college these days, she said. And I think that is definitely a thing that stops people. Nicholson, who grew up in San Diego, went to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. Despite the many scholarships he received, he still has huge student loan debt. Fortunately, because of the income-based repayment plan for student loans, Im able to make payments and stay good, he said. If not for that option, I dont know how Id be able to take this job. Our Saviors Lutheran has a weekly attendance of about 80 people. Newly ordained and in his second month at the Laurel church, Nicholson is meeting with members of the congregation and learning about the community, even attending school board and city council meetings. At the same time, he is a chaplain candidate for the U.S. Navy, which could eventually allow him to serve in the Chaplain Corps Reserves, or go on active duty after he completes his tenure in Laurel. If he chooses the reserves option, it could supplement his salary as a pastor. Following a spouse Theres another factor that comes into play, he said. My girlfriend is in medical school, Nicholson said The reality is if the relationship gets to the point where were married, Im probably going to have to go where her job dictates. Shes going to be making the big money. He sees the way pastors are assigned in the ELCA as more of a 1950s model, when most of the seminary graduates were single white males, or married men with wives who didnt work outside the home. Nicholsons graduating class was 75 percent female, and were still trying to fit our candidates in that old model. That can deter young seminarians from seeking church assignments. They have spouses with higher-paying jobs who may be limited geographically, and which forces them to seek an exception for where they will serve. Many candidates asking for that almost feel like they have to ask for a favor, for permission, instead of the church saying we recognize the complexity of this reality in your life. Let us help you figure it out, Nicholson said. Pack-Toners husband, Shane, a locomotive electrician, has worked for Montana Rail Link in Helena for about a year. The two have commuted back and forth between Choteau and Helena to see each other. With her assignment to Helena, they will be together, at least for now. A committee decides where pastors will serve, and Pack-Toner believes they will take into account her familys needs, as well as those of the conference. Its not always possible, she said. I trust they will take it into account more often than not. Other reasons In a time when fewer millennials are finding their way into churches, Burt, of the UMC, said cultural struggles may keep some of those who do attend from stepping into ministry. The mainline denomination is just the latest to grapple with allowing actively gay people to serve as clergy or in other leadership positions. Especially with our younger folks, they may not be gay, but they say until the system changes, theyre not going to become involved because its discriminatory, Burt said. Another factor may be that the younger generation is choosing to look outside the box when it comes to ministry. The idea of being the pastor of a church doesnt excite them, he said. They want to be involved in ministry doing a lot of outreach in their community. For Nicholson, mentoring made all the difference. He earned a bachelors degree in kinesiology in 2010 and intended to teach PE and health science. But it was the height of the Great Recession, and teaching didnt seem like a viable option. Around the same time he was considering becoming a physician assistant, his campus pastor threw out another idea. He invited me to stay at the campus ministry, to live and work there and do some intentional discernment, Nicholson said. And what started out as intending to be one year turned into two. Through that, he was asked to help a family when their son, his classmate, was found dead while studying abroad in Spain. His role in comforting the family was like a tap on the shoulder that sent him to seminary, and now, to Montana. Initially I didnt see it in myself, I didnt know I had the capacity, he said. It took voices over the years that said we see you as a leader and see you have leadership possibilities and kept inviting me to training. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Christian Kidd had shoulder surgery in January, a particularly problematic procedure for a guitarist. That was just the beginning of his troubles. Post-op, the frontman for the Hates dealt with a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes that persisted. Doctors found a tumor at the base of his tongue, which turned out to be Stage 3 squamous cell carcinoma. Houston's music scene is a tightly wound one. And few bands here have earned as much reverence as the Hates - self-described as the city's "oldest continuously playing unsigned punk band" - which are just a year shy of their 40th anniversary. Kidd in particular is a beloved institution, oft-seen smiling atop his Vespa in Montrose in a leather skeleton jacket with his Crayola-colored hair pushed into a mohawk or twisted into liberty spikes. More Information Christian Kidd benefit concerts Thursday at Walter's Downtown: Another Run, Mydolls, Rose Ette, Talking Forever, Birthday Club, The Daphne Blue (Formerly Valens), Sergio Trevino. (7:30 p.m., all ages, $10-$15) Friday at The Secret Group: Trillblazers, Black Kite, Guilla, Tee Vee, Kyle Hubbard, Pitter Patter. (7 p.m., all ages, $10-$13) Saturday at Rockefeller's: The Satanic Overlords of Rock N Roll, The Cops, Ruiners, Funeral Horse, Frog Hair, Turnaways, Since Always. (7:30 p.m., all ages, $12-$15) Sunday at Big Star Bar: B L A C K I E & Moths. (7:30 p.m., all ages, pay what you can) See More Collapse So benefit concerts have abounded to help Kidd and his wife, Alexis, get by as he undergoes treatment. Hates drummer and Houston Press contributor David Ensminger was first to get some events going. He organized a Rock for Light show at Rudyard's last month and has been auctioning off old rock relics. And this week, Free Press Houston writer David Garrick organized a large-scale benefit: seven shows over seven days at seven clubs with more than 30 bands - spanning decades of Houston's music scene - performing. "Before Joe Strummer died, I got to meet him, and I talked to him about the Clash," Garrick says. "And he told me he saw the band as 'just guys helping out our people. That's what people do.' And that really stuck with me. That's what I look at this as: just our people helping out our people." Garrick had been kicking around the idea of devising a week of music patterned after Austin's Free Week. When he heard Kidd was ill, he altered the idea to make it a benefit. And Garrick - a dedicated night fly whose attendance at shows by Houston bands is without peer - threw out a wide net with performers dating back to the Hates' punk rock peers the MyDolls and running through acts like Los Skarnales and the Flamin' Hellcats to more recent performers like B L A C K I E, Dollie Barnes and Rose Ette. Monday was the opening night of the seven shows, held at Insomnia Gallery. "When you're in a small town - and Houston isn't a small town, but it is in a lot of ways - the musical community can be difficult to break into. But Christian was always one of those guys who invited everybody. 'Come play with us.' And the history here ran from blues and country to cover bands. He was a big part of why people started booking locals making their own music. "A lot of what we have wouldn't be here if not for this one person. And just about every band in town now has played with the Hates." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A cab driver is injured after several robbery suspects ambushed him while likely on a crime spree late Tuesday in southwest Houston. Police estimate about four to five robbers - described only as young males - arrived about 11:35 p.m. at an apartment complex at Elm and Rampart, said Lt. Larry Crowson with the Houston Police Department. They tried to rob the cab driver, who was in the parking lot of the complex, standing outside of his parked taxi. During the course of the robbery, one of the suspects shot the cab driver once in the stomach, Crowson said. The cab driver was taken to an area hospital. He is expected to survive, Crowson said. The robbers then ran out of the complex and headed south on Rampart on foot. Shortly after, police responded to a second robbery call about half a mile away in the 6000 block of Gulfton, said Victor Senties, HPD spokesman. At least five robbers - likely the same that approached the cab driver - approached a man who was walking toward his car. One of the robbers pulled out a gun and demanded the man's belongings. Another robber put on brass knuckles, Senties said. The man was hit by a closed fist by one of the suspects. All then fled the scene. Police lacked early Wednesday a good description of the suspects. Police did not identify the cab driver or the man injured in the second robbery. A woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe has filed a lawsuit against a former nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital who is charged with sexually assaulting her last year while she was a patient. The former nurse, Allen Michael Uribes, 27, is identified as the defendant in the civil lawsuit. He was criminally charged with sexual assault after a lab report in February 2017 determined that his DNA was present in the sample obtained from the 45-year-old victim following the alleged attack on June 30, 2016. That case is pending. The woman was in the hospital to be treated for a diabetic condition. According to the lawsuit, she notified the nurse's station when she noticed the area around her catheter was bleeding. She said Uribes began touching her and when she complained, he said the rubbing was "therapeutic" and wouldn't stop. He then dragged her to the edge of the bed and sexually assaulted her, according to the lawsuit. "During this time, (the woman) froze in shock, unable to prevent the contact," the lawsuit stated. She immediately reported what happened to a female staffer at the hospital. "My client entered Methodist Hospital for medical treatment and left with the pain and torment of the horrific actions of this hospital employee," the woman's attorney, Darrell Apffel, said in a statement. Uribes was released from custody after posting $30,000 bond. He was fired from the hospital after the indictment. Although Houston Methodist is not identified as a defendant in the lawsuit, the hospital could still face potential legal action, the woman's lawyers said. A juvenile is injured after being shot Tuesday night in the stomach in southwest Houston. Police headed around 9 p.m. to a home in the 5900 block of Bissonnet where they found the juvenile already injured, said Lt. Larry Crowson with the Houston Police Department. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Colorado family has turned to crowd funding to help them out of a situation that stinks. A GoFundMe account created on June 2 called "Operation De-Skunk the Britton Home" claims a skunk entered Aaron and Jody Britton's home on May 25 and "immediately startled and began a spraying spree. It sprayed multiple times, in multiple areas of our home." SAVED: Texas woman stops traffic to save iguana wandering down Northwest Side street The Britton's are still struggling to de-skunk their house, nearly three weeks later. "We hired ServPro and they got to work for the next three days trying to clean and air out our house (as the smell penetrated EVERYTHING in our home)," the GoFundMe page reads. "They removed the furniture, rugs, curtains, pillows, and any other porous items from the areas that were hit the hardest to try and clean them. None of it could be saved." The adventurous skunk has cost the family $9,766 so far and may end up costing more. Cleaning professionals told the family that the skunk's oils most likely have penetrated the wood floors and drywall of their Broomfield home. If true, the Brittons estimate they may have to pay around $18,000 to rid their home of the skunk smell. STINK BUSINESS: Run-in with skunk leads to business venture The page has raised $2,935 of its $18,000 goal as of Tuesday. Skunk odor removal can be a difficult task, depending on how strong the spraying was. According to the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management, clothing can be soaked in weak solutions of chloride bleach or ammonia. If you're on a camping trip, smoking the sprayed clothing over a fire may help. Vinegar and tomato juice can help battle the smell, too. Click through the gallery above for the ultimate guide on surviving the Texas wildlife. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For more than a century, generations of Conroe boys and men have looked to the barber shops housed in the "Little Jack West Building" for a clean cut, close shave and clever conversation. According to Larry Foerster, Montgomery County Historical Society Commission chairman, the building that the barber shop is in, has had the distinction of being the oldest barber shop in continuous use in Montgomery County and perhaps even the state. The old building, constructed in 1911 and then known as the "Little Jack West Building," has been consistently used as a barber shop since 1912. BASEBALL: America's pastime has a rich history in Montgomery County The building's beginnings There's no doubt that a massive fire on Feb. 21, 1911 was a major turning point in the city's young history. According to a narrative history drafted by Foerster and Sharon R. Russell with help from Old Republic Title of Conroe, 65 wooden structures on the east and south side of the courthouse square were destroyed in the blaze. OLD AND NEW: Two churches have been going strong for more than 100 years Conroe citizens quickly began to rebuild and new buildings were constructed of brick in compliance with a February 23, 1911 "Fire Limits" Ordinance prohibiting combustible buildings in downtown Conroe. Among the new structures was a two-story brick building constructed by Pete West and his son, Jack West, called the West Building at the time. Today that building houses The Corner Pub. A second smaller building was later constructed next to the West Building using bricks leftover from the construction of the West Building. It was called the "Little Jack West Building" and today houses Shepard's Barber Shop. The family ties behind the first Barber shop According to Carolyn Cryar, a cousin of the West family and respected Conroe historian, Jack West was married to Susie Uzzell and Henry Williamson married Willie Mae Frolick on Oct. 12, 1912. The history narrative describes how Susie and Willie Mae were first cousins and very close. Williamson had a barber shop on Main Street that was lost in the 1911 fire. Bob Shepard, the owner of the "Little Jack West Building" said Jack West must have felt for his wife's family and decided to help by building a little shop to replace the one that Williamson had lost in the fire. The smaller building was constructed of red brick that was left over from the construction of the West Building next door. It's estimated in the narrative that the building was completed in late 1911. According to Shepard's interviews with long-time Conroe residents, Williamson operated the four-chair barbershop until 1938 when he sold it to Stovall Thomas. Shepard's path to becoming a barber Shepard's father was working at a mill along FM 2854 when Shepard was born in 1935 and was delivered at home by the mill doctor, Dr. Bartell. A few short years later, his family moved back to the Conroe townsite and Shepard attended Conroe schools. In his high school years, many of Shepard's buddies were going off to join the Army. While Shepard's mother wouldn't agree to the Army, she did agree to sign the papers for him to enlist in the Air Force. Shepard served as a medic stationed in the Shreveport, La. area. While working as a medic, one of his co-workers convinced him that he should go to barber's college and get his license so he could earn some extra money while he was going to college with help from the G.I. Bill. Shepard began cutting hair in the barber shop now known as Shepard's Barber Shop in 1959 when it was owned and operated by Stovall Thomas. In 1968, Thomas sold the barber shop business to Warren Stubblefield, who owned the shop until Shepard bought the business in 1971. At the time, Shepard leased the building from the West family. The legacy of a young barber A young Leon Apostolo had grown up in the Conroe area and at 17, was trying to figure out what to do with his future. Apostolo's dad, Bernie, had a friend, R.C. McWright, who had a barber shop and told Bernie to send Leon to barber college and he'd hire him. Apostolo attended barber college in The Heights neighborhood of Houston, and after passing his exam in Lubbock, began working at a barber shop on Main Street in Conroe. He said things didn't really work out there and he was sent to see Bobby Joe Shepard, who had been a childhood friend of father Bernie's. Apostolo started at Shepard's Barber Shop in August of 1978 at the age of 17. Shepard and fellow barber Mark Slaughter mentored Apostolo and the torch has now been passed on to Apostolo who owns Shephard's Barber Shop. Apostolo bought the shop from Shepard when Shepard retired in 2013. Working with people Both Apostolo and Shepard conclude that they've cut three-and-four generations of hair for some Conroe families. And there's pictures on their memorabilia wall of great-grandfathers, grandfathers, sons and grandsons all standing together with the barbers of the shop. Shepard said there's no telling how many first haircuts have taken place in the shop. And in some instances those children are now returning as grown men to have their hair trimmed. Apostolo and Shepard agree that meeting people and hearing their stories is one of the the things they enjoy most about being a barber. "I really enjoy meeting a lot of interesting people and hearing a lot of interesting stories," Apostolo said. He added he gets a real sense of satisfaction from making someone look good and feel good. "That's rewarding, when they compliment me and say 'Man, that looks good,' that makes me feel good," Apostolo said. "That's why I take pride in my work and it makes me want to do my best to make them look and feel good. That's my reward." In June 2000, Shepard purchased the building from owners Billy Mark McKnight, Mark West McKnight and Susie Rose McKnight, the grandchildren of Jack West. In March 2007, Shepard executed a facade easement and conservation right agreement with the city of Conroe. A grant helped restore and renovate the facade. Although the faces of the barbers have changed throughout the years, the style, nostalgia and friendly service and banter remain. Much information in this report is credited to an application for an official Montgomery County Historical Marker for Shepard's Barber Shop by Larry L. Foerster and Sharon R. Russell with assistance from Old Republic Title of Conroe, and presented to the Montgomery County Historical Commission. Also of note, the shop was given the first Montgomery County Historical Marker by the historical commission in October 2015. This article first ran in The Courier in October 2015 prior to the dedication of its Montgomery County Historical Marker. Barber and owner Bob Shepard passed away on May 8, 2016. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GALVESTON After Brandy Mosley saw her 4-year-old son knocked down by a wave and struggle to regain his footing in the rough surf on Monday, she responded as any parent would. She raced into the water to help the child. Accompanied by another family member, Mosley reached her son first and pulled him from the water off Crystal Beach, on the Bolivar Peninsula. She handed him to a relative, who carried the child to safety. Then, suddenly, Brandy Mosley was swept underwater. "They turned around and noticed she was not visible," said Maj. Douglas Hudson of the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. "It happened that quick. This all happened about 25 feet from shore." The Gulf of Mexico has been unusually rough because of high winds, said Chief Sheriff's Deputy Bic Maceo, who described the water as "really churned up." He said conditions on Bolivar beaches have been similar to those on Galveston Island, where lifeguards have been flying red flags indicating dangerous swimming conditions. Beaches on Bolivar, however, don't have lifeguards. A search for Mosley was called off Tuesday after a passerby discovered a body matching her description just after sunrise on the beach closest to the Gulfport Village subdivision, about two miles from where Mosley was last seen. Authorities said they were confident the body was that of Mosley but that they'd need a fingerprint match to make a positive identification. Hudson said the drowning was the second this year on the peninsula; the other was a fisherman at Rollover Pass who waded into a strong current. Her friends and family grieved over the loss of a take-charge woman and spa business owner from Palestine who had a sunny composure and deep faith, despite having been touched by tragedy nearly two years ago. Her sister, Vanessa Melson, disappeared on June 17, 2015 and was later found to have been brutally murdered. Mosley, who also had an 11-year-old stepson, focused on her family, writing on Facebook recently: "When your 3 year old tells you, 'I'll always love you. And, I'll always keep you at my house. And, I'll always love your eyebrows,' you must be doing something right." "She was a wonderful person and a wonderful stepmother to my son and we are not ready for this, thank you," a family member said when contacted Tuesday. Mosley's cheerfulness could turn frowns into smiles, those close to her said. "Her smile was so contagious," said Charlie Tunstall, 30, a close female friend from Palestine. "If you were in a bad mood, you wouldn't be when you left her." Tunstall and Mosley worked together at Jamie's Therapeutic Touch spa in Palestine nearly a decade ago. "A couple of years after that she said, 'I'm tired of hanging around. I'm going to open my own spa,'" Tunstall recalled. Mosley founded B's Hive of Therapy Day Spa & Salon in Palestine and the business grew rapidly and expanded, Tunstall said. The growth of her business was due to her determination and leadership ability, she added. "If you told her she wasn't going to do it, she was going to do it 10 times as hard and prove you wrong," Tunstall said. When Tunstall was married in 2009, Mosley, without being asked, took charge of the wedding planning. "She made it where I literally just had to walk down the aisle," she said. Tunstall's wedding dress was so voluminous that she couldn't sit in a car seat, forcing her to lie in the back of an SUV. Mosley saw her friend's discomfort and lay in the back with her. "She said, 'I'll just be uncomfortable with you,'" Tunstall said. Mosley saw herself as putting her career first until she gave birth to her son. "She has this baby and that changed her life," Tunstall said. "She was the best mother." She often took to Facebook to thank customers for their loyalty, celebrate the joys of parenting, share spiritual posts or reflect on her sister's tragic death. "My beautiful little sister would be 30 on the 30th, today!" she wrote in late 2015. "Happy Birthday in Heaven to my sweet angel. I never thought it would be so soon. I definitely didn't think it would be too soon. Being the oldest I just expected to go first. I love and miss you everyday all day." Her sister's body was found in a shallow grave three weeks after she disappeared. Two men were charged last year with felony aggravated kidnapping in connection with her killing, KTRE reported. "Every time I drive the road from Palestine to the Crockett courthouse, I pass the road that you last traveled," Mosley wrote. "I picture you sitting there unaware of the terror you would soon face. And, I can not breathe. Then, I sit in a courtroom and stare into the face of your murderer, and I can breathe...fire," Mosley wrote last October. Mosley also loved sharing stories about her young son, as she did on April 3. "Anyone who knows me personally knows I never wanted kids. And I don't want any more, so let's not get carried away. But this morning, when Toran woke up, I said 'Good morning, Handsome' and he replied 'Good morning, my precious mama'. OH MY GOD! God's plans are always better than ours." Last week, she shared a humorous viral video entitled, "The mom I thought'd be vs. the mom I am." "I am literally a mixture of the two," she confided. "I start off so cheerful with the best of intentions, become frazzled, then feel bad and try to clean my act up, leave the house in a panic with exactly enough minutes to get to our destination and finally drop Toran off on a cheerful note. Completely bipolar. Every. Day." She also displayed a sense of humor on the social media platform. "They say men only speak 7,000 words per day compared to women's 20,000," she wrote on June 6. "Meanwhile, the gentleman in the next booth just reached his weekly limit in 30 minutes." Outpourings of sympathy were expressed on Facebook by friends and strangers. "Such a beautiful woman, I am praying for your family and the precious son you left behind... You're in Gods Hands," wrote one. "Praying for your family God bless you sweet angel. May you rest in peace. Why am I crying I don't even know you. But it breaks my heart to see someone lose their life while saving a child's life." A candlelight vigil in Palestine's Reagan Park was held Tuesday evening to remember Mosley. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 CDC Houston Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Paul S. Howell/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Harris County ranked ninth for incoming investment among about 3,100 counties nationwide in a recent study by New York-based financial tech firm SmartAsset. Texas counties claimed four of the top ten spots while no other state appeared more than once. Oil resumed its decline as industry data showed U.S. crude stockpiles extended gains and as the International Energy Agency predicted new output from OPECs rivals will exceed demand growth next year. Futures lost as much as 1.6 percent in New York after rising 1.8 percent in the previous three sessions. The American Petroleum Institute signaled U.S. crude inventories probably climbed a second week, ahead of data from the Energy Information Administration forecast to show a decline. New supplies from OPECs rivals will be more than enough to meet growth in demand next year, the IEA said in a report Wednesday. Oil is extending its slump below $50 a barrel amid speculation increasing U.S. supplies will counter production curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including non-OPEC member Russia. Output at major American shale fields will reach a record in July, according to the EIA. The market tightening intended by OPEC has thus failed to materialize, Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commmerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in a report. OPEC will therefore have to cut production further next year to ensure that the oil market is not oversupplied. West Texas Intermediate for July delivery slid as much as 74 cents to $45.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $45.93 at 11:25 a.m. in London. Total volume traded was 13 percent above the 100-day average. Prices gained 38 cents to $46.46 on Tuesday. Brent for August settlement lost as much as 70 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $48.02 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices added 43 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $48.72 on Tuesday. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.14 to August WTI. U.S. crude inventories added 2.75 million barrels last week, while gasoline stockpiles increased by 1.79 million barrels, the API said Tuesday, according to people familiar with the data. The EIA is forecast to report crude stockpiles slid 2.45 million barrels and motor fuel inventories dropped by 1.15 million barrels, according to the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey. The U.S., Brazil, Canada and other producers outside of OPEC will increase output next year by the most in four years, the IEA said in its first forecast for 2018. As a result, the need for crude from OPEC wont be high enough for the group to reverse cuts its currently making to drain a global glut. Oil-market news: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The low dais at Houston's TMCx startup incubator, a 3-year-old outgrowth of the Texas Medical Center that houses new health technology companies, is usually occupied by founders delivering pitches to investors. But on one recent evening, it was investors making the pitch. Their target: other investors. TMCx and the local accelerator Station Houston are trying to persuade wealthy people looking for investments to take a chance on the region's startups as they try to spur innovation and develop a Silicon Valley-like tech startup scene where capital mixes easily with new ideas. "We need you to join us in investing in these companies," said SnapStream Media founder Rakesh Agrawal, who himself also has made small seed investments in dozens of young businesses. Building a strong startup culture, he said, is a "group sport." Recent studies have shown that key missing ingredients in Houston's entrepreneurial ecosystem are early stage funding to get startups off the ground and venture capital later on to help them grow into businesses that can make it over the long-term. It's a problem that's common outside of tech hubs like Austin, Boston, and Silicon Valley. For Houston, say Agrawal and others working to build a startup scene, the solution is redirecting some to the wealth that abounds here. The goal: Persuade people with money to put it to work locally. RELATED: Business groups lay out plans to boost tech An audience of well-groomed businesspeople munching on catered hors d'oeuvres listened raptly as successful early-stage investors made the case for putting money into local startups. It was the first in what will become a series of programs on how to invest in very early-stage companies. A report issued this month by Ed Egan, director of the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship at Rice University, found that startups coming through existing incubators and accelerators in Houston raise venture capital at substantially lower rates than successful institutions in Silicon Valley, such as YCombinator. Part of the problem is, wealthy people in Houston interested in tech deals are perfectly capable of finding them on the east and west coasts. Marty Goossen, market manager for JPMorgan Private Bank in Houston, says his clients are used to taking risks wherever it seems the rewards are largest. "I have clients who take risk in the tech industry, but it doesn't necessarily need to be locally," Goossen says. "We know that the tech industry is based out of places like Palo Alto, Boston, and increasingly Austin. And why? Because that's where the thinkers are, that's where the innovators are, that's where the opportunities seem to be presenting themselves more frequently." The people trying to make a startup scene happen in Houston are hoping to change that perception both by showcasing promising companies and telling the story of investors who've made money by funding them. At TMCx's most recent Demo Day last week, the incubator's member companies made five-minute pitches to more than 650 attendees and 2,300 people who watched via livestream more than double the numbers from their last event in November. Anthony DeToto, senior vice president at the wealth management firm Sentinel Trust, where he oversees about $3.5 billion on behalf of 36 families, was among those at the recent Demo Day. "What's the thesis of most Houstonians?" asked DeToto, explaining one of the greatest challenges for startup seeking funding. "There's a hole somewhere in West Texas to put my money into." RELATED: In a city where bigger is better, can Houston build a startup scene? But DeToto, listening to the pitches, said he could see his clients getting interested in local tech companies as the city builds momentum behind the sector. "What's interesting to me is the mayor's office, the county, the Greater Houston Partnership, are all working together now," DeToto says. "This is in our backyard. We can't ignore it. The parties DeToto mentioned have indeed started paying attention to the startup scene, with the release of a report by Accenture several weeks ago that outlined what the city, the business community and local academic institutions ought to do in order to nurture young tech businesses The investor education series, meanwhile, is aimed at showing local wealthy people why and how to get involved, and to avoid making mistakes. A panel of experienced hands discussed what makes a promising company and which red flags to avoid. When a panelist asked how many people in the audience had lost money on startups, a smattering of hands went up. The remedy for failed investments, the speakers on the dais said, is more investments only about a third will ever deliver significant returns. And success comes with experience. Larry Lawson, who made millions by both starting and investing in medical device companies, rehearsed a long list of successful deals. His secret? "My gut instinct leads me as much as anything else," he told the audience at TMCx's investor evening. "If I have a gut instinct about a company and how many lives it may save, I latch on to that first, and then I look at the details." Station and TMCx are planning to help well-heeled Houstonians participate in deals alongside more experienced investors, so they can learn the ropes, and perhaps join a group like the Houston Angel Network down the line. And as much as Houston's civic leaders make the case that investing locally is good for Houston, that's not the main selling point. "There's a lot more money being made in life science investments than people realize," Agrawal says. "The money making is crucial. This is not for peace and free love." Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Fort Bend County's health department is investigating tuberculosis at George Bush High School, following the recent confirmation of two active cases. The department Monday hopes to test more than 600 people -- mostly students but also staff members -- possibly exposed to the bacterial disease. They were informed Wednesday of the need to have their blood drawn to determine if they contracted the contagious bacteria. "We take this very seriously," said Kaye Reynolds, deputy director of the health department. "We want to get anyone who's infected but not ill on prophylactic medicine to prevent it from progressing and those who have active disease on the proper multi-drug regimen." Health officials would not divulge any information about the individuals initially infected, citing federal privacy laws. It is unclear if the two confirmed cases at George Bush are related or occurred independently. TB is not uncommon - an estimated 20 to 30 occur annually in Fort Bend, for instance -- but Reynolds said the ones at George Bush are a cause for concern because of the potentially wide exposure. The disease is typically treated effectively with proper medication, but it takes time. Those infected but not ill take prophylactic medicine for six to nine months and those with active disease may have to take it as long as two years, though the duration is usually nine to 15 months, said Reynolds. "It's not like strep throat," she said. TB typically causes a disease of the lungs, but can affect other organs as well. Though contagious in individuals with active disease, it usually takes prolonged close contact. It is not spread as easily as a cold, flu or measles, but may be passed on if droplets coughed or sneezed into the air reach the lungs of another person. Test results should be back in about a week, said Reynolds. She encouraged those contacted -- emails and letters were sent Wednesday -- to come in for testing Monday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A line of people holding folded American flags proceeded toward a raised fire pit alight with vibrant, undulating flames outside the Crosby Knights of Columbus Hall. One by one, they placed a flag in the fire that flowed and danced in the wind, a reflection of the majestic banners it now consumed. Frank Bertone is a retired Texas State Guard colonel and retired Harris County Constable Pct. 3 assistant chief and belongs to the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus and the American Legion. Bertone served as guest speaker during the annual Flag Retirement Ceremony in Crosby on Saturday, June 10. "Each of these flags has served well," Bertone said. "These flags have inspired those who desired the taste of freedom and have represented hope to those oppressed by tyranny and terror. These flags have welcomed any and all in the name of liberty." Several local organizations collaborated to make this year's event possible, including the Knights of Columbus Sacred Heart Assembly 3435, Crosby Lions Club, American Legion Post 658, Crosby Boy Scout Troop 264 and the Knights of Columbus Council 3229. The purpose of the event is to ensure the proper disposal of the community's American flags deemed no longer serviceable. Anyone is invited to bring flags and to partake in the ceremony itself. "We get flags from all over the place," Bertone said. "Sheldon ISD just brought down a bunch of their flags that needed to be destroyed. That's what the significance of this event is. It needs to be done in a respectful manner." The ceremony included first shredding the flags into strips and folding them into triangles. The facility's flag is lowered, removed and is the first to retired in the ceremonial fire, which usually lasts a couple of hours. This year's event saw the retirement of many flags. However, when the ceremony was introduced five years ago, it became evident there had been a need for this in Crosby and surrounding communities. The first event had close to 1,000 flags and the ceremonial fire burned all day long. "The American flag flies free to the wind," Bertone said. "The American flag flies above residential porches, campsites, small businesses, corporate offices, hospitals, schools, military bases, government business and nonprofit organizations. It flies everywhere. The American flag is the most displayed and recognized banner in the world. These flags serve as constant reminders to all of us that we live in a country where our freedom has been deeply purchased by blood, sweat, tears and ultimate sacrifice." Houston's most philanthropic families came for the first annual Jude Gold Luncheon to celebrate St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, raising $72,000 for hospital. The event was held at the Hilton Post Oak. Guests enjoyed a three-course meal, silent auction, an exclusive fashion show by designer Nha Khanh, the Vietnam-born designer who was raised in Houston before settling in Dallas. Khanh donated her time and talent to showcase a 40-piece collection to kick off the event. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate To some home shoppers, downsizing typically means searching for a smaller home. For famed local chef Michael Cordua, it presented the challenge of finding two houses. Cordua and his wife, Lucia, want to be closer to their grandchildren in Austin but not too far from her thriving acupuncture/Eastern medicine practice in Houston. The chef, owner of Americas, Artista, Churrascos, and Amazon Grill, said the solution was to sell their Memorial home, currently listed at $2.89 million, and find two properties in separate cities. Although parting with their home of five years is not an easy task. They've celebrated countless memorable occasions there, and they appreciate the structure's unique layout. (STORY CONTINUES BELOW.) MIDCENTURY-MOD: Time capsule Texas homes showcase bright, retro appeal "We had seen it as a listing for about two years. Once I saw it in person, I fell in love," Cordua reminisces. "I started getting to know her intricacies and hidden features." The centerpiece of the residence is the atrium with retractable glass roof and doors. The lounge also features a projection screen to watch movies in the evening and a water feature that enhances the serenity of the space. Set in the middle of the home, the courtyard's doors slide to expose the house's surrounding interior. The space, Cordua says, offers a a fresh-air respite in the city center and facilitates family togetherness. PARTY PALACE: Mansion of Woodlands lawyer, socialite now listed for nearly half its original listing price "(We are) able to completely open up the house, from the kitchen, through the atrium, to the master bedroom. Or to selectively partition it off if we're entertaining, or the grand-kids are playing early in the morning," Cordua says. "And the retractable roof lets us really take advantage of the good days in Houston to live the indoor-outdoor life. The house is so special because of the open-air component." The 7,174-square-foot house was built in 1991 and has remained mostly the same, save for some improvements a comprehensive kitchen remodel and minor structural changes. "Now that I live here, every day I'm still discovering how much of a genius the original builder, owner and designer was," Cordua said, adding that a few updates merely customized it to suit the family's needs. "Since I'm a chef, one of the first things we did was to re-position and renovate the kitchen so that it became the altar where people commune." ONE-OF-A-KIND: Texas-based organization builds unique homes out of 'trash' They've been able to host events where as few as 10 and as many as 150 guests could gather, including a cocktail reception they once hosted for a charity. "People were up on the roof deck with the glass roof open or they were in different areas of the house, but the brilliant flow of the house makes it intimate even in that setting," he said. When asked who he'd like to see move into his beloved home, Cordua jokes that he has some people in mind. "If James Bond or Batman had a house in Houston, it would be this house," he quips. "In all seriousness, it takes someone who values tranquility and serenity in the middle of the city." Snooze opening second location Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, a fast growing culinary-driven breakfast and brunch concept, is joining the Town & Country Village at 600 West Sam Houston Pkwy N., #500. Opening Wednesday, June 21, the Snooze experience includes culinary innovation, an energetic atmosphere and friendly service. Upon its first opening in Houston in July 2016, Houston residents and visitors are fans of the Denver-born eatery's one-of-a-kind dishes that change the way breakfast and brunch are perceived. The Town & Country location will maintain the same menu, changing seasonally, as the Montrose location. Founded in 2006, the eatery aims to evolve the early morning dining experience. By encouraging diners to create their own custom combinations, Snooze's twists on classic dishes bring an end to the savory versus sweet dilemma. Snooze will be open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.snoozeeatery.com. uBreakiFix expands Houston footprint uBreakiFix opened its seventh greater Houston location on June 1 at 13421 Westheimer Road, Suite C. The fast-growing technology repair brand provides same-day repair service of all electronics, specializing in cell phone repair and computer repair at its more than 300 locations across North America. The Westchase location will join other existing uBreakiFix stores in The Heights, Rice Village, Pearland, Pasadena, Sugar Land and Webster. uBreakiFix Westchase is the first location for owner Enrique Narvaez. Narvaez has a strong background in corporate accounting and real estate and looks forward to translating his existing skills to serve users of tech. uBreakiFix was founded in 2009 by David Reiff and Justin Wetherill, a 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. The pair later partnered with Eddie Trujillo to transition their Internet-based brand to a brick and mortar tech repair alternative that was quick, affordable and provided a quality customer experience. Since its inception, the company has grown organically without debt, investors or consultants. uBreakiFix services all brands of electronics, offering phone screen repair, computer repair and more to consumers and businesses alike. To date, the company has completed more than 2.5 million repairs, including cracked screens, water damage, software issues, camera issues and most other technical problems. uBreakiFix Westchase is located at 13421 Westheimer Road, Ste. C, Houston, TX 77082 and can be reached at 346-774-2995. For more information and to view a service menu, visit ubreakifix.com. Maggiano's gives a reason to brunch After 14 years, more than $7 million raised and more than 900 wishes granted, Maggiano's Little Italy is again kicking off its annual campaign benefiting Make-A-Wish, a nonprofit organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. This year, Maggiano's is tapping into guests' favorite weekly tradition, brunch, and inviting them to "Brunch With A Purpose," where $1 will be donated to Make-A-Wish for every brunch entree ordered. Learn more about Maggiano's longstanding partnership and how you can get involved at www.maggianos.com/make-a-wish-campaign-2017. When guests choose to "Brunch With A Purpose," they will help Maggiano's meet the goal of raising more than $1 million; enough to help grant their 1,000th wish for children like Joshua, who has a progressive muscle disease. Joshua's wish is to receive a service dog to assist him with daily tasks such as opening a door, picking up dropped items and much more. Go to https://youtu.be/LlJZ3SbFHPc to learn more about Joshua and his soon-to-be service dog, Sam. For every brunch entree ordered, $1 will be donated to Make-A-Wish and for every glass of Wish Lemonade ordered $0.50 will also be donated. Order dessert from Maggiano's monthly chef's features menu to support Make-A-Wish year-round. For every featured dessert ordered, $1 is donated to the organization. To learn more, www.maggianos.com/make-a-wish-campaign-2017. Everest Medical purchases office A public pension fund and its adviser Everest Medical Properties have purchased a fully leased medical office portfolio southwest of Houston for $58 million. The properties consist of Memorial Hermann Surgical Hospital at 16902 Southwest Freeway and adjacent Physicians Pavilion in Sugar Land, and UT Physicians locations at 15035 Southwest Freeway in Sugar Land and 1517 Thompson Road in Richmond. Scott Niedergang and Gino Lollio of Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, brokered the deal. The property was purchased from a partnership including physicians and executives previously affiliated with Richmond Bone & Joint Clinic. GT USA leases warehouse GT USA has leased a 25,000-square-foot office warehouse space at 27341 Spectrum Way in Oak Ridge North Commerce Park from NSI. Marc Drumwright with Southwest Realty Advisors negotiated the lease. Trecap purchases industrial building Tim Philips with Trecap FNH Property has purchased a 12,000-square-foot industrial building at 7434 Fairbanks N. Houston Road. Jason Tangen and Trey Erwin with Colliers International represented the buyer. The seller was White Oak Industrial Park L.P. Mark Roberts signing event at the Interiors Market Mark Roberts will return to the Interiors Market for a one day signing event at 2625 Town Center Blvd., Sugar Land, TX 77974. The event is open to anyone who wishes to meet and greet the man behind the limited-edition collectible dolls, pose for pictures, and sign their favorite Mark Roberts merchandise. Roberts is famous for his collectible fairies, elves, Santas and other Christmas and halloween merchandise. Because of its rarity, signed Mark Roberts collectibles can become highly desirable and increases in value over time. The Interiors Market store carries the full line of Mark Robert limited edition fairies, elves and Santa Clauses; including some of his popular fall and Christmas decors. The signing will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on June 24. For more information and signing tour schedules, visit the Mark Roberts Blog at www.christmas-magic.com. For more information on the Interiors Market call 281-980-2070. VibraLife of Katy coming to the area Vibra Healthcare, LLC, Memorial Hermann Health System, and Medistar Corporation have announced their collaboration on the development of VibraLife of Katy, a new VibraLife post-acute and residential care community coming to the Houston area. The new state-of-the-art facility will be located in the Parkwest Business Park off Interstate 10, adjacent to Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital. The facility will occupy 58,000 square feet and provide a total of 104 beds, including a 70-bed transitional care rehabilitation center, an 18-bed assisted living center, and a 16-bed secured memory care unit. Affiliated with Memorial Hermann, the largest non-profit health system in Southeast Texas, and Medistar, a long-standing Houston-based developer and owner of healthcare real estate, VibraLife of Katy will be expertly equipped to serve the Houston community. The new, innovative facility will deliver a fully integrated post-acute care continuum and provide personalized services and care options that will help address the unmet needs of local healthcare providers and patients. Designed and operated by Vibra, VibraLife of Katy will provide high quality care to patients following an injury or illness and will offer a full range of services medical, rehabilitative, and social to both patients and senior residents. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for June 22, and construction is scheduled for completion in summer 2018. A 2001 graduate from Fort Bend ISD's Clements High School has been selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. Loral O'Hara is one of 12 chosen from the more than 18,300 applicants to be a part of NASA's new astronaut class. O'Hara and the other candidates will report for duty in August 2017. O'Hara was born in Houston, and raised in Sugar Land, where she attended Quail Valley Elementary, First Colony Middle School and Clements High School. FBISD caught up with O'Hara at NASA's Johnson Space Center and talked to her about her journey. "I am just insanely honored by the opportunity, and grateful and humbled," said O'Hara. "I am really looking forward to just coming down here and being a part of the team." O'Hara credits her community, schools and teachers for equipping her with the tools she needed to get to where she is today, but admitted that she struggled with one particular subject. "My favorite subjects in school when I was younger were probably English and art. I also loved science, but my worst subject was actually math. I struggled with math the whole way through," O'Hara said. Because of her trouble with the subject, O'Hara worked that much harder to learn math so she could use it. After graduating from Clements, she went to the University of Kansas where she earned a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering. In 2009, she also received a master of science in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University. At the time of her selection by NASA, O'Hara was a research engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Prior to that, she worked for Stone Aerospace in Austin as a design engineer and as a project engineer at Rocketplane Limited in Oklahoma City, Okla. The Cy-Fair ISD reported Wednesday that one of its recent graduates was accepted into seven of eight Ivy League schools, a rare feat. But Eghosa Amadin, a member of Cypress Falls High School's Class of 2017, ultimately decided to pursue an engineering degree at Stanford University in northern California, an elite school that is not part of the Ivy League. "It feels really good," Amadin said, according to the district's news release. "It feels better that I made my parents proud more than for myself." In May, the Chronicle reported on Alief ISD graduate Amina Mabizari who was also accepted into seven Ivy League schools and placed on the wait list of one (in her case, Harvard University). Both Mabizari and Amadin included impressive resumes in their college applications. Amadin was president of her high school's National Honor Society, president of the Cypress Falls' Spanish Club and secretary of the school's Key Club, among other leadership positions. Despite her campus involvement and high grade point average, Amadin had doubted whether she would get in to any of her choice schools. The reason I applied to so many was because I was really scared that I wouldn't get in anywhere, she told the district. But I knew I did as much as I could have done and I worked hard. I tried my best and whatever happened, happened. The 18-year-old said she and her parents were shocked when she checked her admissions status with each college in April. My mom was jumping up and down and screaming and yelling and dancing, and my dad was off the walls and everything, Amadin said, according to the news release. My proudest moment honestly would be opening up the Harvard acceptance, because for my parents coming from Nigeria, thats like the holy grail of education. I wish I could replay my moms reaction over and over again, it was so amazing. The Cy-Fair ISD grad advised that students can accomplish similar success with motivation and dedication Dont be afraid to aim high and reach for your dream schools because you never know whats going to happen, Amadin advised students, according to the district. Also, work hard every single day. It might be tough at the time, but it will all be worth it in the end. The Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in northwestern ISD, the state's third-largest district, covers 185 square miles and has about 115,000 students. The news release said the cumulative acceptance rate of the Ivy League schools was about 7.9 percent this year, with colleges such as Cornell and Brown seeing acceptance rates dip to their lowest levels in history. A man already in jail on a pending capital murder case was charged this week with murder in connection with the November 2015 death of a fuel truck operator, Harris County officials said. On June 6, 2017, prosecutors charged Josue Leal, 22, and his alleged accomplice, Shayne Hawley, 24, with murder. Chrissie Owens, 22, a woman identified in court documents as Leal's girlfriend, was charged with failure to stop and render aid - or FSRA - in the fatal hit-and-run death of Juan Manuel Cano, 47. On Nov. 3, 2015, sheriff's deputies were sent to investigate an apparent auto-pedestrian incident in the 9100 block of the North Grand Parkway West. A passerby reported seeing a man lying motionless in the street. The man was later identified as Cano. He had severe trauma to his head and body, deputies said, who also noted that his fuel truck was missing. Cano was killed while topping off construction equipment at the scene, officials said. The sheriff's deputies also found a Ford Mustang stuck in the mud. They discovered blood on the undercarriage of the car, indicating it was the vehicle used in Cano's death, officials said. Along with his fuel truck, Cano's wallet and cell phone were missing. The truck was later abandoned near the 400 block of Northville in north Houston. Security cameras from a nearby business captured the images of two men and a woman walking away from the truck, officials said. In March and April of 2017, DNA linked to Leal, Hawley and Owens was officially matched to cigarette butts found at the scene of the crime, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case. On May 31, investigators interviewed Owens who was already in custody on an unrelated trespassing case. She admitted that Leal, her boyfriend, and Hawley, her cousin, stopped at the construction site to ask for mechanical help - but it was a ruse. When Cano gave them some fuel and offered a jump start, Leal began kicking and hitting him. Leal and Hawley then began searching his pockets. They took his wallet - which had about $22 inside - and Cano's cell phone, according to the court documents. Owens said Leal and Hawley told her to get in the Mustang. Instead of backing away, Owens said she inadvertently put the car in drive and went forward, running over Cano. She admitted not offering any help to the victim, deputies said. Leal also is charged with capital murder in the Dec. 10, 2015 beating death of a man identified as Kevin Bartelt. According to court records, Bartelt had earlier accused Leal of hitting Owens in the parking lot of a gas station. Sheriff's deputies said an enraged Leal kicked Bartelt to death. His bloody shoes were later found in a field where they had been dumped, officials said. Hawley was arrested Monday by the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force. Leal and Hawley declined to talk to detectives, according to the court records. Leal is being held at the Harris County Jail without bail. Bail for Hawley is $100,000 and $50,000 for Owens. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Two years to the day after he walked free, a former death row inmate sued Houston and Harris County for violating his constitutional rights and wrongfully imprisoning him for capital murder. In the civil rights lawsuit, Alfred Dewayne Brown, 35, accuses Houston police and Harris County officials of concealing evidence and violating his rights to due process and a fair trial. Last year, state officials rejected Brown's request for close to $2 million compensation on the grounds that he did not meet the eligibility requirement under Texas law because was never found to be "actually innocent." READ ALSO: Former death row inmate not eligible for exoneration funds, comptroller says His attorneys said the lawsuit is a final attempt to set the record straight, after all he endured in court and in prison. "This filing is the final chapter of Alfred Dewayne Brown's quest for justice after 12 years and 62 days of wrongful incarceration because of the defendants' conduct," said Brown's local attorney, Gwen Richard. Brown's lawyers have asked Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg to resolve the question of whether Brown is innocent and eligible for compensation. READ ALSO: Former death row inmate seeks $2 million in state compensation Officials at the district attorney's office declined to comment about the pending litigation. City of Houston officials could not be reached for comment. Brown was convicted of capital murder in the 2003 shooting death of Officer Charles Clark but his conviction was overturned by an appeals court. The Harris County District Attorney's Office decided there was not enough credible evidence to try the case again, and the charges were dismissed. An appeals court overturned Brown's conviction after a phone record supporting his alibi was found in a homicide detective's garage. Former Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson subsequently announced that she didn't have enough evidence to retry Brown, but she did not state that she found he was innocent. That has been a sticking point in his attempt to get compensation from the state. A Busby man who admitted causing a fatal rollover after drinking an estimated 12 beers will spend five years on federal probation. Torren Jon Russell, 20, told U.S. District Judge Susan Watters during his sentencing on Wednesday that he made a dumb mistake when he drove drunk on May 21, 2016, and rolled a pickup with four passengers near Busby early in the morning. Russell faced a sentencing guideline range of 30 months to 37 months in prison for his guilty plea in February to involuntary manslaughter. There was no plea agreement. Russell admitted causing the death of Paul Foote, 16, of Busby, who was his first cousin and like a brother. He estimated earlier that he had consumed about 12 beers before driving. His blood alcohol concentration was 0.139 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent. The whole group had been drinking before the crash, and although passengers had asked Russell not to drive, they eventually allowed him to do so, the prosecution said. A U.S. Attorneys Office representative read a statement on behalf of Footes grandmother, Joy Foote, in which she asked for justice and expressed how much she missed her grandson. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sullivan requested a 30-month sentence saying while the crash was a tragedy and Russell had no criminal history, there needed to be punishment. He did kill another human being, Sullivan said. These are the things that happen when people drink and drive and its something that is a rampant problem, he said. Assistant Federal Defender Gillian Gosch recommended probation saying that Russell made a stupid decision to drink and drive but that it wasnt normal conduct for him. Russell will have to live with his cousins death every day, she added. He is a good, solid young man who made a fatal decision to drive, Gillian said. Watters said drunken driving fatal crashes on the Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations are something she sees all too often. While Russell didnt intend to cause Footes death, Watters said his decision to drive demonstrated gross negligence. In ordering probation, the judge noted that Russell did not have any criminal record or history of problems with alcohol and that his conduct that night was really an aberration. Laura and Eusebio Castillo's home on the Southeast Side of San Antonio was a place where "miracles" occurred on a weekly basis. Every Sunday, hundreds of believers would flock to St. Peregrine Chapel, a little shed in the back of the Castillos' home, to visit an 8-year-old girl they claimed as their daughter. The child was said to be capable of curing cancer. "The Miracle Child," often seen wearing an oversized crucifix necklace and white lace veil, was the talk of San Antonio in early 2013, even garnering two stories on Fox's San Antonio affiliate, KABB-TV. But when the cameras and congregants left, the Castillo home transformed. According to documents obtained by mySA.com, Laura and Eusebio allegedly committed numerous rapes and assaults against the Miracle Child's true mother, Abigail Alvarado, who was the Castillos' adopted daughter and niece. The Miracle Child and two other children were born from the alleged rapes, according to forensic lab reports that found a match between the DNA of the children and that of Eusebio. Laura and Eusebio are now facing charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony. Police in San Juan, Texas, a small city in the Rio Grande Valley, arrested the couple on warrants issued from Bexar County. Eusebio was transferred to the Bexar County Jail on Feb. 22, Laura on June 1. Both are being held on $75,000 bonds. The Castillos are both scheduled to make a court appearance on August 7. If convicted of the charges against them, they could face up to 99 years in prison. Attorneys for Laura and Eusebio did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Castillos' arrests mark the peak of a years-long investigation that began on July 20, 2014, when Abigail, who goes by Abby, now an adult who wants her story told, informed police of the abuse she had endured since at least age 9. Abby, now 28, first approached mySA.com following the news of the arrest of Eusebio, who is her uncle and adopted father. She says the years she spent with the Castillos were marked by brainwashing, manipulation, stalking, assault and horror. Rape, lies and threats were part of her daily routine, and she says the only reasons she didn't hurt herself or someone else were her children, who were born out of the abuse and will remain unnamed at her request. "I was depressed all the time," Abby said. "I wouldn't eat. I would think of suicide. And I stopped it all because of the kids. Who was going to take care of my kids? I thought, 'If I die, my kids are next in line.'" The path toward her alleged abusers began in 1996 in San Antonio, when she was 8 years old. Child Protective Services took her and her younger brother and older sister away from their mother, Maria Rodriguez, due to her addiction to drugs and alcohol and inability to care for her children. Rodriguez, now sober for more than three years, admits her addiction was a problem. "I felt like I put them through that because of my alcoholism," she said, quiet and teary, during a phone interview. "If I would've quit drinking maybe they wouldn't have taken them from me. If I could change things around, I would do it differently. I trusted him, you know." After the state took custody of Abby and her siblings, they were placed in a shelter, where they remained until her older sister brought up the idea of contacting their uncle Eusebio, Rodriguez' brother who was a sergeant in the U.S. Army stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii. Eusebio and Laura agreed to take care of the children. Authorities granted the Castillos guardianship, Abby said, and they later legally adopted the siblings. The three children were flown out to Schofield Barracks, where they began their lives with their new caretakers. Abby alleges the abuse began almost immediately. Within three months of moving to Hawaii, she said, Eusebio was climbing up into her bunk bed at night and molesting her. She tried to tell Laura about the abuse after the third night it happened, she said, but Laura dismissed her. "I told her, and she didn't believe me," Abby said. "She ignored it, and she said she didn't believe me." The abuse continued, Abby said. Abby claims she was the only sibling targeted throughout the years the siblings lived with the Castillos. She said she's not sure if her brother and sister knew what was going on in the house, but if they did, they never tried to stop it. Abby said her sister tried get help from Child Protective Services years later, but she claimed Eusebio had her so afraid of being jailed herself that she refused to cooperate with the investigation. In 2001, Eusebio left the Army, and the family moved to Houston, then Laredo. By that time, Abby was in her early teens, and the situation at home had worsened from molestation to outright rape, according to Abby. Laura had also begun "helping out," she said. "Threesomes" with her adopted parents, said Rudy Alvarado, Abby's 34-year-old husband, with a severe matter-of-factness to his voice. "[Laura] couldn't stop him. She didn't want to lose him. So to not lose him, she allowed him to do whatever he wanted." According to Laura's indictment, she forced Abby to perform sexual acts on Eusebio and herself, and she and Eusebio forced sexual acts upon Abby. In the indictment, prosecutors listed Feb. 16, 2004, as the earliest date of alleged abuse. Abby would have been 15 at that time, though she claims the two began assaulting her earlier than that. She says Eusebio began molesting her at age 9 and raping her around age 13. Graphic details of the alleged abuse will be withheld from this story, but the indictment accuses both Laura and Eusebio of forcing Abby to "submit and participate by the physical use of force and violence." Abby said she thought of contacting law enforcement authorities, but Eusebio was constantly threatening her and physically assaulting her if she disobeyed, allegations that appear to be reiterated by Laura's indictment, which claims Abby was threatened with bodily injury on numerous occasions. "I'm an easy bruiser," Abby said during a recent interview, Rudy visibly upset at her side. "He'd hit me in the shoulder, the stomach. Everywhere it can't be seen. I wasn't allowed to wear shorts or tank tops." Around the spring of 2004, Eusebio's jealousy and desperation for Abby intensified, she said. Abby recalled the night of her 8th grade dance as an example. As she dressed up for the dance in her room, she said Eusebio stood nearby, drinking and spewing the words "bitch" and "slut" at her, jealous at the fact she'd soon be dancing with other boys. Laura later drove her to the dance. At the end of the night, Abby said, Eusebio appeared on the dancefloor with a bouquet of roses for her and apologized profusely for what he had said to her. After Abby graduated from 8th grade, the family moved to Mission, Texas. She was 15 as she entered high school, having been delayed in school by the numerous relocations throughout her childhood, she said. It was in Mission, less than a semester into her high school education, that Laura came to her and demanded she become a "surrogate mother" for Eusebio's children, as Laura was unable to conceive with him, Abby said. "You're going to have this baby. There's no saying no," Laura said, according to Abby. Months later, Abby was trying to hide her pregnant belly at school. She had to lie about who the father was, claiming a boy from a different high school was responsible. As a 17-year-old sophomore, she gave birth to her first child. She walked the graduation stage at the age of 20 in 2008, pregnant with her second child. Three years later, she gave birth to her youngest, a boy. The children were raised believing Abby was their older sister, and Laura and Eusebio were their actual parents. Photos from Laura's now-deleted Facebook profile show her and Eusebio posing with the children, accompanied by captions portraying Eusebio as the father, and herself as the mother. They looked like any other family at Disneyland. After Abby graduated from high school, in 2009, the Castillos left Mission and moved to San Antonio, where Abby met the man who she says saved her from the Castillos: Rudy. Rudy and Abby met at her home in the 200 block of McLaughlin Avenue around 2013. The Castillos' St. Peregrine Chapel, named after the patron saint for people suffering from cancer, was rapidly gaining popularity at the time. The chapel was founded with the help of Archbishop John Parnell, the primate of the Mexican National Catholic Church, an obscure branch of the Catholic Church that is believed to have begun in the 1920s during the Mexican Revolution. "It's disgusting that this went on," said Parnell, who says he was unaware of the alleged abuse like everyone else. "They were such good actors. All the deception to try to make some money. I was so sad for such a long time about those kids being used the way they were. It made me not believe in people. I lost a lot of my faith in people." Parnell claims Laura told him about "her daughter's" cancer-curing gift after she attended one of his services in Edinburg featuring Alberto Salinas, a well-known "curandero" (healer) in the Rio Grande Valley. Parnell agreed to hold a service with the girl at the Castillos' home in San Antonio one Sunday in 2013. "Four weeks later it was on TV," he said. Parnell said he believes that Salinas' healing abilities, and the donations with which they were rewarded, gave "conniving" Laura the idea to spread the word that Abby's eldest child, whom she claimed was her own daughter, was a saint as a money-making scheme. Sunday visitors, he said, "would go up to [the child] for prayer. They'd form a line and it would just go to infinity. I mean, all the way across the yard and down the driveway. I would pass the basket down the line, and one-by-one they'd make a donation to [the child]. Then I gave the basket to Laura and Eusebio. They just made a fortune." Rudy, who said he used to believe in the type of mystical Catholicism practiced by the MNCC and worked as a healer, was an acquaintance of Parnell, who brought him to the church on McLaughlin one Sunday and introduced him to the Castillos. "[Parnell] introduced me to Laura, and Eusebio pointed to 'his children,' these nice, small, tiny, beautiful children," Rudy said. "Then I see Abby, and I see a little bit of a tummy, like someone has after they have a baby." "Are these your kids?" he asked later that day. Rudy said Abby told him they weren't, so he ignored it, but that impression stuck with him. "I noticed it almost right away. Almost immediately," he said. "Over the course of a few weeks I started putting the pieces together." Rudy figured the kids weren't Eusebio and Laura's, and that they were probably Abby's, but he never could have guessed who the father was, and it wasn't until months later that he found out. Rudy, who has two kids of his own from a previous marriage, said he and Abby started falling in love quickly, spending as much time together as they could on Sundays and trying to Facebook chat with each other while apart. But something was always off, he said. Abby would suddenly end the chat or go missing for months. It drove him crazy. "And in the midst of all that, I got like a vision. Just a straight up vision," Rudy said. "I was in a prison compound, and there was the good side of me and the bad side of me, and I was helping and hurting people. At the end of the vision, there was a breakout in the prison, and as I was leaving, I saw a hooded girl in a cell. So I run inside the cell, flip her hood and I see Abby. And then I woke up." The vision confounded Rudy and urged him to dig deeper, he said. So he kept pursuing Abby, not giving up on her despite her odd behavior. Meanwhile, Abby was walking a tightrope at home, trying to stay true to Rudy and placate Eusebio enough so that he wouldn't injure her children, she said. In early 2014, before Rudy and Abby really began dating in secret, Laura and Eusebio walked into her room and began preparing to sexually assault her, she said. Abby said she felt like she'd be cheating on Rudy, so she tried to stop them. Instead, Eusebio came at her "full force," she said. Abby said she began a full-on rebellion after that, questioning why her parents continued to assault her even though she had given them everything they had asked for. The situation came to a head soon after, when Abby, fully in love with Rudy, told Laura and Eusebio there was another person in her life. According to Rudy, Laura "beat the living crap" out of Abby that day. Eusebio drank heavily every night, threatening Abby and her children, they both claimed. According to his affidavit, Eusebio on one occasion became frightened that Abby would report his abuse to authorities, so he doused himself and his house in gasoline and threatened to burn everything down, including her children. "There was no guilt," Abby said. "He just didn't want to be caught by the police." EUSEBIO'S MUGSHOT: Court documents say man sexually assaulted relative since age 9, fathered 3 of her children Despite the terrors at home, Abby tried to hide the truth from Rudy for fear he would leave her if he knew who the real father of her children was. But Rudy finally pried it out of her. He told her he was in love with her, but she needed to tell him what was going on or he would have to leave. Alvarado caved. "Those three kids are mine," Abby told him. "Alright, I already kind of figured that," Rudy said. "Eusebio is their dad," she said. Rudy said the revelation stunned him. She asked if he was going to leave her. Rudy said he wouldn't, and that he'd do everything he could to get her out. Abby didn't want to go to the police immediately for fear of retaliation by Eusebio, and she believed she would also go to jail, so the two tried to maintain their difficult relationship with both Eusebio and Laura still hovering around. Abby finally broke in April 2014, when Laura became ill and was taken to the hospital, and Eusebio thought she was going to die. "After she dies, it's me and you," Eusebio said, according to Abby. "We're going to get married and have more kids and continue the chapel. On the outside we'll be father and daughter, but on the inside we're married." Soon after the conversation with Eusebio, she called Rudy and told him to come pick her up. Rudy wanted to go straight to the police once Abby was out of the Castillo house, but she was still scared on behalf of her children, so she begged him to hold off. And he did, until July 2014 after several successive days in which he says Eusebio called his house, breathed into the phone and said nothing. "The third day I got fed up," Rudy said. "I told him 'I was going to leave you alone, but since you keep pushing and you want to act like a stalker and a piece of sh-t, I'm going to f---ing come after you. Get ready you son of a bitch, because you're going to prison.' And then I hung up." Rudy took Abby to a police station, and they told the story. But by the time police got around to investigating, it was already too late. Eusebio and Laura were gone. "They sold the house and everything in it for $2,000 to two ladies who owned a pawn shop, and then they were gone," Rudy said. "We took whatever the women allowed us to take, maybe two bags of clothes. No dressers, no bunk beds, no nothing. All of that they kept." Laura and Eusebio's whereabouts were unknown until December 2016, more than two years later, when Laura, who claims she suffers from lupus, posted a GoFundMe page to her Facebook account to try to raise money for medical expenses. On the GoFundMe page, under a photo of Laura's face with a flowery Snapchat filter around it, was a listed location of San Juan, Texas. Within two months, police had obtained a warrant for Eusebio's DNA, which came back from a forensic lab as a match with Abby's children. Because of the nature of the sexual assaults, DNA evidence would not work in the criminal case against Laura, but prosecutors were able to indict her on a charge of aggravated sexual assault based on witness testimony. "It feels great to be part of the investigation," said Det. Miles McPeak, who collected evidence and orchestrated Eusebio's arrest with assistance from the San Juan Police Department. "Catching the bad guys, that's what I do over here." McPeak said all of the cases he works on as a sex crimes investigator are disturbing, but the familial aspect of the Castillos' alleged crimes was particularly disturbing. Rudy and Abigail said they are relieved and grateful for the arrests, though they know they'll have more struggles ahead. Abby said she has begun the healing process, but she still suffers from severe paranoia. Rudy said it was difficult at first to get her to leave the house, for fear of Laura or Eusebio finding her. "She'd have nightmares," Rudy said. "I would have to hold her every night. All girls like to be held, but this was different. I just told her you'll never see him again, unless it's in court or in prison." One aspect of her new life that's helping her adjust is rebuilding a family with Rudy's relatives and her own estranged relatives. Abby recently reconnected with Rodriguez, who said she's doing everything she can to be available for her daughter and grandchildren like she "should have been." Abby said she holds nothing against her mother, but Rodriguez said guilt and anger remain with her. "To be honest, I wanted for someone to look for [Eusebio] and do the same thing to him or to kill him," Rodriguez said. "He was supposed to be a superhero for my kids. I just can't believe he's done something like that to his own family. Nobody deserves to go through that." Abby is now preparing herself for the trial. She says she's intimidated, but she wants to share her story so that other women who are going through a similar situation know that they have options, and that they can speak out and someone will help them. She also wants people to hear her story so that if they notice something unusual or off about somebody they know, they don't assume everything is fine. Do something, she asks. cdowns@mysa.com Twitter: @calebjdowns This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Imagine cutting open a fresh avocado bought straight from the grocery store only to come face-to-face with a small bullet embedded in the flesh. One Reddit user has gone viral after sharing a photo of a friend holding a piece of an avocado and a small-caliber bullet, with the caption, "[m]y friend found a bullet in an avocado that she bought from Sprouts." SKEWED PRIORITIES: Australian millionaire said millennials spend too much money on avocado toast to buy a home The image sparked a flood of comments ranging from comical scenarios to legitimate suggestions for how the bullet may have ended up in the fruit. "This is probably one of those Mexican blood avocados I heard about in a Freakonomics podcast. "The gist of it is that cartels would essentially hold towns of avocado farmers hostage by making them pay protection money," said one user. FOOD SAFETY: More than 700,000 pounds of Chef Boyardee products recalled Another commentor suggested that small animals eating the crops could be to blame. "Squirrels eat avocados like crazy so farmers shoot them. Hence the small caliber bullet." One user who claims to work at a lab that analyses foreign objects in food (among other things) says that finding things like bullets or other debris in grown food is not uncommon. Chron.com reached out to Sprouts for their thoughts on the matter, but they were not immediately available for comments. Take a look though the gallery above to see other weird, gross things people have found in their food. The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p. Depending on who you talk to, Monday was either a welcome relief or an unsettling moment for Montanans as Gallatin County Justice Court handled the case of Representative-elect Greg Gianforte's body slamming on the eve of the election. Gianforte, flanked by his two lawyers, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor assault charge and Justice of the Peace Rick West meted out a punishment that included fines, community service and anger management, but no jail time although West had originally contemplated it. Separate from the criminal court case, Gianforte last week reached an agreement to avoid being sued civilly by apologizing in writing to Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs and donating $50,000 to a nonprofit group committed to protecting journalists. For some, Monday was the day to close the books on the incident which had brought Montana into a negative light. For others, Monday's court appearance was unsettling because of the questions still remaining. Those questions will likely continue to be raised until there are some answers. Others believed that Gianforte got a different sentence than if the court was going to sentence a person of color. For our part, we're left somewhere in the middle. On one hand, Gianforte's letter of apology to Jacobs, released last week, was straightforward and unequivocal. "You (Jacobs) did not initiate any physical contact with me, and I had no right to assault you. I am sorry for what I did and the unwanted notoriety this has created for you. I take full responsibility," Gianforte wrote. That's about as responsible in writing as you can get. We welcome the Gianforte apology and applaud Jacobs for accepting it. Even though $50,000 is but a tiny piece of Gianforte's overall wealth, it's a significant amount. Like him or not, Gianforte did about as well as any politician when it comes to written apologies. He will also pay a $385 fine for misdemeanor assault, plus $4,646 in restitution to cover Jacobs' medical expenses. We believe Gianforte did the right thing: He entered a guilty plea in the case, even though originally it appeared that he would enter a no-contest plea. We talk a lot about politicians being responsible and accountable, and this is taking ownership of a very bad incident. For that, we give him credit. We, along with many members of the public, have lingering questions, though. Neither Gianforte nor his staff have addressed why the campaign put out the intentionally misleading statements about the incident in which the campaign said Jacobs touched Gianforte. Gianforte's account and admission said otherwise. Gianforte and his staff have never answered why it said that it was OK to get into the fight because Jacobs was (in their own words) a "liberal journalist" and his "aggressive behavior," which was, in fact, just asking a question about a Congressional Budget Office score on health care. Again, the statement put out by the campaign said one thing, the admission in court on Monday said another. When asked about the statement on a television interview last week, Gianforte wouldn't comment. When asked about it Monday after the court appearance, he wouldn't comment. If Gianforte is serious about taking responsibility for his action, he needs to answer the question: Why did his campaign staff lie about this incident? Who ordered that, and what is Gianforte doing about it? This is not a trivial question. If Gianforte wants to build the trust with Montanans, he's going to have to start by answering the hard questions. He is also going to have to be held accountable. It's easy to talk about trust and transparency, but dodging this question continues to give us doubts about if this incident has been much more than a nuisance to him, instead of a behavior-changing experience that will change him permanently. The other question raised after Monday's court hearing was whether the justice system had truly treated Gianforte the same way as an average citizen. Originally, Judge West had contemplated a program in which jail time was converted into a work program, but violent offenders (such as those convicted of assault) are not allowed in the work program. So, West would have had to hand a straight jail time sentence to Gianforte, if given at all. West admitted that even in Gianforte's case, with a heretofore unblemished record, that in a similar case there may be nominal jail time. In the end, West concluded that throwing Gianforte in the slammer wouldn't serve anyone well, and opted for fines, community service and anger management. We've seen plenty of criminal cases get resolved without time behind bars. However, we can understand and even sympathize with those who feel Gianforte got off to easily without having more severe consequences. There's an argument to be made that West should have given a stiffer penalty to Gianforte as a way to set an example to any politician who may find it tempting to rough up a reporter. And, there's a good case to be made for making sure the penalty is well understood: A survey released earlier this week by Public Policy Polling showed that 42 percent of those who identified themselves as voting for Trump believe it's acceptable to body slam a reporter. Clearly, it's becoming more acceptable not only to advocate violence, but to act upon it. For that reason, West may have wanted to consider a tougher sentence. For Montanans, the conclusion of the legal process means that Gianforte can get to work representing Montana. Love him or not, he's Montana's elected representative and we need a voice in Congress as it deals with health care, a widening Russia investigation, Trump's budget, debt, trade and veterans' issues. As part of the press in Montana, we are committed to continuing to covering Gianforte, allowing him the chance to articulate a vision, to communicate with residents and to face the bright light of scrutiny by members of the media. He must start with more transparency, though. He has an aversion to tough questions, and because of lingering questions, there will be scrutiny for every answer Gianforte gives. He's earned the scrutiny and must work to earn back the trust. For those Gianforte supporters who seemed too quick to defend his actions, saying that Jacobs got exactly what was coming to him for simply doing his constitutionally-protected job, take a look at part of Gianforte's letter to Jacobs: "I understand the critical role that journalists and the media play in our society. Protections afforded to the press through the Constitution are fundamental to who we are as a nation and the way government is accountable to the people. I acknowledge that the media have an obligation to seek information. I also know that civility in our public discourse is central to productive dialogue on issues. I had no right to respond the way I did to your legitimate question about healthcare policy. You were doing your job." Hopefully, this statement will counteract any nascent thoughts of taking similar actions by those who believe that Gianforte's actions were a heroic and overdue response to a media, which is often made out be a collection of enemies and liars. The courts are done, the apology accepted, but Gianforte as a transparent representative? The jury's still out on that. Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, whose new film "Tubelight" is in the background, says battles can end the battles between nations if the order is sent to them with guns. "I think those who order war should be sent to the war front, given guns and asked to fight first. It will stop in one day. Their hand and feet will start trembling... It will stop and they will go straight to the table and have discussions," Salman told media here on Tuesday. "Tubelight", directed by Kabir Khan, dwells on the 1962 border conflict between India and China. Salman features in the movie with Sohail. "We have used the India-China war as a backdrop for the film. We've only touched that the war should get over soon so as that our soldiers come back to us and their soldiers go back to their country. Whenever a war happens, soldiers from both sides die, leaving many families without their sons or fathers," Salman added. His brother Sohail, who plays a soldier in the film, said: "If you ask anybody if a war is good or bad, no one will say a war is good. Whatever clashes, they need a solution across the table. This is a negative emotion. No one supports it, but it happens and no one knows why." "Tubelight" is yet another movie from Salman and Kabir to highlight the futility of war. Their "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" The blockbuster was unveiled by the heart of a Hindu drunken story, which meets the superstitious Pakistani girl who lost her family on the border. The film's heroine Kajal was scanning at the Banaganapalle hospital in Kurnool district. The doctors scanned and tested her with her pregnancy. Do you know the scanning doctor? This is understandable. Yes Ballaladeva. Yes ... Rana - Kajal is the latest film to be screened in 'Nene Raju Nene Manthri' shooting is in the hospital at Banagana Palli in Kurnool district. The pregnant Kajal was shot at the hospital by Dr. Rana Scanning. The shooting of this film is celebrated in the Yaganti shrine for the last three days. Fans attracted the audience to watch their favorite actors. Cine fans are also moving to the shooting spot from other parts of neighboring Kurnool. The shooting will be over in another two days. HYDERABAD: The heroes who have come up with silver screen are also interested in appearing on television. In this context, Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi have already made an impression on television programs. The NTR announced on Tuesday that the 'Big Boss' is a commentary on the Telugu Show. In this list, Rana has now joined another actor. He will act as a spokesperson for the 'No. 1 Yaari with Rana' show which will be aired on a channel. Rana himself declared this. For the first time, TV tweeted that you are coming directly to your home. The teaser is said to be released at 5 o'clock. Montanans overwhelmingly support public lands that benefit our local communities and economies. Trumps recent budget would gut local efforts to increase access to hunting, fishing and recreation on our public lands. The president would permanently de-fund the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act. This vital public land access program allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell scattered and isolated government lands to create more public access throughout our state. The funds from these sales allow the BLM to ask willing property owners to sell their landlocked properties within designated BLM lands or national forests, parks and wildlife refuges. In Montana, the BLM worked with the Brown's Gulch property owners to provide access to Hauser Lake so the public would have more boating and recreation in the Helena area. These funds also helped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to preserve critical lands for trumpeter swans in the Centennial Valley south of Dillon. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Steve Daines co-sponsored a bill to reauthorize this valuable program that keep public lands open for our families to enjoy the outdoors. Contact Daines at 202-224-2651 and Tester 202-224-2644, and ask them to continue to support the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act so Montanans will always have access to public lands. Lewis M. YellowRobe Missoula BNM anunta concurs pentru postul vacant de expert principal, pe durata determinata, responsabil de elaborarea/actualizarea cerintelor metodologice de reglementare a procesului de raportare la BNM A suburban Oklahoma City public school system has reached an agreement with the families of seven children killed in a tornado, ending three years of litigation. The May 20, 2013, tornado leveled large portions of Moore, including Plaza Towers Elementary School, and killed 24 people. Another 377 people were injured by the tornado, which was rated at EF5 the most severe on the National Weather Service scale. In a statement Monday, Moore Public Schools said the families have agreed to accept $14,000 each to settle the lawsuit arising from the destruction of a Plaza Towers classroom addition where the children were killed. The families had alleged the addition was defectively built. The deaths prompted a demand for storm shelters and safe rooms in schools. Another school district in Oklahoma approved the purchase of 4,500 skateboard helmets for students and employees to wear in case of a tornado. The board spent $34,650 on the helmets with funds raised by the Cover Our Kids campaign in Duncan. The campaign was created in response to the May 2013 tornado in Moore, Okla., which killed seven schoolchildren. The disaster also sparked an Oklahoma company to create a protective blanket that developers say could give children a better chance of surviving debris from a tornado or bullets from a 9 mm handgun. The Bodyguard Blanket, made by ProTecht, is a bulletproof pad designed to protect students during disasters at school. The 5/16-inch thick rectangle features backpack-like straps that allow users to put it on, and then duck and cover. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Inmates participating in work-release programs do not quality for workers compensation benefits, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled has ruled. The court on Thursday unanimously affirmed a Workers Compensation Board of Reviews 2015 decision to not grant workers compensation to a work release inmate named William F. Crawford, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. Crawfords hand was severely injured in a wood chipper in 2013 while he was working on a road crew for the state Division of Highways. He was employed by the Charleston Work Release Center, now called the Charleston Correctional Center. Inmates live and work there as they prepare to re-enter society after leaving prison. Crawfords injury required hospitalization and surgery, and his ring and pinky fingers were partially amputated. The state Department of Corrections covered his medical expenses, which exceeded $90,000. He was released on parole shortly after his hospitalization. Court documents say Crawford sought workers compensation benefits because lack of treatment has put him at a significant disadvantage in re-entering society. He had appealed the board of reviews decision, saying state law didnt clarify coverage exclusion for work-release inmates. He also said his equal protection rights had been violated, arguing that inmates working for private businesses would receive the benefits, while inmates working for a state agency would not. The court ruled that the decision wasnt a violation of equal protection, as Crawford was working on a volunteer basis. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. An Idaho woman rented her home to a man she thought had plans to buy it. He instead demolished it. Shammie Fisher is fighting in court to get compensation for her ruined Boise home. Idaho Supreme Court sided with Fisher in May in her appeal of a lower-court ruling that her insurance company did not have to cover the loss. The court sent the ruling back to the district court for reconsideration. Ive never seen a case like this, said Fishers lawyer, James G. Reid. I really havent. Ive seen cases where people will enter into a sales contract and allow somebody to rent it for a certain amount of time, until they can get financing or money to complete the sale. After she got married, Fisher decided to sell her 1,152-square-foot (107 sq. meter) house. Ron Reynoso signed a one-year purchase agreement in January 2012, allowing him to rent the home with the expectation of buying it. According to their agreement, Reynoso essentially planned to flip the house by March 31, 2013. Reynoso then leveled it. With the first two months, I was notified that the entire home had been destroyed including the structure and the fixtures therein, Fisher wrote in an affidavit. I had no knowledge that Mr. Reynosa (sic) intended to destroy the home when he leased the property, and he was not authorized to do so. Fisher said they only discussed cosmetic changes, such as new flooring, countertops, light fixtures and paint. She thought Reynoso, a contractor who remodeled kitchens and tiled bathrooms, would be living in the house while doing the work, the Idaho Statesman reported. It seemed like it would be a risk worth taking, said Fishers husband, Michael Royce. We woefully underestimated what the worst-case scenario was. I never would have guessed. Reynoso promised to rebuild the home, but instead walked away from the property a few months later. He told the Statesman he left the unfinished house after he was diagnosed with a degenerative disease. Fisher filed a claim with her insurance company, Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Co., an operating company of the United Services Automobile Association. The insurer denied payment, citing an exclusion in the contract for faulty, inadequate or defective work. Fisher sued her insurer in 2015. Reid said his client didnt sue Reynoso because he had left the state and she could not find him. Reynoso said the statements Fisher made in her lawsuit are wrong. He acknowledged never talking to Fisher about demolishing the house but said the agreement gave him the authority to do it. They knew that I was going to build a new house, he said. The whole plan was to build a two-story, 3,400-square-foot house and sell it before the (agreement term) was up. Fisher and her husband maintain Reynoso never had permission to destroy the house. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To all those who live outside the state of Montana: A big thank you for expressing your opinion on the special election in The Billings Gazette. A reporter was roughed up when he got in a candidates face with a mic and was asked to leave. And another very, very big thank you for removing Montana from your bucket list, as a place to visit. There are quite a few of us violent Montanans that enjoy our personal space and we are truly going to miss you all. AKRON, Ohio - The Art Bomb Brigade's latest public mural is putting paint to poetry at the Mill Street overpass on the University of Akron campus. The fifth in the Myers School of Art group's high-impact, public art series, the new mural brings together the creative forces of Mac Love, international artist and 2017 Knight Cities Challenge grant winner, and former U.S. Poet Laureate and Akron native Rita Dove. Love, the artist behind the Cleveland Believeland chalk murals, the Rally Together interactive mural and the Maize collaborative mural, is directing the students as they apply his design interpreting the renewal of hope and curiosity expressed in Dove's poem "Dawn Revisited." The brilliantly hued mural will adorn the trail head of the Summit Metro Parks Freedom Trail, which connects the Towpath Trail from Akron to Kent, and forms an 89-mile stretch of trail through Northeast Ohio. College students in the Art Bomb Brigade are working side-by-side with Akron high school students in the Arts LIFT summer arts apprenticeship program. Both outreach programs were created by Elisa Gargarella, a university associate professor of art education. Gargarella, a former Cleveland Public Schools art teacher, created the Art Bomb Brigade after 17 years of running Arts LIFT, which gave her inner-city kids a chance to create art and interact with the public. "The kids never have a chance to showcase something positive; to do something outside the classroom and be ambassadors for their communities," she said. In each project, the groups work with a professional artist, and with constraints from public entities. The Freedom Trail mural required cooperation with the city of Akron, the university, the Metro Parks, CSX Railroad, Metro RTA and neighboring businesses. "There are so many layers; it's good for young people to work with partners," she said. To participate, students from Firestone High School and Akron Alternative Academy filled out an application and wrote an essay explaining why they should participate in Arts LIFT, said Firestone art teacher Dan Coffield, who has worked over the past eight years with Arts LIFT and Art Bomb projects. Other Art Bomb murals are located at Chill Gourmet Ice Cream on Maiden Lane, Downtown Akron Laundromat on South Main Street, and the Akron Sustainer, an educational hub promoting green living. The Art Bomb Brigade and Arts LIFT crews will be working on the mural through Friday, June 23 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Akronites, mural enthusiasts and visitors are encouraged to come check out the work. Later in the summer, Art Bomb Brigade will host the group's traditional mural unveiling party complete with live music, food trucks, community art projects and local arts, craft, and clothing vendors. Details will be announced soon. Visit the Art Bomb Brigade online for more information. Please take a moment and click here to help the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, a cleveland.com partner. Every dollar you give buys four meals for the hungry. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. KENT, Ohio -- Female pilots from Kent State University will compete in the 41st Air Race Classic beginning June 20. Two Kent State women competed in the event last year, flying 2,716 miles across the country. The competition is the oldest of its kind with roots back to the 1929 Women's Air Derby when Amelia Earhart and 19 other female pilots raced from California to Cleveland. This year's team includes Jalia Manga and Helen Miller, who will represent the university's Flying Flashes. Both are seniors majoring in flight technology at Kent State's College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability and Technology. Manga flew in the 2016 race as a student and is now leading the race as a certified flight instructor. "I am very excited to be racing again, and now I have a much better idea of what to expect for this year," Manga said in a news release. "I learned to have fun and take in the whole experience. There are a lot of amazing women who participate in this event, and I am lucky to be able to talk with them and learn from them." This year's course features 118 women pilots of all ages and all backgrounds. Kent State is one of 14 colleges and universities competing. The course will take racers through 14 states, from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the far northern reaches of the Continental United States and to the high desert of New Mexico. Teams will depart from the Frederick Municipal Airport in Maryland. The 54 teams will have four days to complete the course. The arrival deadline is 5 p.m. on June 23. Teams will execute high-speed flybys over a timing line at each of the eight intermediate stops. Prizes for the Air Race Classic are valued at more than $16,500 and include medallions, trophies and cash awards. The Flying Flashes will fly in a Cessna Sky Hawk that was awarded to Kent State after it was recognized as a 2016 Top Hawk university. The aircraft is named Nikki in celebration of the life of Nicole "Nikki" Kukwa, a Kent State aeronautics student who helped establish the Kent State chapter of Women in Aviation. Kukwa passed away from leukemia during her junior year. In her honor, a free aeronautics camp for high school girls takes place annually to show her continued influence in aeronautics. The Flying Flashes are scheduled to leave the Kent State University Airport on June 15, heading to Maryland for the start of the race. The public is invited to attend the event from noon to 3 p.m. The Flying Flashes will update their progress on Twitter using #NikkiTheTopHawk. BROOKLYN, Ohio - Brooklyn is looking to lure a $12 million senior-living community with a property tax abatement. The proposed community on Idlewood Drive, just south of Interstate 480, would have 58 senior living units plus 22 memory-care apartments, said city economic development director Andi Udris. City Council on Monday introduced an ordinance Monday to approve a 100-percent tax abatement with Brooklyn Pointe LLC, a company newly formed by Adams Real Estate Advisors in Rochester, New York, Udris said. Adams has helped develop commercial and residential projects in five major markets, including Ohio, according to its website. Under the Community Reinvestment Area tax agreement, the city and school board would split income taxes from nurses and employees at the senior home. Brooklyn residents have wanted a senior living community for years and have approved zoning for one, Udris said. At one time, another developer had a CRA tax agreement approved through council, but the plans for the senior living home fell through. There are currently no senior care facilities in the city of Brooklyn, forcing senior citizens to move to neighboring Parma or Cleveland's West Side, Udris said. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., joins the chorus of political voices calling for a federal probe into Cleveland-based TransDigm. CNBC reported that Warren sent a letter in May to Acting Inspector General Glenn Fine at the U.S. Department of Defense calling for an investigation into the company's government contracts. TransDigm officials were not available for comment this afternoon. According to Reuters, almost 30 percent of TransDigm's sales come from the defense industry. Warren, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, writes, "I have also been monitoring reports that suggest TransDigm Worldwide has used a variety of tactics to avoid sharing cost information with the government for parts for which it is the sole source supplier. These reports further show that TransDigm has unreasonably raised prices on many parts shortly after completing acquisitions of the companies that produce them." Warren joins Representatives Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Tim Ryan, D-Youngstown, in calling for an investigation into the local aerospace parts supplier's pricing of government contracts. The TransDigm website says the company "supplies innovative solutions to aerospace applications for original equipment manufacturers and aircraft operators." After this announcement, according to Reuters, shares of TransDigm Group Inc (TDG.N) fell as much as 7.3 percent to $250.18 on Monday. CLEVELAND, Ohio - People convicted of animal abuse are now listed on Cuyahoga County's new Animal Abuse Registry, available on the Sheriff Department's website. Individuals convicted of felony animal abuse will be listed on the registry and are prohibited from buying, adopting, or harboring a companion animal within the county. There is currently one entry: DeAnna Caraballo of Cleveland, who was sentenced to the maximum penalty of one year in prison in March for killing her boyfriend's 8-week-old puppy. The registry is a tool for law enforcement, animal shelters, humane societies, dog kennels, animal rescue agencies, pet stores and others who seek to ensure all pets are placed in safe and caring homes, the county said. Cuyahoga County Council created the registry in January. The registry was prompted by a new state law that makes cruelty to pets a felony. The law, known as Goddard's Law, after retired WJW Channel 8 weatherman Dick Goddard, was approved by legislators in 2016. The law makes knowingly causing physical harm to a companion animal a fifth-degree felony, punishable by six months to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. That includes depriving a pet of food, water or shelter. More than a dozen people in Ohio have been charged under the new state law. It is not known if any other registries have been established in Ohio. According to the legislation, anyone convicted of felony animal cruelty in the county shall submit the following information to the sheriff within 30 days: Name, address and date of birth. The statutory violation to which the individual was convicted or pleaded guilty. Any additional information that the Sheriff considers necessary. "This registry will protect animals from the most heinous animal abusers in our county," council member Sunny Simon said in a statement. Mindy Naticchioni, administrator of the county's animal shelter, said the registry will help animal organizations place pets in a safe and loving home. The registry can be found here: sheriff.cuyahogacounty.us/AnimalAbuseRegistry. EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has identified a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed Monday in East Cleveland. Ben Martin, of Cleveland, died after paramedics took him to University Hospital Cleveland Medical Center, the medical examiner's office said. The shooting happened just after 3:30 p.m. on Carlyon Road near Superior Avenue, police said in a news release. No arrests have been made but the incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the East Cleveland Police Department's detective bureau at 216-681-2162 or Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463. If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section. If the U.S. imperium in all its might did not exist, if the Washington, D.C., of Donald Trump and James Comey were just the Sicilian-style backwater that it currently resembles, then no one looking at recent events would doubt that the entire Middle East is on the verge of its own version of a European Great War. Most of the elements that hurled European powers into conflicts in 1914 and 1939 (and 1870, 1853, 1805, 1756 ...) are present in the Middle East right now. You have two rival alliances, one led by Iran and the other by the Saudis, riven by religion, ideology and strategic interests. You have ongoing proxy wars between them, in Syria and Yemen, that resemble the Spanish Civil War in their ferocity and factional complexity. You have various unpredictable third forces, from the Islamic State to the Kurds to the Russians, whose instigationist activities or mere self-interest could help set a catastrophe into motion. And now, with the sudden Saudi-led attempt to isolate Qatar and impose a long list of demands on the tiny emirate, you have an Austria-and-Serbia-in-1914 confrontation a larger power demanding a small country cut ties to terrorism, while the small country looks to the larger powers rivals for support, and a fog of rumor and misinformation (now internet rather than telegraph-enabled) hangs over efforts to resolve the spat. Indeed, what the Saudis and their allies are doing to Qatar is, by traditional definition, already an act of war closing borders and waterways and halting flights in what amounts to a soft blockade. The shows of support for Qatar from the Iranians and Turkey, meanwhile, are the kind of steps that historically turn crises into open conflicts, as escalation feeds on escalation until the real war comes. Except: In the historical examples, 1914 and all the rest, there was not a global hegemon with a military dwarfing all the rivalrous powers and a clear interest in making sure that conflicts stay local and that borders stay where theyve been drawn. And the main point of the Pax Americana, the best case for all the money we spend maintaining it, is that it promises to keeps a lid on exactly these sorts of regional conflicts by variously reassuring, cowing and protecting nations that would otherwise be engaged in arms races and shooting wars. Thus we rely on our unpleasant friends the Saudis not to start a regional war because they depend on us for military hardware and, often, to do their fighting for them. We rely on our unpleasant enemies the Iranians not to start a regional war because they dont want to risk going up against our juggernaut directly. We expect Qatar to accept our mediation because (among other reasons) we have a major military base in their territory. And while the Qataris and all the other players Kurdish, Turkish, Iraqi, Israeli have ways to be the tail that wags our dog, they know there are limits, that they have to get what they want without doing anything that makes us turn on them. All of this can work, and it has worked, in the Middle East and elsewhere: Recent decades have seen fewer major wars, fewer combat deaths and many fewer interstate conflicts than in a multipolar, pre-Pax Americana age. But it doesnt inevitably work, and it wont inevitably last. Our leaders can destabilize things from above, as George W. Bush did when he tried to remake Iraq by force of arms. And local actors can expose the limits of our hegemony, as they did under Barack Obamas more hands-off style, which avoided an Iraq-level blunder but saw the worlds peace weaken as bloody proxy wars increased. Now the heir to Bushs blunder and Obamas struggles is a man who has no idea what hes doing in almost any aspect of the presidency. And not surprisingly, that inexperience or incompetence is one reason the Qatar crisis has become this dangerous already. All that Trumpian glad-handing and orb-stroking in Saudi Arabia seems to have given the Saudi alliance the sense that they had room to be unusually aggressive, and since the crisis started, his tweets and public statements have often seemed to clash with what our diplomats are doing. (Meanwhile, the Trumpian strategy, such as it is, in Syria has us getting deeper into that proxy war ourselves.) So we have a test: How well does U.S. hegemony function when the colossus lacks a head? Is the basic structure of the Pax Americana the weight of our military advantage, the geopolitical habits instilled by 25 years of unipolarity, the atrophy in other nations readiness for interstate conflict strong enough to keep lesser powers out of major wars even if the president of the United States doesnt understand his role or how to play it? This time, we can reasonably hope, the answer will be yes. But if so, dont get comfortable: The Middle East will be in a 1914 alignment for the duration of this presidency, and the kind of test happening in Qatar will come around more than once. watch now A leading global energy market academic warned that crude prices could sink back to $30 a barrel if OPEC fails to make additional cuts to production. "The problem is that there is too much oil on the market. There is too much oil from the U.S., too much oil from Libya, too much oil from Nigeria," said Fereidun Fesharaki, founder and chairman of consulting group FGE, which focuses on oil and gas markets east of the Suez and in Europe and the U.S. "While the demand is robust, there is a serious likelihood that prices will sink next year to $30-$35 a barrel and will stay there for a while," he told Squawk Box on the sidelines of the Credit Suisse Australia Energy Conference in Sydney on Wednesday. Fesharaki, who has studied Asia Pacific and Middle East energy markets since the early 1980s, said he believes the so-called red line for Saudi Arabia is 9 million barrels of oil per day, and any failure to cut below that level would cause a price pullback. Oil pumpjacks in the Permian Basin oil field are getting to work as crude oil prices gain. Spencer Platt | Getty Images "You have to cut another 700,000 barrels per day right away or prices will sink," he said. "Even if you do this, next year you'll still have to cut more, so it comes down to how far the Saudis are prepared to cut." Late last month, OPEC said it would extend an 1.8 million-barrel-a-day cut to oil output by nine months, though March 2018, after the November deal failed to fully clear a global oversupply in oil, which has been keeping prices relatively low. Some non-OPEC producers have also signed on to the deal. Fesharaki said his assumption wasn't just based on oversupply. Taking a contrarian view, he also believes that a slump in crude prices could lead to a slump in demand. "A drop in the price of oil is like an earthquake or a tsunami," he added. "If you have a small drop in the price of oil, then actually it's good for demand and good for economic growth, but last time the price of oil fell, the stock markets fell with it. I think there is a scary environment now that a substantial drop in the price of oil would actually create a global recession." watch now Other analysts have previously noted that a sharp drop in oil prices can weigh heavily on the economies of oil producers, which then can see declining consumer confidence and spending. Qatar in crisis While her background is in finance, Ghobadian had worked early in her career for a number of big retailers, including Levi's and the Gap. "I always thought it'd be great to create clothes that can make you look edgy and fun," she says. "I married the two ideas" producing fashion and helping formerly incarcerated women and sought a business partner. A friend suggested she contact Alice Larkin Cahan, a San Francisco socialite with a design background. Together, the two launched Road Twenty-Two as a for-profit social enterprise in 2014. "We jumped into it," Ghobadian says. They found a warehouse space, a sewing factory and poured resources into marketing and branding. Ghobadian, a single mom, sold an investment property that had been earmarked for her teenage children's education, putting $300,000 into the business while Cahan added $100,000. Friends and family contributed another $80,000. Working with women Next came hiring former female prisoners simultaneously the toughest but most rewarding part of running Road Twenty-Two, Ghobadian says. It's no secret that few companies employ people with criminal records, a big reason why recidivism rates are so high. (More than half of state prisoners wind up back in prison within 5 years of release, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics.) The formerly incarcerated are sometimes homeless, and many struggle with addiction problems. "It's a tricky population to work with," Ghobadian says. "There are a lot of self-esteem issues. Just the idea of them showing up for work is in and of itself a challenge." To date, Road Twenty-Two has hired eight formerly incarcerated women. All have to be willing to earn minimum-wage pay. "Sometimes, in the world of crime, it's much more enticing to make more money," Ghobadian says. The women must also have the confidence to work for a startup, "where you do all sorts of different things and there's a lack of consistency," she says. It's more typical for people returning to society from prison to take jobs in predictable fields like, say, construction if they can get work at all. One woman whom Road Twenty-Two has helped is Rachael Dunne, who manages the company's customer care. In a video on the company's site, she talks about the difficulty finding a job after getting hooked on drugs and landing in the county jail. Background checks would sink her chances. "I'd always have great interviews and never get that call back," Dunne says. By contrast, Ghobadian and Cahan were "warm and welcoming." While they asked tough questions about her criminal background, "they were interested in how those skills might be transferrable," Dunne says. Ghobadian says she's been struck by Dunne's improved self-esteem since joining Road Twenty-Two. "She is driven, more focused. She's being held accountable, so she's not going down a bad path," Ghobadian says. "She can stand up with her head high and say 'I matter.'" Dunne agrees: "I am doing things I never thought I was good at doing and doing them well." More to come Looking ahead, Ghobadian says she hopes to hire more former female prisoners as soon as Road Twenty-Two expands. Finding the women has been surprisingly difficult, she says. While she had originally hoped to work with prisons on funnelling parolees over to Road Twenty-Two, "the bureaucracy's insane," she says. Instead, the company has worked with agencies like America Works and Glide, which help ex-prisoners get jobs. Growth is coming slowly, although Road Twenty-Two is now sold in about 200 stores and broke even last year. This year, Ghobadian and Cahan plan to devote more resources to social media and hire commission-based sales representatives, which they hope will push Road Twenty-Two to $1 million in revenue by year's end. They recently expanded their product offerings to include sweatpants, and are creating a lower-priced custom line for corporate marketing events. "The more money we make, the more people we can hire," Ghobadian says. Nearly 74 years after he died for his country, Warren Nelson, of Lakota, was remembered last weekend. Nelson, 20, was killed in the Battle of Tawara on Betio Island during World War IIs Pacific campaign. A sniper killed him on Nov. 20, 1943, as he was taking supplies to his Marine comrades on the frontlines. He was a field musician first class attached to Echo Company, Second Battalion, Eighth Marines, Second Marine Division. He was one of 1,696 American military members killed in the three days of fighting during the campaign. Nearly 6,400 people died on the island in three days. The Marines didnt believe the island was heavily fortified, but they were wrong, according to CBS news. The Japanese commander claimed it would take a million men a hundred years to take the island. It took the Marines three days at a terrible cost. Its hard to comprehend the toll from the battles in WWII. The U.S. paid a high price in human life in its fight against Japan and Germany. Many of the dead remain unaccounted for and that included Nelson. He was reported killed but his remains werent recovered until recently. Thats also a remarkable story. The nonprofit organization History Flight found a burial site on Betio Island in June 2015 that had remains of 35 Marines. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency later identified one of the dead as Nelson. Mark Noah founded History Flight as a nonprofit charity to find the remains of service members who died in WWII. Noah, a commercial cargo pilot and antique plane enthusiast, began raising money for History Flight by offering rides on WWII planes in exchange for donations. So far the group has located the remains of more than 100 service members. It hasnt been an easy task as Noahs volunteers search the jungle for graves. At the time, the military didnt have much choice but to bury casualties in mass graves. The location of many of the resting places became lost to time. History Flight has been committed to finding the burial places and bringing the troops home. More than 73,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from World War II, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Nelson came home for a final service on Saturday. According to a Forum News Service story, maybe two people at the Lakota Lutheran Church had met Nelson. That didnt hamper attendance at the service. And another remarkable event happened as Nelsons remains were taken to the cemetery. About 300 bikers, mostly veterans, from North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, California and other states, along with Manitoba, lined the road to the cemetery, The bikers waved flags as the hearse passed, and stood solemnly as Nelson was laid to rest. It would be easy to forget a Marine like Nelson. A young man from a small North Dakota community just beginning his life. He, along with thousands of others, never had the chance to experience the many adventures of life. He died on a remote island before most of us were born. He was deprived of a full life that we enjoy. It speaks well of us that after almost 74 years we still appreciate and honor the sacrifice of a 20-year-old Marine from Lakota in 1943. He earned it and still deserves it. Australia's government is experiencing fierce backlash over a that threatens to disrupt national power supplies. Industry players at Wednesday's Australian Energy Conference slammed Canberra over its response to dwindling gas supplies and spiking prices in the east a gas security mechanism that will restrict exports from the region if the resource become unavailable to domestic users. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's administration announced the measure in late April after the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) warned of potential electricity supply shortfalls as a result of insufficient gas in a March report. Turnbull's export controls have raised more question than answers, said Mark Samter, head of Australian energy research at Credit Suisse. "We don't feel comfortable on what it's trying to achieve. Is it just trying to make gas available to the market or is it trying to secure affordable gas? Those are two very different answers with profoundly different implications for companies." Canberra's legislation is just a baby step and an awful lot of work needs to be done to bring affordable gas to industrial users, he added. Australia is one of the world's largest gas exporters but and slowing output are hitting the eastern region's supplies and driving up prices. While the bulk of gas production is concentrated in Western Australia, output in the east has increased significantly over the past year amid rising LNG exports six LNG trains now operate in Gladstone, Queensland. Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement to the nation in front of 10 Downing Street on April 18, 2017 in London. Talks between UK Prime Minister Theresa May's minority Conservative government and Northern Ireland's DUP broke up for the night on Tuesday, and will resume the following day, a spokesman for May's office said. The spokesman did not provide details on the timing of Wednesday's talks. The Conservatives need the support of Northern Ireland's 10 Democratic Unionist Party lawmakers to pass legislation. Earlier on Tuesday, the DUP's leader said the agreement, which is expected to be more informal than a coalition, could be "sooner rather than later". May lost her majority on Thursday in an election she had called in order to boost her hand heading into negotiations for Britain to leave the European Union, which are scheduled to begin next week. Uber board member David Bonderman, who spurred outrage after making a sexist remark at a staff meeting held subsequent to an investigation of sexual harassment at the ride-sharing company, has resigned on Tuesday. The resignation will be effective as of Wednesday morning. At a company staff meeting, another Uber board member, Arianna Huffington, remarked that having one woman on a board often leads to more women joining a board, according to a leaked audio recording of the meeting, obtained by Yahoo Finance. Bonderman replied, "actually, what it shows is that it's much more likely to be more talking," according to the recording. The exchange revolved around the recent addition of Nestle executive Wan Ling Martello as the second woman to join Uber's board, after Huffington. That spurred outrage in the tech world as the incident came hard on the heels of the completion of a law firm's investigation, led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Tammy Albarran, over allegations of a hostile work environment at Uber, including allegations of unchecked sexual harassment and gender bias. The investigation's recommendations were released earlier on Tuesday. Uber launched an investigation into 47 counts of sexual harassment within the company, which were uncovered after Uber engineer Susan Fowler claimed in a widely read blog-post that it failed to act on sexual harassment and gender discrimination complaints. The resignation, which was initially reported by the New York Times, which cited two unnamed sources, was confirmed by a statement from Bonderman. "I directed a comment to my colleague and friend Arianna Huffington that was careless, inappropriate, and inexcusable," Bonderman said. "Having worked with the company for some months on the Holder report, I recognize the importance of implementing the requirements of the report," he said. "Uber is examining the issues with its culture, making significant changes and working to right what has been done wrong, which is extremely important for the future of the company. I do not want my comments to create distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud." Huffington said in a statement: "I appreciate David doing the right thing for Uber at this time of critical cultural changes at the company." A representative of Uber confirmed the resignation of Bonderman, who is also a partner at private-equity firm TPG, an investor in the company. TPG was expected to select a new board representative soon. At the meeting, it was also announced that CEO Travis Kalanick, whose mother recently died, would be taking a leave of absence. Kalanick did not disclose a return date. The latest incident comes amid a tumultuous year for the company. After Fowler posted her blog in February, a series of other accusations of misconduct soon surfaced. A video revealed Kalanick yelling at a driver. The New York Times uncovered software that allowed Uber to evade authorities. And people associated with the company made troubling claims, including that some top brass at Uber went to an escort-karaoke bar in Seoul. Meanwhile, the company fought a lawsuit from Alphabet's Waymo, alleging an Uber engineer (since dismissed) had stolen Waymo's intellectual property. The bad press came to a head last week when Recode reported that a top Uber executive had obtained the medical records of a customer who was a rape victim and shown them to other executives as part of an investigation into the role of a rival. At least 20 staff members have also been fired as the result of a separate investigation by law firm Perkins Coie, which looked at claims of sexual harassment, retaliation, discrimination and more. Anita Balakrishnan and Deirdre Bosa contributed to this article. Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook. Asian financial centers Singapore and Hong Kong will attract more wealth from within and outside the region in the coming years a development that will help to propel Asia Pacific to become the world's wealthiest region by 2019, a study by Boston Consulting Group showed. The report, released on Tuesday, found that Asia Pacific experienced the fastest increase in overall wealth in 2016 but trailed behind North America. Private wealth in Asia Pacific, including Japan, is expected to surpass North America by 2019 and hit $77.8 trillion by 2021. "In Asia Pacific, which is characterized by strong GDP growth, the key impetus will be new savings," BCG wrote in the report, adding that China was the largest source of offshore wealth in the Asia Pacific region, BCG said, contributing nearly $12 billion in revenue pools for private banks. BCG's measurement of private wealth includes household holdings such as life insurance, pensions and assets such as equities, bonds and cash. In the coming years, Asian financial hubs Singapore and Hong Kong are projected to attract more money from abroad compared to their European rival Switzerland, the business consultancy said. Offshore assets in Singapore and Hong Kong would increase at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent and 7 percent through 2021, respectively. That is quicker than Switzerland's projected 3 percent, according to the report. Nevertheless, Switzerland retained its status as the world's top offshore wealth management hub with $2.4 trillion in assets in 2016 higher than Singapore's $1.2 trillion and Hong Kong's $0.8 trillion, the BCG report showed. "Hong Kong and Singapore remain the fastest-growing offshore centers globally because of both their status as the preferred booking centers for regional clients and the anticipation of strong growth in Asia-Pacific," the report said. "Expansion is expected to continue in the long term, but China's ongoing restrictions on investment outflows may slow it down to some degree in the short term." Asia Pacific's growing wealth has led to both global and regional banks expanding their wealth management operations in the region. Among those that have done so include UBS Group and DBS Group Holdings. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, June 13, 2017. President Donald Trump has "no intention" of firing special counsel Robert Mueller, a White House spokeswoman told reporters on Tuesday. "While the president has the right to, he has no intention to do so," deputy White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Mueller was appointed by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to probe into suspected Russian interference in the 2016 election. On Monday, speculation was stoked that Trump was considering terminating Mueller, after a confidante of the president suggested it was under consideration. watch now The more than 1,800 attendees who flocked to this week's FundForum International summit in Berlin could not escape the keen focus on digitalization and the growing pressure on managers to harness its anticipated benefits. Given the tremendous potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to improve systemic efficiency and optimize client communications, the pervading sentiment was very much "adapt or die". Swiss fund house Unigestion has incorporated machine learning techniques into its systems since 1995 and views its embrace of digital as a continual work-in-progress. The latest focus is on machine learning skills which learn from the market rather than humans, according to its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Fiona Frick, speaking to CNBC on Monday. watch now "The idea will be more to ask the machine a question and see what the machine will answer rather than tell the machine what to do," explained Frick, asserting that this methodology will be the next stage of the relationship between man and machine in asset management. As fund houses strive to dismantle punitive legacy cost structures at a time when fees are being decimated, Lawrence Wintermeyer, CEO of U.K. fintech association Innovate Finance, told CNBC that the potential for active managers in particular to improve on their sums is substantial if they can augment their decision making with AI. "That extends not just into helping deliver better alpha or better investment returns but how to give better oversight of compliance - that's called RegTech - and drive down compliance and oversight costs. I'd watch that space," he advised. The asset management industry is still playing digital catch-up, according to Jamie Hammond, European CEO of Alliance Bernstein, speaking to CNBC in Berlin on Tuesday. watch now In Hammond's view, asset managers should not only focus on robo-advisers (systems which provide financial advice with minimum human intervention) but also robo-servicers which can cost-effectively respond to intermediaries' and end investors' needs more satisfactorily. "The industry talks a lot about the rise of millennials and unfortunately at the moment, people have ignored the millennials, the under-35s, because they don't have the money. But if you look at what's forecast, I think in the next 15 - 20 years, in the U.S. the millennials will inherit about $15 trillion worth of wealth and I think in Europe it's about $12 trillion," highlighted Hammond. "So if the industry doesn't wake up and get its digital act together in a way to engage with these clients, then I think it will suffer," the industry veteran warned. Blockchain has been top of mind for many recently given the vertiginous growth of certain cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum, which has swelled in value by over 5,000 percent during 2017. watch now Yet enthusiasm for these investments, which are reliant on blockchain's distributed database, has not been followed by a willingness within many fund houses to embrace the technology which promises substantial potential efficiency benefits but still faces high levels of skepticism over the security of its platform. "Blockchain promised to be a great solution for many things," observed Wintermeyer, listing cross-border payments, "Know Your Customer" systems and trade finance as three salient examples. However, its pick up has been underwhelming to date. "It's been slow out of the blocksWe haven't seen any provable scale of concepts come to market yet and I think we could be a few years away from that," he opined. Unigestion once again has been at the forefront of embracing a new technology, with the fund house recently experimenting with blockchain on a very restricted scale as part of its private equity systems. "The goal now is to expand to other parts of our operational processes," says CEO Frick, affirming that the results to date have been sufficiently encouraging as to warrant further experimentation. Double exposure of abstract financial graphs, business person in office using smartphone and laptop computer with stock market dashboard, and buildings NicoElNino | iStock/Getty Images Plus | Getty Images Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms, has placed a bet on a start-up called Instabase that's quietly building a web service where data scientists and less technical users can work with data, CNBC has learned. Last month the start-up disclosed that it had raised $23.2 million, and a spokesperson from Andreessen Horowitz confirmed it was the lead investor. The idea is that people would dump data into Instabase to make it more accessible to colleagues both inside and outside their organization. For instance, salespeople could use the product to store and access web site visitor data without requiring engineers to write queries to a visitor database. Engineers can also use it to store queries to back-end databases, which their colleagues can then explore and use. Venture-backed GitHub has been doing something similar with source code for tens of millions of developers. But data is not very well suited for GitHub's underlying technologies. So in 2014, Anant Bhardwaj and his colleagues at MIT's renowned Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), along with other academic researchers, detailed a new system for data called DataHub in a paper. DataHub, now available on GitHub under an open-source license, forms the basis of Instabase. But the start-up's web service is billed as being in preview and only lets a small number of people start using it every few days. Once on the website, users can post data sets, which other users can explore, query, chart and contribute to them. The service keeps track of changes to data just as GitHub stores updates to code files. "Instabase is a company that really resonates with me personally," Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and formerly a cofounder of Nicira, told CNBC in an email. "It's a first-time technical founder, tackling an incredibly challenging technical problem, in an emerging space that can can have huge industry-wide impact." The idea for Instabase isn't completely new. Cloudera introduced a service that data scientists could use for collaboration in March, a few weeks before going public. Start-up Domino Data Lab offers something similar. Another start-up, Plotly caters to a broader crowd, letting people share data and charts that other users can build on. Instabase was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco. Other Instabase investors include Greylock Partners, NEA and Roughdraft Ventures. "I think their next plan of attack is to drop exports to the U.S. so they can manufacture a drop in the EIA report," said John Kilduff of Again Capital. "It will make it look like inventories are really coming down." Saudi Arabia, which has a large refinery on the U.S. Gulf Coast, was reported this week to be planning to hold back some exports to the U.S. in July. That could show up immediately in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's import data and inventories as a bullish signal. U.S. weekly inventory data is perhaps the most frequent and visible source of oil storage data, showing U.S. inventories and a whole range of other data, including imports, exports and U.S. production. The unrelenting slide in crude prices is pressuring Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers, and their next tactic may be to try to reduce the highly visible U.S. oil inventories. Of the 8 million barrels a day imported into the U.S. last week, Saudi Arabia probably supplied about 1 million barrels a day, said Kilduff. He said that could come down by 100,000 to 250,000 barrels a day. "The Saudis understand the importance of changing optics in the U.S. and are following it up by continuing to signal that they are going to reduce shipments into the U.S.," said Helima Croft, global head of commodities strategy at RBC. She said Saudi Arabia's energy minister has made clear that reducing U.S. shipments was an option. "It's a good time to reduce because they're going into seasonal domestic demand swings," said Croft. Saudi Arabia uses more oil domestically during the summer months for its utilities. Oil prices cratered Wednesday, falling to a five-week low, after the EIA report showed a smaller-than-expected draw of 1.7 million barrels of crude but a bearish build in gasoline stockpiles of 2.1 million barrels. Brent fell 3.7 percent to just under $47 per barrel, and U.S. crude West Texas Intermediate futures dropped 3.8 percent, falling below the key $45 per barrel level. Crude has been under pressure also this week after OPEC reported ramped-up supplies from Libya and Nigeria, while OPEC and Russia recently sealed a deal to extend their 1.8 million barrels a day in production cuts for another nine months. "Libya and Nigeria popped up, but at what point is the market's focus? They're more focused on the U.S. What's hanging over this market is that the U.S. will continue to overwhelm everything," Croft said. "Everybody keeps saying it's OPEC's fault, but ... which producer just pumped up production?" Croft said. U.S. production has been growing and increased in the last week to 9.3 million barrels a day from 9.2 million the week earlier. The International Energy Agency says non-OPEC supply should grow by 660,000 barrels a day this year but will more than double that by increasing 1.5 million barrels a day next year, outstripping demand growth. The targeting of U.S. inventories is not a surprise, as OPEC has said that traders look too much at U.S. data and that global inventories have been coming down. "The U.S. numbers are more available than most other numbers, so sending less to the U.S., it probably helps the optics of this. But ultimately whether or not they're shifting supply between the U.S. and Asia. Let's say inventory drawdowns, even outside of the U.S., should start to take physical effect on the market," said Eric Lee, Citigroup energy analyst. The next level to test could be $40. Lee said he expects inventories to continue to draw and $40 is unlikely. "If you did see $40 oil, that would suggest customers would draw even more than they were going to draw and that means a bigger snap-up later this year. In terms of $40 oil over the next three years, I see more of a fundamental basis for that." Watch: Kilduff says OPEC oil supply 'whisper talk' never came to pass WILLISTON -- A man from Williston is facing a number of charges in connection with the death of a man whose body was found last week on the Williston State College campus. Police say Dustin Pitman, 33, drove Thomas Ober onto the campus early the morning of June 6, called the police departments non-emergency line to request an ambulance, and left the scene. It wasnt until hours later that Ober, 27, of Williston, was pronounced dead of an apparent drug overdose. Pitman allegedly blocked his phone number when calling police and hung up before a dispatcher could gather information on where help was needed, police said Tuesday. Pitman was arrested Friday by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation after agents searched his home. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, reckless endangerment, tampering with physical evidence, possession of drug paraphernalia and three counts of possession of a controlled substance. Pitman appeared in court on Tuesday for a bond hearing, where Northwest District Judge Kirsten Sjue set the amount at $50,000 at the recommendation of Williams County Assistant States Attorney Christopher Votova. Details of the case, including where and when Ober died, are still under active investigation, Votova said. There was very little indication of the situation just being an overdose in the car, he told Sjue in reference to investigators claims that Ober did not display the usual symptoms of a drug overdose death. Police and EMTs responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive man in a parking lot on the college campus around 11:30 a.m. Obers body was found in the passenger seat of an SUV, triggering a multi-agency investigation that included Williston police and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Police are waiting for toxicology results from an autopsy performed at the state medical examiners office, and have not said what type of drug he used. Authorities identified Pitman as the alleged driver using video from the colleges surveillance cameras, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in district court Tuesday. He was first spotted driving on campus about 6:15 a.m., when video footage allegedly shows him parking the vehicle, removing a bag and making a call before leaving the campus. BCI agents who searched his home on 26th Street East on Friday said they found nearly 80 oxycodone pills, a number of items with heroin residue and methamphetamine. During Pitmans court appearance on Tuesday, his attorney pointed out that hed been in jail for several days before charges were filed. He was arrested Friday after a search warrant of his house, and there were no charges filed on Friday, attorney Jeremy Curran said. It is a violation of his rights in North Dakota for him to be arrested and detained and not be in front of a judge within 72 hours. Pitman is being held at the Williams County Correctional Center and is due back in court on July 13 for a preliminary hearing. Ohio, Missouri and Washington contain counties that as of now are not expected to have any Obamacare insurers selling plans next year . Centene's announcement, which boasted of "another year of ... successful operations" on Obamacare markets by the company, bucks a trend of stories about insurers saying they will exit Obamacare markets , including several states that Centene is committing to. Big insurer Centene has announced plans to enter the Obamacare markets of Kansas, Missouri and Nevada in 2018 , and also intends to expand its existing individual health plan business in six other states: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Washington. Where President Donald Trump sees a "death spiral" for Obamacare , some insurers don't seem quite so pessimistic. Obamacare supporters got some other good news in recent days when Aetna , which last month said it would not sell individual health plans in any of the four remaining states where it now does such business, filed proposed rates in Nevada for next year. Aetna has said it has not made a final decision on whether to actually sell Obamacare plans in Nevada, but its filing increases its chances of winning a Medicaid plan contract with the state. In Florida, the state's biggest insurer, Florida Blue, said it will sell Obamacare plans throughout the state next year. UnitedHealthcare , the nation's largest insurer, filed tentative plans to do Obamacare business in New York and Nevada. And Health Care Service Corp., which sells Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, likewise has not made final decisions for next year but has filed tentative plans and rates for Illinois, Texas, Montana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Insurers nationwide have been unsettled by the Trump administration's push to repeal and replace key parts of Obamacare, particularly the provision that requires most Americans to have some form of health coverage or pay a fine. Another thing worrying insurers is the refusal of the administration and the Republican-controlled Congress to guarantee billions of dollars in federal payments to insurers to compensate them for plans that offer low-income customers reduced charges for out-of-pocket health costs. Centene CEO Michael Neidorff, in announcing the insurer's expansion of Obamacare business in 2018, said, "Centene recognizes there is uncertainty of new healthcare legislation, but we are well positioned to continue providing accessible, high quality and culturally-sensitive healthcare services to our members." "Centene has demonstrated disciplined execution, agility and capacity to successfully navigate industry changes to the benefit of our members, customers and shareholders." Centene noted that the company grew from 537,200 Obamacare exchange customers at the end of 2016 to 1.2 million customers by March. Watch: Centene CEO says he doesn't want to see 20 million people lose coverage When Neil Gurnsey grabs a drink at his favorite bar, he's delighted when nobody knows his name. Gurnsey loves to see his new watering hole, the taproom at Hand of Fate Brewing, packed with people from outside Petersburg, Illinois, a small bedroom community of roughly 2,200 near the capital, Springfield. Started last May by Mike Allison, a former funeral director who turned his homebrewing hobby into a thriving small business in his hometown, Hand of Fate took its name from the town's origin story (during a card game between two early settlers, Peter Lukins and George Warburton, Warburton drew the losing hand). After just a year, the small brewery has brought good fortune to the town. After taking over an old Dollar General discount store in the sparsely occupied town square, the brewery-and-taproom has become a community hub and a catalyst keeping businesses open later. It's encouraged othersincluding two new boutiquesto open shop, and drawn visitors from across the region. This year's "Drinkin' with Lincoln" street festival was a big hit. More from Curbed: Massive modular dorm built like 'scaled-up Lego bricks' Modular adventure van can also haul the whole family An Ohio city is turning a freeway into a forest "Once Mike got the brewery going," says Gurnsey, an assistant vice president at the National Bank of Petersburg, "life was just injected into the square. If I go inside the bar and see that I know just 10 people out of 100, that's great." Breweries, taprooms, and bars have always been about more than beer, serving as community hubs, gathering places, and sources of local identity and pride. But as Hand of Fate shows, they're also increasingly serving as engines of economic development and catalysts for cities and towns, especially in rural areas. Allison's businesswhich churns out a variety of IPAs, cream ales, and saisonsmay directly employ 10 people, but the ancillary benefits of the brewery and taproom, like others in the country, radiate into the community in different ways. As the booming craft-beer industry, which contributed $55.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014, continues to expand, more and more municipalities and states have tried to turn this industry into a means to spur growth. According to Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, about 80 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a brewery. Small towns and abandoned industrial areas are prime candidates for regeneration-by-brewery. Portland-based beer writer Jeff Alworth has seen the industry revive towns across Oregon and the U.S. Amid talk of hops and flavor profiles, drinkers sometimes forget the impressive industrial scale of brewing operationsand the jobs it can provide. A typical taproom makes 300-gallon batches multiple times a day, employing men and women to haul fully loaded, 165-pound kegs across a factory floor, and retrofitting spaces and installing brewery equipment requires skilled craftsmen and laborers. That requires lots of space, says Watson, which is why brewing, a capital-intensive industry, is perfect for depressed areas with lots of excess and abandoned industrial real estate. That large footprint, however, is part of the reason for an oversize community impact; taprooms and bars are magnets that draw people in, and with traditional bars and VFW halls (Veterans of Foreign Wars) closing, these new spaces become community hubs and event spaces, not just another place to grab a drink. And, according to research by Julie Wartell, a lecturer at University of California at San Diego, bars attached to breweries result in much less crime than regular bars. Margo Metzger, director of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild, has seen craft brewing explode in her state, generating $2.4 billion and 10,000 jobs in 2014. At that time, North Carolina had a little over 100 breweries; a few years later, after big names such as Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Oskar Blues all opened facilities near Asheville, the state boasts 215 breweries. "The reason? A lot has to do with the global shift away from soda, which is Coca-Cola's bread and butter. Carbonated drinks have become the slowest growing beverage category around, whereas PepsiCo has its Frito-Lay and Gatorade business to diversify away from the weakness in sugary sodas," Cramer explained. In the past five years under Kent's leadership, the stock of Coca-Cola lagged, climbing only 40 percent compared to shares of its top competitor, PepsiCo , which rose 95 percent. But to understand the company's future, investors need to understand its past, the " Mad Money " host said, turning to 2008, when the company appointed Muhtar Kent as CEO. With the stock of Coca-Cola on the rise after a downturn in 2016, Jim Cramer decided to track the soft drink giant's transformation to see if changes at the company will brighten its future. Despite Coca-Cola's best efforts to diversify, which included introducing healthier, low-sugar alternatives like juices and partnering with Monster Beverage for a footprint in the energy drink space, sales still slumped. However, in December, Kent announced that he would step down and hand over the CEO role to James Quincey, the company's former president and COO. Since the announcement, Coca-Cola shares have gained momentum, even speeding past PepsiCo stock's pace in the last three months, causing Cramer to wonder whether Coca-Cola is making a serious comeback. His first hint came from the Consumer Analyst Group of New York, or CAGNY, conference in February, a gathering of consumer goods companies and experts from across the industry. At the conference, Coca-Cola executives laid out a strategic plan for the company's transformation, including a new approach to the carbonated business a combination of massive product releases, with 500 released in 2016 and 500 more planned for 2017, and acquisitions, which involve purchasing small, but promising brands and selling them globally. To tackle the issue of its core products' nutrition, Coca-Cola also introduced smaller packages and started to change the way it labels nutritional information to make the products more attractive to customers, along with the release of more low- and no-sugar beverages. Cramer added that the company is at the tail-end of a multi-year initiative to re-franchise its bottling business by spinning off the low-margin, low-growth bottlers it once acquired. "On top of that, the company also talked about embracing a leaner, more agile operating model. We didn't get too many details here yet, but we know it involves reshaping their local business units and doing a better job of hiring executives and managing their performance. Plus, the new Coca-Cola wants to bet more heavily on digital," Cramer said. In its last earnings report, the company delivered a top-line beat and a slight earnings miss with 3 percent organic volume growth. Management gave Wall Street an update on its transformation efforts, seeing an uptick in low-sugar drink sales and acquiring a soy-based drink maker. Coca-Cola also announced it would be laying off 1,200 workers in the second half of 2017 with more firings coming in 2018 in an effort to streamline the business and cut costs, expecting to bring its total cost cuts to somewhere around $4 billion. "Maybe it's taken Coca-Cola too long to re-calibrate itself. I get that. But now they have a new strategy, a new CEO and the leanest structure it has had in ages. That matters, and the profits will flow right through to the bottom line in a much fatter way than I think people realize," Cramer said. "The company understands that it needs to find new ways to win in a world where many consumers just don't want to drink soda anymore." The question Cramer finds himself asking is: "Can James Quincey, the freshman CEO, actually deliver on these turnaround plans?" With the company slated to introduce digital efforts, refreshed recipes, re-franchised bottlers, cost cuts, and across-the-board innovation, Cramer wonders if that is too big of a to-do list. "But you know what? I don't think Muhtar Kent would've let Quincey take over if he didn't believe the guy has what it takes," the "Mad Money" host said. "If I know Kent, and I think I do, he's giving Quincey the best hand possible as part of his graciousness ... and his desire to make things as easy on his successor as possible. That's his way." While the company is the early stages of its turnaround, Cramer still finds it difficult to endorse the slightly expensive stock, which trades at 24 times earnings compared to PepsiCo, which trades at 22 times earnings and is already on its way to re-forming its soft drink business. "I think Coca-Cola is worth watching for the possibility that this transformation they've talked about is going to really happen," Cramer said. "But if you're thinking about owning a beverage stock, I'm still going to recommend sticking with PepsiCo. Nevertheless, you know what, if you wanted to buy some Coke now and wait for a pullback, you have my blessing. I think the company's set up for a real good 2018, and you may have to start buying it now to get in on those gains." Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com Hit the brakes before you contact a debt settlement company to grapple with your student loans some may be in hotter water than you are. NerdWallet, a personal finance website, compiled a watch list of 130 entities, representing approximately 100 companies, that provide debt management and consolidation services for student loan borrowers. In all, about 44 million people owe more than $1.4 trillion in college loan debt. More than 4 million debtors were in default last year, up from 3.6 million in 2015. Debt settlement companies charge borrowers a fee to complete and submit paperwork to the Department of Education in order to help students consolidate their loans. The catch is that this information is already available free of charge from the Education Department. Borrowers can also contact their lenders directly for consolidation and income-driven repayment options and they can apply for them for free. And while many of these companies work with federal loans only, some also handle private loans. The firms NerdWallet highlighted are facing enforcement actions and lawsuits from state attorneys general, liens for back taxes and other woes of their own, according to the analysis. "Some of these firms are charging upfront fees, monthly retainers or a percentage of a borrower's total balance to put them into programs borrowers can apply for on their own for free," said Brianna McGurran, who specializes in student loans at NerdWallet. watch now With all the hysteria around surging to records and possibly being the currency of the future, CNBC decided to put it to the test. Can one person live off of bitcoin for a week? New York City may have thousands of restaurants and bars, but only a handful accept bitcoin. We made a lot of calls and reached out to several vendors to see if they accept the digital currency. We also leveraged "bitcoin maps" online which were not entirely accurate. However, we did find a few eateries in the city who accept the currency directly - two of which are French restaurants in lower Manhattan Le Village and La Serine. Source: CNBC And if you're craving an ice cream sandwich then you're in luck. Melt in the Lower East Side also accepts bitcoin. Melt also has a stand on the Highline, but when we visited them they didn't have the bitcoin app running. Another option was using Gyft.com, a site which allows you to purchase gift cards to Whole Foods, Starbucks, CVS, etc with bitcoin. This ended up being tremendously helpful, but also highlighted the reliance one must have on third parties to get by just on bitcoin. Bitcoin transactions can get expensive Another big takeaway? Using bitcoin can be costly. Checking out at vendors that accept bitcoin is relatively easy, but I ended up spending on average 40 percent more versus paying with dollars or credit card because of unfavorable conversion rates and additional transaction fees. For example, my ice cream sandwich at Melt sold for $5, but with bitcoin I ended up spending the equivalent of more than $9. The gift cards also come with additional fees. At one point during the week I ran out of bitcoin so I had to purchase more using my virtual wallet on Coinbase. Fortunately, they make it very easy to buy and sell bitcoin and another digital currency, ether, as well. Source: CNBC Transportation is also a challenge. As a reporter, I am constantly on the go, traveling around the city to meet sources, attend conferences and coming on air from different studios. The subway is typically how I get around town. Unfortunately subways do not accept bitcoin. Same story for yellow taxis. The third option (besides walking) was ride-sharing apps. I was able to buy an Uber gift card via Gyft.com. I ended up spending more time and money taking this roundabout way, but at least I could travel from downtown to the upper west side without walking. After a couple days, I started reaching out to folks in the NYC bitcoin community. I found a bitcoin investor online who was wiling to sell me a subway card in exchange for bitcoin. I met him at Penn Station the following day and he gladly helped me out. This interaction proved to me that the bitcoin network is very supportive of one another. The real value of bitcoin Clearly, living on bitcoin is challenging. But many experts say that the true value of bitcoin is not in making transactions, but in its underlying technology. One of the most well respected bitcoin investors, Mike Schwartz, Managing Director at BCG Digital Partners and Founder of DVolution, told CNBC that blockchain technology, the backbone that records bitcoin transactions, will change the medical and security industries. Schwartz also says that blockchain will change future elections by improving the accuracy and efficiency. "So when was the last time anybody could tell you that they were confident that a voting system was completely secure, completely fair? The votes were irrefutable. The records were immutable. All of this is possible in a Blockchain world," said Schwartz. Source: CNBC North America and Asia Pacific are expected to lead the adoption of the super-fast, next-generation 5G mobile internet technology, according to a new report, but widespread use may need a big catalyst. In its "Mobility Report" for June 2017, released on Wednesday, Swedish firm Ericsson said it expected more than half a billion 5G subscriptions worldwide by 2022, covering about 15 percent of the global population. Josep Lago | AFP | Getty Images North America was projected to lead the adoption of this new technology, with 25 percent of mobile subscriptions set to be 5G by 2022, the report said. This was expected to be followed by Asia Pacific with 10 percent. "There's great interest from the major operators ... we've seen statements from both Verizon and AT&T to deliver as early as possible. That's why we believe North America will, in that regard, lead the introduction (of 5G)," Magnus Ewerbring, Asia Pacific CTO at Ericsson, told CNBC. Ewerbring added, "We see corresponding similar statements from operators in predominantly (South) Korea, large, large interest in Japan and China as well." Last week, Japanese business daily Nikkei reported the country's three leading mobile service providers NTT Docomo , KDDI and SoftBank Group were expected to invest a combined $45.7 billion to roll out 5G wireless communications services, starting in parts of Tokyo and other limited areas ahead of the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo. In a note last week, Jefferies analyst Edison Lee said he expected Chinese telcos to invest as much as $180 billion in 5G between 2019 and 2025, amounting to about 13 months of industry revenue. Lee wrote Jefferies expected China to spend twice as aggressively on 5G than Japan. 5G still needs a big push to take off 5G is still in its infancy, with the telecom industry investing heavily into the technology, carrying out trials and setting standards. The promise underpinning the technology is big: It is expected to support the burgeoning Internet of Things market , comprising billions of connected devices, and developments in artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality. But some were not convinced that the promise of super-fast mobile internet will be enough to convince consumers to take up new, more expensive, services once they are available. "The industry is making quite a bold assumption that consumers are going to take up 5G services the moment we achieve it," John Hayduk, chief corporate operations officer at Tata Communications , told CNBC. Hayduk said a good gauge to estimate how consumers will react to 5G is to look at the roll out of 4G networks. "4G adoption was spurred by apps appearing on consumers' phones, and the world of new functions those apps introduced. The problem was that the apps kept becoming more and more sophisticated graphically and functionally and (existing) 3G connections couldn't keep up," he said. watch now That, he said, created an easy choice for consumers: They could either give up the swanky new apps that populated the latest smartphones or upgrade to 4G networks for a relatively modest financial jump. Similarly, the roll-out of 5G is also expected to introduce new applications that depend on super-fast connectivity. "The challenge, however, is that the economics of providing 5G connectivity will make it difficult for providers to drive costs low enough to make moving to 5G more tempting than simply not adopting the latest app," said Hayduk. "Without mass adoption of 5G for big apps, we won't see mass adoption of 5G." Supporting connected devices, smart cities, robots Ericsson estimated there will be around 18 billion connected devices related to IoT by 2022, including connected cars, machines, meters, sensors, consumer electronics and wearables. The nature of the devices, and the functions they perform, require low latency connectivity and high data throughput something 5G is expected to provide. The report also pointed out potential use-cases for having high-speed internet connectivity: for example, 5G can theoretically load 4K or 8K high-resolution videos on mobile quickly and enable AR/VR, or augmented reality and virtual reality, gaming. In the manufacturing space, it can allow remote control of robots to perform tasks, while in the healthcare industry, it can facilitate remote robotic surgery. Smart city projects can also benefit from 5G connectivity, according to a spokesperson from Chinese communications technology services provider Huawei. The representative told CNBC, "5G will provide the foundation structures for building smart and safe cities, which will push mobile network performance ... to their extremes." watch now Challenges ahead for operators The European Parliament's representative on Brexit has stepped up pressure on the U.K. government to make its position more clear before negotiations kickoff. Guy Verhofstadt, a European lawmaker, said on Twitter that it's time the U.K. answers five key questions before negotiations begin next week. Tweet 1 The first big question asks whether the government led by Prime Minister Theresa May will leave the single market or will it adopt a softer approach. Prime Minister May has come under pressure to seek a soft Brexit after losing her parliamentary majority last week. The outcome of the election might force her to seek a cross-party political consensus to agree on how the U.K. will leave the European Union. As a result, she might try to keep some sort of access to the single market. However, a soft Brexit would be a "daft" option, a political analyst told CNBC on Wednesday. "It would seem rather daft to leave the European Union but then accept all of its rules just to have market access," Charles Lichfield, associate at Eurasia, told CNBC on Wednesday. European markets closed lower Wednesday as investors cautiously awaited the latest monetary decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.12 percent lower with major bourses and sectors mixed. The German DAX closed higher after hitting a record high of 12,989.91 midday Wednesday. It rose 1.1 percent during Wednesday deals and closed the day up 0.48 percent. Elsewhere, in currencies, the euro rallied against the greenback to reach its highest level since the election of President Trump after the U.S. Labor Department released lower-than-expected CPI figures. Sterling, meanwhile, rose above $1.28 for the first time since UK election on the back of dollar weakness. U.S. markets were mixed following the release, though the Dow Jones hit a record high of over 21,332.77 as technology stocks continued their recovery after a major sell-off earlier this week. Tech stocks also led the gains back in Europe, with the sector trading up around 0.5 percent. Basic resources stocks also moved higher following news that the Chinese firm Fosun is to offer more than 224.6 million ($287 million) for the London-listed miner Gemfields, Reuters reported. The stock was up by more than 13 percent. Oil prices meanwhile extended losses, sliding more than 3 percent lower after government data showed a smaller-than-expected drop in stockpiles of U.S. crude as refineries hiked output. The European Oil & Gas index was down 1.46 percent, its lowest level since December 2016. Looking at individual stocks, the Swedish firm Hexagon was at the top of the European benchmark, up by over 10 percent. This after reports that the software company was in talks to sell itself to a rival in a deal valuing the company at about $20 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hexagon may ultimately decide not to pursue a sale. The U.K. house builder Bellway was also among the best-performing stocks on Wednesday following a solid trading update. The company's shares dropped in the aftermath of the U.K. General Election but it said Wednesday that it did not see demand cooling ahead of the vote. In fact, it expects full-year completions to increase by almost 10 percent and a full-year operating margin to be slightly above 22 percent, Reuters reported. Other peers were also higher as a result, with Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments up by 1.4 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. Shares of the French energy firm EDF also rose on Wednesday morning, up about 3.2 percent, after appointing Simone Rossi to lead its British unit, which has two new nuclear reactors in the pipeline. By contrast, Raiffeisen Bank fell more than 6 percent after a rating downgrade by Barclays. Rents in San Francisco and Silicon Valley have reached such unprecedented heights that some , some , and even some residents making six-figures can . Now, Google's parent company, Alphabet, has come up with a patch: It is paying about $30 million to provide temporary, prefab housing for 300 of its employees. According to The Wall Street Journal, Alphabet is making a significant investment in modular housing built and shipped in from elsewhere by the start-up Factory OS, because the current local offerings are so overpriced: "San Francisco have jumped by almost 50 percent since 2010, while have increased 98 percent since the bottom of the market in 2009." Rents for these apartments are expected to be more moderate. Factory OS founder and CEO Rick Holliday tells the Journal that "a previous project that Holliday built using modular technology saved tenants $700 a month in rent because of reduced construction costs." Other tech companies are also taking action on behalf on their workers, the Journal reports: As Silicon Valley battles its severe housing shortage, tech companies are becoming more active in trying to help solve the problem. Facebook Inc. has pledged to plan and design 1,500 units in Menlo Park, of which 15 percent will be classified as affordable housing. The project is still in the early planning phase. A spokesman said the company is considering modular housing and is supportive of Mr. Holliday's project and "anything that has the potential to accelerate building housing in the Bay Area." Forbes points out that tech companies continue to grow and hire in Silicon Valley, which will exacerbate the area's housing shortage. Apple Inc. has already begun moving thousands of its employees into Apple Park, the company's new 2.8-million-square-foot circular building in Cupertino, Calif., that resembles a spaceship. Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have tapped top architects Frank Gehry and Bjarke Ingels for expansions. Salesforce.com Inc. paid to put its name on a new, 61-story tower that will be the tallest building in San Francisco. A recent study by Apartment List found that millennials in San Jose, Calif., have the longest wait to purchase a home of anyone in the generation nationwide: Odds are they won't be in a good position to buy an apartment there for "almost 24 years," or "until the year 2041." Don't miss: Google employees could buy 5 houses for the price of one if they left Silicon Valley Sure enough, after a series of successful promotions and a deal with IBM's artificial intelligence system Watson, H&R Block beat Wall Street's estimates, expanded its margins, boosted its net income by 10 percent, saw 40 percent returns coming from digital, and, in Cobb's words, "over-delivered" on expense reductions. H&R Block made it through several tough quarters in 2016, after which Cobb came on "Mad Money" and assured Cramer that the company would deliver. "We made it easy to import from competitors right into our software, we did W-2 capture from your phone right into our software, and we feel that we're really leading on this in terms of making ease of use a part of our brand," Cobb told " Mad Money " host Jim Cramer on Wednesday. After tax preparation giant H&R Block reported a stronger-than-expected quarter , its outgoing president and CEO, Bill Cobb, said the company prides itself on its forward-thinking, client-friendly orientation. "The design was, we're going to get very aggressive on the top line in terms of growing clients. We knew revenue would be challenged, but we actually delivered better than I had anticipated," the CEO told Cramer. "We feel really great about where we're at and we feel really great I'm not going to go into the details about where we're headed for next year." Since Cobb began his tenure at the company six years ago, H&R Block has also bought back a third of its outstanding shares and raised its dividend by 60 percent, he added. "We've always said to our shareholders we want to be a shareholder-friendly company, and I think we've delivered on that," Cobb said. The deal with IBM Watson resulted in monitoring systems at each of H&R Block's brick-and-mortar locations that let customers watch the tax return process "through the eyes of Watson," Cobb said. "We had bubbles there and we had various ... call-outs of deductions and credits you could take. What also was a very pleasant surprise was how much our tax pros got excited," he told Cramer. Cobb said that management always worries about changes they impose on their 70,000-person workforce, which is highly seasonal due to the nature of the work. But employees and customers alike loved Watson's addition, and the learning technology will only get better with time, Cobb said. In addition, the company ran a series of promotions with Hollywood actor Jon Hamm, whom Cobb lauded for his wide-ranging appeal and professionalism. "We thought he was the right guy," Cobb said. "He was a great partner to us. We really wanted to differentiate ourselves from Turbo[Tax]. They talk about, you know, getting your taxes done. We talked about, we believe we can get your taxes won, which is to find every deduction and credit and maximize your refund." Turning to President Donald Trump's tax reform agenda, Cobb said Cramer's guess was as good as his with regards to when the country might see any meaningful changes to the tax code. "I think it's got to go a few steps at a time," the CEO said. "I think when you go back to the '80s when the Reagan administration did the last real tax reform, it took five years." Cobb said that from his talks with Washington policymakers, he gauged that "comprehensive" tax reform might not arrive as swiftly as many voters expected. "I think the president wants a tax cut, I think the rate cut can happen. I think the rate cut can happen on the corporate side, which would be great for us because our tax rate's in the mid-30s," the CEO said, referring to his company's 30-plus percent tax rate. "I think that really ... should be the focus." Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com FESSENDEN -- Gunners Mate 1st Class Arthur C. Neuenschwander was a little over two weeks shy of his 34th birthday on Dec. 7, 1941. He never made it to his birthday as he was in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Oklahoma, which was one of the first ships on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor that was damaged by the Japanese Navy. After 75 years, seven months and 17 days, Neuenschwander is returning home to Fessenden. Ross Johnson, Neuenschwanders nephew, said there will be a memorial service in the old Fessenden gymnasium at 2 p.m. June 24, followed by a military burial at 3 p.m. at Hillside Cemetery. Fessenden is about 80 miles northwest of Jamestown in central North Dakota. The USS Oklahoma was hit by eight or nine torpedoes in the first 10 minutes of the Japanese Navys attack on Pearl Harbor. The battleship was so damaged by the torpedos that it capsized at its berth, trapping hundreds of men, including Neuenschwander, inside. Johnson said where his uncle was stationed in the ship was also part of the ships tool shop, including welding equipment and shears, which are large scissors used for cutting metal. When the Oklahoma capsized, all that equipment went flying and likely killed Neuenschwander. Finding Arthur Johnson said a representative from the Navy called him in 2010 or 2011 stating that the Navy was attempting to contact family members of sailors who died on the USS Oklahoma and were buried in a mass grave after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Through the use of DNA from surviving family members, the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency was able to identify Neuenschwanders remains. Johnson said he was contacted by Gerald Bach, a naval officer with the POW/MIA Accounting Agency, to review the information provided by Neuenschwanders family. The family was notified on Feb. 4 that Neuenschwanders remains had been found. Johnson said his uncles remains will arrive Wednesday, June 21, at Hector International Airport in Fargo and will be transported to a crematorium. Neuenschwanders remains will be buried next to his parents in Hillside Cemetery. He said he and members of his extended family are grateful for the effort that went into finding and identifying his uncles remains. The United States of America goes all out to always bring back wounded and/or deceased veterans, he said, sometimes at awful risk and some deaths just to get people back. Johnson, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, said he was initially shocked to learn that the U.S. military used mass graves to bury dead service members during World War II. We had body bags in Vietnam, he said. We identified people, we pulled them off the battlefield and brought them back home. When this lady said, There was a mass grave, that just threw me. Johnson said he didnt know a lot about his uncle growing up because his mother, Bertha Johnson, and grandmother didnt talk about him. She (his mother) lived to be a little over 99, but she never wanted to address the war issue, he said. Letter from a friend Johnson said Neuenschwander was the first of Otto and Lillian Neuenschwanders seven children. Arthur was the first of the Neuenschwander family to leave Fessenden, he said, and the last to come home. Johnson said in 1981 Jalmer H. Skjaret, a retired U.S. Navy commander in San Francisco, contacted the U.S. postmaster in Fessenden seeking information on the family of an old friend and shipmate -- Neuenschwander. Skjaret, originally from Moorhead, Minn., was put in contact with Bertha Johnson, who is also Neuenschwanders sister. Skjaret wrote a letter to Bertha Johnson in October 1982 that described his friendship with Neuenschwander and his battle station on the USS Oklahoma. Neuenschwander was stationed in the ammunition magazine on the third deck between gun turrets 3 and 4. He was responsible for getting the ammunition for the 5-inch guns for both sides of the ship. Neuenschwander joined the Navy in February 1927. Skjaret said he and Neuenschwander had gone on a holiday together and traveled on a train to get back to their respective homes. Ross Johnson said he kept Skjarets letter as well as a letter his mother sent to Neuenschwander dated Dec. 10, 1941, which was a response to a letter his uncle sent her dated Nov. 16, 1941. Her letter to my uncle is stamped Return to sender, address unknown, he said. Multiple cyberattacks on major bitcoin exchanges this week highlight the many challenges for the young digital currency world. A surge in investor interest also overwhelmed major bitcoin websites, while record-breaking levels of fundraising for new digital currencies add to worries that the largely unregulated cryptocurrency industry will be unable to manage the hype. "Investors with assets on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges should be careful. The track records of these organizations are not good, and as the assets on the exchanges grow, so does the bounty for attacking or hacking them," said Benjamin Roberts, co-founder and CEO of Citizen Hex, a digital currency trading start-up backed by three Canadian venture funds. Cyberattacks Bitfinex, the largest U.S. dollar-based bitcoin exchange, said on its status website Wednesday morning that its platform was under distributed denial-of-service attacks, or DDoS, that attempts to paralyze a system with a flood of information. The attack followed a similar one reported Tuesday morning. That problem was resolved within an hour, and the exchange said Wednesday that despite the "ongoing attack," "Most users will be able to use the platform normally though." The news followed smaller BTC-e exchange's tweet Monday of a similar attack on its systems that afternoon, when its website also temporarily went down. By Wednesday morning, BTC-e had deleted the tweet and its website showed trades going through. BTC-e and Bitfinex did not respond to CNBC requests for comment. Chris Burniske, blockchain products lead at ARK Investments, told CNBC Tuesday that the attacks are "not surprising" given the bull market in cryptoassets. "There's a big difference between a denial of service attack, and a hack that causes clients to lose funds," he said. "As of yet, we're fortunately not seeing any of the latter." That said, Roberts and other digital currency analysts said the cyberattacks could allow the attackers to manipulate the bitcoin market. Since the price of bitcoin is set by several exchanges around the world, shutting off an exchange temporarily could allow a trader to take advantage of price differences. Money floods into digital currencies Bitcoin did briefly fall about $400 Monday amid some of the exchange issues, after topping $3,000 for the first time Sunday, more than tripling in value for 2017. Bitcoin traded near $2,571 Wednesday afternoon, down about 6 percent on the day. Ethereum, another digital currency or token growing in popularity, has surged several thousand percent in that time. "A speculative frenzy is never a good thing. I don't think we're there right yet," Adam White, Coinbase vice president and general manager of its GDAX exchange, told CNBC in a phone interview. But "I do think the ICO or token generation events have maybe a bit too much enthusiasm for them." A rush of funding for new digital currencies flooded them with millions of dollars this week. Bancor raised $153 million on Monday. Another digital currency IOTA launched Tuesday on the Bitfinex exchange with the highest market capitalization of any debut at more than $1.5 billion. "We feel that the market reaction to IOTA's listing is quite in line with our expectations in the current zeitgeist," IOTA founder and CEO David Sonstebo told CNBC in an emailed statement. He cited more than 18 months of development and lack of targeted marketing ahead of the launch. Overwhelming website traffic Separately, Coinbase, the operator of the second largest U.S. dollar-denominated bitcoin exchange, reported Monday that customers could not access the website amid high traffic. The firm reported two other incidents of "degraded performance" on Tuesday. "We recognize the frustrations of our customers and we want to do better," White said. A record 2,700 attended CoinDesk's annual Consensus conference in New York this year, according to CoinDesk CEO Kevin Worth. He added that the website has hit record unique viewers and page views since. The cryptocurrency companies are also expanding their businesses. CoinDesk moved in the last few weeks to a new office in Midtown Manhattan and is looking to expand its team to 28 people. Coinbase has 25 open positions listed on its website, including one for "Head of Institutional Sales & Trading" at GDAX based in San Francisco, CA, or New York, NY. Watch: Unexpected winners of the cryptocurrency craze Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images Oil output from the United States and other non-OPEC countries will grow more than global crude demand in 2018, driven largely by surging supplies from U.S. shale fields, according to a leading energy policy advisor. The assessment is the latest sign that the crude market may struggle to work through a prolonged oil glut well into next year and that American drillers will play a major role in the ongoing drama. related investing news Here's what the midterm election results could mean for energy ETFs The International Energy Agency on Wednesday forecast oil supplies from producers outside OPEC will grow by 1.5 million barrels a day next year. Meanwhile, global demand for crude will jump by 1.4 million barrels a day. IEA projects consumption in 2018 will average 99.3 million barrels a day, driven largely by developing nations like China and India. Total supply outside the 14-member OPEC cartel is seen averaging 59.7 million barrels a day next year. OPEC, which currently produces about 32 million barrels a day, will make up the balance. The 2018 production growth forecast for non-OPEC countries is more than double IEA's outlook for output gains of 660,000 barrels a day this year, and will largely be driven by growth in the United States. U.S. shale drillers have put more oil rigs to work as higher prices, supported by OPEC-led production cuts, allow them to break even on more new output in shale fields, which requires expensive advanced drilling methods. The "outlook for U.S. oil supplies has materially changed since the start of the year," the IEA said. "Not only are producers increasing spending more sharply than initially thought, the pace and duration of new rig additions and drilling activity has exceeded all expectations." A rare feud between Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings has publicized the deep divisions weighing on the island-nation's first family. In an explosive statement on Wednesday, Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang the PM's younger sister and brother, respectively accused their elder brother of abusing power and exploiting their father's legacy for political gain. The city-state's first PM and father to all three siblings, Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) passed away in March 2015. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore Getty Images "Since the passing of LKY, we have felt threatened by Hsien Loong's misuse of his position and influence over the Singapore government and its agencies to drive his personal agenda," Wei Ling and Hsien Yang said. Wei Ling has long been a vocal critic of PM Lee last year, she denounced him for using LKY's one-year death anniversary as a political tool in a series of Facebook posts but Hsien Yang, chairman of the country's Civil Aviation Authority, has steered clear of public family spats until now. In their statement, widely carried on social media and local newspaper the Straits Times, the siblings expressed fear that state organs would be used against them. Hsien Yang said he was leaving Singapore, citing the PM as the sole reason for his departure. "If Hsien Loong is prepared to act thus against us, both contributing members of Singapore's establishment, to advance his personal agenda, we worry for Singapore." Instead of demolishing LKY's house as the former leader desired, the PM has sought to make the residence his personal home a move that would enhance his political capital, the siblings continued. The PM and his wife Ho Ching CEO of Temasek Holdings, Singapore's $196 billion sovereign wealth fund also harbored political ambitions for their son Li Hongyi, the statement said. watch now WARREN, Minn. -- Investigators have ruled out the possibility that human remains found along the banks of the Red River south of Oslo, Minn., are connected to a decades-old missing person case. The Marshall County Sheriffs Office announced Tuesday the remains found Saturday in northern Polk County do not belong to Veronica Safranski, who disappeared Halloween night in 1996 after leaving Micks Bar in Warren. She was 40 years old when she was reported missing. Dental records were used to rule out Safranski as the remains, according to a news release. Human remains were discovered by two men fishing on the east bank of the Red River near Higdem Township, about 20 miles north of Grand Forks. The Polk County Sheriffs Office is in charge of the case surrounding the remains discovered in the river and will continue to investigate the matter. Safranskis is one of the oldest cold cases in northwest Minnesota. In the 20 years she has been missings, multiple attempts have been made to locate her. Law enforcement have followed various leads over the years, but none has shed light on what may have happened to her. Marshall County Sheriff Jason Boman said Tuesday his office still considers the case active, adding his department receives tips every now and then. One tip came in a few weeks ago but didnt turn up anything. We try to investigate every lead we come across, he said Tuesday. Boman said Safranskis family wanted to know if the remains found in the river this weekend were hers, prompting his office to send the missing womans dental records to Polk County. Boman told Forum News Service on Monday the clothes found with the remains pulled from the river didnt appear to belong to Safranski, adding he didnt want to jump the gun when it came to speculating on whether the remains belonged to her. After confirming that the remains were not Safranski, Boman said his office wanted to alert the family then the public to keep them informed on the results of the discovery. If you're trying to get your financial house in order, any number of experts will tell you the same thing: Build up an emergency fund of at least three to six months' worth of living expenses. But Suze Orman, financial expert and former CNBC television host, thinks otherwise. "They're idiots," Orman said at the eMerge Americas conference in Miami, Fla., on Monday, answering a question about how much to keep in your emergency fund. Orman explained that three to six months' worth of expenses isn't enough to feel secure. What if you lose your job and can't find another one for a year? What if you're hit with an out-of-the-blue medical emergency? A million potential scenarios could drain your savings without warning, so it's better to have at least eight to 12 months' worth of living expenses squirrelled away. "You need to know that you are going to be secure," she says. Orman went on to paint a picture of darker times, reminding the audience of the financial ruin the Great Recession caused just 10 years ago. "Go back to 2007 You lost your job, you lost everything, you were working on this tech thing and all the startups went down," she says. "Nobody had any money to invest, nobody wanted to touch anything, nobody wanted to IPO because the markets were going down and you couldn't find anything to do. Think it took you just three months to find another job? Think it took you six months to find another job?" She goes on: "It's not just about the economy. What if you get sick? What if you're hit by a car? What if something happens crazy in this world? We live in the craziest world I've ever seen in my life right now. And the only way you can take craziness out of that if for you to make yourself secure." And the only way to ensure that you'd be truly financially secure in times of crisis? A well-padded emergency fund. Suze Orman watch now President Trump's ability to quickly push through business deregulation and tax cuts will determine the fate of the U.S. economy, according to a member of the president's economic advisory panel. "What's really going to make or break the US economy is whether these things get done or not in the coming couple of months or so," Mark Weinberger, global chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of EY told CNBC's Squawk Box on Wednesday. Weinberger sits in on the President's business round table discussion which brings together more than 200 of the largest businesses in the U.S. along with some of the biggest international companies and the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta to discuss policy proposals with the U.S. administration. watch now Recent political dramas, such as last week's interrogation of former FBI chief James Comey with regards to his dismissal and Tuesday's Congressional hearing into the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' dealings with Russian officials, have indeed been unhelpful diversions. "Obviously there are a lot of distractions that people would rather see go away in terms of derailing the economic agenda. It is sucking a lot of oxygen out of the air, no doubt, and taking the attention away from some of the folks and the president in particular at times," admitted Weinberger, adding that there are only 80 legislative days left this calendar year and citing the conventional wisdom that it is harder to get measures passed after a president's first year in power. "They're going to do everything they can to try and get it done this year," he said, but confirmed that it would be 2018 or 2019 at the earliest before the effect of any measures would filter through to the broader economy. watch now During Weinberger's career, the EY chairman has interacted with former Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and commented that his impression of President Trump was that the incumbent U.S. leader was "very quick out of the gate, very outcome-oriented, wanted to get things moving." Weinberger stressed the importance of quickly moving ahead with business deregulation and tax planning, pointing to the results of a survey of the business round table CEOs which showed that 77 percent said that they would hire more people and 87 percent would invest more in capital equipment if these measures are swiftly implemented. Conversely, if they are not, 90 percent of the respondents said that they would cut back. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on June 12, 2017, in Washington, DC. Olivier Douliery-Pool | Getty Images Many small-business owners do things the old-school way when it comes to gaining customers: They rely on word of mouth. It's still the No. 1 marketing source of growth, according to the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey. But a surprising number of entrepreneurs don't back that up by also digitally getting the word out. Almost half (45 percent) say they don't have a business website. And only about one third (36 percent) use a business website to communicate news to customers and potential customers. "People are just afraid of technology and don't realize how simple or easy it could be," said Antara Dutta, a digital marketing expert who has founded two small businesses a consulting company that works with banks, including Barclays, and a health-and-wellness center start-up and also serves as a mentor for the Delaware branch of the nonprofit SCORE program. She said there are legacy business and generational issues, but you don't need to be an entrepreneur coming out of college today and already working on the seventh iteration of your website to gain value from going digital. Not doing it because of cost concerns or because you can "just continue to call on customers and then finally retire" isn't a smart strategy. The purchase of a domain name, a site with basic business information, and search engine optimization can now be done for hundreds, not thousands, of dollars, and that expenditure should be part of the start-up costs. "There are people who don't wake up, and then they lose their business as a result. Having a website is like having a business card," Dutta said. Having a website and relying on word of mouth are not an either/or proposition. For B2B businesses with a handful of large clients, a website may be less crucial than for a B2C company, but Dutta said, "There is no business that shouldn't have a website." It no longer costs thousands of dollars Sam Wilcoxon, co-founder of Lorem Technologies a start-up that offers website-building assistance to people already inside DIY sites, like Wix, Weebly and Squarespace said the return on investment used to be harder for small-business owners to accept, with a website requiring the hiring of a web developer for as much as $5,000 to $10,000 and custom code. "Web developers are no longer the gatekeepers," Wilcoxon said."The DIY ones are cheaper and good enough." Prices have come down at the same time the value of a website has gone up, especially for retailers, based on increasing evidence that a majority of shoppers visit a website before going to a physical store to buy. Wilcoxon said his company's analysis of the small-business market estimated by the Small Business Administration at 28 million is in line with the CNBC/SurveyMonkey data. Adding up the small-business websites built by the DIY players still leaves a huge chunk of the market on the table, "around half of all the potential businesses," he said. Weeblys headquarters in San Francisco Source: Weebly "Our investors are betting on this explosion of DIY software across websites and digital marketing," Wilcoxon said. Lorem Technologies raised $1.1 million from investors, including Randy Parker, founder of email marketing platform Constant Contact. "It will take time for it to break through and more of them to take the leap. I think they have been underserved to date." He and his co-founder, Charlie Fogarty, had a lot of professional experience with the reluctance and frustration of small-business owners to go digital as freelancers building websites for other people. Wilcoxon also has personal experience. "My parents are part of the problem. They are small-business owners, and I just got an email from my dad, and he is building his first website now." The new rule in return on investment Greg Rentschler's Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership has been in operation for more than four decades in Slatington, Pennsylvania, and his thinking about digital marketing has changed a lot since the late 1990s when "it was basically the auto manufacturers forcing digital down our throats." A car dealership has to have inventory available online to potential customers today, regardless of its success building a business based on a long history of referrals and traction locally. "We've been here 45 years, and we have lots of repeat and referral customers, but the trend is toward not being so loyal, especially the younger crowd if they can find it online. That can mean they go to a dealer further away than us." Facebook advertisements have been great. ... The amount we spend and what you get out of it, it's drastically better than a billboard that's limited to one town, one road and people driving on that road. Greg Rentschler vice president, Rentschler Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Digital marketing spend is now 60 percent to 75 percent of his dealership's overall marketing spend. Rentschler said that it wasn't long ago that he didn't know SEO (search engine optimization) or SEM (search engine marketing), and he used to ask himself, Why would anyone use paid search? Why don't you just go to the Yellow Pages? "Now the return on investment for us is much higher with digital than TV, radio or newspaper," he said. The dealership's digital marketing investment goes well beyond a website. "Facebook advertisements have been great. At first I thought that wouldn't work. But the amount we spend and what you get out of it, it's drastically better than a billboard that's limited to one town, one road and people driving on that road." How small businesses communicate news to customers and leads Word of mouth 58% Social media posts 40% Business website 36% Customer newsletter or email 26% Advertising on social media 21% Advertising on the internet (not social media) 19% Advertising on the radio 6% Advertising on TV 5% Source: Source: CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey Q2 2017 People pass by a real estate ad poster with a cartoon image of American president Donald J. Trump along the road on February 22, 2017 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China. President Trump is poised to add six new trademarks to his expanding portfolio in China, in sectors including veterinary services and construction, potentially renewing concerns about his possible conflicts of interest. The latest trademarks expand Mr. Trump's business interests in China, the world's second-largest economy and a country he frequently blamed during the election campaign for the decline in American industrial jobs. Since taking office, he has softened that rhetoric. He has nevertheless continued to receive approval in China for new trademarks. The country's trademark office gave the president preliminary approval for six trademarks on June 6, according to the agency's website. More from New York Times: Cellphone roaming charges end in Europe. Many respond with a yawn. One way to fix Uber: Think twice before using it Steve Scalise among 5 reportedly shot at baseball field Under Chinese law, a trademark with preliminary approval is formally registered after three months if the agency receives no objections. If granted, the trademarks could allow Mr. Trump to expand his business interests in scientific and technological services, construction projects and medical and veterinary services. Mr. Trump applied for the trademarks in April 2016, the same month that, as a presidential candidate, he accused Beijing of launching an "economic assault" against the United States. Since then, Mr. Trump has eased up, particularly after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April of this year. As a businessman, Mr. Trump made money by licensing the use of his name on an array of products around the world. He now has at least 123 registered and provisionally approved trademarks in China. Of those, four are registered under DTTM Operations a holding company while the rest are registered under his name, according to Chinese data. The Trump Organization, the family company now run by Mr. Trump's two adult sons, said the trademarks registered under his name had been transferred to DTTM. "All of our marks in China are registered to an affiliate of the Trump Organization and have nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Trump," Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer at the Trump Organization, said in an email. The latest set of preliminary approvals comes a month after China's trademark office gave Mr. Trump one preliminary trademark for providing catering services, and four to his daughter Ivanka through her trademarking business. It is unclear how Mr. Trump plans to use his trademarks. He does not have any businesses in China, and the Trump Organization has said it will not do any further international deals. For Mr. Trump, obtaining trademarks in China could allow him to license his name in the country, potentially giving him a new source of income. It also protects his brand name in a country that is known for counterfeiters. In China, many celebrities and foreign companies pre-emptively file for trademarks in a wide range of sectors to prevent expensive and time-consuming lawsuits against "trademark squatters" people who register the names of widely known brands in bad faith. In Mr. Trump's case, leather goods, toilets and cosmetics bearing the Trump name but trademarked by others have been spotted being sold around China. Unlike trademarks in the United States, trademarks in China are generally awarded to those who are first to file with the government, and applicants do not have to give a reason for filing. Because of this, Mr. Garten said that since 2006, "the Trump Organization has been forced to build its trademark portfolio in China to protect its brand and overall intellectual property rights from third-party infringers." The news of Mr. Trump's new preliminary trademarks in China will give further ammunition to his critics, who allege that his business interests violate the emoluments clause in the United States Constitution that bars presidents from taking gifts or payments from foreign governments. On Monday, the Democratic attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit claiming that the president's failure to shed his businesses has undermined public trust and violated constitutional bans against self-dealing. Zhang Tiantian contributed research from Beijing. Hundreds of Cubans and visitors from other countries gather across the street from the newly reopened U.S. Embassy to observe the flag-raising ceremony August 14, 2015 in Havana, Cuba. U.S. President Donald Trump is under pressure to maintain the country's fragile detente with Cuba despite indications that he could strike an icy tone when he announces a policy update later this week. Non-partisan activist group Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) has urged the president to rethink his hitherto hard-line stance on America's former cold war foe, claiming that the cutting of improved relations would do nothing to help Cuban citizens or serve the U.S.'s national interests. "A rollback of recent progress in U.S.-Cuba relations would be out of step with the views of the majority of the American publicboth Republican and Democratand would threaten the significant gains reaped by the American people and the Cuban people since the restoration of U.S.-Cuba ties," the CDA's executive director Emily Mendrala said in a press announcement Tuesday. "President Trump has the opportunity to build on this progress and, in so doing, advance the U.S. national interest and the interests of the Cuban people. As the President well knows, you can't get a 'better deal' by walking away from the negotiating table." President Trump is due to travel to Miami on Friday, where he is expected to give his administration's position on U.S.-Cuba ties. He has previously been critical of Cuba, denouncing President Raul Castro's government for what he sees as human rights abuses against Cuban citizens. His stance has, however, become less clear in recent months. An official for the U.S. State Department told CNBC on Wednesday that the administration has undertaken a review of U.S. policy towards Cuba, but it remains ongoing and additional details will be provided "when they become available." Nevertheless, on Tuesday U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave an indication of the direction of travel for the Trump administration, saying that the U.S. must see an end to human rights violations in Cuba if it is to continue normalising relations. The manifesto's most infamous provision was the so-called dementia tax, which would require the elderly to pay more for their in-home "social care" specifically, the elderly or their estates would be liable to pay to the government any assets they had in excess of 100,000 pounds (including their homes) in order to reimburse it for the cost of care. Now the Conservative government in the United Kingdom has been crippled, its hopes for a governing majority wrecked in part by its dalliance with austerity politics. The unveiling of the Conservative manifesto in the middle of May seems in many ways to have been a key inflection point. The success of Brexit neutered UKIP, the main nationalist-populist rival to the Conservatives, and May's unwavering support for implementing the national referendum even though she'd opposed it before it passed drew UKIP members, including those who formerly leaned Labour, into the Conservative tent. The Tory landslide in May 4's local elections, in which the party made huge inroads even in Scotland, seemed to augur great victory on June 8. While elements of Labour and the Liberal Democrats would quibble about trying to have a Brexit do-over or a watered-down Brexit, the Tories would run under the banner of a prudent one-nation conservatism and sweep all before them. Post-Brexit, Theresa May and the Conservatives seemed to have hit upon a formula that could forge an enduring majority: Say that Brexit meant Brexit, and focus on trying to put the U.K. in a promising post-Brexit condition. Doctrinaire and complacent political establishments had ignored the complaints of their populaces for too long, and now the reckoning was at hand. This reckoning seemed at first like it might benefit the parties traditionally aligned with the Right, the American Republicans and the British Conservatives. In 2016, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump signaled a populist disruption that could have led to a political realignment in the Anglo-American world. Under this realignment, conservatives would have addressed populist sentiments by reinvigorating national sovereignty, empowering families and local communities, and restoring economic growth across the spectrum. Donald Trump roared into the presidency as a great outsider, a reality-TV dynamo who would scramble the political map. But the first five months of his presidency have been dominated by cookie-cutter legislative efforts, particularly on health care and taxes. This provision was disastrous for the hopes of a Conservative realignment, driving away pro-Leave voters who used to lean Labour but would have supported a pro-Brexit Conservative party. Meanwhile, Theresa May's quick reversal on this idea and vague hedging about what might replace it damaged her standing as a strong and steady adult in the room. In the aftermath of the manifesto's roll-out, the Conservative advantage crumbled. Prior to the manifesto, both Labour and the Conservatives were increasing their poll numbers as UKIP, SNP, and Liberal Democrat voters sorted into the bigger parties. After the manifesto, though, Conservatives stopped climbing and eventually started dropping in the polls, while Labour continued to grow. There were many other missteps, but the austerity elements of the manifesto clearly played an outsized role. The rout of the Conservatives has implications for American politics. There are substantial differences between Donald Trump's election and Brexit (one is the election of a person, the other the passage of a measure), and there is a huge gap between the personality of the American president and that of the British prime minister. But obstacles similar to those that have tripped up the Tories now face the GOP. President Trump cobbled together an electoral coalition premised on supplementing the conservative base (much of which voted for him in November) by an appeal to the "radical middle" supportive of entitlements, eager for changes in trade and immigration policies, and desperate for economic growth. On issues from financial reform to immigration to tax policy, possible areas of populist-conservative compromise beckon. For instance, targeted, pro-family tax reform could gratify social conservatives and inspire economic growth. Legislation to reverse financial consolidation could rally small-government conservatives such as Mike Lee and those Trump voters who "felt the Bern" earlier in 2016. Even on the thorny issue of health-care reform, an effort to keep many health-care subsidies in place while adopting measures to increase the flexibility of the health-care system itself could simultaneously assuage working families' concerns about health care and encourage market-oriented innovation. Instead of trying to create a new fusionist policy agenda for the 21st century, Republicans have too often led with a set of legislative proposals that are remarkable only for their genericness. Donald Trump roared into the presidency as a great outsider, a reality-TV dynamo who would scramble the political map. But the first five months of his presidency have been dominated by cookie-cutter legislative efforts, particularly on health care and taxes. While the new version of the American Health Care Act is in some respects an improvement on the original bill, neither version bears a particularly Trumpian stamp. Medicaid reform and tax cuts for wealthy investors aren't exactly new policy ideas for the GOP. Much of the rest of the Republican legislative agenda has been held hostage by a desire to push through tax reform. But the risk remains that tax reform could end up being a policy version of a Rolling Stones concert a parade of geriatric hits complete with calls to reduce the number of tax brackets (an issue not on the lips of most voters) and eliminate the estate tax (which is currently felt only by those who leave over $5 million to their heirs). Tax reform is still a work in progress, so there is a chance that it could be revitalized. But policy inertia still looms. A tax-reform package that does not deliver for working families would face a harder road to passage and would represent a step backward for the project of Republican reform. Meanwhile, the White House, rather than attempting to shepherd a targeted legislative agenda through Congress, has instead allowed itself to be consumed by internal feuds and battles with the rest of Washington. An absence of message discipline combined with an understaffed executive branch has caused the White House to dominate the headlines even as it struggles to move the political ball forward. While the administration lurches from crisis to crisis, political windows close. This combination of policy paralysis and personality-driven polarization has dire implications for the hopes of a Republican majority in 2019 and beyond. The blue-collar voters who jumped aboard the Trump train might be willing to support cutting taxes for upper-income earners, but they are not likely to support a political party that offers only tax cuts for the wealthy (with a side of angry tweets). The middle-class voters who lean Republican because they view the GOP as the party of responsibility might be willing to overlook some coarseness on the campaign trail, but they will flee the party in droves if it offers too much scandal, controversy, and instability. An anti-GOP tsunami could also drown the ambitions of those on the right who lean in a populist-nationalist direction. Like nature, politics abhors a vacuum, and if Republicans can't rise to the challenges of the moment, the Democrats, with a very different approach, will have their own bite at the apple. Since 2004, American politics has been convulsed by the electorate's search for leaders who will reverse economic decline and show administrative competence. Wave election has followed wave election, and if the 2016 election was not a partisan wave, it was certainly a normative one with Donald Trump being in some respects the polar opposite of Barack Obama's administration. Unless Republicans implement a successful policy regime, another wave could be in the offing in 2018. Republicans might look across the aisle and the Atlantic to see what that counter-reaction might look like. Despite the millions slaughtered and hundreds of millions oppressed under the banner of socialism in the 20th century, Bernie Sanders has helped rehabilitate "socialism" in American progressive politics. Jeremy Corbyn is almost the personification of an unreconstructed leftist. A resurgent Left is likely to have little patience with a Clintonian-Blairite third way, and the empowerment of this Left could lead to results uncongenial to most members of the conservative coalition, from neoconservatives to populists. The failure of the Tories in Britain endangers a successful Brexit, and Republicans' faltering now might threaten both limited government and the implementation of market-oriented conservatism. The old paradigms are breaking down, and the inability of the party establishments to adapt to this change led to Brexit and the ascent of Donald Trump. But there is no guarantee that right-leaning populist-nationalists will set the terms of a new political alignment. Pace Barack Obama, secular history does not have a side it always offers choices and is full of forks. In the months ahead, those on the right will need to choose wisely. Commentary by Fred Bauer, a writer from New England. He blogs at A Certain Enthusiasm. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. 2017 National Review. Used with permission. Supermarkets are putting on a brave face but a new German entrant opening its first U.S. stores Thursday is about to shake up the already highly competitive domestic grocery industry. Lidl, one of the world's largest retailers, plans to open 10 small-format U.S. grocery stores Thursday at locations in Virginia, North and South Carolina. They intend to open an additional 20 stores on the East Coast this summer and have up to 100 stores planned to open within a year from New Jersey and Pennsylvania down to Georgia. "The Lidl launch is going to have a dramatic impact on supermarkets and other people selling fast-moving grocery products," said Bill Bishop, a longtime grocery consultant and chief architect of Brick Meets Click, an Illinois-based food retail advisory and research firm. Privately based Lidl, owned by Germany's Schwarz Group, comes into the U.S. market with expertise gained from operating stores in 27 countries throughout Europe. Schwarz Group ranks as a top-five retailer worldwide with annual revenues in excess of $100 billion. The small-store format will reduce the retailer's overhead costs and its no-frills approach means customers will bag their own groceries and there's reduced labor costs. There's also a focus on private label brands, which tends to be higher margin and provide more opportunities for deep discount pricing. "We're building on the foundation that's made Lidl so successful across Europe," said Will Harwood, a company spokesman. He added that the assortment of foods and style of the U.S. stores is the result of focus group tests done with American consumers. About 90 percent of Lidl's products will "premium private label," according to Harwood. He said about 80 percent of the food will be sourced from the U.S. and the chain also will have European specialty products. Wolfe Research analyst Scott Mushkin said "center of store" private label food items can sometimes save consumers up to 50 percent off the cost of the name brands. He used the example of major brand of mustard to illustrate how consumers today might not just enjoy a savings on the unit cost of the item by buying private label but also could get a larger size container for that discounted price. "The quality has come up significantly on private label so now you can get brand equivalent quality or higher for private label pricing," said Mushkin. One of Lidl's arch competitors in the U.S. market is another private German-based retail behemoth, Aldi, which just this week announced its own ramp up nationwide and plans to invest about $5 billion over the next five years. "Private label is what we're focused on and we have a tremendous head start," said Scott Patton, vice president of corporate buying for Aldi U.S. "Seeing the reaction from competitors who try to copy our playbook is a testament that the Aldi blueprint works." Bishop forecasts Lidl could reach about 1,000 stores over the next five years and generate between $21 billion to $27 billion in revenue by that time. He also believes that Lidl's U.S. expansion, when combined Aldi's aggressive nationwide push should have a "very disruptive effect" on U.S. retail grocery landscape by "compressing" the overall market for other players. Loop Capital analyst Andrew Wolf said Lidl's entry into the U.S. market should concern Wal-Mart Stores the most but he believes other food retailers may feel it too, especially with Aldi already proving to be a formidable force in the discount segment of the U.S. grocery business. "Clearly, the traditional [supermarket] industry wishes they weren't coming," said Wolf. "Essentially, Aldi and Lidl appear to be in a race. They are going right after Wal-Mart's customer." Last month, there were reports Wal-Mart was taking price drops in major U.S. markets where Kroger and Aldi compete. Analysts say Kroger already is feeling the impact of Aldi's expansion and has around a dozen stores currently in Kroger's home town of Cincinnati and more planned in the region. Aldi also has stores in many other markets where Kroger operates and Lidl also is planning outlets in many locations where Kroger has a presence. Kroger, operator of nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states, is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Thursday before the market opens and its conference call with industry analyst may include an update of additional price investments it might be taking to stay competitive as well as potential impacts on margins. Last month, Kroger CFO J. Michael Schlotman was asked about new entrants and the smaller-format stores during a Goldman Sachs investment forum and he seemed to downplay it. He indicated the company already has smaller format stores all the way up larger ones and is doing various tests with newer concepts. "Kroger is probably facing its most trying time since the Wal-Mart invasion of the late 90s," said Mushkin. "The challenges facing the business over the next 12 to 24 months have done nothing but grow." Kroger declined comment for this story, citing a quiet period ahead of its earnings report. Reflecting on the increased competition in grocery space, Wal-Mart spokesman Phillip Keene said, "As a company, we feel good about our plan and our customers are telling us we are strong as a business and headed in the right direction, both in-store and online." Aldi, which currently operates more than 1,650 discount supermarkets in 35 states, this week announced a goal of 2,500 stores by the end of 2022. That would make it the third-largest grocery store by outlet count in the nation, according to Supermarket News. Today, Aldi operates over 10,000 stores in 18 countries and on four continents. Bishop believes it's inevitable that "marginal stores" operating in the grocery segment will lose share, get sold or go out of business in future years due to the hard discount food chains such as Aldi and Lidl. As a result, he said the two discounters could capture a larger share of the overall U.S. food retail industry. "They will take a bite out of the market and shrink the market so all of the incumbents are going to be competing for their fair share of a smaller market," said Bishop. Bishop estimates the Lidl and Aldi's combined sales will exceed $50 billion in the next five years and potentially reach $67 billion. At the same time, he sees them together eventually reaching at least 15 percent grocery market share in the mid-Atlantic region but believes Wal-Mart Stores will still hold onto a larger share. By 2021, Lidl's U.S. sales could reach between $21 billion to $27 billion, according to Bishop's estimates. He sees Aldi's U.S. sales growing to between $32 billion and $40 billion during the same period, up from an estimated $16 billion to $18 billion at present. Watch: Bulls add this grocery store to their list Jane and Greg Hills were visiting New York City when they grabbed a drink in the lobby bar of the Dream Downtown, a boutique hotel in Chelsea. As the full room pulsed with music and guests, the couple had an epiphany: Dream should run their new hotel in Durham, N.C. "We had been talking to all the major brands, but we wanted someone innovative, creative and entrepreneurial," Ms. Hills said of Dream, a relatively small company that operates 16 hotels. "The banks wanted us to go with someone more well known, but Dream was the right match for us." The result is Unscripted Durham, a hotel that will have its soft opening this month and the official opening in July in the center of a revitalizing downtown. With its rooftop pool and five restaurants on the premises a considerable number given that there are just 74 rooms it is the latest in a wave of new boutique hotels in the nation's smaller cities. More from New York Times: Cellphone roaming charges end in Europe. Many respond with a yawn. One way to fix Uber: Think twice before using it Steve Scalise among 5 reportedly shot at baseball field The Trump Organization, for example, recently announced plans for Scion, a boutique brand that will open its first location in Cleveland, Miss . And industry giants like Marriott and Hilton have aggressively moved into boutique hotels, sometimes called lifestyle hotels. The hotels usually highlight a property's unusual architecture or history, have no more than a few dozen rooms and offer special guest services or amenities. "In this industry, when one person thinks it is a good idea, everyone piles on," said Jan D. Freitag, a senior vice president at STR, a hotel research firm. "The industry is firing on all cylinders on the supply side." While hotel expansion is fairly typical in big cities when the economy is growing New York leads the way with 15,470 rooms under construction it is less common in smaller areas. In Durham, for example, the number of available rooms grew 5.7 percent in 2016, more than triple the national average, according to STR data. In Cleveland, the number of rooms surged 5.8 percent, while the Albany area of New York had a 5.3 percent increase. Of all the rooms under construction now, about a quarter are in boutique hotels, according to data from Tourism Economics, a company that forecasts travel trends. The boutique hotel push is driven by travelers' increasing desire for "genuine" experiences, said Bjorn Hanson, a professor at the Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism at New York University. Many travelers want something fresh and different, instead of the standardization of the large hotel brands. Expanding beyond large areas like New York and Los Angeles largely comes down to cost. In New York, for instance, construction and labor costs have outstripped increases in room rates, making it difficult to generate attractive returns on investment. Building a luxury hotel in New York costs about $1.5 million per room, Mr. Hanson said, compared with just $500,000 in many smaller cities. "Costs have increased dramatically in gateway markets, and many brands need to continue growing, so they are looking outside the typical cities," Mr. Hanson said. Many companies like what they see in smaller cities. Downtowns like Manchester, N.H., and Youngstown, Ohio, are being revitalized as young adults seek out more urban lifestyles, tech hubs pop up and companies relocate there. The South African Reserve Bank is currently not planning to require that the South African Mint produce a platinum bullion version of its popular gold Krugerrand. Prospects for a South African Krugerrand bullion coin struck in platinum are quickly fading. Terence Creamer is reporting on MiningWeekly.com that Daniel Mminele, deputy governor for the South African Reserve Bank, says the bank will not demand that the South African Mint produce a platinum bullion coin. Consideration had been given to a platinum coin that would be marketed in a manner similar to the way the popular gold Krugerrand bullion coin is. Connect with Coin World: Sign up for our free eNewsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Studies are reported to conclude that the initiative for a platinum bullion coin is not economically feasible. Worldwide demand for such an issue would constitute no more than 50,000 ounces annually, compared to 1.1 million ounces for the gold Krugerrands, according to the South African Reserve Bank. Did a former automaker once issue scrip notes? Plus, some alternative collecting methods: Another column in the June 26 Coin World profiles John J. Pittman, a czar of numismatic knowledge. Mminele indicates the primary stumbling block is that platinum could not be included in the banks reserves as, according to the International Monetary Fund, it did not qualify as a monetary asset. Platinum and silver coins are being included in sets from the South African Mint marking the Krugerrands 50th anniversary. With input from numismatic experts, the Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, has issued a consumer protection alert about buying and selling gold. Press release from Universal Coin & Bullion: With input from numismatic experts, the Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, has issued a consumer protection alert about buying and selling gold coins. Award-winning rare coins and precious metals writer Michael Fuljenz, President of Universal Coin & Bullion in Beaumont, Texas, provided continuing consultation to the attorney generals office on this important consumer alert. Fuljenz, in coordination with other key numismatic industry leaders, offered guidance on consumer protection best practices for precious metals consumers. The advisory notes that senior citizens make up about 14% of the U.S. population but account for 60% of the callers to the National Fraud Information Center. Connect with Coin World: Paxtons advisory cautions consumers and investors: If coins you bought as an investment would have to double or triple in value before any gain could be realized, you may have been a victim of fraud. Entitled Consumers Should Do Their Research Before and After Investing in Gold Coins, the advisory emphasizes the crucial importance of working with reputable dealers to help avoid paying too much when buying or receiving too little when selling. Paxtons office recommends researching dealers through the Better Business Bureau, the American Numismatic Association, the Professional Numismatists Guild, Professional Coin Grading Service and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. By issuing this important consumer protection advisory, Texas is not only assisting Lone Star state residents but providing nationwide benefits to the public who can access this useful information online. Attorneys general across the country now also have a template to provide consumer protection advice to their residents about buying and selling gold bullion and gold coins, said Fuljenz. Among other tips in the Texas Attorney Generals advisory: Do not respond to callers not previously contacted. Cold callers often are not registered in Texas to legally telemarket and often try to pressure customers to act quickly. Do not do business with a dealer who guarantees your purchases are totally safe, will go up in value or can't go down, stresses government gold confiscation or says he will buy them back for what you paid at any time. The full consumer protection advisory from Texas Attorney General Paxton is available online and as a printable PDF document. Regrettably, due to print limitations, additional buying and selling tips were excluded, said Fuljenz, including avoiding false grading claims, advice about return privileges and urging caution if sellers receive certified money orders or certified checks from unknown buyers because they could be counterfeit. All ten of the additional consumer protection tips are available online from Fuljenz. Did a former automaker once issue scrip notes? Plus, some alternative collecting methods: Another column in the June 26 Coin World profiles John J. Pittman, a czar of numismatic knowledge. At Fuljenz request, the following are among the precious metal industry leaders who provided input to him for the advisory. Their names are listed alphabetically with affiliations given only for identification purposes. Gary Adkins, American Numismatic Association Vice President and former Professional Numismatists Guild President John Albanese, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation and CAC Doug Davis, Founder of Numismatic Crime Information Center, City Manager and former Police Chief of Pantego, Texas Beth Deisher, Director of Anti-Counterfeiting for the Industry Council for Tangible Assets and former Editor of Coin World Terry Hanlon, Dillon Gage Metals President, former PNG President Jerry Jordan, award-winning investigative reporter and former Texas newspaper editor Kathy McFadden, ICTA Executive Director Rick Montgomery, NGC President Donn Pearlman, public relations consultant, ANA Zerbe Award recipient, former ANA Governor and former journalist/broadcaster Jay Sheppard, Better Business Bureau Serving Southeast Texas Dispute Resolution Director Miles Standish, NGC Vice President Universal Coin & Bullion President Michael Fuljenz has won more than 60 prestigious national and regional awards and honors for his consumer education and protection work in rare coins and precious metals. He is on the Boards of Directors of the influential Industry Council For Tangible Assets, Crime Stoppers of Jefferson and Hardin Counties Texas, and is a member of the prestigious Professional Numismatists Guild which honored him along with Doug Davis and Jerry Jordan in 2016 with its Sol Kaplan Award for helping to fight numismatic-related crimes Coming soon in High Sierra, Apple has packed the next edition of its Safari 11 browser with interesting new tools and features youll need to know about, with speed improvements alone once again making it a strong competitor to Chrome. Enterprise users can also look forward to friction-free cross-platform video conferencing with the release. Performance enhanced Apple claims its browser significantly outperforms Chrome and Firefox in benchmark tests. Speaking at WWDC, Apples Craig Federeghi claimed the browser to be an impressive 80 percent faster in JavaScript performance, promising performance will be even further enhanced when High Sierra ships. No to Auto-Play One of the most popular improvements, Autoplay Blocking prevents websites from automatically playing video at you when you visit them. Apple has already taken steps to curtail this kind of obstructive experience Sierra lets you disable the volume of such clips on a tab-by-tab basis. High Sierra takes this one step further, allowing you to prevent every site from doing this, or enabling sites on a per-site basis. For example, if you enjoy the video on a site you can set it to Allow All Auto-Play, Never Auto-Play, and/or Stop Media with Sound. Settings for this feature are stashed in Safari Preferences>Websites. Intelligent Tracking Prevention Spiced with a little machine intelligence, Apple has moved to prevent wholesale tracking of user browser activity. Intelligent Tracking Prevention uses built-in machine AI to reduce cross-site tracking by identifying and limiting cookies and other website data. This doesnt prevent any reputable ad services, but does help protect your privacy online. If youve ever used Ghostery then you will know just how prevalent such tracking tech has become online. [ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ] Apple explains a little more about how this works on its WebKit blog: Many users feel that trust is broken when they are being tracked and privacy-sensitive data about their web activity is acquired for purposes that they never agreed to. Site-based settings Safari has also introduced a collection of website management settings. These include things like content blockers and Reader Mode, as well as Page Zoom, Auto-Play, Camera, Microphone and Location sharing settings. Reader Mode Reader Mode is interesting though it is likely to be quite bad news to traditional website advertising models. You can enable this for every site you visit, or just for some. When enabled, when you visit that website youll automatically access it in Safaris Reader View. This strips most extraneous elements from the story you are looking at and provides you with a clear, easy-to-read rendering of the page youre on. Web RTC Safari also introduces support for Web RTC, which will enable Web-based video conferencing through the browser. A company called BlueJeans is building solutions that will work with this implementation, enabling immediate video conferencing with zero downloads across all major browsers. The potential of the standard goes much further than this, as explained here. HEVC (H.265) Apples next OS supports HEVC (H.265). In plain English this means Mac users can look forward to video streaming and playback of 4K video files at high quality, while reducing the size of these files by around 40 percent in comparison with H.264. This means it will be possible to stream high quality video over existing networks. Web Assembly Your web apps are smaller and load faster when written with the new WebAssembly format, Apple states. WebAssembly (wasm) is being developed as a cross-browser open standard. It aims to support the creation of Web apps that work as efficiently as traditional desktop apps by exploiting common hardware capabilities. It doesnt replace JavaScript. The JavaScript / WebAssembly dynamic duo work in partnership, allowing JavaScript to stay focused on taking over the world, while WebAssembly accelerates computation-intensive tasks, WebKit.org explains. Try it now? If you are a developer you can already access Safari 11 in beta as a Safari Technology Preview. The full version ships in fall, with macOS High Sierra. Also read: Developers: How do you plan to make use of the new Safari features in your apps? Please drop us a line to let us know. Google+? If you use social media and happen to be a Google+ user, why not join AppleHolic's Kool Aid Corner community and join the conversation as we pursue the spirit of the New Model Apple? Got a story? Drop me a line via Twitter and let me know. I'd like it if you chose to follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when fresh items are published here first on Computerworld. The newly opened House of European History has a blind spot: It entirely omits the role that religion played in European history. According to a new essay from Arnold Huijgen at Religion & Liberty Transatlantic, when it comes to religion, the $61 million museum in Brussels, built by the European Parliament, is an empty House. Instead, the EU displaces the Divine in its exhibits. Walking through the structure the day it opened, he observed: [I]t is as if religion does not exist. In fact, it never existed and never impacted the history of the continent. On none of the many floors is any attention paid to the Reformation as the great divide between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, to religious wars between confessions, or the quest for freedom of religion that was at the heart of the Dutch Revolt. If one did not know that the Roman Catholic Church existed, one would not find it out in the permanent exposition of European history that the European Parliament seeks to present to every European (at that Europeans expense). No longer is European secularism fighting the Christian religion; it simply ignores every religious aspect in life altogether. The fact that the worlds largest church (Roman Catholicism) is based within Europe, that the worlds second largest church (Eastern Orthodoxy) is the official faith of many Eastern European nations (de jure or de facto), or that the confessions of the Protestant Reformation have their origins on European soil is omitted altogether, according to Huijgen. Huijgen, a professor of systematic theology at the Theological University Apeldoorn, notes that, instead of the Creator, the top floor of the museum is dedicated to the European Union. He dubs this literally the apex of the European Unions narcissism. Perhaps his most interesting observation is the self-defeating nature of secular historical revisionism. Technocrats, eager to exclude religious faith from the public square, prepare the ground for an inevitable populist backlash, he writes a strong rejoinder against both EU conceit and rigorously secularist government at any level. People often remember George Orwells dictum in 1984: He who controls the past controls the future. However, they often forget its corollary: He who controls the present controls the past. By his account, the taxpayer-subsidized monument to the EU embodies that phrase in its own way. But since the present springs from the past, this living history continues to assert itself in the daily lives of Europeans, including their elected officials: [I]t is clear that religion did play a crucial role in European history. Social structures in southern European countries cannot be understood without the role of the Roman Catholic Church. The responsibility of the individual, stressed in Protestantism, is a central tenet of European culture. Calvinism may or may not be the fertile soil that buds forth capitalism as Max Weber theorized, but at least its role in creating the cultural structures of much of Europe needs to be discussed. Until the 1960s, at the very minimum, most Europeans understood themselves as Christians, and to cite but one example Christian Democratic political parties still play an important role in the politics of large European countries like Germany. Read his account and see if you agree with his conclusion, Without Christianity, Europe has no soul. You may read this full essay here. (Photo credit: Gor62. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.) There is a core case against doing a deal with the Democratic Unionists. It is that the balance of numbers in the Commons leans against them coming to terms with Labour, and that they wont do so anyway while Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are in charge of it. So Theresa May can side-step all the awkwardnesses that would accompany a confidence-and-supply arrangement with the DUP by not agreeing one at all. It will vote with the Conservatives in any event. This argument is a bit too clever-clever by half. If the Conservatives cant come to forma terms with the DUP, they enter minority government pure and simple. And while this may be sustainable all the way through to 2022 (though we very much doubt it, fixed-terms act or not), there is a difference between minority government with support elsewhere in the Commons and minority government without it. Very crudely, the sliver of extra votes that would come with a confidence-and-supply deal, or something as like it as to make no difference, is likely to make all the difference between winning crucial votes and losing them. That matters to the coherence and workability of the Government. It has an impact on how May and her ministers are seen abroad no small matter given the Brexit negotiation. It helps to reassure the markets. DUP MPs turning up to vote with the Conservatives, rather than flying back early to Northern Ireland on a Thursday or just not being there at all, makes it just a bit more likely that May can deliver a programme. With their bowler hats and Union flags and drums and funny walks, and roots in religious sectarianism, the DUP might have been invented to get up the noses of Londons media liberals. But there are plenty of religious bigots in Northern Ireland, and not all of them are Protestant, by any means. The DUP is under assault for its conservative position on abortion, but this is the same in essence as the Catholic SDLPs. Left-wing hypocrisy on this point is nauseating. In any event, Northern Ireland is a more socially conservative place than Greater London, the values of its people will find an echo in Englands provinces, and many Conservative Party members are themselves social conservatives. (Hint: the clue is in the Partys name.) Furthermore, the DUP has moved on from its origins in Ian Paisleys firebrand preaching. It occupies much the same space in Northern Irelands politics as the Ulster Unionists did until very recently. (Yes, thats the same Ulster Unionists that John Major came to an understanding with during the 1990s, a point that exposes his grandstanding yesterday about May doing much the same with the DUP 25 years on). It gets some Catholic votes. Its leaders are a known quantity to Dublins political classes. Above all, this Union-flag bedecked monster has recently been squatting in coalition with Sinn Fein, whose very name can excite parts of Labours Left to the point of bedwetting. If the DUP is so offensive to civilisation, why did Gordon Brown seek a deal with it in 2010? None the less, the case for being wary of a DUP arrangement has a curious persistence, even after each part of it has been dismissed. It lingers in the air like a stubborn smell. The message of Jeffrey Dudgeons recent piece on this site that the DUP is flexible about gay sex, if that is quite the right way of putting it may not get through to younger voters, with whom the Conservative Party is having a bit of a hard time. And while the claim that the Tories are neutral about Northern Ireland is wrong we back the union a DUP arrangement would raise questions. It is not inconsistent with the terms of the Belfast Agreement. But it would make it harder for the Secretary of State to be seen as an honest broker in Ulster were he formally aligned with one of its parties at Westminster. Then there is policy. The DUP is less a free market party than an economically populist one. The core of its Northern Ireland Programme drawn up before 2015 in anticipation of a hung Parliament is, not to put too fine a point on it, screwing money out of the English taxpayer. Northern Ireland business to be in a position to get a fair share of government contractsensure that Northern Ireland maintains its 100% regional aid statusNorthern Ireland prominently incorporated into UK branding: you get the picture. None of this pork-barrelling is remotely discreditable which MP does not seek a bigger slice of the cake for his constituents? but Englands Just About Managing Classes may get Just A Bit Cross. Some party members will be relieved that the DUPs populism extends to support for the pension triple lock and the winter fuel allowance although they may raise an eyebrow at its 2015 support for removing the bedroom tax at a national level. And those Brexiteers who feel an affinity for the DUP, or warm to its support for Brexit, may want to pause for a moment. That backing does not prevent it from taking the same position on the border as the Irish Government: it would prefer no border controls at all, as now, to the frictionless ones that May has floated. That could be read to mean staying in the Customs Union, for which a strengthened Chancellor is again pushing. All this will no doubt be bartered to and fro. The DUP is making a big show of not leaping into bed with the Prime Minister. The requirements of politics compel it to play hard to get, even though there is no other suitor to hand. Although some Conservative MPs are uneasy, some deal of some sort will probably be struck, and May will have an orange figleaf with which to shield her exposed position. ConservativeHome is not quite sure where an arrangement with the DUP would leave Party members longing for a non-green, non-orange, red-white-and-blue-only non-sectarian force in Northern Ireland: i.e, for the Party itself to build up its position in the province. But such yearnings must be postponed. Yes, a deal with the DUP may have unexpected consequences in the province and elsewhere, but May has little alternative but to seize Nigel Dodds by the hand and take him for a bop on the dance floor. Mind where you tread. Recently the state and fate of the European Union have become topics of world-wide debate. The UKs referendum vote to leave the EU last summer and the recent snap election, which called that vote into question, have ignited discussion about whether supranational organizations like the EU are even a good idea. In an article for the Library of Liberty and Law, Samuel Gregg, research director at the Acton Institute, discussed the thought of Pierre Manent. Manent is a prominent French political philosopher who has called the EUs position into question. What makes Manents critique unique is his emphasis on the special character of nation states. As much as globalist politicians may wish to ignore it, European nations like France, Poland, and England are real entities with the type of deep cultural memory not possessed by supranational organizations such as the European Commission (let alone the United Nations). Gregg writes: By definition, enthusiasts of globalism cannot imitate national cultures and histories. Hence, they seek to promote a particular normative agenda, one in which phrases like human rights, diversity, and tolerance feature prominently but which have an ahistorical character. The effect is to reduce the practice of democracy in Western Europe (and elsewhere) to a type of proceduralism which further centralizes real power in supranational institutions. When considered from this Manentian perspective, we begin to understand how globalist projects can threaten community and liberty at the same time. These two concerns are often at odds with each other, but when brought together through the medium of a concern for national sovereignty, they can generate substantive resistance to aspirations to supranational sovereignty or even dreams of world government. Often proponents of the EU and other globalist initiatives champion values like diversity and pluralism. These arguments prey on fears created by the two world wars. If we embrace our particular national identities (the argument goes) then we will fall prey to the fear and hatred that led to the deaths of millions. Manent points out that, ironically enough, the actual policies the EU pursues undermine these values. Efforts to gradually centralize power in supranational organizations implies ignoring or even doing away with this pluralism. This is not only because of the establishment of supranational courts and legislatures whose decisions standardize the treatment of many issues across nation-states. It is also because creating supranational standards positively requires the top-down suppression of variations at the national level. One of the paradoxes of this situation is that, while EU politicians and bureaucrats speak endlessly of diversity, inclusion, and subsidiarity, EU institutions actually undermine the legitimate pluralism which is expressed through different national institutions, national histories, and national legal systems. Most of the debate about the EU has centered on question of efficiency and corruption. In contrast, Manent offers a principled criticism based on the broader liberal and Christian intellectual traditions. His arguments offer a valuable resource to advocates of national sovereignty in Europe and the United States. To read the entirety of Samuel Greggs article and learn more about Manent, read the full article here. CORNWALL, Ontario With the humidity rising and many now spending more time outside, its important to know how to spot ticks, and deal with them if you suspect youve been bitten. While there is no proven way to forecast higher-than-average tick population from year to year, recent surveillance studies have shown a steady increase in Lyme-carrying ticks along the St. Lawrence River and the 401. Dr. Paul Roumeliotis says that there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to peoples understanding of ticks, and how to protect themselves against them. People often assume every tick carries Lyme Disease, which isnt the case, said Roumeliotis. Blacklegged ticks are the main carriers of Lyme Disease in North America, and with roughly 20 percent of those ticks testing positive for the disease, Cornwall and surrounding areas are at endemic status for tick-borne infections. Roumeliotis says that despite this fact, there are a number of ways people can cut down these risks, including checking yourself after outdoor excursions. Ticks typically gravitate to the folds of the skin, so always check you neck, armpits, and knees, said Roumeliotis, who also recommends showering after spending the day outside. If a tick has attached itself to the skin, and is removed within a 24-hour period, there is little to no risk of contracting Lyme Disease. If the tick has been lodged in the skin for over a day, medical attention should be sought. When in doubt, see a doctor, said Roumeliotis. It takes longer to test for Lyme Disease than it does to treat it with highly effective antibiotics. Common early symptoms are the fever, fatigue, and the telltale bullseye rash. While Lyme Disease is a serious threat to health, there are ways to treat and manage symptoms if caught early on. AVONMORE, Ontario Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MPP Grant Crack announced that the Liberal govnernment will be investing $52.6 million in the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB). That $52 million will be used to fulfill the capital building plan outlined in the UCDSBs final staff report that was passed on March 23. That plan calls for the closure of some schools, the expansion of others and the building of new ones. The announcement was made at Roxmore Public School in Avonmore on Wednesday, June 14. The lions share of that $52.6 million will be used to build a super-school in Cornwall at a cost of $39 million. While a date and site for the new construction project has yet to be named, the new school will be a grade 7 to 12 facility and will replace Cornwalls secondary schools St. Lawrence Secondary and CCVS. Also announced was $2.6 million for Roxmore Public School. The school, which is currently at 100 percent capacity, will also be receiving students from North Stormont Public School, which will now be closing in accordance to the UCDSB final report. The report makes Roxmore the only public school in its boundary that will have a French immersion program, which has raised concerns for Rothwell-Osnabruck and Maxville Public School. UCDSB Board 1st Vice Chair Caroll Carkner said that she did not think those schools would be affected by this move. The school board cant control where parents choose to send their kids, she said. Jennifer MacIsaac, a mother whose son attends Rothwell-Osnabruck and who was heavily involved in the fight to save that schools high school program disagreed. The board does control where parents send their kids by picking and choosing what schools get to offer French Immersion, said MacIsaac to the Seaway News. Especially when Maxville and Ingleside have been begging for French for years. MacIsaac acknowledged the importance of the funding for Roxmore, but questioned the school boards strategy of drawing more students out of their community of South Stormont. While this funding allows the UCDSB to move forward with two capital projects outlined in its final staff report, it seemingly looks over funding needed at Williamstown Public School in South Glengarry. Williamstown Public School parent Stephanie Jaworski questioned why Williamstown Public School was seemingly looked over in this announcement when it is at 160 percent capacity. MPP Crack hailed the announcement as an important step in building a stronger community and public education system in the region. This funding will allow us to build our communities and bring necessary jobs to the area, he said. We can ensure the best quality of education and reduce the cost burden of empty spaces on the school board. Were back with a fresh edition of Radio Free Acton! This week, we talk with Actons Director of Research Samuel Gregg for some perspective on the surprising outcome of the June 8 snap parliamentary elections in Great Britain, and what the resurgence of Labour and the loss of a conservative majority mean for Prime Minister Theresa May and the upcoming Brexit negotiations with the EU. Were also excited to introduce a new feature on Radio Free Acton: Upstream with Bruce Edward Walker. Walker is a long-time PowerBlog contributor and a walking encyclopedia of pop culture trivia. Going forward, hes taking on the role of cultural correspondent for RFA. In this segment, he talks with Religion & Liberty Managing Editor Sarah Stanley about Wonder Woman, Warner Brothers and DC Comics latest entry into the summer blockbuster superhero movie arena. They agree that its a fine film with a lot of heart and humanity. You can listen to the podcast via the audio player below. If you havent done so already, be sure to subscribe to RFA on iTunes or Google Play. Show Notes: Guests: Related Material: Time Stamps 00:00-3:30 Introduction 3:30-14:09 Brexit with Samuel Gregg 14:10-20:42 Upstream with Bruce Edward Walker 20:43-22:38 Outro The road to publication was a rough one. It turns out "superpowered social activist in ballet wear" is a tough sell when there's a depression on, and Siegel soon decided that he might have better luck catching a publisher's eye if he were to team up with a more well-known artist. So he flung Shuster aside and pitched the idea to artists like Hal Foster (of Tarzan fame), and Leo O'Mealia (best known for his unique ability to spew concentrated racism from the tip of his pen). This angered Shuster, who promptly set fire to The Superman, reducing it to a small pile of ashes sitting neatly beneath that cover up there (it alone miraculously survived). Now, obviously, the pair got past their spat and found a way to work together -- in later interviews, they omitted the betrayal altogether and instead credited Shuster's pyromaniac episode to artistic frustration. It's like the old-timey "hysterical woman" excuse, but for creative types. David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies Could this also have been solved by masturbation? Continue Reading Below Advertisement If the loss of historical art alone isn't enough to coax out a few begrudging tears, consider that a copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold for 3.2 million goddamned dollars back in 2014. Imagine what the prototype version would be worth, if not for that single match ... CNN Errs on New Hamas 'Charter,' Gaza Unemployment | Main | "Tragic Inaction on Congo" June 14, 2017 AFP Falsely Reports: Hamas Accepts State 'Limited to 1967 Borders' Influential wire service Agence France Presse falsely reported yesterday that Hamas' May 1 policy document accepts a Palestinian state "limited to the 1967 borders" ("Gaza: Palestinian territory ravaged by war, poverty"). In no way does the new Hamas document signal an acceptance of a Palestinian state "limited to the 1967 borders." In fact, it says the exact opposite. The wording is: Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea . However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus. . . . A real state of Palestine is a state that has been liberated. There is no alternative to a fully sovereign Palestinian State on the entire national Palestinian soil, with Jerusalem as its capital. (Emphases added.) In an interview with Reuters, Hamas' Mahmoud al-Zahar emphasized that the new document is a "mechanism" for Hamas' pledge "to liberate all of Palestine." Reuters reported: One of Hamas's most senior officials said on Wednesday a document published by the Islamist Palestinian group last week was not a substitute for its founding charter, which advocates Israel's destruction. Speaking in Gaza City, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a regular critic of Israel, said the political policy document announced in Qatar on May 1 by Hamas's outgoing chief Khaled Meshaal did not contradict its founding covenant, published in 1988. Trailed for weeks by Hamas officials, the document appeared to be an attempt to soften the group's language towards Israel. But it still called for "the liberation of all of historical Palestine", said armed resistance was a means to achieve that goal, and did not recognise Israel's right to exist. "The pledge Hamas made before God was to liberate all of Palestine," Zahar said on Wednesday. "The charter is the core of (Hamas's) position and the mechanism of this position is the document. Posted by TS at June 14, 2017 05:27 AM AFP are Palestinian terrorist apologists. Israel should kick out Arab Fiction Press.(AFP) http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/06/afp_attempts_to_justify_terror.html AFP Attempts to Justify Terror Attack That Killed Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld June 30, 2015 Posted by: Barry Meridian at June 17, 2017 04:04 AM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment Managed services News Thoma Bravo Buys Continuum, Plans To Help Drive Security Acquisition Spree Michael Novinson Share this Private equity giant Thoma Bravo purchased global IT management platform provider Continuum to boost organic growth and M&A activity in the SMB security space. The Boston-based vendor said it presented its ambitious 2020 growth plan to Thoma Bravo and was encouraged to accelerate it, according to Continuum CEO Michael George. Thoma Bravo is looking for Continuum broaden the IT services waterfront as part of an effort to redefine the category entirely, George said. "As we've been rising as the platform leader in the category, we've been sought after by all the private equity players," George told CRN. "Thoma Bravo was top of the list for us, by far. They're smart and aggressive." [Related: Continuum To Introduce Security Offering For MSPs After Suffering Own Incident] Continuum's legacy is in remote monitoring and management (RMM), and George said the company recently bought its way into backup and disaster recovery (BDR), security, cloud monitoring and document management spaces. The company today employs more than 1,400 people worldwide and has some 5,800 channel partners. The company is now accelerating its organic investment in security by building out its security operations center (SOC), opening up a second SOC facility, and hiring like mad, George said. He said Continuum hopes to buy into the categories where the company is partnering today. "Priority number one is security, priority number two is security, and priority number three is security," George said. "We are manically focused on that for the foreseeable future." Continuum is looking to build an end-to-end security offering tailored to small and midsized businesses, George said. The offering will include perimeter and endpoint defense, firewall-level security, anomaly detection, the ability to isolate a problem to a particular user's system, and remediation through its existing RMM, SOC and network operations center (NOC) tools, George said. "Security is a broad and complex thing," George said. "It isn't like you buy one thing and solve for it." In addition to technology, George said Continuum is looking to address the security needs of solution providers from a people perspective. Most other security tools depend on the MSP to provide the personnel needed to address the issue, George said, while Continuum can augment the channel partner and provide support through its help desk and NOC. This is critical since any employee with security certifications and skills will have Fortune 500 companies fighting over them, George said, with employers willing to pay a 40 percent or 50 percent premium to bring them on board. In fact, George said MSPs already have a hard enough time staffing a help desk. "There's a massive void on the security side of the equation for MSPs," George said. "Thoma Bravo saw what we're doing and said, 'This is the category killer.'" This is not Thoma Bravo's first foray into the IT services management space. The private equity firm partnered with Silver Lake in October 2015 to purchase IT infrastructure management vendor SolarWinds, owner of SolarWinds N-Able (now SolarWinds MSP), and announced plans to up their investment in cloud, hybrid and MSP environments. Eight months later, SolarWinds purchased IT services management firm LogicNow and combined it with SolarWinds N-Able to boost capabilities and scale. Although Thoma Bravo holds a stake in both SolarWinds MSP and Continuum, George said there are no plans to integrate or combine the two companies. Continuum was acquired by a different Thoma Bravo fund than SolarWinds, George said, and no members of the team that invested in Continuum have a relationship with the folks at SolarWinds. "You're talking about a distant cousin," George said. "You're not talking about a blood relative by any stretch." Continuum was purchased by a Thoma Bravo growth equity fund focused on finding category leaders and growing them aggressively through acquisition, George said. The Thoma Bravo fund that acquired SolarWinds had a different investment thesis focused more on financial engineering than a growth strategy, according to George. "There's more than a Chinese firewall between the two of us," George said. Continuum customer ComTech Computer Services has been asking the vendor for quite some time to provide user monitoring and network scanning tools that can protect the end client against ransomware, viruses and hacking, according to Robert Vander Meiden, director of technology for the Temple, Texas-based MSP. "I really need Continuum to start looking more into security," Vander Meiden told CRN. "The products on the market today that are good tend to be extremely expensive." ComTech has been a Continuum customer for eight or nine years, Vander Meiden told, and leverages the vendor primarily for help desk support around issues such as password changes or malfunctioning applications. The MSP recently sent a survey to its customers and found them virtually everyone seemed to be happy with the help desk services provided by Continuum. "With being just a one-man shop, I need their help desk and their tools," Vander Meiden said. "As long as the product stays the same [under Thoma Bravo], I'm happy." Mobility News Review: Lenovo's New ThinkPad X1 Tablet Is A Top Contender In The 2-in-1 Wars Kyle Alspach Share this This is shaping up to be the year that 2-in-1 tablets really break out. We recently gave a strong review to Samsung's Galaxy Book, while Apple's new iPad Pro is also getting a generally favorable reception. Microsoft plans to release a refresh to its pioneering Surface Pro this week, as well. However, Lenovo is well-positioned to compete with all of them thanks to its second-generation ThinkPad X1 tablet. [Related: Head-To-Head: Microsoft Surface Pro Vs. Samsung Galaxy Book] The X1 tablet may not feature as sexy of a design as the other 2-in-1 tablets we just mentioned. But its smooth performance, sturdiness and ability to do things the others can't such as turn into a projector on a whim make it well worth consideration for work use. Lenovo succeeds at transferring the ThinkPad look and feel over to the X1 tablet 2-in-1. Maybe the biggest place this is noticeable -- and the biggest differentiator overall -- is in how sturdy the device is. The X1 tablet comes with a detachable keyboard that is a huge departure from the flimsy feeling keyboard of the iPad Pro. The keyboard sits stiffly and feels very durable. The keys are deep and a pleasure to type on. The touchpad on the keyboard also works smoothly right out of the box. Unlike some of the other 2-in-1 tablets, the stand for the X1 tablet is flexible enough to allow for usage at a full range of different angles (rather than just a few preset angles). The stand is also made from metal, which adds a lot of strength, but the flexibility means you can adjust the angle just by moving the tablet rather than fiddling with the stand itself. Thanks to the excellent keyboard and stand, the ThinkPad X1 tablet is pretty close to being able to offer the equivalent of a laptop experience. It can, in fact, be comfortably used on your lap -- unlike some of the other leading 2-in-1s. We think this is a huge advantage. Portability, after all, is a chief benefit of going the 2-in-1 route. The ability to use the X1 tablet in more ways than the typical 2-in-1 is a major complement to the portable aspects of the device, which weighs 2.4 pounds for both tablet and keyboard. The model we tried out was configured with a seventh-gen Intel Core i5 processor (from the low-power Y-series) and 8 GB of RAM, which provided terrific performance. Web pages loaded swiftly and the tablet was able to keep up with running numerous open windows at a time. In our tryout, we got five hours of battery life on a charge (75 percent screen brightness), which is perhaps the only real downside. We've tried out convertible laptops that can offer more, although the Samsung Galaxy Book gave us the same battery life in our recent test. Lenovo does have a solution, though, which brings us to the tablet's most unique feature -- the ability to attach external modules for additional functionality. One of them is the Productivity Module, which promises another five hours of battery life by snapping it onto the bottom of the tablet. We didn't test the Productivity Module, but we did try out a potentially even more transformative one -- the Presenter Module. This snap-on device allows you to use your tablet as a projector, and we found it to project a sharp, high-quality image. We should note that it is a bit awkward to use because the module projects in the same direction that the tablet display is facing -- meaning you are in front of the projector while doing anything on the tablet. But every projector has its foibles, and the X1 tablet approach is still simpler to set up, and enables using a projector in more types of settings and situations. We can see plenty of cases where the ability to more easily offer a presentation to a group would come in handy. The 12-inch touch display is a good size, enabling plenty of work space while still being smaller than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which seems a bit overkill for many users. The X1 tablet display looks great, too, with resolution of 2,160 x 1,440 and a high degree of brightness. It also includes Gorilla Glass 4 for some extra durability. Other features that business users will appreciate include a fingerprint reader, Windows Hello login, a TPM security chip and Intel vPro. The tablet also comes with a digital pen, which worked naturally, with minimal latency, in our tryout. On ports, Lenovo's X1 tablet stakes out a middle ground between the approaches of the Surface Pro (which has no USB-C) and the Galaxy Book (which has no USB-A). The X1 tablet opts for one USB-A port plus one USB-C port -- along with a MiniDisplay Port and microSD card slot. Lenovo's second-gen ThinkPad X1 tablet is available for $1,499 from CDW in the configuration we tried out (Core i5, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage). The Presenter Module adds another $289. These don't feel like bad prices for all that the X1 tablet and projector functionality have to offer. All in all, the X1 tablet stands out as a 2-in-1 that wisely puts the needs of business users front and center -- and can actually serve as a true laptop replacement, unlike some other 2-in-1s. The sturdiness, flexibility and projector features could give the tablet wider appeal to businesses and solution providers than others on the market. Networking News Cloud, Next-Gen Services Help Master Agents Grow Quickly And Beat 'The Squeeze' As Connectivity Commissions Decline Gina Narcisi Share this Five years ago, Intelisys had to buy its way into selling cloud services. But thanks to its efforts, today's master agents and partners may not have to do the same. Back then, Intelisys bought Cloud Services Coalition, a cloud services solution provider and integrator founded by Andrew Pryfogle. He went on to become the senior vice president of cloud transformation at the now 24-year-old master agent. Intelisys saw the major pivot to cloud coming and knew it needed to acquire the right expertise to lead the transition and offer the level of education that its sales partners deserved to help them stay ahead of the curve. Sales partners needed to be educated on the benefits of cloud and told how to pitch and close cloud deals. Intelisys identified Cloud Services Coalition as a leader in cloud selling and education, and the best organization for the job. [Related: Telecom Consolidation Sets Aggressive Growth Agenda For Master Agents, Partners] "This is when we really started adding more value to our partners and helping them make the pivot to different kinds of services, away from the more traditional connectivity providers," recalled Jay Bradley, president of Intelisys. Today, the Petaluma, Calif.-based master agent offers various cloud education tracks for its partners and is seeing high single-digit growth in cloud sales from its partner community each year as part of its overall business mix. Cloud services, in particular, Bradley said, represent a whole new opportunity for both master agents and channel partners. Partners are grappling with eroding broadband connectivity and legacy voice margins. Sales in the wireline segment for every major carrier including AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink have been declining at a low-single-digit rate over the last several years, according to investment research firm CFRA. More users are moving from traditional wireline phones to high-speed internet and mobile services, where users expect to pay less for voice services. As such, master agents must look beyond brokering connectivity to fill out their books of business with value-added services that offer higher commissions for sales partners. Master agent may be under pressure to grow quickly, but growing by way of mergers and acquisitions is not the only option for these companies. The days of master agents acting as "clearing houses" are over, said Patrick Oborn, co-founder of Sandy, Utah-based master agent Telarus. "Everyone is feeling the squeeze," Oborn said. "You are going to make less money doing more work until you can't afford to pay your people anymore. [Master agents and sales partners] have to transition to higher-margin services and products," he said. Services like cloud, unified communications, and SD-WAN services, for example, are offering partners a way to "claw some margin back" from sinking connectivity commissions, Oborn said. Services like these have Telarus, and other master agents, placing their bets and the channel should take note, he said. "We are focusing on UCaaS and cloud because the commissions there are still safely above 20 percent, in some cases 25 percent plus [sales performance incentive fund] SPIFs," he said. "That's where the money is." PlanetOne Communications is another master agent looking to expand beyond traditional telecom boundaries. In 2016, cloud sales accounted for 50 percent of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company's revenue. PlanetOne doesn't have any cable suppliers within its portfolio, but offers a bevy of channel-friendly cloud service providers, SD-WAN and UC players, as well as connectivity and wireless carriers. Lauren Shapiro, president of PlanetOne, said that the company is laser-focused on helping partners have "strong, compelling business conversations" with their customers to learn about their requirements that are driving the need for cloud products today. "Its really the conversations with the [C-level executives] that are helping partners understand business needs, and those are opening the door for new opportunity for partners," Shapiro said. Intelisys, which was acquired by IT distributor ScanSource last year, agrees that the partners who are having the most success today are the ones that can talk to their end customers with a "neutral voice," Bradley said. That goes for both telecom agent partners, as well as ScanSource's VAR partners who are starting to dip their toe into recurring revenue by adding services to their portfolios. "The recurring revenue opportunity is newer to VARs, but one of the biggest messages to them, just like our agents is 'invest, learn, and continue to grow your team and hire people that understand cloud and all these new opportunities,'" he said. While expanding to more recurring revenue services is essential for both the master agent community and their channel partners, master agent also need to grow in technical expertise and resources for partners, according to Vince Bradley, CEO of World Telecom Group (WTG), a master agency based in Malibu, California. "I would say there is going to be a trend with the masters stepping up to not only grow from revenue and headcount perspective, but also from a back office perspective," WTG's Bradley said. For its part, Telarus offers VX suite, a software platform that partners can use to monitor the quality of their customers' VoIP traffic and to diagnose any performance issues. The tool is included in every quote. While masters are boosting their own technical capabilities, agents should be proactively building more expertise around new technologies, or retooling their businesses to capitalize on things they've already be doing for their customers, Telarus' Oborn said. "[Channel partners] really need to get into new [services] or start billing for consulting for their time or even auditing bills maybe start charging for the stuff that they used to do for free because they aren't getting paid on the carrier side like they used to," Oborn said. Most channel partners won't make the pivot to successfully selling next-level services, including cloud, on their own. But the good news is that master agents are uniquely qualified to help solution providers. These firms have the size and deal-making prowess that bodes well for a business that, much like the telecom industry, is dominated by a few big suppliers that are fighting one another for market share. Master agents often have the scale to capture the attention of larger cloud players, like Microsoft, and their sales partners benefit by not only having access to these larger providers something they couldn't obtain on their own but potentially better contracts and more support through a master agent agreement. Because of this ability to work, at scale, with larger suppliers, master agents can more easily recruit cloud expertise than a small solution provider organization. As a result, many masters are building up their educational resources for partners, including educational programs and mindshare events for their partner base. WTG is already seeing "skyrocketing" demand for education on cloud-based services, as well as SD-WAN and IoT from its partner community through Learning Campus, the master agent's online training and development program for partners, WTG's Bradley said. Intelisys is on a mission to help both the traditional telecom agent partner, as well as VAR partners, learn about selling cloud services through Cloud Services University, its cloud training program for partners. Intelisys has had more than 3,000 individual partners sign up for its program, and more than 2,500 certifications earned to date. Intelisys also offers its exclusive cloud training program, Super9, for partners interested in sealing major cloud deals. The program includes a one three-day training session, followed by regular communication and mentoring with the Intelisys Cloud and Complex Bids team. PlanetOne offers Cloud 411, an education center and resource tool that aggregates sales tools, presentations, and data from its cloud provider partners that channel partners can use to help close cloud deals. The master agent is also taking its educational event, Cloud Strategy Session, around the country. These day-long events for telecom agent partners, VARs and MSPs are aimed at helping partners understand what is driving their customers' needs around cloud, and then helping partners embrace cloud opportunities through a "high-touch engagement process" with the support of PlanetOne, Shapiro said. For most partners, selling cloud services at this point isn't their core competency, Shapiro said. "It's very much about a side-by-side relationship to help build up their comfort, and partners dont have to be the expert." Master agents can act as "the glue" by bringing the right cloud providers into conversations between partners and their end customers, Shapiro added. "We dont just step in and step out; we provide guidance and coaching. For us, it's that very high-touch engagement process that is driving success." Networking News Collaboration Specialist Prysm Launches New Channel Program To Take Partners To The Next Level Mark Haranas Share this Cloud-based collaboration specialist Prysm is boosting its channel efforts by launching the new Prysm Engage Partner Program, hiring channel veteran Patrick Finn to lead the way. I came to Prysm to really take our partner program to the next level, said Finn, in an interview with CRN. Were adding a lot of value here for partners, like new training and MDF to really mature our partner program. Finn has previously developed and managed partner programs for the likes of Accenture, Emptoris (acquired by IBM in 2012) and SAP Hybris. Finn was previously senior vice president of global channel and partnerships at SAP Hybris before joining Prysm in April. [Related: Cisco Gets More Software-Centric With New Enterprise Agreements, A Big Move Towards Simplified Selling With Recurring Revenue] San Jose, Calif.-based Prysm has only a few dozen channel partners but expects to double that number by the end of 2017 thanks to the partner program as well as its new Prysm Go collaboration solution unveiled in May. The Engage Partner Program includes new joint marketing programs along with more MDF available. "We didnt do a lot of [joint marketing] in the past, but were really trying to embrace our partners more," said Finn. The program now enables Prysm partners to receive online training for its portfolio as well as certification programs. The vendor also created a new learning management systems for solutions providers and has revamped its partner portal. The program has three partner levels: silver, gold and platinum. Finn said Prysm will be adding a specific consulting partner program under the Engage umbrella. Bin Guan, CTO of Yorktel, a Eatontown, N.J.-based solution provider and Prysm partner, ranked No. 196 on CRNs 2017 Solution Provider 500 list, said Prysm revenues are up in 2017 year-over-year and Finns hiring is bringing more in opportunities for Yorktel. "Patrick is starting to bring more customer opportunities for us. Prysm has been doing this in the past, but hes bringing leads to us where we can upsell more services beyond Prysm," said Guan. "Its easy to do business with Prysm and now with the [new partner program], its driving a more closer partnership between us." One of the key reasons for building a new program is tied to Prysms new UC solution: Prysm Go. Finn said Prysm Go can turn any meeting room into a multi-purpose collaboration room, offering a digital whiteboard, wired and wireless screen sharing, no sign-in required and integration with other video conferencing and unified communications tools from the likes of Cisco, Polycom and Microsoft. Partners like the flexibility versus a closed system that just supports one technology, said Finn. If they already have implemented Cisco or Microsoft Skype, partners arent forced to tell a customer that they have to throw it away. So with us, you can support both. Guan said the "secret sauce" is in the companys collaboration software. "Customers want to be able to collaboration between anybody ... with the software running on top," he said. "The software behind the screen is why we love the Prysm solution in there." The vendors flagship solution is the Prysm Digital Workplace Platform, which it says can bring every tool needed for meetings and collaboration anytime, from any device. "For our display and hardware business, we really need to further build out and strengthen our AV (audio and visual) channel," said Finn. "We are looking to energize the AV channel and thats critical for us both in North America and around the world." Prysm is looking to expand internationally into Asia and Europe markets. "Were looking at some of the emerging markets in Asia, China and India, for us were seeing a lot of demand there In those regions were looking to do more recruiting of new partners and expand our partner ecosystem for sure," said Finn. Prysm was founded in 2005 and has nearly 500 employees with offices in the U.S., China, India, Belgium, Germany and the U.K. Security News Threat Intelligence Provider Recorded Future Launches Partner Program Rick Saia Share this Threat intelligence company Recorded Future is throwing open its sales channel to VARs with a partner program in which they can help give customers a heads-up on current and emerging security threats. Recorded Future, based in the Boston area, announced the program on Wednesday. The program, Recorded Future Connect, will allow VARs to bundle their own solutions with Recorded Future's machine learning tool to help organizations automate how they process potential threats. The tool collects threat intelligence from several sources in real-time and delivers customized alerts to bolster the defense of organizations' networks. [Related: Security Vendors Need To Work Together To Beat The Ultimate Competition The Attackers] Solution provider August Schell of Rockville, Md., a Recorded Future partner, welcomed the VAR program and said it would help its base of mostly public-sector organizations. Mike Thorp, Schell's vice president of sales, said his company had been a partner for about eight months. "Theyve been a great company to work with," Thorp told CRN. "Theyll partner with us on deals, they'll co-sell They're very good on the partnership side of things and accepting the channel." In its statement, Recorded Future cited statistics from IT-Harvest and Gartner that showed a growing threat intelligence market. Last year, IT-Harvest said the market was growing at a combined annual growth rate of 84 percent and is expected to climb to $1.5 billion in 2018. Recorded Future also cited a Gartner estimate that 60 percent of enterprises will utilize threat intelligence services as part of their security strategies by next year. David Sauer, director of global channels for Recorded Future, said the outreach to VARs allows them to "get in on the next big thing." The company has been building its partner ecosystem over the last two years, "working mostly with technical partners and slowly building" a stable of MSSP partners, he said in an emailed response to questions from CRN. Recorded Future has 35 VAR partners, 15 MSSPs and 30 technology partners around the world, Sauer said. Sauer said half of Recorded Future's sales come in through North American partners. Recorded Future's tool can also be used to enhance existing vulnerability management, incident response, and threat assessment services. It has integrations with Splunk's Enterprise/ES, Hewlett Packard Enterprise's ArcSight, and IBM's QRadar solutions, among others, allowing VARs to take advantage of technology they may already be selling to partners. That's especially helpful to August Schell, which is also a Splunk partner. "Having a threat intelligence tool to offer to our customers is a really nice addition to complement what they're already doing with a tool like Splunk's," Thorp told CRN. That applies in particular to Schell's public sector customers, especially intelligence agencies, according to Thorp. "Security is always top of mind," he said. "Having a threat intelligence tool helps narrow [customers'] focus, so they're not looking for a needle in a haystack. Its a great addition to what we're trying to do in keeping the customer secure." As part of the program, Recorded Future said it would also provide VAR partners with intelligence briefings from analysts; access to research from the Insikt Group, the vendor's research arm; product trials; and technical and sales certifications. VAR partners will also be eligible for deal registration with higher margins for partners who source deals, according to Sauer. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Part of the police investigation into the so-called "Croydon Cat Killer" will be shown on BBC One tomorrow evening (Wednesday, June 14). The six-part series called "The Met: Policing London" is a documentary following the officers of Britain's biggest and busiest police force as they deal with life, death, crime and its victims, all across the capital. So far the new series has featured a number of boroughs in London, and the latest hour-long episode will feature policing in Croydon for the first time. A summary on the BBC's website gives details about what is going to be in this week's episode. It says: "In Croydon, a detective investigates a series of cat killings, bringing in a specialist in animal forensic pathology and criminal profiling experts from the National Crime Agency." Police previously said they were unable to find evidence the cats were being deliberately killed by a human - with an RSPCA-approved vet finding they died due to "blunt-force trauma", potentially as a result of being hit by cars, before being cut up by a person. However, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police told the Advertiser last year that officers were "convinced" the cats are being killed by a human, then mutilated. A human is believed to have killed, dismembered and decapitated more than 200 cats since the first pet was found dead in Croydon in 2015, Police, who have invested more than 1,200 hours in the case so far. With the majority of the cats' bodied being found in and around Croydon the person responsible has been dubbed the "Croydon Cat Killer". Police and animal charity South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) are offering a 10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator. Also featuring in the fourth episode of the BBC's Met Police programme a detainee, in a Brixton police custody suite strips naked and refuses to come out of his cell to go to court - while in another cell, a man is brought in for threatening a supermarket cashier with a knife. The episode, which will be on BBC One at 9pm, will also show how senior police officers at New Scotland Yard planned the strategy for the anti-capitalist Million Mask March which was held in central London last November. In todays data-driven world, data breaches can affect hundreds of millions or even billions of people at a time. Digital transformation has increased the supply of data moving, and data breaches have scaled up with it as attackers exploit the data-dependencies of daily life. How large cyberattacks of the future might become remains speculation, but as this list of the biggest data breaches of the 21st Century indicates, they have already reached enormous magnitudes. For transparency, this list has been calculated by the number of users impacted, records exposed, or accounts affected. We have also made a distinction between incidents where data was actively stolen or reposted maliciously and those where an organization has inadvertently left data unprotected and exposed, but there has been no significant evidence of misuse. The latter have purposefully not been included in the list. So, here it is an up-to-date list of the 15 biggest data breaches in recent history, including details of those affected, who was responsible, and how the companies responded (as of July 2021). 1. Yahoo Date: August 2013 Impact: 3 billion accounts Securing the number one spot almost seven years after the initial breach and four since the true number of records exposed was revealed is the attack on Yahoo. The company first publicly announced the incident which it said took place in 2013 in December 2016. At the time, it was in the process of being acquired by Verizon and estimated that account information of more than a billion of its customers had been accessed by a hacking group. Less than a year later, Yahoo announced that the actual figure of user accounts exposed was 3 billion. Yahoo stated that the revised estimate did not represent a new security issue and that it was sending emails to all the additional affected user accounts. Despite the attack, the deal with Verizon was completed, albeit at a reduced price. Verizons CISO Chandra McMahon said at the time: Verizon is committed to the highest standards of accountability and transparency, and we proactively work to ensure the safety and security of our users and networks in an evolving landscape of online threats. Our investment in Yahoo is allowing that team to continue to take significant steps to enhance their security, as well as benefit from Verizons experience and resources. After investigation, it was discovered that, while the attackers accessed account information such as security questions and answers, plaintext passwords, payment card and bank data were not stolen. 2. Aadhaar [tie with Alibaba] Date: January 2018 Impact: 1.1 billion Indian citizens identity/biometric information exposed In early 2018, news broke that malicious actors has infiltrated the worlds largest ID database, Aadhaar, exposing information on more than 1.1 billion Indian citizens including names, addresses, photos, phone numbers, and emails, as well as biometric data like fingerprints and iris scans. Whats more, since the database established by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in 2009 also held information about bank accounts connected with unique 12-digit numbers, it became a credit breach too. This was despite the UIDAI initially denying that the database held such data The actors infiltrated the Aadhaar database through the website of Indane, a state-owned utility company connected to the government database through an application programming interface that allowed applications to retrieve data stored by other applications or software. Unfortunately, Indanes API had no access controls, thus rendering its data vulnerable. Hackers sold access to the data for as little as $7 via a WhatsApp group. Despite warnings from security researchers and tech groups, it took Indian authorities until March 23, 2018, to take the vulnerable access point offline. 2. Alibaba [tie with Aadhaar] Date: November 2019 Impact: 1.1 billion pieces of user data Over an eight-month period, a developer working for an affiliate marketer scraped customer data, including usernames and mobile numbers, from the Alibaba Chinese shopping website, Taobao, using crawler software that he created. It appears the developer and his employer were collecting the information for their own use and did not sell it on the black market, although both were sentenced to three years in prison. A Taobao spokesperson said in a statement: Taobao devotes substantial resources to combat unauthorized scraping on our platform, as data privacy and security is of utmost importance. We have proactively discovered and addressed this unauthorized scraping. We will continue to work with law enforcement to defend and protect the interests of our users and partners. 4. LinkedIn Date: June 2021 Impact: 700 million users Professional networking giant LinkedIn saw data associated with 700 million of its users posted on a dark web forum in June 2021, impacting more than 90% of its user base. A hacker going by the moniker of God User used data scraping techniques by exploiting the sites (and others) API before dumping a first information data set of around 500 million customers. They then followed up with a boast that they were selling the full 700 million customer database. While LinkedIn argued that as no sensitive, private personal data was exposed, the incident was a violation of its terms of service rather than a data breach, a scraped data sample posted by God User contained information including email addresses, phone numbers, geolocation records, genders and other social media details, which would give malicious actors plenty of data to craft convincing, follow-on social engineering attacks in the wake of the leak, as warned by the UKs NCSC. 5. Sina Weibo Date: March 2020 Impact: 538 million accounts With over 600 million users, Sina Weibo is one of Chinas largest social media platforms. In March 2020, the company announced that an attacker obtained part of its database, impacting 538 million Weibo users and their personal details including real names, site usernames, gender, location, and phone numbers. The attacker is reported to have then sold the database on the dark web for $250. Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) ordered Weibo to enhance its data security measures to better protect personal information and to notify users and authorities when data security incidents occur. In a statement, Sina Weibo argued that an attacker had gathered publicly posted information by using a service meant to help users locate the Weibo accounts of friends by inputting their phone numbers and that no passwords were affected. However, it admitted that the exposed data could be used to associate accounts to passwords if passwords are reused on other accounts. The company said it strengthened its security strategy and reported the details to the appropriate authority. 6. Facebook Date: April 2019 Impact: 533 million users In April 2019, it was revealed that two datasets from Facebook apps had been exposed to the public internet. The information related to more than 530 million Facebook users and included phone numbers, account names, and Facebook IDs. However, two years later (April 2021) the data was posted for free, indicating new and real criminal intent surrounding the data. In fact, given the sheer number of phone numbers impacted and readily available on the dark web as a result of the incident, security researcher Troy Hunt added functionality to his HaveIBeenPwned (HIBP) breached credential checking site that would allow users to verify if their phone numbers had been included in the exposed dataset. Id never planned to make phone numbers searchable, Hunt wrote in blog post. My position on this was that it didnt make sense for a bunch of reasons. The Facebook data changed all that. Theres over 500 million phone numbers but only a few million email addresses so >99% of people were getting a miss when they should have gotten a hit. 7. Marriott International (Starwood) Date: September 2018 Impact: 500 million customers Hotel Marriot International announced the exposure of sensitive details belonging to half a million Starwood guests following an attack on its systems in September 2018. In a statement published in November the same year, the hotel giant said: On September 8, 2018, Marriott received an alert from an internal security tool regarding an attempt to access the Starwood guest reservation database. Marriott quickly engaged leading security experts to help determine what occurred. Marriott learned during the investigation that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014. Marriott recently discovered that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information and took steps towards removing it. On November 19, 2018, Marriott was able to decrypt the information and determined that the contents were from the Starwood guest reservation database, the statement added. The data copied included guests names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, Starwood Preferred Guest account information, dates of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation dates, and communication preferences. For some, the information also included payment card numbers and expiration dates, though these were apparently encrypted. Marriot carried out an investigation assisted by security experts following the breach and announced plans to phase out Starwood systems and accelerate security enhancements to its network. The company was eventually fined 18.4 million (reduced from 99 million) by UK data governing body the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in 2020 for failing to keep customers personal data secure. An article by New York Times attributed the attack to a Chinese intelligence group seeking to gather data on US citizens. 8. Yahoo Date: 2014 Impact: 500 million accounts Making its second appearance in this list is Yahoo, which suffered an attack in 2014 separate to the one in 2013 cited above. On this occasion, state-sponsored actors stole data from 500 million accounts including names, email addresses, phone numbers, hashed passwords, and dates of birth. The company took initial remedial steps back in 2014, but it wasnt until 2016 that Yahoo went public with the details after a stolen database went on sale on the black market. 9. Adult Friend Finder Date: October 2016 Impact: 412.2 million accounts The adult-oriented social networking service The FriendFinder Network had 20 years worth of user data across six databases stolen by cyber-thieves in October 2016. Given the sensitive nature of the services offered by the company which include casual hookup and adult content websites like Adult Friend Finder, Penthouse.com, and Stripshow.com the breach of data from more than 414 million accounts including names, email addresses, and passwords had the potential to be particularly damning for victims. Whats more, the vast majority of the exposed passwords were hashed via the notoriously weak algorithm SHA-1, with an estimated 99% of them cracked by the time LeakedSource.com published its analysis of the data set on November 14, 2016. 10. MySpace Date: 2013 Impact: 360 million user accounts Though it had long stopped being the powerhouse that it once was, social media site MySpace hit the headlines in 2016 after 360 million user accounts were leaked onto both LeakedSource.com and put up for sale on dark web market The Real Deal with an asking price of 6 bitcoin (around $3,000 at the time). According to the company, lost data included email addresses, passwords and usernames for a portion of accounts that were created prior to June 11, 2013, on the old Myspace platform. In order to protect our users, we have invalidated all user passwords for the affected accounts created prior to June 11, 2013, on the old Myspace platform. These users returning to Myspace will be prompted to authenticate their account and to reset their password by following instructions. Its believed that the passwords were stored as SHA-1 hashes of the first 10 characters of the password converted to lowercase. 11. NetEase Date: October 2015 Impact: 235 million user accounts NetEase, a provider of mailbox services through the likes of 163.com and 126.com, reportedly suffered a breach in October 2015 when email addresses and plaintext passwords relating to 235 million accounts were being sold by dark web marketplace vendor DoubleFlag. NetEase has maintained that no data breach occurred and to this day HIBP states: Whilst there is evidence that the data itself is legitimate (multiple HIBP subscribers confirmed a password they use is in the data), due to the difficulty of emphatically verifying the Chinese breach it has been flagged as unverified. 12. Court Ventures (Experian) Date: October 2013 Impact: 200 million personal records Experian subsidiary Court Ventures fell victim in 2013 when a Vietnamese man tricked it into giving him access to a database containing 200 million personal records by posing as a private investigator from Singapore. The details of Hieu Minh Ngos exploits only came to light following his arrest for selling personal information of US residents (including credit card numbers and Social Security numbers) to cybercriminals across the world, something he had been doing since 2007. In March 2014, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges including identity fraud in the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire. The DoJ stated at the time that Ngo had made a total of $2 million from selling personal data. 13. LinkedIn Date: June 2012 Impact: 165 million users With its second appearance on this list is LinkedIn, this time in reference to a breach it suffered in 2012 when it announced that 6.5 million unassociated passwords (unsalted SHA-1 hashes) had been stolen by attackers and posted onto a Russian hacker forum. However, it wasnt until 2016 that the full extent of the incident was revealed. The same hacker selling MySpaces data was found to be offering the email addresses and passwords of around 165 million LinkedIn users for just 5 bitcoins (around $2,000 at the time). LinkedIn acknowledged that it had been made aware of the breach, and said it had reset the passwords of affected accounts. 14. Dubsmash Date: December 2018 Impact: 162 million user accounts In December 2018, New York-based video messaging service Dubsmash had 162 million email addresses, usernames, PBKDF2 password hashes, and other personal data such as dates of birth stolen, all of which was then put up for sale on the Dream Market dark web market the following December. The information was being sold as part of a collected dump also including the likes of MyFitnessPal (more on that below), MyHeritage (92 million), ShareThis, Armor Games, and dating app CoffeeMeetsBagel. Dubsmash acknowledged the breach and sale of information had occurred and provided advice around password changing. However, it failed to state how the attackers got in or confirm how many users were affected. 15. Adobe Date: October 2013 Impact: 153 million user records In early October 2013, Adobe reported that hackers had stolen almost three million encrypted customer credit card records and login data for an undetermined number of user accounts. Days later, Adobe increased that estimate to include IDs and encrypted passwords for 38 million active users. Security blogger Brian Krebs then reported that a file posted just days earlier appears to include more than 150 million username and hashed password pairs taken from Adobe. Weeks of research showed that the hack had also exposed customer names, password, and debit and credit card information. An agreement in August 2015 called for Adobe to pay $1.1 million in legal fees and an undisclosed amount to users to settle claims of violating the Customer Records Act and unfair business practices. In November 2016, the amount paid to customers was reported to be $1 million. A Norwalk company remains the top alternative residential electricity biller in Connecticut, but an Arizona rival added customers at a pace exceeding the next two biggest gainers combined not to mention the states two major utilities. Despite Crius Energy seeing its residential customer base shrink by 6,300 accounts last year in its home state of Connecticut, the Norwalk company maintained the biggest customer base among companies that compete with Eversource Energy and United Illuminating to enroll households for service, according to updated market data in early June from the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. Crius subsidiaries Public Power and Viridian Energy combined for nearly 58,000 household accounts in Connecticut in 2016, PURA reported. Add in another 5,000 households last year from Connecticut Gas & Electric, which Crius in the process of acquiring, and Crius can claim close to 15 percent of the residential market. Connecticut has the second-highest rate of residential customers switching service, according to the most recent data cited in a 2016 study by Christensen Associates Energy Consulting, trailing only Texas, which requires residents to shop for a provider rather than opting them into standard service from a utility. Last year, however, Eversource and Iberdrola subsidiary United Illuminating added 9,200 accounts across both households and businesses, reversing declines tracked by PURA since 2012. Topping both last year was Town Square Energy, a Chandler, Ariz.-based provider that enrolled 10,900 households to nearly double its Connecticut totals. Unrelated to the Greenwich-based radio station and concert operator TownSquare Media, Town Square Energys parent company Retail Energy Holdings was acquired in November for $9.5 million by Newark, N.J.-based Genie Retail Energy, which continues to tout the Town Square Energy brand. Crius is fresh off its own deal to buy U.S. Gas & Electric, which last year nearly doubled its residential customer base in Connecticut to about 5,000 accounts. USG&E has offices in White Plains, N.Y., and Miramar, Fla. U.S. Gas & Electric historically has been one of the most successful retailers to market through telemarketing, said Crius CEO Michael Fallquist, in a May 30 conference call reviewing the deal. In the last couple of years they have built what we believe is a very good door-to-door sales program, as well. Those are two areas where we have limited exposure. Public Power did grow its business through telemarketing activities and some door-to-door activities, but we havent actually engaged in those channels in some time. Dropping the highest numbers of Connecticut households in 2016 was Dallas-based Ambit Energy and New York-based Con Ed Solutions with more than 8,000 accounts each; followed by Norwalk-based Verde Energy, which is in the process of being sold for $65 million to Spark Energy of Houston. Enrolling the most Connecticut businesses in 2016 was Houston-based Direct Energy, having signed up 21 percent of the commercial enterprises in Connecticut that order electricity from non-utility suppliers. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ANSONIA Now its the publics chance to be heard. After four months of haggling, wrangling and calculating, the Aldermanic Finance Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a $61,522,339 budget which calls for no increase in the citys 37.32 mill rate. The budget cuts spending by $2,606,030 from the previous years $64,128,369 budget. The public will have the opportunity to condemn, request changes or support the proposed budget on June 20 at 7 p.m. in the Ansonia High School auditorium on Pulaski Highway. Following the public session the full 14-member Board of Aldermen will then consider requests for changes before voting on a budget. Still not everyone is happy with the way things are headed. Were going to have to live with it, said Superintendent of Schools Carol Merlone. Despite an $800,000 increase in her budget, Merlone had to cut eight positions including four teaching positions. Three are kindergarten teachers. The last is a Middle School English position. Our kindergarten class sizes are going to increase from 18 to possibly 22 children next fall, she said. Additionally, Merlone said two Middle School science teachers are being re-assigned, a High School Spanish teacher is being transferred to Middle School and a second grade vacancy caused by retirement is not being filled. More Information Increases City Engineer $46,944 up 63.6% or $18,250 from $28,694 Municipal Planning $37,800 up 23.45% or $7,180 from $30,620 Elections $81,540 up 22.51% or $14,983 from $66,557 Board of Education $31,860,484 up 2.57% or $800,000 from $31,060,484 Decreases Mayor's Office $151,907 down 24.78% or $50,043 from $201,950 Assessor's Office $170,785 down 49.52% or $167,528 from $338,313 Police $6,079,040 down 0.89% or $54,868 from $6,133,908 Public Works $3,935,486 down 2.52% or $101,648 from $4,037,494 Library $467,671 down 5.52% or $27,335 from $495,006 Recreation $101,244 down 20.89% or $26,730 from $127,974 Elections $81,540 up 22.5% from $66,557 See More Collapse The final budget is the result of Acting Comptroller Richard Bshara cutting an additional $15,000 from Public Works and $10,000 from computer services and maintenance. He then fiddled with the expected motor vehicle tax rate revenues and added what he hopes to be an additional $660,000 in education funding to achieve the no increase mill rate. Bshara told the committee his work will reduce from $4 million to $3.5 million the amount taken from the rainy day fund. The city has been dipping into that money despite a warning from Thomas Thompson, the citys budget consultant, that it is getting way too low and will impact the bond rating. Following the meeting Corporation Council John P. Marini said the amount left in the citys rainy day fund is way better than Derby, Fairfield or Seymour. Derbys fund balance is below 3 percent and they raised spending in their budget, Marini said. . Mayor David Cassetti applauded the work of the Finance Committee. We have stabilized or reduced taxes in each of the past four years, said the mayor, who is seeking to make history by being the first Republican in this highly Democratic city elected to a third term in office. My whole concern is we not raise taxes. In this the year of municipal elections none of the Valley leaders in Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, Shelton or Oxford have to defend tax increases in their campaign. All lowered or stabilized taxes. But all this could change once Connecticuts state legislation finalizes its overdue budget and announces what each of the 169 municipalities can expect in state monies. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BRIDGEPORT Mayor Joe Ganim is on the cusp of delivering a big campaign promise with the help of a Madison Avenue real estate developer. The Ganim administration has chosen Exact Capital, whose portfolio has been focused mainly on New York City, to rehabilitate the long-shuttered Majestic and Poli Palace theaters and the adjacent Savoy Hotel. Ganim revealed the selection of Exact Capital on Wednesday in a brief interview. The mayor said the firms detailed, $300-$350 million development proposal, would be in the hands of the City Council by weeks end for review and approval, and therefore available to the public. Im very excited about it, Ganim said. The city, after soliciting proposals, had settled on Exact sometime over the winter, and the mayors office even teased a possible announcement at his State of the City address to the business community in early April. Originally Bridgeports mayor from 1991 until 2003, Ganim pledged on the comeback trail in 2015 to make restoring the theaters and hotel a priority. Given redevelopment deals for other downtown buildings cut by ex-Mayor Bill Finch, there has been renewed private sector interest in the Majestic, Palace and Savoy. The theaters were opened in 1922 and closed in the 1970s. According to its website, Exact Capital is a diversified real estate development firm built on more than three decades of experience (and) principally engaged in the acquisition, finance, development, and management of mixed use residential and commercial real estate. Ganim will be pushing the council to vet and approve Capitals contract within 30 days. He said the developer claimed if that happens, Well put shovels in the ground in 12 months. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON Sen. Richard Blumenthal is leading a lawsuit to be filed on behalf of Capitol Hill Democrats early Wednesday arguing that Donald Trump has run afoul of the Constitution by deriving business income from foreign governments while serving as president. President Trump has repeatedly and flagrantly violated this clause, Blumenthal, D-Conn., said on a conference call late Tuesday. He was referring to the Constitutions Emoluments Clause, which bars government officials from accepting any present, Emolument, Office or Title bestowed by a foreign power. Trump has thumbed his nose at its plain text, and in doing so thumbed his nose at the American people, Blumenthal said. Trump critics have talked about a possible conflict of interest involving Emoluments Clause virtually since the day he won the 2016 election. Also joining the suit are Sen. Chris Murphy and Reps. Jim Himes and Rosa DeLauro. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman reportedly is looking into legal action against Trump based on the Emoluments Clause. And on Monday, the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, D.C., filed suit in federal court in Maryland along similar lines. Emoluments Clause Together with Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and lawyers from the Washington-based Constitutional Accountability Center, Blumenthal on Tuesday argued his case is different, because the Emoluments Clause stipulates officials cannot accept foreign-government gifts or payments without the consent of the Congress. Consent demands disclosure, said Blumenthal, noting that Trumps refusal to turn over his tax returns, as well as his continued involvement with the Trump Organizations vast holdings in the U.S. and more than 20 nations even though his two sons run the business day-to-day. We cannot consent to what we dont know, Blumenthal said. About 190 Democrats, including 30 senators, are behind the lawsuit, Blumenthal said. No Republicans in Congress have joined, though Blumenthal said he hoped some might ultimately sign up. The White House has routinely dismissed claims of violation of the Emoluments Clause. It is not hard to conclude that partisan politics may be one of the motivations, of the Maryland-D.C. lawsuit, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday. The 38-page complaint to be filed Wednesday recounts the Founding Fathers concern that the fledgling United States could be corrupted by wealthier, long-established foreign powers. It quotes George Mason as saying at the Constitutional Convention: If we do not provide against corruption, our government will soon be at an end. Historical compliance The complaint goes into examples of how previous presidents dealt with the clause. Abraham Lincoln wrote to the King of Siam in 1862 that he couldnt accept gifts of decorative elephant tusks and an ornate sword before leaving it to Congress, which directed the items bed turned over to the Department of the Interior. President John F. Kennedy declined an offer of honorary citizenship from Ireland because of the Emoluments Clause. Blumenthal also mentioned the case of the government of Bulgaria gifting a puppy named Balkan to George W. Bush in 2006. The president could not turn it over to a government agency, so he paid the government the value of the gift (about $450) and re-gifted to friends on a Maryland farm. Trumps receipt of gifts comes more in the form of approval of valuable trademarks, which according to news reports were hurried along by China after Trump won the election. Also, Trumps newly opened hotel, just blocks away from the White House in Washington, has become a magnet for foreign powers especially from the Middle East seeking to curry favor, according to news reports cited in the lawsuit. Among them is a Wall Street Journal report from last week that a lobbying firm working for Saudi Arabia spent $270,000 at the hotel on rooms, parking and catering all reimbursed by the Saudi government. The Washington Post quoted an unidentified Asian diplomat as saying: Why wouldnt I stay at (Trumps) hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, I love your new hotel! Isnt it rude to come to his city and say I am staying at your competitor? dan@hearstdc.com Several hotels under construction in central Cuban province The construction of hotels will begin in Villa Clara in the coming days, with the purpose of meeting an ambitious investment plan for the celebration of FIT-Cuba 2018 International Tourism Fair. Dedicated to the modality of sun and beach, the 38th edition of the event will be based in Santa Maria key and the UK as guest country. Regla Armenteros, tourism official in the province, told ACN that they are in the process of beginning to build the Florida and Floreale hotels in the city of Santa Clara, the Cosmopolitan in Camajuani; Bauza and Leyenda, in Remedios; Comercio, in Caibarien and the Hotel Sagua, in Sagua la Grande, all under Encanto brand and four-star category. The Central Hotel will be reopened soon, and the number of rooms and recreational areas will be expanded in the hotels La Granjita and Los Caneyes, according to the local newspaper Vanguardia. These facilities will contribute to the development of tourism with local heritage values and, together with the strengthening of the entire non-hotel network, will require repair, signaling and lighting of roads and other works for the resuscitation of museums, theaters and cultural and gastronomic centers and other services. In Santa Maria key there are several hotels under construction and they are progressing to conclude the 10,000 rooms planned in that area, where the tourist product is in the process of being renovated. The installation of desalination plants and the correct handling of solid and liquid wastes are included in this project. UPDATED The Trump administration has given three statesDelaware, Nevada, and New Mexicoa detailed list of information that they need to supply in order to get their plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act approved. And some of the asksespecially to Delawaregive clues as to how the U.S. Department of Education is interpreting parts of ESSA. For instance, the department wants Delaware to reconsider its proposed student achievement goals, since it doesnt consider them to be ambitious. (ESSA calls for states to set ambitious achievement goals, but doesnt say what that means.) And the department doesnt think ESSA allows states to be able to count science and social studies test scores toward a particular part of a schools academic rating, as Delaware wants to do. The feds are also questioning whether states, including Delaware, can use Advanced Placement tests as a measure of college and career readiness, since the tests arent in every school. Thats a big deal because more than a dozen states have written AP into their plans. And some other measurements that states have choosen to gauge college readiness, like vocational programs and dual enrollment, arent available in every school, either. (More on all that below). U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been very vocal about the need for local authority in ESSA implementation, and her team designed an ESSA application that asked for the bare minimum of information on state plans . Whats more, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., an ESSA architect and DeVos ally, told the National School Boards Association that DeVos would approve every states ESSA plan. Meanwhile, civil rights advocates are worried that the Trump administration wont give state plans a thorough look. UPDATE: Alexander is taking a close look at the feedback states received. Im reviewing the departments letters carefully, but I expect the secretarys actions to be consistent with the law, he said. The feedback on these first states indicates that the department is planning to set some limits on states, based on its interpretation of the law. But in some cases, those efforts could prove complicated, since key parts of ESSA are confusing or vague. And the Trump administration tossed Obama-era regulations that sought to clarify parts of the law. Dale Chu, who is working with the Collaborative for Student Success to review state plans, was surprised by the level of detail that the department is asking for from states, given the secretarys rhetoric. The messaging that the states had been hearing up to the submission point was there was no reason a plan would not have been approved, said Chu, who is the vice president for policy and operations at America Succeeds, which works to get business involved in education. But this early feedback, wasnt as rubber-stampy as folks might have thought it would be, said Chu, who previously worked in state departments in Indiana and Florida. He expects that the 33 states that havent yet turned in their applications will be erring more on the side of providing more clarity and completeness to their plans. Chris Minnich, the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said the feedback process seemed fairly standard. ... Its a good sign that you actually have the federal government saying here are the things we need more information on. So what is the department asking these first states to fix or provide more information on? Heres a quick rundown of some highlights; you also can click on the state name to see the feedback: Delaware The department is concerned that the state combines racial and ethnic subgroups in some parts of its plan. So-called super-subgroups are supposed to be a no-no under ESSA, according to Democratic staffers who wrote the law. The department doesnt think the state set ambitious enough goals for student achievement, since under the states system, only about half to two-thirds of students would be proficient by 2030. (Its worth noting that ESSA doesnt define ambitious, so this could be a point of contention.) The department also doesnt think the states goals for English-language proficiency are ambitious. We wrote about ESSA plans and goals here . . Delaware is counting science and social studies test results as academic indicators in its system. The departments understanding of ESSA is that only reading and math should count. This matters for a wonky, but important reason: States are supposed to give much greater weight to academic factors than to other factors in rating schools. The state gives schools a menu of options for how they can measure college-and-career readiness, which is one Delawares indicators of student success. The department told Delaware that ESSA says every school must use the same measure, to make things easy to compare. That means things like AP tests are out. Nevada The department wants the state to provide short-term goals for academic achievement, both for all students and each subgroup of students. The state needs to explain how much weight it is giving to language arts as opposed to math when determining a schools overall score. The department also wants more information on how Nevadas closing opportunity gaps indicator would work. The department wants Nevada to be more specific about what it will take for a school to get out of the lowest-performing status (what the law calls comprehensive improvement). New Mexico The state needs to do a better job of describing its statewide rules for when a school no longer has to be considered low-performing. The state needs to be more specific about how it would help schools ensure that low-income and minority students arent taught at disproportionate rates by ineffective, or inexperienced teachers. The state needs to do a better job of describing how it will make sure all students are given the opportunity to be ready for advanced math in 8th grade, as required under ESSAs testing regulations. The states have 15 days to address these issues, which may not sound like a long time, given the list of asks. One possible reason for the short window: The department has 120 days to give states a firm yes or no on their plans, per the law. Video: ESSA Explained in 3 Minutes The last two years have seen states and districts around the country begin to add requirements and create standards for ethnic studies. Oregon is the latest state to consider whether K-12 public schools should teach ethnic studies. A bill that would require the states education department to create a set of ethnic studies standards has been moving through both houses of the states legislature this session. Like other states attempts to develop ethnic studies curricula, this one has drawn some negative attention from conservatives. One state legislator said earlier this year that while he understood the focus on racial minorities, he was concerned about the bills focus on on social minorities, such as people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. While ethnic studies has a decades-long history in higher education, if Oregons bill becomes law it would be one of the first states to have such standards. California lawmakers decided to create the first statewide ethnic studies curriculum late last year. And an Indiana law that requires high schools to offer ethnic studies electives will go into effect in July. Individual schools and districts have offered such programs for longer: The Minneapolis Post recently examined an ethnic studies initiative in Minneapolis Public Schools . Even once laws are passed, it can be tricky to find curricula and make sure teachers are prepared to teach the subject. In Texas, for instance, the only textbook that was offered when the state put out a call for Mexican-American studies resources was decried as racist by educators and activists. (It described Mexican immigrants as lazy, for instance.) But the San Antonio Express-News recently published an op-ed on how that textbook created new attention to resources for ethnic studies in Texas. The conversation about how and where to teach ethnic studies is also going on in higher education: At Harvard, for instance, the universitys history department is planning to add an ethnic studies concentration for the first time next year, decades after advocates first pushed for the school to consider the subject. Related: Pa. Dems could flip the House of Reps. Here's what that might mean. elections Well, this is something to watch. The countrys largest teachers union, the 3-million member National Education Association, is being accused by some teachers and activists of endorsing the replacement of teachers with computers following publication of a magazine article titled As More Schools Look to Personalized Learning, Teaching May Be About to Change . The backlash echoes previous battles among various teachers union factions over highly politicized issues such as the Common Core State Standards and standardized testing. Heres the basic gist of the article, published Friday in NEA Today, the official magazine of the National Education Association: The general idea behind personalized learning is that the fixed time, place, and curriculum of traditional classrooms is ill-suited to meet the demands of a diverse student population that has a wide range of learning needs. Many schools have leveraged sophisticated software programs that allow students to set their own pace and delve more deeply into specific interests, often in a blended learning setting, oras the cliche goesone that meets them where they are... Greater student agency over their learning inevitably means at least a redefined role for the teacher. This is what has many educators like Paul Barnwell feeling apprehensivenot because they cling to the status quo or fear innovation, but out of serious concern about what this potential sea change in education could mean for students. Now, that might not seem particularly inflammatory. The whole notion of personalized learning has lots of backers, from technology-and-philanthropy giants such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg to a wide range of educator and advocacy groups. And NEA President Lily Eskelson and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten are both signatories to an effort dubbed Education:Reimagined that sought to create a vision for a new future of learning that leans on many of the precepts of personalized learning. But reaction to the NEA Today story from many teachers and advocatesin the storys comments, on the education blogosphere , and on social mediahas been fierce. Heres a sampling from Twitter: @NEAToday We Do Not want Personalized Learning! We do not want Corporations making kids products, they are humans! //t.co/CvDRqPivHU -- Lori Lalama (@TechEducator1) June 11, 2017 What about this garbage the @NEAToday is pushing? //t.co/mQa8ck76L2 -- Tiffany Dunn (@bubenny5) June 11, 2017 This is from a blog post titled National Education Association Seems to Endorse Replacing Teachers With Computers , written by activist-teacher Steven Singer: Make no mistake. This is not merely an examination of changing teaching practices. It is a movement by tech giants to further standardize and privatize Americas public schools. This isnt to say that technology cant enhance learning. But classroom teachers with any kind of experience know that simply plopping a child in front of a computer screen is a terrible way to do it. Its the equivalent of having all your questions answered by an automated voice on the telephone versus being able to ask questions of a living, breathing person. And they have the gall to call it personalized learning as if it were meeting all the needs of students one-on-one. It isnt. And Chris Cerrone, a teacher, parent, and school board member in Western New York, left some of the more mild comments on the NEA story. Cerrone elaborated on his thoughts in a telephone interview Tuesday. I was a little surprised that the NEA would be promoting something that really takes away from genuine teaching and human-to-human contact, he said in an interview. If we really want to make learning personal for kids, it should be based on whats interesting to them and what drives their interests, as opposed to what a computer algorithm says they should learn. The National Education Association did not immediately provide a response with the unions formal stance on personalized learning or its reaction to the kerfuffle. The NEAs formal stance on digital learning is generally positive, saying the organization embraces this new environment and these new technologies to better prepare our students for college and for 21st century careers. The position statement also includes a focus on equity and enhancing educator professionalism. In the past, NEA Today has published articles with a more skeptical stance on related issues, including a 2015 piece titled Technology in the Classroom: Dont Believe the Hype. Still, theres reason to believe the debate over personalized learning will continue to be a live issue for the NEA. In an interview, Marla Kilfoyle, the executive director of the Badass Teachers Association, a national network of teachers focused on social-justice issues, said her members would be raising the topic within the NEA at the unions annual meeting this summer. We see [personalized learning] as way in which Gates and Zuckerberg and the people pushing online learning are going to reduce the teaching force and the power of our union, Kilfoyle said. Its obviously concerning when its also coming from your union. Photo: National Education Association (NEA) President Lily Eskelsen Garcia answers questions during a 2014 interview with The Associated Press.--J. David Ake/AP See also: Los Angeles Superintendent Michelle King may stick around until 2020 after getting a two-year contract extension from the school board on Tuesday. With the 6-1 vote, King is expected to stay on the job through June 2020, the paper reported. There was speculation about Kings future after two new board members were elected last month, with one of them defeating school board president Steve Zimmer. According to the Los Angeles Times, the new board members have not said whether they were likely to keep or replace King. However, weve seen a number of school boards oust sitting superintendents after new members are elected . King, a longtime LAUSD administrator, became superintendent last year when she replaced Ramon Cortines. Cortines had come out of retirement in 2014 to run the district after the board forced out John Deasy. Monica Garcia, who voted against the extension, said the new school board should be able to make that decision. We will have new board members in three weeks, and it is my view that she is best affirmed by that new board, she said, according to the Los Angeles Times. At the same meeting, the board also approved a plan for a unified-enrollment system for the countrys second-largest school district . The system is expected to be up and running by October, and parents will be able to use a single online application to apply to district schools. Independent charter schools will not be part of the system, according to the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Michelle King. --Brinson+Banks for Education Week-File Education Week has a new leader for its newsroom. Scott Montgomery, the managing editor of audience and partnerships at NPR, takes on the new position of editor-in-chief and chief content officer of Education Week and its parent, Editorial Projects in Education Inc. The selection was announced Tuesday by Michele J. Givens, EPEs president and CEO, and was greeted with a burst of applause and cheers at a newsroom meeting. Scott is a digitally progressive news executive, said Givens. There were quite a few highly qualified candidates who came from both within the field [of education journalism] and outside of the field. Scott emerged as the candidate who had what we were looking for. In a perhaps unintended symbol of his digital chops, Montgomery tweeted the news moments after EPEs meeting and an NPR meeting where he had shared the development with his colleagues. Friends, a little personal news: Excited to announce Ill be joining @educationweek as new head of content. Many thanks to @npr! the tweet said. Were at a really interesting moment both for education and for Education Week, Montgomery said in an interview. There is a transition going on at this organization. It is financially stable, but like other media organizations it needs to be rethinking how it does things. Montgomery has worked in journalism positions for such outlets as the St. Petersburg Times newspaper and CQ Roll Call, before joining NPR in 2012 and serving in various digital news positions. At the St. Petersburg newspaper (now the Tampa Bay Times), he led a team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for PolitiFact, an online political-reporting effort. Montgomery will join Education Week just as its longtime executive editor, Gregory Chronister, is retiring . The new position was envisioned as a role that will lead Education Week and EPEs digital efforts. Chronister said at the newsroom meeting that the new job encompasses some of what he has done, some of what was done by Virginia B. Edwards, who was editor-in-chief of Education Week and president of EPE before leaving last year, and more. Givens added that she believed that eventually Montgomery would make the job his own. Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education Weeks managing editor, was one of 17 newsroom staff members who met with finalists and provided feedback to Givens. Manzo said she found Montgomery highly impressive, but was also struck that the candidate thought highly enough of Education Week to consider leaving a major news organization to come work for it. I find him to be a dynamic thinker who can help us innovate and go on to have a greater impact, she said. Montgomery said he hopes to lead a conversation when he arrives at Education Week about the more-competitive landscape for education journalism and where the organization aims to fit and who it is competing against. Education Week is a really unique place, he said. There is real thought leadership going on there, not just in the field of education, but in the field of media. Montgomery is slated to start his new job on July 10. Photo credit: Kainaz Amaria/NPR-File The revelation that a foreign-born jihadi has been granted 250,000 in legal aid makes Britain appear ridiculous Yesterdays revelation that a jihadi convicted of promoting terrorism has been granted 250,000 from the taxpayer in legal aid, some of which hes using to fight deportation, is not merely an insult to victims of terror. It makes Britain appear ridiculous. There is little purpose in reinforcing the intelligence services, intensifying the surveillance efforts of GCHQ or even arming the police if we persist in adopting a foolishly indulgent attitude to the terrorists already identified in our midst. One of the London Bridge killers, Moroccan Rachid Redouane, was a failed asylum-seeker who slipped back into Britain after marrying a London woman in Dublin. An ISIS suicide bomber who blew himself up in Iraq five months ago had previously received 1 million of Britains money, as compensation for his detention at Guantanamo Bay, after being captured by the Americans in Afghanistan. The deportation of extremist cleric Abu Hamza cost taxpayers 25 million. The courts repeatedly refuse the Government consent to deport known Islamist fanatics, on the grounds that in their home countries, they might be exposed to inhumane or degrading treatment. Scores of known or potential foreign terrorists have been permitted to stay in Britain by citing this clause in human rights law. This would be comical if it were not grotesque. London Bridge attacker Rachid Redouane (left) was a failed Moroccan asylum-seeker who slipped back into Britain. Deporting Abu Hamza cost taxpayers 25 million Labours Brexit spokesman, Sir Keir Starmer, continues to oppose any modification of British law. He said last week: The human rights of the Human Rights Act are international norms that the world has signed up to. If we start throwing away our adherence . . . in response to what has happened in the past three months, we are throwing away the very values we say are the heart of our democracy. Sir Keirs remarks deserve attention, because many British liberals with a small or big l endorse them. So, too, do many lawyers and judges: our Government has faced more legal impediments in fighting terrorism than almost any other democracy. Terrorism is constantly evolving: a few years ago, people were frightened of Iranian-sponsored attackers, who might unleash a dirty viral bomb or even a nuclear device. Today, amateur jihadis using primitive weapons have wreaked mayhem three times in as many months. There are many more like them in our cities the intelligence services offer a guesstimate of 20,000 young men with a mindset to make them capable of committing terrorist acts. I recently sought to console a friend by reminding her that this menace is still slight compared with the horrors inflicted on our forebears in two World Wars. She responded: Yes, but in those days, they knew who the enemy was they wore German uniforms. These people live among us. They could be anyone. It is time the judges were shaken out of their complacency about their decisions on issues of life-and-death importance Millions of British people share her view, and her fear. In response to a threat that seems certain to persist, we should change the way we do some things, though preserving the principle of proportionality. We do not, thank heaven, need barbed wire on our beaches, but are grimly resigned to vehicle-proof barriers outside Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Internment of suspects without trial seems a mistake at this stage, because there are so many of them. The creation of what the world would dub concentration camps would be a propaganda gift to our enemies: it would radicalise even more young Muslims, and it was a failure in Ulster. Nor can we evict our own Islamist citizens who seek to do us harm. Instead, we can only seek antidotes for the poison drip-fed to them by radical preachers, the net and social media. But we can and should adopt more stringent measures to stop alien extremists getting into Britain and to get rid of them once identified. The Government has allowed itself to be hamstrung by the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, which was written for an utterly different world. Many judges make matters worse, declining to recognise any responsibility for the security of British society, in a myopic preoccupation with the small print of the law at the expense of common sense. The judiciary prides itself on being indifferent to the baying multitude and, sometimes, its members are right to do so. But today, some of their decisions advance the interests of Muslim radicals sometimes even paid-up terrorists at the expense of their victims. Labours Brexit spokesman, Sir Keir Starmer, argued against scrapping laws that would have made it easier to deport foreign terrorists who end up in this country This is shameful. It is time the judges were shaken out of their complacency about their decisions on issues of life-and-death importance. In the wake of terrorist atrocities in France, hundreds of radicals have been placed under house arrest. Few critics have claimed that democracy has thus been betrayed. The French government has merely taken the harsh, but almost certainly wise, view that the interests of prospective victims their own citizens must be given priority over those of known extremists. A powerful driving force behind the Brexit movement was peoples belief that leaving the EU would enable us better to protect our own borders from terrorists and criminals. I fear this is not so: the difficulties involved in keeping bad people out will persist until we take some decisive step towards escaping from the European Convention on Human Rights which has nothing to do with the EU and awaken our own judiciary to its responsibilities. The old world, in which we were either at peace or war, is gone almost certainly for ever. I am cautiously optimistic about avoiding a big conflict, but we shall have to contend with a stream of cyber and terrorist attacks, some emanating from Russia or China, others from Muslim extremists, others again from new enemies, as yet unrevealed. No generation gets a completely free pass from harm: we must merely learn new ways of protecting ourselves. The law should rightfully be a tool for the defence of millions of our own citizens, rather than a weapon to be abused by those who wish us harm as is certainly the case when a convicted jihadi obtains a quarter of a million pounds in legal aid to fight deportation. It must be wrong for the law to prevent a known bad man being expelled merely because he may face unpleasantness back in his own country. Every visitor to whom we grant the privilege of sanctuary has a duty in exchange to behave as a good guest. If he fails to do this, the consequences belong on his own head, not ours. Yet the law as it stands, and as interpreted by our judges, is blind to this. Why should the British public not be angry? Back in 1955, former U.S. President Harry Truman was chatting to Democratic hopeful Adlai Stevenson. Truman got up, looked out of his window and pointed into the street: The issue at every election is the same, he said. It is that guy walking past who is asking: What are you people in Washington going to do for me? The foremost duty of all governments is to make sure that guy which means all of us is safe from harm. This is hard in the age of the Islamist death cult. But to command the confidence of the British electorate, this Government must be seen to act effectively to rid this country of visiting murderers, even if we have to live with home-grown ones. Asylum is abused by fanatics and their lawyers. We must stop compounding the lunacy by paying for it. Having ruined his own legacy with Project Fear, David Cameron has treacherously said there will be 'pressure for a soft Brexit' Is he devoid of any shame? Yesterday David Cameron the man who ruined his legacy with Project Fear joined the anti-Brexit clamour gripping Tory Remoaners. Mr Cameron claimed, treacherously, there would now be pressure for a softer Brexit. Sadly he is not alone. Even before we knew the full results of the election, cynical Europhiles were risibly claiming that voters had rejected the governments approach. In the following days, when the BBC wasnt treating the outcome as a victory for Jeremy Corbyn, the corporation wholeheartedly embraced this perverse narrative, with presenters demanding from ministers how the UKs negotiating stance would change. The Remainers response resembled how they reacted to last years referendum, with their blatant attempts to twist the past and undermine the result. As then, they are completely wrong. Far from dominating the campaign, the EU barely featured after the first few weeks. In fact, the election was largely fought over the manifestos: the Conservatives deeply flawed document which weakened its core support and Labours endless list of unfunded electoral bribes. The latter stages were dominated by terrorism. Backing away from increased border control would cause a Tory civil war that would put Jeremy Corbyn within touching distance of Number 10 As for the result, the ineluctable truth is that nearly 85 per cent of votes went to parties which promised to honour the referendum result and end free movement, while Remain-supporting parties like the SNP and Lib Dems were clear losers. There is no evidence for Philip Hammonds claim to Berlin that turnout by young voters was a rejection of Brexit. More likely, it was a promise of student debt write-offs. The Chancellors loose talk risks undermining our negotiating stance, while EU leaders sow division by leaving open the door to continued membership. Tory Remainers who agitate to water down Brexit misread Parliament and Conservative MPs. Yes, of course ministers should try to build the widest possible consensus for their approach. But any attempt to backslide would rightly enrage Tory Eurosceptics, swiftly plunge the party into a brutal civil war, and leave Jeremy Corbyn within touching distance of 10 Downing Street. Is that really what they want? Legal aid disgrace This paper revealed legal aid for a jihadi described as the very model of a modern Al Qaeda terrorist ran to 250,000 On an almost weekly basis, we learn of obscene taxpayer-funded sums being handed to serious criminals to fund their defence costs, or in the case of foreign offenders fight deportation. Just this week, this paper revealed legal aid for a jihadi described as the very model of a modern Al Qaeda terrorist ran to 250,000. But shamefully, this largesse does not extend to our armed forces. While millions have been handed to ambulance-chasing law firms to pursue a witch hunt of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, military personnel facing courts martial over incidents in this country are handing over sums of up to 9,000 to cover their own defence costs. Means-testing of legal aid has even forced some to defend themselves raising the risk of a grave miscarriage of justice. It is a mark of a civilised society that defendants have a lawyer provided. So why should that apply to terrorists, murderers, rapists and paedophiles but not those who put their lives on the line for this country? There is almost no piece of bad news which Remainers and their allies at the BBC cant try to pin on Brexit. This week it was a sharp fall in the number of EU nurses registering to work in the NHS. We can only imagine why such little attention was given to a more likely explanation: the drop coincided with new, more challenging English tests to ensure staff can actually communicate with each other and their patients. She battled a drug addiction in her early modelling days, but Naomi Campbell is keen to use her troubled past to her advantage - by offering advice to young people in the same position she was. The supermodel, 47, spoke candidly about her own period of drug use - and how she's an ear for others battling addiction - as she took to the stage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in London on Monday night to discuss her rise to fame, charity work, her close bond with Nelson Mandela - and even President Trump. Naomi, who entered rehab in 1999 after five years of cocaine addiction, said: 'Sometimes you get this success and think you don't deserve it, so you try to throw it away and destroy it. 'I was never ashamed of substance abuse. I never took a break. I finally said I want to go away and I chose to make the phone call to go to rehab".' Supermodel Naomi Campbell, 47, spoke candidly about her period of drug use, her celebrity connections and close bond with the late Nelson Mandela as she took to the stage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in London on Monday night Discussing her time at the facility, she revealed: 'I really enjoyed it. I cleaned the tables in the kitchen and I loved it. I was treated the same as everyone else and I met all these people from all walks of life.' The London-born supermodel also said she has forged a close bond with many of the people she met there, saying her phone is open '24/7' for anyone who wants to reach her for that reason. 'I reached out to people and people helped me. It doesnt matter what walk of life - addiction and alcoholism doesnt discriminate,' she said. Naomi was speaking at the sixth Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in London, which was attended by female change makers in the U.K., Europe, and beyond to exchange ideas and forge new alliances Naomi, who is Nelson Mandela's 'honorary granddaughter', also spoke warmly of the late leader, who she met in the country in 1993 Naomi, who says she parties with an 'amazing group', also says she offers advice to young starlets on the scene, revealing that she spoke candidly to a young model at Cannes Film Festival about getting help for a possible alcohol addiction. "Addiction doesn't discriminate": The supermodel's struggle Naomi has said of her first experience with cocaine - which she has described as a 'very nasty drug' - "I was living this life of travelling the world and having people just give you anything... [but] the little glow in your face goes." In 2007 she told GQ that it made her feel 'invincible... like I could conquer the world'. The supermodel, now 47, began dabbling in drugs in 1994, and entered rehab five years later in 1999. Naomi, who has also attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings, has said seeking professional help was the 'best decision I ever made in my life'. Advertisement 'Young girls come to me for advice,' she added. Naomi, who is South African anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela's 'honorary granddaughter', also spoke warmly of the late leader, who she met in the country in 1993 and forged a close bond with for many years after that. 'My 20 years with Mandela was surreal and I still pinch myself and say why me?'. ' The supermodel, who has fronted campaigns for Burberry and counts Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne as close friends, also shared anecdotes from her time with the late leader. 'He taught me to use my voice,' she said. 'I went out to the bush and I had no knowledge and all the children were dying. 'They'd made cakes and were singing and I burst out crying with emotion. 'Nelson told me I couldn't do that again because they thought they'd upset me.' Naomi also spoke of her close bond with the late Nelson Mandela and how 'great' President Trump was when she asked him for charity donations (pair are pictured together in 2002) Inspired by Mandela, Naomi set up the charity fashion show, Fashion for Relief, which has generated millions of pounds for environmental and humanitarian causes. Naomi has called on her famous friends to lend their support to the cause - and one famous man in particular surprised her. 'Even Donald Trump was great,' she revealed. 'I asked him for money and he said what do you want? I said this person gave me this much and he said he would match it and that was it. I know something about ego - if someone gave more or less than someone else, [he'd] want to match it. 'I know him well enough to pick up the phone and get some money and as long as it gets to the right place...' MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Donald Trump and is awaiting a response. Advertisement A California woman living in a veritable rainbow wonderland has tickled the fancies and captured the imaginations of thousands of fans on social media. Amina Mucciolo doesn't do anything muted, subtle, or understated. The social media influencer and decor designer (behind the all-things-rainbow brand Studio Mucci) lives her whole life in technicolor, from her incredible rainbow braids to her clothes to her food. And this spring, the 34-year-old completely redecorated her Downtown L.A. loft apartment, where she lives with her husband Salvatore. With a whole lot of creativity and even more elbow grease she's transformed the 650-square-foot spot into what can only be described as a unicorn's paradise or what she calls 'Cloudland'. Scroll down for video The rainbow lady herself: Amina Mucciolo has a popular Instagram page where she shows off her colorful lifestyle Instagram hit: In addition to dressing in rainbow clothes and wearing her hair in rainbow braids, the 34-year-old has decorated her Downtown L.A. loft apartment in lots of vibrant colors DIY: Her living room is outfitted with hundreds of colorful paper cranes, and she has a whimsical multicolor rug on the floor Customized: Though she bought a few pieces of furniture like her couch and chairs as-is, she also customizes things, like the white IKEA shelf system to which she added colorful cabinets Talent: Her favorite part of the apartment is the huge 10-foot by 20-foot mural on a wall that runs through the whole space She said she was nervous to splatter paint on the wall, and her best friend and husband were unsure about it but she followed her instincts and loves it Could be a gallery... Every bit of the place is curated, and Amina told Daily Mail Online that she wanted it to feel like an art installation Inspiring others: She shows off her home on Instagram, where she has thousands of followers, as well as on her popular YouTube channel Pink, pink, pink! She even has a set of flamingos outside her window, leaving no inch un-beautified Brilliant: She hung paper cranes from her ceiling to go with the living room's 'spring' theme, and she said it feels like she always has birds flying around overhead Seriously impressive: She was inspired to create the flower wall in her living room by pieces she'd seen at parties, and put the entire thing together by hand Amina told Daily Mail Online that she and her husband moved to this apartment about a year ago, but earlier this year they updated the decor. 'It's really important to me that where I live is a reflection of me and my personality, and also of my husband,' she said. 'We like for our space to be fun and happy and inspiring.' Amina makes a living as an influencer with Instagram posts and YouTube videos, and also by selling hand-made items like tassel garlands, pinatas, and other party decor which many of her customers use to decorate their homes. So it's natural that her own home would reflect that fun, party-ready feel. 'I wanted this place to feel like a living art installation,' she said, adding that she also wanted the inside to feel like spring all year round, because it's her favorite season. 'There's something about what happens in spring the holidays, the colors, that fresh feeling of happiness. It's so inspiring for me.' That spring feeling really takes hold in the living room, wear the walls are painted a light purple. On one, behind a bold green Joybird sofa a color that was 'totally out of my comfort zone', she said, but really paid off is her giant 'flower wall'. Her kitchen started out as a basic black nook, but she covered all of the cabinets in colorful washi tape, using a sheet of it to put a blue sky pattern on her dishwasher Fairy land: She said the room was inspired by things she liked as a kid, like Care Bears and My Little Pony so she put all of her figurines above the cabinets That's dedication: She painstakingly put the strips of washi tape on the cabinets to get the incredible look Eating off a rainbow: Everything in her home, including her bowls and cups, are a pretty rainbow mix Party perfect: In addition to mixing in pieces she buys, Amina also hangs her own DIY tassels, which she sells online She'd seen similar installations at parties that looked fabulous, and wondered why people didn't have them in their houses so she made one for hers, putting in a lot of work placing all the faux-flowers together on a canvas, one by one. On another wall is one of her multicolor tassel garlands, and on the floor is a whimsical rug by Coco Carpets. Atop that she has a glass coffee table shaped like a diamond, inside of which is a jar of colorful paper cranes. She actually has hundreds of these cranes all around her living room, including a bunch hanging from the ceiling. 'It kind of feels like there are birds flying around all the time,' she said, which drives home that feeling of 'spring'. On the opposite wall which also runs through her kitchen is her biggest masterpiece. There, she (along with her husband and best friend) painted a 10-foot by 20-foot mural of a gradient rainbow with multicolor paint splatters on top. 'I knew I wanted for there to be a rainbow element in my home, at least one really strong rainbow statement,' she explained of the project, which took two days to complete. 'I love it so much because I knew it would be great but I was still so scared to do it... But I followed my instinct and I knew it was gonna be good. To the cave! Her bedroom has no natural light, so she wanted to embrace that and went with a 'crystal cave' aesthetic Wish it was shoppable... Her walls are pastel watercolors with a cave mural above her bed, and she has fun pops of light and rainbows throughout Curated: She was inspired by crystal and agate and hung an art piece on the wall Smart with space: She had nowhere to store her fun novelty bags, so she put them on display on her wall Adorable: All of her shoes are stored above her closet, under an awning of tassels Over in the kitchen there's more rainbow flair, where she stuck to a palette of vibrant pastels. Using washi tape, she covered each cabinet in a different color, adding a striped rainbow trim along the bottom. She even covered her dishwasher with a blue sky design. Amina said her kitchen was inspired by things she loved as a kid, like My Little Pony and Care Bears and to that end, there are about 50 different colorful figurines sitting atop the cabinets, 'watching over' her whole kitchen. The bedroom is bright too, but Amina had an obstacle here: There was no natural light. She decided to work with that, settling on a 'crystal cave' theme for the room. 'So I really wanted to try to embrace that there was no natural light because its normally a design challenge,' she said. 'It looks like a cave, so I'm gonna turn it into a cave.' Looking into her life: Amina, who lives with her husband (who is a 'good sport' but really likes the place, too), is working on a book about design Super busy: She also has a separate Instagram page celebrating rainbow hair Party time: Her tassels and pinatas are available for purchase online, and while some people use them for parties, she's also found that customers like to hang them in their homes Setting the scene: 'There's something about what happens in spring the holidays, the colors, that fresh feeling of happiness. It's so inspiring for me' She painted a mural above her bed that looks like the mouth of a very colorful cave, and the rest of the decor is inspired by crystal, marble, and agate. To one side of her bed, though, is a twist: her novelty bag wall. A clever way to work around not having much storage space for her things, she uses the spot to display her purses, which are shaped like rainbows, unicorns, and desserts. Though the rainbowification of the home is certainly a bit girly, Amina says her husband is very supportive of what she's done with the space. 'My husband is such a good sport,' she said. 'He loves it. It makes him happy too. Hes been doing this business with me, so its what our lives look like now.' In a move that could reverberate through U.S. high schools, President Donald J. Trump is planning a major expansion of apprenticeship programs to help build a pipeline of skilled workers for a needy labor market, and calling for cutbacks to regulations that could hobble the plan. Update: Trump Executive Order Ramps Up Apprenticeship Programs Apprenticeships are typically posts for adults training or retraining for jobs, through industry, labor unions, colleges, or partnerships among those sectors. They blend a structured curriculum of study with paid work. Apprenticeships for U.S. high school students are relatively rare; more often, teenagers participate in unpaid internships, or in work-based learning through career and technical education programs. But Trump clearly intends to change that landscape. We want a future where every high school in America offers apprenticeship opportunities for young citizens, Trump said during a visit to a Wisconsin technical college Tuesday. Under this vision, high school students could learn, and they could earn. ... They can make great, great salaries doing something that they love, learn invaluable skills, find a career they love, and enter the workforce faster and without debt. The presidents announcement highlighted a three-day push for a vision of workforce development in which apprenticeships play a key role in supplying the employees the economy needs. Apprenticeships Role in Skills Gap The president was scheduled to sign an executive order Wednesday that was rumored to supply new funds and encourage new systems for apprenticeships, particularly in fast-growing fields such as health care and information technology, but that event was cancelled. On Thursday, Trump was scheduled to discuss the issue with a group of governors. Tuesday, Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, along with Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, visited Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin, where 700 business partners help shape a curriculum of study that leads to associate degrees, technical diplomas, and short-term certificates, and includes 11 apprenticeship pathways in fields such as concrete finishing and welding. Trumps proposal is a response to what economists call the skills gap. Companies report difficulty finding workers with skills that match their job openings, even with unemployment at a low. In a recent survey, top corporate leaders said they often cant find employees especially women and racial minoritieswith strong skills in science, technology, math, and engineering. They also struggle to find people with good skills in leadership and communication, and who know how to apply knowledge to real-world situations. The Trump team has been touting apprenticeships as a powerful tool to help close the skills gap. His top aides have pointed to the German apprenticeship system as a model, even though some American educators are uneasy about the way it tracks adolescent students into career paths. But the importance of blending technical and workplace skills with academic learningand not necessarily including a bachelors degree in that mixis gaining traction as employers struggle to hire the right workers, and families question the value of four-year college in the face of soaring costs and student debt. Trump echoed that view at a cabinet meeting June 12, noting that millions of good jobs dont require four-year degrees and the massive debt that often comes with those four-year degrees. Rhetoric Versus Funding on Job Training Critics were quick to jump on the fact that Trumps fiscal 2018 budget plan makes big cuts in funding for job training and high school career and technical education programs. An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the presidents budget plan cuts job-training grants to states by 40 percent, from $2.7 billion to $1.6 billion. State career and technical education grants through the Carl D. Perkins Act would drop 15 percent . Trumps plan includes $90 million for apprenticeships, about the same as in last years budget. One one hand, hes lifting up apprenticeships, and on the other, hes negatively impacting programs that affect those apprenticeships, and the pathways that lead to them, said Eric M. Seleznow, who oversaw workforce development, job training, and apprenticeship expansion as the deputy assistant secretary of labor under President Barack Obama. About half of the nations 1 million apprenticeships are registered with the Department of Labor , according to Anthony Carnevale, the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. That process requires programs to abide by standards of quality for classroom curriculum and on-the-job instruction, and confer national, industry-recognized credentials. But many employers have criticized the registration process as burdensome. Relying on an expansion of apprenticeships to make a significant dent in the skills gap is completely unrealistic, Carnevale said. Currently, registered apprenticeships account for only 0.3 percent of the American workforce, and employersnot the federal governmentfoot the bill for the time-intensive training, he said. Its unlikely that Trump can spark a widespread commitment by employers to invest the billions necessary to make apprenticeships an engine of economic growth, Carnevale said. Regulations in the Crosshairs The administration has been signaling that it thinks increased efficiency and decreased regulation, rather than increased spending, will improve job-training programs. In a June 12 memo, Acosta asked all cabinet secretaries to support the administrations apprenticeship initiative by removing obstacles ... that may be present in current regulations or practices. Which regulations would be targeted wasnt yet clear. At a June 7 conference sponsored by the Business Roundtable, Trump adviser Reed S. Cordish said the president wants to expand the use of student aid for vocational education and apprenticeships without too much bureaucracy getting in the way. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Wednesday that the department is reconsidering gainful employment rules that restrict how for-profit colleges use federal student aid, and were intended to protect students against fraud, saying that they are overly burdensome, and that its time for a regulatory reset. Federal student financial aid is typically restricted to programs at institutions that grant academic degrees. Many programs that confer industry credentials and other certifications are not currently included in that category, according to Megan McClean Coval, the vice president of public policy and federal relations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Seleznow, who now heads the new Center for Apprenticeships and Work-Based Learning at Jobs for the Future, said he would be concerned if Trump supports a big expansion of apprenticeships outside the Department of Labors registration process. We want to make sure those protections continue, and that the barriers theyre talking about [eliminating] will not change that program, Seleznow said. A Glimpse of High School Apprenticeships If it takes shape, Trumps vision could encourage more high schools to offer apprenticeships or programs of study that include work-based learning experiences. Ella Johnsons journey in Wisconsin offers an example. Ella took welding classes in high school, and participted in a dual-enrollment program at Waukesha County Technical College. When she graduated from high school this spring, she had a diploma, an industry-recognized welding certificate, a part-time welding job, and credits toward her associate degree. Now shes studying welding full-time at Waukesha, and earning $12 an hour at Wisconsin Metal Parts. Her college studies will help her deepen her skills, enabling her to run welding robots, she said. Its giving me a great head start on my welding career, Ella said. A program in Colorado provides another glimpse of what schools might do in responding to Trumps call. Using $9.5 million in support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and JPMorgan Chase, Colorado is working to create 20,000 youth apprenticeships over the next decade. One hundred students are slated to begin the program as they enter 11th grade this fall. Theyll spend up to half their time in paid posts, training for jobs in manufacturing, business operations, financial services and information technology, and will earn credit toward their diplomas and college degrees. President Barack Obama also sought to use apprenticeships to bolster the American workforce. In 2014, his departments of education and labor collaborated on an initiative that called on community colleges to grant credit for the time students spend in the workplace in registered apprenticeships. His ApprenticeshipUSA program, launched in 2016, gave out $90 million in grants to states, businesses, and intermediary groups to create more apprenticeships, expand them into sectors where theyre less common, and connect more women and racial minorities with those opportunities. Trump, who famously judged the business acumen of aspiring executives on televisions The Apprentice before he became president, proposes a $5 million cut to the ApprenticeshipUSA program in his 2018 budget plan, according to Advance CTE, an organization of state career-tech-ed leaders. Photo: President Donald Trump, accompanied by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, second from left, and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, second from right, examines the work of aspiring machinists during a tour of Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee, Wis., on June 13. Andrew Harnik/AP Pregnant women are being urged to avoid sleeping on their backs in the last three months of pregnancy, to avoid a late stillbirth. New research from the University of Auckland has shown women who sleep on their backs in the last months of pregnancy are 3.7 times more likely to have a late stillbirth. Professor Lesley McCowan, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the university, told stuff.co.nz the results are not surprising. Women are being urged to avoid sleeping on their backs in the last three months of pregnancy, to avoid late stillbirth (stock image) 'Our findings make sense as lying on the back in late pregnancy is associated with physical effects that can compromise the baby's wellbeing,' Ms McCowan told the publication. Physical effects caused by sleeping on your back include a reduction in the amount of blood pumped by the mother's heart each minute, a reduced blood flow to the uterus, and lower oxygen levels in the baby. The sleeping position was also found to cause disturbed breathing, or snoring, and obstructive sleep apnoea, both of which have been associated with pregnancy complications. Women who sleep on their backs in the last months of pregnancy are 3.7 times more likely to have a late stillbirth (stock image) Sleeping on your side during the late stages of pregnancy reduced the risk of stillbirth by nine per cent (stock image) The research found that women who slept on their sides in the last three months of pregnancy had a reduced risk of late stillbirth, by nine per cent. A nine per cent reduced rate would mean the prevention of 15 deaths of unborn babies each year in New Zealand. The researchers asked 164 women, who had a stillbirth at or beyond 28 weeks gestation, questions about a range of behaviours and sleep practices. A nine per cent reduced rate would mean the prevention of 15 deaths of unborn babies each year in New Zealand (stock image) They then compared those answers to 569 women who had live babies. Public education plays a vital role in changing sleep position and behaviours for pregnant women, Ms McCowan said. 'The good news is that the position women go to sleep in can be changed,' she said. 'Since our initial findings were published in 2009, our research shows that there has been a change in going to sleep position in New Zealand women who are now more likely to go to sleep on their side.' Former Mamamia writer Rosie Waterland has slammed the women's website after a 'cruel and humiliating' article was posted about American feminist author Roxane Gay. The Sydney writer revealed she had burst into tears when she read an article by the website's founder Mia Freedman, which purported to discuss what went on 'behind the scenes' of her interview with Roxane. On Monday, the women's website tweeted details of the interview between Freedman and Roxane, saying that a 'lot of planning' had gone into Roxane's visit to the website's offices, where she was due to talk about her most recent book, Hunger, in which she opens up about how she turned to food after being gang-raped at the age of 12. 'Will she fit into the office lift? How many steps will she have to take to get to the interview? Is there a comfortable chair that will accommodate her six-foot-three, 'super-morbidly-obese' frame?' the site tweeted. Former Mamamia writer Rosie Waterland (left) has slammed the women's website after a 'cruel and humiliating' article by Mia Freedman (right) was posted about feminist author Roxane Gay The American author was on tour around Australia to promote her new book Hunger In an emotional post on social media, Rosie took a defiant stance against her former workplace over the 'appalling' article, which has since been removed. 'As a fat woman who used to work there, I felt like I had to say something. To apologise at least,' a heartfelt Rosie wrote. 'To Roxane Gay, and to any other plus-size woman, or any woman, who struggles with her body image. I tried daily to make them understand this stuff. 'Reading this made me cry not only because it was hurtful to Roxane, hurtful to any plus-sized woman who has worked there or tried to be part of their community, but because obviously I failed to teach them anything. I'm just really sad.' Rosie also tweeted to Roxane on Tuesday, saying: 'F*****g gobsmacked. As a fat woman who used to work there and tried daily to make them understand this stuff... I am so sorry I failed'. To which Roxane replied: 'This isn't your responsibility.' Her remarks comes after Mamamia came under fire for publishing the article titled: 'Why, for the first time, I have no photo from my interview with Roxane Gay'. The Sydney writer revealed she had burst into tears when she read Mia Freedman's bizarre take on the American college professor's weight (pictured together) The former Mamamia writer slammed her old workplace amid 'cruel and humiliating' podcast The acclaimed author - who weighed 261 kilograms at her heaviest - met with Freedman for a podcast to discuss her new book. 'You see, Roxane Gay well I'm searching for the right word to use here I don't want to say fat so even though she uses the word fat about herself I'm going to use the official medical term 'super morbidly obese',' Freedman said in the podcast that accompanied her article. 'There's obese, then there's morbidly obese and then there is super morbidly obese,' she continued. 'I don't think the scale goes beyond that. Quite literally. 'But it's not just that Roxane's overweight. She's 6ft 3 or about two metres tall.' 'Her size is incredibly imposing. And this is a logistical nightmare for her. Theres no other way to put it.' In a emotional post on social media, Rosie took a defiant stance against her former workplace In an emotional Twitter post, the Sydney writer said she broke down when she read the article Roxane took a swipe at the women's website, labelling the article as 'cruel and humiliating' on Twitter. 'I am appalled by Mamamia. It was a sh*t show. I can walk a f***ing mile,' the author of several books including the best-seller Bad Feminist, said. 'Can she fit into the lift?" Shame on you @Mamamia,' she continued in another tweet. 'Whatever, Just what the f*** ever,' she wrote in a following tweet. The acclaimed author had met with Freedman for a podcast to discuss her new book Roxane took a swipe at the women's website, labelling the article as 'cruel and humiliating' On Wednesday morning, Studio 10 host Jessica Rowe weighed in on the controversy around the 'fat-shame', saying she 'applaud Mia for coming forward and apologising. 'Mamamia do a fabulous job in raising awareness about all sorts of issues, so it was not deliberate or intended at all but they did overstep the mark,' Rowe said. 'I think what was written there was awful.' Mamamia has since issued a statement saying that it in no way intended to make Roxane feel 'disrespected and we apologise unequivocally'. Boost Juice founder Janine Allis has revealed the simple mistake aspiring entrepreneurs make that limits their business success. The Melbourne entrepreneur said the contestants on this year's show Shark Tank had failed to register a trademark when it came to starting a business. 'Every second person [this season] didn't do any trademarks,' she told News Corp. Boost Juice founder Janine Allis has revealed the simple mistake Shark Tank contestants do The mother-of-four said she noticed a growing number of aspiring entrepreneurs having little understanding of the legal details behind launching a product. She explained one of the common mistakes people do was getting an external party such as a contractor or an advertising agency involved in their business. 'Some people, for example, might have a food product, or any product actually, then they get an external person to make it up for them,' she said. 'What I found is a lot of people did that, but don't own the recipes. Because they've given it to a third party, the third party owns it. I was surprised.' 'The biggest rule is that if someone works for you, then everything they do you own as a company.' The Melbourne entrepreneur said the contestants were forgetting to trademark their business The founder of Boost Juice has squeezed its way to more than 500 stores across the globe Speaking to Daily Mail Australia last year, Ms Allis revealed her recipe for success after her juice empire squeezed its way across the globe. And her $250 million company now has more than 500 stores in 15 countries. 'You definitely don't need to start young to have a successful business,' she told DMA at the time. 'I didn't have a sense at 27 years old. I was travelling between the ages of 21 to 27 and I came back to Australia with nothing but a credit card debt. 'People stress that if you don't have your life together at 22, it's all over. But there's no real time limit it's just a matter of when you're ready. 'Everyone is different someone could start a family, have children down the track and the right idea doesn't even come along until later. 'Timing is everything and age is irrelevant.' Season three of Shark Tank premieres on Channel Ten at 8:30pm Tuesday, June 20 A Sydney doctor has unleashed a scathing open letter to Mia Freedman over an article about American feminist author Roxane Gay, asking how the Mamamia founder could throw a 'fellow woman and writer under the bus'. Both Freedman and her website have come under fire after she revealed private details about Roxane's visit to her office, wondering 'Will she fit into the office lift?' She called Roxane's frame 'super-morbidly-obese' and wondered whether she would be able to find a chair that could 'comfortably fit' the author. Roxane has called the article 'cruel and humiliating' and Dr Sonia Henry agreed, writing that Freedman's words were 'super unnecessary and super hurtful'. A Sydney doctor has unleashed a scathing open letter to Mia Freedman following the Mamamia founder's article about American feminist author Roxane Gay (pictured) On Monday, the women's website tweeted private details of an interview between the pair, saying that a 'lot of planning' had gone into Roxane's visit to the website's offices Henry, whose letter was published in the Sydney Morning Herald, called out Freedman for discussing Roxane's weight issues in such a 'scathing manner'. Roxane had been at the Mamamia offices to discuss her new book Hunger, which details how she turned to food after being gang-raped at the age of 12. Freedman had written in the article accompanying the podcast that she felt the need to share details about what went into planning Roxane's interview because it was a 'fundamental part of her story and what her book is about'. 'I would never normally breach this confidence of what goes on behind the scenes while organising an interview,' she had prefaced, before doing just that. Roxane has called the article 'cruel and humiliating' and Dr Sonia Henry (pictured) agreed, writing that Freedman's words were 'super unnecessary and super hurtful' Henry slammed Freedman's reasoning, saying it was never the Mamamia founder's place to comment on Roxane's personal issues. 'A person's memoir is their record of their own life events from their perspective - which is why they are the one who wrote it,' Henry wrote. Henry said she found Freedman's article all the more baffling after reading Roxane's book and knowing full well the trauma that the author has experienced in her past. 'Did you consider any of these things when you decided to throw a fellow woman and writer under the proverbial bus? It seems you didn't.' 'I see daily the collateral damage caused by comments like yours and those made by other people who are careless with the feelings of their fellow human beings.' The doctor than advised Freedman to stop discussing people's weight, saying they had no need to be reminded when 'every kilogram for them is a personal war zone'. At one point Freedman (pictured) had called Roxane's frame 'super-morbidly-obese', and whether she would be able to find a chair that could 'comfortably fit' the author Roxane had been at the Mamamia offices to discuss her new book Hunger, which details how she turned to food after being gang-raped at the age of 12 Henry concluded her letter by imploring women to empower each other, instead of taking Freedman's lead in 'an enormous step in the wrong direction'. 'The only thing in the public interest now as the result of your efforts is the ways in which women still try to bring each other down.' Henry has been one of many to slam Freedman and Mamamia since the article 'Why, for the first time, I have no photo from my interview with Roxane Gay' was published. Writer and comedian Rosie Waterland, who previously worked at Mamamia, tweeted that she 'burst into tears' when she saw the story. Roxane hit back at Mamamia after the article was posted with a series of tweets, revealing that she found Freedman's words to be 'cruel and humiliating' 'As a fat woman who used to work there, I felt like I had to say something. To apologise at least,' a heartfelt Rosie later wrote in an emotional post on Facebook. 'To Roxane Gay, and to any other plus-size woman, or any woman, who struggles with her body image. I tried daily to make them understand this stuff. 'Reading this made me cry not only because it was hurtful to Roxane, hurtful to any plus-sized woman who has worked there or tried to be part of their community, but because obviously I failed to teach them anything. I'm just really sad.' Rosie also tweeted to Roxane on Tuesday, saying: 'F*****g gobsmacked. As a fat woman who used to work there and tried daily to make them understand this stuff...I am so sorry I failed'. Roxane replied to the tweet, writing: 'This isn't your responsibility'. Writer and comedian Rosie Waterland, who previously worked at Mamamia, tweeted that she 'burst into tears' when she saw the story Henry has been one of many to slam Freedman and Mamamia since the article 'Why, for the first time, I have no photo from my interview with Roxane Gay' was published Mamamia, which took down the article on Tuesday, has since issued a statement saying that it in no way intended to make Roxane feel 'disrespected', adding 'we apologise unequivocally'. Meanwhile, Roxane has said she is 'appalled by Mamamia'. 'It was a s*** show,' she wrote on Twitter. 'I can walk a f***ing mile.' 'Can she fit into the lift?" Shame on you @Mamamia,' she continued in another tweet. 'Whatever, Just what the f*** ever.' And on Wednesday, the official release day for Hunger, it was clear Roxane was still hurt by Freedman's words. Today was supposed to be about my new book,' she wrote on Twitter. 'That is what I wanted.' 'And then an Australian website made today painful.' The article has since been taken down. But on Wednesday, the official release of Hunger, it was clear Roxane was still hurt by Freedman's words A senior lecturer from The University of Queensland has said that you could be blowing your nose the wrong way. David King has brought forward the idea that habits you have now could be causing some damage. 'On balance it seems repeated and vigorous blowing of the nose may carry more risk than benefit, even though it seems to be a natural response to nasal congestion,' he wrote for The Conversation. 'So looking to remove the need to blow so forcefully is probably a better option'. A senior lecturer from The University of Queensland has said that you could be blowing your nose the wrong way Mr King explains that there have been cases of people blowing their noses so hard that they have caused damage due to the pressure they created. 'In most of these cases people had underlying chronic sinusitis or an existing weakness in the structure they damaged after blowing too hard,' he said. People have fractured the base of their eye sockets, had severe headaches and have forced air into the tissue between the two lobes of the lung. Mr King understands why people blow their noses so hard as when mucus is kept in the nose not only does it cause irritation, but it also has a chance of moving to the throat to create a cough. Mr King explains that there have been cases of people blowing on their noses so hard that they have caused damage due to the pressure they created 'If you have mucus in the nose, it is probably best to get it out, so blow gently or by clearing one nostril at a time. Use of appropriate treatments can lessen the need to blow, and the force required to clear your nose,' he said. Mr King recommends people buying decongestant sprays, saline nose sprays and performing a technique called nasal aspiration, which is when you squirt liquid saline up your nose to flush out mucus and debris. 'If you are repeatedly blowing your nose you probably have a nasal condition, like hay fever or sinusitis, which should be treated more comprehensively,' he said. A previous MailOnline article states that we sneeze due to triggers such as dust, pollen and germs. This is because we want to remove things from our nasal passages we don't like. Mr King recommends people buying decongestant sprays, saline nose sprays and performing a technique called nasal aspiration According to Professor Jeremy Ward, a respiratory physiologist at King's College London, due to the irritation air is forced out through the nose and mouth at high speed, dislodging whatever it was that tickled the nerves. 'The brainstem, where all this [information is] sent, is an incredibly complicated neural computer,' Professor Ward explained. 'What you might think is an inappropriate response is actually just a bit of leakage between systems.' Pouting in a bejwelled crown, Lady Amelia Windsor looked nothing short of a Renaissance princess as she posed for the camera. While the young royal, who is 36th in line to the throne, no doubt has some dazzling jewels in her family, on this occasion the blue-blooded beauty was in fact making her campaign debut for Dolce & Gabbana. The 21-year-old granddaughter of the Duke of Kent, the Queen's first cousin, was cast alongside Princess Olympia of Greece, celebrity offspring and a host of social media starlets for the Italian designer's Fall 2017 shoot. Fashion royalty: Lady Amelia Windsor, who is 36th in line to the British throne, dons a bejewelled crown and clutches a bag emblazoned with the word 'Queen' as she poses in an Italian food market for a striking photograph from Dolce & Gabbana's Fall 2017 campaign Princess Olympia of Greece, 20, proves black does not have to be boring with a midi skirt and cardigan ensemble made up of clashing textures, and complete with cat detailing on the collar The next generation: Models including D&G favourite Natasha Lau, left, Princess Olympia of Greece, second from left, Lady Amelia Windsor, on chair, and Sonia Ben Ammar, right, caused a stir when they descended on a square in Palermo, Italy, for the high-end shoot The beautiful millennials left locals in awe as they descended on a square in Palermo, on Sicily, for the marketplace shoot, showcasing the brands typically opulent designs against a backdrop of fruit stalls and rundown bric-a-brac stores. In one shot Princess Olympia, the oldest child of Pavlos, the Crown Prince and Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, juts out her hip in an all-black ensemble as she brings a touch of eccentric glamour to a vegetable stand. They were cast alongside the daughters of Hollywood royalty, including Alessandra Garcia-Lorido, the daughter of Andy Garcia, Steve Harvey's stepdaughter Lori, and Corrine Foxx, the daughter of actor and musician Jamie Foxx. Sport luxe: Lady Amelia Windsor, who was dubbed the world's most beautiful royal by Tatler, showed it is possible to be stylish in a sweater dress and trainers in one glamorous shot Millennial dream: Holding an 'all I need is love and wi-fi' clutch, French singer, actress and model Sonia Ben Ammar modelled an embellished orange blazer by the Italian designers La Dolce Vita: Reclining on a plastic chair in front of a chipped red wall, model Alessandra Garcia-Lorido, the daughter of Andy Garcia, oozes old-school glamour in a black lace dress Dolce & Gabbana also recruited model Natasha Lau, who has modelled for the brand on a number of occasions in the past, including a recent stint on the catwalk for the brand's fall/winter show. To round out the cast, the Italian designers hired models Chiara Scelsi and Sonia Ben Ammar, who was once rumored to have dated Brooklyn Beckham. The shoot is designed to be a celebration of the millennial generation, with D&G giving a playful nod to the next wave of influencers in their designs - one clutch held by French model Sonia Ben Ammar is emblazoned with the words - 'All I need is love and wi-fi'. Queen Letizia of Spain welcomed summer with open arms when she threw on a pretty floral frock for an engagement in Madrid this morning. The stylish royal looked more wedding guest than Queen consort as she showed off her svelte figure in the fitted pastel dress featuring a purple floral print by Hugo Boss. It's an old favourite of the thrifty royal's who wore the dress to the opening of 'El Greco y La Pintura Moderna' exhibition at El Prado museum in June 2014 and again at a military event in Zaragoza last July. As temperatures reached a sweltering 37 C (97 F) in the Spanish capital, Letizia, 44, didn't have so much as a hair out of place as she arrived for a meeting at the Residencia de Estudiantes, a cultural centre. The mother-of-two swept her brunette locks back into a chic ponytail as she chatted to guests on Wednesday morning. Scroll down for video The Spanish Queen stepped out in a Hugo Boss floral dress she's worn on two previous occasions What heatwave? Queen Letizia of Spain welcomed the arrival of summer with open arms when she threw on a pretty floral frock for an engagement in Madrid this morning In keeping with the blooming theme, the monarch matched her dress with a pair of floral earrings Summer ready: The stylish royal looked more wedding guest than Queen consort as she showed off her svelte figure in the fitted pastel dress with a purple floral print She was greeted on arrival by Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Ibero-America, Fernando Garcia Casas, as well as the director of the board of trustees, Alicia Gomez-Navarro. Before her morning meeting, Letizia popped into the Una habitacion propia (A room of one's own) exhibition, which traces poet Federico Garcia Lorca's time in the student residence. Each year, the centre organises public events such as conferences, round tables, concerts, readings of poems, meetings and exhibitions. In addition, about 3,000 researchers, artists and other professionals from all over the world come to stay in the Residence each year. The Queen showed off her impeccably trim figure in a favourite dress from Hugo Boss The royal smiles as she strolls through the grounds on a visit to a traditional Students Residence in Madrid Keeping cool: As temperatures reached 37 degrees in the Spanish capital, Letizia, didn't have so much as a hair out of place as she arrived for a meeting at the Residencia de Estudiantes VIP guest: Letizia was greeted on arrival by Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Ibero-America, Fernando Garcia Casas, as well as the director of the Residencia de Estudiantes and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Alicia Gomez-Navarro Yesterday Letizia, who is married to King Felipe VI, wore a monochrome Carolina Herrera dress to hand an award to UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to Madrid at a meeting at the Center Superior of Scientific Investigations (CSIC). Letizia has gained something of a reputation as a style icon since she married into the Spanish monarchy in 2004, following a successful career as a journalist and newsreader. She was previously married to Alonso Guerrero Perez, a writer, but the pair divorced after just a year and by 2003 Letizia had announced her engagement to Felipe, then the Prince of Asturias. King Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 in favour of his 49-year-old son, now King Felipe VI. She was a flash of pink in a sea of uniforms and suits in South Korea. Belgium's Princess Astrid wore an elegant trouser suit to visit the demilitarised zone that divides the country from North Korea on Wednesday. The mother of five, 55, who is the younger sister of the Belgian monarch King Philippe, joined politicans from the country to tour the visitor centre at the demilitarised zone, during her visit to South Korea. Princess Astrid of Belgium is welcomed at the demilitarised zone on the border between South and North Korea The Belgian royal wore a trouser suit in a fresh shade of pink, adding a black bag and heels The royal tackled the humid conditions in Korea with the help of her breezy suit, which she teamed with a pair of black T-bar heels and a co-ordinating handbag. She wore her hair loose and added a pair of dazzling drop earrings. Also there to tour the visitor centre were Jean-Claude Marcourt, Belgium's Minister of Higher Education, and Didier Reynders, the Foreign Minister. Princess Astrid is the younger sister of the Belgian monarch, King Phillipe She was joined by Belgian politicians including the foreign minister Didier Reynders, ahead of a tour of the visitor centre at the demilitarised zone The Belgian royal was snapped chatting to members of the military in South Korea Princess Astrid is leading an economic mission to the Republic of Korea on behalf of her older brother, the Belgian king. The royal will be in the country until the end of this week, to discuss business across various sectors including food, medical devices and luxury lifestyle. After one woman's fiance died just four months before their wedding, the grief was insurmountable. Now, she is honoring his memory with a beautiful memorial photo shoot. Hannah Darr, 22, of Fairview, Oklahoma, met Layne Merriwether - her fiance and partner of seven years - when she was in first grade. The two grew up side-by-side before eventually becoming a couple during their freshman year of high school. The two would even go on to attend Ohio State University together, and became engaged in April of 2016. Honoring his memory: Bride-to-be Hannah Darr recently honored her late fiance Layne Meriwether with a beautiful photo shoot Big plans: The two were set to wed on June 17, before Layne suddenly died in a car crash in February of this year A helping hand: Hannah worked with photographer Holly Gannett to create the unique and incredibly moving images Then, everything changed when Layne died in a car accident early on the morning of February 5, 2017 - just four months before the pair was set to wed on June 17 of this year. Now, as Hannah wrote on the Facebook page Love What Matters, 'My house is full of all my wedding decorations just waiting for my wedding day that will never come.' In order to honor the memory of her late fiance, Hannah contacted photographer Holly Gannett about doing a bridal photo shoot. 'Even though I will never get a wedding with him, I wanted to at least have a picture of him with me in my dress to [...] remember him as my future husband,' Hannah told HuffPost. For the shoot, Hannah donned her wedding dress and returned to the riverside land where Layne originally proposed to her. In the beautiful photos, Hannah can be seen holding a rustic bouquet and smiling through tears. In one image, she holds a chalkboard with the phrase, 'remember the love, not the loss,' written out in cursive. The most moving images of all, though, are the ones in which photographer Holly Gannett used Photoshop in order to add Layne himself into the shot. Hannah appears to be embracing his slightly-transparent likeness and while it's clear he is not actually there, the result is a touching tribute. Soulmates: Hannah and Layne knew each other from the time they were children, and eventually became a couple during their freshman year of high school A special time: Layne proposed to Hannah in April 2016, after the two dated for six years and even attended college together Helping her heal: Hannah said that the photos have helped give her the closure she needed Hannah said the photos instantly reminded her of a dream she had in which, 'I was wandering around in my wedding dress completely lost and helpless with tears spilling down my face, blurring my vision.' As Hannah wrote on Love What Matters, the dream soon transformed into a vision of Layne, who told her 'Baby girl, quit crying! You look beautiful. You are so strong. I know you can do this!' 'When I saw this picture Holly Gannett captured, I instantly thought of that dream and tears streamed down my face,' Hannah said, and the resemblance is certainly clear. While grieving is a long and difficult process, Hannah said that the photos are helping her heal. As she told HuffPost, 'The shoot also gave me some closure and helped me accept the fact that I wont get a wedding with him, but I am thankful I at least have pictures with him. The pictures are something I will cherish forever.' Mamamia founder Mia Freedman's chances of expanding her feminist website in the U.S. may have been quashed after her 'cruel' article about Roxane Gay made international headlines. Freedman was lambasted after she wrote an article discussing what went on 'behind the scenes' of her interview with U.S. feminist author Gay who the Australian personality described as 'super morbidly obese'. Since Gay slammed the Mamamia piece as 'appalling', Freedman's persona and her media company have been internationally condemned - and it will likely hurt her hopes of U.S. readership, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. This comes after the website's founder, Mia Freedman (pictured), wrote an article purporting to discuss what went on 'behind the scenes' of her interview with Roxane Gay American feminist author, Roxane Gay (pictured), has opened up about her experience with the Australian 'women's website', Mamamia Freedman was lambasted after she wrote an article purporting to discuss what went on 'behind the scenes' of her interview with Gay, who she described as 'super morbidly obese' Freedman's chances of breaking into the vast terrain of U.S. women's media may be slim after her international 'fat shaming' scandal. 'You can't erase this, it stays forever in cyberspace. It's so important to handle this now or she's got no chance,' Steve Allen, chief executive of Fusion Strategy, told The Sydney Morning Herald. After the Hunger author accused Freedman of 'cruel and humiliating treatment', U.S. media also jumped on the story - including the likes of the New York Post and various American women's news outlets. The Mamamia publisher also runs New York-based website Spring St, which describes itself as creating 'engaging and positive content' for women aged 30-plus. Gay (pictured) spoke about how she was treated by Mamamia on the Wall Street Journal's Book Club discussion on Tuesday The critically-acclaimed author said that when the podcast (pictured) came out, she saw the 'long write-up' that came with it 'about how she had to wonder if I could fit in the elevator' Gay called the 'women's website' out initially on Twitter, posting the above 'An Australian website made today painful': Gay detailed her 'humiliation' after Freedman's article The women's website tweeted details of an interview between Freeman and Gay, claiming a 'lot of planning' had gone into the author's visit to the website's offices. 'Will she fit into the office lift? How many steps will she have to take to get to the interview? Is there a comfortable chair that will accommodate her six-foot-three, 'super-morbidly-obese' frame?' the site tweeted. Freedman has since issued a personal apology saying she's 'deeply sorry'. 'We sat down and we chatted, and at the end, she said: "You know, we had to do all sorts of things to prepare for your arrival", and I actually only had one request which is to have a good chair - a good sturdy chair - with either no arms or wide arms,' Gay told Wall Street Journal. Gay added that she was 'baffled' by what Freedman meant. 'How many steps to the recording studio? And so on and so forth. As if I don't live in the world. As if I haven't been on book tour for three years,' Gay exclaimed of the whole experience On the WSJ discussion (pictured), Gay said Mia Freedman has since been 'rightly excoriated for this really humiliating thing' 'She [Mia Freedman] decided she was doing some sort of public service by writing about this. And it was weird and it's uncomfortable. And I think just petty,' Gay (pictured) concluded The critically-acclaimed author said that when the podcast came out, she saw the 'long write-up' that came with it 'about how she [Mia Freedman] had to wonder if I could fit in the elevator. 'Like something that has never ever occurred to me in my life. And you know, how many steps to the recording studio? And so on and so forth. As if I don't live in the world. As if I haven't been on book tour for three years,' Gay said, adding: 'I go to the gym like a normal person.' Gay had been in Australia and due to speak on the podcast about her most recent book,Hunger, in which she opens up about how she turned to food after being gang-raped at the age of 12. Freedman later explained in the article that 'when youre interviewing an international guest or someone very famous, there are always logistics to be organised'. The Mamamia article was slammed on social media for its 'fat shaming' of Roxane Gay Mamamia have since issued a statement saying that it in no way intended to make Gay feel 'disrespected and we apologise unequivocally' (pictured: Mia Freedman) Freedman (pictured) later explained in the article that 'when youre interviewing an international guest or someone very famous, there are always logistics to be organised' 'But Roxane Gays requirements were different,' she went on. 'I'd estimate there were more than a dozen exchanges back and forth between my producer and her people and the details of them both broke my heart and opened my eyes.' Gay later took a swipe at the women's website on Twitter, labelling the article as 'cruel and humiliating'. 'I am appalled by Mamamia. It was a sh*t show. I can walk a f***ing mile,' the author of several books including the bestseller, Bad Feminist, said. Gay had been due to speak on the podcast about her latest book, Hunger (pictured) '"Can she fit into the lift?" Shame on you @Mamamia,' she continued in another tweet. 'Whatever, Just what the f*** ever,' she wrote in a following tweet. Mamamia have since issued a statement saying that it in no way intended to make Gay feel 'disrespected and we apologise unequivocally'. Freedman also released a personal apology to Gay on Wednesday morning: 'The last 24 hours have been an extraordinarily searing lesson. I should never have been so cavalier in revealing details about my interview with Roxane Gay that should have remained private. I understand that now,' she wrote. 'I made many mistakes. The first and worst was not understanding the difference between Roxane writing in her book, about her experiences and difficulties of trying to navigate the world and me talking about that experience from the outside, from my perspective. 'I mistakenly assumed that because she spoke about it, I could too. But this is not my story to tell and I should not have included it in the intro to the podcast or the podcast description. It was disrespectful and it upset her and for that I am deeply, deeply sorry. Unconditionally sorry.' To watch the Wall Street Journal video in full, click here. With Title II money on the chopping block under President Trumps desired budget, national education groups are coming together to make a case for why teachers and administrators need those professional development funds. Tomorrow, June 14, teachers and administrators are being asked to call, tweet, and write to their senators and representatives as part of a national Title II day of action. Organizations, including the American Federation of School Administrators, ASCD, Learning Forward, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals, are leading the charge. Our goal is to reach out to as many educators as possible and have them reach back to their members of Congress to let them know how Title II is being used, said Melinda George, the director of policy for Learning Forward, a nonprofit focused on improving professional learning for educators. This is the most critical funding there is to support educators to be able to support students. While most of the push will happen online, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is holding a hearing tomorrow about teacher health and wellness, and said he plans to bring up Title II in that forum. These [proposed] cuts go right to the heart of helping our kids learn and be competitive, Ryan said. The president campaigned on running the government like a businesswell, businesses invest in their people. The federal government puts more than $2 billion annually into efforts to improve teacher quality and professional development . States and districts have a lot of leeway in how they use Title II-A funds, including for revising certification and tenure, helping teachers understand academic standards, supporting programs to recruit and retain teachers, and even for class-size reduction. The new federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, maintains Title II as a formula fund. The Trump Administration argues that Title II is ineffective. The funds are poorly targeted and spread thinly across thousands of districts with scant evidence of impact, White House budget documents say. In fact, plenty of research has shown that professional development doesnt necessarily translate to improve student outcomes. But proponents of continuous learning say the programs should be fixed, not scrapped. As my colleague Alyson Klein wrote in April, The proposed cut is the largestand arguably, the most consequentialthe new president pitched for the U.S. Department of Education in his fiscal 2018 budget request. That budget would affect the 2018-19 school year. See also: For more news and information on the teaching profession: And sign up here to get alerts in your email inbox when stories are published on Teacher Beat. A Tom Hardy doppelganger is setting pulses racing on Instagram thanks to his striking resemblance to the 39-year-old Hollywood star. Jonny Rayner, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire is so similar to the Peaky Blinders actor that a girl once launched herself into his arms in a nightclub after mistaking him for the brooding hunk. Speaking to Pretty52, the electrical wholesale shop worker explained: ''I was in a club and a drunk girl ran for me, jumped at me, and wrapped her legs around me!' 'I only started to realise that I resembled Tom Hardy when probably the fifth person in the space of a few weeks mentioned it.' Jonny Rayner, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire is regularly mistaken for Hollywood star Tom Hardy, 39 Tom Hardy, or is it Jonny? The 39-year-old star of Locke and Peaky Blinders looks like he could be the electrical shop worker's older brother His girlfriend Flora added that she's always loved Tom Hardy so Jonny's looks are definitely a bonus. 'He's really modest though and doesn't think he looks like him, but all my friends and family members comment on it as soon as they meet him,' she explained. 'We've only been together seven months but he's so gorgeous and the nicest person.' While modest Jonny doesn't let the attention go to ahead, he does admit to cheekily taking advantage of the resemblance. Jonny (left) revealed that a girl threw herself at him in a nightclub after mistaking him for the Peaky Blinders star Jonny's girlfriend Flora insists that the modest retail worker doesn't let the attention go to his head After hearing the actor has a home in Yarm in Yorkshire, he decided to go out on the town there in the hope of getting some free drinks. Although his efforts came to nothing, Instagram followers have also noticed Jonny's resemblance to the Taboo star, commenting on the resemblance when he uploads selfies. Tom himself has endured something of a tough time recently after losing his beloved dog Woody. Jonny admitted that he went out around one of Tom's haunts in the hope of being offered free drinks by fans It was only when people started commenting that Jonny looks like the Legend actor that he realised there was any resemblance Despite being waylaid by fans of Tom, Jonny is keeping his feet on the ground according to his girlfriend In a lengthy blog post the star paid tribute to his 'best friend', detailing how Woody had won the hearts of his fans and Hollywood colleagues, after he bought him onto sets and to movie premieres and events. 'He has been on many sets. Met many crews. Photo shoots premieres made many many friends he was #73 most influential animal in TIME magazine. He beat JAWS. Something we all thought was brilliant,' he said. 'He's been in Peaky Blinders. Legend. Everyone who met him loved him. He didn't have a bad bone in his body. All he knew was love,' he writes. 'I don't normally speak out about family and friends but this is an unusual circumstance. Woody affected so many people in his own right,' he adds. Every expectant mother dreams of the moment when she will hold her soft, wriggling newborn in her arms for the first time. Its a joyful, tender experience and, experts now believe, a crucial part of the bonding process between mum and baby. No wonder, then, that as I watched my daughters tiny body writhing in distress in a midwifes arms under the bright lights of the operating theatre, I felt a sense of loss and failure. Every expectant mother dreams of the moment when she will hold her soft, wriggling newborn in her arms for the first time (Charlotte Philby with Rosabel, Jesse and Xander) Rosabel, my first baby, was born by emergency C-section in 2010 after four exhausting days of labour, following a failed induction. As she was whisked away, yelling her head off, to have her vital signs checked, I couldnt help feeling this was not what my childs first minutes on earth were supposed to be like. There was something deeply unsettling about not being able to comfort or even hold Rosabel. I couldnt shake the feeling that I had somehow let my baby, and myself, down. After surgery I developed an internal infection, so it took months to get back on my feet. Emotionally I felt adrift, and breastfeeding was a real struggle. It was all the more disheartening, then, to go through the same experience with my second child in 2013. First, of course, came the surge of relief that Jesse had arrived safely then the overwhelming sense that my son and I had been cheated of our first moments together. I had hoped for a natural birth, but at two weeks overdue I was once again taken to theatre. Charlotte's first two children were born by emergency C-section and she was offered to try a 'natural' Caesarean for her third child Since it wasnt an emergency, the surgery was physically less gruelling and the recovery was quicker. But still, watching helplessly as Jesse was pulled out and rushed away left me with a feeling of deep sadness. When I became pregnant for a third time, in 2015, I was approached by Belinda Green of the University College Hospital in London, who had been my midwife during my previous pregnancy. She asked me to be the guinea pig for a new type of delivery known as a natural Caesarean. If I agreed, her team would film the birth to show other women considering the procedure. The idea sparked my interest. With a natural Caesarean, like a traditional one, a surgeon makes a small cut in the womans abdomen. Instead of being immediately lifted out, the baby is allowed to slowly push and squeeze its own way through the opening, an experience which mimics a natural birth. Once the baby starts crying meaning it is breathing properly its shoulders are eased out by the surgeon. It then continues to work its way free of the mothers body. Finally, the baby is gently placed on the mothers chest while the incision is sewn up. The procedure is much gentler than a traditional C-section, where the onus has traditionally been on getting the baby out as quickly as possible. This was intended to minimise the risks of surgery, but a growing school of thought says it can lead to unnecessary stress for both mother and child. With a natural Caesarean, a surgeon makes a small cut in the womans abdomen. The baby is allowed to slowly push and squeeze its own way through the opening, an experience which mimics a natural birth (Charlotte with Rosabel, Jesse and Xander) Dr Felicity Plaat, a consultant anaesthetist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, published an early research paper about natural Caesareans in 2008. Their use has spread and an estimated 55 per cent of trusts now offer the technique. And so, when I gave birth to my third child, Xander, I had a natural Caesarean something very few people I spoke to in the medical profession, or friends, had even heard of. I was given a common form of anaesthesia called a spinal block, and a screen was put up to prevent me from watching while an incision was made in my stomach. But then, the screen was lowered while my son was actually born. Watching his body slowly emerge from my stomach was an extraordinary moment. Instead of taking Xander away from me as quickly as possible, the medical team waited until he was able to clear his own lungs, assisted by the pressure on his little torso from my body, which helped to push out excess fluid. In a typical Caesarean, the baby is lifted out before this natural process can happen, and often suction is required later to get fluid out of the lungs. The surgeon was then able to gently lift Xander, with the cord still attached, and pass him to the midwife who handed him straight over to me. My son rested on my chest while I was being stitched back together. Once the baby starts crying its shoulders are eased out by the surgeon. It then continues to work its way free of the mothers body. Finally, the baby is gently placed on the mothers chest while the incision is sewn up My husband, Barney, a graphic designer, was there for the whole thing and proudly cut the cord. While my other children had screamed after delivery, the moment my youngest sons head was placed on my chest, still covered in mucus, he was calm. For the first time, I was able to marvel at the perfection of my bloodied, puffy-eyed newborn before anyone else. Quiet elation enveloped us. Slowed-down Caesareans enhance [a mothers] experience, and her chances of bonding with her baby, says obstetrics consultant Andy Simm, who has performed around ten gentle Caesareans at Nottingham City Hospital in the past three years. Most of the women I perform these procedures on have been through bad times during birth. Many have said that their babies seemed a lot calmer this time. Dr Plaat explains that natural Caesareans are also associated with increased breastfeeding rates, thanks to the skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth. Research by Unicef has found that such skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby triggers the release of powerful hormones, forming a strong bond and making it more likely that a mum will breastfeed successfully and for longer. When she gave birth to her third child, Charlotte says: 'For the first time, I was able to marvel at the perfection of my bloodied, puffy-eyed newborn before anyone else. Quiet elation enveloped us' Hannah Harvey, a 29-year-old midwife from Worthing, West Sussex, opted for a natural C-section after the birth of her first son, Theo, left her with post-traumatic stress disorder. When I became pregnant again, I wanted to have a vaginal birth if possible, but it wasnt so I decided it would have to be a gentle C-section. In theatre I had soft music playing. All the lights were off apart from theatre table lamps, to make it a calmer atmosphere. My head was raised slightly so I could see everything that was happening. There was a drape set up in front of my head because my husband felt a bit uncomfortable watching the incision being made, then when our baby was ready to be born they lowered the drape and we watched him come out. His head delivered slowly without any help from the surgeons, followed by his body. I honestly felt like I was birthing him myself. It was the most amazing experience of my life, she says. He went straight onto my chest, then stayed with me the whole time and even breastfed in theatre. That was a big deal for me, because our first son was whisked away after 56 hours of labour and all I wanted to do was hold him. She says: 'It is 20 months since I gave birth to my third baby, Xander, by natural Caesarean. He is a gorgeous, hilarious, headstrong tyrant who may or may not have turned out differently because of the way he arrived into the world' So far, little large-scale research has been done on the outcomes of natural Caesareans, as theyre still relatively rare. But Dr Plaat argues they have proved so successful that they should now be offered by every NHS trust. Louise Silverton, Director for Midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, agrees. For women who need to have a Caesarean this is a wonderful way to promote the benefits of skin-to-skin contact and helps the bonding between mother and baby. We would like to see more units offering natural Caesareans, she said. Andy Simm says early fears that this longer, slower procedure would prove more expensive are unfounded. I might arrange an extra appointment to meet the couple together with the anaesthetist. But otherwise I cant think of any extra cost. For now, however, women who want a natural Caesarean may have to look around for a surgeon prepared to offer the procedure. It is 20 months since I gave birth to my third baby, Xander, by natural Caesarean. He is a gorgeous, hilarious, headstrong tyrant who may or may not have turned out differently because of the way he arrived into the world. What I do know is that his peaceful, natural birth had a profound impact on the first few months of his life. Xander and I bonded immediately. I felt a renewed confidence in my abilities as a parent, and my physical recovery from the birth was infinitely faster and better. The arrival of Prince William in 1982 and, just over two years later, Prince Harry, signalled to the world that the fairy-tale union of Charles and Diana was complete. It would be several more years before she took the extraordinary step of revealing to royal author Andrew Morton, in tape recordings she insisted be kept secret, that their marriage had collapsed. The book he wrote Diana, Her True Story made headlines around the world. Now, 20 years after her death, it is being republished with the transcripts of those tapes. Todays extract focuses on the early years of her marriage. Diana, struggling with bulimia, depression and her conviction that Charles still loved Camilla, was terrified of letting the royal side down. When I first arrived on the (royal) scene, Id always put my head down. Now that I interpret it, that did look sulky. Ive never sulked. I never sulked as a child; its just not in me. But Ive been terrified out of my tiny little mind. I was just so frightened of the attention I was getting. It took me six years to get comfortable. One minute, I was nobody; the next minute, I was Princess of Wales mother, media toy, member of this family, you name it. And it was too much for one person at that time. Basically, my husbands office got in a turmoil because one minute, there was one (royal to look after), and the next minute, there were two. When they were still in love: A public kiss for Charles and wife Diana. The arrival of Prince William in 1982 and, just over two years later, Prince Harry, signalled to the world that the fairy-tale union of Charles and Diana was complete And the presents coming in from the wedding were so phenomenal from a swimming pool, to a desk set, to a photograph frame to six dining-room chairs. Chaos! I ended up writing my own thank-you letters. Eventually, we sorted out something and I had Oliver Everett (former assistant private secretary to Prince Charles) come back to help me. I drove him quite potty because he pushed me into a corner that didnt suit. There were basically lots of tears. From me! Edward Adeane (Prince Charless private secretary from 1979-85) was wonderful we got on so well. He was very much the bachelor and I was always trying to find him the ideal woman, but I didnt succeed at all. He was sweet. He said: I know some nice ladies who might be ladies-in-waiting. Will you come and see them and meet them? So I said yes to them all, even though I didnt really know them, and one or two have gone by the wayside, but the others have remained very strong and Ive gathered a few on the way as well. Stuck-up Liz Taylor didn't help at all What I can remember is that I didnt want to do anything on my own. I was too frightened. The thought of me doing anything on my own sent tremors, so I stuck with whatever Charles did. If that included a wife, I went with him all the way wherever. But the pace was phenomenal. I knew I couldnt do engagements as well as get married, plus doing up two houses. One of the very first royal engagements was with Elizabeth Taylor. It was a play at the Victoria [Palace] Theatre called The Little Foxes. I remember I turned up in a fake white fur coat, and all the antis came out against me for evermore. So that went back into the cupboard, never to be seen again. I was pregnant with William and it was agonising because I didnt find Elizabeth Taylor very easy to talk to. I thought she was stuck-up. Id hoped shed help me out because shed been on the stage, in inverted commas, more than I had. I remember getting through that evening feeling amazed. (Another engagement was switching on the Regent Street Christmas lights.) I remember wearing a pair of navy blue culottes with a pink shirt, and I felt so sick. I couldnt do them up because I was pregnant, but I didnt have anything else to wear. And I was so nervous. I had to make a speech in front of the whole of Regent Street. I was s*** scared. Christmas at Sandringham was highly fraught. Terrifying and so disappointing. No boisterous behaviour, lots of tension, silly behaviour, silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood. I sure was an outsider. I hadnt got enough background on what the Princess of Wales was supposed to do. It didnt get easier I just got used to what people required from the Princess of Wales. What Diana thought wasnt going to come into it yet. Princess Grace was an outsider like me When Grace (Princess of Monaco) died (in 1982), I said to Charles: I feel Id very much like to represent your mama at the funeral, and he said: Well, well have to ask her, but I doubt shell let you go. And I said: Well, I think its important, because she was an outsider who married into a big family and Ive done the same, so it would feel right. When Grace (Princess of Monaco) died (in 1982), I said to Charles: I feel Id very much like to represent your mama at the funeral, and he said: Well, well have to ask her, but I doubt shell let you go. I went to (the Queens private secretary) Philip Moore, who said he didnt think it would be possible because Id only been in the job three or four months. And I said I could do it perfectly standing on my head. There was no worry about that. I knew exactly how to behave etcetera, etcetera, and I wanted to be a part of Graces funeral because I admired her so much; she was so sweet to me. So I went to the Queen and I said: You know, Id like to do this, and she said: I dont see why not. If you want to do this, you can. And I said: That would be marvellous, thank you. I went there, did my bit, came back and everyone was all over me like a bad rash: Oh, you did so well! And I thought: Well, interesting. Make-or-break time on the Australia tour The first foreign trip we took William on was Australia and New Zealand (in March 1983, with the nine-month-old Prince the first royal baby to go on an official overseas visit). Make-or-break time for me. This was the real hard crunch, the hard end of being the Princess of Wales. There were thousands of press following us. We were away six weeks, and the first day we went to this school in Alice Springs. It was hot, I was jet-lagged, being sick. I was too thin. The whole world was focusing on me every day. I was on the front of the papers. I thought that this was just so appalling I hadnt done something specific, like climb Everest or something wonderful like that. However, I came back from one engagement and I went to my lady-in-waiting, cried my eyes out and said: Anne (Beckwith-Smith), Ive got to go home I cant cope with this. She was devastated, too, because it was her first job. So that first week was such a traumatic week for me; I learned to be royal, in inverted commas, in one week. I was thrown into the deep end though now I prefer it that way. Nobody ever helped me at all. Theyd be there to criticise me, but never there to say: Well done. Basically, our tour was a great success. Everybody always said, when we were in the car: Oh, were in the wrong side, we want to see her we dont want to see him. Thats all we could hear when we went down these crowds and obviously he wasnt used to that, and nor was I. He took it out on me. He was jealous; I understood the jealousy but I couldnt explain that I didnt ask for it. I kept saying youve married someone, and whoever youd have married would have been of interest for the clothes, how she handles this, that and the other. And you build the building block for your wife to stand on. He didnt see that at all. (In public, Charles accepted the new status quo with good grace; in private, he blamed Diana.) Surfs up: Sydney turns out for Diana on the Royal Tour Down Under in 1983 It was very tricky, mentally, for me, because the crowds were just something to be believed. My husband had never seen crowds like it, and I sure as hell hadnt. Everyone kept saying it will all quieten down when youve had your first baby, but it never quietened down. Never. We never had a fight (about taking Prince William on tour). The person who never got any credit was Malcolm Fraser, who was then Prime Minister. He wrote to us out of the blue. I was all ready to leave William. I accepted that as part of duty, albeit it wasnt going to be easy. He wrote to me and said: Would you like to bring your child out? And Charles said: What do you think about this? I said: Oh, it would be absolutely wonderful. He said: Then we can do six weeks instead of four, and we can cover New Zealand as well, so it would be perfect. I said: Wonderful. It was always reputed that I had had an argument with the Queen about it. We never even asked her we just did it. It was very nice. We didnt see very much of William (who was based with his nanny at Woomargama, a 4,000-acre sheep station in New South Wales), but at least we were under the same sky, so to speak. That was a great fulfilment for me, because everyone wanted to know about his progress. When we came back from our six-week tour, I was a different person. I was more grown up, more mature but that was nothing like the process I was going to go through in the next four or five years. Charles desperately wanted a baby girl Between William and Harry being born, it is total darkness. I cant remember much. Ive blotted it out. It was such pain. However, Harry appeared (on September 15, 1984) by a miracle. Charles and I were very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born, the closest weve ever, ever been and ever will be. Then, suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage: the whole thing went down the drain. I knew Harry was going to be a boy because I saw on the scan. Charles always wanted a girl. He wanted two children and he wanted a girl. I knew Harry was a boy and I didnt tell him. Harry arrived, Harry had red hair, Harry was a boy. First comment was: Oh God, its a boy. Second comment: And hes even got red hair. Something inside me closed off. By then, I knew Charles had gone back to his lady, but somehow wed managed to have Harry. Charles went to talk to my mother at Harrys christening and said: We were so disappointed we thought it would be a girl. Mummy snapped his head off, saying: You should realise how lucky you are to have a child thats normal. Ever since that day, the shutters have come down and thats what he does when he gets somebody answering back at him. Harry was a complete joy and is actually closer to his father than perhaps William at the moment. Charles loved the nursery life and couldnt wait to get back and do the bottle and everything. He was very good he always came back and fed the baby. I breastfed William for three weeks and Harry for 11 weeks. I chose the names William and Harry because the alternative was Arthur and Albert. No, thank you. There werent fights over it. It was just a fait accompli. The Pope thought I was having a baby! With President and Mrs Goncz of Hungary (on our trip in 1990), I had an instant rapport. I got out of the aeroplane and we held hands. Extraordinary it felt so normal, me doing it. It was on the front of all the papers at home. I remember thinking: Whats so odd about that? I also had an audience with the Pope (John Paul II in 1985) I thought that was rather wonderful, very special. I was totally overwhelmed. I was so intimidated by the set-up. When youre sat there with this man in a white frock, it was quite strange. He had recently been shot (and severely wounded by a Turkish gunman). I said one thing to him. I plucked up courage and said: How are your wounds? He thought I was talking about my womb! So he thought I was having a baby! So after that mistake, I went very quietly. On our trip to Spain (April 1987), I wasnt well at all tiredness, exhaustion, bone-tired. I told everybody I was tired, but it was the bulimia taking a grip of me. Portugal was the last time we were close as man and wife. Thats going back six or seven years ago now (February 1987). Charless snoring could be heard through two doors. Four times a night Id be woken up. He just got fed up and went into his dressing room. And then it became a habit. Then there was Majorca (on holiday with the King and Queen of Spain in 1986), the first trip I spent my whole time with my head down the loo. I hated it so much because they were all so busy thinking Charles was the most wonderful creature theres ever been and who was this girl coming along? And I knew there was (a quality) inside me that wasnt coming out, and I didnt know how to use it in the sense of letting them see it. I didnt feel at all comfortable in that situation. My first policeman, and he was sweet Graham Smith was my first policeman; he came from Princess Anne. Hed been with her a few years. I remember asking him as a first question: Do you like horses? He said: No. I said: Good, because at the time I wasnt interested in horses. He was sweet, but it took a long time to get used to having a policeman. God, suddenly to have this man in your car music had to be turned down, I had to make sure he was fed, all those things. But I was brought up to look after others. Watching soaps meant I could talk to anyone I always used to think people just looked at my clothes, and I was desperate for my other side to come out but I didnt know how to do it. I hope they know that I love children and little people, but I suppose it comes across. Im just demented about my own children and its mutual. Theres terrific understanding (between me and members of the public). Top Of The Pops, Coronation Street, all the soap operas. You name it, Ive watched it. The reason why I watch them so much now is not so much out of interest, but if I go out and about, whether it be to Birmingham, Liverpool or Dorset, I can always pick up on a TV programme and you are on the same level. That, I decided for myself. It works so well. Everybody watches it and I say: Did you see so and so? Wasnt it funny when this happened or that happened? Charles was thrilled with his silk pyjamas On the day I got engaged, I literally had one long dress, one silk shirt, one smart pair of shoes and that was it. Suddenly, my mother and I had to go and buy six of everything. We bought as much as we thought we needed, but we still didnt have enough. Bear in mind you have to change four times a day, and suddenly your wardrobe expands to something unbelievable. Hence, probably, the criticism when I first arrived on the scene of having new clothes all the time. Three seasons and I had to deck myself out from January to December overnight with hats, gloves, the lot. After that, I asked Anna Harvey from Vogue, where both my sisters had worked, to come and help me out with the basic things. But once I got to know established names, like Victor Edelstein and Catherine Walker, I could ring them up and talk to them myself. I couldnt have fashionable clothes because it wouldnt have been practical for the job. I had to have clothes that could last all day long, in sensible colours and sensible necklines and skirt lengths. I never knew a thing about having weights in hems (to prevent skirts from blowing up in the wind). I found it all out in my own time. No one helped with that. Charles had an awful lot of clothes, but actually very little (that I liked). For instance, he had ghastly Aertex pyjamas that were honestly, simply hideous, so I bought him a silk pair, that sort of thing and shoes. They were well received. He was absolutely thrilled. I burst into tears and he ignored me The press attention was like Marilyn Monroe publicity. She only had to click her heels and the whole world was at her feet. It was very odd. Im never comfortable in it. Never ever. I was absolutely mesmerised by the whole thing. I couldnt believe it. (The Royal Family) all thought: Oh, shes got lots of press she must be doing all right. One of the worst things that ever happened was when we went to Wales after the flooding (in 1987). Thered been a tremendous amount of press about Charles and I being apart, and we got into the jet and I burst into tears. He said: Oh God, whats the matter? And I said: Ive had a very bad time with the press. Because theyd literally hunted me. And he said: Well, if you were in the right place, none of this would happen, indicating that I should be up in Scotland. But I said: I choose to work, because thats my role in life. And it was terrible he completely ignored me. It was a real cry for help. I wasnt blubbing because Id just turned the taps on. It was just desperation. And it showed in all the photographs. When he's not kicking goals on the field, NRL star Billy Slater enjoys spending quality time with his two children at home. The father-of-two has proudly embraced his softer side in a new social media campaign where he's playing Barbie dolls with his daughter Tyla Rose. The 33-year-old teamed up with toy manufacturer Mattel's 'Dads who Play Barbie' in an effort to encourage fellow fathers to indulge in activities with their children in their free time. NRL star Billy Slater proudly embraces his softer side by playing Barbie dolls with his daughter Family man! The father-of-two pictured with his wife Nicole, son Jake and daughter Tyla The Melbourne Storm player shared the real-life father-daughter bond on his Facebook page, titled: 'This one's for all you dads out there. Let me share some of my off field expertise with you.' 'Today, I'm going to teach you... how to play Barbie with your daughter,' the rugby league star said in the video, before getting into character as Barbie. 'Hi there vet Barbie potty puppy has a nasty, nasty cough. Do you think you can help? Pretending to cough, Slater continues: 'You know what? I think I've got a nasty cough too. Do you know someone who could help me?' The father-of-two has proudly embraced his softer side in a new social media campaign The 33-year-old embraced the real-life father-daughter bond with his little girl Tyla Rose The 33-year-old teamed up with toy manufacturer Mattel's 'Dads who Play Barbie' in an effort to encourage fellow fathers to indulge in activities with their children in their free time The heartwarming footage, which was uploaded on Wednesday, has since been viewed more than 50,000 times - and has been with positive comments from fans. 'See real men play barbies,' one woman wrote. 'Your daughter will be the very best person she can be and a wonderful human being. You are my all time legendary HERO Billy Slater,' another said. And another posted: 'You're a legend mate. Good stuff. I'm sure in a few days time you'll be teaching the Blues a few "on-field" lessons.' When you're shopping for a dinner party, you might be tempted to reject own-brand produce in favour of more expensive brand names to impress your guests. But by rejecting supermarket ranges you could actually be missing out on tastier food - as well as spending more than you need to - according to a panel of esteemed food experts. In last night's Tried and Tasted: The Ultimate Shopping List on Channel 4 chef Michel Roux Jnr, food critic Jay Rayner and First Dates maitre d' Fred Sirieix put supermarket products to the test against big brand names. And they all agreed the saying 'you get what you pay for' did not apply, because in their blind taste test of sausages, crisps, and coffee beans, the well-known brands did not come out on top. Morrisons and Tesco own brand products reigned supreme over big names like Richmond sausages, while supermarket crisps were judged just as good as familiar favourites like Walkers and Kettle Chips. Food critic Jay Rayner is stunned to find out he prefers cheap supermarket brand coffee Lidl, while his fellow expert panelists chef Michel Roux Jnr and First Dates Fred Sirieix all taste test sausages and crisps Morrisons chipolatas were the favourite (6.60 per kg) with Tesco Finest (6.67 per kg) voted second by the experts Even though they were the most meaty, sausages from the butchers were 'too salty' (stock image, 10.75 per kg) and best selling Richmond sausage (4.41 per kg) were branded too fatty First up for the panel to taste were sausages, and they couldn't resist dropping a few innuendos as they got to grips with the dish. They were told to judge based on texture, flavour, and meat quality. MORE BANGER FOR YOUR BUCK: THE BEST SUPERMARKET SAUSAGES Morrisons ' chipolatas were crowned the winner by the panel for it's flavour and texture (6.60 per kg) ' chipolatas were crowned the winner by the panel for it's flavour and texture (6.60 per kg) Tesco came in second with their Finest selection (6.67 per kg) came in second with their Finest selection (6.67 per kg) Third was the 'too salty' local butcher's chipolata sausage (10.75 per kg) In last place was the nation's best-selling Richmond Irish recipe thick pork sausage (4.41 per kg) Advertisement Michel said the Richmond sausages 'don't taste of pork' and pronounced them bland, while Fred was disgusted by the amount of fat pouring out. But baker and award-winning Eat Naked delicatessen owner Stacie Stewart admitted she would be happy to have them on a hangover. Chipolata sausages from an artisan butcher were branded 'too salty'. In the end, supermarket Morrisons came out on top, while Tesco Finest sausages came second. The experts also got a caffeine hit from the UK's top two coffee brands. Assessing aroma, bitterness and taste of the coffee bean, they voted the UK's top selling Lavazza Qualita Rossa in first place. But the second best-selling in the country Taylors, came last in the panel's rankings. Lavazza Qualita Rossa coffee, which is priced at 1.30 per 100g was voted the best, while Lidl's own Bellarom Gold Arabica was voted second, priced 60p per 100g Artisan coffee Union hand-roasted is placed third (2.75 per 100g) and Taylors Lazy Sunday (1.54 per 100g) comes in last despite being one of the UK's best-selling brands HOW THE EXPERTS RANKED SUPERMARKET BRANDS Advertisement COFFEE Winner: Lavazza Qualita Rossa A 'worthy winner', Michel Roux Jnr said of the the UK's top selling (1.30 per 100g) Second : Union Roasted Coffee and Lid's Bellarom Gold The most expensive at 2.75 per 100g, shared jointly with Lidl's Bellarom Gold, the cheapest at 60p per 100g Last: Taylors Lazy Sunday (1.54 per 100g) CHEESE AND ONION CRISPS Winner: Tesco Cheese & Onion Top selling supermarket own Tesco's Cheese and Onion crisps came in first (57p per 100g) Second: A tie! The UK's best selling Walkers Cheese and Onion (1 per 100g), the second best selling Kettle Chips Mature Cheddar and Onion (1.33 per 100g) and Morrisons' Cheese and Onion (57p per 100g) all came joint second The most expensive coffee from brand Union was called 'sock juice' by Fred Sirieix and labelled too weak by the rest of the experts, while Jay Rayner favoured Lidl's own Bellarom Gold. He disagreed with the panel who claimed it tasted 'harsh', and said: 'I think there's a depth and a richness to this. 'Taste is personal and I need something rich and deep. A bit like Brad Pitt.' They all had the last laugh when he realised he had picked the cheapest of the selection. Top selling supermarket own Tesco's Cheese and Onion crisps came in first (57p per 100g). The UK's best selling Walkers Cheese and Onion (1 per 100g) came in joint second with Kettle Chips and Morrisons A quick fire cheese and onion crisps taste test saw Tesco crowned the winner, with Walkers, Kettle Chips and Morrisons all placing joint second with an equal number of votes between them. To make things fair the packaging was removed from the food, and each dish was prepared by chef and Instagram influencer Isaac Carew, according to the manufacturers' instructions. Throughout the series the foodie experts will put a wide array of supermarket shoppers' favourite buys to the test in a bid to compile the 'ultimate' shopping list. The hope is that Michel Roux can help shoppers to learn what's truly worth splashing out on. Tried and Tasted: The Ultimate Shopping List airs at 8pm Tuesday on Channel 4 Skittles have become the unlikely focus of a race row after Twitter users objected to white versions of the sweets being sold to mark Pride month. Skittles are usually colourful, but the makers, Mars, says it is selling the blank version in the UK to send out the message that 'during Pride, only one rainbow matters' - meaning the LGBT rainbow. But several Twitter users suggested that choosing the colour 'white' for the neutral Skittles was racist. Skittles have turned white for the month of June to celebrate LGBT Pride month. Even the famous rainbow packaging has turned white and black (pictured) Podcaster Tora Sjae started the debate on Twitter as she argued that the colour white doesn't represent equality due to the history of abuse of BAME people Podcaster Tora Shae started the debate by arguing that the colour white has never represented 'equality', which is celebrated during the month of Pride. She tweeted: 'Why should whiteness mean equality?! That's the f***ing problem! 'We will never have nor want whiteness!!' She was retweeted by dozens of people, with other commentators agreeing that the new look was racist because it 'normalised whiteness'. Supermarkets including Tesco are donating 2p per pack of the white Skittles to LGBT charities A handful on Twitter supported the claims that the white Skittles were racist But her argument was only backed by a few supporters. As the tweet quickly went viral, racking up thousands of replies, users shot her down by reminding her that she was talking about sweets, not people. Many were baffled as to how anyone could turn a conversation about sweets into a race debate. Hundreds if not thousands of people were tweeting to say that the Skittles could not be racist because they are just sweets Others mocked her argument, with one saying that her dad was offended by the new sweets because he's 'colour blind - and that they look like ibruprofen'. The sweets are being sold in supermarkets to mark LGBT Pride month for the whole of June. It is the second time Mars has released the blank version of sweets for the occasion. A spokesman for Mars UK said: 'The rainbow flag is the symbol of Pride, but the rainbow is also synonymous with Skittles. 'So to show our support Skittles has again given up its rainbow colours in order for Prides rainbow to take centre stage at the Pride in London parade. Any suggestion that this support for Pride is in anyway racist is clearly wrong.' Traditional Chinese medicines could help prevent heart disease and the progression of pre-diabetes, according to research. Some herbal treatments proved as effective in lowering blood pressure as Western drugs and improved heart health by lowering cholesterol, scientists found. Certain alternative medicines could lower blood sugar and insulin levels, too. Chinese medicines could be used alongside conventional treatments, say researchers from from Shandong University Qilu Hospital in China. Or they can be beneficial as an alternative for patients intolerant of Western drugs, they said in their review of medical studies over a ten-year period. Senior review author from the university's department of traditional Chinese medicine said: 'The pharmacological effects and the underlying mechanisms of some active ingredients of traditional Chinese medications have been elucidated. 'Thus, some medications might be used as a complementary and alternative approach for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.' Some Chinese herbs may have prevent heart disease and diabetes say experts (file) It's potentially good news for people living with diabetes, which is now a global epidemic and has proved a tricky condition to manage for many people. High blood pressure is very common too, affecting more than one in four adults in the UK, although many won't show symptoms and realise it. If untreated, it increases your risk of serious problems including heart disease, the number one killer globally. The Chinese have used herbs for treating diseases for thousands of years and have become increasingly popular in Europe and North America, mainly as complement to Western medicine. But the researchers also warn that much of the research conducted have limitations and so their long-term effects are not proven. Key findings Herbs for high blood pressure The blood pressure-lowering effect of herb zhongfujiangya was found to be similar to that of oral anti-hypertension medication benazeprilm, which goes by the brand name Lotensin. Similarly, patients treated for eight weeks with herbal tiankuijiangya had a lower reading than those given a placebo. Herbal Jiangya tablets were found to 'significantly lower' systolic blood pressure, that is the amount of pressure in your arteries during contraction of your heart muscle compared to a fake treatment. The herb Jiangyabao also had a significant effect compared to a placebo, but just at night. But overall, compared to the drug Nimodipine, a calcium channel blocker, it worked just as well. Qiqilian capsules also proved more effective compared to a placebo. Herbs for diabetes The team report some Chinese medicines medications such as xiaoke, tangminling, jinlida, and jianyutangkang have a 'potent' effect on lowering blood sugar levels and b-cell function, which controls the release of insulin. Some remedies such as tangzhiping and tianqi might prevent the progression of pre-diabetes to diabetes, they note. Herbs for cholesterol The researchers looked at research on dyslipidemia, the term for unbalanced or unhealthy cholesterol levels. They found that jiangzhitongluo, salviamiltiorrhiza and pueraria lobata, and zhibitai capsule all have a 'potent lipid-lowing effect'. Herbs for heart disease Some traditional Chinese medicines such as qiliqiangxin, nuanxin, shencaotongmai, and yangxinkang, might be effective in improving function in patients with chronic heart failure, they wrote. Limitations with trials But Western scientists often reject Chinese medicine for specific reasons, warned Dr Zhao's team. Chinese medicines are frowned upon because they do not go through the same exhaustive approval process as trials conducted domestically, they pointed out. Plus, one treatment can be made of many different ingredients with various chemical compounds, making it hard to pinpoint how their benefits work. 'One should bear in mind that traditional Chinese medicine medications are usually prescribed as complex formulae, which are often further manipulated by the practitioner on a personalized basis,' said Dr Zhao. COULD CHINESE MEDICINE CURE LEUKAEMIA? A Chinese herbal medicine was reported to have blasted leukaemia into remission. Seriously ill patients given homoharringtonine, a drug made from the leaves of the plum yew tree, made remarkable recoveries, according to a study published last year. Some had already been treated unsuccessfully with conventional drugs. All were suffering from a hard to treat form of acute myeloid leukaemia an aggressive cancer of the white blood cells. Twenty of the 24 patients treated with homoharringtonine, plus a conventional medicine that boosted its effect, saw all signs of their cancer gone. It is believed to stop tumours from making the proteins they need to live and grow. An editor of the journal Science Translational Medicine, said: The treatment showed promising results which in a trial which included elderly patients and those who have failed all previous treatments, paving the way for further development of this drug. Advertisement Beware of complications However, not all ancient Chinese remedies are considered benign as previous studies suggest. One of the most commonly used, aristolochia (AKA birthwort or Dutchman's pipe), was shown to trigger kidney failure and cancer. Hailed for more than 2,500 years as a cure-all alternative medicine, it is marketed as a treatment for 'snakebite, head wounds, insomnia, constipation, uterine problems, and generalised edema', according to a study published last year in the journal EMBO Reports. As a result of safety concerns mounting over the years, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency banned the import, sale or supply of aristolochia in the UK in 2001. Outside of herbal medicines, traditional Chinese healing includes practices like tai chi and acupuncture, are generally considered safe. According to the Mayo Clinic, the risks of acupuncture are low if you are treated by a competent, certified acupuncture practitioner. However, they do note that possible side effects include soreness and infections are on rare occasions, if the needles are pushed in too deeply, they could puncture an internal organ particularly a lung. Experts recommend patients consult their GP before trying any Chinese herbal supplements or therapies. A woman had 'locked-in syndrome' that left her paralyzed but conscious for five weeks after developing a simple sinus infection. Justine Reddish, now 28, could not utter a single word, and could barely move, for weeks. Ms Reddish initially felt unwell in early December 2014, but doctors accused her of being a hypochondriac and told her to take an over-the-counter antihistamine. Tests later revealed she was suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), where a person's immune system damages their nerves, resulting in rapid muscle weakness. With the support of her family, Ms Reddish has recently started walking with sticks. Justine Reddish, now 28, would chat to her family in her head but could not speak a word Ms Reddish became ill with an infection in December 2014 (pictured with husband Bryan, 39) With her family's help, Ms Reddish recently started walking with sticks (pictured in February) WHAT IS GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME? Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) occurs when the body's immune system attacks its nervous system. It affects around one in 100,000 people. Symptoms usually start with a tingling sensation in the leg, which may spread to the arms and upper body. In severe cases, the person can become paralyzed. The condition can be life-threatening if it affects a person's breathing, blood pressure or heart rate. GBS' cause is unknown, but it usually occurs after a viral infection. There is no cure. Treatment focuses on restoring the nervous system. Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Advertisement Unclear what was wrong Ms Reddish from Corning, California, said: 'I was dribbling and very ill. As I got worse my husband rushed me to hospital.' Once she arrived weak and coughing, Ms Reddish was only able to make a 'wah' noise. Doctors had no idea what was wrong and put her to bed for the night. Her aunt, Diane Crain, 53, and husband, Bryan, 39, stayed with her. Yet, during the night, Mr Reddish woke to find her condition had deteriorated. She said: 'I couldn't feel the right side of my body. I thought I'd had a stroke.' Ms Crain took her to the toilet where she fell backwards and smashed her head. Doctors told her she would be taken to intensive care and given chemical ventilation. The prospect terrified Ms Reddish, who used to be a hotel worker, but is now retired. She said: 'I watch way too much Grey's Anatomy so I knew what that meant sticking a tube down your throat and chemically ventilating you. I was horrified.' By the next morning, she was totally paralyzed. Doctors accused her of being a hypochondriac and suggested she take an antihistamine At hospital, Ms Reddish was weak and unable to speak aside from saying 'wah' (with Bryan) The day after being admitted to hospital, Ms Reddish was totally paralyzed (with Bryan) After being diagnosed, she was airlifted to a larger hospital, where she stayed for five weeks Final diagnosis Doctors tested her for GBS,with results initially coming back clear, until a diagnosis was confirmed weeks later. Ms Reddish said: 'Everything was falling down around me. It was awful. I couldn't even keep my eyes open. 'Mentally, I was totally fine. I was aware what was happening but, physically, I was paralysed. It was awful.' Ms Reddish was moved to the larger UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco by air ambulance, where she stayed for five weeks, paralyzed but conscious. She said: 'I had locked-in syndrome. My family would gather around me, but I couldn't communicate with them. It was so frightening. 'Throughout it all, my husband was so supportive. My dad was brilliant, too. I was in hospital for 131 days in total and he was at my bed for 127 of them.' Ms Reddish's family stayed with her over the festive season (pictured with her father Richard) With continued physiotherapy, Ms Reddish has recently started walking again with sticks She even managed to dance with Bryan at her cousin Courtney Gomez's wedding (pictured) Support of her family got her through On New Year's Eve 2014, she was still unable to communicate. With her husband by her side, they saw in the new year together with her in silence and him at her bedside. Ms Reddish said: 'The irony is we'd discussed heading to San Francisco for New Year's loads of times, but never got around to it. So, to be there like that was bizarre.' For the next few weeks she was ventilated and fed through tubes. Yet, towards the end of January, she started to feel better. Ms Reddish said: 'Gradually movement began to come back to me. The locked-in subsided and I started physiotherapy, although I was still in a wheelchair.' During her illness Justine's cousin Courtney Gomez became engaged. Ms Reddish said: 'She told me I would be there, at her wedding dancing.' Yet, at the time of the wedding in April 2015, Ms Reddish was still in a wheelchair, but managed to dance with her husband. She said: 'At the wedding I felt strong enough to get up and dance with Bryan. It was a really emotional moment, being in his arms, after everything I'd been through.' Ms Reddish continued physiotherapy and was in a wheelchair until December 2016. She has recently started to walk using sticks. She said: 'It's a massive breakthrough. I am getting my life back together. 'After suffering locked-in syndrome and undergoing physiotherapy, I've turned a new corner.' George says he wakes up five times a night Insomnia is often attributed to stress and anxiety but its cause could be genetic, according to new research. For the first time, an international team of researchers has found seven risk genes for the sleep disorder. The breakthrough could lead to new treatments for the condition, which blights the lives of one in ten Britons. A host of celebrities including Madonna, George Clooney, Lady Gaga and Kim Cattrall have all spoken about their difficulties in nodding off at night and now scientists could help explain why. The findings also suggested there are different genetic variants for men and women with the latter being more susceptible. All in the mind? Not according to scientists who say new gene therapies could help (file) Until recently, insomnia was considered a purely psychological complaint triggered by depression, grief, or sleep disruption as a result of shift work or jet lag. More than ten million prescriptions for sleeping tablets are written in the UK each year, but now gene therapy may be the answer. Sleep specialist Professor Eus Van Someren, of Vrije University, Amsterdam, said: 'As compared to the severity, prevalence and risks of insomnia, only few studies targeted its causes. 'Insomnia is all too often dismissed as being 'all in your head'. 'Our research brings a new perspective. Insomnia is also in the genes.' How the research was carried out Professor Someren and his team mapped the DNA of more than 113,000 people from Britain and the Netherlands, in the first study of its kind. The risk genes were tracked down thanks to the UK Biobank a health study which has recruited half a million people aged 40 to 69 and makes data on DNA available. Participants had been asked whether they found it difficult to fall asleep or to have an uninterrupted sleep. The researchers were then able to identify similarities in genetics between those who reported suffering from insomnia. Key findings One of the identified genes, MEIS1, has previously been related to two other sleep disorders PLMS (periodic limb movements of sleep) and RLS (restless legs syndrome). The team, which included German scientists at the Institute of Neurogenomics, Munich, found mutations in the gene appear to contribute to all three disorders. They discovered that PLMS and RLS are characterised by restless movement and sensation, respectively, whereas insomnia is characterised mainly by a restless stream of consciousness. The researchers also found a strong genetic overlap with other traits such as anxiety disorders, depression and neuroticism, and reported low well-being. First author Anke Hammerschlag, a PhD student at Vrije University, said: 'This is an interesting finding, because these characteristics tend to go hand in hand with insomnia. 'We now know this is partly due to the shared genetic basis.' LACK OF SLEEP RAISES RISK OF LUNG CANCER AND DEMENTIA Sleeping for more or less than seven or seven-and-a-half hours increases your risk of lung cancer and dementia, according to new research. Too little, or excessive, shut eye is thought to cause low levels of inflammation in our bodies, as well as disrupting our 'sleep hormone', which drives tumour growth, the researchers said. Lack of sleep is also associated with elevated copper levels in our blood, which further increases our cancer risk, they added. Being disturbed from our nightly slumbers also raises our dementia risk by one-and-a-half times, the study found. This may be due to an accumulation of a specific protein that reduces the region of the brain associated with memory and prevents brain cell regeneration, the researcher said. Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland analysed 2,682 men participating in a 20 year-long trial known as the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Study. Advertisement Women are more genetically predispositioned Many previous studies have found women suffer from sleep disorders more than men. Co-researcher Professor Danielle Posthuma, also at Vrije University, said the study suggests their genes may explain why. She explained: 'Part of the genetic variants turned out to be different. 'This suggests that, for some part, different biological mechanisms may lead to insomnia in men and women. 'We also found a difference between men and women in terms of prevalence: in the sample we studied, including mainly people older than fifty years, 33 per cent of the women reported to suffer from insomnia. 'For men this was 24 per cent.' Hope for new treatments Professor Someren believes the findings have opened up a new pathway to a better understanding of insomnia at a neuronal level, which could result in better drugs. He said the condition is probably the most common health complaint at least a third of us have intermittent or constant sleep problem. Even after treatment, poor sleep remains a persistent vulnerability for many people. He also hopes they will help with insomnia being taken more seriously than it sometimes is. The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics. A size 14 woman with an extreme fear of vomiting saw her weight plunge to just 4st as she stopped herself from eating. Cheryl Longman, 30, of Rochester, Kent, had to battle with doctors to receive any life-saving treatment because they thought she was just anorexic. The former support worker, who was desperate to get help for her deteriorating body, was even threatened with being sectioned by bungling specialists. Having been plagued with the bizarre phobia, called emetophobia, ever since she was a child, it took a turn for the worse three years ago. It caused her to restrict herself to just two mouthfuls of each meal she had for 15 months to stop herself from throwing up. As a result, her weight plunged from 10st 7lbs to just 4st 11bs - when she was at immediate risk of death with her organs on the brink of shutting down. Miss Longman, who was even once told that she just longed for her curvy figure back, is now out of hospital and well on the way to recovery, weighing 8st 6lbs. Cheryl Longman, 30, who was once a size 14, has been scared of being sick ever since she was a child. Three years ago it worsened, causing her to plunge to just 4st 11b (pictured when she was admitted to the Medway Maritime Hospital in February) She said: 'It was horrible watching the weight just drop off me. I was so used to being healthy and being curvy and then all of a sudden I was wasting away. 'But I was trapped in this vicious cycle of restricting my food because I was absolutely terrified of being too full and being sick and then as I got smaller and smaller my stomach was shrinking. 'I was hungry but the sheer terror of being sick was so overwhelming. Its like being in a horror film running away from some crazed killer. 'I lost so much weight that I was just skin and bone and my skin went grey and so dry from being malnourished - I looked so much older. 'Seeing myself in the mirror was heartbreaking. It destroyed my self-confidence.' Miss Longman added: 'I tried to get help but it just felt like I was being bounced back and forth between the mental health team and the eating disorder services. 'I faced this constant battle of having to convince everyone that I wasnt anorexic. 'People would treat me like I had body image issues but I didnt, I wanted to put the weight back on but I was just too scared. Restricting herself to just two mouthfuls of each meal for 15 months, her weight plunged from 10st 7lbs when she was 21 (right). The former support worker, of Rochester, Kent, is now out of hospital and well on the way to recovery, weighing 8st 6lbs (left) Despite trying to get help, Miss Longman feels she was 'bounced back and forth' between specialists who she claims struggled to accept she wasn't anorexic and even threatened to section her (pictured when she was admitted to Medway Maritime Hospital in February) 'Looking back now, I know I am very lucky to have recovered like I have. Its such an amazing feeling to be gaining weight and I look my age again.' Miss Longman developed emetophobia when she was 12, but it didn't affect what how much food she would eat until 2014. It was horrible watching the weight just drop off me. I was so used to being healthy and being curvy and then all of a sudden I was wasting away Cheryl Longman, 30 Instead, this was triggered when she became full after a takeaway and felt nauseous, causing an added terror of over-eating. Over three years, she was repeatedly referred to the Medway Community Mental Health Team and Eating Disorder Service in a bid to combat her accidental eating disorder. But during this time she lost more than half of her body weight and reached the point where even tiny size 6 clothes were hanging off her frame. By the time her weight plummeted below 5st, she had been housebound for two years as her body was so weak that just walking a few steps would leave her exhausted and breathless. Miss Longman said: 'It was horrible watching the weight just drop off me. I was so used to being healthy and being curvy and then all of a sudden I was wasting away' (pictured with her feeding tube when she was in hospital) Miss Longman added: 'Looking back now, I know I am very lucky to have recovered like I have. Its such an amazing feeling to be gaining weight and I look my age again' EMETOPHOBIA: THE FACTS Emetophobia, a fear of vomiting, is a condition that is not widely diagnosed even though it is a fairly prevalent anxiety disorder. More women have a fear of vomiting, or seeing others throw up, than men. Figures estimate that 1 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women are sufferers. Emetophobia varies in how it effects people; most worry excessively about being sick even though they are less likely than the general population to be sick because of all the steps they take to avoid being ill. Sufferers may be unable to leave home if there are any tummy bugs going around and they will avoid family and friends who have an illness. Many will also have a strict diet which is free from anything that might cause a stomach upset and some will avoid medications which list nausea as a side-effect. Many women will also dread the thought of being pregnant because of concerns about coping with morning sickness. Source: Anxiety UK Advertisement Although she could feel her body 'dying off', Miss Longman said her fear of dying was nothing compared to her fear of vomiting. Her rapidly deteriorating state led to her mother, Bernadette Hanson, 58, begging a therapist to stage an intervention. Miss Longman alleges that she was told if she didn't go to hospital she would be sectioned, which forced her to seek help. Doctors at the Medway Maritime Hospital welcomed her for a three-week stay in February 2017. But she said they also made the same judgements about her being anorexic. During her stay, her body had to be retrained as it had started to reject solid food. She was fitted with a feeding tube until her weight had increased. Miss Longman added: 'When I was taken to hospital I was told that my weight and blood sugar levels were so low that my body had started to die off and I was at risk of all my organs shutting down. 'It was so scary but up until that point, my fear of being sick had been way stronger than my fear of dying. I felt completely helpless.' Since leaving hospital, Miss Longman has continued to go to therapy in a bid to find the root cause of her fear and is now determined to raise awareness for other emetophobia sufferers. Miss Longman developed emetophobia when she was 12, but it didn't affect what how much food she would eat until 2014 (pictured when she was 21) Miss Longman believes there needs to be a greater awareness of the condition across the NHS so sufferers get the help they need as early as possible (pictured in December 2016) She said: 'Ive still got a way to go but I cant believe the progress Ive made. Its such a relief each time I check my BMI to see myself getting into the safe category. 'But even with that joy, eating is an everyday battle. The fear of being sick is still very much there but Ive learnt to fight it. 'Its just sad that my weight had to get so low that I could have died to get the care I needed.' Miss Longman believes there needs to be a greater awareness of the condition across the NHS so sufferers get the help they need as early as possible and has since set-up a group. Kent Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, the trust responsible, said it could not comment on individual cases but that they work to provide 'person-centred care'. A spokesperson said: 'Due to data protection we are unable to comment on individual cases. Patients are assessed individually and referred to the most appropriate service. 'The trust works in partnership with individuals, their families and those who support them to provide person-centred care. 'However, we would urge anyone with feedback about our services to contact our patient experienced team.' There was a time not too long ago when traditional public schools in the District of Columbia were widely considered among the worst in the nation (Hot for Teachers , Washington Monthly, June/July/August). But the situation there is far brighter as a result of a series of steps taken since former Chancellor Michelle Rhee was forced out. What has emerged is evidence that traditional public schools can hold their own against charter schools by offering all stakeholders hope. The most comprehensive teacher measurement system in public education implemented by Kaya Henderson and Jason Kamras ended a host of industrial-era practices. The results are seen in higher teacher morale and higher test scores. I applaud these improvements, but I hasten to point out they may not be sustainable because of the Hawthorne effect. What works in the short term may be the direct result of its newness alone. Once the novelty wears off, outcomes tend to regress. Its simply too soon to know with any assurance that the Hawthorne effect is not primarily responsible for the positive changes in D.C. schools. The debate over the safety of e-cigarettes rages on and now new research says they could potentially be as dangerous as regular tobacco cigarettes. The devices which contain nicotine-based liquid could be as harmful as unfiltered cigarettes when it comes to causing DNA damage, according to University of Connecticut (UConn) scientists. They also found that the vapour from non-nicotine e-cigs caused as much DNA damage as filtered cigarettes, possibly due to the chemical additives. Cellular mutations caused by DNA damage can lead to cancer. As well as whether the e-cig contains a nicotine or non-nicotine liquid, the level of DNA damage e-cigs causes also depends on the amount of vapour the user inhales and how many other additives are present. E-cigarettes now used by millions may not be as harmless as we think, scientists warn Lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at UConn Karteek Kadimisetty, said: 'I was shocked the first time I saw the result, so I ran the controls again. I even diluted the samples. 'But the trend was still there something in the e-cigarettes was definitely causing damage to the DNA.' Previously, the rise in e-cigarette popularity has been praised for helping nicotine addicts to quit their smoking habit more than 9 million adults in the US and around 2.9 million in the UK vape. E-cigs heat a liquid usually containing nicotine mixed with the chemicals propylene glycol and glycerin, and often flavourings such as menthol or fruit into a vapour that users can inhale. The smokeless devices do not produce tar and carbon monoxide the nasties in tobacco cigarettes. Therefore, research seems to have found that they are safer than traditional cigarettes in the short term. But because they are still fairly new, their long-term effects are not fully known. Study is flawed say critics VAPING TRIGGERS BLADDER CANCER The chemicals in e-cigarettes are linked to cancer-related bladder tissue damage, recent research found. A team from the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville compared the urine of e-cigarettes users with that of nonsmokers. Some 92 percent of e-cigarette users' urine tested positive for two of the five compounds linked to bladder cancer, they discovered. In a second study, the researchers analysed the effect of nicotine and its chemical compounds - including nitrosamines and formaldehyde - on DNA repair in cells lining the bladder. E-cigarettes were found to trigger cancer-related damage to bladder tissue. The research also revealed that nicotine, nitrosamines and formaldehyde block DNA repair, boosting the cancer risk. A different recent study however suggests that e-cigarettes are less addictive than traditional cigarettes. Penn State College of Medicine said vapers typically wait longer to start using their e-cigs after waking up. Advertisement A spokesman for the United Kingdom Vaping Industry Association has hit out at UConn's findings, which were published in the journal ACS Sensors. 'The public health research in the UK is very clear. Public Health England have found vaping is likely to be 95 per cent less harmful than smoking, he told Metro. 'The Royal College of Physicians found that vaping did not exceed 5 per cent of the harm from smoking. Earlier this year, Cancer Research UK stated that not only is vaping a safer alternative to tobacco, it's long term harmful effects appear to be minimal.' He also pointed out that UConn admitted in their report that the technology they used to measure toxicity is new and not as comprehensive as current measurement techniques. NHS says e-cigs are safer but not risk-free According to the NHS, vaping is 'not risk free, but based on current evidence they carry a fraction of the risk of cigarettes'. It notes that as well as nicotine, e-cigarette liquid and vapour can contain 'potentially' harmful chemicals. Though these are 'either at much lower levels than seen in cigarette smoke or at levels not associated with health risk'. It says: 'E-cigarettes are still fairly new and we won't have a full picture on their safety until they have been in use for many years. 'Public Health England will continue to monitor the evidence as it develops.' A widow has become the first Briton ever to be diagnosed with an ultra-rare disease after she regurgitated seven pints of vomit that looked like coffee grains. Doctors initially believed Mary McIntosh, 79, had suffered a heart attack when she complained of chest pains during a GP visit. She was quickly taken to hospital where she spewed out 'coffee ground vomitus' - a name given due to the colour of the liquid. Ms McIntosh is the first documented person in England to suffer from ischemic oesophagus - a condition so rare it has only affected only 131 people across the world in the past 50 years. Doctors' limited knowledge of the disease meant Ms McIntosh was given no treatment for a week. Mary McIntosh, 79, is the first Briton to suffer with a condition that causes 'coffee grain' vomit WHAT IS ISCHEMIC OESOPHAGUS? Ischemic oesophagus is characterised by a black oesphagus shown on an endoscopy. It causes bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract in up to 90 per cent of cases. Death occurs in up to 36 per cent of patients, however, this is often due to an underlying condition, such as sepsis or organ failure. The cause is unknown but may include infection, alcohol abuse and malnutrition. Treatment focuses on curing any underlying condition and ensuring organ function is maintained. Source: American College of Gastroenterology Advertisement Unclear diagnosis Ms McIntosh, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, said: 'They had no idea because they have never come across it. 'I think it is just something that happens and they don't know why, at first I just thought I was having heartburn from something I ate. 'It was funny because the doctors kept taking pictures of my sick and going through it because they'd never seen anything like it before.' Mistaken for a heart attack Ms McIntosh's, a retired factory worker, ordeal began when she visited her local GP surgery for routine blood tests on May 2. During the test, she started getting chest pains and was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. The widowed mother-of-three was sent to Royal Oldham Hospital where examinations of her oesophagus revealed she had the condition. Doctors then set about trying to contact people from around the world to find out more about the disorder. Doctors initially thought she had suffered a heart attack (pictured with one of her daughters) The condition has affected just 131 people globally in 50 years (pictured with daughter Carol) Doctors were unsure how to treat her and called on experts from around the world (with Carol) Ms McIntosh has recovered and is back at home (with her daughters Carol, Catherine and Fion) Support of her daughters After 10 days Ms McIntosh's condition improved and she was deemed well enough to go home with the help of her three daughters. She said: 'It seems to be much better now and I can eat a bit. The doctors are hoping that it the illness is completely gone. 'I'm glad to be home now so that I can build up my strength.' Her eldest daughter Carol Coyle, 57, a nurse who lives in Sydney, flew back to England to care for her mother while she rested. Ms Coyle said: 'Mum is a true fighter and she would have overcome anything, but with this illness though she was very lucky to get out the other side. 'She would do anything for me and my two other sisters, she worked lots of jobs before she retired. 'She always says "as long as my beautiful girls are ok then I'm fine" - and never asks us for anything - she's a very stubborn proud lady.' Ms Coyle added that she was alarmed when doctors could not tell her what the problem was. She said: 'I said to them what is it and they said "we can't answer that", which was quite frightening really. 'I asked what happens next and the doctor looked at me and said they have contacted people around the world to find out - she is special.' 'Being a nurse myself, I spoke to a doctor at the hospital where I work in New South Wales and he told me when it comes down to the treatment of it - it's all trial and error because it is so rare.' Doctors aren't working with people's budget in mind, new studies have revealed. Experts previously thought that if doctors were shown the cost of tests they ordered for patients, the number and spending on these tests would decrease. However a new study found that physicians don't change their ordering behavior after seeing the price tag of an exam. Some physicians even increased the number of tests they ordered after seeing the cost, according to a separate study. These findings have experts divided if doctors should be better informed of prices or if they should focus on the value of the treatment. A Pennsylvania study revealed that doctors don't care about the price of tests that they order for patients The study was published by JAMA Internal Medicine and examined the practice of doctors at three Pennsylvania hospitals for a full year. Doctors were divided into two groups, one in which Medicare allowable fees that would be reimbursed to the hospital could be seen and the other group saw no price. The study concluded there was no significant difference in physicians knowing the cost of the test and those who did not know. But a similar study published in the American Academy of Pediatrics in February, tested the same theory with pediatric-focused clinicians and adult-oriented clinicians. While the pediatric-focused doctors had no change in the rate they ordered imaging studies and procedures, there was a 'significantly higher' rate for orders placed by adult-focused doctors. REPEAT TESTING AMOUNT MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES An older study reported that repeat testing is common among Medicare beneficiaries. If a patient lived in a populous metropolitan area, it was more likely for them to have repeated examinations. The study authors noted these repeated tests were a major determinant to the ability to contain healthcare costs. Their cause of concern was that up to 50 percent of the tests were being repeated in a three year span. They added: 'This finding raises the question whether some physicians are routinely repeating diagnostic tests.' Source: JAMA Internal Medicine Advertisement Previous studies have shown that a majority of physicians are unaware of the expensive treatments, drugs and medicine they prescribe to patients. A Canadian study published in 2007 concluded doctors were ignorant of costs and had a 'tendency to underestimate the price of expensive drugs'. The researchers added: 'Doctors demonstrate a lack of appreciation of the large difference in cost between inexpensive and expensive drugs. 'This discrepancy in turn could have profound implications for overall drug expenditures. 'Much more focus is required in the education of physicians about costs and the access to cost information.' Recently, more researchers have been highlighting deficiencies in health care quality, such as unnecessary tests and procedures that cause patient harm, medical errors bred by disjointed or fragmented care and disparities in service distribution. In regards to the new study, Dr Aaron Carroll reasoned that sometimes the best healthcare is expensive and doctors should strive for overall value. He wrote for the New York Times: 'Trying to make physicians focus strictly on cost may be off base as well. 'Some care, even more expensive care, is worth it. What we really should attend to is value the quality and impact relative to the cost.' Stress is known to cause clumps of hair to fall out and to increase the risk of developing diseases but few are aware of one shocking side effect. Demi Moore, 54, revealed that stress can cause teeth to fall out - and it happened to her. She confessed she lost her two front teeth while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The actress said she thought it was important to share what happened to her because many are unaware of the full toll that stress can take on the body. Although what happened to Demi is extremely rare, dentists and health experts agree that stress really can lead to your pearly whites falling out. Demi Moore, 54, revealed to Jimmy Fallon that she lost her two front teeth due to stress. Pictured: Moore with only one of her missing teeth showing While this is rare, studies show that stress can increase the risk of gum disease, which is the number one cause of adult tooth loss STRESS INCREASES THE RISK OF A HEART ATTACK A stressful life significantly increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, new evidence suggests. Scientists at Harvard Medical School have directly linked anxiety and stress to cardiovascular disease for the first time - and discovered exactly why the two are linked. Experts said the findings - the strongest yet to link mental wellbeing with physical health - suggest doctors should start treating people with chronic stress as being at risk of heart attacks. In a four-year trial they used high-tech MRI scanners to examine the brains, hearts and bone marrow of nearly 300 patients. They found that people with higher activity in the amygdala region of the brain, the part associated with stress, were 59 percent more likely over the next 3.7 years to develop heart failure or angina or suffer a heart attack or stroke. Advertisement While on the late-night show, Moore said: 'I sheared off my front teeth. I'd love to say it was skateboarding or something really kind of cool, but I think ... I think it's something that's important to share because I think it's literally, probably after heart disease, one of the biggest killers in in America, which is stress. She continued: 'Stress sheared off my front tooth. But, in an effort to get ready for you, I wanted to make sure my teeth were in.' Dr Matthew Messina, a spokesperson for the American Dental Association, confirmed that stress can cause teeth to fall out, but it won't happen overnight. Speaking to the Daily Mail Online, he said: 'This is not going to happen in an instant. People shouldn't think that because they're stressed it means their teeth are going to fall out immediately. 'But you have to understand and listen to what your body is telling you. 'If people's gums are bleeding, they grind their teeth or if their teeth hurt when they wake up in the morning, they need to listen to that.' Dr Messina said the number one cause for tooth loss in adults is periodontal disease, which studies have linked to stress. A comprehensive review in 2007 found a strong relationship between the two factors, with a majority of studies confirming the link. The author of the review Dr Daiane Peruzzo said: 'More research is needed to determine the definitive relationship between stress and periodontal diseases. 'However, patients who minimize stress may be at less risk for periodontal diseases.' Dr Messina added that clenching and grinding teeth, which stems from stress, can play a role in tooth loss. He encourages people to see their dentist if they are concerned about their oral health so a treatment plan can be devised. The actress has since fixed the problem but laughed about it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She said she thought it was important to share what happened because many are unaware of the full toll that stress can take on the body Dr Heidi Hanna, the executive director of the American Institute of Stress, agrees and said to always visit a dentist at the first sign of oral issues. She said: 'Stress can cause a variety of health issues that could potentially lead to something as dramatic as losing your teeth, however it's not likely to happen if you're taking care of your teeth. 'Nervous tension can lead to grinding teeth at night, which could potentially cause damage to the root or enamel. Because everyone experiences and copes with stress differently, there is no way to know for sure if stress plays a role in the development of any sort of health problem.' Previous studies have shown that exposure to psycho-social stress is a risk factor for coronary heart disease as well as other health problems. A study by the Boston University School of Medicine in 2016 found that stress could trigger Alzheimer's by encouraging the accumulation of key proteins in the brain. This discovered pathway thought to cause Alzheimer's disease could unlock new approaches for treating the disease, scientists hope. Their findings focus on the tau protein, whose abnormal clustering in the brain has long been known to fuel the nerve damage, characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. The team found the tau protein directs the formation of stress granules. Premature babies do as well at school as peers born at full-term, say scientists. The study followed more than 1.3 million Florida children into middle school to examine how preemie babies performed in regards to their education. This is believed to be the first study of its kind, due to its magnitude and because researchers tracked children over a 10-year span. The experts concluded parents had unfounded fears that their premature children would struggle in school. More than sixty percent of babies born at only 23 or 24 weeks were ready for kindergarten on time, with almost two percent achieving a 'gifted' status in school. While these extremely premature babies often scored low on standardized tests, experts believe this wasn't a cause for concern as most were able to fully catch up to their peers by middle school. Babies born before the 37th week of pregnancy do just as well in school as their peers, a Chicago study found HEALTH RISKS OF PREMATURE BIRTHS Babies born before the 37th week of pregnancy may need special medical attention. This is due to some of their vital organs not being developed fully, including the lungs, brain and liver. Around 10 percent of infants born annually are premature. In addition to the immediate health concerns, these babies may face other risk factors as they grow up. Premature babies have a higher risk of being depressed as they grow older, recent research suggests. They are more prone to have ADHD in childhood, anxiety and even being shy as an adult, experts claim. Preterm birth can also cause childhood neurologic disability, as well as long-term medical consequences including respiratory, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases and decreased immunity. Advertisement Premature babies often scored low on standard reading, writing and maths tests, pre-term infants born 25 weeks or later performed only slightly worse than full-term counterparts. As the length of pregnancy increased after 28 weeks the differences in test scores were negligible. Professor Craig Garfield, a pediatrician at Northwestern University in Chicago, said: 'Many studies look at premature babies but very few of them look at their educational outcomes into middle school in such a large population.' Four years ago a British study suggested boys and girls born early were 50 percent more likely to fail the reading, writing and math tests given at the end of their second year in school. Children born before 37 weeks of pregnancy were also more likely to be diagnosed as having dyslexia, deafness and other problems that class them as having special educational needs. But the latest findings are the most comprehensive, analyzing babies born in Florida from 1992 to 2002. Their gestational ages ranged from 23 to 41 weeks and they later entered Florida public schools between 1995 and 2012. Professor David Figlio, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, said: 'While some people might be troubled very premature infants tend to score well below their full-term peers on standardized tests, I believe the glass is more than half-full. 'Most infants born at 23 to 24 weeks still demonstrate a high degree of cognitive functioning at the start of kindergarten and throughout school.' The study published in JAMA Pediatrics matched the babies' vital statistic records with their Florida public school records to examine the association between being born early and educational performance. Professor Garfield said: 'What excites me about this study is it changes the focus for the clinician and families at the bedside from just focusing on the medical outcomes of the child to what the future educational outcomes might be for a child born early. 'What's special about this study is it speaks to the importance of administrative data sets and the ability to combine different data sets in ways that allow us to ask questions and get answers about how our children are doing in the long-run.' But the data does not account for some of the infants' medical issues related to premature birth or provide information about why they did well in school. LONG-TERM DANGERS FOR PREMATURE BABIES Long-term complications In the long term, premature birth may lead to these complications: Cerebral palsy Impaired cognitive skills Vision problems Hearing problems Dental problems Behavioral problems Chronic health issues Source: Mayo Clinic Advertisement This includes their biological make-up or if they received extra support from family or schools, said Professor Garfield. However most babies born prematurely ended up performing reasonably well on standardized tests through middle school. Professor Garfield said: 'Our future work in this area will focus on what parents and service providers can do to help future premature children to achieve their full potential.' Four years ago a much smaller study of less than 12,000 youngsters by Bristol University said a third of children born before 37 weeks lag behind by the time they turn seven, it was revealed. They found these pupils were put at an 'educational disadvantage' compared with those born at around 40 weeks. It was claimed the effect was even more marked if a premature birth over the summer months caused the child to be placed in the older year group. The study also found over one-in-three premature children was diagnosed with some form of special educational needs - far higher than the national average of around a fifth. It led to calls for a change in policy so the school entry age for children born prematurely is based on their expected due date rather than their premature date of birth. The significance of Indias membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should neither be exaggerated nor minimised. On the positive side, it enhances Indias regional status. The platform it provides to regularly interact with SCO members, especially the Central Asian states, and that too collectively, will enable a better understanding of the regional dynamics at work within the organisation. The significance of Indias membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should neither be exaggerated nor minimised Projects China and Russia have so far dominated the SCO, with China engaged in resource extraction projects such as oil and gas pipelines and promoting other forms of connectivity to create markets for Chinas exports. And Russia, with its limited economic and financial capacities, focusing on security issues centred around the threat of religious extremism and terrorism. Indias entry acknowledges its role in building the future of this region. For the Central Asian states concerned about their independence, Indias membership balances somewhat the preponderance of Russia and China, besides offering them structured access to another major partner for development promotion. Indias membership expands the geographic and geopolitical frontiers of the SCO, with the views, interests and capacities of another Asian giant influencing the organisations deliberations and decisions. Indias strategic interest in playing on as many geopolitical chess boards as possible, without being inhibited by renewed rivalries and changing equations amongst existing and emerging powers, is served by its SCO membership. President Vladimir Putin (L) greets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) during the SCO Summit Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, last week In recent years India has been engaged in a strategic exercise to improve its relations with the US, preserve its traditional ties with Russia and engage with China positively despite differences. In a pragmatic approach to international relations India has strengthened military cooperation with the US and forged with it a joint strategic vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions even as it has participated in the Russia-India-China dialogue, subscribed to the BRICS agenda and become a founding member of the China-promoted Asian Infrastructure Investment Fund. The SCO membership follows the same logic of working in all geopolitical spaces with a view to raising Indias profile and enlarging its political, economic and security options. Central Asia is well within Indias strategic perimeter. Because the region is landlocked and the traditional access to it through Afghanistan has been blocked by Pakistan, the feeling of its remoteness from us has grown. China, with its President Xi Jinping (right) and Russia with Putin (left) at the helm have so far dominated the SCO Yet, distance-wise Central Asian countries are much nearer to us than we realise. Almost all their capitals are closer to New Delhi by air than Thiruvananthapuram is. That the leaders of these Muslim countries are secular in their orientation and are opposed to religious extremism is a strategic asset for the region and important for our security. Radicalism We have shared interest to counter threats to them from Islamic radicalism radiating from the Af-Pak region, the roots of which lie in the unleashing of jihadi terrorism against the Soviets in Afghanistan and also the Saudi-funded madrassas in Pakistan. The strong reemergence of the Taliban in Pakistan presents a major challenge to them and us. The SCO Declaration of 2001 as well as the SCO Charter of 2002 envisage cooperation in cracking down on terrorism, separatism and extremism, concerns about which have sharpened with the appearance of Islamic State elements in Afghanistan. On the less positive side, China, which had always bracketed Indias SCO membership with that of Pakistan, has succeeded in its objective, entrenching the hyphenation it makes between the two countries on the international stage. Chinas strategy is to deny any regional advantage to India visa-vis Pakistan, which is the logic driving also its opposition to Indias NSG membership without Pakistan. Paranoia This shoring up of Pakistan for Chinas parochial reasons caters to Pakistans paranoia of parity with India and reduces pressure on it to behave as a normal state. Russia had initially opposed Pakistans membership because its role as a partner in combating terrorism was questioned by it, but it now acknowledges positively Pakistans anti-terrorism credentials. But how Pakistan can cooperate within the SCO framework in combating terrorism is unclear. Modi was right to raise the issue of radicalisation, recruitment, training and financing of terrorists at Astana and the impossibility of finding a solution without coordinated efforts. That Pakistan should have been given preference for membership over Iran and Afghanistan which have major economic, cultural and direct security ties with Central Asian states reflects Chinas noxious clout. Indias membership will have other difficult aspects. We will have to decide on our participation along with Pakistan in SCOs joint military exercises. Modi rightly mentioned at Astana our desire to deepen regional connectivity but one that respects sovereignty, regional integrity, inclusivity and sustainability, which the BRI does not. How will we reconcile our opposition to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative with the support it receives from all SCO members. Not only differences with Pakistan but also with China will have to be navigated by us in SCO, even as we play a constructive role. In the backstreets of Agra's Muslim quarter, where shoes have been made for centuries, small-scale manufacturers are firing workers and families cutting back on spending as a government crackdown on cattle slaughter ripples through the community. The election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) three years ago has emboldened right-wing Hindu groups to push harder for protection of the cow, an animal they consider sacred. Authorities in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, started closing down unlicensed abattoirs in March, immediately hitting production and sales in the Muslim-dominated meat industry. An Indian woman stands with an ox in Mumbai as she asks for donations from passersby to feed the animal Last month Modi's government also banned trading cattle for slaughter, including not just cows, whose killing was already outlawed in most states, but also buffalo, an animal used for meat and leather. Now the squeeze is spreading to others in the Muslim minority and to lower-caste Hindus who cart cattle, labour in tanneries and make shoes, bags and belts - including for big name brands such as Zara and Clarks. Frequent attacks by right-wing Hindus against workers they accuse of harming cattle have further rattled the industry. An Indian man unloads a buffalo near an abattoir in Meerut The backstreets of Agra's Muslim quarter Social Tensions Much of India's meat and leather trade takes place in the informal economy, meaning the impact of the closing of illegal abattoirs and ban on trading for slaughter is hard to measure. But cattle markets are reporting a big slowdown in trade and tanneries a shortage of hides. Abdul Faheem Qureshi, a representative of India's Muslim Qureshi community of butchers, said in Uttar Pradesh some markets trading 1,000 animals last year were now down to as few as 100. The decline in production means fewer jobs for two of India's poorest communities, and risks inflaming social tensions at a time when Modi has vowed to boost employment and accelerate economic growth ahead of the next general election in 2019. Sacred cow and motorcycle at Agra, Uttar Pradesh A cow statue covered in colored powder during the Holi festival in the Banke Bihari temple 'Modi is to blame. He is targeting Muslims.' Imam from Agra Some large leather manufacturers support the Uttar Pradesh state government's move, arguing that allowing only licensed abattoirs to operate will clean the industry's image. Bigger exporters also say they have enough leather as they source hides widely, including from abroad. Still, millions work in the meat and leather industries, which are worth more than $16 billion in annual sales. Protest against the recent decision to ban sale of cattle from animal markets for slaughter When Reuters visited the narrow shoemaking lanes of Agra a crowd of Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast gathered, shouting angrily that they were no longer safe to trade buffalo, buy cow leather for shoes or to do work that their community has done for centuries for fear of being attacked by Hindu vigilantes. 'They want to weaken us. They want to snatch our bread,' says 66-year-old Mohammad Muqeem, whose workers stitch $3 shoes in his cellar, referring to the closure of slaughterhouses and recent attacks on cattle traders. Muqeem's monthly income has halved to $300 since last year as leather has become scarce. His dozen casual workers, down from 40, now use mostly synthetic materials. Indian police remove members of the Revolutionary Students and Youth Front during a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a ban on the sale of cows for slaughter in Chennai Impossible target Like meat, India's leather industry has expanded rapidly in the last decade, providing relatively well-paid factory work and cash for families stitching informally in their homes. Agra, in Uttar Pradesh, turns out a million pairs of shoes a day for domestic buyers and European labels such as Inditex-owned Zara and Clarks. An estimated 40 percent of the population of the northern Indian city, famed as the home of the Taj Mahal, depends on the industry. Clarks said in a statement that it does not use leather from Indian-origin cows and that the small amount of buffalo leather it sources from India had not been impacted. Zara and did not respond to requests for comment. India is one of the world's top five producers of leather, with skins coming from cows that die of natural causes or from the legal slaughter of buffalo. Modi's government is targeting leather revenues of $27 billion - more than double today's level - by 2020 as part of a job creation push. But in May, the government decreed that animal markets could only trade cow and buffalo for agricultural purposes such as ploughing and dairy production - a move many in the industry say contradicts its plans to grow leather sales. A worker handles a sheet of processed leather at the Jalandhar Leather tannery A worker uses a spray gun to treat a sheet of leather at the Jalandhar Leather tannery India's environment minister said this week the government could amend the rule after a court temporarily stayed the order and there was widespread anger in regions where meat and leather are important to the local culture and economy. But industry officials said the shock of the ban, coming on the heels of the crackdown on abattoirs and attacks against cattle workers, meant business would not easily recover. Companies say the government's leather target would be impossible to meet unless the restrictions are reversed. 'There is a lot of panic in the industry after the latest order, which has come as the biggest blow,' Puran Dawar, chairman of Agra-based exporter Dawar Footwear Industries, said as hundreds of workers moulded shoes on the factory floor, referring to the ban on cattle traded for slaughter. 'There are grave concerns about the supply of leather, exports of shoes and overall employment.' India's commerce ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Chief Minister Adityanath rejected accusations the BJP had targeted any specific group In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a controversial Hindu priest, had made closing unlicensed slaughter houses a priority after Modi appointed him in March. About 30 percent of hides, mostly from buffaloes, that supply tanneries in the state are from unlicensed abattoirs. Sitting in his one-room shop in Agra's leather market, Mohammad Hashim, a burly leather dealer in his sixties, said business was down 40 percent in the last three months. The recent scarcity of hides had hurt Hindus as much as Muslims, he said, pointing to the quiet streets outside and a Hindu man struggling to sell puffed rice snacks from his cart. A butcher cuts buffalo meat at a beef store in New Delhi Modi's election in 2014 and a resurgence in right-wing Hindu activism have increased concerns among Muslims that their livelihoods are under attack. As a minority making up 14 percent of India's 1.3 billion people, they are generally poorer and less literate than majority Hindus. When worshippers finishing evening prayers at the Mughal-era mosque in the shoemaking quarter of Agra are asked whether the chief minister handpicked by Modi is to blame, one of the Imams thunders: 'Modi is to blame. He is targeting Muslims.' In an interview with Reuters, Chief Minister Adityanath rejected accusations the BJP had targeted any specific group. 'Illegal slaughterhouses operated across the state and many big and small leather traders were buying raw material at cheapest rates from unlicensed slaughterhouses to maximise profits,' he said in Lucknow, the state capital. Millions of Indians work in the meat and leather industries, which are worth more than $16 billion in annual sales Wider industry hit In the industrial city of Kanpur, 250 km (155 miles) east of Agra, tanneries processing buffalo skins are reporting job losses as the availability of hides dries up. Nayyar Jamal, general secretary of Kanpur's Small Tanners' Association, reckons as many as 400,000 employees in Kanpur's leather and related industries are temporarily jobless, including some laid off because of environmental curbs on tannery pollution. Supplies of local hides have dropped by 20 to 30 percent. Qureshi, from the butchers' organisation, estimates that 3.5 million employees in Uttar Pradesh alone have been directly hit. 'More than the economic loss, the government has injected fear,' said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a writer and businessman from the Dalit community, as those at the bottom of Hinduism's social hierarchy once called 'untouchables' are known. Dalits and Muslims often work in trades that higher-caste Hindus traditionally consider beneath them. Tannery owner Mohammad Ikram said he was only able to procure 4,000 hides a month - down from 25,000 - because even truckers transporting legally obtained cow or buffalo hides fear attacks from vigilantes. He has a month's inventory left, and when that runs out he will have to start shedding staff. An employee handles the carcass of a slaughtered buffalo as it hangs from an overhead conveyor at an abattoir operated by Allana Group in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh Shahnawaz Qureshi, a wage labourer stuffing synthetic shoes into plastic bags in Muqeem's cellar in Agra, lost his last job after his employer could no longer afford leather. He now earns 3,000 rupees - or $47 - a month, down from 4,500 in his previous job, and together with his father's income supports three sisters and his mother. 'I decided to sign up for this job despite the fact that I earn reasonably less here,' he said. The new-age cyber criminal doesn't need your bank cards or account details to get a cash machine to spit out money. Using malware, they can hack into an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and empty it within minutes. Security agencies have cautioned the banking sector with cases of this new 'ATM breach' - which does not require cloned cards or physically breaking into the hardware - now coming to light in various parts of the country. According to investigators, a Chinese software - Rufus - is being used by criminals to access cash dispensers and loot money. Cyber criminals are exploiting outdated software being used in ATMs Instances have been reported in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Gujarat. State police departments have written to the Reserve Bank of India, informing about this loophole in the ATM security system. Sources say cyber criminals are exploiting outdated software being used in ATMs. The compromised cash machines were found to be running on the moth-eaten Microsoft Windows XP operating system. The RBI during the global WannaCry ransomware attack last month advised ATM operators to upgrade their system. The cyber crime branches of West Bengal and Bihar police confirmed to Mail Today about net crooks adopting this modus operandi 'We have so far found that this malware only targets ATMs working on Windows XP, which is prone to hacking given its low security,' said Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora. The spate of hacking incidents started in the Odisha city when Rs 17 lakh was withdrawn from an ATM and similar reports started pouring in from other parts of the state, with damages mounting to Rs 40 lakh. The cyber crime branches of West Bengal and Bihar police confirmed to Mail Today about net crooks adopting this modus operandi. A senior officer in West Bengal said his team is consulting cyber crime experts to crack such cases. Last year ATM machines were targeted with a similar ploy in Bihar's Patna, Begusarai and Jehanabad. A customers uses an ATM machine to withdraw cash inside a branch of the State Bank of India at Nariman Point, Mumbai (picture for representation only) Investigations revealed that the hackers went to unguarded ATMs at night. The machines were subjected to a 'physical' malware attack by inserting an infected pen drive in the dispenser's USB port to transfer the malicious file, causing the machine to behave erratically. 'Our probe uncovered that criminals used a key to open the upper compartment of the ATMs where the computers were located. Using an infected USB drive malware was transferred and the systems were rebooted. Investigations revealed that the hackers went to unguarded ATMs at night Once they got restarted, the systems would get de-linked from the main servers of the service provider. The malware when used on an ATM generates a code, which the crooks send to their gang members, who convert the code to a password, and as soon the password is applied the ATM dispenses cash,' Arora said. The officer said banks would not immediately learn about the crime as crooks bypass the server and the hackers swiftly walk away without raising an alarm. Security agencies also point out that off-site ATM vendors are violating rules and are not ensuring adequate virtual and physical security of the machines, leading to such crimes. Rustic ATM in Delhi 'The government and RBI should make ATM manufacturers compulsorily install new and robust operating systems,' said Mumbai-based cyber lawyer and expert Prashant Mali. 'If the government plans to increase the number of ATMs, then it should ensure that they are available whenever needed. In recent cases, we have seen ATMs going down due to attacks. It not only deprives a user from withdrawing money but also exposes them to cyber criminals.' Sources say following such incidents, banks have ordered a forensic audit. But neither they nor ATM manufacturers have confirmed whether a software malfunction caused the glitch. Makers of cash dispensers have denied that any security loophole exists from their end, but acknowledged that certain cases have come to their notice though these are not widespread. Sources, said RBI is aware of the situation and is closely working with National Payments Corporation to tell banks what security steps are required. State police officials have asked the RBI to instruct banks to incorporate latest security features in the ATMs. The movie stars Salman Khan, and is directed by Kabir Khan As tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours escalates, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has called for peace between Pakistan and India because both sides would lose lives in a war which wouldn't benefit anyone. 'War is not a sensible move. Nobody benefits from a war,' the 50-year-old actor said at a press conference in Mumbai. 'There should be peace with Pakistan,' he said. The superstar added, 'Those who order war, they should be given guns and made to fight. 'Within a day, all conflicts will get over as their legs will start shaking.' 'In a war, the armies of both sides lose lives. The families are without their sons or fathers. They have to live their whole lives without them,' he said. Tubelight, directed by Kabir Khan, dwells on the 1962 border conflict between India and China. Salman features in the movie with his younger brother Sohail. Talking about the highly-anticipated film, which releases at the end of this month, Salman said that the war only serves as the backdrop. 'We have not touched on the details of war in the film Tubelight. We have just used it as a backdrop. We've just pointed out that wars should end soon and our soldiers should return and their (Pakistan's) soldiers should also go back home to their families,' he said. Salman's younger brother and co-star in the film, Sohail Khan, who plays the role of the missing soldier, said nobody supports wars, but conflicts never end. 'You can ask anybody but they will not say that war is good. They will say that war is bad... Conflicts are solved across the table... Nobody supports war but it happens. Nobody knows why,' he said. Tubelight is yet another movie from Salman and Kabir that highlights the futility of war Salman interrupted Sohail to give his own solution on how to end a war. 'Tell those who ask for war to move to the front. Tell them, Here, pick up guns and fight, he said. War will end in a day,' he said. Tubelight is yet another movie from Salman and Kabir that highlights the futility of war. Their 2015 hit, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, showcased a heart-warming tale of a Hindu man who goes out of his way to ensure that he unites a lost mute Pakistani girl with her family across the border. Tubelight is an official adaptation of the 2015 war drama, Little Boy Tubelight is an official adaptation of the Mexican-American 2015 war drama, Little Boy. The original film is the story of an eight-year-old boy who shared a very special relationship with his father. He was devastated when his father left home to join the military to fight in Japan during World War II. Meanwhile, the diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan remain strained. India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of funding terror and protests against the army in Jammu and Kashmir as well as ceasefire violations along the Line of Control. Sea dog? Zeus Capital chief executive John Goold Anyone catch that dramatic YouTube video last week showing motorists swerving around a boat which had fallen from a trailer on a busy Exeter roundabout? City folk recognise the 25ft vessel as belonging to Zeus Capital chief executive John Goold, a gregarious Donald Trump look-a-like, who was transporting it to Padstow when it broke free from its fastenings. Says Gooldy: 'Some locals were incredibly helpful and eventually got it back on the trailer. 'The boat's my little pride and joy. It suffered a bit of a sore bottom but thankfully no proper damage.' Yahoo glamourpuss Marissa Mayer resigned yesterday after the internet firm's 3.5bn takeover by Verizon was completed. In a farewell note to staff, honey-blonde Marissa, 42, gushes: 'I want all of you to know that I'm brimming with nostalgia, gratitude, and optimism.' As well she might be! As a result of the deal, Mayer's waltzing off with 207million in her skyrocket. Dapper ex-M&S boss Lord Rose, who chaired the ill-fated Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, is far less whiny than his fellow pro-EU campaigners. He tells ITV he doesn't want a second referendum, accepts his side lost and insists 'a friendly divorce is still possible'. Do you share my suspicion that Lord Smoothychops's heart was never fully in the Remain campaign? Bull-necked former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn is said to be questioning his decision to join Donald Trump's administration. Cohn, who gave up his 17million-a-year role at Goldman to serve as director of the National Economic Council, has reportedly become frustrated with the President's outlandishness. Asked recently by a friend what it was like to serve for Trump, Cohn, 56, replied through gritted teeth: 'You can imagine.' Depressing not to say unsettling sign of the times: UBS's sparkling new City offices on Broadgate have now been fitted with 'impact-tested' flower planters made out of steel and concrete at the front of the building to repel any vehicles packed with explosives. Lawsuit: Private Immigration Prison's Forced Labor Amounted to Human Trafficking Prison labor is nothing new. Inmates have jobs inside and out, at best to provide some reprieve from the boredom of incarceration and a few dollars in the commissary account, and at worst to provide free or barely-compensated labor to prisons or communities. Inmates, infamously, have even worked in governors' mansions. Much of the justification for prison labor comes from the fact that inmates have been found guilty of a crime and have the option to support their housing and repay their debt to society. But what about immigration inmates who've not been convicted of a crime? And what about forced or extorted labor for which the inmates are not compensated? And what if all that labor goes to a private prison rather than the public? Core Values Sylvester Owino and Jonathan Gomez have filed a class action lawsuit against private prison company CoreCivic, claiming the prison forces inmates to clean bathrooms and medical facilities, do inmate laundry, cook food, and run the prison law library. "In some instances CoreCivic pays detainees $1 per day, and in other instances detainees are not compensated with wages at all, for their labor and services," the lawsuit claims, adding: "In 2016, CoreCivic reported $1.79 billion in total revenues." Owino and Gomez also allege that if inmates refused to work, they were threatened with additional punishments, solitary confinement, or a loss of other privileges. But, as their attorney Robert Teel told Vocativ, the CoreCivic facilities at which the inmates were housed weren't normal prisons: "The immigration detention and removal system is, by law, a civil system. Those in immigration detention include asylum seekers, green card holders, and those awaiting immigration hearings. The persons within this system are not awaiting criminal trials or serving criminal sentences, and the system is not intended to serve a punitive purpose. "What you have is a civil immigration detention system, being managed by for-profit companies, based on a criminal detention model with detainees being coerced and forced to work under threat of punishment, or in some instances for as little as $1 per day. You can imagine what an unfair competitive advantage it is for a company to pay its employees $1 per day instead of minimum wage." Civics Class The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." While Owino was served a little over a year on robbery charges in 2003 and 2004, he spent the next decade in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody going through deportation proceedings. Ultimately, he was released. His lawsuit claims that CoreCivic's inmate work programs violated federal and state human trafficking laws as well as California state labor laws. The lawsuit is seeking an injunction against CoreCivic's forced labor practices, restitution and damages for inmates, as well as an order forcing CoreCivic to repay any profits derived from forced labor. Related Resources: A former darling of Britain's tech scene is being snapped up by American buyers after losing a battle with Apple and Google. Monitise pioneered mobile phone payments and was once a 2billion business which many expected to dominate the industry. But its value collapsed after giants Apple and Google muscled in with rival software backed by all the wealth Silicon Valley could muster. Rise and fall: Monitise's value collapsed after giants Apple and Google muscled in with rival software backed by all the wealth Silicon Valley could muster Shares in the Soho-based firm have crashed 98 per cent since their peak in early 2014, and the business is now being bought by Fiserv for just 70million. 'The tech sector is a particularly savage place to be because it moves so fast,' said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laith Khalaf. 'The likes of Apple, Google's parent company Alphabet and Facebook are so big they can afford to throw resources at designing their own stuff and buying competitors. 'If they decide to enter the market then competitors should beware because they have such deep pockets Monitise might have been a 2billion company but Google and Apple can draw on hundreds of billions.' Founded in 2003, Monitise floated four years later and quickly became the toast of the City, winning backing from big hitters such as Visa, MasterCard and Telefonica. The firm developed a star-studded list of clients, with payment systems for Santander and most other UK banks, and tie-ups with well-known names including Premier Inn. But envious eyes were watching from across the Atlantic and in 2013, Apple began top-secret talks with Visa, MasterCard and US lenders about its own service. The proposals were deemed so sensitive that one firm involved, Wall Street giant JP Morgan, held all discussions in a windowless 'war room' to prevent details from leaking out. Of the 300 people who the bank set to work on the project, only 100 were told that Apple was the partner. Apple Pay is a sign of how the tech giants have their eyes on the lucrative finance world The iPhone maker finally announced its plans to enter the market with Apple Pay on September 9, 2014. Nine days later, Visa said it was looking to reduce its stake in Monitise sending shares crashing around 35 per cent. Google launched its Android Pay system the same year, hammering another nail into the company's coffin. Meanwhile, losses were stacking up and bosses were jumping ship. Monitise issued three profit warnings in 12 months, co-founder Alastair Lukies a former professional rugby player quit, and his replacement Elizabeth Buse departed soon afterwards, quickly followed by chief finance officer Brad Petzer. Since midway through 2015, it has lost 528million. The firm put itself up for sale two years ago. Chief executive Lee Cameron, who earned 344,000 in the year to June 30, 2016, said Monitise clients would be 'served well' by Wisconsin-based Fiserv whose offer of 2.9p per share is 26 per centmore than the company's 2.3p closing price before the deal was announced. Fiserv, whose boss Jeffery Yabuki was paid 7.8million in 2015, is the latest foreign firm to buy a UK company after the fall in the pound following the Brexit vote made British companies look cheap. There are concerns the UK is bad at supporting tech companies once they get beyond being a start-up. Many struggle to find the billions of pounds needed to reach the next level in the City, and are forced into the arms of the Silicon Valley giants so they can carry on growing. Tamer Ozmen has been appointed non-executive director at Charles Taylor ON BOARD Insurer Charles Taylor has added a Microsoft boss to its board as non-executive director. Tamer Ozmen runs Microsoft UK Services and will also sit on Charles Taylor's audit, remuneration, and nominations committees. JOINT ROLE Tobacco giant Imperial Brands has hired Simon Langelier, the chairman of a Canadian medical marijuana company, as a non-executive director. SHARE BUY Luxury retailer Burberry has announced plans to buy back up to 50million of its shares between June 19 and July 10. OXFORD JOB The former chief executive of technology company E2V is joining the board of tech company Oxford Instruments. Stephen Blair, 57, joins as an independent non-executive director in July. Oxford Instruments yesterday reported a loss of 25.5million, compared to a 9.7million profit last year. But adjusted profit rose 7.1 per cent to 36million. HEALTHY PROFITS Healthcare devices maker Halma said profits rose 16 per cent to 157.7million. UK revenue grew 7 per cent to 155million, while turnover in the US grew 27 per cent to 345million. Revenue grew 31 per cent to 261million in its medical sector, which makes products such as blood pressure monitors and eye health equipment. INCOME DOUBLES Fuel cell developer Ceres Power expects full-year income to the year ending June 30 to more than double to 4million this year, ahead of earlier expectations. BOSS EXITS The chairman of plussize clothing retailer N Brown is to resign after nearly five years at the helm. Andrew Higginson is stepping down from the firm to pursue opportunities in private equity. ON TIME Airline Ryanair said 90 per cent of its flights arrived on time last month. It carried more than 11million customers over 66,000 flights in May. CONTRACT EXTENDED Financial planner Tilney Group has announced a contract to use an IT system developed by US business SEI will be extended for six years. The deal will now run until 2023. DIRTY LAUNDRY British authorities received a record 163 requests for information from foreign governments as part of money laundering investigations last year up 12 per cent on 2015. This is more than double the 2012 figure of 73, according to Home Office statistics revealed by a Reuters freedom of information request. Changes: Capita said a new management structure was 'bedded down' Green shoots of recovery at Capita propelled shares to their highest in eight months. After issuing three profit warnings in 2016, the outsourcing group sparked hopes of a turnaround with an upbeat update. It said a new management structure was 'bedded down', disposals were on track and a series of cost-cutting programmes were starting to pay off. Bosses pointed to 318million of contracts won in the year to date and also confirmed they were in talks with British Airways, which is considering outsourcing its call centres. Capita said it continued to expect 2017 would be a 'transitional year' but it was set to return to profit growth in 2018, with its bid pipeline at 3.8billion. It has yet to appoint a chief executive, however, with only a shortlist drawn up. Current boss Andy Parker, 48, will leave the business in September after presiding over a disappointing 2016. Profits were down 110.2million to 475.3million. But shares in the group jumped more than 15 per cent, or 83.5p, to 634p on the announcement yesterday. Accendo Markets analyst Mike van Dulken added: 'It's really the first sign of positive news after what has recently been a bit of a nightmare for Capita. 'They still do not have a chief executive, but it looks as though for the moment they are still able to secure contracts and you would expect them to do even better when someone is finally on board.' The United States is considering imposing sanctions on countries that do business with North Korea. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was looking for ways to revive strained relations with Russia. At a committee hearing, he also defended President Donald Trump's plans for steep reductions in U.S. spending on diplomacy and foreign aid. Senators from both major parties charged that such cuts would ultimately hurt America. At the start Tillerson told lawmakers that North Korea had released Otto Warmbier, a U.S. university student held captive for 17 months, and the United States was seeking the release of three other detained Americans. Scroll down for video US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it was looking for ways to revive strained relations with Russia Washington has sought to increase economic and political pressure on Pyongyang because of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The North has conducted five nuclear tests and is believed to be making progress toward an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the United States. Tillerson said Washington is discussing North Korea with all of its allies, and seeing some response from China, its biggest trading partner. He said North Korea would top the agenda at next week's high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese officials. Tillerson said the United States would have to work with other countries to deny North Korea access to basics such as oil and will have to consider whether to impose sanctions on those doing business with North Korea. 'We are in a stage where we are moving into this next effort of, 'Are we going to have to, in effect, start taking secondary sanctions because countries we have provided information to have not, or are unwilling, or dont have the ability to do that?'' Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because the United States has no trade with the North, its strongest way to impose economic pressure is through 'secondary sanctions' that threaten companies from third countries with losing access to the U.S. market if they deal with Pyongyang. Tillerson said Washington is discussing North Korea with all of its allies, and seeing some response from China, its biggest trading partner Asked whether the United States wanted to see an Iran-style global embargo to deny exports of petroleum and other products to North Korea, Tillerson said that this would only work if Russia and China, the North's main suppliers, cooperated. Tillerson repeated his view that U.S. relations with Russia were at an all time-low and still deteriorating. Ties have been strained by differences over Syria, Ukraine and allegations, denied by Moscow, of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He said the administration was trying to find a way to re-establish a working relationship, notably on Syria. It took years of diplomacy with Russia and China to achieve consensus among major powers to impose the sanctions on Iran and a similar result with the North seems unlikely given Beijing's reluctance to destabilize its neighbors. Asked if China had lived up to its pledges to crack down on the North, Tillerson said its actions had been 'uneven,' but added: 'They have taken steps, visible steps that we can confirm. We are in discussions with them about entities inside of China.' Tillerson repeated his view that U.S. relations with Russia were at an all time-low and still deteriorating The purpose of Tillerson's appearance, his first of four congressional hearings this week, was to discuss the budget. In all, the Trump proposal cuts about 32 percent from U.S. diplomacy and aid budgets, or nearly $19 billion. Committee members, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, spoke sharply against the plan. Republicans control both houses of Congress, which sets the federal government budget. Separately, 16 retired senior generals and other ex-military officers said they would submit joint testimony to the Senate on Wednesday about the importance of foreign aid to national security. A young boy who died in hospital a week after crashing his mini motorbike into a ute on rural farmland has been remembered as 'an absolute joy' with a 'cheeky smile'. Harrison Laurie was riding his Yamaha Peewee 50 in Griffith, in New South Wales, on June 4 when he veered onto a road near the property and collided with the ute. The six-year-old - who was wearing a helmet at the time - was rushed to Griffith Base Hospital and onto Sydney Children's Hospital, but died from serious head injuries on Sunday, June 11. In the days since his death social media has been flooded with tributes for 'Harry', as his local community and school teachers remembering a truly treasured young boy. Harrison Laurie (pictured), six, was riding his Yamaha Peewee 50 around a rural NSW farm on June 4 when he accidentally veered onto a road near the property and collided with the ute 'This little boy was absolute joy to be around. A friend to all and a cheeky smile that proved to be contagious,' one of his teachers wrote on Facebook. 'A pleasure to teach... sadly he is missed but he will never be forgotten.' 'We will miss seeing your smiling happy face at school Harry, heartbroken... Ride high and watch over your family. Heaven got a beautiful angel,' another said. 'Fly high little man. My 11 yr old sat near him on the bus and was so sad to hear this news today. He said he was such a cutie. How heartbreaking,' a woman wrote. The six-year-old - who was wearing a helmet at the time - was taken to Griffith Base Hospital (pictured) and later Sydney Children's Hospital, but died from serious head injuries last Sunday The driver of the Ford ute, a 54-year-old woman, was uninjured and has undergone mandatory drug and alcohol testing. 'It was just a terrible accident,' Chief Inspector Wadsworth said in the days following the incident. The Yamaha PeeWee 50 is a motorbike for children and does not have to be licenced with police. Residents of Providence were left fearing for their lives on Friday night after the army conducted a special forces training operation in a heavily built-up part of the city. Simulated explosions were heard nearby and helicopters flew so low that their rotor blades chopped off tree branches as locals took to social media to figure out whether their lives were in danger. Risa Gilpin, 68, told the Providence Journal she 'heard this unbelievable noise' at around 9:45pm. 'I was sure that a plane had gone down in South Providence,' she said. Scroll down for video Residents of Providence, Rhode Island, were left cowering in terror after their densely populated neighborhood was used for special forces training by the National Guard Furious residents cornered one Army representative (center) who was told they had not been warned of the exercises, and that they thought they were doing to die in the simulated attack Residents asked a local news company why they were bombarded with the sounds of explosions and left literally shaking by helicopters while soldiers swarmed the streets Police cruisers were seen parked across roads, lights flashing, as soldiers scurried across streets. Explosions similar to grenades going off were heard near houses, while two helicopters landed on Dexter Field, a public park that had been taped off, slicing up tree branches. It was all part of an exercise intended to practice special operations tactics in an urban environment. But the residents of that urban environment had no idea. Tina Demers, 70, who lives two blocks over from Dexter Field, said her house began to shake and her neighbor's plastic furniture flew about the yard as a helicopter passed over her house. 'Initially, I was very scared,' she said. She wasn't the only one. Twitter lit up as frightened and furious residents first scrambled to figure out what was happening - then started to demand answers. 'Any idea why there are 2 helicopters around Armory Park in Providence and loud exploding sounds?' Heidy Marie asked local news outlet RIBNS. 'All the houses were shaking!' Matt Tracy directed his questions to RI's senators, writing: 'Please tell the citizens of Providence why two US Army helicopters just pretended to attack our city. Not Funny.' This Twitter user even asked RI's senators what was happening. Residents claimed they were not warned, but the Army said it had contacted the media and made automated cell calls Dexter Field (left) was cordoned off as helicopters landed there, chopping down tree branches. One resident complained that the few notices (right) had no contact information Organize RI uploaded a video, shared on RI Future, that shows furious residents arguing with an Army representative who identifies himself as Mike. 'So guys, can you tell me - what's the issue, what's the concern right now?' he asks. 'We thought we were dying!' shouts a woman with an incredulous look on her face. She and other residents say they had no notice of the operations, and one man says that he grabbed his shotgun and was 'getting ready to blow somebody's head off.' 'I'm glad you didn't do that,' replies Mike. Army representatives referred comment to the Rhode Island National Guard; spokesman Colonel Peter J Parente said the Army notified media outlets and representatives went 'door-to-door' in the area. He admitted that 'it's impossible to notify everybody' in such a densely populated area, however. The exercises took place in this densely populated area of Providence. The Army said that its representatives went 'door-to-door' but said it was 'impossible to notify everybody' 'That's why [the Army] were adamant about including in that press release their apologies' for any possible disturbance, he said. He said he could see how it would be 'an unsettling situation' for those unaware of what was going on. An automated message was also sent to nearby cellphones shortly before the exercise. Detailed warnings were left to the last minute to avoid too many spectators with cellphones and cameras, which would 'defeat the purpose of the training,' Kevin Kugel, Providences Emergency Management Agency coordinator, said. Similar exercises were run in Newport and Pawtucket, as well as other locations, the Army said. A woman who collapsed and died in the rear bathroom on an American Airlines flight was dragged naked from the waist down past other passengers by a medic, witnesses say. Theresa Hines, 48, of Carrollton, Texas, collapsed in the bathroom while flying from Dallas to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport on Monday afternoon. Her body was removed from the plane after it landed, but passengers said the EMT left her lower half exposed as he dragged her, face up, down the aisle of the Boeing 737, the StarTribune reported. Tragic: Theresa Hines (left, and right with son Alex McQuirter) died in the bathroom of an American Airlines flight Monday. A witness said her body was dragged out half-naked Hines was exposed to the 150 other passengers as she was pulled down the length of the plane on a portable stretcher, witnesses said. 'The EMT was out of line on that one,' said witness Art Endress, 63. 'Also, the flight attendants could have thrown a blanket on her.' Endress and other passengers first became aware something was wrong when staff performing a headcount noticed that one of the passengers was not seated. After not receiving responses from the bathroom, the staff members opened the door to find Hines and called for help, to which a nurse and a doctor responded. As soon as the plane landed, EMTs boarded and she was transported down the aircraft. Endress said that a passenger sitting near him said she had tried and failed to get into that bathroom about halfway through the two-hour-45-minute flight. Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for American, said that staff will 'of course' check a bathroom that has been occupied an unusually long time - if they are made aware of it. Minneapolis-St Paul airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said that Hines was 'not naked' when she was removed. He added that the first responders 'were focused on trying to save her life and get her in the jetway, where they can continue to try to resuscitate her'. Endress said that the remaining passengers stayed on the plane for about an hour while resuscitation attempts continued; a tarp was then placed up in the jetway to hide the woman as passengers disembarked. Feinstein said that once a plane has landed, staff 'hand over the responsibility for the passenger to the local first responders [and] stand clear of the situation. We let them do their work'. Would you have been able to spot the hidden danger if this was your garage? A Sunshine Coast homeowner spotted the intruder outside the garage door last week, but when he returned with a friend it had disappeared. Unable to locate the creature, the Buderim man called for assistance, and the unwelcome guest was eventually found lurking among the man's possessions. Can you find the sneaky creepy-crawly found hiding in this Queensland garage on Monday? Lockie Gilding, of Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, located the 1.8metre carpet python hiding between boxes on the shelves, and promptly disposed of it. 'I just picked him up, bagged him up, and took him to nearby bushland and released him into the bush,' Mr Gilding told the Sunshine Coast Daily. According to the experts, this species of snake can go for months without food, and was unlikely to have been bothered by its three days locked in the garage. 'He was pretty and happy and relaxed,' said Mr Gilding, 'He would have just been happy to have a warm place.' Theresa May has abandoned her election promise to rip up human rights legislation in terror cases despite renewed anger that extremists are exploiting the law. The Prime Minister announced last week that she would launch an assault on parts of the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been blamed for making it harder to deport terror suspects. She made the pledge in the final days of the election campaign following the terror attacks in Manchester and London. Theresa May has been forced to axe her proposal to scrap part of the human rights act that is used by terrorists to avoid deportation as part of her deal with DUP leader Arlene Foster But Government sources said last night the plans were likely to be shelved following her failure to secure a Commons majority. The decision comes despite fresh anger over the way in which terror suspects are able to exploit human rights laws to frustrate justice. Yesterday, the Daily Mail highlighted the case of a terrorist fighting deportation who has received 250,000 in legal aid. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was caught with jihadi manuals on how to attack airports, and was described in court as the model of an al Qaeda terrorist. He is said to be using some of the money to try to stay in the UK after serving nine years in jail. He claims deportation to Jordan would breach his human rights because he could face torture. The Mail revealed a Jordanian refugee, who cannot be identified, is fighting to stay in the UK using human rights legislation Government sources insisted last night the proposed legislation change would have made little difference to the case. But it would have made it easier to deport hate preachers such as Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza, who used the European Convention on Human Rights to fight deportation for years. Mrs May has been forced to axe a series of manifesto pledges after failing to win a Commons majority. Dropped measures include a controversial shake-up of social care, a Commons vote on the repeal of the foxhunting ban, the scrapping of the triple lock on pensions and the ending of the winter fuel allowance for older people. But Tory MP Philip Davies urged her to press ahead with the proposals last night and dare opposition MPs to vote them down. He added: It is very disappointing. They may be right in terms of the numbers in the Commons, but the Prime Minister should do what she thinks is right to keep us safe. She should bring forward measures she and the security services think we need. It would be for each MP to explain to constituents why they voted as they did. Woe betide anyone who votes it down. But Tory whips have warned Mrs May it would be all but impossible to change the law, with liberal Tories such as former attorney general Dominic Grieve likely to join the Opposition in fighting any dilution of rights. It is just not a runner now, a source said. The climbdown is the latest embarrassing reverse forced on the PM by the election setback. Hate preachers Abu Qatada (left) and Abu Hamza (right) used the European Convention on Human Rights to fight deportation for years At a speech in Slough last week she vowed to make it easier to deport terrorist suspects and do more to restrict their movements, adding: If our human rights laws stop us from doing it, we will change the laws so we can do it. If I am as elected Prime Minister on Thursday, I can tell you that this vital work begins on Friday. However, the political realities of the new Parliament mean the idea is almost certainly dead. Labour opposed the plans, with Jeremy Corbyn saying Britain wont defeat terrorism by ripping up our basic rights and our democracy. The Lib Dems and SNP also oppose any move to dilute human rights. Up to 30 Tory MPs also might vote against the Government on the issue. Despite the setback, Mrs May is expected to press on with other elements of a new counter-extremism plan in next weeks Queens Speech. She wants to beef up anti-terror orders so suspected plotters can receive stricter curfews and bans from meeting associates and accessing computers or mobiles. Mrs May is also considering online extremism laws, including fines for social media firms that fail to remove material designed to poison young minds. A taxpayer-funded migrant lobby has claimed that questioning immigrants about genital mutilation, forced marriage and domestic violence is 'racial profiling'. The Settlement Council of Australia, a body which represents migrant and refugee settlement agencies, claims the questions 'do not hold special significance.' 'While undeniably abhorrent, so too are crimes such as murder, rape and child sexual services,' the council told the Immigration Department's citizenship review, the Daily Telegraph reported. 'It clearly isn't appropriate to list every crime in an Australian values test. To single out only certain crimes for inclusion appears to reveal the existence of racial profiling underlying these proposed changes.' The Settlement Council of Australia, a taxpayer-funded migrant lobby, has has claimed that questioning immigrants about genital mutilation, forced marriage and domestic violence is 'racial profiling'. Pictured right is Council chairwoman Dewani Bakkum Legislation will be introduced this week to include a new set of criteria for citizenship tests. Applicants will need to commit to embracing 'Australian values' (stock image) Legislation will be introduced this week to include a new set of criteria for citizenship tests, first revealed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in April this year. Applicants will need to face an English test and commit to embracing 'Australian values'. Those who want to became Australians will also need to have been a permanent resident for four years, up from 12 months now, and face a stand-alone English test. Some of the new citizenship test questions will canvass issues such as domestic violence, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. But the SCA believes the inclusion of such questions could impact would-be citizens in a negative way, and might even drive some migrants to religious extremism. 'It is likely to send a strong message that the value of some migrants is lower than others,' the Council said. 'The proposed changes could have the opposite effect, degrading social cohesion, promoting disloyalty and even leading to greater risk of radicalisation.' Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has defended the updated citizenship test Greens senator Nick McKim, who holds the citizenship portfolio for the left-wing party, declined to say if he felt the Turnbull government was targeting Muslims. However, he accused Mr Turnbull of trying to win over Pauline Hanson supporters. The One Nation leader has taken the credit for the government's new citizenship test. 'The crackdown on citizenship and the patronising citizenship test is about appeasing the far-right of the Liberal Party and One Nation,' Senator McKim told Daily Mail Australia in April. 'So poorly thought through is this idea that the Prime Minister has to go get an expensive focus group to tell him what Australian values even are. 'If the government is serious about protecting women and girls from family violence and female genital mutilation, then they wouldn't be gutting funding from community legal centres.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Settlement Council of Australia for comment. Last month, the U.N. appointed experts to lead a fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who have faced discrimination in the predominantly Buddhist country. Myanmar rejected the mission. Suu Kyi has said she would only accept recommendations from a separate advisory commission led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan. A 71-year-old man who said he robbed a bank because he'd rather be imprisoned than at home with his wife blamed his actions on depression in court on Tuesday. A federal judge sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to six months of home confinement and three years of probation after he robbed a Kansas City, Kansas bank, the Kansas City Star reported. Ripple made headlines in September 2016 after he got into an argument with his wife, told her he'd rather be imprisoned, and demanded cash from a bank teller only to wait in the lobby for the police to arrive. Ripple, who pleaded guilty in January, said he suffered from depression after a quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2015 and expressed his remorse in court on Tuesday. Lawrence John Ripple, who said he robbed a bank because he'd rather be imprisoned than at home with his wife blamed his actions on depression in court on Tuesday His attorney asked for leniency, and a federal judge sentenced Ripple to six months of home confinement and three years of probation (pictured, a general view of the bank) Court documents show that Ripple gave a Kansas City bank teller a note on September 2, 2016 that read: 'I have a gun, give me money'. After the teller handed over $2,924, Ripple sat in the lobby of Bank of Labor at 756 Minnesota Ave and told a guard he was the 'guy he was looking for,' according to the police report. An FBI agent says Ripple had argued with his wife earlier and told her in writing he'd 'rather be in jail than at home.' Ripple, who pleaded guilty to a federal bank robbery count in January, said his depression had gone undiagnosed and that he was feeling like his old self after seeking help and taking medication. His wife was in the courtroom on Tuesday when Ripple apologized to the Bank of Labor and the teller, saying he didn't mean to scare her during the robbery. His wife (right) was in the courtroom on Tuesday when Ripple (left) apologized to the Bank of Labor and the teller, saying he didn't mean to scare her during the robbery His attorney Chekasha Ramsey called his client's actions a 'cry for help' and pointed to Ripple's clean record prior to the bank robbery. Ramsey asked for leniency, citing Ripple's health and remorse in a case supported by federal prosecutors. US District Court Judge Carlos Murguia granted the request, sentencing Ripple to just six months of home confinement. The 71-year-old was facing 37 months in prison. Ripple is also required to serve three years of supervised probation and 50 hours of community service. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $300 to the bank and a crime victims fund. Shock jock Steve Price has weighed in on the new Australian citizenship test, saying those who can't speak English and think domestic violence is acceptable should 'get on a plane and go back'. Lobby groups have labelled the new test 'racial profiling,' after the Immigration Department confirmed applicants would be quizzed on genital mutilation, forced marriage and organised crime. On Wednesday, Price told the Studio Ten panel Australian citizenship is 'one of the most valuable things in the world'. 'After four years living here, if you can't speak English and you think it's acceptable to bash your wife and get involved in genital mutilation, I'm sorry, pack your suitcase, get on the plane and go back,' he said. Scroll down for video Shock jock Steve Price has weighed in on the new Australian citizenship test, saying those who can't speak English and think domestic violence is acceptable should 'get on a plane' On Wednesday, Price told the Studio Ten panel Australian citizenship is 'one of the most valuable things in the world' 'What everyone's got to understand here is this is people that are already here and whether they can get a little blue passport'. Fellow panelist Jessica Rowe then asked Price if the test would stop genital mutilation and child marriages altogether, after she suggested applicants might lie on the quiz. 'No it's not going to stop it, what it's going to do is send them home,' Price responded. While Studio ten host Joe Hildebrand disagreed immigrants should be turned away if they do not speak English, he said the test will 'start a conversation'. 'At the very least it will start a conversation that you must know if you are to become a citizen genital mutilation is not okay,' Hidebrand said. On Wednesday, lobby group The Settlement Council of Australia said the new citizenship test should remove a number of questions to avoid 'racial profiling,' the Daily Telegraph reported. While Studio ten host Joe Hildebrand disagreed immigrants should be turned away if they do not speak English, he said the test will 'start a conversation' Fellow panelist Jessica Rowe (right) then asked Price (left) if the test would stop genital mutilation and child marriages altogether, after she suggested applicants might lie on the quiz 'To single out only certain crimes for inclusion appears to reveal the existence of racial profiling underlying these proposed changes,' the SCA said in a submission to the Immigration Department. 'It is likely to send a strong message that the value of some migrants is lower than others'. Sample questions on the revamped test include: 'can you strike your spouse?', 'does Australia's principle of freedom of religion mean that in some situations it is permissible to force children to marry?' according to the publication. There will also be an English test which requires the applicant to display reading, writing and listening skills. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton plans to introduce legislation to parliament this week that includes the values test and university-level English language requirements. As well as the values test, there will also be an English test which requires the applicant to display reading, writing and listening skills (stock image) A regional high school was placed under police guard on Tuesday following an alleged threat posted on social media from a teenager. The 16-year-old boy is accused of posting a threatening Facebook message on Monday claiming he would 'murder' everyone at Nowra High School, south coast New South Wales, according to The Illawarra Mercury. The school quickly reassured parents the premises was safe and school would be 'operational as normal today'. The threat allegedly posted by a 16-year-old boy on Facebook Nowra High School was under police guard on Tuesday following a social media threat 'The [Facebook] post which included a threat to students and staff has been reported to police,' the school told parents and the community on Tuesday on social media. Another tweet from the school read: 'Police have advised their is no imminent threat. School is now no longer in lock out. School will be operational as normal from now.' The police made contact with the boy after concerned parents warned them of the post. The 16-year-old has been under police supervision since the post and they have also launched an investigation into the source of the treat, including whether his account had been hacked before the post, according to the publication. Nowra High School posted comments to reassure the community the police were looking into the post The school reassured parents it was safe for their children to return to school While some parents were adamant their children would not be going to school the next day regardless whether police had allayed fears, one mother wrote the police had done a wonderful job they had done to ensure her kids safety. The mother wrote police 'have done a wonderful job in reassuring me when I phoned and had questions'. Nowra Chief Inspector Steve Johnson said people should report concerns like this immediately. A degree from an elite university can earn a graduate 50,000 more than a student who did the same subject at a less prestigious college. They are financially rewarded for attending Oxford, Cambridge and the 22 other Russell Group universities. Analysis of 148 institutions and salaries based on tax data reveals which ones produce the highest earning graduates, after they have been in the labour market for five years. A degree from an elite university can earn a graduate 50,000 more than a student who did the same subject at a less prestigious college (Stock image) The choice of university is important for graduates, as tuition fees rise to 9,250 this autumn. Oxford and Cambridge repeatedly topped the lists, although salaries vary much more according to the university a student attended in disciplines such as law, economics and business studies than they do in humanities such as English. The median salary for a law graduate from Oxford who left in 2008-9 is 61,400 the highest in the sector, reveal figures published by the Department for Education. That compares to a 17,300 median salary for a law graduate from Bradford University a wage difference of 44,100. In the top earning bracket, an Oxford law graduate takes home 78,000 five years after graduation. A University of Bolton law graduate in the upper range earns 20,900 a difference of 57,100. However, analysis of the data by Times Higher Education shows English has a much smaller spread in terms of wages. The choice of university is important for graduates, as tuition fees rise to 9,250 this autumn The highest median salary was earned by a Cambridge graduate, at 31,000. The lowest, 13,300, was for an English graduate from the University of St Mark and St John (also called Plymouth Marjon University). Similarly it makes little difference where nursing graduates studied. Dr Tim Bradshaw, acting director of the Russell Group, said university is about more than future earnings, however this will be a factor for many young people who are considering their options. He said: We know employers value our graduates. These figures suggest that they are willing to pay a premium for them too. Nicola Dandridge, of Universities UK, insisted that graduate salaries are not the only measure of success in higher education. She said: Many students seek rewarding careers where high salaries are not their only motivation. There are also other factors that may impact on earnings, including higher and lower average earnings in some parts of the country. An Indian family are facing deportation because of a disability suffered by their young daughter. Mary George was born with a neurological condition and spent the first year of her life in hospital. Mary's parents are in Australia on student visas and, after reaching out to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, were told keeping the family in the country 'wouldn't be in the public interest.' Mary George was born with a neurological condition and spent the first year of her life in hospital An Indian family are facing deportation because of a disability suffered by their young daughter The George family have been told they could be deported by the end of the month because of Mary's disability Mary was born in November, 2014 at Adelaide's Lyell McEwin Hospital where she spent 28 days on life support. Her parents arrived in Australia in 2011, with father Manu studying nursing. 'We're in a tricky situation about the future, because we came here for a better life, I'm working,' Mr George told Nine News. The family say they are worried about taking Mary home because her condition may worsen and her doctor in Australia is across all of her information. Mary requires around-the-clock care by her parents who are facing deportation as a result of her condition 'We don't want to miss Mary's doctor because he knows everything about her,' Mrs George said. They have sought legal help to remain in Australia after being told they could face deportation at the end of the month. The Department of Immigration are looking at 'alternative visa options' for the family. Police are hunting a man over the indecent sexual assaulting of an 11-year-old girl in the middle of Melbourne - after her mother took a photo of her alleged attacker. The girl was walking with her mother and brother towards a theatre on Collins Street when the man had put his hand under her skirt and grabbed her by the buttocks. She was approached by the 40 something year-old man just before 3 pm on Sunday June 4. Have you seen this man? He had allegedly assaulted a young girl in Melbourne CBD on June 4 Following the incident, the young girl then complained to her mother which resulted in the mother taking several shots of him before reporting the matter to the police. Fortunately, the young girl was physically uninjured throughout the incident. The girl was walking towards a theatre on Collins Street when she was indecently assaulted Melbourne detectives have released CCTV footage of a man and is looking to get in touch with him in relation to the incident. Described to be about 170 cm tall with a medium build, he was wearing a blue jacket, blue jeans, white runners and carrying a black backpack at the time of the incident. An Islamic fanatic who starred in a Channel 4 documentary with London Bridge terrorist Khuram Butt has been arrested for the same attack. Ricardo McFarlane, 29, was taken into custody after a raid by anti-terror police in east London last week. He is one of seven suspects that are being quizzed by detectives in relation to the horrific attacks on London Bridge and Borough market on June 3. Ricardo McFarlane, 29, was taken into custody after a raid by anti-terror police in east London last week. Pictured, with Khuram Butt on Channel 4's the Jihadi Next Door Eight people were murdered and 48 injured when terrorists Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba mowed people down in a van before going on a stabbing frenzy. McFarlane appeared in the TV documentary the Jihadi Next Door with Butt, when it aired last year. Footage from the show, which got 1.2million viewers, showed him praying with a group in Regents Park, after they had angrily confronted worshippers outside a mosque in central London. McFarlane is the first of those featured in the film to be arrested since the attack. Butt was shot dead by armed police at the scene. This is not the first time that McFarlane, a Muslim convert, has been fallen foul of the law for his extremist views. In February 2013 he was jailed for his role in a trio who formed a 'Muslim Patrol' and terrorised members of the public as they tried to promote Sharia Law. Left: London Bridge terror attacker Bhutt and right, McFarlane who was arrested last week McFarlane, Jordan Horner and Royal Barnes were jailed for a total of two years and ten months for touring east London harassing people they deemed to be non-believers. The three men were slapped with a five-year anti-social behaviour order banning them from distributing material about Sharia Law to the public, or even meeting each other. Judge Timothy Pontius, also banned them from associating with hate preacher Anjem Choudary. The judge said: With the public interest in mind and the safety of individual members of the public in particular, it seems to me essential that these orders should be granted to run for that period of time. Senator David Leyonhjelm claims Australians should be allowed to use non-lethal weapons like pepper spray and tasers to protect themselves from terror attacks. The liberal democrat told The Today Show on Wednesday morning he wants the laws prohibiting people from carrying such weapons to be overturned. The senator said he believes they would aid victims of low-tech and lone wolf terror attacks. Scroll down for video Senator David Leyonhjelm claims Australians should be allowed to use non-lethal weapons like pepper spray and tasers to protect themselves from terror attacks The liberal democrat (pictured) said on Wednesday he wants the laws prohibiting people from carrying such weapons to be overturned 'My argument is pepper, mace and personal tasers are non-lethal should not be prohibited, should not be restricted so you shouldn't need a license, you should be able to carry that for your self-defence,' he said. 'It's quite tragic that we are prevented by law from carrying non-lethal means of self-defence of any description.' Mr Leyonhjelm also argued that off-duty police officers should be able to carry a gun while out. 'Lethal means of self-defence, which are guns and so forth, obviously that should only be available to people who know how to use them. But off-duty police, for example, who do know how to use a gun - why shouldn't they be able to carry them to protect themselves and their families an other people if their families an other people if the need arises.' Mr Leyonhjelm said overturning the laws would help victims of low-tech and lone wolf terror attacks like the Brighton apartment siege and London Bridge could fight back (stock image) The senator's comments come one week after 29-year-old Yacqub Khayre (pictured) shot a receptionist dead and held a sex worker hostage at a Melbourne apartment complex He said Australia has taken a 'passifict approach' to self-defence. 'There is hardly any country in the world where you are officially enforced to be a victim whether you like that or not,' he said. Capsicum spray is allowed in Western Australia but it listed as a controlled weapon. The senator's comments come one week after 29-year-old Yacqub Khayre shot a receptionist dead and held a sex worker hostage at a Melbourne apartment complex. In December 2014, Man Horan Monis stormed the Lindt Cafe in Sydney's inner city and les a 16-hour standoff with police (pictured) The lone-wolf terrorist was killed by police after he charged at them with a sawn-off shotgun. In October 2015, Farhad Mohammasd, 15, shot and killed NSW police accountant as he left the force's headquarters in Parramatta, west of Sydney. In December 2014, Man Horan Monis stormed the Lindt Cafe in Sydney's inner city and les a 16-hour standoff with police. Two hostages were killed and Monis was shot and killed by police. Dismayed students have complained of an impossibly hard A-level biology exam after an error was included in the paper by accident. OCR, one of England's main exam boards, have been forced to apologise after a mistake was spotted by teachers and students in the test, sat by almost 19,000 students on Monday. The biology test asked students to calculate a standard deviation but did not offer the formula required to find the answer. Dismayed students complain of an 'impossible' A-level biology exam after an error is included in the paper (file photo) Pupils took to Twitter to share their anxiety over a potential lack of marks, with others posting their woe about how hard they found the exam this year. Students in particular have voiced their concerns about university places being in jeopardy. One student wrote: 'Find the standard deviation' are you having a laugh. Told in the official OCR A textbook that we don't have to know the formula #ocrbiology' Another shared a meme of characters from Harry Potter waving to each other and wrote: 'Me waving goodbye to my university place after that #ocrbiology exam.' One girl shared a picture of Britney Spears pulling a thumbs up pose, and wrote: '#ocrbiology can't say I failed if there's no biology on the paper.' A student sarcastically posted: 'Real talk I should have just written a U on the front on my paper to save the examiners time #ocrbiology' OCR said it would address any potential impact that the mistake could have on students' overall grades. An OCR spokesman said: 'For one question on OCR's A-level biology paper H420/01 (Question 20a, worth 3 marks out of a total of 100) the formula for standard deviation was not provided. Some of OCR's guidance to schools and teachers about the syllabus indicated that candidates would be provided with this. 'OCR apologises and will address any impact of this during marking and grading.' Ofqual, the exam watchdog, has been notified of the error and will be investigating. A spokesman told the Guardian: 'We expect all papers to be error-free. When errors are not identified before the exam, we expect the exam boards to do everything they can to minimise the impact on students. 'That is our immediate priority, and we are monitoring their actions closely. Once results are issued, we will look carefully at the reasons for the errors that occurred and take action if appropriate.' A heartbreaking bedside photo reveals a two-year-old boy's final moments before he died from horrific injuries allegedly sustained by his mother's boyfriend. Joshua Migala, two, was seen with bruising to his face and breathing tubes keeping him alive as his older brother comforted him in Brisbane's Lady Cilento hospital in April 2015. Joshua was found unconscious and with major injuries at his home in Kingston, Brisbane's south, before he was taken to Brisbane's Lady Cilento hospital and later pronounced dead. Scroll down for video A heartbreaking bedside photo reveals Joshua Migala, 2, in hospital in the hours before he died in April 2015 Joshua was seen with bruises to his face in another photo posted to social media by relatives in the weeks leading up to his death. Joel Nicholas Kuskey, Joshua's step-father, made a brief appearance at Bennleigh Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with his murder. Kuskey, whose mother was in the gallery for his appearance, was remanded in custody and his matter adjourned until August 17. Kuskey, 28, was arrested at his home in Logan Central, Brisbane's south, on Tuesday morning charged with murder and a string of drug offences including supplying dangerous drugs and possessing dangerous drugs. Joshua was seen with bruises to his face in a photo posted to social media by relatives in the weeks leading up to his death Joel Nicholas Kuskey, Joshua's step-father, is due to appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with his murder Joshua's mother Sharon defended Kuskey and claimed her son's injuries were only sustained during attempts to revive him, the Courier Mail reports. 'He fell out of the cot. (Joshua) didn't get any injuries. They were done when the CPR was done,' she said. 'The bruises that the boy had on him were only caused through the resuscitation. He vomited in my son's mouth.' 'The injuries were significant and the investigation team were left with no doubt whatsoever that the death of this child was not accidental or by natural causes,' Det Insp Mark White said (Joshua pictured) Detective Inspector Mark White said the boy's injuries were sustained before emergency services were called to the home. He described the injuries as 'horrific' and the circumstances surrounding the incident as 'distressing'. 'The injuries were significant and the investigation team were left with no doubt whatsoever that the death of this child was not accidental or by natural causes,' he said. Kuskey was arrested and charged by Queensland Police on Tuesday following an extensive investigation into Joshua's 2015 death Kuskey and Joshua's mother Sharon gave birth to a child around the same time Joshua died. The couple stayed together and reportedly gave birth to twins just three weeks before Kuskey was arrested and charged with Joshua's murder. The boy's family was known to the child safety department about two years before his death. An investigation was carried out in 2013 but did not lead to any action being taken. Joshua was pronounced dead at Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane (pictured) after being found unconscious at home Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman said 'the child was not under department intervention at the time of this tragic incident'. 'The death of this two-year-old boy in April 2015 was just heart breaking,' Ms Fentiman said. She said an investigation got underway after the police alerted child safety to the boy's serious injuries. My twin brother and I grew up during World War II, and then in its long aftermath, when we lived with our military family in occupied Japan and Germany. WWII was the central pivot of the 20th Century. Before it, there were seven world powers; after, two. I later was a postdoc working with renowned physicist Edward Teller, who told me many inside stories about the Manhattan Project that built the nuclear (atomic) bombs. My natural, science fictional instincts tinkered with the many what-if notions about how the war might have been different, and one became concrete in my mind: what if wed gotten the bomb earlier? Teller thought it could have, and so did my father in law, Karl P. Cohen, who worked in the early nuclear days and the Manhattan Project. Everybody loves success, so historians have papered over the fact that when we developed the atomic bomb we made a decisive bad judgment that cost over half a billion dollars of 1940s dollars and delayed the wars end by about a year. The bad decision came in 1942 from General Leslie Groves, who directed the Manhattan Project, which was the U.S. R&D program to develop the first nuclear weapons. To make uranium suitable for an atomic bomb, you must enrich it up to weapons-grade, so that it is almost pure U-235, the elements most fissile isotope. Groves chose to pursue gaseous diffusion over an alternate conceptKarl Cohen and Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Harold Ureys centrifugal separationto enrich uranium up to weapons-grade. We now know that was a huge mistake. Karl and Harold Urey said so then. If we had stuck with centrifugal separation for another six months we wouldve solved its engineering problems, without question. Gaseous diffusion did not have the necessary semi permeable membranes when Groves decided to use it, and it took two more yearsuntil 1944to develop them. Nobody uses diffusion to separate isotopes now; too expensive and slow. But the politics of the time weighted Groves decision. The crucial turning points in my alternative history are the events early in the Manhattan Project, when the Urey group at Columbia could not get funding for centrifuge development. We forget the style of science in that era, when government did little research and corporations gave small sums for specific developments. All such work focused on acquiring technologies useful in the short term. Big Science came into being for the first time in the Manhattan Projects large laboratories and intricate coordination, invented chiefly by Groves, Oppenheimer, Fermi and Lawrence. Karl Cohen once remarked to me that in 1939 he and Urey estimated that to develop fast centrifuges might take as much as $100,000 so then we knew it was impossible! At that time Karl was earning less than $2,000 a year. Suppose we do the Manhattan Project job right, first time. So how to use a bomb? There would be a fresh one every month or two, at best, so whats the first target? In the novel, everybody thinks Berlin is the obvious target. I asked military types and they said no, you must leave in place the civilian authority that can surrender. This is standard doctrine. But in 1944? We now know that the Prussian wing of the German Armys General Staff tried to negotiate through the British for at least a cease-fire, from 1943 onward. They tried to kill Hitler and nearly did in July 1944. The commanding generals were all on battlefields in 1944, not Berlinwhere the Nazi Party types, whom the Prussians hated, were dug in. So What to do with these elements? I researched many off-trail threads that really happened, but we forget: That both sides thought of using radioactive uranium as a pollutant, akin to poison gas and worked out details. That Eisenhower sent teams with Geiger counters to measure such use at Normandy. That we so feared a German nuclear program, the General commanding the Manhattan Project, Leslie Groves, sent in his top agent to assassinate Heisenberg if the agent thought Heisenbergs team was getting close to a bomb. Blend these and many existing letters and memos, my memories from knowing most of the characters in the novelseason to taste, heat, stir. One essential element in the novel is how well I knew the characters. I worked with them as a young physicist, when they were the wise men of the field. These choices fill out the novel. That gave me insights to go beyond the stacks-of-facts approach historians and alternative history writers suffer under: I knew how they spoke, acted, joked. The war ends in 1944. What does that do? First, the Soviets dont get to reign over Eastern Europe, because theyre kept out of the lands they occupied in 1944-45. Second, we see what use tactical (less than a megaton) weapons have. Third, ten million more people survive the war. Plus other benefits, which come to life in a long coda to the novel, fiction set in 1963. To write that part, I summoned up my own memories of the postwar era. There was much terror and thought about the introduction of the H-bomb and the arms race following. Many thought the world could not survive such forces for long. Such views had accelerated after the grave gray giants of the world, such as Bertrand Russell and even Einstein himself. They made clear predictions in the mid-1950s. They felt that hydrogen bomb war between the USA and USSR was inevitable unless some higher body held all such weapons: the United Nations. Russell had even predicted that the death of civilization under a myriad of the H-bombs crimson blisters was inevitable and would happen before 1960. Can you imagine how the United Nations, holding all the weaponry, could make sure no one else got them? I cant, and Im a science fiction writer. How do the novels ideas play out, giving us a different post-WWII world? I wrote The Berlin Project to see how we might have had a better world than the one were in. Hint: H-bombs arent a really good idea. Gregory Benford is a physicist, educator, and author. He received a BS from the University of Oklahoma and a PhD from the University of California, San Diego. Benford is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine, where he has been a faculty member since 1971. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. He has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA, and the White House Council on Space Policy. He is the author of over twenty novels, including In the Ocean of the Night, The Heart of the Comet (with David Brin), Foundation's Fear, Bowl of Heaven (with Larry Niven), Timescape, and The Berlin Project. A two-time winner of the Nebula Award, Benford has also won the John W. Campbell Award, the British Science Fiction Award (BSFA), the Australian Ditmar Award, and the 1990 United Nations Medal in Literature. In 1995 he received the Lord Foundation Award for contributions to science and the public comprehension of it. He has served as scientific consultant to the NHK Network and for Star Trek: The Next Generation. The mayor of a tiny Trump-loving Virginia island that is rapidly disappearing underwater was personally told by the president not to worry about rising sea levels. James 'Ooker' Eskridge is the mayor of Tangier - a traditional crabbing community in Virginia with a population of about 450 people. Studies show the 1.3 square-mile island are disappearing at the alarming rate of 16 feet of land per year, and scientists say residents could be forced to abandon their homes within 25 years as it becomes entirely uninhabitable. Almost 67 per cent of the island has sank underwater since 1850, according to a 2015 study. 'The Tangier Islands and the Town are running out of time, and if no action is taken, the citizens of Tangier may become among the first climate change refugees in the continental USA,' the report states. But it seems no one has told Trump that. James 'Ooker' Eskridge (left) received a call from Donald Trump telling him not to worry about his island town of Tangier disappearing under rising sea-levels The president reached out to Eskridge on Monday, phoning him after a CNN report on the island that aired last week was brought to his attention. 'He said not to worry about sea-level rise,' Eskridge said. 'He said, "Your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more."' The mayor then explained how he ended up on the phone with Trump. 'It was unreal, He called around 2 o'clock this afternoon,' Eskridge said of the phone call with the president, according to the Daily Times of Salisbury, Maryland. He said he first got a call from Tangier Oyster Company, during which he was told the president's team contacted them trying to get his home phone number. Trump called Eskridge just days after the small town of about 450 featured in a CNN report. Trump is pictured waving from his car on June 13 This map shows where the small island is located - just 100 miles from the White House This picture shows supports on the island jetting out from where 'crab shanties' used to stand before the bit of land was swallowed up by rising sea-levels caused by climate change This chart shows what the island looked like in 1850 before it began sinking due to rising sea-levels 'So I came in from crabbing and they said I got a call - I said, "That's not real",' he said. 'Anyway, I hung around. I left for a short time to go to my crab house, and then came back and I got this call and the lady says, "I'm with the president's office. The president would like to know if he could speak to you". 'I said, "Yes, he sure can".' Trump then got on the line, introducing himself by saying to Eskridge: 'You've got one heck of an island there.' Studies show parts of the 1.3 square-mile island are disappearing at the alarming rate of 16 feet per year. Pictured is a boat in one of the island's inlets An elderly couple rides a motorbike on the island. Experts have warned Tangier could be uninhabitable in about 25 years due to rising sea-levels One of the potential reasons why Trump is so fond of the island could be because of how its inhabitants voted in last year's election. The island is situated in the middle of a Republican stronghold, so much so that about 87 per cent of people who live on Tangier voted for Trump, according to the newspaper. The mayor shared his constituents support for the president during his call with Trump. 'This is a Trump island; we really love you down here,' Eskridge said. 'I said, "The stuff you are doing is just common-sense stuff." 'I said, "I believe you're for the working man - and you want people to get back to work - you're for the military, and Israel and religious liberties. It's all the stuff that we value." Workers on the small island are pictured on a boat on the ever-rising water around their shrinking home A submerged boats rests under a bridge in Tangier, Virginia, May 15, 2017, where climate change and rising sea levels threaten the inhabitants of the sinking island 'I said, "I believe you came along for such a time as this".' After hearing that, Trump invited the mayor to Washington DC, and told him not to worry about the rising waters. The low-lying island of Tangier is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Because of its isolation, many residents have retained the linguistic traces of the island's primarily English settlers who first arrived in the 17th century. The island is also sinking from erosion and rising sea levels, and scientists predict residents may have to abandon it within 25 to 50 years. Jeremy Corbyn demanded unity from his MPs last night as he revealed plans to tour Tory marginals ahead of possible autumn election. The Labour leader, buoyed by last week's unexpected results, said he would make speeches over the next few months in the 60 seats he needs to win to take power. Addressing his party's newly-elected MPs, he urged them to 'maintain the unity and collective discipline' they had shown during the election campaign. Jeremy Corbyn demanded unity from his MPs last night as he revealed plans to tour Tory marginals ahead of possible autumn election His warning comes after two years of almost constant sniping from moderate Labour MPs who believed he had no hope of ever winning an election. Many of them have had to eat humble pie, including former leadership candidates Yvette Cooper and Chuka Umunna. In the Commons earlier in the day, where MPs had gathered to re-elect John Bercow as Speaker, MPs gave Mr Corbyn a standing ovation as he entered the chamber. The ovation came a year after dozens of them had voted to say they had no confidence in their leader. Yesterday evening, one former prominent critic left the meeting of MPs saying Mr Corbyn's speech had been 'excellent', adding: 'Unity is the watch word. Government is the aim.' The Labour leader told his MPs that Theresa May had no mandate and no legitimacy, declaring: 'We are now a government in waiting'. Mr Corbyn was greeted with cheers and a 45-second ovation as he arrived at the first meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party since the election which saw Mrs May's Tories lose their Commons majority. Many of them have had to eat humble pie, including former leadership candidates Yvette Cooper (pictured) and Chuka Umunna The scenes were in marked contrast to the difficult meetings Mr Corbyn had with his critics in the parliamentary party before the election. He said Labour would remain on a general election footing due to the instability of the minority Tory government. Mr Corbyn said: 'Last Thursday, we turned the tables on Theresa May's gamble and gained seats in every region and nation of Britain and I'm particularly delighted that we have increased our representation in Scotland. 'We increased the Labour vote by the largest margin in any election since 1945 and gained seats as a party for the first time since 1997. 'So now the election is over, the next phase of our campaign to win power for the majority has already begun. We must remain in permanent campaign mode on a general election footing. Mr Corbyn was greeted with cheers and a 45-second ovation as he arrived at the first meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party since the election. Pictured, Chuka Umunna 'We achieved what we did last Thursday because we were a united party during the campaign and we need to maintain that unity and collective discipline in the weeks and months ahead.' The leader added: 'We will continue to take the fight to the Tories and I will be out campaigning around the country in Conservative marginals in those extra seats we need to gain to deliver the government for the many that almost 13 million people voted for last week. 'Now as Parliament returns, we have a Government in complete disarray still unable to reach an agreement, it seems, with the DUP and desperately delaying the Queen's Speech and Brexit negotiations. 'Far from being strong and stable, the Government Theresa May is putting together is weak, wobbly and out of control. This is a Government on notice from the voters. 'Theresa May has no mandate and no legitimacy for policies that do not have the support of the majority of the British people. We are now a government in waiting and we must think and act at all times with that in mind. 'This was a remarkable result achieved because we stayed united and worked as a team and I have no doubt together we can win the next general election, whenever that may be.' Commuters couldn't believe their eyes when they spotted two youngsters clinging to the back of a tram as it travelled along a busy Sydney street. A quick thinking bystander pulled out their smartphone to capture the moment on Hay Street in the city's centre. The youths doubled up on a bicycle, as one, sitting on the front wheel, clung to the windscreen wiper on the rear of the tram. Commuters couldn't believe their eyes when they spotted two youngsters clinging to the back of a tram as it travelled along a busy Sydney street The video has gone viral, racking up nearly 60,000 views on Instagram since it was posted less than a day ago. 'Sydney light rail FYI they're only going 0.000005kmh,' one viewer pointed out. Another said: 'Please stop suddenly, please stop suddenly.' 'Trampaging Youth,' one commented, while another wrote: 'These lads know what's up.' For years, two Florida police officers allegedly abused their power by ransacking homes, stealing cars, water-boarding another suspect and taking 'trophy photos'. Sgt Reny Garcia, 46, of the Sweetwater Police Department, was arrested on charges of organized scheme to defraud, racketeering and conspiracy, according to the Miami Herald. Detective William Garcia, 42, who is not related to his former colleague, was also charged in the incidents. William Garcia is currently in federal prison on unrelated identity theft and fraud charges. Two Florida police officers have been accused of ransacking a man's home and stealing his belongings, water-boarding another suspect and taking 'trophy photos'. Sgt Reny Garcia (pictured), 46, and detective William Garcia, 42, were both charged on Tuesday A third officer, Octavio Oliu, was charged a few years ago on accusations that he used a stolen license plate to avoid tolls. He will also face racketeering charges, according to the Herald. In one incident, the officers allegedly ransacked a man's home and stole his computers, iPads, TVs and his truck. The officers also allegedly beat a suspected thief for hours inside the police station, using reggaeton music to drown out the sounds. The officers also reportedly took 'trophy' photos. Courtesy WPLG In a third incident, suspect, Reinel Valdiva, 'water-boarded' - forced to swallow water, in a dark room, until he falsely confessed to a burglary, according to the Herald. Valdiva said that William Garcia was 'making strange movements, imitating karate-type moves and hitting him the ear and rib area'. The man ended up in the hospital with broken bones in his face and a rib fracture. A third officer, Octavio Oliu (pictured), was charged a few years ago on accusations that he used a stolen license plate to avoid tolls. He will also face racketeering charges The Garcias were charged with the incidents on Tuesday. Reny Garcia's lawyer, Douglas Hartman, expressed outrage over the charges saying that his client had been cleared awhile back and the sergeant had returned to work. 'It's an absolute outrage,' Hartman told the Herald. 'My guy was cleared by the feds. He's a great, hard-working cop.' Oliu's defense attorney, C. Michael Cornely, called many of the victims 'scoundrels' and crooks who made false allegations against the police officers. 'We've been defending this case for over a year,' Cornely said. 'They keep adding defendants. They're stalling. It's like they won't want to go to trial and get the truth out.' According to the Sweetwater Police Department, the arrests 'are part of a larger investigation based on decades of corruption, cultivated from the top down'. The FBI probe began in 2013. The FBI worked with Miami-Dade Police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to compile the alleged criminal acts During the investigation, the agencies listed eight separate episodes of beatings or theft, in 2012 and 2013. The case will be tried by the Attorney General's statewide prosecution office. Officials said the investigation has not revealed criminal acts amongst the current administration at the Sweetwater Police Department. President Donald Trump has granted the Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official said Tuesday, a move that could lead to the deployment of thousands more soldiers. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that Pentagon chief Jim Mattis can now directly adjust troop numbers, following his testimony that America is 'not winning' in Afghanistan. The official would not confirm whether a new 'force management level' -- currently at around 8,400 -- had been finalized. 'The White House has done the same that it did with Iraq and Syria, which is to grant the secretary of defense the authority to set troop levels,' the official said, referring to recent adjustments Trump has approved for the fight against the Islamic State group in those two countries. President Donald Trump has granted the Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official said Tuesday, a move that could lead to the deployment of thousands more soldiers. US soldiers at the site of a car bomb in the Afghan capital Kabul on May 31, 2017 Under Barack Obama, troop levels in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were closely managed by the White House and commanders complained they felt shackled by the strictures. The development came just hours after Mattis gave lengthy testimony to lawmakers, some of whom were exasperated at how long it has taken for Trump to come up with a new strategy in Afghanistan. The official said the final decision to give Mattis the power to adjust troop levels actually came during his testimony, at which he said America still is 'not winning' in Afghanistan. The 'Taliban had a good year last year, they are trying to have a good one this year,' Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing about the Pentagon's budget. 'Right now, I believe the enemy is surging.' Mattis's latest assessment comes nearly 16 years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and amid a war that continues to claim the lives of US troops each year -- and those of thousands of local forces and civilians. US military commanders, who saw fragile security gains eroded under Obama-era troop drawdowns, have been pushing for a new strategy that could see thousands of additional soldiers deploy to Afghanistan to help train and advise beleaguered Afghan partners. Media reports have said Mattis is considering asking for 3,000 to 5,000 additional US and NATO troops, but the defense chief has said little on the matter. In February, General John Nicholson, who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan, warned that he needs 'a few thousand' more troops to reverse what he called a stalemate. Despite months of expectation that a full Afghanistan strategy announcement is imminent, Mattis said the new plans not be ready before mid-July. The development came just hours after Mattis gave lengthy testimony to lawmakers, some of whom were exasperated at how long it has taken for Trump to come up with a new strategy in Afghanistan Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, voiced his 'palpable' frustration. 'We're now six months into this administration, we still haven't got a strategy for Afghanistan,' McCain said, noting it was difficult to get behind an Afghanistan budget request without knowing what the plan is. 'We know what the strategy was for the last eight years: Don't lose. That hasn't worked.' Mattis acknowledged the reality on the ground. 'We are not winning in Afghanistan right now. We will correct this as soon as possible,' he said. The defense chief, who was a Marine combat commander in Afghanistan at the start of the war, stressed America must not walk away from the country and suggested a long-term residual US force needs to remain to help the Afghan army maintain a baseline of security. 'It's going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we're to get it to that position,' Mattis said. The Afghan conflict is the longest in American history, with US-led NATO troops at war there since 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime just months after the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. The ongoing security crisis has seen not just the Taliban gain ground, but also the emergence of other groups such as a local Islamic State affiliate. On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an insider attack in which an Afghan commando turned his weapon on American troops, killing three and wounding another. US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, who mainly serve in a training and advisory capacity. The gunman at the centre of a lengthy siege in Brighton, Melbourne earlier this month was seen as a 'weakling' by police who were investigating him for a 2009 terrorist plot. Leaked cables between Australia and the CIA show police believed Yacqub Khayre was weak and not trusted by the men he was allegedly working with to shoot up Holsworthy Army Barracks. Yacqub Khayre was believed to be involved in the plot, but was acquitted at trial. Melbourne gunman Yacqub Khayre was believed to be 'weak' by police who investigated him as part of terror plot in 2009 Leaked cables reveal he was 'not trusted' by the other four men charged with being part of a plot to shoot up Holsworthy Army Barracks (pictured: Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, who was convicted following the thwarted plot) Khayre was acquitted at trial alongside alleged accomplice Abdirahman Ahmed Mohamed (pictured) Notes from Australian Federal Police Counter Terrorism Coordinator Damien Appleby and Victoria Police Detective Inspector Andrew Gustke claim Khayre was seen as 'a "weakling" who struggled with the harsh day to day life in Somalia and was not fully trusted by the other four men'. Khayre had previously travelled to Somalia and served as the group's liason with terrorist organisation al-Shabaab while he was there. Though he was acquitted at trial, the cables reveal the AFP believed he could easily have been turned into an informant while he was in prison. Khayre was acquitted alongside alleged accomplices Abdirahman Ahmed, Wissam Fattal, Nayef El Sayed and Saney Aweys, were convicted and sentenced to jail. They will be eligible for parole in six years, reported The Age. Earlier this month, Khayre shot 36-year-old male receptionist Nick Hao dead, wounded three police officers and took a woman hostage in a dramatic two-hour hostage which is being treated as a terrorist attack The Somalian-born man murdered 36-year-old male receptionist Nick Hao, wounded three police officers and took a woman hostage in a dramatic two-hour siege earlier this month. Khayre had called the Channel Seven newsroom during the siege at serviced apartments on Bay Street, Brighton, Melbourne's south-east, to claim: 'This is for IS, this is for al-Qaeda'. The 29-year-old was killed in a hail of police gunfire as he tried to escape the apartment. Advertisement Fears have emerged that new plastic cladding was a main factor in the Grenfell Tower inferno and caused the housing block to 'light up like a matchstick' as twelve people are confirmed dead in the blaze. The rain-proof cladding was installed at the tower in White City, west London, in May 2016 as part of a 10million refurbishment but claims say it helped the fire spread quickly from the fourth to 27th floor. Dozens are missing in the wake of the fire, with residents saying that 'nobody on the top three floors have survived'. Eighteen people are fighting for their lives in a critical condition with 78 people taken to six different hospitals across London. Planning documents have revealed the cladding was added so the tower would be more visually pleasing when seen from the nearby flats in neighbouring affluent suburbs. Cladding has been found to contribute to similar tower fires around the world, including residential blocks in Dubai, but with significantly less casualties. Questions will now be raised about why the Grenfell fire resulted in more people losing their lives. Prime Minister Theresa May said there will be a 'proper investigation' following the fire, adding: 'If there are any lessons to be learned they will be, and action will be taken.' Checks are also to be carried out on tower blocks going through similar refurbishment to Grenfell Tower, policing and fire minister Nick Hurd has said. Today bodies were strewn through the charred block including in its lobby and undertakers were seen removing the dead in a delicate and treacherous recovery operation set to last several days. A series of blunders are being blamed for the disaster with residents claiming there were no working fire alarms, no sprinklers and the only staircase leading to safety was blocked. A community leader working to locate victims, who asked not to be named, believes nobody who lived on the top three residential floors survived and the building that was home to 600 people could soon collapse. He said: 'We have a list of missing people - there are so many. It's possible there are more than 50, possibly hundreds'. Those who managed to flee said it was 'like hell on earth' inside as they scrambled over dead bodies in scenes akin to 9/11. Petrified residents were seen throwing themselves and their children out of windows to avoid being burned to death - others made ropes by tying bed sheets together or used them as makeshift parachutes and jumped. The local council, the block's landlord and the contractor used to refurbish the building last year face serious questions about how the fire took hold so quickly in a tower branded a 'death trap' by survivors. The tower's management facing a possible gross negligence manslaughter case it has emerged: At least 12 people have died, 74 are in six London hospitals including 20 in a critical condition after Grenfell Tower blaze started at 1am; Dozens more are feared dead or missing with one source claiming total could run into the hundreds. The Casualty Bureau number is 0800 0961 233; Trapped residents begged to be rescued while waving white towels, torches and mobile phones after being urged to stay in their flats; Petrified people were seen throwing themselves and their children out of windows - a baby tossed from the '9th or tenth floor' was caught and survived - but the mother's fate is unknown 200 firefighters with 40 engines needed to tackle 'unprecedented' blaze and pulled 65 from inside the blaze - residents claim that fire alarms didn't work, sprinklers failed and only stairwell used as exit was blocked; Residents gave repeated warnings about 'appalling' fire safety to landlord Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), whose four bosses earned 650,000 between them last year; New plastic rain-proof cladding encasing the building in 10million refurbishment 'went up like a match' and helped fire spread quickly from fourth floor to 27th floor - although the contractor insists it was safe; Dozens of similar blocks from the 1960s and 1970s refurbished in recent years have the same or similar new cladding - Experts have said a blaze like this in a tower block was 'a disaster waiting to happen' Local community including celebrities bring food and clothes to crisis centres while others offer the now-homeless places to stay; Police have said it is not possible to confirm how many people are unaccounted for because the building is still on fire more than 12 hours after it started. Scroll down for video Pictured: The new plastic cladding hangs charred and melted underneath the windows of the Grenfell tower in west London Pictured: Smoke billows from the smoldering skeleton of the Grenfell building in west London, after a devastating blaze ripped through the 27-storey tower block at 1am today The blaze has been described as a once in a generation disaster and could prove to one of the worst disasters Britain has seen in recent years There are real fears that that nobody who lived on the top three residential floors may have survived the unprecedented fire A brave firefighter is pictured inside the burnt remains of the 27-storey building, as efforts are made to investigate what caused the blaze This aerial photo taken hours after the fire ripped through the tower block shows the devastating scale of the inferno A body wrapped up in a blanket, obscured by MailOnline, lies in the ground floor of the White City tower block largely destroyed by fire over night Undertakers remove bodies from Grenfell Tower today but the recovery of the dead is likely to take several more days as the fire is still not out A drone inspects the top floors of the wrecked tower block, where residents on the highest storeys are all feared dead after being trapped in their homes and then engulfed Firefighters continue to battle large scale blaze in London tower block more than 14 hours after it broke out on the fourth floor Emergency services are still running through falling debris including glass and its controversial cladding continues to rain down An emotional woman wearing a breathing mask holds her head in despair as she rests on the pavement near the scene of the blaze in west London A woman puts a face mask to her mouth as smoke and the smell of burning hangs in the air around Grenfell tower The 27-storey Grenfell building, which was built in 1974 but refurbished last year, has an average of six flats per floor lived in by council tenants and a smaller number of private owners or tenants Victims of the Grenfall Tower blaze were 'left to die' in a building that was a 'disaster waiting to happen' by Abe Hawken and Joseph Curtis Victims of the Grenfall Tower blaze were 'left to die' in a building that was a 'disaster waiting to happen', according to the furious community. Others claimed the Ladbroke Grove area was being neglected because of poverty and that 'it would not happen in Chelsea'. Many accused the building's management of using 'shoddy materials' and said the 'plastic lagging' let to the fire spreading within just minutes. Flowers were left as tributes to victims with notes reading 'Justice must be done. People before money'. The diverse community includes people from various backgrounds including Muslim, Sikh, white British and Caribbean origins. Elaine Hawkins, 58, who has lived in the area for 50 years, said: 'We are poor here but we are not destitute. We are working class families who come together to help each other - young, old, whatever the background. 'But you look around and think 'Where is Notting Hill? Where is Holland Park? Where is the help?' Jade Ellis, 52, who has also lived in the area all her life, added: 'When you do not have, you show love. When you have, you do not show love.' Maureen Hawkins, Elaine's sister, 60, added: 'We are all devastated here, there were children in there. How did this happen to that building? It has melted and it does not make sense.' Another woman who appeared to be very distressed outside the Latymer Church, which is being used to shelter those displaced, shouted 'People have been left to die. The wrong materials were used on the building, how can that happen?' She added: 'This does not happen in Kensington. This does not happen in Chelsea.' Sonya Sorhaindo, 49, who has lived in the area her whole life, said she felt the emergency services were slow to respond. She said: 'I was out here watching the fire between 1.30am to 4.30am and I only saw water being used after I went back inside and turned on the television. 'They do a tough job but i felt this was slow.' Advertisement Grenfell's own community action group called for the tower to be pulled down four years ago over 'appalling' fire safety in the building and said today their repeated warnings to landlord Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) fell on 'deaf ears'. KCTMO completed a 10million refurbishment last year and the new cladding encasing the block originally built in 1974 'went up like a match', one resident has said. Did the building's new cladding make the fire much worse? The cladding used on Grenfell Tower may have exacerbated the fire, it has been claimed. Rainscreen cladding, which was added during the block's refurbishment, can act as a 'chimney' for fires because of its ventilated cavities. Many have speculated as to whether this could have made the fire worse, and led to it spreading quickly and trapping residents. Jack Monroe, a former fire fighter, tweeted about the incident and said: 'Whoever signed off on that cladding needs to be hauled before a court and held fully accountable for every single fatality and injury. Chartered surveyor and fire expert Arnold Tarling, from Hindwoods, said that the process can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation. 'It produces a wind tunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building. 'So had it been insulated per se, the insulation could fall off and fall away from the building, but this is all contained inside.' He said not all insulation used in the process is the more expensive non-flammable type 'So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it.' Rydon carried out an 8.6 million project, completed in May 2016, to modernise the outside of the building, which saw new cladding and windows installed. In a statement, the Sussex-based firm said it was shocked by the 'devastating' blaze, adding: 'Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016 for KCTMO (Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation) on behalf of the council, which met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards. The former chairman of the tenancy organisation connected to Grenfell Tower has described recent refurbishment work as a 'disaster waiting to happen'. Reg Kerr-Bell said he stood down from the Kensington and Chelsea Tenancy Management Organisation (TMO) several years ago over his concerns about the way it was run. Just two days before the fatal blaze, he had spoken to a former colleague about their fears. Mr Kerr-Bell said: 'This is a scandal. This is one of the biggest scandals in the country - and it could have been avoided.' He added: 'This refurbishment contract should never have been managed by TMO. 'It was too big for them. My great concern was about the viability of the project.' He said he met a former director two days ago to discuss his concerns. 'We felt there was a disaster waiting to happen and we were going to have a meeting with the MP so that we could put these concerns to them. 'That was two days ago and today he phoned me and said: 'You will not believe what is going on'. 'It is not going to finish with this - this is just the start.' Advertisement A spokesman said: 'It is too early to speculate what caused the fire and contributed to its spread. We will co-operate fully with all the relevant authorities in order to ascertain the cause of this tragedy. 'We are aware that concerns have been raised historically by residents. We always take all concerns seriously and these will form part of our forthcoming investigations. While these investigations continue with our co-operation, our core priority at the moment is our residents'. NHS England said 74 people are being treated in six hospitals across the capital, of whom 20 are in critical care. Mr Cundy said it is likely to be some time before police can identify the victims, adding that it is too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. Prime Minister Theresa May was said to be 'deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life' and newly appointed police and fire minister Nick Hurd will chair a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to co-ordinate the response. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters: 'This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.' Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union said 'there was no way a fire should develop in this way'. Commenting on residents claims the building was unsafe he said: 'Firefighters would expect to be able to fight a fire like this from within the building and that there would be a safe exit route available. In this case it was clearly not possible'. Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 and contains 120 flats thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people. The building was refurbished recently at a cost of 8.6 million, with work completed in May last year. Rydon, the firm that carried it out, said its work 'met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards'. London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is still being investigated, but several residents reported one man had said it started in his faulty fridge. The brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building and determined it was not in danger of collapse and that rescue teams were safe to be inside. Many traumatic accounts of the fire and its impact have emerged, including a baby being dropped from the tower. Samira Lamrani said she saw a woman try to save the baby by dropping it from a window 'on the ninth or 10th floor' to waiting members of the public below. Residents who escaped complained there had been no fire alarm, with many relying on neighbours to wake them as the blaze spread. They said official advice in the event of a fire had been to stay inside. Michael Paramasivan, who was in his seventh floor flat with girlfriend Hannah West, 23, and her daughter Thea, five, said: 'If we'd listened to them and stayed in the flat we'd have perished.' A residents' action group said its warnings about safety had fallen on 'deaf ears'. A blog post from Grenfell Action Group in November said 'only a catastrophic event' would expose the concerns residents had. The group said there was one entry and exit to the tower during improvement works and it had issues with evacuation procedures. London mayor Sadiq Khan said: 'There will be a great many questions over the coming days as to the cause of this tragedy and I want to reassure Londoners that we will get all the answers.' Witnesses said the fire spread rapidly up the building, with some suggesting it was fuelled by gas. Mr Paramasivan, 37, told the Press Association: 'There were explosions everywhere you looked, lots of bangs, blue gas coming out everywhere you looked. 'About 12 floors up I saw three children waving from a window and then there was just an explosion and they disappeared. 'They were three kids, they were banging on the windows, you could see their silhouettes and then bang, it just went up.' Muna Ali, 45, said: 'The flames, I have never seen anything like it, it just reminded me of 9/11. 'The fire started on the upper floors ... oh my goodness, it spread so quickly, it had completely spread within half an hour.' Robert Black, chief executive of Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which manages Grenfell, said: 'The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking.' Maintenance firm responsible for Grenfell paid 11M by taxpayer The company responsible for the safety and maintenance of the block of flats which turned into a raging inferno and killed at least 12 people was paid 11million last year from taxpayer's money. Grenfell Tower is owned by the borough council in Kensington and Chelsea, but the management of the building is the responsibility of an independent company - Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO). Speaking to Nina Hossain on ITV News London the company's boss Robert Black said: 'We are in complete shock and condolences for what's happened today. Our thoughtS are with everybody that is currently affected and still affected.' Robert Black (left) who is Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation's Chief Executive and in charge of the management of Grenfell Tower and Andrew Goldman from Rydon Construction who appeared on TV this morning admitting he did not know the exact details of the materials used in the revamp of the block of flars The doomed block of flats underwent a 10million refurbishment which were completed in May last year which was overseen by Rydon Construction. After a day of finger-pointing and revelations residents had spent years lobbying over safety concerns, a massive investigation has been launched and experts are predicting it could lead to a prosecution. Those in the firing line are the council, who own the property and send people to live there, KCTMO who are responsible for maintaining Grefnell Tower and Rydon who installed cladding as part of their refurbishment. The Health and Safety Executive, the police and the fire service are now expected to launch a large-scale investigation and Rachel Adamson, Head of Regulatory Law at Stephensons law firm, said for an incident of this size it is very likely they will be considering criminal charges. Residents say they told former KCMOT worker Siobhan Rumble (right) of their safety concerns, but claim their warnings were overlooked in the building that is owned by Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council, whose Chief Executive is pictured left She told MailOnline: 'Corporate manslaughter charges are often quite difficult to prove as they relate to the controlling mind of the business. 'If an individual is thought to have been negligent, a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence may be considered. 'There are a range of other potential charges, such as breach of fire regulations or breach of health and safety regulations, these are the tiers down from manslaughter.' Investigators are expected to look at how recent renovation work was carried out, whether Construction Regulations have been adhered to, and what fire safety precautions were in place. More than one resident has claimed that there was no central fire alarm system for the tower block - or it had failed - and only smoke alarms in individual flats were working. There are also claims that there that there was no central sprinkler system - or it was also not working properly during the fire. Others have claimed that the new cladding encasing the block added during last year's 10million refurbishment by Rydon Construction caught alight 'like a matchstick'. Checks are to be carried out on tower blocks going through similar refurbishment to Grenfell Tower, policing and fire minister Nick Hurd has said. Advertisement Residents wearing masks to help filter out fumes in the air call loved ones and drink water as they wait near the scene Grenfell Tower is in one of London's most diverse communities and this group sit on the pavement outside a temporary aid centre nearby, some of whom were in tears Many residents who gathered outside the smoldering ruins of the building said the fire had been caused by a faulty fridge in one of the flats, but the fire service told MailOnline it could not confirm the reports at this stage The trapped, some of whom are still inside, were heard begging for their lives while waving white towels, torches and mobile phones Terrified residents trapped in a burning tower block were forced to knot bed sheets together to form makeshift ladders or jump from the 27-storey building in a desperate bid to escape the flames Police would not confirm how many people are unaccounted for because the building is still on fire 12 hours after it started (pictured this after) - 12 are known to be dead but the toll is likely to be much higher Residents were trapped 'screaming for their lives' as flames raged through a 27-storey tower block in Notting Hill in the early hours today A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London A body bag on a stretcher is wheeled away from a tower block that was severely damaged by the worst fire of its kind for years Forensics teams and police prepare to enter the lower floors of the Grenfell Tower but the majority of the building is too dangerous to enter Firefighters have braved extreme temperatures and needed riot shield to protect themselves from falling debris including glass and cladding Large numbers police are also on the scene recovering bodies being taken away on stretchers this afternoob A childrens play area is filled with debris directly under Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate In this image taken by eyewitness Gurbuz Binici, a huge fire engulfs the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City A friend of a mother who lives in the tower block said she still heard from her after receiving a Snapchat video of the blaze at 3am. Ranya Ibrahim, 30, sent her friend Maseen (pictured) the clip just moments after the blaze started Two tearful friends hug while sat on rubbish bags and many people wait to hear the fate of their loved-ones caught up in the fire Many residents were forced to flee in just their pyjamas after the fire was sparked in the early hours of the morning Worried people were glued to their phones and looked sick with worry as the scale of the disaster began to emerge Mahad Egal said that he saw children being thrown from the building and claimed number of people died in the incident - he believes it was his neighbour's fridge that started the fire and was hugged by the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire Anxious residented - young and old - speak on phones or watch the devastation in front of them in west London today People have travelled from all over London and beyond to donate food, drink and offer shelter to anyone who needed help Residents evacuated from the building receive treatment at the scene of a huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White City A woman covered in ash is comforted by others as she looks on while the enormous fire rages through the night and into the morning Desperate residents scream for help in this photograph taken in the early minutes before the fire swamped the entire building More than 600 residents desperately tried to escape the flames as the fire broke out in the middle of the night, with many woken by the screams of others and the smell of burning plastic The cordon around the block has been pushed back by police and homes surrounding it evacuated amid fears that the building could collapse in the densely populated area of London Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said there had been 'a number of fatalities' following a 'unprecedented incident' that she described as the largest in scale that she had seen in her 29-year career Hundreds of people have been left homeless after the blaze, with community centres opening their doors to those affected Several people have been confirmed dead after a huge inferno broke out at a residential tower block in West London (shown) Firefighters have been battling the blaze for several hours and while the flames are slowly being brought under control, there are fears the tower could collapse 12 people are known to have died after fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in White City at 1am today but Scotland Yard says the death toll is expected to rise significantly A trapped resident looks out from his window as he tries to get the attention of the rescue services. Emergency services asked people to shine torches or their phones from their windows to let them know they were still inside The full extent of the damage caused by the fire is evident in this photograph taken this afternoon, as firefighters continue to extinguish fires in the upper levels of the block The heat was said to be so intense that firefighters (shown) were unable to get close to the building, which was built in 1974 - the exhausted emergency services took shifts to rush the building because they were using oxygen tanks because they are technically limited to four hours at a time. Many have spent 12 hours or more fighting the blaze Firefighters and paramedics work on someone pulled from the burning building today - but many are feared to be inside Families who escaped the flames were left to face the reality of their home and all of their belongings being destroyed in the fire, which started in the early hours of this morning Two women hug outside tower block fire on Latimer Road. London Ambulance said 30 people are receiving treatment Firefighters covered in dust and soot from the burning building are offered food and water by a volunteer near Grenfell Tower Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has also demanded to know why Grenfell residents were told to 'stay put' in their flats for up to an hour in the event of a fire. How the Grenfell tower block disaster unfolded 12.30am: Residents report smelling burning plastic 12.54am: London Fire Brigade receive the first call 1am: First fire engines arrive at the scene in Grenfell Tower 1.16am: Police are called to attend the fire 3am: Some residents remain trapped inside with torches still being shone from windows - the sign the emergency services asked trapped residents to give 8am: Fire brigade admit there have been some fatalities 8.30am: First indication that the fire was started by a faulty fridge 9.30am: Structural engineers attend the site and state it is currently considered safe 10.35am: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan gives a press conference promising to 'ask questions' about what happened in the fire 11.30am: Scotland Yard confirms that six are dead - and the death toll will rise 17.00pm: Death toll rises to 12 Advertisement Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said there had been 'a number of fatalities' and structural engineers are checking the stability of the building, which appears to have warped. One witness said he saw several people jumping to their deaths from all floors to escape the fire. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said questions will need to be answered over the safety of tower blocks in the capital as a result of the fire. At least one resident is still stuck inside the block on the 11th floor, with firefighters desperately trying to reach him. Those in the upper floors were seen flashing torches in a bid to call for help, tying bedding together to create makeshift ropes. Panicked residents trapped high in the enormous tower were heard screaming for help as they leaned out of their windows and tied bed sheets together in an attempt to reach the ground. Many of those evacuated said they were woken by screams, intense heat and the smell of burning plastic, thought to be white cladding that was installed on the building last year as part of a 10million refurbishment. One woman said that residents faced 'either jumping out the window with their children and risk breaking bones or staying where you were and dying'. The fire is said to have spread from the second floor to the roof of the enormous 120-flat block in just 15 minutes, with 200 firefighters struggling to bring it under control. Eyewitness Tamara told BBC News: 'You could hear people screaming 'help me, help me'. 'There were people throwing their kids out [of windows], they were shouting 'save my children'. The fire brigade were telling people to stay where they were, they were telling people 'we'll come and get you'.' Hanan Wahabi, 39, who lives on the ninth floor, said she was awoken at about 1am by smoke. 'I could see there was ash coming through the window in the living room, which was partially open,' she said, sitting with her husband and son, 16, and daughter, eight, outside a local community centre. 'I looked out and I could see the fire travelling up the block. It was literally by my window,' she said. 'I slammed the window shut and got out.' After the family escaped, she called her brother, who lives on the 21st floor, to see if he was all right. Exhausted firefighters covered in soot and ash tackle blaze in shift pattern during 'unprecedented' response Throughout the night and day, many smoke and dust-covered firefighters were pictured taking forced breaks as colleagues took their turns in battling the fire and rescue trapped residents. Firefighters were tasked with battling the blaze in shifts as under health and safety rules, emergency service personnel can only work in hazardous environments for certain amounts of time. The heroic servicemen were also hampered by the strict use of self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), which hold about 30 to 45 minutes of air, depending on the size of the tank and the rate of consumption due to strenuous activities. Although commonly referred to as oxygen tanks, the units are actually filled with compressed air, as used in SCUBA diving equipment, as oxygen would act as a powerful fire accelerant. The heroic servicemen were also hampered by the strict use of self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), which hold about 30 to 45 minutes of air, depending on the size of the tank and the rate of consumption due to strenuous activities A large group of firefighters rest at the scene of the huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White City, London, this morning Firefighters make their way into the wrecked building with a police escort. Officers were tasked with protecting those entering the building from falling debris by using their riot shields More than 200 firefighters were dispatched to the fire at Grenfell Tower in an 'unprecedented' response by the capital's fire service. After arriving on the scene at 2am, firefighters attempted to evacuate as many residents as possible. Those still inside were told to 'stay put' as is normal protocol, given that buildings are specifically designed to stop blazes from spreading. But as the fire took hold of the entire building, the heat became so severe that firefighters were unable to enter the tower for several hours between 3am and 7am. In the meantime, firefighters used cherry pickers to douse the flames around those waving for help from windows of their flats. After the fire was subdued at around 12pm, emergency service personnel began moving up through the 27-storey structure, and it is understood they have reached up to the 20th floor. Firefighters were given a police escort as they made their way inside the building, with officers tasked with protecting them from falling debris with their riot shields. A brace firefighter is pictured inside the burnt remains of the 27-storey building, as efforts are made to investigate what caused the blaze Advertisement Fire crews and emergency services continue to deal with the still smouldering Grenfell Tower in west London, almost half a day after the first 999 call was received Firefighters make their way into the wrecked building with a police escort. Officers were tasked with protecting those entering the building from falling debris by using their riot shields As news spread of the disaster, hundreds of volunteers descended on west London to give food, clothing and water to community centres caring for victims More than a hundred police officers were drafted in to help with the rescue operation, with another 100 paramedics also rushed to the scene Many of the capital's firefighters were deployed to west London to help control the blaze, which has been raging for half a day This man, who was pictured throughout the morning desperately waving for help as the huge inferno raged around him for nearly 12 hours, was eventually rescued by firefighters Queens Park Rangers Academy volunteers donate training kit to those who have lost the majority of their possessions in the fire 'A mother on the top floor escaped with her six children. By the time she got to the bottom, she only had four with her': Residents give horrific eyewitness accounts A woman with six children who was attempting to escape from the 21st floor of the London tower block fire this morning got to the bottom to discover two of them were missing, it has been claimed. Dozens of horrific eyewitness accounts have begun to emerge from the 27-storey tower block fire in White City this morning, with residents claiming people are still stuck inside the building - which houses 600 people. There have been a 'number of fatalities' at the fire at Grenfell Tower in west London, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton has told reporters. One resident described how people were 'just throwing their kids out' screaming 'save my children''. Local resident Tamara told BBC News: 'Around 12.30/1am my mum called me and said there was a fire outside. By the time I got there the whole right side of the building was on fire, the whole thing was engulfed in flames. Dozens of horrific eyewitness accounts have begun to emerge from the 27-storey tower block fire in White City this morning, with residents claiming people are still stuck inside the building - which houses 600 people. 'We could hear people screaming 'Help me' so me and my brother, with some other people who live in the area, ran over to the estate to where you could still get underneath it and there were people just throwing their kids out saying 'Save my children'. 'The fire crew, ambulance and police couldn't do anything, they couldn't get in, and they were just telling them to stay where they are, and we'll come and get you. But things quickly escalated beyond measure and they couldn't go back in and get them. 'Within another 15 minutes the whole thing was up in flames and there were still people at their windows shouting 'Help me'. You could see the fire going into their houses and engulfing the last room that they were in.' Another witness, Samira, told BBC News: 'It escalated really quickly. Around midnight the fire was only around the third floor and then, before you know it, the whole 23 floors of the building were all on fire and there were people screaming for help and throwing kids out. There have been a 'number of fatalities' at the fire at Grenfell Tower in west London, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton has told reporters 'I think everyone felt really helpless because no-one could get to them. Everyone was really scared and they didn't know what to do and it was really sad to see. These are all people that we grew up with and people that we see every day, like our neighbours. 'There was a lot of people there - children, elderly people and disabled people; my family members, who thankfully made it out. But there are still a lot of people who are unaccounted for.' Tamara went on: 'My brother has a lot of school friends who are still wondering if their friends have made it out, they haven't got in contact with them or heard anything. One of the girls lives on the top floor, which the police advised that if you were living on that floor that it is most likely that they haven't made it.' Samira added: 'I think the speed of the fire was the most shocking thing for everyone, how quick it literally went from zero to 100. Like it was literally just the fourth floor and that was bad but it was really minor, and that building is really big and the whole building was gone - even before it hit 1am the whole building was in flames. 'I saw people flying out of their balconies and windows. I saw a man who flew out of his window, I saw people screaming for help. We saw a lot of people jumping out that basically didn't make it. It was from the eighth floor and up, and that kind of floor you wouldn't really make it.' A woman with six children who was attempting to escape from the 21st floor of the London tower block fire this morning got to the bottom to discover two of them were missing, it has been claimed Tamara continued: 'I had a family friend that was stuck all the way up till 5am but luckily she made it out and some others from her floor and the floors below made it out. 'But there are people who were higher up that they just couldn't get to because it just got out of control so quickly. 'It was like a split second before the whole building was on fire. It started on one floor, then it took one side and then the whole building was on fire. There's nothing you can do but watch things unfold in front of you.' A man who lived on the 17th floor of the block, identified as Methrob, told LBC Radio: 'I heard the fire trucks and so I was alerted that something was going on. There was no fire alarm in the building, we don't have an integrated fire alarm system. 'I went outside my house and I could smell the smoke. I looked out my window, I leaned over and I could see the fire blazing up. I woke up my auntie who was sleeping, it was about 1.15am, and we started to make our way down. 'I warned a couple of my neighbours, the ones nearest to me, and we basically went as fast as we could.' One of the many residents to be evacuated from the fire tries to reach somebody on the phone as others desperately sought to be reunited with missing loved ones He said the fire was inside one apartment, but added the 'real issue was when it caught fire to the cladding outside. That's when I noticed the fire from outside when I looked out the window. 'By the time that we got downstairs, the fire had gone all the way up and it was just about reaching our windows on the 17th floor. 'The whole one side of the building was on fire. The cladding went up like a matchstick.' Methrob said residents had been concerned about safety, adding that there had been warning 'for over a year'. Fabio Bebber wrote on Twitter: 'More screams for help as the fire spreads to another side of the building. 'We can see how quick the fire spreads via the external panels. It's unbearable hearing someone screaming for their lives at #grenfelltower.' Two women console each other (pictured) as the area surrounding the building in west London was cordoned off by police officers Jamie Martin climbed through a window to escape the inferno. He told BBC Radio 4: 'Bits of the building were falling off, I scalded my shin on a hot piece of metal. 'I was shouting 'Get out get out' to people as I saw them and they were shouting back, 'we can't, the corridors are full of smoke'. Actor and writer Tim Downie, who lives around 600 metres from the scene in Latimer Road, said he fears the block could collapse. He said: 'It's horrendous. The whole building is engulfed in flames. It's gone. It's just a matter of time before this building collapses. 'It's the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. I just hope they have got everyone out. Bits of debris, thought to be white cladding that was installed on the building last year as part of a 10million refurbishment, is seen falling from the building Advertisement The fire is said to have spread from the second floor to the roof of the enormous 120-flat block in just 15 minutes, with 200 firefighters struggling to bring it under control The charred remains of hundreds of peoples homes are desperately doused in water by firefighters as they try to bring the raging blaze under control Six hours after the fire was first reported to emergency services, it continues to burn despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters on the scene The fire is said to have spread from the second floor to the roof of the enormous 120-flat block in just 15 minutes, with 200 firefighters struggling to bring it under control Residents in the burning tower were said to be evacuating and a number of people were treated for a 'range of injuries,' Metropolitan Police said A photograph from ITV's Good Morning Britain shows the building before it was set alight. Shown right is the tower as firefighters continued to battle the flames A map shows the location of the tower block in west London. The surrounding area is densely populated with other houses and flats 'The fire hadn't reached the top of the block at that point,' Wahabi said. The fire alarms did not go off and the sprinklers failed inside Grenfell Tower, according to surviving residents Fire alarms didn't go off, sprinklers failed and residents were told to 'stay put' inside their flats, survivors of the inferno in the 'third world' tower block said today. Several people have been confirmed dead and more are missing following the fire at Grenfell Tower in north Kensington overnight, which left a further 50 people in hospital. Survivors have described how the building's fire alarms were not working at all - and sprinklers also failed. And it has emerged that the block's residents were told to 'stay put' in their flats in case of the fires, and the only stairwell used in the evacuation may have been blocked. Residents have said they were only alerted to the fire by neighbours banging on doors or phone calls from people living in the area who saw the tower was alight. Advertisement 'He said he had been told to stay inside, stay in one room together and put towels under the door. I told him to leave. He said he was going to come. Then I called him and he said there was too much smoke.' She added: 'The last time I saw him they were waving out the window, his wife and children. The last time I spoke to his wife, he was on the phone to the fire brigade. 'I've not heard from them since, the phone is not going through, the landline isn't going through. That was about 2:00am.' A witness identified as Daniel told BBC Radio London that people on the upper floors were trapped as the flames rose higher and higher. 'People have been burned,' he said. 'I have seen it with my own eyes. And I have seen people jump.' Another survivor at the community centre, wearing shorts, a T-shirts and trainers and with a blanket draped around his shoulders, said he saved his own life with just moments to spare. 'My neighbour's smoke alarm went off and I thought he might have done some cooking,' he said, giving only his first name of Eddie, 55. 'I went into the bathroom and I got the towel and wet it and wrapped it around my head. I run out into the hallway, close the door behind me and ran for where I thought the fire exit was. 'I didn't find it. It was a matter of life and death - I thought, 'If I'm in this for another five seconds, I'm a goner'.' 'Then on the ground there was a fireman, he touched my leg and pulled me into where the fire stairwell was. You couldn't see anything. I just ran down the stairs. There wasn't that many people on the stairs. 'Loads of people haven't got out of the building.' Abdul Hamid, 51, lives on the 16th floor lost everything he owned but counted himself lucky to be alive. 'I have nothing. My passport was in there - it's gone. I'm meant to be flying to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. Now I'm homeless.' Action group called for Grenfell Tower to be pulled down FOUR YEARS ago but say their warnings about appalling safety 'fell on deaf ears' An action group predicted the Grenfell Tower fire was an accident waiting to happen four years ago but claim their warnings fell on deaf ears. The fire service confirmed this morning there had been a number of fatalities in the horrific blaze which was reported just after 1am today. Grenfell Action Group said: 'Watching breaking news about the Grenfell Tower fire catastrophe. Too soon to even guess at numbers of casualties and fatalities. 'We have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). 'All our warnings fell on deaf ears. This was inevitable and just a matter of time.' The group had been posting about their concerns of tower block's safety regularly calling for it to be torn down before it went up in flames in the early hours of this morning in White City. An action group predicted the Grenfell Tower fire was an accident waiting to happen four years ago but claim their warnings fell on deaf ears (pictured: the tower before the blaze) A fire safety notice at Granfell Tower, where police confirmed there had been a number of fatalities as a result of the blaze Chillingly, back in November, while addressing the managed by tenant managers Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the group wrote: 'It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. 'We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster. 'Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMO residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation. 'We believe that the KCTMO have ensured their ongoing survival by the use of proxy votes at their Annual General Meeting that see them returned with a mandate of 98 percent in favour of the continuation of their inept and highly dangerous management of our homes.' There is no suggestion that KCTMO are to blame for the fire and MailOnline contacted the landlords Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, but nobody was immediately available to comment. The planned drawings which show the refurbishment of existing Grenfell Tower including new external cladding and fenestration, alterations to plant room, reconfiguration of lower 4 levels to provide 7 new residential units, replacement nursery and boxing club facilities, external public realm works, redevelopment and change of use of existing garages to refuse collection area Advertisement Heroic firefighters shield themselves from the falling debris as they race to help people trapped inside the large building Debris from the fire in the Grenfell Tower, in West London. The fire has been declared a major incident by the Mayor of London and several people are said to have died A resident in another tower block looks on as thick plumes of smoke fill the air in west London following the devastating fire Hundreds of firefighters were rushed to the scene in the early hours of this morning, however many of them were forced to watch on as the huge blaze stopped them reaching much of the tower Firefighters tackling a huge inferno at a residential tower block in West London fear the 27-storey building could collapse As residents flooded the streets outside the burning building, many spoke of members of their family or close neighbours being unaccounted for Firefighters gather outside the building that went up in smoke today. Witnesses said the fire 'escalated very quickly' and there were people screaming for help from their windows The fire is said to have spread from the second floor to the roof of the enormous 120-flat block in just 15 minutes, with 200 firefighters struggling to bring it under control Commander Stuart Cundy, from the Metropolitan Police, said: 'All the emergency services and other agencies continue to work together at the scene. 'I can confirm there have been a number of fatalities and others receiving medical care. We will be soon making contact with next of kin. 'Anyone who is concerned about loved ones in relation to the fire should contact Casualty Bureau which has been opened following the fire. If you do not get through immediately please do try again.' Among those being evacuated was what a man described as a 'heavily disabled woman', who was being carried down the stairs by firefighters. Mouna Elogbani, who lives on the 11th floor with her husband and three children, aged 13, 10 and two, said she got a phone call from a neighbour warning her that the block was alight. She said: 'I was in my home going to bed, It was around 1.30am and my children were asleep. 'My friend called on the phone and told me that the building was on fire, it was coming towards our floor and we needed to get out. 'I woke up my children and we carried them out of the flat but when we opened the door to escape the flames burst into the house and we had to shut it again. We got out through a fire escape and down the stairs.' According to the London Fire Brigade, 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze, seen here in the early hours of this morning The enormous building was scorched to cinders by the fire, which has been raging for hours since it was first reported The smoke fills the sky above west London. Witnesses spoke of smelling smoke at about 1am, with reports that no fire alarm sounded after the blaze broke out A large chunk of debris (shown) falls from the sky as residents gathered outside the building to try and find their loved ones A police officer escorts a resident to safety (pictured) as debris fills the streets around the large building in west London The huge fire could be seen from all over London, as the massive plume of smoke flied the skies above the capital city 'I know that there are people trapped on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd floors and one of my neighbours has passed away.' The 27-storey block, believed to contain around 120 flats, underwent a 10million refurbishment last year. Mrs Elogbani said: 'It was not safe anymore. They took away the security it was no longer 100 per cent safe. When asked about worries about how it would cope in a major fire she said: 'I wouldn't be surprised'. She said: 'We've lost everything. I am feeling sick, shocked and angry'. A woman resident said: 'Some residents did escape. I heard some people shouting help from their windows from 20 floors. I saw them flashing their lights and then they stopped. 'I don't know what happened or if they are safe. It was really horrible.' Schoolboy Omar Kalam, 11, was standing anxiously at the emergency service cordon with father Walid, 44. 'My brother has friends and they live in there,' he said. 'I'm not sure if they are all right yet.' Parents from nearby Kensington Aldridge Academy, where Omar attends, had been told the school was closed, his father said. Residents who managed to escape sit on the pavement as they await news of what is going on. The cause of the fire is not yet known. Those who escaped said the fire started as a 'minor incident' but soon engulfed the whole building Londoners watch on as the building goes up in flames, with emergency services packing the streets around the scene An arm holding a cloth can be seen waving from a window of Grenfell Tower as smoke rises from a lower window. There are around 600 people living in the tower block, which has about 140 flats One resident told the BBC he saw a helicopter circling the tower and getting close to a woman who was waving a flag outside her window but was not able to rescue her Debris outside the Grenfell Tower after the fire. Those who have escaped are concerned about those who may be left inside, and an emergency number has been set up to help people locate their relatives Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City, is currently 'lurching' to one side after a 'very, very severe fire' broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning, causing people to 'beg for their lives' Desperate residents are building ropes from sheets in an attempt to escape a huge inferno that has engulfed a tower block in west London The entire block has been completely covered up by the massive flames on all sides with thick plumes of smoke filling the air Witnesses said that the acrid smell was 'horrendous' as the inferno gutted all the windows and swept across the entire building The fire continued to burn as the sun rose on Wednesday with long plumes of smoke filling the air over west London Several people are being treated for a 'range of injuries' including illness from smoke inhalation. One neighbour said he believed someone had jumped from the block The fire has spread from the second floor to the roof of the enormous towering block, with 200 firefighters struggling to bring it under control Nassima Boutrig, who lives opposite the building, said she was awakened by sirens and smoke so thick that it filled her home as well. 'We saw the people screaming,' she said. 'A lot of people said 'Help, help, help'. The fire brigade could only help downstairs. It was fire up, up, up. They couldn't stop the fire.' Boutrig said her friend's brother, wife and children lived in the building and that her friend was waiting to find out if they were OK. Flatowners in their pyjamas have been evacuated as police are pushing people away from the area for fear the block will collapse due to 'chunks' of debris flying off from the tower. The cordon around the block has been pushed back by police and homes surrounding it evacuated amid fears that the building could collapse in the densely populated area of London. Police, 40 fire engines and helicopters rushed to the scene as horrifying pictures emerged on social media showing giant flames licking up the side of the block. Fire crews from North Kensington, Kensington, Hammersmith and Paddington and from surrounding fire stations are in attendance. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage. Tim Downie, who lives a few hundred feet from the building, told Sky News: 'The acrid smell is just horrendous. The building has pretty much burnt out, there are just a few bits that are still not burning. 'Every single window is gutted. There is debris falling off it. The heat was extraordinary. The fire has wrapped itself around the block. People on the street said it started on the fourth floor and spread all the way up and around. The London Fire Brigade said: 'Crews continue to work hard at tower block fire in North Kensington. Fire is from 2nd to top floor of 27 storey building.' Firemen were inside trying to get people out of the building, which was built in 1974 and part of the Lancaster West Estate. Horrified residents watched the blaze. There are 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters at the Lancaster West Estate Terrified residents in their pyjamas have been evacuated from the residential block as police are warning people to stay away for fear it might collapse Witnesses spoke of helicopters circling above the blazing tower block for hours since the fire started at 1am on Wednesday The windows were seen burning bright orange as massive plumes of black smoke filled the air The 'horrendous' blaze has struck the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City, in the early hours of Wednesday morning Residents have been asked to shine torches and phones out of their windows so the fire brigade knew there was someone who needed rescuing. By 3am, at least one torch was still shining from the block, which was ablaze on two sides as hundreds of concerned neighbours gathered near the building to watch and try to contact those inside. Jody Martin said he got to the scene just as the first fire engine was arriving. He told the BBC: 'I grabbed an axe from the fire truck, it looked like there was a bit of confusion about what to do. 'I ran around the building looking for a fire escape and couldn't see any noticeable fire escapes around the building. A lot of debris falling down. 'I eventually gained entry on to the second floor, and once I got to the corridor I realised there was so much smoke there.' He added that given the thickness of the smoke, he would be surprised if anyone could have left the building without assistance. 'I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window... hearing screams, I was yelling everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors',' he said. Local councillor Nick Paget-Brown described the blaze as a 'very, very severe fire'. He told Sky News: 'Clearly it's an absolutely devastating fire. 'Several hundred would have been in there. It's a question of establishing how many people were in there at the time of the fire. A group of people trying to help out police were forced back because they were walking towards the burning building Police and 40 fire engines have rushed to the scene as hundreds of concerned residents gathered outside to try to contact their loved ones Two trapped people leaned out of their windows (left) as they tried to get to a ladder (right) which fell just short of their floor Fire crews from North Kensington, Kensington, Hammersmith and Paddington and from surrounding fire stations are in attendance. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage, the London Fire Brigade said in a statement 'I'm really not in any position to answer any questions about the structure. 'Clearly there's a lot more work to do to evacuate the building and to establish how safe it is.' Fire crews from north Kensington, Kensington, Hammersmith and Paddington and surrounding stations were at the scene with the fire burning from the second to the top floor. The cause of the fire was not known at this stage, London Fire Brigade said. Fabio Bebber wrote on Twitter: 'More screams for help as the fire spreads to another side of the building. 'We can see how quick the fire spreads via the external panels. It's unbearable hearing someone screaming for their lives at #grenfelltower.' One neighbour, Derry Glover, told MailOnline he first heard sirens at around 1am. He added that he believed someone had jumped from the building. The London Fire Brigade received multiple calls to the fire which spread from the second floor to the top floor of the 27 floor building. Assistant Commissioner Dan Daly said: 'Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus are working extremely hard in very difficult conditions to tackle this fire. This is a large and very serious incident and we have deployed numerous resources and specialist appliances.' 'The Brigade was called to the fire at 12.54am and is still at the scene. Fire crews from North Kensington, Kensington, Hammersmith and Paddington and from surrounding fire stations are in attendance. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage,' the brigade said in a statement. A group of people trying to help out police were forced back because they were walking towards the burning building. A witness told BBC Radio: 'There are parents and kids in pajamas waiting outside.' The residential block has hundreds of residents two of whom are being treated for illness from smoke inhalation Residents still in the building had been told by firefighters to line the bottom of their doors to stop smoke getting in. Meanwhile, police conducted a roll call of flats to work out who might still be trapped inside One panicked resident wrote on Twitter: 'I'm stuck in this block!!! Can't leave my house because I'll die from the smoke' Hundreds of firefighters are working to try to fight the blaze, but are still struggling to get it under control Residents still in the building had been told by firefighters to line the bottom of their doors to stop smoke getting in. Meanwhile, police conducted a roll call of flats to work out who might still be trapped inside. George Clarke, the presenter of Amazing Spaces, told Radio 5 Live: 'I was in bed and heard 'beep, beep, beep' and thought, 'I'll get up and run downstairs as quickly as I could'. 'I thought it might be a car alarm outside and saw the glow through the windows. I'm getting covered in ash, that's how bad it is. I'm 100 metres away and I'm absolutely covered in ash. It's so heartbreaking, I've seen someone flashing their torches at the top level and they obviously can't get out. 'The guys are doing an incredible job to try and get people out that building, but it's truly awful.' Clarita Ghavimi, 66, who lives on seventh floor, said she was told to leave the building amid fears it might collapse. 'Every single window is gutted. There is debris falling off it. The heat was extraordinary. The fire has wrapped itself around the block' a witness said Police have continued to widen the cordons around the tower for fear that it will collapse onto people 'At 12.30am I heard a loud alarm and I woke up,' she told MailOnline. 'Then I heard a voice on the speaker saying 'You need to get out, the building's going to collapse.' I went to the door and my flat started smoking so I grabbed a towel and made it damp to stop the smoke.' She added: 'When I opened my door two men carried me down the stairs. I am concerned that my son doesn't think that I'm safe. I've tried to get in contact with him but I can't remember his number. I feel like I have some smoke inhalation.' Ms Ghavimi explained that she only has her bus pass on her. 'My passport, everything is in there.' Shocked bystanders filmed the blaze from the ground, and shouted at trapped people waving from their windows to 'cover their mouths'. An eye witness said: 'There are about 15 fire engines but are struggling to get in and out because there is just one narrow road in and one narrow road out' Desperate residents trapped high in the tower have built ropes from sheets (left) in an attempt to reach the ground Shocked bystanders prayed for those trapped inside as they spoke of helicopters flying over the blaze for 'nearly two hours' 'Cover your mouth with a wet towel,' they yelled. 'Don't panic. It started on the fourth floor or something. There are people in their windows, putting their heads out.' An eye witness said: 'There are about 15 fire engines but are struggling to get in and out because there is just one narrow road in and one narrow road out.' Another added: 'Sirens flying up and down the road and police helicopter hovering for nearly 2 hours has been the noise tonight. Terrible.' Tim Donwie wrote: 'Raging fire near Latimer Road. Whole block of 24 floors up in flames. People still trapped inside. Horrendous.' One resident wrote on Twitter: 'I'm stuck in this block!!! Can't leave my house because I'll die from the smoke.' Celeste Thomas added: 'Police have moved everyone back out of direct sight but can hear cracking and debris falling. The roads outside the residential block, which has 120 flats, were filled with panicked people who reported hearing people screaming inside Police and the London Fire Brigade have rushed to the scene of the fire in West London 'Police have been asking everyone to go inside. Fire spread and not yet showing signs of coming under control.' A third added: '24 storeys burning in West London area. All floors and columns burning.' Met Police said in a statement: 'Police were called at 1.16am on Wednesday, 14 June to reports of a large fire at a block of flats in the Lancaster West Estate, W11. 'Officers, the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service are currently at the scene. An evacuation process is underway. 'At this stage we are aware of two people being treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. We await an update as to whether there are any further injuries. 'The Local Authority has been informed. Cordons are in place and it is advised that the estate and surrounding area is avoided.' From King's Cross to Camberwell and Worsley Hotel to Dudgeon's Wharf, London's most deadly fires BY MARK DUELL The blaze that tore through the Grenfell Tower block of flats in West London is the latest in a long line of devastating fires in the capital. Here are eight of the worst fatal fires to have hit London over the past 60 years: February 6, 2017 - Hornchurch - three dead Three members of the same family died after a fire ripped through a house in Hornchurch, East London. Jim Whelan, 76, and his younger brother Joe were pronounced dead in hospital, while Joe's 68-year-old wife Anne died at the scene. Investigators are working to establish the cause of the fire, which is not yet known. July 3, 2009 - Lakanal House - six dead Three women and three children died when a fire engulfed the Lakanal House tower block in Camberwell, after an electrical fault with a television. Catherine Hickman, 31, Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old daughter Michelle died in the tragedy. Dayana Francisquini, 26, and her children, six-year-old Thais and Felipe, three, were also killed. Southwark Council was later fined 270,000 and ordered to pay 300,000 in costs by a judge after being prosecuted for safety failings. Three women and three children died when a fire engulfed the Lakanal House tower block in Camberwell, after an electrical fault with a television in July 2009 Southwark Council was later fined 270,000 and ordered to pay 300,000 in costs by a judge after being prosecuted for safety failings November 18, 1987 - King's Cross station - 31 dead The worst fire in London Underground history killed 31 people and injured at least 100 more at King's Cross station. It started under a wooden escalator leading from the Piccadilly Line platforms to the mainline station at about 7.30pm. A huge 1,100F (600C) ball of fire and smoke then exploded up from the escalators into the ticket hall. Many passengers were trapped underground by the blaze, which was tackled by more than 150 firefighters and only fully extinguished at 1.46am the next day. The worst fire in London Underground history killed 31 people and injured at least 100 more at King's Cross station in November 1987 The fire at King's Cross started under a wooden escalator leading from the Piccadilly Line platforms to the mainline station at about 7.30pm August 16, 1980: Denmark Place - 37 dead A deliberately started fire at 18 Denmark Place, the home of two unlicensed bars - The Spanish Rooms and the Rodo's began when John Thompson, 42, poured petrol through the letterbox and set the three-storey building alight. Some 37 people died while others escaped by jumping out of windows - and firefighters found bodies slumped to the floor 'like dominoes'. Petty drug dealer Thompson claimed he started the fire because he was 'drunk and possibly being overcharged by the barman'. 13 December 1974 - Worsley Hotel - seven dead Seven people including a firefighter were killed when a blaze broke out at the Worsley Hotel in Maida Vale, West London. The property was made up of a series of interconnected four and five storey buildings, used to house hotel and catering employees, and the fire spread quickly in the early hours. Kitchen porter Edward Mansfield was found guilty of the manslaughter of seven people and of three charges of arson. He was jailed for life in December 1975. Seven people including a firefighter were killed when a blaze broke out at the Worsley Hotel in Maida Vale, West London, in December 1974 July 17, 1969: Dudgeon's Wharf - six dead Five firefighters were killed when oil tanks exploded at Dudgeon's Wharf on the Isle of Dogs in what was the greatest single loss of London firefighters since the Second World War. The blaze broke out in a 60ft oil storage tank on the River Thames waterfront - and firefighters went inside to make sure that it had been put out, after believing this had been done by demolition workers. But a spark from cutting equipment caused a fatal explosion, which also killed a construction worker. Five firefighters were killed as well as a construction worker when oil tanks exploded at Dudgeon's Wharf on the Isle of Dogs in July 1969 December 4, 1964: Bishopsgate Goodsyard - two dead One of the biggest peacetime fires in London's history was caused when a train depot on Shoreditch High Street went up in flames, killing two customs officers and causing millions of pounds worth of damage. The depot, which had originally opened as a passenger terminal, had become a dedicated freight station since 1881 and served the busy ports of eastern England. More than 300 freight wagons and 60 motor vehicles were on the 11-acre site when the fire broke out. January 23, 1958: Smithfield Market Some 1,700 firefighters tackled an extraordinary blaze at Union Cold Storage Company at Smithfield Market in East London and two of them, Station Officer Jack Fort-Wells and Firefighter Dick Stocking, died in the basement. Around two dozen firefighters were also injured at the blaze, which burned for three days. The incident prompted the London Fire Brigade to change its policy on firefighter breathing gear and replace 'Proto' oxygen sets with compressed air breathing apparatus. Some 1,700 firefighters tackled an extraordinary blaze at Union Cold Storage Company at Smithfield Market in East London and two of them died in the basement Around two dozen firefighters were also injured at the blaze, which burned for three days Advertisement Could firms who run inferno tower face prosecution? Company paid 11M to manage flats accused of 'incompetence' as construction boss who oversaw 10m revamp admits he 'doesn't know what it's clad in' The company responsible for the safety and maintenance of the block of flats which turned into a raging inferno and killing at least 12 people was paid 11million last year from taxpayer's money. Grenfell Tower is council-owned but the management of the building is down to an independent company - the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) - whose stock consists of 6,900 rentable homes and 2,500 leasehold properties having been handed a contract in 1996. The flats underwent a 10million refurbishment which was completed in May last year, and improvements included the installation of insulated exterior cladding, new double glazed windows and a new communal heating system. A two year project was designed and delivered by KCTMO in partnership with Rydon Construction who have come under fire for not knowing the exact details of the cladding. The Health and Safety Executive, the police and the fire service are now expected to launch a large-scale investigation and Rachel Adamson, Head of Regulatory Law at Stephensons law firm, said for an incident of this size it is very likely they will be considering criminal charges. Firefighters have spent all day trying to contain the inferno in the tower block owned by the council The planned drawings which show the refurbishment of existing Grenfell Tower including new external cladding and fenestration, alterations to plant room, reconfiguration of lower 4 levels to provide 7 new residential units, replacement nursery and boxing club facilities, external public realm works, redevelopment and change of use of existing garages to refuse collection area Robert Black (left) who is Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation's Chief Executive and in charge of the management of Grenfell Tower (right) She told MailOnline: 'Corporate manslaughter charges are often quite difficult to prove as they relate to the controlling mind of the business. 'If an individual is thought to have been negligent, a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence may be considered. 'There are a range of other potential charges, such as breach of fire regulations or breach of health and safety regulations, these are the tiers down from manslaughter.' Investigators are expected to look at how recent renovation work was carried out, whether Construction Regulations have been adhered to, and what fire safety precautions were in place. Residents described the building's new feature going up 'like a matchstick', and when the firm's director Andrew Goldman appeared on Good Morning Britain today, he said all the materials used had been passed as safe by the relevant authorities but added: 'We don't know there is any direct link between the fire and cladding. What other buildings do KCTMO manage? Greaves Tower, World's End Estate, Chelsea Holmefield House, Golborne Road, North Kensington Adair Tower, Appleford Road, North Kensington Trelick Tower, Kendal Town, Kensington Advertisement 'There are various different types of cladding and I don't know the exact specifications.' There have been reports that neither the sprinkler system nor the fire alarm went off in the early hours, and KCTMO was paid 420,000 to deliver what it described as Community Alarm Services throughout the area. Robert Black is the company's Chief Executive Officer and he took office in 2009 having previously worked as Executive Director of Service at Circle Anglia for five years where he was responsible for services for 45,000 homes across seven companies including asset management. He is a father of who who lives in a 1million house in South East London with his wife of almost 20 years. Barbara Matthews is the Executive Director of Financial Services and ICT, Yvonne Birch is the Executive Director of People and Performance and Sacha Jevans is the Executive Director of Operations. They are the four most senior members of KCTMO and according to papers seen by MailOnline, they earned 650,000 between them last year. All four have been contacted individually by MailOnline and the company has been asked to make a comment, but nobody was available to do so. Their company was formed when Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council handed over management and maintenance of their properties to an outside company. A spokesman for the council told MailOnline the local authority sent KCTMO their 'list' and that the tenant company was responsible for putting those people into their properties. When asked to elaborate on who made up this list in terms of where they are from and their employment status, the spokesman refused to comment. Sacha Jevans, who is Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation's Director of Operations Barbara Matthews (right) is the Executive Director of Financial Services and ICT and Yvonne Birch (left) is the Executive Director of People and Performance A tweet sent by KCTMO's Barbara Matthews on February 22 showing off the company's Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For award by The Sunday Times Rydon's Andrew Goldman, left, was on Good Morning Britain today and could not give details on the cladding used and residents say they told former KCMOT worker Siobhan Rumble of their safety concerns, but claim their warnings were overlooked Construction on the flats started in 1972 and was finished in 1974 when it was under complete council control, but in 1996, the KCTMO was handed the contract to manage the tower block. A council spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'The Council still owns the properties and retains responsibility for strategic housing policies and homeless people. 'The relationship between the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) and the Council is governed by a management agreement, which covers all areas of the landlord business. 'Whilst the KCTMO still enjoys a close working relationship with the Council, it is a completely separate company.' 'These things are signed off by the relevant authorities to make sure they comply.' More than one resident has claimed that there was no central fire alarm system for the tower block - or it had failed - and only smoke alarms in individual flats were working. There are also claims that there that there was no central sprinkler system - or it was also not working properly during the fire. Others have claimed that the new cladding encasing the block added during last year's 10million refurbishment by Rydon Construction caught alight 'like a matchstick'. Rydon turns over a massive 270million by carrying out development, maintenance and management throughout England. The proposed refurbishment works at Grenfell Tower On Good Morning Britain today, Piers Morgan pressed the director on why he did not know the details of the materials used. 'What I find baffling here Mr Goldman,' editor at large of DailyMail.com Piers Morgan said,'Is that you don't seem to know what the cladding was made of given the entire building as part of your refurbishment was covered in this cladding. 'I would have thought the materials that are used are absolutely vital. How come you don't know?' Mr Goldman said: 'It's a technical question and I need to discuss that. 'We delivered a job based on the specifications that we were required to deliver it on. 'As I say again health and safety for us was a company is absolutely critical and we go through the procedures we are required to got through to make sure we are meeting the standards.' When Piers said the 'finger of suspicion' was being pointed at the cladding, Mr Goldman said he would be trying to get the facts together 'very quickly'. Talking of the refurbishment, Robert Black, KCTMO's Chief Executive, said: 'We're delighted to have worked in partnership with the Council to deliver this major regeneration of the tower. 'This has improved the homes overall and residents can now have the benefits of living in energy-efficient homes, all in a vastly improved environment.' Rydon said it is 'shocked to hear of the devastating fire' adding that the work 'met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards'. Today's blaze is an almost carbon copy of a fire in October 2015 in another KCTMO property, when sleeping residents were evacuated from a tower block and 16 people taken to hospital after a fire in a third-floor flat. Firefighters rescued 50 people from the 14-storey building in west London and two residents were forced to escape from their balconies as the blaze raged. Residents crawled to safety and described seeing 'fireballs' at Adair Tower in Appleford Road in North Kensington. Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said there had been 'a number of fatalities' following a 'unprecedented incident' that she described as the largest in scale that she had seen in her 29-year career Police officers with riot shields escort Firemen underneath shields to protect themselves from falling debris as they enter the tower block. The scene of a huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White City, London An action group predicted the Grenfell Tower fire was an accident waiting to happen four years ago but claim their warnings fell on deaf ears when they warned former KCTMO worker Siobhan Rumble. Grenfell Action Group said: 'Watching breaking news about the Grenfell Tower fire catastrophe. Too soon to even guess at numbers of casualties and fatalities. 'We have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). 'All our warnings fell on deaf ears. This was inevitable and just a matter of time.' The group had been posting about their concerns of tower block's safety regularly calling for it to be torn down before it went up in flames in the early hours of this morning in White City. When Mr Black took office, he gave an interview to local news outlet Get West London, when he vowed to sweep away the past and focus on improving repairs, not internal politics and stamp out division to create cohesion within the board. He said: 'We need to rebuild that trust with people who are angry with us. 'I've got to get people to move on. We got to be honest and show people we are doing it. The onus is on the board to find some common ground. 'We have to try and focus on what we are here to do deliver great services. Issues around repairs are fundamental in changing people's perception of the KCTMO.' Desperate relatives hunt for missing loved ones and launch social media appeals to track their families down after West London tower block inferno Families have begun the desperate search for loved ones that have gone missing after a huge inferno engulfed a tower block in west London. Moments after cheating death and escaping Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City, relatives are now faced with the prospect of having to search for those who have gone missing during the ensuing chaos. Social media campaigns have been launched by relatives of several children and elderly people caught up in the fire who are currently unaccounted for. Natalie Garcia tweeted to say her 12-year-old cousin little cousin Jessica Urbano was missing. Jessica's parents last heard from her at 1.39am when she phoned from a fire escape in the flats. Also unaccounted for is teenager Nurhuda El-Wahabi, as well as her older brother Yasin, aged 21, both of whom are understood to have been inside the tower block when the fire broke out. Scroll down for video Natalie Garcia tweeted to say her 12-year-old cousin little cousin Jessica Urbano was missing after trying to escape the fire Jessica is pictured with her parents Ramiro and Adriana. Jessica's parents last heard from her at 1.39am when she phoned from a fire escape in the flats Mariem Elgwahry (pictured) has not been seen by friends since 2am this morning. A friend called Emma Evans said on Facebook that Mariem was on the 19th floor Khadija Saye, who lives on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower in west London is also among those who are currently missing. Friends said that she was recognisable by the Africa pendant she always wears around her neck Tottenham MP David Lammy appealed to followers on Twitter for any information on Khadija Saye. He wrote: 'If you have any information about Khadija Saye pls contact me. She is our dear friend, a beautiful soul and emerging artist' Hamid Ali Jafari tweeted asking for any information on his missing father Ali Yawar (pictured), who he says he was separated from on the 12th floor Also unaccounted for is teenager Nurhuda El-Wahabi (left), as well as her older brother Yasin (right), aged 21, both of whom are understood to have been inside the tower block when the fire broke out Saber Neda who lived in a top-floor flat, is feared dead after the fire ripped through the 27-storey building. While his wife Shakila, 45, and son Farhad, 24, fled the blaze, Saber's family say he stayed behind because he was injured Khadija Saye, who lives on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower, is also among those who are currently missing. Friends said that she was recognisable by the Africa pendant she always wears around her neck. Tottenham MP David Lammy wrote on Twitter: 'If you have any information about Khadija Saye pls contact me. She is our dear friend, a beautiful soul and emerging artist.' A committee member for the Lancaster West Estate, where the tower block is located, told The Mirror that the emergency services had a missing list possibly numbered in the 'hundreds'. The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: 'I have been told that anyone past the 21st floor did not make it. The firefighters told them to stay where they were. 'We have a list of missing people there are so many, it's possible there are more than 50, possibly hundreds.' 'But the tenant management organisation say it's likely many of those missing are in hospital and have just not checked in.' A friend of a mother who lives in the tower block said she still heard from her after receiving a Snapchat video of the blaze at 3am. Ranya Ibrahim, 30, sent her friend Maseen the clip just moments after the blaze started. Maseen, who lives near the huge tower block, said: 'My friend, Ranya Ibrahim, lives on the top floor with her two friends who are just three and five years old. Francis Dean said his sister Zainab (left) told been told by firefighter to remain in her flat on the 14th floor along with her son Jeremiah, 2. Also missing is Nadia Choucair (right) Moments after cheating death and escaping Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City, relatives are now faced with the prospect of having to search for those who have gone missing during the ensuing chaos Lee Disson posted a message on Facebook this morning asking for anyone to provide information on his missing father Tony 'I received a Snapchat video from Ranya at 3am just after the fire started and I haven't heard from her since. She lives on the top floor and her husband was not home because he is on holiday.' Jeryll, 14, said: 'I have heard a couple of classmates were in this tower. One has made it out but I'm not sure about the other one. 'There are a couple of girls missing who attended my school. One of the girl's sister, who is only eight years old, is still in the building.' Francis Dean said his sister Zainab told been told by firefighter to remain in her flat on the 14th floor along with her son Jeremiah, 2. He told The Telegraph: 'My sister called me to say there was a fire in the tower. I told her to leave by the stairs but she said she had been told to stay inside her flat. That was in the early hours of today and I've not heard from her since. I fear the worst.' Mr Dean said that a firefighter used his phone to speak to his sister. 'He told her to keep calm and that they were coming to get her,' he said. 'He kept saying that to her again and again. 'But then he handed me the phone and said to me 'Tell her you love her'. I knew then to fear the worst. The phone went dead and I couldn't talk to her.' Saber Neda is feared dead after the fire ripped his top-floor flat. While his wife Shakila, 45, and son Farhad, 24, fled the blaze, Saber's family say he stayed behind because he was injured. The 57-year-old was last heard from at 2.20am when he made a frantic phone call to a relative to say that the building was burning and that there was 'no help'. Saber, whose birth name is Mohamed, is understood to have parted with Shakila and university graduate Farhad at 3.30am but has not been seen since. The father-of-one's nephew Reshad Habib, who lives in the Netherlands, said: 'We are all trying to find him. He was last heard from at 3.30am when he told his wife and son to leave him. He said that they had to get out. 'He said they should go and he would follow. We all don't know the exact reason why he waited behind, but we think he was injured or something. They were both taken to hospital. We don't know how they are. 'We haven't heard anything from my uncle since. They had been living for 20 years in that flat and they lived on the very top floor of the building. 'We got a call when the fire started. He said there was a big fire at the flat and that there was no help at the moment. That was at 2.20am. 'His wife and child are OK. I have talked briefly to his son. My auntie and him are in different hospitals from each other in a stable condition. We just hope that they will find him. The family of missing 12-year-old Jessica Urbano is at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital desperately waiting to hear news of her whereabouts. Her sister Melanie Urbano said the family received a call at about 4am from somebody to say they had seen Jessica being put into an ambulance. But Melanie said they have not heard any more news since the call. She said: 'We heard a couple of hours ago that she was seen in the area and that she was getting into an ambulance. Someone in the area saw her.' Melanie said the hospital has not been able to confirm whether Jessica was taken there. She said: 'They don't know anything. They don't have lists or anything like that.' Michael Paramarsivan, 37, was asleep on the seventh floor of Grenfell Tower with partner Hannah and her daughter Thea, five, when the fire broke out. He told MailOnline he woke to the smell of smoke and ignored safety advice to stay inside, instead deciding to get his family out of the building British actor and director Noel Clarke was among those to tweet asking for help in trying to find the youngster. Clarke was at the scene of the blaze today and said he came down as he feared for his mother who lives '50 yards' from Grenfell Tower. He said: 'My relatives live here, I grew up here, my films are set here, my friends live here, one of my friend's nieces is still missing. 'I was on my way into town and I knew i had to come and help so i have been here carrying water inside the church. 'I've got clothes being delivered by a couple of labels and Pepsi are going to be sending drinks.' The former Dr Who star added: 'The community support has been great. London has been affected by a lot in the past few weeks and the way people are coming together is amazing.' He refused to comment on accusations the building was poorly managed and added: 'I don't want to talk about politics, what's important now is helping the people'. Ministers are accused of failing to act on a fire safety overhaul that could have prevented today's horror fire Ministers have been accused of failing to act on pleas for an overhaul of fire safety regulations in tower blocks that could potentially have prevented the blaze in West London today. An All-Party Parliamentary Group has been demanding changes to rules for the past four years. However, a succession of housing ministers - including Gavin Barwell, who is now Theresa May's chief of staff - have not reformed the regulations. Ronnie King, a former fire chief in Wales who is an adviser to the group, told MailOnline that failings were uncovered following a devastating tower block fire at Lakanal House in south London in 2009, which killed six people. They included panels on the outside walls not providing the necessary fire resistance. 'The building regulations relating to the fire safety were last reviewed in 2006,' he said. Mr King said the type of cladding installed on Grenfell Tower did not appear to have been resistant to the fire spreading. That was one of the issue with the regulations that was raised by the APPG with three successive ministers, he said. Last year with Mr Barwell the APPG 'pressed him for a review of the building regulations, stressing of course Lakanal House'. Advertisement Meanwhile, a woman who volunteers at one of the local community centres where residents are being taken said dozens of children remain missing, as separated families desperately try to reunite with their loved ones. Saber Neda who lived in a top-floor flat, is feared dead after the fire ripped through the 24-storey building. While his wife Shakila, 45, and son Farhad, 24, fled the blaze, Saber's family say he stayed behind because he was injured. The 57-year-old was last heard from at 2.20am when he made a frantic phone call to a relative to say that the building was burning and that there was 'no help'. Saber, whose birth name is Mohamed, is understood to have parted with Shakila and university graduate Farhad at 3.30am but has not been seen since. The father-of-one's nephew Reshad Habib, who lives in the Netherlands, said: 'We are all trying to find him. 'He was last heard from at 3.30am when he told his wife and son to leave him. He said that they had to get out. He said they should go and he would follow. 'We all don't know the exact reason why he waited behind, but we think he was injured or something. They were both taken to hospital. We don't know how they are. 'We haven't heard anything from my uncle since. They had been living for 20 years in that flat and they lived on the very top floor of the building. 'We got a call when the fire started. He said there was a big fire at the flat and that there was no help at the moment. That was at 2.20am. 'His wife and child are OK. I have talked briefly to his son. My auntie and him are in different hospitals from each other in a stable condition. We just hope that they will find him.' Nadia Choucair lives on one of the top floors of Grenfell Tower with her husband, three daughters and her mother in law. A friend on the ground said she had rang to say she did not think she 'would make it'. The tower block is currently 'lurching' to one side after a 'very, very severe fire' broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with those inside claiming a fire alarm failed to sound. More than 600 residents desperately tried to escape the flames as the fire broke out in the middle of the night, with many woken by the screams of others and the smell of burning plastic. A casualty bureau close to the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower asked people to get in touch with a dedicated missing persons line Local residents gather close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London As residents flooded the streets outside the building, many spoke of members of their family or close neighbours being unaccounted for, as they were forced to watch on as their home and all their belongings went up in flames. One woman said that residents faced 'either jumping out the window with their children and risk breaking bones or staying where you were and dying'. An emergency telephone number has been set up for those caught up in the horrific blaze. It can be reached by calling 0800 0691 233. A homeless man charged at a driver who allegedly mounted several footpaths in Melbourne with his white SUV overnight, preventing the car from slamming into terrified pedestrians. Stuart Hicks told 9News he yelled for people to run away after seeing a 34-year-old man in a Honda allegedly driving erratically along the footpath on Swanston Street around 11pm. 'He was going up towards Chinatown so I ran at him, then he turned the car around and I ran at him again and [made him] swerve into the bank to stop him going onto the footpath,' he said. 'We yelled and screamed at people to get out of the way.' 'He would've been in Chinatown running people over if he didn't crash into the bankIt was lucky, so lucky no one got run over,' Mr Hicks said. Scroll down for video A homeless man charged at a driver who allegedly mounted several footpaths in Melbourne with his white SUV overnight, preventing the car from slamming into terrified pedestrians Stuart Hicks said he yelled for people to run away after seeing a 34-year-old man in a Honda allegedly driving erratically along the footpath on Swanston Street around 11pm (pictured) Footage shows pedestrians yelling and frantically dodging the car as it hurtled toward a Commonwealth Bank and smashed into its glass doors The 34-year-old SUV driver was allegedly travelling at 60km before crashing into three businesses in Melbourne's inner city. Footage shows pedestrians yelling and frantically dodging the car as it hurtled toward a Commonwealth Bank and smashed into its glass doors, according to 7News. 'Get out, get out,' a man can be heard screaming at the crowd of people on the busy street. The driver allegedly then rammed into the front of an ANZ bank 50 metres further up Swanston Street before driving down the footpath to Collins Street. A witness said the driver almost hit a homeless person sitting in the area. There have not been any reports of injury yet. Once on Collins Street, the man allegedly drove his car into the Crown Casino basement carpark and crashed into the foyer. The man was allegedly driving at 60km before crashing into three businesses The driver allegedly then rammed into the front of a Commonwealth Bank 50 metres further up Swanston Street before heading to Collins Street He reportedly fled on foot and ran through the gaming room before he was arrested by police. The 34-year-old was taken to hospital for a mental health assessment but has not been charged. Victoria police inspector Stephen Cooper told 9News there was not apparent connection between the driver and the businesses. Officers said they will investigate the man's finances. It comes just a week after the city placed concrete bollards in Bourke Street Mall to prevent cars from being able to drive up onto the pedestrian area. In January six people were killed when Melbourne man Dimitrious Gargasoulas allegedly drove onto the footpath near Bourke Street Mall in his car. Nearly 2,000 asylum seekers held at the Manus Island detention centre will be handed a total of $70million in damages. Lawyers for the detainees have reached a settlement with the Australian government and the operators of the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre. The detainees wanted compensation from the Australian government and the detention centre managers for alleged physical and psychological injuries they argue they suffered as a result of the conditions in which they were held. Nearly 2,000 asylum seekers held at the Manus Island detention centre will be handed a total of $70million in damages. Pictured, a file image of asylum seekers at the centre in 2014 Lawyers for the detainees (some pictured in 2014) have reached a settlement with the Australian government and the operators of the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre The class action also sought damages for false imprisonment after the PNG Supreme Court ruled the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island was unconstitutional. A six-month trial was due to begin in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday, but what would have been Australia's largest ever trial concerning immigration detention was avoided following the settlement. The detainees' barrister David Curtain QC instead told the court the parties had been able to reach agreement in the matter. The class action was seeking damages on behalf of 1,905 group members who, legal firm Slater and Gordon says, cover the majority of people detained on Manus Island since 2012. The Australian government and the companies that have managed the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre, G4S Australia and Broadspectrum (formerly Transfield Services), had denied the claims. The settlement could potentially lead to the withdrawal of a separate legal action in Papua New Guinea alleging false imprisonment against the PNG government, which lawyers estimated could be worth at least $150 million for about 1,000 detainees. The detainees' barrister David Curtain QC (not pictured) told the court the parties had been able to reach agreement in the matter The class action was seeking damages on behalf of 1,905 group members who, legal firm Slater and Gordon says, cover the majority of people detained on Manus Island (pictured) since 2012 An undated handout file photo from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection on February 18, 2014 shows the interior of a tent a the detention centre Lawyers Greg Toop and Ben Lomai have estimated the men in the PNG case could each receive more than 400,000 PNG kina ($A150,000-$A175,000). The settlement details in the Australian class action will be confidential and subject to court approval. Slater and Gordon had said the Australian class action would shine a light on the conditions the detainees experienced on Manus Island. The detention centre will be closed by the end of the 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull vowed earlier this year. Barrister David Curtain QC and Fiona Forsyth of Slater & Gordon Lawyers leave the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday The settlement details in the Australian class action will be confidential and subject to court approval Disgraced former Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes will be forced to serve out his full six-year sentence, after losing a High Court appeal against his child sex convictions. The 68-year-old was jailed in 2014 for 10 sexual and indecent assault charges against young girls dating back to the 1980s and 90s, when at the height of his TV fame. But lawyers for the legendary actor appealed his case to the High Court, arguing that tendency evidence claiming to show a pattern of sexual interest in girls under 16 should have been inadmissible. However on Wednesday seven justices of the High Court narrowly struck down his appeal, ruling four to three in support of the use of the evidence during his trial. Disgraced former Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes (pictured) will be forced to serve his full six-year sentence after losing a High Court appeal against his child sex convictions Hughes (front left), 68, was jailed in 2014 for 10 sexual and indecent assault charges against four girls dating back to the 1980s and 90s, when at the height of his TV fame The High Court ruling on Wednesday follows a failed 2015 appeal by Hughes to the Court of Criminal Appeal in New South Wales. His appeal, again against his conviction, was struck down with the court denying he had suffered a miscarriage of justice. Hughes, who is due for release as early as 2020, has faced a torrid time behind bars at the hands of his fellow inmates. Little more than a year after he first entered Goulburn's super-max jail, a prison guard revealed the actor had become a target of inmates because of his high-profile and heinous crimes. Hughes reportedly 'sobbed like a big girl' during the prison's reception process and was covered in bodily waste by fellow inmates on his first walk through the yard. The High Court ruling on Wednesday follows a failed 2015 appeal by Hughes to the Court of Criminal Appeal in New South Wales, where he claimed he had suffered a miscarriage of justice 'Piss and poo - they covered him in it. It was his first day in Goulburn and he was brought out into the yard,' the guard told James Phelps, author of Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the walls of Goulburn Jail. 'He spent the entire time sitting on the hill, sooking. He was a stinking mess.' Hughes was given a maximum sentence of 10 years and nine months, with a non-parole period of six years. Remember when the President of Turkey came to Washington to visit Trump, and his goons beat the crap out of American protesters on American soil? The DC-based Turkish news site Washington Hatti reported today that Eyup Yildirim was arrested for playing a role in this incident, and the Daily Caller now reports that a second, Sinan Narin, was also arrested. Both men beat peaceful protesters outside of the embassy of Turkey. Reports Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller: U.S. Marshals have arrested two Turkish men living in U.S. for their role in beating peaceful protesters outside of the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. last month, a source with knowledge of the matter tells The Daily Caller. The State Department confirmed in a statement to TheDC that arrests have been, and the Washington, D.C. Metro police department identified the two men as Eyup Yildirim and Sinan Narin. "Now that charges have been filed, the Department will weigh additional actions for the named individuals, as appropriate under relevant laws and regulations. Any further steps will be responsive and proportional to the charges," a State Department official said. Yildirim, a 50-year-old construction company owner from New Jersey, faces charges of assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. Narin, from Virginia, faces an aggravated assault charge. Ten Network has announced they are entering voluntary administration. The broadcaster held press conference early Wednesday afternoon to introduce the changes. Asia-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha will take over control of the company after Ten announced Tuesday its shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans. Ten CEO Paul Anderson said: 'this is extremely disappointing for all of us.' Ten Network has announced they are entering voluntary administration. Channel 10 is home to television shows such as The Bachelorette, MasterChef, The Project and Have You Been Paying Attention? Asia-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha will take over control of the company after Ten announced Tuesday its shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans In a statement to the exchange, Ten said key major shareholders Mr Murdoch's (left) Illyria Pty Ltd and Birketu Pty Ltd, the investment vehicle of millionaire Bruce Gordon would no longer support credit facilities that are keeping the company afloat Ten CEO Paul Anderson said: 'this is extremely disappointing for all of us.' In a statement released by Ten, directors were left 'with no choice' but to enter administration. The broadcaster says they expect immediate financial results with the changeover, bringing in $50 million between 2018-19 and 'potentially more than $80 million' per year after 2019. They have also replaced contract agreements with major US partners Fox and CBS, reducing their access to their content by up to 50%. Current and former staff have expressed their sadness over the decision and offered support to Network Ten employees. Senior journalist Hugh Riminton tweets about Network Ten entering voluntary administration Former employees at Network Ten have offered their support to current staff Fox Sports journalist Alissa Smith has shared her thoughts on Ten entering voluntary administration Asia-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha will take over control of the company after Ten announced Tuesday its shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans Statement released by Network Ten on Wednesday after announcing the broadcaster will enter voluntary administration. Billionaire shareholders on Tuesday refused to guarantee bank loans to the struggling company The company's share price plummeted to just 16 cents ahead of the request to the Australian Securities Exchange, which valued the network at less than $60 million. In a statement to the exchange, Ten said key major shareholders Mr Murdoch's Illyria Pty Ltd and Birketu Pty Ltd, the investment vehicle of millionaire Bruce Gordon would no longer support credit facilities that are keeping the company afloat. In 2013, James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon agreed to guarantee a $200million loan for the company. The loans expire on 23 December, after which the company will be liable for the debts that the company has made clear it does not have the funds to pay. James Packer, who is also a major shareholder, is also reportedly keen to get rid of his 7.7 percent stake in the ailing network, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The network is reportedly urgently trying to come up with a severe cost-cutting plan and to renegotiate expensive deals with US studios for many programs that have proved unsuccessful in Australia. The network has asked for the trading halt until Thursday, when it will make a major announcement on its future. The board said in April it was not sure it could continue if the company did not renegotiate contracts with US networks CBS and 20th Century Fox, receive license fee cuts, cut costs and secure a guarantee from Murdoch, Packer and Gordon again. If the company is placed into the hands of administrators, it would give the company and Parliament more time to evaluate proposed media reform laws that could scrap the licence fees. Ten said key major shareholders Mr Murdoch's Illyria Pty Ltd and Birketu Pty Ltd, the investment vehicle of millionaire Bruce Gordon would no longer support credit facilities that are keeping the company afloat James Packer, who is also a major shareholder, is also reportedly keen to get rid of his 7.7 percent stake in the ailing network The broadcaster also produces The Bachelor (pictures is Richie Strahan and Alex Nation) Licence fees cost the broadcaster $23 million a year. Mark Westfield, author of a history of Australia's media industry called The Gatekeepers, told Daily Mail Australia the network has frequently struggled since it was launched in the 1960s. 'They have perpetually been in financial trouble and always relied on a major share holder,' he said. 'But every time they've gotten into trouble they've managed to find a buyer,' he said. Mr Westfield said he believes Foxtel could be a buyer with a share of 14 percent. Channel 10 is home to television shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, MasterChef, The Project, Neighbours and Have You Been Paying Attention? Jemma Beale is on trial for four counts of perjury and four counts of perverting the course of justice over false rape claims A woman's false claims she had been sexually assaulted by up to 15 attackers in three years led to one man being jailed for seven years, a court has heard. Jemma Beale, 25, twice told juries Mahan Cassim raped her after giving her a lift home in November 2010. Beale said she was a lesbian with 'no desire' to have sex with men and Mr Cassim was jailed for seven years following a retrial at Isleworth Crown Court in January 2012. Beale then told police she was groped by stranger Noam Shazad in a pub in July 2011 and he then took part in a gang rape attack involving 'sexual violence of a most serious kind'. Mr Shazad skipped bail and fled the country after being charged with sexual assault, the court heard. Beale then made two bogus complaints against six other men in 2013, Southwark Crown Court was told. She claimed two strangers sexually assaulted her close to her home in Ashford, Middlesex, before she was put through another gang rape attack by four other men two months later. Two of those identified by Beale as being involved in the last attack were arrested and interviewed in connection with the assault but never charged, jurors heard. Beale now denies four counts of perjury and four of perverting the course of justice. The charges relate to accounts she gave at Mr Cassim's trials along with the four complaints she made to police about the other attacks between 2010 and 2013. Beale made a series of bogus complaints against up to 15 men, Southwark Crown Court John Price, QC, prosecuting, said: 'Ms Beale maintains that in a period of around three years, on four different and wholly unconnected occasions, one of which involved two attacks and two of which - a year apart - involved the same unknown man, she has been seriously sexually assaulted by six men and raped by nine - all bar one of whom on the day of the alleged incident were strangers to her. 'The prosecution ask rhetorically, is this in itself not inherently improbable?' Beale then complained to police she was the victim of two more sexual assaults in 2012 and 2013. She claimed she was groped inside a pub in Hounslow, then attacked in an alleyway close to the car park of a nearby medical centre. 'In that case she told the police she had been sexually assaulted by four men and she had recognised one of the four of them as being the same man who had assaulted her in the public house,' said the prosecutor. A man named Noam Shazad was identified by police and he was arrested in 2012. Beale made repeated claims to the police she had been sexually assaulted in 2013 Beale claimed Mr Shazad, wearing a red baseball cap, molested her by grabbing her crotch inside the pub before attacking her again in the alleyway after being joined by three other men. 'The group of men did not exist,' said Mr Price, adding that the injuries she claimed to have suffered at their hands were 'self-inflicted'. The prosecutor said: 'On Monday 2 September 2013, Ms Beale reported yet another serious sexual assault, this time by two men. 'She told the police that it had happened five days earlier, on Thursday 29 August, and she said it had happened outside of her home. 'Neither of those two men has ever been identified.' Jurors heard that two months later, on 17 November, Beale reported another attack in Feltham, west London. 'She described a gang rape at night in a street of the most appalling kind,' said Mr Price. Two men were arrested over that claim, but neither were charged. Jemma Beale, 25, allegedly claimed 15 men had raped and sexually assaulted her over a three-year period. She denies perjury and perverting justice at Southwark Crown Court The prosecutor added: 'It was as we submit - a grotesque invention... each of those reports made by Jemma Beale to the police is alleged by the prosecution in this case as being entirely false. 'She had not been raped. Nor had she been sexually assaulted on any of these occasions. 'Because of what she did, four men have subsequently suffered serious injustice - one of them of the gravest kind.' Jurors heard that each of the men were questioned by police 'suspected of amongst the most serious of criminal offences' garnering 'public revulsion and notoriety'. Beale, of Bedfont, Middlesex, denies four counts of perjury and four counts of perverting the course of justice. The trial continues. A man has died after being crushed by a 25-tonne crane in Adelaide on Tuesday night. The 35-year-old worker was caught under the vehicle which was carrying concrete on Ayliffes Road, south of the city's CBD. The man died at the scene after paramedics were unable to revive him, and roads around the construction site remained closed until Wednesday morning. A man has died after being crushed by a 25-tonne crane in Adelaide on Tuesday night The 35-year-old worker was caught under the vehicle which was carrying concrete on Ayliffes Road, south of the city's CBD A construction union spokesperson told the ABC the man was 'between those concrete barriers and the front of the crane and somehow in that process he's ended up going underneath the crane.' Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Aaron Cartledge said the group are looking at ways to minimise the risk of working at night. The Department of Transport released a statement that safety officials were working with police to investigate the situation. Workers who were present at the site have been offered support and counselling. Armed SAS troops are disguising themselves as beggars in a bid to stop future terrorist attacks. Soldiers armed with Heckler and Koch MP7 guns and medical kits are stationed at key positions in cities and are ready to strike at a moment's notice. Troops from the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Wing have reportedly been drafted for the operation. Armed SAS troops are disguising themselves as beggars in a bid to stop future terrorist attacks A military source told the Mirror: 'The armed units have been deployed for some time now and it is unlikely the operation will be brought to a halt. 'The threat level is still assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre as severe and that means an attack is highly likely so we must be ready. 'These soldiers provide a very good layer of immediate response at least to minimise casualties or stop injuries or deaths if they react quickly.' The soldiers are being routinely fed by other comrades dressed as members of the public. This comes after three terrorist attacks targeted London and Manchester this year. The soldiers have been armed with Heckler and Koch MP7 guns and medical kits in case there's an attack On March 22, Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four people, before stabbing unarmed officer Keith Palmer. More than 50 people were injured. Two months later, Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and injuring 119. On June 3, Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba killed eight people and injured 48 after ramming a van into pedestrians on London Bridge. Each man died during the attack. An MoD spokesman said: 'We do not comment on matters relating to special forces.' A man who walked into a District of Columbia pizza restaurant with an assault rifle, intent on investigating internet rumors dubbed 'pizzagate,' is apologizing and saying he realizes now 'just how foolish and reckless' he was. Edgar Madison Welch, 28, made those statements in a letter submitted to a judge Tuesday ahead of his sentencing set for June 22. In a court document, his attorney asked he be sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. In a separate document, prosecutors wrote he should be sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. The incident unraveled after false stories sparked an unfounded conspiracy theory that linked Hillary Clinton to an alleged child-sex-trafficking ring run from the family restaurant, where her presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta, often dined. Edgar Welch (pictured during his arrest in December), 28, who walked into a DC pizza restaurant with an assault rifle, intent on investigating 'pizzagate' internet rumors apologized and said he realizes now 'how foolish and reckless' he was As part of his guilty plea Welch has acknowledged entering the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on December 4 with an AR-15 assault rifle (pictured) and a revolver Patrons fled when they saw Welch enter the restaurant, and when he encountered a locked storage closet he fired multiple times. No one was injured. Pictured is the restaurant Comet Ping Pong Welch, who is from Salisbury, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in March to two charges in connection with the case. As part of his guilty plea Welch has acknowledged entering the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on December 4 with an AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver. He also acknowledged driving to the restaurant from North Carolina to investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there. Patrons fled when they saw Welch enter the restaurant, and when he encountered a locked storage closet he fired multiple times. No one was injured. In his one-page, handwritten letter filed with the court Tuesday but dated June 2, Welch wrote that he 'came to DC with the intent of helping people I believed were in dire need of assistance, and to bring an end to a corruption that I truly felt was harming innocent lives'. He wrote that he wanted to apologize and that he acted without considering the repercussions of his actions or the possible harm. Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis (pictured) has said the 'pizzagate' hoax that spread on the internet threw the lives of everyone connected with the shop into chaos 'It was never my intention to harm or frighten innocent lives, but I realize now just how foolish and reckless my decision was,' he wrote. Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis has said the 'pizzagate' hoax that spread on the internet threw the lives of everyone connected with the shop into chaos. Welch's attorney Dani Jahn wrote in asking for a 1.5 year sentence that Welch has previously worked as an emergency medical technician and volunteered in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there. She wrote that he's an involved parent to his seven-year-old stepdaughter and four-year-old daughter. Welch also acknowledged driving to the restaurant from North Carolina to investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there Jahn also noted he surrendered peacefully after realizing that no children were being harmed at the restaurant. In their own filing, prosecutors wrote that the fact that no one was shot was 'entirely the product of good luck -- the fortuitous facts that nobody interfered with the defendant's progress and that nobody was behind the door which he ultimately shot through'. Prosecutors Demian Ahn and Sonali Patel wrote that a 'significant sentence' was required not only to punish Welch but to 'deter other would-be vigilantes from attempting similar crimes against innocent subjects of the next internet-inspired conspiracy theory'. Welch has pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. As part of the guilty plea, prosecutors will drop a third charge, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, which had carried a mandatory minimum prison term of five years. Lawyers said in court in March that under sentencing guidelines Welch likely faces 1.5 to two years in prison as a result of the interstate transportation charge and 1.5 to five years for the assault charge. Sentences on the charges could run either consecutively or concurrently. Prosecutors are asking for two years on the first charge and 4.5 years on the second charge to run concurrently. Advertisement Donald Trump has 'no intention' of firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is overseeing the ongoing Russia probe, reporters were told aboard Air Force One on Tuesday . The presidential press pool had been sent out to join Trump and daughter Ivanka in a trip to Wisconsin to promote his new education policies, which are intended to encourage young Americans to pursue vocational jobs in labor. When asked whether Trump would fire Mueller, spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Air Force One pool: 'While the president has the right to, he has no intention to do so.' Trump and his daughter were seen beaming from ear to ear as they visited Waukesha County Technical College for the photo-op and talked about asking Congress to expand apprenticeships and promote careers that don't need degrees. But despite the Trumps' bright grins, things were less rosy back in Washington, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions was pummeled with questions over the probe into Russian meddling in the election and alleged connections between Moscow and Trump's associates. Ivanka Trump was seen beaming as she and her father stepped off Air Force One at St Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on Tuesday night after a day spent promoting their new education scheme in Wisconsin Press aboard Air Force One were told that Trump had 'no intention' of firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, despite rumors that he had been toying with the idea. Trump appointed Mueller to oversee the ongoing Russia probe Ivanka Trump was beaming earlier in the day as she visited Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin with her father in order to promote the administration's new plan for expanding apprenticeships Neither she nor the president seemed at all bothered about the ongoing turmoil over the ongoing Russia probe in Washington, DC, as they walked with Governor Scott Walker (second from right) in the Pewaukee college The tour of the technical college was the beginning of what has been called 'workforce development week', which puts Ivanka at the head of a White House initiative to meet America's labor needs. It was overshadowed, however, by Sessions' appearance in Congress over the tangled web of rumor, claim and counterclaim surrounding the Russia probe and Trump's associates' alleged involvement with Moscow. Sessions refused several times to answer questions about his private conversations with Donald Trump, but denied that Trump had used executive privilege to silence him. Instead, he said, he wanted to leave Trump with the option to use executive privilege - something he couldn't if Sessions had already told Congress everything. He also called the claims of Russian collusion a 'detestable lie', 'false attacks' and 'innuendos', said that he had no 'private meetings' with Russians, nor recalled 'any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower hotel.' Although Sessions admitted two meetings with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the US, he said that nothing 'improper' occurred - and said he could not recall a third alleged meeting. During his testimony, Sessions also said that James Comey was right to be fired for the Hillary Clinton leak - even though he had previously spoken of admiring the former FBI director. And he said Mueller was doing a good job but would not be drawn on whether he might be fired. 'I have confidence in Mr Mueller but I am not going to discuss any hypotheticals or what might be a factual situation in the future,' Sessions told Congress. Trump also spoke with Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta (third from left) as he promoted the new campaign. Back in Washington, AG Jeff Sessions told the Senate Intel Committee that claims of Russian collusion were a 'detestable lie' The administration plans to encourage young Americans to pursue 'very viable and respectable career paths outside of a traditional four-year college experience' to meet the country's labor needs Ivanka, who is an unpaid presidential adviser, and her father are asking Congress to pass reforms to expand apprenticeships. Sessions refused to talk about his conversations with Trump - but said the president hadn't invoked executive privilege The confidence expressed by Sessions and the president was not shared by White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, however, who appeared somewhat out of the loop when she tweeted an apparent criticism of the probe head. 'More FEC report: Mueller's team includes big Democrat donors. Some maxed out, none wanted Trump to be POTUS. @CNNPolitics' she wrote, linking to a CNN article on Mueller's legal team. That tweet came two hours after Trump's spokesperson assured press he had no intention of firing Mueller. The report said that according to Federal Election Commission records, three members of the team donated almost exclusively to the Democrats. James Quarles, whom Mueller brought over from his old firm, WilmerHale, has given nearly $33,000 to political campaigns since 1988, including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He also gave $10,000 to get Democrats into the House and $10,000 to get them into the Senate, the analysis said. However, he was the only one of the three to also fund Republicans, giving $2,500 to Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz in 2015 and $250 to then-Virginia Senator George Allen in 2005. Quarles and another WilmerHale lawyer who left to join Mueller's team, Jeannie Rhee, gave the maximum contribution of $2,700 to Hillary Clinton's campaign last year. Rhee also gave Clinton $2,700 in 2015 and gave a total of $7,300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. She has represented Clinton in a lawsuit that sought to access her private emails, and represented the Clinton Foundation in a racketeering lawsuit. The third hire, Andrew Weissmann, gave $2,300 to Barack Obama's first presidential campaign and $2,000 to the DNC in 2006. Despite Trump's spokesperson saying at 9pm Tuesday Trump had no intention of firing Mueller, adviser Kellyanne Conway posted this at 11pm, which claimed four (later amended to three) of Mueller's legal hires were Democrat backers Trump seemed to be happy to let Ivanka take the lead as she spoke about their plans. In DC, Sessions said that FBI director James Comey was fired because he released information about Hillary Clinton during the presidential election Ivanka is seen here returning to Air Force One at the Milwaukee airport. Sessions said Trump's firing of Comey was 'even more egregious' than he realized when he was advising the president - despite having previously openly admired Comey In Air Force One on Tuesday evening, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked what the president thought of Sessions' performance before Congress. 'He wasn't able to watch much of it,' Sanders said. 'He was preparing for the stop here today, but what he did see and what he heard, he thought that Attorney General Sessions did a very good job and, in particular, was very strong on the point that there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.' Mueller's firing was also discussed with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who said he has 'full confidence' that Mueller is independent. 'As long as I'm in this position, he's not going to be fired without good cause,' he added. During their trip to Wisconsin, Ivanka, who is an unpaid presidential adviser, told ABC News that she and her father were 'very excited about where we are. 'We'll be launching a series of initiatives, call on Congress to pass various reforms expanding apprenticeships, and raise awareness about the fact that there are important and very viable and respectable career paths outside of a tradition four-year college experience that should be considered and should be invested in.' Trump is also slated to make a speech about the steps the administration will take to encourage workforce development at the Department of Labor on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Ivanka will lead a roundtable discussion with about 15 CEOs. Earlier in the day, President Trump gave a salute as he stepped off Marine One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, along with Ivanka, before boarding Air Force One for the flight to Wisconsin Ivanka Trump flashed a small smile (left) as she and her father stepped off Marine One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Earlier the pair had been photographed (right) walking across the White House lawn to the helicopter The pair were all smiles as they prepared to board the craft to start their Wisconsin jaunt. Ivanka has been the face of Trump's softer issues - including education - since his time on the stump Telstra is getting ready to cut up to 1400 employees as part of efforts to slash costs and restructure its workforce. The telecommunications giant is meeting with officials from the Communications Workers Union on Wednesday to discuss the job cuts, The Australian reports. It's understood the cuts will stretch across all divisions, although insiders believe retail and field services workers will be hit the worst. The news comes only a year after the Telstra cut 326 roles across its sales, service and national office teams, saying there was less need for call centre workers with more than 50 per cent of its customer interactions happening online. Telstra is getting ready to cut up to 1400 employees as part of efforts to slash costs The telecommunications giant has already axed hundreds of employees in the past year Fierce price competition and lower regulated call charges led to the telco giant's worse-than-expected first-half net profit and a cut in its full-year income forecast. In February, Telstra reported first-half net profit dropped 14.4 per cent to $1.79 billion on the back of a 6.4 per cent fall in revenue to $12.8 billion. The telco flagged restructuring costs for the full financial year of between $300-500 million. CWU assistant divisional secretary John O'Donnell told iTnews the redundancies were likely to be widespread and would affect workers across the company. Mr O'Donnell said the telco's customer network management division could potentially be totally wiped out as a result of the cuts. He added that workers in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory would probably bear the brunt of the cuts. Telstra currently has just over 32,000 employees working with full-time positions. Telstra were unable to provide any immediate details about the job cuts when contacted by Daily Mail Australia. With Amazon's impending arrival in Australia set to impact major retailers, discount chain Kmart has vowed to take on the electronic giant with 'aggressive' prices. On Monday, the department store announced dramatic price cuts to more than 300 items after boosting its offshore operations to Indonesia and managing director Ian Bailey said there is more to come. Mr Bailey said Kmart's goal is to continue to drop prices to be below Amazon's to benefit customers 'and make it difficult to match'. 'Our goal will be to be at or below Amazon,' Mr Bailey told news.com.au. 'I think the question will be whether they match us or not.' Scroll down for video On Monday, Kmart announced dramatic price cuts to more than 300 items after boosting its offshore operations to Indonesia and managing director Ian Bailey said there is more to come Mr Bailey said Kmart's goal is to continue to drop prices to be below Amazon's to benefit customers 'and make it difficult to match' 'On the price front we're pretty aggressive'. In April, former Amazon employee Brittain Ladd told Watermark Funds Investment chief investment officer Justin Braitling: 'We are going to destroy the retail environment in Australia.' But Mr Bailey said Kmart would be focusing on being the 'best it can be' and doubling in size within the next five years. On Monday, Kmart announced shoppers would save hundreds of dollars each year as the retailer continues to move away from to boost manufacturing in south-east Asia. Prices are set to be permanently slashed across 300 Kmart products as they boost their offshore operations in Indonesia Amazon is expected to sell groceries at its Australian stores through Amazon Fresh, which could take on Coles, Woolworths and Aldi Mr Bailey said Kmart would be focusing on being the 'best it can be' and doubling in size within the next five years Java has been dubbed 'Kmart Island' after 11 factories were opened to manufacture items such as $5 T-shirts, $12 bike shorts and $18 leggings. Some products are set to be permanently reduced by up to 20 per cent, including gym tops which will cost only $8. Amazon is expected to sell groceries at its Australian stores through Amazon Fresh, which could take on Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. Shoppers will save hundreds of dollars each year as Kmart continues to move away from China to boost manufacturing in southeast Asia Judge Judy's son has won a $150,000 lawsuit against a New York state sheriff who accused him of interfering with a rape investigation. Adam Levy was the DA for Putnam County in 2013, when Sheriff Don Smith made a string of false statements about Levy and Alexandru Hossu, an undocumented immigrant suspected of raping a 13-year-old girl. Smith claimed Levy had harbored Hossu and tried to bamboozle the investigators; now he's been forced to retract that claim and pay up cash, Lohud reported. Adam Levy (left), won $150K and an apology from Sheriff Don Smith (right). The Putnam County sheriff accused then-DA Levy of harboring a rape suspect in 2013 In his false statements from 2013, Smith had accused Levy of harboring Romanian immigrant Hossu, who was Levy's personal trainer and a friend of the family. He also claimed that Levy had interfered with the investigation and put his loyalty to Hossu over his job; Hossu spent a year incarcerated before being found not guilty. Smith also called on federal authorities to investigate Levy. Levy says those claims caused him to lose out when he was up for re-election as DA in 2015. As part of the settlement deal, Smith made a public letter of apology to Levy in which he fully retracted all the claims he had made. 'Don Smith's untrue statements created a cascade and barrage of false, misleading media accounts that clearly affected the 2015 district attorney's race,' Levy told a press conference on Tueday. Levy (pictured center) is the son of TV star Judge Judy (seen in purple suit). He believes the lies cost him re-election as DA in 2015. All but $25K will be paid for by the county, not Smith 'We can never go back, we will never go back and change what Don Smith has done. But clearly his actions had an impact on the voters of this county. 'I can only hope by his acknowledgement and admissions and confession today, that they will see clear on seeking their own justice in the future.' Most of the money - a whopping $125,000 - will be paid by Putnam County taxpayers, while Smith himself will only foot the bill for $25,000. Smith will also not pay for his legal fees, which will be paid for by the county's insurance company. 'The monies I sought to settle this case I expected to come from Mr Smith,' Levy said. Alexandru Hossu was acquitted of the rape in 2014, and is now suing the county for $45m saying that Smith locked him up for a year without actual probable cause 'However, Mr Smith made it clear that he was not prepared to pay the entire amount, and instead would go the Putnam County taxpayers to pay the largest portion, despite the fact that it was based on his misconduct.' County Attorney Jennifer Baumgarner said that although Putnam County was not named in the suit, it will pick up the tab because Smith made the remarks in his position as sheriff. In a separate suit, Hossu is suing Putnam County for $45 million, accusing Smith of engaging in malicious prosecution, as he did not have probable cause at the time. Smith's apology letter is likely to play into Hossu's lawsuit, which is still pending in US District Court. Smith himself goes up for re-election as sheriff in November, and has sworn to fight for a fifth term. No one has yet challenged his position or called for him to resign. Workers inside one of the factories that makes Ivanka Trump's brand name clothing have revealed they receive some of the lowest pay in the country, have impossible-to-meet production targets and claim that overtime is often unpaid. Some employees inside of the PT Buma Apparel Industry factory in Subang, West Java, Indonesia, one of the factories that makes Ivanka Trump clothing, said that they're subjected to verbal abuse, are too poor to live with their children, have never received any raises other than what the government requires, are denied government-mandated Ramadan pay, and have bosses who stealthily clock out workers at 4pm even if they work later, reported The Guardian. Scroll down for video Ivanka has projected an image of being for the working woman, but a woman who works on her clothes in a factory in Indonesia burst out laughing at the idea, saying she is paid so little she can't afford to live with her kids. Ivanka is pictured in Wisconsin on Tuesday The workers in the Huajian, China shoe factory that produces some of Ivanka's branded shoes (above) complained of similar treatment to what the workers in Indonesia complained of Ivanka, above with some of her branded merchandise at a Canadian trade show, is where the buck stops, said a labor activist PT Buma, a Korean-owned garment company started in Indonesia in 1999, is one of the suppliers of G-III Apparel Group, the wholesale manufacturer that has an exclusive agreement to license the Ivanka Trump brand. Alia, whose name was changed for fear of losing her job, said that even after years of work at PT Buma, she and her husband, who works as well, are still too poor to have their children live at home with them. They live with their grandmother hours away by motorcycle, and only have enough money for gas to visit them once a month. Alia makes 2.3million rupiah, or about $173 a month, the legal minimum wage, but among the lowest in Indonesia. Hours are 7am to 4pm, which would make hourly pay less than a dollar an hour. Workers on a production line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan; Su Heng had been working undercover at a Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan Workers on a production line at the Huajian shoe factory in Dongguan, in south China's Guangdong province - workers had complained about excessive hours and low pay Subang, West Java, Indonesia (above) is the site of one of the factories that makes Ivanka Trump branded clothing 'You have to assess minimum wages in the context of the country itself and, in that context, its not a living wage,' said David Welsh, Indonesia and Malaysia director at the Solidarity Center. Welsh said that pay can vary greatly per jurisdiction within the country, and factories keep migrating to the lowest paying areas. Alia says she rents two rooms for $30 a month and has decorated them with pictures of her children as she can't afford to have them live with her. Ivanka's father may have been accused of having anti-Muslim policies, but the majority of the workers on her clothes in Indonesia are Muslim Alia, like most of the workers, is Muslim. She and her husband, Ahmad, are aware of Donald Trump's attempts to ban certain majority Muslim country's citizens from entering the US, but he says: 'We dont like Donald Trumps policies. But were not in a position to make employment decisions based on our principles.' When told about Ivanka's book Women Who Work, Alia laughed and said her fondest dream as a working woman would be able to afford to see her children more than once a month. About three quarters of the factory's workers are women, and only 200 of the 2,759 total workers at Buma PT are unionized, said The Guardian. Being forced to work overtime with no extra pay was a common complaint, said the outlet. Sita, 23, said, 'I cant stand it any more. I work unpaid overtime every day and still earn just 2.3 million [rupiah] a month. Im planning to move from Subang, where the minimum wage is too low. But I dont know where to go yet. I havent got any connections.' Workers are given expected 'production targets' per half hour, but they are far above what workers can reasonably do, said the sources within the factory. G-III workers at a factory in China have been found to be working for at or below minimum wage and up to 82 hours a month of overtime, which is against Chinese law - above, a G-III shoe factory in Dongguan, where about 100,000 pairs of Ivanka Trump shoes were made 'Using unrealistic production targets to justify unpaid overtime is very common,' said Andriko Otang, of Indonesias Trade Union Rights Centre. A timetable with production targets of 58 and 92 garments per half hour, while the actual numbers produced are recorded as 27 to 40, was shown to the outlet's reporter. Seven workers told the paper that verbal abuse from superiors was common, such as being called epithets such as 'animals, moron and monkey.' Additionally, workers said they are routinely fired right before Ramadan, which is required as paid time off per law, and rehired after it is over. Every worker the outlet interviewed said they don't want to join a union for fear of being fired. However, the workers said their jobs weren't all bad - they have three months paid maternity leave, far higher than a lot of American companies have, mandatory federal health insurance and a monthly bonus of $10.50 if they dont take a day off for menstruation. (Which works out to about ten days pay if a woman works through her period.) One woman was even happy she wasn't working on her parents' farm as at least the factory 'has air conditioning.' Jim Keady, an American labor rights activist who has worked extensively in Indonesia, said that even if the factory is paying the legal wage, that doesn't make it right if people can't afford to live on it. 'With these poverty wages - and I would call it that - just because something is legal, doesnt mean it is moral,' he said. He puts the blame on Ivanka Trump, as she has the power to do something about the situation. 'The buck stops with her,' he said. 'Its her name thats on the dress. Without her there is no brand.' Carry Somers, founder of Fashion Revolution, a non-profit that calls for greater transparency in the fashion industry, said 'Ivanka Trump claims to be the ultimate destination for Women Who Work, but this clearly doesnt extend to the women who work for her in factories around the world.' Last month, two men disappeared and one was arrested after working to expose conditions in a Chinese factory that makes Ivanka Trump branded shoes One man who worked in the warehouse section of the Indonesian factory put it succinctly when he said 'Sure Im proud to make clothes for a well-known brand. But because I see the price tags, I have to wonder, cant they pay us a bit more?' Neither the White House nor anyone from the Ivanka Trump brand would comment for the story. Last month, Su Heng and Li Zhao, two undercover workers at a Huajian, China factory that produced Ivanka Trump shoes went missing after China Labor Watch, which monitors conditions inside sweatshops, was set to release a damning report about conditions within the factory. Workers inside the Huajian factory that produced some of Ivanka Trump branded shoes also complained about low pay, unpaid overtime, and unrealistic production targets. Another activist who worked with China Labor Watch, labor rights activist Hua Haifeng, was arrested. On June 5th, the U.S. State Department called for the immediate release of the three men. The next day, China rejected the call, reported the New York Daily News. Ivanka stepped down from running her company in January but often still promotes the brand by wearing it. Ivanka's father, Donald Trump, ran on a platform of giving Americans back jobs lost to other countries, but the vast majority of his and his daughter's branded merchandise is made abroad. The death-toll on London's Grenfell Tower fire continues to mount, it's worth remembering that there are no "natural disasters," only human disasters, created by people who weigh different interests in the balance and create policies based on the way the scales come up. So it was that a year ago, a group of Tory MPs largely composed of commercial landlords voted down Labour's amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill that would have required landlords to make their properties safe and "fit for human habitation." The British landlord industry delivers remarkably poor value for money, thanks to the combination of a seller's market for housing, the systematic dismantling of tenancy protections, and the absurd "freeholder" system that means that even people who own their homes have landlords whom they have to pay "ground rent" to and then beg for maintenance. Our own landlords, Tuckerman, routinely take six months or more literally to fix a broken light in a stairwell they represent a "social housing" enterprise that bought our building as a for-profit investment, and have subcontracted our maintenance to a third party, Metro, whom they point their fingers at and shrug when months tick by without routine maintenance being completed while we stumble up and down the stairs in the dark. In discussing this with other Britons, I've discovered that it's absolutely normal and par for the course. When something terrible goes on for years without a solution, you come to realise that the situation is a feature and not a bug for the people in charge. There are no natural disasters, only human ones. Teresa Pearce, the shadow housing minister who proposed the amendment in January 2016, said at the time that renters lacked "basic consumer protection" when things went wrong. "The majority of landlords let property which is and remains in a decent standard. Many landlords go out of their way to ensure that even the slightest safety hazard is sorted quickly and efficiently," she said. "So it is even more distressing when we see reports of homes which are frankly unfit for human habitation being let, often at obscene prices. "Where else in modern day life could someone get away with this? It's a consumer issue. If I purchased a mobile phone or a computer that didn't work, didn't do what it said it would or was unsafe I would take it back and get a refund." The Government claimed the new law would result in "unnecessary regulation". Corbyn tried to pass law to make homes safe last year the Conservatives rejected it [Jack Peat/The London Economic] The notorious armed robber Christopher "Badness" Binse will not be required to serve extra jail time for a series of crimes committed almost three decades ago. The Melbourne criminal, who is the subject of the book Mayhem: The Strange and Savage Saga of Christopher 'Badness' Binse, is now in his mid 50s and goes by the surname Pecotic. Binse has made headlines throughout his lengthy criminal career, most notably for taunting police by sending them postcards while hiding interstate to avoid arrest, and for being convicted 96 times before his 25th birthday. Christopher 'Badness' Binse taunted police by sending them postcards while avoiding capture Despite confessing to the armed robberies, which took place between 1988 and 1991, Binse has been allowed to serve his new sentence alongside his current 18 year and two month sentence which is due to expire in 2030. At his sentencing on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Terry Forrest noted that Binse's mental health has been negatively impacted by spending the majority of the last 30 years in custody, including 22 hours a day in isolation in the high-security jail where he's housed. 22 hours a day in isolation at his high security jail has taken its toll on Binse's mental health Forrest took into consideration that without Binse's confession the crimes would still be unsolved, and that he has shown genuine remorse. Binse was aged 19 to 23 at the time of the crime spree, in which he fired at a shop employee during a getaway, but has since converted to Islam and has indicated that he wants to make amends for his life of crime. Justice Forrest considers Binse's prospects for rehabilitation to have improved considerably since he was last sentenced in 2014 for a 44 hour siege in Melbourne during which he shot at police officers, allowing Binse to get away with the crimes without serving any extra time. William Watt's mugshot taken after his arrest for domestic violence A Gregory, Michigan man who is accused of slapping his daughter after performing a forced exorcism on her, is going to prison for domestic violence. William Watt, his wife and their son performed the bizarre ceremony on the 18-year-old the morning of September 24. She told police she was watching television at the time when the trio approached her chanting 'the power of Christ compels you'. Her brother who had just been repairing a wall in the house smeared plaster on her face, the family then tipped the couch over was on and threw a plastic water bottle at her, causing a cut to her cheek. The teen managed to escape her hellish 'exorcism' and head to work. When she returned later to the home, Watt confronted her while she was eating and accused her of stealing his food. After some back and forth Watt slapped his teenage daughter across the face. Watt's daughter was able to call a friend for help, according to the Detroit Free Press, who picked her up to take her to safety- and that's when she called the cops. The Watt's family home in a remote location of Gregory, MI. Neighbors are out of ear-shot The father has a slew of domestic violence charges against him dating back to 1997 when he was charged for assaulting a family member. Watt was also convicted in 2001 for assaulting his wife and trying to disconnect the phone when she tried to call 911 for help. In 2004 he was accused of choking his then 16-year-old son. He did a stint in prison for felonious assault with a dangerous weapon, he was released in 2011. After his 2011 release, the same year, Watt was convicted of assault with intent for strangling his daughter and was sentenced to 10-months in jail. 'Clearly, he earned a prison sentence,' said Livingston County Prosecutor William J. Vailliencourt Jr. 'You cannot look at his conduct in a vacuum, and when you look at the length of his history of violence and family violence, he earned a prison sentence.' Watt has maintained his innocence, calling his daughter's accusations 'false,' and are the product of an 'arrogant' and 'deceitful' teen. Livingston County Court Judge Miriam Cavanaugh wasn't buying Watt's story. Cavanaugh reprimanded Watt 'You can't put your hands on your adult children. You don't get to kick around your kids because they're your kids,' she added. 'You don't get to grab her neck or slap her in the face.' 'You beat up your family. When are you going to learn?' she said during the sentencing. Watt is facing a harsher sentence this time around. He is looking at one to ten years in prison. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed the decision to pay Manus Island detainees $70 million in damages, saying the class action was an 'excuse to get money'. On Wednesday, lawyers for the almost 2,000 asylum seekers reached a settlement with the Australian government for compensation after alleged physical and psychological abuse at the centre. Ms Hanson uploaded a video to her Facebook page saying taxpayers have been 'taken for mugs' and that these 'illegals have possibly no regard for' Australia. 'They're claiming they were mistreated and [have] mental conditions,' Ms Hanson said. Scroll down for video One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed the decision to pay Manus Island detainees $70 million in damages 'Excuses to get money, that's what it's about'. Senator Hanson went on to say she did not blame the government for settling the class action to avoid it 'costing an enormous amount of money'. 'There is a good reason why the government has not accepted them into this country,' she said in the video. 'A lot of these people are economic refugees and are thinking "we're coming to Australia, they have a great welfare system". 'I'm sick and tired of the do-gooders pushing this bandwagon'. The detainees wanted compensation from the Australian government and the detention centre managers for alleged physical and psychological injuries they argue they suffered as a result of the conditions in which they were held. Nearly 2,000 asylum seekers held at the Manus Island detention centre will be handed a total of $70million in damages. Pictured, a file image of asylum seekers at the centre in 2014 Ms Hanson uploaded a video to her Facebook page saying taxpayers have been 'taken for mugs' and that these 'illegals have possibly no regard for' Australia. Lawyers for the detainees (some pictured in 2014) have reached a settlement with the Australian government and the operators of the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre Senator Hanson went on to say she did not blame the government for settling the class action to avoid it 'costing an enormous amount of money' The class action also sought damages for false imprisonment after the PNG Supreme Court ruled the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island was unconstitutional. A six-month trial was due to begin in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday, but what would have been Australia's largest ever trial concerning immigration detention was avoided following the settlement. The detainees' barrister David Curtain QC instead told the court the parties had been able to reach agreement in the matter. The class action was seeking damages on behalf of 1,905 group members who, legal firm Slater and Gordon says, cover the majority of people detained on Manus Island since 2012. The class action was seeking damages on behalf of 1,905 group members who, legal firm Slater and Gordon says, cover the majority of people detained on Manus Island (pictured) since 2012 The settlement details in the Australian class action will be confidential and subject to court approval The Australian government and the companies that have managed the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre, G4S Australia and Broadspectrum (formerly Transfield Services), had denied the claims. The settlement could potentially lead to the withdrawal of a separate legal action in Papua New Guinea alleging false imprisonment against the PNG government, which lawyers estimated could be worth at least $150 million for about 1,000 detainees. Lawyers Greg Toop and Ben Lomai have estimated the men in the PNG case could each receive more than 400,000 PNG kina ($A150,000-$A175,000). The settlement details in the Australian class action will be confidential and subject to court approval. Slater and Gordon had said the Australian class action would shine a light on the conditions the detainees experienced on Manus Island. The detention centre will be closed by the end of the 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull vowed earlier this year. There are grave concerns for the wellbeing of a young woman who police fear may have been forced into a car and kidnapped. Jessica Hamill went missing from her home in Port Douglas, Queensland, at around midnight on Tuesday and hasn't been seen since. Police are worried the 20-year-old may in the company of a man aged in his twenties who they believe may be holding Jessica against her will. There are grave concerns for the well-being of Jessica Hamill (pictured), 20, who police fear may have been forced into a car and kidnapped from her home in Port Douglas, Queensland. It is feared she may be in the company of a man in his twenties holding her against her will It is believed the pair could be travelling in a dirty black coloured 2012 model Holden Commodore station wagon. A manhunt is currently underway to find Jessica and the male she is believed to be with. Jessica is Caucasian in appearance, stands about 170cms tall, is of medium build, has blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. Anyone with information regarding their whereabouts or who sights the vehicle is being urged to contact police. It is believed the pair could be travelling in a black Holden Commodore station wagon like the one pictured (Car pictured is not the actual vehicle) The shocking moment two furious customers began hurling fruit at staff members at a New York deli just near Yankee Stadium has been captured on camera. The two men, who have not yet been identified, were filmed at the Stadium Gourmet Deli in the Bronx shortly before 5am on May 29. Police released video of the incident, which resulted in one worker having his jaw broken after he was hit in the face with an avocado, on Tuesday in the hopes of finding the fruit-flingers. The bizarre attack was sparked when the two men became furious at a cook for getting their early morning food order wrong, the New York Daily News reports. Scroll down for video Police are searching for two men who went on an avocado-throwing rampage inside a Bronx deli When a second worker stepped in to stop the argument, a man wearing a black t-shirt in the video began picking up avocados from a box next to him and hurling them at the staff. The man gets close to the counter and throws the pieces of fruit at an alarming speed. A second man who is with him also throws a few avocados, while also taking off his belt for an unknown reason. The men, who have not yet been identified, were filmed in the Bronx shortly before 5am on May 29 Near the end of the video, the first man leaped over the counter and appeared to try to grab a worker. After he was unable to do, he instead picked up a few bunches of bananas and threw those. The worker who suffered a broken jaw is 21 years old. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital for treatment, the Daily News reports. Police are calling on anyone with information on the attack to come forward. A desperate search is underway for a woman who has gone missing in mysterious circumstances. New South Wales Police is appealing for public information to help locate Kathleen Lidden, who has been reported missing since Tuesday afternoon. Ms Lidden, 52, was last seen at a shop on Pioneer Road, Bowral at about 12.30pm. Concerned family members have described her disappearance as out-of-character. Kathleen Lidden, 52, has been reported missing since she went to the shops on Tuesday arvo Ms Lidden has disappeared into thin air with family members describing it as out of character Following her disappearance, Bowral police have started investigations into Ms Lidden's whereabouts. Described as being of Caucasian in appearance, Ms Lidden is thin build, about 160-165 cm tall with short blonde and brown hair. She was last seen wearing a white scarf, yellow and cream coloured fleece jumper, grey track pants and was carrying a brown bag. Police have cracked a 'cold call' fraud syndicate that scammed $30 million from 2,000 victims across Australia. Queensland Police said it was mostly elderly people who fell victim to the multi-million-dollar scam which was based on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The police said the average victim lost around $20,000 but some lost up to $40,000. Police will also allege the money was spent to support the offenders' lavish lifestyles including overseas travel. Five people were charged including four men aged in their 30s and 40s and a 41-year-old woman (stock) Queensland police raided a number of homes and businesses on the Gold Coast and Brisbane on Wednesday. Five people were charged including four men aged in their 30s and 40s and a 41-year-old woman. They are alleged to be either principal players in the multi-million-dollar scam or responsible for the laundering of victims' money. The arrests came at the pointy end of a two-year operation by the Financial and Cyber Crimes Group together with the Australian Taxation Office and the Crime and Corruption Commission. The scam was supported by bogus websites boasting fake information about the products and companies (stock) 'This has been a complex and protracted joint-agency investigation. We believe more than $30 million over a three year period was extracted from victims across Australia,' Acting Detective Superintendent Peter Brewer said. Detective Brewer said the scam was 'very professional and convincing'. He said the scam operated on high pressure sales tactics and offered victims massive returns on share market investments. It was supported by bogus websites boasting fake information about the products and companies. The average victim lost around $20,000 but that some lost up to $40,000, the police said (stock) He warned people it was illegal to cold call in relation to financial products, so regardless of how professional it sounded, it 'should ring alarm bells'. 'We highly recommend hanging up and having no further contact with those involved,' he said. The investigation and pursuit of the money trail is ongoing. Company names used by the syndicate include ESL, Eurosoft, OWS, OW Sydney, One Wealth, GTA, GlobalTech, GTA Australia, GT Australia, GT Alliance, TRP, TRP Solutions, Thorne Roberts Price and Thomson Rowe Partners. The police urged anyone who may have fallen victim to the scam to phone the police. As the furor over Megyn Kelly's upcoming interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones continued to broil online, NBC execs are reportedly panicking over the negative publicity. They spent the whole of Monday in crisis meetings to work out how to handle the backlash from parents angry that Kelly has given a platform for Jones' ludicrous claims - including that the Sandy Hook shootings were faked. 'It's a s**tshow,' a source told Page Six. 'No one wants to withstand a whole week of criticism over this. There are a number of people who want to pull the interview.' Scroll down for video Insiders say NBC executives have been in panic mode all Monday after a backlash at Megyn Kelly's interview with Alex Jones (both pictured) which will air on NBC News on Sunday Kelly pressed Jones on his claims that the Sandy Hook shootings were faked. Bereaved mom Nelba Marquez-Greene (seen center in 2014) took Kelly to task online, sparking a furor Poll Should NBC air Megyn Kelly's interview with Alex Jones? Yes No Should NBC air Megyn Kelly's interview with Alex Jones? Yes 234 votes No 454 votes Now share your opinion Kelly's woes began when she tweeted a clip of the interview in which she presses Jones about his claims that Sandy Hook was a 'false flag' government operation. The mother of one of the children killed in the 2012 shooting took Kelly to task, asking why she was giving publicity to Jones; Chelsea Clinton soon joined in. And then JP Morgan Chase dropped its advertising from all NBC shows until after the interview's proposed airing date, on Father's Day, and things got serious, Page Six said. However, another insider told Page Six that NBC had hoped for some kind of controversy in order to promote the channel. 'No one expected sponsors to pull out, but this is why they hired Megyn,' the source claimed. 'They expect to lose and gain viewers and they want the buzz.' And a third insider said despite 'a lot of confusion,' NBC does not plan to pull the interview now - a claim that NBC News chairman Andy Lack was also heard making on Tuesday at the Mirror Awards. Kelly was also present at the awards - which were perhaps a small bright spot for the presenter, who was told that day she had been dropped by Sandy Hook Promise. She had been expecting to host the fundraising gala for the charitable organization in Washington, DC on Wednesday. But the organization said in a statement: 'Sandy Hook Promise cannot support the decision by Megyn or NBC to give any form of voice or platform to Alex Jones and have asked Megyn Kelly to step down as our Promise Champion Gala host. NBC has decided that it will air the interview, insiders claim, but they have lost advertiser JP Morgan Chase for the week; it has pulled all its ads until after the interview airs Kelly responded to the statement saying she did 'understand and respect' the decision but that she was 'disappointed'. 'I find Alex Jones's suggestion that Sandy Hook was "a hoax" as personally revolting as every other rational person does,' she said. 'It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview: how does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the president of the United States and a growing audience of millions? 'President Trump, by praising and citing him, appearing on his show, and giving him White House press credentials, has helped elevate Jones, to the alarm of many. NBC News chairman Andy Lack was heard at the Mirror Awards on Tuesday saying the show would go ahead (Lack is seen left at the Mirror Awards with Kelly and Tom Brokaw) 'Our goal in sitting down with him was to shine a light - as journalists are supposed to do - on this influential figure, and yes - to discuss the considerable falsehoods he has promoted with near impunity.' Jones, who hosts the online 'news' site InfoWars, had initially said that the children killed at Sandy Hook were slain by government agents who wanted to restrict gun laws. He then modified that claim to say the Sandy Hook shootings never happened and that the dead children were actors. On Monday, he changed that stance yet again, telling InfoWars' listeners that he now believes Sandy Hook did happen, and that children died there. He claimed that his remarks to that effect had been edited from the promotional clip, and added: 'I'm tired of being misrepresented.' After Kelly shared the two-minute clip of her and Jones, in which she challenges him about the claims, then slaps him down twice for evading the question, bereaved mom Nelba Marquez-Greene took her to task. Marquez-Greene, who lost her six-year-old daughter Ana in the shooting, posted a school photo of her deceased daughter. 'Here you go @MegynKelly - her name is Ana Grace Marquez-Greene. Say her name- stare at this & tell me it's worth it,' she wrote. She also posted a message she had been sent by one of those taken in by Jones' claim, who asked her: 'Did Ana really die? Everyone knows SandyHook is SandyHoax. Did you sell her into a Child-trafficking ring?' Marquez-Greene posted a photo of her daughter Ana, 6, who was slain in the Sandy Hook massacre, challenging Kelly to 'stare at this & tell me it's worth it' That the government faked deaths at 'Sandy Hook' isn't the only absurd conspiracy Jones has come up with. In 2012, in the wake of the Aurora cinema massacre that saw 12 killed and 70 injured when a gunman opened fire during a screening of The Dark Knight, Jones claimed it was a 'false flag'. 'If you look at the full spectrum of information unfolding right now, 100 per cent chance that the mass murder committed in the suburb of Denver, Colorado, right next to Littleton and Columbine was a false flag mind control event.' He even blamed President Obama for being behind a series of deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma back in 2013 that claimed the lives of over 30 people. A 37-year-old man has been charged with the murder of another man, who was hit in the head with a hammer and a wrench. Patrick Boon appeared in Moree Local Court on Wednesday over the alleged attack on a 57-year-old man in Wee Waa, north west New South Wales. Police were called to a licensed premises on Rose Street in the town about 4.30pm on Tuesday afternoon after reports a man had a firearm. A 37-year-old man has been charged with the murder of another man, who was hit in the head with a hammer and a wrench in regional New South Wales on Tuesday (stock image) Police were called to a licensed premises on Rose Street in Wee Waa (pictured) on Tuesday at 4.30pm after reports a man had a firearm. A short time later they were called to a business on Culgoora Road after reports of an assault A short time later, police and emergency services were also called to a business on Culgoora Road, Wee Waa, after reports of an assault. Police believe the men were involved in the altercation, which saw the 57-year-old hit in the head with a hammer and wrench. The man was treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being taken to Narrabri Hospital in a critical condition. Police from Barwon Local Area Command arrested Mr Boon at the licensed premises and seized a firearm. He was charged with attempted murder, but that charge was upgraded to murder after the 57-year-old man died in hospital this morning. Boon was refused bail and will reappear in court on August 16. A band of 45 determined apartment owners have come together to hopefully collect a $65 million payday after combining their three apartment blocks. The apartment owners in Sydney's northern suburbs have created one of Macquarie Park's largest development sites during a deal put together over the last 18 months. Director and marketing agent Stuart Cox, from Savills Australia, said the development site already caught the eye of 110 potential buyers within the first week - with each apartment owner standing to make an average $550,000 profit. The Cottonwood Crescent apartment blocks (pictured) could go for $65 million The three apartment blocks have up to 45 owners selling for $65 million or more to developers The three properties combine to make a 3,852sqm site for developers who can turn it into a high-rise as tall as 21 stories Mr Cox said one solicitor is representing the collective owners, which will help the sales process. 'Each of the existing units are worth around $800,000. These apartments via our sales strategy will achieve over $1.35 million as a collective sale,' Mr Cox told Daily Mail Australia. 'The reason it is unique is because it's very rare to get three blocks joining together and combining in unison throughout the marketing timeline. You usually get a lot of fractions, especially with 45 owners.' Mr Cox said the prime location on Cottonwood Crescent to retail, education and transport will attract plenty of Chinese buyers. 'We expect to achieve 250 inquiries throughout the course of the five week program,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'That will all comprise of local established developers, interstate developers and Chinese offshore buyers, who are already well established with large projects in Sydney.' The proposed project could be 21 stories with three commercial suites The project site is only moments away from Macquarie University, the railway station and the shopping centre He said the attraction of being across the road from AMP shopping centre, a railway station and a brief stroll to Macquarie University will tempt offshore buyers looking to purchase property for their children. 'You have a lot of offshore investors buying units for their kids to attend Macquarie University, combined with the over 35,000 employees in the Macquarie Park commercial CBD,' he said. The proposed development shows a stunning 21 high-rise tower with uninterrupted views of the CBD or Blue Mountains, including 200 apartments and three commercial suites. The current site area stands as 3,852sqm with a 100m walk to the shopping centre and 150m from the railway station. The property deadline will end on July 6. Advertisement A record-breaking blast of summer-like weather has hit New York and other parts of the Northeast. It was 101 degrees at LaGuardia airport, shattering the airport's old record of 97 degrees set back in 1961, reported NBC New York. In Central Park, it was 92 degrees by noon; and at Newark Airport it was 99 degrees breaking the old record of 98 from 1961. A young girl gets relief from the heatwave by dousing herself in a fountain in New York's Battery Park, Tuesday, June 13 Pittsburgh battalion fire chief Gregory Lowman cools down after battling a two-alarm blaze Monday; Pennsylvania saw a heat wave that forced schools to close early on Tuesday Much of the Northeast saw an unusually early heat wave starting Monday The Northeast was hotter than the West Coast and the South, normally known for their heat Teenagers relax along the boardwalk on a hot day at Coney Island, Brooklyn on Tuesday as temps reached record levels A dog and his owner walk along the boardwalk on a hot day at Coney Island getting some relief from the heat with the breezes off the shore Women catch some rays on a hot day at Coney Island beach in Brooklyn during a heatwave On Long Island in Islip, it was 93 degrees, beating the 1988 record of 92. That's two record-setting days in a row. On Monday, LaGuardia reached 95 degrees, topping its 1988 record of 92 degrees. Central Park tied its previous record of 93 degrees, set in 1973. But on Tuesday, relief was felt in the upper part of the state as cooler temps swept in, but thunderstorms and small hail was in the Hudson Valley area. On Monday, New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport recorded a sweltering 97 degrees on Monday, breaking its 1973 record of 95 degrees. A dad swings his daughter through a fountain in New York's Battery park on Tuesday, where temps reached into the high '90s A traffic agent of the New York City Police Department directs vehicles on a street near the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan during a record-breaking blast of summer-like weather A man has a bench to himself while taking in some sun as temperatures reached 97 degrees fahrenheit in NYC People stock up on a much needed appliance - house fans - during a heat wave in NYC Swimmers get some relief from the sweltering temps in NYC by taking a plunge into the shore at Coney Island on Tuesday A man catches some rays along the boardwalk at Coney Island in NYC during a hot day A man cools off in Roaring Brook at the Nay Aug Gorge in Scranton, Pennsylvania It was a little cooler on Long Island, where Islip reached 91 degrees, topping its 1988 record by three degrees. In Philadelphia, excessive heat is forcing public schools to close early on Tuesday. Meteorologist Joe Pollina says the heat is being caused by a large high pressure system over Bermuda that's pumping heat and humidity into the area. This is following one of the cooler and more wet May months on record in the northeast. However, the heat wave is destined to be short-lived, with rain and temps in the low '70s returning to the New York area later in the week. While the northeast was baking, Lake Tahoe was shivering, residents woke up to a very white June 12 Lake Tahoe got hit with temps 25 degrees below normal and about one inch of snow fall While the northeast was blistering in unusually hot temps, the Sierra Nevada in California was seeing record low temperatures, culminating in a snow storm in the mountains on Monday. 'Temperatures in the 70s are typical at this time of year, and we're seeing temperatures in the 40s and 50s,' meteorologist with the National Weather Service told SF Gate. 'That's 25 degrees below normal in some cases.' Meanwhile, winter temperatures in most of the south were so unseasonably warm that the south's famed Georgia peaches were decimated this year, reported the New York Times. In South Carolina, as much as 85 to 90 percent of the state's peach crop was killed off, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. A bus has been photographed in a very precarious position at a car park near Sydney's most iconic beach. The vehicle can be seen delicately teetering on three wheels in a narrow parking area at Bondi Beach. The front right tyre of the bus can be seen suspended over a metre in the air. A bus has been photographed in a very precarious position at a car park near Sydney's most iconic beach. The front right tyre of the bus can be seen suspended over a metre in the air Cars are nervously parked very close to the bus, which appears could tip over with even the slightest breeze. It appears the driver mounted a grass area while attempting to enter the car park. The bus is blocking the entrance, and also any way out for the helpless owners of the other vehicles parked at the beach. The post was shared through Brown Cardigan and has over 3,000 likes. 'This is how I would drive a bus,' one amused observer said. 'He should have hit it faster!' said another who appears to have experience in these situations. The sister of a Muslim man who allegedly forced an 18-year-old Sydney woman to marry him says the teenager told her she was 'happy' to wed him after the ceremony on Monday. The family claim the pair had been in a relationship together for 'months' and had been messaging each other since they met while the 33-year-old man holidayed in Kiama, on the New South Wales south coast, in February. The man would say of his bride to be 'she loves me, I love her,' according to the sibling. Scroll down for video The sister of a Muslim man, pictured, who allegedly forced an 18-year-old Sydney woman to marry him says the teenager told her she was 'happy' to wed him A family member said the girl, pictured, had 'three suitcases packed' when she left with him The man's sister, pictured, said she asked the girl if she was happy with the marriage on Monday The day they were married, she claimed to have asked the 18-year-old: 'Are you happy to marry my brother?... She said, very happy'. Her brother has asked the teenager's parents for permission to marry their daughter, but they had turned him down, she said. 'He did ask for her hand, but they said no,' said a close neighbour friend of the family. The sister said her family had lived in Australia for more than 20 years and cast doubt on claims he wanted to marry the girl for a visa. She did not know which sheikh had married the couple, but speculated they may have been married in Lakemba. The girl visited many of her future husband's relatives before the wedding, the sister claimed. The claims he wanted to marry her for a visa were slammed by relatives who said he didn't need a visa 'He did ask for her hand, but they said no,' said a close neighbour friend of the family (the man pictured) 'I just wanted to come back home to my family,' the teenager said Another relative of the family told Daily Mail Australia the girl's mother 'had a problem with the marriage' which is what sparked the allegations of kidnapping. 'She climbed out of her bedroom window with three packed suitcases tearing the screen as she left all done by herself before he had even arrived got in the car willingly,' the relative claimed. 'They were husband and wife wanting to start a new new life together and he's already been here for years the visa was never an issue.' The woman said the last day has been 'very hard for the family'. The sister blamed the girl for wanting to take the accused man away from Bankstow The sister was comforted by neighbours on Tuesday and Wednesday because she was so upset after hearing of her brother's arrest. The sister blamed the girl for wanting to take the accused man away from Bankstown, claiming she was scared of her family's reaction. A neighbour pointed out there would have to be two witnesses at the apparent wedding. The teenager would often bombard him with messages asking for him to call her, a neighbour claimed. The man's identity has been suppressed by a court. His lawyer did not apply for bail on his behalf at a brief appearance at Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday afternoon. The matter will return to court in six weeks time. It has been alleged the 33-year-old man drove to the teenager's Bankstown home on Sunday at 2am, forced her out of her bedroom window and took her to the Novotel at Brighton Le Sands. The teenager was allegedly kept at the hotel for more than 24 hours before the mantook her to a Lakemba house. She is pictured here in her bedroom The teenager was allegedly kept at the hotel for more than 24 hours before the man took her to a Lakemba house, where an Islamic ceremony conducted by a sheikh took place. 'I just wanted to come back home to my family,' the teenager told 7News. The young woman claims he wanted to use the marriage to secure an Australian citizenship. 'He lives overseas, but he doesn't have a visa here, so if he gets married here, the girl gets to put him here...he can stay here,' she said on Tuesday. The teenager was allegedly forced out of her bedroom window (pictured) by the 33-year-old 'It was scary. I just wanted to come back home to my family and not be with him. 'I can't stand him. I want to kill him.' She was then driven down the Hume Highway towards Melbourne, where the man's cousin lives, but police intercepted the vehicle after her family contacted police. The man was arrested in Gundagai on Monday night, about 400km from Sydney, and charged with kidnapping, sexual assault and indecent assault. The matter was adjourned at Wagga Wagga Local Court on Tuesday. The man, 33, allegedly drove to the teenager's Bankstown home on Sunday at 2am, forced her out of her bedroom window and took her to the Novotel at Brighton Le Sands Comedian Nazeem Hussain has revealed his difficulty in getting past US customs officials at airports in the United States, saying he is often questioned for four hours because of his name. After landing at Los Angeles airport on Wednesday, the Australian funnyman said he was taken to a room and asked a 'c**p load of questions,' including his thoughts on Donald Trump's presidency. Hussain said he even had to ask the officials to log into Netflix to watch footage of him performing to prove he was actually a comedian. 'They weren't even laughing at the funny bits,' he joked to 104.9 Triple M's Merrickville. Comedian Nazeem Hussain has revealed his difficulty in getting past US customs officials at airports in the United States. he posted this image before leaving for Los Angeles on Tuesday After landing at Los Angeles airport on Wednesday, the Australian funnyman said he was taken to a room and asked a 'c**p load of questions,' The I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! contestant said on two occasions he has been questioned for four hours at Los Angeles airport. He said he was allowed to leave after an hour of interrogations on Wednesday. But Hussain revealed he also received similar treatment on checking for the flight at Melbourne airport as he had a Secondary Security Screening Selection on his boarding pass. 'You're going to have to wait until the whole plane load of people board before you and then we'll let you on after we frisk you,' Hussain said he was told. 'They asked me all sorts of questions: What are my intentions for going to the US? Why am I travelling alone?' The I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! contestant (pictured with Steve Price on the show) said on two occasions he has been questioned for four hours at Los Angeles airport Before he left Melbourne, Hussain shared a selfie on his Instagram account with a photo of Donald Trump covered in love hearts Hussain revealed he also received similar treatment on checking for the flight at Melbourne airport as he had a Secondary Security Screening Selection on his boarding pass Hussain said he was allowed to enter Los Angeles after showing the officials a clip from his Netflix talk-show series Bill Nye Saves The World (stock image) Before he left Melbourne, Hussain shared a selfie on his Instagram account with a photo of Donald Trump covered in love hearts. 'As I depart for the US, I just want it to be known that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Donald Trump,' he captioned the image. 'I'm so delighted to be entering his America, and I trust everyone at LA customs loves me as much as I love Donald'. Hussain said he was allowed to enter Los Angeles after showing the officials a clip from his Netflix talk-show series Bill Nye Saves The World. 'That Netflix opportunity just came like that... then all of a sudden the next week I was flying to the US to film with Bill Nye, who is one of the biggest personalities in the States,' he said in March. A passenger was detained by police on board a flight from Albury to Sydney on Tuesday evening. The police boarded the 5.20pm Qantas link flight flying from Albury Airport, south west New South Wales, to Sydney on Tuesday and detained a passenger, according to The Border Mail. The man has been released pending further inquiries. A passenger was detained by police on board a flight from Albury to Sydney on Tuesday evening (Stock Image) An AFP spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they were questioning one man over the incident. 'The AFP can confirm AFP officers attended a flight that arrived into Sydney from Albury Tuesday. One man is currently assisting police with enquiries.' The incident follows a man being charged after a passenger found a note in the toilets of a Virgin plane travelling the same route last week. More to come Ever feel like your workplace is lagging behind in these changing modern times? Well, unless you've got a bar in your office, you might not have realised just how far behind the leaders your office has fallen. With the need to retain top-end talent and entice new workers a growing priority, companies are willing to do whatever it takes to make work enjoyable - and that's great news for employers. With the need to retain top-end talent and entice new workers a huge priority, companies are willing to do whatever it takes to make work enjoyable - and that's great news for employers From building in-house bars complete with free beer on tap, to allowing employees to take hangover days when they're feeling under the weather, the times of working 9-5 are changing Where once a nearby pub was the regular spot for Friday drinks, large companies are more regularly in-office bars complete with free beer on tap. THE PERKS OF A MODERN OFFICE - Beer on tap - Surf breaks - Hangover days - Arcade games - 'Pawternity leave' - Free Netflix subscription - In-house massages - Meditation classes Advertisement But that's far from being the only perk. Hangover days have also become a common feature of modern workplaces, going hand in hand with the growing popularity of beer on tap. Companies are also encouraging their employees to get a screen break and spend time away from their computer, with some even offering time off to go surfing. But if the outdoors isn't your style there's also an increasing number of arcade games and consoles popping up in corporate offices. Also commonly on offer are in-house massages and meditation classes, both aiming to offer much needed rest and relaxation to hard working employees. For those sick of taking their work home with them and wanting to 'chill', companies are also readily offering subscriptions to TV and movie services like Netflix. And while new parents have long been able to take time off to spend with their baby, the importance of pets are now finally being realised. 'Pawternity' days are more regularly being offered to allow pet owners to spend more time with their fluffy new friend. According to Raife Watson, the CEO of jobs website Adzuna, the changes are a sign of the times. Companies are also encouraging their employees to get a screen break by offering surfing breaks, in-house massages, meditation and even arcade games and consoles 'In more profitable times, large companies offer trips abroad and huge cash bonuses to reward top performing employees,' Mr Watson said. 'Smart employers are now finding innovative ways to reward hard-working, valued staff, by offering inexpensive perks that reflect company culture and employee values. 'The benefits of these work perks are a happier, healthier working experience. And happier, healthier workers make for a stronger business.' Almost 200 Democratic lawmakers are suing President Donald Trump over foreign money flowing into his global business empire. A total of 196 senators and representatives are plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging Trump is violating the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution. It is to be filed early on Wednesday in US District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawmakers said. The plaintiffs argue they have standing to sue because the clause says only Congress may approve foreign gifts and payments. Almost 200 Democratic lawmakers are suing President Donald Trump over foreign money flowing into his global business empire. Trump is pictured on Tuesday in Wisconsin 'The framers gave Congress a unique role, a unique right and responsibility,' Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said. Although Trump turned over control of his real estate development, management and marketing company to his adult sons and a senior executive, he did not divest from it. That means he stands to benefit financially from the Trump Organization's profits, including from foreign governments. Since he has become president, the Trump Organization has secured dozens of potentially valuable patents, including in China, and collected fees from lobbyists working for Saudi Arabia and other countries using his properties. The new suit - the third of its kind - said the full scope of foreign payments to the Trump Organization cannot be known because the president has not made public his tax returns. Earlier this week, two Democratic attorneys general filed a similar claim. Days after Trump's inauguration in January, a liberal-funded government watchdog filed an emoluments lawsuit. 'The framers gave Congress a unique role, a unique right and responsibility,' Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said he and Blumenthal have amassed the 'greatest number of congressional plaintiffs on any lawsuit against a president' - adding Trump 'left them with no other option' A restaurant group and two individuals in the hotel industry later joined as co-plaintiffs. Trump and the Justice Department have called these lawsuits baseless. They argue the clause is not intended to prevent normal business such as hotel payments and real estate transactions. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said he and Blumenthal have amassed the 'greatest number of congressional plaintiffs on any lawsuit against a president.' He said they're taking the action 'not out of any sense of pleasure or partisanship but because President Trump has left us with no other option.' Ahead of the filing, only Democrats were asked to sign on, but Blumenthal and Conyers plan to send letters to their Republican colleagues Wednesday asking them to join the effort. Donald Trump waves as he makes his way to board Air Force One before departing from Newark Liberty Airport in Newark, New Jersey on June 11 In a motion to dismiss one of the similar lawsuits last Friday, the Justice Department argued plaintiffs had not shown any specific harm to their businesses, while claiming Trump was only banned from receiving foreign government gifts if they arose from his service as president. On Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said 'partisan politics' was behind the lawsuit by the Maryland and District of Columbia officials. Lawmakers rarely sue the president, so there are few federal court decisions the legislators can cite to prove their legal standing to bring Wednesday's case, said Leah Litman, an assistant professor specializing in constitutional law at the University of California, Irvine. 'But the constitutional provision they're suing to enforce gives them a role in how it's carried out, and that gives them a powerful standing argument,' Litman said. The lawmakers in Wednesday's lawsuit will be represented in court by the Constitutional Accountability Center, a public interest law firm in Washington. Each lawmaker is paying a share of the legal fees from personal or campaign accounts. Noura Khalaf was enslaved by Islamic State for three years but this week she has finally been freed. Dragged from her home in a small village in Iraq and taken to Syria, the 24-year-old's life was turned upside down by militants who bought and sold her five times. Thanks to Kurdish fighters, Noura along with her children were freed and are preparing to be reunited with her family. Noura poses alongside her children in a centre belonging to the Kurdish administration Tragic: The mother-of-four was kidnapped by IS along with her four children in 2014 Noura is just one of many Yazidi women that Kurdish militia in northern Syria have freed from the grasp of Islamic State. The rescue is part of covert operations ran by the YPG Kurdish militia and the all-female YPJ brigade. Around 200 women and children have been rescued so far. The operations have been dubbed 'revenge for the women of Sinjar', the homeland of Iraq's Yazidi minority which IS overran in 2004. Noura had been living with her children as a slave of an Islamic State militant in Syria's Hama province for a year. The mother-of-four was kidnapped by IS along with her four children in 2014. She has no idea where her husband is. Her seven-year-old daughter was sold off to Islamic State but has also since been rescued by YPJ. One day an unidentified man smuggled them out as part of the YPG coordinated operation. Noura managed to ask for help one day when the man holding her captive left his phone at home allowing her to contact her family. Her brother then got in contact with the YPG who offered to help. The rescue is part of covert operations ran by the YPG Kurdish militia with 200 women freed The female-led YPJ have been helping the YPG militia with rescuing the women She said that at one point during her captivity, she was kept in an underground jail in Raqqa by militants. She said: 'They took us to an underground market for selling women, where they displayed us for Islamic State members and each one picks the girl he likes.' The mother-of-four was forced to serve and cook for them before being beaten and raped. Along with her children she is now staying at a shelter run by the women's council of the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria. Noura's story is not an isolated case. It's thought that nearly 3,000 women are still in captivity. Many were abducted and kept as sex slaves while their male relatives and witnesses were gunned down. Nisreen Abdallah, a commander in the YPJ militia said that the rescued women are delivered back to their families in northern Iraq by coordinating with a Yazidi council. She said: 'Those who are freed have been away from their relatives, living among Daesh for years...in alienation and degradation.' The beliefs of the Yazidi community, which Islamic State regards as devil-worship, combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions. Mass Yazidi graves have been found since U.S.-backed Iraqi forces seized Sinjar in 2015. Witnesses are being asked to help identify one of the masked men who launched an attack on popular conservative broadcaster Andrew Bolt earlier this month. The Sky News host and columnist was attending a book launch in Carlton, Melbourne, when the left-wing thugs threw glitter into his face and eyes, before attacking him. Video released by Bolt in the days after the incident shows him trading punches with the masked men, hitting one so hard he knocked the attacker to the ground. And now police have released a photograph of one of the men in the moments prior to the attack, showing the thug without a mask in the hope it will help identify him. Scroll down for video Witnesses are being asked to help identify one of the masked thugs (pictured) who attacked popular conservative broadcaster Andrew Bolt on the streets of Melbourne earlier this month The image shows a man wearing a blue and white beanie and a hooded jumper, with a bandanna that he used as a mask hanging loosely around his neck. According to police the males threw what is believed to be glitter and shaving cream at Bolt at about 12:15pm on June 6. Chairs and tables were sent flying as the Bolt Report host fended off his assailants in impressive fashion, raising his fists in a defensive stance. As he attacks the two men, another man can be seen standing nearby appearing to video the incident. Bolt has since said it is 'ridiculous how dangerous it is' for conservatives to speak out in the Victorian capital city. He later apologised for 'making a big deal' out of the alleged assault on his show. Bolt (pictured) was attending a book launch in Carlton, Melbourne, when the left-wing thugs threw glitter into his face and eyes, and then attacked him. However the News Corp writer fought back 'Please, please, stop with the sympathy! Because sympathy is for losers,' he said. 'I don't think we should be losers anymore, I certainly don't feel like one. I want your hi-fives instead. 'I want you to laugh at the CCTV footage of the haymaker and the left hook I gave one of the three men who jumped me'. Daily Mail Australia understands the man who captured the footage has approached police to make clear he did not know what the alleged assailants were planning. Police are investigating the attempted abduction of a British girl by a mystery blonde at a hotel in Majorca. Blaise Deacon told detectives that a woman tried to take her 23-month-old daughter, Darcie, at the HYB Eurocalas Hotel in Calas de Mallorca on the east coast of the island before running away to a waiting car when the mother blocked the kidnap. The incident happened late on Saturday on the second day of Ms Deacon's holiday with sister Kealy and her partner, believed to be called George Dixon. Blaise Deacon told detectives that a woman tried to take her 23-month-old daughter, Darcie, at the HYB Eurocalas Hotel in Calas de Mallorca on the east coast of the island before running away to a waiting car when the mother blocked the kidnap. The incident happened late on Saturday on the second day of Ms Deacon's holiday Ms Deacon, who comes from Biggin Hill near Bromley, Kent, said the incident happened at the HYB Eurocalas Hotel in Calas de Mallorca (pictured) Former Marks and Spencer worker Ms Deacon, who comes from Biggin Hill near Bromley, Kent, and now runs her own cleaning firm, warned other parents about the woman on Facebook following the event. Reliving her experience she said: 'As most of you know we are on holiday in Spain. It's now day five and on our second day we had the worst thing happen to us. 'Our 23-month-old daughter was nearly snatched from us. A lady approached us at around 11pm as my daughter was on my lap and her dad had gone to the toilet. 'The lady put her arms around her telling us that she was taking her. But I held on tight as my sister told her no. 'When the women realised she wasn't getting her she took off running. I chased her and she run out of the hotel into a car.' A witness said that the incident happened after the girl started crying. The woman approached Ms Deacon and her sister, saying she would take the the child. They initially thought that the woman was a member of staff, but her sister 'noticed something weird about her' and they kept her from taking baby Darcie, the witness said. The sisters reported the incident to hotel officials, but later decided to go straight to police. Ms Deacon, her partner, George Dixon, and baby Darcie (all pictured together above) are believed to have returned to the UK following the incident Ms Deacon claims the hotel (pictured) didn't want to call the police because it would 'look bad', so she contacted officials on her own 'The hotel then refused to call the police as it would make the hotel look bad,' Ms Deacon wrote on Facebook. 'I googled Spanish emergency services, We then spent then next two hours with the police. 'They also spent the next day with us printing off CCTV images. This was in Calas de Mallorca at the HYV Eurocalas Hotel. 'Please be aware on your holidays! Anyone can enter the hotels. Be extra vigilant. Please share and make families aware.' Ms Deacon described the woman who she says tried to snatch her daughter as blonde with dark skin. It is understood the car outside the hotel in which the mystery blonde left had its engine already running when she got into it. Ms Deacon's family are thought to have returned to the UK on Tuesday as scheduled. She told a local paper: 'The police were excellent and even came up to our room to check on Darcie and make sure she was okay. Ms Deacon (left with baby Darcie, and right with Mr Dixon) described the woman who she says tried to snatch her daughter as blonde with dark skin. It is understood the car outside the hotel in which the mystery blonde left had its engine already running when she got into it. 'She was, she's too young to have realised what very nearly happened, but we certainly weren't. 'The following day the police returned and spoke to staff, stressing the seriousness of the matter and going through CCTV footage with us. 'From what we understand, they have a match of the suspect and are now looking for her. We didn't change hotels because, with the police involved, we felt safer. 'But I turned to Facebook to warn people coming out or already on holiday here to keep a close eye on their young kids.' A spokesman for Spains National Police in Majorca confirmed officers had attended a hotel in Calas de Mallorca after Ms Deacon claimed someone had tried to take her young daughter. But the spokesman said the woman had not subsequently made a formal complaint at a nearby police station as requested the following day or the day after, and attempts by officers who had returned to the hotel on the third day to locate her had failed. She said officers who attended the hotel the night of the incident were unable to find any witnesses, and nothing had been picked up on CCTV cameras either outside the hotel or inside in the area where Ms Deacon said the attempted abduction had taken place because there were no cameras trained on that spot. As of this Wednesday afternoon, the mystery woman Ms Deacon gave officers a description of, had not been identified and traced. Friends and well-wishers reacted with horror at the news of the attempted abduction after Ms Deacon (pictured above with Mr Dixon) wrote about her experience on Facebook Ms Deacon's daughter posed for a cute social media selfie before a day f sunbathing earlier this year. Her mum posted a picture of her daughter wearing sunglasses under the caption: 'All ready for a bit of sun.' Friends and well-wishers reacted with horror at the news of the attempted abduction. In March a British woman told police a balding man had tried to snatch her toddler daughter in the holiday resort of Estepona on the Costa del Sol. The 27-year-old told cops the 'gypsy-looking' man, who had a scar on his face, used a young boy with him as bait to offer her little girl sweets in an attempt to try to get her to go with him as she was out with her mum. The alleged attempted abductions come ten years after toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared from the Portuguese resort of Praia Da Luz. Since her disappearance, numerous theories have been put forward in an attempt to explain what happened. Detective Colin Sutton said in April that a trafficking gang could have snatched her to replace a dead child or she could have been snatched by a paedophile. But the former Scotland Yard officer theorised the 'most likely and credible scenario' for Madeleine's disappearance was a targeted kidnap. Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have vowed to do 'whatever it takes for as long as it takes' to find their daughter, who would now be nearly 14. The Kangaroo Sanctuary Alice Springs has released a video of the moment kangaroo Queen Abi hugs the ranger that saved her as an orphan 11 years ago. The footage, which has been seen by more than one million people since it was posted on June 11, shows ranger Chris 'Brolga' Barns being approached by a small kangaroo before leaning down and receiving a heartwarming embrace from her. 'Queen Abi and I just loooove hugs,' the caption on the video reads. The footage shows ranger Chris 'Brolga' Barns being approached by a small kangaroo before leaning down and receiving a heartwarming embrace from her 'I rescued Abi as a tiny orphan baby about 11 years ago. Abi has always loved hugs. She is such a sweet and beautiful kangaroo.' Brolga first established the baby kangaroo rescue centre in Alice Springs in 2005. He then went on to build his own wildlife sanctuary from 2009 to 2011. According to the website the Kangaroo Sanctuary's mission is to educate and encourage people to rescue and care for kangaroos, particularly those that are injured during highway accidents. Social media was quick to praise Brolga's sweet video and the incredible work he does in the outback. One person wrote: 'Should be compulsory... Roo hugging could be the answer to world peace.' While another pointed out that all animals are usually this friendly given the chance. One person wrote: 'Should be compulsory... Roo hugging could be the answer to world peace' One person even pointed out that a sneaky kangaroo behind the hugging pair was stealing some food 'Beautiful to see. Kindness for kindness. I have rescued many an injured wild bird or animal, some could have hurt me but never did. This roo is loving and enjoys the affection, unconditional love & respect,' a woman wrote. One person even pointed out that a sneaky kangaroo behind the hugging pair was stealing some food. 'Beautiful hugs but is he a decoy as the other roo is helping himself to food behind you,' they wrote. Brolga replied: 'Ha ha yes I saw that! Well after I watched the video anyway...' The sanctuary shares a number of adorable videos on their Facebook feed and have almost amassed 250,000 likes. A security guard claims he had just one second to duck as a brick was thrown at his car while he was out on patrol. Ali, who did not want to be named in full, was patrolling one of the seven streets he looks after in Cricklewood when the shocking incident happened. He told the Ham and High he had spotted two men, in their late teens, acting suspciously and confronted them on Wednesday, around 1am. Footage of the attack shows the lights from the mopeds speeding toward Ali, who was sat in his car on patrol He said he saw the two return with masks and balaclavas covering their faces. They drove at speed toward him and threw the brick at his car. Ali told the paper: 'They came so fast. It was a shock. I had a second to duck. 'We see a lot of moped riders, but havent experienced violent crime here. The moped goes past Ali in his car, and the rider throws a brick into his windscreen giving him just a second to react The guard had 10 pieces of glass removed from his face and neck after the terrifying incident in Cricklewood 'It was really painful. But I was upset at the fact that a human being could do that to somebody else. Nothing like that has happened to me before.' Ali is one of the guards hired through a private contractor by residents in the estate after fears over nighttime safety. He returned to work the next day, and said he has been inundated with messages of support. A Met Police spokesman said: 'Police were called at approximately 3.30am on Wednesday, 7 June to reports of criminal damage to a vehicle in Farm Avenue. 'Riders on a moped are reported to have thrown a brick at the windscreen of a parked van. 'No reports of any injuries. No arrests and enquiries continue.' The close friends of Sara Zelenak who was killed in the London terrorist attack have remembered the young woman as 'energetic' and with an 'outrageous passion for fried chicken and rap music'. Ms Zelenak, 21, was out with friends when she was killed during the London Bridge terror attack, which left eight people dead and 48 injured. Her girlfriends Hannah Harper, Sarah Beverley and Sarah Lambourne are mourning a friendship group of four that has 'sadly now become three', The Courier Mail reports. Her girlfriends Hannah Harper (second from right), Sarah Beverley (right) and Sarah Lambourne (second from left) are mourning a friendship group of four that has ' sadly now become three' Sara Zelenak (pictured) was out with friends when she was killed during the London Bridge terror attack, which left eight people dead and left 48 injured 'Although by face value, Sara came across as someone who kept to herself, the more you got to know her, this was in fact the complete opposite,' her friends wrote. 'With random bursts of laughter and inappropriate comments, this was the Sara that we grew to love. Her outrageous passion for fried chicken and rap music will never cease to make us smile.' The trio of grieving friends paid an emotional tribute to Ms Zelenak, who they fondly refer to as 'Sarz'. 'Thank you for the past seven years of friendship, Sarz. Sadly, four has now become three. Youll never be forgotten, forever in our hearts.' Ms Zelenak's school Moreton Bay College in Brisbane, Queensland, shared an image of a floral tribute which was created by members of the community to honour its former student. Ms Zelenak's school Moreton Bay College in Brisbane, Queensland, shared an image of a floral tribute (pictured) which was created by members of the community to honour its former student 'All students can enjoy this tribute to an amazing student, friend and daughter': Ms Zelenak's former school will plant a rose bush in her honour The childhood friend of Sara Zelenak, 21, has paid tribute to the 'kind and caring' Australian nanny who had a 'sense of humour like no other' 'All flowers will be mulched and planted along with a lovely rose bush to forever honour Sara's memory,' the school wrote on its Facebook page. 'This rose bush will live at the Old Girls Chapel so all students - past and present can enjoy this tribute to an amazing student, friend and daughter.' Ms Zelenak's childhood Liv Cootes also wrote an emotional tribute a week after the violent rampage. The two became fast friends while spending holidays together in Noosa during their childhood, Ms Cootes told Mamamia. Her earliest memory of Ms Zelenak is her kindness, Ms Cootes said before detailing their days spent picking up rubbish on the beach and eating ice cream. The two became fast friends while spending holidays together in Noosa during their childhood A week after the violent rampage, Liv Cootes (pictured) wrote to Mamamia about the shocking loss of her long-time friend, who she calls Sarz After Ms Cootes and her boyfriend returned recently from a year abroad in the UK, she said Ms Zelenak worked hard to help the couple settle in in Brisbane. The 21-year-old soon had a spare bedroom in their new home, which Ms Zelenak had helped pick and unpack, and would often stay over, Ms Cootes said. She said Ms Zelenak spent a lot of time at their home before she moved to London in March and that their home had never felt the same without her there. 'She really was a pure treasure, taken away from us all too soon. She was kind, caring and provided endless laughs. She had a sense of humour like no other.' Ms Cootes said Ms Zelenak's 'support, love and care' had helped her on many occasions and she, in return, would do the same for the nanny's family. 'Heaven will be a better place with Sara there. Rest in peace beautiful girl, you will be dearly missed by all,' Ms Cootes ended the tribute. Brisbane-born Miss Zelenak, who had been working in the UK, was separated from her friend on London Bridge when the violence began. Four Australians including Kristy Boden and Ms Zelenak were caught up in the attack. Eight people have been confirmed dead in the attack, while 48 were injured Her mother, Julie Wallace, confirmed the devastating news in a Facebook post on Wednesday Her mother, Julie Wallace, shared a post to the young woman's Facebook on Wednesday to tell followers her body had been found. Ms Zelenak had originally been reported as missing. 'Sara Zelenak is confirmed dead, they found her body and has DNA tests confirmed. Thank you for all the overwhelming love and support from everyone,' she wrote. Ms Wallace had travelled to London last week to search for her missing daughter. She revealed Sara had avoided the horror on Westminster Bridge earlier this year and was very nearly caught up in the Manchester suicide bombing. 'Horror, complete horror. And the one with the policeman being stabbed about three months ago, she was there the day before in the exact spot,' Ms Wallace told radio station 97.3FM on Tuesday. She also revealed her daughter had tickets to the ill-fated Ariana Grande concert in Manchester where a terrorist set off a bomb, killing 22, but end up not going. Ms Zelenak was meant to be working on Saturday night, but a last-minute change of plans meant she was out with a friend on London Bridge. Mark Wallace (left) the stepfather of Ms Zelenak (right) said he had called every hospital in London in a desperate attempt to find the 21-year-old Ms Zelenak's (pictured) friend Pri Goncalves was the last person to see her but the pair became separated when they panicked and ran for their lives after a van began plowing into people Kirsty Boden (pictured), from Loxton, in South Australia, was also killed by knife-wielding terrorists as she ran to help victims of Saturday night's London terror attack Ms Wallace said she last spoke to her daughter at 4.42pm on Friday, Brisbane time. She said her daughter had expressed her excitement about her upcoming trip with her mother and stepfather to France at the end of this month. Ms Zelanak's stepfather, Mark Wallace, said he was distraught after calling every hospital in London trying to find her to no avail. Ms Zelenak's friend Pri Goncalves was the last person to see her but the pair became separated when they panicked and ran for their lives after a van began plowing into people on London Bridge. Ms Zelenak's aunt, Tara (pictured), speaking to reporters on Tuesday outside her niece's family home in Brisbane The pair had been leaving London Grind, a trendy restaurant moments from the scene of the attack, and were looking for a bar to go to when the chaos began. When she looked back and saw her friend wasn't with her, she called Sara at 10.09pm a minute after police received the first emergency call reporting the attack. She tried again a couple of minutes later, again at 10.16pm and 10.17pm but received no answer. Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, 28, from Loxton, in South Australia, was also killed by knife-wielding terrorists as she ran to help victims of the London terror attack. Two other Australians caught up in the attack were stabbed in the throat but survived and are now recovering. An undercover animal rights campaigner allegedly filmed live chickens being stamped on and torn apart by factory workers. The disturbing footage, reportedly taken at an Elite Farm Services plant in Chilliwack, Canada, shows people tearing birds limb from limb and simulating sex acts with them. The company claims six employees have been fired since the video, filmed between May 10 and June 9, came to light. An undercover animal rights campaigner allegedly filmed live chickens being abused at a factory in Canada Disturbing footage shows people tearing birds limb from limb and simulating sex acts with them (pictured) The Canadian Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals (SPCA) has now launched an investigation, reports The Vancouver Sun. Dwayne Dueck, president of Elite Farm Services said: 'We are sickened with the footage and want to ensure all our suppliers and producers that this is not reflective of who we are, our fundamental beliefs or behaviour we accept from our employees.' The Mercy for Animals volunteer who got the job with the company claims they witnessed animal abuse 'pretty much immediately' after starting work. The company claims six employees have been fired since the video came to light earlier this week The Canadian Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals (SPCA) has now launched an investigation after an undercover campaigner filmed live birds being stamped on and torn apart Lindsay Wolf, vice-president of investigations for Mercy for Animals, said: 'The whistleblower simply applied to work at this facility just like any other employee and they worked the job they were hired to do 'They covertly then recorded evidence while employed at Elite Farm Services 'The abuse started pretty much immediately after the whistleblower started working at this facility. Hitting, kicking, throwing birds, smashing them into walls, into transport crates things like that were documented very early on in the case.' The videos reportedly show several workers and a supervisor. Elite is a licensed chicken-catching service, which is hired to round up birds for transport to a slaughter plant. Workers at the factory are believed to be paid around $14 an hour for shifts lasting from 11pm to 7am. Theresa Mays new chief of staff was in the dock last night over claims he sat on evidence which showed high-rise blocks were vulnerable to fire. Dozens of people are feared dead and many others remain missing after a devastating blaze ripped through Grenfell Tower block in White City, west London, on Wednesday morning. A series of blunders are being blamed for the disaster with residents claiming there were no working fire alarms, no sprinklers and the only staircase leading to safety was blocked. Gavin Barwell, who was housing minister until he lost his seat last week, promised to respond to a major coroners report which demanded safety improvements following a previous fatal blaze. Former housing ministers Gavin Barwell and Brandon Lewis are facing scrutiny over claims they failed to act over fire safety warnings on high rise blocks But it appears that no progress has been made and at the weekend the Prime Minister brought him in to fill the senior Downing Street role. The revelation will prove to be fresh embarrassment for Mrs May, who is attempting to rebuild her reputation after her election disaster. She promised to hold a 'proper investigation' into the killer Grenfell Tower blaze and promised that 'if there are any lessons to be learned they will be'. It also emerged last night that another former housing minister, Brandon Lewis, had questioned whether it was the Governments responsibility to ensure tower blocks have sprinklers. Scroll down for video Theresa May this evening promised a proper investigation into what caused the killed blaze at Grenfell Tower and promised that if there are lessons they will be learnt At least twelve people are feared to have died in the blaze at Grenfell Tower overnight Mrs May is facing demands to know why fire safety measures had not been bolstered. But she side-stepped questions over whether fire checks should have been carried out before the inferno. Instead she praised the the emergency services and the outpouring of support from Londoners who have donated clothes, food and their homes to those caught up in the disaster. Speaking from Downing Street, she said: 'There are people tonight who have no home to go to, they have lost absolutely everything, so our focus must be on support to them. 'In due course, when the scene is secure, when it's possible to identify the cause of this fire, then of course there will be proper investigation and if there are any lessons to be learnt they will be, and action will be taken.' The PM added it was 'impossible to comprehend the horror' of what the victims of the fire have gone through. Mrs May said: 'My thoughts are with the victims, their families and all of those who had their homes destroyed. It's impossible to comprehend the horror of what they've been going through. 'The response of people living nearby who have provided help, compassion and support has I think, once again, shown the fantastic spirit of London. 'Earlier today, I ordered a cross-Government meeting to ensure that every assistance was being given to manage the emergency service response, and that group will meet again tomorrow. 'Once again, our emergency services the fire service, ambulance, NHS and police - have shown incredible bravery, working in truly appalling conditions.' The tragedy means she is again scrambling to deal with a major crisis, after the election campaign was overshadowed by two terrorist attacks. Critics are demanding answers on why expert advice that sprinklers should be made compulsory in tall buildings has not been followed. It is thought 4,000 tower blocks across the country do not have sprinkler systems. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested spending cuts could have contributed to the deadly fire. The PM, pictured outside No 10 today, has voiced her 'sadness' at the tragedy He said 'searching questions' need to be asked about what happened at the west London tower block, adding: 'If you deny local authorities the funding they need, then there is a price that's paid.' Mr Corbyn said calls for sprinklers to be installed in high-rise buildings after a fatal fire at Lakanal House in south London in 2009 had not been heeded. 'I think there needs to be some very searching questions asked as quickly as possible in the aftermath of this fire,' he added. Harriet Harman, the Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham which covers Lakanal House, also questioned the impact of austerity on the safety of housing. She told BBC Radio 4's World At One: 'Councils want to fit sprinklers in their tower blocks, but it comes down to money. COMPANY MANAGES TOWER FOR COUNCIL The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) manages the Grenfell Tower on behalf of the local council. The standalone not-for-profit company was formed in 1996, and also has responsibility for improvement works. It is managed by a Board of Directors comprising eight elected tenants, four Councillors and three independent members. Advertisement 'The Government has been cutting the money to councils. If you cut money to councils you can't put in sprinklers. 'If you cut money to councils you can't supervise contractors properly. 'I'm afraid the Government has got to say we have responsibility overall in public buildings to make sure of the safety of these tenants and we can't penny-pinch where it will cost lives.' But Downing Street insisted that many improvements had been made following the Lakanal House fire, which killed six people. Tory former minister and ex-firefighter Mike Penning admitted that people had been 'calling, I think probably rightly, for sprinklers to be installed for many, many years under many different governments'. 'At the end of the day, what we have got to check is that the existing regulations have been adhered to,' he said, He dismissed the suggestion that the squeeze on local authority funding could have been an issue. The building - in a Tory-run borough with sharp contrasts between very wealthy and deprived areas - is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO). Mr Penning said: 'I don't think cuts come into consideration when you have residents that have been saying 'we are frightened, we are worried'.' The fire resulted in the 'cladding and windows clearly burning', suggesting that the external cladding may have been a factor, Mr Penning said. 'I have never seen a tower block fire move so fast in that sort of way, and from a very low vantage point as well. So the source of the fire will be very interesting when the investigators do that and what was the cause of the initial fire, whether it was electrical or, sadly, even criminal activity,' he added. The All-Party Parliamentary Fire and Rescue Group has been demanding changes to building regulations on fire safety since 2013. Ronnie King, a former fire chief in Wales who is an adviser to the All-Party Group, told MailOnline that it issued a series of warnings that were not heeded. Mr King said the type of cladding installed on Grenfell Tower did not appear to have been resistant to the fire spreading. In this image taken by eyewitness Gurbuz Binici, a huge fire engulfs the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City Many residents who gathered outside the smouldering ruins of the building said the fire had been caused by a faulty fridge in one of the flats, but the fire service told MailOnline it could not confirm the reports at this stage That was one of the issues with the regulations that were raised by the APPG with three successive ministers from 2013, he said. 'The building regulations relating to the fire safety were last reviewed in 2006,' Mr King said. Last year, when Mr Barwell was housing minister, the APPG 'pressed him for a review of the building regulations, stressing of course Lakanal House'. MINISTERS FACING QUESTIONS OVER WHY SAFETY AT TOWERS WAS NOT BOLSTERED Ministers are facing questions about why they did not act on warnings about fire safety at tower blocks. Ronnie King, a former fire chief in Wales who is an adviser to the All-Party Group, told MailOnline that it raised concerns that were not heeded. Mr King said the type of cladding installed on Grenfell Tower did not appear to have been resistant to the fire spreading. That was one of the issues with building regulations that were raised by the APPG with three successive ministers from 2013, he said. Last year, when Gavin Barwell was housing minister, the APPG 'pressed him for a review of the building regulations, stressing of course Lakanal House'. 'He said he was still looking at it,' Mr King said. Mr Barwell told the Commons in October last year: 'We have not set out any formal plans to review the building regulations as a whole, but we have publicly committed ourselves to reviewing part B following the Lakanal House fire.' But he did not give any date of when the review might start or how it would be conducted. Mr King pointed out that the building had been refurbished in 2016, at which point it should have been compliant with the regulations in force. 'If they updated the regulations and this change had been part of the update ... I think the fire would not have spread up the outside of the building,' he said. Mr King raised questions about whether Grenfell Tower had fire suppression measures such as sprinklers. He said there were 4,000 tower blocks that did not have sprinkler systems around the country, and that needed to be tackled urgently. In 2013, a coroner's report into the Lakanal House fire ruled that that all high-rise building should be retro-fitted with sprinklers. They also asked whether residents in tower blocks should be advised to 'stay put' or 'get out and stay out' in the case of a fire. Asked about the issue in February 2014, Mr Barwell's predecessor as Housing Minister, Brandon Lewis, said: 'We believe that it is the responsibility of the fire industry, rather than the Government, to market fire sprinkler systems effectively and to encourage their wider installation.' Advertisement 'He said he was still looking at it,' Mr King said. Mr Barwell told the Commons in October last year: 'We have not set out any formal plans to review the building regulations as a whole, but we have publicly committed ourselves to reviewing part B following the Lakanal House fire.' But he did not give any date of when the review might start or how it would be conducted. Mr King said: 'The APPG has sought a review since the Lakanal House fire. In our view that was sufficient evidence that things are not right and things need to change.' Mr King pointed out that the building had been refurbished in 2016, at which point it should have been compliant with the regulations in force. He said: 'I think that there are obvious questions to be asked... 'If they updated the regulations and this change had been part of the update ... I think the fire would not have spread up the outside of the building. 'I would think if this had been done in this case and it had been refurbished externally it might not have happened.' Mr King raised questions about whether Grenfell Tower had fire suppression measures such as sprinklers. He said there were 4,000 tower blocks that did not have sprinkler systems around the country, and that needed to be tackled urgently. In 2013, a coroner's report into the Lakanal House fire ruled that that all high-rise building should be retro-fitted with sprinklers. They also asked whether residents in tower blocks should be advised to 'stay put' or 'get out and stay out' in the case of a fire. Asked about the issue in February 2014, Mr Barwell's predecessor as Housing Minister, Brandon Lewis, said: 'We believe that it is the responsibility of the fire industry, rather than the Government, to market fire sprinkler systems effectively and to encourage their wider installation.' Mr Lewis' remarks referred specifically to sprinklers in business warehouses. Mr Lewis who was promoted by the Prime Minister at the weekend and now attends Cabinet said regulations should be changed only as a last resort. Last night fire minister Nick Hurd said emergency checks are to be carried out on tower blocks going through the same process of refurbishment as the Grenfell building destroyed in yesterdays blaze. Last night members of the all-party parliamentary group on fire safety said ministers had been warned that building regulations were out of date. Its secretary, Labour MP and former fireman Jim Fitzpatrick, told LBC: Weve been pressing for fire sprinkler systems in buildings where we think its appropriate... and government has been resisting that for some time. Referring to the coroners report, he added: Youd have to ask them why theyve sat on it for four years. Mrs May summoned a meeting of the government's Civil Contingencies Secretariat today to co-ordinate the response to the Grenfell Tower blaze. A Number 10 spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower and is being kept constantly updated on the situation. 'She has asked for a cross-Government meeting at the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to take place to co-ordinate the response and ensure the Government is ready to assist the emergency services and local authorities as necessary. 'The PM's thoughts are with all of those affected by this terrible incident and the emergency services, who are working tirelessly in very difficult circumstances.' Former child star Sarah Monahan has sent a frank message to her abuser Robert Hughes after he lost his appeal against his conviction. On Tuesday the High Court of Australia dismissed an appeal by Hughes over child sex offences he was convicted of in 2014. Speaking of the dismissal on The Daily Edition, Monahan said she was not able to start healing old wounds knowing he would serve his full term behind bars. Former child star Sarah Monahan has sent a frank message to her abuser Robert Hughes after he lost his appeal 'Enjoy prison,' Monahan said. Im just glad I dont have to think about him anymore. Before its like I kept getting to that point where you are going to move on and then they call you back about another appeal. Now I can just wipe him from my memory. The 68-year-old was jailed in 2014 for 10 sexual and indecent assault charges against young girls dating back to the 1980s and '90s, when at the height of his TV fame. But lawyers for the legendary actor appealed his case to the High Court, arguing that tendency evidence claiming to show a pattern of sexual interest in girls under 16 should have been inadmissible. However on Wednesday seven justices of the High Court narrowly struck down his appeal, ruling four to three in support of the use of the evidence during his trial. Disgraced former Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes (pictured) will be forced to serve his full six-year sentence after losing a High Court appeal against his child sex convictions Hughes (front left), 68, was jailed in 2014 for 10 sexual and indecent assault charges against four girls dating back to the 1980s and 90s, when at the height of his TV fame The High Court ruling on Wednesday follows a failed 2015 appeal by Hughes to the Court of Criminal Appeal in New South Wales. His appeal, again against his conviction, was struck down with the court denying he had suffered a miscarriage of justice. Hughes, who is due for release as early as 2020, has faced a torrid time behind bars at the hands of his fellow inmates. Little more than a year after he first entered Goulburn's super-max jail, a prison guard revealed the actor had become a target of inmates because of his high-profile and heinous crimes. Hughes reportedly 'sobbed like a big girl' during the prison's reception process and was covered in bodily waste by fellow inmates on his first walk through the yard. The High Court ruling on Wednesday follows a failed 2015 appeal by Hughes to the Court of Criminal Appeal in New South Wales, where he claimed he had suffered a miscarriage of justice 'Piss and poo - they covered him in it. It was his first day in Goulburn and he was brought out into the yard,' the guard told James Phelps, author of Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the walls of Goulburn Jail. 'He spent the entire time sitting on the hill, sooking. He was a stinking mess.' Hughes was given a maximum sentence of 10 years and nine months, with a non-parole period of six years. Brandon Russell, 21, planned to use the explosives to attack civilians, nuclear facilities and synagogues, federal prosecutors said A white supremacist has been arrested after police discovered bomb-making equipment in his Florida apartment. Brandon Russell, 21, planned to use the explosives to attack civilians, nuclear facilities and synagogues, federal prosecutors said. The prosecutors made the allegations in court documents on Monday, a day before a judge set a $200,000 bond and conditions for his possible release. Police found out about Russell when his roommate, Devon Arthurs, told authorities Russell was planning to target the sites. Arthurs was arrested on May 19 after telling police he fatally shot two other roommates, Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, because they were neo-Nazis who disrespected his recent conversion to Islam. Arthurs said he had been part of a neo-Nazi group started by Russell called 'Atomwaffen' until he converted to Islam. When police took Arthurs back to the apartment to check out his story they found the bodies of Himmelman and Oneschuk, with gunshot wounds in the head and upper body. They also found Russell crying outside their apartment in Tampa after finding his roommates dead. A member of the Florida National Guard, he was dressed in full military uniform and had just returned from duty. Police then discovered Russell's bomb-making devices, as well as an explosive known as HTMD (hexamethylene triperoxide diamine), in the garage after searching the apartment, court records say. Russell, 22, was arrested last month after police found explosives in his apartment. Officers also found a picture of Timothy McVeigh (left); they were found during an investigation into the murder of his roommates, allegedly at the hand of third roommate Devon Arthurs (right) Arthurs told police Russell, who kept a framed picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on his dresser, was not involved in the shootings, but was planning a bombing. Russell's attorney, Ian Goldstein, called Arthurs' contention about the bombing plans 'a pure fabrication.' 'He's a double murderer trying to help himself and has clear mental issues,' Goldstein said. Agents said that inside the apartment and its garage they found HMTD, a highly volatile explosive, as well as other materials used to make explosives, including ammonium nitrate, which federal prosecutors claim is a blasting agent. They also found empty shell casings with fuses and electric matches, which could be used for detonation, and a written recipe for explosives. Russell admitted to making the HMTD, but claimed he had been a member of a college engineering club and the substance was for 'setting off model rockets and balloons,' the documents stated. Agents said they found nothing related to rockets in the apartment. Arthurs told the Tampa Police Department he killed Jeremy Himmelman (left), 22, and Andrew Oneschuk (right), 18, on Friday because they disrespected his new religion On May 20, after speaking with authorities, Russell said he wanted to leave town and visit his father in Palm Beach, and he left the Tampa area while an arrest warrant was being prepared. Contacted by law enforcement, his family said they hadn't heard from him. Russell had picked up a friend, another self-described neo-Nazi, William James Tschantre, 20, who was identified in a Monroe County Sheriff's Office report. Tsanchtre told the agents he grabbed his life savings, $3,000, quit his job and left with Russell. The pair told agents they stopped at a sporting goods store and purchased rifles and ammunition before heading south. 'According to Russell's friend, they had no specific destination in mind and had no plans to hurt anyone or do any harm,' the court documents state. The next morning, Russell was arrested by Monroe County sheriff's deputies at a Burger King in Key Largo after the FBI had issued a 'be on the lookout' advisory. In his car, according to court filings, they found two rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, binoculars and a skull mask. In arguing for his bond, Russell claimed the rifles and ammunition could be used for hunting. Prosecutors had asked the court to reconsider, arguing that Russell's bomb-making materials and flight were good enough reason to keep him behind bars. Russell is charged with unlawful storage of explosive materials and possessing a destructive device and unregistered firearm. 'Detonating this type of bomb could easily cause a vehicle to explode, killing all of the occupants and causing grave damage within a large distance around the explosion site,' Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow wrote. U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun III set a $200,000 bond for the release of Russell, though he delayed his final decision on whether to place him in the custody of his grandmother in Orlando. If released, Russell would be required to wear an electronic- monitoring device and would be prohibited from using a computer 'to promote or engage in neo-Nazi activities during the pretrial period.' A row has broken out over the decision not to strike off 41-year-old Hadiza Bawa-Garba whose blundering led to the death of a boy A disgraced children's doctor whose blundering led to the death of a six-year-old boy with Down's syndrome in an NHS hospital has been allowed to continue practising medicine in Britain. A row has broken out over the decision not to strike off Hadiza Bawa-Garba, 41, who wrongly diagnosed Jack Adcock as having gastroenteritis - when he had the life-threatening condition of sepsis. She then mistakenly placed the boy under a 'Do Not Resuscitate' order when he suffered a cardiac arrest. Although the DNR error was spotted by a junior colleague, Jack died 90 minutes later. Inquiries revealed Bawa-Garba had confused Jack with another patient who was aged two and had been discharged earlier from Leicester Royal Infirmary. But the doctor's career has been saved because medical watchdogs believe she poses a 'low risk' to patients. Bawa-Garba, from Leicester - who qualified as a paediatrician in 2006 - had faced being struck off after she was found guilty of manslaughter at a criminal court. Following her conviction, she walked free after her lawyer said she expected her medical career was 'in tatters'. At the time Jack's parents also urged watchdogs to ban her from treating future patients and later the General Medical Council itself said the doctor should be erased from the medical register - saying it was the only disciplinary punishment that would 'maintain public confidence in the profession and uphold proper standards'. Inquiries revealed Bawa-Garba had confused Jack Adcock (pictured) with another patient, aged two, who had discharged earlier from Leicester Royal Infirmary But this week at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, Bawa-Garba escaped with a 12-month suspension for misconduct after claiming she had shown 'extreme remorse' following the tragedy in February 2011. The hearing was told the DNR mistake did not cause Jack's death but he died 'significantly sooner than he otherwise would have'. Two senior colleagues said Bawa-Garba was 'an excellent and competent doctor.' She did not give evidence at the tribunal. In a Facebook post Jack's mother Nicky accused the doctor of 'murder' and added: 'Cannot believe it we are absolutely disgusted and I've made it very clear I wish to appeal. Do you want her treating your child because in 12 months. I bet she is smiling right now. Killed my son through neglect.' Efforts to help Jack were halted for up to two minutes until the junior colleague picked up a cruicial mistake but by then it was too late Earlier panel chairman Mr Miran Uddin told Bawa-Garba: 'The purpose of fitness to practise proceedings is not to punish a doctor for past wrongdoing but to maintain proper standards in the profession and to protect the public. The tribunal must look forward, not back. 'Your clinical failings, serious as they were, are capable of being remedied. You continued to practise without further incident after these events and there were no concerns prior to this event. 'The tribunal is satisfied that the risk of you putting a patient at unwarranted risk of harm in the future is low.' He added: 'A trust investigation was carried out which highlighted multiple systemic failures which existed at the time of these events. 'These included failings on the part of the nurses and consultants, medical and nursing staff shortages, IT system failures which led to abnormal laboratory test results not being highlighted, the deficiencies in handover, accessibility of the data at the bedside, and the absence of a mechanism for an automatic consultant review. Nicola Adcock, pictured with her husband Victor Adcock, has accused the doctor of 'murder' 'The Tribunal therefore determined that whilst your actions fell far short of the standards expected and were a causative factor in the early death of Patient A, they took place in the context of wider failings. 'Erasure would be disproportionate. Your actions were neither deliberate nor reckless. Although they resulted in the early death of Patient A, you do not present a continuing risk to patients.' Bawa-Garba had faced being struck off after she was found guilty of manslaughter at court Jack, who lived with his parents and younger sister Ruby in Glen Parva, Leicester, was said to be a 'lively and energetic' boy who attended a mainstream primary school. But on February 18, 2011, Jack showed symptoms of diarrhoea, sickness and breathlessness and was admitted to hospital's children's assessment unit. Although he had sepsis and urgently needed antibiotics, Bawa-Garba - originally from Nigeria - wrongly diagnosed him as having gastroenteritis and failed to look at an X-ray for over three hours which showed he had signs of the highly dangerous infection. She also did not review 'seriously abnormal' blood tests results which showed the youngster was suffering organ failure and later allowed him to be mistakenly given medication usually used to treat high blood pressure. That evening Jack suffered septic shock and a 'crash call' went out to medics to revive him only for Bawa-Garba to call off CPR because she mistakenly believed there were instructions not to resuscitate him. Efforts to help Jack were halted for up to two minutes until the junior colleague picked up the mistake but by then it was too late. Mother-of-two Bawa-Garba was convicted at Nottingham Crown Court of manslaughter by gross negligence in December 2015 but was given a 24-month jail term suspended for two years after she said she was sole carer for her five-year-old son who is disabled. Mother-of-two Bawa-Garba (left) was convicted at Nottingham Crown Court of manslaughter by gross negligence in December 2015 following the death of Jack (right) She said her husband, who lives in Dubai and works in aviation, would not be able to care for her autistic son and has no right to work or claim benefits in the UK. Portuguese agency nurse, 47-year-old Isabel Amaro, of Manchester was also given a two-year jail terms suspended for two years for gross negligence manslaughter. The court heard the pair had provided Jack with 'truly, exceptionally bad care' in the hours before his death. At the time of the court case Jack's mother Nicola said: 'Never in a million years did we expect our son to die. He went into hospital with sickness and diarrhoea and never came home. 'Jack was neglected from the moment he entered Leicester Royal Infirmary. It makes me so angry to think my son could still be here today if they had done their jobs right. 'I will never forgive myself for taking him there. I could have cared and looked after him better than they did.' His father Vic added: 'I had to watch my little man go. I miss him every day and I will do for the rest of my life. Since we lost Jack, I'm a changed person. I wish I could forgive them but at the moment I can't and I don't think I ever will.' A top UFC cage fighter has avoided jail after attacking six women at a late night Christmas party. Arnold Allen, 23, 'went wild' and began swinging punches at the owner of All Manor of Events, near Ipswich, and revellers in the early hours of Christmas Eve last year. The venue was hosting a number of festive parties, including one for Specsavers' staff and another for people dressed as Oompa Loompas. The MMA fighter, who is nicknamed Almighty, now faces an uncertain future in the sport and could be stripped of his licence by the governing body. Arnold Allen, 23, 'went wild' and began swinging punches at the owner of All Manor of Events, near Ipswich, in the early hours of Christmas Eve last year The venue was hosting a number of festive parties, including one for Specsavers' staff and another for Oompa Loompas (there is no suggestion the women in the picture were involved) At Ipswich Crown Court, Recorder Richard Christie QC, said Allen had originally stepped in to protect his girlfriend after she'd been in an angry dust-up with another woman. But Recorder Christie told him: 'After that you went wild.' Out-of-control Allen, from Trimley St Martin, near Ipswich, was said by one witness to have been 'windmilling' his left arm about while having his right arm around his girlfriend. Handing him a five-month prison term, suspended for 12 months, Recorder Christie told the thug: 'You essentially ran amok. 'Part of your training is self-control and knowing when not to exert more force than is necessary - and that's plainly something you have done on this occasion. 'Your whole career has been (put) on a knife-edge as a result of this.' Michael Crimp, prosecuting, said a series of parties were taking place at the venue, including an Oompa Lumpa bash. Mr Crimp said a fight suddenly broke out and Allen's girlfriend became involved. Other revellers joined in and the fighter's partner was taken to one side by a wall. Pictured in the All Manor of Events venue, where the incident took place on Christmas Eve Mr Crimp said furious Allen later told police he waded in because he feared she was being manhandled. Andrew Hayward-Farmer, the owner of All Manor of Events, had been battling to restore order as violence flared. Mr Hayward-Farmer took Allen's girlfriend to one side, the court heard. The outraged MMA star punched him in the face and sent him crashing to the floor after seeing red. Shocked Mr Hayward-Farmer then tried to close a gate but Allen chased him and kicked his legs from under him. The fuming fighter then battered the dazed businessman with at least two quickfire punches. Moments later Allen assaulted six women who tried to get involved by punching and lashing out as he flailed away, the court heard. As well as facing the prospect of his licence being stripped, Allen may also have a problem travelling to fight in the US due to his conviction Part of Mr Hayward-Farmer's victim personal statement was read out in court. He said the astonishing Christmas Eve brawl had wrecked Christmas for him. Richard Conley, defending, handed three references to the judge on his client's behalf - including a 'glowing' one from a woman Met Police inspector who trains with Allen. Mr Conley said Allen was not used to alcohol as he doesn't touch it while training. 'It had a marked affect on his behaviour, but more importantly a marked affect on his perceptions,' he said. 'It's a matter of very deep regret that he's before this court today.' Mr Conley said Allen, who had no previous convictions, was 'genuinely remorseful and deeply ashamed'. 'He's gone into complete protection mode. He's abandoned all other considerations,' he said. 'His only consideration was to come to the aid of his girlfriend.' Andrew Hayward-Farmer, the owner of All Manor of Events, had been battling to restore order as violence flared. As well as facing the prospect of his licence being stripped, Allen may have a problem travelling to fight in the US due to his conviction. And his court shame could also cause problems with his tough elite training camps in Canada where he spends several months every year. On top of his suspended jail term Allen was ordered to pay a total of 3,250 compensation to his victims. He must also do 150 hours unpaid work and was made subject to a one-month home curfew from 9pm to 7am. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said Britain could stay in the single market post Brexit Labour is in fresh chaos over its position on Brexit with frontbenchers unable to agree if Britain should leave the EU single market. Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey today suggested the UK could stay in and that the government will have to keep 'some element' of freedom of movement. But the comments put her at loggerheads with her own party leadership and the manifesto she stood on just days ago. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell at the weekend said staying in the single market will be seen by the public as 'not respecting that referendum'. While Labour's manifesto promises that freedom of movement will end after Brexit. Speaking on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning, Ms Long-Bailey said it is a 'moot point' whether Britain will leave the single market. And she suggested Labour will sacrifice regaining control of Britain's borders to get 'impediment free access' to the single market. She said: 'I think we accept the fact that if we are going to have impediment-free access to the single market then there will have to be some element of free movement. 'I think we know that, the Conservative party know that. 'But the specific points are open to negotiation.' And she said that Labour wants businesses to stick to a common set of regulations with the EU - leaving firms tied up in red tape from Brussels for years to come. She said: 'It's a lot easier for business to be able to operate when it has a common set of regulations and we are calling for cooperation, whether that forms part of remaining part of the single market or having access to the single market is a moot point.' Ms Long-Bailey's comments risk angering many of Labour's core voters, who backed Brexit because they wanted to curb immigration. Remainer MPs from across the parties are trying to seize on the political turmoil tossed up by the General Election to unpick plans for Brexit. Ms Long-Bailey and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, pictured together at Labour's party conference last autumn, are at loggerheads of whether Britain should stay in the single market after Brexit. McDonnell took the option off the table, but Long-Bailey says it is a 'moot point' Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer and Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner have also suggested Britain could keep 'reformed' membership of the bloc. But Jeremy Corbyn's closest shadow cabinet ally, Mr McDonnell, was clear that Labor would take Britain out of the single market. He told ITV's Peston on Sunday: 'I think people will interpret membership of the single market as not respecting that referendum.' The division among Labours top ranks comes as Britain has been plunged into political turmoil following the Tory election disaster. Theresa May is in the midst of negotiating with the DUP to strike a deal which allows her to cling on as PM. Jeremy Corbyn, pictured outside Parliament yesterday with some of Labour's new Scottish MPs, has said he is ready to form a government and lead Britain's Brexit negotiations. But Labour chaos over Brexit plans will undermine his claims he is ready to take over the talks A gloating Mr Corbyn has insisted labour stands ready to swoop in, form a government and lead Britains Brexit negotiations if Mrs May is toppled. But the chaos at the top of the party over the basic questions over what Brexit will mean undermines Mr Corbyns claims that he is ready to lead Britain. Meanwhile, a string of Remain-backing Tory MPs are also plotting to try to use the political turmoil to push for a softer Brexit. Chancellor Philip Hammond told his German counterpart that he blames the Tory election disaster on plans for a hard Brexit and hinted that some ministers are pushing for a dramatic change in tack. While David Cameron has called for Mrs May to talk to Labour about a softer approach to Britains departure. But Brexiteers have warned Cabinet ministers not to use the election as an excuse to prise open the negotiating plans. And a push to change course on Brexit risks sparking a Tory civil war. The Project have poked fun at Network Ten's announcement the broadcaster is going into voluntary administration. On Tuesday night Carrie Bickmore raised the topic of Channel Ten's downturn before announcing their show would not be affected and everything was 'business as usual.' 'Network Ten may have been placed into voluntary administration today but you can rest easy because we are not going anywhere,' she said. On Tuesday night Carrie Bickmore raised the topic of Channel Ten's downturn before announcing their show would not be affected and everything was 'business as usual' After Carrie's statement was made the screen blacked out for a few moments before cameras panned onto Peter Helliar who was holding up a cord 'Ten says we aren't looking to liquidate the company but will refinance and relist within 60 days so that mean it's business as usual.' After Carrie's statement was made the screen blacked out for a few moments before cameras panned onto Peter Helliar who was holding up a cord. 'I didn't realise this was down here and I had so much power,' he said. 'I'll put it back in.' 'I didn't realise this was down here and I had so much power,' he said The skit was supposed to mimic The Project 'unplugging' and failing as a result of Channel Ten's administration announcement The skit was supposed to mimic The Project 'unplugging' and failing as a result of Channel Ten's administration announcement. Carrie went on to say they would probably be fine without the plug - an ode to the show's ability to move forward as the network declines. Co-host Waleed Aly then chimed in and said: 'Nah I think we've got Bert Newton out the back peddling to keep the whole generator going.' Co-host Waleed Aly then chimed in and said: 'Nah I think we've got Bert Newton out the back peddling to keep the whole generator going' Ten held a press conference early Wednesday afternoon to announce that changes would have to be made as a result of the administration Ten held a press conference early Wednesday afternoon to announce that changes would have to be made as a result of the administration. Asia-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha will take over control of the company after Ten announced Tuesday its shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans. Ten CEO Paul Anderson said: 'This is extremely disappointing for all of us.' Channel Ten is home to television shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, MasterChef, The Project, Neighbours and Have You Been Paying Attention? A mother has caught the adorable moment her toddler twins escaped from their separate cribs during their midnight shenanigans. The footage shows identical twin boys, Greyson and Judah Alders, running riot in their bedroom at the family home in New Jersey. Mother Chelsea Alders, a placenta specialist, was stunned when she reviewed the video on April 3. Footage shows identical twin boys, Greyson and Judah Alders, running riot in their room well after their bedtime She said: 'When I tell you it is always something with these two it seriously is. 'Greyson is strong willed - he is a bit more calculated and very funny when he wants to be. 'Judah is fiercely independent- if my other two go right, he goes left.' Despite their unique personalities Mrs Alders describes the twins as loving and very attached to each other. Mother Chelsea Alders describes the twins (left) as loving and very attached to each other. They also have an 18-month-old sister, Summer (right) A compilation of videos, which Mrs Alders said prompted an 'are you freaking kidding me' reaction, captured her twins midnight activities. 'Every time I think I have child proofed or we are settling in to a new normal, they start trying something new like this,' she said. In the first video Greyson can be seen jumping into Judah's crib to get help with taking off his pajamas. A compilation of videos captured the twins midnight climbing activities Mrs Alders said: 'We had just started putting them in backwards pajamas because they were stripping down completely naked seconds after we put them in their cribs. 'I believe that was the motivation for Greyson to jump into Judah's crib for the first time- he wanted help with his pjs.' The second part of the video shows the twins working together to escape from the cots all together. Mrs Alders added: 'This was the very next day; they realized they could get out altogether and not just into each other's cribs. 'You have to love Judah's extra little push to get Greyson out of the crib.' The video shows Greyson, who started in his own crib, climbing over to torment his twin. In a desperate attempt to wake up his brother for a midnight play session Greyson can be seen sitting on Judah's head and then on his back. 'Judah gets so annoyed but he never actually woke up,' said Mrs Alders. Despite the mischief Mrs Alders is happy that the twins find comfort in each other. She and her husband Jason Alders also have an 18-month-old girl, Summer. Three Turnbull Government ministers are being called to front Victoria's highest court for suggesting judges are soft on terrorists. The Victorian Supreme Court has ordered Melbourne-based Liberal MPs Greg Hunt, Alan Tudge and Michael Sukkar to explain why they should not be charged with contempt of court. The state's highest court has demanded they 'make any submissions as to why they should not be referred for prosecution for contempt' ahead of their Friday appearance before the bench, The Age reports. Scroll down for video Federal Liberal MP Michael Sukkar says some judges are not on the side of victims of crime Health Minister Greg Hunt is one of three Liberal MPs called to the Victorian Supreme Court They had criticised Chief Justice Marilyn Warren, following a sentence for a teenager who had plotted to behead a police officer on Anzac Day and made their feelings known in The Australian, published on Tuesday. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is appealing the Victorian Supreme Court's seven-and-a-half year non-parole jail term imposed last year on Sevet Ramadan Besim. The 19-year-old criminal had plotted to cut off a police officer's head in 2015. Melbourne-based Liberal MP Michael Sukkar, who is also Assistant Treasurer, had said judges needed to be called out for soft sentences when it came to terrorists. Human Services Minister Alan Tudge is another Liberal MP called to explain his comments Victoria's Chief Justice Marilyn Warren was criticised by the federal Liberal MPs 'As far as I'm concerned, we need to be asserting as much pressure as we can on lawmakers and calling out judges who seemingly are ... not in the corner of our society and the victims,' he told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Tuesday. Radio broadcaster Neil Mitchell suggested the comment was 'a bit harsh'. Fairfax Media has obtained a letter from Judicial Registrar Ian Irving which said the Liberal MPs had brought the Supreme Court into disrepute as the Court of Appeal considered the sentence for Besim. 'The attributed statements were published whilst the judgments of the Court of Appeal were reserved,' the letter said. Sevet Ramadan Besim was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years non-parole for a terror plot Melbourne 3AW broadcaster suggested the MP's comments on judges were 'a bit harsh' Mr Sukkar, who studied law, clarified on 3AW he meant that judges cared more about the welfare of terrorists than the public. 'Seemingly, more interested in their rehabilitation than in the safety and security of our society,' Mr Sukkar said. 'There are multiple numbers of cases where you've got people who are planning the most heinous acts and the only reason they're stopped is because we've got amazing law enforcement agencies that stop them from happening.' He added that as the chairman of the parliamentary Intelligence and Security committee, he believed 'the prospects of rehabilitation, particularly for Islamic terrorists is extraordinarily low'. Last year, Besim pleaded guilty to an act in preparation of planning a terrorist attack, which would involve running down and beheading a police officer, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Alyssa Palmer, pictured, was accused of leaking details of a history exam to a student on the morning of the test during last year's New York State Exams A Bronx teacher provided the questions of a history exam hours before the test to a student who then posted the information on her Facebook page, an official report has revealed. The Special Commissioner of Investigation report probed allegations that teacher Alyssa Palma inspected last year's state Regents history exam on the morning of the test and rang the unidentified pupil. Palma was a teacher at the Bronx Envision Academy at the time of the incident. The girl later posted the information on Facebook and urged her friends to share it. However, two students who spotted the posting alerted another teacher. According to the SCI report, which has been seen by the NY Post: 'They asked the teacher if it was possible for a student to know the questions ahead of time.' The teacher assured the students that there was no way anyone could have advanced notice of the topics being tested - but following a brief look at the paper - it was clear the Facebook post was correct. Officials quizzed the student who posted the information who said she overheard fellow pupils discussing the test on the bus. However, the student's brother said her sister's teacher had called her twice on the morning of the exam. Evidence from a cell phone linked to Palma supported the claim. Palma was a teacher at Bronx Envison Academy, pictured, at the time of the incident According to the report: 'Student A added that she posted the essay questions on her Facebook page because she thought it would be helpful to other students.' Palma resigned shortly after the incident and was not interviewed by investigators as she could not be traced. Department of Education spokesman Michael Aciman said: 'Ensuring academic integrity at our schools is critical, and this incident was reported and investigated.' He confirmed Palma no longer worked for the department or would she be offered another teaching post in future. Wheelchair-bound pervert Peter Allan (pictured), who turned up for sex with a teenage boy in his mobility car, has been jailed after being snared by vigilantes A wheelchair-bound pervert who turned up for sex with a teenage boy in his mobility car has been jailed after being snared by vigilantes. Peter Allan was equipped with a lager, porn and a mobile phone when he travelled to meet a 13-year-old he had been talking to on gay dating app Grindr. But when he arrived at the meeting point in his mobility car, the 63-year-old was confronted by members of The Hunted One, a group of vigilante paedophile hunters, who had set up the decoy account. Allan, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has now been sentenced to three years and four months behind bars after he admitted arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex. He claimed he had not planned to have sex with the boy and only wanted to give him the items. But Judge Charles Macdonald QC said he had 'no doubt' of Allan's motives. Passing sentence, he said: 'You clearly intended real sex. I have no doubt had there been a real male child you would have gone through with this. 'You took alcohol to facilitate the offence. It is said there is remorse. This is significantly tempered by insight minimisation and victim blaming.' The court heard how Allan initially messaged the young boy 'Sam' asking if he liked older men. Despite being told he was 13, Allan sent explicit messages and a photographs, including one of his genitals. 'Sam' then responded, claiming he lived with foster parents and would be home alone that weekend. When he said he had no webcam Allan offered to provide him with a camera, pornography, mobile phone and alcohol, the court heard. The pair then arranged to meet in a car park in Maidstone, Kent, on April 1. The MS sufferer was arrested by police (shown above) after being snared by the vigilante group, The Hunted One There, Allan was confronted by members of the group in a sting which was filmed and watched online more than 152,000 times. Police arrested him but Allan claimed he did not intend to go through with any sexual contact and only planned to just deliver the Fosters, DVD and mobile phones. He added that he had become obsessed with porn because he was 'bi-curious' and wanted to meet younger men. Allan, of Sittingbourne, Kent, has now been placed on the sex offenders' register and put under a sexual harm prevention order. The court heard he could not return to his sheltered accommodation as he had been burgled and hismobility car damaged as a result of the offence. James Warren, defending, said: 'He has no previous convictions and suffers from MS and is in a wheelchair. His condition has deteriorated while in custody. 'He is a very lonely gentleman and has no friends, especially now as this was streamed live when he was detained.' Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Kieron Watts, of Kent Police, said: 'Allan claimed this was all just a fantasy and that he would never have gone through with the plans. 'However, the graphic detail he included in his messages was hugely concerning. He displayed a clear desire to sexually abuse a child and when he arranged to meet him also brought along alcohol. 'This case acts as a reminder to parents of children who have mobile phones and tablets to speak to them and help them understand the precautions they should take when using the internet, or the many instant messaging services that are available.' The final moments of pedestrians mown down by terrorists in the London Bridge attack have been revealed at the inquests into their deaths. A white van ploughed into people on the bridge before three killers carrying out a frenzied knife attack in Borough Market, leaving eight dead and dozens injured. Christine Archibald, 30, Xavier Thomas, 45, and Alexandre Pigeard, 26, died in the attack on June 3, Southwark Coroner's Court was told. Senior coroner Andrew Harris opened and adjourned inquests on Wednesday for the three victims. Canadian Christine Archibald died in the arms of her fiance Tyler Ferguson after she was struck by the terrorists' van on London Bridge. An inquest into her death was opened today Inquests were also opened into the deaths of Frenchmen Alexandre Pigeard (left) and Xavier Thomas (right). Mr Pigeard was knifed outside Boro Bistro. Mr Thomas fell into the Thames and his body was recovered three days after the attack The coroner thanked the police for their work in 'difficult and distressing circumstances' and offered his condolences to the families for their 'sudden and shocking loss'. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Moring said: 'A white van travelled south on London Bridge. That van would seem to have been deliberately targeting pedestrians as it travelled towards Borough Market. 'The occupants of that van are known to have alighted and were stabbing members of the public.' Canadian Ms Archibald, who lived in The Hague, Holland, died in her fiance Tyler Ferguson's arms after being struck by the van on London Bridge. The social worker was killed by multiple, severe blunt crush injuries, the inquest was told. French national Mr Thomas's body was recovered from the river near Limehouse in east London, downstream of London Bridge, three days after the attack. He was visiting London for the weekend with his girlfriend, Christine Delcros, who was struck and seriously injured in the attack. He was last seen by her on the bridge and police are still investigating how he ended up in the water. Emergency workers help those injured on the bridge after the atrocity earlier this month The terrorists drove this rented van along the pavement on London Bridge, hitting pedestrians The terrorists left victims in the wake as they went on the rampage through crowded streets Mr Moring said: 'We had accounts from his girlfriend that he was on the bridge with her and subsequently he was missing. 'Police were concerned he had gone over the bridge and into the Thames. The circumstances are being investigated as to how he has gone into the Thames.' Mr Thomas, a business events and travel manager living in Paris, was identified by his dental records and his cause of death was given as immersion. Fellow Frenchman Mr Pigeard was knifed moments later in the nearby Boro Bistro, where he worked as a waiter. He was found in the shadow of Southwark Cathedral, on Montague Close, with stab wounds to his neck and chest. Mr Pigeard was born in Paris, had been in London for around two years and lived in Southwark. His cause of death was given as a haemorrhage caused by knife wounds. The attackers - Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22 - were shot dead by police within eight minutes of the first emergency call Police have released this chilling picture of one of the knives used by the three attackers Photos also show the fake suicide vests the trio strapped to themselves to increase the terror Armed police killed ringleader Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, just eight minutes after the first emergency call was made. A hearing took place on Tuesday into the deaths of Sara Zelenak, 21, Kirsty Boden, 28, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39. A grim account of their injuries was read out, detailing where they had been found and how they were identified. The inquest proceedings were suspended by Dr Harris so the vast police operation was not hampered by his investigation. Tahsin Hassan, 35, from Plymouth set up the business with his wife in September last year, despite having no qualification is massages A beauty salon boss, who recruited staff using Tinder, has been jailed for sexually assaulting two women he was meant to be massaging. Tahsin Hassan, 35, from Plymouth set up the business with his wife in September last year, despite having no qualification is massages. The married father-of-three groped the breasts of one female client and put his fingers inside another one's knickers. The Iraqi-born pervert claimed in court the two young women had each asked him for sex, but both victims said they left his Tahsin Hair and Beauty salon in tears. He told a jury he had trouble recruiting staff and resorted to dating app Tinder to fill his vacancies. Hassan, who spoke through a Kurdish interpreter, denied indecently touching the complainants without their consent. But he was unanimously convicted by a jury in only an hour and a quarter after a four-day trial. Both women told the court they consented to massages but Hassan went far beyond what was agreed while they were alone in the salon. The first said she was shocked when Hassan put his hands inside her knickers. The second was having her head massaged, which she expected to include her shoulders, but Hassan repeatedly grabbed her breasts. Both women contacted police immediately after each incident. Llewellyn Sellick, defending, said Hussan had always tried to work hard and support his family. He said he had taken a 10-year lease on his salon and would lose the business if jailed. He urged the judge to suspend his prison sentence, saying he had 'learnt his lesson'. The defendant, who was born in Iraq and arrived in Plymouth via Norway, was not qualified in massage or any other therapy. The judge, having read a psychiatric report, said Hassan had repeatedly tried to take his own life. Hassan was jailed for three years at Plymouth Crown Court yesterday after being found guilty of two counts of sexual assault Hassan was jailed for three years at Plymouth Crown Court yesterday after being found guilty of two counts of sexual assault. He will also have to sign the Sex Offender Register indefinitely. Judge David Melville said both assaults - which took place when Hussan was alone with the women - were sustained and in breach of trust. He told him: 'You took advantage of young girls in a position when you were in control. 'One victim described herself as helpless and feared she was going to be raped. 'The other described that she was suffering nightmares.' Britain will be stripped of its special rights and forced to surrender its 5billion rebate if Brexit is dramatically called off, one of the EUs leading MEPs proclaimed yesterday. In a blatant attempt to take advantage of the UKs political fragility following the election, Guy Verhofstadt said that Britain would bow to an empowered Brussels if it remains in the bloc. The Belgian, who will spearhead the European Parliaments veto of a Brexit deal, likened Theresa Mays task to Alice in Wonderland and demanded that negotiations begin. European Parliament Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt threatened that Britain could have to hand over more powers to Brussels if it wants to stop Brexit His outburst followed claims from EU heavyweights earlier this week, including French president Emmanuel Macron, that Britain could change its mind about leaving. While the offer was extended by Mr Verhofstadt, the leading MEP revealed that the scenario would see the UK forced to make a wave of politically unfeasible concessions. He said: Emmanuel Macron, the new French president, spoke about an open door. That if Britain changes its mind it would find an open door [back to the EU]. I agree. But like Alice in Wonderland, not all the doors are the same. It will be a brand new door, with a new Europe, a Europe without rebates, without complexity, with real powers and with unity. Guy Verhoftstadt posted a series of tweets saying that Britain will face a more powerful, united Europe if it stays in the EU. The Eurocrat has repeatedly taken to Twitter to make jibes at the Britain's handing of Brexit negotiations His comments reflect scorn felt by many Brussels leaders about the number of opt-outs enjoyed by the UK concerning contentious issues such as migration policy and joining the euro. EU officials have also harboured resentment about the UKs rebate, famously negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 and which is currently worth around 5billion. Addressing the European Parliament yesterday, Mr Verhofstadt accused the Prime Minister of creating economic uncertainty that is affecting the UK dramatically. Despite the PMs repeat insistence that talks will start as planned, he read out a series of pressing questions aimed at Mrs May and insisting that the UK reveals its negotiating position. The European Union chief also took a swipe at Theresa May's Conservative Party as he demanded clarity over Britain's negotiating stance Will the British position be the same as in the letter of March 29; the hard Brexit, or will the UK government take the outcome of national elections into account? he said. Will the British negotiating position represent the position of the Tories or will it be the position of the whole nation? Party interest or national interest? He also called for the UK to clarify its position on the Northern Irish border and the rights of millions of EU citizens living in the UK. The comments will infuriate Downing Street and be seen as an attempt to capitalise on Tory party in-fighting. They came amid speculation that leading cabinet ministers such as Philip Hammond are planning to revert to a soft Brexit. Leading Remain supporters have also raised the possibility of the UK holding a second referendum. But the claims were rubbished by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage during the European Parliament debate, who said: The only certainty in this mess is that we will be leaving. As technical talks between the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier and British civil servants continue, Mrs May is expected to make her renewed Brexit pitch at a summit next week. A Welsh angler was fishing with friends off the coast of Aberystwyth when he reeled in a five-foot shark. Brian Gatley, 70, was hunting for black bream by Patches Reef, six miles off the coast, but noticed one catch had a stronger bite than usual. After struggling with the fish for 45 minutes, he realised he'd snagged a tope shark, a slim but powerful predator renowned among fishermen for its fighting prowess. Brian Gatley, 70, was looking for black bream by Patches Reef, six miles off the coast, but noticed one catch - pictured - had a stronger bite than usual Mr Gatley, from Aberaeron, said: 'I was talking to a few friends and apparently mackerel shoals usually start to come in about this time of the year, and the sharks know their migratory route and wait for them. 'I caught one last year as well - it was later on in the year and the shark was much smaller. This one I caught is close to as big as they get. 'It weighed about 35 to 40 pounds, and must have been four to five feet long. 'It was slightly exhilarating. I was struggling with it for 45 minutes because you have to let it tire itself out. My arms were aching afterwards.' After struggling with the fish for 45 minutes, Mr Gatley realised he had snagged the magnificent beast, a slim but powerful predator renowned by anglers for its fighting prowess After his fearsome battle, Mr Gatley said he had nothing but respect for the shark, adding: 'I cut the line and let it go. 'I couldn't kill such a beautiful species and we only take what we will eat. 'I didn't want to put my hand near its mouth because of its big, sharp teeth.' David Wilcockson, a marine biologist at Aberystwyth University and a keen fisherman, identified Brian's catch as being, most likely, a tope shark - or Galeorhinus galeus. This is not considered unusual for the waters of Cardigan Bay, and is usually not dangerous, feeding on bony fish like anchovies, cod and hake. Sightings of tope sharks are not unusual in Cardigan Bay, and is usually not dangerous, feeding on bony fish like anchovies, cod and hake The Shark Trust said: 'The tope shark is a very popular species with recreational fishers as it is one of the largest species that can be targeted in UK waters and is renowned for its fight. 'Like most sharks, the Tope shark is extremely vulnerable to fishing pressure due to its slow maturity and low productivity. 'Rapidly declining populations have led to England and Wales imposing a ban on targeting the Tope Shark except using rod and line fishing methods.' A grandfather has faced a Sydney court accused of bestiality with a spaniel and producing child abuse material involving his own grandchildren. The 65-year-old was first arrested by detectives from the State Crime Command's child abuse squad in September 2016 over alleged child sex offences involving the two young girls. It is the second time he has been charged with child sex offences in the past nine months. A grandfather is accused of bestiality with a spaniel and producing child abuse material involving his own grandchildren (stock) He was charged with 14 child sex offences and released on bail, a NSW Police spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Investigators searched a house in Sydney's south after the arrest and seized a computer and electronic storage devices for forensic examination. Following the analysis and further investigation, detectives rearrested the man on Tuesday afternoon. He appeared at Sutherland Local Court on Wednesday on eight new charges: two counts of bestiality and six counts of producing child abuse material. Police allege the man performed an act of bestiality with a King Charles cocker spaniel in May 2012 and again in April 2014, court documents show. He is also accused of producing child abuse material on multiple occasions since 2014. Police allege the man performed an act of bestiality with a King Charles cocker spaniel in May 2012 and again in April 2014, court documents show (stock) Court documents reveal police are concerned the grandfather poses a high risk to his immediate family and the community. The man did not apply for bail on Wednesday and it was formally refused. He's due to appear before Central Local Court on August 8 via video link. Advertisement Australia's political elite got a chance to indulge in some glitz and glamour as they gathered for the 2017 Mid Winter Ball. Politicians from around the nation dressed to the nines to raise money for charity, and leading the charge in a flurry of purple were Julie Bishop, Chloe Shorten and Pauline Hanson. Flanked by their dapper partners, Australia's high-profile political ladies made a statement in flowing gowns with sparkles, frills and feathers in Canberra on Wednesday. Scroll down for video Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop (pictured) stunned in a silver and purple floor-length ball gown Politicians from around the nation dressed up to the nine to raise money for charity, and leading the charge in a flurry of purple was Julie Bishop, (pictured) Chloe Shorten and Pauline Hanson Bill Shorten's wife Chloe (pictured) wore a deep purple frock with a gorgeous one-shoulder design Chloe Shorten clearly got the purple memo and arrived at the charity ball in a deep plum gown One Nation leader Pauline Hanson also stunned in purple with a daring side split The ball is regarded as the premier social event on the political calendar and invites the senior ranks from all parliamentary parties, including the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, plus the heads of corporate Australia and the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery. Julie Bishop turned heads in a sparkling purple gown with a feathered bottom and sheer beaded top which highlighted her toned upper arms. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson ditched the power suit for a chic dark purple frock with a daring side split, coupled with a pair of silver heels. Bill Shorten's wife Chloe clearly received the purple memo, and wowed ball-goers in a floor-length deep plum dress. Her gorgeous off-the-shoulder gown was paired with silver tear-drop earrings, while Bill opted for simple black tie - making the parliament power couple look like every bit the celebrity duo. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (right) and his wife Natalie wore matching black outfits Barnaby Joyce (pictured) cracked his whip and donned a cowboy hat during the glamorous ball Australia's first Aboriginal woman elected to the House of Representatives, Linda Burney, wore a Grecian-style orange gown Anthony Albanese and his wife Carmel Tebbutt braved the cold for a night of glamour, the couple matching in elegant black outfits Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe posed with Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy at the Mid Winter Ball on Wednesday Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's wife Lucy opted for a more demure look, wearing a bead-embroidered skirt, a white top and a sensible black blazer. Labor MP Linda Burney arrived at the ball in a Grecian-style orange gown, topping off the look with a pair of dangling silver earrings. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce mirrored a classic outback style, pairing his sleek tuxedo with a cowboy hat and a whip. His wife Natalie stunned in a black strapless dress with a split up the side and open high heels. Anthony Albanese and his wife Carmel Tebbutt also braved the cold for a night of glamour, the couple matching in elegant black outfits. Also on the invite list was Labor MP Ed Husic who arrived with Amanda Rose, who donned a magnificent sparkling gown with a flirty split up the side. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's wife Lucy (pictured) opted for a more demure look, wearing a bead-embroidered skirt, a white top and a sensible black blazer Also on the invite list Labor MP Ed Husic who arrived with Amanda Rose, who donned a magnificent sparkling gown with a flirty split up the side Intensified coalition air strikes supporting an assault by US-backed forces on Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa in Syria are causing a 'staggering loss of civilian life', United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a US-led coalition, began to attack Raqqa a week ago to take it from the jihadists. The SDF, supported by heavy coalition air strikes, have taken territory to the west, east and north of the city. In addition to the UN warning, The Human Rights Watch organisation on Wednesday urged the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq to protect civilians from the effects of white phosphorus weapons. White phosphorus can be used to create a smoke screen or as a battlefield marker, but it can also be deployed as a deadly incendiary weapon, a use prohibited under international law. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a US-led coalition, began to attack Raqqa a week ago to take it from the jihadists. But their attack has caused a 'staggering loss of civilian life', United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday. Pictured above, an SDF fighter aims an automatic weapon through a peephole The SDF (a soldier pictured above), supported by heavy coalition air strikes, have taken territory to the west, east and north of Raqqa In addition to the UN warning, The Human Rights Watch organisation on Wednesday urged the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq to protect civilians from the effects of white phosphorus weapons. Pictured above, soldiers stand guard at Raqqa city, Syria A smoke cloud billows during fighting at Raqqa city, Syria, as US-backed forces advance through the city in an attempt to take it back from ISIS Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry told the Human Rights Council, noted on Wednesday that air strikes have resulted in civilian deaths. 'We note in particular that the intensification of air strikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced,' Pinheiro said. He provided no figure for civilian casualties in Raqqa, where rival forces are racing to capture ground from Islamic State. The Syrian army is also advancing on the desert area west of the city. Pinheiro said that if the international coalition's offensive is successful, it could liberate Raqqa's civilian population, including Yazidi women and girls, 'whom the group has kept sexually enslaved for almost three years as part of an ongoing and unaddressed genocide'. 'The imperative to fight terrorism must not, however, be undertaken at the expense of civilians who unwillingly find themselves living in areas where ISIL is present,' he added. Video footage from airstrikes hitting Raqqa throughout the last week show white phosphorus munitions falling on to the city and setting buildings ablaze Syrian activists, Raqqa24, repirted an airstrike in Raqqa killed at least seven civilians on Saturday The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 13 civilians were been killed in coalition air raids over the weekend The United States is providing battlefield support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces trying to capture Raqqa from the Islamic State group Pinheiro also said that ten agreements between the Syrian government and armed groups to evacuate fighters and civilians from besieged areas, including eastern Aleppo last December, 'in some cases amount to war crimes' as civilians had 'no choice'. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch expressed concern in a statement about the use of incendiary white phosphorous weapons endangered civilians when used in populated areas. In its speech to the 47-member forum in Geneva, the US delegation made no reference to Raqqa or the air strikes. The statement comes after several instances in which the US-led coalition has deployed the munition in the fight against IS in Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Raqa city. 'No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities,' said HRW arms director Steve Goose. 'US-led forces should take all feasible precautions to minimise civilian harm when using white phosphorus in Iraq and Syria.' Last week striking images shared by activists and the Islamic State group showed white phosphorus being used over Raqa city, where a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters is battling to oust the jihadists. Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry told the Human Rights Council, noted on Wednesday that air strikes have resulted in civilian deaths. Pictured above, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters carry their weaponsas they stand in Raqqa's western neighbourhood of Jazra Human Rights Watch expressed concern in a statement about the use of incendiary white phosphorous weapons endangered civilians when used in populated areas. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters walk past a damaged vehicle in Raqqa's western neighbourhood of Jazra In its speech to the 47-member forum in Geneva, the US delegation made no reference to Raqqa or the air strikes. Pictured above, soldiers patrol next to destroyed buildings at Raqqa The statement comes after several instances in which the US-led coalition has deployed the munition in the fight against IS in Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Raqqa. Soldiers patrol next to destroyed buildings in Raqqa Asked about the incident, coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon declined to 'discuss every detailed use of munition or capability available across our formations'. But he added that white phosphorus was used 'in accordance with the law of armed conflict' and 'in a way that fully considers the possible incidental effects on civilians and civilian infrastructure.' HRW said it had not been able to independently verify any civilian casualties resulting from the use of white phosphorus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said 23 civilians had been killed by white phosphorus used in Raqa on June 8. The Britain-based group said the US-led coalition had dropped the munition from planes. But HRW said the images from Raqa were characteristic of ground-fire artillery projectiles containing white phosphorus. US diplomat Jason Mack called the Syrian government 'the primary perpetrator' of egregious human rights violations in the country. Syria's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Hussam Edin Aaala, denounced violations 'committed by the unlawful US-led coalition which targets infrastructure, killing hundreds of civilians including the deaths of 30 civilians in Deir al-Zor'. This is the terrifying moment a hero shopkeeper put a knife-wielding thug in a headlock after being slashed eight times with a blade. Barry Crawley, 38, was working at his family-run newsagents when Alan Thomson, 25, burst into the store and began attacking him with a kitchen knife on October 9 last year. The assault was captured on CCTV and shows the shopkeeper wrestling with Thomson before police arrived at the Newsagents in Govan, Glasgow. Barry Crawley, 38, was working at his family-run newsagents when Alan Thomson, 25, burst into the store with a knife (pictured) The attack was captured on CCTV and shows the shopkeeper wrestling with the thug before police arrived the Glasgow newsagents The hero shopkeeper said: 'I was doing my money and my head was down at the counter. 'I knew someone had come in the shop but usually I let people look around for a bit before dealing with them. 'As soon as I looked up a large knife came swinging past my face - it just missed my face by less than a centimetre. 'He swung again and hit my chest and tried to get round the back of the counter. 'He swung the knife about eight times onto my arm - my thumb was hanging off and my arm was broken. I knew he wasn't going to stop so I had to go for him.' Mr Crawley eventually managed get his attacker in a headlock - causing Thompson to drop his weapon. He said: 'I'm lucky he never actually stabbed me with it - luckily the knife was too big to actually do it. It was a frightening experience.' The attacker slashed Mr Crawley at least eight times as the brave shopkeeper fought for his life Mr Crawley pinned Thomson, who was wearing a scarf over his face, to the floor until the police arrived eight minutes later. The two men were taken to hospital where Mr Crawley was treated for a broken elbow, a severed thumb and cuts to his head, chest and leg. Speaking after the attack, he said that no longer has feeling in his thumb due to nerve and tendon damage and is now in 'constant pain'. 'I didn't know him before he came into the shop. He said it was because I was a paedophile,' said Mr Crawley. 'He'd heard something then came to the shop - that's the first I'd seen him.' Mr Crawley was treated for a broken elbow, a severed thumb and cuts to his head, chest and leg after the attack Mr Crawley completely refutes any suggestion of being a paedophile. He said: 'It's completely untrue. I let the kids round here use the WiFi in the shop to contact their pals, that's it. There's nothing to it at all.' Despite the attack, Mr Crawley said it won't stop him running his shop. He said: 'There's still a bit of fear coming to work. It's not so bad since the decent weather but when it's bad weather and people start wearing scarf's and hoods, it will be different. 'It comes with the territory of owning a shop in Govan. This is just Govan for you.' Mr Crawley eventually managed get his attacker in a headlock - causing Thompson to drop his weapon Mr Crawley eventually managed to tussle with the attacker and even got him in a headlock - causing the thug to drop his weapon before police (pictured) arrived Mr Crawley's shop was also targeted in 2008 when two men armed with knives tried to rob the newsagents. He fought off the attackers who were eventually jailed for the attempted robbery. Thomson appeared at the High Court in Livingston last week where he was found guilty of assault and causing severe injury. He denied attempting to murder Mr Crawley in the attack and is facing a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced next month. The father of a five-year-old girl who used medicinal cannabis to treat his daughter's severe epilepsy has been found guilty of possession and cultivation of the drug. Michael Lambert has vowed to continue to lobby for law reform following the decision in Gosford Local Court on Wednesday. Each of the thousands of seizures little Katelyn has suffered have caused brain damage and had the potential to be fatal, after she was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome when she was six-months-old. Scroll down for video Michael Lambert (left), the father of five-year old Katelyn (right), who used medicinal cannabis to treat his daughter's severe epilepsy has been found guilty of possession and cultivation of the drug Michael Lambert has vowed to continue to lobby for law reform following the decision in Gosford Local Court on Wednesday Each of the thousands of seizures little Katelyn has suffered have caused brain damage and had the potential to be fatal But her condition has drastically improved since she started taking imported cannabis oil in 2014. Mr Lambert admitted to the charged, but argued he had no choice but to help his daughter. He said he started cultivating cannabis as a backup in case his 'I was just a normal father trying to do the best by my daughter I just did what I had to do to save my daughter's life and the court has found that I'm a criminal,' he said. 'If Katelyn can't win on medical necessity, then nobody can win on medical necessity.' Despite the latest charges, Michael said the treatment has been his only option, he told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes last year. Katelyn Lambert, five, has not been hospitalised with a life-threatening seizure since she began treatment with medical cannabis 10-months ago (pictured in a crop field) The NSW Central Coast girl has Dravet syndrome and has suffered thousands of seizures, which once sent her to hospital once every two weeks 'You can't make a father watch his daughter die,' Michael told the program. 'Any law that says I have to watch her die and not look after her is a stupid law, and needs to be changed.' His father, Sydney financier Barry Lambert, has supported the use of medical cannabis despite the charges hanging over his son's head. 'We're just doing what's right,' Barry said. The grandfather last year donated $33.7 million to the University of Sydney's research into the treatment, marking one of the biggest private grants to medical research in Australian history. Her father, Michael Lambert (pictured), has been charged with possession and cultivation of the drug Katelyn's grandfather, Barry Lambert, donated $33.7 million to University of Sydney to research the treatment The family said Katelyn improved 'from the first day' of consuming medical cannabis. 'I just said to my wife: 'Holy smokes, it works,' Michael said. 'Instead of all this noise in her head, it was just clear instead of jerking and dribbling. The father reiterated medical cannabis does not give his daughter a high, and confirmed Katelyn takes other medication. He said it had given the family hope, despite a low life expectancy for children with Dravet syndrome. 'It's an amazing plant. It's given us amazing hope that there is a future for Katelyn.' Michael said he remained hopeful despite the harm her seizures have caused. 'We can see the damage but we also know she's got a growing brain. She's got a hope. She's got a future. If we can stop the seizures then we can give her that future,' he said. 'I just said to my wife: 'Holy smokes, it works,' Michael said. 'Instead of all this noise in her head, it was just clear instead of jerking and dribbling' 'It's an amazing plant. It's given us amazing hope that there is a future for Katelyn,' her father said (Katelyn pictured playing with her grandmother, Joy) Katelyn is pictured with her grandparents Barry and Joy looking at crops of cannabis He was arrested and charged last year with cultivation and possession of marijuana, and has pleaded not-guilty in the hopes he will be let off on medical necessity. 'I'm not gonna have a criminal record. I'm gonna win,' Michael told 60 Minutes. Barry said the longest seizure Katelyn has ever suffered lasted two-and-a-half hours, and Dravet syndrome once had her hospitalised every few weeks until she began treating it with medical cannabis. 'It appears it works miracles for her. But that's why the research needs to be done to understand the science behind it and to prove beyond doubt that it works and what the long-term impacts would be,' Barry told Daily Mail Australia last year. 'It's very hurtful when they have a seizure. No one wants to see a child sick when they're young,' he said at the time. Barry is a former Commonwealth Bank executive and is the chairman of Count Financial. Walt Disney World plans to honor a 2-year-old Nebraska boy who was killed by an alligator last year at one of its resorts near Orlando with a sculpture of a lighthouse. A year ago Wednesday, an alligator grabbed little Lane Graves, who was playing along the Seven Seas Lagoon beach outside Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. The child's father, Matt Graves of Omaha, jumped into the water to try to free his son, whose body was found 16 hours later. Matt Graves desperately tried to free his son from the crushing jaws by reaching into the animal's mouth, a report by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found. But he was unable to save him and the boy's official cause of death was given as crushing injuries and drowning. Walt Disney World plans to honor Lane Graves (above), a 2-year-old Nebraska boy who was killed by an alligator a year ago Wednesday at one of its resorts near Orlando, with a sculpture of a lighthouse A year ago, an alligator grabbed Graves, who was playing along the Seven Seas Lagoon beach outside Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. His father, Matt Graves (far left) of Omaha, jumped into the water to try to free his son, whose body was found 16 hours later Matt Graves was unable to save him and the boy's official cause of death was given as crushing injuries and drowning His death was ruled an accident. The sculpture is of a lighthouse, which is a symbol of the Lane Thomas Foundation. The foundation was created in memory of the child. 'The foundation is dedicated to supporting families of children needing life-saving organ transplants,' Walt Disney World Resort president George A. Kalogridis said in a statement on Tuesday. 'To provide continued awareness of the foundation and its mission, we've commissioned an original sculpture of the lighthouse the foundation uses as a symbol of love and hope, to be installed on our property this summer.' The location of the sculpture hasn't been disclosed. A boat belonging to the Orange County Sheriff's office searches the Seven Seas lagoon ouside Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa near Orlando, Florida on June 15, 2016 Officials posted a sign warning visitors of snakes and alligators along the shoreline. The alligator may have had a diminished fear of people by being in an area with many humans. Disney firefighters were reprimanded for feeding alligators in the area weeks before the incident The child's death occurred two days after the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. Barely an hour before the attack, staff at the resort had been warned that the alligator was in the vicinity. Shawna Giacomini, a tourist from North Carolina, reported that he had seen the creature close to the shore at around 8.15pm on June 14, 2016, a separate Orange County Sheriff's Office report revealed. His daughter told a Disney employee about it and the Giacominis went to a nearby store. By the time they returned at 9pm, the boy had already been attacked. Other witnesses told of their horror at hearing the screams of the young boy during the attack. The sculpture is of a lighthouse, which is a symbol of the Lane Thomas Foundation. The foundation was created in memory of the child The foundation is dedicated to supporting families of children needing life-saving organ transplants. On September 3, 2016, supporters (above) released blue balloons into the air as a tribute to Lane at an Omaha high school football stadium A 16-year-old tourist, said he was walking with his younger siblings on a beach-area walkway when he saw the alligator dragging the boy away. 'The alligator came in head first, toward the beach, but turned around once it had the child in its mouth and crawled back into the water headfirst,' Peter Courakos told deputies. Several guests at the resort also reported seeing the alligator swimming in the lagoon shortly before the attack. Amateur photographer Alfred Smith snapped the reptile swimming in the lagoon at about 7.30pm on the evening of the attack. When he returned to his balcony an hour-and-a-half later he saw children playing in the water and had rushed out to warn them when he heard Lane's mother screaming, the wildlife agency report said. The report found Lane did nothing to provoke the alligator and that the death is classified as a predatory attack. Lane, whose body was found 15 hours after he was pulled underwater, hadn't even been swimming at the time - he had just been wading near the edge of the lagoon. The alligator may have had a diminished fear of people by being in an area with lots of humans. Disney firefighters were reprimanded for feeding alligators in the area weeks before the incident. Feeding alligators is illegal as it causes the reptiles to lose their natural fear of humans and associate them with food. Theresa May has invited the main Northern Ireland parties for talks at Downing Street tomorrow as she seeks to get power-sharing back on track. The Prime Minister is hosting Sinn Fein, the DUP and other parties at No10 in a bid to restore the Stormont assembly after its acrimonious collapse in January. But the efforts are likely to be complicated by Mrs May's continuing efforts to strike a deal with the DUP to shore up the Tory majority at Westminster. Some Tories - including ex-PM John Major - are alarmed that such an arrangement would undermine the UK government's claim to be impartial in the process. Meanwhile, the chances of the Queen's Speech taking place as scheduled on Monday appear to be diminishing fast amid haggling over the price for the DUP's support. DUP leader Arlene Foster waved as she arrived for talks at Downing Street with her deputy Nigel Dodds yesterday Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is expected to come to Downing Street tomorrow alongside party leader Michelle O'Neill The Prime Minister, pictured at No10 today, is fighting to cling on as PM after the Tories lost their overall majority in the vote last Thursday. Sources in the Northern Ireland party said discussions with the Conservatives were making 'steady progress' but an announcement had been delayed by the tragic tower block blaze in West London. Fierce bargaining has been going on over funds for tax cuts and infrastructure projects, as DUP leader Arlene Foster seeks to capitalise on her position as kingmaker after the election stripped the Conservatives of their overall majority. It now appears almost certain that the unveiling of the new government's legislative programme will be pushed back - with speculation it could happen as late as June 26. The Prime Minister held talks with Mrs Foster in Downing Street yesterday as she seeks to make the best of the election debacle. After the meeting, Ms Foster said the discussions were 'going well' and she hoped an arrangement for her 10 MPs to shore up the Tory majority would be reached 'sooner rather than later'. She said the key issues were the need for stable government in the national interest, Brexit, counter-terrorism and 'doing what's right for Northern Ireland'. WHAT COULD THE DUP DEMAND TO PROP UP THE PM? The DUPs manifesto called for a corporation tax rate of 12.5 percent - the same level as in the Republic of Ireland - or lower. Although the party supported Brexit, it is determined there must not be a hard border with the Republic. The DUP has also made clear it does not believe leaving the EU should hurt the economy - potentially opening the door to customs union membership. There could also be pressure for significant spending commitments on infrastructure. That could range from bus lanes to schools and hospitals. Advertisement But there are mounting concerns about the significant concessions that could be extracted from Mrs May over funding for Northern Ireland - potentially a billion pounds in tax breaks and infrastructure spending. As they arrived at Westminster yesterday morning, one of the party's MPs joked: 'We're going shopping.' Sir John delivered a stark warning that aTory arrangement with the DUP to stay in power could undermine the Peace Process. Sir John said he feared that the UK government would no longer be seen as an 'honest broker' between the sides, suggesting the 'hard men' could decide to take matters into their own hands again. He also cautioned that the Conservatives could lose 'votes by the bucketload' if they were seen to be buying support in parliament. The prospect of an agreement with the DUP has alarmed some Tories who fear its stance on issues like gay rights could be toxic, and there are concerns about the impact on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement - which effectively brought an end to decades of bloodshed. BREXITEER MINISTER QUITS - BUT SAYS HE STILL SUPPORTS PM Andrew Percy has quit as Northern Powerhouse minister - but insisted he still supports the PM. The Brigg & Goole MP had been asked by Mrs May to carry on in the role. But Mr Percy said he had 'reluctantly' decided to leave the frontbench to 'pursue other challenges'. 'She continues to enjoy my full support from the back benches,' he added. The departure comes amid signs of increasing Tory tensions over Brexit, after the election result increased pressure on Mrs May to soften her approach. Advertisement The Tory leader has been fighting to cling on in Downing Street after a disastrous general election which saw her lose her Commons majority. A failure to gain support from the Northern Irish party would risk the Queen's Speech being voted down next week - after Jeremy Corbyn made clear Labour will seek to block the legislative programme. The Tories and the DUP are considering a 'confidence and supply' arrangement which would see the Northern Irish party back the Government to get its Budget through and on confidence motions. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's World at One, Sir John - who was responsible for driving forward the Peace Process in the 1990s - said he was 'dubious' about the deal. 'My main concern is the peace process. A fundamental part of that peace process is that the UK government needs to be impartial between all the competing interests in Northern Ireland,' he said. 'And the danger is that however much any government tries, they will not be seen to be impartial if they are locked into a parliamentary deal at Westminster with one of the Northern Ireland parties. 'And you never know in what unpredictable way events will turn out. We cannot know if that impartiality is going to be crucial at some stage in the future.' Sir John said he was concerned that the 'hard men' were still 'lurking in the corners' and could take matters into their 'own hands'. He warned that being seen to hand out 'cash' in return for parliamentary support risked costing the Tories 'votes by the bucketload' at another election. Mrs Foster has rejected suggestions that the mooted agreement could undermine the UK government's impartiality and prevent a return to power-sharing arrangements at Stormont. The DUP MPs and leader Arlene Foster arrived at Westminster yesterday ahead of the meeting, with one joking they were 'going shopping' The seven Sinn Fein MPs were also at the Houses of Parliament yesterday - although they do not formally take their seats on principle Former PM John Major, pictured giving a speech in February, delivered a stark warning yesterday that a Tory arrangement with the DUP to stay in power could undermine the Peace Process A husband killed his wife by tying her to rail tracks with duct tape then leaping in front of a 200mph express train that killed them both instantly, French police say. The French TGV train was going so fast that it took more than two miles to stop after hitting Emilie Hallouin and Guillaume Gremy in Beauvilliers, northern France, at about 4.30am on Monday. Police said the 34-year-old Hallouin's wrists and ankles had been bound to the tracks with strong polythene tape and her body had been severed into pieces by the train. Gremy, 37 had not been tied to the tracks, but his body was found scattered along several hundred yards of track, officials said. A husband killed his wife by tying her to rail tracks then leaping in front of the French TGV train in northern France early Monday morning, police say (file photo of a TGV train) The couple had been separated at the time of the incident. They had four children together. A Beauvilliers police spokesman said: 'The 34-year-old woman had been fixed to the tracks with strong adhesive tape before her death, whilst the man's body had not. 'It was the act of a man who it has emerged had been suffering from serious and long-term depression. 'We have since learned they separated three years ago, and the man was desperate to reunite with his wife, which she did not want.' The French TGV train was going so fast that it took more than two miles to stop after hitting Emilie Hallouin and Guillaume Gremy in Beauvilliers, northern France, at about 4.30am on Monday. Beauvilliers' church is pictured above in file photo Gremy had been on sick leave from his job as a mechanic for depression in the days before the deaths, according to L'Echo Republicain. Hallouin, a secretary, died on her 34th birthday. Police said they found a car parked near the scene of the tragedy, which allowed them to quickly identify the victims. Post mortem examinations would be carried out within several days as part of the inquiry in the deaths, police added. For confidential support in the UK call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. For support in the United States, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 1-800 273 8255. The Supreme Court in London delivered the judgement today A mother and daughter who want women from Northern Ireland to receive free abortions on the NHS in England have vowed to fight on after a narrow defeat at the UK's highest court. Following the Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday to reject their case against the Health Secretary by a majority of just three to two, they announced plans to go to the European Court of Human Rights. The justices said they were 'sharply divided' over what the outcome of the case should be with the court's deputy president Lady Hale being one of the two who ruled in favour of the mother and daughter. The 20-year-old woman at the centre of the appeal was 15 in October 2012 when she and her mother travelled from Northern Ireland to Manchester and were told she had to pay hundreds of pounds for a private termination because she was excluded from free abortion services. The daughter, who can only be referred to as A, and her mother B, previously suffered defeat at the High Court in London in 2014 and at the Court of Appeal the following year. After the latest round of their battle, they said in a statement: 'We are really encouraged that two of the judges found in our favour and all of the judges were sympathetic to A's situation. 'We have come this far and fought hard because the issues are so important for women in Northern Ireland. 'For this reason, we will do all that we can to take the fight further. 'We have instructed our legal team to file an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to protect the human rights of the many other women who make the lonely journey to England every week because they are denied access to basic healthcare services in their own country.' In Northern Ireland a termination is lawful when its continuation would threaten the woman's life, or when it would probably affect her physical or mental health, but only if the effect would be serious and, in particular, permanent or long-term. Each year, at least 1,000 women travel to England for a termination at a private clinic, often paying up to 1,000, and sometimes as much as 2,000. The mother and daughter had sought a declaration that it was unlawful for the Health Secretary to have failed to make provision for A and all other UK citizens usually resident in Northern Ireland to undergo a termination under the NHS in England free of charge. He conceded he had power to make such provision, the question decided by the justices was whether it was 'unlawful for him to have decided not to exercise it'. During the Supreme Court proceedings last year it was argued on behalf of the Government that it was not irrational for the provision of non-emergency healthcare to be divided between the different countries of the UK according to the place of residence of the patient. The court's deputy president Lady Hale was one of the two judges who ruled in favour of the mother and daughter The majority concluded the Health Secretary was entitled to reach the decision he did. Announcing the decision, Lord Wilson said it was not for the court to 'address the ethical considerations which underlie the difference' in the law regarding abortion in Northern Ireland and England. He added: 'But the fact is that the law in Northern Ireland puts most women in unwanted pregnancy there in a deeply unenviable position.' Angela Jackman, a partner at law firm Simpson Millar, who has represented A and B throughout the legal process, said she was 'heartened' that Lady Hale and Lord Kerr 'would have allowed the appeal in full'. It provided A and B 'with a firm basis for taking their case forward to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)'. She said: 'The time is ripe to seek further redress for the women of Northern Ireland who have such limited reproductive rights.' Rowan Smith, of law firm Leigh Day's human rights team, who represented a number of groups - Alliance For Choice, British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Birthrights, Family Planning Association and Abortion Support Network - said the judgment was a 'major setback for women's rights in the UK and must be appealed to Strasbourg without delay'. He said: 'Women from Northern Ireland, who are UK citizens, must have access to the pregnancy services they need. 'The women in Northern Ireland who cannot afford to pay privately for termination services in England, what are they supposed to do? This major gap in our nation's health services must be rectified as a matter of priority. 'We are talking about fundamental rights here. It is regressive for the Secretary of State for Health to be defending his policy to refuse them access to NHS services in England. 'Our clients hope the European Court will now step in and rectify this appalling situation.' Advertisement Up to 600 people including children and the elderly are homeless tonight after their flats were destroyed in the Grenfell Tower fire. Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council say 44 out of 120 households have been placed in emergency accommodation and housing officers will be working through the night to provide assistance to those in need. Those who are unable to return to their homes in the surrounding area because of fire damage have been told a rest centre has been established at Westway Sports Centre, near the scene of the blaze. Meanwhile local mosques, residents and community centres from across the capital have thrown open their doors - offering beds, clothes, food and other essentials to the victims. So many kind-hearted strangers rushed to the scene that council workers have asked people to stop coming due to overcrowding and instead send cash donations. Scroll down for video Up to 600 people including children and the elderly are facing nights in emergency accommodation in London on Wednesday night after they were left homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire Hundreds more people from surrounding properties that have been included in the cordon around Grenfell Tower have also been left homeless because of the disaster (pictured, Westway Sport and Fitness Centre) Westway Sport and Fitness Centre has been turned into an emergency rest centre while surrounding mosques and community centres are also accepting those with nowhere else to go As well as official rescue centres, Facebook users have been offering spare beds to those affected by the fire as London opens its doors to the victims of the fire Bedding, toiletries and food donated by hundreds of well-wishers is laid out inside a temporary shelter in west London on Wednesday nights as hundreds of people face being homeless Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson has urged members of the public to donate clothes to residents of Grenfell Tower following the fire which has claimed at least 12 lives. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wrote online that his restaurant in Westfield, Shepherd's Bush which is just 1.5 miles from the inferno will provide free food and drink to those affected by the blaze. Film director Noel Clarke was at the scene of the blaze and said he came down as he feared for his mother who lives '50 yards' from Grenfell Tower. He said: 'My relatives live here, I grew up here, my films are set here, my friends live here, one of my friend's nieces is still missing. 'I was on my way into town and I knew i had to come and help so i have been here carrying water inside the church. 'I've got clothes being delivered by a couple of labels and Pepsi are going to be sending drinks.' The former Dr Who and Kidulthood star added: 'The community support has been great. London has been affected by a lot in the past few weeks and the way people are coming together is amazing.' Donations of food and drink poured in following the disaster and local authorities eventually told people to stop coming because they could not deal with the influx Clothes, shoes, and other essentials were also brought to the area as people tried to help in any way they could Dozens of bags and hundreds of items were donated in just a few short hours after the scale of the devastation became clear (pictured, donations at Latymer Church) Celebrities such as Jeremy Clarkson and Jamie Oliver encouraged fans to donate anything they could to the victims Donations flooded in as police announced that at least 12 people died in the apartment building after the fire took hold Council workers said on Wednesday night that they did not need any more donations after an overwhelming response Members of the community used whatever they could to take food and other essentials to help the victims of the tragedy He refused to comment on accusations the building was poorly managed and added: 'I don't want to talk about politics, what's important now is helping the people'. And broadcaster Emma Freud offered to open up her own home by any of the hundreds of families left displaced by the fire. Several Crowdfunders have been set up to support the victims, with one having already raised 29,000. Clarkson posted on Facebook: 'Everything that was clean in my wardrobe has been donated. Please try and do the same thing.' Three support centres have been opened nearby for members of the public to donate clothes, toys, and toiletries. Rugby Portobello Trust, St Clement's Church and Tabernacle Christian Centre are all open to provide help and accept donations. One of the charity appeals, launched by a woman called Haley Yearwood, has already attracted 30,000 in donations by 400 generous people. Dozens of kind-hearted strangers have rushed to the scene of the inferno, in West London, to donate food, drinks and clothing Hundreds of people have donated money online to the British Red Cross and a number of crowdfunders which have been set up for the victims A man hands out refreshments near the tower block severely damaged by the massive fire Dozens of kind-hearted strangers have rushed to the scene of the inferno, in West London, to donate food, drinks and clothing, while hundreds more have donated money online Volunteers categorize clothing donations by type and size outside one of the community centres helping those affected Residents of London have shown their generosity by descending one the Maxilla Social Club with clothing, food, water and blankets for the residents of the block who will have lost everything At least 12 people are dead, with the death toll expected to rise, following the inferno overnight in west London The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said there is a rest centre at Harrow Centre, Freston Road, while nearby St Clements Church was collecting clothes, food and water for those affected - many of whom had been forced to escape the building in their night clothes. The chairman of Queens Park Rangers said he was making sure the Shepherd's Bush stadium, at Loftus Road, could also be used as a centre. Tony Fernandes tweeted: 'Our community team will be mobilised. We will do whatever.' As well as opening up the ground providing teas and coffees and shelter, the ground is also been used as a donation point for clothes, blankets and bedding. Members of the QPR Community Trust have also been working directly at Grenfell Tower with the relief effort. The club issued a statement on its website today/yesterday (WED). They said: 'Those looking to donate clothing and blankets to the relief effort can do so at Loftus Road. A youth and children's charity based near the block of flats has also stepped in and offered help. Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson has urged members of the public to donate clothes to residents of Grenfell Tower following the fire which has claimed at least 12 lives A man arrives with refreshments near the tower block severely damaged by a serious fire Volunteers have been working throughout the day to sort through donated clothes and food Some of the dozens of bags of donated clothing given by generous Londoners to those who lost their possessions in the fire Volunteers sort through the clothes brought in by well wishers following the fire in west London overnight A little girl takes a sandwich from one of the many volunteers who are helping those left homeless by the fire And broadcaster Emma Freud offered to open up her own home by any of the hundreds of families left displaced by the fire The Rugby Portobello Trust said they are 'with many of the residents' and have asked people to 'hold off on dropping anything to RPT until we can put together a list of what is needed'. Former England rugby player Will Greenwood had urged the public to send emergency provisions to the trust, at 221 Walmer Road, London, W11 4EY. The group also set up a Facebook event, urging people able to offer space in their homes to come forward. The British Red Cross said its volunteers were also at the scene, with volunteers providing practical help and emotional support at a rest centre. Meanwhile, a number of individuals have reached out via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to offer accommodation and transport help to those affected. One woman, named Giselle, tweeted: 'Just called [Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea] @RBKC and left my details. They are looking for emergency housing. I have offered my place. Do the same if you can Grenfell' Instagram user co.-lams posted an image reading: 'Any residents of Grenfell Tower or Lancaster West Estate who need a local place to stay DM me.' Many others posted on the Rugby Portobello Trust event with contact details for accommodation. Phone company EE have said people are welcome to use their stores in the local area if they need to contact anyone or use social media. They said the stores on Kensington High Street, Notting Hill, Queensway and the two in White City are closest to the incident. A QPR spokesman said: 'We are in dialogue with Kensington & Chelsea Council to see if we can assist the relief effort. 'We have made suggestions as to how we can assist and are currently awaiting guidance. A volunteer hands out sandwiches to those who have been left homeless by the blaze Volunteers bring donations of hot food and clothing to those who have been made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wrote online that his restaurant in Westfield, Shepherd's Bush which is just 1.5 miles from the inferno will provide free food and drink to those affected by the blaze People gather at the Rugby Portobello Trust office in London where supplies are being distributed to victims of the Grenfall tower block fire 'We have suggested using Loftus Road as a relief centre for the emergency services and those affected, and also as a drop-off centre for clothes and provisions.' The ambulance service say 20 people are in a critical condition and 54 have been hospitalised after the Grenfell Tower fire. The London Ambulance Service said 64 of the victims were taken by ambulance to 12 hospitals across London, with the remaining ten having made their own way to A&E. London Ambulance Service Director of Operations Paul Woodrow said: 'Following this morning's fire at Grenfell Tower, West London, we have treated and taken 64 patients to six hospitals across London, where 20 people are currently in critical care. 'Our thoughts are with everyone affected. Over 100 of our medics have been working hard to respond to this incident, including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, advanced trauma teams from London's Air Ambulance and those staff managing the incident in our special operations centre. 'Our hazardous area response teams are also on scene, who carry specialist equipment including breathing apparatus. 'We've been treating patients for a range of injuries, as well as for smoke inhalation. 'A major incident has been declared and we continue to work closely with other members of the emergency services at the scene. 'Members of the public who are concerned about friends and relatives should contact the police Casualty Bureau on 0800 096 1233. 'We urge Londoners to only call us in a genuine emergency and to call NHS 111 for urgent healthcare advice.' Members of many different communities have banded together to support the victims A woman carries water near a tower block severely damaged by the massive fire Volunteers carry dozens of bottles of water into the cordoned off area for victims of the blaze Following the Grenfell Tower fire in West London, JustGiving has set up a dedicated emergency landing page on the platform where people can see all the appeals that have been created to support the victims and their families. More than 250 pages have already been set up and over 200,000 raised, so far, with this figure constantly rising. The page reads: 'The appeal and distribution of funds to victims in need of support will be run by the London Community Foundation which has administered the Dispossessed Fund since it was launched eight years ago. 'The Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund was set up in 2010 to help grassroots charities tackling poverty, inequality and exclusion across the capital. Since its launch in 2010, the Dispossessed Fund has raised 18.02 million from the general public, business, Government, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery.' Other personal JustGiving fundraising pages raising significant funds on the platform include: A JustGiving appeal created by local Kensington resident and mother of two, Karolina Hanusova, a volunteer at The Rugby Portbello Trust, which has already raised over 100,000. Karolina said: 'I know families affected. We're raising funds to help the residents of the burned down Grenfell Tower, London, W11 to get back on their feet.' A JustGiving appeal created by local teacher Hayley Yearwood which has already raised over 82,000. Hayley said on the page: Grenfell tower block in West London where a number of people are feared dead due to a fire during the early hours This terrifying picture capture the moment burning debris fall from the inferno at the Grenfell tower block 'I am a teacher at a local school and know that many of our students and their families will be affected by this awful fire. It is a really close-knit community and the trauma will be felt for years to come. I'd like to help in any way possible. 'We're raising 1,000,000 to help the families of Grenfell Tower, West London who have been devastated by a fire which has destroyed their homes and taken loved ones.' A JustGiving appeal created by brother and sister Anass and Bochra Boudarka from Earls Court who have friends missing in the fire which has already raised over 21,000. Anass & Bochra said: 'We know people missing in the fire. Please donate anything you can to help families that have lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower fire. Let's help them get their lives back together.' To support the appeals, visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/categories/emergencies/grenfell-tower-fire. Anyone concerned for loved ones in the blaze can contact the Met Police casualty bureau on 0800 0961 233. Just two months after witnesses recorded the moment a 69-year-old man was dragged off a United Airlines flight to make room for crew, a new video is threatening to embroil the airline in scandal once again. The nearly three-minute video, obtained by KPRC, shows a United Airlines customer service representative pushing a 71-year-old man to the ground and knocking him unconscious after the elderly man asked a question about his boarding pass. In fact, not a single United employee came to the man's aide. It was only when another passenger, a nurse catching a flight, stopped to help the man that an employee finally called 911 for help. The victim, grandfather and frequent flyer Ronald Tigner, is now suing the airline and the employee who shoved him - Alejandro Anastasia - for negligence. He is seeking more than $1million in damages. Scroll down for video According to the lawsuit, Tigner approached Anastasia at Bush Intercontinental Airport in 2015, asking for a new boarding pass because his was garbled. William Hoke, Tigner's attorney, said that Anastasia responded by laughing and cursing at him. 'Anastasia was looking at Mr. Tigner and started smiling and said, "Can't you see we're busy?" and there's no one in the vicinity of these two employees,' Hoke told KPRC. 'And he tells Anastasia to wipe that smile off his face. That's when Anastasia says, "I'll kick your (expletives)" and shoves Tigner to the ground.' The video then shows Anastasia walking away, while not a single United employee tries to help the elderly man. Video shows a United Airlines employee (in blue) pushing a 71-year-old man (left, in white) to the ground at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in 2015 The victim is grandfather and frequent flyer Ronald Tigner. The customer service representative is Alejandro Anastasia, who no longer works for the company The video was obtained by KPRC. Tigner is now suing the airline and Anastasia for more than $1million Not a single United employee goes to the man's aide after he was pushed to the ground About 50 seconds in, a female passenger runs over to Tigner's side and then appears to shout for help. To this day, Tigner (pictured) says he still has concussion-like symptoms 'It was a good Samaritan, who was a nurse, that was catching a flight, ran over and said, "Please, God. Someone call 911,"' Hoke said. A United employee called 911, but didn't say how Tigner ended up on the ground. According to audio obtained from the 911 call, when the operator asked what the emergency was, the employee said that 'a 70-year-old male' had 'fallen down'. 'Ok, is he awake?' the operator asks. 'I don't know,' the worker says. 'Do you know the cause of the fall?' the operator then asks. 'No,' the worker responds. The fall knocked Tigner unconscious. He was later rushed to the hospital and treated for a closed head injury It wasn't until another passenger (in red) got down to help Tigner that a United employee finally called 911 The United employee said he didn't know how Tigner ended up on the ground The clips ends with two airport police officers coming to Tigner's aide. Tigner was later rushed to the hospital and treated for a closed head injury. To this day, he says he still has concussion-like symptoms. Following the incident, Anastasia was charged with felony crime of injury to an elderly individual and was ordered to pay a fine, write a letter of apology and attend anger-management classes. In a statement released on Tuesday, before KPRC aired the video, the airline said that Anastasia no longer works for the company and that they are trying to make things right with Tigner. 'We are disturbed by the completely unacceptable behavior shown in a video of a customer and a former United employee at Bush Intercontinental Airport in 2015. 'The actions shown here do not reflect our core values or our commitment to treat all of our customers with respect and dignity. 'We are reviewing all circumstances surrounding this incident and reaching out to our customer through his attorney to profusely apologize for what occurred and to make this right. 'We have seen the video from 2015 that shows completely unacceptable behavior by a United employee. This employee is no longer with our company. 'The conduct shown here does not reflect our values or our commitment to treat all of our customers with respect and dignity. 'We are taking a thorough look into what happened here and reaching out to our customer to profusely apologize for what occurred and to make this right,' the statement reads. A gastropub's owners say they have been forced into removing foie gras from their menu after animal rights activists compared them to the London Bridge terrorists. David and Samantha McHattie, who run the Bridge Inn at Calver in the Peak District, claim protestors have subjected them to a campaign of 'intimidation'. Activists have staged four protests outside the pub in the last few months, demanding it stop serving the controversial French delicacy. The owners of the Bridge Inn at Calver, claim they have been 'bullied' by protestors. There is no suggestion their allegations are directed at any particular individual in these photos Now the couple have reluctantly decided to change the menu after a customer was left 'visibly shaken' by a 'torrent of intimidating abuse' that led to police being called. The country inn started serving foie gras in March this year, but it soon became a target for animal right activists from 40 miles away in Nottingham. Foie gras is made from the livers of geese or ducks force fed through a tube pushed down their throat. The owners refused to back down claiming the conditions the geese are now kept in are humane. They also said the attempts to halt the sale of foie gras has backfired too as the interest generated by the wrangle had increased sales. But following the latest protest two weeks ago David and Samantha McHattie decided enough was enough. David and Samantha McHattie claimed the animal rights activists had subjected them to a campaign of 'intimidation' The country inn started serving foie gras in March this year, but it soon became a target for animal right activists from 40 miles away in Nottingham In a statement they said: 'The activists will crow victory, but so be it. 'We cannot and will not put our principles before our guests' experience at The Bridge, so we have decided to remove it from the menu. 'Peaceful protest is fine but these people know the law and exactly how far they can push it. 'While their actions have increased awareness and sales, their behaviour just continues to reach new depths which is totally unacceptable to our guests. The owners at first refused to back down claiming the conditions the geese are now kept in are humane 'Our family and team have been abused to their face and online, often waking up to 80 or more disparaging comments on their Facebook pages. 'Their actions are utterly deplorable. We worry that their escalating attempts to intimidate and abuse will lead to the flash point they and their video cameras crave.' After the campaign was launched The Bridge Inn's business page was plagued with over 190 one star reviews from people as far away as the USA and Argentina. They claimed were then blackmailed by a group of users who said they would delete their reviews if the couple took foie gras off the menu. Customers who left positive reviews or disagreed with the 'protestors' were also targeted with abusive messages. 'They are just trying to bully us and our customers,' said Mrs McHattie, 35. 'One activist compared me to the terrorist involved in the recent London attack while one said any parent who feeds their child meat is as abusive as a parent who gives their child a cigarette. 'The majority of these activists are not even from the UK and never even been to the village, let alone the pub.' The couple reopened the refurbished pub in July last year, having purchased it six months before. The restaurant did not receive a single complaint about foie gras until a customer posted about it on Facebook earlier this year. A spokesperson for Nottingham Animal Rights, said: 'We will continue to monitor the Bridge Inn going forward' The restaurant did not receive a single complaint until a customer posted about it on Facebook earlier this year. A spokesperson for Nottingham Animal Rights, said: 'While this is fantastic news that the Bridge Inn have seen sense and removed foie gras from the menu, we do not see it as a victory for us. 'It is a victory for the geese and ducks that are abused and tortured every day to produce such a horribly cruel dish. 'We will continue to monitor the Bridge Inn going forward, as with other establishments that have agreed to remove foie gras from their menu, to ensure this controversial dish remains permanently off the menu.' Foie gras: A culinary delight or just plain cruel? Foie gras is made of duck or goose liver. By French law, it is defined as the liver of a duck fattened by force feeding corn. Outside France it is sometimes produced using natural feeding. The technique, known as gavage, dates back as far as 2500 BC when the ancient Egyptians kept birds for food and deliberately fattened them through force feeding. By French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck fattened by force feeding corn. Outside France it is sometimes produced using natural feeding France is the largest producer and consumer of foie gras but it is made and consumed around the world - especially in Europe, America and China. In France, foie gras comes in various forms such as whole foie gras which is made of one or two whole liver lobes, or as pieces of livers mixed together. It also comes fully cooked as a moulded block made up of 98 per cent foie gras. In January a firm which supplied ducks for Gordon Ramsay's foie gras dishes appeared in court in France accused of 'serious animal cruelty'. Ernest Soulard, which is based in Oie, in the west of the country, is said to have kept birds in appalling conditions as it created the delicacy. Advertisement The group described the process of producing foie gras as a 'barbaric' practice which has been banned by some countries and is opposed by animal welfare organisations like the RSPCA. They described public support for the protests staged outside The Bridge as 'overwhelming'. Several other pubs have also been targeted by animal rights protesters over serving foie gras. The Weighbridge Brewhouse in Swindon took it off the menu after it was sent postcards of birds being force-fed with the caption 'cruel b*******'. And The Kings Arms in Fleggburgh, Norfolk, removed the item from their Valentine's Day offering after protestors warned they would turn up on the day. Nicola Sturgeon was today forced to deny reports she is secretly plotting to hold another Scottish independence referendum - despite the SNP's staggering election losses. Scotland's First Minister was said to be locked away with her most trusted allies to draw up plans to keep her dreams of breaking up the United Kingdom alive. She was reportedly looking at proposals to push ahead with another independence referendum, but rebrand it as a vote on the final Brexit deal to lure Scots into backing it. The SNP leader took to Twitter to furiously deny the claim, which she branded 'utter nonsense'. Nicola Sturgeon, pictured in Edinburgh today, has branded reports she is secretly plotting a second independence referendum 'utter nonsense' Ms Sturgeon, pictured in Edinburgh today, has so far refused to take the threat of another independence vote off the table despite losing over a third of her MPs in the election And in a move which appeared timed to distract from the furore, her party sent out a letter Ms Sturgeon has written to Theresa May urging the PM to tear up her plans for Brexit. The SNP took a battering in last week's election, losing 21 MPs to pro-union parties. Independence agitator in chief Alex Salmond, and the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson were two of the high profile scalps to be claimed on election night. But it remains unclear if Ms Sturgeon will listen to voters and take the threat of another vote off the table. The SNP leader hit out at reports she is working up plans to hold another vote to break up the union, and said she will announce her plans in due course Writing on twitter today, she said: 'Most of media speculation about #ScotRef is nonsense. I'll set out way forward in due course after talking to people across @theSNP 'I'll take decisions in best interests, not just of @theSNP, but of Scotland...and not be dictated to by demands for quick headlines! 'In meantime, @scotgov will focus on trying to influence Brexit talks - a Tory led hard Brexit is simply not acceptable post #GE2017.' Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon is trying to take advantage of the political turmoil in Westminster to push for a bigger say on Brexit. In a letter to the PM, she said new Brexit proposals are 'urgently needed' and called for Britain to stay in the single market. But this would mean Britain would have to give up its plans to regain control of its borders, while firms would still be bound up in red tape from Brussels. The First Minister repeated her calls for the UK Government to adopt a 'much more inclusive process' following the General Election. Alex Salmond, pictured after he lost his seat on election night. The former SNP leader was one of many of the party's MPs to lose their seat as voters punished the party for pressing on with threats to hold another independence referendum She said people are 'becoming increasingly worried about the confusion surrounding the UK's position', with Theresa May yet to appoint a negotiating team with a 'stable mandate'. Ms Sturgeon wants a cross-party approach, with involvement from the devolved nations, centred on maintaining European single market membership. The letter states: 'During the election you sought a mandate for your proposals to leave the European single market. 'That proposal failed to garner support, it is now clear that a new proposal is urgently needed to protect the economy and bring people together. 'The proposals contained in the Scottish Government document, Scotland's Place in Europe, provide a blueprint for this approach. 'Adopting these proposals for the UK as a whole will bring clarity, in place of the current confusion, and provide a coherent base for the UK's future relationship with the EU.' Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, pictured outside Stilling castle on Saturday. Her party won 13 seats after campaigning on a platform of opposing another independence referendum The First Minister has previously admitted the issue of another independence ballot was a factor in the election and stated the party will reflect on its plans amid calls for it to be taken off the table. She has insisted she will not be 'dictated to by demands for quick headlines' in her decision-making, adding she will instead focus on trying to influence Brexit talks. 'I have said that I will reflect on the election result in Scotland, listen to voters and consider carefully the best way forward for Scotland,' she wrote in her letter. 'I hope that the UK Government, too, will reflect on what the election results mean for the importance of finding an outcome from Brexit that meets the needs and aspirations of all the people and nations of the UK.' Threat: Marcia Morgan was threatened by the wife of Dennis Reeves in a series of chilling text messages The wife of a Texas school principal branded his mistress a 'whore' and claimed she would 'hire a hitman' if she could afford it just days before he killed himself when confronted about the affair by school authorities. Court documents claimed Tammy Reeves, wife of Principal Dennis Reeves, sent a string of abusive online and text messages to his former secretary, Marcia Morgan before he 'blew his brains out' in the school parking lot. Mrs Reeves accused Mrs Morgan of being 'a lying piece of trash' in what school authorities have described as 'fodder for a soap opera serial'. Principal Reeves admitted to his wife on May 19 that he had an affair with his former secretary. On May 23, Principal Reeves shot himself in the head in the parking lot of Kirbyville High School moments after being confronted about the affair and allegations of harassment by Superintendent Thomas Wallis. According to court documents, after Reeves admitted the affair, his wife sent Morgan, his former secretary an 'angry text message'. She wrote: 'He told me everything today. You are a lying piece of trash... Do your children know what their mother did?' Scroll down for video Dennis Reeves, pictured with his wife Tammy, killed himself just days after he admitted an affair with this former secretary at Kirbyville High School, prompting Mrs Reeves to send the mistress abusive messages according to court documents seen by MailOnline Reeves, pictured, killed himself just minutes after being confronted by school authorities over allegations he had been involved in an extra marital affair with his former secretary Authorities said Reeves shot himself in the head in the school parking lot inside his truck, pictured, after he handed in his resignation as a result of allegations of harassment Mrs Reeves at one point posted an image to social media of a note that was allegedly written by the former secretary to the school official. She included her own message as well when she posted the image, which appeasered to have been sent directly to the secretary, writing: 'You realize you're still alive only because I can't afford a hitman, right?' She also described the woman as the 'secretary' who had been 'f****** my husband'. On May 23, Morgan met with assistant superintendent Georgia Sayers and admitted the affair and 'expressed concern about the social media harassment from Mrs Reeves and described her concerns about workplace harassment from Mr Reeves'. Shortly before his suicide, Reeves has been subject to a harassment complaint from a teacher who claimed the principal had sent her 'hundreds of text massages'. The school district responsible for Kirbyville High School has lodged court papers seeking to lift a restraining order secured by Reeves' wife who wants copies of complaints against him According to court documents on May 23 'Reeves was presented with the certainty of an administrative investigation and was informed that he would be administratively suspended for three days pending the investigation.' Officials demanded Reeves hand over his laptop, keys and his cell phone which had been issued by the school district. Before handing over the phone, he began deleting messages. According to the documents: 'Reeves was offered the opportunity to resolve the situation with is reputation intact by resigning. Forced with two unpleasant alternatives, Reeves tendered his resignation in lieu of an investigation into his conduct.' Reeves reportedly told officials 'I'm not good, I'm not good' before going out into the parking lot and shooting himself in the head. The school district claimed they wished to 'protect the reputation of Dennis Reeves and his family' following his suicide, but these attempts 'snowballed into media allegations of deception'. Reeves' wife asked school authorities for permission to retrieve his personal belongings from his office and his letter of resignation. She also wanted Morgan's written statement. When this request was refused, she petitioned Jefferson County Court for access to all documents relating to the case. The school district has filed a motion to dissolve the temporary restraining order. According to school's case 'the facts in issue are the fodder for a soap opera serial, not a cause of action in a court of law'. Two of the four escaped inmates including a murder suspect who managed to break out of an Oklahoma jail have been caught. Jeremy Tyson Irvin, 32, was brought into custody along with fellow escapee, Trey Glenn Goodnight, 27. Pottawatomie County Undersheriff Travis Palmer told NewsOK said that the escapees were surrounded and captured in an area north of State Highway 270 between the Dale railroad track and Bethel Road near the North Canadian River. Trey Glenn Goodnight, 27, has been captured in Pottawatomie County days after escaping Prisoners Jeremy Irvin, 32, left, and Trey Goodnight, 27, have been caught after escaping through the ventilation system Hunt for Sonny Baker, left, and Brian Allen Moody continues. They had escaped once before Fishermen in the area spotted the men, Palmer said before an Oklahoma Highway Patrol helicopter crew spotted the men walking in the North Canadian River riverbed. The search for Brian Allen Moody, 23, and Sonny Baker, 41, continues Wednesday. The breakout first happened between 1am and 4am Monday at the Lincoln County Jail near Oklahoma City. For two of the jailbirds it was their second bid for freedom within three months following an earlier breakout through the same ventilation system. Surveillance video showed three of the prisoners escaping down the hallway in the early morning hours - above, two of them sneak down the hall A third prisoner seen on the far right escaped as the other two were further down the hallway One of the escapees, Tyson, was in the jail for first degree murder. All of the others are doing time for property crimes, according to KOCO. In late March, Moody and Baker escaped through the same ventilation system, but were found and returned to the prison within several days. Neither had left the state. Lincoln County Sheriff Charles Dougherty admits the air duct system isn't very secure. 'There's an area between the ceiling and probably about a 10-foot wall. It's made out of wire,' Dougherty told KOCO. 'They get up on top of that and they're able to jump over an air vent.' He said he's looking into getting the opening sealed up. 'I've already met with all three county commissioners and they've been in here with some contractors to look and see what we can do to avoid this from happening anymore,' he said. Lincoln County Sheriff Charles Dougherty said he's met with three county commissioners and contractors to fix the problem He called the prisoners 'dangerous folks'. The sheriff said he believes that Baker and Moody were able to make their escape in a stolen white Dodge truck. He believes they headed down Highway 9 and Highway 102 in Pottawatomie County. American nuclear war warning system DefCon has said there is 'no imminent nuclear threat' to the US despite North Korea long-range missile tests. North Korea poses one of the greatest national security challenges for President Donald Trump as it tries to develop a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike America. However there are currently no imminent threats against the US, according to DefCon. It has reduced its threat level to five, the lowest possible. Korean People's Armed Forces test-fire a new cruise rocket on Sunday in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. Despite that DefCon has reduced the nuclear threat level against the US Trump is looking to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea, with help from China but has said he's open to meeting leader Kim Jong Un It added: 'South Korea has made some recent overtures to North Korea, but so far they have been mostly rebuffed, which seems to have come as a surprise to South Korea. 'It remains to be seen how South Korea will re-model its approach to its northern adversary, but for the time being it appears the region is not heading to war.' The DEFCON Warning System is a private intelligence organization which has monitored and assessed nuclear threats against the US for more than 33 years. Members of the Korean People's Armed Forces react after doing a test-fire of new cruise rocket Trump is looking to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea, with help from China but has said he's open to meeting leader Kim Jong Un. The isolated nation has been building up to a position of being able to launch weapons of mass destruction over the Atlantic and has routinely fired test rockets this year. The dictator's defence ministry fired a missile named Hwasong-12 on Sunday night which soared 489 miles (787 km) reaching a height of 1,312 miles (2,111 km). Americans are regarded as enemies in North Korea since the two countries never signed a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. Thousands of US troops are based in South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. Rome's populist mayor called on Tuesday for a moratorium on new migrants arriving in the city, warning that setting up additional reception centres risked sparking explosive social tensions in the capital. In the most significant challenge yet to the centre-left Italian government's policy of distributing across the country the thousands of migrants arriving at southern ports, Virginia Raggi said it was 'time to listen to the citizens of Rome.' 'We cannot permit the creation of more social tensions,' Raggi, a member of the populist Five Star Movement, wrote on her Facebook page. In the most significant challenge yet to the centre-left Italian government's policy of distributing across the country the thousands of migrants arriving at southern ports, Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi called for a moratorium on new migrants arriving in the city 'That is why I am saying it is impossible, risky even, to think about creating any new reception structures.' Her appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears. The ministry is asking all Italian municipalities to expand their reception facilities for the expected arrival of around 250,000 migrants over the course of 2017, compared with 181,436 last year. With existing facilities jammed full, Italy is dealing with a mounting backlog of recently-arrived migrants as a result of neighbouring states tightening their borders, making it harder for new arrivals to reach preferred destinations in northern Europe. As of Monday, Italy had registered 61,903 new migrants in 2017, up from 52,275 in the same period of 2016. Arrivals generally peak over the summer months when sea conditions make it easier for traffickers to launch boats from Libya. More than half a million people from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East landed in Italy between the start of 2014 and the end of 2016. The ministry is asking all Italian municipalities to expand their reception facilities for the expected arrival of around 250,000 migrants over the course of 2017, compared with 181,436 last year. Pictured above, Tunisian would-be immigrants wait to board a train at Rome's Termini station to Ventimiglia Processing records suggest at least 40 percent of them have a valid claim to asylum in Europe or leave to remain on humanitarian grounds. The others, classified as illegal economic migrants, are liable to be deported but that is often difficult to organise because their countries of origin frequently refuse to take them back. It is not the first time Italy's government has been confronted by a local authority threatening not to take its share of migrants. Previous challenges have been faced down by threats to cut funding from central government. But Rome's move could inspire other major urban centres to follow suit, particularly in northern Italy, where the anti-immigration Northern League is very influential. Raggi's move came on the same day that Five Star's leader, Beppe Grillo, announced a crackdown on ethnic Roma migrants from eastern Europe living in makeshift camps in the Rome area. As of Monday, Italy had registered 61,903 new migrants in 2017, up from 52,275 in the same period of 2016. Pictured above, refugees camp in a square in Rome in 2015 'Now the music in Rome changes,' Grillo wrote on his blog. 'Anyone who declares themselves penniless and drives a luxury car will be out. 'Anyone who begs in the metro with kids in tow, is out. Surveillance against pickpockets in the metro will be increased.' Political rivals said Grillo's outburst and Raggi's move represented a tilt to the right in the populists' agenda after the young party's advance stalled in local elections at the weekend. The polls setback cast doubt on its ability to win national power in the next general election, expected in early 2018. The pressure on Italy's refugee system has been exacerbated by its EU partners reneging on promises to take in asylum seekers under a scheme aimed at relocating 160,000 people from Italy and Greece to other EU states. As of June 5, only 5,694 people had been relocated from Italy and several eastern European countries are refusing point blank to comply with the scheme. The European Commission on Tuesday began legal action against three of them, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, over the issue. Sam Linton issued a written ultimatum to the families of some of her primary school pupils A headmistress has threatened to ban parents from her primary school if they keep swearing in front of children as she tries to cut bad behaviour. Sam Linton issued a written ultimatum to the families of some of her pupils aged between three and 11 at Temple Grove Academy in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It comes as the school in the upmarket town, which has about 250 children, was ordered to improve by Ofsted inspectors for the second consecutive time. Ms Linton, who started at the school in 2013, said: 'Sadly, it has been brought to my attention about some parents heard swearing on academy premises and at the gates in front of the children. 'While this is only from a very small number of parents, children are being exposed to upsetting language and even copying what they have heard. 'Please be careful about the language that you use at school and in front of the children as, if it continues, we may have to consider banning those individuals from the premises under our parents' code of conduct.' Temple Grove Academy in the upmarket Kent town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, which has about 250 children, was ordered to improve by Ofsted inspectors for the second consecutive time The letter was sent out to parents at the school as the latest Ofsted report was published last Wednesday following a visit by inspectors in April. An 11-page document produced by lead inspector Deborah Gordon found pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well. But its 'effectiveness of leadership and management', 'quality of teaching, learning and assessment' and 'outcomes for pupils' were all rated as 'requires improvement'. Ms Linton said the school, which became an academy four years ago, will 'learn from this outcome and will be stronger and better as a result'. She said: 'We have always said we are on a long journey, so although we are disappointed with the overall result of the Ofsted inspection, there is much to be celebrated within the report. 'We are particularly proud that both our 'personal development, behaviour and welfare' and 'early years provision' are now judged as 'good'. 'We firmly believe that if we get it right in the early years, children will have a sound foundation on which to thrive and succeed.' The school previously made the news last September when it extended its half-term break from one week to two, so families could enjoy cheaper holidays. It secured the extra week of holiday by accumulating inset days - usually reserved for staff training over the year - into one week that the children now have off. A deportation order has been overturned for an Adelaide family whose disabled daughter was deemed 'a burden to the Australian health system.' Mary George, three, was born with a neurological condition and spent the first year of her life in hospital. Mary's parents are in Australia on student visas and, after reaching out to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, were told keeping the family in the country 'wouldn't be in the public interest.' But the Federal government gave all four members of the family permanent visa's on Wednesday, overturning the previous decision to deport them. Mary George was born with a neurological condition and spent the first year of her life in hospital An Indian family were facing deportation because of a disability suffered by their young daughter The George family were told they could be deported by the end of the month because of Mary's disability Mary was born in November, 2014 at Adelaide's Lyell McEwin Hospital where she spent 28 days on life support. Her parents arrived in Australia in 2011, with father Manu studying nursing. 'We're in a tricky situation about the future, because we came here for a better life, I'm working,' Mr George told Nine News. The family were worried about taking Mary home because her condition may worsen and her doctor in Australia is across all of her information. Mary requires around-the-clock care by her parents who were facing deportation as a result of her condition 'We don't want to miss Mary's doctor because he knows everything about her,' Mrs George said. They have sought legal help to remain in Australia after being told they could face deportation at the end of the month. The Department of Immigration were looking at 'alternative visa options' for the family but they will now have a permanent place in Australia. A former Sydney primary school teacher who was taunted by radicalised students as young as 10 says the state's education minister didn't take her concerns seriously. The teacher, who prefers to be known by the pseudonym of Mrs A, says meeting New South Wales Education Minister Rob Stokes last week was like talking with Walt Disney characters. 'I felt like I was in a room with Huey, Dewey and Louie, Duck faces,' she told the Mark Latham's Outsiders program on Wednesday night. Scroll down for video Former Sydney primary school teacher 'Mrs A' told Mark Latham about radicalised students NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes met up with Mrs A last week but she is far from impressed She met with Mr Stokes, an adviser and a Department of Education bureaucrat to discuss radicalisation among Muslim students at Punchbowl Public School. However, she is upset the minister didn't even bother to read documents she had brought in for him outlining a series of incident involving Muslim students in 2014. 'I said to him, 'I want you to personally look at this, not your advisers, and tell me if this is normal',' she said. 'I got a sense that it wasn't important to him. 'It's been swept under the carpet.' The whistleblower has spoken of how students in Years 5 and 6 menacingly recited the Koran in Arabic at her and on one occasion even made throat-slitting gestures, and is upset the minister didn't offer her an apology. The former Punchbowl Public School teacher likened the minister to Walt Disney characters A spokesman for Education Minister Rob Stokes told Daily Mail Australia the minister had passed on Mrs A's documents relating to matters in 2014 to the department. 'Mr Stokes wants to ensure that all teachers feel safe and valued doing their important jobs in NSW classrooms,' he said. However, Mrs A is perplexed the minister had suggested teachers with concerns about radicalisation should contact her and wished the minister would act. 'We can't respond to the problem unless we know what the problem is,' she said. Advertisement Children who helped win the First World War by fighting on the front line, working in factories and even giving up 'unpatriotic' sweets have been remembered in a new book. The youngsters helped out on the land, worked in munitions factories and watched out over the coast during the conflict. And, when a campaign for volunteers was launched, some brave boys as young as 12 lied about their age and signed up for the front line. Children who helped win the First World War by fighting on the front line, working in factories and even giving up sweets have been remembered in a new book. Pictured are Eton schoolboys working to help grow food in the school playing fields The youngsters helped out on the land, worked in munitions factories and watched out over the coast during the conflict. Pictured left is a father and son wearing matching Volunteer Training Corps uniforms and, right, children next to a special air raid shelter at their school This photograph, taken in 1917, shows a class of girls doing an air drill. Back home in Britain, there was no escaping the conflict as Zeppelin raids, blackouts and rationing became routine parts of everyday life In total, 250,000 young men under the age of 19 - the legal limit for armed service overseas - answered the call to fight and went to the Western Front. One of those was Private John Condon, who was killed in the second battle of Ypres when he was just 14. Back home in Britain, there was no escaping the conflict as Zeppelin raids, blackouts and rationing became routine parts of everyday life. With the exodus of men to France to fight the Germans, Scouts became coast watchers and guarded railway bridges. Hundreds of thousands of children worked in munition factories or found themselves helping with the harvest and foraging in the hedgerows for food. Children also helped the war effort by raising money for the Red Cross and knitting soldiers' comforts. The German U-Boat assault contributed to food shortages which meant many foods including sweets would be strictly rationed. As a result, it was seen as unpatriotic and a dereliction of duty for children to eat sweets. Girls are pictured in a typical classroom. Youngsters such as these also helped the war effort by raising money for the Red Cross and knitting soldiers' comforts Boys are pictured in their PE lesson in the school playground using barbells. Children were asked to help during the war as men were posted overseas to fight The youngsters' stories have now been told by historian Mike Brown in his new book Children in the First World War. Mr Brown's book also features fascinating propaganda cartoons of British children that were printed to boost the war effort. One inspiring example is of a Scout manning the coast to keep a lookout for German invaders with the caption 'leave it to me'. Another cartoon urges children to do their bit to ration food to help the war effort with the message 'don't waste bread, save two slices every day and defeat the U-Boat'. During the war, a nurse's outfit - such as the one pictured left - became a must-have addition to any little girl's dressing up box. Pictured right is a pattern booklet so children at home could make knitted comforts for those in the services Sea Scouts did much war-related work, including coast watching. Pictured left is a Sea Scout and his father, while, pictured right, is a typical group of munitions workers including two young boys and two young girls A group of nurses and helpers are pictured at a war hospital. The youngsters' stories have now been told by historian Mike Brown in his new book Children in the First World War An entire family working on an allotment carries the slogan 'when father says dig, we all dig'. A child wearing tattered clothes in light of the clothes shortage of 1917 says 'anyhow, they've got to last until the war's over'. Mike Brown, 66, a history teacher from Lewisham, South London, said: 'As a school teacher I know that children are very interested in what it was like to be a child on the Home Front, yet very little has been written about their experiences before now. 'When war broke out in August 1914, people thought that it would follow the pattern of past wars - that the armed forces would fight the war in some foreign field while civilians safe at home would pay for it through taxation.. Mike Brown's new book features fascinating propaganda cartoons of British children that were printed to boost the war effort. Left is a cartoon for the cadets, while right is a picture of a young boy marching, above the caption 'leave it to me' The Magnet, from September 1916, shows Greyfriars in a fictional boys' public school. The two boys are wearing variations of the uniform of such a school; on the left the short jacket and large Eton collar, on the right, a blazer Most children would create their uniforms and weapons for playing out of whatever came to hand, such as this rather motley crew, who have used kitchen items and fire stokers The Volunteer Training Corps were a sort of Home Guard, wearing an armband with GR Georgius Rex on it, with much fun poked at alternative meanings of the letters (left). Pictured right is a German postcard showing a military Zeppelin of the type that carried out raids over Britain 'This was soon proved wrong. Even children would be required to "do their bit" towards the war effort.' He added that the majority of children left school at 12, with hundreds of thousands working in munition factories. 'Children were down in the air raid shelters during the Zeppelin raids like everyone else and were affected by food shortages and rationing,' he said. 'They worked on the land helping to bring in the harvest or grew vegetables on allotments at home or in school. An illustration from a wartime children's book, showing sixteen-year-old John Cornwell, standing mortally wounded at his gun at the battle of Jutland Children in the First World War, by Mike Brown, which celebrates the children during the conflict, is published by Amberley books and costs 8.99. Pictured right are public schoolboys playing football 'Youth organisations such as the Scouts provided patrols to guard the railways, coast watchers and trumpeters to sound the all-clear, while Guides worked in hospitals and knitted comforts for the troops. 'Many boys lied about their age and signed up to be soldiers. The attitude of the forces was if they were game enough to sign up why stop them. 'At the time the lives of ordinary people - and children especially - were not considered important and histories written after the war reflected this. In this book I hope go some way to putting this right.' Bridget Mary's Books: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Bridget-Mary-Meehan/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ABrid A Promise of Presence Affirmations from the Heart of God Exploring the Feminine Face of God God Delights in You- A Four Week Journal Heart Talks with Mother God Inclusive Worship Aids Living Gospel Equality Now- Praying with a Passionate Heart Praying with Celtic Holy Women Praying with Visionary Women h Praying with Women of the Bible The Healing Power of Prayer-New Edition Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP A handout given out by the hospital shows the tapeworm found inside the girl in Taiwan Doctors in Taiwan have reportedly found a tapeworm measuring 2.6 metres (8ft 6in) inside a girl who loves eating sashimi, a Japanese dish made of slices of raw fish. A family member of the eight-year-old child said she experienced itchiness in her rectum after eating the dish at a restaurant in Taipei, a doctor from the Tri-Service General Hospital told Apple Daily. The girl is said to have recovered after surgeons removed the tapeworm from her rear and prescribed drugs to her. Wang Zhijian, a paediatrician from the hospital, told Apple Daily that the unnamed girl had contracted a type of tapeworm called diphyllobothrium latum. The diphyllobothrium latum is the largest human tapeworm and is also known as fish or broad tapeworm, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It could be contracted by the consumption of raw, contaminated pork, beef or fish. The eight-year-old girl loves sushi, especially sashimi. She is said to have eaten the raw fish dish at a restaurant before falling ill (file photo) The girl was treated by doctors from the Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei (pictured) After the girl's family told the doctors that she loved eating sushi, especially sashimi, the doctors said her illness could be caused by contaminated raw fish. He Shengyuan, a doctor in charge of mass education at the hospital, said the tapeworm was estimated to have lived inside the young patient for more than a month. Dr He said the tapeworm was alive and moving in the girl's rectum when the doctor removed it. The date of the surgery has not been revealed. Dr He also warned the public not to eat raw food. Germany plans to fingerprint asylum seekers as young as six and give authorities the right to look at private messages on services such as WhatsApp to try and prevent terrorism. Ministers agreed to lower the age limit for fingerprinting minors to six from 14 for asylum seekers. Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann, a Merkel ally whose south-eastern state is the entry point for many refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, said it was important security services can monitor children. That proposal encountered strong opposition in the country, where the memories of spying in the Communist and Nazi run deep. 'Children are victims of extremism,' said Social Democrat family affairs minister Katharina Barley, who said authorities should be protecting children not spying on their friends. Ministers agreed to lower the age limit for fingerprinting minors to six from 14 for asylum seekers Authorities also want the right to look at private messages. Ministers from central government and federal states said encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Signal, allow militants and criminals to evade traditional surveillance. 'We can't allow there to be areas that are practically outside the law,' interior minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in the eastern town of Dresden. Militant attacks in France, Britain and Germany have prompted European governments to tighten up on surveillance of suspected militants. Britain has proposed forcing messaging services to let authorities access encrypted communications. Among the options Germany is considering is 'source telecom surveillance', where authorities install software on phones to relay messages before they are encrypted. That is now illegal. Last December's lorry attack on a Christmas market, in which 12 were killed and Germany's struggle to integrate thousands of refugees, have put security high up the political agenda Austria is also planning laws to make it easier to monitor encrypted messages as well as building out a linked network of cameras and other equipment to read vehicle licence plates. Last December's lorry attack on a Berlin Christmas market, in which 12 were killed and Germany's struggle to integrate thousands of refugees, have put security high up the political agenda before an election in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a fourth term in office. Ministers also agreed to improve communication between the many different regional and national police and investigation agencies in the highly decentralised country. A black student who wrote about racial tension at her New Jersey high school was suspended after submitting a yearbook photo that included artwork that contained a racial slur and images of lynchings. Jamaica Ponder was suspended from Princeton High School on Monday because of the photo which contained one of her father's artworks. The yearbook photograph features several of Ms Ponder's friends on the floor in front of her father's artwork which deals with the issue of race in a provocative fashion. Jamaica Ponder, pictured, was suspended from school after she submitted a photograph for her high school yearbook which featured two of her father's controversial artworks Ms Ponder, center, was suspended over this image by Princeton High School in New Jersey Principal Gary Snyder has so far refused to comment on the controversy involving the school According to Newsworks, Ms Ponder was suspended by Princeton High School in New Jersey after submitting the image. Ms Ponder said submitting the photograph with the image in the background was 'an oversight', but she said two letters of the word were obscured in one of the artworks and very small in a second. School authorities claimed the artwork featured the word 'n*****' and was offensive. She said: 'It's frustrating to me to watch the school deliberately refuse to be more transparent and address its multitude of issues.' The problem isn't that school officials aren't perfect, she added. 'The problem is that they aren't doing anything to make themselves better.' Principal Gary Snyder declined to comment. Several students were disciplined for sneaking offensive imagery into the yearbook, according to a letter from Snyder sent to parents. A group of students protested Ponder's suspension Monday. A petition from the students calls for the suspension to be erased from her permanent record. The petition also asks administrators and faculty to educate themselves on how profanity is used by different racial and ethnic groups. Rhinold Ponder and Michele Tuck-Ponder do not agree with their daughter's suspension and plan to appeal to Princeton's civil rights commission. 'This is a young black lady who is bringing up issues that many people in Princeton don't want to discuss. There are frictions in this town that people don't want revealed. They figure the best move is to shut her down and send a message to the other kids to shut up, or you will be suspended,' Rhinold Ponder said. A man wanted for stabbing his roommate in Las Vegas has been arrested in California. Zachary Drey, 25, was arrested at a gas station near Indio, California Friday evening, Las Vegas police confirmed Tuesday. Indio is more than a four hour drive away from Los Vegas. Drey is the suspect in the murder of his roommate, University of Nevada, Las Vegas student Clifton Taylor, also 25. Zachary Drey (left) was arrested in California on Friday - nine days after allegedly stabbing his roommate Clifton Taylor (right) to death at their apartment near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Police found the computer engineering student's dead body inside the apartment he shared with Drey on May 31. He had significant stab wounds to his body. Police responded to the apartment after getting a call from one of Drey's relatives, saying that Drey had called them to say he killed his roommate. It's unclear how Drey spent his nine days on the run. Video courtesy of LasVegasNow.com As of Tuesday, Drey was still behind bars in California, awaiting extradition back to Nevada on charges of murder and robbery with a deadly weapon. Taylor had been enrolled at the UNLV since Spring 2015 and was enrolled to attend again int he fall. He was the president of UNLV's National Society of Black Engineers and had a job waiting for him after he graduated at Northrop Grumman Corp., a global aerospace and defense technology company. Friend Xavier Morgan told KSNV that Taylor and Drey had issues. 'He just said he was pretty difficult to live with at times,' Morgan said. 'He wouldn't go into detail. He usually just shakes his head.' The shocking moment a knife attacker was thrown through the windshield of a moving bus has been caught on video. Good Samaritan Daron Clay, 21, confronted the knife-wielding fiend who ran amok on a public bus in Kansas City on Saturday, suffering a non-fatal stab wound in the process. Clay was sitting on the bus listening to music when an unknown man got on the bus and began arguing heatedly with the driver about a transfer. The knife attacker (left) is seen with a knife in his raised right hand as he goes on a rampage Good Samaritan Daron Clay (right) jumped up and pushed the attacker through the windshield 'I seen him pull the knife out of his pocket, I was just like I have to fight for my life,' Clay told KSHB. Clay said he was worried about a mother and child sitting across the aisle from him. 'I didn't want her to get hurt. I didn't want the kids to get hurt. I knew that I was going to get stabbed, but you know I just had to fight for my life,' he said. Clay jumped up and pushed the knife attacker toward the front of the bus, when the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes. The attacker stabbed Clay in a fit of rage after being thrown through the bus windshield Clay was sitting on the bus listening to music when an unknown man got on the bus and began arguing heatedly with the driver about a transfer Clay was stabbed in the torso in the struggle with the knifeman, but he is expected to recover The two men hurled toward the windshield, and the knife attacker smashed through it head first. Clay was stabbed in the torso in the process, but he is expected to recover. The knife fiend then ran off the bus. Clay said he didn't regret getting involved. 'If seems like it's getting out hand just back off. Some things you can't yourself out of, but just make sure you be safe about it. You never know what can happen,' he said. A care home manager, who stole 30,000 from elderly residents then sent hate mail to herself, has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Former Brownies leader, Patricia Risby, from Manchester, waged an evil smear campaign against her boss David Fitton by sending sinister voicemails, texts and notes to herself - with one saying 'die b***h'. The hate mail came after he found 2,000 in missing cash hidden inside a bag of shredded paper wedged down the side of her office desk. As she awaited trial charged with theft, the 48-year old grandmother, spun a 'web of deceit' in a bid to play the victim, falsely telling police Mr Fitton delivered a total of 20 notes when in fact she had sent them to all to herself. Former Brownies leader Patricia Risby (left), from Manchester, waged an evil smear campaign against her boss David Fitton (right) by sending sinister voicemails, texts and notes to herself - with one saying 'die b***h' The incidents occurred after Risby was hired in May 2010 by Mr Fitton and his wife Anna, 62, to run the 30-room Meavy View Care Home (pictured) for the elderly in Rochdale On one occasion, she allegedly used Mr Fitton's catchphrase 'cya wouldn't wanna be ya' to affix a note to her own front room window saying: 'cya wouldn't want to be ya, going to kill ya, see ya in court.' She also claimed she got a threatening Valentines Day card and later a note saying 'You stupid b*****d you think you're something, just pay the money back'. And she attempted to take her employer to an industrial tribunal alleging sexual harassment only for the case to be dropped. Police exposed Risby's campaign to slander Mr Fitton, 63, after officers officers found the mobile phone use to send the threatening text messages at her own home in Heywood, Greater Manchester. One text sent to the mobile number said 'test test test' and another said: 'coming to get you'. It emerged Risby had also stolen almost 10,000 from one of the residents and used the money to buy a 7,200 Skoda car, toiletries and pyjamas and banked a total of 26,000 in her account. She also allegedly stole a ring belonging to her step-daughter's mother and pawned it in a Cash Coverter store for 165. A total of 33,000 is unaccounted for from the care home. When confronted Risby told police: 'I don't understand. I don't believe this, you are supposed to be on my side'. At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Risby was found guilty of theft of 9,200 from the home, theft of 9,900 from one of the residents, theft of the ring and perverting the course of justice. She wept as Judge Bernard Lever told her: 'You were in a position of trust yet took your employer's money then sought to blacken his name and sought to mislead the police as to who was responsible for this offence. 'You made 10 statements, you produced notes and telephone messages alleging your employer had made them. But the police found in your living room cupboard a pay-as-you-go Samsung phone that had made some of the calls and also your landline had made a tape recorder call to yourself. 'That was particularly wicked behaviour in order to save your skin.' The incidents occurred after Risby was hired in May 2010 by Mr Fitton and his wife Anna, 62, to run the 30-room Meavy View Care Home for the elderly in Rochdale. She was said to be 'completed trusted' by the couple and also won a 'manager of the year award' at a local council event in 2012 which was presented by Dr Chris Steele of ITV's This Morrning. But that same year investigations began when Mr Fitton's daughter discovered discrepancies between what cash and cheques had been collected and what were in the bank. In July 2011 1,909 in care home fees were collected but only 171 was banked whilst the following month 1586 was collected but only 30 was cashed into the bank. Up to 9,900 was taken from the account of an elderly female resident, Prosecutor Alexander Langhorn said: 'Mr Fitton searched Risby's office and wedged between the wall and her desk was a bag of shredded paper, and hidden in the middle of them 2,000 was found in cash in two plastic cheque wallets. He then attempted to get access to the safe but wasn't able to because someone had changed the combination.' 'Police were called but the defendant said David was a dishonest person and claimed he made her take the money. She spent the cash on toiletries, pyjamas and other items. 'She also said that she had spoken to another member of staff who Mrs Risby claimed agreed with her about David being dishonest and stealing from the home and residents - but the other staff member denied saying any of that. 'She also said Mrs Risby came to ask her to support her saying that David sexually harassed her at a employment tribunal.' Risby was due to face her first appearance in court charged with theft when she claimed she began receiving threatening letters, phone calls, voicemails and text messages. That same year investigations began when Mr Fitton's daughter discovered discrepancies between what cash and cheques had been collected and what were in the bank David Fitton (with wife Anna). Patricia Risby stole from a care home and perverted the course of justice by trying to blame her boss, Mr Fitton Mr Langhorn said: 'She said they were frequent and persistent. There were 20 notes that were delivered. She told the police that she believed the notes that were being left were to do with the upcoming court matters. 'She also told police that she believed the notes were being left by her former employer David Fitton. She reported that a note was left saying 'die b***h'. On the 29 November there was a note saying ' see you wouldn't want to be ya, going to kill yah, see you in court' on her window. 'She told police that 'cya wouldn't wanna be yah' was what her ex employer always said at work. She also claimed that she received a threatening valentines card on 13 February. On 13 March another note that said 'you stupid b**tard you think you're something, just pay the money back'. 'Then she said that she started receiving threatening text messages and voicemails. This time she went that bit too far. This was the start of the unravelling web of deceit told by this defendant. 'Over two and a half years she stole money from the care home and then left herself notes outside her home and sent text messages and left threatening voicemails in an attempt to deceive the police in to thinking that she was the victim in all of this. 'It was a campaign to vilify, discredit and slander Mr Fitton in an attempt to avoid the consequences of her actions. But the police didn't believe her and didn't accept her account, that no one ever saw who was leaving the notes and she was arrested again. Risby who was being tried under the name Patricia Oliver denied wrongdoing at her trial 'The police searched her home and found a mobile telephone which was downloaded, and it was found to be the phone that had been sending the threatening texts and voicemails. 'She insisted that she was being stitched up but this was all a ploy, a trick, an attempt to deceive the police into believing that David Fitton was responsible for the campaigning of harassment.' ' Mr Fitton from Littlebororough, who also has properties in France and Spain - told the hearing: 'At the time she was with us, we didn't think there was a problem. My wife and I were very confident she was doing a good job, we had great trust in her. They could have been possibility of her taking on the whole thing where we stepped back and went into retirement. 'I liked her very much as a manager, a team leader, she brought extra business, there was a vibrancy about her. When we believed it was very possible she had taken the money, the way she behaved changed dramatically. 'We were absolutely distraught, we had put a lot of trust in her and were friendly with the family. She had been to my house for dinner, we let her use our apartment in Spain and all of a sudden the whole thing was shattered. 'It was a horrible Christmas 2012. We had a staff Christmas party at a local venue and it just felt terrible because we knew something had gone wrong.. We felt that it was only one person that could have had this money. We decided to go to the police because it was a natter that needed dealing with, it was a criminal act. 'There was a conversation with her and it was difficult and I said 'what have you done with my money? Where is the money that's missing?' She replied 'I have not had any money' and at a later time she said 'I gave you the money'. But she never gave me any money - not at all.' Risby who was being tried under the name Patricia Oliver denied wrongdoing at her trial. But her counsel Rachel Faux said her client had been in debt at the time of the thefts and added: 'This was not out of greed - the court may consider the motivation for this was pride. She was too proud when finding herself in increasing debt. 'She has fallen from a vast height - it's been a long fall with a crash landing.' A woman claims she was discriminated against for her weight after a nail salon refused to give her a pedicure. Tiffany Nelson said she was a regular at QC Nails and Spa in Denver, North Carolina, until the owner told her she was 'too big' to sit in the chairs, WSOCTV reported. Nail salon owner Chuan Viet Dang said he was worried about the chairs breaking, and said he was planning to put up a sign to impose a weight limit. Scroll down for video Tiffany Nelson (left) said she was a regular at QC Nails and Spa in Denver, North Carolina, until owner Chuan Viet Dang (right) told her she was 'too big' to sit in the chairs Dang said it was a man who broke the chair, not Nelson. But he seemed intent on refusing service to people based on their weight, citing safety concerns (pictured, inside the salon) Nelson, who has been visiting the salon regularly for more than a year, claims Dang told her: 'You are too big of a girl and you can't sit in our chairs anymore. You broke our chair.' When confronted about the incident, Dang told WSOC it was a man who broke the chair, not Nelson. But he seemed intent on refusing service to people for fear that they might break more chairs and pose a safety issue. Dang said he was planning to put up a sign in the shop window imposing a weight limit, which he said his wife would decide. Weight is not a protected class according to federal discrimination laws. 'It's not okay...My heart hurts for other people who have gone through this but aren't, or they're afraid to, speak up about it,' Nelson said. Harrowing final calls, messages and Snapchats have emerged after they were sent from terrified neighbours trapped inside the burning Grenfell Tower. One teenage girl trapped in the tower block in West London is said to have rung her best friend in the early hours to say: 'We are not going to make it, I love you'. The girl, her two younger sisters, mother, father and grandmother are all missing feared dead. The mother is a teaching assistant at Avondale Park Primary School. The burnt remains of a note written by a child expressing their happiness and dreams, which was found near the scene of the huge fire at the Grenfell Tower block One local resident, Hulya, 42, who did not want to give her surname, told Mirror Online: 'My neighbour told me that one of the daughters rang her own daughter at about 12.30 saying they weren't going to make it and that she loved her. 'She's about 13 I think. Nobody has been able to contact any of them since. It's just awful. There are three daughters - one is about two I think, the other is at primary school and the other at secondary school.' A child's handwritten note about them being 'very, very happy' and having 'lots of dreams' was among the debris found outside the tower block. The note, charred around the edges, read: 'I can not describe my feeling. I am very, very happy. I have a lot of ideas and plans. I have lots of dreams I want to achieve.' Meanwhile mother-of-two Rania Ibrham, 30, who lived on an upper floor of the 27-storey building, has not been seen since sending a harrowing Snapchat message to a friend around two hours after the blaze began. She sent the message as the fire moved up the building at 2.54am today. Maseen, who lives near the huge tower block, told MailOnline: 'My friend, Rania Ibrham, lives on the top floor with her two children who are just three and five years old.' Maseen, a resident of Grenfell Tower, wept today as she told how her friend had sent her a message from the top of the tower and she has heard nothing since She added: 'I received a Snapchat video from Rania at 3am just after the fire started and I haven't heard from her since. 'She lives on the top floor and her husband was not home because he is on holiday.' She said the message showed her friend was trapped and praying and she had written in Arabic: 'Forgive me everyone. Goodbye.' Maseen, who said she has since received no news from her friend, was too upset to give any more details. Rania also made a harrowing Facebook live video as she and a group of other residents desperately attempted to escape. Rania's other friend Suhair Sharif, 55, who lives in Edgware Road, rushed to the scene following the disaster. She told MailOnline: 'Rania lived with her husband and children on the 24th floor. Her husband was in Egypt but he flew back as soon as he heard the news. 'Rania made it down to the floor below to my other friend's flat, but Rania, her two children and my friends on the 23rd floor are all still missing. 'In the video we just heard her saying 'oh my god', but she carried on filming despite the fire. We have not heard from her since the video ended.' Mrs Sharif added: 'We didn't see any casualties coming out, it is as if they just left them in there to die. One man was told to stay in his flat by police but he refused and escaped with his wife and children.' Ms Ibrham is one of scores of people missing after the blaze tore through the building, which is home to 600 people. Francis Dean said his sister Zainab had been told by firefighter to remain in her flat on the 14th floor along with her son Jeremiah, two. He told The Telegraph: 'My sister called me to say there was a fire in the tower. I told her to leave by the stairs but she said she had been told to stay inside her flat. That was in the early hours of today and I've not heard from her since. I fear the worst.' Maseen, who received the message, is comforted by a friend in the shadow of the building Mr Dean said that a firefighter used his phone to speak to his sister. 'He told her to keep calm and that they were coming to get her,' he said. 'He kept saying that to her again and again. 'But then he handed me the phone and said to me 'Tell her you love her'. I knew then to fear the worst. The phone went dead and I couldn't talk to her.' Saber Neda is feared dead after the fire ripped his top-floor flat. While his wife Shakila, 45, and son Farhad, 24, fled the blaze, Saber's family say he stayed behind because he was injured. The 57-year-old was last heard from at 2.20am when he made a frantic phone call to a relative to say that the building was burning and that there was 'no help'. Other residents also posted messages on social media, with one writing 'guys my block's on fire' and another adding 'guys I can't get out'. Ms Ibrahim was trapped on the upper floors of the building as the fire rose, her friend said The smoldering wreck of the building this morning. More than 50 people are feared to be dead Undertakers remove bodies from Grenfell Tower today but the recovery of the dead is likely to take several more days as the fire is still not out At least 12 people have died after a huge fire destroyed the tower block in west London, but the death toll is expected to rise. Twenty people in critical care are among 74 being treated in six hospitals across the capital, London Ambulance Service said. Many traumatic accounts of the fire and its impact have emerged, including a baby being dropped from the tower. Samira Lamrani said she saw a woman try to save the baby by dropping it from a window 'on the ninth or 10th floor' to waiting members of the public below. Residents who escaped complained there had been no fire alarm, with many relying on neighbours to wake them as the blaze spread. They said official advice in the event of a fire had been to stay inside. Michael Paramasivan, who was in his seventh floor flat with girlfriend Hannah West, 23, and her daughter Thea, five, said: 'If we'd listened to them and stayed in the flat we'd have perished.' The trapped, some of whom are still inside, were heard begging for their lives while waving white towels, torches and mobile phones A woman covered in ash is comforted by others as she looks on while the enormous fire rages through the night and into the morning This terrible image shows the blaze in the early hours of this morning as firefighters battled to contain it Mr Paramasivan, 37, said: 'There were explosions everywhere you looked, lots of bangs, blue gas coming out everywhere you looked. 'About 12 floors up I saw three children waving from a window and then there was just an explosion and they disappeared. 'They were three kids, they were banging on the windows, you could see their silhouettes and then bang, it just went up.' Muna Ali, 45, said: 'The flames, I have never seen anything like it, it just reminded me of 9/11. 'The fire started on the upper floors ... oh my goodness, it spread so quickly, it had completely spread within half an hour.' A residents' action group said its warnings about safety had fallen on 'deaf ears'. A blog post from Grenfell Action Group in November said 'only a catastrophic event' would expose the concerns residents had. The group said there was one entry and exit to the tower during improvement works and it had issues with evacuation procedures. A man who was bitten by a venomous snake in India bit his wife in the wrist soon after in a failed attempt to die side by side with his partner. Shankar Rai, a resident of Birsingpur village in Samastipur district, Bihar, India, was bitten by a venomous snake as he slept on Saturday night. When he woke in the morning, believing he wouldn't survive, he rushed to his wife, Amiri Devi, and bit her wrist while telling her he loved her and wanted to die together. Shankar Rai, of, Bihar, India, died at the hospital a day after being bitten by a venomous snake. His wife, Amiri Devi, was saved by doctors after Rai bit her wrist in hopes of dying together (file photo) The incident on Saturday happened in the village of Birsingpur in Samastipur district, Bihar, India Both fell unconscious and were rushed to a local government hospital. Rai died shortly after arriving at the hospital, but Devi was saved after doctors administered medication. 'The woman could be saved as her treatment began on time. She is safe now,' a local medical practitioner Dr Jaykant said on Monday, according to Gulf News. According to Devi, Rai sank his teeth into her wrist and wished that they would die together, remaining united after death. 'He told me he loved me too much and want to die together before grabbing my wrist and sinking his teeth into it. I allowed him to do so,' the woman told the media. Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin swears that the love-fest shown to President Trump at Monday's cabinet meeting wasn't at the president's request. 'The president doesn't script the cabinet and we're given the ability to say what's on our mind,' Shulkin told CNN's Erin Burnett on her program Tuesday night. Monday's meeting, which was the first time Trump met with his cabinet in entirety, became a source for humor among news outlets, comedians and politicians alike, for the fact that each member seemed to lavish Trump with praise. Scroll down for video Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin told CNN's Erin Burnett that cabinet members weren't requested to compliment President Trump at a Monday meeting President Trump gathered his cabinet together for the first time Monday and had them all speak in front of the press President Trump's cabinet paid the president a number of compliments as they went around the room Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin (second from left) said 'people were not given instructions' as to what to say at Monday's meeting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the nation's top elected Democrat, even parodied the meeting with his staff, sending out a short video on Twitter where his staff engaged in a compliment-fest. 'You have great hair, nobody has better hair than you,' one staffer said. At the actual meeting, Vice President Mike Pence began by saying; 'It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve as vice president.' 'The president is keeping his word to the American people,' Pence added. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross thanked the president for giving him the opportunity to fix the trade deficit, while Energy Secretary Rick Perry praised Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. 'We are still going to be leaders in the world when it comes to the climate,' Perry said. 'But we are not going to be held hostage to some executive order that was ill thought out.' 'My hats off to you for taking that stand and sending a clear message around the world,' Perry added. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told Trump that he just returned to D.C. from a trip to Mississippi. 'And they like you there,' he said. Shulkin pointed out that this was the first time 'where that group had ever been in the room together.' 'And so people were not given instructions, but people weren't used to knowing each other,' he said. 'And so what the president does is he actually opens up these meetings to the press that I think is really unusual and so you saw something that frankly no one had a script for,' Shulkin. And most of the cabinet members did make remarks in front of the press, except one. 'I am not going to say a damn thing in front of the media,' said CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the country's chief spy. Featured Post Mohawk Nation News 'Kahnawake Mohawk Mothers Blazing a Trail' Posted on November 8, 2022 KAHNAWAKE MOHAWK MOTHERS BLAZING A TRAIL Mohawk Nation News https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2022/11/08/kahnwak... White Mesa Ute Spiritual March to Shut Down Uranium Mill Mohawk Warrior Society Book Launch Lakota Jean Roach: The True Story of Leonard Peltier Justice for Dad: Taylor Dewey Shares the Harsh Road to Justice Justice Dept Files Lawsuit Against Rapid City Hotel Western Shoshone Ian Zabarte Speaks on Radiation Archive Search This Blog About Censored News Censored News is published by Brenda Norrell. Since 2006, Censored News has received more than 20 million pageviews. As a collective of writers, photographers and broadcasters, we publish news of Indigenous Peoples and human rights. Contact publisher Brenda Norrell: brendanorrell@gmail.com From the publisher Censored News is published by Brenda Norrell, a journalist in Indian country for 40 years. Norrell created Censored News after she was censored and terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today in 2006. She began as a reporter at Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a stringer for AP and USA Today and later traveled with the Zapatistas through Mexico. She has been blacklisted by all the mainstream media for 14 years. Contact brendanorrell@gmail.com Translate A four-year-old British boy died after falling into a swimming pool while staying with relatives in India. Manbir Singh Banwayat, who was soon to return to his family home in London, had been staying with grandparents in Mumbai. He had been at their home - in a development called Gokul Dham Society - for a year but went to play in a nearby complex called Hyde Park Society. His mother was in the country to visit him and had taken him to meet his aunt. Pictured: Manbir Singh Banwayat, from London, who tragically died after falling into a Mumbai swimming pool She was due to take him home to London after her stay, where he was to start primary school. Explaining what happened, Manbir's 58-year-old grandfather Sukhdev Singh said the child suddenly went missing, adding: 'When his mother went out to look for him, she couldn't find him. 'Soon, many other residents started searching for him.' He added: 'Some time later, a few of the building's staffers said he had been found floating in the swimming pool. He was then taken to a hospital.' A poster near the swimming pool reportedly explained it was closed, but it was not fenced off. An unnamed relative of the boy said: 'We are not aware of any guard stationed at the spot. The Hyde Park Society complex in Mumbai where Manbir died on Sunday 'But after this incident, I think, a proper fence should be installed around the pool, so that children are not able to enter it.' Manbir's father Satnam flew to Mumbai from London to attend his son's last rites. Hyde Park Society complex manager Gautam Adhikari said: 'The pool was closed, and hence there was no guard. Security for the society and a guard near the pool are totally different issues.' The death has been recorded as 'accidental'. Mid-Day newspaper reported that the tragedy happened on Sunday. A state lawmaker who accidentally shared a screen shot that showed pornographic websites in the web browser insisted: 'I am not a pervert'. Democratic Rep. Ramon Perez, of Providence, Rhode Island, called it an 'innocent mistake' on Tuesday after he distributed a screen grab to the House Finance Committee last Wednesday that included pornographic web titles in the other tabs. Perez, who then shared the offending screen shot on his own Facebook page before deleting his account, claimed someone else shared the image with him. Democratic Rep. Ramon Perez of Providence, Rhode Island, distributed a screen grab to the House Finance Committee last Wednesday that included pornographic web titles in other tabs Perez brought printouts of a Wikipedia article to give to House Finance Committee members as part of his testimony in favor of a car accident insurance bill. But the screen shot, time stamped at 2:07am, showed multiple browser tabs with 'teen' 'young,' and 'MILF' in the titles. No pornographic images could be seen. Perez apologized and called it an 'innocent mistake' A House spokesman confirmed Perez gave the document to the clerk, who distributed them before the unsavory tabs were discovered. Perez, who submitted a new handout the next day, said the screen shot was provided to him by a friend whom he'd asked to research the information. He told ABC: 'I was asking a friend if they know something about it. So a friend sent me that picture with the information I was looking for. I used that picture to make copies. I didn't see the stuff at the top.' When asked who that person might be, Perez said: 'I won't mention anything, because it's my fault.' Perez also shared the screen grab on Facebook in a now-deleted post, writing: 'Tell me people what you see wrong in this picture? I was send this picture with information I need it for one of my bill, I didn't notice what was wrong with it, until I got a few calls about it. 'My fault for no noticing the That picture I had receive, had something bad on it, and use it by mistake.' Perez said the screen shot was provided to him by a friend whom he'd asked to research the information and told his colleagues on Tuesday: ''I am not a pervert' Rep. Teresa Tanzi, a member of the committee, called the incident 'deeply disturbing.' On Tuesday, the first-term representative apologized directly to Tanzi, and asked his colleagues for forgiveness. 'I am not a pervert. I made a big mistake of trusting too much in people,' he told them as he denied looking at pornography online. 'I know that people don't believe me here. They say that's the excuse everybody makes, oh, it was somebody else.' Perez, who is married, got emotional as he called what happened 'a nightmare' and said he has lost sleep over it. 'Just give me a chance and don't judge me so quick,' he said. 'It was an innocent mistake.' An Alabama man led county sheriff's deputies on a low-speed chase in a stolen flatbed truck and was collared after being stumped by manual transmission, according to the authorities. Randy Vert, 29, of Pinson, was jailed on Wednesday morning on charges of first-degree theft of property, reckless endangerment, attempting to elude and resisting arrest. The incident began unfolding at around 4.30am when deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office received a report from a witness saying that a man had just stolen a Kenworth T-300 flatbed delivery truck. Randy Vert (left and right), 29, has been charged with first-degree theft of property, reckless endangerment, attempting to elude and resisting arrest Vert is accused of stealing a Kenworth T-300 flatbed delivery truck (similar to the one pictured above), which features manual transmission Deputies who were in the area for an unrelated case spotted the truck and ordered its driver, later identified as Vert, to stop reported Al.com. The 29-year-old, who has an extensive criminal history, refused to break and continued fleeing south on Center Point Parkway. What ultimately proved Vert's undoing, according to Chief Deputy Randy Christian, was his apparent lack of experience with a stick shift, which prevented him from getting the vehicle out of first gear. As a result, the hapless suspect traveled along I-59 south at speeds of just 25-30mph, with deputies unhurriedly cruising behind the truck. Upon reaching Bush Boulevard, the vehicle's transmission seized up and it ground to a halt, allowing deputies to arrest him. Thank God he couldn't find second gear, the pursuit could have gotten all the way up to 35mph, Christian quipped. Vert, pictured left in a mugshot from a past arrest, was apparently unfamiliar with the workings of a stick shift and could not get the truck out of first gear Vert was then booked into the Jefferson County Jail on $5,900 bond. Online records indicate that Vert has a long history of run-ins with the law in Alabama, including on charges of possession and distribution of controlled substances, theft and robbery. According to the Jefferson County Jail's website, Vert had been freed on June 3, less than two weeks before Wednesday's arrest, after spending a week behind bars in connection to an earlier incident. In that case, Vert was arrested on May 27 and charged with auto theft, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. The Ten Network has been given a last-minute lifeline from billionaire shareholders Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon. Hours after being placed into voluntary administration, the media moguls have agreed to explore ways of paying off the beleaguered TV broadcaster's $250 million debt. Lachlan, who is co-chairman of newspaper giant News Corp Australia, and Gordon, the owner of regional broadcaster WIN-TV, could turn Ten from a listed to a private company. Scroll down for video The Ten Network is in voluntary administration. It is home to television shows such as The Bachelorette, MasterChef and The Project (Waleed Aly and Carrie Bickmore pictured) Lachlan Murdoch (pictured with his wife Sarah Murdoch) has agreed to help pay Ten's debt But their possible plans to refinance Ten's debts would require the Senate to pass new laws liberalising strict cross-media ownership laws, which were enacted by Labor in the 1980s. Lachlan and Gordon own 7.7 per cent and 15 per cent of Ten, worth about $58 million. Shares in Ten, Australia's third biggest free-to-air TV network, have fallen to just 16 cents. Ten's board put the company into administration on Wednesday, with corporate advisory group KordaMentha taking control of the station behind The Project, The Biggest Loser and MasterChef. Ten's chief executive Paul Anderson told a media conference 'this is extremely disappointing for all of us'. Bruce Gordon, the owner of regional TV station WIN, could help rescue the Ten Network Asia-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha will take over control of the company after Ten announced Tuesday its shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans Ten CEO Paul Anderson said: 'this is extremely disappointing for all of us.' In a statement released by Ten, directors were left 'with no choice' but to enter administration. The broadcaster says they expect immediate financial results with the changeover, bringing in $50 million between 2018-19 and 'potentially more than $80 million' per year after 2019. They have also replaced contract agreements with major US partners Fox and CBS, reducing their access to their content by up to 50 per cent. Current and former staff have expressed their sadness over the decision and offered support to Ten Network staff. Senior journalist Hugh Riminton tweets about Network Ten entering voluntary administration Former employees at Network Ten have offered their support to current staff Fox Sports journalist Alissa Smith has shared her thoughts on Ten entering voluntary administration Asia-Pacific investment firm KordaMentha will take over control of the company after Ten announced Tuesday its shareholders, including Lachlan Murdoch, refused to guarantee bank loans Statement released by Network Ten on Wednesday after announcing the broadcaster will enter voluntary administration. Billionaire shareholders on Tuesday refused to guarantee bank loans to the struggling company The company's share price plummeted to just 16 cents ahead of the request to the Australian Securities Exchange, which valued the network at less than $60 million. In a statement to the exchange, Ten said key major shareholders Mr Murdoch's Illyria Pty Ltd and Birketu Pty Ltd, the investment vehicle of millionaire Bruce Gordon would no longer support credit facilities that are keeping the company afloat. In 2013, James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon agreed to guarantee a $200million loan for the company. The loans expire on 23 December, after which the company will be liable for the debts that the company has made clear it does not have the funds to pay. James Packer, who is also a major shareholder, is also reportedly keen to get rid of his 7.7 percent stake in the ailing network, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The network is reportedly urgently trying to come up with a severe cost-cutting plan and to renegotiate expensive deals with US studios for many programs that have proved unsuccessful in Australia. The network has asked for the trading halt until Thursday, when it will make a major announcement on its future. The board said in April it was not sure it could continue if the company did not renegotiate contracts with US networks CBS and 20th Century Fox, receive license fee cuts, cut costs and secure a guarantee from Murdoch, Packer and Gordon again. If the company is placed into the hands of administrators, it would give the company and Parliament more time to evaluate proposed media reform laws that could scrap the licence fees. James Packer, who is also a major shareholder, is also reportedly keen to get rid of his 7.7 percent stake in the ailing network The broadcaster also produces The Bachelor (pictures is Richie Strahan and Alex Nation) Licence fees cost the broadcaster $23 million a year. Mark Westfield, author of a history of Australia's media industry called The Gatekeepers, told Daily Mail Australia the network has frequently struggled since it was launched in the 1960s. 'They have perpetually been in financial trouble and always relied on a major share holder,' he said. 'But every time they've gotten into trouble they've managed to find a buyer,' he said. Mr Westfield said he believes Foxtel could be a buyer with a share of 14 percent. Channel 10 is home to television shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, MasterChef, The Project, Neighbours and Have You Been Paying Attention? The International Criminal Court on Wednesday called for the 'immediate arrest and surrender' of Moamer Gaddafi's son, Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly set free by a militia in Libya after five years of incarceration. An arrest warrant issued by the Hague-based ICC against Seif al-Islam Gaddafi in 2011 'remains valid... regardless of any purported amnesty law in Libya,' Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said. Bensouda on Wednesday called on Libya 'and all other states, if in a position to do so, to immediately arrest and surrender' Seif al-Islam to the court. He has been charged with murder and persecution for his alleged role in the violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2011. Seif al-Islam, was reportedly released on Friday by a militia group in western Libya Seif al-Islam's former captors said that his release was decided as part of a pardon issued by the Libyan parliament based in the country's eastern region. He is also still wanted by a Tripoli court for a 2015 conviction. He had been held in Zintan since being detained in November 2011, just days after his father was killed in a NATO-backed uprising against his decades-long rule. Seif al-Islam, the second son and heir apparent of the late deposed Libyan dictator, was said to have been released on Friday by a militia group that controls the town of Zintan in western Libya. The group, which had held Seif al-Islam for more than five years, said he had been set free under an amnesty law promulgated by the parliament based in the country's east during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But the prosecutor general's office in Tripoli, where a rival UN-backed administration is based, said the amnesty could not apply to Seif al-Islam because of the severity of his crimes. The Western-educated playboy has been imprisoned in eastern Libya since 2011 Tripoli prosecutor general Ibrahim Massud Ali said: 'Having been sentenced in absentia on July 28, 2015... (Seif al-Islam) is required to appear before the court' There was no independent confirmation of Seif al-Islam's release, which could spark further instability in a country already wracked by divisions and violence. Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, cast doubt over al-Islam's reported 'liberation'. Toaldo said: 'This is the fourth time in a little bit more than a year that the news of Seif's liberation has spread. 'There is still no visual evidence of his liberation and even the term 'liberation' must be used carefully as he was already free to move within the city of Zintan,'. According to Toaldo, people close to Seif al-Islam had set up offices in several foreign capitals. He said: 'His first goal (if he was indeed freed) could be to rally all the regime loyalists and tribal forces around him.' Seif was a key player in attempts to broker deals between his father's regime and the West Seif was a key figure in the negotiations between Gaddafi and the west Seif al-Islam says he reportedly wants to bring 'peace' to the war-torn country, his lawyer said earlier this week. The Western-educated playboy was a key player in attempts to broker deals between the despotic regime and the West before the 2011 uprising in which his father was killed. Seif's lawyer, Khaled al-Zaidi told CNN: 'His priority is to eradicate terrorism, to bring security then bring back life and economic prosperity. 'Any international organisations that want to combat terrorism will find Seif Gaddafi. He will have a major role in bringing peace to Libya.' Seif's reported release came with the North African country still rocked by infighting, with authorities in the east, reportedly allied with the forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar, refusing to recognise the GNA. The power vacuum allowed thousands of fighters from the so-called Islamic State to operate from camps in the country. Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi returned from Libya just days before he killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert last month. Libya has been rocked by infighting since the western-backed toppling of Gaddafi in 2011 The power vacuum has allowed thousands of ISIS fighters to operate camps in the country Saif has not been seen by independent observers since June 2014 and a previous report that he had been freed turned out to be false. The prosecution statement did not confirm he had been set free and gave no indication of his potential whereabouts, and the GNA has not commented on his reported release. Human Rights Watch called on Libyan authorities to track him down. As the one-time heir apparent to the Gaddafi regime, Seif was a key figure in negotiations with Britain over the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. He became close to figures in the British Establishment after Tony Blair signed the notorious 'Deal in the Desert' in 2004 to re-establish diplomatic links. Seif described Mr Blair as a 'personal family friend' and said he had visited Libya 'many, many times' after he left Downing Street. He also claimed Mr Blair had become an adviser to the Gaddafi family, which the former prime minister denied. Prince Andrew was also accused of holding 'detailed discussions' with Seif over al-Megrahi's release during a Foreign Office-sponsored trip to Algeria. Buckingham Palace denied any meetings or discussions had taken place. Shocking footage has emerged of the moment a security guard knocked a man unconscious and broke his jaw outside a Gold Coast hotel. It took just one day of jury deliberations for Dennis Hecta Tipene Faulkner to be found guilty of one count of grievous bodily harm after a brawl broke out near the Grand Chancellor Hotel in Surfers Paradise on February 9, 2014. Faulkner's lawyer Chris Rosser, who had claimed the guard was only acting in self defence, said he was 'shattered' at the decision. Victim Dominic Beinke suffered a double fracture to his left jaw after being punched by Faulkner following a scuffle between the pair, Mr Beinke's brother Patrick, and another guard Seven News has released new footage of the moment the security hit Mr Beinke square in the mouth. The victim falls to the ground and appears to be unconscious 'This is a man who has served his country before and never been in trouble,' he said. Victim Dominic Beinke suffered a double fracture to his left jaw after being punched by Faulkner following a scuffle between the pair, Mr Beinke's brother Patrick and another guard. New footage of the moment the security guard hit Mr Beinke square in the mouth has been aired on 7News. The victim falls to the ground and appears to be unconscious. Faulkner has been found guilty of assault after breaking a man's jaw outside a Gold Coast hotel over three years ago Victim Dominic Beinke shows the aftermath of his devastating injuries The court heard the incident occurred shortly after Mr Beinke escorted Patrick from a friend's engagement party back to the hotel where he was staying with another brother and his partner. After being let into the venue by security, the pair got into an argument with security when they were denied access to the hotel due to Patrick not having a key or identification. Mr Beinke told the court while his brother had got aggressive and demanded to be let into the hotel, he'd attempted to defuse an escalating situation. CCTV footage played in court showed Mr Beinke and Patrick arguing with Faulkner. Mr Beinke claimed the guard said he was going to 'knock out' the pair. Further footage outside the hotel showed Patrick and the other guard scuffling on the ground when Faulkner swings a right fist into Mr Beinke's jaw, felling him and leaving him momentarily unconscious. Chris Rosser said Mr Beinke and his brother had both been aggressive when they were denied access to the room, with Mr Beinke pushing his forehead against Faulkner's. The victim suffered a double fracture to his left jaw after being punched by Faulkner following a scuffle Mr Beinke denied provoking Faulkner before the attack on the Gold Coast in 2014 He said Mr Beinke's claims Faulkner had promised to 'knock out' the pair were false and the pair had been constantly swearing and abusing the guard before the incident. Mr Beinke denied Mr Rosser's claims he'd called Faulkner a 'dumb black c***' and told him to 'f*** off back to New Zealand'. 'I do not agree with that at all,' Mr Beinke said. 'I was saying 'I'm not going to fight you'.' Mr Beinke admitted he and his brother were 'somewhat' intoxicated at the time of the incident but he 'knew what was happening.' Faulkner is due to be sentenced on Friday. Advertisement The world's longest aircraft, dubbed the 'flying bum', took the skies yesterday for a surprise test flight. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the 20-tonne Airlander 10 perform aerial manoeuvres in a four-hour flight that took off from Cardington, Bedfordshire. The 92-yard-long part-airship part-aeroplane was badly damaged when it nosedived during a test flight on 24 August last year. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the 20-tonne Airlander 10 perform aerial manoeuvres in a four-hour flight that took off from Cardington, Bedfordshire The 92-yard-long part-airship part-aeroplane was badly damaged when it nosedived during a test flight on 24 August last year Following extensive repairs, it reached the highest altitude so far in its fourth test flight after taking off from hangars at 6.05pm on Tuesday. A spokesman for its manufacturers Hybrid Air Vehicles said the flight had not been announced to avoid a mass of spectators gathering in the village. The company hoped the Airlander - which can carry 10 tonnes and up to 60 passengers - will be used for luxury commercial flights over the world's greatest sights from 2019. Passers-by spotted the 38,000 cubic-metre prototype preparing for take-off in Cardington Airfield. Hundreds of people gathered around the airfield after a local group of 'blimp spotters' also used the weather conditions to predict the test flight. Roger Skillin, 38, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, took these incredible photos of the flight after he heard its engine was on. Following extensive repairs, it reached the highest altitude so far in its fourth test flight after taking off from hangars at 6.05pm on Tuesday A spokesman for its manufacturers Hybrid Air Vehicles said the flight had not been announced to avoid a mass of spectators gathering in the village Hundreds of people gathered around the airfield after a local group of 'blimp spotters' also used the weather conditions to predict the test flight The amateur photographer had wanted to take behind-the-scenes shots of the film sets at the hangar for a new Justice League superhero movie and a Dumbo movie. He said: 'All the cars just suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. 'I was stood along the edge of the main road looking out to the airfield - just as it was to cross the road there was screeching of brakes and the brake lights going on. 'I think it was just the sheer size of it - you can see it sitting on the ground but you don't really appreciated it until it actually takes off. 'It was maybe 150ft up but considering the size of it it would have been massive and was covering your line of sight. The company hoped the Airlander - which can carry 10 tonnes and up to 60 passengers - will be used for luxury commercial flights over the world's greatest sights from 2019 A spokesman for the company hailed the prototype's test a success after it reached record heights of 3,800ft on the flight It took off at 6.05pm, carried out a series of landing practice runs, reaching speeds of 37 knots. The aircraft can reach heights of 16,000ft and speeds of 80 knots - 93 miles per hour - and fly for up to five days 'It's like - how can something that big be gracefully moving over you in the sky? 'There's not really anything in nature you can compare it to.' A spokesman for the company hailed the prototype's test a success after it reached record heights of 3,800ft on the flight. It took off at 6.05pm, carried out a series of landing practice runs, reaching speeds of 37 knots. The aircraft can reach heights of 16,000ft and speeds of 80 knots - 93 miles per hour - and fly for up to five days. The spokesman said plans were going ahead to have more built for commercial flights for between 48 to 60 people over tourists spots such as the Niagara Falls and rivers in Europe Christened the Martha Gwyn, the vast aircraft measures 302ft long and is around 50ft longer than the biggest passenger jets The spokesman said plans were going ahead to have more built for commercial flights for between 48 to 60 people over tourists spots such as the Niagara Falls and rivers in Europe. 'Blimp Spotter' Trevor Monk, of local aircraft enthusiast group Cardington Sheds, said: 'There were a few hundred around the airfield. 'It's the longest current aircraft in the world and it's just sitting on an airfield in Bedfordshire but apart from that it's the technology involved - it's a brilliant idea, it's called a hybrid because it's an airship which is an inflated wing. 'It can land on water or a small field that's the beauty of it - it can do a lot of stuff.' The company hopes to have an even bigger aircraft, capable of carrying 50 metric tons (110,000 pounds), in service by the early 2020s A convicted sex offender has been accused of having sexual relations with a dog over a two-year period. Michael Czeiszperger, 37, was arraigned on Tuesday on one count of sodomy and one count of sodomy by a sexually delinquent person. According to the arrest warrant, Czeiszperger carried out 'the abominable and detestable crime against nature with a dog' from around November 2014 to September 2016. Michael Czeiszperger, 37, was arraigned on Tuesday on one count of sodomy and one count of sodomy by a sexually delinquent person Czeiszperger's previous conviction of having sex with a minor labels him a 'sexually delinquent person' and means he could possible face life imprisonment, the Michigan News reported. The sodomy is alleged to have taken place at his home in Chesaning Township. Czeiszperger's attorney, John Melton, said his client voluntarily took and passed a lie detector test regarding the accusations against him. The test was administered on Monday by a private company, Mr Melton said. Mr Melton said he was confident the case will get dropped. In 2002, Czeiszperger pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and no contest to another count, according to court records. Police have launched a hunt for seven Vietnamese teenagers who were caught in the back of a lorry after they fleed their care home. It is understood they were picked up during an immigration investigation at Birch Services on the M62 on June 2 and placed into care in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. A post on the GMP Rochdale Facebook page said officers were 'becoming concerned for the welfare' of the teenagers, who have not been named. It is understood they were picked up during an immigration investigation at Birch Services on the M62 on June 2 and placed into care in Rochdale, Greater Manchester It added: 'Greater Manchester Police are becoming concerned for the welfare of seven Vietnamese national children aged 15 to 17 years old, who have gone missing from a care home in Rochdale. 'If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of any of the individuals, please contact GMP or ring 101.' It is understood the seven teenagers were among a group of 19 people found in a lorry during an immigration raid at Birch services on the M62. Following the raid seven of those discovered were placed in care, according to national guidelines, until their ages could be established. It is thought that process was ongoing when they disappeared. Police, immigration services and Rochdale council are working together to establish their whereabouts. Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101. A 252-pound loggerhead turtle has been rescued and is now in rehab after it was found struggling in the waters off Delaware. The 225lb turtle was seen struggling in the waters off Cape Henlopen, near Lewes, on Monday. The crew of the 154-foot Lawrence Lawson, a fast response boat from the Coast Guard noticed that the turtle was covered in strange marine growths and was also having difficulty diving underwater for food and needed help. A U.S. Coast Guard crew saved this loggerhead turtle, now named Tammie, a few miles from off the coast of Cape Henlopen, Delaware A crew member aboard the 154-foot Coast Guard Cutter Lawrence Lawson assists a 252-pound loggerhead turtle, the crew named Tammie 'The Coast Guard reported it directly to us, because it was in Delaware waters,' said Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute in Lewes said. 'We sent a couple of our responders out to assist and oversee, and I gave instructions over the phone so that they could pick it up where they were. If the boat travels away from the turtle in the water, it becomes like a needle in a haystack. 'We're very fortunate that the Coast Guard saw it,' Thurman said. 'They did an amazing job, we were able to talk about how to safely get the turtle out of the water without causing inadvertent injury.' The crew of the Lawson then contacted members of MERR and arranged to pick them up in order for them to take a closer look at the animal. The turtle was taken off the boat and brought to members of Sea Turtle Recovery, a wildlife rescue service based in New Jersey Members of Sea Turtle Recovery toook Tammie the loggerhead turtle away for care and rehabilitation,. Due to the species' weight, the rescue required two boats 'Members of MERR and Sea Turtle Recovery knew right away that the turtle was sick because it was floating,' said Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Taylor. 'They told us that if turtles can't dive, they can't eat, and if we hadn't helped it, it would have slowly starved to death.' The crew of the Lawson managed to use a cargo net to scoop the turtle on board where scientists and the Sea Turtle Rescue team were able to take a closer look providing it with care as they assessed its condition. 'It was a unique experience and took a lot of coordination and teamwork to rescue the turtle and ensure it received the best possible treatment before being returned to its natural habitat,' said Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Rizzo. The turtle was notices to be in difficulty because it had trouble diving for food and had a strange growth on its back 'It's a great feeling for the crew to know that we had a part in saving an animal in jeopardy of becoming endangered.' Scientists from Sea Turtle Rescue decided to name the turtle Tammie. 'The rescue was successful. The Coast Guard was an amazing help, they just are professionals on the water, they have the expertise to do something this involved and take the turtle back to the New Jersey side,' Thurman said to Delaware Online. A 20-year-old woman has opened up about the 16-hour ordeal that allegedly saw her kidnapped and driven to remote bushland in north Queensland before she was let go. Jessica Hammill was found safe in Cairns on Wednesday evening after she went missing for 24 hours, with loved ones believing she had been abducted. Police alleged a man dumped 'his hostage and vehicle and fled on foot' after a sighting was reported to police, reported the Courier Mail. There were grave concerns for the well-being of Jessica Hamill (pictured), 20, who police feared may have been forced into a car and kidnapped from her home in Port Douglas, Queensland Miss Hamill's housemates raised the alarm believing she had been taken from Port Douglas, Queensland, against her will by 'a man in his twenties.' Police are now questioning the man who allegedly crashed the car and fled before he was picked up in the nearby suburb of Smithfield, 9News reported. It is believed Hamill and the mystery man were travelling in a dirty black-coloured 2012 model Holden Commodore station wagon. Earlier on Wednesday, Acting Inspector Gooiker said her housemates had not heard any disturbances overnight and called police when they realised she was missing. 'The information we have is that she should have been at work today and she is not and no-one has been able to contact her,' he said. 'Police hold concerns for her safety and believe [the woman] may be in the company of a man aged in his mid-20s, who may be holding her against her will,' the Queensland Police Service said in a statement. Her family were also 'extremely worried' about the 20-year-old property agent, Acting Inspector Gooiker said. 'Anyone in this situation would be horrified, it is their daughter,' he said. It is believed the pair were travelling in a black Holden Commodore station wagon like the one pictured (Car pictured is not the actual vehicle) The partner of a man whose naked body was found at the bottom of a Sydney cliff almost 30 years ago says he didn't tell police they were gay because he didn't want it to 'get in the way' of the investigation. 'I was concerned that to state that he was gay might lead to conclusions about the death and shut down further investigation,' Michael Noone said on Wednesday at the third coronial inquiry into the death of his partner of five years, Scott Johnson. 'I just wanted to be sure there wasn't going to be a trigger for some sort of discrimination.' Michael Noone (pictured) says he did not tell police he and his partner were gay as he feared it would affect the investigation 'I was concerned that to state that he was gay might lead to conclusions about the death and shut down further investigation,' Michael Noone said on Wednesday at the third coronial inquiry into the death of his partner of five years, Scott Johnson (pictured) 'I just wanted to be sure there wasn't going to be a trigger for some sort of discrimination,' Mr Noone (pictured) said at the coronial inquiry Spearfisherman found Mr Johnson's body at the bottom of cliffs just north of Blue Fish Point at North Head, near Manly, in December 1988. The 27-year-old former NASA staffer's belongings were discovered 10 metres back from the cliff edge, not far from a gay beat where nude men would set up camp on rocky platforms among the scrub. In his first statement to police, Mr Noone said he was unaware of Mr Johnson having mental health issues. But Mr Johnson had tried to 'do away with himself' by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in 1985 after he thought he'd contracted AIDS from a 'sexual adventure with somebody'. 'I was very concerned that this would be very quickly dismissed as a shy, geeky person who suicided,' Mr Noone told NSW Coroner Michael Barnes. 'I wanted for my own satisfaction to make sure that absolutely every avenue was going to be investigated to find the cause of death.' A March 1989 coronial inquest ruled the American's death was a suicide. In his first statement to police, Mr Noone (pictured) said he was unaware of Mr Johnson having mental health issues Steve Johnson, (pictured) the brother of Scott Johnson, arrives at the New South Wales State Coroner's Court in Sydney on Wednesday, June 14, 2017 A March 1989 coronial inquest ruled the American's death was a suicide. A March 1989 coronial inquest ruled the American's death was a suicide (pictured right is Steve Johnson) But a second inquest in 2012 returned an open finding after the possibility was raised he had been murdered as part of a 'gay hate' killing spree in Sydney during the late 1980s. Those deaths, involving men being forced to their deaths from cliffs near Bondi, were revealed to be murders only after a 2005 police investigation. The coroner agreed to the third inquest, noting new evidence had come to light which could lead to a different finding. On Wednesday the inquest heard groups of 'thugs' would set upon gay men who had been lured further into the bushes by a young, attractive man only to find three to five people waiting to attack. Gordon Sharp, who frequented the beat at North Head in the 1960s and 1970s, said after the 'bashers' worked their way through the beat 'you could usually find someone ... who had been smacked around the head'. 'No one saw any point in reporting to the police because you were likely to get another smacking from the police,' he said. The inquest continues. An American documentary maker who interviewed men's rights activists and questioned her own views as a feminist says The Project heavily edited a hostile interview with her. Cassie Jaye, whose film The Red Pill has been picketed by left-wing feminists, last week fronted up for a grilling from Waleed Aly and Carrie Bickmore. The Ten Network program showed the panel reacting in silence to her suggestion that men are also victims of domestic violence, with Aly breaking the awkward moment by asking: 'Sorry - that's the lesson you took from that?' Scroll down for video Documentary maker Cassie Jaye (right) says The Project's Waleed Aly's interview was edited Cassie Jaye told conservative commentator Andrew Bolt how The Project's tone was aggressive Jaye, who started off her film-making journey as a feminist, has gone on Sky News to accuse The Project of heavily editing that interview. 'A lot of people don't realise The Project, my interview with them, was heavily edited down and my full, at least 15-minute interview with The Project that they edited it down to five minutes,' she told conservative presenter Andrew Bolt. 'My full interview with them was very hostile and very aggressive and on the attack and I definitely felt ambushed.' Two days later, she appeared on Weekend Sunrise where Seven Network presenter Andrew O'Keefe asked her why she focus on the 'views of these extreme misogynists'. Sunrise presenter Andrew O'Keefe (pictured right with Monique Wright) asked why Cassie Jaye focused on 'extreme misogynists' Jaye has told The Bolt Report Australia's television presenters were the most hostile she had encountered. 'I've never been treated like I was on Sunrise and also The Project,' she said. Jaye interviewed men's rights activists and male victims of sexual assault, and concluded that feminists had marginalised men and created mental health problems for them. In April, the Dendy cinema chain caved into pressure from feminist groups and cancelled a fully-booked screening at Newtown, in Sydney's inner west. Another session at its Canberra theatre scheduled for May was also pulled. A Pakistani Uber driver had his deportation order overturned only weeks before he raped a female customer in Sydney. Muhammad Naveed, 41, was a fake refugee with fraudulent documents who once returned to Pakistan, even though he lied and said going home would put him in danger, The Daily Telegraph reported. Naveed's visa application was rejected by the Federal Government in 2013 but that decision was overturned later that year by the Refugee Review Tribunal. Scroll down for video Uber driver Muhammad Naveed, 41, was sentenced to a minimum of six years and four months in prison over the rape of a passenger CCTV footage showed the Uber driver purchasing condoms and a bottle of water at a service station before hopping back into his car on the night of the attack His visa was again cancelled after Pakistani officials confirmed he had lied on documents claiming his brother was kidnapped and he was under threat. Naveed returned to Pakistan for a month in 2015 and went back again two months before he was charged with rape. He was sentenced to a minimum of six years and four months in prison at the Downing Centre District court on Tuesday for raping the 22-year-old in October 2015. Naveed arrived in Australia on a student visa and applied for a protection visa for his wife and kids, claiming he had been abducted and held for ransom. These claims were found to be false in January 2013, but Naveed successfully applied to the Refugee Review Tribunal with documents he said were from Pakistani authorities. And less than a year later authorities in Islamabad told migration officials those documents were false. Naveed arrived in Australia on a student visa and applied for a protection visa for his wife and kids, claiming he had been abducted and held for ransom The Uber driver had pulled up outside the service station to purchase some condoms Naveed, who picked the victim up from Kings Cross and raped her in a side street in Sydney's eastern suburbs, will be eligible for parole in June 2023 The 41-year-old Pakistani national on Tuesday was given a maximum sentence of nine years for the October 2015 rape of the young woman who can't be named for legal reasons. The woman was partying with friends in Kings Cross after a day at the Randwick races and was heavily intoxicated when she was picked up by Naveed. At first, she thought it was a taxi and gave Naveed her address, but instead of driving her home he stopped at a service station to buy condoms and a bottle of water. He later pulled off a main road into a side street and moved the victim into the back seat. She said she woke up with Naveed on top of her in the back seat, raping her. The victim tried to push him off her but he continued. Naveed pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming the sex was consensual. An Uber spokeswoman said the company worked with local police to support their investigation and banned Naveed as a driver as soon as they learned of the incident. He is the feared New Zealand gang leader who shot to fame by purging his town of methamphetamine. Jamie Pink, the president of the Tribal Huk gang from Ngaruawahia, was this week sentenced on firearms charges in the Hamilton District Court. Pink was first thrust in the spotlight by launching a sandwich stall to feed poverty-stricken children with members of his gang. For the first time the hardened gangster has told his tale to NZ Herald, which began with a troubled childhood that bred his community spirit. Jamie Pink, the president of the Tribal Huk gang from Ngaruawahia, was this week sentenced on firearms charges As a foster child Pink 20 different primary schools before the age of 11. He soon followed in the footsteps of his mother and began delving into the underworld. 'My old lady was going with some pretty heavy people in the gang world,' Pink said. Despite gangland executions and the danger of the lifestyle, he admired how the gangs commanded respect. Pink became affiliated with the Tribal Huks in his teenage years after dropping out of school and working at the freezing works of a meat market. 'The freezing works was full of Huks and I started drinking at the [Ngaruawahia pub] Delta Tavern in 1986. Woah, it was pretty rough then,' he said. The gang leader said the Huks 'were our heroes'. Despite leaving a trail of violence in his wake, Pink showed his community spirit with a crusade to feed hungry kids in 2010. Pink became involved with gangs at a young age and left a trail of violence in his wake The 45-year-old has shed light on his troubled childhood for the first time Pink was first thrust in the spotlight by launching a sandwich stall with members of the Tribal Huk gang to feed poverty-stricken children But Pink is best known for his war on meth. He grabbed global headlines last October when he gave the meth dealers in 'his' town 24 hours to leave before his group cleared them out with force. Understandably, the ultimatum was met with stiff opposition, and Pink paid a high price. In October, he lost an eye in a failed assassination attempt that left his car riddled with bullet-holes. 'Obviously things can get a little bit out of control and sometimes I do some silly things. I will pay for that [today] and if I get a bit of time then that's fair.' Pink was sentenced this week to four months of community detention and 12 months of intensive supervision on three weapons charges. He admitted he is no role model, but said he has no plans to stop pitching in for his town any time soon. Cut price cladding added to tower blocks built in the 1970s could be to blame for the rapid spread of a fire which claimed the lives of at least 12 people. New plastic rain-proof cladding was installed at Grenfell Tower in White City, London, in May 2016 as part of a 10million refurbishment - but 'went up like a match' and helped the fire spread quickly from the fourth to 27th floor. This evening it also was suggested that council penny pinching and accepting the lowest bid was to blame for the blaze according to one former worker. The woman, who worked as a property manager for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council for 20 years said the deadly blaze could have been prevented if the council had spent money upgrading it. But Grenfell Tower, run by Tenant Management Organisation for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, was not modernised during the employee's two decades working in the property area of the authority. Often fire alarms didn't work and a new external fire escape was not installed because it would cost too much, she said. She claimed new cladding fitted to the outside of the building last year caused the blaze to rip through the block because substandard and cheap materials were used in an effort to save cash. She said: 'They spent 1 million on cladding the outside of the building last year, and surveyors told the council not to use the cheapest possible materials, but they accepted the lowest possible bid. Cladding is a material attached to a building's frame to create an outer wall (shown in this graphic). The process of applying the rain-proof frontage can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation behind it, shown between the first two layers Grenfell Tower before the refurbishment (left) in 2011 and with the new cladding (right) 'The surveyors weren't happy about it, but every time we brought it up with management they said "we hear you, but we simply can't spend the money on upgrading the building". 'It was built in the 1970s and the council didn't want to spend the money needed to bring it up to date because it would have cost so much money and taken so much work. 'The materials they used for the cladding was a cheap mixture rather than the more solid concrete. 'The cladding created a gap between the wall which caused the fire to spread even quicker throughout the floors.' Planning documents reveal the cladding was also added so that the tower would be more visually pleasing when seen from the nearby flats in the affluent west London suburb. Now, serious questions have been raised for the company behind the massive renovation project - on the same day it emerged the boss behind the refurbishment does not know what the cladding is made from. Checks are to be carried out on tower blocks going through similar refurbishment to Grenfell Tower, policing and fire minister Nick Hurd has said. Northern Ireland's Housing Executive has already confirmed is to undertake health and safety inspections of each of its 32 tower blocks following the fire after concerned residents contacted them. Prime Minister Theresa May said there will be a 'proper investigation' following the Grenfell Tower fire, adding: 'If there are any lessons to be learned they will be, and action will be taken.' Pictured: The new plastic cladding hangs charred and melted underneath the windows of the Grenfell tower in west London Before and after: Police would not confirm how many people are unaccounted for because the building is still on fire 12 hours after it started (pictured at 1pm today) The building was clad with polyester powder-coated (PPC) aluminium rain-screen panels, according to the Guardian. One fire expert told the paper: 'We are still wrapping postwar high-rise buildings in highly flammable materials and leaving them without sprinkler systems installed, then being surprised when they burn down.' Sam Webb added: 'I really don't think the building industry understands how fire behaves in buildings and how dangerous it can be.' Arnold Tarling, a chartered surveyor, said: 'The issue is that, under building regulations, only the surface of the cladding has to be fire-proofed to class 0, which is about surface spread. The stuff behind it doesn't, and it's this which has burned.' According to the Guardian, an inquest into the deaths at Lakanal House in 2009 found the fire spread very quickly, both laterally and vertically, trapping people in their homes, with the exterior cladding panels burning through in four and a half minutes. Councils turned to cladding to meet standards set by Blair government scheme Cladding became popular as councils sought to meet insulation standards laid out under the Blair Government's 22billion Decent Homes Programme, which ran from 2000 to 2010. The programme's rules dictated that homes should have efficient heating and effective insulation, modern facilities and be in a good state of repair. For high-rise council blocks, local authorities were faced with either knocking them down, meaning they would have to find or build homes elsewhere, or refurbishing them. The latter option was much cheaper, despite the millions of pounds then pumped into the scheme. In London alone, it is believed more than 820million in public funds were paid to contractors to make alterations. Local authorities turned to cladding the outside of old council house stock, including tower blocks, in a bid to improve the buildings' appearance and the improve so-called 'thermal efficiency' ratings. A press release by a cladding firm from the time stated: 'Over-cladding existing homes to improve their energy efficiency as well as aesthetics is proving the solution of choice for local authorities in their bid to meet Decent Homes standards.' The statement gave examples in Bristol and Lanarkshire where cladding had been used to meet the terms of the programme. A architect was quoted at the time saying: 'The main priorities were to eliminate water ingress, improve the thermal efficiency of the blocks, and enhance the physical appearance of the external envelope.' Advertisement The inquest found that botched renovations had removed fire-stopping material between flats and communal corridors, allowing a blaze to spread. The woman that raised concerns about the building, who retired in 2010, said she blames council bosses. She added: 'Kensington and Chelsea Council are responsible and for years bids were being made and they were all being turned down. 'I'm disgusted with the council. They think more about money than human lives. 'All the years I worked there it was like that. 'Every year I went on inspections of the building and every year the same problems continued. 'There needed to be an external fire escape and the residents were pushing for it, but it never got done because the cost came in too high at around A30 million for all the upgrades. 'The council thought it was too much money to spend on one building and chose not to do it. 'Seeing what happened this morning, I just couldn't believe it, they risked over 600 people's lives to save money. 'I was absolutely gutted, it really upset me, I knew the building so well and got to know a lot of the families. 'But I wasn't surprised, I could see it happening and all the surveyors knew it didn't meet the standards. 'The fire brigade were also unhappy with giving it a fire certificate, but the council didn't want to have to rehome all those people. 'Why didn't they have working for alarms? There should have been sprinklers in the communal areas too. 'The councillors are to blame too, they had the final approval on every project so they knew what was going on. 'But because they are poor people in north Kensington they don't want to spend the money.' The retired council worker fears the tragic inferno could be replicated on an even larger scale at the 31-storey Trellick Tower in Kensal Town, also in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. She added: 'I'm worried about Trellick Tower, that is an even bigger building with over 1,000 people living their in over 30 floors. 'It's one of the biggest residential buildings in Kensington and Chelsea. 'It was also build in the 1970s, but is in an even worse state than Grenfell. 'It isn't safe either and hasn't been brought up to scratch. It doesn't have working fire alarms or sprinklers, it could easily happen there as well. 'I pray to god they do something about Trellick Tower, that will go up even quicker.' The woman is in touch with her former colleagues who still work for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council. They continue to keep her updated about the building and refurbishments. The numerous theories of what caused the deadly Grenfell Tower fire 'will be thoroughly investigated,' council bosses said. A Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea spokesman said: 'We have heard a number of theories about the cause of the fire at Grenfell Tower. CLADDING CONTRIBUTES TO TOWER FIRES AROUND THE WORLD BUT WITH NO DEATHS It is believed that cladding contributed to similar tower fires around the world, including residential blocks in Dubai, but with significantly less casualties. Questions will now be raised about why the Grenfell fire resulted in more people losing their lives. In 2012, one person lost their life and six people were injured after a fire at the Mermoz Tower Roubaix, France. In November 2012 a blaze ripped through the 34-Tamweel tower in Jumeirah Lakes, Dubai, destroying homes. It was later found that newly installed aluminium cladding could have spread the fire after a disregarded cigarette set started a rubbish fire. No one died or were injured as a result of the blaze, but many were left without their homes. In February 2015, an inferno engulfed the Torch building in Dubai after a fire was started in one of its apartments. Strong winds helped spread the fire across the 79-storey building, with residents observing that flaming panels were seen crashing to the ground. There were no deaths as a result of the fire. On New Year's Eve 2015, a fire ravaged The Address Dubai Marina hotel and spread across 40 of its 63-storeys. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, residents could see the external cladding on the corners of the building was charred black and mangled for dozens of floors. Nobody was killed, but seven people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Advertisement 'All of these will be thoroughly investigated as part of the formal investigation which has already begun.' 'We are providing emergency accommodation for those affected by today's fire at Grenfell Tower. 'Our immediate priority is to accommodate the residents of Grenfell Tower, families with young children, the elderly and the vulnerable. 'For those unable to return to their homes in the surrounding area a rest centre has been set up at Westway Sports Centre. 'We are still placing households and housing officers will work throughout the night to provide assistance and support.' Some have described it as 'Polystyrene-type' cladding. According to Reynobond's website, the manufacturer of the panels, they come in two variants. One has a polyethylene core, which is a type of plastic, and another a version with a fire retardant mineral has a higher resistance to fire. The cladding at Grenfell tower could be seen burning and melting, causing additional speculation ]it was not made of fire resistant material. But the main issue is that the process of applying the rain-proof frontage can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation behind it. Arnold Tarling, chartered surveyor and fire expert with property firm Hindwoods, said this can have the effect of creating a 'wind tunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building'. He said: 'So had it been insulated per se, the insulation could fall off and fall away from the building, but this is all contained inside.' He added not all insulation used in the process is the more expensive non-flammable type. 'So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it.' Angus Law, of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'Early media reports suggest that this event has similarities with other fires that have occurred recently around the world.' He added: 'The UK's regulatory framework for tall residential buildings is intended to prevent the spread of fire between floors and between apartments. This terrifying picture capture the moment burning debris fall from the inferno at the Grenfell tower block Firefighters have been battling the blaze for several hours and while the flames are slowly being brought under control, there are fears the tower could collapse WHAT IS CLADDING? Cladding is a material that is usually attached directly to the frame of a building to act as an outer wall. Rainscreen cladding is a double-wall construction that makes use of a surface to keep the rain out. It also has an inner layer that offers thermal insulation, prevents excessive air leakage and carries wind loading. Advertisement 'If spread of fire does occur, as has happened at Grenfell Tower, the consequences are often catastrophic.' Construction firm Rydon, which carried out the refurbishment of the exterior of Grenfell Tower which finished last year, installing cladding and new windows, said its work 'met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards'. Design specifications suggest the renovation work carried out at Grenfell Tower included a 50mm 'ventilated cavity' next to 150mm of Celotex FR5000 insulation. This insulation, according to Celotex, has a Class 0 rating under UK building regulations, meaning it has the highest rating for preventing the spread of flames and prevents the spread of heat. The trapped were heard begging for their lives while waving white towels, torches and phones There are fears that that no one who lived on the top three residential floors may have survived the unprecedented fire In July last year, the 75-storey Sulafa Tower in Dubai Marina went up in flames, following a number of similar fires in the Middle East, including one at the 63-storey The Address Downtown Dubai on New Year's Eve 2015. James Lane, head of fire engineering at BB7, told IFSEC Global last July: 'Another high-rise apartment block is apparently victim to the poor fire properties of its external cladding. 'Any building constructed before the 2013 change in the local fire codes will be at risk from this kind of rapid and extensive fire spread unless major work is undertaken in the region to replace combustible insulation core cladding panels with a suitable alternative.' The local council, the block's landlord and the contractor used to refurbish the building last year face serious questions about how the fire took hold so quickly in a tower branded a 'death trap' by survivors. Firefighters have braved extreme temperatures and needed riot shield to protect themselves from falling debris including glass and cladding A brace firefighter is pictured inside the burnt remains of the 27-storey building, as efforts are made to investigate what caused the blaze With dozens now feared dead or missing and the tower's management facing a possible gross negligence manslaughter case. Dozens of similar blocks from the 1960s and 1970s refurbished in recent years have the same or similar new cladding. Grenfell's own community action group called for the tower to be pulled down four years ago over 'appalling' fire safety in the building and said today their repeated warnings to landlord Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) fell on 'deaf ears'. KCTMO completed a 10million refurbishment last year and the new cladding encasing the block originally built in 1974 'went up like a match', one resident has said. A spokesman said: 'It is too early to speculate what caused the fire and contributed to its spread. We will co-operate fully with all the relevant authorities in order to ascertain the cause of this tragedy. 'We are aware that concerns have been raised historically by residents. We always take all concerns seriously and these will form part of our forthcoming investigations. While these investigations continue with our co-operation, our core priority at the moment is our residents'. The cordon around the block was pushed back by police and homes surrounding it were evacuated amid fears that the building could collapse in the densely populated area of London More than 600 residents desperately tried to escape the flames as the fire broke out in the middle of the night, with many woken by the screams of others and the smell of burning plastic Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 and contains 120 flats thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people. The building was refurbished recently at a cost of 8.6 million, with work completed in May last year. Rydon, the firm that carried it out, said its work 'met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards'. London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is still being investigated, but several residents reported one man had said it started in his faulty fridge. A planning document released by the council in 2014 said: 'Due to its height the tower is visible from the adjacent Avondale Conservation Area to the south and the Ladbroke Conservation Area to the east. 'The changes to the existing tower will improve its appearance especially when viewed from the surrounding area.' The document also makes repeated reference to the 'appearance of the area'. The Belfast Telegraph reports that Ireland's Housing Executive is to undertake health and safety inspections of each of its 32 tower blocks following the fire after concerned residents contacted them. A spokesman told the paper: 'Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those affected by the fire in Grenfell, London, this morning. We want to reassure our tenants that their safety is taken extremely seriously across the Housing Executive. 'We have robust fire safety regimes and carry out regular inspections in all of our 32 tower blocks. 'In light of the fire in Grenfell, today we are undertaking health and safety inspections of each block. 'We are currently refurbishing three tower blocks in Belfast and completed one last year. 'We want to reassure tenants that any cladding systems which have been installed or are being installed are required to comply with the relevant fire safety regulations. 'Kensington and Chelsea Council has confirmed that an investigation into the cause of the fire will be undertaken. We will of course take on board any relevant findings that come out of this investigation.' The rotting clamshells that were used to pave an access road in a small Rhode Island community are being removed after neighbors complained about the stench and maggots. WJAR-TV reports that workers were at the property Wednesday morning to remove the clams after the property owner was issued a cease-and-desist order giving him until the end of the week to remove them. A crew with heavy equipment was later seen scooping up shells. Pictures Courtesy of News10 A Rhode Island man used unwashed clamshells to pave a road that neighbors complained gives off a sickening stench The Tiverton mans neighbors say the smell has been making them ill for about three weeks Residents complained to the town that the unwashed clamshells created a terrible smell and attracted maggots and flies but they are now finally starting to be removed The owner used the shells to pave an access road two weeks ago. But they had meat still attached, leading to a putrid smell as it decomposed. Video even showed maggots crawling all over the road. State environmental authorities said the clamshells were considered waste because of the decaying clam meat. The state Department of Environmental Management issued a Letter of Non-Compliance to the owner last week requiring the clamshells to be removed and disposed of at a licensed solid waste management or composting facility. The property owner David Rose has refused to comment. The putrid smell is caused by the meat on the shells decomposing. Video shows maggots crawling all over the road A Tiverton police officer hand-delivered a cease-and-desist order to the property owner on Friday. The clamshells are now finally being removed much to the relief of nearby homeowners 'Pretty much every person signed the petition that we have,' Blair Moore said to News 10 after collecting signatures and taking phone calls for 14 days. The Moores said that the stench was everywhere and even had to hire a professional cleaner to come and get rid of it - even from the couch cushions. 'I'm still worried about to see how much they dig up and how much they take away with them. But that was pretty-amazing news for us. I still didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes,' Moore said. In the meantime, the Moores are very happy to see progress, but are remaining weary until the job is officially complete. The pilot of a small airplane got a military escort from F-16 fighter jets for apparently flying into presidential air space over Wisconsin. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that two F-16s intercepted the small Cessna on Tuesday and escorted it to Dodge County Airport. The airport is about 30 miles from Pewaukee, where President Donald Trump was touring Waukesha County Technical College. The pilot of a small cessna place, (file photo left) got a military escort from F-16 fighter jets (file photo right) for apparently flying into presidential air space over Wisconsin. Dodge County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Scott Smith says the Federal Aviation Administration reported the plane violated restricted air space. Smith says that means the plane likely violated restricted air space due to Trump's visit. Smith says the pilot is from Burlington and was unaware of the air space restriction. The F-16s did not land at the small airport, located just north of the city of Juneau along Highway 26, said Smith. The FAA reported the plane violated restricted air space which was restricted because President Trump was in the area. The pilot was forced to land at Dodge County Airport Sheriff Dale Schmidt went to the airport after hearing the jets overhead to see what the fuss was about and says there was no threat to the public. "The sheriff interviewed the pilot, who is from Burlington," Smith said. "He was unaware of the air space restriction..' The sheriff did not know where the F-16s came from, but there are F-16s based at Truax Field at the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, in the 115th Fighter Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. Fresh off her $23million severance payment from her former employer Yahoo, ex-CEO Marissa Mayer joked on Wednesday that shes looking forward to using Gmail again - only to backpedal and endorse Yahoo Mail after she said her remark was taken out of context. Mayer spoke at a tech conference in London one day after she resigned as CEO at Yahoo following its takeover by Verizon. The quote about using Gmail - which implied that she was not a fan of the Yahoo email service - was taken out of context, Mayer tweeted on Wednesday. 'This out-of-context comment was about Gmail's design and how it has evolved since my work in the early days,' Mayer tweeted. Fresh off her $23million severance payment from her former employer Yahoo, ex-CEO Marissa Mayer joked on Wednesday that shes looking forward to using Gmail again - only to backpedal and endorse Yahoo Mail after she said her remark was taken out of context 'This out-of-context comment was about Gmail's design and how it has evolved since my work in the early days,' Mayer tweeted 'I will continue to use the excellent Yahoo Mail too,' she tweeted. 'The team's hard work paid off with a dramatically better product' 'I will continue to use the excellent Yahoo Mail too,' she tweeted. 'The team's hard work paid off with a dramatically better product.' The internet giant bid farewell to Mayer, who was at the helm of the company for five years, because Verizon finalized its $4.48billion acquisition on Tuesday. Now that Mayer was no longer at Yahoo, she joked that she can go back to using to using a tool I designed myself, according to Business Insider. Before she was hired by Yahoo, Mayer spent 13 years working for Google. Now that Mayer was no longer at Yahoo, she joked that she can go back to using to using a tool I designed myself. Before Mayer joined Yahoo, she worked for 13 years at Google, where she played a key role in the development of a number of products, including Gmail (above) She joined the company in 1999 becoming just the 20th employee ever hired at Google as well as its first female engineer. Mayer oversaw the layout of Googles famous search homepage. She also played key roles in developing other signature Google products and features like Google AdWords, Google Images, Google News, Google Maps, and Gmail. She was hired as president and CEO of Yahoo in July 2012. During her appearance at the Accelerate-Her event in London on Wednesday, Mayer spoke of the difficulties of changing a companys corporate culture. Mayer said that rather than focus on changing culture, executives should instead focus on enhancing the best characteristics of a company. Thats what Mayer said she tried to do at the helm of Yahoo. Mayer said that her job as CEO at Yahoo was to get out of the way and allow the companys team of engineers to build products and go do things. There are few remarks which can be attributed to Mayer because the London event on Wednesday was held under Chatham House Rule, which grants speakers anonymity. Mayer said that her job as CEO at Yahoo was to get out of the way and allow the companys team of engineers to build products and go do things.' The image above shows a Yahoo home page on a laptop The internal culture at tech companies has come under scrutiny in recent months, particularly at ride-sharing app Uber. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced on Tuesday that he was taking a leave of absence after an investigation detailed a bro culture that tolerated sexual harassment and a lack of diversity. The predominantly white-male composition of senior management has also been cited as a major flaw at other tech giants like Twitter, according to BuzzFeed. Mayers tenure at Yahoo, a company that was in protracted decline thanks to more popular rivals like Google and Facebook, was a controversial one, according to The Mercury News. After taking over in 2012, she went on a buying spree that included a $1billion acquisition of blogging platform Tumblr to reach a younger audience. She also cut more than a thousand jobs. A survey released last month by business insights specialty website Owler ranked Mayer as the second most disliked chief executive, behind the head of United Airlines. Mayer will receive a $23million severance package, according to an earlier filing, as well as $186million in stock options. 'Given the inherent changes to my role, I'll be leaving the company,' Mayer wrote in an email to the company obtained by CNN. Mayer will receive a $23million severance package, according to an earlier filing, as well as $186million in stock options. Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California is seen in the above stock image 'However, I want all of you to know that I'm brimming with nostalgia, gratitude and optimism.' 'Verizon wishes Mayer well in her future endeavors,' the company said in a statement. The closing of the deal, announced in July, had been delayed as the companies assessed the fallout from two data breaches that Yahoo disclosed last year. On Friday, Yahoo will be renamed as Altaba Inc, a holding company whose primary assets will be its 15.5 percent stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and a 35.5 percent holding in Yahoo Japan Corp. Thomas McInerney, a Yahoo board member, will become Altaba's chief executive officer. Verizon, the No. 1 US wireless operator, is rebranding AOL and Yahoo as part of a new venture called Oath, led by AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong In March, the Justice Department announced that it would charge two Russian intelligence agents and a pair of hired hackers for allegedly orchestrating a devastating criminal breach at Yahoo that affected at least a half billion user accounts. In a scheme that prosecutors say blended intelligence gathering with old-fashioned financial greed, the four men targeted the email accounts of Russian and US government officials, Russian journalists and employees of financial services and other private businesses, US officials said. Using in some cases a technique known as 'spear-phishing' to dupe Yahoo users into thinking they were receiving legitimate emails, the hackers broke into at least 500 million accounts in search of personal information and financial data such as gift card and credit card numbers, prosecutors said. Yahoo didn't disclose the breach until last September when it began notifying hundreds of millions of users that their email addresses, birth dates, answers to security questions and other personal information may have been stolen. A disgruntled UPS driver opened fire on colleagues during a meeting at a package delivery facility in San Francisco this morning, killing three people 'execution-style' and wounding two others before turning the gun on himself. Shots rang out at the sprawling warehouse and customer service center in the area of 17th Street and San Bruno in the mostly residential Portero Hill section of the city at around 9am Pacific Time. The incident led to a massive police response and six people were transported to the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, spokesman Brent Andrew said - where four people were pronounced dead, including the guman. The shooter and the victims were all drivers, said Steve Gaut, head of investor relations at UPS. The man opened fire while the workers were gathered for their daily morning meeting before going out on their routes, he added. As of Wednesday afternoon, multiple local news outlets have identified the perpetrator as Jimmy Lam, a man in his 40s with children. Police have not officially confirmed his name. The news comes as the first victim of Lam's rampage, 46-year-old Mike Lefiti, was identified. Family members and co-workers described the father-of-five as a 'gentle giant' and 'Big Mike'. Lefiti had worked with UPS for 17 years and was being picked up that morning by his cousin. Scroll down for video The first victim has been identified of a shooting rampage that left three dead at a UPS warehouse in San Francisco. Mike Lefiti, 46 (pictured), had worked with UPS for 17 years Police officers gather outside a UPS facility after a driver opened fire during a meeting, killing three and injuring two others before turning the gun on himself The workplace shooting rampage was reported at around 9am PT at this sorting hub in San Francisco UPS workers gather outside after a shooting at a UPS warehouse and customer service center in San Francisco on Wednesday A UPS worker is seen reacting after the deadly shooting that left four dead - including the gunman Heavily armed police officers gather outside the UPS facility after the shooting UPS workers embraced outside the scene of the workplace shooting rampage that left three innocent victims dead Mack Toia told ABC7 that Lefiti had a short work day on Wednesday because he was on light duty. 'He just was a great person and I'm going to miss him. I want him back, I want him back,' he said. Shots rang out at the sprawling warehouse and customer service center in the area of 17th Street and San Bruno in the mostly residential Portero Hill section of the city at around 9am Pacific Time. The incident led to a massive police response and six people were transported to the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, spokesman Brent Andrew said - where four people were pronounced dead, including the shooter. The other two victims have since been released from the hospital and are expected to be OK. The shooter and the victims were all drivers, said Steve Gaut, head of investor relations at UPS. The man opened fire while the workers were gathered for their daily morning meeting before going out on their routes, he added. During a press conference held Wednesday afternoon, San Francisco police Sgt Toney Chaplin said the shooter was dressed in a UPS uniform and was armed with an assault pistol. Chaplin said when the first police units responded to the facility after getting reports of shots fired, they came upon the victims and then encountered the gunman, who was still alive. Confronted by police, the man put the handgun he was brandishing to his head and pulled the trigger. He was transported to the hospital, where he later died of the self-inflicted wound. According to police, the shooter acted alone and investigators do not believe the incident was related to terrorism. Police were waiting for the medical examiner to confirm the gunman's identity before releasing his name, but several people said it was Jimmy Lam. The names of his victims were being withheld pending the notification of family members. San Francisco Assistant Chief of Police Toney Chaplin said at a press conference the shooter was dressed in a UPS uniform and was armed with an assault pistol A police officer reacts at the scene where a gunman shot and killed three co-workers A San Francisco police officer stands guard at the scene of a shooting at the UPS facility The wife of one of the survivors told KPIX 5 that her husband said the gunman broke into the workers safety meeting and shot three employees 'execution-style.' Brent Andrew, spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, sad the hospital had received the wounded victims, but he did not know exactly how many people or their conditions. UPS released a statement that read, in part: 'The company is saddened and deeply concerned about the affected employees, family members and the community we share. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those touched by this incident.' San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee tweeted: 'I want to offer my condolences to the individuals & families affected by the senseless act of violence at the @UPS facility in Potrero Hill.' California Gov. Jerry Brown tweeted: 'Our thoughts & prayers with everyone impacted by senseless violence today in SF & Alexandria.' San Francisco Police Department advised residents on Twitter early Wednesday morning to avoid the crime scene and shelter in place. At around 10:30 am local time, police tweet that officers 'contained the incident & building is secure.' People being evacuated hold their hands above their heads for police in the area of a shooting incident at the UPS facility People are seen standing on the roof of the UPS building with their hands raised above their heads The shooting took place in Portero Hill, just 2.5 miles from downtown San Francisco Neighbors said they heard up to eight rapid gunshots. 'It was like tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat,' said Raymond Deng, who lives across the street from the warehouse. A woman who claimed to be a UPS employee at the facility told the station KTVU that the gunman was a colleague and that he opened fire on the main sorting floor. Joseph Cilia with a local Teamsters Union, says Lam had filed a grievance in March requested that UPS relieve him of working overtime going forward. Still, Cilia says Lam wasn't angry, and he could not understand why he would open fire on his colleagues at a morning meeting on Wednesday. UPS spokesman Gaut later confirmed that information, revealing that the gunman and the victims were all drivers, and that the shooting rampage occurred while the workers were gathered for their daily morning meeting before going out on routes. Gaut said the facility's employees have now been released from work and he believes most have left the building. The company is providing trauma and grief counseling to employees. Police squad cars and yellow crime scene tape are seen outside the UPS warehouse near 17th Street and San Bruno Wednesday morning Witnesses described the gunman as a potentially disgruntled UPS driver who attacked colleagues during a morning meeting Emergency vehicles are parked and police gather outside the UPS package delivery warehouse Auto shop owner Robert Kim said he heard about five to eight rapid gunshots. The next thing he knew, he said, 'there's a mob of UPS drivers' running down the street screaming 'shooter, shooter.' Uniformed UPS employees were led out in a line by officers next to a highway. They walked away calmly with emergency vehicles nearby and gathered nearby outside a restaurant. The deadly incident on the West Coast came the same morning a 66-year-old gunman from Illinois opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, wounding US Representative Steve Scalise, of Louisiana, and four others. Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter and a senior adviser to her father at the White House, offered her 'thoughts and prayers' the victims of a shooting today in Virginia that wounded a congressman, two police officers and at least additional people. Trump acknowledged the shooting at a workforce development round table that was held off-camera on Wednesday in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds. 'I'd like to start by echoing my father's statement earlier and offering our thoughts and prayers to Congressman Scalise and all the victims in today's tragic events,' Trump said. 'We are grateful for their service and for dedication to this country.' Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter and a top White House aide, offered her 'thoughts and prayers' the victims of a shooting today in Virginia that wounded a congressman, two policies and at least additional people Ivanka Trump sent out a tweet in response to the early Wednesday morning shooting, sending her 'thoughts and prayers' to Rep. Steve Scalise and the other injured First daughter Ivanka Trump (left) stood alongside her husband Jared Kushner, both top White House aides, as President Trump gave a statement on the shooting The couple was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, as President Trump referred to shooting victim, Rep. Steve Scalise, as a 'patriot' and a 'fighter' Ivanka Trump (left) was seen entering the Diplomatic Room of the White House as Press Secretary Sean Spicer (right) readied the scene so President Trump could make a statement Ivanka Trump (left) is photographed alongside Sean Spicer (right) entering the Diplomatic Room. Later in the day at a roundtable event, she made her own statement on the shooting 'My father said this morning that it's time likes these that we must all work together for our country,' she added, saying the planned to do 'just that.' The event, which brought together senior White House staffers and representatives from some of the country's largest businesses, went on as planned, despite the shooting that disrupted the president's and vice president's schedules and left the whole of Washington shaken. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with Rep. Scalise and others injured in this morning's terrible incident. Grateful to the first responders,' Ms. Trump said in a tweet as her father addressed the nation. President Donald Trump praised a pair of police officers on Wednesday for their 'heroic actions' in Virginia, where a Republican baseball practice was taking place, in a televised statement that he delivered from the White House's Diplomatic Room just after 11:30 am. Ivanka Trump was spotted leaving for work at the White House Wednesday morning. The first daughter would go on to tweet and speak out about the shooting in Alexandria Ivanka Trump decided to still hold a workforce development discussion with top White House officials and CEOs, but held the meeting off-camera Ivanka Trump echoed her father, offering 'thoughts and prayers' to victims in today's shooting that took place as Congressional Republicans practiced for Thursday night's baseball game Trump said 'many lives' would have been lost if the officers had not been there. In his prepared remarks, Trump said the FBI is leading the investigation and will provide additional updates as they become available. 'Authorities are continuing to investigate the crime, and the assailant has now died from his injuries,' he said. 'Congressman Steve Scalise, a member of House leadership, was shot and badly wounded, and is now in stable condition at the hospital, along with two very courageous Capitol Police officers.' The president said that he had spoke to Chief of the Capitol Police, Matthew Verderosa. 'He's doing a fantastic job,' Trump asserted. On the call with Verderosa Trump said he expressed his 'sympathies for his wounded officers' and 'admiration for their courage.' 'Our brave Capitol Police perform a challenging job with incredible skill, and their sacrifice makes democracy possible,' the president stated. Trump called off a trip to the Department of Labor on Wednesday as Washington reeled over the shooting. The president had planned to sign an executive order at the department and deliver a speech on the White House's apprenticeship initiative. The White House cancelled the event and an appearance that Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to make at a Washington, D.C. conference. Trump delivered a statement from the White House, instead. The president had no other events on his schedule today. Ivanka went ahead with a discussion on workforce development. Attending the pre-planned event were several members of the president's Cabinet - Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Labor Serceratary Alexander Acosta and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon. Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, Reed Cordish, an assistant to the president who handles technology initiatives, Christopher Liddell director of strategic initiatives at the White House, and Dina Powell, the president's deputy national security advisor, also attended Representatives from more than a dozen major companies, including Accenture, Amazon, Cigna, CVS Health, Dow, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Siemens, participated, per a list that the White House provided. This is the dramatic moment a good Samaritan deliberately rammed his van into a speeding Chevrolet in order to help end an 80mph police chase. Dashcam footage showed the brave man crash into the side of Kolbe Jordan's car after the 26-year-old suspect led police on a chase through Detroit. The Samaritan's quick-thinking halted the Chevrolet and allowed six police officers to swarm the car and arrest Jordan as well as uncover 10 bindles of heroin in the car. This is the dramatic moment a good Samaritan deliberately rammed his white van into a speeding Chevrolet in order to help end an 80mph police chase Dashcam footage showed the unnamed man crash into the side of Kolbe Jordan's car after the 26-year-old suspect led police on a chase through Detroit The chase started when a Ferndale police officer randomly ran the plate of a Chevrolet and found that Jordan had outstanding traffic warrants and a suspended license. But when the officer tried to pull him over, he took off in a high-speed chase. More police cars joined the chase and as Jordan turned into the parking lot of a shopping plaza the unnamed Samaritan struck his car head-on. Officers immediately got out and aimed their guns at the car, shouting: 'Get your f***ing hands up!' The Samaritan's quick-thinking halted Jordan's Chevrolet and allowed police officers to swarm the car and arrest him Officers immediately got out and aimed their guns at the car, shouting: 'Get your f***ing hands up!' Footage showed police pulling Jordan and a second man out of the car and throwing them onto the ground. Officers found a stolen gun and 10 bindles of heroin in the car Footage showed police pulling Jordan and a second man out of the car and throwing them onto the ground. One viewer praised the Samaritan's bravery, writing: 'Private citizen put his own life in danger to stop an idiot running from the law. Kolbe Jordan, 26, of New Baltimore, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, third-degree fleeing and eluding, narcotics possession and driving on a suspended license 'Great take down guys, BE SAFE OUT THERE.' 'The collision stopped the Chevy and the van ended up against the suspect vehicle driver side door, preventing the suspect from escaping,' police said in a statement. The dramatic clip of the high-speed chase, collision and arrest was released on the Ferndale police YouTube page. Officers found a stolen gun and 10 bindles of heroin in the car. Jordan, of New Baltimore, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, third-degree fleeing and eluding, narcotics possession and driving on a suspended license. He was arraigned and held on an $80,000 bond. Jordan, who has prior convictions for marijuana and cocaine possession and possession of a firearm by a felon, was on probation when he was arrested. Philip Hammond is leading Remainers in Cabinet to push for a softer Brexit - raising fears among Tory MPs that last year's historic referendum could be unpicked. The Chancellor is reportedly in 'street-fighting mode' and trying to drum up support among politicians and business figures to radically alter the government's negotiating plans. He reportedly is leading a cabal to press for the UK to stay in the EU customs union - which would prevent Britain from being able to strike deals around the world after our departure from the bloc. Philip Hammond, pictured today, is said to be pressing for a softer Brexit A senior Tory Brexiteer told The Times that some Cabinet ministers are seizing upon the Tory election disaster to tear up Mr May's Brexit plans. They said: 'There is a great deal of concern that they are changing Brexit.' Mr Hammond is due to give a major speech to the City tomorrow, known as the Mansion House Speech, in which he could hint at his hopes for a softer Brexit. He has blamed the Conservative party's election humiliation on a hard Brexit and hinted to his German counterpart that the vote could pave the way for new negotiation plans. Tory Brexiteers privately say they are increasingly alarmed by maneuverings from Remain-backing MPs who are seizing upon Mrs May's failure to win a majority to hijack Brexit. David Cameron told a conference in Poland yesterday: 'It's going to be difficult, there's no doubt about that, but perhaps an opportunity to consult more widely with the other parties on how best we can achieve it. 'I think there will be pressure for a softer Brexit'. The comments will fuel fears Remainers could use the result to 'prise open' Britain's departure plans. Tory MP John Redwood today warned that plans for a so-called soft Brexit would mean Britain having to pump yet more money in the EU budget. Brexiteer John Redwood, pictured at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham last year, said Brexit must mean Britain leaves the customs union and single market to regain control of its borders and strike new trade deals around the world And he said that Britain will only be able to regain control over its borders if it leaves the single market. He rubbished talk of a 'hard' and 'soft' Brexit and said leaving the EU must entail leaving the single market and customs union. The Brexit-baking MP told BBC Radio Two's The Jeremy Vine Show: 'We want to leave and we want to be an independent country 'We can't be in the single market because that means freedom of movement and budget contributions, and we can't be in the customs union because that would stop us negotiating trade agreements.' He pointed out that the overwhelming majority of Britons voted for parties that backed Brexit in the election. He said: '85% of British people voted Labour, Conservative, Ukip of DUP at the last election and we all agreed on these fundamental principles. Brexit minister Steve Baker today said he does not foresee any change to Britain's Brexit approach despite reports that Remainers in Cabinet are mobilising 'In the words of the Labour manifesto, we are ending freedom of movement, we want to negotiate our own new style trade and investment deals which means we'll be outside the customs union.' Mr Redwood insisted the party's Brexit plans remained those laid out by Mrs May in the election - that no deal is better than a bad deal. MINISTERS HIRED AND FIRED IN MAY'S RESHUFFLE FIRED Apprenticeships Minister Robert Halfon Defence minister Mike Penning Justice minister Sir Oliver Heald Brexit minister David Jones HIRED Home Office minister - Nick Hurd Justice minister - Dominic Raab Education minister - Anne Milton Education minister - Robert Goodwill Brexit minister - Baroness Anelay Business minister - Claire Perry Financial secretary to the Treasury - Mel Stride Advertisement Meanwhile, newly appointed Brexit minster Steve Baker played down talk of a Tory split telling reporters he did not 'foresee any change' in the Government's approach to leaving the EU. Mr Baker effectively acted as the Brexiteer's shop steward, organising MPs and telling them which way to vote on legislation in the house of Commons before being appointed to the frontbench in Mrs May's post-election reshuffle. Speaking to reporters in Downing Street, he said: 'The reality is, where we stand follows logically from leaving. 'So if we are leaving, what we need to do is do it smoothly and successfully and gain economic benefit. 'If we are having economic benefit that means we need to be able to control our trade policy. So that's where I think we should be.' Pressed on whether Britain could stay in the customs union, he said: 'These are decisions which the Government will have to take, but I'm quite clear and I've made my position public in the past.' A number of senior remain-backing Tories are mobilising to pile the pressure on Mrs May to abandon her Brexit plans. Former Tory leader William Hague has called for a cross party commission, that would also include business groups and trade unions, to help negotiate Brexit. And Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson is also trying to use her enhanced position following the election to push for a different approach. There are concerns that Remain supporters in the Cabinet (pictured at today's meeting) are When life hands you boycott threats, make boycott tops. The Italian design duo of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have spent the past six months dealing with criticism and attacks from individuals who have taken issue with the fact that First Lady Melania Trump is s fan of their brand. That has not stopped the men from sharing images of the First Lady every time she wears their clothes, like during her recent trip to Italy when she only wore Dolce & Gabbana. Gabbana even takes the time to engage those who attack him on Twitter, many of whom have called for a boycott of the fashion house. That is why the men have now created a plain white t-shirt for both men and women that has '#BOYCOTT DOLCE & GABBANA' written across the front in black font with a red heart just below. Scroll down for video BOOM: Dolce & Gabbana has released a $245 t-shirt aimed at mocking those who have criticized the brand for celebrating when Melania Trump wears their clothes (Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana above) Flower power: Melania recently wore the Italian designers exclusively when she visited the country on her first international state trip as First Lady (above in $52,000 coat) On trend: Many are now celebrating the catchphrase and using it to comment on photos that the designers post on Instagram (above) The First Lady wore Dolce & Gabbana when she first stepped off the plane in Italy with President Trump last month and when she got back on Air Force One to head home, stopping in Brussells for the G& in between. She wore a variety of looks on that trip from the fashion house, most famously a silk coat with applique flowers that retails for close to $52,000, a price point that makes a boycott necessary for most people. And once again Gabbana came under attack for raving about he First Lady's style and beauty, with on Instagram user directly calling got a boycott. Gabbana then fired back as well, writing: '#BOYCOTT DOLCE & GABBANA' Gabbana was even more protectful of the First Lady when she wore one of their look for her her official White Hose piortrait. 'BEAUTIFUL,' wrote Gabbana alongside the image, along with eight emoji hearts. Soon after he posted, the comment section began to film up with many criticizing Gabbana and the fact that he was celebrating the First Lady. And rather than keep quiet, the designer fired right back, telling one person to 'f*** off' and another to 'go to hell.' One Instagram user criticized Gabbana for always showing women as a wife or mother and never as someone who could be president while another wrote that he had lost another follower. 'I dont' care. Really!!' responded Gabbana. The comments for the most part however were glowing for Gabbana after the initial few negative responses. Many also wrote that Gabbana had now gained a follower for his support of Melania. She and him: The unisex shirt is being sold online, and bioth designers were seen wearing it in a new video (models above) Proud: Gabbana has frequently taken to Instagram and responded to those who criticize him for designing the clothes Melania wears and being excited to see her in them (Trumps above on May 23) In her official portrait, Melania wears a a $2900 Turlington Satin-Trim Two-Button Jacket from Dolce & Gabbana which she paired with an Hermes scarf and the 25-carat ring her husband gave her for their tenth anniversary. He was first taken to task when posted a photo of her early this year on Instagram. 'Melania Trump #DGwoman thank you #madeinitaly,' wrote Gabanna, along with multiple heart emojis. Almost as soon as he posted the photo, Instagram users began to go after him in the comment section of his post. 'Disgusting you dressed her shame on you!!!!' wrote one user. Gabbana then fired back at the woman: 'Ignorant.' 'Yuck. I think I just bought my last Dolce piece,' wrote another individual. Gabbana replied to that by writing: 'Great.' He also included a heart emoji. 'So disappointed,' said one person. 'I don't care,' replied Gabbana. A vintage car enthusiast is in hot water over the massive collection of at least 100 Chevrolet Corvairs covering his property. Corvair enthusiast Michael McKeel has been hauled before the county zoning board after neighbors complained about the massive car collection on his six-acre property in Gaston, Indiana. 'It's a guy's hobby that's gotten way too big,' Fred Daniel, a city-county planner, told the Star Press. 'He's got a lot of Corvairs.' Corvair enthusiast Michael McKeel has been hauled before the county zoning board after neighbors complained about the massive car collection on his six-acre Indiana property Aerial photos of the property show over 100 vehicles. McKeel says he has been restoring Corvairs there for over 40 years 'I live, breathe and sleep Corvairs,' McKeel said in a 2007 interview for a PBS segment highlighting his fascination with the 1960s automobiles Neighbors have complained that the cars packed onto McKeel's property (seen in 2007) are an eyesore, and he has been hauled in front of the county zoning board Zoning officials now accuse McKeel of running an illegal salvage yard, and have forced him to file an application for special use as an auto salvage yard. Since his property is too close to roads and houses for a salvage yard permit, zoning officials seem unlikely to grant his request. In his zoning application, McKeel said he had been collecting and repairing Corvairs on the property for over 40 years, and asked to be grandfathered in. McKeel told the Star Press that collecting the cars was just his hobby, which he started because his first car was a Corvair. How many cars are there on his property? 'A lot,' he said. Aerial photos show more than 100 vehicles. 'Why is it a news story? I don't want to be in the news,' he said before hanging up on the reporter. The Chevrolet Corvair was manufactured from 1960 to 1969, in models that ranged from a two-door coupe and sedans to pickup truck and van variants. McKeel said his first car was a Corvair, which got him started on the life-long hobby McKeel has been involved in Corvair car clubs for decades, and used to pen articles for Corsa, the magazine of the Corvair Society of America (file photo) The Chevrolet Corvair was manufactured from 1960 to 1960, in models that ranged from a two-door coupe and sedans to pickup truck and van variants like this one (file) Zoning board photos show Corvairs in various states of disrepair on McKeel's property The popular line of cars came under fire for handling issues by Ralph Nader in his book Unsafe At Any Speed, however. McKeel has been involved in Corvair car clubs for decades, and used to pen articles for Corsa, the magazine of the Corvair Society of America. 'I live, breathe and sleep Corvairs, that's what my mom says at least. She calls it a disease,' he said in a 2007 interview with WFYI. At the time, he told the PBS affiliate that he had always had poor vision, and said that his sight was diminishing with age. 'Corvair people are just kind of in a time warp, they just are. They don't seem to get old, they don't seem to get different, so I guess I see my Corvairs the way I always have.' An extremist who claimed he was leaving the country to meet a date from Match.com has been jailed for six years, after emailing threats to Downing Street and threatening the judge at his sentencing. Shamim Ahmed, 24, from Shadwell, East London wagged his finger at the judge, muttered kuffar [non-believer] and then yelled: 'Wage jihad, wherever we are - target the civilians, tourist sites, inshallah [god willing].' He threatened to punch a dock officer and told the judge: 'Give me 20 years, I'll come out the enemy' before he was removed from court at his sentencing hearing. Shamim Ahmed, 24, from Shadwell, East London, has been jailed for emailing threats to downing street and threatening a judge The judge, John Bevan QC said: 'This afternoon I would have hoped he would have been on his best behaviour. He wasn't and I have asked for him to be removed and if I ask him to return, it will simply be asking for trouble.' 'I take the opinion that his views show no sign of calming down and he is a longterm follower of jihad,' he added. But he sentenced him to six years, with an extended year on licence as an 'offender of particular concern', because the judge had to give him 20 per cent credit for pleading guilty. The court heard that Ahmed had only begun practicing his religion in 2013 and had a low IQ. He was given a job as a security guard for CrossRail, despite sending threats to Downing Street, the Australian government and Ofsted as he became increasingly radicalised. Ahmed was arrested in January 2015, when his increasingly aggressive views resulted in him making threats to the staff of The French Bookshop in London. On January 17, a few days after the first edition of Charlie Hebdo was released after the killing, the bookshop's email account received an email from Ahmed titled: 'Protect your neck while you're still alive'. The email read: 'We will not let our Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him be ridiculed. If we ever find out your bookshop is selling the Charlie Hebdo magazine, you will face major retaliation, Allahu Akhbar' [God is great]. The judge, John Bevan QC said: 'I take the opinion that his views show no sign of calming down and he is a longterm follower of jihad,' Five days later, on the afternoon of January 22, Ahmed telephoned the shop to ask whether they were selling the magazine 'against the Muslims'. The member of staff who took the call thought the call had a menacing overtone and Ahmed followed it up with another threatening phone call a few minutes later in which he threatened: 'I'm going to come and stab you, I'm going to come right away and blow up the shop: I'm not afraid of the police, I'm a Muslim.' He was charged with threatening the bookshops and stopped from handing out anti-democracy leaflets outside a local polling station during an election. The leaflet, which featured the ISIS flag, was titled: 'Reject democracy, call for shariah!' [Islamic law] and included the sub-heading: 'Stay Muslim, don't vote!' Ahmed asked to return to work on the CrossRail project but the request was declined because of the earlier complaint and in October 2015, he resigned for a second time. He was convicted of threatening the French bookshop on November 9 and was sentenced to a 24-month supervision requirement with the Probation Service. At his first meeting with his probation officer, he told her that he wanted to travel to Sylhet in Bangladesh to attend his sister's wedding. On his return two days later, a number of photographs of ISIS fighters were retrieved from his phone along with images of beheadings and videos containing ISIS propaganda but he was not re-arrested. He later cancelled a second appointment with his probation officer and set off for Syria. His family reported him missing and he was stopped on the Syrian border and deported back to Britain. After his attempt to get to Syria in January, he told police: 'I've just been away on holiday for a day.' 'The prosecution observe that this was a complete and somewhat hopeless, lie,' Mark Weekes, prosecuting told the Old Bailey. He was previously charged with threatening the bookshops When Ahmed travelled out to Turkey in early January 2016 his departure was 'far from unheralded', Mr Weekes said. 'By the time of his arrest, this defendant had done almost everything he possibly could to join the ranks of IS,' he added. 'In travelling as far as the border, he was within an ace of getting into Syria and going on violent jihad.' On December 28 2014, Ahmed set up a profile on Match.com, the internet dating site, in the name Ahmed786. The numbers in the profile were significant because they corresponded with the opening phrase of the Koran. He included personal details, which said he was living in Britain, had Bangladeshi nationality, and was 5ft 8 ins tall with short black hair with brown eyes. The profile was set up without paying for it, and that was the only day on which he accessed the site. Because he did not pay, he could not have made contact with anyone else but when he was stopped at the airport more than a year later, in January 2016, he told the police he was going to Istanbul to meet women he had met through the website. The 'port stop' was referred to as a 'light touch', meaning that Ahmed's phone was not seized and his bags were not searched. Match.com later told police they do not offer their services in Turkey but Ahmed had been allowed to board the flight. The next day, January 12, he bought a flight from Istanbul to Gaziantep, described as a 'muster point' town for ISIS. The same day, Ahmed was reported as a missing person by his father but not long after the flight landed, he was in Whatsapp contact with one of his close relatives, telling them that he was not coming home. At about 10.45am on January 14 last year he was detained at the Kilis crossing into Syria and sent back to Britain. Jane Coats, 54, was arrested on charges of battery on a protected person A woman accused of assaulting a male passenger and two female flight attendants on an American Airlines flight hit a police officer in the arm upon her arrival in Nevada before she was arrested. Jane Coats, 54, who flew from Chicago to Las Vegas on Tuesday, allegedly punched Ryan Flannigan, who was assigned in the seat next to hers. Flannigan said Coats was 'inebriated' and 'belligerent' while the plane was delayed on the tarmac, according to the Review Journal. When he told her to be quiet, she punched him in the face and accosted two flight attendants before she was restrained with zip ties on the flight, according to an arrest report. Metropolitan Police received a call at 7.23pm and arrived at the McCarran International Airport when the flight landed in Las VEgas. Coats was 'verbally abusive' and called the officers 'f***ing a**holes', police officer Larry Hadfield told Dailymail.com. When she was released from the restraints, she 'physically hit one of the officers in the arm', Hadfield added. Coats was then arrested at 8.43pm on charges of battery of a protected person, with police saying alcohol appeared to play a role. She is currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $2,000 bail. The alleged victims who wanted to press charges were told the FBI was investigating the incident because it took place on a commercial airline flight, police spokesperson Jay Rivera said. The officer who was hit in the arm was not injured. Coats, 54, who flew from Chicago to Las Vegas, was met with Metropolitan Police Department officers at McCarran International Airport (above, file photo) The name Johann Reichhart might not be one synonymous with Nazi Germany but his ruthless killing streak made him one of the most feared members of the regime. Germany's chief executioner claimed the lives of some 3,165 with the vast majority coming during World War II. Criminals, resistance fighters and dissenters made up the bulk of his victims, whose lives he ended with the simple plunge of his guillotine. Johann Reichhart claimed the lives of some 3,165 with the vast majority coming during World War II In his bloodiest day, the 'remorseless' Reichhart executed 32 people with cold efficiency, earning his feared nickname 'Head Hunter' through his dedication to the unenviable job. Marc von Luke, a journalist who has written about Reichhart, said: 'He killed quickly, efficiently and without remorse. Under the Nazi regime, Johann Reichhart despatched criminals and resistance fighters, and after the end of the war he hung up Nazis for the Allies. Until the end of his life, he believed in the benefits of the death penalty. 'Reichhart had the ambition to become the best hangman in Germany, sure that he was a master of his art. No one was going to kill faster than he did. 'He served the Nazis, but he served the Weimar Republic and the Allies too. It was the profession which was important, not the government of the day. He was simply good at his job.' One could say Reichhart had killing in his blood being the eighth generation in his family to go into executions. Born on April 29, 1893 he would first serve his country in the First World war before becoming a butcher in peacetime. However after growing tired of the slaughter house he applied to become an executioner for the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice in Munich in 1924, assuming the post from his outgoing uncle. Reichhart, seen here in the midde, immersed himself in his role and even invented a device called the 'double detective tongs' for his guillotine His career in killing began in earnest with the execution by guillotine of Rupert Fischer and Andreas Hutterer for murder. The administration promised him 150 Goldmarks for each execution, and announced: 'From April 1, 1924, Reichhart takes over the execution of all death sentences coming in the Free State of Bavaria to the execution by beheading with the guillotine.' A lull in executions forced Reichhart to become a green grocer in neighbouring Holland but he was back in action after Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and soon became a vital clog in the Nazi killing machine. Reichhart immersed himself in his role and even invented a device called the 'double detective tongs' that kept prisoners pinned down without the need to tie them with rope. The metal clamp held the prisoner beneath the guillotine instead of rope meaning execution time was reduced to four seconds flat. One of Reichhart's most famous victims was 21-year-old Sophie Scholl on February 22, 1943 whose 'crime' was to have been a leading member of the White Rose movement, which had peacefully resisted the regime by writing anti-Nazi leaflets and distributing them around university students in Munich. One of Reichhart's most famous victims was 21-year-old Sophie Scholl, a leading member of the White Rose movement Sophie was the first of her fellow conspirators to be led to her death, which took place within just three hours of being found guilty by the rabidly Nazi judge, Roland Freisler, in his People's Court, notorious for its kangaroo trials. For executioners such as Sophie Scholl's killers like Reichhart, the Nazi boom in the use of the guillotine made them wealthy. Those who dropped the blade were paid 3,000 Reichsmarks per year and received a 65 Reichsmark bonus per execution. Reichhart made enough to buy a villa in an affluent Munich suburb. Cruelly, the Nazis even charged the families of those they had imprisoned and beheaded. For every day that a prisoner was held, a fee of 1.50 Reichsmarks was charged. The executions cost 300 Reichsmarks. Even the 12 pfennig cost of posting the invoice was demanded back by the Nazi state. Married dad-of-three Reichhart had gained such notoriety that his children were taunted at school with chants such as 'headcutter, headcutter, your dad's a headcutter!' The reputation of their father even drove one of his sons to suicide. However Reichhart changed sides once the Reich was toppled by the Allies and he was captured by American soldiers. Curiously, he was prisoner in Landsberg Prison for the purposes of denazification but not tried for carrying out his duty of judicial executioner. After his released he helped in the hanging of 156 Nazi officers but after two mistaken identities he refused to carry out any more killings himself. An episode of Forbidden History, which airs on Wednesday tonight, is dedicated to exploring the life of Hitler's head hunter. Jamie Theakston, the show's presenter, said: 'Reichhhart developed his own guillotine modelled on the traditional French guillotine, but lighter and more mobile. It's horrific to think of it. 'He was very proud of what he did. He felt he was doing an important service. 'One of the reasons he ended up working for the Allies was that there were not a lot of people prepared to do that kind of thing.' After years spent living alone, Reichhart died in a care home near Munich in 1972. A Texas couple were arrested Monday after police said they uncovered nearly $1million worth of meth-laced lollipops during a seizure on Monday. Police were responding to a call about a burglary to a home in Harris County, near Houston, when they caught Evonne Mick and David Salinas leaving the residence and loading a vehicle with drug laced candy, reported Click Houston. Bags of the drugs had been loaded into the back seat of the vehicle, authorities said. Scroll down for video Police arrested Evonne Mick (left) and David Salinas (right) after they allagedly uncovered methamphetamine-laced candy in their possession Nearly $1million worth of methamphetamine was uncovered on Monday in the backseat of a car in Harris County, near Houston So many, in fact, that the suspects couldn't even close the car door because drugs were packed so tightly in, according to police deputies. Police believe a huge amount of methamphetamine-laced candy is being sold on the streets of Harris County. They also said the arrests and seizure happened nearby to a school, and fear the drugs are targeted at children, reported Click Houston. Police said the arrests and seizure happened nearby to a school, and fear the drugs are targeted at children Some of the lollipops were in the shape of popular children's characters such as Yoda, R2D2 and Batman Others were in more simple designs such as butterflies and flowers, pictured above The lollipops were in the shape of different characters such as Batman and Yoda, to more simple designs such as a butterfly or a flower. Each piece of candy was meant to be sold at a price ranging from $20-$40, depending on its size. Police believe there are more people involved, and the investigation is ongoing. Each piece of candy was meant to be sold at a price ranging from $20-$40, depending on its size When police arrived at the home in a north Spring neighborhood, they thought they were responding to a burglary That's when agents found at least six bricks of cocaine worth nearly $470,000 A customs agents then came over and noticed a problem with the back seat cushion After landing, a drug-sniffing dog inspected her wheelchair and noticed something unusual Stanley flew back to New York's JFK Airport on a JetBlue flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia Yoncela Stanley, 33, was arrested Sunday after customs agents found 27 pounds of cocaine hidden in her motorized wheelchair A 33-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday after customs agents at Kennedy Airport in New York discovered 27 pounds of cocaine she allegedly tried to smuggle into the country inside her motorized wheelchair, it was announced on Tuesday. Yoncela Stanley, a US citizen, landed in the States on a JetBlue flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia on Sunday, according to TMZ. Upon landing, a drug-sniffing dog who inspected Stanley's wheelchair alerted its handlers that something was amiss. That's when a customs official noticed that the back seat cushion on the wheelchair looked 'unusual.' A 33-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday after customs agents at Kennedy Airport in New York discovered 27 pounds of cocaine she allegedly tried to smuggle into the country inside her motorized wheelchair (seen above) Yoncela Stanley, a US citizen, landed in the States on a JetBlue flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia on Sunday. Upon landing, a customs official noticed that the back seat cushion on the wheelchair looked 'unusual.' A closer examination revealed six bricks and two bags worth of cocaine weighing a total of 27 pounds, according to TMZ. The total value on the stash is estimated to be $468,000. Stanley was arraigned Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court on charges of narcotics smuggling, the New York Daily News reported. A closer examination revealed six bricks and two bags worth of cocaine weighing a total of 27 pounds. Travelers are seen in the above stock image arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York She is being held on $50,000 bail. 'This latest seizure demonstrates the vigilance of our CBP officers, and their excellence in detecting those who would try to smuggle these illegal substances,' said Leon Hayward, the acting director of New York field operations for Customs and Border Protection. A university Islamic Society has apologised for handing out booklets written by a preacher saying 'every Muslim should be a terrorist'. MPs have reacted with fury to the gaffe and called for strategies such as Prevent to be refocused more on universities than schools. Students attending a 'Discover Islam Week' at Durham University were stunned to see the banned writings of Dr Zakir Naik on display outside the university library. Dr Naik's Answers to Non-Muslims' Common Questions About Islam were available to students at Durham University just days before the Westminster attacks Students attending a 'Discover Islam Week' at Durham University were stunned to see the banned writings of Dr Naik on display (above) outside the university library Copies of the Dr Naik's Answers to Non-Muslims' Common Questions About Islam were available from one of the stalls in March, just days before the Westminster Attack. The booklet states that 'every Muslim should be a terrorist to anti-social elements in society'. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen stormed: 'Terror organisations always prey on the fact our society is decent and civilised. 'But we should not be spreading their propaganda for them particularly through our respected educational institutions. 'These young people are supposed to be among our brightest and best..it is deeply concerning. 'I wonder how many they handed out before they realised and who authorised them to be in display. 'The real question which has to be asked 'why were they in possession of this kind of material in the first place?' I mean why did they even ask for them?' Tory MP Phil Davies said: 'It is a massive concern that stuff like this can be distributed at universities in the first place. 'It would indicate universities are places that need to be focused on when combating radicalisation. It was clearly irresponsible for the material to be issued in the first place.' The booklet rants that 'alcoholism' has driven Western countries to high levels of rape, molestation, incest, and AIDS, and 'a true Muslim' ought to be a terrorist to 'such people'. Durham Islamic Society President Mohammed Alatiyyah said: 'DUISOC is very sorry if anyone was upset or offended by the booklet, which doesn't represent the views of our society and was distributed by honest mistake' The booklet also claims that women should wear hijabs to 'prevent them from being molested'. It also states Western culture has turned women into 'concubines, mistresses, and social butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers'. It describes a girl wearing a mini-skirt as 'an indirect invitation to the opposite sex for teasing and molestation.' Having been handed the booklet, students Martha Muir and Sabrina Steuer wrote to Durham University Islamic Society to complain. They said in the letter: 'Considering the hateful things this man has said and the fact he is literally barred from entering the country we find it highly problematic that your society chose to spread this pamphlet. 'Furthermore, this was just one of the many of his pamphlets being offered on your stand.' The booklet states: 'Every Muslim should be a terrorist. A terrorist is a person who causes terror. The moment a robber sees a policeman he is terrified. 'A policeman is a terrorist for the robber. Similarly every Muslim should be a terrorist for the antisocial elements of society, such as thieves, dacoits and rapists. 'Whenever such an anti-social element sees a Muslim, he should be terrified. It is true that the word "terrorist" is generally used for a person who causes terror among the common people. 'But a true Muslim should only be a terrorist to selective people i.e. antisocial elements, and not to the common innocent people. In fact a Muslim should be a source of peace for innocent people.' Dr Naik is an Indian Islamic preacher and has been banned from entering the UK and Canada because of his radical talks Dr Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was banned from India to 'safeguard national security', according to the Delhi High Court. The court has ruled that the government order was 'not arbitrary' and is legal, amid fears people could be 'radicalised' by the group. Dr Naik is an Indian Islamic preacher and has been banned from entering the UK and Canada because of his radical talks. Durham Islamic Society President Mohammed Alatiyyah said: 'DUISOC is very sorry if anyone was upset or offended by the booklet, which doesn't represent the views of our society and was distributed by honest mistake. 'We very much regret that they were displayed. These views in no way represent the views of our society, and they are not views that we want to spread or promote.' Naik has previously stated that a man has the 'right' to beat his wife 'gently'. He also says Muslim men have the 'right to sex with their female slaves', and recommends 'death penalty' for homosexuals, who he believes are 'patients suffering from sinful mental problems'. Naik supported Osama Bin Laden, stating 'if he is terrorising America, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. 'Every Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing is that if he is terrorising a terrorist, he is following Islam.' Gregory Villemin was found tied up and drowned in the Vologne river in eastern France in October 1984 French police investigating the killing of a four-year-old boy in 1984 arrested three of his relatives on Wednesday, raising hopes of a breakthrough in one of the country's most high-profile unsolved murder cases. Gregory Villemin was found tied up and drowned in the Vologne river in eastern France in October 1984, sparking a long and convoluted legal saga that transfixed France for years. On Wednesday morning, police arrested an uncle of Gregory's father and the uncle's wife in the Vosges mountains. The young victim's father's half sister was also detained in the same region, police sources told AFP. His grandparents were also interviewed. The arrests 'target people very close to the heart of this case and aim to clarify certain points and to provide answers to questions we have,' local prosecutor Jean-Jacques Bosc said in a statement. The case was reopened in 2010 to take advantage of new DNA techniques. Bernard Laroche, a cousin of the child's father, was charged with the murder but later released. The boy's mother, Christine Villemin (right) was also accused in but later cleared The death of 'Little Gregory' as he became known led to one of France's most notorious post-war murder mysteries, as police sought to untangle a web of family hatred and local jealousies. The day after Gregory's body was found, a letter arrived at the home of the child's parents - who had been receiving anonymous hate mail since 1981 - claiming responsibility for the murder and calling it 'revenge'. Bernard Laroche, a cousin of the child's father, was charged with the murder a month after the boy's death, based on evidence given by a teenage sister-in-law. On Wednesday morning, police arrested an uncle of Gregory's father and the uncle's wife in the Vosges mountains (crime scene, pictured) He was released after she withdrew her claims, only to be shot dead in March 1985 by Gregory's father Jean-Marie Villemin who spent two and a half years in prison for the crime. The dead boy's mother, Christine Villemin, was herself charged with the murder in 1985. But she was finally cleared eight years later and all charges against her were dropped. The arrests on Wednesday were on charges of being an accomplice to murder, failing to denounce a crime and failing to help someone in danger, said local newspaper l'Est Republicain which first reported the story. Patricia Mountbatten has died aged 93. She is seen her in 2005 Patricia Mountbatten, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh's first cousin and god mother to Prince Charles, has died aged 93. A Wednesday statement issued on behalf of the Knatchbull and Mountbatten families on said: 'Patricia Mountbatten died peacefully on Tuesday 13th June at her home in Mersham, Kent, surrounded by her children. Her husband, the celebrated film producer Lord Brabourne, died in 2005.' The Queen and the Duke have been told of the passing and have privately passed on their condolences, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson confirmed. The Countess Mountbatten of Burma survived an IRA bomb that was placed on the family boat as they holidayed off the coast of Sligo, Ireland on August 27 1979. The Countess's father Earl Mountbatten, who was a beloved uncle of Prince Charles, along with her 14-year-old son Nicholas Knatchbull and her mother-in-law the Dowager Lady Brabourne all died in the attack. A local boat boy, 15-year-old Paul Maxwell, also died. She was pulled from the water and required 120 stitches to her face, which she wryly referred to in later years as 'my IRA facelift'. Scroll down for video Patricia Mountbatten and her dogs Sandy and Skye at the family home in Mersham, Kent in 2004 The Countess's father Earl Mountbatten, who was a beloved uncle of Prince Charles, died in the attack Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma with members of his family on his thirty-foot boat, Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland, circa 1975 just four years it was blown up The Countess, known as Lady Brabourne at the time of the attack, recalled how she cried every morning on waking for about six months after the blast. In a book by a bereavement charity, she referred to 'the seemingly endless black tunnel' through which those left behind have to pass to reach 'the light that truly does appear at the end, and which we eventually found ourselves'. For more than 30 years she used her own personal experience of loss to help other bereaved parents, through her support of the charities Child Bereavement UK and Compassionate Friends. THE COUNTESS MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA Patricia Edwina Victoria Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was born on February 14 1924. She was Queen Elizabeth's third cousin, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh's first cousin and god mother to Prince Charles. She married playwright Lord Brabourne, who died in 2005, in 1946 when he was an aide to her father in the Far East. The Countess's father Earl Mountbatten was a beloved uncle of Prince Charles. The Countess's life was irrevocably altered after she survived an IRA bomb that was placed on the family boat as they holidayed off the coast of Sligo, Ireland on August 27, 1979. Her father along with her 14-year-old son Nicholas Knatchbull and her mother-in-law the Dowager Lady Brabourne all died in the attack. A local boat boy, 15-year-old Paul Maxwell, also died. For more than 30 years she used her own personal experience of loss to help other bereaved parents, through her support of the charities Child Bereavement UK and Compassionate Friends. She and her husband had eight children and 18 grandchildren. Their eldest son, Norton, 69, and his wife Penny, 64, who live at Broadlands, have now become the new Earl and Countess Mountbatten of Burma. Advertisement In an extraordinary moment last month the Prince of Wales shared a joke and a handshake with Gerry Adams, the man accused of being the IRA's mouthpiece. They shook hands after Prince Charles held a private meeting with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Government Buildings on the final day of his tour of Ireland. Charles looked in good spirits as he met with the Sinn Fein president, who has been at the helm of the party since 1983, during a reception at Glencairn House in Dublin. Their handshake came two years after Charles became the first member of the Royal family to meet with the politician. Countess Mountbatten of Burma pictured with Prince Charles (left) cerca in 1980 and pictured (right) in 1992 On that occasion, Adams refused to apologise for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten, Charles's beloved great uncle and mentor. Although Mr Adams later expressed 'regret' over Louis Mountbatten's murder - which he publicly justified at the time - he stopped short of apologising for what had happened. The Countess's husband Lord Brabourne, who died in 2005, was the producer of films such as A Passage To India and Death On The Nile, and they had eight children together - including Nicholas. They were married in 1946 when he was an aide to her father in the Far East. Their wedding took place at Romsey Abbey near the family's home, Broadlands in Hampshire, and the bridesmaids were the then Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, the bride's younger sister Lady Pamela Mountbatten - later Hicks - and the Queen's cousin Princess Alexandra. Irish police officer looking through rubble remains of the Shadow V boat which Earl Mountbatten was on when it was blown up by IRA in 1979 Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh on their wedding day, November 20, 1947. Second from left, standing at the back is, Lady Patricia Mountbatten: in front of her in the lavender dress is Queen Mary, the mother of King George VI; Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Greeceis beside her (2nd from left, front row). The best man is Maleford Haven. Princess Margaret is the bridemaid to the right of Prince Philip. the standing group at the right consists of King George VI, HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Princess Alice of Athlone She was godmother to the Prince of Wales. Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen and her third cousin, was one of her bridesmaids at her wedding. Their eldest son, Norton, 69, and his wife Penny, 64, who live at Broadlands, have now become the new Earl and Countess Mountbatten of Burma. She also leaves 18 grandchildren. 'The arrangements for a funeral in London followed by a burial service in Mersham will be announced in due course,' the statement from the family added. The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to punish Russia over its alleged election meddling, passing a bill that would bar President Donald Trump from unilaterally easing existing sanctions on Moscow. The vote at a time of high tension in Washington over the Russia scandal was 97-2. The proposal was included in an amendment that must still win definitive approval from the Senate and from the House of Representatives. It would make congressional approval necessary if Trump seeks to suspend or ease sanctions imposed on Russia over its apparent cyberattacks during the 2016 US election campaign. The U.S. Senate passed a bill, spearheaded by Republican John McCain (left), that would impose crippling new sanctions on Russia's economy, led by President Vladimir Putin (right) The bill, if it passes in the House, would give Obama-era sanctions the force of law and prevent President Donald Trump from easing them This new bill would also give sanctions imposed by then president Barack Obama via an executive order the full force of law. The sanctions target the Russian energy industry in particular. The legislation would impose new sanctions against 'corrupt Russian actors,' 'those involved in serious human rights abuses,' Russians providing arms to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime or those engaged in cyberattacks on behalf of the government. Russia's interventions in Ukraine and Crimea and its support of Assad in the Syrian war are the other stated reasons for the sanctions, aside from the hacking that US intelligence agencies say Russia engaged in aggressively with the alleged aim of helping Trump beat Hillary Clinton last November. These sanctions have been added to a bill under debate and almost certain to win passage aimed at toughening sanctions against Iran for what the bill calls its support of international terrorist acts. 'For too long, the message to Vladimir Putin has been that Russia can invade its neighbors, threaten US allies, intensify its cyberattacks, and interfere with foreign elections with very little repercussion,' said Senator John McCain, a strident critic of the Russian leader. 'Unless and until Russia pays a price for its actions, these destabilizing activities will continue,' he added. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire was amogn the Democrats promoting the bill, which passed by an overwhelming 97-2 margin One of the only two senators to oppose the measure was Rand Paul of Kentucky 'Today the Senate has finally confronted Russia for interfering in our elections. This bipartisan amendment is the sanctions regime that the Kremlin deserves for its actions,' said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, another leader of the push for the legislation. The only two 'no' votes on the Russia bill were from Republican Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul. Several more votes on the bill are scheduled in the Senate in the coming days before it can go to the House of Representatives. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said in a statement that the vote sent 'a strong signal to President Putin while ensuring the Trump administration has the flexibility it needs.' 'The Russian government continues to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine, aggravate the crisis in Syria, and destabilize democracies around the world,' Corker said. 'This amendment makes clear that we will not continue to tolerate such actions.' Fox News will no longer bill itself as 'fair and balanced,' it was learned on Wednesday. The conservative-leaning cable news channel is dropping the 'Fair & Balanced' slogan that it has attached to its brand ever since it launched in 1996, according to New York magazine. Instead, the network will market itself from now with the sales pitch: 'Most Watched. Most Trusted.' The decision to shed the 'fair and balanced' slogan was made this past August following the dismissal of Fox News' late founder and chairman, Roger Ailes. According to New York magazine, the decision was made by Fox News co-president Jack Abernathy. The rationale given for the move was that the phrase 'fair and balanced' had been 'mocked,' according to a Fox News insider. When Ailes started Fox News over 20 years ago, he made his employees undergo seminars whose central theme was 'fair and balanced,' according to New York. Fox News will no longer bill itself as 'fair and balanced,' it was learned on Wednesday The decision to shed the 'fair and balanced' slogan was made this past August by network co-president Jack Abernathy (left). The change was prompted by the dismissal of Fox News' late founder, Roger Ailes (seen in the above 2015 file photo) 'He would call a group of senior producers and make you watch the channel and he'd point out stuff, like a banner that's slightly liberal,' a senior producer is quoted as saying. 'He would say, "The news is like a ship. If you take hands off the wheel, it pulls hard to the left".' Ailes would also use 'fair and balanced' as a measuring stick on whom to hire. If Ailes interviewed a candidate he did not like, he would say that the person was not hired because they weren't 'fair and balanced.' Last July, Ailes (seen above with his wife Elizabeth Tilson outside the News Corp building in New York last July) resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News after a number of current and former female employees came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment Ailes' departure set off a chain of events that has resulted in a transformation at Fox News, which has been rocked by big-name departures. Megyn Kelly (left) left the network earlier this year to join NBC, and Bill O'Reilly (right) was fired in April over sexual harassment allegations A Fox News spokesperson told New York that the new tagline won't have any effect on the channel's editorial policies or its programming. Despite the change in tag line, Fox News anchor Bret Baier struck a defiant tone. 'My show will still end with "Fair, Balanced, and Unafraid",' Baier tweeted on Wednesday. Ailes, 77, died on May 18 at his home in Palm Beach after he was hospitalized for several days due to injuries sustained from a fall. Last July, Ailes resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News after a number of current and former female employees came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. Ailes denied the allegations. Ailes' departure set off a chain of events that has resulted in a transformation at Fox News, which has been rocked by big-name departures. Sean Hannity (above), who hosts a nightly 10pm show, remains one of the few links to the Ailes era at Fox News Despite the change in tag line, Fox News anchor Bret Baier struck a defiant tone. 'My show will still end with "Fair, Balanced, and Unafraid",' Baier tweeted on Wednesday One of Ailes' accusers, Megyn Kelly, left the network for NBC earlier this year. Most recently, Bill O'Reilly, who hosted the highly rated O'Reilly Factor program, was fired after it was learned that he paid $13million to settle sexual harassment complaints made by five different women. The public backlash and the exodus of advertisers from his show compelled Rupert Murdoch and his sons to force O'Reilly out. Tucker Carlson has stepped in to fill the void left by O'Reilly. Sean Hannity, who hosts a nightly 10pm show, remains one of the few links to the Ailes era at Fox News. Special counsel Robert Mueller's job is safe, the White House told reporters on Tuesday, but aides to the president are privately worried that Donald Trump will could fire the Russia investigator later. Sources close to the president told the New York Times that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, White House Counsel Don McGhan and First Lady Melania Trump begged the president not to sack Mueller. Priebus was especially alarmed, a source told the publication. The first lady told the president she believed that Mueller's probe would lead to his exoneration and he should leave the prosecutor in place. Special counsel Robert Mueller's job is safe, the White House told reporters on Tuesday, but aides to the president are privately worried that Donald Trump will could fire the Russia investigator later Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, White House Counsel Don McGhan and First Lady Melania Trump reportedly begged the president not to sack Mueller Priebus was especially alarmed. The first lady told the president she believed that Mueller's probe would lead to his exoneration and he should leave the prosecutor in place The president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, thought Trump should get rid of Mueller, but he has been less bullish in recent weeks. The White House maintains that Trump can get rid of the special prosecutor, although he sees no reason to do it currently. As such, Democratic lawmakers have renewed their calls for the creation of an independent, 9/11-style commission. A rumor that Trump had considered firing the DOJ-appointed prosecutor was making its way around Washington this week and was not stopped by the White House's claim Tuesday evening that it was not an option the president was entertaining. A Trump lawyer had left the door open to it on Sunday and conservatives ran with it. Chris Ruddy, a media proprietor and friend of the president, said Monday that he had sources in the White House telling him that Trump was 'weighing' it. The claim set off a stampede. Politics was put on hold on Wednesday as Washington recovered from a Virginia shooting that nearly claimed the lives of two Capitol Police officers, a Member of Congress, a congressional staffer and a lobbyist. A day before, the Russia investigation was almost all that legislators were talking about as they grilled two Department of Justice officials like they were in legal depositions. Attorney General Jeff Sessions expressed support for Mueller, the former FBI director who now leads a broad probe of claims that people linked to President Donald Trump colluded with Russian interests during the 2016 election season, at his hearing. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said during a morning session that the Department of Justice retains the authority to fire Mueller and it can only do so for 'misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause.' Democrats remain concerned that Trump would direct DOJ to get rid of Mueller, anyway, and they pelted Sessions with questions about it at an Intelligence Committee panel later. The president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner,right, thought Trump should get rid of Mueller, but the idea was vetoed by the first lady and the president's chief of staff. Kushner is pictured at the White House today Trump refused to say what he might do on multiple occasions when reporters asked him if he was planning to fire Mueller at events on Tuesday. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders finally told reporters late Tuesday evening, 'While the President has the right to, he has no intention to do so.' Noted Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House, reversed himself this week and began attacking Mueller as a vicious partisan whose hiring of Democratic loyalists as deputies has cast his impartiality into doubt. But during a Tuesday afternoon hearing, Sessions suggested to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Mueller could be trusted to carry out a fair investigation. 'I have known Mr. Mueller over the years. He served 12 years as a FBI director. I knew him before that, and I have confidence in Mr. Mueller,' the attorney general said. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he has 'confidence' in Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's ability to lead a probe into Russian election interference Mueller, a former FBI director, has broad authority that could affect the future of Donald Trump's presidency, and makes some in the White House nervous Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy (left), a longtime Trump friend, said Monday night that the president was considering whether to fire Mueller a claim the White House quickly bashed Gingrich said on Twitter that 'Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Time to rethink.' He told ABC's 'Good Morning America' on Tuesday that Mueller 'did not hire a single Republican in the first wave' of staffing for his investigation. 'These are bad people,' he said. 'These are people who are going to be after Trump.' Gingrich also said Trump had phoned him Monday night, and left him with the impression that Mueller's job isn't on the line. Sessions told his former Senate colleagues that he didn't know one way or the other. 'Do you believe the president has confidence in Mr. Mueller?' Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner asked him. 'I have no idea,' Sessions replied. 'I've not talked to him about it.' South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told Politico on Monday night that firing Mueller 'would be a disaster.' 'There's no reason to fire Mueller. What's he done to be fired?' he asked. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified to a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that only he has the authority to fire Mueller, since AG Sessions has recused himself from the entirety of the Russia probe Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich insists Mueller is hiring 'bad people' Democrats who are out to get Trump On 'CBS This Morning' Gingrich carped that one of the Democratic attorneys Mueller has hired 'worked for the Clinton Foundation.' 'He apparently couldn't find a single pro-Trump attorney to hire and I just think that thats a rigged game. I think that it's a mistake to pretend that this is going to be some neutral investigation.' Rosenstein confirmed at his hearing that only he could dismiss Mueller, and even then only for a documented cause. Sessions, who outranks Rosenstein, has recused himself formally from overseeing any part of the Russia investigation. Advertisement Dozens of people gathered outside Notting Hill Methodist Church for a tearful vigil hours after a deadly fire ravaged the nearby Grenfell Tower block. Mourners outside the church, which is just a short walk away from the scene of one of the biggest fires recorded in the UK, laid candles on the ground and joined in communal prayers. The Rev Mike Long played Amazing Grace on his flute as members of the crowd sang along. He said: 'There are times when all the words we can say are not adequate and sometimes words fail us because no words can do justice to how we feel, or what we have seen or what has happened. Today is one of those days. 'What we can simply do is look to all that we have seen today which is good, which is fabulous - people getting together.' He added: 'Let light triumph over all that is rotten, that is desperate and that defies our understanding.' Twelve people are known to have died after a vicious fire, said to be caused by a faulty fridge freezer, engulfed the White City building in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Scotland Yard says the death toll is expected to rise significantly, with 74 others in six London hospitals receiving treatment including 20 in a critical condition. A young boy lights candles outside the church on Wednesday evening in an area besieged with grief The Rev Mike Long invited those present to light candles to place on the steps of the church Mourners hold candles as prayers and songs were played. 'There are times when all the words we can say are not adequate and sometimes words fail us because no words can do justice to how we feel, or what we have seen or what has happened. Today is one of those days,' Rev Mike Long said Many were moved to tears after a moment of silent contemplation outside the Notting Hill Methodist Church in west London Young women like candles. Twelve people are known to have died after fire engulfed the White City building in the early hours of Wednesday 'Let light triumph over all that is rotten, that is desperate and that defies our understanding,' the reverend said at the gathering Scotland Yard says the death toll is expected to rise significantly, with 74 others in six London hospitals receiving treatment including 20 in a critical condition People have been leaving donations outside the church since his morning for families who have seen their homes andpossessions destroyed Soap opera star Corey Sligh has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of child molestation. The charges against the former The Young And The Restless star stem from two prior arrests in Georgia and Florida late last year, both over allegations made by an 8-year-old female family member. Sligh allegedly made the girl 'touch his penis with her hand' according to the federal charging documents, reported TMZ. Child molestation charges at the federal level are relatively rare, typically only coming when offenses take place across multiple states. Legal troubles: Corey Sligh was arrested in November (mugshot left, October mugshot right) by Walton County Sheriff's deputies after being accused of molesting a young girl Sligh was arrested on state child molestation charges in Georgia in October and again in Florida in November, cases that are believed to have led to the federal charges. The actor, who landed a role as a featured extra on the soap The Young & the Restless back in 2014, is denying the claims made in both cases. Both arrests stemmed from allegations made by the same 8-year-old female family member. The first arrest came on October 14 in Cherokee County Georgia. The young girl and her mother told authorities in Georgia that Sligh had molested her, claiming he touched her last Easter. The girl said that Sligh touched her other times as well between April 1 and September 24, the day that the family first contacted Georgia police. Sligh was then arrested for the first time, at which time he tried to defend himself against the horrifying claims being made by his family. 'During the interview Corey stated his penis was "grabbed" by [redacted] but he was not trying to "get off" or do anything sexual,' reads the affidavit. It goes on to state that Sligh then 'confirmed the specific details of the incident and interaction between himself [and the alleged victim].' He was released that day on a bond of $22,000, with his interview being both recorded and filmed at the station that day. Horrific: The 8-year-old child, who is related to Sligh, claims that he assaulted her at Easter, and then again in June on a family trip to Rosemary Beach About a month later, in November, Sligh was arrested by deputies from the Walton County Sheriff's Office in Florida after the young relative told authorities that he molested her on a family vacation over the summer. The 8-year-old girl claims that she was sleeping in her bed while on a week-long trip to Rosemary Beach with her family at the end of June when Sligh snuck into her room and began to touch her vagina. She also said that Sligh, 29, grabbed her hand at one point as well and made her touch his penis. The report filed by police in Walton County reveals that authorities were first alerted about the alleged sexual battery back in September. The mother of the victim told police that she 'asked her daughter if anybody has ever touched her in her "privates" after she detected a shift in her child's behavior, at which point the girl told her about the alleged assault. The child told her mother, and later police, that she had been trying to sleep when Sligh made his way into her room and got in bed with her. 'She stated to [redacted] that he grabbed her hand and tried to touch his penis with her hand but she snatched her hand away,' claims the report. 'He then pulled her panties down and proceeded to touch her in the vaginal area then started rubbing his penis on her vagina.' Sligh turned himself into police after learning there was a warrant out for his arrest, and was allowed to walk free soon after on a $99,000 bond. Difficult times: Sligh was brutally beaten two years ago by a group of men while at a Los Angeles Rite Aid on Thanksgiving (above in hospital) Sligh's legal trouble comes two years after he was run down and brutally beaten in a Rite Aid parking lot while out in Los Angeles. The fight started after Sligh asked the men to be careful while they were in their cars pulling donuts outside the pharmacy, a comment that resulted in the group driving up to the actor and viciously attacking him as his girlfriend looked on. Three men and a woman have been charged after several police raids which allegedly netted more than four kilograms of 'ice' with an estimated street value of $2million in Sydney's west. Strike Force Algebra was established in December 2016 to investigate the supply of methylamphetamine - known on the street as ice - by an alleged drug syndicate across north west and south west Sydney, police said. Two men, aged 23 and 24, were arrested about 1pm on Wednesday at Rosehill and police allegedly found two kilograms of methylamphetamine during a search. Scroll down for video Three men and a woman have been charged after several police raids which allegedly netted more than four kilograms of 'ice' with an estimated street value of $2 million in Sydney's west (pictured) It's alleged various drugs, including methylamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and opium were found by police during simultaneous search warrants at a property in South Wentworthville and two properties in Parramatta (pictured) Officers said they also found about $24,000 in cash (pictured), mobile phones and drug paraphernalia The men were charged with various drug and other offences and were refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday. It's alleged simultaneous search warrants at a property in South Wentworthville and two properties in Parramatta netted various drugs, including methylamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and opium, about $24,000 in cash, mobile phones and drug paraphernalia. A 24-year-old woman was later charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of prohibited drugs and proceeds of crime. Two men, aged 23 and 24, were arrested about 1pm on Wednesday at Rosehill and have been denied bail The men are expected to appear at the Parramatta Local Court on Thursday What appears to be ice is seen sitting in a baking dish A 24-year-old woman was later charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of prohibited drugs and proceeds of crime and was also refused bail. The street value of the ice was round $2 million, police said She was refused bail and is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday. A 29-year-old man was charged with similar offences and was refused bail to appear at Fairfield Local Court on Thursday. Further investigations are continuing and anyone with information about the supply or possession of prohibited drugs is urged to contact their local police or Crime Stoppers. What appears to be heroin is seen in a plastic police evidence bag Several domestic and international flights were diverted or cancelled on Thursday morning as a heavy fog crept over Sydney. Jacob Cronje, a senior meteorologist with Weatherzone, said the fog moved in over the city around 4am from the west. A Qantas spokeswoman said the fog forced the airline to divert two of international flights to Sydney but the flights were back in the air by 7am. Several domestic and international flights were diverted or cancelled on Thursday morning as a heavy fog crept over Sydney Jacob Cronje, a senior meteorologist with Weatherzone, said the fog moved in over the city around 4am from the west A Qantas spokeswoman said the fog forced the airline to divert two of international flights to Sydney but the flights were back in the air by 7am QF2 from London and Dubai heading to Sydney was diverted to Melbourne, according to9News. QF8 from Dallas to Sydney stopped in Brisbane. The Qantas spokeswoman said a handful of domestic flights were also cancelled and the passengers were placed on later flights. Virgin Airlines cancelled domestic flights to Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, 9News reported. Jetstar cancelled flights to the Gold Coast and to Melbourne. QF2 from London and Dubai heading to Sydney was sent to Melbourne and QF8 from Dallas to Sydney stopped in Brisbane Virgin Airlines also cancelled domestic flights to Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra Jetstar cancelled flights to the Gold Coast and to Melbourne The visibility was below 1,000 metres around 4am when the fog was pushed to Sydneys coast, Mr Cronje said. In places [the visibility] looks like it was about 300 to 400 metres west of the airport. It dropped down to 500 and 700 metres at the airport itself, he said. Mr Cronje said the fog is expected to clear after sunrise but there is still some just west of the airport that could cause further problems. The fog may cause problems for those driving into the city from the western suburbs, but it is not expected to affect traffic in the eastern suburbs, he said. The pictures were unbearable. To wake yesterday to the horrific news of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, to hear eyewitness reports of children trapped in blazing flats and mothers waiting for a rescue that never came, brought back appalling memories for me. This disaster has parallels with an earlier fatal fire in a block of flats where six people, including two small children and a baby, lost their lives, at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London, on July 3, 2009. I was the solicitor for the bereaved families and at the inquest I saw the immeasurable pain and grief on their faces as the details of the deaths were read out. Some things are too dreadful to be forgotten. The Grenfell Tower tragedy has parallels with an earlier fatal fire in a block of flats where six people, including two small children and a baby, lost their lives, at Lakanal House in Camberwell in 2009 I was the solicitor for the bereaved families and at the inquest I saw the immeasurable pain and grief on their faces as the details of the deaths were read out. Some things are too dreadful to be forgotten Yesterdays news reports made me distressed and angry that apparently nothing has been learnt from Lakanal House. The only consolation for those families, mourning the loss of their loved ones, was that their deaths might at least ensure that such a fire could never happen again. Instead, it seems many of the same mistakes have been repeated, and more have died in similar, unimaginable conditions. For me, it is deeply frustrating. As a campaigning human rights lawyer, I want to help prevent future disasters. If the recommendations of the inquest had been implemented and if the Lakanal House fire had been taken seriously enough, this new tragedy should have been prevented. Until yesterday, the Lakanal House blaze was the countrys worst tower block fire. It began with a fault in a TV on the ninth floor and spread in minutes throughout the maisonettes, which had been built in 1958. Six people had followed the advice to remain in their homes on the 11th floor. They were Dayana Francisquini, 26, and her children Thais and Felipe, aged six and three; Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old baby Michelle; and designer Catherine Hickman, 31. Within an hour and a half, all of them were dead. At one point during the ten-week hearing, we heard a transcript of the 999 call made by Catherine. For more than 40 minutes she was on the line with the operator, becoming increasingly agitated as choking smoke filled her apartment. The Lakanal House fire began with a fault in a TV on the ninth floor and spread in minutes throughout the maisonettes, which had been built in 1958 Six people had followed the advice to remain in their homes on the 11th floor. Within an hour and a half, all of them were dead All the women had been urged to stay where they were, in accordance with the stay put policy. Both yesterday and in 2009, some people survived because they ignored the rules and fled. But in both cases, that was a difficult, dangerous undertaking, and may have been impossible for other residents Her last words described how the flames were at her door, and that something had fallen on her. Meanwhile, Dayana and Helen were seen frantically waving at their windows, while their husbands were below. They then retreated with their children to huddle in a bathroom where they died of smoke inhalation. All the women had been urged to stay where they were, in accordance with the stay put policy. The theory is that tower block apartments are constructed as self-contained units, sealed off by fire-resistant materials, and that a blaze in one should not spread easily to the others. It is called compartmentalisation. Residents who stay calm and keep their doors tightly shut ought to be able to rely on rescue within the hour. But if the firewalls do not hold, that stay put advice can become a death sentence. Both yesterday and in 2009, some people survived because they ignored the rules and fled. But in both cases, that was a difficult, dangerous undertaking, and may have been impossible for other residents. At Grenfell Tower, the single fire escape reportedly became blocked. At Lakanal House, there was no proper fire escape. At Grenfell Tower, the single fire escape reportedly became blocked. At Lakanal House, there was no proper fire escape In both cases, there had been recent renovations. It is too early to say whether lack of fireproofing in the refurbishment at Grenfell Tower contributed to the tragedy, but this possibility will have to be investigated It baffles me that in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea one of the richest areas on Earth, where properties can sell for many millions of pounds apiece the local authority apparently could not afford to install a proper sprinkler system In both cases, there had been recent renovations. It is too early to say whether lack of fireproofing in the refurbishment at Grenfell Tower contributed to the tragedy, but this possibility will have to be investigated. At Lakanal House, the compartmentalisation was fatally breached by sub-standard building works and materials during the renovation. Suspended ceilings had been constructed, creating tunnels along which the flames could rush. Those carrying out the renovations are required to comply with building regulations that are supposed to guarantee compartmentalisation and fire protection. Regular fire safety risk assessments are required to be carried out and there should be fire brigade inspections that should spot breaches. Sprinklers could be another factor. The Lakanal House coroner recommended that every local authority should install them in their tower block flats, but Eric Pickles, then minister for communities, failed to make this a legal requirement: he merely suggested it would be a good idea. The trapped, some of whom are still inside, were heard begging for their lives while waving white towels, torches and mobile phones A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London It baffles me that in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea one of the richest areas on Earth, where properties can sell for many millions of pounds apiece the local authority apparently could not afford to install a proper sprinkler system. Our building regulations may also not be adequate. We should not be allowing combustible cladding that can spread fires. A promised government review of the regulations after Lakanal House did not happen an indication of the lack of priority given to health and safety. After the Lackanal House fire, there was a lack of urgency in investigating and calling to account those responsible. It was only in February this year that Southwark council was fined in a prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive for breach of health and safety laws because of the lack of fire protection in the block. The bereaved families waited four-and-a-half years for the inquest. It was originally to be a public inquiry, before being downgraded. Then we suffered interminable delays while the Crown Prosecution Service debated what charges to bring against Southwark. In the end, it brought none. A body bag on a stretcher is wheeled away from a tower block that was severely damaged by the worst fire of its kind for years Terrified residents trapped in a burning tower block were forced to knot bed sheets together to form makeshift ladders or jump from the 27-storey building in a desperate bid to escape the flames The truth is that we do not value our social housing highly enough. Tower blocks may be largely unloved, but they are home to poor families who are suffering from a housing crisis about which the Government has done little. In Kensington alone, never mind the rest of London, there are many more high-density blocks of flats farmed out by the local authorities to private management. These management companies are carrying out public services for social housing tenants but want to make profits. Local authorities are allowed to farm out their responsibilities to them. In this situation, saving money can all too easily assume a higher priority than safety. It appears the residents of Grenfell Tower were well aware that their building was a fire trap. Emergency services are still running through falling debris including glass and its controversial cladding continues to rain down The 27-storey Grenfell building, which was built in 1974 but refurbished last year, has an average of six flats per floor lived in by council tenants and a smaller number of private owners or tenants Grenfell Tower is in one of London's most diverse communities and this group sit on the pavement outside a temporary aid centre nearby, some of whom were in tears There was an active action group that issued numerous warnings to the buildings private management company, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation. All our warnings fell on deaf ears, the action group said yesterday. We predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time. Why were these residents not listened to? Fire is a constant hazard in buildings like these. For a start, the tenants are often poor and cannot afford to get their electrical appliances regularly overhauled. Initial reports suggest yesterdays fire started with a faulty fridge. And it is increasingly common for there to be fire risks even with new appliances. In more than one instance recently, tumble-driers have been recalled because of inbuilt faults. People need to be armed with much better information and encouraged to carry out checks for themselves. There need to be fire safety drills, as there are in offices, and more information about fire safety given out. This fire should never have happened, if earlier lessons had been learnt. We fought so hard to prevent this from happening again. It seems the authorities did not hear. Until they listen, more people will die in needless blazes. It seems unthinkable. But the unthinkable has already happened. A man who caused chaos in the heart of Melbourne after driving his car on footpaths and smashing into two banks before crashing into Crown Casino was on bail. Chen Jie Xu, 34, believed to be a Chinese national, allegedly struck three buildings on Swanston Street, including the ANZ and Commonwealth banks, while driving on the footpath at 11pm on Tuesday night. Commentators have slammed Victoria Corrections for not keeping the man off the streets, in light of a string of recent disasters in the city caused by criminals on parole. '(Police need to) stop playing a PC game. There is a refugee and migrant crime wave in Melbourne, and no one's doing anything about it,' media personality Prue MacSween told 7 News. A man allegedly mounted several footpaths in Melbourne overnight with his white SUV, in a rampage that sent terrified pedestrians running and narrowly missing a homeless person Chinese national Chen Jie Xu, 34, (pictured) was on bail when he went on the alleged rampage Commentators have slammed Victoria Police for not keeping the man off the streets 'Mohammed Moron and Jihad Jerk will continue getting behind cars and using them as weapons until somebody recognises that we have a problem,' MacSween added. 'We also have people out on bail who shouldn't be out on bail as this bloke was.' Questions have also been asked about why police waited for the man, believed to be a Chinese national, to race on foot into the foyer of Crown Casino before arresting him. But Victoria Police Inspector Stephen Cooper defended the actions of responding police officers, saying 'our response was timely.' 'We made sure that we had a cordon up in place to ensure that the person wasn't able to leave any further places and impact on the public any further,' he said. '(The car) did stop on three occasions to cause damage to three buildings. 'But we are assured because of the fact that the vehicle did stop that the intent was not to cause harm to any of the pedestrians.' Xu stopped earlier for a pedestrian to let them cross, before continuing. The man was allegedly driving at 60km before crashing into three businesses The driver allegedly then rammed into the front of a Commonwealth Bank (pictured, aftermath) 50 metres further up Swanston Street before heading to Collins Street Police on Wednesday charged the 34-year-old with five counts of criminal damage, endangering life, dangerous driving and a weapons offence. He was on bail at the time of the alleged offences, police said. He was meant to face the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday but his appearance was moved to July 3. It comes just a week after the city placed concrete bollards in Bourke Street Mall to prevent cars from being able to drive up onto the pedestrian area. In January six people were killed when Melbourne man Dimitrious Gargasoulas allegedly drove onto the footpath near Bourke Street Mall in his car. Elizabeth Barthelmas (pictured), 48, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an underage child A fifth-grade teacher was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an underage child. Elizabeth Barthelmas, 48, has been accused of having the relationship with the child, who authorities say was under the age of 13 in 2007 and 2008, according to a police statement. Barthelmas was working at Dorothy Nolan Elementary School when police arrested her on Wednesday. The Saratoga County Sheriff's Department charged Barthelmas with with first-degree rape, sexual conduct against a child, and first-degree criminal sexual act. According to authorities, the child had been a student in the woman's classroom before the inappropriate relationship started. It's believed that the crimes occurred at Barthlemas' home in Wilton, New York, police said. Barthelmas was hired by Saratoga Springs Schools in 2005. Before taking that job, she worked as a teacher in the Queensbury Union Free School District, according to the statement. Barthelmas was arraigned in the Wilton Town Court and held at the county jail in lieu of $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond. Police said the investigation is ongoing. Advertisement Two hideous sounds summed up the horror the screams of children and the sickening thump as people leapt to their deaths. In scenes akin to New York on 9/11, at least five desperate souls chose to jump from the towering inferno to try to avoid burning to death. One mother dropped her baby from a ninth-floor window, which was miraculously caught by a man holding out a blanket below. In just fifteen minutes of horror, 120 homes were turned into a towering inferno. Six hundred people lived inside 120 flats spread over 24 floors in Grenfell Tower. In just 15 minutes, they were completely consumed by a towering inferno that is believed to have ended dozens of lives Others tied bed sheets together to try to form ropes while some attempted to make parachutes out of bin liners. Residents had been advised to stay in their flats and await rescue. But for those who did, the ferocity of the blaze meant they almost certainly perished. The stairwell the only escape route was engulfed in intense heat and black smoke. As the flames drew nearer, families phoned their loved ones to say goodbye. It is almost unbelievable that such a tragedy could unfold in a country with some of the strictest fire regulations in the world. 12:50am and fridge explodes in flat 16 The fate of the 600 residents of Grenfell Tower was sealed shortly before 12.50am, when the fridge in Flat 16 on the fourth floor apparently exploded into flames. Neighbour Maryam Adam, 41, who is pregnant, said: 'He [her neighbour] knocked on the door, and he said there was a fire in his flat. It was exactly 12.50am because I was sleeping and it woke me up. 'When we got up, I saw outside his flat his luggage there was a big bag with his clothes. 'That means he took the stuff from his flat, and then he told the neighbours. 'The fire was small in the kitchen. I could see it because the flat door was open. There was no alarm.' At 12.54am, the fire brigade was called, and the first engines arrived within six minutes. But witnesses said that the speed at which the fire tore up the tower was incredible like 'a tissue being set alight'. Samira Lamrini said: 'The man whose flat it was came out and said it was his flat. He was a slim, tall, white British man. 'He was pointing at the fire on a lower floor and said, 'That's my flat, that's it'. He said it was his fridge that had exploded. 'He started filming it on his phone. He was upset but I don't think he had a clue about the scale of what was happening. 'After that the fire went up in minutes, it was so fast. The speed with which it took hold was terrifying. It was like a tissue being set alight. It just went whoosh, so quickly. I didn't see him after that.' A man at the scene told witnesses that his fridge exploded on the seventh floor in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The first calls were placed to emergency services at 12.54am and fire fighters arrived six minutes later Despite the rapid response time, the building was well alight by the time rescuers arrived, with some saying it went up 'like tissue paper'. Questions are being asked about whether the cladding was to blame Chaos and a cacophony of screaming children Chaos and confusion swept through the tower block as its residents were woken up by sirens, screams and the smell of acrid smoke. Mrs Lamrini said: 'The sound of children begging for help as they were trapped in the upper floors is something I will never be able to forget. 'It was a cacophony of anguished screams, horrendous to listen to. It was traumatising their voices, their high pitched voices I could hear them screaming for their lives.' Within minutes, it became clear that the advice to residents to stay in their flats until help arrived was beginning to cost lives. Some had left their flats but been ordered back inside by emergency services, it was reported. Witnesses watched helplessly as people trapped in smoke-filled flats took it in turns to suck breaths of air through windows designed to open only fractionally. Desperate people caught in the upper floors used phone lights to signal their distress, while a woman on the 9th floor threw her baby out - which was caught in a blanket Mobile phones used as torches to signal help Trapped residents flashed torches, their mobile phones and even fairy lights from their windows in a desperate attempt to attract the attention of rescuers. One witness said: 'People were taking in turns to get air from the window, and flashing their phones, and then the fire just took them. You could hear people yelling from the top, 'Help, get my children out!' and you are just standing there, and watching people die, burning' Miracle of the baby caught in a blanket Mrs Lamrini said: 'A woman shouted down frantically for someone to help her baby. A man came with a blanket and waited down below. Amazingly he caught the baby, which looked OK. The child was about 11 months old. 'But one middle-aged man came down from a long way up, and landed on the floor with an awful thump. I don't think the paramedics could do anything for him, he came from so high.' Desperate residents jump to their deaths It is believed the first five people to be confirmed dead were those who had jumped or fallen. One resident wept as he described how people 'just threw their kids out, screaming 'save my children'.' Another said his mother stepped over a dead body to escape the building. One man claimed he saw a child who was on fire leap from the 22nd floor, adding: 'He walked to the window, and he jumped.' Another witness, Mahad Egal, said he saw children being thrown from the building, adding: 'It was rapid, the fire was growing well out of control. There is only the stairs, which is smoke, it's dark, it's scary, it's a trip hazard. There are elderly, there are children, there's disabled people. People were jumping out of the place, there is a man who threw two of his children.' Another resident, called Zara, said she saw a mother with a boy who looked about five at a fifth or sixth floor window. She told LBC: 'She actually threw her son out of the window. I think he's OK.' At least five people jumped to their deaths from the building, rather than consign themselves to the fate that awaited them inside. Parents threw their children in the hope of saving them as their screams rang out from inside Such was the desperation of people trapped inside by the smoke and flames that they even tried to construct makeshift parachutes from bin bags. One constructed a 30ft rope out of bedsheets DIY parachutes and bed sheet ropes Others used makeshift parachutes from bin bags tied together to try to slow their descents. One resident fashioned a 30ft rope made from bed sheets tied together. Police pleaded with them not to attempt sliding down it. The fate of the resident is not known. Another person, who lived on the seventh floor, told Radio 5Live he only woke up at around 2am because he heard people screaming, 'don't jump'. By now, the entire building was ablaze, and there was no way in or out. Brave firefighters were beaten back by the intense heat for several hours. Another witness, Ubaidah Rachi, 15, said: 'I saw a mother and father and their two children screaming and shouting for someone to rescue them. I could see the flames and smoke growing higher and higher below them. Eventually the flames reached them and swallowed the whole family. It was a terrible, terrible sight.' Police stop relatives running into blaze Police had to physically stop relatives running inside the blazing tower to rescue their loved ones. Sarah Ali, 26, said: 'They had family and children inside. They rushed towards it. The police tried to stop them but couldn't prevent them all.' Another local said: 'There was one policeman near where I was. Everyone was asking him what to do and he was standing there looking as shocked and bewildered as the rest of us. 'People were screaming and running around, there was smoke everywhere, and they just didn't know what to do.' Jamie Martin climbed out through a window to escape the inferno. He told BBC Radio 4: 'Bits of the building were falling off, I scalded my shin on a hot piece of metal. I was shouting 'Get out, get out' to people as I saw them and they were shouting back, 'We can't, the corridors are full of smoke'.' As a plume of toxic smoke rose into the sky from the tower, pieces of burning building rained into the street below, covering the surrounding streets with charred rubble Police had to stop relatives running into the inferno to save their loved ones, thought witnesses said it wasn't possible to stop everyone. Onlookers were injured by rubble falling into the streets It was like 9/11 or a Hollywood movie Muna Ali, 45, said: 'It just reminded me of 9/11.' Resident Zara added: 'It was like a scene from a Hollywood movie. 'There was another woman screaming 'My baby, my baby, I need to get out, I need to save my baby'. We were just looking up. We couldn't do anything. There was nothing we could do.' Rescuers held riot shields over their heads as debris rained down, and several firefighters were injured. A witness called Linda told LBC radio she watched huge chunks of polystyrene-type material falling from the building. 'It was everywhere, it was like snow,' she said. 'There were larger sheets and small pieces. It was coming down everywhere.' Local resident Tamara told BBC News: 'There were people just throwing their kids out, saying 'Save my children'. 'The fire crew, ambulance and police couldn't do anything, they couldn't get in. 'They were just telling them to stay where they are, and 'we'll come and get you'. 'But things quickly escalated beyond measure and they couldn't go back in and get them. 'Within another 15 minutes the whole thing was up in flames and there were still people at their windows shouting 'Help me'. You could see the fire going into their houses and engulfing the last room that they were in.' Actor and writer Tim Downie, who lives nearby, described it as 'the most terrifying thing I've ever seen', while neighbour Amanda Fernandez, 32, said it was 'like Armageddon'. Twelve hours after it had begun, fire crews were still battling to contain the flames. Twelve hours after the fire started it was still burning deep inside the block as emergency services warned that nobody on the top three floors is thought to have survived the blaze On the ground there was fury at what residents described as 'mass murder' telling police and councillors that cost cutting was to blame for the deaths of those inside the block Tempers flare over this 'mass murder' On the ground outside the tower, tempers were flaring too. Edward Daffarn, a member of the Grenfell Tower Action Group, turned on a police officer and a local councillor and claimed 'mass murder' had been committed. Councillor Catherine Faulks said: 'Please don't try to make this political,' to which Mr Daffarn replied: 'How dare you talk like that! This is all about politics, cost-cutting by the council and lack of care for people in that building. 'People have blood on their hands and will go to prison for what has happened here it is a disgrace. People in the community deserve better but they have been sold out and now they have died.' Advertisement A criminal investigation has been launched into the Grenfell Tower blaze as police revealed some of the victims of the fire might never be identified. Scotland Yard Commander Stuart Cundy said searching the gutted tower block might take months and he hoped the death toll would not run into 'triple figures'. The criminal probe came amid increasing political pressure that those involved in the building's recent redevelopment should face prosecution. London Labour MP David Lammy today labelled the fire 'corporate manslaughter' and called for arrests to be made. He said of a missing friend of his: 'We hope and pray that she is amongst them (in hospital) and not perished in that building as I suspect hundreds will have done by the end of this count.' Prime Minister Theresa May, who visited the site today, has ordered a full public inquiry into the disaster. Grenfell Tower in west London this morning. Fire chiefs say it would be a 'miracle' if anyone left inside is still alive. Firefighters have reached the top but have been unable to enter flats and room because the building is too unstable Pictures of the tower today show the burnt-out flats on the upper floors, which are now blackened hulks with little left intact The remains of a family's kitchen table and chairs were visible through the burned out walls of one of the flats today Prime Minister Theresa May visited the site of the burnt-out building this morning after vowing a full investigation Shocking footage has emerged of the debris-strewn hallway inside the building, where bodies were seen laying on the floor Commander Cundy said: 'We as the police, we investigate criminal offences - I am not sitting here and saying there are criminal offences that have been committed, that's why you do an investigation, to establish it. 'This will need to be a lot of work between us and other investigating agencies to establish what has happened and why and that is going to take a considerable period of time.' The death toll currently stands at 17, but Commander Cundy refused to say what it is expected to rise to He added: 'It may be - and I just don't know - it may be that ultimately some victims remain unidentified. 'I won't know that until we've gone through the full recovery from Grenfell Tower and we know exactly what we've got and I anticipate that is going to take a considerable period of time. 'Not just the immediate recovery of the bodies we have found but the full search of that whole building we could be talking weeks we could be talking months - it is a very long process. During the chaotic first day of the investigation, the police's casualty bureau was said to have received 5,000 calls. The criminal investigation rose today as: The death toll is expected to soar as rescuers piece their way through the ruined flats where more than 400 people were living when the fire ripped through. Prime Minister Theresa May visited the site and ordered a full public inquiry into the blaze after it was claimed ministers were warned over the cladding suspected to have helped the fire spread. Two young girls, part of a family of five who lived on the tower's 20th floor, were found by relatives in a London hospital. Their mother, father and six-month-old baby sister are still missing. Three generations of one family are missing after three girls, a mother and father and grandmother were caught up in the blaze. Bosses of the company running the building and those who carried out recent refurbishment work were challenged to explain whether new cladding led it to go up 'like a firelighter' in around 15 minutes. More than 1 million has been raised to help those affected by the fire, while volunteers and charities have helped feed and shelter people who could not return to their homes. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, who live in the London borough, donated to the fund set up to help those affected, and the Queen offered her condolences to victims' families. Firefighters have been unable to enter rooms and flats on the top floors, where many are feared to have died during the blaze There is anger among those living in the area that the fire spread through the building so quickly on Tuesday night There are real fears that that nobody who lived on the top three residential floors may have survived the unprecedented fire London fire chief Dany Cotton said full searches of the upper floors, where no one is said to have survived, are yet to be carried out. Parts of it will need to be shored up before rescue workers can enter. She told reporters: 'Tragically now we are not expecting to find anyone else alive. The severity and the heat of the fire would mean it is an absolute miracle for anyone to be left alive.' Describing the situation inside the tower this morning, fire chief Ms Cotton said: 'Some of the internal structures are not regarded as safe at the moment, however the central core is, so my firefighters have been up to the top floor last night, they have done the initial brief search from the doorways.' 'So although we've been up there we haven't managed to do a comprehensive search and until we can make the building safe then I really don't want to risk the safety of my firefighters at this moment in time,' she added. Ms Cotton said structural surveyors and urban search and rescue specialists would inspect the building on Thursday and once it was declared safe a full search would take place. Search and rescue dog teams will then go through the building first before experts carry out a 'painstaking' fingertip search of the building which may take weeks, Ms Cotton said. A brave firefighter is pictured inside the burnt remains of the 27-storey building, as efforts are made to investigate what caused the blaze A body wrapped up in a blanket, obscured by MailOnline, lies in the ground floor of the White City tower block largely destroyed by fire over night This aerial photo taken hours after the fire ripped through the tower block shows the devastating scale of the inferno Prime Minister Theresa May visited the scene of the tragedy this morning and spoke with emergency services. She later launched a full public inquiry into the disaster, saying it was needed to ensure 'this terrible tragedy is properly investigated'. It emerged today that a six-month-old baby is among the missing. The baby girl's mother Farah Hamdan and father Omar Belkadi have also not been seen since the fire but her older sisters, eight-year-old Malek Belkadi and Tamzin, six, were found in a London hospital. A family of six are also missing after they were caught up in the blaze. Relatives are searching for Nadia, 29, and Bassem Choucair, 38, their three young girls, Mierna, 13, Zaynab, ten, and Fatima, three, and grandmother Sirra. Five-year-old Isaac Shawo was also lost as his family tried to flee their 18th floor flat. He was holding the hand of a neighbour but disappeared as his parents and brother Luca, three, stumbled down a fire escape. Choking back tears, his mother Mrs Shawo said: 'I will not fear the worse, I am still hoping and praying for him. He is a beautiful boy. He told us during the fire that he didn't want us to die. 'My neighbour said he would hold him and bring him down. But when I got outside I realised Isaac wasn't there. Little Tamzin Belkadi, six, (left) and her older sister Malek (right) have been located in a hospital by relatives after their family went missing in the Grenfell Tower fire Mierna, 13, Zaynab, ten, and Fatima Choucair, three, are missing along with their mother Nadia (right), father Bassem Choucair and grandmother Sirra Isaac Shawo has been missing since his family fled their 18th floor flat. It is feared he got lost in the thick smoke It emerged overnight that ministers were warned numerous times over the cladding that turned the Grenfell Tower into an inferno but ignored the advice of fire experts. Queen praises rescuers and says she is praying for families of victims The Queen has paid tribute to the 'bravery' of firefighters who have battled the Grenfell Tower fire. She also praised the 'incredible generosity' of volunteers offering their support to those affected. In a statement from Buckingham Palace, the Queen said: 'My thoughts and prayers are with those families who have lost loved ones in the Grenfell Tower fire and the many people who are still critically ill in hospital. 'Prince Philip and I would like to pay tribute to the bravery of firefighters and other emergency services officers who put their own lives at risk to save others. 'It is also heartening to see the incredible generosity of community volunteers rallying to help those affected by this terrible event.'The Home Office was handed a damning report after hundreds of residential tower blocks were surveyed in the 1990s - but did nothing. Advertisement The study, carried out by architect Sam Webb, found that half of the buildings inspected did not meet basic fire safety regulations. Fire expert Mr Webb described the state of Britain's tower blocks as a 'disaster waiting to happen'. He told the Guardian: 'We discovered a widespread breach of safety, but were simply told nothing could be done because it would make too many people homeless.' Fears have since emerged that new plastic cladding was a main factor in the fire and caused the tower to 'light up like a matchstick'. The rain-proof cladding was installed at the block in White City, west London, in May 2016 as part of a 10million refurbishment but claims say it helped the fire spread quickly from the fourth to 24th floor. The former chairman of the tenancy organisation connected to Grenfell said the fire was a 'scandal' that could have been avoided. Reg Kerr-Bell said he stood down from the Kensington and Chelsea Tenancy Management Organisation (KTMO) several years ago over his concerns about the way it was run. He said: 'This is a scandal. This is one of the biggest scandals in the country - and it could have been avoided.' He added: 'This refurbishment contract should never have been managed by KTMO. It was too big for them. My great concern was about the viability of the project.' He said he met a former director two days ago to discuss his concerns. Mr Kerr-Bell added: 'We felt there was a disaster waiting to happen and we were going to have a meeting with the MP so that we could put these concerns to them. 'That was two days ago and today he phoned me and said: 'You will not believe what is going on'. 'It is not going to finish with this - this is just the start.' Bodies were strewn through Grenfell Tower including in its lobby and undertakers were seen removing the dead in a delicate and treacherous recovery operation set to last several days. It is believed that the death toll could reach more than 100, but police have said it is not possible to confirm how many people are unaccounted for because the building is still on fire nearly 24 hours after it started. A wall of condolence was put up near the scene, with photographs showing dozens of messages left for loved ones The majority of messages offered condolences to those affected, others calls for punishment for those deemed responsible Kind-hearted locals have donated thousands of items to the families made homeless by the Tuesday night blaze Some centres have asked people to stop bringing extra items, after they were overwhelmed by the generosity of locals Some of those made homeless by the blaze have thanks the community for their support since the fire destroyed their home Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won praise today after he visited the scene and spoke to those affected by the disaster Faces of the missing: Desperate relatives search for information about scores of residents caught up in fire Relatives and friends of the scores of Grenfell Tower residents who are missing are desperately searching hospitals for them and appealing for information. It is feared scores of residents died when flames engulfed Grenfell Tower in the early hours of yesterday. Those who escaped the blaze have been left trying to find out if relatives, friends and neighbours managed to get out. Among those missing include a family with three young girls, a friend of an MP, a woman who sent a friend a Snapchat video of the blaze at 3am, and another resident told by a firefighter to remain in her flat with her son. Family say engineering student Mohammad Alhajali died in the blaze. Jessica Urbano (centre) is among the missing. Her cousin is trying to find her. Family members are also trying to find Dennis Murphy (right) Italian couple Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi lived on the 23rd floor of the tower block and had been in London for three months. Khadija Saye (right), who lives on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower in west London is also among those who are currently missing. Farah Hamdan and her six-month-old baby (right) are among the missing, along with Ms Hamdan's husband Omar Belkadi Mariem Elgwahry (pictured) has not been seen by friends since 2am yesterday morning. Mirna, Fatima and Zainab Choucair (centre) are said to have been in the building with their mother, Nadia (right), father Bassem and grandmother Sirra Worried relatives are appealing for information on Ali Yawar (left), Nurhuda El-Wahabi (centre) and Yasin El-Wahabi (right) Saber Neda (left), who lived on the top floor, is feared dead. Mo Tuccu (centre) has not been seen and there are fears for Sheila Smith Rania Ibrham and her daughters are missing, as is Mary Mendy, who lived on the 20th floor, and Iranian Hamid Kani (right) Zainab Dean (left) lived on the 14th floor along with her son Jeremiah, 2 (centre). Hesham Rahman (right) lived on the 20th floor Tony Disson, 66, (left) was last in contact with his family at 3am and still inside the building. Steve Power (centre) is also thought to be missing, as is Fathaya Alsanousi (right) was stuck in her 23rd floor flat with her son Abu Feras, 38, and daughter Esra Ibrahim, 35. Advertisement A series of blunders are being blamed for the disaster with residents claiming there were no working fire alarms, no sprinklers and the only staircase leading to safety was blocked. Experts were last night focusing their blame for the scale of the disaster on external cladding fitted to the block only last year. It was made from metal panels and slabs of a polystyrene-like material, separated by a small cavity, fixed to the concrete surface of the outside of the tower. Together with new windows, the cladding was meant to boost the building's energy efficiency, protect against the weather and smarten up the look of the 1970s facade. But it appears to provide a fatal conduit for the flames to leap from one flat to another, with witnesses saying the outside of the block ignited 'like a firelighter'. Cladding is a material attached to a building's frame to create an outer wall (shown in this graphic). The process of applying the rain-proof frontage can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation behind it, shown between the first two layers How the fire ripped through Grenfell Tower: At 2.05am, left, the blaze was restricted to one side of the building. By 2.35am, centre, it was spreading fast. And by 4.17am, right, the whole block was in flames By mid morning, the plastic cladding could be seen charred and melted on the tower in west London The fire continued to burn all day yesterday. Left, the fire rages early on Wednesday morning, centre, firefighters battle the blaze and right, flames continue to rip through flats in the evening There are fears that hundreds of high-rise blocks across the UK are fitted with similar materials even though MPs warned of the potential fire risk nearly 20 years ago. A report in 1999 by the Environment, Transport and the Regions select committee said: 'We do not believe that it should take a serious fire in which many are killed before all reasonable steps are taken towards minimising the risks.' The MPs highlighted concerns that the air cavity between the layers of cladding can act as a chimney, helping the fire spread rapidly upwards. Their report demanded that 'all external cladding systems should be required either to be entirely non-combustible, or to be proved through full-scale testing not to pose an unacceptable level of risk in terms of fire spread'. But the method was popular as councils sought to meet insulation standards laid out under the Blair Government's 22billion Decent Homes Programme, which ran from 2000 to 2010. It continued to be used even after the 2009 fire at the 14-storey Lakanal House in Camberwell, South East London, which killed six people. Grenfell Tower before the refurbishment (left) in 2011 and with the new cladding (right) Undertakers remove bodies from Grenfell Tower today but the recovery of the dead is likely to take several more days as the fire is still not out A body bag on a stretcher is wheeled away from a tower block that was severely damaged by the worst fire of its kind for years Large numbers police are also on the scene recovering bodies being taken away on stretchers this afternoon Forensics teams and police prepare to enter the lower floors of the Grenfell Tower but the majority of the building is too dangerous to enter Sam Webb, a fire safety expert who helped gather evidence after that tragedy, said last night there was a conflict between safety and the materials used to make buildings more energy efficient. 'They are not fire-resistant and in some cases they're flammable,' he said. Fires involving cladding have also occurred in Australia, Russia and the Arabian Peninsula adding to the serious safety concerns. They include two in Dubai, one on New Year's Eve 2015 at the 63-storey The Address Downtown and a second last July at the 75-storey Sulafa Tower. In Scotland, high-rise blocks are being given safety checks following the London blaze. A spokesman for Aberdeen City Council said checks are already under way on its properties, adding: 'We ensure our buildings meet required standards and regulations.' Tom Barclay, director of property and development at major Glasgow-based housing association the Wheatley Group, said: 'We want to reassure residents of our multi-storey blocks that we have a robust approach in place to minimise the risk of fire.' A City of Edinburgh Council spokesman said: 'Our health and safety team regularly audits multi-storey services. However, as a further precaution we will be carrying out a review of fire safety and evacuation procedures in all of our housing blocks.' Grenfell Tower was clad last year as part of an 8.6million refurbishment by East Sussex-based builders Rydon, which said yesterday that its work 'met all required building controls'. Yet the company admits on its website that the insulation material used, Celotex RS5000, 'will burn if exposed to a fire of sufficient heat and intensity [and] toxic gases will be released with combustion'. A drone inspects the top floors of the wrecked tower block, where residents on the highest storeys are all feared dead after being trapped in their homes and then engulfed Desperate residents scream for help in this photograph taken in the early minutes before the fire swamped the entire building Father led his pregnant wife and daughter out of the burning inferno then ran back save his eldest daughter A heroic dad led his pregnant wife and their two daughters to safety when the flames engulfed their block of flats in the early hours of the morning. Marcio Gomes, 38, wrapped his family in wet towels after being left stranded on the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower in White City, London, as flames surged upwards. When the blaze reached his apartment, he knew it was up to him to save his family's life so he negotiated the scorched stairways with his loved ones, stepping over bodies on their way down. But when he reached the lower levels, horror struck as he realised his eldest daughter 12-yea-old Luana had not made it all the way down. She had rendered unconscious by the smoke and fumes on the stairwell, and Mr Gomes left his wife Andreia and 10-year-old Megan and ran back into the roaring fire to drag Luana to safety. Advertisement Design specifications seen by the Mail suggests Grenfell Tower had 150mm (6in) of Celotex RS5000 insulation and overcladding made from ACM aluminium composite material with a 50mm (2in) 'ventilated cavity' in between. ACM is also potentially highly flammable and rescuers yesterday faced the hazard of blazing metal panels raining down on them as they tried to enter the building. Arnold Tarling, chartered surveyor and fire expert with property firm Hindwoods, said the air cavity could create a 'wind tunnel [that] traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building'. Had there merely been one layer of insulation, this could have fallen off and fallen away from the building but the metal cladding meant it was all contained inside. 'Not all insulation used in the process is the more expensive non-flammable type,' he said. 'So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it.' Dr Kostas Tsavdaridis, associate professor of structural engineering at the University of Leeds said: 'The fire seems to have spread inside the building but also outside. 'Some materials used in facades act as significant fire loads: in most cases they are high-temperature resistant instead of fire resistant. But even if they are, smoke and fire will spread through the joints.' Grenfell Tower was equipped with metal overcladding by Harley Facades Limited, another East Sussex-based firm. The company, which installed but did not manufacture the panels, said they were a 'commonly used product'. Managing director Ray Bailey said: 'At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.' Celotex, which is based near Ipswich, said: 'Our records show a Celotex product (RS5000) was purchased for use in refurbishing the building. We will assist with enquiries from the relevant authorities.' Plans for the externals works at Grenfell Tower were approved by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In May 2016, once work was completed, council leader Nick Paget-Brown said: 'It is remarkable to see how the cladding has lifted the appearance of the tower and how the improvements inside people's homes will make a big difference to their lives.' An emotional woman wearing a breathing mask holds her head in despair as she rests on the pavement near the scene of the blaze in west London Grenfell's own community action group called for the tower to be pulled down four years ago over 'appalling' fire safety in the building and said today their repeated warnings to landlord Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) fell on 'deaf ears'. KCTMO completed a 10million refurbishment last year and the new cladding encasing the block originally built in 1974 'went up like a match', one resident has said. Did the building's new cladding make the fire much worse? The cladding used on Grenfell Tower may have exacerbated the fire, it has been claimed. Rainscreen cladding, which was added during the block's refurbishment, can act as a 'chimney' for fires because of its ventilated cavities. Many have speculated as to whether this could have made the fire worse, and led to it spreading quickly and trapping residents. Jack Monroe, a former fire fighter, tweeted about the incident and said: 'Whoever signed off on that cladding needs to be hauled before a court and held fully accountable for every single fatality and injury. Chartered surveyor and fire expert Arnold Tarling, from Hindwoods, said that the process can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation. 'It produces a wind tunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building. 'So had it been insulated per se, the insulation could fall off and fall away from the building, but this is all contained inside.' He said not all insulation used in the process is the more expensive non-flammable type 'So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it.' Rydon carried out an 8.6 million project, completed in May 2016, to modernise the outside of the building, which saw new cladding and windows installed. In a statement, the Sussex-based firm said it was shocked by the 'devastating' blaze, adding: 'Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016 for KCTMO (Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation) on behalf of the council, which met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards. The former chairman of the tenancy organisation connected to Grenfell Tower has described recent refurbishment work as a 'disaster waiting to happen'. Reg Kerr-Bell said he stood down from the Kensington and Chelsea Tenancy Management Organisation (TMO) several years ago over his concerns about the way it was run. Just two days before the fatal blaze, he had spoken to a former colleague about their fears. Mr Kerr-Bell said: 'This is a scandal. This is one of the biggest scandals in the country - and it could have been avoided.' He added: 'This refurbishment contract should never have been managed by TMO. 'It was too big for them. My great concern was about the viability of the project.' He said he met a former director two days ago to discuss his concerns. 'We felt there was a disaster waiting to happen and we were going to have a meeting with the MP so that we could put these concerns to them. 'That was two days ago and today he phoned me and said: 'You will not believe what is going on'. 'It is not going to finish with this - this is just the start.' Advertisement A spokesman said: 'It is too early to speculate what caused the fire and contributed to its spread. We will co-operate fully with all the relevant authorities in order to ascertain the cause of this tragedy. 'We are aware that concerns have been raised historically by residents. We always take all concerns seriously and these will form part of our forthcoming investigations. While these investigations continue with our co-operation, our core priority at the moment is our residents'. NHS England said 74 people are being treated in six hospitals across the capital, of whom 20 are in critical care. Mr Cundy said it is likely to be some time before police can identify the victims, adding that it is too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. Prime Minister Theresa May was said to be 'deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life' and newly appointed police and fire minister Nick Hurd will chair a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to co-ordinate the response. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters: 'This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.' Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union said 'there was no way a fire should develop in this way'. Commenting on residents claims the building was unsafe he said: 'Firefighters would expect to be able to fight a fire like this from within the building and that there would be a safe exit route available. In this case it was clearly not possible'. Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 and contains 120 flats thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people. The building was refurbished recently at a cost of 8.6 million, with work completed in May last year. Rydon, the firm that carried it out, said its work 'met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards'. London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is still being investigated, but several residents reported one man had said it started in his faulty fridge. The brigade said a structural engineer had checked the building and determined it was not in danger of collapse and that rescue teams were safe to be inside. Many traumatic accounts of the fire and its impact have emerged, including a baby being dropped from the tower. A witness said she saw a woman try to save the baby by dropping it from a window 'on the ninth or 10th floor' to waiting members of the public below. Residents who escaped complained there had been no fire alarm, with many relying on neighbours to wake them as the blaze spread. They said official advice in the event of a fire had been to stay inside. Michael Paramasivan, who was in his seventh floor flat with girlfriend Hannah West, 23, and her daughter Thea, five, said: 'If we'd listened to them and stayed in the flat we'd have perished.' A residents' action group said its warnings about safety had fallen on 'deaf ears'. A blog post from Grenfell Action Group in November said 'only a catastrophic event' would expose the concerns residents had. The group said there was one entry and exit to the tower during improvement works and it had issues with evacuation procedures. London mayor Sadiq Khan said: 'There will be a great many questions over the coming days as to the cause of this tragedy and I want to reassure Londoners that we will get all the answers.' Witnesses said the fire spread rapidly up the building, with some suggesting it was fuelled by gas. Mr Paramasivan, 37, told the Press Association: 'There were explosions everywhere you looked, lots of bangs, blue gas coming out everywhere you looked. 'About 12 floors up I saw three children waving from a window and then there was just an explosion and they disappeared. 'They were three kids, they were banging on the windows, you could see their silhouettes and then bang, it just went up.' Muna Ali, 45, said: 'The flames, I have never seen anything like it, it just reminded me of 9/11. 'The fire started on the upper floors ... oh my goodness, it spread so quickly, it had completely spread within half an hour.' Robert Black, chief executive of Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which manages Grenfell, said: 'The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking.' Maintenance firm responsible for Grenfell paid 11M by taxpayer The company responsible for the safety and maintenance of the block of flats which turned into a raging inferno and killed at least 12 people was paid 11million last year from taxpayer's money. Grenfell Tower is owned by the borough council in Kensington and Chelsea, but the management of the building is the responsibility of an independent company - Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO). Speaking to Nina Hossain on ITV News London the company's boss Robert Black said: 'We are in complete shock and condolences for what's happened today. Our thoughtS are with everybody that is currently affected and still affected.' Robert Black (left) who is Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation's Chief Executive and in charge of the management of Grenfell Tower and Andrew Goldman from Rydon Construction who appeared on TV this morning admitting he did not know the exact details of the materials used in the revamp of the block of flars The doomed block of flats underwent a 10million refurbishment which were completed in May last year which was overseen by Rydon Construction. After a day of finger-pointing and revelations residents had spent years lobbying over safety concerns, a massive investigation has been launched and experts are predicting it could lead to a prosecution. Those in the firing line are the council, who own the property and send people to live there, KCTMO who are responsible for maintaining Grefnell Tower and Rydon who installed cladding as part of their refurbishment. The Health and Safety Executive, the police and the fire service are now expected to launch a large-scale investigation and Rachel Adamson, Head of Regulatory Law at Stephensons law firm, said for an incident of this size it is very likely they will be considering criminal charges. Residents say they told former KCMOT worker Siobhan Rumble (right) of their safety concerns, but claim their warnings were overlooked in the building that is owned by Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council, whose Chief Executive is pictured left She told MailOnline: 'Corporate manslaughter charges are often quite difficult to prove as they relate to the controlling mind of the business. 'If an individual is thought to have been negligent, a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence may be considered. 'There are a range of other potential charges, such as breach of fire regulations or breach of health and safety regulations, these are the tiers down from manslaughter.' Investigators are expected to look at how recent renovation work was carried out, whether Construction Regulations have been adhered to, and what fire safety precautions were in place. More than one resident has claimed that there was no central fire alarm system for the tower block - or it had failed - and only smoke alarms in individual flats were working. There are also claims that there that there was no central sprinkler system - or it was also not working properly during the fire. Others have claimed that the new cladding encasing the block added during last year's 10million refurbishment by Rydon Construction caught alight 'like a matchstick'. Checks are to be carried out on tower blocks going through similar refurbishment to Grenfell Tower, policing and fire minister Nick Hurd has said. Advertisement Victims of the Grenfell Tower blaze were 'left to die' in a building that was a 'disaster waiting to happen' by Abe Hawken and Joseph Curtis Victims of the Grenfell Tower blaze were 'left to die' in a building that was a 'disaster waiting to happen', according to the furious community. Others claimed the Ladbroke Grove area was being neglected because of poverty and that 'it would not happen in Chelsea'. Many accused the building's management of using 'shoddy materials' and said the 'plastic lagging' let to the fire spreading within just minutes. Flowers were left as tributes to victims with notes reading 'Justice must be done. People before money'. The diverse community includes people from various backgrounds including Muslim, Sikh, white British and Caribbean origins. Elaine Hawkins, 58, who has lived in the area for 50 years, said: 'We are poor here but we are not destitute. We are working class families who come together to help each other - young, old, whatever the background. 'But you look around and think 'Where is Notting Hill? Where is Holland Park? Where is the help?' Jade Ellis, 52, who has also lived in the area all her life, added: 'When you do not have, you show love. When you have, you do not show love.' Maureen Hawkins, Elaine's sister, 60, added: 'We are all devastated here, there were children in there. How did this happen to that building? It has melted and it does not make sense.' Another woman who appeared to be very distressed outside the Latymer Church, which is being used to shelter those displaced, shouted 'People have been left to die. The wrong materials were used on the building, how can that happen?' She added: 'This does not happen in Kensington. This does not happen in Chelsea.' Sonya Sorhaindo, 49, who has lived in the area her whole life, said she felt the emergency services were slow to respond. She said: 'I was out here watching the fire between 1.30am to 4.30am and I only saw water being used after I went back inside and turned on the television. 'They do a tough job but i felt this was slow.' Advertisement Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has also demanded to know why Grenfell residents were told to 'stay put' in their flats for up to an hour in the event of a fire. One witness said he saw several people jumping to their deaths from all floors to escape the fire. How the Grenfell Tower block disaster unfolded 12.30am: Residents report smelling burning plastic 12.54am: London Fire Brigade receive the first call 1am: First fire engines arrive at the scene in Grenfell Tower 1.16am: Police are called to attend the fire 3am: Some residents remain trapped inside with torches still being shone from windows - the sign the emergency services asked trapped residents to give 8am: Fire brigade admit there have been some fatalities 8.30am: First indication that the fire was started by a faulty fridge 9.30am: Structural engineers attend the site and state it is currently considered safe 10.35am: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan gives a press conference promising to 'ask questions' about what happened in the fire 11.30am: Scotland Yard confirms that six are dead - and the death toll will rise 17.00pm: Death toll rises to 12 Advertisement A survivor broke down on live TV as he said his neighbour on the fourth floor had confessed that his 'fridge had exploded' before fire swamped the building - but the fire service told MailOnline it is too early to confirm the cause. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said questions will need to be answered over the safety of tower blocks in the capital as a result of the fire. At least one resident is still stuck inside the block on the 11th floor, with firefighters desperately trying to reach him. Those in the upper floors were seen flashing torches in a bid to call for help, tying bedding together to create makeshift ropes. Panicked residents trapped high in the enormous tower were heard screaming for help as they leaned out of their windows and tied bed sheets together in an attempt to reach the ground. Many of those evacuated said they were woken by screams, intense heat and the smell of burning plastic, thought to be white cladding that was installed on the building last year as part of a 10million refurbishment. One woman said that residents faced 'either jumping out the window with their children and risk breaking bones or staying where you were and dying'. The fire is said to have spread from the second floor to the roof of the enormous 120-flat block in just 15 minutes, with 200 firefighters struggling to bring it under control. Hanan Wahabi, 39, who lives on the ninth floor, said she was awoken at about 1am by smoke. 'I could see there was ash coming through the window in the living room, which was partially open,' she said, sitting with her husband and son, 16, and daughter, eight, outside a local community centre. 'I looked out and I could see the fire travelling up the block. It was literally by my window,' she said. 'I slammed the window shut and got out.' After the family escaped, she called her brother, who lives on the 21st floor, to see if he was all right. Exhausted firefighters covered in soot and ash tackle blaze in shift pattern during 'unprecedented' response Throughout the night and day, many smoke and dust-covered firefighters were pictured taking forced breaks as colleagues took their turns in battling the fire and rescue trapped residents. Firefighters were tasked with battling the blaze in shifts as under health and safety rules, emergency service personnel can only work in hazardous environments for certain amounts of time. The heroic servicemen were also hampered by the strict use of self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), which hold about 30 to 45 minutes of air, depending on the size of the tank and the rate of consumption due to strenuous activities. Although commonly referred to as oxygen tanks, the units are actually filled with compressed air, as used in SCUBA diving equipment, as oxygen would act as a powerful fire accelerant. The heroic servicemen were also hampered by the strict use of self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), which hold about 30 to 45 minutes of air, depending on the size of the tank and the rate of consumption due to strenuous activities A large group of firefighters rest at the scene of the huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White City, London, this morning More than a hundred police officers were drafted in to help with the rescue operation, with another 100 paramedics also rushed to the scene More than 200 firefighters were dispatched to the fire at Grenfell Tower in an 'unprecedented' response by the capital's fire service. After arriving on the scene at 2am, firefighters attempted to evacuate as many residents as possible. Those still inside were told to 'stay put' as is normal protocol, given that buildings are specifically designed to stop blazes from spreading. But as the fire took hold of the entire building, the heat became so severe that firefighters were unable to enter the tower for several hours between 3am and 7am. In the meantime, firefighters used cherry pickers to douse the flames around those waving for help from windows of their flats. After the fire was subdued at around 12pm, emergency service personnel began moving up through the 27-storey structure, and it is understood they have reached up to the 20th floor. Firefighters were given a police escort as they made their way inside the building, with officers tasked with protecting them from falling debris with their riot shields. Many of the capital's firefighters were deployed to west London to help control the blaze, which has been raging for half a day This man, who was pictured throughout the morning desperately waving for help as the huge inferno raged around him for nearly 12 hours, was eventually rescued by firefighters Advertisement 'A mother on the top floor escaped with her six children. By the time she got to the bottom, she only had four with her': Residents give horrific eyewitness accounts A woman with six children who was attempting to escape from the 21st floor of the London tower block fire this morning got to the bottom to discover two of them were missing, it has been claimed. Dozens of horrific eyewitness accounts have begun to emerge from the 27-storey tower block fire in White City this morning, with residents claiming people are still stuck inside the building - which houses 600 people. There have been a 'number of fatalities' at the fire at Grenfell Tower in west London, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton has told reporters. One resident described how people were 'just throwing their kids out' screaming 'save my children''. Local resident Tamara told BBC News: 'Around 12.30/1am my mum called me and said there was a fire outside. By the time I got there the whole right side of the building was on fire, the whole thing was engulfed in flames. Dozens of horrific eyewitness accounts have begun to emerge from the 27-storey tower block fire in White City this morning, with residents claiming people are still stuck inside the building - which houses 600 people. 'We could hear people screaming 'Help me' so me and my brother, with some other people who live in the area, ran over to the estate to where you could still get underneath it and there were people just throwing their kids out saying 'Save my children'. 'The fire crew, ambulance and police couldn't do anything, they couldn't get in, and they were just telling them to stay where they are, and we'll come and get you. But things quickly escalated beyond measure and they couldn't go back in and get them. 'Within another 15 minutes the whole thing was up in flames and there were still people at their windows shouting 'Help me'. You could see the fire going into their houses and engulfing the last room that they were in.' Another witness, Samira, told BBC News: 'It escalated really quickly. Around midnight the fire was only around the third floor and then, before you know it, the whole 23 floors of the building were all on fire and there were people screaming for help and throwing kids out. There have been a 'number of fatalities' at the fire at Grenfell Tower in west London, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton has told reporters 'I think everyone felt really helpless because no-one could get to them. Everyone was really scared and they didn't know what to do and it was really sad to see. These are all people that we grew up with and people that we see every day, like our neighbours. 'There was a lot of people there - children, elderly people and disabled people; my family members, who thankfully made it out. But there are still a lot of people who are unaccounted for.' Tamara went on: 'My brother has a lot of school friends who are still wondering if their friends have made it out, they haven't got in contact with them or heard anything. One of the girls lives on the top floor, which the police advised that if you were living on that floor that it is most likely that they haven't made it.' Samira added: 'I think the speed of the fire was the most shocking thing for everyone, how quick it literally went from zero to 100. Like it was literally just the fourth floor and that was bad but it was really minor, and that building is really big and the whole building was gone - even before it hit 1am the whole building was in flames. 'I saw people flying out of their balconies and windows. I saw a man who flew out of his window, I saw people screaming for help. We saw a lot of people jumping out that basically didn't make it. It was from the eighth floor and up, and that kind of floor you wouldn't really make it.' A woman with six children who was attempting to escape from the 21st floor of the London tower block fire this morning got to the bottom to discover two of them were missing, it has been claimed Tamara continued: 'I had a family friend that was stuck all the way up till 5am but luckily she made it out and some others from her floor and the floors below made it out. 'But there are people who were higher up that they just couldn't get to because it just got out of control so quickly. 'It was like a split second before the whole building was on fire. It started on one floor, then it took one side and then the whole building was on fire. There's nothing you can do but watch things unfold in front of you.' A man who lived on the 17th floor of the block, identified as Methrob, told LBC Radio: 'I heard the fire trucks and so I was alerted that something was going on. There was no fire alarm in the building, we don't have an integrated fire alarm system. 'I went outside my house and I could smell the smoke. I looked out my window, I leaned over and I could see the fire blazing up. I woke up my auntie who was sleeping, it was about 1.15am, and we started to make our way down. 'I warned a couple of my neighbours, the ones nearest to me, and we basically went as fast as we could.' He said the fire was inside one apartment, but added the 'real issue was when it caught fire to the cladding outside. That's when I noticed the fire from outside when I looked out the window. 'By the time that we got downstairs, the fire had gone all the way up and it was just about reaching our windows on the 17th floor. 'The whole one side of the building was on fire. The cladding went up like a matchstick.' Methrob said residents had been concerned about safety, adding that there had been warning 'for over a year'. Fabio Bebber wrote on Twitter: 'More screams for help as the fire spreads to another side of the building. 'We can see how quick the fire spreads via the external panels. It's unbearable hearing someone screaming for their lives at #grenfelltower.' Two women console each other (pictured) as the area surrounding the building in west London was cordoned off by police officers Jamie Martin climbed through a window to escape the inferno. He told BBC Radio 4: 'Bits of the building were falling off, I scalded my shin on a hot piece of metal. 'I was shouting 'Get out get out' to people as I saw them and they were shouting back, 'we can't, the corridors are full of smoke'. Actor and writer Tim Downie, who lives around 600 metres from the scene in Latimer Road, said he fears the block could collapse. He said: 'It's horrendous. The whole building is engulfed in flames. It's gone. It's just a matter of time before this building collapses. 'It's the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. I just hope they have got everyone out. Advertisement Action group called for Grenfell Tower to be pulled down FOUR YEARS ago but say their warnings about appalling safety 'fell on deaf ears' An action group predicted the Grenfell Tower fire was an accident waiting to happen four years ago but claim their warnings fell on deaf ears. The fire service confirmed this morning there had been a number of fatalities in the horrific blaze which was reported just after 1am today. Grenfell Action Group said: 'Watching breaking news about the Grenfell Tower fire catastrophe. Too soon to even guess at numbers of casualties and fatalities. 'We have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). 'All our warnings fell on deaf ears. This was inevitable and just a matter of time.' The group had been posting about their concerns of tower block's safety regularly calling for it to be torn down before it went up in flames in the early hours of this morning in White City. An action group predicted the Grenfell Tower fire was an accident waiting to happen four years ago but claim their warnings fell on deaf ears (pictured: the tower before the blaze) A fire safety notice at Granfell Tower, where police confirmed there had been a number of fatalities as a result of the blaze Chillingly, back in November, while addressing the managed by tenant managers Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the group wrote: 'It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. 'We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster. 'Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMO residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation. 'We believe that the KCTMO have ensured their ongoing survival by the use of proxy votes at their Annual General Meeting that see them returned with a mandate of 98 percent in favour of the continuation of their inept and highly dangerous management of our homes.' There is no suggestion that KCTMO are to blame for the fire and MailOnline contacted the landlords Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, but nobody was immediately available to comment. The planned drawings which show the refurbishment of existing Grenfell Tower including new external cladding and fenestration, alterations to plant room, reconfiguration of lower 4 levels to provide 7 new residential units, replacement nursery and boxing club facilities, external public realm works, redevelopment and change of use of existing garages to refuse collection area Advertisement Theresa Mays attempt to deport foreign criminals without long and expensive appeals was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court yesterday Theresa Mays attempt to deport foreign criminals without long and expensive appeals was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court yesterday. Judges ruled that under human rights laws two drug dealers should not have been thrown out of Britain before they had a chance to appeal. The decision, in a test case over Kevin Kiarie, a Kenyan citizen, and Courtney Byndloss from Jamaica, found that both men were removed from Britain before they could mount an effective appeal. The ruling undermines the 2014 Immigration Act that introduced a deport first, appeal later system designed to speed serious criminals on their way out of Britain and allow them to appeal only when back home. Five Supreme Court justices ruled that the system was unfair to Kiarie, jailed for two years in 2014 for dealing hard drugs, and Byndloss, sentenced to three years for a similar offence in 2013. This was because they could not appeal effectively once they were out of England. The ruling said deportees could not give appeal evidence by video link from abroad because the cost and practicalities of doing so presented insurmountable barriers. This breached Article Eight of the European human rights charter, which guarantees respect for private and family life, the judges said. Lord Wilson said of the deport first process: The proper analysis is that the Home Secretary has failed to establish that it is fair. For their appeals to be effective, they would need at least to be afforded the opportunity to give live evidence They would almost certainly not be able to do so in person. The question is: as a second best, would they be able to do so on screen? The evidence of the Home Secretary is that in such appeals applications to give evidence from abroad are very rare. Yesterday the Mail reported the case of Wilfred Mosira, a sex offender convicted at the age of 25 of offences with a 13-year-old girl. He won a claim to be able to stay in Britain in the Court of Appeal Why? Is it because an appellant has no interest in giving oral evidence in support of his appeal? I think not. It is because the financial and logistical barriers to his giving evidence on screen are almost insurmountable. The case is the third reverse in just a week for the Governments attempts to deport foreign criminals. On Monday the Daily Mail revealed that an Al Qaeda terrorist caught with manuals detailing how to attack nightclubs and airports had been given 250,000 in legal aid to try to avoid being deported to Jordan. Yesterday the Mail reported the case of Wilfred Mosira, a sex offender convicted at the age of 25 of offences with a 13-year-old girl. Lord Justice Sales said it is not fair to Mr Mosira for the Governments lawyers to raise at the eleventh hour the arguments that could have seen him thrown out of the country He won a claim to be able to stay in Britain in the Court of Appeal. The refugee, who has been found to face no danger or risk at all if returned to his country, Zimbabwe, won his case on legal technicalities that judges said would make his deportation unfair. Between 2014 and the end of last year 1,175 foreign criminals were deported under the Immigration Act on the authority of deportation certificates issued by the Home Secretary. Only 72 had begun an appeal process from abroad. By February, not one of the appeals had succeeded. Mrs May was Home Secretary when the law was passed and remained in post until she became Prime Minister last summer. A spokesman for the Home Office, which is now led by Amber Rudd, said: The Government has consistently taken the view that foreign criminals have no place in the UK, and we will continue to take action to remove them. 'We are disappointed by the judgment and are carefully considering the implications. High-rise residential buildings in Australia could be fire traps waiting to happen, with revelations many are filled with cladding similar to that used in London's Grenfell Tower. As the death toll from the fire disaster rises to 12, fears have emerged that cladding used inside and outside the housing block was a major factor in it quickly becoming engulfed in flames. The cladding, installed at the west London tower in May 2016 as part of a 10million refurbishment, is feared to have contributed to the building 'lighting up like a matchstick'. And now it has been revealed that a similar type of cladding is commonplace around the world, including in Melbourne where a 20-storey apartment block caught alight in late-2014 - producing eerily similar scenes to those from London on Wednesday. Scroll down for video There are fears high-rise residential buildings in Australia could be fire traps waiting to happen with many filled with similar cladding to that used in London's Grenfell Tower, which exploded into flames on Wednesday. A building in Melbourne caught alight in 2014 (pictured) The 27-storey Grenfell Tower in London caught alight on Wednesday (pictured), producing horrifying images which were eerily similar to those seen in the 2014 Melbourne apartment blaze In late-2014, more than 400 residents were forced to flee for their lives in the middle of the night as the Lacrosse building, in Melbourne's Docklands precinct, caught fire. An estimated $15 million damage was caused to the high-rise complex, with pictures of the blaze bearing an eerie resemblance to the horrifying scenes at Grenfell Tower. Following the blaze, started by a lit cigarette left on a balcony, it was revealed combustible cladding laid throughout the complex may have helped fuel the inferno. An investigation later found the imported Chinese cladding should never have been put in the building, despite builders being given the OK to use it, The Age reports. The investigation also revealed the cladding was used in 50 per cent of Melbourne's apartment blocks and had been commonplace in Australian buildings for more than 40 years. Now, in the wake of the London disaster, a building expert has likened the material in the Lacrosse building and Grenfell Tower as being 'like a firecracker'. The 2014 Melbourne fire caused $15 million in damage, while an investigation later revealed more than 50 per cent of buildings used the cladding. More than 400 residents were forced to evacuate the building in the middle of the night In the wake of the London inferno (pictured), a building expert has likened the material in the Lacrosse building and Grengell Tower as being 'like a firecracker' Following the Docklands blaze, an audit of 170 buildings was carried out. Recently, 41 were still classed as being 'non-compliant', which authorities say does not mean they are unsafe 'This product is so flammable, it's like a firecracker,' Phil Dwyer, president of Builders Collective of Australia, told 3AW. Mr Dwyer said anyone looking to buy an apartment should ask one question: 'Is there any combustible cladding on the building?' 'Don't buy it, don't take the risk... It's just not worth it.' Following the Docklands blaze, an audit of 170 buildings was carried out. Recently, 41 were still classed as being 'non-compliant', which authorities say does not mean they are unsafe. And federal senator Nick Xenophon joined the chorus of those questioning the use of the cladding, saying it was crucial all buildings are fire safe. Police would not confirm how many people are unaccounted for because the building is still on fire 12 hours after it started (pictured this after) - 12 are known to be dead but the toll is likely to be much higher Residents were trapped 'screaming for their lives' as flames raged through a 27-storey tower block in Notting Hill in the early hours today A brave firefighter is pictured inside the burnt remains of the 27-storey building, as efforts are made to investigate what caused the blaze The 27-storey Grenfell building, which was built in 1974 but refurbished last year, has an average of six flats per floor lived in by council tenants and a smaller number of private owners or tenants 'Anyone who lives or works in a high-rise building with some of this cladding needs to be immediately reassured that the cladding is either compliant and fire retardant,' Senator Xenophon told the Today Show. 'Or if it's not complaint we need to do something about it really quickly.' Eighteen people are fighting for their lives in a critical condition while dozens remain missing in the wake of the London blaze, with claims 'nobody on the top three floors survived'. With Grenfell Tower residents revealing they had previously voiced concerns that the building was not fire safe, they have now claimed the cladding helped the fire spread quickly throughout the building. Bodies remain strewn through the charred block with undertakers seen removing the dead in a delicate and treacherous recovery operation set to last several days. An emotional woman wearing a breathing mask holds her head in despair as she rests on the pavement near the scene of the blaze in west London There are real fears that that nobody who lived on the top three residential floors may have survived the unprecedented fire A community leader working to locate victims, who asked not to be named, believes nobody who lived on the top three residential floors survived and the building that was home to 600 people could soon collapse. He said: 'We have a list of missing people - there are so many. It's possible there are more than 50, possibly hundreds'. Those who managed to flee said it was 'like hell on earth' inside as they scrambled over dead bodies in scenes akin to 9/11. Petrified residents were seen throwing themselves and their children out of windows to avoid being burned to death - others made ropes by tying bed sheets together or used them as makeshift parachutes and jumped. Large numbers police are also on the scene recovering bodies being taken away on stretchers this afternoon Theresa May will face Cabinet resignations if she gives in to demands from Philip Hammond to water down Brexit, senior Tories warned last night. The Chancellor will use a major speech in the City tonight to set out his vision on Brexit, amid mounting speculation he is pressing Mrs May to compromise in talks with Brussels starting next week. The leading figure in the Remain campaign told his German counterpart this week that the Conservatives had been punished by young voters for their stance on Brexit at last weeks election. Theresa May will face Cabinet resignations if she gives in to demands from Philip Hammond (pictured) to water down Brexit, senior Tories warned last night He suggested that Brexit policy could now change. And he is now said to be pressuring Mrs May to adopt a strategy that would keep Britain in the EU customs union even though this would give EU judges a say over British laws and limit the options for striking new trade deals around the world. His speech follows a string of high-profile interventions by Remain-supporting Tories in recent days designed to exploit Mrs Mays post-election weakness to force a change of strategy. David Cameron and John Major have both urged her to soften her approach on Brexit since the election, as have George Osborne, Kenneth Clarke, William Hague and Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox (pictured) has told friends his job would be pointless if the UK stayed inside the customs union An ally of Mr Hammond said he was also now receiving more support in Cabinet from Remainers who had previously accepted the referendum results. There are more voices around the table speaking out now, the ally said. But Eurosceptic Tories last night warned they would not accept any backsliding from Mrs May on the issue. A senior Tory source said at least three Cabinet ministers were prepared to quit if the Prime Minister bowed to the demands of her Chancellor. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has told friends his job would be pointless if the UK stayed inside the customs union. PM MEETS SINN FEIN TO CALM FEARS Theresa May will today attempt to calm Nationalist fears about her proposed deal with the Democratic Unionist Party in face-to-face talks with Gerry Adams. The Sinn Fein president and Michelle ONeill, the partys Stormont leader, will demand assurances about the Governments role in the peace process when they meet Mrs May in Downing Street. She is hoping to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland and is meeting the provinces political parties to try to encourage this. Meanwhile talks between senior Conservatives and the DUP over their confidence and supply deal for the Commons continued into their sixth day yesterday. Officials suggested the announcement of any pact would be delayed because of the London tower block fire. However, discussions could continue into next week. It could mean the Queens Speech originally scheduled for Monday could be delayed until the following week. Mrs May will meet Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and Alliance Party separately this afternoon. Sinn Fein says the DUP deal could undermine the Good Friday agreement. The party claims that a government that has a Parliamentary deal with the Loyalist DUP may not be an honest broker in dealing with power sharing in Northern Ireland. Advertisement The source said: There is a co-ordinated operation going on, led by Philip Hammond, that is designed to destabilise the Prime Minister. What they are risking now is creating open warfare in the Tory Party. If Hammond gets his way then you will get Cabinet resignations. Treasury sources were tight-lipped about the contents of Mr Hammonds speech at the Mansion House this evening. One said he would be putting forward a pragmatic approach. The Chancellor has said publicly that he wants the UK to prioritise jobs, prosperity and business rather than control of immigration in the negotiations with Europe. He is now said to be lobbying to keep the UK in the customs union the trade agreement between European states that allows firms to trade across borders without tariffs or customs checks. This would avoid exporters facing a cliff edge of tariffs and border controls when the UK leaves in 2019. But it would mean the UK accepting trade policy set in Brussels on a permanent basis. Eurosceptic Tories reacted angrily yesterday after Mr Cameron called on Mrs May to open talks with Labour about Brexit. The former prime minister, who resigned last year after losing the referendum, said: I think there will be pressure for a softer Brexit. Former Chancellor Mr Clarke said: Were in a new situation and the national interest calls for a cross-party approach. He dismissed claims that this was a bid to overturn the referendum result, saying the idea was silly. Each year, over a million missing persons cases are reported in the US and UK, leaving families desperately searching for their loved ones. In the hope of boosting this search, researchers have developed a new and more accurate method of ageing facial images. They have tested their new software on an image of Ben Needham, who went missing when he was a toddler in 1991 on the Greek island of Kos. The resulting images are vastly different to the computer generated images of Ben as an adult produced by current face-ageing current software. This, they say, suggests that existing technology isn't up to the task. They hope their software can spark some new breakthroughs in existing missing persons cases. They say they could use it to create more accurate images of what Madeleine McCann, who went missing 10 years ago in Portugal, will look like today. Scroll down for video To test the system, the researchers use a method called de-aging, in which they take a person's picture and run the algorithm backwards to de-age them, in a Benjamin Button-like way. The result is then compared with an actual photograph of the individual taken at the young age HOW DOES IT WORK? Researchers feed-in facial feature data into the system from a large database of individuals from different ages. This teaches the computer software exactly how different features on the human face age, making it more accurate than previous system. The data includes information about ageing in different races and genders. The model can also take data from a missing person's relatives to further improve its accuracy. The technology then maps out the key features, such as the shape of the cheek, mouth and forehead, of a face at a certain age. This information is fed to a computer algorithm which then creates new features for the face to produce photographic quality images of the face at different ages. Advertisement The system was created by researchers at the University of Bradford. Professor Hassan Ugail, who led the research, told MailOnline: 'We see our software being used to find missing children by relevant agencies and authorities, including police forces around the world.' The system maps out key features, such as the shape of the cheek, mouth and forehead, of a face at a certain age. This information is fed to a computer algorithm which then creates new features for the face to produce photographic quality images of the face at different ages. A key feature of the method is that it teaches the machine how humans age, by feeding the algorithm facial feature data from a large database of individuals at various ages. This makes it more accurate than previous methods of facial ageing. Professor Ugail told MailOnline: 'Our method generates more individualized results and hence is more accurate for a given face. 'This is because we have used large datasets of faces from different ethnicity, race as well gender in order to train our algorithm. 'Furthermore, our model can take data from an individual's relatives, if available (such as parents, grandparents and siblings etc). 'In other words, current methods that exist out there use linear or one-dimensional methods whereas ours is non-linear which means it suits better for the individual in question.' While Ben Needham has never been found, several images have been produced by investigators showing how Ben might look at ages 11-14 years, 17-20 years, and 20-22 years The team used their method to progress the image of Ben Needham to the ages of six, 14 and 22 years. The resulting images show very different results, which the researchers believe more closely resemble what Ben might look like today Professor Ugail added: 'Each year around 300,000 missing person cases are recorded in the UK alone. 'This has been part of our motivation in endeavouring to improve current techniques of searching for missing people, particularly those who have been missing for some considerable time.' To test the system, the researchers use a method called de-aging, in which they take a person's picture and run the algorithm backwards, in a Benjamin Button-like way. TESTING THE SYSTEM ON BEN NEEDHAM AND MADELEINE MCCANN As a test case, the researchers worked on the case of Ben Needham, who disappeared on the Greek island of Kos on 24th July 1991, when he was only 21 months old. While Ben has never been found, several images have been produced by investigators showing how Ben might look at ages 11-14 years, 17-20 years, and 20-22 years. The team used their method to progress the image of Ben to the ages of six, 14 and 22 years. The resulting images show very different results, which the researchers believe more closely resemble what Ben might look like today. The results were evaluated using both machine and human methods, and in both, the images of Ben produced using this method were found to be more like the original picture of Ben than the images created as part of previous investigations. The team now hopes to trial the system on more faces of missing people, and is eager to help in the search for Madeleine McCann. Madeleine disappeared in May 2007 when she was just four years old, from her bed in a holiday apartment in the Algarve region of Portugal. Professor Ugail told MailOnline: 'Our algorithm is generic. We have not done any work on McCann's images, but we will happy to do so if such an opportunity arises.' The team now hopes to trial the system on more faces of missing people, and is eager to help in the search for Madeleine McCann. Pictured are Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, holding a poster of what she may look like now Advertisement Previously, investigators have tried to predict what Madeleine McCann looks like now, but the new technique could provide more precise results. Pictured left is Madeleine age four, and right is a previous prediction of what she may look like age nine The result is then compared with an actual photograph of the individual taken at the young age. As a test case, the researchers worked on the case of Ben Needham, who disappeared on the Greek island of Kos on 24th July 1991, when he was only 21 months old. While Ben has never been found, several images have been produced by investigators showing how Ben might look like at ages 11-14 years, 17-20 years, and 20-22 years. The team used their method to progress the image of Ben to the ages of six, 14 and 22 years. The resulting images show very different results, which the researchers believe more closely resemble what Ben might look like today. The results were evaluated using both machine and human methods, and in both, the images of Ben produced using this method were found to be more like the original picture of Ben than the images created as part of previous investigations. Professor Ugail added: 'No criticism is implied of existing age progression work. 'Instead we are presenting our work as a development and improvement that could make a contribution to this important area of police work. 'We are currently working with the relevant parties to further test our method. We are also developing further research plans in order to develop this method so it can be incorporated as a biometric feature, in face recognition systems, for example.' The team now hopes to trial the system on more faces of missing people, and is eager to help in the search for Madeleine McCann. Madeleine disappeared in May 2007 when she was just four years old, from her bed in a holiday apartment in the Algarve region of Portugal. Professor Ugail told MailOnline: 'Our algorithm is generic. We have not done any work on McCann's images, but we will happy to do so if such an opportunity arises.' Scientists have long debated the habitat of Earths earliest primates. Now, a new study on 62-million-year-old bones reveals the small creatures undoubtedly lived in trees, squashing earlier arguments that claimed they were built for life on the ground. The discovery of the oldest known partial primate skeleton in New Mexico has provided anatomical evidence on their lifestyle, indicating that they were better equipped to climb trees and hang onto branches. A new study on 62-million-year-old bones reveals the small creatures undoubtedly lived in trees, squashing earlier arguments that claimed they were built for life on the ground. The partial skeleton offers more than 20 bones for analysis, revealing extensive new insight Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, discovered the bones along with his sons at the San Juan Basin. Plesiadapiforms, an extinct group of primates, are thought to be the earliest primates, as they appear in the fossil record just after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. Previously, scientists based their assumptions on the discovery of teeth and jaws, which suggested that they searched the ground for insects. But, the partial skeleton offers more than 20 bones for analysis, revealing extensive new insight on their lives. THE WORLD'S OLDEST PRIMATE Plesiadapiforms are believed to have been transitional between other types of mammals and todays primates Plesiadapiforms, an extinct group of primates, are thought to be the earliest primates, as they appear in the fossil record just after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. The researchers say these creatures may have been transitional between other types of mammals and todays primates. Theyre known to have had outward-facing eyes, and were far more dependent on smell than modern primates. The Torrenjonia specimen was identified mostly by its dental traits, the researchers say. With the new bone specimens, they've concluded these mammals lived in the trees, not on the ground. Advertisement Researchers now say they lived in the trees, not on the ground. This is the oldest partial skeleton of a plesiadapiform, and it shows that they undoubtedly lived in trees, said lead author Stephen Chester, an assistant professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and curatorial affiliate of vertebrate paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum. We now have anatomical evidence from the shoulder, elbow, hip, knee, and ankle joints that allows us to assess where these animals lived in a way that was impossible when we only had their teeth and jaws. The researchers say these creatures may have been transitional between other types of mammals and todays primates. Theyre known to have had outward-facing eyes, and were far more dependent on smell than modern primates. It further supports analyses from other skeletal remains, which suggest all of the oldest primates found so far were also tree-dwellers. The evolutionary relationships of Torrejonia and other ancient mammals are shown Scientists have long debated the habitat of Earths earliest primates. But, the discovery of the oldest known partial primate skeleton indicates they were better equipped for life in the trees. Pictured, the bones of the new specimen are compared to other ancient mammals The Torrenjonia specimen was identified mostly by its dental traits, the researchers say. To find a skeleton like this, even though it appears a little scrappy, is an exciting discovery that brings a lot of new data to bear on the study of the origin and early evolution of primates, said Eric Sargis, professor of anthropology at Yale University, and senior author of the study. The discovery could finally put the debate to rest, with ample evidence to suggest these creatures lived in the trees. It further supports analyses from other skeletal remains, which suggest all of the oldest primates found so far were also tree-dwellers. Business / Economy by Staff Reporter A high powered Zimbabwean business delegation will travel to South Africa next week for crucial meetings with Zimbabwean investors based in that country as the government continues to engage the diaspora community.The meetings will provide a critical platform to deliberate on key issues that will improve the participation of Zimbabwe's diaspora community in various investment opportunities in the country.According to the Minister of Macro Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Dr Obert Mpofu, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to lead the delegation."We need to instill confidence in Zimbabweans in the diaspora by demonstrating our commitment in supporting their participation on the country's economic development," he said."Zimbabweans in South Africa remain a critical community that has the potential to contribute to the overall performance of annual diaspora remittance figures," added Dr Mpofu.The government will also be targeting to recoup on losses recorded in diaspora remittances in the first quarter of this year, with statistics from the National Treasury Bulletin showing a US$13 million dip to US$180 million, compared to the same period last year.Despite starting on a back foot this year, diaspora remittances are projected to reach US$1,2 billion by end of this year. Australia is home to an immediately recognisable array of weird and wonderful creatures. Now scientists have found evidence of even more unusual inhabitants from the nation's past. Archaeologists have been studying fossils collected from around the country and discovered the bones of giant flying turkeys. The creatures were among five species which died out during an ice age almost 12,000 years ago. Scroll down for video Palaeontologists from Flinders University in South Australia analysed fossils and bones from around the country and found five extinct bird species. One species of giant flying turkey was found to be as tall as a kangaroo (artist's impression) MEGAPODE BIRDS The megapode birds lived during the Pleistocene era, between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago, alongside other giant Australian animals like the rhino-sized diprotodons, marsupial lions and short-faced kangaroos. Scientists had initially thought the fossils, first found in the 1880s, represented a single ancient bird, but fresh examination has led them to conclude they belong to five different species. Among them was a turkey weighing up to eight kilograms (17 pounds) and standing taller than a grey kangaroo, which can reach 1.3 metres (4ft 3ins), four times the size of modern fowl. Advertisement Palaeontologists from Flinders University in South Australia analysed fossils and bones from around the country and found five extinct bird species. The creatures were all larger relatives of today's malleefowl and brush-turkeys, and ranged in weight from around three to eight kilograms (6.6 to 17.6 lbs). The megapode birds lived during the Pleistocene era, between 1.6 million and 11,700 years ago, alongside other giant Australian animals like the rhino-sized diprotodons, marsupial lions and short-faced kangaroos. Scientists had initially thought the fossils, first found in the 1880s, represented a single ancient bird, but fresh examination has led them to conclude they belong to five different species. Among them was a turkey weighing up to eight kilograms (17 pounds) and standing taller than a grey kangaroo, which can reach 1.3 metres (4ft 3ins), four times the size of modern fowl. Speaking to MailOnline, lead research Elen Shute said: 'These findings are important because they help us to understand our modern ecology. 'It has generally been thought that while Australia's giant "ice age" marsupials were going extinct at a rate of knots, birds sailed through the Pleistocene relatively unscathed. 'We found that megapodes were once much more diverse than was previously realised, and that more than half of species went extinct during the Pleistocene. 'The species we have left are the ones that withstood extinctions pressures. 'Working out what those pressures were will help us to predict which living species are most at risk of extinction in the future and what we need to do to protect them.' The newly found birds fall into two categories, 'tall turkeys' that had long, slender legs, and 'nuggetty chickens' that had short legs and broad bodies. Unlike many large extinct birds, such as dodos, these megapodes were not flightless. The megapode birds lived during the Pleistocene era, between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago. Pictured - The fossilised bone of a giant flying turkey (top) as compared with that of a regular turkey (bottom). Evidence of five extinct bird species was found among fossil records, found at sites across Australia. They were compared to the bones of their modern day relatives (pictured) and found to be much larger in size The creatures were all larger relatives of today's malleefowl and brush-turkeys, and ranged in weight from around three to eight kilograms (6.6 to 17.6 lbs). Pictured - The reconstructed foot of an extinct bird (left) compared to the foot of a malleefowl (right) While big and bulky, their long, strong wing bones showed they could all fly, and probably roosted in trees, unlike their modern ground-dwelling cousins which build mounds to incubate their eggs. Two of the new species come from the Thylacoleo Caves beneath Australia's vast Nullarbor Plain, which have proved a treasure trove since they were discovered 15 years ago. 'So far the Thylacoleo Caves have yielded seven new species of kangaroo, a frog, two giant ground-cuckoos, and now two new megapodes,' said Flinders professor Gavin Prideaux. 'The closer we look, the more we keep finding.' The full findings were published today in the journal Royal Society Open Science. The fossils studied come from sites spread across Australia, from sub-tropical Queensland, temperate southern Australia to the arid Nullarbor Plain. Most come from caves, including the Thylacoleo Caves and the World Heritage listed Naracoorte Caves in South Australia Robots that slice, grill, assemble and bag 400 burgers in one hour could soon take over restaurants everywhere. Momentum Machines first unveiled its autonomous grill master, which can do the work of three human burger flippers, in 2012. Now the robotics company has secured $18 million (14 million) in venture funding, reigniting old fears that the machines could soon replace human workers in fast-food restaurants. Scroll down for video Robots that slice, grill, assemble and bag 400 burgers in one hour could soon take over restaurants everywhere (pictured is a burger made up one of the bots) BURGER BOT In 2012, Momentum Machines debuted its fully autonomous burger-making robot. Customers will be able to customize their meat with their own specifications, such as asking for their preferred ratio of pork to bison. The 24ft (10m-wide) machine will also slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before the burger is ready for serving so that everything is as fresh as possible. And it will even wrap it and place it the bag for you to grab and go. Advertisement In 2012, Momentum Machines debuted its fully autonomous bot, which can assemble and bag a fresh burger without any help. The release of its innovated burger making machine boasted: 'Our alpha machine replaces all of the hamburger line cooks in a restaurant. 'It does everything employees can do except better.' Customers will be able to customize their meat with their own specifications, such as asking for their preferred ratio of pork to bison. The machine will also slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before the burger is ready for serving so that everything is as fresh as possible. And it will even wrap it and place it the bag for you to grab and go. The company claims that their method is not only more efficient that a human-operated kitchen but more sanitary, and that the savings on labor can be put towards better ingredients for a gourmet burger that no one has to cook. Momentum Machines' robot is made up of an oven, stamper, slicer for fresh vegetables and a bagger (pictured). The machine will also slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before the burger is ready for serving so that everything is as fresh as possible WORLD'S FIRST ROBOT BURGER BAR According to Momentum Machines job posting on Craigslists, the startup plans to open its restaurant at 680 Folsom street in San Francisco California. The burgers will be fresh-ground and grilled to order. Customers can specify what type of meat mixture they want and build their own burger. Humans will be employeed at the facility but for other tasks such as payroll and taking out the garbage. The Craiglist posting shares specific characteristics the firm is looking for in human workers: autonomous, conscientious, autodidactic and service orientated --the word robot does not show up once in the Craigslist post. Advertisement And because the machine only takes up 24-square feet, there's more room for spacious seating and a 'better overall dining room experience'. The company's efforts have just been bolstered by $18 million (14 million) in funding, according to a file from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. With the minimum wage increasing in parts of the US, the idea of hiring a staff of robots may seem attractive to CEOs. Former McDonald's USA CEO Ed Rensi has said it would be cheaper to hire robots to replace the company's staff than to pay them higher wages. 'It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 [27,400] robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who's inefficient making $15 [12] an hour bagging french fries,' Rensi told Fox Business last year. He added that the demand to raise wages is 'going to cause a job loss across this country like you're not going to believe.' Momentum Machines has since been looking for a location to open up its first robot-led restaurant. Momentum Machines first turned heads in 2012 when it unveiled its burger making robot and plans for a new restaurant chain (pictured) According to a Momentum Machines job posting on Craigslists, the startup plans to open its restaurant at 680 Folsom street in San Francisco, California Details about what the restaurant might look like spread after a job ad posted on Craigslist surfaced last year. Although all the restaurant's food will be be prepared by robots, the ad claimed to be seeking 'autonomous' and 'autodidactic' human workers to carry out other tasks -such as taking out the rubbish. We are the team who will open and operate Momentum Machines' first restaurant, the Craigslist job posting read. News of the robot-run burger restaurant spread after a job posting on Craigslist surfaced last year This location will feature the world-premiere of our proprietary and remarkable new advances in technology that enable the automatic creation of impossibly delicious burgers at prices everyone can afford. The burgers sold at 680 Folsom will be fresh-ground and grilled to order, served on toasted brioche, and accented by an infinitely personalizable variety of fresh produce, seasonings, and sauces. Microsoft has warned of state-sponsored cyber attacks, as it released updates for its Windows operating systems, including Windows XP. The company stopped supporting XP in April 2014, but has now taken the unprecedented move of including it in the firm's latest round of security updates. The updates, released today, are in response to an 'elevated risk of cyber attacks by government organizations,' Microsoft said. Scroll down for video Microsoft has warned of state-sponsored cyber attacks as it released its latest updates for its Windows operating systems, including Windows XP. The company stopped supporting XP in April 2014 (stock image) THE WANNACRY HACK - The WannaCry attack paralysed NHS computers, Germany's national railway and scores of other companies and government agencies - The extortion scheme hit 150 countries including the US, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France - It is estimated it infected more than 200,000 computers worldwide - The virus locked each computer it infected and demanded a ransom for their safe return - Microsoft pinned partial blame on the NSA for the cyber attacks, which were spread using hacking tools created by the agency - The tools were leaked online by a hacking group last month after they accessed NSA cyberware files - Now Microsoft has released security updates in preparation for a string of similar attacks Advertisement The company's Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems suffered a global ransomware attack last month that infected more than 200,000 computers. 'On May 12, 2017, the WannaCrypt ransomware served as an all too real example of the danger of cyber attacks to individuals and businesses globally,' Adrienne Hall, general manager of crisis management at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. 'In reviewing the updates for this month, some vulnerabilities were identified that pose elevated risk of cyber attacks by government organizations, sometimes referred to as nation-state actors or other copycat organizations. 'To address this risk, today we are providing additional security updates along with our regular Update Tuesday service.' Microsoft said that it is releasing updates for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and all other more recent unsupported and supported versions of Windows. Users of newer versions, such as 8.1 or 10, will not need to manually download the patches provided they have Windows Update enabled. For other users, the updates will be available via Windows Download Centre. 'Due to the elevated risk for destructive cyber attacks at this time, we made the decision to take this action because applying these updates provides further protection against potential attacks with characteristics similar to WannaCrypt,' Ms Hall said. 'As always, we recommend customers upgrade to the latest platforms. 'Older systems, even if fully up-to-date, lack the latest security features and advancements.' In a blog post last month, Microsoft President Brad Smith (pictured) pinned partial blame on the NSA for the devastating WannaCry cyber attacks, which were spread using hacking tools created by the agency Last month's WannaCry attack disrupted operations at car factories, hospitals, shops and schools, as hackers held entire computer systems ransom. Shortly after the string of attacks, Microsoft pinned blame on the US government for not disclosing more software vulnerabilities, likening them to 'Tomahawk missiles'. In a blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith appeared to tacitly acknowledge what researchers had already widely concluded: The ransomware attack leveraged a hacking tool, built by the US National Security Agency, that leaked online in April. 'This is an emerging pattern in 2017,' Mr Smith wrote. 'We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world.' The NHS was one of the several global government agencies hit by the WannaCry attack, which affected computers, phones and emergency bleepers in hospitals and GP surgeries - pop-ups like the one pictured appeared demanding a ransom of $300 (230) 'Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. 'An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.' He also poured fuel on a long-running debate over how government intelligence services should balance their desire to keep software flaws secret - in order to conduct espionage and cyber warfare - against sharing those flaws with technology companies to better secure the internet. 'This attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem,' Mr Smith wrote. While people may claim to value privacy, their actions suggest otherwise. A new study found that 98 per cent of students are happy to give away their friend's email address for free pizza. Previous research has found that 74 per cent of people say that it is 'very important' to them that they be in control of who can access their information. Scroll down for video A new study found that 98 per cent of students are happy to give away their friend's email address for free pizza (stock image) INTERNET SECURITY Last month parents were urged to make internet security as high a priority for their children as road safety by child safety experts. The call was issued after a poll of parents with youngsters aged eight to 13 found only one in five frequently discuss how to stay safe online with their children. A new animation featuring the voice of comedian Catherine Tate was created as part of the Share Aware campaign being run by the UK's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NSPCC and mobile service provider O2. Tate, a mother-of-one, said: 'As a parent you teach your child how to cross the road and warn them about "stranger danger". 'But it can be harder to know how to keep them safe online - especially when the speed with which new apps and games appear outwits even the best of us. Advertisement 'Whereas people say they care about privacy, they are willing to relinquish private data quite easily when incentivized to do so,' the researchers wrote. The study tested 3,108 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students and was published in the National Bureau of Economic Research. Half of the students were given an incentive to share a friend's email address in the form of a slice of pizza, while the other half were given no incentive. Fewer students - 94 per cent - gave up friends' email addresses when not given any incentives. In the non-incentivised group, six per cent shared fake emails to protect the identities of their friends. Not giving an email address was not an option in the study. Internet safety and protection of privacy has become an increasingly pertinent issue in recent years. Last month parents were urged to make internet security as high a priority for their children as road safety by child safety experts. The call was issued after a poll of parents with youngsters aged eight to 13 found only one in five frequently discuss how to stay safe online with their children. A new animation featuring the voice of comedian Catherine Tate was created as part of the Share Aware campaign being run by the UK's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NSPCC and mobile service provider O2. Tate, a mother-of-one, said: 'As a parent you teach your child how to cross the road and warn them about "stranger danger". Half of the students were given an incentive to share a friend's email address in the form of a slice of pizza, while the other half were given no incentive. Fewer students - 94 per cent - gave up friends' email addresses when not given any incentives (stock image) 'But it can be harder to know how to keep them safe online - especially when the speed with which new apps and games appear outwits even the best of us.' Claire Lilley, head of child online safety at the NSPCC, said: 'Parents are the first point of call for a child when it comes to staying safe in real life and this is no different when it comes to their online life. 'Talking to your child and exploring their online world with them is the best way to keep them safe, but it can be hard to keep up to speed with the internet and some topics can feel more difficult than others.' The Pirate Bay, one of the biggest piracy sharing websites in the world, could be in trouble after the European Court of Justice ruled that the site can be held liable for copyright infringement. The website hosts millions of links to files for download, including films, TV programmes and music. The ruling comes just weeks after ExtraTorrent, The Pirate Bay's biggest rival, was forced to shut down as part of the crackdown on illegal content sharing. Scroll down for video The Pirate Bay, one of the biggest piracy sharing websites in the world, could be in big trouble after the European Court of Justice ruled that the site can be held liable for copyright infringement (stock image) WHAT IS THE PIRATE BAY AND WHAT ARE TORRENTS? The Pirate Bay is a website that hosts millions of links to files that are free to download. Some of these files are legal but others are illegal copies of TV shows, films, music albums, computer programmes such as Photoshop, and more. These files are known as Torrents and are transferred through peer-to-peer software in which one user hosts the file and another 'leeches' it directly from their network. Torrents allow users to efficiently trade files between one another using websites like The Pirate Bay as directories to find the files they want. Advertisement The Pirate Bay and Stichting Brein, a Dutch anti-piracy group, have had a long-running dispute, which led to the ruling. Stichting Brein wants two Dutch internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the site. The site is already blocked by several European ISPs, and the European Court ruling could be the final nail in the coffin for The Pirate Bay. The case was first put forward in 2010, and the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has since pushed the European Court of Justice for clarity on points in EU Copyright laws. In particular, the Supreme Court wanted to probe whether sharing platforms like The Pirate Bay were communicating with the public which would be a breach of copyright law. After careful deliberation, the answer from the court is yes. The ruling states: 'The making available and management of an online sharing platform must be considered to be an act of communication for the purposes of the directive.' Kieron Sharp, CEO of FACT, said: 'Although the Pirate Bay is already blocked in the UK it's important to remember that digital piracy is a global problem. 'The criminals providing pirated content online often aren't based in the UK but their output is still available. 'Blocking from the UK has proved effective. The ruling comes just weeks after ExtraTorrent, The Pirate Bay's biggest rival, was forced to shut down as part of the crackdown on illegal content sharing UK'S MOST PIRATED TV SHOWS OF 2016 1) Game of Thrones 2) The Walking Dead 3) Westworld 4) The Flash 5) Arrow 6) The Big Bang Theory 7) Vikings 8) Lucifer 9) Suits 10) The Grand Tour Advertisement 'The blocking of sites by other European countries via this ruling from the European Court of Justice is a welcome tightening of the net around these criminals and demonstrates the ongoing impact of a global clampdown on digital piracy. But not everyone is convinced that the ruling will be the end of The Pirate Bay. Speaking to the BBC, Ernesto van der Sar, editor of piracy news website TorrentFreak, said: 'The ruling strengthens the position of right holders who would like to see The Pirate Bay and similar websites blocked across Europe. 'Whether if will be effective at stopping the general public from accessing The Pirate Bay remains to be seen. 'There are plenty of workarounds available that allow people to bypass ISP blockades, including reverse proxy sites and VPN [virtual private network] services.' Pirate Bay's biggest competitor, ExtraTorrent, was shut down permanently last month. A message on the firm's website reads: 'ExtraTorrent with all mirrors goes offline.. We permanently erase all data. 'Stay away from fake ExtraTorrent websites and clones. Thx to all ET supporters and torrent community. ET was a place to be.' Other file-sharing sites, Kickass Torrents and Torrentz.eu were also forced to shut down earlier this year after building legal pressure. Fishermen off the coast of the Netherlands caught slightly more than they'd bargained, hauling in the world's first conjoined twin harbour porpoises. The bizarre creatures have one body and separate fully grown heads, in what is known as partial twinning. Researchers hope that the finding will help to fill a huge gap in the understanding of twinning in aquatic mammals something that has only been observed ten times worldwide. Scroll down for video Fishermen off the coast of the Netherlands caught slightly more than they'd bargained for last month, hauling in the world's first conjoined twin harbour porpoises THE CONJOINED PORPOISES The photos showed that the porpoises' tails had not stiffened, which indicates that they died shortly after birth, according to Dr Kompanje. They also had a flat dorsal fin something that would have stiffened if they were alive and hairs on the upper lip, which would have fallen out. Partial twinning can happen in one of two ways - two initially separate embryonic discs can fuse together or the zygote can only partially split during the early development process. The researchers are unsure which way the porpoises joined together. Advertisement Partial twinning is extremely rare in cetaceans the group of aquatic mammals that includes dolphins, whales and porpoises. While the fishermen who caught the porpoises released them back into the wild, they first shared photos of the animals with researchers from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Speaking to New Scientist, Dr Erwin Kompanje, who led the study, said: 'The anatomy of cetaceans is strikingly different from terrestrial mammals with adaptations for living in the sea as a mammal. Much is unknown. 'Adding any extra case to the known nine specimens brings more knowledge on this aspect.' The photos taken by the fishermen showed that the porpoises' tail had not stiffened, which indicates that they died shortly after birth, according to Dr Kompanje. The bizarre creatures have one body and two fully grown heads, in what is known as partial twinning They also had a flat dorsal fin something that would have stiffened if they were alive and hairs on the upper lip, which would have fallen out. Even normal twinning is extremely rare in cetaceans. Dr Kompanje said: 'There is simply not enough room in the body of the female to give room to more than one fetus.' The photos taken by the fishermen showed that the porpoises' tails had not stiffened, which indicates that they died shortly after birth The porpoises had a flat dorsal fin something that would have stiffened if they were alive and hairs on the upper lip, which would have fallen out And if there are other conjoined cetaceans twins in the wild, finding them will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Dr Kompanje added: 'Conjoined twins will be more common than the 10 cases we know at this moment, but we are unaware of them because they are born at sea and are never found.' A long-standing mystery over the true identity of the artist and subject behind the 'Lady in a Fur Wrap' may finally be solved. The masterpiece dates back to the late 1570s and has fascinated viewers ever since it was exhibited in the Louvre, Paris, in 1838. The painting has been attributed to revered Spanish artist El Greco, but sceptics have argued it is unlike any of his other works. International art experts will now use infrared techniques to reveal preliminary sketches beneath the painting in a bid to uncover the truth. They will also use x-radiography to provide information about materials and techniques used to see if they match other El Greco works. Lady in a Fur Wrap (pictured) is valued at more than 20million ($26 million). A long-standing mystery over the true identity of the artist and subject behind the 'Lady in a Fur Wrap' may finally be solved using infrared technology LADY IN A FUR WRAP Lady in a Fur Wrap, valued at more than 20million ($26 million), is believed by many to be the work of Spanish renaissance painter El Greco. But some critics are sceptical of El Greco's authorship since the work is so strikingly different from most of his others. Researchers will undertake examinations of the paintings' surface, as well as analysis of microscopic paint samples. Specialists will also use infrared reflectography to detect any preliminary sketches or underdrawings by the artists, which are often hidden by overlying paint layers. They will also carry out X-radiography to provide information about materials and techniques used, as well as the artists' style. Advertisement A 'sustained examination' of evidence relating to the masterpiece will be carried out by scientists from the University of Glasgow. It will focus on five paintings by El Greco and other contemporary artists working during the 'Golden Age' of Spanish painting. Since the 1800's, the Lady in a Fur Wrap's fame has been linked to the rise in the international reputation of El Greco as its creator. Most people believe that the portrait - valued at more than 20 million ($25 million) - is of the Spanish painter's beloved partner Jeronima while others suggest it is his daughter. The portrait is currently part of the Glasgow Museum's collection and is usually displayed at the city's Pollok House. Specialists will work with the museum, the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, and the National Trust for Scotland to uncover its secrets. Pippa Stephenson, curator of European Art at Glasgow Museums, said: 'It's a unique representation of a woman from the end of the 16th century. 'Some people think it's his daughter and some think it's his lover and the mother of his child. 'We don't know for sure and the authorship of the artist is also in question. Since the 1800's, the Lady in a Fur Wrap's fame has been linked to the rise in the international reputation of El Greco as its creator. Sceptics have raised doubts the painting is the work of El Greco, and the debate may finally be resolved with the help of modern technology (pictured) The research will focus on five paintings by El Greco, including Gentleman (pictured), and other contemporary artists working during the 'Golden Age' of Spanish painting 'This debate has been going on for over a century and things like that are not straight forward. 'The idea is to learn as much as we can. 'We are not expecting a definite attribution. The main aim of the network is to bring experts together, pool ideas and to learn more about this painting and other works from the end of the 16th century.' The research project will explore questions of artistic technique, attribution and identity, using scientific analysis. This will include examinations of the paintings' surface, as well as analysis of microscopic paint samples. The masterpiece dates back to the late 1570s and has fascinated viewers ever since it was exhibited in the Louvre, Paris, in 1838 Pictured Pippa Stephenson, (right) Curator of European Art at Glasgow Museums and Mark Richter (left), Glasgow University International specialists in the field of art history - two of the researchers involved in the new study Specialists will also use infrared reflectography to detect any preliminary sketches or underdrawings by the artists, which are often hidden by overlying paint layers. They have also carried out X-radiography to provide information about materials and techniques used, as well as the artists' style. Dr Mark Richter, from the University of Glasgow, said: 'Although there is no guarantee of definitive results through technical analysis we will at the very least learn much more about how this most enigmatic portrait was painted and the relationship of its materials and methods of creation to those of other important pictures in this and other collections, as well as to the main writings on art theory and practice at this period.' Some critics are sceptical about El Greco's authorship of Lady in a Fur Wrap (right) since the work is so strikingly different from most of his others, including Portrait of A Gentleman (left) Infrared reflectography will be used to detect preliminary sketches under the paintings, while X-radiography will provide information about materials and techniques used in each. If the Lady in a Fur Wrap matches known works of El Greco, it will prove the painting is authentic The 'sustained examination' of evidence relating to the masterpiece will now be carried out by scientists from the University of Glasgow Specialists will also consider the history of dress, society and collecting, in an attempt to 'unpack' the complex history and significance of the artwork. And in time, they hope to provide a fuller understanding of who painted Lady in a Fur Wrap, who it might represent and when it was created. Dr Hilary Macartney, who is leading the research at the University of Glasgow, said: 'Other lines of enquiry, such as research on dress and jewellery, the status of people represented in portraiture in this period, and history of collecting will be equally important. 'The project, therefore, brings together leading scholars of Spanish art, dress and related historical fields to debate and assess the latest research.. The research project will explore questions of artistic technique, attribution and identity, using scientific analysis This will include examinations of the paintings' surface, as well as analysis of microscopic paint samples 'The fascinating history of the fame of the Lady in a Fur Wrap and its impact on modern art and even film is likewise being studied.' Duncan Dornan, head of Glasgow Museums, said: 'We are pleased to partner with the foremost experts in the field of Spanish art to gain a fuller understanding of this iconic painting's creation through comparative study of related works in our collection. 'We look forward to learning more about these major paintings of the Spanish Golden Age, including one of Glasgow Museums' most popular and internationally recognised artworks.' The findings of the comparative research are expected to be made public in early 2019, with the publication of an edited book to follow in 2020. Specialists will also use infrared reflectography to detect any preliminary sketches or underdrawings by the artists, which are often hidden by overlying paint layers They have also carried out X-radiography to provide information about materials and techniques used, as well as the artists' style Dr Mark Richter, from the University of Glasgow (pictured), said: 'Although there is no guarantee of definitive results through technical analysis we will at the very least learn much more about how this most enigmatic portrait was painted Most people believe that the Lady with the Fur Wrap - valued at more than 20 million ($25 million) - is of El Greco's beloved partner Jeronima while others suggest it is his daughter Pippa Stephenson (pictured), curator of European Art at Glasgow Museums, said: 'This debate [on El Greco's authorship] has been going on for over a century and things like that are not straight forward. The idea is to learn as much as we can' Advertisement Sky gazers around the world have long been preparing for the rare total solar eclipse set to pass over the continental United States this summer but, when the moment finally arrives, totality will come and go in just a matter of minutes. A new interactive tool aims to show hopefuls exactly where and when to best see the phenomenon, whether youre viewing it from home or traveling long distance to catch a glimpse. The simulator from the Eclipse Megamovie 2017 project reveals the path of the sun on August 21, starting in the hours leading up to the total eclipse, to the point when the moon passes directly in front. Scroll down for video To use the tool, type in the name of your city and drag the circle on the timebar to watch how the sun moves across the sky over the course of the day. The simulator indicates what time the total eclipse will be visible, or the partial eclipse for those outside the path of totality WHERE TO SEE IT The path of totality will stretch from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston South Carolina. To find out exactly when and where it will be visible, visit NASA's interactive map, and click on a city along the path. Totality will cross the US from west to east, beginning at Lincoln Beach, Oregon, where totality will occur at 10:16 a.m. (PDT). It will the US over roughly an hour and a half, passing through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. It will end near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. (EDT), according to NASA. Advertisement For locations within the path of totality, the simulator indicates what time the total eclipse will hit. If you're not in the 70-mile-wide path of totality, don't fret; as the simulator shows, other locations across the US will still see a partial eclipse. This is indicated on the timebar as well, and will be visible all across North America, and even in parts of South America, Africa, and Europe, according to NASA. The total solar eclipse will pass from coast-to-coast through the continental US, for the first time in nearly a century. The August 21 event will be visible to millions of people as it crosses through 14 states, with the path of totality stretching from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. During this time, the sun will be completely blocked by the moon, leaving only the pearly white rays of its elusive corona visible to the naked eye but, even in areas set to experience the longest duration of totality, the sun will only be fully covered for less than three minutes. To be sure you dont miss out on the rare event, scientists have revealed many ways to prepare ahead, from what time the eclipse will pass through your city, to when you should put on your safety glasses. Totality will cross the US from west to east, beginning at Lincoln Beach, Oregon. There, the total solar eclipse will begin at 10:16 a.m. (PDT). The phenomenon will then cross through the US over the course of roughly an hour and a half. It will end near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. (EDT), according to NASA The total solar eclipse will pass from coast-to-coast through the continental US, for the first time in nearly a century. The August 21 event will be visible to millions of people as it crosses through 14 states, with the path of totality stretching from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina Totality will cross the US from west to east, beginning at Lincoln Beach, Oregon. There, the total solar eclipse will begin at 10:16 a.m. (PDT). The phenomenon will then cross through the US over the course of roughly an hour and a half, passing through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. It will end near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. (EDT), according to NASA. While the totality itself will last just a few minutes, the eclipse from start to finish will span more than an hour as the moon moves in and out of the suns path, giving rise to a series of crescents along the way. If you're not in the 70-mile-wide path of totality, don't fret; as the simulator shows, other locations across the US will still see a partial eclipse. This is indicated on the timebar as well, and will be visible all across North America, and even in parts of South America, Africa, and Europe The August 21 event will be visible to millions of people as it crosses through 14 states, with the path of totality stretching from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. A view of the Western and central US is shown. The best views of totality will be along the red line, though it will be visible in areas within the purple as well During this time, the sun will be completely blocked by the moon, leaving only the pearly white rays of its elusive corona visible to the naked eye but, even in areas set to experience the longest duration of totality, the sun will only be fully covered for less than three minutes. A view of central and Eastern US is shown Its not enough just to know where to see it, though. Viewers must also be prepared with the proper gear to protect their eyes during the event. Otherwise, NASA warns, you could severely hurt your eyes. The space agency says viewers should be equipped with special specs such as Rainbow Symphony, American Paper Optics, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17. These are just four that meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard. THE TOTAL ECLIPSE 'CLOUDINESS MAP' The NOAA has revealed a 'cloudiness' map to help viewers prepare for potential visibility issues ahead of eclipse day. The darker the dot, the greater the chance for cloudiness at the hour of peak viewing during the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Dots represent automated weather stations that reported the cloudiness data and show the 10-year cloudiness average for August 21, 20012010. Advertisement Scientists have long been preparing for the August 2017 event, which will offer a rare glimpse at the suns outer atmosphere, known as the corona. This feature is invisible to the naked eye except during a total solar eclipse. To view it otherwise, scientists must use a telescope known as a coronagraph The glasses should be put on when the partial eclipse begins, meaning when the sun becomes partially covered by the moon. And, they should remain on for the entirety of the phases leading up to totality. Once the moon has completely blocked out the sun, causing it to suddenly become dark, viewers can then remove the glasses for a short amount of time. This may last just a minute, though, and the glasses will need to be put back on for the final stages of the eclipse. Still, no matter how much you prepare, the ability to see the eclipse will all boil down to the weather conditions that day. While the totality itself will last just a few minutes, the eclipse from start to finish will span more than an hour as the moon moves in and out of the suns path, giving rise to a series of crescents along the way PROTECTING YOUR EYES Viewers must also be prepared with the proper gear to protect their eyes during the event. Otherwise, NASA warns, you could severely hurt your eyes The space agency says viewers should be equipped with special specs such as Rainbow Symphony, American Paper Optics, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17. These are just four that meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard. And, they warn that you should never look at the sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, binoculars. According to NASA, eclipse glasses should be put on when the partial eclipse begins, meaning when the sun becomes partially covered by the moon. And, they should remain on for the entirety of the phases leading up to totality. Once the moon has completely blocked out the sun, causing it to suddenly become dark, viewers can then remove the glasses for a short amount of time. This may last just a minute, though, and the glasses will need to be put back on for the final stages of the eclipse. Advertisement In the event that clouds or storms do pass through, obscuring the phenomenon, NASA will be hosting an Eclipse Megacast for four hours. This will be live-streamed on NASA TV, along with local and national TV stations, ensuring that even viewers who cannot make it a location on the path of totality or are experiencing poor sky conditions can see the rare eclipse. A HISTORIC ECLIPSE The total solar eclipse on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 will cross the continental United States beginning in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. While a total solar eclipse occurred over the continental US in 1979, the last time one such event spanned the country coast to coast was in 1918. In that event, the the path of totality entered through the southwest corner of Washington and passed over Denver, Colorado, Jackson, Mississippi, and Orlando, Florida before exiting the country at the Atlantic coast of Florida. This year, the path of totality will cross through 14 states, with the path of totality stretching from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. Advertisement Scientists have long been preparing for the August 2017 event, which will offer a rare glimpse at the suns outer atmosphere, known as the corona. This feature is invisible to the naked eye except during a total solar eclipse. To view it otherwise, scientists must use a telescope known as a coronagraph. In the brief window when the sun is blocked out by the moon, scientists will take measurements from both the ground and the sky, the LA Times reports. Some will even fly specialized planes upwards of 49,000 feet, using custom-built instruments to analyze the corona in infrared. Previous eclipses have revealed a bizarre phenomenon in which the suns outer atmosphere is far hotter than the surface, at an average of 1 million degrees Kelvin, compared to about 6,000 degrees Kelvin, respectively. The fundamental question we are asking is, what is causing the atmosphere to heat up like that? Shadia Habbal, a solar wind at the University of Hawaiis Institute for Astronomy who has led 14 eclipse expeditions, told the LA Times. This is one of the scientific mysteries regarding the sun that remains unanswered. Advertisement An international crew is set to embark on a 10-day mission in preparation for future deep space exploration but, instead of going up to the skies, theyll be heading deep beneath the sea. The NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) 22 expedition will send crew and technicians, led by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, to live on a research habitat 62 feet beneath the surface starting on June 18. At the seafloor, the crew will simulate the weightlessness of spacewalks and other concepts for the International Space Station and beyond, while also conducting marine research. An international crew is set to embark on a 10-day mission in preparation for future deep space exploration but, instead of going up to the skies, theyll be heading deep beneath the sea. The NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) 22 expedition will send crew and technicians to live on a research habitat 62 feet beneath the surface starting on June 18 NEEMO 22 will have the researchers test spaceflight countermeasure equipment, tracking technology, and the effects of extreme environments on body composition and sleep. In addition, the crew will test ESA sponsored hardware designed to evacuate a person who has been injured during a lunar spacewalk. The mission will take place at the Florida International Universitys Aquarius Reef Base 6.2 miles off the coast of Florida. The close parallels of inner and outer space exploration will be clearly demonstrated during this undersea mission, said NEEMO Project Lead Bill Todd. The daily seafloor traverses, or extravehicular activities in space jargon, are jam packed with technology and operations concept testing, as well as complex marine science. In the interior of Aquarius, aquanauts and astronauts will tackle an array of experiments and human research related to long duration space travel. NASA often uses analogue sites on Earth to train astronauts and scientists for space missions. NEEMO 22 will have the researchers test spaceflight countermeasure equipment, tracking technology, and the effects of extreme environments on body composition and sleep In addition, the crew will test ESA sponsored hardware designed to evacuate a person who has been injured during a lunar spacewalk. They researchers will also conduct marine science operations during their 10-day stay Earlier this year, for example, a small group of scientists was sent to live in a dome for eight months on the remote Hawaiian volcano, Mauna Loa. This particular mission will be headed by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, who is no stranger to the conditions of space. Lindgren recently spent 141 days on the International Space Station in Expeditions 44 and 45. And on his first spaceflight, he conducted two space walks. The mission will take place at the Florida International Universitys Aquarius Reef Base 6.2 miles off the coast of Florida. NASA often uses analogue sites on Earth to train astronauts and scientists for space missions WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BODY IN SPACE There is a loss of body weight and calcium. Bodily fluids are redistributed, with less in the lower extremities, and more in the upper body. Without the pulls of normal gravity, blood doesn't flow downhill, but pools in the extremities including the face, hands and feet, causing a puffy appearance. And without that downward pressure, height increases. Body mass often decreases with a loss of muscular tissue from nitrogen depletion; the veins and arteries of the legs become weaker, anaemia occurs, accompanied by a reduction in blood count. The calcium loss from bones subjected to extended microgravity takes place at 10 times the rate of an elderly person suffering from osteoporosis. Advertisement There is still much to be learned about how space effects the body. The first results from NASAs ground-breaking Twins Study, which looked at the difference between astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly, found that space explorers may even experience changes at the genetic level. While Scott Kelly lived aboard the International Space Station for 340 days, his identical twin, Mark, remained on Earth. There is still much to be learned about how space effects the body. In a similar mission designed to assess extreme environments, a small group of scientists was sent to live in a dome for eight months on the remote Hawaiian volcano, Mauna Loa The close parallels of inner and outer space exploration will be clearly demonstrated during this undersea mission, said NEEMO Project Lead Bill Todd. NASAs first set of data, released at the beginning of the year, suggests Kelly's genes changed during the 340 days on the International Space Station but no one is exactly sure why. Scientists reported their preliminary results at a meeting for NASA's Human Research Program on January 26, according to Nature. Researchers have also expressed concerns that we still dont know enough about how the conditions of space will affect human reproduction especially as space agencies look toward deep space travel, and the establishment of colonies on other worlds. During a recent panel discussion, a George Washington University assistant professor explained that sex in space, and the babies that could be produced by it, is a crucial issue that we have to address, yet so far remains poorly understood. The daily seafloor traverses, or extravehicular activities in space jargon, are jam packed with technology and operations concept testing, as well as complex marine science,' said project lead Bill Todd Advertisement Going a few extra thousand miles to get one-of-a-kind wedding photos, a newlywed couple travelled the world to get shots smooching by some of the globe's most iconic locations. Keow Wee Loong and his wife, Marta Sibielak, spent three months visiting cities including Venice, London and Copenhagen, as well as more rural locations such as Norway's Trolltunga, the fields from The Sound of Music, and Mount Fuji. At each recognizable location, Keow and Marta photographed themselves in the same embrace - the doting bride a full wedding dress, kissing her groom, who wore a smart black suit. Scroll down for video Kiss me quick: Keow Wee Loong and Marta Sibielak went a few extra thousand miles to get one-of-a-kind wedding photos (above, photographed in London in front of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben) Runaway bride... and groom! The newlyweds spent three months visiting cities including Venice, London and Copenhagen, as well as more rural locations such as Norway's Trolltunga, the fields from The Sound of Music, and Mount Fuji (seen in the background, above) The idea for the unique journey came to photographer Keow, 28, while he was shooting a Taiwanese couple earlier this year. The pair scaled two mountains in freezing cold temperatures in order to get their shots, so Keow proposed to Marta that they shoot a similar series for their wedding - only they would visit their favourite locations across Europe and Asia instead. On their travels, the couple faced the likes of wind, rain and cloud cover, Keow said, as well as the exhausting effort of carrying all of the camera equipment - tripods, lighting rigs - themselves. To save money, Keow shot each one of the images using a remote control connected to his camera. With Marta, 25, living in Japan and Keow living and working in Malaysia and Indonesia, the journey was cheaper than expected, Keow said, costing the pair less than $1,000 in total. Winning pose: At each recognizable location, Keow and Marta photographed themselves in the same embrace - the doting bride in a full wedding dress, kissing her groom, who wore a suit (above, standing on Trolltunga, above Lake Ringedalsvatnet in Norway) The rest is history: The lovebirds met after Keow stopped at a Family Mart in Japan to get some Wi-Fi after losing his wallet. They exchanged numbers and kept in touch (above, photographed in Mehlweg, Germany, the site of the opening scene of The Sound of Music) Keow said: 'As a photographer I always wanted to shoot my own wedding photos. 'That saved a lot of money, because most photographers are charging $3,500 and above in Asian counties to do a wedding photoshoot in Europe. 'The most important part for me, other than documenting our wedding, was to show the journey with your loved one is more important. 'Spending more time together and being on a road trip make couples stronger. 'Our families thought it was a crazy idea, but worth it.' Behind-the-scenes: To save money, Keow shot each one of the images using a remote control connected to his camera (above, the couple strike a romantic pose on a bridge in Venice, Italy) But it's not just their wedding photos that have a touch of 'crazy'. The couple's proposal story is equally unique. Keow scaled the Beipanjiang Bridge in China - the tallest overpass in the world at 1,853 feet - to ask Marta to marry him But it's not just their wedding photos that have a touch of 'crazy'. The couple's proposal story is equally unique. Keow scaled the Beipanjiang Bridge in China - the tallest overpass in the world at 1,853 feet - to ask Marta to marry him. He filmed the heart-pounding ascent and took pictures before placing one of the images on his girlfriend's Facebook page to pop the question last November. The impressive feat scored him a solid 'yes'. The lovebirds met after Keow stopped at a Family Mart in Japan to get some Wi-Fi after losing his wallet. While perusing the aisles he met Marta and the two stayed in touch. Recalling the encounter, Keow said: 'It was weird seeing a western woman working in a Family Mart in Japan. I was lost and wanted to use the Wi-Fi in the shop but I ended up talking with her.' News / National by Staff reporter The Zimbabwe Communist Party (ZCP) says it is working towards the "equal sharing of the country's wealth", after it "successfully" held a meeting of its steering committee members in Midrand over the weekend.In an interview with News24 , the ZCP's newly appointed national political commissar, Ian Beddowes, described his organisation as the "vanguard party" that would "restore the country's wealth into the hands of ordinary masses"."We've set up the first communist party in Zimbabwe and we are in the process of forming a vanguard party that will see the working people of Zimbabwe, especially the poor, having their share in the country's wealth," said Beddowes.This came as the southern African country was gearing up for presidential elections in 2018.Beddowes said his organisation had no intention to contest in the much anticipated crunch vote, describing them as "a contestation of individuals with no ideology and no vision".An alternative to President Robert Mugabe's ruleHe, however, said that the ZCP would play a much broader role during the election, as some of its members were also members of other political formations."We are a group of committed people who are politically active in other organisation that also include the so called opposition parties. We even have people who are interested in joining us within the ranks of the ruling party. Therefore, we're going to play a significant role in influencing policy decision that would be beneficial to the working poor," said Beddowes.Opposition parties in Zimbabwe were currently working towards efforts to forge a unified alliance in next year's polls, with two deals having been signed in April between the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru of the National People's Party (NPP).This was seen as an embryonic attempt to forge an alternative to President Robert Mugabe's rule, which began with independence from Britain in 1980.Soon after, Tsvangirai signed another pact to re-unite with the MDC-N, which split away in 2005, and was led by the Welshman Ncube.'Productive capitalism'The MDC has in recent years been weakened by repeated splits, and was badly fractured by Tsvangirai's troubled term as Mugabe's prime minister in a coalition government from 2009 until 2013.Taking a swipe at the fragmented opposition parties, Beddowes said that they did not have a coherent ideology and, as a result, they were not going to be able to represent the aspirations of the working poor.He said that his party aimed at advocating for "productive capitalism" which would see the country's wealth being returned to the masses.Beddowes said the ZPC wanted to build a national democratic economy based on "the self-activity of the working-people and the restoration of production"."The other political parties in the country do not have a coherent ideology. For now we are going to encourage productive capitalism and take the economy to the people. We want every district, city to have a plan on how to redistribute wealth to our people," he said.The ZPC was currently being led by its general secretary Nicholas Mabhena. Josh Brolin has brought back Brand. The 49-year-old actor on Sunday shared a shot on Instagram in which he was posed in the outfit of his character from the 1985's The Goonies, which marked the accomplished actor's first role. The Santa Monica, California native said he was attending an '80's themed birthday for [his] buddy' and 'didn't know what to dress as,' milling options such as Henry Rollins, Boy George or a Gremlin. Totally radical! Josh Brolin, 49, dressed as Brand, his character from The Goonies, for a friend's 80s-themed bash at the suggestion of his wife, model Kathryn Boyd Thankfully, Brolin said, his beautiful spouse Kathryn Boyd, who was dressed in an 80s-style leotard in the social media shot, told him, 'I got you covered,' coming up with the ingenious throwback outfit of the actor's ash grey top with cutoff sleeves, blue shorts over sweats and a red bandanna while pulling an old school set of spiral metal resistance bands. The Oscar-nominated Milk star added the hashtags, '#embraceyourpast,' '#gooniesneversaydie,' '#80s,' '#beautyandthebeast' and '#chologoonie' to the end of his post. The Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps actor, in an August 2014 appearance on Jimmy Fallon, called the family comedy 'an amazing thing,' adding he would be up to do a sequel to the film, which co-starred Sean Astin and Corey Feldman. Hardly a stretch: Brolin played the role of Brand in the 1985 cult classic Cult hit: The actor said that despite a career that spans more than three decades, some fans still recognize him exclusively from the 80s film 'You do a movie like that, and you don't know how it's gonna turn out,' he said. 'And then it turns into a cult film. And then you're sick of hearing it after 20 years because you haven't done a film that's any good, that's actually matched The Goonies.' The No Country for Old Men actor said in the interview that despite a career that spans more than three decades, some fans still recognize him exclusively from the 80s film. He said: 'You're walking down the street, and 20 years later, they're going, "Goonies, dude!" And you go, "Thanks!" And they go, "Are you still acting?"' He's known as the eternal Hollywood bachelor. But Leonardo DiCaprio showed off his paternal side as he hung out with his BFF Tobey Maguire's estranged wife Jennifer Meyer and their daughter Ruby on Tuesday. The 42-year-old actor rocked his ubiquitous newsboy cap as he enjoyed the outing with the 40-year-old beauty and her 10-year-old cutie pie in New York City. Family guy: Leonardo Dicaprio, 42, hung out with his BFF Tobey Maguire's estranged wife Jennifer Meyer, 40, and their daughter Ruby, 10, on Tuesday in NYC Leonardo has been best friends with Tobey for years and he is close with the Spider Man actor's family as well. Recently, he was spotted attending Ruby's production of Beauty And The Beast in Pacific Palisades. But on Tuesday, he was seen in a casual get-up as he crossed the street with Jennifer, Ruby, and a young friend. Laid back: The Oscar winner rocked a simple grey tee, white shorts, and a pair of casual navy slip on deck shoes The Oscar winner rocked a simple grey tee, white shorts, and a pair of casual navy slip on deck shoes. Meanwhile, it was discovered that Tobey was part of the adventure as well as he lent Ruby a bit of support. The 41-year-old actor was giving a piggyback ride to Ruby as they headed onto a crosswalk out and about in town. Scroll down for video On the go: Doting father Tobey Maguire was seen with his estranged wife Jennifer Meyer and their daughter Ruby while out in New York City on Tuesday Tobey had worn a pine green T-shirt over a pair of charcoal shorts, while Jennifer had slid on a purple dress speckled all over with small white patterning. Jennifer and Tobey had married in 2007 in Hawaii and welcomed a son called Otis, in 2009 before announcing this past October that they were splitting up. Their joint statement to People at the time had begun: 'After much soul searching and consideration we have made the decision to separate as a couple.' Pounding the pavement: The 41-year-old actor was photographed giving his daughter a piggyback ride as they headed onto a crosswalk out and about in town The statement had gone on to explain that 'As devoted parents, our first priority remains raising our children together with enduring love, respect and friendship.' Tobey's recently narrated the new animated comedy The Boss Baby, playing the adult version of a character called Tim voiced as a child by Miles Bakshi. The Boss Baby is now slated to get itself a sequel that's been scheduled for a release date of March 26, 2021, as Variety reported in the latter half of last month. The look: Tobey had worn a pine green T-shirt over a pair of charcoal shorts, completing his outfit with a belt and a pair of black and white sneakers Alec, who's back on board for the second installment, led a voice cast in the first movie that included Steve Buscemi, Lisa Kudrow and Jimmy Kimmel. The Boss Baby, helmed by Madagascar co-director Tom McGrath, opened in American movie theaters on March 31 and in British cinemas on April Fool's Day. Michael McCullers, who co-wrote the second two Austin Powers movies alongside Mike Myers, penned the screenplay for The Boss Baby, adapting it from Marla Frazee's 2010 picture book of the same name. Megan McKenna has sparked concern among followers after posting an image in which she showed off an extremely slender frame. The 24-year-old TOWIE star, who is currently holidaying in Las Vegas with her on-off boyfriend Pete Wicks, has been littering her social media feeds with bikini-clad snaps yet the latest has caused debate among fans. A number of Megan's 1.9million followers flooded the comments section with notes, as some users insisted she looked 'very thin' yet other fans launched a staunch defence claiming her critics were 'disgusting body shamers'. Scroll down for video Worries: Megan McKenna has sparked concern among followers after posting an image in which she showed off an extremely slender frame Megan has enjoyed a relaxing trip to Sin City with her 29-year-old co-star and beau Pete, with a representative for the star confirming to MailOnline that the trip is a make-or-break getaway to work on their romance. While she has been uncharacteristically coy over their union on social media, she has not been shy of showing off her stunning frame as she has shared a series of stunning images in a bikini - with Tuesday's the latest of many. As she beamed into the camera, she held the camera atop her head while showing off her slender frame in a skimpy paisley bikini and sporting hardly any make-up - making for a pretty display of her natural beauty - with the added caption: 'Smileee'. Garnering nearly 4,000 likes in just 21 minutes, as ever with reality royalty she was quick to be met with an influx of comments from fans - causing a huge divide among followers as some users believed the star was looking too slender. The real me: The 24-year-old TOWIE star, who is currently holidaying in Las Vegas with her on-off boyfriend Pete Wicks, has been littering her social media feeds with bikini-clad snaps yet the latest has caused debate among fans Happy days: Megan has enjoyed a relaxing trip to Sin City with her 29-year-old co-star and beau Pete, with a representative for the star confirming the trip is a make-or-break getaway to work on their romance Users wrote: 'Looking very thin... You look ill... more meat on a spare rib... You need a double cheese burger in ye... O dear whats u doing to your self babe nice smile tho babe hope your well chick... You are too slim..... but its your body..... 'But I dont like it... Omg shocked !! you are stunning but this is not a good look love xx were have you gone xx... Your way to skinny ... U are soooo gorge but the pic drew my eyes to ur ribs rather than smile (sic)... 'My personal opinion as a health professional is that she is too slim, it is almost emaciated I'd rather be a healthy size 10 tbh'. Despite the stunned comments, Megan's followers were keen to hit out at the star's critics as users insisted calling her 'skinny' and 'too thin' was akin to body shaming overweight people as they stormed the comments in defence. Different look: 'My personal opinion as a health professional is that she is too slim, it is almost emaciated I'd rather be a healthy size 10 tbh' Hitting back: Her defenders penned: 'I agree it's nasty you wouldn't call a fat person fat would no. No need for all these haters... why is everyone body shaming just as bad as calling someone fat, it's not ur body leave it' Her defenders penned: 'I agree it's nasty you wouldn't call a fat person fat would no. No need for all these haters... why is everyone body shaming just as bad as calling someone fat, it's not ur body leave it... 'It's so disgusting that a girl can't put up a picture of herself having fun without all the horrible comments on her body. If she was fat ye would still have something to say. Disgusting people... she's stretching? Does it matter anyway, find something better to do than attempt at chipping someone's self esteem... 'Omg shocked !! you are stunning but this is not a good look love xx were have you gone xx.... Body shaming at its best. Would you tell a curvy woman to stop eating cake? Just as morally wrong telling a skinny woman to eat more! Everybody's metabolisms are different. Jealousy is unattractive... 'Body shaming a girl because her bones show, oh wow how mature are you lot?! it's the angle of the picture. Get lost... People hating on @megan_mckenna_ are obv just 100% jealous what girl wouldn't want a body like this would you call a fat lady fat ?? No so why call some one who works hard to have a good body ?? Other shots: Throughout the week, Megan has been sharing a number of bikini snaps showing off her frame in its true form 'JEALOUSY at it fullest !! Love love... The amount of people body shaming on this post lol. Sometimes it's not as easy as 'eating more' n automatically putting on weight, it's also worth noting that she's stretching. It's her body n a lovely one at that, not a place for discussion... 'For you childish muppets slagging her off for being skinny, she Probs Eats more than you all combined but just doesn't put on weight. So y'all need to chill... You look amazing! So much hate in this world. People's words can be so hurtful.' MailOnline has contacted a representative for Megan for comment. Megan suffers with Coeliac disease, a digestive condition where the small intestine becomes inflamed and unable to absorb certain nutrients. It can cause a range of symptoms including stomach aches and bloating. Stunner: Megan suffers with Coeliac disease, a digestive condition where the small intestine becomes inflamed and unable to absorb certain nutrients Loved-up: Megan and Pete are rebuilding their relationship She has previously discussed how the condition keeps her weight down as she is a self-confessed 'gym-hater'. Speaking to OK! Online, Megan previously said: 'I never workout. I think being coeliac might be why I'm so slim. Other than that, I take vitamins everyday and make sure I get a good night's beauty sleep. 'I do (eat quite healthy), but I also eat a lot of McDonald's! I have a burger without the bun. I'd say I am (body confident), but I do get my insecurities about certain things. It's normal, though, and I guess everyone does.I'm not 100 per cent happy with my body but it's okay for the time being!' Billie Lourd's uncle Todd Fisher gushed with praise for Taylor Lautner on Monday, saying the Twilight actor has been a pillar of strength for his niece following the deaths of her mother and grandmother, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, late last year. 'The truth of the matter is, the guy is pretty spectacular,' Fisher, 59, told E! News of the 25-year-old actor, who's worked with Lourd, 24, on the Fox program Scream Queens. 'Hes a really deep person, and he has supported her amazingly. 'Hes stepped up and acted like a husband would act.' Scroll below for video Pillar of strength: Taylor Lautner, 25, has 'acted like a husband would act' to Billie Lourd, 24, since the shocking deaths of her mother Carrie Fisher and grandmother Debbie Reynolds, her uncle Todd Fisher told E! News Monday. The couple was snapped shopping in LA March 23 Fisher said that Lautner has been 'just an amazing support system for' the third-generation Hollywood star, and that he's 'glad [Lautner's] in her life.' According to Fisher, it's naturally difficult for him to embrace any of Billie's paramours. 'As any uncle, youre suspicious of the guy hanging around your niece,' he told the network. 'Shes cute and all that. Shes had other boyfriends, good boyfriends, but Im certainly going to give that guy the extra look-over. I dont give a s--- what his background is.' Lourd and Lautner have been romantically linked since late last year, with Carrie Fisher's heart attack coming on a December 23 flight from London to Los Angeles. Carrie, 60, died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles December 27, with Reynolds, 84, passing away the following day. Lautner was by Lourd's side January 6 at Hollywood Hills' Forest Lawn Memorial Park when Carrie and Reynolds were laid to rest in a double memorial. Gone but not forgotten: (L-R) Todd Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher and Billie posed for a group shot at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards in January of 2015 In the interview with the network, Todd said he was hoping that Carrie's famed Princess Leia character in the Star Wars film franchise could continue on, via modern technology. Disney has blanched so far at using digital resources to keep Fisher's Princess Leia character involved, but Todd said that the public could persuade them to think twice. 'I think they've gotten so much pushback that I'm hoping they'd reconsider it,' he said. 'I think Carrie would like it continued in some way.' Models Barbara Palvin and Shanina Shaik attended the Piaget Sunlight Journey Collection Launch in Rome on Tuesday night, in contrasting light and dark ensembles. The stunning brunettes smoldered at the cameras as they showcased their sensational figures in Grecian-inspired gowns. Barbara, 23, wore a plunging white gown, which cascaded down her frame, teasing her bare arms under semi-sheer sleeves. Scroll down for video Greek goddesses! Shanina Shaik (left) and Barbara Palvin (right) showcased their stunning figures in plunging Grecian-inspired gowns at the Piaget jewellery launch in Rome The plunging neckline also teased her bust, with a cut-out detailing on the front. She wore sparkling silver heels and tied her brunette tresses into a tight ponytail. She kept her make-up flawless with an autumnal russet shade, and showed off the glistening necklace and earrings around her neck and on her lobes. Shanina, 26, stunned in a slinky black dress with a plunging neckline and a thigh-high split. The black gown also revealed the stunning supermodel's tiny torso thanks to cut-out detailing at the sides. Oh my goddess: Barbara, 23, wore a plunging white gown, which cascaded down her frame, teasing her bare arms under semi-sheer sleeves Eye-catching: The plunging neckline also teased her bust, with a cut-out detailing on the front Model behaviour: She wore sparkling silver heels and tied her brunette tresses into a tight ponytail Fierce: She kept her make-up flawless with an autumnal russet shade Time to dine: She showed off the glistening necklace and earrings around her neck and on her lobes Shanina teamed her attire with a pair of silver strappy stilettos and, of course, some incredible jewels from Piaget's new collection. The brunette beauty sparkled in an emerald and diamond neck piece and matching ring, and a gemstone and diamond cuff. Sweeping up her chocolate locks into a simple chignon, Shanina made sure to showcase the high-end jewellery without interference. Over the weekend, Shanina attended yet another ceremony - only this time it was the wedding of Nigerian billionaire Folorunsho Alakija's son. Sparkly: The brunette beauty simply sparkled in a emerald and diamond neck piece and matching ring, and a gemstone and diamond cuff Guest of honour: Shanina posed with Philippe Leopold-Metzger and Chabi Nouri, Piagets old and new CEOs Black tie: [L-R] Cheyenne Tozzi, Philippe Leopold-Metzger and Chabi Nouri attended the event Light and dark: : Barbara Palvin and Chabi Nouri posed for photographs on the blue carpet Age defying: Juliette Binoche looked as sensational as ever as she struck a dramatic pose Sleek: Juliette Binoche and Coco Rocha wowed in crushed velvet and lacy florals, with Coco opting for a stunning Marchesa design Beauty: Juliette wore signature items from the collection with a plunging green gown Choker? I barely know 'er! Olivia Palermo looked typically striking with a diamond choker around her slender neck Smart: Olivia Palermo and her husband Johannes Huebl looked gorgeous as they strolled into the event Possibly taking inspiration for her own special day, the former Victoria's Secret model wore a dazzling gold dress from Galvan London, at Blenheim Palace, England. Hinting that her own nuptials were not far off, she captioned a photo: 'Weddings make you feel so romantic, don't they?' Shanina previously hinted that her own wedding day isn't far off when the couple attended another recent marriage. She shared a photo of herself kissing DJ Ruckus, with the caption: 'We are next.' A girl's best friend: Juliette proved the perfect ambassador for the luxury brand Catching up: Juliette Binoche and Claudia Cardinale looked happy to see one another Pals: Juliette Binoche, Philippe Leopold-Metzger and Chabi Nouri attend Piaget Sunlight Journey Lacey: Coco Rocha was sure to showcase her svelte frame in her semi sheer pink Marchesa dress He's the perma-tanned Instagram sensation with an impressive 158,000 followers. And according to a snap shared to the social media site on Tuesday, Kurt Coleman was feeling in a rather provocative mood. 'Sex and dreams with the Qween,' the 20-year-old captioned an image taken during a photo shoot, which saw him in an intimate embrace with pal Lucy Jackson. 'Sex and dreams with the Qween': Kurt Coleman, 20, put on a VERY provocative display with pal Lucy Jackson, in a snap shared to the social media site on Tuesday The photo saw Kurt covering his slender frame in a lightwash denim jacket and grey cropped trousers. Sitting on a vintage chair, the bronzed personality embraced Lucy, his plump pout positioned close to her face. Lucy, who credits herself as a 'party and event queen' on Instagram, smouldered for the camera while sporting an all-black ensemble complete with a gold crown. 'Sex and dreams with the Qween....@lucykatejackson Laughed all day filming some new sh*t for @princesspollyboutique,' Kurt captioned the snap alongside the hash-tags #QWEENofthefestival and #KillingIt. Female pals: Kurt is known for his suggestive snaps with a bevy of beauties. A later snap shared to Instagram saw the Aquarian positioned very close to influencer Rahnee Bransby Introspective: The posts come shortly after the socialite uploaded an Instagram update that revealed a more introspective side to his personality Kurt is known for his suggestive snaps with a bevy of beauties. A later snap shared to Instagram saw the Aquarian positioned very close to influencer Rahnee Bransby. Donning a quirky ensemble of a pink satin pyjama top, cropped trousers and a denim jacket, Kurt and his brunette pal crouched 'in mud' while offering seductive stares. Insight: Describing his approach to life as an adult, Kurt said: 'I feel that now in life, I think more about what the world looks and feels like from my own perspective' Popular: The flamboyant star has become an Internet sensation with an impressive 158,000 Instagram followers 'Literally squatting in mud with my Aquarius woman,' he captioned the photo. The posts come shortly after the socialite uploaded an Instagram update that revealed a more introspective side to his personality. Describing his approach to life as an adult, he said: 'I feel that now in life, I think more about what the world looks and feels like from my own perspective'. It was one of the most violent scenes in Australian television history. Now, Wentworth actress Pamela Rabe, who portrays Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson has spoken about what it really took for her film the Foxtel show's infamous tongue-cutting scene. In an interview with KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O Show on Wednesday, the 58-year-old star revealed she had to compartmentalise as she acted. 'I had to have a little out-of-body experience stuff': Pamela Rabe (pictured) told the KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O Show on Wednesday she had to compartmentalise while filming Wentworth's infamous tongue scene In the bloody scene, Pamela's character screeched, 'You've licked your last p***y!' to Juicy Lucy Gambaro before slicing off her tongue with a scalpel. 'It's tough isn't it? I had to kind of separate it, because I know what's happening is horrific,' Pamela explained about filming the gruesome footage. 'I had to do what I suspect Joan Ferguson does, I had to have a little out-of-body experience stuff.' Gruesome: Pamela's character Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson sliced Juicy Lucy Gambaro's (Sally-Anne Upton) tongue off in horrifying scenes 'It's tough isn't it?' Pamela added that while she loved the technical aspects of filming the scene, she had to mentally separate herself Pamela also admitted that she loved the technical aspects required to film such a physical scene. Praising the show's writing, she added: 'They give us such delicious stuff to work with. It can be intense, but we all relish it.' The graphic scene reportedly took around seven-and-a-half hours to film. 'Oh no, I cant do my one-liners and ad libs anymore': Juicy Lucy portrayer Sally-Anne Upton previously said she had been given warning about what would happen to her character Sally-Anne Upton, who played Juicy Lucy, previously told news.com.au that she was given advance warning about what her character would be subjected to. 'My first thought was "Oh no, I cant do my one-liners and ad libs anymore with no tongue,",' the actress said at the time. 'But also I realised it'd be a real moment.' Newly single Cheyenne Tozzi appeared to let her hair down on Tuesday night. After a high-profile red carpet event in Rome, the model was pictured lying provocatively on the Spanish Steps, flaunting her exposed pins. The 28-year-old stunner sported a very low-cut black gown for the evening outing and was later spotted ditching her heels in the city center. Scroll down for video When in Rome? Cheyenne Tozzi was spotted at the luxury jeweler Piaget's Sunlight Journey Collection Launch on Tuesday Cheyenne was attending luxury jeweler Piaget's Sunlight Journey Collection Launch. The blonde beauty posted a variety of snaps to Instagram, which showed her wearing the jewellery designer's lavish diamond jewels. Cheyenne's black dress featured a thigh-high slit that displayed her sculptured legs, while the backless design also highlighted her svelte frame. All that glitters! She sported a bronzed complexion while draping herself in jewels for the occasion Chic: The former reality star pouted her way down the red carpet Leggy display! Cheyenne chose to strike a pose on the empty staircase on The Spanish Steps, extending her slender legs while cranking her neck back to lie on the ancient steps Busty display! The blonde beauty posted a variety of snaps to Instagram, which showed her wearing the jewellery designer's lavish diamond jewels Svelte star! Cheyenne's black dress featured a thigh-high slit that displayed her sculptured legs, while the backless design also highlighted her svelte frame The Cronulla-born star rubbed shoulders with fellow models Shanina Shaik and Barbara Palvin at the event, posing with them for short videos and photos. After the event, Cheyenne chose to strike a pose on the empty staircase on The Spanish Steps, extending her slender legs while cranking her neck back to lie on the ancient steps. The blonde beauty captioned the snap, 'Buona Notte', which translates to 'good night'. However, she continued posting to her 134k followers on Instagram Stories, which saw her share a picture running on the staircase barefoot while her gown flew behind her to reveal her thighs and legs. A good night? Cheynne shared a picture to Instagram Stories in the early hours of Wednesday morning running on the staircase barefoot while her gown flew behind her to reveal her thighs and legs Looking good! The Cronulla-born star rubbed shoulders with fellow model Shanina Shaik at the red carpet event in matching thigh-split gowns Cheyenne is believed to be newly single after reportedly splitting from businessman boyfriend Jon Adgemis in March. While she hasn't confirmed the recent rumours,The Daily Telegraph reported in late March that she had split with Jon after a seventeen-month relationship. High-powered Jon is the head of mergers and acquisitions at KPMG. There has been months of speculation about their upcoming nuptials. But according to new report Miley Cyrus, 24, and Liam Hemsworth, 27, are finally tying the knot. NW magazine claims a source told the magazine that the pair are 'eloping to Las Vegas early next month.'' Are they eloping? According to a new report in Australian magazine NW, Miley Cyrus, 24, and Liam Hemsworth, 27, are finally tying the knot Off to Sin City? An 'insider' allegedly told NW magazine that the pair are allegedly 'eloping to Las Vegas early next month'' 'Miley's always loved the idea of a spontaneous Las Vegas wedding,' the 'source' reportedly told the publication. According to the 'insider' the wedding will take place on July 4. 'Right now, the plan is to tie the knot on July 4, with just a few close friends and family,' the source allegedly claimed, adding that the honeymoon would likely be Down Under in Byron Bay. Wedding soon? According to the 'insider' the wedding will take place on July 4 Daily Mail Australia have contacted Miley and Liam's reps for comment. The lovebirds were last alleged to be planning a summer wedding in the Himalayan mountains. An insider recently told Life & Style: 'Miley has a real hippie side and wants to embrace that rather than spending millions'. Changed venue? The lovebirds were last alleged to be planning a summer wedding in the Himalayan mountains 'She wants to focus on the spiritual side of marriage and is very interested in Hinduism, so she is looking at locations in Nepal, where Hinduism is a way of life,' the source continued. The wedding was reported to span over several days, with activities such as meditation and yoga being incorporated into the ceremony. Another insider told the publication that the couple are also planning to move Down Under permanently following their nuptials. '[Miley's] telling close friends she'll move to Australia next year.' 'She loves the laidback lifestyle there. She feels right at home' the source added. The pair first met in 2009 on the set of their movie The Last Song. They became engaged in 2012 only to break it off a year later, before reconciling in 2016. 'At the time we were going in different directions and it's just what needed to happen. We were both super young and it was a good decision at the time we both needed that,' Liam revealed to GQ Australia last May. It appears the romance between former Home And Away star Lincoln Lewis and Chloe Ciesla is back on. And the 19-year-old model showed just one of the reasons why the TV actor is so smitten with her. On Wednesday, the blonde beauty shared a racy topless snap of herself on Instagram. Scroll down for video No wonder he's smitten! Model Chloe Ciesla, 19, posed TOPLESS in a beachside snap shared to Instagram on Wednesday after 'rekindling romance' with former Home And Away star Lincoln Lewis 'I feel like I've forgotten something,' Chloe playfully captioned the image. Sporting just a pair of flimsy leopard-print shorts, the Chadwick model strategically held onto the straps of her Canon camera to prevent her flashing her modesty. Chloe's blonde locks fell effortlessly around her face, a pair of aviator sunglasses working as a stylish accessory. Public display: The scantily-clad post comes just a day after Lincoln, 29, hinted that his romance with Chloe was well and truly back on Proof? An image saw Lincoln swimming with a woman, who appeared to be Chloe, among sharks. The hunk captioned the picture: 'Not long till I'll be swimming in these clear waters again with this beautiful girl' The scantily-clad post comes just a day after Lincoln hinted that his romance with Chloe was well and truly back on. The former soap star shared what appeared to be a loved-up Instagram post referencing the social media sensation. An image saw Lincoln swimming with a woman, who appeared to be Chloe, among sharks. The hunk captioned the picture: 'Not long till I'll be swimming in these clear waters again with this beautiful girl'. On: The genetically blessed couple first debuted their romance with a series of loved-up posts to Instagram in May, last year Loved-up: Chloe shared a sweet snap of the couple in Perth, last year The genetically blessed couple first debuted their romance with a series of loved-up posts to Instagram in May, last year. In one image, the pair leaned in for a kiss as they stood on a rock in front of a beach at sunset, captioning the image: 'Just you and me'. Chloe further expressed her love for the actor by adding a heart emoji. Taking to Instagram in March, the son of former professional rugby league star Wally Lewis shared a photo of he and Chloe locking lips, the caption next to the photo simply reading: 'This one'. Taking to Instagram in March, the son of former professional rugby league star Wally Lewis shared a photo of he and Chloe locking lips, the caption next to the photo simply reading: 'This one' Bikini babe: Stunning Chloe is certainly not shy to flaunt her runway ready figure on her social media page It appears Lincoln may very well have met Chloe in her home state of Western Australia while recently there as a tourism ambassador for the state. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia last year about what he looks for in a girlfriend, Lincoln said it was more about a lady's personality as opposed to just physical appearance. 'Just someone with a great sense of humour, someone who's very down-to-earth and normal,' Lincoln told Daily Mail Australia at the 2016 Dally M Awards in Sydney. 'You want someone who can make you laugh. You want someone you can have a very good, deep chat with and not talk about the more material things in life, it's all about the deeper stuff.' He then added: 'And someone I can go to the beach with and have a good feed with.' News / National by Staff reporter The 309th Ordinary Session of the Zanu-PF politburo is underway at the party headquarters in Harare this Wednesday.The politburo meeting begins with some remarks by the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF Robert Mugabe followed by reports from the different chosen departments of the party.The Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Joseph Made is expected to report on the state of agriculture on the back of the successful inaugural command agriculture maize programme and the distribution of inputs under the Presidential Inputs Scheme to assist communal and rural households.Secretary for Youth Affairs Kudzi Chipanga is expected to report on the Presidential Youth Interface Programme where Mugabe is touring various provinces. He has visited Mashonaland East and will be in Manicaland this Friday.Sithembiso Nyoni, who is the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development, will brief the politburo on the upcoming Harare Agricultural Show.Zanu-PF Secretary for External Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi will give feedback on the African Union cattle donation where some herd of cattle from President Mugabe has been auctioned to fundraise for the continental body.This is being done in the spirit of weaning the AU from too much donor dependency.National Political Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere is expected to give the commissariat report, while many expect his fate to be discussed following the demonstrations calling for his removal from heading the commissariat department of the ruling party.The chairperson of the Presidential Probe Team appointed to look into allegations levelled against Kasukuwere in Mashonaland central, Jacob Mudenda, is expected to present his findings to the President. Having touched down at Charles De Gaulle Airport that day, Kristen Stewart and her reputed girlfriend Stella Maxwell were out on the town in Paris Tuesday night. The pair of them were spotted emerging from La Mecanique Ondulatoire, a retro chic bar on the Passage Thiere in the Bastille area of l'Hexagone's capital. Stella, who's been a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2015, had swung by the 11th arrondissement locale wrapped up in a voluminous leopard print jacket. Scroll down for video Stepping out: Having only touched down at Charles De Gaulle Airport that day, Kristen Stewart and her reputed girlfriend Stella Maxwell were out on the town in Paris Tuesday night Beneath the jacket, the Brussels-born 27-year-old bared quite a bit of midriff beneath a charcoal crop top she'd worn with purple trousers that played up her svelte legs. Stella had rounded out her ensemble with a pair of gleaming black boots, and let her long blonde hair tumble freely over her shoulders on her evening out in Paris. Meanwhile, Kristen - her hair in its close buzz cut - was wearing largely the same outfit she'd been spotted walking hand in hand with Stella at Charles De Gaulle. The venue: The pair of them were spotted emerging from La Mecanique Ondulatoire, a retro chic bar on the Passage Thiere in the Bastille area of l'Hexagone's capital Walk on the wild side: Stella, who's been a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2015, had swung by the 11th arrondissement locale wrapped up in a voluminous leopard print jacket A black leather jacket over a print T-shirt helped form a faintly punk look with a faded pair of high-waisted jeans that the Twilight actress had folded up a bit at the hems. Us Weekly quoted a source last month who'd alleged that Kristen and Stella 'have moved in together' and that Stella 'spends all her time' at her flame's Los Feliz home - this despite the fact Stella purportedly hasn't given up her own Big Apple digs. Kristen had brought up her sexuality during her Saturday Night Light hosting gig in February, trumpeting to Donald Trump in her monologue that she's 'so gay, dude.' When you got it: Beneath the jacket, the Brussels-born 27-year-old bared quite a bit of midriff beneath a charcoal crop top she'd worn with purple trousers that played up her svelte legs On the go: Stella had rounded out her ensemble with a pair of gleaming black boots, and let her long blonde hair tumble freely over her shoulders on her evening out in Paris In an interview The Guardian ran in March, Kristen said: 'Youre not confused if youre bisexual. Its not confusing at all. For me, its quite the opposite.' She'd previously held forth on the subject at greater length in that interview, saying: 'The whole issue of sexuality is so grey. Im just trying to acknowledge that fluidity, that greyness,' she noted, noting it's 'always existed' and theorizing that 'maybe only now are we allowed to start talking about it. Of society's evolving attitude to LGBT issues, the actress had said: 'Oh, I think things are changing. I mean, I dont think I would have approached my life differently if that hadnt been the case. But who knows?' Her style: A black leather jacket over a print T-shirt helped form Kristen's faintly punk look with a faded pair of high-waisted jeans that the Twilight actress had folded up a bit at the hems Getting closer?: Us Weekly quoted a source last month who'd alleged that Kristen and Stella 'have moved in together' and that Stella 'spends all her time' at her flame's Los Feliz home She'd acknowledged: 'Individually we are all part of that change and so I can take some credit for it, I guess - theres no reason why I should shy away from that. But all the prejudice; its going for sure.' Kristen allowed: 'I mean, yeah, its definitely still there,' acknowledging that 'People still have some horrendous f***ing experiences.' She went on to say: 'But its cool that you dont have to nail everything down any more,' she said, and then specified: 'That whole certainty about whether youre straight or gay or whatever.' The SNL gig: Kristen had brought up her sexuality during her Saturday Night Light hosting spot in February, trumpeting to Donald Trump in her monologue that she's 'so gay, dude' Holding forth: In an interview The Guardian ran in March, Kristen said: 'Youre not confused if youre bisexual,' adding: 'Its not confusing at all,' and: 'For me, its quite the opposite' Kristen's upcoming films include Lizzie, a biopic of the infamous Lizzie Borden, who in 1893 was acquitted of slaughtering her father and stepmother. Chloe Sevigny has taken the leading role, while Kristen's playing the family's Irish maid Bridget Sullivan, who found herself enmeshed in the case. In August 1892, Abby and Andrew Borden were butchered with a hatchet in their Falls River, Massachussetts home. Giving her view: Kristen had previously said in that interview that ''The whole issue of sexuality is so grey,' and that 'Im just trying to acknowledge that fluidity, that greyness' New work: Kristen's upcoming films include Lizzie, a biopic of the infamous Lizzie Borden, who in 1893 was acquitted of slaughtering her father and stepmother Lizzie, then 32 years old, was charged with the crime and went to trial the following June in what became a nationwide media frenzy. Bridget, whom the family reportedly used to call 'Maggie,' was one of the witnesses called, and her testimony's often credited with helping secure Lizzie's acquittal. Though Lizzie was legally off the hook, nobody else has subsequently been charged with the murders, and the case remains cold to this day. Who's who: Chloe Sevigny has taken the leading role, while Kristen's playing the family's Irish maid Bridget Sullivan, who found herself enmeshed in the case Party people: The couple were seen having an intense conversation as they partied with friends Calling it a night: Stella followed her actress girlfriend out of the bar Sofia Richie was snapped headed to the Zinque Cafe in West Hollywood, California on Tuesday, after she opened up about her famous family in the inaugural issue of Tings magazine earlier this week. The 18-year-old model wore an Aegean blue Kappa track jacket over a black tank top. She wore light denim blue jeans with white shoes, accessorizing with a black crocodile purse, black designer sunglasses and a silver chain choker, with earrings. The daughter of music legend Lionel Richie, 67, and sister of Nicole Richie, 35, had her blonde locks parted to one side as she made her way to the bistro. Out and about: Sofia Richie, 18, was snapped headed to the Zinque Cafe in West Hollywood, California on Tuesday Sofia, a rising star over the past year, earlier this week chat about when she came to realize the reaction her family got on outings was unusual. 'We would do tons of things in the house and it would be private,' the 5ft6 beauty said. 'Whenever we would just go out in public or to say Disneyland, when I was a kid, and I saw people attack them, and thats when I sort of realized. 'It was crazy and definitely wasnt normal with all the attention.' Focused: The model said that hordes of onrushing fans during family outings tipped her off to her family's fame at a young age Not such a simple life: Sofia said that it 'definitely wasnt normal' to her when relatives like her father Lionel or sister Nicole were swarmed by fans on public outings The Los Angeles native, who's been romantically tied to celebrities including Justin Bieber, F1 racer Lewis Hamilton and most recently, reality star Scott Disick, told the magazine she hopes to keep her relationships 'as private as possible' and 'something special' between two people. 'You dont really want other peoples opinions on it - even though it doesnt matter,' she said. 'I just dont want to hear it at the end of the day. I try to just be quiet about my dating life.' Sofia tweeted Friday that she's 'just friends' with Disick, 34, after buzz generated when the two were spotted on outings in Cannes, France and Malibu, California. She added, 'I'm single and focused on friends, family and work.' It girl: Richie declared herself 'single and focused on friends, family and work' in a recent tweet Gwyneth Paltrow arrived in casual chic style Tuesday at JFK Airport in New York City. The 44-year-old actress donned a blue-striped poet blouse that she tucked into khaki green loose flight pants. The Oscar-winner completed her outfit with a light pink track jacket with gold stripe and white sneakers. Casual chic: Gwyneth Paltrow wore a striped poet blouse with loose flight pants as she arrived Tuesday at JFK Airport in New York City Gwyneth accessorized with black sunglasses and carried a white purse. She escorted her 11-year-old son Moses through the airport concourse. Gwyneth teamed up with Jessica Alba, 36, in Los Angeles on Monday at the premiere of their new reality competition show Planet Of The Apps. Both of the entrepreneurs served as mentors on the program along with Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am and businessman Gary Vaynerchuk. Mother and son: The Oscar-winning actress escorted her 11-year-old son Moses through the airport Busy star: Gwyneth attended a premiere in Los Angeles on Monday for her new reality competition show Planet Of The Apps Gwyneth also graces the cover of the July edition of Australian Women's Health. The mother of two looked fit and fabulous in a crop top and black workout shorts in her cover shot. She also flaunted her taut torso in a white mesh crop top. Ready for flight: The Sliding Doors star sported comfortable khaki green flight pants Mother of two: Gwyneth also is mother to 13-year-old Apple Gwyneth also has 13-year-old daughter Apple with ex-husband Chris Martin, 40. Chris and Gwyneth in March 2014 announced they were separating after 10 years of marriage as part of their 'conscious uncoupling'. Gwyneth won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Viola de Lesseps in the 1998 romantic period comedy-drama Shakespeare In Love. She balances a high-flying TV and modelling career with raising four children. And German supermodel Heidi Klum, 44, made it look seamless as she was snapped heading out to dinner with her brood in New York City on Tuesday, after appearing on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, earlier in the evening. The America's Got Talent star led the way as her children - daughters Leni, 13, and Lou, seven, and sons Henry, 11, and Johan, 10 - walked alongside her on the outing in the Big Apple, as they headed to the restaurant Mr. Chow's. Out and about: Heidi Klum, 44, was snapped Tuesday in New York City with her four children (L-R) Henry, 11, Leni, 13, Lou, seven and Johan, 10, as they headed to the eatery Mr. Chow's after she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Heidi wore her dark blonde locks down and parted, and a stylish shoulder-less black dress by Roland Mouret. She wore black heels, and was well made-up with smoky highlights around her eyes. In spite of a nonstop schedule as of late, which has included promoting the NBC show, her new coffee table book Heidi Klum by Rankin, and a fashion line for the retailer Lidl, Heidi looked energized as she made her way to the establishment with her family. It's not a total shock, as Heidi said in a 2013 interview with Parenting magazine that her creativity is 'always working' and never 'shuts down.' Busy summer: Heidi's been promoting a number of ongoing projects as of late, including her new coffee table book Heidi Klum by Rankin and a fashion line for the retailer Lidl Stunning: The gorgeous German model showed off her amazing smile as she held her son's hand on the walk through Gotham Out and about: The mom-of-four seemed focused as she made her way through the city The veteran fashionista explained, 'A funky outfit one of my kids wears inspires me to do a certain color combination, or I see a tattoo or graffiti on a wall in New York City and think, "I want that on my next shirt."' Heidi earlier in the evening hyped her appearance on Twitter, writing, 'So excited to be back on @fallontonight! @jimmyfallon and I talk about @agt and even show off a few talents of our own.' Klum is in her fifth season on the NBC summer program, as she and fellow judge Mel B. joined the program in 2013. Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel round out the panel on the highly-rated program. Exuberant: Heidi appeared to promote the 12th season of America's Got Talent Moving and shaking: This marks Heidi's fifth year on the show's panel of judges Pia Miller is the sultry queen of Summer Bay, but with the arrival of a new beach babe, it looks like she might be about to be dethroned. Decked out in bright pink bikini, newcomer Sarah Roberts was spotted on the set of Home And Away in Sydney's Palm Beach on Tuesday. The Melbourne-born actress could be seen filming sexy scenes as a mysterious new character. Hot new addition! Sarah Roberts (pictured) is the set to dethrone Pia Miller as Home And Away's resident beach babe, with the actress spotted filming scenes in Palm Beach on Tuesday Her skimpy Ripcurl swimwear showed off Sarah's impressive physique as she seductively took a shower outside. Judging by the bikini's embellishments and the jewellery worn by the star, it looks as though her character could be a glamorous new addition to the Bay. The actress left little to the imagination with her skimpy swimming attire that put her toned body on full display. Curves in all the right places: Sarah showed off her figure in a bright pink Ripcurl bikini Seductive: The star filmed the sexy scenes as a mysterious new character She scrubs up alright! In one of her first scenes as the new girl in town, Sarah takes a shower after apparently hitting the beach Embellished: The fancy bikini and beach jewellery could be a sign of her character's glamorous personality It didn't take long for the new girl to meet the locals. In some photos, Sarah can be seen interacting with James Stewart, who plays Justin Morgan on the Channel Seven show. Surfboard tucked under his arm, the former Packed To The Rafters actor was spotted flirting with the bikini-clad star while filming scenes. Meeting the locals: Sarah was spotted interacting with James Stewart (left) who plays eldest Morgan brother Justin on the Channel Seven drama Walking away: Sarah's character doesn't seem too impressed with Justin and struts away Not seeing eye-to-eye? The strained interaction could indicate the characters don't get along However, it seems like her character has no time for Justin, as Sarah appeared to grab her beach towel and strut away from the eldest Morgan brother. Cutting a casual figure in a blue T-shirt, black thongs and black, white and green board shorts, Justin didn't seem to put up much of chase. While details surrounding Sarah's role are yet to be released, these photos could indicate her character and Justin don't initially see eye-to-eye. Getting along: The actors share some laughs in-between takes Behind the scenes: James (left) and Sarah (right) were spotted filming scenes on Palm Beach Feeling blue: Sarah kept warm in the June weather in an blue dressing gown Comfort over style: The actress opted for a pink dressing gown teamed with purple patterned pyjama pants and brown Ugg boots When the cameras aren't rolling! Sarah wrapped up warm on Home And Away's exterior set However, the apparent animosity between the co-stars hasn't seemed to transfer into real life. Sharing a laugh between takes, the actors seemed to be getting along well. Donning a bikini in the cold June weather may have been a struggle for Sarah, who was seen warming up in dressing gowns, pyjama pants and Ugg boots when the cameras weren't rolling. Meeting again: Later, shirtless hunk James films another interaction with his new co-star Sarah Car trouble? Seemingly struggling with her vehicle, Sarah's character is confronted by Justin Damsel in distress? Sarah's character doesn't seem too pleased as Justin arrives Not getting along? The new girl and Justin seem to have strained interactions Though Sarah's character appears to storm away from Justin, it's not the only interaction the characters shared. Later, the dark-haired beauty seemed to be experiencing car trouble when the shirtless Home And Away heartthrob arrives on the scene. Now wearing a midriff-baring maroon crop top with figure-hugging leather pants, Sarah appears frustrated as she pops the hood of her classic car. This isn't the first acting gig for Sarah, who once starred in Neighbours and has played roles in Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS and Wolf Creek 2. New outfit: Sarah is now rocking a midriff-baring maroon crop top Looking good: The dark-haired beauty teams the top with tight black pants and ankle boots What's wrong? The stunner popped the hood of her car as she tried to figure out the problem Frustrated: The new girl in town seems to be grappling with car woes Shannen Doherty's husband Kurt Iswarienko appears to have had a legal victory in his lawsuit against the star's former managers. Iswarienko claimed the couple's sex life was ruined due to their mismanagement of Shannen's breast cancer diagnosis. He asked a California court to dismiss his case against Tanner Mainstain Glynn & Johnson, TMZ reported Tuesday, citing court docs. Iswarienko's request to dismiss the suit is a strong indicator he and the managers came to a settlement in the case, which he initially filed in December of 2016 after the Beverly Hills 90210 star actress settled with them in August for an undisclosed amount. Moving forward: Kurt Iswarienko (L), seen here with Shannen Doherty, 46, at a cancer gala last fall, has come to a settlement with her ex-managers in a suit related to his sex life with the actress, and business moves the managers got him involved with In January, Iswarienko told the court that the management firm was refusing to produce 'key documents' in his case, according to legal papers obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com. In her $15 million lawsuit, Doherty, 46, said the firm mismanaged her money and allowed her health insurance to lapse in 2014. Iswarienko said in his suit that the delayed cancer diagnosis and treatment - a 'direct result' of the firm allowing her insurance policy to lapse - subsequently destroyed the couple's sex life. Iswarienko said in his legal filing that the firm refused to produce 'a single document [relevant] to the case' over an eight-month span from when he filed the motion for discovery, only producing 100 pages of 'largely irrelevant information.' Through thick and thin: The couple, seen here in March, has been inseperable amid the star's critical health battle. Shannen said in April she's in remission The Heathers star's husband claims that she had the same issues in her case, and the presiding judge ordered the firm to hand over the documents. The documents in question were linked to 'serious wrongdoings' committed by the firm in relation to other clients - and allegedly bolstered Iswarienko's claims. Iswarienko had a pending lawsuit against the the firm's former partner, Steven D. Blatt, accusing him of mismanaging his money, as he said the firm got him involved in bad loans that ruined his credit. Toast-worthy: Both Shannen and Kurt, seen here in February, have settled their lawsuits against her former management team Doherty sued her former business managers in August 2015, arguing that if she had had health insurance, and had been to regular doctor's appointments, her diagnosis would have been made earlier. The TV star alleged that the management firm missed an invoice for payment of the premium in 2014 to the Screen Actors Guild insurance. As a result, she claimed she wasn't able to enroll again until 2015, and stopped her regular doctor's appointments in the interim because her insurance had been cancelled. She was then diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015. Doherty argued in her initial lawsuit that she was told by doctors her cancer had spread during the time in which she did not have insurance, and it would not have spread if she had seen a doctor sooner. The Charmed star has kept her battle against cancer in the public eye, and has been posting photos and videos on social media documenting her treatments. She leaves no stone unturned as she lays herself bare in her new tell-all book. But Lydia Bright's ensemble was far from revealing as the beauty maintained her demure sense of style at her book launch in London on Tuesday evening. Promoting Live, Laugh, Love, Always Lydia Bright, the 27-year-old looked the epitome of chic in a stunning off-the-shoulder top and skirt that were evocative of the fifties. Scroll down for video All Bright on the night: Lydia Bright was rocking her typical chic style as she borrowed from the Fifties at the launch of her new book in London on Tuesday night Flashing a mere glimpse of her toned tummy, the reality star wowed in the two-piece which boasted an intricate floral motif. The top of the design flattered Lydia's toned figure with ruched detailing and an elaborate bow across the bust. Her trademark blonde tresses were preened to perfection, having been swept into an elegant chignon for the occasion. Floral fancy: Lydia looked incredibly glamorous in her retro look, which comprised of an elaborate top and skirt Dreamy: She pinned her tresses into an elegant chignon while her make-up was kept dewy and stunning with a shimmery glow adding to her princess look Ensuring her sophisticated frock was the star of the show, Lydia paired the garment with nothing but simple nude stilettos and a silver watch. A favourite among her TOWIE peers, it's no surprise that Lydia was supported by a flurry of co-stars at the launch, including Kate Wright, Amber Dowding and Chloe Lewis. Having already opened her own shop and started her own clothing line, Lydia's latest venture will see her share her beauty and style tips, as well as opening up about her time on one of Britain's most popular reality shows. Proud mama: Lydia's mother Debbie was of course on hand to support her daughter on her big night Glam co-stars: Amber Dowding [left] went braless under a tropical romper while Chloe Lewis [right] was effortlessly chic in a plunging jumpsuit Speaking about the piece, Lydia beamed: 'This book is about my journey from start to finish, right up to what I'm looking for in the future. What an adventure it has been to write! 'I have laughed, cried, cringed and beamed with pride recounting all the crazy stories I have put into it.' The ex of James 'Arg' Argent will also reveal how she toned up ahead of her TOWIE return in 2014. She's got the blonde hair and designer wardrobe of a Sweaty Betty PR employee. And Jackie 'O' Henderson certainly dressed appropriately for a business lunch with Roxy's Jacenko's sexy protege Holly Asser. The glamorous women shared a hug as they left the upmarket Catalina restaurant in Sydney's Rose Bay on Wednesday. What are they planning? KIIS FMs Jackie 'O' Henderson (right) enjoyed a business lunch with Roxy Jacenko's PR protege Holly Asser (left) and hotelier Craig Adamson (centre) Holly and Jackie looked chic as they left the exclusive venue, with the breakfast radio host clutching an oversized bag from the Ritz Hotel Paris. Styling her blonde hair in a simple updo, Jackie wore black skinny jeans and stiletto ankle boots, pairing the look with a grey jumper. Holly flaunted her petite figure in a black miniskirt, and accessorised with a Louis Vuitton handbag and Christian Louboutin heels. Who knew they were friends? The glamorous women shared a hug as they left the upmarket Catalina restaurant in Sydney's Rose Bay on Wednesday What's in the bag? Jackie looked chic as she left the exclusive venue, with the breakfast radio host clutching an oversized bag from the Ritz Hotel Paris Holly and Jackie were accompanied by hotelier Craig Adamson, who is the Australian and New Zealand director of The Leading Hotels of the World. He manages an impressive portfolio of boutique international hotels, which includes the Ritz Paris. The purpose of the meeting is not clear, and Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Jackie and Sweaty Betty PR for comment. They could be sisters! Holly is a senior publicist at Sweaty Betty PR, and looks remarkably similar to her employer Roxy Jacenko Holly is a senior publicist at Sweaty Betty PR, and looks remarkably similar to her employer Roxy Jacenko. The Sydney publicity firm is known to exclusively hire 'clones', i.e. attractive young women with designer wardrobes. However, Roxy has tried to downplay the stereotype - and claims there are brunettes and even some men on the company's payroll. She's a multi-talented actress, producer and director. And Elizabeth Banks, 43, can add style chameleon to that list as she showed off her new hairdo at the star-studded Women In Film Presents Evolve: The Crystal = Lucy Awards on Tuesday. The Pitch Perfect talent flaunted a platinum blonde 'do as she arrived at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles to receive her 2017 Crystal Award For Excellence In Film. Scroll down for video Blonde bombshell: Elizabeth Banks, 43, showed off her new hairdo at the star-studded Women In Film Presents Evolve: The Crystal = Lucy Awards on Tuesday Elizabeth recently swapped her dark blonde locks for a much brighter hue, and the new style was looking sensational at Tuesday night's event. The actress styled her coloured locks into tousled waves with a sleek centre parting. Her ensemble was equally glam thanks to her print maxi dress, which was dotted with a silver and red pattern. What a transformation! Elizabeth recently swapped her dark blonde locks for a much brighter hue, and the new style was looking sensational at Tuesday night's event Work it: The Pitch Perfect talent flaunted a platinum blonde 'do as she arrived at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles to receive her 2017 Crystal Award For Excellence In Film Elizabeth was one of the night's big honourees, and ahead of the ceremony discussed her hugely successful career in front and behind the camera in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Elizabeth admits she set up Brownstone Productions with her husband Max Handelman in order to spend more time with her partner. She has also tried her hand at directing with Pitch Perfect 2, while next up is a Charlie's Angels reboot. 'It was mentioned to me in passing at a meeting at Sony, like, "Hey, we'd love you to do something with Charlie's Angels",' she says of her next project. Strike a pose: Her ensemble was equally glam thanks to her print maxi dress, which was dotted with a silver and red pattern Multi-talented: Elizabeth was one of the night's big honourees, thanks to her work in front of and behind the camera 'I went home and, as a lot of creative people will say, I dreamed about it. It has to stay with you, you have to visualize it, you have to have some seeds of ideas. I felt like I had a take, so I went back in and pitched it, and they really liked it.' As for another Pitch Perfect film, the star admits she's not sure what the future hold after the third movie's release in December, admitting: 'I'm terrible at predicting the future. What I can say is that I think the third movie is super, super fun, and it delivers on the promise of the characters and the singing and the dancing and the comedy.' 'It's a crowd-pleaser, to be sure. I just can't wait for people to see it at Christmas, and then we'll go from there.' He's been filming drama White Boy Rick for weeks. And Matthew McConaughey looked delighted as he wrapped filming for the true life tale on Tuesday night, celebrating in style alongside his wife Camila Alves after the final take on Miami Beach. The 47-year-old actor, still in character in a retro moustache and mullet hairdo, shared a sweet kiss with his partner as the sun set behind them. Scroll down for video Fun filled beach party: Matthew McConaughey looked delighted as he wrapped filming for White Boy Rick on Tuesday night, celebrating in style alongside his wife Camila Alves after the final take on Miami Beach Matthew proposed a toast, lifting up his cup as he kicked off the celebrations alongside the rest of the cast and crew. The actor was sporting a vest top and open shirt, while his wife of five years looked glamorous in a white sundress. McConaughey has been filming the true life tale of Rick Wershe in Cleveland, and finished up the filming with one day in Miami Beach. Cheers! Matthew proposed a toast, lifting up his cup as he kicked off the celebrations alongside the rest of the cast and crew Partying in style: The actor was sporting a vest top and open shirt, while his wife of five years looked glamorous in a white sundress The Brazilian-American beauty, who shares three children with the Hollywood star, wore her dark hair pinned back. The film based on a true story follows the transformation of Richard Wershe Jr. who at 14 became an undercover police informant but went on to become a major drug trafficker. After three years as a major drug dealer, he was arrested and is currently serving a life sentence in prison. On set: The 47-year-old actor was still in character in a retro moustache and mullet hairdo True story: The film based on a true story follows the transformation of Richard Wershe Jr. who at 14 became an undercover police informant but went on to become a major drug trafficker Jailed: After three years as a major drug dealer, he was arrested and is currently serving a life sentence in prison Richie Merritt, 15, from Baltimore, plays Richard Jr. and McConaughey plays his blue collar father Richard Sr., while Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie play the teen's grandparents. Chameleon McConaughey is well known for committing himself wholeheartedly to physically transforming himself for his roles. He famously lost 38 pounds to play a man with HIV/AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club that earned him a Best Actor Academy Award. Prior to his current role, he sported a bushy full beard and longer hair as he promoted the adventure movie Gold. White Boy Rick is set to hit cinema screens in early 2018. Arm-in-arm: Matthew was in good spirits as he celebrated the shoot finishing Cast: Richie Merritt, 15, from Baltimore, plays Richard Jr. and McConaughey plays his blue collar father Richard Sr., while Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie play the teen's grandparents News / National by Staff reporter Judgement has been reserved in the Constitutional Court challenge by Professor Jonathan Moyo who is challenging the validity of his arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).Chief Justice Malaba had stressed that the question of the alleged unlawfulness of the arrest by ZACC could have been heard promptly before a magistrate.The challenge emanates from Professor Moyo's alleged theft of ZIMDEF funds.The lawyers for the applicant Professor Moyo, respondents Sergeant Chacha, ZACC, the ZRP Commissioner General and the Prosecutor General argued their case before the Constitutional Court bench.Professor Moyo is the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, and also Zanu-PF Secretary for Science and Technology in the politburo.More details to follow..... She gave birth to baby son Anaca in October. And doting mother Candice Swanepoel was spotted taking her eight-month-old out on a shopping trip in New York on Tuesday The Victoria's Secret Angel, 28, looked effortlessly chic in a cropped red jumpsuit as she pushed little Anaca along in a pra Model mother: Candice Swanepoel was seen taking eight-month-old Anaca out on a shopping trip in New York on Tuesday The model showed off her slender frame in the stylish number, showing a hint of side boob through the low-cut sides. Keeping her accessories to a minimum, she finished off the ensemble with a pair of matching red cat-eye sunglasses and black flip flops on her feet. Wearing her lengthy tresses down over her shoulder, she opted for a natural make-up look, accentuating her lips with a nude lipstick. Doting: The Victoria's Secret Angel, 28, looked effortlessly chic in a red jumpsuit as she flashed a big smile while doting on her baby son Looking in high spirits, Candice was seen flashing a big smile as she doted on her baby son during the shopping trip. The outing comes after Victoria's Secret revealed that the mother-of-one is back modelling for the lingerie brand, just eight months after giving birth. The South African stunner stars in a new black and white video, which was captioned with the words: 'She's back.' Cutie: The model has shared a series of sweet snaps on social media of little Anaca She welcomed her first child Anaca in October with her long-term love and fiance Hermann Nicoli - who she met at the tender age of 17 working with the Brazilian male model on assignment in Paris back in 2005. Hermann eventually popped the question in August 2015, but no wedding date has been set for the New York-based couple. Little Anaca is already following in his mother's footsteps, joining Candice and a host of celebrity mothers and their adorable offspring in an advert co-directed by famous mother and actress Liv Tyler. Back to work: The outing comes after Victoria's Secret revealed that the mother-of-one is back modelling for the lingerie brand, just eight months after giving birth They shared a series of heartfelt posts on social media to mark their 19 years of marriage just weeks ago. And Cindy Crawford and husband Rande Gerber still seemed to be on a blissful high as they touched down in the UK on Wednesday morning. Despite spending hours on their long-haul flight, the loved-up spouses appeared in sprightly spirits as they exited London's Heathrow airport in fits of laughter. Scroll down for video It's the best medicine! Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber still managed to leave one another laughing despite their long-haul flight as they touched down at London's Heathrow airport on Wednesday morning Cindy, 51, and Rande, 55, seemed to have no trouble keeping up morale as they made a series of quips while wheeling their matching TUMI luggage out of the terminal. The iconic supermodel looked typically chic for her travels, layering a brown, tailored blazer above a simple camisole top. She highlighted her famously lithe legs in skinny jeans before completing her jet-setter style with comfortable beige pumps and a printed scarf that offered some added pizzazz. The couple were seemingly in need of a little pick me up following their flight as they clutched at cups of coffee Still going strong... Cindy and Rande recently took to Instagram to mark their 19th wedding anniversary Her trademark brunette tresses were worn in a sleek style around her gorgeous face, which was partially concealed beneath a pair of tortoiseshell shades. Rande kept things casual in a navy T-shirt and grey jeans, finishing his outfit with stylish blue trainers. Seemingly in need of a quick pick me up following their overnight flight, the spouses clutched at cups of coffee as they headed out of the airport. Going swimmingly: 'I knew when we ended up in the pool at our wedding... Happy Anniversary @cindycrawford,' Rande captioned this throwback photo Sticking together: Nineteen years after tying the knot, the couple are parents to kids Presley, 17, and Kaia, 15 Their British jaunt comes just a short while after the couple celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary. Paying tribute to her husband on Instagram, the supermodel shared a glamorous snap of the pair alongside the caption: 'Cheers to 19 years with this guy! Happy anniversary! So blessed to have you as my husband. Thanks for putting up with me @RandeGerber!' Reciprocating the romantic gesture, the businessman - who shares children Presley, 17, and Kaia, 15, with Cindy - posted a picture of the couple in a swimming pool on their wedding day back in 1998. 'I knew when we ended up in the pool at our wedding... Happy Anniversary @cindycrawford,' he captioned the stunning shot. She's rumoured to make an explosive return to Love Island. And with the raunchy series currently airing on ITV2, Katie Salmon teased what could potentially come as she frolicked on the beach in Ibiza. The Love Island star, 21, sent temperatures soaring as she displayed her busty assets and peachy posterior in a barely-there hot pink Mode Mwah bikini. Scroll down for video Always sexy: Katie Salmon, who is rumoured to make an explosive return to Love Island, teased what could potentially come as she frolicked on the beach in Ibiza Sizzling: The Love Island star, 21, sent temperatures soaring as she displayed her sensational figure in a barely-there hot pink Mode Mwah bikini Katie looked like she was having a blast as she lapped up the sun in the sizzling two-piece on the White Isle. The bisexual star's bikini top featured halterneck detailing and plunged perilously down the middle to show off her flawless cleavage. The skimpy top, which boasted an eye-catching floral print, also featured embellished silver detailing in the middle. Two extra layers of material were wrapped around her upper torso, before falling in a dramatic floor-length bow on the side. All eyes on her: Katie looked like she was having a blast as she lapped up the sun in the sizzling two-piece on the White Isle Racy: The bisexual star's bikini top featured halterneck detailing and plunged perilously down the middle to show off her flawless cleavage Risque: The skimpy top, which boasted an eye-catching floral print, also featured embellished silver detailing in the middle Katie's matching thong bikini bottoms also worked to accentuate her enviable figure - in particular her sensationally peachy posterior. Knowing her angles well, the reality sensation crouched down on the sand to show off her bottom further. Katie wore her locks in long blonde braids while her natural slick of make-up was complemented with a pair of shades. The stunner is reportedly 'in talks' to make a big return to this year's hotly anticipated series Love Island, after impressing producers with her fiery nature and headline-grabbing antics. Rear sighting: Katie's matching thong bikini bottoms also worked to accentuate her enviable figure - in particular her sensationally peachy posterior Enviable figure: The reality sensation worked her angles in the striking two-piece which also features floor-length bow-tie detailing on the side The glamour model was embroiled in a love triangle after catching the eye of Sophie Gradon - who was already coupled up with Welsh hunk Tom Powell. And as a source revealed to The Sun, fans may be able to expect to see Katie onscreen sooner than they may have anticipated. 'Katie was only in the house for five minutes but was caught up in two of the most dramatic twists in the entire series. Stunning: Katie wore her locks in long blonde braids while her natural slick of make-up was complemented with a pair of shades Will she come back? The stunner is reportedly 'in talks' to make a big return to this year's hotly anticipated series Love Island - which is currently airing - after impressing producers with her fiery nature and headline-grabbing antics 'Katie would be the perfect instigator': As a source revealed to The Sun, fans may be able to expect to see Katie onscreen sooner than they may have anticipated 'Its no secret that ITV are hoping for more sex, drama and tensions this year, and they know that Katie would be the perfect instigator. 'Shes already spoken to producers who seem to want her to return to the Villa for the whole stint rather than arriving later than the others.' Katie's brief dalliance with fellow beauty Sophie - creating the first female couple - revved up the drama of last year's series, while her confession of feelings for Irish wrestler Adam Maxted caused another shockwave. Her debut on The Biggest Loser: Transformed coincided with the show suffering a dramatic ratings plunge and relegation to daytime television. But Libby Babet, 35, doesn't view her time on the weight loss franchise as a failure, instead telling The Daily Telegraph: 'As a trainer it was a massive success.' The fitness fanatic explained she never appeared on the show because she wanted to become a TV star - however she is already working on returning to the spotlight. 'As a trainer it was a massive success': Libby Babet (pictured) isn't disappointed by The Biggest Loser flopping because she 'didn't want to be a TV star', she told The Daily Telegraph In March, a rebooted version of The Biggest Loser was axed from its 7.30pm time slot after dropping to just 254,000 viewers. The show aired its final episodes on weekdays at 1.30pm, with the finale appearing as part of a segment on daytime talk show Studio 10. Libby, who appeared as a trainer with Shannan Ponton, told News Corp the program struggled going up against the Married At First Sight and My Kitchen Rules. Celebrity personal trainer: Libby appeared as a trainer on the show alongside Shannan Ponton Flopped: In March, a rebooted version of The Biggest Loser was axed from its 7.30pm time slot after dropping to just 254,000 viewers But the Bondi-based fitness instructor still views the show as a personal triumph. 'As a trainer it was a massive success, but TV is unpredictable,' Libby confessed. 'It's a shame that more people didnt tune in but I don't feel a sense of disappointment. 'I didn't go into it wanting to be a TV star, I went into it for the people.' 'As a trainer it was a massive success, but TV is unpredictable': The Bondi-based fitness instructor still views the show as a personal triumph Despite putting her focus on fitness, Libby is already working on TV ideas to pitch. 'I'm certainly planning for (The Biggest Loser) not to be the end,' she said. Since her time on the show, Libby has picked up a endorsement deal for compression leggings and activewear brand 2XU. Jeremy Clarkson was seen on his balcony on Wednesday as he surveyed the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in London - the first time the star has been spotted since his Top Gear co-star Richard Hammon was involved in a horrific car crash at the weekend. The Top Gear host girlfriend Lisa Hogan and daughter Emily were later seen heading to their local church to drop off bags of donations for the hundreds left homeless by the tragedy. The star has urged members of the public to donate clothes to residents of Grenfell Tower following the fire which has claimed at least six lives. Local resident: Jeremy Clarkson was seen on his balcony on Wednesday as he surveyed the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in London Jeremy was seen on his balcony, taking photos and talking to girlfriend Lisa. Lisa and Jeremy's daughter Emily were seen on their way to a donation centre, with armfuls of bin liners filled with clothes and bags of food. Jeremy had earlier sent a message out on Facebook encouraging Londoners to donate what they could, writing: 'Everything that was clean in my wardrobe has been donated. Please try and do the same.' Taking it in: Jeremy was seen on his balcony, taking photos and talking to girlfriend Lisa Doing their bit: The Top Gear host girlfriend Lisa Hogan (centre) and daughter Emily (left) were later seen heading to their local church to drop off bags of donations for the hundreds left homeless by the tragedy He also tweeted: 'People of Kensington. Remember to give what you can spare - clothes etc - to those made homeless by that terrible fire.' Three support centres have been opened nearby for members of the public to donate clothes, toys, and toiletries. Rugby Portobello Trust, St Clement's Church and Tabernacle Christian Centre are all open to provide help and accept donations. Social media plea: The star has urged members of the public to donate clothes to residents of Grenfell Tower following the fire which has claimed at least six lives The ambulance service say 20 people are in a critical condition and 54 have been hospitalised after the Grenfell Tower fire. Jeremy's appearance comes days after his Top Gear co-star Richard Hammond was involved in a terrifying supercar crash during filming in Switzerland. The TV presenter, 47, who sustained brain injuries after a 288mph rocket car accident in 2006, was airlifted to hospital after flipping a 2million electric supercar which then burst into flames as he filmed his new Amazon show The Grand Tour. Donations: Lisa and Jeremy's daughter Emily were seen on their way to a donation centre, with armfuls of bin liners filled with clothes and bags of food Cleared out his wardrobe: Jeremy had earlier sent a message out on Facebook encouraging Londoners to donate what they could Plea: He also tweeted: 'People of Kensington. Remember to give what you can spare - clothes etc - to those made homeless by that terrible fire' But he miraculously escaped the fireball horror on Saturday with little more than a fractured knee and was 'conscious and talking' after freeing himself from the vehicle. Hammond explained his injuries and thanked former Top Gear presenter James May for 'sneaking gin in' to the hospital for him in a lighthearted video on Drivetribe from his Swiss hospital bed on Sunday. 'Yes, it's true - I binned it. Again. I'm here, in a hopsital in Switzerland, this is my knee, that they're going to turn from this into this,' he said in a video, filmed by May, from the hospital as he showed off X-Rays of his knee. Helping out: Lisa carried bags stuffed with clothes while Emily struggled with bin liners of belongings Community spirit: Jeremy's daughter Emily later tweeted the address of St Clements Church where many locals headed with donations Three support centres have been opened nearby for members of the public to donate clothes, toys, and toiletries. Rugby Portobello Trust, St Clement's Church and Tabernacle Christian Centre are all open to provide help and accept donations 'They're giving me a Swiss Army knee hopefully later today,' he added. I'd like to thank all of the medical professionals who got me by air ambulance from the crash to this hospital and dealt with me every since. 'I'd like to say thank you as well to James May, who smuggled gin in for me last night. I shouldn't have said that out loud. 'And most importantly, sorry to my wife, Mindy, and my daughters, Izzy and Willow. I'm sorry for being such a colossal idiot. More news later!' Recovering: Jeremy's appearance comes days after his Top Gear co-star was involved in a terrifying supercar crash during filming in Switzerland Hammond's Grand Tour colleague May was seen walking into a St Gallen hospital as he visited Hammond in the hours after the crash. May and and fellow colleague Jeremy were 'staggered' he survived because there was 'nothing left' of the vehicle. To donate to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/familiesofgrenfelltower The Bachelor's Noni Janur raised eyebrows after being invited to a wild yacht party hosted by American rapper YG on Tuesday, without her boyfriend Samuel Johnston. And in an interesting turn of events, the 26-year-old reportedly asked not to be photographed on the boat - despite sharing footage of the event on her Instagram. A source told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday that Noni was invited to the soiree along with a group of 'Instagram models' to create a 'party vibe'. Suddenly shy? Noni Janur (right) reportedly asked not to be photographed at rapper YG's exclusive boat party in Sydney on Tuesday - despite documenting the event on her Instagram The party insider also revealed: 'The event photographer asked (Noni) if she wanted her picture taken, and she said no'. The former reality TV star must have been suddenly shy, as she had shared several videos from the yacht on her Instagram Story that evening. On Tuesday, Noni was spotted living it up like a single lady at the exclusive soiree, flaunting her shapely curves in a skimpy outfit while enjoying drinks. On the guest list! A source told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday that Noni (centre) was invited to the soiree along with a group of 'Instagram models' to create a 'party vibe' Early in the evening, she was pictured in a bedroom below deck while posing in a low-cut lace top and skintight trousers. She provocatively captioned the photo: 'Room service'. But later on, she was filmed partying with other female guests and people involved in YG's Australian tour. 'Room service': Noni - who is dating Samuel Johnston - was spotted living it up like a single lady at the exclusive soiree, flaunting her shapely curves in a skimpy outfit while enjoying drinks Making friends! The 26-year-old was in 'party girl' mode as she received a kiss from a pal Bottoms up! Noni's Instagram Story offered fans a glimpse of the expensive yacht Her Instagram Story offered fans a glimpse of the expensive yacht hired by YG, real name real name Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson. The boat party was a heady mix of glamorous female guests, pumping music and bottles of Hennessy Cognac. Noni, who appeared on last year's season of The Bachelor, has been dating Samuel Johnston for several months. Good times! The boat party was a heady mix of glamorous female guests, musicians, pumping music and bottles of Hennessy Cognac Is she lost? Noni was spotted in an Instagram video taken by a guest on the yacht party 'YG Style!' The party guests appeared to be in high spirits, including a young woman in a revealing top and ripped jeans Samuel previously appeared on The Bachelorette, but was sent home after telling Georgia Love he was only looking for fame. On Valentine's Day, Noni and Samuel announced their relationship. Daily Mail Australia has reached out for comment. Party: A Sydney event promoter tagged YG in footage from the event, which he posted online Chill out! Several male guests are pictured taking a break from the festivities Here come the girls! There was no shortage of young women attending the party Her ex Jeremy McConnell is reportedly facing a fresh police probe following yet another recent clash with her. And Stephanie Davis was spotted on the verge of tears as she holidayed in Tenerife on Tuesday - after making a formal complaint to the authorities in the wake of their split last week. The former Hollyoaks star, 24, donned a figure-flaunting bandeau bikini as she paced up and down the pool area of her hotel while engaged in a lengthy phone call which caused her to bring her hands up to her head in an agonising display. Scroll down for video Solo sighting: Stephanie Davis, 24, was spotted holidaying in Tenerife after news emerged of her ex Jeremy McConnell reportedly facing a fresh police probe following yet another recent clash Emotional: The former Hollyoaks star was spotted on the verge of tears in the poolside display after making a formal complaint to the authorities in the wake of their split last week Despite the tumultuous events surrounding her estranged ex, Stephanie defiantly took to the pool area. The former soap star cut a solo figure as she topped up her tan in the sizzling two-piece which also flaunted her plethora of tattoos. Stephanie's locks were tied up into a high messy bun and she donned a pair of shades. Stressful holiday: Stephanie donned a figure-flaunting monochrome bikini as she paced up and down the pool area of her pool Tense: She was spotted engaging in a lengthy phone call which caused her to bring her hands up to her head in an agonising display Stressful: Despite being in her own company, Stephanie was kept preoccupied as she was spotted having a tense phone call On the line: Stephanie looked shocked and worried as she listened to what the other person had to say Clearly needing a change: Stephanie then went for a stroll parallel to the pool while still immersed in the strained phone call Despite being in her own company, Stephanie was kept preoccupied as she was spotted having a tense phone call. The on-screen star was seen resting her head in her hands and seemingly wiping away tears as she listened to what the other person had to say. Clearly needing a change, Stephanie then went for a stroll parallel to the pool while still immersed in the strained phone call. Carrying on with her day: Despite the tumultuous events surrounding her estranged ex, Stephanie defiantly took to the pool area Bikini action: The former soap star cut a solo figure as she topped up her tan in the sizzling two-piece which also flaunted her plethora of tattoos Stunning: Stephanie's locks were tied up into a high messy bun and she donned a pair of shades Not letting it faze her: After the call ended, Stephanie seemed to regain her composure as she readjusted her swimwear On form: Stephanie's post baby body looked sensational as she gave birth to her first child - with ex Jeremy - in January After the call ended, Stephanie seemed to regain her composure as she readjusted her swimwear and took off her blue cover-up to get comfortable on the sun lounger. Stephanie's worrisome display comes after her ex Jeremy found himself on the other end of police probe yet again. A police spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Merseyside Police can confirm that officers are investigating an allegation of the disclosure of private sexual images. 'On Sunday, 11 June, a report was received of private images and video of a woman being shared on social media. The investigation is ongoing.' Feeling a slight chill: Stephanie also went on to down a striking royal blue cover up for her poolside display On/off: It has been a rough year for Stephanie thanks to her tumultuous relationship with Jeremy A lot on her mind: Stephanie did her best to reign in the tears as she attempted to enjoy her holiday MailOnline has contacted representatives for both Jeremy and Stephanie for comment. Meanwhile, it has been claimed that Stephanie has blasted Jeremy after he branded her a 'manipulative f**k' in a recent tweet. An insider told the Mirror: 'For Jeremy to say this after helping him turn his life around and getting him into rehab is a major kick in the teeth," said the pal. Trying to relax: Following the stressful phone call, Stephanie got herself comfortable on the sun lounger Can't peel herself away: She still seemed preoccupied on her phone as she relaxed in the sun Investigation: This comes after her ex Jeremy, 27, reportedly facing a fresh police probe following their recent clash Split: The CBB stars' romance is said to be over once and for all, with the former Hollyoaks actress making a formal complaint to the authorities in the wake of their split last week 'Stephanie supported him throughout his rehab stint publicly and welcomed him into her home after he came out. 'Clearly Jeremy was not in a very good place at the time, but this was an all-time low blow to Stephanie. ' Earlier this week, Jeremy felt the wrath of his on/off flame's mother Pauline Davis, after he was caught slamming Stephanie on the social media site. 'Shown his true colours': Stephanie's mother Pauline branded Jeremy a 'scumbag' as she lashed out at her daughter's on/off flame in a now deleted tweet earlier this week The Irish model, 27, had claimed his ex-girlfriend is now 'dead' to him, prompting Pauline to label Jeremy a 'scumbag' in a now deleted tweet. According to The Mirror, Pauline had slammed her daughter's former beau and tweeted: 'Finally after 16 months of hell the scumbag has shown his true colours! #beyondevil #malicious #noexcuses.' Seeming to have second thoughts about her fiery tweet, Stephanie's mother has now appeared to have deleted her post. She is grandmother to Steph and Jeremy's five-month-old son Caben-Albi. It was prompted by a scathing tweet Jeremy had sent hours earlier, hitting out at Stephanie and branding her a 'manipulative f**k'. The duo had found themselves at the centre of speculation their on/off romance has come to an end yet again, after reports surfaced of the couple becoming embroiled in a 'blazing' row. Scandal: Her tweet came after Jeremy posted a scathing outburst in which he claimed Stephanie (pictured above with their son Caben-Albi) is a 'manipulative f**k' to Twitter 'Beyond evil': Pauline appeared to have second thoughts about her tweet and has now appeared to have deleted it Jeremy appeared to confirm the split in his tweet that accused Stephanie of 'cutting up his clothes' and making a harsh remark about his parents, who have passed away. According to The Sun, Jeremy's indirect tweet read: 'Cuts up my whole wardrobe s**gs my dead parents that girl is dead to me manipulative f**k #over.' The former Celebrity Big Brother star has since deleted his angry tirade. Instead, his last tweet now reads: 'Always stick with your initial vibe and buzz off someone.' Both Stephanie and Jeremy's representatives declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline. Like mother, like daughter: She is grandmother to Stephanie and Jeremy's five-month-old son Caben-Albi Not a fan: Pauline has had previous when it comes to hitting out at Jeremy on social media - his relationship with Stephanie has been tumultuous since they first got together last year All over? Jeremy appeared to confirm he and girlfriend Stephanie have split again, after sharing an angry tweet in reference to the former Hollyoaks star Jeremy's apparent outburst comes after the couple sparked speculation all was not well between them. It was claimed they had been embroiled in a 'blazing' row which saw Stephanie chuck her beau's clothes out onto the street. Sources claimed Jeremy had jetted off to Ireland to escape the drama and while confirming he had headed to his native, the reality star had appeared to shrug off the row accusations, tweeting in reference to them: 'UNBELIEVABLE.' It has now been claimed his rocky patch with Stephanie is due to comments his ex Savannah Kempsey had made about Jeremy's romance with the actress. Second thoughts? Jeremy later appeared to delete his tweet that hit out at Stephanie Scandal: His tirade came after the couple found themselves at the centre of reports they had been embroiled in a 'blazing' row Savannah had branded the pair's relationship as 'toxic' and claimed Jeremy was 'trapped' after starting a family with Stephanie. Her comments prompted Stephanie to seek the Ex On The Beach star out on Twitter and accuse her of using her name for publicity. Stephanie tweeted: 'Hi chick, @MissKemplay can I ask who u are? I got told u were fame hungry and would take any show as it comes, but seriously commenting on my life... 'Darling, u wanna give that big head a wobble. Please stop using my name for fame. Pity u honey. Love Steph x. (sic)' Having her say: Savannah had branded Jeremy's relationship with Stephanie as 'toxic' and claimed the reality star was 'trapped' because of their five-month-old son It's said Savannah's comments and Stephanie's reaction had sparked tension between herself and Jeremy, with sources telling The Sun it had led to Jeremy 'drinking again'. Back in April, he had checked himself into rehab in a bid to beat his issues with substance abuse. After completing his six-week stay, Jeremy had rekindled his relationship with Stephanie and moved in with her and their baby boy in Liverpool. Back to the beginning: The couple had first got together while starring on Celebrity Big Brother in January 2016 Drama: At first, Jeremy had persistently denied that he was the father of Stephanie's then unborn child when she revealed she was pregnant, but stepped up when he discovered her paternity claims were in fact truthful The couple had first got together while starring on Celebrity Big Brother in January 2016, but things soon turned complicated between the pair and they called time on their relationship in April - a month before Stephanie announced she was expecting. At first, Jeremy had persistently denied that he was the father of Stephanie's then unborn child, but stepped up when he discovered her paternity claims were in fact truthful. However, things haven't been plain sailing for the couple and fans were left shocked as Jeremy made a court appearance over an assault claim - but Stephanie vowed to stand by him. In light of their latest relationship woes, Stephanie has kept quiet on social media. The mum-of-one chose to ignore the swirling rumours about herself and Jeremy, instead tweeting on Saturday night: 'Watching my favourite film Just Married. Night all x.' Making a go of things: Stephanie had vowed to stand by Jeremy throughout his stint in rehab and his subsequent court appearance Teresa Giudice has been accused of cheating on her husband Joe, who is serving out a three-year prison sentence at The Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix due to fraud charges. The beauty has been dating a 'handsome smooth talker' for the past five months, according to her ex friend Kim DePaola who spoke to UsWeekly. But the Real Housewives Of New Jersey star's attorney James J Leonard Jr has told DailyMail.com that the claims are not true. 'Teresa saw the story and said to me I guess this is what Donald Trump means when he says fake news. The story is 1,000 percent pure bulls**.' Big claim: Teresa Giudice has been accused of cheating on her husband Joe, but her lawyer told DailyMail.com it's 'fake news'; seen 2016 Frenemy: The beauty has been dating a 'handsome smooth talker' for the past five months, according to her ex friend Kim DePaola who spoke to UsWeekly; seen 2013 The weekly also noted that Kim has confessed in the past that she made up lies, like when she said Melissa Gorga used to be a stripper The lawyer added that Teresa talks to Joe in prison 'every day' and visits him 'every two weeks.' Leonard added: 'She will be there this weekend for Father's Day.' He also said that she is staying very busy raising her four daughters, caring for her father who now lives with her and grieving the loss of her mother who passed away in March. The author is also finishing up her new book Standing Strong, which comes out this fall. 'That is her reality, that is the truth. But sadly, that doesn't sell magazine covers. Fake cheating stories do,' he added. DePaola feels she is on to something, though. She claimed that her hairdresser told her in April that Teresa was seeing a new man. The kids: Teresa has four daughters with Joe: Gia, 16, Gabriella, 12, Milania, 11, and Audriana, seven He's in prison: Jow is serving out a three-year prison sentence at Fort Dix Correctional Facility due to fraud charges The stylist claimed that Teresa was 'hugging and snuggling' with the new man, whose identity and age was not revealed. Then Kim received an envelope addressed 'For Kim D only.' Inside a typed note said that Teresa had been 'fooling around' with a fellow New Jersey resident, she said. It was added she was 'constantly sexting him.' Good mommy: Her lawyer noted that Teresa is busy bring up her kids and taking care of her father after her mother's death this year; seen with Gia in May And De Paola said there was a photo of the man, but she did not share the picture with UsWeekly. 'They've been pretty cozy,' Kim told the weekly. But she does not blame the star for stepping out on her husband of 18 years. 'I think Teresa has every right to go out and find somebody else,' said the star. Nice digs: Giudice moved her father into her New Jersey mansion 'She should leave Joe. She should be with somebody else.' Kim also told pals Dolores Catania and Siggy Flicker, who alerted Teresa. Teresa then showed up at Kim's May 3 charity fashion show and, according to UsWeekly, nearly got in a fist fight with Kim. The weekly also noted that Kim has confessed in the past that she made up lies, like when she said Melissa Gorga used to be a stripper. Her take: 'Teresa saw the story and said to me I guess this is what Donald Trump means when he says fake news. The story is 1,000 percent pure bulls**,' Leonard told DailyMail.com on Wednesday; seen in May A source added that things are different with Teresa and Joe now that he is in jail and the 'dynamics of their marriage has shifted.' It was also claimed that not having Joe around 'has done wonders for her self esteem.' Teresa has four daughters with Joe: Gia, 16, Gabriella, 12, Milania, 11, and Audriana, seven. It was also reported in the same issue of UsWeekly that Joe has lost 30 pounds by working out every day in the prison gym. 'He jokes he's going to do a Men's Fitness cover when he gets out,' said a source. She's known for her chilling portrayal of Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson on Australia's cult prison drama Wentworth. And actress Pamela Rabe has discussed breaking stereotypes in her role as a powerful female villain. 'There's a special little tribe of those female baddies,' she told The Daily Telegraph this week. 'I'd rather it be a much fuller, more dangerous relationship': Wentworth star Pamela Rabe (pictured) has discussed breaking stereotypes in her role as a powerful female villain 'I am much more interested in evoking those kind of responses in an audience than having them just want to like you, or charm you, or love you, or sleep with you,' Pamela said. 'I'd rather it be a much fuller, more dangerous relationship. 'I love as a female to be given an opportunity like this because we are used to seeing most of our villains monopolised by males and traditionally women are supposed to be nicer and a lot of them aren't, so it is nice to be able to be the biggest baddie of them all and take that on,' she concluded. Versatile: Pamela revealed that not being born 'conventionally pretty' has allowed her to take on more diverse roles in her acting career. Pictured in TV's Wentworth Pamela also revealed that not being born 'conventionally pretty' has allowed her to take on more diverse roles in her acting career. It comes after the actress broke her silence about filming Wentworth's infamous tongue-cutting scene. In the bloody scene, Pamela's character screeches, 'You've licked your last p***y!' to 'Juicy' Lucy Gambaro before slicing off her tongue with a scalpel. 'I had to have a little out-of-body experience stuff': Pamela Rabe recently told KIIS FM's Kyle And Jackie O Show about how she coped while filming Wentworth's infamous tongue scene Speaking to KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O Show, Pamela revealed that she suffered an out-of-body experience while filming the gruesome scene. 'I had to kind of separate it, because I know what's happening is horrific,' Pamela explained. 'I had to do what I suspect Joan Ferguson does, I had to have a little out-of-body experience stuff.' The scene reportedly took around seven-and-a-half hours to film. Sia muse Maddie Ziegler got glam in a festive floral gown for a new spread shot by Dani Brubaker and styled by James Worthington DeMolet. The 14-year-old dance prodigy covered the June/July issue of Seventeen, which hit newsstands Wednesday, in which she discusses her rocketing career. 'I'm still just a teenager,' the Maddie Diaries author told the mag. Scroll down for video 'I'm still just a teenager': Maddie Ziegler got glam in a festive floral gown for a new spread shot by Dani Brubaker and styled by James Worthington DeMolet 'I get so caught up in what I'm doing [in my career] that my friends and family sometimes have to remind me that what I'm doing is cool. I never imagined this.' Ziegler might boast 11.7M social media followers as well as 931K subscribers to her YouTube page, but her friends tell her she's 'the worst texter.' 'I don't use emojis and everything is lowercase,' explained Maddie (born Madison), who counts Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown among her BFFs. 'In my head I'm expressing my emotions, but I guess I just don't come across as very enthusiastic. I need to get on that and start using emojis and stuff!' 'I never imagined this!' The 14-year-old dance prodigy covered the June/July issue of Seventeen, which hit newsstands Wednesday, in which she discusses her rocketing career 'I don't come across as very enthusiastic': The Maddie Diaries author might boast 11.7M social media followers as well as 931K subscribers to her YouTube page, but her friends tell her she's 'the worst texter' When it comes to fashion icons, Ziegler most admires 20-year-old DWTS runner-up Zendaya Coleman, gushing: 'She changes it up all the time - she can be tomboyish or really girly' When it comes to fashion icons, the IMG Model most admires 20-year-old DWTS runner-up Zendaya Coleman, gushing: 'She changes it up all the time - she can be tomboyish or really girly.' After six seasons on Lifetime's Dance Moms led by the tyrannical Abby Lee Miller, the Pittsburgh-born hoofer 'just didn't want to deal with the drama anymore.' 'The show was a really stressful time,' Ziegler admitted. 'I'm happy I've moved on. I get to step out and do my own thing and be myself. But I am thankful for the experience, and I miss dancing with the girls.' 'Really stressful': After six seasons on Lifetime's Dance Moms led by the tyrannical Abby Lee Miller (R), the Pittsburgh-born hoofer 'just didn't want to deal with the drama anymore' Convict: Maddie's 50-year-old former instructor is scheduled to begin her year-long prison sentence (as well as paying $160K in fines) for bankruptcy fraud on June 30 The former So You Think You Can Dance judge's 50-year-old former instructor is scheduled to begin her year-long prison sentence (as well as paying $160K in fines) for bankruptcy fraud on June 30. Maddie will make her big-screen debut as dancing girl-next-door Christina Sickleman, a teen abused by her stepfather, in The Book of Henry hitting US theaters Friday and UK theaters June 23. Colin Trevorrow's family drama also stars Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Jaeden Lieberher, Lee Pace, Dean Norris, Bobby Moynihan, and Sarah Silverman. Ziegler also voices the bratty ballerina Camille Le Haut in the CG-animated flick Leap! - finally hitting US theaters August 30 - alongside Elle Fanning, Mel Brooks, Kate McKinnon, and Carly Rae Jepsen. Damsel in distress: The former So You Think You Can Dance judge will make her big-screen debut as dancing girl-next-door Christina Sickleman, a teen abused by her stepfather, in The Book of Henry hitting US theaters Friday and UK theaters June 23 'Never leave things undone': Colin Trevorrow's family drama also stars Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Jaeden Lieberher, Lee Pace, Dean Norris, Bobby Moynihan, and Sarah Silverman And November 30, the homeschooled teen will reunite with camera-shy pop star Sia Furler to be her avatar during her Nostalgic for the Present Tour stops in Australia. Maddie is best known for starring in the 41-year-old Grammy nominee's six music videos - which have amassed 3.3B views on YouTube - off her This Is Acting album. Speaking of YouTube, Ziegler launched her v-log on January 1, which she films and edits all by herself. Finally hitting US theaters August 30! Ziegler also voices the bratty ballerina Camille Le Haut in the CG-animated flick Leap! alongside Elle Fanning, Mel Brooks, and Kate McKinnon 'One in a million': And November 30, the homeschooled teen will reunite with camera-shy pop star Sia Furler to be her avatar during her Nostalgic for the Present Tour stops in Australia 'It's a lot of work, but it's important to me because I want to put out cool content,' the Polo Ralph Lauren catwalker said. 'I try to stay away from online comments. Why should I bother reading something from someone who has nothing better to do than try to make people feel smaller, so they can feel bigger? It's not okay.' When she's not juggling a million projects, Maddie spends time with her Australian 'influencer' boyfriend Jack Kelly, with whom she celebrated six months of dating on June 1. 'I try to stay away from online comments': Ziegler launched her v-log on January 1, which she films and edits all by herself News / National by Staff reporter A 43-YEAR-OLD Warren Park woman is appealing for help after she was allegedly injured in an accident caused by a ZRP traffic cop spike.Nyarai Chituu was injured on January 25 at around 8pm on her way from work at corner Mbuya Nehanda Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue when a police officer threw a spike and missed the target, hitting her in the process.As a result, Chituu sustained a deep cut on her right leg and she is still nursing the wounds.Chituu told H-Metro that she was shocked and surprised by the conduct of the police officer."After hitting me with a spike, the police officer ran away instead of helping me leaving me injured at the scene."I used to think that the duty of the police is to serve and safeguard the nation and its people but that is not what I see considering what happened to me."No action has been taken against the police officer. I went and lodged a complaint at Harare Central Police Station and up to now no action has been taken," said Chituu.She added:"The use of spikes by the police should be banned permanently because the incident occurred at around 8:05 pm and the police were still using spikes at that hour and injured me yet nothing has been done."My children need food, clothes and school fees, I also need clutches so I am seeking for assistance in any kind so that my condition will improve."Those wishing to assist Chituu can be contacted on 0773906609. Shes expecting her fourth child with her fiance Michael ONeill, but her pregnancy hasnt been without its obstacles so far. And Danielle Lloyd has spoken out after being cruelly bodyshamed by trolls, who claimed the stars bump made her look like a washed up whale as she relaxed in a bikini during a recent holiday in Dubai. The 33-year-old brunette who has teamed up with Oxfam for their Dressed By The Kids campaign revealed she decided enough was enough, hitting back on social media. Scroll down for video Hitting back: Danielle Lloyd has spoken out after cruelly being bodyshamed by trolls, who claimed the stars bump made her look like a washed up whale as she relaxed in a bikini during a recent holiday in Dubai She exclusively told MailOnline: Its bad enough when youre not pregnant, women being brought down because of their weight. Megan McKennas been told shes too skinny this week, people get told theyre too fat. When can somebody win, what is perfection? Im happy the way I am, why do people feel the need to try and troll me and make me feel bad about myself? I had to stand up for myself and for other people as well, especially for pregnant women. The trolls must not be happy with their own lives, so they feel the need to bring other people down. Im not taking no more rubbish off them! Danielle insisted she wont let the negativity affect her, and hasnt succumbed to peer pressure to stay slim during her pregnancy. Standing up for herself: The 33-year-old brunette who has teamed up with Oxfam for their Dressed By The Kids campaign revealed she decided enough was enough, hitting back on social media She said: Ive not done one bit of exercise. Running around after the boys is enough! Im just trying to enjoy the pregnancy and then think about exercise once the baby is born. I dont feel pressured, as long as Michael finds me attractive, I dont really care what people think. However, the mum-of-three who raises children Archie, six, Harry, five and George, three with ex-husband Jamie O'Hara confessed that she was worried the impact trolling was having on young people and children in this social media age. I think the police do take social media harassment seriously these days, she explained. I dont let my kids use social media, but theres a lot of young children on social media, if they get bullied, thats disgusting, it shouldnt be happening. I try and protect my boys as much as possible, but I dont shield them from everything, I think its important for them to know what the real worlds about. Thinking positive: Danielle insisted she wont let the negativity affect her, and hasnt succumbed to peer pressure to stay slim during her pregnancy Expanding their family: Danielle who got engaged to electrician Michael O'Neill last year confessed she feels blessed to have found such a supportive partner, treating the kids like his own and doting on her Im quite laid back, they have a lot of fun, I just like being with them all the time. Im lucky enough to not go to work full time and I love spending time with them. Danielle also opened up about her health troubles during her pregnancy, revealing that she was feeling much better. The former glamour model said: Ive been on a course of antibiotics, theyve kicked in now, and Im resting as much as possible. She sparked concerns when she was forced to use to a wheelchair on her family trip to Dubai as she struggled to cope with the pain of her SPD Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. I literally couldnt walk, I was going to a theme park and I thought, I cant let them down. Michael was like, well just get a wheelchair and Ill push you around. Not only has he got to look after the children, but hes got to look after me!, she said. Charity campaign: The mum-of-three who raises children Archie, six, Harry, five and George, three with ex-husband Jamie O'Hara has teamed up with Oxfam for their Dressed By The Kids campaign Danielle who got engaged to electrician Michael last year confessed she feels blessed to have found such a supportive partner, treating the kids like his own and doting on her. She said: Hes taking [fatherhood] in his stride. Hes so good, hes been so helpful to me, he takes the boys to school every morning for me. Its the little things. Hes so laid back generally. I think hes more worried about me because Ive not been in the best of health. Hes happy now because Im not as moody. Hes had no experience of being a dad, but hes taking on the role amazingly, hes the best step dad the boys could wish for. 'I think its going to be a different feeling for him, but he still loves the boys as his own. Danielle has joined forces with Oxfam to support their Dressed By The Kids campaign, bringing her three boys along for a fun filled photoshoot. Explaining her reasons for teaming up with Oxfam on their latest campaign, she enthused: Oxfam works with mums and families, its so important' The star added: The boys love the camera! They dressed me in silly outfits, it was so much fun. Theyre going to get involved with their school, as well, raising money and awareness' Explaining her reasons for teaming up with Oxfam on their latest campaign, she enthused: Oxfam works with mums and families, its so important to have a charity to help young mums, Ive been there myself, its so difficult. Id love to go out to somewhere like Africa and see young mums and help them. Id love to be able to experience it first hand and see the great work Oxfam do. This Friday grown ups from Inverness to the Isle of Wight, East Anglia to Pembrokeshire, will be handing control of their wardrobes to the kids in their lives, to give poverty a dressing down for Oxfam. Over 5000 celebrities, individuals, schools and businesses have signed up to get Dressed By The Kids, and it's not too late for you to sign up too! Go to www.oxfam.org.uk/silly to sign up and get sponsored. Follow #DressedByTheKids on social media. Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves coordinated in dark shades and white ensembles as they landed back home in Los Angeles at LAX Airport on Wednesday. The 47-year-old Oscar winner opted for a Butcher Shop trucker cap, undershirt, and flip-flops while the 35-year-old model-turned-mompreneur donned a motorcycle jacket and teeth-printed trainers. The bongo-beating Texan and the Brazilian beauty - who met at Hollywood hotspot Hyde back in 2006 - celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary last Friday. Scroll down for video Jet setters: Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves coordinated in dark shades and white ensembles as they landed back home in Los Angeles at LAX Airport on Wednesday Home sweet home! The 47-year-old Oscar winner opted for a Butcher Shop trucker cap, undershirt, and flip-flops while the 35-year-old model-turned-mompreneur donned a motorcycle jacket and teeth-printed trainers Congrats! The bongo-beating Texan and the Brazilian beauty - who met at Hollywood hotspot Hyde back in 2006 - celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary last Friday Matthew and Camila had just been in Florida where he wrapped the 2018 drug-trafficking drama White Boy Rick on Miami Beach Monday alongside French filmmaker Yann Demange. The movie also filmed in Cleveland where McConaughey and Alves' foundation Just Keep Livin' implemented after-school curriculum at John Adams High School and Martin Luther King Jr. High School. The charitable couple would happily support their sons Levi, 8; Livingston, 4; and daughter Vida, 7; if they decided to follow in their father's famous footsteps. 'It's not like, "Oh, you gotta do it or you can't do it,"' the Yummy Spoonfuls founder explained to ET last week. 'It's a wrap!' Matthew and Camila had just been in Florida where he wrapped the 2018 drug- trafficking drama White Boy Rick on Miami Beach Monday with filmmaker Yann Demange (M) 'A city trying to make it work': The movie also filmed in Cleveland where McConaughey and Alves' foundation Just Keep Livin' implemented after-school curriculum 'Basically, we'll support them in whatever they want to do. It's their journey and we are here to help them and guide them in the best way that we can. So if that's what they fall in love with, then sure, absolutely.' According to Deadline - the Gold actor will begin filming his role as rebellious stoner Moondog in Harmony Korine's 2018 sequel to Spring Breakers, The Beach Bum, this fall. 'When [Matthew] goes to work, we all go,' Camila continued. 'Absolutely!' The charitable couple would happily support their sons Levi, 8; Livingston, 4; and daughter Vida, 7; if they decided to follow in their father's famous footsteps Next gig: According to Deadline - the Gold actor will begin filming his role as rebellious stoner Moondog in Harmony Korine's (L) 2018 sequel to Spring Breakers, The Beach Bum, this fall Camila told ET last week: 'When [Matthew] goes to work, we all go...It's a way that we love to keep everything together and stay connected that way' 'So we have been doing that since even before kids. It's a way that we love to keep everything together and stay connected that way. It's really good for the kids.' The former housekeeper - who learned English at 15 - frequently shares recipes on morning talk shows like ABC's The Chew and NBC's Today to promote her cooking/lifestyle webseries Camila's Code. Fans can next catch McConaughey as the mysterious Man in Black opposite Idris Elba in Nikolaj Arcel's sci-fi western The Dark Tower, which hits US theaters on August 4 and UK theaters on August 18. Foodie: The former housekeeper frequently shares recipes on morning talk shows like ABC's The Chew to promote her cooking/lifestyle webseries Camila's Code America's Got Talent is used to welcoming wannabe stars with an array of quirky skills. But it seems that kissing is now a skill auditionees can demonstrate, going by a new clip from the current season. And an elderly female fan, called Benji, had her eye on judge Simon Cowell to execute her skill on. Scroll down for video 'He's juicy with love!' Simon Cowell delights a giddy elderly lady on American's Got Talent by SNOGGING her Benji, 72, wasted no time in declaring her love for the stalwart TV judge as she strutted onto the stage for her audition. The eccentric pensioner wore a beige dress, red glasses and carried her handbag with her. 'Im here to bring love America I love you!' she declared, before adding: 'I am always fascinated by bald men but I fell in love with Simon.' In an intriguing turn of phrase, she the described the 57-year-old as 'juicy with love' but that 'he pretends hes tough'. Pucker up: An elderly female fan, called Benji, had her eye on judge Simon Cowell to execute her skill on Object of her affection: In an intriguing turn of phrase, she the described the 57-year-old as 'juicy with love' but that 'he pretends hes tough' Simon quipped he would 'give her a snog' if she was lucky, and so Benji burst into a renditon of L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole - which is the talent she was actually on the show to audition with - before heading up to Simon at the judging desk. She wasted no time in grabbing the TV star's neck and pulling him closely, kissing Simon on his puckered-up lips. Simon seemed happy to oblige, smiling as he was released from Benji's embrace. To even the score, supermodel and fellow judge Heidi Klum called Benji's husband over and placed a smacker onto his lips too To even the score, supermodel and fellow judge Heidi Klum called Benji's husband over and placed a smacker onto his lips too. Simon is currently stateside shooting the new season of America's Got Talent having just finished the latest season of the British version of the show - which saw Tokyo Myers take the crown. He will then return to the UK to begin the next season of The X Factor, which will film over the late summer, into the autumn and up to Christmas. George Clooney fell for Amal the first time they met. The two were introduced at a dinner party in 2013 and the Oscar winner's father Nick happened to be there and see it all go down. Now he has told People what happened when the Hollywood icon and the human rights attorney first met eyes. 'I really think by the time that first [meeting] was over, his and her fates were sealed, both of them. She was so remarkable and he was so remarkable around her,' said Nick, 83. Instant chemistry: George Clooney fell for Amal the first time they met. The two were introduced at a dinner party in 2013 and the Oscar winner's father Nick happened to be there and see it all go down; seen in 2015 Dad spills: Now he has told People what happened when the Hollywood icon and the human rights attorney first met eyes. 'I really think by the time that first [meeting] was over, his and her fates were sealed, both of them,' said Nick, 83 George and Amal - who welcomed twins Ella and Alexander on June 6 - were charmed by each other. Nick revealed that he and his wife Nina greeted Amal at a party in 2013. 'Nina and I were actually the ones who answered the door when Amal came in,' began Nick. They got the first hello: Nick revealed that he and his wife Nina greeted Amal at a party in 2013. 'Nina and I were actually the ones who answered the door when Amal came in,' began Nick Praise: 'She was obviously very charming, gorgeous and so clearly accomplished, but by the time we had supper that night, it was clear there was a kindness to her and an inclusiveness,' Nick said of Amal; pictured 2016 'She introduced herself to us and we talked. 'She was obviously very charming, gorgeous and so clearly accomplished, but by the time we had supper that night, it was clear there was a kindness to her and an inclusiveness.' After the meal, Nick knew they were destined to fall in love and joked that he thought she would cause the silver fox 'trouble.' Close: Amal with her mother Baria Alamuddin in London in 2015 He told People: 'By the end of supper, I started looking over at Nina and saying, "Look ouuuut, this could be trouble for this young man!" Nick insists that the brunette beauty's presence felt very different to George's former girlfriends. He said: 'It was just different than all the other relationships I had seen him in, and I had watched them all from the time he was 13. She knocked his socks off: 'This young woman meant something to him almost immediately. It was just amazing.' Seen here in February 'This young woman meant something to him almost immediately. It was just amazing.' After Amal gave birth, Nick revealed that George, 56, had described his 39-year-old wife - whom he married in 2014 - as a 'super woman' following her labour and assured everyone that she is doing 'great.' He said: 'She was telling us last week that she is as big as a house. Of course, for her, that's a very small house. But she's great ... Just as I, George married up.' Amber Turner's cheating scandal was the main storyline on TOWIE's 20th season. And while viewers were captivated by the saga, which saw her ditch boyfriend Jamie Reed for a fling with Dan Edgar, one person who was not happy with Amber's antics was co-star Mario Falcone - who branded her 'disgusting'. The 30-year-old show stalwart spoke on Simon Gross Showbiz Show where he dismissed the blonde beauty, stating: 'I just don't like her' before claiming her romantic woes were an elaborate publicity stunt. Scroll down for video Furious: Amber Turner's cheating scandal was the main storyline on TOWIE's 20th season Amber caused huge shock among viewers when she joined the show earlier this year while still in a long-term relationship with live-in boyfriend Jamie although she was accused of cheating on him with Dan - claims both parties denied. When she returned from Tenerife, jokingly christened 'Tene-grief' by the irked stars, she rushed home to Jamie, who made a comeback to the show after a drama-filled appearance in 2012, where she vehemently denied the claims. Later on however, the truth came out leading to an enraged Jamie facing off with both Amber and Dan before finding love once more with Jade Lewis, who he famously lauded as 'a real model - not an Instagram model'. As the situation remains acrimonious among the group, Mario will no doubt set further sparks flying as he made his brazen comments about Amber, who he insists is playing a huge game to garner publicity. Lost love: And while viewers were captivated by the storyline, which saw her ditch boyfriend Jamie Reed for a fling with Dan Edgar, one person who was not happy with Amber's antics was co-star Mario Falcone - who branded her 'disgusting' Having it out: When she returned from Tenerife, jokingly christened 'Tene-grief' by the irked stars, she rushed home to Jamie, who made a comeback to the show after a drama-filled appearance in 2012, where she vehemently denied the claims Not happy: Mario made his thoughts on Amber resoundingly clear in his shock outburst Speaking on the show, he said: 'Amber Turner Theres no history between us, I just dont like her. The way in which she ditched her boyfriend to be on TOWIE, which is the truth, and lie about it and say they have troubles just to be famous and be in the public eye is disgusting. 'Fans have longed her off (dismissed her) and she deserves everything she gets. Youll see it all next series, shell jump to someone else to keep herself as a storyline.' Seeming totally unbothered by the hate from her co-star, Amber took to Instagram to share a stunning snap with her 241,000 followers - as she posed in a bikini while embarking on a luxury party cruise. Who cares? Seeming totally unbothered by the hate from her co-star, Amber took to Instagram to share a stunning snap with her 241,000 followers - as she posed in a bikini while embarking on a luxury party cruise Fame hungry? As the situation remains acrimonious among the group, Mario will no doubt set further sparks flying as he made his brazen comments about Amber, who he insists is playing a huge game to garner publicity MailOnline has contacted representatives for Mario and Amber for comment. Mario joined TOWIE in its third season as Lucy Mecklenburgh's boyfriend in 2011, after which his time on the show was fraught with drama. Earlier this year it was revealed Mario is making his return to TOWIE, two years after his dismissal for touting slimming pills - a banned act for castmembers. Lucy and Mario's love story spun a convoluted tale, after he first debuted on TOWIE in 2011 when he entered the show cast as Lucy's boyfriend. The brunette beauty had previously enjoyed a casual romance with the show's lead lothario Mark Wright although the involvement of his girlfriend of nine years, Lauren Goodger, led to the demise of their relationship. Lost love: As the situation remains acrimonious among the group, Mario will no doubt set further sparks flying as he made his brazen comments about Amber, who he insists is playing a huge game to garner publicity Hitting back: 'Fans have longed her off and she deserves everything she gets. Youll see it all next series, shell jump to someone else to keep herself as a storyline' After she split from Mark she found love with Mario, although they suffered a spectacular blip when she devastatingly fell back into Mark's arms while Mario was on holiday in Ibiza. When Mario managed to forgive Lucy he later popped the question during the TOWIE cast's annual pilgrimage to Marbella, where she accepted his proposal. While Lucy believed the couple to be blissfully headed towards marriage, it transpired that Mario had been texting a host of other women behind her back leading to many confrontations between Lucy and an array of stunners. Since their split in 2013, both parties have enjoyed public relationships - Lucy dated Olympic gymnast Louis Smith for 14 months before splitting in February, while Mario dated stunning model Emma McVey, who he broke up with in October last year. It won the coveted best director honor for Sofia Coppola at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival last month. Now Elle Fanning, who was among the A-list ensemble cast of The Beguiled, has talked about her love of Sofia's world and her role as Alicia in the cover interview for the summer edition of Dazed magazine. But fans will have to wait until June 22 to read all about it when the mag hits the streets. It's all going swimmingly: Elle Fanning is covering the summer issue of Dazed magazine, due to hit the streets on June 22 However, it did share the cover shot, taken by celebrity photographer Ryan McGinley, showing the 19-year-old seemingly underwater with her strawberry blonde tresses trailing behind her. The young actress is wearing an outfit by Kenzo with very little visible aside from one blue sleeve with a black design continuing onto a mustard colored panel across her chest. A few bubbles emerge from her pink lips while her skin looks deathly white. A second photo shows Elle with her wet hair slicked back wearing a soggy white transparent blouse. Saturated star: A second photo shows the 19-year-old with her wet hair slicked back wearing a soggy white transparent blouse. Set in a secluded girls school in Virginia during the American Civil War, The Beguiled is a remake of the 1971 movie that starred Clint Eastwood as an injured soldier who turns life at the school upside down. Aside from Elle, the new version stars Nicole, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell as the wounded man. Meanwhile, Elle was spotted out after dinner with a girlfriend at Little Dom's restaurant in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. The two sat on the kerb outside the eatery and chatted as they waited for their separate Uber rides. Hanging with a pal: The Beguiled starlet sat on the kerb with a girl friend as they waited for their rides after dinner at Little Dom's restaurant in the Los Feliz on Tuesday evening Teen chic: Elle looked cute in a pink denim jacket that she wore over a lilac skirt and sneakers Elle, who styled her blonde hair into a high bun, looked super cute in a pink denim jacket that she wore over a lilac broderie anglaise skirt and sneakers. She also shared an Instagram snap of herself in a lacy black dress at dinner after the Los Angeles premiere of The Beguiled on Monday. The blonde is seen sitting at a beautifully laid table with china, cutlery, tea cups and a pie on a raised platter in the center. She captioned the photo: 'I hope you like apple pie.' The in-demand star has six projects on the go in the coming year: Beware That Girl, All The Bright Places, Mary Shelley, Teen Spirit, I Think We're Alone Now and Galveston A-list line-up: From left, Nicole Kidman, Elle, writer-director Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst and Emma Howard at the Hollywood premiere of The Beguiled at the DGA on Monday Viewers were left up in arms after they noticed bankrupt Stacey Fowler walking around Albert Square in Christian Louboutins last month. And now eagle-eyed EastEnders fans clocked a critical flaw on Tuesday night's episode after they spotted square's Minute Mart selling Tesco Value fish fingers. While Jack Branning stopped by the corner shop to grab the frozen fingers for his children's dinner but as shop assistant Honey bagged the box, viewers noticed that the blue detailed packaging look incredibly familiar. Scroll down for video Something fishy: Eagle-eyed EastEnders fans clocked a critical flaw on Tuesday night's episode after they spotted Albert Square's Minute Mart selling Tesco Value fish fingers Chatting to Honey about his mealtime cuisine, Jack admitted cooking isn't his strong point with: 'I nearly had to call the fire brigade on the first attempt.' Answering him, Honey whispered: 'But I won't tell anyone if you want to buy on ready made.' To which Jack answered: 'They're already going to be disappointed with fish fingers over lasagna'. However it appeared it wasn't only the Branning kids that were disappointed as many viewers couldn't contain their shock at the possibility of the local store selling the own brand favourites - which was playfully dubbed as 'fish fingergate' on Twitter. Dinner time: While Jack Branning stopped by the corner shop to grab the frozen fingers for his children's dinner but as shop assistant Honey bagged the box, viewers noticed that the blue detailed packaging look incredibly familiar Eat up: Chatting to Honey about his mealtime cuisine, Jack admitted cooking isn't his strong point with: 'I nearly had to call the fire brigade on the first attempt' '#EastEnders did I just spot honey bagging Tesco's value fish fingers for Jack in the Mini Mart,' one passionate fan shared. While another wrote: 'Did anybody notice Honey selling the Tesco value fish fingers to Jack Branning on tonight's Eastenders?! #EastEnders @bbceastenders'. '@bbceastenders minute mart fish fingers bear a striking resemblance to Tesco own brand fish fingers. I smell something fishy #eastenders,' a viewer posted. 'Since when did the minute mart sell Tesco own brand fish fingers? #EastEnders #fishfingergate'. Before a fan echoed many's sentiments with: 'Tesco Fish Fingers In The Minute Mart Is That Even Aloud #EastEnders'. MailOnline have contacted EastEnders for comment. Confused: However it appeared it wasn't only the Branning kids that were disappointed as many viewers couldn't contain their shock at the possibility of the local store selling the own brand favourites - which was playfully dubbed as 'fish fingergate' on Twitter The hilarious gaffe comes after sharp-eyed viewers quick to point out the fact that resident favourite Stacey Fowler- formerly Slater, appeared to be wearing rather pricey Louboutins as she tottered tipsily along on her date with Martin Fowler. Pointing out that the expectant mother-of-two was supposed to be struggling to pay the rent, one confused viewer wrote: 'Struggling to pay rent but can afford to buy Louboutins, yeah?' Another joked that Martin must have a side business for Stacey to afford the coveted red-bottoms, while one tweeted: 'Is Stacey wearing Louboutins? Or are they Bridge St Market knock offs!'. 'Funny that Stacey Fowler is wearing Louboutin boots but they're supposed to be broke,' another observed. Uh oh! The hilarious gaffe comes after sharp-eyed viewers quick to point out the fact that resident favourite Stacey Fowler- formerly Slater, appeared to be wearing rather pricey Louboutins as she tottered tipsily along on her date with Martin Fowler And viewers quickly moved onto their next bugbear- the fact that Stacey appeared worse for wear despite being pregnant. 'Was Stacey drunk then? I thought she was pregnant!' one viewer wrote. 'Is Stacey still pregnant? Can't tell whether she's drunk or just overly happy,' another added. The long-standing Walford square resident is already mother to Lily daughter Lily, and a son named Arthur- who turned out to be fathered by Martin's best friend Kush. She is now expecting her first child with Martin, who stood by her through the drama. He's a rock god of a generation and so it comes as no surprise that Rod Stewart knows exactly how to entertain a crowd. The 72-year-old defied his years as he put on a very energetic display in Hayrkon park in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday night. Throwing some serious shapes, Rod whipped his fans into a frenzy with both his moves AND his wardrobe choices. Scroll down for video Some Guys Have All The Moves: Rod Stewart, 72, performed some VERY energetic dance steps in a silver foil jacket and open shirt in Israel on Wednesday night Opting for a silver foil blazer, he flashed a hint of chest with the buttons of his star-print shirt undone. His blonde mane was typically coiffed and he completed his look with a pair of embellished Gucci sneakers. Stewart has sold more than 100 million albums, rocked a thousand stadiums with hits including Maggie May, You Wear It Well, I Dont Want To Talk About It, Sailing, Tonights The Night and Baby Jane, hes had three wives, eight kids and is estimated to be worth 160 million. Giving the mic stand a run for its money: Opting for a silver foil blazer, he flashed a hint of chest with the buttons of his star-print shirt undone Rod recently spoke to the MailOnSunday about getting his knighthood. He said: 'I saw the Queen later that evening and she said:"You were knighted today. Who did it?" 'I said, William, Maam. She said, Did he make a good job of it? I said, He certainly did, Maam. Thank you very much. Throw your arms in the air like you just don't care: Rod appeared to be in very high spirits as he wowed his audience Two's company: Rod was joined onstage by a female singer as he put on quite a show He added: 'I cant understand why people like John Lennon and Bowie would turn down a knighthood. 'Because its the British people that give it to you; its not the Royal Family, its an honour from the public. Theres a committee. 'People write in your fans and the committee look at it. Then they say, Why not? Weve had enough letters about Rod Stewart. Lets look into his background and make sure hes paid his taxes. Iconic: Stewart has sold more than 100 million albums, rocked a thousand stadiums with hits including Maggie May, You Wear It Well, I Dont Want To Talk About It, Sailing, Tonights The Night and Baby Jane What a life: Hes had three wives, eight kids and is estimated to be worth 160 million The closure of Saudi, Bahraini and Emirati airspace to Qatar Airways flights has caused major disruption Saudi Arabia insisted on Tuesday that its neighbour Qatar was not under blockade as a Gulf diplomatic dispute escalated amid increasing international concern over its effects on ordinary people. The gas-rich emirate's only land border is with the Saudi kingdom, and the closure of both it and Saudi, Bahraini and Emirati airspace to Qatar Airways flights has caused major disruption. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, in Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, insisted that moves to isolate Qatar were reasonable. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies accuse Qatar of supporting "terrorism" in the region, while Doha's supporters have warned of a humanitarian crisis. "There is no blockade of Qatar. Qatar is free to go. The ports are open, the airports are open," Jubeir said alongside a silent Tillerson who had called last week for the embargo on Qatar to be "eased". "The limitation on the use of Saudi airspace is only limited to Qatari airways or Qatari-owned aircraft, not anybody else," Jubeir said. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, insisted Tuesday there is no "blockade" on Qatar's aircraft "The seaports of Qatar are open. There is no blockade on them. Qatar can move goods in and out whenever they want. They just cannot use our territorial waters." But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a Doha ally, denounced Qatar's economic and political isolation. "Taking action to isolate a country in all areas is inhumane and un-Islamic," Erdogan said in televised comments Tuesday. - 'Death sentence' - In his strongest remarks yet on the crisis, Erdogan added that "a death sentence had in some way been pronounced" on Qatar. Turkey is in a delicate position as Ankara regards Qatar as its chief ally in the Gulf, but it is also keen to maintain its improving relations with regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia. Ankara also is eager to maintain workable relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia's foe with whom Doha's critics say Qatar maintained excessively close ties. Erdogan was to hold three-way phone talks on the crisis later Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron and Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Doha's ambassador to the European Union, Abdul Rahman Al Khulaifi, said Tuesday Qatar was "astonished and surprised when we hear voices who say we are supporting terrorism". "These accusations... it doesn't have any base, any logic to it," he said. "You can disagree politically with your neighbours, but why do you get the people of the region involved in it?" the envoy asked. The Gulf states on June 5 ordered Qataris to leave within 14 days and also banned their own citizens from travelling to the emirate. The knock-on effects of the crisis are not confined to the Gulf. Al-Udeid, the largest US airbase in the Middle East, is in Qatar and is a key facility in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman discussed the crisis on Tuesday, with Putin warning that isolating Qatar would make finding a peaceful end to the war in Syria more difficult. - Resolution mechanism - Their talks "touched on the aggravated situation around Qatar, which unfortunately does not help consolidate joint efforts in resolving the conflict in Syria and fighting the terrorist threat," a Kremlin statement said. Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran called for a permanent mechanism in the Gulf to resolve issues such as the current crisis. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking in Norway, said it was "absolutely imperative" to resolve the row through dialogue and to "establish a permanent mechanism for consultation, conversation and conflict resolution in our region." He said this could be along the lines of the 1975 Helsinki accords signed during the Cold War to reduce tensions between Western and Communist nations. As the crisis simmered, Washington's envoy to Doha tweeted on Tuesday that she was leaving her post. Dana Shell Smith did not say why she was stepping down, but in Washington officials said she had made a personal decision to leave earlier this year after a normal three-year tour. Smith was appointed ambassador by US President Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama in 2014. Last month in another tweet she appeared to express dissatisfaction with political events back home. After Trump's dramatic sacking of FBI director James Comey, she wrote: "Increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing I will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions." burs-srm/dr US Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, in Washington, DC, on June 12, 2017 US Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before Congress Tuesday in another point of high drama regarding the Russia election meddling probe, under pressure to explain his role in the scandal battering President Donald Trump's administration. Sessions appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee at 2:30 pm (1830 GMT) for what will be a closely-watched grilling over his Russia contacts and how he was involved in the firing of FBI director James Comey. It will be the first sworn public testimony from Sessions, a longtime former senator, since he was confirmed as the nation's top law enforcement officer in February, and comes as political intrigue pulses through the US capital following explosive testimony by Comey last week. Trump has expressed frustration with Sessions, one of his earliest high-profile campaign backers, who has recused himself from investigations into alleged Russian interference in last year's election, and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. The Justice Department has said Sessions recused himself because his involvement in the campaign, but in his dramatic appearance last Thursday, Comey said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was aware of information that would have made it "problematic" for Sessions to be involved. Trump sacked Comey in early May. Given that as FBI director Comey was overseeing the Russia probe, the firing has led to questions about potential obstruction of justice. Rumors have since circulated that the president may seek to sack special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to head the high-stakes investigation following Comey's ouster. But Sessions, who recommended Comey be fired, may end up declining to discuss his conversations with the president, invoking the so-called executive privilege that allows the president and others in the administration to keep their internal discussions private. Whether he does so "depends on the scope of the questions," White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Monday, saying it would be "premature" to say how Sessions will act. Although Sessions backed Trump's campaign, he was also one of the first administration officials to fly into turbulence. During his January confirmation hearing, he failed to disclose two meetings he held with Russian officials. "He didn't tell us the truth," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told MSNBC Monday, saying there were now indications he had a third meeting. "Let's find out under oath what it was," Leahy said. - 'Confidence' in special counsel - Sessions heads to Capitol Hill in a perilous position with his boss, with Trump reportedly growing displeased with his attorney general, notably over his recusal on the Russia probe. Jeff Sessions He may also face questions about comments by Trump confidant Chris Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax, who suggested Monday that the president was considering firing Mueller, the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department to lead the FBI's Russia probe. Democrats have bristled at that prospect, and several experts have warned that such a move could prove politically disastrous. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said Tuesday he has "confidence" in the special counsel. "I think the best thing to do is to let Robert Mueller do his job," he said. In a separate Senate hearing, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein -- who following Sessions' recusal from the Russia probe is the official with authority to fire Mueller -- told lawmakers he has seen no evidence of good cause to do so. Asked if he would fire Mueller should Trump ask him to, Rosenstein responded: "I'm not going to follow any orders unless I believe those are lawful." Sessions may be under a further cloud after Comey suggested the attorney general may have failed to take appropriate steps to protect the FBI chief from political pressure from Trump's White House. At the conclusion of a February 14 meeting, the sacked FBI chief testified, Trump urged everyone else but Comey to leave the Oval Office, including Sessions. Comey said the president then leaned on him to halt an investigation into one of his top aides, former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Comey recalled that he felt "something big" was about to happen, and "my sense was the attorney general knew he shouldn't be leaving." Opinion / Columnist Zambia and Zimbabwe used to be pretty much one 'country'; Rhodesia.Separated by a natural barrier, the Zambezi, one was Northern Rhodesia, one was Southern Rhodesia.Political history determined otherwise, but recent occurrences seem to indicate the countries have become one entity again, and it is under all the wrong reasons.As it stands, both territories are governed by heartless autocrats who have no respect for human dignity, human rights, rule of law, or other persons. The only difference being that one, Robert Mugabe, has already turned his country into a kingdom, where he rules like a glorified sultan, while the other, Edgar Lungu, is tracing Mugabe's footsteps, in his bid to make himself another primitive King.The similarities are stark and damning, and the devil is in the details.Zambia's Lungu is not just following in Mugabe's shadow, he is retracing every footstep of the nonagenarian.In 2016, Edgar Lungu's government attacked a national newspaper, The Post, which was viewed as largely critical of the establishment.Incredible accusations of tax evasion were laid against the publication, before it was stormed, tear smoked, its journalists attacked, and ultimately shut down.Not much was made of this. The world watched, and ignored, despite its founder Fred M'membe stating clearly that the assault on the publication, not the first, was politically motivated.M'membe is no stranger to government persecution, despite being a fine journalist. In 2001, he was arrested for calling ex-President Fred Chiluba a thief. Time eventually proved he was right, Chiluba was hauled before several courts and convicted of theft.President Levy Mwanawasa, who played in integral role in having M'membe freed would later have him arrested in 2005, for defamation, after the journalist, in true scribe fashion, used accurate but embarrassing adjectives to describe the showboating President.President Lungu, fully aware, of the risk that a true watchdog posed to his government made it his mandate to have The Post shut down before the elections. And having shut it down, his forces, police and at times military would unleash an intense orgy of violence on those deemed to be supporters of the opposition candidate Haikande Hichilema.So vile were the attacks, that, a woman living with mental disability was attacked by Lungu's police militia, and killed, in broad daylight her crime was to ululate in praises towards the opposition. The police refused to intervene and are not investigating the matter, till today.She is not the only one. Several other men, women, and children, able bodied and disabled, were routinely rounded up before elections, beaten to three pulps, and left in instances for dead.In, Uncle Bob's Zimbabwe, a similar publication to Zambia's Post, sprung up at a crucial time in the country's political evolution, it was called the Daily News. In some manners, it still is called the Daily News, although much of its hard-hitting journalism has perished.As emotions ran high, with government cans of worms being opened, the Daily News was bombed, first on 22 April 2000, and on 28 January 2001. In 2003, the government shut it down altogether.Like M'membe, the Daily News founder, celebrated journalist, Geoffrey Nyarota was arrested all of six times, detained plenty other times, before finally being driven into exile.In April, this year, 2017, Zambia's leader of the opposition was arrested for apparently attempting to kill the President. He was said to have done so, after his vehicle procession failed to adequately make way for President Lungu's motorcade; a traffic offense which has now been elevated to the level of treason.As we speak, Hichilema is still languishing in prison. His attempts to retain freedom repeatedly frustrated by a system determined to keep him essentially locked in.Zimbabwe's leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, at a similar 'critical time' found himself behind bars, on similar charges. In February of 2002, he was charged with treason.As you read this, Edgar Lungu, by tacit direction has just had about 48 members of parliament from the opposition suspended for boycotting his speech.In Zimbabwe, Mugabe when lawmakers booed his speech in 2015, he responded by having government agents send threatening SMS messages to all opposition legislators, reminding them that 'immunity ended in the house of commons' and that those that dared boo Mugabe again would be targeted and 'taught lessons'.Further examples exist. Zambia has over the last few months acted like a lawless god. Zimbabwe's Prophet Uebert Angel was deported violently for no reason.Foreign journalists have been followed brazenly to instill fear, while South Africa's leader of the opposition, Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane was deported illegally.In Zimbabwe, Mugabe has arrested several foreign journalists and deported them. Banned all others from reporting within the country without clearance, victimized sitting ambassadors, and made clear his intention of attacking any foreign parties who advocate for freedom.As aforementioned, the similarities are stark. And it goes beyond the 'rulers'. Even the opposition, seem equally fatigued, and unable to come up with strategies to beat the incumbents.In Zimbabwe, the MDC's (all versions) have repeatedly rejected election results that made several of their members legislators, attempted to have election results set aside by the courts, unsuccessfully.What is perhaps ironic, is that, having been one region, Zimbabwe and Zambia took different trajectories after independence. As Zimbabwe became a failed government, and struggles(d) under an autocratic Mugabe, Zambia became an emblem for democracy and stability in Africa.A few years ago, before Edgar Lungu came to power, Zambia was the country Zimbabwe ought to have been. The big brother whose example was missed south. As it stands, Zambia is becoming the country Zimbabwe should have never been.Recent events prove that Lungu is following Mugabe, and in chronological order. In 2015, Lungu stated that he was learning a lot from Mugabe. All evidence is that he has done so, and is now implanting Mugabe's 'how to be an autocrat'.If he is successful in his attempts, Zambia will follow Zimbabwe in that same exact order, sliding down, from beacon to demon.It will not take long either, and it is very very bad news for everybody. As executive director of Vanguard Africa Jeff Smith put it, these are dark and dangerous days for Zambia. They have been for a long time. (DM)Maynard Manyowa is a contributing editor on Khuluma Afrika - a center for political analysis and investigative journalism New Zealand sailing great Russell Coutts speaks at a yachting event in San Francisco, in 2013 New Zealand sailing great Russell Coutts dismissed criticism of this year's America's Cup from his home country, ahead of the final match between Team Orcale USA and the Kiwis which starts on Saturday in Bermuda. It is a chance of revenge for the New Zealanders, after they blew an 8-1 lead to lose 9-8 to Oracle in one of sport's greatest comebacks in 2013. The 1984 Finn-class Olympic champion and five-time America's Cup winner Coutts is the head organiser of the 35th edition of the world's oldest sailing competition, which has featured a shortened format and ultra-fast boats in an attempt to bring in new fans. But New Zealand, who set up the rematch with the Americans by beating Sweden's Artemis Racing 5-2 in the challenger final on Monday, have refused to join the other teams to discuss the future of the Cup. Coutts expressed his delight with the new format, but acknowledged that should New Zealand win the title and hold the next staging of the event, then it could prove to be a one-off. Five-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts is the head organiser of the 35th edition of the world's oldest sailing competition "We just have to wait and see what their plan is, they have not announced their plan," he told AFP. "I think the strength in the framework agreement with the five teams that have joined is really that they have agreed to pre-agree the rules before any one team wins. "Typically in the past, the team has won, and then created the rules with a friendly challenger of record, in isolation to everyone else. "So everyone else has to wait and see what those rules are. And clearly, that's not ideal. "It's much better I think to involve everyone, and the New Zealanders were invited to participate in that process, they declined." - Foiling criticism - The criticism has come despite an exciting America's Cup challenger series, that has seen the hydrofoil boats enable teams to travel up to double the wind speed. New Zealand have accused that of killing innovation in the event, but Coutts strongly disagrees. "No, I don't think that that's true," he said. "I think clearly you see more innovation in these last two America's Cups than we've perhaps ever seen in these last, you know, 30-50 years, frankly. "You know, no matter what the critics say about foiling, what I can tell you is that it's already having a dramatic impact in our industry. "Of course it's a more efficient way of sailing, and therefore that's going to translate in a fairly major way than it already is into a pleasure boat, leisure industry." Other significant changes to this year's competition include the shift from offshore to inshore racing, which opened up the sport to a new fanbase, and the shortening of the races themselves. "In many ways we've seen a bit of a revolution in the America's Cup," Coutts added. "We've developed a completely different television package, a different way of televising the event; the races are much shorter; there's more action and excitement." The first to seven wins from the races to take place from June 17-18 and 24-27 between Oracle and New Zealand will claim the 'Auld Mug', which was first awarded in 1851. African migrants who were either rescued from the Mediterranean Sea or prevented from crossing to Europe by Libyan coast guards wait at a detention center in Zawiyah, 45 kilometres west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli Maria gave smugglers all her family savings and crossed three countries and the searing Libyan desert, but when she finally boarded a boat for Europe her dream was swiftly shattered. She was 24 and pregnant with her second child when she left Liberia with her husband and their three-year-old son. The family passed through Guinea and Mali before crossing southern Algeria to reach the Libyan desert. "The smugglers took all our money" -- more than $2,150 (2,000 euros), she said. "We spent four days in the desert. People died of thirst and the sun in the back of the truck." They finally arrived on the beach at Sabrata, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Libya's capital Tripoli, a key departure point for migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. They immediately boarded an inflatable boat after paying smugglers about 500 Libyan dinars (around $85, 80 euros at black market rates) for each family member. But the subsequent voyage was short and ended abruptly. Their flimsy craft was intercepted by the Libyan coastguard and they were escorted to a detention centre in Zawiya, a port town between Sabrata and Tripoli. It was there that Maria finally gave birth. Today, she is locked up with her baby and son, along with 20 other women and children. Her husband is detained in a cramped cell nearby with dozens of other migrants. Their story is similar to that of thousands of sub-Saharan migrants who make desperate attempts to reach Europe via war-torn Libya. The country has become a major transit point for migrants looking to cross the Mediterranean with, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration, between 700,000 and a million people in Libya awaiting their chance. Libya also has more than two dozen reception centres where hundreds of migrants are being detained in appalling conditions. - Harrowing journey - Smugglers operate openly in the chaos that followed the fall of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. African migrants who were either rescued from the Mediterranean Sea or prevented from crossing to Europe by Libyan coast guards rest at a detention center in Zawiyah, 45 kilometres west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli Moussa Ouatara, 29, headed to the North African country from his native Ivory Coast. He had to pay $195 (180 euros) to reach the transit point of Agadez in Niger's central desert, then a further $490 (460 euros) to reach Sabrata with a group of other Ivorians. He too spoke of a harrowing journey across the Libyan desert. "There were deaths," he said. "They died of hunger and thirst. There was no water or food." After paying more money (230 euros) to cross the Mediterranean, his boat was intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, who took him to Zawiya. "I haven't got any money for another crossing attempt," he said. Abu Bakr Mansary from Sierra Leone spent several months in the Libyan desert towns of Sebha and Gatroun, transit points for many clandestine migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The 23-year-old said he had worked there to save up for his crossing attempt, but his journey ended when the inflatable boat he had boarded with dozens of other migrants suffered a puncture. He said he clung on for 17 hours before being rescued by the coastguard. "It was not easy, it was really crazy," he said. The head of EU border agency Frontex in February criticised charities for rescuing migrants ever closer to the Libyan coast, saying this encouraged traffickers to force ever more migrants onto unseaworthy boats. - Cheaper boats - Fathi al-Far, who runs the reception centre in Zawiya, said rescue boats operating between Libya and Italy's Lampedusa island were helping smugglers and making crossings even more dangerous. "The (migrants') boats no longer have to last 24 hours so they can reach Lampedusa, as in the past," he said. That has prompted smugglers to use cheaper, flimsy inflatable boats, putting migrants at even greater risk, he said. The lower costs have also slashed the price migrants pay for a crossing, encouraging more to try their luck. "For the same reason, there's no longer a 'migration season'," Far said. "People are now leaving at any time, even in winter." African migrants who were either rescued from the Mediterranean Sea or prevented from crossing to Europe by Libyan coast guards sit at a detention center in Zawiyah, 45 kilometres west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli On April 23, an Italian prosecutor was quoted by La Stampa newspaper as saying charity-run boats rescuing migrants were colluding with traffickers in Libya. Sicily-based Carmelo Zuccaro said there was evidence of "telephone calls from Libya to certain NGOs, lamps that illuminate the route to these organisations' boats (and) boats that suddenly turn off their (locating) transponders". Marouane, a 26-year-old Moroccan, says he was saved from "certain drowning" on a crossing attempt weeks ago. He said he had "seen death" on the sea after his boat started taking on water. But he is determined not to give up. "As soon as I'm out of here, I will set off by sea again for Europe," he said. Anbang held talks with the firm owned by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for an investment in an office tower on New York's famous Fifth Avenue The chairman of a Chinese insurance group which sought a business deal with the family of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law has stepped aside following a report that he was taken away by authorities. Officials from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission notified the Anbang group that Wu Xiaohui was "taken away" on Friday but did not explain why, according to Caijing, a Chinese magazine. Caijing's report appeared online on Tuesday but has since been taken down. Anbang said in a statement on Wednesday that Wu was "temporarily unable to perform his duties for personal reasons" but did not mention his apparent detention. Phone calls to the regulatory commission went unanswered on Wednesday. Chinese authorities are engaged in a battle against corruption in their ranks and in the business world, a campaign launched by President Xi Jinping in 2012 to eradicate rampant graft. Financial regulators are also scrambling to ease fears of a looming debt crisis, with measures to rein in risky lending and acquisitions of real estate. Official heads have rolled too, including China's insurance regulator Xiang Junbo, who was sacked in April and faces an investigation. His tenure coincided with a surge in speculative investments by Chinese insurers. Caijing, citing an unidentified source in the financial world, said regulators may be investigating Anbang's compliance with insurance products or insurance fund investments. In May the Insurance Regulatory Commission accused Anbang of violating certain provisions and banned the group from filing applications for new insurance products for three months. Anbang held controversial negotiations with the company owned by Trump's White House adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, for an investment in an office tower on New York's famous Fifth Avenue. But the talks were broken off in March after critics of the Trump administration warned of a potential conflict of interest. Established just 13 years ago, Anbang has grown from a domestic seller of property insurance into a financial services powerhouse, making a name for itself abroad by buying New York's historic Waldorf Astoria hotel for a record $1.95 billion in 2014. But in April US insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life turned down a $1.6 billion acquisition bid by Anbang. While Wu has stepped aside, Anbang said in its statement that business continues "as usual". - Billionaires under the gun - If his detention is confirmed, Wu, who is married to a granddaughter of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, would be the latest billionaire to run afoul of the authorities. Guo Wengui, a real estate tycoon, left China in 2014 and authorities are seeking his arrest. From his luxurious New York City apartment, Guo has used social media to lob allegations of corruption against some of China's most powerful people. Financier Xiao Jianhua vanished from his Hong Kong apartment earlier this year and reports suggest he was abducted by mainland security agents. He was reportedly under investigation in connection with China's 2015 stocks crash. The country is in the middle of an important year politically, with the Communist Party holding a major congress in a few months that is expected to consolidate Xi's power and lead to a reshuffle of top leadership posts. In Agadez, a city in central Niger, migrants are held in very basic "ghettos" owned by smugglers where there is usually no running water or electricity Extortion, corruption and fear; violence, hunger and sometimes even death: for west African migrants dreaming of reaching Europe, the road to get there can be an absolute minefield. - Departure - Whether it's The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Senegal or Nigeria, everything starts with the "hustlers" -- slang for the middlemen or fixers who organise the trip. Their honesty and prices vary, with the would-be migrant usually deceived about the welcome expected in Europe. Many possess no official documents from their home country, and do not understand illegal status in Europe. Most are ignorant about the extreme difficulties they will encounter en route. "We didn't know we were risking our lives," said Kante Sekou, 27, who gave up upon reaching Libya. Hustlers demand between 200,000 to one million CFA francs (300-1,500 euros/$330-$1,660) per person for a journey they claim will end up in Europe, but which often goes no further than Agadez in central Niger, or Libya. - Towards Niger - Despite mounting pressure from Niamey to halt the flow of people heading to Europe, Niger remains a key route on the migrant trail. Even before getting there, migrants are often "ripped off" by unscrupulous police and customs officials. According to witnesses, those in Burkina Faso appear to be particularly greedy, with migrants speaking of being held in overflowing cells until they pay up. Once in Niger, officers also take small "commissions" at each roadblock. Bus companies have a tendency to group migrants and non-migrants in different vehicles, with officers tipped off about which to approach, a bus company source said. In 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) observed around 335,000 migrants heading northwards out of Niger. But the numbers are unclear because the IOM only counts those crossing its own checkpoints. - Agadez: a key crossroads - This city in central Niger is a key crossroad, with routes through it leading to Libya and Algeria. Migrants leave Agadez in central Niger on pick-up trucks, holding wooden sticks tied to the vehicle to avoid falling off, with up to 29 people loaded onto each vehicle However, with the increasing number of checks, several new routes have opened up from the southern city of Zinder, offering an eastern route to Libya, while others bypass Agadez to the west, leaving from the southwestern city of Dosso, people smugglers say. In Agadez, migrants are held in "ghettos" or "hostels" owned by the smugglers -- these are usually simple plots surrounded by walls, which sometimes have a hut, where the migrants huddle under tarps as shade from the sun. Usually, there is no running water or electricity. Over the past few months, ghettos visible from the city centre have disappeared with people taken to homes in the suburbs. According to one fixer, that is the best way to avoid police controls and also means they can leave the city without travelling along main roads. Hustlers pick up migrants from bus stations in Agadez. Usually grouped by nationality, they have often run out of money by this stage, meaning the hustlers have to arrange extra funds through phone contact with their families. While waiting for departure, migrants live hand-to-mouth in precarious circumstances with men doing odd jobs and women sometimes resorting to prostitution. - Sudden departure - Migrants are not notified in advance about their departure. They are put in the back of 4x4 pick-up trucks which can carry up to 29 passengers with their legs dangling over the sides. Sticks are wedged between the luggage so passengers can hold on. To cope with the sand and heat, they must have on them a hat, gloves, sunglasses, a jacket and water. Since the police crackdown, departures tend to happen in the pre-dawn hours. A convoy is usually made up of three to five vehicles, with migrants sometimes transferred out of the city before being put into trucks in order to avoid roadblocks. A few months ago, passage to Libya cost up to 300,000 CFA francs but the crackdown has seen prices ballooning with the rate easily hitting 400,000 CFA francs and sometimes rising as high as a million, a local official said. - Bandits in the desert - "It's 750 kilometres (460 miles) and three days' drive to the border," says one smuggler who refused to give his name. "We drive 24-7. We stop only to drink tea, five minutes for the restroom. I carry up to 26 people. We leave in a convoy, never alone. "We don't stop because we are afraid of bandits and the police. The bandits are armed. They can hijack your vehicle and leave you in the desert. So it's death," he said. If there is an attack, "we try to hide the Thuraya (satellite phone) to bury it," he said. "The bandits have people in town. When a car leaves the city, they inform them." If soldiers stop them, everyone is brought back to the city and the cars are impounded. For the migrants, it is a difficult road. They have to hold on without falling, and be sparing with their food and water. Many throw up on the way and arrive at their destination exhausted. Some even die en route. Earlier this month, at least 44 people, among them women and babies, died of thirst after their vehicle broke down in the desert. "This desert is full of migrants' bodies," lamented Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum. - Libya: apocalyptic lawlessness - Most migrants returning from Libya describe an apocalyptic lawlessness with armed groups extorting and exploiting them, with many speaking of theft, kidnapping and torture. Others speak of being jailed in "private" prisons and only released when their families paid a ransom. Others speak of having to work for miserable wages or in slavery-like conditions. Even so, for most, Libya is an unavoidable stop for those hoping to catch a boat to Europe. Conditions in the Manus camp have been criticised by refugee advocates and doctors, with reports of abuse, self-harm and mental health problems Detainees at an Australian asylum-seeker camp in Papua New Guinea won millions of dollars in compensation for "degrading and cruel" treatment Wednesday, in a decision hailed as an important human rights victory. Abuse, self-harm and mental health problems are reportedly rife in offshore processing centres, with detainees resorting to desperate protests like sewing their own lips together to raise awareness of their plight. Wednesday's AUS$70 million (US$53 million) conditional settlement, to be shared by 1,905 people who have been held on Manus Island since 2012, averted a public trial against the government and security providers Transfield and G4S. A class action had sought damages for what claimants said was suffering due to the harsh conditions in which they were held. It also called for a payout for false imprisonment after the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruled last year that holding asylum-seekers on Manus Island was unconstitutional and illegal. Law firm Slater and Gordon said they believed it was the largest human rights class action settlement in Australian history, with the defendants also agreeing to pay more than Aus$20 million in costs. "The people detained on Manus Island have endured extremely hostile conditions, but they will no longer suffer in silence," said the firm's Andrew Baker. "While no amount of money could fully recognise the terrible conditions the detainees endured, we hope todays settlement can begin to provide them with an opportunity to help put this dark chapter of their lives behind them." The Manus detention facility opened in 2012 to hold people trying to enter Australia by boat, under a tough immigration policy that sends them offshore to be processed. Campaigners say conditions at the Manus Island camp are basic, and lead to mental health problems for detainees They are blocked from resettling in Australia even if found to be refugees. Conditions in the camp, and another one on Nauru in the Pacific, have been widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals, with reports of maltreatment and neglect, leading to serious health problems. Amnesty International called the decision "historic" and "a major crack in the Australian government's crumbling system of abuse". "It must be a turning point towards a better solution for refugees -- one that is grounded in protection, not abuse," said Amnesty Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze. - Prudent outcome - Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the payout was not an admission of liability, but to avoid a costly six-month trial. "In such circumstances a settlement was considered a prudent outcome for Australian taxpayers," he said in a statement. "The Commonwealth strongly refutes and denies the claims made in these proceedings. Settlement is not an admission of liability in any regard." The Manus detention facility opened in 2012 to hold people trying to enter Australia by boat under a tough immigration policy that sends them offshore to be processed Slater and Gordon lawyer Rory Walsh said the government and its contractors defence "was that it was the PNG authorities doing the imprisoning and detaining and not them". "The denial of liability allows the Commonwealth and the defendants to run those positions in any other cases and maintain that position," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Lead plaintiff Majid Kamasaee, an Iranian, welcomed the settlement as an overdue acknowledgement of the suffering he and others endured. "This case is not just about me, it is about every person who has been trapped on Manus Island," said Kamasaee, who was held there for 11 months "I left my home in Iran in 2013 because of religious persecution and I came to Australia seeking peace, but I was sent to Manus, which was hell. "The way we were treated at the Manus Island detention centre was degrading and cruel." While the Manus camp needs to close following the PNG court decision, Dutton has made clear those housed there would not be moved to Australia but instead relocated to third countries such as the United States and Cambodia, or resettled in PNG. The government has not revealed any plans to shut down the Nauru facility. Firefighters search for bodies after landslides that have left at least 146 people dead Rescue workers battled Wednesday to reach victims of landslides, described as the worst in Bangladesh's history, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 152. Villagers in some of the worst-hit areas used shovels to try to dig bodies out of the mud that engulfed their settlements as they slept. Authorities say hundreds of homes were buried by mud and rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains dumped 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of water on the southeast of the country in just 24 hours. Disaster Management Department chief Reaz Ahmed said the landslides were the worst in the country's history and warned the death toll would rise as rescuers reached cut-off areas. Khodeza Begum narrowly survived the disaster, which destroyed her home and killed 11 people in her village. She told a local news website how she emerged from her home just after dawn on Tuesday to see the mountainside collapsing in front of her. "As I came out, I saw a huge slab of earth rolling down from the hill. Instantly I got all my relatives out of their homes," she said. "My house was buried under mud within moments. I have never seen a disaster like this in my life." Firefighters in the worst-hit district of Rangamati recovered six more bodies on Wednesday after clearing mud with shovels and water pumps. "The bodies were three to five feet deep in mud. We pumped water at a force to clear the mud," said Didarul Alam, fire services chief for Rangamati district The firefighters had pulled 18 people out from under the mud on Tuesday, but did not have the manpower to reach all the affected areas. Bangladesh Alam said his team had been able to reach more areas on Wednesday after 60 reinforcements arrived from neighbouring Chittagong. Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been evacuated, a minister said. - 'Backlash effect' - A grim search for bodies goes on in Rangamati, where at least 98 people are known to have died The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes. South Asia is frequently hit by flooding and landslides in the summer with the arrival of the annual monsoon rains. Extreme weather in the far north-eastern Indian state of Mizoram along the border with Bangladesh left 12 people dead, an official there said Wednesday. "Many people are reported missing. Hundreds of houses, roads and some mobile towers have been damaged in the flooding and landslides in the region," N Chakhai, the state's head of disaster management, told AFP. More than 200 people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when the monsoon triggered landslides and the worst flooding the island has seen in well over a decade. Experts in Bangladesh said unplanned development in vulnerable areas was making the annual rains more deadly. "There is a backlash effect. These things accelerate the pace of the disaster and make it more fatal," S.M.A. Fayez, an environmental science professor at Dhaka University, told AFP. Rescue work has been hobbled by heavy rains, which have cut transport links to some remote areas. The army said thousands of troops stationed in the affected districts as part of efforts to quell a long-running tribal insurgency had joined the rescue efforts. "Our soldiers based in all parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have participated in the rescue operations," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Rangamati district chief Manzurul Mannan told AFP 104 people had been killed there and 200 injured, some of them seriously. At least 37 people died in Chittagong, scene of a major landslide in 2007 that killed 127 people. Grief-stricken villagers mourn the dead in remote parts of Bangladesh, but many bodies are still missing and the toll is expected to rise Among the victims in the latest disaster were two fishermen who drowned off the coast of Cox's Bazar after their boat apparently capsized. Other trawlers and their sailors were still missing. As rain pounded Cox's Bazar for a third day, police confirmed that a father and daughter had been killed when a landslide buried their home. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stands at an event at the Istana presidential palace in Singapore A feud between the children of Singapore's late founding leader intensified Wednesday after two siblings publicly accused their brother Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of disobeying their father's last wishes and abusing his powers. Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew is largely credited with transforming the city-state from a relatively poor British colony into one of the worlds wealthiest and most stable societies. His eldest son Hsien Loong became Singapore's third prime minister in 2004, taking over the People's Action Party (PAP) which has governed Singapore since it gained self-rule in 1959. "We have felt threatened by Hsien Loongs misuse of his position and influence over the Singapore government and its agencies to drive his personal agenda," read a statement posted online by younger brother Hsien Yang and younger sister Wei Ling. It was an extraordinary public criticism of the city-state's top leadership in a country where tough laws against protests and curbs on press freedom have stifled political dissent. The siblings' grievances largely centre on the fate of the family's home after their father's death. The Lee patriarch, who died two years ago, warned against building a personality cult around his legacy and feared his old bungalow would be turned into a museum if it was not demolished. The pair said their brother Lee had defied their father's instructions to tear down the house. - 'Absurd claim' - "We have observed that Hsien Loong and (his wife) Ho Ching want to milk Lee Kuan Yews legacy for their own political purposes," the statement said, adding that they harbour political ambitions for one of their sons. Ho, a former civil servant, is the chief executive of state investment agency Temasek Holdings. The prime minister, who is on vacation overseas, fired back with his own statement, saying he was "deeply saddened by the unfortunate allegations". "Ho Ching and I deny these allegations, especially the absurd claim that I have political ambitions for my son," Lee said. "Since my fathers passing in March 2015, as the eldest son I have tried my best to resolve the issues among us... out of respect for our parents," he added. "My siblings statement has hurt our father's legacy." A man walks past the house of Singapore's late founding father Lee Kuan Yew at Oxley Rise in Singapore The premier's siblings also alleged they were being closely monitored, adding they had lost faith in their brother's ability to lead. "We feel hugely uncomfortable and closely monitored in our own country," they said. "We do not trust Hsien Loong as a brother or as a leader. We have lost confidence in him." Hsien Yang, a former brigadier-general like his brother, added that he "will leave Singapore for the foreseeable future" over the widening rift. He is currently chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore after holding top jobs in Singapore Telecom and beverage giant Fraser & Neave. Wei Ling, a medical doctor, is senior adviser to the National Neuroscience Institute. - Rare public criticism - The public dispute involving the country's first family has gone viral online in a country where open criticism of the ruling party is rare. Lee Kuan Yew, despite his major achievements in bringing economic prosperity, was criticised by rights groups for restricting political freedoms, including muzzling the press, jailing political opponents and suing critics for defamation. Premier Lee and former prime minister Goh Chok Tong have also sued critics for defamation. The junior Lee led the PAP to a landslide victory in the 2015 general election, six months after the death of his father sparked a massive outpouring of support for the former leader's legacy. Analysts said that despite the quarrel, Lee's political position was unlikely to be affected. "Lee Hsien Loong I don't think will be challenged politically, his position is quite secure," Michael Barr, associate professor of international relations at Flinders University in Adelaide, told AFP. But he said the question remains whether this incident would affect "Brand Lee". Political analyst and former nominated lawmaker Eugene Tan said the dispute puts Lee in the "challenging position of having to defend himself while at the same time ensuring that confidence in Singapores government remains unshaken". Snapping their heads from side to side, marching into the roads in close-fitting blue uniforms and black heels, the 'traffic ladies' who marshal vehicles at the intersections of Pyongyang are an emblematic image of the North Korean capital. Officially known as traffic security officers but universally referred to as traffic ladies, they are chosen for their looks in a society that remains traditionalist in many respects. They must leave the role if they marry, and have a finite shelf-life, with compulsory retirement looming at just 26. The 300-odd ladies are unique to Pyongyang, which North Korean authorities are always keen to present in the best possible light despite their nuclear-armed country's impoverished status, and ensure a steady supply of photogenic young women who are the favourite subject of visiting tourists and journalists. Referred to as traffic ladies in North Korea, the women who marshal vehicles through Pyongyang are chosen for their looks in a society that remains traditionalist in many respects The women must leave the role if they marry, and have a finite shelf-life, with compulsory retirement looming at just 26 The 300-odd ladies are unique to Pyongyang are the favourite subject of visiting tourists and journalists The women, who marshal vehicles at the intersections of Pyongyang are an emblematic image of the North Korean capital 'They are representing the capital city,' explained a senior officer of the ministry of public security, which supervises traffic regulation. 'That's why they are selected based on their appearance and physique.' No age limit applies to their roughly 400 male counterparts - who tend to be stationed at roundabouts. The rules were because 'normally, the women in our country marry at the age of 26 or 27', explained the officer, who did not want to be named. 'Because the role is tough and difficult, they can only do the job when they are single.' The traffic ladies were originally introduced in the 1980s, when vehicles were a rarity on the streets of Pyongyang and remained so for decades, giving rise to the surreal sight of them directing - with precision and energy - non-existent cars on wide but deserted boulevards. As part of North Korea's security forces they hold officer ranks, and Senior Captain Ri Myong-Sim, 24, said: 'I have to carry out each and every action with discipline and spirit.' No age limit applies to their roughly 400 male counterparts - who tend to be stationed at roundabouts The rule that the women have to leave the role by 26 came about because most women in North Korea get married when they're 26 or 27, one officer (not pictured) says The traffic ladies were originally introduced in the 1980s, when vehicles were a rarity on the streets of Pyongyang and remained so for decades, giving rise to the surreal sight of them directing - with precision and energy - non-existent cars on wide but deserted boulevards A traffic security officer walks in front of several vehicles while on duty at an intersection in Pyongyang A seven-year veteran, she cuts an imposing presence in her high-peaked cap and white gloves. Her 'tough training' had involved 'exhausting repetition' of the moves, she told AFP. 'But every time I felt that, the thing that kept me going and drove me was the thought that our leader, who cares for only the happiness of our people all year long, was watching us work,' she said, standing ramrod-straight at the Changjon crossroads in central Pyongyang. 'So I could practice throughout the night and keep going on the next day without feeling tired at all.' Ordinary North Koreans normally only express officially approved sentiments when questioned by foreign media. An obelisk down the road proclaimed: 'The Great President Kim Il-Sung and the Great Leader Kim Jong-Il will always be with us.' The women face 'tough' training for the role, one officer (not pictured) said, which involved 'exhausting repetition' of the moves One officer (not pictured) said what keeps her going is the approval of the North Korean government. Ordinary North Koreans normally only express officially approved sentiments when questioned by foreign media Vehicle numbers have increased in the capital in recent years as authorities quietly liberalise the economy The increase in cars has led to growth despite United Nations sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes Vehicle numbers have increased in the capital in recent years as authorities quietly liberalise the economy, leading to growth despite United Nations sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes, although the North keeps most statistics secret and precise figures are not available. Traffic lights have been introduced at most intersections, but the ladies - who say they work an hour on, an hour off, although their feet can still get sore - have no fear of their blue uniforms being replaced by red, amber and green. The lights 'help the humans do their jobs more easily', said Ri. Their kit includes thick cotton coats for winter - when their breath condenses instantly in the bitter cold - flashing orange halters for night work, and sunscreen. 'The great leader shows them endless care and love,' the ministry officer said. 'That's why they do their best in their efforts, to repay the great love of the great presidents and dear Respected Marshal Kim Jong-Un.' Traffic lights have been introduced at most intersections, but the ladies have no fear of their blue uniforms being replaced by the lights In a photo taken on June 5, 2017 a traffic security officer speaks with a pedestrian as she stands on duty at an intersection in Pyongyang Their women's kit includes thick cotton coats for winter - when their breath condenses instantly in the bitter cold - flashing orange halters for night work, and sunscreen The traffic ladies are 'second to none' as a photo subject for tourists visiting Pyongyang, said Simon Cockerell, general manager of specialist travel agency Koryo Tours Cockerell, who has been leading trips to North Korea for more than 15 years, said that the women 'brighten up' the streets of Pyongyang The traffic ladies are 'second to none' as a photo subject for tourists visiting Pyongyang, said Simon Cockerell, general manager of specialist travel agency Koryo Tours, who has been leading trips to North Korea for more than 15 years. 'They appear to have the dual function of directing traffic and brightening up the streets of the capital,' he said. 'I dont believe there has been a tourist who has visited Pyongyang and not taken a photo of a traffic lady.' 'I think it would be no exaggeration to call them iconic,' he added - although they were 'somewhat objectified' by visitors. With retirement ahead Senior Captain Ri is taking a training course to become a teacher. But she let the facade of discipline slip when asked if the focus was annoying. 'We are so concentrated on doing our jobs we rarely notice the attention,' she giggled. Cockerell said he doesn't believe that there's a tourist who has visited Pyongyang and not taken a photo of the famous traffic ladies One officer (not pictured) said that she gets so concentrated in her job of marshaling traffic that she doesn't notice the attention she gets from passersby Because the women have to retire from their job so early, many look into other opportunities for a new career post-traffic lady. One officer (not pictured) said she is training to become a teacher One officer (not pictured) said married women are not allowed to take up traffic directing because the job is 'tough and difficult', so they can only do it when they're single President Donald Trump has vowed to revisit all of his predecessor's diplomatic successes and failures and will demonstrate Friday that he's ready to slam the door on Cuba. Trump is expected to unveil a new policy on relations with Cuba after Barack Obama painstakingly restored ties with the communist-run island. The Miami Herald reports that Trump will tighten the travel restrictions for Americans that Obama loosened. He will also ban business transactions with Havana's military, the Herald reported. The Republican president will outline the strategy shift in a speech Friday in Miami at the Manuel Artime Theater, which is named of a Bay of Pigs veteran. President Donald Trump has vowed to revisit all of his predecessor's diplomatic successes and failures and will demonstrate Friday that he's ready to slam the door on Cuba Trump is expected to unveil a new policy on relations with Cuba after Barack Obama painstakingly restored ties with the communist-run island The Republican president will outline the strategy shift in a speech Friday in Miami at the Manuel Artime Theater, which is named of a Bay of Pigs veteran Although many Americans support the decision and the US business community has welcomed moves to reopen trade, Trump's hardline campaign rhetoric won him support among influential Cuban exiles in Florida. The White House has not let much slip, but a radical turnaround such as a renewed break in diplomatic relations does not yet appear to be on the cards. And commercial flights and cruise ships will still be allowed, The Herald reported. Instead, Trump will announce a return to restrictions on US tourists heading to Cuba and businesses signing partnerships with Cuban firms. They are meant to press Raul Castro's government toward democratic reform and appease Cuban-American voters, many of whom fled communist rule. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday acknowledged that increased cooperation helps both countries and provides opportunities for downtrodden Cubans. But he also cited the 'dark side' of Cuba's regime, saying Trump's review had concluded that some renewed business relations help fund the regime. 'Cuba has failed to improve its own human rights record. Political opponents continue to be imprisoned. Dissidents continue to be jailed,' he told senators. 'And as we're enjoying the benefits on the economic and development side, are we inadvertently or directly providing financial support to the regime?' 'Our view is: 'we are,'' he added, answering his own question. That view resonates with Cuban-Americans such as Senator Marco Rubio, the son of anti-Castro immigrants, who has long warned that detente is moving too fast. 'I am confident the president will keep his commitment on Cuba policy by making changes that are targeted and strategic and which advance the Cuban people's aspirations for economic and political liberty,' he said. Trump accused Cuba of 'cruel despotism' in May, vowing to support its people's hopes for democracy, which raised ironic cheers from rights supporters more used to his cozying up to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other autocratic states. But watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch are skeptical of a return to the terms of the half-century Cold War stand-off, with its total trade embargo and no diplomatic ties. 'The previous administration was right to reject a policy that hurt ordinary Cubans and did nothing to advance human rights,' said Daniel Wilkinson, the group's managing director for the Americas. 'The fact that Obama's approach hasn't led to political reform in Cuba after just a few years isn't reason to return to a policy that proved a costly failure over many decades.' The Manzana Kempinski Hotel, Cuba's first luxury five star-plus tourist facility. Some 285,000 people visited the Caribbean country in 2016, up 74 percent over 2015, with Americans the third biggest group. Trump will tighten the travel restrictions for Americans that Obama loosened On the economic front, business interests on both sides of the Florida Straits are wary of a return to a rigorous enforcement of the still-active US sanctions legislation. Some 50 female Cuban entrepreneurs who have benefited from the island's limited free-market opening have even written to Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka. Inviting her to the island to see for herself, the women insist that 'millions of Cubans' now benefit from increased tourism and trade. 'A setback in the relationship would bring with it the fall of many of our businesses and with this, the suffering of all those families that depend on them,' they wrote. The previous US administration softened many of the restrictions lifting American travel to Cuba, triggering a tourism boom. Some 285,000 people visited the Caribbean country in 2016, up 74 percent over 2015, with Americans the third biggest group after Canadians and Cuban expats. Engage Cuba, a group lobbying for an end to the embargo, estimates that 10,000 US jobs in aviation and the cruise business already depend on Cuba. A mammals keeper with a baby spotted-tail quoll at WILD LIFE Sydney pictured on November 3, 2011 Australia has begun constructing a huge cat-free zone in the desert so it can reintroduce native animals that have been pushed to the brink of extinction by the feral predator. Conservationists said work was underway on a fence in the country's harsh centre northwest of Alice Springs that will eventually enclose an area of 69,000 hectares (170,500 acres), with hundreds of feral cats trapped and culled. The project, run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), will reintroduce from islands and protected pockets of Australia at least 10 threatened species. In some cases it will double populations that have dwindled to the hundreds. "Basically, anything that is a small-to-medium-sized mammal, particularly in inland and central Australia, has crashed dramatically," AWC chief executive Atticus Fleming told AFP Wednesday. "The early explorers, what they saw if they moved through the landscape was the Australian bush alive with small animals. "What feral cats and foxes, in particular, have done is robbed the country of our native wildlife so that much of inland central Australia is now a marsupial ghost town." Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) ranger Duncan Jangala (L) and santuary manager Joe Schofield during construction of the feral-proof fence on Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary near Alice Springs in central Australia, in an image taken on June 6, 2017 Feral cats, considered the main culprit behind Australia's high rate of mammal extinction, number in their millions across the country. Some kill up to seven animals every night. They have wiped out populations since being introduced by Europeans who settled Australia two centuries ago. Up to 400 will be killed "humanely" after the first phase of fencing is completed early next year, with the first lot of endangered animals, including the numbat -- a banded anteater -- and the black-footed rock-wallaby, reintegrated in 2019. Other animals to be given a new home include the western quoll (a carnivorous marsupial), the brush-tailed bettong (sometimes known as rat-kangaroos) and the bilby (rabbit-bandicoots). "It is a choice between cats or bilbies and we are for the bilbies," Fleming added. "What this all adds up to is, in three or four years you will be able to go out to this place and visiting this area will be like stepping back in time. "You will see the Australian bush as it was a couple of hundred years ago. It will be alive with these native mammals that were there until the cats removed them." ACW hope that a network of cat-free enclosures will be built in the future while science continues its quest to find the "achilles heel" of the feral cat. Efforts to cull or sterilise them have so far failed to slow the pest. "If we don't build these large cat-free areas now, more animals will go extinct, it is as simple as that," Fleming said. Mount Everest (background): a Polish climber who entered Nepal illegally via the world's highest peak will be deported Nepal said Wednesday it would deport a Polish climber who illegally entered the country by crossing from Tibet at the summit of Mount Everest. Janusz Adam Adamski, 49, climbed the world's highest peak in May from the northern route in Tibet before descending on the southern side into Nepal. Adamski had no entry visa for Nepal or permission to be on Everest's southern side, having only paid Chinese authorities for a permit to ascend from Tibet. "We have decided to deport him and ban him from entering Nepal for one year, as he was found to have breached the immigration laws of Nepal," Ganga Ram Gelal, director-general of the Immigration Department, told AFP. Gelal said police would escort Adamski to the airport on Thursday. Last week the Pole was also slapped with a 10-year climbing ban, but authorities waived the $22,000 fine imposed on mountaineers who ascend the peak without a permit. "The government took a light stance because he said in a statement he was alone and unwell when he reached the summit and feared for his life if he descended from the north side," said Department of Tourism spokesman Durga Dutta Dhakal. Adamski posted on Facebook shortly after traversing from Tibet to Nepal that he was the first Pole and just the 15th person ever to achieve the feat -- suggesting it was the realisation of a lifelong ambition. Adamski has not responded to requests for comment. The Pole is the second foreigner to land himself in trouble with Nepali authorities on Everest this month. South African Ryan Sean Davy was caught attempting to climb the 8,848 metre (29,030 foot) mountain without a permit, and was banned from mountaineering in the Nepali Himalayas for 10 years. Hong Kong is a major hub for ivory sales and announced last year that it would ban the import and export of the goods, but later clarified it would only completely abolish the trade by 2021 Hong Kong launched a landmark bill to ban its ivory trade Wednesday, describing it as an effort to "eradicate" the illegal poaching of elephants. The southern Chinese city is a major hub for ivory sales and announced last year that it would ban the import and export of the goods, but later clarified it would only completely abolish the trade by 2021. Critics say authorities are dragging their feet and lagging behind China, where officials in December pledged to halt the enterprise by the end of 2017. A new amendment to the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants ordinance was presented to lawmakers Wednesday, designed to toughen regulations and "phase out the local ivory trade", but said it would be a five-year process. Environment minister Wong Kam-sing said the city must respond to the demands of the international community as he formally introduced the bill at the legislative council Wednesday. The trade would "fully come to a close" by 2021, he added. A frontline park ranger from the Democratic Republic of Congo last week delivered emotional testimony to legislators, describing the violent nature of the trade. Garamba National Park manager Erik Mararv said he and his team were ambushed by poachers near an elephant carcass "with its face hacked off" last year, leading to the deaths of three rangers. He went on to argue that Hong Kong should not compensate its own ivory traders as it could further encourage the violent industry. Angry sellers in Hong Kong are demanding payback, claiming they have been unable to offload much of their remaining stock since the market diminished following an international ban nearly three decades ago. The global trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after populations of the African giants dropped from millions in the mid-20th century to around 600,000 by the end of the 1980s. There are now believed to be some 415,000. Lawmaker Regina Ip on Wednesday raised the question of compensation for traders, but Wong said the government would not buy up the ivory as the city was "determined" to close down the market. African ivory is highly sought after in China, where it is seen as a status symbol, and where elephant tusks are used in traditional medicine or to make ornaments. While it supplies less than one percent of world crude oil production, Qatar is a major player in liquefied natural gas While the Gulf's bitter diplomatic crisis is unlikely to affect energy prices in the short term, a prolonged rift that disrupts Qatar's gas supplies could send prices soaring, analysts say. With rising US shale oil output driving a global supply glut, the decision by Saudi Arabia and its allies earlier this month to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar provided only a fleeting boost to prices. "Given the severe supply glut in the oil markets globally, it is quite unlikely that the Gulf spat would lead to a spike in oil prices in the short or medium term," M.R. Raghu, executive vice president of Kuwait Financial Center (Markaz), told AFP. Qatar said on Monday that it would comply with an agreement by the OPEC oil cartel and other producers to extend production cuts for nine months until the end of March to rebalance the market. Qatar's share in the output cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day is just 30,000. While its daily oil output of around 600,000 barrels represents less than one percent of world crude production, Qatar is a major player in liquefied natural gas (LNG). The tiny emirate is the world's leading LNG exporter, accounting for a third of international supplies, mainly to Asia and Europe. Advisory firm Oxford Economics said Qatar's exports of oil and gas are unlikely to be significantly affected, with its main sea routes -- including through Omani and Iranian waters -- still accessible. But using Iranian waters could involve higher costs, said Jean-Francois Seznec of the US-based Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center. "It may have a small indirect impact in the case of continued tension. Insurance rates will start increasing rapidly and those rates would have to be paid by Qatar," Seznec told AFP. Most of Qatar's almost 80 million tonnes of LNG supplies are shipped in tankers, mainly to Japan, South Korea and India, as well as to several European countries. One-third of Britain's gas imports, for example, come from Qatar. Other European customers include Spain and Poland. - Politically fraught - The air, sea and land restrictions imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have not so far affected maritime routes for Qatari LNG vessels which can pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Any disruption to Qatar's LNG exports could anger the European Union. "If Qatar gas finds it increasingly difficult to reach world markets, especially Europe, then the European Union may feel threatened by the prospect of having to depend on more Russian gas imports, a decision that is highly fraught politically in many EU capitals," Kuwait Financial Center said in a report Monday. Qatar also pumps more than two billion cubic feet of gas daily through a pipeline to the UAE mainly for power generation. A small part of the pipeline exports goes to Oman. So any disruption to Qatar's gas supplies would be painful for several countries. And a serious escalation of Gulf tensions or a military confrontation -- while seen as highly unlikely -- could cause energy prices to soar. "If the conflict develops into a military confrontation ... I would expect a very large spike in prices to around $150 a barrel of oil," from below $50 per barrel now, Seznec said. Gas prices would also increase several-fold, he added. This would be accompanied by a major leap in insurance premiums. For oil prices to triple as predicted by Seznec, the conflict must disrupt oil and gas supply lines from most of the Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter. The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- account for a fifth of global crude exports or about 13 million bpd. Income from energy exports makes up over 80 percent of public revenues for the six members. Raghu said an escalation of the crisis could mean "sea routes getting blocked and cost of transshipment of global gas rising." Major importers of Qatari LNG like Japan, South Korea and India may face shortages of supplies leading to a scramble for alternative suppliers in the long term, he said. Philippine marines patrol a deserted street in Marawi on June 3, 2017 US troops are on the ground helping local soldiers battle Islamist militants in a Philippine city, a Filipino military spokesman said Wednesday, giving the most detailed account of their role. The small number of US soldiers are providing vital surveillance assistance and, although they do not have a combat role, are allowed to open fire on the militants if attacked first, spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said. "In a battle the most important item for the commander is to be able to determine what is happening," Padilla said as he confirmed that men in civilian clothes caught by a television camera flying drones from a pickup truck were US troops. "It's called situational awareness and that is the sort of assistance being given." The Philippine military has for over three weeks been engaged in fierce battles with hundreds of militants, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, in the southern city of Marawi on Mindanao island. The fighting has left 202 gunmen dead, while 58 soldiers and 26 civilians have also been killed, according to the government. The militants have withstood a relentless bombing campaign that has made parts of Marawi, the most important Islamic city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, resemble war-devastated cities in Iraq and Syria. The Philippines and the United States are longtime allies and are bound by a mutual defence treaty. American troops have since 2002 rotated on short-term deployments in the southern Philippines to provide intelligence and counter-terrorism training to Filipino troops. There used to be about 600 American troops in the south at any one time but the operations were scaled down in 2014. The issue of US troops in the Philippines has become extremely sensitive since Rodrigo Duterte became president last year and sought to downgrade his nation's military alliance with the United States in favour of China. Duterte has repeatedly called for American troops to leave the Philippines. Last weekend Duterte said he was not aware that US soldiers were helping in Marawi, while making a frank admission that his military favoured close ties with the United States. "Our soldiers are pro-American, that I cannot deny," Duterte said. Aside from the television footage of the American drone operators, cameramen in Marawi have regularly filmed a US spy plane over the city. The US embassy announced at the weekend that special operations forces were providing assistance in Marawi, but gave no details. Kabul has been on edge since a massive truck bomb on May 31 killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds in the city's fortified diplomatic quarter, the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001 An Afghan teenager was killed in a bombing less than a week after being deported from Sweden, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, calling on European nations to halt repatriations as "Kabul is not safe". The deportation of rejected asylum seekers from EU nations has been highly controversial, with criticism mounting over returning them to conflict-torn Afghanistan after a recent wave of deadly bombings. The teenager was among 20 asylum seekers that Sweden sent back on May 30. He died in a bombing on June 3 that hit a funeral procession for a man killed in anti-government protests over spiralling insecurity in the Afghan capital. "European countries have increasingly rejected the asylum claims of Afghans without denying their protection needs," HRW said in a statement. "The idea that Kabul is considered 'safe' for Afghans has real repercussions... Kabul is not safe." Kabul has been on edge since a massive truck bomb on May 31 killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds in the city's fortified diplomatic quarter, the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001. Just days later protesters incensed by the bombing clashed with police, prompting authorities to respond with live rounds, which left at least four people dead. Suicide bombers tore through a row of mourners at the funeral for one of the protesters, killing at least seven more people. The carnage has left the Afghan capital shaken, with protesters who have set up a sit-in camp close to the bombing site demanding the resignation of President Ashraf Ghani's government. The violence has prompted the German government to temporarily suspend deportations of Afghans. "Other European countries should do the same," HRW said. "It shouldn't take any more deaths of deportees to dispel the myth that Kabul is a safe place of refuge." In early February, 23-year-old Atiqullah Akbari suffered shrapnel injuries in a militant attack in Kabul, two weeks after he was deported from Germany, highlighting the perils of repatriation to the war-battered country. Akbari was picked up by German police in January from his home in Bavaria where he had sought refuge. Afghanistan is plagued by insecurity, poverty and unemployment, and is increasingly overwhelmed by people repatriated from Pakistan, Iran and Europe along with hundreds of thousands of others displaced by war. Smoke believed to be white phosphorus is seen in the sky during a strike on a neighbourhood of west Mosul on June 2, 2017 The Human Rights Watch organisation on Wednesday urged the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to protect civilians from the effects of white phosphorus. The statement comes after several instances in which the US-led coalition has deployed the munition in the fight against IS in Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Raqa city. "No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities," said HRW arms director Steve Goose. "US-led forces should take all feasible precautions to minimise civilian harm when using white phosphorus in Iraq and Syria." White phosphorus can be used to create a smoke screen or as a battlefield marker, but it can also be deployed as a deadly incendiary weapon, a use prohibited under international law. Last week striking images shared by activists and the Islamic State group showed white phosphorus being used over Raqa city, where a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters is battling to oust the jihadists. Asked about the incident, coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon declined to "discuss every detailed use of munition or capability available across our formations." But he added that white phosphorus was used "in accordance with the law of armed conflict" and "in a way that fully considers the possible incidental effects on civilians and civilian infrastructure." HRW said it had not been able to independently verify any civilian casualties resulting from the use of white phosphorus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said 23 civilians had been killed by white phosphorus used in Raqa on June 8. The Britain-based group said the US-led coalition had dropped the munition from planes. But HRW said the images from Raqa were characteristic of ground-fire artillery projectiles containing white phosphorus. Two people have died after being pulled from the collapsed building in Nairobi but the search goes on for other survivors The mother of two children rescued from a collapsed seven-storey building in Nairobi has died in hospital, officials said Wednesday, amid fears more people are trapped under the rubble. The woman's daughter and son are in a stable condition after being pulled from the debris in a poor neighbourhood near Nairobi's international airport, southeast of the Kenyan capital. "Unfortunately one female adult, believed to be the mother of the rescued children, succumbed to the injuries while undergoing treatment at the hospital," said Pius Masai, National Disaster Management Unit spokesman, who is coordinating the search and rescue mission after Monday night's tragedy. It means the death toll has risen to two, after a boy's body was found dead in the rubble on Tuesday night. The incident has renewed criticism over unregulated construction in the city of more than three million people. - No planning permission - Some residents expressed fears for the fate of family members and neighbours who had not immediately responded to the order to evacuate the seven-storey building in Nairobi Police and local residents said the authorities were alerted on Monday after cracks appeared in the building, sparking an emergency evacuation before it collapsed two hours later. Officials said they evacuated most residents, but at least two people are still feared to be missing, according to the Red Cross. In all, 128 tenants have been accounted for, but it was not immediately clear how many people lived in the building. Some local citizens have criticised officials for not doing more to ensure the safety of the structure, which was built in 2007 without official approval, according to the authorities. Several buildings have collapsed in recent years in Nairobi and other Kenyan cities, where a property boom has seen buildings shoot up at speed, often with little regard for regulations. In April 2016, 49 people died when a six-storey building collapsed in a poor neighbourhood northeast of the capital after days of heavy rain caused floods and landslides. The building, constructed two years earlier, had been slated for demolition after being declared structurally unsound. Former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon says he is deeply concerned over the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord US President Donald Trump is "standing on the wrong side of history" after pulling out from the Paris climate accord, former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday. "Climate change is like a fever" that must be fought, he told a conference in Madrid, saying he was deeply concerned about the US withdrawal. "I think President Trump is standing on the wrong side of history." Trump announced on June 1 that the US would not abide by the 2015 Paris agreement, signed by 195 countries to reduce carbon emissions. Ban, who stepped down as UN boss at the end of last year to make way for Antonio Guterres, pushed hard throughout his mandate for action to fight climate change. He has said he will continue his efforts among civil society. Thousands of protesters gather at Pearl roundabout in the Bahraini capital Manama, on February 15, 2011, following the deaths of two protesters in clashes with police Bahrain's Pearl roundabout, hub of 2011 protests for a constitutional monarchy and an elected government, reopened under a new name on Wednesday six years after being demolished and sealed off. Witnesses in Manama told AFP that the roundabout, which was one of the capital's landmarks before the protests were crushed, has been replaced with a simple crossroads named Farouk Junction. The old roundabout, which boasted an imposing central monument of a white pearl supported by six white columns representing the six Gulf Arab states, was razed after troops and anti-riot police stormed a month-old protest camp there in March 2011. Inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings which swept the region that year, demonstrators had taken to the streets of the Shiite-majority kingdom to demand sweeping reforms from its Sunni ruling family, who hold all top government posts. Supported by their Gulf neighbours, authorities responded with an iron fist, bloodily suppressing the protests and detaining hundreds of activists in an intensifying crackdown that continues to this day. Thousands of protesters gather at Pearl roundabout in the Bahraini capital Manama, on February 15, 2011, following the deaths of two protesters in clashes with police Late last year, the main Shiite opposition party Al-Wefaq -- the largest in parliament before the 2011 protests -- was banned. Last month, the leading secular opposition group Waad was dissolved too. Tiny but strategic Bahrain lies just across the Gulf from Iran and is home base for the US Fifth Fleet. Access to the foreign media is severely restricted. The authorities refuse to allow AFP journalists to be based in Manama. This month, the government banned the independent Al-Wasat newspaper on accusations that it "sowed division" in Bahrain. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has denied allegations that his forces used chemical weapons in war-torn Darfur The trial of a prominent Sudanese human rights activist accused of spying for foreign embassies opened on Wednesday in Khartoum, as Amnesty International called for his immediate release. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, an engineering professor at the University of Khartoum, was arrested in December by security forces as part of a crackdown on opposition leaders and activists. Prosecutors have accused him and some others of carrying out spying and intelligence activities for foreign embassies in return for money. He is also accused of publishing lies about government forces using chemical weapons, and distorting the image of the state. Under Sudanese criminal law, the charges against Ibrahim Adam -- winner of several human rights awards -- are punishable by death. In September, rights group Amnesty International said Sudanese forces had carried out dozens of suspected chemical weapons attacks in a mountainous area of war-torn Darfur that killed up to 250 people, including many children. Officials including President Omar al-Bashir have steadfastly denied Amnesty's report. On Wednesday, a court in Khartoum held a short opening session in his trial at which the activist appeared before a judge, an AFP correspondent reported. The session was attended by several Western diplomats and Sudanese activists. The next session in the trial has been scheduled for July 20. Ibrahim Adam, who has worked extensively on human rights causes in Sudan and in particular in Darfur, has been arrested several times before for his work. The government shut down a development organisation he headed in 2009. Ahead of the start of his trial, Amnesty International called for the immediate release of Ibrahim Adam and his colleague Hafiz Idris Eldoma, who also has been detained. Amnesty said Ibrahim Adam has been "continuously harassed" by the Sudanese authorities for his human rights work. "Unfortunately, this latest round sees the harassment take a more sinister turn as both he and his colleague Hafiz potentially face the death penalty," Amnesty said in a statement. "Their arrest and continued incarceration is a miscarriage of justice, plain and simple." Ibrahim Adam and several opposition leaders and activists were detained in December by security forces in an attempt to crush widespread protests against a government decision to raise fuel prices. Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on whale hunting, but uses a loophole in the temporary ban allowing for lethal scientific research. Japan on Wednesday kicked off a whaling campaign in the northwestern Pacific, in a move sure to anger animal rights activists and others calling for an end to the hunts. Three ships are leaving port on a three-month mission to catch 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales, according to the government. The new mission comes after Japan on Sunday started an annual coastal whaling hunt along its northern Pacific shores, aiming to catch 47 minke whales until mid-July. Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on whale hunting, but uses a loophole in the temporary ban allowing for lethal scientific research. Tokyo claims it is trying to prove the whale population is large enough to sustain a return to commercial hunting for a traditional source of food. Foreign pressure on Japan to stop whaling has hardened conservatives and politicians, making it a rare thorny issue for Japan's otherwise amiable diplomacy. Japanese consumer demand for whale meat has declined significantly over the years, however, throwing a question domestically over whether whaling missions still make economic sense. In 2014, the United Nations' International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Tokyo to end its hunt in the Antarctic waters, saying the project did not meet conventional scientific standards. Japan cancelled its 2014-15 hunt, only to resume it the following year under a new programme, saying the fresh plan is genuinely scientific. The Antarctic hunt has seen high seas clashes between Japanese whalers and animal activists. Carrefour's logo: animals rights group say the chain has been sellling dog meat at two stores in China French retailer Carrefour has removed dog meat products from two supermarkets in China after an outcry from animal rights groups. Animals Asia said it had already asked the international chain, which operates over 200 stores in China, to remove dog meat from its shelves in 2012. The company promised to do so, it said, but an inspection by the charity last month found two branches of Carrefour supermarkets in the eastern city of Xuzhou prominently featured dog meat products. These included "Fankuai turtle-juiced dog meat" sold for 136 yuan (20 dollars), as well as smaller packages of dried dog meat sold for 25.60 yuan. Carrefour said in a statement that "this is a locally produced product which is sold in only two stores in Xuzhou". The company said the items were taken off shelves on Tuesday. "Few people in China expect a supermarket to carry dog meat products. Eating dogs and cats is a minority activity which is considered outdated by the young and middle-class," Animals Asia's director of cat and dog welfare Irene Feng said in a statement. "The last thing China's animal protection campaigners need is for a modern international supermarket chain to normalise cat and dog eating and support an industry rife with cruelty and illegality," Feng added. As many as 10 million dogs are killed for food annually in China, according to the Humane Society International. Dog meat consumption is not illegal in China, but animal rights groups have sought to stop its sale at a controversial annual festival in the southwestern town of Yulin. The Humane Society International said authorities have banned dog meat sales in Yulin for the festival later this month, but local restaurants have told AFP they were unaware of such a decision. Thousands of dogs are traditionally killed during the festival in conditions activists describe as brutal, with dogs beaten and boiled alive in the belief that the more terrified they are, the tastier the meat. Dog meat sellers have said previously that activists' protests have actually attracted greater attention and encouraged more people to eat the meat. File photo of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe: he promised tougher legislation to deal with hate crimes Sri Lanka's prime minister Wednesday promised tougher legislation to deal with hate crimes after an upsurge in attacks on the minority Muslim community. Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed not to allow a repeat of 2014 anti-Muslim riots in which four people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed. "The police as well as all other relevant authorities have been ordered to ensure law and order is maintained," he said in a special address to the nation. "We are ready to introduce new laws." Wickremesinghe did not give details, but official sources said the government would introduce new provisions to prosecute hate speech. The pledge followed criticism that police were failing to tackle arson attacks on Muslim homes, shops and a cemetery. On Sunday police announced they had arrested a 32-year-old member of the radical Buddhist Force, or BBS, in connection with those incidents and would also question more members of the group. The BBS was accused of instigating the 2014 religious riots, but it escaped prosecution under the then-strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse. With stoning and desecration of Muslim-owned places now an almost daily occurence, the government faces international criticism over its failure to tackle the violence and rein in the BBS. In a video message released Sunday, the group denied any involvement, but accused the government of allowing Islamic extremism to flourish in the Buddhist-majority nation. Its leader, Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, has been living underground since May 26 as police investigated more than a dozen complaints of incitement against him. Earlier this month, Western diplomats urged Sri Lanka to take action to stop the renewed outbreak of religious violence. The head of the European Union delegation in Colombo, Tung-Lai Margue, said it was crucial there was "no impunity for hate crimes". Tunisian security forces secure the area after jihadist gunmen attacked Tunis's famed Bardo National Museum on March 18, 2015 Tunisia has extended for another four months a state of emergency in place since a 2015 jihadist attack, the president's office announced on Wednesday. "President Beji Caid Essebsi decided on Wednesday to extend the state of emergency for four months starting from Thursday, June 15," his office said on Facebook. The state of emergency has been in place since a November 2015 jihadist bombing in Tunis that killed 12 presidential guards. The Islamic State group claimed the attack as well as bombings earlier in 2015 at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis and at a beach resort near Sousse that killed a total of 59 foreign tourists and a Tunisian guard. They were part of a wave of jihadist violence since a revolution toppled long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. The government has repeatedly renewed the state of emergency despite its assurances that security has improved in the North African state. A source in the president's office, who asked not to be identified, said that after recent attacks claimed by IS in London and Manchester, "it's better to be vigilant". The state of emergency gives much greater powers to the police and allows the banning of strikes and meetings likely to provoke "disorder", as well as measures "to ensure control of the press". It also allows the interior ministry to place under house arrest anyone whose activities it deems a "danger for security or public order". In recent weeks, the government has used the powers not just for counter-terrorism but also for a widely publicised "war on graft". Ten businessmen are currently under house arrest on suspicion of corruption. The authorities in Niger have faced an ongoing battle trying to stop Libya-bound migrants from crossing the Sahara Around 100 Libya-bound migrants, including women, have been rescued from the Sahara desert in Niger after being abandoned by their smugglers, a security source told AFP. The migrants are believed to have been hoping to travel on to Europe and were discovered by a military patrol several days ago, the source said on Tuesday. "The migrants were subjected to terrible torture by their smugglers, before being abandoned without food or water," reported the online newspaper Air Info, based in the remote town of Agadez, citing a security source. The migrants were saved close to the arid dusty town of Achegour, the paper said, a transit point for migrants seeking work in Libya or trying to reach the sea to sail to Europe. It comes after at least 44 Libya-bound migrants, including women and babies, died of thirst in the Sahara desert two weeks ago after their vehicle broke down in scorching conditions. Temperatures in Agadez currently hover at around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) but have hit almost 50 degrees Celsius in the past. Last year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) recorded 335,000 migrants heading northwards out of Niger. Many perish while trying to cross the desert in crammed pick-up trucks with often meagre provisions of water, as jerrycans carrying fuel take priority. Germany and Italy last month called for an EU mission to be installed on the border between Libya and Niger to reduce the migrant flow. By mid-April this year, Italy had registered nearly 42,500 migrants coming by sea, 97 percent of them arriving from Libya. To fight against people smuggling, the Niger government in 2015 passed a law banning the illegal trafficking of migrants with those found guilty facing a prison sentence up to 30 years. Indonesians arrive at the Ain Issa camp, 50 kilometres north of Raqa, on June 13, 2017 after fleeing the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion When Leefa set out from Indonesia for the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, she says she thought she was headed to an earthly paradise for the faithful. She and her family imagined being surrounded by true believers and expected free healthcare and jobs paying salaries they could only dream of in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. But now, as IS battles to defend its onetime bastion, Leefa and 15 other Indonesians are among thousands who have fled Raqa in northern Syria. They are sheltering at a camp for the displaced in Ain Issa, 50 kilometres (around 30 miles) north of Raqa, waiting to learn their fates as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advance inside the jihadist bastion. In broken English, scattered with Arabic words picked up during their 22 months in Syria, Leefa and her compatriots admit they chose to travel to IS territory. They tell piecemeal stories, with details missing and lost in translation. "When we in Indonesia... we read, we watch in the internet, Dawlah Islamiya is a place to live, to become a real Muslim," said Leefa, 38, using the Arabic for Islamic State. Leefa, an Indonesian woman, sits in a room at the Ain Issa camp 50 kilometres north of Raqa on June 13, 2017 after fleeing the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion "I have health problems, I need an operation in my neck and it's very, very expensive in Indonesia," she added, her eyes downcast behind her black-rimmed glasses. "But in Daesh, there's all free, all free," she said, using the Arabic acronym for IS. "We come to Daesh for become a real Muslim and for my health," she added, her face framed by a green headscarf. As she speaks, a young girl with the group wearing a purple headscarf uses a flattened plastic bottle as a makeshift fan to battle the heat. Ain Issa is overflowing with people displaced by the campaign to oust IS from Raqa province. - 'Everything is lies' - Leefa explains haltingly that she was in contact with IS members in Syria over the internet, who told her that those who made it to Raqa would be reimbursed for their tickets and would enjoy good lives. But upon arrival, they found the situation harshly different from their expectations. Leefa discovered the operation she needed was not free after all, and went untreated. Indonesian children rest at the Ain Issa camp, 50 kilometres north of Raqa, after fleeing the Islamic State group's Syrian bastion on June 13, 2017 "Everything is lies," said 19-year-old Nur, another of the Indonesians at Ain Issa, her beige headscarf pinned neatly below her chin. "When we enter Daesh, enter their country, turns out all of them very different from what they said on the internet." Nur said she and her family expected the male relatives among the group to have jobs. But when they arrived they were told that all men were obliged to join the ranks of IS fighters. "Our men enter to the jail, my father, my brother," she said, speaking a mixture of Arabic and English, without explaining when her relatives were imprisoned and why. And she found she was constantly pursued by IS fighters seeking to marry her, she said. "There are many divorced (IS fighters), just married for two weeks or two months," she said. "Many men come to my house and tell to my father, I want your daughter," she said with disgust. Her brother was even stopped by a stranger in the market in Raqa, who asked him "do you have some girl or some sister, I want a wife." "Everywhere they talk about women," she said bitterly. - 'They were tricked' - The stories told by members of the group, among them eight women, three children and five men, are impossible to confirm. But they match accounts by some other foreign escapees from IS territory who describe being seduced by online depictions that differed vastly from the reality they discovered upon arrival in the jihadist group's self-declared "caliphate." The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are advancing inside the jihadist bastion of Raqa The SDF fighters now advancing inside Raqa against IS are interrogating the members of the Indonesian group but expect to free them, said Ain Issa camp official Fayruz Khalil. "From what I understood from them... they were tricked," she told AFP. "They discovered that the picture the Islamic State group has painted for them was false... For the last 10 months they were trying to leave, but they only managed in the last few days to flee." The SDF plans to send the group of Indonesians over the border to the Iraqi city of Arbil and hand them to the Indonesian embassy. According to Indonesian authorities around 500-600 Indonesians are believed to be in Syria at the moment. Around 500 more have sought to reach Syria but were deported before reaching IS territory. So far, authorities have registered over 60 people returning from Syria, who mostly face light vetting before being released without further monitoring, experts say. Indonesia has long struggled with Islamic militancy. IS has provided a potent new force for the country's radicals to rally around, and there has been a string of plots by local militants linked to the jihadists. Al-Jazeera has nearly 80 offices around the world and broadcasts in several languages. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that he was in favour of closing the offices of Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, after several Arab states did so. "There is no reason for Al-Jazeera to continue to transmit from Israel," he told public radio. "It is not media, it is a propaganda outfit in the style of the Soviets or Nazi Germany." "All the reporting on Israel is biased and hostile, while the channel says nothing about Iran," he added. Asked when the bureau could be closed, he said they were seeking a "legal solution." Quoted in Israeli media, the head of Al-Jazeera's bureau said they would appeal any decision closing them down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had raised the possibility of a closure on Monday, Israeli media reported. Israeli leaders accuse the Qatari channel of supporting Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip. Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt broke off relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing the gas-rich Gulf state of "supporting terrorism." The countries also banned Al-Jazeera, founded more than 20 years ago by the Qatari government, denouncing its "Islamist" orientations. Al-Jazeera has nearly 80 offices around the world and broadcasts in several languages. Much of Yemen's population relies on foreign food aid Less than 30 percent of pledged international aid has been delivered to Yemen this year, a UN official said Wednesday, as millions across the country struggle to survive. Donors in April pledged close to $1.1 billion (981,500 euros) in aid to war-torn Yemen, which the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calls the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world". But "only 25 percent of aid pledged to the UN refugee agency and 29 percent of aid pledged to the UN's humanitarian response plan have been delivered so far," UNHCR's Yemen spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told AFP. Some 19 million people are in need of aid in Yemen, with 10.3 million requiring immediate assistance to "save or sustain their lives", according to the United Nations. Yemen's deadly war has seen more than 8,000 people killed and millions displaced since a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened to support a government fight against Shiite Huthi rebels allied with Iran. Looming famine and an outbreak of cholera in Yemen, the most impoverished country long before the war, are taking their toll on the population. "Conditions are only worsening. The cholera rates are alarming, health facilities are struggling to remain functional, millions across the country are food insecure and facing prolonged displacement from their homes," Mantoo said. The International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday said 5,000 new suspected cases of cholera have been reported every day in Yemen, where an outbreak of the waterborne disease has killed more than 900 people since April 27. A quarter of a million people are expected to contract cholera within six months, according to the World Health Organization. Saudi Arabia and its allies cut ties with Qatar over what they say is the emirate's financing of extremist groups and its ties to Iran The UN human rights chief said Wednesday he was alarmed by the possible impact of the diplomatic isolation of Qatar, warning it could lead to widespread suffering among ordinary people. "I am alarmed about the possible impact on many people's human rights in the wake of the decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement. "It is becoming clear that the measures being adopted are overly broad in scope and implementation," he added. His comments came after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt abruptly severed all ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting "terrorism" -- allegations Doha strongly rejects. Zeid warned Wednesday that the move had "the potential to seriously disrupt the lives of thousands of women, children and men, simply because they belong to one of the nationalities involved in the dispute." "We are receiving reports that specific individuals have already been summarily instructed to leave the country they are residing in, or have been ordered to return home by their own government," he said. He warned that mix-nationality couples and their children, as well as people with jobs or businesses based in opposing states and students studying abroad would likely be "badly affected". "I am also extremely troubled to hear that the UAE and Bahrain are threatening to jail and fine people who express sympathy for Qatar or opposition to their own governments' actions," he said. This, he warned, "would appear to be a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression or opinion." Zeid urged all the countries involved to quickly resolve their dispute through dialogue and to "refrain from any actions that could affect the well-being, health, employment and integrity of their inhabitants." How Short Rests Can Improve Call Center Performance The staff turnover rate at call centers is about twice as high as the average across all industries; estimates range from 30 percent to 45 percent. Its one of the top challenges call centers face, because high turnover rates cause companies to lose their considerable investment in hiring and training. Call centers that lose experienced employees also lose their higher production rates and the customer relationships theyve established. High stress is often cited as the No. 1 factor in call center turnover. Call center employees are among the most monitored workers in any industry, and they often have to deal with sensitive issues and customers who are irate about a product, service or interruption. Most call center employees have demanding call quotas to meet, which only adds to the stress. But innovative call centers are finding ways to keep valuable employees on board. Some have found a unique solution thats backed by science: short rest periods during shifts. Research shows that taking a nap improves workers alertness, productivity and receptiveness to learning, and call centers that have installed short-rest facilities have found that napping serves as a highly efficient stress reducer. For example, a call center in upstate New York that serves a large global insurer installed napping pods at its facility to boost employee productivity, satisfaction and retention. The insurer found that short naps significantly improved call center employees moods, making team members more likely to provide a positive customer experience. In the UK, Samaritans of Havering, a not-for-profit that provides free telephone counseling for people in need, received a donation of a napping pod at its Romford branch, which is near London. The counselors at that branch often experience high levels of stress as they discuss callers concerns and help people sort through their challenges. But the napping pod helps. Extensive research on short rest has identified at least six benefits that can help people stay healthier and happier on the job. A study published in Academic Medicine found that a mid-day nap can decrease attention failures by 30 percent. Improved alertness can help call center workers solve customer issues more quickly and get each contact right the first time. Short rest can also help boost productivity and improve memory processing capacity. Research published in the Journal of Sleep found that even a very short period of rest can help improve peoples memory performance. Better memory processing can boost performance on the job, including in a fast-paced setting like a busy call center where workers must recall and apply policy, product details, etc. But for call center workers who are subject to relentless pressure, perhaps the most important benefit of short rest is improved mood and reduced stress. Research demonstrates that short rest can stop or even reverse deterioration in visual perception and improve workers mood and self-confidence. A napping strategy that reduces the effects of stress and imparts an elevated mood is ideal for call center workers. Many forward-thinking companies are already taking advantage of the benefits of napping, providing facilities for employees to take a short rest and return to their work refreshed and ready to tackle new tasks. Research implies and case studies strongly suggest that people who work in call centers could benefit significantly from a short rest strategy. As call center leaders look for ways to reduce costly turnover and keep experienced people on staff, a stress-busting strategy that includes short naps should be considered. Research shows that short rests can improve performance overall while giving employees the confidence they need to handle a high-pressure job. Thats good for call center workers and for business. About the Author Christopher Lindholst is the CEO and Co-Founder of MetroNaps, makers of the world's most famous and first workplace napping pod. A pioneer in corporate fatigue management solutions since 2003, Christopher has built a client base and established partnerships on four continents. Christopher is a frequent speaker at corporations and conferences, where he talks about implementing sleep into corporate well-being programs. He is also acting Chair of the National Sleep Foundation's Sleep Technology Council. Christopher completed his Bachelors degree at Wesleyan University and received his MBA from Columbia University. He is also an avid napper, having amassed nearly 5,000 naps over his 13-year sleep career by taking a 14-minute nap every workday afternoon. Edited by Alicia Young This file photo taken on June 5, 2017 shows a man walking past the Qatar Airways branch in the Saudi capital Riyadh, after it had suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia following a severing of relations between major gulf states and gas-rich Qatar Qatar Airways said on Wednesday that it was largely unaffected by the decision of several Arab countries to ban the Doha-based carrier from using their airspace. "Qatar Airways' global operations continue to run smoothly, with the vast majority of our network unaffected by the current circumstances," said chief executive Akbar Al-Baker. The Qatari carrier released a statement saying it had operated some 1,200 flights in the past week, 90 percent of which took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are among several countries that suspended ties with Qatar last week, including the suspension of all flights to and from Doha and an airspace ban on Qatar Airways. On Tuesday, the four Arab countries said the air embargo only applies to airlines from Qatar or registered there. Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse gas-rich Doha of supporting Islamist extremists in what is the worst crisis to grip the Gulf in years. Qatar denies the allegations. Earlier this week, Qatar Airways announced profits of $540 million in the fiscal year which ended in March. But analysts warn the profitable carrier could take a hit should the diplomatic crisis drag out. Qatar Airways on June 7 announced the cancelation of all flights into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain, just weeks after having been hit by a new US travel ban on laptops and tablets in passenger cabins. Bukola Saraki, the leader of Nigeria's Senate, has been cleared of corruption charges The leader of Nigeria's Senate was on Wednesday cleared of corruption charges, ending of one of the most high-profile trials in President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-graft campaign. Lawyers for Bukola Saraki argued prosecutors had failed to establish a case alleging that he made a false declaration of his assets before and after his tenure as governor of Kwara state. He was also accused of collecting double salaries during his time as governor of the western state from 2003 to 2011 and as a senator after he stepped down. The case had been heard at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, which tries cases of alleged abuse in public office. Saraki challenged the competency of the tribunal to try him, hired a 66-lawyer defence team and turned up at hearings with dozens of senators and other politicians in support. Judge Danladi Umar said in his ruling that the prosecution "failed to link the defendant with the commission of the offences as charged". "All the responses of the prosecution witnesses and evidence in this trial have been discredited as a result of cross-examination and have become unreliable," he added. "In the light of the foregoing, the tribunal has nothing to do other than to discharge and acquit the defendant." Under Nigerian law, senior politicians including state governors are required to declare their assets when they enter office. Saraki was charged and brought to the tribunal in February 2016, just over six months after he became leader of Nigeria's upper chamber of parliament. He was not the preferred candidate for Buhari's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which led to claims the charges against him were politically motivated. Saraki, who is Nigeria's third-most powerful politician behind Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, was last year acquitted in a separate case of conspiracy and forgery. It was alleged the 54-year-old former banker and his deputy falsified parliamentary rules to get elected. Tanzania ranks fourth among gold producers in Africa Tanzania has agreed to negotiations with Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold which it accuses of operating illegally and evading taxes, a government statement said Wednesday. Barrick is the majority shareholder in London-listed Acacia Mining which a presidential commission report said this week was not registered to operate in Tanzania and had failed to pay taxes worth billions of dollars. Barrick refuted the allegations. On Wednesday, its executive chairman John Thornton flew to Tanzania to meet with President John Magufuli after news of the allegations caused the company's share price to fall. Barrick "is ready to discuss with the Tanzanian government the reimbursement of money lost by Tanzania as a result of the company's operations in the country," the presidency said in a statement, without giving further details. Barrick released a statement describing the meeting as "constructive and open". It said the parties agreed "to enter into negotiations to seek a resolution that is in the best interests of all stakeholders, including Tanzania, Barrick, and Acacia." Barrick Gold shares listed in New York rose 0.3 percent in midday trading to $16.38. Magufuli had accused the company of "stealing from us" in a live televised address this week, but welcomed the proposed discussions. He said a special committee would be appointed aimed at reaching an agreement for reimbursement. On Monday, a government commission said fraud in the mining sector had cost Tanzania $84 billion (75 billion euros) over 19 years and blamed foreign companies for failing to declare revenues. Tanzania is rich in minerals and ranks fourth among gold producers on the continent. Gold is the country's leading mineral export and one of its primary sources of revenue. It also exports copper, nickel, silver, diamonds and other precious stones such as tanzanite. In March, Tanzania said it was banning exports of non-processed ore in a bid to promote the development of the mineral processing sector, create new jobs locally and increase revenues generated by the sector. The presidency statement on Wednesday also said Thornton had agreed that Barrick would "cooperate" in the construction of a smelter in Tanzania. Last month, Magufuli dismissed the country's mines minister after receiving a report from geologists that said mining companies had underestimated their mineral exports in order to pay lower taxes. The deal to hand over the Red Sea islands of Tiran (foreground) and Sanafir (background) to Saudi Arabia provoked accusations that Cairo had "sold" the strategic islands Egypt's parliament approved on Wednesday a controversial maritime agreement with Saudi Arabia that transfers two Red Sea islands to the kingdom, state television and a lawmaker said. The deal, which is still under challenge in court, had sparked rare protests in the country with the opposition accusing the government of selling Egyptian territory to its Saudi benefactors. The vote came after days of heated debate in parliament with opponents even interrupting one committee session with chanting. Courts had struck down the agreement, signed in April 2016, but a year later another court upheld it. Lawyers are now challenging the deal before the constitutional court. The accord had sparked rare protests in Egypt last year, with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi accused of having traded the islands of Tiran and Sanafir for Saudi largesse. The government has said the islands were Saudi to begin with, but were leased to Egypt in the 1950s. Opponents of the agreement insist that Tiran and Sanafir are Egyptian. On Tuesday evening dozens of journalists protested against the agreement in central Cairo, before being dispersed by police, journalists' union official Gamal Abdel Rehim told AFP. Several were briefly arrested before being released but "three reporters are still detained, and contacts are being made with the interior ministry to get them released," he said. Lebanon's government announced a new election law after a cabinet session Lebanon's government announced a new election law after a cabinet session Wednesday, ending months of tense discussions and paving the way for the first parliamentary elections in nine years. The deal comes after a stalemate that has seen the country's parliament extend its term twice since the last elections in 2009. Under the agreement, the current parliament's term will be extended once again, but this time for just 11 months to prepare for elections under the new rules in May 2018. Parliament is scheduled to vote on the law on Friday. The new law replaces the existing plurality voting system with proportional representation and reduces the number of electoral districts. It comes after years of wrangling during which key political parties rejected various proposals for fear of losing parliamentary seats. Prime Minister Saad Hariri hailed the law as "a great and historic achievement despite the long time that was needed and the lengthy discussions". Parliament has twice delayed elections and extended its own mandate since 2009, a move civil society activists decried as "unconstitutional". The final law is based on proposals from President Michel Aoun's Christian Free Patriotic Movement and backed by its powerful Shiite ally Hezbollah, as well as the small Shiite Amal party of speaker Nabih Berri. But the deal is seen as the latest in a string of compromises in the country's bitterly-divided political landscape. Last November, Aoun was elected president after a stalemate of more than two years under a deal that saw Hariri, a Sunni Muslim and Hezbollah opponent become prime minister. A new government was formed shortly afterwards. Lebanon recognises 18 official religious sects and its 128 parliamentary seats are divided equally between Muslims and Christians, an arrangement unique in the region. It remains scarred by a bitter 1975-1990 civil war, and its fragile sectarian and political balance has been shaken by the war in neighbouring Syria. More than one million Syrian refugees have flooded the country, creating economic strains compounded by the political stalemate. Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, pictured in 2011, had been held by a militia for more than five years before his reported release last week The International Criminal Court chief's prosecutor Wednesday called for the "immediate arrest and surrender" of Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly set free by a militia in Libya. An arrest warrant issued by the Hague-based ICC against Seif in 2011 "remains valid and Libya is obliged to immediately arrest and surrender Mr Gaddafi... regardless of any purported amnesty law in Libya," Fatou Bensouda said. Seif al-Islam, the second son and heir apparent of the late deposed Libyan dictator, was said to have been released on Friday by a militia that controls the town of Zintan in western Libya. The group, which had held Seif al-Islam for more than five years, said he had been set free under an amnesty law promulgated by a parliament based in the country's east during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But the prosecutor general's office in Tripoli, where a rival UN-backed administration is based, said the amnesty could not apply to Seif al-Islam because of the severity of his crimes, saying he was still wanted for a 2015 conviction. Bensouda said the world war crimes court is now "verifying" Seif al-Islam's whereabouts. She called on Libya, the UN Security Council and "all other relevant" countries "to provide my office with any relevant information in their possession." The ICC also called for the arrest and surrender of Libya's former security chief Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, who is wanted on similar charges as Seif for his role in attempting to quash the 2011 revolt against slain strongman Kadhafi. The ICC in April unveiled an arrest warrant for Khaled. "It is imperative for both suspects to be apprehended and immediately surrendered to the custody of the ICC so that their guilt or innocence can be established...for justice to be done, and seen to be done," Bensouda said. Children are among the 1.3 million people who have fled violence in DR Congo in the last months in the Kasai region. The United Nations has documented dozens of cases of serious child abuse including rape and kidnap in five days of violence by Congolese militias, it said Wednesday. The UN's mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, said it had recorded 62 cases of "serious" child abuse by armed groups in the violence-wracked east, and by followers of slain militia leader Kamwina Nsapu in the country's centre, between June 5 and 9. "The fate of child victims of armed conflict in the DRC remains a permanent concern," MONUSCO spokesman Theophane Kinda told reporters in Kinshasa. Kinda said that among others, the UN had documented "25 cases of child kidnap and 16 cases of the recruitment and use of child soldiers by armed groups" in both parts of the country. "A total of 19 cases of rape and sexual violence perpetrated against underage girls have been identified," he added. The UN has repeatedly deplored the abuse of children's rights in vast, unstable DR Congo -- particularly in the east, which has suffered more than 20 years of armed conflict, fuelled by struggle for control of lucrative mineral resources as well as ethnic and property disputes. Since last September, the central Kasai region has also been rocked by a violent tribal uprising led by followers of Nsapu, who was killed in a military operation in August after rising up against the government. That violence has left hundreds of people dead -- including two UN investigators in March -- and forced 1.3 million others to flee their homes. The UN has accused the Kamwina Nsapu rebels of a string of atrocities, while also accusing the Congolese army of disproportionate use of force. The European Parliament on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into the Kasai violence, in a bid to "make sure that the perpetrators of these massacres account for their actions". European lawmakers said UN experts should be part of any investigation team, saying in a resolution that they were "deeply concerned by the deterioration in the political, security and humanitarian situation" in DR Congo. Last week UN children's charity UNICEF estimated that more than 150,000 children were either partially or completely unable to attend school because of the fighting in Kasai. Turkey has been under a state of emergency since the failed coup in July 2016 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced a top UN court judge to more than seven years in jail on charges of links to the group blamed for the failed July coup, local media reported. But retired ambassador Aydin Sefa Akay, a top judge attached to the UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, was released under judicial supervision pending confirmation of the verdict by Turkey's top appeals court. Akay was charged with "membership in an armed terror group" over alleged links to the organisation of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based preacher blamed by Ankara for the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He had vehemently denied the charges, which had caused an uproar among the international legal community. The court found Akay guilty of using Bylock, a special communication service which Ankara claims was especially created for Gulen supporters, the Dogan news agency said. The judge was sentenced by an Ankara court to seven years and six months in jail. He was released pending the ruling from the supreme appeals court -- the Yargitay -- a date for which has not been set. If the verdict is confirmed by the higher court, he will go back to jail. The court also placed an overseas travel ban on Akay, Dogan reported, meaning there is no prospect of him resuming his work with the UN courts system. Turkey blames Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, for orchestrating the failed putsch and has repeatedly asked Washington to extradite him. Gulen has denied the charges. Akay, one of the highest-profile suspects arrested in the post-coup crackdown, was detained in September at the family home and had been held in jail since. In his initial testimony, Akay had admitted downloading Bylock but said he had not used any password to access the system. Akay had been working with the UN international court trying suspects over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and his detention has paralysed proceedings into an appeal hearing of former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware. The UN court has already said Turkey has failed to comply with its obligations and said it would report Ankara to the UN Security Council. Under a state of emergency imposed after the coup, Turkey has embarked on a relentless crackdown against alleged supporters of Gulen, arresting tens of thousands of people. Several rounds of UN-brokered peace talks have done little to stop Syria's six-year conflict A new round of Syria peace talks could happen next month in Geneva, the United Nations envoy said Wednesday, following repeated failed attempts to stem the bloodshed. Staffan de Mistura told reporters during at a conference in Norway that fresh negotiations aimed at ending Syria's six-year-old civil war could start at the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. The UN has mediated peace talks between Syrian government and rebel delegations for several years to little avail. But a parallel peace process involving allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia and Iran, and rebel supporter Turkey, agreed in May to establish four safe zones across Syria where flights would be banned and aid deliveries ensured. The zones -- where aerial bombardments were supposed to stop -- have ushered in a marked decrease in fighting. But that plan, agreed in the Kazakh capital Astana between some of the war's major players, has stalled as sponsor nations disagreed over the precise outlines and which countries should send in forces to police the zones. A new round of Astana talks had been scheduled for this week but were postponed indefinitely. De Mistura called the advances agreed during Astana talks an "important" part of efforts to end the war that has killed more than 320,000 people and forced millions from their homes since 2011. "We hope that what is being done in Astana can be expanded in order to (reach)... a total ceasefire," he said. The postponed talks could take place "sometime early July," before the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7-8, he said. The UN envoy said he hoped some progress would be made between Assad-backer Russia and the United States during the G20 that may boost peace prospects. "Syria is certainly on the radar screen of both and this is a good time to discuss it," he said. US Marines salute during a handover ceremony at Leatherneck Camp in Lashkar Gah in the Afghan province of Helmand on April 29, 2017 US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has vowed that the Trump administration will not repeat the "mistakes of the past" in Afghanistan, after the president signaled a desire to give the Pentagon wide latitude in setting warfighting policy. But given Afghanistan's violent history and the fate of successive presidents' efforts to score some sort of victory there, analysts are not confident of Mattis's chances of longterm success. Unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, who kept battlefield commanders on a tight leash and scrutinized each deployment, President Donald Trump has deferred to top brass -- the men he likes to call "my generals." Though Trump has said little about Afghanistan, this week he gave Mattis authority to set troop numbers there at whatever level he sees fit, a decision finalized as the Pentagon chief told lawmakers America is still "not winning" against the Taliban. The Pentagon is reportedly considering deploying an extra 3,000 to 5,000 troops -- some of whom would come from NATO allies -- in Afghanistan to help train and advise local forces fighting the Taliban and other insurgent groups. "This administration will not repeat the mistakes of the past," Mattis declared Wednesday. "We cannot allow Afghanistan to once again become a launching point for attacks on our homeland or on our allies," he said, alluding to the former Taliban government's granting haven to Al-Qaeda before the September 11, 2011 terror attacks in the US. Nearly 16 years after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan, and after successive administrations have tried different troop levels and engagement strategies, observers are skeptical. "If all we are doing is tinkering around at the margin of a strategy that amounts to 'Muddle through and hope for a miracle,' then 3,000 to 5,000 troops are not going to make a difference," Stephen Biddle, a professor at George Washington University and an Afghanistan expert, told AFP. Currently about 8,400 US troops are in Afghanistan along with about 5,000 NATO forces. Additional troops would allow the Western advisors to work with more Afghan combat units, though the locals would still be doing the actual fighting. Mattis stressed that his new approach on Afghanistan, to be presented to Trump by the middle of July, will have a broader "regional" emphasis and not be beholden to any timelines. After sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2009, Obama drew heavy criticism for subsequently announcing when they would withdraw. "That was a huge strategic mistake," Bill Roggio, an Afghanistan expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told AFP. Obama had been elected on a pledge to end US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and faced pressure to promise that new troop deployments would be temporary. "The international community is going to have to hold with it, and when we reduce, we reduce based on conditions on the ground, not on an arbitrary timeline," Mattis told lawmakers. - Stem the tide - US troop levels in Afghanistan peaked at around 100,000 under Obama, who later embarked on a steady drawdown aiming to completely end America's combat role. The United States and NATO handed security responsibility to Afghan forces at the start of 2015, but the outcome has been brutal. Local troops have been slain in their thousands, corruption remains endemic and as the Taliban continues to gain ground, US commanders concede the situation is a stalemate at best. Roggio's assessment was that an additional troop deployment would "stem the tide of the Taliban advance" but could not be known for sure until it was clear what the troops would be doing. Pointing to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s, Democratic Senator Jon Tester questioned whether victory was possible. "Is it achievable? This country's been at war for God knows how many centuries," Tester said. Mattis, a history scholar, said it is. His new strategy would come in consultation with other US government agencies. "I will set a US military commitment consistent with the commander in chief's strategic directions and his foreign policy, as dictated by Secretary of State (Rex) Tillerson," Mattis said. The decision to let Mattis, a retired Marine general who fought in Afghanistan, bring extra troops into the country indicates the Pentagon has prevailed over Trump's advisors who'd advocated for an American withdrawal. Thousands more troops going back to Afghanistan could still be a tough sell for Trump, who campaigned on an "America First" platform and a pledge to reduce US adventurism abroad. About 2,400 US troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001 and another 20,000 wounded. The US government has already spent around $1 trillion on warfighting and rebuilding, much of which has been squandered on wasteful projects. Palestinian children read books by candle light due to electricity shortages in Gaza City Israeli and international NGOS joined the UN on Wednesday in warning of a "total collapse" in Gaza if Israel goes ahead with plans to further cut power supplies to the enclave. A joint statement of 16 groups, among them Israel's BTselem, Peace Now and Rabbis for Human Rights along with Amnesty International, said they has asked Israel's attorney general to intervene. Gazans currently receive only three to four hours of mains electricity a day, delivered from the territory's own power station and others in Israel and Egypt. Senior Israeli ministers decided on Sunday to reduce the amount of electricity supplied to Gaza by between 45 and 60 minutes a day after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut funding for it by his West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. The move was widely seen as an attempt by the Palestinian leader to step up pressure on his rivals in the Islamist movement Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip. "A group of civil society organisations... sent an urgent letter today to attorney general Avichai Mandelblit demanding that he advise the members of the security cabinet to immediately rescind (its) decision to reduce the supply of electricity sold and provided by Israel to the Gaza Strip," the NGOs said in their statement. They said further cuts would contravene a 2008 Israeli supreme court ruling that years of Israeli control over the strip had created near-total dependence on power supply from the Jewish state and it must therefore continue to provide sufficient electricity to meet humanitarian needs. Amnesty warned in a separate statement of a "looming humanitarian catastrophe". It said additional reductions in power "will have a disastrous impact on Gazas battered infrastructure and cause a public health disaster." "The move will also endanger thousands of lives including those of hospital patients with chronic conditions or in intensive care, including babies on life support." The UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, Robert Piper, warned that fresh cuts would be disastrous. "A further increase in the length of blackouts is likely to lead to a total collapse of basic services, including critical functions in the health, water and sanitation sectors," Piper said in a statement. "The people in Gaza should not be held hostage to this longstanding internal Palestinian dispute." - 'A catastrophe' - The French government also expressed concern. Palestinians walk on a street at the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City during a power outage on June 11, 2017 "France is following with concern the situation in Gaza, which continues to deteriorate in the absence of a lasting political solution," said a foreign ministry spokesman. Hamas has run Gaza since 2007, when it seized the territory from Abbas loyalists in a dispute over parliamentary elections swept by the Islamist movement the previous year. Multiple attempts at reconciliation between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement have failed, but his Palestinian Authority has continued to pay Israel for some electricity delivered to Gaza. The prospect of even lengthier blackouts in Gaza has raised fears of a new upsurge in violence. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel had "no interest in an escalation," blaming internal Palestinian disputes for the crisis. Hamas said the cut was made on Abbas's orders and termed it "a catastrophe". "This decision aggravates the situation and risks an explosion in the Gaza Strip," it said on Monday. But on Wednesday Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman dismissed the idea of a humanitarian crisis in the tiny enclave of some two million people. "It is clear the Gaza Strip is not Switzerland, but there is no humanitarian crisis," he said, citing the "hundreds" of trucks delivering goods each day. The World Food Programme, however, said Gazans also face a food shortage brought about by a drop in funding for its aid programme. "Unless new funding quickly arrives, the United Nations World Food Programme may be forced to suspend its voucher food assistance in July," it said. "The energy crisis has eroded people's purchasing power and increased the prices of basic essentials," it added. "The poorest families, including those assisted by WFP, are affected the most." Bosco Ntaganda is accused of 13 charges of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity committed by his rebel militia A former Congolese rebel commander told war crimes judges Wednesday the "horrific events" he saw during Rwanda's 1994 genocide shaped him to vow to do everything he could to prevent "it happening again". Almost two years after his trial opened, Bosco Ntaganda took the stand for the first time expected to talk about events in 2002 and 2003, when his rebel forces rampaged through neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo's gold-rich Ituri province, murdering and raping civilians and plundering their possessions. Instead, the man once dubbed "The Terminator" told the International Criminal Court about his time as a young soldier in the Ugandan-backed Rwandan army during that country's genocide in which some 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were murdered. "I was young, but I was already in the army and was a soldier," said Rwandan-born Ntaganda, who is now accused of playing a major role in the unrest in the eastern DRC in 2002-03. "I witnessed horrific events," he told the Hague-based ICC, adding "I lost many members of my family during the genocide against the Tutsis." "Our superiors had told us what we have just seen as soldiers -- if possible we had to do everything to prevent this from happening in Africa again," the soft-spoken Ntaganda said, speaking in Swahili. "This was in my mind wherever I went. I do not wish to see any other community experience what my community went through," said Ntaganda, who was smartly dressed in a dark blue suit, light shirt and blue tie. - Savage ethnic attacks - Ntaganda, 43, denies 13 charges of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity committed by his Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC), a militia drawn from the Hema ethnic group which prosecutors say targeted the Lendu and other non-Hema groups. Fighting in Ituri has left some 60,000 dead since 1999 according to rights groups, in a conflict exacerbated by the wealth of regional resources including gold and other minerals used in electronic products. Ntaganda has been charged with ordering hundreds of deaths through savage ethnic attacks by the FPLC, which was then the armed wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots. During the prosecution's case, which took 64 days to complete, a witness told the tribunal in The Hague of seeing "tied-up bodies" left in their underwear, "their heads crushed." Ntaganda "was one of the most important commanders" involved in the savage ethnic attacks carried out by the FPLC, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said at the opening of the trial in September 2015. - 'Not The Terminator' - The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been mired for two decades in ethnically-charged wars, as rebels battle for control of mineral resources. The unrest spiralled to encompass armies from at least six African nations, claiming hundreds-of-thousands of lives in one of the world's most deadly recent conflicts. At the start of his trial Ntaganda, known for his trademark pencil moustache and his penchant for cowboy hats and fine dining, told the judges he rejected being called "The Terminator". The ICC issued two arrest warrants against Ntaganda who evaded capture until unexpectedly walking into the US embassy in Kigali in 2013 and turning himself in. Ntaganda's defence team plans to call 109 witnesses and four experts, seeking to overturn his image as a merciless warlord. The former rebel went on a two-week hunger strike last year after judges slapped tight restrictions on him when prosecutors accused him of bribing witnesses. If convicted he could face up to 30 years behind bars, or life if such a sentence is "justified by the extreme gravity of the crime," under ICC rules. Ntaganda's case follows that of his former boss, warlord Thomas Lubanga, who was sentenced to 14 years in jail in 2012 on similar charges, the court's first conviction since it opened in 2002. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (R) talks with Afghan women who fled conflict at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) on the outskirts of Kabul on June 14, 2017 Sitting cross-legged with war-displaced women in a mud-brick settlement on Kabul's outskirts, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for increased humanitarian assistance and a political solution to end the conflict. Guterres' first visit to Afghanistan as UN chief comes amid spiralling insecurity as the country struggles to reabsorb masses of refugees being deported from Pakistan, Europe and Iran, joining hundreds of thousands of others uprooted by war. "We cannot leave these people alone," Guterres said at the dusty, squalid camp, ringed by armed guards and sniffer dogs, where he met Afghan families who fled an expanding conflict with Taliban and Islamic State insurgents. "These are the most vulnerable people. The international community needs to come together... We need to increase humanitarian assistance to help them live with dignity." One of the women Guterres met was 30-year-old Kumri, a mother-of-four who lost her husband in a government battle with the Taliban in her native Kapisa province. "Shelter, clinic, school for my children," said Kumri, who has been in the camp for two years, rattling off a list of demands to Guterres. "I am concerned about the future of my children. They are forced to beg." The humanitarian crisis engulfing Afghanistan has prompted international agencies, including the UN, to appeal for emergency funding. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have returned from Iran and, particularly, Pakistan, a regional nemesis cracking down on undocumented Afghan refugees. Many of them are stuck in limbo as their home districts are torn by insecurity. In a perfect storm, the European Union last year signed an agreement with Kabul to return Afghans whose asylum appeals are rejected, which could result in thousands of repatriations despite the violence. - 'No military solution' - More than 126,000 Afghan have fled their homes due to conflict this year alone, with displacement seen in 29 of the countrys 34 provinces, according to the UN. "It is my deep belief that this war has no military solution... We need to have a political solution, we need to have peace," Guterres said. Guterres also met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who faces public anger over rising insecurity. Kabul has been on edge since a massive truck bomb on May 31 killed more than 150 people and wounded hundreds in the city's fortified diplomatic quarter, the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001. Just days later protesters incensed by the bombing clashed with police, prompting authorities to respond with live rounds, which left at least four people dead. Separately, suicide bombers tore through a row of mourners at the funeral for one of the protesters, killing at least seven more people. The carnage has left the Afghan capital shaken, with protesters who have set up a sit-in camp close to the bombing site demanding the resignation of Ghani's government. Authorities have accused the Taliban-allied Haqqani network for the May 31 attack. Ghani appears keen to seek new UN sanctions against the militant movement if they do not resume peace talks. Insisting on an Afghan-led peace process, Guterres said any sanctions would be up to the UN Security Council, adding: "There is no good Taliban and bad Taliban." A general view of Mogadishu skyline At least six people were killed after a suicide car bomber targeted a popular restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday evening, security officials said. "The suicide bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into the building," said Ali Mohamed, a police official, identifying the target as the Posh Treats restaurant. Security official Abukar Mohamed said there were "six people killed and several wounded" adding that the operation to clear the building was ongoing late Wednesday night with security forces having cordoned off the area. Witness Abas Ahmed, who was at another nearby restaurant when the explosion happened, described seeing "the dead bodies of several people and others who were injured." The Shabaab, an al-Qaeda aligned militant group that launches regular suicide attacks in the capital against civilian, government and military targets, claimed responsibility for the bombing via its Radio Andalus broadcaster and said that its gunmen had afterwards stormed the restaurant compound. Islamist attacks often increase in tempo during Ramadan and Wednesday's bombing came in the evening after the breaking of the fast when mosques and restaurants are busy. Posh Treats, a relatively new restaurant in an affluent part of the capital, is particularly popular with young and diaspora Somalis. The Shabaab has been fighting for the last decade to overthrow successive internationally-backed governments in Mogadishu and has also launched attacks in Kenya and Uganda, both contributors to a 22,000-strong African Union force in the country. Although pushed out of the capital in 2011 the group still controls parts of the countryside where a drought threatens to tip into famine this year. Moroccan King Mohammed VI (R) walks alongside French President Emmanuel Macron as they review the honour guard upon the latter's arrival in Rabat on June 14, 2017 French President Emmanuel Macron was in Morocco Wednesday on a 24-hour visit for talks on battling terrorism as well as the Libyan conflict and Qatar's dispute with its Gulf neighbours. As he stepped off the plane for his first visit to Morocco since his election in May, the French president, his wife Brigitte at his side, was welcomed on the tarmac by King Mohammed VI. The king's wife, Princess Lalla Salma, and Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, 14, were also present at the airport to greet the French first couple, who were then driven to the royal palace for an hour of talks. At a press conference following the talks, Macron said both France and Morocco were keen on mediating a solution to the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf. "The king of Morocco shares our concern: France would like to see the countries talking again and for the Gulf to remain stable, not least because these states are stakeholders in the crises in Syria and Libya," he said. "The king of Morocco has met with several of those involved, myself I have met all the leaders from the region," Macron said, adding that he would meet a senior leader from the UAE in Paris next week. The French presidency earlier indicated Macron would meet separately with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and the crown prince of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan, but later said "nothing was confirmed". The United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and other countries, accusing the gas-rich Gulf nation of supporting Islamist extremism. The crisis is the worst to grip the Gulf in years. At the press conference the French president also touched on recent unrest in Morocco's northern Rif region, where dozens have been arrested as protestors clash with police over corruption and unemployment. "The Moroccan king is concerned about the future of this region... the king believes it is legitimate for protests to take place and they are protected in the constitution," Macron said. Mohammed VI never comments to journalists and did not attend the conference. Also on Macron's agenda was the conflict in Libya, where the UN-backed government is struggling to impose its legitimacy. The fight against radicalisation and terrorism would be at the centre of the talks between the two leaders, and Paris would like to "intensify" cooperation in that field, a French diplomatic source said ahead of the visit. Moroccans, or people of Moroccan origin, are believed to be behind several attacks that have been carried out in Europe in the past two years. After the talks Macron and his wife attended an iftar meal, to break the Ramadan fast, at the king's personal residency. The French president will spend the night in Rabat before flying back home Thursday. US authorities announced arrest warrants had been issued for 12 members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail for assaulting protesters in Washington last month, sparking a furious response from the Turkish leader. An indignant Erdogan responded that the United States had no right to arrest his guards, who he said were protecting him from 'terrorists.' The Turkish foreign ministry officially 'invited' the US ambassador in for discussions after the announcement. But Washington held that Erdogan's security detail had no justification to attack the small group of Kurdish and Armenian protesters outside the Turkish ambassador's residence on May 16, just after Erdogan met with President Donald Trump at the White House. Scroll down for video Turkish security officials were seen on video hitting and kicking protesters who had gathered outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in the Sheridan Circle section of the capital The brawl took place outside the residence of Turkey's ambassador to Washington shortly after President Donald Trump warmly received Erdogan at the White House Nine people were injured, with several going to the hospital for treatment of head injuries, broken teeth, deep cuts and bruises. The charges against the 12, along with six other Turkish-Americans and Turkish-Canadians who joined the melee, 'send a clear message that the United States does not tolerate individuals who use intimidation and violence to stifle freedom of speech and legitimate political expression,' said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. Erdogan lashed back, accusing US police of having allowed 'terrorists' to protest '50 meters from me' during his US visit. 'Why would I bring my guards with me to the United States, if not to protect me?' he said in a speech in Ankara, adding that US police 'did nothing.' 'We will fight politically and judicially' against the warrants, he added. Police secure the street outside the Turkish embassy on May 16 after visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security detail clashed with pro-Kurdish and pro-Armenian protesters, wounding at least eight people The incident caused outrage in the United States and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday demanded that Turkey condemn the violence and apologize The 12 men named in the warrants were identified in detailed video footage of the assault, said Washington Police Chief Peter Newsham. The men, all Turkish citizens, include nine Erdogan security guards and three Turkish police. Security officials were seen on video hitting and kicking protesters who had gathered outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in the Sheridan Circle section of the capital. The incident caused outrage in the United States and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday demanded that Turkey condemn the violence and apologize. The US ambassador told Turkey's government its guards violated US laws, a senior US official said. Two Turkish-American men were arrested Wednesday for their role in the a Washington brawl, police said. New Jersey contractor Eyup Yildirim - seen in video footage attacking protestors with Erdogan's bodyguards and kicking a woman -- was charged with assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. A second suspect who also seen in videos kicking a protestor, Virginia resident Sinan Narin, was charged with aggravated assault. Two other defendants are Canadian, while the remaining 12 are Turkish nationals, according to ABC News. A Washington police spokesman described the assault as a 'brutal attack on a peaceful protest' that left 11 people were hurt, nine of them badly enough to receive hospital treatment According to ABC News, the State Department is considering barring those individuals from future entry into the US. The brawl took place outside the residence of Turkey's ambassador to Washington shortly after President Donald Trump warmly received Erdogan at the White House. Video recordings of the incident show Erdogan supporters and his bodyguards clashing with Kurdish and Armenian protesters who accuse the Turkish president of rights abuses. Close-up footage shared on social media showed Turkish officials dressed in suits beating and punching people in the crowd and, in at least one case, kicking out at a woman splayed on the ground. A Washington police spokesman described the assault as a 'brutal attack on a peaceful protest' that left 11 people were hurt, nine of them badly enough to receive hospital treatment. Two men were arrested at the time, and the US State Department registered concern to Turkey in the 'strongest possible terms.' The attack was an embarrassment for US authorities, who invited Erdogan to meet Trump despite concerns over his government's increasingly authoritarian clampdown on his domestic media and opposition. But the following week the Turkish government summoned the US ambassador to protest 'aggressive behavior' by US security personnel and 'security lapses' in the incident. On June 6 US lawmakers passed a resolution which strongly condemned Turkey for the incident, and called for criminal charges against those responsible. Turkey rejected the criticism and summoned the American ambassador last month to protest what it called 'aggressive and unprofessional actions' by US security personnel against Turkish bodyguards during a violent incident last week in Washington. The Flint water contamination scandal has become a notorious case, now culminating in involuntary manslaugher charges The chief of Michigan state's health department and four others were charged with involuntary manslaughter Wednesday over the Flint water contamination scandal, the most serious criminal offenses leveled so far. In what has become a notorious case, Flint's drinking water was contaminated three years ago, when in a cost-saving effort, officials switched to a more corrosive source that had not been properly treated to keep old underground pipes from leaching lead. The contamination, initially denied by state and local officials, poisoned thousands of children and caused the deaths of 12 people from Legionnaire's disease, authorities said. In the charge unveiled Wednesday, Nick Lyon, head of the state health department, stands accused of failing to raise alarms over an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that investigators tied to the contamination. He is the most senior official yet charged. According to the charging documents, Lyon knew of the water contamination in January 2015, but waited a year to notify the public and took steps to suppress information. Investigators claimed that he later stated "he can't save everyone" and "everyone has to die of something." The four other officials charged by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette with involuntary manslaughter had already been facing other criminal charges. The manslaughter charges are in connection with the death of Robert Skidmore, then 85, who "died of Legionnaires' disease after many others were diagnosed with the illness yet no public outbreak notice had been issued," the attorney general's office said in a statement. Eden Wells, the state's chief medical officer, was also criminally charged on Wednesday, with obstruction of justice and lying to an investigator. She allegedly tried to withhold funding for programs designed to help the victims of the crisis, and then lied to investigators, officials said. The total number of current and former government officials facing criminal charges in the ongoing investigation now totals 15. Investigators have said they are moving up the chain of authority in their probe and have not ruled out potential targets in the governor's office. A federal judge in March approved a $97-million settlement requiring the replacement of all lead pipes in the city. The fate of entertainer Bill Cosby on sexual assault charges is in the hands of a jury near Philadelphia, which began deliberations Monday. A look at the charges, and the punishment he could face if convicted: ___ Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) WHAT IS COSBY ACCUSED OF? Drugging and sexually violating a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Andrea Constand says Cosby gave her pills that made her paralyzed and unable to fight him off as he groped her breast and genitals. His lawyers said they were in a romantic relationship and what happened was consensual. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done. ___ WHAT IS HE CHARGED WITH? Three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault, each covering a different aspect of the alleged crime. Count 1 alleges that Cosby didn't have consent when he penetrated Constand's genitals with his fingers. Count 2 alleges she was unconscious or semi-conscious at the time and could not give consent. Count 3 alleges all this happened after he gave her an intoxicant that substantially impaired her and stopped her from resisting. ___ HOW MUCH TIME COULD HE FACE? Each of the three counts carries a standard sentence range of five to 10 years in prison. But experts say that if he is convicted, it's likely Cosby's attorneys would be able to successfully argue the charges be combined for sentencing purposes, since they cover the same encounter and conduct. If the judge follows state sentencing guidelines, a conviction would put Cosby, 79, in prison at least until he is 84. ___ WHAT'S THE WORST CASE SCENARIO FOR COSBY? Pennsylvania law allows sentencing judges to consider uncharged conduct. In Cosby's case, that could involve the more than 60 other women who have accused him of assaults dating to the 1960s. Duquesne University law professor Wes Oliver says those allegations could compel Judge Steven O'Neill to sentence Cosby closer to 10 years. ___ WOULD HE HAVE TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER? Yes. If he is convicted, prosecutors say Cosby would have to register as a sex offender and face an assessment to determine if he is a sexually violent predator. ___ WOULD COSBY BE HAULED OFF IN HANDCUFFS RIGHT AWAY? If convicted, Cosby could remain free until sentencing unless O'Neill revokes his $1 million bail. Philadelphia defense lawyer Alan Tauber, who isn't involved in the case, says that's less likely for Cosby because his fame makes him an unlikely flight risk. Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Andrea Constand walks to the courtroom for Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Cosby is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Bill Cosby, third from left, arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Andrea Constand, center, hugs a person as she walks to the courtroom for Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Andrea Constand walks from the courtroom for Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Cosby is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool) BERLIN (AP) - A police officer was shot in the head at a Munich subway station Tuesday after a man grabbed her colleague's service pistol and opened fire, also injuring two bystanders, German authorities said. The officer's injuries were considered life-threatening, Munich police spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said. The suspect, identified only as a 37-year-old German man, was apprehended in Unterfoehring station after being wounded in an exchange of fire with police, da Gloria Martins said. Policemen arrive at a subway station in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Several people were injured, including a police officer, in a shooting early Tuesday at a Munich subway station, police said. Munich police said in a tweet that the policewoman's injuries were serious. The suspect was also injured and is in custody. The shooting occurred during a morning police check at the Unterfoehring subway station, Munich police spokesman Michael Riehlein said. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP) Authorities were called to the station at 8:20 a.m. (0620 GMT) to deal with a fist fight aboard a subway train, Munich police said in a written statement. The first two officers on the scene confronted one of the men, who shoved one of the officers and took his pistol. The man then fired at the policeman's colleague, hitting her in the head. The 26-year-old officer was being treated in the hospital for serious injuries, police said. Other officers arriving on the scene were able to arrest the suspect after an exchange of fire with him. Authorities do not believe the incident had to do with terrorism, saying that the suspect appeared to have acted out of "personal" reasons and not with political or religious motivations, da Gloria Martins said. Police had initially said the suspect had grabbed the wounded officer's pistol, but corrected that in a statement issued later. An ambulance arrives near a subway station in Munich, Germany, Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Several people were injured, including a police officer, in a shooting early Tuesday at a Munich subway station, police said. Munich police said in a tweet that the policewoman's injuries were serious. The suspect was also injured and is in custody. The shooting occurred during a morning police check at the Unterfoehring subway station, Munich police spokesman Michael Riehlein said. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP) A Minnesota jury is deliberating in the manslaughter trial of a police officer who shot a black motorist to death seconds after the motorist informed him he was carrying a gun. Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who is Latino, is charged in the July death of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker whom Yanez had pulled over in a St. Paul suburb. Yanez said he thought Castile resembled a robbery suspect, and that once stopped, Castile disregarded his commands not to pull out his gun. Prosecutors argue Yanez never saw a gun and overreacted. FILE - In this July 25, 2016, file photo, a memorial including a photo of Philando Castile adorns the gate to the governor's residence in St. Paul, Minn., protesting the July 6, 2016 shooting death of Castile by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez. Closing arguments began Monday, June 12, 2017 in in a Yanez' manslaughter trial in the fatal shooting of Castile.(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) The case is among several across the United States in recent years that have increased debate about race and policing. Here are some other high-profile deaths of blacks during police encounters: ___ SAM DUBOSE Prosecutors are retrying former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing in the killing of the unarmed motorist during a traffic stop near the campus in July 2015. The jury deadlocked after his first murder trial. He faces 15 years to life if convicted. Tensing's body camera captured much of the encounter, although the two sides dispute what conclusions can be reached. Tensing's attorney says DuBose was using his car as a deadly weapon. The university fired Tensing, restructured its public safety department and reached a $5.3 million settlement that includes free undergraduate tuition for DuBose's 13 children. ___ SYLVILLE SMITH Former Milwaukee police officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who is black, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in Smith's death, which ignited riots on the city's north side. The shooting happened in August 2016 after Heaggan-Brown and his partner stopped a rental car that police say was driving suspiciously. Once the car stopped, police say Smith ran away holding a gun. Prosecutors say Smith fell and Heaggan-Brown shot him once in the arm as he was getting up, still holding the weapon while facing the officer. They say Heaggan-Brown's second shot came after Smith had thrown his gun over a fence. Heaggan-Brown, 25, said he thought Smith was reaching for another gun in his waistband when he fired again. The trial is underway this week. ___ JORDAN EDWARDS The U.S. Justice Department said in May that it's investigating the fatal shooting of the 15-year-old by a white police officer in a Dallas suburb. Edwards was shot April 29 by Balch Springs police Officer Roy Oliver, who was fired and charged with murder. Oliver fired a rifle at a car full of teenagers leaving a party, fatally shooting Edwards, who was a passenger in the vehicle that was moving away from officers. Balch Springs police had originally said the vehicle was reversing "in an aggressive manner" toward officers, who had responded to a complaint about underage drinking. But Police Chief Jonathan Haber later said video taken at the scene proved the vehicle was actually driving away. Oliver is free on bond. ___ TERENCE CRUTCHER An Oklahoma jury on May 17 found Officer Betty Jo Shelby not guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 16, 2016, death of Terence Crutcher, 40, shot shortly after Shelby arrived on a street to find Crutcher's SUV stopped in the middle of the road. Shelby testified that she was afraid because Crutcher didn't obey her commands and appeared to reach inside his SUV. Prosecutors told jurors that Shelby overreacted, noting that videos from a patrol car dashboard and a police helicopter showed Crutcher had his hands in the air and did not have a weapon. ___ ALTON STERLING Federal prosecutors announced May 3 that they would not seek charges against two white police officers who were involved in a deadly encounter with Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last summer. Sterling, 37, was shot to death on July 5, 2016, as two white officers pinned him to the pavement outside a convenience store where he had been selling CDs. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely online, sparking demonstrations across Baton Rouge. U.S. Attorney Corey Amundson said Sterling was armed during the confrontation and the investigation didn't find enough evidence to pursue charges. State authorities are investigating to decide whether to bring charges. ___ KEITH LAMONT SCOTT A prosecutor cleared a black Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer in the September 2016 fatal shooting of Scott, 43, killed while sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot of his apartment complex as officers sought another man. A police review board decided that Officer Brentley Vinson followed proper procedure. Police video showed officers shouting for Scott to drop a gun numerous times Scott's family said he did not have a gun. Charlotte-Mecklenburg District Attorney Andrew Murray cited evidence that Scott was armed, including a store's surveillance video, DNA recovered from a handgun and a Facebook conversation from the man who said he sold the stolen gun to Scott. ___ JAMAR CLARK Clark's November 2015 shooting death sparked weeks of protests in Minneapolis. Two white officers, Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, were trying to arrest the 24-year-old when he was shot once in the head. He died a day later. Some witnesses said Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, but federal and state probes concluded that he was not. Investigators said Ringgenberg felt Clark's hand trying to grab his weapon and shouted to Schwarze, who then shot Clark. Prosecutors decided not to charge either officer, and an internal police investigation cleared them. ___ RICKY BALL Former Columbus, Mississippi, police officer Canyon Boykin, who is white, was indicted in September for manslaughter in the shooting death of Ball, 26. Boykin, awaiting trial, said he fired because Ball appeared to point a gun at him during a foot chase in October 2015. The city fired Boykin, saying the officer violated policy by not turning on his body camera, by inviting his fiancee to ride with him and by making derogatory social media posts about African-Americans, women and disabled people. Boykin has sued the city, claiming violations of his constitutional rights. Ball's family has sued Boykin, the city and other police officials for wrongful death. ___ JEREMY MCDOLE McDole, 28, was sitting in his wheelchair when he was shot and killed in September 2015 in Wilmington, Delaware, after police received a 911 call about a man with a gun. A bystander's cellphone footage showed officers repeatedly telling McDole to drop his weapon and raise his hands, with McDole reaching for his waist area before shots erupted. The Delaware attorney general's office decided against criminal charges against four Wilmington police officers involved, although investigators concluded one officer showed "extraordinarily poor" police work. In January, a federal judge approved the city's $1.5 million settlement with McDole's family. ___ WILLIAM CHAPMAN II Former Portsmouth, Virginia, police Officer Stephen Rankin was sentenced last October to 2 years in prison for fatally shooting Chapman while responding to a shoplifting call outside a Wal-Mart on April 22, 2015. Prosecutors allege Rankin killed the unarmed 18-year-old "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation." Some witnesses said Chapman was combative, and one said he knocked away Rankin's stun gun. Rankin, who is white, was fired. ___ WALTER SCOTT Prosecutors are recommending decades in prison for white South Carolina police officer Michael Slager, who shot Scott in the back as the motorist fled following a traffic stop. Slager pleaded guilty on May 2 to a federal charge of violating Scott's civil rights. A judge will determine his sentence, which could range from probation to life in prison without parole. Scott's shooting in April 2015 was captured on cellphone video and seen worldwide. ___ FREDDIE GRAY The 25-year-old man was shackled but alive when he was put in a Baltimore police van in April 2015. He came out with severe neck injuries, and his subsequent death led to rioting. Six officers were charged initially, but prosecutors in July 2016 dropped all remaining charges after acquittals and a hung jury. Gray's family agreed to a $6.4 million settlement with the city in September 2015. __ ERIC HARRIS Former Tulsa County volunteer sheriff's deputy Robert Bates, 74, was sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter in the April 2015 death of Harris, 44, who was unarmed and restrained. Bates, who is white, has said he confused his stun gun with his handgun. That shooting led to the temporary suspension of the reserve deputy program after a report found poor training of the volunteer officers, a lack of oversight, and cronyism. Bates is appealing his conviction. ___ TAMIR RICE The 12-year-old was fatally shot by a white Cleveland police officer near a gazebo in a recreational area in November 2014. Officers were responding to a report of a man waving a gun. The boy had a pellet gun tucked in his waistband and was shot after the officers' cruiser skidded to a stop, just feet away. A grand jury in December 2015 declined to indict patrolman Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shot, and training officer Frank Garmback. The city settled Rice's family's lawsuit for $6 million. Cleveland in May fired Loehmann and suspended Garmack for 10 days. The officers' union said it will challenge the discipline, calling it politically motivated. ___ AKAI GURLEY Rookie New York City police officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter last year in the November 2014 death of 28-year-old Gurley. Liang, an American of Chinese descent, said he was patrolling a public housing high-rise with his gun drawn when a sound startled him and he fired accidentally. A bullet ricocheted off a wall, hitting Gurley. A judge reduced the conviction to negligent homicide and sentenced Liang to five years' probation and 800 hours of community service. The city settled with Gurley's family for $4.1 million. ___ MICHAEL BROWN The unarmed 18-year-old was fatally shot by a white officer, Darren Wilson, in August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department opted against civil rights charges. Wilson later resigned. The death of Brown led to months of occasionally violent protests and became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, which rebukes police treatment of minorities. ___ LAQUAN MCDONALD Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in November 2015, on the same day that the city, under a judge's orders, released dashcam video showing McDonald, a 17-year-old man, being shot 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014. Van Dyke, who is white, has pleaded not guilty. The video prompted local and federal investigations. The Justice Department determined in January that Chicago police have a long history of civil rights violations and excessive force. The Chicago Police Department has since released a new use-of-force policy that requires officers undergo de-escalation training and imposes stricter rules on when they can fire their weapons at fleeing suspects. ___ ERIC GARNER The 43-year-old man died in July 2014 in New York City after a white officer placed him in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes. A grand jury declined to indict that officer, or any others involved in the arrest. The city agreed to pay a $6 million civil settlement. ___ REKIA BOYD Chicago police officer Dante Servin resigned in May 2016 after the police superintendent said he should be fired for killing Boyd four years earlier. Servin was off-duty when he shot the 22-year-old unarmed woman. She had been walking down a street with her friends when he told them to be quiet, and he fired when he thought he saw a gun. Prosecutors charged Servin with involuntary manslaughter; a judge acquitted him in April 2016, saying he'd been improperly charged. The city settled a wrongful-death lawsuit in 2013 with Boyd's family for $4.5 million. FILE - In this July 29, 2015, file photo, photos of Samuel DuBose hang on a pole at a memorial near where he was shot and killed by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing during a July 19, 2015, traffic stop in Cincinnati. Testimony began Thursday, June 8, 2017, in Tensing's retrial on murder and voluntary manslaughter charges, while in Minnesota, closing arguments are scheduled Monday, June 12, 2017, in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez, charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a July 6, 2016, traffic stop. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman, File) FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office shows Sylville Smith. In August 2016, a north side Milwaukee neighborhood erupted in violence following the fatal shooting of Smith, by Milwaukee police officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown. Jury selection kicks off Monday, June 12, 2017 in the trial for Heaggan-Brown, who was charged in December with first-degree reckless homicide in Smith's death. (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office via AP, File) FILE - This undated family photo provided by Edwards family attorney Lee Merritt shows Jordan Edwards, left, posing for a photo with his father, Odell Edwards. Edwards was shot April 29, 2017, by Balch Springs, Texas, police Officer Roy Oliver, who was fired and charged with murder. Oliver fired a rifle at a car full of teenagers leaving a party, fatally shooting Edwards, who was a passenger in the vehicle that was moving away from officers. The Justice Department investigation is separate from the district attorney's prosecution, and could end in a wide variety of outcomes - some civil, some criminal. Oliver was fired three days after Edwards' death. Oliver is free on bond. (Courtesy of Lee Merritt/Edwards family via AP, File) FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2016 file photo, a man holds a copy of the program for the funeral of Terence Crutcher during services to honor him in Tulsa, Okla., Crutcher was fatally shot Sept. 16 by Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby. A jury on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, found Shelby not guilty in Crutcher's death. His death was among a series across the U.S. involving black people in recent years that spurred a national debate over race and policing. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki File) FILE - This undated photo released by Javille Burns shows her brother, Jamar Clark, who was fatally shot in a confrontation with police on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in Minneapolis. The officers, Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, were trying to arrest Clark when he was shot once in the head. He died a day later. Some witnesses said Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, but federal and state probes concluded that he was not. Investigators said Ringgenberg felt Clark's hand trying to grab his weapon and shouted to Schwarze, who then shot Clark. Prosecutors decided not to charge either white officer, and an internal police investigation cleared them. (Jamar Clark/Javille Burns via AP, File) FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2014 file photo, Tomiko Shine holds up a poster of Tamir Rice during a protest in Washington. The 12-year-old black boy was fatally shot by a white Cleveland police officer near a gazebo in a recreational area in November 2014. Officers were responding to a report of a man waving a gun. The boy had a pellet gun tucked in his waistband and was shot right after their cruiser skidded to a stop, just feet away. A grand jury in December 2015 declined to indict patrolman Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shot, and training officer Frank Garmback. The city settled his family's lawsuit for $6 million. The officers still could be disciplined or fired by the department. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2014 file photo, Ken Palmer, stepfather of Akai Gurley, holds a program with his photo during his son's funeral at Brown Baptist Memorial Church in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Rookie New York City police officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter in 2016 in the November 2014 death of 28-year-old Gurley. Liang, an American of Chinese descent, said he was patrolling a public housing high-rise with his gun drawn when a sound startled him and he fired accidentally. A bullet ricocheted off a wall, hitting Gurley. A judge reduced the conviction to negligent homicide and sentenced Liang to five years' probation and 800 hours of community service. The city settled with Gurley's family for $4.1 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) FILE - This undated photo provided by the Brown family shows Michael Brown. The 18-year-old black man was fatally shot by a white officer, Darren Wilson, in August 2014 in Ferguson, Mo. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department opted against civil rights charges. Wilson later resigned. The death of Brown, who was unarmed, led to months of occasionally violent protests and became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, which rebukes police treatment of minorities. (Courtesy of the Brown Family via AP, File) FILE - This undated photo provided by his family shows Laquan McDonald. Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in November 2015, on the same day that the city, under a judge's orders, released dashcam video showing McDonald, a 17-year-old black man, being shot 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014. Van Dyke, who is white, has pleaded not guilty. The video prompted local and federal investigations; The Justice Department determined in January that Chicago police have a long history of civil rights violations and excessive force. (Courtesy of the Family via AP) MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's Attorney General's Office is offering rewards for information leading to the arrests of those responsible for the murders of five journalists and the attempted murder of a sixth this year. The government published the offers of up to 1.5 million pesos ($83,000) in Tuesday's official gazette. Six journalists have been killed in Mexico so far this year. The Attorney General's Office did not immediately explain why it included four from this year and one from December. The government promised changes to protect journalists and pursue their killers following the May 15 murder of prominent journalist Javier Valdez in the western city of Culiacan. It is the first time a reward has been offered in the case of a murdered journalist in the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. CANTON, Ohio (AP) - The Latest on the deaths of five people in two locations in northeastern Ohio (all times local): 12:35 p.m. An Ohio sheriff says the suspect in the deaths of a woman and her college-age daughters is also believed to have killed a married couple in another city. Stark County Sheriff George Maier identified the suspect Tuesday as 45-year-old George Brinkman Jr. Maier says Brinkman worked for 71-year-old Rogell Eugene John and 64-year-old Roberta Ray John in North Canton and was watching their house while they were on vacation. The sheriff says the couple was killed after the three women were killed in North Royalton. He says authorities are trying to figure out a connection between Brinkman and the mother and daughters. Brinkman was taken into custody early Tuesday after a standoff in Brunswick. It's unclear if he has an attorney. ___ 9:50 a.m. Ohio police say a suspect in the deaths of a mother and her two adult daughters may also have been involved in a separate double homicide nearby. The 45-year-old man was taken into custody early Tuesday after a standoff in Brunswick, south of Cleveland. Police say he is suspected in the deaths of the three women found dead Sunday night in a North Royalton home. A husband and wife were also found dead at a home in nearby North Canton. Cleveland.com reports that North Royalton Detective Dave Loeding says the suspect possessed evidence linking him to the deaths of the couple. Police say the suspect had a handgun and was subdued with a stun gun. No information has been released about a motive. LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 16th century painting that's been in private hands for more than four centuries and in Britain for nearly 250 years has been acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. "Virgin With Child, St. John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene" will be the Getty's first work by Parmigianino, who painted and made prints in Italy during the late Renaissance. The sale was contingent on whether a British buyer stepped forward to make a competitive offer, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday (http://lat.ms/2rWlPFR ). File - In this Oct. 9, 2005, file photo, visitors walk in the gardens at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. A rare 16th century painting that's been in private hands for more than 4 centuries and in Britain for nearly 250 years has been acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. "Virgin With Child, St. John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene" will be the Getty's first work by Parmigianino, who painted and made prints in Italy during the late Renaissance. (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File) An export license allowing the Parmigianino to leave Britain was deferred in February to allow British institutions a chance to bid for the work, but the deferral expired June 9. The National Gallery of London, which has shown the painting, considered a purchase but ultimately decided against it. Art News reported that the painting dating from around 1530 to 1540 was sold via Sotheby's by the Dent-Brocklehurst family of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire. The publication put the value at more than $31 million. In an interview last year with the Times, Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts called the Parmigianino "one of the few late Renaissance paintings still in private hands. It's in fantastic condition, which is so rare for this period." The museum said it hopes to put the piece on view with other 16th century Italian works but provided no specific timeline ___ Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/ TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on a self-described neo-Nazi arrested after federal agents found bomb-making materials in his Florida apartment (all times local): 2:30 p.m. A federal judge has set a $200,000 bond and issued conditions for the release of a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi arrested after agents found bomb-making materials in his Florida apartment while investigating the slayings of his two roommates. U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun III issued the release terms on Tuesday for 21-year-old Brandon Russell, who faces charges of unlawful storage of explosive materials and other related charges. Russell's roommate, Devon Arthurs, was arrested last month on suspicion of fatally shooting 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman and 18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk. Authorities say Arthurs told them he killed the two because they were neo-Nazis who disrespected his recent conversion to Islam. Police investigating the slayings found bomb-making materials in the Tampa apartment, and Russell later told agents they were his. Arthurs said Russell was planning to use the explosives to harm civilians, synagogues and nuclear facilities. Judge McCoun ordered Russell placed in the custody of his grandmother in Orlando, and barred him from using a computer "to promote or engage in neo-Nazi activities during the pretrial period." ___ 10 a.m. Federal prosecutors say a neo-Nazi arrested after agents found bomb-making materials in his Florida apartment while investigating the slayings of his two roommates planned to use the explosives to harm civilians, nuclear facilities and synagogues. Court documents filed Monday say a third roommate arrested in the killings told authorities that 21-year-old Brandon Russell had been targeting the sites. The murder suspect, Devon Arthurs, was arrested last month after telling police he fatally shot 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman and 18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk because they were neo-Nazis who disrespected his recent conversion to Islam. Arthurs told police Russell was not involved in the shootings, but that he was planning a bombing. The documents also state that police found two rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a skull mask in Russell's car. ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania father has been sentenced to a maximum of four years in state prison after his 13-year-old daughter was hospitalized after drinking 17 shots of vodka. Charles Younger had previously pleaded guilty to child endangerment. The 39-year-old was sentenced Monday. The girl's mother also had pleaded guilty to the charge. Michelle Edwards was sentenced to up to 23 months in Lehigh County Jail last week. Police say the parents provided their daughter and another 15-year-old girl with liquor for the daughter's 13th birthday in January. Police were called to the home after the 13-year-old vomited and passed out. Police say Younger and Edwards had fled the scene. During a court hearing, Younger said his kids "mean everything" to him. SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Trinity Broadcasting Network is responsible for the entire $2 million that a jury awarded to the granddaughter of the TV ministry founders over an alleged sexual abuse cover-up, a Southern California judge ruled. Jurors who awarded the money to Carra Crouch last week held TBN liable for only $900,000. The panel found Crouch's mother and a man who allegedly sexually assaulted Crouch responsible for the rest, although neither was named in the lawsuit. In an order made public on Monday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson found that TBN's corporate parent was on the hook for the entire amount, the Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/2rfgAOU) reported Tuesday. Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana Inc. also was ordered to pay interest accruing at 10 percent per year until the amount was paid. A message left Tuesday for TBN attorney Michael King was not immediately returned. However, King said after the original June 5 jury award that TBN planned to appeal. Crouch, now 24, said she was sexually assaulted and possibly raped when she was 13 by a 30-year-old Trinity employee in an Atlanta hotel room. Crouch said that when she reported it to Jan Crouch, the man was fired, but the TBN co-founder blamed and berated her granddaughter and never reported the assault to authorities in order to avoid bad publicity. The lawsuit said that as an ordained minister, Jan Crouch was required to report potential sexual abuse. However, King argued during trial that Carra Crouch did not approach her grandmother in her capacity as a minister. The jury agreed but said her actions were still egregious. Jan and her husband, Paul, both died in the years since the lawsuit was filed. The Crouches founded TBN in 1973 and built it into an international Christian empire that beams prosperity gospel programming, which promises that if the faithful sacrifice for their belief, God will reward them with material wealth. The opulent sets and outfits on their broadcasts showed off the fruits of that wealth. Their TV empire started showing cracks about five years ago, with allegations from members of their large extended family of financial shenanigans, including lavish spending on private jets and mansions. Trinity has sold several multimillion-dollar homes, and its revenues dropped sharply between 2006 and 2014, the Register said, citing its most recent tax filings. MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican authorities say a person has been killed and two injured in a fireworks explosion on the outskirts of the nation's capital. A statement from the Mexico State government says a woman died when a clandestine powder cache blew up in the city of Chalco on Tuesday afternoon. A woman and a boy suffered minor injuries. Authorities are investigating. The statement says a separate explosion ripped through five stalls at a fireworks market in Zumpango. Only material damage was reported. Deadly fireworks explosions happen semi-regularly in Mexico, often in communities where the local economy depends in large part on the manufacture and sale of such materials. In May, an errant firecracker set off a fireworks cache in the town of San Isidro, Puebla state. Eleven children and three adults died. BEIJING (AP) - China will investigate claims that two of its citizens were engaged in illegal preaching before they were killed by Islamic extremists in Pakistan, a government spokesman said Wednesday. The two Chinese citizens were abducted at gunpoint on May 24 in the city of Quetta. Islamic State militants claimed the killings on Friday and sent local journalists a video purporting to show their bodies. Chinese officials have yet to directly confirm the deaths, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement. China's government "will continue to make the greatest efforts to work with the Pakistani side on coming to a speedy clarification of the relevant issues," he said. Pakistani officials identified the victims as Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26. Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said they had entered the country on business visas but later began "preaching." He did not offer further details but called for a review of Pakistan's visa policies with regard to Chinese nationals. During the abduction, gunmen dressed as police stopped a car carrying Lee and Meng and shot and wounded a man who intervened after he rescued a third person from the car, according to Pakistani police. The police said at the time that Lee and Meng had been teaching at a private language school. China, a longtime ally of Pakistan, is investing billions of dollars in an economic corridor linking the Asian neighbors. Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan and have occasionally been targeted in attacks by anti-government militants. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A jury deliberating a manslaughter charge against a Minnesota police officer in the death of a black motorist was struggling to reach agreement on Wednesday, ending its third day without a verdict after a judge's order to continue trying. Jury deliberations began Monday in the manslaughter trial of Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot 32-year-old Philando Castile during a July 6 traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb after Castile informed the officer that he was carrying a gun. Castile had a permit for the firearm. Yanez, attorneys and family members for both Yanez and Castile returned to court Wednesday afternoon, leading to speculation a verdict had been reached. Judge William Leary, without explanation, re-read a portion of the jury instructions to jurors and told them to resume talks. FILE - In this May 30, 2017, file photo, St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez stands outside the Ramsey County Courthouse while waiting for a ride in St. Paul, Minn. Closing arguments are set for Monday, June 12, in a Minnesota police officer's manslaughter trial in the death of a black motorist. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP, File) The material dealt with jurors carefully considering and re-examining their views and their duty to "deliberate with a view toward reaching agreement." The hearing took just a couple of minutes. The jury went back to continue deliberations but broke for the day soon after without a verdict. Deliberations will resume Thursday. On Tuesday, jurors requested another look at dashcam video captured by Yanez's squad car that shows the shooting. The jury also watched a replay of the video that Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, livestreamed on Facebook beginning seconds after Castile had been shot. Defense attorneys contend the 29-year-old Latino officer saw Castile reach for his weapon, that Yanez was scared for his life and was justified in shooting Castile. Prosecutors insist Yanez never saw a gun and had plenty of options short of shooting Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker they say was never a threat. Witness testified that the gun was in the pocket of Castile's shorts when paramedics pulled him from the vehicle. The squad-car video shows a wide view of the traffic stop and the shooting, with the camera pointed toward Castile's car. While it captures what was said between the two men and shows Yanez firing into the vehicle, it does not show what happened inside the car or what Yanez might have seen. The failure to reach a quick verdict reflects the infrequent convictions of police officers. Data compiled by Philip Stinson, a criminologist at Ohio's Bowling Green State University who tracks fatal police shootings, shows about 35 percent of the 82 officers nationwide charged with murder or manslaughter since 2005 were convicted. Almost 40 percent resulted in non-convictions, including several recent cases that ended in mistrials or acquittals when an officer testified they feared for their life, Stinson told The Associated Press. "In these cases, it does seem that jurors are very reluctant to second guess the split-second decision of a police officer in a very violent street encounter," Stinson said. "Despite the best prosecution efforts, at the end of trial the defense puts the police officer on (the stand) - and that's all she wrote." Castile's mother, Valerie, declined comment Wednesday. Danny Givens Jr., a pastor who works with Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and who has been spending time with the family, describe their mood as "prayerful, hopeful, more importantly just staying in the moment and supporting one another." Reynolds' video of the gruesome aftermath of the shooting was shared widely, and included her statements that Castile hadn't been reaching for his gun. The squad-car video shows Yanez approaching Castile's car and asking for a driver's license and proof of insurance. Castile appears to give something to Yanez through the driver's side window. Castile is then heard saying, "Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me." Before Castile finishes that sentence, Yanez has his hand on his own gun and is pulling it out of the holster. There is shouting, and Yanez screams "Don't pull it out!" before he fires seven shots into the car. Yanez is charged with second-degree manslaughter, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, though sentencing guidelines suggest around four years is more likely. He also faces two lesser counts of endangering Reynolds and her daughter for firing his gun into the car near them. Conviction on the manslaughter charge requires the jury to find Yanez guilty of "culpable negligence," which the judge described in jury instructions as gross negligence with an element of recklessness. The 12-member jury includes two blacks. The rest are white. None is Latino. FILE - In this July 25, 2016, file photo, a memorial including a photo of Philando Castile adorns the gate to the governor's residence in St. Paul, Minn., protesting the July 6, 2016 shooting death of Castile by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez. Closing arguments began Monday, June 12, 2017 in in a Yanez' manslaughter trial in the fatal shooting of Castile.(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) Defense attorney Earl Gray leaves the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) Clarence Castile, uncle of Philando Castile, leaves the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) Defense Attorney Paul Engh leaves the Ramsey County Courthouse after presenting closing arguments in the case of Jeronimo Yanez in St. Paul, Minn. on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) BOSTON (AP) - A majestic maritime gathering is bringing more than 50 grand sailing vessels from 14 countries into Boston Harbor. Tall ships from Europe, South America and the U.S. are converging on the city as part of the Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta, a trans-Atlantic race spanning the United Kingdom, Bermuda and other locations. Boston is the only U.S. port on the route. Organizers of Sail Boston promise Saturday's dramatic arrival will be a can't-miss spectacle. The city has hosted a number of tall ships in recent years, but hasn't seen a Grand Parade of Sail since 2000. FILE - In this July 13, 2009 file photo, the barque Europa, of the Netherlands, departs after participating in Sail Boston. The Europa will join more than 50 other grand vessels from 14 countries sailing into Boston Harbor on Saturday, June 17, 2017, for another Sail Boston. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole) With the U.S. Coast Guard's Eagle leading the way, the estimated 56 ships will parade in flotillas past Castle Island and the historic fort that guards the harbor's approach as they make their way up the main harbor channel. They'll then dock at various piers in Boston and remain open for public boarding until they depart for Quebec City, Canada, on June 22. Saturday's procession will be visible from a number of spots along the Boston waterfront, as well as from a grandstand where tickets cost $100 each . Here's a look at some of the stunning sailing vessels on display: ___ Alexander von Humboldt II : Hailing from Bremerhaven, Germany, this 213-foot-long (64-meter-long) square rig ship offers civilian sailing training. It was built in 2011 as the replacement for a ship originally built in 1906. __ Eagle : Originally built in 1936, the U.S. took this 295-foot-long (89-meter-long) tall ship as reparation from Germany following World War II. It's now owned by the Coast Guard and used for cadet and officer candidate training from its homeport in New London, Connecticut. ___ Esmeralda : This 371-foot-long (113-meter-long) ship was built in 1953 and serves as a training vessel for the Chilean Navy. Based in Valparaiso, it was also notoriously used to detain and torture dissidents during dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime in the 1970s. ___ Europa : The oldest of the ships sailing into Boston, this 184-foot-long (56-meter-long) ship was originally built in 1911 to serve as a light ship on the Elbe River in Germany. It's since been overhauled and now serves as a civilian training vessel and calls Scheveningen in the Netherlands its homeport. ___ Oliver Hazard Perry : The newest of the ships sailing into Boston, this 200-foot (60-meter) full-rigged ship was built last year and hails from Newport, Rhode Island. The civilian training and educational vessel is named after a native Rhode Islander and famous naval commander during the War of 1812. ___ Picton Castle : Registered in the Cook Islands, it provides civilian sailing training and delivers supplies to the South Pacific's far flung islands. The ship is also based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, measures 179 feet (54 meters) long and was built in 1928. ___ Union: Considered the largest sailing vessel of its kind in Latin America, this 379-foot (115-meter) vessel is also the largest among the ships coming to Boston. It serves as a training ship for the Peruvian Navy and was built in 2015. ___ Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo. FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2013 file photo, German tall ship Alexander Von Humboldt II, left, follows Russian tall ship Krusenstern, right, during a tall ships regatta off the coast of Toulon, southern France. The Alexander Von Humboldt II will join more than 50 other grand vessels from 14 countries sailing into Boston Harbor on Saturday, June 17, 2017, for another Sail Boston. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) FILE - In this June 25, 2015 file photo, the Picton Castle sails up the Delaware River between Camden, N.J. and Philadelphia during a tall ships parade. The Picton Castle will join more than 50 other grand vessels from 14 countries sailing into Boston Harbor on Saturday, June 17, 2017, for another Sail Boston. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) FILE - In this June 25, 2015 file photo, the barque Eagle sails up the Delaware River between Camden, N.J. and Philadelphia during a tall ships parade. The Eagle will join more than 50 other grand vessels from 14 countries sailing into Boston Harbor on Saturday, June 17, 2017, for another Sail Boston. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Bahrain's Pearl roundabout, the focal point of the island kingdom's 2011 Arab Spring protests, has reopened to traffic after being guarded by security forces for years. The reopening of the roundabout Tuesday night, now called Al-Farooq Junction by authorities, comes as Bahrain has been engaged in a yearlong crackdown on dissent. In the 2011 protests, the island's Shiite majority and others demanded more political freedoms from the island's Sunni rulers. Bahrain security forces, backed by Saudi and Emirati troops, later put down the protests and the square was cordoned off for years. Independent news gathering in Bahrain has grown more difficult, with the government refusing to accredit two Associated Press journalists and others . Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet and an under-construction British naval base. NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - As Bill Cosby awaits a verdict in his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, the comedian's civil lawyers are fighting civil lawsuits against him by 10 women around the country. Currently, seven women have defamation suits pending in Massachusetts, while three more have defamation or sexual battery suits pending in California. Cosby has denied any wrongdoing. The criminal case against Cosby partly stems from the accuser's related civil lawsuit. Prosecutors reopened a criminal investigation and filed charges in 2015 after Cosby's deposition in the woman's 2005 lawsuit was unsealed, and they realized the 12-year statute of limitations for felony sexual assault had not yet expired. Bill Cosby walks from the courtroom during jury deliberations in his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool) A recap of the pending civil cases: ___ CALIFORNIA Cosby is being sued in Los Angeles by Judy Huth, who accuses the comedian of forcing her to perform a sex act on him in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974, when she was 15. A trial date may be set later this month for the sexual battery case. Cosby has given a sealed deposition in the case. Huth's lawyer, Gloria Allred, says the scheduling of a second deposition is on hold because of the criminal trial. Chloe Goins, a former model who claims Cosby drugged and sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, is also suing the comedian on sexual battery and other claims. Prosecutors rejected filing a case against Cosby based on Goins' allegations, which they said investigators could not corroborate. A judge recently denied Cosby's motion to dismiss the case and a trial has been scheduled for June 2018. The comedian also faces a defamation lawsuit by model Janice Dickinson, who claims Cosby drugged and raped her in Lake Tahoe, California, in 1982. Cosby is appealing a ruling allowing Dickinson's case to proceed. ___ MASSACHUSETTS Seven women are suing Cosby for defamation in separate lawsuits pending in Massachusetts, where Cosby has a home in Shelburne Falls. They say he sexually abused them decades ago, and then defamed them after they went public by having his agents deny the claims and brand them liars. An eighth woman had withdrawn her lawsuit. And a federal judge dismissed a ninth accuser's case, finding her complaint inadequate. The remaining plaintiffs are Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis and Angela Leslie. Cosby is seeking to have their cases dismissed. Serignese and Bowman have been attending the criminal trial near Philadelphia. Bill Cosby leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse during his sexual assault trial, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Norristown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015 file photo, Chloe Goins, a model who claims entertainer Bill Cosby drugged and sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, appears before reporters outside Los Angeles police headquarters after meeting police investigators in Los Angeles. As Cosby awaits a verdict in his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, the comedian's civil lawyers are fighting lawsuits against him by 10 women around the country. A judge recently denied Cosby's motion to dismiss the Goins case and a trial has been scheduled for June 2018. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File) FILE - In this March 29, 2016 file photo, model Janice Dickinson leaves Los Angeles Superior Court after a judge ruled her defamation lawsuit against Bill Cosby will move forward. As Cosby awaits a verdict in his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, the comedian's civil lawyers are fighting lawsuits against him by 10 women around the country. Dickinson claims Cosby drugged and raped her in Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1982. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File) FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2014 file photo, Judy Huth appears at a press conference outside the Los Angeles Police Department's Wilshire Division station in Los Angeles about her lawsuit against Bill Cosby alleging he abused her at the Playboy Mansion around 1974 when she was 15-years-old. As Cosby awaits a verdict in his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, the comedian's civil lawyers are fighting civil lawsuits against him by 10 women around the country. A trial date may be set later in June 2017 for Huth's sexual battery case. (AP Photo/Anthony McCartney, File) WYOMING, Ohio (AP) - The father of an American college student released by North Korea and now hospitalized in a coma says his son was "brutalized" by his captors. Fred Warmbier told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Wednesday from his Ohio home that his son, Otto, "is not in great shape right now." "Otto has been terrorized and brutalized for 18 months by a pariah regime in North Korea," the father said in an interview scheduled to air Thursday night. Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student detained and imprisoned in North Korea, is carried off of an airplane at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier arrived in Ohio after being released by North Korea, where he was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts. His parents have said he has been in a coma and was medically evacuated. (Sam Greene/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) The 22-year-old University of Virginia student was medically evacuated from North Korea and flown to Cincinnati late Tuesday. He was then taken by ambulance to a hospital. Fred Warmbier said he does not know exactly what happened to his son during his detention. He and his wife, Cindy, planned a Thursday news conference. The public appearance will be at Wyoming High School, one of Ohio's top-rated schools. Warmbier graduated from there in 2013 as class salutatorian and had played soccer. Residents of the northern Cincinnati suburb tied blue-and-white ribbons, the school colors, to trees near the family home. Joy at his release was mixed with concern after his parents said they were told he had been in the coma for over a year. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said there should be an investigation into what happened to Warmbier leading to this "tragic situation." Richardson, a Democrat, credited the Department of State with securing Warmbier's return from North Korea without any preconditions but said a forceful response from the U.S. government would be required "if it's determined that there was a cover-up and Otto's condition was not disclosed and he didn't get proper treatment." City councilwoman Jenni McCauley said the tight-knit community was "thrilled" to have Warmbier back. "Even though they're saddened by his condition, they're just glad for the family that he is home," McCauley said. "For any parent, this is their worst nightmare. ... We're hoping that he will be OK." She called him "a fabulous young man" who was known as intelligent, personable and well-liked in school and in the community. Ellie Boettcher, a 14-year-old rising freshman at Wyoming High, where Warmbier's sister will be a sophomore, said students were elated. "We're just really glad that he's able to come back," Boettcher said. "Nothing really bad ever happens in Wyoming. It's kind of like a bubble. So it's really tragic. But luckily he is back, and I believe he will make a full recovery." Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor in North Korea. He had tearfully confessed to trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting. He was released Tuesday, more than 17 months after being detained. Such detentions in the totalitarian nation have added to tensions between Washington and Pyongyang. Three Americans remain in custody. The U.S. government accuses North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns. North Korea accuses Washington and South Korea of sending spies to overthrow its government. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday that his department was continuing "to have discussions" with North Korea about the release of the other three imprisoned American citizens. Two people hug outside the plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred from a transport aircraft to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) The legs of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, are seen as medical personnel transfer him from a transport aircraft to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Otto Warmbier, center on a stretcher, a 22-year-old college student detained and imprisoned in North Korea, is loaded into an ambulance after being carried off of an airplane at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier arrived in Ohio after being released by North Korea, where he was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts. His parents have said he has been in a coma and was medically evacuated. (Sam Greene/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) FILE - In this March 16, 2016, file photo, American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea. Warmbier, whose parents say has been in a coma while serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea, was released and returned to the United States Tuesday, June 13, 2017, as the Trump administration revealed a rare exchange with the reclusive country. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File) FILE - In this March 16, 2016, file photo, American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea. Warmbier, whose parents say has been in a coma while serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea, was released and returned to the United States Tuesday, June 13, 2017, as the Trump administration revealed a rare exchange with the reclusive country. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File) Medical personnel and visitors gather at the nose of a transport plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) A crying woman exits a transport plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, as he is transferred from his transport aircraft to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Medical personnel and visitors gather at the nose of a transport plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Family members return to their vehicles after Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate, who was detained and imprisoned in North Korea, is loaded into an ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier whose parents say he has been in a coma while serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea was released and returned to the United States Tuesday, as the Trump administration revealed a rare exchange with the reclusive country. (Sam Greene/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) Visitors and medical personnel enter a transport plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) A pair hugs and cries outside the plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred from a transport aircraft to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Alison Lebrun helps tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Alison Lebrun, center background, helps tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Denise Koesterman, right, and Alison Lebrun, left, tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Denise Koesterman ties blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, second from left, walks through the Koryo hotel lobby as he leaves to visit several sports venues Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Rodman's current trip is his first since Donald Trump became president. He told reporters in Beijing, as he departed for Pyongyang, that he hopes his trip will "open a door" for Trump. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, second from left, walks through the Koryo hotel lobby as he leaves to visit several sports venues on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Rodman's current trip is his first since Donald Trump became president. He told reporters in Beijing, as he departed for Pyongyang, that he hopes his trip will "open a door" for Trump. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gets up from his seat on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, after testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) JAMBI, Indonesia (AP) - Dozens of inmates escaped early Wednesday from an overcrowded prison in western Indonesia after floods caused a wall to collapse, officials said. Torrential rain overnight inundated homes and buildings in Jambi, the capital of Jambi province on Sumatra island. The head of the provincial Law and Human Rights Ministry, Bambang Palasara, said at least 21 prisoners had been recaptured and about 30 others were still at large. He said the prison was designed to house 350 inmates but had 1,238. Local police chief Brig. Gen. Priyo Widyanto said more than 100 policemen, soldiers and city security officers were guarding and evacuating inmates from the prison, which was still partly flooded. The prison's extreme overcrowding has frequently triggered unrest. Dozens of inmates escaped in March during a riot in which one block of the prison was set on fire. Some are believed to still be at large. Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia, where overcrowding has become a problem in prisons that are struggling to cope with poor funding and an influx of people arrested in a war on drugs. Most prisoners have been convicted on drug charges. Last month, more than 440 prisoners escaped from a penitentiary in neighboring Riau province when they were let out of their cells to take part in Friday Muslim prayers. In July 2013, about 240 prisoners, including several convicted terrorists, escaped during a deadly riot at a prison in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will testify before a House panel as momentum builds on Capitol Hill for a package of new Russia sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Tillerson is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Foreign Affairs Committee, just hours ahead of a vote in the Senate on the sanctions. Tillerson has warned lawmakers the U.S. relationship with Russia is at an all-time low and deteriorating further. And he's also cautioned against taking steps that might close off promising avenues of communication between the two former Cold War foes. Tillerson was noncommittal about a package of new Russia sanctions during testimony Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said he's still reviewing the proposed penalties that Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed upon after lengthy negotiations. But it's important, he stressed, that President Donald Trump have the flexibility "to turn the heat up" on Russia if necessary. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) At the same time, he also said he doesn't want to preemptively shut down a potentially productive conversation. As an example, Tillerson said talks with Moscow on stabilizing war-ravaged Syria are progressing, but it's too early to tell if the discussions will bear fruit. Imposing more sanctions could lead the Russians to curtail the dialogue, he said. Top lawmakers on two Senate committees - Banking and Foreign Relations - announced the sanctions deal late Monday amid the firestorm over Russia's meddling in the presidential election and investigations into Moscow's possible collusion with members of President Donald Trump's campaign. The plan calls for strengthening current sanctions and imposing new ones on corrupt Russian actors, those involved in human rights abuses and those supplying weapons to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The package also would require a congressional review if a president attempts to ease or end current penalties. And, penalties would be slapped on those responsible for malicious cyber activity on behalf of the Russian government. If the Trump administration decides to oppose the new sanctions, they could be in a bind. The package is to be added to a bill imposing penalties on Iran that the Senate is currently debating. So the White House would have to reject stricter punishments against Iran, which it favors, in order to derail the parts of the legislation it objects to. "The amendment to the underlying Iran sanctions bill maintains and substantially expands sanctions against the government of Russia in response to the violation of the territorial integrity of the Ukraine and Crimea, its brazen cyberattacks and interference in elections, and its continuing aggression in Syria," said Republicans and Democrats on the committees. A vote on the Russia sanctions is scheduled for Wednesday, and the measure is expected to get strong bipartisan support. The legislation was worked out by Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, of the Banking Committee, and Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., of the Foreign Relations panel. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., also participated in the negotiations and pushed for provisions that bar punished individuals from using family members to get around the sanctions. "This amendment also takes appropriate steps to ensure that current sanctions cannot be unilaterally unwound by this administration," Shaheen said. The legislation also allows new penalties on key elements of the Russia economy, including mining, metals, shipping and railways. House and Senate committees are investigating Russia's meddling and potential links to the Trump campaign. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is conducting a separate probe. Then-President Barack Obama in late December ordered sanctions on Russian spy agencies, closed two Russian compounds and expelled 35 diplomats the U.S. said were really spies. Those penalties were on top of existing U.S. sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine, which have damaged Russia's economy but had only limited impact on President Vladimir Putin's behavior. ___ Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardner RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - President Donald Trump had an outsized effect on Virginia's primary contests for governor, but not in the ways most people expected. Democratic voters were energized in opposition to Trump and turned out in higher-than-expected numbers Tuesday. But the majority was happy to back the more moderate and establishment-favored Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam over a liberal insurgent who sought to portray his candidacy as the tip of the spear of the anti-Trump resistance. The biggest surprise was on the Republican side, where a well-connected frontrunner who has kept his distance from Trump squeaked out an uncomfortably close victory against a staunch Trump supporter who many viewed as a fringe candidate. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie barely beat Corey Stewart, who focused his gubernatorial bid on preserving Virginia's Confederate history. Virginia Democratic candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, with his wife Pam, left, son Weston, and daughter Aubrey celebrate his victory in the Democratic primary during an election party in Crystal City, Va., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Northam faced former congressman Tom Perriello in Tuesday's primary. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Virginia Democratic candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, with his wife Pam, left, and son Weston, celebrate his victory in the Democratic primary during an election party in Crystal City, Va., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Northam faced former Rep. Tom Perriello in the primary. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Republican candidate for governor, Ed Gillespie, arrives on stage with his wife Cathy as he prepares to deliver a victory speech at his victory party Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Richmond, Va. Gillespie beat State Sen. Frank Wagner and Corey Stewart in today's primary. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Republican candidate for governor, Ed Gillespie, smiles as he gives a victory speech at his victory party Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Richmond, Va. Gillespie beat State Sen. Frank Wagner and Corey Stewart in today's primary. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, and Virginia Democratic candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, celebrate Northam's win in the Democratic Gubernatorial primary, in Crystal City, Va., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Northam faced former congressman Tom Perriello in Tuesday's primary. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Protestors take over the stage prior to Virginia Democratic candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam celebrating his primary win at a Democratic primary election party in Crystal City, Va., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, with his wife Maria, left, speaks at his election watch party in Woodbridge, Va., Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Ed Gillespie's narrow victory against former Trump state campaign chairman Stewart provided the night's biggest surprise. Gillespie will face Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - A top aide to President Donald Trump suggested that special counsel Robert Mueller is biased even as the White House worked to end a day of speculation over whether the president is considering firing the head of the Russia probe. Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to the president, tweeted a report citing a Federal Election Commission report that states "Mueller's team includes big Democrat donors. Some maxed out, none wanted Trump to be POTUS." Her tweet, late Tuesday, ended a day in which the White House said the president has "no intention" of firing Mueller. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein talks to an aide on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Justice Department's fiscal 2018 budget. Rosenstein said he has seen no evidence of good cause to fire the special prosecutor overseeing the Russia investigation. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) That statement was unlikely to quell criticism of Mueller from some of Trump's closest allies - including one of his sons. They have begun questioning whether Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is becoming too political. The effort to muddy the waters surrounding the investigation is coming amid growing White House concern that the probe could detract from the president's agenda for months or years to come. Senators on Tuesday questioned both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on how the inquiry is being handled. Until now, Mueller had drawn widespread praise from Republicans and Democrats alike. Trump, who isn't typically shy about leveling criticism, especially on Twitter, hasn't commented on the longtime former FBI director. And leading Republican legislators on Tuesday waved off the idea of firing Mueller, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying that his advice was to "let Robert Mueller do his job" and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voicing confidence in the special counsel. But expressions of discontent with Mueller are bubbling up nonetheless. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich led one line of attack with a tweet that said "Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair." He added that fundraising records show some of the lawyers whom Mueller selected for his team have contributed to Democrats. "It makes sense to point out any level of bias, to highlight any biases inherent in Mueller and this probe in order to force him to be transparent," Gingrich said. He said Trump had called him Monday night and the two discussed Gingrich's concerns about the probe. Tuesday morning, Trump supporter Ari Fleischer, who served as President George W. Bush's press secretary, again highlighted the issue of Mueller's probe being handled by attorneys who have donated mostly to Democrats, a message that Donald Trump Jr. quickly retweeted to his own 1.7 million followers. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on the issues Gingrich and others have raised. In general, it is impermissible to ask prospective government hires about their political leanings, including whether they've made donations. Both Fleischer and Gingrich had previously vouched for the character and integrity of Mueller, who was appointed FBI director by Bush and whose term was extended an extra two years by Democratic President Barack Obama. Anxiety about the probe - and fresh concerns about the political leanings of some of the attorneys involved - is percolating in the West Wing of the White House. Chris Ruddy, a Trump friend and the CEO of the conservative website Newsmax, raised the possibility of the president considering terminating Mueller, a potentially explosive option. White House officials said late Monday that Ruddy was at the Executive Mansion that day, but said he hadn't met with the president and never spoke with him about the issue. Still, it took until Tuesday night for the White House to actually dispute Ruddy's suspicion. On Trump's plane ride home after a trip to Wisconsin, Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters he "has no intention" of firing Mueller, even though she maintained that "the president has the right to." A person close to Trump's legal team also said earlier Tuesday that there have been no discussions about firing Mueller. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. But Ruddy opened a new line of questions about Mueller's impartiality - the fact that Trump had considered Mueller for the FBI director's job before he was named special counsel. Trump interviewed Mueller for the director's position days before Rosenstein picked Mueller as special counsel for the Russia probe, Sanders confirmed Tuesday. The interview was first reported by PBS. Trump has repeatedly denied colluding with Russia during the presidential campaign, and Comey and others have testified that there is no evidence to the contrary. Still, Gingrich said any special counsel with an agenda can "all of the sudden find something procedural and technical to latch onto." With few exceptions, Trump's allies are urging him not to move to dismiss Mueller, which would be both politically and technically complicated. Rosenstein would be the one to fire Mueller, which he repeatedly assured senators Tuesday he would not consider without "good cause." Rosenstein is charged with Mueller's fate because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters having to do with the Trump-Russia investigation. Sessions told senators on Tuesday that he'd recused himself because he was part of Trump's campaign. Gingrich and Ruddy said it would be a "mistake" for Trump to remove Mueller, although both said they see the probe as unnecessary. LONDON (AP) - Premier League champion Chelsea will be the first visitor to Tottenham's temporary home of Wembley Stadium as part of a tough-looking start to its title defense. The Premier League schedule for the 2017-18 season was published Wednesday, with Chelsea playing Burnley at home in the opening round in mid-August. It then gets more difficult for Antonio Conte and his team, taking on Tottenham in the second round before games against Leicester away and Manchester City, Arsenal and Everton at home as part of their first seven games. Tottenham, which was runner-up to Chelsea last season, is playing its home games in the Premier League at Wembley this season while a new stadium is being constructed on the site of the club's old White Hart Lane. Tottenham lost to Chelsea in an FA Cup semifinal match at Wembley last season, and also lost two of its three games at the national stadium in the group stage of the Champions League. Its poor record at Wembley has raised questions about whether playing there will hamper the team's title chances, at a time when Tottenham has perhaps its best lineup in a generation. The Manchester derbies between United and City are on the weekend of Dec. 9-10, at Old Trafford, and the weekend of April 7-8, at Etihad Stadium. There will be a typically intense schedule of games over the Christmas period, with teams potentially facing four matches in nine days from Dec. 23-Jan. 1. In the opening round, Brighton's first ever Premier League game is at home against Man City, while Huddersfield's first top-tier game since 1972 is at Crystal Palace. Newcastle, the other promoted club, starts out at home against Tottenham. The Premier League season begins on Aug. 12. PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's prime minister lifted a ban Wednesday on the return to the country of his main rival, daring him to risk imprisonment under an outstanding criminal conviction. The order issued by Hun Sen allowing the return of Sam Rainsy, for two decades his most persistent political opponent, comes as attention is being turned to next year's general election. Hun Sen is one of Asia's most cunning politicians, wielding either carrot or stick to coopt or vanquish his foes. In nationwide local elections earlier this month, Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party won most constituencies but received a weak majority of the popular vote, where the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party made gains. Hun Sen has repeatedly sought to sideline Sam Rainsy, especially by pursuing defamation cases against him. Sam Rainsy has stayed abroad since late 2015, when a conviction he believed was covered by an earlier pardon was revived. Last October, he was officially banned from re-entering the country, and several other cases against him were launched or concluded. The new order forces Sam Rainsy to make good on a vow to return if the ban was lifted or risk losing face, especially among his own supporters. Sam Rainsy's reluctance to return and risk prison as Hun Sen put great pressure on his party caused dismay among some of his colleagues, weakening the charismatic politician's leadership profile. His absence also encouraged a latent rivalry with his own party deputy, Kem Sokha, who became acting leader in his absence. Kem Sokha became the opposition party's official leader in March after a law passed by the government-controlled legislature put the party in peril of being dissolved if its leaders had criminal convictions. Sam Rainsy stepped down as leader and formally resigned his party membership. Hun Sen's order lifting the re-entry ban came a day after Sam Rainsy declared his intention to challenge the prime minister in the 2018 general election. For next year's polls to be fair and allow a real challenge to the prime minister, "I would like request Mr. Hun Sen to be brave and do not ban me from returning in order to challenge him," he said in an interview with U.S.-government funded Radio Free Asia. Otherwise, Hun Sen would be like a boxer alone in a ring without an opponent, Sam Rainsy said. Asked specifically if he would return even if he faced prison time, he told his interviewer that if he were allowed back in, he would go. A spokesman for the Cambodia National Rescue Party, Yim Sovann, welcomed the order dropping the ban. "This is a good sign, but we are not sure what reason is behind the issuance of this letter. We will keep an eye on the issue," he said, adding that he believed Sam Rainsy would return to Cambodia despite the risk of prison. He added, however, that the party had not yet decided on its candidate for prime minister next year. "Once he comes, we will discuss more about the candidates, but the main thing for now is how to get him to Cambodia before the election in 2018," Yim Sovann said. LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to be unconcerned despite being accused by a Spanish state prosecutor of defrauding the government of millions of euros (dollars) in unpaid taxes. "My conscience is quite clear, brother. Always, man," Ronaldo said Wednesday as he walked from a Portugal team bus into the Lisbon airport. Ronaldo and the rest of Portugal's team are flying to Russia to play at the Confederations Cup as European champions. In this photo taken on Tuesday, March 28 2017, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during the international friendly soccer match between Portugal and Sweden at the dos Barreiros stadium in Funchal, Madeira island, Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) On Tuesday, a Spanish state prosecutor accused Ronaldo of four counts of tax fraud from 2011-14 totaling 14.7 million euros ($16.5 million). The prosecutor said Ronaldo used a shell company in the Virgin Islands to hide the true amount of income made from image rights, among other means of illegally reducing the amount of taxes he paid. Ronaldo's agent denied any wrongdoing. Also Wednesday, Real Madrid issued a statement saying that it was convinced Ronaldo "will demonstrate his complete innocence." "Real Madrid expresses its complete confidence in our player Cristiano Ronaldo, who we understand has acted within the law as far as complying with his fiscal obligations," the statement said. NEW YORK (AP) - "The Most Interesting Man in the World" is giving up beer for tequila. Actor Jonathan Goldsmith appeared as the sophisticated, eccentric and worldly pitchman for Dos Equis beer for nearly a decade. He's now promoting Astral Tequila. In a new ad, the 78-year-old Goldsmith nods at his Dos Equis days by raising a glass of tequila and saying, "I told you I don't always drink beer." In this 2017 photo provided by Davos Brands, actor Jonathan Goldsmith poses with a bottle of Astral Tequila. Goldsmith appeared as "The Most Interesting Man in the World" for nearly a decade in ads for Dos Equis beer. In a new ad, Goldsmith nods at his Dos Equis days by raising a glass of tequila and saying, "I told you I don't always drink beer." (Davos Brands via AP) Dos Equis announced Goldsmith's departure from the long-running ad campaign last year. It has continued the campaign with a younger actor. Authorities in the financially struggling city of Flint, Michigan, switched its water source from Detroit's system to the Flint River to save money in April 2014. The river water was more corrosive than the Detroit system's and caused more lead to leach from Flint's aging pipes. Lead can be toxic and children are especially vulnerable. Some 8,000 children are believed to have been exposed to lead poisoning since April 2014. And there has been an uptick in cases of Legionnaire's disease. Authorities in the financially struggling city of Flint, Michigan, switched its water source from Detroit's system to the Flint River to save money in April 2014 Some 8,000 children are believed to have been exposed to lead poisoning since April 2014. And there has been an uptick in cases of Legionnaire's disease The social costs stemming from the scandal amount to $395 million, according to a recent analysis by a professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The crisis has prompted lawsuits by parents in Flint, which has a population of about 100,000, who say their children have shown dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. In July six state employees in Michigan were criminally charged in connection with the case. Some critics have called for high-ranking state officials, including Governor Rick Snyder, to be charged. Snyder said he believes he's done nothing criminally wrong. Here is a timeline of the events: APRIL 2014: In an effort to save money, Flint began drawing its water from the Flint River instead of relying on water from Detroit. The move was considered temporary while the city waited to connect to a new regional water system. Residents immediately complained about the smell, taste and appearance of the water. They also raised health concerns, reporting rashes, hair loss and other problems. SUMMER 2014: Three boil-water advisories were issued in 22 days after positive tests for coliform bacteria. OCTOBER 2014: A General Motors engine plant stopped using Flint water, saying it rusted parts. JANUARY 2015: Flint sought an evaluation of its efforts to improve the water amid concerns that it contained potentially harmful levels of a disinfection byproduct. Detroit offered to reconnect Flint to its water system. Flint insisted its water was safe. JAN. 28 2015: Flint residents snapped up 200 cases of bottled water in 30 minutes in a giveaway program. More giveaways followed in ensuing months. FEB. 3 2015: State officials pledged $2 million for Flint's troubled water system. In January of 2016, President Barack Obama signed emergency declaration and ordered federal aid for Flint, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate relief effortsb FEBRUARY 2015: A 40-member advisory committee was formed to address concerns over Flint's water. Mayor Dayne Walling said the committee would ensure the community was involved in the issue. MARCH 19 2015: Flint promised to spend $2.24 million on immediate improvements to its water supply. MARCH 27 2015: Flint officials said the quality of its water had improved and that testing found the water met all state and federal standards for safety. SEPT. 24 2015: A group of doctors led by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Medical Center urged Flint to stop using the Flint River for water after finding high levels of lead in the blood of children. State regulators insisted the water was safe. SEPT. 29 2015: Gov. Rick Snyder pledged to take action in response to the lead levels. It was the first acknowledgment by the state that lead was a problem. OCT. 2 2015: Snyder announced that the state would spend $1 million to buy water filters and test water in Flint public schools. OCT. 8 2015: Snyder called for Flint to go back to using water from Detroit's system again. OCT. 15 2015: The Michigan Legislature and Snyder approved nearly $9.4 million in aid to Flint, including $6 million to help switch its drinking water back to Detroit. The legislation also included money for water filters, inspections and lab testing. NOV. 3 2015: Voters elected newcomer Karen Weaver over incumbent Mayor Dayne Walling amid fallout over the drinking water. Snyder (pictured) declared a state of emergency in Flint in January 2016, the same day federal officials confirmed that they were investigating DEC. 29 2015: Snyder accepted the resignation of Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant and apologized for what occurred in Flint. JAN. 5 2016: Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint, the same day federal officials confirmed that they were investigating. JAN. 12 2016: Snyder activated the Michigan National Guard to help distribute bottled water and filters in Flint and asked the federal government for help. JAN. 13 2016: Michigan health officials reported an increase in Legionnaires' disease cases during periods over the past two years in the county that includes Flint. JAN. 14 2016: Snyder asked the Obama administration for major disaster declaration and more federal aid. JAN. 16 2016: President Barack Obama signed emergency declaration and ordered federal aid for Flint, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate relief efforts. APRIL 2016: Governor Rick Snyder hit back at critics who said he should be charged. Snyder said he believes he's done nothing criminally wrong. LOS ANGELES (AP) - The whiff of plagiarism is blowin' in the wind for Bob Dylan. Phrases sprinkled throughout the rock legend's lecture for his Nobel Prize in literature are very similar to phrases from the summation of "Moby Dick" on SparkNotes, a sort of online "Cliff's Notes" that's familiar to modern students looking for shortcuts and teachers trying to catch them. The saga began when writer Ben Greenman pointed out on his blog on June 6 that Dylan appeared to have invented a quote from "Moby Dick," which Dylan discussed in the lecture along with Buddy Holly, "The Odyssey" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2015 file photo, Bob Dylan accepts the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year award at the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year show in Los Angeles. Phrases sprinkled throughout the rock legend's lecture for his Nobel Prize in literature are very similar to phrases from the summation of "Moby Dick" on Sparknotes, a sort of online "Cliff's Notes" that's familiar to modern students looking for shortcuts and teachers trying to catch them. Slate writer Andrea Pitzer made the discovery, finding 20 cases where Dylan's text had very similar phrases to Sparknotes' text. Dylan recorded the 26-minute lecture in Los Angeles and provided it to the Swedish Academy, which called it "extraordinary" and "eloquent" in a June 5, 2017 news release. (Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision/AP, File) Then Andrea Pitzer, a writer for Slate, delved into the supposed quote and wrote in a story Tuesday that the line was not in "Moby Dick" but was very much like a line from the SparkNotes summary of the book. Here's Dylan: "Some men who receive injuries are led to God, others are led to bitterness" And SparkNotes: "someone whose trials have led him toward God rather than bitterness." Pitzer went on to find, and The Associated Press has verified, 20 other sentences with traces and phrases from the "Moby Dick" SparkNotes. She cites no examples in Dylan's discussion of the other two books, and the AP found none. The cases Pitzer found are not blatant or explicit - there are no verbatim sentences, only identical phrases and similar phrasing. Other examples: - Dylan: "Moby attacks one more time, ramming the Pequod and sinking it. Ahab gets tangled up in the harpoon lines and is thrown out of his boat into a watery grave." - SparkNotes: "Moby Dick rams the Pequod and sinks it. Ahab is then caught in a harpoon line and hurled out of his harpoon boat to his death." - Dylan: "The ship's crew is made up of men of different races." - SparkNotes: "...a crew made up of men from many different countries and races." Dylan and a spokesman for the Swedish Academy which hands out the award weren't immediately available for comment. But when Academy spokeswoman Sara Danius posted the Swedish version of Dylan's speech on her blog on June 7, she described it as "beautiful" and wrote that "the speech is rhetorically complete." The AP asked three literature teachers and professors whether they would call out their students for similar work in a paper, and all said they would, if not for the plagiarism, for using the modern equivalent of Cliff's Notes. "A high school student would get nailed," said Joseph Vasquez who teaches English at Rosemead High School in California, "since she should have done the reading, and the closeness of text suggests she didn't read the text but rather the SparkNotes." Dylan has been accused of lifting lines from older artists for his songs in the past, though many fans dismiss it as simply reflecting the common borrowing of the folk-and-blues milieus he drew from. Early in his career, he used the melody of the slave song "No More Auction Block for Me" for his protest classic "Blowin' in the Wind." He has since drawn upon other material, sometimes extensively, in everything from his paintings to his memoir "Chronicles: Volume One." "It is nothing new that Mr. Dylan might take inspiration from a pre-existing work to prepare something else," Steven Weinberg, a copyright lawyer and musician, told the AP in an email. "Songwriters, including Dylan, have been borrowing from other literary works to turn pop phrases for ages. Consider Led Zeppelin's ample use of Tolkien's classic works in many of their songs." Weinberg added the "surprise here is that rather than borrowing from classic literature, Mr. Dylan took his 'inspiration' this time from crib notes. But that should not raise eyebrows either. Even John Lennon was known to use things as ordinary as a newspaper clipping or circus posters to embellish lyrics." Dylan recorded the 26-minute lecture in Los Angeles and provided it to the Swedish Academy, which called it "extraordinary" and "eloquent" in a news release on June 5. The lecture is required for the winner to collect the 8 million Swedish kronor ($922,000) in prize money. He was awarded the prize in October, bringing some controversy that an award reserved for top-flight novelists and poets had gone to a rock star. He took weeks to publicly acknowledge winning the prize, did not attend December's Nobel ceremony in Stockholm, and left many wondering whether he would ever provide the traditional lecture. ___ Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark and Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report. PRAGUE (AP) - Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says his country is taking legal action against a new European Union directive on holding weapons. Sobotka says his government agreed on the move on Wednesday because it considered the directive, approved as a reaction to a recent wave of terrorism, too restrictive. The government is set to file the complaint at the European Court of Justice by Aug 17. The EU directive bans some kinds of semiautomatic weapons that are popular among the 300,000 holders of a gun license in the Czech Republic, a country of 10 million. The move likely adds to the tension between the traditionally euroskeptic country and the bloc as the Czech Republic is facing legal action from the EU for failing to respect its commitment to take in refugees. NEW YORK (AP) - Jason Isbell was motivated on his breakthrough 2013 album "Southeastern" to tell his story about quitting drinking and turning his life around. He was driven on the 2015 follow-up, "Something More Than Free," to prove newfound success wasn't a fluke. What's next? Now established as a leader in the Americana genre, Isbell's purpose is deceptively difficult - maintain a high standard of songwriting with the newness of discovery gone. He's taken a step in that direction with Friday's release of "The Nashville Sound," co-credited with his backup band, the 400 Unit. His new songs speak to and about people in middle America dealing with a changing culture and economy, growing up and mature love. "If We Were Vampires" is a love song about life's impermanence. "White Man's World" confronts subtle racism. Isbell and his wife, fellow musician Amanda Shires, are parents of a two-year-old girl and that naturally changed his outlook. This image released by All Eyes Media shows singer Jason Isbell, whose latest album, " The Nashville Sound," was released this week. (Danny Clinch via AP) Isbell, 38, recently talked about his new work with The Associated Press. _____ AP: Is there a song on the album that you might not have written before becoming a parent? Isbell: "White Man's World." I was home the day after the election, and I kept thinking how lucky I was that I didn't have to explain it to her, because she was only a year old at that point in time. I'll let history explain that to her as she gets older. There was a feeling of alienness, of not belonging, that a lot of us had on that day, a feeling that I thought I knew people better than I did. I felt like an outsider again. I felt like I was transported back to the lunchroom in school, where I was a little bit - shall we say - too creative to fit in with most of the people I went to school with. I was really fearful that she would see the world in that way, as a place where she wouldn't fit in. What I was focused on was 'how do I make this a better place for my daughter.' Because a majority of my audience is white males, I want them to be aware of the fact that not everybody in the world is. _____ AP: Is there a general takeaway you want fans to get from this album? Isbell: Compassion. In my experience, I got to a certain point where most of my problems got solved. I quit drinking, I cleaned myself up, started living my life right, made good decisions, started a family and everybody is healthy and happy. I can't really sing the blues anymore. So I had to look outside myself and empathize with other people. As a songwriter, that's a big stage in development, because a lot of people miss it. A lot of people fall flat when they try to do that and you get decades where people write these out of touch songs. _____ AP: You can dip into things, like on (the song) "Anxiety." Isbell: I can, but I can't write entire records about it, like "Southeastern." Let's hope not, because on that one I was pulling out my own bones. I think feeling compassionate is the one thing I hope people can take away from this. Before I was hoping people would have compassion for me. Now I hope it's for other people they see who need it. _____ AP: It seems you really wanted to speak to white men between the coasts, the ones who played such an important role in the last election. Is that what you tried to do? Isbell: Where I grew up, it's very rural, working class Alabama. I don't even know if it would be working class anymore - there isn't that much work to do. I try to represent those folks, sometimes just by telling my own version of the story. With a song like "Last of My Kind," it deals with what it was like for me to adjust to the developed world after I had come out of a part of the country that was so isolated. _____ AP: How is fatherhood treating you? Isbell: We're really lucky. She's so easy, compared to what I hear. When she was born, I expected there would always be someone in the house perpetually screaming. _____ AP: You, your wife or the baby? Isbell: One of the three of us. _____ Online: http://www.jasonisbell.com/ JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - Two of three Pennsylvania residents arrested last summer about to enter New York in a pickup truck with a cache of weapons, allegedly on a trip to rescue a teenager from a drug den, have struck a deal to avoid trial. The development was divulged during a court hearing Wednesday for the third defendant, John Cramsey, an anti-drug activist whose daughter died of a drug overdose last year. Kimberly Arendt, of Lehighton, and Dean Smith, of Whitehall, were arrested with Cramsey last June after police pulled them over as they approached the Holland Tunnel. Police recovered weapons including a semi-automatic military-style rifle, a shotgun and five handguns, along with other tactical gear. Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Tom Zuppa said Wednesday that Smith and Arendt have been accepted into a pretrial intervention program, which is a probationary program that, if completed successfully, can lead to charges being dropped. Cramsey, of East Greenville, has already rejected a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for at least 3 years. He was previously rejected for pretrial intervention by the Hudson County prosecutor's office, but his attorney, James Lisa, said Wednesday he would reapply based on the decision regarding Arendt and Smith. In audio played Wednesday at a hearing to determine which evidence will be allowed if Cramsey goes to trial, Smith told investigators that during the trip to New York Cramsey told Arendt to load a shotgun and shoot anybody that followed them on their way back. He also characterized Cramsey as "a danger to himself and others." "If he's telling some girl to load a shot gun and shoot somebody, he's a menace to society," Smith was heard saying on the recording. Lisa contested Smith's account. "I'm really interested in what Ms. Arendt has to say about that, and I'm wondering why her statement wasn't introduced," he said. Cramsey had posted online last June that he was heading to New York to "rescue" a girl whose friend had overdosed. The girl died of an overdose in Pennsylvania in January, according to her father. Smith, a graphic designer and videographer who told investigators it was the first time he'd accompanied Cramsey on a rescue mission, was driving Cramsey's neon-painted truck when the group was stopped. According to police, the vehicle was pulled over because it had a crack in its windshield and had some objects hanging from a rearview mirror. The defendants have contended the windshield problem was a pretense and that they were actually stopped because of the truck's Second Amendment-themed decorations New Jersey has more stringent gun laws than Pennsylvania. It doesn't recognize carry permits from other states, and guns in cars must be kept locked and unloaded in a trunk or secure container. In "Rough Night " four women on a wild and crazy bachelorette weekend in Miami accidentally kill a guy and try to get away with it. You know it's coming. It's right there in the trailer. In the middle of the party, Jillian Bell's coked out character runs full speed toward a male stripper to straddle him and inadvertently knocks the guy over. As his seat falls back, his head cracks into the sharp edged fireplace ledge behind him. What the trailer doesn't show is the reddish black blood oozing out from the dead guy's head onto the white tile floor. Have I mentioned this is a comedy? Was the trailer warning us about this moment so we could be prepared? Or was it selling it as part of the laughs? This image released by Sony Pictures shows Kate McKinnon, left, and Scarlett Johansson in a scene from "Rough Night." (Macall Polay/Sony, Columbia Pictures via AP) Others have tried to venture into this questionable terrain before, like the insanely awful "Very Bad Things," in which the dead stripper is referred to as a "105 pound problem." Comedies are welcome to test our moral flexibility, but it was extremely hard to get on board with the privileged cover-up antics of the "Rough Night" crew after the man bleeds out - no matter what narrative gymnastics they try to concoct to make it OK. Not even "Weekend At Bernie's" had the gall to make the protagonists the murderers. The thing is, there is a lot of funny in "Rough Night," the directorial debut of Lucia Aniello, who wrote the script with her partner Paul W. Downs (he also plays the straight-laced fiance of Scarlett Johansson's character). The comedy duo has the chops to make something wild and great - they've worked as co-producers and writers on the wonderfully manic millennial friendship comedy "Broad City," which Aniello also directs occasionally. For "Rough Night" they assembled a great (and brilliantly random) cast, including "Broad City's" salty star Ilana Glazer, Saturday Night Live's pinch-hitter Kate McKinnon, the fearless up-and-comer Bell and the wonderfully versatile Zoe Kravitz. They're put in an initial situation that's both relatable (college friends reuniting years later for a bachelorette) and gives room for things to get out of control (just add some cocaine, missed connections and a pair of crazy neighbors in Demi Moore and Ty Burrell). But it lacks "Broad City's" delicious edge and deranged specificity in favor of something more broad and generic. We meet the girls briefly in college. Jess (Johansson), Alice (Bell), Blair (Kravitz) and Frankie (Glazer) are inseparable and unapologetically sloshed at a frat party owning a game of beer pong. Cut to few years later and they've gone their separate ways and grown up, sort of. Jess is even running for office, sporting a politician crop and dowdy wares. There's a great bit between her and her campaign staff about the reasons she's lagging in the polls. That most have evolved beyond their college selves makes the reunion feel a little bit like forced joy at the outset. But that's a good thing, and you find yourself cringing and laughing in equal measure as they negotiate how the weekend is going to go. Things take a turn, too, when Jess' friend Pippa (McKinnon, affecting an Australian accent) from a semester abroad shows up - throwing Alice into a jealousy spiral. But then the stripper comes, and dies, and it's excruciatingly hard to care or worry about whether or not they're going to get away with it, let alone how the friendship is going to survive this trial. There are some wild moments that come after, and some of them are fun (watch out for the "sad astronaut"). I just wish they weren't in service of a throwaway gimmick that is too dark to stomach. "Rough Night," a Sony Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "crude sexual content, language throughout, drug use and brief bloody images." Running time: 101 minutes. Two stars out of four. ___ MPAA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr This image released by Sony Pictures shows Kate McKinnon, left, and Jillian Bell in a scene from "Rough Night." (Macall Polay/Sony, Columbia Pictures via AP) This image released by Sony Pictures shows Zoe Kravitz, from left, Jillian Bell, Scarlett Johansson, Ilana Glazer and Kate McKinnon in a scene from "Rough Night." (Macall Polay/Sony, Columbia Pictures via AP) This image released by Sony Pictures shows, from left, Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer and Zoe Kravitz in a scene from "Rough Night." (Macall Polay/Sony, Columbia Pictures via AP) FLINT, Mich. (AP) - Five people, including the head of Michigan's health department, were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease. Nick Lyon is the highest-ranking member of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's administration to be snagged in a criminal investigation of how the city's water system became poisoned after officials tapped the Flint River in 2014. Lyon, 48, the director of the Health and Human Services Department, is accused of failing to alert the majority-black population about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. In this June 5, 2017 photo, Nick Lyon, Michigan Health and Human Services Director, speaks in support of the state's Medicaid expansion program in Lansing, Mich. Lyon was charged Wednesday, June 14, 2017, with involuntary manslaughter in a criminal investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water. (AP Photo/David Eggert) An involuntary manslaughter conviction carries up to 15 years in prison. "The health crisis in Flint has created a trust crisis for Michigan government, exposing a serious lack of confidence in leaders who accept responsibility and solve problems," said state Attorney General Bill Schuette, who said his probe is moving to the trial phase and signaled that Snyder, who has apologized for his administration's failures that led to and prolonged the crisis, may not be charged. "We only file criminal charges when evidence of probable cause of a crime has been established. And we're not filing charges at this time," he said. Lyon also is charged with misconduct in office for allegedly obstructing university researchers who are studying if the surge in cases was linked to the Flint River. The others charged with involuntary manslaughter were already facing other charges. They are: Darnell Earley, who was Flint's emergency manager when the city used the river; Howard Croft, who ran Flint's public works department; Liane Shekter Smith; and Stephen Busch. Shekter Smith and Busch were state environmental regulators. Prosecutors also brought charges Wednesday against a sixth person - the state's chief medical officer, Dr. Eden Wells, 54, who is accused of obstruction of justice and lying to an investigator. "Dr. Wells vehemently denies the charges," defense attorney Jerry Lax said. Shekter Smith's lawyer, Brian Morley, said: "It's my understanding neither she nor the Department of Environmental Quality were responsible for legionella issues. So I fail to see why the charge is being filed against Liane." Earley's attorney Todd Perkins said he's "very disappointed in these new charges," adding his client has "done nothing wrong." Chip Chamberlain and Larry Willey are representing Lyon and called the charges "baseless." "The true facts simply do not support the prosecution's claims," they said in a statement. Convincing a jury that the officials' failure to disclose the risk of Legionnaires' disease caused a death would be difficult, Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said. "This case is going to become a battle of the experts, something we don't usually see in a homicide or manslaughter prosecution," Henning said. "This is a tough case for the attorney general. They can get a conviction but it's not going to be easy." Snyder expressed support for Lyon and Wells. "Director Lyon and Dr. Wells have been and continue to be instrumental in Flint's recovery," he said in a statement. "They have my full faith and confidence, and will remain on duty at DHHS." Flint began using water from the Flint River while under state emergency management, but did not treat it to reduce corrosion. Toxic lead from old plumbing leached into the water system, causing elevated levels in children and leaving residents to drink and bathe with bottled or filtered water. Some experts also have linked the water to Legionnaires' disease, a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water and infect the lungs. People can get sick if they inhale mist or vapor, typically from cooling systems. There were nearly 100 cases in the Flint area, including 12 deaths, in 2014 and 2015. Lyon, Croft, Earley, Shekter Smith and Busch are blamed in the death of Robert Skidmore in December 2015. He was admitted to McClaren Flint hospital in June 2015 with symptoms consistent with pneumonia. He died at home six months later. Lyon was personally briefed in January 2015 but "took no action to alert the public of a deadly" outbreak until nearly a year later, special agent Jeff Seipenko told a judge as the charges were filed. Lyon has admitted that he was aware of the Legionnaires' outbreak for months but wanted to delay saying anything public until state Health and Human Services Department investigators finished their own probe. He told state lawmakers that experts likely wanted to "solve the problem" before they raised it with senior officials in the Snyder administration. The investigation, he said, "wasn't one that was easily solved." Learning that Legionnaires' disease caused Robert Skidmore's death didn't sit well with his family, grandson Craig Skidmore told The Associated Press Wednesday. "Everybody was pretty upset, rightfully, finding out this could be the reason that he died," Craig Skidmore said. Schuette has now charged 15 current or former government officials in an ongoing probe that began in early 2016, including two emergency managers whom Snyder appointed to run the impoverished city of roughly 100,000 residents. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission issued a report in February blaming "systemic racism" going back decades for the problems that caused the water crisis in Flint. ___ Associated Press writers John Flesher in Traverse City and Ed White and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report. In this Jan. 11, 2016 photo, Dr. Eden Wells, Michigan's chief medical executive, smiles as she listens to Gov. Rick Snyder speak publicly for the first time in Flint, six days after he declared a state of emergency in the city because of health and safety issues caused by lead in the city's drinking water during a news conference. Five people were charged Wednesday, June 14, 2017 with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease. Wells, was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to an investigator. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announces charges Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Flint, Mich. Five people, including the head of Michigan's health department, were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease. (Jake May /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Special Agent Jeff Seipenko, center, listens as Genesee District Judge David Guinn authorizes charges Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Flint, Mich., for Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells in relation to the Flint water crisis. Lyon is accused of failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. Wells was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Special Agent Jeff Seipenko walks out of the courtroom with signed paperwork in hand after Genesee District Judge David Guinn authorized charges Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Flint, Mich., for Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells in relation to the Flint water crisis. Lyon is accused of failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. Wells was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Genesee District Judge David Guinn authorizes charges Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Flint, Mich., for Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells in relation to the Flint water crisis. Lyon is accused of failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. Wells was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette fields questions from reporters Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Flint, Mich., after announcing charges against five water officials -- including a member of Gov. Rick Snyder's cabinet and a former emergency manager -- with manslaughter related to their alleged failure to act during the Flint Water Crisis. (Jake May /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Lead investigator Andy Arena fields questions from reporters after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced charges against five water officials on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, at the Riverfront Banquet Center in downtown Flint, Mich. The officials, including the head of Michigan's health department,were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease. (Jake May /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Special Counsel Todd Flood fields questions from reporters Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Flint, Mich., after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced charges against five water officials. Five people, including the head of Michigan's health department, were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease. (Jake May /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) Flint City Mayor Karen Weaver speaks to media after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced five water officials, including the head of Michigan's health department, were charged Wednesday, June 14, 2017, with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint's lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires' disease, at the Riverfront Banquet Center in downtown Flint, Mich. (Jake May /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) STACYVILLE, Maine (AP) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke praised the beauty of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on Wednesday and said he's "comfortable" with the National Park Service property remaining in public hands. With flies buzzing and Mount Katahdin as a backdrop, Zinke sounded optimistic about the future of special land designation granted by then-President Barack Obama last summer with a goal of giving an economic jolt to the region. "I'm confident there's a path forward here that will work," Zinke said, adding that "clearly, it's beautiful." Marsha Donahue, of Millinocket, Maine, stands with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke while painting a picture of Mount Katahdin at the Katahdin Woods And Waters National Monument near Staceyville, Maine, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Zinke praised the beauty of the national monument Wednesday and said he's "comfortable" with the National Park Service property remaining in public hands. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle) President Donald Trump has ordered the review of more than two dozen national monuments, including the one in Maine, created on 87,500 acres (35,410 hectares) of privately donated land adjacent to Baxter State Park, home of Mount Katahdin, the state's highest peak. Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana, visited the Maine property just days after recommending that the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah be downsized after paying a visit to the site last month. But Zinke said his call to reduce the size of Bears Ears doesn't apply to the Maine land because it's so much smaller to begin with. "Scaling back, I don't think makes a lot of sense here," he told reporters. But he said he wants to ensure activities such as hunting, fishing and timber harvesting are preserved in the area. He also said he wanted to make sure that local residents had a "proper voice" in the decisions. Zinke's drive into the federal land passed a handful of signs saying "National Park No." He surveyed the land and did some hiking. In the afternoon, he wrapped up his tour by canoeing on the Penobscot River's East Branch. He began his "learning trip" after meeting the night before with Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who's opposed to the designation by Obama. LePage has been a vocal critic of the monument and testified against its creation before Congress last month. LePage contends federal ownership of the land would stymie economic development and he also pointed to a National Park Service maintenance backlog. LePage even criticized the beauty of the land and described the region as a "mosquito area." But supporters say the special land designation could provide an economic boost by drawing visitors to a region that's struggling after the closing of a pair of paper mills. Lucas St. Clair, whose family donated the land and created an endowment to support it, said the governor's criticism and refusal to allow road signs directing motorists to the site is backfiring by driving attention to it. He said some folks have begun wearing "Exit 264" signs to inform people of how to get to the monument, since there's no sign on Interstate 95, he said. Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills said this week that she would challenge attempts by Trump's administration to abolish it. Mills said Zinke's Interior Department should instead "terminate its review of the Katahdin Woods and Waters designation and reaffirm the agency's commitment to making the monument work well for all people, particularly the residents of the Katahdin region who are now counting on it for their economic future." Zinke was unmoved by Mills' promise to sue and said it won't affect his decisions. He said LePage is "rightly concerned about jobs" and that he doesn't consider the governor and himself that far apart on the monument's future. Trump has made the review of federal monuments a priority early in his first year in office. He has accused previous administrations of using the federal Antiquities Act to facilitate a "massive federal land grab" by creating monuments. During the visit, Zinke noted that he's been to Maine before. The former Navy SEAL attended the Navy's survival school in western Maine. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visited the Bears Ears National Monument in May, not on Monday. It also has been corrected to show that the spelling of the dateline is Stacyville, Maine, not Staceyville, Maine. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke talks with reporters with part of Mount Katahdin in the background at the Katahdin Woods And Waters National Monument near Staceyville, Maine, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Zinke praised the beauty of the national monument Wednesday and said he's "comfortable" with the National Park Service property remaining in public hands. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle) U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke talks with reporters before touring Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument Wednesday, June 14, 2017 in Medway, Maine. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument is one of more than a dozen that's under review by President Trump. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle) FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2015, file photo, the Wassataquoik Stream flows through Township 3, Range 8, Maine, on land owned by environmentalist Roxanne Quimby, the co-founder of Burt's Bees personal care products company. Quimby's foundation donated the area in August 2016 to the federal government for the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is slated to visit the Katahdin national monument on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, as part of a tour of national monuments that are under review. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) GENEVA (AP) - Former Swiss president and current Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter says he will resign as the Alpine country's top diplomat later this year because he wants a change of career and more of a personal life. Burkhalter, a politician for some 30 years who has been foreign minister since 2012, said he'll step down on Oct. 31. He will also resign from Switzerland's seven-person executive, the Federal Council. The Swiss presidency rotates among its members every year. Burkhalter, 57, grew up near the French-speaking city of Neuchatel and hails from the center-right Liberal-Radical party. His best-known diplomatic activities have included taking on issues like Ukraine's crisis involving pro-Russian separatists and helping Switzerland play host to talks between Iran and five world powers that led to an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program. A Taiwanese company that assembles Apple's iPhones and other electronics is considering building a Wisconsin plant. If negotiations are successful, the new Foxconn plant could employ up to 50,000 people and give Governor Scott Walker a huge political boost as he prepares to run for re-election. A person with direct knowledge of the negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the state is in talks with the tech company. A Taiwanese company that assembles Apple's iPhones and other electronics is considering building a plant in Wisconsin that could employ thousands of people and give Governor Scott Walker (pictured in a stock image from 2016) a huge political boost as he prepares to run for re-election Foxconn, founded in 1974 and purchased in 2016 by Japan's Sharp Corp, announced in January it was considering investing $7billion in one U.S. factory to produce display panels that would create as many as 50,000 jobs President Donald Trump alluded to negotiations with an unspecified company during a visit to Milwaukee on Tuesday, saying Walker might get 'a very happy surprise very soon.' 'We have a lot of companies moving to the United States. We were negotiating with a major, major incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions,' he explained. Foxconn, founded in 1974 and purchased in 2016 by Japan's Sharp Corp, announced in January it was considering investing $7billion in one U.S. factory to produce display panels that would create as many as 50,000 jobs. At least one other upper Midwest state, Michigan, is also pursuing the plant. Foxconn assembles of iPhones, and also smartphones for Sony, Blackberry and other brands, mostly in China, where its plants employ about 1million people Both Walker (pictured) and Michigan's Governor Rick Snyder made a brief, previously unannounced trip to Japan the weekend of June 2 to pursue an undisclosed economic development opportunit Foxconn assembles electronic devices such as smartphones for Apple, Sony, Blackberry and other brands - mostly in China, where its plants employ about 1million people. The company has been the subject of complaints for years about its labor practices and worker suicides at the Chinese plants that manufacture Apple products. Walker's administration declined to comment, instead deferring to the state's chief economic development agency spokesman Mark Maley, who said he can't comment on pending or potential opportunities. President of the Wisconsin Technology Council Tom Still, however, said: 'It would be great for Wisconsin for a lot of reasons,' noting that Wisconsin is already home to similar electronic manufacturers. 'I am assuming Foxconn was attracted by the fact there's already a skilled workforce here and there's a foundation to produce more such workers through the tech colleges and the other parts of the education system,' Still said. Both Walker and Michigan's Governor Rick Snyder made brief, previously unannounced trips to Japan the weekend of June 2 to pursue undisclosed economic development opportunities. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou (pictured in 2016) said in January a decision would depend on factors including whether a state where the factory might be built would be willing to provide low-cost land or power Wisconsin state Representative Joel Kleefisch, a Republican, said Wednesday he would 'jump at the chance' to work with the Walker administration to pass any economic development incentives deemed necessary to land the Foxconn plant Snyder has been increasing pressure on Michigan lawmakers to approve tax incentives for large-scale business expansions in the state as it tries to convince Foxconn to locate to his state. Michigan's state Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof said this week in advocating for the incentives to lure Foxconn that 'we should put our best foot forward so that we don't lose all of it or part of it to a neighboring state.' Wisconsin state Representative Joel Kleefisch, a Republican, said Wednesday he would 'jump at the chance' to work with the Walker administration to pass any economic development incentives deemed necessary to land the Foxconn plant. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said in January a decision would depend on factors including whether a state where the factory might be built would be willing to provide low-cost land or power. He also said Pennsylvania was a leading candidate, but that a decision had not been made and the company was in discussions with other states as well. A Foxconn partner, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, said after a December meeting with then-President-elect Trump that the company was also considering a $7billion investment in the U.S. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday underscoring the importance of the United Nations in promoting peace and reconciliation efforts by Somalia's new government and strongly condemning attacks by the al-Shabab extremist group. The resolution extends the U.N. political mission in the Horn of Africa nation, which is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, until March 31, 2018. It urges the U.N. mission to support the new federal government's efforts to consolidate the country, review the constitution, improve the fight against corruption, and develop effective federal political and justice systems. It also reaffirms the council's determination to support a comprehensive approach to reduce the threat posed by al-Shabab. Britain's deputy U.N. ambassador Peter Wilson said the resolution is "a vote of confidence in the new government" and reinforces commitments at last month's London conference to promote security and political stability in the country. Somalia began to fall apart in 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Years of conflict and attacks by al-Shabab, along with famine, shattered the country of some 12 million people. It has been trying to rebuild since establishing its first functioning transitional government in 2012 and electing a new president Feb. 8. With a new federal government established, pressure is growing on Somalia's military to assume full responsibility for the country's security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020. Over 40 countries and the Somali government agreed at the London conference on a security pact aimed at building a functioning national army in the country capable of taking on the fight against al-Shabab extremists. The U.N. resolution recognized that "this is a critical moment for Somalia." It underscored the need "to maintain momentum" toward consolidating all regions in Somalia into the federal system and welcomed the government's commitment to hold one person-one vote elections in 2021 and to undertake reforms in its security sector. The Security Council also expressed "grave concern at the credible and renewed risk of famine in Somalia as a result of the severe drought in the context of ongoing conflict." And it expressed concern at the high number of Somali refugees and internally displaced people - and "the ongoing forced evictions" of those displaced inside the country. WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is considering sanctions against a new list of Venezuelan officials it considers responsible for aggravating the troubled nation's current crisis. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday his office is working with the U.S. Treasury Department on compiling "a very robust list of individuals." Tillerson did not name any officials or reveal a timeline for the sanctions. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) He said the U.S. faces the challenge of responding in a way that is constructive, rather than providing another tool for officials in President Nicolas Maduro's government to "justify their current actions." The Trump administration has slapped sanctions against eight Supreme Court members as well as Vice President Tareck El Aissami thus far this year. Venezuela's recent political upheaval has left nearly 70 dead. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The Latest in the manslaughter trial of a Minnesota police officer who fatally shot a black motorist during a traffic stop (all times local): 5 p.m. The jury considering the fate of a Minnesota police officer charged in the death of a black motorist has wrapped up its third day of deliberations without a verdict. FILE - In this May 30, 2017, file photo, St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez stands outside the Ramsey County Courthouse while waiting for a ride in St. Paul, Minn. Closing arguments are set for Monday, June 12, in a Minnesota police officer's manslaughter trial in the death of a black motorist. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP, File) Officer Jeronimo (yeh-RON'-ih-moh) Yanez is charged with manslaughter in the July 6 death of Philando Castile. Yanez shot the 32-year-old cafeteria worker in a St. Paul suburb just seconds after Castile had informed him he was carrying a gun. The jury appears to be having trouble reaching a verdict. Judge William Leary summoned the jurors to court Wednesday afternoon and re-read a portion of the jury instructions. He then sent them back to keep working. The instructions dealt with their duty to work toward an agreement. Leary did not offer any explanation for why he read the passage. Deliberations resume Thursday. ___ 3:10 p.m. The judge in the trial of a Minnesota police officer charged in the death of a motorist has told the jury to keep deliberating. The jury has been deliberating for 2 days in the manslaughter trial of Officer Jeronimo (yeh-RON'-ih-moh) Yanez. Yanez is accused in the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile last July in a traffic stop. Yanez and attorneys were summoned back to a St. Paul courtroom Wednesday afternoon. In a hearing that lasted only a couple of minutes, Judge William Leary re-read the jury instructions and told jurors to continue their work. No explanation was given in open court. ___ 12:30 p.m. There's no verdict yet in a Minnesota trial for a police officer charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a motorist. The jury hearing the case has broken for lunch on their third day of deliberations. Officer Jeronimo (yeh-RON'-ih-moh) Yanez shot driver Philando Castile five times just seconds after Castile told him he was carrying a handgun. Yanez had pulled Castile's car over in a St. Paul suburb last July 6. Yanez testified last week that Castile was pulling out his gun despite his commands and he feared for his life. Prosecutors question whether Yanez ever actually saw a gun and say he overreacted. ___ 12:08 a.m. It's day three of deliberations for a Minnesota jury in the case of a police officer charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black motorist. Officer Jeronimo (yeh-RON'-ih-moh) Yanez shot 32-year-old cafeteria worker Philando Castile during a traffic stop in a St. Paul suburb last July 6. Castile had just informed the officer that he was carrying a gun. Yanez testified that Castile was drawing the gun against his orders. Prosecutors say he overreacted. The jury surfaced briefly Tuesday with a request for another look at two key videos in the case. One video was captured by the officer's squad car. It shows a wide view of the traffic stop and the shooting. The other video was made by Castile's girlfriend. It starts moments after the shooting. FILE - In this July 25, 2016, file photo, a memorial including a photo of Philando Castile adorns the gate to the governor's residence in St. Paul, Minn., protesting the July 6, 2016 shooting death of Castile by St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez. Closing arguments began Monday, June 12, 2017 in in a Yanez' manslaughter trial in the fatal shooting of Castile.(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) Defense attorney Earl Gray leaves the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) Clarence Castile, uncle of Philando Castile, leaves the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) Defense Attorney Paul Engh leaves the Ramsey County Courthouse after presenting closing arguments in the case of Jeronimo Yanez in St. Paul, Minn. on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP) NEW YORK (AP) - A former New Jersey police officer convicted of drunken driving and causing a wrong-way crash that killed a fellow officer and another friend was sentenced Wednesday to the maximum - up to 25 years in prison. A judge on Staten Island gave Pedro Abad 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison after the former Linden officer had asked for the minimum of one year. "You have no idea of the magnitude of what you did," Judge Mario Mattei told Abad, according to the Staten Island Advance. "You weren't an accident waiting to happen. You were a time bomb waiting to explode." Prosecutors say the former Linden police officer was drunk when he crashed into a tractor-trailer after a night at a strip club with friends in 2015. He was driving the wrong way on the West Shore Expressway when the crash occurred. Tests later showed the officer's blood-alcohol content was 0.24 percent; the legal limit for driving in New York is 0.08 percent. Hours before the crash, Abad had posted a photo on his Instagram page of three shot glasses filled with what he identified as "Jack Daniels Fire on the house." Abad, 29, said in court his friends never should have gotten into the car with him, and he apologized. Officer Frank Viggiano and friend Joseph Rodriguez died in the crash. A third Linden officer was critically injured. Rodriguez's father would not refer to Abad by name during the trial, but did so after sentencing. "To Pedro: You took the most precious thing from a parent - you took my precious little boy from me," he said. Abad's attorney had argued that his client's blood sample wasn't obtained properly and he disputed that the accident was caused by intoxication. Attorney Mario Gallucci told reporters outside court that Abad was "fine" with the sentencing and thought it must be "God's will." District Attorney Michael McMahon said the sentence "ensures Mr. Abad is held accountable for the lives he destroyed when he decided to get behind the wheel and drive drunk." Abad had two drunken-driving arrests before the fatal crash: one from a 2011 accident in Roselle, New Jersey, after he allegedly drove through the wall of a convenience store; the other in 2013 after he struck a parked car in Rahway, New Jersey. The 2011 charge was later dismissed. New Mexico's state land commissioner found a bullet hole in the windshield of his parked pickup truck on Wednesday amid growing fears that elected officials are subject to violent attacks following a shooting in the DC area. Aubrey Dunn said the discovery in Sante Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday morning was troubling given it came at nearly the same time a gunman opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. No injuries or arrests were reported in the incident involving Dunn's truck, and the land commissioner said he did not know whether he was being targeted. New Mexico State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn found a bullet hole in the windshield of his parked pickup truck (above) on Wednesday in Sante Fe Dunn called the discovery disorienting and troubling Dunn discovered a bullet had punctured the driver's side of the windshield of his state-owned pickup truck early Wednesday, around the same time House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot in the hip along with three others. Santa Fe police provided no further information about the investigation, although pastry chef Ericka Rodriguez, 37, said she heard about six shots fired on Tuesday. 'There were several shots that I heard, about six,' she said. 'I couldn't see anything and at first I didn't know they were gunshots, until I heard more.' At the time, she said, she was in a pastry kitchen in an outbuilding next to the Geronima restaurant where she works. She stayed hidden until police arrived. Police declined to comment on her description of events. Dunn was elected to statewide office in 2014 and is contemplating a possible run for governor or Congress in 2018. James T. Hodgkinson, 66, a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter from Belleville, Illinois, opened fire in Virginia while a group of Republicans practiced batting on the field in preparation for a charity baseball game against Democrats on Thursday. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip, is in a critical condition after undergoing surgery. Two Capitol Police officers who were there to protect Scalise were injured along with lobbyist Matt Mika and congressional staffer Zachary Barth. Hodgkinson was shot by Capitol Police and later died in the hospital. James T. Hodgkinson, 66, a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter from Belleville, Illinois, opened fire Republican congressional baseball practice in Virginia on Wednesday. He is seen in mugshots in 1992 (left) and 2006 (right) House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot in the hip and was taken to hospital for emergency surgery. He is currently in critical condition The chilling video was captured by a witness at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park. It shows a wounded player lying helplessly in the middle of the field as the gunshots rang out As Trump called for unity, members of Congress shared the threats of violence made against them. Some rank-and-file lawmakers get up to four security threats worth reporting each year, while high profile figures like House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi complain about getting more. 'Unfortunately we are seeing what certainly appears to be a spike in threats of politically motivated violence at members of both parties,' Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told DailyMail.com. 'It just needs to be roundly condemned and I hope that it prompts some deep thinking about what can be done to get us back on a far more civil footing so that people that are unwell dont take the rancor of political speech as a cue to act out violently,' he said. WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials are blaming the North Korean government for a series of cyberattacks dating to 2009 against media, aerospace, financial sectors and infrastructure in the United States and around the world. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning this week, saying the cyberattacks were carried out by actors within the North Korean government who are known as "Hidden Cobra." "DHS and FBI assess that Hidden Cobra actors will continue to use cyber operations to advance their government's military and strategic objectives," the alert said. U.S. officials are distributing internet addresses to help networks defend against any attacks. The FBI said it has high confidence that the internet addresses are linked to systems infected with Hidden Cobra malware to further exploit networks. The cyberattacks targeted weaknesses in Microsoft Corp. operating systems and Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash software, which were patched in January and June, respectively. The joint alert was issued Tuesday, the same day that American student Otto Warmbier, who was released from serving a 15-year sentence in a North Korean prison for participating in alleged acts against the government, arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio. The U.S. remains in a standoff with North Korea over its nuclear program. The U.S. has issued sanctions, but Pyongyang has not made any move to give up weapons that it says are a deterrent to any invasion. Thousands of U.S. troops are based in neighboring South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. MADRID (AP) - Donald Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate change accord, former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday. "If the U.S. withdraws, this has a much bigger political impact. I'm afraid that any leadership vacuum could be filled by others, and this is not what we want to see," Ban said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. He called the choice made by the U.S. president "misguided" and said that it responded to "a short-term vision." He also called on the public to raise its voice and said that commitment to the agreement from governors, mayors, business leaders and civil society in the U.S. was "very encouraging." Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his hotel room in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. During the interview Ban Ki-moon said that Donald J. Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull his country out of the Paris climate change accord, a decision Ban called "misguided" and responding to a "short-term vision." (AP Photo/Paul White) For almost a decade, Ban spearheaded negotiations to combat climate change that eventually led to the pledge of keeping global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius by 2100. Nearly 200 countries, including the U.S., signed the agreement in December 2015. "I sincerely hope that President Trump stands on the right side of history," Ban said in Madrid. As the world's largest economy, the United States is the planet's number two polluter after China, accounting for 14 percent of global emissions. "The decision has implications and effects politically and psychologically much larger than 14 percent, because smaller countries have traditionally followed Washington's leadership" said Ban, calling on the U.S. leader to show "global vision." On Wednesday, Ban joined more than 50 former world leaders who criticized the current U.S. administration's view on climate change and warned of "unpredictable and possibly regrettable" consequences. They also called on other signatories of the Paris agreement to "show greater urgency and commitment in the fight against global warming." The leaders represented about half of the members of the Club de Madrid alliance, which Ban joined recently as an honorary member. Among the signatories were former Chilean President and former U.N. envoy for climate change Ricardo Lagos, Nobel Peace winner and former East Timor leader Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who also headed the U.N.'s development agency. Ban also referred to the situation in the Korean Peninsula as "very worrisome" following Pyongyang's continuing of weapons launches, against U.N. Security Council resolutions, including recent anti-ship missiles. The former South Korean foreign minister said the testing of ballistic technology is putting Kim Jong Un's regime "on the verge" of being able to develop a nuclear-tipped long-range missile. "Never before since the Korean War has the level of tension been so high," Ban said, calling on North Korea "to stop all provocations" in order for the international community to restart a dialogue. He also said that the leaders of the U.S. and South Korea should come up with solutions to reduce the tension in the Korean Peninsula during a summit in Washington in late June. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the U.S. is the world's No. 2 polluter, after China. Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his hotel room in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. During the interview Ban Ki-moon said that Donald J. Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull his country out of the Paris climate change accord, a decision Ban called "misguided" and responding to a "short-term vision." (AP Photo/Paul White) Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon prepares for an interview with The Associated Press in his hotel room in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. During the interview Ban Ki-moon said that Donald J. Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull his country out of the Paris climate change accord, a decision Ban called "misguided" and responding to a "short-term vision." (AP Photo/Paul White) BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Latest on a Louisiana police officer's lawsuit against Black Lives Matter and activist DeRay Mckesson over injuries the officer sustained at a protest after a police shooting (all times local): 3:15 p.m. A federal judge says he expects to rule "within the coming days" whether Black Lives Matter can be sued by a Louisiana police officer who was injured at a protest after a deadly police shooting. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson didn't rule from the bench Wednesday after hearing arguments on whether to dismiss a Baton Rouge police officer's lawsuit against Black Lives Matter and activist DeRay Mckesson. Mckesson's attorney, William Gibbens, claims Black Lives Matter is a movement, not an organization that can be sued. The unidentified officer's lawyer, Donna Grodner, calls it an "unincorporated association" that solicits money, holds meetings and has chapters across the country. The officer's suit claims a "rock like substance" struck him in the face during a protest prompted by the July 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling, a black man who was killed by a white officer during a struggle. ___ 11 a.m. An activist's attorney claims Black Lives Matter is a movement and not an organization that can be sued by a Louisiana police officer who was injured at a protest after a deadly police shooting. A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday on whether to dismiss a Baton Rouge police officer's lawsuit against Black Lives Matter and DeRay Mckesson, one of nearly 200 protesters arrested after the July 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling, a black man. The unnamed officer claims a "rock like substance" struck him in the face during a protest over the death of Sterling, who was killed by a white officer during a struggle. The suit doesn't accuse Mckesson of throwing anything, but it claims he "incited the violence" on behalf of Black Lives Matter. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee v. NILSON MADRID-MARTINEZ, Defendant - Appellant No. 15-10249 Decided: June 09, 2017 Before BARKSDALE, HAYNES, and HIGGINSON, Circuit Judges. Nilson Madrid-Martinez, a citizen and national of Honduras, pleaded guilty unconditionally, as discussed infra, to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) and 924(e)(1). He was apprehended by United States Immigration Customs and Enforcement Officers responding to information that an aggravated felon lived at a particular residence in Dallas. The officers received consent to enter and search the residence, and detained Madrid to determine his identity, alienage, and deportability. After waiving his Miranda rights, Madrid acknowledged: five firearms found in the residence belonged to him; and he was present in the United States unlawfully, after having been previously deported. He was charged with three criminal counts and moved the court to suppress the evidence against him. After his motion was denied, Madrid pleaded guilty to the firearm-possession charge, and the Government dropped the remaining charges. The presentence investigation report (PSR) recommended a base offense level of 33 based on, inter alia, the conclusion that Madrid qualified as an armed career criminal, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 924(e) and Sentencing Guideline 4B1.4(b)(3)(B). Madrid objected to the PSR recommendations, but the court overruled his objections and sentenced him to 180 months' imprisonment. Madrid first challenges the denial of his motion to suppress. He did not, however, enter into a written conditional plea agreement, reserving his right to challenge the suppression ruling. Moreover, the record contains no suggestion that: Madrid intended to plead guilty conditionally; he expressed an intent to appeal the suppression ruling; or the Government and the court were not opposed to a conditional plea. Consequently, by pleading guilty voluntarily and unconditionally, Madrid waived his right to challenge on appeal any nonjurisdictional defects in the criminal proceedings that occurred before the plea, including the denial of the suppression motion. See United States v. Stevens, 487 F.3d 232, 238 (5th Cir. 2007); United States v. Wise, 179 F.3d 184, 186 (5th Cir. 1999); Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2). Next, Madrid challenges his 180-month sentence. The sentence was based on his prior convictions for burglary of a habitation under Texas Penal Code 30.02, which were deemed to constitute violent felonies under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. 924(e). He maintains his burglary convictions are not categorically violent felonies because Texas defines burglary more broadly than the generic definition of burglary and the Texas burglary statute defines a single, indivisible offense. Although post-Booker, the Sentencing Guidelines are advisory only, the district court must avoid significant procedural error, such as improperly calculating the Guidelines sentencing range. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 4851 (2007). If no such procedural error exists, a properly preserved objection to an ultimate sentence is reviewed for substantive reasonableness under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Id. at 51; United States v. Delgado-Martinez, 564 F.3d 750, 75153 (5th Cir. 2009). In that respect, for issues preserved in district court, its application of the Guidelines is reviewed de novo; its factual findings, only for clear error. E.g., United States v. Cisneros-Gutierrez, 517 F.3d 751, 764 (5th Cir. 2008). The Texas burglary statute, 30.02(a), has three subsections, and our court has held an offense under 30.02(a)(1) qualifies as generic burglary. United States v. Conde-Castaneda, 753 F.3d 172, 176 (5th Cir. 2014). Moreover, 30.02(a) is divisible and, therefore, amenable to the modified categorical approach. Id. In United States v. Uribe, 838 F.3d 667, 66971 (5th Cir. 2016), cert. denied, 2017 WL 661924 (20 Mar. 2017), our court affirmed the continuing viability of Conde-Casteneda after the Supreme Court's decision in Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016). Madrid's contentions regarding the divisibility of 30.02(a) are, therefore, unavailing. Additionally, Madrid contends, inter alia, his prior convictions for burglary of a habitation and burglary of a building could not serve as predicates for the application of the career-offender provision of Guideline 4B1.2 because there was no finding of the use of either a deadly weapon, or physical force against the person of another. He also maintains: the record contained no documents justifying the enhancement, pursuant to Shepherd v. United States, 544 U.S. 13 (2005); and, under Alleyne v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2151 (2013), the sentencing court is prohibited from finding the facts that trigger the application of Guideline 4B1.2 and 28 U.S.C. 994(h). Madrid's Alleyne contention is foreclosed by United States v. Tuma, 738 F.3d 681, 693 (5th Cir. 2013). His contention there were no Shepard documents in support of the enhancement is belied by the record. The state-conviction documents reflected that he pleaded guilty to intentionally and knowingly entering a habitation or building without the effective consent of the owner and with the intent to commit theft, a violation of 30.02(a)(1). The court, therefore, did not err in sentencing Madrid as an armed career criminal under the ACCA. AFFIRMED. PER CURIAM:* RABAT, Morocco (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron is urging Qatar and its rival neighbors to talk directly, to defuse their tensions over alleged terrorism financing, and said Wednesday he will step up diplomatic discussions with Gulf leaders in the coming days. Macron spoke after meeting with Moroccan King Mohammed VI, who is also trying to mediate the escalating Qatar standoff. Speaking in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, Macron called for a "clarification of all the links and financing of terrorist groups, whatever it is and wherever it comes from." Morocco's King Mohammed VI, right, meets with French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Royal Palace in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. The visit is the first by the recently elected French president to a North African country and aims to strengthen the relationship between France and Morocco, including cooperation on security issues. (Alain Jocard/ Pool Photo via AP) Saudi Arabia and other countries recently cut diplomatic ties and blocked travel to Qatar over allegations of Qatari sponsorship of Islamic extremists in the region. Qatar denies the allegations, but its ties to Iran and embrace of various Islamist groups have put the country under intense scrutiny. Stressing the international importance of stability in the Middle East, Macron said it's important "that the parties speak again" and find a way to "de-escalate" tensions that have mounted in recent days. "The king of Morocco shares this concern," Macron told reporters. Mohammed VI and Macron have spoken to key Gulf players in recent days and Macron said he will invite regional leaders to Paris for further discussions. Macron also offered support to the king over tensions in Morocco's northern Rif region, where protests over corruption and bleak living conditions prompted a violent police crackdown and large-scale arrests. Macron said he raised the issue but said the king gave him no "reason to fear renewed repression" and said the king instead appears committed to a "long-term response to the deep causes" of the conflict. Macron's visit is the first by the recently elected French president to a North African country, and aimed to strengthen cooperation on security and other issues with Morocco, considered an important force for stability in an often-volatile region. The two leaders discussed France's military operation against Islamic extremists in Africa's Sahel region. Macron attended the Ramadan fast-breaking dinner with his wife, Brigitte, at the invitation of the king in his personal residence Earlier Wednesday, Brigitte Macron and Moroccan Princess Lala Salma visited a Picasso exhibit at the Mohammed VI Modern Art Museum in Rabat, a joint project with the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and discussed further art cooperation between the countries. ___ Sylvie Corbet and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed. Morocco's King Mohammed VI, right, and French President Emmanuel Macron, left, review the honor guard upon his arrival at Rabat airport, Morocco, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. The visit is the first by the recently elected French president to a North African country and aims to strengthen the relationship between France and Morocco, including cooperation on security issues. (Alain Jocard/ Pool Photo via AP) French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during a press conference as part of his meeting with Morocco's King Mohammed VI in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. The visit is the first by the recently elected French president to a North African country and aims to strengthen the relationship between France and Morocco, including cooperation on security issues. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar) French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during a press conference as part of his meeting with Morocco's King Mohammed VI in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. The visit is the first by the recently elected French president to a North African country and aims to strengthen the relationship between France and Morocco, including cooperation on security issues. (Fadel Senna/ Pool Photo via AP) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Ernestina Herrera de Noble, the longtime publisher of Argentina's Clarin newspaper who helped build one of Latin America's largest media conglomerates, died on Wednesday at age 92. Herrera de Noble led Argentina's widest-circulation newspaper for nearly 50 years. She took over Clarin after her husband died in 1969. Under her leadership, the Grupo Clarin bought dozens of cable systems, radio stations and TV channels in addition to its flagship daily paper. Grupo Clarin announced her death Wednesday and said that her health had been deteriorating over the past three weeks. No other details were provided. President Mauricio Macri expressed his condolences on Twitter and praised Herrera de Noble's commitment to protect freedom of the press. Clarin and Macri's predecessor, former President Cristina Fernandez, became bitter opponents during her 2007-2015 administration. The newspaper criticized her 2008 decision to raise farm export taxes, which sparked a revolt by farmers. Fernandez canceled the tax hike after months of crippling food and transport strikes. Her government then launched an assault on the Grupo Clarin, passing a new media law to try to force big media companies to break apart. Herrera de Noble for years also faced accusations of illegally adopting her two children Marcela and Felipe Noble. She denied the charges, which were dismissed last year after DNA tests on the adopted pair in 2011 showed no match to a database of some of the victims of the 1970s Argentine dictatorship. Scores of babies were stolen by political prisoners of the military junta and were later adopted by people sympathetic to the regime. CINCINNATI (AP) - The Latest on the release of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier after months of detention in North Korea (all times local): 7:45 p.m. The father of an American college student released by North Korea and now hospitalized in a coma says his son was "terrorized and brutalized" by his captors. FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson poses for a photograph in his office in Santa Fe, N.M. Richardson says there should be an investigation into what happened to an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea and was returned to his home state of Ohio in a coma. Otto Warmbier was in a coma when he landed in Cincinnati late Tuesday, June 13, 2017.(AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File) Fred Warmbier (WORM'-bir) told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Wednesday from his Ohio home that his son, Otto, "is not in great shape right now." The 22-year-old University of Virginia student landed in Cincinnati late Tuesday and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. His parents say he's been in the coma for more than a year. Warmbier says he doesn't know exactly what happened to his son during his 17-month detention. He was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor after he had tearfully confessed that he tried to steal a propaganda banner while visiting. Warmbier's full interview will air Thursday night on Fox News. ___ 5:55 p.m. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says there should be an investigation into what happened to an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea and was returned to his home state of Ohio in a coma. Otto Warmbier (WORM'-bir) was in a coma when he landed in Cincinnati late Tuesday. The 22-year-old University of Virginia student was taken by ambulance to a hospital. His parents say they were told he had been in the coma for more than a year. A hospital spokeswoman hasn't provided an update on his condition. Richardson says it's a "tragic situation." The Democrat and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations credits the Department of State for working to get the student back home. But he says the U.S. government has to respond forcefully if it's determined the student's condition wasn't disclosed "and he didn't get proper treatment." ___ 2:50 p.m. The parents of a college student released by North Korea after 17 months of detention are expected to discuss their son's condition publicly. Otto Warmbier was in a coma when he landed in Cincinnati late Tuesday night. The 22-year-old University of Virginia student was taken by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, say they were told he had been in the coma for over a year. A hospital spokeswoman didn't provide an update on his condition. She says the parents plan a Thursday morning news conference. Fox News also is expected to air an interview with them Wednesday night. Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor in North Korea. He tearfully confessed to trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting. ___ 1:20 a.m. An American college student who was released from a North Korean prison is finally home but in a coma and undergoing treatment at an Ohio hospital. An airplane carrying Ohio native Otto Warmbier landed in Cincinnati late Tuesday night. The 22-year-old was then taken by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor in North Korea for alleged anti-state acts. In Warmbier's hometown of Wyoming, just outside of Cincinnati, residents tied ribbons to trees and said news of his release had sent waves of shock and joy through the community. The State Department secured Warmbier's release at President Donald Trump's direction. A hospital spokeswoman says Warmbier's family is expected to hold a news conference Thursday morning at Wyoming High School. FILE - In this March 16, 2016, file photo, American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea. Warmbier, whose parents say has been in a coma while serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea, was released and returned to the United States Tuesday, June 13, 2017, as the Trump administration revealed a rare exchange with the reclusive country. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File) Medical personnel and visitors gather at the nose of a transport plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Medical personnel and visitors gather at the nose of a transport plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred to an ambulance at Lunken regional airport, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Cincinnati. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Family members return to their vehicles after Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate, who was detained and imprisoned in North Korea, is loaded into an ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier whose parents say he has been in a coma while serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea was released and returned to the United States Tuesday, as the Trump administration revealed a rare exchange with the reclusive country. (Sam Greene/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) Alison Lebrun helps tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Alison Lebrun, center background, helps tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Denise Koesterman, right, and Alison Lebrun, left, tie blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Denise Koesterman ties blue-and-white awareness ribbons along Springfield Pike near the family home of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Warmbier, serving a 15-year prison term for alleged anti-state acts, was released and medically evacuated from the reclusive country Tuesday and has been in a coma for months, his parents said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, second from left, walks through the Koryo hotel lobby as he leaves to visit several sports venues Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Rodman's current trip is his first since Donald Trump became president. He told reporters in Beijing, as he departed for Pyongyang, that he hopes his trip will "open a door" for Trump. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, second from left, walks through the Koryo hotel lobby as he leaves to visit several sports venues on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Rodman's current trip is his first since Donald Trump became president. He told reporters in Beijing, as he departed for Pyongyang, that he hopes his trip will "open a door" for Trump. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - California is aiming to quash the growth of immigration detention in the state under a proposed budget measure to push back against the Trump administration's plans to boost deportations. The state's $125 billion budget - which is set to be approved Thursday - has a related measure to prevent local governments from signing contracts with federal authorities for immigration detention facilities or expanding existing contracts. It would also have the state attorney general review conditions at immigration detention facilities in California. "I think we send a very clear message in this budget that California is going in the opposite direction of Trump's administration," said Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Democrat. FILE - This Jan. 12, 2017, file photo shows the James A. Musick Facility in Irvine, Calif. Under a contract with federal immigration authorities, the Orange County Sheriff's department houses immigration detainees at the facility in Orange County. California's $125 billion budget, which is set to be approved on Thursday, June 15, 2017, has a related measure to prevent local governments from signing contracts with federal authorities for immigration detention facilities or expanding existing contracts. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin, File) The budget was negotiated by Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders. A message was left for the state Senate's Republican caucus. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on pending legislation. The proposal is the latest in a series of moves by California lawmakers aimed at protecting immigrants in the country illegally from President Donald Trump's efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement. State lawmakers are also weighing proposals to provide lawyers for immigrants in deportation proceedings and limit communication between local police and federal immigration agents. Thomas Homan, ICE's acting director, told U.S. lawmakers earlier this week that more detention space is needed to carry out additional deportations. The Trump administration expects next year to house about 51,000 immigrant detainees on a given day, up from nearly 40,000, he said. Currently, there are nine immigration detention facilities in California. All but one - the Otay Mesa Detention Center near the U.S.-Mexico border - contract through local government agencies to house about 3,800 people, according to ICE. Many detainees in California are legally required to be held while their cases churn through immigration court, said Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman. Immigration authorities are not required to house detainees where they live and have been known to transfer immigrants across state lines when bed space is tight. In recent years, immigrant advocates raised concerns about conditions in detention facilities, including one in Orange County where an internal government watchdog cited reports of spoiled food and moldy showers. While California is looking to push back against immigration detention, some debt-strapped counties in Texas are hoping to refill empty jails with immigrant detainees. Immigrant advocates in California said they hoped the measure might inspire other states to follow suit. "While California can't end immigration detention on its own, California can lead," said Christina Fialho, executive director of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement. ___ Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento contributed to this report. BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) - A 15-year-old boy in the Denver area has been charged with killing a 10-year-old girl and could be tried as an adult. Adams County District Attorney Dave Young said Wednesday after a closed hearing that the boy was charged with first-degree murder with intent to kill after deliberation, and first-degree murder of a child under 12 by someone in a position of trust. Young said he intends to prosecute the boy as an adult. Authorities have not released the boy's name. Kiaya Campbell of Thornton was found dead June 8 after her family reported her missing the previous night. High-profile supporters of Donald Trump are turning on the man investigating Russian interference in the US election and possible collusion with the presidents campaign with one suggesting Mr Trump was considering terminating him. As special counsel Robert Mueller builds his legal team, Mr Trumps allies have begun raising questions about the former FBI directors impartiality, implying he cannot be trusted to lead the probe. The comments come amid increasing frustration at the White House and among Trump supporters that the investigation will overshadow the presidents agenda for months to come a prospect that has Democrats salivating. Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible ties between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia's government, is under fire from the president's allies (Evan Vucci/AP) Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring.check fec reports. Time to rethink. Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) June 12, 2017 Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring, tweeted former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich, an informal Trump adviser. Just weeks ago, Mr Gingrich heaped praise on Mr Mueller, hailing him as a superb choice for special counsel whose reputation was impeccable for honesty and integrity. Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should now calm down Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) May 18, 2017 But after the evidence of former FBI director James Comey last week, Mr Gingrich said he had changed his mind. Time to rethink, he tweeted on Monday, citing Mr Muellers hiring decisions and Mr Comeys admission that he instructed a friend to share with reporters notes he had taken of his private conversations with Mr Trump in order to force the appointment of special counsel. Sessions never should've recused himself. Now that we know TRUMP IS NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION, Sessions should take it back & fire Mueller. Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 12, 2017 Mr Trumps friend Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, went even further, suggesting the president was already thinking about terminating Mr Mueller. I think hes considering perhaps terminating the special counsel, Mr Ruddy said in an interview with Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour. I think hes weighing that option. If DT fires Robert Mueller, we officially pass Watergate & Trump becomes most corrupt POTUS of greatest scandal in US history. #Trumprussia Rob Reiner (@robreiner) June 12, 2017 The talk about dismissing Mr Mueller appeared to be coming from Trump allies, including some close to White House strategist Steve Bannon, who are increasingly frustrated with the prospect of a long and winding probe. They say Mr Trump did not collude with Russia and see the investigation as a politically-motivated sham that handicaps his ability to execute his agenda, according to one person who advises the White House on how to handle the probe. Mr Ruddy appeared to be basing his remarks, at least in part, on comments from Jay Sekulow, a member of Mr Trumps legal team, who told ABC in an interview on Sunday that he was not going to speculate on whether Mr Trump might at some point order deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to sack Mr Mueller. Look, the president of the United States, as we all know, is a unitary executive. But the president is going to seek the advice of his counsel and inside the government as well as outside, Mr Sekulow said. Several people were injured, including a police officer, in a shooting early on Tuesday at a Munich underground station, police in Germany said. Munich police said in a tweet that the policewomans injuries were serious, and the suspect was in custody. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP) The shooting occurred during a morning police check at the Unterfohring underground station, Munich police spokesman Michael Riehlein said. He had no further details, but Munichs Merkur newspaper reported witnesses said the suspect took a police officers pistol and shot her, and also injured others at the scene. Rescuers arrive near a subway station in Munich, Germany (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP) Mr Riehlein said the area has been secured and that there was no danger to the wider public. A woman cried as she appeared in court charged with the murder of a man who was hit by a moving tram. Charrissa Loren Brown-Wellington, 31, wore a red jumper and grey tracksuit bottoms as she appeared at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning charged with the murder of Philip Carter. Mr Carter, who has not been formally named by police but was named in court, died after being hit by a tram at Victoria station in Manchester on Sunday. Police said a man was pushed from the platform in front of a moving tram (Mike Egerton/EMPICS) Charrissa Loren Brown-Wellington (19/05/1986) charged with murder following collision in Victoria Station https://t.co/F5QaEiVqsM Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) June 13, 2017 Emergency services attended at about 7.50pm but the 30-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. Greater Manchester Police said he was pushed from the platform in front of a moving tram. Brown-Wellington, who has long brown hair and was in tears in the dock, was remanded in custody to appear at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday. The White House has said Donald Trump has no intention of sacking the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One that while the president has the right to fire Robert Mueller, he has no intention to do so. President Trump has railed against the Russia investigation, describing it as a witch hunt. Donald Trump has described the Russia probe as a "witch hunt" (Morry Gash/AP) If DT fires Robert Mueller, we officially pass Watergate & Trump becomes most corrupt POTUS of greatest scandal in US history. #Trumprussia Rob Reiner (@robreiner) June 12, 2017 Under Department of Justice rules, it is actually up to the deputy attorney general to make that call, though the president could bypass that protocol. Some of Mr Trumps allies have begun questioning Mr Muellers credibility as the investigation intensifies. Ms sanders also said says the president was pleased with attorney general Jeff Sessions evidence to Congress on Tuesday. Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should now calm down Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) May 18, 2017 Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring.check fec reports. Time to rethink. Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) June 12, 2017 She said Mr Trump was not able to watch much of Mr Sessions testimony, but he thought Mr Sessions did a very good job and was especially strong on denying any collusion between Mr Trumps campaign and Russia. Mr Sessions vigorously denied having an undisclosed meeting with Russias ambassador to the US. He also declared it a detestable and appalling lie to suggest he was aware of or took part in any collusion between Russia and the election campaign that sent Mr Trump to the White House. Investigations are currently under way into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Borough Market will pause for a minutes silence before traders open for business for the first time since the London Bridge terror attack. A market bell will be rung on Wednesday to signal the reopening of the bustling tourist hotspot, which was forced to close after it was targeted in the June 3 atrocity. Eight people were killed when three attackers ploughed into pedestrians with a white van on London Bridge, before stabbing revellers in the nearby market with 12-inch ceramic knives. People make a floral, fruit and vegetable installation to mark the reopening of Borough Market (John Stillwell/PA) Inquests into the deaths of Canadian Christine Archibald, 30, and Frenchmen Xavier Thomas, 45, and Alexandre Pigeard, 26, who were killed in the attack, will open at Southwark Coroners Court on Wednesday. Coroner Andrew Harris opened and adjourned the inquests for five other victims Sara Zelenak, 21, Kirsty Boden, 28, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39 at the same court on Tuesday. A minutes silence will be held at Borough Market at 9.30am ahead of its official reopening at 10am. The victims of the London Bridge terrorist attack (top row left to right) Christine Archibald, James McMullan, Alexandre Pigeard, Sebastien Belanger, (bottom row left to right) Kirsty Boden, Sara Zelenak, Xavier Thomas and Ignacio Echeverria (Metropolitan Police/PA) Charity Victim Support said trained staff would be on hand to support anyone affected by the atrocity. Opening hours will be extended over the coming weeks to help businesses affected by the attack, with the market welcoming shoppers on June 18 and June 25. A trader support fund has also been set up to help those who have suffered financially due to the markets closure. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DANIEL BROWN, Defendant-Appellant. No. 15-30148 Decided: June 12, 2017 Before: PAEZ and BYBEE, Circuit Judges, and TIGAR,** District Judge. MEMORANDUM* MEMORANDUM A jury convicted Daniel Brown of conspiracy to make, print, or publish any notice or advertisement seeking or offering child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2251(d) and (e), and Brown was sentenced to a prison term of fifteen years. Brown appeals the denial of his motion to suppress and the district court's refusal to allow two different defense arguments. We reverse Brown's conviction in a separate opinion filed concurrently with this memorandum. In this memorandum, we affirm the denial of Brown's suppression motion and the district court's decision prohibiting one of Brown's co-conspirators from testifying regarding his withdrawal from the conspiracy. 1. Reviewing the district court's ruling on Brown's motion to suppress de novo and the underlying factual findings for clear error, we conclude that the district court did not err in denying Brown's motion to suppress. United States v. Washington, 387 F.3d 1060, 1066 (9th Cir. 2004). Pursuant to a search warrant, FBI Special Agent Mandy Fellenz searched the email account of Dark Moon messaging board member Charles Crosby and located log-in information for that board. Without obtaining a separate warrant, Fellenz then logged onto Dark Moon and saw child pornography. Separately, government agents later executed search warrants at the residences of several suspected members of a different messaging board, Kingdom of Future Dreams (KOFD), some of whom were also members of Dark Moon. These members consented to agents' search of the Dark Moon site. Brown asserted that Fellenz's warrantless search of Dark Moon was critical to agents later obtaining other evidence from searches consented to by the KOFD suspects, and therefore such evidence was tainted. Assuming for the sake of argument that Special Agent Fellenz's initial brief entry onto the Dark Moon messaging board was unlawful, we nonetheless find no error in the district court's conclusion that the later search was lawful. In the midst of executing lawful residential search warrants on suspected members of another messaging board, the search warrant teams did not exploit Fellenz's earlier illegal search in requesting consent from those other suspects to search Dark Moon. See Hoonsilapa v. INS, 575 F.2d 735, 738 (9th Cir. 1978) ([T]he mere fact that [a] Fourth Amendment illegality directs attention to a particular suspect does not require exclusion of evidence subsequently unearthed from independent sources.). Because the residential search warrant teams had received an interview outline that prompted them to ask targets about membership on any and all bulletin boards, and agents were not told that Special Agent Fellenz had gained access to Dark Moon or that she found child pornography there, the information gleaned from the consensual searches of the other suspects was not tainted by Fellenz's earlier illegal search. The prior illegality of Fellenz's search therefore was not sufficiently connected to the subsequent consent to require suppression of the later-obtained evidence. See Washington, 387 F.3d at 1072. 2. Brown argues that the district court violated his fundamental right to present a venue defense to the jury when it prevented him from presenting evidence and testimony about when the only member of the Dark Moon bulletin board from Montana (Paul Wencewicz) affirmatively withdrew from the board before Brown ever joined. But the district court's decision did not take the determination of venue away from the jury. The court instructed the jury that it needed to find venue in Montana in order to find Brown guilty, and ruled that any testimony from Wencewicz about when and if he withdrew from the conspiracy was irrelevant given that venue in a conspiracy case is appropriate in any district where an overt act of the conspiracy was committed. See United States v. Meyers, 847 F.2d 1408, 1411 (9th Cir. 1988) ([V]enue is appropriate in any district where an overt act committed in the course of the conspiracy occurred.) (quoting United States v. Schoor, 597 F.2d 1303, 1308 (9th Cir. 1979)). Because Brown was bound [with respect to the conspiracy charge] by all that ha[d] gone before in the conspiracy, the district court correctly concluded that testimony from Wencewicz regarding his withdrawal from the conspiracy before Brown joined was irrelevant to the determination of venue. United States v. Bibbero, 749 F.2d 581, 588 (9th Cir. 1984). AFFIRMED. FOOTNOTES . Venue in Montana was premised entirely on co-conspirator Wencewicz's residency in, and access of the Dark Moon bulletin board from his home in, Polson, Montana. Waisake Naholo believes the All Blacks will raise their game for the once in a lifetime chance to sink the British and Irish Lions. Naholo thundered home for a smartly-taken try as the Highlanders toppled the Lions 23-22 in Dunedin on Tuesday in a performance he hopes can secure him a starting berth for the three-Test series. The Fiji-born flyer was released by the All Blacks to face the Lions in Highlanders colours as he sharpens up after hamstring trouble. Waisake Naholo (right) scored the opening try in Dunedin (David Davies/PA) Thank you to the @lionsofficial for the match! It was an Honour. Good luck for the remainder of your tour#HIGvBIL #LionsTour2017 pic.twitter.com/ZFUlE3dzHo Highlanders (@Highlanders) June 13, 2017 The Lions can expect to face the 26-year-old again in the first Test at Eden Park on June 24 - and Naholo has tipped New Zealand to hit new heights for a series that only rolls into town once every 12 years. Every player always raises their game when they join up with the All Blacks, said Naholo. The expectation demands that and nothing less; so the level has to go up again. So it should be tougher for the Lions. The All Blacks are always massively prepared for every team and every challenge. Facing the Lions in a Test series is a once in a lifetime chance, and everyone knows how big that is. But for a fine last-ditch tackle from Jared Payne, Naholo would have swept in for two tries against the Lions at the Forsyth Barr Stadium. POSTCARD FROM DUNEDIN World's steepest street Historic architecture Amazing scenery Thanks for having us @Lovedunedin #LionsNZ2017 pic.twitter.com/56hnLMHx8o British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) June 13, 2017 The potent strike runner hopes he has done enough to convince All Blacks boss Steve Hansen he is worthy of a starting jersey for the Lions series. Naholo also insisted, however, that the All Blacks will not take the Lions lightly, despite the tourists only having ever won one Test series in New Zealand. I was just excited for an opportunity like this, and hopefully I made a statement for the All Blacks, said Naholo. I was hungry, excited and just keen to get my hands on the ball. Tuesdays game was like a Test match, the speed, intensity and collisions. Its massive for the Highlanders to beat the Lions, its great for all the boys and everyone there. But the Lions were really tough. They keep changing their team and you dont know what their strongest team is yet. I certainly dont think the All Blacks will underestimate the Lions. The Lions could put out a totally different team against the All Blacks, so we just have to see what happens now. Manchester United have made Victor Lindelof their first signing of the summer after the Sweden defender signed a four-year deal on Wednesday. United paid Benfica 35million euros (30.75million) for Lindelof, although the Portuguese club announced that the fee could increase by a further 10million euros due to add-ons. United boss Jose Mourinho told the clubs official website: Victor is a very talented young player, who has a great future ahead of him at United. Benfica's Victor Lindelof is closing in on a move to Old Trafford (Nick Potts/Empics) "When the opportunity came to sign for #MUFC it was a very easy decision." - Victor Lindelof #HejVictor pic.twitter.com/qhajzJSREK Manchester United (@ManUtd) June 14, 2017 Our season last year showed us that we need options and quality to add depth to the squad and Victor is the first to join us this summer. I know that our fantastic group of players will welcome him as one of us. Lindelof arrived at Uniteds Aon Training Complex fresh from international duty with Sweden, where he was an unused substitute in Tuesday nights 1-1 draw with Norway. .@VLindelof: "I'm thrilled to join United. I'm keen to get started and contribute to the team's efforts to win more trophies." #HejVictor pic.twitter.com/FoC6IuUWwj Manchester United (@ManUtd) June 14, 2017 Lindelof has been a long-time target for United as they look to bolster their defensive options ahead of next seasons return to the Champions League. He told Uniteds official website: I am thrilled to be joining Manchester United. I have enjoyed my time at Benfica enormously and I have learned a lot there. But Im looking forward to playing in the Premier League at Old Trafford and for Jose Mourinho. Im keen to get started and make my contribution to the teams efforts to win more trophies. Lindelof could be one of three or four high-profile acquisitions at Old Trafford this summer, with the club also understood to be keen on Alvaro Morata. The Real Madrid forwards agent said earlier this week that United had lodged a very important offer with the Spanish giants to try to bring him to the north west of England. In defence, Mourinho now boasts an impressive array of options with Lindelof joining the likes of Eric Bailly, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Daley Blind. But Lindelof, who started his career with lowly Swedish club Vasteras before moving to Benfica in 2011, said he is willing to fight for his starting place. In an interview with MUTV, Lindelof said: Of course there are some great players here in my position. Im here to do my best to try to help the team as much as I can and its always good to have other good players around you. When you have that, you get better as well. The boss has his say on our first summer signing... #HejVictor pic.twitter.com/CEpVDADVE2 Manchester United (@ManUtd) June 14, 2017 I think every move means you have to adapt to a new environment but I feel comfortable in myself. I trust myself and its going to be tough but Im looking forward to it. I always had a dream of coming here to play in the Premier League so, for me, its a dream come true. A 15-year-old boy who took a loaded shotgun, 200 rounds of ammunition and a mask into a school has admitted possessing the weapon with intent to endanger life. The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, dialled 999 after having "a change of heart" and told a call-handler he had mental health problems and had been thinking of harming others. Leamington Spa Youth Court was told the teenager also took ear plugs and a lock-knife with him to a school on Tuesday morning after removing the shotgun from a secure cabinet belonging to a relative. Warwickshire Justice Centre Magistrates bailed the boy to an address outside Warwickshire before he is sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on July 14. As well as indicating guilty pleas to having the double-barrelled shotgun and 200 cartridges with intent to endanger life, the boy also admitted possession of a knife on school premises. Opening the facts of the case, prosecutor Omar Majid said the shotgun and ammunition was legally held by an adult known to the boy. As well as indicating guilty pleas to having the double-barrelled shotgun and 200 cartridges with intent to endanger life, the boy also admitted possession of a knife on school premises (Andrew Matthews/PA) Mr Majid told the court: "When he went to the school he had concealed these items on him. Initially no one suspected that there were any issues at all. "He then proceeded to go into another room and took out these items. Fortunately at that point he had a change of heart and decided to call the police. "When he called 999 he told them what he was originally thinking of doing. He said `I dont know why Ive got it, I just felt so angry this morning and I had to get it out. "He was asked if he was thinking of using the gun on himself or others and he said `somebody else. When questioned further he said `anyone and he confirmed during the call that the gun was loaded." During the call, the youth also indicated that he had been feeling low and had suicidal thoughts. Mr Majid added: "There were no issues when the police attended and the matter was resolved peacefully. "Clearly it could have been an appalling situation the like of which everyone in this court is aware of in the (United) States." Adjourning the case for pre-sentence reports to be drawn up, chair of the bench Sue Robertson told the boy: "A sentence exceeding two years in custody is a real possibility and that is why we are committing you to the Crown Court for sentence." Dozens of people have gathered for a vigil in the shadow of the Grenfell Tower. Many were moved to tears after a moment of silent contemplation outside the Notting Hill Methodist Church in west London. The Rev Mike Long invited those present to light candles to place on the steps of the church on Wednesday evening. Vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church He then played Amazing Grace on his flute as members of the crowd sang along. He said: There are times when all the words we can say are not adequate and sometimes words fail us because no words can do justice to how we feel, or what we have seen or what has happened. Today is one of those days. What we can simply do is look to all that we have seen today which is good, which is fabulous people getting together. He added: Let light triumph over all that is rotten, that is desperate and that defies our understanding. JOHANNESBURG, June 11 (Reuters) - A wildcat strike at Sibanye Gold's Cooke operations west of Johannesburg continued on Sunday and 138 illegal miners there have been arrested since the stoppage began Tuesday, a company spokesman said. Sibanye said the strike, which has seen 16 miners assaulted in a wave of intimidation, was triggered by worker anger at a company drive to root out illegal miners, which has included the arrest of employees for collusion and a policy that forbids food in underground operations. Illegal gold mining has plagued South Africa for decades, with bullion pilfered from both operating and disused mines. Sibanye has vowed it will clear all illegal miners from its shafts by January 2018. The Cooke mines have been at the centre of illicit activities at Sibanye's operations. Prior to the walkout, 101 illegal miners had been arrested this year along with 58 employees accused of collusion. Illegal miners can spend weeks underground, which requires large amounts of food and water - which is why Sibanye has banned its employees from taking any food underground, with union agreement. It is also why so many illegal miners have been forced to the surface since the strike began, as their source of food and water - colluding employees - has dried up, one of the inadvertent consequences of the stoppage. The Cooke operations, which employ almost 4,000 underground miners, are marginal and Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted said their viability is at risk if the strike becomes prolonged. "One of the reasons why the mine has not been performing is because many of the employees have been focused on assisting illegal miners instead of their jobs," he said. (Reporting by Ed Stoddard; editing by Jason Neely) By Peter Van Buren June 13 (Reuters) - Will the defeat of Islamic State in Iraq be a foreign policy victory for Donald Trump? With the fall of Mosul imminent, what happens next? There will be winners, like the Kurds. There will be losers, like Iraqs Sunni minority. There will be gains for Iran, which backs the Shiite militias drafted to fight Sunni-dominated IS. And there may be a silver lining for the Trump administration - specifically in the form of Kurdish independence and permanent American bases in a Shiite-ruled Iraq. But any declaration of "victory" on the part of the United States depends on how the measure of those results is taken. Start with the Kurds. Their military forces currently control a swath of northern territory, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. The area has been a functional confederacy since soon after the American invasion of 2003 and, in spite of likely opposition from Baghdad, a fully-realized nation-state of Kurdistan seems inevitable. The Kurds certainly think so; theyll hold an independence referendum on September 25. Previous U.S. administrations restrained Kurdish ambitions, trying to keep "Iraq" more or less as it was within its 2003 borders. George W. Bush, and to a lesser extent Barack Obama, wished for a unified Iraq as a symbol, the conclusion of the invasion narrative of eliminating Saddam Hussein and establishing a new semi-secular ally in the heart of the Middle East. A unified Iraq that enveloped the Kurds was also sought by NATO ally Turkey, which feared an independent Kurdish state on its disputed eastern border. The Trump White House appears less anguished about Kurdish independence; Trump is for the first time, for example, overtly arming pro-Kurdish independence militias, whom the Turks call terrorists, to take on Islamic State. Washington doesnt seem to have a plan for disarming the militias before they start fighting for control of disputed ancestral Kurdish lands held by Turkey. So the key question has become not if the Kurds will announce some sort of statehood, but whether the Kurds will go to war with Turkey to round out their territorial claims in the process. The United States, with the ties that previously bound Washington and Ankara weakened following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authoritarian crackdown, might just be ready to stand aside and allow Kurdish ambitions to play out. The Kurds are respected in American conservative circles important to Trump, and the Turks have fewer friends than ever there. Kurdish oil will be welcome to Washington, and the Kurds have always championed close security ties with the U.S. A strong U.S.-Kurd alliance will also help Trump keep Iran in check. Meanwhile, an Obama-era marriage of practicality which brought Shiite militias into the fight against Islamic State will not play out as well for Trump. Any reluctance on the part of the United States to act as a restraining force on the Iraqi central government's empowering of Shiite militias disappeared in 2014. As the Iraqi National Army collapsed in front of Islamic State, the crisis demanded battle-ready forces, and the militias were the only option available outside of Kurdish-controlled areas. The problem for America is that many of those Shiite militias owe significant allegiance to Iran, which helps arm them and supplements their efforts with special forces and leadership. Unlike the post-invasion years of about 2006 forward, when the United States and Iran fought a shadow war for control inside Iraq, America has had to accept that it needs the militias to defeat Islamic State. Time will tell what Iran will do with its influence in Iraq. But there is certainly nothing for the White House to celebrate in seeing Iranian boots on the same ground where Americans died to hold territory. Or with having to deal with a Baghdad government beholden to Tehran and its Shiite militias. In the Sunni parts of Iraq, there is no real win for the Trump administration. The fight against Islamic State is destroying Mosul, and has already devastated Sunni cities like Ramadi and Fallujah. Neither Washington nor Baghdad has any realistic plans to rebuild. Yet despite a tangential win alongside the Kurds, and with clear losses vis-vis the Shiite and Sunnis, there is perhaps a real silver lining in Iraq for Trump. Permanent American military bases. Post-Islamic State, Iraq will be a Shiite nation with close ties to Iran. The price Iraq and Iran will be forced to pay for Americas reluctant pragmatism over this will likely be small but permanent American military bases inside Iraq, mostly out of sight in the far west. (You won't laugh if you remember that the U.S. maintained its base at Guantanamo even after it severed ties with Soviet-dominated Cuba.) Trump is unlikely to give up bases in a rush to declare victory in Iraq, as did his predecessors, and has several thousand American troops already in place to back up his plans. America seeks bases as a symbol of some sort of victory, a way to block any politically-ugly Shiite reprisals against the Sunnis, and as a bulwark against whatever happens in Syria. In addition, Israel is likely to near-demand the United States garrison western Iraq as a buffer against expanding Iranian power. Sealing the deal is that Iran will have little to gain from a fight over some desert estate that it would probably lose anyway, when their prize is the rest of Iraq. Those bases even might, at America's expense, keep any Sunni successors to Islamic State from moving into Iraq - as happened after al Qaeda outstayed its welcome. While the fight against Islamic State in Iraq isnt over, an ending of sorts is clear enough to allow for some reasonable predictions. But whatever happens will leave an unanswered, and sadly, perhaps unasked, question: was the outcome worth to Americans the cost of some 4,500 dead, and the trillions of taxpayer dollars spent, over the last 14 years? (Reporting by Peter Van Buren) WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday there was no military component to steps taken by Arab powers against Qatar, whom they accuse of supporting terrorism. "There is absolutely no military component to anything that we are doing," Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba told reporters in Washington. "I have spoken and seen (U.S. Defense Secretary) General (Jim) Mattis four times in the last week, weve given them our complete assurance that the steps we have taken will not affect in anyway Al Udeid base or any operations supporting or regarding the base," Otaiba said. Doha denies these charges. (Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James Dalgleish) WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - The World Bank on Tuesday approved financing worth more than $500 million for Afghanistan to support a string of projects to boost the economy, help improve service delivery in five cities and support Afghan refugees sent back from Pakistan. The bank said the six grants, including donor money, worth some $520 million would help the Afghan government "at a time of uncertainty when risks to the economy are significant." The international troop withdrawal, which began in 2011, and political uncertainties have impacted Afghanistan's economy, while a worsening security situation has added to budget pressures, the World Bank said. "The package will help Afghanistan with refugees, expand private-sector opportunities for the poor, boost the development of five cities, expand electrification, improve food security and build rural roads," the World Bank said in a statement. In May, a World Bank report said economic growth in the country was likely to pick up this year but not enough to provide jobs needed by its growing population. The largest chunk of the package, some $205.4 million, will go toward supporting communities affected by refugees returning from Pakistan, the World Bank said. Some 800,000 Afghans have been sent back from Pakistan and Iran, many of them left to rely on subsistence income in rural areas or low-paid work in towns. In addition, $100 million will support reforms and business development for the poor; $20 million will go to improving services in five provincial capital cities; $29.4 million will help establish wheat reserves and improve grain storage; and $60 million will boost electricity in the western Herat province. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by G Crosse and Andrew Hay) By Drazen Jorgic ISLAMABAD, June 14 (Reuters) - Last year, Pakistan held informal talks with General Electric, Siemens and Switzerland's ABB to build the country's first high-voltage transmission line. Chinese power giant State Grid committed to building the $1.7 billion project in half the time of its European counterparts - and clinched the deal. This is a familiar tale in Pakistan and many other countries. As China makes its "Belt and Road" initiative - a massive project to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime routes - a policy priority for the next decade, Chinese companies are taking the lion's share of infrastructure projects across the region. Just last year, Chinese firms won project contracts in Belt and Road countries worth $126 billion, state media reported. In Pakistan, whose geographical position makes it central to Beijing's "Silk Road" plans, contracts have been awarded for projects worth more than $28 billion - all by Chinese companies working together with local firms. More than $20 billion in new investment is likely in the next few years, Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters this week. Last month, Pakistan's government took out full-page newspaper advertisements on the first China-Pakistan project completed under the plan, a 1,300 mw coal plant that it said was constructed in 22 months, a record time for such a facility. The plant is owned by China's state-owned Huaneng Shandong and the Shandong Ruyi Science & Technology Group. China Inc's main advantage, officials in both countries said, is the ability of Chinese banks - with the blessing of the government - to fast-track loans for projects related to the Silk Road. That makes a huge difference to projects like Pakistan's power transmission line, which aims to end regular energy cuts that leave the country's 190 million population without electricity for several hours every day. "(Chinese companies have) that advantage because of the support of the Chinese government," said Mohammad Younus Dagha, a senior government official who was in charge at the Water and Power Ministry until earlier this year. Dagha, who spoke to Reuters shortly before being transferred to the Commerce Ministry, said Beijing was fast-tracking loan approvals and pushing its banks and insurance firms to speed up due diligence work. Chinese government officials declined comment on specific loan approvals. FAVOUR LENDING But two officials at two Chinese state-owned banks that direct government funding, China Development Bank (CDB) and Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM), told Reuters that they have been instructed by the government to favour lending to Chinese firms for Silk Road projects. The officials also said that the two banks prefer that companies working on infrastructure projects across the region import raw materials or purchase equipment from China. There is some criticism in Pakistan that the awarding of the contracts to Chinese companies - while speeding up projects - is also costing the country more money. In the transmission line project deal, for example, General Electric estimated it could make one key part of the line - the converter stations - for about 25 percent less than what State Grid was charging, according to a Pakistani government official and two power sources familiar with GE's projections. By awarding the contract to State Grid, Islamabad paid a higher price, they said. An official at Nepra, Pakistan's independent energy regulator, said State Grid was also given a tax break not on offer to other investors. Pakistani government officials declined to comment on tax issues regarding the deal. China Electric Power Technologies Company Limited (CET), the State Grid subsidiary that will build the line, said the price it asked for was fair. "It's a very reasonable cost," said Fiaz Ahmad Chaudhry, managing director of Pakistan's National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) referring to the overall State Grid contract. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the process for Belt and Road projects in Pakistan was "open and transparent" and would bolster bilateral relations and regional prosperity. The edge of Chinese companies in Pakistan is likely to continue. Under the Silk Road plan, China and Pakistan are planning to build $57 billion worth of power plants, port facilities, railway lines and roads in Pakistan. During a meeting in Bejing last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the plan would be accelerated. POWER LINES The transmission line project was conceived as a government-to-government contract to build a 878-km (545-mile) connection between soon-to-built power plants near the coastal town of Matiari and Pakistan's industrial heartland by the eastern city of Lahore. According to Pakistani officials, no formal competitive bidding was sought for the project, which was finally awarded in December last year. But the officials said GE, Siemens and ABB were contacted when initial talks with State Grid stalled around mid-2016 over costs. Dagha told Reuters he briefly met officials from the three companies on the sidelines of a Paris power conference in August and informally talked about the transmission line contract with them. GE made an initial cost estimate of $800 million for the converter stations, against State Grid's initial bid of $1.26 billion, according to documents from Nepra and sources familiar with GE's cost estimate. Despite the lower cost, the problem for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government was speed. Sharif has staked his political credibility on ending Pakistans frequent power blackouts before the next general election are held by August 2018. So, Dagha said he asked the Western companies to also match State Grid's ambitious timeline and wrap up work in 27 months. "They said 'you must be joking...it's impossible'," Dagha recalled. Dagha said Western executives predicted it would take at least 48 months to build the line. "They said just to prepare the proposal...and for the banks to agree to that would require at least 8-9 months at the fastest pace." One Western energy company executive in Europe confirmed the meeting took place. Another executive in Europe who is familiar with the matter said "international companies did not have the opportunity to make a bid for the project". Both sources declined to be named. General Electric, Siemens and ABB declined to comment. A QUESTION OF TIME There was domestic pressure in Pakistan to speed up the deal, several government and regulatory officials said. An official at Nepra, which had to sign off on the contract, said the government put pressure on the regulator to accept State Grid's price demands, warning the deal could come apart as the Chinese were prepared to walk away. Pakistan's government did not respond to claims Nepra was put under pressure, although government officials have in the past voiced frustrations that the regulatory agency was slowing down projects. The Nepra official also said the Pakistani government had sweetened the deal for State Grid by removing a 7.5 percent withholding tax on tariffs the Chinese company would charge consumers the next 25 years. The tax break, the Nepra official said, was not on offer for other companies. Federal government officials and the NTDC did not respond to requests for comment on the removal of the withholding tax. State Grid was awarded the contract in December last year. It charged $1.7 billion, including a trimmed $1 billion for the converter stations, according to public documents seen by Reuters. Khawaja Asif, Pakistan's energy minister, defended charges that Pakistan was favouring the Chinese or overpaying for power infrastructure. "That conclusion is a bit misplaced, or exaggerated," said Asif. Ashfaq Mahmood, a former top bureaucrat in Pakistan's Water and Power Ministry, said the reality of Pakistan's need to improve its infrastructure made a certain reliance on its bigger neighbour inevitable. "This is an opportunity on which the Chinese have capitalised and we cannot blame them." (Additional reporting by Shu Zhang in Beijing, Kay Johnson in Islamabad, Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt and John Revill in Zurich; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) SOFIA, June 14 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. -- Bulgaria will work to help improve the relations between neighbouring Turkey and the European Union, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said after meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. (Standart, Sega, Monitor, Duma, 24 Chasa, Trud) -- Bulgaria will rely on Turkey to remain a transit country for natural gas once the Russian pipeline project Turkish Stream is completed, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said during a visit to Turkey. (Standart, Monitor, 24 Chasa, Trud) -- Lawmakers at the parliament's legal commission approved a draft law tendered by the ruling centre-right GERB party aimed at introducing a majority voting system in the country. GERB's junior coalition partners United Patriots oppose the draft law, which was supported by opposition ethnic Turkish MRF party. (Standart, Sega, Capital Daily, Sega) United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. COLLINS O. NYABWA, Plaintiff-Appellant v. UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee 2017-1565 Decided: June 13, 2017 Before DYK, TARANTO, and HUGHES, Circuit Judges. COLLINS O. NYABWA, Corpus Christi, TX, pro se. ALEXANDER ORLANDO CANIZARES, Commercial Litiga-tion Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for defendant-appellee. Also represented by CHAD A. READLER, ROBERT E. KIRSCHMAN, JR., DEBORAH A. BYNUM. Collins O. Nyabwa appeals an order of the United States Court of Federal Claims (Claims Court) dismiss-ing his case for lack of jurisdiction. We affirm. BACKGROUND As alleged in Nyabwa's complaint, in 2011, Nyabwa was convicted by a Texas state court of three counts of improper photography under section 21.15(b)(1) of the Texas Penal Code. After serving his state criminal sen-tence, Nyabwa was transferred to federal immigration authorities and detained pending proceedings to remove him from the country. Nyabwa's removal proceedings terminated in 2013, at which point he was released from federal custody. {J.A. 13} In 2014, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that section 21.15(b)(1) was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Ex parte Thompson, 442 S.W.3d 325, 351 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014). Relying on this decision, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas subsequently granted a petition for habeas corpus filed by Nyabwa and vacated his state criminal convictions. See Nyabwa v. Davis, 2016 WL 4490635, at *1 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 23, 2016). Nyabwa proceeded to file a complaint in the Claims Court seeking damages against the United States pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1495, which grants the Claims Court the power to render judgment upon any claim for damages by any person unjustly convicted of an offense against the United States and imprisoned. The government filed a motion to dismiss Nyabwa's complaint for lack of jurisdiction, which the Claims Court granted. Nyabwa appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1295(a)(3). We review dismissals for lack of jurisdiction in the Claims Court de novo. Banks v. United States, 741 F.3d 1268, 1275 (Fed. Cir. 2014). DISCUSSION Section 1495 authorizes the Claims Court to render judgment upon any claim for damages by any person unjustly convicted of an offense against the United States and imprisoned. (emphasis added). The statutory term offense against the United States refers to offenses defined by substantive federal criminal statutes. Thus, under section 1495, Nyabwa was required to identify a criminal conviction (and vacatur thereof) under federal law. Because his vacated criminal convictions were the result of Texas state law, they do not suffice. Nyabwa alleges that he was convicted of a federal offense under 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). Although Nyabwa alleges that he was convicted of violating this statute, J.A. 55, we are not obligated to accept Nyabwa's legal characterizations as true for the purpose of his pleadings. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). Section 1227 is a federal immigration statute that defines classes of deportable aliens. Relevant to Nyabwa's detention by federal officials, subsection (a)(2)(A)(ii) provides that an alien convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude is subject to removal, while 8 U.S.C. 1226(c) requires that the Attorney General take into custody any alien deportable by reason of having committed any offense covered in section 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). In other words, Nyabwa's state convictions made him subject to federal deportation proceedings, and such proceedings were initiated, and Nyabwa was detained under the statute. But it is well established that deportation proceedings are civilnot criminalin nature. See, e.g., INS v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 1038 (1984) (A deportation proceeding is a purely civil action to determine eligibility to remain in this country, not to punish an unlawful entry, though entering or remaining unlawfully in this country is itself a crime. (emphasis added)). Thus, immigration detention pursuant to sections 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii) and 1226(c) cannot constitute an offense against the United States under section 1495. However, we think the Claims Court erred in dismiss-ing Nyabwa's complaint for lack of jurisdiction. Instead, the dismissal of Nyabwa's complaint is better framed as one predicated on his failure to state a claim. See, e.g., Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 90 (1998); Fisher v. United States, 402 F.3d 1167, 1171 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc). AFFIRMED COSTS No costs. FOOTNOTES . See Viereck v. United States, 318 U.S 236, 241 (1943) (One may be subjected to punishment for crime in the federal courts only for the commission or omission of an act defined by statute, or by regulation having legisla-tive authority, and then only if punishment is authorized by Congress.); see also, e.g., United States v. Gibson, 881 F.2d 318, 321 (6th Cir. 1989) (It has long been established that the words offense against the United States' encompass all offenses against the laws of the United States (emphasis added)) (citing Thomas v. United States, 156 F. 897, 901 (8th Cir. 1907), and Radin v. United States, 189 F. 568, 571 (2d Cir. 1911)). PER CURIAM. BANGKOK, June 14 (Reuters) - Thailand will buy 34 armoured personnel carriers from China worth 2.3 billion baht ($68 million), the Southeast Asian nation's army chief said on Wednesday, the latest sign of closer military relations between the two nations. The purchase is the latest defence deal between Bangkok and Beijing amid warming ties since Thailand's military coup in 2014, when relations cooled with the United States, historically the country's major supplier of Western weapons. "Buying from the West is a little hard ... buying from China is better value for money," General Chalermchai Sitthisart told reporters, announcing that Thailand's cabinet had approved the purchase of the VN-1 carriers. The choice of China was not a consequence of closer relations between the two countries, however, but the most cost-effective option, he added. "The most important is the suitability for the needs of Thailand and the price," Chalermchai said, adding that Russia and Ukraine had also been in the running to supply the vehicles. In April, Thailand approved the first of three planned submarine purchases from China in a deal worth a total of more than $1 billion. The Thai navy defended the decision following a barrage of public criticism over questions such as the suitability of the submarines and the need to buy the costly craft. Thailand and China have also agreed to cooperate on building an 873-km (542-mile) railway project, as part of Beijing's regional infrastructure drive. Delays and talks over loan terms and land development rights have held up the project, however, prompting Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to say on Tuesday that he would make use of Article 44, a special security measure, to allow work to begin. ($1=33.8900 baht) (Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) By Neil Jerome Morales and Simon Lewis MARAWI CITY, Philippines, June 14 (Reuters) - U.S. troops are on the ground near Marawi City in the southern Philippines but are not involved in fighting Islamist militants who have held parts of the city for more than three weeks, a Philippines military spokesman said on Wednesday. The Philippines military has previously said the United States was providing technical assistance to end the occupation of parts of Marawi City by fighters allied to the Islamic State group but had no boots on the ground. "There are some U.S. personnel who are operating equipment to provide information on situation awareness to our troops," Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told a news conference. "I do not know the exact number and the specific mission. They are allowed to carry rifles for self-defence. But they are not allowed to fight, they only provide support," he said. It was not clear how close to the battle zone the U.S. troops were. They were from a contingent of Special Forces based in the southern city of Zamboanga, the Philippines military has said previously. The U.S. embassy in Manila did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement similar to previous ones, the Pentagon said U.S. special operations forces are assisting the Philippines military in Marawi. A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was providing a P-3 surveillance plane as well as intelligence gathering from a drone. That drone, however, crashed on Saturday after it lost communication links with its operator, the official said. On Wednesday, government forces attacked rebel positions in Marawi with bombs, tank fire and helicopter gunships, and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the battered city. Some sniper shots could be heard. Fighting died down in the afternoon when heavy rain fell. It was the 23rd day of fighting in Marawi, and there was no sign that it would end any time soon. "There will be no more deadlines," said Padilla, referring to a promise by the military to clear the city by June 12, the country's independence day. "It may take some time." In Washington, a security official who is familiar with the region said the battle in Marawi appeared to be locked in a stalemate. "At the very least, it is not at all clear that government forces are presently winning or even gaining significant ground," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Islamic State demonstrated significant determination and success in capturing and holding Mosul in Iraq and their effort in Marawi is of a similar notable quality." HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS The seizure of Marawi has alarmed Southeast Asian nations which fear Islamic State - which is on the back foot in Iraq and Syria - is trying to set up a stronghold on Mindanao island that could threaten their region. Another Philippines military spokesman said troops had gained a significant advantage by taking control of eight high-rise building in the battle zone where the militants had set up snipers and machine-gun posts. "This is very important," Colonel Edgard Arevalo told reporters. "We are in the final stage of our operation in Marawi. But we have to be very careful with our actions because there are still civilians in the area, they still have hostages and there are still people trapped in the firefight." The military said 290 people had been killed, including 206 militants, 58 soldiers and 26 civilians. About 100 militants are in the besieged area, the military has said. There are also an estimated 300 to 600 civilians trapped or being held hostage in the city. Islamic State's news agency, Amaq, said its fighters controlled two-thirds of the city. Responding to the report, Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, head of military command in Western Mindanao, told Reuters the militants controlled 20 percent of the town. "The truth is probably somewhere in between," said the U.S. security official. The Philippines has been fighting twin insurgencies from Maoist-led rebels and Muslim separatists in the south for nearly 50 years. Critics say military action is not enough to bring peace to a region that has long suffered from political neglect and poverty. (Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in MANILA, and Idrees Ali and Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish) By Miyoung Kim SINGAPORE, June 14 (Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's younger brother and sister said on Wednesday they have lost confidence in the nation's leader and fear "the use of the organs of the state against us." "We are concerned that the system has few checks and balances to prevent the abuse of government. We feel big brother omnipresent," Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang said in a joint news release and an accompanying six-page statement issued at 2 am Singapore time. As a result, Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, Lee Suet Fern, would be leaving Singapore. "I have no desire to leave. Hsien Loong is the only reason for my departure," he said. "We feel hugely uncomfortable and closely monitored in our own country," they said, in a rare public display of discord at the top of a city state that usually keeps such matters behind closed doors. In a statement, the prime minister denied the allegations made by his siblings, and said he was very disappointed that they have chosen to publicise private family matters. "I'm deeply saddened by the unfortunate allegations that they have made," he said. "While siblings may have differences, I believe that any such differences should stay in the family," added Lee, who is overseas on holiday with his family. At the heart of the family dispute is whether a house in which their father, Lee Kuan Yew, lived most of his life should be demolished. He was the first prime minister of Singapore and ruled the country for three decades. Before he died in 2015, the founding father of modern Singapore made it public that he wanted the house, a humbly furnished home with retro furniture near the bustling Orchard shopping district, demolished. But the prime minister's siblings claim that he and his wife, Ho Ching, had opposed the wish. MADE TO FEEL "UNWELCOME" Lee Hsien Yang told Reuters he still remained in Singapore as of Wednesday but said he was planning to leave "for the foreseeable future." He is a former CEO of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd and is currently the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. The siblings provided no specific evidence of action by the Singapore government against them. Reuters was unable to independently verify the accusations. "There are many ways that messages get sent to people to make them feel unwelcome and I have received many messages. Not from my brother because we communicate via lawyers," he said in an interview. "I would not do this if I did not feel threatened," he said, adding that he is not an impetuous anti-establishment figure out to attack the Singapore government or his brother. The siblings said they believed the prime minister and his wife "harbour political ambitions for their son, Li Hongyi." In his statement, Prime Minister Lee said he and his wife, who is chief executive of state investment firm Temasek Holdings , "especially" denied the allegation that they had political ambitions for their son, saying it was "absurd". Their son, Li Hongyi, who previously worked for Google as a product manager and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, currently works for a state technology agency. Prime Minister Lee said he would continue to uphold meritocracy as a fundamental value of Singaporean society. "Since my fathers passing in March 2015, as the eldest son I have tried my best to resolve the issues among us within the family, out of respect for our parents ... My siblings statement has hurt our fathers legacy. I will do my utmost to continue to do right by my parents." IT ALL STARTED WITH A HOUSE In an interview with the Straits Times in 2011, Lee Kuan Yew expressed his views about the future of the house. "I've seen other houses, Nehru's, Shakespeare's. They become a shambles after a while. People trudge through," he said. "Because of my house, the neighbouring houses cannot build high. Now demolish my house and change the planning rules, go up, the land value will go up." Prime Minister Lee said in December 2015 that he had recused himself from all government decisions involving the house and, in his personal capacity, would also like to see Lee Kuan Yew's wish honoured. But the siblings say that the prime minister had subsequently asserted at a special ministerial committee set up to consider options for the house that Lee Kuan Yew would have accepted "any decision by the government to preserve" the house. Lee's siblings accused the prime minister of wanting to "milk Lee Kuan Yew's legacy for their own political purposes" and claimed that the preservation of the house would enhance their brother's political capital. In a statement issued through the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet Secretary Tan Kee Yong said that Lee had recused himself from all government decisions concerning the house. However, it also said that the ministerial committee had sought his views in a personal capacity given he was Lee Kuan Yew's eldest son and was a beneficiary of the estate. Tan also said the committee had asked the younger siblings to answer questions about how Lee Kuan Yew's will was prepared, and in particularly the role that Lee Hsien Yang's wife, Lee Suet Fern, and lawyers in her law firm had played. MARKETS STABLE It is the second time in 15 months that the issue has exploded into public view. In April 2016, Lee Wei Ling accused the prime minister of abusing his power. This time the involvement of both siblings, and Lee Hsien Yang's decision to leave the city-state have taken it to a new level. The prime minister's office didn't respond to a series of questions about the dispute that were emailed by Reuters. Major Singaporean media reported prominently on the division in the family on Wednesday, mostly leading with the prime minister's response to the siblings' accusations. There was no apparent reaction on Singapore's financial markets, with stocks down 0.1 percent and the Singapore dollar little changed. The prime minister said he will consider the matter further when he returns to Singapore this weekend. (Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan, Fathin Ungku, Chyen Yee Lee and Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Martin Howell) SHANGHAI, June 14 (Reuters) - Numerous executives at big Chinese companies have been subject to investigation or prosecution in recent years, amid a broader crackdown on corruption led by President Xi Jinping that has ensnared tens of thousands of officials. On Tuesday, Anbang Insurance Group said its chairman Wu Xiaohui was no longer able to fulfil his duties, amid reports he had been taken away for investigation. Following is a list of some other high-profile Chinese executives reported to have been caught up in investigations or prosecuted in recent years. Xiao Jianhua - Tomorrow Group Billionaire Xiao was taken from a luxury Hong Kong hotel in a wheelchair on Jan. 27, a source told Reuters in February. Local media reported he was taken away by mainland Chinese agents. Chinese authorities have not commented. Tomorrow Group, a Beijing-based financial group, controls listed firms including Baotou Huazi Industry Co Ltd and Xishui Strong Year Co Ltd Inner Mongolia. Chang Xiaobing - China Telecom Chang was sentenced to six years in jail in May for bribery. He quit as China Telecom Corp's chairman and CEO in December 2015 after being detained by Beijing authorities for "severe disciplinary violations". Si Xianmin - China Southern Airlines The former chairman of China's largest airline by passenger numbers was sentenced in April to 10-1/2 years in jail for taking bribes in 2005-14, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He was put under investigation in November 2015 and resigned from his post in January 2016. Xu Xiang - Zexi Investment The general manager of Shanghai-based hedge fund Zexi Investment, who earned nicknames including "Hedge Fund Brother No.1", was sentenced in January to 5-1/2 years imprisonment for market manipulation. He was detained by police in November 2015. Cheng Boming - CITIC Securities The head of China's largest securities firm was arrested in April 2016 with other company executives suspected of involvement in criminal activity, Xinhua news agency reported. In 2015, CITIC Securities said he was under investigation for possible insider trading and leaking information. Yang Zezhu - Changjiang Securities The former chairman of Changjiang Securities died in January 2016 after falling from an apartment building. Xinhua said police in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province where the brokerage was based, found a suicide note left by Yang. His company had said he was being investigated by China's anti-corruption watchdog for discipline violations. Guo Guangchang - Fosun International Fosun International said in December 2015 that Guo was "assisting in certain investigations carried out by mainland judiciary authorities", after media reported the company lost contact with its founder and chairman. However, Guo travelled to the United States later that month, two executives told Reuters that month, easing investor concerns that Chinese authorities had restricted the billionaire's movements. He remains at the helm of Fosun. Yim Fung - Guotai Junan Securities After reporting him missing in November 2015, Guotai Junan Securities said in December that Yim Fung, its chairman and CEO, resumed his duties after helping authorities with an unspecified investigation. The nature of the investigation was unknown, but Yim's absence coincided with an anti-graft campaign in the financial sector following a market slump. Jiang Jiemin - China National Petroleum Corp The former head of China's top energy group was sentenced to 16 years for bribery and abuse of power in October 2015. A court said he took more than 14 million yuan ($2.21 million) in bribes in 2004-13. Jiang was CNPC's chairman in 2011-13 and went on trial in April 2015. He was a close associate of Zhou Yongkang, China's once-powerful domestic security chief and a former member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee - the most senior person to have been charged with corruption in Xi's anti-graft campaign. Liu Han - Hanlong Mining The former mining tycoon was executed in February 2015 for murder and running what state media called a "mafia-style" gang. Liu, who had suspected ties to the family of former security chief Zhou, was put under investigation in 2014. (Reporting by Brenda Goh, John Ruwitch and SHANGHAI Newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) HELSINKI, June 14 (Reuters) - The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) raised its threat level on Wednesday, saying it had become aware of more serious terrorism-related projects and plans in Finland. "The most significant terrorist threat in Finland is still posed by individual actors or small groups motivated by radical Islamist propaganda or terrorist organisations encouraging them", Supo said in a statement after raising the threat level to elevated from low. The Nordic country has not witnessed attacks like other European countries, but Helsinki has grown more concerned after recent attacks in neighboring Sweden and Russia. Supo said the elevated threat was posed particularly by foreign fighters who have left Finland to fight alongside Islamic state and who have gained significant positions within the organization. "Links to the terrorist organization are more direct and serious than before... So far, we have not had to prevent a concrete attack," Supo's Director Antti Pelttari told reporters in a press conference. According to the previous assessment, issued in November 2015, the threat of attacks by terrorist organizations was low. (Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Hugh Lawson) By Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta HAVANA, June 14 (Reuters) - Edi Coba says he is not sure his new rooftop bar in the heart of Old Havana that buzzes at night with hip, tattooed young Americans will survive if U.S. President Donald Trump tightens restrictions on travel to Communist-run Cuba. The bar, which serves cocktails with a view over the capital while DJs spin electronic sets, was created in part to cater to a tourist boom in the wake of the U.S.-Cuban detente. Now, some two thirds of its clientele are Americans. "My friends and I have invested a lot in the possibility of the American public coming, so yes I'm worried," said Coba, 27, echoing the view of many Cubans working in the relatively lucrative tourism sector. "This bar is quite progressive. It has a modern style and we generally have a lot of Americans." Trump is expected to announce a new Cuba policy on Friday likely to tighten some rules on travel and trade, rolling back parts of former President Barack Obama's opening toward the island, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. Cuban state news outlets have barely covered such reports but they have trickled through via illegal satellite television and conversations with relatives abroad. Earlier on Tuesday, state-run Radio Reloj declared: "Here, we are all serene." "From Eisenhower to Trump, there has never been a North American government looking at Havana with friendship," the broadcaster said. "For this reason, neither announcements nor new measures will rob us our sleep." Many Cubans who have not felt much impact from the detente on their daily lives agree, and feel resigned. After all, the damaging U.S. trade embargo remains in place and they are struggling to get by as the economy wrestles with falling exports and a decline in oil shipments from key ally Venezuela. But for those in the tourism industry, that has benefited tangibly from a threefold increase in U.S. visitors in the past two years, it is a different story. Americans now make up some 7 percent of total visits - 15 percent including Cuban Americans - and a much larger proportion in Havana given many of Cuba's tourists are Canadians on package trips who head directly to the beach resorts. "Some 85 percent of our clients are Americans and they are the ones who consume most and pay the best," said Yuri Barroso, doing promotion for a restaurant on Plaza Vieja, a square surrounded by elegantly restored colonial buildings. Barroso said that if the number of U.S. tourists were to fall again, it would cause "pain for many Cubans" who like him worked in the tourism sector and support their family. The United States still officially prohibits its citizens from visiting Cuba as tourists. However, travel between the two countries is easier now than it has been in more than half a century thanks to a "general license", which allows travelers to claim they are visiting family or engaging in business, cultural, religious or educational activities. Many Cubans, like Coba, had been banking on the number of American arrivals continuing to grow. A recent report by the Boston Consulting Group said U.S. visitors to Cuba could rise by as much as sevenfold by 2025. But that now looks unlikely. One proposal under consideration by the Trump administration, according to the U.S. sources, would tighten enforcement to make sure Americans legally fit the categories they claim to be traveling under, which could spook many visitors, wary of receiving a hefty fine. Critics of Obamas approach contend that many U.S. visitors have taken advantage of eased regulations and looser scrutiny to visit the island for pleasure trips. Another harsher measure - but one considered less likely to be implemented - would be reverting to regulations requiring U.S. travelers to seek a special license to travel to Cuba. Most Americans would therefore likely choose to visit Cuba only as part of a group that organizes the paperwork. Analysts say this would make travel there more expensive and less spontaneous. American visits would likely drop, hurting both U.S. airlines and accommodation services operating there, as well as the Cuban tourism industry. Yaquelin Betancourt, 43, who has been renting out rooms on Airbnb since it entered the Cuban market in 2015, said any decrease would be a severe blow. "I depend on rent to survive," she said. "If I had Trump in front of me now, I'd say: leave us in peace. This is a people who does not want conflict with the United States." (Additional Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) CAIRO, June 14 (Reuters) - Egypt's parliament will hold a final vote on a plan to hand over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia later on Wednesday after a key parliamentary committee approved it, the committee chainman has said. "We have unanimously approved the maritime demarcation accord with Saudi Arabia and it will be voted on in the general session today," said House of Representatives Committee on Defence and National Security Chairman Kamal Amer. (Reporting by Nashaat Hamdy; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing Giles Elgood) VIENNA, June 14 (Reuters) - Radical far-right crimes in Austria rose to a new high in 2016, continuing a sharp increase in the previous year, following the arrival of huge numbers of mostly Muslim migrants, a government report said on Wednesday. Authorities recorded 1,313 incidents related to far-right radicalism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, up almost 14 percent from 2015, which also saw a record-high, the Interior Ministry said. Around 40 percent of these acts take place on the internet, said Peter Gridling, director of Austria's domestic security agency. The rest include physical attacks on people and property, different types of incitement and threats or the sale and wearing of Nazi memorabilia. Austria received around 130,000 asylum requests in 2015 and 2016 after large numbers of migrants and refugees, many fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived in the traditionally Roman Catholic country of 8.7 million people. "There is still no end in sight for anti-asylum agitation and aggression motivated by far-right radicalism despite the falling numbers of asylum seekers," the report said. Gridling said greater sensitivity and awareness among citizens and the authorities about far-right radicalism played a part in more crimes being reported. "(Due to) these two factors, the blind spots in this area are being successfully reduced and the true extent of this phenomenon is becoming apparent," Gridling told reporters. "The number of criminal acts has also risen because far-right extremist noises and attitudes no longer emerge only on the margins but they also move into the middle of society." The migrant crisis has boosted support in Austria for the right-wing, anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO), which might enter government as part of a coalition with a centrist party after snap elections in October. But at the same time, many Austrians pride themselves on the near absence of violent attacks on centres for asylum seekers in their country, a contrast to cases seen in neighbouring Germany. (Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Tom Heneghan) BERLIN, June 14 (Reuters) - The German government denied a media report on Wednesday that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had suggested deleting mentions of the Paris climate pact from the final communique of a major summit to appease U.S. President Donald Trump. German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday said Trudeau made the suggestion in a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will host a G20 summit in Hamburg next month. "The Canadian Prime Minister himself has already denied this and rejected the assertion in this media report," German government spokesman Ulrike Demmer told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday. "I would like to add the following in the name of the chancellor: The prime minister did not ask her to delete all references to the climate agreement from the draft G20 document," she added. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Michelle Martin) NIAMEY, June 14 (Reuters) - Authorities in Niger said on Wednesday they have rescued over 100 migrants in the past week abandoned by traffickers in the Sahara desert as they tried to cross into neighbouring Libya. The impoverished West African country is a way station for migrants heading to Europe and some experts believe that more African migrants die in the Sahara than at sea. Soldiers rescued 25 migrants on Wednesday morning near a well in northern Niger, the local prefect, Fatoumi Goudou, said. It was not immediately clear what their nationalities were. Another 92 migrants, most of them Nigerian, were rescued on Friday by a team from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Niger Republic soldiers, Giuseppe Loprete, head of the IOM mission in Niger, told Reuters. One of those migrants died shortly after arriving at an IOM facility in the northeastern town of Dirkou, Loprete said. The rest will soon be transferred to Agadez in central Niger before eventually being repatriated to their countries of origin. European countries have promised Niger tens of millions of dollars to combat people smuggling and the IOM said in April that the number of migrants crossing Niger to reach Libya has declined since last year, largely due to a government crackdown. Even so, many continue to take the risk. More than 40 migrants died of thirst in northern Niger this month after their truck broke down. (Reporting by Boureima Balima; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Hugh Lawson) BEIRUT, June 14 (Reuters) - Lebanon is likely to hold long-delayed elections in May 2018, ministers said on Wednesday, after the cabinet approved a new electoral law for legislative elections that has spared the country a major political crisis. The law, agreed by the country's fractious parties this week, will create a proportional representation system for parliament and change the number of districts from which lawmakers are elected, among other things. It will also extend parliament's term by almost a year until next May, avoiding a legislative vacuum when the chamber's current term ends on June 20. "Today, cabinet approved the law ... with an extension of parliament's term by 11 months for technical reasons" to prepare for the polls under the new law, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said. The law must now be approved by parliament. Sectarian divisions have long plagued politics in Lebanon, exacerbated by the war in neighbouring Syria and complicated by regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, who back different groups in the country. Those divisions have kept Lebanon from holding any legislative elections since 2009. Consequently, lawmakers have already extended their own mandate twice. Parliamentary terms are supposed to be four years. Protesters took to the streets of Beirut after the two previous extensions, which critics, including the European Union, condemned as unconstitutional. Recent disputes over the election law, at the heart of the nation's sectarian political system, had pushed Lebanon to the brink of a new crisis, threatening to leave it without a parliament for the first time. Polls now are likely to take place on May 6, 2018 and parliament could extend its term until May 20, Information Minister Melhem Riachy told journalists on Wednesday. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington, Issam Abdallah and Ellen Francis, editing by Larry King) WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday dismissed chances of a return to the major U.S. troop deployments to Afghanistan that characterized the early years of the Obama administration, a day after the White House gave him power to set troop levels. Asked whether he expected to hike U.S. troop levels, now at about 8,400 in Afghanistan, to anywhere near America's 2011 peak of more than 100,000 troops, Mattis said: "No, sir, I do not." (Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali) COTONOU, June 14 (Reuters) - Several people were killed when a train operated by a subsidiary of French industrial group Bollore in Benin collided with a speeding bus, authorities said on Wednesday. The Benirail train was travelling on the railway that runs from the capital Cotonou to the northern city of Parakou when it collided with the bus, which was exceeding the speed limit, early on Tuesday morning, Ramani Kassoumou, a senior official at the National Centre for Railway Security (CNSR), told Reuters. Interior Minister Sacca Lafia said the accident caused "several deaths" but did not offer specifics. Hospital sources in the city of Save near where the accident occurred said at least four people had died and another 30 were injured. Bollore is the operator and largest stakeholder in Benirail, with the remaining stake held by the Benin and Niger governments and other private investors. A Bollore spokesman in Benin could not be immediately reached for comment. At least 79 people were killed in a crash in Cameroon last October on a train operated by Camrail, also a Bollore unit. Bollore declined to comment on the report at the time. (Reporting By Allegresse Sasse; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks/Mark Heinrich) LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) - Iranian forces killed three members of a Sunni Muslim jihadi group in the city of Chabahar in southeast Iran on Wednesday and arrested five others, the Mehr news agency said. It said one member of the security forces had also been killed. Mehr said the suspects were believed to be members of Ansar al-Furqan, a Sunni jihadi group based in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The group has threatened to carry out suicide attacks in revenge for the government executing Sunni prisoners. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Kevin Liffey) DUBAI, June 14 (Reuters) - Bahraini authorities detained a citizen for questioning on charges of sympathising with Qatar on social media, state news agency BNA reported on Wednesday. It was the first time Bahrain had detained a citizen for violating a ban on support for Qatar that Bahrain imposed after it joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in severing ties with Doha. Violators face up to five years in jail and an unspecified fine. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have imposed similar bans. Abu Dhabi said violations are punishable by up to 15 years in jail and a fine of at least 500,000 UAE dirham ($136,000), local media reported. BNA quoted the attorney general as saying that the interior ministry's electronic crimes department had filed a complaint about a suspect it did not name, accusing him of social media postings deemed as violating the kingdom's decisions. "The prosecution launched an investigation in this complaint, questioned the suspect and ordered him detained protectively pending questioning," BNA said, quoted the prosecutor. Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, survived a 2011 uprising led by majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding reforms and a bigger share in running the small Sunni-led kingdom. The island state has recently stepped up a campaign against dissent, closing down two major political groupings, revoking the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the Shi'ite community and putting some rights activist on trial. ($1 = 3.6724 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Sami Aboudi, editing by Larry King) MEXICO CITY, June 14 (Reuters) - A major fire broke out at Mexican state oil producer Pemex's Salina Cruz refinery on Wednesday after a crude spill, injuring nine people and extending the shutdown of the plant into a second day, the company said. The blaze began in the pump house of Salina Cruz, Mexico's largest refinery, on Wednesday morning, and the company was working to put it out, a Pemex spokeswoman said. A Pemex spokesman said the fire had not yet reached the refinery's nearby massive storage tanks, adding that efforts were under way to prevent that from happening. Eight of the injured have been released from the hospital, the company said on its Twitter page. Images sent by local emergency workers showed a tall, thick plume of black smoke spewing from towering flames at the refinery on the Pacific Coast in the southern state of Oaxaca. An official at the Oaxaca state emergency services said some of the local neighborhoods near the refinery had been evacuated. The fire occurred a day after heavy rains prompted the refinery to suspend operations and evacuate personnel. Tropical Storm Calvin provoked flooding that busted though dams meant to contain a form of heavy oil, causing a spill that later ignited, the company statement said. It added the blaze had been contained. However, it was unclear when operations might resume. The refinery has a capacity of 330,000 barrels per day. For over a year Pemex has been searching for investment partners to boost the aging facility's productivity, but with no takers to date. (Reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez, Ana Isabel Martinez, Anahi Rama and David Alire Garcia; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and W Simon) BUDAPEST, June 14 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday said it was "troubled" by the Hungarian parliament's passage of legislation that it said unfairly burdened a targeted group of Hungarian civil society organisations. Hungary's ruling Fidesz party on Tuesday passed a bill that tightened regulations on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations, requiring them to register with authorities and publicly declare their foreign-funded status. "Many of (the NGOs) focus on fighting corruption and protecting human rights and civil liberties," the U.S. embassy in Budapest said in a statement. "This new law, particularly in the context of government rhetoric portraying civil society organizations receiving foreign funding as acting against the interests of society... will have a chilling effect on the ability of Hungarians to organise themselves and address their concerns to the government in a democratic manner." The new law comes amid a general crackdown on dissent and heightened verbal attacks by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban on NGOs, especially those funded by billionaire financier George Soros, an American with Hungarian roots. Orban, who has locked horns with Western partners over several issues including the freedom of education, the press and the courts said the NGOs served foreign interests. Orban faces elections in 2018. Several NGOs declared a boycott of the law and said they would take the matter to international courts. The Hungarian government has said the main issue was the NGOs' work around the recent massive wave of immigration into Europe, something Orban said these organisations encouraged. Migration was, however, far from the only focus of these organisations, which have helped expose corruption and represented journalists amid Orban's increasingly oppressive handling of the media. "If signed into law, this legislation will constitute a step backward from the principles of freedom of association and expression embodied in NATO, the EU, and (the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe), and from our shared commitments to supporting civil society," the embassy statement said. European liberals and Hungarian opposition politicians have also criticised the law as undermining freedoms Hungary has secured since the fall of Communism in 1989. Green-Liberal European Parliament member Benedek Javor called on President Janos Ader not to sign the bill into law. "The president must know, as he has lived in a liberal democracy before, how many ways this bill hits democratic norms, and what a slap in the face it is not only for the NGOs but the citizens that they represent," Javor said. (Reporting by Marton Dunai) By Radu-Sorin Marinas and Luiza Ilie BUCHAREST, June 14 (Reuters) - Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu refused to resign after his ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) withdrew its support for his cabinet late on Wednesday, contributing to the political infighting in the European Union's fastest growing economy. The PSD completed a performance review of Grindeanu's six-month old cabinet on Wednesday evening and found it had failed to uphold an ambitious governing programme that had won the party a sweeping election victory in December and a comfortable parliament majority. PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who holds tight control over his party, said all cabinet ministers have filed their resignations and that his party was ready to nominate another premier and government together with junior coalition partner ALDE. "I think it is important that this country benefit from this governing programme that Romanians massively voted for," he told reporters. But Prime Minister Grindeanu said the review was a surprise and showed his cabinet had failed to enforce measures which had deadlines of 2018 or later, as well as some that could not be implemented, such as bolstering economic relations with Russia, which would be difficult given sanctions imposed by the EU. "I have tried to understand why ... there is such fury in getting rid of your own government after not even six months," Grindeanu told reporters. "I don't see another answer other than ... one man's desire of holding all the power." He said he would only resign after centre-right President Klaus Iohannis held consultations with parliamentary parties and indicated he would appoint a replacement from the PSD. "I want PSD to stay in government," Grindeanu said. "I don't want to risk it. At this moment all options are open." With Grindeanu's refusal to resign, the ruling coalition must file a no-confidence vote in parliament to topple the prime minister and consequently nominate a replacement. Under Romanian law, the president must endorse a premier after consultations with political parties. The appointee then needs to secure a vote of confidence from parliament, where PSD and ALDE control a comfortable majority. Either way, there would be more delays in policymaking in the EU's second-poorest state, which has massive healthcare and transport infrastructure needs. Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University, said there would be "no gain here for the Social Democrats - the party will see a huge loss of image, or what was left of it. "The PSD's great advantage was unity and its capacity to mobilise, vertical decisions and discipline. These myths are gone now. To the extent that Grindeanu will resign, he will throw the ball into President Iohannis's court, who could appoint a technocrat," Miscoiu said. Romania was the EU's fastest-growing economy in the first quarter, expanding by 5.7 percent, and its budget ran a small surplus at the end of April. The legacy of Grindeanu's government also includes a failed attempt at the start of the year to decriminalise several corruption offences, a move foiled by the largest street protests in Romania since the 1989 fall of its communist regime. (Radu Marinas) BUCHAREST, June 14 (Reuters) - Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on Wednesday he would not resign right away after his ruling Social Democrats (PSD) withdrew their political support for his cabinet, potentially opening way for prolonged political instability. The PSD wound up a week-long performance review of Grindeanu's six-month old cabinet on Wednesday evening and found it had failed to uphold an ambitious governing programme that has won the party an election victory in December and a comfortable parliament majority. Grindeanu said he will stay in the post until centre-right President Klaus Iohannis held consultations with political parties and announced a replacement premier from the PSD. The ruling coalition can launch a vote of no-confidence procedure in parliament to remove him from office. (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by Radu Marinas) By Michael Hirtzer CHICAGO, June 14 (Reuters) - U.S. grain and soy futures were mostly lower on Wednesday, with MGEX spring wheat declining from an earlier 2-1/2-year high on pressure from technical selling and forecasts for crop-friendly rainfall, traders and analysts said. Chicago Board of Trade corn futures declined the most as scattered rains fell in the Midwestern crop belt and meteorologists predicted more precipitation during the next week. Showers also were moving through spring wheat growing areas in the northern U.S. Plains and the Canadian prairies, benefiting fields where drought conditions had been expanding. "The rains helped prevent a disaster," Risk Management Group broker Dan Maltby said of spring wheat futures. "This bought us some time, that's for sure." MGEX July spring wheat futures settled 1/2 cent lower at $6.27-1/2 per bushel. That was down from their session peak of $6.45-3/4, the highest on a continuous chart since Dec. 24, 2014. Maltby said the reversal could portend further declines, at least in the short term. "Going out on a limb here, but this reversal looks key to me," he said. CBOT July soft red winter wheat, the global benchmark, finished down 2 cents at $4.43 per bushel and K.C. hard red winter wheat up 1/2 cent at $4.57-1/2. Corn futures for July delivery dropped 1.1 percent, or 4 cents, to $3.77 per bushel, while CBOT July soybeans edged 3/4 cent lower to $9.31-3/4. RECORD-HIGH VOLUME IN MINNEAPOLIS WHEAT Volume in MGEX wheat futures hit a record high of 33,453 traded contracts on Tuesday, topping the previous record from January of 27,095 contracts, the exchange said in a release. Trading volume in wheat, corn and soy was lighter on Wednesday as investors looked for fresh news. That could come in the form of weekly U.S. grain export sales data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture early on Thursday. Investment funds sold about 14,000 corn futures contracts on Wednesday as well as 6,000 wheat contracts and 3,000 soybean contracts, traders said. "Wheat is out of steam for the moment - out of competitiveness for export and living on spring wheat strength to keep going," one U.S. grains trader said. (Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by James Dalgleish and Steve Orlofsky) By Hamid Ould Ahmed ALGIERS, June 14 (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Wednesday ordered his government to keep reducing imports and to rationalise spending to cope with a sharp fall in oil and gas earnings, but warned against turning to foreign debt. Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, appeared on state television briefly presiding over a cabinet meeting with the new government put in place last month after legislative elections. Energy earnings of North African OPEC member Algeria have collapsed with the sharp fall in global crude prices, and the country has started austerity reforms to offset falling revenues from energy sales, which account for 60 percent of its budget. Analysts say that how to balance reforms and maintain the social peace is still a key debate for the leadership in Algeria, where past unrest and a 1990s war with armed Islamists left many people wary of instability. In a statement from the presidency, Bouteflika urged the newly appointed government to enact budget cuts in a 2017 law but avoid foreign loans, suggesting instead "unconventional" internal funding. He also called for reforms in the country's banking system and improvement in the investment climate. Bouteflika called for more renewable energy and "unconventional fossil hydrocarbons," one of his first references to Algeria's shale energy potential. The government in the past said it would not focus on those reserves after protests over environment concerns in the Sahara. Algeria has struggled with a more than 50 percent fall in the revenue of its oil and gas exports, which account for 94 percent of total sales abroad and 60 percent of the state budget. The decline has forced the government to cut spending for this year by 14 percent after a 9 percent reduction in 2016. Authorities also increased prices of subsidised products including electricity, gasoline and diesel for the first time in years, while restricting imports, which will decline in 2017 by $15 billion from last year's $46 billion, according to Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Bouteflika said the government should be committed to Algeria's social welfare policy, but called for rationalisation and better targeting of spending that subsidises everything from food to medicine, housing and education. Tebboune, a former housing minister, took over as prime minister last month in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the appointment of new energy and finance ministers. Bouteflika, now 80 and in power for nearly two decades, was seen in public for the first time in months when he voted in the May election from his wheelchair. His absences have left questions over his health and political jockeying before any potential transition before his term ends in 2019. (Editing by Patrick Markey and Leslie Adler) Tilak Dissanayake and Hilmy Sally who describe themselves as design engineers and concerned citizens have proposed a concept which they call No politician democracy (NPD) (see No politician democracy in the Daily FT, June 14, 2017). It is a blueprint (in the making) of a new Sri Lanka which will be, in their words, unitary, secular and sustainable, and will have a thriving, inclusive economy affording opportunities for all its people regardless of gender, race, age, religion, caste or sexual orientation. Ask any politician or anyone else for that matter and very few if at all would object to residency in such a republic. Tilak and Hilmy have promised to detail the how to get there of all this shortly and I await eagerly what promises in the very least to be a good read. They have hinted that their plan could come into force if 151 Members of Parliament purchase it. Given the enormous benefits that politicians have reaped and continue to enjoy what one might think it is a hard sell, but this engineering duo believe that the benefits of change would outweigh the costs and the said MPs would be swung. That the country requires radical change is a no-brainer. That it is urgent is clear. And yet, for all the need and all the blueprints, the resilience of the institutional arrangement and the current political culture is certainly formidable. Lying politicians are certainly responsible for sabotaging the reform agenda that they themselves pledged to implement, but theirs is essentially a part role. There are structural factors that stand in the way. This obviously pleases the politicians who were never serious about reform for they could always blame it on the system (when they were not blaming everything on the Rajapaksas that is). It wont be easy to convince 151 MPs because easy money is a happier prospect that hard-earned money. The carrot called freedom from prosecution may look delicious but it will nevertheless be compared to the infinitely more delicious goodies that arrive from tenaciously defending a system that does not prosecute. The issue perhaps is about how deeply embedded the individual MP is in this corrupt system. We have to understand that some have invested heavily in all this and those who havent secured adequate returns will not feel the prosecution-free pull. Thats only part of the problem. When Dullas Alahapperuma decided not to contest the 2001 General Election he offered the following reason: We [I] are [am] too white; there are too many brown people and their brownness is most evidenced when there is a white contrast. He has a valid point that has outlived his political whiteness. The more serious issue is that we dont really have a white (or clean) citizenry. In that sense perhaps we do have a decent enough representative democracy and this is something we need to recognize. The mostly dishonest, incompetent politicians (and their parties) that we elect via easily manipulated polls have ruined the country over the past 69 years. And we the people have been complicit by electing them Our NPD advocates acknowledge this pervading brownness The mostly dishonest, incompetent politicians (and their parties) that we elect via easily manipulated polls have ruined the country over the past 69 years. And we the people have been complicit by electing them. If 151 MPs stand up for NPD it would not be a revolution, it would be a coup. Given that such a coup would immediately get us a different constitution it could revolutionize the system of governance and pave the way for transparent and efficient institutional arrangements and processes. I am sure that there are many people who would share the vision for Sri Lanka that Tilak and Hilmy have outlined. They probably have shared their thoughts with movers and shakers. Perhaps they have even won some of them over and who knows, even convinced some MPs. Perhaps they could do with some help from below. The history of social transformation demonstrates that given certain objective conditions what is required is not a citizens majority. We dont need, happily, two-thirds plus one of the people. A critical mass is what is required. An organized critical mass, one might add, or at least a number of people/groups who although they may not work together are in concert in the matter of action. The proposition is mouth-watering given what weve had for so many decades. A no politician democracy is a cry that rises from everything vile that politician, political party and politics denotes. We are, as Tilak and Hilmy imply, a serial monarchy. A republic without meaningful citizenship, a population that is not also a citizenry. The most radical idea at this political moment could very well be the notion of a no-politician citizenry, i.e. a movement of the people, by the people, for the people, with or without the state And yet, it is not that the people have not counted. They have stood up, they have challenged, and they have died. Those who say that independence was won without a drop of blood being shed are ignorant of all that has happened from 1815 to 1948 (and thats only if we count the British period). We have seen flashes of the kind of citizenship that Tilak and Hilmy probably envisage, but in non-political terms, especially in times of tragedy. It is of course not easy to mobilize the energy, capacity, tenacity and attitude demonstrated in such situation for what is essentially a political project, even though the objective is a no-politician democracy. This does not mean that it should not be attempted. The most radical idea at this political moment could very well be the notion of a no-politician citizenry, i.e. a movement of the people, by the people, for the people, with or without the state. Anarchy? It may look like that, but perhaps such a tendency would be the stick that would force those critical 151 individuals in Parliament to take the carrots offered by Tilak and Hilmy. Theyve set a ball of ideas rolling, these two. Its a big object and one that requires more than 4 hands to keep it going in the right direction. Theres a lot of space on that surface for many more hands. One thing is certain: established political parties and professional politicians are unlikely to lend their weight. Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. He could be contacted on Email malindasenevi@gmail.com Blog:malindawords.blogspot.com Twitter:malindasene The Cockerel party leader had imposed an unusual punishment on 15 party seniors who failed to attend a funeral! The deceased was a family member of a Diyawanna member of the party. The party leader first displayed the names of the 15 members with their mug shots on a board and later made an announcement that the promotions and a host of privileges enjoyed by them would be suspended for a specified period. Without stopping at that, he had issued a decree prohibiting all party members from attending a wedding or a funeral taking place at the residence of any of the 15 members. The Second Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Tourism Ministers Meeting and First UNESCO/UNWTO International Conference on Sustainable Tourism and Heritage Cities is currently taking place in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga is representing Sri Lanka at the conference, which has representation from 34 ACD member countries. Amaratunga held bilateral discussions relating to tourism development with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Hun Sen. Various ideas were exchanged in order to elevate the exchange of tourism between the two Asian countries, which have many similarities including histories dating back to 2500 years.The minister also took the opportunity to discuss areas of mutual interest with the tourism ministers representing ACD member countries. Asia has emerged as the driving force in the expansion of the global tourism market. It is now the second most visited region in the world next to Europe growing at an annual average of over 5 percent in recent years. The Cabinet of Ministers yesterday directed the law enforcement authorities and the Attorney General to take immediate action against instigators and perpetrators of violence and hate speech against religious and ethnic groups. Issuing a statement, the Cabinet of Ministers said the National Unity Government, headed by President Maithripala Sirisena reaffirm commitment, in accordance with the mandates received from the people at the Presidential elections in January and Parliamentary elections of August 2015, to ensure that the nation never again returns to a conflict-ridden past. The government reaffirms commitment to guide our nation towards reconciliation, sustainable peace, and economic progress. Communal, ethnic and religious hatred and violence, and impunity have no place in the society that we strive to build, it said. The statement by the Cabinet of Ministers The National Unity Government, headed by President Maithripala Sirisena reaffirm commitment, in accordance with the mandates received from the people at the Presidential elections in January and Parliamentary elections of August 2015, to ensure that our nation never again returns to a conflict-ridden past, and instead resolve to guide our nation towards reconciliation, sustainable peace, and economic progress. Communal, ethnic and religious hatred and violence, and impunity have no place in the society that we strive to build. In this context, we are deeply concerned by the recent incidents of violence targeting places of religious worship, shops and business enterprises, and houses. We denounce in the strongest terms, these acts of violence and hatred, including incidents of hate speech by certain individuals and groups aimed at inciting violence against the different ethnic and religious communities in our country. We are deeply saddened by the destruction of property and loss of livelihoods as a result of recent incidents, and the pain of mind and fear caused to individuals. We affirm that hate filled expressions and actions by individuals and groups with vested interests, resulting in demeaning, denigrating and inciting violence against fellow citizens of various ethnic, religious backgrounds has no place in Sri Lankan society. While reaffirming the Governments commitment to reconciliation, peace building, peaceful co-existence, and the rule of law, we direct the law enforcement authorities to immediately take all necessary steps in accordance with the law of the land, against instigators and perpetrators of violence and hate speech targeting any religious and ethnic groups in the country. The strictest action must be taken without delay, in accordance with the law, against all persons or groups who act to incite violence, and engage in acts of violence. The law must be applied to all regardless of social status, ethnic or religious background or political affiliations of perpetrators of such acts. We also direct the law enforcement authorities and the Hon. Attorney General to expedite action against those responsible for all atrocities committed, as impunity holds the dangerous possibility of our country receding into conflict. We express our deep appreciation to civil society and religious leaders who have stepped up to counter the attempts of a few to spread hate in our country, and who have called for calm and peaceful co-existence at this time. We take this opportunity to urge the active participation and leadership of all Sri Lankans in efforts aimed at reconciliation and fostering peaceful co-existence in our country, without which, the stability and economic growth and progress that our nation so richly deserves will continue to elude us. Gautama Buddhas Teachings emphasize the importance of co-existence, tolerance, respect and compassion. This nation is blessed by the teachings of the four great religious traditions in the world Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam which provide us the guidance required for peaceful co-existence, upholding human values, and honest and hard work required to rebuild our nation as one of the most progressive in the region. We urge all the citizens of this nation, young and old, to contribute their best to our country as patriotic citizens to build a nation that is stable, peaceful, and progressive; a society where the dignity of each individual is upheld; where diversity is respected; and where every individual has the opportunity to enjoy the freedoms that are the rights of equal citizenship. We must all stand united to strive to eliminate this dangerous affliction of hatred towards each other, and resolve that we will never allow ourselves in the present or in the future, to once again be dragged into conflict as in the past. By Zahara Zuhair Colombo City Centre (CCC), which is currently under construction, this week entered into an agreement with the local brand, Scope Cinema, to house Sri Lankas first-ever six-screen multiplex within CCC with an investment of Rs.350 million, which would acquire 16,000 square feet for the project. The cinema, which will open in December this year, will have 650 seats and will be screening about 30 shows every day. Expecting to transform the local cinematic experience, it will also introduce 4K projection technology and Dolby Atoms surround sound for the first time in Sri Lanka. This is Scope Cinemas second project, after Liberty Cinema, which went under renovation recently. Scope Cinema Chairman Naveed Cader said that they have two major projects in the pipelineone in Rajagiriya, which is to be announced soon and another one in Kandy. He said his companys intention is to give an out of the world experience to the Sri Lankan public. With the vision of becoming the most popular cinema chain in the country, he said they introduced zero intervals, enhanced 3D display and also an app for the Android platforms, which would give the latest updates of the movies and times. He said they have designed this cinema experience to touch every sense of the human being. Abans Group Director Rusi Pestonjee noted that they are glad to introduce a world-class cinema experience, with a combination of the state-of-the-art technologies and facilities, which was never seen before in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, CCC, the mixed-use development, developed by the Abans group in collaboration with Singapores SilverNeedle Hospitality, with an investment of US $ 160 million, will be handing over their apartments for the customers from October 2018. Pestonjee said that almost 70 percent is already leased out. CCC, which will be 183 metres in height, taller than the World Trade Centre (152 metres), opposite Beira Lake, is said to be the first international multi complex that is done in Sri Lanka to the international standards. It will have 192 curated residencies, an international retail mall, 400-seater food court, upscale business hotel, the six screen Cineplex, etc. Recently, Odel PLC and its subsidiary Softlogic Brands (Pvt.) Ltd announced their presence in the CCC mall, and Pestonjee said that they expect more international brands to acquire space in their project. The food court of the project, with local and international cuisines, will be built with an investment of US $ 2 million, it was noted. With the sudden collapse of part of Excellency Building at Wellawatte, the public and the authorities are anxious about the remaining possibly unstable buildings in the area. After the tragic incident, a number of constructions came under scrutiny of local authorities. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has announced that new rules had been imposed on urban construction. Municipal Commissioner V.K.A. Anura said that once every three months the construction reports would be inspected by the CMC and the reports would be passed through a specially appointed committee. The construction site is also to be supervised by the CMC officials. Unstable buildings are ordered to be demolished, and if the owner objected to demolition, the owner should to produce a report. If older buildings are demolished, the owner has to bear the cost, he said. Sometimes there are design failures in constructing a building. The creative part of a design is done by an architect and then it is passed on to the structural engineer. Ground, soils bearing capacity, the closeness to the neighbouring construction; live load (People, furniture etc.) and dead load (Materials), the proper calculation for load are estimated and processed by an engineer. Geologically active areas and unstable soil are also things better to avoid. Local authorities should not approve constructions in improper places He is responsible for the practicality of the structure. And the engineer and the architect have to work in collaboration. Sometimes, building owners over-load their buildings. In buildings, which are originally designed to bear the weight of 100 people, the owner adds 1,000 people. When asked about carrying on constructions close to water bodies he noted: There should be a reservation between the water body and the construction site, depending on the wideness of the water body. Geologically active areas and unstable soil are also things better to avoid. Local authorities should not approve constructions in improper places. And the constructor has to comply with the standard. Theres a loophole in the system When he was inquired about the collapsed building in Wellawatte, he avoided giving a comment as the Corporation Report is under the purview of the courts, saying that They hadnt followed the accepted standards and he mentioned that the Wellawatte case would get two to three months to be solved. The authorities have given us some general information on common construction mistakes in multi - storey buildings. Generally, there are some issues to be addressed when constructing multi - floored buildings. Local authority approval - building permit, which is now under the purview of the UDA. On the engineering side, it is mandatory to hire a professional architect and an engineer, who are capable of doing this type of buildings. The Institution of Engineers of Sri Lanka (IESL) has a categorised directory of professionals specialised in structural design in multi - storey buildings. The categories are 2-4 storey buildings, 4-8 storey buildings, 8 - 20 storey buildings and Above 20 storey building category. There are only a few of structural engineers, who are capable of doing above 20 storey structures. Additionally, there are Chartered Architects. Both of them take the responsibility of design. And the structural engineer has to certify the building is safe enough to occupy, he said. He also pointed out the importance of soil tests: It is always advisable to do a proper soil investigation test. Then the structural engineer will be able to get the correct parameters of the soil to do the foundation design. For multi - storey buildings, it is good to get a soil investigation test done by qualified geo-technical engineers, which is a must. But everything depends on payments. Sometimes, people get only the Architect for the building, leaving out the structural engineer. Even Chartered Civil Engineers are capable of designing four storey buildings. If the construction period is prolonged, people have to extend it once a year. In the the whole of Colombo, there are a number of constructions that are in breach of regulations. Unfortunately, this particular place was subjected to the collapse. Either the local authorities are not checking it or at the end of the construction the certificate of conformity, but the municipality doesnt know unless someone sends a petition that a certain building doesnt have a CoC (Certificate of Conformity). Engineers of the CMC come for inspection only if the owner had a CoC for the building. Even though the Municipality issues a permit and the CoC, theres a loophole in the system. There is no way to know what happens in-between. Regular visits or monitoring systems should be introduced by the local authorities to make sure the builders go with a plan. Some people extend the building after having the CoC inspected. Some people dont want to get a CoC. Therefore, educating people to have the CoC is a must. - Engineer D.T Rajasekaran General Manager of State Engineering Corporation and Structural Engineer Investigations underway M.R. Jeyachandran, the Director General of Buildings Department directed us to the Additional DG (Engineering Services) M.H.M Ismail regarding the report of the collapsed building. Ismail said that the debris of the collapsed building was still being cleared and therefore they were unable to inspect the foundation, and they were still carrying out the investigations. Overloadings building A reliable source from The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) said their judgment on the tragedy is overloading the building. According to their investigations, the columns of the building were strong and soil layers were normal to the GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) tests they carried out. It turns out there are more buildings in line to collapse if necessary safety precautions are not followed by the public, regarding new constructions as well as remaining buildings, which need to be renovated, an official said. Both the general public and the authorities should understand the importance of following regulations, the official said. For a construction, the permission from the CMC is necessary. There are some technical defects that are not demanded much from the CMC, like structure and strength. The collapsed building in Wellawatte was designed by a member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA) and this information was given to me by the President of the Institute of Architects. The original design was for a three storey building, and the structure was designed by an engineer and approved by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). But the proprietor built three or more floors above that. The owner of the building is responsible for violating the law and the CMC is responsible for not monitoring the development and occupation of the building. Nobody can occupy a building unless the CMC issues a Certificate of Conformity (CoC). Theres nothing wrong with the engineering or the design, it is the law-breaking citizen, who had not followed the procedure, who is responsible. For a construction within Councils limits, permission from the CMC is mandatory. There are technicalities that are not carefully scrutinised by the CMC-like structure and strength. Some people just design and pass it on to the mason, omitting the engineer because engineers increase the number of rebars (Reinforcing bars) in a building and calculate the strength of the building. Theres no system to certify the system step by step either. Construction of complicated and large buildings should have at least a contractor, designer, and structural engineer. The spectacular victory of Frances new President Emanuel Macrons Centrist Party in last Sundays first round of the general election and the humiliating set-back suffered by Britains Prime Minister Theresa May and the Conservative Party in the June 8 general elections there, have important lessons for Sri Lanka and the world. Extremist Right Wing populism, racist or religious, had raised its ugly head with the emergence of billionaire Donald Trump and his shocking victory in the the United States Presidential election on November 8 last year which was seen by Right Wing populist extremists as a turning point for their brand of politics which most analysts see as being dangerous as ISIS terrorism. Apparently encouraged by the unpredictable Mr. Trumps triumph, Ms. May who was once a Moderate, swung to Right Wing populism mainly on the Brexit issue and talks with the European Union. The Conservative Party had a comfortable majority in Parliament and there were about three more years for its term to end. But reportedly on the guidance of her closest advisers, Ms. May on April 18 took a gamble by calling a snap general election on June 8. She appeared to be confident that the Conservative Party would win more than the 330 seats it had in the 650-member House of Commons. But as the London Sun said in a gem of a headline, Ms. May was dismayed, but she is now gambling again as if the Conservative Party is something like a casino. Apparently desperate in her humiliation, she is refusing to step down as former Prime Minister David Cameron did when he also gambled and lost last years referendum on whether Britain should remain in or pull out of the EU. Ms. May is now trying to negotiate a deal with one of Northern Irelands extreme Right Wing ultra-conservative parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Irelands Prime Minister has warned Ms. May that the DNA deal might endanger the Good Friday peace accord which had ended three decades of bloody violence in Northern Ireland. In the US also the populist extremist Donald Trump is in deep trouble, the country is bitterly divided, and he may even face impeachment. After months of controversy, contradictions and chaos which has affected not only the US but the world also, Mr. Trump suffered his worst body blow last week. A month ago Mr. Trump had sacked James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Testifying before the US Senate Intelligence Committee, the fired FDI Chief said he believed President Trump was a pathological liar and fired him because he had refused to stop the investigation into alleged Russian Collusion with the Trump campaign in last years Presidential Election. Some analysts believe that if an impeachment motion is brought against Mr. Trump, the charges could relate to perjury or the obstruction of justice. In the Netherlands also the people have rejected Right Wing extremist populism and it is likely that German Chancellor Angela Merkel - now emerging as the western democratic worlds possible new leader - will win a fourth term in the German elections this year. Thankfully the trend appears to be going back towards the hallowed middle path preached by all religions including Buddhism. In Britain, many analysts are suggesting that former Chancellor George Osborne should take over the leadership of the Conservative Party. Mr. Osborne, an author and now the Editor of the London Evening Standard, is known to be a liberal conservative on political and social issues. In Sri Lanka also we have a middle path government, a National Unity Alliance between President Maithripala Sirisenas Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghes United National Party (UNP). One of the new governments main promises was a major crackdown on widespread corruption. So far we have not seen anything like a major crackdown, but the Sunday Times reported last week that the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) had decided to recruit about 200 experts in Finance, Banking and the Stock Market. They will assist the Police in what we hope will be a full-scale effort for Sri Lanka and the people to recover billions of dollars plundered from them by VIP political racketeers. With the aim of contributing to the middle-income transition and uplifting their standards of housing requirement, Sri Lankas pioneering infrastructure and multi sector general contractor International Construction Consortium (ICC) has introduced a modern concept of walk-up apartments. The project Mount Clifford Range proposed by ICC is in partnership with the National Housing and Development Authority (NHDA) under the vision of Minister of Housing and Development Sajith Premadasas Samata Sevana initiative. Located in a serene locality in Homagama once again proving ICCs vision towards environmentally friendly development, it includes 43 buildings comprising 16 apartment units each totaling to 688 individual units with each available to the public for Rs. 5 million. Each unit shares a space of 640sqft with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and living room with balcony. Additional facilities such as swimming pool, gymnasium, playground, multi-purpose jogging track and a mini market is included for the convenience of the residence to experience a unique lifestyle surrounded by a 24-hour secured environment. Mount Clifford Range is accessible to roads such as to the Homagama town from the north and Kahathuduwa and Horana from the south. It is just 4km to the Kottawa highway and less than 2km to the Homagama junction. The area features many upcoming developments such as Techno city, Institute of Technology University of Moratuwa, NSBM Green University, Faculty of Engineering to name a few, thus making Homagama a leading education and IT hub which aligns with the megapolis plan. This also assures the public a growth of land value and an ideal investment for a life time. The first phase of the project is scheduled to complete in the 2nd Quarter (Q2) of 2019 with the second phase in Q2 of 2020. The premier housing project development company Nivasie Developers which has decades of proven experience in property development with successful large scale housing development projects is the sales agent for Mount Clifford Range. Two hundred and fifty one units have already been reserved, proving the project to be a unique opportunity for those who are in the lookout for affordable housing. With a rich and diverse experience for over 35 years, ICC has proved to be the countrys pioneering construction company renowned for maintaining quality standards and timely delivery. We have not received any information of Sri Lankans being hurt in the fire at Grenfell Tower at West London so far, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said a short while ago. However, officials were in touch with the Sri Lankan Mission in London. Foreign media reported that a huge fire had engulfed a tower block in Latimer Road, West London, with eyewitnesses claiming residents were trapped in their homes. The Foreign Ministry said today the Sri Lanka High Commission in London was on alert despite reports that there were no Sri Lankans having been affected by the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in London early today. The Ministry said in a statement that Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake had instructed the Sri Lanka High Commission in London to remain alert and assist anyone who may be in need of help. The London Metropolitan Police has set up and emergency number to contact for those that may require help at 08000961233. The statement said the following officers at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London had been entrusted with the task of rendering assistance to any Sri Lankans who may need help in connection with this incident. Mr. Priyanka Fernando, Minister Counsellor Mobile: +4474 66779693 Mr. Vithurson Vincendrarajan, Third Secretary Mobile: +447538200462 Meanwhile, the Minister has expressed shock and grief at the tragic loss of life and injury as a result of the devastating incident. He expressed the deep condolences of the people of Sri Lanka, to the families and loved ones of those who passed away as a result of this tragedy and conveyed the hope that those who are injured would soon recover. A number of people were killed, at least 50 injured and many others missing on Wednesday as a fire ripped through a high-rise apartment building in west London where residents had long warned of the potential risk of a catastrophic blaze. A thick plume of smoke could be seen for miles around, while witnesses reported people jumping from open windows near the top of the 24-story building after being trapped by the advancing flames. Hundreds of other residents, many who had been asleep when the blaze broke out shortly before 1 a.m., were forced to flee down dark and smoky stairwells. The building, which is located in a poverty-stricken pocket of one of Londons wealthiest neighborhoods, was engulfed within minutes, said locals. It was like a horror movie, smoke was coming from everywhere, said building resident Adeeb, who hobbled down nine flights of stairs on crutches with his wife and three children. Adeeb, who declined to give his last name, said there had been no alarms, and that he only learned of the fire when his daughter woke him. She said I can see fire and I opened the door and could see smoke, added Adeeb, who is originally from Syria but has lived in Britain for 16 years. One of his daughters was hospitalized. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said a number of people had been confirmed dead. London ambulance services said they had taken 50 people to five area hospitals. At least 40 fire engines responded to the scene, with 200 firefighters involved in a futile effort to contain the blaze. Many rushed into the building wearing breathing tanks, searching floor by floor for survivors even amid concerns that the structure could collapse. Cotton said a structural engineer was monitoring the stability of the building, but that it was still safe for rescue screws to enter. She said firefighters had climbed as high as the 20th floor to rescue residents and carry them down the buildings stairwell, and that the searches continued. The fire, which was believed to have begun on one of the lower floors of the 120-unit, public-housing building, was still burning as of 10 a.m. in London, some nine hours after it began. This is an unprecedented incident, Cotton said. In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale. Speaking within sight of the burning high-rise originally white and gray, but most of which had turned a charred black Cotton said she would not speculate on the exact number of deaths because of the size and complexity of the building. As of early Wednesday morning, people were believed to still be trapped inside a high-rise that is home to about 500 people. Witnesses reported harrowing scenes as residents trapped in top floors leaned out windows, flashing their mobile phone lights and calling frantically for help. A woman held her baby out a window as fire and smoke surrounded her. At least one person was reported to have fallen from a top floor, in flames. Sajad Jamalvatan, a 22-year-old biomedical engineering student, had been seeing a movie at the nearby Westfield shopping center with his sister when his mom called to say their building was on fire. Minutes later, he was back in front of the high-rise, and watched a horror scene unfold. As soon as I arrived, someone pointed and said someone is jumping, someone is jumping. About 16th or 17th floor, we saw a body coming down. Seeing people die in front of you... he stared at the sidewalk as his voice trailed offf. He said the blaze had advanced quickly, and that the alarms did not appear to have been triggered. There are plenty of alarms in the building, but no alarm went off, he said. When I arrived, there were 10 flats on fire. After that, the whole building was on fire. It went like that, he said, snapping his fingers. The fire raised immediate questions about how a recently renovated high-rise apartment building in the center of one of the worlds wealthiest cities could so quickly become a 24-story inferno. Residents said they had heard the faint sound of smoke alarms from individual units, but that it was unclear whether the building had an integrated alarm system. Many said there were only minutes to flee before the building became an inferno. By mid-morning, an acrid smell permeated the area. About 100 people residents, worried family members and onlookers stood outside the nearby Rugby Portobello community center. Some were still in their pajamas, having fled in a panic hours earlier. Neighbors streamed into the center with food. One man pushed a baby stroller teetering with bottles of water, jugs of milk and cans of baked beans. The building, Grefnell Tower, is located in one of Londons poshest areas, home to celebrities, politicians and wealthy foreigners. Its just a short walk from Kensington Palace. But the area also includes pockets of poverty, especially in a cluster of high-rise buildings that mark an unofficial western entry point to central London. Authorities said they did not know the cause of the fire, and that it would be investigated. But residents of the building, which was constructed in 1974 and is used as public housing, had long warned of potential fire hazards even though it was completely renovated just last year. It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice! a residents organization, the Grenfell Action Group, wrote in a blog post last year. KCTMO, which stands for Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization, is the group that runs public housing on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the west London area where the fire broke out. On Wednesday morning, the Grenfell Action Groups web site was updated, with a post on the fire. All our warnings fell on deaf ears, and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time, the post read. Residents said they had been instructed by management before the blaze to stay in their apartments in the event of a fire, and to wait for emergency services to arrive. They said they had been told that their units were fire-proof for at least an hour. Nick Paget-Brown, who leads the borough council, told Sky News that he had toured the building last May after it was reopened following the renovation. He said hundreds of people were likely in the building at the time of the blaze. Im really not in any position to answer any questions about the structure, he said. Clearly theres a lot more work to do to actually evacuate the building and to establish how safe it is. This is a very, very, very severe fire. (Washington Post) By Chandeepa Wettasinghe Sri Lankas luxury apartment segment, which has been drawing negative sentiments from the state and private sectors alike, is not built on shaky fundamentals and there are avenues to mitigate the potential risks, according to the Fortune 500 company, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), which specializes in real estate. The kind of supply that has been announced and is being constructed is simply higher than what the average rate of absorption is, which is why the gap. The concern over the current situation probably means that the absorption could take slightly longer than what it is right now. We see no major concern, JLL Lanka (Private) Limited Transactions Head Sunil Subramanian said. Speaking at a JLL report launch in Colombo, he pointed out that the average absorption rate of luxury apartments has been growing consistently year-on-year and that he would not term the current situation of 3,740 units in the pipeline as oversupply. Subramanian said that while 714 luxury apartment units were sold in 2015 and 2016, JLL is not aware of how many remain unsold since it is difficult to get data out of the developers. According to JLL, Sri Lankas ranking in the JLL Global Real Estate Transparency Index is 69 out of 109 countries. However, JLL remains positive over the overall real estate development scene of Sri Lanka. The title of our report is Sri Lanka - Land of Real Estate Opportunities. We stand by that. We accept that there are challenges and trips along the way, but the outlook is positive for the potential in the market here, JLL Lanka (Private) Limited Managing Director Steven Mayes said. Subramanian expressed some worry over the rising land and construction costs and the rate of development of common infrastructure such as sewerage and waste disposal. He also noted that the immediate vicinity of the main business district is saturated with luxury apartments. Colombo 1, 2, 3 are not big (enough) to take more development. Theres a need for developments to happen in other places. Were seeing some activity but it has to happen more, he added. The Central Bank recently expressed caution over the formation of a possible property bubble. The statement drew strong criticism from an apartment developer, who said that if a bubble exists, it is in the luxury apartment segment. Ratings agency Fitch Ratings too hinted about concerns in the luxury apartment segment. Unfortunately, the debate over the existence of a possible bubble is dominated by parties closely linked to the real estate sector with differing agendas and the lack of transparency in the market precludes a clear assessment. However, most agree that a possible bubble bursting in the luxury segment will spill over into other sectors of the economy. Mayes noted that Sri Lankan banks have a relatively low exposure to the apartment industry. Ninety percent of the (apartment) buyers are not leveraged, he said. Subramanian added that apartment developers too are not highly leveraged and at most borrow around 20 percent of the project value, since they usually purchase land with equity, then go on to construct once around 40 percent of the apartments are pre-sold, which give them adequate liquidity. Although he said that the number of individuals in Sri Lanka who could afford luxury housing is low, he said he was not willing to comment on whether the funds being used as development equity or to purchase apartments were acquired legally or illegally. Mayes said that 95 percent of the luxury apartment buyers are Sri Lankans and 60 percent are local residents. He added that if a major gap in demand arises, apartments could be sold to foreignerssuch as Indians and Chinese who are becoming heavily involved in the Sri Lankan economyunder the funding scheme proposed in the 2017 budget. That is the catalyst to open the market to foreigners, he said. Mayes opined that Sri Lanka is on the precipice of a new golden era in foreign direct investment (FDIs despite the recent poor performance of FDI to Sri Lanka, by stating that all the steps have been taken by the country. He noted that mega projects such as the Megapolis project and Chinas One Belt One Road initiative will serve to absorb luxury apartment supply; a view shared by the construction industry. The newly appointed Health Ministry Secretary Udaya R. Seneviratne had been unable to assume duties due to the differences with Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said. Mr. Seneviratne, who is currently working as the Mahaweli Development & Environment Ministry Secretary was appointed as the Secretary to the Health Ministry by President Maithripala Sirisena a week ago. Responding to a question raised by the Daily Mirror journalist at a press briefing held in Colombo, GMOAs Assistant Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge said though President Sirisena appointed Mr. Seneviratne as Health Ministry Secretary, he had not assumed duties so far. We have information that Health Minister Senaratne opposes the appointment of Mr. Seneviratne. The new Secretary has a remarkable record in the places where he served. We suspect whether the Minister wanted to appoint someone close to him, he said. Responding to the matter Mr. Seneviratne said he could not say an exact date that he would assume duties on the new position, however there was no special reason behind the delay. Im not aware that the Health Minister Senaratne opposes my appointment. At the moment I cannot give an exact date that Im going to assume duties. Soon after my work done at the Mahaweli Ministry, I will assume duties, Mr. Seneviratne said. Minister Senaratne could not be reached for a comment. (Thilanka Kanakarathna) REUTERS, 13th JUNE, 2017- A package exploded at South Koreas Yonsei University in central Seoul on Tuesday, injuring a faculty member who opened it in his office, police and fire officials said. The faculty member, who was not identified, took a box that was in a shopping bag left at his office door and opened it in his office. The blast sent nails flying through the room, police said. The engineering faculty member was not seriously injured, but was being treated in hospital for burns to his wrist and neck. Police said in a statement that they were analyzing what the package, which they described as a crude device, and checking security cameras to determine who left it at the door. Panama has established diplomatic ties with China and broken with Taiwan in a major victory for Beijing, which continues to lure away the dwindling number of countries that have formal relations with the self-ruled island. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said in a televised address on Monday that Panama was upgrading its commercial ties with China and establishing full diplomatic links with the second most important customer of its key shipping canal. Im convinced that this is the correct path for our country, Varela said. Taiwans government said it was sorry and angry over Panamas decision, and said it would not compete with China in what it described as a diplomatic money game. Our government expresses serious objections and strong condemnation in response to China enticing Panama to cut ties with us, confining our international space and offending the people of Taiwan, David Lee, Taiwans minister of foreign affairs, told a briefing in Taipei. Taiwan would immediately end cooperation with and assistance for Panama, and evacuate embassy and technical personnel in order to safeguard our national sovereignty and dignity, Lee said. China is deeply suspicious of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who it thinks wants to push for the islands formal independence, although she says she wants to maintain peace with Beijing. China and Taiwan have tried to poach each others allies over the years, often dangling generous aid packages in front of developing nations, although Taipei struggles to compete with an increasingly powerful China. Panama is the second country to switch its recognition to Beijing since Tsai took office last year, following a similar move by Sao Tome and Principe in December, trimming to 20 the number of countries that formally recognize Taiwan. REUTERS, 13th JUNE, 2017 REUTERS, 13th JUNE, 2017- Moldovan intelligence believes five Russian diplomats expelled from Moldova last month were spies who were recruiting fighters for the Moscow-backed insurgency in neighbouring Ukraine, a government source and two diplomatic sources told Reuters. Moldova, a former Soviet state that has long been the focus of a struggle for influence between Russia and the West, expelled the diplomats on May 29. It did not explain the decision, with Prime Minister Pavel Filip saying only that his government had good reasons. According to the sources, who are familiar with the case, the five were ejected because of their alleged activities as undercover officers with the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU. They said Moldovan officials believed the Russians were recruiting fighters from Gagauzia, an autonomous southern region home to an ethnic Turkish population that is pro-Russian and opposes closer integration with the European Union. The Moldovan government source and Chisinau-based diplomatic sources all spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. They did not say how the Russians allegedly recruited the fighters, how many were recruited or the reason for their recruitment. Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), the national body for marketing held a community driven CSR project, blood and human organs donation campaign for the second occasion recently at the SLIM Business School in Colombo. The campaign was organized with the objective of inculcating qualities of empathy and social responsibility within SLIM students. Through this campaign SLIM encouraged its students and stake- holders to donate blood and sign up to donate human organs to the sick, less fortunate and needy people in the society. Thus, eyes and tissue donations were amalgamated with the blood donation programme. It was significant that SLIM students showed much eagerness to sign-up for the donation of eyes, tissues and limbs to the needy. In accordance to its vision, SLIM is poised to elevate the status of marketing in the country in a socially responsible manner. The business model of SLIM thus looks beyond mere financial management and measurements, and to be in harmony with factors which nurture this blue planet that our people inherit. In line with this objective, SLIM embarks on society driven CSR programmes from time to time adhering to the triple bottom line; society, economy and environment. SLIM and Colombo SLIM Students Association organized the blood donation campaign together with the National Blood Transfusion Service, Human Tissue Bank and Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society. The drive was carried out with the theme, Be a Hero, implying the opportunity for everyone to make a difference by saving lives. All stakeholders of SLIM, including students, resource personnel and the management extended their fullest support as one strong team to make the campaign successful with over 100 students participating in the campaign. SLIM CEO and Executive Director Sanath Senanayake said that all SLIM activities adhere to the core objective of adding value to the marketing sphere and elevating the status of marketing in the country. SLIM conducted this blood and organs donation campaign to shed light on social responsibility. True marketers always make emphasis on social responsibility. CSR projects such as these add value to the effort made by SLIM in elevating the status of marketing in Sri Lanka. We groom students to become fully fledged marketers who could marvel in the global context. Thus we inculcate qualities such as empathy and social responsibility in them, in addition to professional training, said Senanayake. He added, SLIM engages in other innovative CSR programs such as Marketing Roks which is the pioneering marketing programme in the country for the benefit of school children. My first real encounter with cinema was through a VHS tape that was bought when I turned 16. I had heard and read of T. E. Lawrence, I knew what he had done and I was entranced by his exploits, but I hadnt seen David Leans film. Lawrence of Arabia, then, was the first film I watched with any serious intent (not that I hadnt tried before). By the end of the second hour, it ceased being a work of art. It instead became a miracle: What a bold, mad act of genius it was, to make it, or even think that it could be made was how the late Roger Ebert reviewed it. Theres a sequence in Lawrence of Arabia I go to again and again. Gasim, a member of a contingent led by Colonel Lawrence to launch a surprise attack on a city, succumbs to fatigue and falls down from his camel one night. This is in the Nefud Desert, so rescuing him was out of the question. Lawrence, however, goes back, to the consternation of his de facto deputy and rival, Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif). With the expedition halted, one of the mans aides, a boy called Daud, awaits him on a camel in the heat and sun. What unfolded next convinced me that some things could only be depicted in the cinema. Daud looks on, Maurice Jarres music slowly picks up and a barely visible dot crops up in the distance. Daud trudges on nervously, sees that dot growing to a figure and sees that its (who else?) Lawrence. Jarres music rises to a crescendo, Daud starts shouting in joy and we see our hero with the man he went back to rescue. The camera cuts to a long shot of the man and the boy riding towards each other and converging. I watched this on TV: I am praying for the day Ill see it on the big screen (which is what its Super Panavision 70 setup was born for, come to think of it). But Im digressing here. I met Lester James Peries for the first time four years ago. He was 94 at the time. I dont remember the exact day and month. I do remember waiting for him in his verandah, though. I also remember a small figure, clad in a sarong and a shirt (signifying the synthesis of East and West in him, perhaps) beckoning me to the sitting room. We sat, he smiled, and conversation ensued. After a few preliminary introductions, we swerved off to the movies. Halfway through that conversation, he asked me the inevitable question: What kind of cinema do you like? David Lean, I blurted out at once, half-expecting him to assent to my choice. Lester smiled. We sat in silence, awkward because I badly needed a comment from him on the man whod taught him and his crew how to replicate rain in the final sequence of Rekava. Because no answer was forthcoming, I asked him as to what he thought of Lawrence of Arabia. His reply? Those were big budget epics, not my kind of cinema. Being an idealist whod grown up on T. E. Lawrence, I was rather flabbergasted. I therefore asked as to what his favourite film was. I cant pick on one, he smiled, But if I were forced to, Id take a risk with Citizen Kane. That was the first day. The weeks flew by, I went on with my life, and at the end of the month, I returned. For the next three years, I made it a point to visit him, to talk with him, to get from him those little anecdotes that made up the man. Predictable though his cinema was, I learnt soon enough that his perspectives on his field were (for the lack of a better way of putting it) quirky. Here then is the first of a series of sketches on him, his work, and his conception of the medium he worked in. Lester James Peries fascination with the American cinema has gone unnoticed by the critic. For the most. This omission can be attributed to several factors, not least of which is his relationship with the French cinema: more than any other country, lets not forget, it was the country of Cocteau, Renoir, and Bresson that pushed him to the movies. That painterly outlook reminiscent of the best of Renoirs films (like La Regle du jeu and Boudu Saved from Drowning) shows quite discernibly in Lesters work. The Italians helped. So did the British. But those were not his only influences. If the French are akin to painters (as with Cocteau and Renoir), the Americans are akin to technicians (as with Ford: Directing is not a mystery, its not an art). For the former, the creative process could best be birthed instinctively. For the latter, that process was secondary to the studio system. The director of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, was an enfant terrible in that respect: he was considered a prestige failure, the same unlovely sobriquet Lester earned in much of his career. Welles influence on Lester comes out most strikingly in one respect: his eye for witty, nimble cutting. The final argument between mother and son in Delovak Athara, the arguments among mother, father, and daughter in Ran Salu and the bedside feud between brother and sister in Nidhanaya: here the camera is a dextrous participant, revealing the characters insecurities in gushes and torrents. They sometimes touch on comedy (think of the farcical argument between the protagonists and his fiancees families over a tea-tray in Delovak Athara) and then suddenly culminate on a different, unresolved note. In this respect, Lester was closer to Welles than to Hollywood. When in 2012 Vertigo bested Citizen Kane in Sight & Sounds annual list of the 10 greatest movies of all time, I was stumped, not so much because Vertigo was inferior (it wasnt) but because it seemed to reflect my generations discontent with letting Welles first and greatest work remain at the top. About a year later, talking with Lester, I asked him as to what he thought. Heres what he said: Some films are specific to their time. They age. Others are not. They are timeless. For me, Hitchcocks films are for the most seasonal, framed as they are to the period they were made in. His discoveries were in the realm of editing, for he was primarily an entertainer: those discoveries therefore belong to the technicians workshop. Welles, on the other hand, innovated on so many other fronts: cinematography, editing, even acting, to name a few. That is why, despite what your generation may think, Kane remains for me the true landmark. Not even Vertigo can dispute that. To my mind, therefore, his two greatest influences came from two utterly different industries: continental Europe and the United States (of Orson Welles). His films, at that level, can be assessed on how much of a balance he kept between these two, which is how one can differentiate between Gamperaliya and Nidhanaya. The former was the inevitable consequence of Rekava and the more mainstream Sandeshaya, while the latter was the culmination of the creative freedom he was granted by the only producer that stayed with him for more than two films, Ceylon Theatres. In my next piece on the man, Ill try to make a contrast between these two, not to show what the superior objet dart is but rather to show how two seemingly similar films, adapted from a largely realist and modernist literature, can explain the balance Lester kept between the painterly thrust of continental Europe and the chiaroscuro boldness of the Americans. For the time being, though, I am done. Lee University professors Dr. Hermilo Jasso and Dr. Randall Miedaner presented at a university in Uruguay and a church in Argentina during a global perspectives trip. Drs. Jasso and Miedaner spoke at the central headquarters of Universidad de la Empresa in Montevideo, Uruguay, and at one of the universitys branches, located in Colonia, Uruguay. This private university specializes in training students to be professionals at the highest level in the business world. The professors presentations were addressed to graduate students of the university along with Lee students on the trip. At the Montevideo location, Drs. Jasso and Miedaner presented on corporate leadership and corporate culture and its effects on a companys stock validation, respectively. At the Colonia location, Dr. Jasso spoke on United States business economics, and Dr. Miedaner presented a comparison of U.S. accounting and international standards. It was a pleasure to see our students interact with students from Uruguay, said Dr. Jasso, an associate professor of business. The exchanges between our students and the local students created an atmosphere of dialogue and enthusiastic conversations from different cultural points of view. Drs. Jasso and Miedaner also presented a talk at Iglesia Vida con Proposito, a Church of God in Buenos Aires, Argentina, founded by Lee alumnus Ruben Oscar Salamone and Eduardo Drachenberg, the superintendent of South America South Church of God Region. The presentation focused on the current changes of the church in South America. It was an incredible experience for our students to see what our church denomination is doing in the urban center of Buenos Aires, Argentina, said Dr. Jasso. Dr. Jasso joined Lees faculty in 1987 following a successful stint in the business world. Prior to his arrival at Lee, he worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch and as a financial analyst for Metropolitan Life. Dr. Jasso was the first recipient of the Janet Rahamut Faculty Award, and he has been a guest lecturer at multiple universities in South America. Dr. Miedaner, assistant professor of business, came to Lee after serving as a senior vice president for a Fortune 100 investment bank and a tax attorney at a Top 100 law firm, as well as a CPA with a Big 4 Firm. He has been published in national periodicals, including the Wisconsin Lawyer, The Tax Advisor, and The National Public Accountant. Exactly three years have lapsed since the Aluthgama riots - a seismic event in the history of Sri Lankas troubled ethnic relations. June 15 and 16, 2014 saw mobs in a well-organised manner, unleash collective violence on Muslim-owned businesses and homes in Aluthgama, Beruwala, Dharga Town, Welipenna and Matugama in the district of Kalutara, located along the islands south-western coastal belt. The rioting resulted in the loss of four lives, injuries to 80 and caused extensive damage to property. Apart from the tangible losses, the violence of June 2014 brought into full focus the very real and devastating consequences of a coordinated programme by divisive forces to drive hatred, fear and suspicion into the minds of the Sinhala-Buddhist population. A result of the anti-Muslim sentiment cultivated in the post-war period, the rioting and looting in Aluthgama and its neighbouring towns marked one of Sri Lankas darkest moments, severely impairing relations between the countrys Buddhist and Muslim communities on the one hand, and among the minorities and an indifferent then government on the other. Just a little over two weeks later, on December 19, 2014, the Maithri Manifesto was released promising swift and sweeping reforms. Based entirely on propaganda, this virulent anti-Muslim campaign conjured a narrative in which the Muslim minority was falsely portrayed as representing economic, cultural, demographic and political threats to the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. By levelling unsubstantiated allegations of growing radicalisation, it sought to demonise the vastly peaceful and well-integrated Muslims of Sri Lanka. Aluthgama was the culmination of a hate campaign which began on September 10, 2011 with the demolition of a Muslim shrine in Anuradhapura, believed to have been around 400 years old. As the monk-led mob attacked the religious site, police personnel stood by watching idly. Eerily enough, the visuals of the incident exposed the crux of the issue: the unwillingness of law enforcement agencies to enforce the law, and arguably even their complicity in the crimes, as violence targeting the countrys Muslim and Christian minorities escalated sharply over the suceeding months. In their treatment of the monks and their lay supporters as somehow above the law, the police, possibly were well-aware of the political patronage these discordant groups enjoyed, thus emboldened them in their vigilante actions. It was on April 20, 2012, around 200 Sinhalese including Buddhist monks staged a protest outside the Khairiya Jumma Masjid in Dambulla demanding the removal of the illegally constructed mosque from a Buddhist Sacred area. Despite a formidable police presence, the protestors were able to disrupt the traditional Friday Muslim prayers, and some among them broke into the mosque and caused damage to Islamic religious texts and property. The actions of an apparently fringe minority of Buddhist clergy and lay persons are not representative of Buddhism with its emphasis on pacifism and non-attachment just as much as actions of the anti-Islamic; so-called Islamic State (IS) are not representative of Islam. Yet there has been no condemnation of the recent spate of hate crimes by Buddhist spiritual leaders. There has been no vocal calls by them to return to the Buddhist values of tolerance and non-aggression in the way Muslims the world over are expected to condemn the atrocities committed allegedly in the name of Islam and disassociate Islam from IS. The silence of the Sinhala-Buddhist majority, notably the Maha Sangha, on the growing hostilities, hate speech and anti-minority attacks in post-war Sri Lanka is perhaps an indication that these extremist groups are capitalising on deep-seated prejudices against the minorities - the Muslims in particular of recent times. The core assertion of the nationwide campaign to fuel and intensify ethnic tension led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and supported by groups such as the Sihala Ravaya and Ravana Balaya is that Buddhism is under threat - and that Muslims are now the primary threat - must have sunk into the recesses of the minds of a fairly significant proportion of Sinhala-Buddhist society. This is also compounded by the Mahavanmsa mind-set which regards Sri Lanka as a Sinhala-Buddhist land where others may live so long as they accept the primacy of the Sinhala-Buddhist race. This line of thinking is captured in the threat uttered by BBS leader and General Secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera at the Aluthgama rally on June 15, 2014, the day prior to the eruption of the Aluthgama violence: It was on April 20, 2012, around 200 Sinhalese including Buddhist monks staged a protest outside the Khairiya Jumma Masjid in Dambulla demanding the removal of the illegally constructed mosque from a Buddhist Sacred area In this country, we still have a Sinhala Police; we still have a Sinhala Army. After today, if a single Marakkalaya (derogatory term for Muslim) or some other parayah (alien, outcast, also a derogatory term) touches a single Sinhalese.....it will be their end. Chauvinism thus gave rise to direct and violent attacks on Muslims that night and the next day. The Aluthgama attacks appear to have been hurriedly planned by the Buddhist extremist groups following the spread of a false rumour on June 11; just two days earlier that a Buddhist monk had been attacked by a Muslim near a temple in the area. The fact was that a Muslim-owned trishaw parked haphazardly on a narrow lane leading to the temple had obstructed a van transporting a monk to the temple which had led to angry words being shouted by the van driver at the missing trishaw driver who turned up to be assaulted by the van driver. It was a minor incident of two drivers hitting each other with neither being even injured. Meanwhile the monk had alighted from the van and intervened to prevent further incidents by which time neighbours had informed the police that a monk was being attacked, which did not happen at all. The false report of a monk being assaulted spread like wildfire leading to a sizeable crowd gathering outside the police station which led to three Muslims being remanded. It was two days later, the BBS exploited the minor incident by a public hate speech inciting violence against the Muslims of the area without intervening to settle the issue or allowing the law to take its course. The BBS-led public rally in the heart of the tension- ridden area resulted in four deaths and widespread destruction of Muslim property while engendering fear and demanding subservience. The mission to instil fear was a success - until a key member of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government - under which the violent attacks took place, in an unprecedented development, decided to part ways on November 21, 2014. Maithripala Sirisenas leadership to a joint opposition, many had hoped, would kick-start Sri Lankas long- awaited transition to peace and stability. From hope to fear An historic agreement was signed on December 1, 2014 to field a common candidate to defeat the incumbent at the January 2015 presidential election. 36 political parties and civic groups entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre in a bid to restore democracy, stability and good governance in Sri Lanka. The MoU which was signed at a time Sri Lankans were desperate for change took cognisance of the countrys predicament. It averred that a country once seen as a model of democracy had degenerated into a place where its citizens were no longer able to live in dignity and safety. Manifestations of this reality, the agreement noted, was evident in (amongst other factors): the total breakdown of the rule of law and the severe strain on co-existence among different ethnic and religious communities. Taking into account the above, the agreement stressed the need to guarantee the primacy of the rule of law, restore democracy on the foundation of good governance, secure and advance fundamental rights and freedom, and to ensure the human right to live in dignity. Just a little over two weeks later, on December 19, 2014, the Maithri Manifesto was released promising swift and sweeping reforms. When Sri Lankans went to the polls on January 8, 2015 to elect a new president, they voted decisively in favour of change. Having endured violence, fear and discrimination, the peaceful majority of diverse ethnicities gave a fresh mandate to the Yahapalanaya coalition to live in a climate of freedom, dignity and equality. The Muslim community, revolted by the manner in which extremist groups were allowed to operate with impunity under the Rajapaksa government, voted en-bloc for the common candidate.Yet, two and-a-half years into the Yahapalanaya rule, a renewed sense of fear has gripped the Muslims of Sri Lanka. Anti-minority activities have re-surfaced, with Muslim properties - notably shops being attacked almost on a daily basis. Even as the innocent victims of the Aluthgama riots await justice three years on with the new government taking no action, a new form of low-intensity violence - dubbed A Shop a Day has created a climate of fear in place of the climate of hope that prevailed during the early days of President Sirisena administration. According to the Police, 16 major racially-motivated incidents targeting Muslims have taken place across the island since April 2017, while Muslims put the number at 30 incidents. Beyond the rhetoric of holding perpetrators accountable, no effective action has been taken towards this end. There is a deep sense of scepticism even about the recent arrests made as the firebrand monk Gnanasara Thera, the key instigator, is still at large. Rebuilding strained relations The false belief that the problem lies in the extremist ideas being propagated within Muslim society is deeply troubling. This notion makes it harder to mitigate the rising inter-religious tensions and to build mutual trust among communities. It is to the credit of the Muslims that they have remained peaceful and patient in the face of continued provocation. However, one cannot altogether dismiss the idea that an undercurrent of anti-Muslim sentiment was always there, that the end of the war simply gave a window for this to emerge. There are genuine concerns among the Sinhala-Buddhist population about the survival of their religion and culture, an anxiety that has been misdirected at minorities through false propaganda. Writing on Myanmars Buddhist nationalist groups for the Asia Times (June 9, 2017), Mathew J. Walton asserts: The current government is hesitantly and inconsistently taking steps to try to change the enabling environment that the previous government created for consequence-free anti-Muslim violence, but it needs to sincerely engage with these complex feelings of Buddhist vulnerability (without sanctioning violence or discrimination) if it hopes to facilitate reconciliation and peace. The same could be said of the current Sri Lankan context As Walton rightly points out, policy responses must find a way to engage with groups interested in the protection of Buddhism while making it clear that violence will not be tolerated. This is in the interest of all communities in Sri Lanka. Just as much as apprehending those behind the violence is essential to end the culture of impunity that prevails, it must be coupled with a proactive approach in which Buddhism is assured of its primus-inter-pares status. Unless such an approach is adopted, Sri Lanka is likely to remain trapped in ethnic friction for years to come. International Conference -2017 organised by the Swamy Vipulananada Institute of Aesthetic studies International conferences are important especially in the field of academics and they play a pivotal role in many ways. They help to create awareness among scholars about current issues and topics vital for the development of a nation as a whole. International conferences are conducted in all fields to ensure that students and scholars benefit from them. It is a way of connecting different people from different places to focus on a particular topic to be discussed, which is of importance to the community as well as individuals. An international conference provides opportunities to meet people from the same field and helps keep track of all advances in a particular field. Making a presentation gives a chance to students and scholars to expose their work and get insight into other scholarly works and gain new ideas from other academics. Academic conferences are always highly productive events for the expansion of knowledge. In this regard, Swamy Vipulananada Institute of Aesthetic studies conducts its International Conference every year on different themes relevant to the current situation in Sri Lanka. In 2016, the theme for the conference was Traditional Arts in the context of Globalization. Following the same line, this year, the theme of the conference is designed to get more insight into a more relevant and important sphere. The theme of the 2017 International conference is Challenges and Importance of Intangible Cultural Heritage in times of War and Post War. With a thought-provoking theme, the conference is scheduled for three days from 15-17 June. The inaugural ceremony will commence today, followed by various other sessions on the remaining two days. The theme for this year Challenges and Importance of Intangible Cultural Heritage in times of War and Post War is significant because of its close link to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, a country known for its cultural background, almost lost its identity during the war. The prolonged conflict destroyed not only the lives of thousands but its precious culture as well. Before going deeper into the topic certain things have to be made clear. Heritage refers to things that are of great importance and can be passed on to future generations. This heritage can be broadly classified into two main categories Natural Heritage and Cultural Heritage. Natural Heritage, as the term indicates, refers to natural aspects like landscape, flora, fauna and beaches Natural Heritage, as the term indicates, refers to natural aspects like landscape, flora, fauna and beaches. On the other hand Cultural Heritage refers to cultural aspects like monuments, heritage sites, folklore and traditional activities which are culturally significant. This cultural heritage can be further divided into Tangible Cultural Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage. Tangible Cultural heritage can be seen and touched and those that depict the countrys history and cultural monuments, shrines, monasteries and other physical infrastructure are culturally important. Intangible cultural heritage cannot be touched or seen but can be felt and includes traditional music, folklore, languages and other intangible forms of art. Though they are less discussed, they are vital for human existence and cultural transition. While discussing the Cultural Heritage of the world, tangible Cultural Heritage takes the predominant position and are more authoritative compared to intangible cultural heritage. This can be seen worldwide and is always a topic of discussion among scholars all over the world. In this regard, art, architecture and sites gain importance in tangible cultural heritage. Though rituals, celebrations, practices and performances are considered important parts of socio-cultural events and help in the betterment of life, they are rarely given due importance, discussed in public or documented. In folklore and folktales to some extent, they are given importance but in a Sri Lankan context, especially in the North, they are kept under wraps. In this regard, during the war and post-war period, cultural heritage attains popularity in shaping society and facing many challenges. These challenges seem to gain importance too. The release from war, disaster, dislocation and resettlement, feelings, knowledge and skills are considered vital to rebuild life and these seem to be ignored in todays world. It is also campaigned that intangible cultural heritage is discussed only for the purpose of documentation and business. But in reality they are of key concern because they discuss human society and human evolution and movement.They help in the Independent existence of generations and are a pathway for restrictions and regulations. Thus, with realization or without realization or knowingly or unknowingly, intangible cultural heritage designs life. Therefore, to draw attention to intangible cultural heritage and understand its relevance in todays world, the International Conference 2017 is designed exclusively to get the younger generation involved in things which are of importance. The conference is designed for scholars from various disciplines and apart from scholars and research scholars, who play the key role, it also focuses on artists, professionals and other experts in various field to take part in participatory research studies which help in fruitful discussions. In this respect, research is also classified into different dimensions such as performances and exhibitions to bring. These international conferences help upcoming researchers evaluate their works through discussions with scholars and are a driving force for other conferences in years to come. The International Conference 2017 will commence with the Inaugural Ceremony today at 6 o clock in the evening followed by various sessions tomorrow and day after. In addition to this, an open interactive session and cultural site visit is scheduled for June 18, to make the conference memorable. It will be of much benefit to professionals and academics from different disciplines and people from all walks of life. REUTERS, 13th JUNE, 2017- Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the isolation of Qatar by neighboring states as a violation of Islamic values and tantamount to a death penalty against Doha in a crisis reverberating through the Middle East and beyond. Erdogans comments marked the strongest intervention yet by a powerful regional ally of Doha eight days after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and imposed stringent economic sanctions on it. Qatar denies the allegations of supporting Islamist militants and Iran. The measures against Qatar, a small oil and gas exporter with a population of 2.7 million people, have disrupted imports of food and other materials and caused some foreign banks to scale back business. Qatar, which imported 80 percent of its food from bigger Gulf Arab neighbours before the diplomatic shutdown, has also been talking to Iran and Turkey to secure food and water. A very grave mistake is being made in Qatar, isolating a nation in all areas is inhumane and against Islamic values. Its as if a death penalty decision has been taken for Qatar, Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in Ankara. Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Vigneswaran today temporarily took over all four ministerial portfolios of the council under his purview after informing two of the ministers to resign and the other two to go on a month's-leave, due to charges of corruption. When the committee report which was made over the corruption charges levelled against all four of the council ministers was taken up for debate today, the Chief Minister informed the Education Minister T. Gurukularajah and Agriculture Minister O. Ainkaraneshan to resign. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister informed Transport and Trade Minister B. Deniswaran and Health Minister P. Sathyalingam to go on a month's leave as there were investigations of corruption pending against them. Mr. Vigneswaran afterwards informed Council Chairman C.V.K. Sivagnanam that he will take over the portfolios of all ministers under his purview for the time being. The council ministers who were accused said that although they were not guilty of the charges levelled against them, they would accept the decision taken by the Chief Minister. Meanwhile, Opposition Council Member V. Jayathilake said they were not given the opportunity to express their opinions during the debate and therefore, all opposition members walked out of the council. However, he said discussions with regard to the vacancies of the four ministries would be held on June 22, during the council session. (Romesh Madhusanka) After three years of uncertainty surrounding Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the highly anticipated Belt and Road Forum (BRF) was finally held in May 2017 in Beijing. But India, Beijings most populous neighbour, was conspicuous in its absence. Despite earlier concerns over a lukewarm response particularly from the West, the BRF won global recognition with 29 heads of state, 1500 delegates from over 130 countries and some 70 international organisations in attendance. Even the United States, which had earlier signalled its wariness towards the initiative, sent a high-profile delegation led by National Security Council Senior Director Asia Matthew Pottinge. Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui revealed Chinas eagerness to secure high-level Indian participation when he offered to consider renaming the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an element of BRI that runs through the disputed territory of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The United States last minute u-turn also put pressure on India. Yet India was undecided about even participating in the summit until the day before it was due to start, when an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson announced Indias boycott. This sudden shift in Indias position from non-endorsement to outright opposition has stoked much speculation over Delhis calculations behind the move. India, which has repeatedly expressed its apprehension about the CPEC, reiterated its concerns over the issue of national and territorial sovereignty. Going a step further, India also bluntly warned of the danger of the unsustainable debt burden that the BRI would bring on those countries involved with Chinese financing of white elephants. The US $1.4 billion Colombo Port City project in Sri Lanka is a prominent example, having left the country with a debt burden of US $ 8 billion to China. Such an indignant response by India is hardly surprising. Souring ties between India and China have made front page headlines for quite some time now. Chinas opposition to Indias membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, its blocking of Indias bid at the UN to blacklist the leader of Islamic fundamentalist group Jaish-e-Mohammad and Indias intentional provocation with the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh in April disrupted the earlier bonhomie between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The first strategic dialogue between India and China was held in February 2017 amid much anticipation, but the two sides were unable to significantly narrow their divide on certain friction points. Indias decision to skip the BRF is the most recent swing of the pendulum. India is uneasy about Chinese designs for the region and how this challenges Indias own neighbourhood first approach. Chinas BRI diplomacy is an attack on Indias conception of a multipolar Asia. Under its own Act East framework, the IndiaMyanmarThailand trilateral highway project is an example of Indias interest in strengthening regional connectivity as a precursor to greater economic integration with the Mekong sub-region. Concurrently, Indias Go West strategy aims to support infrastructure development in Irans Chabahar Port, as well as the more ambitious goal of the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor expected to be 30 percent cheaper and 40 percent shorter than the current route from India to Russia. For India, the BRI exemplifies a unilateral instrument for China to further its hegemony over partner countries, with little respect for principles of sustainable and inclusive development. Questions have been also raised over the supposed economic benefits Chinese investment in African nations such as Djibouti highlights the risk of financing projects that are economically unviable to begin with. Yet, Indias absence from the BRF leaves it without an opportunity to voice the legitimate concerns it has regarding the BRI. India also stands to lose if it fails to translate its criticism of Chinese intentions into more constructive means. Participation in the BRF might have been an important first step. Indias absence at the BRF does not mean that its boycott is permanent. Indias spokesperson hinted at the possibility of joining if China engages in a meaningful dialogue on its connectivity initiative. Responding to this statement, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson questioned Indias definition of a meaningful dialogue, but noted that India would be still welcome to join the initiative. Indias decision may not overshadow its broader bilateral relations with China. But the recent announcement of the AsiaAfrica Growth Corridor, an IndiaJapan joint effort to support development in Africa, suggests that India has its own agenda in mind. The 21st centurys great game is about to get even more complicated and unpredictable. (East Asia Forum) (Soyen Park, a recent PhD graduate of Korea University, currently resides in New Delhi, India and carries out independent research on the Indian economy. Ramandeep Singh, a recent graduate of the University of Cambridge, works on contemporary issues in international trade and investment) The significance of Indias membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should neither be exaggerated nor minimised. On the positive side, it enhances Indias regional status. The platform it provides to regularly interact with SCO members, especially the central Asian states, and that too collectively, will enable a better understanding of the regional dynamics at work within the organisation. Projects China and Russia have so far dominated the SCO, with China engaged in resource extraction projects such as oil and gas pipelines and promoting other forms of connectivity to create markets for Chinas exports, and Russia, with its limited economic and financial capacities, focusing on security issues centred around the threat of religious extremism and terrorism. Indias entry acknowledges its role in building the future of this region. For the central Asian states concerned about their independence, Indias membership balances somewhat the preponderance of Russia and China, besides offering them structured access to another major partner for development promotion. Indias membership expands the geographic and geopolitical frontiers of the SCO, with the views, interests and capacities of another Asian giant influencing the organisations deliberations and decisions. Indias strategic interest in playing on as many geopolitical chess boards as possible, without being inhibited by renewed rivalries and changing equations amongst existing and emerging powers, is served by its SCO membership. In recent years India has been engaged in a strategic exercise to improve its relations with the US, preserve its traditional ties with Russia and engage with China positively despite differences. In a pragmatic approach to international relations, India has strengthened military cooperation with the US and forged with it a joint strategic vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions even as it has participated in the Russia-India-China dialogue, subscribed to the BRICS agenda and become a founding member of the China-promoted Asian Infrastructure Investment Fund. The SCO membership follows the same logic of working in all geopolitical spaces with a view to raising Indias profile and enlarging its political, economic and security options. Central Asia is well within Indias strategic perimeter. Because the region is landlocked and the traditional access to it through Afghanistan has been blocked by Pakistan, the feeling of its remoteness from us has grown. Yet, distance-wise central Asian countries are much nearer to us than we realise. Almost all their capitals are closer to New Delhi by air than Thiruvananthapuram is. That the leaders of these Muslim countries are secular in their orientation and are opposed to religious extremism is a strategic asset for the region and important for our security. Radicalism We have shared interest to counter threats to them from Islamic radicalism radiating from the Af-Pak region, the roots of which lie in the unleashing of jihadi terrorism against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Saudi-funded madrassas in Pakistan from which the Taliban arose as instruments in the hands of Islamabad to strategically control Afghanistan through the bonds of Islam, and the safe-havens provided to the Al-Qaeda leadership on Af-Pak territory that provided the staging grounds for the Islamic movements threatening Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The strong reemergence of the Taliban aided once more by Pakistan presents a major challenge to them and us. The SCO Declaration of 2001 as well as the SCO Charter of 2002 envisage cooperation in cracking down on terrorism, separatism and extremism, concerns about which have sharpened with the appearance of Islamic State elements in Afghanistan. On the less positive side, China, which had always bracketed Indias SCO membership with that of Pakistan, has succeeded in its objective, entrenching the hyphenation it makes between the two countries on the international stage. Chinas strategy is to deny any regional advantage to India visa-vis Pakistan, which is the logic driving also its opposition to Indias NSG membership without Pakistan. Paranoia This shoring up of Pakistan for Chinas parochial reasons caters to Pakistans paranoia of parity with India and reduces pressure on it to behave as a normal state. Even though Pakistans hands on religious extremism and terrorism are unclean, its SCO membership obfuscates that reality. Regrettably, Russia, which had initially opposed Pakistans membership because its role as a partner in combating terrorism was questioned by it, now acknowledges positively Pakistans anti-terrorism credentials. How Pakistan, which continues to promote terrorism against India and Afghanistan, can cooperate within the SCO framework in combating terrorism is unclear. Modi was right to raise the issue of radicalisation, recruitment, training and financing of terrorists at Astana and the impossibility of finding a solution without coordinated efforts. That Pakistan should have been given preference for membership over Iran and Afghanistan which have major economic, cultural and direct security ties with central Asian states reflects Chinas noxious clout. Indias membership will have other difficult aspects. We will have to decide on our participation along with Pakistan in SCOs joint military exercises. Modi rightly mentioned at Astana our desire to deepen regional connectivity but one that respects sovereignty, regional integrity, inclusivity and sustainability, which the BRI does not. How will we reconcile our opposition to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative with the support it receives from all SCO members. Not only differences with Pakistan but also with China will have to be navigated by us in SCO, even as we play a constructive role. CARTA will offer free rides on Thursday as part of the 12th National Dump the Pump Day. The free rides will be on all CARTA bus routes. CARTA is one of more than 130 public transit systems and agencies in the U.S. participating in the National Dump the Pump Day on Thursday. Sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association, National Dump the Pump Day is a day that encourages people to ride public transportation to take them where they need to go instead of driving a car. This national day emphasizes that public transportation is a convenient travel option that also helps people save money. Ald. Ameya Pawar Blasts Gov. Bruce Rauner: 'You're A Racist' By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 13, 2017 10:38PM Ald. Ameya Pawar (Ward 47) / Photo by Jack Lydon Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), the progressive candidate for the governor's office, on Friday blasted Gov. Bruce Rauner as a racistin no uncertain terms. "I want to speak directly to Bruce Rauner today," Pawar says in the clip, facing the camera. "Governor Rauner, you're a racist, and I'm going to tell you why." Pawar specifically says that Rauner is a racist due to his handling of three issues: the SB 1 bill, which seeks to reform the education funding system and which Rauner's camp has said he will veto ; his controversial 2015 moratorium on Syrian refugees entering the state, in 2015; and Rauner's past opposition to automatic voter registration. Pawar called out Rauner's past "code word" references to Chicago Public Schools teachers as "illiterate," CPS schools as "prisons" and the education reform bill carving out a "bailout." This is a school system that serves minority children, primarily poor children," Pawar said. "And you are using code words to go downstate and use peoples economic anxieties and fears to veto a bill and turn people against Chicago. Thats racist and thats immoral, he adds. He also called Rauner's temporary suspension of Syrian refugees "xenophobic." Pawar acknowledged Rauner's decision to now sign into law an automatic voter registration bill, which the governor previously opposed; but he said the totality of those actions amounted to one big slur against Illinois. "What that says to me is you're scared of people who look like me or have my skin color," Pawar said. Bruce Rauner's camp did not immediately return a request for comment. But a spokesperson did push back after Pawaron an appearance on Rick Pearsons Sunday Spin over the weekendmade a similar accusation about the education "code words." Spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement, via the Tribune: The Rauners are proud to have personally supported Chicago schools and contributed substantial resources to improving education in the city for many years. As governor, Bruce continues to work towards funding reform that is fair to the entire state. Rauners education advisor, Beth Purvis, said the governor supports 90 percent of the education funding reform bill but would still veto it because he contends it unfairly channels $215 million into the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. Black Lives Matter & Others File Suit To Force Court Oversight Of 'Racist' Police Dep. By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 14, 2017 5:40PM Getty Images / Photo: Scott Olson Advocates have made it clear that any attempt to enforce police reforms in Chicago without oversight from a federal court would not cut it. Now, a group of civil rights organizations, including Black Lives Matter, have filed a federal lawsuit in hopes of securing that court monitoring. The City of Chicago has proven time and time again that it is incapable of ending its own regime of terror, brutality and discriminatory policing, the lawsuit states. It is clear that federal court intervention is essential to end the historical and ongoing pattern and practice of excessive force by police officers in Chicago." The lawsuit reportedly mentions the excessive force of the 1968 Democratic convention riot, the targeted killing of Black Panther Fred Hampton on the Near West Side and the legacy of torture under former police commander Jon Burgeas well as more recent violationsas emblematic of patterns of scandal within the Chicago Police Department. The suit was filed by six individuals and several groups, including Blocks Together, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Justice for Families, Network 49, Women's All Points Bulletin and 411 Movement for Pierre Lourya group that was founded in response to the fatal shooting of the teen by Chicago police. Yes, we are doing everything we can to hold @ChicagosMayor & the racist CPD accountable.#BlakLivesMatter https://t.co/SMNwd3zGKg BLMChicago (@BLMChi) June 14, 2017 Mayor Rahm Emanuel had previously advocated for a court-enforced consent decree to impose reform recommendations made by the Obama-era Department of Justice. But he pulled away from that commitment as Attorney General Jeff Sessions made his skepticism of consent decrees clear. Sessions ordered a wide-ranging review of federal agreements back in April, making the possibility that the Department of Justice would enter into such a decree slim at best. But the mayor did still have the option of partnering with reformist groups to set up court-oversight enforcement. The Department of Justice released its recommendations for reform after a yearlong investigation of the Chicago Police Department, which came in the wake of the the Laquan McDonald shooting video's release. The damning conclusions found that that CPD had engaged in a pattern or practice of using forceincluding use of deadly forcethat violated the Fourth Amendment. A musical titled Nirvana was performed at Beijing's China Theater over the weekend to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Liberation Army. A scene from Nirvana [Photo provided to China Daily] Produced by Shanghai Xia Zheng Nong Foundation, and written and directed by Shu Junjun and composed by Liu Tingyu, the musical tells the story of the wartime lives of two Chinese couples. Set in the years from 1936 to 1949, the musical focuses on two students who gave up their dreams to pursue eduction abroad and joined the army once war broke out as a result of Japanese invasion of China, and on two others who were young officers in the PLA at the time. The score combines modern music with traditional Chinese folk elements. The musical premiered in Shanghai in 2016. Xia Zheng Nong Foundation was founded in 2008 by Xia Zhengnong, the late Party chief of Shanghai to finance cultural projects. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Eight local business leaders from the past were formally inducted into The Daily Progress Greater Charlottesville Business Hall of Fame on Tuesday for transforming the regions economy and their ideas that have endured times tests. The Hall of Fame was founded this year by The Daily Progress and is championed by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. The inductees were honored at a luncheon at the Boars Head Inn. Rob Jiranek, publisher of The Progress, said the mix of tourism, commerce and finance that makes up the areas economy is the result of the work of the innovators inducted into the hall. We will agree on the fact that Charlottesville is a unique business market, he said. It may be one in a million. Inducted were: J.F. Bell, an entrepreneur and founder of J.F. Bell Funeral Home; banker and former University of Virginia Rector Hovey Dabney; Josephine Henderson, who bought, moved and turned Michie Tavern into a tourist spot; Bill Hildreth, an entrepreneur, banker and president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation; industrialist Frank Ix Jr.; Pepsi-Cola Bottling founder and former City Councilor Sam Jessup; John Rogan, who developed the Barracks Road Shopping Center, Boars Head Inn and helped to pioneer Virginia wines; and Harry Van Beek, former president of Klockner Pentaplast who helped to locate the German manufacturer of plastic film and packaging in Gordonsville. Glenn Rust, president and chief executive officer of Virginia National Bank, said the honorees showed vision, courage and persistence. The Hall of Fame, he said, helps honor those traits in those leaders. This allows us to help remember the individuals who helped create the community we have today, he said. Without them, it would not be the community we know. They had vision. They had talent. They had commitment to the job at hand, said Phillip Shiflett, of Hantzmon Wiebel, one of the hall of fames corporate sponsors. Shiflett said the inductees should be honored not just for the change they spurred, but for the thousands of jobs that they created that still exist today. John Bassett III, of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, whose effort to keep his factories running and employees on the payroll while other furniture companies folded under pressure from Chinese manufacturing, told the gathering that there are five traits to a successful business person that the inductees all showed. Those traits are a positive attitude, leadership, ability to change, being slow to panic and team work. They had to have a positive attitude because if you dont think youre going to win, you will probably lose, Bassett said. And when I say leadership, Im not talking about golden parachute leadership. Im not talking about pull up the ladder, Jack, Im on board leadership, he said. Were talking your car is parked at work when your employees come in because youre already there and youre there when they leave at night. Were talking if you cut pay to your employees, you get the same pay cut. Were talking when you give raises, the employees get them first. Bassett said its important for todays business leaders to learn from their predecessors willingness to change, innovate and compete. Its important to ask if we have lost our ability to compete, he said. Business has to be about something more than raising your profit margins, decreasing your expenses and avoiding taxes. A special section about the Greater Charlottesville Business Hall of Fame will be published in Fridays edition of The Daily Progress. The Charlottesville Fire Department and Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad might soon collect revenue for ambulance rides to support a growing need for their services. If approved by the City Council, the EMS Cost Recovery Program, which the agencies developed over the past 18 months, would enable the fire department and rescue squad to bill peoples private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare for ambulance transportation. Fire Chief Andrew Baxter and CARS President Virginia Leavell said the point of the proposal is to better serve the city of Charlottesville. This will change nothing for the person picking up the phone and calling 911, said Leavell. Theyre going to receive exactly the same service. The only difference is now theyre giving us permission to bill their insurance company. Under the plan, city residents with insurance would not see a bill, city residents without insurance would not be billed at all and non-city residents would receive a bill for any remaining balance after insurance reimbursement is collected. The proposal includes provisions for patients who are unable to pay the balance not covered by insurance, Baxter and Leavell said. All patients would be treated and transported regardless of ability to pay, and unpaid bills would never be sent to a collection agency. The City Council in 2014 passed an ordinance to allow ambulance billing, but never actually approved a resolution that would establish a fee schedule, Baxter said. I think we also wanted to make sure there are provisions for the resident program for compassionate billing and that we werent going to end up in a situation where we were burdening people with significant health care debt, she said. We feel very comfortable with this program as its written. The fire department and CARS expect that the proposal will create a sufficient revenue stream for the all-volunteer rescue squad and help both agencies better serve the citys growing population. There was an 8 percent increase in call volume from 2015 to 2016, Baxter said, and that number is going to continue to grow. Its important because our concept here is that were building some capacity in the city and hope to have a more regional system in place thats mutually and self-supporting, Baxter said. Were growing rapidly and the county is growing rapidly. I think the idea that you can improve capacity in the system without injecting some sort of resource, i.e. revenue I think weve squeezed all the juice out of that lemon. With the added revenue, the rescue squad would receive more operational funding and the fire department would hire additional medical staff. Baxter said the department wants to add a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week medic unit that will operate out of the Fontaine Fire Station, and another unit that will operate 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday, out of the Ridge Street Fire Station. The new units would use CARS ambulances and would allow the agencies to better assist people in need of medical attention. The fire department also would hire a civilian billing and privacy specialist to deal with insurance billing. The complexities involved in billing in a health care environment are , Baxter said. dreadful, Leavell finished. Albemarle County currently has an EMS Cost Recovery Program in place, and Baxter said Albemarle County Fire Rescue has been instrumental in helping the city department build its own program. The county in 2014 amended its program to stop residents paying out of pocket for ambulance rides. CFD and CARS intend to use the same billing company as the county, in order to make sure ambulance costs are the same in both jurisdictions. We feel confident were engaging in a collaborative agreement with the city fire department so that we can both provide service in the city of Charlottesville that the residents are accustomed to, Leavell said. CARS is not becoming part of CFD, but we are committed to working together in a way that makes sense. The two agencies have worked together since 1960, when the rescue squad was formed. With 200 volunteers, the rescue squad relies heavily on donations. An EMS Cost Recovery Program could provide one third to one half of the two organizations operational funds. Even with the new revenue, the entities will still need donations, Leavell said. The rescue squad was like the Minute Men at Lexington and Concord the guy who gets his musket off the fireplace mantel and goes to fight the British Army, said Baxter. Thats a wonderfully powerful symbol. But this is 2017 and delivering EMS in an urban environment is very complex and very expensive, he said. We need a standing army and a national guard, and thats kind of what were aiming for here. To put the costs in perspective, Baxter said, the tools needed to fully equip an ambulance cost thousands and thousands of dollars. A defibrillator can cost up to $30,000, while a powered gurney can cost $12,000. Each ambulance needs that equipment, he said, making it very expensive to operate. To expect a volunteer agency to be able to generate that kind of revenue from fundraising alone in this day and age, I just dont think is realistic anymore. The fire department and rescue squad will present their proposal to the City Council on Monday. A public hearing will be held at the July 17 meeting and the council is expected to vote on the proposal on Aug. 21. A former University of Virginia student and grandson of a Virginia governor has been charged with rape in connection with an incident in February. Stephen Dalton Baril, 20, was arrested by Charlottesville police on Wednesday morning after turning himself in to the magistrates office. According to authorities, Baril faces charges of rape and forcible sodomy connected to a Feb. 1 incident. Hours after his arrest, Baril made his first appearance in a district court, where Judge Robert Downer agreed to set a $10,000 bond for his release. At the hearing, city prosecutor Areshini Pather gave a rundown of the allegations against Baril. According to Pather, Baril knew the alleged victim socially and had met with her at Trinity Irish Pub on the night of the alleged assault. Pather said the underage Baril bought the alleged victim a shot of tequila and tried to kiss her, although she declined. The two then went to Barils residence. At Barils apartment, the alleged victim went to the bathroom and, when she returned to Barils bedroom, found that hed undressed down to his underwear, Pather said. He then forcefully pushed her onto the bed and sexually assaulted her, Pather said, leaving bites to her lip and breast, as well as bruises to her chin and arm. Pather continued that Baril then restrained the alleged victim from leaving the bed, but he relented when she insisted on leaving. Baril later texted the alleged victim, Pather continued, saying that he was sorry for having gotten over-excited. The alleged victim went to the hospital later and underwent a physical examination that showed shed sustained an injury to her genitals, Pather said. In court, Barils father testified that, if left in his parents custody, Baril would not have access to drugs or alcohol. He further said that Baril was no longer enrolled at UVa, saying it was very difficult under the circumstances for him to continue his education. Attorney Rhonda Quagliana asked Downer to allow Baril to be released into the custody of his parents despite Pathers objections. Downer granted the request, but he noted that Baril was not permitted to contact the victim and would be subject to electronic monitoring. Baril is the son of Steve Baril, a Richmond attorney who made an unsuccessful bid in 2005 for the Republican nomination for attorney general of Virginia. Barils grandfather was politician John N. Dalton, who served as the 63rd governor of Virginia from 1978 to 1982. Baril is due back in court on Aug. 10. A university spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on Barils enrollment status at UVa. An owner of Trinity Irish Pub also did not respond to requests for comment. Theresa May's loss of the Conservative Party parliamentary majority in the British general election is not only a result in an important European country with impact on the global situation, but has important lessons for international politics. In particular: It confirms that the political chaos in Anglo-Saxon countries such as the U.S. and U.K., is continuing; It complicates the political fight over the U.K.'s negotiations with the EU regarding "Brexit," even raising the possibility that the country will remain within the EU's Single Market; It confirms the rise in the West of leftist currents represented in the U.K. by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn; It confirms that economic trends are more powerful in shaping popular opinion than the mass media. Weakening position of Theresa May Theresa May called the election because she wanted to increase her majority in parliament and so strengthen her position in negotiations with the EU following the U.K. Brexit referendum. She expected this based on a wrong analysis that the new left-wing policies of the Labour Party under Corbyn would be unpopular. In fact, Labour actually increased its vote by 10 percent and won seats from the Conservatives. The Conservatives (Tories) lost their Parliamentary majority and now have to rely on votes of the extreme right wing and religiously based North of Ireland protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which holds extreme anti-abortion views and is supported by Protestant terrorist organizations such as the Red Hand Commando. Even with this support a new government can only achieve a wafer-thin majority. EU leaders see clearly that May suffered a sharp electoral setback and therefore the EU's bargaining position against her over Brexit has been further strengthened. This weakening of May's position was openly admitted in the pro-Tory media the day after the election. The Times front page headline was "May's poll nightmare," the Sun "Theresa Dismay," the Daily Mail "Theresa on the ropes as her big gamble backfires," and Daily Star "Mayhem as Tory gamble fails." Anglo-Saxon chaos This new political crisis following the U.K. general election is only the latest of a series of political crises which have hit and destabilized the leading "Anglo-Saxon" countries, exacerbated by low economic growth. Thus, the U.K. voted for the economically irrational policy of Brexit in a referendum last year causing the then prime minister to resign and be replaced by May. Donald Trump defeated the Republican Party establishment to become that Party's candidate for president before defeating most of the American mass media and established U.S. political forces to win the presidency. This has unleashed crises and clashes that continue, such as accusations of Russian interference in the election, the sacking of the FBI director, Congressional investigations of the Presidential election campaign, campaigns by key mass media such as the New York Times and CNN to remove Trump from office etc. Meanwhile, anti-EU forces have suffered a severe setback , such as Macron's defeat of Le Pen in the French presidential election, and the almost certain victory of Angela Merkel in the coming German elections. Open public clashes between Merkel and Trump following the G7 summit confirm that Germany has no intention of giving in to American pressure. The EU has taken significant geopolitical steps to strengthen its position in this clash with Germany hosting visits by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Indian Prime Minister Modi in the same week, and Macron inviting Russia's Vladamir Putin to visit France (a step taken in consultation with Merkel). Theresa May's sharp electoral setback is also a victory for Germany. Political instability in the U.S. is going to continue with the numerous Congressional investigations of Trump and media campaigns against him. In Britain, political instability will similarly continue due to the extremely small majority in Parliament that May now has after the election. Negotiations with the EU The immediate effect of the weakening of May's position comes in negotiations with the EU. As there is some lack of knowledge over the EU's structure, and therefore the key issues in these negotiations, it is necessary to clarify that the EU has two structures. The first is political membership giving a country the right to vote on policies and binding them to EU decisions. This automatically gives a country membership of the economic structure, the European Single Market. A country can be a member of the European Single Market, and thus bound by its decisions, but not be a political member of the EU and thus vote-less. Switzerland and Norway have this status. Thus, when the British media, for example, talks of a "hard Brexit," they mean withdrawal both from the political structure of the EU and withdrawal from the European Single Market. In that case, a country can independently decide its own economic policies. "Soft Brexit" means withdrawal from the political structure, but continued membership of the Single European Market, effectively being bound by all or most of the EU's decisions on the economy. May supported a "hard Brexit," but many large British companies want to retain full membership or at least a "soft Brexit." In terms of the political parties the Conservatives support "hard Brexit," but the Liberal Democrats and Labour support different forms of either EU membership or "soft Brexit." The EU either wants Britain to be a full member of the EU or to adopt "soft Brexit." So the result of the British election has strengthened leaders such as Merkel and Macron in their negotiations with May Leftist popularity Another factor in recent events is the significant rise of "leftist" political forces. In 2016 Bernie Sanders became the first publicly-avowed socialist candidat for the U.S. presidency to receive major popular support for almost a century. The entire Democrat Party establishment had to be mobilized to ensure he was defeated by their preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton. Subsequent polls show Sanders would have been a more popular Democratic candidate against Trump than Clinton. In the 2017 French presidential election leftist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon received 19.6 percent of the vote in the first round, failing by only 1.7 percent to overtake Le Pen and enter the second-round run-off. In 2015 Corbyn, a long-term leftist within the Labour Party, particularly known for opposition to the Iraq war and U.S. military intervention in Syria, won the leadership of the Labour Party, and easily defended it against a right-wing challenge in 2016. The election figures have further boosted his power. These currents of the type of Sanders/Melenchon/Corbyn are of significance as they reflect opposition to U.S. military build-ups and confrontations. Economic factors more powerful than media Both the recent British election and last year's U.S. presidential election strongly confirm the analysis that the economy is a more important factor in popular opinion than the mass media. In the U.S. presidential election, the overwhelming majority of the mass media opposed Trump, but he won the election. In Britain, a large majority of the mass media supported May and carried on an extremely strong campaign against Corbyn, but despite this it was Corbyn's Labour which made the biggest gains in the election. To summarize, the result of an election in Britain, which remains the world's 5th largest economy, a key U.S. ally, and a major European country, would be significant and worth following in any circumstances. However, there are also these aspects that confirm a general trend in Western countries: That the serious political instability now affecting the Anglo-Saxon countries will continue. That the clashes between the central EU axis of Germany/France with the U.S. are now significant and will also continue. The rise in the popularity of leftist currents in the advanced Western countries is continuing. The author is Senior Fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. John Ross is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/johnross.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. WASHINGTON Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam won the Democratic nomination for governor of Virginia Tuesday by an unexpectedly wide margin while Republican Ed Gillespie narrowly beat back a surprisingly strong challenge from Donald Trump acolyte Corey Stewart for that party's nomination. With more than 98 percent of precincts reporting, Gillespie had a razor-thin lead over Stewart, who refused to concede the race. State Sen. Frank Wagner was a distant third. "There is one word you will never hear from me, and that's 'unity," Stewart told supporters gathered at a restaurant in Woodbridge. "We've been backing down too long. We've been backing down too long in defense of our culture, and our heritage and our country." At 10:25 p.m. Stewart said that he planned to wait for all precincts to come in before deciding his next move. "We're waiting back there because we really don't know how it's going to turn out, the final numbers," he said. The nation was watching Virginia as a political laboratory for how the parties handle the deep divisions that followed last year's election of President Donald Trump. Perriello channeled the energy - and endorsement - of progressive leader Sen. Bernie Sanders in trying to shake up the Democratic party, but fell short in his bid to bring in new voters from among the young and working class. Northam's command of the state party's machinery, including the endorsement of every Democrat in the General Assembly and most Democrats in the state's congressional delegation, simply turned out more voters. Perriello conceded about 90 minutes after polls closed. To screams of "Go Tom Go!"Perriello addressed his supporters gathered at the State Theatre and urged unity against "very scary Republicans .... We don't even know how scary that individual might be yet," he said, referring to the down-to-the-wire fight between Stewart and Gillespie. He credited his own campaign with a 'great victory' for forcing issues of economic inequality in the political conversation. "Together we helped elevate mainstream ideas that should have been there all along," he said, citing his support for a $15 minimum wage as an example. "I think it's movements that change the world, and politicians who work as allies to that movement." But first, Perriello praised Northam for winning a "great victory, and offered him my full and unequivocal support." At a restaurant in Arlington, Northam led a celebratory crowd in a call and response chant, ending with a call to take back the Democratic majority in the GOP-controlled House of Delegates. He "We agreed that we're going to bring all Democrats under the tent starting tonight. This is too important an election. This is the bellwether of the country." Northam said he will work to gain Perriello supporters' vote. "We're all in this together," he said. His voice quivering a bit, he paid tribute to his late mother and 92-year-old father. Stewart's strength on the Republican ballot was perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening. He had been running as more Trump than Trump, making provocative statements and campaigning on the issue of preserving Confederate monuments. Polls had shown him with a fraction of Gillespie's support, but a low turnout among Republican voters gave Stewart's committed base an outsize influence, and Wagner drew significant votes in Hampton Roads that might otherwise have gone to Gillespie. Gillespie's strength in Fairfax County seemed to be providing the edge as final returns came trickling in. Stewart scored big wins in Washingto's exurbs - Loudoun, Fauquier and his own Prince William County - as well as in the rural central and southwest regions of the state. Stewart's unexpectedly strong showing shocked Republicans at Gillespie's party at a Hilton Hotel ballroom in the Richmond suburbs, where supporters who had expected a blow-out were concerned to see Stewart running a close second. "I'm shocked," said Nancy Russell, who was Hanover County chairwoman when Gillespie ran for Senate in 2014. She was worried that Stewart would doom the GOP's chances in November if he won the nomination. "If Donald Trump didn't carry the state of Virginia, I don't know how Corey is going to," she said. Many voters said they were inspired to come out because of events in Washington. Alexandria resident Curt Arledge, 32, had never voted in a gubernatorial primary before Tuesday but decided that this year that it was too important for him to miss. Clothed in a T-shirt that displayed Smokey Bear wearing a "resist" hat, the Democrat voted for Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the party's establishment favorite, because he thought Northam could win in November. "I can't recall any of the issues, I hate to admit," he said. "I want to nominate Democrats who can get elected." The race for governor, especially, has focused nearly as much on reaction to events in Washington as to policy concerns within the state. Outside groups have poured money and attention into Virginia, and a vast army of new candidates have flooded the Democratic side of House races - including a record number of women candidates. "It is really the first big test in a statewide election of the state of the Democratic Party in the Trump era," said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. On the Republican side, the three candidates vying for the top spot on the ticket represented different paths for a party still adjusting to its unconventional president and the forces that propelled him into office. While Stewart was all-in with Trump, Wagner based his run on his 25 years of experience in the General Assembly - a strategy that defied the anti-establishment fervor that accompanied Trump's rise. And Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman, played it down the middle. He has been a lukewarm supporter of Trump, but cast himself as a true conservative who will cut taxes and promote business. But Gillespie, apparently trying to conserve resources and cement his frontrunner status, had avoided appearances with his campaign rivals in recent weeks, preferring smaller, more controlled settings. But he never seemed to inspire as much passion as Stewart, for good or bad. Steve Chapman cast a ballot for Stewart at the George Mullen elementary school in Manassas. Chapman knows Stewart well: He ran his first campaign for county supervisor in 2003 and tapped him to be his son's godfather. Chapman conceded Stewart may have gone a too far with his embrace of Confederate heritage, but figured it was just a campaign shtick. "Corey, he likes attention so I think he takes controversial stances and I don't know if he believes it," said Chapman, who is 39 and self-employed. "That's what's he does. It's a way to get earned media attention." On the Democratic side, it was Perriello who was trying to tap into voter passion. He pushed Northam to make the campaign as much about Trump as about state issues. In Arlington, Matt Canella, 29, and Mariah Finkel, 30, were inspired to vote for Perriello in large part because they felt he had more aggressively attacked the president. Finkel's vote, she said, is "mostly based off what I see on commercials." But Northam responded in kind, calling Trump a "narcissistic maniac" and pledging to resist his policies. Trump's approval rating in Virginia is even worse than it is nationwide: Only 36 percent of Virginians were satisfied with his performance in a poll conducted last month by The Washington Post and the Schar School. That created a challenge for Republican candidates, because the party's base still supports the president, said Rozell, the George Mason dean. Virginia's primary, he said, will show "whether a prominent Republican in a major campaign is able to separate himself in the public's mind from the unpopular policies and actions of the Trump administration, while at the same time not losing much of the Republican support a candidate is going to need to win a general election." A Stewart victory in the primary would, in effect, put Trump on the ballot - making November's election a clear referendum on the president and his policies and style. Virginian's also chose nominees for lieutenant governor, with three candidates running in each party. With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Republican state Sen. Jill Holtzmann Vogel (Fauquier) had a slight lead over fellow state Sen. Bryce Reeves (Spotsylvania), with Del. Glenn Davis (Virginia Beach) far behind.. That race has gotten ugly at times, as Vogel, a lawyer, and Reeves, a veteran and insurance salesman, have traded accusations of dirty tricks. On the Democratic side, former federal prosecutor Justin Fairfax had a healthy lead over Susan Platt. Self-funded candidate Gene Rossi was far behind. In the House of Delegates, all 100 seats were on the ballot. Democrats caught up in anti-Trump fervor say they want to pick up enough seats to take over the majority, but that will be a tough task. Republicans have a 66 to 34 advantage. With no registered opposition from Republican or independent candidates, Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Joe Platania is set to be Charlottesvilles next head prosecutor after winning a Democratic primary Tuesday. Following months of campaigning against opponent Jeff Fogel, Platania received 4,896 votes, or 62 percent of the votes cast. Fogel garnered 2,973 votes, for 38 percent. Platania, 45, was endorsed by his predecessor and boss, current Commonwealths Attorney Dave Chapman, at his official campaign announcement in January. Chapman said last year that he would not be seeking re-election, ending his 24-year tenure in the post. Chapmans announcement was attended by scores of attorneys and stakeholders from the local criminal justice community supporting Platania, who has worked under Chapman since 2003. Prior to working as a prosecutor, the 45-year-old was a public defender in the area for more than four years, and graduated in 1998 from the Washington & Lee School of Law. Platania did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. Soon after Platania made his formal announcement, Fogel announced his own bid for head prosecutor, running on a platform of reforming the office toward goals of reducing incarceration, especially for minority offenders. When reached Tuesday night, Fogel said he was proud of the campaign he had run and the issues he helped push to the forefront of the race. Im very satisfied with what we did, Fogel said. We raised important issues. I felt our campaign either pushed Joe in the same direction, or got him to come out and say the things he would do, rather than the platitudes that often accompany campaigns. Fogel noted that he was encouraged by the supporters he garnered and looks forward to continuing to work on the reform of the local government and criminal justice system with progressive political advocacy group Equality and Progress in Charlottesville. Having practiced in the area for more than a decade, the 72-year-old civil rights advocate has established himself as a liberal firebrand, having represented clients in several high-profile cases in recent years. In 2011, Fogel filed a lawsuit on behalf of five homeless men asserting that the citys ordinance banning panhandling on the Downtown Mall was unconstitutional. A federal judge sided with Fogel in 2015. Months after that victory, Fogel filed an ultimately unsuccessful suit on behalf of the Public Housing Association of Residents and the local branch of the NAACP asking that city police make stop-and-frisk reports public. Then early last year, Fogel filed three separate lawsuits against an Albemarle County police officer, accusing him of targeting African-American males in stops and searches. Those suits will go to trial in the next year. Recently, Fogel made headlines after being charged with misdemeanor assault over an incident on the Downtown Mall. On June 1, Fogel and members of the left-wing group Speaking Up for Racial Justice encountered right-wing agitator Jason Kessler eating dinner at Millers Downtown. The encounter turned into a kerfuffle over the recent controversy surrounding the citys statue of Robert E. Lee. Amidst the brouhaha, Fogel was accused of giving a light, open-handed push to one of Kesslers friends, leading Kessler to flag down a police officer. Later that night, five police officers arrived at Fogels front door to arrest him, sparking criticism of the department from Fogel and his supporters. Fogel later said he did not believe the misdemeanor charge would affect his campaign. He will be represented in the matter by his law partner, Steven Rosenfield. As long as it doesnt have an effect on my spirit, I dont think it will have an effect on my campaign, said Fogel. I dont consider Jason Kessler to be a significant person. I dont think he is taken seriously on these things, and I dont think this will harm me in the public eye. In the lead-up to Tuesdays primary, Fogel said in candidate forums and media reports that he planned to stop prosecuting marijuana cases, raise the threshold for larceny convictions and take other steps to reduce the amount of jail time given to non-violent minority offenders and drug offenders. He also promised to establish a database that would track arrests from the city police department. On his own platform, Platania similarly said he would take action to reduce the local jail population, but said he would do so by working to establish a mental health treatment court in the city and by increasing the offices outreach to local neighborhoods. Despite Fogels objections to it, Platania defended the citys use of a Drug Court as one of several incarceration alternatives, and noted that while he would continue to prosecute marijuana cases, those cases rarely result in actual jail time. According to the city registrar, no independents or Republicans have registered to run for commonwealths attorney, meaning Platania will be unopposed come November. House Minority Leader David J. Toscano, of Charlottesville, decisively won the Democratic primary race for the 57th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday. With all precincts reporting, Toscano had received 8,656 votes, or 67 percent of the vote. Ross Mittiga, a political researcher, instructor and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, had secured 4,302 votes, or 33 percent, in his first time running for political office. After the race was called, Toscano said he already was looking forward to the general election in November and getting as many Democrats elected to the House of Delegates as possible. Throughout the race, he pushed for unity among the Democratic base to get more left-leaning candidates into office across the state. You know, [Mittigas campaign] threw everything they had at me and we still won by a pretty resounding margin, he said. Mittiga said he was extremely proud of the race he and his supporters were able to run against Toscano, and that they succeeded in drawing attention to issues such as opposition to fracked-gas pipelines and getting big corporate money out of politics. During the campaign, Mittiga made it a point to challenge Toscanos views on a number of issues to push for what he called a more progressive agenda in the Democratic Party. He said he believes his campaign made a difference in the race, and now that its over, hell begin looking for new ways to push for more progressive ideals that work for families, students and workers. I am optimistic, and Im optimistic because, win or lose, weve already had a lot of success in shifting the consciousness of Charlottesville, Mittiga said before the polls closed Tuesday. Some of Mittigas biggest and most talked about positions during the race revolved around climate change and campaign finance reform, as well as bringing the minimum wage up to $15 in Virginia. For Toscano, he focused his message heavily on creating budgets to help working families, protecting health insurance rights for those who could be affected by actions in Washington to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and pushing for nonpartisan redistricting reform. A common talking point among Democratic candidates in a number of races was what they would do to counter the actions of President Donald Trump. Toscano said Tuesday that that may have had an effect on bringing voters out to the primaries. But for the Democrats to succeed in November, there needs to be more than just anger against Trump, he said. If we can put together the anger at Trump with a positive message, we are going to win, Toscano said. If we dont include the positive message, we will have a hard time. No Republican candidates will be on the ballot for the 57th District in the general election in November. The registrars for Albemarle County and Charlottesville both said they were not aware of any independent candidates filing for candidacy. The deadline to file was Tuesday. In his previous opposed general elections for the House, Toscano has handily won, with between 75 percent and 80 percent of the vote. Flash A total of 22 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes on IS desert stronghold and clashes with Iraqi security forces in central Iraq, an official and a security sources said. The Iraqi warplanes carried out airstrikes on the main IS desert redoubt in Mteibijah area, which is on the provincial border between Iraq's eastern province of Diyala and the northern central province of Salahudin, Udai al-Khadran, the mayor of al-Khalis town and a leading figure in the predominantly Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units told Xinhua. The airstrikes left some 20 IS militants killed and five of their vehicles destroyed, including one booby-trapped, al-Khadran said. In Salahudin province, the security forces repelled two attacks by IS militants from two directions around the town of Seniyah, just west of the oil refinery town of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a source from Salahudin's provincial Operations Command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. After hours of sporadic heavy clashes, the attackers were forced to withdraw, leaving two of their fighters killed. Three security members were also killed in the attacks, the source said. The desert near Seniyah is part of a sprawling rugged area that extends from the western part of Salahudin province to the desert in the neighboring Anbar province, and also extends from the eastern part of Salahudin province to the IS redoubt in Mteibijah on the provincial border with Diyala province. The airstrikes and the clashes came as Iraqi security forces, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, were simultaneously conducting a major offensive to dislodge IS militants from their major stronghold in western Mosul in northern Iraq. After 23 years in Charlottesville, I retired to beautiful Wintergreen Resort in Nelson County in 2008. I have seen this tourism economy grow from pretty much just Wintergreen Resort to many tourism-related businesses, adding even more dollars to the state coffers. Other than just sending a letter of resistance, I am offering a pragmatic option that I hope will be considered. First, a few things I do know after living in Virginia for all these years and following this whole process: Dominion Energy has always been the big dog in this state and has almost always gotten what it wanted: projects rubber-stamped without much resistance. Most politicians in this state, on both sides of the aisle, are in bed with Dominion. In this age of fake news, nobody has given out more misinformation to the public on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline than Dominion. The only people who would benefit from this pipeline are Dominion Energy and all of its investors in this insane, unnecessary project. There is no benefit to the people of Virginia from this pipeline. The natural gas is slated to go right to the coast and mostly be shipped overseas. Other than a few temporary jobs in the initial construction, no jobs will come out of it for the people in the path of its construction and ruination. As a matter of fact, Dominion, being the confident big dog, apparently has already had the majority of the pipe manufactured and not in Virginia (prnewswire.com/news-releases/atlantic-coast-pipeline-signs-pipe-manufacturing-contract-with-dura-bond-industries-300030696.html). I have great respect for and have supported all the work that Friends of Wintergreen, Friends of Nelson, and other groups have dedicated to this effort in providing technically sound research and options to this pipeline. However, with the election changes that have occurred, the proposal that follows seems to be a viable and pragmatic option that needs to be considered: Burn clean coal. President Trump campaigned on opening the coal mines in West Virginia. Get the coal mines operational, stimulating the economies of West Virginia and Southwest Virginia. That coal needs a market and can be transported safely via the railroad, stimulating that economy. Finally, use clean coal technology to burn it, protecting our environment. By doing the above, there is absolutely no immediate need for natural gas. Chuck Kiehl, Nelson County Mumbai: India's only anti-money laundering agency Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against liquor baron Vijay Mallya in a Rs 900 loans default case concerning IDBI Bank. News channel Times Now reported that ED has filed a lengthy 57 page fresh chargesheet against Mallya in which it has been revealed that the "dubious" loan amount was approved and disbursed by the IDBI Bank. Mallya has been living in a self-imposed exile in the UK since March 2 last year when he left India with a diplomatic passport on him after India's law enforcement agencies started to tighten the noose around him. The TV report also claimed that the Kingfisher Airlines maintained multiple accounts with Axis Bank. Mallya had violated RBI guidelines by diverting funds outside India and he had indulged in money laundering. The report also claim that Mallya'a acts attract a trial and punishment under section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The chargesheet incorporates in it the above three important aspects of the case. San Francisco: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will take a leave of absence for an unspecified period and let his leadership team run the troubled ride-hailing company while he's gone. Kalanick told employees about his decision today in a memo. He says he needs time off to grieve for his mother, who died in a May boating accident. He also says he's responsible for the company's current situation and needs to become a better leader. The announcement comes as former US Attorney Eric Holder released a list of recommendations to improve Uber's toxic culture. He recommended that Kalanick be relieved of some leadership responsibilities, shifting them to a chief operating officer and other senior managers. The COO, yet to be hired, would be a partner with Kalanick. Holder also recommended that Uber use performance reviews to hold senior managers accountable by setting metrics for improving diversity and responsiveness to employee complaints. Holder's firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and a second firm, Perkins Coie, were asked to conduct separate examinations of Uber's workplace culture after a former engineer leveled charges of sexual harassment. Susan Fowler posted a blog in February that detailed harassment during the year she spent at Uber. Fowler wrote she was propositioned by her manager on her first day with an engineering team. She reported him to human resources, but was told he would get a lecture but no further punishment because he was a "high performer," she wrote. Holder's investigators conducted more than 200 interviews with current and former employees, including people who had knowledge of Fowler's allegations, according to the law firm's recommendations . Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief human resources officer, said implementing the recommendations "will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated." The report recommends that Uber make sure its workforce becomes more diverse from the top down. Uber's diversity figures are similar to the rest of Silicon Valley, with low numbers for women and underrepresented minorities. In the US, less than a third of the company's workers are female. The report says the position of the company's current head of diversity, Bernard Coleman should be elevated, with Coleman reporting directly to the CEO or COO. Coleman should also communicate regularly with employees and address diversity and inclusion, Holder recommended. In short, it's not enough to hire women and minorities, but the company must ensure that they are included and supported after being hired. In addition, the report says that diversity and inclusiveness should be a key value for Uber, included in management training as a "fundamental aspect of doing good business." The word "diversity" appears 42 times in the 13- page recommendations document. While Uber released all of Holder's recommendations, it didn't release his full report in order to protect the privacy of those filing complaints. The company's board unanimously adopted all of the recommendations Sunday. After Fowler posted her blog, Uber Technologies Inc. made changes in human resources and opened a 24-hour hotline for employees. Last week, the company fired 20 people including some managers at the recommendation of Perkins Coie, which probed specific complaints made to the company about sex harassment, bullying, and retaliation for reporting problems. That firm checked into 215 complaints, with 57 still under investigation. Under Kalanick, Uber has disrupted the taxi industry in hundreds of cities and turned the San Francisco-based company into the world's most valuable startup. Uber's valuation has climbed to nearly $70 billion. Vijay Mallya has been living in a self-imposed exile in UK. Vijay Mallya, the co-owner of Formula One team Force India, could face further charges and a second request to extradite him from Britain to India, a London court heard on Tuesday. The flamboyant Indian liquor and aviation tycoon, 61, was arrested by British police in April on behalf of the Indian authorities, who accuse him of fraud. Mallya's lawyer, Ben Watson, told a hearing at London's Westminster Magistrates' court on Tuesday that India was believed to be preparing a second extradition request with further separate charges. "I don't know its contents," Watson said. India is seeking Mallya's extradition over unpaid loans tied to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the businessman fled to Britain in March last year. Banks are seeking to recover about $1.4 billion that the Indian authorities say Kingfisher owes. Mallya has repeatedly dismissed the charges against him. "I deny all allegations that have been made," he told reporters as he arrived at court. "I have enough evidence to prove my case." The next hearing will be held on July 6 when Mallya, who was granted an extension to his bail, was told he need not attend. The full extradition hearing was provisionally listed to start on Dec. 4 and to last two weeks. Aaron Watkins, the lawyer representing the Indian government, told the court that prosecutors in Britain were still waiting for documentation and evidence from India and this was expected to arrive in the next month. However, any delays or a second extradition request could push the case back to April next year, the court heard. Britain's extradition process can be complicated and take a long time to conclude. The judge will make a decision based on whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and if the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. That ruling can be challenged in a higher court before being passed to the Home Secretary (interior minister) for approval. That decision can also be appealed to the courts. New Delhi: As Andhra Pradesh gears up to shape its new capital Amaravati, it has allotted 996 acres of land to a dozen institutions to set up educational, health and other bodies at a projected cost of Rs 17,808 crore. "Work is in full swing to create a world-class infrastructure for Andhra Pradesh's new capital Amaravati. A dozen institutions have been allotted 995.5 acre of land in Amaravati for projects worth Rs 17,808 crore," an Andhra Pradesh government official told PTI. The official said these projects will create 32,726 jobs and the 12 institutions to come up will involve government as well as private bodies and include Rs 7,100 crore projects from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) University and SRM University. Besides, Amrita University and Indo-UK Institute of Health have been allotted land at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore. In addition, BR Medi city Health Care & Research is building its campus at an estimated cost of Rs 5,450 crore, the official said. Land has also been allotted to Reserve Bank of India, Central Public Works Department, Central Institute of Design Tools, National Institute of Designs and AP Human Resources Development Institute, among other government institutes. Last month, the Andhra Pradesh government inked a pact with Singapore for developing an area of 6.84 km at capital Amaravati as a startup area in phases. The two sides affirmed cooperation for economic development and master development of the startup area besides promotion of bilateral trade and investments and enhancing capacities of government departments. A high-level Joint Implementation Steering Committee (JISC) and Joint Implementation Working Committee (JIWC) will also be formed with senior officials from both the governments for speedy implementation of the project. An official statement said a Singapore consortium will form a project SPV-Amaravati Development Partner (ADP) with Amaravati Development Corporation (ADC). The Singapore consortium will have an equity participation of Rs 306 crore (58 per cent) while ADC will have Rs 222 crore participation (42 per cent). "ADP will develop an area of 1,691 acres in 15 years in three phases of each about 5 years," an official statement has said adding estimated benefits include 2,50,000 jobs while contribution to GSDP will be Rs 1,15,000 crore. New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will leave tonight on a four-day visit to South Korea to participate in the economic dialogue between the two countries and the 2nd Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Jaitley will also have one to one meetings with South Korean industry leaders including the CEO of Samsung Electronics, and the Chairman of Hyosung Group, among others. On the first leg of his visit, Jaitley will arrive in Seoul and his first engagement would be a meeting with Han Minkoo, Minister of National Defence, Republic of Korea, an official statement said. Jaitley, who also holds portfolio of defence and corporate affairs, will have a meeting with the Deputy PM and Finance Minister of Korea. He will also interact with Korean official delegation as part of India-Korea Strategic Economic Dialogue in the afternoon. During the visit, he will have a breakfast meeting with the representatives of the Korean financial industry. Later, the chairman of the KB Bank, Korea will call on the visiting Finance Minister of India. Jaitley will call on the President of Korea. In the evening on June 15, the Indian finance minister will leave for Jeju to participate in the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of AIIB. The following day, he will participate in the Opening Ceremony of the 2nd Annual Meeting of Board of Governors' of AIIB followed by the Governors' Business Session. Later in the afternoon, Jaitley will participate in AIIB Workshop on 'Energy Strategy of the AIIB'. He will return on Saturday after completing his four-day official visit of South Korea, the release said. As part of the visit, industry body Ficci, along with Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is organising a seminar, where Jaitley will address businessmen from leading companies and SMEs as well as corporate and institutional investors. The seminar will focus on the key achievements of the government and long-term investment opportunities in India. Mumbai: Clamping down on bad loans, the RBI today identified 12 accounts for insolvency proceedings with each of them having over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans, accounting for 25 per cent of total NPAs of banks. The banking sector is saddled with non-performing assets (NPAs) of over Rs 8 lakh crore, of which Rs 6 lakh crore is with public sector banks (PSBs). These 12 accounts would qualify for immediate reference under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the RBI said. The central bank, however, did not name the defaulters. The Reserve Bank had set up an Internal Advisory Committee (IAC), comprising a majority of its independent board members, to advise it with regard to the cases that may be considered for reference for resolution under the IBC. The IAC, the apex bank said, arrived at an objective, non-discretionary criterion for referring accounts for resolution under the IBC. In particular, the IAC recommended for IBC reference of all accounts with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5,000 crore, with 60 per cent or more classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016. "The IAC noted that under the recommended criterion, 12 accounts totalling about 25 per cent of the current gross NPAs of the banking system would qualify for immediate reference under IBC," the RBI said. The Reserve Bank, based on the recommendations of the IAC, will accordingly be issuing directions to banks to file for insolvency proceedings under the IBC in respect of the identified accounts. "Such cases will be accorded priority by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)," it said. As regards other non-performing accounts, the IAC had recommended that banks "should finalise" a resolution plan within six months. In cases where a viable resolution plan is not agreed upon within six months, banks would be required to file for insolvency proceedings under the IBC. The Reserve Bank said the details of the resolution framework with regard to other non-performing accounts will be released in the coming days. The IAC, in the meeting, had agreed to focus on large stressed accounts and accordingly took up for consideration the accounts which were classified partly or wholly as non-performing from amongst the top 500 exposures in the banking system. Last month, the Reserve Bank had outlined the steps taken and those on the anvil pursuant to the promulgation of the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017. Yesterday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took stock of the finances of public sector banks as also the resolution of bad loans or NPAs, with heads of the lenders. Besides NPA resolution and bank finances, the meeting also featured the government's financial inclusion schemes. New Delhi: The Finance Ministry today said telecom companies will be permitted to carry forward unavailed Cenvat credit to the GST regime, giving a major relief to the operators already battling high debt. The Revenue Department through a notification has amended the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004, to enable service recipients to carry forward such unavailed credit of Service Tax under the GST regime. "As a result, telecom service providers who have been allotted spectrum in auction conducted in 2016 and have already availed one-third credit in respect of Service Tax paid by them, during 2016-17, would be eligible to take the remaining two-thirds credit pertaining to 2016-17 in the GST regime," a Finance Ministry statement said. The government proposes to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1. GST will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies. Mumbai: On Monday, a 27 YO struggling actress, Kritika Choudhary, was found dead in her Andheri West apartment in Mumbai. The Amboli police had to break open the front door (bolted for four days) of Kritikas flat at around 3: 45 pm after a neighbour reported a stench coming from her home. Police has registered a murder case and is questioning anyone who has had anything to do with her- from friends to the watchman of her society. A source informed a leading daily, "The police on Tuesday zeroed in on a suspect and detained him after receiving circumstantial evidence. They have also informed her family in Haridwar; they are expected to reach on Wednesday." The actress had a small role in Kangana Ranauts 2013 film Rajjo and was working in television industry. Police, however, has confirmed that Kritika Choudhary was not sexually assaulted before her death. She succumbed to head injuries from an attack with knuckle duster. She was found on the bed in a semi-nude state, but her post-mortem report suggests she was not sexually assaulted. The police also recovered the knuckle duster, said a source to a daily. Not only has the police recovered the knuckle duster, they also have a few leads and a prime suspect in hand. The post-mortem report suggests no sexual assault. We have got a few leads, Paramjit Singh Dahiya, DCP (zone IX), told mid-day.. Mumbai: National award-winning actor Arjun Rampal was invited by Google to their headquarters in California to release the trailer of his upcoming biopic 'Daddy'. Arjun and the film's director Ashim Ahluwalia are happy with this special honour because the Bollywood superstar is just the fifth Indian film personality after Shah Rukh Khan, A R Rahman, Ajay Devgn and Kajol to be accorded a special invite by Google! Also, this is the first time ever a Bollywood film's trailer was launched from the search-engine office's HQ in the US. Google Toxic, a key property of Google has invited only four Indian celebrities in the past to visit their office in California and now extended an invitation to Arjun to stream the trailer live and interact in a live chat with audiences across the globe, a move that is extraordinary in every sense as it allows Arjun to showcase 'Daddy' to the world in a way that no filmmaker has ever done. Speaking about the occasion, Arjun said, "It's an honour to be invited to the world's most-sought-after platform to unveil the trailer of my film 'Daddy.' I thank Google for this. 'Daddy' is special to me because it's not just another film that I have done, it has a lot of emotions associated with it on-screen and off screen. By unveiling the trailer here I know I have created the maximum reach for it and I almost feel as if I have connected personally with each and every fan of mine. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for more on this occasion," added the 44-year-old actor. Talking further about the film, Arjun said, "'Daddy' is the true story of Arun Gawli, who came from the rough streets and back alleys of Central Mumbai and then went on to script his own destiny by becoming one of India's most feared mobsters. Today he remains an enigmatic figure; at once a volatile, power-hungry gangster for some and the venerated 'Daddy' or a modern day Robin Hood for the working-class neighbourhood he belongs to. 'Daddy' follows the intertwined fates of the world-weary Gawli as he attempts to enter politics and a resentful, frustrated Police inspector with a secret history in the mob." Shot in sweeping Widescreen Anamorphic and drenched in lurid colour, the film is a potent cocktail of true crime cinema and Mumbai pop culture. An unfolding jigsaw puzzle narrated from multiple perspectives and spanning over four decades, 'Daddy' is an unforgettable excursion into the Mumbai underworld! 'Daddy' starring Arjun Rampal and Aishwarya Rajesh, Nishikant Kamat, Rajesh Shringarpure, Anand Ingale, directed by Ashim Ahluwalia will release worldwide on July 21. Some more pictures of Arjun from the Google Headquarters: Mumbai: After making Youngistaan, Laal Rang' and 'Baaraat Company,' director Syed Ahmad Afzal recently launched his YouTube channel under the name Dilliwalah Films. The idea of the channel is to showcase the digital content with innovation. His first digital film, The BICYCLE Girl is a 3-minute film extensively shot on iPhone. The film is photographed by Chirag Malhotra and edited by Lovekesh Vij. The BICYCLE Girl features talented and gorgeous Lekha Prajapati, a popular face on the ramp and TV commercials. Saumitra Singh is the Creative Producer of the film. In the film, we see Lekha riding a bicycle and lost in her thoughts as she is going to meet her boyfriend. Lekha Prajapati While talking to Deccan Chronicle, Syed Ahmad Afzal said, I had seen several videos on youtube shot on different iPhones and I just did not believe if they were actually shot on a phone. Then in 2015 I came across this American feature film called 'Tangerine' produced by Duplass Brothers Production and distributed by Magnolia Pictures. Tangerine was shot simultaneously on 3 iPhone 5S smart phones. This set me thinking and I gradually started collecting the necessary equipment to shoot on an iPhone. "I bought some high end lenses (Moment Lens) from the USA. In order to avoid jerks while filming on iPhone I bought the DJI OSMO Mobile, which is like a mini steadicam and works on an internally built 3 axis gimbal. One fine day I just took my team of ADs and decided to shoot something on the iPhone. I told my Assistant director Saumitra Singh to execute the whole shoot and made him the Creative Producer. We went completely unplanned. I asked a friend Lekha Prajapati who is also an actress, to shoot with us. I got my bicycle and Lekha rode it. Chirag Malhotra shot the video on my iPhone 6S Plus with Moment lenses and mounted on the DJI OSMO Mobile. "I simply drove my SUV as a tracking vehicle and Chirag shot the video sitting in the open boot. Had never imagined that the footage from an iPhone would look so good. It was just a random experiment and on top of that it was 4K footage. Lekha looked very beautiful. Then I got an editor Lovekesh Vij to edit the footage and thus 'The BICYCLE Girl' was born. We uploaded it on my YouTube channel Dilliwalah Films. It opened on 11th June 2017 to tremendous response on youtube and social media platforms. My subscriber base rose massively in the first two days of the video's release and got us great reviews. I am really kicked about the great feedback we've received for 'The BICYCLE Girl'. I plan to produce and present 10 more videos like this and then venture into short films and feature length films shot on iPhone. I keep telling my friends that apart from being a communicating tool, iPhone has become a filmmaking equipment." Watch the film here: A still from the film. Mumbai: Federal prosecutors say a man was arrested in central California for allegedly uploading the Marvel film Deadpool to his Facebook page days after its February 2016 release. The United States Attorneys Office for the Central District of California says 21-year-old Trevon Maurice Franklin was arrested Tuesday on a federal criminal charge of copyright infringement. The arrest follows an FBI investigation. The office says the film copyrighted by the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation was viewed more than 5 million times on Franklins Facebook page. It says Franklin used the screen name Tre-Von M. King to upload the film, which was one of the highest-grossing movies in 2016. If convicted, Franklin faces a statutory maximum penalty of three years in federal prison. Mumbai: Short films are now becoming viral hits and we get to see big name Bollywood talents in these films. One such short film title 'The School Bag' released recently stars Rasika Dugal in one of the most powerful roles & child actor Sartaaj Rk. The film is based on a fictional take inspired by real life event of the unfortunate and ghastly terrorist attack that shook the world in 2014 when 132 innocent kids were killed in Army Public School by heartless terrorists who targeted young kids. This short film has been nominated in various film festivals across the world and has has won 22 awards by now. Rasika Duggal who plays the mother who would do anything to bring a smile on her child's face has won the Best Actress award at Haryana International Short Film Festival. Apart from this the film has won Best Child Actor, Second best film at Bengal International Short Film Festival and Best story at GIIFFA. 'The School Bag' directed by Dheeraj Jindal is a story of a kid's birthday wish, his mom who can do anything for her son's happiness and a school bag that binds it together. Here is the short film for you to watch her powerful performance. Watch the short film here: The set of 'Thugs of Hindostan' in Malta. Katrina Kaif, who has also been roped in for the film, is yet to join her co-stars in Malta. The actress is currently busy promoting her upcoming flick 'Jagga Jasoos' opposite rumoured former beau Ranbir Kapoor. Mumbai: Superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are engrossed in Vijay Krishna Acharyas ambitious larger-than-life project Thugs of Hindostan. The duo, along with newbie Fatima Sana Shaikh (of Dangal fame), is currently shooting for the film in the exquisite locales of Malta. Based on the story of four pirates- Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif- the film is rumoured to be a leaf out of Hollywoods cult franchise Pirates of the Caribbean. Deccan Chronicle managed to get a picture of the lavish set through a reliable source and we must say that it has a striking resemblance to the set of its alleged Hollywood counterpart Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Tall ships in tan, with masts attached to them, remind us of the flamboyant Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and his prized possession Black Pearl. The film had its fine share of obstacles. After multiple delays; once for failing to get the perfect female leads and then fine-tuning the script, the films shoot was stalled by Malta's rainy weather on Day 2 of the shoot (June 5). Thugs being a big budget movie by Yash Raj Films, will see high-end VFX and CGI works. This is the first time that Bollywood heavyweights Aamir and Big B are working together. Although we are beyond excited about this cinematic extravaganza, the uncanny resemblance with POTC is unavoidable. Well, we just hope that Thugs of Hindostan is just as amazing as most of Bachchan and Aamirs films. It would have been a casting coup if Rohit Shetty would've managed to cast Prabhas and Salman together. Mumbai: Prabhas is all set to star in another Telugu film Saaho after the mammoth success of Baahubali: The Conclusion. However, his Bollywood debut has been much in the news even before the SS Rajamouli directorial had released. While there were reports that Karan Johar and Rajamoli will launch Prabhas in Bollywood, a newspaper report on Tuesday claimed that Rohit Shetty would be casting Prabhas and Bollywood superstar Salman Khan together in a film. The news did sound too good to be true and too audacious, but the report immediately went viral. Rohit himself chose to put the rumours to rest before people actually start believing it was the truth. "It is fake news! I'm in Spain for the last three weeks shooting for Fear Factor. I don't know where this rumour started," Rohit told Pinkvilla.com. Rohits Golmaal Again will be releasing during Diwali this year and his next film post that is likely to be with Ranveer Singh, who he has expressed a wish to work with several times before. Salman Khan meets Katrina Kaif and heads in an auto back home. (Photos: Viral Bhayani) Mumbai: Since Katrina Kaif-Ranbir Kapoor starrer Jagga Jasoos and Salman Khans Tubelight are nearing their release date, the star casts of the respective films have been on a promotional spree. However, the trio with an unusual history was present at the same venue (Mehboob Studios) to promote their respective films on Tuesday. As per a source, "While Ranbir and Katrina were busy giving interviews, Salman cheekily like a teenager peeped into their studio and escaped the photographers present there saying that he wasn't informed about the studio number by his team." On learning Salmans presence there, Katrina hopped in to meet him and later Salman came to see her off, and then took a breezy auto ride back home to Galaxy Apartments, with producer Ramesh Taurani, informed an onlooker. The star also took some time off to click few pictures with his fans. Looking dapper in a black tee and dark brown pants, the actor was seen enjoying the auto ride. The auto driver too was all smiles. However, this isn't the first time that the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor has opted for the local's favourite ride. The 51-year-old is currently busy promoting his upcoming film 'Tubelight' that hits the big screens on June 23, whereas ex-flames Ranbir-Katrinas Jagga Jasoos releases on July 14. Check out all the pictures here: Mumbai: Its now official, Salman Khans 'Tubelight' will not release in Pakistan, because no local distributor is willing to come forward and release it there. Apparently, Salmans extraordinary popularity among Pakistani audiences has proved to be a deterrent. According to the President of the Indian Film Exporters Association, Hirachand Dand, local distributors in Pakistan are hesitant to acquire the film, since there are two big local films scheduled for an Eid release and the makers do not want any competition, especially in the form of a Salman starrer. Salman has millions of fans in Pakistan and the filmmakers are in no mood to pitch their films against his. They are determined to protect the interests of their films instead. Sources point out that there is a huge amount of money riding on the two big local releases, one of them being 'Yalghaar,' touted as one of Pakistans first ever international film, and the other being 'Shor Sharaba.' Interestingly, 'Yalghaar,' based on the sacrifices of the people and armed forces against terrorism, has premier shows scheduled in the US, UK and China. According to Dand, there was initial speculation that 'Tubelight' would have a delayed release after two weeks in Pakistan but that possibility is now likely to be ruled out due to the price factor. A Salman Khan film in the Pakistan market is said to be $5 lakh, and Dand reveals that the price has become a major point of contention. The distributors are in no mood to pay the asking price for a Salman film even if it is released two weeks later since it would have released all over the world by then. The business will also have reduced by 30 percent. And these days, pirated versions of films invariably get leaked online within a week of their release, he says, adding that a majority of Salman-starrers had released on the same day in Pakistan. Veteran Pakistan distributor Amjad Rashi, who last released 'Baahubali' and 'Hindi Medium' in Pakistan, confirmed that no distributor including the regular local distributor of Yashraj, Geo Films, had come forward to acquire the film. However, he attributed it to completely different reasons. I am not the right person to comment but I doubt whether the film will get clearance considering the Indo-China war subject. Salman is no doubt a big star in Pakistan but the film could also face other hurdles as it reflects anti-China sentiments, he said. A spokesperson from Geo refused to comment, stating that there was no confirmation on whether or not the film would release in Pakistan. However, COO of Salman Khan Films- Amar Butala says, "Salman Khan Films is committed to taking 'Tubelight' to markets across the globe with our overseas distributors Yash Raj Films. Salman has a huge following in Pakistan, which has only grown with the positive messaging on 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan.' We hope to release 'Tubelight' in Pakistan as well, and our efforts continue in that direction, but we respect the law of the land and judiciary if they decide otherwise." Hyderabad: Of late, suicides are on the rise among the youth as increased depression manifests itself. Many of them are not even aware of their condition as multiple studies published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry show that sub-clinical depression is afflicting 20 per cent of students. More than 30 per cent of students showed moderate depression, 37.7 per cent severe depression and 13.1 per cent extreme depression. Dr K. Chandrashekar, senior psychiatrist, said, There is too much expectation placed on students and they are supposed to deliver good results within a short time. This increases their stress levels and when things dont click as expected, it leads to a cycle of negative thoughts which cause a very low feeling. There are over-expectations from students who are always under pressure to give their best. But the capability and social realities have to be taken into account before setting targets for them. Dr J.M. Reddy, a senior psychiatrist at Yashoda Hospital, said, We have found students coming under extreme pressure to do their best when their capabilities are not of that level. They are just struggling to prove themselves and there is always an internal conflict. This gives way to anxiety, anger and depression. Here, we not only have to treat the young patient but also intensively counsel the parents as only then will the pressure ease and make way for better outcomes. The number of student suicides gives an insight into the mental health trauma that they are facing. There have been 39,775 student suicides from 2010 to 2015. In 2015 alone the number of students who killed themselves was 8,934. Dr Naresh Vadlamani, a senior psychiatrist, explained, The number of attempted suicides are much higher but there are no details. Whenever there have been cases of self-harm the parents and college administration have blamed each other, rather than helping out the young student. Most of them are not able to articulate what they are going through as there is a poor relationship with parents, poor understanding from their peers, as well as romantic relationships. Hence, suicide in most cases has been found to be an impulsive act rather than a well-calculated and thought-out step. With the stigma attached to mental health, those coming out and speaking about it are very few. The number of people opening up is not encouraging as there are many more suffering silently. There is need for counsellors on the campus to help students and these must be qualified psychiatrists or psychologists who can deal with the problem and not brush it under the carpet, causing more harm to the student and closing the door for help. Signs of depression Disturbed behaviour, lack of sleep, aloofness, negative thoughts towards the smallest things and feeling of uselessness. There are some who put up an excessive show while they are suffering inside, like putting up their best pictures on social media more often than required. Treatment options Medications in case of severe depression along with counselling and support from family members. Depression requires prolonged treatment and it has to be completed. COIMBATORE: About six months ago, this city-based 73-year old gentleman received a call from a hospital to check if he was available to donate blood. This hospital reached out to him as they were unable to find a donor for O+ blood then. Arun Gokuldass face lights up with joy when he shares with us that this was the 157th time he donated blood. The hospital authorities checked his blood pressure, haemoglobin and other parameters, after which he was permitted to donate blood. This, as of now, for the records is the last time that he donated his blood. On World Blood Donation Day, Mr Gokuldas shared with DC that he believes as life is to live, the blood is to give. His tryst with blood donation started when he a 15-year-old teenager visited Australia on a student exchange programme. Having been inspired by his host who is a blood donor, he had to wait till he was 18 to donate blood. Thus, on my 18th birthday, on April 1, I donated blood for the first time and since then on, there has been no looking back for me. Age is just a number for me when it comes to donating blood. I believe if I satisfy the medical parameters, I will continue to donate blood as long as I can. As a remembrance, Gokuldas has pinned on his overcoat, the badges that he has received as a token of appreciation for participating in various blood donation drives. A retired businessman, he signs off saying that he will continue visiting schools and colleges spreading the awareness about blood donation among people. The official said the militants also snatched four service weapons from the cops posted there. (Representational Image) Srinagar: Militants on Tuesday carried out a series of attacks on security forces in South Kashmir, injuring 13 jawans in a span of four hours. The ultras also looted four service rifles of the security personnel. A grenade was hurled on a CRPF camp at Ladiyar in Tral area of Pulwama district. 10 paramilitary jawans were injured in the attack, a police official said. In the second attack, the militants opened fire on the security personnel guarding the residence of a retired high court judge at Anchidora in Anantnag district, resulting in injuries to two cops, the official said. He said the ultras also snatched four service weapons from the cops posted there. The third attack took place on a CRPF camp at Padgampora in Pulwama, but no one was hurt in it as the grenade hurled by the militants exploded mid-air. The ultras also threw a grenade on Pulwama police station, resulting in minor injuries to a cop. Nilakshi Elizabeth Jorendal, who was adopted when she was three years old, is 44 now. (Photo: Nilakshi Elizabeth Jorendal's blog) Mumbai: It was an emotional moment for Nilakshi Elizabeth Jorendal, an India-born Swedish national who was adopted by a foreign couple in 1976, as she met her ailing biological mother in Yavatmal. Ms Jorendal, who is 44 now, was adopted by the Swedish couple when she was three years old. She managed to trace her biological mother through Anjali Pawar of Pune-based NGO 'Against Child Trafficking'. "It was an emotional reunion on Saturday at the government hospital in Yavatmal. The mother-daughter duo broke into tears," Ms Pawar said. "Nilakshi, who was on a mission to trace her biological parents, had met her mother briefly earlier but this was a more elaborate, public reunion," Ms Pawar said. Ms Jorendal's biological father, a farm labourer, committed suicide in 1973, the year she was born at Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission's shelter and adoption home in Kedgaon near Pune. Ms Jorendal's mother had left her there. She later remarried, and has a son and a daughter from the second marriage. They too were present at the hospital on Saturday, Ms Pawar said. The government gave Ms Jorendal for adoption to a Swedish couple in 1976. Bhopal: Ahead of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's visit to the families of deceased farmers in Mandsaur, section 144 has been revoked from the violence-hit region on Wednesday. Mandsaur became the epicenter of a farmers' agitation over a demand for loan waivers and better prices for their produce. During the agitation, six farmers were gunned down by the police, thereby drawing criticism from political parties. The situation forced the district officials to impose Section 144, and restricted prominent personalities from visiting the violence-hit district. A number of political leaders, including Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, and social activists tried to visit Mandsaur but the police didn't let them enter the area. The curfew was lifted from Mandsaur, but prohibitory orders remained. Earlier on Sunday, Chouhan, who started an indefinite fast in June, ended his fast by consuming coconut water. "We will make the state land use advisory service so that farmers get correct and timely information about climate change. I, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promise that we will irrigate every land. We have decided to implement every policy with the consent of farmers," he said before ending the fast. He further said not only in India but in the entire world, Madhya Pradesh stands at number one position in the agriculture sector. While speaking to ANI, Chouhan said that despite falling asleep "intermittently", the farmers and their issues made a constant thorough in his dreams and thoughts and hence, vowed to solve the pertinent matters. "I slept intermittently and all that while I kept thinking about what all topics - out of the ones we discussed with the farmers - can be worked upon as soon as possible," he said, adding, "kisaan khwaabon mein bhi thhe, haqeeqat mein bhi." (The farmers and their issues were in my thoughts and dreams.) "I have always tried doing a lot for farmers, and their problem is ours. They are our own. I also thought upon how to increase the productivity and sustain it," he added. Chouhan also entailed how the families of the deceased met him and asked him to discontinue the fast. "One thing that made me emotional was the number of our children that we lost in these protests. Their parents came to meet me yesterday and despite such grief befalling upon them, asked me to put an end to the issue," he said. Commenting about the amenities provided to him in the tent he has made a stay in for the fasting period, he said, "I was told that this was a five-star tent. They even asked me to put an AC, but I said that wasn't required. You don't go on a fast for the farmers by living in AC. We made a meeting room, because I had to meet officials and farmers." Meanwhile, the state government has issued a notification for the judicial probe of the Mandsaur violence. Retired Justice JK Jain will head the one member judicial commission. The single member commission will probe under what circumstances the farmers were killed in the agitation. The commission will also probe the action taken by the administration and police to control the situation was appropriate or not. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekhar in the AIADMK 'Two leaves' symbol case. On Friday, the Tis Hazari Court had dismissed the bail plea of Chandrasekhar. A Delhi court had earlier granted bail to hawala operators Lalit Kumar and Nathu Singh in this matter. Earlier in the month, the Tis Hazari court had granted bail to T T V Dhinakaran and his aide Mallikarjun in the same case on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh each and surrender of their passports. The Delhi Police had earlier opposed Chandrashekhar's bail plea, following which the court had reserved its order. The Delhi Police claimed that Sukesh had many cases pending against him and also asserted that more arrests are likely to be made in the case soon. Earlier on April 25, a Delhi court extended the alleged middleman's police custody till April 28, hours after Dhinakaran accepted that he met Chandrashekhar in his bribery dealing with the Election Commission. Dhinakaran initially refused to have known Sukesh. He later accepted meeting him when Sukesh himself gave the details of his meeting with the former. Dhinakaran, who is accused of trying to bribe an Election Commission official in a bid to retain the 'two leaves' symbol of the AIADMK, however, maintained that he did not pay any money to Sukesh. Searches were also conducted at Sukesh's Kochi residence to trace the amount paid to him. Details of calls made and received and messages sent and received were also being sought. Chennai: MK Stalin and other Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders were detained by police on Wednesday while protesting outside Tamil Nadu Assembly after being evicted by the Speaker P Dhanapal. MK Stalin had raised the issue of 'cash for vote' MLA sting in the TN assembly, but the Speaker said the issue was sub judice and that it could not be discussed. The Tamil Nadu Assembly saw a huge showdown between the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the DMK over the MLAs sting operation in Wednesdays session, which was earlier being expected to be crucial for paving the way for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill on July 1. Though the bill was tabled in the Assembly and passed successfully, a ruckus was created when Opposition leader MK Stalin raised the issue of "cash for MLA" expose, carried out few days before by a English news channel. The Speaker said the issue cannot be discussed because there was no major proof to substantiate it as it only came out in the media. Following this, the DMK MLAs showed pamphlets written "MLAs for sale" over them as a mark of protest against the Speaker's assertions. Dhanapal supported his statements by citing the Nira Radia tape case that happened in the DMK's regime. The Assembly came to a stalemate following which the policemen tried to take the protesting DMK MLAs out of the Assembly. The DMK MLAs then, led by Stalin, took to the streets to raise slogans against the AIADMK - 'MLAs for Sale'. "TN speaker forcibly evicted us from the assembly, this is a murder of democracy," MK Stalin said before being detained. "I raised the matter in the assembly and sought explanation from the 2 MLAs in the sting. Also demanded a CBI probe, but we were evicted," he added. A sting operation by an English news channel had revealed that all the AIADMK MLAs were lured in by cash and gold by the rival Sasikala camp to support Chief Minister Edapadi K Palanisamy in the February trust vote conducted in Tamil Nadu Assembly. Palanisamy won the trust vote held in the state assembly on the back of support offered by 122 AIADMK legislators. South Madurai MLA Saravanan, who had deflected to the OPS faction, admitted on camera that Sasikala camp offered him money between Rs. 2 crore to 6 crore for his support. Meanwhile, AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam has sought an explanation from his loyalist MLA SS Saravanan from AIADMK's rival Sasikala faction. "Lawmaker Saravanan in the sting operation gave some explanation. We have demanded the same explanation from him," O Panneerselvam said. State Finance Minster D Jayakumar refused to give an explanation apart from saying, "Like you, I also watched the TV. I don't know exactly what happened. The matter is pending before the court. Hence, it would be unwise to comment." The DMK severely criticised the ruling AIADMK government over the matter alleging that the party's inter-relationship was purchased and not natural. New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday assured the Arunachal Pradesh and the Mizoram government that it would provide them all assistance to deal with the floods. On his twitter handle, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju tweeted: "MHA is monitoring the heavy flood situations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram & other States for necessary help (sic)." MHA is monitoring the heavy flood situations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram & other States for necessary help. Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) June 14, 2017 He further said that the government was in constant touch with State governments. "All Para-Military, Army, Border Road Organisation (BRO) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are moving on for necessary help to the State Govts." We are in constant touch with State Govts. All Para-Military, Army, BRO & NDRF teams are moving on for necessary help to State the Govts. https://t.co/VnmWshWaYS Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) June 14, 2017 Rijiju further tweeted that 247 Control room of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was monitoring severe landslides and floods in these states for necessary help. 247 Control room of MHA is monitoring severe landslides & floods in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram & other States for necessary help. pic.twitter.com/ayPVunfP96 Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) June 14, 2017 At least eight persons, including a mother of twin babies, have been killed and six others are missing after flash floods caused by heavy rainfall wreaked havoc at Tlabung sub divisional area in Mizoram's Lunglei district. As many as 350 houses have been submerged in different parts of the state in the flash floods. Paddy fields of at least 8 villages are also submerged by the flood. Tlawng River, which runs through Aizawl, has also risen above danger level. The water almost rose to the Bailey Bridge which runs over it and 15 houses have been swept by the flood. At least 52 families are being evacuated. In the capital Aizawl town, at least five houses are destroyed and landslides have blocked several roads. However, roads are being cleared and rescue operations carried out. Incessant rains in the last two days wreaked havoc in Mizoram. This is the first time Aizawl district has witnessed flash floods. Temporary shelters are being arranged by each village authority, and the state authority is yet to take stock of the damages as connectivity and communication lines have been snapped by the bad weather. Bhopal: Two farmers have committed suicide in Balaghat and Barwani districts of Madhya Pradesh since Tuesday evening, police said on Wednesday. Subsequently, the number of farmer suicides reported in the state since June 8 to seven. The reports come in the wake of a slew of measures announced by the state government to mollify agitating farmers and death of five protesters in police firing in Mandsaur district on June 6. Ramesh Basene (42) ended his life by drinking pesticide at Ballarpur village in Balaghat district on Wednesday morning. He died at the district hospital, police said. Basene's wife Jankibai said that he was worried, being unable to repay a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh. The authorities however didn't confirm whether indebtedness led to the suicide. "A tehsildar has been sent to the village for inquiry," said the district collector Bharat Yadav. Another farmer, Shomla (60) allegedly committed suicide by drinking pesticide at Pisnawal in Barwani district last evening. Sub-inspector R Mujalde of Sendhwa police station said that as per Shomla's wife, he had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh from a private lender and he also owed Rs 1 lakh to a bank. He was finding it difficult to repay the loans, she told police. Since June 8, the state, roiled by farmers' protest, has witnessed a total of seven farmer suicides. Earlier incidents were reported from Sehore, Hoshangabad, Raisen and Vidisha districts. Mandsaur: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday said that the state government was making all possible attempts to ensure farmers' growth. He was talking to media after meeting with the families of those farmers who were killed in police firing at Mandsaur. The chief minister said, "The government is making all possible attempts to maintain peace and ensure the growth of our farmers. I have talked to the family members and my condolences are with the family members of the deceased farmers." The state government on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of one crore rupees each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. Chouhan went on an indefinite fast for the sake of peace in the state on Saturday. He ended his fast on Sunday and decided to visit Mandsaur, which became the epicentre of a farmers' agitation over a demand for loan waivers and better prices for their produce. Before ending the fast, the chief minister said that his government would implement the Centre's and state's policies with the consent of farmers. Six farmers were killed in Mandsaur during their agitation. The incident invited criticism from political parties. The situation forced the district officials to impose Section 144, and restricted prominent personalities from visiting the violence-hit district. A number of political leaders, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, and social activists tried to visit Mandsaur but the police did not let them enter the area. The curfew has been lifted from Mandsaur, but prohibitory orders remain. Meanwhile, the state government has issued a notification for the judicial probe of the Mandsaur violence. Retired Justice J K Jain will head the one member judicial commission. The single member commission will probe under what circumstances the farmers were killed in the agitation. The commission will also probe the action taken by the administration and police to control the situation was appropriate or not. Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met families of farmers killed during protests in Mandsaur last week and promised them Wednesday that their loans would be waived. Following the unfortunate event during which the state police opened fire on farmers demanding loan waivers, the chief minister had sat on a one-day fast in solidarity with families and announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore each to the kin. There is some angst in the BJP top brass on the way Chouhan handled the agitation. Some feel the hunger strike had little impact as farmers continued to protest after the compensation was announced. Farmers were not happy with the curfew imposed in the area. Ahead of Chouhan's visit to the families, the curfew was relaxed. Before ending his fast, Chouhan had said: "The state will make available to farmers the correct and timely information about climate change. I, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promise that we will irrigate every land. We have decided to implement every policy with the consent of farmers." Chouhan had said farmer concerns were the topmost in his mind -- "kisaan khwaabon mein bhi thhe, haqeeqat mein bhi." (The farmers and their issues were in my dreams and reality.) "I have always tried doing a lot for farmers, and their problem is ours. They are our own. I also thought upon how to increase the productivity and sustain it," he added. Chouhan also said families of the deceased met him and asked him to discontinue the fast. Mandsaur became the epicenter of a farmers' agitation over a demand for loan waivers and better prices for their produce. During the agitation, six farmers were gunned down by the police, thereby drawing criticism from political parties. The situation forced the district officials to impose Section 144, and restricted prominent personalities from visiting the violence-hit district. Several political leaders, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, and social activists tried to visit Mandsaur but the police didn't let them enter the area. The curfew has been lifted from Mandsaur, but prohibitory orders remain. Meanwhile, the state government has issued a notification for the judicial probe of the Mandsaur violence. Retired Justice JK Jain will head the one member judicial commission. The single member commission will probe under what circumstances the farmers were killed in the agitation. The commission will also probe the action taken by the administration and police to control the situation was appropriate or not. Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir's Director General of Police (DGP) S P Vaid on Wednesday claimed that the multiple grenade attacks on Pulwama district were carried out by militant outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammad as per intelligence reports gathered so far. "Even though Hizb-ul-Mujahedeen (HM) is a group which has a larger presence, Jaish-Mohammad was behind Tuesday's incidents as per our intelligence report, though the HM has claimed it, but it's not t rue," Vaid told ANI. Vaid said that no causalities have been reported so far. Only minor injuries have occurred to two constables and nine Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans. "Things are under control. Two minor injuries have occurred to two constables and nine CRPF jawans. No casualties have been reported. Ramzan is a time when escalation takes place in terrorist's activities. South Kashmir has presence of more local terrorists," he said. He also promised that this year's Amarnath Yatra would pass off peacefully. "We will take care of that," he added. Earlier in the day, the Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and 82 mm Mortars in the Bhimber Gali sector along the Line of Control (LoC). On Tuesday, terrorists lobbed grenade at CRPF camp in Pahalgam's Sarnal. It comes minutes after a grenade attack on a CRPF company in Pulwama. As many as nine CRPF personnel were injured in a grenade attack on its camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Tral. Out of the nine personnel, three are in critical condition, while six have suffered minor injuries. The terrorists lobbed grenade at a camp of the CRPF's 180 Battalion at 6.05 p.m. Meanwhile, terrorists fired upon an Army camp of 22 Rashtriya Rifles at Pazalpora in North Kashmir and fled after retaliation by the Army. Also, weapons were snatched at Anantnag's Anchidora at the house of retired Justice Mohammad Athar. Reportedly, 4 x SLRs rifles were taken and two Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) are injured in the incident. New Delhi: A three-member BJP panel set up to consult political parties on selecting a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential poll will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday. After meeting Gandhi, the panel of three ministers will also meet CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, sources close to Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Naidu were appointed by BJP president Amit Shah on June 12 to hold talks with opposition parties and allies in a bid to select a consensus candidate for the poll. The sources said Naidu had already spoken with Praful Patel (NCP) and Satish Chandra Misra (BSP) on this issue. Patel and Misra, who are expected to meet the panel shortly, are said to have assured Naidu their parties would take a call on a candidate after talks with the BJP panel. The notification for the July 17 polls was issued today, beginning the nomination process for the election. The last date for filing papers is June 28. After prolonged silence on the issue, Shah constituted the three-member committee for consultations with the NDA allies and the opposition on the issue. Leaders of opposition parties are meeting this afternoon to chalk out a joint strategy for the presidential poll. The opposition's 10-member sub-group is meeting for the first time after it was set up recently. Sources said the opposition leaders will discuss possible names for the post of the President, but will await the government's initiative on this matter before taking a final decision. New Delhi: At a time when the Congress is trying to extract maximum mileage out of the spiralling farmers agitation in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is all set to go on a vacation, this time to meet his maternal grandmother who is supposed to be in Italy. Announcing his plans on Tuesday, Mr Gandhi tweeted, I will be travelling to meet my grandmother and family for a few days. Looking forward to spending some time with them. Mr Gandhi will be celebrating his 47th birthday, on June 19, with his family. His tweet came about a week after he was prevented from entering Mandsaur to address the agitating farmers. The BJP, which has often joked about Mr Gandhis lack commitment to politics, could not resist taking pot shots at him. BJP leader Kailash Vijayavargi used his rustic humour to take a dig at the Congress scion. Rahulji se aap kisan ki chinta ki apeksha na karein. Woh rajniti karte hain picnic manane ke liye Hum log jab bachche the toh nanihal jaya karte the, garmion ki chuttiyon mein (Dont expect Rahul Gandhi to worry about the farmers plight. Politics is merely a picnic for him. When we were kids, we visited our grandmothers during summer vacations), he said. Rahul Gandhi visits India between his foreign visits, BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao quipped. Mr Gandhi has been in the line of fire over his foreign visits ever since he took a 56-day sabbatical in March-April 2015. This time too eyebrows are being raised, including within his party, about the timing of his vacation. Apart from the ongoing agrarian unrest in Madhya Pradesh, the announcement of his trip has come at a time when the Congress is trying to stitch together a united Opposition for the presidential polls. Leaders close to Mr Gandhi defended him by saying that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had taken the charge to rally and field a joint Opposition candidate for the presidential elections, and not Mr Gandhi. Congress communications chief Randeep Singh Surjewala said, Rahulji is travelling abroad to meet his 93-year old grandmother and family. To take care of elders and see to their well-being is part of our culture. He then hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inviting TV channels to telecast his visits to meet his mother in Gujarat. There are people who take television crews along when they go to meet their mothers, the Congress leader said. Mandsaur: In a big relief to kin of victims of the recent protests at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the family of one of the farmers who was killed in protests. Section 144 was relaxed in Mandsaur ahead of the chief ministers visit to the district. The state government on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on June 9 had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Chouhan, along with his wife Sadhna, reached Mandsaur in a special plane and went to Badwan village to meet the kin of farmer Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. The chief minister handed a cheque of Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of Dhakad, as promised. He also assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those who shot dead the farmers. Chouhan is also scheduled to visit Lodh, Nayakheda, Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth and Budha villages to extend condolences to the kin of other farmers who were shot dead. Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Scindia had also tried to visit Mandsaur but they were denied permission. Political leaders and social activists have continued to make futile attempts to visit Mandsaur despite peace having returned there. Chouhan, who came under severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off an indefinite fast on Sunday, 28 hours after its launch, claiming peace had been restored. Meerut: Congress district president of Meerut, Vinay Pradhan, was sacked from all party posts for addressing Vice President Rahul Gandhi as "Pappu" on a party's local WhatsApp group. However, denying the allegation Pradhan said that the party has taken action against him without listening to his point. "Rahul Gandhi is also known as 'Pappu' by a section of people in this country. People of this country are witness to the fact that Pappu has never taken to a lavish lifestyle," the WhatsApp message read. The senior party leaders and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Raj Babbar did not approve it and Pradhan was removed from all party posts on Tuesday. However, Pradhan claimed that the message was not sent by him and alleged that some people were trying to defame him. Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working president M K Stalin and other MLAs who were detained while protesting outside the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday were later released. Stalin and his party members were evicted when they shouted slogans demanding permission to discuss an expose by an English news channel. The sting operation claimed that jailed AIADMK leader Sasikala allegedly offered money to rival OPS camp's MLAs to support Chief Minister Edapadi K Palanisamy's ahead of his February trust vote. Palanisamy won the trust vote held in the state assembly on the back of support offered by 122 AIADMK legislators. Speaking to the reporters in Chennai, Stalin said, "On Thursday we will be visiting the Tamil Nadu Assembly to raise questions regarding the same issue. We are not convicted by any court like Sasikala and Jayalalitha." The Tamil Nadu Assembly, earlier on Wednesday, passed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill amid a ruckus created by the DMK party over a demand for a discussion on the alleged bribery case involving some All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MLAs. Tamil Nadu's Minister for Commercial Tax K C Veeramani tabled the GST Bill which was later passed despite strong opposition by the DMK. Speaker P Dhanapal refused to discuss the expose on the floor of the house as it was sub-judice. He further said the issue cannot be discussed also because there was no major proof to substantiate apart from the media report. Undeterred, the DMK MLAs protested against the Speaker's decision by displaying pamphlets with the words MLAs for sale on it. As ruckus ensued in the Assembly, the Marshalls tried to take the protesting DMK MLAs out of the Assembly. The DMK MLAs then, led by Stalin, had taken to the streets to raise slogans against the AIADMK's alleged bribery case. South Madurai MLA Saravanan, who had deflected to the former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam faction, admitted on camera that Sasikala camp offered him money between Rs 2 crore to Rs 6 crore for his support. The People's Republic of China and the Republic of Panama signed a historic agreement on Tuesday as the two countries signed a joint communique that would formalize their diplomatic relations with one another. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Panama Vice President Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado represented both countries in the signing ceremony which would connect both countries with one another. Under the communique, both countries expressed that they recognize the interests and desires of both countries and establish formal diplomatic relations between the two countries at an ambassadorial level. The ties will be made formal immediately by the time of the signing of the communique and ambassadors will be sent to both countries to facilitate talks. The two governments have also expressed that they wish to develop friendly relations with one another on the basis of mutual request for both sovereignty and territorial integrity. They will also respect policies on mutual non-aggression, non-interference, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence of both countries. Collaboration would also be assured under the communique should either country require it. With the signing of the communique, the Panama government recognizes that there is only one China and it is the government leading the People's Republic of China. They also recognize that Taiwan is a part of Chinese territory and it has severed its diplomatic relations with the country. It also said that Panama would no longer have any more official relations or exchanges with Taiwan starting Tuesday as part of their commitment with the communique. They also reaffirm that it is the People's Republic of China who is the main representative of the Chinese people worldwide. According to the communique, China had also cited that it appreciates Panama's position regarding the issue and hopes that their friendship grows with the country now that their diplomatic relations are formalized. Bhopal: The local administration here has launched a search to trace the immovable assets owned by the family of Bhopal-born Pakistans nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan here before they emigrated to the neighbouring country following a directive from the Office of Custodian of Enemy Properties, Mumbai. The move has gained significance in the official circles here. Sources disclosed to this newspaper here on Wednesday that the Mumbai office of CEP has recently sought a confidential report from the local administration seeking to know what is the current status of the ancestral properties of Mr Khan, known as the founder of Pakistans nuclear programme. While asking the Bhopal district administration to conduct a survey to identify enemy properties in the region, the Mumbai has also sought to know the current owners of the properties once owned by the Khan family here. The CEP, Mumbai, has given a list of 47 properties identified as enemy properties in Bhopal, to the local administration to find. Among them are immovable assets once owned by Mr Khans family, a senior officer in the revenue department told this newspaper. If the country has been able to tackle the problem of child boom through family planning, why not curb the aged boom? The elderly population (above 60 years) in the country is about 100 millions now, and it is projected to increase to 175 million by 2026 and 323 million by 2050, constituting 20 percent of the countrys total population, according to the United Nations. The argument for checking the aged boom rises from a multidimensional incapacity- social, economic or governmental. Needs of the ageing population are often overlooked by policy- makers, hoping to reap benefits from the investment on the younger generation. This problem cannot be solved by merely making better allocations to the elderly because better medical and other facilities would reduce their suffering but increase their longevity. The Government has the vision document and programmes though the implementation is slow due to resource constraints. The outlook on this unique social problem has changed with the Supreme Courts landmark judgment, legalising passive euthanasia- permitting painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or irreversible coma. One of the clauses in the Mental Health Care Bill 2016 decriminalises suicide, stating that a person who attempts suicide should be presumed to have severe stress, and shall not be punished. In view of the enormity of the problem and agony elderly people face, the Government may also legalise active euthanasia on a selective basis with adequate control. These elderly may be permitted to donate their organs for the welfare of others. This programme may be implemented similar to the family planning programme carried out in the country. Intergeneration ties, the hallmark of the traditional family system, are getting eroded as a result of limited number of children to take care of the elderly, migration for employment separating families, emergence of nuclear households and crumbling financial structure of families. The ongoing slow process of breakdown of the joint family system is posing challenging problems to older population and also to society. Above all, elderly women face agonising problems in society due to the general outlook and various customs. In the ageing process, coping is a very important skill needed to move forward in life and not get stuck in the past. The old and the young should understand each others problems and adapt themselves to prevailing conditions. The responsibility for maintaining destitute elders rests with the working population. But the latter already has the responsibility of taking care of the child population. According to the Welfare Act of parents, it is the duty of children to maintain their parents, which is to provide for all basic necessities and requirements. Unfortunately, due to the increasing cost of health care, especially in case of acute health conditions and prolonged illness, the working population is not able to sustain the financial burden. On the other hand, the social safety net or poverty alleviation programme can only help solve a negligent share of the problem, as even a modest subsidy or assistance would require a staggering expenditure. It will be much beyond the current level of Government income. Many customs and approach to life may have to change. Even in villages the poorest among the poor take loans beyond their capacity to repay, for organising the death ceremony of an elderly person in the family. Persons with terminal diseases are kept alive for a long time with life supports due to family pressure, leading to shattering of the financial structure of the family. Though the ageing of society is a welcome trend, it will cripple the economic development in the country. OLD AGE BOOM AND EXPLODING PROBLEMS The growth rate of older individuals is three times higher that of the population as a whole. Old adults above 80 are more vulnerable. Their number has more than doubled in the last 60 years, and reached about 50 million now. The country is grappling with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) - cardiovascular, cancer, chronic respiratory, diabetes and eye sight conditions- which increase with age. Over 7 lakh in 60-69 age group die in India of coronary disease every year. Fuelling the growing burden of NCDs is an increase in major risk factors such as tobacco use, obesity, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption. The prevalence of mental illness, another prominent NCD, is also rising. It is as high as 27 percent in southern states, manifesting in depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, dementia and alcoholism. Almost one-half of older people have at least one chronic disease such as asthma, angina, hypertension, arthritis, depression or diabetes. Pain affects old people at least 25 percent of the time, increasing with the age. The key economic implication of the ageing population is the increase in health care costs. Only about 10 percent of Indias population have some sort of medical insurance, and less than 11 percent of older Indians have a pension with limited benefits. Saving is difficult or impossible for a majority of Indians, and they find it extremely difficult or impossible to meet the cost of health care. But as the population ages, health generally declines requiring more medical attention, visits to doctor, surgery, physiotherapy, hospital stay and prescribed medicines. There are also cases of cancer, Alzheimers and cardiovascular problem. Old age death and frailty are linked, because half the deaths in old age are preceded by months and years of frailty. Individuals and society are not able to sustain consequences of such long illnesses. Many elderly dread to face such situations, and they are considered as social and economic burden. The Government is trying their best to improve medical facilities and also extend financial assistance to them. But many critics point out that considering the enormity and complexity of the problem, such assistance is too meagre to meet the situation, and it may bring improvements in survival but not in poverty rates. (Author is former advisor to Kerala Government and first director of National Transportation, Planning and Research Centre) Deputy chairman Marithibbe Gowda (right) takes over from Council chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy during the ongoing Legislature session at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Wednesday Bengaluru: Two independent members are likely to play a decisive role in the victory or defeat of the no confidence motion moved by ruling Congress members seeking the removal of incumbent chairman of the Legislative Council D.H. Shankaramurthy, which is likely to be taken up on Thursday. The support of Basavanagouda Patil Yatnal and D.U. Mallikarjun are vital for both the Congress and the BJP. Mr Yatnal was reportedly not on good terms with Mr Shankaramurthy, but he had been asked by state BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa to vote against the motion. Mr Yatnal, after quitting the BJP due to differences of opinion with BJP leaders, had won the Council election independently. Yeddyurappa is learnt to have advised Yatnal to bury differences and support the BJP. The saffron party is also said to be in touch with Mr Mallikarjun who has already left the USA to fly back and is likely to arrive here in the early hours of Thursday. Meanwhile, in a late evening development, Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda and party state unit chief H D Kumaraswamy are learnt to have favored continuation of their 'Dosti' with the BJP in the Upper House. If the JD(S) sticks to its stand, the no confidence motion could be defeated. JD(S) spokesperson Ramesh Babu told Deccan Chronicle that both 'Appaji' (Deve Gowda) and Kumaranna had given their consent to continue the alliance with BJP. A group of JD(S) MLCs told Mr Gowda and Mr Kumaraswamy about the necessity to continue the current alliance as joining hands with the Congress may send the wrong signals in an election year. What the numbers say In the 75-member House, Congress has 33 members, followed by BJP with 23, JD(S) 13, and five independents. One seat is vacant due to the demise of Ms Vimala Gowda recently. Of the five independents, three members-Mr Bhairati Suresh, Mr M.D. Laxminarayan and Mr Vivekrao Patil are identified with the Congress. Mr Yatnal and Mr Mallikarjun are likely to support the BJP-JD(S) alliance. The motion will be passed if 38 members vote in its favor. In case of a tie-the chairman will use his veto power. The story so far in a nutshell Chennai: Ours is a sahodara sandai (fraternal fight) and even as we carry this out for getting the government on the right track, we will never yield space for the enemy (DMK). That was former minister S. Semmalai, a senior member of the OPS faction of the AIADMK. Asked to comment on the rival DMKs expectation that the Edappadi Government would collapse anytime due to the split in the AIADMK and various other internal pressures, Semmalai was forthright in denouncing the Oppositions assessment as empty, futile day-dreaming and insisted, We are all even now part of the ruling party, even if we appear to have split. While their fight would continue until an agreement is reached on the basic principles of honest politics, the brothers would never let the enemy (DMK) gain from the exchange of fire. We will remain within the fold and carry on this battle for ensuring that the party and the government are put on the right track, told this correspondent, even as several others among the 11-member OPS team agreed with him. Just wait, everything will be fine amongst us (brothers), said the AIADMK senior in a chat during a short break in the stormy Assembly session that saw the DMK legislators, led by their working president M.K. Stalin, being expelled after they waved placards that read, MLAs for Sale and raised the recent TV sting on alleged payoffs for support during the EPSs trust vote. The DMK men, and women, appeared upbeat and robustly confident their day is just round the corner as they believe that the EPS Government has been cornered beyond escape. This Government of horse-traders must be dismissed. CBI must probe this horse-trading, thundered Stalin, when reporters and cameras surrounded him as he emerged from the marriage hall where he was detained along with party MLAs and supporters after staging road-roko following the Assembly eviction. And he promised, We will raise this same issue tomorrow also. Clearly, Thalapathi and his army smell blood in this new scandal that has erupted amid the ruling party. Even as the AIADMK leaders are trying to play down the sting impact and leaving the two protagonists in the videos to play out their stout denials, the enemy has grabbed the issue as his big missile to demolish the regime. Not a day passes without their saying this Government is on its way out. To recall one most recent instance, Stalin, at an Iftar party last Friday: Wherever I go, be it an airport, train journey, cinema theatre, even the beach, people are asking me when I will change this government. I promise the position would have certainly changed by this time next year. An Israeli auction house is selling letters composed by Albert Einstein, here depicted in a statue at The Albert Einstein Archives department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on February 11, 2016. (Photo: AFP) Letters from Albert Einstein giving colleagues his thoughts on physics, God and Israel in the 1950s go under the hammer at a Jerusalem auction house on June 20. The website of Winners auction house describes five signed letters written in English between 1951 and 1954. The site gave current estimates of their combined value as between $31,000 and $46,000. In a 1951 letter to eminent physicist David Bohm, Einstein discusses Bohm's linkage between quantum theory and "relativistic field theory". "I must confess that I am not able to guess how such unification could be achieved," Einstein writes. The typed letter includes an equation added in neat handwriting and the writer's signature. Bohm, born in the United States to Jewish immigrant parents, had worked with Einstein at Princeton University before fleeing to Brazil after losing his post in Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts. In a 1954 letter to Bohm, who was living in Sao Paulo, Einstein empathises with his friend's struggles in his complex theoretical work. "If God has created the world his primary worry was certainly not to make its understanding easy for us. I feel it strongly since fifty years," he writes. Winners said the letters came from the estate of Bohm's late widow. Another 1954 letter refers to the possibility of Bohm moving to Israel, which had been founded in 1948. Einstein, who had turned down an offer to be the fledgling country's president, believed the time was not ripe for such a move. "Israel is intellectually alive and interesting but has very narrow possibilities and to go there with the intention to leave on the first occasion would be regretable," he wrote. Bohm did, in fact, take up a visiting professorship at Israel's renowned Technion technological institute in 1955. "Two years later, he moved to England where he worked in the Universities of London and Bristol," Winners' online catalogue said. Einstein had earlier served as a non-resident governor of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, and when he died in 1955, he left it his archives -- making it the world's most extensive collection of his documents. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Apple Inc is concentrating on technology for self-driving cars, chief executive Tim Cook said for the first time in an interview with Bloomberg. The company is focusing on autonomous systems, Cook told Bloomberg Television on June 5. "We're not really saying from a product point of view, what we will do ... it's a core technology that we view as very important," Cook said in the interview. A late entrant to the self-driving race, Apple secured a permit in April to test autonomous vehicles in California and has recruited dozens of auto experts. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The Moto brand surpassed Lenovos expectations and sales, which led it to go for a clarified product line-up, putting emphasis on the popular brand. Lenovo-led Motorola has been doing good numbers for the parent company since its acquisition. The company went through a branding overhaul and took Lenovos support for introducing popular devices such as the Moto G5 and the innovative Moto Z series. The Moto brand surpassed Lenovos expectations and sales, which led it to go for a clarified product line-up, putting emphasis on the popular brand. Now, they have confirmed the exhaustion of the Vibe series of smartphones in India and assigning similarly priced Moto devices to gain revenue for the firm. Jan Huckfeldt, vice president of global marketing & communications at the Lenovo Mobile Group and Motorola, has confirmed in an interview to India Today that they are discontinuing the Vibe series and going through a brand strategy overhaul. However, Lenovo is keeping its popular K and Note series of smartphones on the shelves for India only. These products have done well in the market and are not affecting sales of products from the Moto division. Lenovo will continue to design smartphones in the budget as well as the mainstream category. Globally, Lenovo is dropping its dual-brand strategy of selling smartphones, i.e. selling Lenovo and Motorola smartphones together. They are willing to use the Moto brand to cash in on the legacy of Motorola and try to make it more appealing to the youth. This could also mean that premier devices from Lenovo, like the Phab 2 Pro with Google Tango, could see their next iteration branded as a Moto device. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The company hopes to be among the top smartphone players in the country soon. HMD Global is betting heavily on the emotional connect that brand Nokia has had with the masses in the past to sell its new line of Android phones in India. Armed with 10-year rights to market the iconic brand, HMD is confident of soon becoming a part of the top smartphone players in the country. "Nokia is a people's brand and we have had a phenomenal legacy. The brand is known to be reliable and trustworthy and it continues to have a strong recall among consumers even today. The new line of smartphones will continue to deliver on that promise," Nokia India Vice-President Ajey Mehta told PTI. The company hopes to be among the top smartphone players in the country soon, he added. But will emotional connect be enough to compete in the world's second largest smartphone market? "We have seen a tremendous response to the new 3310 that we launched last week. We want to leverage the values of Nokia and script the next chapter," Mehta said. HMD is focusing strongly on the millennials with strong design and rich feature sets, he said. India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally. As per IDC, sales grew 4.7 per cent to 27 million units in the January-March period compared to the previous quarter. Samsung continued to dominate the market with 28.1 per cent share. Xiaomi followed with 14.2 per cent while Vivo, Lenovo and Oppo had 10.5 per cent, 9.5 per cent and 9.3 per cent share, respectively. HMD has chosen the sub-Rs 15,000 category to launch three smartphones. The devices will be manufactured by Foxconn in India, sold under the Nokia brand. This category -- which is growing at a steady pace is also witnessing fierce competition with the likes of Samsung, Lenovo (and Motorola), Xiaomi and vivo lining up a slew of devices. "We are focused on what the consumers want... While the current lineup is priced between Rs 9,000-15,000, going ahead, we will have phones on both sides of this range," he said. Once a dominant player in the Indian market, some time around 2012, Nokia began to see a downfall in its market share, hurt by its slow response to changing trends like dual SIM, touch screen smartphones. This was also the time when homegrown firms like Micromax and others like Samsung began to eat into Nokia's market share, leaving it with under 10 per cent share at the end of 2012. In 2011, Nokia announced its partnership with Microsoft to bring out Windows operating system-based smartphones. In 2014, Nokia sold its mobile phones business to Microsoft for USD 7.2 billion. Last year, Microsoft sold the feature phone business to HMD Global and contract manufacturer Foxconn for USD 350 million. HMD Global, in a separate arrangement with Nokia, said it will bring out Android-based smartphones. Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 smartphones will be available in India only through retail stores for Rs 9,499 and Rs 12,899, respectively. Nokia 3 will be available from June 16 while Nokia 5 will be up for grabs for pre-booking from July 7. Nokia 6 -- the flagship -- is priced at Rs 14,999 and will go for pre-booking from July 14, exclusively on Amazon.in. In India, HMD has partnered with 400 exclusive distributors reaching over 80,000 retail points. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. In his dramatic appearance before former colleagues, Sessions also contradicted a contention made by former FBI Director James Comey at a hearing before the same panel last week. (Photo: AP) Washington: Attorney General Jeff Sessions heatedly denied on Tuesday that he had any undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador or conversations with Russian officials about the US elections. He vowed to defend his honour "against scurrilous and false allegations." Testifying at a Senate hearing, Sessions said it was a "detestable and appalling lie" to suggest that he participated in or was aware of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. In his dramatic appearance before former colleagues, Sessions also contradicted a contention made by former FBI Director James Comey at a hearing before the same panel last week. Comey said that, after an encounter with President Donald Trump in which he said Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into the former national security adviser, Comey "implored" Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the president again but that Sessions didn't respond. "He didn't recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy" regarding contacts with the White House, Sessions said. The former Alabama senator defended himself against accusations that he misrepresented himself during his confirmation hearing by saying he hadn't met with Russian officials during the campaign. Sessions argued that in the context of the hearing, "my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it." Sessions said he recused himself from the Justice Department's Russia investigation only because of a regulation to require the step because of his involvement in the Trump campaign. He never, he insisted, knew anything about the Russia probe or had any role in it. While he had recused himself from the Russia probe, Sessions said, "I did not recuse myself from defending my honour against scurrilous and false allegations." Herbert Bungartz was coming up the steps from the basement of his home when he saw the visitors, who were two Marines. He looked at them and said, Oh, no, said one of Herbert Bungartz sons, David. The Marines were there to announce Herbert Bungartz 19-year-old son, Marine PFC Fredrick Willa Bungartz, was missing in action in the Battle of Khe Sanh in Vietnam on Valentines Day 1968. Three to four weeks later, his body was found and identified. Fritz Bungartzs death for years haunted one of his brothers, Dan Bungartz. It still deeply affects him to this day. I just got over this in the last 10 years, Dan Bungartz said. I can talk about it now, where I couldnt before. Dan and brother David Bungartz, both of Bloomer, were on hand Monday at Chippewa Falls Senior High School as Frederick Bungartz was honored. Another brother, Michael Bungartz, a former police chief in Bloomer, was unable to attend. Miranda Bielecki and Steven Jake, who graduated this month as a part of the Class of 2017, handed Dan and David Bungartz framed pictures of students participating in the Flags 4 the Fallen program, in which students visit memorials and cemeteries where area veterans are buried. Bielecki will be making a trip to Hawaii. Jake said he has gone on a previous trip to memorials in Washington, D.C. His grandfather, Henry Hurtgen of Glenwood City, is a veteran of the Vietnam War. Each of the frames given to the Bungartz brothers had a rubbing of Frederick Bungartz name from an etching on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Flags 4 the Fallen program is starting a fund-raising effort today, Flag Day, to help pay for a trip to go to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to honor local veterans buried there. The fund-raising effort at the school is going on through Saturday, and proceeds will be used to defray the cost of 30 students making the trip. John Kinville, an American government teacher at Chi-Hi and who directs the Flags 4 the Fallen program, said the students found in their research that Frederic Bungartz was friendly and courageous. He left the world with a lot of unfilled dreams, Kinville said. Chi-Hi connection Frederick Bungartz graduated in 1967 from Chippewa Falls Senior High School and then joined the Marines. He was apparently ambushed while on patrol during the battle of Khe Sanh, which lasted from Jan. 21-July 9, 1968. During that battle, a reported 20,000 North Vietnamese Army regulars surrounded the 5,000 Marines at the Khe Sanh base. During the battle, 205 Marines were killed and 1,000 wounded, according to the Stars and Stripes website. Dan Bungartz said he was 17 months younger than Frederick Bungartz. We fought like any other brothers would fight. He was soft-spoken and good-hearted, he said. David Bungartz was much younger, only seven years old when his older brother was killed. I remember him (Frederick) really looking out for Mike and I, David Bungartz said. Having the students remember their brother meant a lot to Dan and David Bungartz. I think its very educational for them, Dave Bungartz said of the Flags 4 the Fallen program. They are putting a face with a name, learning what Fritz was all about. Dan Bungartz thanked the students for what they are doing and for honoring his brother. Its something that someone is being recognized from the Vietnam era, he said. PFC Frederick Willa Bungartz is buried at St. Catherine Cemetery in Bloomer, off of Highway 64. His name is etched on Panel 39E and in row 29 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Oslo (Norway): Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that the current diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region may bring about an increase in the purchase of arms by certain regional states. Zarif, during his meeting with Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum, called for Kenyan efforts to help resolve the ongoing diplomatic crisis in the Middle East by initiating dialogue between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He described Iran-Kenya relations as good and assured Kenya of Tehran's readiness for providing humanitarian aid to the country, the IRNA news agency reported. Expressing concern over emergence of political crisis between the two countries as there are thousands of Kenyan expatriates in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Amina said the two countries should change their rhetoric in a bid to solve the current disputes. The two also discussed bilateral ties, regional developments and other issues of mutual concern. He also discussed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. Former US secretary of state John Kerry as well as foreign ministers from different countries attended the two-day Oslo Forum. Zarif had arrived in Oslo on Monday to take part in Oslo Forum. Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday the door was "always open" for Britain to remain in the EU after Prime Minister Theresa May said Brexit talks would begin next week. "Of course the door is always open as long as the negotiations on Brexit have not finished," Macron said in a press conference. But he stressed too that he respected the sovereign decision of the British people to leave the EU in their referendum a year ago, adding that the start of talks was an important milestone. "We need to be clear and organised and once it (the Brexit process) has started we need to be collectively clear that it's more difficult to reverse course," he said at the Elysee palace. Macron's comments echoed others by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday. "If they wanted to change their decision, of course they would find open doors, but I think it's not very likely," Schaeuble told Bloomberg Television. May repeated her plans to stick to her timetable of starting discussions next week despite ongoing negotiations to form a government. She was also asked if the loss of her parliamentary majority in a bungled snap election last week would alter her decision to withdraw Britain from the EU single market and customs union, a so-called "hard Brexit". "I think there's a unity of purpose among people in the UK. It's a unity of purpose having voted to leave the EU that their government gets on with that and makes a success of it," she said. May said the process would lead to "an arrangement for Brexit which will be the interests of the United Kingdom and the remaining 27 members of the EU." After the talks, May and Macron also announced a joint action plan to tackle online extremism which aims to increase the pressure on internet giants and social media companies to tackle terror propaganda and hate speech. It includes exploring the creation of new laws that would impose penalties on internet companies if they failed to act. London: A 21-year-old British Muslim man, who travelled to the Islamic State-controlled area of Syria in 2014, says that he has escaped from the clutches of the dreaded terror group and he now hates them more than the Americans do. Jack Letts from Oxford, dubbed Jihadi Jack, is suspected of going to Syria to fight for so-called Islamic State. But he claims he is opposed to ISIS and has left their territory and is now being held by Kurdish forces fighting the group. Letts spoke to the BBC via text and voice messages. Speaking about leaving IS territory, Letts said: I found a smuggler and walked behind him through minefields. He said he and the smuggler eventually made it near a Kurdish point where we were shot at twice and slept in a field. He said he is now in solitary confinement in a jail in Kurdish-held north-east Syria. Letts converted to Islam while at Cherwell comprehensive school in Oxford. He travelled to Jordan, aged 18, in 2014, having dropped out of his A-levels. By the autumn of that year he was in IS- controlled territory in Syria. His family deny he went there to fight and instead say he was motivated by humanitarian reasons. He married in Iraq and now has a child. He said that he had been injured in an explosion and had gone to Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS in Syria, to recuperate. He claimed he became disillusioned with the group about a year ago after it killed its former supporters. I hate them more than the Americans hate them, he said. I realised they were not upon the truth so they put me in prison three times and threatened to kill me. He claimed he had escaped from low-security detention and had been in hiding when he managed to find a people smuggler to take him out. His parents have pleaded not guilty to charges of funding terrorism after being accused of sending cash to their son. John Letts and Sally Lane told the BBC that, having not heard from their son for several weeks, they suddenly received a message saying he was in a safe zone. It was the news weve been waiting for three years - ever since he went out there - and now we just want to get him home, said Lane. They believe their son is not being treated badly but are concerned about his mental health. Letts parents are calling on the British authorities to do whatever they can to help him. The government had told them that they could only help if he left IS territory but now he is out no-one wants to take responsibility, said Lane. Letts, an organic farmer, acknowledges that his son will have to account for his actions once he returns to Britain, but the family is not convinced he has done anything at all, from what he has told them. The UK government advises against all travel to Syria and parts of Iraq and a number of people who returned from these areas have been prosecuted. Asked by the BBC why the UK government should help him, Jack said: I dont want anyone to help me. Ill just chill here in solitary confinement till someone decides its easier to kill me, he added. Islamabad: Are you with us or with Qatar? Saudi King Salman raised this question during a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had visited the Gulf Kingdom for finding a diplomatic solution to the Qatar crisis. The Saudi monarch asked Sharif to take a clear position on Qatar during their meeting in Jeddah on Monday, The Express Tribune reported, citing diplomatic sources. Pakistan has told Saudi Arabia it will not take sides in the brewing diplomatic crisis in the Middle East after Riyadh asked Islamabad are you with us or with Qatar, the paper said. Pakistan has been treading a careful path since Saudi and other Gulf countries snapped diplomatic ties with Qatar after accusing the oil-rich country of supporting terrorist groups. But Saudi wants Pakistan to side with the kingdom, it said. Citing a senior government official, who was briefed on the talks at the monarchs palace in Jeddah, the paper said that Pakistan would not take sides in any event that would create divisions within the Muslim world. Nevertheless, in order to placate Saudi Arabia, Pakistan offered to use its influence over Qatar to defuse the situation. For this purpose, the prime minister will undertake visits to Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey, it said. Sharif, accompanied by army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and other senior officials, travelled to Jeddah on Monday to discuss the emerging situation in the Gulf world. Prime Minister Sharifs mediation visit to Saudi did not achieve any immediate breakthrough. According to an official statement, Sharif met King Salman in Jeddah and urged an early resolution of the impasse in Gulf in the best interest of all Muslims. Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said King Salman and Sharif discussed the latest regional developments in addition to bilateral relations. Salman told Sharif that the fight against extremism and terrorism is in the interest of all Muslims and the Ummah. The SPA, while announcing the severing of relations with Qatar, had said it had been done for protection of national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism. Qatar, meanwhile, has indicated that it was willing to address concerns of the countries that ended diplomatic relations with it. The current crisis in the Gulf is said to be the gravest that the Gulf Cooperation Council has faced in its nearly four decades of existence, although Qatars relations with Saudi and some other Arab neighbours have not always been good. Other diplomatic efforts have so far not been successful in defusing tensions either. Kuwaits Emir Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad, who has been leading the diplomatic initiative, vowed to continue his efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis despite remaining unsuccessful in his earlier bid. Saudi, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt had cut off diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar on June 5 on the pretext that its policies are fuelling extremism and terrorism. The crisis erupted late last month over fears that Qatar was trying to improve its ties with Iran, which Saudi Arabia and its allies wanted to be isolated. Bangladeshi fire fighters and residents search for bodies after a landslide in Bandarban Bangladeshi fire fighters and residents search for bodies after a landslide in Bandarban (Photo: AFP) Chittagong: Rescue workers battled Wednesday to reach victims of landslides, described as the worst in Bangladesh's history, as the death toll from the disaster rose to 152. Villagers in some of the worst-hit areas used shovels to try to dig bodies out of the mud that engulfed their settlements as they slept. Authorities say hundreds of homes were buried by mud and rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains dumped 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of water on the southeast of the country in just 24 hours. Disaster Management Department chief Reaz Ahmed said the landslides were the worst in the country's history and warned the death toll would rise as rescuers reached cut-off areas. Khodeza Begum narrowly survived the disaster, which destroyed her home and killed 11 people in her village. She told a local news website how she emerged from her home just after dawn on Tuesday to see the mountainside collapsing in front of her. "As I came out, I saw a huge slab of earth rolling down from the hill. Instantly I got all my relatives out of their homes," she said. "My house was buried under mud within moments. I have never seen a disaster like this in my life." Firefighters in the worst-hit district of Rangamati recovered six more bodies on Wednesday after clearing mud with shovels and water pumps. "The bodies were three to five feet deep in mud. We pumped water at a force to clear the mud," said Didarul Alam, fire services chief for Rangamati district The firefighters had pulled 18 people out from under the mud on Tuesday, but did not have the manpower to reach all the affected areas. Alam said his team had been able to reach more areas on Wednesday after 60 reinforcements arrived from neighbouring Chittagong. Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been evacuated, a minister said. 'Backlash effect' The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes. South Asia is frequently hit by flooding and landslides in the summer with the arrival of the annual monsoon rains. Extreme weather in the far north-eastern Indian state of Mizoram along the border with Bangladesh left 12 people dead, an official there said Wednesday. "Many people are reported missing. Hundreds of houses, roads and some mobile towers have been damaged in the flooding and landslides in the region," N Chakhai, the state's head of disaster management, told AFP. More than 200 people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when the monsoon triggered landslides and the worst flooding the island has seen in well over a decade. Experts in Bangladesh said unplanned development in vulnerable areas was making the annual rains more deadly. "There is a backlash effect. These things accelerate the pace of the disaster and make it more fatal," S.M.A. Fayez, an environmental science professor at Dhaka University, told AFP. Rescue work has been hobbled by heavy rains, which have cut transport links to some remote areas. The army said thousands of troops stationed in the affected districts as part of efforts to quell a long-running tribal insurgency had joined the rescue efforts. "Our soldiers based in all parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have participated in the rescue operations," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Rangamati district chief Manzurul Mannan said 104 people had been killed there and 200 injured, some of them seriously. At least 37 people died in Chittagong, scene of a major landslide in 2007 that killed 127 people. Among the victims in the latest disaster were two fishermen who drowned off the coast of Cox's Bazar after their boat apparently capsized. Other trawlers and their sailors were still missing. As rain pounded Cox's Bazar for a third day, police confirmed that a father and daughter had been killed when a landslide buried their home. Islamabad: Pakistan identified on Monday two Chinese nationals recently abducted and killed by the ISIS and, in a new twist, said the two were preachers who had posed as business people to enter the country. The interior ministry named the two as Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26, and said their violation of visa rules had contributed to their abductions. Previously officials said they were Chinese-language teachers. The two were abducted by armed men pretending to be policemen on May 24 in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan province. Last week, ISIS's Amaq news agency said its members had killed them. "Instead of engaging in any business activity, they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning (the) Urdu language from a Korean national ... were actually engaged in preaching," the ministry said in a statement. It did not say what kind of preachers they were, nor did it say if the Korean was from North Korea or South Korea. The interior ministry confirmed the two Chinese had been killed but it was not clear if their bodies have been found. The kidnapping was a rare crime against Chinese nationals in Pakistan, which has long had close ties to Beijing, but it has alarmed the growing Chinese community in the country. China has pledged to invest $57 billion in Pakistan in projects linked to its "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan aimed at linking China with the Middle East and Europe. But the infusion of cash has come with frequent requests for Pakistan to improve security, especially in the western Baluchistan province that will house a deepwater port and a road artery vital for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPC). The incident has prompted Pakistan to boost security around Chinese nationals and other foreigners, and accelerated plans for thousands-strong special police protection units to focus on safeguarding Chinese citizens. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in response to the case that there should be a review of the visa process for Chinese nationals entering Pakistan, and for a databank to track Chinese workers in different parts of the country. Khan ordered the databank to be "shared with all security agencies", his ministry said in a statement. At present, Chinese citizens are able to obtain visas faster than other nationals, and for longer periods when their work relates to CPEC projects. Khan said the government must work on keeping visitors secure but also appeared to try to shift the blame for the security lapse onto the Chinese nationals, saying they should have informed the authorities of their activities. "The Minister observed that it is highly unfortunate that a misuse of the terms of (the) business visa contributed to the unfortunate incident of abduction and subsequent murder of two innocent Chinese," the ministry said. Sorry, the page you are looking is no longer available. Click here to go to Home US President Donald Trump has vowed to revisit all of his predecessor's diplomatic successes and failures, but is he ready to slam the door on Cuba? On Friday, he is expected to unveil a new policy on relations with Cuba after Barack Obama painstakingly restored ties with the communist-run island. Although many Americans support the decision and the US business community has welcomed moves to reopen trade, Trump's hardline campaign rhetoric won him support among influential Cuban exiles in Florida. The White House has not let much slip, but a radical turnaround such as a renewed break in diplomatic relations does not yet appear to be on the cards. Instead, Trump may announce a return to restrictions on US tourists heading to Cuba and businesses signing partnerships with Cuban firms. That would be meant to press Raul Castro's government toward democratic reform and appease Cuban-American voters, many of whom fled communist rule. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday acknowledged that increased cooperation helps both countries and provides opportunities for downtrodden Cubans. But he also cited the "dark side" of Cuba's regime, saying Trump's review had concluded that some renewed business relations help fund the regime. "Cuba has failed to improve its own human rights record. Political opponents continue to be imprisoned. Dissidents continue to be jailed," he told senators. "And as we're enjoying the benefits on the economic and development side, are we inadvertently or directly providing financial support to the regime?" "Our view is: 'we are,'" he added, answering his own question. That view resonates with Cuban-Americans such as Senator Marco Rubio, the son of anti-Castro immigrants, who has long warned that detente is moving too fast. "I am confident the president will keep his commitment on Cuba policy by making changes that are targeted and strategic and which advance the Cuban people's aspirations for economic and political liberty," he said. Trump accused Cuba of "cruel despotism" in May, vowing to support its people's hopes for democracy, which raised ironic cheers from rights supporters more used to his cozying up to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other autocratic states. But watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch are skeptical of a return to the terms of the half-century Cold War stand-off, with its total trade embargo and no diplomatic ties. "The previous administration was right to reject a policy that hurt ordinary Cubans and did nothing to advance human rights," said Daniel Wilkinson, the group's managing director for the Americas. "The fact that Obama's approach hasn't led to political reform in Cuba after just a few years isn't reason to return to a policy that proved a costly failure over many decades." On the economic front, business interests on both sides of the Florida Straits are wary of a return to a rigorous enforcement of the still-active US sanctions legislation. Some 50 female Cuban entrepreneurs who have benefited from the island's limited free-market opening have even written to Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka. Inviting her to the island to see for herself, the women insist that "millions of Cubans" now benefit from increased tourism and trade. "A setback in the relationship would bring with it the fall of many of our businesses and with this, the suffering of all those families that depend on them," they wrote. The previous US administration softened many of the restrictions lifting American travel to Cuba, triggering a tourism boom. Some 285,000 people visited the Caribbean country in 2016, up 74 percent over 2015, with Americans the third biggest group after Canadians and Cuban expats. Engage Cuba, a group lobbying for an end to the embargo, estimates that 10,000 US jobs in aviation and the cruise business already depend on Cuba. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today visited Mandsaur, where five cultivators were killed during the farmers' stir, and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the family of one of them. The state government yesterday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on June 9 had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Chouhan along with his wife Sadhna reached Mandsaur in a special plane and went to Badwanvillage to meet the kin of farmer Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. The chief minister handed a cheque of Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of Dhakad, as promised. He also assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those who shot dead the farmers. Chouhan is also scheduled to visit Lodh, Nayakheda, Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth and Budha villages to extend condolences to the kin of the other farmers killed in police firing. The district administration made elaborate security arrangements for Chouhan's visit. Five helipads were made at various places to ensure that the chief minister reaches the venue without any trouble, a senior official said. Congress has also made arrangements at Dusshera maidan in Bhopal for senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's 'satyagraha' on the issue of farmers' deaths in police firing. The protest will begin around 2 pm, a Congress spokesman said. Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Scindia had also tried to visit Mandsaur but they were denied permission. Political leaders and social activists have continued to make futile attempts to visit Mandsaur despite peace having returned there. Chouhan, who came under severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off the indefinite fast on Sunday, 28 hours after its launch, claiming peace had been restored. Though the stir has ebbed away, three farmers have ended their lives in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the number of farmer suicides in the state in the past one week to five. Pakistan troops continued shelling and firing on civilian areas and border out posts (BoPs) along the Line of Control in Krishna Ghati and Nowshera sectors of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate with the same force. Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta said Pak troops resorted to firing on forward posts along the LoC in Krishna Ghati sector from 6:20 am. The Pak army also started firing from small arms, automatics RPG and mortars in Nowshera sector from 8:45 am, he said and added since June 1, this was ninth ceasefire violation done by Pakistan army and in last 72 hours this was the sixth violation. However, there was no report of any causality in the latest ceasefire violations. Reports said Army and administration have advised people putting up along the LoC not to move out of their houses. People live under panic risking their lives as Pakistan troops were targeting civilian areas with 120 mm mortar shells. Some of the civilians have already shifted to the houses of their relatives or their own houses in the safer areas but majority of population was living in the villages, reports added. Like the previous days, Pakistan troops were directly targeting the civilian population in the border villages as some mortar shells were landing in areas four kilometres away from the LoC, sources said. There has been spurt in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops on LoC and International Border (IB) since May 1 after Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) beheaded two Indian troopers on May 1. The Indian Army had recently launched punitive fire assaults on Pakistani positions across the LoC, inflicting "damage". There have been hundreds of violations of the 2003 ceasefire agreement by the Pakistan along the LoC and the IB in J&K since Indian army carried surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir on September 29 last year. (UPDATE: The Highway Department's plan was defeated on by a 10-5 margin. What this means for the wheel tax and the winter road maintenance fund is unclear.) A last ditch attempt to scrap Chippewa Countys $10 a year per vehicle wheel tax failed on a 7 for and 8 against vote Tuesday night. The tax is scheduled to expire Jan. 1, 2020. A county Highway Department plan would keep the tax in place to build a surplus in the winter maintenance fund, which has showed deficits after severe winters. Supervisor Annette Hunt, however, said with the county showing a surplus, scrapping the wheel tax should be looked at by the full board. I know a number of my constituents No. 1 thing is getting rid of the wheel tax, Hunt said. We owe it to our constituents to at least look at that. She called on the full board to look at the issue at a July meeting. But her amendment failed by one vote, and the county looked at the issue later in the meeting. Under the Highway Department plan, two positions in the highway department will not be filled, some snowplow routes will be lengthened and some of the money that would be borrowed for other projects will instead be borrowed for the winter maintenance fund. The plan includes: Having the winter maintenance funding take a $50,000 tax levy that had been set aside from the county road construction fund each year for 10 years. Shifting $150,000 of the $300,000 additional tax levy the board set aside for the highway road construction fund for 2017 to the winter road maintenance fund. The shift would be made permanent, and would happen annually. Having the highway department find $100,000 in job cuts and service reductions, including lengthening plow routes, by Jan. 1, 2018. Having the highway department will find $100,000 in cuts and service reductions in highway construction and equipment purchasing no later than Jan. 1, 2020. And having an additional $50,000 tax levy for highway road construction will instead be used for the winter maintenance funding during the bonding (long term loans) years of 2019 through 2022. The board vote on the issue happened after the Herald deadline. For the vote total, check Chippewa.com or see Thursdays Herald. In other action The board on a 10-5 vote endorsed a resolution by the countys Executive Committee that calls on the state to create a non-partisan procedure to redraw legislative boundaries. The impetus for this resolution appears to be the 2016 decision by a panel of federal district and appellate court judges from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the redistricting done in Wisconsin in 2011 was unconstitutional, a statement of explanation of the resolution said. Supervisor Dean Gullickson voted against the measure. Interestingly enough, the (now defunct) Government Accountability Board was supposed to be partisan. If history has shown us anything, these are exercises in futility, he said. Also, a resolution to use $91,949 of county money as a local match to funding from the states Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund was defeated, with seven supervisors voting for and eight against. The money would have been used to build a trail head shelter at the Old Abe Trail parking area, near the intersection of County S and 97th Avenue. The county funds that would have been used came from trail fees and private donations. Supervisor Larry Willkom said he would have preferred first hearing about the project in committee. The board also voted on several resolutions on spending the countys sales tax on projects. The revenue comes from a county half-cent sales tax. One of those projects included spending $50,000 for a new dishwasher at the county jail. Sheriff James Kowalczyk said the machine is used every day all day long. He said the last dishwasher lasted 14 years. Willkom said he supported the department getting the dishwasher, but opposed using sales tax money for it. The expenditure was approved 12-3. Supervisor Hunt said she would not be attending a closed session where the board was updated on a pair of lawsuits against the county. One of the lawsuits is being brought by Hunts husband, Dennis Hunt. BSF personnel have nabbed an inebriated Pakistani national who crossed the international border in Ferozepur sector, an official said today. Identified as Mohamad Islam (32) of Bashirwala village in Pakistan, the Pakistani national was spotted by a BSF jawan late last night. He was crossing the international border and coming towards the Indian side, the official said. BSF personnel apprehended the intruder, who was in an inebriated condition. "He was not in a condition to reveal much information at the time of his arrest. Further investigations in the case are under progress," he said. Last week, a Bangladeshi national was apprehended from an area close to the India-Pakistan border in Ferozepur sector. Amid agricultural loan waivers and protests by farmers in many states, the Centre Wednesday decided to make loan cheaper for farmers. Under the proposal approved by the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre will provide a subsidy of upto 5% on interest of farm loans, sources said. They said under the scheme, a 2% subsidy on interest of agricultural loan will be given to all farmers. Additionally, a 3% subsidy will be provided to those who pay back such loans on time. Thus, the effective rate of interest for those who make a timely repayment of loan will be 4% as against the prevailing 9%. The scheme will be available for short term crop loan payable within one year. The scheme will be available for loan amount of upto Rs 3 lakh, sources said. The proposal is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 20,339 crore in 2017-18. The interest subvention will be given to public sector banks, private sector banks, cooperative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs) on use of own funds and to Nabard for refinance to RRBs and cooperative banks, an official statement said after the meeting. The Interest Subvention Scheme will continue for one year and it will be implemented by Nabard and RBI, it said. To provide relief to the farmers affected by natural calamities, the interest subvention of 2% will be provided to Banks for the first year on the restructured amount, the statement said. The Cabinet decision comes amid farmers protests in Madhya Pradesh demanding farm loan waiver. Protests had also been witnesses in Maharashtra which has announced such a waiver. Earlier this year farmers of Tamil Nadu sat on a dharna in Delhi demanding Rs 40,000 crore as a waiver but were partly compensated by the Centre. Uttar Pradesh too has announced a loan waiver of Rs 36,000 crore. China will continue to verify the kidnapping and killing of its two nationals by the ISIS militants in Pakistan and will cooperate in investigating their alleged illegal "preaching" activities in the Muslim nation, the Foreign Ministry said today. The Ministry's response came after China's official media yesterday accused South Korean Christian groups of converting young Chinese and sending them for proselytising in Muslim countries. Earlier, Pakistan had said the two Chinese nationals killed by ISIS were involved in "preaching" in the country. In a statement late last night, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said China had not received any official confirmation of the deaths from Pakistan and will do its best to verify reports that the two have been killed as soon as possible, Lu said. Reports from Pakistan said the two were killed by Islamic State group after being abducted by gunmen dressed as policemen in Quetta last month. The Islamic State terror group has claimed that it had killed two Chinese hostages, including a woman, who were abducted by armed gunmen from restive Balochistan province. China firmly opposes all kinds of terrorism and extreme violence targeting civilians and supports Pakistan's efforts to combat terrorism and safeguard domestic security, Lu said, adding that China will work with the international community in the fight against terrorism. China appreciates Pakistan's efforts to rescue the two hostages and its commitment to better protect Chinese nationals and institutions in Pakistan, Lu said. China has always asked its citizens to abide by local laws and regulations, respect local customs and be aware of risks when in foreign countries, he said. Lu said China will cooperate with Pakistan's investigation into illegal preaching activities allegedly undertaken by the two of its nationals. Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Monday directed the ministry to review, regulate and streamline the process of issuing visas to Chinese nationals. Nisar said that all Pakistani missions were bound to undertake proper scrutiny of visa applications and must get all necessary details before exercising their power to issue visas to foreign nationals. Pakistan has been grappling with Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in Balochistan since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting. ISIS has been making inroads in Pakistan with the help of its ties with local militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. However, the government has largely downplayed the presence of the dreaded terror outfit. Samsung Pay is available for users of flagship devices like Samsung S8, Samsung S7 Edge, S7 and S6 Edge Plus among others. The company today launched two new devices - J7 Max and Pro, priced at Rs 17,900 and Rs 20,900, respectively that feature Samsung Pay. "Since its launch in India, we have received tremendous response to Samsung Pay and we remain committed to taking it to maximum number of consumers. Over the next few weeks, we plan to extend Samsung Mini as an update to some existing users of devices like J7 Prime," Samsung India Senior Vice President Mobile Business Asim Warsi told PTI. The J7 Pro is equipped with Samsung Pay, while J7 Max comes loaded with Samsung Pay Mini. Designed to work on mid-range smartphones, Samsung Pay Mini comes with UPI and mobile wallet integration. However, it does not support tap-and-pay using credit and debit cards like the main app. "Samsung Pay Mini is designed to cater to requirements of mid-segment consumers. While J7 Max is the first device to get Mini, it will be made available on select existing J series devices shortly," he said. The J series, which now has 10 devices after J7 Pro and J7 Max, accounts for a huge chunk of Samsung India's sales. The J7 Max features a 5.7-inch display, 1.6 GHz Octa-core processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB internal memory (expandable up to 256GB), 13MP front and rear camera and 3,300 mAH battery. It will be available in stores from June 20. The Galaxy J7 Pro has a 5.5-inch display, 3GB RAM, 64GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB) and 3,600 mAH battery. The device will hit the stores mid-July onwards. Both the devices feature 'social camera' that allows consumers to add filters or stickers on-the-go and share the picture instantly on social media apps. The instant discovery feature -- through the augmented reality camera -- allows users to discover their surroundings for popular photography spots, restaurants and shopping areas. Handset maker Samsung will expand its mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, to more affordable devices in its portfolio in India over the next few weeks.The service, which was launched in March this year in India, allows users to just tap and pay using the debit/credit cards and wallets stored on their mobile devices. A three-member BJP panel set up to consult political parties on selecting a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential poll will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday. After meeting Gandhi, the panel of three ministers will also meet CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, sources close to Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Naidu were appointed by BJP president Amit Shah on June 12 to hold talks with opposition parties and allies in a bid to select a consensus candidate for the poll. The sources said Naidu had already spoken with Praful Patel (NCP) and Satish Chandra Misra (BSP) on this issue. Patel and Misra, who are expected to meet the panel shortly, are said to have assured Naidu their parties would take a call on a candidate after talks with the BJP panel. The notification for the July 17 polls was issued today, beginning the nomination process for the election. The last date for filing papers is June 28. After prolonged silence on the issue, Shah constituted the three-member committee for consultations with the NDA allies and the opposition on the issue. Leaders of opposition parties are meeting this afternoon to chalk out a joint strategy for the presidential poll. The opposition's 10-member sub-group is meeting for the first time after it was set up recently. Sources said the opposition leaders will discuss possible names for the post of the President, but will await the government's initiative on this matter before taking a final decision. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a charge sheet against absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya and others in connection with the Rs 900-crore money laundering case in the IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan case. The development comes a day after the now London-based 61-year-old Mallya, before Westminister Magistrate Court, claimed that he had enough evidence to defend himself in the extradition case brought by the Indian government. Keep dreaming about billions of pounds, he even taunted outside the courtroom. The Indian government is seeking his extradition from United Kingdom in loan default to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore involving several banks in connection with the money that he reportedly raised for the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA). In India, he is being probed by the ED and the CBI on charges of violation the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). However, on Wednesday, when the ED filed the charge sheet, it comes as a jolt to him. The 57-page charge sheet with voluminous annexures has provided details of the manner in which the loan was approved and subsequently diverted for money-laundering purposes violating norms. According to the ED, in October 2009, the IDBI had granted a short-term loan of Rs.150 crore to the KFA, followed by another loan of Rs.750 crore, including a bridge loan of Rs.200 crore, without adequate collateral and flouting norms and procedures. The charge sheet also mentioned the role of KFA and IDBI executives who were probed by the ED and they had criminally conspired to obtain funds to the tune of Rs 860.92 crore despite weak financials, negative net-worth, non-compliance of corporate credit policy of new client, non-quality collateral security and low credit rating of the borrower. Out of which Rs 807.82 crore of principal amount remains unpaid, according to the investigations. In an apparent damage control bid following attacks on the dalits in parts of the state and get rid of the 'anti-dalit' tag on his government, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday had lunch with the dalits at a village in his home district of Gorakhpur, about 275 kilometres from here. The venue of the feast, which was attended by around 150 members of the dalit community, had neither fans nor air-coolers in an attempt to make it look like a real village feast during the scorching summers. According to the sources, Adityanath, who unveiled a statue of dalit ideologue B.R.Amebdkar before attending the feast, refused to sit on a specially made 'asana' (chair) and preferred to sit on the ground with others. Sources said that the meal was prepared by dalit cooks. Sources said that it was a simple lunch comprising rice, pulses and a vegetable. Garlic and onions were not used in preparing the meal, sources added. While unveiling the statue of Ambedkar at Campereganj in the district, the chief minister heaped praises on the dalit icon and said that the BJP led NDA regime at the centre, as well as the state government, were committed to protecting the interests of the poor and downtrodden. The exercise assumes significance as it came in the wake of wake of large-scale Thakur-dalit clashes in Saharanpur that claimed three lives. Several houses of the dalits were set ablaze in the district also. The arrest of the 'Bheem Army' , a dalit outfit, founder Chandrashekhar, has also not gone down well with the community members. The 'lunch diplomacy' also comes within a few days of alleged distribution of soaps, shampoos and perfumes among the members of 'Mushar' (a dalit community) community at a village in Kushinagar district before their scheduled meeting with the chief minister. The report of soap and shampoo distribution evoked sharp criticism from the opposition parties, which accused the BJP of practising ''untouchability'' and sought an apology from Adityanath. BSP supremo Mayawati and other opposition leaders have accused Adityanath of having an 'anti-dalit' mindset and failing to check attacks on the dalits. WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump showed off a few too many trophies in his display Cabinet. Trump opened part of a Cabinet meeting to the press Monday and filled that time with self-congratulation as well as praise from his team. On multiple fronts, that celebration of achievement was unearned. A sampling of his comments: "Great success, including MS-13. They're being thrown out in record numbers and rapidly. And they're being depleted. They'll all be gone pretty soon." THE FACTS: There's no publicly available information to back up Trump's claim that this violent gang is about to disappear. Deportations are actually down slightly compared with the same time last year, as arrests of people caught crossing the Mexican border have dropped to historic lows. More than 100 MS-13 gang members have been arrested in recent weeks, though the government hasn't said how many of those people have been deported. In any event, deportations alone cannot eradicate MS-13, a homegrown gang with ties to El Salvador that includes U.S. citizens. The government has not said how many of the estimated 7,000 to 10,000 gang members are Americans, who cannot be "thrown out." The group's roots in the U.S. go back more than 20 years to Los Angeles. The gang was in decline in Southern California long before Trump was elected. During a recent raid of MS-13 members in Los Angeles, Police Chief Charlie Beck said the gang's membership has been declining for several years in part because of law enforcement crackdowns. MS-13 has been in the crosshairs of federal law enforcement since at least 2012 when the group was designated a transnational criminal organization and subjected to financial sanctions by the Treasury Department. Three leaders of the gang were targeted for sanctions in 2015. "I recently returned from a trip overseas that included deals for more than $350 billion worth of military and economic investment in the United States. These deals will bring many thousands of jobs to our country and, in fact, will bring millions of jobs ultimately and help Saudi Arabia take a greater role in providing stability and security in that region." THE FACTS: Trump's $350 billion figure includes hundreds of billions of dollars in aspirational deals with Saudi Arabia that have not been signed yet and could be revised or eliminated. He's relying on a 20- to 30-year projection of what the government believes will be the contracts' long-term value because of the cost of sustaining them. When he visited Riyadh, agreements on more than $110 billion in foreign military sales were pledged, according to the State Department. But many of those along with a significant amount of the $80 billion in announced commercial civilian sales were memoranda of understanding or letters of intent and not sales contracts. Arms sales make up the vast majority of Trump's total, but those must be approved by the State Department and Congress. Since Trump's trip, the State Department has notified lawmakers of only a small fraction of the total $1.7 billion, mainly in naval and air force training contracts, and some Democrats say they want to hold those up over human rights concerns and Saudi Arabia's conduct in the war against rebels in Yemen. And while U.S. officials say further approvals, including large-ticket items such as a high-altitude missile defense system, could be approved in the coming weeks, there is no guarantee Congress will go along. In addition, some of the business he's claiming to have generated was agreed to during the Obama administration. "I will say that never has there been a president with few exceptions; in the case of FDR, he had a major Depression to handle who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than what we've done, between the executive orders and the job-killing regulations that have been terminated. Many bills; I guess over 34 bills that Congress signed. A Supreme Court justice who's going to be a great one ... We've achieved tremendous success." THE FACTS: He has little to show for his first five months in office, in concrete ways, other than the confirmation of a justice. Trump's two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, accomplished more in their early months. Trump has achieved no major legislation. The bills he is counting up are little more than housekeeping measures things like naming a courthouse and a VA health care center, appointing board of regents members, reauthorizing previous legislation. He has indeed been vigorous in signing executive orders, but in the main they have far less consequence than legislation requiring congressional passage. Trump's big agenda items, like his promised tax overhaul, have yet to pass or even reach Congress. His attempt to secure the borders from people from terrorism-prone regions is so far blocked by courts. By contrast, Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package into law in his first month, while also achieving a law expanding health care for children and the Lilly Ledbetter bill on equal pay for women in that time. Bush got off to a slower start, in part because he did not take office in a deep recession requiring quick action, as Obama had done. But by this point in his presidency, Bush had signed a huge tax cut into law. ___ Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd The majestic Gateway of India is the most prominent landmark of Mumbai. For every Mumbaikar, it is a matter of pride and everyone who visits Mumbai from outside makes it a point to visit Gateway. Besides, it also figures in the list of most photographed monuments of the country. Six-time BJP MLA Raj Purohit now wants to be renamed Gateway of India as Bharat Dawaar. The days of British Raj are over. Names of many railway stations have been changed. The name of the city has been changed from Bombay to Mumbai. Hence, Gateway of India should now be called Bharat Dwaar, said Purohit, the chief whip of the BJP in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. The senior BJP leader said that he had held several informal discussions on this issue and many of his friends had been requesting him to ensure that the Gateway of India gets an Indian name. The structure is a symbol of slavery, the MLA from Colaba in south Mumbai said. Purohit is also writing to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari to formally make a demand. Earlier, he had demanded that the name of the Marine Lines station on the Western Railway be changed to 'Mumbai Devi' station. The Elphinstone station has been renamed to Prabhadevi, the name of a local deity in the area; Oshiwara has been rechristened Ram Mandir. The Victoria Terminus that was known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) is now named as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). After getting flak for turning up at a yoga camp in Bihar when Madhya Pradesh was on the boil over farmers' stir, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has postponed his forthcoming visit to China. An official statement said Singh decided to be available "for the purpose of every possible help to farmers in the current environment and in the policy decisions by the state governments for the interests of farmers welfare." Singh was to take the flight to Beijing on June 15 morning to attend the three-day meeting of the BRICS agriculture cooperative group. India will now be represented by the secretary, department of agriculture cooperation and farmers welfare, the statement said. At a three-day yoga event organised by Baba Ramdev in Motihari on June 8, Singh was seen doing yoga in his company. When reporters questioned him about the five farmers who were killed in Mandasur, he had replied, Yoga kijiye (practice yoga). As criticism grew over Singh's action, the BJP sought to defend itself, saying his visit to Bihar was pre-planned and that he was monitoring the situation in Madhya Pradesh where farmers had been protesting since June 1 demanding loan waivers and fair prices for their produce. The agitation took a violent turn after five of them died in police firing. With the company reeling under a huge pile of debt, Reliance Communications (RCOM) chairman Anil Ambani has decided to forego his salary and commission for the current fiscal. "Reliance group chairman Anil D Ambani has voluntarily decided to draw no salary or commission from RCOM in current financial year. The decision is a part of company promoters' commitment to strategic transformation programme," RCOM said. The company's management follows chairman's lead to ensure time-bound execution by deciding to defer personal pay by up to 21 days, RCOM said, adding that these measures will remain in place until December 2017. RCOM's debt currently stands at around Rs 45,000 crore. Anil Ambani, during a press conference held on 2 June 2017, announced that bankers had agreed to pause debt repayments from the company for 7 months till December 2017. He had also stated that the merger of India wireless business with Aircel and deal with Brookfield for the sale of tower assets should help the company in reducing the company's debt by 60% to Rs 20,000 crore. Madanayya will now walk out from a Maharashtra jail. He desired to have equal number of children with the woman as he had with his legally wedded spouse but the two children born out of their relationship did not survive. The convict regularly beat up the woman, holding her responsible for the death of the two children, and that resulted in her death in the intervening night of August 23- 24, 2001. The man was sentenced to life term for murder by a Gadchiroli court, which was upheld by the Bombay High Court. He appealed to the Supreme Court which discussed the entire story and held that the death of the woman, who was staying together with Madanayya's family after the demise of her husband, cannot be brought under the offence of murder as there was no intention to kill her. He has already served a jail term of more than the maximum of 10 years awarded for the offence of unintentional killing as held by the apex court bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Deepak Gupta. The convict was living with his wife at his in-laws house where the woman had returned after the death of her husband. During their stay under the same roof, both of them had developed a relationship and his conviction was based on the testimony of his wife. The apex court noted that the prosecution's story was fully supported by the statement of the man's wife and there was no reason that she would falsely implicate her husband. "The story of the prosecution is fully supported by the wife of the accused. There is no reason why she should falsely implicate her husband in the death of her sister," it said. His wife had testified before the court that her sister had told her in August 2001 that she was beaten up by the man and on the same day, she succumbed to the injuries. The apex court said though the victim had died due to the injuries caused to her by the man, "none of the injuries by itself was sufficient for causing death". "The postmortem report also shows that she died within a couple of hours after partaking a heavy meal. In this view of the matter, it is difficult to impute the intention to kill to the appellant," the bench said while altering his conviction. "As the appellant has been behind bars for sixteen years, in our view, this is sufficient punishment for his crime and therefore, we reduce the sentence after altering the sentence as aforesaid to the period of incarceration already undergone by the appellant-accused. He shall be released forthwith unless wanted in any other case," the apex court said. He spent 16 years behind the bars for killing his wife's widowed sister but the Supreme Court has now ruled that he had no intention to murder the woman he was treating as his spouse. Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia today launched a 72-hour 'satyagraha' here in support of farmers, three days after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called off his indefinite fast on the issue. Scindia, the Congress' Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, launched the protest at around 3.30 pm at TT Nagar's Dussehra Maidan. The scion of the erstwhile Gwalior dynasty garlanded the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the stage before sitting on the 'satyagraha'. The photos of the six farmers killed in Mandsaur district earlier this month were also displayed on the stage. The farmers' protest, which began on June 1 over various demands, including loan waiver and better prices for their produce, took a violent turn on June 6, when five of them were allegedly killed in police firing at Mandsaur. Another farmer from the district, who was allegedly beaten up by the police, succumbed to his injuries later. The protest spread to the other districts of western Madhya Pradesh subsequently, including Neemuch, Dhar, Ratlam and Jhabua. The farmers' agitation prompted the opposition parties to launch an attack on the BJP government in the state and corner Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the issue. An under pressure Chouhan had launched an indefinite fast here on Saturday with an appeal for peace, but called it off the next day claiming that peace had been restored in the areas affected due to the farmers' protest. On June 8, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was detained by the police while he was on his way to Mandsaur to meet the kin of the farmers killed in police firing. Scindia, his party colleague Kantilal Bhuria and a number of Congress supporters were detained by the police yesterday at the Nayagaon-Jaora toll booth in Ratlam when they were headed towards neighbouring Mandsaur. The faux pas came to light when a website reported about it, providing the picture printed in the Annual Report 2016-17 of the MHA and the original photo. There was no reaction from the MHA on the issue till late evening. However, sources said Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi has sought the explanation from officers and wanted to fix responsibility for the goof-up. The image appeared on page 40 of the annual report under the topic floodlight on Indo-Pak border. However, the website reported that the picture was taken in 2006 by a Spanish photographer Javier Moyano. According to the annual report, the government has sanctioned 2043.76 km of floodlights along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Of the sanctioned length, the authorities have completed 1,943.76 km of floodlighting so far. In 2010, the then UPA government faced huge embarrassment when a full page newspaper advertisement given to mark the National Girl Child Day carried a photograph of former Pakistan air force chief Tanvir Mohamed Ahmed along with that of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has landed in the soup after it used a picture of Spain-Morocco border to highlight the floodlighting of the Indian borders with Pakistan. Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today set up a high-level committee chaired by state Home minister R Lalzirliana to assess the flood situation in the state where eight persons have died. Several other north eastern states are taking stock of the situation following incessant rains since the last three days, which has triggered flash floods and landslides. Lal Thanhawla said other members of the panel will be state Finance minister Lalsawta, Disaster Management minister C Ngurlianchunga and representatives of NGOs. The swollen Khawthlangtuipui river has submerged over 350 houses in Tlabung sub-division in Lunglei where eight persons died after flash floods caused by heavy rainfall wrecked havoc yesterday. Disaster Management and Rehabilitation department officials estimated that over 2,000 families were affected by the floods. The chief minister said the government has been collecting detailed information from all districts and is yet to receive a full report due to snag in communication lines. The whole of south Mizoram - Serchhip, Lunglei, Lawngtlai and Siaha districts and eastern Champhai district bordering Myanmar remained cut off from the rest of the country for the third day today due landslides at many places. Landslides at several places in Aizawl city prompted the state government authorities to evacuate over 50 buildings and shift around 100 families to safer places. Around 10 buildings have submerged in the swelling waters of the Tlawng river. Power supply lines have snapped and telecommunication network remained disrupted in the state capital due to landslides and heavy rains. In Assam, the districts of Lakhimpur, Darrang and Hailakandi have been hit by floods affecting nearly 14,000 people in 39 villages there, a report from the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) stated today. Over 400 hectares of farmland with standing crops have been inundated due to incessant rains in the three districts. In Hailakandi district, two breaches in embankments have occurred in Rajeswarpur Part I and VII due to the rising waters of Katakhal river, while the Sunacherra-Rupacherra road has been closed as swelling waters of the Dhaleswari river have submerging it, the ASDMA report said. The SDRF has pressed 10 boats to rescue 400 marooned people from there, the report said, adding that relief materials have been distributed among the flood-affected people. In Guwahati, a day after three persons died due to electrocution and drowning after heavy rains lashed the city, the Kamrup Metropolitan District Magistrate ordered probe into the deaths. The district administration has declared a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased, an official release today said. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal directed the district administration, GMC, water resources department, PWD and other agencies to take prompt action. The release said more than 2,000 people were affected due to landslides and waterlogging in the city and the SDRF has evacuated about 500 people. In Arunachal Pradesh, incessant rains over the past few days have thrown life out of gear with water level of all major rivers and their tributaries rising. The MeT office here has predicted more rains in the state in the coming days. In Meghalaya, a Disaster Management Authority official said all districts have been alerted following a warning from the MeT department about heavy rains in the state. Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 87 crore on Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) for anti-competitive conduct. The penalty has been levied at 0.3% of the average relevant turnover of HMIL of preceding three years, CCI said in its order. Final order was passed today on informations filed by HMIL dealers viz. Fx Enterprise Solutions India Pvt. Ltd & St. Antonys Cars Pvt. Ltd, Ministry of Finance said in a tweet. Reinforcing its commitment to invest in Karnataka, technology giant Intel on Wednesday announced that it will invest over Rs 1,100 crore to expand its R&D presence, and build a new design house in Bengaluru. The proposed facility will be located at the companys 44-acre campus on Sarjapur Ring Road (SRR), on approximately 6.2 lakh sq feet of space. This additional capacity will help the California-headquartered company to consolidate its R&D operations to a large extent. The Bengaluru facility of Intel is its largest design centre outside the US, the company said. According to Intel, the building will be equipped with IoT-based smart features, including smart lights and real-time occupancy management, and will use renewable energy sources like solar and fuel cell-based power. The company made this announcement at a function presided by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in the presence of IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge. Intel's investment will bring tremendous job opportunities and strengthen the IT sector in the country, Siddaramaiah said. Intel India plays a very strategic role in Intels growth, with significant contributions to Intels technology and product leadership, Nivruti Rai, Intel India general manager, vice president of Data Centre Group said. Recognising the potential in India early, Intel has invested over Rs 28,000 crore in the country, since 1999. We are excited about expanding our best-in-class design capabilities in India that will enable us to continue our momentum in doing cutting-edge innovation and design from India, she added. Janata Dal (Secular) womens wing members from various parts of the state offered puja to Chamundeshwari atop the Chamundi Hill on Wednesday to seek divine blessings for former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda. Addressing reporters at a press conference here, JD(S) womens wing state president Sheela Naik said that the puja was offered in the wake of JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamys name figuring in an illegal mining case (Janthakal mining). Kumaraswamy is being tried by the Lokayukta Special Court. The members also prayed for the victory of the party in the upcoming Assembly elections in 2018. Party women workers from Shivamogga, Davanagere, Gulbarga, Bengaluru, Raichur and other districts took part in the puja. She said that Kumaraswamys name has unnecessarily dragged in the case. Senior bureaucrat Gangaram Baderiya was involved in the case. When Kumaraswamy was the chief minister he used to refer the files to bureaucrats who were assisting him. Baderiya is the man behind the scam. Kumaraswamy will come out clean, she said. Naik said that the JD(S) will emerge as the single largest party in the upcoming Assembly elections as the people of the state are with Kumaraswamy and party supremo H D Deve Gowda. There were 19 ministers belonging to minority, SC and ST communities in H D Deve Gowdas cabinet in 1995 which shows the partys social commitment, she said. Accusing the state government led by Congress party of inefficiency, Naik said that in recent days, harassment against women and girls is increasing and the government has failed to check such crimes. Many farmers have committed suicides and the farmers, who were protesting during water crisis were lathi-charged during Siddaramaiahs period. Various bhagyas (schemes) introduced by the state government are useless and do not favour the people, she said. JD(S) women wing state vice president Anjali Ramu, city president Prema Shankaregowda and district president Sujata Durgesh were also present. HAWARDEN, United Kingdom In this social media age, when every minutia of our lives can be voted thumbs up or down, the notion of there being too much democracy offends modern sensibilities. So conditioned are we to exalt individual choice that anyone who suggests certain policy decisions are best left to elected representatives (or gasp experts) risks the accusation of being a dread elitist. But Britains election last week reminds us that there is, in fact, such a thing as too much democracy. That some things should not be put up to popular vote membership in the European Union, for instance is a lesson youd think theyd have learned in Britain. The tussle over Brexit has led to political and economic instability for months. And it will now be prolonged by the surprising results of Thursdays snap general election, which wiped out Prime Minister Theresa Mays Conservative Party majority and resulted in a hung Parliament. In 2013, when Mays predecessor, David Cameron, announced a national referendum on Britains EU membership, he hoped to settle a long-running intra-party feud over Europe. But the decision to put it up to a plebiscite was completely arbitrary. Of all issues, surely a countrys involvement in a multinational institution a 40-year relationship comprising many complex arrangements that affect everything from fisheries to security cooperation should not be determined by something so reductionist as a stay-or-go popular vote. Economists, trade experts, and security officials not to mention parliamentarians (whose job it is to understand such matters more deeply than those who elect them) all agreed that leaving the EU carried few discernible benefits, yet entailed great risks. No matter. This country has had enough of experts, one pro-Leave politician infamously said on the eve of Brexits success. The people that expression beloved of Third World tyrants and increasingly adopted by leaders in advanced industrial democracies got their say. The vote was purely advisory; Parliament could have ignored the result. When Britains High Court ruled that the government required parliamentary assent for a measure initiating Brexit, the tabloid Daily Mail excoriated the judges with a front-page headline screaming, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE. Its not just the nationalist right that has a fetish for the masses. Until 2015, the Labor Party had chosen its leaders through an electoral college that gave equal weight to the votes of elected MPs, union members, and dues-paying party members. All that changed when the party decided to let anyone register and vote online for a one-time, 3-pound fee. In swarmed over 100,000 leftist activists, many of them members of fringe parties historically opposed to Labor. They in turn propelled the hard-left backbencher Jeremy Corbyn to power. Beneath Corbyns avuncular exterior lies an extremist, one who, from the very beginning of his political career, has expressed alarming sympathy for his countrys enemies, from the fascist Argentinian junta to the Irish Republican Army to Vladimir Putins Russia. That this man today has even a chance of becoming prime minister of the worlds fifth-largest military power is clearly traceable to two instances of democratic overzealousness: the opening of the Labor leadership race to every Tom, Dick and Harry, as well as Mays unnecessary and opportunistic decision to call a snap election. Like Camerons Brexit referendum, which was disguised as serving the national interest even though its origins lay in partisan politics, Mays desire for a mandate from the people will have chaotic consequences. The United States is no stranger to this plebiscitary obsession. Americans waste a great deal of time and money voting on issues of wide-ranging importance. Such democratic mania creates democratic exhaustion, discouraging citizens from participating in the elections that truly matter. This is a shame, because we live in a representative democracy, not a pure one. In that vein, its worth revisiting the words of Edmund Burke, the British MP whose elegantly brief Speech to the Electors of Bristol in 1774 remains the finest elucidation of republican government ever written. While it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents, Burke ultimately believed that Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays you instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion. Amid the global populist insurgency, our duly elected representatives should depend more upon their own judgment and worry less about the uninformed opinion of the masses. As the 19th Party Congress convenes in November 2017, it will note that there has been a steady hardening of the Chinese state over the past five years. Xi Jinping has used nationalism and ideology to promote political stability and regime survival the top agenda items of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and introduced progressively restrictive domestic measures. The 19th Congress can be expected to positively evaluate the measures implemented by Xi to ensure social stability and the CCPs primacy. Despite the pools of dissatisfaction comprising those adversely impacted, he has persisted with substantive steps to professionalise the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), cleanse the party and impose the constraints of party ideology on the academia, media and sections of society. Problems, however, continue to linger in the PLA. When Xi visited the Southern Theatre Command on April 27, 2017, he exhorted the PLA to strengthen ideology and ensure it resolutely follows the command of the CCP CC. He pointedly asked officers to eliminate the impact of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the former vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission (CMC) dismissed on charges of corruption. Such references almost five years after Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou were punished, however, does suggest that their influence and that of their mentor, former CCP CC general secretary Jiang Zemin, continue to linger. A PLA Daily commentary in March 2017 also highlighted the continuing existence of problems in the PLA. It asserted that malpractice, including spreading political rumours, reckless comments on the partys theories and policies, and participation of illegal associations should all be prohibited and punished. Nonetheless, Xi has been successfully pushing through the most extensive reforms for streamlining and restructuring the PLA since its founding 90 years ago. Concern about perceived destabilisation efforts, or Colour Revolution, by the West is very high in the CCP. A series of measures to counter this have been implemented including a crackdown on NGOs and civil rights lawyers, liberal practices and academics and students. Party control is being stringently imposed on universities, schools and even primary schools. In June this year, new regulations brought foreign students within the ambit of party controls including monitoring by political counsellors. A National Security Education campaign, warning citizens against foreigners, launched across China late last year, continues. The economy has slowed to a 6.5% rate of growth. Income inequality is growing with latest official Chinese figures showing that while disparity between provinces is gradually reducing, the gap between the poor and rich is widening. Poverty has become a serious concern. There is a lack of confidence in the countrys economy as evidenced by the continuing flight of capital. The Peoples Bank of China estimated that $ 1 trillion has fled the country since 2015. At a politburo session on April 25, Xi described financial regulation as a matter of national security with existential relevance for the party. Analysts assess that with the party raising concerns about capital flight and focusing on conspiracies by global financial elites to undermine national interest, the internationalisation of the RMB (Chinese currency) might be affected. Tougher policies With the imposition of tougher domestic policies and Chinas increasing assertiveness in the global arena, an arc of vulnerability is developing on Chinas periphery. The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) remains restive with Tibetans declining to accept the China-appointed Panchen Lama, and Tibetans and Tibetan cadres harbouring loyalty to the Dalai Lama. Chinas strong reaction to the Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal Pradesh, to an extent, reflects the tension in TAR. Similarly, the incidence of violence in Xinjiang is high despite the security budget being raised by 54% over the previous years $1.05 billion. It has provoked the authorities to impose progressively harsher measures like: prohibiting Muslims from giving their children any of 20 specific names on the ground that they would then grow to become terrorists; directing children under the age of 16 years and having these names to change them; prescribing the length of beards; compelling all residents of the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region to surrender their passports etc. Tensions with Taiwan are high following Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP becoming president. Chinese analysts recently stated that China is now preparing for a final solution by non-peaceful means, which is the last resort China would prefer to turn to. Conditions in Hong Kong too are disturbed with some young residents contesting Beijings rule and calling for independence, thus eliciting a strong reaction from Beijing. As Xi begins his second term at the end of this year and advances the China Dream and Belt and Road Initiative, the hardening of the Chinese state will continue. The ensuing inflexibility will mean that negotiations are unlikely to yield concessions. This will be evident as China strives to shape its external regional environment and pursues its claims in the South China Sea. It will also probably be reflected in Chinas dealings with India and its other neighbours. (The author is a former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India and is President of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy) A 27-year-old aspiring model from Bengaluru has accused her live-in partner of cheating her on false promise of marriage. In a complaint filed with the Sadashivanagar police, the woman said that her friend Ullas Patel who works as a project engineer at a private firm in Yeshwantpur proposed to her eight months ago. Both met through Facebook. She had told everyone in her family that Patel had promised to marry her. Later, the duo started living together. After two months, he started distancing himself from her, the complainant said. When the woman confronted Patel, he told her that members of his family were opposing their marriage and, prolonged it stating he would get their permission. Later, Patel started avoiding her. He also started accusing her of loose character and running an escort service, as an excuse to end the relationship. The woman also tried approaching Patels family but they refused to help her. She then approached the police and lodged a complaint. The Sadashivanagar police have registered a case of rape and cheating on false promise of marriage, against Patel. DH News Service The BMRCL has decided to upgrade the security by including a quick reaction team to make sure that commuters get maximum protection at Metro stations. As many as 100 armed members from Karnataka Industrial Security Force will provide security to Metro stations and commuters. The members have received one-year training at a facility in Hyderabad designed to train Central Industrial Security Force. In addition, they have been trained in counter-terrorism tactics for 40 days at a special programme. Teams of seven They will be divided into teams of seven members led by a sub inspector. The teams work under the direction of an official of the Lt Colonel or Brigadier rank when they need to react quickly during emergency situations. Metro stations start operations at 5 am. We start our work even before and ensure security in the stations till the departure of the last train, said an official who is part of the team. Representatives of eight prime localities in the city met Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood on Wednesday, urging him to pressure the government to withdraw its 1 am night life rule at least from predominantly residential areas. During the hour-long meeting, they raised issues pertaining to the nuisance caused by pubs, bars and roof-top bars and restaurants. They handed over a memorandum to him highlighting problems like increasing noise pollution, parking chaos, drugs, drunken driving and prostitution. Sneha Nandihal, president of B M Kaval RWA, said the law and order situation has collapsed in the area. The noise pollution is very high. We have requested Sood to recommend to the state government to change the deadline from 1 am to 10 pm in predominantly residential areas like Indiranagar. Bengaluru cannot enjoy the tag of being a young city at the cost of a 95-year-old lady having sleepless nights because of the noise. The deadline of 1 am should be restricted to CBD areas and not everywhere, she said. The residents also pointed out that since the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has never imposed zonal regulations strictly, it should further not impose any rules on residents. The definition of residential and commercial areas has been strictly defined for each road in the master plan 2015, but has not been followed. The federation will be pointing this out to the BBMP commissioner in their next meeting. Swarna Venkataraman, vice president of 1st Indiranagar League RWA said the Supreme Court directions clearly say that the noise level should be less than 55 decibels after 10 pm. People can party, but they should remain indoors and the noise level should be low. This can be handled by the police. The parking rules are completely violated. Vehicles are parked outside our homes and we are unable to come out, she said. The residents pointed out that there are 93 alcohol joints in Indiranagar alone, of which 60 are on 100 Feet and on 12th Main Road. Breweries outnumber grocery shops in the area. Many have sold their homes to commercial companies and have moved to quieter localities. But those who have stayed here for decades have been suffering for the past five years, Swarna said. Sood pointed out that there were lapses in town planning and enforcement of zonal regulations. He said this was the root cause of the problem. This must be presented before the BBMP also and the issues people are facing are only because of the lack of enforcement. He also assured them that action will be taken against noise pollution, public drinking and drug peddling. However, parking has to be BBMP responsibility, he said. Why not get educated online as if you are playing a hugely entertaining game? Thats exactly how online education in India will take shape in the next four years, gamification being the catchword. Indicated clearly in a recent survey by Google, the process will dramatically change the way students are taught, online and offline. Simply put, gamification is the practice of applying game mechanics of fun, collaboration, competition and rewards in non-game situations. The global market for gamification in education is estimated to reach $ 10 billion by 2020. In India, as a Google official recently put it, gamification has already started to gain popularity among education service providers. For instance, a leading player in the primary and secondary supplemental education space has launched an application that combines games, simulations and videos to train children. So, how will gamification work in online tuitions for primary, secondary classes? The Google-KPMG study talks about simulation to explain concepts, quizzes, peer comparison and interactive lab experiments. For test preparation, the process will take the gaming route for incentive-based learning with concepts such as leader board, badges, discounts and prizes based on overall performance. In higher education, gamification will show up as a module representing minimum pass percentage to unlock the next module. To boost engagement with students of language and casual learning, gaming concepts will be introduced to unlock new features at every level. Just like in certain highly engaging games, elite groups are formed based on performance. Gamification is also expected to help bridge the gap between online courses and offline classrooms. More offline courses will diversify into online supplements since the latter provides a low-cost alternative. The Google-KPMG study had found that the cost of offline education in India had increased by a whopping 175% from 2008 to 2014. Online skill enhancement courses are currently around 53% cheaper than offline alternatives. The shift to online and online-offline blended education is also getting a big boost thanks to the exponential growth of internet penetration in India. Studies have concluded that there will be nearly 735 million internet users by 2021. Awareness about abuse of elders has increased in the city, but there is still a long way to go in sensitising people to the needs of senior citizens, experts in the field say. Thursday, June 15, is observed as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The elders helpline, located in the office of the city police commissioner, was set up in 2002 by Nightingales Medical Trust (NMT) and the city police to provide support for elders. Radha S Murthy, managing trustee of NMT, said, Earlier, elders were hesitant to speak up about abuse. Now, they reach out and seek help. They know their legal rights, she said. Property disputes are at the root of most cases of neglect, emotional and physical abuse of elders by their children, Radha said. In Indian society, people spend all their money on their children, even if they are being ill-treated. This mindset has to change. Parents should think about their own well-being and plan their finances in advance. An increasing generation gap is also a cause for trouble. People must be sensitised through dialogue, said Shiv Kumar, convener of the helpline. We are thinking of introducing a module at the school-level for children, to tell them about their obligation towards senior citizens. We would also like to draw their attention to the United Nations Principles for Older Persons, Kumar said. To create awareness about elders abuse, city-based Caveo Geriatric Services is creating a series of easy-to-understand videos by interviewing lawyers and geriatric counsellors. Founder Devanshi Seth said, One out of every four households has a case of emotional abuse of elders. In most cases, it is unintentional and could have been avoided if there was awareness. Helpline numbers Dial 1090 or 100 for counselling services, senior citizen cards, information on healthcare services for senior citizens, old age homes, legal aid. Plugging a gaping hole in its safety mechanism, the Railways has begun deploying the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS), which would regulate the trains movement to prevent accidents. The protection technology from Europe would monitor the trains speed and automatically apply the breaks if it exceeds the speed limits. If a train jumped the signal, approached the signal too fast, or approached the buffer stops too fast, the TPWS would put the breaks and bring the train to a standstill, a Railway official said, adding that the system would prevent accidents taking place due to the loco pilots error in passing on the signals. The official also pointed out that the trains would be in constant communication with each other through sensors installed on the trackside. In the next three to four years, the Railways has plans to introduce the new system in two phases over a stretch of 3,330 km. It had successfully piloted the system in the Chennai-Gummidipundi suburban section, Dum Dum-Kavi Subhash section of the Kolkata Metro rail, and Hazrat Nizamuddin-Agra and Basin Bridge-Arrakonam sections. This domain was recently registered at Namecheap.com. Please check back later! The Election Commission on Wednesday issued a notification for the Presidential election, setting in motion the process to elect President Pranab Mukherjees successor. Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra, who is the returning officer for the Presidential election, issued the notice, announcing that the nomination papers for the July 17 poll can be filed up to June 28. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu, part of a three-member ministerial team to consult political parties on the Presidential nominee, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi within hours of the commission issuing the notification. The team is scheduled to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday to hold discussions on the nominee. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu, Union Minister Thawarchand Gehlot and Akali Dal veteran Parkash Singh Badal are seen as prospective candidates. The Opposition is mulling over fielding either former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar or former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its joint candidate. Secular supervision More than a dozen Opposition parties including arch rivals the Trinamool Congress and the Left; and the SP and the BSP have joined hands to put up a determined fight to ensure a secular supervision of the Constitution from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The electoral college for the Presidential election comprises elected members of both Houses of Parliament (776) and elected members of the legislative parties of state Assemblies and Union Territories (4,120). A total of 4,896 electors have a vote value of 10.98 lakh, and the winning candidate has to secure a simple majority. Even after the landslide victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand earlier this year, the BJP-led NDA was about 18,000 votes short of a majority. The YSR Congress and the TRS have already conveyed their support to the NDA. The ruling alliance is also banking on the AIADMK and the BJD to support its candidate. On the other hand, the Opposition is 1.5 lakh votes short of the required number to instal its candidate in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The BJP is working out a strategy to ensure cross voting from the Opposition party members in favour of the NDA nominee in case there is no consensus evolved on the Presidential candidate. After the Union Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led core committee discussed the Presidential election. BJP sources said it emerged during the deliberations among the top brass that members of some of the seventeen parties that are perceived to be with the Opposition camp will vote for the NDA candidate. According to party sources, the BJP has got assurance from both the factions of the AIADMK one led by O Panneerselvam and the other by Edappadi K Palanaswami that they will side with the NDA. A minister from Uttar Pradesh hinted that the BJP was also in touch with the disgruntled leaders in Samajwadi Party to try and get them to vote for the NDA candidate. The move to poach members from the other side of the political spectrum comes at a time when a sub-committee of the Opposition parties Congress, RJD, NCP, JDU, CPM, BSP, SP, TMC and DMK deliberated on the Presidential election on Wednesday afternoon. The announcement of the NDA candidate before Modi leaves for the United States on June 25 was also discussed, said party sources. The core committee meeting was attended by senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu. Arun Jaitley was not present during the interaction since he is out of country on an official visit. The BJPs three-member panel, comprising Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu, has already begun the process of consultations with its allies and non-NDA parties. Naidu reached out to BSP leader S C Mishra and NCP leader Praful Patel to seek their views on the Presidential candidate. They told Naidu that their parties will take a stand on the issue only after the umbrella Opposition camp firms up its decision, said sources. The ruling party panel is also slated to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to convey to US President Donald Trump that India is ready to commit more military hardware to combat the terror threat in Afghanistan. The escalating offensive by the resurgent Taliban and other terror networks in Afghanistan will figure prominently in Modis maiden meeting with Trump at White House on June 26. While the US administration is contemplating deploying additional troops in Afghanistan, Modi is likely to convey to Trump that India is also ready to step up its support to the Afghan National Defence and Security Force (ANDSF) to combat terror, sources in New Delhi told DH. India does not plan to send soldiers to Afghanistan, but it is ready to provide more helicopters, armoured vehicles and other military hardware to the ANSDF. India is also likely to train more personnel from the Afghan National Army and Afghan Air Force at facilities in India. A series of attacks by the Taliban and other terror groups across Afghanistan earlier this month resulted in death of about 200 people, prompting the US to start contemplating raising the number of troops that are deployed there. Pakistan issue Modi will also make it clear to Trump that it will be difficult to defeat terror in Afghanistan as long as the terrorist outfits get safe havens and sanctuaries in Pakistan. US officials have conveyed to India that the Trump Administrations new policy on Afghanistan would have more emphasis on a regional approach and that Washington would welcome India playing a more proactive role in supporting efforts to stabilise the conflict-ravaged country, said sources aware of recent India-US talks on Afghanistan. Modi is likely to convey to Trump that New Delhi is in discussion with Afghanistan to work out a long-term plan to augment Indias support to the ANDSF and a comprehensive joint mechanism to combat terror. At a time of tension between India and Pakistan in the wake of the militancy in the Kashmir Valley, Bollywood actor Salman Khan and his brother Sohail Khan have come under fire for having batted for peace with the neighbour. People who order war should be asked to go on war themselves. Take this gun and go to war and it will get over in a day. They will tremble and shake and they will eventually take the route of dialogues and discussions, Salman said. You ask anyone whether the war is good or bad. Everyone will say it is a bad decision. Its a negative emotion. But it happens a lot, nobody knows why. Things can only be solved by sitting across a table, said Sohail. The Khan brothers were speaking at a promotional event ahead of the Eid release of the Kabir Khan-directed Tubelight, which is set against the backdrop of the 1962 India-China war. When a TV channel sought the reaction of their father and writer Salim Khan, he said, First tell me one thing. Do you want a war? First answer that!. There was mixed reaction to Salmans statement after it went viral on social media. Bravo! #SalmanKhan bats for #IndoPak peace dialogue, says war is no solution! Other Indian celebs, Show some courage, peace activist Sudheendra Kulkarni tweeted. However, the Shiv Sena hit out at the actor saying he had crossed his boundaries. The way he has said this is really objectionable. Who doesnt want peace? Why does he always cross his boundaries? Sena MP Arvind Sawant said. This is not the first time that Salman has spoken on Indo-Pak relations. After the Uri attack, when Bollywood banned Pakistani artistes and technicians, he had said artistes are not terrorists. They (Pakistani actors) are artistes, not terrorists. It is the government who gives them permits and visas, he had said. A museum of international standards, depicting the life and times of 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara, will be established at Kudalasangama, Water Resources Minister M B Patil informed the Legislative Council on Wednesday. Replying to a query by Ramachandra Gowda (BJP), Patil said the museum will come up at a cost of Rs 144 crore, to be shared by the revenue department and Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd. Kudalasangama is a pilgrim centre in Bagalkot district and the final resting place of Basaveshwara. It is also situated at the confluence of the rivers Krishna and Malaprabha. Patil said work on developing Kudalasangama as an international tourist destination has already commenced. Civil works on the Basava International Centre has started, he said. Kudalasangama will be developed on the lines of Swaminarayan Akshardham in New Delhi. The proposed museum will come up on a 50-acre plot and will have portraits and objects to depict the life of Basaveshwara, his childhood, education and life. The essence of Anubhava Mantapa, an academy which worked towards building a casteless society with human values through propagation of vachanas, will also be conveyed at the museum. Arrangements for light and sound shows will also be made. It will also house Sharana Grama. This village will highlight the social revolution launched by Basaveshwara in the 12th century. Books about the life and messages of Basaveshwara will also be housed at the museum. Leaders of nine Opposition parties met on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the upcoming Presidential election. The meeting was held on a day the government indicated that its ministers would solicit their support for a broad-based consensual candidate. Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge convened a meeting of leaders of nine Opposition parties, including the NCP, CPM, TMC, JD(U), RJD, SP and the BSP, to discuss the broad contours of the election. Azad said no names were discussed during the hour-long meeting, and the dominant view was that the government should reach out to them. Left, RJD want to contest The Left parties and RJD chief Lalu Prasad were insistent on a contest and were of the view that the government wanted to catch the Opposition off-guard, giving them little time to field a joint candidate. The names of senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi are being talked about as possible joint Opposition candidates. All Opposition parties are totally united, Azad told reporters when asked whether the government was trying to divide the Opposition. Union ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu are scheduled to hold separate meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday. Singh, Naidu and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have been tasked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consult political parties on the presidential elections. Naidu has also sought meetings with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and BSP chief Mayawati. However, the ministers were unlikely to share names of any probable candidates with the Opposition leaders but only elicit their views on the election. Meanwhile, the Election Commission issued the notification for the Presidential election on Wednesday. The last date for filing nomination papers is June 28. The governments candidate is expected to file the nomination papers before June 24, when Modi embarks on this two-day tour of the US. President Pranab Mukherjees tenure ends on July 24. Tourists can now begin their sojourn of the monuments in the heritage town of Hampi at 6 am itself, thanks to the change of timings effected by the authorities concerned. The new timings have come into force from Monday. Hitherto, the tours would start at 8 am. Authorities said the changes were made keeping in mind the convenience of tourists who come from around the world. Many tourists like to view the monuments at sunrise. Tourists can visit the monuments like the Vijaya Vittala temple, Lotus Mahal and Anesalu Mantapa between 6 am and 6 pm, Ravindra, junior assistant conservation officer of the Hampi circle of the Archaeological Survey of India, told DH. The Centre on Wednesday decided to make loans cheaper for farmers. The decision comes in the wake of farmer unrest in several states. Under a proposal approved by the Cabinet, the Centre will provide a subsidy of up to 5% on farm loan interest, sources said. A 2% subsidy on interest will be given on agricultural loans. Additionally, those who repay such loans in time will get a 3% subsidy. Thus, the effective rate of interest for those who make timely repayments will be 4% as against the prevailing 9%. The scheme will be available for short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh repayable within a year, sources said. The proposal is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 20,339 crore in 2017-18. The interest subvention will be given to public sector banks, private sector banks, cooperative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs) on use of their own funds, and to Nabard for refinance to RRBs and cooperative banks, an official statement said. The Interest Subvention Scheme will continue for a year and will be implemented by Nabard and RBI, it said. In case of farmers affected by natural calamities, an interest subvention of 2% will be given to banks for the first year on the restructured amount, the statement read. Protests and waivers The Cabinet decision comes amid protests in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, where farmers are demanding waiver of crop loans. Under similar pressure, Maharashtra recently waived farm loans. Earlier this year, farmers from Tamil Nadu travelled to Delhi for a sit-in protest, demanding waiver of loans adding up to Rs 40,000 crore; they were partly compensated by the government. Uttar Pradesh, with the BJPs Yogi Adityanath as chief minister, has also announced a loan waiver of Rs 36,000 crore. Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar on Wednesday charged Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy with unnecessarily blaming Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the I-T department seizing the accounts of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU). Rayareddy has been blaming Jaitley for the I-T departments action, which is not true. Jaitley actually has been helping the VTU in getting income tax exemption with retrospective effect. It is the responsibility of the state government to approach the court and challenge I-T departments action. Instead of approaching the court, Rayareddy has been issuing irresponsible statements, Shettar said in the Assembly. C T Ravi (BJP) said the I-T department took action against the VTU during the previous Congress-led UPA rule. But the UPA government did not come to the rescue of the VTU. The Higher Education Minister was not present when the members discussed the VTU issue. But Industries Minister R V Deshpande admitted that Jaitley had extended all co-operation to the state government on the issue. This apart, Shettar sought to know the status of the CID enquiry ordered by the state government into irregularities in awarding contracts in setting up water testing laboratories and purchase of furniture in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department. RDPR Minister H K Patil had admitted irregularities in awarding the contracts and ordered the enquiry. But no action has been initiated in this regard so far. Ravi criticised the government for not regularising the services of contract workers, including pourakarmikas in Bengaluru, and demanded that the government immediately direct the company running Arogya Kavacha scheme (108 ambulance service) to take back all the 674 employees. The company should be blacklisted if it refuses to do so, he added. Russia Reveals Some Details of Tu-160 Bomber Upgrade The page you requested is only available to subscribers. 1. If you are a Premium Service subscriber, please log in here to access this story: Log-in : Password : 2. If you are not a subcriber, you can: -- buy access to this page: unlimited access for seven days costs 3.00 EUR + VAT (at 20%) if applicable. Clicking on the "Ok" button below will place the item in your shopping cart and return you to our home page, where you will be able to select additional stories. -- select additional stories and services from our home page and pay for them at the same time. -- see your shopping cart. You can also see the contents of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on the "Order" tab on the navigation bar at the top of any page, or by clicking on the "Your order" light blue link in the top right-hand corner of our home page, immediately under the log-on box. When Phillip Magin observed animosity and disagreements among political parties in the recent election, he was inspired to try to make the groups come together through art. The 18-year-old Del Mar playwright, who graduates from Canyon Crest Academy this month, will present a self-written and self-produced play called fulcrum at the San Diego International Fringe Festival that reflects the current political atmosphere through the eyes of students and adults at a North County High School. Magin said in summer 2015, when he developed an interest in politics, he noticed more arguments between people regarding politics. This was unfamiliar to the teen. I saw that there was a lot of division that I had never really seen before between the two parties, said Magin, who will attend San Diego State University in the fall for theater. Growing up, I always saw them as two parties with some differences but they didnt clash as much. In todays world, Republicans and Democrats are very against each other, and theres a lot of clashing. A big thing Im trying to do with this play is show we might be on different teams but we all have the same goals. The coming-of-age satire which runs June 22, June 23, June 25, June 28 and July 1 takes place during Fall 2016 when President Donald Trump was getting elected. In the hour-long, PG-13 production, a high school is placed on a lockdown for unknown reasons, and students and adults clash politically and face political prejudice and rumors, Magin said. Its creating a sense of mystery and paranoia about why this happened, he explained. The lockdown is an allegory for Trump getting elected president because it shakes up a lot of people and causes a lot of people to panic. There are certain characters who are very anti-Trump and there are others who are pro-Trump. Theres a lot of clashing and division. Magin, who has written, directed and produced five productions, applied to be in the Fringe Festival even before finishing the script in February. It is his second time showing a work of his own in the festival and his fourth time participating overall. I knew I had the crutch of the idea for it and I just went for it, he said. The cast is made up of students from CCA, as well as other local high schools and colleges. Even though he considers himself to have liberal views, Magin said proponents from both sides can sympathize and relate to the characters, as different viewpoints are shown. He showed the play to an audience at CCA that had various political opinions, and everyone appeared to enjoy it, he said. I wanted to show the two different sides of people because I didnt want to single one party out, Magin said. I have different characters with their different beliefs, and I show those beliefs over the course of the play. Magin who got to vote for the first time in November said he believes his young viewpoint helps the show. This is the world Im coming into as an adult just getting out of high school, he said. Theres just this tension in the country, and I hope as the years go on and I get older, some things change and people are able to reconcile with each other. Performances are June 22 at 6 p.m., June 23 at 9 p.m., June 25 at 4 p.m., June 28 at 7:30 p.m. and July 1 at 4 p.m. Shows will take place in the Lyceum Space Theatre in downtown San Diego, which holds 250 seats. Tickets cost $10 each plus a one-time $5 Fringe Tag purchase to support the continuation of the festival. For more information and tickets, visit https://sdfringe.ticketleap.com/fulcrum/ or www.sdfringe.org. Del Mars fractious debate over vacation rentals is back on the front burner, with a lawsuit filed in state court and the city council poised to plot its next steps toward a new long-term policy. A coalition of Del Mar residents filed suit on June 1 in San Diego Superior Court, challenging the city councils ruling in April that Del Mars 40-year-old planning documents do not allow short-term rentals (STRs). The council confined their ruling to rentals of less than 30 days and applied it to every residential area in the city except for one side of a two-block stretch of Stratford Court that does not include any rental homes. The June lawsuit characterizes that action as an outright ban. We feel that our property rights are being infringed upon, said Eric Charnholm, one of three plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. Charnholm has lived in Del Mars beach colony since he was a toddler, when his parents were among the citys most prominent real estate agents. This community has always been based on vacation rentals; its been a big part of what has built this community into the desirable place that it is, he said. Theres right and theres wrong, and this is just wrong. Dozens of residents made similar arguments as city leaders wrangled with the issue over the past year amid an evenly split uproar, some residents imploring the council to protect Del Mars neighborhood feel and others pleading to continue renting out their homes as they have for generations. The city council eventually rejected those historical arguments, pointing to language in the 1976 Community Plan that restricts homes to one person per room. While the controversy raged, some of the more vocal STR supporters vowed to sue the city and created the Del Mar Alliance for the Preservation of Beach Access and Village. Their lawsuit argues that city leaders ran afoul of two crucial state mandates: the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act. CEQA requires municipal agencies to apply for state review whenever a proposal would have a significant environmental impact, including changes to land-use regulations. The Coastal Act requires beach jurisdictions to develop a Local Coastal Program (LCP) that guarantees access to coastal areas. In their April ruling, the council said they were subject to neither CEQA review nor an LCP amendment because they were not issuing a new ordinance, but rather, interpreting the 1976 Community Plan. Mayor Terry Sinnott, in casting the lone dissenting vote, suggested otherwise. With jurisdictions throughout California wrestling with their own policies on vacation rentals, the Coastal Commission has consistently opposed outright bans and stipulates that new efforts to regulate rentals require an LCP amendment and/or a coastal development permit. We do not believe that regulation outside of that LCP/CDP context is legally enforceable in the coastal zone, Steve Kinsey, the commissions chairman, wrote in a December 2016 letter sent to all of Californias coastal communities. In at least two instances Pismo Beach in 2011 and Imperial Beach in 2002 the commission rejected attempts to ban short-term rentals. However, the commission has in several instances supported limits and regulations, including caps on how long a home can be rented out. That is the direction in which Del Mar is now leaning. The City Council is set on Monday, June 19, to take up its STR deliberations for the first time in six weeks. At the meeting, councilmembers will get their first look at language on allowing rentals of no fewer than seven days at a time, and not to total more than 29 days within a calendar year. The session will also look at a wide range of rental-related issues, including the cost of enforcing new rules and the possibility of grandfathering in renters who can prove they had rental permits prior to 1976. The council has said their goal is to enact its reforms before a moratorium imposed last year expires this coming February. In the meantime, the moratorium rules remain in effectonly homeowners who can prove that they were renting prior to April 2016 may continue to do so. A new review of evidence suggests that children and teens losing weight before adulthood can reduce the elevated risks for type 2 diabetes to which they are exposed. These findings originate from a Danish population-based study which has found that children who normalised their weight by adulthood did not have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, compared to those stuck at the same weight. The researchers from Frederiksberg Hospital, in Glostrup, who conducted the study presented their results at the last 77th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). They extrapolated data from 62,565 subjects, comprised of only men born from 1939 to 1959 and who were followed for over 30 years. Over the course of this study, about 6,710 participants were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. About 60 per cent of the boys initially overweight in childhood were able to achieve normal weight at around the age of 13. Those who kept gaining weight past that age had a long-term three-fold higher risk for type 2 diabetes. Our results suggest that the risk of type 2 diabetes may be reversible, and they highlight the need for normalising weight among children who are overweight, Lise Bjerregaard, the studys first author, told the ADA. It is important to note that only a sizable portion (about 5.4 per cent) of the study population was classified as overweight, which may not represent the gravity of the situation in consideration of todays much higher rates of childhood obesity. The findings also revealed that the risks for type 2 diabetes varied relative to the participants baseline body weight. When researchers performed further analyses and divided them into groups based on their Body Mass Index (BMI), they found that the higher the BMI, the greater was their risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. These findings suggest that there is a lot of value in staying at a healthy weight during childhood to limit risks of type 2 diabetes and perhaps even cardiovascular disease, which will be Bjerregaards next research focus. A pioneering diabetes researcher has been presented with a top award for his work by a major Hollywood actor who has type 1 diabetes. Jeremy Irvine, who starred in the 2011 blockbuster War Horse, gave Dr Roman Hovorka JDRFs Gerold and Kayla Grodsky Award which is bestowed upon people who have made outstanding scientific contributions in the world of diabetes. Dr Hovorka, from the University of Cambridge, has been recognised for helping to develop the artificial pancreas. The technology works by mimicking the function of a human pancreas in monitoring blood sugar levels and delivering appropriate basal doses of insulin in response. Mr Irvine, who is set to appear in The Guinea Pig Club later this year alongside Richard E Grant, was asked to present the prize because he has had type 1 diabetes since he was six. The 26-year-old also took part in the some of the trials which were carried out on the artificial pancreas in the early part of development. The actor said: Im utterly delighted to see Dr Roman Hovorkas incredible work celebrated by JDRF. As a teenager, I took part in his early JDRF-funded artificial pancreas trials. I saw first-hand how he and his team in Cambridge were working to change the lives of people with type 1 diabetes through great science. Congratulations, Roman. When the chance came for me to take part in early artificial pancreas trials, I jumped at the opportunity. I wanted to play my own very small part in moving the artificial pancreas closer to reality. Dr Hovorka, who joined the university in 2004, has dedicated much of his work there gaining insights into physiology through mathematical modelling and developing control algorithms, the step-by-step calculations that lie at the heart of the artificial pancreas. Research carried out on the artificial pancreas has so far shown it delivers insulin effectively and that health outcomes in patients can be significantly improved. JDRF, which funds research into treating and trying to prevent type 1 diabetes, has supported Dr Horvokas work over the years. Speaking of the community of JDRF supporters that help his work, Dr Horvoka said: What youve been doing is just great and I cant fault it in any way. The award presentation took place at the JDRF One Conference in Chicago. AI Student Ambassador Yeser Meziani, along with his Universitys scientific club, was able to present their product at the National Exposition of Research Products held at the Hall of Expositions SAFEX in Algiers last month. The expo featured over 400 product presentations from research centers, university laboratories, independent innovators, and scientific clubs of universities and highlighted the technological efforts being made towards valorization of research products in different segments especially about renewable energies. EVENT OVERVIEW The National Exposition of Research Products in Algiers was a great networking opportunity for researchers, innovators and investors from all four corners of the country and was a much sought for opportunity to share and expand vision on technologies and research endeavors put forward by multiple groups. As part of my scientific club AutoBot13 at the University of Tlemcen, we demoed our project which consisted of two folds, hardware robot and its driving software. The hardware portion, a five degrees of freedom (5DOF) wood-built manipulator arm, realized by my friend Ahmad Djilali. The software portion was part of my IRPML project and consisted of Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB) software and Arduino * board using code for learning and executing industrial tasks. From my own perspective, I was able to meet students with similar projects, of which a 3D printed six degrees of freedom (6DOF) manipulator. This solution was an improvement over our wooden arm, which would allow for a more robust mechanical structure supporting multiple trials during learning tasks. A more precision in task execution can be gained from the structures rigidity and exact dimensions measures. The 6DOF structure would also eliminate the geometrical limitations to the movement as it theoretically can cover all 3D operational space of the robot arm. Other interesting projects included: An NAO* robot using Deep Learning techniques to learn voice commands and execute a given scenario. The project used the TensorFlow* framework to implement the learning algorithm and was a fun experience for visitors and the creator as well. A fireman mobile robot using intelligent photo processing to detect fire and to extinguish it using the CO2 tanks mounted on the robot. A project that can benefit from an intelligent positioning algorithm to optimize the movement given the battery powered nature of the robot. A submarine robot with 6 propellers which uses vision based navigation and could take advantage of landmark detection using Deep Learning intelligent techniques to position itself underwater. We were able to compare our products and research against other participating projects at the expo. My work competed in the scientific clubs section and we presented our project to a jury of specialists and professors. They provided us interesting remarks and suggestions on ways to improve our work and would allow us to address challenges we faced, especially with the mechanical structure of the robot. The event exposed me to specialists, critics and multiple innovators working on similar projects related to robotics and artificial intelligence. Two local television channels, and radios, hosted us providing more exposure to the project we presented. FINAL THOUGHTS I came out of the event with access to a better network of innovators and students working on projects that can benefit from the artificial intelligence techniques I am working with. I see valuable opportunities for collaboration between us. I was also able to interact with industry professionals and get real, expert feedback on the work Ive done so far and a direction for where to take my research in the near future. Critically valuable, were remarks on precision and movement optimization of the task execution for our robot arm. I had the chance to meet the organizer for Maker Faire Algeria who invited me to participate in their upcoming event. Also, SONATRACH, one of the sponsors of the event also organizes a similar expo on international level and were interested in seeing our best projects participating as well. I see the expo as a success and I think it was highly beneficial to everyone that attended. By empowering research and innovative works, especially by students and independent innovators, and connecting them with potential investors and industry professionals we will quickly see solutions and technologies developed locally allowing for the market to prosper and grow. For more such intel IoT resources and tools from Intel, please visit the Intel Developer Zone Source:https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2017/06/08/ai-student-ambassador-yeser-meziani-recap-of-the-national-exposition-of-research Semi-autonomous, Level 3 vehicles from Honda's stable may hit roads as early as 2020. Honda has affirmed that it will indeed be among the long list of companies that intend to unveil autonomous driving vehicles in the next few years. The company's vision is to achieve Level 3 of SAE's autonomous driving standards by the year 2020, and follow up with Level 4 autonomous driving cars by the year 2025. While it may be a bit behind a number of other manufacturers planning to put autonomous cars on road, Honda is possibly planning to play it safe than rush ahead with its plans to meet industry timelines. Honda will be attempting to keep development costs in check by synchronising its R&D efforts with its manufacturing division. By doing this, it will also be able to gradually roll out advanced driver assist and safety features to its cars, leading to the Level 3 autonomous vehicles by 2020. The company will also be electrifying its vehicles at the same time, with the company looking to have at least two-thirds of its vehicles as hybrid, battery-powered electric or hydrogen fuel cell-powered, by 2030. All of this, yet again, is pretty much in line with most manufacturers around the world, and Honda is yet to affirm exactly which vehicles will be included in such portfolios. The recently announced Honda Fit (in India as the Honda Jazz) has been the latest from Honda's stable to include advanced driving safety features, marking a future trend where most mainstream vehicles will include advanced, intelligent driving features. In terms of electrification, Honda has its luxury sedan, Accord plying as a hybrid vehicle in India already. It may be possible that the Accord will be among the very first Honda cars to get the company's advanced driving feaures, seeing that most companies begin rolling out sophisticated features on their flagship models. It has been a busy week to say the least. Weve seen three very big names in the smartphone world launch a total of six devices in India within a span of seven days. First up was the Moto Z2 Play, the companys second take on its innovative modular smartphones. This was followed by the return of Nokia with three new Android-powered phones. And today Samsung launched two new devices in its Galaxy J series of smart devices. For the purposes of this article, were going to talk about three main devices amongst the six, namely the Nokia 6, Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro, and the Moto Z2 Play. These three devices are priced very differently, but are very important to each manufacturer. Lets take a look at what each device has to offer. Keep in mind that this is NOT a specification comparison, but rather a look at what each device has to offer for its price. Nokia 6 Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro Moto Z2 Play Price Rs. 14,999 Rs. 20,900 Rs. 27,999 Display 5.5-inch Full HD 5.5-inch Full HD 5.5-inch Full HD Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 Samsung Exynos octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 RAM 3GB 3GB 4GB Storage 32GB 64GB 64GB Rear camera 16MP 13MP 12MP Front camera 8MP 13MP 5MP Android version Android Nougat Android Nougat Android Nougat Battery 3000mAh 3600mAh 3000mAh Nokia 6 After its attempts with Symbian and Windows Phone, the company has finally launched a smartpowered by Android. Unlike the Nokia X series, which ran a heavily forked version of Googles mobile OS. The Nokia 3, 5, and 6 runs stock Android with Nougat and have promised up upgrade the devices to Android O when it becomes available. The Nokia 6 is currently the most expensive smartphone in the companys lineup. As such, has the challenging task of acting as its flagship product till the Finnish manufacturer finally launches its rumoured Nokia 9 smartphone. Further, Unlike the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 that are offline exclusive (which may be a very smart move), the Nokia 6 is online only, which means it will be against some formidable competition by the likes of Xiaomi and others. Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro While Samsungs Galaxy S series of devices may be the most interesting devices in its lineup. It is the Galaxy J-series, which sells the most. As per a report by Trendforce, Samsung was the only brand in Q1 2017 to register growth and that was reportedly because of the sales of its Galaxy J series of devices. The Galaxy J7 Pro and the Galaxy J7 Max also come with a new Samsung Pay Mini feature. As the name would suggest, this is a lighter version Samsung Pay that was launched earlier this year. Unlike the standard Samsung Pay, this version of the service does not save card data and instead works with e-wallets like Paytm and UPI. Moto Z2 Play Moto seems to have nailed the modular design with its Z series of smartphones thanks to the way it implements the MotoMods. Unlike the LG G5 and its modular components, the MotoMods could be slapped on the back of any Z series device without the need to turn if off. With the Moto Z2 Play, the company has also reiterated its commitment to modular design unlike LG, which ditched the whole thing after the LG G5. Further, the company also launched a few more MotoMods like an improved version of the JBL SoundBoost mod as well as a controller mod for gaming. So anyone who has purchased a Z series smartphone can rest easy knowing that Moto will not be abandoning them and they will have new mods to play with. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Morning My favorite time to see the monuments is very early in the morning or late at night. The city always has tons of visitors but these times allow you to take it all in. I love the pattern of the sky as the sun rises over the nations capital. Its the perfect time to wander around the Jefferson Memorial as you see the sunrise over the Washington Monument. If you have time to start with breakfast, we highly suggest a decadent breakfast at The Lafayette at the Hay-Adams after your morning stroll. If youre on the go, Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken has some of my favorite doughnuts in the city. Take them to go as you explore the National Mall. Lunch A day in Washington, DC must include a snapshot of the DC power lunch scene: men and women in their dark suits negotiating bills or lobbying for insert special interest here. A place to observe this moving and shaking is The Oval Room, a restaurant aptly located near the White House. Chef John Melfi creates the most beautiful dishes and his best work is not only reserved for dinner service. The best kept secret is their bar lunch special. You can eat lunch at their bar: main course, dessert and a glass of wine for $20! If you know the DC dining scene, this is a steal. Afternoon The beauty of this city is that you can go to a selection of museums for free. The Smithsonian has a large selection of museums to peak anyones interest. If you can snag a ticket to the African American History Museum, consider yourself fortunate as the collection is amazing. If you have time, make sure to have a bite at Sweet Home Cafe. It has some of the best museum food Ive ever tasted. For the lovers of fine art, head to The National Gallery of Art. I dont tire of admiring the Dutch Masters or browsing through their museum cafe. Another great space is the National Portrait Gallery. Not only are the portraits compelling but you cannot miss taking a little break in their courtyard. Its one of my favorite spaces in the city. Need coffee during your day in Washington, DC adventure? Have a pick me up at a local favorite, Compass Coffee. Bonus: its veteran (Marine) owned ooh rah! Dinner Since you started with a fine dining experience for lunch, I suggest a very fun and casual dinner experience: Bantam King. This place opened when I was pregnant and I quickly became obsessed with their ramen and fried chicken. Although I no longer have a justification to indulge, I still make it out there at least once a month! From the same owners as the ramen classic Daikaya, this place is as lively as it is delicious. As you walk in, youre welcomed with 90s hip-hop and friendly waiters. Their chicken based ramen is delicious, whether you love spicy or savory, theres something for you. Not a ramen person? Try the fried chicken. Its epic! Trust me. Walk off the fried chicken with a evening stroll along the National Mall. I find the Korean War Memorial hauntingly beautiful at night. Drinks Allegedly DC is one of the places with the highest consumption of alcohol in the United States. I believe that alternative fact. Many are looking to decompress after a hard day of hustling. That being said, a day in Washington, DC cannot be complete without some libations. One of my favorites is the bar at Jaleo. Jaleo has been around for years and the sangria there is a classic and the crowd is always lively. Dirty Habit is a new bar near Penn Quarter that has a selection of creative cocktails with exotic ingredients such as yuzu and chili ice cubes. On a warm day, their patio is the pace to be. If youre looking for a glorious view at the end of the day, head to POV Bar at the W Hotel. It does get crowded but for a reason: it gives one of the best views of the city. A Day in Washington, DC: The Verdict One day in Washington, DC is not enough to see it all but enough to want to come back. Although I live here, I do not tire of walking along the monuments, taking in the art at the museums or exploring the many special events that happen in the heart of the city. If you have time, I do suggest exploring one of the many vibrant neighborhoods that make our nations capital so unique. Are you visiting DC with your love? Check out my Date Night in DC tips Subscriber content preview HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) A group of military veterans in New Jersey is desperately trying to save a World War II submarine. The New York Times reports the Navy gave the U.S.S. Ling to the veterans group, which wanted to use it for a naval museum. The Borg family, which owned The Record newspaper, offered to help the veterans with the project, as the submarine sat near their headquarters on the Hackensack River. . . . More than 500 cellphones and 350,000 SIM cards were seized and three Chinese workers were arrested at a rented house in Thailand which served as a click farm. The Bangkok Post reported that a Chinese company gave the men 150,000 baht ($4,403) along with the phones to pull off the operation for a month. The men told the police they were operating to boost engagement for Chinese products sold in Thailand due to the low mobile phone fees as they generated "fake" page views, likes, and shares through the social media app WeChat. Click farms, where low-paid workers get paid to spend their days clicking on content had become a worldwide problem. At times these farms are rooms with hundreds if not thousands of phones, all ready for when a company paid for traffic. Click farms being extremely adaptable, can be used by companies for everything from acquisition of LinkedIn connections to making themselves look better on the job market. The farms also made millions doing so. According to one of the police officers involved, the men would probably be deported back to China, rather than face any time behind bars, the Nigerian newspaper, The Nation reported. This was not the first click farm to be busted and only last month, a massive click farm with over 10,000 phones was discovered in China. Immigration police captain, Itthikorn Atthanark said the men explained they were paid according to how many likes and views they generated, each earning $2,950-$4,400 per month, New York Post reported. WeChat, China's most prominent online social media platform, incorporates a text-messaging service as also marketing for online stores. The operations were being conducted from a house in Sa Kaeo province, about 120 miles east of Bangkok. The men, identified as Wang Dong, Niu Bang and Ni Wenjin, were charged with working without a permit and importing the phones without paying taxes. According to Itthikorn, the arrests followed a police stakeout at the Sa Kaeo house after receiving reports of suspicious activity. He added, a police search Monday at another residence believed to be engaged in the same activity came up empty-handed, though police believed others connected with the business were still at large. Tributes have been paid to circuit court judge, John OHagan, who is presiding over his final court session in Donegal before his retirement. Judge OHagan was appointed to the bench in 1998 and has sat in Donegal during most of that time. Barrister Peter Nolan led the tributes to the Co. Louth native at Letterkenny Circuit Court today. I want to thank you for your service, for your humanity, for how you dealt with the cases and for how you dealt with the people who came before you, he said. You are a very experienced judge and we have been very lucky to have you. On behalf of the bar I want to thank you for your service, your assistance, your common sense, your humanity, your wisdom and your judgement. He said he also wanted to thank the judge for his generosity and common sense you have shown to the people who have had the pleasure of appearing before you. He said he had been extremely compassionate to all the accused who came before him. I hope you have a happy and full retirement and you get as much out of that as you did out of your time as a judge. State counsel Patricia McLaughlin said Judge OHagan had put in a lot of hard work over the years to deal with very long lists. You were extremely compassionate to all the accused who came before, she said. Solicitor Ciaran MacLochlainn, who also served as state solicitor during Judge OHagans time in Donegal, said the judge had dealt with every major tragedy in Donegal in the last 20-odd years. You have dealt with cases with sympathy respect and great fairness, he said. Thats the hallmark of your tenure in Donegal and that will live long after you are gone and people will remember you for your fairness. Judge OHagan said he had to thank his late father, who was a district court judge, for all the advice hed had given him. He said everyone had worked very hard to reduce the list of indictable cases from about 165 when he arrived to around 50. He also thanked court staff, probation service staff, gardai, prison officers and the press. Judge OHagan said he will be back in the county in civvy mode and that he was looking forward to his retirement. Donegal Fine Gael TD, Joe McHugh, has been named as the chief whip by his new party leader, Leo Varadkar. Deputy McHugh, who was one of the last of the Fine Gael TDs to be told of their promotion and new roles by the Taoiseach, learned of his new promotion to a full cabinet role just after seven o'clock this evening. Along with being the new chief whip, the Carrigart native will also have responsibility for Gaeltacht and Islands. Speaking to the Donegal Democrat, Minister McHugh said he was extremely happy with his new roles. "I'm delighted for the people of Donegal and I am looking forward to getting on with the business at hand. While I have responsibility now for Gaeltlacht and the Islands, my role will also be about promoting the Irish language nationally," he commented. This evening's new cabinet reshuffle ends weeks of speculation about the possibility of Minister McHugh getting the nod for a senior cabinet position. He was one of the first Fine Gael TDs to back Leo Varadkar in his bid to succeed Enda Kenny, and his loyalty and support has been rewarded with this evening's reshuffle. Under former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, Joe McHugh served as Minister of State for the Diaspora and Overseas Development and Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs and Natural Resources. The 45-year-old first entered politics 18 years ago when he was elected to Donegal County Council on June 11th, 1999. He then served in Seanad Eireann from 2002 for five years, before being elected to Dail Eireann in 200. Married to former Fine Gael Deputy, Olwyn Enright, the couple have three children. The last time Donegal had a Fine Gael TD in the senior cabinet was back in 1954, when Patrick O'Donnell was appointed Minister for Local Government. The new cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, Sinn Fein Councillor Gerry McMonagle from the Letterkenny Municipal District, was welcomed to the council at their AGM in Lifford this afternoon. He was proposed by party colleagues Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher and seconded by Cllr Jack Murray. His uncontested election was met with a standing ovation by his council colleagues and family including his wife Zena, sons Martin, Dean and Ultan, daughter Theresa, Dearbhla, Carol and Nicola, extended family and grandchildren, friends and well wishers. He thanked his proposers, whom he said he knew since they were children, his party colleagues, his council colleagues and outgoing cathaoirleach, Cllr Terence Slowey, who he said did a very good job in his role representing Donegal in the last 12 months. Once presented with the chain of office, his first role was to seek proposals for Leas cathaoirleach. Sinn Fein Cllr Noel Jordan from the Donegal Municipal District was proposed, uncontested by party colleague Cllr Gary Doherty and seconded by Cllr John Sheamais OFerraigh. New Cathaoirleach McMonagle said among the plans he has for the year ahead was to seek funding for major roads projects, improving internet connectivity across the county, as well as explore the idea of creating a College of Excellence for Traditional Music in the Gaeltacht area of west Donegal to promote the a county that was rich in culture and heritage. Cllr McMonagle, who is originally from Derry, has been a long term resident of Letterkenny. He formerly served on Letterkenny Town Council before town councils were abolished in June 2014 under the the Local Government Reform Act of the year. He was first elected to the town council in 2004 and was reelected in 2009, serving as a former Mayor of Letterkenny, serving during the 2011/ 2012 term. Cllr McMonagle was then elected to the County Council in 2014. He served as mayor of the Letterkenny Municipal District in 2016. He has served chairperson of the Joint Policing Committee, chairperson of the West North West West Regional Health Forum Committee and member of Donegal County Council Housing and Environment Strategic Policy Committees (SPCs), as well as a number of local community and sport groups. Home Two wheelers Royal Enfield Announces The 14th Edition Of The Himalayan Odyssey oi-Kennedy Paul Time to gear up and set for the ride from Delhi to Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. Royal Enfield has announced the 2017 edition of the Himalayan Odyssey. Bikers will cross a distance of 2,210km, and the road trip will be held from July 6 to July 23, 2017. The 2017 Himalayan Odyssey is the 14th edition where motorcycle enthusiasts get to ride at Khardung-La pass - the highest motorable road in the world at 18,300 feet above sea level. The 2017 edition will see 50 male and 20 female bikers under a separate Himalayan Odyssey - Women. Both the riders will be flagged off on July 8, 2017, from India Gate in New Delhi; they will ride on different routes before finally meeting at Leh. The journey will pass through Narkanda, Sarchu, Jispa, Leh, and all the way to Khardung-La all the while experiencing the extraordinary weather shift, from burning heat to icy cold. Rudratej Singh, President, Royal Enfield said, "Every year, scores of Royal Enfield riders ride their way up to the Himalayas, a terrain that we consider as our spiritual home. It is a pilgrimage where riders can leave behind their urban monotony and appreciate real and authentic experiences and become one with their machine and the terrain while riding." He added, "The participants will realise that the Himalayan Odyssey is not a just a bucket list ride that they have completed, but it's just the beginning of the explorer inside them." Royal Enfield is one of the leading motorcycle manufacturers in India. And its product line-up includes the Bullet, Classic and Thunderbird models in 350 and 500cc displacement along with Continental GT 535cc cafe racer and the purpose built Himalayan powered by the new LS410 engine. DriveSpark Thinks! Some call the Royal Enfield Himalayan Odyssey as 'The Holy Grail' 'The Mecca' or 'The bikers paradise', but it is an opportunity for new and veteran riders to ride on the world's highest motor-able road and Royal Enfield has that opportunity for you. The Special EU Programmes Body(SEUPB), has announced funding offer of 3.28 million, under the EUs INTERREG VA Programme, that will help improve the water quality status of Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle. The project is called SWELL (Shared Waters Enhancement and Loughs Legacy) and involves a detailed investigation into the causes of water pollution on both sides of the border. For the first time ever, it will bring together key state-owned water companies from Northern Ireland and Ireland as it will be delivered by both NI Water and Irish Water, in partnership with the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, the Loughs Agency and East Border Region Ltd. The funding award also has the potential to unlock up to an additional 32 million worth of support from the EUs INTERREG VA Programme to improve wastewater treatment assets that will benefit 10,000 people on a cross-border basis. The additional funding available to the project will be used in the upgrade and construction of wastewater treatment facilities within the Carlingford Lough drainage basin in Newry, Mourne & Down and Louth council areas. Upon its conclusion, the project will contribute towards improving the status and regional compliance with the EUs Water Framework Directive (WFD) in respect of transitional and coastal waters found in Carlingford Lough and driving a common approach to the management of water resources. Importantly, the project will also leave a unique legacy model, which for the first time will link various aspects of environmental modelling which will be carried out in the catchments of the respective loughs. This legacy model will assist the regulatory bodies on both sides of the border by identifying approaches to achieving further improvement of overall water quality. Speaking about the project, Simon Coveney, TD, Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, stated: I am pleased to financially support this cross-border project, as it will contribute to achieving the objectives of the EUs Water Framework Directive. "Establishing the causes of pollution and methods to prevent it on an integrated catchment management basis is key to enhancing water quality for the benefit of all. The European Parliament is hosting a free discussion event, open to all, in partnership with leading environmental NGOs on Friday 16 June, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dundalk. With Brexit negotiations about to begin, speakers including Mairead McGuinness MEP and Lynn Boylan MEP who are both Members of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, will be on hand to answer questions, give their views and join the debate on how Brexit will affect environmental standards in both the Republic and North of Ireland. It will include discussions on what impact will Brexit have, on the environment on the island of Ireland and about what the EU and UK sides want to achieve on environmental regulation in the negotiations. The discussion event runs from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm and will also feature experts from Dublin, Belfast and London to give their views and join the debate. This event is free to attend but prior registration is essential. Book your place at epdublin@ep.europa.eu or phone 01 605 79 00. Businesswomen will continue to be underrepresented in tech-related industries if they are judged against male values, according to Silicon Valley veteran Julie Demsey, General Manager of SBE Australia. Demsey spoke to Dynamic Business about the skills women bring to the tech sector, the difference between Australias start-up culture and Americas, and the launch of SBE Australias latest initiative, E3: Empower, Evolve, Escalate an eight-week educational workshop for early-stage, female-led tech companies. Applications for Sydney E3 are open until 5pm, Sunday 18 June. The program runs from Monday, 24 July to Monday, 11 September. DB: What service does SBE Australia provide women? Demsey: SBE Australia is the sister organisation of Springboard Enterprises and It was started five years ago. Our purpose is to support female tech founders grow scalable, sustainable businesses via participation in the Springboard Enterprises Accelerator, which launched 17 years ago. With strong ties to the US, part of what we offer is community and connections to help alumnae grow their businesses internationally. Companies that have completed the accelerator have collectively raised over $178 million. Based on the success of this program, we are launching the E3 program in Australia, with Sydney first up. Its designed to support early-stage companies with a good product, a strong female founder and a global market but which might not be quite far enough along to have commercially launched. DB: Are females under-represented in the tech? If so, why? Demsey: They are underrepresented. In fact, womens representation in tech-related industries as well as STEM programs is declining. Despite the focus on getting more women into STEM, we seem to have forgotten to ask a key question, which is what problem are we trying to solve? In my view, women bring many skills to the table in business, including and this is well-researched and documented intuitive problem-solving skills. While most women inherently have these skills, they are rarely valued for them. A program that teaches a woman to code wont necessarily tell her that she can also make a completely different, yet critical contribution to a successful tech business. If you arent solving a big, important problem, technology wont matter. While women are often the ones who identify and resolve big problems meaningful problems they are told, you must learn to code or you cant be an entrepreneur. We know that many of our most successful global companies were started by men who did not know how to code, yet were simply solving a big (and sometimes little) problem. DB: What would increase female representation? Demsey: I would argue we need to make STEM about purpose and context, and then women will want to be involved. Teach STEM skills and position them as tools for solving problems but value women for their insights, ability to operate lean companies, trustworthiness, people management skills and customer focus. These are the very qualities that make the difference between a company doing well, and excelling. Until we acknowledge that we are judging women based on male values, rather than female or even true business values, they will continue to have to run faster to prove themselves, and frankly I think they are getting tired of that game. DB: How does the US start-up scene compare to the one here? Demsey: Ive found the start-up community here to be really welcoming. Of course, the community here is younger, but it seems to be growing quickly. Theres a cultural difference too: I find entrepreneurs here are focused on growing sustainable businesses, rather than being preoccupied with becoming the next Unicorn. I think it is a trap to aspire to be a unicorn you can make the wrong decisions for your business if that is what you are focusing on. Big news out of Flint this morning. Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed charges against two current and two former Snyder administration officials and one former Flint official. Michigan Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon is being charged with felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office. Four others, including former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, are also facing manslaughter charges. In addition, Michigans Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells has been charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. You may think this has to do with lead in Flints drinking water. However, these charges are over the officials handling of the Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint in 2014 and 2015: Both are charged in connection with the Legionnaires disease outbreak in the Flint area that led to 12 deaths after the citys water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014. [] Lyon, 49, of Marshall is accused of causing the death of Robert Skidmore on Dec. 15, 2015 by failing to alert the public about a foreseeable outbreak of Legionnaires disease. Its a 15-year felony. Defendant Lyon was aware of Genesee Countys Legionnaires disease outbreak at least by Jan. 28, 2015 and did not notify the public until a year later, the charging documents allege. Lyon exhibited gross negligence when he failed to alert the public about the deadly outbreak and by taking steps to suppress information illustrating obvious and apparent harms that were likely to result in serious injury. On the misconduct in office charge, a five-year felony, Lyon is accused of instructing an official to discontinue an analysis that would help determine the cause of the outbreak. [] Wells, 54, of Ann Arbor is accused in connection with the obstruction of justice charge of providing false testimony to a special agent and threatening to withhold funding for the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership if the partnership did not cease its investigation into the source of the outbreak. Thats a five-year felony. Wells is also charged with lying to a peace officer about the date she knew of the outbreak of Legionnaires disease. Thats a two-year misdemeanor. Although there is no conclusive proof linking the 2014-2015 outbreak of Legionnaires Disease in Flint to the change to the Flint River as their water source, experts believe the connection is highly likely: A national expert in Legionnaires disease who met with health and hospital officials in Michigan blames the spike in cases in Genesee County on Flints water. Janet Stout, associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering with 30 years of experience studying the disease, concluded the problems with Flints water are related to the increase in Legionnaires cases although she cant prove it. It is like an emperors new clothes situation, Stout said. Somebody has to say it. She said its a reasonable conclusion given the link between poor water quality and Legionnaires disease in scientific studies done elsewhere. New data released this week by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Legionnaires outbreaks shows 70% of people who contracted the disease were exposed to Flint water two weeks before their symptoms began. Just looking at the data, it seems pretty clear: Twelve people died from the outbreak. Michigan Health and Human Services Director under the leadership of Lyon and Wells has a history of hiding information with respect to the catastrophe in Flint. Wells, who worked part-time in her position until a PrideSource expose revealed that this was illegal, revealed in January of 2016 that elevated lead levels in the blood of Flint children began to show up as early as the summer of 2014, a full year earlier than had been thought. However, because there was a dip later in the fall, a seasonal dip that is not unusual, HHS officials wrote it off as nothing out of the ordinary: The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services own review last July showed a spike in blood-lead levels in Flint children in the months after the city switched its water supply to Flint River water. But state epidemiologists explained it away, a missed opportunity that could have resulted in an earlier response to the crisis, the agencys chief medical officer said. [] The July data review by the department came amid a growing outcry among Flint residents and local officials about the condition and safety of the citys water. The data showed a spike in the levels of lead in Flint childrens blood in July, August and September 2014 only a few months after the city had switched its water supply from the city of Detroits system to Flint River water. Email exchanges within the department showed efforts to broaden the data review, to see if the conclusions would change. They didnt. Even compared to the previous three years, the portion of first-time EBLL (elevated blood-lead levels) is highest during summer 2014, health department officials stated in a July 28 memo for Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon. But the state data also showed a drop in blood-lead levels in Flint children for October 2014 a typical, seasonal reduction. That led state epidemiologists to decide the summer spike they saw was insignificant. So, they said well just have to keep collecting further data, and taking a look at this, and follow it, Wells said. In October of 2014, Lyons was caught illegally destroying state government records when the liberal watchdog group Progress Michigan attempted obtain those documents in a FOIA request. These charges are among many that have been filed by Schuette. Other Snyder administration officials who have been charged include former Flint Emergency Managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose. Schuette was notably absent from the Flint Water Crisis as it made headlines. When Michigan Department of Environmental Quality chief Dan Wyant resigned in disgrace for his role in the poisoning of Flint, Schuette was quick to defend him, saying he was saddened by Wyants resignation and knew him to be a hardworking, dedicated public servant. However, once it was clear that he was going to run for governor, Schuette suddenly took great interest in the plight of Flints residents, which allowed him to distance himself from the political toxicity of Gov. Snyder and appear to be doing something. In the midst of these charges being filed, there are also dozens of lawsuits pending. However, one person who doesnt have to worry about being sued over his role in the poisoning of Flints drinking water is Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. This past week a judge ruled that Snyder has immunity: State and Flint municipal employees can be sued over the Flints lead-tainted water, but Gov. Rick Snyder and the state of Michigan have governmental immunity under Michigan law, a federal judge ruled Monday. The sweeping 15-count lawsuit was brought by Flint resident Shari Guertin against the state, the city of Flint, Snyder and 13 other public officials, as well as two consulting firms involved in the water debacle. Judge Judith E. Levy of U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor, in a 101-page ruling, dismissed many of the counts charged in the lawsuit, but agreed that the bodily integrity of Guertin and her child were violated when city residents were unknowingly exposed by to dangerous levels of lead in the citys drinking water that officials were aware of but hid from the public. Though Levy ruled none of the state employees can be sued in their official capacity, she said some including Michigans Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells and MDHHS Director Nick Lyon and others can be sued as individuals. Flint officials have no state governmental immunity. As this case highlights, the more governmental actors that are involved in causing a massive tort in Michigan, the less likely it is that state tort claims can proceed against the individual government actors given the way the state immunity statutes operate, she wrote. Because the harm that befell plaintiffs was such a massive undertaking, and took so many government actors to cause, the perverse result is that none can be held responsible under state tort law. So, if youre planning on poisoning an entire city, the take home message is to be the governor and to involve as many people in it as you can to muddy the waters. Do that and youll get off scot-free. UPDATE: Gov. Snyder is standing by his man (and woman): Gov. Rick Snyders statement in support of DHHS Director Nick Lyon and Dr. Eden Wells Wednesday, June 14, 2017 LANSING, Mich. Gov. Rick Snyder issued the following statement today: Nick Lyon has been a strong leader at the Department of Health and Human Services for the past several years and remains completely committed to Flints recovery. Director Lyon and Dr. Eden Wells, like every other person who has been charged with a crime by Bill Schuette, are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Some state employees were charged over a year ago and have been suspended from work since that time. They still have not had their day in court. That is not justice for Flint nor for those who have been charged. Director Lyon and Dr. Wells have been and continue to be instrumental in Flints recovery. They have my full faith and confidence, and will remain on duty at DHHS. UPDATE: Here is Schuettes press release, available HERE: Schuette Charges MDHHS Director Lyon, Four Others with Involuntary Manslaughter in Flint Water Crisis Andrea Bitely, Megan Hawthorne; (517) 373-8060 June 14 2017 FLINT Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced that he has charged Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, former City of Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft, as well as Michigan Department of Environmental Qualitys Drinking Water Chief Liane Shekter-Smith and Water Supervisor Stephen Busch with involuntary manslaughter related to their alleged failure to act in the Flint Water Crisis. Involuntary manslaughter is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and/or a $7,500 fine. In addition to the involuntary manslaughter charges, Schuette also charged Lyon with Misconduct in Office, a felony, subject to 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine. MDHHS Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells has also been charged with lying to a peace officer and obstruction of justice related to an alleged attempt to stop an investigation into the health crisis in Flint and later misleading investigators as to her actions. Schuette was joined at the announcement by Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, Flint Water Investigation Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, and Chief Investigator Andrew Arena. INVESTIGATION INTERIM REPORT With more than a dozen people now having been charged, and pre-trial hearings and other legal proceedings occurring, Schuette released the initial results of the more than yearlong investigation. Included in the report is a comprehensive look at todays and past charges made, as well as a review of the facts and evidence in the case. DEFENDANTS Multiple Flint-area residents died of Legionnaires disease in the time immediately following the switch from Detroit Water and Sewer Department to the Flint River. All defendants charged with involuntary manslaughter are charged in relation to the death of Robert Skidmore, 85, of Mt. Morris, Michigan. Skidmore died of Legionnaires disease after many others had been diagnosed with the illness, yet no public outbreak notice had been issued. The charges allege failure to notify and lack of action to stop the outbreak allowed the disease to continue its spread through Flints water system. NICK LYON As the Director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, a position whose duties are outlined in the Michigan Constitution, Lyon has a duty to protect public health. The investigation has shown that Lyon allegedly received notice of a deadly Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Genesee County nearly one year before he informed the public. After being informed about a potentially fatal health risk, Lyon allegedly deliberately failed to inform the public of a deadly Legionnaires Disease outbreak, which resulted in the death of Robert Skidmore. Furthermore, Lyon allegedly participated in covering up the source of Genesee Countys Legionnaires Disease outbreak by repeatedly attempting to prevent an independent researcher from looking into the cause of the outbreak. Charges: COUNT 1 HOMICIDE MANSLAUGHTER INVOLUNTARY Did cause the death of Robert Skidmore on December 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan when he had notice that another outbreak would occur; contrary to MCL 750.321. [750.321-C] FELONY: 15 Years and/or $7,500.00. DNA to be taken upon arrest. COUNT 2 MISCONDUCT IN OFFICE Did between February 2015 and May 2017, commit misconduct in office, an indictable offense at common law, in violation of his duty to protect the health of the citizens of the County of Genesee, State of Michigan and to protect the public health enjoined upon him by the Michigan Public Health Code, MCL 333.5111(1); MCL 333.5111(2)(f);MCL 333.2251(1): MCL 333.2251(3); and MCL 333.20531 and the Critical Health Problems Reporting Act; contrary to MCL 750.505. [750.505] FELONY: 5 Years and/or $10,000.00. EDEN WELLS As the Chief Medical Executive of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Eden Wells has a responsibility to protect the health and welfare of Michigan residents. During the course of the investigation of the Flint Water Crisis, it is alleged that Wells attempted to withhold funding for programs designed to help the victims of the crisis, and then lied to an investigator about material facts related to the investigation. Charges: COUNT 1 OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE Did commit the common law offense of obstruction of justice by knowingly providing false testimony to a Special Agent and by threatening to withhold funding for the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership if the partnership did not cease its investigation into the source of the Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan; contrary to MCL 750.505. FELONY: 5 Years or $10,000. DNA to be taken upon arrest. COUNT 2 LYING TO A PEACE OFFICER 4 YEAR OR MORE CRIME INVESTIGATION After being informed by Special Counsel Todd Flood, in the presence of Special Agent Arthur Wimmer, that they were conducting a criminal investigation, did knowingly and willfully make a statement or statements to the officer that he or she knew was false or misleading regarding the following material fact or facts relating to the investigation: the date she knew of the Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan, and the officer was conducting a criminal investigation regarding involuntary manslaughter; contrary to MCL 750.479c(2)(c). [750.470C2C]. HIGH COURT MISDEMEANOR: 2 Years and/or $5,000.00. STEPHEN BUSCH Stephen Busch served as the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality District 8 Water Supervisor, a position which would have allowed him to order the Flint Water Treatment Plant be shut down because it was not producing safe water. In January of 2015, Busch was made aware of the Legionnaires Disease outbreak, yet he allegedly represented to the public that Flints drinking water was safe. Busch was previously charged with felony Misconduct in Office, Tampering with Evidence, Conspiracy to Tamper with Evidence, and two misdemeanor counts for both a treatment and monitoring violation of the Michigan Safe Water Drinking Act. Charges: COUNT 1 HOMICIDE MANSLAUGHTER INVOLUNTARY Did cause the death of Robert Skidmore on December 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan when he had notice that another outbreak would occur; contrary to MCL 750.321. [750.321-C] FELONY: 15 Years and/or $7,500.00. DNA to be taken upon arrest. LIANE SHEKTER-SMITH As the Chief of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance at the Department of Environmental Quality, Shekter-Smith had the ability to order the Flint Water Treatment Plant shut down for failure to produce safe water. Shekter-Smith was previously charged with a felony of Misconduct in Office and a misdemeanor charge of Willful Neglect of Duty. Charges: COUNT 1 HOMICIDE MANSLAUGHTER INVOLUNTARY Did cause the death of Robert Skidmore on December 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan when he had notice that another outbreak would occur; contrary to MCL 750.321. [750.321-C] FELONY: 15 Years and/or $7,500.00. DNA to be taken upon arrest. HOWARD CROFT As Director of Public Works for the City of Flint, Croft had the ability to mandate changes to the treatment processes at the WTP to ensure proper disinfection was occurring, or switch back to DWSD. Mike Glasgow, former Flint Water Treatment Plant Operator, was allegedly pressured by Croft to start using the Flint Water Treatment Plant. Crofts alleged failure to treat the water properly contributed to the bacterial outbreaks found in Flint, including the legionella in the spring of 2015. Croft was previously charged with felony False Pretenses and Conspiracy to Commit False Pretenses. Charges: COUNT 1 HOMICIDE MANSLAUGHTER INVOLUNTARY Did cause the death of Robert Skidmore on December 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan when he had notice that another outbreak would occur; contrary to MCL 750.321. [750.321-C] FELONY: 15 Years and/or $7,500.00. DNA to be taken upon arrest. DARNELL EARLEY As an appointed Emergency Manager for the City of Flint, Earley was tasked with ensuring the health and welfare of the City. During his terms as Emergency Manager, Earley contributed to the decisions that allegedly caused the death of Robert Skidmore by keeping the City on the water source even as it became obvious the source should be switched back to Detroit Water & Sewer. Earley was previously charged with felony False Pretenses, Conspiracy to Commit False Pretenses, Misconduct in Office and a misdemeanor charge of Willful Neglect of Duty. Charges: COUNT 1 HOMICIDE MANSLAUGHTER INVOLUNTARY Did cause the death of Robert Skidmore on December 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan when he had notice that another outbreak would occur; contrary to MCL 750.321. [750.321-C] FELONY: 15 Years and/or $7,500.00. DNA to be taken upon arrest. A criminal charge is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Uber Technologies CEO Travis Kalanick on Tuesday confirmed that he will take a leave of absence, as a company review led by Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General, was made public. The review sketches out a plan to make radical changes to diversify Uber in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Kalanick accepted responsibility for widespread company problems that led to the investigation in a letter to employees that was released with the report. For the last eight years my life has always been about Uber, he wrote. Recent events have brought home for me that people are more important than work, and that I need to take some time off of the day-to-day to grieve for my mother, whom I buried on Friday, and to reflect, to work on myself, and to focus on building a world-class leadership team. The ultimate responsibility for how things have developed and unraveled at the company rests on my shoulders, Kalanick added. As they worked to build Uber 2.0, Kalanick needed to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that the company needs, he said. While Kalanick is away, the leadership team, his direct reports, will run the company, he said. While he will be available as needed for strategic decisions, he will be empowering them to be bold and decisive so the company can quickly move forward. The changes recommended in the report were unanimously approved by the board on Sunday, according to Liane Hornsey, chief HR officer at Uber, who said they would improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to make sure this would not happen again. Company Oversight The 13-page report, prepared by Holder and Tammy Albarran, both partners in Covington & Burling, calls for a series of dramatic changes to diversify Ubers management and workforce, as well as overhaul the corporate governance structure. Holders firm was brought in after former engineer Susan Fowler described widespread sex harassment and retaliatory behavior at Uber in an online post. Numerous changes already have been made at Uber, including the firing of about 20 employees found to be guilty of bad behavior, and the sacking of Ubers No. 2 executive Emil Michael. The report recommends giving some of Kalanicks duties to other senior management officials: The company should hire a chief operating officer to run day-to-day operations preferably someone with a background in diversity and inclusion. It should hire an independent chairperson of the board, and restructure the board to have more independent members. The company also should conduct performance reviews of top executives. The report suggests creating an oversight board to evaluate how the company is progressing in its efforts to increase diversity, to operate using ethical business practices, and more. The company should use compensation to hold senior executives accountable. Uber also needs to improve the companys internal controls and audit committee processes, as well as closely track agreements with employees through the use of software and other tools to ensure compliance and monitor handling of complaints. The company should use blind resumes in its hiring to help prevent discriminatory practices. It should adopt something similar to the NFLs Rooney Rule, which essentially requires more people of color and women to be included in major hires, the report suggests. Inmates Running Asylum In order for Uber to improve, it needs restructuring at the top leadership level, said Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book. My first reaction was theyre putting the adults in charge, she told the E-Commerce Times. You cant run a company like a frat house. What Uber needs is a Sheryl Sandberg-like executive who can help steer a young, growing technology startup to adopt a more mature and diverse corporate culture, Lindland suggested. Ubers problems are not unique other startups have been known to indulge in freewheeling behavior when the checks come flying in and then have difficulty growing up. Until I worked at a startup, I never understood the maxim that growth can kill a company, said Bennett Kelley, founder of the Internet Law Center. Uber experienced rapid growth, and Kalanick didnt put in place the people and controls necessary to manage it properly, he told the E-Commerce Times. The situation at Uber is more than a little strange, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. While the Holder report recommendations are eminently sensible, changing a company culture particularly one that led to such a strong market position and personal enrichment of so many people is not a trivial matter, King told the E-Commerce Times. Its difficult to see how can the company can deliver the significant change shareholders and board members have called for under the existing structure, he said. The companys corporate structure enables three insiders Travis Kalanick, cofounder Garrett Camp and Ubers first employee and CEO Ryan Graves to control a majority of the boards voting rights, King pointed out. Absent one or two of these board members joining the call for structural change, he said, Kalanicks leave of absence may simply be the first act in a dumb show that will have little if any lasting effects. Comcast has led the way in cable television ever since it acquired AT&T Broadband a decade ago. However, in recent years, new technologies like IPTV and wireless TV from new competitors like AT&T and DirecTV Now have been eating away at Comcasts growth. Thats why Comcast not only has introduced Xfinity Mobile, which is its new wireless service, but also is getting ready to launch its own IPTV service, Xfinity Instant TV. I congratulate Comcast on this forward thinking, but there are no guarantees that IPTV will work for Comcast. That said, it is possible to make an educated guess. Pay TV Is Changing Cable TV has been a growth industry for decades, but in many ways that trend is deceiving. Cable television companies like Comcast, Charter, Cox, Time Warner Cable and others really had their markets all to themselves. There was no cable-TV competition in their regions. So, they kept growing, kept ignoring their responsibility to provide good customer care and customer service, and simply got fat and happy at the expense of the user. That meant customers had no emotional connection with their cable television provider. While that didnt hurt them when there was no competition, things are changing. Thats a secret Apple learned as it grew to become the most valuable company in the U.S. The cable-TV industry should have learned that lesson but didnt. It waited until it was bleeding market share to notice and start to react. In the last decade, IPTV entered the picture, and that started to eat away at traditional cable TVs market share. New services like AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS and CenturyLink Prism appeared, and customers who liked having choices started to move. Changes continued as new technologies and new competitors continued to enter the space, with large and small providers of all sorts of television choices. Netflix, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Hulu, and many others have been rewriting the rules of cable TV. IPTV, Wireless TV Crucial for Comcast The landscape continues to change with AT&T acquiring DirecTV and creating DirecTV NOW, which gives customers choices of smaller and less expensive bundles of channels, as well as something new in the major television space: wireless TV, or mobile TV. This has really turned up the heat on traditional cable television. Traditional cable television is not growing. Its growth wave has crested and now is falling. Consumers are switching to new competitors and new technologies. This is the new challenge for the industry. And this is why we are seeing Comcast starting to make such dramatic changes to its lineup with mobile TV and IPTV. Can Comcast Succeed? Comcast understands the need, but does the company have the right thinking to be successful at IPTV, wireless and mobile TV? It all depends. It depends on the service, how well its priced, how useful it is, how hot it is in a marketing sense, and more. To tell you the truth while Id like to see Comcast succeed at this, its track record isnt the greatest in these new areas. To make matters worse, its customers really dont like the company. It would be great if Comcast were successful with IPTV, wireless and mobile TV. It would be great if the company could turn the page on the past and jump-start the growth engines for this next generation of pay TV. It would be great if it could improve its customer satisfaction. All of that would be great. Well just have to wait and see. 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An extremist man from a group of anti-secular Jews known as haredi has been indicted by an Israeli court for attempting to attack the head of the Israel Defense Force Manpower Directorate, and for issuing threats against him. His case at the Nazareth Magistrate's Court highlights a conundrum for Israeli authorities trying to enforce the country's conscription laws. The indictment sheet says 40-year-old Moshe Iraam, a Jerusalem resident, traveled on May 5 to Moshav Kfar Tavor in the Lower Galilee. There he accosted Maj.-Gen. Moti Almoz outside a synagogue after the Friday night prayer service, The Jerusalem Post reports. Iraam is part of a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews who reject the concept of military conscription imposed on all Israelis. On June 12 in New York close to 20,000 Orthodox demonstrators gathered at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to protest against the Israeli law that mandates Orthodox conscription into the IDF, describing it as "Israel's persecution of religious Jews." Rabbi David Niederman, a liaison for the Central Rabbinical Congress, one of the groups involved in the event, told The Jerusalem Post he views Orthodox military conscription as a violation of religious freedom. HAREDI AGGRESSION Haredi extremists have conducted a fierce campaign of incitement and aggression towards haredi men enlisting in the IDF and those who recruit them over the last four years, a campaign which has increased in intensity in recent months, VosIzNeias reported. "Since 1948, when the government was founded, they understood that there is such a thing as [yeshiva] students who are studying, and they are exempt of military services," said Rabbi Niederman. "But for the past few years, [Israeli politicians] have been trying to tighten the screw and are basically forcefully recruiting and forcefully bringing them in for military service, to which they object. "Unprecedented things happened: There are people who protest those conditions, people who are upset that [Israel] violates their right to their religious adherence." Haredi extremists compared senior IDF officer General Almoz to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. After some of the protests and Israeli State Attorney banned haredi protests outside IDF officers' homes. Iraam spat at Almoz, and hurled abuse at him based on Iraam's opposition to drafting haredi men into the IDF. He also accused Almoz of "torturing," because of IDF regulations allowing for women soldiers to be put in military prison. Amongst other insults, Iraam told Almoz that "there is justice and there is a judge." Iraam, together with another individual, stayed in Kfar Tavor for three days to harass the Israeli general close to the synagogue where he prays, and threatened violence against him. Later in May, several dozen haredi extremists descended on Almoz's private residence and protested against the enlistment of haredi men, although the indictment did not mention Iraam in connection with these events. The protestors distributed flyers that read: "Moti Almoz, head of the Manpower Directorate, who sells his soul for money: How long will you burn the souls of the sons and daughters of Israel in the crematorium of Auschwitz the army of destruction. Know that there is justice and there is a judge. "Your end will be bitter, like Hitler's and his friends,'" they said. Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o... Infrastructure projects in these South-East European countries often got stuck even before they had really started. Even when local beneficiaries gained access to vital grant money from the EU, they lacked the experience to implement such projects. The big change came when the European Investment Bank put its technical assistance experts on the ground. There is no substitute for local presence, says Steve Richards, head of the Banks Project Advisory Support team. This is the first time that EIB implementation experts have worked on the ground. That helps regions and municipalities to navigate bureaucracies and local business customs, clearing roadblocks, speeding up processes, and moving projects forward. With eight experts in the EIBs Sofia and Bucharest offices, Steves team meets each week with their counterparts in the Romanian and Bulgarian governments. The result: A massive increase, says Catalin Gheran, who heads Romanias large infrastructure operational program for 2014 to 2020. From around 30% implementation rate in 2013, up to almost 90% in 2016. The benefits that these projects bring to the Romanian people are a great boost for us. Gheran always had lots of good projects that would deliver greater real benefits if they were properly managed and supplemented with good technical advice on the ground, he says. But we had problems in the implementation. We got quality advice from the EIB, which has made a difference. Project advisory support Project implementation isnt always smooth. Thats particularly true in countries like Romania and Bulgaria, which lag behind the rest of the EU in their take-up of development funds. The challenge was huge and required going beyond the technical assistance we used to provide, explains Steve. The answer the Bank developed was project implementation advisory support, a framework under which the Bank provides technical assistance to state administrations responsible for key infrastructure projects. This accelerates project execution and speeds up the absorption of EU Structural Funds. Projects start faster and finish sooner, says Gheran. The support from the EIB is flexible, which is also why its so effective. The Bank has provided technical assistance to Romanian authorities at various levels, signing project advisory support service agreements worth EUR 19 million with the National Public Procurement Agency and the Ministry for European Funds. In Bulgaria, the Bank has backed the preparation and implementation of projects supported by EU funds. The advice is usually for large infrastructure, including water, solid waste and waste water. Capacity building EIB experts and consultants engaged by the Bank help implementing authorities build knowledge which they can use to approach other investors or lending partners, says Simona Bovha, who heads the procurement and contract management of external consultants at the EIB. They also help them to better understand the investment environment. This framework benefits from a decade of lessons learned on project preparation in Bulgaria and Romania by JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions). It represents an extensionand an evolution of JASPERS work. TT logo trademark extended The Economic Development Minister has revealed his Department has recently extended the trademark for the TT logo. The Manx Government registered the logo in the UK in 2006, but found there wasn't a big enough audience further afield to justify registering it elsewhere. However, Laurence Skelly told this week's sitting of the House of Keys that the logo has recently been registered in 12 categories for use in Europe as a result of the growth of the event. The Classic TT trademark, which was registered for UK use in 2013, has also been extended. So i ended up getting an email late at night that the old GWF is not valid because they looked it up and my current appicaiton is processing ( which is good). They Never said it could still be in new york or sheffield. And why i got that email in the first place. The whole email a bit of a joke! They are taking it as a tech error because its still a bit in the air for them. They will escalate.. to make sure they arent using the old application in someway Hi, I live in France and would like to relocate in the uae. I used to work in HR/Global mobility and immigration. I know that it is not easy to find a job when you are not living in the country yet. I have to find a compagny that accepts to sponsores me ... am I dreaming lol ? Where can i start ? I've found many immigration companies but most of seem to be fakes. Thank you ! The reason I do believe it might be possible to apply for a fiance visa in Manila embassy is I have a friend that moves his family there and told me all can be done in Manila. He does get confused and give false information. From Jet post (thank you) I did get the number for the Visa section (+632) 976 8500 02 or (+632) 981 8300. From the recording it sounds like if one is in the Philippines for six months a fiance visa can be submitted in the embassy. I will call them Monday to speak to a live person. Tony This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Eddie Seal /Bloomberg Show More Show Less 2 of 2 /Courtesy photo Show More Show Less San Antonio-based Howard Midstream Energy Partners is entering a $563 million joint partnership with Tulsa-based oil and gas producer WPX Energy to complete a 50-mile crude oil pipeline and processing system in West Texas Permian Basin oil field, Howard Energy announced Tuesday. The system, once completed by Howard Energy, will have the capacity to transport and process 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day in the Permians Delaware Basin, the company said in a press release. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The Hawaiians will tell you that the only rule to poke, their cevichelike quintessential island dish, is that there are no rules to poke. Poke (pronounced POH-kay) can act as either an appetizer or a main course, and it has caught on here in San Antonio, where it can be found on an ever-growing list of restaurant menus. And for good reason its healthy and delicious, and its easy to make at home. Poke is traditionally comprised of raw sashimi-grade yellowfin (often referred to as ahi) tuna or salmon, cut into cubes and mixed with some type of sweet onion, sesame oil and a little soy sauce. But theres no one true way to define the dish, other than to say that it definitely isnt sushi or sashimi. It was just something we grew up eating (in Hawaii), and it was one of those things that we never thought twice about, said Renee Park, owner of the Aloha Kitchen at 1151 Wurzbach Road. And now, all of the sudden, its like the new thing here. Park said the dish can be made in a variety of ways, much the way a taco can be filled with an endless number of fillings. The fish is traditionally served raw, but if its cooked, thats OK, too. Park is the first generation of her family to be born on the mainland. Her mother, Elizabeth Park, left the shores of Maui in 1958, more than a year before Hawaii was granted statehood, for the mainland after enlisting in the military. Elizabeth, who goes by Aunty Liz, grew up in Maui in a large family with 13 children. She has been one of the primary ambassadors for spreading the Aloha culture in the area, and has been teaching island dance and serving its food for nearly three decades. Ive been making poke for more than 50 years, Elizabeth said. And when I go back to the islands, the fish are handed off to me, and Im expected to whip up a batch. Poke is a somewhat exclusive dish on the Aloha Kitchen menu. The restaurant is a lunch-specific Monday through Saturday operation, but the ahi poke is only available ($25 per pound) with at least 24 hours notice and when Elizabeth has an opening on her schedule. Mom refuses to make it unless we can get our hands on the right fish, and she wont let anybody else do it, Park said with a laugh. The Parks go out of their way to use authentic Hawaiian ingredients, paying special attention to using native seaweeds that are handpicked during visits and transported back to the restaurant. Instead of relying on sesame seeds, kukui nuts are harvested, shelled, treated and chopped into the poke for a unique texture. Chef Luis Colon offers it up as a pub grub appetizer at Bexar Pub at 114 Brooklyn Ave., but it holds up as an affordable $8 main course. His version, which is a carryover from his recently closed Folc restaurant, is fairly traditional and served slightly chilled with tuna mixed with onions, sesame seeds and a slight blast of ginger. Its accompanied with a side of thick, salty tortilla chips for scooping. People are taking to it on the menu, Colon said. Its a cooler and refreshing dish that makes for the perfect bar food. No plans to ever take it off. Wild Goji at 7115 Blanco Road doesnt offer it as a permanent menu item, but its one of those $12 daily specials that a server admitted was rarely erased off the chalkboard. Its interpretation, served as a true poke bowl, combines tuna and salmon with half of a sliced avocado, a little crab meat and an onion mixture over sushi rice. More than a dozen San Antonio restaurants feature poke as either a temporary or permanent menu offering, and the Big Aloha food truck, operated by Oahu natives Kalani and Imelda Young, takes it mobile. Rick Groomer, CEO of Groomers Seafood at 9801 McCullough, is the areas top local supplier of fresh seafood and has been able to keep up with increased demand for sashimi-grade ahi tuna and salmon. Groomers moves out about 30,000 pounds of salmon per week and about 10,000 pounds of tuna. The yellowfin he sells for $21.95 per pound (currently running as a summer special) is sashimi grade. Hes regularly asked for the product for home use. Sashimi grade means that you are using a top-of-the-line, high-fat content fish, Groomer said. We tell our customers to cook our fish because we have to (tell them that), but if we know that they intend to eat it raw, theyll get our best grade. Take a quick look into the deli and sushi area of a local H-E-B, and customers will discover the grocer is getting into the poke game, too,. The bowls start at $9.99 and come with salmon or tuna (again, sashimi grade) and plenty of vegetables, along with three flavor variations (original, spicy and teriyaki). A new line of poke bowls will be released later this summer starting at $10.99. A recent recall of yellowfin tuna shipped from Hawaii-based company Hilo Fish Co. and potentially tainted with Hepatitis A caused a ripple of anxiety in the seafood industry. Potentially tainted shipments were traced to 12 Texas locations, including one San Antonio restaurant that tossed the fish before the box was opened as a precaution. Most people dont understand what an FDA recall is. They happen pretty much weekly, Groomer said. Nobody got sick, and the company (Hilo) got punished for doing the right thing. The process in the U.S. is so clean, were almost too sanitary. For concerned diners, theres an easy way to dispatch any concerns over contacting a food-borne illness: cook the fish. Because remember, there are no rules in poke. All you gotta do is find that mix of all the ingredients and see what you like, said Earl Young, whos retired military, an Oahu native and a poke aficionado. Some make it bland. Some overdo the spice. Its all a matter of putting it all in right. Nobody makes the same sandwich. Nobody makes the same burrito. NOTE: The story has been updated to correct the current price of H-E-Bs pole bowls. cblount@express-news.net Twitter: @chuck_blount The University of Texas Health Cancer Center announced Tuesday it will have a new director by August. Dr. Ruben Mesa comes to San Antonio from Arizona, where he serves as deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and chair of the Mayo Clinics Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology in Arizona. Mesa is succeeding interim director Tim Huang. Dr. William Henrich, president of UT Health Science Center San Antonio, described Mesa as an international expert in myeloproliferative neoplasms, or MPNs, a group of bone marrow disorders that can create problems for blood flow and possibly lead to leukemia. Having studied MNPs for more than 20 years, Mesa chairs the National Comprehensive Cancer Networks panel that published the first U.S. guidelines on diagnosing and treating myelofibrosis, a kind of MPN. The guidelines were published last fall in the Journal of the National Cancer Center Network. Mesa also contributed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations approval of ruxolitinib, a form of chemotherapy used to treat types of MPNs. He is investigating several other drugs to combat those types of cancers, according to a news release. Henrich said Mesa will bring with him to San Antonio a sizeable patient centered research program. In addition, Mesa is involved as a patient advocate in cancer care, helping communities, states and governments better understand and plan for the burden of this dreadful disease, Henrich said in a statement. He is highly engaged and demonstrates a commitment to serving the needs of patients compassionately. After receiving bachelors degrees in nuclear engineering and physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mesa earned a medical degree and completed a fellowship in hematology/medical oncology from the Mayo Graduate School at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. . In 1991, Mesa began his career at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where he worked for 18 years before relocating to Mayos Phoenix, Arizona, campus eight years ago. While there, the division he headed doubled its number of physicians, allied health staff and advanced-practice nurse practitioners, according to a news release from UT Health. After being named deputy director of the Arizona Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in 2012, the center developed the states largest stem cell transplant program and become a partner organization of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and Association of American Cancer Institutes. Mesa will take over as the centers director by the end of the summer, just before an affiliation between UT Health and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center becomes operational this fall. In November, the two agreed to affiliate. In a statement, Mesa called the affiliation an exceptional opportunity that was full of tremendous assets. We are aligned in our mission to end cancer, he said. We will continue to make life-changing breakthroughs in cancer research and care for Texans and beyond. fmilburn@express-news.net A former guard at the privately run jail that holds federal pretrial prisoners in downtown San Antonio was sentenced Tuesday to five months in jail and five months of home confinement for the sexual abuse of a ward. Barbara Jean Goodwin, 35, faced a maximum of 15 years in prison for having sex with the inmate, who was under her supervision. Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra sentenced her in line with a recommendation by federal prosecutors. Goodwin and her supporters were in tears after hearing the judge dole out her punishment. Goodwin pleaded guilty in March. According to a factual basis in her plea agreement, an inmate at the Central Texas Detention Facility contacted a hotline set up under the federal Prisoner Rape Elimination Act and a rape crisis hotline to report his sexual activity with Goodwin. The facility is run by Florida-based The GEO Group. The U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI opened an investigation. The inmate, who was in jail on drug charges, told the investigators that between February 2016 and August 2016, Goodwin engaged in oral sex with him about 30 times, sometimes in view of other inmates. She says it was much less often. Goodwin would call the inmate out of his cell to clean or do laundry, and started the advances by grabbing his buttocks and penis, the factual basis said. The inmate told Goodwin that he didnt want any trouble, but Goodwin would respond that she is the only one that could get him in trouble, the document said. Goodwin worked the night shift; and in the middle of the night, she would tap his cell to talk to him, and pull him out to clean, then perform oral sex on him, the factual basis said. On several occasions, Goodwin would give (the inmate) oral sex through the cell door while (the inmate) was in his cell and Goodwin was outside the cell, the factual basis said. Goodwin had (the inmate) stand up on a foot locker so his penis would be higher and she wouldnt have to bend down. gcontreras@express-news.net Twitter: @gmaninfedland This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For most people, National Flag Day will come and go. But Dixie Flag & Banner Co. is ready to change that, to make heads turn as people pass by their facility off Interstate 35. The San Antonio mainstay will make those who may not remember National Flag Day remember what the American flag, and this nation, stand for this Wednesday. The day starts for Dixie this morning at its store and factory located just south of Splashtown and across from Fort Sam Houston. The company will hoist a staggering 30-foot by 50-foot American flag above the facility on a 110-foot pole, the start of flag-flying season at the facility that will run throughout the rest of the year. For more than 58 years, Dixie has made both traditional and custom flags, and the companys work is everwhere: the iconic Spurs jersey retirement banners hanging at the AT&T Center; the stadium-size, 150-foot by 300-foot American flag at the 2016 Valero Alamo Bowl to the U.S. flags that have been in the background of the past five presidential inaugurations. Today, Dixie will open its facility to behind-the-scenes tours of its facility, allowing guided access to the flag store and sewing room. Visitors will have the chance to meet the team of expert seamsters that have crafted history inside the factorys towering mint green walls. More Information Flag etiquette 1. Always hold flag carefully. Never let it touch the ground or anything beneath it. 2. Let the flag fall freely. Don't tie it back or fasten it. 3. Never carry the flag flat or horizontally. 4. Don't mark or draw on the flag. 5. Always dispose the flag properly. The preferable method is burning. See More Collapse This includes San Antonio native Becky Leyva, 79, a soft-spoken, Spurs-loving grandmother of four with thick but short blond hair. Shes been working at Dixie for 36 years. And then theres seamsters like Edmund Lupango, 42, a short man with a hint of a French accent lingering in his throaty, non-native English. Recently hired in May, Lupango came to America in 2006 with his wife and children as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like the flag raised today, Dixie and its team are a symbol of unity, as owner and son of founder Henry Van de Putte Sr., Henry Pete Van de Putte Jr., can attest. Walk through the doors of Dixies facility today, and youll be greeted by a litany of decorative banners at its store, like one with a shades-wearing basset hound relaxing in front of a lake. Its snout is raised, with paws extended and without a care in the world. But if youd walked through the doors of Dixies facility 58 years ago, youd probably have stubbed your toe on Pete Van de Puttes bed. I grew up in the business, Van de Putte said. Literally. Dixie Flag & Banner began as Dixie Decorators, a chance for his father Henry to start his own business from the Van de Putte home. Petes grandmother, who eventually recruited Leyva, was in charge of the sewing, which she did in the young Van de Puttes bedroom. Van de Putte remembers his parents and grandmothers humble start in business, when they were working out of his tiny childhood bedroom as office and sewing room and had an old bobtail truck as the entire distribution fleet for the first few years. The family started out decorating for county fairs and festivals, providing banners and bunting. Quickly, they realized flags were in demand when asked to make one for the Poteet Strawberry Festival just south of San Antonio. When they were able, they moved out of Petes bedroom and started moving across the city. Theyve headquartered on Claiborne; down on Mission Road and Highland Avenue; Roosevelt Avenue, and the China and Portugal pavilions at HemisFair. Dixies history is intertwined with San Antonio; as the years have gone on, its intertwined with American history, too. In the early 70s, when the relations between the United States and Soviet Union began to improve, San Antonio took part in a traveling exhibition between both nations. In this exhibition, the U.S. sent notable American symbols to the USSR, while the Soviet Union sent the U.S. representations of its culture in return. Van de Putte remembers this time, during which he was in college studying music, as when Dixie stitched together its most unusual creation: a Soviet flag during the Cold War. It was just days before the Soviet Union would open their exhibition in San Antonio when Van de Puttes father got word that the Soviet Union couldnt find their 15-foot by 25-foot flag to display. So Dixie quickly made a replacement for the exhibit. Here they were ready to open the exhibit in San Antonio, and somebody said Call Dixie Flag. ... They were just blown away that there was a flag maker in San Antonio that was able to whip one together, Pete said. Van de Puttes grandmother kept sewing until 1974, when Henry Van de Putte sold the decorating company, but bought back the flag portion of the operations to keep his three seamstresses employed. For the Van de Puttes Van de Putte now works with his daughters Vanessa and Isabella flags dont just mean business; they symbolize family. With family as the bedrock, things like patriotism, heritage, identity and pride blossom. And the greatest symbol for that is Dixies best-selling item: the American flag. While much has changed about the process of making the American flag for Dixie over the years they now make the traditional flag from water-resistant nylon fabric finished with UV inhibitors instead of using cotton and wool fabric the moments that compel the general public to own one have not. The decision to buy a flag is very often not a practical decision, but rather an emotional decision, Van de Putte said. Van de Puttes love for flags has led to an association with John Hartvigsen, the president of the North American Vexillological Association, a widely recognized organization with close to 5,500 members dedicated to the study of flags and their significance. Flags for Hartvigsen are able to bring a sense of camaraderie to those who pledge to its allegiance. Our flag flies everywhere. Every time we feel we must pull together as a people, we rally around the flag, he said. Flags as a unifying force were the idea behind the start of Flag Day. An adamant Wisconsin school teacher Bernard J. Cigrand kept pushing and lobbying for the holiday, and Flag Day was signed into law for the first observance in 1949. Flags are not just some beautiful ornament that are used in one place. Flags are the flowers on the border of history, Hartvigsen added. Leyva, who works methodically at a desk that parallels Lupangos, remembers having her hands in the flowerbed of history before. For her, working at Dixie brings about a sense of pride that you cant get anywhere else. The project shes most proud of: of course, a Spur. I did David Robinson, the one thats hanging on the rafters, she said of the retirement jersey banner hanging of the Spurs Hall of Famer at the AT&T Center. It makes me proud. So very, very proud. It feels very good. Leyva has been at Dixie during its busiest, most demanding moments. This includes Operation Desert Storm during the early 90s and after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In the aftermath of both was a swell of displayed patriotism, and demand for flags was insatiable. On a normal day, Dixie has plenty of flags in stock and ready for sale on its shelves. But after 9/11 it was taking 20 weeks to fulfill orders coming in for U.S. flags. Part of the issue was a shortage of fabric for the flags. Without fabric, businesses couldnt full any orders and many folded. Van de Putte recalls having to lay off a third of the workforce back then. From 60 employees, the team hovered around 20 to 25 employees for about a year and a half. Now theres 36, but Dixie has not yet been able to fully recover. One of the most recent hires is Lupango, who left Congo in 2006 for the United States after his father was killed in the fight between the rebels and government. He was accompanied by only his wife and children. In the Congo, I lose my family, he said,I lose my family, my father, my brother. I dont know where is my family. Lupango arrived at Dixie in mid-May hoping to get a job. He had a knack for sewing from his experience as a designer in the Congo. James Maurico is the production manager at Dixie and has been with the company for 10 years. We have a good company here. This is like home, like family, he said. We don't have a lot of benefits here, but one of thing we do care about is family and friends. Inside the mint green walls of Dixie, below the towering American flag, Mauricio feels excited about todays flag raising alongside his Dixie family, a family that for decades has stitched togetherness one piece of fabric at a time. osanchez@express-news.net Twitter: @OhMySanchez The former leader of a drug cartel from southern Mexico testified Tuesday in San Antonio that he worked closely with members of a Rio Grande Valley family to smuggle large amounts of cocaine into the U.S. Oscar Nava Valencia, 46, testified in federal court here that he started his career in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, smuggling pot into Texas. There he met members of the Villarreal Arelis family, Nava said, including Reymundo Villarreal Arelis, who is on trial this week for money laundering and drug distribution conspiracy charges. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison. Nava eventually rose to be leader of the Milenio Cartel, which started in the 1970s in the southern Mexican state of Michoacan and eventually was absorbed by Joaquin El Chapo Guzmans notorious Sinaloa Cartel, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official said Tuesday. In court, Nava said he first met the Villarreal Arelis family, known as Los Piojos, Spanish for the lice, when they were smuggling drugs for other traffickers, charging a fee to move the product across their property near the Rio Grande and deliver it on the U.S. side of the border. In 2001, as the Gulf Cartel rose to power in the region across the border from South Texas, Nava testified, he relocated to the western city of Guadalajara. Seven years later, he said, Gilberto Villarreal Arelis, a fugitive whos been described in court as the leader of his familys criminal enterprise, asked if he could buy cocaine from Nava. I would give them part of mine, because I saw what they were doing was working, Nava testified. When I met them, they were crossing. When they looked me up, they had already started to buy and they had the routes and they had the sales here in the U.S. By the time he was arrested by Mexican security forces in 2009, Nava said, he and the Piojos were combining their drug loads and smuggling at least 200 kilograms of cocaine a month into the U.S., most of it ending up in Houston. Nava, who said hes testifying in hopes of reducing the 25-year prison sentence hes serving for a conviction in Houston, wasnt asked about his role in the Milenio Cartel. Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration and author of the book Deal, said in an interview that Nava took over the cartel after its longtime leader was arrested in 2003. Oscar Nava, to ensure the survivability of his cartel, now joined forces with the Sinaloa cartel, Vigil said. Chapo Guzman feels that Oscar Nava may not have the leadership qualities required, at least what he required, so what he did was put them under the direct command of Ignacio Coronel, Nacho Coronel, one of Guzmans capos. After Navas arrest in 2009 and Coronels death the next year, the cartel dissipated, Vigil said. According to the testimony, the Villarreal Arelis family was associated with the Gulf Cartel, which often warred with the Sinaloa. Its not unusual that a supplier like Nava would sell to a smuggler associated with a rival, Vigil said. When you have a business like that, these criminal groups, they need to have different sources of supply, because one source may not have any drugs available, he said. Its always good to have different sources that you can tap into so you always have a steady supply. Its very typical. Nava testified that Reymundo Villarreal Arelis was present at negotiations over drug smuggling in the Reynosa area and in Guadalajara. On cross examination, defense attorney Guy Womack peppered Nava with questions about why, in a meeting with federal agents last year, he mentioned other members of the family, but not Reymundo Villarreal Arelis. During that meeting you never said the name Mundo or Reymundo, did you? Womack asked. Nava responded that he was talking about a specific drug transaction that Reymundo Villarreal Arelis was not involved in. Womack pointed out that aside from Gilberto Villarreal Arelis, all the other members of the family who were arrested last year in the Valley after being indicted in San Antonio have pleaded guilty, leaving Nava with limited options to reduce his sentence. You dont know of Reymundo having any responsibility for moving drugs, Womack said, adding later: This is your only chance to get a (sentence) reduction from the government. Villarreal Areliss trial is expected to continue through the week. Before testimony began Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez said that a juror hadnt shown up to court and had been dismissed, leaving the panel with only one alternate. jbuch@express-news.net Twitter: @jlbuch This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The South Central Texas Regional Certification Agency on Wednesday upheld the certification of Go Rio, the business team that recently won the citys lucrative contract to operate tourism barges on the San Antonio River. Now the issue will move into an appeals process, during which Go Rios governance structure could face more intense scrutiny. Mery & Associates, one of the teams that failed to win the barge operations contract, filed the challenge with the agency this month, hoping to prove that Go Rio never should have been certified as a small business. Merys lobbyist, Mitsuko Ramos, immediately asked for an appeals hearing after learning Go Rios certifications had been sustained. If Go Rio were to lose the certifications, its contract with the city could be jeopardized the certifications, which determine if a business is woman- or minority-owned, for example, can give a team more points in the bidding process. Go Rio came out first in a city-designed scoring matrix by one point; the loss of the certifications would almost certainly put it behind in scoring. Despite Go Rios first-place score, city staff recommended the second-place team, Chicago-based Entertainment Cruises. The Chicago company had come in first in a previous bidding process that was later spiked at the behest of outgoing Mayor Ivy Taylor. The City Council ultimately chose Go Rio in a 10-1 vote May 25. In a statement Wednesday, Assistant City Manager Lori Houston said city staff continues to act based on the vote by City Council and we are not in the position to comment on what actions would have resulted if the certification was revoked. We will continue to monitor the process in the event of an appeal. Charles Johnson, interim director of the certification agency, wrote in a letter to Ramos on Wednesday that while Mery provided additional information challenging Go Rios certification status, the SCTRCA is required to review information/documents at the time of vendors submittal. In essence, that means Johnson can uphold Go Rios certification based only on what the team originally submitted to the agency early this year. So, Johnsons letter continues, the agency stands by its decision to uphold the certification status that was rendered on January 31, 2017. However, Ramos has alleged that Go Rio changed crucial aspects of its governance structure after the agency certified the company in January. By doing that, Ramos charges, Go Rio became a joint partnership and should not be eligible for certifications by the agency. Johnson confirmed that the agency does not certify joint ventures. He said Wednesday that an appeals committee, made up of agency board members, can dig more deeply into Ramos claims. Thats where an appeals committee comes into play, he said. There were no changes in the makeup of the Go Rio LLC, which is what matters for SCTRCA certification, according to Frank Burney, lobbyist of Go Rio. He said Thursday his clients had no comment other than they plan to continue to work on the operational aspects of providing river barge services. The contract to operate the river barges is valued at more than $100 million, and the fight to win it has been a contentious one. The Mery group created a team called Buena Vista Barges; it placed third in the most recent bidding process, behind Chicago-based Entertainment Cruises. However, the team and its supporters showed up in full force at the City Council meeting last month when the contract was up for a vote. Should Go Rio lose its certifications, Ramos said the Mery team would like to make a presentation to the City Council, which will look very different from the council that voted on the contract in May. Six new council members were recently elected, and Ron Nirenberg ousted Taylor from the mayors seat in Saturdays runoff. Nirenberg had voted to award the contract to Entertainment Cruises. vdavila@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Brad Phipps, the San Antonio firefighter who was critically injured while battling a Northwest Side blaze that took the life of another firefighter, recently had his breathing tube taken out, the San Antonio Fire Department announced Tuesday. He remains in critical condition at Brooke Army Medical Center, where he continues to undergo multiple skin graft surgeries, including one operation scheduled for today. We are all still recovering as we speak, Fire Chief Charles Hood said during a Tuesday news conference in the Ingram Square Shopping Center, where the four-alarm fire occurred on May 18. He said the investigation into the fire will likely take a year to complete. Hood said he was able to communicate with Phipps, a father of two who joined the department in 2006, for the first time last week after his breathing tube was removed. It was very uplifting, Hood said. Hood said he didnt know if Phipps understood that firefighter Scott Deem, whom he worked alongside at Station 35, died in the blaze while attempting to rescue possible victims. Phipps has a television in his room, but Hood said he didnt discuss the incident with Phipps. Phipps has been under heavy sedation. He needs to be focusing on his recovery, Hood said. On May 18, Phipps entered the Spartan Gym at the Ingram Square Shopping Center alongside Deem and other firefighters from Station 35. As they searched the building, they reported zero visibility and zero ventilation, according to radio recordings on Broadcastify.com, which posts archives of radio scanner traffic online. Wally Yates, the commander at the scene, ordered all firefighters out of the building, according to the recordings. Soon after, a mayday was called over the radio. Yates told another group of firefighters with Engine 27 to go in as a Rapid Intervention Team to find the firefighters from Station 35. The Rapid Intervention Team found Phipps first. Be advised, we have one firefighter thats being pulled out, being pulled out over to EMS right now, said Battalion Chief Rich Giusti, who took command of the rescue team. He looks like hes been exposed to a lot of heat. After he was led from the building, Phipps fought with the paramedics, trying to get back in to search for his comrade, Hood said in May. Shortly after the fire, a family friend established a fund for Phipps medical treatment on YouCaring.com, an online crowdfunding site. As of Tuesday, over $19,000 has been raised for Phipps family. Since then, the family has set also up a fund at Generations Federal Credit Union. The account number is 1000001554998 and the routing number is 314088572. On Tuesday, Hood also announced that the department has begun leading firefighters through the Spartan gym, where Deem died, so they can find closure. He expects over 2,000 firefighters will tour the building, including paramedics and firefighters from other jurisdictions who work closely with the San Antonio Fire Department. Other departments dont go to this extreme to make sure everyone sees it, Hood said. Its priceless to have this opportunity. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A 17-year-old testified Tuesday that her best friend said, I got shot, before she stopped breathing after they left a party when a fight broke out. I said, Stop playing, she fell over, the next thing, she couldnt breathe, Jacqueline Sanchez said through tears as the trial of Julian Martinez opened. Martinez, known as Juju, was 18 when he was arrested and accused of firing the shot that killed Amanda Acosta, 17. Witnesses said the defendant punched one of Acostas friends while at a party March 14, 2016, in the 200 block of Cavalier Avenue on the South Side. San Antonio police said at the time that after Acosta and her friends left the party in a black Jeep SUV, Martinez and several others followed behind in a white Chevrolet SUV. Sanchez said she heard something that sounded like a bottle breaking and later realized it was a gunshot. Martinez, now 19, pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Prosecutor Jason Goss told the jury in his opening statement that Acosta died just days shy of her 18th birthday. She never made that 18-year-old birthday because of that man, Goss said, motioning toward Martinez. She was in the way. He was trying to shoot a guy. Goss told the jury days after Acostas death, as the family was conducting a barbecue plate and T-shirt sale to help with funeral expenses, the defendant showed up to the benefit and memorial, which Sanchez confirmed later on during her testimony. Defense attorney Philip Bozzo Jr. declined to make an opening statement. Sanchez, Goss first witness, said she and Acosta only knew a few people at the party, and once there they played beer pong for a while. She said she wasnt sure how the fight happened, but said she saw Martinez jump on one of their friends at the party, and heard him say, One hit quit. ... I didnt even have to use my gun. She said they left soon after the incident. Sanchez became emotional as she described what happened to Acosta, whom she knew since sixth grade. I tried to wake her up, Sanchez said of Acosta. I was holding her and kept telling her to wake up for me. She wouldnt wake up. They drove Acosta downtown to The Children's Hospital of San Antonio, and when she was removed from the SUV, Sanchez said Acosta went limp and did not move. She was turning purple, said Sanchez. When they put her in a bed, I just fell on my knees. I couldnt stop crying. Detective Dustin Duffin, a San Antonio police crime scene investigator, used photographs entered into evidence in his testimony to show the direction of the bullet, which went through the back passenger seat of the Jeep, and hit Acosta in the back. Another witness who was at the party that night, Travis Erickson, testified that Martinez was brandishing a gun while at the party. The trial is being held in Felony Impact Court, presided by Visiting Judge Laura Parker. If convicted of murder, Martinez faces up to life in prison. ezavala@express-news.net Twitter: @elizabeth2863 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate We like to think we have an electorate in the United States. An ever-morphing behemoth that expresses its will during voting season. In truth, we have many sub-electorates, with widely differing agendas, ranging from a Bernie Sanders democratic-socialist sub-electorate to a tea-party Republican sub-electorate. Sometimes we see genuine, seismic shifts in public opinion, as when Franklin Roosevelt moved the country to the left in the 1930s, or when Ronald Reagan converted old Kennedy Democrats to the Republican cause in the 1980s. More often, though, what we perceive as an ideological shift is really an example of one, pre-existing sub-electorate stepping forward and asserting itself, while others step back. For example, this country didnt move to the right when the tea-party wave election of 2010 carried 87 new Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives. Voters on the right simply got energized and showed up in bigger numbers. The opposite of that phenomenon, in miniature, happened with last Saturday's runoff election in San Antonio. Ron Nirenbergs ascendance to the mayor's office and John Courages unlikely win in the District 9 council race were just the most striking examples of an election cycle that produced the most progressive City Council weve ever seen. We will have a more liberal city government, but that doesnt mean we suddenly have a more liberal city. Slightly more than 13 percent of registered voters turned out for San Antonios municipal runoffs. If that 13 percent sub-electorate had stayed home, and a different 13 percent had made it to the polls, the results would have been completely different. When it comes to Courages victory, which I view as the biggest upset in the history of S.A. council elections, there are several theories floating about. Courage, a school teacher and longtime liberal Democrat, prevailed over Marco Barros, the president of the San Antonio Tourism Council and a pro-business Republican, in the citys most traditionally conservative district. One theory is that District 9 is changing, that young progressives are moving in and altering the politics of this North Side district. Theres a grain of truth in that. District 9s population isnt static and logic suggests its political bent wont be either. Before we start fantasizing about progressive transformations on the North Side, however, consider that only seven months ago, Republican climate-science skeptic Lamar Smith captured 60 percent of the vote in the Bexar County portion of his congressional district, and many of those votes fell within District 9. (By comparison, Smith took only 30 percent of the vote in Travis County.) Another theory, privately expressed by some Barros supporters, is that anti-Latino bias caused many Anglo conservatives in District 9 to vote against their ideology and back Courage. Im not disputing the notion that this was a factor, because identity politics rears its head in almost every election. I doubt, however, that it determined the outcome. One of the points cited by Barros backers is that District 9 had 799 under-votes (voters who showed up at the polls, presumably to vote in the mayoral election, but decided not to cast a ballot in the District 9 race), the highest total in the municipal runoff. They see it as evidence of conservatives unwilling to vote for a like-minded Latino. On closer inspection, however, the argument starts to crumble. For one thing, District 9s under-vote was only slightly larger than the total (756) seen in District 10, a runoff which featured two Anglo candidates. For another, two years ago, when Joe Krier was seeking re-election in District 9, the under-vote was 1,499, also the largest in the city and nearly twice the total recorded this year. To put it in perspective, only one out of every 21 people who recently went to the polls in District 9 declined to vote in the Barros-Courage race. Two years ago, the District 9 under-vote was more than one in 10. Ultimately, the biggest factor in District 9 and in Nirenbergs mayoral win over Ivy Taylor was not ethnicity or an ideological shift. It was passion and hard work. Courage had an army of millennial loyalists and he knocked on thousands of doors and listened to people. In the end, Courage received 8,489 votes. In a council district with more than 160,000 residents, even a conservative one, youll always be able to find more than 8,489 progressives. Those votes are there to be had. Its just a matter of getting that sub-electorate to the polls. And thats exactly what Courage did. ggarcia@express-news.net Twitter: @gilgamesh470 (Story being updated) SALEM, Ohio Two of the nations largest genetic companies for dairy and beef breeders have announced plans to merge. The board of directors for Select Sires, based in Plain City, Ohio, and Accelerated Genetics, based in Baraboo Wisconsin, have both reached a unanimous decision to unite the two cooperatives. According to the agreement, Select Sires will acquire the assets of Accelerated Genetics, joining employees and independent sales representatives. The two entities have been working closely together since 2001, when a collaborative agreement made them both owners of World Wide Sires the international marketing arm for both companies in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania. Similar goals Shirley Kaltenbach, director of communications for Select Sires, said both organizations have the same goals and both have the same cooperative business structure and business principals. She said both entities will continue to operate under the same names until a long-term strategy is reached. Accelerated Genetics still needs the approval at its June 22 delegate meeting, but she said the outcome is looking positive. Accelerated Genetics has about 250 employees and works with an additional 180 independent sales representatives, said Angie Lindloff, vice president of marketing and communications. She said the merger provides more opportunity for both customers and employees. Joining forces gives us huge opportunity for our genetic lineup, Lindloff said. It helps everybody and it will allow us to serve our customers better. Lindloff expects the current Accelerated Genetics facilities will remain operational, including the bull facility and main office. Kaltenbach said Select Sires will continue to be located in Plain City. She said the goal will be to retain as many employees from both organizations as possible, but positions will be evaluated. This impending endeavor will create a well-rounded genetics program and solutions-based animal health care product line that will fit the needs of dairy and beef producers worldwide, according to the release. About the companies Select Sires bills itself as North Americas largest artificial insemination organization and is comprised of nine farmer-owned and controlled cooperatives. Accelerated Genetics is a producer-owned cooperative, with solutions focussed on genetics and value-added products, programs and services for dairy and beef customers worldwide. We have a number of new product innovations, some of which have been released in May and more to be released in September-October, that are leading the pack, thanks to a first class team of highly skilled and dedicated professionals. Weve still got sheep so its not too bad in that regard for us, but if you were just cropping you would have just had to have found a way to get it all done and get it all croppable. Warrenton, VA (20186) Today Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. "...king of the hate left..."-- "As my friend Capper -- the best Wisconsin blogger ever -- says, there will be more. There's always more." - karoli "...the psychiatrically attuned Capper..."-- "This is really great of you! I'm so proud to know someone like you"-- "Capper, a reasonable (and maybe even likeable) Lefty..."-- "capper, the Sidney Freedman of the hate left..."-- "I love capper because, well, what's not to love. But I also hate capper for alerting me to nonsense like this."--- "Capper, you really have a knack for this kind of writing. Really."-- "Crap. I agree with capper. Can Armageddon be far behind?"-- "capper is right. OMG, did I actually say that?"-- COLUMBUS A feasibility study could be in the works for a joint communications project between the county and city. The Platte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved its portion of a $30,000 study that would look at consolidating the local 911 dispatch services. Tim Hofbauer, city/county emergency management director, has been involved in the project that would consolidate the city and county dispatch services at a single location. He said a number of questions still need to be answered, including requirements, standards, location of the dispatch center and a price tag for the project. Its been very obvious that we need some technical help. One of the things we need to do is determine the cost," Hofbauer said. "Theres a lot of questions to be answered. Theres a lot of regulations, a lot of things that we just dont know." A suggestion from the E911 Technical Committee, which includes both city and county representatives, is to conduct a feasibility study that brings in an independent consultant and architectural firm to come up with proposed sites and costs, he said. The cost of the study would be split between the county and city, with each paying $15,000. It is likely that Stacen Gross with SCG Consulting Services would work with an architectural firm to research location options for the 911 communications center, technology and equipment requirements and cost estimates. Currently, local 911 calls are answered by employees inside the police department who dispatch city officers, ambulances and fire trucks throughout the county. Calls for county deputies and Humphrey Police Department are routed to a second dispatch center at the sheriffs office. A study presented in late 2012 by Minnesota-based GeoComm Inc. recommended establishing a 911 dispatch center that serves all of Platte County and is operated independently from the sheriffs office or police department. During Tuesday's committee reports, Chairman Jerry Engdahl gave an update on the East 29th Avenue viaduct project. A meeting was recently held with the Nebraska Department of Roads, and Engdahl said the scope of the project could be reduced. The might mean shortening the length of the viaduct or reducing it from three lanes to two. The county's share of the costs would remain 5 percent, but the estimated price tag for the project has jumped from $6 million to $16 million. Construction is now expected to start in February 2019 with the completion date pushed back to 2021. Engdahl said there have been many delays in the project, but it is moving forward. Next month, a final design company should be selected. In other business, the board approved: reappointing Clarence Torczon to the Veterans Service Committee. a three-year contract with an online legal research service program called Westlaw. The cost of the program is $693 per month for the first year with a 3 percent annual increase. spending $39,095 for computers and other technology from Applied Connective for county offices. COLUMBUS A 39-year-old Duncan man faces decades behind bars after pleading no contest to possession of child pornography after a search of his home last winter revealed hundreds of files of explicit sexual images of children. Whitney Micek entered his pleas Tuesday in Platte County District Court to two counts of possession of child porn stemming from an investigation that got underway in November when the sheriffs office received three separate cybertips from a state task force. District Court Judge Robert Steinke scheduled Micek for sentencing Aug. 4. The defendant has been free since early February after posting a $250,000 bond, 10 percent allowed for release. The porn possession charges are Class 2A felonies, each punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment. In exchange for Miceks pleas, the county attorneys office agreed to dismiss 11 additional counts of child porn possession. Sheriffs investigators began an investigation of the allegations against Micek after receiving tips from the Nebraska State Patrol-Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Investigator Dane Jensen wrote in his probable cause arrest statement that phone records revealed images of explicit sexual conduct involving children had been downloaded to an online address located at 914 Eighth St. in Duncan. Jensen wrote that Micek was living at the address along with a relative. During a subsequent search of the residence, Jensen said, a laptop computer and Apple iPhone owned by Micek were seized. The devices contained 374 sexually explicit images of children, the investigator wrote in his statement. I frequently write about The Shakers, a faith that arose during the 1770s, in my books. Most of my mysteries take place in the 1790s (I am up to 1797 right now) and although the Shakers are not central to the plot and setting in every book, they are a feature in every single one so far. Eleanor Kuhns by Rana Faure The Shakers are considered the first American religion. They began, however, in the late 1760s in England, Manchester to be exact. And it was begun by a woman: Mother Ann Lee. She joined the Quakers but she didnt agree with many of the teachings or their style of worship. The Shakers, who called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christs Second Coming, earned the name Shakers from Shaking Quakers for their ecstatic services. In 1774 Mother Ann Lee set sail for the Colonies with eight followers. They landed in New York, traveled north to set up their first home about seven miles north of Albany. (Parts of the Shakers fields are now under the Albany airports runways.) The community was first called Niskeyuna but the name was changed to Waterlviet. The Shakers held many beliefs that were suspect in this time period. Like many of the faiths then (the Quakers, the Amish), they were Pacifists. This caused no end of trouble during the Revolutionary War when both British and Colonial Soldiers viewed them as traitors and spies. Perhaps one of the most controversial practices, and one set by Mother Lee, was celibacy. She was married (Lee is her married name) and bore four children but all four died in infancy. One interpretation is that the sorrow caused by the deaths of her children led her to believe all the problems of the world came down to sex. The Shakers, therefore, depended upon the adoption of orphans and other recruits to fill their ranks. They also believe in the equality of men and women. In a time when widows could not inherit from their husbands unless specifically named in the will, and were thus the wards of their eldest son, Eldresses shared equal responsibility for the governance of the communities with the Elders and the Sisters enjoyed equal say with the Brothers. In fact, in the late 1790s the entire, and by now far-flung Shaker society, were led by a woman: Lucy Wright. Like the Quakers, the Shakers were abolitionists and believed in the worth of every human being. They accepted black people, including escaped slaves, into their fold. This was another reason for the suspicion with which their neighbors viewed them. Besides the equality of both women and black people among their group, the Shakers were also very progressive in the matter of education. Illiteracy was more common than not at that time, and was especially high for girls and women. The Shakers educated both boys and girls: girls in the summer and boys in the winter. The Society enjoyed a high of almost twenty thousand members just before the United States Civil War and had communities from Maine to Kentucky, New Hampshire to Ohio. All but one of the communities are now living museums or in ruins. After the Civil War the number of applicants declined sharply, due primarily to the shift from an agricultural economy to a more industrial one. There were simply more options for women and others to choose among. The only remaining Shaker community left now is Sabbathday Lake in Maine. When I began researching my first book, A Simple Murder, there were still eleven living Shakers remaining. As of two months ago, with the death of one of the Eldresses, the number has shrunk to three. Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, will embark on a tour of Poland and Germany next month. Prince William and Duchess Catherine The royal couple - who have three-year-old son Prince George and two-year-old Princess Charlotte together - are set to complete a five-day tour of the two countries starting on July 17 and ending on July 21. Although their exact engagements have not yet been confirmed, the pair will start their trip in Poland's capital Warsaw and finish in the German city of Hamburg, with visits to Gdansk, Berlin, and Heidelberg in between. It is thought the royal duo will leave their children at home, and according to the Daily Express newspaper, Kensington Palace declined to comment when asked if the two tots would accompany their parents. They are making the overseas trip on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in what is believed to be a way of maintaining Britain's relationship with the European countries as it prepares to leave the European Union. Prince William, 34, made a trip to the German city of Dusseldorf last year where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time, and gave a speech about Britain's "strong ties" with Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia. During his lengthy speech - which was given just months after Britain voted to leave the EU - William spoke of the "genuine friendship" between the two places. He said in part of his speech: "In short, what began 70 years ago as a relationship of necessity between an occupying power and a region in ruin, is today a partnership of genuine friendship and of massive mutual benefit. "This partnership will continue despite Britain's recent decision to leave the European Union. The depth of our friendship with Germany and with North Rhine-Westphalia will not change." The visit next month will mark the first official trip to Germany for Catherine, 35, and the first ever royal tour of Poland on behalf of the government. Kensington Palace said full details of the visit would be released at a later date. If youre a fan of Charlotte Bellamys portrayal of Laurel in Emmerdale, youre in for a treat. The actress has said she loves her role on the soap, and its not one shell be giving up willingly. Charlotte Bellamy enjoyed many scenes with John Middleton Speaking to Inside Soap, she explained: I love this job. The only way Ill leave is if they kill me off. I want to be like Freddie Jones [Sandy] hes 90 this year and still working, because it makes him feel alive. Hes a real inspiration! Im so grateful to be in the show. She added: I do miss filming with John [Middleton], but Ive been filming with Gillian Kearney [Emma] lately, which has been fun. Its a new dynamic with someone different. With footage of killer Emma Barton left in the Thomas household, things could quickly become interesting and even dangerous for Laurel. Lets hope that comment about being killed off doesnt come back to bite her! Bellamy this year won the British Soap Award for Best Actress following her portrayal of Laurel in some highly emotional and dramatic scenes over the past few months. Dealing with the love of her life, Ashley who was suffering from dementia ahead of his death, shes been involved in some of the most memorable moments the soap has ever presented. Emmerdale continues throughout the week on ITV. by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on The one name that immediately comes to mind when you think of young, good-looking, talented Bollywood actors is Varun Dhawan. After making a mark in his debut film Student Of The Year, Dhawan went on to act in many other successful movies like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Badlapur, ABCD 2, and recently, Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Now, the dynamic actor is looking forward to the release of his latest film Judwaa 2, and truth be told, we cant wait to see it. So it was more than a pleasure to shoot with him for our much-awaited Mens Special issue, and what a shoot it was! Dhawan was, as usual, bursting with energy, making the cover shoot in London, with the Big Ben as the backdrop, a fun and laid-back experience. Catch the conversation as he reveals how he always ended up creating a ruckus as a child, admits that there's a special lady in his life, and tells us why he believes that nepotism does exist in the industry. He wisely says, Its the truth. Nepotism exists in the industry and has been there for a while. But the power of deciding who will be a success or not lies with the audience eventually. And thats not all. The young heartthrob has spilled the beans on a whole lot more, so if youre curious to know, just grab your copy right away! Nebraskans know how to honor veterans. Our states strong commitment to the men and women who serve was on full display in May, when we came together to carry out the largest honor flight for Vietnam veterans in history. The trip was made possible by the generosity of Nebraskans from all across our state, young and old. Ensuring veterans have access to quality health care is one of the many ways we thank them for their selfless sacrifice to our nation. But for years now, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has remained clouded by controversy. Despite steps taken to address the issues at the VA, scandals continue to linger, showing our veterans are not always put first. In the spring of 2016, Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez, the chief of specialty care clinics at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs office, made a startling confession: two years after the scandal that revealed our veterans were dying as they waited for health care, the VA hadnt completely changed. Rodriguez told local news that schedulers were purposely deleting patient appointments and marking the changes as made by the patients, including, in some cases, making it appear as though deceased veterans had called to change appointments. This continued even after he told VA Director Deborah Amdur about the problem. Enough is enough. Its time for real reform at the VA, and thats why I recently supported Sen. Marco Rubios Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act (VAAWP). Members of the Senate can come together, and we recently passed this legislation unanimously. It builds on previous work done by Congress and ensures that those who earned health care benefits by serving our country arent forgotten. Since the passage of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act (Choice Act) in 2014, which expanded health care options for veterans and allowed VA officials to fire poor-performing employees, Congress has continued to uncover mismanagement and misconduct from VA employees. Many VA employees are excellent at their jobs, and they work tirelessly to serve our veterans. Unfortunately, todays civil service rules still often fail to reprimand those who dont live up to the VAs promise of treating those who served in our armed forces with dignity and respect. The VAAWP would reform our nations civil services system within the VA while keeping due process for workers. Personnel decisions would be accelerated by tightening up the timeline for firing processes and through the lowering of the burden of proof needed to dismiss bad actors. It would also allow the VA Secretary to reduce benefits and rescind bonuses for those who are underperforming. These reforms would apply to both senior executive positions and the rank and file. The VAAWP also empowers whistleblowers, like Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez, to serve as the first line of defense against corruption by allowing them to come forward without having to fear retaliation from bureaucrats. Under this bill, the secretary would be directed to provide training on whistleblower protections and general workplace management. The secretary would also report to Congress on employee morale. We must ensure that those who risked their lives defending our country have access to timely and effective health care. Last Congress, I was proud to spur change within the VA through the CHIP IN for Vets Act, which gives local communities, like Omaha, a pathway to assist with the design and construction of VA health care facilities. I will continue to work on legislation like the CHIP IN for Vets Act and the VAAWP so that our veterans are assured the quality health care they have earned. SoftWear Automation, an Atlanta-based robotic sewing firm, has received $4.5 million in financing from existing investor, CTW Venture Partners. The funding will accelerate the company's development of fully automated sewn good worklines specifically for apparel production in the US. The company plans to add 20 employees in view of growing customer demand.SoftWear Automation, which counts leading brands among its customers, is leading the disruption of the $100 billion sewn products industry with its next-generation sewing worklines for home goods, footwear and apparel. The company's fully automated Sewbots allow manufacturers to Sewlocal, moving their supply chains closer to the customer while creating higher quality products at a lower cost. SoftWear Automation, an Atlanta-based robotic sewing firm, has received $4.5 million in financing from existing investor, CTW Venture Partners. The funding will accelerate the company's development of fully automated sewn good worklines specifically for apparel production in the US. The company plans to add 20 employees in view of growing customer demand.# "Our innovative Sewbots are moving needles to the fabric instead of fabric to the needle. Factories today chase cheap labour around the world and we have ended up with an unsustainable supply chain. SoftWear Automation's Sewbots can move that manufacturing closer to the customer or the raw materials," said Palaniswamy "Raj" Rajan, SoftWear Automation chairman and CEO.The company's patented computer vision systems view fabric more accurately than the human eye, tracking exact needle placement to within half a millimetre of accuracy. With this industry-leading technology quickly becoming a de facto addition to the sewn products manufacturing process, SoftWear's sales grew 1,000 per cent from 2015 (started shipping product) to 2016. The company is on target to grow at the same rate through 2017.The American Apparel and Footwear Association reports 97 per cent of all apparel in the United States currently is imported. According to Rajan, one of SoftWear's most important goals is to help bring textile manufacturing back to the US while creating higher-wage jobs for those supervising the Sewbots' work. "US textile manufacturing will look different when it comes back, but it will be more productive and provide higher paying jobs than before," said Rajan. (SV) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India HON PM BAINIMARAMA ADDRESS AT UNDER2 COALITION SIGNING CEREMONY Governor Brown,Your Excellencies,Distinguished Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen,Bula vinaka and a very good afternoon to you all.Friends, Im delighted to join you here in California, where climate action is alive and well, thanks to the remarkable leadership of your great Governor, and my friend, Jerry Brown.If there is one thing we have all learned over the last two weeks, for every action -- there is a reaction. And, my friends, the leadership represented in this room, and people of all walks of life from across America, have spoken very loudly -- telling the world that America will continue to tackle climate change, continue the clean energy revolution, continue to create jobs and grow its economy so that it can thrive in the 21st Century.This message has been warmly received, and as the incoming President of COP23, it gives me hope and enthusiasm for what we can achieve together.Make no mistake, we are not slowing down, and as incoming COP President, Fiji will work with all of those who are willing to work towards a more sustainable, prosperous future for the planet. There is a home for you in the international climate process.You are the heart of the Grand Coalition we are building together. Our Grand Coalition is bigger than any one meeting or event. This is a movement that is built to last -- and a critical evolution of the international climate process. I commit to you as incoming COP President that I will do everything in my power to ensure that our Grand Coalition receives the attention it deserves throughout Fiji's Presidency.So thank you Governor Brown. And thank all of you, who are leading these efforts to create an unstoppable force.Now, we actually have some business to attend to today.I am honoured on behalf of the Government of Fiji and the Fijian people to formally endorse the Under2 Coalition. Today, Fiji becomes the first Small Island Developing Nation to endorse this important Coalition of over 170 subnational governments from around the world, all committing to take decisive actions to achieve net zero economies by 2050 in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.I know some of my Pacific Island neighbors are considering joining this Coalition, and I intend to reach out to all of my Pacific Island neighbors and other Small Nations around the world to encourage them to join the Under2 Coalition. Together, the small nations can show the world that, while our economies and our emissions may be small, we will do our part and we never shy away from the challenges that face us. We will lead and we will inspire others to do the same.Now, we all know that Governor Brown was the driving force behind the creation of the Under2 Coalition -- and he has continued to lead the way since its inception. So, when I thought about the one leader I needed to help mobilise the states and regions as a critical pillar of our Grand Coalition, the choice was obvious. That is why I am particularly pleased to announce that I am today appointing Governor Brown as Special Envoy for States and Regions for the COP23 Presidency. In this role, I will lean on Governor Brown to continue the great leadership he has demonstrated time and time again, and to mobilise a strong contingent of like-minded leaders from around the world -- to show the world that we mean business! Governor, are you with me?? Welcome on board Governor. I look forward to continue working with you.Friends, I have shared previously Fiji's vision for COP23 when I was in Bonn a few weeks ago, the details of which we have posted on our website -- COP23.com.fj. But in summary, Fiji's vision is for a Presidency that is transparent and inclusive of all, advances the Paris Agreement and accelerates climate action for all vulnerable societies, drawing on our own experiences as a Small Island Developing State in the Pacific.A central pillar to this vision is to forge a Grand Coalition to accelerate climate action before 2020 and beyond between civil society, the scientific community, the private sector and all levels of government, including cities and regions. I think we are off to a great start here today!Now, I have the honour of introducing our COP23 Special Envoy for States and Regions -- Your Governor, Mr. Jerry Brown.Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you. It Was Katrina Who Initially Refused To Work With Akshay As per a report in india.com, years back when Katrina was on the peak of her career and was basking in the glory of success, she reportedly refused to work alongside Akshay in few of his films, which didn't go down well with him. They Even Had A Tiff As per media reports, this even led to a tiff between Akki and Katrina. Cold War Between Akshay Kumar And Katrina Kaif It looks like the cold war between Katrina and Akshay has still not ended and Akshay is in no mood to work with her. Akshay Doesn't Want To Cast Katrina Kaif In This Film Rumour has it that Akshay has refused to cast Katrina as the leading lady in Namastey London. Parineeti Chopra Is A Strong Contender For The Film Speculations are rife that the makers might bring Parineeti Chopra onboard for the film. But Katrina Still Feels That She And Akshay Make The Best Pair Onscreen In the past, Kat was quoted saying to a leading daily, "I think Akshay and I make the best pair ever! It may be politically incorrect to say this, but it's a fact! We have given some big hits together. I would love to do another great film with him.'' Priyanka Chopra Priyanka Chopra did not like the idea that Trump will ban a certain section of people entering the United States and said, "I just think you can't put a ban on anyone. Generalising a type of people is really primitive." She also lashed out at his policies on terrorism. Radhika Apte Radhika Apte said after Trump won the elections, "Sad shocking & scary.. Wonder what we have in store." You will have a Trump presidency in store which the people wanted, obviously! Elli Avram Elli Avram said Trump's victory "Has just given me a very bad vibe" and "AMERICA WTF." Her follower responded correctly, "It will be great. Give him a chance." After all Trump ran on the slogan "Make America Great Again". Sunny Leone Sunny Leone seemed to be concerned about Trump's policies and tweeted in a sad tone, "Trump won't have many hurdles to pass to do anything he wants." Well, isn't that a good thing for the Government? Ileana D'cruz Ileana D'cruz said to a reporter looking straight into his eyes "I don't support Donald Trump." Well, his base supports him and that's what is important! The Trump train derailed Clinton's train. Rishi Kapoor Rishi Kapoor poked fun at Trump every now and then on Twitter. He supported Hillary Clinton and also said, "Donald Duck is no option." In the end, he got stumped by Trump! Salman Khan Salman Khan 'wished and prayed' for Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 elections and also posted a picture of her on his Twitter handle. To his shock, Trump won the White House with 306 electoral college votes and Hillary Clinton with just 228. Can't stump the Trump, folks! Twinkle Khanna Twinkle Khanna used all the feminist slangs against Trump by calling him, "Ignorant, sexist, racist" and even called his base "Braindead followers." Too harsh, don't you think? Who's Better - Sohail Or Arbaaz? During a media interaction here on Tuesday, when Salman was asked about his favourite director among the two, he said, "Since Arbaaz doesn't want to direct, I feel Sohail is a better director." Salman Reveals Why "Sohail is more patient and with Sohail, you can improvise on things but in a similar situation, Arbaaz gets panicked and his blood pressure starts to fluctuate." Arbaaz Will Not Direct Dabangg 3 "Now we are going to start 'Dabangg 3', so he (Arbaaz) told me 'Very good, but I am not going to direct it and I am only producing it'. So I said, 'Very good, we will find a good director for that'." How Salman Chooses His Films? Talking about the process of choosing his films, Salman said, "I feel that when you listen to a script and if you are not able to see yourself in that space, then ideally no matter how beautiful the script is you should not do it, or then you have to work that hard to visually see yourself in the movie. Salman On Choosing Tubelight "Whenever a filmmaker approaches me with a script, first thing is that, I need to see myself doing it and till the time it doesn't happen, I don't sign a movie. When Kabir Khan came to me with the script of 'Tubelight', I gradually started looking myself in that character." Salman On India-China War Backdrop In Tubelight He also spoke about the India and China war backdrop which has been shown in the film. "We have just used it as a backdrop." "In this film, we have shown that war should end as soon as possible so that soldiers from both countries could return to their homes because whenever war happens, soldiers on both sides die and their kids or parents live their whole life without them." Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has reminisced about the times when he was working in Yash Chopra's Kaala Patthar, says being on the late filmmaker's set was like a picnic. "Working with Yash-ji was always a picnic... Informal, relaxed and filed with humour and eating delicious food. He encouraged the families of artists to accompany them at the shoot destination... Whether it was Pune or Kashmir or Amsterdam or Delhi, it was always the same," Amitabh posted on his blog. He recounted how evenings were spent at a common place where everyone chatted, played games and enjoyed each others' company. Also Read: GOING VIRAL! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Looks So Gorgeous On This Magazine Cover (Vintage Pics) "Antakshari was the favourite, along with dumb charades... Haha... What wonderful moments shared," added the actor, who is currently in Malta to shoot "Thugs of Hindostan". Big B, 74, particularly mentioned how shootings in Kashmir, where he shot for Chopra's romantic drama Silsila, were a delight. "After pack up, we would all migrate to the Dal Lake, where several 'dongas' - boat platforms - would be tied together to make one floating large boat and all of us would spend the evening, moving about in the lake, eating, singing... Music by local folk musicians, until the late hours. "Now all forgotten... And in memories... Sad. Time waits for no one... And neither must we," he added on an emotional note. Has anyone out there written the book "The Art of the Presidency"? If so, please send Donald Trump a copy. Overnight. Our billionaire president knows what to say or do when he's making a business deal or running a big business. But it's very obvious he still needs to learn that what is OK to say and do when you're the CEO of the United States is entirely different. On Thursday it was painfully clear from the testimony of fired FBI Director James Comey that Mr. Trump needs a lot of help from someone who knows how a president should behave. Comey's appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee was no day at Palm Beach for Trump. But it was nothing close to the death blow to his presidency that his enemies in the drooling liberal media had hoped for. What ex-FBI Director Comey said Trump said and did to him didn't reflect well on Trump's judgment or his ability to tell the truth, to say the least. But at least "The Comey Show" made it clear to the whole country that Trump himself was never the target of an FBI investigation and that, according to Comey, some of the worst news stories about the Trump administration's Russian troubles in the New York Times and Washington Post were mostly fake. Trump's reign will continue for now and MSNBC and CNN's ratings will stay high. But before the president gets himself into another unnecessary self-inflicted fiasco, he needs to quickly find a competent chief of staff. It has to be someone he respects as an equal, who will stand up to him and who he'll listen to. Then Trump has to have him -- or her -- surgically attached to his hip. If from Day 1 Trump had hired a savvy and competent chief of stafflike James Baker III, who served my father, the Oval Office drama between Trump and Comey never would have happened. If a pro like Baker had been on the job instead of an amateur like Reince Priebus, when Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Priebus to leave him alone in the Oval Office with Comey, chief of staff of Baker would have stepped in immediately. He would have told Trump it was totally improper to meet alone with Comey. Trump and Comey would never have had their awkward and inappropriate chat and "The Comey Show" would never have been aired. The lack of a strong chief of staff who will stand up to Trump and make him behave like a proper president is the major source of the problems in the Trump White House. Until the president finds someone to trust, to respect, and to listen to -- like James Baker III -- things are not going to get any better for him. Meanwhile, it's becoming harder and harder to support President Trump, who continues to be his administration's worst enemy and main saboteur. Earlier this week I watched him make news by launching Twitter attacks on his own Justice Department and the mayor of London when he should have been talking about his plans to reform the VA health system and modernize the country's clogged-up air-traffic control system. It's clear that after six months on the job he doesn't realize why he came to Washington. He needs a chief of staff that will remind him every second that it was not to make news with his morning tweets, fight with the liberal media every day or make his White House staff clean up after his mistakes with their Pooper Scoopers. TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/13/17 -- Dundee Energy Limited (TSX: DEN) ("Dundee Energy" or the "Corporation") today announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") has agreed to provide the Corporation with a 30 day extension of the previously announced continued listing review being undertaken by the TSX in respect of the Corporation's common shares. The extension has been granted to provide the Corporation with additional time to further advance discussions with its lender and to complete its assessment of options available with respect to the arbitration tribunal's decision related to the Castor Project. The Corporation is being reviewed under the TSX's remedial review process and has until July 13, 2017 to comply with all requirements for continued listing, including with respect to financial condition and operating results and market capitalization. If the Corporation cannot demonstrate that it meets all TSX requirements set out in Part VII of the TSX Company Manual on or before July 13, 2017, the Corporation's securities will be delisted 30 days from such date. The Corporation intends to work diligently with the TSX during the specified period to demonstrate that the Corporation satisfies the requirements for continued listing. The Corporation is also continuing to investigate its qualifications to list its common shares on another Canadian stock exchange, however, there can be no assurance that the Corporation will be able to achieve compliance with the TSX's continued listing requirements within the required time frame or that the Corporation will be successful in securing a listing on another Canadian stock exchange. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain information set out in this news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions and may include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates" or similar expressions. In particular, forward-looking statements contained in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Corporation's intentions to work diligently to satisfy the requirements for continued listing on the TSX and its investigation to potentially list its common shares on another Canadian stock exchange. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Corporation's actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits the Corporation will derive from them. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. ABOUT THE CORPORATION Dundee Energy Limited is a Canadian-based oil and natural gas Corporation with a mandate to create long-term value for its shareholders through the exploration, development, production and marketing of oil and natural gas, and through other high impact energy projects. Dundee Energy holds interests, both directly and indirectly, in the largest accumulation of producing oil and gas assets in Ontario and, through a preferred share investment, in certain exploration and evaluation programs for oil and natural gas offshore Tunisia. Dundee Energy's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "DEN". Contacts: Dundee Energy Limited Lucie Presot Interim Chief Financial Officer (416) 365-5157 (416) 363-4536 (FAX) www.dundee-energy.com Elliott, a large investor in BHP, today released the following statement regarding growing calls for change from BHP shareholders as the company prepares to announce a new chairperson. Over the past few weeks, BHP's shareholders have made clear that substantial and meaningful change is needed. That shareholder frustration is understandable considering BHP's sustained underperformance: Over the past 2, 5 and 10 years, BHP has underperformed its closest peer Rio Tinto by 31%, 44% and 11% respectively. Over the past 2, 5 and 10 years, BHP has underperformed the ASX 200 Index by 21%, 78% and 39% respectively. And even over the longer term, BHP has underperformed Rio Tinto by a staggering 148% and 628% over 20 and 30 years respectively. BHP's weak shareholder returns do not exist in isolation. Current BHP management has used its owners' capital unwisely destroying tens of billions of dollars in shareholder wealth on an ill-advised expansion into the U.S. onshore petroleum business. Billions more have been destroyed on share buybacks at inflated prices. BHP's Shareholders are Demanding a New Direction In a note to investors, AMP Capital, the A$165 billion Australian fund manager, and one of BHP's largest shareholders, called on BHP to conduct an "independent assessment" of Elliott's proposal to unify BHP's legacy dual-listed company structure and to "prove the worth of its US onshore business and why it is compatible in the BHP portfolio." And AMP Capital is just the latest example of a shareholder calling for change: "BHP's dual listed structure is a vestige of the diabolical Billiton transaction whilst the US shale gas foray has been even more painful. As in the case of many large companies, being big and being good are uncomfortable bedfellows." - Schroders Investment Management "BHPshould stick to the knitting, not flirt with diversification for its own sake (such as Potash) It is important thatclients who are BHP shareholders and wish to signal to the Board that they want the company to urgently consider reforms which are in the best long-term interests of the company, do so in a constructive manner. That starts with accepting responsibility for the decisions of the past and resetting the Board culture and personnel for the future." Note to investors from Escala Partners, a leading Australian wealth management firm "As is well known, the Chairman [Jac Nasser] is soon to retire. This provides a critical opportunity to reset the culture to one that covets capital efficiency and earnings per share growth and we hold high hopes that this opportunity will not be wasted. Further, we wonder whether enough change has taken place at the board level more broadly to make tough decisions and steer BHP back to a path of success." - Tribeca Global Natural Resources, an Australian-based alternative investment fund "What we would look for is purely a refreshing of the board, refreshing the board is something that needs to go on all the time and I suspect the chairman's role is key in that." - Aberdeen Asset Management "Shareholders have long held concerns about BHP's oil-and-gas assets. The emergence of activist investors calling for changes has encouraged healthy debate, and it is clear that BHP is taking it seriously." - BT Investment Management The Task of the New Chairperson: A Mandate for Change The impending selection of a new chairperson is an opportunity for BHP to heed the calls of its shareholders and conduct a thorough and independent re-examination of its business and its governance. Among other things, the new chairperson should have the mandate to: Initiate an independent review of BHP's petroleum business and explore the separation of the Company's undervalued U.S. oil and gas operations. Unlock BHP's massive US$10 billion franking credit balance by unifying BHP's dual-listing while maintaining BHP's Australian domicile, Australian tax residence, primary ordinary ASX share listing, and Australian headquarters. Develop a capital return plan that ensures that future capital allocation protects the balance sheet over the long term and prioritizes shareholder returns for BHP's owners. Reconstitute and refresh the BHP Board of Directors. Next Steps BHP's Board is entrusted with a task of considerable responsibility. BHP's owners are not just large funds, but hundreds of thousands of individual shareholders who own BHP shares directly or through their superannuation funds. Protecting and growing their investment is a weighty charge. For years, this BHP Board has failed in that task. BHP recently rolled out a $10 million branding campaign called "Think Big." We would prefer BHP to "Think Smart" by addressing the company's underperformance holistically and putting shareholders first. The appointment of a strong, experienced, and visionary chairperson would be a welcomed first step for BHP. But it would only be a first step. BHP has an entrenched board, with long-tenured directors having approved the disastrous acquisitions and poorly timed share buybacks that are at the root of much of today's underperformance. A significant upgrade in directors is needed. The way forward for the next chairperson is clear. That person will need to address the company's poor capital allocation and underperformance, nominate diverse and qualified directors, and review the executive management team. BHP's shareholders have sent a clear message to the board and management team: it is time for change at BHP. We hope the Board will listen. www.fixingBHP.com About Elliott: Founded in 1977, Elliott manages two funds, Elliott Associates, L.P. and Elliott International, L.P., with assets under management totaling more than US$32.7 billion. Elliott's investors include pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, hospital and university endowments, charitable foundations, funds-of-funds, individuals and families, and employees of the firm. With tens of millions of beneficiary stakeholders located on five continents, Elliott's primary focus is on risk control, stability, and steady growth of capital. With 40 years of experience, it is one of the oldest hedge funds under continuous management. Today, Elliott has offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo and employs a staff of 410 people, including 145 investment professionals. Elliott is a multi-strategy hedge fund, carrying out a diverse range of investment activities. Its strategies include actively managed equity investments in which Elliott's objectives include promoting shareholder value and good corporate governance for the benefit of all shareholders. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170613006583/en/ Contacts: New York Elliott Michael O'Looney, +1 212-478-2687 or London Camarco Billy Clegg, +44(0) 20 3757 4983 Gordon Poole, +44(0) 20 3757 4997 or Sydney Honner Michael Yiannakis, +61 481 754 366 Paul Cheal, +61 427 755 296 or Office: +61 2 8248 3700 QUEBEC CITY, 2017-06-14 02:21 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InnovMetric Software Inc., the leading provider of universal 3D metrology software solutions, launched PolyWorks 2017, the latest release of the company's universal 3D metrology software platform. PolyWorks 2017 delivers a new control-centric reviewing workflow - a key upgrade for all portable metrology and CNC CMM measurement specialists that need to share large metrology projects, containing hundreds of dimensional and GD&T controls, with colleagues, customers, and suppliers. It also provides a major technology upgrade for large-volume metrology applications, and a unique approach to real-time collision analysis for more efficient CNC CMM project setups. Control-centric reviewing workflow "Because they provide invaluable feedback on manufactured parts and on the performance of the manufacturing process, 3D measurements must be efficiently planned and executed by measurement specialists. Then, the results have to be thoroughly reviewed by manufacturing specialists to make informed engineering decisions. With 3D inspection projects designed for planning and executing measurements, time-consuming manipulations are required when sharing measurement results using standard 2D reports. For reviewers, interpreting results found in static tables and snapshots within extensive reports can be challenging, frustrating, and inefficient. Oftentimes, this traditional approach requires back-and-forth communication with measurement specialists to extract additional information from the 3D inspection project," said Marc Soucy, President of InnovMetric. "With the new dimensional-control-centric approach in PolyWorks 2017, the PolyWorks|Inspector 3D metrology project is the report! By enabling measurement specialists to communicate results directly in 3D, considerable productivity gains are guaranteed for our customers. PolyWorks 2017 also empowers reviewers to investigate measurement results contextually in 3D with dynamic navigation tools." Using the new Control Reviewer in PolyWorks|Inspector or in the free PolyWorks|Viewer, measurement specialists and manufacturing specialists can now: -- Access a global list of dimensional controls sorted by characteristic index, making it the ideal tool to prepare first-article inspection reports. -- Add custom controls to the global list of controls; for example, those measured using manual gauges. -- Easily split an inspection project into small and logical groups of controls called Control Views. -- Tie individual controls to specific data alignments and coordinate systems, enabling multicontextual Control Views. -- Search, sort, and filter controls to highlight critical results. -- Display control views automatically in 3D with the right point of view. -- Generate formatted reports automatically. Major technology upgrade for large-volume metrology applications InnovMetric is proud to release its most significant technology enhancements for customers who need to assemble and inspect large structures such as those found in the aerospace, shipyard, and energy industries. Users can now: -- Predefine and configure a list of laser tracker devices, and connect to multiple trackers simultaneously. With PolyWorks 2017, to guide assembly building in real time, switch the active tracker instantaneously and feed measured reflector positions to digital readouts. -- Align point-to-object using a powerful technique that aligns points to different geometrical characteristics of matched objects (such as center points, axes, or surfaces) and control the alignment direction, weight, and participation to the scaling factor computation for each pair of matched geometries. -- Probe surface features before their nominal components are defined or the part is aligned to the CAD model. Real-time collision analysis for more efficient CNC CMM project setups Measurement specialists who define probing and laser scanning paths on CNC CMMs now have access to a collision analysis engine that detects potential tool collisions with the part or the fixtures, and provides visual feedback on problematic tool paths in the Sequence Editor and the 3D Scene. Thanks to two major innovations, the PolyWorks collision analysis approach stands out from competing CMM software products: -- PolyWorks collision analysis is carried out in real time while the measurement sequence is created or edited, such as when new measurement objects are added to a sequence. This allows operators to immediately fix problematic tool paths and avoid accumulating issues. -- PolyWorks collision analysis is performed both offline and online, and warns users about potential collisions even when they launch a measurement operation outside of the Sequence Editor. Traditionally, this feature is offered solely as an offline functionality in other software. For more information about PolyWorks 2017, including products, demonstrations, and upcoming PolyWorks Conference events, please visit: www.innovmetric.com. About InnovMetric Software Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Quebec, QC, Canada, with subsidiaries worldwide, InnovMetric Software Inc. is the leading provider of universal 3D metrology software solutions. The world's largest industrial manufacturing organizations (Toyota, GM, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier, Apple, and many more) trust InnovMetric's PolyWorks software solutions and associated technical services to maximize the benefits of 3D measurement technologies for their engineering and manufacturing applications. With its subsidiaries and joint ventures, InnovMetric has more than 250 employees in 14 countries: Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, India, Thailand, China, and Japan. Contact: Patrick Castera Tel: 1-418-688-2061 Email: pcastera@innovmetric.com Website: www.innovmetric.com Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de LONDON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Braun reveals that two thirds of British women are skipping treatments at the salon in favour of doing at home beauty New research by beauty tech brand Braun has revealed a seismic shift in beauty behaviour with two thirds of British women (66%) avoiding salon treatments in favour of DIY beauty in their own homes. Traditionally the preserve of 'the professionals', head-to-toe treatments including hair colour, facials, hair removal, fake tan, manicures and pedicures are now turning DIY, with women increasingly taking their beauty regimes into their own hands. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523012/Braun_at_home_beauty_treatments.jpg ) This latest beauty industry revelation from Braun comes on the back of recent data from professional beauty product supplier Salon Services, which revealed British women who visit the salon for hair removal and facial treatments now wait 50% longer between appointments compared to 2015[1] (6 weeks, instead of 4 weeks). When it comes to the evolution of beauty, women are increasingly refusing to play by the old rules of being tied to time-consuming treatments and exorbitant expense. The Braun range is designed to meet the specific needs of women, to help them to achieve the flawless, salon-worthy results they seek in the comfort of their own home. An appetite for at home beauty Additionally, the survey also shows that those who do not yet practice at home beauty are keen to join the DIY revolution, with only a lack of knowledge and education about specific products (and results) holding them back: Over a third of women (38%) would do more home beauty treatments if they felt confident they'd get the same results as a salon Over a quarter of women (28%) would do more beauty treatments at home if they had more information on which products to use Real beauty shouldn't mean a sacrifice When asked why they were turning to DIY treatments, two thirds of women (66%) said that they now carry out at home beauty because trips to the salon are too expensive. This outgoing is also seen as a luxury by the majority of those polled (69%), perhaps indicating why so many are choosing to take back control of their beauty regimes. Furthermore, an overwhelming 97% of British women say that they can save up to 1200 a year by doing their beauty maintenance themselves. The survey also revealed that women feel that there are more important things to spend this money on such as: New clothes (20%) A holiday (42%) A sensible one in ten of those polled (10%) would even put this money towards their rent or mortgage showing the real dent salon treatments have on the nation's purses! The real cost, however, is more of an emotional one: Nearly half of respondents (45%) resent having to spend this money on salon beauty 50% say the price takes away from their enjoyment of a visit to the salon Taking matters into our own hands This research from Braun clearly shows that when it comes to beauty, women across the UK are seeking treatments that deliver the results they want but at a fraction of the price - and on their own terms: More than a quarter wish facials were more affordable (26%) Nearly half of those polled (48%) wish this was true of IPL or laser hair removal and anti-cellulite treatments The survey also reveals that unwanted hair is the top priority for British women when it comes to at home beauty, with hair removal topping the list of the most popular DIY beauty treatments[2]: Nearly three quarters (71%) of women choose to do this in the privacy of their own homes Over a quarter (26%) of women say that at home hair removal saves them the most money when it comes to DIY versus salon treatments Overall, the research reveals how British women want salon-worthy treatments in the comfort of their own homes and salon-worthy results that don't eat into their overdraft; at home beauty shouldn't mean a compromise on quality. This means that DIY beauty products need to be safe, easy-to-use, and efficient and deliver long-lasting, quality results that women know they can trust. Braun, the experts in at home beauty recognise this need for efficacy, precision, quality and trust when it comes to DIY beauty and hence offer a range of epilators, at-home IPL devices and exfoliation systems that make it easier, more affordable and more comfortable than ever to achieve permanent, visible results in your own home. For more information, images or to request samples, please contact Braun@HKStrategies.com or check us out on social media: @Braun_beauty, BringingBeautyHome -------------------------------------------------- 1. Survey conducted in United Kingdom by Salon Services; 2014 and 2016; 2,557 Respondents; Salon Services customers (salon businesses) - 'Average number of weeks between female visits for hair and beauty salon treatments in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2014 and 2016, by type'. 2. 71% of respondents said they supplemented hair removal treatments with at home beauty About Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Fairy, Febreze, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene and SK-II. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.co.uk for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands in the UK and Ireland. Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Regulatory News: SoLocal Group (Paris:LOCAL): At the Combined General Assembly of 13 June 2017, four additional Directors have been elected: Delphine Grison, Sophie Sursock, David Amar and Philippe de Verdalle. Since October 2016, eight new members have joined the Board of Directors, which now has 14 members (excluding the Director representing the employees). At the Combined General Assembly, a point was made concerning the replacement of the Chief Executive Officer, following the decision announced on 31 May 2017 of Jean-Pierre Remy to leave office. The criteria and selection process for the future CEO were decided by the Board of Directors. On the recommendation of the Remuneration and Appointment Committee, the Board of Directors, in its new composition, will select the future CEO in the coming weeks, with the objective that the person concerned may take up his new duties as soon as possible and at the latest, during the last quarter of 2017. Deputy CEO Christophe Pingard and the members of the Executive Committee are fully committed to ensuring the continuity of the Company's operations and the implementation of the strategic plan "Conquer 2020". At the Combined General Assembly, Robert de Metz indicated that he would terminate his duties as Chairman of the Board of Directors no later than 5 September 2017 and would remain at the disposal of the Board of Directors as a censor until 31 December 2017, in such a way that it can be present during the transitional period and therefore facilitate its progress. The new Board of Directors, which met at the end of the Combined General Assembly, took note of this decision and asked the Remuneration and Appointment Committee to initiate a reflexion on the choice of Robert de Metz's successor. To take into account the arrival of additional members, the Board of Directors has set up the composition of the various committees. The Remuneration and Appointment Committee will now be chaired by Philippe de Verdalle and the newly created Strategic Committee will be chaired by David Amar. The new composition of the committees will be as follow AUDIT COMMITTEE Sandrine Dufour (President) Annual General Assembly of 2018 Independent Nathalie Balla Annual General Assembly of 2018 Independent Jacques-Henri David Annual General Assembly of 2020 Independent Arnaud Marion Annual General Assembly of 2020 Independent Sophie Sursock Annual General Assembly of 2021 Independent REMUNERATION AND APPOINTMENT COMMITTEE Philippe de Verdalle (President) Annual General Assembly of 2021 Independent David Amar Annual General Assembly of 2021 Independent Alexandre Loussert Annual General Assembly of 2020 Independent Robert de Metz Anticipated by 5 September 2017 Independent Cecile Moulard Annual General Assembly of 2019 Independent Joelle Obadia 7 April 2020 Representing employees Jean-Marc Tassetto Annual General Assembly of 2019 Independent STRATEGIC COMMITTEE David Amar (President) Annual General Assembly of 2021 Independent Delphine Grison Annual General Assembly of 2021 Independent Monica Menghini Annual General Assembly of 2020 Independent Cecile Moulard Annual General Assembly of 2019 Independent Jean-Marc Tassetto Annual General Assembly of 2019 Independent The Board of Directors took note of the rejection of the sixteenth resolution at the General Assembly of 13 June 2017 concerning the authorization granted to the Board of Directors to allocate free shares of the Company. The Board of Directors has asked the Remuneration and Appointment Committee to make new proposals for long-term incentives as soon as possible. About SoLocal Group SoLocal Group, European leader in local online communication, reveals local know-how, and boosts local revenues of businesses. The Internet activities of the Group are structured around two business lines: Local Search and Digital Marketing. With Local Search, the Group offers digital services and solutions to clients which enable them to enhance their visibility and develop their local contacts. Thanks to its expertise, SoLocal Group earned the trust of some 490,000 clients of those services and over 2.4 billions of visits via its 4 flagship brands (PagesJaunes, Mappy, Ooreka and A Vendre A Louer) but also through its partnerships. With Digital Marketing, SoLocal Group creates and provides the best local and customised content about professionals. With over 4,400 employees, including a new orders force of 1,900 local communication advisors specialised in five verticals (Home, Services, Retail, Health Public, BtoB) and Internationally (France, Spain, Austria, United Kingdom), the Group generated in 2016 revenues of 812 millions euros, of which 80% on Internet and ranks amongst the first European players in terms of Internet advertising revenues. SoLocal Group is listed on Euronext Paris (LOCAL). More information may be obtained at www.solocalgroup.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170613006618/en/ Contacts: SoLocal Group Press Delphine Penalva, +33 (0)1 46 23 35 31 dpenalva@solocal.com or Edwige Druon, +33 (0)1 46 23 37 56 edruon@solocal.com or Alexandra Kunysz, +33 (0)1 46 23 47 45 akunysz@solocal.com or Investors Emmanuelle Vinel, +33 (0)1 46 99 41 80 evinel@solocal.com or Sebastien Nony, +33 (0) 1 46 23 49 03 snony@solocal.com BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Following the release of German foreign trade data for October at 2.00 am ET Friday, the euro changed little against its major rivals. The euro was trading at 1.1754 against the greenback, 133.34 against the yen, 1.1706 against the franc and 0.8727 against the pound around 2:03 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Asian OEMs are making rapid inroads into the African market as infrastructure developments present new growth opportunities CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rising urbanisation is encouraging unprecedented infrastructural developments in Africa, especially across the construction and oil and gas sectors. This is strengthening the regional market for commercial vehicles (CVs) like rigid trucks and flatbed trailers. Asian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Dongfeng, Sinotruk, Tata and Ashok Leyland have started making rapid inroads into the African market and currently account for 73.1 per cent of the total CV market. As these foreign OEMs offer value trucks built for local conditions and customer preferences, market competition is intensifying. For more information or to schedule an interview with our analyst please contact Samantha James, Corporate Communications at samantha.james@frost.com "There is significant opportunity for OEMs to leverage their already existing platforms in emerging markets, such as China, India and the ASEAN, to build synergies across these regions and Africa for higher operational efficiency and lower costs," said Frost & Sullivan Mobility Industry Analyst Marshall Martin. "Meanwhile, regional manufacturers will get a huge boost from the growing emphasis on urban transport, along with government incentives to produce vehicles locally." African Commercial Vehicles Market, Forecast to 2025 is part of Frost & Sullivan's Commercial Vehicle/Transport/Logistics/Rail Growth Partnership Subscription. The market is expected to grow from 317,533 units in 2016 to 538,774 units in 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1 per cent. South Africa, with 53 per cent, is the largest contributor to the CV market in Africa. However, Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco are expected to be the fastest-growing markets and the only ones to increase their share by 2025. While the market's potential is undisputed, it has been growing at a modest pace due to the subdued industry sentiment in Africa as a result of falling oil and commodity prices. Issues related to automotive infrastructure, financing and labour rein in the CV market, even as the spending on urban infrastructure offsets the negative impact. "Furthermore, the demand for cleaner air in cities will create opportunities for greener public transport such as compressed natural gas (CNG) and electric buses," noted Martin. "Other CV technologies such as advanced telematics are expected to be highly popular in regions around South Africa, encouraging investments and partnerships in the African market." African Commercial Vehicles Market, Forecast to 2025 MCDA-18 About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion African Commercial Vehicles Market, Forecast to 2025 MCDA-18 Contact: Samantha James Corporate Communications - Africa P: +27 21 680 3574 F: +27 21 680 3296 E: samantha.james@frost.com http://www.frost.com 14 June 2017 COINSILIUM GROUP LIMITED ("Coinsilium" or the "Company") COINSILIUM SIGNS MOU WITH BLOCKCHAIN FOCUSED HEDGE FUND HYPERCHAIN CAPITAL Coinsilium Group Limited (NEX: COIN), the accelerator that finances and manages the development of early-stage blockchain technology companies, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") with HyperChain Capital ("HyperChain"), one of the world's first multi-million-dollar hedge funds investing in Blockchain companies, to collaborate and finance co-investment opportunities in blockchain companies. Highlights MoU for Coinsilium and HyperChain to forge closer ties and consider co-investment opportunities in blockchain companies Since 2016, Singapore -based HyperChain has invested in more than 20 blockchain companies, mainly via their Initial Coin Offerings ('ICO') Investments in Blockchain companies via ICOs have surpassed VC investments in 2017. HyperChain, led by Stelian Balta, is one of the world's first large hedge funds investing in blockchain companies and new blockchain protocols via the acquisition of newly issued crypto and application-specific tokens ('Tokens'). The collaboration will leverage the parties' complementary expertise and skillsets for investing in and supporting blockchain companies. Coinsilium and HyperChain are co-investors in social trading crypto platform CoinDash which plans to launch its Token sale this summer. Investments in Blockchain companies via ICOs have surpassed VC investments in 2017 with over $327m in ICOofferings compared to $295m raised through VCfunding as stated in Coindesk on 9 June 2017. Eddy Travia, Coinsilium's CEO commented: "We are very pleased to be firming up our relationship with HyperChain following our mutual investment in CoinDash. In this fast-growing market, there are only a few large hedge funds with a focus on Token offerings and fewer still that can claim the experience and aptitude of HyperChain. We look forward to a mutually beneficial collaboration in this exciting new sector." HyperChain's CEO, Stelian Balta, is a tech entrepreneur and global investor with vast trading experience in financial markets and with a clear focus on technology, finance and innovation. Stelian Balta, CEO of HyperChain stated: "We are very proud to be forming this alliance with Coinsilium who we regard as pioneer investors in blockchain technologies. HyperChain and Coinsilium are early-movers in the blockchain Token investment space and we look forward to identifying co-investment opportunities in innovative blockchain companies and protocols together." The Directors of Coinsilium Group Limited take responsibility for this announcement. For further information, please contact: Eddy Travia, CEO +44 (0) 207 099 0740 Coinsilium Group Limited www.coinsilium.com Malcolm Palle, Non-executive Director +44 (0) 7785 381089 Coinsilium Group Limited Harry Chathli / Ana Ribeiro / Alexis Gore +44 (0) 207 618 9100 Luther Pendragon Ltd (Media Relations) Guy Miller / Mark Anwyl +44 (0) 207 469 0930 Peterhouse Corporate Finance Limited (NEX Exchange Corporate Adviser) Nick Emerson / Andy Thacker +44 (0) 1483 413 500 SI Capital Limited (Broker) Notes to Editor Coinsilium is an accelerator that finances and manages the development of early-stage blockchain technology companies. It does this through its consortium of top-tier investors, industry thought leaders and executive managers.Based in London, Coinsilium's focus is on driving innovation in fintech and blockchain technologies, enabling businesses to take advantage of growth opportunities. Coinsilium shares (NEX:COIN) are traded on NEX Exchange Growth Market, the primary market for unlisted securities operated by NEX Exchange, a Recognised Investment Exchange under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. For further information, please visithttp://www.coinsilium.com DUBLIN, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2nd annual Avoca Quality Consortium (AQC) European Summit, which took place in Dublin, Ireland this year, prepared members for the new ICH E6 R2 guidelines which will be implemented across Europe on the 14th June 2017. The Summit, which brought together industry leaders across Europe from the clinical trials space, hosted a wide range of speakers and discussion forms, to debate how the European clinical trial industry could advance with best practice in a changing landscape. Ms. Patricia Leuchten, CEO of The Avoca Group and Founder of the AQC, opened the conference with a welcome address highlighting the changing landscapes of clinical trials across Europe. This was supported by the Consortium's new 'Regulatory Roadmap' which is a set of practical guidelines, tools, and documents, recently released by the group, to empower AQC members to understand and better prepare for the newly rolled out ICH E6 R2 guidelines. "The AQC's focus is on supporting our members and the work they do by providing them with leading practices and information that will help them drive efficiency and identify and mitigate risks in clinical trial execution. Forexample, Avoca began our work on the components of ICH E6 R2 five years ago, and as a result, we are now well placed to support the industry when the new regulatory guidelines are released in Europe next week," saidMs. Leuchten. Professor Dipak Kalra, President of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data, who addressed the Summit as one of the key note speakers, spoke of the current challenges facing the clinical trial space in Europe. "There is a real need from society and healthcare systems for greater clinical trials efficiency to deliver new medicines faster to patients. Pharma and CROs need to make better, more trustworthy use of hospital electronic clinical records systems across Europe to optimise clinical trial protocols and facilitate patient recruitment". While much discussion at theSummitwas focused on operational issues, panellists and attendees also raised critical questions about how to continue to build a culture of quality within individual organizations. "The landscape of clinical trials is evolving, and the pace of change is rapid," saysLeuchten. "TheSummitis an opportunity for us to make decisions about how to address the complexities we face as an industry. Through our collaboration model, our goal is to elevate quality while introducing greater efficiency into the clinical trials process for the collective benefit of the industry." December 2016was the fifth anniversary of the Quality Consortium and 2017 is the second year that, due to member interest, the AQC held aSummitinEurope. Ideas discussed at theSummitare put into practice through the work of the Consortium. The European Summit's primary sponsor was ICON, the global CRO that has headquarters inDublin. Also sponsoring theSummitwere inVentiv Health, Purdue Pharma, Longboat, Bioclinica, Appian, and MedAvante. To view the whole agenda, click here. AboutThe Avoca Quality Consortium (AQC) and The Avoca Group Sponsored by Eli Lilly and Pfizer and led by The Avoca Group,The Avoca Quality Consortium (AQC)brings together 70+ pharma, biotech, and clinical service companies that share a commitment to collaboratively improving the execution and management of outsourced trials. Members have access to a large and growing repository of 350+ leading practice tools, guidelines, and standards that deliver meaningful improvements to the speed, efficiency, and quality of clinical trial execution, as well as the means to track and influence the development of innovative new approaches. Since its inception in 1999,The Avoca Grouphas delivered high-quality, actionable research to pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and specialty service providers. A pioneer in clinical outsourcing research and consulting,Avocahas tracked and influenced the progression of the sector, making it the ideal partner for companies seeking to continuously improve the execution of clinical trials. For more information, visittheavocagroup.com. Exciting new partnership will further strengthen Concur's position in the UK business travel market MAIDENHEAD, United Kingdom, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Concur, an SAP company and the world's leading provider of travel, expense and invoice management solutions, has today announced details of its unique partnership with Capita Travel and Events, the UK's specialist in travel, meetings and event management. The deal enables Concur to better serve organisations with high UK domestic hotel and apartment use, through integration of Capita Travel and Events' specialist hotel product and content, including non-GDS, apartments, rates, availability and policy control, for mutual customers. Capita Travel and Events customers will benefit from Concur's market-leading booking and mobile platform. The implementation of Concur's solutions comes as part of Capita Travel and Events' wider commitment to its innovative smarter working strategy. By using Concur, Capita Travel and Events will have access to unprecedented amounts of smart, cloud based data on the travel habits and trends of thousands of its customers' employees. This rich travel and expense data, combined with wider data sources, will provide powerful and actionable insights into the real costoftravel and meetings on an organisation encompassing absenteeism, productivity performance, internal meeting space optimisation and visibility of the total cost of meetings. Commenting on the partnership, Chris Baker, Managing Director of UK Enterprise, Concur said:"At Concur we're on a mission to help our customers make the most of their time and their employees' skillsets. As such we're always looking for ways in which technology can streamline a process and make traditionally cumbersome tasks more efficient, whilst delivering insights that keep our customers ahead of the competition." "By working with Capita Travel and Events, we are partnering with an organisation that provides true accommodation, domestic travel and meetings expertise. Together, it means we're going to provide a solution that will make a real difference to our mutual customers in the UK market, saving them time and boosting productivity." James Parkhouse, CEO, Capita Travel and Events, added: "The partnership with Concur puts us in a unique position to address some significant market gaps. Our specialist hotel pricing, including non-GDS content, will be available within a great online booking technology, giving UK centric businesses, large and small, an uncompromised travel solution for the future. This partnership addresses the growing trends of mobile booking, non-GDS content reliance, and an emphasis on the sharing economy. The user experience is market leading and this will further boost online booking levels, ensuring greater price and policy compliance. It also enhances our focus on delivering relevant expense system interfaces for our customers." Trevor Elswood, Chief Commercial Officer, Capita Travel and Events concluded: "This is a significant market collaboration that will answer customer needs of today and the future. Our specialist expertise and Concur's technology leadership will allow us to address market gaps that are becoming apparent as supplier distribution grows in complexity, and as travellers demand intuitive booking experiences alongside mobile accessed on-trip itineraries." "The partnership with Concur sits within a wider Capita Travel and Events strategy that will see a significant shift in how we shall lead our sector in realising the opportunity of smarter working. This strategic programme will revolutionise the way organisations approach travel and meetings." For more information: Concur contact: Michael House E: michael.house@aspectuspr.com T: +44 (0) 20 72428867 Capita Travel and Events contact: Toni Byrne E: Toni.byrne@capita.co.uk T: 07989 343 981 About Concur For more than two decades, Concur, an SAP company, has taken companies of all sizes and stages beyond automation to a completely connected spend management solution encompassing travel, expense, invoice, compliance and risk. Concur's global expertise and industry-leading innovation keep its customers a step ahead with time-saving tools, leading-edge technology and connected data, in a dynamic ecosystem of diverse partners and applications. User-friendly and business-ready, Concur unlocks powerful insights that help businesses reduce complexity and see spending clearly, so they can manage it proactively. Learn more at www.concur.co.uk or the Concur Newsroom. 2017 Concur Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. About Capita Travel and Events: Part of Capita plc, Capita Travel and Events' experience and expertise spans over the last 40 years and brings together some of the UK's leading specialists in business travel, accommodation, meetings and events. Bringing together over 1,000 of the most knowledgeable people in the industry and combining their expertise, Capita Travel and Events has created one powerfully unique business. It doesn't just manage travel, meetings and events; it empowers customers to transform their entire travel, meetings and events strategy through insight, innovation and collaboration. Capita Travel and Events' curiosity and ability to provide the data needed to trigger action, reveals hidden opportunities to reduce the total cost of travel, meetings and events, and helps customers make better buying decisions. Find out more at capitatravelevents.co.uk. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/244773/concur___logo.jpg - Extends EMEA Sales Team with Addition of Two New Regional Sales Leaders in DACH and Southern Europe Regions NORTH READING, Massachusetts, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --TraceLink Inc., the World's Largest Track and Trace Network for connecting the life sciences supply chain and providing real-time information sharing for better patient outcomes, today announced that it will relocate its European headquarters to a larger, newly renovated office space in Uxbridge, UK. The move will accommodate the company's projected 207 percent year over year increase in EU staff growth for 2017. To help the life sciences industry meet global regulatory deadlines for pharmaceutical track and trace and accommodate its explosive 658 percent growth in EMEA new sales bookings for Q1 2017, the company is expanding its overall European team by hiring 55 new EU-based employees in sales, services, marketing and administration during 2017. As part of its recruitment drive, the company has added two regional EU sales leaders, deepening its pan-European presence to develop localised TraceLink teams dedicated to serving the life sciences industry in specific regions. Leading the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region as TraceLink Vice President, Sales, Manfred Voglmaier, a native resident of Germany, brings over 25 years of industry experience in technology and life sciences, and comes from Systech International as the former Senior Director of EMEA Sales. Heading up Southern Europe, Renaud Delcroix has joined TraceLink as Vice President, Sales for the region, bringing strong expertise in cultivating international business development teams across industry verticals. "By 2020, over 80 percent of the world's prescription drugs will be covered by track and trace laws; a challenge that involves massive amounts of data and a complex web of supply chain partners. Expanding our presence in Europe is a natural step due to the urgent demand we've seen from the region for our proven solution in meeting EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) requirements," said Shabbir Dahod, president and CEO, TraceLink. "As part of our $70 million investment in 2017 into the pharmaceutical track and trace industry, we are building localised support and services for our customers who have mission-critical operations across 24 countries to best accommodate our rapid-growing global customer base." The development of the European team will be focused on continuing to build regional and native expertise in these areas, and expanding the 15 languages already spoken by the current TraceLink services team in EMEA. Worldwide, TraceLink expects to have nearly 400 employees by the end of 2017, a 68 percent year-over-year increase in global employee growth. Later this year, TraceLink will offer general availability to its European Union (EU) hosted Life Sciences Cloud, furthering its commitment to serving its EU-based and global customers by enabling data residency in both the EU and U.S. By utilising TraceLink's unique network-tenant platform approach, global customers will be able to significantly reduce the time, cost and risk of achieving regulatory compliance for global requirements, including the EU FMD, and eliminate the need to verify and certify point-to-point connections to each government system. About TraceLink TraceLink is the World's Largest Track and Trace Network for connecting the Life Sciences supply chain and eliminating counterfeit prescription drugs from the global marketplace. Leading businesses trust the TraceLink Life Sciences Cloud to deliver complete global connectivity, visibility and traceability of pharmaceuticals from ingredient to patient. A single point and click connection to the Life Sciences Cloud creates a supply chain control tower that delivers the information, insight and collaboration needed to improve performance and reduce risk across global supply, manufacturing and distribution operations. A winner of numerous industry awards including Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 (ranked number 149 in 2016), the Amazon AWS Global Start-Up Challenge Grand Prize, and the Edison Award for Innovation in Health Management, the Life Sciences Cloud is used by businesses across the globe to meet strategic goals in ensuring global compliance, fighting drug counterfeiting, improving on-time and in-full delivery, protecting product quality and reducing operational cost. For more information on TraceLink and our solutions, visit www.tracelink.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. TraceLink is funded by Goldman Sachs, FirstMark Capital, Volition Capital and F-Prime Capital. DUBLIN, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- FlowForma, the leading provider of BPM tools for Microsoft Office 365 is pleased to announce its upcoming complimentary HR process webinar, with its partner Hubbub, taking place next Tuesday, June 20th 2017 at 4pm GMT+1. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523210/FlowForma_Logo.jpg ) "A highly process-driven department, the HR team can often be burdened by administration work, chasing people for updates regarding performance appraisals, annual leave, etc. With many companies striving for digital transformation, HR teams are challenged to drive their own digital strategy. With this in mind, we're pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar, where you will learn how to tackle these challenges and successfully increase efficiency in HR, and fundamentally, your entire organization," said Neil Young, CEO, FlowForma. During this webinar, The FlowForma team will discuss why so much focus is directed on automating and streamlining data and HR processes. They will focus in detail, on the following reasons: Reducing time spent on administrative tasks Productivity gains through HR process automation Improved accuracy and compliance Better insight and more effective decision-making Employee engagement gains Organizational improvements, leading to cost savings In addition to reducing time spent on administrative tasks, streamlining and automating processes can increase the business value of HR through productivity gains. It assures greater accuracy and compliance with less effort. It enables more effective decision-making through broader and deeper visibility into your data. And finally, it can increase morale and employee engagement. During the webinar, the speakers will demonstrate how Hubbub and FlowForma's self-service workflow tool is the ideal solution for deploying HR processes, such as onboarding, performance appraisal, annual leave, contracts management, etc. The demos will reveal the intuitiveness of this no-code, logic only workflow tool and illustrate how power users can build and publish processes to help meet utmost efficiency, with speed and flexibility, and little or no help from the IT department. Webinar Details When: June 20, 2017 @ 4pm-5pm GMT+1 Where: Online. Register here. Who: HR Managers, Heads of HR, HR Directors, HR Business Partners, HRIS Managers, VPs of HR, SVPs of HR, COOs, CIOs, CTOs, CFOs Join this complimentary webinar, to discover how HR process automation can have a powerful ripple effect across the entire organization, improving performance and increasing efficiency. Register now. Supporting Resources Learn more about FlowForma's upcoming webinar Latest HR Blog 'Helping You Drive Digital Transformation in HR' Find out how the FlowForma Cloud BPM tool works Download a free trial of FlowForma BPM About FlowForma FlowForma, the leading provider of Business Process Management (BPM) tools for Microsoft Office 365 has been revolutionizing the traditional BPM space with an innovative approach to developing award-winning BPM products that empower users to get work done, smarter and faster, on the familiar SharePoint platform, without any coding. FlowForma is a Microsoft Partner, with over 110,000 users across Europe, North America and Asia. The company is headquartered in Dublin with offices in London and Boston and is motivated by its values to innovate, evolve and achieve, with employees, customers and partners. For further information, visit http://www.flowforma.com. About Hubbub Hubbub is an affordable, full-featured HRIS and talent management enterprise-class suite of applications that businesses of nearly any size can actually use. Hubbub simplifies the many complexities of managing a global workforce with highly configurable, user friendly and quickly-deployed HR software which is integrated with FlowForma. For further information, visit http://www.hubbubhr.com. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 11, 2017) - East Asia Minerals Corporation (TSXV: EAS) announces that Mining Associates Pty Ltd ("MA") has provided an updated resource estimate for East Asia Mineral's Binebase-Bawone gold deposit at the Sangihe Project. The Sangihe Project is a 42,000 hectare tenement on Sangihe Island, Sulawesi, Indonesia, located in the volcanic island arc that extends northwards over 400 km from the north eastern arc of Sulawesi to Mindano in the southern Philippines. Both oxide and sulphide of gold mineralization are present at the Binebase and Bawone deposits. Based on 127 of a total of 153 diamond drill holes drilled at Binebase and Bawone , Indicated and Inferred resources using a 0.25g/t gold cut-off for oxide material and 1.0g/t gold cut-off for sulphide material were derived. Indicated resources are estimated at 3.16 million tonnes averaging 1.13 g/t gold and 19.4 g/t silver for 114,700 ounces gold and 1,972,400 ounces silver in near and at surface oxides and sulphides. Inferred resources are estimated at 2.54 million tonnes averaging 1.29 g/t gold and 13 g/t silver for 105,000 ounces gold and 1,055,600 ounces silver in near and at surface oxides and sulphides. Mineral Resources are contained within two separate bodies, the Binebase and Bawone deposits, separated by approximately one kilometre of shallow untested cover. At a 0.25 g/t gold cut-off, 82 percent of the oxide material, including Indicated and Inferred gold ounces, is contained in the Binebase portion of the deposit. At a 1.0 g/t gold cut-off, 85 percent of the sulphide material, including Indicated and Inferred gold ounces, is contained in the Bawone portion of the deposit. Close-spaced drilling is required to upgrade Inferred resources to the Indicated classification, while step-out drilling is required to determine the extents of the gold and silver mineralization which remains open at both prospects. "Our goals for Sangihe are to complete the requirements for the Federal Indonesian Mining Department for the production license issuance by the end of 2017 and the continuation of exploration with a view to increase the resource base of the project. Our initial focus regarding production will be the oxide gold resource. The Binebase and Bawone resources are open for further drilling. In addition, we plan to do further work to assess several high-grade surface gold zones which have been identified on this large property," said Terry Filbert, CEO of East Asia Minerals. Other areas of the large Sangihe property that warrant follow-up include the results from trenches dug perpendicular to strike orientation set out below. Kelapa where trench results include 14 metres at 34.8 g/t gold, 10 metres at 9.11 g/t gold, 6 metres at 9.19 g/t gold, 6 metres at 7.34 g/t gold, and 14 metres at 1.1 g/t gold; Brown Sugar where trench results include 7.8 metres at 15.6 g/t gold and 195.0 g/t silver, 4 metres at 16.0 g/t gold and196.0 g/t silver, and 1.8 metres at 17.9 g/t gold and 251.0 g/t silver and an East Asia drill hole at the Brown Sugar zone gave 16 metres at 2.7 g/t gold and 33.2 g/t silver; Sede where trench samples include 13.4, 15.0 and 42.6 g/t gold at Zone One, and 7.78, 11.2 and 16.0 g/t gold at Zone Two; Kupa where trench results include 122.0, 82.4 and 73.8 g/t gold; Bonzos where trench results include 5 metres at 2.93 g/t gold and 35.0 g/t silver. The foregoing campaign shall be carried out on a time scale to consider a production decision in 2018. The Company cautions readers that the any production decision made by the Coimpany will probably not be based on a NI 43-101 feasibility study of mineral reserves that demonstrates economic and technical viability and as such, there may be involved increased uncertainty and various technological and economic risks outlined in the "forward looking statement" below. The reader is referred to the Company's website at www.EastAsiaMinerals.com where previous news releases of exploration and drilling at Sangihe may be found. The complete NI 43-101 Resource Estimate can be accessed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Resource Estimation Methodology The mineral resource estimate for the Binebase-Bawone gold deposits were completed by independent consultant Mining Associates Pty Ltd. Drill hole samples were analyzed for silver and gold at SGS (Indonesia) prior to 2013 and PT Intertek Utama Services after January 1st 2013. All sample results are monitored with an appropriate QA/QC program and passed the quality checks. The presence of potential outlier sample data was evaluated and top cuts applied for silver and gold according to the deposit (Binebase or Bawone) and the block model classification of high grade (HG) or low grade (LG). The Binebase HG top cuts used were 10.5g/t for gold and 300g/t for silver. The Bawone HG top cuts used were 9.2g/t for gold and 60g/t for silver. The Binebase LG top cuts used were 2.6g/t for gold and 300g/t for silver. The Bawone LG top cuts used were 1.4g/t for gold and 30g/t for silver. Resource estimation was constrained by domains consisting of 3D wireframes/solids. Drill hole data was displayed in section and elevation slices showing assays and geology. Intercepts were selected and coded for each domain based primarily on a grade greater than 0.3 g/t Au and less than 1 g/t Au for low grade, and more than 1 g/t Au for high grade. Solids were extended laterally for approximately half the drill spacing, typically about 12.5 m, where mineralization was not closed off by drilling. The depth of extrapolation below drill holes was also typically about half the average drill spacing, about 12.5 m. Two sulphide breccia veins at Binebase were extended vertically 15 m below their respective lowest drill hole intercept points. Bawone mineralization was extended vertically 15 m below the lowest drill hole intercepts. The grade of blocks measuring 15 metres (x) by 15 metres (y) by 5 metres (z) were estimated using the Ordinary Kriging method with Gemcom Surpac (v6.4.1) software. A sub-block size of 1.875 m (x), 1.875 m (y) and 0.625 m (z) was used to increase the resolution of the model at the edges of domains and to better represent narrow, high grade mineralization. Block size selection was based on kriging neighbourhood analysis "KNA". Mineral resources were estimated using informing sample 2 metre downhole composites across the mineralization at Binebase and Bawone. Estimation parameters were based on directional variograms for gold and silver for each domain except for Binebase high and low grade silver. Omnidirectional variograms were used for Binebase silver estimates Tonnages at Binebase and Bawone were calculated from block volumes and 385 density measurements used in this mineral resource estimate. Densities used in this mineral resource estimate were equal to the mean of the domained sample population rounded to two decimal places. Density values for Binebase range from 1.83 t/m3 to 2.28 t/m3. Density values for Bawone range from 2.11 t/m3 to 2.63 t/m3. Frank Rocca, BAppSc.(Geology), MAusIMM, Chief Geologist of East Asia Minerals Corp. is the Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101 who has reviewed and approves the content of this release. A copy of this 43-101 report can be found on www.sedar.com. For further information please contact: Ward Kondas 778-918-8384 wkondas@gmail.com For further information, visit the Company's website at www.EastAsiaMinerals.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements in this News Release, which are not historical in nature, constitute "forward looking statements" within the meaning of that phrase under applicable Canadian securities law. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements or information concerning future work programs, results and timing of any work programs, the Company's performance or events as of the date hereof. These statements reflect management's current assumptions and expectations and by their nature are subject to certain underlying assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Those risks include the interpretation of drill results; the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with our expectations; commodity and currency price fluctuation; failure to obtain adequate financing; regulatory, recovery rates, refinery costs, and other relevant conversion factors, permitting and licensing risks; general market and mining exploration risks and production and economic risks related to design and engineering, manufacturing, technological processes and test procedures and the risk that the project's output will not be salable at a price that will cover the project's operating and maintenance costs. Forward-looking statements should not be construed as investment advice. Readers should perform a detailed, independent investigation and analysis of the Company and are encouraged to seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect events or changes in circumstances that occur after the date hereof. East Asia Minerals Corporation Terry Filbert, Chairman & CEO ABI Research Survey Finds 30% of Transportation Industry Respondents Plan to Use Robotics to Support e-Commerce Delivery Growth in the Next Year SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, Aug. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --In a recent B2B technology survey of 455 U.S.-based companies across nine verticals, ABI Research finds that 30% of transportation industry respondents plan to introduce robotics into their business operations within the next year, with another 22% actively assessing the technology. Despite notable near-term progress in robotics deployments among the respondents to support e-commerce and delivery growth, their lack of familiarity with nascent technologies such as AR, Blockchain, 5G, autonomous vehicles, AI, and the related ecosystem for transportation technologies is impacting potential adoption. "Transportation providers may view intelligent transportation technologies as solutions to evolve their existing transportation operations versus opportunities for developing new revenue streams & business models," says Susan Beardslee, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. "These players also show concern for legacy systems integration and comprehension of the complexity/fragmentation of their supply chain." Survey respondents find that intelligent transportation technology benefits are frequently linked to promoting workforce collaboration, centralized IT and operations frameworks, as well as workforce mobility. Primary barriers to adoption include data security and privacy concerns, alignment with existing legacy framework, and associated costs of technology adoption. Respondents also expect limited impact of delivery drones over the next two years; 40% do not see a role for this in their businesses within that timeframe. Key survey findings concerning attitudes toward, and perceived benefits of, key technologies include: Autonomous Vehicles : 44% of respondents are not familiar with autonomous vehicle technology for transport. Barriers including awareness will hold back adoption, at least in the near term. : 44% of respondents are not familiar with autonomous vehicle technology for transport. Barriers including awareness will hold back adoption, at least in the near term. Operational Data Management : There is a disconnect amid rising "co-optition" and respondents do not see consolidation with a reluctance to share data. Only 2% of respondents highly rank sharing operational data with peers and only 14% with key partners. : There is a disconnect amid rising "co-optition" and respondents do not see consolidation with a reluctance to share data. Only 2% of respondents highly rank sharing operational data with peers and only 14% with key partners. Freight as a Service : 34% of respondents favor Freight as a Service for its ability and flexibility to choose loads and routes dynamically, but only 2% of respondents highly anticipate that it will grow their customer bases. : 34% of respondents favor Freight as a Service for its ability and flexibility to choose loads and routes dynamically, but only 2% of respondents highly anticipate that it will grow their customer bases. V2X : ETE cargo tracking (38%) and vehicle monitoring (36%) saw the strongest results corresponding with industry growth. : ETE cargo tracking (38%) and vehicle monitoring (36%) saw the strongest results corresponding with industry growth. Artificial Intelligence: Only 4% of respondents rank navigation & guidance applications as a priority. AI remains a nascent technology, but it is critical to the adoption of autonomous vehicles. "The results deliver validation that notable challenges remain to digitize, automate, and transform the transportation industry, especially with the very long tail of owner-operators and small fleets," concludes Beardslee. "Support of emerging technologies draws mixed reactions, with Over the Air building awareness. But respondents still see other compelling technologies, such as gateways, as nascent to the transportation industry. We expect to see this increase soon to effectively link vehicles and assets to operations." These findings are from ABI Research's Industry Survey: Transformative Technology Adoption and Attitude - Transportation report. This report is part of the company'sIntelligent Transportation & eFreight research service, which includes research, data, and analyst insights. About ABI Research ABI Research stands at the forefront of technology market intelligence, providing business leaders with comprehensive research and consulting services to help them implement informed, transformative technology decisions. Founded more than 25 years ago, the company's global team of senior and long-tenured analysts delivers deep market data forecasts, analyses, and teardown services. ABI Research is an industry pioneer, proactively uncovering ground-breaking business cycles and publishing research 18 to 36 months in advance of other organizations. For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com. Contact Info: Americas EMEA/APAC Deborah Petrara Denise Duffy Tel: +1.516.624.2558 Tel: +44.203.326.0142 pr@abiresearch.com duffy@abiresearch.com Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/276887/abi_research_logo.jpg NEW DELHI, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Indian migrants worldwide can now send money to their family and friends back home, instantly in any bank account TerraPay, the world's first mobile payments switch, has partnered with YES BANK, India's fourth largest private sector bank, to enable real-time international money transfers to bank accounts in India. Powered by TerraPay's global clearing and settlement service, the partnership will make it faster and convenient for consumers to send money to any bank account. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160829/402033LOGO ) TerraPay has partnered with YES BANK in a Rupee Drawing Arrangement which enables TerraPay's network partners to make instant cross-border money transfer to bank accounts in India. This means that Indian migrants worldwide can walk into TerraPay's partner outlet anytime and send money to their family and friends back home, instantly in their bank account. For bank accounts other than YES BANK accounts, YES BANK will disburse funds using the immediate payment service, popularly known as IMPS. The service is available 24X7. Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO of TerraPay commented, "India is the world's largest recipient of remittances. According to World Bank reports, Indian migrants sent USD 62.7 billion in FY 2016-17, which is in fact greater than FDI inflows to India. These remittance inflows from Indian diaspora community have contributed immensely to the macro and micro economic development of the country. Our partnership with YES BANK would help us do our bit for the migrants by providing a real-time, 24X7 and seamless money transfer service experience." Arun Agrawal, Group President and Global Head, International Banking, YES BANK commented, "Since inception, YES BANK has leveraged innovation and technology to revolutionise the banking experience in India. We are glad to partner with TerraPay to enable a convenient, cashless remittance option for migrants looking to transfer money to India. This 24x7 service is backed by YES BANK's state-of-the-art API Banking platform and superior security protocols, and will help boost granular FX inflows into India." About TerraPay TerraPay, the world's first mobile payments switch, is a global transaction processing, clearing and settlement service for mobile wallets. It provides the interoperability engine that enables customers to send and receive real-time transactions across diverse payment instruments, platforms, and regions. The company believes in the power of mobile devices and is building the digital payment rails to fulfil their vision of enabling users to send money to any mobile. TerraPay is a B2B company incubated by Mahindra Comviva, a global leader in delivering mobile financial solutions and is part of the USD 18 billion Mahindra Group. It is registered and regulated in several jurisdictions. In the UK, it is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). About YES BANK YES BANK, India's fourth largest private sector bank with a pan-India presence across all 29 states and 7 Union Territories of India, headquartered in the Lower Parel Innovation District (LPID) of Mumbai, is the outcome of the professional and entrepreneurial commitment of its founder Rana Kapoor and its top management team, to establish a high quality, customer-centric, service driven, private Indian bank catering to the future businesses of India. YES BANK has adopted international best practices, the highest standards of service quality and operational excellence, and offers comprehensive banking and financial solutions to all its valued customers. YES BANK has a knowledge-driven approach to banking, and offers a superior customer experience for its retail, corporate and emerging corporate banking clients. YES BANK is steadily evolving as the Professionals' Bank of India with the long term mission of becoming 'India's Finest Quality Big Bank by 2020'. PR Contact: Sundeep Mehta Global PR Manager TerraPay, Netherlands E-mail - contactus@terrapay.com HELSINKI, July 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Walki Group, a leading, international producer of technical laminates and protective packaging materials has introduced the WalkiPrint Media XXL family of products, which provides 'green' printing and imaging solutions. This comes at a time when the OOH sector is steadily moving away from using chemically treated, moisture-resistant blueback papers and PVC-scrim for printed banners and displays. Growing awareness of the hazards that PVC poses to the environment and in particular, the difficulties faced in its disposal, has created a need for more eco-friendly products. Using ultra-light, tear resistant and recyclable raw materials, the Walki Group has developed new 'green' print media by combining specific base materials and functional polymers. Walki's solutions can be used for both front-lit and back-lit applications, with a non-reflective, inkjet-receptive layer which is suitable for both UV-curable and Latex inks. "The WalkiPrint Media XXL range has been tested by established printer OEMs and is available in master roll sizes. Widths range upwards of +3200 mm, making it a unique offering in Europe," explains Luk Meys, Sales Manager - Technical Products at the Walki Group. The three products within the WalkiPrint Media XXL range are, -WalkiBacklit: A reinforced coated paper - that has been established in the graphics market for about a decade - for long-term usage in outdoors scroll boxes and exclusively sold via selected media wholesalers. - WalkiBillboard: A PP or PET-based coated multi-purpose nonwoven product for mid-term outdoor advertising on panels, rollup banner stands, and for home decoration. -WalkiBanner: A HDPE or PP-based coated woven material for short-term outdoor advertising on frames and fences such as at sports events, exhibitions etc. Walki has one coextrusion production line available that is dedicated to the WalkiPrint Media XXL product range. Two other similar lines are available to function as back-up solutions and to secure lines of supply. All three production lines have optional printing and lacquering capabilities that can be provided as needed. The company's dedicated R&D team in Finland is also concentrating on a whole range of options for the indoors printing media market, with innovative flame-retardant products being developed. "Our products demonstrate environmental awareness and responsibility, both of which are key drivers that enable our customers to choose products with the lowest carbon footprint possible. And producing them locally in the European market within the proximity of our customer base also adds important value," emphasises Meys. For further information, please contact: Luk Meys Sales Manager Technical Products luk.meys@walki.com +31 6-3131-0896 Walki in brief Walki Group is a leading producer of technical laminates and protective packaging materials, specialising in the production of fibre based, intelligent, multilaminate products for markets ranging from energy saving construction facings and construction membranes to barrier packaging applications. The Group has plants in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK, Russia and China with a workforce of about 900 people. Annual net sales for the Group are over 300 million Euros. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/walki/r/walki-group-introduces-eco-friendly-solutions-for-out-of-home--ooh--advertising-sector,c2303592 The following files are available for download: VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - August 15, 2017) - Solar Alliance Energy Inc. ('Solar Alliance') or (the 'Company') (TSX VENTURE: SAN) (OTC: SAENF) is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement (the "Agreement") for the design and construction of an approximately US$3,500,000 commercial solar project in Los Angeles. The project, which marks the second commercial-scale solar project for Solar Alliance, consists of a rooftop solar installation and a carport solar installation at a Los Angeles mid-rise, multi-tenant office building. The Solar Alliance team analyzed the building owner's needs, operational requirements and utility usage to develop a custom solar system that will offset more than 75% of their annual electricity requirements. "Solar Alliance has taken a prudent, professional approach to the development of our commercial division and this agreement is the result of many months of work," said Chairman and CEO Jason Bak. "We are committed to building relationships with commercial property owners and developers in order to illustrate the financial benefits of solar. This project will save the building owners an estimated US$20,000,000 in electricity costs over the life of the system and it illustrates the exciting growth prospects for Solar Alliance in the virtually untapped commercial solar sector." The next stage in the project's development is to complete a final feasibility study and grid connection application. Solar Alliance expects all necessary agreements and financing options to be completed by the end of September with construction commencing before the end of 2017. The US$3,500,000 capital cost is an estimate that will be refined after the feasibility study. "The signing of this commercial solar project agreement comes at a perfect time, as we work our way through the acquisition of Aries Solar, LLC," concluded Bak. "Aries is an established turn-key commercial solar energy solution provider with industry experts that focus on engineering, procurement, and construction needs. This commercial project in L.A. and the Aries acquisition set the stage for increasing growth in commercial solar sales." The building owner is a large developer and owner of several similar properties in the Los Angeles area. Solar Alliance is committed to developing a long-term relationship with the owner and as part of the Agreement, the Company will issue 250,000 warrants exercisable at a price of $0.18 per share for a period of two years. The warrants are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Jason Bak, Chairman and CEO About Solar Alliance Energy Inc. (www.solaralliance.com) Solar Alliance is a sales, marketing and development company focused on residential, commercial and industrial solar installations. Since we were founded in 2003, we have developed wind and solar projects that provide enough electricity to power 150,000 homes. Solar Alliance is committed to an exceptional customer experience, effective marketing campaigns and superior lead generation in order to drive sales and generate value for shareholders. Our passion is improving life through ingenuity, simplicity and freedom of choice. We make solar simple and our goal is to install solar on every available rooftop in America. Statements in this news release, other than purely historical information, including statements relating to the Company's future plans and objectives or expected results, constitute Forward-looking statements. The words "would", "will", "expected" and "estimated" or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different than those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: uncertainties related to the ability to raise sufficient capital, changes in economic conditions or financial markets, litigation, legislative or other judicial, regulatory and political competitive developments and technological or operational difficulties. Consequently, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. "Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." For more information: Solar Alliance Investor Relations Spyros Karellas Pinnacle Capital Markets (416) 433-5696 spyros@pinnaclecapitalmarkets.ca 1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. 9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. 10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. 11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) 12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. 14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art." 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." 28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." 29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. 30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. 34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. 36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. 37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. 38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand. 39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. 42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems. 43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. 44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. 45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 14, 2017) - Integra Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: ICG) (OTCQX: ICGQF) Press Release Highlights: The historic Sigma Mine resource at a 3.0 g/t gold ("Au") cut-off base case consists of 890,900 Au Inferred ounces at an average grade of 4.8 g/t Au (5,733,000 tonnes). A significant amount of historic close-spaced underground drill information was used to produce the new resource estimate at the historic Sigma Mine; however, following the recommendations from its Consultant, the resources are classified in the Inferred category until additional QA/QC work and underground verification, including confirmatory drilling, can be performed. The Lamaque Project resource at a 3.0 g/t cut-off base case consists of 1,917,443 Indicated Au ounces grading 6.78 g/t Au (8,413,248 tonnes) and 2,233,104 Inferred Au ounces grading 5.20 g/t Au (12,863,903 tonnes). Integra Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: ICG) (OTCQX: ICGQF) ("Integra" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of a resource estimate prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 for the historic Sigma Mine ("Sigma") on its 100% owned Lamaque Gold Project ("Lamaque" or the "Property") in Val-d'Or, Quebec. The resource estimates for other deposits on Lamaque, including the Triangle, No. 4 Plug, Sixteen, Fortune, No. 6 Vein, and Parallel, have not changed since the last Property resource update was disclosed in March 2017 (see Company press release dated March 22, 2017). Data verification, modelling, and resource estimation work for Sigma was completed by InnovExplo Inc. ("InnovExplo") of Val-d'Or, Quebec. To view a plan map of Lamaque showing the mineral deposits and exploration targets please follow the link below: http://www.integragold.com/site/assets/files/2364/map_with_targets_-_sigma_resource.pdf Sigma Deposit Resource Overview The Sigma resource estimate was completed in accordance to NI 43-101 and includes resources from surface to a vertical depth of 1,900 m. As part of the resource estimation process, InnovExplo recompiled and verified all historical drilling and underground sampling information available from Sigma, including 25,241 drill holes consisting of 436,498 gold assays and 41,132 underground channel samples consisting of 65,534 gold assays. The 3D geological model for the sub-vertical shear veins and sub-vertical mineralized feldspar porphyry dykes, the primary hosts of gold mineralization at Sigma, was entirely rebuilt using the historical drift and stope plans, vertical sections, plan views and previous resource models of the historically mined zones. Flat veins were not modelled in the current mineral resource estimate. Although there is a significant amount of close spaced drill results available in the historical data, the resource at Sigma will remain classified as inferred until additional QA/QC work, confirmatory drilling and underground verification can be performed. Below are figures that illustrate the geological model, drill database, and void model used for the Sigma resource: Figure 1 - Updated Sigma 3D geological model: http://www.integragold.com/site/assets/files/2362/figure_1_-_geological_model_sigma.png Figure 2 - Drill hole traces used for the Sigma resource estimate: http://www.integragold.com/site/assets/files/2361/figure_2_-_drilling_at_sigma.jpg Figure 3 - Void model of underground openings at Sigma: http://www.integragold.com/site/assets/files/2363/figure_3_-_void_model_sigma.png The resource estimate announced today is the first resource estimate completed by the Company on the historic Sigma Mine. Table 1. May 2017 Sigma Deposit Resource Estimate Base case at 3.0 g/t Cut-off ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cut-off Grade(g/t Au) Indicated Inferred ------------------------------------------------------------ Grade Grade Tonnes (g/t Au) Ounces(Au) Tonnes (g/t Au) Ounces(Au) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 g/t 0 0.0 0 5,733,000 4.8 890,900 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The effective date of the resource estimate is May 09, 2017. The Independent and Qualified Person (QP) for the Mineral Resource Estimate as required by National Instrument 43-101 is Harold Brisson Eng. (OIQ 41433), employee of InnovExplo Inc. 2. The official base case resource is reported at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t Au. 3. This estimate includes 121 mineralized zones from surface to 1,900m vertical. 4. The estimate is based from diamond drill holes and underground channel samples (moils). A minimum true thickness of 2.0 m was applied for the interpretation of the mineralized zones. A value of zero was used when not assayed and a value of 0.001 was used for assays below detection limits. 5. The resource is supported by statistical analysis with high-grade capping done on raw assay data and established on a per mineralized zone basis. 6. Compositing at 1.5 m was done from intersects falling within the mineralized zones. 7. The resource was estimated using Geovia GEMS 6.7 software with an ordinary kriging interpolation method in a block model (block size = 5 x 3 x 5 m). 8. The density used is 2.78 g/cm3 for all zones. 9. Tonnage and ounces estimates were rounded to the nearest thousand and hundred respectively. 10. CIM definitions and guidelines were followed in estimating mineral resources. 11. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability. 12. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Resources are uncertain in nature and there has not been sufficient work to define these Inferred Resources as Indicated or Measured Resources. 13. While the results are presented undiluted and in situ, the reported mineral resource is considered by the QP to have reasonable prospects for underground economic extraction. 14. InnovExplo is not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing or other relevant issue that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate. Table 2. May 2017 Sigma Deposit Resource Estimate Mineral Resource Sensitivity by Cut-Off Grades ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cut-off(g/t Au) Density(t/m3) Tonnage Au(g/t) Au(oz) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inferred ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.0 2.78 170,000 12.3 67,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.0 2.78 260,000 11.3 94,300 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.0 2.78 419,000 10.2 137,600 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.0 2.78 670,000 9.2 197,900 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.0 2.78 1,089,000 8.1 284,800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 2.78 1,833,000 7.1 415,200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 2.78 3,189,000 5.9 609,100 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 2.78 5,733,000 4.8 890,900 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.4 2.78 8,349,000 4.2 1,116,200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 2.78 10,902,000 3.7 1,295,900 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1.0 2.78 22,498,000 2.5 1,829,400 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Base Case Mineral Resource reported using a cut-off grade of 3 g/t Au Table 3. Sigma Deposit - Comparison between Historic Resource and Integra Resource (2.1 g/t and 1.0 g/t Au cut-off grades for historic resource and 1.0 g/t Au cut-off grades for Integra) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company (year released) Indicated* Inferred* ---------------------------------------------------------- Grade Ounces Grade Ounces Tonnes (g/t Au) (Au) Tonnes (g/t Au) (Au) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Century and previous owner 3,674,000 4.96 586,000 9,159,000 6.29 1,853,000 (2011 and prior) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Integra (2017) 0 0.00 0 22,498,000 2.50 1,829,400 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- *The indicated and inferred resource numbers are presented for information purposes only. The assumed cut-off grade of 1.0 g/t Au used in Table 3 for Integra's resource constitutes a sensitivity analysis and does not represent the current mineral resource estimate hosted on the Property. Lamaque Property Resource Estimates Drill programs completed at Triangle and other targets on the Property since 2011 have strongly contributed to the Company's understanding of the project geology, particularly in regard to gold mineralization distribution and controls. The resource for Lamaque, including the Sigma resource, is presented in the following tables. The estimation methodology used is Ordinary Kriging for all of the deposits listed. The tables below outline the resources at a 3 g/t Au and a 5 g/t Au cut-offs. The resource estimates for the Triangle, No. 4 Plug, Parallel, No. 6 Vein, Fortune and Sixteen Deposits were calculated by Christian d'Amours of Geopointcom in Val-d'Or, Quebec. The resource estimate for Sigma was calculated by Harold Brisson of InnovExplo from Quebec City, Quebec. Table 4. May 2017 Lamaque Property Resource Estimate (Base case at 3 g/t Au cut-off) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deposit Indicated Inferred ------------------------------------------------------------ Grade Grade Tonnes (g/t Au) Ounces(Au) Tonnes (g/t Au) Ounces(Au) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Triangle (1) 6,262,000 7.32 1,473,530 5,441,000 5.67 991,800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. 4 Plug (2) 505,448 6.67 108,443 915,903 6.84 201,464 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parallel (3) 761,100 7.48 182,920 382,100 5.72 70,290 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. 6 Vein (4) 462,800 5.60 83,450 362,000 6.40 74,240 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fortune (5) 330,200 5.10 53,660 28,100 4.60 4,160 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sixteen (6) 91,700 5.20 15,440 1,800 4.20 250 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sigma (7) 0 0.00 0 5,733,000 4.80 890,900 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 8,413,248 6.78 1,917,443 12,863,903 5.20 2,233,104 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table 5. May 2017 Lamaque Property Resource Estimate (Sensitivity Analysis at 5 g/t Au cut-off) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deposit Indicated Inferred ------------------------------------------------------------- Grade Grade Tonnes (g/t Au) Ounces (Au) Tonnes (g/t Au) Ounces (Au) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Triangle (1) 4,004,700 9.24 1,189,550 2,501,100 7.85 631,200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. 4 Plug (2) 300,417 8.56 82,634 579,432 8.59 160,028 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Parallel (3) 426,800 10.29 141,210 184,100 7.70 45,560 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No. 6 Vein (4) 201,300 7.90 51,280 239,800 7.50 58,080 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fortune (5) 155,000 6.30 31,620 9,400 6.60 1,990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sixteen (6) 41,800 6.90 9,250 400 6.40 90 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sigma (7) 0 0.00 0 1,833,000 7.10 415,200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 5,130,017 8.82 1,505,544 5,347,232 7.31 1,312,148 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Triangle: Effective date is March 17, 2017; specific gravity of 2.8 g/cm3; geologically constrained model with hard boundary; capping of 20 g/t Au on composites when estimated cells are more than 15 m from drill hole otherwise uncapped; composited to full length for each zone intersection before geostatistical analysis; 2 m minimum true thickness, if required diluted with in situ grade when assay results are available otherwise diluted with "zero" grade; ordinary kriging; 3 g/t cut-off calculated for official resource numbers. (2) No. 4 Plug: Effective date is October 28, 2016; specific gravity of 2.80 g/cm3; geologically constrained model with hard boundary; capping of 20 g/t Au on composites when estimated cells are more than 15 m from drill hole otherwise uncapped; composites are 1 m in downhole length before geostatistical analysis; 2 m minimum true thickness, if required diluted with in situ grade when assay results are available otherwise diluted with "zero" grade; ordinary kriging; 3 g/t cut-off calculated for official resource numbers. (3) Parallel: Effective date is February 5, 2016; specific gravity of 2.80 g/cm3; geologically constrained model with hard boundary; capping of individual gold values at 100 g/t Au then capping of 20 g/t Au on composites when estimated cells are more than 15 m from drill hole otherwise uncapped; composited to 1 m downhole length before geostatistical analysis; 2 m minimum true thickness, if required diluted with in situ grade when assay results are available otherwise diluted with "zero" grade; ordinary kriging; 3 g/t cut-off calculated for official resource numbers. (4) No. 6 Vein: Effective date is June 17, 2016; specific gravity of 2.80 g/cm3; geologically constrained model with hard boundary; capping of 20 g/t Au on composites when estimated cells are more than 15 m from drill hole otherwise uncapped; composited to 1 m downhole length before geostatistical analysis; 2 m minimum true thickness, if required diluted with in situ grade when assay results are available otherwise diluted with "zero" grade; ordinary kriging; 3 g/t cut-off calculated for official resource numbers. (5) Fortune: Effective date is April 6, 2015; specific gravity of 2.82 g/cm3; geologically constrained model with hard boundary; individual gold values uncap; composited to 1 m downhole length before geostatistical analysis; 2 m minimum true thickness, if required diluted with in situ grade when assay results are available otherwise diluted with "zero" grade; ordinary kriging; 3 g/t cut-off calculated for official resource numbers. (6) Sixteen: Effective date is November 18, 2013; specific gravity of 2.80 g/cm3; geologically constrained model with hard boundary; individual gold values capped at 35 g/t Au; composited to 0.7 m downhole length before geostatistical analysis; 2 m minimum true thickness, if required diluted with in situ grade when assay results are available otherwise diluted with "zero" grade; ordinary kriging; 3 g/t cut-off calculated for official resource numbers. (7) Sigma: The effective date of the resource estimate is May 9, 2017. The Independent and Qualified Person (QP) for the Mineral Resource Estimate as required by National Instrument 43-101 is Harold Brisson Eng. (OIQ 41433), employee of InnovExplo Inc. The official base case resource is reported at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t Au. This estimate includes 121 mineralized zones from surface to 1,900m vertical. The estimate is based from diamond drill holes and underground channel samples (moils). A minimum true thickness of 2.0 m was applied for the interpretation of the mineralized zones. A value of zero was used when not assayed and a value of 0.001 was used for assays below detection limits. The resource is supported by statistical analysis with high-grade capping done on raw assay data and established on a per mineralized zone basis. Compositing at 1.5 m was done from intersects falling within the mineralized zones. The resource was estimated using Geovia GEMS 6.7 software with an ordinary kriging interpolation method in a block model (block size = 5 x 3 x 5 m). The density used is 2.78 g/cm3 for all zones. Lamaque Project Next Steps The Company has eight drill rigs operating on the Property, including six drill rigs on surface at Triangle completing an expanded infill and extensional drill program, one drill rig underground at Triangle completing close spaced drilling at 10 m centers in the selected bulk sampling area, and one drill rig testing the Lamaque Deep target. To date in 2017, a total of 35,895 m of infill and extension drilling have been completed at Lamaque, of which 26,711 m were completed at Triangle. Project and Company Profile Integra Gold is a junior gold exploration company advancing projects in Val-d'Or, Quebec, one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world. The Company's primary focus is its high-grade Lamaque South project. In the fall of 2014, Integra completed the accretive acquisition of the Sigma Mill and Mine Complex, a fully permitted 2,200 ton per day mill and tailings facility. With major federal and provincial permits in place, existing infrastructure and significant exploration potential, this acquisition removed major costs and shortened timelines typically associated with mine projects. Integra has raised over $150 million since 2013, at successively higher share prices, despite depressed gold prices. On May 15, 2017, Integra and Eldorado Gold Corporation separately issued press releases announcing that they had entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Eldorado Gold Corporation agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Integra that it does not currently own. Qualified Person The Lamaque project is under the direct supervision of Herve Thiboutot, Eng., Senior Vice-President of the Company, and Jacques Simoneau, P. Geo., Exploration Manager of the Company. Mr. Thiboutot and Mr. Simoneau are Qualified Persons ("QPs") as defined by the National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Christian D'Amours, P. Geo., OGQ #226, from GeoPointCom, is responsible for the completion of the resource estimations for all deposits at Lamaque except for Sigma which was completed by Harold Brisson, Eng. (OIQ #41433), from InnovExplo Inc. Mr. Brisson and Mr. D'Amours are both independent QPs as defined by the National Instrument 43-101. The Company's QPs have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release. Quality Assurance - Quality Control ("QA/QC") Thorough QA/QC protocols are followed on the project including insertion of duplicate, blank and standard samples in all drill holes. The core samples are submitted directly to the Bourlamaque and ALS Laboratories in Val-d'Or for preparation and analysis. Analysis is conducted on 1 assay-ton aliquots. Analysis of Au is performed using fire assay method with atomic absorption (AA) finish, with a gravimetric finish completed for samples exceeding 5 g/t Au. Results published are from the gravimetric finish if above 5 g/t Au and from the AA finish if lower than 5 g/t Au. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stephen de Jong CEO & President Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: Certain disclosures in this release constitute forward-looking statements. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including that the Company is able to obtain any government or other regulatory approvals required to complete the private placement and Company's planned exploration activities, that the Company is able to complete the private placement, that the Company is able to procure personnel, equipment and supplies required for its exploration activities in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis and that actual results of exploration activities are consistent with management's expectations. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among others, that the private placement will not be completed, that actual results of the Company's exploration activities will be different than those expected by management and that the Company will be unable to obtain or will experience delays in obtaining any required government approvals or be unable to procure required equipment and supplies in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. CONTACT INFORMATION Corporate Inquiries: Chris Gordon: chris@integragold.com Or visit the company website: www.integragold.com Follow Integra Gold On: Twitter: http://twitter.com/integragoldcorp LONDON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft. The name says it all. For the company's new German headquarters in the north of Munich, enormous panels in Corian design surface resemble gigantic windows opening onto the surrounding landscape. Opened in October 2016, the modern office building is the ideal venue for hosting contemporary work solutions. Its layout adheres to all the relevant criteria Microsoft expects in an open and flexible workspace. Designed by Munich architectural practice GSP Architekten, the headquarters of Microsoft in Germany consists of a staggered building structure with numerous plant-covered terraces and courtyards bathed in natural light. Its open campus layout and friendly ambiance captivates not only the 1,900 Munich-based Microsoft employees but also its neighbours. Laid out over seven floors, the 26,000-square-metre space has been designated as a "Smart Workplace." Employees decide when, where and how they carry out their work. Four different "Workspaces" are found in the building, each taking into consideration the varying work demands of staff. The building's exterior is characterised by its prominent white facade made of Corian. "The most important criteria for choosing Corian for the building envelope was the smooth, homogeneous external image we were able to achieve. The look is especially fascinating when illuminated by the sun," explains Ingo Schafer from GSP Architekten. "As an additional advantage, the smooth, non-porous Corian surface has a self-cleaning effect. Therefore, dirt will not adhere to the facade." Work on the facade was carried out by HAGA Metallbau GmbH. Thanks to the flexible, three-dimensionally adjustable substructure developed by HAGA, the pre-fabricated Corian panels were installed with the utmost precision. HAGA commissioned Hasenkopf, Industrial partner of the Corian Quality Network Industrial Partner, to fabricate Corian. Hasenkopf delivered the pre-fabricated panels and shaped components according to a strict time schedule. A logistical tour de force, 5,200 square metres of Corian facade in the Glacier White colour were delivered in 1,400 individual parts. The durable, weather- and UV-resistant material is easy to clean and maintain. It features an appealing aesthetic, is friendly to the touch and permits the on-site removal of graffiti. Technically speaking, this is a ventilated, rainscreen-mounted facade with undercut anchors fastened to the back of Corian. They carry the dead weight as well as all the other forces involved with the exterior wall thanks to a sophisticated rail and hook system. The Corian organization in Germany assisted the architects and fabricators during the planning and fabrication of the facade. For example, they filed the application for building approval (Zulassung im Einzelfall) of the facade material. In order to receive approval, the experts of the Corian business compiled previous submissions and audits from several projects successfully implemented in Germany and Europe. Due to their excellent product knowledge, the required technical audits were approved without any problems. Additional help came from the existing ETA (European Technical Approval) certification for facades that Corian holds. The prominent facade shines on its surroundings in the early morning hours. The frames made of Corian enclose two- to three-storey-high window elements, with narrow, room-high pivot windows providing direct ventilation. The innovative building frames are like oversized windows allowing a view of the surrounding landscape. They are reminiscent of the product that made Microsoft one of the world's leading brands. Mitsubishi Corporation Telephone: +81 3 3210 2171 Facsimile: +81 3 5252 7705 TOKYO, June 14, 2017 - (JCN Newswire) - The bunkering vessel ENGIE Zeebrugge performed in the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, its first deliveries of LNG (liquefied natural gas) as a marine fuel to M/V AUTO ECO and M/V AUTO ENERGY, the two new gas-propelled pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) of UECC. The LNG bunkering operations were conducted at the same time that the cargo operations for PCTCs were taking place.ENGIE Zeebrugge, which is the world's first purpose-built LNG bunkering vessel, arrived in Zeebrugge at the beginning of April after delivery from Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd in Busan, South Korea, and a 38-day maiden voyage. She is now executing a weekly service to the PCTCs of UECC and is the world's first LNG bunkering vessel to perform regular ship-to-ship bunkering services. ENGIE Zeebrugge loads LNG at Fluxys' LNG terminal which recently commissioned its second jetty specifically designed for also receiving very small LNG carriers.ENGIE Zeebrugge is jointly owned by ENGIE, Mitsubishi Corporation, NYK Line, and Fluxys. With an LNG capacity of 5,000 m3, she will service all types of shipping customers in Northern Europe from her home port of Zeebrugge, under the brand Gas4Sea.This commercial brand was launched in September 2016 by ENGIE, Mitsubishi Corporation, and NYK Line to promote and develop the use of LNG as a sustainable alternative to conventional oil-based marine fuels.The first ship-to-ship bunkering operations are a key milestone in the development of the nascent LNG bunkering market, which needs the collaboration of many stakeholders to gain a foothold: industrial companies, manufacturers, regulatory bodies, port authorities, and shipping companies. The joint efforts of the companies and authorities involved seek to curb carbon and health impacting emissions in shipping and come in support of the European alternative fuels strategy for sustainable mobility.About Mitsubishi CorporationMitsubishi Corporation (MC; TSE: 8058) is a global integrated business enterprise that develops and operates businesses across virtually every industry including industrial finance, energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, foods, and environmental business. MC's current activities are expanding far beyond its traditional trading operations as its diverse business ranges from natural resources development to investment in retail business, infrastructure, financial products and manufacturing of industrial goods. With over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide and a network of over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of nearly 60,000 people. For more information, please visit www.mitsubishicorp.com.Source: Mitsubishi CorporationContact:Copyright 2017 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. Amanda Benfell PR Manager, WARC Email: amanda.benfell@warc.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7467 8125 LONDON, Sept 18, 2017 - (ACN Newswire) - Campaigns for SPC Ardmona, Unilever's Lifebuoy, P&G's Ariel Matic and Whirlpool have been awarded Golds in the Brand Purpose category of the inaugural global WARC Awards 2017, which recognise next-generation marketing effectiveness.The Brand Purpose category rewards the best marketing initiatives that have successfully embraced a brand purpose and achieved commercial success as well as a benefit for a wider community.The jury, a panel of 13 senior industry professionals chaired by Jim Stengel, President/CEO, The Jim Stengel Company, awarded four Golds, three Silvers and three Bronzes. Three of winning campaigns came from India (one of which also ran in Pakistan), two from the UK, two from Canada, and Australia, UAE and the US saw one winner each.The Grand Prix and winners of the three Special Awards in particular areas of excellence - Longevity Award, Analytics Award and Partnership Award, will be announced at content.warc.com/warc-event-warc-awards-social-purpose-content in London on 20 September.Gold winning campaign 'MyFamilyCan' by Leo Burnett Melbourne for food brand SPC Ardmona increased sales by quickly reacting to a food scandal hitting Australia by putting local farming families at the front of their campaign.Jury member Freya Williams, CEO, Futerra, North America said: "We have a lot of clients trying to figure out supply chains and this is a nice human way of doing it."Soap brand Lifebuoy's 'Future Child' campaign by MullenLowe Singapore and MullenLowe Lintas Group India won gold for successfully changing mothers' hand-washing habits in India with an emotional campaign about child mortality.Jonathan Wise, Co-Founder, The Comms Lab, said: "This is a campaign that's in it for the long term. To get handwashing into the Sustainable Development Goals creates a change for good."BBDO India won Gold for 'Dads Share the Load' campaign, for its continuation of the hugely effective original campaign of detergent brand Ariel engagement with its Indian audience about gender inequality in housework.Tom Knox, Chairman, MullenLowe London, described it as: "A very mainstream brand doing something quite radical."Finally DigitasLBi (USA) won Gold for Whirlpool's 'Care Counts: brand purpose can make a difference', which saw the US appliances manufacturer installing washers and dryers in schools to give disadvantaged students access to laundry facilities to boost attendance rates.Jim Stengel, President & CEO, The Jim Stengel Company and former Global Marketing Officer at Procter & Gamble: "It is a brand that's trying to be in a different place, behind purpose, and I applaud them for that."The list of Gold, Silver and Bronze winners are:GoldAriel Matic - Dads Share The Load - BBDO India - IndiaLifebuoy - Future Child - MullenLowe Singapore, MullenLowe Lintas Group India - IndiaSPC / Goulburn Valley / Ardmona - MyFamilyCan - Leo Burnett Melbourne - AustraliaWhirlpool - Care Counts: Brand purpose can make a difference - DigitasLBi - North AmericaSilverHuggies - No Baby Unhugged - Ogilvy, Mindshare - CanadaPersil - The radicalisation of Persil - MullenLowe London - United KingdomBronzeArt Fund - From purpose to profit - 101 - United KingdomEmirates NBD - The AC Vests - FP7/Dubai, MediaVest Spark - United Arab EmiratesSurf Excel - When embracing dirt became an act of faith - MullenLowe Lintas Group - India, Pakistan, United Arab EmiratesView at www.warc.com/WarcAwards.prize the Brand Purpose Gold, Silver and Bronze winners as well as the winners of the Effective Content Strategy and Social Strategy categories.The winners of all the Grands Prix and Special awards across all three categories will be revealed at a free-to-attend 'Learnings from the WARC Awards' event in London on 20 September. Register at content.warc.com/warc-event-warc-awards-social-purpose-content to attend.About WARC- your global authority on advertising and media effectivenesswarc.com is an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world's leading brands. WARC helps clients grow their businesses by using proven approaches to maximise advertising effectiveness. WARC's clients include the world's largest advertising and media agencies, research companies, universities and advertisers.WARC hosts four global and two regional case study competitions: WARC Awards, WARC Innovation Awards, WARC Media Awards, The Admap prize, WARC Prize for Asian Strategy and WARC Prize for MENA Strategy.WARC also publishes leading journals including Admap, Market Leader, the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of Market Research. In addition to its own content, WARC features advertising case studies and best practices from more than 50 respected industry sources, including: ARF, Effies, Cannes Lions, ESOMAR and IPA.Founded in 1985, WARC is privately owned and has offices in the UK, U.S. and Singapore.Source: WARCContact:Copyright 2017 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. BARCELONA, Spain, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EU Business School is delighted to announce it has granted its prestigious Leadership Award to Jean-Claude Biver, President of the LVMH Watch Division, CEO of Tag Heuer and Chairman of Hublot Watches & Zenith Watches. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523255/EU_Business_School_Logo.jpg ) This award aims to recognize businesses or individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to leadership excellence. It acknowledges the most innovative, dynamic and influential people, qualities typified by Jean-Claude Biver, a true visionary in the field of luxury watchmaking. Originally from Luxembourg, Biver moved to Switzerland at a young age. He earned a degree in business at HEC Lausanne and has since forged a unique career in the watchmaking industry. In 1981 he rebuilt Blancpain, turning it into one of the most respected traditional watch brands. He later modernized Omega, before becoming CEO of Hublot, overseeing a fivefold increase in sales through a fusion of the traditional and the contemporary. Hublot then joined LVMH group, where Biver is now President of the Watch Division. He later became CEO of Tag Heuer in 2014 and of Zenith in 2017. Biver's astounding work ethic, entrepreneurship and leadership earned him his international recognition. He attributes this success to his unwavering commitment to originality: "I always try to be 'first, different and unique'. Any project, product, concept or idea that comes to me, it must fit those requirements. It must be the first, it must be unique, it must be different." Before receiving his award, Jean-Claude Biver inspired graduates with a stirring speech, urging them to make this century theirs; to take it to the next level, and to shape their own future: "Your future must be totally different from today. You need to shake planet Earth. You are going to make the economy. You are going to make this century yours, and not mine. I have the biggest hope because I know the new generation, I see the new generation and I learn everyday from the new generation." During this 2017 Commencement Week, over 300 graduates and undergraduates will attend EU Business School's ceremonies in Barcelona, Munich and Geneva. These annual events honor the students and congratulate them for the determination and diligence shown throughout their academic studies. It is a momentous occasion and a celebration of all that they have achieved, as well as a toast to their future success. About EU: EU Business School (EU) is an international, private multi-campus business school established in 1973. In addition to small classes offered by expert faculty, EU students also enjoy an international environment. EU is ranked amongst the top business schools in Europe and has also had the honor of being recognized by the Academy of Business in Society (ABIS) for its consistent dedication to corporate social responsibility. Students may also benefit from the many partnerships that EU has formed, with the opportunity to receive state-accredited degrees from international universities such as the University of Roehampton in London, the University of Derby in the U.K., and the Universidad Catolica de Murcia in Spain. For more information please contact the Communications Department at +34-932-01-81-71 or communications@euruni.edu, or visit www.euruni.edu BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - ReneSola Ltd (SOL) announced its board has received a preliminary non-binding proposal from Xianshou Li, the company's CEO, to acquire the company's manufacturing business (including polysilicon, solar wafer and solar module manufacturing) and LED distribution business and assume related indebtedness. The proposal is valued, net of assumed indebtedness, to be approximately negative $81 million, and contemplates that in exchange for, among other things, the assumption by Li of such indebtedness, the company would issue additional American depositary shares to Li at $4.50 per ADS. The Board has formed a special committee to consider the proposal and other alternatives available to the company. ReneSola noted that, if the transactions contemplated by the proposal are consummated, the company's remaining businesses would be focused primarily on solar project development. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. PITTSBURGH, PA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Innovative Designs (OTCQB: IVDN) Inc., in an attempt to increase its global business, has entered into a 2 year agreement with Epoch Consultants LLC, who has been granted exclusive rights in the Country of India. Epoch Consultants LLC will be conducting marketing of Insultex to apparel manufacturers and the Indian military. Epoch Consultants LLC President, Kanan S. Shah commented, "We are looking forward to introducing Insultex to the Indian Military and apparel industry in India. Many people do not realize that the greatest loss of life within the Indian Armed Forces is caused by exposure to the cold. It is our goal to put an end to this." Epoch Consultants LLC Vice President Nilesh J. Mehta stated, "We see a huge opportunity in introducing Insultex to the Indian economy." Innovative Designs Inc. C.E.O., Joseph Riccelli stated, "The Company is aware of the countless military applications that exist with this agreement." The Company Innovative Designs Inc. manufactures the Insultex House Wrap, Arctic Armor Line, under the "i.d.i.gear" label featuring INSULTEX. INSULTEX is the thinnest, lightest and warmest insulator in the market today. For more information, please visit http://www.idigear.com or www.insultexhousewrap.com Disclaimer Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking" statements as defined by federal law. Such statements are based on assumptions, but there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different as those implied. Any such statements are made in reliance on the "Safe Harbor" protections provided under the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to various factors, including the risks and matters discussed in the Company's SEC filings available at http://www.sec.gov Contact: Joseph Riccelli 412-799-0350 joer@idigear.com VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2017 / EastCoal Inc. (TSXV: ECX.H) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on Friday, November 24, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia. All of the resolutions presented at the meeting were approved by the shareholders, with the votes cast by proxy representing 7.76% of the total shares outstanding as of the proxy cut-off date, October 19, 2017. Election of Directors The number of directors was fixed at three members and each of the three nominees listed in the Company's management information circular dated October 27, 2017 (the "Circular") were re-elected to the Company's Board of Directors. Detailed results of the votes cast by proxy are set out below. Nominee Votes Cast by Proxy For % For Votes Cast by Proxy Withheld % Withheld Hendrik Dietrichsen 506,282 99.97 157 0.03 John Conlon 500,925 98.91 5,514 1.09 Abraham Jonker 500,925 98.91 5,514 1.09 Appointment of Auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP was appointed as the auditor of the Company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of the Shareholders, or until their successor is otherwise appointed and the directors were authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration. For Further Information Damien Forer, Tel: 1 (604) 973 0079 Chief Financial Officer Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the accuracy of this release. SOURCE: EastCoal Inc. Page Content The conference "Clean energy policies for the greening of towns, cities and regions: The Energy Union and local/regional sustainable development" organised by the European Committee of the Regions' ENVE Commission and the Estonian Presidency of the Council aims to discuss local and regional policy recommendations on the European Commission's proposals contained in the 2016 "Clean Energy for All European" package on the Energy Union. Best practice will be shared by Estonian cities and regions, thus providing a clear link between the CoR's political work and evidence of local and regional best practice in the area of sustainable energy. The speakers at the conference will include representatives from the European, national, regional and local levels of governance, in conjunction with representatives from academia, NGOs and other stakeholders looking to share best practice. FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- VPR Brands, LP (OTC PINK: VPRB), a market leader specializing in vaporizers and accessories for essential oils, cannabis concentrates, and extracts will have a presentation table at the Marcum MicroCap Conference taking place at the Grand Hyatt New York on June 15th and 16th. "This conference attracts the who's who in the microcap space all coming together in a friendly and professional environment. In a short time the Marcum Conference has become one of the best attended investor conferences of its kind," said Kevin Frija, CEO of VPR Brands, LP. "We will be handing out company literature and showcasing our products on a table top display throughout the whole event on the conference level floor and look forward to networking and gaining awareness within the microcap investment community." "As the cannabis investment opportunities mature and investors become more educated about the industry I believe it is important for us to attend these conferences, which will place our company and products in front of the microcap investment community. I believe having the presentation table will allow us to best network and create positive awareness of our company and brands," said Dan Hoff, COO of VPR Brands, LP. About Marcum MicroCap Conference The Marcum MicroCap Conference is presented by Marcum LLP, a top national accounting and advisory firm and the #7 ranked SEC practice in the U.S. Since its launch in 2012, this event has become a nationally recognized forum for publicly traded companies with less than $500 million in market capitalization to network with fund managers and high net worth investors who focus on small cap equities. More than 2,000 participants from all segments of the microcap market attend the Marcum MicroCap Conference each year, including venture and lower middle-market private equity investors, institutional investors, investment bankers, and buy- and sell-side analysts. About VPR Brands, LP: VPR Brands is a technology company, whose assets include issued U.S. and Chinese patents for atomization related products including technology for medical marijuana vaporizers and electronic cigarette products and components. The company is also engaged in product development for the vapor or vaping market, including e-liquids. Vaporizers and electronic cigarettes (also known as e-cigarettes) are devices which deliver nicotine and or cannabis through atomization or vaping, and without smoke and other chemical constituents typically found in traditional products. For more information about VPR Brands, please visit the company on the web at www.vprbrands.com and www.vapehoneystick.com Forward-looking statements: This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions, and other factors discussed from time to time in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. The company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. Contact Information: VPR Brands, LP Kevin Frija CEO (954) 715-7001 info@vprbrands.com www.vprbrands.com WESTON, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 --Petrone Worldwide, Inc. (OTCQB: PFWI), a leader in the hospitality industry with global operations capabilities, announces its official purchase of inventory to meet the increased demand in the European and India Marketplace. PFWI's founder, Victor Petrone, has spent over 20 years building a significant global network of institutional hospitality industry buyers (hotels, resorts and restaurants). PFWI is the exclusive importer and distributor for renowned brands. PFWI focuses as an importer and distributor throughout Europe and India for hospitality solutions for the finest hotels, restaurants and design firms worldwide, offering the hospitality industry an eclectic mix of materials and chic product options. This new inventory will increase PFWI revenue for the next two quarters at a rate faster than the company had previously projected. Mr. Petrone believes that the potential for restauranteurs, hoteliers and design firms to easily access the products of PFWI is key; therefore, inventory in the market place is key. Growth in Q1 17 has increased by over 150% from Q1 16 predicated in large part on increasing standards of living and traveling in India, and other developing countries, making restaurant and hotel venues frequented while a recovery in the housing markets in the US and Western Europe, along with rebounding consumer confidence levels should also bolster sales gains causing global demand for major hoteliers to continue their growth and increase their supply chain requirements. Petrone Worldwide, Inc. will continue to update both the public and shareholders on a regular basis by way of press releases, financial statements and other SEC disclosures. About Petrone Worldwide, Inc. (OTCQB: PFWI): Petrone Worldwide, Inc. is a leader in the hospitality industry with global operations capabilities. Now providing third party logistics for overseas manufacturing companies attempting to sell their goods in North America, PFWI sells and markets products under its own proprietary name and acts as distributor for a wide variety of companies to the hospitality trade. For more information visit www.petroneworldwide.com. Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainty and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release should be considered in light of all filings of the Company that are contained in the Edgar Archives of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov For further information, please contact: Victor Petrone 2200 N. Commerce Parkway Suite 200 Weston, FL 33326 954-529-2000 SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Youngevity International, Inc. (OTCQX: YGYID) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary CLR Roasters has signed an agreement for national representation with Daymon Worldwide (Daymon.com.) which includes CLR's Cafe La Rica Espresso, Josie's Java House K-Cups, Josie's 12 oz bag program, and Private Label opportunities for both retail and food service. Daymon Worldwide has 45 years of experience and is the largest grocery service provider with 4,683 stores covered by 12,000 associates across the US. It services over 100 of the nation's largest retailers through a network that includes 57 office locations in 27 states. In addition to the representation of CLR Roasters' company owned brands and private label at retail, Daymon will represent CLR Roasters in 55 major Food Service Accounts across the nation. Daymon Worldwide is one of the industry's leaders in experiential marketing for retailers and brands not only in the US, but around the world. The company performs more than 3 million events each year designed to build brand awareness, inspire conversations and increase the sales of the brands they represent. "The relationship with Daymon Worldwide has enormous potential to drive awareness for our company owned brands and drive awareness of the capabilities of CLR Roasters as a national provider of a wide range of coffee products both in retail and foods service," stated Dave Briskie, President and CFO of Youngevity, the parent company of CLR Roasters. "The team at Daymon are retail experts across all aspects of the supply chain, with the ability to drive the sales process from strategy to execution which drives speed to the store shelf." "Growing our company-owned brands and the capabilities of our roasting operation is our highest priority and a key component of our strategic plan. I personally have been pursuing a national distribution deal with Daymon Worldwide since the founding of our brands and our roasting facility. This is a milestone event for our company and I am extremely proud to cement a relationship with the leadership team at Daymon," stated Ernesto Aguila President of CLR Roasters." Daymon Worldwide supports many of the largest and most prestigious retailers including Kroger, Albertson, HEB, Safeway, Costco, Ahold and 7 Eleven. Acquired in 2011, CLR is a Full-sized coffee roaster division that operates a 50,000 sq. ft. roasting plant and distribution facility. CLR produces gourmet coffees under its own boutique brands, private label brands, and for Youngevity under JavaFit and Be the Change Coffee. One hundred percent of the profits from Youngevity Be the Change Coffee support operations for the Youngevity Be The Change Foundation. CLR Roasters maintains the following certifications: USDA Organic, Fair Trade, Cafe de Colombia (sustainability focused) and OU Kosher. The division has obtained its Safe Quality Food (SQF level) two Certification. About CLR Roasters Youngevity's coffee manufacturing division, CLR Roasters, was established in 2001 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary. CLR Roasters is a Full-sized coffee roaster that produces gourmet coffees under its own boutique brands -- Cafe La Rica, Josie's Java House, and Javalution; manufactures a variety of private labels for major national chains; and for the direct selling channel under Youngevity International. The company remains one of the largest suppliers in North America to the cruise line industry. CLR was the first entrant into the fortified coffee niche with its Youngevity JavaFit brand. In May 2014, CLR acquired a coffee plantation and processing facility in Nicaragua, allowing the entity to control coffee production and quality -- from field to cup. About Youngevity International, Inc. Youngevity International, Inc. (OTCQX: YGYI), is a leading omni-direct lifestyle company -- offering a hybrid of the direct selling business model, that also offers e-commerce and the power of social selling. Assembling a virtual Main Street of products and services under one corporate entity, Youngevity offers proven products from the six top-selling retail categories: health/nutrition, home/family, food/beverage (including coffee), spa/beauty, apparel/jewelry, as well as innovative services. The Company was formed during the summer 2011 merger of Youngevity Essential Life Sciences with Javalution Coffee Company (now part of the company's food and beverage division). The resulting company became Youngevity International, Inc. in July 2013. For investor information, please visit YGYI.com. For general information on products and services, please visit us at youngevity.com. Keep up with our activities by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions, and includes statements regarding the potential of the relationship with Daymon Worldwide to drive brand awareness for our company owned brands and drive the awareness of the capabilities of CLR Roasters as a national provider of a wide range of coffee products both in retail and foods service. These forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations and assumptions from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among others, the contribution of our relationship with Daymon Worldwide, our ability to drive brand awareness for our company owned brands and drive the awareness of the capabilities of CLR Roasters as a national provider of a wide range of coffee products both in retail and foods, our ability to continue our financial performance and the other factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and our subsequent filings with the SEC, including subsequent periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. The information in this release is provided only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release on account of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. Investor Contact: Chuck Harbey PCG Advisory Group charbey@pcgadvisory.com 646.863.7997 TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- INV Metals ("INV Metals" or "Company") (TSX: INV) is very pleased to announce it has been awarded the Carolina concession located within one km south east of the Cascabel copper-gold discovery located in the Imbabura province, in northern Ecuador. Ms. Candace MacGibbon, CEO, stated, "We remain highly focussed on developing our 100% owned Loma Larga gold project in Ecuador. With the government commencing the competitive auction process for concessions early last year, INV Metals is uniquely positioned to leverage its internal exploration expertise to aggressively acquire very prospective exploration properties with excellent potential to host gold deposits like Loma Larga and Fruita del Norte and large copper-gold porphyry deposits similar to those that are present throughout the Andean Mineral Belt that extends from Chile to Columbia, through Ecuador. INV Metals, in addition to acquiring the Loma Larga property from IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD") in 2012, also maintained key members of our management, social and exploration teams and acquired our extensive exploration database collected over decades of multi-company exploration in Ecuador." She added, "We are very pleased to announce that we have acquired the Carolina concession, which totals 3,040 hectares, and is located within one km south east of SolGold PLC and Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc.'s significant Cascabel copper-gold porphyry discovery. INV Metals is in the process of designing an exploration program for the Carolina concession, consisting of geological mapping and prospecting, geophysical surveys, and geochemical soil and stream sampling programs to identify drill targets. We recently acquired the Las Penas and Tierras Coloradas concessions (see our press releases dated January 23 and 30, 2017) and are now conducting exploration programs on these highly prospective properties with the goal of identifying gold and copper-gold targets for drill testing. The Company has a budget of $2 million for grassroots regional exploration in 2017." Historical exploration work by IAMGOLD and others identified favourable geology and copper, gold and arsenic stream sediment anomalies on the Carolina concession. The regional geology on the property consists of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks overlain by Oligocene to Miocene andesitic lava flows and breccia. These units are intruded by potential host rocks consisting of Miocene age granodiorite and diorite batholiths and stocks, and contain numerous major regional tectonic structures that typically strike northeast. One such structure on the Carolina concession, the Apuela regional fault, transects from the Cascabel properties southeast into INV Metals' Carolina property. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Ms. Shastri Ramnath, P.Geo, a Licensed Professional Geologist with the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario and consultant to the Company, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Minerals Projects. About INV Metals INV Metals is an international mineral resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metal projects in Ecuador. Currently, INV Metals' primary assets are: (1) its 100% interest in the Loma Larga gold property in Ecuador, (2) its 100% interest in various exploration projects within Ecuador, and (3) its 35% interest in the Kaoko property, located in Namibia. Forward-Looking Statement This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, exploration plans, targets and results, and potential mineralization. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the actual exploration targets, the actual results of exploration activities, industry-wide risks and project-specific risks, and risks associated with mining and mineral exploration activities. There is no guarantee that any targets will result in any exploration success. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors, refer to the Company's annual information form dated March 27, 2017 and filed with Canadian securities regulators available on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this press release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Contacts: Candace MacGibbon Chief Executive Officer Phone: (416) 703-8416 E-mail: cmacgibbon@invmetals.com Communications Program Designed to Raise Awareness and Drive Preference for the Company's Data Backup, Disaster Recovery, Networking and SaaS Protection Solutions NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Global communications firm Finn Partners today announced that Datto, Inc., the leading provider of total data protection solutions for businesses around the world, has selected the agency to bolster its awareness and drive preference for its data backup, disaster recovery and networking solutions in North America and Europe. Datto provides business continuity solutions to secure essential business data for thousands of companies around the world. It helps companies protect their data from ransomware and similar cyberattacks no matter where it resides. The company's solutions are primarily delivered through a network of managed service providers (MSPs) to address the data protection needs of small and midsized businesses. "Datto has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and we needed an agency that could support our communications needs as we continue to expand into additional global markets," stated Peter Rawlinson, chief marketing officer, Datto, Inc. "Finn Partners brought the industry expertise and global reach we need to take our communications to the next level. We felt their perspective on the tech sector was vastly ahead of other agencies we considered." Finn Partners' technology practice is helping companies like Datto scale their communications needs across the globe through a coordinated approach that leverages tech experts from each of their offices. With more than 100 people focused on the agency's tech clients, the company delivers deep sector expertise led by senior-level executives. "Datto's technology and solutions are hitting on all cylinders," stated Brian Sinderson, senior partner and NY tech practice lead, Finn Partners. "The company provides its leading-edge solutions to support the needs of their MSP channel partners. We're eager to work with them to demonstrate the value of their tried-and-true solutions - and new innovations - in addressing the IT challenges small- and mid-sized business face every day in protecting their data wherever it resides." Chantal Bowman-Boyles, Managing Partner, Europe, at Finn Partners, added, "Our ability to fully understand both Datto's technologies and the operational issues they address, while also taking into account Datto's specific route to market, enables us to generate coverage that is carefully positioned to create the most direct, positive impact for the brand and the business. Working across multiple geographies in Europe, we are also able to deliver a consistent, yet locally nuanced voice for the company." Finn Partners' offices in New York, London and Munich will support Datto's global communications efforts. Finn Partners is partnering with Progress Communications to serve Datto's communications needs in the Benelux countries. About Finn Partners, Inc. Founded in 2011 on the core principles of innovation and collaborative partnership, Finn Partners has tripled in size in just five years, becoming one of the fastest growing independent public relations agencies in the world. The full-service marketing and communications company's record setting pace is a result of organic growth and integrating new companies and new people into the Finn Partners world through a common philosophy. Finn Partners' mantra,Work Hard, Play Nice, infuses internal and external relationships, resulting in amazing work and an all-inclusive environment. With 540 professionals, Finn Partners provides its clients with global access and capabilities in the U.S.,EuropeandAsia, in addition to PROI Worldwide. Headquartered inNew York, Finn Partners' other offices are located in:Chicago,Detroit,Fort Lauderdale,Jerusalem,London,Los Angeles,Munich,Nashville,Paris,Portland,San Francisco,SingaporeandWashington D.C.Find us atfinnpartners.comand follow us on Twitter@finnpartners. Contact: Renee.Martin@finnpartners.com 212.715.1600 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/130216/finn_partners_logo.jpg TEMPE, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / June 14, 2017 / Lithium Exploration Group Inc. (OTC PINK: LEXG) announced today that its partners at White Top Oil and Gas have discovered an overhang on the edge of the salt dome that has 800 feet of prospective oil pay at a depth of only 3,000 feet. The discovery came from a recent collaboration with the company that has storage caverns inside of the salt dome on the property. The cavern company has shared a recent well they drilled which was believed to be inside of the salt dome. When they were drilling to a much deeper target depth, they went through an 800-foot zone of sandstone at only 3,000 feet, which is in the historically rich Miocene oil formation. The company and their partners at White Top have had independent analysis of the well log completed and have confirmed the initial indications of oil rich sandstone. "This news is exactly what we predicted we would see from the updated seismic analysis we invested in last month. Having this type of tangible data to support the thesis is huge for our efforts. As stated last month, the historical drilling efforts made on this field were done using old technologies, which could never have seen this type of overhang. The nearest wellbore that has been drilled on the outside of the salt dome in this part of the field is almost a half a mile away and, if this overhang goes all the way around the salt dome, it could result in the production of more than two million barrels of shallow oil," commented CEO Alex Walsh. "These salt domes are easily researched for folks that aren't oil and gas experts, but the overhang concept is that, over millions of years, the salt domes form mushroom heads with undiscovered pockets of oil in them. Our partners have identified several lower zones that they think will have significant production after updated seismic data is analyzed, but nobody thought there were such significant reserves at such a shallow depth. This new find is significant for us and our partners at White Top Oil and Gas, and I look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming weeks." About Lithium Exploration Group Lithium Exploration Group is a US-based exploration and development company focused on the acquisition and development potential of lithium brines and other precious metals that demonstrate high probability for near-term production. Currently the company is focused testing the Sonic Cavitation Ltd. technology and the acquisition of oil and gas related assets in the US and Canada. Lithium Exploration Group is traded on the OTC Markets under the symbol LEXG. Website: www.lithiumexplorationgroup.com. Safe Harbor Statement This news release contains "forward-looking statements". Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future testing of the ultrasonic technology. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of lithium prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact Info: Shanon Chilson 480-641-4790 info@lithiumexplorationgroup.com SOURCE: Lithium Exploration Group Deal Builds on Engine Shop's Momentum by Adding Comprehensive Esports Strategy, Tournament Management, Live Broadcast Production, Digital Distribution, and Management Expertise to its Services Portfolio NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Engine Shop, the award-winning lifestyle, and marketing agency, today announced the acquisition of The Gamer Agency (TGA), a preeminent esports strategy, event production, and development company. TGA's live events and digital broadcast productions have reached millions of fans worldwide, and its team boasts decades of collective experience in gaming and entertainment. For Engine Shop, a Bruin Sports Capital company, the acquisition putsit at the forefront of this exploding genre where, according to the latest Newzoo research, advertising investment in esports is expected to surpass $1bn by 2020. TGA operates exclusively in esports specializing in strategy, tournament and event production, and broadcast production. Among its work, the agency designed and continues to operate the state-of-the-art Mixer NYC Studio digital production facility at the flagship Microsoft Store in New York. This year alone, the studio will produce and broadcast approximately 100 esports and other gaming events across various titles. Through these activations, Microsoft Store and TGA have mobilized the NYC esports and gaming communities at the flagship Microsoft Store. Engine Shop, the 2017 winner of Best Sports Event & Experiential Marketing Agency from Sports Business Journal, acquired TGA from GameCo, Inc. and will integrate the company into the business immediately. TGA was founded by GameCo, whose business is attracting esports enthusiasts and video gamers to casinos and is the inventor of the Video Game Gambling Machine (VGM'). Said Brian Gordon, Engine Shop, CEO: "By acquiring TGA, we are adding a team with profound expertise and connections in esports to our existing consumer engagement business model. Itwill enable usto create and activate esports solutions for brands looking to tap in to this passionate community of fans and endemics seeking to broaden their offering and expand their fan base." Said, Blaine Graboyes, GameCo CEO "We are very proud of the growth and development of TGA which has become among the foremost authorities bridging marketers into esports. Engine Shop's expertise in Engagement and Experiential marketing will enhance its offering to the market. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with them to meet the needs of the global esports marketplace." Said George Pyne, Founder & CEO of Bruin Sports Capital, "This is a very strategic acquisition for Engine Shop and continues to fulfill their promise of staying at the leading edge as an agency. It smartly positions the company to be the go-to resource for marketers, leagues, team owners, publishers and producers looking to maximize the opportunity to engage esports' very impressive and growing fan base." About Engine Shop Engine Shop, the 2017 Sports Business Journal Best in Sports Event & Experiential, is an industry-leading engagement marketing company focusing on passion points to create authentic connections between brands and consumers. The agency uses its access to sports, entertainment and lifestyle verticals to amplify our strategic, creative solutions. The agency's clients include American Family Insurance, Anheuser-Busch, Dave and Busters, ESPN, Greyhound, Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes-Benz, Moet Hennessy, Tiffany & Co. and Under Armour, among others. Engine Shop is headquartered in New York City with offices in Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and Miami. About GameCo, Inc. GameCo, Inc. is a pioneering company uniting the experience of playing video games with the excitement of gambling by creating the world's first Video Game Gambling Machines (VGM'). GameCo's patented VGM proprietary arcade-style cabinets allow a player's skill to determine the payout and winnings while maintaining the same casino-based economics as slot machines. GameCo is developing VGM games under license from major game developers and entertainment IP companies, including Steve Aoki from DJ Kid Millionaire LTD., "SOULCALIBUR' II" with BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Inc., and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" from Studiocanal S.A.S. GameCo is privately held and headquartered in New York City with additional offices in Las Vegas. Media Contact: For Bruin Sports Capital/Engine Shop: Scott Novak snovak@bruinsc.com; 914 849-0921, 917 699-4142 Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/617783/Engine_Shop_Logo.jpg LOS ANGELES, December 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tesla announced this week that the company had fabricated the world's largest lithium-ion battery in less than 100 days. This new movement to faster lithium cell production ups the ante for all lithium companies including Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM), Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX: LAC) (OTC: LACDF) and NRG Metals Inc. (TSX: NGZ) (OTC: NRGMF). Rechargeable lithium batteries have been on the market since the 70s, but lithium is finding a new foothold in battery technology. With the demand for large scale applications for rechargeable batteries, lithium batteries are being used in electric vehicles (EVs) and other major clean energy products. Market watchers predict that the massive increase in demand brought on by automakers, power storage systems and new applications will create a potential significant shortfall by 2020. Few expected that manufacturers and power supply companies would reach these heights so quickly. Lithium companies that have seen their share prices rising with demand include leading producers Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile(NYSE: SQM), along with other junior miners such as Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX: LAC) (OTC: LACDF), that has lithium projects in Argentina and Nevada, USA. One of the newer, developers on this sector is NRG Metals Inc. (TSX: NGZ) (OTCMKTS: NRGMF) that is on track in the most prolific region for lithium. NRG Metals has a potentially huge lithium brine project in South America, right alongside the major producers there. TESLA RINGS THE BELL Tesla proudly announced this week that they had fabricated the world's largest lithium-ion battery in less than 100 days. This huge lithium-ion battery is being called the "Powerpack", and it's being used to power thousands of South Australian homes during periods of blackout. It's a major breakthrough for lithium, serving nearly 30,000 people from one backup source. This is great news for the lithium-ion power cell developers and manufacturers, since longer manufacturing times could be one of the drawbacks of the new energy source. Tesla is apparently out to dispel any concerns about being able to deliver product in a timely way. SPEEDY MANUFACTURE ADDS TO DEMAND A number of very large manufacturers of products that could utilize lithium-ion power cells have been reluctant to adopt the technology due to timing and manufacturing concerns. Based on Tesla's ahead-of-schedule delivery on the world's largest lithium battery, the market for lithium-ion batteries could see additional expansion over the next several years as timing improvements come in to play. Lithium is increasing in demand all over the world. The fact that Tesla is building and testing new lithium technology only lends to the future of rechargeable batteries. In fact, there's such a high demand for the metal that supply has been a debatable concern in the future forecast. Roskill, the industry watcher calculating supply stocks, estimate 785,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent a year will be needed by 2025. That amounts to a 26,000-tonne shortfall from anticipated supply. Demand this year was 217,000 tonnes compared to 227,000 tonnes of supply. Lithium companies are moving quickly to increase their ability to deliver more pure lithium, but so far the forecast demand is outpacing producers. The solution is going to also require new sources of pure lithium. Based on the current sources for lithium, analysts suggest we'll need one new lithium mine coming into production every year through 2025. That only accounts for the demand prior to new EV developments this year and any added demand driven by better Li-ion technology. NRG METALS's SIMPLE ANSWER South America and Australia are the two big regions for new or near-term producers in the lithium market. And while Australia currently produces more lithium, South America's "Lithium Triangle" holds considerably more lithium reserves. Logically, emerging lithium company NRG Metals is developing its lithium prospects in the Puna Region of Argentina. The area is considered to be one of the most productive in a country that produces about 50% of all lithium. NRG Meta's two lithium projects - The Salar Escondido and the Hombre Muerto North - which could both be perfectly timed to provide new lithium resources. At the Hombre Muerto North lithium project in the province of Salta, the company's prospect is in the same basin as the existing FMC Lithium Fenix Mine that has been producing lithium carbonate during the past 20 years. It is also adjacent to the Galaxy Resources Sal de Vida Project which is rated as a best undeveloped lithium project in the region. The Salar Escondido is a well-developed project that NRG Metals is now drilling to establish what it counts as a large brine type lithium deposit. The company is releasing results continuously showing advances toward production. In a big step, NRG just entered an agreement with Chengdu Chemphys Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. of Chengdu, China, regarding the further exploration and development of the Hombre Muerto North Lithium Project, including a Lithium Offtake Sales Agreement. This could mean that NRG Metals could end up selling lithium before it's even mined. FASTER, BETTER LITHIUM TECHNOLOGY Tesla is just one of several majors that are sending the Lithium market rocketing. News of major innovations toward better performing, more stable Li-ion batteries is also emerging and helping push the need for a metal that was little-known less than a decade ago, but now is front and center. It's also putting the producers and near-term producers of lithium in the spotlight right now. The likely producers, especially those in South America, will have to step up now in order to offset demand. Since the rise of lithium, consistent research and development has led to better lithium use. We're constantly finding out new ways to use lithium and better ways to harness the high energy density it offers. Companies around the world, such as Tesla, have helped push forward the demand for lithium, and new innovations in rapid manufacturing, safer batteries and longer cell life can only add to the demand for this growing green power source. POTENTIAL COMPARABLES Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. The company offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties and reagents for applications in lithium batteries, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles and plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes, life science, pharmaceutical, and other markets; cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; and zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1994 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM) Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A., is a producer of potassium nitrate and iodine. The Company produces specialty plant nutrients, iodine derivatives, lithium and its derivatives, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate and certain industrial chemicals. Its segments include specialty plant nutrients, industrial chemicals, iodine and derivatives, lithium and derivatives, potassium, and other products and services Lithium and its derivatives are used in batteries, greases and frits for production of ceramics. Potassium chloride is a commodity fertilizer that is produced and sold by the Company across the world. Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX: LAC) (OTC: LACDF) Lithium Americas Corp., a resource company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Nevada. The company explores for lithium deposits. It primarily holds interests in the Cauchari-Olaroz Project located in Jujuy province of Argentina; and the Lithium Nevada Project covering approximately 15,233 hectares of area located in northwestern Nevada. The company was formerly known as Western Lithium USA Corporation and changed its name to Lithium Americas Corp. in March 2016. Lithium Americas Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. For a more in-depth look into NGZ you can view the in-depth report at American News Group:http://usanewsgroup.com/2017/11/27/junior_lithium_players_are_soaring-2-2/ Article Source: USA News Group http://usanewsgroup.com info@usanewsgroup.com Legal Disclaimer/Disclosure: This piece is an advertorial and has been paid for. This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment. No information in this Report should be construed as individualized investment advice. A licensed financial advisor should be consulted prior to making any investment decision. We make no guarantee, representation or warranty and accept no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. 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Media Contact Information: FN Media Group, LLC e-mail: editor@financialnewsmedia.com U.S. Phone: +1(954)345-0611 INDORE, India, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Surging global Internet user base and applications have led onto various mode of communication such as live messenger, voice calls, video calls and so on. Voice communication via Internet is amongst one of the leading applications. Voice communication equipment tends to offer cost effective, secure, and flexible user interface for communication. Global voice communication market is experiencing good growth (CAGR 17.5%) during the forecasted period 2016-2023. New technological innovations, government regulatory policies, and growing number of Internet subscribers are the key factors driving growth in the global voice communication market during the forecasted period. Some of the key applications of voice communication equipment include, Wi-Fi, VoIP, telecom operators, wireless outgrow wire lines, wireless technologies, hardware and telecommunication equipment. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161024/431641LOGO ) To have a brief overview of the report please click on the following link http://www.occamsresearch.com/voice-communication-equipment-market VoIP technology fuelling growth in voice communication equipment market Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology enables people to have cheaper communication services. VoIP offers comparatively lower cost in terms of hardware cost, line cost, and so on. For example, multiple landline phones in office require something called private branch exchange, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. VoIP eliminates the need for any such initial outlay and other maintenance cost thereby making the call cost cheaper. VoIP offers almost 50% lower line cost as compared to the traditional system. Through VoIP systems, voice signals are transformed into digital signals and carried via IP based network. Both large and small-scale business enterprises are benefiting by merging of voice and data functions. Especially to companies having their customer base abroad, VoIP provides a cost-effective approach to establish communication. Global VoIP industry is projected to grow at an average 9% per annum till 2021 on the back of growing innovations and number of subscribers. Asia-Pacific and Latin America are the fastest growing markets in VoIP with growth of over 49% and 45% per annum due to telecom infrastructure modernization and advent of 4G connections. Video streaming application of VoIP is expected to see the highest year-on-year growth of 57% from 2016-2017. The major driver for this growth is rising demand for video calling services. Thus, growth in VoIP market is expected to boost growth of global voice communication equipment market during the forecasted period. Increasing Internet user base to propel global market growth According to United Nations, the total number of Internet users across the globe in 2016 touched over 3.2 billion in 2016. The number of users is anticipated to reach over 4.1 billion by 2020. The majority of growth of the Internet users will come from low and middle income countries in Asia-Pacific as these countries are witnessing huge infrastructure development, wherein more than 700 million new users are anticipated to connect by 2022. The Internet user growth in Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be driven by emerging economies such as India and China, together having more than a billion Internet users as of 2016. Other countries in Asia-Pacific with significant rise in number of Internet users are Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. Both Africa and Middle East are having the fastest growing Internet user population with an annual 11% new users being added every year. According to World Internet Users Statistics, by 2022, more than 200 million users are expected to get connected across Africa and Middle East. Similarly, Latin American countries specifically, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, and Caribbean Islands, are expected to have over 125 million new users connected to the Internet by 2020. CISCO VNI studies showed majority of the population in developed regions such as North America (89%) and Western Europe (81%) are connected to Internet in 2016. Between 2015 and 2020, over 25 million new Internet users are expected to be added to USA. Increasing number of users would positively impact the sales of smartphones, tablets and other communication devices. Suffice to say increasing number of Internet users would supplement global voice communication market during the forecasted period. Regional Outlook: Europe sees mid-term growth and in long term APAC & Latin America to surge Regionally, the global voice communication equipment market sales is dominated by North America. North America dominates voice communication equipment market in terms of revenue, technology innovation, and increasing adoption of VoIP users. Rising demand for tablets, smartphones, VoIP, demand for convergence services for voice mail and e-mail, instant messengers, large pool of Internet users, and regulatory policies are the factors driving North American voice communication equipment market during the forecasted period. Europe is an emerging investment destination for voice communication equipment with increasing number of VoIP subscriber base for the medium term. According to Pike & Fishcer's Broadband Advisory Service, VoIP is slated to become more popular in Europe. Approximately 40% of the households in Europe with Internet connection are using VoIP services. Since 2014, more than a quarter of household in Europe are giving up landline telephone subscription in favour of mobile phones and VoIP. Germany, Spain, UK, France, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Sweden are amongst the lucrative investment destinations in Europe for voice communication equipment market, as these countries have witnessed significant growth in number of Internet users. EU has brought into series of amendments to the EU telecommunication regulatory framework towards its last 27 nation states since 2010. The amendment will have significant implications for VoIP and VoIP applications on smartphones. VoIP is anticipated to be regulated as a telephone. The new regulations are expected to ease number portability for VoIP. Moreover, EU largest telecom groups are launching 5G technology (average service speed of 10 gigabits per second). By 2020, at least one city in EU country will have new 5G technology, boosting markets for VoIP. Some of the leading investors are BT, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, and Vodafone. In terms of revenue, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing voice communication market during the forecast period. Growth in Asia-Pacific is led by improving network infrastructure in emerging economies like India and China, followed by South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Increasing population and expanding communication sector, large base for Internet users, and investment friendly government policies are the factors driving Asia-Pacific voice communication equipment market. Other lucrative markets for voice communication equipment include UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, Qatar, Bahrain, Israel, and Jordan. To contact us please click on the following link http://www.occamsresearch.com/contact-us About Occams Business Research & Consulting (OBRC): Occams Business Research & Consulting has been in the business (Market Research) for the past three years. OBRC, based inIndia, is formed by two women analysts,Shyamal Mogheand Sathya Durga, who started the company after years of working as analysts and project managers for companies such as Frost & Sullivan, Smart Analyst, etc. and have an excellent track record for the best customer satisfaction.You can see their professional profile on LinkedIn: Shyamal Moghe Sathya Durga Contact: Mr.Uday Dange Tel: +91-9713031393 Email:sales@occamsresearch.com Website:http://www.occamsresearch.com/ VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Trevali Mining Corporation ("Trevali" or the "Company") (TSX: TV)(LMA: TV)(OTCQX: TREVF)(FRANKFURT: 4TI) announces results from its 2016-2017 resource definition drill program on its Halfmile deposit in the Bathurst Mining Camp of northeastern New Brunswick. The program was designed to validate historic data as well as to expand and improve upon the existing geological model. Trevali completed 28 holes (15,175 metres) testing a variety of targets within and around the Upper and Lower Zones of the Halfmile deposit that remains open for expansion. The Halfmile deposit has a currently defined Indicated Resource of 6.26 million tonnes grading 8.13% Zn, 2.58% Pb, 0.22% Cu, and 30.8 g/t Ag, and an additional Inferred Resource of 6.08 million tonnes at 6.69% Zn, 1.83% Pb, 0.14% Cu and 20.5 g/t Ag. The 2016-17 Halfmile drill program was initiated with a variety of goals: -- Validate the historic drilling and geological model in the Lower Zone of the deposit -- Define limits of mineralization -- Test geologic and geophysical exploration targets in the general vicinity of the currently defined mineralization -- Collect geotechnical data for future engineering and mine planning studies -- Test working geologic interpretations / models In general, results from the 2016-2017 drilling campaign corroborates the historic drilling completed on the project. This latest drilling dramatically increases Trevali's confidence in the resource model and provides further information about precious metal values in the Upper and Lower Zones as previous drill programs did not consistently analyze for silver or gold. The recent drilling has also facilitated an improved understanding of the local geology and thus allowed for a more realistic model of mineralization that will ultimately facilitate future engineering studies. Figure 1: Drill hole location map is available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/170614_TV_Figure1.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zone / Core Length From - To Interval(i) Drill Hole (metres) (metres) Zn (%) Pb (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-040 365.90 - 382.20 (LZ) 16.30 5.77 2.43 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-040 (incl.) 365.90 - 375.00 (LZ) 9.10 6.62 3.02 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-040 (incl.) 378.35 - 382.20 (LZ) 3.85 7.49 2.69 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-041 347.00 - 357.00 (LZ) 10.00 3.90 0.67 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-042 679.21 - 701.27 (LZ) 22.06 10.71 4.16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-042 (incl.) 683.55 - 701.27 (LZ) 17.72 12.60 4.89 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-047 560.08 - 568.20 (LZ) 8.12 4.45 1.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-047 (incl.) 560.08 - 564.76 (LZ) 4.68 6.36 2.03 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-048 421.00 - 439.00 (LZ) 18.00 5.28 1.19 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-048 (incl.) 432.00 - 439.00 (LZ) 7.00 7.37 1.75 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-048 470.24 - 476.00 (LZ) 5.76 10.78 4.46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-050 482.47 - 510.40 (LZ) 27.93 5.29 1.71 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-050 (incl.) 499.50 - 510.40 (LZ) 10.90 7.49 3.31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-051 519.60 - 523.45 (LZ) 3.85 9.74 1.54 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-56A 717.53 - 828.00 (LZ) 110.47 7.86 2.34 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-56A (incl.) 756.62 - 793.79 (LZ) 37.17 11.38 4.05 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK17-061 535.62 - 539.50 (LZ Met) 3.88 10.41 4.90 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK17-061 721.13 - 769.92 (LZ Met) 48.79 3.99 0.98 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK17-061 (incl.) 721.13 - 726.58 (LZ Met) 5.45 10.96 4.01 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Approximate From - To True Drill Hole (metres) Cu (%) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) Thickness ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-040 365.90 - 382.20 0.09 35.38 0.14 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-040 (incl.) 365.90 - 375.00 0.11 45.93 0.19 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-040 (incl.) 378.35 - 382.20 0.12 34.61 0.13 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-041 347.00 - 357.00 0.11 7.52 0.18 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-042 679.21 - 701.27 0.12 69.97 0.47 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-042 (incl.) 683.55 - 701.27 0.09 78.32 0.50 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-047 560.08 - 568.20 0.05 12.59 0.12 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-047 (incl.) 560.08 - 564.76 0.08 17.26 0.16 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-048 421.00 - 439.00 0.21 20.11 0.23 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-048 (incl.) 432.00 - 439.00 0.20 18.84 0.20 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-048 470.24 - 476.00 0.13 87.41 0.34 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-050 482.47 - 510.40 0.19 23.35 0.24 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-050 (incl.) 499.50 - 510.40 0.18 42.68 0.26 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-051 519.60 - 523.45 0.15 48.17 0.50 70-90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-56A 717.53 - 828.00 0.11 11.11 0.12 40-60% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK16-56A (incl.) 756.62 - 793.79 0.14 18.27 0.21 40-60% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK17-061 535.62 - 539.50 0.07 105.63 0.32 40-60% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK17-061 721.13 - 769.92 0.06 17.36 0.13 40-60% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HK17-061 (incl.) 721.13 - 726.58 0.04 73.72 0.42 40-60% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table1: Summary of latest Halfmile Project drill assay results. Length and Specific Gravity weighted composite intervals. (i) True widths of the mineralized intervals are estimated in the column "Approximate True Thickness" Figure 2: Cross sections of the Halfmile deposit showing 2016-2017 drill hole data is available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/170614_TV_Figure2.pdf Figure 3: 3-D view to the south of the Halfmile deposit showing 2016-2017 drill hole data is available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/170614_TV_Figure3.pdf Audio Magnetotelluric ("AMT') Survey: An orientation AMT survey was also completed over Halfmile with the goal of testing the efficacy of this geophysical method as an exploration tool. Initial results are promising with the survey clearly identifying known mineralization over 800-metres below ground surface ("BGS"). The program also identified a possible new deep target approximately 800-metres below the North Zone, however, additional geophysical infill is required to better define this area (Figure 4). Figure 4: Halfmile Deposit AMT survey showing outline of mineralization and resistivity lows at different depths is available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/170614_TV_Figure4.pdf Halfmile is a fully permitted mine with infrastructure in place including underground production development, water treatment facilities and a camp. In 2012 Trevali mined approximately 120,000 tonnes of mineralized material from Halfmile and processed it on a toll mill-basis at Xstrata's nearby Brunswick 12 mill complex prior to its ultimate closure in 2013. During this period the Halfmile trial operation produced saleable zinc, lead-silver and copper-gold concentrates. In 2016, a new independent Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") engineering study by SRK Consulting Engineers commenced on the Company's Halfmile and Stratmat deposits in New Brunswick. The study is examining development strategies for the deposits including the potential for a stand-alone milling solution. The PEA is anticipated to be completed imminently and will direct the Companies medium term strategy for the region where it owns the largest repository of undeveloped massive sulphide deposits in the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp. Qualified Person and Quality Control/Quality Assurance EurGeol Dr. Mark D. Cruise, Trevali's President and CEO and Daniel Marinov, P.Geo, Trevali's VP Exploration, are qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101, have supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Marinov is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control/quality assurance programs. Dr. Cruise is not independent of the Company, as he is an officer, director and shareholder. Mr. Marinov is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and shareholder. On-site personnel at the project rigorously collect and track samples which are then security sealed and shipped to Bureau Veritas Laboratories (Bureau Veritas) preparation facility in Timmins, ON for crushing and splitting then the pulp samples are shipped to Vancouver, B.C. for assay. Zinc, lead, copper gold and silver, assays were obtained by four acid Aqua-Regia dissolution followed by Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) measurements. Values of Zinc, lead and copper over 10% are assayed by volumetric method. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. Quality control is further assured by the use of international and in-house standards. Blind certified reference material is inserted at regular intervals into the sample sequence by Trevali personnel in order to independently assess analytical accuracy. Bureau Veritas' quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025: 1999. Finally, representative blind duplicate samples are routinely forwarded to an ISO compliant third party laboratory for external quality control. ABOUT TREVALI MINING CORPORATION Trevali is a zinc-focused, base metals mining company with two commercially producing operations. The Company is actively producing zinc and lead-silver concentrates from its 2,000-tonne-per-day Santander mine in Peru and its 3,000-tonne-per-day Caribou mine in the Bathurst Mining Camp of northern New Brunswick. Trevali also owns the Halfmile and Stratmat base metal deposits, located in New Brunswick, that are currently undergoing a Preliminary Economic Assessment reviewing their potential development. Additionally, the Company has entered into a definitive agreement with Glencore PLC to acquire a portfolio of zinc assets from Glencore, including an 80.08% interest in the Rosh Pinah mine in Namibia, a 90% interest in the Perkoa mine in Burkina Faso, an effective 39.24% interest in the Gergarub project in Namibia, an option to acquire 100% interest in the Heath Steele property in Canada and certain related exploration properties and assets. The common shares of Trevali are listed on the TSX (symbol TV), the OTCQX (symbol TREVF), the Lima Stock Exchange (symbol TV), and the Frankfurt Exchange (symbol 4TI). For further details on Trevali, readers are referred to the Company's website (www.trevali.com) and to Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of TREVALI MINING CORPORATION Mark D. Cruise, President This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States private securities litigation reform act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Statements containing forward-looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation to, update such statements containing the forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to statements as to: the expected benefits of the proposed Transaction, the closing the Transaction" including the anticipated timing thereof, the satisfaction of all conditions to closing the Transaction and the Offering including, without limitation, obtaining all necessary consents and approvals, the completion of the debt financing, the Company's plan to prepare a new PEA for its Halfmile and Stratmat properties, the accuracy of estimated mineral resources, anticipated results of future exploration, and forecast future metal prices, expectations that environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, political, marketing or other issues will not materially affect estimates of mineral resources. These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in spot and forward markets for silver, zinc, base metals and certain other commodities (such as natural gas, fuel oil and electricity); fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar and Peruvian sol versus the U.S. dollar); risks related to the technological and operational nature of the Company's business; changes in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States, Peru or other countries where the Company may carry on business in the future; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological or structural formations, pressures, cave-ins and flooding); risks relating to the credit worthiness or financial condition of suppliers, refiners and other parties with whom the Company does business; inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks and hazards; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources as properties are mined; global financial conditions; business opportunities that may be presented to, or pursued by, the Company; the Company's ability to complete and successfully integrate acquisitions and to mitigate other business combination risks; challenges to, or difficulty in maintaining, the Company's title to properties and continued ownership thereof; the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, and changes in project parameters to deal with unanticipated economic or other factors; increased competition in the mining industry for properties, equipment, qualified personnel, and their costs. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty or reliance on forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law. Trevali's production plan at the Caribou Mine is based only on measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources, and not mineral reserves, and does not have demonstrated economic viability. Trevali's production plan at the Santander Mine is based only on measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources, and not mineral reserves, and does not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is therefore no certainty that the conclusions of the production plans and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) will be realized. Additionally, where Trevali discusses exploration/expansion potential, any potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource. We advise US investors that while the terms "measured resources", "indicated resources" and "inferred resources" are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the US Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize these terms. US investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the material in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any state and may not be offered or sold within the United States, absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. Contacts: Trevali Mining Corporation Steve Stakiw, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications (604) 488-1661 / Direct: (604) 638-5623 sstakiw@trevali.com www.trevali.com Research Desk Line-up: NextEra Energy Partners Post Earnings Coverage LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 3, 2017 / Pro-Trader Daily takes a look at the latest corporate events and news making the headlines for UGI Corp. (NYSE: UGI), following which we have published a free report that can be viewed by signing up at http://protraderdaily.com/optin/'symbol=UGI. The Company's subsidiary UGI Energy Services LLC (UGIES) announced on November 01, 2017, the acquisition of certain midstream assets from Rockdale Marcellus LLC. The midstream assets from Rockdale were acquired by UGI Texas Creek LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of UGIES. The financial value and terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by the Companies. For immediate access to our complimentary reports, including today's coverage, register for free now at: http://protraderdaily.com/register/ Discover more of our free reports coverage from other companies within the Diversified Utilities industry. Pro-TD has currently selected NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) for due-diligence and potential coverage as the Company posted on October 26, 2017, its financial results for Q3 2017 in a news release available on the company's website. Tune in to our site to register for a free membership, and be among the early birds that get our report on NextEra Energy Partners when we publish it. At Pro-TD, we make it our mission to bring you news that matter about the stock you follow. Today, our research desk covers a blog story on UGI; also brushing on NEP. Go directly to your stock of interest and access today's free coverage at: http://protraderdaily.com/optin/'symbol=UGI http://protraderdaily.com/optin/'symbol=NEP Commenting on the acquisition of Rockdale's midstream assets, Joe Hartz, President of UGIES, said: "This investment is a natural progression for UGIES. Utilizing our expertise as a midstream operator, this acquisition enhances the buildout of natural gas infrastructure in the Appalachian Basin to further the production of Pennsylvania-produced, abundant natural gas and helps position UGIES as a premier provider of midstream services in the Appalachian Basin." Details of assets acquired from Rockdale and Benefits The assets acquired by UGI Texas Creek include 100% of a midstream system located in Tioga, Lycoming, and Bradford counties, Pennsylvania. The midstream system has 60+ miles of natural gas gathering lines and dehydration and compression facilities. As per the terms of the agreement, Rockdale has committed 1 Tcf (Trillion Cubic Feet) of gas, which will be produced from the 42,000 acres from the midstream system to UGI Texas Creek. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to UGI Texas Creek's EPS. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to EPS by $0.04 from the third year of the closing of the deal. UGIES' midstream assets include 15.0 Bcf of natural gas storage in Tioga, Potter, and Cameron counties, the Auburn Gathering System in Susquehanna, Wyoming, and Luzerne counties, and the recently constructed Sunbury Pipeline which originates in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. UGIES also operates a liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction and storage facility in Wyoming County. The acquisition allows UGIES to expand its existing midstream asset base. According to Joe Hartz, the deal will have a positive impact across all aspects of UGIES' supply chain from producers at the wellhead to storage to end-use customers, through direct pipeline delivery or by using LNG. By connecting the Rockdale assets to both the Transco and Tennessee interstate pipelines, among other pipelines in the area would give UGIES the opportunity to garner interest from various other producers and provide a platform for the Company's future growth "in one of the most prolific parts of the basin". About UGI Corp. UGI Corporation is a holding Company that, through subsidiaries, distributes, stores, transports, and markets energy products and related services. It is a Fortune 500 Company that has reliably supplied and delivered natural gas and other liquid fuels locally and globally for over 126 years. About UGIES UGI Energy Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of UGI Corporation and supplies and markets natural gas, liquid fuels, and electricity to commercial, institutional and industrial customers at approximately 43,000 locations across the Mid-Atlantic and North-eastern US. UGIES also owns and operates natural gas underground storage fields, gathering systems, compressor stations and peaking plants including LNG liquefaction and vaporization capability, as well as propane terminals. In addition, UGIES owns and operates a variety of midstream natural gas assets that support the storage, transportation, and delivery of natural gas in the Mid-Atlantic region and owns and operates electric generation assets in Pennsylvania. Last Close Stock Review On Thursday, November 02, 2017, the stock closed the trading session at $47.56, slightly falling 0.63% from its previous closing price of $47.86. A total volume of 531.57 thousand shares have exchanged hands. UGI Corp.'s stock price advanced 1.06% in the last one month and 8.26% in the previous twelve months. Furthermore, since the start of the year, shares of the Company have gained 3.21%. The stock is trading at a PE ratio of 21.79 and has a dividend yield of 2.10%. The stock currently has a market cap of $8.21 billion. Pro-Trader Daily : Pro-Trader Daily (Pro-TD) produces regular sponsored and non-sponsored reports, articles, stock market blogs, and popular investment newsletters covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and Canadian stocks. PRO-TD has two distinct and independent departments. One department produces non-sponsored analyst certified content generally in the form of press releases, articles and reports covering equities listed on NYSE and NASDAQ and the other produces sponsored content (in most cases not reviewed by a registered analyst), which typically consists of compensated investment newsletters, articles, and reports covering listed stocks and micro-caps. 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Additionally, PRO-TD, the Author, and the Reviewer do not (1) guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness or correct sequencing of the information, or (2) warrant any results from use of the information. The included information is subject to change without notice. NOT AN OFFERING This document is not intended as an offering, recommendation, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned or discussed, and is to be used for informational purposes only. Please read all associated disclosures and disclaimers in full before investing. Neither PRO-TD nor any party affiliated with us is a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer with any agency or in any jurisdiction whatsoever. To download our report(s), read our disclosures, or for more information, visit http://protraderdaily.com/disclaimer/. CONTACT For any questions, inquiries, or comments reach out to us directly. If you're a company we are covering and wish to no longer feature on our coverage list contact us via email and/or phone between 09:30 EDT to 16:00 EDT from Monday to Friday at: Email: contact@protraderdaily.com Phone number: (917) 341.4653 Office Address: Mainzer Landstrasse 50 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 60325 CFA and Chartered Financial Analyst are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute. SOURCE: Pro-Trader Daily DUBLIN, October 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Brazil Cyber Security Market Outlook to 2021 - Rising Smart Phone Penetration and Online Banking Transactions to Augment Demand for Security" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering. The report covers various aspects such as overall size of Brazil cyber security market size in terms of revenues, Global cyber security market size, Brazil antivirus & antimalware market size, Market segmentation of Brazil cyber security market on the basis of types of security, solutions, regions, end users, major industries, services and others, Brazil antivirus & antimalware market segmentation, trends and growth drivers of the industry, issue & challenges, market share, and future analysis of the industry. The report also covers the competitive landscape of the industry, heat map analysis, list of system integrators and consultants operating in the market. BFSI sector will dominate the industry in coming future in terms of revenue followed by government, IT & Telecom, Healthcare and others. On the basis of end user, the large businesses will dominate the market in coming future in terms of revenues. The large businesses with their large infrastructure and network will dominate the demand break up for cyber security. Trends and Developments in Brazil Cyber Security Market Emerging Small Businesses in Brazil Rising Technology Growth in the Online Money Transfer Military Modernization Government Spending and Initiatives Issues and Challenges in Brazil Cyber Security Market Banking Malware & Phishing Mobile Device and Social Network Vulnerabilities Lack of knowledge about Cyber Security Unstructured Cyber security mechanism Rising Number of unauthorized and local cyber security solutions Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Research Methodology 3. Brazil Cyber Security Market Introduction 4. Value Chain Analysis of Brazil Cyber Security Market 5. Global Cyber Security Market and Contribution of Brazil, 2011-2016 6. Brazil Cyber Security Market Size, 2011-2016 7. Market Segmentation, 2016 8. Snapshot on Antivirus and Anti malware Market 9. Regulatory Landscape/ New State/ Central Government Initiatives of Brazil Cyber Security Market 10. Trends and Developments in Brazil Cyber Security Market 11. Issues and Challenges in Brazil Cyber Security Market 12. Decision Making Process Before Hiring Cyber Security Company in Brazil - End User Wise 13. SWOT Analysis for Brazil Cyber Security Market 14. Competitive Landscape 15. Future Analysis of Brazil Cyber Security Market 16. Analyst Recommendation 17. Macroeconomic Factors Impacting Brazil Cyber Security Market Companies Mentioned Symantec Avast McAfee Kaspersky Lab Trustwave F-secure connection Accumuli solutions Avecto Ltd SAIC Narus Palo Alto Softcat Northrop Grumman Fortinet Net App Unisys BAE Bitdefender Avira AVG Technologies Trustwave UK Ltd Cisco systems Microsoft For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qjdtf5/brazil_cyber Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - US senators have criticized the Trump administration over the lack of a military policy for Afghanistan even after six months in power, while the Defense Secretary admitted that the US Government is not winning the war against terrorism in the south-west Asian country. Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford Tuesday testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Defense Department's fiscal year 2018 budget request. John McCain, the Chairman of the Senate Committee said in Afghanistan, after 15 years of war, the US face a stalemate and urgently need a change in strategy and an increase in resources to turn the situation around. While noting that the spending caps has put the lives of the country's men and women in uniform at greater risk, McCain pointed out that the Trump administration's fiscal year 2018 budget request falls short of the President's commitment to rebuild US military. The proposed defense budget of $603 billion is both arbitrary and inadequate, according to the veteran Senator. He called for revision or repeal of the Budget Control Act, which makes defense budget request and the additional funding that the US military needs illegal. Mattis assured McCain that there are actions being taken not to pay a price for the delay, and that the Government will brief him about the policy on Afghanistan by mid-July. 'We're not winning in Afghanistan right now and we will correct this as soon as possible,' the four-star General told the senators. The U.S. military's qualitative and quantitative competitive advantage over its foes is in jeopardy if Congress does not provide stable and predictable funding, Gen. Dunford told the Committee. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- ORHub, Inc. (OTC: ORHB), a cloud-based medical software company established as the Operating Room Hub for data and analytics, today announces that it is launching its new service module for hip and knee surgical procedures, July 2017. With over 100 million surgeries performed in the U.S. every year and growing, this new service line significantly expands the addressable market for the Company's dynamic analytics capabilities and Surgical Resource Management platform. "The launch of this new module follows the successful launch of our spine module, which for the past eight months has been in continuous use in two nationally recognized hospitals, achieving overwhelming success. Our hips and knees module is the second of many on our technical road map that will allow us to exponentially grow our addressable market and take advantage of the resulting opportunities," says ORHub CEO Colt Melby. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 300,000 total hip replacements and 600,000 knee replacements are performed each year in the United States, a figure expected to grow by 13.19 % per year for the next five years. ORHub's hip and knee service module presents to this growing market unprecedented procedure data and advanced analytics. ORHub's Surgical Resource Management software transforms the OR into a highly efficient information center that provides the ability to track and monitor surgical implants, compare material costs, and identify physician and financial impacts in the operating room at the point of surgery. The software also tackles the data chaining needed for cost, usage and eventual outcome correlation in all surgeries without heavy IT investments in infrastructure. The Company's spine service line is currently being used for all spine cases in the operating room of two major hospitals in Southern California, where the company recently announced it has successfully collected data from more than 500 surgeries (http://nnw.fm/DTkw3), a number that continues to grow on a daily basis. The data collected provides the hospitals valuable insight that helps identify user needs and make near real-time data driven decisions to improve profitability and the quality of patient care. "We look forward to updating shareholders on our progress as we continue to build new service modules at a rapid pace conducive to increased corporate value," says Melby. ORHub, Transforming the Business of Surgery The ease of deployment is weeks instead of years, and the power to provide process data for illumination of costs and improvement, gives OR directors and hospital administrators powerful new capabilities to transform the business of surgery. ORHub is capable of agile, low-cost integration with a hospital's system of choice to complement existing capabilities and provide analytics that are currently not available in the OR suite as a comprehensive view of each episode of care. This puts decision making power at the fingertips of directors and administrators as well as physicians and vendors. Its case-based subscription model also transforms the business of surgery by moving the infrastructure costs from a CAPEX budget cycle into the operational budget of the OR director. A hospital's time to insight is transformed from months or weeks to minutes, and the revenue cycle is compressed so time to money is quicker for substantial cash flow improvement. About ORHub, Inc. ORHub is a cloud-based software company focused on delivering performance-based medicine at the speed of surgery. The system is in full operation and in daily use at two major hospitals in Southern California. ORHub enables all parties involved in surgical care to work together to organize, deliver, measure and reimburse in a single uniform process. ORHub's cloud capabilities also provide a bridge for hospitals in their hybrid cloud strategies, integrating with EHRs and other systems as requested. ORHub is an agile answer for hospitals looking to unlock the power of the OR. Its case-based subscription revenue model also transforms the economics of hospital software from a CAPEX to an OPEX budgeting process. The need for ORHub is clear. Health care comprises more than 17% of US GDP at over $3 trillion per year. With costs rising every year due to an aging population and more expensive treatments, providers are under severe pressure to become more efficient and reduce costs from payers who are aggressively reducing reimbursements and moving away from fee-for-service and toward performance-based reimbursement. ORHub enables providers to thrive in this new environment by addressing the single largest segment of health care, which is surgical care. ORHub replaces numerous legacy systems with a 360-degree system that is focused on tracking cost from diagnosis to discharge. ORHub has offices in Phoenix, Arizona; Newport Beach, California; and Bellevue, Washington. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurances that its expectations will be attained. Such statements are inherently uncertain, and actual results and activities may differ materially from those estimated or projected. Certain factors that can affect the Company's ability to achieve its anticipated results include, among others, uncertainties inherent in the development of a new software product business. Communications Contact: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) New York, New York www.NetworkNewsWire.com 212.418.1217 Office Email Contact ANAHEIM HILLS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 30, 2017 / Beginning this Saturday, July 1st, college students and their families can expect to pay more for their loans this upcoming fall semester. Interest rates will be rising on federal student loans for the 2017-2018 school year. This year's undergraduate rate of 3.76 percent will increase to 4.45 percent for new loans distributed from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. The U.S. Treasury Department set these rates based on the May 10 auction of 10 year notes. Undergrads are not the only students to be impacted by this rate increase. Graduate students will also be paying higher financing costs after this weekend. The 5.31 percent they were paying for a direct unsubsidized loan this past school year will increase to 6 percent. These loans begin accruing interest as soon as the borrower takes them out. Find out in Minutes if you qualify for Federal Student Loan Forgiveness at www.studentdocsolutions.com Direct PLUS loan rates are also expected to rise. These are loans that both the parents of undergrads and graduate students can use. The interest rate for PLUS federal student loans is currently 6.31 percent, but this rate will rise to 7 percent this Saturday. None of these increases will apply to student loans obtained through private entities. In 2016, college graduates owed about $37,000 on average. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, this statistic is up 6 percent from 2015 reports. The total amount of student debt in the U.S. is now over $1.4 trillion- the majority being from federal loans. According to a recent survey of over 1,000 undergraduates, current college students have estimated that they will owe a median of $30,000 to $39,000 by the time of their graduation. As reported by Forbes, an undergrad student borrowing $25,000 at the current rate of 3.76 percent would pay just over $5,000 in interest over the next 10 years. With a 4.45 percent interest rate, this same student can expect to pay close to $1,000 more in interest over the same span of time. Mark Kantrowitz, strategy for college and scholarship search expert, stated, "The financial impact of this increase is on the order of a few dollars a month on a 10-year repayment plan for every $10,000 borrowed." Rates may be up for undergrads and graduate students alike, but the increase will not affect existing loans. This change will only affect loans disbursed July 1 and beyond. Student Doc Solutions provides qualifying individuals with student loan forgiveness options. If you have Federal Student Loans you may be eligible for loan forgiveness, principal reduction, or complete loan forgiveness. Apply for Federal Student Loan Forgiveness now at www.studentdocsolutions.com SOURCE: Student Doc Solutions Regulatory News: OSE Immunotherapeutics SA (Paris:OSE) (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE) announces that all the resolutions submitted to a vote at the Combined General Shareholders' Meeting were approved as proposed by OSE Immunotherapeutics' Board of Directors. Shareholders approved the nominations of two new independent Directors, Brigitte Dreno, M.D., Ph.D., and Diane Kathryn Jorkasky, M.D., and have renewed the board terms of Jean-Patrick Demonsang, Walter Flamenbaum and Gerard Tobelem. The results of each resolution voted can be found on the Company's website in the "Investor Relations Annual General Meeting" section http://ose-immuno.com/documentation/assemblee-generale/ A total of 68 shareholders were present or represented, or voted by mail. Collectively, this group holds 8,533,195 shares (representing 59.50 % of the voting securities) and 9,110,375 voting rights. Shareholders approved the appointment of two new independent Directors Brigitte Dreno, M.D., Ph.D., is head of the Department of Dermatology at the Nantes University Hospital, a department with significant expertise in research and innovative treatments in skin oncology. She is the director of the Biotherapy Clinical Investigation Centre, director of the Unit of Cell and Gene Therapy and vice dean for Research Medical Faculty. Within her operational functions and research responsibilities, Dr. Dreno is very much involved in immuno-oncology innovation. In collaboration with the academic leadership, she supports the implementation of OSE Immunotherapeutics' R&D initiatives on the Nantes' University campus. Diane Kathryn Jorkasky, M.D., has over 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience in medical and scientific leadership positions with industry-leading companies, including Endo Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer and GSK. She has extensive knowledge of and experience in all phases of drug research and development. Since 2012, Dr. Jorkasky has been executive vice president, chief medical officer, and head of development of Complexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company specializing in treatments for inflammatory and fibrosis related diseases. These nominations follow the departures of David de Weese and Jean Theron who have completed their respective terms as board members. They will both pursue their collaboration with OSE Immunotherapeutics: David de Weese as censor of the board for one year and Jean Theron as a consultant and international business contributor. Emile Loria, chairman of the board of directors of OSE Immunotherapeutics said: "On behalf of the Board and OSE's team, I wish to warmly thank David and Jean for their expertise, their commitment and their achievements throughout their director terms. They will pursue their collaboration in performing new missions and sharing with us their valuable network." Dominique Costantini, CEO of OSE Immunotherapeutics, added: "We are delighted to welcome Brigitte Dreno and Diane Kathryn Jorkasky who bring strong track record in scientific innovation and international scope to enrich the board's expertise and support the company's growth." Renewal of Board appointments The Ordinary General Meeting renewed the board terms of Jean-Patrick Demonsang, Walter Flamenbaum and Gerard Tobelem. OSE Immunotherapeutics' board of directors is composed of twelve members, including seven independent directors. Votes on the following resolutions were also held during OSE Immunotherapeutics' General Meeting: Approval of the accounts and consolidated accounts for fiscal year 2016, allocation of the results, approval of the principles and criteria for determining, distributing and allocating the fixed, variable and exceptional components of the total compensation and of the benefits of any kind attributed to the executive directors, approval of regulated agreements (resolutions 1 to 5); Mandatory opinion on the items of compensation of the chairman, of the chief executive officer and of the deputy chief executive officers in respect of fiscal year 2016 (resolutions 6 to 9); Renewal of delegations of authority given to the board of directors to issue shares and/or securities giving access immediately or later to the share capital or giving right to a debt security (resolutions 19 to 22, 24, 26, 27); Delegations of authority given to the board of directors to award preferential free shares, free shares, founders' warrants, warrants and stock options (resolutions 30 to 34). ABOUT OSE IMMUNOTHERAPEUTICS Our ambition is to become a world leader in activation and regulation immunotherapies OSE Immunotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies for immune activation and regulation in the fields of immuno-oncology, auto-immune diseases and transplantation. The company has a balanced portfolio of first-in-class products with a diversified risk profile ranging from clinical phase 3 registration trials to R&D: In immuno-oncology Tedopi, a combination of 10 optimized neo-epitopes to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - Currently in registration Phase 3 trial advanced NSCLC HLA A2+ patients EU /US Orphan Status in the US - Registration expected in 2019 A Phase 2 with Tedopi in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in NSCLC is considered in 2017 to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - Orphan Status in the US in NSCLC is considered in 2017 OSE-172 (Effi-DEM), new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting the SIRP-a receptor In preclinical development for several cancer models. targeting the for several cancer models. OSE-703 (Effi-3), a cytotoxic monoclonal antibody targeting IL-7R Strategic research collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY In auto-immune diseases and transplantation FR104, CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy Phase 1 trial completed - For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation Licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development. CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation to pursue clinical development. OSE-127 (Effi-7), interleukin receptor-7 antagonist In preclinical development for inflammatory bowel diseasesand other autoimmune diseases.License option agreement with Servierfor the development and commercialization. The portfolio's blockbuster potential gives OSE Immunotherapeutics the ability to enter global agreements at different stages of development with major pharmaceutical players. Immunotherapy is a highly promising and growing market. By 2023 Immunotherapy of cancer could represent nearly 60% of treatments against less than 3% at present and the projected market is estimated at $67 billion in 2018 **. There are more than 80 autoimmune diseases that represent a significant market including major players in the pharmaceutical industry with sales towards $10 billion for the main products. The medical need is largely unmet and requires the provision of new innovative products involved in the regulation of the immune system. *Citi Research Equity **BCC Research Click and follow us on Twitter and Linkedln Forward-looking statements This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics' management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "target", "plan", or "estimate", their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import. Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics' shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 28 April 2017 under the number R.17-038, including the annual financial report for the fiscal year 2016, available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics' website. Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614005841/en/ Contacts: OSE Immunotherapeutics Sylvie Detry, +33 143 297 857 Sylvie.detry@ose-immuno.com or Media: AlizePR Caroline Carmagnol Laetitia Abbar +33 647 389 004 oseimmuno@alizerp.com or U.S. Media: LifeSci Public Relations Matt Middleman, M.D. matt.middleman@lifescipublicrelations.com +1 646 627 8384 or U.S. and European Investors Chris Maggos, +41 79 367 6254 chris@lifesciadvisors.com OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Canada's unions are celebrating today's ratification of the International Labour Organization's Convention 98, The Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949. The Convention reinforces the right to collective bargaining and protects all workers from anti-union discrimination, including being forced to give up union membership in order to get a job, or job termination for participating in union activities. "This is a long overdue and important step forward for Canadian labour relations and sends a strong message to the world," said CLC President Hassan Yussuff. "By signing this convention, Canada is finally recognizing the crucial role that strong unions and collective bargaining rights play in reducing inequality and building stronger, fair and inclusive economies." Today's ratification of Convention 98 means Canada has ratified all eight considered by ILO to be the minimum "enabling rights" people need to defend and improve their rights and conditions at work and to work in freedom and dignity. Canada's unions have been working for ratification for decades, but since 1949 and until now, successive Canadian governments have refused. Canada is the 165th country to ratify. The United States, Mexico, and 20 other countries have yet to ratify. "By ratifying C98, Canada is committing not just to respect collective bargaining rights, but to promote and uphold them abroad and at home," said Yussuff. "This means encouraging and supporting provincial and territorial governments to find negotiated solutions to disputes rather than overriding collective bargaining rights with draconian measures like back-to-work legislation," he added. Contacts: Chantal St-Denis National Representative, Media Relations CLC Communications 613-355-1962 cstdenis@clc-ctc.ca www.canadianlabour.ca CENTENNIAL, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 --AlumiFuel Power Corporation (OTC PINK: AFPW) ("AlumiFuel" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has determined that it is in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders to reduce the number of authorized shares of common stock. On June 14, 2017, the Board of Directors is expected to adopt a Board Resolution requiring an immediate change to the Company's authorized shares of common stock, from "Unlimited" to 5,000,000,000. AlumiFuel CEO Ryan Schadel commented, "This is an important step in continuing my plan to deliver value and transparency to shareholders. Having unlimited authorized common shares is just unacceptable to me as a shareholder. I believe the reduced number of authorized shares will still provide adequate flexibility to the Company in engaging in future capital raising and acquisitions, while also reducing a tremendous amount of ambiguity as it relates to the Company's capital structure." Mr. Schadel continued, "We've accomplished much in my short time as CEO. With the completion of last week's announcement, I feel we have given ourselves the runway necessary to execute a proper turnaround. We are now focused on closing the acquisitions we have in the pipeline, growing our existing lines of business, and getting our financials posted to OTC Markets as soon as possible." About AlumiFuel Power Corporation AlumiFuel, operating through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is transforming into a diversified holding company under new leadership and is expected to be renamed Phoenix Equity Holdings Corporation. The Company is exploring several revenue producing acquisition opportunities as it works to build a robust cash flow stream. AlumiFuel currently operates three divisions in the multi-billion dollar temporary staffing industry and holds patented technology for hydrogen generation through its wholly owned subsidiary, NovoFuel. Safe Harbor for Forward-looking Statements: This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these statements are made to convey to the public the company's progress, business opportunities and growth prospects, they are based on management's current beliefs and assumptions as to future events. However, since the company's operations and business prospects are always subject to risk and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this news release might not occur, and actual results could differ materially from those described, anticipated or implied. For a more complete discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AlumiFuel Power Corporation 641-715-3900 x385402 Regulatory News: MEMSCAP (Paris:MEMS) (NYSE Euronext: MEMS), the leading provider of innovative solutions based on MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology, today announces that its extraordinary shareholders' meeting was held on second notice on June 14, 2017, at 3:00 PM in the Company headquarters located at Parc Activillage des Fontaines, Bernin (38) France. At the shareholders' meeting held on second notice on June 14, 2017, MEMSCAP's shareholders approved with a large majority all meeting resolutions to the exception of the 6th resolution (Delegation of competence for a reserved capital increase to the benefit of the employees) which has been rejected as recommended by the company's Board of Directors. Shareholders present at the meeting, voting by proxy or by post represented 1 636 357 voting shares (22.98% of the total number of voting shares) and 2 056 654 voting rights (27.18% of the total number of voting rights). About MEMSCAP MEMSCAP is the leading provider of innovative micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based solutions. MEMSCAP standard and custom products and solutions include components, component designs (IP), manufacturing and related services. MEMSCAP customers include Fortune 500 businesses, major research institutes and universities. The company's shares are traded on the Eurolist of NYSE Euronext Paris S.A (ISIN: FR0010298620-MEMS) and belong to the CAC small, CAC Mid Small, CAC All-Tradable and CAC All-Share indexes. More information on the company's products and services can be obtained at www.memscap.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614005871/en/ Contacts: MEMSCAP Yann Cousinet, Ph: +33 (0) 4 76 92 85 00 CFO Email: yann.cousinet@memscap.com As the Internet of Things grows in popularity, so too does the number of people trying to take advantage of connected devices. An increasing number of medical devices are making use of advanced software and networking capabilities in order to provide faster, easier access to vital health information. However, this also means that they are vulnerable to hacking attempts and ransomware. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614005170/en/ Infiniti Research offers a variety of healthcare market intelligence solutions. (Graphic: Business Wire) In their recent blog titled 'Medical Devices Security: New Challenge in the Life Sciences Industry, market intelligence firm Infiniti Research delves into the risks that come with connectivity in medical devices. The many benefits provided by these connected devices are partially offset by the dangers of cyber attacks. Infiniti notes that, "Apart from issues related to a patient's safety, hacked medical devices can be used for identity theft, tax fraud, or buying medications that can later be sold on the dark web." "Complex software and network capabilities have transformed medical equipment into sophisticated devices. The need of the hour is to build a strong and secure network which will protect the equipment from hacking and other cyber malpractices," added Infiniti Research. It also maintains that security is the responsibility of every stakeholder in the industry, not just the manufacturers, and outlines steps that can be taken to make these vital devices more secure. Read more: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/thoughts/medical-devices-security-new-challenges-life-sciences-industry Medical Device Intelligence from Infiniti Research The medical devices industry is witnessing constant growth with technical advancements and the development of improved medical devices. With a number of pure-play companies, conglomerates, and combined drug device manufacturers focusing on product innovation and cost-containment, medical device companies have the need to create efficient market intelligence solutions to face major changes in trends and enhance the efficiency of their operations. Infiniti Research has worked on several projects with leading organizations in the medical devices industry, helping them identify the newest market trends, key challenges, and untapped avenues within the industry. Recent medical device studies from Infiniti Research include: Assessment of the Radiography Systems Market View study: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/casestudy/market-intelligence-study-helps-medical-devices-manufacturer-assess-radiography-systems-market Market Intelligence Study for the Orthopedic Devices Market View Study: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/casestudy/competitive-intelligence-orthopedic-devices-market About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. With 13 years of experience and offices across three continents, Infiniti Research has been instrumental in providing a complete range of competitive intelligence, strategy, and research services for over 550 companies across the globe. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614005170/en/ Contacts: Infiniti Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.infinitiresearch.com Contact Us Groupe ADP is launching the global challenge "Play Your Airport". This open innovation initiative will allow students, businesses, travellers and the group's employees to reinvent the airport experience with one common goal: creating the airport of the future. "The diversity of communities coming together around this bold initiative makes it the first of its kind in the airport industry. It is a powerful means to scour the globe to unearth new high-potential projects capable of revolutionising the current airport model. This venture will serve to identify external and internal talents, and staff members who submit winning entries will be eligible to receive intrapreneurial guidance," said Edward Arkwright, Deputy CEO of Groupe ADP "Play Your Airport" was developed in partnership with Agorize, which specializes in open innovation challenges; it is the concrete representation of Groupe ADP's commitment to innovation and collective intelligence. The Innovation Hub programme is the crystallization of the new direction Groupe ADP has taken within the framework of its strategic plan "Connect 2020". This programme embodies Groupe ADP's commitment to openness, transformation and competition by focusing on three complementary pillars: OPEN, CONNECT and INVEST. "We can't wait to see the contributions that will support our studies on the developing Paris airports, in particular Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport terminal 4 and active projects throughout our worldwide network of airports," said Edward Arkwright. Each community will be guided by themes that Groupe ADP has identified: the city within the airport, the passenger experience, smart terminals and the "zero environmental impact" airport. Conditions for participating in the contest can be found at the following website: www.play-your-airport.com. Challenge submissions will undergo a rigorous, multi-phase selection process. Juries will be composed of internal experts and qualified external figures. Challenge winners will be announced in January 2018. The prize will be tailored to each individual community: The winning student team and travellers will receive plane tickets for a trip around the world. Businesses will receive up to 40,000 in funding and support for a project in the experimentation phase. Employees will receive a study trip to the innovation capital of the world-Silicon Valley. More on the Innovation Hub programme pillars OPEN: focused on propagating a culture of innovation and establishing an ecosystem of partners (incubators, academics, competition hubs, think tanks, etc.) CONNECT: dedicated to sourcing, training and experimentation with innovative start-ups and SMEs INVEST: created to take minority stakes in companies in order to establish strategic partnerships through ADP INVEST, the 16 million internal fund. ADP Invest provided funding for Pacifa Decisions, Egidium Technologies and, more recently, Safety Line-a French company that analyses data for the aviation and aeronautics sectors. Groupe ADP also serves as underwriter for three complementary external funds: X-Ange Capital 2 (SIPAREX), Cathay Innovation and Ellaia Delta. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614005902/en/ Contacts: Groupe ADP Elise Hermant, +33 1 74 25 23 23 Medias and Reputation Department Manager WAWA, PA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- This May, Wawa was thrilled to announce that "Poultry Raised Without Antibiotics" is now available in all Wawa stores. This change is part of Wawa's quality food commitment, which includes a pledge of continuous improvement, including an ongoing review of all products, ingredients and supplier partnerships. As one of the first steps in Wawa's journey to improve the quality of its foods, the introduction of "Poultry Raised Without Antibiotics" will impact more than 23 items, including Wawa's Express Case salads containing chicken or turkey, poultry based ingredients used to make hoagies and sandwiches, and Sizzli Breakfast Sandwiches containing turkey. The transition of all items containing poultry has been completed, with the exception of soups, which will be fully converted in 2018. "We are excited to announce this first step in our promise to deliver enhanced quality products to customers across the Wawa chain," said Mike Sherlock, Chief Fresh Food & Beverage Officer. "At Wawa, we are always looking for ways to provide continuous improvement for our customers, rooted in the spirit of our core values, mainly do things right and do the right thing for our customers, communities and our planet. Upgrading our products to 'Poultry Raised Without Antibiotics' is just one part of this larger picture commitment. We look forward to announcing additional food quality enhancements throughout the year." With the introduction of this new classification, a special stamp has been applied to the Wawa ordering screen to highlight the transition to "Poultry Raised Without Antibiotics." Providing "Poultry Raised Without Antibiotics" is an enhanced measure to ensure we are delivering our products with care, building on our long-standing commitment to quality and meeting the preferences of consumers who are becoming more focused on what they eat and where their food is coming from. About Wawa's Quality Food Commitment As part of Wawa's ongoing commitment to provide safe, fresh, high quality foods, the company has established a fully integrated food and product quality program, and is improving and formalizing the programs, standards, and audit criteria for the vendors who supply the food products we serve. The program builds upon Wawa's founding commitment to family safety and trust, dating back more than 100 years ago, when the Wawa Family Dairy was the first to offer "physician certified" milk. To guide this journey, Wawa has established an independent advisory council of top experts and thought leaders in food and animal safety, food technology and health and wellness. Wawa's food safety program includes a focus on animal welfare that requires suppliers to meet key standards of ethical and responsible food sourcing. Learn more about Wawa's commitment to food quality at https://www.wawa.com/about About Wawa, Inc. Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Toward the end of the 19th Century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, PA in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and "certified" process. As home delivery of milk declined in the early 1960's, Grahame Wood, George's grandson, opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for dairy products. Today, Wawa is your all day, every day stop for freshly prepared foods, beverages, coffee, fuel services, and surcharge-free ATMs. A chain of more than 750 convenience retail stores (over 500 offering gasoline), Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida. The stores offer a large fresh food service selection, including Wawa brands such as custom prepared hoagies, freshly-brewed coffee, hot breakfast sandwiches, Specialty Beverages, and an assortment of soups, sides and snacks. In 2016 Wawa was recognized in Forbes as one of America's Best Large Employers, a survey-based ranking of employers offering the best associate experiences and strongest opportunities. In 2017 Wawa was the recipient of a Silver Plate Award in the category of Retail & Specialty Foodservice by the International Foodservice Manufacturers' Association during their 63rd Annual Award Event. Wawa was also designated as a 2017 Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3148633 CONTACT: Wawa, Inc. public.relations@wawa.com SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the most influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, today announced the finalists for its 2017 Innovation Awards. The awards recognize projects that are helping to transform the energy storage ecosystem by enabling the transition to a clean, resilient and reliable grid. Winners will be honored during an awards ceremony at the annual Energy Storage North America conference and expo, held on August 8-10 at the San Diego Convention Center. The eight Innovation Award project finalists demonstrate outstanding achievement across two categories: Centralized Storage (utility-scale) and Distributed Storage (commercial, industrial or residential). Finalists were selected based on their ability to impact the storage ecosystem, break into new markets, tap into multiple value streams, overcome operational challenges, and increase grid reliability and resiliency. ESNA 2017 Innovation Award Finalists Centralized Energy Storage SDG&E Expedited Energy Storage Project Aliso Canyon: AltaGas Pomona Energy Storage Southern California Edison Hybrid Enhanced Gas Turbine (EGT) IID's Battery Energy Storage System Distributed Energy Storage Axiom Energy Refrigeration Battery Pilot Marcus Garvey Village Solar+Storage+Fuel Cell Microgrid Sterling Municipal Light Department Energy Storage Project Pena Station NEXT Solar+Storage Microgrid Voting The winners in each of the two Innovation Award categories will be determined by public voting. One vote per user will count toward the final results; and votes will be accepted until July 7. Visit the ESNA awards website to learn more about the projects and how to cast your vote. About Energy Storage North America Energy Storage North America is the largest conference, exhibition and networking event for the North American energy storage industry. Now in its fifth year, ESNA connects developers, energy users, utilities and policymakers to advance understanding and deployment of energy storage, and ultimately build a cleaner, more affordable and more resilient grid. ESNA 2017 will take place on August 8-10 in San Diego, California. Visit www.esnaexpo.com to learn more. Media Contact Courtney Scott Trevi Communications for Energy Storage North America Email Contact 978.750.0333 BORDEAUX, France, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The agreed criteria for the Final Acceptance of the CHO Morcenx plant have been validated and commercial operations are starting. This is a key milestone for the plant and for all upcoming CHO Power projects: 1. Securing FA demonstrates the plant's ability to produce electricity on a commercial scale at its nominal capacity of 10MWe. As this development phase has been completed, CHO Morcenx is now entering its commercial production phase. The teams will now be able to maximize the long-term economic profitability of the plant in accordance with an optimization plan, which includes adjusting standard operating procedures for commercial operations. 2.Given CHO Morcenx is the world's first plant of its type operating at a commercial scale, CHO Power can now capitalize on this success to deploy its pipeline of new projects. 3.The revenues generated by CHO Morcenx's electricity generation should benefit the Europlasma Group's cash position, thus encouraging the growth of its other business activities. In November 2015, the FAR (Final Acceptance with Reserves) confirmed the plant's capacity to produce synthetic gas in sufficient quantity and quality to generate 10 MWe of renewable electricity. These reserves concerned the necessary improvements to the environmental and aesthetic standards of the site installation, as well as the new engines and their optimal operation alongside the turbine: Satisfied with the progress of the work, the authorities have not retained any environmental elements which could hinder commercial operations and, as such, the aesthetic and environmental reserves issued in 2015 have been lifted. Regarding the engines, at the end of a post-acceptance verification phase of the GE Jenbacher engines, the CHO Morcenx plant operated in full configuration for 14 days without interruption. The two GE Jenbacher engines and the turbine operated together for over 96 hours cumulatively in the various required configuration phases. Over this period, the plant produced more than 1,200 MWh with power peaks exceeding 7.5 MWe. In agreement with the customer, these tests were carried out without the two original Caterpillar engines (commissioned in 2015 and having a cumulated capacity of 2 MWe). The conditions of use of the Caterpillar engines will be evaluated in the context of the optimization plan, allowing an increase in the total current power under the most favorable economic and financial conditions. Following the FA milestone, the Europlasma Group will implement in the coming months an active value-creation strategy for CHO Morcenx, the development of CHO Power pipeline, and the various other key projects carried out by the Group. Jean-Eric Petit, Managing Director of Europlasma, said: "Today marks a major milestone in the history of our Group. Having led Europlasma for over three years, I am very proud of the achievement of this FA and wish to congratulate and associate our teams to this success. Now that CHO Morcenx is able to operate at its nominal capacity, we will continue to improve its power and maximize the profitability of this new type of power plant. This success gives our plasma technology significant development prospects, both for CHO Power and for the other subsidiaries of the Group ". About EUROPLASMA At the heart of environmental issues, Europlasma designs and develops innovative plasma solutions for renewable energy generation and hazardous waste recovery, as well as related applications for multi-sector companies wishing to reduce their environmental footprint. Europlasma is listed on Alternext (FR0000044810-ALEUP). For more information: www.europlasma.com Shareholders contact : Anne BORDERES - Communication Manger Tel: + 33(0)5-56-49-70-00 - contactbourse@europlasma.com Investors & Financial Analysts: contactbourse@europlasma.com Press contact: Luc PERINET MARQUET - LPM STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS Tel: +33(0)1-44-50-40-35 - lperinet@lpm-corporate.com This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire. MILPITAS, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- WHO: Mobiveil, Inc., a fast growing supplier of silicon intellectual property (IP), platforms and IP-enabled design services WHAT: Will showcase its portfolio of IP, platforms and solutions for the storage, IoT, networking and enterprise markets at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in Avery Design Systems' Booth #229. Mobiveil Chief Executive Officer Ravi Thummarukudy will be available to discuss its long-standing partnership with Avery that pairs Avery's verification IP with Mobiveil's PCI Express, NVM Express, DDR4/3 and LDPC IP. WHEN: June 19-21 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. WHERE: Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas About Mobiveil Mobiveil is a fast-growing technology company that specializes in the development of Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP), platforms and solutions for the storage, IoT, networking and enterprise markets. It leverages decades of experience in delivering high-quality, production-proven, high-speed serial interconnect SIP cores, and custom and standard form factor hardware boards to leading semiconductor companies worldwide. For the PCI Express-based Flash Storage market, Mobiveil developed NVMStor, a subsystem comprised of GPEX, the PCI Express Controller, NVM Express Controller (UNEX), Universal Memory Controller (UMMC) and a Flash Memory Controller. Mobiveil is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., with engineering development centers located in Chennai and Bangalore, India, and sales offices and representatives located in U.S., Europe, Israel, Japan, Taiwan and China. Engage with Mobiveil at: Website: www.mobiveil.com Twitter: @Mobiveil LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/2725746/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mobiveil For more information, contact: Nanette Collins Public Relations for Mobiveil (617) 437-1822 Email Contact "A Strategy that Disrupts Tourism's Ugly White Elephant...and Gives it a Unicorn!" MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / June 14, 2017 / ML Capital Group, Inc. (OTC PINK: MLCG) has executed a Letter of Intent with DinoStar, Inc., (NV) to acquire certain assets, know-how and ongoing operations to further grow a specific business inside MLCG's travel & tourism vertical. MLCG will pay DinoStar $2,000,000.00 for the acquisition; the Definitive Agreement of which, MLCG and DinoStar will execute upon MLCG becoming current with OTCmarkets.com. This acquisition will not only dramatically expand MLCG's tourism business, it will fundamentally disrupt the travel and tourism sector. This, among other burgeoning opportunities that are already manifesting on the Company's immediate horizon, has motivated MLCG to take steps to fortify its existing foundation. Specifically, the Company has increased its authorized capital structure and created several new classes of preferred shares. The latter allows the company to provide new Officer and Director compensation plans, as well as an attraction mechanism for new, outside capital investment. Par value remains unchanged at $0.00001. In addition, while the Company has previously expressed desire to change the Company's name and symbol, it has elected to maintain the ML Capital Group, Inc. name, based entirely on this and other pending acquisitions. "This acquisition brings a highly disruptive business to our balance sheet that has the potential to do $3m in 2017, $7m+ in 2018 with fantastic margins." added CEO Kevin Bobryk. "The changes we have made, and continue to make, lay the foundation for a strategy that disrupts tourism's ugly white elephant of a business, and gives it a unicorn. Adding and integrating our existing components to this exciting acquisition is ground breaking." Details of the acquisition will be included in the forthcoming quarterly disclosure filing, in the subsequent events section. For Further Information: Platinum Tours Maui and ML Capital Group politely and formally request that all inquiries, whether stock-related or travel be submitted to investor relations at info@mlcginc.com. Staff at the tour company will not and are not able to answer any inquiry, stock-related or otherwise. You will be directed to the info@mlcginc.com email address for further information and direction. Investor relations directly interfaces with the company and any questions related to tourism or travel will be immediately directed to the appropriate staff in the tour company. Safe Harbor: This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions. ML Capital Group Contact: Investor Relations Email: info@mlcginc.com +1-786-313-3206 SOURCE: ML Capital Group, Inc. Madrid (ots/PRNewswire) -Sirukumab Phase 3 Data Presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 also Show Significant Improvement in Quality of Life MeasuresJanssen-Cilag International NV (Janssen) today announced long-term results from SIRROUND-T*, a pivotal Phase 3 study that showed sirukumab improved the signs and symptoms of moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) through 52 weeks of treatment in adult patients with an inadequate response and/or intolerance to anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha treatments.[1] This is a typically difficult-to-treat population, representative of clinical practice where up to 40% of RA patients do not respond to biologics.[2] This study and other data from the SIRROUND clinical programme will be presented in 11 abstracts accepted for presentation at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 in Madrid, Spain.Data from the SIRROUND-T* study showed that more than half of patients receiving either sirukumab 50 mg or 100 mg achieved at least a 20% improvement in the signs and symptoms of disease (ACR20) at week 52 (54.3% sirukumab 50 mg; 59.3% sirukumab 100 mg).[1] Patients receiving sirukumab also demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements from baseline through week 52 in quality of life measures, as demonstrated by the health assessment questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI) and the short form-36 (SF-36) health survey, for patient-reported outcomes in both physical and emotional well-being.[1]The incidences of adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs were comparable between sirukumab 50 mg (79.6% and 14.2%, respectively) and sirukumab 100 mg (81.3% and 13.2%, respectively)."The long-term efficacy of sirukumab as shown in the SIRROUND-T study is encouraging considering the study includes a difficult-to-treat patient population. More than 60 percent of patients in the trial had previously received two or more biologics, including anti-TNFs and treatments with other mechanisms of action. This is representative of real world clinical practice," commented Professor Daniel Aletaha, Consultant Rheumatologist and Associate Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. "Rheumatoid arthritis can be a very heterogeneous disease and therefore additional therapeutic options, like sirukumab, are needed."In a post-hoc analysis from four sirukumab Phase 3 studies** presented at the congress, investigators reported that treatment with sirukumab consistently increased levels of haemoglobin in adult patients with moderately to severely active RA, thus reducing by week 16 the proportion of patients with anaemia, which is common in rheumatoid arthritis.[3]Two additional poster presentations evaluated improvements in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) compared with an age/gender matched normal population in patients with RA and an inadequate response to conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDS) and anti-TNFs (SIRROUND-D and SIRROUND-T Phase 3 studies, respectively). The post-hoc analyses found that treatment with sirukumab resulted in greater and clinically meaningful improvements in HRQoL at week 24 compared with patients receiving placebo (P<0.001), with similar results observed across sirukumab doses (50 mg every 4 weeks and 100 mg every 2 weeks).[4],[5]An oral presentation of a post-hoc analysis (SIRROUND-D) highlighted the effect of sirukumab plus methotrexate on circulating biomarkers and demonstrated that in addition to inhibiting radiographic progression (bone destruction measured on x-ray images), treatment with sirukumab strongly inhibited biomarkers of bone and tissue destruction, and enhanced markers of bone formation.[6]"The data presented at this year's congress support the profile of sirukumab in the treatment of moderately to severely active adult rheumatoid arthritis. While patient outcomes have improved in the last few decades with the advent of new RA treatments, there are still many patients whose disease is not effectively managed and continues to progress. We believe that sirukumab has the potential to offer an important new alternative treatment for patients," said Bogdana Coudsy MD, European Medical Affairs Director Immunology, Janssen EMEA.*SIRROUND-T: Efficacy and Safety of Sirukumab in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis Despite Anti-TNF Therapy[1],[7]The Phase 3 SIRROUND-T trial is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study that included 878 adult patients with an inadequate response and/or intolerance to anti-TNF-alpha therapy, more than 39% of whom had prior exposure to non-TNF-alpha biologic therapies. Patients were randomised evenly to receive sirukumab 50 mg every 4 weeks or sirukumab 100 mg every 2 weeks or placebo (patients on placebo were re-randomised at week 24 to receive sirukumab 50 mg every 4 weeks or 100 mg every 2 weeks). 54.3% of patients receiving sirukumab 50 mg every 4 weeks and 59.3% receiving sirukumab 100 mg every 2 weeks, achieved at least a 20% improvement in ACR response criteria at week 52. Patients receiving sirukumab achieved clinically meaningful improvements in patient-reported outcomes as measured by change from baseline in the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI): sirukumab 50 mg -0.36 (standard deviation, SD=0.57) and sirukumab 100 mg -0.43 (SD=0.57). Short form-36 (SF-36) summary scores were: sirukumab 50 mg: physical component summary (PCS)=5.69, mental component score (MCS)=4.65; sirukumab 100 mg PCS=5.80, MCS=4.85.The most common AEs were injection-site reactions and alanine aminotransferase increases. Malignancies occurred in <3% of the sirukumab 50 mg and 100 mg treated population and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) occurred in <2% of the sirukumab 50 mg and 100 mg treated population.**About the SIRROUND Clinical ProgrammeThe Phase 3 clinical programme in patients with active RA includes five studies investigating subcutaneously administered sirukumab 50 mg every 4 weeks and sirukumab 100 mg every two weeks in combination with conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or as monotherapy. The comprehensive development programme - the largest conducted for an anti-IL-6 biologic therapy - involves more than 3,100 patients encompassing the following five studies:- SIRROUND-D study: patients who had an inadequate response to DMARDs. This study has completed. - SIRROUND-T study: patients who had an inadequate response or were intolerant to anti-TNF-alpha agents. This study has completed and data was published in The Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/jou rnals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)30401-4.pdf) in February 2017. - SIRROUND-H study: patients with an inadequate response or who were intolerant to MTX or for whom MTX was inappropriate. This study has completed. - SIRROUND-M study: Japanese patients who had an inadequate response to MTX or sulfasalazine. This study has completed. - SIRROUND-LTE study: a long-term extension study for patients completing SIRROUND-D and SIRROUND-T. This study is estimated to complete in 2020.Sirukumab is not being investigated for the treatment of anaemia.About SirukumabSirukumab is a fully human monoclonal IgG1 kappa antibody that selectively blocks circulating IL-6, a naturally occurring protein that is believed to play a role in autoimmune conditions like RA. It is not approved as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis or any other indication anywhere in the world. Sirukumab is different from other interleukin (IL)-6 inhibitors currently approved for the treatment of RA as it targets the IL-6 cytokine, whereas other agents target the IL-6 receptor.In December 2011, Janssen and GSK entered into a licensing and co-development agreement with respect to sirukumab. Under the terms, Janssen retains exclusive rights to commercialise sirukumab in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, while GSK has commercialisation rights in North, Central and South America. The agreement gives both companies the option to investigate sirukumab for other indications beyond RA. Sirukumab is currently being evaluated by health authorities in Europe (http://www.janssen.com/jan ssen-submits-application-seeking-approval-sirukumab-european-union-rh eumatoid-arthritis), the US and Japan as a subcutaneous therapy for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis.About Rheumatoid ArthritisRheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory condition that is characterised by pain, joint swelling, stiffness and loss of function[8]; it can lead to rapid irreversible joint destruction, permanent disability and increased mortality.[9] It is estimated that approximately 6.2 million Europeans are affected by the condition, for which there is no cure.[10]In clinical studies patient-reported outcomes are measured by a number of self-assessed tools. The SIRROUND clinical programme included SF-36 and HAQ-DI. The short-form 36 (SF-36) survey is a patient-reported health quality assessment which assesses eight aspects of health ranging from physical limitations to general perceptions of vitality and mental well-being. As a general health assessment tool, it is often paired with a disease-specific assessment tool. The Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) is a questionnaire for the assessment of rheumatoid arthritis. The questionnaire is a patient-reported outcome (PRO) which is usually self-administered by the patient.About the Janssen Pharmaceutical CompaniesAt the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, we are working to create a world without disease. Transforming lives by finding new and better ways to prevent, intercept, treat and cure disease inspires us. We bring together the best minds and pursue the most promising science. We are Janssen. We collaborate with the world for the health of everyone in it. Learn more at www.janssen.com. Follow us at Twitter.com/JanssenEMEA (http://Twitter.com/JanssenEMEA).Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the potential of sirukumab and expectations for its further development. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialise, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen-Cilag International NV, any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and/or Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; manufacturing difficulties or delays; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2017, including under "Item 1A. Risk Factors," its most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including under the caption "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements," and the company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at http://www.sec.gov, http://www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. None of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies or Johnson & Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.References1. Aletaha, D., et al. Efficacy and safety of sirukumab in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis refractory to anti-TNF therapy (SIRROUND-T): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multinational, phase 3 study. Lancet. 2017 Mar 25;389(10075):1206-1217.2. Rubbert-Roth, A., Finckh, A. Treatment options in patients with rheumatoid arthritis failing initial TNF inhibitor therapy: a critical review. Arthritis Research & Therapy. 2009;11(Suppl1):S1.3. Loza, M., et al. Sirukumab Treatment Reduces Levels of Iron-Regulatory Proteins and Ameliorates Inflammation-Associated Anemia in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients. Abstract presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 in Madrid, Spain. Abstract number: FRI0243.4. Strand, V., et al. Sirukumab Leads To Significant And Clinically Meaningful Improvements In Health-Related Quality Of Life That Meet Or Exceed Normative Values In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Refractory To TNF Inhibitors In Post Hoc Analyses Of A Phase 3 Trial. Abstract presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 in Madrid, Spain. Abstract number: SAT0182.5. Strand, V., et al. Improvements In Health-Related Quality Of Life With Sirukumab Are Statistically Significant, Clinically Meaningful, And Meet Or Exceed Normative Values In Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients With Inadequate Response To Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs: Post Hoc Analyses Of A Phase 3 Trial. Abstract presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 in Madrid, Spain. Abstract number: FRI0246.6. Dasgupta, B., et al. The Effect Of Sirukumab Plus Methotrexate On Circulating Biomarkers Of Joint Destruction In Moderate To Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients From The SIRROUND-D Phase 3 Study. Abstract presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2017) in Madrid, Spain. Abstract number: OP0103.7. Tanaka, Y., et al. Efficacy of Sirukumab, an Anti-IL-6 Cytokine Monoclonal Antibody, Based upon Prior Use of Non-Anti-TNF Biologics in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis Despite Anti-TNF Therapy: Results from a Global Phase 3 Study, Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/Association for Rheumatology Health Professionals Meeting (ACR/ARHP 2016), Abstract 59315.8. Suresh E. Diagnosis of early rheumatoid arthritis: what the non-specialist needs to know. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2004;97(9):421-424.9. Kavuncu, V., Evcik, D. Physiotherapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Medscape General Medicine. 2004;6(2):3.10. World Health Organization. "The Global Burden of Disease: 2004 Update," p. 32. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_bu rden_disease/GBD_report_2004update_full.pdf. Accessed 08 November 2016.PHEM/SIR/0517/0006June 2017ots Originaltext: Janssen EMEA Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.deContact: Emily Bone +44(0)7876-394360 ebone1@its.jnj.com Brian Kenney +1-215-628-7010 bkenney1@its.jnj.com Investor Contacts Lesley Fishman Johnson & Johnson +1-732-524-3922 Joseph J. Wolk Johnson & Johnson +1-732-524-1142 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 14, 2017) - XBRL Canada is pleased to announce that it will be holding a Workshop on June 19, 2017 from 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM at the Offices of CPA Canada 9th floor, 277 Wellington St, Toronto, Ontario. The Workshop will be geared towards SEC Reporting Issuers and address the SEC announcements on March 1, 2017 regarding XBRL for IFRS Reporting Issuers and the SEC announcement regarding Inline XBRL. Rule 33-9002 of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires all US domestic and foreign private issuers who submit financial reports using US GAAP or IFRS to the SEC to provide financial statement information in XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language). While US GAAP filers have been providing XBRL versions of their reports for many years now, IFRS filers were unable to comply because of the lack of a supported IFRS taxonomy. In March, 2016, the SEC announced support of the IFRS taxonomy, a move that brings into force the SEC rule for IFRS users. In this session, you will learn: How the SEC's support for the 2016 IFRS Taxonomy means IFRS Filers will be required to provide XBRL, and when. What filers and those that support them need to know about Rule 33-9002, the EDGAR Filer Manual, and other resources to help prepare XBRL files. About Inline XBRL, and plans that may impact all XBRL filers, including experienced US GAAP Filers and new IFRS Filers. The workshop will be presented by an internationally known XBRL specialist who has been involved in educating the XBRL community on behalf of XBRL International, XBRL US and XBRL Canada for many years. CPA Credit is available for this event. To Register for this event, click here or visit http://xbrl.ca/63-slider/176-slide-4 About XBRL Canada XBRL Canada (www.xbrl.ca) is the Canadian jurisdiction of XBRL International and largely funded and administered by CPA Canada. The purpose of XBRL Canada is to provide support and encouragement for the adoption of eXtensible Business Reporting Language in Canada. XBRL is widely used around the world and recognized as the leader in advanced electronic business and financial reporting. To strive towards its goals, XBRL Canada holds seminars and webinars and issues various publications, including its bi-monthly Newsletter. It also leads projects to test and explore XBRL usage in various settings. For further information, please contact: XBRL Canada, Gerald Trites, Project Director, (416) 602-3931, Email: gtrites@cpacanada.ca DUBAI, UAE, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With the majority of the world population growing concerned with what they consume and what are the actual constituents of the food that makes it to their plates, the debate of food safety and crop growing practices has never been more intense. Individuals are inclined to eat more healthy produce, even when they are dining out, giving rise to a host of restaurants that promise 'organically grown' food ingredients in their cuisine. Indeed, organic farming methods have gained immense popularity over the past few years and are often compared to Hydroponics to ascertain which is a more viable and healthy form of agriculture. With the rise of the internet, information seems to be available at fingertips for everyone. Yet in the debate of Organic farming vs. Hydroponics, there seems to be a host of misinformation. This article aims to uncover some of the myths and paint a clearer picture of why Hydroponics is a superior option to organic farming. To begin with, it's probably imperative to understand the process behind what organic farming and Hydroponics actually entails. Hydroponics is described as the process of growing plants or crops in water without the use of soil, while organic farming involves choosing not to use inorganic fertilizers in the growing process. In order to be considered certified organic, a plant can be grown using only unrefined minerals. The issue however is that a number of these unrefined minerals, although natural, can be toxic in nature. For example, mined phosphate contains excessive amounts of fluoride and radioactive radium, both of which can be extremely harmful to humans. Even the use of organic fertilizers such as manure, poses the risk of E-coli and salmonella outbreaks. On the other hand, Hydroponics plants are grown in nutrient solutions usually indoors, completely free from chemicals and pesticides making them much safer. Plants also grow quicker in Hydroponic farming thanks to the controlled environment, in turn the crop yield is significantly increased leading to more production from same amount of space. There is a growing body of evidence that seems to indicate that closed-loop water recirculation systems like hydroponics and aquaponics (the coupling of fish production with vegetable production) may in fact offer an advantage over soil-based organic growing since the water chemistry of both these systems can be manipulated to boost natural plant bioactives for health benefits. Thus plants grown through Hydroponics have better nutritional value. It has been proven that vitamin content is 50% more in hydroponically grown plants as compared to conventional ones. Dubai based, Pegasus Agriculture Group highlights that the similarities between organic farming and Hydroponics boil down to the fact that both farming practices aim to protect the earth's fragile environment. However, there are some ways in which Hydroponics manages to triumph over organic agriculture in environmental protection endeavors. It uses 90% less water than traditional agriculture hence conserving the world's most important resource from depletion. It also manages to prevent soil from degradation, preserving valuable top soil for plants that cannot be hydroponically grown. Given all the added benefits of Hydroponics, the bottom line when it comes to the organic farming and Hydroponics debate is the fact Hydroponics manages to better the former in numerous ways making it a considerably more attractive agricultural method of growing plants. If you are interested to know more about Hydroponics in your region, visit www.pegasusagriculturegroup.com. Pegasus Agriculture is the leading provider of Hydroponic solutions in the countries of the MENA region. It remains committed to innovation and technologically advanced farming practices, while helping countries to attain food security. Media Contact: pr@pegasusagriculturegroup.com BOISE, ID--(Marketwired - June 14, 2017) - Mountain America Credit Union is inviting all families to come and enjoy Meridian Dairy Days at Storey Park and Meridian Speedway in Meridian from June 22-25, 2017. Activities will begin with a pancake feed, Old Macdonald's Farm, and carnival rides opening at 4:00 p.m. Thursday, June 22, and ending with the Meridian Speedway CWI Races at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 25, 2017. Friday has a multitude of events scheduled, including the National Guard rock wall, the Meridian Pool Bash from 3:00-5:00 p.m., the Real Dairy Parade at 6:45 p.m., and a free fireworks show at Meridian Speedway at 10:30p.m. Saturday activity highlights include a fun run, cattle and goat show, art festival in Storey Park, and more. Food vendors will be on site throughout the days Friday and Saturday. "Idaho is such a great place to live because of the people within the communities we serve," says Vice President of Branches for Idaho, Tim Toy. "That's why we're excited to support the long-held family-friendly celebration of Dairy Days. It has become a tradition for so many families to enjoy, and we are proud to help it continue to grow year after year." For carnival ticket pre-sale locations, activity schedules, and more information about Dairy Days, visit www.dairydays.org. About Mountain America Credit Union With more than 650,000 members and $6.4 billion in assets, Mountain America Credit Union assists members on the right path to help them identify and achieve their financial dreams. Mountain America provides consumers and businesses with a variety of convenient, flexible products and services, as well as sound, timely advice. Members enjoy access to secure, cutting-edge mobile banking technology, 87 branches across five states, thousands of shared-branching locations nationwide and more than 50,000 surcharge-free ATMs. Mountain America-safely guiding you forward along your financial journey. Learn more at www.macu.com. Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2017/6/13/11G141050/Images/dairy_days-54d01c489e4d9d1ab3077f6b10f0960d.jpg Media Contact: Angela Nelson (208) 493-0131 Email contact SMITHTOWN, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- iGambit Inc. (OTCQB: IGMB), announced that Robert Randelman has joined its Senior Advisory Board. Dr. Robert (Rob) Randelman, Ph.D joins Dr. Benedict S Maniscalco as a member of its Senior Advisory Board effective June 15, 2017. This follows the acquisition of HubCentrix and the CyberCare Health Network Chronic Care Management System. Both companies operate as HealthDatix, Inc. The goal of HealthDatix is to identify the patient's eligibility for Medicare reimbursed doctor visits to access and assist in the well-being and cultivation of a healthy lifestyle. Additionally HealthDatix will be able to provide an FDA approved, Medicare covered platform, for continuous management of chronic care patients. Our continuous care platform will be tailored for individual care and health management of patients susceptible to chronic illness. This will include CyberCare's wearable medical watch. The addition of Dr. Randelman to iGambit's Advisory Board brings on a senior executive with strong technical, management and international experience with a record of growth in technically-based businesses. As a company Chairman and CEO/President he drove strategy in M&A, IP Licensing, market expansion and technology development. Efforts that resulted in dynamic growth with P&L responsibility for a company with over $140 million annual revenue, and over 500 employees in 7 countries. He has been successful in developing international markets in Latin America, Europe and China. Currently, Dr. Randelman is Chief Executive Officer of Trident Science, LLC, a privately held scientific products and consulting company. Prior to his current role, he was the Divisional Chief Executive and Executive Board Member for Halma, PLC. His career has spanned global executive roles in sales, marketing, operations and technology with Ocean Optics, Inc, VeriFone, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Corp and Exxon-Mobil Corp. Dr. Randelman earned a BS degree in Chemistry/Physics from Ursinus College, as well as Masters and Ph.D degrees in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University. Regarding publications and Patents, Robert's credits include: over 20 papers and publications in diverse areas of science, technology and technology management; also, one patent and 12 registered processes, spanning a wide range of technologies. John Salerno, Chairman of iGambit: "We are very pleased and honored to have someone of Robert Randelman's caliber join our Senior Advisory Board. His management and work experience, together with others that will be joining us, will set a standard by which we deliver excellence in services and technology as we move forward." About iGambit Inc: iGambit (OTCQB: IGMB) is a fully reporting publicly-held company. We are a company focused on pursuing specific medical strategies and objectives. These objectives have included, among others, the acquisition of medical technology companies with strong growth potential easily recognized in the public arena. We believe that the back-ground of our management, our Board of Directors and our Advisory Board in the medical and technology markets is a valuable resource that makes us a desirable business partner. We expect to work to assume an active role in the development and growth of the new company, providing both strategic guidance and operational support. The management of iGambit believes that it can leverage its collective expertise to help position the combined company to produce high-margin, recurring and predictable earnings and generate long-term value for our stockholders. For more information, please visit www.igambit.com. Information on our web-site does not comprise a part of this press release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this document and elsewhere by iGambit are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such information includes, without limitation, the business outlook, assessment of market conditions, anticipated financial and operating results, strategies, future plans, contingencies and contemplated transactions of the company. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause or contribute to actual results of company operations, or the performance or achievements of the company or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed, or implied by the forward-looking statements. In addition to any such risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed elsewhere herein, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause or contribute to actual results differing materially from those expressed or implied for the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to fluctuations in demand; changes to economic growth in the U.S. and U.S. government policies and regulations, including, but not limited to those affecting the medical fertility clinic industry. iGambit undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth in iGambit Inc.'s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investor Relations Contacts: Bill Robertson 604 837 3835 MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- RedQuest Capital Corp. ("RedQuest") (TSX VENTURE: RQM.H) is pleased to announce that it has received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") in respect of its qualifying transaction (the "Transaction") with Harfang Exploration Inc. ("Harfang") pursuant to Policy 2.4 - Capital Pool Companies of the TSXV. In accordance with a merger agreement dated June 13, 2017, 9361-5029 Quebec Inc. ("Subco"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RedQuest, will amalgamate with Harfang. Prior to closing of the Transaction, it is intended that RedQuest will RedQuest will proceed to a share consolidation on a four (4) to one (1) basis (the "Consolidation") and will change its name to "Harfang Exploration Inc". The Transaction is expected to close on or about June 22, 2017 (the "Closing Date") and the common shares of Harfang are expected to commence trading on the TSXV on or about June 30, 2017. Filing Statement In connection with the Transaction and pursuant to TSXV requirements, RedQuest has filed a filing statement dated June 14, 2017 on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). Summary of Information on Harfang Name and Incorporation Harfang was incorporated on March 17, 2016 pursuant to the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) (the "QBCA"). The registered head office of Harfang is located at 1100, avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec H3B 2S2. Harfang is a mining exploration company, whose primary mission is to discover new gold districts in the province of Quebec. Harfang's development model is based on the generation of new mining projects and on the establishment of partnerships with major exploration and mining companies to advance its mining projects. The authorized capital of Harfang consists of an unlimited number of common shares (the "Harfang Shares"), of which 16,217,333 Harfang Shares are currently issued and outstanding. Material Property: Lake Menarik On June 23, 2016, Harfang acquired from Osisko Exploration James Bay Inc. the Lake Menarik Property in consideration of the issuance of 5,000,000 Harfang Shares at a deemed price of $0.10 per Harfang Share ($500,000). The Lake Menarik Property is located in the James Bay area (Eeyou Istchee) of northern Quebec (NTS sheet 33F06), 1,340 km north from Montreal, 44 km SSE from the village of Radisson and 8 km from the intersection of the James Bay and Trans-Taiga roads. The property consists of two (2) blocks of claims 100% owned by Harfang. The Lake Menarik Property is subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty which Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd ("Osisko") is retaining. Harfang plans to carry a recommended work program, in two (2) phases, on the property for an aggregate amount of $855,000. Selected historical financial information for Harfang ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Initial 320-day period ended January 31, 2017 Financial Data ($) (audited) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net sales or total revenues $Nil ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating Loss $264,857 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net loss and comprehensive loss $260,523 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total assets $1,579,364 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total liabilities $33,201 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash dividend declared Nil ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Equity $1,546,163 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Principal shareholder Osisko currently owns 5,000,000 Harfang Shares (30.8% prior to giving effect to the Transaction). Principal Terms of the Merger Consolidation Prior to the Closing Date, RedQuest will proceed to the Consolidation on a four (4) to one (1) basis, following which: a. 1,947,355 RedQuest Post-Consolidation Shares will be issued and outstanding; and b. 135,625 RedQuest Post-Consolidation Options, each exercisable to acquire one (1) RedQuest Post-Consolidation Share at a price of $0.40 per share, will be outstanding. Debt Settlement Liabilities outstanding on the Closing Date payable to two (2) directors of RedQuest, Andre Le Bel and Guy Le Bel (excluding interests accrued thereto, which shall be payable in cash), will be settled on the Closing Date through the issuance of RedQuest Post-Consolidation Shares. It is expected that 325,198 RedQuest Post-Consolidation Shares will be issued at a price of $0.25 per share for settlement of the due to related parties. Amalgamation On the Closing Date, Harfang and Subco will amalgamate (the "Amalgamation") to form "Menarik Exploration Inc." and continue as one corporation under the QBCA. Each one (1) Harfang Share will be exchanged for one (1) RedQuest Post-Consolidation Share at a deemed price of $0.25 per share, so as following the Amalgamation, the Harfang Shareholders will receive a total of 16,217,333 RedQuest Post-Consolidation Shares. Continuance under the QBCA On the Closing Date, RedQuest will proceed with its continuance under the QBCA and change its name for "Harfang Exploration Inc.". Harfang Concurrent Financing The Transaction is subject to Harfang completing a minimum financing of $500,000 by way of private placement. As of the date of this press release, it is expected that the financing will exceed the initial $500,000 minimum offering. Harfang has set a maximum of: a. 8,800,000 units of Harfang (the "Harfang Units") ($2,200,000), at a price of $0.25 per Harfang Unit (each Harfang Unit being comprised of one (1) Harfang Share and one half (1/2) of a common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will be exercisable into one additional common share for 24 months from the closing date of the private placement at an exercise price of $0.40 per share; and b. 2,250,000 "flow-through" common shares of Harfang (the "Harfang Flow- Through Shares") ($900,000), at a price of $0.40 per Harfang Flow Through Share; for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $3,100,000. Management and Board of Directors of the Resulting Issuer Upon completion of the Transaction, the resulting issuer's management and board of directors will consist of the following individuals. Francois Goulet, President and Director Mr. Francois Goulet owns a MSc degree in structural and economic geology and has extensive international experience in advanced mining projects developed in tropical and northern environments. Mr. Goulet has worked for Virginia Mines Inc., Unigold Inc., Canadian Malartic General Partnership, Glencore Canada Corporation and for several junior companies. He teached economic geology at Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). He is also supported by the Mine d'Avenir committee, a network of people involved in all aspects of mining exploration and development formed to promote the upcoming generation of mining entrepreneurs. Andre Gaumond Andre Gaumond is currently a director of Osisko. Until November 2016, Mr. Gaumond had been acting as Senior Vice President, Northern Development and Exploration and Director of Osisko. Mr. Gaumond had been President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Virginia Mines Inc. from November 2005 to February 2015 and was President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Virginia Gold Mines Inc. from June 1996 to March 2006. Mr. Gaumond is a geological engineer with a master's degree in geological economics. He worked as a geological engineer for several organizations and as a mining analyst for several institutions. Over the past 16 years, Mr. Gaumond received, on behalf of Virginia, no less than 16 awards such as Quebec Prospector of the Year (twice) bestowed upon important work carried out in the James Bay region. Jean-Pierre Janson Jean-Pierre Janson has been Managing Director, National Wealth Management, with Richardson GMP Limited since January 2005. He also acts as a director and Chairman of the Board of Midland Exploration Inc. since 2005. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Janson has acted as Managing Director of CIBC Wood Gundy Financial Services (Quebec) Inc. (Eastern Canada) and held senior management positions with Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. and Midland Walwyn Inc. He also acts as director of Tri Origin Exploration Ltd. since May 2004 and as trustee of BTB Real Investment Trust since September 2007. In addition, he serves as a director of Corporation de developpement Sidex, the limited partner of SIDEX Limited Partnership. He maintains a strong relationship with the resource industry and the financial community. Frank Mariage Frank Mariage joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP's corporate law group in June 2012. Mr. Mariage practices in securities, corporate and mining law. He mainly represents mining companies and accompanies them in the process that leads to the discovery, sale or mining of mineral deposits in Canada or abroad. Mr. Mariage is listed in the Canadian Lexpert Directory in the mining law sector since 2012 and in the directory Best Lawyers in Canada in the national resources sector since 2011. Since 2014, Mr. Mariage also serves as the Chairman of the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association (AEMQ). He also gives lectures for the TSXV on how to manage companies that are listed on a stock exchange. Robin Villeneuve Robin Villeneuve presently acts as Chief Financial Officer of Opsens Inc. He has recently worked as Chief Financial Officer of Federal Fleet Services Inc. and has acted as Chief Financial Officer of Virginia from June 2008 until February 2015. In the 13 preceding years, Mr. Villeneuve held positions with various levels of responsibility at AbitibiBowater, acting successively as Director of Financial Reporting and Manager, Controls and Manufacturing Accounting. Mr. Villeneuve obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration - major in Accounting, from Laval University, Quebec City, and is a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agrees du Quebec, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada and the Association of Certified Corporate Directors. Sylvie Prud'homme Sylvie Prud'homme is a geologist. She holds a BSc in geology from the University of Montreal and is a member of the Ordre des geologues du Quebec. From 1979 to 2005, she worked both in Quebec and abroad, as a geologist in charge of exploration projects and mine development, and as a manager of oil and gas exploration projects. She has worked in various mining and exploration companies, consulting firms and for various companies and government agencies. From 2005 to 2015, she participated in the development of Osisko Mining Corporation and Osisko where she held the position of Director of Investor Relations. From June 2010 to June 2013, she acted as a director of Matamec Explorations Inc. Yvon Robert, Chief Financial Officer Mr. Robert is a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agrees du Quebec, CPA, CA since 1996, and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting since 1994. Since 2016, Mr. Robert provides financial reporting and accounting services to several junior public companies in the mineral exploration business. From 2011 to 2016, Mr. Robert held the position of Vice President, Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Strateco Resources Inc. He also held the position of Chief Financial Officer at Opti-Coating Laboratories Inc., as well as of Finance & Administration Director at Vision2 International Inc. from 2000 to 2009. Marc Pothier, Corporate Secretary Marc Pothier focuses primarily on securities, corporate finance and mining law. He has participated in numerous initial public offerings, exchange listings, private placements, mergers, arrangements, spin-offs, reorganizations, takeovers and qualifying transactions conducted by a large number of issuers. Marc Pothier is consistently ranked as a leading lawyer in the area of mining and natural resources law. He is included by the Best Lawyers in Canada Directory since 2008 and in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory since 2012. Marc Pothier was named the Best Lawyers 2015 Natural Law "Lawyer of the Year" in Montreal. Not a Non-Arm's Length Qualifying Transaction The Transaction is not a Non-Arm's Length Qualifying Transaction as per the Policies of TSXV. The only persons who, directly or indirectly, beneficially own more than 10% of the issued and outstanding RedQuest Shares or exercise control of such securities are Guy Le Bel (approximately 18.10%) and Andre Le Bel (approximately 16.40%). The only person directly or indirectly beneficially owning or exercising control or direction over more than 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Harfang is Osisko (30.8%). Andre Le Bel is Vice President, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary of Osisko. He is not a member of Osisko's board of directors. Andre Le Bel does not personally exercise any control over the voting rights attached to the Harfang Shares held by Osisko. Sponsorship RedQuest has obtained an exemption from the Exchange's sponsorship requirement in connection with the Qualifying Transaction. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed merger and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Notice regarding forward-looking statements Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include completion of the proposed merger and related financing, deadlines, regulatory approvals and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of RedQuest and Harfang. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that the proposed Merger or financing will be completed or, if completed, will be successful. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, RedQuest and Harfang disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, RedQuest and Harfang undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction. The securities described herein may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Contacts: Harfang Exploration Inc. Francois Goulet, President and CEO 514 940-0670 x339 fgoulet@harfangexploration.com RedQuest Capital Corp. Guy Le Bel, President and CEO 450 582-6789 RedQuestCapital@yahoo.com HALIFAX, NS -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Mobivity Holdings Corp. (OTCQB: MFON), the award-winning platform for intelligent and personalized marketing in the real world, announced today a grand opening event to commemorate their expansion into Halifax. Mobivity is celebrating their commitment to Halifax as a center for jobs and innovation with a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 14, from 4-6PM in their new office located at 1718 Argyle Street, Suite 810. Attendees include a variety of public office and private business leaders in Halifax, as well as the Mobivity leadership team and local employees. In January 2016, Mobivity -- an Arizona based technology company -- acquired LiveLenz, a Dartmouth, NS based startup with only four employees. Since then, Mobivity has added six local Haligonian innovators to the team, and achieved a big recruiting win by adding Jamil Abou Saleh, PhD, to their Halifax office as Vice President of Data Sciences. Dr. Saleh earned his PhD in Waterloo and left Loblaw, as their lead data scientist, to join Mobivity and head up the Halifax office. "Mobivity is proud to be investing in Atlantic Canada, and is incredibly excited to be contributing to the growing data and tech scene in Halifax," says Mobivity's CEO, Dennis Becker. In collaboration with local leaders, such as the Halifax Partnership, Mobivity hopes to continue to leverage and promote the excellent base of educated talent in the area. "Halifax is a thriving city, strategically positioned for global markets and with a highly educated workforce," says Mayor Mike Savage, Halifax. "I am very pleased to welcome Mobivity to the community and the opportunities this will provide for local talent." "We see great opportunity in the area," Becker added. "Halifax is key to broadening the pool of talent Mobivity can draw upon as our business grows. The diversity in our office geography, especially here in Halifax, let's us draw upon talent, ideas, and innovations that simply wouldn't be possible from one location in isolation." Halifax joins another Mobivity office in San Diego, CA, and their worldwide headquarters in Chandler, AZ. The diversity of work locations allows Mobivity to capitalize on the unique local talent each community offers, operate efficiently across time zones, and broaden their geographic exposure to partners and customers. About Mobivity Mobivity helps restaurant and retail brands grow their business by increasing customer frequency, engagement, and spend. Mobivity's SmartSuite of products -- including SmartReceipt, SmartMessenger, and SmartAnalytics -- allows brands to unlock the power of customer, employee, and POS data like never before. This creates a closed-loop marketing solution that provides SmartDATA-driven insights, attributions, and validation -- at scale -- to continually adapt and provide more personalized, relevant, localized, and targeted customer communications. Mobivity clients include SUBWAY, SONIC Drive-In, Chick-fil-A, and Baskin-Robbins. For more information about Mobivity, visit www.mobivity.com or call (877) 282-7660. Mobivity Investor Relations: Robert B. Prag, President The Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc. (858) 794-9500 Scott Wilfong President Alex Partners, LLC (425) 242-0891 Mobivity Contact: Dennis Becker Chairman and CEO (877) 282-7660 BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- The New Ireland Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IRL) held its Annual Meeting of Stockholders on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. The only proposals before the meeting were for the re-election of Ms. Margaret Duffy and Mr. Sean Hawkshaw as a director of the Fund. The proposals were carried by a significant majority. The New Ireland Fund, Inc. is a closed-end diversified investment company that seeks long-term capital appreciation through investing at least 80% of its assets in a portfolio of Irish securities. The Fund is managed by KBI Global Investors (North America) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of KBI Global Investors Ltd. and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol - IRL. For further information, please contact the Fund at (800) 468-6475 or investor.query@newirelandfund.com. The New Ireland Fund, Inc. (800) 468-6475 investor.query@newirelandfund.com VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Contact Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Contact Gold") (TSX VENTURE: C) is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated June 7, 2017, its common shares have been approved for listing by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"), and that the trading of the shares will commence at market open on June 15, 2017 under the ticker symbol "C". Prior to listing on the TSXV, the Company completed financings raising aggregate gross proceeds of approximately C$21 million, and plans to use available funds to explore its portfolio of Carlin Trend Properties, including in particular the Pony Creek gold project in Nevada. "The listing on the TSX-V is a key milestone in the launch of Contact Gold as a dynamic gold exploration company. We are very excited to begin building a company focused on making district scale discoveries in world class jurisdictions." stated Matt Lennox-King, President, CEO and co-founder of Contact Gold. "We believe the Carlin Trend Properties serve as an excellent platform to make major discoveries as it is made up of advanced-stage, large, strategically located, district scale exploration properties on Nevada's prolific Carlin Trend, next to some of the most successful exploration projects and mines in Nevada. Out of the gate we will be dedicating our efforts on the highly prospective Pony Creek project." The Company has 50,134,497 common shares issued and outstanding, of which approximately 37% are held by an entity owned by Waterton Precious Metals Fund II Cayman, LP, and approximately 15% are held by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goldcorp Inc. The Carlin Trend Properties Contact Gold's properties are made up of the Cobb Creek, Dixie Flats, Dry Hills, Golden Cloud, Hot Creek, North Star, Pony Creek, Rock Creek, Rock Horse, Santa Renia, Sno, Woodruff and Wilson Peak properties. In total, the properties represent a portfolio of 2,762 unpatented mining claims distributed over 13 gold properties covering 24,772 hectares (247 square kilometres) located on Nevada's Carlin and Independence gold trends. The properties host numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early to advanced exploration and resource definition stage as well as many excellent exploration targets. The portfolio is characterized by large strategic land positions, with extensive exploration databases comprising geochemistry, geophysics and drilling, including approximately 500 drill holes completed across the portfolio of properties. Initial Exploration Focus: Pony Creek gold property Pony Creek is Contact Gold's most advanced project and will be the focus of initial exploration efforts in 2017. The Pony Creek gold property is comprised of a total of 887 unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 7,285 hectares on the Carlin Trend in the southern part of the Pinon Range in Elko County, Nevada. The Pony Creek property hosts a previously identified Carlin type gold system and numerous targets that have been the subject of intermittent past exploration campaigns with very limited recent work completed. Pony Creek has largely been dormant since 2007, seeing limited exploration efforts since the renewed focus on the Railroad-Pinion Project to the north. Pony Creek's exploration database is extensive with a total of 202 holes having been drilled from 1981 through 2007, for a total of 38,586 meters. 12 of the holes were drilled with diamond core methods and the rest were by RC drilling. A total of 81 holes were inclined and the other 121 holes were drilled vertically or sub-vertically. Extensive drilling around historic resource areas has been completed, but much of it was RC or vertical meaning that the structural controls are not fully understood. Highlights of historic drilling, by other operators include(1): Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au g/t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-020 82.3 181.4 99.1 2.88 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including 125.0 147.8 22.9 7.17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including 134.1 140.2 6.1 15.99 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-07-19 111.3 153.9 42.7 2.59 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including 123.4 132.6 9.1 9.49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC05-02 118.9 163.1 44.2 2.38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including 120.4 129.5 9.1 7.75 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-07-16 125.0 166.1 41.1 1.98 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-037 48.8 86.9 38.1 1.74 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Including 50.3 74.7 24.4 2.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-034 118.9 147.8 29.0 2.22 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-07-20 131.1 173.7 42.7 1.46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-092 33.5 68.6 35.1 1.46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-07-21 - 45.7 45.7 1.09 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-011 83.8 97.5 13.7 3.49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-044 61.0 111.3 50.3 0.92 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NPC-1 22.9 57.9 35.1 1.27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-129 25.9 68.6 42.7 0.47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-06-03 115.8 121.9 6.1 2.68 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Historic drilling summarized in the National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Pony Creek Gold Project, Elko County, Nevada, USA" (the "Technical Report"), prepared for Contact Gold, with an effective date of March 15, 2017, and dated April 18, 2017, as prepared by Michael M. Gustin, C.P.G. of Mine Developments Associates of Reno, Nevada. See "Information Concerning Historical Resources" below. Pony Creek 2017 Exploration Program Contact Gold's 2017 program at Pony Creek will focus on generating new drill targets across the property, through systematic stratigraphic and structural mapping, soil sampling and ground based geophysical programs. These programs will target the approximate 70% of Pony Creek which has been previously underexplored in the past, much of which is interpreted to be underlain by prospective regional gold host units such as the Webb, Devil's Gate and Moleen formations. The Company will prioritize drilling in areas of previously drilled gold mineralization which have received limited follow up by previous operators. It is expected that drilling will focus on targets at Pony Creek North, Pony Creek West and areas adjacent to the historical resource in the west of the Pony Creek tenure. 2017 will see a clear focus on demonstrating the growth potential at Pony Creek, along with integrating the property into a regional targeting framework. The properties are all early stage and do not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by NI 43- 101. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate on any of the properties. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in targets on any of the properties being delineated as a mineral resource. Additional information about Pony Creek is summarized in the Technical Report and can be viewed under Contact Gold's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Mr. Spalding has not verified the technical data disclosed in this new release due to the technical data having been prepared by Mr. M. Gustin, the author of the Technical Report. Equity award The Company announces that it has granted an aggregate of 3,233,000 incentive stock options to directors and officers to purchase up the same number of common shares in the capital of Contact Gold. The incentive stock options have an exercise price of $1.00 per share, expire five years from the date of grant; 2,900,000 of the options vest in thirds over a period of three years, and 333,000 vest in quarters over a period of four years. As a result of this option grant, Contact Gold has 3,233,000 stock options issued, representing approximately 6.5% of the issued and outstanding share capital, on a partially-diluted basis. The Company also announces awarding 100,000 restricted shares to an officer of the Company. The restricted shares will vest in thirds over a period of three years. About Contact Gold Corp. Contact Gold is a gold exploration company focused on leveraging its properties, people, technology and capital to make district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin and Independence gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position is comprised of 24,772 hectares (247 square kilometres) of target rich mineral tenure which hosts numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage. Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Carlin Trend Properties. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. Information Regarding Historical Resources All scientific and technical information relating to the Pony Creek gold project is based on and derived from the Technical Report. The information contained herein is subject to all of the assumptions, qualifications and procedures set out in the Technical Report and reference should be made to the full details of the Technical Report which may be obtained from the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Disclosure of the historical estimate in this news release is derived from the Technical Report and has been judged to be relevant and therefore suitable for disclosure, however should not be relied upon. There are numerous uncertainties inherent in the historical estimate, which is subject to all of the assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare such historical estimate and reference is made to the full text of the Technical Report with respect thereto. The historic estimate of mineral resources was estimated in conformity with generally accepted CIM "Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practices" Guidelines. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There are no other recent estimates or data are available to the Company as at the date of this news release and a detailed exploration program is required to be conducted by the Company in order to verify or treat the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. Contacts: Matthew Lennox-King President & Chief Executive Officer info@ContactGold.com Andrew Farncomb SVP Corporate Development Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corporation (TSX:ASP) today announced the signing of an agreement granting medac Gesellschaft fur klinische Spezialpraparate mbH ("medac") the exclusive right to market NATESTO in 15 European countries (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Austria, Netherland and Belgium). medac is a German pharmaceutical company with business in 80 countries and more than 1,200 employees worldwide. "We are delighted to be partnering with medac for the commercialization of NATESTO in Europe," said Tom Rossi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acerus. "Their extensive reach and commercial expertise within the speciality pharmaceutical sector will be a key advantage as we aim to maximize the full potential of NATESTO. This agreement represents a significant milestone for Acerus as we continue to execute on our strategy of expanding the brand's reach on a global scale." "We are very pleased to announce this partnership with Acerus as it enables us to provide patients in Europe with an innovative product and address a medical need," said Dr. Ulrich Kosciessa, Managing Director of medac. "NATESTO is an important advance for patients suffering from hypogonadism. Its novel nasal administration and unique safety and efficacy profile represent a clear opportunity to improve patient quality of life and represents a perfect fit to our current portfolio. We look forward to working closely with Acerus as we prepare to file NATESTO for European marketing approval." Under the terms of the agreement, Acerus will receive a non-refundable upfront fee and regulatory milestone payments upon medac receiving marketing approval in certain countries as well as milestone payments based on achieving sales targets. In total, Acerus is eligible to receive up to 11,500,000 in upfront and milestone payments. Acerus will oversee the manufacturing of NATESTO and, in addition, will receive a supply price for the product. If approved, NATESTO will be the first and only testosterone nasal gel for androgen replacement therapy in adult males for conditions associated with a deficiency or absence of endogenous testosterone (hypogonadism) in Europe.1 About NATESTO (Testosterone) Nasal Gel NATESTO is approved and available in Canada for replacement therapy in adult males for conditions associated with a deficiency or absence of endogenous testosterone (hypogonadism). NATESTO is a testosterone nasal gel available in a 'no-touch' dispenser with a metered dose pump for reduced transference risk. The recommended starting dose of NATESTO in Canada is 11 mg of testosterone (one actuation per nostril) administered twice daily for a total daily dose of 22 mgthe lowest topicalgeltestosterone doseapproved in Canada. A copy of the NATESTO product monograph can be found at: http://www.aceruspharma.com/English/products-and-pipeline/natesto/default.aspx. NATESTO is also approved and available in the United States. For further information, specific to the U.S. product dosing and administration, please visit: www.NATESTO.com. About Acerus Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a fully-integrated, Canadian specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of innovative, branded products in Men's and Women's Health. Acerus' shares trade on TSX under the symbol ASP. For more information, visit www.aceruspharma.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. About medac medac is a privately held, global pharmaceutical company based in Hamburg, Germany, specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of oncological, urological and autoimmune diseases since 1970. Besides an already established product portfolio medac is dedicated to the refining of existing and the development of new therapeutic products providing patients with ground-breaking individualized treatments. medac prides itself in taking a personalized approach to medicine by supporting doctors and patients as they seek to overcome acute and persistent diseases. Notice regarding forward-looking statements Information in this press release that is not current or historical factual information may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. Implicit in this information are assumptions regarding our future operational results. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by the company at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect. Readers are cautioned that actual performance of the company is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including with respect to the regulatory approval of NATESTO in Europe and the achievement of the milestone payments by Acerus, and could differ materially from what is currently expected as set out above. For more exhaustive information on these risks and uncertainties you should refer to our annual information form dated March 7, 2017 that is available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information contained in this press release is based on our current estimates, expectations and projections, which we believe are reasonable as of the current date. You should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. While we may elect to, we are under no obligation and do not undertake to update this information at any particular time, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law. References 1. NATESTO Product Monograph, October 25th, 2016 and Rogol et al. J Andrology 2015, 4(1), 46. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614006078/en/ Contacts: Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corporation Tricia Symmes, 416-509-2116 Chief Operating Officer tsymmes@aceruspharma.com Technavio's latest market research report on the LED lighting market in Brazilprovides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2017-2021. Technaviodefines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614006194/en/ Technavio has published a new report on the LED lighting market in Brazil from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire) Raghu Raj Singh, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on lighting sector, says, "The LED lighting market in Brazil is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 14% during the forecast period. The residential and retail segments are the largest contributors to the market due to increasing demand for energy-efficient lighting systems." This report is available at a USD 1,000 discount for a limited time only: View market snapshot before purchasing Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free The top three emerging market trends driving the LED lighting market in Brazil according to Technavio research analysts are: Emergence of smart lighting Increasing urban population and households Emergence of smart cities Emergence of smart lighting Smart lighting helps save electricity by controlling the cooling, heating, and lighting. It also enables the control of appliances remotely. It helps reduce electricity expenses as it determines when exactly a light should be switched on or off. Different smart lighting networks do diverse things, but some of the popular features of smart lights include switching on when someone enters a room or change color under some conditions. Smart lighting network does all the work automatically, and programming of the lights can be done to respond to the users' commands. "The adoption of LEDs can provide significant energy savings, as well as new opportunities for integration with smart and IoT initiatives. The increasing inclination toward smart lighting in Brazil is encouraging vendors to establish strategic partnerships and to develop a smart lighting ecosystem in Brazil. In 2017, Gooee, a smart lighting startup, partnered with Brazilian LED lighting solution provider Lumicenter Lighting Group to explore the opportunities of IoT technology in LEDs," says Raghu. Increasing urban population and households Increasing urbanization in Brazil is leading to growing demand for LED lighting products to cater to the growing number of households. As the residential sector is the major revenue contributor in the LED general lighting market in Brazil, the growth of the residential sector will positively impact the market. The commercial sector in Brazil is also growing rapidly, which has led to rapid urbanization in many areas of Brazil such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The Brazilian government is investing in large-scale urban infrastructure projects, in order to meet the needs of the growing population. For instance, in 2016, the Brazilian government announced a concession of 34 infrastructure projects that will be awarded to the private sector. All these projects will require lighting sources, which will lead to an increase in the use of LED lighting, as it is more efficient than traditional lighting sources. Emergence of smart cities A smart city incorporates the combination of IoT technology and information and communication technology (ICT) in a secure manner to manage a city's assets. Smart cities can transform the life and work of its inhabitants, both economically and socially. The Brazilian government is investing in technologies such as water management, smart grids, smart street lighting, climate action plans, urban mobility, and smart parking to achieve this goal. A number of cities throughout Brazil have implemented or have begun the development of smart city projects that would be deployed in the near future. Some of the noteworthy examples of cities undertaking such projects are Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, and Curitiba. In many of the cases, smart technologies are being used to transform the existing cities. Browse Related Reports: Global UV Lamp Market 2017-2021 Global Lighting Market 2017-2021 Global Architectural Lighting Market 2017-2021 Become a Technavio Insights member and access all three of these reports for a fraction of their original cost. As a Technavio Insights member, you will have immediate access to new reports as they're published in addition to all 6,000+ existing reports covering segments like displayssensors, and embedded systems. This subscription nets you thousands in savings, while staying connected to Technavio's constant transforming research library, helping you make informed business decisions more efficiently. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170614006194/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/14/17 -- Ten Peaks Coffee Company Inc. ("Ten Peaks") (TSX: TPK) today declared a cash dividend of $0.0625 per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2017. The dividend will be an 'eligible dividend' for Canadian income tax purposes, and will be paid on July 17, 2017 to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 30, 2017. Company Profile Ten Peaks is a publicly traded company that owns all of the interests of the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company Inc. (SWDCC), a premium green coffee decaffeinator located in Burnaby, BC. It also owns and operates Seaforth Supply Chain Solutions Inc. (Seaforth), a green coffee handling and storage business located in Metro Vancouver. About SWDCC SWDCC employs the proprietary SWISS WATER Process to decaffeinate green coffee without the use of chemicals, leveraging science-based systems and controls to produce coffee that is 99.9% caffeine free. The SWISS WATER Process is a 100% chemical free water process for coffee decaffeination, as well as the world's only consumer-branded decaffeination process. It is certified organic by the Organic Crop Improvement Association. SWISS WATER Process decaffeinated green coffees are sold to many of North America's leading specialty roaster retailers, specialty coffee importers and commercial coffee roasters. SWDCC also sells coffees internationally through regional distributors. About Seaforth Seaforth provides a complete range of green coffee handling and storage services, including devanning coffee received from origin; inspecting, weighing and sampling coffees; and storing, handling and preparing green coffee for outbound shipments. Seaforth's warehouse and handling operation is certified organic by Ecocert Canada. Contacts: Ten Peaks Coffee Company Inc. Sherry Tryssenaar Chief Financial Officer 604.444.8780 stryssenaar@tenpeakscoffee.ca www.tenpeakscoffee.ca CALGARY, ALBERTA / ACCESSWIRE / June 14, 2017 / Emerald Bay Energy Inc. (TSX-V: EBY) (the "Company" or "Emerald Bay") today announced that the Company has entered into an agreement, whereby Emerald Bay will increase its interest in Production Resources Inc. ("PRI") from 10% to 75% by acquiring from Tire Oil & Gas Inc. their 65% interest in PRI for $1,727,000 U.S ($2,314,180 CDN). During the year ended 2016, PRI had an average daily production rate of 60 bbls/day. PRI is a Texas based company with its main assets, located south of San Antonio Texas, being two producing oil fields in Bexar, Atascosa, and Medina counties. PRI has its own field operating equipment, including two service rigs, which gives PRI the ability to maintain efficient operations and control costs effectively. With more than 40 surveyed drilling locations for future development, Emerald Bay will work with PRI to optimize current production while putting plans in place to drill new wells. Emerald Bay considers this acquisition to be a key step in establishing a production base in South Texas as the Company moves forward with the next phase of development of its Wooden Horse and Nash Creek plays. Emerald Bay will use funds from the previously announced (see press release dated June 6, 2017) loan agreement with L&K Tire Inc. to facilitate this purchase. The acquisition has an effective date of June 1, 2017. About Emerald Bay Emerald Bay Energy Inc. (EBY) is a diversified energy company with oil producing properties in southwest Texas as well as natural gas and electricity generation projects in Central Alberta, Canada. EBY is the operator of the Wooden Horse and Nash Creek Projects in Guadeloupe, Texas, where the Company currently owns a 27.78% working interest in those projects. In addition, the Company has numerous non-operated working interests in oil and gas properties in Central Alberta. The common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "EBY." Please visit www.ebyinc.com for more detail. For further information, please contact: Emerald Bay President, Shelby D. Beattie, by telephone at (403) 262-6000 or by email at info@ebyinc.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Emerald Bay Energy Inc. SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil, June 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ALTAVE - a Brazilian leading developer and manufacturer of aerostat based solutions - and Airstar Aerospace - a French leading designer and manufacturer of stratospheric and tethered balloons, airships and thermal protections for satellites - are proud to announce a partnership with the aim to become major players in the global tethered aerostat market. To celebrate this partnership, a press conference and signing ceremony will be held on Wednesday 21st June, from 11 to 11:30am at the Paris Air Show , in Airstar Aerospace's booth (PACA pavilion, HALL 4, Booth B78) in the presence of Brazilian and French authorities. This industrial partnership consists in the introduction of ALTAVE's tactical aerostats and ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) solutions to Airstar Aerospace's portfolio, with licensing and certification of these solutions to the European market. As a result, Airstar Aerospace becomes ALTAVE's exclusive European distributor. Romain Chabert, Airstar Aerospace's managing director, commented: "We are delighted to team up with ALTAVE, which is an innovative company with cutting edge technologies. ALTAVE brings its know-how in elliptical tethered balloons and the Latin American region, while Airstar Aerospace brings its "savoir-faire" in streamlined balloons and European market knowledge." ALTAVE's strategic execution director Bruno Avena is equally enthusiastic about the partnership: "After successfully deploying our aerostats for the RIO2016 Olympic Games security, we were looking for a strong ally to promote our solutions in Europe. Airstar Aerospace was definitely the best fit, and having them as our exclusive partner for Europe will highly benefit us, as they bring business credibility and knowledge in regulations and of local markets." "In Europe, we see concrete opportunities to work on anti-terrorism missions, base and border protection, refugee camps and urban public security, as well as new applications segments in which ALTAVE has been successfully introducing aerostat technologies such as telecom operators, oil and gas, mining, agriculture and forestry. Together with Airstar Aerospace we are now aiming to fulfil these markets expectations in Europe", explained ALTAVE's marketing & sales director Leonardo Nogueira. Summing up, Romain Chabert enthused: "From the first discussions we had at Eurosatory show last year, Airstar Aerospace and ALTAVE recognised the complementarity in their respective product range." Bruno Avena agrees: "On top of a complementary product development strategy, both companies found strong value adherence and similar goals." "Following the path of Alberto Santos Dumont, the two companies have the ambition to lead the new French-Brazilian aerostat world conquest" concludes Romain Chabert. Media contacts: Amanda P. Pinha ALTAVE Tel: +55 (12) 3913-5900 E-mail: amanda.pinha@altave.com.br Alice Clech Airstar Tel: +33 4 76 13 12 20 E-mail: a.clech@airstar-light.com Or visit: www.airstar.aero/en and www.altave.com.br/en PIKESVILLE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / June 14, 2017 / Sarubin Family Dental is honored to receive the coveted "People Love Us on Yelp" award. This recognition by Yelp is given to local businesses that have achieved the highest level of customer satisfaction, as evidenced by their history and rankings on Yelp. Since 2007, this Yelp award has been a source of great pride to businesses that have the honor of receiving it. Each worthy recipient of the yearly Yelp commendation must fulfill specific qualifications established by Yelp executives. Some of the specific qualifications necessary to receiving this recognition are held in secret by Yelp. However, getting high quality, four and five star reviews from their local community is one of the basic conditions that must be met. "Knowing these positive reviews are from our patients and relate real office experiences is one of the best feelings there is," says one member of the Sarubin Family Dental practice. "This award reflects what really matters to us: the comfort of our patients and offering the best in dental care." Sarubin Family Dental practice invites people to come in and get a tour of the new offices or to check out the before and after pictures available on their website. Founded in 1958, Sarubin Family Dental has a long tradition of providing superior family dental care, along with the latest in cutting edge technology. The practice provides comprehensive dental care, including a full range of general and cosmetic dentistry in the Pikesville, MD area. Their goal is to help patients comfortably achieve dental health by providing excellent care, a pleasant visit, and superior results. As a family dental practice, they believe in treating their patients' families like their own. Dr. Danny Sarubin, Dr. Todd Sarubin, Dr. Mary Alexander, and Dr. Deborah Caruso-Apter are all members of the American Dental Association, the Maryland State Dental Association, the Baltimore County Dental Society, and the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. The four have trained with some of the top dental specialists in the world and have gained recognition as being among the leading dentists in the Baltimore and Pikesville area. Sarubin Family Dental Associates is located at 1700 Reisterstown Rd. Pikesville, MD 21208. For an appointment, call (410) 594-9500, or visit their website at http://www.smilebaltimore.com. Contact Information: Sarubin Family Dental Associates 1700 Reisterstown Rd. Pikesville, MD 21208 (410) 594-9500 SOURCE: Sarubin Family Dental Associates Arx Defence, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based provider of a maritime security platform, raised a Series A funding round. Dreamlab Finance made the investment. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The funds secured will be used to expand adoption of its products and the roll out of its innovative container temperature tracking system. Led by CEO Josh Hutchinson, Arx Defence designs and manufactures maritime security and asset protection products, including anti-piracy and man overboard devices. The company offers: physical anti-piracy barriers have been specifically designed to prevent pirates from being able to board cargo ships at sea; and a container temperature tracking system to container and reefer cargo shipping companies. FinSMEs 14/06/2017 MacStadium.com, an Atlanta, GA-based Mac hosting authority and provider of Mac Pro private cloud infrastructure-as-a-service around the world, received a $3m debt facility. Silicon Valley Bank provided the financing. The company, which recently raised a growth capital investment from Summit Partners and Noro-Moseley partners, will use the financing for general corporate purposes. Founded in 2012 and led by Gregory McGraw, CEO, MacStadium leverages its proprietary, patented platform and dedicated servers to provide hosted cloud solutions to iOS developers in more than 50 countries around the world. With operations in Atlanta, Georgia, Las Vegas, Nevada and Dublin, Ireland, the company serves more than 2,500 customers. FinSMEs 14/06/2017 Orbex, a UK-based space launch company, raised funding from High-Tech Grunderfonds. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The company will use the funds to accelerate orbital launch vehicle development. Founded in 2015 and led by Chris Larmour, CEO, Orbex is building an orbital micro-launch vehicle to insert small satellites into low Earth orbit from Europe. All vehicle subsystems are being developed in-house, including rocket engines, avionics, guidance, software and patent-pending structures technologies. The company will launch small, micro and nano satellites into accurate low Earth orbits, regularly, on time and at a fixed price. Orbex develops and launches space vehicles from within Europe, servicing launch customers globally, and recently completed main engine hot fire tests. FinSMEs 14/06/2017 New Delhi: Four large banks that met an inter-ministerial group (IMG) today expressed concern over "stress" in the telecom sector and flagged the possibility of loan default by operators. The IMG met officials from four leading banks -- State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank on financial difficulties being faced by the telecom industry, whose debt burden stand at a whopping Rs 4.6 lakh crore. "They (banks) say that the telecom sector may be in stress and there can be defaults," sources familiar with the development said. The banks in the two-hour meeting talked about measures that can be taken to enhance liquidity. Sources further said that SBI's exposure to the telecom sector is to the extent of Rs 80,000 crore. They added that the IMG may meet the banks once more but the date has not been finalised yet. The IMG, comprising officials from ministries of communications and finance, is meeting operators and lenders to discuss financial difficulties being faced by the industry, and measures that can be taken to ease the situation. Last month, SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya in a letter to the telecom secretary had expressed concern over the stress in the telecom sector reaching "unsustainable levels". "The stress in the sector has reached highly unsustainable levels after the entry of new players and launch of free services which led to erosion of topline and EBITDA of the telecom service providers," the letter said. The letter said that the total EBITDA of the sector on an annualised basis is Rs 65,000 crore which is "clearly unsustainable" for debt of more than Rs 4 lakh crore. The bank also sought immediate and large scale intervention to "stem the slide". It has asked for deferred payment liability for spectrum to be aligned to 20 years, rationalisation of GST rates, as also licence fee and spectrum usage charges. Cancun (Mexico): Global airlines' bodies have expressed concern over the debt-ridden Air India's disinvestment or privatisation, saying such a move should not "distort" the national carrier's competitiveness or affect its alliance with global players. International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief Alexandre de Juniac, in an interview to PTI, parried questions on the proposals to privatise Air India, while observing that this was the second time such an announcement had been made. Maintaining that "we don't have a position on that (privatisation)", de Juniac said "the government can do whatever they like with the airline, provided they do something which is competitive or competition-oriented. If there is no distortion in the market, it's okay. Then do it." While the IATA has said that the national carrier's privatisation process should not "distort" competitiveness in the aviation market, the Star Alliance, of which Air India is a prime member, has said the ownership and control should not affect its network or lead to the "backdoor entry" of an airline into the grouping. Talking to PTI on the issue, Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh said, "if the ownership and effective control of Air India is within the Star Alliance family, we don't have a problem with that." "If, however, the ownership and effective control is outside Star Alliance, we will need to review the situation to see whether it is still compatible with our strategy. Because if particularly it's an airline (which takes over Air India), we don't want the acquisition of one of our members becoming a back door entry into Star Alliance," Goh said. Star Alliance is the biggest airline grouping, whose 28 member airlines serve 1,300 destinations with about 5,000 aircraft flying over 650 million passengers per year. Besides Air India, its members include Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, United, Air China, Air Canada, ANA, Swiss and South African Airways. Goh said the national carrier had big challenges, not only in terms of a large organisation, but also "lots of financing or funding challenges, that is quite high, US $8 billion." Staying afloat on little over Rs 30,000 crore bail-out package extended by the previous UPA regime, Air India is saddled with nearly Rs 50,000 crore debt and is in discussions with lenders on ways to restructure the loans. Earlier, a senior official said Air India had been bleeding due to huge debt overhang and if a solution can be reached on restructuring the debt that would be helpful. "Debt restructuring would be one important component of the process," the official said, adding that Air India has been talking to banks for the last 4-5 months. The officials remarks had come after a top government official said the Cabinet was expected to take a decision on whether to privatise Air India, whose financial situation is "very bad". "For us, as the alliance, Air India is important because India is a huge market and AI provides us with connectivity to the domestic market. That's very important for us, without which of course, it's difficult to reach many domestic destinations of India," he said. "So I think so far, so good with Air India. I think they obviously continue to enjoy a good time from the announcements to expand. They have announced Copenhagen, Stockholm, US and many other destinations," said Goh, who had earlier played a key role in getting Air India into the Star Alliance fold. Srinagar: Allaying apprehensions of the opposition and business community, the J&K government has said it would not compromise fiscal autonomy of the state and no one would be put at a disadvantage under the new GST regime. "We have made changes in federal relations with the Government of India. Other states draw powers to tax from the Constitution of India while we draw our powers from our own Constitution. Those legislative powers have not been compromised, so there is no question of compromising fiscal autonomy," finance minister Haseeb Drabu said, addressing a meeting here. Last month, the business community in Kashmir had said that it is not against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) but threatened a 'never-before' kind of agitation if the new tax regime affected the special status of the state for GST rollout. Opposition National Conference met Jammu and Kashmir governor N N Vohra on 9 June and apprised him about the party's apprehensions on the extension of Constitutional Amendment 101 to the state to facilitate the extension of the GST, saying "such a plan will have wider and irreversibly adverse ramifications on the state's fiscal autonomy and will impinge upon the residuary powers enjoyed by the state. "The opposition also sought deferment of the special session of the state legislature beginning June 17 and sought an all-party meeting to allay the fears and concerns of the "various parties and putting the entire concept in public domain so that there is an open debate with the stakeholders". The finance minister said it is for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that a constitutional amendment was required to extend a Central law to the state which will be debated in the State Assembly. "People of J&K must understand what is at stake, which is why we are holding a special assembly session," he said adding, the state government has set precedent of discussing policy issues with stakeholders and in the assembly where people send their leaders to take decisions which impact their lives. "Article 370 is safe and modalities are safe. You should recognize that we are setting a precedent. If anything, it is my understanding that the union is sharing sovereignty with the states, in the taxation space," he said. The finance minister said "we can defer the GST implementation but it will impact the business of Kashmir more than the government. In the absence of GST in J&K, no one would want to trade with us. And if they do trade, the consumer will be penalised through double taxation. Let me assure you that no one will be put at a disadvantage under the GST regime. In fact, J&K will be the first state to do GST refund for shoppers on handicrafts." He added that GST is running successfully in 198 countries. "Let me assure you that there can be no better system for traders than GST. Besides, the system of exemptions will also continue in J&K. Modalities will be worked out in coming days as there is uncertainty all across India and J&K is not unique to it over internet and other operational issues which will have to be resolved," Drabu said. Drabu said that businesses of Jammu and Kashmir would be affected if GST is not extended to the State, "It is a federal tax where J&K will be a participant. In absence of GST, there will be two taxes which will hike the costs and impact the consumers. Trade will be hampered and no one will be willing to do business in J&K," he said. Drabu said the implementation of GST is being discussed since 2002 and the law has evolved over the years. "Earlier, GST was supposed to be a single rate, single tax with no GST Council. Today, not one decision has been taken without the consultation of other states which is why I have repeatedly said that GST council is India's first truly federal institution," he said. He also said that GST would ease businesses as inspection audits will fade away and assessments will be done by traders. "States have huge powers today. Our government has done nothing in the Constitutional Amendment which takes away the legislative powers of J&K," he said. The meeting was also attended by Commissioner Secretary Finance, Navin K Chaudhary, Commissioner, Sales Tax, Kashmir, Pervaiz Khateeb, representatives of business chambers of Jammu and Kashmir regions, Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation, Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Association, Kashmir Restaurant Owners Federation, Hoteliers and other business leaders of the state. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directing banks to initiate insolvency proceedings against 12 shortlisted companies under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) that have fund/non fund exposure of above Rs 5,000 crore where 60 percent or more has turned bad is a welcome sign for Indias crisis-ridden banking sector. These accounts account a quarter of the total NPAs of the banking system. If banks manage to recover this chunk, it will give a major boost to the sector. As for other NPA accounts, which do not qualify under the above criteria, the RBI's internal committee recommended that banks should finalise a resolution plan within six months. In cases where a viable resolution plan is not agreed upon within six months, banks should be required to file for insolvency proceedings under the IBC. This is probably for the first time Indian banks have begun their NPA battle, some credible steps are taken to address the NPA menace. On paper, the gross bad loans of Indian banks are a little over Rs 7 lakh crore but in reality the actual amount of bad loans would be far higher given that there is a big chunk of restructured loans and loans that technically remain standard on the books of banks but are actually bad. According to former RBI deputy governor, K C Chakrabarty, the total chunk of all problematic loans in the banking system would be around Rs 20 lakh crore. The way RBI has directed banks to initiate IBC against high value NPA cases inspire confidence. The central bank committee has taken a common cut off in terms of loan exposure and portion of loan that has turn bad, and has not named any company in public. This partly addresses the concerns of RBI picking and choosing individual companies for punitive action. The tone of the guidelines is more or less general. But, there are few concerns are on the implementation side: One, as per the procedure, banks should approach the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for resolution. A maximum of 270 days are given for the company to work out a turn-around mechanism and repayment of loan. If the resolution doesnt work, the liquidation proceedings begin and banks and other stakeholders in the firm work out a plan to recover the money. The whole process is time bound and offers a decent exit for the promoter and minimum financial losses to lenders. But, the problem is that banks are not experts in businesses to which they lend. Unless the right professionals are involved, a resolution within nine months may not be a workable idea and can lead to bigger disputes. Two, does the NCLT, the body which deals with IBC cases, have adequate infrastructure to deal with a large number of insolvency cases? Right now, there are about 25,000 pending cases with NCLT and according to Alvarez & Marsal (read a Mint report here), it may take seven years to resolve these pending cases. There are 4,000 pending cases in the Company Law Board (CLB) that will likely move to NCLT besides 700 pending cases at Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), 5,200 winding-up and amalgamation cases in high courts and 15,000 cases in Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) related to corporates are expected to be transferred to NCLT. But with just 11 benches and 62 judicial and technical members, the report explains, NCLT will not be able to handle the mountain of pending cases, the report points out. If the NCLT doesnt have enough manpower and institutional infrastructure to deal with these cases, the hopes of faster resolution of NPA cases may not be realistic. Third, a company is pushed for liquidation after severe financial stress. Hence, in many of the insolvency cases, banks may have to take substantial losses. In the case of public sector banks, which are the major bad loan victims of Indias banking sector, the onus of recapitalisation falls up on the majority stakeholder in these banksthe government. Can the government fork out significant amount of money to compensate the losses of state-run banks? It is doubtful. According to global rating agency, Moodys Investor services, Indias public sector banks will need five times more capital than what is budgeted (read a report here). These are some of the challenges the government and the RBI will have to deal with when the bankruptcy code becomes a reality. The fact is that RBI shortlisting the 12 large defaulters is nothing new. Everyone knows where the money is stuck in Indias banking system. The key part is implementation. New Delhi: India's engineering exports to Doha have been hit following sanctions imposed on Qatar by some nations including Saudi Arabia, EEPC India said today. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain are among few other countries that announced suspension of all ties to Qatar last week over state's alleged support for extremist groups and its political proximity to Shiite Iran. Qatar however denies the allegations. "Inputs from our engineering exporters indicate that shipping lines operating between India and Doha are keeping the containers on hold. A few such incidents have been reported from Jebel Ali and Krishnapatnam ports," EEPC India said. The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India said shipments from India were being affected as the Middle East and West Asia trade has a lot of interoperability between different ports, observing that the banking channels particularly in Doha and some other parts of the region have also been disrupted. The Middle East and West Asia are one of the key destinations for Indian engineering exports, accounting for 13 percent of the country's total engineering exports. Shipments worth US $8.18 billion were destined for the countries in the region. Indias major trading partners include the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Expressing concern over these disruptions, EEPC India Chairman T S Bhasin said the Indian business and trade have a big stake in the region and it is important to keep a close eye on the fast changing situation there. The engineering shipments to the region include products like iron and steel, nonferrous metals, industrial and electrical machinery. New Delhi: India is still taking baby steps in shareholder activism, with few instances of shareholders agitating for their rights. So when IT bellwether Infosys warned its shareholders against activists in an SEC filing yesterday, just days after its famous founders reportedly threatened to sell out due to differences with the current management, it comes as no surprise. The indication towards the promoters in this filing was apparent and the company said such activism could adversely affect its ability to execute strategic priorities and could impact the trading value of our securities. The founders together hold 12.75 percent equity in the company. Led by N R Narayanamurthy, they have publicly expressed, over the last several months, their opposition to some of the decisions by the current board led by CEO Vishal Sikka. In February, Murthy criticised Chairman R Seshasayee over the boards decision to offer a whopping Rs 17.38 crore in severance pay to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal, without even informing the stock exchanges. In April, Murthy again went public with his displeasure against the boards decision to award high salary to chief operating officer U B Pravin Rao, who is incidentally a Murthy protege. And at the beginning of this week, there were unconfirmed reports that the founders are now looking to exit Infosys. All this while, Murthy has been publicly nudging Infosys to adopt what he had earlier propounded compassionate capitalism. Now, it seems the company is warning investors that compassion will kill capitalism since it has indicated that such activism by shareholders could impact the share price. In corporate India, one has seen scant patience with activism and rarely come across a publicly managed company welcoming uncomfortable questions from shareholders. The last high-profile case of a very public spat between a shareholder and an Indian company was the Coal India-TCI (The Childrens Investment Fund) case. Here, TCI was the single largest shareholder in CIL and the UK-based investment firm accused the worlds largest coal producer of several malpractices. This case dragged on for months, several court cases were filed by TCI and the government also got involved in these skirmishes. Though TCI eventually cashed out, hope of this case throwing some spotlight on agitating shareholders forcing company managements to mend their ways were belied. Now, with Infosys management obliquely referring to Murthy and company as activist shareholders it is clear that battlelines have been drawn. Some proxy advisory firms have earlier said that the Infosys founders come across as a bunch of retired professionals, meddling unnecessarily in the management of a professionally run company, and should take a back seat now. Some others have hailed the objections raised by these founders so the response to their issues has at best been mixed at most times. So, are the founders wrong in raising corporate governance issues? Surely not. Many public shareholders seem to share Murthys concerns on excessive remuneration etc. Remember, in April this year, public shareholders also seemed to favour Murthys cautious approach to COO compensation. According to Infosys filing with the stock exchanges in that month, over 32 percent or close to a third of all the shareholders who voted on a resolution to increase the COOs pay were against the proposal. But since two-third of the voters approved, the resolution was passed. The naysayers included the group Public non-institution where an overwhelming majority voted against the proposal. The BSE filing showed 67 percent or two-third of those who voted under this category comprising the general public one would presume - did not see merit in the proposal to increase the COO remuneration. Around the same time, Murthy had said in a letter to the media that he had received numerous mails raising objections to such a pay hike. No previous resolution in the history of the company has received such a low approval. Murthy himself abstained from this vote, as did other founder promoters. In that letter, Murthy had further said I have always felt that every senior management person of an Indian corporation has to show self-restraint in his or her compensation and perquisites. He or she has to fight for maintaining a reasonable ratio between the lowest salary and the highest salary in a corporation in a poor country like India.. This is necessary if we have to make compassionate capitalism acceptable to a majority of Indians who are poor. Without compassionate capitalism, this country cannot create jobs and solve the problem of poverty. Experts tell me that capitalism may come to an end in the not-so-distant future if the current corporate leaders do not heed this advice in India. Well, with the Infosys management terming shareholder activism as a threat and the founders appearing unwilling to back off from their ideological position, capitalism and shareholder wealth creation is certainly under some risk. This saga will end only if the promoters either cash out or if the management heeds Murthys advice on remuneration etc. An exclusive show on Firstpost, Shes The Boss identifies Indias leading business leaders: women who have not only broken glass ceilings but also shattered them. They have transformed industries, advocated gender equality and empowered other women through their work, words and deliberation. On Shes The Boss we are inspired by these heroic women who are driving change while emulating dignity, grit and poise. We celebrate women who enrich our lives, stand for gender progress, and believe in meritocracy. Join us on their unique and incredible journey with author Meghna Pant. In this interview we are joined by Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank. Named among the worlds most powerful people by Forbes and TIME, shes among the few women in history to head an Indian bank. A Padma Bhushan awardee, shes transformed the retail banking industry in India, broken many glass ceilings, and empowered women along the way. Shes demonstrated a commitment that goes beyond the bottom line to women, to bankers, to communities and to Indians. In this exclusive interview with author Meghna Pant, Kochhar discusses whether Indian female bankers are better off than their Western counterparts, how shes fought stereotypes, discrimination and a working mothers guilt, and how aspiring female bankers can rise to the top. "You can keep dreaming about a billion pounds; you cannot prove anything without facts." Outside the Westminster Magistrates' Court in the UK, the words from the former Kingfisher chief to reporters delivered shortly after his extradition case hearing on Tuesday, appeared more like a statement directed at the Government of India, not the crowd of mediapersons gathered. Vijay Mallya was referring to the Rs 9,000 crore bank loans he owes to a clutch of Indian banks money that was borrowed against the assets and brands of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines and on his personal guarantee. The airline became a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) to banks in 2012 when it collapsed and shut down operations, leaving hundreds of Kingfisher employees in a spot. The airline still owes crores of rupees to many of the pilots and members of cabin crew. Mallyas utterance, in a confident and defiant tone somewhat at odds with his stressed-out and exhausted expression after more than a year of 'forced exile' is no mere rant. It is a cardinal error to assume it is. Beneath the words that emit scorn and disregard to the charges of financial fraud and loan default levelled against him by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, lies the hard fact that India has so far failed to produce solid evidence to push its case for Mallya's extradition. It's not just Mallya; even the London court that heard the case took note of Indias failure so far to produce strong evidence. "Are Indians normally very prompt in their responses? They have taken six months so far and we haven't got any further forward in the past six weeks," said Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot. The judge was further quoted by The Times of India as saying, "If there is still no sign of the evidence, then April 2018 is a possibility (for the full hearing). If we have everything, then it may look like December." Why have investigating agencies not produced the requisite evidence as even after being granted six whole months to do so in a case that has been on the boil for a few years back in India? The only possible theory here is that the Indian investigators, including the CBI, might not have strong evidence that proves an element of criminality in Mallyas case. This possibility was covered in an an earlier Firstpost article that was published back in April last year, shortly after Mallya left for the UK. Before revoking his passport and moving an extradition request to the UK, India should have done its homework and put together a foolproof case, also considering that UK laws are far more stringent when it comes to extradition. The Mallya-Kingfisher case has grown far beyond a typical banker-borrower loan default case and has become something of a diplomatic issue between the two countries, and a prestige issue for Indian investigators. Beyond waging a legal war on Indian investigators and the banks on the 'billion pounds' he owes, Mallya is also fighting a psychological battle with the Indian government, in which the billionaire has a clear upper-hand so far. Mallyas stance has remained unchanged ever since he left for UK. "By taking my passport and arresting me, they arent getting any money," Mallya said in one of his media interviews around a year ago and thats what he means even now by his "keep dreaming about a billion pounds" remark. No amount of so-called 'media witch-hunts' and public booing will defeat him in this psychological battle; only hard evidence can do that. The ball is in Indias court now. The country let the bird fly to safer skies leaving holes in the net. The only chance for India is if it works overnight and furnishes all the evidence to nail the elusive industrialist at the earliest, so that it can make a strong case in the December hearing until which point Mallya is out on bail or let the whole episode be extended to another year. The sad part is that even if India wins the legal war with Mallya, say after another year, banks are unlikely to make any significant recovery from the Kingfisher account. The value of money at stake is growing every passing day with accumulated interest amount on the principal. Even if, say, India wins the extradition case in the December hearing, it will take at least a few months to a year to complete the proceedings. By then, Kingfishers remaining assets and collateral in the custody of banks wont have any value left that's worth the struggle. Remember, banks have so far not managed to sell even Kingfisher House a prime real estate property right in the middle of Mumbai and has settled for a much lower value while auctioning the Goa Kingfisher Villa compared to the market price. The notion of banks making any recovery by auctioning the brand and trademarks of Kingfisher Airline is almost laughable. Only an entrepreneur in self-destruction mode would want to go for a brand that has been in the media for all the wrong reasons. According to this Economic Times report that cites a State Bank of India internal report, the bank now expects to take a hit of around Rs 900 crore on this account. Kingfisher is a lost a battle for banks already. At a closer look, the blame primarily falls on the lenders themselves for aggressively taking exposure to an airline that did not make a profit in the eight years of its existence. Worse, the lenders did so without even ensuring there were adequate recoverable bits of collateral in case of a loan default. In fact, there were no guarantees beyond the word of one flamboyant liquor tycoon. Actor-producer Ajay Devgn is reportedly coming up with a television show based on the life of yoga-guru Baba Ramdev. For the project, Devgn will be collaborating with filmmaker Abhinav Shukla, reports Mumbai Mirror. The report suggests that the television show will be named Swami Baba Ramdev: The Untold Story, and would entail the entire journey of Ramdev and his associate Balakrishna - from being ordinary citizens to becoming global icons. It is also reported that the show is expected to go on floors by the end of 2017. Apparently, actor Vikrant Massey, who is riding high after the applauds garnered by his film A Death in the Gunj, was roped in to play the role of Ramdev in the show, but somehow things didn't work out between the actor and the makers. According to a Filmfare report, Massey had in fact already got into the look, by growing his hair and beard. He was reportedly also meant to spend some time with the yoga-guru to pick up the nitty-gritties and also learn some Yoga postures and techniques, in order to don the role as convincingly as possible. But, he moved out of the show citing personal reasons. Massey spoke to Mumbai Mirror and confirmed the news by saying, "Yes I had started prep but have since opted out for personal reasons. I wish the team luck." Ajay Devgn is currently busy with his upcoming projects - Baadshaho, directed by Milan Luthria and Rohit Shettys Golmaal Again. Indu Sarkar, award-winning director Madhur Bhandarkar's film on the Indian emergency of 1975 is all set for a 28 July release. As it inches closer to the release, the buzz around the film has shot up after actor Neil Nitin Mukesh tweeted out his look in the film. Mukesh plays the role of Indian politician Sanjay Gandhi. The film also stars Kirti Kulhari, Supriya Vinod and Anupam Kher in integral roles. Here's his tweet: In the poster, Mukesh looks uncannily similar to the role he is playing. The actor who was last seen in the crime thriller Wazir, called the role the 'most daring' character he has ever played on screen. Supriya Vinod will be playing former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi in the film. Both the actors looked unrecognizable in a photo that was released by the team of Indu Sarkar. Since Indu Sarkar is a highly political piece of work set in a very important era of Indian politics, it will be interesting to see how people react to it. Speaking on the issue, Bhandarkar said Indu Sarkar is definitely on Emergency. One should wait for the trailers to know the political reaction about it, according to a Hindustan Times report. Mukesh and Bhandarkar had earlier worked together in the 2009 prison-drama Jail. The trailer of Indu Sarkar will be out on 16 June, 2017. Tragedy films are, quite often, sad in tone by virtue of only their plot (and not other aspects, like acting) and we may or may not connect to them. A tragedy film that is successful is one where you instantly connect to and empathise with the characters, and feel heart-broken when they are not happy. The School Bag, starring Rasika Dugal and child actor Sartaaj RK manages to make you feel all these things in just 15 minutes. This short film is about a loving but not indulgent mother and her son, who tries very hard to get his way, but behaves himself out of love for her. The son, Farooq, insists that his mother buy him a new bag and when she disagrees, he throws a fit. She eventually does end up buying it for him, but regrets this decision in retrospect. It chronicles the events of one day and night, but exposes the viewer to several aspects of their relationship, such as a possible poor financial situation and a strained marriage. The School Bag truly shines in those shots where the equation between Dugal and Sartaaj's characters is shown without the use of dialogues, relying more on slow-motion visuals and music. It also manages to humanise both characters at a time when everything Pakistani is looked at with suspicion, and it achieves this through a subtle but powerful manner. You will not imagine that the story is set in Pakistan until you are told that they live in Peshawar, because the focus is the bond of the protagonists. In a sense, this allows the viewer to empathise more with the mother. Rasika seems comfortable in her role, but the real star is Sartaaj and you can tell that he is a good actor by the way he emotes in various scenes, such as the namaaz one. It doesn't hurt that he has great screen presence and an adorable face, but sadly, the lines given to him sound a tad bit too mature for a child. This makes his character seem too scripted at times. This film is reminiscent of the story-telling style of many Partition writers, like Gulzar and Saadat Hasan Manto. It juxtaposes the gentleness and warmth of the mother-son relationship with the tragedy of terrorism, and the pathos at the end when the child's school bag is delivered is natural. Watch The School Bag here: Director Vikram Bhatt says his new movie 1921, which he started shooting in Britain last month, will set a new precedent as far as the horror genre in Bollywood is concerned. Zarine Khan is headlining the films cast with actor Karan Kundra. "The point is to just not scare but to make the audience feel for the characters and to want them protected. 1921 is a film that goes beyond the genre. Why cant the villain of a great love be a great evil," Bhatt said of the film, in a statement. The film revolves around the lead cast dealing with their dark pasts and secrets to secure their present and future. It is about a struggle between life and death, and is based entirely in Britain. Bhatt had also cast Zarine Khan for 1920. He says about working with Zarine Khan again for this film, "1920 films are set in a period time zone and they require a certain body type for actors. The body type, body language should be such that they look right in any era. Zareen, that way, is timeless. She is perfect for the role." This is not Bhatts first tryst with the horror genre. He has worked on the Raaz series, Haunted 3D among others. The film 1921, like 1920, will have a strong romantic and emotional premise between the lead pair. (With inputs from agencies) Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government is mulling a loan waiver for the physically challenged on the lines of the ambitious crop loan waiver announced by the Adityanath government for farmers. The Divyaangjan Shashaktikaran Vibhaag of the Uttar Pradesh government wants to waive pending loans worth Rs 3.88 crore. "In the next 100 days, the endeavour of the department will be to waive pending loans worth Rs 3.88 crore which were availed of by 6,821 divyaangjans (disabled). So far, loans worth Rs 1.60 crore have been paid by them. We want to waive the loans of divyaangjans on the lines of crop loan waiver announced by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath," divyangjan empowerment minister Om Prakash Rajbhar told PTI. At present, there are almost two crore physically-challenged people residing in Uttar Pradesh. "The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to make the divyaangjans self-reliant. Efforts are being made to link them with the Centre's National Skill Development Mission. The divyaangjans are also being encouraged to start their cottage industries and gradually venture into MSME (Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises) sector," Rajbhar said. "There is a proposal to provide battery-operated tricycle to the divyaangjans. There would be provision of a trolley being attached to the battery-operated tricycle. The rider can use it sell vegetables or other items. Women divyaangjans will be provided sewing machines," the minister said. He also said that the financial assistance provided to 'divyaangjans' to start their business/shops could be raised from the existing Rs 30,000 to Rs one lakh. "The state government has already increased the amount of pension from Rs 300 to RS 500 given to divyaangjans. The marriage fund (for the divyaangjan) has been raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 35,000. Apart from this, people's representatives (including MP, MLA, village pradhan) have now been authorised to issue income certificates to the divyaangjans," he said. Earlier, the divyaangjans were forced to make repeated rounds of tehsil office to get income certificates. Ration card and proof of residence as documentary proof have been done away with and replaced by Aadhaar card (which contains each and every detail), the minister said. Elaborating about another welfare measure initiated by the state government, Rajbhar said, "Till now the divyaangjans were entitled to free travel on UPSRTC (Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation) buses within the state only. Now, they will be entitled to travel free of cost on UPSRTC buses even beyond the geographical boundaries of Uttar Pradesh in the entire country." The department has distributed at least 70,000 equipment to the divyaangjans. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is expected to declare results for its MBBS 2017 entrance examination on Wednesday. Students can check the official website, aiimsexams.org, for updates. The list of candidates who qualify for counseling to the MBBS course will be displayed with their roll numbers on the official portal, NDTV reported. Once declared, the results will also be available on the website of all the AIIMS branches. The results will be declared for AIIMS courses at New Delhi, Patna, Bhopal, Jodhpur, Bhubaneshwar, Rishikesh and Raipur. The MBBS entrance exam was held on 28 May, 2017. A report from Hindustan Times stated that the result will not be communicated by phone or any other means individually. According to an official notification, the first counseling of the shortlisted candidates at AIIMS, New Delhi will be held between 3 to 6 July, 2017. As has been observed over the course of the past few weeks, the dates and times of result announcements have been frequently changed. The information above has not been independently verified. However, this article will continue to be updated to reflect official updates as and when they come in. New Delhi: Equating the killing of five Madhya Pradesh farmers with Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, the Congress on Wednesday flayed BJP chief Amit Shah's comment on the Father of the Nation and said the BJP was trying to "deconstruct" his image, ideology and thinking. The Congress said it will launch on Thursday a 'haq-mango abhiyaan' (fight-for-rights movement) for farmers in Uttar Pradesh. "A few days ago in Raipur, a man used a very light word. They are those who want to deconstruct the image, ideology, and thinking of Mahatma Gandhi," Congress leader Raj Babbar told reporters in Delhi. On 9 June, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah had referred to Mahatma Gandhi as a "bahut chatur baniya" (very clever Baniya) while addressing a gathering in Raipur in Chhattisgarh. "Farmers fighting for their rights are being shot, in the same manner in which Gandhi ji was assassinated in 1948," Babbar said while referring to the 6 June killing of farmers in Mandsaur district. Babbar said: "They fear if the thinking and ideology of Gandhi ji remains alive, their divisive politics will not work in India till then and they will have to work very hard to spread that kind of politics." Babbar, who heads the Congress's Uttar Pradesh unit, said Indians had adopted the ideology of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) and rejected the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue (Madhav Sadashiv) Golwalkar. The Congress leader said the BJP leaders must remember that Gandhi ji sacrified and renounced everything for the Chamaparan Satyagrah in Bihar (in 1917). "At that time, they (right-wing leaders) didn't come with farmers, nor are they coming with them today." Terming the Uttar Pradesh government's loan waiver announcement a "gimmick", the Congress leader said: "During state assembly polls, they shouted about waiving farm loans, but are unable to tell how much amount they waived and who all benefitted." Asserting that the Congress won't allow Mahatma Gandhi's ideology to die, the Congress leader said: "We will fight this suit-boot, band-baaja and bullet sarkar (government)." New Delhi: The AAP will hold a farmers' conference on 17 June wherein its national convener Arvind Kejriwal will hold discussions with farmer leaders on their demands. The AAP's Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said farmers were "feeling cheated" as the BJP had promised to waive their loans and ensure better prices for their crops before elections in several states. "Be it Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan or Haryana, the BJP had promised to accept all demands of farmers if voted to power in these states." "It had also promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission report on agriculture," Rai told reporters in New Delhi. However, he said, farmers have been forced to take to the streets in several states after the polls and "bullets are being fired on them". "On June 17, the AAP will hold National Farmers' Conference where party leaders, including Kejriwal, will interact with farmer leaders. In the conference, a plan for countrywide protests will be made," Rai said. He also reiterated the party's demand that cases be registered against police officers who opened fire on farmers in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district last week. Patna: A Class IX student was allegedly burnt to death by two neighbours in a Bihar village over a family dispute, sparking protests by residents demanding the arrest of the accused, officials said on Wednesday. The incident took place on Tuesday in Samastipur district when Akansha Kumari came out of her house in Harpur Bochha village and was grabbed by the two men in her neighbourhood, a police officer said. They tied her hands and legs and poured kerosene on her and burnt her alive, he said. "Akansha cried for help. Her family members tried to rescue her. But she had sustained serious burn injuries and was admitted in a hospital in Patna where she died Tuesday night," he added. When her body reached her village on Wednesday, hundreds of residents staged a protest and blocked roads, demanding the arrest of the accused who are absconding. The victim's father Sunil Kumar Rai told police that his daughter was burnt alive by "Sumit and Amit Kumar as a revenge over a dispute". "Before her death, Akansha had told her family that Amit and Sumit burnt her alive," police said. Jammu: Heavy shelling and firing exchanges between Indian and Pakistani armies took place on Wednesday on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, a defence official said. "Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms automatics and 82 mm mortars in Bhimber Gali sector of the LoC on Wednesday", defence sources told IANS. "Pakistan shelling and firing started at 5 am and continued till 5.45 am. The Indian Army responded effectively and strongly to unprovoked, indiscriminate shelling and firing by Pakistan Army". Pakistan has been violating the bilateral ceasefire with impunity during the last fortnight by resorting to indiscriminate shelling and firing, especially in Poonch and Rajouri districts. Army has said that it is being done by Pakistan to facilitate the infiltration of militants into the Indian side. New Delhi/Darjeeling: The Centre on Tuesday dispatched 600 paramilitary personnel to assist the West Bengal government in restoring normalcy in violence-hit Darjeeling hills which witnessed incidents of stone-pelting on the second day of the GJM-sponsored indefinite bandh. The Centre also sought a detailed report on the prevailing situation in the hill district from the state government. A union home ministry spokesperson said that as many as 600 paramilitary personnel, including 200 women, were sent to Darjeeling. Around 400 personnel, already stationed in West Bengal, have also been deployed in the hill areas along with additional forces. The home ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation in Darjeeling and was ready to offer all assistance to the state government to restore normalcy. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat in Kolkata that the situation in the hill district was 'peaceful'. She, however, said that the Centre did not seek any report on the Darjeeling situation from the state government. As their indefinite shutdown entered its second day to on Tuesday, protesters demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland hurled stones at the police at Chowkbazar area in Darjeeling after they were stopped from enforcing their shutdown in many government offices. Senior police officers were seen leading large police contingents in various parts of the hills. Police pickets and barricades were put up in front of the government and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) offices and various entry and exit points of the hills, while Rapid Action Force (RAF) and a sizable number of women police personnel were also deployed. Shops downed shutters as the violence broke out. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leadership, however, accused the police unprovoked lathi-charge on its procession. "The police resorted to unprovoked lathi-charge on a peaceful rally. The more they use force against us, the more intense will be the struggle for a separate Gorkhaland state," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told PTI. On Tuesday, Gorkhaland supporters vandalised government offices as the GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown forced tourists out of the picturesque hill station due to the threat of violence. The GJM, which controls the GTA, has called a shutdown of all state and GTA offices to press its demand for creation of a separate state. Giri said that a meeting of six political parties, including GJM and Gorkha National Liberation Front during the day, decided to strengthen the movement for a separate Gorkhaland. Their next meeting has been scheduled on June 20 to discuss the future course of action, he said. GJM chief Bimal Gurung said that he was in constant touch with the Centre and was hopeful that its ally the BJP would consider its demand for a separate state "compassionately". "I am constantly in touch with the central government and various ministers. I am very hopeful that they will understand our pain and struggle and will consider our demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. "The government at the Centre is our ally and they will surely consider our demand compassionately," Gurung said. BJP, he said, has always been in favour of small states. The GJM chief slammed West Bengal chief minister for calling out the Army to control the situation in the hills and advised her to stay away as "the people of Darjeeling are well equipped to take care of themselves". "My advice to Mamata Banerjee is please stay away from the hills. We don't need your charity. The people of the hills will not accept TMC's hegemony," he said. Hitting out at the chief minister for calling the Army to control the situation in the hills, Gurung said, "Mamata Banerjee is just pursuing opportunist politics. "In December last year, she had accused the Army of trying to attempt a military coup. She can do anything for the sake of cheap politics," he alleged. "We are not like her. We respect the Indian Army. Every year hundreds of youth from the hills join the Indian army," he said. Darjeeling: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) led shutdown in the Darjeeling hills entered day three on Wednesday with rallies being taken out to demand a separate Gorkhaland state and police patrolling troubled areas to quell any violence. Most shops in and around Chowbazar and Mall Road in the hill town were closed. Police was on high alert with patrolling under way in several areas. No untoward incident was reported till afternoon. The GJM, along with other hill parties, took out rallies in several areas of the hills demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland. The GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown of government and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) offices in Darjeeling hills began on 12 June. A GJM procession had marched to several government offices in Chowkbazar area on Tuesday to stop people from reporting for work. GJM supporters had turned violent and pelted stones at the police when they were stopped on Tuesday. Their call for a separate state of Gorkhaland gained momentum after six other hill parties extended their support to GJM and unanimously passed a resolution demanding a separate state. The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), an ally of the ruling Trinamool Congress, has also backed the demand for a separate state. Police pickets and barricades were placed in front of the government and GTA offices and various entry-exit points of the hills while Rapid Action Force (RAF) and a sizeable number of women police personnel were deployed. The Centre on Tuesday dispatched 600 paramilitary personnel to assist the West Bengal government in restoring normalcy in the violence-hit area. It has also sought a detailed report on the situation in the hill district from the state government. The indefinite shutdown called by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) in the northern West Bengal hills entered its third day, fuelling fresh violence in Darjeeling. The Centre had to dispatch 600 paramilitary personnel on Tuesday to assist the West Bengal government in restoring normalcy in violence-hit Darjeeling, which witnessed incidents of stone pelting and destruction of property. The protests have had a crushing impact on Darjeeling's economy, with the tourism industry taking a major hit. According to a report in New Indian Express, almost 90 percent of domestic and international tourists have stopped coming to the town due to the ongoing agitation. A group of tourists from Mumbai had to face the ire of the shutdown supporters, who stopped their vehicle and asked them to return. According to a Times of India report, panic has gripped the remaining tourists in Darjeeling as GJM workers hit the road on Tuesday, intercepting tourist vehicles. Roads were deserted; schools and colleges despite being outside the purview of the shutdown remained shut. Private cars did not hit the roads, while a section of shops did not roll up their shutters. The West Bengal government on Monday had said that it has stepped up security measures for tourists even as tour operators flayed the Trinamool Congress regime for not doing enough. On Tuesday, holding state chief minister Mamata Banerjee responsible, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had alleged that the situation had worsened due to her politics of "threat and intimidation". Coming down heavily on Banerjee's handling of the renewed flare-up in Darjeeling Hills, Chowdhury said, "her politics of vengeance" and "confusing statements" have only stoked the fire. The shutdown call given by GJM was mainly targeted at the central and state government offices, and at the hill development body, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Educational institutions and transport were kept outside its purview. The shutdown has led to spurts of violence in the state with several state government offices torched, vandalised or forcibly shut. The Block Development Office (BDO) in Darjeeling's Bijanbari, was allegedly torched by a group of GJM activists on Monday. Three GJM workers were arrested after the incident, and several others were detained. The PWD office in Darjeeling town was also allegedly set on fire, while another BDO in Darjeeling district's Pulbazar was vandalised by pro-Gorkhaland activists on day one of the shutdown. A hydro project in Sonada was ransacked by the shutdown supporters, who also forcibly shut a panchayat office at Sukna. The West Bengal hills have been on the boil for nearly a week after the GJM launched an agitation against what it called the state government's "attempt" to impose Bengali on the Nepali-speaking people of the region, even though Mamata has made it clear that there are no such plans for the hills. As the movement gathered steam, the GJM revived the Gorkhaland demand. With inputs from agencies Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in Raj Bhawan and the government appointed C Murugan as the new secretary of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in the backdrop of the ongoing unrest in Darjeeling hills. Murugan, who was the managing director of Tourism Development Corporation, will replace Donbosco Lepcha and will take over charge as GTA secretary immediately, a notification issued on Tuesday by personnel and administrative reforms and e-governance department said. Banerjee met Tripathi possibly to brief him about the situation in the hills, sources said. The state government had earlier replaced GTA principal secretary Ravi Inder Singh and brought in Barun Ray. Sources in the secretariat said that Singh was removed following numerous corruption charges against Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung-led GTA and its members. The notification said Lepcha will now be the secretary of the first land acquisition collector and collector, stamp duty, Kolkata. Deepap Priya P, who is presently the chief executive officer of Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority, will hold additional charge of executive director of GTA, the state government notification said. Tanmay Chakrabarty presently the joint secretary of the tourism department would hold additional charge of managing director of Tourism Development Corporation, it said. The hills are on the boil since 8 June when GJM supporters clashed with the police when they tried to break barricades near the Rahj Bhawan, where Banerjee was holding a cabinet meeting. As police resorted to lathicharge, GJM supporters damaged police vehicles and set some of them ablaze. GJM has revived its separate Gorkhaland demand and its indefinite bandh in Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and state government offices in Darjeeling entered its third day on Wednesday. Kendrapara (Odisha): The BJD activists in Odisha on Wednesday allegedly hurled eggs at Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram's vehicle and waved black flags in Odisha's Kendrapara district. The incident took place at Aul market in Kendrapara when the minister was on his way to take part in 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' programme at Rajkanika. Condemning the incident, Oram later tweeted. I condemned in the strongest terms to anti Adivasi mind set of BJ D who have thrown eggs on me in Kendrapara. Jual Oram (@jualoram) June 14, 2017 "The incident seems to be the handiwork of miscreants. Law enforcing agencies had tried their best to ensure peace during the union minister's visit," Kendrapara SP Dayanidhi Gochayat said. The SP said that police had earlier made preventive arrest of over 100 Congressmen near Aul after they waved black flags in protest against Oram's visit. District unit BJP president Sukant Dwivedy said, "It is an act of desperation on the part of both BJD and Congress. The resurgence of BJP following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governance at the Centre has deeply affected both the parties. This is the reason they are trying to sabotage BJP's programmes." "At least three eggs hit the minister's vehicle. Though the police were present, they handled the situation casually. Had they stopped the protesters, the unfortunate incident could have been averted," former president of BJP district unit Gyanadeb Beura said. On June 10, Congress party workers had allegedly hurled eggs at the vehicle of Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh in Bhubaneswar. Delhi police's crime branch has seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from the alleged middleman in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) leader TTV Dinakaran. Sukesh Chandrashekhar was arrested on 16 April for allegedly taking money from Dinakaran to bribe Election Commission officials to get the AIADMK's two leaves symbol for the Sasikala faction. The police seized a fake identity card with security features from Chandrashekhar. The investigators have started a probe to ascertain who gave him the ID card, a senior police officer said. The police have added Section 467 (forgery of valuable security) of the Indian Penal Code to an FIR registered in the case, he said. The offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and with the section being added to the FIR, the investigators will get 90 days to file a chargesheet in the case, he added. Dinakaran had come under the police scanner after Chandrashekhar's arrest. He was arrested on the night of 25 April, after he was questioned for four days on the trot in connection with the case. The Sasikala faction wanted to get the symbol for the bypoll to the RK Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu. The EC had, however, cancelled it after alleged irregularities were reported. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented the constituency. The EC had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after the two factions of the party one led by Dinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam staked a claim to it. Lucknow: Aiming to corner the Yogi Adityanath government as well as the Centre on farmers' issues and the problem of unemployment, the Congress will begin a "haq mango abhiyan" (fight-for-right) yatra across Uttar Pradesh from Thursday. The march, which will cover all the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, will start from Aligarh. The party has coined slogans like "na karzmafi, na rozgar ka mauka, prachand bahumat, phir bhi prachand dhokha" (no loan waiver, no jobs; a massive betrayal after a massive mandate), for the yatra. The march will be led by state Congress chief Raj Babbar and other senior leaders will be joining it in the later phases, party general secretary and spokesman Dwijendra Tripathi told PTI on Wednesday. According to sources, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi too might join the yatra in the later phases as he is abroad presently to meet his grandmother. "The yatra is being taken out at the behest of the party vice president in order to highlight the plight of farmers and the youth and how they have been hoodwinked by this government which had promised loan waiver and jobs," Tripathi said. Farmers on Wednesday are forced to commit suicides and the youth have to migrate to other areas as the promises made to the BJP have remained unfulfilled, he said. Against the promise of two crore jobs annually, a mere 1.35 lakh have been provided in the three years of the Modi government, Tripathi said. "At this rate, it will take 500 years to remove unemployment and many generations will go jobless in the process," he said. The Congress vice president has always been at the forefront in highlighting the problems of farmers. He had also made an attempt to go to Mandsaur to express solidarity with them but the powers at the helm did not like it, Tripathi added. "Farmers today are on a warpath not only in Madhya Pradesh but also in Baghpat (western UP), Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and we are a national party and it is our duty to stand with them in their fight for their rights," he said. During the yatra, party leaders and workers will interact with the locals, hold panchayats and public meetings to get to know about their problems and tell them that the Congress was with them, he said. In the first phase, the state president will personally visit 17 districts to highlight the plight of the farmers, youth and the unkept promises of the BJP government. Babbar had earlier sent a letter to all district chiefs of the party asking them to establish contact with farmers in their area and hold protests to raise their issues in a "Gandhian" manner. In the letter, he alleged that due to the state government's "insensitive approach", farmers have to face cane-charge or firing during their protests. "You should also get in touch with farmers' organisations in your respective districts so that we can unitedly raise their problems and start a movement," Babbar had said in the letter expressing hope that the party's district units would provide momentum to the campaign. Ahmedabad: OBC leader Alpesh Thakor on Wednesday threatened to sit on an indefinite hunger strike if the Gujarat government did not announce a complete loan waiver for farmers in the state by July.The Thakor community leader claimed that out of a total of 63 lakh farmers in Gujarat, around 40 lakh were under debt. The Thakor community leader claimed that out of a total of 63 lakh farmers in Gujarat, around 40 lakh were under debt. His demand comes close on the heels of protests in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh by farmers who were pressing for loan waiver, among other things. Farmers in Maharashtra called off their agitation on Sunday after the state government announced a loan waiver. "The situation of farmers in Gujarat is no different from any other part of the country. Out of the total 63 lakh farmers, 40 lakh are under debt. If the Maharashtra government can waive farmers' loans, then why can't the Gujarat government do it?" Thakor, the president of OBC-SC-ST Ekta Manch as well as of Kshatriya Thakor Sena, asked. "I demand that the state government should announce a complete farm loan waiver. We are giving them one week's ultimatum. If our demand is not met by June 20, we will launch our stir the next day. I urge all the farmers not to pay the loan instalments till the government accepts our demand," said Thakor. Starting 21 June, farmers across the state will give memoranda to the local authorities at taluka and district levels for two weeks, Thakor, who has emerged as a prominent OBC leader in Gujarat, said. "If this does not work, I along with thousands of farmers would gather at Gandhinagar or Ahmedabad on 8, 9 and 10 July. We will sit on an indefinite hunger strike to mount pressure on the government. I urge all the farmers' unions to join hands for this mega agitation," he added. Apart from the loan waiver, Thakor demanded free water for irrigation, free organic fertiliser and formation of a joint committee of farmers and government to decide minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce. The state Congress unit has also given a call to block roads on 16 June to highlight various issues concerning farmers. However, Thakor accused both the ruling BJP as well as the Congress of playing politics in the name of farmers. "As the Assembly polls are approaching here, both the BJP and the Congress are doing their politics to woo farmers. But, both the parties will have to answer farmers as to what they have done for them so far," Thakor said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani did not give a clear answer when he was asked if the state government was mulling to waive farm loans on the lines of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. "Our government is pro-farmer. We have taken many important steps for the welfare of farmers. We are doing so many things for them and will do whatever is necessary in the future," Rupani said on Wednesday. Hyderabad: Around 30 persons were on Wednesday rescued from a lodge in Shamshabad area in Hyderabad by fire safety personnel after a five-storeyed building housing the residential facility caught fire, officials said. According to police, the fire, suspected to be caused by short-circuit, broke out on the ground floor of the building at around 5.45 am. Three fire tenders were immediately pressed into service and the flames which had engulfed the ground and the first-floor was brought under control within hours. A dispensary was functioning on the ground floor of the building while the lodge was run on the other top floors, they said. "Around 30 persons were rescued from the building. No one was injured in the incident," RGIA Police Station Inspector M Mahesh said adding based on preliminary investigation the short-circuit is suspected to be cause of the fire. Senior police officers inspected the rescue work. Further probe is on. Mumbai: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker demanded on Wednesday that the landmark Gateway of India be renamed "Bharat Dwaar" as a fitting tribute to patriots, martyrs and freedom fighters. "The days of the British rule are over now and name of Bombay has been changed to Mumbai. Many railway stations have also been renamed, so the Gateway of India should now be renamed and called 'Bharat Dwaar' henceforth," demanded six-time legislator from south Mumbai Raj K Purohit. The senior BJP leader said he had conducted informal discussions on this issues with partymen and others who expressed the desire for an "Indian name" for Gateway of India, ranked among the most famous and photographed monuments in India. Terming the majestic building as "a symbol of slavery", Purohit said he has written a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, demanding it should be rechristened to shed off the British legacy associated with it. He said it was a matter of regret that nearly 70 years after the Independence, the building continued to be known by the name symbolising the 150 years of British rule, and which ultimately proved to be "Get-away from India" for the colonial rulers. Purohit said that "Bharat Dwaar" would instill a sense of nationalist pride among all Indians on the lines of several major monuments, roads, buildings, institutions, railway stations and other locations whose names had been Indianised in the past few years. The regal Gateway of India, one of the most prominent and well-known landmarks in India after the Taj Mahal, is a "must-see" for all visitors to the country's commercial capital and is among the most-photographed as well. The foundation stone for the monument was laid by the Governor of Bombay State, Sir George Sydenham Clarke, on 31 March, 1911, at what was an erstwhile crude jetty used by fisherfolk and renovated for royal or VVIP landings at Appollo Bunder, at the southern tip of Mumbai in the Arabian Sea. The monument was to celebrate, honour and commemorate the historic visit of Britain's King Geoge V and Queen Mary to India for their formal proclamation as the Emperor and Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar, when they landed here in December 1911. A cardboard model of the proposed monument was presented to the royal couple and the final design prepared by a Scottish architect, George Wittet, was approved later. Shortly thereafter the construction of the monument comprising Hindu and Islamic architectural styles of Gujarat, commenced in yellow basalt and reinforced concrete. It was finally inaugurated by 4 December, 1924, nearly two decades after the existence of another global landmark, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, located right opposite the Gateway of India. Visitors are awed by the imposing 85-foot tall (nearly a 10-storeyed) monument combining elements of a Roman victory arch with 16th century Gujarat architecture while the arch is of Islamic style, the decorations and designs on it are in Hindu style. Lahore: The Lahore High Court will on 19 June announce its verdict in the detention case of Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed. A division bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan had reserved the decision on 7 June after the Punjab government law officer submitted a reply and Saeed's counsel advocate AK Dogar completed his arguments. "The Lahore High Court (LHC) will announce the verdict in Saeed's detention case on 19 June," a court official told PTI. According to the Punjab government's reply, Saeed and his aides Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain were detained on the instruction of the federal government for their alleged involvement in activities prejudicial to peace and security of the country. The government had also submitted the report of the judicial review board on the detention of Saeed and his aides. In his arguments, Dogar had said that the government did not produce the petitioners before the judicial review board prior to the expiry of their detention period on 30 April and extended their detention on its own. He argued that extending the detention period without the mandatory approval of the review board was "illegal". Dogar claimed the government detained the petitioners to "please India and America only". He said the courts of the country in past had declared detention of the JuD chief illegal as government failed to prove its charges against him. He requested the court to set aside the detention of the petitioners for being unconstitutional. Earlier, the three-member review board headed by justice Ejaz Afzal Khan of the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the detention of Saeed. Saeed last month had appeared before the review board and told it that he had been detained by the Pakistani government in order to "stop him for raising voice for Kashmiris". The federal interior ministry rejected his arguments and told the board that "Saeed and his four aides have been detained for spreading terrorism in the name of Jihad". On 30 April, detention of Saeed and his four aides was extended by the Punjab government for another 90 days under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The Punjab government on 30 January had put the five men under house arrest in Lahore under the Second Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The Nawaz Sharif government had reportedly acted against Saeed after the US clearly told Islamabad that in case of not taking action against JuD and Saeed it may face sanctions. JuD is believed to be the front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The organisation is accused of involvement in militant activities in India and has already been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2014. Rohtak (Haryana): A court on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant against yoga guru Baba Ramdev in a case over his remarks made in 2016 against those refusing to raise the slogan of 'Bharat mata ki jai'. The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Harish Goyal issued the warrant against Ramdev and fixed 3 August as the next date of hearing in the case. On 12 May, the court had issued a bailable warrant against Baba Ramdev. "The order follows Ramdev's failure to appear before the court yet again Wednesday. He also failed to appear despite summons and a bailable warrant," counsel for the complainant in the case OP Chugh said. Baba Ramdev had made the remarks at a Sadbhawana Sammelan here in April 2016, which was called to promote peace in the city that witnessed violence during the Jat quota stir. He had said that but for the rule of law, he would have "beheaded" lakhs of people for refusing to chant Bharat mata ki jai. On 2 March, Goyal had issued summons to Baba Ramdev after a complaint was filed by Congress leader and former Haryana minister Subhash Batra seeking registration of an FIR against the yoga guru. Goyal had then directed Ramdev to furnish Rs 1 lakh personal surety during the execution of the warrant and also to appear in court on 14 June. Ferozepur: BSF personnel have nabbed an inebriated Pakistani national who crossed the international border in Ferozepur sector, an official said on Wednesday. Identified as Mohamad Islam (32) of Bashirwala village in Pakistan, the Pakistani national was spotted by a BSF jawan late Tuesday night. He was crossing the international border and coming towards the Indian side, the official said. BSF personnel apprehended the intruder, who was in an inebriated condition. "He was not in a condition to reveal much information at the time of his arrest. Further investigations in the case are under progress," he said. Last week, a Bangladeshi national was apprehended from an area close to the India-Pakistan border in Ferozepur sector. New Delhi: Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi on Tuesday lauded the government for ratifying two fundamental global conventions on combating child labour, saying the move would help the country end forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. India on Tuesday ratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour and Convention 138 on the minimum age of employment at the United Nations. "This remarkable moment provides with an opportunity for the country to make renewed commitment for ending forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking. Let this be the last generation that has been exploited in the name of illiteracy, poverty or helplessness," Satyarthi said. The child rights activist said India is an emerging world leader and therefore in order to achieve all the Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030, children must be put at the centre of the agenda. Satyarthi, who at present is in Brazil for his upcoming mega campaign '100 million for 100 million', is the honorary president of Global March against Child Labour, which has been at the forefront of raising awareness about the need for India ratifying the ILO conventions since 1998. With 180 countries having already done so, it has also become the fastest ratified convention in the history of ILO. The involvement of these countries in the Convention clearly shows that support for the movement against child labour is gaining momentum worldwide, he said. "Now after nearly two decades, I am overjoyed that India has also decided to ratify the Convention. I congratulate our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The decision to ratify Convention 182 and Convention 138 was overdue in providing justice to our children. After the total prohibition of child labour, this is an important step in protecting all our children from exploitation and abuse," he said in a statement. "It is now the collective responsibility of everyone to ensure its implementation," he added. Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said ratification of the two ILO conventions reaffirmed India's "commitment to a child labour-free society," according to an ILO statement. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder welcomed India among the member states party to the two fundamental conventions. "We all recognise the great progress India has made against child labour in recent years and the major role played by its convergence model of coherence between public policies and services, which was strongly supported by the ILO," he said. India, the second most populous country in the world, is the 181st member state to ratify Convention No 182, which calls for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, forced labour and trafficking, the use of children in armed conflict, the use of a child for prostitution, pornography and in illicit activities (such as drug trafficking), and hazardous work. India is the 170th ILO member state to ratify Convention No 138, which requires states party to set a minimum age under which no one shall be admitted to employment or work in any occupation, except for light work and artistic performances. In a span of just over four hours, militants carried out series of attacks on Tuesday evening in Kashmir, injuring 13 security personnel. According to an NDTV report, there have been five attacks in south Kashmir and one in north Kashmir in the last 24 hours. In south Kashmir's Pulwama district's Tral, terrorists threw a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp, injuring nine jawans, a police official was quoted as saying by PTI. "Nine CRPF jawans were injured in the explosion and were shifted to the (army's) 92nd Base Hospital in Srinagar," said a police official, adding, "The area has been surrounded for searches." In the second attack, militants opened firing on security personnel guarding the residence of a retired high court judge at Anchidora in Anantnag district, resulting in injuries to two policemen, the official said. He said the ultras also snatched four service weapons from the police posted there. The third attack took place on a CRPF camp at Padgampora in Pulwama, but no one was hurt, as the grenade hurled by the militants exploded mid-air. The ultras also threw a grenade on Pulwama police station, resulting in minor injuries to one cop. On Monday evening, two soldiers were injured when terrorists attacked a CRPF camp in Pulwama. Police said they had inputs about a possible terrorist attack on Tuesday, and the information was shared with all security agencies. Last week, a civilian was injured after terrorists attacked a police convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, near Kashmir's Qazigund area. Terrorists fired at least 10 rounds of bullets, one of which hit a civilian. On Monday, soldiers deployed along the Line of Control in Poonch detected suspicious movement at around 03:30 am and engaged "Pakistan-backed terrorists", a defence spokesman told PTI. As Indian troops fired back, the terrorists returned fire and ran back across the LoC, he said. An intense combing operation was conducted, which resulted in eight rucksacks (one combat jacket each), one Underbarrel Grenade Launchers (UBGL), one binocular, one radio set with antenna, seven shawls medicines, seven ready-to-eat meals, a mobile phone, cells, personal clothing and eatables being recovered, the spokesperson said. The army had earlier claimed to have thwarted an Uri-style attack (that left 19 soldiers dead last year) by killing five militants on the LoC on Friday in north Kashmir. These militants, according to the army, were wearing "unique body-fitted IEDs", which had been earlier used by militants to carry out suicide attacks along the LoC. Although the army has been able to keep a tight lid on the infiltration attempts, Firstpost reported, one miscalculation could see another Uri-style attack in the coming days in Kashmir. "We are prepared for any eventuality. We will not allow a repeat of the Uri attack," the army officer told Firstpost. With inputs from agencies For ages, social scientists have deliberated on the presence of X-factor in individuals, which attracts a certain kind of people towards them. General Bipin Rawat, the Chief of Army Staff, appears to have an X-factor attracting a group of Left-leaning and out-of-power politicians, who unfailingly take pot-shots at him. Harsh Mander finds General Rawat "belligerent", Partha Chatterjee found parallels between him and the much despised General Dyer. Prakash Karat found General Rawat's attitude "unbecoming" and his views, "reflecting the views of the (Narendra) Modi government, which seeks to suppress the people of Kashmir, who are voicing their political protest, through the sole reliance on the use of force." It is statements like these which makes one wonder whether instead of following the national interest and the views of the democratically elected government, the Indian Army like its Pakistani counterpart should follow directives serving its personal agenda. Coming from people who openly prescribe to the Leftist ideology, such abhorrence towards democracy and its established institutions of governance is not surprising. It would be useful to hear Karat's views on the Chinese methodology of countering dissent in the restive province of Xinjiang. Banning of certain names for Muslim children, banning of veils in public, restrictions on the length of beards by Muslims and prohibition on fasting during Ramadan for public servants is not exactly a sign of a 'humane' approach, is it? And, by all accounts, the trouble in Xinjiang is minuscule in comparison to the violence India faces from the Pakistani state and its proxies in Kashmir. Idiosyncrasies of the Left on issues of nation and nationhood have been comprehensively rejected by the electorate repeatedly. And in a democracy, public perception has its manifestation through popular mandate, despite what the naysayers have to say about it. It appears that a loss of popular mandate has made leaders like Sandeep Dikshit lose civility and decorum, despicably referring to General Rawat as a "sadak ka goonda" (street goon). Despite their political differences, the mainstream national parties Congress and BJP have generally, barring a few exceptions, maintained unanimity over keeping the army chief away from the political slugfest. Deprived of power and the influence which flows from it, dynasts like Dikshit seem to have sunk to the moral abyss to remain in the limelight, in a desperate bid to retain political relevance. The subsequent apology emanating from Dikshit was forced, by the public backlash, and did not seem to be a genuine acceptance of a folly. Toughminded general Politics apart, the reason General Rawat has been made an object of derision and contempt by such intellectuals and politicians needs to be analysed. A perusal of General Rawat's statement, which perhaps has earned him the "goonda" remark, indicates his tough-mindedness while dealing with Pakistani proxies instigating relentless violence in Kashmir since July 2016. While agent provocateurs may slyly suggest the supposedly innocuous nature of stone throwing, and project it as a David vs Goliath story against the pellets fired by the Indian security forces, the truth is not as simple. General Rawat's warning to stone pelters when he had said that "people who have picked up arms... if they want to continue with the acts of terrorism, displaying flags of Islamic State and Pakistan, we will treat them as anti-national elements and go helter-skelter for them," was issued in the backdrop of the death of Major Satish Dahiya and three soldiers in an encounter in Bandipur. The four lost their lives as a stone-pelting crowd revealed their positions while surreptitiously shielding terrorists. Anti-terror operations by the army subsequently began to confront a new menace, with crowds gathering at encounter sites collected via WhatsApp and appeals from loudspeakers installed in mosques. This hybrid war has been given a religious fervour, visible in the appearance of Islamic State flags and Islamic symbols. Pakistani agencies have ensured that the religious overtones, which had been evident during the ethnic cleansing in 1990, are no longer concealed. The rise of Islamist forces across the globe have given the Pakistani state an opportunity to allure the Kashmiri youth towards militancy through the deliberate usage of Islamic symbols. Zakir Musa, who has since moved away from Hizbul Mujahideen, had openly accepted that the struggle in Kashmir was "Islamic Caliphate in Kashmir." General Rawat, who heads a 1.3 million strong army, cannot be expected to stick to political correctness and allow his personnel to be demoralised by haplessly watching his force used for target practice by terrorist and stone pelters. His angst was evident in his statement: "People are throwing stones at us, people are throwing petrol bombs at us. If my men ask me what do we do, should I say, just wait and die? I will come with a nice coffin, with a national flag and I will send your bodies home with honour. Is it what I am supposed to tell them as chief?" These and questions like what else Major Leetul Gogoi, commendation for whom has also become a stick for opponents to beat General Rawat with, could have done to save the polling party from annihilation have gone unanswered by his critics. The fact that General Rawats forthrightness in calling 'a spade a bloody shovel' had made sections of politicians and intellectuals used to bureaucratic humbug of calling 'a bloody shovel a spoon' uncomfortable. At times, it appears that General Rawat has more opponents inside the country than in countries like Pakistan and China, with whom he has expressed his conviction of preparedness of a "two-and-a-half front war". History is witness to the fact that since the Partition in 1947, Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. In what was perhaps the first manifestation of state-sponsored terrorism, Pakistan Army had infiltrated under the garb of tribals and irregulars into the state, to seize it by force. It was only the effective though belated intervention by the Indian Army which saved the state from a forceful accession by Pakistan. Since then, both countries have fought three more wars over Kashmir. Failing to achieve its objective through conventional means, Pakistan has resorted to a proxy war through what it conveniently refers to as 'non-state actors', and General Rawat calls "dirty war". Politicians like Dikshit need to realise the grave situation India confronts in Kashmir. Despite the ostrich-like ignorance, fact remains that the country is facing a relentless overt war with a neighbour, who is using all means at its disposal including an equally hostile covert hybrid war. Only the naive and the Pakistani proxies will pretend otherwise. The opponent is now not only at the external border but also targeting the country from within. How Nehru had reacted The disbelievers could do well to read what Jawaharlal Nehru had to say after the Pakistani invaders threatened Uri again in December 1947, after being repulsed the previous month. C Dasgupta in his book, 'War and Diplomacy in Kashmir, 1947-48', cites Nehrus note on Kashmir dated 19 December, 1947, where he wrote incisively: "What is happening in Kashmir State is not merely a frontier raid but a regular war, on a limited scale, with the latest weapons being used on the part of the invaders. It is clear that the Pakistan government is encouraging this in every way." Nehru then continues, "It seems to me that our outlook has been defensive and apologetic, as if we were ashamed of what we were doing and we are not quite sure of how far we should go. I see nothing to apologise for and a defensive way of meeting raiders seems to me completely wrong," "The first thing to be understood is that Kashmir is of the most vital consequence to us and that we are in deadly earnest about it." Nehru then concludes, "Are we to allow Pakistan to continue to train new armies for invasion and allow its territory to be used as a base for these attacks? The obvious course is to strike at those concentrations and lines of communications in Pakistan territory. This involves a risk of war with Pakistan. We wish to avoid war, but it is merely deluding ourselves to imagine that we are avoiding war so long as the present operations are continuing on either side." That Nehru did not go to war and instead got trapped in moving the United Nations is a different story involving British deceit and treachery and in no way diminishes the episode of violence which began in 1947. The question which begs an answer is; if a statesman like Nehru was compelled to react with an offensive mindset against the violence perpetuated from Pakistan, why is General Rawat expected to behave defensively, when the problem has exacerbated manifold since 1947? Will Sandeep Dikshit take the pain to reply? The author is the writer of the book Wolf's Lair. He tweets @MayankNSingh In the autumn of their life, often Catholic priests and nuns are forced to live a life of penury and neglect. Having lived their whole life for vocation, very few religious institutions look after them well when they become old. If anybody rebels, they are branded as outcastes and often pushed to an asylum. A sense of abandonment slowly pervades them. Since they leave their houses at a young age, they usually dont get a stake in their family property as well. But last weeks Kerala High Court verdict is a boon for them. The court ruled that priests and nuns cannot be denied their right to ancestral property because they entered into a religious vocation. The Gods own country, as its tourism tagline claims, is the biggest recruiting ground for priests and nuns and the verdict is a silver lining for those who are wedded to their faith. "The Indian Succession Act 1925 does not make any distinction in the matter of inheritance or succession to a Christian priest or a nun whether or not he/she has taken a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience," a division bench ruled. The court also made it clear that an earlier order, that priest and nuns suffer a "civil death" on joining the monastery, will be an infringement of Article 300A (Right to Property) of the Constitution. A priest, hailing from Kochi, Father Xavier Chullickal, had moved the high court against a lower court order upholding the plea of his brothers three children that he cant claim right to his ancestral property as he was ordained prior to the execution of a will by his father. Citing a 2006 verdict in Bar Council of India vs Sister Teena Jose case, in which it was held that a priest or a nun can become a lawyer, the court observed that if a nun can hold the job of a lawyer she can have the right to her ancestral property as well. Sister Teena, a law graduate, had fought a five-year-long legal battle, to get her enrolled as a lawyer in the high court. Advocate Sabu George, who represented the defendants, told Firstpost that the plaintiffs had relied on Canon Law 282 (1) and 668 (5) to deny the priest the property willed to him by his father. While 282 (1) stated that "clerics are to foster simplicity and are to refrain from all things that have a semblance of vanity", 668 (5) says a professed religious who has renounced his or her goods fully due to the nature of the institute loses the capacity of acquiring and possessing and therefore invalidly places acts contrary to the vow of poverty." He said that the high court had noted that Canon law was only a body of principles, standards, rules or norms internal to the church distinguished from the civil law. It cannot be treated as customary law after its codification by the Vatican Council in the year 1918. "It is a landmark judgment that will give a fresh lease of life to many priests and nuns," he said, adding that many priests and nuns had already filed cases staking claim in their ancestral property in various courts in the state. While the church is guarded in its reaction, the laity and those who shed their cassocks have welcomed the verdict. A spokesman for the church said that the judgment had raised very serious issues and they can comment only after studying them in-depth. Priests, ex-Priests and Nuns Association, which was formed in 2015 to ensure social and economic protection to the members of the clergy, who retire or quit the vocation, termed the high court verdict a big relief for them. "At the fag-end of their life, priests and nuns, who eventually lose their say in the order, are forced to live a solitary life. Often they will be dumped at priest homes and nunneries and their families also ignore them," says Reji Njallani, national president of the association. However, he said that his association will move an appeal in the court to remove an annexure in the verdict that says "it was the sole volition of a Hindu ascetic or a Christian priest to relinquish his right to his personal property in favour of a mutt or monastery in a manner known to the law". "We will plead the court to make an amendment in the annexure that such properties can only be disposed of after the death of a priest or nun. Otherwise, religious institutions can force them to part with their property when they are alive. This will do more harm than any good," he said. Association secretary Shibhu Kalamparampil, who quit priesthood in 2010 to lead a lay life, said that the church can appropriate the property invoking a provision in the Canon Law that states "whatever accrues to the professed after renunciation belongs to the institute according to the norm of proper law." "If the church is allowed to claim the property, they dont mind even murdering priests and nuns, who have secured their right to the property," Shibhu told Firstpost. Though the Canon law provides for support to priests after their retirement, the church has not been taking care of them now. The plight of the old clergy can be gauged from a recent incident, in which ten nuns of St Antonys convent in Thiruvananthapuram had approached the city corporation for old age pension granted to unmarried women. One of the applicants, Sister Agnes, said she was forced to apply for pension Rs 1100 a month as she was finding it difficult to make ends meet. Later, the Thiruvananthapuram Arch Diocese of the Latin Catholic Church, under which the convent comes, directed the nuns not to pursue the matter as it will dent the image of the church. "Since iron walls are guarding monasteries, little is known outside about the life of the clergy. Once you are young and kicking it is fine, but you fall from the grace once you attain age. Leave alone other facilities, even for medical needs we have to knock at many doors," said one of the sisters who applied for the pension, adding that they were forced not to pursue their pension cases. Similarly, last year, a nun belonging to the Congregation of Mother of Caramel, Mary Sebastian (46) had sent a legal notice to her superiors demanding compensation to enable her to lead a financially secure and independent life. "As a teacher, my whole salary had gone into the convent account. I dont have a single penny to live a life outside the convent. Fearing stigma, my family is also discouraging me to shed my robe," said the sister. Later, the convent disowned her saying she was suffering from mental ailments. Like this, there were persistent demands to grant a pension to the clergy but the church rejected them saying that service to the God cant be gauged in monetary terms. Many who shed their robes say the latest verdict will embolden the clergy to stand up against exploitation and harassment in monasteries. "Behind walls, many suffer in silence. If you have an option to live outside things will be better," said Sister Jesme, an author and activist. Her bare-all autobiography Amen, that contained explicit details of mental and physical harassment at the seminary, created a storm in religious circles a couple of years back. No doubt the latest verdict will go a long way in assuaging mounting miseries of ripened clergymen. "This is not enough, it is time for the church to come out with a well-oiled policy to look after those who toiled their blood and sweat in service of God," says Jesme. Wedded to their cause, Kerala's clergymen are most sought after everywhere in the world but of late, their numbers are dwindling alarmingly. The Church should see the writing on the wall and address their woes. Pope Francis had declared this year as the 'Year of Mercy'. "Let us hope mercy will percolate down to all," says Jesme. With the construction of the Kochi Metro complete, close to 400 workers engaged in civil and related works were invited to a party organised by the builder (KMRL), as per a report in The Hindu. The report highlights four significant points: One, the workforce worked in 12-hour shifts; two, their daily wages were low by Kerala standards (Rs 400-500); three, they did not strike even for a single day in over four years of construction; and four, they were all migrants. This speaks a lot about Kerala, as "only a small number of their (migrants) counterparts from the state were part of the workforce". It underlines the possibility that migrants were hired because of their lower wages and because the locals were not keen to work because of the low income and their general disinclination towards hard work. One of the workers said he was able to send home Rs 5,000 a month. Another said, "The daily grind is hard, but there is nowhere else to go. I have to send money to my family, which comprises my four-month-old child". That is pretty much the story of all migrant workers across India, who move to distant places with different cultures, live in their own small, make-shift dwellings, so as long as they can survive and send money back home. The migrants are mostly male, and only after they get a sense of comfort and assurance of continued livelihood do they call their families to live with them, or start one. Though most of the migrants in Kerala are from states like Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bihar, they are all locally believed to be from Bengal and are dubbed as "Bengali", while some more suspicious natives see them as "Bangladeshis". Just like anyone from South India is deemed a Madrasi by people in the North. Migrants from Tamil Nadu, however, seem to merge well with the local scene. This speaks volumes about our knowledge or understanding of the diverse nature of our vast country. But that's not the point here. The need for migrant labourers in Kerala has arisen because of the Malayalee workers' migration to the Gulf, creating an opportunity for livelihoods in Kerala. A report in English news portal Mathrubhumi had pointed out last year that the "flow of migrants into Kerala continues unabated", with numbers put close to 40 lakh. Between them, they earn Rs 25,000 crore every year. Malayalees working overseas remit about Rs 72,000 crore a year, as per 2014 figures.Such inflows increase activities which need hands ready to work, which the migrants provide. But the reported number of migrant labourers in Kerala is an approximation at best, as no one is keeping an official record. Nor monitoring if the minimum wages and interstate labour migration laws are being complied with. By one estimate, about 1,500 migrants arrive every week in Kerala, almost at par with Mumbai's touted figure of 250 per day during the 1970s to 2000. That 250 per day figure was described as a scary number, but they too arrived because the local Maharashtrians believed that livelihoods were their entitlement and did little to secure it, allowing outsiders to take over almost all aspects of the unorganised service sector. The preference for white-collared employment is strong among Mumbaikars. Even the Latur agricultural market is serviced almost entirely by labourers who migrated from Jharkhand and Bihar. The out-migration remains strong as well. The Kerala Migration Survey (2014) conducted by the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, found that the inability to generate employments to retain the educated youth was one reason why migration had increased instead of dipping as forecast a few years earlier. But, several thousand educated youths have moved to the Gulf for low-skill jobs they wouldnt do in Kerala. Migration takes place either because the locals have priced themselves out of the informal service sector, or, as in Mumbai, they have placed some tasks beneath them. The migrants, hungry for work, needing to sustain families in the backwards, jobless regions, are willing to do anything, including accepting lower wages. They make the market competitive and though they are not necessarily as skilled, they learn whatever that comes their way on the job. In Kerala, which sees strong in-migration, the local enterprises seem happy, though there is a natural resentment among the locals. The 'nook cooli' a system where local labourers want to be paid regardless of the fact if they have work or not is also a huge malaise. But, like much else, the migrants make no such demands. New Delhi: The Centre is keeping a close watch over the flood situation in the North East and is ready to offer all necessary help, Kiren Rijiju said. "The home ministry is constantly monitoring the heavy flood situations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and other states for necessary help," Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters. The minister said the home ministry control room is monitoring the severe landslides and floods in the North East round the clock. Eight people were killed and six went missing in floods triggered by heavy rainfall in Mizoram. Flash floods wrecked havoc at Tlabung in Mizoram's Lunglei district, while the National Highway 54, which links the state with Assam, was cut off at different places due to landslides. Guwahati witnessed massive water-logging due to incessant rains, while landslides occurred at three places in the state capital. Mandsaur: Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday visited Mandsaur, where five cultivators were killed during the farmers' stir, and handed over a cheque of Rs one crore to the family of one of them. The state government on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of Rs one crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On 6 June, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on 9 June had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Chouhan along with his wife Sadhna reached Mandsaur in a special plane and went to Badwan village to meet the kin of farmer Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. The chief minister handed a cheque of Rs one crore as compensation to the kin of Dhakad, as promised. He also assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those who shot dead the farmers. Chouhan is also scheduled to visit Lodh, Nayakheda, Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth and Budha villages to extend condolences to the kin of the other farmers killed in police firing. The district administration made elaborate security arrangements for Chouhan's visit. Five helipads were made at various places to ensure that the chief minister reaches the venue without any trouble, a senior official said. Congress has also made arrangements at Dusshera maidan in Bhopal for senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's 'satyagraha' on the issue of farmers' deaths in police firing. The protest will begin around 2 pm, a Congress spokesman said. Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Scindia had also tried to visit Mandsaur but they were denied permission. Political leaders and social activists have continued to make futile attempts to visit Mandsaur despite peace having returned there. Chouhan, who came under severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off the indefinite fast on Sunday, 28 hours after its launch, claiming peace had been restored. Though the stir has ebbed away, three farmers have ended their lives in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the number of farmer suicides in the state in the past one week to five. Results of the Maharashtra Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Class X board examinations were released on Tuesday. However, majority of the reports focussed on the news that 193 students secured 100 percent marks. Once, however, the euphoria around this achievement died down, came distressing news that passing percentages had gone down across the state. The passing percentage for this year's Class X exams was just 88.74 percent. Principals and teachers of SSC board schools have said the introduction of "activity-based question papers" that require analytical thinking has affected the marks. Moreover, Marathi both as first and second language has further affected the passing percentages. A report in The Times of India said 91.7 percent students cleared Marathi in Mumbai division, down from 92.2 percent last year. At the state level, Hindi is a second language saw success rate dip from 93.3 percent to 92.5 percent. Science and technology was also culpable in lowering students' grades. In Mumbai, the success rate dipped to 91.06 percent from 93.1, while there was an almost 2 percent drop in the success rate across Maharashtra state, to 93.92 percent. Social sciences, too, saw a marginal decline. On the other end of the spectrum were subjects like English and Sanskrit, which saw students perform admirably. Snigdha Roy, principal of Father Agnel Multipurpose School, was quoted in the report as saying, "Of the 60 students who took Sanskrit, 22 managed to score 99 out of 100. We have more students scoring above 90 percent as well." Vasant Kalpande, former chairman of the Maharashtra state board of secondary and higher secondary education, said, "Whenever a change is introduced in the exam pattern or the syllabus, a change is seen in the results' pattern that academic year. It is a natural transition. I think the activity-based learning system may have been the cause for the dip in the pass percentage." About 17,66,098 candidates appeared for the Class X state board exams, according to this report on The Indian Express, which also said the figure included 9,89,908 boys and 7,76,190 girls. The exams were held at 4,728 centres across the state in the month of March. Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of Rs one crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relation official said. On 6 June, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur district. A 26-year-old farmer had died in Badavan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on 9 June had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Bhopal: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday launched a 72-hour 'satyagraha' in support of farmers, three days after Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called off his indefinite fast on the issue. Scindia, the Congress' chief whip in the Lok Sabha, launched the protest at around 3.30 pm at TT Nagar's Dussehra Maidan. The scion of the erstwhile Gwalior dynasty garlanded the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the stage before sitting on the 'satyagraha'. The photos of the six farmers killed in Mandsaur district earlier this month were also displayed on the stage. The farmers' protest, which began on 1 June over various demands, including loan waiver and better prices for their produce, took a violent turn on 6 June, when five of them were allegedly killed in police firing at Mandsaur. Another farmer from the district, who was allegedly beaten up by the police, succumbed to his injuries later. The protest spread to the other districts of western Madhya Pradesh subsequently, including Neemuch, Dhar, Ratlam and Jhabua. The farmers' agitation prompted the Opposition parties to launch an attack on the BJP government in the state and corner Chouhan over the issue. An under pressure Chouhan had launched an indefinite fast on Saturday with an appeal for peace, but called it off the next day claiming that peace had been restored in the areas affected due to the farmers' protest. On 8 June, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was detained by the police while he was on his way to Mandsaur to meet the kin of the farmers killed in police firing. Scindia, his party colleague Kantilal Bhuria and a number of Congress supporters were detained by the police yesterday at the Nayagaon-Jaora toll booth in Ratlam when they were headed towards neighbouring Mandsaur. Kochi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel on a Kochi Metro train when he inaugurates Kerala's first metro on 17 June. But "Metro man" E Sreedharan has not been given a seat on the dais. In the first 25-km phase, trains will run for 13 kilometers between Palarivattom and Aluva. Work is on the remaining section. Those on the dais will be Modi, Governor of Kerala P Sathasivam, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Elias George, the Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Corporation, told the media that the list of invitees to the dais was prepared and sent to the Prime Minister's Office. "The final list is made by the PMO. We have no role in this". Among others who have been excluded from the dais are Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, former chief minister Oommen Chandy, local MP KV Thomas and local legislator PT Thomas. Reacting to the exclusion of Sreedharan from the dais, PT Thomas said that,"This shows the arrogance of the BJP". "When the foundation stone for Kochi Metro was laid by then prime minister Manmohan Singh, none was left out from the dais. This is Kerala's dream project and key people behind this are now asked to sit in the audience. This is totally unfair". Work on Kochi Metro began in 2012 after the Chandy government entrusted the project to DMRC, with its principal advisor Sreedharan overseeing it. India is in a sweet spot at the moment. As the world attempts to come to grips with an unpredictable America under President Donald Trump, the options for India have opened up considerably. If Delhi plays its cards right, it can fulfill its long held ambition of playing a much more active role in the world stage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the US for his 26 June meeting with Trump brimming with confidence after his successful tour of Europe. Modi is well aware that Europes two most important powers, Germany and France, are keen to enlist Indias support on key global issues like climate change. Indias self assurance stems from the fact that the US is not the only egg in Indias basket. If Trump proves difficult, Delhi can fall back on others in the gradually emerging multipolar world. Yet it is no doubt, that ties with the US are of utmost importance. India-US ties have been gathering momentum, ever since the landmark civil nuclear agreement signed by the UPA government in 2008. Every leader of both India and the US have been building blocks to take the relationship forward. Former president Barack Obama and Modi did so and now it is time to engage with Trump. But the new American president, with no previous experience of public life, is an unknown quantity in both politics and diplomacy. Whats more he can send off nasty tweets after talks with world leaders. As Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel found out once Trump returned from his Europe visit. The first meeting between Modi and Trump, therefore, assumes considerable significance. The assumption is that the two unconventional politicians would hit it off well. Modi, an astute man, would go well prepared for the meeting. Analysts believe, with Trump, personal equations would be an important factor. After all after going hammer and tongs at China during the election campaign, much of the animosity faded after President Xi Jinpings visit to the US. "India should keep expectations moderate during this first meeting," said former ambassador to the US, Naresh Chandra, who knows the American system well. "Trump is on a sharp learning curve. It is important for Modi to get him to listen to facts. His mind is cluttered with preconceived notions fed to him by uninformed supporters. Whether he believes them or not is irrelevant but he cleverly echoes the sentiments of his support base. Modi should dispel the fears of job losses from the Indian IT sector. He must make him understand that Indian companies are also creating jobs in the US. Trumps belief that India gets billions of dollars for signing the Paris Agreement have to be dispelled once and for all, said the former ambassador to US. "Jihadi terror is a good starting point for Modi to start his conversation with the US president. Trump is attuned to this. He can also gently rub home the point of Chinas growing strategic reach in Asia, added Chandra. The former bureaucrat said that one of Indias main concerns in the neighbourhood is the growing closeness between China and Pakistan. Now with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Gwadar port likely to become a future naval base for China, Indias strategic periphery is a cause for worry. Modi will have to put this across to Trump gently. The US president is quick to take sides. In the conflict between Shias and Sunnis, Trump is supporting Saudi Arabia against Qatar. Pakistan, is now firmly on the Saudi camp, with former army chief Raheel Sharif now commanding Islamic troops in Saudi Arabias war in Yemen. Pakistan will now be fully backed by Saudi Arabia and Trump will perhaps move with some caution against Pakistan. Modi is certain to talk of terror emanating from Pakistan to Trump. Since the Uri attacks, Modi has spoken about this in all his meetings with world leaders. It is best for India not to build domestic expectations for this first meeting between the two leaders. Indian officials emphasise that both Republicans and Democrats are keen on improving and taking forward the already substantial co-operation between the two countries. Many dub the Washington trip as a getting to know each other meet for Modi and Trump. But indications from the Sean Spicer news conference, when Washington and Delhi simultaneously announced the upcoming visit is that Trump is as keen to keep the cooperation going with India. This, of course, could be Spicers way of diverting attention of assembled reporters from vexing questions on the Russia investigations and the attorney-generals decision to testify. Spicer said that the president was looking forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between India and the US and advancing common priorities. He spelled these out as: "Fighting terror and promoting economic growth and reforms and expanding security co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region." But much will depend on the personal chemistry between Modi and the mercurial US president. Jammu: Pakistan on Wednesday resorted to unprovoked firing at two places along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said. After violating the ceasefire in Poonch district earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan Army opened fire in Naushera sector of Rajouri district. Defence Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said,"Pakistan initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, heavy automatics and Recoilless Rifles on the LoC in Naushera sector also". Firing started at 9.30 am after which the Indian Army retaliated. The firing was still on. Heavy shelling and firing exchanges between Indian and Pakistani armies took place earlier on Wednesday in Poonch district in Bhimber Gali sector. "The Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms automatics and 82 mm mortars in Bhimber Gali sector of the LoC", the spokesman told IANS. Pakistan has been violating the bilateral ceasefire during the last fortnight by resorting to indiscriminate shelling and firing, especially in Poonch and Rajouri districts. The Indian Army says it is being done by Pakistan to facilitate the infiltration of militants into the Indian side. New Delhi: Consultation process in both the BJP and the Opposition camps shifted into high gear on Wednesday as filing of nominations for the presidential election began. The ruling party's three-member panel reached out to its allies as well as rivals while the Congress-led Opposition parties, too, held a meeting but maintained that no names were discussed for the presidential poll. They will meet again, most likely after the BJP discloses the name of its candidate. BJP sources have said the NDA candidate for the top constitutional post is likely to file nomination before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for the US on 25 June. The last date for filing of nomination is 28 June. Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh, two members of the panel apart from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday as part of efforts to evolve a broad consensus on the presidential candidate. Naidu on Tuesday spoke to TDP chief and BJP ally N Chandrababu Naidu and leaders of some regional outfits in southern India. He also called up Satish Mishra of the Mayawati-led BSP and Praful Patel of the NCP, headed by Sharad Pawar. Mishra and Patel represented their parties later in the Opposition's meeting. No names were discussed in the meeting as Opposition leaders met to chalk out their strategy for the presidential election scheduled for 17 July, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said. He said the 10-member Opposition panel would meet again to decide on a suitable presidential nominee. He, however, did not give any timeframe. Sources said the leaders would discuss names, but await a government initiative in this regard. Opposition leaders like Sharad Yadav have made it clear that they will put up a joint candidate if the saffron party picks a nominee with strong Hindutva leanings. On the first day, six persons, including a man and his wife, filed nominations. All the nominations filed are liable to be rejected as none had the mandatory 50 proposers and as many seconders from among the electors. New Delhi: Opposition leaders met to discuss their presidential poll strategy on Wednesday as the process started for the filing of nominations for the 17 July election to the country's top constitutional post. All 10 members of the Opposition sub-group formed for this purpose met in the chambers of the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, sources said. This is the first meeting of the sub-group since its formation a few days ago. The sources said the leaders would discuss probable names for the post, but would await a government initiative in this regard. A three-member government panel comprising three senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu is slated to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on this on Thursday. A united Opposition, after several rounds of parleys between leaders of various parties, is hoping to zero in on a "mutually acceptable" presidential candidate with the ruling dispensation. If that does not happen, it is expected to put up a united candidate against the official NDA nominee. The Election Commission of India issued a notification, saying that the process of filing nominations will continue till 28 June. Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said his government will soon take over farmers' loans and ensure that their mortgaged land or property was not confiscated. "There is no question of backtracking on the debt waiver promise and the government will soon take over the loans of the farmers. It will also ensure that their mortgaged land/ property is not confiscated," he said in a statement in Chandigarh. The CM said his government has already fulfilled the promise to bring an end to 'kurki' (auction of mortgaged land) in the state. Meanwhile, state Cabinet Minister Navjot Sidhu said the government was looking for a permanent solution to the problem of farm debts. "The aim is to make the farmers self-reliant so that they don't have to take loans in the future," he said and assured the farmers that the state government would do everything in its power to help them stand on their feet. Sidhu suggested a licensing system for money lenders to ensure a fair and just system of taking loans in case of dire necessity. The minister also listed crop insurance as a measure that the government was looking at to secure the state's beleaguered farmers. "There should be a cap on the lines of Sir Chottu Ram Punjab Relief Indebtedness Act of 1934 so that no farmer has to ever pay more than double the amount of sum insured, said Sidhu. He sought the central government's intervention to check the misuse of MGNREGA and also bring farmers with less than five acres of land into the scheme's ambit. On the issue of the minimum support price (MSP), Sidhu said the MSP of crops should be guided by change in input costs to help farmers get their due remuneration. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to stay a trial court's order to record evidence in a defamation case by former The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) chief RK Pachauri against lawyer Vrinda Grover and another woman. Justice Sunil Gaur, however, issued a notice to Pachauri, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and three media houses, asking them to file their response by 16 June on Grover's plea challenging the trial court order. The trial court has listed the matter for recording of evidence between 19 June and 30 June. Grover moved the high court saying she was not against the recording of evidence but wanted it to be postponed to from the summer vacations now to July as she and her lawyer are not available during that period. Environmentalist Pachauri, accused of sexually harassing a colleague in TERI, has filed a Rs 1 crore civil defamation suit against Grover and another woman for allegedly making defamatory statements against him outside the court to the media. He sought damages for "false and frivolous allegations". On 26 February, a trial court passed an order making it mandatory that the media houses have to publish or telecast the coverage of the case with a title that "in any court the allegations have not been proved and they may not be correct". In 2016, the Delhi Police chargesheeted Pachuari under various sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, sexual harassment, stalking, criminal intimidation and words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman. Pachauri was accused of sexually harassing a female colleague in 2015. Later, he stepped down as chairperson of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and proceeded on leave from TERI, where he was the director general. Following the arrest of Bhim Sena founder Chandrashekhar last week from Himachal Pradeshs Dalhousie, his mother Kamlesh in a purported video on social media announced herself as the head of the Dalit outfit and called for a congregation of the community at Delhis Jantar Mantar on 18 June. "I am coming to Jantar Mantar on 18 June. This is Baba Saheb's (B R Ambedkar's) mission and we should not let it stop. You all must arrive there in big numbers," she said in the 22-second-long clip. Along with the video, a pamphlet was released in which the Bheem Sena urged the president to release the "innocent Dalits" who have been jailed, and sought security for Chandrashekhar and his family. Left-wing students group All India Students' Association (AISA) has thrown its weight behind the Sena and its national president Sucheta told Firstpost that they will participate in the 18 June protest gathering at Jantar Mantar. The Uttar Pradesh government represents the feudal forces and hence the Dalit activists are being projected as villains through the use of paid media, WhatsApp group and other media tools. We will gather at Jantar Mantar to protest against the injustice unleashed on Dalits and the members of the Bhim Sena on 18 June, Sucheta said. "You have seen it in JNU, in Hyderabad University and in several other places. The groups which toe the government's line are being promoted and those who don't do it are being targeted. In Saharanpur also, the government and the police are biased against the oppressed community," Sucheta added. Meanwhile, in a fresh round of trouble in Saharanpur, members of the Dalit community are alleging that Uttar Pradesh police are conducting late night raids on their houses in Saharanpur and arresting their youths on trumped up charges, reported Deccan Herald. According to the daily, on Monday hundreds of Dalit women created ruckus inside the citys police lines and protested against what they alleged indiscriminate arrest of the community members. There are also reports that a group of Dalit women blocked traffic on the busy Saharanpur-Muzaffarnagar road to register their protest against the police action. Dalits in large numbers also held a demonstration before Behat police station in the district in protest against the arrest of a youth from Patherwa village for being an alleged member of the Bhim Sena. The youth was later released after the demonstration, police said. Dalits have been holding demonstrations across the district to protest the arrest of Chandrashekhar. A lawyer by profession, Chandrashekhar, was arrested on 8 June by Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police in connection with his alleged role in the violence in Saharanpur. Chandrasekhar had shot to limelight after holding a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against violence on Dalits in Saharanpur. Earlier, two members of the Bhim Sena were arrested in Saharanpur for their alleged involvement in the Ramnagar caste violence on 9 May after a person was killed and several others were injured in a clash between Dalits and Thakurs at Shabbirpur village on 5 May. About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured in subsequent violence on 9 May. With inputs from PTI Lucknow: Roadways bus drivers talking on the phone while behind the wheels in Uttar Pradesh need to watch out as passengers clicking them while flouting rules will win prizes. Errant drivers will have to cough up fines as part of the state government initiative to deter bus drivers from talking over phones while driving. "Though there are rules and regulations to prevent use of mobile phones while driving, complaints from passengers keep pouring in. We are now taking help of passengers and have asked them to click photographs of drivers flouting rules and send it to us through WhatsApp," UP transport minister Swatantra Dev Singh said. Giving details of the initiative, he said, "After the photographs are received, the concerned driver will be fined and the passengers will get cash reward." Singh said the initiative is getting an encouraging response though the department was yet to compile the number of cases. "It is a new idea. We can give the data at a later stage," he said, when asked as to how many drivers were fined or passengers rewarded. He said the idea was helping in two ways. "First the passengers are feeling empowered to report the misuse of mobile phone while driving, and secondly it is helping in instilling a sense of responsibility among drivers, who know that if they use mobile phone, they will be clicked," the minister said in an interview. Though an offender can be booked under the Motor Vehicles Act, and punished with a jail term extending up to six months and a fine of Rs 1,000, the rule is hardly followed. The state-owned UP State Road Transport Corporation provides transport services in Uttar Pradesh and other adjoining states in North India. With a fleet of over 11,851 buses, it operates over 3 million kilometres catering to the travel needs of over 1.4 million people, earning over Rs 70 million everyday. The minister said the effort will help in bringing down the number of mishaps caused due to non-attentive drivers, who talk over phone while driving. Singh lamented that a large number of accidents were occurring due to traffic rule violations. The minister said he has directed the UPSRTC and other departments to formulate plans to ensure safe travel. "It is a matter of concern that everyday we see that due to violation of traffic norms, accidents are taking place," he said. "The accidents which are happening, are taking place due to lack of awareness about traffic rules. UPSRTC and other departments working in the field of road transport should formulate plans to ensure passengers enjoy safe journey," he said. He hailed the suggestion made by chief minister Yogi Aditynath on that road safety norms should be made a part of the syllabus. This will help ordinary citizens become more aware of traffic rules, Singh said. His concerns came against the backdrop of several major accidents taking place in UP in recent days. On 5 June, 25 passengers were charred to death and many others were injured when a bus collided head-on with a truck and burst into flames on National Highway 24 in Bareilly. In another accident on 11 June, ten people, including five women, of a family drowned after their car fell into a canal at Makera area in Mathura. Scores of other accidents have also taken place. "The motto of the transport department is to provide adequate, efficient, well coordinated, comfortable and economical services to our passengers, while earning enough for self-sustenance and growth," Singh explained. He said that because of several initiatives taken by the present government, the depots which were in losses have started making profits. He also said in a major step to facilitate movement of people between UP and Rajasthan, the transport authorities of both the states have signed an MoU under which government buses will be run on 199 routes between the two states. While UPSRTC buses will cover 56,774 kms every day in Rajasthan, the Rajasthan Path Parivahan Nigam will run its buses on 56,558 kms daily in UP, the minister said. The agreement will allow both the states to directly connect cities likes Jaipur, Ajmer, Haridwar, Meerut, Bikaner, Ganganagar, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Sambhal, Allahabad, Sawai Madhopur, Alwar, Kannauj and others with bus service. Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot of Westminster Magistrates' Court expressed surprise that India still hadn't provided evidence to extradite Vijay Mallya. She was pretty vocal about it. She has a fair point. It's been six months. India had no satisfactory comeback. What the magistrate fails to understand is that while we make a song and dance of such situations in the beginning and grandstand for all we're worth, the truth is: We don't really want Mallya back. It's too much of a hassle. Who needs that? Meanwhile, one can always feed the media the occasional Interpol Red Notice or some other frightening technical jargon to make it seem as if the righteous are winning. Which also make it look like the party in power is fighting for justice and doing right by its people. It's enough to make one feel good. Except for the fact that people like Mallya leave on a one-way ticket and don't come back. And more importantly, aren't brought back. We must not want them returned. How else do we explain Mallya and a companion boarding a Jet Airways flight after leisurely sipping refreshments in the visitors' lounge. Perhaps the thinking goes that if we get them back, we won't know what to do with them. So it's much safer to keep chasing them. From a safe distance. Congress did not want Win Chadha back. If he'd spilled the beans on the Bofors scandal it would caused far too much embarrassment for some folks. And the pursuit of Warren Anderson of Union Carbide for the Bhopal gas tragedy had the tragicomic whiff of a Marx Brothers routine. Heck, even Ottavio Quattrocchi managed to get away. We never seriously considered taking on the underworld. If these dons had sung like canaries it would have caused a political earthquake like no other. We locked up Sanjay Dutt but never even got close to Tiger Memon. How hard did we try to get back Ravi Shankaran in the Navy War Room leak case after he was arrested in London? Ultimately, he was freed due to lack of evidence. Lack of evidence. There's something so familiar about that phrase. It reared up its ugly head when Mallya emerged from court, a free man. Still. As for the terrorists and those who preach anti-Indian gospels, the list gets longer and longer. Does anyone even remember the Lalit Modi case and the pulpit-thumping that went on over getting him back? That was after the third edition of the IPL. We just wrapped up IPL number ten. So that should tell you exactly how desperate we are to bring Lalit home. Hey, maybe he and Mallya can watch the match together tomorrow and swap stories. Have a good laugh. Why don't we get our ducks in a row on time? The magistrate's question rings loud: Why were six months not enough to move this case forward? Now it'll be deferred to December. Is there anyone in New Delhi who believes the public deserves an answer? Even Kulbhushan Jadhav seems to have fallen off the radar. And he's one of the good guys. Makers of In the Shade of Fallen Chinar, a documentary that portrays conflict-torn Kashmir through the eyes of young artists, will approach Kerala court as the central government has banned its screening along with two other documentaries. The central government is failing to see the limits of its federal reach out, Shawn Sebastin, co-director of the In the Shade of Fallen Chinar, told Firstpost. We are approaching the court. We will fight it out. And it has to be. Otherwise, such practices will be repeated, Shawn added. All the three documentaries denied screening at international documentary and short film festival in Kerala between June 16 and 20 discuss uneasy themes for the central government. While Shawns 16-minute long documentary features hardships of Kashmiri youth, a 45-minute-long documentary directed by Ramchandra PN Unbearable Being of Lightness is shot in the backdrop of Hyderabad University research scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide and the third one is Kathu Lukoses March March March on Jawaharlal Nehru University protests. Directed along with my friend Faizal NC, the movie features how youngsters in Kashmir vent their anger through art. We have featured musicians and painters, mainly from Kashmir University. These youngsters were born into conflict and grew up seeing it worsening, Shawn added. The film, which is available on Youtube, was selected in the competition section for the fest and has been screened twice at different venues in the south India. Shawn said that they are yet to ascertain specific factors that irked the ministry and have not received any official communication and condemned the practice of censorship tools creeping into the documentary film space in the country. If not rectified at its nascent stage, what lies ahead for documentary film makers are the watchful eyes of authorities and strangling by the government that curtail the freedom of expression central to the medium, Shawn added. On Sunday, while announcing central governments decision to deny screening for the three documentaries, chairman of Kerala State Film Academy and filmmaker Kamal said its an evidence of depriving the freedom for creativity. He said that it clearly shows there exists cultural emergency and we are going through undeclared emergency period. Kamal also added that the academy will file an appeal against the Center's decision, though chances of the decision being revoked are less as the festival is scheduled to begin in a few days. Kathu Lukose, maker of March March March, told Firstpost that she feels agitated in learning the central governments decision. They have not seen my documentary. By just reading a synopsis, they have said no. I dont know what to say, Kathu, who was a student at JNU when the protests were at its peak, said. March March March chronicles the aftermath of the February 9, 2016, incident in which some students of the JNU were accused of raising anti-national slogans. The film narrates the series of agitations, arrests and protests that followed, leading up to the Student Union elections that were held in September last year. It is the first independent work of Kathu, who graduated from JNUs School of Arts and Aesthetics last year. While Kathu did the direction and cinematography for the film, it was produced by her mother Mary Lal. I am going to approach court on Tuesday. I am touch with Fazil, the maker of Kashmir film. We will be going to court. Such moves are unacceptable, Kathu added. Kathus documentary has not been screened anywhere so far. This was her first independent film and the fest was her first platform to screen the same. I am thinking of uploading the movie on Youtube. Soon, I may do it, Kathu added. Meanwhile, Ramachandra PN, the maker of third documentary Unbearable Being of Lightness told Firstpost that the same was screened in Kolkata film fest organized by the state government in 2016 November. I am surprised what happened now. We have screened the film in Kolkata officially. Now, after seven months, its being denied permission, Ramachandra said. Its a political move. Just by reading a synopsis, they have said no. It is weird, he added. Following central governments decision, Ramachandra has uploaded the documentary on his blog. Meanwhile, Keralas cultural affairs minister A K Balan said that just because a documentary deals with current socio-political issues, it can't be branded anti-national. Balan said the fascist way of silencing critics by threat had been prevailing in the country for quite some time. "Why some people are scared when current social issues are portrayed in art forms? Artists always discuss topical issues. Recently, we also witnessed murders of free thinkers and those who dare to speak the truth. The short film ban is the latest in that episode," Balan posted on his Facebook page. Recalling that Kerala has been successfully hosting the documentary and short film festival for the last 10 years, Balan said no other state was organising such a fair. "Apart from Kerala festival, Indian documentaries have screening opportunities only in festivals organised abroad. Cultural leaders should protest against this," he added. In the five-day-long 10th edition of documentary and short film fest around 260 short films and documentaries are expected to be screened. Chennai: Expressing confidence that rival factions of the ruling AIADMK will unite, Forest Minister C Sreenivasan on Wednesday told the Assembly that if there is a "separation among brothers, it will be followed by a coming together." Without explicitly naming the rival AIADMK factions or the present limbo in efforts for a patch-up, he quoted a song from AIADMK founder-leader MG Ramachandran-starrer Urimaikural, to express his view that ties will revive. The gist of the song underscored that if there was some separation among brothers, their relationship would revive later. Stating that he was only referring to that fact, the forest minister, next in command to chief minister K Palaniswamy in the government, said they were all identified by MGR and groomed by J Jayalalithaa. He said Palaniswamy has taken up the responsibility of "steering this family," a remark seen as a reference to the government and also the party. "We are working with him as colleagues and brothers," he said. Later, he began his reply to the discussion on the demands for grants for his department. Though rebel leader O Panneerselvam had a few days ago disbanded a panel set up to facilitate merger of two factions, saying people were did not favour their unification, ruling AIADMK Amma faction led by the chief minister had asked him to reconsider it. AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran had also expressed hope that Panneerselvam would review his stand and join them. At the height of their colonial expansion, the cross-continental Roman Empire or the British Empire's fiat was primarily political but also cultural. And the tool of their cultural dominance was language. 'Linguistic imperialism', a term used by scholar and linguist Robert Phillipson in his seminal work in 1992, denotes translation of political power into cultural dominance through language. Phillipson chose English to press his point, arguing that behind the meteoric rise of the British Empire which ruled over a quarter of the world subsuming local cultures in its wake, lay "the dominance asserted and retained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages." (Linguistic Imperialism by Robert Phillipson, Page 47, Oxford University Press). In his paper, 'British Colonialism and Its Linguistic Consequences', Walid M Rihane of Arab Open University points out how "the Roman Empire was able to expand Latin to every culture it conquered even though they were less in population that others. The case is similar to the British Empire. From the Kingdom of England, passing through the British Isles, reaching North America, South Asia, West and South Africa, and Oceania, the British succeeded in ruling almost quarter of the globe, and to leave their effect on language that is still taking place up to day." Language formed the basis, therefore, of a political dominance that sought to iron out ethnic and cultural cleavages. If the competing cultural and sub-cultural mores, customs, traditions and traits can be straitjacketed and subordinated by the dominant culture, it results in unquestioned political hegemony. This behaviour was of course not restricted to colonial powers. The Bhasha Andolon in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) had its germination in a 1948 decree by the Pakistan government to impose Urdu as the national language on a primarily Bengali-speaking populace. The root of that movement lay in Pakistan's two-nation theory and its effort to make Urdu the vehicle of linguistic nationalism. The resultant protests that culminated in a massacre of Dhaka University students in 1952 ultimately led to the Pakistan government relenting to give Bengali the official language status. We find examples of such behaviour even within the democratic setup of India, where time to time political parties in power have tried to take the lexical imposition route to electoral dominance. Among recent examples, the NDA government has been accused of trying to impose Hindi as a tool for linguistic nationalism. Parties in the south of Vindhyas have mounted a spirited protest against this 'cultural chauvinism'. DMK working president MK Stalin called Centre's move to "promote Hindi" an attack on India's ethno-cultural diversity. "By forcing Hindi onto its citizens from primary school students to Parliament the BJP government is betraying all non-Hindi speaking residents of the country including future generations," he was recently quoted, as saying. The Kerala government has fallen into a similar trap. It brought an ordinance in April this year to ensure that Malayalam is made mandatory in all schools across boards till Class X. This, despite the fact that there are more than six lakh Tamil-speakers in the state and a significant Kannadiga population, who have raised their voice against the move. As The Hindu notes in a 23 May report, nearly 10,000 protesters, including Kannada medium teachers, women, and children picketed the Collectorate in protest against the Left Democratic Front government's decision. According to Kannada Samanwaya Samithi president B Purushotham, the decision to make Malayalam compulsory would make Kannada lose its stature among the linguistic minorities. The recent crisis in the Darjeeling Hills that made disparate Hill-based parties come together to renew the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state carving out West Bengal has sprung out of a similar effort by the Mamata Banerjee government to make Bengali the compulsory subject in all state schools till Class X. In a Facebook post, the chief minister said: "If the student chooses Bengali, Hindi, English, Urdu , Gurmukhi, Nepali, Alchiki as a first language, he/she may opt for two other languages of their choice. One of the three languages would have to be Bengali." Mamata's move is a limited, regional application of the theory of linguistic imperialism. Alarmed by BJP's rise which has proposed an alternate cultural paradigm rooted in muscular Hindi chauvinism Mamata is trying to use language as the counter-culture to stymie BJP's agenda. It is identity politics in its purest form. Mamata's move to make Bengali mandatory in school is aimed towards evoking Bengal's cultural identity which she hopes will be enough to resist the BJP which is trying a larger consolidation of Hindu votes. It is cultural identity pitted against religious identity. The collateral damage of this cultural war is the rekindling of Gorkhaland movement. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has noticed with alarm Trinamool Congress' growing clout in the Hills and in the language imposition has found the immediate spark to reignite their political movement, although they have been careful to cast it in the framework of linguistic and cultural identities. For Mamata, who has hurried to clarify that her Bengali language decree does not extend to the Hills, this is a grim battle for survival. She sees in BJP's slow but steady rise the distant drumbeats of a political Hegemon eyeing her turf, and has decided to use Bengali as the lingua franca to extend her political dominance. Darjeeling: The political crisis in the Darjeeling Hills took a new turn on Wednesday with the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) breaking its alliance with the TMC and joining hands with agitation spearhead Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), saying the party has been fighting for Gorkhaland since its inception. Emboldened by the GNLF aligning with his party, GJM chief Bimal Gurung threatened to intensify the movement for a separate Gorkhaland even as the indefinite shutdown in the government and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) offices entered its third day. The GNLF, formed by the late firebrand leader Subhash Ghisingh, had led a violent movement for Gorkhaland in the eighties, following which the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) was formed. Gurung broke away from the GNLF and formed the GJM in 2007 and subsequently emerged as the dominant force in the hills. "The GNLF, since its inception in the eighties under the leadership Subhash Ghisingh, has been fighting for Gorkhaland. Our ultimate goal is to achieve a separate state of Gorkhaland," Neraaj Zimba, spokesperson of the GNLF, told PTI. He said the alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was never a political or ideological one, but an electoral tie-up. The TMC is trying to deflect attention from the real demand of Gorkhaland through "doles and charity", Zimba said. No untoward incident was reported from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik during the day and despite the bandh call, the state government offices remained open. Vehicles plied as the police remained on high alert and patrolled the streets. Banks and most ATMs were closed, but shops and markets were open. Most of the tourists have left the hills and hotels were empty. Hotel owners told the tourists, who still remained, that they could stay, but at their own risk. GJM workers gathered in front of the food and supply office in Kurseong but left following police intervention. The GJM, along with other hill parties, took out rallies in several areas of the hills demanding Gorkhaland. Police pickets and barricades were placed in front of the government and the GTA offices, in which the GJM is enforcing an indefinite shutdown which entered its third day on Wednesday, and at various entry exit points of the hills. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) and a sizeable number of women police personnel were also deployed. The Centre had deployed 600 paramilitary personnel to assist the West Bengal government restore normalcy in the violence-hit area. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Governor KN Tripathi in Kolkata and briefed him about the situation in the hills. The state government has removed Donbosco Lepcha, the secretary of the GTA, and appointed C Murugan as the new secretary, a notification issued by the Personnel and Administrative Reforms and e-Governance Department, said on Tuesday. The state government had recently replaced GTA principal secretary Ravi Inder Singh and brought in Barun Ray. Justifying his party's stand to break its alliance with the TMC, Zimba said, "The Gorkhas were ditched by successive state governments. We now feel that the atmosphere in the hills is fully conducive for the creation of a separate state. The GJM is also an ally of the NDA, which is in power at the Centre." He said, "It is true that we have differences among the players in the hills, but for the sake of the people we have decided to keep aside our differences and fight for Gorkhaland." Gurung, who threatened to intensify the movement for Gorkhaland, asked tourists not to visit the hill station as they might be inconvenienced. "I will not welcome the tourists because they may face problems. There will be agitation, bandh in the hills... Indefinite bandh has been called in the government and the GTA offices. The movement for Gorkhaland will be intensified," he said. Gurung said that he will shortly resign from the post of the GTA chief executive but the GJM MLAs and the municipal councillors will not step down. State tourism minister Gautam Deb slammed Gurung for his statement. "Darjeeling is not anybody's property. He should not make such utterances. None is above the law," he said. Senior GNLF leader N B Chetri earlier said, "Why so many questions are raised over joining hands with the GJM? The TMC on several occasions had joined hands with the BJP and the Congress. In politics such things do happen." He said, "We won't allow an opportunist political party like the TMC to benefit from the infighting among various parties in the hills." The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Wednesday demanded a special 10-day session of Parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis in the country. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CPI raised a number of farmers' problems such as lack of irrigation facilities, costly fertilisers, non-availability of quality seeds at reasonable prices, irregular electricity supply, and low minimum support price for their produce. "This is to bring to your attention that the country is facing an unprecedented agrarian crisis. There is famine and drought in some states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha, while there is bumper crop in some other areas," the CPI said. It said that the bumper crops and good yields have become "a curse to the peasants" as the prices of onions, tomatoes, chilli and pulses "have fallen by 40-25 per cent" as compared to last year. "Pulses and wheat were allowed to be imported, while the peasant is suffering because of a low price of his crop of pulses and wheat. Thousands of peasants have already committed suicides and many are on way... The cultivable land is shrinking... The population of farmers is reduced by 1.5 crore in recent period and most of them transformed as agricultural labour," it added. It said that loan waiver to farmers is "only a temporary relief" and it is "not charity but a necessity". "The collective anger of the Indian peasant is manifested in small protests in the recent agitations. If not solved, it may take a gigantic form. Hence, we request you to act now, right now," the party said. The CPI also sought early adoption of the recommendations of MS Swaminathan Commission, which suggests reforms in the interests of farmers. "The CPI urges you to call a special session of Parliament for 10 working days as early as possible with the only agenda of agrarian crisis and to find immediate and permanent solutions," it said. AICC general secretary CP Joshi said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was responsible for the current plight of farmers in the country. He also criticised Union finance minister Arun Jaitley over his recent statement that state governments have to fund schemes like loan waivers through their own resources. "The prime minister is responsible for the current plight and woes of farmers. Modi has failed to implement his electoral promises like awarding better remuneration for crops and hike in the minimum support price (MSP)," the former Union minister said. He said the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government under Manmohan Singh had announced loan waivers worth Rs 77,000 crore during its tenure. "The Congress government never asked the state governments to fund loan waivers," Joshi said, referring to Jaitley's statement. He said the country's economic growth has decelerated under the Modi regime. Recently, farmers in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh held protests for their various demands, including a complete loan waiver. Darbhanga: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday urged his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath, who visits Bihar on Thursday, not to come 'empty handed' but implement the liquor ban and 50 percent reservation for women in local bodies. "You (Adityanath) should take a cue from us and implement liquor ban and 50 percent reservation for women in local bodies," Kumar said at a public meeting here after laying foundations of development projects worth Rs 300 crore. Taking a dig at the much-hyped Darbhanga visit of Yogi Adityanath on Thursday, Kumar said, "He must be coming empty-handed whereas I am here to launch various development schemes." The Bihar chief minister also had a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for non-fulfillment of various promises made to Bihar during the 2014 general elections and Assembly polls in the state the next year saying, "We implement whatever works we promise, but others forget about it." Kumar took a potshot at cow vigilantes and said that they should learn to take care of stray bovines before taking law into their own hands to deal with those involved in the trade of animals. He claimed that the liquor ban has become a runaway success in Bihar and asked BJP-ruled states to follow suit. Kumar said that his government will launch a total de-addiction drive as follow-up action after the success of the liquor ban. New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday stepped up its efforts to get maximum support for its presidential candidate with the three-member party panel speaking to a number of allies as well as opposition parties, amid indication that its nominee will file nomination next week. Party sources have said that the NDA candidate for the top constitutional post is likely to file his nomination before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for the United States on 25 June. They ruled out filing of nomination by its candidate this week as the consultation process will take more time with Union ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu, two members of the BJP panel, scheduled to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday as they work to evolve a consensus. They are likely to meet Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) following the meeting with Gandhi. BJP chief Amit Shah is scheduled to be in Gujarat on 20-21 June. However, his three-day tour of Odisha starting from 22 June has been postponed, a party leader said. There is a distinct possibility, he said, that the NDA candidate will file his or her nomination any day between 21 June and 24 June, he said. The nomination process, which started on Wednesday, will end on 28 June. Naidu on Wednesday spoke to Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK, N Rangaswamy of the All India NR Congress, Satish Mishra of the BSP and Praful Patel of the NCP, sources said. He will also speak to most of the regional outfits from south India. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is also a member of the panel, will be speaking to leaders such as Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, while Singh may confer with West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee. The home minister is also likely to speak to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Amid consultation among political parties, the BJP has given little indication of its choice for the top post. Opposition parties have made it clear that they will put up their own candidate if the saffron party chooses somebody with strong Hindutva leanings. The arithmetic in the electoral college favours the NDA, which has 48.6 percent votes of its own. It is also expected to get the support of the TRS, which rules Telangana, the YSRCP of Andhra Pradesh and the AIADMK, which is in power in Tamil Nadu. New Delhi: The BJP's electoral victory in the recent Assembly polls is set to help its nominee get elected as the next president. The BJP has initiated moves to reach out to the Opposition parties on selecting a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential poll. But the party's victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have ensured that its share in the electoral college, which would elect the next president, goes up significantly. The term of President Pranab Mukherjee is coming to an end on 24 July and the nomination process for the 17 July poll began on Wednesday. The electoral college which elects the president through the system of proportional representation comprises elected members of Parliament and members of state legislative Assemblies a total of 4,896 voters including 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs. While 233 are elected members of the Rajya Sabha, 543 are from the Lok Sabha. While the Lok Sabha Speaker, an elected member, can vote, two nominated members from the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha and 12 nominated members of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha cannot. The value of an MLA's vote depends on the size of the state he or she represents. But the value of the vote of a member of Parliament is the same and does not vary. The total value of the electoral college is 10,98,882. Before the assembly polls, the NDA was short of 75,076 votes in terms of value. But after BJP's astounding performance in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, the gap will narrow down to 20,000 votes, an official in the Election Commission explained. If it is able to get the support of parties like AIADMK with 134 MLAs and BJD with 117 MLAs, it can see the person of its choice in the Rashtrapati Bhawan easily. In the 243-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP as of now has 56 members, while the Congress with 59 is the single largest party. With wins in Assembly polls, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha too in 2018 and the NDA's tally would be close to 100. It would, however, still be short of a majority in the upper house. Mayawati's BSP, which finished a poor third in Uttar Pradesh with a tally of just 19 seats, will not be in a position to send her to the Rajya Sabha again when her current term ends in 2018. Hyderabad: The Left parties are mulling to propose the candidature of former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the post of President, said sources in the CPM and CPI. "We are thinking of proposing the name of Gopalkrishna Gandhi. He does not have an affiliation to any political party," sources in the Left parties told PTI. They added that the parties would also have no objection if JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was picked as a candidate. "If Sharad Yadav's name comes up, we will have no objection. He is a senior opposition leader... a man of integrity and honesty," a Left leader said on the condition of anonymity. The process of filing nominations for the 17 July presidential poll began today with the Election Commission issuing a notification in this regard. It will continue till 28 June. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and a group of opposition leaders have intensified the efforts to zero in on a "mutually acceptable" presidential candidate. BJP chief Amit Shah has formed a three-member committee, comprising Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu, which will hold consultations with the NDA constituents and the opposition on the issue. The term of incumbent Pranab Mukherjee ends on 24 July. Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday warned ally BJP that his party would take a "big step" if the loan waiver for farmers announced by the Maharashtra government is not implemented by next month. Terming the announcement of a complete loan waiver as a victory of farmers' unity, he said, "Our demand is very clear. We want their loans to be written off completely." Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, after meeting farmers from across the state, including Puntamba village, Uddhav said, "I would like to thank the farmers. We have heard of a green revolution but the farmers of Maharashtra have shown that those who can bring about a green revolution can also cause a revolution." "I don't believe in the word 'karz mafi', it should be called as 'karz mukti'. 'Mafi' is given to those who have committed a crime. Farmers have not committed any crime but have brought about a revolution," the Sena chief said. Uddhav said, "I congratulate the Maharashtra government. This is a moment to be celebrated, but most importantly, fast implementation of the announcement is necessary." "Loan waiver has been announced now. We will be patient enough to wait now and give the government time until July to implement its announcement. If they do not do so, a big step will be taken next month," he said. Meanwhile, a farmer who was present at the event said they met the Sena president to thank him for his support to their stir. "His support forced the government to give us a loan waiver. We give full credit to Uddhav ji and the Shiv Sena," he said. Earlier in the day, the Shiv Sena had said the loan waiver decision was due to its constant "throttling" of the Maharashtra government and the party has opted to remain in power to shake the chair of "lazy" persons. Farmers in Maharashtra, who had been on a war path from 1 June to press for their various demands, had on 11 June called off their stir after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced loan waiver for them. Melbourne: A settlement of $68 million has been promised to over 1,900 asylum seekers who sued the Australian government for ill treatment at the immigration camp in Papua New Guinea. A lawyer, David Curtain, informed the Supreme Court of Victoria of the accord between the Australian government and the operators of the Manus Island camp. Following this, the trial by 1,905 asylum seekers currently or formerly kept at camp at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea scheduled which was begin on Wednesday in the court has been called off. The asylum seekers were seeking damages for alleged physical and psychological injuries they argue they suffered as a result of the conditions on Manus Island, as well as for false imprisonment. On the other hand, the Australian government has refused to resettle asylum seekers and pay the impoverished Pacific island nationals of Papua New Guinea and Nauru to keep hundreds of them from the West Asia, Africa and Asia. No further details of the settlement have been disclosed and the immigration minister Peter Dutton refused to comment. Meantime, the United States is considering to resettle up to 1,250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru under a deal struck between Australia and former US president Barack Obama's administration. Chittagong: Rescue workers battled on Wednesday to reach victims of the worst landslides ever to hit Bangladesh, as the death toll rose to 146, with dozens more still missing. Villagers in some of the worst-hit areas used shovels to try to dig bodies out of the mud that engulfed their settlements as they slept. Authorities say hundreds of homes were buried by mud and rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains dumped 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of water on the southeast of the country in just 24 hours. Disaster Management Department chief Reaz Ahmed said the landslides were the worst in the country's history and warned the death toll would rise as rescuers reached cut-off areas.Firefighters in the district of Rangamati said they had pulled 18 people out from under the mud on Tuesday, but did not have the manpower to reach all the affected areas. "People called us from several places saying people had been buried. But we did not have enough men to send," said Didarul Alam, fire services chief for Rangamati district. "We have been unable to reach some of the more remote places due to the rain. Even in those places we have reached, we have been unable to recover all the bodies," he said. The army said thousands of troops stationed in the affected districts as part of efforts to quell a long-running tribal insurgency had joined the rescue efforts. "Our soldiers based in all parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have participated in the rescue operations," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Four soldiers were killed in a landslide on Tuesday and another is missing. Thousands evacuated Those caught up in the disaster spoke of the horror that the rains had unleashed. Khodeza Begum emerged from her home just after dawn on Tuesday to see the mountainside collapsing in front of her. "As I came out I saw a huge slab of earth rolling down from the hill. Instantly I got all my relatives out of their homes. We survived narrowly," she told a local news website. "My house was buried under mud within moments. I have never seen a disaster like this in my life," she said, adding that 11 people in her village were killed. Rangamati district chief Manzurul Mannan told AFP 98 people had been killed there and 200 injured, some of them seriously. At least 37 people died in Chittagong, four in Cox's Bazar and seven more in the neighbouring hill districts of Bandarban and Khagrachhari, officials said. The latest toll makes this year's disaster deadlier even than a 2007 landslide that killed 127 people in Chittagong. Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been evacuated, a minister said. Among the victims were two fishermen who drowned off the coast of Cox's Bazar after their boat apparently capsized. Other trawlers and their sailers were still missing. As rain pounded Teknaf in Cox's Bazar for a third day, police confirmed that a father and daughter were killed after their home was buried by a landslide. The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes. South Asia is frequently hit by flooding and landslides in the summer with the arrival of the annual monsoon rains. But experts say unplanned development and excessive encroachment such as cutting into hillsides exacerbates the damaging effects of the monsoon. "It's a backlash effect. Such abnormal acts accelerate the disasters to become more fatal," SMA Fayez, an environmental science professor at Dhaka University, told AFP. More than 200 people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when the monsoon triggered landslides and the worst flooding the island has seen in well over a decade. Britain's The Guardian newspaper will switch to tabloid format from early 2018, the newspaper's owner said on Tuesday, after deciding to outsource the printing of its two best-known titles in a bid to keep costs down. Publisher Guardian Media Group (GMG) said it had agreed a contract with Trinity Mirror for it to print The Guardian and its Sunday stablemate The Observer from early 2018, when both titles will move to tabloid formats. Reuters reported in January that the newspaper was considering such a switch. Outsourcing the printing of the newspapers will help the publisher to lower costs, and rivals' printers are better suited to publishing tabloids. GMG opted for a deal with Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Daily Mirror, over News UK which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. At the moment, GMG prints The Guardian and The Observer on special presses bought more than 11 years ago, when it switched from a broadsheet to the mid-sized Berliner format. But the publisher said last year it needed to make savings of 20 percent to stem underlying losses that widened to 62.6 million pounds ($78 million) for the year to 3 April. It said it was aiming to break even in three years. GMG said on Tuesday that the move would make a "significant contribution" to meeting its financial targets. "This is an important step in our three-year transformation plan. More people are reading and supporting our journalism than ever before, but the print industry continues to evolve, and we must evolve with it," David Pemsel, chief executive, Guardian Media Group, said. He said the switch would impact print site employees. GMG is owned by The Scott Trust, created in 1936 to safeguard its flagship newspaper. Beijing: China on Wednesday said it is intensifying efforts to establish the veracity of reports over the killing of two of its nationals by the Islamic State in Pakistan and offered to cooperate in investigating their alleged illegal preaching activities in the country. "I should stress that on the possible killing of the two Chinese nationals, we express high concern. But so far, Pakistan has not confirmed the information to China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told media briefing in Beijing. "We are intensifying the efforts to verify the relevant information," he said. The ministry's response came after China's official media on Tuesday accused South Korean Christian groups and intelligence agencies of recruiting young Chinese and sending them for proselytising in Muslim countries. China has yet not released details whether the two slain Chinese nationals were associated with South Korean church groups. Chinese foreign ministry on 9 June said Beijing was informed by Pakistan officials that a Chinese man and a woman identified as Lee Zingyang, 24, and Meng Lisi, 26, who were kidnapped last month from Quetta may have been killed. The video of their killing emerged on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana which was attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Subsequently, Pakistan interior ministry said the two Chinese nationals were involved in "preaching" in the country along with a Korean group. Reports from Pakistan said the two were killed by Islamic State group after being abducted by gunmen dressed as policemen in Quetta in restive Balochistan province last month. About the allegations that they were preachers, Lu said, "We always require the Chinese citizens to abide by local laws and regulations while travelling and living in foreign countries, respect the customs of the local people and stay alert to protect their safety and security." "On the information of possible preaching by the two people we will cooperate with Pakistan to investigate for further information," he said. Pakistan has been grappling with Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in Balochistan since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting. ISIS has been making inroads in Pakistan with the help of its ties with local militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. However, the government has largely downplayed the presence of the dreaded terror outfit. Beijing: China said on Wednesday that the US should respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, amid reports that America may deploy more troops in the war-torn country, which borders Chinas volatile Xinjiang province. Such a move is "highly relevant to the development and security of the neighbouring region and the countries, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told the media while reacting to reports that US President Donald Trump has given defence secretary Jim Mattis the authority to determine troop levels in Afghanistan. "So, we contend that any move should respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and conducive to the Afghanistans peace process," Lu said. The US currently has some 8,400 troops in Afghanistan after Trump's predecessor Barack Obama pulled out majority of American troops leaving a big security vacuum in Afghanistan following which Taliban gained ground in the war-torn country. Mattis, according to The New York Times, is believed to favour sending several thousands more troops to Afghanistan, but has not taken a final decision in this regard. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon confirmed the news. Lu, however, declined to comment on reports from Afghanistan that China has agreed to mediate between Pakistan and Afghanistan so that the two countries can improve their relations. "In principle, I should say China always supports Afghan led and Afghan peaceful process. Hope relevant regional countries can strengthen cooperation and unity to fight terrorism and stay committed to uphold peace and stability in that region to create enabling environment for the regional development," he said. Pakistans ties with Afghanistan were severed when a deadly blast in Kabul on May 31 killed 150 people, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the Afghan capital since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. No group claimed responsibly for the attack but the Afghan government blamed the Haqqani network and Pakistans ISI for it. Washington: Democratic lawmakers are suing President Donald Trump over foreign money flowing into his global business empire. Almost 200 senators and representatives are plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging Trump is violating the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution. It's being filed early Wednesday in US District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawmakers said. The plaintiffs argue they have standing to sue because the clause says only Congress may approve foreign gifts and payments. "The framers gave Congress a unique role, a unique right and responsibility," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who helped organise the lawsuit. Although Trump turned over control of his real estate development, management and marketing company to his adult sons and a senior executive, he did not divest from it. That means he stands to benefit financially from the Trump Organisation's profits, including from foreign governments. Since he's become president, the Trump Organisation has secured dozens of potentially valuable patents, including in China, and collected fees from lobbyists working for Saudi Arabia and other countries using his properties. The new suit the third of its kind says the full scope of foreign payments to the Trump Organisation cannot be known because the president has not made public his tax returns. Earlier this week, two Democratic attorneys general filed a similar claim. Days after Trump's inauguration in January, a liberal-funded government watchdog filed an emoluments lawsuit. A restaurant group and two individuals in the hotel industry later joined as co-plaintiffs. Trump and the Justice Department have called these lawsuits baseless. They argue the clause isn't intended to prevent normal business such as hotel payments and real estate transactions. Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said he and Blumenthal have amassed the "greatest number of congressional plaintiffs on any lawsuit against a president." He said they're taking the action "not out of any sense of pleasure or partisanship but because President Trump has left us with no other option." Ahead of the filing, only Democrats were asked to sign on, but Blumenthal and Conyers plan to send letters to their Republican colleagues Wednesday asking them to join the effort. A review of world energy published by BP has revealed that the global demand for coal has fallen for the second consecutive year. The world coal production has also reduced by 6.2 percent and China's production fell by 7.9 percent. The study also states that coal consumption has been declining for three years in China. "Policy actions taken in China to reduce excess capacity in their domestic coal sector spilled over into global coal markets, with world prices rising. This further depressed global coal demand, particularly in the power sector around the globe, with natural gas and renewable energy the main beneficiaries," the study says. The BP review reaffirms China's commitment to fighting climate change even after United States president Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement. During his speech, Trump said that the deal was not tough enough on some countries like India and China. "China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So we can't build the plants, but they can, according to this agreement," he said. Trump also pointed out that China will be able to increase its emissions by a staggering number of years 13. Citing the deal as "very unfair" to the United States, Trump decided to pull out. With the US in retreat and China's declining usage of oil and increasing investment in renewable energy, Beijing seems to be emerging as a global leader on climate change. For years Beijing fought attempts by foreign governments to limit carbon emissions but the steps taken by China in recent years reaffirms the belief that it is ready to fill the vacuum left by Trump. China initially claimed that it should be allowed the same space to develop and pollute that industrialised nations had, as this article in Salon points out. However, as the anger mounted in China over the deadly smog that had surrounded Beijing and the inefficiency of the government to improve the environment, China was forced to take a step back and think seriously about tackling pollution. Chinese president Xi Jinping vowed to defend the Paris Agreement after Trump pulled the US out of the historic deal. He also promised to invest in clean energy, build scientific coalitions, and support other countries' efforts to adapt to climate change, as reported by The Huffington Post. "We propose the establishment of an international coalition for green development on the Belt and Road, and we will provide support to related countries in adapting to climate change," Xi had said. Xi's statement, combined with Chinas steps to reduce emissions and clean up its environment, is increasingly being seen as a move to replace the US as the world leader. Chinese premier Li Keqiang said that Beijing would reduce its carbon intensity, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of GDP, by 60 to 65 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. Li also said that renewable energy should make up 20 percent of China's primary energy supply by the same date, as reported by Foreign Policy. Beijing has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions for the past three years and it has also halted the construction of 103 new coal-fired powerplants. At the start of the year, China announced an investment of $361 billion into renewable power generation by 2020. Apart from creating about 13 million jobs, the investment will boost solar capacity by five times, as Fortune reported. China's 13th five-year plan, released in 2016, aims to reduce energy intensity by 15 percent and carbon intensity by 18 percent compared to 2015 levels. Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced plans to reduce coal consumption by 160 million tonnes by 2020, according to Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions. China, at present, builds two-thirds of the world's solar panels, around half of the world's wind turbines. The Chinese government has also announced targets to increase solar and wind capacity to 70 and 150 GW, respectively, by 2017. China also signed an agreement with California to work together on reducing emissions. California governor had a meeting with Xi where the two pledged to work on green technologies that could help address climate change. "While China cancels coal power plants, Trump cancels climate action," India Today quoted Li Shuo, who works for Greenpeace in Beijing, as saying. Trump's decision to come out of the Paris Agreement seems to have paved the way for China to take on as the world leader in battling climate change and Beijing's initiatives in the sector seem to have strengthened its position. Straugbourg: European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday rejected US President Donald Trump's suggestion that the Paris climate pact could be renegotiated. Trump's decision two weeks ago to pull out of the landmark pact was "a sign of abdication from common action," Juncker told the European Parliament. Trump has made a vague suggestion that he could try to renegotiate terms with better guarantees for US industry. "The European Union will not renegotiate the Paris Agreement," Juncker told the assembly in Strasbourg, France. "Climate action does not need more distractions. We have spent 20 years negotiating. Now it is the time for action," he said. Juncker said he saw "strengthened resolve" around the world to implement the deal, vowing to work with other US partners like the states of California and New York as well as China and Canada. The Paris pact was signed by the United States and 194 other nations in 2015. Juncker said EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete would host talks with his Chinese and Canadian counterparts in September to forge ahead with implementing the pact. Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine, speaking in Strasbourg, called for EU's help in fighting climate change as her Pacific archipelago is exposed to climate-induced sea level rises. Juncker promised not to let her down. "Madame president, we will work to help your country continue to mark the beginning of our days. We will not allow the denial of the very few to be the end of the days of the Marshall Islands," he said. The day after Trump announced Washington was pulling out of the Paris agreement, Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk met with Chinese premier Li Keqiang to support the Paris agreement. But the two sides failed to endorse a joint statement because of a separate trade row that EU officials said did not undermine their determination to fight climate change. The United States is the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, after China, so Trump's decision could seriously hamper efforts to cut emissions and limit global temperature increases. By Gabriel Stargardter | MEXICO CITY MEXICO CITY The United States, Mexico and three Central American nations will this week unveil plans to work with billionaire Carlos Slim's charity to tackle crime in Central America and find new ways of slowing migration, according to a draft document.Top U.S., Mexican and Central American officials meet in Miami on Thursday and Friday to discuss how to cut migration and improve conditions in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, a cluster of poor, violent countries known as the Northern Triangle that most U.S.-bound migrants set out from.The document, seen in Mexico, contains an agenda for the two-day meeting in Miami and lists several specific objectives it refers to as "deliverables." It is a draft document, and could be subject to change.U.S. officials hope Mexico will step up efforts in Central America, especially since President Donald Trump's proposed budget contains deep cuts in U.S. aid to the area.Trump took office vowing to slash illegal immigration to the United States. He has created tensions with Mexico's government with accusations that the country is sending criminals north and a pledge to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.The Miami summit was the brainchild of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly, who will be joined by Vice President Mike Pence. Trump will be in Miami beginning Friday, although not at the same meeting. Instead, he is expected to address future U.S.-Cuba policy.According to a draft document between the United States and Mexico after consultation with Northern Triangle countries, the first day of the meeting will focus on "prosperity", and the second on security. On the second day, the document mentions a memorandum of understanding between USAID and the Carlos Slim Foundation to "focus on training to support the professionalisation of crime and violence prevention units throughout Central America and enhance economic opportunities for at-risk youth."Consulted on the matter, the charitable arm of Mexican tycoon Slim said it was in talks with USAID, but gave no further details.Slim, one of the world's richest men, is one of the main telecoms providers in Central America, with business interests across various industries throughout the region.Kelly, who previously ran U.S. Southern Command, helped former President Barack Obama design his Alliance for Prosperity, a $750 million initiative that sought to curtail migration with development and gang-fighting projects. Reuters has reported Kelly aims to retool the Obama-era alliance without a large increase in U.S. funding, by pressing Mexico to take more responsibility for governance and security in Central America, and with more private capital.Trump's 2018 budget proposal envisages slashing U.S. aid to Guatemala by almost 40 percent from 2016, while cutting aid for Honduras and El Salvador nearly a third.Kelly's DHS referred all questions on the document to the State Department, which did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Neither did Mexico's foreign ministry.The foreign ministries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The meeting envisages a commitment to develop a regional migration observatory to slow the flow of Central Americans heading north to the United States."Tracking and collection of data around migratory flows originating from Northern Triangle countries is critical to better develop and direct policy to mitigate illegal migration," the document says.The meeting will include efforts to deepen coordination and professionalise regional crime-fighting and law enforcement, while Washington would reaffirm its support for a free press and independent graft-tackling bodies like Guatemala's CICIG. The United States expects Northern Triangle nations to show "a will to pursue cases that reach political and economic elites," said the document. The "prosperity day" aims to come up with strategies to cut red tape, boost tax revenues in Central America and improve a regional power network, allowing Mexico to sell more electricity to the energy-poor region.Still, a senior Mexico official, speaking on condition of anonymity, feared the Miami meeting would yield few concrete results other than "good intentions." (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg, Nelson Renteria, Sofia Menchu and Gustavo Palencia; Editing by Dave Graham and David Gregorio) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Kylie MacLellan and Toby Melville | LONDON LONDON Fire engulfed a 24-storey housing block in central London on Wednesday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more in an inferno that trapped residents as they slept.More than 200 firefighters, backed up by 40 fire engines, fought for hours to try to bring the Grenfell Tower block blaze - one of the most treacherous seen in London for a generation - under control.London mayor Sadiq Khan said the fire raised questions about the safety of high-rise blocks like Grenfell Tower while the scale of the disaster could delay the announcement of a deal by Prime Minister Theresa May to stay in power.Some residents screamed for help from behind upper-floor windows, some tried to throw children to safety, as flames raced through the high-rise Grenfell Tower block of apartments in the north Kensington district just before 1 a.m. (0000 GMT)."We could see a lot of children and parents screaming for 'Help! Help! Help!' and putting their hands on the window and asking to help them," Amina Sharif, a witness, told Reuters."We could do nothing and we could see the stuff on the side was falling off, collapsing. We were just standing screaming and they were screaming."Another witness, Saimar Lleshi, saw people tying together sheets in an attempt to escape. "I saw three people putting sheets together to climb down, but no one climbed down. I dont know what happened to them.Even when the lights went off, people were waving with white shirts to be seen," Lleshi said. The ambulances service said 69 people had been taken to hospital and 18 were in critical care. Police Commander Stuart Cundy cautioned the death toll was likely to rise. Firefighting crews were still trying to douse flames as they sought to reach the top floors of the building over 10 hours after the fire started."In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale," London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters.The cause of the inferno, which left the tower block a charred, smoking shell, was not immediately known. Some residents said no alarm had sounded. LOST CHILDREN Residents who escaped told how they woke up to the smell of burning and rushed to leave through smoke-filled corridors and stairwells. Black smoke billowed high into the air for hours after the blaze broke out. There were reports that some residents leapt out of windows to escape the flames. One woman lost two of her six children as she tried to escape from the block, one witness said."I spoke to a lady that lives on the 21st floor. She has got six kids. She left with all six of them. When she got downstairs there was only four of them with her. She is now breaking her heart," Michael Paramasivan, a block resident, told BBC radio.Other witnesses spoke of children, including a baby being thrown to safety, from windows high up.Tamara, one witness, told the BBC: "There's people, like, throwing their kids out, 'Just save my children, just save my children!'".SAFETY QUESTIONS Prime Minister May said her thoughts were with all those affected by the fire. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said sprinkler systems should be installed in such blocks and called on the government to make a statement in parliament.Firefighters rescued large numbers of people - some of them in their pyjamas - from the 43-year-old block, a low rent housing estate which overlooks upscale parts of the Kensington area.The block had recently undergone an 8.7 million pound ($11.08 million) refurbishment of the exterior, which included new external cladding and replacement windows.Residents said they had warned repeatedly over fire safety in the block. Khan, the London mayor, said questions needed to be answered about the safety of tower blocks after some residents said they had been advised they should stay in their flats in the event of a fire.A local residents association had previously warned it was worried about the risk of a serious fire in the block."What we can't have is a situation where people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained," Khan said.The local council of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the block, said it was focusing on supporting the rescue and relief operation. It said the causes of the fire would be fully investigated.($1 = 0.7852 pounds) (Additional reporting by Lina Saigol, David Milliken, Costas Pitas, Neil Hall, Subrat Patnaik, Elisabeth O'Leary, Alistair Smout, Megan Revell and Oli Rahman; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. US attorney general Jeff Sessions testified publicly to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday. He vehemently denied that he colluded with an alleged Russian bid to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump's favour. He had recused himself from the inquiry in March after media reports that he had been in two previously undisclosed meetings in 2016 with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. His testimony comes only a few days after former FBI director James Comey testified before the same Committee. Here is the full text of his prepared remarks to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence given on 13 June, 2017: Thank you Chairman Burr and Ranking Member Warner for allowing me to publicly appear before the committee today. I appreciate the Committees critically important efforts to investigate Russian interference with our democratic process. Such interference can never be tolerated and I encourage every effort to get to the bottom of any such allegations. As you know, the Deputy Attorney General has appointed a special counsel to investigate matters related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. I am here today to address several issues that have been specifically raised before this committee, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to questions as fully as I am able to do so. But as I advised you, Mr. Chairman, and consistent with long-standing Department of Justice practice, I cannot and will not violate my duty to protect confidential communications with the President. Now, let me address some issues directly: I did not have any private meetings nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel. I did not attend any meetings at that event. Prior to the speech, I attended a reception with my staff that included at least two dozen people and President Trump. Though I do recall several conversations I had during that pre-speech reception, I do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian Ambassador or any other Russian officials. If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian Ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it. After the speech, I was interviewed by the news media, which had gathered as I remember in a different room, and then I left the hotel. But whether I ever attended a reception where the Russian Ambassador was also present is entirely beside the point of this investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 campaigns. Let me state this clearly: I have never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie. Relatedly, there is the assertion that I did not answer Senator Frankens question honestly at my confirmation hearing. That is false. This is how it happened. He asked me a rambling question that included dramatic, new allegations that the United States intelligence community had advised President-elect Trump that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trumps surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government. I was taken aback by these explosive allegations, which he said were being reported in breaking news that day. I wanted to refute immediately any suggestion that I was a part of such an activity. I replied, Senator Franken, Im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didnt have did not have communications with the Russians, and Im unable to comment on it. That was the context in which I was asked the question, and in that context, my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it. It simply did not occur to me to go further than the context of the question and list any conversations I may have had with Russians in routine situations, as I had with numerous other foreign officials. Please hear me now. It was only in March of this year that a reporter asked my spokesperson whether I had ever met with any Russian officials. This was the first time that question had been posed. On the same day, we provided that reporter with the information related to the meeting I and my staff had held in my Senate office with Ambassador Kislyak, as well as the brief encounter in July after a speech that I had given during the convention in Cleveland, Ohio. I also provided the reporter a list of all 25 foreign ambassador meetings I had held during 2016. In addition, I provided supplemental testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain this. I readily acknowledged these two meetings. Certainly nothing improper occurred. Let me also explain clearly the circumstances of my recusal from the investigation into the Russian interference with the 2016 election. I was sworn in as Attorney General on Thursday, February 9th. The very next day, I met with career Department officials, including a senior ethics official, to discuss some things publicly reported in the press and that might have some bearing on the issue of recusal. From that point, February 10th, until I announced my formal recusal on March 2nd, I was never briefed on any investigative details and did not access information about the investigation; I received only the limited information that the Departments career officials determined was necessary to inform my recusal decision. As such, I have no knowledge about this investigation beyond what has been publicly reported, and I have taken no action with regard to any such investigation. On the date of my formal recusal, my Chief of Staff sent an email to the heads of the relevant departments, including by name to Director Comey of the FBI, to instruct them to inform their staffs of this recusal and to advise them not to brief me or involve me in any such matters. And in fact, they have not. Importantly, I recused myself not because of any asserted wrongdoing on my part during the campaign, but because a Department of Justice regulation, 28 CFR 45.2, required it. That regulation states, in effect, that Department employees should not participate in investigations of a campaign if they have served as a campaign advisor. The scope of my recusal, however, does not and cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department of Justice, including the FBI, which has an $8 billion budget and 35,000 employees. I presented to the President my concerns, and those of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, about the ongoing leadership issues at the FBI as stated in my letter recommending the removal of Mr. Comey along with the Deputy Attorney Generals memorandum, which have been released publicly by the White House. It is a clear statement of my views. It is absurd, frankly, to suggest that a recusal from a single specific investigation would render an Attorney General unable to manage the leadership of the various Department of Justice law enforcement components that conduct thousands of investigations. Finally, during his testimony, Mr. Comey discussed a conversation he and I had about a meeting Mr. Comey had with the President. I am happy to share with the committee my recollection of the conversation I had with Mr. Comey. Following a routine morning threat briefing, Mr. Comey spoke to me and my Chief of Staff. While he did not provide me with any of the substance of his conversation with the President, Mr. Comey expressed concern about the proper communications protocol with the White House and with the President. I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow Department policies regarding appropriate contacts with the White House. Mr. Comey had served in the Department of Justice for the better part of two decades, and I was confident that Mr. Comey understood and would abide by the Departments well-established rules governing any communications with the White House about ongoing investigations. My comments encouraged him to do just that and indeed, as I understand, he did. Our Department of Justice rules on proper communication between the Department and the White House have been in place for years. Mr. Comey well knew them, I thought, and assumed correctly that he complied with them. I will finish with this. I recused myself from any investigation into the campaigns for President, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. At all times throughout the course of the campaign, the confirmation process, and since becoming Attorney General, I have dedicated myself to the highest standards. The people of this country expect an honest and transparent government and that is what we are giving them. This President wants to focus on the people of this country to ensure they are treated fairly and kept safe. The Trump agenda is to improve the lives of the American people. I know some have other agendas, but that is his agenda and it is one I share. Importantly, as Attorney General I have a responsibility to enforce the laws of this Nation, to protect this country from its enemies, and to ensure the fair administration of justice. I intend to work every day with our fine team and the superb professionals in the Department of Justice to advance the important work we have to do. These false attacks, the innuendo, and the leaks, you can be sure, will not intimidate me. In fact, these events have only strengthened my resolve to fulfill my duty to reduce crime, and to support our federal, state, and local law enforcement officers who work our streets every day. Just last week, it was reported that overdose deaths in this country are rising faster than ever recorded. The murder rate is up over 10 percentthe largest increase since 1968. Together, we are telling the gangs, the cartels, the fraudsters, and the terroristswe are coming after you. Every one of our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to be safe in their homes and communities. And I will not be deterred, and I will not allow this great Department to be deterred from its vital mission. Thank you. The entire text of the testimony has been taken exactly as provided by the Senate Intelligence Panel and has not been edited by Firstpost. Paris: French president Emmanuel Macron called for unity among Gulf states Wednesday, saying he was ready to back "all initiatives to encourage calm". Macron spoke by phone with Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and restated the "importance of preserving stability in the region". He also reaffirmed France's readiness to stay in contact with all parties involved, the president's office said in a statement. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremism. US president Donald Trump threw his weight behind the effort spearheaded by Riyadh, despite Qatar's role in hosting US military operations in the fight against Islamic State extremism. The Gulf states "said they would take a hard line on funding... extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!" Trump said on Twitter. Jerusalem: Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering shutting down the local offices of Arab satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera, an official said on Wednesday, following a crackdown against Qatar by Sunni countries across the region. Saudi Arabia has been leading an effort to isolate Qatar, accusing the energy-rich Gulf state, and the Qatari-backed channel, of supporting violent Islamic groups across the Middle East. Jordan and Saudi Arabia have closed Al Jazeera's local offices, while the channel and its affiliate sites have been blocked in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain. While Israel is not formally part of that effort, the stepped-up pressure appears to have emboldened Netanyahu to look into closing down the channel's local operations as well. Israeli officials have long accused Al-Jazeera of bias against the Jewish state, and on Tuesday, defense minister Avigdor Lieberman accused it of promoting incitement and likened its coverage to "Nazi Germany-style" propaganda. The Yediot Ahronot daily reported today that various government officials held a first meeting on the issue on Tuesday. The Israeli official confirmed that discussions were underway but said no decisions had been made. The official was not authorised to discuss the issue with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu's office declined to comment. Walid Omary, Al Jazeera's local bureau chief, said he has not been notified of any formal action against his operation. But he rejected the Israeli claims of bias and accused Israel of waging an incitement campaign. "This is not the first time they have attacked us," he said. "I hope they will withdraw the threat." Shutting the bureau would likely face significant legal obstacles and test Israel's commitment to protecting freedom of the press. Some key officials might also oppose the step. While Israel complains about Al Jazeera's coverage, the station is also one of the few Arab media channels that interview Israeli officials, giving Israeli leaders a rare outlet to address the Arab public. Doha: Qatar Airways said on Wednesday that it was largely unaffected by the decision of several Arab countries to ban the Doha-based carrier from using their airspace. "Qatar Airways' global operations continue to run smoothly, with the vast majority of our network unaffected by the current circumstances," said chief executive Akbar Al-Baker. The Qatari carrier released a statement saying it had operated some 1,200 flights in the past week, 90 percent of which took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are among several countries that suspended ties with Qatar last week, including the suspension of all flights to and from Doha and an airspace ban on Qatar Airways. On Tuesday, the four Arab countries said the air embargo only applies to airlines from Qatar or registered there. Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse gas-rich Doha of supporting Islamist extremists in what is the worst crisis to grip the Gulf in years. Qatar denies the allegations. Earlier this week, Qatar Airways announced profits of $540 million in the fiscal year which ended in March. But analysts warn the profitable carrier could take a hit should the diplomatic crisis drag out. Qatar Airways on 7 June announced the cancellation of all flights into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, just weeks after having been hit by a new US travel ban on laptops and tablets in passenger cabins. Doha: Qatar has withdrawn troops deployed on the border between Djibouti and Eritrea, two northeastern African countries fighting over border territory, amid a diplomatic crisis between Doha and the neighbouring Gulf countries. "The state of Qatar informed the government of Djibouti that it has withdrawn all its troops deployed on the border line in Djiboutian territory," Efe news quoted a source from the Qatari foreign ministry telling Qatar News Agency. On 5 June, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Qatar and implemented a series of economic reprisals after claiming that Doha funded terrorist groups. Several other countries followed suit. Qatar was the country that brokered a peace agreement signed in 2010 between Djibouti and Eritrea in an attempt to resolve the decades-old border conflict and since then the Arab country has deployed units there to maintain stability. Despite the withdrawal, the source said Qatar would remain "an impartial diplomatic mediator" in resolving "crises and disputes between brotherly and friendly countries", and would continue to be a "major player" in the international community. Islamabad: "Are you with us or with Qatar?" Saudi King Salman raised this question during a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had visited the Gulf kingdom for finding a diplomatic solution to the Qatar crisis. The Saudi monarch asked Sharif to take a clear position on Qatar during their meeting in Jeddah on Monday, The Express Tribune reported, citing diplomatic sources. "Pakistan has told Saudi Arabia it will not take sides in the brewing diplomatic crisis in the West Asia after Riyadh asked Islamabad 'are you with us or with Qatar'," the report said. Pakistan has been treading a careful path since Saudi and other Gulf countries snapped diplomatic ties with Qatar after accusing the oil-rich country of supporting terrorist groups. But Saudi wants Pakistan to side with the kingdom, it said. Citing a senior government official, who was briefed on the talks at the monarchs palace in Jeddah, the paper said that Pakistan would not take sides in any event that would create divisions within the Muslim world. "Nevertheless, in order to placate Saudi Arabia, Pakistan offered to use its influence over Qatar to defuse the situation. For this purpose, the prime minister will undertake visits to Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey," it said. Sharif, accompanied by army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and other senior officials, travelled to Jeddah on Monday to discuss the emerging situation in the Gulf world. Prime Minister Sharif's mediation visit to Saudi did not achieve any immediate breakthrough. According to an official statement, Sharif met King Salman in Jeddah and urged an early resolution of the impasse in Gulf in the best interest of all Muslims. Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said King Salman and Sharif discussed the "latest regional developments in addition to bilateral relations. Salman told Sharif that "the fight against extremism and terrorism is in the interest of all Muslims and the Ummah". The SPA, while announcing the severing of relations with Qatar, had said it had been done for "protection of national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism". Qatar, meanwhile, has indicated that it was willing to address concerns of the countries that ended diplomatic relations with it. The current crisis in the Gulf is said to be the gravest that the Gulf Cooperation Council has faced in its nearly four decades of existence, although Qatar's relations with Saudi and some other Arab neighbours have not always been good. Other diplomatic efforts have so far not been successful in defusing tensions either. Kuwaits Emir Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad, who has been leading the diplomatic initiative, vowed to continue his efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis despite remaining unsuccessful in his earlier bid. Saudi, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt had cut off diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar on 5 June on the pretext that its policies are fuelling extremism and terrorism. The crisis erupted late in May over fears that Qatar was trying to improve its ties with Iran, which Saudi Arabia and its allies wanted to be isolated. LONDON Chancellor Philip Hammond will argue for Britain to stay in the customs union, in a bid to soften Brexit and alter Prime Minister's Theresa May approach, the Times reported on Tuesday citing several unnamed sources. Hammond will attempt to change May's mind after a disastrous election in which the government lost its majority last Thursday, the Times said. The newspaper reported he believes government must rethink its plan to pursue an independent trade policy outside the customs union. The EU customs union guarantees tariff-free trade within the bloc but prohibits members from striking third-party trade deals. Earlier on Tuesday, senior British minister Michael Gove had said that the Britain would leave the customs union, in line with government policy prior to the election. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by William James) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Christians in a Philippines town are disguising themselves by borrowing hijabs to escape the Islamic State (IS), that has been holding 1,500 people hostage. More than three weeks after the terrorist group stormed the southern Filipino town of Marawi, starving locals are said to have resorted to extreme measures including eating their blankets to stay alive, Daily Mail reported on Tuesday. Five police officers and five Christian civilians dashed across the town's commercial district this morning, ducking for cover from a sniper, to reach a government-controlled area on the Agus River western bank, the report said. "We ran the last part. We could see the bridge ahead of us. We had to take cover several times when we saw a sniper," an officer was quoted as saying. Almost the entire population of more than 200,000 fled after 23 May, when fighters from local groups allied to Islamic State rampaged through the Muslim-majority town, killing and kidnapping Christians. The military estimates 300 to 600 civilians are still trapped or being held as human shields in areas occupied by the terrorists. New Delhi: Navies of India and Australia will participate in bilateral maritime exercise AUSINDEX-17 this week with an aim to enhancing inter-operability and cooperation between the two forces. Indian naval ships Jyoti, Shivalik and Kamorta are on a port visit to Freemantle, Australia from 13 June to 17 June and will join the exercise, the Navy said. Vice admiral and Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command HCS Bisht will be also visiting Freemantle during the period. During the harbour stay, various activities such as official calls, formal receptions on board ships which will also be open to visitors, guided tours for Indian naval personnel and professional interaction between naval personnel of the two sides, have been planned. This would be the second edition of the exercise with the maiden one having been conducted at Visakhapatnam in 2015. The exercise is aimed at increasing inter-operability and is in consonance with the growing cooperation between the two countries. In pursuance of India's 'Act East' policy, the ships under the command of Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet Rear Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta are on an overseas deployment to the South East Asia and southern Indian Ocean regions. INS Shivalik, a muIti-role stealth frigate, INS Kamorta, an anti-submarine warfare corvette, and INS Jyoti, the fleet replenishment tanker, are a part of this venture. "The visit of the Indian naval ships seeks to underscore India's peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly and harmonious countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between India and Australia", the Navy said in a statement. In April this year, Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull visited India and held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to enhance the partnership between the two countries. In May this year, Singapore and India held a maritime bilateral exercise SIMBEX in the disputed South China Sea. INS Shivalik, Jyoti and Kamorta were also a part of this exercise. LONDON Iranian forces killed three members of a Sunni Muslim jihadist group in the city of Chabahar on Wednesday and arrested five others, state media reported, as security forces stepped up measures to prevent militant attacks.Last week, suicide bombers and gunmen attacked parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran, killing 17 people in what was an unprecedented security breach for the Islamic Republic. Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran's majority Shi'ite population, whom the hardline Sunni militants consider heretics.Iran has arrested almost 50 people in connection with the attacks. On Wednesday, state media reported that security forces had fought with members of Ansar al-Furqan, a militant Sunni group, in Chabahar, a city in southeastern Iran. State media said three militants had been killed and five arrested. One security officer was also killed and one wounded. Authorities said they had found ammunition, explosive belts and weapons. Ansar al-Furqan - or Partisans of the Criterion - is a Sunni group based in Sistan and Baluchestan province that has threatened to carry out suicide attacks on economic and military centres in revenge for the government's execution of Sunni prisoners.The group, which was formed by the merger of some Sunni Baluch insurgent groups in 2012, is not linked to Islamic State. But it has carried out periodic attacks on military and civilian targets, aiming to highlight what it says is discrimination against Iran's Sunni ethnic groups. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Larry King) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Baghdad: A total of 22 Islamic State terrorists were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes on IS desert stronghold and clashes with Iraqi security forces in central Iraq. The Iraqi warplanes carried out airstrikes on the main Islamic State desert redoubt in Mteibijah area, which is on the provincial border between Iraq's eastern province of Diyala and the northern central province of Salahudin, Xinhua quoted Udai al-Khadran, the mayor of al-Khalis town as saying. The airstrikes left some 20 terrorists killed and five of their vehicles destroyed, including one booby-trapped, al-Khadran said. In Salahudin province, the security forces repelled two attacks by Islamic State terrorists from two directions around the town of Seniyah, just west of the oil refinery town of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. After hours of sporadic heavy clashes, the attackers were forced to withdraw, leaving two of their fighters killed. Three security members were also killed in the attacks, the source said. Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday told Israeli settlers marking 50 years since the Six-Day War he would keep building across the occupied West Bank and that no one would be "uprooted from his home". It was unclear if Netanyahu was suggesting no settlements would be dismantled in any peace deal with the Palestinians, which would mark a significant change and raise further doubts over future possibilities of a two-state solution. A spokesman for Netanyahu did not respond to a request for further explanation. Netanyahu was speaking in parliament at a special session marking 50 years since the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel's occupation of the West Bank began, to an audience of lawmakers and invited settler leaders. "Everyone has the right to live in his home and nobody will be uprooted from his home," Netanyahu said. Netanyahu has said he still supports a two-state solution, but peace advocates allege his actions show otherwise. Proposals for future peace deals with the Palestinians typically involve land swaps, with far-flung settlements evacuated and larger settlement blocs remaining under Israeli control. His comments came as Netanyahu faced heavy criticism from settler leaders who accuse him of failing to advance settlement projects. The settlers, pillars of support for Netanyahu's right-wing government, are still smarting over the February demolition of the Amona rogue settlement outpost in the West Bank. Settler leaders this week accused Netanyahu of a de facto construction freeze after reports emerged of moves to advance plans for some 2,500 settler homes instead of a far larger number they were expecting. He spoke today of a plan to rehouse Amona evacuees at a new site in the West Bank, which Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now says would be the first new government-approved settlement in about 25 years. Construction in recent years has involved expanding existing settlements in the West Bank, with many countries warning it is gradually eating away at any chance of a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Sanaa: Less than 30 percent of pledged international aid has been delivered to Yemen this year, a United Nations official said Wednesday, as millions across the country struggle to survive. Donors in April pledged close to $1.1 billion (981,500 euros) in aid to war-torn Yemen, which the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calls the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world". But "only 25 percent of aid pledged to the UN refugee agency and 29 percent of aid pledged to the UN's humanitarian response plan have been delivered so far," UNHCR's Yemen spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told AFP. Some 19 million people are in need of aid in Yemen, with 10.3 million requiring immediate assistance to "save or sustain their lives", according to the United Nations. Yemen's deadly war has seen more than 8,000 people killed and millions displaced since a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened to support a government fight against Shiite Huthi rebels allied with Iran. Looming famine and an outbreak of cholera in Yemen, the most impoverished country in the region long before the war, are taking their toll on the population. "Conditions are only worsening. The cholera rates are alarming, health facilities are struggling to remain functional, millions across the country are food insecure and facing prolonged displacement from their homes," Mantoo said. The International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday warned that Yemen's health system is on the "brink of collapse". The organisation said 5,000 new suspected cases of cholera have been reported every day over the past two weeks in Yemen, where an outbreak of the waterborne disease has killed more than 900 people since 27 April. "Two years of armed conflict have brought Yemen's health system to the brink of collapse," said ICRC's head of delegation in Yemen Alexandre Faite. "This cholera outbreak is only the most recent, and most visible, proof that people and structures have been seriously weakened by the way this conflict is being waged," Faite said. A quarter of a million people are expected to contract cholera within six months, according to the World Health Organisation. Campaigners for residents of the London tower block that went up in a giant blaze on Wednesday spoke angrily about long-standing fire safety concerns, saying they were ignored because the community was not rich. Damian Collins, former head of the Grenfell Tower Residents' Association, said residents had complained to the local council over the handling of a major refurbishment of the building completed in 2016. "We used to say that... it'll take a tragedy before the people wake up and before the people managing the building get held to account," Collins said, as the 24-storey building smouldered nearby. Collins said residents of the tower were particularly concerned about the lack of fire exits in the building. He said there were also faults in the heating and lighting systems, and 90 percent of residents had signed a petition in 2015 that was ignored. "There were so many concerns," Collins said. "The telling thing this morning is that when I woke up I wasn't surprised... Shocked, terrified for all the people living here, not surprised," he said. Grenfell Tower is a concrete tower block built in 1974. Its 8.7 million (9.9 million euro, $11 million) refurbishment was completed in 2016 and included new cladding covering the whole of the exterior, which residents blamed for spreading the fire. The tower was built as public housing and is located in a working-class but rapidly gentrifying part of the mostly wealthy Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It neighbours the chic district of Notting Hill. "If the same concerns were had in a wealthy part of Kensington and Chelsea they would have got resolved, but here they didn't get resolved," said Collins. "This is a multi-ethnic, multicultural, diverse community that just didn't get served by the people representing them," he said. Eddie, a 55-year-old resident from the Grenfell Action Group, said he too had been complaining for years in particular about work at the base of the building which he said blocked access for fire trucks. "This is mass murder and these people need to be put into court for the way they've treated this community," he said at the scene of the blaze. A blog post on the Grenfell Action Group blog in 2016 warned about a potential fire risk caused by rubbish being allowed to accumulate during the works. "This matter is of particular concern as there is only one entry and exit to Grenfell Tower during the improvement works," it said. "The potential for a fire to break out in the communal area on the walkway does not bear thinking about as residents would be trapped in the building with no way out," it said. Nana Akuffo, 46, a chef who lives nearby said council tenants had been treated harshly. "Kensington and Chelsea are moving out people who grew up in this area and building plush houses for the rich people. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for them," he said. Referring to the multiple complaints by residents, he said: "If this happened somewhere near Knightsbridge that would have been resolved. It wouldn't have been an issue." Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's younger brother and Punjab chief minister has been summoned by a Joint Investigation Team probing the high-profile Panamagate graft case against his family. The JIT summoned Shehbaz Sharif, 65, to record his statement on 17 June and face questioning by the six-member team, sources said. The JIT was set up by the Supreme Court last month to investigate the Sharif family about its properties in London. It had questioned Sharif's sons Hussain and Hasan last month over the family's alleged improper business dealings. His eldest son Hussain was questioned five times while Hasan, the younger son, was summoned twice. The court last year took up the case and issued a split decision over allegations of money laundering when Sharif was prime minister in 1990s. The JIT is bound to complete the probe in 60 days unless it is granted additional time. Prime Minister Sharif has been asked to appear before the JIT on Thursday. It is for the first time that a sitting prime minister would appear before a high-level probe team traditionally constituted to investigate high-profile criminal cases. The JIT alleged that the government was using its official machinery to hamper its investigation. It also identified five government departments, including Ministry of Law, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which were trying to influence the JIT work. The Supreme Court has asked the government to respond to the allegations against the departments. By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS There are no apparent plans by Arab states to propose that names from their Qatar blacklist be subjected to United Nations sanctions, diplomats said on Wednesday, a likely difficult move that would need approval by the 15-member U.N. Security Council. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain on Friday branded 59 people, including Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi, as terrorists and 12 entities, among them Qatari-funded charities Qatar Charity and Eid Charity, as having links to terrorism.The move came days after the four Arab states severed relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and their arch-adversary Iran, charges Qatar rejects. Several other countries followed suit.At least six of the people on the Arab states blacklist are already named on the U.N. Security Council al Qaeda and Islamic State sanctions list, which subjects them to a global asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo. The U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions on al Qaeda, Islamic State, the Taliban and related groups and people with ties to them. Iran is also subjected to a U.N. arms embargo.The Arab states would need to link people or entities on their blacklist to those U.N. sanctioned groups or to breaches of the Iran arms embargo if they wanted to propose that they be subjected to U.N. sanctions. For any names to be added to U.N. sanctions lists the Security Council can either agree by consensus behind closed doors or vote on a resolution, which would need nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China.The biggest diplomatic rift in years among the rich states of the Gulf has become a major test for the United States, which is closely allied to the countries on both sides. Qatar hosts the Middle East headquarters for U.S. air forces; Bahrain hosts the main base for the U.S. Navy. The United Nations has said it is only bound by the U.N. Security Council sanctions lists and therefore any work with Qatar Charity was unaffected by the Arab states' blacklist. "The Qatar Charity implements projects included in the U.N.-coordinated Humanitarian Response Plans in Yemen, in Syria, and in Iraq, where they also participate in the common humanitarian coordination structure," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs does "not provide funding for them and we do not receive funding from them." (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: The leadership of the Palestinian Authority has agreed to halt payments to the families of suicide bombers, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said. Compensation payments to the families of "martyrs" who die carrying out attacks on Israelis are one of the sticking points in the moribund Middle East peace process. "They have changed their policy, at least I have been informed they've changed that policy," Tillerson told US lawmakers on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump has vowed to revive the talks, and has urged Israel to limit settlement building on Palestinian land, but many differences remain. Under questioning at a Senate hearing, Tillerson said Washington had pressed Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on the issue of payments to the families of suicide bombers. "It was discussed directly when president Abbas made his visit with his delegation to Washington," Tillerson said, adding that Trump had raised the issue at the White House. Just after this 3 May meeting, Tillerson had a "more detailed" bilateral meeting with Abbas. "And I told him you absolutely must stop making payments to family members of quote, 'martyrs'," he said. "I said it's one thing to help orphans and children, but when you designate the payment for that act, that has to stop.... Their intent is to cease the payments to the family members of those who have committed murder or violence against others." "So, we've been very clear with them that this is simply not acceptable to us. It is certainly not acceptable to the American people." If the change in policy is confirmed, it could be politically awkward for Abbas, who has committed himself publicly to the peace process but is wary of being seen to make concessions. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will appear on Thursday before a Supreme Court-appointed team probing the Panama papers graft case, an unprecedented development that will make him the first sitting premier to depose before such a panel. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) chief Wajid Zia had summoned the prime minister to appear before the six-member probe team at 11.00 am (11.30 IST) on 15 June with all documents relevant to the case. Amidst tight security, Sharif will appear before the probing officers at Islamabad's Judicial Academy which is temporarily turned into the JIT's secretariat. The summons was issued to Sharif, 67, after he returned last Saturday from Kazakhstan where he had attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. In its judgement of 20 April in the Panama Papers case, the Supreme Court had constituted a JIT and empowered it to summon the prime minister, his sons and any other person necessary, to investigate allegations of money-laundering, through which the four apartments in London's posh Park Lane area were purchased. Sharif has denied any wrongdoing. The Joint Investigation Team had questioned Sharif's sons Hussain and Hasan last month over the family's alleged improper business dealings. His eldest son Hussain was questioned five times while Hasan, the younger son, was summoned twice. The court last year took up the case and issued a split decision over allegations of money laundering when Sharif was prime minister in 1990s. On 5 May, the Supreme Court set up a high-level six-member JIT to probe Sharif and his sons' alleged corruption in the Panama Papers case. The JIT is bound to complete the probe in 60 days unless it is granted additional time. It is for the first time that a sitting prime minister would appear before a high-level probe team traditionally constituted to investigate high-profile criminal cases. It is not yet clear that Sharif will be questioned for once or would be called again like his two sons. Media reports had also said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar may also be questioned on Thursday by the JIT before Sharif's appearance. The JIT probing the offshore holdings of prime minister Sharif and his children has also summoned his younger brother and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, to appear before it on 17 June. By Elida Moreno | PANAMA CITY PANAMA CITY Panama's business community on Tuesday cheered the Central American country's decision to establish full diplomatic ties with China and ditch Taiwan, hoping to deepen links with a key customer of the nation's shipping canal.Although there was regret at the cost to Taiwan, an ally of various Central American nations, there was broad support for President Juan Carlos Varela's decision to throw his lot in with China, whose growing global ambitions contrast with U.S. President Donald Trump's isolationist rhetoric."I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision, given the long-term links we've had with Taiwan, but nonetheless, (China) is a global superpower, the world's No. 2 economy, the second biggest user of the canal - and so we think this is a positive development that will result in more business and investment in Panama," said Inocencio Galindo, president of Panama's Trade, Industry and Agriculture chamber.The diplomatic U-turn comes as China attempts to position itself as a defender of free trade in the face of the "America First" policy of Trump, who was elected in November 2016.Chinese officials also celebrated the news.Wang Weihua, the permanent representative in the Office of China-Panama Trade Development and Beijing's top representative in the country, said various attempts had been made over the years without success to establish formal ties.Late last year, more advanced talks began with Varela's team that concluded only this week, said Wang, who added he was involved in the discussions. China is interested in Panama for its strategic location, and as a trade and logistics hub, he added."China has made a big bet on Latin America, where it has strategic investments, and Panama, which didn't have diplomatic relations, was losing out on those advantages," he said in an interview. "Now Panama will be able to enjoy what our country can offer it in various sectors."Almost a fifth of the cargo crossing the isthmus last year went to or from China, which has been taking an increasing interest in the Panama Canal.In March, the canal's administrator, Jorge Quijano, said Chinese state firms were considering developing land around the waterway, which was recently expanded. A spokesman for the canal said Quijano would address the implications of the diplomatic change for commerce on Thursday.BRIGHT FUTURE Taiwanese economic aid has helped support Central America, a region in the United States' backyard that relies heavily on agriculture and struggles with law and order.Its remaining allies were guarded about what the future held for their ties with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. Panama's foreign minister, Isabel de Saint Malo, said Varela had expressed an interest a decade ago in establishing ties with China. She hoped the move would lead to trade, investment and tourism opportunities, especially for "exporting more goods from Panama to China".According to Panamanian statistics, total trade between Panama and China was worth $1.1 billion in 2016 - roughly 12 times the value of the nation's commerce with Taiwan. Chinese exports accounted for the vast majority of it.Alvin Weeden, a former comptroller of Panama, said the decision to break ties with Taipei in favour of Beijing would boost business and should have been taken years ago, given Panama's reliance on global trade and Chinese shipping."Every day, Taiwan is more isolated," he said, adding he did not expect the move to hurt Panama's ties with the United States, the top canal customer. "This is a reality that's happening, a geopolitical reality."Octavio Vallarino, a partner of Desarrollos Bahia, a local real estate firm, said he hoped direct flights would soon be established between the two countries, and that the commercial real estate market would be bolstered by arriving Chinese firms.Sara Pardo, president of Panama's hotel association, said the accord could help make travel between the two countries easier. "This is definitely going to strengthen the economy," she said. (Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Dave Graham and Peter Cooney) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Kabul: There is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan that is forcing record number of people from their homes, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, during an unannounced visit to the war-torn country. Guterres' first visit as secretary general comes as the Afghan government faces internal turmoil, insurgents make gains nationwide and the international military coalition mulls plans to send thousands more troops to help struggling Afghan forces. These combined threats have worsened the crisis for refugees and internally displaced people, forcing international bodies like the United Nations to call for emergency funding. The crisis can only be solved by ending the war, said Guterres, standing in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Kabul that accommodates Afghans displaced by fighting. "Peace is the solution for the problem," said Guterres, previously a United Nations' high commissioner for refugees. At least 126,000 Afghans have been forced to flee their homes, the United Nations says. More than 218,000 Afghan refugees have also returned this year from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan, many citing pressure from authorities there. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that at least 600,000 refugees could return this year, piling strain on aid groups struggling to help the newly displaced. Khumri, a 30-year-old Afghan woman who met Guterres, said she had lived in the squalid camp for the last two years with her family after their home was destroyed and her husband killed by government forces battling Taliban occupying their village in the northeastern province of Kapisa. "We need everything," she said, recounting the struggle for clean water, food, and hygiene materials that drives some to beg. Guterres was set to meet Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, who is trying to soothe domestic political tension after recent violence in the capital, Kabul. Ghani also hosted international delegations last week in a bid to set the stage for peace negotiations with the Taliban, which have remained stalled amid widespread fighting. If the Taliban do not begin negotiations soon, Ghani will seek new UN sanctions against the group as a sponsor of terrorism, he told the 6 June meeting. Any sanctions would be up to the UN Security Council, Guterres said. Afghanistan has endured too many "foreign interventions", however, he added, urging an eventual deal to resolve the war. Thousands of international troops remain in Afghanistan to train and assist Afghan forces, besides mounting counter-terrorism operations. US President Donald Trump has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, opening the door for future troop increases. By Neil Jerome Morales and Simon Lewis | MARAWI CITY, Philippines MARAWI CITY, Philippines U.S. troops are on the ground near Marawi City in the southern Philippines, but are not involved in fighting Islamist militants who have held parts of the city for more than three weeks, a Philippines military spokesman said on Wednesday.The Philippines military has previously said the United States was providing technical assistance to end the occupation of parts of Marawi City by fighters allied to the Islamic State group, but it had no boots on the ground."There are some U.S. personnel who are operating equipment to provide information on situation awareness to our troops," Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told a news conference. "I do not know the exact number and the specific mission. They are allowed to carry rifles for self-defence. But they are not allowed to fight, they only provide support," he said.It was not clear how close to the battle zone the U.S. troops were. They were from a contingent of Special Forces based in the southern city of Zamboanga, the Philippines military has said previously.The U.S. embassy in Manila did not respond to a request for comment.A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was providing a P-3 surveillance plane as well as intelligence gathering from a drone. That drone, however, crashed on Saturday after it lost communication links with its operator, the official said.On Wednesday, government forces attacked rebel positions in Marawi with bombs, tank fire and helicopter gunships, and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the battered city. Some sniper shots could be heard.Fighting died down in the afternoon when heavy rain fell. It was the 23rd day of fighting in Marawi, and there was no sign that it would end any time soon."There will be no more deadlines," said Padilla, referring to a promise by the military to clear the city by June 12, the country's independence day. "It may take some time."In Washington, a security official who is familiar with the region said the battle in Marawi appeared to be locked in a stalemate."At the very least, it is not at all clear that government forces are presently winning or even gaining significant ground," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Islamic State demonstrated significant determination and success in capturing and holding Mosul in Iraq and their effort in Marawi is of a similar notable quality."HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS The seizure of Marawi has alarmed Southeast Asian nations which fear Islamic State - on the back foot in Iraq and Syria - is trying to set up a stronghold on Mindanao island that could threaten their region.Another Philippines military spokesman said troops had gained a significant advantage by taking control of eight high-rise building in the battle zone where the militants had set up snipers and machine-gun posts."This is very important," Colonel Edgard Arevalo told reporters. "We are in the final stage of our operation in Marawi. But we have to be very careful with our actions because there are still civilians in the area, they still have hostages and there are still people trapped in the firefight.The military said 290 people had been killed, including 206 militants, 58 soldiers and 26 civilians.About 100 militants are in the besieged area, the military has said. There are also an estimated 300-600 civilians trapped or being held hostage in the city.Islamic State's news agency, Amaq, said its fighters controlled two-thirds of the city.Responding to the report, Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, head of military command in Western Mindanao, told Reuters the militants controlled 20 percent of the town."The truth is probably somewhere in between," said the U.S. security official.The Philippines has been fighting twin insurgencies from Maoist-led rebels and Muslim separatists in the south for nearly 50 years. Critics say military action is not enough to bring peace to a region that has long suffered from political neglect and poverty. (Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in MANILA, Idrees Ali and Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Ankara/Dubai: Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday denounced the isolation of Qatar by neighbouring states as a violation of Islamic values and akin to a "death penalty" imposed in a crisis that has reverberated across the Middle East and beyond. Erdogan's comments marked the strongest intervention yet by a powerful regional ally of Doha eight days after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and applied stringent economic sanctions on it. Later on Tuesday, the UAE ambassador to the United States, which has an air base in Qatar, said there was no military component to the steps taken against Doha. Qatar denies accusations that it supports Islamist militants and Shi'ite Iran, arch regional foe of the Sunni Gulf Arab monarchies. "A very grave mistake is being made in Qatar; isolating a nation in all areas is inhumane and against Islamic values. It's as if a death penalty decision has been taken for Qatar," Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in Ankara. "Qatar has shown the most decisive stance against the terrorist organisation Islamic State alongside Turkey. Victimising Qatar through smear campaigns serves no purpose." The measures against Qatar, a small oil and gas exporter with a population of 2.7 million people, have disrupted imports of food and other materials and caused some foreign banks to scale back business. The UAE envoy, Yousef Al Otaiba, told reporters in Washington: "There is absolutely no military component to anything that we are doing." "I have spoken and seen (US defence secretary) General (Jim) Mattis four times in the last week; weve given them our complete assurance that the steps we have taken will not affect in anyway Al Udeid base or any operations supporting or regarding the base," Otaiba said. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is home to more than 11,000 US and coalition forces and an important base for the fight against Islamic State militants in the region. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, told a Senate hearing that the rift between Qatar and its neighbours was not affecting US military operations. Qatar, which imported 80 percent of its food from bigger Gulf Arab neighbours before the diplomatic shutdown, has been talking to Iran and Turkey to secure food and water. The world's second largest helium producer, Qatar has also shut its two helium production plants because of the economic boycott, industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Turkey has maintained good relations with Qatar as well as several of its Gulf Arab neighbours. Turkey and Qatar have both provided support for the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt and backed rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi also criticised the measures imposed on Qatar, saying in Baghdad on Tuesday they were hurting the emirate's people, not its rulers. Saudi food supplies Gulf Arab states have issued no public demands to Qatar, but a list that has been circulating includes severing diplomatic ties with Iran, expulsion of all members of the Palestinian Hamas group and the Muslim brotherhood, the freezing of all bank accounts of Hamas members, ending support for "terrorist organizations" and ending interference in Egyptian affairs. Some analysts say demands could also include closing down satellite channel Al Jazeera or changing its editorial policy. When asked what, if any, further steps would be taken against Qatar, the UAE's Otaiba said: "Weve designated 59 people and 12 entities; its likely that you could see designations of their bank accounts, and perhaps of the banks themselves." "The specific list is being drawn up and the reason it has not been completed and passed on yet is because there are four countries involved," he added. "Each country has their own set of lists, their own specifications and so were trying to compile and curate that into one master list and it should be handed over to the United States fairly soon." Otaiba reiterated the accusations that Qatar was supporting terrorism. "Doha has become a financial, media and ideological hub for extremism. Then it must take decisive action to deal once and for all with its extremist problem," he wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal published on Monday night. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, talking to reporters during a news conference in Washington on Tuesday with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said Riyadh was ready to send food and medical supplies to Qatar. The minister, Adel al-Jubeir, defended the Arab powers' move against Qatar as a boycott, not a blockade, adding: "We have allowed the movement of families between the two countries ... so that we dont divide families." There has been no breakthrough in Kuwaiti efforts to mediate in the crisis, but a US official in the region said Kuwait was continuing with what is seen as a "slow, painstaking, deliberate" process focused inside the Gulf Cooperation Council. "The parties are still defining what it is they want out of this confrontation ... It's difficult to conduct negotiations if you don't really know what everybody wants." International diplomacy Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Monday that Doha "still had no clue" why Arab states had cut ties. He denied Doha supported groups like the Muslim brotherhood that its neighbours oppose, or had warm ties with their enemy Iran. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Erdogan would discuss the Gulf rift in a telephone call with US president Donald Trump in coming days. Turkey approved plans last week to deploy more troops to a military base it has established in Qatar under a 2014 agreement with the Gulf Arab state. The move was seen as support by regional power and NATO member Turkey to Doha. In Moscow, the Kremlin said president Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's King Salman discussed the crisis in a phone call on Tuesday. The Kremlin said the dispute was not helping to unite efforts to try to find a Syria settlement or fight terrorism. Dhaka: Landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Bangladesh killed more than 130 people, including several army men, with the majority of the deaths reported in a remote hill district close to the Indian border, officials said on Tuesday. The worst affected Rangamati district alone reported nearly 100 deaths, including four army personnel who were deputed there to remove the rubble to clear a major highway. Officials said many people were asleep when the tragedy hit, causing more casualties especially among children. The death toll touched 130 and could rise further as many people still remain buried under tonnes of rubble, media reports said. Landslides killed 23 people in Rangunia and Chandanaish upazilas of Chittagong, the Dhaka Tribune reported. In Bandarban, six people were killed and another five injured, police officer Rafiq Ullah was quoted as saying by the daily. The reports said more than 100 people were injured, many of them critically, as searches continued to retrieve more bodies. Rescuers struggled reach the remote areas and had to battle inclement weather. "Most of the casualties were caused by landslides, but some died of electrocution, drowning and collapse of walls," said an official at the southeastern port city of Chittagong. A military spokesman in Dhaka said an army major and a captain were among the four military personnel dead. "A fresh landslide at the scene buried the detachment killing the four while one soldier is still missing...ten personnel were wounded in the (fresh) landslide," he said. Many of the victims belonged to the ethnic minority or tribal groups in Rangamati and Bandarban who live in makeshift structures along the hills, officials said. "The rescue campaign is underway. We can get a clearer picture of the casualties later," a spokesman at the Disaster Management Ministry said. The landslides triggered by the monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora hit Bangladesh, leaving eight people dead and damaging hundreds of homes. Singapore: A feud between Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings have come out in the open, exposing deep divisions in the first family after they accused the premier of abusing power and exploiting the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding leader of the city-state. Prime minister's brother Lee Hsien Yang said in a Facebook statement that he was leaving Singapore, citing the Hsien Loong as the sole reason for his departure. "Since the passing of our father (Lee Kuan Yew) in 2015, we have felt threatened by Hsien Loong's misuse of his position and influence over the Singapore government and its agencies to drive his personal agenda," the statement issued by Hsien Yang and his sister Wei Ling said. In the statement, entitled 'What Has Happened to Lee Kuan Yew's Values?', Hsien Yang said that he, his wife, and his sister Wei Ling feared "the use of the organs of state" against them. The two siblings have accused their brother Lee Hsien Loong, 65, of nurturing political ambitions for his son, Li Hongyi, who works as a consultant for a Singapore government agency. "If Hsien Loong is prepared to act thus against us, his younger sister and brother, both contributing members of Singapore's establishment, to advance his personal agenda, we worry for Singapore. We question whether able leaders with independent political legitimacy will be side-lined to ensure Hsien Loong's grip on power remains unchallenged," the statement said. Instead of demolishing Kuan Yew's house as the former leader desired, the prime minister has sought to make the residence his personal home - a move that would enhance his political capital, the statement read. Singapore's founding father Kuan Yew wanted the family home, a bungalow in the Orchard district, to be demolished after his death as he was averse to it becoming a monument. The prime minister and his wife Ho Ching CEO of Temasek Holdings, Singapore's $196 billion sovereign wealth fund also harbored political ambitions for their son Li Hongyi, the statement said. The prime minister, presently overseas on leave with his family, has denied allegations made by his siblings and said he was "very disappointed" that they chose to issue a statement publicising private family matters. "Ho Ching and I deny these allegations, especially the absurd claim that I have political ambitions for my son," Lee said in a statement posted by the prime minister's Office on his Facebook page. "I am deeply saddened by the unfortunate allegations that they have made. Ho Ching (my wife) and I deny these allegations, especially the absurd claims that I have political ambitions for my son," Lee said. "While siblings may have differences, I believe that any such differences should stay in the family. Since my father's passing in March 2015, as the eldest son I have tried my best to resolve the issues among us within the family, out of respect for our parents," the prime minister said. "My siblings' statement has hurt our father's legacy," he said. He said he would do his utmost to continue to do right by his parents. At the same time, he would continue serving Singaporeans "honestly" and to the best of his ability. "In particular that means upholding meritocracy, which is a fundamental value of our society," the prime minister said. The 65-year-old prime minister had previously said in the parliament that he intended to fulfil his father's wishes and recuse himself from any government decision made on the house. The feud in Singapore's first family became public in 2016 after the prime minister's sister accused him of abusing his political power over anniversary commemorations for the death of the elder Lee. The family rift is a rare display of public acrimony at the top of the tightly-controlled city-state, where the boundaries of free speech are vigorously policed. Founded in 1954, the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) has governed since Singapore's independence in 1965. Under Kuan Yew's leadership, the former British colony transformed into a first world nation but numerous international organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have rebuked the government for strict censorship laws. By Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration more time to file papers responding to an appeals court ruling that upheld a block on a proposed travel ban on people entering the United States from six Muslim-majority countries.The move likely delays any high court action on the administration's two emergency applications asking for the ban issued on March 6 to immediately go into effect. The March ban was Trump's second effort to impose travel restrictions through an executive order.An entry on the Supreme Court docket said that the administration can file its new brief on Thursday. Hawaii, which challenged the ban and won in the appeals court, is permitted to file its own brief on June 20, meaning the court is unlikely to act on the emergency application until next week at the earliest. The court was responding to a request made by Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall, who said in a letter that the ruling on Monday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco means the government needs to file a new brief.In an added dramatic twist, Trump himself plans to go to the Supreme Court on Thursday for the investiture of Justice Neil Gorsuch, an administration official said. Trump nominated Gorsuch in January. Gorsuch's confirmation by the U.S. Senate in April restored the court's 5-4 conservative majority. Trump's visit to the court would be his first since he became president on Jan. 20 and would put him face-to-face with the nine justices as they consider the fate of his travel ban unless the court acts before then. It is common practice for presidents to attend such events, which are purely ceremonial.The Supreme Court could discuss how to act on the emergency application at its private conference on June 22, a week after the Gorsuch ceremony.Wall wrote that more time was needed because the 9th Circuit ruling in favour of the state of Hawaii is "the first addressing the executive order at issue to rest relief on statutory rather than constitutional grounds." Hawaii's lawyer, Neal Katyal, filed his own letter objecting to the government's timeline, although he agreed that both sides needed to file briefs responding to Monday's ruling.Federal judges in Maryland and Hawaii blocked Trump's 90-day ban on travellers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The Hawaii judge also blocked a 120-day ban on refugees entering the United States. The 9th Circuit largely upheld the Hawaii injunction on Monday.In the second case, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on May 25 upheld the Maryland judge's ruling.The lawsuits by Hawaii and the Maryland challengers argued that the executive order violated federal immigration law and a section of the Constitution's First Amendment, which prohibits the government from favouring or disfavouring any particular religion. The Supreme Court is weighing emergency applications in both cases, but is likely to act on them together.Trump's first order on Jan. 27 led to chaos and protests at airports and in various cities before being blocked by the courts. The second order was intended to overcome the legal issues posed by the original ban, but was blocked by judges before it could go into effect on March 16. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; additional reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Kilis: Thousands of Syrian refugees are returning home for a visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, after Turkey temporarily opened two border crossings with its war-torn neighbor. For some of the younger ones travelling back, the visit means seeing some of their relatives, even siblings, for the very first time. Ankara says those who go back can return with their papers and a special "religious holiday permission." Turkey has taken in more than 3 million Syrian refugees who arrived by way of legal or illegal crossings since the start of their country's civil war more than six years ago. The official border crossings were shut in 2015 barring exceptions such as serious injuries to prevent a spillover of the conflict and stem the flood of refugees. Ankara has also been building a wall along the boundary to curb cross-border movement of fighters. Many Syrians welcomed the opportunity to go back, even briefly. Twenty-one-year-old Ismail Hadidi Jafar was waiting to cross into Syria from the Oncupinar gate in the southern province of Kilis on Tuesday, to visit his parents and family in Aleppo. He left two years ago and hadn't gone back since. "I have a young sibling whom I've never met," Jafar told The Associated Press, preparing to cross over. As he waited, the crowds swelled and hundreds of refugees had to stand in the scorching sun to be individually processed by police and migration officials for the crossing. Seeing the lines, some abandoned plans to visit, but excitement remained high. Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said that since 1 June when the crossing of Cilvegozu in Hatay province opened, some 30,000 Syrians have left to visit their homes. Oncupinar opened for the first time on Tuesday for the Ramadan visits. Turkey has also grown increasingly involved in the Syrian conflict. It launched a cross-border operation last summer, sending in tanks and troops along with Syrian opposition forces to clear its border and a swath of northern Syria from the Islamic State group and also to counter the spread of US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters there. The Turkish government views Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as YPG, as a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish militants who have been waging a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey. The two crossings will remain open for departures to Syria until 23 June. Returns will be allowed through Oncupinar until 14 July and Cilvegozu until 30 September but Turkish authorities reserve the right to amend these dates. Mohammed Izzo, 28, who also hails from Aleppo province in northern Syria, said he's been longing to see his family. "The area we were in was under Daesh control," he said using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. "I didn't go visit after Daesh left so I'm going now," he added. Izzo said he will return to Turkey after Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. Mohammed Dede, a father of three, said he's thinking about leaving Turkey for good. He is headed first to Jarablus, a town on the Syrian side of the border that was taken from IS by Turkey-backed fighters in August. "If the situation is calm there I want to open up a business and return," the 37-year-old refugee said. "I want to continue my life there." By Ece Toksabay and John Davison | ANKARA/DOHA ANKARA/DOHA Turkey said on Wednesday Qatar's rift with fellow Gulf Arab states and Egypt was damaging the Islamic world and it would do all it could by diplomatic channels to prevent any escalation.President Tayyip Erdogan, who has cultivated close ties to Doha while preserving relations with Saudi Arabia, dispatched his foreign minister to Doha in a bid to solve a dispute raising concern across the Middle East and beyond.Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have broken off ties and imposed sanctions on Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and courting regional rival Iran - allegations Doha denies."Our main priority as part of our efforts with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries is to solve this through negotiations, not to escalate the crisis," President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told an Ankara news conference."Today we are having to tackle many problems such as Daesh (Islamic State), the ongoing war in Syria, the fight against terrorism and poverty. Amid all this, tensions further escalating in the region through such a crisis would mean wasting of the region's resources and opportunities."Turkey and Qatar have both provided support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and backed rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Conservative Gulf neighbours have long viewed Qatar's outgoing foreign policy with suspicion.The Gulf Arab states have not made public any demands of Qatar but a journalist with the state-funded Al Jazeera network has shared a list that includes Qatar severing diplomatic ties with Iran and expelling members of the Palestinian Hamas group and the Muslim Brotherhood who live in Doha.The list of demands also includes ending support for "terrorist organizations" and ceasing "interference" in Egyptian affairs, charges Qatar denies.Kalin said a Turkish military base in Qatar, set up before the regional spat, was established to ensure the security of the whole region and did not pose any military threat to any other country. Turkey approved plans last week to deploy more troops to the base after the crisis began. But it was not immediately clear if they arrived.The measures against Qatar, which has a population of 2.7 million people but vast gas wealth, have disrupted imports of food and other materials and caused some foreign banks to scale back business.Qatar, which imported 80 percent of its food from bigger Gulf Arab neighbours before the diplomatic shutdown, has been talking to Iran and Turkey to secure food and water.At Qatar's Hamad port on Wednesday workers were busy unloading containers of food and building materials, while another ship carrying livestock, including chickens and sheep from Australia had docked at the port. "There is a service from India... which used to come via Jebel Ali port (in the United Arab Emirates) but is now redirected," said a port official who declined to be named."The First vessel on that service is to arrive Friday and will run once a week," he added.AFRICA Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu flew to Doha for a meeting with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during a tour that may also include a visit to Saudi Arabia.There was no word either from Qatar or Saudi Arabia about the visit. The effects of the dispute could widen beyond the region.On Wednesday, Qatar said it had withdrawn troops from the border between the east African states of Djibouti and Eritrea where the Gulf state has been acting as mediator in a border dispute. It gave no reasons for the move, but Djibouti had earlier downgraded its diplomatic ties with Qatar after the Gulf move against Doha.Last week, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt announced a list of 59 people, including Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi, and 12 entities, among them Qatari-funded charities Qatar Charity and Eid Charity, who had been designated as terrorists.Qatar has rejected the list and said it adheres to United Nations Security Council resolutions on countering terrorism including eradicating sources of financing for terrorism.Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has criticised the measures imposed on Qatar, saying they were hurting the emirate's people, not its rulers. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, speaking after talks in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, said the measures taken against Doha did not amount to a blockade since Qatar's airports and ports remained open and offered to send supplies to Qatar if needed.The Qatari foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia's offer to provide food and medical assistance confirmed that the closure of transport links "is a siege, not a boycott, and reflects the clear contradiction in statements by officials of those countries." (Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Tom Finn in Doha and Sylvia Westall in Dubai, Writing by Sami Aboudi,reporting by Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Istanbul; editing by Ralph Boulton) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN U.S. troops based in Syria's southeastern desert have expanded their footprint, rebels there say, increasing the risk of direct ground confrontation between the Americans and Iran-backed pro-government forces.U.S. special forces have been based since last year at Tanf, a strategic Syrian highway border crossing with Iraq, where the Americans have assisted rebels trying to recapture territory from fleeing Islamic State fighters.The U.S.-backed Syrian rebels in the area are in competition with pro-government forces who are also trying to recapture territory from Islamic State.On several occasions in recent weeks, warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition have struck pro-government forces to prevent them advancing, in what Washington has described as self defence.Abu al-Atheer, military spokesman for the U.S.-backed Maghawir al-Thawra rebel group, told Reuters U.S. forces had spread from their initial location at Tanf to set up a second base at Zakf, around 60-70 km (40-50 miles) to the northeast.Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, denied troops had set up a new base. But he said sometimes coalition forces conduct patrols and training with rebels at locations outside Tanf that could be maintained for days or weeks."We have that garrison in al-Tanf that is a temporary base and location for us to train our partner forces to fight to defeat ISIS, but that is the only base in southern Syria or location where we have coalition forces," Dillon said. Abu al-Atheer said the U.S. special forces were now patrolling distances of up to 100 km from Tanf. He said more U.S. special forces were arriving at both the original base at Tanf and the new base at Zakf, and more weapons had been delivered to rebels. "The (new) base was being studied for months but now it's an official base. It has been built and expanded and God willing will be in the next few days like the Tanf base," he told Reuters.Video clips purportedly of the Zakf site, sent to Reuters by another rebel in the group, showed a convoy of military vehicles travelling on a paved road lined by long walls, a communications mast and a hut. Another showed three men in uniform next to two small military vehicles, firing a mortar in otherwise empty desert. U.S.-backed rebels are fighting to oust Islamic State fighters from their last two major bastions -- Mosul in Iraq and the Euphrates River valley near Raqqa in Syria -- in battles which Washington hopes could crush the group this year.The Syrian government, backed by Russia and Iran, also wants to reclaim the territory in Syria. Pro-government forces have taken up positions north of Tanf, potentially cutting off the U.S.-backed rebels from advancing. Muzahem Saloum, a rebel official close to Maghawir al-Thawra, said the Zakf location would back up Tanf and was expected to be a "first line of defence" against any attack by Iranian-backed Syrian pro-government militias. RIVALRY Tanf is located near a Syria-Iraq border crossing on the main Baghdad-Damascus highway, and the U.S.-backed rebels took it from Islamic State last year, partly to stop Iran from using it in future to send arms to the Syrian government. The U.S.-backed rebels also want to use it to take more territory along the border and to push towards Deir al-Zor, a large city on the Euphrates where the government has an enclave surrounded by Islamic State fighters. However, Syria's army has declared winning back control of the desert and relieving its besieged Deir al-Zor enclave a military priority and has advanced swiftly from Palmyra with troops and dozens of tanks. Aided by allied militias backed by Iran, it also hopes to join up with Iraqi forces advancing against Islamic State across the border to secure a land route from Damascus to Baghdad. Iranian news sites have published pictures of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite extra-territorial arm the Qods Force, visiting militia fighters at an undisclosed area on the border. Recent Syrian government advances to the Iraq border northeast of Tanf and Zakf mean the U.S.-backed rebels would have to fight the Syrian army in order to march on Deir al-Zor.U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday said air strikes against pro-government forces near Tanf in recent weeks had been in self defence, to prevent them from attacking its troops at the base.Rebel spokesman Abu al-Atheer said the goal of the government forces was "to cut our advance towards Deir al-Zor. But we are moving towards a plan to take us to Deir al-Zor even if they enter," Abu al-Atheer said."The battle is not over and we will not allow the Iranian Shi'ites to occupy our land. Our response to those who stand against us will be cruel," he added. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; additional reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Angus McDowall and Peter Graff) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: Russia and China were seeking veto power over the economic, diplomatic and security decisions on their periphery and challenging United States' ability to deploy troops at will unlike in the past, defence secretary James Mattis has said. "We must look reality in the eye. Russia and China are seeking veto power over the economic, diplomatic and security decisions on their periphery," Mattis said. He told the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia and China are actively contesting United States' capabilities in every sphere. "For decades, the United States has enjoyed uncontested or dominant superiority in every operating domain or realm. We could generally deploy our forces when we wanted, assemble them where we wanted and operate how we wanted. Today, every operating domain; outer space, air, sea, undersea, land and cyberspace is contested," Mattis said. Amidst the rise of countries like Russia and China, United States' adversaries are now actively contesting its capabilities, he said. Appearing along with Mattis, General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that while the United States has been primarily focusing on the threat of violent extremism, its adversaries and potential adversaries have developed advanced capabilities and operational approaches specifically designed to limit United States' ability to project power. "They recognise that our ability project power is a critical capability necessary to defend the homeland, advance our interests and meet or alliance commitments. Russia, China and Iran have fielded a wide range of cyber, space, aviation, maritime and land capabilities specifically designed to limit our ability to deploy, employ and sustain our forces," Dunford said. The United States-led coalition air strikes on Raqqa has resulted in a staggering loss of civilian lives with as many as 1,60,000 people being internally displaced even though it could liberate civilians from Islamic State's oppressive clutches, United Nations war crime investigators said on Wednesday. If successful, this offensive could liberate the citys civilian population from the groups oppressive clutches, including Yazidi women and girls, whom the group has kept sexually enslaved for almost three years as part of an ongoing and unaddressed genocide, said Brazilian academic and chairman of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) for Syria to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Wednesday. He added that the imperative to fight terrorism must not, however, be undertaken at the expense of civilians. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported by the international coalition forces have pushed through east, west and north of Raqqa the de-facto capital of Islamic State and is underway to expel the terrorist group from this crucial city. This statement from the United Nations investigators comes amidst reports that the US-led coalition is using white phosphorous both in Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. The use of artillery-delivered white phosphorus by the United States-led coalition fighting Islamic State (also known as ISIS) forces in Syria and Iraq raises serious questions about the protection of civilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement. No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities like Raqqa and Mosul and any other areas with concentrations of civilians, said Steve Goose, arms director at HRW. The United Kingdom-based monitoring group Airwars estimates that more than 600 civilians were killed in more than 150 coalition or SDF attacks between March and May, BBC reported. Over the past few months, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) lost territory at a rapid pace in northern and central Syria, Pinheiro said. The de-escalation zones agreed by Russia, Iran and Turkey the guarantors of the last round of the Astana talks have resulted in a discernible reduction in levels of violence in the zones around Idlib and western Aleppo. However, hostilities continue unabated in the areas around Homs (held by Islamic State), Damascus and southern Daraa (held by opposition forces). In these areas, fighting remains brutal in purpose and reprehensible in method. Though de-escalation has brought some reprieve to levels of violence, however, there has been no tangible improvement in humanitarian aid with only one United Nations convoy being allowed into besieged areas so far this year. More than 6,00,000 people remain trapped in besieged areas where prolonged and deliberate denial of humanitarian aid continues. Besiegement as a war strategy, cutting off supplies to food, medical supplies and travel, is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Since eastern Aleppo city was evacuated by the Syrian government in December 2016, similar agreements have been reached by the government and armed opposition forces in nine other besieged areas of Barzeh, Qaboun, Wadi Barada, al-Waer, Tishreen, Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kefraya. However, these evacuation agreements though a step in the right direction themselves also "raise concerns and in some cases amount to war crimes, the United Nations CoI on Syria opined. These evacuations are preceded by years of intentional attacks on civilian infrastructure, denial of access to food and basic medical care, and the denial of fundamental human rights, seriously calling into question the nature of any choice civilians are given to remain or leave, Pinheiro told the UNHRC. Calling the UNHRC the voice of conscience in the face of atrocities the CoI reminded warring parties that only a durable political solution will bring an end to this conflict. Syria, as the concerned country, said that foreign governments were giving television interviews even before the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attacks could be investigated. It added that recently released cables show that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were funding terrorist groups. The US-led coalition is attacking civilian infrastructures, the Syrian representative told the UNHRC. The United States said that the Syrian government is the primary perpetrator of attacks on civilians and that they believe that the regime built a crematorium to get rid of war crime evidence while the European Union asked the matter to be referred to the International Criminal Court and called for all warring parties to allow humanitarian aid. Bahrein, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned the barbaric attack on civilians in the pretext of fighting terrorism. Russia said the work of the CoI unfortunately remains skewed where the United Nations investigators condemn the lawful government but the crimes of terrorists are disregarded by the commission. Iraq called for the return of the neighbouring, friendly country and appealed to the UNHRC to stop foreign influence in the Syrian war. Ecuador said that it is greatly concerned by the surge in indiscriminate violence especially in areas not under the Syrian governments control. The so-called moderate opposition are supported by powerful countries that have a range of interests in Syria that are not necessarily humanitarian, Ecuador said, asking for a political solution that includes the Syrian government. The oldest living Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner has died at the ripe old age of 29. For Hansel, it was quite an interesting journey that saw him retired to stud in Kentucky, being sent to New York State, then to Japan, and finally being purchased by his original owner, Joe Allbritton, to return to his Lazy Lane Farm in Virginia, where he was broken after being purchased by Allbritton at the Keeneland September yearling sale for $150,000. For the Allbritton family, it was a love affair with Hansel that resulted in his return home in 2005 to live out his days. That love affair could be seen following Hansels courageous victory in the Belmont Stakes when Allbrittons wife Barbie lavished affection on the colt, much to the amusement of Allbritton. But to set the stage for Hansels Belmont victory, one must go back to Churchill Downs, where the colt had thrown in an inexplicably bad performance in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 10th as the 5-2 favorite after looking like a winner at the top of the stretch. He then threw his head up and began to retreat, much to everyones surprise. Some would eventually speculate that Hansel had been given too much Lasix, but nothing was ever proven, and his performance in the Derby to this day remains a mystery. Trainer Frank Brothers, baffled by the performance, originally decided to regroup and pass the Preakness, sending Hansel back to his home base at Arlington Park. When the colt seemed to thrive, bouncing out of the Derby in great shape, Brothers began having second thoughts about skipping the Preakness. After all, Snow Chief, Tanks Prospect, and Personality were some of the horses that had bounced back from poor performances at Churchill Downs to win the Preakness. Hansel had been scoped after the Derby and hadnt bled, so that was ruled out. Brothers intended to work Hansel either a half-mile or five-eighths, but decided to call his old boss and mentor Jack Van Berg for advice. Earlier, Van Berg had told another of his former pupils, Bill Mott, to stop working his 3-year-old colt Richman so fast and often, and Mott responded by breezing the colt only once in three weeks prior to the Illinois Derby. The result was a 6 1/2-length romp in near-track record time. Hes my mentor, Brothers said at the time. Ive got all the respect in the world for Jack. I worked for him for 10 years and when I get behind the eight-ball sometimes, I dont hesitate to call him, He gave me some encouragement by telling me that two of his horses, Gate Dancer and Bold Ego, both ran badly in the Derby, but came back to run big races in the Preakness. Jack told me that horses dont need much work between the Derby and Preakness and suggested I give Hansel a short easy work. So Brothers worked the colt three furlongs the Tuesday before the Preakness and he was feeling so good he went in :34 3/5. I wanted him to go a little slower than he did, but the track has been very fast at Arlington, Brothers said. This horse likes to go fast and I covered my bases by working him only three furlongs. He was very aggressive, which I wanted to see. So, it was off to Pimlico for the Preakness, with Brothers not really knowing what to expect. For all I know it might be the same story, he said. I have no idea why he ran so badly in the Derby. Ive been in racing for a long time and sometimes horses will do that. Granted, he picked a helluva time to do it. I guess were just taking another shot at them. There might be something wrong with him that I havent found, but he worked better Tuesday than he did before the Derby. And he certainly ran better than he did in the Derby. After going off as the favorite at Churchill Downs, he was sent off at a generous 9-1 in the Preakness. Stalking the pace set by the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Corporate Report the whole way, Hansel, unlike the Derby fiasco, stormed to the lead turning for home and drew off with every stride to score a resounding seven-length victory in a sharp 1:54 flat, the fourth fastest Preakness of all time. Considering how brilliant he was in winning the Jim Beam Stakes in record time and his nine-length romp in the Lexington Stakes, he proved to be one of the great overlays in Preakness history. The Belmont Stakes, however, was another matter. Earlier in the year, Hansel had bled when finishing fifth in the Fountain of Youth Stakes without Lasix. He then was put on Lasix for his next five starts, including his romp in the Preakness. In addition, it had been a warm, humid day at Churchill Downs when he ran so poorly in the Derby, and the temperatures in New York the week of the Belmont were in the mid-90s with very high humidity. The initial scuttlebutt was that it was the high humidity that contributed to Hansels poor performance, even with Lasix. That scuttlebutt over the years grew into the too much Lasix theory. Sometimes, not even Lasix will help if the humidity is exceptionally high. In any event, Hansel would now have to race in the Belmont Stakes without Lasix, which was banned in New York. Brothers had worked the colt a half in :48 2/5 with a final eighth in :11 1/5 the Tuesday before the Belmont. The track was heavy that day and it was unseasonably hot with record high temperatures and high humidity. When Hansel showed no effects from the work, it boosted Brothers confidence. Im sticking by my story, he said. I just dont have a concrete reason I can hang my hat on why he ran bad in the Derby. He ran one of his better races in the Hopeful last year, and I dont think it gets much hotter than Saratoga. It was very warm when he won the Tremont Stakes, and he ran well in the Sapling on a terribly hot and humid day. But Brothers did acknowledge that history did not favor horses coming off Lasix in hot, humid weather. I guess it could be a factor, he said. But we feel good about the horse, and basically, were not going to change anything. They dont allow Lasix in New York and we have to abide by the rules. Finally, it was the moment of truth. What were we going to see from Hansel -- the Derby or the Preakness? How would the heat and humidity and lack of Lasix affect him? Despite his brilliant victory in the Preakness, Hansel was made co-second choice at 4-1 behind Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold, who had turned in a poor effort himself in the Preakness. But it was obvious that the fans could not ignore the Lasix question. Hansels groom, Saturino Lopez, and nightwatchman, Dennis Moore, found a place by the rail. During the running of the race, they had trouble seeing what was happening on the mile and a half oval and had to resort to looking at the placing numbers on the tote board. Corporate Report was busy on the front end with 99-1 shot Another Review, who was battling with him for the lead. Hansel sat comfortably in third, and for the first half-mile his number 5 remained in third. But after a swift half-mile in :46 3/5, there was a change on the tote board, as number 5 emerged on top. Come on, Hansel, stay up there! Moore shouted. Lopez was straining to catch a glimpse of the horses, while feverishly biting his fingernails. Coming down the stretch, Hansel increased his lead to almost three lengths and looked to be home free, as Lopez and Moore cheered him on. But a late threat emerged from the pack, as Strike the Gold began to chop into Hansels lead with every stride. It was going to be close. Hansel tried to dig in under Jerry Bailey, as Strike the Gold, under Chris Antley, came flying up alongside. They hit the wire with Hansel holding on by a diminishing head. At first, Lopez and Moore had no idea who had won, but when they saw Bailey raise his whip in triumph, they began hugging each other. Following the winners circle ceremonies, Hansel was led through the paddock back to the detention barn. Following him was Wayne Lukas, who had seen Corporate Report give his all, finishing fourth after his rapid early pace duel. Congratulations, boys, soak it up, he said to Lopez and Moore. Lukas then noticed something. You guys know he lost his right front shoe? he asked. Yeah, we know, Moore answered. Do you believe that, he lost a shoe and won the race anyway, Lukas said. Thats amazing; he won on three shoes going a mile and a half. Thats a helluva performance. Let me tell you, losing a shoe is no small deal on this sandy racetrack, and he tore it up pretty good. As the sun began to set behind the barns, Hansel was back in his stall being lavished with affection by Barbie Allbritton. Hansel, were awfully proud of you, she said, cradling the colts head in her arms. Give us a kiss. Youre so pretty, yes you are. Arent you happy? Sure you are. All the time, Joe Allbritton watched with a smile on his face. I think my wifes a little off talking to horses, he said. She talks to him like he understands every word she says. She tells me they talk back to her, so what are you going to do? He sure looks like he understands her, though, doesnt he? By 8:30, Belmont was once again quiet. Many questions had been answered, especially about Hansels need for Lasix. Well, sort of, according to one partygoer. I really didnt think he would win, she said. They said he wouldnt be able to run well without Latex. Even Hansel had to laugh at that one. London: Vijay Mallya, the co-owner of Formula One team Force India, could face further charges and a second request to extradite him from Britain to India, a London court heard on Tuesday. The flamboyant Indian liquor and aviation tycoon, 61, was arrested by British police in April on behalf of the Indian authorities, who accuse him of fraud. Mallya's lawyer, Ben Watson, told a hearing at London's Westminster Magistrates' court on Tuesday that India was believed to be preparing a second extradition request with further separate charges."I don't know its contents," Watson said. India is seeking Mallya's extradition over unpaid loans tied to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the businessman fled to Britain in March last year. Banks are seeking to recover about $1.4 billion that the Indian authorities say Kingfisher owes.Mallya has repeatedly dismissed the charges against him. "I deny all allegations that have been made," he told reporters as he arrived at court. "I have enough evidence to prove my case. "The next hearing will be held on July 6 when Mallya, who was granted an extension to his bail, was told he need not attend. The full extradition hearing was provisionally listed to start on 4 December and to last two weeks. Aaron Watkins, the lawyer representing the Indian government, told the court that prosecutors in Britain were still waiting for documentation and evidence from India and this was expected to arrive in the next month. However, any delays or a second extradition request could push the case back to April next year, the court heard. Britain's extradition process can be complicated and take a long time to conclude. The judge will make a decision based on whether there is a prima facie case against Mallya and if the alleged crimes would be offences in Britain as well as India. That ruling can be challenged in a higher court before being passed to the home secretary (interior minister) for approval. That decision can also be appealed to the courts.Mallya, who has a base in London and a country home bought from the father of triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, on Friday dismissed speculation of a possible sale of his Force India team. Intel has announced an investment of US$178 million in India to expand its R&D presence and build a new design house at Intels 44-acre campus on Sarjapur Ring Road (SRR) in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Intel India is Intels largest design center outside the U.S. The new building has 620,000 sq. ft. of space and includes lab capacity, with specialized infrastructure that will be used for chip design and verification purposes. This additional capacity will help Intel India consolidate its R&D operations to a large extent at the SRR campus. The upcoming facility, SRR4, will be constructed using innovative One High Technology, with each floor being built on the ground, then lifted and attached to the of the building, and then built from the roof downward. This technology will enable the reduction of scheduled construction time by 30 percent as compared to traditional construction methods. Intel said that this is the second such building in India and it will be equipped with IoT-based smart features, including smart lights and real-time occupancy management, and will use renewable energy sources like fuel cell-based power. Priyank Kharge, Minister of Information Technology & Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka said, Bengaluru has the right potential required for growth in the IT industries and such an investment will propel the state and in turn move the country forward in achieving greater heights. This is one of the many investment agendas that we have planned for the state. Im confident that Intels investments will encourage innovation and bring in more opportunities. Nivruti Rai, Intel India general manager, vice president of Data Center Group said, Intel India plays a very strategic role in Intels growth, with significant contributions to Intels technology and product leadership. We are excited about expanding our best-in-class R&D infrastructure in India that will enable us to continue our momentum in doing cutting-edge innovation and design work from India. We look forward to working with the vibrant ecosystem in India and contribute to the countrys innovation journey. Intel India is engaged in engineering work such as chip/system-on-chip design, graphics, software and platform for the cloud, devices and IoT markets involving advanced technology areas such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and 5G. Google has hired Manu Gulati, a former Apple employee and chief architect of SoCs, according to a report from Variety. The move hints that Google is planning to build its own custom chips for its next generation Pixel phones. Gulati updated his LinkedIn profile that now says Googles Lead SoC Architect. Gulati had been with Apple for around eight years and has over 20 years of industry experience. He has previously worked with AMD and Broadcom manufacturers. Google does not make its own chips as it relies on chips from Texas Instruments for Nest while Pixel phones are powered by Qualcomm chips. Earlier this year in February, Xiaomi released its own Pinecone SoC. If Google releases it own processors, it will be an advantage for Pixel phones over the range of Snapdragon powered phones out in the market. Source NEW CUMBERLAND A little borough in Cumberland County took a big hit when it lost its largest restaurant. Three years later, that vacant building is up for a tax sale. Business owners are hopeful itll revitalize the town. Coakleys Irish Pub used to be the crowded, loud bar everyone visited in New Cumberland. When owners filed for bankruptcy and shut it down in 2014, it seemed to have left a big hole in the borough. Steve Washburn sits outside during lunchtime. His wife, and co-owner of the Oxford Hall Celtic Shop, handles the one table inside for lunch. Quiet, Leslie March, eating at Oxford, said. But thats great for a retiree. The problem is, its not great for the business owners on the block. It was almost overwhelming looking a year later to see how much revenue went away, Washburn said. Now since its vacant, its kind of a big hole in our neighborhood and it really needs to be filled, said Becky Lee, owner of a gallery next door to Coakleys. Now three years since Coakleys closed, Cumberland County is stepping in with a hail Mary to try and fill that hole. Theyre putting Coakleys up at a judicial tax sale next month, where the buyer is cleared tens of thousands of dollars in debt, leans and other baggage that the previous owner owed. Im sort of hopeful, Washburn said. The minute a new restaurant opens, believe me, the town will be very popular again, March said. And hes hopeful for more lunchtime traffic in the Oxford Hall cafe. It would be huge, Washburn said. The tax sale is at 10 a.m. July 10 in the Old Cumberland County Courthouse on the second floor. Creating the American flag, an enduring symbol of freedom since the Revolutionary War, has been a prestigious craft for U.S.-based flag makers for many years. Each year on June 14, the history of the flag is remembered by observing Flag Day, a non-federal holiday signed into law in 1949 that flag-making companies take much pride in. The Eder Flag Manufacturing Company, a Wisconsin-based business founded in the 1890s by seven brothers, has been creating American flags since the Great Depression. When Eugene Eder, the son of one of the original brothers and a World War II veteran and lawyer, acquired the company in 1957, he brought along an enthusiasm for the craft that stemmed from his father. He hung his hat up from being an attorney and took over the business. He had a real passion for the American flag, that it be made in America, handcrafted. We still do that to this day. So he kind of really grew the company into what it is today, said Jodi Goglio, COO of Eder Flag, adding that each year on Flag Day, the company celebrates the annual holiday and its more than 200 employees by gathering for a luncheon. Another business in the craft of flag making, Valley Forge Flag, located in Pennsylvania and employing more than 300 people, also has a deep connection to the country. The companys flags have been associated with different events in U.S. history, according to Reggie VandenBosch, Valley Forges vice president of sales. Our flags were at Normandy, theyve been on the moon, theyve draped the caskets of every president going back to [Dwight] Eisenhower or [John F.] Kennedy, he said. According to a Department of Defense blog post, the first unofficial Flag Day observance occurred on June 14, 1877, 100 years after a resolution from the Second Continental Congress calling for an official U.S. flag. A few years later, in 1885, Wisconsin school teacher Bernard John Cigrand placed a flag in an inkwell and had his students write about the meaning of the flag, according to the National Flag Day Foundation. President Woodrow Wilson later proclaimed the modern observance of Flag Day to be held annually on June 14, though it wasnt officially a holiday until President Harry Truman signed a bill into law in 1949. Created during colonial times, the flag was first used to rally the Continental Army during its battle against the British in the Revolutionary War. The Grand Union Flag, as it was then known, featured 13 red and white alternating stripes representing each of the colonies, as well as the red cross of St. George of England and the cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. After undergoing multiple design changes, the current U.S. flag maintains the 13 stripes and contains 50 stars in its canton for each of the states. After more than a decade at the helm, Harvard Universitys president said Wednesday she will step down from her post at the end of the next academic year. Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvards first-ever female president, said now is the right time for the transition to Harvards next chapter, in an e-mail to faculty and students. Hired in 2007, she is credited with fostering collaboration among Harvard's academic factions and being a champion of the arts and sciences. At the universitys graduation ceremony in May, Faust reminded students of the importance of free speech, a controversial subject on college campuses across the country this year. It is not about the freedom to out-shout others while everyone has their fingers in their ears. For free speech to flourish, we must build an environment where everyone takes responsibility for the right not just to speak, but to hear and be heard, where everyone assumes the responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect, Faust told graduates. Faust has been credited with increasing the percentage of low-income Harvard attendees through a vast expansion of the universitys financial aid program. Over the course of her tenure the amount of aid allocated to students has risen by $200 million. She is also the originator of a capital drive that has raised $8 billion. However, she has also faced challenges, including the recently lagging performance of Harvard's $35.7 billion endowment. Faust is a historian of the American Civil War and plans to take a sabbatical and continue her scholarship. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A small group of lawmakers has the task of coming up with a budget deal over the next few days and averting a government shutdown at the peak of the state's tourism season. Lawmakers have arrived at a deadlock on education funding after months of deliberation, and negotiations over a final budget deal in the last few weeks have revealed staunch division among legislative leaders and the 13-member appropriations committee. So, legislative leaders have decided to turn to a rarely used tactic of appointing a six-member committee of lawmakers to meet in public and come up with a strongly supported budget deal in the coming days. Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon said the process will be accountable and transparent, and she noted it appears to be the first time lawmakers are resorting to the tactic in budget negotiations. The Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday voted on a swirl of competing budget proposals during a session marked by exasperation and partisan votes. "While there is a lot of anxiety and frustration and some anger in this room today, I believe it's important we do respect the will of the voters," Democratic Sen. Troy Jackson said as he called for property tax relief and increased education funding. Republican Sen. James Hamper, who chairs the appropriations committee, introduced a budget deal that failed to attract strong Democratic support. "There's plenty in this budget to hate and plenty to love," he said. "This is offered in the spirit of compromise." The committee's first meeting was set for Tuesday evening, an hour after legislative leaders announced the committee's membership and the meeting itself. The members are Gideon, Republican Senate President Michael Thibodeau and appropriation committee members Democratic Rep. Aaron Frey, Republican Rep. Tom Winsor, Democratic Sen. Cathy Breen and Republican Sen. Roger Katz. Thibodeau said he's "confident" the committee members "will work tirelessly to find a solution." A two-year budget must be in place by July 1 to avoid government shutdown. Republican Gov. Paul LePage has said the state could use short-term continuing resolutions to delay a shutdown like the U.S. Congress does, a tactic Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills has cast doubt on. The governor said on a radio show on Tuesday he's "ashamed" to be part of Maine government because of lawmakers' laziness. He added he'll veto any budget over $7 billion, though at this time legislative leaders say the budget will need veto-proof majorities regardless. The debate over the budget centers on the state's declining number of public school students and demands by voters that state government finally fulfill its obligation to provide 55 percent of education funding to ease the burden on local communities. Republicans are demanding education reforms and a repeal of the voter-approved additional 3 percent surtax on the portion of individual annual income above $200,000, which they say hurts small businesses and professionals. Meanwhile, Democrats say they won't support any budget that doesn't replace the surtax's estimate revenue of $320 million in additional funding for schools over two years. Senate Republicans' compromise proposal to nix the surtax and increase education funding by $100 million in the second year of the budget is getting pushback from Democrats who say it amounts to a tax cut on the rich that relies on budgetary gimmicks to reach the 55 percent mark. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 2022 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. FAQ - New Privacy Policy A federal judge overseeing the restructuring of Puerto Rico's debt has created a mediation team to help resolve the U.S. territory's bankruptcy cases. Laura Taylor Swain said in a ruling Wednesday that five federal judges have been appointed to the team. All settlement negotiations will be confidential. The team will be led by Chief Judge Barbara Houser of the U.S. bankruptcy court for Texas' northern district. Houser is expected to provide details of the mediation process at a June 28 hearing in Puerto Rico. Swain said the mediation process will remain separate from any bankruptcy cases and will be seen concurrently with those. Puerto Rico is mired in a 10-year economic recession and seeking to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt. Support school breakfast programs Dear Editor: Before state lawmakers finish their work and break sometime in June for the long summer ahead, lets hope they take action on a bipartisan issue to boost school breakfast programs in Pennsylvania. Right now, only about half of eligible students participate. To close the gap, Gov. Tom Wolf in February proposed $2 million in the 2017-18 budget to help schools adopt and expand programs such as breakfast after the bell that increase participation. The House of Representatives included the same amount of funding for the initiative in their draft spending plan, which passed in April. A final budget is due June 30. Partnership for a Better Health was among 42 anti-hunger, education, nutrition, health and religious organizations to publicly support the initiative. Theres good reason for that: Research shows that eating breakfast has a profound effect on student behavior and attendance, and students abilities to learn and succeed. That means that connecting kids with healthy food each morning isnt just the right thing to do; its the smart thing to do. Becca Raley Executive Director Partnership for Better Health One of the nation's largest online charter schools is suing Ohio's State Board of Education over how the board handled a vote to have the school repay $60 million in funding. The $60 million was disputed because of a lack of documentation to justify the funding. The complaint filed Tuesday in Franklin County by the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow alleges board members violated state public-meetings law by voting without first hearing public comment or substantive deliberation on the matter at Monday's meeting. ECOT contends that those circumstances and the removal of a slated non-public session from the agenda indicate the board improperly discussed or made a decision in advance, and its lawsuit is seeking to block enforcement of the board's decision as invalid. It's part of a larger dispute over how attendance is tracked to determine funding and ECOT's argument that the Ohio Department of Education improperly changed those practices. "ODE leadership got what it has wanted all along, a rubber stamp of its unlawful attempt to change its funding standard for ECOT in the middle of a school year," ECOT spokesman Neil Clark said in a statement. A hearing officer considered the repayment matter and made a recommendation before the board's vote. The department indicated that the board wasn't required to have another hearing and said public comment to the board on the matter before the vote was prohibited under its policies. The department concluded the e-school didn't have documentation of student log-ins to justify more than half of the nearly $109 million it got for the 2015-16 school year and should return that portion. A department spokeswoman didn't immediately respond Wednesday to a message seeking comment on the new lawsuit. The board did allow ECOT supporters to speak after the vote, and members listened as ECOT representatives, parents of its attendees and a 14-year-old student touted the school's benefits and pleaded for reconsideration. ECOT contends it wasn't given a fair chance to present further relevant information to the board. School officials say the repayment demand could be crippling for the cyber school, which serves 15,000 students. ECOT, which hasn't repaid the $60 million, has a related case pending in a state appeals court. Clark has said he expects the dispute will end up at the Ohio Supreme Court. ___ Find Franko on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/kantele10 . Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter and his special advisor, held a business roundtable Wednesday with a group of high-powered CEOs committed to improving the countrys technical education programs. One of the CEOs in attendance, Judith Marks of Siemens, said the meeting was very positive and helpful for both the businesses and the administration. The meetings have been helpful in both directions, Marks said during an interview with FOX Business. Weve been able to share what works and weve also been able to understand where the administration [is coming from]. This week, the White House will reveal its plan to expand apprenticeship programs in order to equip American workers with the skills required to fill 6 million job openings across the country. Workforce development is critical, the skills gap is real and I am inspired by the work each of you is doing, Trump said. If we stay on current trajectory 2 million [manufacturing jobs] will remain unfilled were at a tipping point, Trump said. Siemens, which has a renowned apprenticeship program in Germany and is expanding its education partnerships in the United States, relies on apprentices to meet employment requirements for different positions throughout the company. The apprentices get real time experience, they dont have debt because we actually pay their tuition they get paid while theyre working for us ... [and] they have a guaranteed job with us, Marks said. Among the other executives in attendance Wednesday were Accenture (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Sweet, Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) David Clark, Cigna (NYSE:CI) CEO David Cordani, CVS (NYSE:CVS) CEO Larry Merlo and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) CEO Marillyn Hewson. Trump and her father visited a technical school in Wisconsin Monday night, where the president talked about a future where every high school offered apprenticeship programs. On Monday during a press conference, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said apprentices generally make more than four year college grads with a starting salary of $60,000 and that they are also in higher demand in the labor market, with nine out of ten enrollees having a job upon program completion. Apprentices also enter the job market without the crushing burden of student loan debt, Acosta said. Next week Congress will vote on the Perkins Act, which would increase appropriations for career-technical education programs to $1.23 billion by 2022 and return oversight authority from federal to local officials. The bill has enjoyed the support of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. President Trump cancelled a speech he had scheduled to deliver at the Department of Labor Wednesday afternoon, where he was expected to sign an executive order that would reduce government oversight over apprenticeship programs, according to Politico. Ivanka Trump offered her condolences to the victims of the Alexandria, Virginia shooting Wednesday, noting in challenging times it is important to work together for our country. The fourth season of Bachelor in Paradise is on the ropes after an alleged incident between contestants DeMario Jackson and Corinne Olympios on the set in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Warner Bros. said in a statement Sunday that it halted production of the show, which brings together previous contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. "We have suspended production and we are conducting a thorough investigation of these allegations," Warner Bros. said. "Once the investigation is complete, we will take appropriate responsive action. According to Variety, ABC and Warner Bros. have both denied that the show has been canceled. ABC said it was waiting for the investigation to conclude before making any definitive decision on the shows fate. However, Variety pointed about that aside from bad press the show has gotten as a result of the sexual assault allegations, the cast has gone back home. The report added that it appeared unlikely for Warner Bros. to even get enough episodes together to have a full season because the alleged incident happened so early in shooting, which could eventually lead to the season being scrapped altogether. There is no way that Warner Bros. would be shutting down production on that show unless something happened that they could not possibly defend, a producer whos worked on several reality shows told Variety. Youre talking about a franchise that is worth millions of dollars to ABC. For them to shut the whole thing down and send everybody home and walk away, something happened that was not right. The season was set to air Aug. 8. THE ALLEGED INCIDENT The trouble began when Jackson, 30, and Olympios, 24, began getting hot and heavy in the pool while the cameras were rolling. Their behavior made a third party feel uncomfortable. TMZ reported there are accusations of sexual assault. A field producer reportedly complained that Olympios was too drunk to consent to Jacksons advances but producers allowed the behavior to go on. According to TMZ, Olympios hired an attorney and is blaming producers for allowing the sexual encounter to happen despite being drunk. Both Jackson and Olympios were said to be drinking throughout the day of the shooting. Olympios claimed she was in a blackout state and was unable to consent, the New York Post reported. JACKSON: FOOTAGE WILL EXONERATE ME OF SEX ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS Jackson, who most recently appeared on this season of The Bachelorette, has been telling his friends that the footage that was shot of him will exonerate him, the New York Post reported. In a series of text messages obtained by the newspaper, Jackson claims we all know what happened and the tape will prove it. HOST ADDRESSES ALLEGATIONS Bachelor in Paradise host Chris Harrison spoke out Tuesday about the allegations of misconduct on the set of the reality show. He said he wanted to put an end to all the rumors and misinformation being put out there. On Good Morning America, Harrison urged fans to be patient and respect the privacy of the parties involved. He told fans he will "keep you as informed and up-to-date as I possibly can" and he apologized for "any inconvenience and disappointment this may have caused the cast, the crew and our loyal fans." He concluded, "It is my sincere hope that we can come to a quick resolution on this and get back to work very soon." Bob Dylan has been accused of lifting portions of his Nobel Prize lecture from SparkNotes. Dylan discussed three books that had the biggest impact on his life including Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." He quoted a passage from the novel the only problem is the passage does not appear in Melvilles book -- but it does in SparkNotes. SparkNotes is a website that offers students looking for shortcuts on major works of literature among other topics. Writer Ben Greenman first called attention to Dylan's lecture writing in a June 6 blog post that Dylan seemed to have invented a passage from "Moby Dick." He also discussed "The Odyssey" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." Then Slate writer Andrea Pitzer delved into the supposed quote and wrote in a story Tuesday that the line was not in "Moby Dick" but was very much like a line from the Sparknotes summary of the book. Here's Dylan: "Some men who receive injuries are led to God, others are led to bitterness" And Sparknotes: "someone whose trials have led him toward God rather than bitterness." Pitzer and The Associated Press verified 20 other sentences with traces and phrases from the "Moby Dick" Sparknotes. The cases Pitzer found are not blatant or explicit there are no verbatim sentences, only identical phrases and similar phrasing. Other examples: Dylan: "Moby attacks one more time, ramming the Pequod and sinking it. Ahab gets tangled up in the harpoon lines and is thrown out of his boat into a watery grave." Sparknotes: "Moby Dick rams the Pequod and sinks it. Ahab is then caught in a harpoon line and hurled out of his harpoon boat to his death." Dylan: "The ship's crew is made up of men of different races." Sparknotes: "...a crew made up of men from many different countries and races." A rep for Dylan did not return Fox News' request for comment. Dylan has been accused of lifting lines from older artists for his songs in the past, though many fans dismiss it as simply reflecting the common borrowing of the folk-and-blues milieus he drew from. Dylan recorded the 26-minute lecture in Los Angeles and provided it to the Swedish Academy, which called it "extraordinary" and "eloquent" in a news release on June 5. The lecture is required for the winner to collect the 8 million Swedish kronor ($922,000) in prize money. Dylan was awarded the prize in October, bringing some controversy that an award reserved for top-flight novelists and poets had gone to a rock star. He took weeks to publicly acknowledge winning the prize, did not attend December's Nobel ceremony in Stockholm, and left many wondering whether he would ever provide the traditional lecture. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Dolce and Gabbana is making fun of people who boycotted their clothing after the fashion company dressed Melania Trump for her official White House portrait. The company is selling T-shirts for $245 a piece that read #BOYCOTT DOLCE & GABBANA. The shirts are listed on Dolce and Gabbana's website alongside a short ad of Italian protesters wearing the shirts during a demonstration against the company. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are among the protesters. The shirts follow Instagram posts from co-founder Stefano Gabbana last month highlighting first lady Melania Trump's Dolce & Gabbana outfits during her recent overseas trip with President Donald Trump. In one of his posts, Gabbana called out "haters" and urged them to boycott the brand. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Fran Drescher has revealed a few secrets from behind the scenes of the hit '90s sitcom "The Nanny" in a new interview with Studio 10. Speaking alongside her ex-husband and friend Peter Marc Jacobson, with whom she created the show, Drescher reflected on "The Nannys" origins, its demise and its litany of celebrity guest stars. The 59-year-old actress said she found inspiration for the program after she was seated next to a CBS studio exec by chance on a flight from the US to Paris. By the end of the flight, shed worked her charms to such an extent he said she could call his office to set up a meeting and pitch a TV pilot. Landing in Paris, she visited her close friend, supermodel Twiggy but found the iconic beauty was too busy with work commitments to see her very much. Instead, she focused her attentions on her friends young daughter. I decided to schlep her around so I wouldnt be alone, Drescher said. After a lot of back and forth banter with the 12-year-old during their time together, I couldnt get this relationship out of my head. I thought of the idea: A spin on 'The Sound Of Music,' only instead of Julie Andrews, I come to the door." Thats what they pitched, and thats what CBS snapped up. "The Nanny" was a hit, thanks in no small part to the sexual tension between Fran Fine and her employer, Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). As the show wore on, the calls from viewers got louder: When would Fran and Maxwell finally get together? Now, Drescher and Jacobson admit that answering those calls (the characters married at the end of the shows penultimate season) was to be "The Nannys" death knell. When a show is built around a love that cant happen, sexual tension, you have to keep it that way. As much as you want the people to get together, as soon as they do, people start tuning out, Jacobson said. We didnt want to get them together. The show would last just one more season after its two lead characters wed. He said that scheduling changes in the shows later seasons had seen ratings dip, and the network delivered an ultimatum: Give us a wedding or well cancel "The Nanny." So we looked at each other and said Well, we are having a wedding! he said. "The Nanny" bowed out in 1999 with a two-part finale that saw Fran and Maxwell welcome twins. Almost two decades later, with sitcoms like "Will & Grace" and "Roseanne" poised to return to the screens, could Drescher be persuaded to tease her hair up for another go at Miss Fine? We wouldnt do it for the money. We would do it because we cracked the code on how to tell the story 20 years later, she said. And make it interesting. I set a very high standard. At this stage of my life, it has to make my heart sing. As Peter said, once the sexual tension is gone, now she is the wife, there went the series. So, to go back... We would have to figure out where we are starting from and what it is. This article originally appeared on news.com.au. The head of NBC News said Tuesday that the network would move forward with plans to air Megyn Kelly's interview with conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones, despite a backlash that has cost the show advertisers. It was not immediately clear how many companies had pulled ads from this week's edition of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly." The only advertiser to publicly say it was doing so has been the financial firm JPMorganChase. "That comes with the territory," NBC News Chairman Andy Lack told the Associated Press when asked about the commercial response. "It's not unusual. We kind of know when we're doing controversial stories, that's going to happen. It doesn't stop us from doing controversial stories." The network has been taken aback by the response to booking Jones, the "Infowars" host who has questioned whether the massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax. Lack said the story will be edited with the sensitivity of its critics in mind. "It's important to get it right," Lack said. Kelly, who jumped to NBC News from Fox News Channel earlier this year, received more bad news from the ratings book Tuesday. After the debut episode of "Sunday Night" drew an estimated six million viewers June 4, the show's second episode pulled just 3.6 million viewers, less than half the number drawn by a repeat episode of CBS' "60 Minutes." "What I think we're doing is journalism," Kelly told the Associated Press in an interview later Tuesday. "The bottom line is that while it's not always popular, it's important. I would submit to you that neither I nor NBC News has elevated Alex Jones in any way. He's been elevated by 5 or 6 million viewers or listeners, and by the president of the United States. As you know, journalists don't get the choice over who has power or influence in our country." Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun violence group, said it had asked Kelly to step down as host of its Wednesday night gala in Washington. Nicole Hockley, the group's co-founder and managing director, said the group could not support Kelly or NBC's decision to give a platform to Jones and hopes NBC reconsiders its plan to broadcast the interview. Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed in the tragedy, founded the organization with Mark Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son Daniel. Kelly said she understood and respected the decision, but was disappointed. To some critics, NBC's timing in airing the Jones interview on Father's Day makes the decision worse. NBC said it was scheduled for competitive reasons, because Jones had been booked to appear on ABC's daytime show "The View" next week. A representative of "The View" said Jones had canceled his appearance there and he will not be rescheduled. Lack noted that he had suggested approaching Jones for an interview to David Corvo, the NBC News executive who supervises the network's newsmagazines. He said there's nothing new about putting people on the air even if they're unpopular or have views that are deplorable to many. "I've got tremendous understanding of why they're so upset, as they have every right to be," he said. "Of course we're looking at it. We're looking at the editorial process."upset, as they have every right to be," he said. "Of course we're looking at it. We're looking at the editorial process." Jones, for his part, has already denounced the interview as "fake news" and said it was purposeful hit job on him. "I knew in my gut this was going to blow up in their face," he said on his show. The Associated Press contributed to this report. If theres one thing Nicky Hilton wants people to know is that her family is passionate about giving back. Philanthropy is in my DNA, the 33-year-old hotel heiress told Fox News. When my great-grandfather passed away, he left all of his fortune to charity. Giving back was the most important thing to him. He instilled that in all of us. Conrad N. Hilton launched a foundation in 1944 to provide funds to non-profit organizations. Some of the causes the foundation has provided grants to in 2017 include ending homelessness in Los Angeles County, substance abuse prevention, and disaster relief, among others. NICKY HILTON SHARES FASHION DON'TS Since 1944, the Hilton foundation has given away over $1.5 billion to help people, said Nicky. And the familys goal to give back has stirred headlines over the years. In 2007, Reuters reported Hiltons grandfather Barron announced plans to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity. Jerry Oppenheimer, who profiled the Hilton family in his 2006 book House of Hilton, has claimed Barron was reportedly embarrassed by the hard-partying ways of his socialite granddaughter and Nickys sister Paris and believed it sullied the family name. Barron didnt comment on the claim. The Hilton Foundation shared at the time that it aims to relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute. Speaking for the family as well as the foundation, we are all exceedingly proud and grateful for this extraordinary commitment, said Steve Hilton, one of Barrons sons. Nicky is determined to maintain the family legacy. She was one of many celebrities to participate at BTIGs Charity Day in New York City where she served as a guest stock trader and took calls on the global trading floor to raise funds for two of her beloved charities: Animal Haven and Many Hopes. Animal Haven provides homes for abandoned cats and dogs, along with behavior intervention to improve chances of adoption. Many Hopes serves to rescue children from poverty and abuse in Kenya. For me to raise money for charity, thats so inspiring to me, said Nicky. As for Paris, she previously told Fox News her priorities have changed and has cut down on partying. I know I have a lot of young fans, especially girls who are very impressionable and are growing up, explained the 36-year-old. I want to be a role model for them, an independent woman, someone they can look up to who works very hard and created her own empire. [I want to] show them that anything is possible if you believe in yourself and your confidence. I love that I could be a great role model for these girls and show that hard work pays off and that they can do it, too. McDonald's has turned to Snapchat in a bid to attract tech-savvy millennials to its workforce and they're dishing out some clever puns in the process. The company announced earlier this week that they're looking to hire 250,000 new employees this summer, many of whom will hopefully apply via their new "Snaplication" process on Snapchat, which debuted Tuesday. A similar tactic has been used by McDonalds in the past, but not yet in the United States: In April, McDonald's of Australia partered with Snapchat in order to attract potential employees. In that particular case, however, users were encouraged to make 10-second video clips before they were allowed to procure an application. YOU CAN APPLY TO WORK AT MCDONALD'S VIA SNAPCHAT IN AUSTRALIA In the new process, McDonald's is simply promoting a series of short Snaplication videos, each featuring a young McDonald's employee discussing their job. Presumably hoping that viewers will be intrigued by the clips, McDonald's is then encouraging potential applicants to "swipe up" on the Snapchat post, which will direct them to the company's career website. According to the Chicago Tribune, McDonald's says they're hoping to attract workers between the ages of 16 through 24 a demographic that already makes up a large chunk of its workforce. The company might be on the right track, too: A ComScore study referenced by the American Marketing Association estimates that roughly 48 percent of Snapchat users were between the ages of 18 and 24. THE WEIRDEST MCDONALD'S LOCATIONS IN THE WORLD McDonalds has also taken to Twitter to announce its new hiring process, and also to get in front of its targeted millennial work force. As we see the younger generations seeking out their first jobs, we want to make them aware of the great opportunities available at McDonalds, said Jez Langhorn, Senior Director in Human Resources of McDonalds USA, in a press release. "Especially considering were committed to being Americas best first job. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Per CNN Money, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a spike in the numbers of 18-24 year olds seeking employment when schools let out. DRDO Successfully Test-fires anti-Tank Nag Missile Published: June 14, 2017 The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test fired anti-tank Nag missile in Rajasthan. The test was conducted by Scientists of the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Missile Complex at Hyderabad, Defence Laboratory at Jodhpur, High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) at Pune and Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) at Pune. Nag Missile The anti-tank Nag missile is one of the five missile systems developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) under the integrated guided missile development programme (IGMDP). The four other missiles developed under this programme include Agni, Akash, Trishul and Prithvi. The Nag missile is a third generation anti-tank guided missile which works on fire and forget principle. The anti-tank Nag missile has been equipped with the highly advanced Imaging Infrared Radar (IRR) seeker along with integrated avionics. This technology is possessed by very few nations. It also possess advanced passive homing guidance system. The missile has been designed mainly to destroy modern main battle tanks and other heavily armoured targets. Nag can be launched from land and air-based platforms. The helicopter launched version known as helicopter-launched NAG (HELINA) can be fired from Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) and HAL Rudra attack helicopter. The land-based version of the missile is at present available for integration on the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA) Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017 Category: Defence Current Affairs Topics: Defence DRDO Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) Nag missile National Latest E-Books The worlds longest pizza, which ended up spanning over 6,333 feet, was produced by a team of chefs on Saturday morning at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. The original plan was to create a pizza 7,000 feet in length, but once the cooks had safely secured the Guinness World Record for the longest pie surpassing the 6,082-foot (and 3.4-inches) pizza made in Naples, Italy, in May 2016 they called it quits and began to cook the new record-holder. AMTRAK PASSENGER HAS PIZZA DELIVERED TO BROKE-DOWN TRAIN, SAYS HE WAS 'HANGRY' The idea for this record-breaking attempt at the world's longest pizza was initiated by a slew of American chefs who had heard about the pizza created in Italy, and knew they had to try to bring the title to America. The charge was led by Fash Asvadi, the founder of PizzaOvens.com, who earned donations for the attempt through sponsors, reported LA Weekly. Appropriately for a pizza assembled on a racetrack, the cooking process was surprisingly a speedy one. Volunteers laid out a special oven that cooked the pizza at 17 feet per minute, blasting the pie with intense heat of between 700 and 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on reports. NEW YORK CITY'S NEWEST PIZZA WAS BLESSED BY THE POPE RT.com estimated that there was over 5,000 lbs. of sauce and over 3,000 lbs. of cheese that topped this massive pizza, which itself was estimated to weigh around 17,000 lbs. Guinness representatives were on hand to certify the new record, and tweeted out on Monday morning that the Fontana Pizza had officially broken the world record for the worlds longest pizza. Once the workers had helped themselves to a little bit of the pie, the rest was donated to homeless shelters, RT reports. Jamie Oliver has stepped in to offer support to the dozens of families affected by a residential tower fire which broke out early Wednesday morning in north Kensington. The celebrity chef says he will provide food and temporary shelter to anyone affected by blaze, which struck Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey building, and has since sent more than 70 people to the hospital. Upon hearing the news, Oliver posted a personal announcement on Instagram, encouraging victims to visit his nearby Jamies Italian eatery in Westfield, just about 1.5 miles from the site of the fire. To any of the 100s of FAMILIES affected by this terrible fire at Grenfell Tower Notting Hill today, You are all welcome to come hang out in my restaurant and be fed and watered by my Jamies Italian team," the celebrity chef posted. We are in the Westfield just around the corner. Food and drink free of charge so just go and speak to my manager Juan and we will sort you out and give you some love .... this is for victims of the fire our thoughts, love and prayers are with you all. The post has since been liked over 190,000 times with over 7,000 comments as of Wednesday morning. Several celebrities have expressed their condolences to the victims of the fire including Piers Morgan, Lily Allen and more. Breast-feeding moms know that the practice isnt always easy, and that leaky breasts, nipple pain and breast engorgement come with the territory. But for some of these women, theres a sneaky, under-recognized condition that can make breast-feeding an even bigger challenge than usual. Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex, or DMER, is a condition marked by an abnormal chemical and hormonal reaction that causes a brief but abrupt emotional response at milk letdown. It seems to be a small chemical reaction that causes a huge emotional reaction, Alia Macrina Heise, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in Naples, New York, who pioneered research on the condition, told Fox News. THE 5 BEST FOODS FOR BREAST-FEEDING MOMS For milk letdown to occur, the hormone dopamine which controls the secretion of the hormone prolactin must fall so levels of prolactin can rise. Yet for mothers with DMER, a chemical imbalance or dysfunction of dopamine prevents that from happening. Symptoms of DMER vary, but they typically include anxiety, irritability and sadness. Some women may even have suicidal ideations. This is like being zapped by a dark cloud it can be very overwhelming and scary, Diana West, an internationally board-certified lactation consultant and director of media relations for La Leche League in Chicago, Illinois, told Fox News. MOM SHARES EMOTIONAL BREAST-FEEDING POST AS SHE BEGINS BABY-LED WEANING Some women may even experience anger or an internal sense of aggression, which is directed toward themselves, not their babies. A lot of moms look internally and think, Why do I feel so shameful about myself? Macrina Heise said. Although symptoms usually dissipate after a few seconds or minutes, some womens symptoms persist throughout feedings. But once the feeding ends, they feel fine again. This is something a lot of people are suffering with and not getting any attention to, West said. Although DMER was identified 10 years ago, research is limited and its not clear how many women are affected. In fact, most doctors and lactation consultants are not even aware of it. What experts do know is based mostly on anecdotal evidence and insight gleaned from case studies. Technically, mothers are diagnosing themselves based on very distinctive signs and symptoms, Macrina Heise said. ITCHY SKIN DURING PREGNANCY SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED DMER is not postpartum depression DMER is a unique physiological, not psychological, experience, There are no known risk factors for the condition, and DMER can affect women regardless of whether they have had a history of anxiety or depression or a genetic predisposition for mood disorders. However, it does seem that once a woman has had DMER, she is likely to have it again with subsequent children. Because DMER is still largely unrecognized by the medical community, women who talk to their providers may feel that their concerns are brushed aside because their feelings are temporary or they may be incorrectly treated for postpartum depression. DMER isnt something moms are likely to talk about with each other either. I think women are ashamed to talk about it. They feel like something is wrong with them as being a mother, Chris Clark, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant at Regions Hospital, a HealthPartners hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, told Fox News. MOM'S HONEST POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION POST GOES VIRAL ON FACEBOOK The good news is that most women with DMER cope well, and their symptoms usually subside within three to six months. It seems that as the hormones of lactation change as the baby gets older, that causes enough of a shift that the emotional reaction dissipates as well, Macrina Heise said. But in some cases, DMER can be so severe that it can impair mothers ability to breast-feed. Wellbutrin, a prescription anti-depressant that prevents dopamine from being reabsorbed into the nerve cells of the brain, may be prescribed off-label, but it may not be effective or necessary. Seventy-five percent of mothers can handle their situation just knowing what it is and that its not just inside their heads, Macrina Heise said. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS For months, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has endured a public thrashing over nothing. He broke no laws, breached no ethical rules, and colluded with no one. Nonetheless, he was maligned and vilified by those who sought to impugn his honesty and integrity for what now seems, in retrospect, to be nothing more than partisan politics. Tuesday, it was his turn. Sessions vigorously defended himself at a public hearing and refuted accusations that he had lied before Congress. He acquitted himself nicely. Confirmation Revisited Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., set the ugly tone for Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee when he began by misrepresenting Sessions testimony at his confirmation hearing in January, selectively reading only part of Sessions testimony and deliberately omitting the full question and full answer. It was a shameful cheap shot by Warner, driven either by malice or ignorance. Maybe both. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions would have none of it. In his own determined but reserved way, Sessions expressed his contempt for what he called scurrilous accusations against him. Too bad the camera was not focused on Warners face. There might have been egg all over it. It was Sessions confirmation testimony, clearly misconstrued, which formed the basis for the persistent canard that he deceived Congress and committed perjury. It was a ludicrous claim when it was first made months ago. But that did not stop partisans from perpetuating it and the media from running wild with it. Of course he had prior meetings with foreign officials. That was his job as a U.S. Senator on the Armed Service Committee. Never mind that numerous Democratic Senators had similar meetings. So Tuesday, Sessions disabused the accusation at the outset. He recited the full context of the question in which he had been asked about an exchange of information during the campaign between Trumps surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government. And then he provided his original answer: I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians. His simple and indisputable answer seemed to take the air out of his antagonists smear campaign. At least on that issue. Sessions spelled out what he had already explained many times before. That is, he never met as a campaign surrogate with any Russian official. That was the context, he said, and in that context my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it. It did not occur to me to go further to other conversations or meetings. Of course he had prior meetings with foreign officials. That was his job as a U.S. Senator on the Armed Service Committee. Never mind that numerous Democratic Senators had similar meetings. As for collusion with the Russians? Sessions became visibly angry when he declared, I have never met with or had a conversation with Russians regarding interference with the election. The suggesting that I participated in collusion to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for 35 years, is an appalling and detestable lie. Indeed, it was. The Firing Of Comey Sessions was understandably and prudently cautious when asked about President Trumps decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. To do otherwise would breach the right of the president to receive advice in confidential communications with his Attorney General. Citing the well-established privilege endorsed by the Supreme Court, Sessions declined to reveal his presidential conversations. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, seemed outraged, if not unschooled, on the principles of executive privilege. Sessions patiently explained that only the president has the right to invoke executive privilege. He cannot do so until he has had a chance to review the specific conversations sought by the committee. This is always the case. The same standard was practiced in both the Obama and Bush presidencies. If a witness, like Sessions, declines to answer a question, the committee may then take steps to compel a response. At that point, having reviewed the matter, the president may or may not invoke executive privilege. This is the procedure which has been followed ever since the Supreme Court formally recognized the privilege in the 1970s. Yet, Wyden seemed clueless. All Sessions could and would say is that he agreed with the memorandum authored by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, saying that Comey had mishandled the Hillary Clinton email case which formed the basis for the firing of the Director. Comey, said Sessions, had usurped the powers of the Justice Department. Sessions did fire a broadside at Comey when he all but called him dishonest. The A-G denied Comeys account of a conversation in which the fired Director testified Sessions was silent when Comey expressed concern about meeting alone with President Trump. Sessions said, He (Comey) doesnt remember this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and DOJ needed to be careful to follow department policy. Which is a southern gentlemans way of calling Comey a liar. He may well be. The Attorney General reminded Senators that it was Comey who floated the suggestion that Sessions had committed some unidentified wrongdoing, This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I dont appreciate it. Perhaps Comey, the leaker, was watching. In a reference to Comeys claim that the president attempted to derail the FBIs investigation into Michael Flynn or Russian collaboration with the Trump campaign, Sessions offered a strong defense from his own experience when he offered, The President never asked me to do anything unethical or illegal. In his own quiet but deliberate manner, Sessions expressed disdain for the way he has been treated. And he well knows who is responsible. Politicians and the media, animated by their unabashed scorn and visceral enmity toward Trump, deliberately twisted and distorted Sessions words to smear him. Three decades ago a cabinet officer tarnished by false accusations asked, Which office do I go to to get my good reputation back? Sadly, there is no such office. After nearly five months of his presidency, the liberal media and the Washington establishment still dont understand Donald J. Trump. President Trump is different from any political leader weve seen in the presidency at least since Andrew Jackson (1828-36). As a result, reporters and those in the elite political class literally have no idea how to understand him. Each day, they are faced with a president who doesnt fit the norms of politics as usual, and their persistent instinct has been to attack. I have watched this hostility since then-candidate Trump announced his bid for the presidency at Trump Tower nearly two years ago on June 16, 2015[CM1] . It is a major reason why I decided to write Understanding Trump, which was released Tuesday. In fact, President Trumps candidacy announcement, as I explain in the first chapter [CM2] of "Understanding Trump," is a great case study on how completely incapable the D.C. media insiders have been in comprehending the President and why the American people elected him. Think about the torrent of criticism Trump received for his announcement event at Trump Tower. In addition to the intense criticism he received for what he said about people who are in the country illegally, Trump was mocked for ad-libbing his speech, boasting about his wealth, and his theatrics. The elites snubbed him, but his message resonated with normal Americans. Trump understood that since he was running as an outsider, the more he sounded like a politician, the more it undercut his message. So he abandoned his prepared remarks and spoke extemporaneously. This choice to go without the security of written text at such a big moment was, in fact, an act of extraordinary message discipline. The pundits accused him of rambling. Trump also understood that most Americans believed that their voices were not being heard, that the only people whom politicians listened to were ones who could cut big checks. So Trump spent a lot of time boasting about his wealth and promising to self-finance his campaign. In the following days, much attention was paid to whether Trump was really worth $9 billion, as he claimed, or if he was worth only about $2 billion. The frustrated voters Trump was reaching out to heard only one wordbillion. And they understood that they finally had a candidate who would not be bought. The medias immediate reaction to President Trumps announcement was full blown hostility. They couldnt imagine that people would ever consider him a serious candidate. They didnt care what he said. They didnt care how the American people responded to his message. But within a few weeks, the medias offensive had completely failed. After weeks of nonstop media criticism and declarations that his announcement in mid-June had been a disaster, the first polls were released that included Trump. After one month of Trump campaigning, he was leading in an average of all the polls, and he lost the lead only for one three-day period for the rest of the primary election. You would think this would have been cause for the media and establishment voices to pause and reconsider their assumptions about Trump, but the coverage and analysis has only gotten worse from there. Twenty-four months later, the hostility hasnt changed a bit. The elite reporters and pundits remain baffled and predisposed to attack a president they dont understand. I wrote "Understanding Trump" for the grassroots activists across the nation who are dedicated to holding Washington accountable and ensuring it once again serves the American people, instead of the big government, monied special interests and political influence peddlers. Just this month, a reporter asked me via email to comment on a story. The entire premise of the clearly biased article was that President Trump had been undoing Obama initiatives but not replacing them with anything of his own. I responded by rejecting the entire notion. Congress is grinding forward on health care, tax cuts, deregulation, infrastructure, and rebuilding the military any one of which could define a presidential legacy. I reminded the reporter that it took nine months to pass President Ronald Reagans tax cuts and 18 months to pass welfare reform when I was Speaker. Citing the current bull market being spurred by the surge in small business, entrepreneurial, and CEO confidence, I pointed out that in the first five months of the Trump presidency, the Trump effect has added $3.3 trillion to stock values[CM3] . This is nearly four times the size of Obamas media-lauded $900 billion stimulus package in 2009. Finally, I told the reporter the misguided assertion completely ignores President Trumps meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which resulted in over $400 billion in contracts for American jobs and the potential for a Sunni-American alliance. Not surprisingly, my comments werent included in the article. This constant attack by reporters, pundits, and the political elite is going to continue. But I didnt write this book for them. I wrote "Understanding Trump" for the grassroots activists across the nation who are dedicated to holding Washington accountable and ensuring it once again serves the American people, instead of the big government, monied special interests and political influence peddlers. This book is for those fighting to repel the elite media offensive and those who want to know how they can better help President Trump drain the swamp and steer our country toward a much brighter, more prosperous future. Finally, I wrote this book to help the millions of Americans who elected President Trump to understand him, as I understand him as an incredibly smart, successful, passionate leader, who loves this country and sincerely wants to make it great again. As disappointed as Democrats were by James Comeys testimony last week, they were probably even more disappointed Tuesday by their inability to get anything damaging on President Trump from Attorney General Sessions. Sessions had to put up with sometimes insulting questions about his actions as a senator when he was part of the Trump campaign, or his behavior as the attorney general of the United States. Yet despite their most determined efforts, the inquisitors didnt leave a mark on their former colleague. Sessions was passionate in defending himself and his work as the attorney general. He was obviously angry about some of the claims made by James Comey and the secret innuendo being thrown against him. He vigorously denied any wrongdoing, particularly in connection with the Russia investigation being conducted by the FBI, and vowed to defend himself against scurrilous and false allegations. In his opening statement, Sessions addressed the false assertion that he had not answered a question honestly from Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) at his confirmation hearing. Franken had asked a rambling question about claims that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trumps surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government. Of course, we know from Comeys testimony last week that this was false. But Sessions emphasized that he answered that question honestly and forthrightly when he said that he was not aware of any of those activities. In one of his most forceful statements, Sessions reminded committee members that he had been their colleague for 20 years. The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie. Sessions couldnt answer any detailed questions about the Russia investigation because he had recused himself after he was sworn in as the attorney general. It turned out that Comeys claim last week that he had not received any information from the Justice Department on the details of Sessions recusal was false; Sessions office had specifically sent Comey an email on March 2 telling him that he had decided to recuse himself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President after consultation with career ethics officials at Justice. The attorney general pushed back hard against the idea that he had recused because of any unlawful or unethical activities: Many have suggested that my recusal is because I felt I was a subject of the investigation myself, that I may have done something wrong. He recused himself because he felt he was required to under the rules of the Department of Justice. He is referring to a Justice Department rule (28 CFR 45.2) that says that no Justice employee can participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has personal or political relationship with...any person or organization which he knows has a specific and substantial interest that would be directly affected by the outcome of the investigation or prosecution. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was particularly insulting to Sessions, suggesting that there was something problematic about his recusal and asking him what those problems were. Sessions replied sharply Why dont you tell me? There are none, Sen. Wyden. There are none. Session emphasized repeatedly that he never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign official concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election. Moreover, he had no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. Senators such as Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) were obviously annoyed that Sessions refused to relate the specifics of any conversations he had with the president. But as Sessions said, he would not violate his duty to protect confidential communications with the President. I have no doubt that the senators Tuesday who were angry about this would not have questioned representatives of the Obama administration in this fashion. One needs only to recall Susan Rice, who refused to provide details of her conversations with President Obama. No president can function without that protection and the ability to have privileged and confidential discussions with his aides, his cabinet heads, and his advisers. Senators kept trying to push Sessions on his meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who visited the White House numerous times during the Obama administration. Sessions only had two meetings, one of which was just a brief encounter in July after a speech that [Sessions] had given during the convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Sessions had meetings with 25 other ambassadors during 2016, something that all senatorsincluding those questioning Sessionsdo routinely. He denied reports of a third meeting with the Russian ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. In short, Sessions testimony demonstrated that those who have tried to make these meetings look as if they were something nefarious have just made themselves look foolish. About the only thing the Senate Intelligence Committee accomplished in this hearing was to give the American people the opportunity to see an honest, honorable, and forthright public official Jeff Sessions being persecuted by political partisans with no interest in actually getting the truth. And the truth so far is that after more than six months, no one has turned up a single piece of evidence that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it colluded with any foreign officials anywhere in the world to somehow interfere in the November election. Period. End of story. Before the facts were even known about Wednesday mornings 7 AM shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, gun control advocates were already calling for more stringent laws. David Frum, senior editor for the Atlantic, called for background checks, gun licensing and registration, long gun permits, limits on magazine size, and restrictions on open carrying of guns. Windsor Mann, a columnist for USA Today, blamed easy access to deadly weapons. Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe blamed the attack on too many guns and immediately called for more gun control. We dont even know yet whether these laws could conceivably have made any difference in preventing this attack. And Frum is already correcting his posts for misstating Virginias gun control laws. After each mass public shooting, President Obama would call for expanded background checks on private transfers of guns even though not one of the shootings would have been prevented by such a law. Indeed, not a single attack since at least 2000 would have been stopped. News coverage of these events also shows the same knee-jerk biases for more gun control. Guns are often referred to as assault weapons even if they function exactly the same as a hunting rifle. Nowhere do the news reports mention whether an attack occurred in a gun-free zone. They never examine the thought process of attackers who want defenseless victims. Reportedly using a large capacity magazine, shooter James Hodgkinson may already have been in violation of Virginia law. Virginia state law prohibits carrying of a semi-automatic center-fire rifle . . . with a magazine that will hold more than 20 rounds. Hodgkinson and the Capitol police may have together fired between 50 and 70 rounds. One thing is clear. As Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Mich., told WWJ radio in Detroit, The only reasonthe only reasonwhy any of us walked out of this thing: By the grace of God, one of the folks here had a weapon to fire back and give us a moment to find cover. Because we were inside the backstop and if we didnt have that cover by a brave person who stood up and took a shot themselves, we would not have gotten out of there and every one of us would have been hit. Every single one of us. It is a lesson that we have seen over and over again. The longer that it takes for a good guy with a gun to arrive on the scene, the greater the carnage. Since only congressional leadership has personal security, Fox News anchor Jon Scott speculated today that the shooter did not expect someone to return fire. Again and again, we see shooters seeking out defenseless victims. Last year, a young ISIS sympathizer planned a shooting at one of the largest churches in Detroit. An FBI wire recorded him explaining why he had targeted the church: Its easy, and a lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus it would make the news. Fortunately, that ISIS sympathizer was turned in by his father. But during the last couple of years, shooters have made similar statements after attacking a church in Charleston, S.C., a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and a sorority house in Santa Barbara. In their desire for decisive action, people often don't stop to consider that gun control proposals may do more harm than good. Gov. Terry McAuliffe thinks that the problem is the presence of guns, but the plain truth is that every single place in the world with gun bans has seen an increase in murder rates. One would think that at least one place would see its murder rates stay the same or even fall. But there have been no exceptions. That's because law-abiding citizens obey gun control laws while killers dont. Bans end up making attacks easier. During the Obama administration, Europe experienced higher casualty rates from mass public shootings than did the U.S. Despite having bans even on guns that fire one bullet at a time, France, Belgium, the U.K., and Spain all experienced attacks with machine guns or bombs. Theres been a lot of talk about prohibiting guns with large-capacity ammunition magazines. But a gun that can hold a magazine, be it a handgun or a rifle, can hold a magazine of any size. A magazine, which is basically a metal box with a spring, is very easy to make and virtually impossible to stop criminals from obtaining. Legislation in 1994 banned magazines holding more than 10 bullets, but it had no effect on crime rates. My research shows that the deadliest mass public shootings dont even involve large capacity magazines. In March 2013, 86 percent of police officers surveyed by PoliceOne, the 450,000-member private organization of police, said that casualties would have been prevented if legally-armed citizens had been able to carry guns in places such as Newtown and Aurora. Fortunately, the heroic actions of the Capitol police kept any of the shooters victims from being killed. The Alexandria police arrived quickly, reportedly in about 3 minutes, but the attack today shows yet again how important it is for someone to be on the scene quickly with a gun. Wonder why your flight is late? Why planes keep circling? Why even after you've landed, you sometimes can't deplane? Bad weather plays a role, but flying is also nastier because American airports use 50-year-old technology. This shouldn't surprise us. Government bureaucracies are always slow. That's as true on the tarmac as everywhere else. It's not Federal Aviation Administration workers' fault. They're just following the government rulebook that says you must not change something without getting permission first. You must not buy anything without going through cumbersome acquisitions regulations. The FAA's new NextGen system was designed to make the system more efficient by using satellites instead of ground-based radar. It would let planes fly closer to each other, speeding up everything. This technology has existed for two decades, but because of the bureaucracy, it's still being rolled out. "By the time the government gets the equipment, many times it's no longer state-of-the-art," complains Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Outside government, progress happens. Uber replaces taxis because Uber is better and safer. Waze is better than paper maps. My laptop, on which I write this, is better than my typewriter. Outside government, people constantly invent better computers, phones, foods, music... Within government, people follow the old rules. So President Trump did the right thing when he said he wants to privatize air-traffic control. "Our air traffic control system is stuck, painfully, in the past," said the president. "Billions of tax dollars spent and the many years of delays, we're still stuck with an ancient, broken, antiquated, horrible system that doesn't work." Trump is right. "Antiquated, horrible" are common descriptions of government monopolies everywhere. The usual crowd of statists condemned privatization. "Fees will go up, seat size will go down," complained Sen. Chuck Schumer. He reminds me of the senators who warned that natural gas prices would "skyrocket" if Ronald Reagan lifted price controls. The opposite happened -- prices dropped. Deregulation brought private-sector competition. Competition made all of us better off. I wish Sen. Schumer understood that. The private plane industry worries about paying higher landing fees. But that'd probably be fair. We small plane users freeload off commercial aviation. Hundreds of passengers on a big jet sometimes wait for a Cessna to land. Everyone should pay user fees to cover costs we impose. Some resisters of change claim skies will become "chaos" because rival air-traffic control services won't talk to each other. This is absurd. Privatization is not a risky libertarian experiment. Canada privatized 20 years ago. There's no "chaos." There are fewer delays. Sixty countries now have forms of user-fee-supported air-traffic control. Some are developing ways for each plane to use computers keep track of its proximity to other planes and change flight plans to avoid getting too close. "These countries already use advanced tracking and communications technology that our controllers can only dream about," says the Reason Foundation's Bob Poole. Poole has researched transportation alternatives for decades. He says, "Upgraded air traffic control technology would mean shorter lines for planes waiting to take off, more direct routes between cities and fewer delays for planes waiting to land. That would result in shorter trip times, less fuel used and fewer emissions." In the 1980s and '90s, both Democrats and Republicans talked about privatizing air-traffic control. But that stopped after Sept. 11, 2001. When people are scared, they want government in control. But government control means centralized control that avoids disaster by operating slowly, hyper-cautiously checking routes and runways one at a time instead of adjusting instantaneously as weather or landing conditions change. In today's world of satellite navigation and digital communications, pilots across America radio the same air-traffic controller to ask for permission to switch flight plans one by one. Controllers still put paper flight strips in little plastic holders and pass them from one controller to another, much like a bartender sliding a beer down a bar. All this human interaction sends ripples of delay through the crowded skies. Private is better. It's already working elsewhere. There's no reason to keep customers -- and exhausted air-traffic controllers -- trapped in a primitive monopoly. Remember the outrage over feisty Trump supporters roughing up protesters during the campaign? How Trump was blamed for inciting violence and accused of egging on his followers? Where is that outrage today, when a Bernie Sanders follower attempts to slaughter senators and their staff members because they are Republicans? Where is any sense of accountability among the leftists who have preached hatred of our duly and legitimately elected president for months, encouraging the vile epithets and smears that pepper the speech not only of activists and politicians but of late-night comics and supposedly responsible journalists? Is the New York Times behaving responsibly when it publishes a piece by columnist Charles Blow titled Donald Trump: Gateway Degenerate? Where is the condemnation of a theater production of Julius Caesar that makes headlines for celebrating the bloody stabbing of a blond, Trump-like Caesar in a red tie, as the Times acknowledged? Not only are there few protests, CNNs Fareed Zakaria calls the revolting spectacle a masterpiece. How can second-rate comedian Kathy Griffin think shell be celebrated for holding up what looks like the severed head of the president? Or Snoop Dogg think that a music video featuring a mock assassination of a Trump look-alike in a clown costume is appropriate? Did Madonna not think shed stepped over the line when she mused aloud about blowing up the White House? Why isnt there more condemnation of NSA contractor Reality Winner, who was accused of leaking classified information for the purpose of undermining the president, and who wrote in her diary of that she wanted to burn the White House down? Writing in March of this year, The Hill reported that President Trump has been the target of declarations of violence on a near daily basis. Yet, when it comes to this constant flow of threats, they wrote, there seems to be little outrage from the nations leading journalists and pundits. Seriously, can you imagine what the reaction might have been if someone had publicly wished Obama dead? President Obama more than once called for greater civility in our political discourse; turns out his fans prefer vitriol. Somehow liberals consider it perfectly sensible to provide safe rooms on campuses complete with Play Dough and teddy bears -- to protect snowflakes anguishing over the election of Donald Trump, but also reasonable to allow the most grotesque vulgarities and threats to be hurled at our president. Somehow liberals consider it perfectly sensible to provide safe rooms on campuses complete with Play Dough and teddy bears -- to protect snowflakes anguishing over the election of Donald Trump, but also reasonable to allow the most grotesque vulgarities and threats to be hurled at our president. Our president. Thats the problem, of course. No one on the Left, starting with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, can accept that the man they considered beneath them on every score actually beat back not only their cherished progressive agenda, but also their candidate. They do not understand it, they do not accept responsibility for the shocking upset, and they are doing everything in their power to undermine President Trump and his supporters. The fight has become violent because they cannot and did not win with words. They had the media behind them, they had the money but none of it mattered to the millions who rejected Obamas world vision and Hillarys cynical coronation. The frustration on the Left is palpable; they are so completely sure they are right about everything encouraged by our popular culture and liberal press they refuse to recognize an opposing point of view. They dont allow contradiction on college campuses and they dont accept it in the media. When the New York Times dares to hire a conservative columnist who questions the consensus on climate change (but also calls Trumps views malevolent) the publisher has to write an apology to the offended who rush to cancel their subscriptions. After the Orlando massacre, Hillary Clinton also called for greater civility; but it wasnt very civil of her to describe Trump followers as deplorables. It wasnt particularly uplifting to describe Republicans as your enemies. In the same vein, Hillarys sorrowful excuses tour is not helping the country to heal. Instead of accusing Comey, sexism, Putin, the DNC and so many others for her loss, she would win plaudits for telling her supporters and other embittered Democrats it is time to stand down. Not to give up their legitimate efforts to win back seats and argue a different path for the country, but to demand that the indiscriminate savaging of the president and his family must stop. To his credit, Bernie Sanders has mostly taken the high road, continuing to preach revolution but largely avoiding the personal scrum. Thats probably why recent polling shows him to be the countrys most popular politician. Theres a lesson there. Lady Gaga, at one of those last-ditch concerts put on by the Clinton campaign on election eve, told a happy, youthful crowd that they needed to embrace Trump supporters. "I know that it is important for this message, too, to be spread -- that we do not need to hate his followers," she said. "If we are true, true Americans, then we must go from viewing his followers as our adversaries to viewing them as our allies." That was a gracious sentiment, and the right message. Of course, she said that before she knew that Trump would win. The intermediary who helped James Comey leak at least one memo to The New York Times is handing revelant materials over the FBI, he confirmed to Fox News. Daniel Richman has acknowledged he was the source that Comey used to get notes from a dramatic meeting with President Trump out into the press. Comey admitted to the leak during Senate testimony last week. Richman already has been in touch with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is seeking Comeys memos as part of its own probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and connections to the Trump campaign. He is working through the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, designated by the Justice Department to run the main investigation. Special Counsel [Mueller] has been in contact with the committee to discuss access, Richman told Fox News. In the meantime I am turning the relevant materials over to the FBI. WERE THERE OTHER COMEY LEAKS? Richman is a law professor at Columbia University; after his apparent leak, the Times published a story in May based on the memo saying the president asked him to stop the federal probe of ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey said in Senate testimony he leaked contents of his notes in hopes of prompting the appointment of a special counsel. The White House has pushed back on Comeys account. Trumps legal team, meanwhile, is expected to file a complaint with the Justice Department inspector general and Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the leak. Fox News Jake Gibson contributed to this report. JNU -: , - Former special counsel Ken Starr told Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Tuesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions "acquitted himself beautifully" in his testimony before the Senate intelligence committee. Starr, whose "Whitewater" investigation led to the eventual impeachment of of former President Bill Clinton, described Sessions as a friend of 36 years who is a "man of honor [and] a man of the law." "I dont think a lot was revealed today. I dont think were much farther down the road," Starr said of the committee's ongoing Russia investigation. "But I think that the American people saw that this attorney general is just a great human being with an enormous amount of passion and determination to try his very best to do the right thing." Starr, the former president of Baylor University, criticized FBI Director James Comey, who he claimed had "violated, perhaps law, but he certainly violated policy time and time again." Starr also praised current special counsel Robert Mueller as "very able and honest." "Hes going to be thorough, hes going to be professional," Starr said. "And you simply go where the evidence leads you ... so, let's allow him to do his work." Virginia Lt. Governor Ralph Northam was projected to defeat a progressive challenger for the Democratic nomination in the commonwealth's closely-watched race for governor, while former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie was projected to win a closer-than-expected GOP primary. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Northam led former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello 56 percent to 44 percent. Perriello had run as an unapologetic liberal crusader supported by prominent national Democrats like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as the best candidate to take on President Donald Trump. With 99 percent of precincts reporting on the GOP side, Gillespie led former Trump state campaign chairman Corey Stewart by just over 4,000 votes out of nearly 365,000 ballots cast. State Sen. Frank Wagner was on course to finish a distant third. The close Republican result shocked many political watchers and shows Trump's enduring appeal among Republican voters in Virginia, as well as a potentially rocky path forward for Republicans in a state where Democrats have won every statewide election since 2009. Stewart had made his devout support for Trump a focus of his campaign, while Gillespie had distanced himself from the president and his policies. The former RNC head was backed by most of the state party establishment, and had the fundraising advantage. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, has spoken out against moves to remove Confederate monuments from city streets and has advocated deporting all illegal immigrants upon arrest. Virginia is one of only two states electing new governors this year (New Jersey is the other), and the swing-state contest is likely to draw intense national scrutiny for signs of how voters are reacting to Trump's first year in office. Northam, a low-key pediatric neurologist, won running as a pragmatist with state's Democratic establishment's firm support. He gave a fiery victory speech Tuesday, vowing to win over Perriello supporters and lead Democrats in retaking control of the state House of Delegates in the general election. "It is time for us to get back on offense and stop playing so much defense," Northam said. At Northam's event in Arlington, there were cheers and high fives as news spread that he had been declared the victor. A television over the bar displayed election returns and people examined their phones for breaking news. Hyun Lee, 37, of Centreville, Va., who had done phone banking and knocked on doors for Northam, was one of the people at the party. "I trust his leadership. I trust his dedication to all Virginians," Lee said of Northam. "He cares for everyone." She said Northam has "proven he can work across the aisle." Perriello made a surprise entrance into the race in January and faced an uphill climb from the beginning. He energized many new-to-politics voters who oppose Trump but was ultimately unable to expand the universe of Democratic primary voters enough to counter Northam's advantages. Perriello pledged in his concession speech to help Northam and said his campaign had shown that a "movement" is "rising up." "I don't know about you, but I'm inspired to keep fighting tonight," Perriello said. Northam had been essentially campaigning for years, making key contacts with influential power brokers like prominent African-American politicians and religious leaders, and building up a large cash advantage that let him outspend Perriello on TV advertising in the closing weeks of the race. Northam's campaign ran a more traditional campaign focused heavily on his biography -- rural upbringing, Army veteran, pediatric neurologist -- as well as his endorsements from key progressive groups that make up the Democratic base like teachers and abortion-rights groups. Kevin Felty, a Norfolk Republican, said he voted for Gillespie because of his fundraising prowess in what's likely to be a bloody general campaign. Felty, a 48-year-old surgical assistant, said a GOP victory in Virginia would wrestle back the "narrative being touted in the mainstream media that the Democrats are gaining traction" under Trump. "I see this as the midterm of the midterms," said Felty, who voted for Trump and remains steadfast in his support. "I think it has bigger consequences than people imagine." At his victory party, Gillespie joked that he'd been fiscally prudent by not spending any more than was necessary to win the primary and asked the supporters of Stewart and Wagner to get behind him. "We want you to be part of our effort," Gillespie said, adding that Virginia cannot afford another four years with a Democrat as governor. But it's unclear how much Stewart supporters will rally behind Gillespie. Stewart repeatedly blasted the former Washington lobbyist as a product of the "swamp" Trump had pledged to drain, and said Tuesday evening that he's against party unity for unity's sake. "There's one word you will never hear from me and that's `unity.' Because look, folks, we've been backing down too long ... in defense of our culture, our heritage and our country," said Stewart, who did not immediately concede. Isaac Smith, 21, of Charlottesville, who campaigned for Stewart, said Stewart's showing was "remarkable" given the fact that he was badly outspent. Smith viewed the results as a vindication of Trump. Asked if he would support Gillespie in the general election, Smith said: "At most, I will vote for him. I will not campaign for him." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jeff Sessions came out swinging. Any suggestion that he was colluding with the Russian government, he told a Senate committee yesterday, was an appalling and detestable lie. What was refreshing was that the attorney generals testimony was that he didmt read a dry, lawyerly statement, but seemed genuinely outraged that a shadow had been cast over his reputation. Nor did he hide behind a closed session. In his two meetings with Russian officials, the ex-senator forcefully told his former colleagues, not one thing happened that was improper in any one of those meetings. Sessions denied media reports that there might have been a third meeting. As for his recusal from the investigationwhich President Trump did not agree withSessions insisted he had taken no action whatsoever in the probe. And in another made-for-TV declaration, Sessions said: I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. While it may have lacked the drama of the Jim Comey hearing, the Sessions session had its moments, given his crucial role running the Justice Department. The Washington Post recently reported that as his relationship with Trump grew tense in recent months, Sessions offered to resign. He defended his boss on the Comey controversy, not surprisingly, saying there was nothing wrong with a president having a communication with the FBI director. Sessions told Dianne Feinstein that he wrote a letter to Trump supporting the firing of Comey because he was asked to do so. He deflected a question about whether he knew the president had already made up his mind, as Trump has confirmed, and then said he couldnt discuss their private conversations. There were brief fireworks when another Democrat, Ron Wyden, declared that the letter was a violation of the recusal that didnt pass the smell test. But Sessions just repeated his rationale. Sessions acknowledged to ranking committee Democrat Mark Warner that he never spoke to Comey about any problems with his management of the FBI. In the wake of reports that the president might be contemplating firing special counsel Bob Muellerand growing criticism of Mueller from Trump alliesSessions said he has confidence in the former FBI director. But he said he no idea whether the president has such confidence. Meanwhile, I can say based on my reporting that Mueller is not worried at all about his position, and does not believe the criticism of whether he has a conflict was orchestrated. Such Trump supporters as Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity have raised questions about Muellers fitness for the post and whether theres any need for a special counsels probe. As a veteran senator, Sessions knows how these hearings work. Since he was playing defense, the question is whether the Democrats landed any blows or elicited any starting information. And the answer is they did not. The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning on opening an investigation into the events surrounding President Donald Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The investigation could potentially examine whether the president interfered in the ongoing Russia investigation by moving to fire Comey. The Judiciary Committee has an obligation to fully investigate any alleged improper partisan interference in law enforcement investigations, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a letter announcing the move. JEFF SESSIONS DENIES RUSSIAN COLLUSION, DEFENDS COMEY FIRING It is my view that fully investigating the facts, circumstances, and rationale for Mr. Comeys removal will provide us the opportunity to do that on a cooperative, bipartisan basis, Grassley continued. The American people deserve a full accounting of attempts to meddle in both our democratic processes and the impartial administration of justice." The letter was a response to Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Feinstein had asked for the committee to complete its own investigation in addition to ones currently ongoing. The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over the FBI and federal law enforcement. The move follows testimony Comey gave on June 8 to the Senate Intelligence Committee in which he said he thought he was fired because of the Russia probe. I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted, Comey testified. That is a very big deal, and not just because it involves me. A White House spokeswoman didnt immediately respond to a comment request from the Journal. Former FBI Director James Comey reportedly told members of Congress that he had a frosty exchange with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch last year when he discussed her possible interference in the FBIs investigation into Hillary Clintons private email server. Circa reported that in a closed session following Comeys testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last Thursday, the fired FBI director told lawmakers he confronted Lynch over a sensitive document reportedly suggesting she had agreed to stop any Clinton prosecution. During the closed-door conversation, Comey reportedly told lawmakers Lynch looked at the document and then looked up with a steely silence -- and directed Comey to leave her office. In the open session before the Intelligence Committee, Comey said that Lynch directed him to describe the Clinton email probe as a matter and not an investigation. Comey also said that the directive, combined with Lynchs unusual Arizona tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton, led him to make his independent announcement regarding the Clinton email probe last July. Comey testified that the tarmac meeting was a deciding factor in his decision to act alone to update the public on the Clinton email probeand protect the bureaus reputation. There were other things, significant items, he added, citing how the Attorney General directed me not to call it an investigation and call it a matterwhich confused me. That was one of the bricks in the load that I needed to step away from the department, Comey said, later adding he was concerned Lynch was trying to align the DOJs comments with the way the campaign was talking about the probe. That gave me a queasy feeling, he said. On Wednesday, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and said the committee will pursue investigations into any efforts to influence FBI investigations. Special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election has expanded to include an examination of whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice, according to a new report from The Washington Post. Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency and Richard Ledgett, Rogers departed deputy, all agreed to participate in interviews with Muellers investigators as early as this week, five anonymous sources briefed on the requests told the Post. It wasnt immediately clear if others have been questioned by the FBI. Investigators have also been looking for proof of possible financial crimes committed by Trump associates, officials told The Post. COMEY FIRING TO BE INVESTIGATED BY SENATE PANEL, NEW REPORT SAYS The FBI leak of information regarding the President is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trumps personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, told The Post. The Special Counsels office declined to comment. The president previously said he had received private assurances from fired FBI Director James Comey that he was not personally under investigation as part of the probe. Comey confirmed that he provided those assurances in testimony he gave to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8. That changed following Comeys firing, sources told The Post. The investigation into obstruction of justice into Trump started days after Comey was let go on May 9, people familiar with the matter told The Post. Muellers office has resumed that work and early interviews scheduled to take place with intelligence officials indicate that his team is actively pursuing potential witnesses in and out of the government. A March 22 exchange is allegedly of potential interest to Mueller, officials told The Post. Coats was attending a briefing at the White House then with officials from other government agencies. When that ended, Trump allegedly asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Coats said that Trump had asked him if he could intervene with Comey to get the FBI to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of the Russia probe, The Post previously reported. In his testimony last week Comey claimed that Trump urged him to see your way clear of letting Flynn go. Trump has denied the comment. Fox News Jake Gibson and John Roberts contributed to this report. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told lawmakers on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority assured him the Palestinian Liberation Organization is in the process of changing controversial policies that pay terrorists and their families. Though Israeli and Palestinian leaders are now disputing the account, Tillerson made the comments in a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He told senators that on his most recent trip to Bethlehem, the PA said the PLO would be revising their long-standing policy. They have changed their policy, at least, I have been informed theyve changed that policy, and ... their intent is to cease the payments to the family members of those who have committed murder or violence against others, Tillerson said. So, it isweve been very clear with them that this is simply not acceptable to us. Tillerson told lawmakers that Palestinian leaders argued they must take care of widows and orphans, but that he told them the American people could not see any explanation for payments to terrorists, which they refer to as a martyr fund. It is certainly not acceptable to the American people, Tillerson said. Tillerson told lawmakers both he and President Trump raised the issue during their visit to the West Bank last month. But both Israeli and Palestinian leaders are disputing Tillersons claim, saying there has been no change to policy. Israel has pushed for the Palestinians to halt the martyrs fund payments that go to roughly 35,000 families of Palestinians killed and wounded in its long-running conflict with Israel, including suicide bombers and others. Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Karake said the payments must continue, calling them a national, social and humanitarian duty. Those people, (prisoners) have sacrificed their lives for their people and the minimum we can do to them is taking care of their families, Karake said. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said hed seen no signs the Palestinian Authority had changed their policy. We follow this closely, Lieberman said on Israels Public Radio on Wednesday. As of this moment I have seen no cessation and no intention to stop paying the terrorists families. But a State Department official told Fox News that the PA, PLO and President Abbas are looking at ways to address this issue. We were pleased to see last month that some payments were stopped to Hamas-affiliated prisoners, and we will continue to have this dialogue with the Palestinians, a State Department official told Fox News. We want to see further steps taken on this issue. The martyrs fund was set up in 1967 by the PLO, the group that formally represents all Palestinians. The fund for families of several thousand Palestinians held for alleged anti-Israeli activities, from stone-throwing to shooting attacks and bombings, had a 2016 budget of $125 million, according to the website of the Palestinian Authoritys Finance Ministry. Israel continuously argues that their payments promote violence. As the Secretary has said, we cannot tolerate any program that results in financial gain for committing acts of violence, a State Department official told Fox News. Fox News Rich Edson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. James Williams, president of a coalition that works for normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations, was busy on Capitol Hill this week trying to persuade administration officials not to reverse travel and trade policies with Cuba that were eased by President Obama two years ago. Williams, who heads Engage Cuba, said it seems inevitable that the White House -- which has not made any announcement about changing America's Cuba policy -- will roll back some steps his predecessor took in 2014 toward full-scale relations with Cuba. So Williams is working to contain the expected reversal of Obamas policies. This is the last thing the Cuban people need, a return to this hostility, Williams told Fox News. The people in Cuba are starting to see their lives change, they want it to go faster. At the end of the day, there are hardliners in both governments who are out for blood toward each other, and its everyday people whose lives are going to be destroyed. In Miami, a Bay of Pigs veterans group, Brigade 2506, sent out a statement expressing hope that when Trump appears before them on Friday in a scheduled visit to the city, he will announce major changes to Obamas U.S.-Cuba policy. Many news outlets, quoting unnamed Trump administration officials, are reporting that the president may announce a new U.S.-Cuba policy as early as Friday in Miami. The administration has been drafting a new policy with input from Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Sen. Marco Rubio, both Cuban-American Republicans from South Florida. It was on October 25, 2016 that for the first time in the history of Brigade 2506 a candidate for the presidency of the United States received their endorsement, the veterans group said in its statement. During that important event, then-candidate Donald J. Trump addressed an audience eager for a president that would place human rights and freedom in Cuba as well as the protection of U.S. national security first when dealing with the Castro regime. The statement repeated the message that Trump delivered to the group during his campaign: What you are asking for is right, and what you are asking for is just. The United States should not prop up the Castro regime economically and politically, as Obama has done and as Hillary Clinton plans to do. I wont let you down. During his presidential campaign, Trump said that Obamas decision to ease trade and travel restrictions had amounted to playing right into the hands of a regime that had made no concessions in return. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration would conduct a top-to-bottom review of U.S.-Cuba policy. Those who want Trump to return to a more hardline U.S.-Cuba policy say the infusion of money into Cuba from increased U.S. tourism and business deals mainly is benefitting the regime, which continues to crack down on dissidents and to resist democratic reform, according to Amnesty International. Marion Smith, executive director of Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is calling on Trump to return to a stricter policy on Cuba. Despite claims that detente with Cuba will lead to new freedoms for the Cuban people, an influx of capital and tourism has only further fueled the Castro governments repressive policies, Smith said in a statement. President Trump should use this opportunity to push the Cuban government to release its political prisoners, allow for dissent, and adhere to international standards on human rights. Proponents of lifting the embargo say that taking a punitive approach toward Cuba has done nothing to bring about improvements in human rights in more than 50 years, and that it is time to try something new. They believe that the more contact Cubans and Americans have and the more opportunities Cubans have to form entrepreneurial ventures -- helped by Americans the more pressure there will be for the political system to change on the island. Trump is in a very difficult spot with this, John Gronbeck-Tedesco, a professor at Ramapo College in New Jersey and author of books about Cuba, said. One the one hand, hes trying to make good on his campaign pledge, and speak to his base, especially Cuban-Americans in Florida who voted for him. But he also promised Americans more jobs, and reducing trade is not going to help. Among those supporting an expanded business relationship with Cuba are those in the agricultural industries in some of the most conservative parts of the United States, Gronbeck-Tedesco noted. That has prompted some Republicans lawmakers at the state and national level to back more trade with Cuba, and to push for lifting the embargo. A White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press to discuss internal deliberations on Cuba policy, said that the U.S. embassy in Havana will remain open, but Americans can expect actions by the departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security to ban U.S. trade with any Cuban entity linked to the military. Also planned: a reduction in the number of categories for which Americans do not need U.S. government licenses to go to Cuba. The U.S. will demand greater internet access and the release of prisoners and return of American fugitives in Cuba. Obama's repeal of the special Cuban immigration privileges known as wet-foot, dry-foot will not change, the official said. A particular focus is saving Obama's easing of U.S. travel to Cuba, which tripled the number of American travelers to the island and pumped tens of millions of dollars into the island's private hospitality sector. More than half of tourists now staying in Havana hotels are from the United States, say those in the U.S. travel industry. "Thousands of Americans are visiting Cuba and fueling the fastest growth in its private sector since 1959," CubaOne, a group of young pro-engagement Cuban-Americans, wrote in an open letter to Trump on Monday. After months of public silence, Airbnb last week released a report on its activities in Cuba, which have put $40 million into the hands of private bed-and-breakfast owners since the online lodging giant became the first major U.S. company to enter Cuba in the wake of Obama's declaration of detente. Google, which installed servers on the island to speed Cuban internet service last year, spoke out for the first time Monday in favor of maintaining relations. "Google has played a formative role in the first chapter of Cuba's connectivity story, but this is just the beginning," Brett Perlmutter, head of strategy and operations for Google Cuba, said at a conference in Miami on Monday. "Connecting Cuba will require an entire ecosystem of players ... It will also require the US maintaining a policy that allows telecommunications firms work in Cuba." The Associated Press contributed to this report. In honor of Flag Day, we've decided to take a break from our normal Flag Day traditions (i.e., taking any excuse to eat red, white or blue candies) to gain a better appreciation of Old Glory herself. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of fun facts surrounding the Stars and Stripes but most of the coolest stuff isn't found in any of our history books. A lot of it is interesting, some of it is surprising, and the one tidbit about "Gilligan's Island" is downright haunting. 5 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT MEMORIAL DAY Bone up on the American Flag trivia below and use it to impress your friends and neighbors all day long: #1. Betsy Ross is widely credited with designing the first American flag, but there is almost no evidence to support that claim. The only records of Ross' involvement came from her own grandson in 1870, when he presented the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with affidavits from his own family members as evidence. Instead, many historians believe that Francis Hopkinson deserves the credit, because early journals from the Continental Congress are said to explicitly name him as the flag's designer. #2. Karen Burke of Walmart's Corporate Communications revealed that Walmart stores sold around 115,000 American flags on Sept. 11, 2001, as compared to 6,400 flags on the same date in 2000. In the year following 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001 through Aug. 19, 2011), they sold 7.8 million American flags as compared to 2.5 million the year before. #3. A 17-year-old student designed the flag as it appears today. In anticipation of Alaska and Hawaii becoming states, Robert G. Heft created the 50-star flag as part of a history project (for which he received a B-) before submitting it to Congress for consideration. In August of 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Heft's design over 1,500 other applicants and informed him of the news over the phone. (Heft's teacher also changed his grade to an A.) #4. During the opening sequence (about 22 seconds in) of first-season episodes of "Gilligan's Island," the U.S. flag can be seen flying at half-staff off in the distance. According to a 1994 audio book co-authored by Russell Johnson, who played the Professor, this is because the show's pilot episode finished filming on Nov. 22, 1963 the same day President Kennedy was assassinated. FOUNDER OF FIRE DEPARTMENT COFFEE IS FOCUSED ON GIVING BACK TO INJURED FIREFIGHTERS, PARAMEDICS #5. Despite the harsh temperatures and conditions of the moon's atmosphere, five of the six flags that were planted during the Apollo missions are still believed to be standing. According to Buzz Aldrin, the one that fell was blown over by the exhaust from Apollo 11 during its liftoff from the moon's surface. #6. According to the U.S. Department of State, the names of the flag's official colors are "old glory red," "white," and "old glory blue." Their HTML codes and Pantone equivalents can be found on the Department of State's style guide. #7. Flag Day isn't technically a federal holiday, and it's not a state holiday outside of Pennsylvania and New York. Furthermore, New York's official observance of Flag Day isn't June 14 (when it's commonly celebrated), but rather the second Sunday in June. #8. Richard Williams, the animation director for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," said that he modeled the title character's colors after Old Glory (red overalls, white fur, blue tie). "It looked like an American flag subliminally speaking so everybody liked it." FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS #9. There are federal regulations governing the handling and display of the flag (the U.S. Flag Code), including restrictions on using the flag's likeness for advertising, or printing it on anything intended "for temporary use or discard," like cocktail napkins or paper plates. Under the Flag Protection Act of 1989, there are also federal laws that call for criminal penalties for certain forms of flag desecration, although the Supreme Court found this act to be unconstitutional under the First Amendment in 1990. #10. Old Glory was actually the nickname of a specific U.S. flag, namely, the one owned by sea captain William Driver. He was previously given the flag by the women in his hometown of Salem, Mass., but he only named it Old Glory upon seeing it flying on his ship's mast in 1831. The name later went on to become synonymous with any American flag. They were considered the eighth natural wonder of the world and the greatest tourist attraction in the Southern Hemisphere in the mid-1800sand then they were gone: The Pink and White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana in New Zealand's North Island spellbound visitors until June 1886 when Mount Tarawera erupted, wiping the silica sinter (a kind of quartz) formations off the map. Now researchers say they have located the fabled wonder, claiming the formations may well have survived the disaster but are now buried under mud and ash. Rex Bunn and Dr. Sascha Nolden say they've corrected past attempts to identify the location of the terraces thanks to the 19th-century field diaries of a German-Austrian geologist. Bunn tells the Guardian the terraces were never surveyed by the government, meaning their exact latitude and longitude weren't determined. But someone did record their compass bearings: Ferdinand von Hochstetter, whose diary data the researchers used to reverse engineer the terrace locations. The researchers believe they're buried no more than 50 feet under the surface skirting the shoreline and not beneath the lake, as previously believed, or totally destroyed, as government scientists recently have claimed, NewsNow reports. The pair are raising funds to conduct a full archaeological study and prove their claimand say that if they're right, it's possible the terraces could be brought back to life. In 2016, the BBC explained just why they were so stunning: Not only were they the largest silica sinter formations on the planet, they sat at opposite ends of the lake, one white, one slightly pink, their positioning making them "greater than the sum of their parts." (Petra's secret was found hiding in plain sight.) This article originally appeared on Newser: Researchers Say They've Found Lost Wonder of World Nearly a year after tragedy struck at one of its lakeside resorts, Disney World has announced plans to erect a statue in honor of the young boy who was killed by an alligator at its Grand Floridian hotel last summer. On June 14, 2016, 2-year-old Lane Thomas Graves of Nebraska was playing near the resorts Seven Seas Lagoon with parents Matt and Melissa Graves, as well as his 4-year-old sister, when he was dragged into the water by an alligator. His father jumped in after Lane in an attempt to pry the boy from the gators jaws, though he was ultimately unsuccessful. 5 MAJOR CHANGES COMING TO DISNEY WORLD THIS YEAR Lanes body was recovered by dive teams the day after the alligator attack. His cause of death was cited as drowning and traumatic injuries. Now, a year later, Disney has confirmed plans to install a lighthouse sculpture in Lanes memory somewhere on the park grounds, although the exact location of the sculpture has yet to be revealed. The sculpture will also serve as a symbol of the Lane Thomas Foundation a charitable organization established by Lanes family following their horrific tragedy which too uses a lighthouse as its logo. The Lane Thomas Foundation was created to give honor and light to Lane's life," writes Walt Disney World Resort President George A. Kalogridis in a statement obtained by Fox News. "The foundation is dedicated to supporting families of children needing life-saving organ transplants. "To provide continued awareness of the foundation and its mission, we've commissioned an original sculpture of the lighthouse the foundation uses as a symbol of love and hope, to be installed on our property this summer. 'TANGLED' STAR CLAIMS DISNEY WORLD TURKEY LEGS AREN'T WHAT THEY CLAIMS TO BE Following Lanes death, Disney World officials were criticized for their failure to provide proper warning signage along the lagoon. According to reports, Disney World had posted no swimming signs, but nothing warning of alligators, save for one at a nearby pond at the property. Disney World later announced plans to install proper warning signs for gators. Just weeks prior to Lanes incident, a British family also claims they were forced to flee from an alligator at that very lagoon. In their case, however, the alligator presumably returned to the water after giving brief chase. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Emergency personnel in Minnesota were under fire Tuesday for their handling of a woman who was unresponsive in a bathroom on board an American Airlines flight from Dallas to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Emergency responders removed the woman, identified by relatives as Theresa Hines, from the back of the airliner Monday in an effort to render medical aid. Workers used a portable stretcher a tarp with handles to bring her down the aisle in front of 146 passengers, airport spokesman Pat Hogan said. Hines was partially clothed as the workers moved her off the plane. Hogan and American Airlines officials said all the woman had on at the time was a shirt and underwear. One passenger said it was out of line for medical personnel not have covered the woman while they moved her off of the plane. The EMT was out of line, passenger Art Endress told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He said he was seated close to the bathroom where the workers dragged her down the aisle. The flight attendants could have thrown a blanket on her, he said. Dave Sampsell, another passenger on the flight, told the newspaper that Hines was not half-naked. Sampsell added that he did not see anything wrong with what emergency workers did. Hogan told the Associated Press that emergency workers did nothing wrong. "From our standpoint everything was handled according to the textbook," he said. After nearly an hour of attempts to revive her in the boarding bridge connecting the plane to the terminal, the woman was pronounced dead, Hogan said. Passengers were kept on board during that time, he added. A tarp was put up on the jet way to shield the woman as passengers left the plane. The Associated Press contributed to this report. United we stand and United we violently fall to the ground? United Airlines was forced to apologize on Tuesday for a shocking incident that took place at an airport in Houston, Texas, in July 2015. In footage of the incident, which was obtained by Houston news outlet KPRC-TV, a United employee appears to shove a 71-year-old passenger named Ronald Tigner, who then falls to the ground in full view of other passengers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. UNITED AIRLINES FLIES WOMAN TO SAN FRANCISCO INSTEAD OF FRANCE Tigner is now filing a lawsuit against the airline, as well as the employee who shoved him and a separate employee, whom he believed to be negligent. This is just one of the most inhumane things Ive ever seen in my life, Tigners attorney, William Hoke, told KPRC. According to his lawyer, Tigner was merely trying to get the attention of a United employee in order to reprint his boarding pass, which had become garbled. BUt instead of helping Tigner, Hoke says the United employee who has been identified as Alejandro Anastasia merely smiled at him and said, Cant you see were busy? Tigner reportedly responded by saying, wipe that smile off your face, and thats when Anastasia cursed at him and shoved him down. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Tigners attorney also claims that Tigner was knocked unconscious when his head hit the ground, and yet no one came to his aid for minutes. "He lies there lifeless for minutes. Not one employee comes to check on him, Hoke told KPRC. "No one even went to check his pulse. They literally left him there like a piece of garbage." Audio of a subsequent 911 call was later shared by KPRC, during which a United employee can be heard telling the operator that a 70-year-old man had fallen down. At the time, the employee did not know the cause of the mans fall. In a statement obtained by Fox News, United has vowed to apologize to Tigner and make this right. United also confirmed that Anastasia no longer works for the airline. UNITED PASSENGER DRAGGED FROM FLIGHT SETTLES FOR UNDISCLOSED AMOUNT "We have seen the video from 2015 that shows completely unacceptable behavior by a United employee," writes United. "This employee was terminated from United in August 2015 following the incident. The conduct shown here does not reflect our values or our commitment to treat all of our customers with respect and dignity. We are taking a thorough look into what happened here and reaching out to our customer to profusely apologize for what occurred and to make this right." According to KPRC, Anastasia had been charged with a felony after pushing Tigner. He was also ordered to pay a fine, attend anger-management classes, and write Tigner an apology. Tigner is now seeking $1 million in damages. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died on Monday after being left in a day care van for over eight hours. Police in West Memphis, Arkansas say the young boy got on the van at 6:40 a.m. on Monday morning but he was never taken inside of Ascent Childrens Health Services. He was later found dead still strapped in his booster seat when the van was about to take children home for the day, police say. The cause of death has not yet been released but temperatures reached above 90 degrees in the afternoon. According to Fox 13, the child is being identified as Christopher Gardner Jr. The boys mother Ashley Smith says the day care needs to be held accountable. SAN FRANCISCO UPS CENTER SHOOTING TURNS DEADLY "I didn't hear from them. I didn't have no apologies or anything. I just was like 'I don't get an apology? I don't get a why?'" Smith told Fox 13. "I just feel like justice needs to be served, and they need to be shut down, because they had my son on there. I don't care if it was anyone else's child. They need to be shut down. It just was mines." Smith added that her entire family is torn. "Why didn't you just do your part? You saw me put my son on that van," Smith told Fox 13. "His whole family torn apart, because of someone else's careless mistakes." The Arkansas Department of Human Services, which oversees childcare facilities in the state, confirmed that they are conducting a licensing investigation after the incident. Communications Director Amy Webb says the facility recently underwent a safety review in March of this year and did not have any violations related to transportation of children. EX-COP GETS PRISON IN DEADLY WRONG-WAY CRASH There are a number of safeguards in place to try to prevent these types of things, Webb told Fox News. So what we need to identify is where was the breakdown in those safeguards. Webb noted that childcare transport vehicles are required to have an alarm placed in the back that has to be manually turned off. The alarm is in place to ensure a final check of the vehicle. She added there were two discrepancies unrelated to transportation at the facility but did not recall exactly what those were. Webb also says the facility has not had any problems in the past. Five people could face charges in connection with the childs death, according to Fox 13. Fox News attempted to reach Ascent Childrens Health Services but our calls went unanswered. Otto Warmbier was flown home to Cincinnati on Tuesday, after spending almost 18 months imprisoned in North Korea, more than a year of it in a coma that North Korea says was caused by botulism. According to an official North Korean report, the University of Virginia student contracted foodborne botulism shortly after his March 2016 court appearance. The report said he fell into a coma after taking a sleeping pill and had not woken up by the time he was medically evacuated from North Korea. So what exactly is botulism? Botulism is caused by a bacteria known as clostridium. This bacteria produces a toxin known as botulinum toxin. This toxin can be ingested by eating improperly canned foods, which allow the toxin to grow, Dr. Sara Siavoshi, a California neuroscientist. It acts as toxin to the nervous system where it paralyses muscles. Common symptoms include a very flaccid paralysis of the arms and/or legs, difficulty breathing because of respiratory muscle weakness and blurred vision. In severe cases, it can cause respiratory failure and even cause cardiac issues. Botulism is classified as rare by the World Health Organization and fatal in around 3 percent to 5 percent of cases. According to Siavoshi, there are antitoxins available to be administered to individuals who have developed botulism. A mainstay of therapy, however, is observing the patient for any breathing difficulties to avoid respiratory failure, she explained. If this does occur, they would be treated with a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe until they regain strength of their respiratory muscles. While Warmbier is said to have contracted his condition through food, botulism can also be contracted through wounds. IV drug users and cocaine users are at risk of this. Infants can contract it by being fed raw honey. Lastly, bioterrorism by spreading the toxin in the air is a rare but known cause. Siavoshi noted. Botulinum is also the paralyzing nerve toxin used in highly diluted amounts for the popular cosmetic anti-wrinkle solution known as Botox. It can also be used to treat heavy sweating and migraines. NORTH KOREA RELEASES OTTO WARMBIER, BUT 3 OTHER AMERICANS STILL REMAIN BEHIND BARS NORTH KOREA FREES OTTO WARMBIER: THE TIMELINE However, several officials and experts have thrown skepticism on botulism, topped with a sleeping pill, as the cause of Warmbiers coma. We know that if a patient does develop signs or symptoms of botulism, they usually do not become comatose from the toxin alone, Siavoshi said. The toxin tends to affect the muscles and peripheral nervous system, not so much the brain. However, if one does contract botulism and already has difficulty breathing and is then administered a sedative agent on top of this, they may develop frank respiratory failure and fall into a coma due to oxygen no longer perfusing the brain. Last year, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years hard labor after allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel in the countrys capital, Pyongyang. An American delegation, led by a State Department representative, flew to North Korea over the weekend and insisted he be released on humanitarian grounds amid ailing health. His current state remains unknown. If he has actually been in a coma for months, a full neurologic evaluation would have to be made to assess the degree of brain damage. An MRI of the brain can tell how much structural damage there is, Siavoshi added. If he exhibits some degree of intact cognition, an extensive amount of physical and perhaps speech therapy will aid in recovery. A co-defendant told investigators a Pennsylvania man arrested last year near the Holland Tunnel with a cache of weapons on his way into New York City for an alleged drug rescue operation is "a menace to society." Dean Smith's audio statement was played at a court hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday. A judge is considering whether to allow the statement if the case goes to trial. Smith, John Cramsey and a third person were arrested last summer outside the Holland Tunnel. Smith told investigators he considered Cramsey "a danger to himself and others." Cramsey says he was going to rescue a teen from a drug den and the guns were legally registered in Pennsylvania, where he owns a gun range. Cramsey's own daughter died of a drug overdose last year. A former New Jersey police officer convicted of drunken driving and causing a wrong-way crash that killed a fellow officer and another friend apologized on Wednesday but was sentenced to the maximum prison term up to 25 years. A judge on Staten Island gave Pedro Abad 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison after the former Linden officer had asked for the minimum of one year. "You have no idea of the magnitude of what you did," Judge Mario Mattei told Abad, according to the Staten Island Advance. "You weren't an accident waiting to happen. You were a time bomb waiting to explode." Abad, 29, said in court his friends never should have gotten into the car with him. "If I was so belligerent they should've taken an Uber home," he said. "They chose to get in my car." Prosecutors say Abad was drunk when he crashed into a tractor-trailer after a night at a strip club with friends in 2015. He was driving the wrong way on the West Shore Expressway when the crash occurred. Tests later showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.24 percent; the legal limit for driving in New York is 0.08 percent. Hours before the crash, Abad had posted a photo on his Instagram page of three shot glasses filled with what he identified as "Jack Daniels Fire on the house." Officer Frank Viggiano and friend Joseph Rodriguez died in the crash. A third Linden officer was critically injured. Rodriguez's father would not refer to Abad by name during the trial but did so after sentencing. "To Pedro: You took the most precious thing from a parent you took my precious little boy from me," he said. Abad's attorney had argued that Abad's blood sample wasn't obtained properly and disputed that the accident was caused by intoxication. Attorney Mario Gallucci said outside court that Abad was "fine" with the sentencing and thought it must be "God's will." District Attorney Michael McMahon said the sentence "ensures Mr. Abad is held accountable for the lives he destroyed when he decided to get behind the wheel and drive drunk." Abad had two drunken-driving arrests before the fatal crash: one from a 2011 accident in Roselle, New Jersey, after he drove through the wall of a convenience store; the other in 2013 after he struck a parked car in Rahway, New Jersey. The 2011 charge later was dismissed. The head of the Michigan health department is among the 5 people charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flints lead-contaminated water. All are blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires disease. Nick Lyon, head of the Department of Health and Human Services, is the highest-ranking member of Republican Gov. Rick Snyders administration to be snagged in a criminal investigation of how Flints water system became poisoned in 2014. Hes accused of failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-2015. If convicted, Lyon could face up to 15 years in prison. The health crisis in Flint has created a trust crisis for Michigan government, exposing a serious lack of confidence in leaders who accept responsibility and solve problems, Attorney General Bill Schuette told reporters. Lyon also is charged with misconduct in office for allegedly obstructing university researchers who are studying if the surge in cases was linked to the Flint River. The others are people who were already facing charges. They are: Darnell Earley, who was Flint's emergency manager when the city used the river; Howard Croft, who ran Flint's public works department; Liane Shekter Smith; and Stephen Busch. Shekter Smith and Busch were state environmental regulators. Lyon, Croft, Earley, Shekter Smith and Busch are blamed in the death of Robert Skidmore in December 2015. The state's chief medical officer, Dr. Eden Wells, was charged Wednesday with obstruction of justice and lying to an investigator. Dr. Wells vehemently denies the charges, defense attorney Jerry Lax said. Flint started using water from the Flint River to save money in 2014 but it wasnt treated to reduce corrosion. Lead from old plumbing leached into the water system. Legionnaires is a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water and infect the lungs. People can get sick if they inhale mist or vapor, typically from cooling systems. There were nearly 100 cases in the Flint area, including 12 deaths, in 2014 and 2015. The investigation led by Schuette and Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has already led to charges against 13 current or former government officials, including two city emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder. In March, Corrine Miller, the state's former director of disease control, was sentenced to probation and ordered to write an apology to residents after pleading no contest to willful neglect of duty. She is a key cooperating witness for Schuette's team. The extensive manhunt for two escaped Georgia inmates who overpowered and killed two prison guards continued into Wednesday as a reward for them was increased to $90,000. Donnie Russell Rowe, serving life without parole, and Ricky Dubose are still on the run from law enforcement after disarming and killing Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue at around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. The two men carjacked a driver of a green vehicle and escaped. On Wednesday afternoon, Sills said the two suspects also stole a 2008 white Ford F250 truck with the license place #BCX5372. He said the truck, which has toolboxes on both sides, has not been spotted and it was stolen about 9 miles east of Madison, Georgia sometime between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. Law enforcement officers are looking for both vehicles, however they believe the suspects are using the white truck. In my professional opinion, they are probably not in the area but I cannot guarantee that, Sills told reporters. Its very frustrating. Rowe and Dubose are believed to be armed with two 9 mm Glock pistols. Earlier Wednesday, Sills said the two inmates thoroughly ransacked a house in Madison, about 25 miles north of where the escape happened. He said they took some food and likely some clothes and left their prison uniforms behind. They are not concerned about human life. They are dangerous individuals, Sills said. Monica and Billue were both transfer sergeants at Baldwin State Prison. Monica had been with the Georgia Department of Corrections since October 2009 and Billue since July 2007. Monica was 42 and leaves behind a wife, Dozier said. Billue was 58 and is survived by his father, five sisters, two brothers and two sons, said Jim Green, an attorney who's speaking for the Billue family. "Officer Billue's family asks for prayers for all of those who are now placing their own lives at risk to bring these men to justice and asks anyone who has information that may assist in apprehending these perpetrators to please contact law enforcement," Green said in an email. The guards were moving the inmates to a diagnostic prison in Jackson, where their next placement was to be determined. Both escaped inmates were serving long sentences for armed robbery and other crimes. The Department of Corrections said Rowe, 43, has been serving life without parole since 2002, and Dubose, 24, began a 20-year sentence in 2015. A photo released by the sheriff's office in Elbert County, the site of his most recent conviction, shows Dubose with prominent tattoos. He appears to have a crown tattooed above his right eyebrow, writing above his left eyebrow and large letters covering the entire front of his neck. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Latest on a shooting at a UPS warehouse in San Francisco (all times local): 10:45 p.m. Officials have identified the three men killed after a UPS driver opened fire during a meeting at company warehouse in San Francisco. San Francisco's chief medical examiner identified the victims as 50-year-old Benson Louie and 56-year-old Wayne Chan, both of San Francisco; and 46-year-old Michael Lefiti, of Hercules. Police say the three UPS drivers were killed by 38-year-old Jimmy Lam, who fatally shot himself in the head in front of officers. A motive in the killings has not been determined. ___ 7:30 p.m. A union official says the gunman who shot and killed three people at a UPS warehouse in San Francisco had filed a grievance complaining that he was working excessive overtime. Joseph Cilia, an official with a local Teamsters Union, says Jimmy Lam's grievance filed in March requested that UPS relieve him of working overtime going forward. Still, Cilia says Lam wasn't angry, and he could not understand why he would open fire on his colleagues at a morning meeting on Wednesday. Cilia says Lam targeted three fellow UPS drivers. Cilia says two other drivers who were wounded have been released from the hospital and will be OK. Police say the gunman killed himself after the shooting. ___ 5:30 p.m. A San Francisco police department official has identified the gunman who opened fire at a UPS warehouse in the city as Jimmy Lam. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. The official said Lam is from San Francisco, but had no immediate details on his background. The official noted the name is a common one in the San Francisco Bay Area, so finding information about the correct Jimmy Lam required significant record searches. Police say the gunman shot and killed three people and wounded two others before taking his own life. ___ 4:45 p.m. Family members have identified one of the victims of a shooting at a San Francisco UPS warehouse as 46-year-old Mike Lefiti, a UPS driver. Lefiti's cousin, Bob Toia, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Lefiti was devoted to his wife, family and kids. Isaiah Miggins, a co-worker of Lefiti's at UPS, said Lefiti was a big man, but humble and always happy. By late afternoon, friends had set up a memorial to Lefiti with flowers and balloons at a local supermarket near the UPS warehouse. Police say a gunman opened fire at the UPS facility Wednesday morning, killing three people and wounding two others before taking his own life. ___ 3:50 p.m. San Francisco authorities say they're interviewing the families of victims and witnesses to piece together what led a gunman to open fire in a UPS warehouse. Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin told reporters Wednesday that authorities found two victims outside and others inside, calling it a "frightful scene." He says officers didn't fire at the gunman, but that he shot himself when they confronted him. Chaplin says authorities won't release the names of the three who were killed and the gunman who took his own life until the medical examiner confirms their identities and families are notified. He says police won't know more information about weapon until they test-fire it. ___ 3:35 p.m. A San Francisco woman said she was riding a bus to work when she saw a group of workers streaming out of a UPS facility where an employee opened fire. Jessica Franklin said the workers started banging on the bus when it made a stop Wednesday. She said they ducked as they boarded and told the driver to "go, go, go." And the driver did. Franklin says the workers were screaming and crying and others were calling family members to tell them they were safe. She described the scene as chaotic. The bus driver then stopped to let the workers out. Authorities and UPS officials say the shooter killed three co-workers and wounded two others. He then fatally shot himself when police approached. ___ 12:30 p.m. A UPS driver said a gunman opened fire as drivers and managers were assembling for a morning meeting in San Francisco and that he saw a co-worker get shot. Marvin Calderon told San Francisco Bay Area news station KNTV that he heard five to six gunshots and that he recognized the gunman as a fellow employee, but he did not know him personally. Calderon said he saw someone get shot in the head and he said he believed all the victims were drivers. He said he ran away as fast as he could. San Francisco Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin said four people are dead, including the gunman, who shot himself when confronted by police. ___ 11:55 a.m. Authorities say the shooter who opened fire at a San Francisco UPS warehouse was armed with an assault pistol when police found him. San Francisco Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin told reporters that officers found wounded victims and brought them to safety Wednesday. When they found the gunman, he put the weapon to his head and shot himself. Three people were killed as well as the shooter. Two others were wounded. ___ 11:40 a.m. Authorities say a shooting at a San Francisco UPS warehouse has killed three people as well as the shooter. San Francisco Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin says at a news conference that two others were wounded Wednesday. He says that the shooter shot himself, and police have not determined a motive. ___ This item has been corrected to show that Toney Chaplin is San Francisco assistant police chief. ___ 11:10 a.m. A man who lives across the street from a San Francisco UPS warehouse where a gunman opened fire says he heard seven or eight shots fired quickly and saw workers running. Raymond Deng, 30, a data scientist for a start-up company, said he looked out his apartment window Wednesday to see a group of UPS workers fleeing the building and shouting. He says another group of about 10 workers assembled on the roof and held their hands up as police began to arrive. Deng says he "saw police officers go up from the ramp and then storm the buildings." ___ 10:45 a.m. A witness says he heard at least five gunshots and saw UPS drivers running down the street screaming "shooter, shooter" after gunfire at a sprawling San Francisco package delivery warehouse. Auto shop owner Robert Kim says he brought cars inside and shut the gate Wednesday. He reopened after he saw police had blocked off an area around the UPS building, which is about a block from his shop. A UPS spokesman says four people were injured in the shooting at the facility and that the shooter was an employee. Steve Gaut says he believes the shooter "turned the gun on himself" but did not have additional information. No one immediately had details on the conditions of those injured. San Francisco police are inside the UPS warehouse searching for additional victims and witnesses. ___ 10:20 a.m. A UPS spokesman says four people were injured in a shooting at a package delivery facility in San Francisco and that the shooter was an employee. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said Wednesday that he believed the shooter "turned the gun on himself" but did not have additional information. He said the four victims were taken to a hospital but didn't know their conditions. ___ 10:05 a.m. A San Francisco hospital has received multiple victims from a shooting at a sprawling UPS warehouse and customer service center. Brent Andrew, spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, said Wednesday that the hospital had received victims, but he did not know exactly how many or their conditions. San Francisco police have confirmed the shooting, but didn't release other information. Uniformed UPS employees are being led out in a line by officers next to a highway. They walked away calmly with emergency vehicles nearby. The shooting led to a massive police response and a shelter-in-place warning for the surrounding area. The building is located in the Potrero Hill, which is about 2 miles from downtown San Francisco. Police are advising people to avoid the area. ___ 9:55 a.m. San Francisco police confirm a shooting at a sprawling UPS warehouse and customer service center, but no information on injuries has been released. The shooting Wednesday led to a massive police response and a shelter-in-place warning for the surrounding area. The building is located in Potrero Hill, which is about 2.5 miles from downtown San Francisco. Police are advising people to avoid the area. The Latest on the manhunt of Georgia inmates accused in the slaying of prison guards. (all times local): 7:30 p.m. A Georgia sheriff says the reward is now $115,000 for information leading to arrests of two inmates who killed two guards and escaped from a prison bus. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says in a brief email to The Associated Press that "many significant contributions" boosted the reward from $70,000. Authorities say 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose have stolen at least two vehicles for their getaway. The first was a Honda that was found hidden in woods near a house they ransacked about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the site of the killing. Police say they then stole a white pickup truck from an industrial site in the area. ___ 5:30 p.m. A Georgia sheriff says a green Honda stolen by two inmates who killed their guards before escaping from a prison bus has been located. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said the "grass green" Honda Civic was found Wednesday in a wooded area in Madison not far from a house that the pair had burglarized Tuesday. Sills said the car was intentionally concealed. Authorities say the two men overpowered and killed 42-year-old Sgt. Christopher Monica and 58-year-old Sgt. Curtis Billue on a prison transport bus on state Highway 16 in Putnam County before fleeing in the stolen Honda. Authorities say the two men then traveled about 25 miles north to Madison, where they broke into a house Tuesday morning and then stole a white Ford F250 pickup truck with the Georgia tag BCX5372 from a nearby industrial site. Authorities don't know whether the two men are still in Georgia or whether they're traveling together. ___ 1:55 p.m. A Georgia corrections official said two escaped inmates accused of killing two prison guards have known each other for "quite a while" and it's possible they planned the escape together. Department of Corrections Assistant Commissioner Ricky Myrick said 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose have been cellmates more than once, but he wasn't sure whether they were cellmates at Baldwin State Prison just prior to their escape. Authorities say the two men overpowered and killed 42-year-old Sgt. Christopher Monica and 58-year-old Sgt. Curtis Billue on a prison transport bus before fleeing in a stolen car. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said the pair ransacked a house in Madison, about 25 miles north of where the killings happened, and then stole a white pickup truck from a nearby business. Sills said both men were violent repeat offenders and are considered armed and dangerous. ___ 1:35 p.m. A Georgia sheriff says two escaped inmates accused of killing two prison guards are believed to have stolen a white pickup truck. Authorities have said 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose overpowered and killed 42-year-old Sgt. Christopher Monica and 58-year-old Sgt. Curtis Billue and escaped from a prison transfer bus around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday. Immediately after the escape, authorities said, the two carjacked a driver and fled in his green Honda Civic and went to Madison, about 25 miles to the north, where they burglarized a house. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Wednesday that the two are believed to have stolen a 2008 white Ford F250 pickup truck with the Georgia tag BCX5372 from a business about 9 miles from the burglarized house in Madison. The truck was stolen between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday. Sills says the green Honda still hasn't been recovered and it's unknown whether the two men are still traveling together. ___ 11:15 a.m. A Georgia sheriff says authorities still don't know the whereabouts of two escaped Georgia inmates accused of killing two prison guards. Authorities have said 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose overpowered and killed 42-year-old Sgt. Christopher Monica and 58-year-old Sgt. Curtis Billue and escaped from a prison transfer bus around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Wednesday that the two inmates "thoroughly ransacked" a house in Madison, about 25 miles north of where the escape happened, several hours after the guards were killed. Sills says they took some food and likely some clothes and left their prison uniforms behind. Sills says authorities aren't sure where they went after that, but he suspects they're no longer in the Madison area. ___ 7:45 a.m. The reward has increased for information leading to the arrests of two escaped Georgia inmates accused of killing two prison guards. Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in an email Wednesday that multiple agencies have contributed $70,000 to the arrest of 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose. Authorities say Rowe and Dubose killed Baldwin State Prison transfer sergeants 42-year-old Christopher Monica and 58-year-old Curtis Billue after overpowering and disarming them on a transport bus Tuesday morning. ___ 3:29 a.m. Authorities say two Georgia inmates serving long prison sentences and "dangerous beyond description" overpowered and killed two guards on a prison bus before fleeing in a stolen car. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says the deadly escape happened about 6:45 a.m. Tuesday as the guards drove 33 inmates between prisons, and it set off a massive manhunt involving local, state and federal officers. Sills was emotional as he described the scene. Stills says Donnie Russell Rowe, serving life without parole, and Ricky Dubose, who has prominent tattoos on his face and neck, overpowered, disarmed and killed Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue and then carjacked a driver who happened to pull up behind the bus on a rural highway. They got into the "grass green," four-door 2004 Honda Civic with the Georgia license plate number RBJ-6601 and drove west on state Highway 16 toward Eatonton, southeast of Atlanta. Members of the millennial generation may not attend church as often as their parents do -- but what exactly is contributing to this trend of young church dropouts? "While the U.S. public in general is becoming less religious, the nation's youngest adults are by many measures much less religious than everyone else," David Masci, a senior writer and editor on religion at Pew Research Center wrote in January 2016. Millennials, the generation of young Americans born in the 1980s and '90s, are less likely than their parents or grandparents to pray and attend church regularly, according to Pew Research Center. Pew published a religious landscape study that surveyed over 35,000 Americans. "Overall, 35 percent of adult millennials (Americans born between 1981 and 1996) are religiously unaffiliated," Pew Research reported 2015. "Far more millennials say they have no religious affiliation compared with those who identify as evangelical Protestants (21 percent), Catholics (16 percent) or mainline Protestants (11 percent)." While there are definitely more religious millennials than those unaffiliated with a religion, the trends are interesting to analyze. To wit: Roughly three-fourths of millennials say they believe in God (over half with an absolute certain belief in God); but less than a third attend a religious service on a weekly basis. This could be due to the new trend of those who feel "spiritual" but not "religious." "While millennials are not as religious as older Americans by some measures of religious observance, they are as likely to engage in many spiritual practices," Becka A. Alper, a research associate focusing on religion at Pew Research Center, wrote in 2015. "For instance, like older Americans," she added, "more than four-in-10 of these younger adults (46 percent) say they feel a deep sense of wonder about the universe at least once a week." Alper also wrote, "Furthermore, on some traditional measures of religious belief, the difference between millennials and older Americans is not that large. For instance, when it comes to views on the afterlife, two-thirds of millennials say they believe in heaven, compared with roughly three-quarters of baby boomers and members of the Silent Generation." In terms of Christianity in America, some 70 percent of the population identifies as Christian. Dr. Alex McFarland, director for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at North Greenville University in South Carolina, said college-aged millennials are more likely to not have a religious affiliation than the general population. "From speaking with tens of thousands of young people over the years, I have learned that if they have just a few adults who will come alongside them and encourage them to grow in their faith, there's a much better chance they will remain in the church and rooted in Jesus long into adulthood," McFarland previously told LifeZette. McFarland's latest book, "Abandoned Faith: Why Millennials Are Walking Away and How You Can Lead Them Home," was published in March. "There are many reasons young people may become disillusioned with church, religious organizations or faith in general, such as mistrust, skepticism, rebelling against a negative experience, pressure from atheist or agnostic friends, or a variety of other influences," McFarland told LifeZette. Other factors such as the breakdown of the family and defiant attitudes could contribute to the way millennials perceive a divine authority. "I would also venture to say that many walk away because they are faced with situations where they are either asked or demanded to defend their beliefs, and they just don't know how," McFarland noted. "But regardless of why they leave their faith behind, the real tragedy is that many millennials are heading into life without Christ." A former Santa Fe, N.M., sheriffs deputy who shot and killed his partner will go to trial for the third time. Jurors have not been able to decide if Tai Chan murdered Jeremy Martin, or defended himself when he shot and killed Martin at a hotel in southern New Mexico in October 2014. Chan and Martin stopped at a hotel to spend the night after transferring a prisoner to Arizona. They were drinking and got into a disagreement. Chan testified that Martin pulled a gun out when he was in the bathroom. Chan said he walked out of the bathroom, saw the gun and Martin said Im going to shoot you. Chan said he tried to take the gun from Martin when a shot went off. He then shot Martin five times in the back as he was running away. Chan said he was defending himself. He tried to kill me. I was fighting for my life, the defendant testified in the second trial. Prosecutors and the Martin family though believe he was murdered. Martins wife testified that he was working overtime to provide a better living for his unborn child. REWARD INCREASED IN MANHUNT FOR GEORGIA PRISON GUARDS' ESCAPED KILLERS His four children deserve to be told that the man who shot their father in the back, that there are consequences for that behavior, Martins widow Sarah told KFOX. Chan was tried for first-degree murder, second degree murder and man slaughter. The two sides agree on many of the main facts, but there interpretations of the law are very different. In New Mexico if youre attacked, if someone attacks you with deadly force as Jeremy Martin did that night, youre allowed to use deadly force to defend yourself. And thats what Tai did, said John Day, Chans attorney. Jeremy was shot in the back while running for his life. You cannot claim self-defense. Even in the wild west thats just crazy, said James Martin, Jeremys brother. TEEN HELD IN CONNECTION WITH SHOOTING OF ARKANSAS OFFICER There have been questions about the quality of the investigation. A bloody bed comforter was not submitted into the forensics lab until after the first mistrial, a mistake the lead detective attributed to oversight. The reality is in this case, the police in Las Cruces, there were a lot of deficiencies in the investigation. And everybody agrees, no ones challenging that, said Day. They didnt do a number of things that they should have done. However, James Martin said his family is satisfied with the investigation. The first mistrial was declared in June 2016 after 14 hours, jurors voted to convict Chan but couldnt agree on the charge. The second mistrial was declared in May. Half the jury believed Chan acted in self-defense and should be found not guilty. The jury voted to acquit Chan of first-degree murder, seven voted to acquit on second degree murder and 11 voted to acquit on voluntary manslaughter charges. James Martin hopes the jurors will take more time to deliberate the third time around. Chan showed no resolve for human life, no concern for another human, said Martin. Chan testified in the first two trials, Day said that likely wont change in the third trial. Day also said he thinks Chan should not be tried for first degree murder again, because none of the jurors voted to convict Chan of that in the second trial. New Yorker City residents and visitors may see more public urination soon. Thats because the city council has decided that such activity will now draw a civil ticket, like breaking the speed limit, rather than a criminal summons. The council -- in a move that mirrors a similar action in Denver -- also downgraded the severity of similar offenses, like public drunkenness. Instead of going before a criminal judge, offenders will be required to attend an administrative hearing. The shift in policy is the result of the Criminal Justice Reform Act and critics say that it undermines the citys long-time broken windows policing policy in which cracking down on minor offenses, like public urination, is deemed to prevent more serious crime from occurring, according to the New York Post. Those who advocate for the new initiative say it will divert 100,000 cases a year from a backlogged criminal justice system and stop minor offenders from racking up a criminal record. The police aren't happy about the change. They shouldnt be doing that. Its just going to make crime go up again, a high-ranking police source said to the newspaper. Grandmothers and children have to get in the elevator every day and every day it smells like p and its going to keep happening. Before, the guy might have thought, I better not p in the elevator because I might get caught up in the system. Now, theres no fear of embarrassment or recrimination. What the reform act does not protect is those who are on probation or parole. They will still receive a criminal summons, as well as those who have two prior arrests, cops said to the newspaper. The only caveat is that officers will have to wait for their supervisors permission to write up the summons. Theyll also have to back away from repeat offenders until that individual has racked up a total of three civil summonses. In May, the administration of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock proposed a reform act that seeks to split criminal violations of city ordinances into three categories, including lessening maximum penalties for public urination. Click here for more from the New York Post Authorities say a police officer in Louisiana fatally shot an armed passenger during a traffic stop. The Advocate reports that Louisiana State Police spokesman Trooper 1st Class Bryan Lee says Baton Rouge Police officers conducted a traffic stop just after 11 p.m. Tuesday, and a passenger holding a handgun got out of the vehicle. An officer fired at the passenger, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Morgan Fontenot, who lives in an apartment near the scene, says she heard about six rapid shots. Lee says no officers were injured. He would not confirm if the passenger fired the handgun. The state's Bureau of Investigation and Crime Lab collected evidence at the scene. State Police are conducting an investigation into the shooting. No further details have been released. Two Oklahoma inmates, including a first-degree murder suspect, were recaptured Wednesday, two days after they escaped a jail with two other prisoners who are still at large, officials announced. Trey Glenn Goodnight, 27, and Jeremy Tyson Irvin, 31, who are charged with property crimes and first-degree murder, respectively, were taken into custody just after 1 a.m., Fox 25 reported. Fishermen first spotted the two escapees about 9 p.m. Tuesday and pinned them down while officers searched for their exact location via helicopter. Brian Moody, 23, and Sonny Baker, 41, who also escaped the Lincoln County Jail with Goodnight and Irvin early Monday morning, are still at large. Both inmates were convicted of property crimes. Moody and Baker previously escaped using the same vents in March. The four inmates escaped the jail between 1 and 4 a.m. through the facility's ventilation system. REWARD INCREASES TO $70,000 FOR ESCAPED GEORGIA INMATES Of the two vehicles expected to be connected to to the crime, one has been found. Officials are still searching for a red or silver Dodge pickup that may have been used by Goodnight and Irvin. The second, a white Dodge pickup was spotted by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Monday afternoon. It was left on the side of the road and several people were spotted running from it. Authorities shut down the area for several hours while they inspected and searched. Click for more from Fox 25. Authorities say a driver fired several shots at a police officer trying to pull him over in North Carolina. Asheville Police spokeswoman Christina Hallingse says the officer was not hit in the shooting about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday and 39-year-old Justyn Ladet of Canton was arrested after a long chase. Hallingse says the officer was trying to pull Ladet over on a road near Interstate 26 in Asheville. Authorities say Ladet led other officers on a chase down I-26 into Henderson County before crashing on U.S. Highway 25. Ladet is being held on a $250,000 bond. Charges include driving while impaired, assault with a deadly weapon and gun possession by a felon. Ladet is white. Hallingse did not release the officer's name or race. It's unknown if Ladet has a lawyer. A UPS employee opened fire in a San Francisco package delivery facility in a shooting spree that left four dead, including the gunman, on Wednesday, police and the company said. The gunman barged into the facility near 17th and Vermont streets around 9 a.m. local time and began shooting, San Francisco police confirmed to Fox News. The building is located in the Potrero Hill, which is about 2 1/2 miles from downtown San Francisco. Two other people remain hospitalized. The gunman died of a self-inflicted wound, police said. Family members identified one of the victims as 46-year-old Mike Lefiti, who worked as a UPS driver. The two other victims fatally shot by the gunman have not yet been identified. Police identified San Francisco resident Jimmy Lam as the shooter, according to NBC Bay Area. Lam has a history of mental illness, sources said. He was dressed in a UPS uniform at the time of the shooting, police said. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut confirmed the gunman was an employee at the facility. The motive of the shooting is still unclear, police said, adding that they believe the incident was not terror-related. The FBI was aware of the shooting but did not intervene, the bureau told Fox News. The shooting led to a massive police response, initiating a shelter-in-place for the surrounding area. The warning was lifted nearly three hours later after the incident was "contained" and the building was "secured," police said. A woman who said she was an employee at the facility told KTVU that the gunman opened fire on the main sorting floor. Auto shop owner Robert Kim said he heard about five to eight rapid gunshots. Just moments later, "there's a mob of UPS drivers" running down the street screaming "shooter, shooter," Kim said. Another witness said a group of about 10 workers assembled on the roof and held their hands up as police began to arrive. A UPS spokesman said in an earlier statement to Fox News that there was an "incident involving employees" at the facility. "Local law enforcement have control of the facility and are conducting an investigation. The company is cooperating with law enforcement. We cannot provide information as to the identity of persons involved at this time, pending the police investigation," the statement read. "The company is saddened and deeply concerned about affected employees, family members and the community we share." San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee offered his condolences and said he was "always saddened by the loss of life to gun violence." Fox News' Jake Gibson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click here for more from KTVU. Two Turkish Americans accused of attacking U.S. demonstrators outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., during President Recep Tayyip Erdogans visit last month, were arrested Wednesday, sources confirmed to Fox News. A law enforcement source told Fox News that one suspect, Eyup Yildirim, was apprehended in Manchester, N.J., and the other, Sinan Narin, in McLean, Va. Both arrest warrants were executed by U.S. Marshals in coordination with the Metro Police Department in Washington. PROTESTERS RECALL VIOLENT ATTACK OUTSIDE TURKISH EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, DC "Now that charges have been filed, the Department will weigh additional actions for the named individuals, as appropriate under relevant laws and regulations," said a senior State Department official. "Any further steps will be responsive and proportional to the charges." Late Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that D.C. police would announce charges against 12 Turkish security agents related to the brawl. Seven of the agents would be charged with felonies, while the other five would be charged with misdemeanors. Erdogans visit to Washington in May sparked outrage when video footage posted to social media allegedly captured Erdogan's security detail beating up American protesters. Video showed protesters covered in blood, as others were beaten to the ground. Witnesses said the brawl erupted when the security detail attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PDY party outside the embassy, hours after Erdogan met with President Trump at the White House. Turkey considers the PDY a terrorist organization. TURKEY TRIES TO SHIFT BLAME TO US OVER DC BRAWL, SUMMONS AMBASSADOR The brawl has been the source of major tensions between U.S. officials and Ankara. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in the immediate aftermath that the U.S. should throw their ambassador the hell out of the country. The Turkish Embassy had blamed the violence on the demonstrators, saying in a statement they were "aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the President." TURKISH OPPOSITION URGES TRUMP TO PROD ERDOGAN ON HUMAN RIGHTS "Violence is never an appropriate response to free speech, and we support the rights of people everywhere to free expression and peaceful protest," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert countered at the time. Fox News' Rich Edson, Jake Gibson, Nick Kalman and The Associated Press contributed to this report. U.S. officials are blaming the North Korean government for a series of cyberattacks dating to 2009 against media, aerospace, financial sectors and infrastructure in the United States and around the world. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning this week, saying the cyberattacks were carried out by actors within the North Korean government who are known as "Hidden Cobra." "DHS and FBI assess that Hidden Cobra actors will continue to use cyber operations to advance their government's military and strategic objectives," the alert said. U.S. officials are distributing internet addresses to help networks defend against any attacks. The FBI said it has high confidence that the internet addresses are linked to systems infected with Hidden Cobra malware to further exploit networks. The cyberattacks targeted weaknesses in Microsoft Corp. operating systems and Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash software, which were patched in January and June, respectively. The joint alert was issued Tuesday, the same day that American student Otto Warmbier, who was released from serving a 15-year sentence in a North Korean prison for participating in alleged acts against the government, arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio. The U.S. remains in a standoff with North Korea over its nuclear program. The U.S. has issued sanctions, but Pyongyang has not made any move to give up weapons that it says are a deterrent to any invasion. Thousands of U.S. troops are based in neighboring South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. A tattoo artist has been arrested after inking the words I am a thief onto a terrified teens forehead after accusing him of trying to steal a bike, police said. Disturbing footage shows the mentally ill 17-year-old blinking back tears as he was permanently branded with the tattoo gun in Brazil. Artist Maycon Wesley, 27, and his friend Ronildo Moreira de Araujo, 29, have both been arrested on suspicion of torture after the video emerged. They were heard laughing in the footage as the Portuguese words Eu sou ladrao e vacilao, which translate to I am a thief and a loser, were scarred into the boys skin. After inking him, Wesley made the embarrassed teen look at the camera and asked whether he liked the new tattoo. MEXICAN MAYOR ACCUSED OF PLAGIARIZING HOUSE OF CARDS' UNDERWOOD SPEECH Wesley added: Here the guy came here in the best of good will, so nice, we (sic) did a tattoo for him. He wanted. Authorities believe the tattoo was done as a form of punishment, according to Estado. The pair are understood to have accused the teen of trying to steal a disabled mans bike. His family contacted police after seeing the video of the inking which was shared widely on WhatsApp. 'AMERICA'S GOT TALENT' CONTESTANT DIES IN CAR ACCIDENT BEFORE EPISODE AIRS He is upset that he does not want anyone to see his face, one family member said. The boy, who is understood to suffer from mental issues, is now recovering at his grandmothers house. His uncle told G1: Hes very well-liked in the neighbourhood and many people started looking for him, they came to tell us where he was and his friends went to pick him up, and now hes at his grandmothers house, resting. Cambodia's prime minister has lifted a ban on the return to the country of his main rival, daring him to risk imprisonment under an outstanding criminal conviction. The order issued Wednesday by Hun Sen allowing the return of Sam Rainsy, for two decades his most persistent political opponent, comes as attention is being turned to next year's general election. Hun Sen has repeatedly sought to sideline Sam Rainsy, especially by pursuing defamation cases against him. Sam Rainsy has stayed abroad since late 2015, when a conviction he believed was covered by a pardon was revived. Last October, he was officially banned from re-entering the country. The new order forces Sam Rainsy to make good on a vow to return if the ban was lifted, or risk losing face. Cuba is starting an electoral process that is expected to end with President Raul Castro stepping down in February. The Council of State says in Wednesday's state media that voting for municipal assemblies will take place on Oct. 22. It doesn't set the date of voting for the country's parliament, which selects the Council of State and the president. Elections are held every five years. Castro has said he'll step down as president in February, although he is expected to remain head of the ruling Communist Party. Above the municipal level, Cuban elections are choices between candidates preselected by the Cuban Communist Party and related organizations. That guarantees that the country's nominally representative bodies in practice answer to the president and a small group of high-ranking officials. New parents in Egypt could soon face fines or prison time for giving their kids common American names like "Mark" or "Sam," if some lawmakers get their way. Egyptian Parliaments Complaints and Suggestions Committee met yesterday to discuss the possibility of banning Western names for newborn babies. The idea was introduced by lawmaker Bedier Abdel-Aziz. Abdel-Azizs reasoning was that names such as Mark and Sam are more difficult for Arab speakers to pronounce, according to Newsweek. Abdel-Aziz also said that, using such Western names and abandoning Arabic ones will lead to an undesired and radical change in our society and culture, saying their sons will no longer be connected with their true identity. Newsweek reports that under the ban, giving a child a non-Arabic name would have a fine of $56 to $278 and a sentence of up to six months. CHINA BANS MORE THAN TWO DOZEN MUSLIM NAMES Other countries that have imposed this type of ban are New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, and Sweden. The possibility of the change caused a stir on social media with users, saying that the matter is trivial and that Parliament has other things to discuss. Another draft law that was to be discussed yesterday was one that would force Facebook users to take out a license, with the agenda of government surveillance of social media, Egypt Independent reported. It is unclear whether anything came out of the meeting. French President Emmanuel Macron is urging Qatar and its rival neighbors to talk directly, to defuse their tensions over alleged terrorism financing, and said Wednesday he will step up diplomatic discussions with Gulf leaders in the coming days. Macron spoke after meeting with Moroccan King Mohammed VI, who is also trying to mediate the escalating Qatar standoff. Speaking in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, Macron called for a "clarification of all the links and financing of terrorist groups, whatever it is and wherever it comes from." Saudi Arabia and other countries recently cut diplomatic ties and blocked travel to Qatar over allegations of Qatari sponsorship of Islamic extremists in the region. Qatar denies the allegations, but its ties to Iran and embrace of various Islamist groups have put the country under intense scrutiny. Stressing the international importance of stability in the Middle East, Macron said it's important "that the parties speak again" and find a way to "de-escalate" tensions that have mounted in recent days. "The king of Morocco shares this concern," Macron told reporters. Mohammed VI and Macron have spoken to key Gulf players in recent days and Macron said he will invite regional leaders to Paris for further discussions. Macron also offered support to the king over tensions in Morocco's northern Rif region, where protests over corruption and bleak living conditions prompted a violent police crackdown and large-scale arrests. Macron said he raised the issue but said the king gave him no "reason to fear renewed repression" and said the king instead appears committed to a "long-term response to the deep causes" of the conflict. Macron's visit is the first by the recently elected French president to a North African country, and aimed to strengthen cooperation on security and other issues with Morocco, considered an important force for stability in an often-volatile region. The two leaders discussed France's military operation against Islamic extremists in Africa's Sahel region. Macron attended the Ramadan fast-breaking dinner with his wife, Brigitte, at the invitation of the king in his personal residence Earlier Wednesday, Brigitte Macron and Moroccan Princess Lala Salma visited a Picasso exhibit at the Mohammed VI Modern Art Museum in Rabat, a joint project with the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and discussed further art cooperation between the countries. ___ Sylvie Corbet and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed. A 37-year-old man alleged to have shot a police officer in a Munich subway station after randomly attacking another passenger had been living with his father in Colorado and was on a European trip, German officials said Wednesday. Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told reporters the suspect, identified only as a Bavarian-born German citizen, flew to Munich airport from Athens on Monday and spent the night in the airport. Witnesses told police as the man rode the subway toward the city Tuesday he was talking to himself in English, then suddenly began punching another, apparently randomly chosen, passenger in the face, pummeling him until he was bloody. POLICE OFFICER, OTHERS INJURED IN MUNICH SUBWAY SHOOTING Police were called and when the suspect got off at the suburban Unterfoehring station, two officers began questioning him. Surveillance video shows one officer holding a pad of paper and pen taking notes when the suspect suddenly shoved him with "extreme violence" toward an oncoming train, Andrae said. In the ensuing struggle the suspect grabbed the officer's pistol from its holster, and opened fire at both of the officers. He missed the officer whose weapon he took, but hit his colleague in her head as he emptied the eight-shot magazine. Two bystanders were also injured, and are believed to have been hit by shots fired by the suspect. The officer hit in the head appears to have fired at least one shot, hitting the suspect in the buttocks. Despite the wound, he was able to flee and was apprehended outside by other officers arriving on the scene. The injured officer was rushed to a nearby hospital and was still in life-threatening condition on Wednesday, Andrae said. The bystanders were also treated and are stable. Andrae said police had been in contact with the suspect's father with whom he had been living in the U.S., and said the suspect apparently had a criminal record there. He did not give further details but a police source confirmed German media reports that the suspect's name is Alexander B. and that he had been living in Colorado. Bild newspaper reported he was staying in Fort Collins, but the source could not confirm that. In addition to some 200 witnesses to interview, Andrae said police also have video surveillance footage from multiple locations to review and are still working on a complete picture of how the attack unfolded. The suspect has so far refused to talk with police. The governments of Germany and the United States expressed concerns Wednesday about a law passed by Hungary's parliament that regulates civil society groups. The bill passed Tuesday requires groups that receive more than 7.2 million forints ($26,200) a year from abroad to register and publicize the fact. The law is nominally meant to increase transparency among civic groups, but critics say it is part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's efforts to stifle dissent and increase control over public discourse. German Foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said Germany was "very concerned" by the law as it suggests that Hungary views foreign funding of civil groups as a "hostile, or at least unfriendly, act." Schaefer told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that Germany would watch closely what impact the new law has on civil society in Hungary. In Budapest, the Hungarian capital, the U.S. Embassy said the United States was "troubled" by the legislation, which could "stigmatize" local NGOs. The law "will have a chilling effect on the ability of Hungarians to organize themselves and address their concerns to the government in a democratic manner," the embassy said. "If signed into law, this legislation will constitute a step backward from the principles of freedom of association and expression ... and from our shared commitments to supporting civil society." The law is part of a wider conflict between Orban and Hungarian-American financier George Soros, whose Open Society Foundations support some of the NGOs targeted by the bill, including the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights advocate, and corruption watchdog Transparency International. The government sees the groups as "foreign agents" working against Hungarian interests. The death toll of a deadly overnight fire that engulfed a 24-story London apartment tower Wednesday has risen to 12, local police said. That number is expected to continue to rise. Steve Apter of the London Fire Brigade said pockets of fire were still blazing at west London's Grenfell Tower, a high-rise apartment block, more than 16 hours after first reports of fire early Wednesday. He said crews have rescued 65 people from the building, and that firefighters have searched most of the tower and reached the top floor. Officials declined to say how many people were missing. The inferno lit up the night sky and spewed black smoke from the windows of the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington. A plume of smoke stretched for miles across the sky after dawn, revealing the blackened, flame-licked wreckage of the building, which was still burning over 12 hours later. Between 400 and 600 people are said to live in the building, which houses 120 apartments and was still burning some 14 hours after the blaze broke out in the early hours of Wednesday. More than 200 firefighters battled the inferno, which officials called an unprecedented incident. Witnesses reported seeing residents throwing babies and small children from high windows to people on the sidewalk in a desperate effort to save them from the flames. One witness, who identified herself as Sofia, told The Guardian: I heard loads of young girls crying out for helpI can hear people screaming for help and they are dying. Jody Martin told the BBC she watched desperate residents of the building trying to escape the blaze. "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window," she said. "I was yelling at everyone to get down and they were saying, 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors.'" Fire Brigades Union spokesperson Matt Wrack said something had apparently gone wrong with the building's fire prevention measures. Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters: In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never, ever seen anything of this scale. Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape. He said he was alerted to the fire by people screaming "don't jump, don't jump." "The Prime Minister is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower and is being kept constantly updated on the situation," a spokesperson for PM Theresa May said. There was no immediate word on the cause of the blaze, but angry residents said they had warned local authorities about fire issues at Grenfell Tower. The subsidized housing block of 120 apartments was built in 1974 and was recently upgraded at a cost of 8.6 million pounds ($11 million), with work finishing in May 2016, according to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Police commander Stuart Cundy gave the death toll of six but added the figure was likely to rise "during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days." Paul Woodrow, head of operations for the London Ambulance Service, said 20 of the injured were in critical condition. The London Fire Brigade received the first reports of the fire at 12:54 a.m. and the first engines arrived within six minutes, Cotton said. A spokesman at the organization that manages apartment block declined to comment on prior complaints about fire safety at the building. Pete Griffiths, a spokesman for the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organization, told The Associated Press: "I can't comment. We're getting hundreds of requests for comments." The Grenfell Action Group, a community organization formed to oppose a nearby redevelopment project, has been warning about the risk of fire at Grenfell Tower since 2013. The group has raised concerns about testing and maintenance of firefighting equipment and blocked emergency access to the site. "All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time," the group said after the fire broke out. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from Sky News. Londons Borough Market reopened Wednesday, 11 days after it closed following the bridge terror attack that killed eight people and injured 48 others. Bystanders and traders took a moment to hold a minute of silence to commemorate those who died on June 3, the BBC reported. To signal the markets return to full operation, the community of traders rang the market bell, welcoming shoppers through its doors once again. LONDON FIRE: HIGH-RISE APARTMENT ENGULFED IN FLAMES, SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF PEOPLE MISSING It is essential for the well-being of everyone associated with Borough Market that we return to at least a semblance of normality as soon as we can, Donald Hyslop, the Borough Markets chair of trustees, said. The opening hours will be increased during the next two weeks. Some merchants will be selling items to help raise money for the traders who lost money due to the market being closed. UK COULD STAY IN EU DESPITE BREXIT VOTE, MACRON SAYS London is resilient, London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted on Wednesday. I want to thank staff and traders for their tireless work. The Borough Market is Londons oldest and has been around for 1,000 years. The market draws about five million tourists a year. Three terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on the London Bridge, killing three people, then went on a stabbing rampage in the market. Five people died after being stabbed, and dozens of others were injured. All 48 people who were hospitalized with injuries have recovered. Police shot and killed the three attackers. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A former mayor from of a small Mexican town is under fire for posting a video in which he delivers a message with lines taken from the protagonist of the House of Cards, the vile Frank Underwood. The minute-long video also uses the Netflix series musical theme and is subtitled. Miguel Angel Covarrubias Cervantes, a former mayor of the municipality of San Damian Texoloc, in Tlaxcala state, seems to be copying a promotional video released in January 2016. He changed only a few of Underwoods words: "They say, we have the government that we deserve and I think Mexico deserves something bigger, a person who does not fear to look you in the eye and say what you think. I believe in putting people first, I believe in better laws for citizens, I believe in opening doors and breaking paradigms," the young ex-mayor says in Spanish. The video was posted on Monday. On Tuesday, House of Cards posted on its Twitter account a video featuring Underwoods shady adviser, Doug Stamper (played by Michael Kelly), saying: "To all Mexicans. This is not a competition. You would be surprised where the inspiration of some people came from. Pay attention". In an interview with Milenio newspaper, Covarrubias said what he did is not plagiarism. He said the video was released with the intention of "making noise." I think Mr. Underwood helped us become viral, he said, adding, "This project has generated much controversy and has fulfilled one end: To draw attention and demonstrate that social networks can be used for both positive and negative purposes. "At the end of the day our viral purpose was met, I think we should use this in a positive way," he noted. The 27-year-old politician, known for being one of the youngest mayors in the country, is planning to run for mayor again in 2018. Israel and New Zealand say they've resolved a diplomatic crisis over a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements, although exactly how far New Zealand went to appease Israel remains unclear. New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English on Wednesday refused to release a letter he sent this week to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after they had earlier spoken on the phone. Netanyahu said Israel's ambassador will return to New Zealand following the communication. New Zealand, along with Senegal, Venezuela and Malaysia, co-sponsored a U.N. Security Council resolution in December condemning Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territory Israel captured in the 1967 war from Jordan that Palestinians claim for a state. The move prompted Netanyahu to recall ambassadors from New Zealand and Senegal. The spat with Senegal was resolved earlier this month. Venezuela's ties with Israel were severed by Hugo Chavez in 2009, while Malaysia has no diplomatic ties to Israel. A spokeswoman for English said the letter expressed "regret" about the disruption the resolution caused to the relationship between the two countries. "It is a relationship we value," she wrote in a statement. Another spokesman for the prime minister said it was standard practice not to release communications between him and other world leaders because doing so could prejudice international relations. New Zealand's Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee said the letter did not amount to an apology. "We're not apologizing for anything," he told The New Zealand Herald newspaper. "We're simply saying that friends who are estranged can't talk about these matters. So being able to discuss them is important." English's spokeswoman, who refused to be named citing office rules, said New Zealand stands behind the resolution, which "expressed long standing New Zealand and international policy." Opposition Green Party lawmaker Kennedy Graham said that English was motivated by trade rather than principle. "It shows a lack of moral strength from Bill English to waver on a legitimate, principled stance as soon as a country like Israel throws its weight around," Graham said in statement. Iran's state TV is reporting that the country's security forces have killed two militants and arrested five others in southeastern Iran. The TV report Wednesday says Iran's intelligence forces killed two alleged "terrorists" in a shootout around the city of Chabahar in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baliouchestan. It did not elaborate on which militant groups the men allegedly belong to. According to the report, one intelligence officer was killed and one was injured during the shootout. Iranian forces on Monday killed four gunmen allegedly linked to the Islamic State group in southern Hormozgan province. Five IS-linked attackers stormed Iran's parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini last Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 50. Two gunmen have been killed and 10 hostages have been rescued after a hostage situation unfolded in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Wednesday, following reports of a car bomb, police said. An unknown number of hostages were being held by gunmen posing as military forces inside of the Pizza House restaurant, a popular eatery in the Somali capital. Five attackers are thought to remain in the restaurant, according to Capt. Mohamed Hussein. Before the hostage situation, an explosive-laden vehicle exploded at the restaurants gate, killing at least 17 people and wounding several others, police said. Initial reports claimed gunmen rushed inside the restaurant soon after the explosion. Most of the victims were young men who were entering the Pizza House at the time, Hussein said. Al-Shabab, a Somalia-based extremist group that often targets popular areas in Mogadishu, claimed responsibility and says their attack is ongoing. A mujahid (fighter) with his suicide car bomb martyred himself after he rammed into Posh Hotel, which is a nightclub. The operation goes on, Abdiasis Abu Musab, the groups military spokesman, told Reuters. The group has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it. Abas Ahmed, who was at a nearby restaurant when the explosion happened, told i24News that he saw "the dead bodies of several people and others who were injured." Wednesday's explosion was the second suicide car bomb outside an eatery in Mogadishu in two months. In early May, 8 people were killed when a car bomb exploded outside Bar Italia. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility. Al-Shabab last year became the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The extremist group also faces a new military push from the United States after President Donald Trump approved expanded operations, including airstrikes, against al-Shabab. On Sunday, the U.S. military in Africa said it carried out an airstrike in southern Somalia that killed eight Islamic extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Fredericksburg may see some natural fireworks for Flag Day. A backdoor cold front is slipping south along the Piedmont and coastal plain this morning (Wednesday). This kind of boundary typical here in summer months - is named such since it moves from north to south instead of the more typical west to east motion. As I write this the front is perched parallel to and just north of the Potomac River. The graphic shows the fronts forecast location at 8 oclock Thursday morning as it stalls not far south of Fredericksburg. The cooler and drier air labeled on the graphic wont quite make it to the Burg while the hot and sticky stuff remains on the south side of the front. So what does that mean for local weather? The answer is clouds, rain, and thunderstorms, all of which will arrive later today as Fredericksburg and vicinity becomes an atmospheric battleground. Thermometers today will register highs near 90 degrees before storms erupt just in time for the afternoon commute. The Storm Prediction Center has the Burg situated on the northeastern edge of a Marginal Risk (level 1 of 5) for severe weather today. Although there is plenty of instability available to fire up convection the wind shear change of wind speed and direction with height is almost non-existent. Storms will thus build vertically and then collapse straight back down as they rain out. This could bring about local street flooding along with very strong straight line winds so be advised and pay attention to weather warnings issued by NWS Sterlng. Also hail is possible which can lead to very prolific lightning storms. Thursday will be less noisy and a bit cooler as clouds overspread Fredericksburg all day. Temperatures will top out in the low 80s as occasional showers drift across the area. Dew points will remain in the low to mid-60s so that sticky summer feeling will stick around (pun intended). That stalled front will wobble back and forth across Virginia before finally lifting back north later this week as a warm front. Thus Fredericksburgs forecast will continue to mention chances of showers and storms through Sunday. Well inspect the weekend weather details in Fridays blogpost. Meanwhile happy Flag Day! UPDATE 9:15 a.m.: The Orange Sheriff's Office says the D.C. Metro police arrested Alonte M. Pernell around 4:30 a.m. Thursday on charges related to a shooting incident in Locust Grove. He is scheduled to appear in court later today to begin the extradition process. --- The Orange County Sheriff's Office is asking the public for help in finding a suspect in a shooting that prompted a lockdown of a Locust Grove neighborhood for much of the day Wednesday. The office issued a news release shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday saying it was obtaining warrants for malicious wounding and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for Alonte M. Pernell, 24, of Locust Grove. He was last seen in a gray or silver 2006 Pontiac sedan with license plate VVP-5234, the release said. The Sheriff's Office believes he may have fled to Northern Virginia, Maryland or Washington, D.C. Pernell is described as black, 6 feet, 1 inch and 189 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair in dreadlocks. Anyone with information of his whereabouts or information about the shooting is asked to call the Orange Sheriffs Office at 540/672-1200. The Sheriff's Office said it received a report around 9:35 a.m. Wednesday of gunfire on Chesterfield Road in the Somerset Ridge subdivision. A short time later, it received a second call reporting that a person had been shot and was going to get medical help. The release did not provide any more information about the shooting or the victim's condition. According to the release, deputies responded and confirmed that a shooting had occurred. They gathered evidence, secured the scene, and advised residents nearby to stay in their homes and lock their doors. With the help of Virginia State Police and Spotsylvania County deputies, they closed the main road leading into the Somerset Ridge subdivision. The Sheriff's Office said the road was closed "due to concerns that the shooter was still close by and to prevent further injury to vehicular traffic passengers." "The investigation revealed the identities of the parties involved and it was determined after hours of investigation that the shooter was no longer in the subdivision," the Sheriff's Office release said. Some Somerset residents were frustrated by what they viewed as a lack of information from the Sheriff's Office throughout much of the day. In an interview early Wednesday afternoon, Orange Chief Deputy Michael LaCasse said only that weve got a reported shooting of a person in the Somerset Farms subdivision off State Route 3 near Walmart. He declined to provide more information later that afternoon, saying only that the Sheriffs Office would email a press release later. Authorities told residents in the Somerset Farms area and Lake of the Woods to stay in their homes with the doors locked in an alert late Wednesday morning. By mid-afternoon, the Lake of the Woods Associations Facebook page announced that the shield in place notice had been lifted for the gated community. But the warning continued in Somerset Farms, and some residents said they felt left in the dark as SWAT teams and other law-enforcement officers swarmed the neighborhood. LaCasse called the situation complicated. He told the Culpeper Star-Exponent that his office did not believe the public was in danger, but continued to ask residents to stay inside because of investigative work we have going on. We are just trying to manage the scene, he told the Star-Exponent. We just need people to be patient and to hold tight until we can give them more information. Margaret Jones, who lives in Somerset Farms, told The Free LanceStar that she received an automated call before noon advising her to stay insideaway from windowswith the doors locked. The call said there was an incident in progress near Somerset Ridge and Chesterfield roads, but did not mention a shooting, she said. Jones said she received another call an hour and a half later saying the incident was under control but to remain inside. She didnt learn about the reported shooting until her niece called with the news. Then, around 6:30 p.m., Jones said she received a code red alert stating that the explosion we heard in the vicinity was a controlled explosion and that they anticipate opening the subdivision in the next hour. She said she received a reverse 911 call a little after 7 p.m. stating the subdivision had been reopened to traffic, and they feel confident the area is now safe. Jones, who has lived in the subdivision for eight years, said she appreciated the emergency calls, but is disappointed they didnt go into more detail. I understand the need for not panicking individuals, but, you know, were living here, she said. If somethings going on here, we really should know what that isat least what to look for. She said people have broken into cars and vandalized property in the neighborhood, but this is the first shooting she can recall. Janice Batts, who lives in the subdivision, also wanted more information. She said late Wednesday afternoon that she received three reverse 911 calls about an incident in the neighborhood, the last of which told her the situation was under control but to remain inside. An incident could be anything, said Batts, who saw police officers near her home. Its like youre held hostage in your own house. Somerset Farms resident Anthony Barr said deputies would not let him through the subdivisions main entrance when he tried to get home about 11 a.m. A deputy told him a shooting had occurred toward the front of the neighborhood. Barr, who found another route home, said he did not receive any emergency robocalls and that his family relied on media reports for information. I understand its an active investigation, but for folks in the neighborhood that are seeing armored vehicles driving up and down the street and not knowing whats going on is rather disconcerting, Barr said. COLONIAL Beachs Sherryl Woods likes to stay busy, and 2017 is shaping up to be a banner year, even for an author who has penned more than 100 romance books in her career. To start with, the Hallmark Channel turned her Chesapeake Shores books into a TV series that is scheduled to begin a new 10-episode run on Aug. 6. That will be followed by the release of her latest Chesapeake Shores book, Lilac Lane, in mid-October. Then, in mid-November will come a first for Woods: a nonfiction book to be marketed nationally called A Small Town Love Story: Colonial Beach, Virginia. The author, who grew up spending summers at Colonial Beach and now splits time between there and a spot in Florida, calls the project a labor of love. In the book, Woods shares the stories of Colonial Beachs watermen, grocers, hoteliers, farmers, ice truck drivers and others whose stories hold the oral history of the town. And while these are the stories of one small town, I point out in the book that every small town has stories like them, Woods said recently over lunch in Colonial Beach. I urge readers to get out and find these stories in their own small towns. The books jacket notes that Woodss own memories frame the dozens of true stories she features from the unique history of Colonial Beach itself, to some firsthand accounts of the Oyster Wars that once consumed the fishing community, to the stories of neighborhood merchants who made it a point to know just about every customer by name. It adds, In its early days, even a town as small as Colonial Beach had family-owned grocery stores in just about every neighborhood, each with its own personalitystores like Densons and Sullivans and Ethyls Emporium. Woods said the book started taking shape after she and others were urged by a librarian there to capture the stories of interesting community members who wouldnt be around forever. I was joined by several others in large interviews of all sorts of people in Colonial Beach, said Woods, noting that sometimes the stories came from the source, and other times from descendants of people whod had the experiences. That included the family of the oysterman who died in a conflict that became known as the Oyster Wars and pitted Virginia watermen against competitors from Maryland. Even state troopers got involved on the Potomac when the right to harvest oysters there became a hotly contested issue. One of the favorite stories she heard came from Ellie Caruthers, who with her husband operated Docs Motor Inn in Colonial Beach. It was about a couple who came there on the same day each year, she said, noting that one year the standing reservation got canceled, then reinstated at the last minute. The couple made the visit but then the man died. Woods said it seemed the trip was something he needed to do one more time before passing. Woods said a few things from the interviews surprised her, including how families involved in building casinos at Colonial Beach in the era or gambling felt scorned by those who reviled gambling. Woods said shes excited about the arrival of Lilac Lane because its the first of her books to be published in a hardback edition. She said a recent visit to Vancouver Island, where the second season of Chesapeake Shores was shot, was a thrill for her. She spent several days in the little towns on the island that double for the Chesapeake Bay region, talking to cast members and the folks who bring her characters to life. She noted that the events in the TV series dont perfectly line up with those in the book, as Hallmark purchased the rights to the books and has the power to take the series where its writers want. But she said the showrunner of the series has allowed her to question things now and then. I was after them last year a bit because now and then mountains would appear in the background, said Woods, noting that there are no peaks to be found in the Chesapeake Bay region. In one of the episodes, Treat Williams character comes back in after a paddle in a kayak and is asked if he saw much wildlife, she said. He answers, No dolphin, but three seals. Woods said she questioned that, but relented when folks connected to the series found evidence of Harbor Seals off Virginia Beach. So I let that one go, she said. Theyre pretty good to even let me weigh in. TANGIER James Ooker Eskridge thought it was a joke when his fellow waterman told him President Donald Trump was on the phone Monday. The mayor of a small Chesapeake Bay island had been on CNN a few days earlier and said he loved Trump like a family member. When Eskridge got on the phone around 2:30 p.m. Monday, a woman introduced herself as being part of the Office of the President and said Trump wanted to speak with him. It was no longer a joke. I was blown away, Eskridge said. Im still coming to grips with it. The Pilot called and emailed the White House press office to confirm the account. No one returned the email or answered the phone Tuesday afternoon. The conversation with the president wasnt that long about 10 minutes. According to Eskridge, He said, Thats one heck of an island you have there. About 87 percent of residents who cast ballots in November voted for Trump. The islands population is about 450. The men also discussed the island. Tangier is sinking, and scientists predict it may have to be abandoned in 25 years. However, Eskridge said he and Trump dont believe Tangiers problem is sea level rise. Erosion is whats taking away the land around Tangier, Eskridge said. We need protection from the erosion with a seawall or a breakwater. As far as sea level rise is concerned, Donald Trump stated, Tangier is not going anywhere. He said, Youve been there for hundreds of years, and youll be there hundreds more. Eskridge added that the erosion is to the point where its on our doorstep. Were to the point where we dont have land to give up. We need something done and we need something done pretty quick, he said. Trump also invited Eskridge to Washington. According to Eskridge, Trump said, When youre able to be in Washington, I want you to stop by and come in and see me. That would be wonderful just to sit down with him for 10 minutes, Eskridge said. After the conversation, the island mayor of 10 years said he was a celebrity among the people who he said just had questions and were coming over and just wanting to talk to me. They were like me, he said. They were blown away with it. A Syrian artist has re-imagined US President Donald Trump and 10 other world leaders as refugees in a series of paintings currently on display in Dubai. Abdalla Al Omari, who has refugee status in Belgium, says his own experience with displacement prompted him to create The Vulnerability Series. "Being a refugee is like having a new lump in your body that you had nothing to do with, and it will stay until the last day, so you better deal with it," Al Omari told CNN. In the series, President Trump is portrayed as a refugee holding a young child; his belongings and a sleeping mat on his back, a photo of his family clutched in his right hand. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Al Assad also feature. Putin, whose military has conducted airstrikes on Syria's rebel held areas, is depicted as a homeless person, while Assad appears partially submerged in water with only a paper boat to come to his aid. In another painting entitled The Queue, a seemingly endless line of people waiting for food, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and former US President Barack Obama, is depicted. While reactions to the series have been "90% positive," according to Al Omari, the artist also received a fair share of criticism. "People are sometimes too fond of their politicians. They cannot see them fall off their thrones. They cannot see them weak," Al Omari told CNN. The artist said his intention was not to disrespect world leaders, but to "give them back their humanity". "Somehow my aim shifted from an expression of anger that I had...to a more vivid desire to disarm my figures, to picture them outside their positions of power." Saturday's fifth annual AMVETS Post 113 Poker Run once again raised much-needed funds for the non-profit Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum in St. Louis. This year's route ran from Post 113 on Pimville Road in Farmington; to Doris Bar & Grill in French Village; to AMVETS Post 42 in Herculaneum; to VFW Post 2426 in Desloge and back to Post 113. The museum has an interesting history that begins with interest generated by the Missouri AMVET POW-MIA Traveling Museum. Because of this, AMVET District Commander Joe Grohs Jr. contacted U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan about the possibility of having a permanent POW-MIA Museum in Missouri. Carnahan looked into it, and in April of 2011, sent letters to Missouris veterans groups inviting them to join together in an effort to establish a permanent POW-MIA museum in the Old 1898 Officers Quarters Building in the Jefferson Barracks Historic District. Up until August 2008, the structure had housed Missouris Civilian Conservation Corps Museum. Answering the call, the Missouri AMVETS, the Missouri American Legion, the Missouri Veterans Commission, the Missouri Department of the American Ex-Prisoners of War, the Missouri AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary, the Missouri Air Force Association and the Missouri Veterans of Foreign Wars have joined together to form the Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum, Inc. The Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum, Inc. is a 501(3) non-profit, non-partisan, all volunteer organization with a board of directors, an executive committee, and an active fundraising committee in place. "We started doing this in 2012 when I was Post 113 president and started a riders group here," said Powell Meister, who now serves as the post's second vice commander. "This is our yearly thing. "All the museum's funds come from donations that's all they have. I thought they had grants, but they don't. We do the poker run, silent auctions, sell POW-MIA merchandise and then we set up a date with the museum's president to present the check. "The museum is incredible. When we rode up there last year to take the donation, they were still redoing their building, but it's really nice." Meister usually rides a motorcycle in the poker run, but this year he and fellow post member Faith Farris are still recovering from injuries the pair received last month when a deer ran into their path while the two were riding on Highway 21 in Washington County. Farris received a broken leg and Meister is on the mend from torn ligaments and several fractures. That's why this year Farris and Meister followed the motorcycle convoy within the safe confines of a car, but not before the riders gathered in a prayer circle on the parking lot to ask God for safety while on their ride. At the conclusion of the fundraiser, Meister reported that the post raised $858 for the museum. "We like raising funds for them and we plan to keep doing it," Meister said. "The post wants to do everything it can to support the POW-MIA cause." WASHINGTON (AP) Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied on Tuesday having an undisclosed meeting with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. or conversations with any Russian officials about the U.S. election that sent Donald Trump to the White House. He vowed to defend his honor "against scurrilous and false allegations." Testifying at a Senate hearing, Sessions, who was a close Trump adviser during the battle for the presidency, said it was a "detestable and appalling lie" to suggest that he participated in or was aware of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. In his appearance before former colleagues, Sessions also contradicted a contention made by former FBI Director James Comey at a hearing before the same panel last week. Comey told the intelligence committee that, after an encounter with President Trump in which he said Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into the former national security adviser, Comey "implored" Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the president again but that Sessions didn't respond. "He didn't recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House," Sessions said. The former Alabama senator defended himself against accusations that he misrepresented himself during his confirmation hearing by saying he hadn't met with Russian officials during the campaign. Sessions argued that in the context of that hearing, "my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it." Sessions said he recused himself from the Justice Department's current Russia investigation only because of a regulation that required it because of his involvement in the Trump campaign. He never, he insisted, knew anything about the Russia probe or had any role in it. "Many have suggested that my recusal is because I felt I was a subject of the investigation myself, that I may have done something wrong," Sessions added. "But this is the reason I recused myself. I felt I was required to under the rules of the Department of Justice." And while he had recused himself from the Russia probe, Sessions insisted, "I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations." Despite Sessions' statement about the reasons for his recusal, the attorney general did not actually step aside from the Russia probe until March 2, the day after The Washington Post reported on his two previously undisclosed meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Days after that, Sessions also corrected his confirmation hearing testimony to inform the committee about the two meetings with Kislyak. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon asked Sessions about suggestions arising from Comey's testimony last week that there was something "problematic" about his recusal. Wyden asked Sessions what problematic issues existed. "Why don't you tell me? There are none, Sen. Wyden, there are none," Sessions insisted, his voice rising. "This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don't appreciate it." Sessions lent his support to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is now in charge of the Justice Department's Russia investigation. "I have confidence in Mr. Mueller," he said. At a separate hearing Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, overseeing that effort since Sessions stepped aside, said he's seen no basis for firing Mueller, the former FBI director he appointed as special counsel. He said he would agree to dismiss Mueller only if there were a legitimate basis to do so, and an order from the president would not necessarily qualify. Mueller also won votes of support Tuesday from the top two Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, both of whom said they have confidence in him. As for his role in Comey's firing, Sessions told senators that he and his second-in-command, Rosenstein, had a "clear view ... that we had problems there, and it was my best judgment that a fresh start at the FBI was the appropriate thing to do. And when asked I said that to the president." Asked about Trump's own contention that the president fired Comey with the Russia probe in mind, and regardless of any recommendation from anyone else, Sessions said: "I guess I'll just have to let his words speak for themselves. I'm not sure what was in his mind specifically." Sessions refused to say whether he had ever discussed the Russia investigation with Trump, arguing that he could not disclose private communications with the president. Democratic senators pressed Sessions on the legal rationale for his refusal to discuss those private conversations, as Sessions acknowledged that Trump had not asserted executive privilege around the hearing. He asserted that "I am protecting the right of the president to assert if it he chooses and there may be other privileges that may apply." Ahead of the hearing there had been suggestions that Sessions might have had a third, unreported, encounter with Kislyak, at the Mayflower Hotel in April 2016, where candidate Trump was giving his first major foreign policy speech. Sessions was adamant that he did not have a private meeting with Kislyak at that event. But he did allow for the possibility that he encountered him in a reception that he says was attended by a couple dozen people, though he said he had no specific recollection of that. Democratic senators have seized on the possibility of a third meeting at that event to suggest that Sessions has not been forthcoming about the extent of his communications with the ambassador. Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont have sought an FBI investigation and have requested to be briefed on what the bureau knows about any such encounter. On another hot-button issue, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked Sessions whether Trump records his conversations in the White House. Trump has suggested there might be tapes of his encounters with Comey; Comey said last week that "lordy" he hopes there are. "I do not" Sessions said when asked whether he knows whether the president records his conversations. "I don't know Sen. Rubio, probably so," Sessions added, when Rubio asked whether any such tapes would have to be preserved. ___ Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann, Sadie Gurman and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed. Dean worked for Fairfax County Fire and Rescue for 32 years. He worked his way through the ranks and retired in 2013 as a Battalion Chief. After retiring from firefighting, he worked for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. While Dean was unable to ever get the chance to fully retire, he spent his days off with his family and friends, traveling, and enjoying the beautiful lake community he lived in. James A. Martin, 77, of Spotsylvania County went to be with his Lord and Savior and loving wife on Saturday, June 3, 2017. He lost his battle with Parkinsons and Dementia, a battle he fought with all the courage in the world. He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Beatrice Ruth Martin. Kelvin C. Jackson, 32, of Spotsylvania, Va. was called to his eternal home on June 9, 2017. The funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on June 16, 2017 at United Faith Christian Ministry, 150 Susa Drive, Stafford, Va. There will be a viewing one hour before service. A.L. Bennett and Son Funeral Home, 200 Butternut Drive, Fredericksburg, Va., will hold a public viewing on Thursday, June 15, 2017, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. IF YOU ARE John and Susan Graham, the parents of slain University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, the collection of DNA samples from those convicted of all misdemeanors in Virginianot just feloniesis a must. In their view, its a no-brainer. They and some prosecutors dont believe privacy issues should get in the way when having those samples on file could prevent a future crime. The Grahams make a valid point, one that is renewing an ongoing debate between law enforcement and the courts. They contend that their daughter would still be alive if her killer, Jesse L. Matthew Jr., had his DNA recorded after he was convicted of misdemeanor trespassing in 2010. That sample would have been in the database to identify him as the assailant in an unsolved sexual assault in Fairfax County in 2005, the Grahams contend, and if convicted in the earlier assault case he probably would have been behind bars rather than free to kill their daughter in 2014. The ACLU, along with some defense attorneys and personal rights advocates, say that collecting DNA samples from those convicted of non-violent misdemeanors is overreachan invasion of privacy that crosses a line into what shouldnt be the governments business. This difficult and controversial issue is being taken up by the Virginia State Crime Commission, which decided the issue deserves study. A General Assembly bill directing the commission to look at broadening the list of crimes qualifying for DNA sampling was rejected earlier this year. Certainly, this is an issue best left for well-studied legal minds to deliberate and debate. We urge the commission to scrutinize both sides in search of a fair middle ground. According to a recent Richmond TimesDispatch report, only two states, New York and Wisconsin, collect samples for all felonies and misdemeanors. Lawmakers in those states apparently settled on legislative language that they believe reconciles the privacy issue. Issues of basic fairness should also be considered. In some cases, an arrest for some violent felonies and other crimes qualifies for DNA sampling. Should that list be expanded, or is it unfair to begin with? The DNA profile of a defendant who is acquitted must be disposed of under Virginia law. Some might argue that rule shouldnt apply if the suspect is acquitted on a technicality unrelated to the crime. Many contend that collecting DNA evidence is simply todays version of fingerprint technology, and if a suspect would normally be fingerprinted when booked, then collecting DNA should be part of the routine. In 2006, the FBI expanded its fingerprint database to include misdemeanors and even juvenile offenses. Some states have questioned the policy, and its up to them whether they share state and local records with the federal database. Going hand-in-hand with the DNA database discussion is Virginias ongoing effort, started in 2015, to complete testing on the backlog of untested rape kits, or Physical Evidence Recovery Kits (PERKs). In the initial phase of the huge project, testing is underway on 3,000 kits dating from the mid-1980s to 2014. From the hundreds of tests completed so far, a reported 44 DNA hits have been generated, suggesting the possible resolution of that many unsolved cases. Now, thanks to new grants announced by Attorney General Mark Herring and the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, testing of the 1,200 remaining kits collected between 2014 and 2016 will also be funded. The beauty of DNA evidence is that it works both ways, by convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent. Many readers will recall the name of Earl Washington Jr. of Culpeper, who served 16 years for rape and murder and came within nine days of being executed before DNA evidence cleared him. Hes just one of the 15 Virginia men who were convicted and served serious time before being exonerated by DNA evidence that in some cases also pointed a finger at the actual perpetrator. So there is no question about how important the availability of DNA evidence is to the criminal justice systems ability to separate the guilty from the innocent. Now, the State Crime Commission will attempt to draw a legal line between where DNA collection is justified and where it invades an individuals privacy. That is no easy task. Many contend that collecting DNA evidence is todays version of fingerprint technology, and if a suspect is fingerprinted when booked, then collecting DNA should be part of the routine. In 2006, the FBI expanded its fingerprint database to include misdemeanors. Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. A water rescue was underway early Tuesday evening after a Washington County man was swimming with family and friends in the Big River and disappeared. Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen said at about 3 p.m. 50-year-old Vondel Red Dodson was swimming in the area of Mounts Road near the St. Francois County line off Highway 8. From what I have been told, he jumped into the water near the bridge and did not resurface, said Jacobsen. The Irondale Fire Department is heading up the search and at this point we are just assisting with it. Jacobsen said as of Tuesday night his deputies are interviewing witnesses and following up with the family. They called off the search after dark. They called off the search until Wednesday morning due to the lack of visibility, said Jacobsen. The water patrol with the Missouri State Highway Patrol was also assisting in the search. The area where Dodson went missing is a popular area for people to swim. This is a developing story and the Daily Journal will bring details as they become available. NFU president Meurig Raymond has called on the government to end the uncertainty over what Brexit will mean for UK agriculture. Speaking at Cereals 2017, Mr Raymond said a collaborative approach to Brexit negotiations is needed to achieve the best outcome for the country. More than 20,000 farmers and other members of the agricultural industry are attending the flagship arable event, which is being held on 14-15 June at Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire. See also: Gove pledges to put farmers at heart of policy-making We are still a whole year on from the Brexit referendum little closer to knowing what future Brexit holds for us, said Mr Raymond. The European Union is the UKs biggest trading partner in agri-food products yet the UKs future trading relationship with the EU remains unclear. Future Similarly, farmers dont know how a future immigration system will work or whether they will still have access to the highly specialised workforce required in many sectors. Neither is it clear how public policy will support agriculture, improve productivity or deliver environmental goods once the UK was is longer subject to the Common Agricultural Policy. The time has now come to end this uncertainty, said Mr Raymond. With negotiations due to begin next week, it is time the UK government took a collaborative and consensual approach to Brexit. Only way forward In fact, its the only way forward, Mr Raymond said. The government must work with a wide constituency of interested parties to get the best outcome for the UK, said Mr Raymond. It is vital that the views and interests of the country at large are represented. The NFUs key Brexit asks remain: continued tariff-free and frictionless access to the single market; a domestic agricultural policy suited to Britain; access to a competent and reliable workforce; and a regulatory framework that supports productive agriculture while protecting the environment and public health. Potential Mr Raymond said: For agriculture, the sector that has the potential to be the most affected by Brexit, this means working with UK farming unions, the food chain and the farm supply chain. From our perspective, the NFU has engaged extensively as part of our Brexit work, both with government and with industry and interest groups within and beyond agriculture. Well continue to do this, and indeed do it with more intensity and purpose now that the waiting is almost over. Farmers are being urged to report all livestock attacks to police and ask for a crime reference number to put pressure on law enforcers to respond in a consistently serious way. The National Sheep Association (NSA) said it is vital farmers report every crime for an accurate picture of the scale of sheep worrying to be revealed and ensure police have enough resources to tackle the problem. The NSAs latest survey of farmers across the UK has revealed significant under-reporting of incidents by farmers, with 60% of respondents failing to report every case to the police. See also: How farmers are fighting sheep worrying with social media Of that number, just 18% were given a crime reference number. An equal number, 10%, rated police response as either very helpful or unresponsive. Build evidence NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: Domestic dogs attacking sheep is sadly an ongoing crime without an easy solution, but to keep talking about it and gathering evidence at every opportunity goes a long way in continuing to highlight the problem. We have to continue to put pressure on police forces to deal with this crime in a serious and consistent way and if they havent the resources to do that then we need to help them build evidence that they are not keeping up with reported crimes. I am afraid that we are hearing of police forces that are making the right noises but still not responding effectively. Story Highlights Confidence in military and police at record lows 16% of Venezuelans confident in courts and judicial system 12% feel safe walking alone at night WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Venezuelans expressed deep concerns late last summer with many of the institutions that are largely failing them now -- the local police, military and judiciary -- as their country teeters on the brink of anarchy. Venezuelans' confidence in all three institutions hit new lows last year and were among the lowest, if not the lowest, in the whole world in 2016. Venezuelans' confidence in their police, courts and military have plummeted in the past decade -- most sharply since 2012 -- as Venezuela inches closer to civil war, fueled by a collapsing economy, food and medicine shortages, and a government clashing violently with some of its citizens. Nearly 70 people have died in the last two months as a result of protests and tensions with the government. Confidence in Military Declines 44 Percentage Points Since 2010 While Venezuelans' confidence in their local police -- the most immediate force that could help them feel more secure -- sits at a record low, their confidence in the military, or the Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana, is not much better. At 16%, confidence has dropped seven percentage points from last year and 44 points since the beginning of the decade. Venezuelans in the last decade have generally looked up to the military more than the police, with confidence reaching as high as 62% in 2006, during the reign of President Hugo Chavez. The precipitous drop in confidence has occurred during President Nicolas Maduro's tenure. Maduro has ordered the military to turn on protesters recently, which has stoked unrest. At the same time, security forces have jailed at least 14 military officers on suspicion of treason for dissenting against Maduro. Confidence in the Judicial System Plunging as Well The judicial system has taken a hit in confidence since 2012 -- 51% of Venezuelans said then that they had confidence in their judiciary, compared with just 16% in 2016. At the beginning of this decade, a solid 54% had confidence, another sign of how rapidly the changes in Venezuela are occurring. This collapse of confidence is likely related to Maduro's suspension of constitutional rights by declaring a state of emergency in 2016. In effect, Maduro now holds legislative and executive powers, while also holding judiciary power. The president is continuing a quest to hold a national assembly to rewrite the constitution. Recently, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on eight members of Venezuela's Supreme Court, after the court stripped the nation's democratically elected National Assembly -- controlled by Venezuela's opposition party -- of its power. Venezuelans' faith in these institutions has deteriorated along with their sense of personal safety. Just 12% said they felt safe walking alone at night in their neighborhoods -- down by more than 70% from the 44% who said this in 2006. While there has never been a majority of Venezuelans who said they felt safe since Gallup began asking this question, the reading in 2016 is the lowest in the world for the second consecutive year. In terms of experience with crime, 2016 was the worst year in the past decade for Venezuelans. Nearly four in 10 (38%) said they had money or property stolen from them in the past year -- a new high. And one in six Venezuelans said they had a friend or relative murdered in the past year -- also a new high. Bottom Line A clear consensus is emerging among Venezuelans: They do not have confidence in the institutions meant to keep them safe. The shockingly low levels of confidence and beliefs about personal safety in 2016 are a direct result of a disastrous chain of events in the last four years in the South American nation. Venezuelans are saying they have no faith in the rule of law, and that there is no one to protect them or look out for them. In fact, many of these institutions may be working against them. In essence, they are taking that responsibility for their own safety on themselves. These indicators are only likely to get worse rather than better in the next year, or until a resolution is achieved. It is a bleak picture for a country once rich in oil revenues and tourism. These data are available in Gallup Analytics. Story Highlights 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of terrorism; 45% economy Healthcare policy, relations with Russia lag at bottom of list of issues Republicans support Trump on issues; Democrats do not WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On 10 hot-button issues, President Donald Trump gets the highest approval ratings for his handling of terrorism (46%) and the economy (45%). His lowest ratings are for healthcare policy (28%) and relations with Russia (30%). Trump's frosty relations with the news media meet with approval from 34% of U.S. adults. Trump Approval, by the Issues Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling ... ? Approve Disapprove % % Terrorism 46 53 The economy 45 53 Immigration 40 59 The federal budget 36 57 Foreign affairs 35 62 Taxes 35 57 Relations with the news media 34 64 The environment 32 63 Relations with Russia 30 66 Healthcare policy 28 67 Gallup, June 7-11, 2017 These results are based on a June 7-11 Gallup poll. Trump, at 38% overall job approval in the same survey, does not enjoy majority approval on any of the topics Gallup surveyed. The president's high-profile commentary on terrorism following attacks in the United Kingdom and Iran in recent weeks perhaps contributed to his relatively strong approval on this matter. And he may be benefiting from a relatively strong U.S. economy in his approval ratings on that issue. Trump doesn't score as well on the environment, at 32% approval, following his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. His 34% approval rating for relations with the news media comes amid a barrage of tweets from the president about the "fake news" media and his labeling of them as the "enemy of the people." Gallup previously measured approval of Trump's handling of three issues -- the economy, foreign affairs and immigration -- in February. On all three, his approval ratings are essentially the same now as they were four months ago. GOP High on Terrorism; Democrats Low on Relations With Russia As would be expected, Republicans and Democrats assess Trump's performance differently on each of the 10 issues. No more than 15% of Democrats approve of Trump on any of the issues tested. No less than 61% of Republicans approve of Trump on any issue, with a high of 80% approval on terrorism and the economy. Less than a majority of independents approve of Trump on all issues, ranging from a low of 24% on healthcare to a high of 48% on terrorism. Trump Approval, by Party Identification % Approve Overall Republicans Independents Democrats % % % % Terrorism 46 80 48 13 The economy 45 80 45 15 Immigration 40 79 35 11 The federal budget 36 71 33 10 Foreign affairs 35 73 32 6 Taxes 35 71 32 8 Relations with the news media 34 61 32 12 The environment 32 69 27 7 Relations with Russia 30 62 27 4 Healthcare policy 28 62 24 5 Gallup, June 7-11, 2017 Bottom Line With Trump's overall job approval rating in the high 30s, it is unsurprising that Americans would not rate his handling of any specific issues highly. Yet it is instructive to see which issues rate better than others. While there have not been any major acts of terrorism on American shores during Trump's presidency, there have been several attacks in Europe and the Middle East -- and many Republicans may be drawn to the president's direct statements on the matter. The continued strength of the economy, including job creation, GDP growth and record highs for the stock market, likely contribute to Trump's higher level of approval on the issue. It may be no surprise that Trump earns low marks for his handling of relations with Russia, as the inquiry relating to Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election continues and has seemingly intensified. And with Obamacare imperiled by Congress, Americans are not buoyant about the Trump/GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Unless the president's overall approval rating begins to rise significantly, it is unlikely that these issue ratings will move much higher in the short term. These data are available in Gallup Analytics. A Pinch of Salt: The election is over, I think, so what now? This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise. Corvallis Police Department MONDAY, JUNE 12 ASSAULT: 12:11 a.m., 1800 block of Northwest Garryanna Street, Corvallis. Police responded to a report of people fighting in a home. Upon arrival, one of the residents, Jose Luis Hernandez-Santiago, 52, tried to keep officers from entering the home. Police arrested Hernandez-Santiago for interfering with a peace officer. Hernandez-Santiago was booked into the Benton County Jail and later released. COUNTERFEIT: 11:40 a.m., 2300 block of Northwest Ninth Street, Corvallis. An officer responded to Burgerville after an employee reported receiving a counterfeit $10 bill. No suspects were identified. Benton County Sheriffs Office WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 DUII: 2:54 p.m., Larkin Road and Larson Road, Monroe. A sheriff deputy responded to the area for a reckless driver. The deputy found a car stopped in the road. The driver, Adan Ortega, 54, of Corvallis, was passed out in his seat. The deputy arrested Ortega for driving while under the influence of intoxicants. A breathalyzer test indicated Ortega had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.31 percent. Ortega was booked into the Benton County Jail and later released. SUNDAY, JUNE 11 SEARCH AND RESCUE: 3:14 p.m., 600 Road and 680 Road, Corvallis. A sheriff deputy responded to the McDonald-Dunn Forest in search of a 19-year-old woman who was lost. The deputy found the woman and gave her a ride to her car. 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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Concert at Colognes Gloria : Jack Bauer never sleeps, he plays concerts instead Cologne Kiefer Sutherland was not called as a counter terrorist agent to the Cologne bar Gloria. Instead, the 24 star played a gig there, as part of his Not Enough Whiskey tour. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Monday night, the Gloria is packed. And one asks: Why? Do people want to see Donald Sutherlands son? No, they are too young for that. Do they want to have a look at Julia Roberts ex fiance? No, Roberts is not hip enough for that anymore. Or do they want to see how Jack Bauer from 24 puts on a cowboy hat, grabs a guitar and sings songs on stage? Thats quite possible, but it was also quite long ago, really. Why is Kiefer Sutherland (50) gathering such a huge crowd? The Canadian released his album Down In A Hole in August 2016. In a country music style, he tells tales from his life. The (shock) surprise/dismay at how many songs I wrote about booze doesnt sound convincing. The actor, musician, producer and director knows how to enjoy himself. Twice he was caught drink driving. He called his tour Not Enough Whiskey in Europe. Meaning Bourbon. Scottish and British people prefer Whisky. Without the e and without corn. The bar is open at the Gloria: twelve songs, four encores,, 78 minutes long. The audience is drinking along. Due to the happy loudly boozing crowd, some of Sutherlands announcement get lost in the noise. But that cannot cloud the timbre of his pleasantly rough and also sonorous voice - and to the melodies of Ill Do Anything, Truth In Your Eyes and Not Enough Whiskey, theres even schunkeln going on. The band is okay, cover versions of songs like Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot need getting used to. Why doe the man, who outed himself as a Johnny Cash fan, continuously poses like Bon Jovi, remain mysterious. Maybe Sutherland acts the rockstar this time? Original text: Susanne Schramm Protest against Belgian nuclear plants : 90 kilometers of human chain Bonn The political parties are calling on the Bonn community to participate in a human chain from Tihange to Aachen on Sunday, June 25, in a protest against the nuclear plants in Belgium. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The six main political parties in the Bonn city council and the Piraten Party are calling on the Bonn community to participate in a 90 kilometer human chain from Tihange to Aachen. The campaign organised by anti nuclear initiatives from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands is supposed to highlight the nuclear threat posed by the maximum security reactors Tihange 2 and Does 3. AntiAtom Bonn, Greenpeace and the Bonn Green Party are providing a free bus shuttle service to bring participants to Flemalle, near the Maas river between Tihange and Liege. The CDU chairman as well as regional heads of the SPD, FDP, the Green Party, the Left Party, the Burger Bund Bonn and the Piraten Party all signed a statement (to take part in)supporting the human chain against the continuing operation of the nuclear plants, which are 130 kilometers from Bonn. As reported, several cracks were detected in the nuclear reactor containments. Original text: hbl Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Article Protecting the worlds oceans an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs. bayonel3 at 14-06-2017 02:34 PM (5 years ago) (m) The former governor of Rivers State, who said that the social media contributed to the erroneous perception Nigerians have about him, added that he rejected the N1 billion bribe because of his principled stance on corruption, and that Nigeria needed to go back to its value system. The former governor of Rivers State, who said that the social media contributed to the erroneous perception Nigerians have about him, added that he rejected the N1 billion bribe because of his principled stance on corruption, and that Nigeria needed to go back to its value system. My first confrontation with bribe was with a big contractor in Rivers State. After awarding the contract, he brought a billion naira. I screamed. I asked, where did you get the money? and he said from what he got (from the contract) and I said look, that means you overquoted the contract. I said the only reason you are giving me N1 billion was because if the contract was N32 billion, you made it N37 billion. I have been special assistant to the governor for two years; speaker, eight years; governor, eight years; minister nearly two yearsthats nearly twenty years. So I know Nigerian politics well. Very, very well, he said. The influential All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain argued that in spite of its positive uses, the social media is capable of destroying Nigeria if not checked. He said, Social media can destroy this country, true or false? Just look at Biafra; and thats why Nnamdi Kanu can say all he is saying and still get a forum. Most politicians pay young men to post all sorts on social media. While commenting on attacks launched against him on social media, the minister said falsehood spreads online because Nigerians do not verify information. I was governor for eight years, for about seven years people used to say this man is arrogant, how did they suddenly say this man is corrupt?, he said. PDP used to say Amaechi is our response to Fashola. So when did they suddenly say Oh, he didnt do anything. And I say to people, because somebody just went to pay AIT money and, on social media too, theres no rule. AIT came to put some things on their television, then social media came to write nonsense.The first time they attacked us we came out with document. But they (social media users) dont verify. On the controversial $43 million Ikoyi fund, Amaechi said people claiming that he owned the money were peddlers of false information. When they said that I owned $43 million Ikoyi money I made just a one-page reply: I dont even own a house in Lagos. I thought people would have said, Ah, eight years as governor, he should be a very rich thief, so he should be able to get a property in Lagos and use it as a form of investment. Nobody! Many people started celebrating, Its Amaechis money, its Amaechis money. But people who know me know (that) if I have money, you will know.When people meet me and I am not able to spend, it is just basically because I dont have money The important thing is, money doesnt govern me.But social media twist it the other way; so the problem with social media (users) is that they misinformthey dont verify their information, they have no rules. Only decent ones. Amaechi said he was principled and Nigerians do not value principled people. Nigerians say I am stubborn, am I stubborn?, he asked. His question generated echoes of Yes! from the audience. Stop there, he continued, Let me tell you why you are wrong: once you are a principled man, then you are stubborn. Nigeria doesnt have any word called principle, Amaechi said. It just shows that we need to go back to our value system, so that we can put a place where we can add principlewhere they can give you money and you look at the man and tell the man, keep the money. he said.The influential All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain argued that in spite of its positive uses, the social media is capable of destroying Nigeria if not checked.He said,While commenting on attacks launched against him on social media, the minister said falsehood spreads online because Nigerians do not verify information.he said.On the controversial $43 million Ikoyi fund, Amaechi said people claiming that he owned the money were peddlers of false information. When they said that I owned $43 million Ikoyi money I made just a one-page reply: I dont even own a house in Lagos.Amaechi said he was principled and Nigerians do not value principled people. Nigerians say I am stubborn, am I stubborn?, he asked. His question generated echoes of Yes! from the audience.Amaechi said. Post Reply I scour the world wide web to bring you interesting stories from around the globe. [email protected] Posted: at 14-06-2017 02:34 PM (5 years ago) | Hero The content you are looking for has either been removed or requires you to login to view Please login below or register for an account With Naijapals.com Google reportedly preps own SoC; Pixel 3 to use this chipset News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Google seems to have started focusing on the hardware front. Ever since Google unveiled the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, it is evident that the company is looking forward to delivering the best experience to the users, be it software or hardware. Wondering how they can achieve it? Here's the answer. Following on Apple's footprints, it looks like Google is also prepping its own custom chipset. Google just hired Manu Gulati, an Apple chip architect to make their own custom chip. He has been working on creating Apple's A-series chipsets that are known for their optimization to work well with iOS. Could be a great challenge to Google The issue that is involved here is fragmentation of the Android OS. There are hundreds of Android device makers and each one adds their own set of specifications and custom skins that run on top of Android. This has lead to significant fluctuation on the performance front. Their own SoC for Pixel phones As of now, solving the problem faced by each OEM could be too complicated for Google. And, it is a great decision for them to incorporate their own SoC in their Pixel lineup of smartphones to provide better optimization. We have been seeing the same happening in the Android smartphone arena since the past few years. We say so as Huawei, Samsung and Xiaomi have developed their own in-house chipsets. Pixel 2 won't use the Google SoC The problem right now is that we can't expect the Pixel 2 that is slated to be announced by the end of this year to employ this Google SoC. The Pixel 3 that might arrive in 2018 is the one that seems possible for the debut of Google's own chipset. We just hope that Google's tech team comes with a capable chipset that can survive the competition. Source: Variety Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Banks informs IMG about the stress in telecom sector News oi -Priyanka The telecom sector's debt is estimated to be over Rs 4.6 lakh crore. Four major banks (State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank) today met an inter-ministerial group (IMG) and informed that there is a stress in the telecom industry. The telecom sector's debt is estimated to be over Rs 4.6 lakh crore. "The bankers are worried and said that there can be defaults unless some solution is found soon," sources close to the development said. Adding that SBI's exposure alone to the telecom sector is around Rs 70,000 crore. Sources also said that the bankers are going to meet IMG again soon. "There is a stress in the sector and that there is an urgent need to find a solution," one of the bank officials said. The official further added that revenues in the sector were coming down and this may further worsen the situation. Meanwhile one of the bankers also said it has suggested steps like reducing levies by Government, extending loan repayment tenure and infusing promoters' money into companies to improve liquidity. To recall SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya last month had also expressed her concern over the stress in the sector reaching "unsustainable levels". "The stress in the sector has reached highly unsustainable levels after the entry of new players and launch of free services which led to an erosion of topline and EBITDA of the telecom service providers," she said. The letter said that the total EBITDA of the sector on an annualized basis is Rs 65,000 crore which is "clearly unsustainable" for a debt of more than Rs 4 lakh crore. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Mattis Says DoD Needs Years to Correct Effects of Sequestration By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON, June 13, 2017 Even if Congress acts now to rid the Defense Department of looming sequestration spending cuts, it will take years of stable and higher budgets for DoD to dig out of the readiness hole, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. The secretary discussed the President's fiscal year 2018 defense budget request with the senators. As in his testimony to the House Armed Services Committee last night, he urged the senators to repeal sequestration and give the department stable budgets to work with. "I retired from military service three months after sequestration took effect," Mattis said. "Four years later, I've returned to the department, and I have been shocked by what I have seen about our readiness to fight." The troops bore the brunt of sequestration, he said, and carried on the worldwide deployments needed to keep America safe. "But our troops' stoic commitment cannot reduce the growing risk," the secretary said. "It took us years to get into this situation. It will require years of stable budgets and increased funding to get out of it." The situation is exacerbated by 30 continuing resolutions Congress has passed rather than real budgets, the secretary said. External Forces Further exacerbating the situation are four external forces acting on the military, he added, the first being the fact that the U.S. military has been at war for the last 16 years. "When Congress approved the all-volunteer force in 1973, our country never envisioned sending our military to war for more than a decade without pause or conscription," Mattis said. "America's long war has placed a heavy burden on men and women in uniform and their families." A second force is the global situation, Mattis told the senators. Russia is arming itself and looking for ways to challenge the international order. China is a rising power seeking to expand its sphere of influence. Iran is exporting instability throughout the Middle East, and North Korea is developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. "A third force is adversaries actively contesting America's capabilities," Mattis said. "For decades, the United States enjoyed uncontested or dominant superiority in every operating domain or realm. We could generally deploy our forces when we wanted, assemble them where we wanted and operate how we wanted. Today, every operating domain -- outer space, air, sea, undersea, land and cyberspace -- is contested." A fourth force, the pace of technological change, influences the capabilities needed for the future, the secretary told the senators, necessitating new investments, innovation and new program starts. "Each of these four forces requires stable budgets and increased funding to provide for the protection of our citizens and for the survival of our freedoms," he said. "I reiterate that security and solvency are my watch words as secretary of Defense." Moving Forward The fiscal 2017 budget started the road back to readiness, the secretary said. Congress granted an additional $21 billion to address vital warfighting readiness shortfalls. The fiscal 2018 request is for a $639 billion top line. This is a 3 percent increase and will allow the department to continue rebuilding readiness, Mattis said. The fiscal 2019 budget will benefit from a strategy review already underway in the Pentagon, he told the panel, adding that he anticipates that request will ask for a top line that's 5 percent higher. "Moving forward, the [fiscal] 2019 budget, informed by the national defense strategy, will have to make hard choices and reshape the 2019 to 2023 defense program," Mattis said. "The department will work with President Trump, Congress and this committee to ensure future budget requests are both sustainable and provide the commander in chief with viable military options that support America's security." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bahrain King Visits Naval Forces Central Command Navy News Service Story Number: NNS170613-09 Release Date: 6/13/2017 10:35:00 AM From U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the king of the Kingdom of Bahrain, visited the headquarters of Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), June 12. Vice Adm. Kevin M. Donegan, NAVCENT commander, and the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain the Honorable William V. Roebuck greeted his majesty. During the visit, Navy officials briefed the king on current operations of the U.S. 5th Fleet and coalition operations to defeat ISIS. Following the briefing, the king had dinner with the ambassador and Donegan, where they continued discussing issues of mutual interest. The king was accompanied on this trip by two of his sons, His Highness Brig. Gen. Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, commander of the Royal Guard, and His Highness Maj. Shaikh Khaled bin Hamad Al Khalifa, commander of the Royal Guard Special Force, as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defense Force His Excellency Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and Commander of the Bahraini Royal Navy His Excellency Rear Adm. Shaikh Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Khalifa. His majesty said the connection between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States was critical to regional maritime security and the free flow of commerce. "The world's trade flows, its commerce, and ultimately its security depend on what happens in this critical region," the king said. "This region in turn depends on the vital strategic partnership between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States of America." Donegan echoed those sentiments noting the mutually beneficial relationship. "We host your majesty tonight in the spirit of friendship and partnership that has endured between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States for nearly 70 years," Donegan said. "Through your graciousness and leadership, the U.S. 5th Fleet has long had a home in the kingdom." His majesty added that he looked forward to expanding the ties between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United States, and that he sees the partnership between the two nations as a model for regional alliances. "You can be assured that the cooperation of the United States is deeply appreciated in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Indeed we believe this partnership is an example of how two nations can work closely together for the common good," his majesty said. The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses about 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean. The expanse is comprised of 20 countries and includes three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Analysts: Absence of South Sudan President from IGAD Summit Problematic By Jill Craig June 13, 2017 East Africa was well represented during Monday's Intergovernmental Authority on Development regional bloc summit in Addis Ababa, which Ethiopia's prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, convened to discuss the deteriorating situation in South Sudan. The leaders of Uganda, Somalia and Sudan were present, along with Kenya and Djibouti's foreign ministers, and representatives from other regional and international bodies. South Sudan's first vice president, Taban Deng Gai, also attended the summit. There was, however, one noticeable absence: South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir. "The fact that Salva Kiir has not bothered to come and speak to his colleagues in IGAD, at a time when South Sudan is falling apart and when his inability to protect his citizens is causing a refugee crisis throughout the entire region, his failure to show up, I think speaks volumes about the source of the problems in South Sudan," said Bronwyn Bruton, deputy director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research institution. Nairobi-based political writer Barrack Muluka agrees with Bruton, noting that opposition leader Riek Machar is also often missing from such discussions. "We are witnessing a situation where the outsiders seem to be a lot more concerned about the peace process in South Sudan than the insiders," said Muluka. "It's imperative that both Salva Kiir and Riek Machar must be forced to come to the discussion table and, if need be, they must do that behind the threat of very heavy sanctions against themselves as individuals and their families, as well as their very close cronies." In the case of IGAD summits, only heads of state are invited or their chosen officials if they cannot attend along with representatives of regional and international organizations, on occasion. Rebels are never included on the official guest list, so Machar would not have been invited regardless. According to South Sudan presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny, "The president did not attend the summit because the IGAD summit has coincided with other commitments of the same equal importance. Like in any sovereign state, the president sent his first vice president, Taban Deng Gai, who had sufficiently represented the president." Possibility of progress? Weber State University economics professor and African governance expert John Mukum Mbaku says Kiir's absence does not augur well for fruitful discussions about South Sudan's deteriorating security and humanitarian situation. "Without Kiir at the meeting, it would be quite difficult for the summit to provide the necessary foundation for peace and security in the country," said Mbaku. Festus Mogae, chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), delivered a statement acknowledging "some commendable progress in institution building and some reforms" in South Sudan, but urged IGAD to revitalize the implementation and compliance of the peace agreement and to find practical ways to address the country's humanitarian crisis. Bruton, however, argues that using the 2015 peace agreement as a starting point for solving South Sudan's current problems is ill-advised. "Well, this is a document that's almost two years old, and has not done a whit of good in solving the conflict and reducing the level of violence. It's basically completely defunct, nobody has honored it, it hasn't worked, and I think the reliance on the document instead of trying to seek new solutions is a sign of pretty ineffective thinking, frankly," she said. Muluka says that he believes such summits can yield results, but only if conducted properly. "We must give credit to the summits because it was out of the summits that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [CPA] was eventually reached; it was out of the initiative of summits that eventually the referendum did take place," said Muluka. "But if the summits are going to play softball with these people who are basically warlords, then we are not going to get anywhere." IGAD called on Kiir to strictly implement his recently declared cease-fire and to take swift action against those who violate it. The regional body also urged armed opposition groups to obey the cease-fire and renounce violence. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ankara Backs Qatar in Saudi-led Showdown By Dorian Jones June 13, 2017 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed himself at the forefront of the defense of Qatar, in the face of Saudi Arabia-led economic and diplomatic sanctions. "A very grave mistake is being made in Qatar; isolating a nation in all areas is inhumane and against Islamic values," Erdogan said in his weekly Tuesday address to his parliamentary deputies. "It's as if a death-penalty decision has been taken for Qatar," said Erdogan. Erdogan is backing his increasingly tough rhetoric with action. A Turkish delegation flew Tuesday to Doha to prepare for the deployment of a military force in Qatar, which ultimately will rise to about 5,000 soldiers. Ankara already has sent large amounts food to break economic sanctions against Qatar. "The risks, however, are high. If there is an escalation into a confrontation or any kind of hot conflict, this would expose those soldiers to all kinds of threats," warned retired Turkish ambassador Unal Cevikoz, who heads the Ankara Policy Forum research group. The Turkish army deployment is part of a military cooperation agreement with Qatar made before the crisis that also includes naval and air components. The army element of the deployment was brought forward by the onset of the crisis, with the Turkish parliament rushing through the required legislation to sanction it. Playing down risk of military confrontation, analyst Sinan Ulgen a visiting scholar of the Carnegie Institute, points out that only a handful of Turkish soldiers initially will be deployed. Politics and diplomacy "Political and diplomatic side, rather than the military side [of the deployment], will be most important," said Ulgen, "because Turkey is seen to have adopted a position firmly in support of Qatar that is certainly going to cause complications with other GCC [Gulf Cooperation Countries], primarily Saudi Arabia and Egypt." Erdogan's robust stance in support of Qatar, scotched his foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's offer to mediate. "This approach, unfortunately, is becoming a trend and it has developed into a pattern in Turkey's foreign policy conduct," lamented Cevikoz. "It is not in line with Turkey's traditional policy of impartiality toward the problems of the region. The consequences are dangerous, and it has already resulted with Turkey's isolation in the international community, if not in the region." Ankara's robust support for Qatar is a testament to the deepening relations between the countries. Qatar is fast becoming one of the most important investors in Turkey, buying up banks, media companies, and investing in property. Those investments accelerated in the aftermath of last year's failed coup in Turkey, which saw many foreign investors shying away. But the relationship extends far beyond economics, and a strong relationship has developed between the country's two leaders. According to reports not denied by either country, Qatar sent 150 of its special forces to protect Erdogan in the days after the July coup. Muslim Brotherhood Foreign policy collaboration, though, is where cooperation appears to be most important. "Turkey has aligned itself more closely on a number of foreign policy options, which would include support of the Muslim Brotherhood, support of Hamas," pointed out analyst Ulgen. Ankara could pay a heavy price for its loyalty to Qatar, however, coming at a time when Turkey already is facing strained relations with most of it Western allies and all of its southern neighbors. Turkish pro government media has been sounding alarm bells, warning that the pressure facing Qatar really is a plot aimed at Ankara and Erdogan. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, voiced concerns about the precarious position facing Turkey over Ankara's support with Qatar for the Muslim Brotherhood. "Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are all regarding the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization," said Kilicdaroglu, criticizing Erdogan's public use of Muslim Brotherhood symbols. Erdogan has made little secret of his support for the Brotherhood, a stance that plays well with his religious base of voters. "Support of the brotherhood has become part of domestic politics," pointed out Ulgen. But Ulgen emphasizes that the pressure facing Qatar cannot be applied to Turkey, although he warns the present crisis likely will put Ankara in an awkward position. President Donald Trump has been particularly outspoken in support of Saudi Arabia's stance in demanding that Qatar end its support of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with other radical Islamist groups, but he has remained publicly silent over Ankara's stance toward the brotherhood. According to Turkish media, Trump and Erdogan are scheduled to talk about Qatar in the coming days. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan Stays Neutral in Qatar-Saudi Dispute, But Mediation Role Unlikely By Paul Alexander June 13, 2017 Pakistan would like to help mediate an end to the rift between Persian Gulf allies because it has a lot to lose if the dispute drags on or turns violent, but analysts say it doesn't have enough clout. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic relations with Qatar on June 5 and cut land, air and sea links, alleging it has ties to terrorists, a claim that the country strongly denies. Increasingly isolated due to its own disputes with Afghanistan and India due to allegations that it shelters terrorist groups blamed for attacks in both countries, Pakistan has neither the economic power nor the diplomatic influence to pressure Qatar or Saudi Arabia to make the kind of concessions that likely will be needed to end the dispute. No progress made Prime Minister Nawaz met Monday with Saudi King Shah Salman bin Abdul Aziz in Jeddah, but no progress was reported in resolving the crisis. "Pakistan can play a positive role, but that will be very limited because Pakistan has not political or economic leverage," former Pakistani diplomat Javed Hafeez said. "Pakistan's role must be neutral. The United States and China are seen as more likely arbiters in what U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has called a "complex situation." A special adviser to Qatar's Foreign Minister Mutlaq al-Qahtani told the French news agency AFP that the crisis is not about terror financing, it is about "an orchestrated campaign ... to pressure [Qatar] to change its active, independent foreign policy." Arabia Foundation executive director Ali Shihabi told VOA's Victor Beattie he doesn't see the impasse ending soon. The crisis has led some countries to immediately take sides, with Turkey offering to send up to 3,000 troops to a new base in Qatar and dispatching food to ease any shortfalls caused by the severed transportation links. A large pro-Qatar demonstration was held in Istanbul on Sunday. Turkish President Erdogan denounced the isolation of Qatar as "inhumane and against Islamic values," adding, "Qatar has shown the most decisive stance against the ISIS, and victimizing Qatar serves no purpose." Choosing sides Iran also has sided with Qatar. Egypt is allied with Saudi Arabia; they share a common enemy in Akhwanul Muslimeen, a religious-political party with a strong base in Egypt that holds appeal for many Arabs. Pakistan's ties to the region are critical to the country and the standoff puts its loyalties right in the middle of the conflict. Some 4.4 million Pakistanis live in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and they send home $6 billion to $7 billion per year, providing a key source of foreign exchange. If the situation were to worsen, analysts believe any attempts to expel Pakistani workers or block remittances could have a major effect on Pakistan's economy. Ties are particularly close with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Pakistan relies on them for energy needs, like fuel, and signed a landmark 15-year deal last year with Qatar to import liquefied natural gas. Sharif also has benefited from support from both. When Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government in a bloodless coup in December 2000, the Saudi royals brokered a deal in which they took in him and his family until November 2007. The Saudi government also gave Sharif's government a grant of $1.5 billion in March 2014 to help meet debt-service obligations and undertake large development projects. At the time, Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's finance minister, called it "a gift" amid criticism from opposition parties. Pakistan Pakistan former general and defense analyst Gen. Talat Masood told VOA Urdu that such aid would make it hard for Pakistan to stay neutral now, and a former Pakistani general is heading a Saudi-led Sunni military coalition of over 40 nations. Sharif also has relied heavily, though, on a letter from former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber Al Thani as part of his defense in an ongoing corruption investigation that could unseat him. Sharif tried to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia early last year with no apparent success after Riyadh executed dissident Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on charges of terrorism, which was followed by the ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Other Pakistani international interventions have been less diplomatic. Shia Muslims in Bahrain, an ally of Saudi Arabia, have complained that their pro-democracy protests were quelled by Pakistani forces in 2007. During the "black September" of 1970, a brigade led by Pakistani brigadier Zia ul Haq was accused of killing 10,000 to 25,000 Palestinians who rose up against the Jordanian monarch, although more conservative estimates put the number between 1,000 and 2,000. Staffer Victor Beattie and VOA's Urdu, Deewa and Turkish services contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIS in Syria, Iraq From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 14, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 31 strikes consisting of 50 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. U.S. Central Command continues to work with partner nations to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 28 strikes consisting of 32 engagements against ISIS targets: -- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes destroyed three ISIS wellheads, three ISIS oil storage tanks and an ISIS oil separation tank. -- Near Dayr Az Zawr, five strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed nine ISIS oil storage tanks, two ISIS wellheads and a vehicle. -- Near Raqqa, 20 strikes engaged 14 ISIS tactical units; destroyed 12 fighting positions, five vehicles, five ISIS boats, two vehicle-borne bombs, a recoilless rifle, a command-and-control node and a tunnel; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit. Strikes in Iraq In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of 18 engagements against ISIS targets: -- Near Kisik, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed 12 fighting positions, a supply cache, a mortar system and a command-and-control node; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit. -- Near Mosul, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit, destroyed a fighting position and a command-and-control node and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit. -- Near Tuz, a strike damaged a fighting position. June 11-12 Strikes Additionally, 12 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on June 111-12 that closed within the last 24 hours. -- On June 11, near Raqqa, Syria, two strikes destroyed two fighting positions. -- On June 12, near Raqqa, Syria, nine strikes engaged six ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions, an improvised explosive device factory, an ISIS staging area, an ammo cache and a command-and-control node. -- On June 12, near Mosul, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a command-and-control node, a fighting positon and a supply cache. Part of Operation Inherent Resolve These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said. The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said. The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address VMA-311 conducts first APKWS live-fire training in Pacific US Marine Corps News By Cpl. Amaia Unanue | June 14, 2017 Marines with Marine Attack Squadron 311, currently attached to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (Reinforced), conducted training with the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System for the first time in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region during live-fire training in the skies above the W-183 range training area, Okinawa, Japan, June 9, 2017. VMA-311 pilots fly AV-8B Harrier jets fixed-wing aircraft capable of operating from the flight decks of amphibious warfare vessels. The Harriers launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), the flagship of the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group. VMM-265 is the Aviation Combat Element of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is currently embarked aboard the ships of the BHR ESG for a routine patrol of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The APKWS is a low-cost, laser-guided, modular system that attaches to unguided munitions. The APKWS gives Harrier pilots a lighter, precision air-to-ground attack option. Harrier pilots usually fire unguided rockets or drop unguided 500 pound bombs to destroy enemy threats, according to Capt. Paul M. Gucwa, a Harrier pilot with VMA-311. "We took eight shots and hit the target with all eight, and every single one of them was perfect," said Gucwa. "It worked completely as advertised. From bringing the system up from the bottom of the ship all the way to putting them on the target, it all went absolutely outstanding." Before mounting the weapons, VMA-311 aviation ordnance Marines pulled eight 2.75 inch rockets out of the BHR's munitions magazines, where ordnance is stored when the ship is underway. They then affixed the APKWSs to a pair of Harriers before the pilots departed the BHR, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Eric J. McCoy. "It's incredible to see the pilots come back with no ordnance after seeing my Marines out on the flight deck training and sweating under the sun," said McCoy. Throughout the training, aviation ordnance Marines worked alongside their Navy counterparts on the flight deck to prepare the AKPWS and to ensure safety for all involved. According to McCoy, refining the Navy-Marine Corps team was a supplementary goal of the exercise. "Not only did we conduct this exercise to test VMA-311's ability to tactically employ the weapon system, but also to test both VMA-311 and our Navy partners' proficiency at supporting the ESG's mission," said McCoy. The 31st MEU partners with the Navy's Amphibious Squadron 11 to form the amphibious component of the BHR ESG. The 31st MEU and PHIBRON 11 combine to provide a cohesive blue-green team capable of accomplishing a variety of missions across the Indo-Asia-Pacific. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MWSS-473 participates in exercise Maple Flag 50 US Marine Corps News By Cpl. Gabrielle Quire | June 14, 2017 Marines with Marine Wing Support Squadron 473, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Forces Reserve participated in exercise Maple Flag 50, May 24 to June 9, 2017. Exercise Maple Flag is an international air combat exercise hosted annually since 1967 by the Royal Canadian Air Force at Armed Forces Base Cold Lake in Alberta, Canada. During Maple Flag, Marines with MWSS-473 conducted multiple simultaneous training evolutions providing ground support to partner nation aviation elements participating in the exercise. Operations included establishing multiple forward arming and refueling points, setting up a tactical water purification system and motor transportation support. MWSS-473 also augmented Canadian forces with crash fire rescue Marines, corpsmen, and with general logistical support to the RCAF and International NATO counterparts. "The Marine Corps has been a huge support to Maple Flag, I honestly don't know if we could run the exercise without the Marines," said RCAF Maj. Christopher Horch, commanding officer, Air Force Tactical Training Centre, 4 Wing Cold Lake. "We rely on them for many of our augmentee positions. They provide great service to the Canadian Air Force." One of the squadron's accomplishments while at the exercise was establishing a four-point static FARP, capable of refueling four aircraft simultaneously, providing real world refueling support to RCAF CH-147 Chinook and CH-146 Griffon type model series. On June 5, 2017, a RCAF Chinook airlifted a sling loaded helicopter expedient refueling system fuel pod to resupply fuel at the FARP site. This type of airlift and resupply was executed for the first time in the history of the exercise. From the moment boots touched the ground, MWSS-473 integrated fully with base operations. The crash fire rescue Marines trained with Canadian firefighters from 4 Wing Cold Lake Fire Services in structural firefighting using live fire, search and rescue, hydraulic ventilation and automobile extrication. The Marines rotated shifts with the 4 Wing fire crews, spending nights at the station and responding to calls alongside their Canadian counterparts. "I've worked with other military forces before, including the Royal Marines, and now with the Royal Canadian Air Force," said Staff Sgt. John T. Richie, a crash fire rescue Marine with MWSS-473. "No matter where you go, firefighting is a brotherhood. Working with the Canadians has been a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world." Flexing their full range of capabilities as a support squadron, the Marines also established a tactical water purification system which drew water from Cold Lake and provided over 2,000 gallons of fresh drinking water to the FARP site in the first 24 hours of its launch. This was useful training to many Marines of MWSS-473's utilities platoon who worked with the TWPS for the first time. On June 6, 2017, Marines were visited by Lt. Gen. Rex C. McMillian, commander, Marine Forces Reserve, Brig. Gen. Bradley S. James, commanding general, 4th MAW, and several other MARFORRES and 4th MAW leaders. McMillian spoke to the Marines about training efficiently and being prepared to mobilize at a moment's notice. "You give the wing its maneuver element," McMillian said. "Don't waste a minute of your training, your drill weekends and every opportunity you have, because when we call you, the training is over." Marines of MWSS-473 are confident in their readiness. "There's a lot of preparation that goes into getting ready to mobilize," said Gunnery Sgt. Brent Baca, the expeditionary fire and rescue staff non-commissioned officer in charge for MWSS-473. "Everything from medical and dental readiness to dry runs and equipment preparation. We cover everything so that by the time we get here, the Marines are competent and committed to the job." Marine Corps presence is heavy at AFB Cold Lake during Maple Flag. Marines from Marine Air Control Squadron 2 are currently still participating in the exercise and a small cadre of Marine Corps weapons and tactics instructor pilots spent almost three weeks advising the 4 Wing Cold Lake Advanced Tactical Aviation Course on how attack helicopters would integrate with fixed wing assets during assault operations. Maple Flag is based on the United States Air Force's Exercise Red Flag, a premier air-to-air combat training exercise held several times a year at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The exercises were developed in response to observations made during the Vietnam War that the majority of aircraft losses would happen during an aircrew's first 10 combat missions. To enhance the survivability and improve the performance of Canadian and allied aircrews, the training exercise provides them with their first 10 combat missions in a structured, academic setting. Participating in large scale exercises among foreign militaries and in realistic environments, like at Maple Flag 50, ensures Marines maintain high levels of proficiency and readiness necessary for worldwide deployment. "It's a great opportunity for us and the Marines to train alongside international partners because we get to exchange tactics and procedures out in the field," Horch said. Maple flag 50 is scheduled to conclude June 23, 2017. The exercise has armed U.S. Forces and NATO partners with knowledge and confidence integrating with partner-nation militaries, preparing them to respond together in future contingencies and operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US forces present in Philippines, not fighting Iran Press TV Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:37AM The Philippine military says US armed forces are on the ground in the Philippines near the town of Marawi, providing support to local forces without directly taking part in an ongoing battle against Daesh militants in the town. "There are some US personnel, who are operating equipment to provide information on situation awareness to our troops," said a Philippine military spokesman General Restituto Padilla. US forces "are allowed to carry rifles for self-defense. But they are not allowed to fight, they only provide support," he explained. Over the weekend, the US Embassy said that Washington offered the military support at the request of the Philippines' government to help operations against Daesh in Marawi, which are now in their third week. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, however, rejected the claim on Monday, saying he "never approached AmericaI haven't made an appeal." Philippine troops are fighting to dislodge at least 200 militants holed up in Marawi since last month. An estimated 500 to 1,000 civilians are trapped in the town, some of them are being used as human shields. The US's support for the Philippine military is coming despite strained ties between Washington and Manila and former calls by Duterte that he wanted US troops out of his country. Duterte repeatedly clashed with the US's former administration over his anti-drug campaign, which was criticized by former president Barack Obama and rights groups. US President Donald Trump, however, has described the campaign as a "great job" and invited his Philippine counterpart to the White House in April saying, "The Philippines is very important to me strategically and militarily." The US, which has had a logistical military presence in the Philippines, has so far refused to withdraw its forces and has pledged to remain committed to its "pursuit of shared objectives" in keeping with the "seven-decade alliance between our two countries." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address On Surprise Visit To Kabul, UN Chief Calls For Political Solution To Afghan Conflict RFE/RL June 14, 2017 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has used his unannounced visit to Kabul to issue a plea for all parties in the 15-year war in Afghanistan to find a political solution. "This is a war that has no military solution," Guterres said on June 14, standing in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Kabul that accommodates people displaced by fighting. "We need to have a political solution, we need to have peace," he added. After landing in the Afghan capital earlier in the day, Guterres wrote on Twitter that the UN "stands with Afghanistan at a time of violence and suffering." Guterres, who served previously as UN high commissioner for refugees, was set to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah. The UN secretary-general arrived in the Afghan capital following a Central Asian tour, during which he visited Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. UN Under-Secretary-General Jan Kubis traveled to Kabul earlier this week "in the interest of completing a [UN] Security Council-requested strategic review" of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and its work, UNAMA said. The visits follow a truck bombing in Kabul that killed more than 150 people on May 31 in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the ouster of the Taliban following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. They also come as displacements resulting from fighting have sharply increased, with at least 126,000 Afghans being forced to flee their homes this year, according to the UN. Meanwhile, more than 218,000 refugees have returned from neighboring Iran and Pakistan, adding to the 800,000 Afghans who had returned from the two countries last year. Funding Package On June 13, the World Bank approved a $520 million package of funding for projects to support Afghan refugees while boosting Afghanistan's economy and build critical infrastructure. The largest chunk of the package, $205.4 million, will go to communities affected by refugees returning from Pakistan, many of whom are living on subsistence income in rural areas or taking low-paid work in towns. The funding will help provide shelter, drinking water, food, and short-term job opportunities in public works projects for the refugees as well as other Afghan residents, potentially affecting 8.5 million people in all 34 Afghan provinces, the bank said. NATO forces have been withdrawing troops from Afghanistan since 2011, causing a deterioration of security which has fueled economic uncertainty and slower growth, and added to financial pressures on the government, the bank said. Thousands of international troops remained in Afghanistan to train and assist Afghan forces after NATO ended its combat mission there in 2014. But Afghan forces have since struggled to fend off the Taliban, which has gained control of more territory than any time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Media reported that U.S. President Donald Trump opened the door to troop increases in Afghanistan on June 13 by giving Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels there. Army General John Nicholson, who leads U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, has said he needs "a few thousand" more troops, up from 8,400 currently. The 3,000 to 5,000 additional forces being discussed at the Pentagon, some of which could be sent by U.S. allies, would largely consist of air crews and trainers to support Afghan forces. Mattis has warned Congress that Afghan forces are not winning the war against the Taliban, which he said is "surging" at the moment. The increase in troops under consideration would leave U.S. forces well below their 2011 peak of more than 100,000. Some officials have questioned whether a modest increase would be enough to turn the tide of the war. Also on June 14, Afghan officials said an explosives-laden motorcycle blew up inside a government militia commander's home in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika, killing at least four children and one adult and wounding six other people. In the southern province of Helmand, a suicide bombing killed at least four militants from a splinter group of the Afghan Taliban in what police attributed to internal rivalry. With reporting by AP, AFP, Pajhwok, and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-un-guterres -surprise-visit/28548066.html Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Real Quality': Serbia Looks Forward to Impending Delivery of MiG Fighter Jets Sputnik News 15:10 14.06.2017(updated 16:49 14.06.2017) Serbia's deal with Russia for the procurement of six MiG fighter jets and the modernization of an additional four from the existing Serbian fleet is a great deal which enables Belgrade to update its air force with quality planes at a lower price than neighbors in the region, Nenad Miloradovic of the Serbian defense ministry told Sputnik Srbija. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Serbia's then-Prime Minister, President Alexander Vucic, signed a deal for the sale of six MiG-29 fighter jets as well as the modernization of another four planes. At a meeting on the sidelines of the Astana Expo exhibition last week, Putin told Vucic that the new aircraft will be delivered by mid-July, a source told the Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti. Nenad Miloradovic, Serbia's Assistant Minister of Defense, told Sputnik Srbija that the sale is a great deal for Belgrade, enabling it to modernize its fleet at a much lower cost than neighbors in the region. "We are getting six MiG's from Russia for free, while the financial package includes modernization and repairs for them and four which the Serbian air force already has, which will prolong their service to a period of 30 years. We are buying extra equipment for maintenance over the next 14 years, plus we are getting modernization that will be carried out in three phases. For what we are paying, we are getting real quality, in comparison to what our neighbors have, above all regarding Western planes," Miloradovic said. Belgrade received exceptional terms for the sale, which includes repairs and upgrades to the planes. The cost will amount to 185 million euros ($207 million), including the cost of fuel storage facilities, hangers to store ten planes and the complete maintenance and modernization of the planes' missiles. In addition, Serbia will also receive 30 T-72 tanks and BDRM-2 amphibious armored patrol vehicles. "Apart from the planes, which will be modernized to the level of 4+ generation fighter jets, Serbia will receive for free the most advanced R-77 medium-range missiles with radar guidance as well as aerial bombs. Taking all this into account, the modernization of our air force is going to cost us three to five times less than other countries in the region." Retired air force general Dragan Katanic told Sputnik that Serbia has used Russian fighter jets since 1967-1968, when the then Yugoslav air force modernized its fleet by incorporating MiG-21 aircraft. The Yugoslav armed forces used three generations of the MiG-21 before modernizing again in 1978 with 16 MiG-29 aircraft. "During these 50 years, we got all our infrastructure and equipment from Russia (then the USSR). That's why the decision to continue using the MiG's is absolutely justified. After all, this way it takes us a lot less time and resources to re-equip pilots and technology than if we had turned to Western models. In addition, if we're talking about military specifications, the Russian planes are just as good as the Western ones," Katanic said. The twin-engine MiG-29 fighter jet has become the main fighter used by the Russian air force since it was first introduced in 1983, and it is in use in 25 countries worldwide. Production of the 4+ generation multi-role MiG-29SMT fighter began in 2004, which is equipped with additional fuel tanks, upgraded engine and increased weapons carriage capacity. It is equipped with the enhanced Zhuk-ME radar, which is able to track up to ten air targets and fire missiles at four targets simultaneously. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UAE Ambassador to US Suggests Removing US Airbase From Qatar Sputnik News 07:36 14.06.2017(updated 13:44 14.06.2017) UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba said that the United States should remove its airbase from Qatar as it acts as an insurance against action being taken against Doha amid ongoing diplomatic crisis. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The United States should remove its airbase from Qatar as it acts as an insurance against action being taken against Doha amid ongoing diplomatic crisis, United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba said. On June 5, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE cut diplomatic ties with Qatar citing Doha's alleged support of terrorism. Several other countries, including Chad and Senegal, recalled their ambassadors from Doha, while Jordan and Djibouti said they would lower the level of diplomatic contacts with Qatar. "The air base is a very nice insurance policy against any additional pressure. Maybe someone in Congress should have a hearing and just say, you know, 'Should we consider moving it?'" Al Otaiba said on Tuesday as quoted by The Hill newspaper. The ambassador stressed that the reason why no action against Doha had been taken was "because of the airbase." On June 5, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a joint press conference with Defense Secretary James Mattis that the United States was urging the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) and Qatar to resolve their issues and remain united. Meanwhile, Qatar has denied the accusations and said that no retaliatory measures would be taken. The Al Udeid US Central Command (CENTCOM) military base in Qatar, the largest in the Middle East, is home to 10,000 US servicemen and serves as a major communications and operational center for Washington in the region. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Egypt Parliament Committee Approves Handover of Red Sea Islands to Saudi Arabia Sputnik News 06:32 14.06.2017(updated 12:54 14.06.2017) The Egyptian parliament committee on the legislative and constitutional affairs backed the maritime borders deal transferring two Egyptian islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, local media reported Tuesday. CAIRO (Sputnik) In April 2016, the authorities of Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed the agreement declaring the uninhabited Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir falling within the latter's territorial waters. The deal, which needs the parliament's ratification, sparked criticism and resulted in more than 150 people reportedly jailed in connection with the protests over the agreement. Forty three committee members approved the agreement while 8 parliamentarians voted against it after the 3-day-long hearings on the issue, Ahram Online news outlet reported. Egypt's Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Omar Marwan said that before passing to the general vote, the deal must be examined by the parliamentary defense committee, the media added. On Sunday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry said that the decision to hand the islands over to Saudi Arabia was taken after the conclusion had been reached by the Egyptian authorities that there was no legal foundation for Egypt's possession of the islands. Egypt occupied the two Saudi islands in 1967 to safeguard them against Israeli aggression, the minister added. Forty-seven percent of Egyptians consider the islands located in the strategic part of the Red Sea bordered by Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as Egyptian, the poll of the independent Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research cited by the same news outlet showed Tuesday. According to the survey data, only 11 percent believe that the islands are Saudi. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Islamic State Militants Capture Tora Bora By Ayesha Tanzeem June 14, 2017 Islamic State militants captured parts of Afghanistan's Tora Bora region Tuesday night, after days of heavy fighting with Afghan Taliban and pro-government militias. The remote, mountainous area contains a complex set of caves bordering Pakistan. It became well-known because al-Qaida head Osama bin Laden was cornered there by an American-led team, a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., but he escaped to Pakistan. Intense fighting started in the region almost a week ago when IS militants attacked Taliban positions. Initially, the Taliban managed to repel the attack and pushed IS back. Local, pro-Afghan government militias, that would usually be opposed to the Taliban, also fought IS. It was not clear whether they fought with the Taliban or separately, and whether the two sides had a de-facto temporary truce while they fought their common enemy. IS militants, however, have not just managed to defeat both to capture Tora Bora, they have started an assault against Pachiragam, one of the 22 districts in Nangarhar province. A VOA Pashto service reporter in the area, Zabihullah Ghazi, said the attack was intense and the district may be on the verge of collapse. Ataullah Khogyani, the Nangarhar governor's spokesman, said the situation in Pachiragam was tense but refused to share more details. No confirmation yet Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman General Dawlat Waziri, however, did not confirm the capture of Tora Bora. "We have seen IS activity in Chaprahar and Pachiragam since yesterday, but our forces are aware of situation," he said, adding that he was confident the Afghan forces would "crush" IS there, just as they had previously done in the Achin district. Achin is the same district where the United States military dropped its biggest non-nuclear explosive, commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs, in April. Despite the assurances, local authorities severely criticized the central government, which they said failed to provide extra weapons to local militias despite promises. The VOA reporter said the Afghan government has little control on the ground in Tora Bora. Local sources say both sides suffered heavy casualties in the fighting last week but journalists could not independently confirm any details due to lack of access caused by security concerns. Locals flee Hundreds of residents from Tora Bora had taken refuge in Pachiragam for fear of IS when the fighting started a week ago. With IS approaching Pachiragam, further internal displacement was expected. The Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISKP, the chapter of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, initially emerged in early 2015 in eastern Afghanistan. VOA reporting on the origins of IS in eastern Afghanistan disclosed that most of the militants initially came to Afghanistan from the Orakzai Agency of Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan. Initially they came with their families, pretending to be refugees displaced by a military operation launched by Pakistan in 2014. Locals told VOA they claimed to be from the Tirah Valley of North Waziristan and spoke with an Orakzai dialect. General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that most militants in ISKP were former Pakistani Taliban who moved into Nangarhar. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Belarus-Russia Drills to Continue 'No Matter How Much West Pushes' Sputnik News 18:43 14.06.2017(updated 19:10 14.06.2017) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has confirmed that his country will take part in the Zapad-2017 joint drills with Russia this fall, no matter how much external pressure is brought to bear against Minsk. The joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 exercises will take place September 14-20, simulating a NATO invasion of Russian and Belarusian territory. Ahead of the drills, anonymous US officials indicated that the US military would increase the number of troops it has deployed in the Baltic region to monitor the exercises. Earlier, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite claimed that Zapad-2017 "demonstrates the preparation of Belarus and Russia to wage war with the West." Lithuanian officials have also warned that the drills would give Russia a 24-48 hour window to mobilize and invade the Baltics. Russian officials called the claims "hysterical Russophobia." Polish and Ukrainian officials also saw fit to speculate about the 'true purpose' of the drills (which take place once every four years). The Polish defense minister even suggested that Russian troops might stay in Belarus after the drills' end, a claim that Russia's ambassador to Belarus dismissed. Commenting on the speculation surrounding the drills at a meeting with defense ministers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko described the rumors as "noise." "There is too much noise, although I can't understand why, around the large-scale Belarusian-Russian exercises taking place in Belarus this fall," Lukashenko said. "But no matter how much we are squeezed, we will hold these exercises. We aim to make them massive, and very serious. I know that Russia shares this sentiment," he added. Lukashenko emphasized that Russia and Belarus were not trying "to scare anyone" with the drills, but were simply working out a response to the strategy and tactics of the countries' potential NATO adversaries. The Belarusian president promised to invite CSTO defense ministers, and others, to observe the drills. "These drills will be open," he said. "Let them observe our capabilities. We are very serious about making the drills on Belarusian territory highly effective, and will try to give them a large and diverse character, so that our militaries those of Russia and Belarus, get a sense for what it is they are protecting, and what obligations are laid out before them." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India Successfully Test-Fires Missile Rival of Israeli Spike & US's Javelin Sputnik News 11:24 14.06.2017 India has successfully test-fired its third generation anti-tank missile at the Pokhran range. Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Prospina missile is claimed to be far superior to Javelin of the US and Israeli Spike missile. New Delhi (Sputnik) Prospina, which has 'fire & forget' and 'top attack' capabilities, will be highly supportive to the mechanized infantry and airborne forces of Indian Army. The test also comes a few days ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel. "The Fire and Forget 3rd generation ATGM Nag is incorporated with many advanced technologies including the imaging infrared radar (IIR) seeker with integrated avionics, a capability which is possessed by few nations in the world. The capabilities of the top attack ATGM Nag is unique in nature and in today's mission it successfully destroyed the target," India's Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday evening. "The successful flight test of 3rd generation ATGM Nag further strengthens the country's defense capabilities," Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy, scientific advisor to country's defense minister & Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems), said. Last year, guided flight tests of the missile were carried out with the objective of demonstrating range capabilities of IIR seeker during the worst time of the day in summer. But, it had reported some problems in differentiating the target from the surroundings in temperature above 47 degree Celsius. On the Army's request, scientists made some technical changes and fitted highly sensitive detector for sensing infra red signals. The Indian Army has a total requirement of 40,000 anti-tank guided missiles in the next 20 years and desperately needs missiles like Prospina which can hit high-speed moving tanks without support of operator. DRDO has developed this missile at a cost of more than $51 million. Israeli Spike has won the government tender in 2014 but single vendor situation may create problem for inking deal expected during Modi's visit to Israel in July. India's defense procurement policy has not allowed such purchase where only one company becomes eligible for tender. Indian government may consider Spike purchase as Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has agreed to transfer the technology of Spike missile under Make in India project whereas contract may be signed for building 1,500 systems and around 30,000 additional missiles in India. On the other hand, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Company had entered into a deal with India's Tata Power for the co-development and production of Javelin anti-armor missile system last September. If Army officers are satisfied with Prospina, the Indian government is likely to prefer it against any foreign missile. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran calls on US to fulfill commitments under nuclear deal Iran Press TV Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:44PM Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says the US needs to honor its commitments under the landmark nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries. Reza Najafi made the remarks while speaking to reporters in Vienna on Wednesday after an IAEA Board of Governors meeting, which focused on a report by the agency's chief, Yukiya Amano, on the implementation of the Iranian nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). During the session, we said the way the US is dealing with its commitments under the JCPOA is not acceptable to Iran, and the US needs to live up to its obligations, Najafi said. The envoy said Iran's nuclear program was going ahead as per the JCPOA and that the latest IAEA report showed Iran's commitment to all of its obligations. We, however, stressed during the meeting that the JCPOA would be "sustainable" only if all parties fulfilled their obligations stipulated in the deal, he added. Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany signed the JCPOA in July 2015 and started implementing it in January 2016. Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran. During his presidential campaign, US President Donald Trump had promised to ditch the nuclear accord which he referred to as a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated." The IAEA, which is monitoring the implementation of the JCPOA, has confirmed Iran's commitment to its obligations under the agreement. Iran in talks to sell excess heavy water Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian envoy said Iran was in talks with potential buyers to sell its excess heavy water. As part of the JCPOA, Iran is expected to keep its heavy water stockpile below 130 metric tonnes. The deal says all excess heavy water "will be made available for export to the international market based on international prices and delivered to the international buyer." The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in October last year that Iran had sold 32 tonnes of heavy water to the United States and delivered 38 tonnes of the nuclear substance to Russia. Ali Akbar Salehi also said in November 2016 that the country had transferred 11 tonnes of heavy water to Oman as part of its obligations under the JCPOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraqi forces repulse major Daesh counter-attack in western Mosul Iran Press TV Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:53PM Iraqi army soldiers have thwarted a major counter-attack by members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in a western district of Mosul as government forces and allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units are pushing to drive the extremists out of their last bastion in the strategic northern city. Military and security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more than 100 Daesh militants sneaked into the western Dandan neighborhood at dawn from the Tigris River and took over a mosque. The Takfiris then used the loudspeakers at the mosque to announce the assault. Following the takeover of the mosque, the militants moved to the adjacent neighborhoods of Dawasa and Nabi Sheet, where they broke into houses and engaged in fierce clashes with security forces. Eleven Federal Police troops and four civilians reportedly lost their lives in the clashes. An unnamed police commander said dozens of Daesh militants were killed in the operation to push back the extremists, many of whom were wearing explosives-laden vests. Meanwhile, Federal Police Forces Commander Lieutenant General Shaker Jawdat announced in a statement that more than 1,200 Daesh militants, including snipers and leaders, had been killed ever since government forces and allied fighters launched an offensive in February to liberate western Mosul. Jawdat said 27 leaders and 214 snipers were killed during military operations there, while 300 square kilometers of land were retaken. Iraqi police also destroyed 865 vehicles rigged with explosives and defused 780 landmines. Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by their Arabic name, Hashd al-Sha'abi, have made sweeping gains against the Takfiri elements since launching the Mosul operation on October 17, 2016. The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address First F-35 Fighter Jet Assembled in Japan Carries Out Successful Test Flight Sputnik News 06:14 14.06.2017 The first F-35 fighter jet assembled in Japan completed its maiden flight, local media reported Tuesday. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The aircraft's test flight from an airport in Japan's central Aichi prefecture took about two hours, Japan's NHK broadcaster reported. The Japanese Defense Ministry officials who checked the plane's functions, noted the aircraft's ability to maneuver and said everything was functioning normally, the reports added. After several more tests in Japan, the F-35 fighter jet will be used in training flights in the United States, according to the broadcaster. On June 5, the US defense and aerospace company Lockheed Martin announced in a press release that the Japanese manufacturing company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has successfully assembled the first of 38 F-35 fighters in a US-supervised contract. The Japanese Ministry of Defense selected the F-35 as the nation's next-generation air defense fighter jet in December 2011, and won US approval for a fleet of 42 jets, the release explained. The first four jets were previously built in the United States and delivered to Japan, while the remaining 38 will be assembled by Mitsubishi under supervision of Lockheed Martin and US government officials, according to the document. F-35 is a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed for many missions with advanced, integrated sensors built into every aircraft. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Launches Tactical, Naval Aviation Drills in Western Military District Sputnik News 14:41 14.06.2017 According to Russian Defense Ministry, tactical and naval aviation exercises kicked off in the Western Military District. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russian Baltic Fleet troops launched tactical and naval aviation exercises in the Western Military District, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. "The joint flight and tactical exercise of the operational-tactical aviation of the Baltic Fleet's Air Force and Air Defense and naval aviation units kicked off in the Western Military District. Pilots of the operational-tactical aviation from [Russia's western] Voronezh Region started practicing joint actions with fighters of the Baltic Sea Fleet's naval aviation over the Baltic Sea. The training flights are carried out in accordance with the international norms regulating the use of airspace," Western Military District spokesman Col. Igor Muginov told reporters. Su-34 fighter-bombers have been relocated from the Voronezh Region to an airfield in Russia's northwestern Kaliningrad Region to take part in the drills and are to work out cooperation with the Baltic Fleet's air force, Migunov added. According to the spokesman, up to 20 planes and helicopters, as well as about 200 troops, are participating in the drills that continue until the end of the week. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address One killed as Saudi forces intensify attacks on Shia town Iran Press TV Wed Jun 14, 2017 4:39PM Saudi regime forces have launched a fresh wave of attacks against a besieged town in Saudi Arabia's Shia-populated Eastern Province, killing at least one person and injuring nearly 40 others over the past 48 hours. The casualties came after Saudi troops, equipped with heavy weapons, waged new offensive against Awamiyah, located some 390 kilometers northeast of the capital, Riyadh, London-based and Arabic-language Nabaa television news network reported. There are reportedly several women and children among those injured in the raids. Meanwhile, Abdulmohsin Abdullah al-Faraj, a prominent Shia activist, who was critically injured during an attack by Saudi troops, succumbed to his wounds on Thursday. Death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are said to be in critical condition. The developments come as a fierce crackdown on protesters there enters its sixth week. At least a dozen people have lost their lives in the ongoing heavy-tactic crackdown by Riyadh regime since then. Residents have been forced to stay indoors due as the regime has deployed snipers across the entire region. Garbage has piled up as Saudi forces continue to prevent relevant authorities from collecting trash across several areas. Security forces equipped with heavy weapons have been deployed in Eastern Province's Awamiyah since May 10, following fierce clashes between the regime forces and locals protesting against the destruction. On May 24, UN experts have criticized the ongoing attempts to demolish Mosara and accused the Saudi kingdom of erasing cultural heritage, violating human rights, and forcing residents to flee their homes. According to a statement issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Karima Bennoune, the UN Special Rapporteur accused Saudi security forces of "irreparably burning down" historic buildings and forcing residents to flee their homes. Bulldozers escorted by heavily armored military vehicles have demolished several houses, business and historical sites across the Shia-majority region over the past few weeks. A number of human rights groups and activists have expressed deep concern about the living conditions of people in Awamiyah who are suffering from a severe water shortage and are using private generators to produce electricity. Also in late May, a Saudi court handed down death sentences to over a dozen young Shia activists from the restive Qatif region, which has been the scene of peaceful protest rallies against the ruling Al Saudi regime in recent years. Eastern Province has been the scene of anti-regime protests since early 2011. Riyadh has stepped up security measures in the Shia-majority region. Protesters want freedom of speech, the release of political prisoners, and an end to economic and religious discrimination exercise by authorities. Demonstrations intensified in the province after the January 2016 execution by the regime of respected Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The protests have been met with a heavy-handed crackdown by the regime. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Senate Narrowly Defeats Bid To Block Some Saudi Arms Sales RFE/RL June 14, 2017 The U.S. Senate has narrowly defeated a move to block President Donald Trump's planned sale of $500 million in precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia out of concern they could be used to kill civilians in Yemen. The Senate's 53-47 vote on June 13 cleared the way for the United States to deliver the weapons, which are part of Trump's proposed $110 billion arms package for Riyadh. The Trump deal reversed a decision by former President Barack Obama to withhold sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia's armed forces after a Saudi air strike on a funeral in Yemen last year killed more than 140 people. While Trump has touted the arms sales as a boon for jobs in the U.S. defense industry and the fight against Iran-backed militias and terrorists in the Middle East, opponents of the sales are concerned about Saudi human rights abuses and mass killings of civilians in Yemen's civil war. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other senators who supported the sales said the United States can't deny its Middle East allies the weapons they need to combat Islamic State extremists and rein in Iran's aggression in the region. Senator Lindsey Graham said rejecting the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia would have been a victory for Iran. "If you don't think containing Iran and keeping them from toppling Yemen, Iraq, Syria, [and] Lebanon is in our national interest, you're making a huge mistake," he said. But Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who led opposition to the arms sales along with Republican Senator Rand Paul, said the close vote showed that "Congress is finally taking notice that Saudi Arabia is using U.S. munitions to deliberately hit civilian targets inside Yemen." Paul, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination last year, said Saudi Arabia was the "No. 1 exporter of jihadist philosophy" in the world. "I am embarrassed that people would bring up trying to feather the nests of corporations in order to sell these weapons," Paul said. "Saudi Arabia is not a reliable ally." The war in Yemen is pitting the country's internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, against Iranian-backed Shi'ite rebels known as Huthis. The Saudi-led coalition, which is supported by the United States, has been carrying out air strikes in Yemen since March 2015, and thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting, most of them due to the air strikes, according to the United Nations. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Senate should have refused to give the most sophisticated and deadly weapons to the Saudis. "We need to send a message to both the Trump administration and the Saudis to work much harder to avoid civilian casualties, expedite humanitarian relief, and push for a peaceful end to the war through a negotiated political settlement," Cardin said. With reporting by AP and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-senate-narrowly-defeats-bid-block- precision-munition-sales-saudi-arabia/28547718.html Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian delegation in Baghdad discusses border security Iran Press TV Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:25PM A high-level delegation from the Syrian Defense Ministry has held talks in Baghdad with Iraqi officials on border security to coordinate the ongoing fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. Iraq's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, the army's chief of staff, met with a "high-level delegation" from Syria. "The meeting discussed ... the Iraqi-Syrian field of operations, it being one field against a common enemy, which is the terrorist Daesh organization...," the statement read. "We discussed holding Syria-Iraq borders to maintain pressure on the terrorist enemy and establishing a joint operations center through which both sides can coordinate." Ghanmi said the two sides had agreed to continue exchange of intelligence to provide flexibility for Iraqi air forces to bomb targets near the border. In February, Iraqi fighter jets struck Daesh targets inside Syria in what appeared to be the first time Iraqi planes had conducted such raids across the border. A Syrian source said the strikes had been coordinated. Syrian troops backed by volunteer forces in Syria's southeast desert reached the Iraqi border last week near Tanf base. The move toward the border took place in a number of directions in the semi-arid al-Badiya region. Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network, citing an unnamed military commander, reported on Monday that the Syrian army units in cooperation with allies had managed to score territorial gains and were now only 600 meters away from the Iraqi border. Various foreign-backed terrorist groups have been wreaking havoc in Syria since 2011. The Daesh Takfiri terrorists were reportedly among militants initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government. Over the past few months, Syrian forces have made sweeping gains against Takfiri elements, who have lately increased their acts of violence across the country following a series of defeats on the ground. Daesh unleashed its campaign of death and destruction in Iraq in 2014, seizing the northern city of Mosul and declaring it as its stronghold in the Arab country. Since October 2016, Iraqi army soldiers and allied volunteer fighters have been leading a major operation to retake Mosul. Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January and launched another offensive in the west in February. The full liberation of Mosul would likely spell the end for the so-called Daesh caliphate. In recent years, Iran, Iraq, Russia and Syria have agreed through a series of agreements to step up cooperation in their fight against Takfiri terror groups operating in the Middle East. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Why Islamic State Chose Raqqa as Its Syrian Capital By Rikar Hussein June 14, 2017 U.S.-backed forces are continuing their assault on the Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa. Here's a look at Raqqa and how IS turned the city into its de facto capital in Syria. Raqqa is a remote oil-rich provincial city in northern Syria on the north bank of the Euphrates River. Dating back to the Hellenistic period, the city was an important trading post between the Sassanid and Byzantine empires. Between the years 796 and 809 - during a period generally seen as the "golden age" of Islam the then ruler of the Abbasid caliphate, Harun al-Rashid, moved his capital from Baghdad to Raqqa. Before the outbreak of Syria's civil war in 2012, Raqqa had a diverse population of nearly 300,000 residents, making it the sixth largest city in Syria. Sunni Arab tribes made up the majority in the city, but there were also a significant number of minorities such as Kurds and Christians. The four most prominent Sunni tribes known as al-Bayattrah, al-Ajeel, al-Breij, and al-Na'im, made up about 115,000 residents of the province and had significant influence. How did IS gain Raqqa? During the beginnings of rebel uprisings against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Raqqa became known as "the hotel of the revolution" due to increased migration of anti-government protesters from major Syrian cities. "It provided a very fertile ground for the Syrian opposition especially the Islamic side of it, and to some extent probably even for IS, because of the widespread antipathy among especially more outlined Sunni Arabs to the Assad regime for sectarian reasons," David Pollock, a Middle East expert at the Washington Institute, told VOA. First major city to fall In March 2013, Raqqa became the first major city to fall to the rebel Free Syrian Army and al-Qaida affiliated al-Nusra Front (currently Jabhat Fateh al-Sham). Many members of the al-Nusra Front in the city were already affiliated with then Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and were sent into the city to help their jihadi brethren led by Syrian al-Qaida leader Abu Mohammed al-Joulani. Over time, more extreme elements of Islamic armed groups close to al-Baghdadi migrated to the city and al-Nusra Front turned against the Free Syrian Army and opened sharia courts in the city. In April 2013, al-Baghdadi released a recording in which he announced the merger of ISI with the al-Nusra front to form the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and asked al-Nusra members to disband and join ISIL ranks. Al-Qaida leaders Ayman al-Zawahiri and al-Joulani rejected the merger, but the ranks of al-Nusra Front gradually shrank in favor of ISIL. By January 2014, as the relationship between ISIL and al-Qaida deteriorated, ISIL took complete control of Raqqa. Members of the Free Syrian Army or al-Nusra Front who did not pledge allegiance to ISIL were either killed or forced to flee. Why de facto capital? In June 2014 the group renamed itself Islamic State and chose Raqqa as the center of its self-styled caliphate. IS leader al-Baghdadi allegedly saw his brutal regime as the second coming of the Abbasid caliphate. "When al-Baghdadi was giving a speech declaring his caliphate, he was dressed to look like an Abbasid caliph," Mustafa Abdi, a Syrian activist from Hasakah province told VOA. "He was wearing a black attire which was the regional color of the Abbasid caliphs." By declaring Raqqa as the capital of IS, al-Baghdadi wanted to tell Muslims he was following the steps of the most powerful Abbasid ruler in history, Harun al-Rashid, according to Abdi. Raqqa's proximity to the Iraqi border and the strong ties of its tribes to Iraqi clans also allowed IS to use Raqqa to freely operate across the border and move back and forth between the two countries based on shifting battle needs. "The semi desert landscape of Raqqa has made it possible for IS to move across a vast land almost with no challenges," Zagros Qamishlo, a commander of Kurdish forces in Syria known as the People's Protection Units, told VOA. She said IS has turned to informal routes as U.S.-backed Syrian forces have controlled Raqqa's main highways. How IS ruled Raqqa? Over the three years of brutal IS rule, Raqqa became a gathering place for thousands of foreign fighters from dozens of countries to join the IS cause. IS transformed Raqqa into what activists monitoring from abroad described as an enormous prison. It abolished old ways of life in the city and forced residents to follow its strict interpretations of sharia law. Those who did not follow were either executed or forced to flee. A group of activists, displaced from their hometown and living in exile abroad, founded the Facebook page "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" and started documenting the militants' terror through a network of informants who remained in Raqqa. What remains of IS in Raqqa? U.S. officials estimate that there are currently about 3,000 to 4,000 IS fighters in Raqqa. They expect U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to make steady advances into the city as they provide aerial power in support. "The liberation of Raqqa will deal the enemy a punishing blow and further degrade their ability to move throughout the region and further spread terror and kill innocent civilians," U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon said last week. Experts say Raqqa might remain unstable long after IS is removed. They say the city's complex demography and its remote location are likely to continue to attract local actors for influence, regardless of events elsewhere in Syria. "The battle to retake Raqqa will be very difficult, and restoring security and governing the city will be even more difficult," Ibrahim Al-Assil, an analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told VOA. He said the U.S.-led coalition needs to make sure the Syrian regime does not control Raqqa in the future to prevent IS and other Sunni Islamist groups from exploiting the city's tribes. "The city should be governed by its people; that is the best way to stabilize the city, restore security, and make sure IS doesn't return to Raqqa in the future," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Civilians, Infrastructure Targeted by Warring Parties By Lisa Schlein June 14, 2017 The Commission of Inquiry on Syria finds civilians and civilian infrastructure continue to be deliberately targeted by the warring factions, with complete disregard for international law that calls for the protection of civilians in conflict. The commission calls the establishment of de-escalation zones a step in the right direction. It says these zones agreed to by Russia, Iran and Turkey have resulted in a reduction in violence around Idlib and western Aleppo. But, it adds, hostilities continue unabated in the de-escalation zones around Homs, Damascus and southern Daraa. "Whether it be the unrestrained use of airstrikes against residential neighborhoods, attacks against doctors and hospitals, or the use of suicide bombers that deliberately target civilians, fighting remains brutal in purpose and reprehensible in method," said the commission's chair, Paulo Pinheiro. Pinheiro says the de-escalation zones have not improved the delivery of humanitarian aid. He says the United Nations has been permitted to make just one delivery of food, medicine and other assistance this year. The situation is even worse outside the few de-escalation zones. For example, he notes, the battle to retake Raqqa from Islamic State is heating up, resulting in a staggering loss of civilian life. Pinheiro says the commission has documented what he calls a catalog of horrors committed during more than six years of civil war, and the perpetrators of the crimes must be held accountable. "Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, blatant violations of abuses of human rights law, and continuous, willful violations of international humanitarian law, this lack of respect for international norms, and basic notions of humanity, must not continue to go unaddressed," he said. Members of the Commission of Inquiry are calling for the warring parties to work for an inclusive political settlement. They say this is the only long-term hope to end the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 1,500 British troops exercising with NATO allies in Europe 14 June 2017 Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon visits some of the 1,500 British personnel currently exercising across five countries in Europe. The Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has today visited some of the 1,500 British personnel currently exercising across five countries in Europe, joining NATO allies in a sign of solidarity against any potential threat. Sir Michael met with the troops in Romania, including the UK's 20th Armoured Brigade as part of NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force Land component, which the UK took the lead of in January this year. The approximately 500-strong British force have been deployed on Exercise Noble Jump, working alongside 14 partner nations and testing NATO's ability to deploy forces quickly and in response to a crisis. Elsewhere in Europe, a company of 45 Commando of the Royal Marines joined the US-led Sabre Strike exercise in Latvia and Lithuania, working alongside Norwegian and Polish forces. Troops from the Light Dragoons and amphibious engineers from 75 Engineer Regiment also joined the exercise in Poland while the Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup 5 Rifles exercised in Estonia. Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: "The UK is playing a leading role in the NATO alliance and with around 1,500 British personnel exercising in Europe this week, nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in this region. We are standing side by side with our allies in the East, a sign of our unwavering commitment to European security." While in the country, Sir Michael is also visiting Royal Air Force personnel deployed to Romania as part of the NATO Southern Air Policing mission. The detachment of four Typhoon fighter jets from 3 Fighter Squadron has been based in Mihail Kogalniceanu Airbase in south east Romania since May. Deployed for up to four months, they are working alongside the Romanian Air Force to police the skies over the Black Sea. Sir Michael added: "The UK is stepping up in its support for NATO's collective defence from the north to the south of the alliance. Through this deployment, RAF planes will be ready to secure NATO airspace and provide reassurance to allies in the Black Sea region." During his visit, Sir Michael toured the airbase and spoke with RAF personnel deployed on the Mission. The Defence Secretary also witnessed the fighter jets participate in a practice Quick Reaction Alert. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ArcticSites and Etix Everywhere Team Up to Develop a Data Center Above the Arctic Circle in Sweden June 2017 by Emmanuelle Lamande Etix Everywhere and Swedish agency ArcticSites announce the start of the pre-ordering phase of a future, Tier III+ design colocation data center, Etix Jokkmokk #1, at hydro power hub Porjus in Jokkmokk, Sweden. Pre-booking of rack-space has opened up and the construction starts as soon as a minimum level of pre-ordered capacity is reached. The data center will be marketed to local and international customers thanks to its highly developed connectivity. Given the technical design developed by Etix, the company only needs 16 weeks to deploy the data center, once the pre-ordering volume is reached. The customers of Etix Jokkmokk #1 will benefit from 24/7/365 monitoring by the Luxembourg Network Operations Center (NOC) and the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and perimeter-security technology developed by Etix Labs, the R&D team of Etix Everywhere. The Dan River Region lost a tireless advocate for business and workforce development Tuesday. Laurie Shelton Moran, president of the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce since 2002, died at Duke University Medical Center. She was 56. Laurie was well-known for her leadership and advocacy for the business community in Danville and Pittsylvania County, said Bert Eades, chairman of the chambers board of directors, in a prepared statement. During an interview Tuesday afternoon, Eades said he was devastated by the loss of Moran, who was such a charismatic, engaging, energetic person. Her role as chamber president included a wide range of duties and activities, including workforce development and organizing events. Her influence and reach was so broad in this community, Eades said. She was such a wonderful person. Ill miss her personally and professionally. Her passing is a loss for the entire community. She previously worked as communications manager for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.s Danville plant. Prior to that, she served as president of the Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, editor of the Gretna Gazette and Star-Tribune, and as a consultant to develop the strategic plan for Pittsylvania County Schools, according to her obituary. Lauries commitment to the community, our area businesses and economic development was unwavering, Eades said in a statement. Over the years, she served on a plethora of boards, including those for the Danville Regional Foundation, the Virginia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives for which she served as a past president, the National Association of Workforce Boards for which she served as past chairwoman, past vice chairwoman and past secretary. Moran also served as past president on the West Piedmont Workforce Investment Board. H. Lynnette Lawson, who worked with Moran as program manager at the chamber, said her legacy is passion turned into action for the good of Danville and Pittsylvania County. Lawson first met Moran when Lawson moved to Danville in 1992. She worked at the chamber for 10 years. We grew so much together as co-workers and friends during that time, said Lawson, event coordinator for Averett University. I learned more from her than words can adequately capture. Moran cared deeply about this community and she worked ceaselessly to move it forward, Lawson added. She became chamber president when Danville and Pittsylvania County merged their chambers in 2002 and has been an inspirational leader for the organization ever since, Eades said in a prepared statement. We all have fond memories of working with her and are grateful for her many contributions to the community, Eades said in a statement. Julie Brown, director of advanced learning at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, called Moran the hardest working professional I knew. She was my sister, twin, mentor, Brown said. She loved this community and worked tirelessly every day to make things better. She made me better. The world is less vibrant today but will forever be brighter because of Laurie Moran. Danville Mayor John Gilstrap called Moran such a beautiful person and a dynamic person for our community. She represented Danville and Pittsylvania County so well, Gilstrap said. She will be dearly missed. Moran and Gilstrap served together in Riverview Rotary, where she was president. She did an excellent job, of course, Gilstrap said. Moran always followed through on what she said she would do, and she was instrumental in combining the two chambers, Gilstrap said. She also played a major role in industry and business recruitment in the region, as well as workforce development, he said. Danville City Councilman Gary Miller said Danville and Pittsylvania County lost their No. 1 ambassador. She was a good friend of mine, Miller said. Im just stunned. Moran served on the board of trustees for Danville Regional Medical Center for a number of years, Miller said. Bob Warren, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, said Moran was the go-to person for information and so willing to share whatever she could to help the region grow. She is just going to be vitally missed. I lost a personal friend, not just someone you work with professionally, Warren said. I dont ever remember seeing or talking to Laurie when she didnt have a smile on her face. She always had a positive attitude, he said. Even in her illness, she maintained that positive attitude and was always trying to help others, Warren said. Arlene Creasy remembered Moran as a true leader for the city of Danville and county of Pittsylvania and the state of Virginia. She had the respect of all who knew her, Creasy said. Her leadership and knowledge will be missed by each of us. She was a great woman, an amazing lady, and my wonderful friend. Moran also chaired the Dan River Region Collaboratives participation in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and was a member of ACTs National Workforce Solutions Advisory Board. Moran also served on boards for the following organizations: Smart Beginnings Danville Pittsylvania for which she was the immediate past chairwoman; United Way of Danville-Pittsylvania County for which she was past chairwoman; The Launch Place; the Council for Rural Virginia; and the Workforce Advisory Board of Danville Community College. She previously served on the advisory committee for the Barkhouser Free Enterprise Center at DCC, and on the advisory committee for National College. A member and past president of the Danville-Riverview Rotary Club, Moran was a past assistant governor for Area 7 of Rotary International District 7570 and served as the district membership chair. She is an alumna of Lynchburg College, and was named VACCE Executive of the Year in 2005 and was designated a certified chamber executive in 2006. Born Aug. 16, 1960 in Danville, she was a daughter of the late Edrie Lee Pete Shelton and Ruth Martin Shelton. She was also predeceased by a son, Bryant Moran and a brother-in-law, Aubrey Yeatts. She is survived by her husband, Bruce Moran, of the residence; two sons, Jeffrey Bond and wife, Megan of Danville and Austin Moran of Gretna; three sisters, Joan Yeatts of Gretna, Alice Gourley and husband, Barry, of Danville and Susan Elliott and husband, Milton, of Gretna; two grandchildren, Alex Bond and Evie Bond; and her mother-in-law, Fran Moran, according to her obituary. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Colbert Moran Funeral Home, 307 North Main St., Gretna. The funeral service will be at 11 a.m., Friday at First Baptist Church, 502 S. Main St., Gretna. In lieu of flowers, donations to the parking lot fund of First Baptist Church of Gretna have been requested. In honor of Lauries passion for her work and dedicated support of the business community, the chamber will continue to fulfill its mission of serving its members and improving the business environment by providing leadership, products, programs, and services which promote the success of its members, Eades said. The chamber office will operate on irregular hours on Friday so that staff may attend the funeral service; however, unless otherwise noted, chamber hours will continue as normal on other days. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jun 13, 2017) - Pretium Resources Inc. (TSX:PVG)(NYSE:PVG) ("Pretivm" or the "Company") announces that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed the consolidated putative securities class action lawsuit brought against the Company and certain of its officers and directors in January 2014, In re Pretium Resources Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 13-CV-7552. The Court ruled in favor of the Company and certain of its officers and directors on all claims and ordered the case closed. The Company is not aware of whether the plaintiffs will appeal the dismissal of the claims or will file any post-dismissal motions. About Pretivm Pretivm is commissioning the high-grade underground Brucejack gold mine in northern British Columbia with commercial production targeted for 2017. Forward-Looking Statements This News Release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Statements contained herein that are not based on historical or current fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "anticipates," "believes," "may," "continues," "estimates," "expects," and "will" and words of similar import, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking information may include, but is not limited to, information with respect to our planned exploration and development activities, the accuracy of our mineral resource estimates; capital and operating cost estimates; production and processing estimates; the results, the adequacy of Pretivm's financial resources, the estimation of mineral reserves and resources including the 2016 Valley of the Kings Mineral Resource estimate and the Brucejack Mineral Reserve estimate, realization of mineral reserve and resource estimates and timing of development of Pretivm's Brucejack Mine, costs and timing of future exploration, results of future exploration and drilling, production and processing estimates, capital and operating cost estimates, timelines and similar statements relating to the economic viability of the Brucejack Mine, timing and receipt of approvals, consents and permits under applicable legislation, Pretivm's executive compensation approach and practice, and adequacy of financial resources. Wherever possible, words such as "plans", "expects", "projects", "assumes", "budget", "strategy", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "targets" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative forms of any of these terms and similar expressions, have been used to identify forward-looking statements and information. Statements concerning mineral reserve and resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking information to the extent that they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered if the property is developed. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, those risks identified in Pretivm's Annual Information Form dated March 30, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and in the United States on Form 40-F through EDGAR at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking information is based on the expectations and opinions of Pretivm's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise. We do not assume any obligation to update forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the TSX nor the NYSE has approved or disapproved of the information contained herein. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 13, 2017) - East Asia Minerals Corp. (TSXV: EAS) (the "Company"), CEO, Terry Filbert provides a report after his initial trip to Indonesia. A team has been secured to bring the Sangihe project to the production license stage. Our efforts include the hiring of Frank Rocca as chief geologist. Mr. Rocca previously worked on both the Sangihe and Miwah projects for the Company, which allows the Company to immediately conduct the Feasibility Study and manage the AMDAL environmental report process for the Sangihe project. Mr. Rocca has over 25 years of experience in international exploration and mine development, including Indonesia, Australia, Africa, USA, and Chile. Mr. Rocca earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geology from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia. Mr. Rocca is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy with 12 years of experience in NI43-101 compliant Resources and Reserves reporting. The Company has appointed two Indonesian resident directors, Mr. Juangga Mangasi and Mr. Garry Killenstyn to the Board of Directors of our Indonesian subsidiary, Tambang Mas Sangihe which hold's the Company's 70% interest in the Sangihe project. Both Mr. Killenstyn and Mr. Mangasi have decades of mining experience in Indonesia. The Company has hired the initial employee team that will endeavor to bring the Sangihe project towards a positive production decision, currently projected to be early 2018. The Company has retained the services of the Armila Law Offices, located in Jakarta, to serve as the Company's legal representative in Indonesia and its representative to the Federal Indonesian Mining Department. Armila Law Offices is a leading Indonesian mining law firm specializing in providing legal advice to mining companies holding both IUP and CoW mining licenses and operations in Indonesia. The Company has established its new Indonesian office headquarters at the Noble House Office complex in the Mega Kumingan area of Jakarta. The Company has successfully negotiated an agreement with RT. Resindo Mining, an Indonesian consulting firm, to conduct the Feasibility study and manage the AMDAL environmental report process for the Sangihe project. Once the Sangihe project Feasibility Study and AMDAL Environmental reports are completed, and are accepted by the MEMR, gold production can begin at the Sangihe project. The Company cautions readers that the Company's production decision may not be based on a NI 43-101 feasibility study of mineral reserves that demonstrates economic and technical viability and as such, there may be involved increased uncertainty and various technological and economic risks outlined in the "forward looking statement" below. In furtherance of its efforts on the Miwah project, the Company held initial meetings with the local partner on the Miwah project to discuss the process to bring Miwah current and in compliance with both local and federal authorities. Mr. Filbert stated, "The re-start of the Indonesian operation, after having been shut down for over two years, has gone very well. With the securing of the team of former East Asia employees and consultants, and new employees, most of whom I have worked with in the past, we are re-establishing the Company's operations quickly in order to bring Sangihe into production. In addition, we are working with our Indonesian partner on the Miwah project to do the same for that project. After the production at the Sangihe project commences, the company will begin a drilling program that will hopefully expand the projects' resources." In recognition of the quick progress on the Company's efforts to re-establishment of gold production at Sangihe, the Company has determined that it needs to strengthen the Board of Directors' mining expertise. In recognition of this, Mr. Kim Oishi has volunteered to resign as a member of the Board of Directors in order to allow for the appointment of Mr. Gary Kielenstyn to the Board of Directors. Mr. Kielenstyn has three decades of mining experience in Indonesia and will not only provide support by serving on the Board of Directors of Tambang Mas Sangihe, he will provide the Board of Directors of the Company with his expertise as the current assets are moved into operational status and potential future opportunities are evaluated. Mr. Filbert stated, "I want to thank Mr. Oishi for his efforts on behalf of the Company and his willingness to step aside so that the Company could bring on Mr. Kielenstyn. I would like to thank Mr. Oishi for his valued and continued service as a consultant to the Company providing his knowledge and experience with funding and the capital markets." The Company also reports a correction of the finders' warrants disclosed in its May 8, 2017 news release. Each finders' warrant that was issued in connection to the private placement that closed on May 8, 2017 (the "Offering") entitles the holder to purchase one unit (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.12 per Unit for a period of two years from the closing of the Offering. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company's stock and one-half of a share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company's stock (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.50 per Warrant Share for a period of five years from the closing of the Offering. The remaining material terms of the Offering remain as announced on May 8, 2017. The Company plans to provide shareholders with updates on a regular basis as we move forward on our projects in Indonesia. Frank Rocca BAppSc.(Geology), MAusIMM, Chief Geologist of East Asia Minerals Corp. is the Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information presented in this news release. For further information please contact: Ward Kondas 778-918-8384 wkondas@gmail.com For further information, visit the Company's website at www.eaminerals.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements in this News Release, which are not historical in nature, constitute "forward looking statements" within the meaning of that phrase under applicable Canadian securities law. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements or information concerning future work programs, results and timing of any work programs, the Company's performance or events as of the date hereof. These statements reflect management's current assumptions and expectations and by their nature are subject to certain underlying assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Those risks include the interpretation of drill results; the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with our expectations; commodity and currency price fluctuation; failure to obtain adequate financing; regulatory, recovery rates, refinery costs, and other relevant conversion factors, permitting and licensing risks; general market and mining exploration risks and production and economic risks related to design and engineering, manufacturing, technological processes and test procedures and the risk that the project's output will not be salable at a price that will cover the project's operating and maintenance costs. Forward-looking statements should not be construed as investment advice. Readers should perform a detailed, independent investigation and analysis of the Company and are encouraged to seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect events or changes in circumstances that occur after the date hereof. East Asia Minerals Corp. Terry Filbert, Chairman & CEO Property Shares: Year 1 Work: Year 1 Shares: Year 2 Work: Year 2 Work: Year 3 Willoughby 800,000 $200,000 1,040,000 $600,000 $1,200,000 Oweegee 1,000,000 $350,000 1,300,000 $650,000 $1,000,000 VANCOUVER, June 14, 2017 - Millrock Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: MRO) ("Millrock") announces two separate option agreements whereby it has granted an option to Sojourn Ventures Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SOJ) ("Sojourn"), which may purchase a 100% interest (subject to a royalty provision) in the Willoughby and Oweegee Dome projects in the Golden Triangle mining district northeast of the Town of Stewart, British Columbia, Canada.Sojourn must make share issuances and incur exploration expenditures over three years in order to exercise the options and take ownership of the properties. The transaction and Sojourn's plans are more extensively described in their press release here. After the first share issuance and the equity financing contemplated by Sojourn, Millrock will own approximately 15% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company.Gregory A. Beischer, President & CEO of Millrock commented: "Historically Millrock has made exploration agreements primarily with major mining companies. However, we anticipate that shares of junior gold exploration companies will do well in the coming years. Millrock will become a major shareholder of Sojourn and as a result, our shareholders may realize the best value possible for these assets. Millrock will execute the initial exploration programs on the properties on behalf of Sojourn and in return will be entitled to a management fee. We look forward to advancing these exciting gold and copper projects."To exercise the option agreements on the two properties, Sojourn must issue the following common shares of Sojourn to Millrock and incur the following expenditures on the two properties:At the completion of the share payments and work commitments, Sojourn will have earned a 100% interest in the properties subject to certain Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalties. Upon exercise of the option on the Oweegee Dome project, Millrock will vest with a 2% NSR royalty. On Willoughby, Millrock will vest with a 1.5% NSR royalty.Attributes of the Willoughby high-grade gold silver project have been described by Millrock in a press release found here. Exploration progress made by Millrock on the Oweegee Dome porphyry copper-gold project was described in this press release. Summary descriptions of all Millrock's Golden Triangle district projects can be found at this link.Concurrently with entering into the Option Agreements, Sojourn and Millrock entered into an Investor Rights Agreement which entitles Millrock to participate in future Sojourn Placements to maintain its percentage interest in Sojourn provided Millrock holds at least 7.5% of Sojourn's issued and outstanding common shares. The Investor Rights Agreement also entitles Millrock to nominate one director to Sojourn's board of directors as long as it continues to hold at least a 7.5% interest in Sojourn. Millrock has also granted Sojourn a one-year right of first refusal over Millrock's Todd Property, located near the Willoughby and Oweegee Properties. The agreements are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, approval of an individual from whom most of the Willoughby tenures were purchased previously by Millrock, and upon completion of the equity financing contemplated by Sojourn. The technical information within this document has been reviewed and approved by Gregory A. Beischer, President, CEO and a director of Millrock Resources. Mr. Beischer is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. About Millrock Resources Inc. Millrock Resources Inc. is a premier project generator to the mining industry. Millrock identifies, packages and operates large-scale projects for joint venture, thereby exposing its shareholders to the benefits of mineral discovery without the usual financial risk taken on by most exploration companies. The company is active in Alaska, British Columbia, the southwest USA and Sonora State, Mexico. Funding for drilling at Millrock's exploration projects is primarily provided by its joint venture partners. Business partners of Millrock have included some of the leading names in the mining industry: Centerra Gold, First Quantum, Teck, Kinross, Vale, Inmet, Altius, and Riverside. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Gregory Beischer" Gregory Beischer, President & CEO Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programs on schedule and the success of exploration programs. "NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE." FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Melanee Henderson Investor Relations (604) 638-3164 (877) 217-8978 (toll-free) AMSTERDAM, June 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Meridian Mining S.E. ("Meridian" or the "Company") (TSX-V: MNO) today announced the recognition of gold-bearing structures upon commencement of bedrock exploration at its Coice de Cobra Gold Target located near Espigao do Oeste in Rondonia Brazil. Key highlights of the program include: Peak intervals of 3.8m @ 3.88g/t Au (true width) returned from the first mechanical trench. Follow-up continues on strong geochemical targets, with six soil anomalies prioritized for evaluation. Soil anomalies have strike lengths of 100 - 1,000m and peak sample values of 714ppb Au. Rock chip samples have returned assay results up to9.79g/t Au. The six Coice de Cobra gold targets prioritized for testing are distributed over 4km 2 . They occur within a broader cluster of soil and steam anomalies extending over 39 km 2 , for which infill and extension sampling is ongoing. . They occur within a broader cluster of soil and steam anomalies extending over 39 km , for which infill and extension sampling is ongoing. The Coice de Cobra area shares geological characteristics consistent with deposit models for granite-hosted gold systems with transitional mesothermal-epithermal processes (massive, saccharoidal and prismatic quartz textures). An initial program of 18 trenches spanning 2,000m has commenced to evaluate the anomalies and will continue into Q3. A diamond drilling programme of at least 1,000m is then planned. "Meridian first identified gold anomalies at Espigao do Oeste during stream geochemistry in 20161. In parallel with expanding production capacity from our manganese operations, we have continued to pioneer systematic gold exploration in this region," said Anthony Julien, President and CEO of Meridian. "Stream and soil surveys have now defined strong exploration targets over large areas at both Coice de Cobra and Gazetta, and we are initiating the next phase of evaluation by trenching and drilling. We are greatly encouraged by the recognition of gold-bearing structures in the early stages of this program." ____________________________ 1 see press release dated July 19th, 2016 for further information EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Regional geochemical surveys at Espigao do Oeste have identified two distinct gold bearing areas associated with favourable structural settings at Gazetta and Coice de Cobra. Stream and associated soil anomalies have broad footprints of 8 km2 and 39 km2 respectively (Figure 1). These broad anomalies remain open along strike, with their ultimate extent to be further defined by extensional soil sampling. Infill soil surveys were prioritized at the Coice de Cobra area, where peak soil values up to 108 - 714ppb Au have been recorded. Bedrock exposure in this area is scarce due to tropical weathering and development of a thick soil profile. Reconnaissance sampling of isolated rock fragments and rare exposures has returned rock chip values of 1.34 to 9.79g/t Au. Infill soil sampling program resulted in the definition of six target areas (Figure 2). Individual soil anomalies extend over strike lengths of 100 1,000m. A trenching campaign has commenced to assist in sighting drill hole positions for an inaugural diamond drilling campaign. Trial geophysical surveys are also being conducted to assist in targeting, with 3.6 line km of dipole-dipole IP surveys completed to date. The first mechanical trench at the Cascavel Target has returned a peak interval of 3.8m @ 3.88g/t Au in a sub-vertical NE-trending structure (true width). The same trench intersected a separate mineralized zone 60m to the south-west (1.8m @ 1.26g/t Au), indicating potential for development of parallel structures. 2,000m of trenching is planned and at least 1,000m of diamond drilling is expected to commence in late June / early July. Gold mineralization in the project area is hosted within a Proterozoic crystalline basement. High-strain metamorphic schists and gneisses occur at Gazetta, cut by later-stage granitic intrusions. Low-strain magnetite-bearing granites are present at Coice de Cobra. The Coice de Cobra area shares geological characteristics similar to granite-hosted gold systems with transitional mesothermal-epithermal processes. PRIORITIZED TARGETS The current exploration program will focus on the following six targets: Cascavel Target: Parallel NE-trending soil anomalies extend over 500m; peak values of 394 ppb Au. Surface rock chip samples returned peak values of 5.99 g/t Au. Channel sampling of the initial trench returned a peak interval of 3.8m @ 3.88g/t Au, including 1.8m @ 5.70g/t Au (true width) (Figure 3). Caninana Target: East-northeast-trending soil anomaly extending 1km with soil values to 250 ppb Au. Open along strike to the east where rock chip samples have returned peak values of 9.79 g/t Au, with visible gold associated hematite in quartz veins (Figure 4a). Trenching programs commenced to test several subparallel trends, with full assays pending. Jiboia Target: Soil anomalies extend over 450 x 400m and remain open; peak values of 714 ppb Au. Complex magnetic pattern with east-west and northwest-southeast trends evident. Areas with hydrothermal alteration (silicification) observed. Rock chip sample data pending. Bico de Jaca Target: Northeast and east-west trending soil anomalies extending over 400m; peak values of 201 ppb Au. Confluence of anomalous drainage systems containing coarse gold (Figure 4b). Bico de Papagaio Target: East-west trending soil anomaly 850m long; peak soil values of 314 ppb Au. Cascavel East Target: Parallel northeast-oriented soil anomalies with peak values of 117 ppb Au. Coincident with basement magnetic trends. GEOLOGICAL MODEL The Company's project area at Espigao do Oeste is located on the southeast margin of the Amazon Craton, host to a number of significant gold districts. The mineralization at Espigao do Oeste occurs in a new spatial position with respect to the nearest provinces. The Floresta - Juruena gold province is located to the east in the neighbouring state of Mato Grosso and hosts lode gold deposits, intrusive-related deposits, epithermal deposits associated with granitic intrusions, and placer deposits. To the south, the Alto Guapore belt hosts orogenic gold deposits associated with the Proterozoic Sunsas orogeny. At this stage there are not enough constraints on the timing of the gold mineralization at Espigao do Oeste to link it to a particular regional metallogenic event. The gold prospects at Espigao do Oeste are hosted over Proterozoic crystalline basement located immediately north of younger sedimentary basin (the Phanerozoic Pimenta Bueno Graben). At Gazetta, the basement is dominated by high-strain schists and gneisses. The metamorphic package is cut by later-stage granite dykes and intrusive stocks. Mesothermal quartz veins superimposed on ductile shears are locally exposed in catchment areas to anomalies. Accessory pyrite is present in the veins. The Coice de Cobra area is situated in a lower-strain domain, with the basement consisting of magnetite-bearing granite stocks cut by dolerite dykes. Veins exhibit massive quartz, saccharoidal quartz, and local open-space prismatic quartz textures. Accessory pyrite is locally observed, but more commonly, visible gold occurs in closer association with hematite in the quartz veins. Wall rock shows quartz-sericite alteration (where not overprinted by excessing weathering). Early indications from these textures suggest that vein development may be mesothermal locally transitional to epithermal in character. Crystalline basement rocks have potential to host significant gold mineralization. The Tropicana Gold Mine in Western Australia is an example of mesothermal deposit in a high-strain metamorphic belt with a late-stage overprint. Examples of provinces with granite-hosted mesothermal to transitional epithermal gold mineralization include the Proterozoic deposits of the Alta Floresta - Juruena gold belt, and the Phanerozoic Ravenswood Goldfield in Queensland, Australia. Technical studies in such camps provide useful templates in areas of similar basement geology, particularly in understanding patterns of mineral and metal zoning that can be applied as exploration vectors. Ongoing exploration will be conducted to test the style and scale of the gold system at Espigao do Oeste. NEXT STEPS An initial program of 18 trenches spanning 2,000m is planned to evaluate the anomalies. The program has commenced and will continue into Q3. Mapping and soil sampling programs are ongoing along strike from gold-anomalous structures. New target areas will be integrated into the program as data is gathered. Ground-IP orientation programs have commenced following the recognition of sulphides in association with the load structures. Initial test IP lines will be conducted along soil lines to review associated anomalies. Other geophysical methods will be considered. An initial programme of at least 1,000m of diamond drilling in the target area is expected to commence in late June / early July, to confirm depth extensions to mineralization encountered in the trenching. QUALIFIED PERSON The technical information about the Company's exploration activity has been prepared under the supervision of and verified by Dr. Adrian McArthur (B.Sc. Hons, PhD. FAusIMM), the Chief Geologist of Meridian Mining, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Meridian Mining S.E. "Anthony Julien" Anthony Julien President, CEO and Director ABOUT MERIDIAN Meridian Mining S.E. is focused on acquisition, exploration, development and mining activities in Brazil. The Company is currently focused on exploring and developing the BMC manganese project, the Bom Futuro tin JV area, and adjacent areas in the state of Rondonia. The Company employs a two-pronged strategy with the objective of growing pilot production while advancing a parallel multi-commodity regional exploration program. Meridian is currently producing high grade manganese at its project located at Espigao do Oeste. Further information can be found at www.meridianmining.co. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements for the purposes of applicable securities laws. These statements include, among others, statements with respect to the Company's plans for exploration and development of its properties and potential mineralization. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such risk factors include, among others, failure to obtain regulatory approvals, failure to complete anticipated transactions, the timing and success of future exploration and development activities, exploration and development risks, title matters, inability to obtain any required third party consents, operating hazards, metal prices, political and economic factors, competitive factors, general economic conditions, relationships with strategic partners, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, industry practices and one-time events. In making the forward-looking statements, the Company has applied several material assumptions including, but not limited to, the assumptions that: (1) the proposed exploration and development of mineral projects will proceed as planned; (2) market fundamentals will result in sustained metals and minerals prices and (3) any additional financing needed will be available on reasonable terms. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOTES The gold anomalies were first identified through evaluation of drainage anomalies by a pan concentrate program. The principal anomalous catchments were subsequently followed by soil surveys on a 400m x 50m reconnaissance grid, with infill to 100 x 25m. A total of 515 pan concentrates and 4,814 soil samples have been collected in evaluation programs to date. Positive visual identifications of gold in field pan-concentrates are cross-checked by mineralogical reports at SGS Laboratories in Belo Horizonte. Soil samples are collected by pitting or hand-auger from "B-Horizon". Samples are sieved to 80# and pulverized to 150#. Gold in soil samples is analyzed by Fire Assay of a 50g charge (method FAA505). Gold in surface rock samples is analyzed by SGS method FAA323 (fire assay of 30g charge), with samples containing visible gold analyzed by screen fire assay (SGS method FAASCR). Structures intersected in trenching are channel sampled to geological boundaries, with dispatched samples analyzed by screen fire assay (SGS method FAASCR). Channel samples from saprolitic wall rock in the trench profile are analyzed by SGS method FAA505. Analytical quality is monitored by certified references and blanks. Until dispatch, samples are stored in the company's supervised stockpile yard or exploration office. The samples are couriered to the assay laboratory using a commercial contractor (Eucatur). Pulps and rejects are returned to the Company. The company conducts periodic umpire testwork to review results. SOURCE Meridian Mining S.E. OAKVILLE, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jun 14, 2017) - Saint Jean Carbon Inc. ("Saint Jean" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SJL)(OTCQB:TORVF), a carbon science company engaged in the design and build of green energy storage, green energy creation and green re-creation through the use of carbon materials. Saint Jean is pleased to announce the Company has completed a full cell graphene battery, as previously announced in a press release dated April 20th, 2017. The company is working on creating high performance graphene batteries through a series of research projects. The first step was to test the graphene against graphite as an anode material in a coin cell (half-cell). The tests show that the graphene outperformed the graphite by about 30% as demonstrated over 100 cycles the discharge capacity for the graphite was 200 to 220 mAh/g and for the graphene 310 to 330 mAh/g. The next step was to create a full pouch cell that would function in a real world application, as an example; a clock with a nightlight (follow the link to view the photograph of the battery). http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/SJC614.jpg The battery takes about 4 to 5 minutes to fully charge and can keep functioning for about 25 minutes. With an operating window of 3.0-0 4.2 volts and capacity of 140mAh/g. The Company is very encouraged by the results and as such will complete the final series of tests. The Company will now design and construct a high performance graphene full cell. The graphene will be produced and modified to try and reach the theoretical performance threshold. The goal is to achieve double the performance of a graphite anode. The preparation of the cells and test were all managed by Graffana Inc of Waterloo Ontario. The raw material was source from a third party. Paul Ogilvie, CEO, commented: "We are very pleased to continue to push for opportunities for graphene in practical applications; as simple as a clock and light, next possibly a drill with the end goal of producing an electric car battery with a graphene anode. With the continued research it all helps move the goal a little closer to reality." The Company would also like to announce the completion of the drill program announced in press release dated January 12, 2017. The drill core has been sent to the lab for assaying. We look forward to publishing the results in the coming weeks. About Saint Jean Carbon Saint Jean is a publicly traded carbon science company, with specific interests in energy storage and green energy creation and green re-creation, with holdings in graphite mining and lithium claims in the province of Quebec in Canada. For the latest information on Saint Jean's properties and news please refer to the website: http://www.saintjeancarbon.com/ On behalf of the Board of Directors Saint Jean Carbon Inc. Paul Ogilvie, CEO and Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, concerning Saint Jean's business and affairs. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "intends" "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and are naturally subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results to differ materially. The forward-looking statements in this news release assume, inter alia, that the conditions for completion of the Transaction, including regulatory and shareholder approvals, if necessary, will be met. Although Saint Jean believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct. Statements of past performance should not be construed as an indication of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors, including those discussed above, could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this press release, and Saint Jean assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. TSX-V: CLZ www.canasil.com VANCOUVER, June 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Canasil Resources Inc. (TSX-V: CLZ, DB Frankfurt: 3CC, "Canasil") has completed an initial review of the results from the recently completed 2016 - 17 drill program together with the results from past drilling and surface sampling from the multiple silver-zinc-lead mineralized veins at the La Esperanza project in Durango and Zacatecas States, Mexico. The drill results from the La Esperanza vein, located in the southeast of the project area, together with high silver-zinc-lead values from rock chip and dump samples from four veins located in the northwest of the project area, suggest the potential for an extensive silver mineralized system within the La Esperanza project area. These veins occur within a target area of approximately 75 square kilometres with a northwest-southeast dimension of over 15 kilometres. A map showing the vein zones with details of past drill and sampling results is attached below. Of particular note are the higher grade intercepts from drilling to date and high grade rock chip and dump samples from the four principal veins in the northwest of the project area. Bahman Yamini, President and CEO of Canasil, commented: "We are very pleased with the results from the recent drill program on the La Esperanza vein returning several intercepts of high grade silver mineralization, and particularly the last drill hole which included high gold values as well. The La Esperanza project covers a district scale land package located in a highly recognized silver district known for high grade silver deposits. It is close to several active mining operations, 35 km from Pan American Silver's La Colorada mine and 80 km from the Fresnillo mine, both recognized for high silver grades and low costs of silver production. We look forward to further exploration and drilling to advance this highly prospective project." The results of the 2016 - 17 drilling on the La Esperanza vein are particularly encouraging as all eight drill holes intercepted the vein. These results extend the known mineralized envelope with intercepts over appreciable widths and high silver-gold-zinc-lead grades over a strike distance of 400 metres and to a depth of 350 metres, which is open in both directions to the northwest and southeast along strike and to depth. Alteration of the volcanic host rocks extending along strike from the La Esperanza vein outcrop, the spatial association with a discrete broad magnetic anomaly (possibly an igneous intrusion at depth), as well as local drainage patterns has outlined a target extending for over 5 kilometres in this area. The Company is currently undertaking a surface geochemical sampling and mapping program along this trend aimed at identifying additional extensions of the vein itself. This work is an important step in preparation for the next phase of drilling, which would be aimed at extending the known mineralized envelope. A plan map and cross section showing drilling to date on the La Esperanza vein is attached, as well as a table with complete results from the 2016 - 17 drill program, all of which have been previously announced. There has been relatively little exploration and drilling on the four veins located in the northwest of the project area, Los Alamitos, San Pasqual, San Felipe and Fatima. There is evidence of past artisanal mining activity at the Los Alamitos, San Pasqual and San Felipe veins. Surface sampling along the strike of these veins, and from mineral dumps from past mining activity, has returned high silver-zinc-lead values indicating the potential for high grade mineralization associated with these veins. These veins will be the subject of further investigation and provide multiple targets for future drilling. The drill and sampling programs were implemented by the Company's exploration team under the direction of Eng. Erme Enriquez (CPG), Director of Exploration and Development of Minera Canasil S.A. de C.V., the Company's wholly owned Mexican subsidiary. Additional drilling and sampling was carried out by MAG Silver Corp. (Mag) under an option agreement from 2010 to 2013. All samples from the Canasil programs were prepared and logged at the Company's core storage facility in Durango, Mexico. Drill core samples are cut by diamond saw, with half being sent for assay and half secured for reference. Samples are sent to the ALS Laboratories in Zacatecas, Mexico for preparation and then on to ALS Global in Vancouver for gold and silver analyses by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish ("FA-AA") on a 30 gram split, and for silver, copper, lead, zinc and trace elements by ICP analysis following digestion of 0.50 gram sample in aqua regia. The technical information herein has been reviewed and approved by J. Blackwell (P. Geo.), a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Blackwell is a technical advisor to Canasil. About La Esperanza The La Esperanza silver-lead-zinc project covers 14,916 hectares, located 100 km SSE of the city of Durango in southern Durango and northern Zacatecas States. The project is easily accessible from Canasil's operating base in Durango with excellent infrastructure. The project is located on the well-recognized world class Fresnillo silver belt, hosting a number of prominent silver mines such as the San Martin-Sabinas mines of Grupo Mexico and Penoles, the La Colorada mine of Pan American Silver and La Parrilla and Del Toro mines of First Majestic Silver and Fresnillo Plc's Fresnillo mine. A series of silver-zinc-lead epithermal veins are observed over a northwest-southeast striking zone extending over approximately 15 kilometres hosted in the Lower Volcanic Group. Mineralization occurs in low to intermediate sulphidation veins, primarily striking northwest and dipping southwest. The main La Esperanza vein is a banded and cockade white to grey quartz breccia epithermal vein with silver, lead and zinc mineralization associated with argentiferous galena, silver sulfosalt minerals and sphalerite. Prior to the current 2016 - 17 drill program drilling on this vein was focused along an approximate strike length of 250 metres and to a relatively shallow depth of approximately 250 metres and returned consistent high-grade silver-zinc-lead intercepts from the main La Esperanza vein and an associated Hanging Wall vein at the upper levels. The average true width of intercepts from 8 drill holes on the main La Esperanza vein was 4.21 metres returning 330 g/t silver, 0.93% zinc and 1.57% lead. The average true width of drill intercepts from 5 drill holes which intersected the Hanging Wall vein was 1.53 metres returning 324 g/t silver, 1.37% zinc and 1.80% lead (details listed under the La Esperanza project profile on the Company's website www.canasil.com, and previously reported in the news release dated November 6, 2006). About Canasil: Canasil is a Canadian mineral exploration company with a strong portfolio of 100% owned silver-gold-copper-lead-zinc projects in Durango and Zacatecas States, Mexico, and in British Columbia, Canada. The Company's directors and management include industry professionals with a track record of identifying and advancing successful mineral exploration projects through to discovery and further development. The Company is actively engaged in the exploration of its mineral properties, and maintains an operating subsidiary in Durango, Mexico, with full time geological and support staff for its operations in Mexico. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts are forward looking statements, including statements that address future mineral production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in commodities prices, exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The reader is referred to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators for disclosure regarding these and other risk factors. There is no certainty that any forward-looking statement will come to pass and investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. SOURCE Canasil Resources Inc. Vancouver, June 14, 2017 - Guyana Goldstrike Inc. (the "Company" or "Guyana Goldstrike") (TSXV: GYA) is pleased to announce 910 oz of gold has been mined and recovered by local small-scale alluvial miners (artisanal miners) on the Marudi Gold Project (the "Property"). "We are very proud of our accomplishments over such a short period of time" commented President and CEO, Peter Berdusco. "With the full support of the government and the local communities, the artisanal miners now have the opportunity to create income in an environment that adheres to acceptable mining practices" continued Mr. Berdusco. "Further to this, it allows us to immediately generate sales from alluvial areas that generally fall outside our potential mining model or area of interest. This definitely makes it a win-win for everyone involved." First Dore Pour Through a cooperative agreement, artisanal miners have been given Company-controlled access with Company oversight to work the alluvial areas (creeks, edges and new channels) of the Property and also the alluvial tailings that had been previously mined by artisanal miners. A stipulation of the agreement is the requirement that the artisanal miners incorporate only those mining practices acceptable to the Environmental Protection Act of Guyana. As a result of their efforts the Company has successfully poured its first dore bars and sold those bars to the Guyana Gold Board. Artisanal Mining Royalty Under the agreement the artisanal miners pay the Company a 10% royalty on all gold mined from the Property. In the five months ending March 31 the artisanal miners recovered approximately 910 oz of gold from mineralized material mined from the Property's alluvial areas and artisanal alluvial tailings. This resulted in 90.9 oz/Au paid to Guyana Goldstrike in royalties. Company staff and security monitor the activities of the artisanal miners. First Sales The Company sold its 90.9 oz/Au to the Guyana Gold Board for a price of 1266.45/oz and for a net sale of $106,490.00 USD after smelting costs and a 5% Royalty, which was paid to the Government of Guyana. The gold was assayed at 97% purity. This alluvial mining activity is expected to continue following the end of the rainy season in June. The decision to allow artisanal miners to commence small scale mining on alluvial areas of the property was a decision solely based on corporate social responsibility. The mining of gold from the property by the artisanal miners has not been based on a feasibility study nor are there any mineral resources or reserves identified in the area which is subject to the artisanal mining. The decision to mine is one made by the artisanal miners and the Company acknowledges that there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with the actions of the artisanal miners. Historic Mineral Resource Estimates Hard Rock (metachert) A historic estimate of gold contained in the hard rock (metachert) from two main development sites (Mazoa Hill and Marudi North) is 880,000 ounces. The estimate was prepared by R.P. Ilchik in March 2004 and estimated 760,000 ounces in the Mazoa Hill area using 4,700,000 tonnes grading 5.0 grams per tonne based on bench volumes and quartz outcrops. In the Marudi Mountain area this report also referenced 1,400,000 tonnes containing 3,800,000 grams of gold (120,000 ounces of gold) grading 2.7 grams per tonne. Both sites are open to further exploration in several directions. A report prepared by Kilborn Engineering Pacific Limited (1995) on the Mazoa Hill area estimated 3,381,081 tonnes grading 2.94 grams per tonne containing 9,940,378 grams of gold (318,595 ounces of gold) at a cutoff grade of 1.00 gram/tonne gold in the measured and indicated categories, and 860,924 tonnes grading 2.45 grams per tonne containing 2,109,264 grams of gold (67,815 ounces of gold) at 1.00 gram/tonne cutoff in the inferred category. Total resources at the Mazoa Hill area in the measured, indicated and inferred categories were estimated at 4,242,026 tonnes grading 2.84 grams per tonne gold containing 12,047,294 grams of gold (387,335 ounces of gold) at a 1.00 gram/tonne cutoff. These categories are not in compliance with current definitions and are disclosed as indications of the presence of mineralization. Gold in Saprolite A historic test program carried out by Rexma SAS in April/May of 2008 on a portion of Mazoa Hill representing approximately 5% of the total prospective saprolitic area on the Property estimated 3,835,944 m? volume at 0.52 g / m?, total of 1994.69 kg of gold. Using factors of 2 tonnes of saprolite per cubic metre, 31.1035 gm/oz Au, grading 1.04 grams per tonne, 62,000 ounces of gold was estimated in the test area. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and as such they should not be relied upon, and the Company is not treating the historical estimates as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. About the Marudi Gold Project The Marudi Gold Project, a permitted mining license consisting of approximately 13,500 hectares, is located 230 Km from the town of Lethem in southern Guyana. The property has good infrastructure with all season road access mainly through open savannah. The property was acquired in 1998 by Vanessa Ventures from Sutton Resources/Barrick, and then further acquired by Guyana Frontier Mining where the project was partially funded by Teck Resources. The Marudi property contains a historic non-compliant mineral resource estimate of 880,000 ounces of gold in the hard rock (metachert). The estimate is derived from two main development sites: Mazoa Hill and Marudi North. There exists strong potential to increase the hard rock ounces through further exploration in the open areas of the development sites. About Guyana The Republic of Guyana is located in South America between Venezuela and Suriname. The country is English speaking under British Common Law with a democratically elected government. It has an established mining act and rich history of gold production. In 2013, 458,000 ounces of gold were produced by operators mining in the country. The Guiana Shield has over 100 million ounces of gold inventory and is world-recognized as a premier gold region.* With geological continuity with West Africa, the shield is highly prospective and very under-explored. In 2016, two mines declared the commencement of commercial production: Aurora deposit (Guyana Goldfields) and the Karouni deposit (Troy Resources). * Independent Technical and Environmental Review Karouni Gold Project - Guyana, Behre Dolbear Australia Pty Ltd, April 29, 2016 Historic Estimates The Company considers the historical estimates contained in this news release to be relevant as it may indicate the presence of gold mineralization and favourable geology. Qualified Person Locke Goldsmith, M.Sc., P. Eng, P. Geo, Chief Geologist and Exploration Manager for Guyana Goldstrike, acts as the Company's Qualified Person for technical disclosure in accordance with National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Goldsmith has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release. For further information contact info@guyanagoldstrike.com or 1.877.844.4661. Website: guyanagoldstrike.com Follow Us: Facebook: facebook.com/guyanagoldstrike Linkedin: Guyana Goldstrike Twitter: @GYAGoldstrike On behalf of the Board of Directors of Guyana Goldstrike Inc. Peter Berdusco President and Chief Executive Officer Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to, among other things, the Company's proposed use of the financing proceeds. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include, possible, accidents and other risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other governmental clearances necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, the risk that the Company will not be able to raise the additional funds in the future to continue to carry out its business plans, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of securities of the Company in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Copyright (c) 2017 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 14, 2017) - NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. WIRE SERVICES White Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:WGO) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated May 18, 2017, it has successfully completed the acquisition of entities holding the White Gold, Black Fox, JP Ross, Yellow, and Battle properties (the "White Gold Properties") from Kinross Gold Corp. ("Kinross") for C$10 million in cash, the issuance to Kinross of 17.5 million common shares of the Company and up to C$15 million in deferred payments specifically related to the advancement of the White Gold Properties (the "Acquisition"). The Company is also pleased to announce that it has completed its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") with Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. ("Agnico") pursuant to which Agnico, in order to maintain its pro rata ownership interest in the Company, subscribed for 4,356,000 common shares of the Company at a price of C$2.01 per common share, for gross proceeds to the Company of C$8,755,560. The net proceeds from the Offering were used to fund a portion of the C$10 million cash payment under the Acquisition. The securities issued to Agnico pursuant to the Offering are subject to a statutory four month and one day hold period. As of today, Agnico and Kinross each own approximately 19.9% of the total number of issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. "With the closing of the acquisition, the Company now controls approximately 40% of the White Gold District and we look forward to working with both Agnico and Kinross as we continue to work towards unlocking the value of this highly prospective land package in the Yukon," said Shawn Ryan, Chief Technical Advisor of the Company. The White Gold Properties are made up of 4,280 mineral claims encompassing approximately 86,000 hectares. The Acquisition consolidates and expands the Company's substantial land position which now represents approximately 40% of the White Gold District, and adds approximately one million ounces of gold grading between 2.7 to 3.19 g/t gold on the Golden Saddle area based on historic estimates of Measured and Indicated Resources on the White Gold Property. Additional information relating to the White Gold Properties can be found in the news release of the Company announcing the Acquisition dated May 18, 2017, which is available on the Company's website (www.whitegoldcorp.ca) and issuer profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). Advisors and Counsel In connection with the Acquisition, GMP Securities L.P. acted as financial advisor to the Company and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP acted as legal advisor. Clarus Securities Inc. also acts as an advisor to the Company. Qualified Person Unless otherwise indicated, the scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Jodie Gibson, P.Geo, of GroundTruth Exploration Inc. who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. GroundTruth Exploration Inc. is owned by the spouse of a director of the Company. About White Gold Corp. The Company owns a portfolio of 19,438 quartz claims across 30 properties covering over 390,000 hectares representing approximately 40% of the Yukon's White Gold District. Preliminary exploration work has produced several prospective targets. The claim packages are bordered by sizable gold discoveries owned by Goldcorp Inc. and Western Copper and Gold Corp.. The Company has outlined an aggressive exploration plan to further explore its properties. For more information visit www.whitegoldcorp.ca. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition to the Company and its shareholders including expectations respecting the exploration activities to be conducted at the White Gold Properties; future growth potential of the Company on a post-Acquisition basis; and future exploration plans. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: the results expected from the Acquisition not being realized; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, including to fund any exploration programs on the White Gold Properties and the Company's other properties; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); the unlikelihood that properties that are explored are ultimately developed into producing mines; geological factors; actual results of current and future exploration; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated; soil sampling results being preliminary in nature and are not conclusive evidence of the likelihood of a mineral deposit; title to properties; and those factors described under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's most recently filed management's discussion and analysis. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Information Regarding Historical Resources All scientific and technical information relating to the White Gold Property is based on and derived from a technical report entitled "White Gold Property White Gold Property Dawson Range Yukon, Canada" dated March 3, 2010, prepared by Lars Weiershauser, P.Geo, Marek Nowak, P.Eng and Wayne Barnett, Pr.Sci.Nat. of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. (the "Technical Report"). The information contained herein is subject to all of the assumptions, qualifications and procedures set out in the Technical Report and reference should be made to the full details of the Technical Report which may be obtained from the Company by contacting dschmidt@whitegoldcorp.ca. Disclosure of the historical estimate in this news release is derived from the Technical Report and has been judged to be relevant and therefore suitable for disclosure, however should not be relied upon. There are numerous uncertainties inherent in the historical estimate, which is subject to all of the assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare such historical estimate and reference is made to the full text of the Technical Report with respect thereto. The historic estimate of mineral resources was estimated in conformity with generally accepted CIM "Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practices" Guidelines. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There are no other recent estimates or data are available to the Company as at the date of this news release and a detailed exploration program is required to be conducted by the Company in order to verify or treat the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. Iowa wants help from the federal government to bail out the state's individual health insurance market, which has emerged as a leading example of troubles with the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA).In recent months, two leading carriers have announced plans to exit Iowa's individual market for 2018, which means Minnetonka-based Medica could be the only insurer offering coverage to individuals statewide next year.Medica officials, however, have said they can't continue the Iowa business without changes that would help stabilize the market. Several health plans have dropped the Iowa market after losing millions of dollars."In Iowa, we are in a collapsing market because of the fact that the healthy and young individuals are not participating," said Doug Ommen, the Iowa insurance commissioner, during a news conference. He said the proposal announced Monday is "a stopgap measure in order to address the crisis that we have here in Iowa, and our collapsing individual market."The troubles are confined to the individual market, which serves self-employed people and those who don't get health insurance from their employer or a government program. About 72,000 people buy coverage in Iowa's individual market.The proposal announced Monday would change the structure of federal tax credits provided by the ACA so that younger enrollees would get more help, and subsidies would become available to those with higher incomes. The Iowa proposal also would eliminate "cost-sharing reduction" funds for low-income residents by redirecting the money to mitigate likely premium increases.Iowa regulators are calling for a "reinsurance" program to help insurers cover the cost of patients with high-cost medical conditions. The ACA offered such a program through 2017, and Minnesota lawmakers have called for creating a reinsurance program to ensure health plans will compete next year in Minnesota's market.The proposed changes in Iowa include provisions to stabilize the market that Medica has called for, including a reinsurance program, said Geoff Bartsh, a Medica vice president, in a statement. But the plan also includes "significant changes to the subsidy structure that will have an impact on which consumers do and don't buy coverage," Bartsh said."We are still analyzing those changes to help our decisionmaking should this proposal be approved," he said.The ACA brought sweeping change to the individual market by eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions that helped insurers control costs, but were widely unpopular. The health law provides subsidies to people who buy individual coverage through government-run "exchanges," but the ACA didn't create an alternative means for providing subsidized coverage if private insurers don't compete.Iowa is just one of the state insurance markets afflicted by pullbacks by health plans. Unless new carriers surface, an estimated 45 counties across Missouri, Ohio and Washington state will have no options next year.Ommen said the state's proposal is supported by Wellmark, which is Iowa's dominant health insurer and sells coverage under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield brand. The insurance company would continue offering individual market coverage for 2018 if federal regulators approve the proposal, Ommen said.Earlier this year, Wellmark said it would drop out of the market in 2018 due in part to financials losses, and the news was followed by a similar announcement from Connecticut-based Aetna.Previously, Minnetonka-based UnitedHealthcare dropped out of the Iowa market as part of a broad retreat from the ACA exchanges. The state also lost one of the new "co-op" insurers launched under the health law to boost competition.Ommen, along with top officials from Wellmark and Medica, discussed the stopgap proposal earlier this month with officials from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to the Iowa Insurance Division. The proposal must be approved by CMS.During the news conference on Monday, Ommen said Iowa regulators hope to recruit other health plans to the market due in part to the proposal, which is formally known as "innovation waiver" under section 1332 of the ACA. Regulators in Minnesota and a few other states also have submitted "1332 waiver" applications.Earlier this year, Minnesota lawmakers proposed spending more than $500 million on reinsurance over a two-year period. The plan is contingent on CMS granting the state's 1332 waiver.The Iowa proposal includes about $80 million for reinsurance, with all money coming from the federal government. Taxes on marijuana would hit to 28 percent under the bill Massachusetts House lawmakers plan to propose and take up this week. A legalization advocacy group called the tax hike "irrational" and a boost to the black market.The House proposal's tax increase is a steep spike from the 12 percent total in the current law approved by voters in November. The voters' law broadly legalized marijuana use for adults age 21 and over.The House bill is expected to emerge at a committee meeting on Wednesday at noon on Beacon Hill. House lawmakers could vote on the bill Thursday.MassLive.com on Tuesday evening obtained a copy of the legislation, which also revamps the cannabis control commission created under the voter-approved law, expanding it to five members from three, and giving the governor and the state attorney general the power to appoint some of its members, in addition to the state treasurer having a say in appointments.Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level.The House bill also touches on medical marijuana. Under the House bill, the state Department of Public Health would lose oversight of medical marijuana. House lawmakers are seeking to hand over the oversight to the commission.Medical marijuana would still be untaxed.Massachusetts voters approved marijuana for medical use in 2012, and state officials were slow to implement the law.But lawmakers are now moving quickly to overhaul the November 2016 law voters endorsed.The House bill allows for up to 12 plants per household, same as the voter-approved law, and possession of up to an ounce.But the bill seeks to put in place strict limits on advertising and marketing marijuana products.The bill allows to Massachusetts cities and towns to block aspects of the marijuana law through a vote of the city council and approval of the city or town's chief executive, like a mayor or town manager, rather than the referendum process laid out in the voter-approved law.House lawmakers crafted the bill behind closed doors. On Tuesday afternoon, nearly 24 hours before the Legislature's Marijuana Policy Committee was scheduled to meet, the chair of the committee's Senate side, Patricia Jehlen, said she hadn't seen a copy of the bill.The House chairman of the committee is Mark Cusack, D-Braintree.The Massachusetts Senate will likely seek its own changes to the law before lawmakers from both the House and the Senate work out differences and send a bill to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk.Marijuana advocates had urged House and Senate lawmakers to hold off on any changes until the new industry was up and running in Massachusetts.The group behind the 2016 voter ballot question legalizing marijuana on Tuesday night panned the House proposal, saying it in "no way improves the measure passed by voters.""It weakens it and it insults voters in the process," the group, "Yes on 4," said in a statement. "Its irrational tax increase will give drug dealers the ability to undercut the legal market, and its removal of ban authority from local voters will give a handful of selectmen the ability to overrule the opinion of their own constituents."The group expressed hope that the Senate will put forward a better proposal."The House proposal not only disrespects the will of the voters," Jim Borghesani, spokesman for the group, told MassLive.com in an email. "It disrespects the members of the marijuana committee. Our understanding is that Senate members had no idea what was in the bill before it became public. This is Massachusetts lawmaking at its worst."Massachusetts lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker have already made changes to the voter-approved law: In January, they signed off on a six-month delay on retail pot shops, pushing the date to July 2018. Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced a budget deal Tuesday that strips University of California President Janet Napolitano's office of some of its financial autonomy, limits the authority of the embattled Board of Equalization, increases tax credits for the poor and saves the Middle Class Scholarship program at public universities.The budget deal includes a plan for spending money from new tobacco taxes approved under Proposition 56 in November. That revenue would go toward increasing payments by up to $325 million for doctors and up to $140 million for dentists who see Medi-Cal patients.Consumer groups said those increases are desperately needed to restore access to medical services for the poor.Another $50 million from the tobacco taxes would fund family planning services, such as Planned Parenthood, and $27 million would be spent on rate increases for intermediate-care facilities for developmentally disabled people."This budget keeps California on a sound fiscal path and continues to support struggling families and make investments in our schools," Brown said in a statement.The proposed $125.1 billion general fund budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is slightly bigger than the current year's $122.3 billion budget. The state's general fund pays for basic state services such as education, prisons and social-service programs.The budget deal includes:--A $6 billion payment to CalPERS, the pension plan for state and government workers, in hopes of reducing the state's unfunded liabilities and saving $11 billion in payments over the next 20 years.--An expansion of the state's Earned Income Tax Credit so that more people qualify for the benefit by including taxpayers who are self-employed and by raising the income eligibility from $14,000 a year to $22,300 a year.--A rejection of Brown's plan to phase out the Middle Class Scholarship program at the University of California and California State University. Instead, the scholarship program would be kept and Cal Grants would increase to cover rising fees at campuses.--An addition of $1.8 billion to the state's budget reserve, bringing the total this year to $8.5 billion.--An increase of $1 billion in public-school funding since Brown's first budget proposal in January. Total K-12 and Community College spending would be $74.5 billion in the next fiscal year.Lawmakers have to approve most elements of the deal by Thursday. When passed, the budget bills would then head to Brown for final approval.Included in one of the budget bills pushed by Democratic leadership is language that would help an Orange County Democrat fight a recall effort. State Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton is facing a recall campaign after his vote in April to increase gas taxes and vehicle fees to pay for the state's roads and bridges.Language in a budget bill would increase the time it takes to qualify a recall for the ballot, which proponents of the Newman recall called an abuse of power and said they will challenge. By adding the change to a budget bill, the longer timelines would go into effect immediately and potentially help Newman keep his seat.Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County) defended the effort to help Newman, saying the Legislature is committed to oversight and that includes monitoring procedures for recalls. He said this year's budget extends that oversight to the UC President's Office and Board of Equalization."We have talked repeatedly about the need for oversight," Rendon said. "We take our accountability role seriously."The main budget bill, AB97, sends $296.4 million for Napolitano's office in the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1 and another $52.4 million for UC Path, the university's payroll and human resources system.In the past, the state gave that money to campuses, which were then charged campus assessment fees by Napolitano's office. That indirect state funding gave the president's office exclusive control over how to spend that money. Under the deal, the state would instead directly send money to Napolitano's office and require UC to eliminate the campus fees, so that lawmakers could oversee and control how that money is spent. UC opposed the change, which would be for one year. Lawmakers could decide during budget negotiations next year whether to continue the oversight of Napolitano's budget.Lawmakers moved to wrest control of spending by Napolitano's office after a state audit found a litany of problems there, including hidden funds and misleading accounting practices. The budget bill also includes other strings on the president's office, such as barring it from providing supplemental retirement payments for new senior administrators.The state would withhold $50 million in funding if UC doesn't fix financial problems the state auditor identified in the review."After the findings of the auditor, we decided to take action," said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. "We will be providing greater oversight."Lawmakers also imposed significant reforms on the Board of Equalization, the state's tax collector. The agency will see most of its authority and staff stripped away and given to a to-be-created California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.The tax board -- made up of four elected board members and the state controller -- will continue to oversee property-tax assessments, assess taxes on insurers and collect taxes on alcohol because those duties are enshrined in the state Constitution. Tax appeals and sales-tax collection would move to the new state department, along with many of the Board of Equalization's 4,700 staff members.Lawmakers said the agency was the "picture of dysfunction," pointing to long waits for taxpayers to get resolutions and an audit that found the agency misallocated tens of millions of dollars without explanation."Something had to be done to restore public trust," said state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside.Board of Equalization member and state Controller Betty Yee recommended the changes earlier this year, saying the agency has lost the public's trust after audits highlighted poor accounting and spending on events seemingly unrelated to collecting taxes.Board member George Runner, however, blasted the changes, saying they were not properly vetted."This last-minute budget power grab would strip California taxpayers of their right to bring their tax appeals before their elected peers," Runner said in a statement. "In its place the bill would establish yet another unelected and costly tax bureaucracy." Republicans currently control twice as many governorships as the Democrats -- a 33 to 16 advantage, with one independent. Democrats are hoping they can start to chip away at that margin this November.The fields are now set in both New Jersey and Virginia, the two states holding races for governor this year. Democrats have reason to be optimistic about their chances in both.In Virginia, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam won the party's nomination on Tuesday to succeed Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is term-limited. Northam easily turned back a challenge from former Rep. Tom Perriello, who had enjoyed support from several former Obama administration officials. Northam outpaced Perriello in the state's urban centers and in heavily African-American precincts.The surprise came on the Republican side. Ed Gillespie, a former national and state party chair who nearly unseated U.S. Sen. Mark Warner in 2014, had been the frontrunner all year. But he only narrowly defeated Corey Stewart, who chairs the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Gillespie took 43.7 percent of the vote to Stewart's 42.6 percent. Gillespie's margin is just outside the 1 percent threshold that would trigger a runoff.Democrats are holding a unity event on Wednesday, featuring Northam, Perriello and McAuliffe. On Tuesday night, by contrast, Stewart did not sound as if he were in a conciliatory mood. "There is one word you will never hear from me, and that's 'unity,'" Stewart told supporters.Stewart, a one-time state chair for President Trump's campaign, struck a defiant tone throughout the campaign, vowing to crack down on illegal immigrants and defend Virginia's Confederate monuments.Gillespie may seek to avoid taking such a hard line in a state that Hillary Clinton carried last fall -- the Democrats' third straight presidential victory in Virginia. In fact, he may avoid tying himself to Trump at all. Asked on Twitter if Gillespie should turn down campaign appearances with Trump, Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, responded, "Only if he's sane."In New Jersey, Democrats are also hoping Trump's unpopularity there will be a drag on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who won the GOP nomination. She is running to replace Chris Christie, who is term-limited and has the lowest approval rating of any governor in the country. When youve got Christie in the teens and Trump in the 30s, that just makes a very difficult path for Republicans, says Jared Leopold, spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association.For their part, Republicans are similarly trying to portray Democratic nominee Phil Murphy as guilty by association. Murphy made his fortune as a Goldman Sachs executive -- just like former Gov. Jon Corzine, who went on to oversee the collapse of a brokerage firm following his defeat by Christie in 2009. "Murphy can't hide the numerous similarities and connections between him and failed Gov. Jon Corzine," the Republican Governors Association stated in a news release last week."There's going to be a lot of that, comparisons with Trump and Christie on the one hand and Jon Corzine on the other," says John Weingart, a political scientist at Rutgers University.Weingart predicts that Guadagno will have a tough tightrope to walk. She'll need to distance herself from Christie while also distinguishing herself from Murphy. "She's following two terms of a Republican governor, but she clearly doesn't want to say this is going to be Christie's third term," Weingart says.A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Murphy with a 55 to 26 percent advantage over Guadagno.In both New Jersey and Virginia, primary turnout was far higher on the Democratic side than among GOP voters. Democrats are taking that as a sign their supporters are more enthusiastic.The terrain starts out as favorable for Democrats in both states this year. They'll want to win both races to build momentum heading into 2018, when Republicans will be defending 26 of the 36 governorships at stake.GOP dominance of the ranks of governors give Democrats plenty of chances. If Republicans win 50 percent of next year's races, they'll still lose eight seats, University of Minnesota political scientist Eric Ostermeier points out in a blog post.History suggests that even a tie might be optimistic for the GOP. Ostermeier notes that the president's party has lost a majority of gubernatorial contests in eight of the last nine midterm elections, dating back to 1982, and in 17 of the 20 midterm elections all the way back to 1938.Governing. On Sunday, in the morning, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey departed Brisbane for an official visit to Cooktown, Lockhart River, Aurukun and Hope Vale. In the afternoon, at the Sovereign Resort, Cooktown, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey hosted a lunch with, and received a briefing on local issues from, representatives of Cook Shire Council. Following, at the James Cook Museum, Cooktown, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey met staff and toured operations, and then attended a Civic Reception hosted by Cook Shire Council where His Excellency addressed guests. Description GIS 14 June, 2017: Budget 2017-2018 aims at making ocean economy, which holds tremendous potential to boost exports and create good quality employment opportunities, a fundamental pillar. In this respect, a series of measures have been announced to improve this sector. The validity of the fishing rights permit will be extended from one year to five years for fishing vessels flying the Mauritian flag, subject to all their catch being unloaded and processed in Mauritius. This should make it easier for them to access finance. Furthermore, provision is being made to upgrade and equip the Maison des Pecheurs at Cap Malheureux, Tamarin and Mahebourg. The aim is to provide the fishermen cooperatives with the facilities to transform their fish catch into value-added fish products. Other measures include: Extension of scheme launched last year for fishermen cooperative societies to acquire semi-industrial vessels for another year; Provision for grants to the fishermen cooperative societies for the acquisition of refrigeration vehicles; Provision is being made for the setting up of sea-based coral farms for developing ornamental corals for the tourism sector, aquarium market and high-end jewellery manufacturing in a bid to promote coral farming by fishermen and SMEs; Provision of appropriate amendments to the Maritime Zone Act to cater for marina development; and (Data-Smart City Solutions) -- Last year, Jackson, Mississippi, faced a challenge familiar to many cities: a need to make significant budget cuts while trying to preserve jobs and maintain service delivery. Because of Mayor Tony Yarbers commitment to data and the citys prior achievements in developing an open data portal and launching a performance management program, the solution was obvious: turn to data to restructure and repurpose funds.Beginning in May 2016, four months before the budget season began, Jackson began a comprehensive effort to analyze its spending, programs, and results to identify opportunities for efficiencies. The team responsible consisted of directors, deputy directors, executive staff, fiscal officers, and on-the-ground support workers. This team worked with the Johns Hopkins Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) through What Works Cities for technical assistance in data analysis.With the help of GovEx, the city analyzed its budget in comparison to comparable cities and identified areas of disproportionate spending. GovEx also trained every departmental data coordinator and fiscal officer in how to analyze and visualize their own data with Tableau to enable ongoing data use. The city then used this work to analyze each departments programs more granularly, which leveraged the citys JackStats performance management framework to identify which were producing results aligned with the citys priorities.The city made changes in many departments based on the analysis. The Human and Cultural Services Department merged low-performing senior and child-care centers with higher-performing ones. In other departments, staff positions related to underperforming programs were repurposed to higher-impact areas in order to avoid layoffs. The city also looked at departmental structures to identify existing functions that would be more efficient under the purview of another department, such as moving tree and limb removal from Parks and Recreation to Public Works, which owned the necessary equipment.Yarber and his budget team saw record turnout at community outreach events related to the budget. Basing decisions on the data helped the mayor and his senior staff have difficult conversations with departments and with the community. The dashboards and visualizations that the budget team used are available to the public and all departmental employees, ensuring that the data behind the decisions is transparent.Justin Bruce, director of Innovation and Performance, emphasized the progression of work with data that developed the capacity that made this effort possible. He said, Open data allowed us to take data, clean it, work with it, and actually track progress and performance. JackStats helped us look at the data at a more granular level to show us why and how we are meeting goals. The latest effort, he said, allowed us to take performance management to a different level, not just looking at what we are doing but how efficiently and effectively we are accomplishing our goals.Jackson was able to cut its budget by 7.6 percent with this process. The city went from a $14 million deficit in 2014 to a $6 million surplus this fiscal year, in addition to creating a new reserve fund. The city plans to continue its priority-based budgeting and repurposing work in the same way going forward. Bruce said, Every time we touch an issue that has data to guide the situation, were always going to do an analysis of that data and always going to determine whats most effective and efficient and ultimately, whats best for our citizens. I disagree he's just a bit old fashioned in his attitude on drugs. IMHO only dealers of Heroin, Crank, Crack, PCP, & LSD should be prosecuted; however those who just use, should be publically humiliated- placed in stocks, or made to pick up trash, while wearing a sign saying I'm a stupid drug user! (TNS) -- SANTA CRUZ -- Four tech startups with UC Santa Cruz connections and an augmented reality venture have been chosen for the inaugural group supported by Santa Cruz Accelerates , a new organization to help early-stage entrepreneurs.The startups will get a six-month boot camp experience in office space on the Westside with mentors, networking and workshops. Santa Cruz Accelerates will provide each startup with $10,000 in seed money in exchange for a 2 percent equity stake granted to Santa Cruz Works , the nonprofit running the accelerator.The selected startups are: Fuzz Stati0n , which helps find programming errors with a cloud-based automated security procedure, was founded in 2016 by UCSC alumnus David Moore with help from Joe Carlos, a UCSC software engineer intern. The company was the winner in the Firestarter category of the Tech Trailblazers global competition. Scoot Science , which uses autonomous underwater vehicles to gather ocean data, was co-founded by UCSC ocean science grads Jonathan LaRiviere and Evan Goodwin. The startup made it to the finals of the 2016 Startup Challenge Monterey Bay. Cruz Foam , co-founded by Marco Rolandi, associate professor of electrical engineering at UCSC, and doctoral candidate John Felts, aims to turn shrimp shells into surfboards. They were at Mays Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp, looking to raise $250,000 to build a prototype surfboard from this material. Santa Cruz Wave Works, which collects raw data on wave energy to provide useful information to surfers, was founded by UCSC student John Tauriac. PhotoBloomAR , founded by Justin Lemus of San Jose, uses augmented reality to make photos come alive with video and sound. The startup presented to the Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp in March.Fuzz Stati0n, Santa Cruz Wave Works, Scott Science and PhotoBloomAR are diving in this month; Cruz Foam will join the group in September.All of them will be invited to speak at the Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp at 6 p.m. Aug. 1 at Hotel Paradox, 611 Ocean St., according to meetup organizer Doug Erickson.Heather Putnam, executive director of Santa Cruz Works, developed a curriculum using the Lean Business Model Canvas, in which participants generate value propositions why people should buy their product or service and test them with potential customers.Shes recruiting mentors in Santa Cruz County and in Silicon Valley.UCSC will provide $500,000 for the accelerator program, which focuses on tech startups that have a product but havent started selling it.Mohamed Abousalem, UCSCs assistant vice chancellor for research, industry alliances and technology commercialization, expects the accelerator will generate economic development in the community.Moore, the Fuzz Stati0n founder, said he was stoked to be chosen. Moore got his bachelors degree in computational mathematics at UCSC in 1991 and worked at Next and WebLogic. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Commitment to open data and cybersecurity alike must start at the very top, panelists told the more than 330 people who attendedMissouri Digital Government Summit on June 13 a viewpoint that Gov. Eric Greitens affirmed as the event began.In opening remarks, Greitens said the state wants to open up data so that the citizens of Missouri can see what were doing and so they can hold us accountable.We want to put citizens first. And we want to work backward from the citizen experience and figure out how we can build platforms for technology, opportunities for them to access data, he continued. If we do that in the right way, put the citizens first, give them the opportunity to interact with us, then were going to have done our job."Officials had come from around the state to Jefferson City, the capital, to learn about everything from the role of artificial intelligence in information technology to cloud migration to dual-factor authentication.Brad DePriest, network systems manager for the city of St. Louis, toldthat the governors words resonated with him, noting he and his colleagues had been discussing how to better use public meeting minutes and agendas to answer Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests before they happen.Were all in favor of that, DePriest said of making it easier for citizens to access public data, following a session on the Missouri Sunshine Law. We see that as a very valuable thing and were trying to help some of our departments do a better job of that. Small budgets, big ideas Columbia, South Carolina, would create a porch-like setting in front of the state house complete with informal seating to encourage citizens to interact with government officials. Mobile voting booths in Milledgeville would provide more opportunities for residents to have a stake in local issues. Biloxi, Mississippi, plans to create community gathering and discussion places along a beach route where desegregation protests were held in the 1960s. Design Center in a Box aims to create pop-up city planning offices across Detroit, where neighbours could trade ideas with city administrators. Bradenton, Florida, plans to transform bus stops, landmarks and other public venues into zones where citizens can have a voice in municipal decision-making. St. Paul, Minnesota, has crafted a set of civic engagement tools that residents can use to easily arrange pop-up community meetings. Winners of the third Knight Cities Challenge have a knack for promoting urban innovation and civic engagement in some unlikely places and with only minimal resources.Bus stops, beaches and abandoned buildings are transformed into public gathering spots. A stodgy state house is re-imagined as a welcoming front porch, accessible to all.These sorts of unconventional approaches to improving the liveability and governance of cities have made the competition a cornerstone of urban reinvention.With Mondays announcement of 33 winners from 19 cities for this years edition of what has been an annual contest, the Knight Foundation will close the book on what it describes as a model of risk-tolerant grant-making.This is the third and final year of a USD 15 million urban experiment that prompted some 15,000 submissions. The proposals pushed the limits of creativity and capitalized on the rhythms and themes of inner-city life, such as hip-hop music and public art.Much-needed funds were funnelled to dozens of projects in the 26 U S. communities where the philanthropy invests to make places more livable.Municipal leaders around the globe now have a whole slate of novel ideas, many with successful proofs of concept, to replicate or build upon to fit their unique needs. As a result, the challenge is likely to leave its imprimatur on urban innovation and the cities in which these ideas were born for decades to come.Whittled from 144 finalists chosen from more than 4,500 applicants, the latest awardees will share USD 5 million in prize money to execute their ideas.As with all Knight Cities challenges, the winners 19 cities and counties are a cross-section of their country. They range in size from Detroit, Miami and Philadelphia to smaller metropolises such as Aberdeen, South Dakota; Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Milledgeville, Georgia.A few themes pervade this years competition. They include accomplishing goals with tight budgets, making city governments more accessible to ordinary people and turning blight into improvised gathering spots. Here is a sampling:Another theme involves bridging disconnected communities, both literally and figuratively. The Innerbelt National Forest of Akron, Ohio, would replace with parkland a closed highway that slices through two neighbourhoods. And the Horizontes initiative in Wichita, Kansas, is poised to add murals of local residents along an industrial corridor that separates two communities.The contest was unusual, the foundation says, because it provided average citizens and not just urban professionals with opportunities to turn bold concepts into viable initiatives.Most grant competitions aim for ideas only from institutions and established programs, the foundation notes in a statement. By betting on ordinary people, the challenge activated local networks of innovators who are showing early staying power.The challenge even spawned some successes from contestants who failed to secure funds from the foundation. Eight percent of applicants who were not selected as winners reportedly managed to line up investors for their projects.See the full roster of winners here Los Angeles Countys Human Resources Department serves 108,000 employees.About six years ago, we embarked on a transformative effort with a simple goal: Automate all things HR, Human Resources CIO Murtaza Masood toldThe department wanted to automate as many activities as possible and enable employees to handle many of their own activities, even on Web-based and mobile apps.The entire effort is centered on aenterprise resource planning system.We tie the processes and interactions together and gain insights into where the workloads are coming from, where the growth of certain types of transactions and processes are coming from, and then look behind the curtain and make managerial decisions based on that, Masood said.is used for employees daily HR transactions, whileis our business process engine, Masood said.The department spends about $14 million a year on IT, and about 100 employees in HR and the Department of Internal Services work on the project daily.More recently, the county has launched an application withto create a cohesive applicant tracking system that unifies applications, testing and recruitment processes. The program was guided by the department to maintain compliance standards.We partnered with them so they enhanced their product to meet our needs, Masood said. Being our size and being that we are governed by a very specific set of civil service rules, we felt that no product on the market met our needs to enable our compliance.The unified retention and recruitment system went live in May and has already won two awards.The system includes communication methods to schedule interviews and exams. It also includes a public-facing appeals site, where applicants can lodge complaints and seek corrections if they feel unfairly treated.Next, the county hopes to digitize all employee records, making them transferable across all departments. (TNS) - A gunman shot and killed three people at a United Parcel Service facility in San Francisco Wednesday morning, before fatally shooting himself in front of police officers, authorities say.Six people suffered gunshot wounds and four were killed, according to San Francisco Police.The dead included the gunman, who shot himself in the head, according to Assistant Chief Toney Chaplin.We believe this incident is not related to terrorism, Chaplin, told reporters.Steve Gaut, a UPS spokesman said the shooter was a driver and in uniform. All of the workers involved were on the clock and gathering for their morning meeting before heading out with their parcels, he said.The shooting occurred at 8:55 a.m. and prompted the San Francisco Police Department to issue a shelter in place alert to the neighborhood. The UPS facility is on the border of the Mission District and Potrero Hill neighborhoods.When police arrived, they encountered numerous victims and evacuated them, Chaplin said. Officers also determined that the gunman was still inside the cavernous facility and actively targeting people.A team that entered the building found the gunman and watched him turn his weapon on himself, Chaplin said.Police declared the building secure and that the incident was contained just after 10:30 a.m. in a tweet. Officers continued to search the building for additional victims and witnesses.Gaut said employees were evacuated from the facility, which processes packages for delivery in the San Francisco area and has 850 workers.It is unknown how many employees were in the facility at the time of the shooting, Gaut said.I dont remember anything like this in California in recent history, he said.In a series of tweets that began just after 9 a.m., police told the public to avoid the area.Police officials did not immediately say if anyone was wounded or killed.Brent Andrew, spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the hospital had received victims, but he did not know exactly how many or their conditions.The situation is ongoing and police said they would alert people when the lockdown has been lifted.Police and city officials urged residents to avoid the area and remain indoors, said Francis Zamora, a spokesman for the citys Department of Emergency Management.He declined to release any information on the number of causalities or say whether there was an active shooting incident.We want to let the first responders go in safely first, Zamora said.May Vang, who works across the street from the facility, said that by 10 a.m. police and UPS workers were standing around outside.I didnt hear anything, she said. Im used to sirens going off so I didnt even pay attention.A Twitter user across the street from the building tweeted that he heard seven or eight gunshots and saw employees standing on the buildings roof parking lot with their hands up. Media at the scene reported seeing a police tactical team go inside when the incident was unfolding.2017 Los Angeles TimesVisit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. (TNS) -- Texas is playing small ball on clean energy.A few months ago, a bill was introduced in Austin to study energy efficiency in the state and look for ways to improve it. Universities would cover the costs and the findings would be reported to the next Legislature.The bill went nowhere There was a desire to just let the market do it, said Gavin Dillingham of the Houston Advanced Research Center.This is what passes for energy policy in Texas in 2017, at least at the statehouse.In contrast, the governor of California recently met with leaders from China and Germany to strengthen ties on climate change and clean energy. New York is reshaping its electricity system and setting ambitious goals for renewables and emissions. Nevada has pushed several bills to spur energy storage and more wind and solar.After President Donald Trump rejected the Paris accord this month, there was a strong reaction. Twelve states and Puerto Rico joined a new U.S. Climate Alliance, and 10 states and Washington, D.C., pledged to follow the Paris agreement. Mayors from roughly 300 cities, including Dallas, Houston and Austin, agreed to work on climate goals and a clean energy economy.Texas leaders may not feel much urgency to act. The economy is rolling, utilities are doing well, and the state is easily No. 1 in oil, natural gas and wind power.Texas will be a dominant player in energy with or without government help or global pledges. And companies here will have many opportunities in wind, solar, batteries and more.But theyre not gonna get any support from the state of Texas to do that, said Dillingham, program director for clean energy policy at HARC, a nonprofit research hub.It wasnt always this way. In the 1990s, Texas created a strategic plan for energy and pulled in industry, academics, government and consumer and conservation groups. That led to new standards for renewable energy and efficiency, and was part of the march to electric deregulation.In the mid-2000s, lawmakers also approved new transmission lines to bring wind power from West Texas. That $7 billion investment lowered electric bills and helped the environment.Today, another opportunity beckons, and Texas should be at the forefront. Because its so large and has so much wind and sun, Texas has twice as much renewable energy potential as the next-closest state and three times more than California, according to data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.Texas also has a history of using market-based systems, which attract more private investment and often lead to faster progress.Weve shown that markets, more than anything, drive innovation, said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.There is a role for government, even in a small-government state. Several experts want to revamp the ratemaking system for regulated utilities, such as Oncor Electric Delivery Co. The state has rewarded companies for building more transmission lines, because that helps meet the growth of an expanding economy.But Texas could also encourage more innovation and efficiency, including batteries and other technologies. They could lower the costs of reliable solutions, said Robert King, a member of the states energy panel in the 1990s.Such ratemaking changes are the next thing for making the new economy possible, said King, CEO of the South-central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource, an Austin nonprofit known as SPEER. The group is trying to build a consensus toward regulatory reforms and has been meeting with leaders from industry, environmental groups and more. If they can agree on a plan, King said, lawmakers are more likely to act.A research paper calls for creating performance-based incentives so utility executives wake up every morning thinking about how they can improve service while reducing total costs.Others offered more suggestions for a clean energy agenda. For example, corporate customers would set up more micro-grid projects if interconnection standards were improved and standby rates were lowered. Theres also great potential in offshore wind farms, and Texas could evaluate adding those transmission lines in the future.The grid could be made smarter to reduce wasted energy, take advantage of advanced meters and explore ways to export more power. The state could ratchet up goals for energy efficiency, which have lagged.A strong focus on batteries could expand Texas manufacturing base, in the same way that dozens of companies started making components for wind turbines, said Tom Smitty Smith, the longtime former director of Public Citizen in Austin.California is leading that field, and Nevada is ramping up. But Texas has significant strengths, including some top researchers.How do we jump into the batteries market? Smith said. We need to develop a business plan to profit from the transition.In late 2014, Oncor floated the idea of investing $2 billion in storage batteries. The proposal, described as "fracking for the electric grid," was seen as a major threat to power generators in Texas competitive market. Lawmakers never took on the issue and it faded away.Thats an example of an artificial barrier, said Fred Beach, assistant director for policy studies at the Energy Institute at UT-Austin.Economics will drive action, he said, and he pointed to the positive impact that wind power has had on landowners in West Texas.Just talk business, Beach said. If it makes economic sense, do it. Furniture retailer La-Z-Boy has hired former Michigan CIO David Behen to serve as vice president and CIO for the global organization based in Monroe, Mich.The announcement comes nearly two weeks after Gov. Rick Snyder first announced Behen would be stepping down from the chief information technology role to pursue opportunities in the private sector.Behen served as the state CIO for six years, and took also took the title of director of Department of Technology Management and Budget (DTMB) with the departure of former Director John Nixon in 2014.According to a press release issued by the company, Behen will be responsible for all aspects of the organizations IT footprint, including strategy, cybersecurity, ERP deployment and network optimization.I look forward to working with the multi-faceted technology strategies associated with a company involved in the retail arena as well as one with extensive manufacturing operations," Behen said in the release. "Today, IT systems and business applications are necessary to ensure success externally to provide excellent service to our many independent dealers and end consumers as well as internally as we manage our business for productivity and efficiency."During his time as the states lead technologist, Behen earned Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers award in 2013. Under his leadership, Michigan was one of few states to receive an A grade in the Center for Digital Governments* 2016 Digital States Survey Current Chief Deputy Director Brom Stibitz will serve as interim director of the DTMB until a permanent replacement is named.Government Technology JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. The states commitment to open government is longstanding, two panelists told a full audience of public employees during a packed session at the Missouri Digital Government Summit, but its so-called sunshine law hasnt been fully retooled to address challenges agencies face in the computer age.The Missouri Sunshine Law was approved by the General Assembly in 1973 to open meetings, records, votes, actions and deliberations of public governmental bodies to the public, speakers told a roomful of officials during the June 13 panel.But speaker Rochelle Reeves, director of legal services for the Missouri Lottery, said that while the law contemplates electronic records, it largely has not been updated to contemplate modern technology.As with other aspects of Internet access and cybersecurity, panel members said common sense rules apply as much to state, county and city staffers on the job as to the citizens they serve.They cautioned officials to be mindful what they send via email and put on social media especially if its work-related and to not do public business on a private server because that could violate records retention or record destruction policies.Two portions of the states Sunshine Law, however, have kept pace with the times, Reeves said.In a 2004 update, Section 610.025 was added, requiring any member of a public governmental body who sends an electronic message relating to public business to send a copy to either his or her public computer or to the states custodian of records.The provision applies only to messages sent to two or more members of that body comprising, with the sender, a majority.Added slightly later, Section 610.100 included verbiage about body camera footage in the law making it, Reeves said, very evident that the General Assembly expects public bodies to be able to take a video and edit it and still disclose it to the public.Edited footage may be released to the public, she noted, but some people and entities courts, for example can even obtain portions that were removed.Reeves said this is virtually the only other place in the Sunshine Law to go into such detail about what should happen.What are we doing about text messages? What are we doing about Facebook, what are we doing about Twitter? Are we just counting on Facebook to keep it forever and not worrying about that? These are all things that our current law doesnt advise, she said.She and fellow presenter Peggy Landwehr, special counsel in the administration for the Division of Legal Services within the state Department of Social Services, counseled agency members to preserve their electronic records and to never delete emails or destroy electronic records upon receiving a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.They pointed out that Missouri has saved every state government email since 2008.The two speakers also offered a series of suggestions to agencies grappling with public records act requests.Landwehr said officials may want to consider investing in e-discovery software systems capable of segregating certain groups of employees, doing some really good searches, de-duplicating the results, and clustering documents with similar words.Reeves suggested that agencies consider adding frequently requested information to their websites, and pointed out their three-day window to respond to a FOIA request is just that: a window to respond, not necessarily to provide completed results if doing so is impossible in 72 hours.But during a discussion of case law, Brad DePriest, network systems manager for the city of St. Louis, voiced a common concern. DePriest told Reeves and Landwehr a lawsuit they referenced seemed analogous to a request his city got from a company wanting a records search of all our purchases of software over a period of time.It seems like, in this case, a private firm trying to get public information that they can then drive revenue from, he said, later emphasizing tohis city's general support of the Sunshine Law.They want it so that you can provide them with a free mailing list, said Ramona Huckstep, a policy and membership associate with the nonprofit Missouri Municipal League, which represents 650 of the states 940 cities, towns and villages, and offers guidance on issues including public records and information."Its tough for little towns, Huckstep told. Think about it. You live in a small town and somebody is in there every day asking you stuff. And your clerk cant get the water bills out, cant get the budget typed up, cant get the next meeting ready because theyre constantly doing that."Mark Neckerman, assistant IT director for the city of Columbia, confirmed that the city has had similar issues with companies requesting public information on customers of the city-owned utility Columbia Water and Light, then targeting customers with unwanted communications.The problem is someone who uses it like a weapon, or a lot of times theyre mad and irritated when they make the [public records act] request. When you come back to them to limit their search they dont trust you, he said.Any individual trust issues aside, panelists had to give the audience some bad news: Public information is just that public.And they can do it, Reeves said in response to DePriests question. (TNS) -- SEATTLE In the near future, your phone might be smart enough to know whether you are driving a car, or going along for the ride.Anti-distraction software by a tech startup called Cellepathy would automatically go into a restrictive driver mode when a phone is within a moving vehicle. Online features such as texts, video, games and social media would be blocked, as well as some or all nonemergency telephone calls.Your cellphone is like an airplanes black box. It contains a compass, a gyroscope, an accelerometer and GPS tracking.Using those features and the software, vehicle passengers could perform a verification task, lasting seven seconds or less, to unlock all the apps in passenger mode. For instance, they would hold a phone level and type in a series of numbers.Cellepathy co-founder Dan Abramson recently moved from Tel Aviv to the Seattle area, where he says the company will recruit engineers. The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in Israel and some European firms are requiring employees to use Cellepathy, which he said has begun to market to customers in North America.Our contribution to the world is our ability to differentiate between drivers and passengers, he says, a useful goal until self-driving cars someday rule the road.We can prevent a lot of deaths, injuries and tragedies over the next 40 years, and if we can make an honest wage for our efforts, thats great.The quest for technical solutions comes while states gradually pass laws to reduce distracted driving, including Washington states Driving Under the Influence of Electronics act, which takes effect July 23. It bans watching video or using a handheld phone or other device while driving.Apple announced earlier this month its Do Not Disturb While Driving mode, to be installed in iOS 11 software this fall. Once a phone owner has chosen this mode, the iPhone would know when its in a moving car and automatically reply to an incoming call or message: Ill see your message when I get where Im going.Cellepathy-equipped phones would automatically go into driver mode when a car moves, unlike Apples feature, which is voluntary. No law now requires a drivers phone to be disabled. Device makers oppose any government guidelines or mandates that call for software that automatically locks phones in moving cars.Ultimately, this is a behavioral problem, said Jamie Boone, government affairs director for the Consumer Technology Association. There are tons of different distraction problems. Daydreaming, eating, putting on your makeup.Cellepathy is marketing to companies that seek to improve safety and avoid liability for employees who drive on the job. That applies not only to fleets, but traveling salespeople, or anyone using private cars to deliver food or packages.Employers can order settings to allow calls, such as those to and from the boss. Calls to 911 would not be restricted. Employers typically allow finger or voice-activated maps, and music apps. Employers could configure Cellepathy software to either allow or block hands-free calls via Bluetooth, Abramson said.I also have the curiosity and compulsion to see who has texted me, and to check emails all the time, confessed Hilla Nissani, general manager of AstraZeneca Israel, on a newscast there. The software really lets me drive in peace without knowing that mails are coming in, without the ability to read the texts.Cellepathy is developed for Android phones and being beta-tested on Apple products, according to Abramson.Staffers from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, or WTSC, are informally trying three Cellepathy-equipped phones on drives around the state capital.Of course, turning off your phone is a voluntary form of driver mode. You may toss your phone in the trunk, or study a map before turning on the ignition. Few people do so.Ideally we would say put it away, said Shelly Baldwin, legislative liaison for the WTSC. Thats a little like promoting abstinence. Thats 100 percent effective if you follow the code.The goal is harm reduction, she says, as a public-health strategy.On a brief drive with commission staff leaving downtown Olympia, one Cellepathy-equipped phone announced driver mode after traveling one block and another after three blocks, locking out many uses, including Google search. Erika Mascorro, anti-distraction program manager, set her thumb on her phone, held it level, and typed numbers to allow passenger mode. She could easily make the verification test fail by tilting the phone 10 degrees. Ive had it about a week, and Im already accustomed to it, she said.They were surprised driver mode let people type an address within a navigation map. (The new state law limits drivers to minimal use of a finger.) In real life, Cellepathy buyers would decide which mapping apps they would deem safe for employees, Abramson said.One question is passenger collusion.Whats to stop a friend or spouse from attaining passenger mode, then handing the driver a phoneload of temptations?That situation is rare, Cellepathy Vice President Sean Irtold a national conference, because 60 percent of vehicles contain one person, and federal surveys show three-fourths of riders feel unsafe enough to tell a texting driver to stop.At least in theory, passenger-verification software could become ubiquitous on cellphones which is why Baldwin said she was eager to give Cellepathy a test drive.Think about that.Your phone would be disabled once a car moves, until a passenger takes action. Some motorists would consider that an imposition on their freedom.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued draft guidelines in November about phones, tablets and other mobile devices inside a car. The agency hopes for a passive mode, in which phones automatically know who drives and who rides. Drivers might be identified by bodily electric current, or camera images of where people sit in a car.If thats unworkable, the guidelines would recommend a passenger verification task.Abramson said the country could wait 10 years for such passive-driver detection, compared with a couple of years to reach millions of people through software updates or new phones. The NHTSA is willing to tolerate 1.5 seconds per glance at a screen, totaling 12 seconds for multiple glances compared with choosing a satellite radio station. Texting consumes an average 36 seconds.The Consumer Technology Association endorses state enforcement against distracted driving. But it argues NHTSA lacks authority to issue guidelines for nonautomotive products. That would limit innovation, industry groups say.Who decides which apps get blocked? Who decides which maps are usable and which arent? Its a big ecosystem and a whole lot more complicated than it looks, Boone said.Carmakers have advocated features that connect phones to built-in dashboard infotainment systems. The National Safety Council objects that pairing enables the myth that hands-free calling is safe.Council President Deborah Hersman wrote that widespread adoption of automatic driver mode for smartphones is maybe the best hope to overcome a dangerous compulsion.NSC believes we must go beyond education and laws if we want to successfully solve the problem. Technology created this problem, but it can also provide the solution. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Ninety percent of successful cyberattacks originate from phishing. And though phishing is a technologically unsophisticated attack strategy, it remains viable and is enjoying resurgent popularity thanks to its reliance on human behavior, cybersecurity experts told attendees at the Missouri Digital Government Summit*.The event, held Tuesday, June 13, showed how very real and quick even a simulated network hack could be, and attendees had their own staffing and end-user security challenges confirmed by high-level state officials.IT staff is in dramatically short supply as a generation of staffers continues to retire, state and industry officials agreed, but they also identified bright spots emerging on the technology landscape that should be capitalized upon.Perhaps most fundamentally, moderator and Missouri Chief Operating Officer Drew Erdmann told a lunchtime crowd that public employees must realize that IT is not ITs problem.I see that as one of the biggest challenges across government," he said. "Its actually a top management challenge, and I think one of the things were trying to do at the state is make sure all leaders and managers view cybersecurity as part of their management agenda."He pointed out that Sarah H. Steelman, commissioner in the state Office of Administration, has been leading the cabinet in a discussion of how to confront cybersecurity threats.Panelists Michael Roling, state chief information security officer; Terry Hect, director and chief security strategist at AT&T; and Sean Telles, manager of systems engineering, public sector state and local at ForeScout Technologies Inc., highlighted cybersecurity issues endemic to state and local agencies.The advent of mobile technology has amplified the role of cybersecurity professionals in part by allowing access to large-scale networks virtually everywhere device users travel, Hect told the audience. But he said technology may also offer solutions to staffing shortages private and public sectors face.There arent enough people to do that work, period, end of story," Hect said, "so weve got to rely on automation and analytics and machine learning to build into the architecture to do that heavy lifting."Telles, whose firm offers solutions designed to monitor security and control network access, said too often companies and agencies that hire great people are hamstrung by multiple best practices.Find one best way of doing something. We incorporate that across our organization, then we automate our workflow, he advised those assembled.Roling, one of three Team Missouri members recognized ass Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers of 2017 , agreed that staffing is a common issue across public and private sectors, and said staffers must be instilled with a sense of mission and of the number of public-sector opportunities for advancement.But in a common theme during the panel, and in a smaller cyber-focused session and during an exploration of phishing psychology, Roling emphasized the continued success of basic attack strategies.The Symantec 2017 Internet Security Threat Report released on Wednesday, April 26, bolstered the direction of his remarks with its finding that criminals increasingly rely on email and common IT tools in mounting attacks.Organized crime and hacktivists represent significant threats, Roling told the lunch crowd, but third-party contracts are also a significant source of risk and in the private sector, a third-party vulnerability led to the historic 2013 Target breach.During the smaller session that followed, Roling joined Verizon officials as they demonstrated just how easy it is for hackers, hacktivists and cybercriminals to breach networks regardless of distance or type of asset capturing a password and gaining access within minutes as an audience of IT officials looked on.Steve McCluskey, manager solutions architect of Internet of Things (IoT) Development at Verizon Wireless, advised those assembled to restrict MAC addresses, cover their bases, check their firewalls, dont waste time on ineffective solutions, dont broadcast Service Set Identifiers (SSID) and use strong passwords.Its just going to raise your level. Modern-day hackers, theyre millennials, McCluskey said admitting thats perhaps increasingly but not always the case.But generally, if hackers have to work really hard at something, they move on, and thats what we want, he added, emphasizing that theres no network thats secure. If somebody wants in your network, they can get in your network.Verizons Security Director of Public Sector West Gary Schwartz discussed the companys annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) released on Thursday, April 27 which ranked the public sector midrange among five types of entities assessed for data breaches last year.The basics still arent covered, he told the audience, noting one in 14 users assessed in the DBIR fell for a phishing attack just 7 percent of users. But a larger number of that group, 25 percent, were victims of phishing a second time.Not once but twice, Schwartz told the group, recommending strong passwords, limiting attachments, regular patching and dual-factor or multifactor authentication.Lucas Waldren, help desk technician in IT for the city of Nixa, a municipality of more than 19,000 in the southwestern part of the state, said he attended the summit to research dual-factor authentication, which he indicated Nixa might potentially adopt later this year for its law enforcement and code enforcement officers in the field.We have faced some threats here, Waldren told, indicating entities had previously tried to brute-force the agency.Enhanced authentication for employees internal-facing Microsoft Windows profiles would only improve Nixas cybersecurity strategy, he added, so that anybody that is going to go into our terminal server, theyll have to deal with the two-factor.On the inside, Roling told the audience during the session he led, officials need to help employees modify their own thinking to combat phishing, which he characterized as really no different than any other classic swindle.The bad guys they figure out a way to exploit the fast side of our brain. Theyre trying to make us think fast, jump the gun and do things that we normally wouldnt do. You can mitigate your risk.""Even behavior can be changed, Roling said, noting the state assesses its end users every four to six weeks.Breaches and incidents aside, Roling and his fellow lunchtime panelists agreed the cybersecurity landscape is not the minefield it may sometimes appear.Public agencies have overcome any shame or shyness they may have had at reporting breaches and seeking help from private technology companies, Hect said, noting the two sectors are regularly together in lockstep at nearly every event.Something that we might mention is the IoT and we all wish it was called the Internet of Secure Things, Missouri Acting CIO Rich Kliethermes said, seeking industry thoughts during a lunchtime question-and-answer session after the panel.Hect noted he usually refers to IoT as Internet of Abandoned Things a reference to the state of IoT security and said agencies and companies need to drive developers to center on common standards.Telles questioned whether every IoT device really needs to contribute to Internet traffic and pointed out that, as they did during the initial rise of the Internet, leaders are implementing first and securing second.The states Deputy CIO Steven Siegler asked Hect for tips on hiring and retraining staff.Hect said he sees an open mind and the ability to chase problems as essentials, along with the will to do it and the understanding of some technologies, but that staffers can absolutely be retrained as technologies evolve.Telles said when he interviewed candidates, he typically asked only three questions designed to reveal their work ethics and ambitions. Fostering those ambitions, he said, is how were going to get some of the best talent and hold on to it.Roling said he looks to hire people who have that fire, have that spark.Asked how they get buy-in from end-users the so-called first lines of defense, the CISO said organizational culture begins at the top but agreed end users are the first-line and the last-line in many situations.Telles noted he has said for 23 years, culture kills IT, and agreed executive sponsorship from the top of an agency or organization is essential.Hect urged audience members to make tools and changes as absolutely easy as you can for employees to use to keep endpoints secure.Asked for their overall takeaways, the three panelists agreed agencies should work to learn from any past mistakes or incidents, and retrain employees as one way to solve staffing issues.Government Technology (TNS) -- WASHINGTON Cybersecurity in the United States is in a severe state of disrepair, leaving the country vulnerable to attack from hacking groups backed by its opponents, two witnesses testified in a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday.The witnesses told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy that they believe a massive cyberattack is imminent unless the U.S. ratchets up its efforts to protect against and deter offensives from countries such as Russia, China and North Korea.Eric Rosenbach, who was chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, told lawmakers he believes a large-scale attack by North Korea against the United States is likely to happen within the next year, if current trends continue.Quoting Chinese officials, Samantha Ravich, who advised the George W. Bush White House on national security, described Chinas aggressive cyber-offensive strategy as a form of nonmilitary warfare, which is just as terribly destructive as a bloody war, but in which no blood is actually shed.Lawmakers agreed with the witnesses warnings.In his opening remarks, Sen. Cory Gardner, the panels chairman, stressed the importance of updating the U.S. governments cybersecurity system, which is six-and-a-half years old.In technology terms, its a fossil, the Colorado Republican said.Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey, the subcommittees ranking Democrat, expressed his concern with security deficiencies in the private sector, particularly in utility companies that power the American electrical grid.He referenced Russias 2015 cyberattack on the Ukrainian power grid that left 235,000 people without electricity for hours as an example of what could happen if American utility companies dont invest in stronger firewall protections.Its definitely on their radar, Rosenbach said of domestic utility companies security. But they dont take it seriously enough. When it comes down to it, some of this stuff can be expensive, and it can be complicated, and normally, youre not forced to do things unless you have to or theres a return to your bottom line.Thats where the government could step in to enforce stricter protections for the private industries so vital to the American economic engine, such as electricity and communications.The starting point, Rosenbach urged lawmakers, is to make the NSC framework mandatory for critical infrastructure, in the energy sector particularly. I think you need to legislate on it.Another crucial component would be concocting a cohesive White House strategy to deter potential attacks by Russia, China, and North Korea, an area in which the U.S. has failed, Rosenbach and Ravich said.Lawmakers and former White House officials couldnt be raising these issues at a more critical time in the U.S., as the FBI continues to investigate Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 U.S elections and ties between the Kremlin and President Donald Trumps campaign team.The FBI probe, which prompted Trump to fire the agencys director, James B. Comey, has captivated the nation. A Friday Nielsen report showed that roughly 19.5 million people watched from home as Comey testified before the Senate on Thursday about alleged attempts by Trump to obstruct parts of the investigation. Thousands possibly millions more Americans watched from work or at bars.Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine cited a Bloomberg report at Tuesdays hearing that said Russian hackers infiltrated voting systems in 39 states prior to the 2016 elections. Kaine was last years Democratic vice presidential nominee.In Illinois, investigators found that Russian operatives had tried to manipulate and delete voter data, according to the Bloomberg report, a serious attack against one of Americas most cherished and fundamental pillars: its democratic process.What has the U.S. done to deter Russia and other rivals from perpetrating these kinds of actions in the future, Kaine asked.Not much, Ravich said.Even after the fact, we still have not responded to Russia, she said. The rest of the world sees that.Rosenbach agreed that the U.S. has not responded adequately.We, as a country, need to (rise) above the political furor about it, he said, referring to the partisanship surrounding the FBI investigation that has distracted Washington lawmakers and the administration from responding in kind.This lag in response time could have serious consequences for the U.S. moving forward.The fragility of the U.S. response, Rosenbach said, combined with the perception among the countrys adversaries that Russias actions achieved unprecedented success, increases the chances that Russia and others will unleash similar attacks on the U.S. and its allies in the near future.U.S. lawmakers must take legislative and executive action to reupholster private and government security, members and witnesses agreed.The worst case, Rosenbach said, would be someone thinking that the United States was an emperor that had no clothes when it comes to cybersecurity. Life has a funny way of evening things out sometimes. Theres a 5-year age spread between Lilly Paradis and her older brothers Pierre and Tim, but the way things worked out, all three will be graduating from college at the same time. When the Oregon State University Class of 2017 marches down Southwest 26th Street to Reser Stadium on Saturday to receive their diplomas, the siblings will be walking together something none of them could have foreseen when they were growing up on the familys 60-acre vineyard near Silverton. Tim, the oldest of the three at 26, had a pretty good head start on the others until life intervened. I went to three years of school right out of high school, he said. But then I decided I wanted to get married. To save money for the wedding, he dropped out of college and went to work doing commercial masonry jobs (including some at OSU, where he helped build the Student Experience Center and Austin Hall). Pierre, now 24, was the next to finish high school, but he didnt start college right away. Instead, he took a year off from his studies to work at wineries in Australia and New Zealand. And even after he started taking classes at Oregon State, he didnt follow a straight path to his degree, taking some time to study abroad in Chile and leaving school temporarily to start a business, which he continues to run with his older brother. We do vineyard mechanical contracting services hedging, pruning, leaf removal, harvesting, he explained. We dont do hand labor, only mechanical filling a niche where theres not enough labor. At 21, Lilly is the youngest of the trio, but she quickly made up ground on her big brothers at OSU. I took a lot of college credit courses in high school, which transferred over pretty smoothly, she said. She also spent the summer of 2015 studying and living with a host family in Costa Rica, which helped her knock off her Spanish minor early. Suddenly, it began to look like Lilly might just wrap up her program in human development and family sciences before her older brothers completed their ag science degrees. I always knew I was a little bit ahead of them, but I didnt know how far, she said. But Pierre, who has been taking courses online the past two terms, was able to complete his requirements in time for a spring 2017 graduation too. That left Tim, who had re-enrolled in early 2016 after his wife completed her college career but still had a ways to go. At first, he didnt think there was any way hed be able to finish up in time to walk with his siblings. But then I accelerated my coursework, he said. Once we kind of figured out it was a possibility, I wanted to be done with school anyway, so it was kind of a win-win. Even when it became clear that all three were going to graduate at the same time, however, that didnt mean theyd get to walk together in the procession. At OSU commencement, students line up by college which meant Lilly would be walking with the College of Public Health and Human Sciences while the boys would be with the College of Agricultural Sciences. Then their father, Pete Paradis, got involved. Our dads retired, so he has more time on his hands, Tim joked. He went to work, started making some phone calls. His persistence paid off. This Saturday, with the blessing of OSU officials, the three Paradis siblings will blur the lines between the colleges to march together in the commencement procession. (If they receive their diplomas in alphabetical order by first name, Lilly, the youngest, will get hers first and Tim, the eldest, will get has last.) Im glad that they cooperated and made that work. Itll be special, said their mother, Donna Paradis herself a 1986 OSU grad. There should be plenty of family members on hand for the event, Paradis added. Were caravanning down there with a bunch of people, she said. My nephew, my brothers son, hes graduating too well have quite a few people down there for the festivities. And they might have to do it again in a few more years. The youngest Paradis child, Jori, is wrapping up her sophomore years at Silverton High and beginning to think about attending college possibly at Oregon State. Its more a joke with her than anything, like maybe she shouldnt break the pattern, her mother said. But Im certainly not going to force her. Time will tell. Once they have their sheepskins, Lilly plans to do an internship at College Hill High School in Corvallis. Her brothers intend to expand their agricultural contracting business and restart a winery that operated briefly on the family vineyard before shutting down. But in the meantime, the family has a triple graduation to celebrate. (Our parents) are pretty excited about it, Tim said. They get one party instead of three. Linn County Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Will Tucker heard good news Tuesday morning from Robert Wheeldon, head of the county Planning Department, and Randy Porter, director of the Linn County Fair & Expo Center. Both departments have had brisk business over the past fiscal year and will head into the next fiscal year with greater than projected incomes. We remain busy, as we have been all year, Wheeldon said. It looks like were going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. He said the number of building permit applications exceeds each of the last five years. According to Wheeldon: Permit activity remains especially high in the Millersburg area, where several subdivisions are planned. In rural Linn County, building, plumbing and mechanical permits are up 15 percent, electrical permits are up 22 percent and rural site-built dwellings are up 24 percent (63 compared to 51 a year ago). The number of site-built dwellings in rural contract cities is up from 77 a year ago to 127 so far this year, up 65 percent. Total department revenue is up 44 percent. Through May, income was $1,646,528 and the June revenue estimate was $131,125. Wheeldon said several positions remain to be filled and the department is staying on top of applications by contracting with inspectors and using temporary and on-call employees. The commissioners also approved the reappointments of Stan Boshart and Eric Stutzman to the Planning Commission. Board chairman Nyquist reminded Wheeldon its important to keep the permitting process as short as possible for economic development reasons. He encouraged Wheeldon to fill the open positions as quickly as possible. Porter told the commissioners the Fair & Expo Center revenue is at $1,070,000, up about $22,500 from projections. When asked to forecast the coming years activities, Porter said income may be down a bit due to the loss of some larger shows, but those shows are expected to return the following year. The commissioners approved catering contracts with Bomacks, El Sol De Mexico, Jacopettis, Loafers Station and Valley Catering. Porter said the county receives 10 percent commission on catering sales based at the fairgrounds, which along with a 15 percent commission in event concessions, amounts to about $75,000 annually. Nyquist told Porter he didnt think the county could staff its own food service at the fairgrounds and make a profit. In other business, the commissioners: Approved the sealed bid sale of a vacant lot at 3703 Long St. in Sweet Home for $18,700. The property had been placed for sale at one of the county auctions and did not receive any bids. The property was valued at $30,490. Buyer was A Team Services LLC from Woodburn. Approved a wrecking license for Ulor Unit Enterprises. Approved accepting Federal Transit Administration funds for operation of the Linn Shuttle and Sweet Home Dial-A-Bus programs, and Oregon Special Transportation Funds to provide transportation services for the elderly and persons with disabilities. Ahead of Linn County Circuit Court Judge Carol Bispham's retirement at the end of this month, Governor Kate Brown has said she will appoint a judge to fill the vacancy. Bispham, who announced her retirement last week, has been a Linn County judge since 1999. She plans to officially retire June 30, but will stay on as a senior judge for the state and fill in at her old position until the governor's selection. The governor's appointment will fill the vacancy for the duration of Judge Bispham's elected term, which expires in January 2023. After that, candidates can vie for the elected post. Bispham said a committee will be created to help select the candidates for the position. "We have some great lawyers here," she said. "Linn County's going to get a very good judge." According to a statement, Governor Brown considers applicants based on merit, and encourages lawyers from a variety of backgrounds to apply. The position is open to any member of the Oregon State Bar. Each applicant must be a resident or maintain a principal office in Linn County. LINN COUNTY COURTHOUSE Strangulation, car theft, and meth 3 p.m. Tuesday, Linn County Courthouse. Cameron Levi Farver, 41, was arraigned on a variety of criminal charges, ranging from burglary to assault to bribery. The charges stem from two events that involved altercations with officers as well as his wife. He also faces charges of resisting arrest, giving false information and strangulation. Pointing to Farver's closed black eye, defense lawyer Kent Hickam told Judge DeAnn Novotny, "He definitely got the worst of it yesterday, which should compel him to stay away from the alleged victim." Prosecutor Jonathon Crow countered, saying, "Maybe he wouldn't look that way if he hadn't resisted arrest." Crow asked for $30,000 security for the first set of charges, "considering the burglary, strangulation, the stolen car and the meth." Farver was ordered held on $45,000 security. His next hearing is set for June 26. H2 Mobility commissioned the new hydrogen station in Frankfurts Hanauer Landstrasse 334 while Daimler AG is the owner of the filling station in Wiesbadens Borsigstrasse 1. Both stations are located on Shell premises. The joint venture H2 Mobility Deutschland and its partners Air Liquide, Daimler, Linde and Shell officially opened two new hydrogen refueling stations in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. The German federal state of Hesse now has a total of five H 2 filling stations for fuel cell vehicles. With these new stations, the partners have moved yet another step closer to a nationwide H 2 supply network. The new sites are both conveniently located directly on the A661 and A66 motorways at key points of intersection for people driving from north to south through Germany. With financial support from the German government via its National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP), Germany now has a total of 30 hydrogen refueling stations. Overall, the German government has invested some 1.6 million (US$1.8 million) in the two new stations. By 2018, there should be 100 stations. The demonstration project Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) set out joint standards and norms which laid the basis for the expansion of the hydrogen infrastructure. The two H2 filling stations in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt offer drivers an intuitive fuelling experience similar to facilities for conventional vehicles. It takes between three to five minutes to fill up a fuel cell vehicle. Both stations have the capacity to serve 40 FCEVs every day. At present, Germany has another 27 hydrogen stations in the pipeline or under construction. This year, for example, H2 Mobility and its partner companies are due to unveil filling stations in Kassel, Bremen and Wendlingen. More are planned for the Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Munich areas. Everything is in place for the market launch of electric vehicles with fuel cell. Today the technology is ready for series production and the H2 refuelling station network is constantly expanding. Thanks in great part to the concrete action plan put together by our H2 Mobility Joint Venture, hydrogen is on track to become an increasingly viable option for everyday mobility. This year we are taking the next step to long-distance e-mobility in the premium segment with the world premier of our latest model based on the Mercedes-Benz GLC. Prof. Dr. Christian Mohrdieck, Director Fuel Cell at Daimler AG H2 Mobilitys shareholders are Air Liquide, Daimler, Linde, OMV, Shell and TOTAL. As associated partners, BMW, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen advise H2 Mobility. The Pinnacle engine architecture features low heat loss and low surface-area-to-volume in the combustion chamber, resulting in less energy loss, contributing to greater fuel efficiency. The Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) allows for reduced pumping work (PMEP) from de-throttling (increased air flow), reducing heat loss and knock resistance. Greaves Cotton Limited, one of the leading engineering companies in India with core competencies in diesel and gasoline engines, farm equipment and gensets, and Pinnacle Engines, the developer of a high compression ratio, four-stroke, spark-ignited (SI), opposed-piston, sleeve-valve architecture engine ( earlier post ), announced a technology partnership for the launch of a novel opposed-piston gasoline/CNG lean burn BSVI-compliant engine for 3-wheelers in India. This will make India one of the lead markets to adopt this technology. In a 2012 SAE paper, Pinnacle engineers reported that, with the most basic configuration, the engine can realize light-load indicated efficiency improvements of 15-30% over conventional poppet-valve technology. Greaves sees this move as an important milestone in establishing itself as a leading fuel-agnostic powertrain solutions & services company. This also allows Greaves access to export markets with large 3-wheeler population. With this advanced horizontal opposed piston design engines, Greaves aims to offer BS VI compliant high power and fuel efficiency engines with lower maintenance cost that results in higher savings to the end customer. This partnership enables Greaves, currently the market leader in the 3-wheeler diesel engine space, to enter the larger 3-wheeler gasoline/CNG market, with a powerful customer value proposition. The partnership leverages strengths on both sides, provides opportunities to enter new markets and customer segments. Utilizing a proprietary hardware design and electronic control, Pinnacles unique lean-burn four stroke engine is protected by more than 170 patents. The technology is now ready to be taken into the Indian 3-wheeler market, providing a highly differentiated customer value proposition. Resources Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia signed a joint declaration today that sets ambitious goals for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to make the transition to zero emissions in their Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP). The mayors also affirmed that the CAAP will include new investments in clean technology, expanding at-berth emission reductions, and launching a zero emissions drayage truck pilot program in the next few years. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will release a detailed timeline and process for CAAP within 15 days, and fully complete the update by November. Mayors Garcetti and Garcia also launched the Green Ports Collaborative, a new initiative led by the Climate Mayors. The program will bring cities and ports togetherfirst along the West Coast, and then across Americato create shared environmental standards, demonstrate future demand for zero emissions equipment and trucks, work with manufacturers to produce the vehicles and technologies needed, and take other collaborative action to green ports across the country. Nearly 40% of the container cargo that comes to the US moves through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The ports generate $398 billion of economic activity every year, and they support one out of every nine jobs in the region. Both cities have demonstrated a firm commitment to making their ports more sustainable, and since 2006, the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) has led to significant emissions reductions even as trade volume has increased 7%. The Mayors declaration also puts in place a CAAP Implementation Stakeholder Advisory Group, which will bring together key stakeholders to oversee the implementation of the 2017 update. The Stakeholder Advisory Group is modeled in part on the Port of Los Angeles Sustainable Freight Advisory Committee. The federal government is showing signs that it might be interested in cracking down on Oregon's nascent marijuana business and the state has given the feds some ammunition. The Oregonian reported this week that the United States attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, met recently with the state's top marijuana regulators. The topic of conversation was a report from the Oregon State Police suggesting that despite the legalization of marijuana, Oregon remains a leading black market exporter of pot to other states. The Oregonian obtained a copy of the report after the State Police declined to release it to the paper, saying the report was a draft that the agency planned to refine. Well, first, draft reports are public records. In any event, the report was sufficient to draw the attention of Williams, who went ahead and requested the meeting. That request is interesting because it's still not clear how the Trump administration plans to deal with states like Oregon that are in the forefront of marijuana legislation, both for recreational and medical use. The Obama administration gave states some leeway to move ahead with legalization via a 2013 memo from James Cole, then a deputy attorney general. In essence, the memo said that marijuana would remain illegal under federal law, but that the feds would tolerate legalization on the state level as long as those states worked hard on eight enforcement priorities, including keeping pot out of the hands of minors and controlling the black market. It's that black market that prompted Williams to request the meeting with state officials and, potentially, could provide the ammunition for a federal crackdown in the legal pot market. The Trump administration continues to give mixed signals on how it intends to deal with states that have legalized pot: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who arguably is focused on other matters these days, has said that he believes pot is "only slightly less awful" that heroin, a judgment which is frankly inaccurate. But he also has said that he believes the Cole memo is "valid." The smart move for the Trump administration would be to allow states to continue to experiment as they see fit with legal pot under the general guidance of the Cole memorandum. But it also is true that this administration (how to phrase this gently?) has not always distinguished itself by making the smart move. To that end, the state needs to continue its efforts to crack down on the black market for marijuana, which seems to be concentrated in the medical marijuana industry, which has been regulated more loosely than the recreational industry. The good news there is that the Legislature has been working during this session to add additional restrictions to the medical marijuana market. Among the new regulations is one that requires medical pot growers with more than a dozen plants to be tracked in the same way as recreational producers. The Legislature also has slapped new limits on the number of immature plants medical growers can have; in the past, those growers faced no limits. The idea, in addition to tightening regulations in the medical pot market, is to rein in some of the overproduction that state officials have noticed. Will that be enough to ease the concerns of federal prosecutors? State officials better hope so; after all, marijuana sales since legalization have produced more than $60 million in tax revenue and reports say that legal marijuana has created more than 12,000 jobs. And, overall, we've been impressed with the careful way in which the state has implemented legalization, despite the inevitable bumps. Let's hope that federal officials don't take advantage of one of those bumps to shut down Oregon's continuing experiment with legalized pot. (mm) There are a couple of ways to look at how the annual state budget is crafted. One is idealistic: How should lawmakers spend state tax dollars and other monies for the greatest and widest benefit to the majority of residents of the Old North State? The other is realistic: How should state lawmakers reward their friends and smite their enemies? Its easy to see both urges in the House and Senate budget plans. (I covered a few of the higher ed-related items in this blog post right here.) The General Assembly, for instance, generally thinks itll be good for North Carolina to bring back the Teaching Fellows program and help out both ECUs med school and Elizabeth City State. Theres also some smiting going on. The Senate plan proposes to take a 30 percent chunk out of the state appropriation to the UNC School of Law. Ouch. The N&O covered the particulars last week: UNC law alumni are building their case against a budget cut that they say would be catastrophic to the states oldest professional school. As state House and Senate budget negotiators work out their differences in the coming days, supporters of the UNC School of Law are working the phones and sending emails to try to win legislators over. The Senate, which rolled out its budget last month, proposed a $4 million reduction, which amounts to 30 percent of the schools state appropriation. The more recent budget plan, from the House, had no cut for the law school. The prospect of losing such a large share of their state funding is more than worrisome to the schools leaders. It would, no doubt, lead to cuts in staff and programs at the school, said Martin Brinkley, dean of the school. As far as I can tell, UNC Law isnt shrinking, and its still regarded as a good school. Its in the top 40 of the U.S. News ranking (though its rank has slipped by about a spot per year since about 2000). Its graduates pass the state bar exam at about the same rate as Duke and Wake Forest. Whatever could be the reason for such a big budget cut? Does North Carolina have too many lawyers? (Arguably, yes, but bear with me.) Is UNC Law spending too extravagantly? Is the state short on money? Is there some other public necessity that would demand such a budget cut? Heres a theory from the N&O editorial page Tuesday: The proposed cut isnt aimed at Martin Brinkley, the respected and affable dean who took over in 2015 after a successful career in corporate law. Rather, the proposal seems to squarely target Gene Nichol, another unquestionably brilliant faculty member. Thats not responsible budgeting. Its petty revenge politics, and at its worst, its a dangerous attempt to muffle free speech in a place where it should thrive. Ah, yes, Gene Nichol, the ornery former president of my alma mater and the proverbial thorn in the side of the state GOP for years. When the UNC Board of Governors (at the urging of the legislature) killed off a law school center that Nichol led in 2015, he reconstituted it that same day. Nichol has tenure, so the legislature cant urge the law school to fire him. But maybe taking a 30 percent chunk out of the law schools state funding might be a roundabout way to the same result. Of course, the proposed budget cut might not be entirely Nichol's fault. The UNC Board of Governors also is reviewing the mission of another law school entity, the UNC Center for Civil Rights. Nichol isnt involved directly in the center, whose biggest sin in the eyes of the legislature seems to be suing school boards and municipalities on behalf of non-conservative causes. That Nichol and the civil rights center share the same mailing address might be why Senate Republicans think smiting is in order. The House spending plan, as the N&O story noted, contains no budget cut for UNC Law. The two chambers are expected to unveil a single reconciled budget plan as soon as Friday. We'll see in a couple of days if UNC Law's lobbying effort worked. Want to make sure you see these blog posts? Like me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter. Have something to say? Email me at john.newsom@greensboro.com. Most wine enthusiasts have already started the summer migration away from heavy-set fare tannic Cabernet and oaky Chardonnay and on toward the crispy, sprightly warmer side of light. Light as in the killer Vs Verdejo, Viura, Viognier, Vermentino and Veltliner as in Gruner. Light as in Torrontes, Chenin blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Assyritiko, Falanghina, Semillon, Sauvignon blanc. Light as in grapefruit, lemon-lime, apple (all kinds), pear (all kinds), mineral and melon with zippy acidity and floral aromas. And if theres ever a time to drink pink, the rose of the world awaits, more often than not reflecting the varietals that are in each growing regions wheelhouse each bursting with watermelon, strawberry, pomegranate, raspberry and cherry tones. Here and next month, the focus is on summer recommendations. Wines to keep you cool. In more ways than one. Austrias renowned white is Gruner Veltliner with its tell-tale white pepper note. Find accessible examples under the Winzer Krems ($14), Hugl ($15) and Anton Bauer Rosenberg ($19) brands. From Spain, I like Verdejo. For a slightly nuttier and creamier side, I routinely choose the Marques de Caceres ($11) and Arindo Rueda ($14). Also from Spain, a hint flinty, is Viura, also called Macabeo. Cant go wrong with the El Coto Rioja white ($11). Switching to Italy perhaps best known for reds some whites worth seeking out. The Terre Di Talamo Vento Vermentino ($15) and the Donnachiara Falanghina ($17) come to mind for their light, crispy charm. An even crispier, mineral style comes from the Greek island of Santorini. The GWC Assyritiko Santorini ($18) will take you back to the Aegean, if only in your dreams. A lusher style, brimming honeysuckle and peach, is Viognier. Turning to affordable versions from France I like the Nicolas Perrin ($16) and the J.V. Fleury Cotes du Rhone Blanc ($15). Argentinas signature white wine grape is Torrontes, with a citrus profile and beguiling aromatics. I like Alamos ($10), Phebus ($10) and the Trivento White Orchid Reserve ($11). When temperatures climb, I return to where it all began: Rose. In the late 1970s, I first dipped a toe with Rose DAnjou from France. Cost $2.99 a bottle at Fowlers in Chapel Hill. This month, I found the Famille Bougrier Rose DAnjou ($10) and a flood of college-day memories returned. Which Im keeping to myself, thank you. A good blush wine is fashioned from just about any red grape, often indigenous to a particular region. In this particular case its a 50-50 blend of Gamay and Groulleau. When Im feeling flush and in the mood for a drier rendering, Ill seek out the Grenache-based Chateau DAqueria Tavel ($20) or Whispering Angel Cotes du Provance ($20), which blends Mourvedre, Grenache, Rolle, Syrah and Cinsault. Between the lower and upper end French offerings, Ill dabble the Pinot-Noir based Angeline Rose ($13) from California, the Cabernet-based Mulderbosch ($13) from South Africa, the Sangiovese-infused Banfi Centine Toscana ($15) from Italy, and the Syrah-Carmenere stylings of Casillero Del Diablo Rose ($11) from Chile. Next month, more recommendations, including lighter-styled reds and picks from North Carolina. ROCKINGHAM COUNTY On June 10, graduates from Reidsville, Rockingham County, Morehead and McMichael High Schools gathered their diplomas and crossed the stage, joining the May graduates of Rockingham Early College High School in the next chapter of life. Across all district high schools, 942 students graduated, with 441 of those graduates or about 47 percent accepting college offers, based on totals from school officials. The Rockingham County Schools Class of 2017 received more than $14 million in scholarships. Morehead High School towered over all other local high schools with the highest college-bound rate in the county with 182 college offer acceptances, about 83 percent of their 220-student strong graduating class. Rockingham Early College High School came in second at about 69 percent. However, that same percentage of the RECHS Class of 2017 graduated with associates degrees already in hand from Rockingham Community College. McMichael High School had 140 college-bound students from its 211 graduates, Reidsville High School had 98 of 209 and Rockingham County High School had 66 of 223. The Rockingham County Schools Class of 2017 saw a total of 140 National Honors Society graduates, 135 graduating North Carolina Scholars, and 98 Presidents Education Awards. According to state data, the overall graduation rate for the county has shown an upward trend in recent years. The 2010-11 graduation rate was at 72.4 percent and hit 79.9 in 2015-16. Meanwhile, the dropout rate has decreased from 4.58 percent in 2010-11 to 3.22 percent in 2015-16. Superintendent Rodney Shotwell expects the 2016-17 numbers to continue those trends. I don't have the final numbers yet and I wont until the end of month, but this will probably be the highest percentage of seniors graduating in four years that Rockingham County has ever seen and probably the lowest dropout rate that's ever been here in the county too, Shotwell said. The superintendent attributes this success to offering more programs that students like. This young man, he came to me and he wanted to get his GED because he knew then that he wanted to be a firefighter, so he was willing to forgo that senior year so that he could go ahead and get enrolled in a program at one of the community colleges, Shotwell recalled. When that hit me, I'm like Why? Why should he have to do that? Why couldnt he still enjoy high school and get some of these classes at the same time? That's really when the wheel started turning for me a lot. We need to be offering more for our kids. That idea evolved into the Rockingham County High School Public Safety Fire Academy. According to Superintendent Rodney Shotwell, this graduating class is the first graduating cohort of students from the fire academy at Rockingham County High, health sciences academy at Morehead High and the STEM academy at McMichael High. As the Class of 2017 goes off into the world, Shotwell had a few parting words. For me personally, I've had them for 11 of their 13 years, so they were all in first grade when I became superintendent, Shotwell said. When I start thinking about that, its really kind of powerful. I've been through their elementary schools, I've been through their middle schools and I've been through their high schools, and now they're getting ready to walk across the stage and start a new chapter of their life. I want to say to them how much of an honor its been to have them in our schools and I wish them the best of luck as they go to their new chapter in life, he added. I want to thank their family and friends for all the support they gave them and gave us to make graduation a reality for everybody there. Consumer Credit and Growth Hopes are high for strong economic growth in America's near future. President Trump's economic plan hinges on an economic growth rate near 4%, and markets so far are expecting him to be able to deliver at least partially on his promise. A 4% growth rate will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve without significant consumer spending and requisite consumer borrowing. Regardless of the tax rate, companies are not going to expand and grow without expecting a corresponding increase in consumer demand. So far, that demand does not seem to be sufficient to meet the President's goals. Federal Reserve data for April revealed the smallest increase in consumer borrowing in nearly six years. Total consumer credit reached $3.82 trillion in April after seasonal adjustment, for an annualized growth rate of 2.6%. April's consumer credit rise of $8.2 billion represents a significant drop from March's $19.5 billion increase. Combine this with the relatively stagnant growth in gross domestic product (estimated at 1.2% in Q1 of 2017) and a sharp drop in consumer spending (0.3% in Q1 2017, down from 3.5% in the previous quarter), and we get a potential recipe for growth that is far too slow to meet collective expectations. Credit Growth Slows Across the Board Rates of growth in consumer credit slowed across consumer credit categories (mortgages are excluded from the Fed data). The rise in revolving credit, which consists mostly of credit card debt, fell from 6.5% in March to 1.8% in April. Growth in non-revolving credit, covering installment loans such as student loans and auto loans, dropped from 6.1% in March to 2.9% in April. On one level, that's good news. It's important that consumer debt levels remain manageable to avoid future economic problems, and there have been some troubling signs in that regard. Collective household debt in the first quarter of 2017 passed the pre-recession peak of $12.68 trillion in Q3 of 2008 even with a $15 billion drop in credit card balances. Student loan debt is reaching dangerous levels, with $1.34 trillion in total outstanding debt in Q1 surpassing all categories of consumer debt except mortgages and total delinquency and default levels on student loan debt have reached 11%. Continued debt reduction in general would be good news, but not necessarily at the expense of economic growth. Are we looking at a temporary drop in consumer credit instead of the beginning of a trend? Economists seem to think so. Spending is widely expected to rebound in the next quarter, partially balancing out April's decline and positioning spending along the long-term trend line. Back to Normal? A single bad month, even if it is spread across multiple indicators, does not make a trend. It's insightful to look at the changes over time and remember that we are not talking about an overall reduction in consumer credit just a slowing of the growth rate. The three-year period around the depths of the Great Recession (2008-2010) represented the only true reductions in consumer credit in the last 22 years. Since 2009, the rolling 12-month average of consumer credit growth has been on an atypically steady rise. April's drop appears to be simply leveling out the growth rate in the long term to pre-recession levels, and a tempered rise in May would bring the 12-month rolling average in line with typical patterns. Economists blame the weather and other transient factors such as delays in income tax refunds for the slowdown, and cite positive statistics like the increase in savings (from $778.9 billion in Q4 2016 to $814.2 billion in Q1 2017) in predicting that consumer spending and therefore borrowing will rebound in the next quarter. Is this wishful thinking or recognition of typical noise in the economy? We will find out soon enough. The Takeaway A temporary slowing of consumer credit may not be the best thing for the national economy, but it might be the best course of action for you on a personal level. Is your debt starting to rise without any obvious end in sight? If so, it's time to take action. Begin by making sure that you have a reasonable budget that results in a surplus otherwise, you will not be able to pay down your debts. Examine your expenses to see where you can cut costs, but don't forget to look at potential income additions as well. Once that budget is in place, stick to it as best as you can. Devote your surplus to paying down debt with a small amount left over for emergency funds, and resist the urge to engage in impulse spending. As you start to pay down debts, positive momentum will increase and you will adjust to your new spending level. Responsible use of credit is always the right choice, whether it's on the national level or the personal level. You can do your part to propel America's growth without spending beyond your means. You can check your credit score and read your credit report for free within minutes using Credit Manager by MoneyTips. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH The sunny hallway in Glenville School was buzzing. Fifth graders, carrying armfuls of books and pencils, flooded the corridor to switch classrooms for math, reading or writing. Ten minutes later, the hallway filled again: this time with lines of fourth graders moving to new rooms for their next subject. In most elementary schools, students learn science, math, reading, writing and social studies from their home room teacher, with whom they spend most of their day. Glenville School used to operate this way, until fifth grade teacher Christina Klepper and Principal Marc DAmico decide to shake up the model two years ago. Klepper and DAmico wanted to try departmentalization education-speak for children learning different subjects from different teachers with the fifth grade. Talking to some of the middle school teachers, we wanted to know how we can better prepare students to (transition to sixth grade) and one of the things that they noticed is fostering their independence, said Klepper. The model, experimented with in some school districts, would have benefits for teachers and students, they thought. Educators would improve their teaching if they honed in on fewer subjects and had the opportunity to teach the same lessons several times to multiple groups of students. Moreover, discussing students with the other teachers who taught them would help target instruction to each individual child. For students, not only would they benefit from enhanced instruction, they would practice learning from educators with different teaching styles. And perhaps, most importantly, they would be more prepared for that dreaded, anxiety-ridden place where departmentalization is the norm: middle school. With four sections of fifth graders last year, it was the perfect time to try it, DAmico said. The first year was a real success, he said. After seeing it in action, fourth grade teachers were so interested in the model that it was expanded to that grade this year. A subject of study Michael Marotto, an adjunct professor of Education and English at the University of Connecticut Stamford, has been keeping a close eye on the changes at Glenville. In his ongoing research, Marotto studies the transition from fifth to sixth grade with the aim of improving it, saying he has determined that, in all of education, this change is the most difficult for students, parents and teachers. Marotto has interviewed more than 70 Connecticut fifth-grade teachers and 100 sixth-grade teachers about the transition between elementary and middle school. He also has closely examined case-study-style records written by teachers and standardized tests from local schools that use departmentalization, including Glenville. Collaborative departmentalization in grade five is absolutely the right thing to do, said Marotto, who worked in public schools for 42 years, including many years at Western Middle School as a seventh-grade teacher and assistant principal. There is absolutely no question about it, because it combines both the need for students to understand individualized learning while at the same time exploring the particular disciplines in depth, to prepare them for sixth grade. Some opponents of departmentalization say students lose an important bond they should have with their primary teacher. Marotto argues that, according to child development evidence, by fifth grade and with careful implementation, even in fourth students should be shedding that nearly parental relationship with a teacher, in favor of a relationship with the academic material. Students in grade five are moving from the social-emotional phase to the pre-cognitive/cognitive phase; theyre in transition, he said. This is the time to combine their need for independence and for guidance and this model does it best. Marotto and DAmico have co-authored two essays on the benefits of collaborative departmental teaching on the website teachersonteaching.com a resource for educators. The website is a collaboration between Marotto and Klepper, the fifth-grade teacher who spearheaded departmentalization at Glenville. Marotto and DAmico have a third essay forthcoming this summer. Elsewhere in Greenwich Klepper was introduced to departmentalization when she taught at North Mianus School, which tried it with fourth-grade students in 2011-12. The teachers felt it gave them an opportunity to develop greater expertise in two subject areas. Members of each team planned with their colleague on the other team, said Angela Schmidt, principal of North Mianus. The students enjoyed the opportunity to experience two different teachers and the collaboration between the teams. The school ditched departmentalization when the Common Core State Standards were implemented in 2012 and there was greater emphasis on integration of subject matter. One negative was the amount of conferences required as parents often met with both teachers, said Schmidt. I felt it cut down on some of the collaboration in the grade level as much of the discussion was with subject partners rather than the grade level. With more time I believe we might have developed greater integration. Irene Parisi, assistant superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Learning, supported Glenville educators desire to experiment with the departmentalization model. Its a solution for a number of challenges, perhaps, that youre faced with at the school, she said. Its also a very interesting model to raise the cognitive demand in the classroom and certainly to increase collaboration with the teachers. Next year, Glenville will continue departmentalization in fourth and fifth grades. So far, the school only has anecdotal evidence and one year of standardized test scores with which to evaluate the success of the model. Smarter Balanced Assessment results from this year will not be available until August. In the first we saw real positive, favorable results in the fifth grade so it was certainly encouraging, said DAmico. Former Glenville students, now in sixth grade at Western, have returned to the school to tell their teachers about middle school and the impact of departmentalization on their transition. They have said it really did make a difference, said Klepper. One of them said, If we didnt do that, I would have been so lost! I think its just giving them that little bit of a step. emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday vehemently denied any collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 election in a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee following accusations that Sessions may have had a third undisclosed meeting with a Russian official. The suggestion that I participated in any collusion to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process is an appalling and detestable lie, Sessions said. But when pressed on conversations with President Donald Trump about the investigation into Russian interference and the surprise firing of former FBI Director James Comey, Sessions refused to answer, garnering backlash from some Democratic senators. Sessions did not cite executive privilege in declining to answer some questions but said he is protecting the right of the president to assert it if he chooses. It would be premature for me to deny the president a full and intelligent choice about executive privilege, he said. In a series of tweets during the hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal revived calls for Sessions to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and answer questions hes dodging today. Disappointed that AG Sessions is refusing to answer relevant and proper questions Americans want truth, he said. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., criticized Sessions for taking an oath to tell the truth and then refusing to answer questions. Youre impeding this investigation, he said. But Republicans often came to Sessions defense, reiterating that Comeys firing had to do with his handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, not Russia, and calling attention to illegal information leaks within the government. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., compared Sessions situation to science fiction, beginning his line of questioning by asking the attorney general if he liked spy movies. Have you ever, in any of these fantastical situations, heard of a plotline so ridiculous that a sitting United States senator and an ambassador of a foreign government colluded at an open setting with hundreds of other people to pull off the greatest caper in the history of espionage? he said. Sessions came under fire earlier this year after he denied meeting with Russian officials during his January confirmation hearing, but later told reporters that he had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice. The admission led to his recusal from the Department of Justices investigation into Russian collusion. In a testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, Comey raised red flags when he said that prior to Sessions recusal, the FBI was aware of information that would have made his continued involvement in the Russia investigation problematic. Sessions, in a heated exchange with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., rejected knowledge of such information and said that he doesnt appreciate the secret innuendo being leaked out there about me. People are suggesting through innuendo that I have been not honest about matters, and Ive tried to be honest, he said. Wyden said Sessions answer doesnt pass the smell test. Employers take note: youre not holding the attention or interest of your employees. Think youre an exception to the rule? Think again. Seventy percent of American employees report being disengaged at work, and three out of four are currently looking for a new job or are open to new opportunities. While there is something to be said for optionality and hedging the risk of potential layoffs, this means more than half of your workforce is not passionate about what theyre doing or committed to your organization. Related: Is Poor Employee Engagement Management's Fault? Disengaged employees are doing a huge disservice to every aspect of your business. Research suggests they negatively affect everything from team morale to productivity to your bottom line. While this paints a dreary picture, the good news is companies can take steps toward boosting employee engagement. Traditional efforts include internal mobility programs, employee wellness initiatives and appropriately rewarding behavior. But these can be a drain on resources and cost a lot of money. So, whats the cost-effective secret to improving employee engagement? Building and maintaining a values-based culture. A culture rooted in values is the recipe for success. Workplace culture is often misunderstood and many measure it by the number of office nap rooms and ping-pong tables. However, at its core, a successful culture is a system of shared beliefs and behaviors members of the workplace use to interact with one another. Values capture what an organization believes is most important, to the way it operates, such as teamwork, creativity or diversity. Values are open to interpretation and above all, dogmatic. So, a values-based culture exists when employees associate meaning to their behaviors based on specific company values. Not sure if you have a values-based culture? Ask a few of your employees about a challenging decision they faced and which beliefs helped them reach a decision. Did they behave according to their own personal values? Financial goals? Emotional attachment? Or was the decision attributed to your companys values? Related: Thanks to These 3 Values, This Startup Has Shockingly Low Turnover Best of both worlds: Values set boundaries and provide flexibility. A values-based culture relies on employee autonomy and empowerment to function. An individual is much more likely to drive better results when they feel ownership over their work. Values provide clear boundaries, but the space inside the boundaries is for exploration and innovation, allowing employees more freedom to shape the work they're doing. The exercise of making decisions within a values-based culture fosters engagement. Conversely, making decisions solely based on a set of workflows, processes and calculations requires intelligence and attention to detail. But frankly its boring and doesnt adequately capture and sustain the attention and interest of employees. Large and small companies can benefit from a values-based culture. Moreover, the values from one organization to the next can be completely different. Case studies: How companies fulfill business objectives through values. McKinsey & Company, a Top 25 Places to Work, is a management consulting firm with more than 10,000 employees across 100 offices globally. The firm has three governing values: Adhere to the highest professional standards Improve our clients performance significantly Create an unrivaled environment for exceptional people One of the ways McKinsey & Company reinforces its values-based culture is an annual event called Values Day. On this day, each office sets aside time to discuss what the values mean, including role-playing scenarios where the values are tested in challenging situations. For example: How can I maintain an independent perspective (Read: Adhere to the highest professional standards) when my client wants me to recommend his or her preferred project proposal? FreshBooks is a software company with 250 employees based in Toronto, Canada. The company has nine core values -- passion, ownership, respect, change, honesty, fun, empathy, strive and trust. To bring these values to life, FreshBooks hosts an annual company retreat in honor of the values called PORCHFEST (the acronym is based on the first letter of each value) and offers an ongoing program called Values Cards encouraging employees to nominate each other for a gift card when their behavior epitomizes one of the values. One card, for example, read Samantha recently exhibited the value of Change by embracing a last minute detour in the launch calendar that resulted in more work for her. Other examples arent hard to come by. Union Square Hospitality Group, chosen as one of the original Small Giants, lives by four Family Values -- excellence, hospitality, entrepreneurial spirit and integrity. Southwest Airlines, with a full-time culture director and more than 50,000 employees, has four company values -- warrior spirit, servants heart, fun-LUVing attitude and work the Southwest way. Related: How Establishing Core Values Drives Success Everyone benefits from a values-based culture. In each of these examples, the values are drastically different. Yet, if values are instilled in the culture, they capture the essence of a companys way of living and represent the most effective way to engage employees. More companies should take time to live and breathe company values. When values are written down and discussed openly and consistently, all employees can better engage in the companys future. Related: Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Some really die-hard Cheesecake Factory fans. Photo: Luke Sharett/Bloomberg via Getty Images Suburban-mall centerpiece Cheesecake Factory isnt selling as many 3,000-calorie gut bombs as it used to, and executives are trying to figure out why. Theyve decided its because the weather hasnt been great this spring. Reflecting a slump seen all around the industry, the chain revised its earnings outlook today, shifting the forecast for this upcoming quarter from a slight sales increase to a slight sales decrease. We have seen heightened volatility in week-to-week sales trends, indicative of uncertainty on the part of many consumers, CEO David Overton explained in his statement to investors. Specifically, we have seen pockets of softness as we moved through the quarter, notably in the East and Midwest where we also faced unfavorable weather that reduced patio usage. Unfortunately for the chain, investors didnt entirely buy Overtons fair-weather excuse: Cheesecake Factorys stock prices today dropped by as much as 11 percent what Bloomberg calls the biggest intraday decline in more than two years. Mark Bittman. Photo: Burcu Avsar & Zach DeSart Grub Street and New York Magazine are honored to welcome our new columnist: Mark Bittman. Bittman, a familiar name to anyone who cares about food, was a New York Times columnist for 20 years, is the award-winning author of 20 acclaimed books, has starred in multiple television series, and is a member of the faculty of Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health. His first column will appear on Grub Street later today, but before that, a quick recap of what Bittmans been doing. Its close to two years since I left the Times, and though Ive written a couple of op-eds since then, as well as some pieces for GQ and The Guardian, its been the most peaceful, reflective time of my life. Without weekly deadlines for the first time since 1980, the rhythm of my life changed and, probably not surprising, Ive become less anxious. The Minimalist column was one thing; cooking is part of my life, and writing about it is a joy. Its never been difficult for me. The opinion column was a different story entirely. It shouldnt have been easy, and it wasnt (I wasnt dumb enough to think it would be, but I may have been overconfident at first). It brought me a lot, and it cost me a lot, too. So I left, for a variety of reasons, some of which Ive written and talked about, and some of which are going to have to wait a bit longer. I joined the vegan meal-kit company Purple Carrot, which in retrospect might have been a mistake, except everything that followed was kind of great, so Im reminded that nothing is black and white. Ive made a couple of other mistakes since then, but nothing really bad has happened. Ive been lucky. One thing that wasnt a mistake was moving to Berkeley, California, which I did right around New Years 2015 before leaving the Times fulfilling a longtime dream. It also wasnt a mistake to move back East, which I recently did, also for a variety of reasons including my daughters and my partner and my mom and my grandson and my sister and my closest friends. I do miss Berkeley, but Im settled at Glynwood, a wonderful, inspiring, and smart sustainable food-and-farming nonprofit near Cold Spring. Thats about as personal as Ill get here for now, except to say that Im happy. The cookbook work has continued through it all: How to Bake Everything was published last fall, and the completely revised, better-in-every-way How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (with photos!) is coming out this fall. And there are some surprises in seasons to come . Obviously, the cooking has continued as well. Sometimes, I think Berkeley ingredients spoiled me for the East, but no. Granted, theres nothing like having a lemon tree (and once you do, it sucks to not have one). However, East Coast tomatoes are better. East Coast stone fruit, challenging as it is to come by, is equally good. And East Coast apples are so much better than western apples that they almost make you forget about the great western citrus. So what the hell? Theres no paradise. After exploring a winters worth of cooking, using almost only Glynwood meat (mostly the less popular bits) and vegetables which meant an incredible assortment of offal, shins, feet, roots, tubers, cabbages, and winter squash I felt I had a much better understanding of, and affection for, those things. Thats not nothing. And, after 47 years of trying, I became a good bread baker. Now, Ill put my whole-grain sourdough up against most anyones. Yet, I ultimately came to miss the weekly writing. It certainly wasnt the torture of feeling like the only time off was between filing a story on Tuesday and its appearance that night or the next morning; it was having a voice that people seemed to want to hear. So I began talking with the people here, at New York, which felt like the best possible home. And I said, basically, I want to write about cooking again, daily cooking, the kind of thing I think I do best, and I want a place to rant about food, justice, and the future of humans. As of today, theyve given me that. Lets see what happens. Related The New Foodieism Staten Island is up in arms. Photo: Google This past Sunday was the inaugural SSG Michael Ollis Memorial 5K Run/Walk, named and held for the soldier who died in 2013 saving the life of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan. The proceeds went to the SSG Michael Ollis Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit created to benefit veterans, and was held in Olliss home neighborhood of New Dorp, Staten Island. Its a cause that you wouldnt think would provoke any controversy. But a neighborhood bakery owner there has unexpectedly caused a local uproar, after complaining about the event on social media. Staging the run required shutting down some streets for three hours, one of which is home to Dominicks Bakery & Cafe. Owner Dominick De Lillo griped about the situation on Facebook, writing, Guess there are no businesses in new dorp that prepares all week for Sunday! What a fucking joke. When people pointed out that the run was for Ollis, he responded, Isnt there another way to show appreciation without adversely effecting a neighborhood filled with small mom & pop businesses? He posted photos of his empty restaurant and parking lot to his personal Instagram, captioning the first image, Its a snow day at 90 degrees today. Staten Island has been up in arms since. The Dominicks Bakery & Cafe page on Facebook has been flooded with negative posts, with many saying they will no longer patronize the place. One poster claiming to be a veteran writes, I too am a business owner on Staten Island, a veteran and now no longer a patron of Dominicks. Others have called him a disgrace and a piece of garbage, and insinuated that the community will boycott the business. (Grubs Staten Island source reports that everyone I know on Facebook is boycotting him now.) The sentiment was repeated in a review posted today to the businesss Yelp page, which has been stamped with an Active Cleanup Alert. Unfortunately for De Lillo, the run may have had the effect he feared it would. Di Lillo has since apologized both in person to the Ollis family, he tells Staten Island Live (and the Michael Ollis Freedom Foundation confirms this), as well as on his Facebook page. (Threats, the restaurateur says, have prompted him to delete two social-media accounts.) According to the restaurateur, he told the family he would give free food to runners in future years and will donate all of his profits from July 4 sales going forward. Speaking with Staten Island Live, he attributes the posts to bad judgment and says, Im just hoping everyone is kind enough to make good on the mistake I made. This post has been updated with new information. Hash-brown tacos from Alex Stupaks biggest Empellon yet. Photo: Liz Clayman A lunch that happens in the middle of town need not be middle of the road. The very idea of midtown lunch means different things to different people: something quick at a great halal cart, the classic three-Martini mini-bender, or chopped salad amid the areas last remaining power brokers. For the purposes of this list, however, the midtown-lunch destination offers a midday meal that is neither too rushed, nor too languorous. Its not too fancy, and not too casual. It is neither outrageously expensive, nor is it bupkis. Instead, the best midtown lunch experience is 60 minutes or so of respite from spreadsheets, small talk, and market calls. And these are the best restaurants at which to find that hour of civility. The Absolute Best 1. Empellon 510 Madison Ave., at 53rd St.; 212-367-0999 Alex Stupak has gone full fun land with his latest and largest endeavor, the two-level, 8,000-square-foot Empellon in midtown. Amid the brightly colored walls and Biata Roytburd sculptures, Stupak upends traditional Mexican technique with his usual impish twinkle, while managing to cater to the areas traditional natives: Yes, there are $125 fajitas and steak tartare served atop gooey queso fundido. Midday, though, Stupak also offers a $35 prix fixe, where one can try, say, a cheerful plate of yellow beets, coconut crema, and green-chile ice; and a quiver of inventive tacos, with fillings like crisp hash browns or soft sweetbreads. Save room, naturally, for the cinnamon ice-cream sandwich. 2. Jean-Georges and Nougatine 1 Central Park W., at 60th St.; 212-299-3900 Its location within the Trump International Hotel & Tower may have recently made it a harder sell, but Jean-Georges Vongerichtens flagship has long been worth a visit. For 20 years, the Vongerichten brothers Jean-Georges in the kitchen (spiritually, if not literally), and Philippe in the dining room have administered to anyone and everyone thats well-heeled and in need of sustenance. And over those two decades, theyve only raised their prices in the gentlest of ways. For $58, one can feast like a king in the main dining room, with punchy crab dumplings and many dishes crusted in many things: sea bass with nuts and seeds; salmon with sourdough; chicken confit with Parmesan. Real canny lunchers find themselves at the more casual Nougatine, where $38 will get you three plates, including New Yorks most underrated cheeseburger, which in a no-doubt-inadvertent nod to the restaurants setting is topped with Russian dressing. 3. Indian Accent 123 W. 56th St., btw Sixth and Seventh Ave.; 212-842-8070 Pause for a moment to appreciate the name of Manish Mehrotras haute-Indian restaurant. Playful, smart, and justifiably confident. Indeed, at Indian Accent which Mehrotra opened last year as the New York counterpart to his New Delhi flagship the chef slays. Two courses, had for $34, open a world in which one enjoys Bengal rice khichdi, a proto-kedgeree, with smoked papa; tender short ribs topped with tart mango sauce; and a soft-shell crab fried in the style of Koli fishermen thats presented like a poor crustacean Pompeii victim. Its lunch, and its an adventure. 4. Ma Peche Chambers Hotel, 15 W. 56th St., nr. Fifth Ave.; 212-757-5878 Ma Peche opened in 2010, during the Manifest Destiny days of David Changs decade-plus of empire building. It was a risky move uptown, and much has changed since those days, including the chef. Now overseen by Ssam Bars Matthew Rudofker, the slightly sterile space is still a bit of a bummer at dinner, but at lunch it is exactly the type of refuge for which one hankers. The menu, meanwhile, is all over the place in the best, most Chang-ian way imaginable: The bao are filled with corned beef and cabbage; theres a bucket of habanero fried chicken; and youll find pork ramen and a kimchee-bacon burger. And, for the more rushed among us, the mezzanine bar houses Fuku+, Changs sandwich-forward fast-food counter. 5. Great Northern Food Hall Grand Central Terminal, 42nd St. at Park Ave.; no phone When done right, giant food halls can function as a conclave of the delicious. They are also extremely convenient. True to its name, the food in this particular hall opened by Noma co-founder Claus Meyer is both great and northern. At the smrrebrd stand, rye bread comes layered with perfectly tiled pickled herring with horseradish creme fraiche, or eggs and shrimp with rapeseed mayo. At the breezily elegant restaurant, there are veal tartlets, beef tartares, and pork terrines, in addition to salads so fresh, they deserve to be slapped. These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. A couple of days ago a report from Samsung's home of South Korea told us to expect the refurbished Galaxy Note7 units to make their debut over there on July 7, branded as Galaxy Note FE (Fan Edition). Today however a new revelation comes from unnamed industry sources, claiming that release date was way too optimistic. Once again, the culprit for Samsung not being able to make that is said to be a steep increase in demand (from Korean carriers, presumably) which meant the company will produce 450,000 units compared to the originally intended 300,000. Two days ago this has been said to have created a slight delay in the release of the Note FE, from June 30 to July 7. Now though it's been pushed even more, all the way to July 30. That's exactly one month past the initial timeline, and not even this date is set in stone reportedly. Aside from the aforementioned issues in refurbishing the necessary amount of devices in time, there's a different problem: the S8 duo is doing really well in the Korean market. Samsung is afraid that the Note FE will cannibalize some S8+ sales once it comes out, especially since it's expected to be cheaper. The Note FE will be identical to the recalled Note7, save for the battery capacity which has been reduced to 3,200 mAh from 3,500 mAh. The refurbished model should also have the Bixby feed of relevant stuff included, a feature which debuted on the S8. Source (in Korean) | Via Haiti - Justice : Haitian fugitive accused of double murder, captured to Santo and extradited to USA Jean Weevens Janvier (34), of Haitian origin, charged in 2012 for the first degree murders of Stephanie and Judith Emile in their apartment in Harlem in November 2011, had been on the run and wanted for over 5 years by police Boston and the Suffolk County Attorney's Office. He was finally found and arrested by the National Police of Haiti (PNH) while he lived hidden in Santo at his mother's. The U.S. Marshals Service declared that it had "worked closely with the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service and a unit composed of Haitian National Police to prioritize this case and coordinate efforts to locate Janvier." Jean Weevens Janvier was captured by the Haitian police and his identity confirmed by his fingerprints, said the Marshals Service. He was extradited the same day to the United States after being detained by the Haitian police, which offered an "exceptional performance" for the capture of January, according to a statement by US officials. "An extremely violent crime landed Janvier on our 15 Most Wanted list," indicated Acting Director David Harlow of the U.S. Marshals Service https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16771-haiti-flash-usa-a-haitian-american-on-the-15-most-wanted-list.html pointing out that thanks to "the tenacity of our criminal investigators and police cooperation at the local and international level, another dangerous fugitive is off the street and will face justice." Daniel F. Conley, Suffolk County District Attorney, declared "For more than five years, the family of two murdered sisters has waited patiently to see justice done. Today they are one step closer to that goal. Thanks to the strong interagency partnership among Suffolk prosecutors, the US Marshals Service, US Attorneys office, Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Police Department, and Haitian National Police, we intend to speak for Judith and Stephanie Emile in a Suffolk County courtroom, where the voices that were stolen from them will finally be heard." https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16771-haiti-flash-usa-a-haitian-american-on-the-15-most-wanted-list.html SL/ HaitiLibre Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up New Ad-free Subscriber Login Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help Published on 2017/06/14 | Source Added episode 7 captures for the Korean drama "Fight For My Way" (2017) Advertisement Directed by Kim Dong-hwi, Lee Na-jeong Written by Lim Sang-choon Network : KBS With Park Seo-joon, Kim Ji-won, Ahn Jae-hong, Song Ha-yoon, Son Byung-ho, Kim Ye-ryung,... 20 episodes - Mon, Tue 22:00 Synopsis A drama about a man and a woman who live a life with nothing to show for. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/22 More The first quarter of this year was simply brilliant, summarises Aki Kangasharju, the chief economist at the financial group. Nordea has upgraded its growth forecast for Finland in 2017 from 1.3 to 3.0 per cent due to an up-tick in the world economy and the re-emergence of exports as a contributor to growth alongside domestic demand. Finnish exports, he points out, have recently increased at a clip equivalent to that preceding the financial crisis, while the world economy is expected to continue its growth at least until the end of the decade. Pasi Sorjonen, an economist at Nordea, reveals that the upgraded forecast is somewhat conservative due to the apparent lack of explanation for some of the developments witnessed earlier this year, especially the rapid increase in the consumption of services. Nordea on Monday estimated that the sustained growth in private consumption is surprising in light of the only moderate improvements in the purchasing power of wage earners. The up-tick in consumption, it said, has been driven mainly by record-high consumer confidence, a decline in household savings and improvements in the employment situation. The national employment rate could rise to 71 per cent by the end of the current electoral term, according to the financial group. Nordea revealed that it expects the increase in investments to continue and voiced its delight with the fact that the decrease in research and development spending is finally coming to an end. Kangasharju, however, also calls attention to the necessity of ensuring that upcoming wage increases remain well below the expected rate of increases of roughly two per cent in Sweden and Germany. Otherwise, our competitiveness will improve at too slow a rate, he warned. One year of rapid economic growth is not enough to fill the hole dug over the past decade. Finland is also unlikely to be able to sustain the current rate of economic growth in the years to come, according to Kangasharju. Nordea, he said, expects the growth rate to slow down to roughly two per cent in 2018 and further to roughly one per cent in 2019. The only way to prevent the slowdown is to continue carrying out key labour market and other structural reforms. We can ill-afford a coalition crisis or delays in the implementation of reforms, stated Kangasharju. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Roni Rekomaa Lehtikuva I think this is frankly a new low for Timo Soini, says Halla-aho. He spoke very harshly about defectors [in his blog ] a week ago, as he has justifiably done throughout his career. I think this is an incredible stunt by him. Jussi Halla-aho, the newly-elected chairperson of the Finns Party, has accused his predecessor, Timo Soini, of orchestrating yesterdays mass exodus from the Finns Party. The Finns Party Parliamentary Group on Tuesday lost the majority of its 37 members, as a total of 22 of its members abandoned what was previously the second largest parliamentary group 20 to establish the New Alternative Parliamentary Group that will continue coalition co-operation with the Centre and National Coalition. The newly-established parliamentary group announced yesterday that it has selected Sampo Terho, the Minister of European Affairs, Culture and Sports, as its representative to the primary decision-making body of the ruling coalition, the so-called trio. Ill participate in discussions between the chairpersons of the ruling parties, he said in a news conference on Tuesday, standing next to Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre). Simon Elo, the chairperson of the New Alternative Parliamentary Group, shed light on the reasons for forming the splinter group while appeared on YLE TV2s Ajankohtainen Kakkonen on Tuesday. Were firmly under the impression that behind the scenes there had been long-term efforts to hijack the party, which is no longer a political home for us, he stated, referring to the rise of Halla-aho and his supporters to power at the Finns Party on Saturday. Uusi Suomi on Tuesday asked Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini, the ex-chairperson of the Finns Party, to comment on rumours that he notified Sipila of the plans to establish the New Alternative Parliamentary Group already on Sunday. Weve now formed a new [parliamentary] group. Lets focus on that, replied Soini. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Jussi Nukari Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi Leader of the Swedish Peoples Party (SFP) Anna-Maja Henriksson has compared the dramatic formation of New Alternative to something out of Netflixs House of Cards. If we stick to this analogy, it seems that she may view Foreign Minister Timo Soini as Finlands answer to Frank Underwood. To recap, Jussi Halla-aho was voted as chair of the Finns Party on 10 July. He met with Prime Minister Juha Sipila and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo two days later, with Sipila and Orpo coming to the conclusion that they were unable to remain as a three-party coalition with a Finns Party under his leadership. On Tuesday it appeared inevitable that Parliament would be dissolved. Then, out of nowhere, it was saved by the emergence of a Finns Party splinter group known as New Alternative. When the events are listed like that, comparing them to a House of Cards storyline doesnt seem to be much of a stretch. Its certainly not a pleasing narrative for Henriksson, however, as there was previously talk about the SFP and Christian Democrats filling the void left by the Finns Party. This was foiled by the appearance of New Alternative. As reported by Yle, Henriksson has since voiced her surprise about the actions of former Finns Party chair Timo Soini: Weve seen the former leader Timo Soini give up his own party, something he said was impossible only ten days ago. She added that the Foreign Ministers change of heart amounted to a betrayal, and that she had the impression the plan might have already been in place earlier. One thing that pleased Henriksson was the governments decision not to cooperate with a Finns Party led by Halla-aho. I listened very carefully to their speeches about how important values are, and that Finland has a clear policy on EU politics. I hope that the things they said yesterday will also apply to the current government in the future, Henriksson said. Dan Anderson HT Photo: Lehtikuva / Markku Ulander WE have just had two polls in quick succession. With Brexit all votes went into one pot, giving a clear mandate: 52 per cent out against 48 per cent to remain. No argument. But in general elections, we have 650 different pots where the end result can be very different. Last week, voters actually got almost what they wanted. The Tories claimed 48 per cent of seats on 42 per cent of the vote. Labour, 40 per cent of seats on 40 per cent of the vote. Lib Dems, only two per cent of seats on seven per cent of the vote. This was an unusually fair result for First Past the Post (FPP), which is wildly unpredictable. As in 2005, Labour had 55 per cent of seats on 35 per cent of the vote. The Tories, 25 per cent of seats on 32 per cent of the vote and the Lib Dems, two per cent of seats on 22 per cent of the vote. With FPP either of the two major parties can get whopping majorities with the support of barely one third of voters. Or, as happened in 1951 and again in 1974, the party that came second in votes may win on seats like turning Brexit on its head. FPP is a lottery and there is no telling what surprises it may come up with next time. Why has it not been improved? Germany uses the Additional Member System (AMS), where everyone has two votes: one for a constituency MP, as in Britain, the other going to a party. This party vote is used to balance the books so that total seats end up in proportion to votes cast. The main criticism is it throws up two classes of MPs, those directly elected and the ones from the party list. Much of the rest of the world uses the straight Party List, with each party putting up a list of candidates in multi-member constituencies, the number elected in each party being in proportion to the votes cast. The main drawback here is that it emphasises the party over the individual and can lead to a proliferation of small parties. Finally there is the Single Transferable Vote (STV), which again requires large multi-member constituencies, but instead of putting a cross against a name, we are invited to show a numerical preference. Proportional systems usually result in coalitions, which most politicians hate, Hung parliaments are not always easy and involve compromise, but they deter extremism. As no party in Britain within living memory has polled over 50 per cent of the vote, coalitions are actually what we have been voting for all these years. They have long been a fact of life for much of the world, often giving better governance than ours. Surely its time to join them with a modern electoral system that gives us what we actually want. Rolf Richardson, of Wootton Road, Henley, is a member of the Electoral Reform Society. In 2012, one of Blue America's favorite candidates was Aryanna Strader, a young woman from Pennsylvania running for a pretty red seat. The DCCC refused to get behind her campaign and Joe Pitts, her GOP opponent, spent $1,208,911 to her $85,079. The biggest expenditure by an outside group was this truck from Blue America . Aryanna didn't win that year, although Pitts soon after decided to retire from Congress. And yesterday Aryanna-- now Aryanna Berringer-- declared that she's running for Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania. Mike Stack has the job now. He and his wife were found out through an Inspector Generals investigation to be verbally abusing their house staff in a mansion that is provided to them by the taxpayers. They were also repeatedly demanding that their security detail (assigned PA State Troopers) break the law so that they wouldnt have to sit in traffic. We wouldnt want to inconvenience the Stacks now would we? In an interview after the report was made public, Stack attributed all of these abuses to what he called a Stack moment of which he was known for having over the time not only as Lt. Governor but as a state Senator from Philadelphia. One of the other revelations of the IG report was that the Stacks billed the taxpayers over $4,000 for hotel stays in Philadelphia. Remember the last paragraph? The Stacks live in Philly. The Stacks are the epitome of how conservatives tag Democrats as Limousine Liberals. And right now, Governor Tom Wolf is considered vulnerable in his 2018 re-election. The last thing he needs is a running mate to drag him down. Its probably why Gov. Wolf ordered the Inspector General investigation in the first place and has since removed the Stacks security detail ; house staff can only do their work at assigned times under supervision. Its like the Stacks had a Protection From Abuse order placed on them by Wolf. PA Lt. Gov. Mike Stack Better Watch His Six -by Aryanna Berringer I first want to thank all of you who are apart of the DWT community for taking some time today to learn more about me and my decision to run for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. Over the past several months I have been watching not only the unfolding of our current Democratic Lt. Governor and how he has taken advantage of his position, but the actions of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Its hard to miss President Trump. I have to say, it is one thing for me to become frustrated when a Republicans behavior is corrupt or without morals, but I am even more disappointed when it is a member of my own political party. And thats where I find myself now in launching this campaign to unseat an incumbent. This is bigger than Lt. Gov. Mike Stack. This is about taking on a system that serves as a catalyst for abusing the publics trust. A bit about me to give you a better idea of where Ive come from. I grew up the youngest of ten children to a mom who was a waitress (actually she still is; waiting tables part time to make ends meet at 74) and my dad who was a hotel maintenance worker. We were the working poor. I am also a kid who unfortunately had to visit my dad in jail for some poor choices on his part-- that plexiglass divider and black telephone are etched into my memory. But they were learning moments. As a child of parents in poverty I am forever grateful for programs like the National Free School Lunch and Food Stamps. And as a teenager of parents without health insurance, thanks to funding at Planned Parenthood, I was able to have my first womens health wellness exam. All of these experiences and help from my community influenced the person I was becoming. However, it was now time for me to give back to my country. Two months after the attacks of 9/11, I joined the U.S. Army at the age of 18. I was under no illusion. I knew I was most likely going to be deployed somewhere in the world. And in 2003, as part of the XVIII Airborne Corp we were basically dropped into Jordan where we, based out of an undisclosed location just miles from the border with Iraq, got to work. It was in that frontline and forward position that I would be on the day we invaded. Now to fast forward, I am the mother of three amazing kids, am an IT Project Manager and run my own non-profit called American Nutritional Security that is designed to improve nutrition in schools and military installations as a matter of national security (Think President Truman and the creation of the school lunch program, but now we are too fat to fight). All of this culminates to my new mission of becoming Lt. Governor. For those reading this who are unfamiliar with Pennsylvania governing, the Lt. Gov. is elected independently from the Governor in the Primary. The person who holds this seat traditionally becomes one of the most underutilized executives and it is in large part due to either a lack of vision or a reluctance to truly engage in service to the Commonwealth. Maybe others see it as a stepping stone to running for higher office so they go into it with the mindset of not making any waves. Thats not me. I wouldnt be here today if I ever took any of those paths. I will always present my policy ideas and concepts to the public in an attempt to make serving as Lt. Governor a productive partner with the people Pennsylvania. At the core of my campaign, and if you follow us you will hear and see us repeat this often, we are going at this endeavor with a clear message: Join Aryanna . Help others. Build community. If we can end each day on this campaign knowing weve achieved that, well win in more ways than at just the ballot box. James OReilly was ordered to carry out community service A young man who threatened a business park security guard, telling him he would get his address from an NCT centre and "see him later", has been ordered to carry out community service. James O'Reilly (20) drove into the premises and was approached by the security man. He "took umbrage" to this and threatening to cause him harm. Judge David McHugh ordered O'Reilly to carry out 200 hours of community service in lieu of four months in prison. The accused had the order handed down when he app-eared before Blanchardstown District Court. O'Reilly, of Ard Mor Walk, Tallaght, was convicted of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to the man. The offence happened at City- west Business Campus, Naas Road, on February 13 last year. Spotted The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed summary disposal of the case at district court level, and Judge McHugh had accepted jurisdiction to deal with it. This allowed the case to be heard in Blanchardstown instead of being sent forward to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Gda Shane Barry, of Rathcoole Garda Station, told the court that O'Reilly entered the business park in a car on the date in question. According to the prosecution, he was spotted by security staff, who were known to him, and was approached. Gda Barry said O'Reilly "took umbrage" at this and told the security guard "he was going to the NCT in Naas to get his address and would see him later". The defendant remained silent in court as his case was finalised. A burglar took advantage of an 89-year-old woman with dementia by trying to steal from her after being let into her home to use the toilet. Carmen Nicolae (20) was caught coming down the stairs carrying the victim's belongings when the woman's daughter arrived at the house. Judge John Cheatle gave Nicolae a five-month suspended sentence when she appeared before Dublin District Court. The accused, a Romanian mother-of-two with an address at Rosevale Court, Blakestown Road, Blanchardstown, pleaded guilty to burglary. Gda Ciaran O'Neill said Nicolae called to the home of the victim at Lower Dodder Road, Dublin 14, at 3.30pm on April 16 last year. She asked if she could use the toilet and the woman allowed her upstairs. The victim's daughter came into the house and met Nicolae coming down the stairs with "a number of items belonging to the injured party", Gda O'Neill said. Opportunistic Nicolae let the items drop and ran out of the front door, but was later identified on CCTV footage. Nicolae made full admissions when arrested and charged. There was no evidence of any sort of "force or malice" used by the accused, her barrister Conor Burke said. The property was dropped when she was confronted by the victim's daughter. It seemed "more opportunistic than anything else", Mr Burke said. The court heard that Nicolae was already in prison for another charge - attempted theft - having gone inside days after giving birth to her second child. Mr Burke asked the judge to take into consideration that the items had been recovered and there had been no confrontation with the victim. Judge Cheatle said he disputed that there was an absence of malice. "I think it was a particularly egregious crime to take advantage of a lady aged 89 with dementia, and the accused knew full well what she did," he said. The judge suspended the five-month sentence for a year. CAB officials and gardai search cars at a Dublin dealership as part of a crackdown on The Family drugs gang More than 1m worth of assets, including luxury watches and high-end cars, have been seized in a massive crackdown against one of Dublin's largest drugs gangs. Officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), as well as heavily armed gardai, took part in more than 20 raids across the capital yesterday. The significant operation targeted an organised crime gang known as 'The Family', and led to several car garages and residential properties, as well as solicitors' and accountants' offices, being searched. Operation More than 100 gardai were involved in the massive operation, which targeted properties across the capital, including in Ballyfermot and Clondalkin. The CAB were assisted by a number of specialist units, including the elite Emergency Response Unit, as a total of 23 raids were carried out. Expand Close CAB officials and gardai search cars at a Dublin dealership as part of a crackdown on The Family drugs gang / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp CAB officials and gardai search cars at a Dublin dealership as part of a crackdown on The Family drugs gang It is estimated that more than 1m worth of assets were seized in the garda crackdown against the major organised crime gang. In total, 64,000 in cash, 12 luxury watches - including Rolex and TAG Heuer models - and 23 high-end cars were seized on the suspicion of being bought with the proceeds of crime. A further 312,000 was frozen in a number of bank accounts linked to members of the crime gang. A significant amount of documentation was also recovered from homes and businesses, which will assist future investigations against the gang. Expand Close The CAB raid on 'The Family' gang / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The CAB raid on 'The Family' gang Five car dealerships were raided and another three visited by officers, while the offices of six professional firms and nine homes were also searched. One of the car garages targeted is located on the Naas road, with a number of gardai and CAB officers searching vehicles in the courtyard. The CAB-led operation also involved members of the Armed Support Unit, the recently formed Special Crime Task Force and local gardai. Gardai consider 'The Family' to be one of the largest drug-dealing gangs in the capital, with international links to outfits in Spain. Expand Close CAB officials and gardai search cars at a Dublin dealership as part of a crackdown on The Family drugs gang / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp CAB officials and gardai search cars at a Dublin dealership as part of a crackdown on The Family drugs gang The Ballyfermot-based gang is suspected of importing millions of euro worth of drugs every month into the capital in second-hand cars imported from north-west England. Sources said the heroin, cocaine and firearms were then distributed from a west Dublin premises to middle-ranking dealers, who sold the deadly product across the capital and the entire country. "What makes them more established and better-organised than some of the other Dublin gangs is that they have the capability to independently source their own drugs and weapons, without relying on other crime gangs to help them," a senior source said. One of the gang's senior members is currently serving a lengthy prison term in Spain after being caught with a significant amount of drugs. 'The Family' has previously been busted by officers for possession of heavy-duty firearms. An extremely significant bust linked to the mob took place in 2015. A Ballyfermot man is currently serving five years in jail in relation to that seizure. The 41-year-old was caught with more than 3m worth of drugs, three sub-machine guns and two pistols. He was also found in possession of ammunition when gardai searched his house and a unit he was leasing in a Dublin industrial estate. Cocaine Although 'The Family' has connections with members of the Kinahan cartel, they are not involved in that outfit's ongoing feud with the Hutch gang, which has claimed the lives of 12 people in less than two years. It has previously emerged that 'The Family' had teamed up with a younger Clondalkin-based gang involved in the distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine. The main figures of this Clondalkin outfit were previously targeted by CAB last year, when a total of 46 vehicles, including luxury cars and worth an estimated 1.1m, were seized. Car showrooms and the offices of solicitors and accountants were searched at the time. Enda Kenny waves as he leaves the Dail to travel to Aras an Uachtarain to tender his resignation. Photo: Collins Enda Kenny admitted he did not get everything right, but said he always did what "I believed was best" as he stood down after six years and three months as leader of the country. The Mayo TD became emotional after he addressed the Dail for the final time as Taoiseach yesterday, taking just seven minutes to end his lengthy stint as head of the Government. "This has never been about me, it's been about the challenges and opportunities this country has faced," he said. "I have not got everything right but my motivation was always what I believed was best." He then addressed his colleagues, saying: "I wish you all good health to continue the work dealing with the challenges ahead." After a short speech Mr Kenny was greeted with a warm applause by TDs from all parties and political groups. As he sat down he was visibly moved and could be seen to wipe away tears. He then made his way to Aras an Uachtarain, where he formally announced his resignation as Taoiseach to President Michael D Higgins. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin called Mr Kenny an "Irish patriot" in the course of a warm and good-humoured personal tribute. Mr Martin said the outgoing Taoiseach was courageous to take over the Fine Gael party leadership, face down the leadership heave against him, and then win the 2011 General Election. He said that Mr Kenny had given a masterclass to colleagues in how to conduct themselves in the last few months, adding that he managed his exit from the top job "at his assigned pace". He said Mr Kenny's place in history is assured. On behalf of Fianna Fail, he wished the all the best to Mr Kenny and his family. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams praised the outgoing Taoiseach as "the greatest leader Fine Gael ever had". He said that, while he often disagreed with Mr Kenny, it was also clear that he always did his best. "I will miss your entertaining tales of meetings you have had - and indeed meetings you have not had," Mr Adams joked. The Sinn Fein leader also cited Mr Kenny's governments' shortcomings in health, education and social policy. However, he wished Mr Kenny, his wife and their children, all the best for the future. Disappointed As Mr Kenny said his final goodbyes, it was business as usual for the Fine Gael party and its new leader, Leo Varadkar. The Dublin West TD - to be announced as Ireland's new Taoiseach today - has warned TDs that many of them will be disappointed by his ministerial appointments, as there simply are not enough jobs to keep everybody happy. However, he asked those who feel let down to stay the course because the party will have a bright future. He used the same meeting to announce that his leadership rival Simon Coveney is to take over from Senator James Reilly as deputy leader of the party. The move led to immediate speculation from colleagues that Mr Coveney is set to lose out on the position of Tanaiste in today's Cabinet reshuffle. "Leo was definitely laying the ground for disappointment and for the most part people seemed to accept that," said one source who was at the meeting. "Whether that changes when the jobs are announced is another question." Mr Varadkar also warned his colleagues not to book summer holidays yet, as he may request the Dail to sit a week later than expected. It was anticipated that the House would break for the summer on July 13, but the new leader said extra time may be required to pass legislation. In a statement after the party meeting, Mr Varadkar paid tribute to his colleague, Mr Coveney. "Simon and I will work together to guide the participation by Fine Gael in the Government, and reform and modernise the Fine Gael party in the years ahead," he said. Mr Coveney, who won the popular vote in the leadership contest, said he was "honoured" to take up the role. "I look forward to working with the new leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar, and believe that I can bring a strong focus and energy to the party from the grassroots members through to local councillors, and up to the parliamentary party," he said. Mr Coveney is understood to be angling for the job of Foreign Affairs Minister in the reshuffle but the current minister, Charlie Flanagan, has been making a strong argument that the political upheaval in Northern Ireland and the UK means he should remain in the position. Expectation Mr Varadkar has not briefed any ministers on their promotion prospects - but there is a high level of expectation within the party that outgoing Mr Kenny's constituency colleague Michael Ring will take a seat at Cabinet. "There has to be a minister from the west of Ireland and Michael Ring looks to be in pole position," said a minister. Regina Doherty and Eoghan Murphy are the two other names being tipped for promotion, while Paschal Donohoe is almost certain to take the reins in finance. Meanwhile, Mr Martin is waiting to see the make-up of the new Cabinet before deciding on his own Fianna Fail frontbench reshuffle. "If he does reallocate portfolios we have ideas on that ourselves," Mr Martin said. "Some of them are in our manifesto." A Mountjoy inmate will face disciplinary action after he climbed on to the prison's rooftop - and then stripped naked. The 23-year-old Dublin man, who is serving a three-year term for robbery, managed to gain access to the roof at about 1.50pm yesterday. He then made his way to the roof above the D Division landing. A source said the inmate was looking for contraband, which was on the prison rooftop. Pictures show the criminal gathering up a number of small wrapped bags while standing on the roof. Persuade He then proceeded to strip naked, with a source saying he did "the Full Monty" as prison staff tried to persuade him to come down. "The situation lasted for a few hours but ended peacefully thankfully. He should now expect to be disciplined after his Full Monty show," said a source. "Contraband, including drugs, are on the roof from previous attempts to get them into the prison. It looks like he was up there to get them," the source added. Prison staff and a trained negotiator were called to the scene. The man eventually put his clothes back on and returned to the jail of his own accord at 4.45pm. An Irish Prison Service (IPS) spokesman praised the work of staff who brought the situation under control. "The staff handled the incident professionally and nobody was hurt," said the spokesman. "An investigation is now underway and disciplinary action will be taken." Prison officials previously used the promise of a snack box to persuade an inmate to get down from an Irish jail. Relented Two prisoners, who staged a sit-in on the roof of Cloverhill Prison, only relented when authorities offered them chicken and chips in return for their co-operation. That stand-off lasted for about 12 hours until the situation eventually came to an end. "There's nothing wrong with offering food and the situation then ended peacefully," a source said at the time. "The ultimate objective is to ensure the safety of the inmate and staff." Eleven prisoners were taken to hospital and tens of thousands of euro of damage was caused when a riot broke out at the west Dublin prison in 2015. Pat Doyle, Damien English and Fr Peter McVerry were on hand to launch the new homes. Photo: Steve Humphreys A leading homelessness campaigner says the opening of 11 social housing units in the capital is just a "drop in the ocean", as homeless figures and rental prices continue to spiral. Fr Peter McVerry was on hand to help with the opening of St Agatha's Court in Ballybough, in Dublin's north-inner city yesterday - the charity's 50th set of units to be opened in Dublin in the last two years. The campaigner said there is "no problem with supply" in terms of housing but added he is optimistic that things are changing for the better. "There's 200,000 empty homes," he said. "Between the empty houses, apartments and commercial buildings, we have more than enough supply to get everyone off the social housing waiting list, to get them all off HAP and into proper social housing and to solve the homeless problem. Frustrating "I'm optimistic things can and will change. We are committed to playing our tiny part, but 50 apartments is a drop in the ocean compared to the problem. "But we will play our tiny part in trying to address the homeless problem. "It can be very frustrating working with homeless people because the services and the accommodation is so inadequate. "But the real joy of working with homeless people is when something like this is opened and to see the smile on the face of a homeless person moving into a place like this, it's a dream come true," Fr McVerry added. The charity's CEO Pat Doyle said it was a "great day" for the Trust. "This is our 50th set of units we've opened in the last two years, looking at existing properties and sites and trying to bring them back," he said. "This site came to our attention in 2014 - it was a derelict site due for demolition. It was offered to two other housing bodies and they turned it down but we saw the potential in it. "They'll be tenants for life if they want to," he added. St Agatha's, a formerly half-derelict 1960s elderly people's residence, was rebuilt by the Peter McVerry Trust with 1.5m of Government funding. Junior Housing Minister Damien English, who launched the housing units in Ballybough yesterday, said the Government is determined to move families from emergency accommodation by "the end of June, beginning of July". The latest Peter McVerry project is part of an ambitious plan to renovate some of the more than 30,000 vacant properties in Dublin. However, Mr English said the uptake in the Renovating and Leasing Scheme had not been as successful as anticipated. "It's not happening quickly enough," he said. "These are people's private properties and we need to try to encourage people to make them available for private or social housing. "There isn't a massive supply of housing but there are certainly thousands out there and we have schemes allocated to bring three or four thousand online this year." One of three teenagers shot in north Dublin was stabbed in the arm only hours earlier. The youths were hit with shotgun pellets when a man opened fire within 40 metres of them as they stood by a bonfire on Shangan Green, Ballymun. The teens suffered neck and head wounds during the incident at around 8pm on Monday. Disgraceful They were taken by ambulance to the Mater Hospital and the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, for treatment for minor injuries. It was the second Emergency Department visit within a few hours for one of the victims after having earlier been treated for a knife wound. Local councillor Noeleen Reilly said the attack was "disgraceful" and called for increased garda resources. "We have never had less gardai on the beat in Ballymun. The shooting has shocked the community and we are terrified of an escalation of this violence," she said. A source said the two incidents are "most likely" connected to a local feud. The teenager who was stabbed and shot is linked to notorious criminal Glen Kiely, who was injured in a shooting in Ballymun last January. Kiely (30), who has more than 40 convictions and was previously jailed for his part in a violent attack on a man, was struck a number of times, and one of five bullets fired at him shattered his hip and lodged in his body. It is believed that the attack on Kiely was carried out by members of the so-called New INLA. Kidnapped Following that shooting, associates of Kiely kidnapped four young men - one of whom was the teenager stabbed and shot on Monday - in a bid to gather information about the incident. The teenager denied any involvement in the shooting. Yesterday, local residents said groups of youths had been congregating in the area in recent months causing late-night disturbances. Nearly 80 PA people have been charged for Jan. 6 riot. Three are dead. news During the past few days, the release of North Carolina native Graham Allison's book, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? and Allisons visit to his home state focused attention on the United States's relationship with China. According to Allison, founding dean of the Harvard University's Kennedy School, history shows the likelihood of war between the two countries is great. During appearances last week at the Charlotte World Affairs Council in his hometown and at his Davidson College 1962 class reunion weekend, he explained why there is a great risk of war. His phrase, the Thucydides trap, now in common use by world leaders, explains that when a rising power challenges and alarms an established ruling power, escalation toward war can result. In his classic, The Peloponnesian Wars, the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, wrote, What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta. Allison sets out 16 times during the past 500 years when rising powers have challenged ruling ones. Twelve times the result was war. Allison went on to say war is not inevitable, but avoiding it will require both countries to exercise caution, patience, and an understanding of the others important aspirations. Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, has acknowledged the risk, saying, We must all work together to avoid Thucydidess trap. We can hope that in managing U.S. and China relations, both Xi and President Donald Trump will remember the dangers Allison and Thucydides describe. Allisons North Carolina connections and his description of todays China brought to mind the amazing story about how a young Chinese man on the docks of Wilmington in 1880 became one of Chinas most powerful men. Another recent book, written by Greensboros Ed Haag, Charlie Soong: North Carolinas Link to the Fall of the Last Emperor of China, retells a great North Carolina story so unbelievable it could be a fairytale or an adventure story by Nathaniel Hawthorne or Pearl Buck. Set in the 19th Century, a young boy leaves home in China, somehow makes his way to Wilmington, becomes a Christian, and charms prominent North Carolinians who provide for his education and send him back to China to win souls. Somehow, this young man known as Charlie Soong becomes a successful and wealthy business leader in China. He raises funds to support Sun Yat-Sens efforts to overthrow the conservative and authoritarian Qing dynasty. He sent his six children back to the U.S. for their education. Haag suggests one reason Soong sent them away from China was because they were in danger from the Qing regime due to their fathers support for Sun Yat-Sens revolution. When the children came back to China, all played historic roles. One daughter, Ching-ling, married SunYat-sen himself and became "Madame SunYat-sen," an important figure in Chinese government long after her husband's death. Another daughter, May-ling, married Chiang Kai-shek, who led the Nationalist government. "Madame Chiang Kai-shek" was well known to Americans until her death in 2003. The Charlie Soong story is not new, but Haag has dug up new material, much of it from the Soong papers housed at the Duke University library. For instance, Haag explains better than earlier authors how Charlie Soong became so wealthy. Others have written how Soongs missionary work led to a business of printing Bibles. His association with a flour mill in Shanghai contributed to his success. But, according to Haag, Soongs greatest wealth came from his role as a comprador, a fixer and go-between helping western suppliers and traders and Chinese businesses deal with each other and their different customs and expectations. Those North Carolinians who already know about Charlie Soong will appreciate Haags refinements and additions. For those who never heard of Soong, Haags book is a great starting point. D.G. Martin hosts North Carolina Bookwatch, which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV. This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ Just about everything gets the Internet trolls coming out in hordes these days, and womens bodies the one thing in creation that has agitated people since time immemorial are a favourite target. Slut-shaming, defined as the action or fact of stigmatising a woman for engaging in behaviour judged to be promiscuous or sexually provocative, is the preferred pastime of these twisted Internet trolls, especially when it comes to celebrities. But the good news is that the female celebrities are hitting back at the trolls. Recent examples of slut-shaming: Dangal girl Fatima Sana Shaikh, for posting a swimsuit photo during Ramzan; Deepika Padukone, for her outfit in a magazine shoot; and Priyanka Chopra, for wearing a dress that revealed her legs during her meeting with PM Narendra Modi in Berlin. Actor Sana Khan was also trolled... not for showing skin, but because she was completely covered up! Most of these actors gave it back to the trolls in style either with another photo to shut them up or a cutting reply to put their patriarchal mindset in its place. Heres the picture that landed Priyanka Chopra in trouble Was such a lovely coincidence to be in #berlin at the same time as the Prime Minister. Thank you @narendramodi Sir for taking the time from your packed schedule to meet me this morning. A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 1:04am PDT And soon, she gave it back with this picture Legs for days.... #itsthegenes with @madhuchopra nights out in #Berlin #beingbaywatch A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 4:23pm PDT Actor Richa Chadha, who has always been vocal about her opinion, calls trolls unhappy and irrelevant people. No one gets to dictate how one should dress, says Richa. Very often, people who do the most evil things wear only white and are covered from head to toe. The [Indian] Constitution grants [the] liberty to people to wear what they like... or be in the buff. Its up to the individual, she quips. Actor Taapsee Pannu feels that celebs shouldnt pay any attention to these trolls. Their aim is not to teach us or tame us; they just want to get through to us by capturing our attention in whatever way possible. By showing them our anger, were helping them get what they want. These people are those jobless freaks who have nothing better to do in life. Trolls are not worth our attention, she says. Actor Sana Khan, who shared a picture of her seeking Allahs blessings at Kaaba Sharif, Mecca, faced flak for wearing an abaya. Trolls sniggered that shed again return to films and wear short clothes, so why bother with the abaya? I feel people who have nothing to do in life, troll [others]. If they trolled Fatima for wearing a swimsuit during Ramadan (Ramzan) because they found it offensive, why would they troll my picture, in which I am fully covered and am in a place where all desire to be. Its clear that its not about religion; its just about putting people down because you have nothing better to do in life, says Sana. Check out the picture that got Deepika Padukone trolled A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jun 7, 2017 at 3:34am PDT And after just a day, she hit back with another shot from the same photo shoot A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jun 8, 2017 at 1:55am PDT There are many who feel that with the advent of social media, it has definitely become easier for celebs and fans to interact, but that lines are being crossed too often. Actor Swara Bhaskar says that technology often reflects the mindset of society. You can use it for [something] good, but sadly, many misuse it for cheap thrills, she says. Its particularly [true] in the Indian society, where harassment of women is actually considered okay. Stating that trolls do such things just to get noticed, Taapsee adds. When youre given a certain right [in this case, right of speech and opinion], there will always be a bunch of people whod exploit it to hurt [other] people or create unnecessary drama. Ive been coming across such trolls right from the beginning of my career and Ive been following a clear policy of blocking all of them from day one. Follow @htshowbiz for more The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said 12 accounts representing about 25% of the gross bad loans in the banking system would be eligible for immediate reference for bankruptcy proceedings. Indian banks are sitting on a stressed asset pile of close to Rs 10 trillion; of this, gross bad loans account for Rs 7.7 trillion and the rest are restructured loans. An internal panel of the central bank has suggested that accounts with outstanding amounts of more than Rs 5,000 crore, of which at least 60% was classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016, can be referred for bankruptcy proceedings. The RBI did not disclose the names of the accounts. The accounts were shortlisted by an internal advisory committee (IAC), which mainly comprises the central banks independent board members. Under a May 5 ordinance amending the Banking Regulation Act, the central bank has the powers to suggest to, and even compel, banks to invoke proceedings against defaulters. At its first meeting on Monday, the panel discussed the top 500 stressed accounts of the banking system that could be referred for resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). The Reserve Bank, based on the recommendations of the IAC, will accordingly be issuing directions to banks to file for insolvency proceedings under the IBC in respect of the identified accounts. Such cases will be accorded priority by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the central bank said. The NCLT is the arbitration authority for cases filed under IBC. So far, 81 cases of bad loans have been referred to NCLT, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday after meeting bank chiefs. About 18 were referred for bankruptcy by their creditors, the minister said. The RBI also said that it would detail revised provisioning norms for cases accepted under the bankruptcy code. We are expecting RBI to give us forbearance on provisioning requirement for 8 quarters. Else, weak banks will find it difficult to take a haircut under the resolution plan of IBC, said a senior banker on condition of anonymity For accounts that dont meet the criterion set by the advisory panel, the IAC suggested that banks should finalize a resolution plan within six months. In cases where a viable plan is not agreed within six months, banks have to file for insolvency proceedings, the RBI statement said. The details of the resolution framework for these other non-performing accounts will be released in the coming days, it said. It is a bold and much-needed move in line with the ordinance. The stakeholders should see bankruptcy as a positive move and as an opportunity to restructure rather than only liquidation, said Sapan Gupta, national practice head of banking and finance at law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. (Gopika Gopakumar contributed to this story) A state-of-the-art technology centre of tyre manufacturer Michelin India was inaugurated by French envoy Alexandre Ziegler in Manesar near New Delhi on Tuesday. The sprawling 3,800-sqm Michelin Indias research and development laboratory in Haryana seeks to expand the French majors research and innovation capacity and strengthens its commitment to the mobility industry in the region. This technology centre is focused on radial truck and bus tyre research and development, and will provide technical support to the companys manufacturing facilities in Chennai, China and Thailand. Our vibrant economic partnership with India is boosted by Frances leading companies such as Michelin which actively contribute to Make in India and bring research and development technology expertise here. Along with providing innovative products to India and other emerging markets in the region, this technology centre will also help augment skilling, thus contributing to the Indian governments National Skill Development Mission, a key parameter for global competitiveness for India, Ziegler was quoted as saying in a statement by the French Embassy. With an annual research and development budget of more than 700 million euros, Michelin has over 6,000 employees engaged in research, development and process engineering at technology centres in Europe, North America and Asia, it said. Private blood banks in Mumbai can lend blood to each other, said a recent gazette notification issued by the ministry of health and welfare. The new rules aim to reduce wastage of blood. The notification also removes the annual 2,000-unit limit for transfer of blood from mother blood banks to blood storage centres. A reply to a recent Right to Information query said that in 2016-17, blood banks in India wasted around 6.57lakh units of blood. Mumbai alone, with its 61 blood bank, had reported about 39,117units (13,690 litres) of blood wastage during 2011-2015, according to the Mumbai AIDS Control Society. KL Sharma, joint secretary, ministry of health and welfare, in the letter, said, The human blood and blood components may be transferred, under prescribed storage conditions, to another blood bank which have facilities to store and monitor blood distribution. He added that the recipient blood bank should not further transfer the units obtained from another blood bank except to another blood storage centre or a patient. Officials said though blood banks have already been loaning blood in some parts of the country, the act is now amended to allow it legally. Speaking with HT, a blood transfusion officer (BTO) from the city said lifting the cap on blood transfer will also resolve the issue of blood shortage. Earlier, rules mentioned that the consumption of whole blood or its components in peripheral hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres shall not be more than 2,000 units annually. The smaller facilities could only receive 2,000 units of blood from mother blood banks like JJ or KEM in a year. Considering the blood shortage every year during summer and Diwali vacations, lifting the limit will ease pressure on smaller blood storage centres and hospitals dependent on them, said the BTO. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung has said he is ready to consider the issues of joint leadership for the struggle to realise Gorkhaland but advised parties like Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) to hit the streets immediately. I am ready to seriously consider the GNLF and other parties suggestion of a joint leadership to the movement as well as other suggestions such as walking out of the GTA. But the leaders of other parties including the GNLF should immediately come out and hit the streets as I am doing now, Gurung told HT. Read: Darjeeling crisis deepens: Hill parties unite to demand Gorkhaland On Wednesday, Gurung claimed that 85 families have returned to the Morcha fold from Trinamool camp. On Monday, 42 families came back to our fold, followed by 85 today. Soon we will have a largely Trinamool free Darjeeling, remarked Gurung, who had to witness Mamata Banerjees party post their first electoral victory in the hills in May in Mirik municipality. Gurung claimed Takvar, his own constituency in GTA, has already become a Trinamool free zone. The Bengal chief minister has vowed not to allow a division of the state. She has made it clear that there will be no compromise with GJM leaders who has resorted to violence. (HT Correspondent) On Thursday, tension may rise in the hills as Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha (GJYM) has decided to organise a rally. If the police want to resist, GJYM threatened to call an indefinite total bandh. According to adviser of GJYM, Jiten Rai, the rally is to protest against police atrocities and demand immediate release of those arrested since June 8, when violence broke out leading to the deployment of army. Gurung also sounded a veiled alarm bell for the tourists. How can tourists enjoy when the police are regularly resorting to unprovoked lathi charge on our supporters. No matter how many police and para-military personnel are deployed, the movement for Gorkhaland cannot be stopped. The police super and Darjeeling DM are working like TMC cadres, Gurung alleged. Read: Darjeeling stir: Mamata is playing with fire by ignoring the Gorkha identity issue On Tuesday Gurung got a shot in the arm after five parties and an apolitical pan-India Gorkha body turned up at the all-party meeting he called in Darjeeling and unanimously vowed to fight for a separate state of Gorkhaland. The development is a direct challenge to chief minister Mamata Banerjee who has resolved not to allow a division of Bengal. A soldier standing guard in Darjeeling. On Wednesday GJM president Bimal Gurung indirectly asked the tourists to leave. (HT Photo) The unity of hill parties largely depends on how long GJM and GNLF, the alliance partner of Trinamool Congress for the civic elections, could work together. GNLF has put forward five conditions to the GJM to accept before they could work together for Gorkhaland. GNLF that spearheaded the 28-month-long violent movement for separation from Bengal from 1986 to 1988 has asked the GJM to unilaterally withdraw itself from the tripartite GTA Accord signed on July 18, 2011. The GTA is a stumbling block to Gorkhaland. GJMs unilateral withdrawal from the GTA Accord is a pre-requisite before we could join the hands with the GJM for a prolonged movement, GNLF spokesperson Niraj Zimba told HT. He also hinted that unless GJM walks out of the GTA Accord, GNLF will not be a part of the movement. Read: Mamata govt steps up pressure on Bimal Gurung after Darjeeling clashes GNLF also wants that all the three GJM MLAs should resign from the Bengal assembly, and all municipal councillors of the Morcha should resign too. Bimal Gurung has to take the crucial decision on whether to withdraw from the GTA Accord. GNLF has said that GJMs councillors elected in the last months civic polls and three MLAs who won the Assembly elections in 2016 have to resign. (Samir Jana) Zimba said, GNLF has no problem in accepting Gurung as the leader of the joint movement provided he accepts our five conditions. Incidentally, Bimal Gurung has said frequently that they will resign from GTA as the state government did not allow the GTA to function in true spirit of GTA Accord. In 2013 there was an attempt to work out a collective movement to spearhead the movement for Gorkhaland. But the exercise did not take off as Gurung allegedly failed to agree on common minimum programme suggested by other parties. Read: Darjeelings British legacy: A journey in time Rajen Mukhia, Trinamool leader in the hills alleged that GJM supporters are threatening TMC supporters. On Gurungs claim that Takvar area has become TMC free, Mukhia reamrked, Those who joined GJM from TMC did so because they were threatened by Gurung and his men. For increased monitoring of GTA, the state government on Wednesday created a new post of executive director appointed Deepap Priya, an IAS who is also known to be close to the chief minister. C Murugan was appointed as the GTAs full- time secretary. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON DEHRADUN: Amid ongoing farmer protests across the country, the contentious issue of farm loan waiver reached the Uttarakhand assembly Wednesday with the opposition Congress demanding that the BJP government write off the loans of the state farmers. The Congress claimed that not doing so would be a breach of a pre-poll promise made by the prime minister. The House witnessed unruly scenes, four adjournments and a walkout as Congress members insisted on a debate on the farmer woes and loan waiver for them even as the ruling BJP remained non-committal saying it had five years to resolve the issue. Soon after the House assembled at 11am, Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh raised the issue saying if Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath could announce a loan waiver for farmers at the very first meeting of his Cabinet, why the same cant be done in Uttarakhand. You got a massive mandate in both the states then why is there a discrimination against Uttarakhand, she said. Hridayesh urged Speaker Premchand Aggrawal to allow a discussion on the issue under rule 310. Initiating the discussion on the admissibility of her notice, Hridayesh said the prime minister had made a promise to the farmers that their loans would be waived off and they would get correct price for agricultural produce. The plight of farmers in the state is known to everybody. The state government should immediately waive off their loan, she demanded. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have been given a loan waiver. I think the voice of a small state like Uttarakhand is being suppressed. The Congress leader said farmers in Uttarakhand were restive as agriculture fetched them hardly any return, partly owing to climate change and partly due to wild animals damaging crops. Claiming that various farmer unions have asked for loan waiver, Hridayesh said the state government should concede the demand before the agitated farmers were forced to hit the streets. In fact, they have already started agitating in Roorkee. The Speaker said though the issue was important, it could not be debated under rule 310 at the expense of the Question Hour. We will admit your notification for a debate on loan waiver under rule 58, he said. Hridayesh refused to budge and Congress members trooped into the Well raising slogans and alleging that the state government was anti-farmer and dictatorial. Amid the din, the Speaker urged Hridayesh to instruct the Congress members return to seats. With his repeated request failing to have any impact, Aggrawal adjourned the House first for 15 minutes, and then twice again till 11:45pm. As the House, resembled the Congress MLAs staged a sit-in at the Well demanding a debate. As the Opposition continued to disrupt, parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Pant said the Congress demand for loan waiver was a ruse to disturb the proceedings. Subsequently, the Speaker again adjourned the House till the Zero Hour began. When the House met, Aggrawal allowed a debate under rule 310 on condition that the Opposition notification wouldnt be accepted. Congress MLA Harish Dhami attacked chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat for ruling out a loan waiver to farmers citing paucity of resources at the states disposal. Hridayesh chipped in saying the Centre should extend a helping hand to states, which are short of resources and can ill-afford a loan waiver, including Uttarakhand. If they dont give a loan waiver to farmers, it will be tantamount to belying a pre-poll promise by the PM, she said. Farmers in different parts of the country continue to be in a bad shape. They are committing suicide and are being fired upon, she added, referring to the police firing on protesting farmers in Madhya Pradeshs Mandsaur. Another Congress member, Qazi Nizamuddin, said loan waiver would be a huge relief for farmers who are migrating due to un-remunerative farming. Replying to the debate, Pant said farmers issues were a result of the previous Congress governments failure to resolve them. He said 6.99 lakh small and marginalised farmers have taken bank loans. We have a strategy in place and have five years to resolve their issues, he added. Unsatisfied with the reply, the Opposition members staged a walkout. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Kumar Vishwas saga is far from over in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Senior leader and former Delhi convener, Dilip Pandey, questioned Vishwas on Wednesday for being soft on Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje while making a direct attack on Congress leaders. Tweeting the link to a news story about Vishwas criticising former MP Sandeep Dikshit, Pandey said: Bhaiya, you criticise the Congress leaders but say you will not speak against Vasundhara in Rajasthan. Why? Pandey was referring to a speech delivered by Vishwas while addressing party workers from Rajasthan on Saturday. The party national executive had made the poet-turned-politician in-charge of Rajasthan after an open rebellion by him against the top leadership following defeat in the municipal elections. Rajasthan will go to assembly polls next year. In a video of the speech, Vishwas is heard saying that the party will for the first time contest Rajasthan elections with a constructive strategy of providing better water, power and health care instead of running a Maharani hatao campaign. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje is referred to as Maharani in the state, owing to her royal lineage. We will not resort to a negative approach to remove Maharani (from power)...we should be least concerned about what Maharani does after 8pm, Vishwas told party workers in his address, during which he also hit out at senior party leaders considered close to the partys national convener Arvind Kejriwal, referring them as leaders of Delhi. However, the speech had not gone down well with the party leadership though no one came out in open over the perennial discomfort of top leadership with Vishwas continuation and his role in the party. I have put out a simple logic. You need to be consistent in your criticism. On one hand you come out with direct criticism of all Congress leaders, but say that you will not target Maharani in Rajasthan. So, how will the party campaign against the incumbent government without hitting out at the head of it, Dilip Pandey told HT, explaining his tweet against Vishwas. A section in the AAP, considers Vishwas to be a rightist who does not shy away from displaying his personal relationship with those in power. Vishwas had courted controversy for inviting the likes of national security adviser Ajit Doval and former Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi at his birthday party. As the crisis in the party unfolded after a spate of TV interviews by Vishwas questioning the party leadership and its style of functioning, AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan had termed Vishwas a BJP agent. The party suspended Khan to pacify Vishwas and made him in-charge of Rajasthan. The move, however, failed to douse the fire in the party as Kapil Mishra, considered to be Vishwas loyalist, rebelled after being dumped from the Kejriwal cabinet. Mishra has since levelled a spate of corruption charges against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and health minister Satyendar Jain, besides accusing the party of accepting illegal money routed through shell companies as donations. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Afraid that her parents would get to know she was out with her boyfriend, a 15-year-old girl in outer Delhis Begumpur allegedly cooked up a story about being gang-raped by four men in a park, police claimed. Rishi pal, DCP (Rohini) said her boyfriend was allegedly having physical relations with her despite being aware that she is a minor. The 22-year-old man has been arrested and booked for rape. The police began probing the case on Wednesday morning after receiving a call from the girls father. The complainant alleged his daughter was kidnapped from a flea market in Begumpur by two bike-borne men and was taken to a public park around 9.30 pm on Tuesday. The girls father alleged two others joined the kidnappers and allegedly raped her. She returned home and narrated this story to her father, who deliberated legal action overnight before calling the police. But when the police began investigating the case, footage from a CCTV camera installed in the flea market did show any kidnapping, the DCP said. The girl was seen in the footage, but no bikers were seen picking her from the spot where she claimed she was kidnapped, the DCP said. Police analysed her phone calls, which revealed she had spoken to a youth around 10 pm on Tuesday. The youth was called for questioning and he turned out to be the girls boyfriend for the past one year, said the DCP. According to police, the boyfriend told them that he had picked up the girl from the market at 9.35 pm and took her to the park to spend some time together. When confronted with this version, the girl allegedly conceded that she had lied about the sequence of events out of fear that her parents would know that she was out with him. She initially told the police that the four men had approached her in the park while she was with her boyfriend. They beat up her boyfriend before taking turns to rape her, she had alleged. But the boyfriends version did not allegedly corroborate with the girls, leading police to further suspect what had happened. The scientific and prima facie evidences confirmed that no gangrape had occurred. The girl later accepted that she had lied to protect her boyfriend, said the DCP. Delhis iconic single screen theatre, Regal Cinema that shut down in April, is going to be relaunched as a multiplex. The owners want to turn Regal into a one -of- its- kind junction of cinema, art, culture and history. It will be a place where youll not only come to watch a film, but you will be told the story of this historic theatre; its splendid past and its unique transformation. We are working on some very interesting plans. In its transformed state, Regal will be a receptacle of culture, fit for the digital era. Through audio-visuals and art work, we will add layers of history to your experience of watching a movie every time you visit Regal, says Vishal Chaudhary, owner, Regal Cinema. Heritage conservation architect Smita Datta Makhija who is working on the restoration project says that while other old theatres look like as if they belong to contemporary times, Regal has been very fortunate to retain the authenticity of design and the authenticity of the design. I am very lucky as an architect to be working on this project. Architecturally, Connaught Place was connected to the Imperial City in an interesting manner. What we call the Rajpath today was the Kingsway, perpendicular to that was the Queensway, which hit the central circus of Connaught Place and Regal was located just off the central circus. So a very prime position in Connaught Place was attributed to the site, she says. The design of the grand theatre was done by Walter Sykes George, an English architect. He had an amazing ability to visualise the space three dimensionally. It is the sequencing of space that he managed wonderfully, says Makhija. Makhija says that its important to re-establish Regal as a cultural intermingling zone. People came here beautifully dressed in horse-drawn carriages. The zones of entry were amazing. First, you had the portico, where you had a drop of activity happening, then you entered the hallway, and then came the grand pre-function zone the grand hall. We want to ensure that every person who walks into Regal relives this experience. We will reinforce the memory of the glory of this place and at the same time provide state- of- the- art cinema viewing experience, she says. Just before closing down, Regal took Delhiites on a major trip down the memory lane. It screened two of Raj Kapoors iconic films, Sangam and Mera Naam Joker. It was a house full once again. Hundreds thronged the theatre with their loved ones to relive their favourite memories one last time. The hall brimmed with emotions as Raj Kapoor fans sang, danced and paid a tribute to their favourite actor. Itll be a long wait before Regal is restored. At this stage, one cant tell how the new Regal will look like. While attempts are being made to retain its original look, certain things will change forever. The VIP boxes and the dress circle will be gone. Swanky recliners will replace the numbered metal seats. The single screen and the adjacent stage that has played host to iconic Bollywood actors in the last eight decades will be brought down. And yet, Regal will continue to be one of the most stunning reminders of Connaught Places opulent past. HT City became a part of Regals historic journey as we did the first ever fashion shoot in the theatre. There couldnt have been a better backdrop than Regal to re-create Bollywoods iconic looks. Models showcasing Nargis, Raj Kapoor, Sadhna and Asha Parekhs famous looks walked down the theatres aisle and brought a bygone era to life. Here is the video: SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The cutoff released by St Stephens College, which is lower than last years in most subjects, will not have any impact on the cutoff for the rest of Delhi University colleges as most of the institutions are likely to announce similar or higher cutoff than 2016. St Stephens College announced its cutoff on Wednesday for admission to undergraduate courses with the required marks percentage seeing a dip or remaining same as last year in all courses except Economics (Hons). The dip in this years cutoff ranges from 0.25-10 percentage points. But other colleges said this will not have any impact on their cutoffs as St Stephens has an elimination round after selecting students based on the cutoff but they have to admit all students who come to them with the announced cutoff score. We will take precaution in announcing our cutoff as we have to admit all students if they come to take admission. Colleges announce higher cutoff to avoid over admission, said Dinesh Khattar, principal of Kirori Mal College. Some colleges pointed out that the number of students scoring 95% and above in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 Board exam has increased this year and that is likely to lead to a slight increase in the cutoff this year. All about DU admissions The number of students scoring 95% and above at all-India level has gone up to 10,091 this year, a jump of around 8% from last years 9,351, as per the CBSE. While overall the number of students with 95% and above score has increased, in Delhi this number has gone down to 2,326, a slight dip from last years 2,927. Colleges announce cutoff based on the number of applications received and the CBSE results. The number of students scoring 95% and above has increased as per CBSE and we have to keep that in mind while announcing our cutoff, said a source in Lady Shri Ram College. This year, the university received 2,21,309 applications as compared to last years 2,50,914 applications. The cutoff may slightly go up or remain same as the number of high scorers has increased this year. Unlike St Stephens we have to admit all students under the cutoff. We will know the exact change in cutoff once we receive the date from the university, said Rama, principal of Hansraj College. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Fire safety in buildings in the capital has always been an issue of concern for the Delhi High Court, which has laid down various directions from time to time for the authorities here to follow not only for the prevention of fire but for the safety of the people at large. Last year, the High Court had observed that restaurants operating in first floor flats of capitals posh Khan Market are a fire hazard and a fire trap, with no proper measures for escape in the event of fire. Terming it as a disaster waiting to happen, the High Court had directed the Delhi Fire Service to inspect the restaurants for violation of safety norms. It also reminded of the 1997 Uphaar Cinema tragedy in which 59 persons lost their lives and more than 100 persons suffered injuries. While Building Bye-laws and other laws are in place to ensure safety of buildings and their occupants, a performance audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) last year had found that around 80% government-run hospitals in Delhi do not comply with basic fire safety measures. This is despite a 2004 judgment of the High Court ruling that owner or occupier of any building having a height of 15 metres, erected within the territorial limits of Delhi, must provide fire safety measures. The High Court had said that it was the responsibility of the chief fire officer to see that fire safety measures are provided in high-rise buildings or business buildings or mercantile buildings in accordance with Building Bye-laws. It had directed the authorities, including the electricity distribution companies, to not supply essential services such as electricity to a new high-rise building unless and until the building is erected in accordance with the law and bye-laws. It had ordered that the fire officers to carry out periodical as well as surprise checking to ensure that the fire safety measures provided in the high-rise buildings are in place and in working condition. On failure to comply with the Building Bye-laws, the High Court had said that the fire officer can take steps to get the essential supplies such as water and electricity to such buildings disconnected and get the buildings sealed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Swachh Bharat might be the latest mantra with waste segregation being the focus of the civic agencies in the Capital. However, as a quick fix waste management ploy, garbage burning continues in many areas across East Delhi, be it in parks, roadsides or drains. The Hindustan Times found garbage being burnt at the DDA park in Kanti Nagar. Every 2-3 days, you can see that waste is collected and burnt here right in the middle of the Maharana Pratap Park. When we used to complain about all the garbage strewn across the park, the workers collect it and burn it up. We have tried talking to DDA officials but the burning continues, said Harish Sharma, a 43-year-old resident of Raghuvarpura and a regular visitor to the park. This despite the National Green Tribunal imposing a nationwide ban on the burning of bulk waste in open spaces in December 2016, and imposing a fine of Rs 25,000 for any violation. The green court, back in April 2015 also, banned open burning of garbage and had directed authorities in Delhi and NCR to impose a fine of R5,000 on anyone caught burning waste garbage, leaves, plastic, rubber or other items in open areas. Another space where impromptu waste burning was seen was in Vishwas Nagar. Right next to Swarn Cinema at Vishwas Nagar alongside the drain on road number 57, which resembles a dhalao with garbage lying scattered. BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front (Federation), said burning of garbage has become a common sight across East Delhi and the situation is same even after the NGT order. Its sad. Even though we are amongst the most polluted cities, still we have not yet generated any sense of duty for the city. Those responsible for the management of garbage try to burn it at late hours just to get rid of it without understanding the damage it is causing, Vohra said. Areas like Kanti Nagar, Azad Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Vishwas Nagar, Jagatpuri Institutional Area, Ghazipur and Seelampur frequently witness these kind of fires. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), open air garbage burning contributes 5% to 11% of direct particulate matter to the air in India. In Delhi, the contribution is almost 18%. Though vehicular emissions are the biggest pollutants, burning of garbage and leaves contribute to 29.4% of the air pollution when it comes to particulate matter 10 or PM10. Exposure to these small particles that lodge deep in lungs can result in coughing, wheezing and even a heart attack or a stroke. The NGT had also noted that burning trash in the open produces many pollutants that may cause cancer. Delhi Development Authority vice chairman Uday Pratap Singh said, We insist on composting in DDA parks and have pits for this purpose. If there is anything like that happening, we will get it checked immediately. The East corporation officials say they are keeping strict vigil to catch violators. We have not noticed any sudden increase in the number of garbage burning incidents in East Delhi. If this is the case, then the issue must be discussed in the commissioners meeting. We are serious about the issue and department concerned is challaning the defaulters regularly, said a senior official. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Love to question and learn but cant seem to pick up a book? Your problems might be resolved this Sunday when Delhi holds its first edition of the Human Library. At the event, to be held in Connaught Place between 2pm and 7pm, people can walk in and borrow for 20 minutes human books real people who will share their lives, experiences, and tales of success and sorrow. A participant can even ask them questions, all free of charge. The idea is to explore how we are more similar to each other than different. The event will have 11 books a.k.a humans, ready to share their stories, said Neha Singh, a member of the organising committee. To participate, a person has to either go to the events Facebook page or walk in on the spot. They will then be allotted a human book pre-screened people who will share their stories on 11 topics ranging from drug abuse and domestic violence to life in the army. One of the human books is a 23-year-old cancer survivor who wished to create awareness about the disease. I want people to know that for 21 years of my life, both my legs were working, and I even had a plan made for the future. But, life always has a different plan for you, they said, refusing to be identified because of family reasons. Human libraries first began in Denmark in 2000 and quickly spread to more than 80 countries. In India, such events have been held in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Indore. The organisers say they have curated the books by themselves from people they found inspiring and that they expect more than 500 people for the event. None of the human books are getting paid. There is so much to learn from other people and that I am looking forward to interacting with new people through this event. It is interesting to explore and understand other peoples lives who have overcome perceived boundaries just like me, said one of the people acting as a human book. Mihika Wadhwa, a literature student from Delhi University who is attending the event says, I first heard of this concept through a post about the original event that happened in Copenhagen. When I found out that it is finally happening in Delhi, I knew I just cannot miss this. It is an amazing concept and Im sure itll become a regular thing soon. Facts WHAT - Human Library, Delhi Chapter WHERE - Innov8, The co-working space, Connaught Place, 69, Regal Building TIMINGS - 2:00 p.m - 7:00 p.m WHEN - Sunday, 18th June,2017 A 30-year-old man allegedly shot himself inside his house in Delhis Geeta Colony on Wednesday morning after a quarrel with his wife the previous night. The police received a call about Haseen having shot himself at 5:52 am. He was rushed to hospital but was declared dead on arrival. No suicide note was recovered but police found the countrymade pistol. According to the police, Haseen had an argument with his wife Saira over her talking to a Delhi Police constable. They reportedly started beating each other and Saira even allegedly used a blade to attack her husband. Following the fight, the visited the police station, possibly to settle the matter, but returned without giving any complaint. After returning home, the couple slept in different rooms. When they woke up around 5 am for Ramzan prayers, Saira heard a gunshot. When she went to check, she found Haseen on the floor, bleeding. She made a PCR call and alerted the neighbours. The couples two kids were inside the house when Haseen allegedly shot himself, a senior police officer said. Haseens sister Farah told police that he was upset over his wife allegedly having an extra-marital affair with a constable. In her statement she alleged the couple had fights over one of Sairas friends, a Delhi cop. She stated that a night before, Haseen read a few of Pradeeps chats on Sairas phone, which had enraged him and the two had an argument. She said that the argument turned violent, a police officer said. Haseens sister alleged that the couple went to the police station to settle the matter with Pradeep but they were sent back. My brother received a call from the constable who offered her money to settle the issue and not file any case against him, she alleged. Police will probe the role of the constable. The allegations against the constable will be probed. We have initiated an investigation and Haseens body was sent for postmortem, DCP, Shahdra, Nupur Prasad said. The police will probe where Haseen bought the pistol since he did not have an arms licence. Saira, orginally Manpreet Kaur, converted to Islam to marry Haseen four years ago. Problems in their marriage started two years ago. Many had to walk for miles in search of an autorickshaw. Others decided to return to their offices. A few others even tried to hitch a ride with strangers as cabs too were in short supply. Even as Delhi Metro struggled to restore normal train services on the Blue Line three hours after an eagle snapped an overhead wire on Tuesday evening, commuters had a harrowing time finding a way to get back home. Stranded in packed stations or outside in searing heat at dusk, passengers described the situation as horrible, crazy and like a circus. Some took to Twitter to warn others from relying on the Metro for once. Commuters argue with an autorickshaw driver outside Rajiv Chowk metro station on Tuesday. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) Commuters travelling to Noida and Ghaziabad complained that as soon as the Metro service broke down, cab aggregators surged their prices astronomically. It was horrible. I have never felt that helpless. On usual days I get home by 7 pm but yesterday I reached at 11 pm. I had to hitch a ride in three different cars. When I tried booking a cab, the fare shot up to Rs 870 for a ride that had a waiting time of 30 minutes. It just did not make sense, Shikha Tiwari, who was travelling from Laxmi Nagar in east Delhi to Noida, told HT. The problem started after an overhead electrical (OHE) wire snapped on the busy line that connects Noida and Vaishali to Dwarka when an eagle hit it. It led to a short circuit resulting into parting of sagging of catenary wire. The wire, DMRC officials said snapped at 4.55 pm between Indraprastha and Yamuna Bank stations and it took them three hours to fix it. People, however, had to face a harrowing time for much longer. Tired of the struggle, Noida resident Surendra Kumar returned to his office in Connaught Place and waited till the situation could improve. But it didnt. It was impossible to wait at the metro station because of the rush. So I came out to take a cab but the fare was too high. I returned to my office to wait for surge pricing to go but then I gave up, he said. He booked a cab for Rs 600 for a ride that usually costs him not more than Rs 300. I waited for the cab to arrive for 20 minutes. When it finally arrived and the driver found out that I had to go to Noida, he refused. Rajiv Chowk metro station around 6.10 pm on Tuesday. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) Vidhi Sinha, a resident of Ghaziabad who had to reach home in time for her daughters birthday party, was stranded for more than three hours before she got a ride with a colleague. I tried booking a cab but the waiting time was too long. They were charging enormously. I walked for over three kilometers hoping to pay less from another location but it did not work. A colleague agreed to take a detour and rescue me from the chaos. Finally, he drove me home , she said. Commuters suggested that in such situations, DMRC should restrict the entry of more passengers at the affected stations. Blue Line is the most prone to snags among the six corridors of Delhi Metro. In 2014, DMRC chief Mangu Singh had to order an audit due to frequent technical glitches occurring on this line. The overhead wire that snapped between Indraprastha and Yamuna Bank stations at 4.55 pm on Tuesday. The audit revealed that nearly all the snags reported on Dwarka-Noida/Vaishali corridor were related to electrical failures. The entire stretch of more than 51 kilometre, except from Mandi House to Rajiv Chowk, is elevated which makes it vulnerable to changing weather conditions, said a metro official. The audit also indicated that most snags have occurred because of foreign objects getting entangled with the OHE wire. It was because of this that the Delhi Metro in 2015 replaced all insulators on the OHE of the Blue Line. DMRC had earlier estimated that ridership on this line would be 9.18 lakh per day by 2016. But it touched 11.94 lakh in August, 2015. This line carries over 30% of the Delhi Metros passengers and since most of the part is elevated, the vulnerability to snag is more. The average daily ridership of Delhi Metro is 27 lakh. This line has 44 metro stations from Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre covering a distance of 51.35 km and a branch line of 8.85 km with seven stations from Yamuna Bank to Vaishali. Do you park your car by the roadside near your residence? If the answer is yes, get ready to pay a hefty sum, with the Delhi government proposing to levy fees for roadside parking in a draft policy to be unveiled on Thursday. And theres more. The Parking Policy for Delhi also proposes to charge more for daytime parking and for peak hours. Rates will also be different during weekdays and weekends. Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has approved the policy, prepared by the Aam Aadmi Party government, officials said. It will now be open to suggestions from the public and other stakeholders for a month. HT has a copy of the draft policy. Over the past few years, the city of 17 million people is reeling from record pollution levels, attributed to its more than one crore vehicles. Out of these, an estimated 9.5 lakh are private vehicles and most of them are parked by the roadside. Delhis deterrence policy If the new rules are adopted in their current form, heres what may happen to PARKING AT HOME Parking on colony roads will attract a fee, though it will be cheaper for night hours The rate will be higher for those who own more than two cars MCDs will decide on how many cars will be allowed depending on the area of the owners home Parking on footpaths will be made a cognizable offence PARKING AT MARKETS Most street-parking will be for visitors. Business owners will need to use parking lots Rates will increase exponentially every 30 minutes Staying beyond 3 hours could attract an additional Rs 100 1,00,93,470 Vehicles registered in Delhi as of Jan 1, 2017 Delhi also witnesses frequent traffic snarls, especially on the narrow roads of residential colonies, due to unplanned parking. The policy suggests giving parking space on colony streets based on the size of the plot. Beyond a specific number, depending on plot size, there should be additional charges for parking on residential streets for equitable distribution of public spaces, the policy says. To discourage people from buying multiple cars, it says road tax would be increased on an incremental basis for those who buy more than one car. Besides, those who have more than 2 cars will have to pay a higher parking fee. Around commercial areas such as markets, it suggests levying three times higher the charge for on-street parking. The policy also reverses the existing trend where multi-level parking (MLP) lots are costlier than surface parking. The draft policy also suggests making parking on footpaths a cognisable offence under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. Accepting a key demand of the Supreme Court-appointed Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, the government has included differential parking charges. This means people will have to pay more during peak hours. Concerned over rampant encroachment by cars across the city, Baijal asked the Arvind Kejriwal government in January to prepare a comprehensive policy that would lay guidelines for agencies to optimally utilise parking spaces and close the illegal ones. Once suggestions are received, the transport department will review the policy and make amends, if needed. The final policy will then be sent to the L-G again for his approval after which an order would be issued. Though its implementation is going to be a challenge with at least eight agencies involved -- including the municipal bodies, the Delhi Development Authority and the traffic police -- the policy seems to have political will. Both Union ministers of urban development and roadways have expressed concern over Delhis parking menace. Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu recently said the Centre is planning to make parking proof mandatory for new vehicle registration. This has been included in Delhis parking policy too in which vehicle owners will have to give proof of parking space to get new commercial registrations. Similarly, minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari had said that his ministry is working on increasing the penalty for illegal parking. With nearly 80% of Delhis parking lots being operated by the municipal corporations, the biggest roles would be theirs as they will have to fix the new rates. The government will earn an estimated additional Rs 600 crore from parking fees if the policy is implemented. The policy also asks them and the DDA to come up with a rule to allow vacant plots in colonies to be developed as parking lots on payment basis. With the BJP in power in the MCDs and at the Centre, officials expect a quick roll out of the policy once approved. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON After several cold-blooded murders of cattle traders, a controversial ban on cattle slaughter and protests in some states against the beef ban, the Centre has decided to act, albeit belatedly. Environment minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said the controversial rules prohibiting the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter will be changed to clear doubts and misinterpretations. The minister also debunked allegations that the government was hell-bent on changing the eating habits of people, as claimed by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the rules were notified on May 23. However, all these changes or improvements will not happen overnight since the government is keen to wait for the June 15 Supreme Court hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the legality of the notification. The Centre has been on the backfoot since the rules were notified, given the opposition from within and outside. Left-ruled Kerala and Congress-ruled Meghalaya assemblies have passed resolutions saying they will not implement the regulations. Other northeastern states are also unhappy with the rules. Several BJP leaders in Meghalaya resigned from the party over the new rules though the party said they were about to be thrown out for indiscipline. What prompted this sudden change of heart? The ministry has received representations from slaughter houses and allied industries, which fear the new rules can kill their business. Analysts say that the ban will not just cripple the beef market but also allied industries. The export market is expected to face disruption with a massive loss of employment. Indias leather industry, which accounts for 13% of the world market, will also be badly hit. At a time, when jobs are scarce, the social and economic impact of such regulations will be a huge liability for the government. Chopping and changing the cattle trade rules may help the government win a few points in the perception battle but finally on the ground, it has to crack the whip on those who are misusing their proximity to the party and state governments to attack, kill and terrorise innocent people involved in cattle trade and those opposing the beef ban. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will declare the results of the entrance examination 2017 for its MBBS programme on its official website on Wednesday, an official said. An official, who did not want to be identified as he was not entitled to speak to the media, told the Hindustan Times the results of the entrance examination will be declared after 6pm on Wednesday. The AIIMS public relations officer (PRO) did not answer calls seeking more information. Candidates can check their results on the website www.aiimsexams.org after they are declared. The examination was held on May 28. The results were declared on June 14 and the entrance test was conducted on May 29 last year. Sathvik Reddy Erla from Hyderabad secured the top rank and Nikhil Bajiya, a reserved category candidate, got the second rank in the exam in 2016. In 2015, Navsheen Singhal, a student from Hisar in Haryana, topped the exam. Candidates should visit the official website for more updates and details. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Lucknow: June 21, the third International Yoga Day, is going to be special for Tulsi Ram and Satyendra Yadav, both with visual impairment, studying in Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University in Lucknow. They are among 150 students selected to perform yoga with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ramabai Rally Sthal in the Uttar Pradesh capital. I am delighted to be a part of the PMs yoga day function. This is a big honour for me. It is an opportunity to prove to the whole world that we are not inferior to others who can see, Ram, an undergraduate student, said. Physically challenged students of the university are determined to put up an impressive show, Yadav added. At least 150 differently abled students of the varsity are waiting for the occasion when they will join thousands of others. They have already started practising yoga on the university campus. Vice-chancellor Nishith Rai said 168 students of the university had enrolled for the purpose. Yoga instructor Vinod Kumar Yadav is giving mild to rigorous training as per the need and constraints of these students ... The move is an endeavour to empower and make the differently abled students feel that they too are part of the mainstream society. The idea is to make the students aware of the benefits of yoga, said Rai. The Prime Minister along with 51,000 participants, including students, National Cadet Corps, National Service Scheme cadets and scouts, will take part in the mass session of exercises to promote yoga - an ancient science of physical and spiritual discipline. At least 300 Muslim men and women under the banner of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch will also join him at the venue. It will be heartening to see divyang students performing kapal bharti and other breathing exercises with the PM. They are determined to learn the maximum number of yoga asanas (postures), AP Tiwari, academic advisor to the V-C, said. According to a study, about 14.3 million people in India practised yoga in 2013, up from 6.3 million in 2001. As per recent estimates by Associated Chambers of Commerce of India or Assocham, growing health awareness has caused an annual increase of 30-40% in the number of yoga practitioners. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To inculcate patriotism among students, the Central Government had launched a campaign in May to put up portraits of 21 Param Vir Chakra, Indias highest military decoration on university walls across the country. Known as Vidya Veerta Abhiyan (Knowledge and Warrior Campaign), it involves 100 universities to start with. Implementing the plan, Delhi University has recently inaugurated The Wall of Heroes depicting the portraits of war warrior at the conference centre inside the university premises. The wall has been established, but the question is, will it inspire patriotism among students? This wall is a permanent fixture. Though most of the students are on their vacations but as soon as they come back, they will get to know about this initiative. We have chose conference centre as the venue of this wall because it is open and accessible to all. Students can visit the place anytime. This lead will certainly impulse the sense of patriotism among students, says Dr Shalini Baxi, head of cultural affairs, Delhi University. Poet and former Dean of Law faculty, Hari Om Panwar was the chief guest of the occasion and inaugurated the wall with tears in his eyes. He says, This is a great honour for me to bring up the curtain on The Wall of Heroes. In my 40 years of being an academician, I have never been so happy and emotional. Who would not get inspired from the real heroes who died for this country? I hope that this establishment brings out a sense of patriotism in our youngsters as well, says Panwar. NCC and NSS in-charge of the university, Parminder Sehgal, who felt proud to be a part of the inauguration says, This is such a proud moment for everyone. Todays youth needs a lot of motivation and guidance and this place will serve as both. This wall is a small tribute to the heroes of this country, what they had done for us cannot be returned back. follow HT Life&Style for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Delhi Universitys St Stephens College is likely to release its first cut-off for admission to its undergraduate courses on Wednesday. College officials said the cut-off for nine courses will be released shortly. We are in the process of uploading the cut-off. It will come out soon, an official said at around 11am. The college was supposed to announce the cut-off on Tuesday morning but after the Delhi University decided to extend the deadline by a day, the college said it would release the cut-off at midnight on Tuesday. However, it was later decided to announce it on Wednesday. Last year, the highest cut-off at the college was 99% (for commerce students) for admission to BA (Honours) English. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON There you are, freshly minted degree certificate in hand, waiting in line for your job interview. For most freshers, breaking into the corporate world is stressful. But employers and recruiters will tell you that hiring the newcomer is even harder. If youre preparing for your first interview, heres what you can do to stay ahead. DONT PLAY HIDE AND SEEK Data from Kelly Services, an office staffing and workforce solutions company, shows that close to 50% of freshers simply dont show up for scheduled interviews. A staggering 40% disappear later, when it comes to discussing or accepting an offer. This is common in technology, BPO and frontline sales, says Francis Padamadan, country director at Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group India, which advises companies on hiring. This leaves employers in a fix are you serious about working? Did you find a better offer elsewhere? Did you merely apply for fun? All of this reflects poorly on you. You may want to consider working with that company in the future. Being unprofessional at an early stage may close doors to later opportunities. Instead: Politely and professionally back out from a job offer, so you dont end up burning bridges. Sounding authentic is critical, says Snehal Shah, who chairs the Fellow Programme in Management and Head, Research Initiatives at SPJIMR. Heres a good email template to opt out, she says: Since the last few weeks (or days), I have given a serious thought to my career choices. Upon further reflection, it seems the current job opportunity with your company does not fit with my long-term career goals. Please accept my sincere apology as I will not be able to join your esteemed organisation at this time. However, I will surely get in touch with you if there is change in my decision. Drop emojis from your resume remember this is not your Facebook profile page. (iStock) When students have worked on a project and cant communicate effectively about it, thats a warning sign for interviewers. No firm wants skilled workers who cannot explain their work, says Zarin Bhathena of transactional services company Worldline DONT ACT IMMATURE Shailendra Minocha, head of human resources and administration at real-estate firm, Nirmal Lifestyle, sees a lack of professional attitude among fresh graduates. They face issues in networking with employees and have lack social and communication skills, he says. Its not always the freshers fault. Minocha sees many first-timers complain that they have not been taught how to draft emails and have a lower understanding of targets and deadlines. Instead: Look online for resources on writing contemporary formal emails (forbes.com, coursera.com and bbc.co.uk), sample cover letters (templates.office.com) and templates for professional resumes (templates on livecareer.com or naukri.com). Create a professional email address with your full name instead of handles like bhairoxx, sexyladykiller or chelseafan123. Drop emojis from your resume remember this is not your Facebook profile page. Aim to be concise and professional in approach. DONT BE VAGUE ABOUT YOUR GOALS Sure, youre young and still not clear about what you want to do. Theres no reason to tell an interviewer that. Dinesh Goel, co-founder and CEO, Aasaanjobs, an end-to-end recruitment marketplace, finds that todays range of career choices often makes freshers confused or distracted about their aspirations. Many kids pick interviews in fields out of peer pressure or the promise of glamour. The youth need to have a vision for themselves which is lacking in most cases, says JM Nair, principal of VES Institute of Technology. Applying for a position youre not interested in, is a two-fold nightmare you end up hating what you do and companies suffer. If a mechanical engineer takes up take up a software job, companies then have to spend a lot of time and resources in making them eligible, Goel says. Instead: Learn from your B-school peers. Abbasali Gabula, deputy director of external relations and administration at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) says business school students (often mid-career professionals) tend to be clearer about their interests. Career counselling, role-clarity sessions and selfawareness helps them to face the challenges at workplace with ease, he says. So look at your resume objectively. Ask yourself what makes you right for the job you are applying for, why this should be your first job, and why (if any) disparity exists between your skills and your aspirations. Prepare short, clear answers beforehand so you dont end up fumbling. DONT FORGET PRESENTATION SKILLS Zarin Bhathena, senior vice president and local head of human resources at Worldline, a payments and transactional services company says that freshers, especially from technical backgrounds, lack polish. Even when students have worked on a particular project, they cant communicate it effectively when questioned about it. This is a warning sign for interviewers no firm wants skilled workers who cannot explain their work. Instead: Do a mock interview over Skype or Whatsapp video with a friend. Time yourself, list your achievements clearly and explain them to the person across from you, and practice making eye contact as you speak. You should be sitting up straight. While describing any project or internship experience, emphasise words such as we and team, rather than I or me, adds Shah. Piya Mukherjee, director at VES Leadership Academy and Research Centre, shares her tips for prep. List the commonly asked interview questions and prepare answers for them, preferably on paper. Make mind-maps to remember your key points, she says. Then, prepare two well-crafted answers (short and long) to this question: Tell me something about yourself. Remember there are no second chances to make a first impression, Mukherjee cautions. Blood is the elixir of life- this saying is true, especially, when a person in acute need of blood gets it in time. Researches to find a suitable alternative to blood have not been successful. These situations make the blood a precious resource. The paradox that surrounds the blood as a resource is it being readily available and abundant, it is scarce. This very well suits with the Indian scenario. Though India is the second largest human resource in the world, we are annually in deficit of two million blood units, according to WHO. In India only one percent of the population donates blood. In India, after the landmark Supreme Court judgment in 1996(Common Cause v/s Union of India) on blood donation, the scenario of blood banking has been streamlined. The process of creating a large donor base is under progress. For this movement to be successful, majority of the blood should come from repeat voluntary blood donors. The repeat voluntary blood donors are habitual blood donors who give blood repeatedly at regular intervals. They are thus reliable and safe. The process of creating a repeated voluntary donor based inventory needs a lot of effort. It is a three-step process. *STEP I: Motivate an individual for donating blood (intention formation). *STEP II: Make donation a habit, where he/she realizes that it is a safe process and agrees to donate when called for. *STEP III: Make donation be identified with him, where starts enjoying the process and donates blood without being called for. In India only one percent of the population donates blood. (HT File Photo ) The major hurdle in blood donor motivation is breaking the myths that surround the blood donation. Breaking the myth helps the donor to keep his first step towards the holy process of donating blood. There are innumerable myths; the major ones, as jotted by Dr Vikas Hegde, Consultant, Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Immunology, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals, are enumerated here: Blood donation is a safe, well monitored process which does no harm to the donor. Above all it is the best gift that any individual can give. Each donation of blood saves three-four lives.India is making a great progress in health care sector doing high end blood intensive transplant procedures and curing hitherto incurable diseases. Blood is also needed-most when the disaster strikes. Lets forget the myths and make a pledge on this world voluntary blood day (June 14, 2017) that We will- Give blood. Give now, give often. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Angry traders and residents of Farrukhnagar held a protest and blocked the main road for over two hours on Wednesday demanding action against the accused involved in the shooting a jeweller and snatching a bag containing ornaments and cash on Tuesday evening. The protesters, including traders, downed shutters at the nearby market and blocked the road for almost three hours. Following an assurance by senior police officers that they will catch the accused in a week, the blockade was lifted. Three armed assailants had shot jeweller Arun Kumar Jain in ward no 3 of Farrukhnagar on Tuesday evening. They snatched his bag before fleeing the scene. Jain sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was admitted to Medanta hospital after his condition turned serious. Around 8am, the traders downed their shutters and blocked the main road voicing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation and demanding that the police act against the accused in the shooting incident. Farrukhnagar has seen a series of crimes in the last few months, including murders and robberies, that have left residents fearing for their safety. The traders alleged that the police always register cases against unknown accused and has not been able to arrest the slide in the law and order situation. There have been 26 cases of serious crime reported in Pataudi and Farrukhnagar Hailey Mandi areas in the last couple of months. The criminals dont fear the law. The traders are living in fear. How will they run their businesses? said Mahender Yadav, former sarpanch and a resident of Farraukhnagar, who was part of the protest. It was only after the intervention of Pataudi ACP Tanya Singh, who assured the traders that the accused will be arrested soon, that they relented and removed the blockade. Singh also told them that three different police teams are working on clues and accused would be nabbed soon. Read I Gurgaon: Two more arrested in Farrukhnagar double murder case from Delhi Gurgaon police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar had also visited the scene of the crime on Tuesday evening. The police has stepped up patrolling in the area, particularly at night and more barricades will also be placed from now on, Singh said. She added more CCTV cameras would be installed in the town, apart from opening a police help centre that could provide assistance in the event of an emergency. A New Palam Vihar businessman was beaten up by three armed assailants before they snatched his Skoda Rapid at gunpoint opposite the Diplomatic Green condominium on Bajghera Road, near Delhi border, and fled. The incident took place around 9.45pm when Gyanendra Jena (39) had gone for a walk after parking his car in front of the residential complex on Dwarka Expressway. The robbers also snatched his wallet and two iPhones, one which was recovered from near the spot in the morning. The police recovered a Splendour Plus motorbike, bearing a fake Delhi registration plate, which the robbers used in the crime. The police suspect that the robbers had been closely tracking Jenas movements over last few days before deciding to strike. Jena has been living in New Palam Vihar for the last seven years and runs a freight business. He owns flats in the residential complex and was in the habit of parking his car in front of the building late evening before heading for a stroll. The victim said that three armed attackers, who were drunk, took him at gun point and beat him up before snatching the keys of his Skoda Rapid, which he bought two years ago. I came back(from the stroll) and was sitting in the car around 9pm when someone knocked on my car window and I rolled it down. Suddenly, a man shoved me inside and another forced his on way in from the left. A third person tied a piece of cloth around my mouth, gagging me. Then they asked for my car keys, Jena said. As the businessman told his attackers that the car keys had fallen on the floor, they started hitting him with pistol butts. The trio thrashed the victim severely and stopped him only after finding the key. They also snatched two iPhones and his wallet that included his debit cards, credit cards, Aadhaar card and other key documents. They were heavily drunk and were speaking a local dialect. After taking the car keys, they kicked me out of the vehicle. I shouted for help, but no one stopped to save me, Jena said. Read I Gurgaon: Cab driver from Delhi shot dead in Palam Vihar Once the accused left the spot in his car, Jena stopped a passerby and asked for his phone. He then dialled his brother, who, in turn, sent word to the police. A police team soon arrived at the scene and got him admitted to a hospital. We have seized the motorbike that was used in the crime. It has already got us vital clues. Teams from Bajghera police station and Palam Vihar crime branch are investigating the case and the culprits will be nabbed soon, Shamsudin, SHO, Bajghera police staion, said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A non-resident Indian (NRI) from New Zealand, working in a private hospital in the city, has been booked on rape charges levelled against him by his 25-year-old live-in partner, who is an air hostess. The complaint was filed on June 9 at the Women police station in Sector 51 in the city. The man works with a leading private hospital in Sector 44 in the city. Both the air hostess and the man lived in a house in an upscale locality near Huda City Centre for the last eight months. She allegedly met him for the first time at the hospital and they later began having a relationship. The man had promised to marry the woman and they started living together in a rented accommodation. He, however, later changed his mind and refused to marry her, the woman alleged in her complaint. It was also learnt that he is already married. The police registered the case on Monday and an investigation is underway. Deepak Saharan, deputy commissioner of police (east), Gurgaon, said, We are taking active steps in this case and examining all aspects related to the matter. Last year, on January 21, a 21-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her mothers live-in partner in Gurgaon. A case was registered at the Sector 5 police station in the city following orders of the then chief judicial magistrate Suruchi Atreja. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Day after the strike by Haryana Roadways employees ended, normalcy returned to Gurgaons bus stations and provided much needed relief to stranded regular commuters. Farooq Nazar, a resident of Sushant Lok Phase 1 who travels to Panipat twice a week as he has a carpet business there, was one of the many relieved city commuters on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Farooq could not travel to Panipat and had to reschedule his meetings with his business clients for Wednesday. I rely on Haryana Roadway buses solely for travelling to Panipat. Since catching a bus from New Delhi is pointless, as it causes an unnecessary delay of nearly two hours, the same time that it takes me to reach Panipat from Gurgaon. Luckily, the protestors called off their strike or else my business deals could have been in jeopardy, Farooq said. For Ravi, a class four employee with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) who stays in Manesar and takes a bus to Sector 34 from the Gurgaon railway station, resumption of services meant that the five-fold increase in his commuting cost was limited to jus a day. Yesterday (Monday), I spent more than 100 commuting to work instead of 20 that I pay for an auto ride. Auto drivers took the strike as an opportunity to fleece passengers. My monthly income barely helps me get by and I dont get to save much. Hence, any additional expenditure burns a hole in my pocket. I am the buses are back on roads, Ravi said. Read I Haryana Roadways strike: Gurgaon passengers take to other states roadway buses 262 roadways buses operating in the city and more than 4,000 buses across the state were pulled out of roads owing to the indefinite strike by employees over the issuance of permits to private operators by the state government. The strike was called off after the state government assured protestors that it will withdraw its decision on issuing permit to private bus operators. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To curb drinking in public, which has often been blamed for heinous crimes, the Gurgaon police on Tuesday registered 91 cases in different police stations in a city-wide crackdown. The move comes in the light of Manesar gang-rape incident on May 29 in which the accused had allegedly committed the crime under the influence of alcohol. A police spokesperson said that drinking in open spaces, parks, parking lots, in front of liquor shops and inside cars is not allowed, and strict action would be taken against violators. The three accused admitted to the police that they had been drinking in the Tata Magic van before they offered a lift to the 19-year-old woman and her eight-month-old daughter. They drove them to a vacant plot in Manesar before taking turns to rape her. They choked her infant to death before fleeing the scene. Gurgaon police on Tuesday registered 44 cases in the police district (east), comprising 2 police stations, including Sadar, DLF Phase 1, DLF phase III, MG road and other posh areas of the city. The west police district registered 33 cases against public consumption of liquor in 13 police station areas comprising Gurgaon city, Arjun Nagar, Civil Lines, Sector 14, Udyog Vihar, Palam Vihar and Bajghera. The last named also includes the main city and adjoining areas that fall to the east of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The least such cases were registered in the south district of Gurgaon police, which mainly comprises rural areas such as Badshahpur, Sohna, Bhondsi, Pataudi, Farrukhnagar and Manesar police stations. Read I Manesar gang rape, murder: Two held after one accused confesses to sarpanch Gurgaon police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar said that the crackdown on public consumption of liquor is on and now all the police districts have been directed to take concerted action to curb it. Apart from carrying out drives to stop drinking in public, the police is also reaching out to sarpanches and village elders so that community participation can help in crime prevention and detection,Khirwar said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A mobile phone theft has turned into a blackmail nightmare for a Gurgaon resident. Vishal Singh (name changed), who works in CyberHub, lost his mobile phone at the hotel he was staying in during a vacation last October and when he couldnt find it despite several efforts, he registered a complaint with the local police and moved on. But his trauma started soon after. In March this year the CyberHub employee allegedly received a call from an unknown person who said he had very personal videos and pictures of Vishal and his friends in his possession he would leak them on WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook, if Vishal didnt pay him Rs80 lakh. While initially he dismissed it as a prank call, Vishal soon realised that the passwords to his emails and social media accounts had been compromised and several pictures that he had deleted after losing his phone had been retrieved. His phone also had some photos and videos of personal nature, Gurgaon police said. The calls and texts continued, and the demand remained the same pay up Rs80 lakh or the photos and videos would turn up on social media and elsewhere on the internet. They also threatened to leak the photos if he approached the police. However, with no other place to go, he finally filed a complaint with the Gurgaon police on Monday. Initially, he tried negotiating with the extortionists. But when he couldnt think of any solution, he approached us, said Sudip Singh, station house officer (SHO), DLF Phase 1. Singh said theyre trying to find the culprits and have formed some teams to be sent to the place where the phone was stolen. An FIR in this regard has been registered under sections 379 (theft) and 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code. Beijing: Two Indian states are now part of an international coalition that aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, a target that is even more ambitious than the one laid down in the Paris Agreement. The Under2 Coalition includes the American state of California, and highlights the role that subnational players like state governments,and cities are playing in the campaign to check global warming. Jerry Brown, governor of California state, speaking at a Clean Energy Ministerial event in Beijing last week reaffirmed the states commitment to clean energy suggesting that Trumps announcement to withdraw from the Paris accord might actually re-focus attention on the issue. Before the Paris accord there was every little public attention devoted to climate change, Brown said, In a way Presidents Trump announcement to withdraw has heightened the interest and the focus on this existential crisis. I watched last week in horror as Presidents Trumps announcement unfolded, thinking about all the years of planning and action that had gone into the Paris agreement. But what we have seen over the last week has been amazing, Helen Clarkson, head of The Climate Group, the organiser of the Under2 Coalition, said. An outstanding outpouring of support from all across the globe, national governments, subnational governments and businesses stepping forward. The coalition includes 170 subnational partners. The Climate Group also works with private companies to push ambitious clean energy targets. This initiative called RE 100 brings together companies that commit to going 100 % renewable and includes some of Indias most influential names like Infosys, Tata Motors and Dalmia Cement. We are at 96% renewable currently, Katie Hill, Global Supply Manager, Energy. Apple Inc. said explaining that the move to renewable has to make environmental and business sense. The employees and consumers expect this, she added. The Chhattisgarh state government was one of five new signatories to the Under2 coalition that were announced at the event. The state of Telangana in India is already a member of the coalition. The southern state is seen as one of the hot spots for solar power. In order to keep global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius would require limiting greenhouse gas emissions to 2 tonnes per capita, which is 5-20% of 1990 levels by the middle of the century. The vulnerability in Chhattisgarh is more, but so is the scope for climate action, Arvind Boaz, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of Chhattisgarh, said. We think there will be immense collaboration at the subnational level, he said, adding that developing countries will benefit from such collaboration through technology transfer, capacity building and financial assistance. However, as of now the Under2 coalition does not include a mechanism for direct financial assistance. A state like Telangana that is an emerging IT hub may have much to learn from California, Jarnail Singh, the India director of The Climate Group, said. We want to work with India and China and Europe to deal honestly and forthrightly on global warming, Brown said. (Reporting for this piece was facilitated by China Dialogue, an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of Chinas urgent environmental challenges.) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New Delhi: Along with rivers and water bodies, blood banks in India run dry each summer. May and June are particularly hard for patients because Indias blood banks depend primarily on voluntary blood donations from healthy university students and young professionals, who are often away on vacation during summer months. At any given time, there is a 15-20% shortfall between supply and demand for blood in India. This gap widens to a 25-30% shortfall during summer months. As against the requirement of about 10-11 million units of blood each year, the annual collection in India is 8.5-9 million units, most of which comes from voluntary blood donors. Voluntary donations account for around 80% of blood donations in India. My friend recently needed blood and even though I am part of one of Indias biggest blood banks, it took me 10 hours to arrange two units of blood for him, said an official at the Indian Red Cross Societys Blood Bank in New Delhi. It takes just a few minutes to donate blood, with each unit of blood donated being used to save at least three lives. We can segregate blood components these days and one unit is used to save a minimum of three lives, said the official. Its not a problem unique to India. Around 15.6 million units of donated blood is collected in World Health Organisation (WHO)s South-East Asia Region each year against the 18 million units needed. In the National Capital Region alone, Red Cross Blood Bank issues 60,000 units of blood and blood components to government hospitals, private hospitals and thalassemic patients annually. There are 1,000 persons with thalassaemia registered with Red Cross Society of India, which issue 15,000-20,000 units of blood to them annually. People with thalassaemia need blood every 15 days for life. We cater to not just Delhis thalassaemia population but also to people from Patna, Kanpur, Agra, Gwalior etc, said the Red Cross official. The WHO estimates that between 1% and 3% of a countrys population need blood in a year. About 65% of Indias population are young adults and even if half of them donate blood a couple of times a year, shortages will not happen. If there are enough voluntary donors, the practice of replacement donation can be done away with . Patient should be a responsibility of the hospital just like providing medicines. One shouldnt be forced to provide a replacement donor, said the official from Red Cross. The government aims to promote voluntary blood donations in a big way. Our focus is to achieve 100% voluntary blood donations by 2020, Union health minister JP Nadda had tweeted while inaugurating a blood donation camp last year. Box Who can donate * Any healthy person between the ages of 18 and 65 * Must be free of all major illnesses * Must not have a seasonal infection * Should not be on antibiotics, blood thinners or antidepressant medicines * Must not be pregnant or lactating * Should not be anaemic: haemoglobin below 12.5gm/dl * Should not have donated within last three months SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Actor Nicole Kidman plans to celebrate her 50th birthday on June 20 with her divine husband Keith Urban and children. (I want) to hang with my divine husband and my kids and my sister, Kidman told eonline.com. Nicole and the country music star share two daughters: Sunday, 8, and Faith, 6. Her younger sister Antonia Kidman will be part of the celebrations too. Actor Nicole Kidman attends the premiere of Focus Features' The Beguiled at Directors Guild Of America on June 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (AFP) Nicole said: Ive already been to Australia and saw my mom and its too far for her to travel but my sister is coming over with all her children. She has six kids. Keith Urban, right, and Nicole Kidman arrive at the CMT Music Awards at Music City Centre. (Sanford Myers/Invision/AP) The actor kept most details hush-hush though it seems she will most likely spend the day at home with friends and family. Thats it for me, the Oscar winner said. I dont need any big parties; I just need my family around me. If I have my family around me, I am happy. Follow @htshowbiz for more Actor Paul Newman, who died in 2008, two years after playing the mentor to Owen Wilsons character Lightning McQueen in the original Cars, will return to star in Cars 3. The actor will return to voice Doc Hudson in the upcoming third instalment of Pixars animated series with the help of hours of material culled from old interviews with Pixar head John Lasseter. But the Hollywood legend isnt the first actor to have his character be resurrected after their death. Here are 5 other actors who were brought back, in different ways, to finish their films. 1. Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story This is perhaps the latest, and somewhat controversial, example of characters being brought back. While Peter Cushings estate gave its blessing to the filmmakers to use his likeness in the Star Wars prequel, fans were unsure of how to respond to his presence in the film. And while Carrie Fisher was alive when the film came out, her passing soon after ignited the debate about whether or not she would be a part of the upcoming Episode IX. 2. Brandon Lee in The Crow Lee was killed after being accidentally shot during filming a scene in The Crow. He had just three days filming remaining. After his death, production was halted and the script was rewritten to include additional scenes. After briefly considering abandoning the project, an extra $8 million was injected into shooting stunt double Chad Stahelski (who would later go on to direct John Wick), and superimpose Lees face onto his. The film is considered a cult classic now. 3. Bruce Lee in Game of Death Brandons father, Bruce, suffered a similar fate. He collapsed during an ADR (dubbing) session for his film Enter the Dragon due to a cerebral edema. Five years after his death, Robert Clouse used bearded body doubles, old footage, a plastic surgery subplot and even a cardboard cutout in his 1978 film Game of Death. 4. Paul Walker in Fast & Furious 7 Walker, star of the Fast and Furious series, died in a car accident while filming the seventh instalment of the series. Production was immediately halted, and scenes were rewritten to include an emotional sendoff for his character. Walkers twin brothers, Caleb and Cody, filled in for him for his remaining scenes, and his face was digitally superimposed on his brothers. Fast & Furious 7 became the highest-grossing entry in the franchise, and included a much-appreciated farewell for Walkers character. 5. Philip Seymour Hoffman in the Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Hoffman died due to a drug overdose during filming of the final instalment in the Hunger Games saga. The cast and crew, out of respect for his performance, did not want to digitally recreate his two remaining scenes, so they were rewritten from the perspective of Woody Harrelsons character. Follow @htshowbiz for more Actor Irrfan, who wooed audience with a spectacular performance in Hindi Medium, is back in action in Hollywood. The actors next film, Puzzle, was announced in May and according to a close source, he has already started shooting for the same in New York. In the film, being helmed by by American director Marc Turtletaub, Irrfan would be seen playing the lead role opposite Britsh actor Kelly Macdonald. Irrfan is playing a New Yorker in the film and he has already started shooting in New York. The shoot will continue for another month or so, says the source. According to a report in the Hollywood Reporter, the film revolves around the life of a suburban mother, who is caught in caring for the men in her family. When she discovers she has a gift for assembling puzzles, her world begins to open and her entire family is forced to adjust and grow as well. The film will follow the coming of age of a 49-year-old woman. Its a lead role for him [Irrfan]. The story follows the coming of age of a 49-year-old woman, and Irrfan plays an important character that leads the story further. It is being produced by the same people who produced Little Miss Sunshine and The Loving, so they are known for making small budget films. He is really excited about the project, adds the source. Irrfans last Hollywood outing was in Tom Hanks starrer Inferno (2016). Before that, his Hollywood filmography includes Jurassic World, Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire. His co star- Kelly Macdonalds was last seen in the sequel to Danny Boyles 1998 Trainspotting, T 2 Trainspotting. The film will also star Bubba Weiler (The Good Fight), Austin Abrams (Paper Towns) and Liv Hewson (Top of the Lake). Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Bangladesh face a mammoth task in their ICC Champions Trophy semi-final against India at Edgbaston on Thursday. The Mashrafe Mortaza-led side will take on a side brimming with confidence after a comfortable win over South Africa. Having beaten New Zealand in their previous game, Bangladesh themselves, however, will be high on morale. As they prepare to take on the defending champions, here is a look at their strengths and weaknesses: Strengths Tamim Iqbal: The left-handed batsman is in fiery form and has already struck a century in the Champions Trophy while missing out on another by just five runs. Against Australia, where his entire side was bundled out for a paltry 182, Iqbal had accounted for more than 50 per cent of those runs with a heroic 95. READ | India vs Bangladesh: Coach Chandika Hathurusingha aims to keep BAN calm Batting: Scoring over 300 runs against a terrific English bowling line-up in their home conditions was not an easy task, but The Tigers ensured that they introduce themselves in the tournament as a force to reckon with. They were outdone by the mighty Aussies though, getting bundled up for just 182, but chased down a challenging 266-run target against the Kiwis after struggling at 33 for the loss of four wickets at one point. Team morale: Having beaten New Zealand in an emphatic manner, thanks to the resilient knocks from Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah, the Bangladesh dressing room is bound to be in a terrific mood. Against India too, the team is expected to come out in a free spirit, well aware of the fact that the pressure is bound to be on their opponents. Weaknesses Opening partnership: Although Tamim Iqbal helped Bangladesh post formidable totals in the first two games, his side would rue the fact that their opening formation hasnt clicked as yet. Along with Soumya Sarkar, the duo have just one fifty-run partnership (against England) in the tournament so far, while losing their first wicket for 22 and 0 against Australia and New Zealand, respectively. READ | ICC Champions Trophy: 5 memorable clashes between India and Bangladesh Batting capitulation: Had it not been for the heroics of Shakib Al Hasan (114) and Mahmudullah (102), Bangladesh were all set for a repeat of what happened with them against Australia. The top order was back in the pavilion with just 33 runs on the board before the duo stitched a 224-run partnership to bail their side out of the dismal situation. Against Australia, all but three batsmen had managed to get their scores to double-digit figures while losing their last six wickets for just 41 runs. Mortazas form: The skippers form with the ball has been extremely average with just one wicket to show for in the three matches. Giving away runs at an economy rate of 5.24 has done nothing to help his side and Bangladesh will hope that he gets back to form against an Indian batting line-up that can bat deep down till the tail-end. As Andhra Pradesh gears up to shape its new capital Amaravati, it has alloted 996 acres of land to a dozen institutions to set up educational, health and other bodies at a projected cost of Rs 17,808 crore. Work is in full swing to create a world-class infrastructure for Andhra Pradeshs new capital Amaravati. A dozen institutions have been alloted 995.5 acre of land in Amaravati for projects worth Rs 17,808 crore, an Andhra Pradesh government official told PTI. The official said these projects will create 32,726 jobs. and the 12 institutions to come up will involve government as well as private bodies and include Rs 7,100 crore projects from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) University and SRM University. Besides, Amrita University and Indo-UK Institute of Health have been alloted land at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore. In addition, BR Medi city Health Care & Research is building its campus at an estimated cost of Rs 5,450 crore, the official said. Land has also been allotted to Reserve Bank of India, Central Public Works Department, Central Institute of Design Tools, National Institute of Designs and AP Human Resources Development Institute, among other government institutes. Last month, the Andhra Pradesh government inked a pact with Singapore for developing an area of 6.84 km at capital Amaravati as startup area in phases. The two sides affirmed cooperation for economic development and master development of the startup area besides promotion of bilateral trade and investments and enhancing capacities of government departments. A high-level Joint Implementation Steering Committee (JISC) and Joint Implementation Working Committee (JIWC) will also be formed with senior officials from both the governments for speedy implementation of the project. An official statement said a Singapore consortium will form a project SPV - Amaravati Development Partner (ADP) with Amaravati Development Corporation (ADC). The Singapore consortium will have an equity participation of Rs 306 crore (58%) while ADC will have Rs 222 crore participation (42%). ADP will develop an area of 1,691 acres in 15 years in three phases of each about 5 years, an official statement has said adding estimated benefits include 2,50,000 jobs while contribution to GSDP will be Rs 1,15,000 crore. Indias 860 million-strong working population (15-64 years), the worlds largest, is beginning to age. Over the next 33 years, by 2050, 32.4 million Indians, or 20% of the population, will be above 60 years of age. If pension continues to cover only 35% of senior citizens as it does today, 20 million, or 61.7% of Indias elderly population, will be without any income security by 2050. The Centre pays Rs 200 per month under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) to every Indian over the age of 60 and living under the poverty line (the ability to spend Rs 33 per day in urban and Rs 27 per day in rural areas as per the Tendulkar committee on poverty line). The states are encouraged to add to this sum and are free to expand the coverage. Currently, states pay anything between Rs 200 and Rs 2,000 as public pensions. Should public pensions be universal or targeted? What should be the minimum offered by a public, non-contributory pension? From which age should it be granted? To find answers to these questions through opinions of older people, a study was conducted in Gujarat and Rajasthan by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), New Delhi in August-November 2016. The study, yet unpublished, collected opinions and experiences of 1,505 people above the age of 55 years across 14 locations in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The states were chosen because they represent two ends of the spectrum in the universalisation debate: Gujarat, Indias 10th richest state in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) ranking, offers a targeted pension of Rs 400 only to the poor at the time the study was conducted (since then the amount has been revised to Rs 500), and Rajasthan, 23rd in the per capita GDP list, extends Rs 500 to (nearly) all senior citizens. The study found a wide and conclusive gap between pension policy and public opinion. Opinion across both states was unanimous that public pension should be extended to all elderly and should be initiated earlier than at age 60 years. The popular view was that Rs 2,000 was an adequate pension sum, which is four to six times higher than their present entitlement. Across gender, caste, family backgrounds people want universal pensions Gujarat pursues a narrowly targeted scheme whereby only the poorest senior citizens are entitled to public pensions. Rajasthan has near-universalised pension entitlements whereby women above the age of 55 years and men above the age of 58 years receive pensions as long as they are not entitled to pensions from any other source or are not taxpayers. Arguments against universalisation suggest that the cost of universalisation is generally lowering the entitlement for those who need it the most. Targeting allows for public funds to be utilised for those who need them the most. On the other end of the spectrum are arguments which propose that universalisation strengthens the moral-politico claim and the delivery of the public good or service in questionin this case, pensions. Note: Respondents in Rajasthan = 791; in Gujarat = 714. Decimals are rounded off. (Centre for Equity Studies) The results of the survey showed that public opinion is functioning independent of the policy on the issue of universalisation. Majority (83%) of respondents from Gujarat, a state which has experienced a targeted public pension scheme, were in agreement with those from Rajasthan (81%) who have experienced a near-universal pension scheme for about five years. The public opinion is unequivocally skewed in support of universalisation. Older people living with families supported universalisation of pensions as much as those living alone. This is an important finding because till about 2007, the National Old Age Pension Scheme, as it was then called, considered destitution both a reason and a condition for being entitled to non-contributory, public pensions. In Gujarat, destitution continues to be used as a criteriasenior citizens who have sons above the age of 21 years are not considered eligible for public pensions. Support for universalisation was observed in similar proportion across gender. The support was also consistent across scheduled tribes, other backward classes and other castes. About 82% people in each of these groups supported universalisation. Nearly 95% of those belonging to scheduled castes supported universalisation. Rs 2,000 is sufficient, four to six times over current entitlement Pensions are an assurance of continuation of consumption levels required for dignified living in the face of reduction in income due to physiological atrophy and comparatively restricted income-generating opportunities. At the time of the study, the beneficiaries in Gujarat were entitled to Rs 400 per month and Rajasthan, Rs 500. Beneficiaries above the age of 75 years were entitled to Rs 750 a month. These pensions did not allow elderly Indians working in the unorganised sector, who need public pensions the most, to retire, as IndiaSpend reported on April 20, 2017. These entitlements dont support lowest official poverty line consumption levels of Rs 27 in rural and Rs 33 in urban per day as per the Tendulkar Committee. People across Rajasthan and Gujarat voiced concerns about the amount of entitlement. Less than 3% in Rajasthan and 13% in Gujarat stated a figure equivalent to or less than Rs 750 a monthat present the highest amount entitled under IGNOAPS to those above the age of 75 yearswas sufficient. Less than one-third mentioned a figure less than Rs 1,000 per month. How much did people think it took to ensure a dignified living? The average monthly sufficient pension amount in Rajasthan was Rs 1,875 whereas in Gujarat it was Rs 2,494, the study found. The modal valuethe most frequently occurring responsewas Rs 1,000 in Rajasthan and Rs 2,000 in Gujarat. There was no significant difference between men and women on this count. Note: Respondents in Gujarat = 714; in Rajasthan = 791 (Source: Centre for Equity Studies) This amount is equivalent to half the minimum wage presently assured. The civil society group Pension Parishad has been making similar demands regarding amount of entitlement. Bolivia, a country with a sizably smaller economy but comparable to India on other economic indicators, offers about $38 per month, a little over Rs 2,400, as part of its pension programme, Renta Dignidad. Most countries with decent pension programmes such as Bolivias ensure an entitlement amount equivalent to anywhere between 15 to 25% of per capita GDP. Family/social support and the amount of pension desired by a beneficiary share a counter-intuitive relationship. Elderly respondents singly taking care of themselves consistently quoted a smaller amount than the ones being taken care of by family. This fits in with field observationsmany older citizens expressed a desire to buy petty essentials such as notebooks or a fruit for a grandchild or to pay for the medical expenses of an ailing family member. They thought of their inability to pay for these small expenses as a personal failing. Start pensions earlier, say most Many factors such as average life expectancy, age structure of the society and physical atrophy should inform the age at which pensions are initiated. The IGNOAPS initiates pensions at the age of 60 like many industrially advanced nations. But the average life expectancy in India68 yearsis much lower than industrially advanced nations. We asked people during our research whether they thought pensions should be initiated at an age earlier or later than the one stipulated by the policy at present. Majority of people felt that pensions should be initiated at an earlier age. A little over one-fourth of respondents in Rajasthan and about one-fifth of respondents in Gujarat said they were fine with the age at which pension entitlements were provided. As with earlier questions, gender does not make a significant impact on the opinions but a marginally higher number of women support earlier initiation of pensions across both the states. The divergence between policy and public opinion is observed across all three parametersuniversalisation, adequacy as well as the age at which pensions are initiated. It is on the issue of universalisation and adequacy that there is a comparatively high degree of divergence from the policy as compared to age of initiation. We recognise that aligning completely with public opinion might not be possible for policy makers given practical constraints but this is an attempt to initiate a debate on age-based pensions in the public sphere by foregrounding public opinion and the voice of the elderly. The study was conducted in partnership with Astha Sansthan, UNNATI and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan and with ANANDI and Mahila Housing Seva Trust in Gujarat. Sandeep Ghusale coordinated the survey in Maliya, Gujarat. A more detailed discussion on pensions for the elderly can be found in the India Exclusion Report 2016 released in May 2017 by CES and Yoda Press. (Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit/FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.) Six days after she went missing from Silchar in Assam, three-year-old Trisha was left unharmed by her abductors at Khliehriat in neighbouring Meghalaya last Saturday. There is no trace yet of the housemaid who allegedly took the daughter of a professor at Assam University while both parents (her mother is a doctor in the same university) were away. From the day she disappeared the news remained in headlines in local papers and news channels. The girls recovery was also reported by national papers. But very few cases of kidnapping or abduction in Assam get such attention. Though the figures arent close to states like Uttar Pradesh, which witnessed the highest number of kidnappings and abductions (11999-NCRB-2015), the malaise is rampant in Assam. As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stats for 2015, the rate of abductions and kidnappings (number of cases per 100,000 people) in Assam during 2015 was 18.1----second only to Delhi where the rate was 37.0. The state recorded 5,831 cases in 2015---contributing 7% of the total abductions and kidnappings across India. Assam also reported maximum victims between 30-45 years, accounting for 22% (2,016 of the 9,139 cases) of the total cases. Assam Police records for the past decade also show how kidnappings have risen steadily over the years. From 1,818 cases in 2006, the state witnessed 6,137 cases in 2016second only to cases of theft (12,846). The figures show, on an average close to 17 kidnappings took place daily in 2016. The trend continues this year too. Over 1000 cases were registered in the first two months itself. But despite the growing figures, police officials inform no organised criminal gangs are involved unlike in some other states. Cases of kidnappings for ransom are not many in Assam. Abductions by militant groups have also gone down. Most registered cases in Assam are of elopement for marriage, Assam Police chief Mukesh Sahay said. As per NCRB-2015, 4,141 cases reported in 2015 were for the purpose of marriage. In contrast, only 84 cases of kidnapping for ransom were reported. Similar trend was recorded in the past four years too. Assam Police records show nearly 5,000 of the 6,000 plus cases registered in 2016 were kidnappings of women and girls. Only two cases in the past 12 months grabbed media attention---both were of working parents who left their children alone at home with their maids. One of them was that of 7-year-old girl who was rescued with 24 hours. The child was abducted by her maid from Guwahati in August last year, while her parents, both doctors, were away on work. While few high-profile cases hog the headlines. Thousands of others dont fail to get such attention. We have solved many cases of kidnappings across the state. But only a few get highlighted in media, said Mukesh Agrawal, additional director general of police (law and order) told HT. Agrawal should know. He has successfully handled both the Silchar and Guwahati cases and many others. Media in Assam is focused on insurgency related events. Since kidnappings by militant groups have gone down, media fails to highlight the trend of rise in abductions and limit themselves to highlighting prominent cases, Nava Thakuria, senior journalist and president of Guwahati Press Club said Besides kidnappings for ransom and those connected to elopement, trafficking is also a factor for abductions in the state. With 1494 cases, the state accounts for 22% of the total reported cases of trafficking across India. Assam also has the highest number of child trafficking---1317 cases, which account for 38% of the national figure. The increase in kidnapping figures could be attributed to increased awareness among public and better record of the state police in registering cases, said a senior police official on condition of anonymity. Figures # Steady increase in kidnappings in Assam from 1818 in 2006 to 6137 in 2016. # Assam has the second highest rate of kidnappings in India after Delhi # In 2015 Assam reported most abductions (22%) between 30-45 years in India # On an average 17 kidnappings take place in Assam daily # Nearly 5,000 of the 6,137 cases in 2016 were abductions of women and girls #Assam accounts 22% of the total reported cases of trafficking in India #The state recorded 1317 cases of child trafficking in 2015highest in India SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON When Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath addresses a public gathering at the north Bihar district headquarters town of Darbhanga, on Thursday, hell do more than just showcase the achievements of the Narendra Modi government, over the past three years. The saffron-clad monk-politician will make that appearance as much for being an embodiment of the BJPs greatest electoral success since its inception in Indias politically most significant state its 312 seats out of total 403 seats victory, in the assembly election in UP in March. As such, Yogi is being counted upon to apply the feel good factor arising out of the spectacular UP victory, to lift the BJP in Bihar, still recovering from its stunning defeat at the hands of the RJD-JD (U)-Congress grand alliance, in the November 2015 assembly poll. Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai tacitly acknowledged this on the eve of Yogis trip. With his own very successful 100 days in office as CM of UP, Yogiji will add the whiff of the partys big victory in UP to the achievements of the Modi government, Rai told HT on Wednesday. He also reiterated that the BJP had cancelled a proposed public meeting of Yogi, in the state capital, on June 15, because of party workers preoccupation with the mayors election in Patna on June 19. However, the cancellation was seen as a sign of a lack of confidence in the partys ability to organize a grand public show that is commensurate with the huge public standing that Yogi enjoys at present, said a senior BJP leader, in private. The party that Rai heads in Bihar surely needs the Yogi booster, considering it does not have to its credit even a single state-wide agitation since the November 2015 poll, in which it won just 53 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, to 178 seats secured by the grand alliance. Rather, the BJPs most effective role as the principal opposition party in Bihar may be ascribed to the doings of just one of its leaders former deputy CM Sushil Modi, who, in this endeavour, appeared to receive little support from other leaders of the party. Modis series of revelations on the unexplained properties acquired by members of RJD chief Lalu Prasads immediate family, appeared not only to put him in a spot, but, with the JD (U) not coming out in support of Prasad, has also driven a wedge within the ruling grand alliance (GA). GA constituents - the RJD and JD (U), have, in recent months, been taking divergent positions on a variety of issues, including demonetization and presidential poll. To add to the alliance worries is possible impact on Bihar of the emerging caste configurations in UP. For example, say BJP leaders, the Kushwaha, a major OBC caste, which is believed to have played a big role in the grand alliance victory in Bihar, appeared to have gone the BJPs way in UP and has a new leader in UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. That the UP caste arithmetic has the Bihar leaders worried became clear on Monday when (chief minister) Nitishji reacted very sharply to remarks made here on Sunday by the UP deputy CM, said senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav. Maurya had dared the Bihar CM to go in for snap polls if he was confident of his Sushasan (governance) and performance. The people have made up their mind to vote out apavitra (unholy) and asafal (failed) alliance in Bihar, he had said. Reacting sharply to Mauryas remarks, Kumar said on Monday: Yes, I am ready to recommend polls tomorrow if the UP Assembly is also dissolved and fresh elections are held. Visits of top leaders, including Maurya and Yogi, has them participating in Modi Fest, being organized by the BJP between May 15 and June 20, to project the achievements of Modi government and energise the rank and file of the party. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON High drama erupted in Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday with opposition DMK holding mock auction of MLAs and demanding to raise the issue of alleged horse-trading of legislators by the ruling AIADMK ahead of the February 18 trust vote. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Tuesday moved the Madras high court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged bribing of AIADMK legislators ahead of the floor test. The party approached the court after a media sting operation caught on tape two legislators from the rival faction of the ruling party claiming they were offered money and gold to support chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during the trust vote. As soon as the assembly convened, the DMK legislators started shouting slogans, demanding to raise the issue. Amid the ruckus, speaker P Dhanpal ordered eviction of partys working president and leader of the opposition MK Stalin, rejecting the DMKs demand. Stalin sat on a dharna outside the main road opposite Fort St George that houses the secretariat and assembly complex, soon after marshals evicted him from the house. Later, Stalin was picked up by the police and taken to the nearest police station. The impromptu demonstration blocked traffic on the busy main road of the city as all the DMK MLAs trooped out of the assembly to join their leader on the street. The Congress and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislators also staged a walk out and joined Stalin in his protest. The speaker disallowed the discussion on the subject, saying he could not act on matters that were reported in media and shown on television. Later briefing media outside the assembly, Stalin demanded immediate dissolution of the assembly to hold fresh elections as the latest disclosure by the two legislators exposed how the trust vote was a mockery of democracy. The government must resign immediately as it has lost all moral and legal right to continue in office, he said, criticizing speakers action of not allowing a discussion on a serious issue raised by the opposition. There must also be a CBI probe into the sting operation carried out by media about the sale of MLAs, he reiterated. Palaniswami had won the February trust vote after opposition DMK legislators were thrown out for unprecedented violence and Congress MLAs walked of the assembly. In the backstreets of Agras Muslim quarter, where shoes have been made for centuries, small-scale manufacturers are firing workers and families cutting back on spending as a government crackdown on cattle slaughter ripples through the community. Critics say Prime Minister Narendra Modis ascension to power three years ago has emboldened right-wing Hindu groups to push harder for protection of the cow, an animal considered sacred by the community. Uttar Pradesh authorities started closing down unlicensed abattoirs in March, immediately hitting production and sales in the Muslim-dominated meat industry. Last month Modis government also banned trading cattle for slaughter at markets, including not just cows, whose killing was already outlawed in most states, but also buffalo, an animal used for meat and leather. The squeeze is spreading to others in the Muslim minority and to lower-caste Hindus who cart cattle, labour in tanneries and make shoes, bags and belts - including for big name brands such as Zara and Clarks. Frequent attacks by right-wing Hindus against workers they accuse of harming cattle have further rattled the industry. Social tensions Much of Indias meat and leather trade takes place in the informal economy, meaning the impact of the closing of illegal abattoirs and ban on trading for slaughter is hard to measure. But cattle markets are reporting a big slowdown in trade and tanneries a shortage of hides. Abdul Faheem Qureshi, a representative of Indias Muslim Qureshi community of butchers, said in Uttar Pradesh some markets trading 1,000 animals last year were now down to as few as 100. The decline in production means fewer jobs for two of Indias poorest communities, and risks inflaming social tensions at a time when PM Modi has vowed to boost employment and accelerate economic growth ahead of the next general election in 2019. Some large leather manufacturers support the Uttar Pradesh state governments move, arguing that allowing only licensed abattoirs to operate will clean the industrys image. Bigger exporters also say they have enough leather as they source hides widely, including from abroad. Still, millions work in the meat and leather industries, which are worth more than $16 billion in annual sales. When Reuters visited the narrow shoemaking lanes of Agra a crowd of Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast gathered, shouting angrily that they were no longer safe to trade buffalo, buy cow leather for shoes or to do work that their community has done for centuries for fear of being attacked by Hindu vigilantes. They want to weaken us. They want to snatch our bread, says 66-year-old Mohammad Muqeem, whose workers stitch $3 shoes in his cellar, referring to the closure of slaughterhouses and recent attacks on cattle traders. Muqeems monthly income has halved to $300 since last year as leather has become scarce. His dozen casual workers, down from 40, now use mostly synthetic materials. Impossible target Like meat, Indias leather industry has expanded rapidly in the last decade, providing relatively well-paid factory work and cash for families stitching informally in their homes. Agra, in Uttar Pradesh, turns out a million pairs of shoes a day for domestic buyers and European labels such as Inditex-owned Zara and Clarks. An estimated 40% of the population of the northern Indian city, famed as the home of the Taj Mahal, depends on the industry. Clarks said in a statement that it does not use leather from Indian-origin cows and that the small amount of buffalo leather it sources from India had not been impacted. Zara and did not respond to requests for comment. India is one of the worlds top five producers of leather, with skins coming from cows that die of natural causes or from the legal slaughter of buffalo. Modis government is targeting leather revenues of $27 billion -- more than double todays level -- by 2020 as part of a job creation push. But in May, the government decreed that animal markets could only trade cow and buffalo for agricultural purposes such as ploughing and dairy production -- a move many in the industry say contradicts its plans to grow leather sales. Environment minister said this week the government could amend the rule after a court temporarily stayed the order and there was widespread anger in regions where meat and leather are important to the local culture and economy. But industry officials said the shock of the ban, coming on the heels of the crackdown on abattoirs and attacks against cattle workers, meant business would not easily recover. Companies say the governments leather target would be impossible to meet unless the restrictions are reversed. There is a lot of panic in the industry after the latest order, which has come as the biggest blow, Puran Dawar, chairman of Agra-based exporter Dawar Footwear Industries, said as hundreds of workers moulded shoes on the factory floor, referring to the ban on cattle traded for slaughter. BJP Yuva Morcha activists garland a calf while protesting in New Delhi. (Mohd Zakir/HT File Photo) There are grave concerns about the supply of leather, exports of shoes and overall employment. Indias commerce ministry did not respond to requests for comment. In Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, a controversial Hindu priest, had made closing unlicensed slaughter houses a priority after Modi appointed him in March. About 30% of hides, mostly from buffaloes, that supply tanneries in the state are from unlicensed abattoirs. Sitting in his one-room shop in Agras leather market, Mohammad Hashim, a burly leather dealer in his sixties, said business was down 40% in the last three months. The recent scarcity of hides had hurt Hindus as much as Muslims, he said, pointing to the quiet streets outside and a Hindu man struggling to sell puffed rice snacks from his cart. Modis election in 2014 and a resurgence in right-wing Hindu activism have increased concerns among Muslims that their livelihoods are under attack. As a minority making up 14% of Indias 1.3 billion people, they are generally poorer and less literate than majority Hindus. When worshippers finishing evening prayers at the Mughal-era mosque in the shoemaking quarter of Agra are asked whether the chief minister handpicked by Modi is to blame, one of the Imams thunders: Modi is to blame. He is targeting Muslims. In an interview with Reuters, Adityanath rejected accusations the BJP had targeted any specific group. Illegal slaughterhouses operated across the state and many big and small leather traders were buying raw material at cheapest rates from unlicensed slaughterhouses to maximise profits, he said in Lucknow, the state capital. Wider industry hit In the industrial city of Kanpur, 250km (155 miles) east of Agra, tanneries processing buffalo skins are reporting job losses as the availability of hides dries up. Nayyar Jamal, general secretary of Kanpurs Small Tanners Association, reckons as many as 400,000 employees in Kanpurs leather and related industries are temporarily jobless, including some laid off because of environmental curbs on tannery pollution. Supplies of local hides have dropped by 20 to 30%. Qureshi, from the butchers organisation, estimates that 3.5 million employees in Uttar Pradesh alone have been directly hit. More than the economic loss, the government has injected fear, said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a writer and businessman from the Dalit community, as those at the bottom of Hinduisms social hierarchy once called untouchables are known. Dalits and Muslims often work in trades that higher-caste Hindus traditionally consider beneath them. Tannery owner Mohammad Ikram said he was only able to procure 4,000 hides a month -- down from 25,000 -- because even truckers transporting legally obtained cow or buffalo hides fear attacks from vigilantes. He has a months inventory left, and when that runs out he will have to start shedding staff. Shahnawaz Qureshi, a wage labourer stuffing synthetic shoes into plastic bags in Muqeems cellar in Agra, lost his last job after his employer could no longer afford leather. He now earns 3,000 rupees - or $47 - a month, down from 4,500 in his previous job, and together with his fathers income supports three sisters and his mother. I decided to sign up for this job despite the fact that I earn reasonably less here, he said. A Christian man is starting his own version of the Sangh Parivars Hindu Helpline to stop alleged incidents of love jihad, describing it is an attempt to counter secret plots to convert Christian girls to Islam. Renjith Abraham Thomas, who is a leader of the BJPs minority religions wing, the Minority Morcha, said he had received encouragement from a wide array of Christians and others. Jimmy Poochakkatt, a spokesman of the Syro-Malabar Church, said he was aware of the formation of the Christian Helpline but declined to comment on it. The renewed attention to love jihad comes within weeks of an unusual and communally-charged court case in Kerala. On May 24, the state High Court annulled a wedding between Shefin Jahan, a Muslim man, and Hadiya, a formerly Hindu woman who converted to Islam. The court said that Hadiya (previously called Akhila) could not be married without the active involvement of her parents. It also ordered the police to conduct a probe into suspected conversions of Hindu women by groups linked to the Islamic State. The Hindu Helpline in Ernakulam, Kerala has been the subject of allegations of illegal or unethical behaviour. In 2015, a widely cited investigation by the news sites Cobrapost and Gulail found it had coerced testimony from women, forcibly drugged some of them, and sought deliberately to create a true fear in the society, about Muslims, as one member of the helpline service was quoted saying. Thomas intends to open his Christian Helpline in Ernakulam as well, and said members of the Hindu Helpline have pledged their help. Asked to comment on the allegations against it, Thomas said that there have been no formal charges or complaints. He plans for the Christian Helpline to recruit volunteers to keep in touch with the Christian community, which will supposedly help identify victims of love jihad. Once identified, girls and boys would be given counselling, and their families would be provided legal help. Thomas said that he announced his plan on social media to a high level of support. We are flooded with inquires, he said. We have the backing and blessing of all major denominations. The BJP has been trying to cultivate Keralas Christian community, which makes up 18% of the states population. Amit Shah visited Kerala and met with bishops and cardinals earlier this month. Sangh Parivar is trying desperately to widen its base in the state, said CPI(M) leader EP Jayarajan. But all its attempts failed miserably. This is one such, but people of the state will realise its designs. Thomas said he had legitimate evidence of the occurrence of love jihad. We have got definite information that some sleeper cells are active in Malappuram and Kasargode districts to trap girls belonging to other communities. Students of medical and nursing colleges are their main target. Thomas cited as support the disappearance of 22 Kerala men who allegedly joined fundamentalist forces abroad. Some of the 22 have been reported to be converts from other religions. We are not against anyone, Thomas said. But at the same time we have to protect the interest of our community. We dont want export of human bombs from here. If the community is little alert, we can avert such situations. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Pakistan has been given concrete evidence about its cross-border encouragement and support for the protests in Kashmir, India told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), accusing Islamabad of resorting to short- sighted tactics to divert attention. Exercising its Right of Reply during a general debate at the 35th session of the UNHRC, India accused Pakistan of misusing the UN platform to pursue its political objectives. Pakistans unsolicited and unwarranted comments pertaining to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of the Union of India, are factually incorrect and bear no relationship to reality, India said in a statement. Asserting that Pakistan is using terror to destabilise Kashmir, it said, The foremost challenge to stability in Kashmir is the scourge of terrorism, which receives sustenance from Pakistan and the territories under Pakistans control. Contrary to Pakistans claims, and in gross violation of UN Security Council resolution 1267, the designated terrorist entities and organisations continue to carry out their activities freely as reported in the local Pakistani print, audio-visual and social media, it said. India said that concrete evidence about cross-border encouragement and support for the protests in Kashmir has been handed over to Pakistan. Instead of working with a sense of purpose to address this issue, Pakistan resorts to short-sighted tactics to divert attention, as we have once again seen today, it said. Pakistan keeps referring to UN Security Council Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. However, it very conveniently forgets its own obligation under these resolutions to first vacate the illegal occupation of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, India said. Pakistan had described the situation in Kashmir as Indias national shame and said that this hateful cycle can only be stopped through political dialogue. India also criticised Pakistan for blatantly disregarding its other commitments saying, be it under the 1972 Simla Agreement, the 2004 joint declaration foreswearing terrorism as well as the understanding between our two Prime Ministers at Ufa in Russia. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have chosen and reaffirmed their destiny repeatedly through Indias well- established democratic processes. Pakistan, on the other hand, has witnessed continuous degradation and weakening of its institutions, it said. Asserting that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is administered by a deep state and has become an epicenter of terrorism, India said Pakistans human rights record in PoK and Balochistan is deplorable. It has had no hesitation in using air power and artillery against its own people, not once but repeatedly over the years. It is high time for Pakistan to do some deep introspection. We would once again urge Pakistan to focus its energies on improving human rights situation and dismantling the terrorism infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK. This would go a long way in bringing peace and stability to the region and beyond, India said. The Congress is facing criticism for suspending an Uttar Pradesh leader who allegedly referred to party vice president Rahul Gandhi as pappu in a WhatsApp message. Pappu, or a young and clueless boy, is a word often used by Gandhis critics to deride him. On Monday, the Congress Meerut unit chief Vinay Pradhan had forwarded a post to the partys WhatsApp group that criticized BJP and RSS for calling Gandhi pappu despite his relentless fight for farmers, youth and students. Pradhan, who was suspended on Tuesday, blamed his rivals for the incident. He told HT on Wednesday he would explain the matter to party state president Raj Babbar who has summoned him to Delhi. The BJP has accused the Congress of double standards while dealing with its leaders who make controversial remarks. Reacting to media reports that the Congress had expelled Vinay Pradhan, its Meerut unit chief, from all party posts, the BJP questioned why former MP Sandeep Dikshit had been let off for calling Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat sadak ka goonda (roadside thug). Expelled from the party for saying Pappu and just warning for sadak ka goonda remark. What an amazing justice by the Congress, said BJP spokesman Sambit Patra. On Sunday, Dikshit had referred to Rawat as sadak ka goonda after the army chief defended Major Leetul Gogois act of tying a Kashmiri man to his jeep and using him as a human shield against stone-pelters in the Valley. A crisis in Darjeeling deepened on Tuesday after the parties in the north Bengal hills came together to demand a separate state. Trouble broke out last week over the decades-long demand as hill parties went on a rampage and torched vehicles, forcing the administration to call out the army. Here are 10 things to know about the violence and protests: 1. The hill political parties agreement on Tuesday to push for Gorkhaland sent a loud message to the state government that when it came to the question of identity and separate state, the parties are ready to bury their differences and explore a united platform to step up the struggle. 2. Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) that partnered the ruling Trinamool Congress in the civic polls only last month also fully endorsed the push for a separate state, embarrassing chief minister Mamata Banerjee. 3. The all-party meeting on Tuesday has also put the BJP into a tricky situation as its representative not only attended the meeting called by GJM, its ally, but also signed the resolution. 4. In the coming days it may mean more trouble in the north Bengal hills that has already witnessed a flare-up on June 8 when the administration had to seek the help of the army to tackle the law and order situation. 5. GNLF not only declared they will abandon the demand for Sixth Schedule of the Constitution (that gives a degree of autonomy for the hills) and settle for nothing less than Gorkhaland, but also urged GJM to walk out of the GTA Accord to step up agitation for a separate state. 6. Trinamool Congress was further embarrassed when a leader of the party in the hills, former head of Kalimpong municipality Chandra Kumar Kumai, resigned from TMC and remarked that the state government has humiliated the people of the hills by deploying army. 7. All the hill parties present in Tuesdays all-party meeting in Darjeeling urged for the need of collective leadership in the hills with the single point agenda of pushing for a new state. 8. However, there were differences among the hill parties too. While GNLF, the party founded by late Subhash Ghising that started a militant agitation for Gorkhaland in the eighties, has asked GJM to walk out of the semi-autonomous body GTA, Harka Bahadurs Jan Andolan Party asked the Morcha councillors to quit four the civic boards it won last month and its three MLAs to resign as well. 9. The next all-party meeting will be held on June 20 when the next step will be decided. 10. The most prominent Left leader in north Bengal and the mayor of Siliguri, Ashok Bhattacharya, has alleged that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has displayed little sensitivity towards the Gorkha identity and the latest flare-up is its direct outcome. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A group of 65 former bureaucrats has written an open letter to PM Narendra Modi over what they termed as growing hyper-nationalism that reduces any critique to a binary that if you are not with the government, you are anti-national. The signatories include former Union culture secretary Jawahar Sircar, former information and broadcasting secretary Bhaskar Ghose, former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Mumbai police chief Julio Rebeiro, former bureaucrat-turned-activists Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander, former Indian Foreign service officer Deb Mukharji, and former Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rahul Sharma, among others. The letter says: In Uttar Pradesh, in the run-up to the elections, an odious and frankly communal comparison was made between the relative number of burial grounds and cremation grounds. The question was also asked as to whether electricity was being supplied equally to different communities during their religious festivals. All this without any basis in fact or evidence. The letter further said the banning of slaughterhouses targets the minorities and affects their livelihoods as well. The former bureaucrats appealed to public authorities and constitutional bodies to take heed of these disturbing trends and take corrective action to reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution, as envisaged by the founding fathers. The letter said the behaviour of vigilantes, who act as prosecutor, judge and executioner rolled into one, flies in the face of law and jurisprudence. I am not affiliated with any political party. We have just shown a yellow card to the government telling it what is happening in the country at the moment is not done, Sircar, former Prasar Bharti CEO, told HT. A draft was circulated a few days back and everyone felt there was a need to write such a letter. As far as the future course is concerned, each of us would decide upon it individually, he said. The central executive committee (CEC) of the All India Kisan Majdoor Sabha (AIKMS) has called upon all units to organise protests on June 16. The farmers are demanding waiver of all farming loans, electricity bills and profitable minimum selling price (MSP) of all crops at 1.5 times the cost of production as per Swaminathan Commissions recommendations. Several other peasant bodies are also expected to hold highway blockades on the day. Holding the Madhya Pradesh government accountable and demanding arrest of officials responsible for firing on and killing six protesting farmers in Mandsaur, AIKMS criticised the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh for betraying farmers by withdrawing from the agitation and the government for sending the CRPF to fire on peasants. The main reason for agricultural crisis is the BJP governments desire, like earlier UPA, to serve the MNC and Indian corporate who sell high-cost seeds, insecticides, diesel, at very high rates and purchase cheap crops during harvest to impoverish the farmers, said Ashish Mital, general secretary, AIKMS, in a communique issued on Wednesday. PM Modi had promised loan waiver and implementation of the Swaminathan Commissions report but it is crushing peasant dissent in blood, he said. Former diplomat Gopalkrishna Gandhi could be the potential opposition candidate for the July 17 presidential election, with Left parties pushing for Mahatma Gandhis grandson for the countrys highest post, multiple sources told Hindustan Times on Wednesday. The government, however, is trying to build consensus for its own candidate and two Union ministers, Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu, are expected to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday, BJP sources said. They will hold a separate meeting with CPM leader Sitaram Yechury. Indias presidential election involves a complex voting pattern involving all parliamentarians and state legislators. The NDA needs around 20,000 more votes to ensure victory of its candidate and the reach out to the opposition is seen as an exercise to test if there could be a consensus and ensure a greater margin of victory. The YSR Cong has already pledged support to the NDA and that not only fills the gap, but also gives the ruling side a majority. Given the DMK is in the opposition camp, the AIADMK is likely to go with the ruling alliance. A panel of ten Opposition leaders, assigned to pick a candidate, held its first meeting on Wednesday but decided to wait after the governments overtures. If the government seeks any suggestion from opposition leaders, the Left and the Congress are likely to propose the name of 71-year-old Gandhi, a retired IAS officer and former governor of Bengal. RJD chief Lalu Prasad is understood to have endorsed the stand. No ideological compromise, a source quoted him as saying. Sources ruled out the possibility of NCP chief Sharad Pawars nomination, saying that when Congress president Sonia Gandhi proposed it to him last April, he had ruled himself out. Another probable candidate, former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, is seen as a weak candidate, the sources added. The meeting saw leaders argue over the proposed candidate even as Yechury exhorted all parties to prepare for a fight whoever their candidate is. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, the coordinator of the group, suggested that they wait for the government nominee. BJP sources said a Brahmin-Dalit combination was being explored for the post of the President and the Vice President. Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and veteran Murli Manohar Joshi are considered as contenders for the Presidents post while Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot is seen a probable for the post of vice president that falls vacant in August. The Prime Minister is leaving for the United States on June 25 and the announcement of the NDAs candidate could happen around June 20. The treasury bench is expecting MLAs of Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress and those from the Congress in states such as Gujarat and Karnataka to spring a last-minute surprise on their party. On Wednesday, Venkaiah Naidu spoke to Bahujan Samaj Partys Satish Chandra Mishra and Nationalist Congress Partys Praful Patel. Rajnath and Naidu also briefed Modi about the deliberations. Naidu and Rajnath are part of a three-member panel, also comprising finance minister Arun Jaitley, that the BJP has formed to hold dialogue with the opposition and within the NDA over the polls. Separately, BJP chief Amit Shah formed another committee to work with states to ensure victory of its candidates. Desperate times call for desperate measures, goes the popular expression. But are these indeed desperate times? According to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala at least, that dramatically altered the states liquor policy last week, it is. The new policy states that all hotels with a classification of three stars and above can now go back to running a full-fledged bar and start serving hard liquor, earlier restricted by the previous Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) governments order. Hotels below three stars will still have a license to run wine and beer parlours and a majority of the 712-odd bars closed during the UDFs rule would now be opened subject to the Supreme Courts 500-metre liquor ban on pubs, bars and restaurants on highways. In effect, the Communist Party of India(Marxist)-led government in Kerala has torn down the former governments policy of phased prohibition and rubbished it by calling it impractical for the state. We completely understand and respect the sentiments of the people who stand for prohibition. But it is an impractical solution in a place like Kerala. So, the government has this strong conviction that the policy needs to be changed in lines with the realities before us, chief minister Pinrayi Vijayan told the media in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. Read | To drink or not to drink? Kerala high court says boozing not a fundamental right What is this conviction? The present policy document clearly outlines two important reasons. The primary claim is that the tourism sector had suffered terribly in the last two years after the shutdown of bars. And secondly, that the widespread proliferation of drugs and narcotic substances in the state over the last two years could be directly attributed to the unavailability of liquor. Both the reasons seem to have finally pushed the government to go with the lesser evil. Excise officers raid a small-time eatery for drugs after a tip-off in Kochi. (GRIST Media) Many are calling it a watershed moment for the Vijayan government that has just completed a year in power, because this is undoubtedly a decision which many would have shied away from taking, given how sensitive it is. But what does not add up to the governments argument is the revenue generated from the tourism sector in the last few years. Tourism just an excuse? According to the latest figures available on the Kerala Tourism website, the total revenue earned in the financial year of 2016 stands at Rs 29,658 crore, which shows a good 11.2 percent increase compared to the previous years figure of Rs 26,689 crore. That this happened at a time when prohibition was taking effect only shows that the governments claim that liquor ban is killing the tourism sector is actually baseless. A further look into the revenue starting from 2013 when the old liquor policy was being drafted by the UDF government still shows a steady progress, by more than Rs 1,500 crores annually with the foreign exchange earnings too showing a corresponding increase. (See table 1 & 2 ) The government has also claimed that the number of foreign tourist visits had reduced since the prohibition came into force. This is again proved false by the governments own figures. While more than 9.7 lakh foreigners came to visit the state in 2015, the numbers swelled to 10.3 lakh in 2016 a rise of 6.23%. In the same period, the domestic tourist intake also increased by 5.67%. (See table 3). The increase in percentage may have dropped over the years, but tourist arrivals have always been higher than the previous year and so has the revenue. Calling the governments bluff, the Congress says that the LDF has sold itself to bar owners with whom they allege the government has done a behind-the-curtain deal. We have strong reasons to believe that there is corruption behind this new policy. The governments illicit relation with the liquor mafia is what has resulted in this new liquor regime. It has let down the people, MM Hassan, president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said. Activists are also not ruling out such a possibility. Although we cant prove it at the moment, there is a clear possibility of this happening. See, political parties in Kerala have always colluded with bar owners because they are the primary funders. The CPI(M) especially has a strong history, activist NM Pearson said. Perhaps, one claim of the government that sticks is regarding the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Conventions, Exhibitions & Events) sector. The figures show that while more than 4% has been the annual growth in 2014, it had dropped to a dismal 0.6% in 2015-16. This means that Kerala as a destination for event-based tourism has taken a severe beating. And with the SC asking all bars to be moved 500 meters away from the National Highway, it has made things worse. An ariel shot of Kovalam, Keralas tourism epicentre, taken from the lighthouse. (GRIST Media) With only five-star bars allowed to serve liquor as per the previous policy, and almost all of Keralas five-star hotels being too close to the highways, shutting shop became the only solution. With no alcohol in five-star hotels and resorts, big corporate clients started cancelling their events. International tour operators who had been bringing such clients to Kerala every year say they are much relieved by the governments change of heart. From this year, we had re-routed all our outbound enquiries to places like Sri Lanka because the moment people know there is no liquor they will ask us to cancel the reservation. Now finally some sense has prevailed, Jijo Madhavapallil, who runs Ashin City Tours & Travels in London, said over the phone. But the MICE sector contributes to hardly 10 percent of the revenue and surely the government cannot harp on it to justify the prohibitions reversal. Here the problem is when the government finds ridiculous reasons to explain their stand. Most of us were expecting such a policy as we knew the LDFs stand. But where the government is losing its credibility is when it uses wrong information to justify its stand. Thats when we suspect that something is amiss, Johnson J Edayaranmula, director of Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO Alcohol & Drug Information Centre, said. But tourism department officials say the effect of the prohibition, had it continued, wouldve been felt only in five to six years from now and would have been quite disastrous for the state as an international tourist destination. Many say that the even the temporary setback of demonetisation pales in front of the unavailability of liquor. There is no comparison between demonetisation and the liquor rollback. Demonetisation was a temporary setback. But by taking out liquor, youre doing a huge damage to the brand its a long-term effect. Its such a big relief that this corrective step has been taken. Now lets see how things play out from next season, then we will see the difference, Dr V Venu, the principal secretary of Kerala Tourism, said. Curbing drugs and spurious liquor menace If the government is on a sticky wicket as far as the tourism argument is concerned then there is a larger and pressing issue that could bail them out of it. The void created by the unavailability of alcohol over the last two years has been taken over by a so-called bigger evil. If the numbers of the State Excise and Prohibition Department, involved in anti-narcotic measures in Kerala is to be believed, the cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act has increased almost five times over the last two years. Narcotic substances retrieved from a labour camp in Kochi. (GRIST Media) From 847 NDPS cases in 2013-14, just before the prohibition came into effect, the figure (confirmed by the State Excise Commissioner) stands at a whopping 3,835 in 2016-17. Top officials now say that Goa is slowly falling behind Kochi as the drug capital of the south. In the last six months, more than a lakh kilogramme of narcotic substances have been caught from Kochi alone. Never has the city taken such a bad hit. It is a reality we are encountering every day. On the ground, our officers have seen how easily drugs have become available. It is because the demand had shot up dramatically after liquor went out. Look at the crime rate in the last one year. It has only shot up compared to previous years, Rishi Raj Singh, state excise commissioner, said. But its not just drugs. Cases relating to spurious liquor has also increased in the last couple of years. From 12,904 cases registered under the Kerala Abkari Act in 2013-14 for smuggling and use of various spurious elements like illicit liquor, spirit, arrack and toddy, the numbers have shot up to 25,332 in 2016-17. Renowned psychologist KS David said this was indeed bound to happen in a state like Kerala. Why do you think prohibition has failed everywhere in the world. You decrease the availability of liquor in a place like Kerala, where there is hardly any inhibition about taking it, people are surely going to search for alternative means. In that sense, you have to work for reducing its demand and not availability, which will drive people mad, David said. The Left front has made it very clear that it would not want to Kerala to go back to its hooch tragedy days of the 90s, where in over two decades more than 200 people had perished to spurious liquor. No wonder the state feels that if making good alcohol available is the best way to counter it, then so be it. Church revolts Meanwhile, the church in Kerala cutting across various denominations has called the governments new policy as an open challenge to the people of the state. In Kerala for years, the church has been at forefront demanding total prohibition and it says the LDF has cheated on the mandate by bringing out such an anti-people policy that would ruin the state. Before the elections, the government had promised to bring down the availability. But how do you explain that stand with such a policy? Also when you know that alcohol is a social evil, how can any responsible government support and justify its availability merely on economic grounds? Father Jimmy Poochakatt, the spokesperson of the Syro Malabar Church, the largest denomination of Christians in the state, asked. In the days to come, the church will certainly be on the warpath. The government has let down the people of the state. We will oppose it and try our best not to let the government implement it, a fuming archbishop M Soosa Pakiam of the Latin Catholic Church told the media. But the church isnt shy about asking what it wants; its own share of liquor. Pakiam, who is also the president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), sought a whopping 900% enhancement of wine production under his archdiocese. Clearly a case of let them have wine if not hard alcohol. In all of this, the only silver lining for the Kerala government is its decision to raise the minimum drinking age in the state from 21 to 23. (Published in arrangement with GRIST Media) In an apparent haste to publicise its achievements in floodlighting the India-Pakistan border, the Union home ministry in its annual report published what appeared to be the picture of the Spain-Morocco border. If it is a mistake, we will apologise for it, said Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi when the goof-up, reported by news portal Alt News, was brought to his notice on Wednesday. The home secretary has asked officials to look for the source of the photo as it might have come from the Border Security Force (BSF) that guards the Indo-Pak border. BSF officials refused to comment on the issue. On page 40, the annual report said in order to curb infiltration and cross-border crimes along the border, the government has sanctioned floodlights along 2043.76km of the border. Giving the details of progress of floodlighting till December 31 last year, the report said only 100km of international border is left to be lit up. Below the data, the report also reproduced a photograph of the floodlit international border. However, it turns out that the photo may be of the Spain-Morocco border as there is a sea ahead of the fence. Besides physical border at few stretches, Spain and Morocco also share a maritime border. Alt News claimed that the picture was taken in 2006 by Spanish photographer Javier Moyano. The chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh have gone into poll mode. All of them are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, and they are all preparing for assembly elections next year that will set the tone for the national elections in 2019. Each chief minister has faced significant challenges during their term: Farmers protests in Madhya Pradesh, fractious party politics in Rajasthan, and anti-incumbency and the threat of Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh. Charges of corruption have been directed at the governments in all three states. Rumours abound that some of these leaders could be included in the next reshuffle of the council of ministers, much as Manohar Parrikar was in 2014. The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh since 2003. It wrested Rajasthan from the Congress in 2013. All three chief ministers Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) have been on statewide tours to get a feedback session. They believe their welfare schemes, the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a weak opposition will help them win them another election. With a little over a year left before their states to go to the polls, the political fates of each of the three chief ministers hang in the balance. Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan is facing the worst crisis of his tenure. Madhya Pradesh has a rural population of over 70%, and many farmers voted for the BJP in the last three elections. The performance of the states agricultural sector was, until recently, a source of pride, but this bout of unrest could prove a major liability. On Saturday, Chouhan fasted while hearing grievances. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. (Mujeeb Faruqui/HT file Photo) It is not the first time he has been embroiled in a scandal. He was severely criticised for resisting the idea of an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the so-called Vyapam scam, which concerns reports of bribery and suspicious deaths in Madhya Pradesh related to the administering of medical entrance examinations. The inquiry is ongoing. Chouhan, also known as Mama for his many welfare schemes, is an effective populist. He is fond of political yatras, the latest one being a five-month-long effort, from last December until this past May, to support the cleaning of Narmada river. Mama is expanding his governments safety net. On April 7, he started Deendayal Kitchens, a programme to offer meals for Rs 5 across the state. He plans, by the end of the year, to provide some 50 lakh homeless people with l and for building a house. His government is funding the higher studies of any student who scores above an 85% in Class 12 exams. But Shivrajs biggest strength is the absence of a strong opposition. The state government doesnt need to worry about anti-incumbency, said Girija Shankar, a political analyst based in Bhopal, as there is zero opposition in Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan The BJPs success here depends on two factors: Divisions within the opposition and Prime Minister Modis popularity. The BJP won 163 of 200 assembly seats in 2013 and all 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. The increasing vote percentage shows peoples faith in BJP and its policies, said state BJP chief Ashok Parnami. People have voted BJP above caste, religion and region. Rajasthan BJP spokesperson Ashok Lahoti said the BJP has expanded its reach to rural areas. Earlier people used to say the BJP is urban area based party, he said, but first time in state history, 75% of panchayat election results were in our favour. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. (Himanshu Vyas/HT File) In recent decades, however, the Rajasthan ruling party has often been voted out, and Raje is dealing with rebellion from her own colleagues. BJP leaders say that there is no mechanism for addressing the grievances of party workers and that there has been nepotism in appointments to political posts. A senior party MLA, Ghanshyam Tiwari, floated another organisation, Deen Dayal Vahini, which he described as an attempt to promote clean politics. In 2015, Raje weathered a controversy over her close ties to Lalit Modi, the businessman who was expelled from the BCCI for making threats, failing to disclose conflicts of interests, and rigging bids. She received a shot in the arm this April from a by-election in Dholpur, a seat previously held by the BSP that the BJP won after Raje camped there for more than two weeks. As in Madhya Pradesh, the Rajasthan state unit hopes it will be helped by feuding within the opposition, in this case between factions led by state Congress president Sachin Pilot and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Chhattisgarh Raman Singh has won the last three elections by a whisker. The difference between the vote shares of the Congress and the BJP was 2.5% in 2003, 1.7% in 2008 and 0.7% in 2013. The gap in number of seats won by the two parties declined from 13 to 12 seats to 10 seats. Anti-incumbency has seemed to make an impact in Chhattisgarh, but Singh has managed to pull off a victory every election. Some suspect a deal with Ajit Jogi, a former Congress chief minister, to defeat the grand old party. Jogi is out of the Congress and has floated his own outfit. Jogi has clout among satnami and tribal population, said a BJP leader. He will split the anti-incumbency votes to BJPs advantage. Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh. (Mohd Zakir/HT file) Another worry for Singh is the persistence of Maoists in the state. In April, 25 members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in an ambush in the southern district of Sukma. Singh is known as Chaur Wale Baba (a saint offering rice) for his governments public distribution programme, which sends free rice to far-flung areas. In 2015, Congress charged that as much as 1.5 lakh crore of funds for the scheme had been mishandled, but in the past Singh has found success announcing, every harvest season before polls, a bonus above the minimum support price for paddy. Next years election likely will be no different. Singh is currently on a statewide tour. It is helping us understand issues and realise our shortcomings more than a year before the poll, said a source close to him. Last week, Singh said as many as half his legislators will be declared ineffective and replaced in the election by new faces. In 2013, Singh successfully fought anti-incumbency in the same way. Its a turf war in the Sariska tiger reserve. Twelve years ago, poachers had wiped Sariska clean of the big cats. Now, a total of 14 tigers mean that the national park with an overall area of about 800 sq km and a core area of approximately 500 sq km may be turning into a bit of a squeeze for the striped cats. In the latest territorial fight in Sariska, tiger ST-6 has made sure that his son ST-13 has not entered his territory for the last eight months. ST-6, which dominates the core area of the reserve, had in November pushed out ST-6, which is moving in the buffer area in the Rajgarh forests. Officials of the tiger reserve, wildlife institute of India and Jaipur zoo have made several attempts to tranquilize ST-13 and bring him back into the core area but have been unsuccessful. We are constantly monitoring the tiger, who is in no danger and comfortable in getting prey in territorial division of Alwar. We tried to capture but failed as his movement downhill is usually at midnight. We have laid camera traps and a team of forest staff is on the task, deputy conservator of Forest (Sariska) Balaji Kari told HT. He said efforts are on to tranquillize and install radio collar for effective monitoring. Post-2005, Sariska was repopulated with tigers from Ranthambore. Read more: Another Sariska tiger gets radio collar Eight tigers were translocated from Sawai Madhopur reserve to Sariska between 2008 and 2012. One of these was poisoned in 2010. Tigress ST-2, ST-9 and ST-10 have given birth to seven cubs between 2012 and 2017. A senior official in forest department on anonymity said, A day before ST-13 ran away in November 2016, he was spotted with ST-6 in the Tehla area. We assume that they had a fight, and ST-13, born to ST-2, was pushed to the periphery. A tiger normally demarcates 10-12 square km as his or her territory and does not allow a rival to enter. And when one enters, there is a fight for dominance with the stronger one retaining the region and the weaker pushed to the periphery. Territorial pressure is a usual phenomenon in the wild. Between 2002 and 2013, six tigers migrated out of Ranthambore to different areas, including Kuno Palpur in Madhya Pradesh, and only one of them returned. Three of them were found dead and two did not return. In the recent past, four tigers have moved to Kailadevi, a new green home for Ranthambores animals. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A 52-year-old Indian national, who has been illegaly living in the deserts of Saudi Arabia for 24 years, will soon return to India after the government announced a 90-day amnesty period, according to a media report. Gana Prakasam Rajamariyan came to Saudi Arabia in August 1994 to work as a farm-hand in a remote village in Hail province. Rajamariyan, hailing from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, said he was paid only Saudi Riyal 100 a month for six months by his first employer. He was then transferred to another employer and a third a few months later. He has spent 24 years in the desert, without going home even once, a Saudi Gazette report said. Of the three employers, I was not sure which one was my sponsor. Above all, I did not receive any salary from them, so I decided to abscond and live illegally out of compulsion, the newspaper quoted Rajamariyan as saying. He said his destiny was the deserts where he spent half of his life. My four daughters were very young when I left home. Now when I return, I have grandchildren of the same age, he said. Rajamariyan said he was able to marry off three of his four daughters with his earnings in Saudi Arabia. He said he did not own a house nor did he have the Adhaar card or a voter ID, all of which were introduced after he left the country. He made his last phone call to his wife, Ronikyam, before she was admitted to hospital in 2015. After that he did not call her as she was not able to speak and died a year later. Rajamariyan has completed all formalities for his return to India with the help of Hail-based social worker Sarfuddin Thayyil. He hopes to leave Saudi Arabia soon. Thousands of Indian workers stranded in Saudi Arabia after travelling there illegally and those who overstayed their visas, including a large number from Tamil Nadu, are ready to return to India under a 90-day amnesty period that the Saudi government has offered them. By approaching the passport departments to solve their status from March 29, illegal workers will be exempt from the consequences associated with the deportee fingerprint system and will be able to return to the Kingdom on the condition of pursuing legal methods to gain entry, the General Directorate of Passports (GDP) in Saudi Arabia had said last month. Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmed Javed had reiterated that people listed as matloob (wanted) in criminal cases and those holding valid residence visas and passports were not covered by the amnesty. Javed had appealed to all illegal residents to utilise the amnesty period to leave the country, saying they could come back to work legally in Saudi Arabia at any time they wanted. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Jeddah received a total of 26,713 applications for emergency travel passes and issued 25,894 since the general amnesty was announced 56 days ago. People from Uttar Pradesh formed the majority with 11,390 applicants while Telangana had 2,733 applicants, West Bengal 2,332, Tamil Nadu 2,022, Kerala 1,736, Bihar 1,491, Andhra Pradesh 1,120 and Rajasthan 853. Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday claimed that banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was involved in the series of attacks in the Valley on Tuesday which left 13 security personnel injured. Director general of police SP Vaid said that although other militant organisations have claimed responsibility, it was Jaish which was behind the attacks. We had inputs about attacks, we are sure its Jaish, he told Hindustan Times. Many militant outfits including Hizbul Mujahideen, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Al Umar Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Jaish-e-Mohammad is a Pakistan-based militant group. It was involved in Pathankot airbase attack in January 2016 and an attack in army brigade headquarters in Uri in September that year. Militants had attacked at least five places with grenades and guns in Pulwama and Anantnag districts on Tuesday evening. At least 13 CRPF and police personnel were wounded in the attacks. Tthe militants also took away four rifles from one of the places attacked. Two police personnel who were guarding the house of a retired Judge in Anantnag were also injured. DGP Vaid, however, ruled out that Amarnath Yatra was the target of the attacks. The police chief said there would be unprecedented security for the annual pilgrimage to the holy Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, commencing from June 29. There will be no problem to pilgrims undertaking the yatra this year, he said. Meanwhile, Pakistan continued to target Indian posts and forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri and Poonch districts in violation of the ceasefire, prompting India to retaliate in equal measure. Pakistani Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and 82 mm mortars from 0500 hours to 0545 hours on Wednesday morning along the Line of Control in Bhimber Gali sector of Poonch district, said Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta. The Pakistani Army also initiated indiscriminate fire by small arms, heavy automatics and recoilless rifles from 0930 hours on Wednesday along the LoC in Nowshera sector, Lt Col Mehta said and added that the Indian Army posts retaliated strongly and effectively. The exchanges between the two sides in Nowshera ended around at 12:30 pm. There were three ceasefire violations on June 12. Two Muslim men were arrested and sent to jail in Hazaribagh for sharing communally-sensitive messages on a WhatsApp group, in the first crackdown on those circulating provocative content on social media in Jharkhand, police said on Wednesday. Hazaribagh superintendent of police Anup Birthare said Gulam Jelani and Mohammad Shabbir were charged for promoting enmity between different groups and deliberately and maliciously acting to outrage religious feelings and sent to the Hazaribagh Jail on Tuesday. We want this to be a lesson for those involved in spilling hatred and fuelling disharmony in the society by hurting religious sentiments of other communities, Birthare said adding that both the men were 23 years old, and ran a business for which they had to frequently travel to Kolkata. Hazaribagh is about 95km from state capital Ranchi. Under the charges levelled at Jelani and Shabbir, they may face imprisonment of up to three years, police sources said. Jelani and Shabbir have also been charged under the information technology act. Police have warned the administrator of the WhatsApp group on which Jelani and Shabbir shared the provocative content, and may detain them as well, sources said. They have also launched a manhunt for a Hindu man, who allegedly shared provocative content on another WhatsApp group run in the same district. Several places in Jharkhand have witnessed communal tension in the last one month with rumours on social media leading to communal clashes. At least a dozen people were injured in clashes between two communities in Bargai on May 2 after a Hindu marriage procession was attacked by the members of the Muslim community. And in Sukurhutu, 12 km from Ranchi, over 24 people, including eight police officials, were injured in a clash between Hindus and Muslims after lewd remarks were allegedly passed at women. The Ranchi district administration on Saturday issued a notification warning people of criminal charges and arrest if they were found guilty of sharing communal content on social media platforms. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A prominent mosque in the Muslim-majority Malappuram district in Kerala has set an example by curbing noise pollution during the holy month of Ramzan. Valiya Juma Masjid, the biggest in Vazhakkad area, has decided that only a single azaan, the Islamic call to prayer, will be delivered from the mosque and 17 other small mosques dotting the area will only repeat it without any noise. Taking a cue from the grand mosque, other mosque or mahal committees are also planning to follow it. There are seven mosques run by various denominations in Vazhakkad and 10 others in the village areas. According to an agreement ironed out by these mosque committees, the use of loudspeakers for all other religious purposes will also be stopped. Initially many opposed the idea but later came around. Nearby schools and hospitals often complained about the indiscriminate use of loudspeakers, TP Abdul Aziz, president of the mahal council, said. The council has also constituted a five-member panel to unify the timings of the azaan. It will also consult the chief qazi of Kozhikode, who wields enough influence among community members. Many NGOs, social bodies and residents of the area have lauded the latest initiative. Valiya Juma Masjid has set an example. It will go a long way in curbing the mindless use of ear-splitting speakers. Now, political parties will have to follow suit, Mohamed Koya, a trader in the area, said. In 2015, the supremo of the Muslim League Sayed Hyderali Thangal requested all mosque committees to restrict the use of loudspeakers to check noise pollution and respect the sentiments of other communities. The district was in the news earlier this month after the Shree Narasimhamoorthy Temple in Punnathala threw a sumptuous vegetarian Iftar for Muslims in the area, who helped renovate the centuries-old shrine. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans visit does not seem to have impressed the family of deceased farmers and other villagers. In Barwan, situated 30km from Mandsaur where Ghanshyam Dhakar the sixth victim who died of injuries in lathicharge farmers spoke about their grievances with the authorities. Amritram Raikwar, 65, and Mohanlal, 45, said they were not happy with the chief minister. Who allows farmers to be shot dead? This has not happened before in this area. No one expected that farmers would be shot. Lathicharge is fine. The chief minister is here just to show others that he cares, we are not impressed, said Raikwar. Dhakars wife Rekha Bai said Chouhan had assured of action but nothing had been done yet. The family of Abhishek, another victim, echoed the sentiments. Dinesh Patidar, Abhisheks father, said: I am not happy with the CM. He had assured action would be taken but nothing has happened. A political storm over violent crop agitation sweeping Madhya Pradesh intensified on Wednesday with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visiting Mandsaur, where six farmers died during protests last week while demanding better crop prices and a loan waiver. Another farmer identified as Ramesh Basnei committed suicide after consuming pesticide. Police say the farmer had an outstanding loan amount of around Rs 25,000. Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia started a satyagrah to protest against the state governments alleged anti-farm policies. Several opposition leaders including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi have been blocked from visiting the violence-torn region over the past week. Updates below: 4.57pm: This is the sixth farmer suicide in the region since five farmers died in police firing on June 6 in Mandsaur. 4.47pm: Police identify the deceased farmer as 42-year-old Ramesh Basnei. Police say the farmer had an outstanding loan amount of around Rs 25,000. Local residents say he was also addicted to alcohol. Police says, cause of death will be known after a forensic report. 4.01pm: Scindia starts 72 hour satyagraha with recitation of vande matram. 3:22 pm: A debt-ridden farmer in Balaghat district , 455 kms from Bhopal, consumes pesticide. His family says he was in distress due to issues related to loan repayment. 3:03 pm: CM Chouhan meets family members of deceased farmer Abhishek Patidar. People waiting for chief minister at the house of Abhishekh Patodar who died in police firing. (HT Photo) 2:59 pm: A government should protect peoples life but here government became a perpetrator of crime (Rakshak hi bhakshak ban gaya), Scindia to HT. We waived loans of farmers amounting to Rs 72, 000 crore. Why is this government going on a snails pace? he said. 2:55 pm: Fight is over the fact that farmers arent getting right price for their produce, says Harinam Singh, Bhartiya Kisan Union on farmers loan waiver, reports ANI. We ask why does the need to waive loans arise? How many loans will you waive? Farmers need right prices. 2:33 pm: CM tells family members of Satya Narayan, who was killed in the firing, that their mortgaged land will be freed by the state government. The government will also give a job to family member of Satya Narayan. 2:16 pm: The government has given Rs 1 crore to the family of Ghanshyam Dhakad through RTGS: CM Chouhan 2:05pm: CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan meets three demands of family of deceased farmer in Jeeran. The farmers statue will be installed in the village, a new road will be created and a community hall built. 2:00pm: Scindia seeks blessings of jain sadhvis near Ashta on Indore-Bhopal highway. 1:55pm: I am pained and emotional...The family of (deceased farmer Ghanshyam) Dhakad is now the family of the entire state, tweets Chouhan. 1:51pm: Madhya Pradesh government will bear the cost of educating the children of Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. Chouhan meets family of farmers killed in police firing. 1:50pm: More than 100 Congress workers arrested in Jabalpur while protesting against death of farmers . They were trying to block NH-7 when police arrested them. 1:48pm: CM will be criss-crossing the district traveling in a chopper and by road to meet family of all the six deceased in police firing and lathi charge. 1:31pm: Congress running big publicity campaigns to join satyagraha on Wednesday afternoon. Congress publicity campaign for Satyagrah (HT PHOTO) 1:28pm: Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reaches Jeeran village in Neemuch district to meet the family of deceased Chainsingh Patidar. 1:25pm: Scindia approaching Bhopal from Indore, Satyagrah to start from 3pm 1:22pm: Shivraj Singh Chouhan meets family members of Satya Narayan , who was killed in police firing on June 6. 1:20pm: Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to family members of farmers killed in firing : Guilty wont be spared. 1:18pm: Cabinet has approved total expenditure of Rs. 20,339 crore in the current financial year as Interest subsidy on short term crop loans, reports ANI 1:15pm:Crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakhs made available to the prompt payee farmers at 4% interest rate, reports ANI 1:11pm: A farmer consumes poison inside Dewas collectorate . The farmer, Padam Singh, has been rushed to the district hospital . 1:07pm: Dont want jobs, want the accused punished, families of farmers tell CM Chouhan, reports Dainik Bhaskar. Rudra Singh sits with a photo of his deceased father who was killed in police firing. (HT PHOTO) 1:01pm: Modi-Chouhan governmet want a farmer-free India, says Scindia at Dewas to farmers. 12:57pm: Chouhan reached Lodh village, meets kin of farmer killed in police firing. 12:52pm: Is this democracy that nobody can meet or console the families of the farmers killed in firing.Rahul Gandhi was arrested. I was arrested, says Scindia at Dewas 12:48pm: Jyotiraditya Scindia at Dewas Mandi: It has become impossible for farmers to sell their produce. Scindia at Dewas Mandi (HT photo) 12:38pm: Scindia was stopped from visiting Mandsaur on Tuesday and arrested on charges of violating section 144. 12:34pm: Jyotiraditya Scindia interacts with farmers queued up outside Krishi mandi near Dewas. Scindia on way to Bhopal from Indore. 12:32pm: Wife of one of the deceased farmers tells Chouhan, Give me my husband back, and demands a house, reports ABP news 12:22pm: The Congress is trying to take the farmers votes away from the BJP ahead of state elections next year. 12:20pm: Congress leaders are gearing up for Scindias Satyagrah which is scheduled for 3pm. 12:12pm: CM Chouhan leaves for Lodh village, 40 kilometres away, to visit the family of another deceased. 12:07pm: I am with you, Chouhan tells family of Ghanshyam. MP: CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan meets kin of farmers killed in police firing in #Mandsaur pic.twitter.com/YTABqt2OfL ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 12:06pm: CM assures family that strict action would be taken against those who killed Ghanshyam. 12:00pm: The CM is said to be carrying cheques of Rs 1 crore each to hand it over to the next to the kin of the slain farmers. 11:58am: Except minister of woman and child welfare Archna Chitnis, none of the ministers, chief secretary or any other officers have visited Mandsaur since June 6. 11:55am: Dhakad was killed in police lathicharge in Mandsaur. He didnt die in the police firing on June 6. 11:54am: Shivraj Singh Chouhan has reached the house of Dhakad, will talk to the family. 11:52am: Chouhan on his way to visit Ghanshyam Dhakad. His family is demanding action against local police and will appeal to the CM. 11:42am: CM Chouhan leaves for Barwan village from Mandsaur by road to meet family of one of the deceased farmers 11:35am: Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reaches Mandsaur 10:30am: Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan leaves for violence-hit Mandsaur, a week after five farmers died in police firing. Madhya Pradesh governments decision to treat buying of agricultural produce below the minimum support price (MSP) from farmers as crime has opened another Pandoras box with traders now up in arms against the announcement. In protest against the governments move, traders refused to buy produce from farmers at mandis in several districts such as Sehore, Shajapur, Shivpuri, Narsinghpur, deepening the agricultural crisis. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday announced the MSP directive while ending his indefinite fast for peace as there was no fresh incident of violence in the state. The MSP directive, however, peeved the traders. They argue the price of a particular produce is decided based on its quality. A traders body Sakal Anaaj Dalhan Tilhan Vyapari Sangh said the traders would refrain from buying produce until the government rollback its MSP directive. It will be difficult for the traders to do business if their self-respect is hurt, said its president Gopal Das Aggarwal. Facing traders ire, the State Agriculture Marketing Board clarified that the MSP would be enforced only on agricultural commodities having fair average quality (FAQ). Chouhans BJP government is battling its worst crisis since assuming power in 2005 with farmers agitation demanding better prices for their crops that took root in the Malwa region on June 1, spread to other parts of the state in the days that followed. Six farmers were killed in the course of the agitation. While five died in police firing on Tuesday last, the sixth succumbed on Friday to injuries suffered during a baton charge in Mandsaur. To quell the crisis, the chief minister announced a slew of welfare measures, including making non-adherence of MSP as criminal offence, for the states farming community. (With inputs from Anupam Pateriya in Sagar) RENO Homeowners fared well during the 2017 session of the Nevada Legislature, according to the Nevada Association of Realtors, which cited several new laws that should help homeowners. The legislative process is never pretty, 2017 NVAR President Greg Martin said. But thanks in part to the NVAR and our work with state lawmakers, I think Nevada consumers and homeowners had a pretty good session. The same could also be said for our members. Martin, a longtime Realtor based in Elko, said examples include new laws protecting members of the military from foreclosure while on active duty, extending the states foreclosure mediation program, and combating squatters who occupy homes illegally. There were also some surprises during the session, Martin added. For instance, he said NVAR leaders expected lawmakers to pass legislation related to reforming property taxes. But when lawmakers ended the 2017 session late during the evening of June 5, he said they left Carson City without doing much to address the issue beyond passing Senate Joint Resolution 14. It would amend the Nevada Constitution to reset depreciation and tax caps when a property transfers to a new owner. SJR14 must also be approved by the 2019 Legislature. We would have liked to see the Legislature approve a property tax study, but that didnt happen, Martin said. I guess the good news is that property taxes werent increased. Other bills benefiting homeowners that were passed by the 2017 Legislature include: Senate Bill 33 This bill became law May 29. It protects members of the military from losing their homes to foreclosure, including by a homeowner association, while on active duty. NVAR supported it. Senate Bill 255 NVAR supported this bill to allow homeowners to cancel a contract to buy a property within an HOA via email after they have reviewed a package of documents provided by the HOA. This law takes effect July 1. Senate Bill 490 This bill, pending approval by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, would extend the states Foreclosure Mediation Program, which is currently scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2017. The bill also requires Home Means Nevada, Inc. to administer the program, instead of the Nevada Supreme Court. Assembly Bill 161 This bill is intended to combat squatters, who often produce falsified rental documents when confronted by police officers trying to remove them from a home they are occupying illegally. The new law, which takes effect July 1, protects legitimate tenants with a lease signed by a permitted property manager while requiring a disclosure on rental agreements that creates a rebuttable presumption that the tenant does not have the right to live in a property if they cant produce a rental agreement that has been notarized. Assembly Bill 169 This bill makes closing a real estate transaction easier by having a more predictable title recording fee. This law takes effect on Oct. 1. More than a week after six farmers were killed during their agitation in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who sat on a fast for restoration of peace in the state will visit the families of the victims on Wednesday . Chouhan and his government were criticised by the Opposition for not visiting the families, and for rather choosing a pre-scripted indefinite fast for restoration of peace in the state. The fast lasted just 27 hours. When the chief minister visits Mandsaur, 378 km north-west of Bhopal, Congress MP from Guna and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will begin a 72-hour satyagraha in Bhopal against the governments apathy and attitude towards farmers. Except minister for women and child welfare Archna Chitnis, none of the other ministers or any senior state or police official visited Mandsaur since the death of the six farmers on June 6. Five farmers were killed in police firing and another due to injuries sustained in a lathi-charge by police. The Congress is expected to go out all guns blazing against the ruling BJP, which is in power in the state since 2003. Many Congress leaders are expected to join Scindia on the dais when he begins his satyagraha around 3pm. Many opposition leaders questioned the chief ministers peace fast as they say it was the state government which was to blame for inapt handling of the agitation. Scindia, who was arrested near Jaora in Ratlam on Tuesday, hit out at Chouhan, saying if he was not allowed to visit Mandsaur due to prohibitory orders, it meant there was no peace. And when there was no peace, the chief minister should have not ended his fast. Was it a drama? Scindia asked. On Wednesday, Chouhan will hand over cheques of Rs 1 crore each to the next of kin of the deceased farmers. In an unprecedented move, the chief minister had announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 crore an amount which is not given even to families of martyrs in the state. State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal justified the chief ministers visit more than a week after the violence, saying Chouhan must have taken into consideration the law and order situation in deciding when to visit. The stakes are high for Chouhan, who calls himself a farmers son and is depending on the 20 million farm and agricultural labour population to carry him to a fourth term in the 2018 assembly election. According to official figures, one farmer commits suicide every five hours in Madhya Pradesh. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Congress parliamentarian Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday launched a 72-hour sit-in protest against the Madhya Pradesh governments alleged failure to address farmers problems, mounting pressure on chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over an ongoing farmers agitation. The Congress agitation in Bhopal started a few hours after Chouhan visited Mandsaur where six farmers were killed in police firing after rampaging protesters torched vehicles, ransacked property and attacked officials. Scindia was arrested on Tuesday while trying to visit Mandsaur to meet the families of the farmers killed, who were demanding loan waivers and better prices for their produce. A large number of farmers, especially from Bundelkhand and Chambal regions, and party workers from different districts are participating in what the Congress has termed a satyagraha. On the way to Bhopal from Indore, Scindia addressed farmers at many places and held interactions with them. Yeh Modi-Chouhan ki sarkar kisan-mukt Bharat chahti hain (This Modi-Chouhan government wants a farmer-free India), he told farmers at Bharosa on the Indore-Bhopal road. Scindia also interacted with in Dewas district. Farmers told him they had been waiting for a long time with their bumper onion produce to sell it in the mandi. Scindia tweeted that only 250 trolleys of onions were being procured in a day while over a 1000 trolleys were arriving at the mandi daily. Under such circumstances, it will be impossible for every farmer to sell his onion produce. And he is compelled to sell it to traders on lesser price, he tweeted. At Fanda, nearly 20 kms from Bhopal, Scindia went to the home of 85-year-old Kamla Bai Mewada, who was assaulted by policemen during a protest on Friday. She told Scindia that she was beaten up mercilessly and that her son and four grandsons were arrested for their alleged involvement in stone pelting. Scindia assured her that he will ensure she gets justice. Her 100-year-old husband Shivcharan Mewada was also allegedly beaten by the police, injuring his leg. Sporadic violence has continued to singe six districts and at least five debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide since the June 6 firing. The state registered a farmer suicide every five hours last year, official figures show. Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the US later this month for his first meeting with President Donald Trump and expectations, at least on the Indian side, are modest. No big bang announcements are on the cards during the visit being seen as an opportunity for the two leaders to unveil their vision of the bilateral relationship that has grown steadily over the last 20 years. Modi will be in the US on June 25 and 26, days before he goes to Israel, the first Indian prime minister to visit the Jewish state. At the White House, talks are expected to focus on familiar issues: Terrorism, economic cooperation, greater salience on Indo-Pacific and stepping up defence ties. There are some concerns, too. New Delhi would want clarity from the Trump administration on the H-1B regime, the short-term visa for skilled workers which is crucial to Indian software majors overseas business. Trump sees the arrangement as a ploy to take away American jobs. There is a cloud over the clean-energy push, a growing area of cooperation, after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate pact aimed at fighting global warming by reducing carbon emissions. Still, it will be the Modi-Trump meeting itself which would be most critical. The two leaders, who are not conventional by any yardstick of politics, will get to know each other and set an agenda for their future. Modi enjoyed a good rapport with Trumps predecessor Barack Obama, it will be interesting to see how his relationship shapes with the billionaire-turned-politician. Continuity is at the heart of the US-India ties. But what may worry New Delhi is the way Trump has gone about his foreign policy. His willingness to reset the terms of engagement with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) allies and Paris pact pullout point to big shifts, and not happy ones, in the US stance. The USs ties with Russia and China have not given out much to draw any conclusion as to where Trump places India in the region. Since the Trump administration came to power, ties have not flagged but have progressed with same pace as under the (previous) Obama administration, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told media earlier this month. Officials say both sides value the ties. One of them said cooperation would continue in the area of counter-terrorism. During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the President did mention India as a victim of terrorism, a source said. That he didnt mention Pakistan a frontline state for the US -- as the victim of terror should bring some cheer to India. Trump not meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during Saudi Arabia holds a symbolic significance for Delhi. Past US administrations have spoken out against terror emanating from Pakistani soil but little has been done on the ground to change that. Trump is expected to take a harder line. Officials say US defence secretray James Mattis and national security adviser HR McMaster had useful visits to India. The US was Indias major defence partner. We havent got any indication that they (the US) want to dilute this relationship, Swaraj had said. Modi is likely to flag Indian concerns over the H-1B visa when he meets Trump. I would like to assure the country that we are in touch with the members of the US Congress and the administration on this matter. When the Prime Minister travels there (later this month) this is one of the issues he is planning to raise, Swaraj had said. New Delhi is also upset over Trumps comments that India signed the Paris deal for billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid. The two countries have several initiatives in place to push for technological advances in the field of clean energy. But with Trump administration making a U-turn on the Paris deal, there is little the two countries have left in common in this key area. India though remains committed to the climate pact and shifting to renewable energy. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a charge sheet against Vijay Mallya and eight others, including IDBI officials on Wednesday, in a Rs 950-crore loan default case. The charge sheet alleges part of the loan has been siphoned off abroad in a calculated and premeditated manner. The charge sheet was filed in the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court. The agency alleged the loan transaction between the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) and IDBI bank was in contravention of established industry practices. The said corporate loan was sanctioned and disbursed despite weak financials, negative net-worth, negative debt-to-equity ratio and low credit rating of the borrower company, said a senior ED officer, while detailing the contents of the charge sheet. This shows the connivance between Mallya and the bank officials, said the officer, adding, IDBI Bank failed to exercise due diligence. The charge sheet is seen as a move that will make Indias case for Mallyas extradition stronger. Even though he [Mallya] had money, he kept it abroad so that he continues to enjoy the good times at the cost of the public sector bank, said the officer. ED charge sheet notes that the loan was sanctioned in three parts. The first short-term loan was for ?150 crore, the second ?200 crore and the last disbursement was for ?700 crore, of which ?200 crore was subsumed, stated the charge sheet. The first short-term loans was cleared in a day after a meet between Mallya and IDBI Bank ex-chairman Yogesh Agarwal, who is also an accused in the case, said the officer. The charge sheet revealed ?417 crore was remitted outside the country under the pretext of lease rental payment and other miscellaneous payments. Moreover, the ED alleged the brand valuation of KFA was wrong. KFAs brand valuation was supposed to be used for their internal review, but was presented to IDBI bank, said the officer. The charge sheet stated some payments were made to sister companies such as ?50 crore to Mallyas Formula-1 team and an additional ?100 crore to other sister-concern companies.. A local court on Wednesday issued non-bailable warrants against yoga guru Ramdev in a case over his controversial beheading remark in April 2016. The order follows Ramdevs failure to appear before the court yet again on Wednesday. Ramdev was summoned under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for his remark that he can behead lakhs of people refusing to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai if he werent bound by the law. He was addressing a gathering in Rohtak when he made the remark. Ironically, the RSS-backed Sadbhawana Sammelan was called to promote peace in the city that witnessed violence during the Jat quota stir. The yoga guru was responding to the comment made by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who said he will not chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai even if a knife is put to his throat. A day after Ramdevs remark, former home minister and senior Congress leader Subhash Batra lodged a complaint with the police. Batra moved court after the police did not register a case. On Wednesday, the court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) Harish Goyal issued non-bailable warrants against Ramdev and set August 3 as the next date of hearing. The opposition will likely name its candidate for the next President of India on Wednesday, with Congress leader Meira Kumar and Mahatma Gandhis grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi among the possible nominees. The meeting of the Oppositions 10-member selection panel is slated for 4pm. The move to pick the Oppositions candidate comes two days after the ruling BJP announced its committee to talk to all parties in an effort to build consensus for a candidate to succeed President Pranab Mukherjee, who demits office on July 24. The Opposition panel comprises Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge from the Congress, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, JD(U) veteran Sharad Yadav, NCP leader Praful Patel, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek oBrien, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, BSPs Satish Chandra Mishra, RJD leader Lalu Prasad and DMKs RS Bharathi. Former Lok Sabha speaker Kumar and Gandhi are on the Opposition list of possible candidates. But a section of its leaders wants to wait for the government to first name its nominee. Ideally, the government should reach out to us. After we see who is their candidate, we can decide our own, said Sitaram Yechury. Government sources said they will first talk to their allies and then talk to the Opposition leaders. We will speak to all Opposition parties, I&B minister Venkaiah Naidu said. The last date of filing nominations is June 28. The polling, if required, will be held on July 17 and the results declared on July 20. The Opposition faces an uphill task in putting its candidate in the Rashtrapati Bhawan as its more than 1.5 lakh votes short in the Presidential election. The NDA, on the other hand, needs just 20,000 votes to get a majority. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Pakistan Army on Wednesday resorted to unprovoked firing at two places along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said. After violating the ceasefire in Poonch district earlier on Wednesday, the Pakistan Army opened fire in Naushera sector of Rajouri district. Defence ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said: The Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, heavy automatics and Recoilless Rifles on the LoC in Naushera sector also. Firing started at 9.30am after which the Indian Army retaliated. The firing was still on. Heavy shelling and firing exchanges between Indian and Pakistani armies took place earlier on Wednesday in Poonch district in Bhimber Gali sector. The Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms automatics and 82 mm mortars in Bhimber Gali sector of the LoC, the spokesman told IANS. The Pakistan Army has been violating the bilateral ceasefire during the last fortnight by resorting to indiscriminate shelling and firing, especially in Poonch and Rajouri districts. The Indian Army says it is being done by Pakistan to facilitate the infiltration of militants into the Indian side. Pakistani army again violated ceasefire on Wednesday morning by by opening fires along the Line of Control in Bimber Gali sector of Jammu and Kashmirs Rajouri district. The Pakistani Army began indiscriminate fire with small arms, automatics and mortars between 5am and 5.45am on Wednesday, said defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta. The Indian Army posts have responded strongly and effectively, the spokesman said. On Tuesday, a third grenade attack took place in Pulwama district on a police station. This attack came minutes after terrorists lobbed grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Pahalgams Sarnal. As many as nine CRPF personnel were injured in a grenade attack on its camp in Jammu and Kashmirs Tral. On Monday, a soldier was injured as the Pakistani army targeted Indian posts and forward villages along the LoC in Balnoi area of Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. While the LoC has been witnessing heavy fire by Pakistani troops, Pakistani Rangers have also been opening unprovoked fire on the 198 km long international border in Jammu region. Indian Army says it is being done by Pakistan to facilitate the infiltration of militants into the Indian side. Pakistan, however, on Monday summoned the Indian deputy high commissioner and condemned the alleged firing by Indian troops along the LoC in which three Pakistani civilians were killed. It said that three civilians were killed in the firing in Chirikot and Hot Spring sectors on June 10 and June 12. (With agency inputs) More than a day after a portion of Gurdwara Pehli Pashahis building caved in at Panipat, bodies of three more persons were recovered from the debris on Tuesday, taking the toll to four. According to police sources, at least two more people continue to remain trapped under the debris. The bodies of sewadar Sardar Darshan Singh, migrant labourer Badshah (38) of Bareli and Rati Ram (45) of Sitapur of Uttar Pradesh were recovered the NDRF team late Tuesday evening. The rescue operations were still on till last reports came in. Police said they are suspecting two more people, including sewadar Devendra Singh and another labourer, to be trapped under the debris. We are facing problem in removing the debris. A few more people can be seen buried under the debris and their chances of survival are bleak, told a member of the National Disaster Response Force team to Hindustan Times. He added: We are removing the cemented roof to reach buildings ground floor. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar visited the gurdwara on Tuesday and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the deceased, Rs 2 lakh for seriously injured and Rs 1 lakh for injured. The CM said the injured will be given free treatment at government hospitals. A five-member committee under additional deputy commissioner Rajiv Mehta has been formed to look into the reason behind the building collapse. The committee has been asked to submit its report within 15 days. Panipat SDM Vevek Chaudhary has said, We cannot say anything as of now but the matter will be probed after rescue operations are over. Meanwhile, heavy police deployment has been made in 100mt radius of the gurdwara and traffic has been diverted. Hundreds of sewadars from other gurdwaras are assisting the rescue teams. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Three days after cow vigilantes attacked trucks carrying cows to Tamil Nadu in western Rajasthans Barmer town, a police jeep escorted the convoy out of Rajasthan and handed them over to Gujarat police at dawn on Wednesday. We had instructions from the police headquarters to provide police protection to the five trucks carrying cows to Tamil Nadu, said Barmers police chief Gagandeep Singla. Officials said the Tamil Nadu government had requested police of all states the trucks will pass through Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka to provide protection to the trucks carrying the bovines against vigilante attacks. A police jeep with an inspector and three armed constables escorted five trucks carrying 50 cows of the Tharparkar breed to Gujarat border, 150 km from Barmer, in the dead of the night. We left around 1 a.m. and reached Gujarat border early morning where a team of Gujarat police was waiting to escort the trucks further, said Rajendra Choudhary, the leader of the police escort. The Tamil Nadu animal husbandry department bought the cows from Jaisalmer on June 11. A mob of cow vigilantes attacked the trucks while they were passing through Barmer on the night of June 11. The drivers were thrashed, and an attempt was made to torch the vehicles. However, timely police action prevented that. Read more: Vigilantes attack truck taking cows from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu, block highway Barmer police named 50 people as accused for the attack and arrested eight of them so far. The others are absconding. The Tamil Nadu officials, who were not in the trucks when the attack occurred, reached Barmer on Monday and stayed there for two days, talking to their government and charting a new route. We told our department that we would travel only after the government ensured security to us, said an official who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to media. Barmer district collector Shivprasad Nakate said the administration looked after the cattle for two days and got the trucks repaired before sending them off to Gujarat under police protection. A source said the Tamil Nadu government has also sought a factual report of the Sundays attack on their team from Rajasthan government. Barmer district officials said the TN team had permit issued by the Jaisalmer district administration which is needed, under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995, for export of bovine animals from Rajasthan. June 13 Charles J. Andrus, 24, of Elko was arrested at 3740 Idaho St. for peiti larceny. No bail listed. Kara M. Brown, 31, of Spring Creek was arrested at 1740 Mountain City Highway for two counts of use or possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $6,280 Travis M. Brown, 28, of Spring Creek was arrested at 1740 Mountain City Highway for two counts of possession of a controlled substance, use or possession of drug paraphernalia, and violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Bail: $10,640 RJ Emmel, 29, of Midvale, Utah was arrested at the Elko County Jail for battery by prisoner. Bail: $20,000 Angila M. Rosa, 34, of Eureka was arrested at 1660 Mountain City Highway for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime. No bail listed. Right-wing Hindu Janjagriti Samiti is holding a four-day national convention in Goa from Wednesday to push its agenda of making India a Hindu rashtra by 2023. Our aim is to make India great again and this is something which can be achieved only by ensuring that it turns into a Hindu Rashtra, claimed Ramesh Shinde, the national spokesperson of the Samiti. Around 400 delegates from across the country as well as neighbouring Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are expected to attend the convention. The event at Ponda, the states industrial hub, is likely to be dominated by contentious issues like beef ban, amid a major controversy brewing in the state over the red meat. To protest ban on cow slaughter a group of citizens from different walks of life recently floated an organization called Goa for Beef Beef for Goa. Influential the Roman Catholic Church and Muslim bodies backed the civil society initiative. Meanwhile, the Qureshi Meat Traders Association on Monday moved the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court seeking a stay on the May 26 central notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter. The Manohar Parrikars BJP-led coalition government, however, has been silent on the central notification that has hit Goas meat industry and tourism. The convention will demand a nationwide beef ban and setting up of cow sanctuaries in the state, said Shinde. Samitis national guide Chaurdatta Pingle added that to be a good Hindu one should support beef ban and issues like protection of temples, fight against love jihad and influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. If one follows the teaching of Mahatma Gandhi, one will know that even he had emphasised that after independence a beef ban should be imposed. We are just taking forward his idea, Pingle claimed. A senior activist of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) Nikhil Dey and four others were convicted by a local court in Rajasthans Ajmer on Tuesday in a 20-year-old case of an alleged assault filed by a village head against them. The munsif magistrate court in Kishangarh convicted the five under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 451 (trespass in order to commit an offence punishable with imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code, and sentenced them to four months of imprisonment. However, the sentence has been suspended pending an appeal to be filed by the activists in the court of the additional district and sessions judge. The case pertains to an incident on May 6, 1998, when the RTI activists Nikhil Dey, Naurti Devi, Ram Karan, Babulal and Chotu Lal demanded information from the sarpanch of Harmara gram panchayat regarding complaints of corruption in development works. The allegations against Pyarelal, a liquor contractor of the village, included payments for toilets, Indira Awaas houses, and labour payments for development works, that had not been made to the beneficiaries. Because his office was usually closed during working hours, the activists went to his house to deliver the letter from the BDO (block development officer). The sarpanch came out of his house and physically assaulted the activists, a press note from MKSS said. Despite the attack, the MKSS activists decided not to file an FIR thinking that right to information cannot depend on police cases and that it had to depend on dialogue with the sarpanch and the exercise of a legal right under the panchayati raj act, it said. However, on the same day, Aruna Roy of the MKSS wrote to the district collector to ensure the activists get the information. On the May 8, the sarpanch filed an FIR accusing the activists of assaulting him. The same day Naurti Devi also filed a case against him under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. A statement from the MKSS said the organisation, which fought corruption and stood up for the rights of citizens, was disappointed by the courts verdict. Civil society organisations also expressed shock and dismay at the conviction. The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) also condemned the sentence. PUCL disagrees with the court. It feels several facts and evidence presented in the defence were not considered by the court, PUCL said in a statement. We will appeal against this and are certain truth will prevail. The country is with them, it added. Kavita Srivastava and Anant Bhatnagar of the PUCL said the sentence will not demoralise the activists or weaken the movement. It will only encourage us to fight harder, they said. The case filed by the sarpanch was closed on June 30, 1998, but it was revived on July 5, 2001. Eight people were killed and 30 others sustained injuries when a state-run bus fell into Sai river from a bridge near Bargudar village on Jaunpur-Allahabad highway in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday afternoon, police said. The Uttar Pradesh Transport Corporation bus was on its way to Jaunpur from Allahabad when the driver lost control of the vehicle. It crashed through bridge railing into the river. Local residents informed police. Police said that the bus was badly damaged with passengers were trapped in it. Police rescued the passengers and sent them to hospital. Some of the passengers are in critical condition. Senior administrative officials arrived the spot and rescue operation was on. Station officer of Sikrara, Vishwanath Yadav, said all the injured have been rushed to the district hospital. Cattle trade rules will see changes to clear misunderstandings: Union minister Harsh Vardhan The controversial new rules prohibiting sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter will be changed to clear doubts and misinterpretations, environment minister Harsh Vardhan said on Tuesday in comments that came after widespread outrage in several states. The rules have created a lot of misunderstanding, Vardhan told Hindustan Times. We are looking at bringing changes in the language to clear doubts, misinterpretations and misconceptions created after the rules were notified. Vardhan said the changes are yet be to finalised. Read the story here No meat, no sex, pure thoughts: Modis Ayush ministry gives tips to would-be moms for healthy baby Dont eat meat, say no to sex after conception, avoid bad company, have spiritual thoughts and hang some good and beautiful pictures in your room to have a healthy baby. This is ministry of Ayushs prescription for pregnant women in India, where 26 million babies are born each year. The recommendations are part of a booklet called Mother and Child Care, compiled by the government-funded Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) under the Ayush ministry. Read the story here MP farmers stir: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Hardik arrested; Congress calls strike A political storm over violent crop protests sweeping Madhya Pradesh deepened on Tuesday as several opposition leaders were arrested amid mounting speculation that angry farmers will hurt the ruling BJP in next years state polls. Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia and Patidar leader Hardik Patel were arrested and stopped from visiting violence-hit Mandsaur, where five farmers died in police firing last week while demanding better crop prices and a loan waiver. Scindia was released in the evening. Sporadic violence continued to singe six districts in the state. Read the story here Darjeeling crisis: Hill parties to push for separate state, Centre sends 600 personnel The crisis in the Darjeeling hills deepened on Tuesday after several parties, including the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) and Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), decided to push for a separate state and unanimously adopted a resolution in favour of it. The Centre dispatched 600 paramilitary personnel to assist the West Bengal government in restoring normalcy in violence-hit Darjeeling hills, which witnessed incidents of stone pelting on the second day of GJM-sponsored indefinite bandh. Read the story here 13 securitymen wounded in series of militant attacks in Kashmir South Kashmir, believed to be the hotbed of militancy, saw a high incidence of violence on Tuesday. A series of suspected militant attacks were reported from at least four places in Pulwama and Anantnag within a short span. At least 13 CRPF and police personnel were wounded in the attacks, and militants fled with four rifles from one of the sites. The biggest attack took place at Laryar Tral in Pulwama district around 6 pm when militants lobbed a grenade on the camp of F 180 Batallion of the CRPF. Read the story here BJPs poll success leads to spike in RSS membership The number of online applications for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) membership increased in the past few months after the BJP swept to power in four states. The RSS attributes this surge in prospective members to a growing interest around the organisations functioning and a desire to join its service projects. Data, however, hints at a correlation between the BJPs electoral success and the rush to be associated with the RSS. The RSS website received 7,256 membership applications in January this year, which went up to 27,871 in March when the results of assembly elections in five states were announced. Read the story here Pakistan eyes 2018 start to China-funded mega dam opposed by India Pakistan expects China to fund a long-delayed Indus river mega dam project in Gilgit-Baltistan, part of disputed Kashmir, with work beginning next year, planning minister Ahsan Iqbal has said. Pakistan has been keen for years to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus, but has struggled to raise money from international institutions amid opposition from India. Those ambitions have been revived by Chinas Belt and Road infrastructure plans for Pakistan. The $12-$14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns. Read the story here I have not diverted any money to IPL...keep dreaming about billions of pounds: Vijay Mallya Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, whom India wants extradited for facing trial in a Rs 9,000-crore bank loan default case, on Tuesday claimed that he has not diverted any of the borrowed money to the team he owned in the IPL and asked reporters to keep dreaming about the billions of pounds that he had allegedly diverted. Mallya, whose bail was continued till December 4, appeared before a Westminster magistrate court on Tuesday and later told media outside that he was delighted that he would be able to put up his case before a fair and impartial court in London. Read the story here Akhilesh Yadav asks how school bags with his picture were distributed in Gujarat schools The Samajwadi Partys national president Akhilesh Yadav asked on Tuesday the BJP government in Gujarat how bags bearing his picture was distributed in that state. Some 12,000 school bags distributed in government-run primary schools in Gujarats tribal-dominated Chhota Udepur district bear Akhileshs picture. The school bags came with stickers of the Gujarat governments school enrolment program. Beneath these stickers, however, is a smiling Akhilesh. Read the story here More trouble for Trumps travel ban; friend suggests he might fire Mueller Christopher Ruddy, a friend of Donald Trump, added a new twist to the Russia controversy by suggesting that the US president might be considering dismissing special counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating it. The White House pushed back, but only hours after the claim had been parsed and dissed with warnings about how it would only make things worse for Trump, who chose to ignore it all together in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning. Read the story here Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday began a 72-hour satyagrah in Bhopal in support of farmers demanding a loan waiver and a higher price for their produce. Madhya Pradesh has seen violent protests in the last few days, with distressed farmers destroying vegetables and dumping milk as prices crashed. In a phone interview to HT from Indore, the member of Parliament from Guna, who was arrested briefly on Tuesday and prevented from visiting violence-hit Mandsaur where five farmers were killed in police firing, said his protest was aimed at finding a solution to the problems facing the farmers. The state government had failed to protect farmers interests, he said. Edited excerpts of the interview: Q: Why this satyagrah? We need a platform for deliberations when there are several streams of thoughts and ideologies. For instance, if I am talking about media and dont invite mediapersons for deliberations then how will I get suggestions? This is for deliberations with stakeholders and preparing an action plan. Such a major incident has happened (in Mandsaur). A government should protect peoples life but here the protector has turned into perpetrator (Rakshak hi bhakshak ban gaya). We have been fighting for the cause of farmers for a long time. Such a satyagrah means treading on the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi while looking for solutions to problems people are facing and propagating the ideology of non-violence as well. Q: The state government says it has done a lot for farmers in the last 14 years particularly after Shivraj Singh Chouhan took over as the chief minister. What do you say? If everything is fine, then why are farmers in Madhya Pradesh committing suicide, and why is there such a chaotic situation? Prices of everything that a farmer needs are spiralling whether it is diesel, fertiliser or seeds. How long will it go on? Q: In Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra farmers loans have been written off. Should the MP government do the same? We waived loans of farmers amounting to Rs 72,000 crore. Why is this government going at a snails pace? How many farmers will have to lose their lives? How many farmers will you (MP government) kill? When Sonia ji and Manmohan ji waived the loans of Rs 72000 crore there was no demand and demonstration. Still they did it in the interest of the farming community and the country. But the MP government has adopted a posture as if money was dearer to it than farmers lives. As many as 12,000 farmers are committing suicide in the country every year. There are an alarming number of farmer suicides in Madhya Pradesh, too, but the government doesnt want to redress farmer grievances. Q: But dont you think farmer suicides have been going on for a long time? Farmers killed themselves even when the Congress was in power at the Centre. Should this (suicide) be allowed to go on? I will appreciate the central government if it tells us what it has really done for the farmers in the last three years. I will appreciate it if the Madhya Pradesh government tells us what it has done for the farmers. Figures cannot bring dead farmers back to life. A widow (in Mandsaur) has asked the state government to take Rs 6 crore from her and bring back her husband. A farmer who is the father of a slain farmer has offered Rs 6 crore to the government and asked if he would be allowed to kill somebody in lieu of money. We needed answers from chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan but he launched a fast. What will happen if a CM goes on fast? Farmers are suffering because of his fault and he observes a fast. What drama. Q: But the ruling party leaders claim peace was restored in the state after the CMs fast. What do you have to say? If the state is peaceful then why are prohibitory orders in place in Mandsaur under Section 144 of CrPC. Either he should not have ended his fast when there were prohibitory orders or if all is peaceful, there should not be any prohibitory orders. Apki sarkar logon ko goliyon se bhoon de, apki sarkar logon ko hospital pahuncha de aur aap upwaas par baith rahe ho...Ye kya ho raha hai? Mazak? (Your government is gunning down people, it is sending people to hospitals and you [Chouhan] sit on a fast...What is happening? Is it a joke?) The CM wasnt sensitive enough to visit the families of those killed and apologises to them immediately after the incident. Instead he went on a fast. Q: Congress often gets issues to raise but its not able to cash in on the situation. Your comments. Just see what will happen. Q: Was there any effort on part of the state government to persuade you to call off the satyagrah? Do you think I am a man who can consider such things? Q:How is your satyagrah going to make a difference in the life of farmers and for the Congress? Only future will tell. Mai to chhota aadmi hun (I am an insignificant person). I am doing what my conscience asked me to do. This is what my duty is towards people. I dont claim I am a big leader who can do a miracle but I will make efforts to do whatever I can do for the betterment of peoples life. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Rajasthan government, which is in a bad financial shape after bailing out power discoms in the past two years, cannot afford to waive off farm loan, experts have said. With total loans given to farmers in Rajasthan exceeding 67,000 crore, any move to waive off even a part of the loan will lead to a spurt in fiscal deficit. Loan waiver will be a difficult exercise for all the states but particularly so for Rajasthan as our external borrowings have far exceeded the limits. If the government does give a loan waiver, we can then expect a cut down in the welfare schemes, economist and former member of PMs economic advisory council, VS Vyas, told HT. The fiscal deficit of Rajasthan in 2016-17 was 23,014 crore, which is 3.9% of GDP. The state government released a sum of 40,050 crore to the power discoms during 2015-16 and if this impact is taken into account the fiscal deficit of state government rises to 63,070 crore (9.36% of GSDP). In 2016-17, the state government released a further 20,000 crore to the discoms. A CAG report on state finances tabled in the assembly this year stated that the state government failed to contain fiscal deficit within the limit of 3% of gross state domestic product (GSDP) at the end of 2015-16 as laid down in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management (FRBM) Act. Experts say that burden of farm loan waiver, which is a short-term measure, should fall on the Centre which should also announce a hike in MSP. It is the duty of the Union government to bail out farmers in this hour of crisis, but it is passing the burden onto the state government. The chief minister should write to the Centre urging it to release the funds. When the Centre can write off loans of the corporate sector, it can do the same for the agriculture sector, agriculture expert Devinder Sharma told HT. The main problem is that there is no focused attempt to pull out farmers from the crisis and they have been pushed deeper and deeper into debt with every passing year. The government has failed to implement its promise of providing 50% profit over the cost of production to farmers and on top of it has discouraged states from announcing the bonus, he said. Two farmers organisation, Kisan Mahapanchayat and All India Kisan Sabha, are demanding loan waiver in Rajasthan and the Congress has also come out in their support. While the state unit of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) is not asking for loan waiver, it wants the state government to ensure that the produce is bought at MSP. Sharma said that the state government can take limited measures, but the union government alone can initiate structural reforms needed in the agriculture sector. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley recently said that the respective states will have to bear the burden of loan waiver. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Shifting sand dunes, a bane for the Indian forces guarding the international border that Rajasthan shares with Pakistan, may get a floating fence to keep intruders from the neighbouring country at bay. The idea to install the floating fence, like the one installed on the USA-Mexico border, has been mooted by the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs. In its report on border security: capacity building and institutions presented in the Rajya Sabha, the committee, headed by former finance minister P Chidambaram, noted that the fencing in the Thar desert region had proved to be ineffective because of the shifting sand dunes. The committee asked the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) to set up a technical expert committee to examine all solutions, such as the fencing used along the US-Mexico border on shifting sand dunes. For the past several years, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has been working on finding a solution to this problem. Rajasthan shares 1,037 km long border with Pakistan. The border was sealed in 1996 with barbed fencing, but gaps developed in a 32.5-km stretch in Shahgarh Bulge area of Jaisalmer district due the problem of shifting sand dunes. Before finalising the report, the parliamentary committee discussed the issue with the CPWD and the MHA officials to find a lasting solution. The MHA officials told the committee members that they have asked the CPWD to conduct a geo-technical survey of the border area of Rajasthan. The MHA, officials said, was examining the possibility of a study to be done by a premier agency, such as IIT, for this purpose. It was also informed that the BSF was considering the option of dense plantation in the border areas to stabilize the sand dunes. We would like to draw the attention of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to a fence erected by the USA, on its border with Mexico having geographical terrain similar to Thar desert, which can be repositioned mechanically to appropriate border line and in effect floats on top of the shifting sand dunes, the repor, submitted in April, reads. The floating fence, also called the sand dragon by the locals, comprises 16-foot tall steel tubes filled with concrete strung tightly together. Triangular mounts on which the tubes are places arent fixed into the ground, allowing them to move freely with the wind and the shifting dunes. Contacted, DIG, Border Security Force Rajasthan frontier, Ravi Gandhi, said that a single-row fencing was erected in the area. Construction of fence in Shahgarh Bulge on the shifting sand dune area is difficult but (we had erected) a single row fencing that is now being maintained and repaired, whenever it gets damaged, the DIG said. Earlier, the BSF had discussed with the state forest department officials a plan to bridge the gap on the border with heavy plantation to prepare the ground for proper fencing. The dense plantation can help in stabilizing shifting sands. The Qureshi community of Allahabad, who are mostly into butcher trade will not celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr this year to protest closure of slaughterhouses after Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government assumed power in Uttar Pradesh. The decision was taken at a meeting of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Jamiat-ul-Quresh on Monday. We will not celebrate the festival and tie black ribbons while offering prayers to protest ban on slaughterhouses, said AIMIMs city president Afsar Mehmud. The situation is alarming for the Qureshis, who are mostly uneducated and have no expertise in any other trade, he added, accusing the government of not paying attention to the communitys plight. He said they will be forced to launch an agitation if no provisional arrangement is made before the Eid. The statewide crackdown on cattle smuggling and illegal slaughter houses resulted in scores of arrests and cases against the minority community, many of whom lost their livelihood. Following the controversial decision, the volume of Indias beef (buffalo meat) exports fell drastically, down by as much as 35.5%. Recent official data shows that while 1,37,687 tonnes of beef was exported in March 2017, the figure came down to 86,119 tonnes in April 2017 -- a drop of 51,568 tonnes in just a month. Ishtiaq Qureshi, a former meat trader who now runs a small tea stall, said: Eid-ul-Fitr is an important festival for Muslims but this year I along with my other community members, who are struggling for survival, will not celebrate it. My children are asking for new clothes for Eid, but I have invested my savings to open a small paan shop. Now, I have no money to celebrate the festival, said another member of the community, Gulzar Qureshi, who used to trade in meat before the ban. Gulsher, a former meat seller who now deals in scrap, said the government should have made an alternative arrangement for them before launching the crackdown. We were sending our children to schools to pull them out of meat trade. But the crackdown has hit us hard and left us with no money for our childrens education, he said, adding We are reeling under poverty. After the closure of slaughterhouses in Allahabad as part of the state wide campaign against illegal meat trade, many butchers took up menial jobs. Before the month of Ramadan began, members of the community went on a hunger strike demanding provisional arrangements for slaughter of buffaloes. The strike continued for four days and was called off only when the officials assured to provide them support. Half of the month of Ramadan is over but the officials are yet to fulfill their commitment, said Usman Qureshi, whose family too was dependent on meat trade. Days after the arrest of Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar in Himachal Pradesh, the Dalit outfit has given a call for a rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on June 18 which will be addressed by Chandrashekhars mother Kamlesh Devi. Taking to the social media to spread the word, Bhim Army has circulated a 22-second video of Kamlesh Devi appealing to the people, especially the youth, to join the rally. In the video, Kamlesh Devi is seen sitting on a sofa with a picture of Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar in the background. The mission of Baba Sahib (Dr Ambedkar) should continue though some people are trying to create hindrance in it, she said. Besides the video, pamphlets and posters bearing the pictures of Chandrashekhars mother are also being circulated in Saharanpur. Through pamphlets and posters, Bhim Army is demanding an independent judicial probe into the Saharanpur violence and is also seeking security for Chandrasekhar. Meanwhile, Kamlesh Devi and her lawyer met Chandrasekhar in jail on Tuesday. The jail authorities, however, refused to allow Congress vice-president Imran Masood to meet Chandrashekhar. Masood had gone to the jail with a few other Congress leaders, including Behat MLA Naresh Saini, but the officials told them that only family members would be allowed to meet Chandrashekhar. A visibly upset Masood accused the district administration of imposing an undeclared emergency in the district. Read more| Saharanpur violence: Bheem Army founder Chandrashekhar arrested On May 21, Chandrasekhar had organised a mass protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and now the call from her mother is giving sleepless nights to Saharanpur police. Officials of the district administration said they were keeping a close vigil on the developments and were in touch with the Delhi police as well. A total of 125 blood donors in Uttar Pradeshs Allahabad are always ready help the needy on the beep of their mobile phones, thanks to a WhatsApp group Youth for Blood Donation. The group members are not only saving lives but are also motivating others to join the mission by dispelling fear and misconceptions about blood donation. The group was created two months ago by Rajiv Mishra, 33, a researcher at the Nehru Gram Bharti University, Allahabad. On an average, one new volunteer is added to the group every day and Rajiv aims at having 200 members by August 2017. Facts & figures As an adult, a healthy adult has 4.5 to 5.5 litres of blood in the body. When one gives a unit (350 ml) of blood, the body replenishes the entire amount lost. The volume of fluid adjusts within a few hours of donation. The red blood cells get replaced within a few weeks. Blood donation criteria include good health, age between 18 and 60 years and a minimum weight of 45 kgs. Most donors do not experience side effects. In a survey of 5,000 donors, only 1 per cent experienced a minor reaction usually irritation on the skin due to improper needle insertion. A very small number of people feel weakness right after donation for some time. Weakness can be avoided by coming to the donation centre with a full stomach and a good nights rest. The entire donation process only takes about 10 minutes and can be repeated every 12 weeks. Rajivs zeal for the mission stems from a personal tragedy and the spirit of selflessness inculcated in him by his father, retired army captain Baleshwar Mishra. Rajiv, a resident of Trivenipuram in Jhunsi, has donated blood 39 times. I lost my elder brother Ashok in 2002, who was just 25 then. We could not arrange enough blood for an emergency operation after his appendix burst. I was 22 at that time. My brothers death left me in shock. By the time I turned 25, I had read widely on the subject and knew the importance of blood donation and the shortage being faced in the country, Rajiv, a post-graduate in medieval history from Allahabad University, said. I donated blood for the first time in 2005 and have been doing so till date, he added. I decided to create a WhatsApp group when a friend of mine suddenly required blood for his sisters operation in the middle of the night. Local blood banks did not have her blood group. The struggle we underwent that night made me step forward from an individual blood donor to one having friends who are ready to roll up their sleeves to donate blood even for strangers, said Rajiv. A person can donate blood 3-4 times in a year. Blood donation is the biggest gift one can give the society. A unit of whole blood actually saves at least three lives once its primary components red blood cells, plasma and platelets are separated, he said. Read more: Donating one unit of blood can save three lives. Heres how Rajiv now plans to add volunteers from other parts of the state to the WhatsApp group. We are getting requests from young donors from other cities. We plan to create a similar network in other cities as well, said Gyan Prakash, 32, a high court lawyer and a member of the group who has made five donations till date. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, India faces shortage of blood to the tune of 3 million units annually. Only nine million units are collected in a year against the requirement of 12 million units, reflecting a 25 per cent deficit. Things get worse during the summer season when the shortfall hits as high as 50 per cent. This shortage can be easily eliminated if only an additional 2% of Indias youth donated blood, just once in a year. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ELKO Elko District employee Clint Mothershead has become the first Bureau of Land Management employee to receive a Smokey Bear Award since the program began in 1957. Mothershead, who received the 2017 Bronze award, has been the Fire Mitigation and Education Specialist on the Elko District for the last three years and is chairman of the Northeast Nevada Fire Prevention Group. The award is the highest honor given to organizations or individuals for outstanding wildfire prevention service that has had an impact within a state over a two-year period. Only 10 Bronze awards are given out annually. Mothershead was nominated by his supervisor, Matt Murphy, who cited his considerable contributions to wildfire prevention including managing a robust Northeast Nevada Fire Prevention Group, creating the Elko-specific Next Steppe publication, developing and managing the Nevada Fire Prevention billboard campaign, and coordinating with partners to further educate public on the subject of fire prevention. Its an honor to receive this recognition, being from Elko and knowing multiple families who could be impacted by wildfire drives me a little harder to try and reach out to as many individuals possible, said Mothershead. I couldnt have been as successful as I have been if it wasnt for the support I have received from my family and friends as well as my supervisor; Matt Murphy, the BLM Nevada State Office, cooperating agencies and the firefighters who attend the events promoting wildfire prevention. The Smokey Bear Awards are the highest national award for outstanding work and significant program impacts in wildfire prevention. Since 1957, the award has been given to well deserving groups and individuals that excel in their duties. The National Association of State Foresters, the USFS and the Ad Council sponsor these awards. I cant take credit entirely for this award, great ideas were presented to me and it was my responsibility to make them happen, added Mothershead. Other accomplishments for Mothershead in 2016 include 31 community assistance events, two special events, 28 mass media initiates, two communities assisted with distribution of fire prevention publications, coordinated 15 events with NNFPG, and over 20,000 public contacts. BLM Nevada Acting State Director Marci Todd surprised Mothershead with the award during a State Leadership Team Meeting in Reno on June 1. Tulsi Ram and Satyendra Yadav, students of Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University in Lucknow, have many things in common. Both are visually impaired since birth and have been selected to do yoga along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ramabai Ambedkar rally ground in Lucknow on June 21. GROWING HEALTH AWARENESS According to a study, about 14.3 million people in India practised yoga in 2013, up from 6.3 million in 2001. As per recent estimates by Assocham, growing health awareness has caused an annual increase of 30-40% in the number of yoga practitioners. As many as 150 Divyang (physically challenged) students of this varsity are waiting for International Yoga Day, when they will join 50,000 others on the occasion. They have already started practising yoga on the university campus. Read more: UP governor Ram Naik, CM Yogi Adityanath join Baba Ramdevs yoga session I am delighted to be a part of the PMs yoga day function. This is a big honour for me. It is an opportunity to prove to the whole world that we are not inferior to others who can see, said Tulsi Ram, an undergraduate student. Physically challenged students of the university are determined to put up an impressive show, said Satyendra Yadav. The government of India is celebrating the third International Yoga Day in a big way. With the BJP government in UP, right wing party leaders are leaving no stone unturned to make it a momentous event. The fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to take part in the yoga drill here is an indicator. Read more: Fasting Muslims to take part in PM Modis yoga day event in Uttar Pradesh At present, 168 Divyang students of the university have enrolled for the purpose. Yoga instructor Vinod Kumar Yadav is giving mild to rigorous training as per need and constraints of these students, said vice-chancellor Nishith Rai. The move is an endeavour to empower and make physically challenged students feel that they too are part of the mainstream society. The idea is to make the students aware of the benefits of yoga, said Rai. AP Tiwari, academic advisor to the V-C, said: It will be heartening to see divyang students performing kapal bharti and other breathing exercises with the PM. They are determined to learn the maximum number of yoga asanas (postures). Around 400 leather tanneries in Kanpur, which are a major source of pollution in Ganga, would be relocated soon. The UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) has identified 700 acre land in Ramaipur village located approximately 15 kilometers away from Kanpur for shifting of these tanneries. The proposal, which was discussed at a meeting presided by chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar, is yet to get the State cabinets nod. Upset over the development, tannery owners have decided to oppose the move and petition both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and call on them next week. The ball on relocation of these leather tanneries was set rolling by Yogi Adityanath government when during a meeting on pollution of Ganga on April 16 it told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to shift these British-era tanneries that release toxic wastes into the river. These tanneries cluster in Jajmau area of Kanpur employ over two million people. The NGT was informed that the existing industrial clusters at Jajmau and Unnao required establishment of an entirely new Common Effluent Treatment Plant with a separate chromium recovery plant and separate pipelines. There is no other alternative except shifting of these tanneries, if we want to rejuvenate Ganga. Shifting of the leather units requires a strong will. The residents living near tanneries have to face the foul smell emanating from these units which is injurious to their health, says noted advocate M C Mehta, who had filed a PIL for cleaning of river Ganga before the Supreme Court in 1985. In 2014, the case was transferred by the apex court to NGT, which is now seized with the matter. In a detailed report covering various aspects of contamination in the river, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had informed the NGT that the Ganga, spanning a distance of 543 km between Haridwar and Kanpur, was affected by 1,072 seriously polluting industries which were releasing heavy metals and pesticides. At present, 823.1 million litres per day (MLD) of untreated sewage and 212.42 MLD of industrial effluent flows into the river while three of the four monitored Sewage Treatment Plants were non-compliant with the set standards, it said. Experts, however, point out that tanneries comprise only one aspect of many critically polluting industries identified by the CPCB, which also needed to be looked into. UPSIDC sources said the shifting of these tanneries would be undertaken in a phased manner as the state government would have to make proper arrangements and provide their owners with all facilities. Uttar Pradesh cabinet has decided to hold walk-in interviews to fill large number of vacancies of doctors. It approved a policy for transferring doctors and proposals for investment of Rs 5297 crore in two different projects in Noida. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath presided over the meeting of the state cabinet that also approved a monitoring system to check time and cost overruns in implementation of development projects. Under the system, preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs) and mentioning of start date and end date of projects along with allocation funds etc. will be made compulsory. Minister for medical and health Siddharth Nath Singh said out of 18382 posts of doctors, 7348 were vacant. These included 4598 level-1 vacant posts of doctors who are posted at the community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs). The state cabinets approval to walk-in interviews to fill vacant posts and the first ever transfer policy was a revolutionary step that would bring about transparency in medical and health department, he said. Singh said the state government had raised retirement age of specialists doctors on January 13, 2014 from 60 years to 65 years hoping to fill 1000 vacant posts. This only helped in retaining 298 specialists, he said. The state cabinet has decided to divide these 1000 posts to 500 specialists and 500 MBBS doctors. A three-member committee headed by DG, medical and health, with principal secretary, medical and health, will be constituted to make appointments through walk-in interviews. Principal secretary, medical and health, will nominated the third member of the committee. Doctors appointed through walk-in interviews will be designated consultants and will not be given any administrative work. Appointment of consultants will be made for one year and might be extended for one more year. Uttar Pradeshs 75 districts have been divided into four categories with most in demand districts like Lucknow being categorized in level A, while districts like Lalitpur and Chitrakoot etc. that are less in demand falling in D category. The doctors appointed as such would be given a salary of Rs 50000 per month if posted in a level A district. In order to attract doctors to serve in level D districts, they will be given salary of Rs 65000 per month. Similarly, for specialists, the salary in a level A district will Rs 80000 while in level D district they will get Rs 120000 per month. Under the transfer policy the doctors will be transferred in public interest or on personal or administrative grounds. The requests for transfer would be accepted online from February 1 to March 31. An 11-year-old boy from Santacruz died of suspected dengue at a city hospital on Tuesday. This would be the first dengue death in the city so far this year. Civic officials didnt confirm the case and Surya Hospital refused to comment when HT contacted them. On Wednesday evening, his school principal posted about the boys death on a social networking site. Today we lost a dear student of Grade 6 to dengue. The sad news has left all of us shaken. Our sincerest condolences to the grieving family for whom this loss is irreparableSuch a thin thread with which we hold on to life. Any time it can snap, it read. The principal said the boy took ill last week and was hospitalised on Saturday. His older brother, studying in Class 12 in the same school, was on an exchange programme in Japan along with the principal. He was showing signs of recovery, but his body couldnt handle it and on Tuesday he passed away owing to a rare case of dengue shock, said the principal. The teachers had visited him in hospital on Monday. The incident has alerted the school to the dangers of untreated, stagnant pools of water, which are a breeding grounds for mosquitoes. We are sure that the boy was not infected in the school because we are on a break till Friday, but we want to spread awareness about hygiene so that parents become vigilant, said the principal. The school also plans to get their premises defogged. Last year, at least five dengue deaths were reported in the city. Read more: Rain-disease symptoms mimic those of swine flu, say doctors in Mumbai SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said he did not care about being in power, he just wants to ensure that Maharashtras farmers are debt free. Speaking to leaders from the Kiran Kranti Jan Andolan from Puntamba a market town in Ahmednagar that was initially the epicentre of the agitation at his residence on Tuesday evening, Thackeray said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was yet to implement the loan waiver it had announced. With relations between the Shiv Sena and the BJP having turned sour during the recent farmers agitation, BJP minister Chandrakant Patil plans to visit Thackeray at his residence and attempt to smoothen ties. Patil is likely to visit Matoshree, the Thackeray familys residence in Bandra on Wednesday. Shiv Sena leaders backed the farmers agitation earlier this month, bitterly criticising the government and even taking to the streets in protest. Even as the Devendra Fadnavis-led government attempted to quell the protests by promising loan waivers for small and marginal farmers, the Shiv Sena a junior partner in the government kept insisting on an immediate loan waiver for all farmers in the state. Shiv Sena ministers even skipped a cabinet meeting, saying the BJP-led government should have clarified its stand on loan waivers and involved the Shiv Sena in its decision -making process. After the government recently gave in to farmers demands for a complete loan waiver, the Shiv Sena was quick to take credit. Party leaders put up posters right outside the BJP office, claiming that it was Thackerays perseverance that led to farmers loans being waived. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to grant any relief to a Pune resident who had sought permission for his 26-week-pregnant minor daughter, a rape survivor, to abort her foetus. The Pune resident withdrew his petition after the division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sarang Kotwal expressed that it was not inclined to grant any relief to him. The bench, however, granted him liberty to file another petition seeking compensation for his daughter under Manodhairya scheme introduced by the government. He had approached high court contending that pregnancy cannot be forced on his daughter. It is her decision to terminate the pregnancy, stated his petition, adding that, The pregnancy was caused due to a sexual relation that is not permitted by law or by her. In such circumstances, forcing the pregnancy on her is an infringement of her right to life and right to privacy. According to the petition, the survivor was abducted and raped repeatedly by her neighbour when she was 17, leaving her pregnant. Her pregnancy thus must not be forced on her, he argued and urged the court to uphold the girls right to life as envisaged under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The police have filed an FIR against MLA Dilip Sopal, of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), after he was accused of misappropriation of funds of the Barshi APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) in Solapur district of Western Maharashtra. The case was registered against the former minister after a complaint by district audit officer VB Doke, who during an investigation found an alleged malpractice by 18 ex-directors of the Barshi APMC board, including Sopal. The ex-directors are accused of misappropriation funds of worth Rs1.05 crore by misusing the rent amount, illegally recruiting workers, paying them daily wages against holidays, signing illegal agreement for cold storage and providing loans more than Rs15 lakh to daily-wage workers without any approval, said state cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh. The case against the 18 was registered only after the district audit officer found malpractice by the board of directors in its report for April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. The state government will not spare anyone who is found involved in any such activities, he added. However, Sopal has termed action against him as political vendetta and blamed Deshmukh, who is also from Solapur district. This is all false and I am ready to fight, Sopal said. Since the term of the APMC committee ended in September last year, elections were not conducted at his behest and later, administrators were appointed. After Chhagan Bhujbal, Pankaj Bhujbal and Ramesh Kadam, Sopal is the fourth MLA from the NCP against whom a case has been registered. Chhagan Bhujbal is in jail facing money laundering charges while Kadam is accused of embezzlement of funds worth more than Rs300 crore of a state-run Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe Development Corporation meant to financially assist socially backward classes. The enforcement directorate (ED) has also attached assets worth Rs 120 crore in this case. Apart from them, another two senior leaders Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare are also facing allegations for their involvement in a multi-crore irrigation scam. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON From the new academic year, which begins on Thursday, the states school education department will conduct random monthly checks in schools to ensure students do not stoop under the weight of heavy school bags. Activists fear the weight of bags has increased at least by one kilogram this year, owing to new heavier textbooks. A government notification issued on Wednesday evening directs education officers in every district to strictly implement the school bag policy, which states bags should not be exceed 10% of the childs weight. After the checks, officers will have to submit status reports to the education director (primary) based in Pune, who will present the state-wide findings to the department every 15 days. The policy was framed after Swati Patil, a city-based activist, filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court raising concerns over heavy school bags. The PIL is still being heard after the HC pulled up the government a couple of times for its failure to implement the policy. Patil said they are now planning to mention the case to the chief justice for urgent hearing because they suspect the weight of the bags is still not under control. Instead of bringing down the weight as suggested by the policy, the government has increased it further by introducing bigger and heavier textbooks for class 6 this year, she said. Adding that neither the government nor schools have implemented any of the expert recommendations made in the policy. Schools admit they have not succeeded in reducing the weight of the bags, but are quick to put the blame on the parents. Students don t follow the timetable, said Suresh Nair, principal, Vivek Vidyalaya, Goregaon. If both parents are working, the students carry two to three tiffin-boxes to school every day to eat before going for tuitions. Nair admitted their school had started checking bags last year after the policy was introduced, but they stopped it because students did not pay heed to it. We have adjusted the timetable so that they dont have to carry too many books, but they still bring tuition books and other extra materials. Some schools said the prescribed limits are impossible to achieve. We are unable to meet the 10% limit set by the government, said Rohan Bhat, chairperson, Childrens Academy Group of Schools, Oshiwara, Kandivli and Malad. The school plans to ask parents to sign undertakings that they will not send fancy bottles, heavy bags, and extra items that add to the weight of the bags. Read more: Should students use trollies instead of schoolbags? This is what researchers think Heavy school bags could lead to backaches and hunchbacks: Study SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In an attempt to woo the Shiv Sena, which has been dropping veiled threats of pulling out of the state government over the issue of agitating farmers, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday deputed senior BJP ministers to brief Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray about the modalities of the promised farm loan waiver. Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil and cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh met Thackeray at Matoshree, his residence in Bandra, along with Sena ministers. Sena minister Diwakar Raote, in charge of the state transport department, said, The Sena chief understood the facts and figures surrounding the farm loan waiver. Our demand was that farmers in Maharashtra should get a complete loan waiver. Seems like the government is moving in that direction. He said the government-appointed ministerial committee will now work out the parameters of the farm loan waiver, and then come back to Thackeray with the information. The Sena chief will give his suggestions and clarify the partys stand on the implementation at that time. Todays meeting was to just understand the basic statistics involving the loan waiver and where the situation currently stands, said Raote, who addressed the press jointly with Patil after the meeting. The state was rocked by farmers protests from June 1 with demands of a loan waiver and a minimum support price. Sena backed the agitation, bitterly criticising the BJP-led government in which it is a junior partner, taking to the streets in protest. Taking Thackeray into confidence and accommodating his opinions in finding a solution to the crisis was also a primary demand of the Sena ministers, who even skipped a cabinet meeting to make their point. Even as the Fadnavis government attempted to quash protests by promising loan waivers for small and marginal farmers initially by October 31, the Sena kept insisting on a complete and immediate loan waiver for all farmers in the state. When the government recently gave in to farmers demands for a complete loan waiver, the Sena jumped in to take credit. Sena leaders put up posters outside the BJP office thanking Thackeray for his perseverance in the farmers agitation that ultimately helped get their demands sanctioned. On Tuesday, Thackeray greeted leaders from the Kisan Kranti Jan Andolan and farmers from Puntamba, a market town in the Ahmednagar district, which was initially the epicentre of the agitation, at his residence. He said the Sena is more concerned about the implementation of the governments promises and hopes there is no situation when the Sena has to fight again, and if there is, then the party will not think twice about being in power. Read more: Dont care about being in power, just want Maharashtra farmers to be debt-free: Uddhav Thackeray SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Mumbai: The Asian Heart Institute may not pull down the hoardings on kickbacks taken by doctors for referring patients for advanced medical tests, after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) critised it of insulting the medical fraternity. The hoarding put up by the hospital in Bandra-Kurla Complex read Honest Opinion, No Commission, which IMA said insulted the profession. The hospital wrote a letter to the Maharashtra Medical Council, the state health minister and medical education minster on June 14, signed by 50 doctors from the hospital. It said that cut practice had become prevalent . It had become difficult for a doctor or a hospital to pursue the profession honestly. Cut practice is a commission given to a doctor to refer a patient to another doctor or hospital for investigations such as MRI, CT scans and X-rays. Meanwhile, the IMA lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India on June 13 saying that the advertisement was made in poor taste and was offensive to the medical profession. The hoarding suggested that all hospitals except the Asian Heart Institute accepted commissions and indulged in cut practice, said Dr Jayesh Lele, an IMA member. Industry insiders however, told HT that the practice was quite rampant in the health-care industry. Dr MG Pillai, a cardiologist in the city, said that a popular diagnostic laboratory had once offered him 30% commission to refer his patients to them for routine tests such as lipid, renal and thyroid profiles. I dont indulge in unethical practices and I denied them. But I know how rampant such practices are in the city, he added. Dr Samiran Nundy, who wrote an article in the British Medical Journal in 2014 about corruption in the Indian health-care system, said that the message on the hoarding could have been more subtle. The hoarding implies that they are the only hospital that doesnt take commissions, which probably is not the correct way of saying it, he said. Read more Indian Medical Association criticises Mumbai hospital for hoarding about kickbacks WELLS A Hampton Inn & Suites is under construction adjacent to the Loves Travel Stop just off Interstate 80 along U.S. 93 in Wells. Loves Travel Stops and Country Stores Inc. is the owner, said Kealey Dorian, supervisor of media for the company. Wells is a good place for our Hampton Inn & Suites because of its great location along Interstate 80. The Loves Travel Stop and hotel will complement each other nicely by offering different services for interstate travels, she said. The four-story hotel will have 81 rooms, an indoor pool, fitness center and on-site meeting facilities, and the hotel will provide complimentary breakfast, Dorian said. Its the first four-story building in Wells, Wells City Manager Jolene Supp said. The city is excited about the Hampton. She said that with Newmont Mining Corp.s Long Canyon Mine now in operation, there are more corporate activities in town, including those of Wells Rural Electric, so the meeting rooms will be good for Wells. The Hampton Inn also is on the snowbird route for travelers going south for the winter on U.S. 93, Supp said Tuesday. Plans call for the hotel to open in early 2018, Dorian said. Supp said the builders have had to deal with cold and windy weather, deep snow and flooding, but they are coming along. General contractor is Atlas Construction Group out of Oklahoma City. Loves has more than 420 truck stops and convenience stores across the country, with headquarters in Oklahoma City. Taking a swipe at the Shiv Sena, Congress MLA Nitesh Rane has written a letter to the Director of Guinness World Records to register a record in the name of Sena for threatening to withdraw support to the Maharashtra government many times. We would like to register a record on his (Uddhav Thackerays) behalf for announcing a number of times that his party Shiv Sena would withdraw support to the Maharashtra government, read Ranes tongue-incheek letter. Rane, an MLA from Kankavli assembly constituency of Sindhudurg district in Konkan region, requested the director that threats to withdraw support to the government could be treated as a fresh category. Despite being a constituent of the BJP-led government, the Shiv Sena has been frequently threatening to pull out of the state government over various issues. Recently, the party said if the government failed to waive off farmers loan, it would withdraw its support . CM Devendra Fadnavis has declared a loan waiver for all farmers. Nitesh Rane is son of Narayan Rane, senior Congress leader and former chief minister of the state. Rane has started his political career with the Shiv Sena. Senior Rane is considered to be a bete noire of the Thackeray family. (With agency inputs) READ Is Shiv Sena exploring option of teaming up with Congress, NCP? Sharad Pawar dares Uddhav to pull out of Maharashtra government SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray turns 49 on Wednesday, he is staring at a bleak political future, with questions being raised over his ability to resurrect his party and keep himself relevant in Maharashtra politics. With just one legislator in the Maharashtra assembly and the loss of power in the Nashik municipal corporation (the first civic body he ruled), Thackeray is facing one of the most challenging times, as top leaders along with their supporters have deserted the MNS following poor performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Once considered a charismatic leader who managed to get considerable following with his parochial politics, he is now passing through what can be called the worst phase in his political career. While political pundits describe him as a political nuisance without any vision, both Thackeray as well as his supporters describe their current plight as a temporary setback. The mood among the MNS cadre is dismal. Many MNS party workers lament that Thackerays inaccessibility as well as lack of direction to the party led to its downfall. It is unfortunate that Rajsaheb attends film functions and inaugurates fancy places, but has no time to inaugurate MNS offices, said an MNS office bearer, who refused to come on record. There are so many issues where we could have taken to the streets and connected with the people, but we are never given any directions at all, he added. A senior MNS leader says that the second line of leadership has been ineffective. Our top leaders are busy fighting among themselves and installing their loyalists at the ward level, rued the leader. The entire focus of these local leaders is to extort money instead of strengthening the party. How can the party grow with this attitude? he added. They both feel that Thackeray has not been able to rise to the occasion despite the aggressive allies BJP and Shiv Sena attacking each other, and the opportunity for a new opposition party, since Congress-NCP are yet to play the role of an effective Opposition. The nephew of Shiv Sena founder, late Bal Thackeray, Raj was groomed by the former as his political heir, but later preferred his son Uddhav to lead the party. Angry, Raj floated his own party in 2006 and adopted the sons of the soil agenda, which was his uncles USP. The MNS raised the issue of unemployment among Maharashtrian youths and blamed the outsidersmostly migrant north Indiansfor the same. Following Rajs tirade, MNS workers beat up north Indian hawkers and cab drivers. While Raj faced several police cases for inciting violence and was even arrested, his popularity grew in certain sections on the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik belt. It had such a strong impact that the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance lost a large chunk of seats due to the MNS in the 2009 assembly polls and Congress-NCP returned to power for the third time. The MNS won 13 assembly seats and ate into the votes of the Sena-BJP in more than double the number of seats. However, Raj could not build on the early gains. Failure to build a strong party across the state, and lack of second-run leadership badly affected the party. Rajs indecisiveness on various issues further affected its image. The Modi wave of 2014 hurt the partys prospects, and the MNS is yet to recover from the same. The MNS is currently in bad shape as its tally in the Mumbai civic polls dipped to just seven corporators from 28 in the previous term, while the number of legislators in the Maharashtra assembly has now been reduced to one from 13 in 2009. The Nashik Municipal Corporation, where the MNS was in power with 40 seats, has now come down to a measly three. In the introspection meeting held after elections, MNS leaders wanted Thackeray to dump the Marathi Manoos agenda and woo other communities as well. However, Raj refused to heed the advise, and stressed that he was dedicated to the son of soil cause. On occasion of the partys 11th anniversary on March 9, Thackeray said that he would henceforth shed his inaccessibility and take to the streets. Political analysts blame Raj for this impasse, saying he lacks political imagination. He squandered an excellent opportunity he got in 2009, and reduced himself to just a nuisance. Even now, we are not seeing any concrete efforts to revive MNS, said political analyst Surendra Jondhale. However, MNS leaders call it a temporary failure. Every party has to go through a low phase. However, we will bounce back in the 2019 elections, insisted MNS leader Nitin Sardesai. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Model Kritika Chaudharys mother and brother will arrive in Mumbai today. Their statements are expected to throw new light on the case as Chaudharys neighbours were unable to tell police much about the models personal life, said Amboli police. The decomposed body of the 27-year-old was found at her Andheri flat. Police said she was half-naked and had suffered a head injury. They found her with a cloth over her face. After police informed Chaudharys family of the discovery, they left Haridwar, Uttarakhand and started heading towards the city. Chaudhary lived in a building on Veera Desai Road in Andheri, before she moved to the SRA building where she was found dead. She had separated from her husband after she discovered that he was cheating on her. Neighbours said they did not know if she was in a relationship with anyone else. We know she loved her family. She must have told them about her personal problems, debts or addictions. She must have told them if someone was threatening her. Her friend circle might be able to tell us if she was in a relationship, said an official from Amboli police. Another police team is in the process of examining her call data records to see who she was in touch with before her death. A forensic team and fingerprint experts from CID visited the scene of the crime on Monday and on Tuesday. They collected Chaudharys clothes, bed sheets, mobile and samples of her DNA. The Amboli police are trying to trace the two men who were seen with her before her death. A watchman said he saw them entering the building with Chaudhary early on June 7 or 8. He said he did not see Chaudhary after that. Residents informed Amboli police about a pungent stench emanating from Chaudharys room around 3.15 pm on Monday, after which the death came to light. 1. The Amboli police started investigating the case of struggling TV actor Kritika Chaudhary, 25, whose decomposed body was found in her Andheri (West) flat on June 12. She had rented the flat in an SRA building near the Andheri regional transport office at Four Bungalows. 2. Police said they are on the lookout for two men who visited her last week, after the buildings watchman said he saw two men entering the premises with Chaudhary around 2.30am on June 7 or June 8. Chaudharys neighbours said they knew neither her name nor profession. To them, she was simply Pari, a reserved, compassionate, religious woman who loved her family. 3. Chaudhary was married, but had left her husband after she suspected him of having an affair, police sources said. The couple was in the process of finalising their divorce. 4. On Monday, police received a call from residents, complaining of a pungent odour emanating from Chaudharys flat. The main door was locked from the outside. Police broke open the ventilator window and found her body on the bed. They said the air conditioner had been left on. The killers may have been done this to ensure that the body did not decompose quickly, said police. She was half-naked. Her legs were hanging off the bed. She was wearing a night dress. Her face had been covered with a piece of cloth, said a police source. 5. Police suspect the cloth may have been used to smother her. She had a head injury and might have been assaulted. Police said primary investigations did not lead them to believe that anything was stolen.They are examining CCTV camera footage to find leads. All five wholesale markets at the agricultural produce market committee (APMC) in Navi Mumbai will remain closed on Thursday in protest against the tax structure on essential produce in the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime. These markets sell vegetables, fruits, spices and grains. Kirti Rana, chairman of Navi Mumbai Merchants Chamber, said, We have informed the chief minister and finance minister of Maharashtra that business will remain closed on Thursday. He added, The government has removed necessary food items from GST, but when the same food items are sold under a brand, then it will levy 5% GST on them. This is unfair. Spices and dry fruits like dates will not be charged with VAT. We demand that such items also be removed from the GST. Rana said, The government should also remove APMC cess and service tax. READ MORE Despite strike, farmers fear their crop will rot during rains, send produce to Mumbai markets Why a bountiful harvest drove farmers to despair and anger The Maharashtra prison department has refuted reports that it had told the state government that actor Sanjay Dutt was released from prison as per rules. Additional director general (Prisons) BK Upadhay said, No statement has been issued by the prison department In the Sanjay Dutt case, as the matter is subjudice. While the deputy inspector general (DIG), prisons, Swati Sathe added, The prison department has not released any statement to media regarding Sanjay Dutts matter. We will submit our stand to the High Court. The Bombay high court had, on June 12, asked the Maharashtra government to explain why it released actor Sanjay Dutt, who was serving a sentence over the 1993 bombings, eight months early. Dutt, sentenced in 2013 to five years in jail for illegally holding and destroying a rifle, was let out eight months early in February 2016 on account of what the government said was his good conduct in Yerwada prison. The bench of justice RM Savant and justice Sadhana Jadhav asked the government to file an affidavit detailing the parameters considered, and the procedures followed in arriving at the conclusion that Dutt deserved leniency. Read: Sanjay Dutt was out on parole half the time, why did govt still release him early: Bombay HC Was the DIG prisons consulted, or did the jail superintendent directly send his recommendation to the governor? Isnt there a uniform procedure followed for all prisoners who receive good conduct reports? the bench asked. Also, how did the authorities assess that Dutts conduct was good? When did they get the time to make such assessment when he was out on parole half the time? the bench said. The court was hearing a petition filed by activist Pradeep Bhalekar, challenging Dutts early release and questioning the frequent paroles granted to him while he was in jail. Dutt was serving a five-year sentence in Yerawada central prison in Pune for illegal possession and destruction of an AK-56 rifle in 1993 serial blasts case. Even while he was serving the sentence, Dutt had been out of prison for about six months on frequent furlough leaves and parole. Although app-based taxi aggegators were given three months to apply for licences, only two service operators have applied for it. Moreover, none of the four Regional Transport Offices in Mumbai has received applications from Ola and Uber. The two service providers that have applied for licences are Tab Cab (run by SMS Taxi Cabs, a subsidiary of SMS Infrastructure) and Sun Telematics Limited (an Andheri (east) company). Tab Cab has applied at Tardeo RTO and Sun Telematics has sought a licence from Andheri RTO. Officials from both RTO offices confirmed it. However, Wadala and Borivli RTO officials said that they had not received any application for app-taxi licences. According to transport department officials, the aggregators were upset with certain conditions in the new rules. A permit fee of Rs2.61 lakh for vehicles with an engine capacity of 1400 cc and above, and a ban on diesel-run cabs were two major concerns. Uber has moved court over the rules, under which the government has asked the service providers to apply for licences. Uber did not comment on applying for the licence, while an Ola official said that they were following the process. Tab cab provides its services under the Maharashtra Phone Fleet Taxi Scheme, 2010. Sun Telematics has signed an agreement with Mumbai Taximens Union and Mumbai Taxi Association to bring out an app for black and yellow cabs in the city. The state government enacted the new Maharashtra City Taxi Rules 2017 in March to regulate app-based taxi service in the state. Besides bringing parity among all operators, the rules would control surge pricing. Surge pricing burns holes in the pocket of commuters, especially during peak hours, and commuters protested against it. The state has set a limit on surge pricing. Under the Maharashtra City Taxi Rules 2017, licences are mandatory for providing app-based taxi service in the state. The service providers have to apply to RTOs for licences. They will also need to set up a control room to track the cabs. Read more Maharashtra government announces mobile app for booking taxis and autos Surge pricing by Ola, Uber to continue in Mumbai, panel gets more time to fix fares SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Ahead of civic polls in Mira-Bhayander, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the formation of a separate police commissionerate for the area. Fadnavis also announced a slew of schemes, including a Metro corridor for the western suburbs. The twin cities will have its own police commissioner to look after law and order. Fadnavis, who held a meeting to discuss development projects for Mira-Bhayander on Wednesday, said the proposal of a separate police commissionerate will be approved by the government. He said a tehsil office for the city will also be approved as a special case. Among the poll sops, the CM said elected representatives and officials from Mira-Bhayander will consider bringing down the age of old buildings to 25 years from 30 years for redevelopment. The officials were also directed to register cases against builders responsible for buildings facing problems just a few years after their construction. When the Mira-Bhayander corporation raised a demand for Rs200 crore to build concrete roads, Fadnavis said the government will intervene for a loan from the MMRDA. He directed the corporation to submit a proposal for a fishery hub at Uttam. The corporation was asked to submit a proposal for the Metro line between Dahisar and Mira-Bhayander before June 30. He announced finalising the date to lay the foundation stone of a water scheme to supply of 299 MLD from the Surya dam for the region. Civic polls for the corporations are scheduled for later this year. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON While MNS chief Raj Thackeray struggles to stay relevant while pundits call him a political nuisance, his cousin Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said he was not interested in power. Speaking to farmers on Tuesday, he said his only aim was to ensure that they are debt-free. Meanwhile, two days after model Kritika Chaudhary was found dead, her mother and brother arrived in Mumbai today. Police are expected to question them to find out more about Chaudharys personal life, after talks with neighbours did not reveal much. 1. Model found dead: Did Kritika Chaudhary tell family about her problems? Cops to question them Model Kritika Chaudharys mother and brother will arrive in Mumbai today. Their statements are expected to throw new light on the case as Chaudharys neighbours were unable to tell police much about the models personal life, said Amboli police. 2. No statement issued on Sanjay Dutts release: Maharashtra prison department The Maharashtra prison department has refuted reports that it had told the state government that actor Sanjay Dutt was released from prison as per rules. 3. SSC results 2017: Youve got your marks, now whats the next step? The Maharashtra Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) announced the Class 10 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam results online yesterday. As many as 193 students in the state scored a whopping 100%. 4. MNS Raj Thackeray turns 49, stares at bleak future in Maharashtra politics As Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray turns 49 on Wednesday, he is starting at a bleak political future, with questions being raised over his ability to resurrect his party and keep himself relevant in Maharashtra politics. 5. Dont care about being in power, just want Maharashtra farmers to be debt-free: Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said he did not care about being in power, he just wants to ensure that Maharashtras farmers are debt-free. Speaking to leaders from the Kiran Kranti Jan Andolan from Puntamba a market town in Ahmednagar that was initially the epicentre of the agitation at his residence on Tuesday evening, Thackeray said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was yet to implement the loan waiver it had announced. A Thane student who expected to score 85% in the Class 10 SSC exam, but scored 65%, hanged herself at her home on Tuesday evening. The police found a suicide note in which the girl explained why she decided to commit suicide. When the SSC results were declared on Tuesday, Komal Sanjay Pandekar, 16, found she had scored 65%. She left a suicide note in which she said she was expecting 85%, and as she did not score that high, she was committing suicide,said RD Malekar, senior police inspector, Wagale Estate Police station. In the note, she also asked her parents to continue going to work everyday. She asked her father to stop drinking too much and wanted her younger sister to fulfil her dream of scoring 85% in the SSC exams, Malekar said. The police said Pandekars family lives in a chawl in Sambhaji Nagar. Her mother works as a domestic help, while her father is a watchman. She has two sisters.Malekar said no one was at home when Pandekar hanged herself. In another incident, a 16-year-old girl from Khar committed suicide after finding out that she did not pass the exam. The Khar police said Namira Shaikh found out about her marks in the afternoon, and soon after, locked herself in her room and hanged herself from the ceiling. (With inputs from Jayprakash Naidu) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The pirate is heading to Glastonbury! According to the announcement made on Glastonbury festivals official Twitter page, a few surprising additions have been made to this years line-up in the form of Liam Gallagher and Hollywood actor Johnny Depp. The announcement was made on the festivals official Twitter page confirming that former Oasis star Gallagher would play a Saturday teatime slot on The Other Stage. Liam Gallagher, Johnny Depp and NASA astronaut Mike Massimino added to #Glastonbury2017 bill + final poster! -> https://t.co/SJUhOo6awK pic.twitter.com/fMkv0aiMYO Glastonbury Festival (@GlastoFest) June 12, 2017 They posted the final poster for the festival with the names of all the performers written on it. According to The Independent, Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp has been described as the festivals guest of honour. Hell appear at the sites new drive-in movie area Cineramageddon introducing his personal choice of films followed by a discussion with the areas curator Julien Temple. Liam Gallagher performs with his band Beady Eye during the Glastonbury music festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset in 2013. (REUTERS) The films will then be screened throughout the night on Thursday, June 22. For the unversed, the Glastonbury festival is a five-day fest of contemporary performing arts that takes place near Pilton, Somerset. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus and other arts. This years Glastonbury festival is being headlined by Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran. The festival will run from June 21 to June 25. Follow @htshowbiz for more Rajasthans young dancer Shivani Paliwal is all set to head to Los Angeles where she will train with artistes from China, South Africa, Japan, Korea, U.K., Brazil and Germany, as part of a global pop group, which has only two Indians on it. Simon Fuller, best known for managing The Spice Girls, one of the biggest girl bands in pop history, and as the creator of the Idol franchise (American Idol/Indian Idol), selected 15-year-old Paliwal and Mumbai girl Simran Duggal after a round of auditions in March this year. Fullers company, Now United, conducted the auditions for the global pop group, at the True School of Music in Lower Parel, Mumbai. Paliwal, a student of Rajiv Shruti Dance Institute in Udaipur, will perform with the pop group for three years across the world, said Leena Sharma, her dance teacher. Its a dream come true for me to be part of such a group, said Paliwal. I want my dance career to take off from here. A student of Class 10 at Alok Senior Secondary School in the lake city, Paliwal performed hip hop and backing dance forms during auditions in Mumbai in March this year. Sharma says Fuller came to Indian in search of musicians and dancers in December. During his hunt, Bollywood choreographer Rajiv Shruti showed him video of Paliwals dance. The Udaipur girl was called for auditions and she was selected among top 40 contestants. Few months later, she was called to Mumbai where she ended up being the only second girl to be part of Fullers global team of 11 from countries including Japan, Korea, China, U.K., U.S., Mexico and Brazil. She will go to LA in August this year for one-week training. Her mother, Radha Paliwal, will accompany her on the training, Sharma said. My daughter began dancing when she was just 3 years old, says Paliwals mother. She has been winning several awards since childhood. We are very happy for her. This is the first time the mother-daughter duo will travel abroad. A 38-year-old labourer working at a paint box manufacturing unit died following an explosion and fire at the factory on Wednesday afternoon. According to the police, the incident took place when the worker, Naval Kishore, was pouring some chemical from a big tank into a pipe and it led to an explosion around 12.30pm. Kishore sustained burn injuries and died by the time the firefighters and the police reached the spot. The unit is located in Kavi Nagar Industrial area and owned by one Neeraj Gupta. According to the police, the factory owner could not produce a fire no-objection certificate, which is mandatory for running a factory. Apart from the NOC, we found that there was no proper firefighting arrangements in place. We have registered a complaint on behalf of another labourer in order to conduct an investigation and the autopsy. Kishores family has been asked to lodge a complaint in the incident, said Neeraj Singh, station house officer, Kavi Nagar. Once we receive the complaint, a case under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC will be registered, Singh said. Factory owner declined comment on the mishap. Chemicals used at the factory to prepare paint. Even the paint boxes are painted at the same unit. Some chemicals caught fire and led to an explosion. The labourer sustained severe burn injuries and died on the spot, Singh said. Kishore hailed from Hardoi and stayed in nearby Bamheta village. I received the information around 2pm and rushed to the site. By then, the body was taken away by the police. The other labourers told me that my father-in-law was pouring some chemical and it caught fire. The factory officials are not ready to reveal more details. We will soon file a complaint, said Manoj Kumar, Kishores son-in-law. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Following the recent heist at Kapda Mill branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Modi Nagar, the city police on Wednesday asked bankers to strengthen security measures in their branches. The police, in a meeting with officials from branches of 18 banks, suggested the formation of a WhatsApp group to immediately send an SOS message to the police in emergency situations. The police also told bankers to hire more private guards and collectively carry out night duty outside all branches in a locality. We asked them to immediately strengthen and repair the susceptible areas of their branch building and carry out repairs to windows, grills and doors. We have asked them to install more CCTV cameras and ensure that the entire premises is under surveillance. We also asked them to install and check sensors at the earliest, said Rajesh Kumar Singh, circle officer (city). We have told them to put the safety measures in place at the earliest. We will soon conduct a surprise inspection of banks. A report will be sent to the state administration if the banks fail to implement the safety measures, he said. Meanwhile, customers continued to throng PNBs Modi Nagar branch to have a look at their lockers. Of the 435 lockers, 30 were broken into and valuables, stolen. The burglars had bored a hole in the strongroom of the branch from the rear and escaped from the same opening. The incident came to light on Monday morning. However, the police have asked the branch to give them in writing the details of the 30 lockers that were broken into. The police said that the branch officials mentioned that only 11 lockers were broken into, in the FIR lodged at Modi Nagar police station. Later, they told that there were 30 lockers in all. We have asked them to furnish a list of all lockers that were damaged. It is surprising that the branch officials could not give correct information in the FIR, said Dhruv Bhushan Dubey, station house officer, Modi Nagar. Branch manager Ashok Srivastava said that the officials, initially, had noticed only 11 damaged lockers. It was upon an assessment later that we realised that 30 lockers were broken into, totally. We have given in writing to police about the additional lockers that were damaged. So far, we have not made an assessment of valuables lost. We are compiling the list from customers and have also informed other customers to inspect their respective lockers, he said. The police teams are continuing to investigate the incident but are yet to get any more leads. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities will hold an open house on June 18 for redressing public grievances. The meeting will he held at the Amity University Hall in Sector 127 from 11am to 1pm. The members of legislative assembly (MLA) from Noida, Dadri and Jewar will take part in the meeting, which is likely to be attended by RWAs, homebuyers and social workers. Gautam Budh Nagar Member of Parliament (MP) and Union minister for state for art and culture Dr Mahesh Sharma will also be present at the meeting. Dr Mahesh Sharma had written to the Uttar Pradesh government to call a meeting of officials from the three authorities to address grievances of the public on the spot. We have compiled a list of complaints filed by the public. We have shared the list with the officials concerned with addressing the issues. People will be allowed to complain and get solutions in the meeting as well, Sanjay Bali, representative of Dr Mahesh Sharma, said. The Uttar Pradesh government has directed the chief executive officers of the three authorities and other top officials to be present. Officials said that people from different fields, be it farmers, daily wage workers or professional staff, will be able to get their grievances redressed on the spot as many residents have complained that the authority officials do not pay attention to their issues. We have received complaints that officials do not pay heed to their issues. The public finds it difficult to meet officials and get their issues resolved. Therefore, Dr Mahesh Sharma has decided to facilitate such a meeting. We have asked the officials to address issues, which can be resolved easily, on the spot, Bali said. According to the Noida authority, hundreds of complaints that have been filed with the complaint cell remain unaddressed. Many complaints related to even civic amenities, including water supply and encroachment, remain unaddressed, Bali said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The horrific suicide bomb attack in Kabul on May 31 that left 150 dead, and subsequent similar attacks at a funeral a few days later briefly brought Afghanistan back into the news. But only briefly since the British elections, the string of terrorists attacks in that country and general consternation with Trumps antics and shenanigans meant that Afghanistan soon receded from public attention. This has meant that Pakistans game of gaining strategic depth has gained substantial traction and the constitutional framework set in motion with the ouster of the Taliban in 2001 is in real danger of unravelling. Americas failure to stabilise Afghanistan has led to a general sense of fatigue about that country as reflected in the minuscule coverage of the terrible acts of terrorists violence that has grown unabated in recent years. America has also been distracted by its domestic political wrangling that marked the presidential election campaign, and has worsened with the coming into office of Donald Trump. This has allowed Pakistan to rearrange regional power equations quite dramatically, ably supported by China who brought in the Russians onto the same side. While the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) has made its appearance in the eastern Afghan province of Nangrahar, its influence and ability to launch terrorist strikes has been exaggerated to achieve this. American missteps and the Iranian tendency to adventurism has meant that over the past decade, Iran and the Taliban have become close tactical allies. The result is that despite stepped up terrorists attacks aimed at civilians, the Taliban is being presented by these countries as a moderate player that should have a key role in any peace process. Russia has admitted to opening up lines of communications to the Taliban and even initiated a dialogue process along with China and Pakistan leaving out the government of Afghanistan. The Afghan government strongly objected and had to be brought in along with regional stakeholders, India and Iran. Neither the US, the main military and economic player in Afghanistan, nor NATO were part of these talks. Russia took the stand that while violence was unacceptable, the Taliban were very much relevant players. Expectedly, the talks went nowhere but in retrospect, helped build the case that it was the Taliban alone who held the veto over any attempted peace process. The disputed elections of 2014 led to the US-backed uneasy coalition between President Ashraf Ghani and his challenger Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, who was given a new title, chief executive; but if anything, dissonance in governance has only enlarged. Initially Ghani made bold moves to placate Pakistan in the belief that it would lead to peace. What Afghanistan saw was increased violence, especially suicide attacks on civilians in crowded places leading to hundreds of causalities. The aim of damaging the credibility of the Afghan government by showing up its inability to protect its citizens was achieved very substantially. This has allowed Pakistan to emerge as the key interlocutor on behalf of the Taliban even as it continued to deny that it had anything to do with them. Exhaustion and distraction meant that the US and other western countries were happy to buy this fiction if it allowed them to quietly exit Afghanistan. President Ghanis failure to build a cohesive and inclusive government, or to establish working relations with parliament, whose term has incidentally expired, has meant that the Afghan government is internally hobbled and unable to deliver on good governance. The agreement that set up the National Unity Government with Dr Abdullah in 2014 required that within two years the constitution would be amended to provide for a prime minister, has not happened. The largely non-Pashtun Jamiat from whose ranks Abdullah, foreign minister Rabbani and many more joined the government, has started speaking up as an opposition party. They led a big anti-government demonstration two days after the May 31 terrorist attacks leading to police firing with six dead including the son of the deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament. The next day, at his funeral, attended by Abdullah, Rabbani and others, three bombs went off killing nine persons. Jamiat leaders like Governor Atta of Balkh blamed persons within the government for the complicity in the May 31 bomb blast. And for the same reason, Rabbani boycotted his own governments Kabul Peace Process presided over by President Ghani. Trumps effectively ceding leadership to China on many fronts has meant that Pakistan is emboldened enough to try and push the Afghan government hard enough for them to acknowledge that Pakistan would have de facto control over Afghan affairs, something it tried to do after 1989 Russian withdrawal. At present, the momentum seems to be favouring them as neither is the Afghan government a united one, nor are the Afghan security forces, despite their bravery, in a condition to take the initiative back from the Taliban. If these trends are not reversed, Afghanistan could see increased violence that could potentially spill over its borders. Shakti Sinha is director, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi and distinguished fellow, Institute for National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) The views expressed are personal Three days after his fathers death, an autorickshaw driver from Uttar Pradesh, Udayveer Singh, 35, was murdered in the Ram Darbar locality in Industrial Area Phase 2, Chandigarh, on Wednesday morning. Police said Satnam Kumar, 31, hit Udayveer on the head with a sledge hammer and pushed him off the roof. The deceased, Udayveer. (HT Photo) Udayveers younger brother, Vijay Kumar, said Satnam from Behlana village near the Chandigarh airport nursed a grudge. Police sources said Satnam was a friend of Udayveers wife, Priya, 30. Udayveers elder brother, Dhruv Pal, said, I almost caught Satnam when he was fleeing but I lost my balance and slipped. The accused is absconding. The family rushed Udayveer to Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32 but he died on the way. A case was registered under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. This was the second tragedy in the family since June 10 when Udayveer father, Chandel Singh, passed away. A day after Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Kirpal Singh Badungar joined a SAD-BJP dharna against the state government, Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh on Tuesday said Badungar should stay away from political protests. Badungar along with other SGPC members sat on the dharna in Patiala against the Amarinderled governments failure to fulfil the Congress pre-poll promises. Talking to reporters, the Akal Takht jathedar said, This is my personal opinion. The SGPC chief should not take part in political protests. AIR ONLY GURBANI ON LED SCREENS The Akal Takht jathedar said only Gurbani should be telecast on large LED screens installed at the Heritage Street near the Golden Temple. The issue became a talking point after liquor advertisements were telecast on these screens. After SAD protest against this, the chief ministers office (CMO) ordered probe into this. WILL FORM PANEL ON GURDWARA GIAN GODRI At a meeting of Sikh high priests, Giani Gurbachan Singh said a decision was taken to form a 15-member committee to resolve the issue of rebuilding Gurdwara Gian Godri at Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The panel will take up the matter with the Uttarakhand Government and also chalk out a plan in this regard, he said, adding it will have a member each from various panthic outfits. Members will be announced and it will start working in a week, he said. The SGPC along with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and other Sikh organisations had demanded that the historical gurdwara, which was demolished in 1978, should rebuilt. LODGE FIR UNDER SECTION 295-A IN SACRILEGE CASES Stressing for tougher measures to stop incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth sahib in Punjab, Gurbachan Singh said police must register a case against the gurdwara management wherever such incidents take place and take tough action. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) staged a walkout after Vidhan Sabha speaker Rana Kunwar Pal Singh read out the name of former Punjab Police director general of police (DGP) KPS Gill for obituary references on Wednesday, the opening day of the budget session of assembly. Gill, who is credited with wiping out militancy from Punjab, died in Delhi on May 26. Freedom fighters and anyone who had done good to the society deserves an obituary. Gill killed thousands of innocent youths, so his name be deleted (from the obituary list), said Sukhbir Singh Badal, leader of SAD MLAs. Then, all the 14 Akali MLAs present in House, walked out raising anti-government slogans. Former CM Parkash Singh Badal was not present in the House on Wednesday. On Monday, the SAD had written to Amarinder and the speaker, demanding Gills name be deleted from the obituary list. The speaker, while reading out the obituary references, said that Gill earned the acronym supercop and played an important role in restoring peace in Punjab. As the Akalis were walking out, some congress MLAs stood up and shouted at opposition members, leading to a ruckus. Taking a jibe at SAD members, local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu demanded that the drug addicts who died during the ten years of the Akali government be also mentioned in the obituary list. BAINS BROTHERS ALSO WALK OUT The Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) also staged a walkout over the Gill issue even as its ally Aam Aadmi Party stayed back in the House during the obituaries. The two LIP MLAs, Balwinder Singh Bains and Simarjit Singh Bains, also walked out of the House, raising slogans of Qatil (murderer) Gill and Shame shame Punjab sarkar. Talking to the media later, Amarinder justifed his governments decision to pay tributes to Gill and said, (Parkash Singh) Badal remained CM for 15 years because of Gill BJP DIFFERS Meanwhile, all three MLAs of the BJP, a SAD ally, kept sitting in the House as Akali MLAs staged a walkout. They had made their stand clear on Monday, saying there might be a difference of opinion over Gills style of functioning, but he deserves an obituary for bringing peace to Punjab. Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and health minister Brahm Mohindra arriving at Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh, on Wednesday. (Keshav Singh/HT Photo) IT ALL BEGAN WITH HANDSHAKES, SMILES Before the arrival of the speaker in the House, the CM walked to the opposition benches and shook hands with former deputy CM Sukhbir Badal. Then some SAD and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs also got up and moved towards the CM for a handshake. Sukhbir also walked to the treasury benches to meet Congress MLAs, particularly power minister Rana Gurjit Singh, who is in the thick of a controversy after some of his former employees bagged sand mine contracts. Before the speaker started reading out the obituary references, AAP MLA Balwinder Kaur suggested that homage be paid to 70 farmers who committed suicide in three months in Punjab since the Congress took over the government. Amarinder agreed to her demand and tributes were paid to the farmers. VINOD KHANNA AMONG OTHERS PAID TRIBUTES The House paid tributes to actor-turned-politician and four-time BJP MP from Gurdaspur Vinod Khanna; freedom fighters Nishan Singh, Gurdev Singh and Banta Singh; martyrs Lovepreet Singh, Paramjeet Singh and Raghubir Singh, agriculture scientist Dilbagh Singh Athwal and Akali leader Kirpal Singh Khirnia, who was referred to as an eminent personality. The House was adjourned for the day. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Inspector Inderjit Singh, who was arrested by the special task force (STF) of Punjab Police with 4 kg of heroin in Kapurthala on Monday, has confessed to having links with drug suppliers in Amritsar region. Sources in the STF said that Inderjit, who was posted as crime investigating agency (CIA) in-charge in Kapurthala, has also admitted that he owned the drugs recovered by the STF from his two official residences in Jalandhar and Phagwara. He is on police remand till June 19. STF inspector general of police (IGP) Parmod Ban is personally interrogating Inderjit, who was reportedly close to many senior officials of the Punjab Police. An STF officer told HT that the chief ministers office had called STF chief ADGP Harpreet Sidhu to give a briefing in the case. The CMO has categorically directed the STF chief to carry on investigations without feeling any pressure, even if Inderjit comes out with names of senior officers as his mentors in the drug trade, sources in the CMO said. Meanwhile, director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora has also sought a detailed report about the case from the STF and sources said that Inderjit is likely to face dismissal in the wake of the probe conducted by the IG (border zone) and the SSP Tarn Taran, a few days before the STF nabbed the inspector. This probe was ordered by the STF after analysis of the cases registered by Inderjit as CIA in-charge in Tarn Taran in 2013. In three of these cases, huge recovery of heroin was made. But all the accused in the three cases were released because of tempering in witness records made by Inderjit. Inderjit is co-operating in the questioning. This is the only detail we can share with the media at present, said the STF chief. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The municipal corporation here had launched the segregation of waste with much fanfare on World Environment Day on June 5. But a week on and the project is yet to gain momentum in the city. The residents, as well as the garbage collectors, are going on with the old system of dumping dry waste and wet waste together. The resident welfare associations claim hardly anything is being done on the ground. The municipal corporation had started the process of distributing free dustbins to residents in two colours - green for wet waste and blue for dry waste. On June 5, as many as 10,000 bins were distributed across the city to councillors and everyday between 100 and 200 are being handed over to the sanitary inspectors and councillors for further distribution. In all 15,000 bins were procured initially, and out of that around 2,000 are left. An MC official says the current focus is on distribution of the bins for segregation of waste. After that they will lay stress on segregation of waste at source. The official added the bins are being handed over to the residents, proper register is maintained and a picture is clicked to keep record. This exercise is expected to get over by mid-July. GARBAGE IS NOT BEING SEGREGATED While the MC is laying focus on distributing dustbins, the garbage is being disposed of by the residents in just one bin. Even the garbage collector is not stressing on segregation of waste. A garbage collector said these days almost the entire garbage is being dumped at the Daddumajra ground, even if it is segregated where will it be processed . The existing plant is not able to process the garbage in large quantity. Sant Ram, a garbage lifter in Sector 41 said, There are just a couple of residents who are segregating garbage, rest all are dumping it in the same old way. We will also be getting new carts, which will have two boxes - one for wet and other for dry garbage. It will take another month to implement the new scheme. Brijpal Singh, a safai karamchari said, I really dont know how the segregation will be implemented in totality. We have seen over the years there are some residents, who in a bid to save Rs 100, which is paid to garbage collector, go themselves and dump the garbage. In the evening and morning, they go and throw the garbage in the dump. The Resident Welfare Associations should be involved to cover maximum residents and a large scale awareness needs to be done to change the mind set, Singh said. The MC joint commissioner Manoj Khatri added, Initially, it is slow but will gain momentum once all the bins are distributed. We aim to complete the distribution by next month. We are also procuring bins for the garbage collectors for segregation. The MC also plans to impose fine in the coming months if garbage is found dumped in residential and commercial areas. A fine of Rs 5,000 will be imposed on people for dumping garbage in residential area and Rs 10,000 in commercial area. RESIDENT SPEAK: We dont see any initiative from MC. We had asked the sanitary inspectors when will we get the bins. There is no contact with the MC on this issue. We expect awareness about segregation to get people adopt the new way. --Rajender Mohan Kashyap, president, RWA Sector 22 There is nothing on ground yet. We have not received any dustbins so far and there is no awareness drive being organised to tell residents how to go for segregation and what are the benefits. The councillor has also not approached us. --SC Luthra, vice-president, RWA, MHC, Manimajra Nothing has started so far. MC is yet to start distributing the bins in our area. We are telling residents to segregate the waste on our own. The MC is also devising a mechanism about garbage collection. --Hitesh Puri, vice-chairman, FOSWAC SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Newcomers should not be allowed to enter the Panjab University campus in their cars from the coming academic session. This is one of the recommendations of a high-powered committee set up by the PU syndicate to re-look at the suggestions of an earlier panel on dealing with overcrowding and traffic chaos on the campus. The committee is also not in favour of allowing students to enter the campus after 5pm if they are not carrying valid identity (ID) card of the hostel or permission of the warden concerned. There is a provision for Rs 100 fine per violation for over speeding, honking, parking vehicles in no-parking zones areas and moving in a vehicle sans the prescribed sticker. For transit parking, Rs 10 be charged and vehicles be allowed to park only on one side of the road, the committee has recommended. The university has been taking a slew of measures for the past several years, but has not been able to deal with the traffic problem. In 2013, it was decided not to allow freshers admitted to PU hostels to bring their vehicles. The decision was never implemented properly. Since 2014, the entry of vehicles in the academic area has been restricted from 10pm to 5am. During PU students council elections in 2015, a majority voted against allowing students to bring four-wheelers in academic zones in Sector-14 and Sector-25 campuses. SUGGESTIONS A committee of security officials will issue an NOC to former students to obtain degrees and other relevant documents Security staff will be authorised to tow away vehicles sans valid stickers and parked in no-parking zones Hostel wardens will be responsible for any vehicle parked in or around the hostel without sticker or registration with the hostel Five boom barriers to be erected, including in front of the Gandhi Bhawan, near vice-chancellors office and administrative block, besides four check gates on the campus No vehicles in academic block without stickers. Parking and no-parking zones to be earmarked. Teaching and non-teaching staff to give details of their vehicles Wardens will have to provide details of registered vehicles to security office. Department chairpersons, directors, coordinators to provide details of vehicles used by teachers, non-teaching staff and students Vehicle stickers to teaching, non-teaching staff and students to be issued afresh Special jackets and helmets be procured for the traffic staff Parking area to be marked with a white line. ID CARD, PERMISSIONS MANDATORY The high-powered committee comprising eight members, including five senators, was set up by the syndicate, PUs executive body, on May 28, 2017. It has recommended that students attending the evening college on the campus will have to carry a valid ID card to enter the varsity. Moreover, they will be allowed to use only two-wheelers or bicycles. Research scholars will have to carry their supervisors permission to enter the campus. They should be in a registered four-wheeler with the university sticker on it. If there is more than one student in the car, each one of them should have a valid ID card. Similarly, students visiting the library should carry the librarians permission, and they will have to leave their vehicles in the parking lot near Gate No. 1, the panel recommended. In the syndicate meeting held on May 28, the blueprint for decongestion of the Sector-14 campus was discussed, following which this sub- committee was constituted with senator Varinder Gill as its chairperson. The sub-committee did not agree with the earlier recommendation that a host will have to inform the security gate about arrival of his or her guest in advance. Instead, it suggested that the gate staff can be informed on phone once the guest arrives, following which a temporary pass will be issued. Slug: Traffic blues on campus An eighth standard student hanged himself on Wednesday after allegedly failing to complete his summer vacation homework. The school had reopened on Monday. The incident comes at a time when the debate over unwarranted pressure on students due to homework has forced the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to ask schools to cut down on homework, and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) to shun homework till class 6. Fourteen-year-old Utkrisht Kumar used his school tie to hang himself from a ceiling fan in the wee hours of Wednesday at his residence. His mother found him hanging from the ceiling fan of his room while she went to check if he was asleep at around 2.30 a.m. His parents rushed him to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. The boys parents have said that he failed to complete his homework as the family had gone out of station during the vacation. He used the tie of his school uniform as a rope to hang himself, said officer in-charge of Bariatu Police Station, Dhananjay Kumar Srivastava. Utkrisht was a student of ICSE-affiliated St. Thomas School. His teachers said that he was an above-average student. The deceaseds father Ranjeet Jaiswal runs a printing press. This is not the first incident in Ranchi where a student committed suicide due to the pressure of studies. In February, a class 12 student of Ranchis Lala Lajpat Rai School was hospitalized after he set himself ablaze in a classroom due to his failure to cope with pressure. He died the next day. In 2016, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) in its general meeting had decided to not give homework to students studying in classes UKG to 6. Guidelines for Class 6 to 8 stated that formal homework should not be set, but pupils may be required to keep diaries, take up one or two projects or a hobby, suitable not only to their tastes and abilities but also the financial positions of the parents. Psychiatrists say that a rise in such incidents shows that school teachers and the education system as a whole need to be sensitized about mental health of children. Even a class 8 student can be going through problems such as depression. The teachers need to understand that every student cannot cope with the pressure in the same manner. It is high time we introduce mental health first aid at schools, said Dr. Siddharth Sinha, senior resident, Ranchi Institute of Neuro Psychiatry and Allied Sciences. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A sub-inspector of police shot himself dead with his service revolver at his quarters adjacent to the police station in which he was working at Kukunurpalli village of Siddipet district in Telangana on Wednesday afternoon. According to the police, P Prabhakar Reddy, who had been working as SI in the Kukunoorpalli police station since August 26, 2016, was found dead in a chair in his quarters. Reddy, who belongs to Tanguturu village of Yadadri Bhongir district, was on leave for two months after he was blessed with a baby. He returned to work only last week and has been staying in his quarters alone, leaving his wife at her parents house. This afternoon, he shot himself in his temple and died in the chair itself, the police said, adding that no suicide note was found in the quarters. The police station falls under the Siddipet police commissionerate in the Gajwel assembly constituency represented by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. A tense atmosphere prevailed at the police station, as the family members who rushed there alleged that Reddy had committed suicide due to harassment from the higher officials. With the support from local villagers, the family members staged a protest in front of the police station blocking the road. However, the police are suspecting that Reddy might have shot himself dead, after coming to know about the suspicious death of a Hyderabad-based beautician Aurumilli Vijayalakshmi alias Sireesha on Tuesday. Sirisha (28) was found hanging at her workplace R J Photography at Film Nagar in Hyderabad. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the SI had misbehaved with Sireesha, when she went to Kukunoorpalli on a work. The previous night of her death, Reddy came to her office and there was some scuffle between the two. We are investigating into the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police V Venkateshwarlu told the media. Incidentally, Reddys predecessor T Ramakrishna Reddy also committed in the same police quarters on August 17 last by shooting himself dead with his service revolver. Unlike Prabhakar Reddy, Ramakrishna Reddy left a suicide note, alleging that he was being harassed by his superiors forcing him to collect monthly haftas (bribes). Director General of Police Anurag Sharma, who took serious note of the suicide of SI, deputed additional DGP Gopi Krishna to inquire into the issue and submit a report at the earliest. He also ordered transfer of Siddipet ACP Giridhar immediately and attached him to the DGP office in Hyderabad. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Top South Korean director, Bong Joon-ho, called Wednesday for new rules on screening Netflix films in cinemas as local chains boycott his blockbuster over the US streaming giants online policy. The movie Okja, sparked controversy at this years Cannes film festival over Netflixs policy of releasing its movies in cinemas and online on the same day. The policy drew angry protests from cinema owners in France, which does not allow online streaming until three years after a films release in movie theatres. I think the movie came out too early... before the whole industry reached a consensus on how to regulate this new form of platform, Bong told reporters. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho attends at the press conference for his latest film Okja in Seoul, South Korea. (AP) Bong said he pushed for the general release of Okja in cinemas due to his artistic ambition to make it available across many platforms, but he found the arguments from both sides understandable. I think that Okja will pave the way for efforts to establish new rules and regulations over screening of Netflix movies in theatres, he said. Netflix was seeking general release for Okja in South Korea but the three top multiplex chains have decided to boycott it. The $50 million action-adventure film starring Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton is now expected to be screened at a handful of small independent movie theatres across the South beginning June 29. South Korean movies are customarily made available online at least three weeks after their general release in cinemas. Okja was one of two Netflix-backed movies to premiere at Cannes this year and competed unsuccessfully for the Palme dOr at the worlds top film festival. A poster for the Netflix movie Okja, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, is displayed on the Croisette. (REUTERS) The controversy over the movies even forced Cannes to change its rule, to require that every film in competition be shown in French cinemas afterwards. The rule will apply from next year, potentially preventing future Netflix movies from competing. Bong said he felt baffled by the controversy at Cannes, describing it as unusual for the international film festival to change rules due to the host nations domestic regulations. It would have been good had Cannes invited us after sorting out potential legal problems at home, said Bong, who has directed several highly-acclaimed and award-winning films at home and abroad. The 47-year-old has argued that the row over Netflix may be temporary as the industry adapts to new technology, pointing out that the advent of television did not kill filmmaking as feared by many in the past. Netflix is also locked in a similar battle against big US cinema chains. In 2015 most major multiplex chains refused to screen the long-awaited Netflix-made sequel to martial arts blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the same reason. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop A strong earthquake hit southwestern Guatemala near the border with Mexico in the early hours of Wednesday, killing one person after a church collapsed and cutting power, officials said. The 6.9-magnitude quake damaged buildings in the neighbouring southern Mexican state of Chiapas, authorities said, but there were no immediate reports of deaths in Mexico. The earthquake was felt throughout the national territory and damage assessment has begun, said Julio Sanchez, spokesperson for Guatemalas Conred national disaster center. The earthquake hit 15km (10 miles) west-northwest of the city of San Marcos, at around 1:30am local time (0730 GMT) at a relatively deep 111km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The shallower the quake, the more dangerous it could be. An aftershock struck around 20 minutes later, the agency said. Power went off in the Guatemalan departments of Retalhuleu, Quetzaltenango and Suchitepequez, authorities said. A church collapsed in San Sebastian, Retalhuleu, killing one person, emergency services reported. The Civil Protection Authority in Mexicos Chiapas posted photos on Twitter showing damaged buildings and homes. The USGS initially reported the quake, which struck when many residents were asleep, as a magnitude 7.0. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that based on available data there was no tsunami threat from the quake. In late 2012, a far shallower 7.4-magnitude quake off the coast of Guatemala near the Mexican border killed at least 48 people and trapped others under rubble. Islamic State fighters captured some territory around Tora Bora, the former stronghold of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistans eastern Nangarhar province, officials said Wednesday. The push and capture of the giant cave complex that once housed the late al-Qaida chief would be a major scoop for the Islamic State group in its increasingly deadly rivalry with the Afghan Taliban. The caves had until now been under Taliban control. Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman in Nangarhar, said IS attacks in the mountain range began late on Tuesday night. Clashes continued into the day, with IS militants battling the Taliban and some local villagers in the area. By Wednesday, the Islamic State group had managed to seize some territory around Tora Bora but not the bin Laden hideout itself, Khogyani said, adding that there were unspecified casualties on both sides. I can confirm that the IS fighters occupied some areas around Tora Bora, but not Tora Bora itself, said Khogyani, referring to the cave complex from where bin Laden and hundreds of other al-Qaida members escaped a massive U.S. bombing campaign in December 2001. There has been no comment from IS or the Taliban so far. However, Hazrat Ali, a lawmaker from Nangarhar confirmed that at least 12 Taliban fighters were killed in the battle with IS in Tora Bora. Based on our information from local people, hundreds of IS fighters attacked Taliban militants in Tora Bora, said Ali. He added that the Tora Bora mountain range, with the huge caves that once hid bin Laden, is strategically a very important location for the Islamic State group, giving it a remote and difficult to access location from where to launch attacks on both the Afghan government forces as well as the Taliban. Shirin Agha Faqiri, a spokesman for the army crops in eastern Nangarhar, said IS fighters have captured much of the Tora Bora mountains, and even positioned some of their heavy artillery on the mountain peaks there. People and the local villagers are fleeing to other parts of the province, he added. Tora Bora was bin Ladens last hideout in Afghanistan, where he and his al-Qaida followers where hosted by the Taliban. Only a few months after the Sep. 11, 2001 terror attacks, bin Laden escaped a U.S. assault in Tora Bora, and later managed to flee to Pakistan. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. Navy SEALs raid in May 2011 in the army garrison town of Abbotabad in neighboring Pakistan, a raid that many Pakistanis have felt violated their countrys sovereignty. Al-Qaidas No. 2 and bin Ladens deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, took over the terror network. The Taliban have continued their insurgency in Afghanistan and over the past two years, an affiliate of the Islamic State group which has been fighting in Iraq and Syria also emerged in Afghanistan, gaining a foothold in the countrys east and clashing with the Taliban. The United States estimates that there are about 600-800 IS fighters in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated on fighting them while also supporting Afghan forces against the Taliban. In April, the U.S. used the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever dropped in combat by the American military against IS in Nangarhar, targeting a tunnel complex carved in the mountains that Afghan forces have tried to assault repeatedly but without success. Are you with us or with Qatar? Saudi King Salman raised this question during a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had visited the Gulf Kingdom for finding a diplomatic solution to the Qatar crisis. The Saudi monarch asked Sharif to take a clear position on Qatar during their meeting in Jeddah on Monday, The Express Tribune reported, citing diplomatic sources. Pakistan has told Saudi Arabia it will not take sides in the brewing diplomatic crisis in the Middle East after Riyadh asked Islamabad are you with us or with Qatar, the paper said. Pakistan has been treading a careful path since Saudi and other Gulf countries snapped diplomatic ties with Qatar after accusing the oil-rich country of supporting terrorist groups. But Saudi wants Pakistan to side with the kingdom, it said. Citing a senior government official, who was briefed on the talks at the monarchs palace in Jeddah, the paper said that Pakistan would not take sides in any event that would create divisions within the Muslim world. Nevertheless, in order to placate Saudi Arabia, Pakistan offered to use its influence over Qatar to defuse the situation. For this purpose, the prime minister will undertake visits to Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey, it said. Sharif, accompanied by army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and other senior officials, travelled to Jeddah on Monday to discuss the emerging situation in the Gulf world. Prime Minister Sharifs mediation visit to Saudi did not achieve any immediate breakthrough. According to an official statement, Sharif met King Salman in Jeddah and urged an early resolution of the impasse in Gulf in the best interest of all Muslims. Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said King Salman and Sharif discussed the latest regional developments in addition to bilateral relations. Salman told Sharif that the fight against extremism and terrorism is in the interest of all Muslims and the Ummah. The SPA, while announcing the severing of relations with Qatar, had said it had been done for protection of national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism. Qatar, meanwhile, has indicated that it was willing to address concerns of the countries that ended diplomatic relations with it. The current crisis in the Gulf is said to be the gravest that the Gulf Cooperation Council has faced in its nearly four decades of existence, although Qatars relations with Saudi and some other Arab neighbours have not always been good. Other diplomatic efforts have so far not been successful in defusing tensions either. Kuwaits Emir Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad, who has been leading the diplomatic initiative, vowed to continue his efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis despite remaining unsuccessful in his earlier bid. Saudi, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt had cut off diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar on June 5 on the pretext that its policies are fuelling extremism and terrorism. The crisis erupted late last month over fears that Qatar was trying to improve its ties with Iran, which Saudi Arabia and its allies wanted to be isolated. Chinas Nanhu Bridge that was built in 1978 met its end on June 11. The bridge, located in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in northeast China, was demolished in just 3.5 seconds by using 710 kilograms of explosives. Here is the video of the building, showcasing the old structure being dismantled, casting out remnants and debris. According to CGTN, the 39-year old bridge had become potentially unsafe for public paving way for a new one that will be designed to last a 100-years. The new bridge is expected to be open to the public September onward. It will be 150 metre long and 26 metre wide, allowing around a 5-metre wide path for pedestrians on each side, according to ChinaDaily. Door-to-door salesmen seem to have found a way around the City of Elkos business license requirement: Knock on doors in Spring Creek instead. The County does not issue business licenses. Instead, county residents who start a business are only required to apply for a fictitious firm name. But after hearing from Spring Creek Association President Jessie Bahr and Sheriff Jim Pitts at a recent meeting, commissioners are looking at the possibility of setting up a business license program. Its an issue that has come up many times in the past but never resulted in action. Driving the proposal this time is a flood of pesky salesmen knocking on doors. Bahr told commissioners the Association receives multiple complaints daily from residents. In the City of Elko, such salesmen face an expensive and time-consuming obstacle. They must apply for a Solicitors/Peddlers License, which costs more than $100 for the first month and nearly $700 annually. Salesmen also must provide compliance documentation from the Nevada Department of Taxation, and have their application authorized by the Elko Police Department (for an additional $25 charge). If a salesman knocks on your door in Elko, you can ask to see his or her license. If they cannot produce one they could be rounded up by police. The Spring Creek Association has rules against soliciting, but without a licensing system in place they are difficult to enforce, Bahr explained. The Association recently started requiring commercial operations to file for business permits. It also has an optional permitting process for home occupations, but nothing applying specifically to peddlers. Committee of Architecture rules and regulations contain a clause that prohibits door-to-door commercial solicitations of any kind, including sales, promotions, and general solicitations but non-residents are not bound by the rules. Most of the complaints were getting is that theyre pushy, Pitts told commissioners. They get in the property and they wont leave. We can enforce trespassing laws, but by the time we get there we dont know who it was or whos doing it. Starting a county business license program simply to curb door-to-door salesmen in Spring Creek sounds like overkill, but it may be the best way to address the frustrations of homeowners. At least the County or the Association could require peddlers to apply for permits, as the City does. The fees and red tape are an excellent deterrent. In the meantime here are some suggestions from Washoe County on how to deal with pesky peddlers: If you dont know the person, dont open the door. Never feel obligated to greet an unfamiliar person knocking at your door. Always keep doors and windows locked. Storm doors or security doors are helpful when dealing with solicitors, because you can see and speak safely through the door. Never allow an unfamiliar person into your house. Dont expect all perpetrators of door to door sales scams to look the part. Some are clean and well dressed and use special psychological techniques to try to get into your home or get your money. If you are not interested, simply close the door and lock it. You dont owe the person an explanation. Stand in front of your home to see what is visible from the street. If you can see your valuable items through the front windows, so can potential burglars. Residents can put a no solicitors sign on their door to help keep solicitors away. Many solicitors are legitimate businessmen with products or services to sell; others are looking to rip people off. The ability of Spring Creek residents to ask May I see your license could go a long way toward improving their peace of mind. As China searches for answers about the execution of two of its nationals in Pakistan, experts have said that blaming South Korean missionaries for their deaths amounted to misleading the Chinese public. Beijing said on Wednesday it would cooperate with Islamabad to verify whether the two Chinese citizens kidnapped and killed in Balochistan were involved in illegal preaching activities. Though Pakistans interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has confirmed the death of the Chinese nationals, Beijing has stopped short of an official confirmation and the foreign ministry has said it is waiting for more information from Islamabad. Foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang did not directly comment on reports in the Chinese state media - which took a cue from Pakistans interior ministry - that alleged Lee Zingyang, 24, and Meng Lisi, 26, were preaching Christianity in Quetta under the guise of learning Urdu. The reports also alleged that South Korean missionaries had misguided the Chinese nationals to preach Christianity in Pakistan. Instead of engaging in any business activity, they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning (the) Urdu language from a Korean national (and) were actually engaged in preaching, the Pakistani interior ministry said in a statement. The murders, claimed by the Islamic State, have raised questions about the security of Chinese workers in Pakistan, central to the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. The centerpiece of the new Silk Route plan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, passes through insurgency-hit Balochistan. The kidnapped man and woman were part of a group of 13 Chinese nationals brought to Quetta in November by a South Korean who runs a school. Language education was merely a front for conducting religious activities, the Shanghaiist website quoted a Global Times report as saying. File photo of the two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped last month from Quetta. (Twitter) Experts said the move to blame South Korean missionaries for allegedly misleading and misguiding Chinese youngsters into preaching Christianity in foreign countries, in fact, amounted to misleading the Chinese people. Most Chinese Christians have become Christian through Chinese evangelists. It has been very difficult for foreign citizens to proselytise in China. China does not have a visa category for religious clergy or missionaries, Yang Fenggang, director of the Centre on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, told Hindustan Times over email. Some foreign students, professionals and business people may do evangelistic work within China, but evangelistic activities are restricted. Carsten T Vala from the Department of Political Science, Loyola University, Maryland, agreed. Chinese nationals are themselves quite active in foreign missionary work and in more than ten years of interviews of Chinese Christians, I found a number of Chinese Christians who were eager to go abroad as missionaries. At least one Chinese church leader I interviewed reported his congregation had sent missionaries to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Arabic-speaking countries, Vala, an expert in religion in China, said. Vala added that The Back to Jerusalem Movement has provided impetus for Chinese Christians to proselytise in countries between China and Israel. That movement has stirred ambitions among many Chinese Christians as well and this is a homegrown movement, he said. Reports said South Korea is second to the US in sending missionaries to other countries. But its not easy to gauge how active the South Korean missionaries are for two reasons - its not easy for foreigners to preach in China and because of lack of research. Yang pointed out that even it was found that the two dead Chinese nationals were preaching Christianity, its the IS terrorists who should be blamed, not anyone else. Even if it is found true that these two Chinese went to Pakistan for the purpose of Christian evangelism, blaming South Koreans is irresponsible. These were adult young people who made their own decisions to go there Finally, if it was true that these Chinese were killed by the Islamic States terrorists, it is the terrorists that should be blamed, not anyone else, Yang said. Christians in a Philippines town are disguising themselves by borrowing hijabs to escape the Islamic State (IS) terrorists group that has been holding 1,500 people hostage. More than three weeks after the terrorist group stormed the southern Filipino town of Marawi, starving locals are said to have resorted to extreme measures including eating their blankets to stay alive, Dailymail reported on Tuesday. Five police officers and five Christian civilians dashed across the towns commercial district this morning, ducking for cover from a sniper, to reach a government-controlled area on the Agus River western bank, the report said. We ran the last part. We could see the bridge ahead of us. We had to take cover several times when we saw a sniper, an officer was quoted as saying. Almost the entire population of more than 200,000 fled after May 23, when fighters from local groups allied to IS rampaged through the Muslim-majority town, killing and kidnapping Christians. The military estimates 300 to 600 civilians are still trapped or being held as human shields in areas occupied by the terrorists. Did Bob Dylan use, without attribution, several passages from a website that provides study guides for his Nobel Prize Lecture? Thats the question blowing in the wind after Slate magazine reported that the unlikely Nobel laureate referenced or cobbled together several passages in his lecture from the entry on Moby Dick on the website SparkNotes. The Slate report showed specific similarities in the language used by Dylan and SparkNotes, a website started by a group of Harvard students that has study guides on several subjects. This includes specific phrases, such as lust for vengeance, that feature in SparkNotes but not Herman Melvilles classic novel. Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature in October and would have forfeited the prize money of 8 million krona ($900,000) if he didnt deliver the lecture by June 10. Days before the deadline, he delivered the 4,000-word speech, recited against a tinkling piano. In the speech, Dylan references the music of Buddy Holly and three books that influenced him Moby Dick, Homers Odyssey and Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the Western Front. Bob Dylan performs during day 2 of The Hop Festival in Paddock Wood, Kent on June 30th 2012. (Reuters) After writer Ben Greenman observed in a blog post that Dylan had apparently made up a quote from Moby Dick, the Slates Andrea Pitzer discovered it had been cobbled together from several phrases in the entry on the novel on SparkNotes. Slate then found that almost 20 of the 78 sentences Dylan devoted to Mody Dick closely resembled lines from SparkNotes. Some examples: Dylan Ahabs got a wife and child back in Nantucket that he reminisces about now and then. SparkNotes musing on his wife and child back in Nantucket. Dylan Theres a crazy prophet, Gabriel, on one of the vessels, and he predicts Ahabs doom. SparkNotes One of the ships...carries Gabriel, a crazed prophet who predicts doom. Dylan Captain Boomer - he lost an arm to Moby. But...hes happy to have survived. He cant accept Ahabs lust for vengeance. SparkNotes Captain Boomer has lost an arm in an encounter with Moby Dick... Boomer, happy simply to have survived his encounter, cannot understand Ahabs lust for vengeance. Dylan Another ships captain Captain Boomer he lost an arm to Moby. But he tolerates that, and hes happy to have survived. He cant accept Ahabs lust for vengeance. SparkNotes a whaling ship whose skipper, Captain Boomer, has lost an arm in an encounter with Moby Dick . Boomer, happy simply to have survived his encounter, cannot understand Ahabs lust for vengeance. The reclusive musician, who did not acknowledge the honour for weeks, and representatives of the Nobel Prize Committee have not yet commented on the matter. This is not the first time Dylan, 76, has been accused of plagiarism. In the past, critics have said he passed off traditional folk songs and covers of blues songs by performers such as Lead Belly as his own compositions. Dylan has also been accused of copying some lines for the song Modern Times from 19th century poet Henry Timrod and some of the lyrics on his 2001 album Love and Theft from Junichi Sagas book Confessions Of A Yakuza. In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan defended his actions, saying: Its an old thing its part of the tradition. It goes way back. He added, In folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition. That certainly is true. Its true for everybody, but me. I mean, everyone else can do it but not me. There are different rules for me. British Prime Minister Theresa Mays legitimacy was not called into question by the election result in Britain as President Ammanuel Macron is concerned, the French governments spokesperson said on Wednesday. The President did not welcome Theresa May with Thursdays election in mind, but he welcomed the legitimate prime minister of Britain who confirmed her will to stick to her timetable on Brexit, the spokesperson, Christophe Castaner, told reporters. So for us the British Prime Ministers legitimacy is not called into question, he added. Macron and May met for a working dinner in Paris on Tuesday after which May said Brexit talks would start next week as planned. The Lahore High Court will on June 19 announce its verdict in the detention case of Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed. A division bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan had reserved the decision on June 7 after the Punjab government law officer submitted a reply and Saeeds counsel advocate A K Dogar completed his arguments. The Lahore High Court (LHC) will announce the verdict in Saeeds detention case on June 19, a court official told PTI. According to the Punjab governments reply, Saeed and his aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - were detained on the instruction of the federal government for their alleged involvement in activities prejudicial to peace and security of the country. The government had also submitted the report of the judicial review board on the detention of Saeed and his aides. In his arguments, Dogar had said that the government did not produce the petitioners before the judicial review board prior to the expiry of their detention period on April 30 and extended their detention on its own. He argued that extending the detention period without the mandatory approval of the review board was illegal. Dogar claimed the government detained the petitioners to please India and America only. He said the courts of the country in past had declared detention of the JuD chief illegal as government failed to prove its charges against him. He requested the court to set aside the detention of the petitioners for being unconstitutional. Earlier, the three-member review board headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan of the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the detention of Saeed. Saeed last month had appeared before the review board and told it that he had been detained by the Pakistani government in order to stop him for raising voice for Kashmiris. The federal interior ministry rejected his arguments and told the board that Saeed and his four aides have been detained for spreading terrorism in the name of Jihad. On April 30, detention of Saeed and his four aides was extended by the Punjab government for another 90 days under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The Punjab government on January 30 had put the five men under house arrest in Lahore under the Second Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The Nawaz Sharif government had reportedly acted against Saeed after the US clearly told Islamabad that in case of not taking action against JuD and Saeed it may face sanctions. JuD is believed to be the front for the banned Lashkar- e-Taiba (LeT). The organisation is accused of involvement in militant activities in India and has already been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2014. South Korea on Wednesday rejected Pakistans contention that two Chinese nationals abducted and killed by Islamic State in Balochistan were preaching Christianity under the guise of studying Urdu at a school run by a South Korean. A South Korean official in Seoul told Hindustan Times there was no evidence to show the two were involved in Proselytisation under the guidance of a South Korean. China has said it will cooperate with Pakistan to verify whether its citizens were involved in illegal preaching activities. The murders of Lee Zingyang, 24, and Meng Lisi, 26, have raised questions about the security of Chinese workers in Pakistan, central to Beijings ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. The centerpiece of the new Silk Route plan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, passes through insurgency-hit Balochistan. After the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killings, Pakistans interior ministry said in a statement that the two Chinese nationals, who had been issued business visas, were actually engaged in preaching after they went to Quetta under the garb of learning (the) Urdu language from a Korean national. The Chinese state media stopped just short of blaming the two for their own deaths. The kidnapped duo was part of a group of 13 Chinese nationals brought to Quetta in November by a South Korean who runs a school and language education was merely a front for conducting religious activities, the Shanghaiist website quoted the Global Times as saying. But an official from South Koreas foreign ministry rejected these allegations. With regard to the two Chinese confirmed to have been killed...by the Islamic State (IS), nothing has so far been found to verify the suspicion that they were involved with a Korean missionary group, the official said. The official confirmed that 12 Chinese nationals had been taking Urdu lessons at a school run by a South Korean in Quetta. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the two Chinese, along with ten other Chinese, took classes at a local Urdu language school run by a national of the Republic of Korea by the name of Seo, the official said. (South Korea is formally known as the Republic of Korea.) The comments from Seoul deepen the mystery behind the abduction and deaths of the two Chinese. Though Pakistans interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan confirmed the death of the Chinese duo, Beijing has stopped short of an official confirmation and the foreign ministry has said it is waiting for more information from Islamabad. Experts said the move to blame South Korean missionaries for allegedly misleading and misguiding Chinese youngsters into preaching Christianity in foreign countries was meant to mislead the Chinese people. Most Chinese Christians have become Christian through Chinese evangelists. It has been very difficult for foreign citizens to proselytise in China. China does not have a visa category for religious clergy or missionaries. Some foreign students, professionals and business people may do evangelistic work within China, but evangelistic activities are restricted, Yang Fenggang, director of the Centre on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, told HT on email. Carsten T Vala from the department of political science, Loyola University, Maryland, agreed. Chinese nationals are themselves quite active in foreign missionary work and in my more than ten years of interviews of Chinese Christians, I found a number of Chinese Christians who were eager to go abroad as missionaries. At least one Chinese church leader I interviewed reported that his congregation had sent missionaries to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Arabic-speaking countries, Vala, an expert in religion in China, said. Yang pointed out that even if it was found that the two Chinese were preaching Christianity, its the IS terrorists who should be blamed for their deaths. Even if it is found true that these two Chinese went to Pakistan for the purpose of Christian evangelism, blaming South Koreans is irresponsible. These were adult young people who made their own decisions to go there Finally, if it was true that these Chinese were killed by the Islamic States terrorists, it is the terrorists that should be blamed, not anyone else, Yang said. Iranian forces killed three members of a Sunni Muslim jihadi group in the city of Chabahar in southeast Iran on Wednesday and arrested five others, the Mehr news agency said. It said one member of the security forces had also been killed. Mehr said the suspects were believed to be members of Ansar al-Furqan, a Sunni jihadi group based in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The group has threatened to carry out suicide attacks in revenge for the government executing Sunni prisoners. Madhes-based parties have decided to launch protests against planned local body elections in Nepals southern plains after several rounds of talks between the government and agitating parties failed to reach an agreement on amending the countrys new Constitution. The Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN), an alliance of seven Madhes-based groups, called for a four-day shutdown from Tuesday. The RJPN has announced it will not only boycott the elections but obstruct it. In Saptari district, one of the hotspots in the Terai, RJPN cadres briefly detained 50 junior election officials on Wednesday. RJPN cadres were also injured in scuffles and protests reported from several districts. Since the promulgation of the Constitution in September 2015, some 60 people have died in the southern Terai region in violent demonstrations. The latest negotiations failed when the government did not agree to amend the Constitution to make it Madhes-friendly and inclusive. The Madhes-based parties have now opted for a two-pronged strategy of simultaneous talks and protests. Talks on Wednesday between major political parties and the RJPN did not yield any results. The Madhesi groups believe the new government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has failed to address their grievances and is bent on holding the polls on June 28 without sorting out the demands of the Madhesi people. The government, however, plans to defer polls in provinces no 2 and 5 to meet the demands of Madhes-based parties. Elections can be postponed in the 11 Terai districts, said deputy prime minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar. The Election Commission has expressed concern about security for the second phase of elections to local government bodies and asked the government to make foolproof arrangements, said chief election commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav. Deuba has called a meeting of major parties to solicit their views on whether elections can be postponed for some time so that the government can address the demands of the Madhesis. Media reports said the government has also started mobilising the army to prevent possible confrontations. Migrants working in rich countries sent home almost half a trillion dollars in 2016, helping to lift families out of poverty by providing financial stability, access to education, housing and healthcare, according to a global report. About 200 million migrants, half of whom are women, sent $445 billion to their families in Asia, Latin America and Africa in 2016, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on Wednesday. The total amount of remittances, which is estimated to reach $450 billion in 2017, has risen by more than 50 percent in the past decade, IFAD said. It is a truly a global phenomenon in which people, due to lack of opportunities, have to leave their families behind to provide for them, said Pedro De Vasconcelos, IFAD policy advisor and author of the report. Migration should be an option, a choice. But for 200 million people, its a necessity, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview. Most remittances ($117 billion) came from the United States, followed by Europe ($115 billion) and the Gulf states ($100 billion). Total migrant worker earnings are estimated to be $3 trillion annually, of which approximately 85% remains in the host countries. The money migrants send home averages less than one percent of their host countrys gross domestic product, IFAD said. The report said families back home receive an average of $200 a month, which makes up 60% of the household income. Using the steady flow of remittances, families can buy food, get housing, go to school, access healthcare, improve sanitation, or even invest in a business and have some savings, the report said. De Vasconcelos said relying on remittances is a symptom of poverty in developing nations that pushes people to find economic opportunities abroad. He said helping families use the money more productively could help reduce poverty, and in turn, prevent people from migrating in the first place. Remittances are a symptom, but (they) ... can be used to have a long-term positive effect in the economies where these funds are going, he said. Ways to maximise remittances include getting private companies to reduce money transfer fees to poor remote areas, providing financial literacy to families, or promoting climate insurance to those in rural areas so they can cope better with disasters like floods, cyclones or droughts, the report said. More than 100 Islamic State militants launched a counterattack in Mosul on Wednesday, killing 11 Federal Police and four civilians in clashes that were still underway, Iraqi security officials said. The wide-scale assault underscored the extremist groups resilience in the city despite months of heavy fighting with Iraqi forces backed by U.S. air power. The militants first sneaked into the western Dandan neighborhood at dawn from the Tigris River and took over a mosque, where they used loudspeakers to announce the assault and shouted God is greatest! before it was bombed from the air, according to an army officer and a police officer. Then the militants moved to the adjacent neighborhoods of Dawasa and Nabi Sheet, breaking into houses, clashing with security forces and seizing a Humvee and other weapons. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information. IS boasted about the attack in a statement released online. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have been battling the extremists in Mosul, the countrys second largest city, since October. The militants are now largely confined to a few neighbourhoods. Mosques, gurdwaras and churches in West London have opened their doors to offer assistance to the survivors of a huge fire that engulfed a 24-storey residential tower block killing six people and injuring over 50 others. Sikh Gurudwaras in London have started collecting and distributing spare clothes, toys, toiletries for #GrenfellTower evacuees! #Share pic.twitter.com/TT1cTWZXRp Harjinder S Kukreja (@SinghLions) June 14, 2017 The evacuees only have what theyre wearing. We need to support them with spare necessities, he was quoted as saying by the metro.co.uk. Londons Sikh community was also praised for helping people in the wake of the UK terror attack. While St Clements Church in Treadgold St has been turned into an evacuation centre to support Grenfell Tower residents who have managed to escape the blaze. St Clements Church in Treadgold St has been turned into evacuation, support centre @newscomauHQ #GrenfellTowerFire pic.twitter.com/eJS59o0nA7 Victoria Craw (@victoria_craw) June 14, 2017 If you can help with clothes, food, blankets, toiletries etc please donate, Labour MP David Lammy said. The area around Grenfell Tower is home to a large number of Muslims. It has been reported that Muslim communities have rushed to the assistance of affected residents. Local Mosque in #latimerroad area open doors for help. Really appreciated by locals. #GrenfellTower #LondonFire Syed Ajmal Kazmi (@SyedAjmalKazmi) June 14, 2017 One resident, Mohammed, who escaped with his family, said they were up late because of it being Ramazan so they were able to escape the building quickly after smelling smoke. Al-Manaar Centre, the local mosque opened its doors as a temporary shelter for any affected by #GrenfellTowerFire https://t.co/qjO1Qonmiq pic.twitter.com/FHxznrQ9D2 Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) June 14, 2017 It is believed that Muslims in the building, up at 1:00 AM due to Ramazan, acted as lifesavers, alerting other residents sand helping people to get out of the burning building. The fire is believed to have broken out on the second floor of the tower block housing 120 flats over 20 residential levels and four community levels and had soon engulfed the entire building. A long queue of men and women standing in separate lines extends from an Istanbul mosque to see a centuries-old garment pressed down flat inside an glass exhibition case: the Prophet Mohammeds sacred cloak made of linen, cotton and silk. The Hirka-i-Serif (the Noble Cloak) was brought to Istanbul in the 17th century, at a time when the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the Islamic world deep into todays Saudi Arabia. Every year, during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, the cloak is put on special display at the Hirka-i-Serif mosque in Istanbul, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. I was here last year. God willing, I will be here next year as long as I am alive, 78-year-old Nimet Sahin said, as caretakers warned visitors selfies were not appropriate. Neziha Polat, 76, said she felt as if she was in Mecca, the holy city to which all Muslims are required to make a pilgrimage in their lifetimes. I come here every year and have the same feeling. Let God not diminish this feeling in our heart, she said in tears. A group of women offers prayers beside what is believed to be the sacred cloak of the Prophet Mohammed in a mosque in Istanbul on June 2, 2017. (AFP) From Yemen to Istanbul The garment had been entrusted to Uwais Al-Qarni, who went in the 7th century to Medina to see Prophet Mohammed but had to return to Yemen due to his mothers illness without seeing the prophet. Impressed by the story, Mohammed gave his cloak via companions to Al-Qarni as a present and he received the garment in Yemen. Al-Qarni had no children and the relic was then preserved by his relatives, Istanbul mufti Hasan Kamil Yilmaz said. In 1611 Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I brought the holy cloak to Istanbul from Kuasadasi in western Turkey where al-Qarnis relatives had preserved it. Since then Hirka-i-Serif has been in Istanbul, Yilmaz told AFP. And in 1851, Sultan Abdul Majid built the Hirka-i-Serif mosque in the Fatih district with the goal of preserving and exhibiting the cloak. There are two keys to the cloak - one held by the foundation and the other by the family, he said. The sacred garment has passed on from one generation to another and its current head keeper is Baris Samir - the 59th generation grandson of the al-Qarni who was first given the garment. Its a very honourable duty. We are very happy to perform it, and have such a responsibility, Samir told AFP. Its also a tough job, it is a tough responsibility, morally and financially. People look at what is believed to be the sacred cloak of the Prophet Mohammed in a mosque in Istanbul on June 2, 2017. (AFP) Spread the goodness An old man, wearing a skullcap and waiting his turn in the queue to see the garment, said he was at peace. What can be more precious than this in life? he asked. I have seen this before I die. Zehra, 48, said it was a great happiness for Muslims even to lay eyes on the Prophets cloak. I believe that brings us closer to him. Every year, more than one million believers come to see the sacred garment from all over the world. People from Siberia to Africa, from America to Far East come and see the Prophets cloak, Samir said. The number of visitors usually exceeds one million. We receive many visitors especially on the Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny marking when the Quran was revealed) because the cloak can be seen till the morning. Loukman Hakim, 49, a businessman from Malaysia, was among the visitors, along with a group of around 20 Malaysians. Of course it makes us closer to Prophet Mohammed, Hakim told AFP outside the mosque after seeing the sacred cloak. It makes us happy, it makes us feel that we have to do something to be with him, meaning to say that we have to spread the love, spread the teaching, spread all the goodness that Prophet Mohammed had brought into this humankind, he added. Samir said the cloaks display was a meeting point between the Prophet and the believers. We are happy to bring them together. People watched in horror as neighbours found themselves trapped or in desperation leapt to their doom as flames raced through the stricken Grenfell Tower. A fire tore through a 24-storey apartment block in London before dawn on Wednesday, causing fatalities and injuring dozens, with terrified residents trapped inside. The last time Hanan Wahabi saw her brother was when he and his family waved to her from their home in an upper floor after she had safely left the blazing building. Wahabi, 39, who lives on the ninth floor of the Grenfell Tower, said she was awoken by smoke at around 1:00am on Wednesday. I could see there was ash coming through the window in the living room, which was partially open, she told AFP, sitting with her husband and son, 16, and daughter, eight, outside a local community centre. I looked out and I could see the fire travelling up the block. It was literally by my window, she said. I slammed the window shut and got out. Pedestrians look up towards Grenfell Tower, a residential block of flats in west London. (AFP Photo) After the family escaped, she called her brother, who lives on the 21st floor, to see if he was all right. The fire hadnt reached the top of the block at that point, Wahabi said. He said he had been told to stay inside, stay in one room together and put towels under the door. I told him to leave. He said he was going to come. Then I called him and he said there was too much smoke. The last time I saw him they were waving out the window, his wife and children. The last time I spoke to his wife, he was on the phone to the fire brigade. Ive not heard from them since, the phone is not going through, the landline isnt going through. That was about 2:00am. Two eyewitnesses told the Press Association news agency they saw children dropped by their parents into the arms of people on the ground. One said a baby was dropped from the ninth or 10th floor, another that she saw a five-year-old boy dropped from a fifth or sixth floor window. Khadejah Miller, who was evacuated from her home nearby, recounted a night of horor. I literally just heard screaming, I saw people jumping out of their windows, the building was literally on fire, the ambulances, the police. It was horrendous, she said. Amanda Fernandez, 31, was evacuated from a different part of the housing estate. Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville When you live around here, you know people. And to stand helpless watching the fire and counting the floors, and thinking, Who lives on that floor? Who lives on that one? Most of the people I know lived higher than the 10th floor. Others reported seeing mobile phone lights and white cloths, and hearing screams for help from the windows, as the flame rose through the building at astonishing speed. Im a goner Another survivor at the community centre, wearing shorts, a T-shirts and trainers and with a blanket draped around his shoulders, said he saved his own life with just moments to spare. My neighbours smoke alarm went off and I thought he might have done some cooking, he said, giving only his first name of Eddie, 55. I was in bed and I heard people shout fire, fire, I opened my door and loads of smoke came in. Then two seconds later my neighbour (on fifth floor) called and said, Get the f*** out the building! I went into the bathroom and I got the towel and wet it and wrapped it around my head. I run out into the hallway, close the door behind me and ran for where I thought the fire exit was. I didnt find it. It was a matter of life and death - I thought, If Im in this for another five seconds, Im a goner. Smoke billows as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London. (Reuters Photo) Then on the ground there was a fireman, he touched my leg and pulled me into where the fire stairwell was. You couldnt see anything. I just ran down the stairs. There wasnt that many people on the stairs. Loads of people havent got out of the building. Abdul Hamid, 51, lives on the 16th floor lost everything he owned but counted himself lucky to be alive. I have nothing. My passport was in there -- its gone. Im meant to be flying to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. Now Im homeless. A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London. (Reuters Photo) US attorney general Jeff Sessions heatedly denied on Tuesday having an undisclosed meeting with Russias ambassador to the US and declared it was a detestable and appalling lie to suggest he was aware of or took part in any collusion between Russia and the election campaign that sent Donald Trump to the White House. Testifying at a packed Senate hearing, Sessions, who was a close Trump adviser during the battle for the presidency, also rejected any idea of misconduct in the ouster of FBI director James Comey and vowed to defend his honor against scurrilous and false allegations. In his dramatic appearance before former colleagues, Sessions contradicted a contention made by Comey at a hearing before the same panel last week. Comey told the intelligence committee that, after an encounter with President Trump in which he said Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into the former national security adviser, Comey implored Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the president again but Sessions didnt respond. He didnt recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House, Sessions said. The former Alabama senator also defended himself against accusations that he misrepresented himself during his confirmation hearing when he said he hadnt met with Russian officials during the campaign. Sessions argued that in the context of that hearing, my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it. The attorney general stepped aside from the justice department probe into Russian meddling in the campaign on March 2, the day after The Washington Post reported on two previously undisclosed meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Days after that, Sessions also corrected his confirmation hearing testimony to inform the committee about his two meetings with Kislyak. Ahead of the hearing there had been suggestions that Sessions might have had a third, unreported encounter with Kislyak in April 2016, at Washingtons Mayflower Hotel, where candidate Trump was giving his first major foreign policy speech. Sessions was adamant that he did not have a private meeting with Kislyak at that event. He did allow for the possibility that he encountered him in a reception that he said was attended by a couple dozen people, though he said he had no specific recollection of that. Democratic senators have seized on the possibility of a third meeting to suggest that Sessions has not been forthcoming about the extent of his communications with the ambassador. Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont have sought an FBI investigation. Sessions testified Tuesday that he recused himself from the current Russia investigation only because of a regulation that required it because of his involvement in the Trump campaign. Many have suggested that my recusal is because I felt I was a subject of the investigation myself, that I may have done something wrong, Sessions added. That was not so, he said. And while he had recused himself from the Russia probe, Sessions insisted, I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon aggressively asked Sessions about suggestions arising from Comeys testimony last week that there was something problematic about his recusal. Wyden asked Sessions what problematic issues existed. Why dont you tell me? There are none, Sen. Wyden, there are none, Sessions insisted, his voice rising. This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I dont appreciate it. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters later that Trump thought Sessions did a very good job and was especially strong on denying any collusion between Trumps campaign and Russia. During the hearing, Sessions lent his support to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is now in charge of the Trump campaign-Russia investigation. I have confidence in Mr. Mueller, he said. At a separate hearing Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein declared hed seen no basis for dismissing Mueller, the former FBI director he appointed as special counsel after Sessions recusal. A friend of the president suggested a day earlier that Trump was considering such an ouster. Rosenstein said he would agree to dismiss Mueller only if there were a legitimate basis to do so, and an order from the president would not necessarily qualify. Mueller also won votes of support Tuesday from the top two Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, both of whom said they have confidence in him. Jeff Sessions is sworn in to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (Reuters Photo) As for Comeys firing, Sessions told senators that his recommendation had nothing to do with the Russia probe, that he and his second-in-command, Rosenstein, had a clear view ... that we had problems there, and it was my best judgment that a fresh start at the FBI was the appropriate thing to do. And when asked I said that to the president. Sessions criticized Comeys handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, which the White House had initially cited as the ostensible reason for his firing. Comeys decision to announce last year that Clinton would not be prosecuted over her emails was a usurpation of the Justice Departments authority, Sessions said. Asked about Trumps own contention that the president fired Comey with the Russia probe in mind, and regardless of any recommendation from anyone else, Sessions said: I guess Ill just have to let his words speak for themselves. Im not sure what was in his mind specifically. Sessions refused to say whether he had ever discussed the Russia investigation with Trump, arguing that he could not disclose private communications with the president. Democratic senators pressed him on the legal rationale for his refusal to discuss those private conversations, as Sessions acknowledged that Trump had not asserted executive privilege around the hearing. He asserted that I am protecting the right of the president to assert if it he chooses and there may be other privileges that may apply. Sessions maintained that he had not been briefed on the Russia investigation between the time of his February swearing-in and his March 2 recusal. As such, he said, I have no knowledge about this investigation, as it is ongoing today, beyond what has been publicly reported. I dont even read that carefully. And I have taken no action whatsoever with regard to any such investigation. On another hot-button issue, senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked Sessions whether Trump records his conversations in the White House. Trump has suggested there might be tapes of his encounters with Comey; Comey said last week that lordy he hopes there are. I do not, Sessions said when asked whether he knows whether the president records his conversations. Would any such tapes have to be preserved? I dont know, senator Rubio, probably so, Sessions replied. A suicide bomber rammed into a hotel in the centre of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, police and witnesses said, in an attack claimed by militant Islamist group al Shabaab. Gunfire followed the attack on the Posh Hotel, the only venue with a discotheque in the capital, a Reuters witness said. Witnesses said the whole district was cordoned off by police, and that sporadic gunfire could still be heard. The suicide car bomb targeted its entrance. There is gunfire inside the hotel, but I am not sure if fighters are inside, Moahmed Hussein, a police officer, said. Gunmen stormed a restaurant adjacent to the hotel, another police officer said, but was unable to provide details. Al Shabaab, which has carried out a campaign of suicide bombings in its bid to topple the Somali government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam, claimed responsibility. A mujahid (fighter) with his suicide car bomb martyred himself after he rammed into Posh Hotel, which is a nightclub. The operation goes on, Abdiasis Abu Musab, the groups military spokesman, told Reuters Since losing large swathes of territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the government, the group has frequently launched raids and deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government. Somalia has been at war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other Capt. Mohamed Hussein said there was confusion over whether gunmen had fought their way inside after the blast and whether a hostage situation was underway at the Pizza House restaurant. The Somalia-based extremist group al-Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu, including hotels, military checkpoints and areas near the presidential palace. It has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it. Al-Shabab last year became the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The extremist group also faces a new military push from the United States after President Donald Trump approved expanded operations, including airstrikes, against al-Shabab. On Sunday, the US military in Africa said it carried out an airstrike in southern Somalia that killed eight Islamic extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp. Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed confirmed that airstrike and said such attacks would disrupt the groups ability to conduct new attacks. With a new federal government established, pressure is growing on Somalias military to assume full responsibility for the countrys security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020. Also Wednesday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the UN political mission in the Horn of Africa nation, which is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, until March 31, 2018. The resolution recognised that this is a critical moment for Somalia. US President Donald Trump has no intention of firing special counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating the alleged Russian meddling in last years US presidential polls, the White House has said. The White House clarification has come amidst reports that Trump is contemplating firing Mueller. While the president has the right to, he has no intention to do so, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters abroad Air Force One flying back from Wisconsin to Washington DC. In a major story, The New York Times claimed that Trump was angered by reports that Mueller was close to fired FBI director James Comey and entertained the idea of firing the special counsel. In recent days, the president has told his staff, his visitors, and his outside advisers that he was increasingly convinced Mueller, like Comey, his successor as director of the FBI, was part of a witch hunt by partisans who wanted to see him weakened or forced from office, the daily said. Trump has made no decision to act against Mueller and insists that he knows the risks of doing so but people close to the president say Trump is so volatile they cannot be sure that he will not change his mind if he finds out anything to lead him to believe the investigation has been compromised, The New York Times said. Several lawmakers came out in support of Mueller. Congressman Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said he has confidence in Mueller. The best advice would be to let Robert Mueller do his job, he told reporters. I do believe it would be catastrophic, and I do believe it would destroy any shred of trust in the presidents judgment that remains over here, Senator Dianne Feinstein said. Mueller was appointed by US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US polls. On Monday, speculation was stoked that Trump was considering terminating Mueller, after a confidante of the president suggested it was under consideration. The United States is starting an inter-agency review of relations with Pakistan on the orders of President Donald Trump, which will specifically include a fresh look at the level of aid and support provided to Islamabad. We are beginning an inter-agency policy review towards Pakistan, secretary of state Rex Tillerson told a hearing of a committee of the House of Representatives on Wednesday in response to a question about aid to Pakistan. This (the question of aid) is going to be one of the considerations, he said. The president has asked the questions specifically about our level of support and funding for Pakistan. Tillerson was responding to a question about why the US should continue to give aid and other financial support to Pakistan in view of its continued support for terrorism and specially when Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, who helped in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, continues to be in prison. The issue of Afridi was raised by Republican lawmaker Dana Rohrabacher. The announcement of the review, which was not previously reported, will not surprise South Asia watchers as they have seen pressure mount on the Trump administration, almost from the start, to consider tougher measures to force Pakistan to give up its use of terror as a tool to serve its strategic aims. Tillerson went on to say, No decision is to be taken until we complete that policy review as you well can understand (that) Pakistan and our relations with them touches on some much broader issues relative to stability in Afghanistan and how we achieve that and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. We have a very complex relationship with the government of Pakistan, Tillerson said in perhaps the most charitable characterisation of a relationship that has been in a downward spiral for may years now, specially after bin Laden was found hiding and killed in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. Pakistan is already slated to get less in Trumps new budget. It has been earmarked $800 million in reimbursements for its support to US-led coalition forces combating insurgency and terror, which is $100 million less than the amount set aside for 2016. This is not money that Pakistan gets for sure, because payments under this head depend on Islamabads counter-terrorism efforts. Of the $900 million earmarked in 2016 under the head Coalition Support Fund (CSF) in the US military budget, Pakistan received only $550 million that was transferred in March 2017. Pakistan stands to suffer cuts under other heads as well. From the US state department, Pakistan will receive $190 million less than in 2016 going down from $544 million to $334 million, of which $100 million will be earmarked for foreign military assistance, money it can use to buy military gear from the US. This amount too is down from $225 million ($265 million according to a different account). The head of the Michigan health department was charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter, the highest-ranking member of Gov. Rick Snyders administration to be snagged in a criminal investigation of Flints lead-contaminated water. Nick Lyon is accused of failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. Charges were read in court by a member of the state attorney generals team. Lyon was not in court. A message seeking comment was left for his attorneys. Flint began using water from the Flint River in 2014 but didnt treat it to reduce corrosion. Lead from old plumbing leached into the water system. Some experts also have linked the water to Legionnaires disease, a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water and infect the lungs. People can get sick if they inhale mist or vapor, typically from cooling systems. There were nearly 100 cases in the Flint area, including 12 deaths, in 2014 and 2015. A man dressed in a UPS uniform and armed with an assault pistol opened fire at a United Parcel Service Inc package sorting hub in San Francisco, killing three people before turning the gun on himself, police said. Police did not identify the suspect or say if he was a UPS employee. They told a news conference the incident was not terrorism-related and they recovered two firearms from the scene. Two other people were shot and have been taken to an area hospital, police said. The shooter and the victims were all drivers, said Steve Gaut, head of investor relations at UPS. The incident took place while the workers were gathered for their daily morning meeting before going out on their routes, he added. Gaut said the facilitys employees have been released from work and he believes most have left the building. The company is providing trauma and grief counseling to employees. Live video showed a massive police presence near the facility, with workers being led out and embracing each other on the sidewalk outside. The company is saddened and deeply concerned about affected employees, family members and the community we share. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those touched by this incident, UPS said in a statement. Victims were taken to the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, spokesman Brent Andrew said. He said he could not say how many patients were taken to the hospital or give their conditions. In 2014, a man shot and killed two of his supervisors before turning the gun on himself at a UPS distribution center in Birmingham, Alabama. The gunman had recently been fired from the facility. Firefighters battled a massive fire in a 27-floor high-rise apartment building in west London for several hours on Wednesday. Londons Metropolitan Police said a number of people were being treated for a range of injuries, but did not provide more specifics. London mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter that a major incident had been declared. Watch as flames and smoke rise from the windows of the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington more than five hours after the blaze started around 1 am London time. We are dealing with a really serious fire that spread throughout the building, a spokesman for the fire brigade said. The crews are doing all that they possibly can to tackle this fire. The London fire brigade said 45 fire engines and 200 firefighters were called to the scene and assistant fire commissioner Dan Daly said it was a large and very serious incident. A day after the celebration of Sasha Obamas 16th birthday on Saturday, Twitter discovered that the former first daughters name is not Sasha, but Natasha. The revelation came when Ashely C Ford, senior features writer at Refinery29, tweeted, Today is the one year anniversary of me finding out Sasha Obamas actual first name is Natasha. Today is the one year anniversary of me finding out Sasha Obama's actual first name is Natasha. Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) June 11, 2017 No ones sure how she came to be so widely known as Sasha, which is her nickname, but her real name wasnt hidden either. The New York Daily News had earlier reported that she was going by her full name Natasha while on the part-time job at a restaurant last summer. Her infopage clearly says, Her formal name is Natasha, but she is most often called by her nickname, Sasha. So do her Wikipedia and Twitter pages. A Google search to find her full name also brings up Natasha in the results. A Google search to find her full name also brings up Natasha in the results. (Screengrab) But somehow, it never caught the public attention. Which is why Fords tweet was met with surprised whats from people for whom it was nothing short of a revelation. Herere some of the reactions on Twitter I'm babaSHOOK Matt Ortile (@ortile) June 11, 2017 I am shooketh. Saeed Jones (@theferocity) June 11, 2017 SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Weekly Arizonian was the first paper to appear, in March 1859. John P. Clum, a former Indian agent who acquired the weekly Arizona Citizen in 1877 and added a daily edition two years later, quit his job in 1880 to establish the Tombstone Epitaph that May. On the north side of Fremont between Third and Fourth streets he bought a town lottoday a parking lot. He had a hand-cranked printing press shipped from San Francisco to Tucson, then on to Tombstone by oxcart. I got busy and finally was fortunate enough to contract for the immediate erection on our lot of a light skeleton frame measuring 20 feet by 40 feet, he later wrote.Hastening to Tucson, I purchased sufficient heavy canvas to serve as roof and walls for this temporary structure and had the canvas sewed to fit the dimensions of the frame in course of construction. Rushing back to Tombstone, the canvas was then stretched over and around the frame, and the Epitaph was provided with a shelter against the day of its birth. The equipment having arrived, it was not long before the interior of our canvas home presented all the earmarks of an efficient printing establishment. With a hefty dose of optimism, editors like Clum came to Arizona Territory armed only with a handpress and a case of type. They had to do everything from gathering the news to writing stories, assembling the type, laying it on the press bed and running off copies. A good editor operating a hand lever might turn out 300 copies an hour. The operation was financially precarious, and the readership parsimonious. Only a sublime faith kept the frontier editor on the job. In 1856, two years after the Gadsden Purchase opened up southern Arizona lands, mining engineers Charles Poston and Herman Ehrenberg organized the Sonora Exploring and Mining Co. and the Santa Rita Silver Mining Co., which shared expenses, including the purchase and transport of a printing press and the publication of a newspaper to publicize the districts mining potential. They tapped editor Edward Cross to launch The Weekly Arizonian. At the time this land was part of sprawling Dona Ana County, New Mexico Territory, and Tucson and Tubac were the only settlements of note in the western section. That first press arrived in Tubac in early January 1859. It was a Washington hand-lever press made by the Central Type Foundry and purchased in Ohio by William Wrightson, a director of the Santa Rita Silver Mining Co. In the first issue of the Arizonian (Vol. 1, No. 1, dated March 3, 1859) Cross stated the paper would be devoted to the areas interests and the development of its resources. The biggest expense of the frontier newspaper was a printing press, which could cost a couple of hundred dollars for a used model or several thousand for a new one. A paper cutter could run as high as $1,000. Then there was the cost of type, newsprint and ink. If a publisher hired an editor, he might receive a starting salary of $20 to $40 a week, as in the case of John Wasson at the Arizona Citizen (renamed the Tucson Citizen in 1901), which published its first edition on October 15, 1870. Tombstone Prospector owner Stanley C. Bagg said in October 1888 that he paid $150 a month to his press foreman. Louis C. Hughes, who in 1877 began publishing a newspaper that had a number of name changes before becoming the Arizona Daily Star, claimed to pay his top editors $300 per month; however, he only paid editor George Kelly $21 per week in 1887. Compositors (aka printers devils) worked by the emthe width of a block of type, or about one-sixth of an inch. Male compositors got 50 cents per thousand ems, while females received about half that much. Publishers often failed to meet their payroll. In 1913 Frank Wells bought The Williams News and was soon accosted by an irate, drunken and armed employee who demanded his back wages. After Wells handed over the cash, the desperate employee tried to sell him the gun. Frontier presses were blatantly political, and much of their livelihood depended on the largesse of a political party. Tombstones first newspaper, the Democrat-leaning, cowboy-backing Nugget, launched in October 1879. The next year Clums Epitaph provided a Republican counterpoint. The Nugget ceased operations in 1882, but on March 7, 1887, merchant Bagg, hotelier Joseph Pascholy, cabinetmaker Andrew Ritter, Dr. E.C. Dunn and Mayor Charles N. Thomas launched the Democrat Daily Prospector. In 1888 Bagg bought the Epitaph press, type and building from W.J. Cheney for $600. The next year Bagg bought out Pascholy for $100, Thomas for $190 and Dunn for $225 to become sole owner and editor. He changed the papers name to the Tombstone Prospector in 1891. Bagg became so disgruntled with fellow Democrats that from October 2 to November 7, 1888, he leased the paper for $500 to the Republican Central Committee. While editors and publishers initially insisted that subscribers and advertisers pay up front, they soon learned that to stay in business they would have to operate on the credit system. Hard currency was in short supply on the frontier. However, initial subscriptions to the Arizonian were $3 a year and had to be paid in cash. Advertising rates for one square of 10 lines or less were $2 for one insertion, $4 for three insertions, $10 for a quarter year and $30 for one year. Most likely, though, founding editor Cross was paid in produce, beef, chicken, pork, etc. Delivery of the paper was at best haphazard and frequently late. Few Arizona Territory newspapers prior to 1900 counted more than 500 paid subscribers. In 1877 George Tyng, editor of Yumas Arizona Sentinel, counted only 43 paying subscribers, some of whom were three months in arrears. His advertising income totaled only $70 per month. John H. Marion, editor and publisher of the Prescott Morning Courier, had a penchant for sarcasm. He made a special appeal to advertisers on June 5, 1869: Our foreman says he must have a cradle for his baby, a new set of teeth for his old cow, a few broomsticks for his better half and a glass eye for himself. Nevertheless, in 1886 four Tucson papersthe Arizona Citizen, the Arizona Daily Star and Weekly Star, and the Arizona Mining Index all claimed circulations of more than 1,000. In 1895 The Southwestern Stockman in Wilcox boasted it had the widest circulation in the territory2,980. In 1890 and 1891 The Arizona Republican in Phoenix claimed it had two to three times the circulation of any other newspaper in the country. Newspapers frequently changed ownership. An argument Weekly Arizonian owner-editor Cross had with prominent Tubac citizen Sylvester Mowry led to a bloodless duel between the two men on July 8, 1859. Less than two weeks later Mowry and William Oury purchased The Weekly Arizonian for $2,500, which included the press and type, and moved the paper to Tucson, publishing the first issue from there on August 4. Around 1871 the newspaper sold its printing press to Carlos Velasco, publisher of the Spanish weekly Los Dos Republicas, for $100. He later sold the press to Artemus E. Fay, who took it to Tombstone to launch the Nugget on October 2, 1879. In 1887 Tom Weedin sold the Arizona Weekly Enterprise in Florence for $3,000. In Phoenix in the mid-1890s The Arizona Gazette went on the auction block for $6,750, and The Enterprise brought $5,000 at a sheriffs sale. What really kept the frontier newspapers afloat was the subsidy from government printing jobs. When Arizonas first territorial officials arrived in Prescott in 1864, they brought with them a printing press and type, with which they established the Fort Whipple Arizona Miner along with an appropriation to print the laws and notices of the territory. Federal policy allowed the secretary considerable discretion in assigning public printing, which was supposed to be fairly distributed throughout the territorial papers. He could not pay more than $1 per folio page, but he could advance as much as 20 percent of the cost. The first legislature spent $1,121 to print its proceedings and an additional $2,994.75 for the session laws. When the capital moved to Tucson in November 1867, the territorial legislature allotted $3,500 to $4,000 for government printing to the Arizona Citizen. In 1887 the Prescott Morning Courier collected $15,000 for federal printing, $500 for printing the school law, $4,000 for the new territorial code and another $4,000 for official reports. There was considerable criticism over the lack of accountability in the distribution of these funds. When the onetime federally appropriated funds dried up, so did many of the newspapers. In the 1890s the advent of the linotype machine made the mass production of newspapers possible. Other technological advances included the telephone and the typewriter. Electricity converted the presses from manual to power production. No longer were newspapers subservient to the political machines. One thing did not changethe intense desire of editors, publishers and reporters to provide readers with the news of Arizona. For further reading see Those Old Yellow Dog Days, by William Henry Lyon. Originally published in the October 2013 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here. Tohono Oodham Indians spearheaded an attack against sleeping Apaches in 1871, but Mexican and white residents of Tucson were behind the notorious Camp Grant Massacre. By 1871 citizens in Tucson, then capital of Arizona Territory, had such utter disregard for all Apachesmen, women and childrenthat the phrase nits make lice was as commonplace around town as saguaro cacti were in the surrounding desert. Tucsonans regarded the killings of Indians, regardless of the reason, as laudable, but when Indians, justified or not, killed white settlers, that was an unpardonable offense that could not go unpunished. The local Arizona Citizen fostered the notion that Indians were outlaw raiders who should be eliminated, and the people felt justified in their outrage, as Apaches had staged stock raids and committed murders, including a recent strike on nearby Mission San Xavier del Bac. At Camp Grant, about 60 miles north of Tucson, though, commanding officer Lieutenant Royal Emerson Whitman fervently denied that his Apaches had committed any recent depredations, citing a system of counting that would have recorded the departures of any Apaches from the region. Oral narratives of the Aravaipa and Pinal Apaches living near Camp Grant likewise reflect their bewilderment at the accusations against them in a time of peace. Nevertheless, a civic group of prominent Tucsonans known as the Tucson Committee of Public Safety, with prompting from disgruntled citizens, decided to do something about the Apache problem. Together, the whites, led by influential William Sanders Oury, and the Mexicans, led by Jesus Maria Elias, came up with a plan of attack. Their target was most visible, very accessible and rather vulnerablenamely the Apaches at Camp Grant. The committee recruited Tohono Oodham headman Francisco Galerita at San Xavier to convince his people, who had long considered the Apaches their enemy, to do most of the dirty work. On April 28, 1871, 92 Oodhams, at least 42 Mexicans and six whites (including Oury) set out on their secretive mission. In the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, April 30, they surrounded the camp of Aravaipa and Pinal Apaches. The slaughter that ensued has come to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre, and unlike many other so-called massacres in the West, this one is hard to call by any less inflammatory name. Today, State Route 77 runs south from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation toward Tucson through the lower Sonoran life zone dominated by saguaros, the road climbing some 2,000 feet within the first 10 miles. Skirting the eastern side of the Pinal Mountains, in the shadow of the jagged cliffs of El Capitan, the road soon attains the saddle separating the Pinal from the Mescal Mountains to the east. Here in the upper Sonoran, big cacti have given way to pinon pine, manzanita and yucca. Farther up the mountain the stately ponderosa pine replaces the scrubby pinon. To the north is the panorama of Cassadore Knob and other landmarks on the San Carlos Reservation (which was established in 1872). The southern expanse presents equally spectacular views of the Galiuro Mountains and, on clear days, the Santa Catalinas on Tucsons northern outskirts. Then the highway plunges with a vengeance into the lower Sonoran zone while temperatures soar and towering saguaros, ocotillos and century plants return to riddle the sprawling valley of Dripping Springs Wash. Wending ever downward, the road drops through the lush canyon bottom of the Gila River to the mouth of the San Pedro. Signs of human habitation are sparsescattered ranches and villagesas the highway approaches easily missed Aravaipa Road. Where present-day Central Arizona College stands, Fort Breckenridge briefly stood at the outset of the Civil War, defending the settlers of Tucson, Sonoita Creek and the Santa Cruz River Valley from Apaches. After the war on this same ground Camp Grant sought to protect the settlers from the Apaches, and vice versa, but with less success. Most travelers pass this intersection without a glance, unaware of the dramatic and tragic events of more than 142 years ago deeply impacting all involved. There is no marker, no apparent ruin, nothing significant to relate the events or repercussions that linger to this day. The surrounding mountains and valleys were the geographic anchors for the Aravaipas (Tsejine, or Dark Rocks People) and Pinals (Tisevan, or Cottonwoods in Gray Wedge Shape), Western Apaches today numbered among the four bands associated with the San Carlos Reservation (the other two being the San Carlos proper and Apache Peaks). The Aravaipas traditional homeland was Aravaipa Creek and the lower San Pedro Valley, while the Pinals dwelt in the Pinal Mountains to the north. Apaches know this region as Arapa. Both Aravaipas and Pinals lost relatives in the Camp Grant Massacre. At the time of the massacre the Aravaipas were under the leadership of Eskiminzin, or Haske Bahnzin (Angry Men Stand in Line for Him), a Pinal who had married into the band. Described as strong, well postured and intelligent, he commanded respect and was savvy in the ways of both his people and the Americans. Still, he occasionally made bad decisions, which combined with bad luck, bad Apaches and bad whites to undermine his work toward peace and assimilation. The assault near Camp Grant on the last day of April 1871 would be enough to demoralize and destroy any leader, but he was a resilient, adaptive survivor who continued to reinvent his life as well as the lives of those around him. The actual assault was quick and lethal. Once the Tucson force had completed its stealthy early-morning approach on the 30th, it attacked the sleeping Apache village with a vengeance. The attackers used guns, but also knives and clubs. Most of the victims were women and children, as almost all the Aravaipa and Pinal men were off hunting in preparation for an upcoming celebration Lieutenant Whitman had encouraged. Exactly how many Apaches died in the massacre is not known, perhaps as few as 85 or as many as 144. It is known that only eight of the corpses were men, the rest women and children. Nearly 30 Apache children were captured, most forever lost to surviving relatives. Some entered the households of their captors, while the rest were sold into Mexican slavery in Sonora. Distrust, betrayal and disdain had festered for some time among the people of the territory, and now those endemic emotions ran rampant. The Americans ignored the reality of the poverty and starvation forced on a proud people by overhunting and occupation of prime lands. The success of unscrupulous traders relied on the continued presence of both the Army and the dependent Indians to whom they could sell, through Indian agents, flour, hay and cattle. Indians who did successfully feed themselves or who sold hay directly to the cavalry were thorns in the sides of influential merchants. Stories of Apache depredations filled the papers, as did pleas for more soldiers to patrol the territory. The perception that white and Mexican Americans were at the mercy of unprincipled Apaches is somewhat misleading, however. Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh studied territorial newspapers and reports in his book Massacre at Camp Grant that between 1866 and 1878 in southern Arizona a total of 1,759 Apaches were killed compared to 493 non-Apaches. Apache raids and depredations, as well as attempts by the Army and settlers to retaliate, would continue to some degree until the Apache wars ended in 1886, with the surrender of Geronimo, and even into the 1920s there were several smaller, less-publicized hostilities. Events leading to the Camp Grant Massacre have their roots in preceding centuries when the Spanish at Mission San Xavier encouraged their allies the Oodhams to protect their colony from raiding Apache bands. Western Apaches hunted, gathered, traded and raided well into Sonora, Mexico, and as far as the Gulf of California. They raided the Oodhams, the Spanish, the Mexicans and, ultimately, the Americans, who made their presence felt after the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican War and after the 1854 Gadsden Purchase from Mexico further expanded the American domain. The Apaches regained some control over their territory during the Civil War, but not entirely. In fact, in a prelude to the better known and bloodier Camp Grant Massacre, in May 1863 Captain Thomas T. Tidball led a force of California volunteers, Mexican and American civilians and their Indian allies on an attack of Apaches in Aravaipa Canyon, killing 50 and wounding and capturing dozens more. The stakes kept getting higher for the Apaches, who had moved beyond raiding to more serious depredations as they fought for their way of life and livelihood. But by 1871 many Apaches liked the idea of peace better. That February five older women from Eskiminzins band, destitute in appearance, arrived at Camp Grant, and Lieutenant Whitman treated them with kindness and courtesy. Such conduct reassured Eskiminzin, his father-in-law, Santo, and Pinal chieftain Capitan Chiquito. Eskiminzin expressed desire for a peaceful, stable existence for his people on their ancestral homeland along Aravaipa Creek. Whitman lacked the authority to establish a treaty with the Apaches, but he made an arrangement in which the Apaches would provide hay for the military in exchange for needed supplies, and he encouraged local ranchers to hire these Apaches as workers. Peace and stability actually seemed possible with the growing trust between this visionary lieutenant and the dynamic Eskiminzin. In Tucson, though, most citizens ignored or dismissed reports of the good relationship forming between the Army and Apaches in the Aravaipa region. The conviction to eliminate the hostiles was too deeply ingrained. Vigilante justice gained momentum there during the winter of 187071. Tucsonans did not trust Apaches, nor did they trust the Army to protect their lives and property, especially after Captain Frank Stanwood visited Camp Grant, expressed satisfaction with the Apaches conduct and endorsed the truce. With citizens up in arms, the Tucson Committee of Public Safety devised its preemptive strike. Whites and Mexicans alike were ideologically committed to the plan of violence against the Camp Grant Apaches, but they proved reluctant to commit to the action. Though some 80 whites promised assistance, only a half-dozen of them marched with the force to Camp Grant. Nearly twice as many Tohono Oodhams as Mexicans participated, and the Indians were the primary fighters on April 30. It is easy to be misled by the small number of whites involved in the actual massacre, but without their planning and influence, the attack never would have occurred. For instance, Arizona Territory Adjutant General Samuel Hughes, a prominent Tucson merchant and politician, did not go to Camp Grant but vigorously approved and supported the well-conceived attack plan. To prevent word of the impending strike from reaching Lieutenant Whitman, the planners arranged to block the Canada del Oro military road to Camp Grant, while the main body took a concealed trail over the mountains by way of Redington Pass to the east (see map at right). The Apaches were more vulnerable than usual at the time, as they had recently moved, with Whitmans permission, well upstream from Camp Grant to Gashdlaa Cho Oaa (Big Sycamore Stands Alone), preferring its free-flowing spring water to the sand-choked streambed near the fort. When the shooting and screaming broke out just before dawn on the 30th, the soldiers at Camp Grant were too far away to hear. And when some of the terrified Apaches ran for their lives, the whites and Mexicans in reserve were in position to pick them off. In short, historical accounts that emphasize the large number of Tohono Oodhams involved in the massacre obscure and distort the central roles of the whites and Mexicans. All the killings took place within a half-hour, and the casualties were all on one side. Not a single white, Mexican or Tohono Oodham was so much as wounded. When Whitman finally did get word of what was happening, he dispatched soldiers upstream, but they arrived too late to help the Apaches. All the soldiers could do was bury the dead and try to reassure survivors hiding in the mountains. Eskiminzin had been one of the few Apache men in camp. He had barely escaped after fleeing from his wickiup with his infant daughter in his arms. His wives and other children died. Whitman and many of his soldiers were no doubt horrified by what they saw at the massacre site. But in Tucson the reaction was completely different, with newspapers, citizens and government leaders celebrating the victory over the enemy and honoring as heroes the leaders of the surprise attack. Back East the response was quite different, with President Ulysses S. Grant calling the Camp Grant attack purely murder. District Attorney Converse W.C. Rowell was directed to obtain indictments against the perpetrators but met with stiff local resistance and was even burned in effigy. Grand jury secretary Andrew Cargill snuck a peek at a telegram from U.S. Attorney General Amos Akerman instructing Rowell to get an indictment in three days, or he would declare martial law, which would mean a military court with Army officers serving as a court-martial board in lieu of a jury. As a result of the threat the grand jury quickly named Sidney R. DeLong the lead defendant among 100 (many identified only as Indians of San Xavier del Bac) on an indictment for the murder of 108 Apaches. The defense focused on Apache depredations in an attempt to justify what happened near Camp Grantnot a massacre, they insisted, but self-defense. After deliberating just 19 minutes, the Tucson jury, as might be expected, found all defendants not guilty. At the time the perpetrators expressed little remorse for what they had done. Much later DeLong stated that his only regret in life was having taken part in the Camp Grant affair. Today the area around the unmarked and relatively unknown Camp Grant Massacre site is largely home to non-Apaches, though the Bureau of Indian Affairs holds 160 acres in trust for the 100-odd Apache descendants of the massacre victims. This group is sharply divided over disposition of the site. One concern is that if its location is disclosed, the site would be left vulnerable to exploitation and desecration. Under consideration since 1996 is a plan to erect a descriptive historical roadside marker on State Route 77 that would inform the public about the infamous event without jeopardizing the anonymity of the site. Those who seek something more lasting, namely a historical and cultural interpretive center at the site, suggest a sensitive telling of the tragedy would not only educate the public about the horrific event but also promote discussion about broader issues of human aggression. Memorializing the site could cause greater pain for descendants of the victims. On the other hand, it might aid in the healing process. On April 30, 1984, near the Camp Grant ruins, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Representive Morris K. Mo Udall of Arizona joined many Apaches, including Apache spiritual leader Philip Cassadore, for a memorial event on what Governor Bruce Babbitt had declared Apache Memorial Day. In October 1996, a group of 80 Tucsonans came to the San Carlos Reservation to apologize to the Apache people for the Camp Grant Massacre. San Carlos and White Mountain Apache elders and leaders were among the Indians on hand for this day of forgiveness and reconciliation. The group established a fund for a permanent marker in the region to remember the massacre. Two years later, thanks to the efforts of people like Dale Miles, a San Carlos Apache who was tribal historian from 1993 to 1998, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. John Hartman, director of the executive board of Apaches of Aravaipa Canyon, praised the move to protect the site. Printers release new Camp Grant Massacre studies nearly every year, evoking profound emotions among Western Apaches. As Western Apache scholar Keith H. Basso noted in his book Wisdom Sits in Places, Apaches form an intricate connection between place and identity. Despite all the loss and sorrow in the Arapa region, the Western Apaches connection to it will last and even lift spirits at least as long as the saguaros stand. Carol A. Markstrom is a professor at West Virginia University, but she has a home in Tucson and is working to help preserve the Camp Grant Massacre site. Doug Hocking, raised on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation and now living in Sierra Vista, Ariz., researches and writes about Apache history. Suggested for further reading: Massacre at Camp Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History, by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh; Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History, by Karl Jacoby; The Camp Grant Massacre, by Elliott Arnold; and Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apaches, by Keith H. Basso. Originally published in the October 2013 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here. Latest reports confirmed that Panama just switched its diplomatic relations with Taiwan to China and this was considered as the biggest move of the said country after handing a huge victory to Beijing. With this, Panama just isolated itself from Taiwan which included all ties and relations. This news was recently announced by no other than the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela which marked the formal breaking off of Panama with Taiwan. According to BBC, the said announcement was televised and the leader of the said country even added that the move was just right as it became symbolic for Panama's correct path. It was also revealed that Panama and China were starting to establish an ambassadorial-level of relationship despite the former's cutting off ties with Taiwan. If this will continue, then there is a possibility that Panama and China will have a great diplomatic relationship. The very reason of Panama for separating from Taiwan was because of its belief that China is the only legal government which represents China. Apart from this, Taiwan is only considered as an inalienable part of China; hence, the country made such move. With this, Wall Street Journal reported that Panama just ended its diplomatic relations with Taiwan and the country decided not to execute any official relations with Taiwan anymore. Panama is looking forward to building a strong relationship and ties with China. It was also reported that with this issue, China has been seeking ways to punish Taiwan. The reason for this was because China was angered by the victory of President Tsai Ing-wen in an election last year. The said conflict started also when Tsai declined to endorse China's proposition that Taiwan and mainland China constitute a single Chinese country. Because of those, China was determined to punish China in a way that they find ways to pressure Taiwan and later isolate it. However, despite the reported cutting of diplomatic relations, there was an assurance that trade and investment will continue between Panama and Taiwan. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. SANDY, Utah (AP) A Utah woman fatally shot this month along with one of her sons after her ex-boyfriend rammed the car she was in on a suburban street had reported being relentlessly stalked by the man, according to police documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Memorez Rackley told police June 3 she feared for her safety and that of her children after Jeremy Patterson had followed her nearly an hour while she was driving, threatened her repeatedly and unexpectedly appeared at her nail salon appointment to confront her about their breakup, according to the documents released in response to a public records request. Its just continual, he wont stop, and its gotten to the point where hes threatened me, hes threatened the safety of my children and I dont know what to do, she told a dispatcher in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, according to a recording of a 911 call provided by police with the documents. She was shot on June 6, three days after she contacted police. Her 6-year-old son was also killed. Her 11-year-old son was critically wounded and the daughter of another woman was shot in the leg. Rackley initially told police that she did not want officers to contact Patterson because she was afraid doing so would provoke him, the documents and the 911 call showed. I worry if they go knock on his door hes going to come hunt me and my kids down, Rackley told the dispatcher. She changed her mind after she said Patterson had followed a friend of hers as the woman went home from work, the documents said. She also reported to police Patterson had told her he had guns. When an officer called Patterson, he said he was trying to contact Rackley because they had broken up one day earlier and he wanted to talk about what happened, the documents said. Patterson told the officer he was concerned when she did not respond to his messages and said he would stop calling and texting her, the report said. Police couldnt arrest him because Rackley didnt want to press charges, said Sandy Police Sgt. Jason Nielsen. As UPS workers were gathered for a regular Wednesday morning exercise meeting at their San Francisco distribution center, a man wearing the delivery companys trademark brown uniform burst in and opened fire, killing three people and wounding at least two others before fatally shooting himself in the head, police said. The gunfire erupted at 8:55 a.m. inside the UPS building on Potrero Hill during the companys Wednesday Wellness gathering, sparking panic as workers ran for their lives. As dozens of police officers and firefighters descended on the building at 320 San Bruno Ave. between 16th and 17th streets, the hundreds of people who work at the center were rushing from the building. For hours, area residents were told to shelter in place while police searched the four-story building, looking for any additional assailants. Some victims were dragged from the building into the street, and two bodies lay in the intersection at 17th Street and San Bruno Avenue outside the building, covered with yellow tarps. As co-workers bolted from the building, the gunman apparently fired more shots at people outside. The incident ended when police officers encountered the shooter inside the sprawling building. During the face-to-face confrontation, the man raised what police officials said was an assault pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. Police identified the gunman as Jimmy Lam, 38, of San Francisco. Officers towed a 2012 BMW coupe from outside the building that is registered to Lam. Officers later raided Lams apartment in San Franciscos Inner Richmond District. Neither police nor the company would confirm that the killer worked for UPS, but a union official told the Associated Press that Lam had filed a grievance complaining that he was working excessive overtime. This person took his life because our officers confronted him, said Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin. The officers did what theyre trained to do. The San Francisco Medical Examiner identified the victims as Wayne Chan, 56, and Benson Louie, 50, of San Francisco, and Michael Lefiti, 46, of Hercules. About 90 minutes after the shooting at the building, used as a processing and distribution center for UPS parcels, police declared the scene contained. Some of those shot were taken to San Francisco General Hospital. Near the emergency room door, a woman in jeans and a sweatshirt who declined to give her name said she was waiting for news from doctors about the condition of her father, who she said was a UPS employee. My dad is in there and he was shot, the woman said, shaking her head. It was later learned that the womans father had died of his injuries. A co-worker who said he had been inside the building when the gunfire broke out said he recognized the shooter as a UPS employee. Another UPS employee, who gave his name only as Nick, said he had been on the third floor of the building when he heard a series of what he described as metal on metal noises. Then he saw people running from the floor and heard people shouting. People were screaming, Go. Go. Get outside, he said, and Nick ran with his colleagues. Once outside the building, Nick said he looked back and saw the shooter fire more shots across the street. He said he saw one person get shot. Chaplin said police had recovered two guns, including an assault pistol either semi- or fully automatic that the killer used to take his own life. About six hours after the shooting, Chaplin said officers were still interviewing scores of witnesses to determine exactly what happened and when. He said two people were in the hospital with bullet wounds and three others were injured in the stampede for the exit. Among the dead was Lefiti, who grew up in Daly City, lived in Hercules and had two sons and a daughter. When word came that Lefiti had died, one of his sons ran from the hospital, sobbing. Lefiti worked mostly in the Diamond Heights area of the city, where one frequent customer, Jessica Irvine, said he was very, very well-loved by everybody. He was very friendly and helpful and honest. At the Diamond Heights Safeway, where Lefiti frequently parked his UPS truck, friends and customers set up a shrine with flowers, candles and photographs. He didnt have any enemies in the world, said one neighborhood resident, Ronald Bandar. As the horrific scene unfolded at the UPS building, several people believed to be UPS employees stood on the rooftop parking area at the building with their hands raised, apparently to indicate they were unarmed and needed assistance. A man who lives a half block from the UPS center and who identified himself only as Chino said he had seen several people, their bodies covered with blood, dragged from the building by uniformed officers or firefighters and loaded into ambulances. I was sick to my stomach, seeing those bodies, Chino said. They were looking pretty bad. Dozens of police cars, sheriffs cars and Fire Department vehicles were in the area, along with several ambulances. Officers with drawn rifles stood in the street. Relatives of UPS workers gathered in the surrounding streets. One woman, who declined to give her name, said her husband worked at the building and was in a meeting with colleagues when the gunman entered and started shooting. He called her soon after the shooting to say, Im OK, she said. Someone came up and just started shooting, she said her husband told her over the phone. When the shooting started, she said her husband told her he ran for his life. Hes a mess right now, she said. I get to take my husband home and someone else doesnt. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was sending a team to the crime scene to help in the investigation. California Highway Patrol officers and San Francisco sheriffs deputies also assisted. Mayor Ed Lee, in a statement, said he wanted to thank our brave officers of the San Francisco Police Department and our dedicated employees at 911 and San Francisco General Hospital. I also want to offer my condolences and thoughts for the individuals and families affected. We all know the familiar faces of our local UPS drivers and delivery persons. We are always saddened when someone loses a life to gun violence. Even one shooting and one victim is too many. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Sarah Ravani contributed to this report. Evan Sernoffsky, Filipa Ioannou, Hamed Aleaziz and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, fioannou@sfchronicle.com, haleaziz@sfchronicle.com and srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @obioannoukenobi, @Haleaziz and @SteveRubeSF A Houston attorney is suing United Airlines in state District Court in Harris County, alleging that an employee at Bush Intercontinental Airport "suddenly, unexpectedly and violently" injured him during an incident two years ago. Ronald Tigner, who was 71 at the time, alleges in the lawsuit that he was traveling through Bush Intercontinental on July 21, 2015, and received an illegible boarding pass. He claims he was trying to get a new one when the employee pushed Tigner to the ground. His attorney, William Hoke, said Tigner was knocked unconscious and later taken to the hospital by an ambulance. Tigner is suing United, and two of its employees present during the incident, for more than $1 million. Hoke said he also wants to keep the spotlight on how airlines treat customers. Hoke said his client was not making much progress trying to resolve the issue with United when he saw the video of Dr. David Dao being forcibly removed from United Express flight 3411 earlier this year. Hoke said Tigner decided to go public with his story, too. RELATED: United CEO apologizes for infamous video before delving into Q1 financials "The incidents just keep piling up," Hoke said. "He's out here to try to be the voice to have United Airlines and the industry stop this type of behavior." In a statement, United called the behavior "completely unacceptable" and said the employee was fired in August 2015 following the incident. "The conduct shown here does not reflect our values or our commitment to treat all of our customers with respect and dignity," the statement read. "We are taking a thorough look into what happened here and reaching out to our customer to profusely apologize for what occurred and to make this right." United announced a series of policy changes following the Dao incident, which made headlines nationally for weeks. The changes include boosting the amount of money the airline offers customers to voluntarily give up their seats, reducing its overbooking on certain flights and requiring crew traveling on its aircraft to be booked at least one hour before departure. MORE: United revamps policies after dragging incident Tigner's lawsuit claims damages including medical expenses, lost wages and/or lost earning capacity, physical pain and suffering and mental anguish. NEW YORK - NBC News is moving ahead with plans to air Megyn Kelly's interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones this weekend despite a backlash that has cost the show advertisers and led to Kelly being dropped as host for an event by an organization founded by parents of children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The network has been taken aback by the response to booking Jones, the "Infowars" host who has questioned whether the killing of 26 people in 2012 at the school in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said the story will be edited with the sensitivity of its critics in mind. "It's important to get it right," Lack said. Reporters have interviewed controversial characters like Syrian President Bashar Assad and child molesters in the past without getting this kind of a reaction, Kelly said in an interview Tuesday. "What I think we're doing is journalism," she said. "The bottom line is that while it's not always popular, it's important. I would submit to you that neither I nor NBC News has elevated Alex Jones in any way. He's been elevated by 5 or 6 million viewers or listeners, and by the president of the United States. As you know, journalists don't get the choice over who has power or influence in our country." Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun violence group, said it had asked Kelly to step down as host of its Wednesday gala in Washington. The group cannot support Kelly or NBC's decision to give a platform to Jones and hopes NBC reconsiders its plan to broadcast the interview, said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director. Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed at Sandy Hook, founded the organization with Mark Barden, who lost his son Daniel, 7. Kelly said she understood the decision but was disappointed. NBC's plans have cost it some advertisers for this week's edition of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly." It was not immediately clear how many; only the financial firm JPMorgan Chase has been identified. "That comes with the territory," Lack said. "It's not unusual. We kind of know when we're doing controversial stories, that's going to happen. It doesn't stop us from doing controversial stories." To some critics, NBC's timing makes the decision worse - airing on Father's Day an interview that has been publicly denounced by parents who lost young children at Sandy Hook. NBC said it was scheduled for competitive reasons, because Jones had been booked to appear on ABC's daytime show "The View" next week. A representative of "The View" said Jones had canceled his appearance there and he will not be rescheduled. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Crude prices fell to their lowest in seven months as global markets appeared to give up hope that OPEC's efforts to drain the worldwide oil glut will succeed any time soon. Oil dove below $45 a barrel in New York on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Department reported another sizable increase in petroleum stockpiles, led by a jump in gasoline inventories. The gains stunned traders who expected to see inventories decline as they usually do as U.S. motorists take to the roads during the peak summer driving season, which begins Memorial Day weekend. "For this time of year, we've never been higher," Kyle Cooper, director of commodities research at IAF Advisors in Houston, said of the petroleum stockpiles. "The idea that OPEC could lower inventories isn't coming to fruition here in the U.S." Crude prices fell nearly 4 percent to settle at $44.73 a barrel, breaking out of a stable trading range between $45 and $55 a barrel and threatening the industry recovery that has helped lift the Texas and Houston economies and brought back thousands of oil and gas jobs. The prices, the lowest since Nov. 14, are moving into territory that could make U.S. shale drillers think twice about plans to boost investments and output as they head toward record production by the end of next year. "There's crude oil everywhere, man," said Robert Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities. "That's the fundamental problem." OPEC's decision in November to curb output by 1.2 million barrels a day - supplemented by a 600,000-barrel a day cut by Russia and other major producers - pushed prices higher and spurred new production by U.S. shale drillers, who spent the downturn becoming more efficient and learning to make money at lower prices. As the second shale boom has gained momentum, particularly in Texas oil fields, investors have lost faith in both the OPEC agreement and the cartel's ability to realign global supply and demand. U.S. production is expected to reach 10 million barrels a day in 2018, coming close or breaking the 1970 record; new data released this week by OPEC show its oil production climbed by 336,000 barrels a day last month, its biggest increase since December. That was largely due to production recovering in Libya and Nigeria, two war-torn countries exempt from OPEC's agreement. Adding to market jitters is slipping U.S. demand. Gasoline consumption is down about 1 percent from a year ago, and inventories climbed by 2.1 million barrels, more than offsetting a 1.7 million barrel decline in crude stockpiles, the Energy Department reported. Inventories of all petroleum - including crude, fuels and other refined products - climbed 6.8 million barrels. Analysts and energy companies, meanwhile, worry that slumping gasoline demand is more than a blip. After the Great Recession in 2009, the number of miles Americans drive each year has continued to fall, and car makers have designed vehicles with greater fuel efficiency. "At the same time that people are driving less, you've got vehicles with increasingly better mileage," said Bill O'Grady, executive vice president at Confluence Investment Management, a St. Louis investment firm. "There do appear to be some structural issues. Millennials are less enamored of driving than previous generations, and that coupled with the fact that baby boomers are retiring seems to have had a permanent effect on miles driven." Globally, low oil prices in recent years have bolstered global demand for crude above average levels. But demand growth in 2017 isn't expected to rise as high as it did last year, analysts said. Demand could accelerate next year, but it's likely to be met by increasing oil production that will hold down prices. The Energy Department believes U.S. oil prices will edge up to an average $53.61 a barrel next year - around the same price it was in January and February. In its monthly report Wednesday, the International Energy Agency said even with OPEC's cuts, climbing oil production from oil fields in West Texas and Oklahoma to Canada and Brazil will grow by 1.5 million barrels a day - more than projected global demand growth next year. "Stocks might not fall to the desired level until close to the expiry of the (OPEC) agreement in March 2018," the IEA said. "A lot can change of course, but, as we said at the start, 2018 seems a very long way away." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate When oil prices tanked two years ago, hundreds of Pecos County workers lost jobs working at oil and gas companies in the prolific Permian basin. Last year, the rural county lost around 20 percent of its $2.5 billion tax value. But the unemployed residents weren't out of work for long. Most of the 300 to 400 oil field workers found jobs installing solar panels beneath the hot and abundant West Texas sun. Pecos now has five operational solar farms, large projects that meet the definition of utility-scale - having the capacity to generate at lease 1 megawatt, enough to power about 200 houses on a hot Texas day. All told, the projects, including two likely to get underway within the next few years, are expected to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the tax base of the county, where solar panels stand on the same property as gas flares and drilling rigs. "It's a great marriage," said Doug May, the executive director of the Fort Stockton Economic Development Council in the county. Pecos County, which has only three people in each of its 5,000 square miles, has become a hub for utility-scale solar power. Across the nation, solar farms are poised to become a boon for rural economies that have been hard hit by the decline of industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and coal, as well as the boom-and-bust cycles of oil and gas. In North Carolina, for instance, farmers lease fallow land to solar panel companies; in West Texas, counties like Pecos, once reliant on oil and gas extraction, are diversifying through solar and wind power. Utility-scale projects are eligible for a state tax abatement - up to 80 percent for 10 years - an incentive that has drawn projects to places like Pecos County. Texas' utility-scale installations, at around 783 megawatts, are expected to double in Texas this year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a national trade group. Beyond abundant sunshine, the county's other draws are its many transmission lines that feed into the electric grid that serves the state's population centers. More transmission lines are expected to be added in 2019 and 2020, likely driving another burst of solar installations, May said. If that happens, solar power will exceed the county's 700 megawatts of wind energy. In addition, solar companies will employ locals even as the price of oil remains stubbornly below $50 a barrel. "It has basically helped to compensate for the boom and bust cycle," said Colin Meehan, the director of regulatory and public affairs for Houston-based First Solar, which has two solar farms in Pecos. "They see it as just another source of revenue." Pecos is a model of how rural counties can benefit from renewable energy, said Helen Brauner, the director of origination strategy for 7x Energy, an Austin-based utility-scale solar company. In Austin on Tuesday, Brauner and other solar executives gathered at a conference hosted by the Solar Energy Industries Association. "The typical 100-megawatt solar project should give the county about $30 million in property tax revenue" over the duration of the project, Brauner said. The conference attendance nearly doubled this year to more than 400, a sign that Texas is primed for more investment in solar, conference organizers said. Nonetheless, the growth of utility-scale solar in Texas suffered a setback in April of last year when Sun-Edison, the world's largest renewable energy developer, filed for bankruptcy, delaying two major projects. In September, Houston-based NRG Energy bought one the projects, the 154-megawatt Buckthorn solar farm in Pecos County. When the project is done next year, its sole customer will be Georgetown, a city of about 60,000 north of Austin. Alan Diaz/STF Neiman Marcus is focusing on offering more exclusive merchandise and personalized offers to drive sales as it goes it alone to turn around its business. The luxury department store chain confirmed Tuesday that discussions for a partial sale or outright purchase of the company have ended. The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that talks had stalled between Neiman Marcus and Hudson's Bay, which operates such chains as Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue. Without Vladim, Iclodean, Ludmila, Georgeta and Saulius, the products made by Heck Sausages would never reach the British dinner table. According to the owner of this growing family business, Debbie Keeble, the companys survival depends on the foreigners who make up the bulk of its workforce . On the factory floor, Vladim Protasovs looks over an enormous tray of mince before stopping the machine that will pump it into sausage skins. Dressed in white trousers and blue apron, gloves and cap, this 35-year-old Lithuanian is in charge of the production line. He is one of a staff of 70 at the small company in North Yorkshire. A total of 60 of them come from Eastern Europe. Some are wondering what the British will eat if Brexit negotiations cause this source of labor to dry up Of course, its not just Heck Sausages that depends on labor from the EU. Foreign employees account for 30% of berry pickers and almost 90% of seasonal workers in the horticultural sector, which has a turnover of 3.4 billion a year. Now some are wondering what the British will eat if Brexit negotiations cause this source of labor to dry up. Just a month after British Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the triggering of Article 50, signaling Britains intention to exit Europe, a parliamentary report drew attention to the fact that 30% of workers in the British food industry were foreign. It also indicated that without free movement of labor, the sector would run into trouble. Entitled: Feeding a Nation, Labor Restrictions, the report warned that some areas within the industry could descend into crisis, sending food prices skyrocketing. Debbie Keeble, co-owner of Heck Sausages. M. R. S. At Heck Sausages, Debbie Keeble says that they are already feeling the effects of Brexit, despite the fact that negotiations have not yet begun. We are currently facing an enormous challenge to keep the company afloat and keep it growing, she explains. Hecks sausages are selling well and the company needs more staff. This is more pressing because, after their success with gluten-free sausages, they have branched out into vegan fare. But Keeble says theyre having difficulty filling job vacancies. People are scared to come to Britain now because they dont know what is going to happen with Brexit. If they can, they go elsewhere, she explains. Vladim Protasovs came to Heck Sausages four years ago with his wife, Ludmila. They have settled in the nearby market town of Bedale, where their two children go to school. The couple believe that returning to Lithuania would not be a good move, particularly for their kids. But they are scared that things in Britain are about to change. Like most of the workers at the sausage factory, they found out about Heck through word-of-mouth and have recommended it to acquaintances themselves. Hardly any of our friends are prepared to come anymore, says Vladim. Vladim Protasovs. M. R. S. Its not just the instability and uncertainty generated by an agreement yet to be negotiated that is putting off potential workers from coming. There is also the fact that the pound has devalued by 20%, which means that earnings are worth much less back home. Companies dealing in temporary employment, such as the Romanian outfit Esr-Vest, say that it is now much harder to fill vacancies. People are scared to come to Britain now because they dont know what is going to happen with Brexit Heck Sausages co-owner Debbie Keeble These are jobs, Keeble explains, that the British dont want. This is not only the case in the meat sector, which has a 63% foreign workforce, but applies to almost all areas of the food industry. A life-long Conservative, Keeble, 52, feels indignant that immigration became the main thrust of the Brexit campaign. It was all about people from other countries coming to take British jobs when thats not true. Nobody applies for these jobs, she says. Keeble voted to remain, so she got an unpleasant surprise on June 23 when she awoke to the news that the United Kingdom had voted to leave, particularly in North Yorkshire, where 59% were in favor of coming out of the EU compared to the national average of 52%. Yet Yorkshire companies are set to be hit hard by Brexit. Guy Poskitt, Director of the Yorkshire company Poskitts Carrots, says that Brexit will mean a major upheaval for the sector. These are jobs, Keeble explains, that the British dont want At Heck, another Lithuanian Saelius Serelis, 51, expresses disappointment with the results of the referendum. For him its not about whether foreigners will be able to access jobs in the same way. He believes that agreements will be reached to maintain freedom of movement within the EU. Rather he feels somewhat hurt that his neighbors for the past 14 years would vote for Brexit so that people like him would not be able to settle in the UK. English version by Heather Galloway. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN FRANCISCO - Travis Kalanick, Uber's chief executive, said Tueday he would take a leave of absence from the ride-hailing service after an investigation into the company concluded that Uber must repudiate its aggressive startup culture. Uber released 13 pages of recommendations to change the company, which were the result of an investigation into its culture conducted by former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm, Covington & Burling. The recommendations included limiting Kalanick's responsibilities by reallocating some of his duties, with an increased emphasis on a chief operating officer at the company. Uber also should appoint an independent chairman and create an oversight committee on the board, in an effort to bolster the checks and balances on management, according to the recommendations. The proposed changes amounted to a rejection of the methods and culture that Uber has used to build itself into a $70 billion company that has upended the transportation status quo worldwide. Under Kalanick, Uber flouted rules and regulations to bring its ride-summoning service to hundreds of cities, prized growth above all else and often turned a blind eye to corporate misbehavior. That ballooned into a crisis starting in February, when a former employee wrote a blog post detailing what she said was a history of sexual harassment and lack of response from management at the company. Uber has since moved to clean up the situation. It has fired 20 employees in the past few months for transgressions including sexual harassment. Emil Michael, a top lieutenant of Kalanick's, left this week. And many other executives have departed. On Sunday, Uber's board met for nearly seven hours at Covington & Burling in Los Angeles. Afterward, the board said it had unanimously voted to adopt all of the recommendations in Holder's report. "Implementing these recommendations will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated," said Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief of human resources. "While change does not happen overnight, we're committed to rebuilding trust with our employees, riders and drivers." Kalanick's leave of absence was largely left to the chief executive to decide himself, people with knowledge of the situation have said. He has been under pressure for his aggressive management style and had acknowledged he needed leadership help after a video of him berating an Uber driver became public. Kalanick, 40, is also grappling with a boating accident last month that left his mother dead and his father in the hospital. "The ultimate responsibility, for where we've gotten and how we've gotten here rests on my shoulders," Kalanick wrote in an email to employees. "There is of course much to be proud of but there is much to improve." Uber presented the recommendations to employees at its regular Tuesday staff meeting at its headquarters. A special subcommittee of Uber's board took the stage, including business leaders Arianna Huffington and David Bonderman, with each addressing the crowd. Kalanick did not attend. The difficulties of changing Uber's culture were captured during the meeting, when Bonderman told Huffington that adding more women to the company's board would result in "more talking." The remark left people aghast, according to attendees. Bonderman later apologized to Huffington and Uber's employees in an email after the meeting. "It was inappropriate," he said. "I deeply regret it." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Texas City Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Texas City Police Department Show More Show Less Texas City police officers acted fast to rescue a woman whose car was submerged in Galveston Bay off the Texas City Dike on Tuesday night. At about 10:40 p.m. on June 13, police responded to a call for a vehicle that went off the road and landed upside down in the water in the 1000 block of Dike Road. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a star player in two key controversies about the Trump administration: the investigation into Donald Trump campaign's connections with Russia and whether the president improperly interfered in an FBI investigation. Sessions was asked about all of this under oath Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the lead congressional committee on Russia. Here are four key takeaways: - - - 1. Sessions denied four major allegations against him with regard to the Russia investigation - He denied that he purposefully left out his two 2016 meetings with Russians at his confirmation hearing. (Sessions said he was answering a question about "surrogates," not himself specifically. But that doesn't explain why, as CNN reported, Sessions did not acknowledge the meetings in his security clearance form.) - He denied that he had a third, undisclosed private one-on-one conversation with the Russian ambassador. "I may have had an encounter" with Ambassador Kislyak at a District of Columbia hotel in April 2016, Sessions allowed. But he said that the two never substantially talked. - He denied that he recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation because he wasn't forthcoming about Russia meetings. Sessions's recusal came the day after The Post reported the first two meetings, but Sessions said he was already talking with lawyers about whether his Trump campaign work would force him to hand over the Russia investigation to his deputy. - He denied that he violated his recusal by advising the president to fire the then-FBI director, James Comey. "Supervising all the federal agencies is my responsibility, trying to get the very best people in those agencies at the top of them is my responsibility," he said. - - - 2. Sessions did not deny Comey's broader allegations of the president meddling Part of that is that Sessions, obviously, was not in the room in Comey's one-on-one meetings with the president, where Comey said Trump directed him to back off the FBI's investigation into fired national security adviser Michael Flynn. But Sessions did corroborate two key parts of Comey's testimony: - The details of a Feb. 14 Oval Office meeting, where Sessions and other top aides left the room and Trump talked to Comey alone. When asked by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) whether Sessions "lingered" because he knew he wasn't supposed to leave Comey alone with Trump, Sessions ducked: "What I did recall is I did depart," Sessions said, "and Director Comey was sitting in front of the president's desk and they were talking." - Sessions corroborated that Comey came to him the next day and asked not to be alone with the president. Sessions said of that moment: "He was concerned about it, and his recollection of what he said to me about this concern is consistent with my recollection." - - - 3. Sessions appears to have contradicted himself several times - Sessions said he trusted Comey to do his job well, and that's why he didn't get involved when Comey expressed concern about the president interfering in the FBI investigation. But: Sessions also said he thought Comey should be fired. And he advised the president as much, mainly for the way Comey handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation. - He said he felt okay leaving Comey alone with the president in the Oval Office. But: When Comey brought it up the next day, Sessions said he agreed it wasn't a good idea to be alone with the president. - - - 4. About the only thing Sessions can recall for sure is that he didn't do anything wrong Sessions hedged almost all of his answers about whether/when he met with Russians, or why he was involved in firing Comey, or how he feels about the president's decisions, with: "I don't recall" or "I believe so" or "maybe." At one point, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Sessions to give details about his September meeting with the Russian ambassador in his Senate office. Sessions couldn't. But Sessions proved he is clearly capable of giving an answer in black and white. Several times, the mild-mannered Southerner came across as downright angry when emphasizing that he did not have any conversations with Russian officials about meddling in the election: - - - "[T] he suggestion that I participated in any collusion - that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," he said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate One clue that someone is telling you the truth is that the truth being told isn't sanitized. It includes some dirty laundry. Former FBI Director James Comey passed the dirty laundry test when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, revealing in his responses several tidbits that he knew would draw criticism. Namely: the fact that he shared a memo documenting a meeting with President Trump with a professor friend whom he instructed to share it with The New York Times. Immediately, Trump branded Comey a leaker on Twitter, and the president's allies sought to use the admission as a distraction from the substantive information provided by Comey. Namely: that the president apparently tried to thwart a criminal investigation. The leak was also a popular theme among the readers who wrote me and commented online in response to Sunday's column on the importance of honesty. Who knew advocating honesty could elicit such frothing disapproval? There were plenty of readers who agreed with me. I'll respond to some of the negative feedback below. But first, let me say that I appreciated Comey's testimony all the more on Tuesday when I watched the follow-up act by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He took the hot seat before the same committee, but early on indicated he wouldn't be addressing many of the questions that senators had come to ask because they involved private conversations with the president. But, the senators asked, had the president chosen to claim executive privilege? No, Sessions confirmed. Sessions was simply keeping the option open, in case the president decided to at some point. More for you Sessions finds a shield in executive privilege, but it might... Hmm. Executive privilege by proxy. Hadn't heard of that. The memorable moments were few. He told one senator to stop asking questions so fast because it was making him nervous. He told another quite forcefully that he only recused himself in the Russia probe because he was part of the Trump campaign, not for any other reason, as Comey had insinuated. "There are none," Sessions said. "I can tell you that for absolute certainty. This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don't appreciate it." My personal favorite was when Sessions, with his genteel manner, Southern accent, and pleasant smile that often appears just as his patience is running thin, expressed his befuddlement at any suggestion he colluded or had any other nefarious dealings with Russia. "It's just like through the looking glass. I mean, what is this?" Sessions said. Agreed. The allegation against a former veteran U.S. senator does seem like something out of a Jason Bourne movie. But maybe because that's not a real concern. It's another distraction. I could be wrong, but I don't think the senators firing off their questions were really trying to unmask a covert Russian operative. I think they're trying to find out if Sessions or the president tried to influence or derail a criminal investigation into who really is responsible for the Russian interference into the 2016 election. Lordy, bring on the tapes! They didn't get any answers Tuesday. The laundry was sanitized, starched stiff and most of it folded and put away before we could even see it. Now, back to the readers. Craig writes: "AG Lynch and Comey obstructed justice by falsely calling the FBI email investigation a "matter" and Comey illegally leaked FBI memos to the Old Grey Lady." Comey testified that former AG Loretta Lynch instructed him to describe the probe into Hillary Clinton's email a "matter," not an "investigation." It was inappropriate for Lynch to ask because Clinton's campaign was using the same language and it could give the public the impression - a false one, Comey said - that the FBI and Justice Department were coordinating with the campaign. But it wasn't obstruction. It was media messaging. It didn't attempt to stymie or derail any investigation. As for the "illegally" leaked FBI memos, most legal scholars I've seen quoted in a wide variety of publications have said Comey violated no laws in sharing the memos, which were documentations of his own recollections, and were not classified. Some have argued the document belonged to the government, and not to Comey. My take: The government belongs to the people, who have a right to know. Another reader, Will, emailed: "If the President does indeed have tapes that prove that Comey was lying, will you admit to your wrong and misleading writings or stick by your opinion?" Lordy, I'll echo Comey on this one. I hope Trump has those tapes! And if they reveal Comey telling lies, I'll write a follow-up column and sign it upon request. Of course, seeing as how the Secret Service is unaware of any tapes, I'm not too hopeful. Don't forget the Trump sign A comment from CaptSternn online: "When a person loses an election fairly and honestly, as Clinton did, why then resort to the lies that Russia hacked the election?" Um, because the Russians did hack the election. Even Trump acknowledged the hacking in January. Whether Clinton would have won without the hacking, there's really no way to know. A comment from Never-Was-My_President: "Didn't Falkenberg hide the Trump sign at her father's house, so her daughter wouldn't see it and ask questions. Not exactly an example of honesty." Yes, guilty. I threw the sign in the back of my dad's pickup to avoid a painful conversation with a 7-year-old on a short visit with her grandparents. Then, I went straight in and told my parents what I'd done. Then I wrote a column after the election telling the world and concluding that I should have left the sign alone. I'll leave you with the parting words of Paul, who emailed that Comey was obviously untruthful because he hadn't found a reason to prosecute Clinton for her emails. Paul asserted that my father's lesson in honesty hadn't stuck after all.ge "Maybe the instruction could have been reinforced with a spanking," Paul suggested. There's one person in the middle of this mess who deserves a good spanking. One day, I have to hope, the American people will give it to him. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON - Nearly a year after declaring victory in his effort to block law enforcement grants to alleged sanctuary cities, Houston Republican John Culberson still finds himself in the heat of a battle. On Tuesday, months after saying that as a top congressional appropriator he was "judge and jury" over the grants, he pressed the Justice Department to make good on his threat to withhold funds from jurisdictions that don't cooperate with federal authorities "100 percent of the time." Culberson's request for the status of the grants came as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified before his subcommittee overseeing Justice Department funding. "This is very straightforward," Culberson said. "If local and state law enforcement agencies expect to receive federal money, if you want federal money, you have to follow federal law." Rosenstein, testifying in place of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, told lawmakers that cities and states that receive Justice Department grants must certify that they comply with federal law. But he stopped short of saying whether the law requires compliance with requests from federal immigration agents to hold suspects for immigration proceedings past their court-ordered release dates. Several courts have held that such detainer requests - which are at the heart of the debate over so-called sanctuary cities - are voluntary, or possibly even unconstitutional. The Trump administration, working with Culberson, has threatened to cut off certain grants, sparking legal challenges over the requirements of a 1996 law that Culberson has cited in his attacks on sanctuary cities. Officials in San Francisco, Connecticut and other jurisdictions targeted by Culberson have told federal officials that their sanctuary city policies do not violate federal law, which bars local and state officials from withholding information about the immigration status of prisoners in their custody. No Texas cities are on the list, although Culberson has said that he considers Travis County a sanctuary. Doubts about claim The continuing legal battle, and the administration efforts to seek statements of compliance from grant recipients, has cast doubt on the Houston Republican's original claim that he had shut off the flow of grants to targeted communities, including the entire state of California. Culberson, a hard-liner on immigration, announced last July that he had used his position as chairman of a House panel that controls Justice Department spending to block millions of dollars in law enforcement grants to 10 jurisdictions - including California and Connecticut. "Today this law is being fully enforced for the first time," Culberson said at the time. In a subsequent interview in March, Culberson told the Chronicle that he was "like the CFO of the Department of Justice I was able to cut off money to sanctuary cities beginning last summer. So it's done, and now the Trump administration has expanded that policy nationwide." But a month later, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily halted President Donald Trump's order threatening to withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities, dealing a blow to Culberson's contention that the policy was already in effect. Not a new rule Rosenstein said the Justice Department is continuing to require that grant recipients certify compliance with the 1996 law, though he noted that "it's not a new requirement to follow federal law." The Obama administration also required certifications of compliance with federal law. So far, it has never proven to be a barrier to federal funding. Rosenstein said that of 10 cities originally identified by the Justice Department Inspector General last year that "may not have been in compliance," three have since formally responded that they consider their policies in conformance with the law. Two other jurisdictions, New Orleans and Miami, have since repealed their sanctuary city policies. The rest face a June 30 deadline to certify that their policies follow federal law. Those that don't, Rosenstein said, "would not be eligible for future grants." But as the courts review legal challenges from San Francisco and other cities, it remains unclear whether the Trump administration can force cities to honor the disputed civil immigration detainers. Attorneys for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center argue that Trump's Jan. 25 immigration order could be illegal. "Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, not a local one," said Lena Graber, special projects attorney for the center. AUSTIN - Newly elected Harris County Judge Robert Johnson inherited the biggest case of his short judicial career Tuesday when the court assigned him to oversee the criminal trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is fighting securities fraud charges. It's a complicated criminal case nearly two years in the making, putting on trial a tenacious high-profile tea party Republican who is armed with a battery of seasoned defense attorneys and is the target of a trio of dogged special prosecutors for the state. "He'll have to be the ringmaster of a cult of personalities that will be in that courtroom and this will be a case where the eyes of the entire state will be on what is going on in there," said Ed McClees, a criminal defense attorney and former chief of the organized crime section of the Harris County District Attorney's office. Johnson took the bench to the 177th State District Court in January after last year's election that swept several Democrats into office in Harris County. Johnson claimed a narrow win, edging out Republican incumbent Ryan Patrick, who is the son of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a conservative Republican and Paxton ally. Johnson won the race over Patrick by a 52-48 percentage point margin. Prior to winning office, Johnson was a criminal defense attorney for 13 years, according to his campaign website. A 2001 graduate of Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Johnson interned with the Ford Bend County District Attorney's Office before opening his own practice. "I will make my ruling based upon the law and remain fair/impartial at all times," read a statement from Johnson on his campaign website. Johnson was randomly assigned the case, according to the Harris County District Clerk's Office. The judge should expect to be inundated with far more motions than typical criminal cases, along with interpreting nuances of the law and securities that most state criminal judges are unfamiliar with, said McClees, whose private practice includes white collar crime. "He's going to have a lot of homework to do as any judge would to get up to speed on the legal issues," said McClees. "It's going to be complicated and he's got lawyers of extreme personalities on all sides, so he's going to have his hands full." Fight on who would preside His assignment follows months of wrangling over who should preside over the case. That was after Tarrant County Judge George Gallagher moved the trial out of Paxton's home of Collin County to Harris County this spring amid concern the attorney general's local supporters maintained too strong a grip over ancillary legal issues there, such as whether to pay special prosecutors owed some $500,000 in back pay. Gallagher planned to stay with the case as it moved to Harris County, but Paxton's defense team tried repeatedly to remove him from the case. Paxton's attorneys have argued Gallagher's temporary assignment to the case had expired Dec. 31, 2016. They insist his decisions should be vacated, including his decision to move the case to Harris County. Paxton's winning argument stemmed from his refusal to sign off on paperwork to allow the judge to follow the case out of his jurisdiction. Although special prosecutors argued state lawmakers never meant for the little-used maneuver to allow parties to shake their last judge, the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas agreed with Paxton and ruled Gallagher could not follow the case without Paxton's permission. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, the state's highest court for criminal cases, agreed with the attorney general's legal team last week. Paxton's defense team and special prosecutors assigned to the case are under a gag order and cannot comment. Facing fraud charges The case concerns actions of the attorney general when he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives representing Collin County. The charges, unrelated to his tenure in public office, allege he persuaded friends and colleagues to invest in a North Texas tech company, Servergy, without disclosing he would make a commission. Paxton received 100,000 shared of company stock for recruiting $850,000 from investors. Paxton faces two counts of first-degree securities fraud and one count of failing to register with the state as an investment adviser. If found guilty, he faces 99 years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. A federal judge dismissed similar civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March. Murray Newman, a former assistant district attorney for Harris County turned criminal defense attorney who blogs about the inner workings of the Harris County criminal courts said the case will likely be "tedious," which may pose a challenge for a rookie judge. "It's not your run of the mill blood and guts case that you see in Harris County. It's a complicated case on its face," said Newman. "He hasn't had any major tests or cases to handle, yet. He's starting up with a biggie." WASHINGTON - Last month's appointment of Robert Mueller as a special counsel to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia enraged President Donald Trump. Yet, at least initially, he holstered his Twitter finger and publicly said nothing. But behind the scenes, the president soon began entertaining the idea of firing Mueller even as his staff tried to discourage him from something they believed would turn a bad situation into a catastrophe, according to several people with direct knowledge of Trump's interactions. For now, the staff has prevailed. "While the president has every right to" fire Mueller, "he has no intention to do so," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters late Tuesday after a day of speculation over Mueller's fate. Trump, angered by reports in Breitbart News and other conservative news media that Mueller was close to James Comey, the FBI director he had fired, repeatedly brought up the political and legal implications of firing someone he viewed as incapable of an impartial investigation. In recent days, the president has told his staff, his visitors, and his outside advisers that he was increasingly convinced Mueller, like Comey, his successor as director of the FBI, was part of a "witch hunt" by partisans who wanted to see him weakened or forced from office. But Trump has made no decision to act against Mueller and insists he knows the risks of doing so - but people close to the president say Trump is so volatile they cannot be sure that he will not change his mind if he finds out anything to lead him to believe the investigation has been compromised. Whether Trump can tolerate a free-ranging investigation, directed by Mueller, that could raise questions about the legitimacy of his Electoral College victory, the topic that most sparks his rage, will be a critical test for a president who has continued on Twitter and elsewhere to flout the advice of his staff, friends and legal team. For Trump, the line between whim and will is always thin. It is often erased in moments of anger, when simmering grievance boils over into rash action, exemplified by the firing of Comey after a weekend of brooding at his resort in Bedminster, N.J. When asked by the pool of reporters covering a midday meeting with Republican lawmakers at the White House whether he supported Mueller, Trump gave no answer, even though he often uses such interactions to make headlines or shoot down stories he believes to be fake. That may have been by design, according to a person who spoke to Trump on Tuesday. The president was pleased by the ambiguity of his position on Mueller, and thinks the possibility of being fired will focus the veteran prosecutor on delivering what the president desires most: a blanket public exoneration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also declined to offer his support for Mueller during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. But at a separate hearing, Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller and continues to oversee the investigation, promised lawmakers he would not permit Mueller to be dismissed without legitimate reason. "As long as I'm in this position, he's not going to be fired without good cause," Rosenstein said. "I'm not going to follow any orders unless I believe those are lawful and appropriate orders," he said, emphasizing that the attorney general "actually does not know what we're investigating." He added, "Director Mueller is going to have the full independence he needs to conduct that investigation appropriately." While the president is deeply suspicious of Mueller, his anger is reserved for Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe, and for Comey. Trump was especially outraged by Comey's admission last week that he had leaked a memo with details of his interactions with the president in hopes of spurring the appointment of a special counsel. Several senior Trump aides believe that Comey went public with his doubts about the president's behavior and trustworthiness with the intention of steering Rosenstein toward appointing his friend Mueller, according to one longtime Trump associate who remains close to the White House. The two men worked closely together in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when Mueller was FBI director and Comey was a high-ranking Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration. Comey endorsed Mueller's appointment when he appeared last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, further angering Trump and his staff. While the president's aides have sought to sow skepticism about Mueller, whom they interviewed about the possibility of returning to the FBI job the day before he accepted his position as special counsel, few have advocated his termination, reflecting the recognition that Trump's angry reactions to the congressional and FBI investigations now underway are imperiling his presidency. The pushback also represented growing willingness among staffers to try to keep Trump from making damaging mistakes - an important internal change in a White House dominated by a president who often demands obeisance. For all the talk of how no one in the West Wing tells the president "no," many people do - though often unsuccessfully. Among the aides most alarmed by the idea of firing Mueller, according to people familiar with the situation, was Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff. Donald McGahn, the White House counsel, has also advised against firing Mueller. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, supported firing Comey, but he has been less pugnacious lately, administration officials said. Trump's wife, Melania, has adopted a more temperate tone, telling her husband that she believed the appointment of Mueller would speed resolution of the Russia scandal and expressing her view that he would be exonerated, according to two people with direct knowledge of her advice. Amid tightened security, Ariana Grande plays to crowd of 12,000 in Barcelona After tragedy of terrorist bombing at her recent Manchester gig, the pop superstar wows young Spanish fans It seemed like a regular concert, although the noticeable police presence indicated that it was not. Teams from the Catalan regional police, the Mossos dEsquadra , were patrolling the area around Palau Sant Jordi, where the last rays of sun were glinting off its enormous turtle-shaped dome. Ariana Grande on June 4 in Manchester. DAVE HOGAN (AFP) More information Ariana Grande, musica para seguir viviendo A helicopter hovered over a crowd that was approaching the venue in good spirits, smiling as they took their places at the back of the line. There was still over an hour-and-a-half to go before the start of the Ariana Grande concert her only stop in Spain and her fifth performance since the Manchester terrorist attack, where 22 of her fans were killed as they left her show. And therein lay the exceptional nature of the American stars visit to Barcelona: in those 22 murdered citizens who will never again be able to show her their admiration. Gracing the stage was an enormous likeness of the star, reminiscent of a Kim Il-Sung portrait for sheer size Yet fear was nowhere on display outside Palau Sant Jordi. Natalia, 20, and her sister Maria, 16, were two of the fans waiting to go through the security checks. Our only fear was that the Barcelona concert might get cancelled; we bought the tickets the day after they went on sale, said one. But what about their parents? They told us to be careful. And we believe that if its already happened once with this artist, it wont happen again. Terrorists attack in one place so security goes up and they wont do it. Fear will not prevent us from living our lives. Ariana Grande frans waiting in line outside Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. MARTA PEREZ (EFE) Standing not far behind them were Berta and Cristina, both 16 years of age. Their biggest concern was not fear, but being able to get a placard through security: it was a cardboard sign with pink letters that spelled out the name of the tour: Dangerous Woman. Were not at all scared, they said. What happened in Manchester has made security go up here today, there is nothing to fear. If anything happens in Barcelona today, it wont be here. Berta and Cristina also said that their parents encouraged them to attend the concert because fear cannot leave us cooped up at home. Their body language, however, suggested a just-let-them-try-to-keep-us-at-home kind of attitude. There was emotional restraint and a dead silence when Grande performed Somewhere Over The Rainbow against a giant black ribbon The first checkpoint comes up. There are five lanes and security guards are standing by with metal detectors an unusual occurrence at concerts. Sonia, 48, is there with her two daughters. All three are wearing t-shirts with the slogan One Love Manchester. We made them ourselves only yesterday, one of my daughters had the idea, said Sonia. It was not necessary to ask whether they felt fear, anger or contempt. At that moment, the anticipation of seeing Ariana Grande merged with the sadness of knowing that 22 of her fans would be unable to. Only a second, much less stringent security check stood between them and the US star. Inside the venue, there were around 12,000 people in attendance mostly youngsters who did not fill the seating space. The lines in here were to purchase tour material, just like at any other concert. Grande showed up 50 minutes late, as stars presumably feel required to do. The stage was bare, with musicians only visible during the second half of the concert. The floor space was given over to the choreography, which saw Grande heading a group of 10 dancers. The performance was split into four sections, each with its corresponding change of wardrobe, all to the greater glory of the brand of urban, hip-hop influenced dance pop that Ariana is a chief representative of. Gracing the stage was an enormous likeness of the star, reminiscent of a Kim Il-Sung portrait for sheer size, and meant to let the crowd fully appreciate the sweet-with-a-twist expression on Grandes face. It was an elegant if unimaginative show that focused entirely on Grande a fact that would have required greater charisma from this twentysomething who was clearly delighted at all the adoration from the crowd. It was pandemonium from the very beginning, with a moment of climax when she sang One last time and thousands of cellphone lights were held up in unison. There was emotional restraint and a dead silence when Grande performed Somewhere Over The Rainbow against a giant black ribbon meant as a tribute to the 22 missing fans. No words were spoken. Life goes on. English version by Susana Urra. With President Donald J. Trump floundering about in a mysterious Russian stew of his own making, ingredients still unrecognized, it's important for his fellow Americans to keep their eye on other concoctions temporarily on the backburner as the Russian dish boils over. The list is long - everything from the decimation of health care in this country to mendacious meddling in the Middle East - but the issue of particular concern to Texans must continue to be immigration, immigration enforcement and border security. Trump's "big, beautiful wall," which he promises to get to once he finishes remaking health care, reforming the American tax system and wrangling a federal budget through Congress, should be seen by now for what it is: a colossal waste of taxpayers' money, an unsightly insult to our southern neighbor, an affront to property rights along the border and an environmental tragedy. Trump's wall is also absurdly impractical, an opinion underscored by a new study from the Center for Migration Studies. According to the study, two-thirds of those who arrived in this country without documents in 2014 did not illegally wade the Rio Grande or trudge in the company of a coyote into New Mexico, Arizona or California. Most flew into the country, were admitted, after screening, on non-immigrant (temporary) visas and then overstayed their period of admission or otherwise violated the terms of their visas. That trend continues, the study found. In 2014, about 4.5 million U.S. residents, or 42 percent of the total undocumented population, were overstays. They accounted for about two-thirds (66 percent) of those who arrived in 2014. They have exceeded so-called "entries without inspection" (EWIs) every year since 2007, and 600,000 more overstays than EWIs have arrived since 2007. Trump and hard-line Attorney General Jeff Sessions - on the Russian hot seat himself this week - are insisting not only on a $22 billion wall but also are pushing for drastic increases in Border Patrol personnel - men and women assigned to deal with a diminishing problem. The Center for Migration Studies document points out that Border Patrol apprehensions these days are roughly one-fourth the level of historic highs. Illegal entries are roughly one-tenth the 2005 level, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security study. And still we're throwing border-enforcement personnel into the breach. Still, Trump pushes for a wall. The study underscores, yet again, that this administration is profoundly unserious when it comes to border security and immigration reform. And yet Trump and his minions in the Justice Department can do - in fact, are doing - serious damage to our communities when they carry out cruel immigration raids and continue to push for a border wall. (Echoes from Austin, particularly Gov. Greg Abbott's "sanctuary cities" absurdity, aren't helping either.) A state with a long tradition of cross-border ties and connections, a state that thrives on trade with Mexico, must resist. Just as California and its West Coast neighbors are resisting Trump's climate-denial ignorance by implementing forward-thinking policies of their own, so too must Texans maintain our ties to immigrant communities, to war-torn families desperate for refuge and to towns and cities just across the border whose fate has long been tied to our own. Resistance takes the form of Houston City Council support for a lawsuit against Senate Bill 4, the so-called sanctuary cities bill. It means urging lawmakers to get serious about a fair and workable E-verify system, among many other measures that reflect immigration reality, not stiff-necked ideology. There will come a time when the duplicity of the man in the White House is so blindingly obvious that lawmakers serious about governing and voters concerned about this nation's well-being will simply ignore his bloviations. Until that day comes, creative and principled resistance is the only true response. Maybe David Copperfield or Penn and Teller could learn a magic lesson from Congress. While national attention was focused on the flash and whiz-bang of James Comey's testimony in the Senate last week, the House of Representatives voted to undo key parts of the Dodd-Frank banking regulations created after the 2009 financial crisis. Sneaky, sneaky. The so-called Financial CHOICE Act, which passed the Republican-led House on party lines, frees the hands of the too-big-to-fail banking institutions that brought the global economy to near collapse less than a decade ago. It also risks gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created to protect Americans from predatory financial practices. Apparently Republicans forgot the lesson of the financial crisis. As we wrote in 2011, quoting then-Chronicle columnist Loren Steffy: "We know that left to their own devices, big banks are willing to destroy themselves and the economy in the name of short-term profits. The question isn't whether the regulations have gone too far, but whether they've gone far enough." If you're expecting the Senate to provide real debate or transparency on this big bank giveaway, we have a bridge-based collateralized debt obligation to sell you. The upper chamber of Congress has fully embraced a policy of opacity. The once-promised regular order, including committee hearings and bipartisan input, has been replaced with top-secret, back-room dealing. For example, the Senate version of the American Health Care Act, also known as Trumpcare, has yet to see public light. Even some Republican senators, like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, have not seen the bill that party leaders have said will pass their body before the end of July. "I want to know exactly what's in the Senate bill. I don't know yet," Johnson told Bloomberg. "It's not a good process." Texas' own U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has also emphasized the need for transparency: "My colleagues and I will continue to do all that we can to ensure the American people have enough time to know what is in this bill." Oh, wait. That's a press release from Dec. 19, 2009, during the year-long process of debating and passing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Now the gavel is in the other hand, and Cornyn apparently has no problem keeping the American people in the dark. So why won't our senior senator and his colleagues make their bill available to the public before it is analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office? As one Republican aide told online news outlet, Axios: "We aren't stupid." They know public scrutiny would subject the bill to fatal criticism. In fact, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., tried on Tuesday to ban reporters from filming or recording interviews in the Senate hallways. His attempted press crackdown received a sudden backlash, but it just shows how desperate Republicans are to keep Trumpcare out of the news. Secrecy is the only option for passing this Republican bill, which has been opposed by front-line groups from AARP to the American Cancer Society to the American Medical Association. The House version of the bill cuts Medicaid, raises costs for senior citizens and allows people with pre-existing conditions to be denied coverage. If the Senate bill is anything like the House bill, it will lead to 23 million more Americans lacking health insurance by 2026 in exchange for a $600 billion tax cut for the wealthy. If you don't like it, we'd recommend giving a call to Cornyn (202-224-2934) or his junior colleague U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (202-224-5922) - check out their websites for local office contacts. Let them know that major issues like Wall Street regulations and health care reform deserve public scrutiny to ensure that Congress is working for all Americans - not just the ultra-rich. We could go on and on about Republican hypocrisy, and we're sure that Democrats will find themselves flip-flopping the next time they get a majority in Washington. Politics isn't about honesty or consistency - politics is about power. Republicans are using their power to give riches to the already-rich and a free hand to Wall Street banks. Behind the flash and whiz-bang of Washington drama, that's the real agenda in our nation's capitol. SEOUL, South Korea - Some stories have to be experienced to fully grasp - the Korea crisis is one of them. I arrived in Seoul on the evening of May 28. The next morning, I was jarred by a news alert ringing on my phone: North Korea had just fired a short-range ballistic missile that had landed in the sea off its east coast. I waited for the sirens to tell us to go to the hotel shelter. But there were no sirens. Nothing. The breakfast buffet was packed. The mood was: Another North Korean missile test? Oh, pay no attention to our crazy cousins. Could you pass the Kimchi, please? A few hours after the missile test, two U.S. B-1B Lancer strategic bombers out of Guam flew right up to the North's border on what North Korea called "a nuclear bomb dropping drill." No matter. The South Korean stock market didn't flinch. In fact, one of the most popular housing markets for young Koreans today is Musan, located just south of the DMZ, the demilitarized zone separating the South from the North. It's an easy commute to Seoul, and young people have gamed out that if the North launched rockets or artillery shells, they would likely go over their heads because they are so close to the border! I interviewed a group of South Korean college students at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, and here's what some said: "The fear has been diluted - as time goes by you just get used to it." "We don't really believe that North Korea can harm us or launch war, because we think we are stronger than them economically and militarily." After a couple of days of such discussions, I realized that America is now the odd man out in this drama. Why? Because China and South Korea have one thing in common: The thing they fear most is not a North Korean nuclear missile blowing them up. It's North Korea either blowing itself up - economically collapsing under the weight of sanctions - or being blown up by America. That would spill refugees and fissile material into China and South Korea, presenting both with a huge cleanup bill and China with a possible united Korea with a nuclear weapon next door. The U.S. - by contrast - now fears North Korea blowing us up or at least Los Angeles. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Washington fears North Korea more than ever, while China and South Korea fear a unilateral U.S. strike on North Korea more than ever. Or, as Rob Litwak, the Wilson Center Korea arms control expert, described it: Seoul's fear that Donald Trump could draw it into a catastrophic conflict on the Korean Peninsula "brings to mind Charles de Gaulle's admonition during the Cuban missile crisis that being a U.S. ally ran the risk of 'annihilation without representation.'" And that's why the U.S. has dispatched to South Korea Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antimissile batteries. But the new South Korean president is delaying their full deployment, fearing it will provoke the North or alienate China - which doesn't like a U.S. anti-missile system near its border that can also cover its airspace; China has imposed a partial economic boycott on Seoul to make that clear. Chaibong Hahm, president of the Asan Institute, explained, "When North Korea started to develop weapons of mass destruction that threatened us, the U.S. tried to assure us and Japan that 'we will protect you.'" But when North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un also started threatening the U.S. by building a long-range nuclear missile, the story shifted for America. "It was not about reassuring us anymore but its own people," added Hahm, "which means that Washington does not have to consult us. It can do what it needs to do." And Trump's America-first rhetoric only amplifies the worry here that he will. Some people "are more scared of (Trump) than Kim Jong Un," concluded Hahm. "Kim Jong Un they understand." In sum, China and South Korea don't dare starve the North for fear it could collapse. They don't dare shoot it for fear it could shoot back. They and the Americans don't dare negotiate with Kim for fear that they will end up blessing his nukes - and because they don't trust him to keep any deal. And they don't dare ignore him, because he keeps getting stronger. So we all wait - for something. Indeed, the whole situation reminds me of the medieval fable of the criminal hauled before the king to plead for his life and successfully does so by promising that if the king spared his life for a year he could teach the king's favorite horse to sing. When the criminal got back to his cell, his cellmate scoffed at him: You could never teach the king's horse to sing if you had a lifetime. And the man said: "No matter. I have a year now that I didn't have before. And a lot of things can happen in a year. The king might die. The horse might die. I might die. And, who knows? Maybe the horse will sing." And that is our North Korea policy. Waiting for something to solve this insoluble problem. Waiting for a horse to sing. Gov. Eric Greitens brought an uncompromising anti-abortion message to Springfield last Friday (June 9), where a Planned Parenthood clinic recently applied to offer abortions. The Republican governor has called state lawmakers back to Jefferson City for another special session, tasking them with undoing a St. Louis anti-discrimination ordinance that worries pregnancy resource centers. The St. Louis bill added reproductive decisions such as being pregnant or using birth control to existing employment and housing discrimination codes. Some pregnancy resource centers worry theyll be forced to employ people with pro-abortion-rights beliefs. Greitens rallied Friday with fellow abortion foe Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who ran for president last year, at the University Plaza Hotel. Speaking to between 100 and 150 supporters, Greitens urged the protection and defense of a culture of life here in Missouri. The rally had a campaign atmosphere for Greitens, a former professional speaker well-practiced at reading a crowd. The audience responded with loud applause to Greitens line about the special session canceling (lawmakers) vacations. The General Assembly, a part-time body made up of citizens from across Missouri, convenes for regular sessions in early January and adjourns in mid-May. Greitens previously instructed lawmakers to pass a bill designed to bring a steel mill and aluminum smelter to southeast Missouri. Supporters held signs expressing anti-abortion sentiments and listened attentively as Greitens asked them to pray for pregnancy resource centers that feel attacked and to pray for him and his family. I know Gov. Huckabee agrees with me on this: You cant ever pray too much, Greitens continued. And you can also say a prayer for some of these career politicians in the Senate and hope that they see the light and do the right thing. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks at a rally with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in support of next weeks pro-life special session on Friday, June 9. The House passed legislation nullifying the St. Louis anti-discrimination ordinance, but the measure stalled in the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats alike have occasionally feuded with the governor. This also was an opportunity for Greitens the only Republican statewide candidate not endorsed by Missouri Right to Life to burnish his conservative credentials and to continue turning up the volume of his anti-abortion beliefs. Huckabee, a staunch abortion opponent, had nothing but praise for Greitens, calling him one of the great heroes of life in the entire country and saying that if former President John F. Kennedy had lived in the contemporary era, he would have included a chapter on Greitens in his book, Profiles in Courage. Before the abortion rally, the two Republicans spoke at a Veterans of Foreign Wars conference. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, thanked members of the audience for their service and spoke briefly about his own time in active military duty. The situation in Springfield The two politicians continued from Springfield to Joplin, and the two southwest Missouri cities were fitting backdrops both are home to clinics where Planned Parenthood plans to begin offering medication abortions. We have (recently) submitted applications to the state to gain approval to start providing abortion services, Planned Parenthood spokesman Jesse Lawder told the News-Leader. Lawder said in April that Planned Parenthood has arranged with a physician who is willing and able to work with the Springfield clinic. He was not able to say how long it might take before Planned Parenthood would start offering abortions. Planned Parenthood started moving forward in Missouri after a federal judge ruled favorably for the organization, which aims to strike down two abortion-related rules similar to restrictions in Texas deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. {{tncms-inline alignment=right content=
"I know Gov. Huckabee agrees with me on this: You cant ever pray too much. And you can also say a prayer for some of these career politicians in the Senate and hope that they see the light and do the right thing."
– GOV. ERIC GREITENS
id=0ecd3c4b-ee87-40f6-8dea-cb0a077d837e style-type=quote title=GREITENS QUOTE type=relcontent width=half}} Asked by a reporter afterward about the plans to offer abortions in the Ozarks, Greitens reiterated his goals to protect pregnancy resource centers and to advocate for common sense health and safety standards such as annual inspections for abortion providers. Greitens declined to comment directly on the Springfield clinic and also would not say whether he was aware if any pregnancy resource centers, such as the one he visited Thursday in St. Louis, had been forced to hire anyone with pro-abortion views yet. He noted that the St. Louis center he visited currently is engaged in a legal battle against the local ordinance. Your neighbors at the rally The enthusiastic crowd brought together anti-abortion advocates old, young and in between. Some people, like retired Baptist preacher Bruce McNeely, attended because they wanted to meet Greitens and Huckabee in person. Others were there specifically to oppose abortion. Jo Wilson, a retired grade-school teacher, wants the practice of abortions to be banned. I dont think its right, she said, adding that she believes we lose a lot of great potential by aborting what might otherwise be humans with God-given talents. Some of the more youthful supporters included Jill, Will and Emilee Kuschel of Monett. Their parents, Veronica and Ken, previously ran a center in Aurora and promoted adoption as an alternative to abortion. Jill said she and her twin brother Will were adopted in 2004 when they were 4 months old because their biological mother wasnt prepared to take care of them but couldnt bring herself to have an abortion. Emilee, who is preparing to move from high school to college journalism studies, said she helps out at the center. For the three young Kuschels, it was important to attend the rally because of their personal experience seeing adoption as an alternative to abortion. Jill added that she was eager to hear what Greitens and Huckabee had to say about the issue, and Emilee noted that she was particularly concerned because she had recently heard of an article discussing do-it-yourself abortions. Thats very dangerous and not OK at all, she said. She would have agreed at least on that issue with a number of the pro-Planned Parenthood protesters who assembled across the street, such as Carlissa Gilliam, a retired nurse living in Springfield. Gilliam said her aunt died after a coat-hanger abortion. She was concerned about the policies being promoted at the rally. Anything thats anti-choice impoverishes women, she said. Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens speaks at a pro-life rally June 9 in St. Charles. Greitens held a similar rally the dame day in Springfield. Gil Mobley, a local physician, had a much blunter message with his sign, intended to direct anti-abortion activists to Christian Taliban Event Parking. Mobley said he had consulted with several people for advice beforehand and acknowledged his sign was over-the-top, but he went ahead with it anyway. He also passed out copies of a News-Leader article to prove to people that the governor aimed to repeal the anti-discrimination ordinance in St. Louis. Mobley added he used to be anti-abortion before anti-abortion was cool and also referenced the dangers of do-it-yourself abortions: Coat hangers kill people. SPRINGFIELD NEWS-LEADER An online exclusive is an article or story that does not run in the print edition of the Houston Herald. Typically 2-3 are posted online every Wednesday morning. Its another feature designed for users who purchase full web access from the Herald. Click here to subscribe for print, digital or both. I know Gov. Huckabee agrees with me on this: You cant ever pray too much. And you can also say a prayer for some of these career politicians in the Senate and hope that they see the light and do the right thing. GOV. ERIC GREITENS The European Court of Justice has ruled in favor of the United Kingdom in its dispute with Gibraltars online gambling operators. The industry will lose some of the tax privileges that have attracted so many companies to the overseas territory, where corporate tax is 10% and gaming companies pay a mere 1% on bets placed with them. People crossing Gibraltar airport. Jon Nazca (Reuters) Some of those advantages are now coming to an end. Gibraltar will have to adapt to the new tax regime adopted by London in July 2014, raising the gaming tax on money bet by UK clients to 15%. British customers represent around 80% of the industry total. Even then, this figure is far below what other EU states levy on gambling activities: in Spain, this tax is 25%. Still, the hike represents a considerable setback for the Gibraltar gaming industry. The EU decision also deepens the crisis of the business model that has driven growth for Gibraltars online gambling industry In a judgment released on Tuesday, the EU Court of Justice used a complex formula to resolve the issues presented to it by the UK Supreme Court. While admitting that Gibraltar does not form part of the UK, the judgment states that Gibraltar is a European territory for whose external relations a Member State, namely the UK, is responsible, so that EU law is applicable to that territory. In other words, they must be treated as a single entity, rather than as separate territories within the EU, as the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association wanted. The online betting industry is a thriving sector. Paco Puentes There is no factor that could justify the conclusion that relations between Gibraltar and the UK may be regarded [...] as akin to those existing between two Member States. Until now, Gibraltar-based gambling operators had followed earlier regulations stipulating that only service providers established in the UK were charged gambling duties on their gross from their supply of gaming services to customers worldwide. The favorable judgment will allow London to increase its tax revenues at the precise moment when the British government is seeking to escape the jurisdiction of EU courts through Brexit. The judgment will allow London to increase tax revenues just when the British government is seeking to escape the jurisdiction of EU courts through Brexit The British treasury will take a bigger cut of the Gibraltar online gaming pie, a thriving industry that controls 60% of the global market. The EU decision also deepens the crisis of the business model that has driven growth for Gibraltars online gambling industry. In the last two decades, gambling operators have flourished thanks to the favorable tax regime in the overseas territory. If Brexit created an initial sense of unease, there is palpable uncertainty now with regard to the 3,252 direct jobs created by the 33 Gibraltar-based gambling companies that now face the prospect of losing competitiveness to other desirable locations, such as Malta or the Isle of Man. English version by Susana Urra. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. As with any other redundancy, employers must prove there is a genuine business reason and a fair process must be followed including consultation and an opportunity for feedback. However, Rendle warns that case law has determined that a higher threshold must be met in order to justify a redundancy when an employee is on parental leave. This is because these employees are in a vulnerable position, not being in the workplace, Rendle explains. If other employees take over their duties in their absence, an employer may decide that there is no longer any need for their position. According to Rendle, the higher threshold is in place to provide an even playing field for employees whose absence would render them unable to demonstrate the importance of their position. Finally, Rendle says any redundancy must have arisen after the employee went on parental leave. In withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump demonstrated monumental ignorance about climate change and the agreement itself. As Vox energy and climate writer David Roberts noted about Trump's announcement, "It is a remarkable address, in its own way, in that virtually every passage contains something false or misleading." From absurd claims that the voluntary agreement will impose "draconian financial and economic burdens" on the U.S. to petty, irrational fears that it confers advantages to other countries to the misguided notion that it can and should be renegotiated, Trump is either misinformed or lying. Advertisement The agreement to limit global temperature increases that every country except Syria and Nicaragua signed in December 2015 (the latter because it doesn't go far enough!) is an astonishing achievement. Despite a relentless, massively funded campaign of denial, the world's nations came together and agreed to reduce the risk of climate chaos. Scientists warn of overshoot, of exceeding greenhouse gas emissions beyond a level to which human society can adapt. As global average temperature rises, warming ocean waters could release immense amounts of methane frozen in Arctic waters. The potent greenhouse gas could take us into unknown territory where human survival is questionable. With Trump's single-minded focus on propping up outdated, polluting industries, he's unlikely to lead us out of this mess -- but that doesn't mean we should give up hope. In science fiction stories about aliens invading Earth, the U.S. president gets on the phone with Russian, Chinese, European and other leaders. They unite to confront a threat that endangers them all. National borders mean nothing to the common enemy. Human boundaries matter enormously to us but mean nothing to nature. Today, we face a threat not only to our species but also to much of life on the planet. This time, the invasion isn't from outer space; it's the result of the collective effects of human activity. It still requires united effort to head off its most dire effects. Climate change and our response to it will be the defining moment of humanity's relatively brief history. Advertisement Human boundaries around property, cities, provinces and countries matter enormously to us but mean nothing to nature. Salmon, monarch butterflies, grizzly bears, air and water pay no attention to borders. In 1986, when fire broke out in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Swedish scientists were the first to alert the world to a catastrophic release of radioactive particles. Debris from the 2011 tsunami at Fukushima, Japan, reached Canada more than a year later. Although constructs like the economy, markets and corporations have huge significance for human affairs, their perpetuation depends entirely on the state of the biosphere. Life on Earth was made possible by the blanket of greenhouse gases enveloping the planet. They regulated temperature and kept it from fluctuating drastically between day and night and through seasons. As life evolved, photosynthesis became the planet's primary means of capturing and using the sun's energy, eventually producing and maintaining atmospheric oxygen. Plants mediated the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen, but the rise of fossil fuel-driven industrialization has pushed carbon dioxide beyond plants' capacities to utilize it. We have steadily altered the chemistry of the air beyond levels that developed over several million years. Scientists have anticipated the crisis of catastrophic climate change from human activity for decades, but despite their warnings, political and economic agendas have, with a few exceptions, trumped real action to reduce fossil fuel use. The problem didn't appear suddenly. Industrialized nations have been the major greenhouse gas contributors, spurred by the American economy's spectacular growth. Signatories to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 recognized that countries responsible for the problem should cap and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions while allowing poorer nations to develop economically until leaders could enact another all-inclusive treaty. Advertisement If there's a bright side to Trump's decision, it's that climate change has received more serious media coverage than ever before, and people around the world -- from municipal, state and business leaders in the U.S. to heads of state everywhere -- have agreed to increase their efforts, to lead where Trump has failed. People from all walks of life are joining forces to confront the common threat. The leader of the most powerful nation is not among them. Sad! Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington. David Suzuki's latest book isJust Cool It!: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do(Greystone Books), co-written with Ian Hanington. Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Also on HuffPost: Between June 23 and July 2, Madrid will be host to the planets biggest gay pride festival of the year, World Pride , with some two million visitors expected over the course of the nine-day event. Labor unions are predicting that every hotel will be full: demand has sent the price of rooms soaring: fivefold in some cases. Madrid City Hall says there are just 83,300 hotel rooms in the Spanish capital, meaning that the majority of visitors will have to make alternative accommodation arrangements. Madrid during Gay Pride week. Jaime Villanueva (Atlas) The Madrid Hotel Business Association has not provided any data on hotel occupancy rates, because there is still time and not everything has been booked. But Antonio Ruda of the Workers Commissions labor union says that in June of last year, 1,029,518 visitors stayed in hotels in the capital, 42,689 more than in the same month in 2015. There are no hotel rooms in Madrid or the outskirts. Youd have to go to Toledo to find a space, says Angel Martinez of the UGT labor union. He adds that the average price of a four- or five-star hotel room is more than 300, an increase of 100. The World Pride 2017 website warned in October to book well ahead Finding accommodation in the center during gay pride week has been impossible for months, says Yago Blando, coordinator of Arcopoli, a Madrid-based LGBT association, adding that visitors to the Spanish capital arriving in recent days have had to travel out to dormitory towns such as Leganes or Mostoles to find a room. A lot of people have had to get friends to help them out, says Blando. One such visitor is Mario Anton, 37, from Granada, who is attending his sixth gay pride festival in Madrid: I began looking for places with friends three months ago. We couldnt agree on location or price, which was prohibitive. Now everything is taken. The World Pride 2017 website warned in October that anybody thinking of attending would need to book well ahead. The sooner you reserve your accommodation, the more chance you have of finding the ideal place at the best price, says the site. It put together a list with a few suggestions, such as the Oscar Hotel in Chueca. An employee there says its 74 rooms have been fully booked for the duration of World Pride for three months. A quick internet search shows that the average price per room in the hotel is 247, four times the normal rate. If you dont have a reservation for those days, youre better off going to the Caribbean Madrid hotel owner Jose Bueno If you dont have a reservation for those days, youre better off going to the Caribbean, says Jose Bueno, the owner of the Casa Bueno hotel in Chueca. Anybody looking for a room now isnt going to find anything, and if they did, it would be very expensive, more than 200 a night, he says. Alexandre Charles, 33, from Mallorca, has been coming to Madrids Gay Pride festival for seven years: This year, with World Pride, everything is out of proportion. Along with three friends, he has rented an apartment for 800, almost three times the rate in previous years. Other visitors have opted for apartments through platforms such as Airbnb, among them Fede Rossi, a 29-year-old Romanian who is sharing with three friends. They each paid 50 for the first night of the festival. Barely 8% of the more than 300 apartments advertised on Airbnb are still available for the nine-day event. Labor unions have called on Madrid City Hall and the regional government to control the market in unlicensed tourist accommodations. They are being occupied illegally and there are more and more of them each day, although they do not figure in any official data, says Ruda. English version by Nick Lyne. Zoonar RF via Getty Images gender equal opportunity or representation From child marriages and unequal access to education, to subtle sexism and unequal wages, gender inequality certainly persists all around the world. Like a chameleon, it takes many shapes and forms, but one thing is for certain, it needs to end. I was born in Nigeria, where men still hold a tight monopoly on cultural and political power. My family and I moved from Lagos to Luton when I was 11. The wheels of gender equality are in motion in the UK but there is evidently still a long way to go -- "subtle" and institutional bias persist, women still get paid 18 per cent less than men and only 25 per cent of UK STEM graduates are female. I recently learned of an incident in London, where at a work meeting, a manager complained that a member of her team was "always pregnant." A woman's personal decision was discussed and judged in a professional setting as an inconvenience because of a workplace culture which permits and possibly promotes that rhetoric. Apparently fellow colleagues even laughed in response to the comment. This is just one of several practical instances which show that in the UK there is still bias in the way we think about women, our roles in society and the choices that we make. Tackling this will involve modifying mind-sets and ideologies through tailored trainings and initiatives. Advertisement We must recognise the idiosyncrasy of experiences and opportunities of diverse British women. The overall gender pay gap may be narrowing but the pace and direction significantly differs for different ethnic groups. In the full-time labour market, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women have a 26 per cent gender pay gap, while Chinese women hold a -5.6 per cent 'reverse pay gap' with white British men. At university, I held an event where Professor Gloria Agyemang spoke on the realities of working as one of the very few female black lecturers in the UK. There is empirical evidence that science faculties not only offer men higher starting salaries but also view males as better qualified than female candidates and therefore invest more in the development of male candidates. These biases are mirrored across industries. Statistically, being an ethnic minority is an extra layer of institutional disadvantage. Firms need to recognize that truly championing diversity goes beyond altruism. It is also a business strength synonymous with innovative ideas and economic prosperity. Hiring more women to achieve quotas or to look good is not enough. Committing to intersectional diversity of backgrounds and experiences will only enrich business output and culture in the long run. Young people are more likely to identify and engage with role models of similar backgrounds. It is infinitely vital that girls in the UK see more women flourishing in male-dominated industries, so they know those jobs are open to them and they can aspire accordingly. As a Girls20 ambassador, I will be launching a project later this year focused on encouraging girls in my community towards professional leadership and entrepreneurship. I hope to offer girls free mentorship and workshops involving role models of varying ethnic backgrounds. Representation matters. Advertisement Women's experiences are not homogenous and trying to approach gender issues as such will only be counterproductive. Ignoring intersectionality is like building a house on sand rather than on a solid foundation -- when strong winds blow, such a house would not be able to stand. As we work towards 50/50 in politics, finance, education, STEM and so on, let us also ensure that our 50 will be representative of the diversity of women in our contemporary society. By Dunola Oladapo, G(irls)20 Delegate, UK It seems like yesterday that then-trade minister Chrystia Freeland was having her credentials as an international negotiator questioned due to her expression of presumably womanly emotion during CETA negotiations. Now, on a world stage dominated by outrageously xenophobic rhetoric and scapegoating, in which nations and corporations watch Twitter for policy signals from a thin-skinned, retaliatory president who engages in foreign relations through awkward handshakes, Freeland has delivered a vision for Canadian foreign policy that shows her remarkably level head and iron gut. Nobody would fault her for delaying planning our foreign policy agenda until the situation in America calms down, or turning inward in the face of international instability, but instead she chose ambition, pride, and open arms to the world. She obviously understands the global situation, which both gives me hope and makes my job as International Affairs Critic a bit harder: I have to drill down to the level of policy to criticize her ministry, because her perspective and values are on point. Advertisement The first signal to her well-placed values is the way that she sees shared international institutions as the main cause of peace and prosperity, rather than American military domination. Despite her emphasis in the speech on military "hard power," followed by a new plan from Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan the next day, she nonetheless emphasizes the military playing a supportive role to the global order, noting that "might is not always right." The massive increase to our military budget over the next decade focuses on ensuring that our forces are sufficiently large, diverse, and equipped to meet our global commitments to shared defence, rather than any attempt to take over the mantle of world police. Sajjan even noted that "doing our part spans support for diplomacy, development, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, capacity building and peace operations." But despite talking the talk, Sajjan's backgrounder includes no spending items on disaster relief, development, humanitarian aid, or peace operations. It reads like a military shopping list, including specific mention of drones capable of "precision strikes" (a morally unacceptable technology, despite mention of developing an international framework for the acceptable use of drones), but lacks any bullet points for conflict-avoiding forces, technologies, or strategies. Particularly given Freeland's emphasis on climate change, which is already proving a powerful destabilizing force in the world, the lack of any concrete plan for disaster relief is concerning. For all of Freeland's eloquence about supporting global order, the only specifics we've seen thus far from the Defence department support the narrative of military engagement. I hope to see more from International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in the near future, but Sajjan is missing a golden opportunity to "enhance capabilities": Canada should develop mobile teams specialized in climate-fuelled disasters such as floods, wildfires, and famines, to strategically deliver aid, support, and expertise in concert with our DART team. Surely an ounce of conflict avoidance is worth a pound of ammunition. Advertisement Freeland mentions the rise of the global south, with specific reference to China as an emerging economy, but given the prominence of climate change on her list of global issues we should also make a concerted effort to engage with South America and Africa, both of which continue to be pillaged for resources in the absence of strong governments capable of enforcing environmental and humanitarian laws. These continents are still home to massive biodiversity and carbon sinks, indigenous peoples and fragile climates. Unlike China, whose environmental degradation is a result of their own economy, South American, African, and Southeast Asian environments are fuelling North American and European economies through resource extraction. We have a responsibility there, particularly as some of the world's biggest mining companies call Canada home. Freeland focused the heat of her speech on America's inward turn, fuelled by rising inequality as the middle class loses their jobs to automation. Her moxie in calling on America to be great again (implying it isn't) through international engagement is inspiring. But her solution to the general distrust of global economic institutions that have privileged corporations at the expense of workers is to push the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the EU as a model for new trade agreements -- even though CETA has investor protection mechanisms so strong that nations seeking their peoples' best interests can be hamstrung by corporations seeking profits. The Green Party of Canada has opposed CETA from the start because of these problematic investor-state relations. We also have concrete policies to reorient Canada's economy to deal with the new global economic realities, and they go much deeper than doubling down on neoliberalism. Implementing fundamental domestic policy shifts can have a major impact on the international stage, by modelling ambitious approaches and by setting the conditions for larger global economic shifts. Advertisement For example, taxes can be shifted away from an emphasis on labour, which is increasingly being replaced by automation, and toward market externalities such as pollution, health issues/vices such as cigarettes and marijuana, and market speculation. A Guaranteed Livable Income can streamline social services and enable Canadians to pursue further education and entrepreneurship. And infrastructure investments can be targeted to empower Canadians economically through projects such as a smart and democratized energy grid in which individuals can profit from generating clean electricity from private, renewable sources. Freeland's speech gets so much right in vision and tone, and she cannot be criticized for not providing a clearly itemized list of all policies that will accomplish her vision for the coming decade, or for not directing domestic policy. She is right to chart an independent and sovereign course, and she is right to welcome every opportunity to collaborate internationally. But it will take more than CETA and guns to get us there, and her plan is not as revolutionary as the post-war global order that inspires it. Perhaps Freeland's ambition for Canada's role in the world will lead to some action at home. On both fronts, actions speak louder than words. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Earlier this month, Sophie Labelle, a Montreal-based, internationally renowned transgender author and activist, was subject to a violent cyber-attack, including death threats and hate speech. Most chillingly, the attackers not only temporarily destroyed her popular website, but also published personal details -- including her home address. Sophie is now in hiding. Bill C-16, a bill designed to protect gender identity and gender expression in the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code, explicitly addresses the violence that Sophie most recently experienced. If the bill were made law, Sophie's attackers could face additional sanctions for hate speech. Advertisement Indeed, Bill C-16 helps to redress incomplete protections for some of the most vulnerable women in Canadian society today: transgender women, who face unconscionably high rates of physical, sexual and fatal violence. For over a decade now, however, legislation aiming to protect transgender rights has stalled. Numerous lives have continued to be tragically impacted by discrimination, harassment and violence in the meantime. Much of this stalling has occurred in the Senate where a small but vocal minority of senators has successfully been able to prevent the bill from moving forward. A third reading for the bill will take place in the Senate this week. There have been other detractors. Most recently, Vancouver Rape Relief (VRR) and Pour les droits des femmes du Quebec (PDFQ) claimed during a Senate Committee hearing on the issue that the protections for transgender people in Bill C-16 pose a threat to feminism and female-only spaces. Advertisement The bill is deeply needed and long overdue. This claim garnered national headlines. But it proved to be spurious. In the immediate aftermath of the testimony, Canadian feminists moved quickly to distance themselves from such exclusionary views. On May 17 we published an open letter, entitled "Canadian Feminists Support Bill C-16 / Feministes canadiens pour la loi C-16," on iPetitions. The petition argued that the bill "is deeply needed and long overdue," especially given the fact that "transgender women are more likely to face poverty, homelessness, barriers to education and violence than are cisgender (non-transgender) women." In just one day it gained over 1,000 supporters. Signatories include people from women's shelters, churches and Women's Studies programs in universities across the country. On the same day, this petition was joined by a strong statement of support for Bill C-16 from eight organizational signatories, including Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres; Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women and YWCA Canada, among others. The message was clear, and in stark contrast to VRR and PDFQ: trans women are women. As the signatories wrote, "Bill C-16 will bolster efforts to ensure sexual violence support services are available to all survivors of violence across Canada." They went on to affirm the importance of equity and safety for trans, two-spirit and gender diverse people. Advertisement The immediate and vocal response from feminists across the country who were anxious to counter the testimony given at the Senate against the bill makes it clear that human rights are at the very heart of contemporary Canadian feminism. Feminism is more rich and diverse than it has ever been before. A new generation of young people are committed to tackling oppression as an intersectional project of resistance. There is wide-ranging support for trans rights in Canada that goes all the way up to the prime minister's office. On International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared, "Today -- and every day -- I join Canadians to support gender expression, gender identity and sexual orientation rights for people in Canada and around the world, and to challenge stigma, violence and prejudices wherever they occur." It is now time for our senators to decide if they, too, will protect gender identity and gender expression. Bill C-16 cements such sentiments and good wishes into reality. A large majority of the members of Parliament also support this recognition of trans rights. Advertisement It is now time for our senators to decide if they, too, will protect gender identity and gender expression. These measures are needed not only by those who are transgender, but also by less-understood non-binary and gender fluid individuals. As the Senate meets to vote on the third reading of this historic legislation, we urge them to remember that gender diverse people of all ages, from children to seniors, should be embraced as equals in this country, with the full protection of the law. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook It's time for Justin Trudeau to start teaching Dr. Jane Philpott, his health minister, about the value of evidence in formulating policy. Let me explain. My last blog post dealt with the Ontario war on pain patients and it garnered considerable attention. As the result of that blog, I was twice invited to be on the Roy Green Talk Show -- the second time to give my impression of his interview with the minister of health. Green has also taken up the challenge of defending people who are in chronic pain from the misguided policies of the government. Advertisement By way of background, there are two problems faced by society. The first is the use of drugs for reasons other than to treat a medical condition. Those drugs include marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogenics and opioids. Those who take these do so for a variety of reasons and, because they are buying drugs from criminal dealers, do not always get what they expect. Increasingly, these drugs are laced with counterfeit fentanyl and many die from overdoses. Then, there are a lot of people who suffer from pain that does not go away. They are under the care of doctors who have provided them with a series of treatments usually starting with more benign strategies like physiotherapy, exercise, biofeedback, up to the use of prescription medications ending with opioids for those for whom nothing else helps. For those with the most serious pain, the opioids usually help to varying degrees and allow these patients to enjoy a better quality of life. They are seen regularly by their doctors and are monitored. They are not abusing the medication and, as I pointed out in my previous blog, very, very few are addicted. As Halifax writer Dawn Rae Downton wrote in theGlobe and Mail, she uses fentanyl not to get high but to have a life despite her chronic pain. As she said, "One in five Canadians suffers miserable chronic pain; many have used opioids safely for years. They don't abuse, sell, overdose or continually raise their doses." When the pain is undertreated, she said, "patients risk immense physical and emotional dysfunction, endocrine failure, cardiac collapse, immune problems, dementia and early death, sometimes by suicide." Advertisement Unfortunately, what the government is doing is confusing the two problems into one and going after legitimate pain patients who use their opioids responsibly under the care of physicians as a way to reduce overdose deaths amongst the population of illicit drug users. Decisions are being made even though Dr. Philpott claims to be a follower of evidence-based practice. Dr. Lynn Webster is a past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine with many years experience treating chronic pain. He told Green that the efforts to reduce the use of opioids actually began with U.S. insurance companies and Workers Compensation Boards attempts to reduce costs by convincing regulators that opioids are bad. (June 11, hour 1 segments 1 & 2, about 8 minutes in). He also pointed out that the result of the government policies to reduce the legitimate use of opioids for people in pain will likely result in an increase in suicides amongst this population. Pain, he said, can be so unbearable that sufferers will do anything to end it, including taking their own lives. To get some understanding of what these patients endure, watch the trailer for his documentary or listen to the descriptions by pain patients on the Green show. Dr. Webster actually requested that he be on the show after he heard Green's interview with Dr. Philpott because he did not agree with what she said. You can hear her interview on June 3 in hour 2 segments 1, 2 and 3 followed by my critique of her immediately after. Advertisement She did say when forced to by Green that what a patient is prescribed is really up to the patient and his/her health-care provider. If that is the case, then why is the government interfering with that by imposing limits on the prescriptions? They have no right to just as Trudeau's father once said "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." But what is even more telling is that she has no clue how many of the overdose deaths from opioids occur in pain patients. Without knowing that, there is no basis to target pain patients. She also does not know what portion of pain patients become addicted and, again, without knowing that, there is no basis to what they are doing. Dr. Webster commented that if a pain patient overdoses, then it is most likely suicide rather than accidental. In the absence of evidence, decisions are being made even though Dr. Philpott claims to be a follower of evidence-based practice. Her boss, Justin Trudeau, told the Vancouver Sun editorial board that "I'm a big fan of evidence-based policy. " As Vice reported, Trudeau said that he is not philosophically opposed to legal heroin. The reason that he is decriminalizing marijuana is because "safety is his top priority, and he doesn't want to give money to gangs and dealers." Evidence from Portugal which was the first country to decriminalize heroin has resulted in that country having the fewest number of overdose deaths of any country in Europe. The Portuguese death rate is three per million compared to 17.3 per million in the European Union. The Independent reports that "Transform Drug Policy Institute says in its analysis of Portugal's drug laws, "The reality is that Portugal's drug situation has improved significantly in several key areas. Most notably, HIV infections and drug-related deaths have decreased, while the dramatic rise in use feared by some has failed to materialize." The evidence for decriminalizing is there, but there is no evidence that attacking pain patients will do anything but make vulnerable people miserable, prone to suicide and destroy their lives. Advertisement It is time to listen to the evidence. Delpixart via Getty Images I stood in the 2015 general election as the Conservative candidate in Rochdale, but the party's hard-line approach to Brexit made me realise I could no longer campaign for them and stay true to my principles. During the 2017 campaign, I defected to the Liberal Democrats, joining the party and introducing Vince Cable at an event in the final week of the campaign. In one sense, I feel the election result vindicates my decision. Without a working parliamentary majority, Theresa May will not be able to lead the country into a hard Brexit, which would have been an absolute disaster for Britain. That's a good thing and I'm delighted she will have to moderate her approach. Advertisement But in another sense, I worry for our country. We are very unstable with no support for the government to implement a coherent Brexit policy. The Tories will be tarnished by their association with the DUP. Arlene Fraser is a tough cookie and she has nothing to lose by propping up the Tories; the Tories have everything to lose because they will be forced to make commitments that were never in their manifesto. A Conservative-DUP alliance will go down very badly with young voters. The anti-abortion, anti-gay rights stance is at odds with the prevailing political climate. I don't feel any sympathy for Theresa May. She fought a very negative campaign and was also very arrogant. She said, "I'm going after the working-class vote" as if she already had the traditional Conservative vote sewn up. That was stupid and deluded. No politician can win across all parts of the political landscape; she pushed the boundaries too far and forgot about her core vote. I don't blame her political advisors, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy. She's a grown woman and needs to take responsibility for her mistakes. She could have opened up the campaign to the Cabinet and involved them more, but she chose not to. Her advisors were kids, not seasoned political operators who had been around the block a few times. She should have known that the core Tory vote is aged 60-65+ so why did she shoot herself in the foot with her manifesto? The political pendulum is now going to swing away from the Conservatives. Young voters will play an increasingly important role in the future and the Tories will not get them onside. Jeremy Corbyn's campaign was amazing; we know that what he was promising was impossible to deliver, but that didn't matter. If you tell young people you are going to abolish tuition fees and you are going to do it immediately they will vote for you; they don't care about the deficit. And plenty of their parents will vote for you too because they have a vested interest. Advertisement We have seen a return to two-party politics in the last two elections. The Liberal Democrats gained four seats, but only won 7.4% of the vote, down 0.5% from 2015. The middle ground is there to be won. The party needs to re-brand; it needs fresh ideas and it needs to think outside of the box. For example, while it's clearly unrealistic to scrap tuition fees for all fees overnight, you could scrap fees only for STEM subjects, which is where we need to focus our training if we are to ensure we have a workforce equipped for the 21st century. The NHS has been a problem for all parties, regardless of who's been in power. With my background in management consultancy, I know it's ridiculous to expect fix the NHS in a five-year period. Take it out of politics. Come up with a 10-year plan that's independent of the political parties. This is the time for fresh thinking - young people are taking an interest in politics and we need to offer them something new. NurPhoto via Getty Images Politics is changing fast and it's hard to predict what's going to happen next. But one thing is for certain, we have just 21 months until we're supposed to be leaving the EU - and just 15 months until a final deal is meant to be with both the British and European Parliaments for consideration. When it comes to Brexit we don't have time to mess around. Any mandate the Tories claimed to have for their version of Brexit has been seriously dented. Not only did they fail to win a majority, but one of the key reasons they didn't lose altogether was because of their success in Scotland, where they are led by an ardent Remainer who has made clear her support for a soft Brexit. Over 52% of the vote at this election went to parties who opposed the Conservatives' extreme Brexit, albeit to different degrees. Advertisement The election result should have prompted the Tories to take stock, and review their Brexit strategy, but Theresa May seems intent to plough on with her plans. The appointment of the hardline Brexiteer Steve Baker to the Brexit Department might appease the Tory backbenchers, but it will ring alarm bells for those of us concerned about the impacts of an extreme Brexit. Instead of pressing ahead with her plans for Brexit Theresa May should follow the advice of Nicola Sturgeon, Yvette Cooper and others who are calling for a cross-party commission on Brexit. With the country still so divided, and Theresa May only able to form a Government with the help of the DUP, the Tories must be forced to recognise that they simply have no mandate for pushing forward as if nothing has happened. In the coming weeks and months I am going to be focussing relentlessly on Brexit - and in particular continuing to make the case for protecting our environment and defending freedom of movement. That's why I'll be seeking cross-party support for an Environmental Protection Act - which would cement and enhance EU environmental laws and their enforcement as we navigate the Brexit process. Such a law isn't controversial, but with Michael Gove now taking his place as Environment Secretary, it might well be needed to ensure that the Tories don't use Brexit as an opportunity to slash environmental protection. When it comes to freedom of movement I'm going to make it my mission to inject facts into the debate. For every myth about EU nationals taking jobs and lowering wages I will consistently cite the huge amount of research which shows the huge benefit people from other European countries bring to Britain. It's worth remembering that the millions of EU citizens living in Britain did not get to vote last week - that's why I'll be their voice in Parliament whenever I can. Advertisement Though the UK's trade agreement with the EU is the talk of the town, we mustn't lose sight of the fact that Ministers are also touring the world searching for trade. That's why it's crucial that MPs keep a close watch on any potential new deals, and it's why my party believes that each new trade deal should be subject to a meaningful vote in Parliament. With trade in the spotlight we should also be looking again at the deals we already have in place - and in particular looking to end arms sales to repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia. With the Tories in disarray and a renewed sense of purpose on the opposition benches, everything is up for grabs. As the sole Green MP representing hundreds of thousands of voters across the country I'll be standing with colleagues from all parties to oppose extreme Tory Brexit plans - and working to build a consensus on a way forward for Britain that best protects our economy and stops the slide towards inequity that's been the hallmark of Theresa May's premiership. I first started meditating when I was 15 years old. It helped me find calm in an increasingly stressful world, and enabled me to concentrate for much longer periods of time. That said, I still count those final years of school as some of the most stressful of my life, with teenage angst, body image, fear of failure, exam worry and news from around the world all weighing heavily on my mind. Since then, the pressures on young people have only got worse, with cyber-bullying, greater academic demands, early sexualisation and increasing sexual pressures, body image concerns, and so on playing a large part in many children's lives. Access to the internet has made it difficult to manage what children are exposed to at younger and younger ages. We see these stresses manifesting themselves in various ways, with growing numbers of children experiencing depression, anxiety and eating disorders. According to Young Minds, over the last 10 years there has been an increase of 68% in the number of young people being admitted to hospital for self-harming, and depression has doubled in 15-16 year olds since the 80s. Further worrying statistics are available here. Advertisement Image credit: Forres Sandle Manor Meditation is no longer enough. Mindfulness in schools is being developed to give children crucial tools to deal with life's pressures. It empowers them, encouraging them to develop a conscious awareness of their own thoughts, emotional reactions and stress triggers, and enabling them to develop coping skills, greater self-awareness and compassion for others. Cognitive benefits observed during studies include greater attention and focus, along with better grades. Behaviour in school is also seen to improve as children become less reactive, gain greater perspective and develop deeper compassion for those around them. Anxiety, stress and depression are shown to be reduced where mindfulness is successfully incorporated into children's lives. To find out more about mindfulness, I completed a Mindfulness Fundamentals course two years ago, where I experienced first-hand the benefits of mindfulness and immediately introduced it into my classes. I am now half way through the Mindful Educator Essentials course, which is equipping me with the necessary background and curriculum to teach mindfulness more formally. There are various courses available online; some of them short, introductory courses, and some much more in-depth. A quick Google search will bring up myriad options, such as Mindful Schools, Mindfulness in Schools Project and Youth Mindfulness. To find out more about mindfulness in general, check out Mindfulnet or look at the many other sites that you'll find by doing a quick Google search. Advertisement What do you do if a slight majority of your compatriots at home decide to throw your future into uncertainty and make you and your family feel less secure living abroad? You'd probably take matters into your own hands by double-voting Brexit and adopting a foreign EU nationality in time. This pragmatic stance is likely to be the reason behind a run by British expats on German passports in the past year. According to recent figures by the German Federal Statistical Office, naturalisations of British citizens have shot up by a whopping 360 percent compared to 2015 and stood at 2,865 for 2016. While the number of Brits who became Germans had been on a slight but steady increase over the past decade, last year's Brexit vote has pushed many more British expats to apply for German citizenship than in the years before. Don't call it an exodus, but it is a clear sign. Advertisement You will find more statistics at Statista There seems to be a real fear that the door might slam shut after Britain actually leaves the European Union in two years' time. What will become of the rights of British citizens still living in the EU then isn't quite clear, as negotiations on the nuts and bolts of Britain leaving haven't been discussed yet. But especially if the British government under Theresa May follows through with its hardline type of Brexit that might not include accepting equal rights for EU expats in Britain, the EU in turn could decide to curtail the rights of British citizens living in the EU. The Brexit negotiations between May's new but shaky government and an increasingly impatient EU were set to begin on Monday next week, June 19. Now, they're likely to be pushed back until May's coalition government is standing. Going German, or alternatively getting a passport of any other EU country, seems a legitimate option for British expats to secure their rights in very uncertain times. Also, Brits can keep their British passports, as an (erstwhile) open and liberal Britain never made a fuss about her nationals holding other passports. Advertisement Germany has opened up to EU and other citizens holding dual nationality. However, German law is still rooted in the notion that one nationality is better than multiple, a rational based on jus sanguinis (right of blood) rather than the jus soli (right of birth), which prevails in Britain or France. Germany has opened up, but still tends to be more conservative in terms of naturalisation - as the plight of Turkish expats in Germany shows. There have been recent calls by the more conservative wing of the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) for Germany to reverse its policies adopted in 2014 whereby children of Turkish citizens born in Germany can hold both nationalities. Chancellor Angela Merkel herself has so far resisted those calls. The calls are chiefly and unfairly aimed against people of Turkish descent, who make up the biggest expat community in Germany and by some are seen as unwilling to integrate into German society. This simmering resentment was rekindled when a majority of Turkish nationals living in Germany voted in the Turkish constitutional referendum two months back in favour of giving the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers. Actually, most foreign nationals naturalised in Germany last year were of Turkish descent, 16,290 to be precise. Advertisement Let's hope that the Brexit, which is quite likely to be a messy business as it is, doesn't also mess up the rights of people living freely and peacefully either in the UK or the EU, no matter where they're from. Eddie Keogh / Reuters Instead of pollsters, election 'gurus' and focus groups during the election, Theresa May would have done better to talk to the CEO of a successful company. Any company. She failed to grasp that politics, like business, is about passion as well as principles; and we saw precious little of either from the Government campaign. Advertisement Her preferred currency - pragmatism - earned a raspberry from a large proportion of the electorate fed up with austerity and the promise of more to come. Nobody votes for a worse future any more than they buy the prospect of a poorer product. A successful chief executive knows that an enterprise needs a clear sense of purpose; and that this needs to be communicated with passion to everyone: employees, lenders, shareholders and customers. Jeremy Corbyn confronted Mrs May energetically with a whole new set of ideas. Her response was stony silence. If a business rival comes up with an alternative, then a good chief executive meets the challenge, knowing that this will enhance their own enterprise. Mrs May offered nothing to pensioners or young people except, respectively, hazard or indifference. Jeremy Corbyn was simply the better election CEO. He identified his customers and came out with a positive, firm corporate vision. He still lost, of course. But his loss has the scent of an ascendancy. Mrs May's victory smells like a wake. Advertisement We will see what lies smouldering beneath each leader's political business over the coming weeks. But the direction of travel seems clear. Mr Corbyn was rewarded for a better packaged product. It was also one far better sold through social media, which has the power to launder even quite old school ideas into freshness. He recognised far more intuitively that people want to benefit their particular lives. A company survives the same way. Ratners failed in part because the head of the once ubiquitous high street jeweller, Gerald Ratner, once described its product as 'cr*p', not because the product itself changed. Sentiment is everything in life and politics and business. "It's not what I did at the time," Mr Ratner said years later. "It took me years to realise that the only proper apology is a fully apology." Mrs May seemed not to understand that wise truth during the fiasco over future funding of social care. Mr Corbyn also made a lot of people feel more hopeful and less embattled. He reached out to a new market - young people - and galvanised them. It was a marketing masterstroke. They bought his product, few questions asked. Meanwhile, the Conservatives were busy unsettling their core, reliable pensioner market. Everyone else was told, more or less, only that the current Government was best placed to help us all cope with the kicking that was going to come our way. Advertisement But in some respects, the general election was remarkable for more than ineptitude. There are now 40 per cent more MPs who classify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, 45 in total. There also seems to be fairer ethnic respresentation. All of this is to be applauded. It shows a representative democracy working despite the constraints of our first-past-the-post electoral system. If you ask people what they would list under Maslow's hierarchy of needs, chances are you'll be given some variation on food, shelter, and warmth. The challenge as our population grows is how we meet those urgent and basic needs. The difficulties are plain to see. Successive governments have to set targets for housebuilding to meet the demand from a growing population. There are examples of poverty around the country, albeit owing to access to foodstuffs rather than food simply being unavailable on account of famine. And with warmth - in fact energy as a whole - there are challenges in how we provide for an increasing population and growing economy. The demand for energy is seeing a step change in provision, with the Green Alliance recently reporting that the future belongs to smaller-scale schemes as opposed to larger-scale power stations. And there are greater efforts to act at local levels. Take Exeter as an example. One of the fastest growing cities in the UK in terms of population, the energy demands of the city have increased exponentially in recent years. That puts real pressure on resources. There is, quite simply, only so much cake to go around. Advertisement You might expect leaders in the local authority to turn to a national solution. To look to national resources to meet local demands. But in fact, Exeter has set itself the challenge of becoming energy independent by 2025. To put that into context, that goal means meeting the energy needs of the 40,000 new residents expected to be living in the region by 2026. And accommodating 14,000 more car commutes on local roads. The scale of the demands on energy resources are no less vast. A report by City Science, commissioned by Exeter City Futures, concluded that the Greater Exeter region consumes 10 terawatt-hours of energy per year, and that demand will increase by 13 percent by 2025. The scale of challenge in achieving energy independence is massive, and one that can't be met by simply increasing supply. The solution instead is identifying the ways in which energy consumption can actually be reduced and made more efficient. Advertisement It's something that Exeter as a city is really taking to heart - with the potential to not only realise opportunities for better energy efficiency, helping lower carbon emissions and supporting energy independence, but also to support economic development in the region. To meet the expected population growth within the next decade, Exeter has plans to build some 20,000 new homes, of which 17,000 will be in new developments. The focus must be on ensuring these developments are net-energy positive, but this in itself isn't enough. Almost a quarter of Exeter's current housing stock was built before 1919 so lacks the energy efficiency we would take for granted in new builds today. The local authorities will consequently have to introduce a retrofit programme to bring these properties up to spec. This might sound an incredible undertaking, but it's entirely achievable - with the significant bonus being that the combination of retrofitting existing stock and developing energy efficient new builds will require 2,500 skilled workers, creating opportunities for employment and training, and supporting local business growth. The work is already being done, and a Grade II listed building in the city is already being retrofitted to bring its energy performance certificate up to a 'A' rating - demonstrating that a retrofit programme is as achievable as it is necessary. This can be supported through the use of solar panels, which thanks to technological and installation development, can be utilised for listed properties and older buildings to further improve their energy efficiency. The example of Exeter is one other cities and urban areas would be well served by following. There is a necessity to think about how we meet future energy needs that may well grow substantially. As the Green Alliance has suggested, the path is towards smaller scale developments to meet demand - but we should also be thinking in terms of local. Advertisement With energy independence clearly an achievable goal, the opportunity exists for other cities to capitalise - improving efficiencies and unlocking economic development. And when we can read nearly daily about the dangers of pollution in many of our cities, surely that should be a common aspiration? koya79 via Getty Images When the General Election was first called, no-one could have predicted the pivotal role that Northern Ireland's leading party would play in the result. The DUP's unexpected hand in bringing the Tories back into power has catapulted the party into the centre stage of UK politics, and has for the first time exposed them to the full, unforgiving glare of Great Britain. As someone born and raised in Belfast, the recent flood of attention towards the DUP feels like a threshold moment for Northern Ireland. The DUP have been the country's leading party for many years, but they have never experienced such widespread criticism for their extreme, right-wing politics. Their stance as anti-gay, anti-choice and anti-EU has positioned the DUP as one of the most conservative parties in western Europe and their recent step into the spotlight is a rude awakening for many across the UK. Advertisement But as national outrage against the DUP continues to grow, many of us in Northern Ireland are asking - Why has it taken so long? Minorities in Northern Ireland have suffered for years under the DUP and have faced a long struggle for equal rights. The LGTBQ community in Northern Ireland are the only one in the British Isles without the right to marriage and the DUP have vowed to continue blocking marriage equality as a priority. There have been countless displays of homophobia from DUP members who have labelled gay people as an "abomination" and "abusers", and only two years ago the DUP attempted to legalise LGTBQ discrimination through their 'conscience clause'. Women have also faced repression under the party. The DUP have defied human rights recommendations by upholding restrictions on reproductive rights, forcing many women to travel to England to have an abortion and criminalising others for doing so in Northern Ireland. So heavy is the law that only weeks ago - on International Women's Day no less - a number of women's homes were raided in Belfast in a police search for abortion pills. For years Northern Ireland has lagged behind the rest of the UK on human rights issues and for these minorities it has been a long and drawn out struggle. So while Britain's recent outrage toward the DUP is encouraging, it also feels extremely frustrating. In Northern Ireland we could have used your solidarity long before now. Advertisement Northern Ireland has always faced general ignorance from the rest of the UK and sparse media coverage in Britain has left many in the dark about the country's biggest issues. For example, many will be unaware of the political crisis Northern Ireland has faced in the last six months, one which has cost over 400 million and left the country without a government since March 2017. A lack of awareness about Northern Ireland has made the recent election results all the more surprising and is a wake up call on the impact that Northern Irish politics can have on everyone in the UK. The result of the General Election has been a double edged sword for Northern Ireland. The rising influence of the DUP is a truly worrying prospect for all and emphasises the need to transform political thinking in the country. But the increased attention, condemnation and scrutiny towards the DUP has also created a potential for change, something which has long been needed, especially for our forward-thinking young people. It's been a noisy few months since Theresa May called the snap election back in March, with a huge focus on health and social care. Our new government is no doubt going to be busy. To lend a helping hand, here are some tips on the wisest moves our government can make to protect our health and social care sectors. 1.Turn rhetoric into action It's been positive to see social care reform and funding so high on the election manifesto agenda; but we can't let it stop there. This government must now turn words into action, and get a plan in place, knowing that public pressure and scrutiny will be maintained. Advertisement 2.Set the cap and make it fair Andrew Dilnot made some strong recommendations on how to reform social care; the Government must listen to these, first up by introducing a social care cap which will keep costs down for everyone and avoid seeing older people forced to sell their homes. Care must be equally accessible for all. There must be no 'dementia tax'; there needs to be a long-term and sustainable system for funding all elements of social care, including dementia care. 3.Value social care Health and social care go hand in hand. The NHS is Britain's most revered entity and it is what the public jump to protect. At the moment, neither the government nor the public prioritise social care in the same way. This perception must change. The health and social care sectors are co-dependant; if we improve one, we ease the strain on the other. 4.Focus on our ageing population The debacle over the 'dementia tax' is indicative of the need to give our increasingly ageing population the attention it deserves. The government cannot pull social care policies from thin air; we need a new strategy that addresses the demands created by the dramatic demographic change we have seen in recent years. We should celebrate that a British baby born today can expect to live to 104, but we can only do so if we are confident that our population will be looked after in older age. And it's not just social care that needs considering here. Our ageing population brings a range of challenges; from financial concerns around pensions, benefits and poverty, to mental health issues due to loneliness and social isolation, and discrimination, such as ageism in the workplace and the high street. Advertisement 5.Consider suitable housing The government must make it easier for older people to make the move into suitable housing. There are two main points to focus on here: first, the new government must encourage a focus on building retirement properties, and second, they must support those already living in sheltered housing. This would benefit people of all ages as 'right-sizing' frees up properties for the younger generation and, with older people living in safer environments, they are less likely to encounter falls, which increase demand on an already stretched NHS. A report by the Strategic Society, commissioned by Anchor, found that retirement housing could save the public purse 14.5billion over the next 50 years. To ensure specialist housing is able to meet older people's needs, the government must omit sheltered housing from the proposed caps on the Local Housing Allowance. A joint inquiry by two select committees has already come to the conclusion that the controversial plans to use the LHA to cap benefits for sheltered housing tenants should be scrapped. It's positive that Theresa May's new Chief of Staff is Gavin Barwell, the former Housing Minister who was keen to hear recommendations from the sector on the issue of LHA and supported housing. Now the government must take note of this expert advice, and act accordingly. 6.Make someone responsible The Prime Minister has appointed John Glen as the new Minister for Civil Society. This a very important role though it has not always had the recognition nor political clout it should have. One hopes that this will change under Mr. Glen's tenure. This tenure may be short if the Government does not last and a new general election is called but in the meantime, I suggest that there are five issues which should be a top of Mr. Glen's action list. First: he should seek to persuade the PM that responsibility for civil society, the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and charities should be relocated to the Cabinet Office. This would signal that the Government takes these sectors seriously and that they are seen as central to all public policy, social, environmental and economic activity. The Minister should have the explicit support and sponsorship of the PM to reach across Whitehall and beyond. Advertisement Second: he should openly and loudly champion the right - and I would suggest duty - of charities to engage in public policy debate, to promote policy and oppose policies which are deemed to be damaging to their beneficiaries, and to campaign. He should commit the Government to this principle that it actively engages with charities in the development of policy and its implementation from Brexit to all civil policies. Specifically this would require the immediate removal of all gagging clauses in public contracts and grant agreements and the revision of the Lobbying Act to allow charities and the VCS to speak up and speak out on behalf of their beneficiaries and the wider community with no fear of either legal sanction nor loss of current or future funding. By these actions John Glen would demonstrate a commitment to the role and contribution of civil society in the economic, social and political life of a modern democracy. He would earn the sector's respect. Third: he should acknowledge that charities and some VCS organisations can sometimes deliver public services more effectively than the public sector but this is not always the case. He should set out a clear statement that the Government does not see the sector as a replacement for the public sector direct service provision but sees it as a potential partner and in the right circumstances complementary to direct provision. Government should value its innovation, challenging orthodoxy and advocacy roles. In respect of public service provision, John Glen should urgently implement changes to government strategic commissioning and procurement so that charities and, in particular small VCS organisations can undertake public service delivery and where necessary submit bids that will be seriously considered. This would include using grant aid rather than complex competitive contracting wherever possible, full cost-plus payments which include an element of financial margin, no 'gagging clauses', and encouraging and enabling charities to innovate to secure outcomes. Whilst the minister cannot direct local authorities and other public bodies on these matters he should actively engage with them to encourage such practices Advertisement Fourth: he should celebrate and actively promote volunteering in a number of ways including by amending both employment legislation and benefit regulations to enable greater numbers of people to volunteer, encouraging young people to volunteer, working with employers, colleges and schools, and providing funding to develop and support volunteering schemes. He should clearly state that it is not government policy to substitute paid public servants with volunteers or ever to impose 'involuntary' volunteering. Fifth: he should engage with sector leaders and the wider sector to identify other ways in which the Government can demonstrate that it respects the role, independence and contribution of the VCS and charities. This should include considering how it can financially support sector development and representative sector bodies, amend tax legislation to ensure fairness for the sector and review charity law, governance and regulation so that the sector is fit for the modern world. This is a big but important 'in-tray'. If John Glen is going to be worthy of his new title he and his ministerial colleagues cannot afford to move items from this 'in-tray' to a 'pending-on-hold tray'. There is a real risk that a minority government will do precisely this and the last seven years do not give too many signals for hope. A start, at least, would set an agenda for the next Government to pursue. Hannah Mckay / Reuters During this extraordinary snap election, we saw so many u-turns it was hard to keep up. Accusations flew wildly around about Irish terrorists, how 'wobbly' and 'chaotic' politicians appeared, the tone of the discussions on television was acrimonious at best. All promises are out the window now that a weakened Theresa May is in negotiations with the Democratic Unionist Party and those of us who campaign to defend and extend abortion access have reason to be worried. Advertisement Despite advances in England, Wales and Scotland - safe, legal abortion has never been extended to Northern Ireland, where women still live with the out-dated, Victorian Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 under which all abortion is a crime, punishable with a life sentence. The only exception to this is when there is a permanent or serious risk to a woman's life or mental or physical health, but in 2015/2016, only 16 abortions were carried out in Northern Ireland under this exception. This means that the majority of women either have to travel and pay upwards of 600 for their treatment or buy abortion pills online. While there are safe medically-supervised sites that they can access, women risk being prosecuted unless they can afford and be able to arrange to travel. Those of us campaigning to defend the right to legal access to abortion, against the rolling back of our rights to reduce the abortion time limit in 2008 remember - we came close to achieving a better law, when reforming MPs proposed a number of changes to modernise the Abortion Act, including to extend legal abortion to Northern Ireland. The debate was stymied after an alleged deal was done with the DUP over detention without charge. The DUP are fervently anti-abortion and could again pose a real threat if they are the tail wagging the Conservative dog. Arlene Foster wants to retain an almost total ban on abortions, and asserted this position publicly - when she took over the position of First Minister in the Northern Irish Assembly last year - that she intends to maintain the DUP's opposition to any reform of the notoriously strict abortion laws. Advertisement To be clear, her position is against abortion in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormalities - even if the foetus wouldn't survive. Earlier this year, an attempt to allow women to access abortion in Northern Ireland in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime was voted down in Stormont. The lack of access to abortion in these cases was ruled as a breach of women's human rights by the Belfast High Court. The Abortion Act doesn't apply to women in Northern Ireland, but this doesn't stop the DUP turning up in Westminster and adding their vote to restrict our right to abortion. DUP MPs spoke several times in the 2015 sex selection amendment and 4 MPs voted for more restrictive abortion laws that didn't even affect their constituents. Ex-Tory minister Owen Patterson has already hinted that there could be another vote on abortion time limits as part of the deal with the DUP. We should be seeking better laws for women, fit for the 21st century - not the 19th! Laws that give us bodily autonomy and trust us to make our own decisions freely, that allow women to access their medical choices without traveling hundreds of miles or being forced to carry their foetus back in a cool bag to be buried. But instead women's rights are being used as a bargaining chip by the Tories to cling on to power. This is not okay. We should stand with our LGBT friends and family, and demand that our rights are not sold off as part of a squalid deal to prop up a failed government. It is not time to be complacent about the rights to control our bodies and live our lives. Advertisement Eric Audras via Getty Images When was the first time I felt counter-terrorism strategy seeping into my life? Was it when I felt compelled to run a Muslim women's faith group in Watford whilst doing my GCSEs, inviting women and children to come and express their faith in a positive way, through reciting nasheeds or using their voices to speak to politicians? Maybe, it was when I was aged 16, and I went along to a Muslim youth leadership weekend at a fancy hotel, where there was an engagement officer from the police. We were taught how Islam is peaceful and not a justification for violence or hatred. Even when I got to university, I felt the differences. The University of York had a module for every student on spotting signs of radicalisation in others. I will confess: April 2017 marked the first time I wrote an essay talking about Muslim women, 4 years after starting university, because I was worried about the books I was reading, in case I turned out like another student from another university. Even my dad gave me lectures consistently about internet usage, and was worried about me taking my helium birthday balloons up to York from Kings Cross, if they weren't in a clear bag! Counter-extremism strategies have so far only bred paranoia among the Muslims I know. If we want a strategy that works, without alienating existing allies, we have to do better. Advertisement Born in 1995, I've grown up with counter-extremism initiatives hidden in every part of my life. I was so excited to go to that Muslim youth leadership weekend. I thought I was going because I was there to be recognised for what a confident person I was, with a commitment to a better society. Instead, I felt patronised and wondered why I, someone who is - let's be honest - never going to be a terrorist of any kind, was sitting there listening to things I already knew. Surely it was a waste of resources? And so, it follows. I'm still achieving things, and I remember virtually nothing from that weekend. Except one thing: praying. I remember that was the first time that I, as a Sunni Muslim, had seen a Shia Muslim pray. I thought it was so strange and different. That's what resonates with me; that seeing difference in the way people practice their faith didn't fill me with rage, but instead with understanding. This is what I believe so many people fail to understand. We are so obsessed with sectarian conflict, we forget that so many of us live in diverse communities. We may bemoan a lack of integration within communities, but we forget that even among Muslims, we must learn to live as neighbours with those who differ from us in many ways. So why not recognise that? There are so many organisations that put Muslim women at the centre, understanding their capability and intelligence, rather than treating them as passive. Take the Women Against Radicalisation Network (WARN), who: Advertisement "provide a platform for all women from all backgrounds, to come together and discuss ways to fight extremism reaching women and children in their community." Whether it is through workshops on online grooming, or how misogyny affects women, WARN work with all kinds of people on actual information, rather than just fearmongering. Other organisations like Connect Futures do the same, working in schools and organisations on how to safeguard against violent extremism, as well as engaging directly with those concerned - students and teachers - in building resilience. We need a culture where Muslims feel free to ask questions; where gender or age does not prohibit them from holding others to account. We need a society which recognises that Muslim women and young people are not just victims of aggression; that they are active participants in the reclamation of religion from people who use it to promote violence based on toxic masculinity. We need a government and a press which not only acknowledges the work that Muslim women and young people are doing, but actively gives them column space and the ability to lead committees, rather than just pushing photos of flag-bearing hijabs as the sole symbol of integration. When there's an attack, I literally pray to Allah for it to be someone who doesn't resemble the way I look. But enough is enough; I shouldn't have to hope that. I am a brilliant citizen, who takes part in democracy, takes every opportunity to give back to society, and works damn hard. I should not have spent my childhood under suspicion, nor fear taking a slightly oversized suitcase on holiday. As Muslim women and young people, we are overlooked far too often as the solution. This is why the letter we sent to the Sunday Times was so important. Advertisement In "Letters to the Editor", myself and multiple prominent Muslim women highlighted how politicians have used the idea of "British Values" to distract from the calls for increased funding to Muslim women's counter-extremism initiatives. The best part? This wasn't just from faith activists. This was a cross-party statement, with secular and BME activists, all united by a common cause: to dispel the myth that Muslim women are helpless. The arguments over how the attackers in London and Manchester were radicalised have veiled the fact that women and young people are tirelessly trying to speak up, and are often ignored. We are sick and tired of being held up as solely victims of gendered violence, when we also fight to stop it, by challenging outdated preachers and reviving new techniques of engaging with maligned people. If there is anything I have learnt growing up, it's that doing the right thing always seems wrong to someone else. Too bad for our extremist opponents that we will not shut up and back down, in the ways they wish to dominate the world and, indeed, suppress women and young people. We will not let the government and the press tell us we are only victims of honour killings, but we are also arbiters, leaders of progressive movements. Last week two politicians from the Sikh community won seats in UK parliament for the first time in history. Both Preet Kaur Gill (MP for Edgbaston) and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (MP for Slough) have received recognition and appreciation for their political accomplishments from across the board. Much attention has been placed on their ethnicity and their affiliation with the Sikh community, which will no doubt continue throughout their tenure as British MPs. For Preet and Tanmanjeet the real challenge begins now as they set about delivering on their campaign pledges. Their efforts ought to be placed on producing the policies for which they were elected by their constituents and this must remain the focal point of their time in parliament. For them to do this, the Sikh community must be honest enough to accept that as British MPs their loyalty lies in serving the interests of the British public they represent. A similar parallel can be drawn with Harjit Singh Sajjan, who is currently serving as the Minister of National Defence in Canada. His priorities lie in working for the best interests of the Canadian government and its citizens, not for the Sikh Panth. The two are mutually exclusive engagements. Advertisement For many Sikhs, this may prove problematic to accept given the myriad of issues that affect the Sikh diaspora. In the UK, the most pressing concern of course remains the issue of self-determination. This is evident from the tens of thousands that showed their support at this years 1984 remembrance rally in Trafalgar Square on the 4th of June. The same support was shown in both Canada and the US at similar rallies. The events marked 33 years since the Indian government's decision to launch a full-scale military attack at Darbar Sahib, Amritsar. The incident was the culmination of a civil rights movement, the roots for which stem back to the partition of Panjab in 1947. For the Sikhs, the incident marked the end of diplomatic efforts to negotiate with the Indian government, unless the formation of an independent Sikh state was on the agenda. Moreover, the rally in London remains the single largest show of protest from the Sikh community. It has however taken on a slightly different dynamic over recent years following the revelation of British collusion in 1984, which came to surface in 2014. There is no doubt both the newly elected MPs will be aware of this and are preparing themselves for a barrage of questioning from the Sikh community over their efforts to apply pressure into an independent inquiry. However, there is a much deeper concern for Sikhs living in the UK. Many are coming to terms with the realization that the mainstream projection of Sikh identity is based largely on a Eurocentric understanding of Sikh ideology, which can be traced back to the days of British occupation of Panjab. It was during the period of British rule in Panjab that we saw an alteration of Sikhi itself; when the socio-political revolution initiated by Guru Nanak morphed into a mere "religion" stripped of any social or political significance. After the fall of Sikh sovereignty in 1849, colonial policies infiltrated Sikh institutions and centers of activity. English interpretations of Sikh scripture, swamped under an inevitable quagmire of Abrahamic language, were systematically disseminated to distort Sikhi. The Sikh Panth (Nation) was thrown into a labyrinth of religiosity with the emergence of the religious-secular divide following the colonial encounter. In the absence of sovereign power and authority the Sikh people have suffered many blows, resulting in the misrepresentation and falsification of their way of life. Advertisement There are a growing number of Sikhs in the UK and across the Atlantic who are consciously aware of this and are proactively working to decolonise their identity. For instance, intentionally choosing to use the indigenous term Sikhi, as opposed to its colonial imposter "Sikhism", is one example of acknowledging the long journey towards decolonisation. There is an honest and conscious decision being taken to challenge today's mainstream Eurocentric understanding and propagation of Sikh ideology which has recently distorted the Sikh community's approach to resolving Panthic (Sikh collective'/Sikh Nation') matters. The current generation of Sikhs, armed with knowledge of the colonial encounter, appreciate that the first generation of Sikhs who arrived in the UK were focused on securing the most basic of needs to survive in a foreign land, whilst holding on to any ounce of Sikh identity that remained. The effect of colonisation particularly to Sikh psyche, had gradually conditioned a Sikh's own perception of identity, with the religious aspect of Sikhi taking prominence over the political ideology so prevalent in Sikh history and scripture. Sikhs living in the UK naturally felt obliged to engage in wider society but also agitated and protested to gain recognition and rights for their distinct way of life, be that on grounds of identity or conduct. When accepted, the recognition was restricted to the grounds of "religion", and from a British perspective, understandably so. Notwithstanding this set back, Sikhs have contributed towards alleviating social ills through active grass roots engagement. It is their Guru-inspired Sikhia (teachings) which has compelled them to rise-up and attempt to fix broken Britain. Whether it's groups such as the Sikh Welfare Awareness Team (SWAT) who unilaterally take the Guru's institution of Langar (communal kitchen) on to the streets of London for the poor and impoverished, or groups such as the Sikh Awareness Society (SAS) who highlight the issue of sexual grooming, particularly in the North of the country; Sikhs continuously provide band aid remedies to the shortcomings of a government that has failed its citizens. I intentionally use the words "band aid" because without the cooperation of the government, the Sikh community, or any other community for that matter whether faith-based or not, is ultimately powerless to tackle the problem at its root cause. Advertisement The news of Preet and Tanmanjeet becoming MPs is another example of how a Sikh will always strive to work for the betterment of society. There is a genuine and sincere desire to bring about change, no matter how little or far reaching it may be. However, Sikhs find themselves constantly trying to reconcile Guru inspired principles that demand they work to establish equality and liberty for all, with a system that is not only built on the exploits of its colonial past, for which it has yet to deliver any redemption, but also in recognition of the knowledge that only 33 years ago the very same establishment for whom they now work, colluded with the Indian government to attack the epicenter of the Sikh world. As Preet and Tanmanjeet make history for Britain and embrace a new chapter in their political careers, the Sikh collective shall continue a long arduous journey upon which they will overcome the unprecedented task of untangling the web of colonisation spun over 150 years. It is a path they must carve themselves and it is up to Britain, and the rest of the world to decide whether they will help provide the tools needed for Sikhs to reach their destination or merely adopt the policies we so often hear are a thing of the past. If you clicked on this article hoping for a pithy Hopkinseqsue one liner that claims to solve the problem of terrorism in a soundbite then I am afraid you are out of luck. Terrorism in the modern age is more complex than a few buzz words can easily express. Activists, newspapers and politicians may try to sell the idea of a simple solution but the truth is that terrorism represents the evil in human nature and there is no simple solution to human nature. We look for a solution because as human beings we are empathetic enough to want to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our communities from harm. But we also look for a solution because we want to believe we have some power over this growing threat and that there is an answer out there that will help keep us safe. The difficulty with constructing a defence to terrorism is that the enemy is not a tangible united force. It is a fragmented and dissipated threat that springs up in individuals inspired by extremist ideologies. These ideologies can be a perversion of a legitimate faith (think ISIS and Islam) or they can be a corruption of a political ideology (Think the right wing and White Supremacy). The problem is that the individuals who develop views extreme enough to manifest themselves in evil acts of terrorism are not indicative of the ideologies themselves. Therefore it is too simplistic to blame any ideology for the individuals who commit hate in its name and, as a consequence of this, it is extremely difficult to predict where the next act of terrorism will arise from. Advertisement We may not have the answer to stop terrorism yet but what we do have is a lot of failed suggestions as to how it should be dealt with. Nigel Farage was in favour of closing the country's borders to migrants "Frankly, if you open your door to uncontrolled immigration from Middle Eastern countries, you are inviting in terrorism." Yet this solution holds no water as the majority of terrorist attacks on both UK and US soil have been from citizens of those countries and not immigrants. If our terrorists are home grown it would seem futile to try and resolve the problem of terrorism with tighter immigration laws. Ex EDL leader Tommy Robinson wants to resolve the problem of terrorism by deporting Muslims "Deport all the Muslims who want Sharia law and the problem would be solved overnight." But terror is not a Muslim problem, terror is a hate problem. Thomas Mair who savagely murdered MP Jo Cox was not a Muslim, Joseph Christian who fatally stabbed two men on a train in America was not a Muslim. The likes of Robinson want you to believe the problem is as simple as blaming all Muslims because, if you do believe that, you will buy into the simplistic rhetoric of his solution. A solution that will cause divisions in society, break families and communities apart and will do nothing toward making our streets a safer place. UKIP have offered an equally ludicrous solution to the problem of terrorism. Prior to failing to secure a single seat at the General Election Paul Nuttall, then leader of UKIP was suggesting that we consider internment and tagging . The echoes of fascism ring loudly in the memory as we recall with discomfort who last proposed such extreme measures and the evil that such methods of inhumanity resulted in. Advertisement The trouble is that there is no fail safe method for predicting who will commit an act of terrorism. We can rely on police and government intelligence to a certain extent but this is by no means fool proof. Listening to members of communities, friends and families who might be in a better position to identify a radicalised or extremist individual is also of some value but it is inevitable that some people will slip through the net. How many times have we witnessed an act of terrorist atrocity for those close to the terrorist to be genuinely shocked that someone they knew and were close to could be capable of performing such an act of evil? Predicting human behaviour is not an accurate science. If we cannot predict who will commit an act of terrorism we cannot prevent them from doing it. We cannot imprison people simply because we believe they might commit a crime. The British legal system is founded on the principle of actus reus, namely that without a crime there can be no culpability. The right wing shout about Orwell's 1984 and the perceived eroded rights of the people but imprisoning people for a crime they may commit... that really is Orwell's thought crime. It just isn't a solution. The only way to eradicate terrorism from our society is to create an environment where hate cannot survive. Terrorism borne from any ideology is based upon the isolation and segregation of people from the mainstream (in the majority of cases young men). By integrating our societies and respecting the rights of others to hold political and religious views that differ to our own we kill off the noxious weeds of hate before they start to flourish. Those seeking to radicalise our young people will find it a good deal harder if, as a country, we are offering our young people a positive future based on respecting them and the contribution we want them to make to our society. Some of preventing terrorism starts with politics. It starts with giving people the right economic conditions to believe they have a future. But it also starts with our attitudes, ridding ourselves of the preconceptions and prejudices that cause people to become isolated and easily picked off by those who would seek to turn their nihilism into hate. Donald Morrison via Getty Images June 14th marks 35 years since the end of the Falklands War, in which 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities. For many of our servicemen who fought in the short but bloody conflict, it was only the beginning of a larger battle to come. Over the last four decades the trauma of what they witnessed resulted in veterans of the conflict developing mental health issues including depression, anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Much progress has been made to promote an understanding of these conditions, the treatments available, and tackling stigma to encourage veterans to seek help. However, this progress throws into sharp focus the disparities between the help-seeking behaviours of veterans of older conflicts such as the Falklands and the more recent wars in the Middle East. The average time between leaving the military and seeking help for affected veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is three and four years respectively. For veterans of the Falklands it is nearly 15. Advertisement This is an extraordinarily long time to suffer, and many are still coming forward. So far in 2017, 77 Falklands veterans have sought help from Combat Stress for the mental health issues that they have been struggling with for the last 35 years - that's more than three a week - and 400 are still receiving treatment from us. This takes the total treated by Combat Stress to almost 1,750 - or around 7% of those deployed - a remarkable figure considering that, though specialist, we are not unique in treating veterans, so only see a proportion of those seeking help. The military should be commended for the improvements made since the 1980s. In recent years, the Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) system has supported people to engage in treatment much more quickly and educated them to spot the signs of mental health problems. This is helping to reduce stigma and create a supportive environment amongst troops. Yet more could be done, such as ensuring servicemen and women are not automatically downgraded if they take leave with mental health issues. There needs to be more empathy shown so as to foster an open environment. Combat Stress recognises the importance of peer support, so much so that we are developing a national programme to make this as wide and effective a network as possible. Led by veterans for veterans, it is the first UK-wide service of its kind and will offer veterans with mental health issues a chance to share their experiences, receive support and socialise with others with similar experiences across generations, geographies and conflicts. 35 years on from the end of the Falklands, the hope is that programmes like these can help to reduce further suffering among those who have already given so much in the service of our country. Advertisement One of the biggest questions asked of me over the past weeks is where do I get my confidence and what are my tips to becoming confident. I'm going to try my best to answer that question and I hope everyone who emailed Project Be Body Aware will find some useful tips in this article. Let's just be honest, no-one is expected to be 100% confident all of the time, I am certainly not, but following the steps to healthy body image will help boost your confidence. 1. Access what it is that is making you feel bad about your body It's no secret that for years I tried to alter the way I looked. I wanted to be skinnier. Those magazine covers just sucked me in every time. The first thing I would do as I walked into a shop would be to glance over at the magazines on the shelf. Now that's ok if you love fashion, but it's not ok if you are glancing over and then comparing the magazine cover to your own body. Advertisement 2. Train yourself and change your behaviour I literally had to train myself to walk into a shop and stop looking at magazine covers. It's all about our behaviours and once you notice those behaviours and become aware of them you are taking the first steps to body awareness. If you change your pattern of behaviour around your bad body image your mindset will begin to change. 3. Awareness around social media Do yourself a favour and ask which apps on social media make you feel crap about your body? Are you following accounts and watching the bodies of other people and aspiring to look like them? If so stop it now. Stop with the #Bodygoals and replace it with #Myownbody goals. 4. Do not avoid the topic of body image The focus of Be Body Aware is to bring about that conversation around body image even if it makes you uncomfortable. You only have one body and your body image effects your self esteem and your self esteem will go on to determine your relationships, friendships and even your career. Body image isn't some buzz media word, it's something we all have and it lives with us forever. I can not speak for everyone, but my own awakening to my body and awareness encouraged my own confidence. Advertisement 5. Perfection is an illusion Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Police are appealing for help to track down the family of a man who was found dead at his home. Geoffrey Shaw, 76, was found at his home on Bardshaw, Orchard Park, on Wednesday, May 24. His death is not being treated as suspicious but police have not been able to trace his next of kin. A spokesman for Humberside Police said: "We are seeking the next of kin of 76-year-old Geoffrey Shaw, who was found dead at his home on Bradshaw, Hull on Wednesday, May 24. "The death is not being treated as suspicious, however enquiries to trace a next of kin have so far proved unsuccessful." Anyone who can help in finding Geoffreys next of kin is asked to contact the Coroners office on 01482 613009. Turkey Hires More US Lobbying Firms As its Reputation is Further Tarnished By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com As Turkey becomes the target of worldwide condemnation for its human rights violations, the Turkish government decides to spend a fortune on lobbying and public relations firms to try to cleanse its tarnished reputation. On the heels of the April 16 flawed referendum which Erdogan barely won to give himself a wide-ranging dictatorial powers, and his bodyguards brutal attack in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., on innocent protesters has been universally criticized by the executive and legislative branches of the US government, including a resolution adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives 397-0! Unfortunately, for Turkey and its autocratic president, the countrys reputation is so tainted that public relations firms, regardless of how powerful and competent they are, cannot whitewash its image. Turkish leaders are simply wasting millions of dollars of their taxpayers money attempting to accomplish an impossible task. The Turkish government has already been paying five million dollars a year to 10 lobbying firms: The Gephardt Group $1,700,000; APCO $741,000; Amsterdam Partners $600,000; Greenberg Traurig $480,000; Capitol Counsel $384,000; Mercury $240,000; Madison Group $240,000; Mcbee Signal $240,000; Jim Arnold $240,000; and MediaFix $108,000! In addition, a business associate of Pres. Erdogan paid Pres. Trumps disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn $540,000 in September 2016 to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government! In recent months, trying to get out of its P.R. quagmire, the Turkish government and groups affiliated with it have hired three new firms. This week we will present one of these lobbying firms, leaving the other two to a future column. Monte Advisory Group was hired in August 2016 for a fee of $400,000. According to the Daily Beast, the firm is run by Douglas Baker, the son of Republican James Baker [Chief of Staff and Secretary of State for Pres. George H.W. Bush; and Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Treasury for Pres. Ronald Reagan]. The firm is supposed to improve public perceptions of Turkey! Douglas Baker is the sole and managing member of the Monte Advisory Group. The contract is signed by an Istanbul-based mysterious non-governmental organization known as Knowledge Economy Association (KEA). The Daily Beast reported that KEAs activities aligned sometimes with the interests of the Turkish government. More ominously, the Daily Beast reported that at least one member of the KEA leadership was a representative of the Turkish government. Furthermore, the founder and former president of KEA, Davut Kavranoglu, is now a scientific advisor to Pres. Erdogan, according to the Daily Beast. Kavranoglu had tweeted a photograph of himself with James Baker! The Daily Beast reported that, according to its filing with the Department of Justice, Monte Advisory Group was engaged in outreach to the Trump Presidential Campaign and Presidential Transition Team on behalf of KEA to improve the overall relationship and public perceptions between Turkey and the United States. Monte also made contacts with outgoing Obama administration officials, holding meetings with staff from the Department of Defense and emailing Colin Kahl, the National Security Advisor to then Vice-President Biden. Israfil Kahraman, an Istanbul lawyer, was listed in the Department of Justice filing as the legal representative of KEA, according to the Daily Beast. Israfil stated that the purpose of the contract was to develop friendship and cooperation between Turkey and the United States in the fields of scientific and economic development. Kahraman is quoted by the Daily Beast as stating that the KEA was founded by a group of distinguished scientists with the aim of conducting civil society activities in order to raise awareness in Turkey about developing an economy with high added value. This makes no sense. Why would a group whose aim is to raise awareness about the economy in Turkey hire a lobbying firm in Washington? This sounds more like a front for the Turkish government than an independent group of scientists. It would be interesting to find out who is funding the KEA! Interestingly, when contacted by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), Douglas Baker stated that there had been some concerns the US-Turkey relationship has soured a little in the latter years of the Obama administration. There could be opportunities to either strengthen that relationship or see it undergo further harm. And thats the reason that [KEA] retained Monte -- to help during that transitional phase. Douglas Baker added that his companys work for KEA was never designed to be broad brush public relations campaign. It was a bit more of an opportunity to present their point of view they felt we were positioned to help them with the necessary introductions. Not surprisingly, after Pres. Trumps inauguration, and after the necessary introductions were made between the KEA and Trump administration officials, KEA did not renew the contract with Monte when its initial six-month term expired in February 2017. Only $105,000 of the contracted $400,000 was paid by this point, according to the BIJ. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news A main road in west Hull had to be shut by police for almost an hour as firefighters rescued a distressed cat stuck up a tree. Two fire crews and police were alerted by the RSPCA to the distressed moggy up a tree in Boulevard and the fire brigade asked the police to close off the road at 10.04am. A rescue operation was launched to get the cat down from the tree using ladders and the road was eventually reopened at 11am with the animal safely returned to its owner. A spokeswoman for Humberside Fire and Rescue said that the fire crews helped the cat out of its 'precarious position' up the tree She said: "The RSPCA asked at 9.37am if we would go to get a cat from a tree. We asked the police to close the road at 10.04am. "The owner had rang up up earlier this morning but we don't go unless it is requested by the RSPCA so they rang them up and we assisted. "An aerial appliance was and a pump from Calvert Lane were used and we left the scene at 11am." Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up for our free newsletter for crime and punishment stories sent straight to your inbox Mark Rutter, 44, of William Booth House, Hessle Road, west Hull, was fined 80, and was ordered to pay 250 of compensation, for causing 250 of damage to a glass panel door at Brittania House job centre in Ferensway, city centre. He must pay 85 costs and a 30 surcharge. Kerry Key, 33, of Chadcourt, Orchard Park, was ordered to pay 170 compensation, and have up to 30 days rehabilitation, for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Jordan Borman, 19, of Glencoe Street, west Hull, must do 50 hours of unpaid work, and have up to 15 days rehabilitation, for threatening to damage windows. He was made subject to a restraining order indeifinitely, and must pay 85 costs and an 385 surcharge. Marcus Stephenson, 21, of Towan Close, Bransholme, was fined 160 for assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty, and using threatening words or behaviour. He must pay 85 costs and a 30 surcharge. Michael Beadle, 38, of The Mission, Posterngate, Old Town, was discharged conditionally for six months, and must pay 100 compensation, for causing 800 of damage to wall tiles and kitchen cupboards. He must pay 135 costs and a 20 surcharge. Ryan Donaghue, 29, of Wymersley Road, west Hull, received a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and must have up to 20 days rehabilitation, for assault by beating. He was made subject to a restraining order indefinitely, and must pay 85 costs and a 115 surcharge. Ashley Drew, 18, of Manvers Street, west Hull, was discharged conditionally for two years for using threatening words or behaviour. He must pay 85 costs and a 320 surcharge. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news David Bowies iconic Spiders from Mars will be honoured by receiving a blue plaque as part of BBC Music Day. BBC Local Radio, BBC Asian Network and The British Plaque Trust have announced 47 new Blue Plaques commemorating people or places that have greatly influenced music. The Spiders from Mars, who were best-known as being David Bowies backing group, are being honoured in Hull. Band members Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick Woody Woodmansey joined forces with music legend Bowie in the early 1970s to form Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars before leaving to start their own musical exploits. The plaque will be unveiled on BBC Music Day, Thursday, June 15, by the bands drummer, Woody. It will be based at Hull Paragon Station, and broadcast live on BBC Radio Humberside between 11am-12pm. Woodys wife June, Trevor Bolders wife and sons, Shelly and Ashley, and Micks siblings, Maggi and David, are also attending. Mick Woody Woodmansey said: Im so proud to be unveiling this plaque awarded to The Spiders from Mars in our home city, Hull. Radio Humberside presenter, James Piekos, said: The Spiders from Mars were far and away the most suggested recipients of our blue plaque when we asked the audience who they thought deserved one. Were proud to be able to honour the whole band especially at such a poignant time when the passing of David Bowie has meant a resurgence of interest in the band and their local links. Hailing from Driffield, Cottingham and Kingston upon Hull, the trio had been playing together since the late 1960s before being introduced to David Bowie. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was the fifth studio album by Bowie, which peaked at No. 5 in the UK Top 40. They enjoyed success from singles including Starman and Rock n Roll Suicide. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news A disgruntled driver has vowed to fight a controversial fine for encroaching a bus lane by launching a tribunal against Hull City Council. Tony Sherwin, 36, is one of a number of motorists who was caught entering the bus lane in Holderness Road too early as he approached the entrance to Tesco Express. The supermarket chain swapped round its exits and entrances in March earlier this year, meaning customers driving in to the store have to cross a bus lane to enter. However, the move has seen scores of drivers slapped with penalty charge notices by Hull City Council, who want motorists to turn across the bus lane to enter Tesco instead of entering by driving up the bus lane during its hours of operation. Mr Sherwin said he felt 'sick' about the possibility of having to pay a fine and, after being incensed by the council's decision, he decided to lodge an appeal. However, when this was rebuked, he decided to take his case to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal - a group made up of individually appointed independent adjudicators who consider appeals in relation to penalty charge notices. Evidence has been submitted by the council and Mr Sherwin, with a hearing date now being arranged by the tribunal. "I want to take this further," he said. "It's not for my benefit and it would be easier to pay the 30 but the reason I want to take it to a tribunal is because they need to take notice and do something because it's not fair. "It makes me feel sick. I try to be a law abiding citizen and I always watch the speed limit, but I feel like they are just targeting innocent motorists as a cash cow. "They are saying that you should turn at the last minute which is dangerous. What if you have a cyclist in your blind spot? It just doesn't make sense." Mr Sherwin, of Flamborough, makes the long commute to work every day for his job at ResQ Call Centre in Hull city centre. He used to pop into the Tesco Express en route to work, but now avoids the store altogether after being snapped on April 20 at 8:17am. He said: "I just nip in there to get a drink in the morning, a bit of lunch for later and sometimes just a morning paper. "I've been in a couple of times since, but I try not to go there at all now because I don't want to get fined. "I drive down Holderness Road every day and the only reason I entered sooner rather than later was because the whole car park was the other way round. "If I knew I was in the wrong I would have paid the 30 straight away." A spokeswoman for Hull City Council confirmed that Mr Sherwin has appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and that they are awaiting an outcome. She said: "Clear signage is in place advising motorists of bus lane enforcement, and in this particular case, the motorist entered the bus lane far too early and contravened regulations. "We are currently awaiting a decision from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal about the outcome of the appeal. Bus lanes are enforceable Monday to Saturday, between 7am and 9:30am for all routes into the city centre and 4pm to 6:30pm for all routes out of the city centre. A spokesman for Tesco said: "We have been in touch with the local authority on behalf of our customers to raise their concerns about the fines issued and to see if there is anything further they can do to help explain and resolve the situation." Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Goole MP Andrew Percy has stepped down as Northern Powerhouse Minister to pursue other challenges. Mr Percy was appointed the role in July last year after Theresa May the reins as leader of the Conservative Party, but has decided to give up his position in the Department for Communities and Local Government after less than 12 months. Despite resigning his front bench post which he confirmed the Prime Minister had offered again to him after the election Mr Percy said Mrs May continued to have his full support. In a statement on his Facebook page, he told constituents: [It] was a privilege to be asked to continue serving in my role in Government as a Minister, but I have reluctantly decided to step down and leave the Government. I thank the Prime Minister for offering me this role again but I have decided to pursue other challenges. She continues to enjoy my full support from the back benches. I will not be making any further comment or doing any media on my decision. Thanks to all my civil servants to their incredible support in the role. My work as our local MP continues unchanged. Mr Percy, who increased his majority at the snap election, extending his lead from 11,176 to 12,363, has yet to announce what his new "challenges" will be. The politics graduate was born in Hull and worked as a teacher, as well as serving as a city councillor, before successfully taking the seat of Brigg and Goole for the Tories in 2010. As Northern Powerhouse Minister, the ex-McDonalds employee had promised to campaign for Crossrail 3 a rail route linking Liverpool to Hull but had ruled out a One Yorkshire model for devolution. The Eurosceptic supported Mrs May from the outset during last summers Tory leadership contest after she made it clear she would see to it that Britain left the EU. Mrs May has yet to appoint a successor. The PM is currently tied up in negotiations with the Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to determine how they might work with the Tories to help legislation get passed after the country returned a hung parliament. An announcement from the Tories and the DUP is expected on Thursday. Hull City are trying to push through a deal for Chelsea defender Tomas Kalas, while bracing themselves for the imminent loss of two of their own in Harry Maguire and Andrew Robertson. The Mail has learned new City boss Leonid Slutsky has made the acquisition of Kalas his number one priority as he prepares to lose Maguire from the centre of his defence, with Curtis Davies having already departed for Derby County. While City were unavailable to comment, reports suggest the club have now had firm offers for both Maguire and Robertson, with the pair said to be close to finalising their departures from the KCOM Stadium this week. Robertson has attracted interest from Liverpool, Everton, Stoke and Burnley, the latter who bid 10m for his services only to see a transfer deadline day offer knocked back in January. Meanwhile, Leicester City are understood to be leading the chase to sign Maguire. City had already resigned themselves to losing the pair this summer as they enter the final year of their contracts, with news of their departures unlikely to stir any surprise among the clubs fans. While rebuilding the team is a priority for Slutsky, the Russian manager is keen to see any departures finalised as soon as possible to allow him the time to find replacements and reinvest as much as possible before the start of pre-season training on July 3. Part of that rebuilding plan is the signing of Kalas, the 24-year-old Chelsea defender and Czech Republic international. Arriving at Chelsea in 2010 from Sigma Olomuc for 5.2m, Kalas has been passed about through the Chelsea loan system, having been at five clubs during his time there and spending last season at Fulham. Playing against City in the FA Cup fourth round defeat of the Tigers, Kalas is now entering the final year of his deal at Stamford Bridge and will be allowed to leave for a cut-down price. Slutsky is hoping to persuade Kalas to make the switch, but will face competition from Fulham, who have made it clear they want the defender back at Craven Cottage on a permanent deal. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news They are one of East Yorkshires most successful exports and have become a staple feature of holiday parks and tourist destinations across the UK and Europe. Now, caravans and leisure homes built in our region could be making a regular appearance in Iceland thanks to Scandinavias booming tourism industry. Victory Leisure Homes, which is based at Gilberdyke in East Yorkshire, already exports holiday caravans and lodges to continental Europe. The company has now started developing business in Scandinavia, and exported its first caravans to Iceland earlier this year. Managing director Peter Nevitt said Victory was looking to further grow sales to the country over the coming months. He said: Iceland is a developing market for us and one we would like to work in more. Hulls outgoing mayor, Sean Charter, said Icelands burgeoning economy could bring big benefits to East Yorkshires caravan industry. Mr Chaytor, who stepped down from the role of Lord Mayor of Hull last month, paid a visit to Victory Leisure Homes before undertaking a trade mission to Iceland, to help forge trading links between the country and the Humber region. He said there was a need for modular buildings and caravans in Iceland, because property is too expensive for young people to buy, and the tourism industry is starting to grow. He said: Iceland is lacking in the natural resources required to build houses so supply is limited and that prices young people out of the market. This could be solved by modular buildings which can be used to create homes and assets like shops and community centres. Small caravans, such as those built by Victory, would be perfect for the tourism industry which is really starting to grow, especially when you have got the likes of Ed Sheeran saying it is their favourite place to visit. On his visit, Mr Chaytor met representatives from UKTI at the British Embassy, as well as the president of the country, Guoni Thorlacius Johannesson. Whenever we had official talks, whether it was with UKTI or the president, I informed them that 80 per cent of caravans and modular buildings are made in Hull and East Yorkshire, and that piqued their interest to the point where they are considering visiting this region, he said. Mr Nevitt said: Sean came to visit us before going out to Iceland, to learn more about our industry and to find out what we would hope to gain from his trip. From what Sean said, his visit has helped to pave the way towards that, which is fantastic news. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news Tonight's National Lottery draw will reveal a QUINTUPLE rollover Lotto jackpot of 14.7m plus one guaranteed raffle millionaire. Thats a five times rollover to you and me! LOTTO: The Lotto numbers will appear here shortly after 8pm. Have your winning ticket ready! THUNDERBALL: Tonight's winning Thunderball numbers worth up to 500,000 will be published here as soon as they are drawn. MILLIONAIRE RAFFLE: One colour and eight numbers will make you a millionaire. If you missed it, the Lotto numbers for Saturday, June 10 were 10, 18, 28, 35, 36 and 50. The bonus ball was 2. Saturday's winning Thunderball numbers were 10, 12, 23, 33 and 39. The Thunderball was 6. The biggest ever Lotto winners were created in April 2016 when an anonymous player banked 35m. In January two ticket-holders walked away with 33m each and they were followed by a Peterborough couple who won 32m in the February. Before that, a main Lotto game jackpot of 42,008,610, was drawn in January 1996 and split between three anonymous winners, with each being awarded 14,002,870. A single ticket won 26.4 million on the New Year's Eve lotto in 2016. The UK National Lottery was first drawn on November 19, 1994. Half of all money spent by players goes to the prize fund, with 28 per cent to good causes, 12 per cent to the Government as duty, five per cent to retailers and five per cent to which has operated the lottery throughout its history. Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom Google Ad Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox Google Ad UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to the Hull Live newsletter for daily updates and breaking news With just days until Princes Quays new outlet deck opens following a 20m investment, we take a look at what new shops will be taking residence. The new outlet deck will be the first in the country to be integrated into a city centre mall alongside full price shops and leisure facilities. The shopping centre has emphasised this is not a designer outlet deck - so it will not be filled with top end clothing and accessory stores. We take a look at what the retailers have confirmed as coming can offer - with more in the pipeline. Next This is the anchor store and by far the largest unit in the outlet deck Next needs little introduction and is a well-known high street store selling mens womens and kids clothing, alongside homeware. There are already a number of Next stores in Hull but this will be by far the cheapest and will sell a slightly different range to its normal stores. It is effectively a clearance store, so will be selling end-of-season stock. Remember, there will be 75 per cent off when it first opens. Ben Sherman The well-known British clothing brand selling shirts, sweaters, suits, outerwear, shoes and accessories predominantly for men is coming to Hull. When it began in the 1960s, the company made its mark with fashionable short sleeved, button-down collared shirts. It was at the forefront of the British youth culture Mod movement and adopted the RAF Target motif. Bags Etc As the name suggests, the store specialises in bags and luggage, selling everything from wallets to heavy-duty suitcases. The store has not been in Hull before but is part of the same group as Domo, which has a store in St Stephens. It is probably best not coming here for Vuitton or Gucci - they tend to be more practical. But you can certainly find a bargain and the retailer specialises in outlet centres. Cotton Traders With Hulls proud rugby history, it is no surprise to see this store come to the city - although it was founded by union players rather than league stars. Former England rugby union players Fran Cotton and Steve Smith set the company up in 1987 which specialises in rugby shirts, leisure wear and footwear for men, women and children. The clothing range focuses on comfort over style, but has moved from simply rugby wear to a much wider range of clothing and accessories. Hallmark This well-known greeting card company already has a presence in Hull but its outlet stores can offer discounts of 50 per cent. The store also sells gifts and stationery and can offer good deals on the popular Yankee candles. Julian Charles Anyone looking to spruce up their home or have just moved might want to pop in here. Formerly called Rectella, the store specialises in bedding, curtains, and other soft furnishings. Its outlet stores can offer 70 per cent discounts on stock. Skopes This store specialises in mens tailoring with a wide range of suits and was born during the boom of the textile industry over 60 years ago. Skopes clothing is also sold in House of Fraser and includes knitwear and outdoor clothing. Sole Trader The shoe retailer offers some of the best known brands and was founded in 1962. It sells all shoe types, from sandals to boots but its biggest offer is in trainers with brands such as Adidas, Puma, Reebok and Vans all on offer. Its outlet stores off up to 60 per cent off. Suits Direct No prize for guessing what's stocked here. It already has a store at Hornsea Freeport. The retailer sells a wide range of brands including the latest styles from Ben Sherman, Pierre Cardin, Cerruti 1881 and Racing Green. The outlet stores offer up to 60 per cent off. Graham and Brown Fancy redecorating your home? Then you might want to come here. The wallpaper specialists also sell paint, furnishings and accessories such as clocks and picture frames. It sells designer brands from the likes of Kelly Hoppen and Julien McDonald. Bench This store specialises in streetwear so may not be the place to go looking for a dinner suit or posh frock. The brand began in 1989, creating graphic T-shirt designs influenced by skateboarding. Over the years, Bench has evolved into a global lifestyle brand selling denim, trousers, sweats, hoodies, belts, bags, skirts and dresses. The outlet store can offer up to 70 per cent off many items. Could Europe Be Set To Recalibrate The Digital Music Market? Respect for copyrights and music's "value gap" continue to be core issues for creators and the music industry. But Europe's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is taking steps to recalibrate the entire digital marketplace, and the indie sector can lead the charge, says Helen Smith, executive chair of European independent music trade group Impala. ________________________ Guest post by Helen Smith, the Executive Chair of Impala Helen Smith Executive Chair of IMPALA When we hear about the value gap, the discussion often focuses on licensing and money. Of course its about value, but its a lot more than that. Its about tackling the competitive stranglehold of incumbent online operators who want to hold onto the status quo the biggest barrier creators and online start-ups face today. Three years after Martin Mills call to action, the evidence on the value gap is even more irrefutable today than it was then, yet progress is slow. As Martin asks just this week How can that be fair, sustainable and permissible?. What we need is a market thats fit for copyright in the digital age. Removing friction and getting platforms to pay fair and play fair is key. And that means recalibrating the digital market. Of course thats easier said than done the stakes are very high. Big tech operators are desperate to protect their business models. Who wouldnt? Its pretty lucrative after all. YouTube, for example, earns billions in advertising every year. They win on all fronts: they dont produce, they share little revenue, they dont take risks with content, they avoid taxes and they collect a huge amount of valuable data. Manna from heaven. Europes competition commissioner, Vestager, has been clashing with Google on search and shopping. But the incumbents should be careful what they wish for Political indifference may have been rife in the past, but the times they are a-changing. The idea that no operator should be able to act with impunity is gaining momentum. Europes competition commissioner, Vestager, has been clashing with Google on search and shopping. She also ordered Apple to pay back a phenomenal 13bn euros after she investigated their sweetheart tax deal with Ireland. When these things start to happen, people take notice. But gatekeepers are change averse they fight very hard to defend their kingdom. Beneath clever messages about innovation lies a deeply conservative and defensive approach. Millions are invested in lobbying every year to defend the status quo and the value gap is an opportunity to spend a bit more. Despite these efforts, proposals to tackle the value gap were part of the EUs copyright reform published in autumn last year. The aim is simple to clarify that if you are in the business of distributing music, you are covered by copyright and need a licence. The way ahead is long and winding. Although there is broad consensus that there is a problem, not everyone agrees on the solutions proposed. This will be accompanied by an obligation to use technical measures to implement licensing agreements properly. The proposed reform also covers other copyright issues such as transparency and contract adjustment for authors and performers, which need some work for them to be reasonable for the independents. The EU copyright proposal is the first time in the world that the value gap issue is being tackled. The way ahead is long and winding. Although there is broad consensus that there is a problem, not everyone agrees on the solutions proposed. Some say we need to go much further if the value gap is to be properly fixed. Others hold up whats being suggested as the end of the internet (again) and want to take a step back in time with an exception for user generated content (UGC if you like acronyms) something that was already rejected years ago. Thats bad news, as platforms would naturally use it for their own commercial advantage. Unravelling the licensed user generated economy overnight, it would turn the clock back ten years and make the value gap even bigger. Its not a coincidence that these issues are being tackled now. As copyright reform works its way through the legislative system, other tools to recalibrate the digital market are in the pipeline. There will be new regulation for online platforms to tackle the power gap existing between platforms and smaller players. We only need to think back to the censorship negotiating tactics of players like Amazon and YouTube to realise how welcome that would be. Its not a coincidence that these issues are being tackled now. Part of a general desire to see more balance in the online world, the bigger economic picture is also important. In Europe, cultural & creative sectors account for 7 million jobs and 509 billion in GDP. Contrary to many other sectors, they cannot relocate, so reinforcing them is an astute move. And that means copyright must be properly valued. This is where the voice of the independents can make a difference. The message is getting across birds have wings, creators have copyright. But those who oppose re-group, with deep pockets and a penchant for astroturfing. At the end of the day, common ground will have to be found between the main legislator, national governments and the European parliament. Not easy, but thats where the voice of the independents can make a difference. When you account for more than 80% of new releases and over 80% of the sectors jobs, you have a compelling story to tell. It makes us the biggest investors and risk takers in the music business today and we expect a competitive and frictionless digital market. We dont need the value gap stifling innovation and dragging down our artists and fans. In the debate that some try and pass off as a bun fight between big tech and big music, its important that the independents message gets across. Our job is to recalibrate the storyboard. Loud and clear. About IMPALA IMPALA was established in April 2000 to represent independent music companies. 99% of Europes music companies are SMEs. Known as the independents, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists they produce more than 80% of all new releases and account for 80% of the sector's jobs (for more information, see the features of independents). IMPALA's mission is to grow the independent music sector, return more value to artists, promote cultural diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access and modernise perceptions of the music sector. See the organisation's key achievements in IMPALA's first 15 years in milestones. Article first appeared on Music Business Worldwide. Share on: The City Council cut $39,168 from the current budget proposal to bring the mitigation fund in line with the final estimates. Pittsfield Finds Health Insurance Contract Overfunded PITTSFIELD, Mass. The City Council cut another $39,168 from the budget Tuesday night after discovering a union contract had been overfunded. In 2014, then Mayor Daniel Bianchi had negotiated with the Public Employees Committee to switch from the Group Insurance Commission to Blue Cross Blue Shield, which saved the city around $2 million over the course of three years. The city's Public Employees Committee, which is made up of representatives of the city's 15 workers unions, approved a contract with the city on how to share those savings. The contract calls for the city to establish an "employee mitigation fund." In the first year of the contract, the city was supposed to put 25 percent of the savings between the GIC and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans into the mitigation fund. In year two, the city would place 25 percent of the savings seen, but that was not to exceed $250,000. The same is called for in year three. But the city jumped ahead a year by funding the line at $250,000 in the FY16 budget. Director of Finance Matthew Kerwood described it on Tuesday as having "preloaded" the fund. Instead, he said, the allocation schedule calls for the first year being in FY17, second in FY18, and third in FY19. What Kerwood says the council should have done is budget the actual difference of $332,878 in FY17 and then $178,001 for this upcoming year. Whatever the 25 percent difference between the GIC and Blue Cross Blue Shield is next year would then get funded in 2019. What actually happened is the council put in the $250,000 ahead of time, then followed up in FY17 with another $300,049. During this budget process, Kerwood put $250,000 in for this year as well, not knowing the exact savings. That had led to a debate on the City Council floor last week, which ultimately brought in legal counsel to review the fund. In figuring out the issue with the fund, Kerwood then tracked down the actual amount needed to be allocated, which is $178,001 some $70,000 less than allocated in the proposed budget. At this point, the city would have only needed $510,880.02 in that account. But instead has already $550,049, thus an overage of $39,168.98. The City Council cut that amount from this upcoming budget to bring the totals in line with what the final cost estimate is expected to be. This year's allocation of $210,832 brings the account to a balance of $368,568, which could still be more than needed. That total estimated the maximum the city should need because it would assume 2019, which is still a year away from being known, is at the maximum $250,000 allocation. If there are excess funds left over then, Kerwood believes it could go toward offsetting other deficits in other lines. He does not anticipate having to add any more funds next year. Ward 5 Councilor Donna Todd Rivers, a former attorney, worried about the language in the contract reading that the accrued funds would be negotiated with the employees. She fears that the union would have a claim on any funds the city puts into the account above what the contract says it needs to put in. Rivers advocated for cutting that line item even more instead of funding through next year. "I'd rather err in the line of taking too much out and have to add a little in FY19," Rivers said. Councilor at Large Melissa Mazzeo had argued that the budget was overfunded last week and continues to suggest that the budget could be cut even further. She pushed for a $50,000 cut on Tuesday, saying the amount the city has been required to place into the account has been decreasing. The amount needed has gone down for this year and, with a 12.9 percent increase in Blue Cross Blue Shield premiums, should go down again. The likelihood is that that the savings between the two plans will be less than the $250,000 currently estimated. The city pays out each year to some employees to offset increases in their health insurance premiums. How to disperse whatever is left in that account is to be negotiated at the end of the contract. So far the city has paid out $216,246.44 in the first year, and $176,065.37 the second. It will know the final payout and allocation amount this time next year. Hugh Daley leads his first meeting as the new chairman of the Williamstown Board of Selectmen. Williamstown Selectmen Talk Mount Greylock Regionalization WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. Members of the Board of Selectmen on Monday encouraged Mount Greylock's Regional District Amendment Committee to look more deeply at the impacts of full regionalization or keeping the status quo of the current Tri-District agreement. The board's bi-monthly meeting was dominated by talk of what new Chairman Hugh Daley called "the big issue for us this year." Daley, who already serves as the board's representative on Mount Greylock's School Building Committee, has stepped up to act as a liaison between the board and the RDAC , which was revived by the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee this year to bring back a proposal first studied in 2013 to bring its feeder schools, Williamstown and Lanesborough elementaries, into the regional school district. He outlined for his colleagues Monday four possible scenarios for the Williamstown and Lanesborough public schools going forward: full regionalization, fixing the current Tri-District to make it more efficient, breaking Williamstown into its own "stand alone" district, and returning to the model of having Lanesborough and Williamstown share a superintendent under the existing superintendency union apart from Mount Greylock. Since 2008, Mount Greylock and SU71 have shared a superintendent and other central administration, like the special education director, under the Tri-District agreement. The Tri-District and superintendency union agreements are made at the school committee level and can, in theory, be dissolved by the school committees. Full regionalization joining two or more districts under a single superintendent requires a town meeting vote. Mount Greylock has requested special town meetings in Lanesborough and Williamstown for November to decide whether to fully regionalize. On Monday, members of the Selectmen provided some feedback to the RDAC. "The criticism I've heard about the status quo sounds like the kinds of things you'd address by staffing," Selectman Andrew Hogeland said. "They seem to be things that if you wanted to pay attention to, you could address. I think the schools have made a lot of improvements with the Tri-District thing. I'd like to have that option studied." Hogeland also alluded to an option that has been discussed in the Williamstown School Committee and at the RDAC: amending the regional agreement to allow either town to fund its school over and above the assessment from the region. "The elementary school is a gem, and if there's a way to have a region with some element of local control to give both towns the opportunity to have a say in how to run their school, whether it's a way of structuring voting or structuring committees or having a supplementary budget," Hogeland said. Selectman Jeffrey Thomas said he was anxious about the two towns embarking on "such a complicated undertaking," but he was appreciative of the efforts of Tri-District Superintendent Kimberley Grady and RDAC Chairwoman Carolyn Greene, who addressed the board earlier this spring. Thomas also recommended that the RDAC talk to other towns in the commonwealth. "Other communities in the state of Massachusetts have been through this," Thomas said. "I would encourage, to the extent you all have the bandwidth, to find an example of communities like Williamstown faced with a similar situation, and maybe they're a few years into it and we can interview them." Daley told his colleagues that the RDAC is focusing on both the fiscal implications of full regionalization and the potential educational impact of breaking apart the Tri-District. School officials, including the principals of the three schools, have argued that aligning curricula between the feeder schools and Mount Greylock benefits students and that alignment under three independent districts would rely on the "good will" of future superintendents. Daley also said the town has asked for a financial impact statement of breaking Williamstown into its own district and that recognizes it would not necessarily require its own full-time superintendent or director of pupil personnel services (special education director). "If we only need half a SPED director, we need to figure out what the cost of that could be," Daley said. "We've asked them to give us a strategic number, rather than a punitive number something that's designed to dissuade us from making that decision." Daley told his colleagues he would continue to attend RDAC meetings when he can and report back to the board. He also encouraged residents to stay engaged with the issues surrounding the regionalization question. "It's best for all of us here and Williamstown as a whole to have all of our questions answered before we get to the floor of town meeting," he said. In other business on Monday, the board discussed the pace of progress in rehabilitating the former Spruces Mobile Home Park property. The property on Main Street currently is open the public, but, as Thomas pointed out, there is not even a sign on the property indicating that fact. "I've been walking my dog there," Thomas said. "It's such a real treasure we've inherited under circumstances we all know. It's frustrating that there's not a sign up. "I know it's controlled by FEMA, but is there any way you could negotiate a more permissive relationship with FEMA so that we don't have to go to them every time we make a change?" Town Manager Jason Hoch and Hogeland, who serves on the town's Spruces Land Use Committee, agreed that they would like to see the pace pick up, but the town is constrained by the federal bureaucracy that manages the site. The town acquired the land as part of a federal hazard mitigation grant. "At the end of the day, first and foremost and the reason they gave us the money is flood storage," Hoch said. Hogeland said he was frustrated with the approval process, but the land use committee and town are being as aggressive as they can. "The initial scopes of work we talked about for [Community Preservation Act] funding were pretty simple: signs, tree cutting and picnic tables," Hogeland said. "That's what we previewed for FEMA two months ago, and the answer was six to eight months [for review]. "Bike paths, pavilions and playing fields are a bigger step. This was sort of a test." iciHaiti - Jacmel : Center Alcibiade Pommayrac champion of TeleGenie At the initiative of the organization "Young Active for the Development of Jacmel" (JADEJ), a first edition of TeleGenie scolaire was carried out in the metropolis of the South-East, from May 11 to June 12, 2017. This first edition was organized on the high patronage of the Jacques Khawly Foundation, in collaboration with "Kalfou Zantray Kilti" (KAZAK) as well as other partner institutions. 36 students from the second class to the philo, from 6 schools in the city took part in this activity which took place in the premises of the Bar de l'Air. The hich schools Pinchinat and Celie Lamour, Institution Nossirel Lherisson (INL), the Institution of the Bon Pasteur (IDEPH), the Center Alcibiade Pommayrac and Vie de France were the schools in competition. For one month each Tuesday and Thursday students from these institutions demonstrated their abilities and intellectual knowledge from a cheerful audience and a jury composed mostly of teachers and professors at the university, each team had as objective to answer as many questions as possible to defeat its opponent in order to reach the final phase. Questions included literature, philosophy, general culture, sport, and mathematics. The grand finale of the TeleGenie competition took place on June 8 between the Nossirel Lherisson Institution and the Center Alcibiade Pommayrac. After deliberation by the jury, the Center Alcibiade Pommayrac was crowned champion at the expense of the Institution Nossirel Lherisson ranked second, while Lycee Celie Lamour of Jacmel won third place. At a time when the Haitian education system is facing serious problems "The idea of conducting this TeleGenie scolaire was aimed at filling the lack of intellectual energies among young people in the city [...]" declared Ms. Rose Carlette Saint-Germain, Coordinator of JADEJ. Despite all the names of Jacmel, namely the cultural capital, the tourist and creative city, JADEJ members say to have observed in recent years that there is a mental poverty of intellectual in the city. A situation that pushed them to join to set up this association, in order to enhance this escape of intellectual values. Jacques Junior Khawly, President of the Jacques Khawly Foundation, welcomed the initiative taken by these young people to carry out this contest. "One of the objectives of our Foundation is to invest in the training and education of young people who represent the driving force that can put Haiti on the rail of development. And we at the Foundation always encourage these activities." For their part, Brunet Blaise and Hilaire Patricio, respectively students of philo and rheto of Center Alcibiade Pommayrac and Institute Nossirel Lherisson, did not hide their satisfaction wishing that this kind of initiative persists in Jacmel, for the full intellectual flourishing of young people. In a cultural and artistic atmosphere, the awards ceremony will be organized next week, according to Lesly Decembre, the Artistic Director of KAZAK. Touch tablets, books, internet keys are some of the prizes that will be awarded to the winners. IH/ iciHaiti / Claudy Belizaire (Correspondant Jacmel) World Blood Donor Day: Pro-government and opposition forces give blood in Armenia (video) Every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. Pro-government and opposition MPs today participated in this years campaign and voluntary blood donations. Margarita Yesayan was among the first lawmakers to give blood. We are in a state of semi-war and it is important that each of us has some contribution, even by donating blood. Still in the 1990s when we were at war, we heard that a certain hospital needed blood for wounded soldiers. My family went to that hospital because I have the most common blood type while my husband has a negative blood type which is rare. There were soldiers who needed negative blood donors, the Republican lawmaker said to A1+. We are not passive, our participation is enough but I think we should activate it. They say the most unpleasant moment is when they prick your finger to take blood. Generally, all minor prickles are unpleasant also from the political point of view, said Vahram Baghdasaryan, the head of the parliamentary group of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) Smbat Daghbashyan, Director of R.O. Yolyan Hematology Center, focuses on a set of requirements for blood donors, but singles out the most important. Donors must be at least 17-years-old to donate blood, kind and devoted people, he said. The contradiction between the opposition and pro-government forces was apparent even during the blood donation, though they told jokes all the time. Karen Avagyan will give two liters of blood, he has promised, said Naira Zohrabyan from the opposition Tsarukyan alliance. It is your personal opinion? asked Avagyan. Yes, we have not discussed the issue in the faction yet, Zohrabyan said in reply. Blood brings people closer, let us make peace, said Smbat Daghbashyan. Speaker of the National Assembly Ara Babloyan and head of Yelk bloc's parliamentary faction Nikol Pashinyan showed up simultaneously. I gave blood during the war or for a patient but I do not donate very often, said Ara Babloyan. I have a positive blood type but I cannot say whether it is demanded or not. I am not a specialist, said Nikol Pashinyan. The most active donors, including lawmakers and journalists, received medals and diplomas. The blood donation in the National Assembly lasted three hours. Serzh Sargsyan receives Japanese official On June 14, Serzh Sargsyan received Japan International Cooperation Agency President Shinichi Kitaoka. Welcoming the guest, Serzh Sargsyan expressed the hope that his visit would lead to new projects and ideas aimed at deepening the Armenian-Japanese cooperation that will enrich the agenda of interstate relations. Serzh Sargsyan noted with satisfaction that bilateral relations have been developing successfully since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Japan 25 years ago, with a positive trend recorded in recent years, which he said are largely due to the opening of Armenias Embassy in Tokyo in 2010 and the inauguration of Japans Embassy in Yerevan in 2015. Serzh Sargsyan said to have kept warm memories of his June, 2012 visit to Japan and the fruitful meetings held with the Emperor and the Prime Minister of Japan. Noting that through State-supported programs Japan has been promoting sustainable economic development in our country ever since Armenias independence, Mr Sargsyan expressed his gratitude to the Japanese Government. Serzh Sargsyan highly appreciated Japans contribution to Armenias development, funneled through loans, grants, technical assistance and other programs, where a great role is being played by Japan International Cooperation Agency. Serzh Sargsyan and Shinichi Kitaoka hailed the joint efforts in a number of spheres, including the prevention of natural disasters, infrastructure and information technology. The parties agreed to expand cooperation in the aforementioned areas. Shinichi Kitaoka spoke with great affection about the centuries-old Armenian civilization and culture, of which he is well aware by virtue of his specialization. Information collected What information do we collect? 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Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ed Mosberg reaches into his wardrobe, and takes out his concentration camp uniform. He buttons it neatly, and forces the striped hat onto his now elderly head. His teenage years were spent in the Krakow ghetto, then the nearby Plaszow concentration camp under the capricious, sadistic rule of the commandant made notorious by Schindlers List, Amon Goth, then as a slave labourer in the Mauthausen-Gusen camp in Austria, and finally the Hermann Goering factory in Linz. On 5 May 1945, with their Nazi captors on the point of defeat, he and his fellow slaves were ordered into dynamited caves. They lived because the dynamite failed. Mosbergs family of 16, including his parents and sisters, had already been murdered. When he was filmed putting the uniform back on in 2015, he was back at Mauthausen for the 70th anniversary of the camps liberation, where he walked through gasping tourists, a living, stubborn rebuke to industrial murder. This forms the opening scene of a new Holocaust documentary, Destination Unknown, which offers new testimonies, but also asks how the camps victims have survived the rest of their lives. Mosberg is 92 now, as he sits across from me in London, smartly dressed in blazer and tie. Back in New Jersey, where he and his wife, fellow camp survivor Cesia, have made their home, he is a successful, sometimes controversial property developer, and he makes calls on his iPhone before our interview, still very much in the world around him. But his former, nightmare world is also literally close enough to touch. Outside Block 11 (Death Block) in Auschwitz concentration camp It was my [camp] uniform [in the film], yes, he confirms. With my number on it. Then he leans close to show me a metal plate like a large dog tag, which he is wearing on a metal chain, with the number 85454. This is the original number. With two holes, and you wear with wires on your wrist. I realise later that this plate must have been on Mosberg in Plaszow. Putting the uniform on, too, must surely be painful. I just put it on so that people know that something did exist. I dont do this for pleasure. It hurts me. Okay? But I have to do it. Because for as long as I live, I will do it. Mosberg shows little interest in the indulgence of analysing how the Holocaust changed him. Instead hes here to implacably bear witness, as he has in countless forums before. But his forcefulness in Destination Unknown as, still in his striped uniform, he barges his wheelchair-bound wife through the Mauthausen crowds, does suggest a man who no longer bothers with backward steps. Thats his character, the films British director, Claire Ferguson, tells me. When he wants something, he will go for it. When he has his wife in a wheelchair, he will do everything to get her where he needs her. Llion Roberts, the British producer who instigated the film and spent a decade assembling its testimonies, agrees. Ed would always be ahead of you, and youve got to catch up. He still does 100 press-ups every morning, at 92, and 10 minutes on the treadmill in his apartment. He wants to get from A to B, and he wants to go now. They all move out of the way in the film, because hes going so fast. Mosberg was 13 when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. I ask him how life had been for a Jewish boy in Krakow before then. I never saw any anti-Semitism before the war, he states. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up When, then, did he realise the extent of what the Germans were doing to Jews? When they start making ghettos, he says flatly, in his still strong Polish-Jewish accent. In 1941, he remembers, they declare that all the Jews from the city of Krakow have to move to another location. And we had a big apartment, my grandparents had a big apartment. One of my aunts had an apartment, she was a lawyer, another one was also. They moved us all together to one apartment with two bedrooms. So many people. And then they started making the ghettoes smaller. So they started moving people out. My grandparents, my parents cousins. They told me that they had to go resettle in another part of Poland. They brought them into Belzec. Belzec was not a concentration camp. Belzec was an extermination camp. And they were murdered there. Mosberg carrying the Torah at the 2017 March of the Living between Auschwitz and Birkenau The idea of a survivor type seems redundant in such terribly circumscribed conditions. Still, I ask Mosberg if he resolved to survive, in part to protect his family. He is composed till now. But this brings two long, bottomless sighs. There was no way to protect, he says. No way to protect. I did once. And then I made a mistake. He sounds angry, and desperately upset. Hes thinking of the way he kept his sisters in the back line when the Nazis selected who theyd kill, till the day they reversed the lines order, condemning his sisters. I never want to talk about it, Mosberg says. But Mr. Roberts made me talk. I never talk about it because it bothered me all my life. They lived longer because of you, I tell him. Ed Mosberg looks back at me, unpersuadable. He was perhaps 15 when he was trying to save his family. Did what he saw make him think less of humanity? Well those people were not human beings, he answers. They were murderers. They did this for satisfaction. Amon Goth, I worked in his office, so I saw what he was doing. He did this for pleasure. To take dogs, and let the dogs rip up the people. He stood and was shooting people from the balconies. When he was walking through the camp, you knew that somebody would get killed. Mosberg was reunited with Goth when he was put on trial then hanged by the Allies. I saw him in jail, Mosberg recalls. And you want to know something? He was guarded by two policemen at that time. And I was still afraid of him. I was afraid. I dont know why. I lived in Krakow after the war, but I never went to Plaszow. I was afraid to go. And Im not a person where Im afraid of anything. I dont know why. But he does. Because Plaszow reminded me of my mother. I give her a piece of meat, and she spit it out and she said, This is not kosher, she cannot swallow it, and the next day they took her to her death [in Auschwitz in 1944]. And the same thing, when my two sisters were taken there. So, I was afraid to go. A typical style of train used for transports to the camps which is preserved at the Yad Vashem museum Mosberg and his wife Cesia moved to the US in 1951, where there was initially little interest in what theyd suffered. When I said to some people the story about the Holocaust, they said, Dont think, sir, we had it so easy here. We couldnt buy a steak, he recalls with bitter irony. I was laughing. But he did return to the camps, with his young, American family. Its close to 50 years already, he considers. Because I remember I was carrying my daughter Caroline in my arms up the steps of Mauthausen, and my wife was worried. I said, I could carry at that time boulders. I can carry my child. Roberts filmed Mosberg in 2004, hoisting a boulder on his 79-year-old shoulder as he climbs the camps 186 steps, as he once did daily, on pain of death. Did managing that make him stronger inside? Yes. It made me stronger, he says. Because if someone was walking up the steps and he dropped the boulder, it went down and broke the legs of the other prisoners. And the top of that wall, they called the parachute wall. They lined up the Jews there and told them, You have to push the one in front of you. Ok? And they didnt have no choice. And they were just falling down being killed there. I dont know if this made me stronger. It made me not to forget it. Stronger? If you see people being killed, it dont make you stronger. And I saw killing all the time. When they liquidated the ghetto. How they were beating people, shooting them, I was there, he says fiercely, looking me straight I the eye. I saw it. Destination Unknowns makers believe their film is timely, in the face of resurgent racism and anti-Semitism, and an apathy Roberts sees growing towards the Holocaust, as its witnesses die. Mosberg, though, doesnt see what he experienced as repeatable, whether in Rwanda, or the future. He sees the Nazis as uniquely vicious robbers, from Kristallnacht till the end. Even Amon Goth, at the end, was arrested for taking belongings for himself. Pope Benedict when I met him, went into the Bundestag and said, We Germans know the best that the Nazis were gangs of robbers. Mosberg is wholly forgiving of Germany today, knowing that 99 per cent of Germans from before then are not alive any more. If there is still some anti-Semitism there, I dont have to go into Germany or Poland. I find it in the United States. People dont like it when I say it, but this is the truth. Mosberg, a staunch Republican, doesnt, though, lay blame for this with President Trumps populism. It doesnt worry me, he says of the worlds fractious state. Because it never happens as the same thing it was before. This is politics. Now because of this President, theyre saying theres [more] anti-Semitism. There was always anti-Semitism. Another survivor in Destination Unknown, Marsha Kreuzman, says she dreams of walking on snow, which is the bones of her fellow victims. Does Mosberg have a recurring nightmare? Well, I have many times dreams about the Holocaust, yes. But my wife, she has it constantly. Two days ago, she was calling for her mother. She was calling for her sisters. She said, I want to put me into the water. I want to drown like they were drowned. I say, Dont say that. And this is the way I live, with my wife, he says heavily. Weve been married for 70 years. Ed Mosberg, like many of the survivors, was left alone in the world by the camps. His love with Cesia has clearly helped that hollowness. Two days ago I wasnt sure I was coming here, because I didnt want to leave my wife, he continues. But I asked her. I said, Im going to London. She said, For what? I said, The movie, and I have to talk, that our family will be remembered. And also the other people in other families and the rest of the people who were murdered. She said, Okay, go. The Holocaust may seem like it could fade into history. But not while Ed Mosberg remembers. Destination Unknown is in cinemas on 16 June. Ed Mosberg introduces it at Curzon Soho on 15 June Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sofia Coppola was awarded the Best Director gong at Cannes last month, only the second woman in history to win the prize. Some are suggesting that The Beguiled might just be her masterpiece and expectations are high for the imminent UK release. The filmmakers career started with The Virgin Suicides in 1999, a skilful adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides debut novel of the same name. The story of the gestation of the film is an intriguing one. Coppola was given the book by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and became so enamoured with that work that she set about adapting it into a screenplay. After completing the script, she was devastated to learn that another company was already producing an adaptation of their own. Since their script proved disappointing, however, they ended up using Coppolas version. The Virgin Suicides takes place in Michigan during the mid-1970s but is narrated by one of a group of boys who lusted after the Lisbon sisters with the benefit of a quarter of a century of distance. The Lisbons, aged between 13 and 17, are fawned over by the neighbourhood adolescent males in spite of, or perhaps because of, their unattainable status. Raised by strict Catholic parents, we are informed in the opening scene that the girls will commit suicide but the key question is why. Perhaps the best answer comes from the youngest, Cecilia, when a doctor tells her shes too young to know how bad life gets and she replies, Obviously, doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl. The period detail is pitch perfect, especially impressive given the auteur was born in 1971 so her memories of the actual era would be hazy to say the least. The soundtrack, comprised of 1970s acts like Steely Dan, Carole King and Todd Rundgren, helps evoke a bygone era while the darkness that lies behind the white picket fences calls to mind the opening of Blue Velvet. Kathleen Turner and James Woods are excellent as the well-meaning but oppressive parents, evoking sympathy and irritation in equal measure. The real star, however, is Coppola, whose remarkably assured debut blends tragedy with comedy and employs a curious, idiosyncratic tone. The picture is nostalgic yet regretful and there is a sense that the sorrows of the girls come to represent the difficulties faced by an entire gender. Coppolas follow-up, Lost in Translation, would see her become just the third woman to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar but its worth seeing where it all began for one of modern cinemas most distinctive voices. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Having debuted last week, the first teaser trailer for Black Panther has caused a huge stir online, many excited to see Marvels upcoming superhero flick. Thanks to Deadline, we know another actor will be returning for Avengers Infinity War; Danai Gurira, best known for playing Michonne on The Walking Dead. While the report failed to confirm whether Gurira would be playing Okoye once again, we can likely expect her to reprise the role. Okoye is a member of the Dora Milaje, guards of TChalla (AKA Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman). Lupita Nyongo, Florence Kasumba and John Kani will also play members of the Dora Mijlaje, the latter two having been briefly seen in Captain America: Civil War. Films to get excited about in 2017 Show all 13 1 /13 Films to get excited about in 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director: Rian Johnson Rian Johnson Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong'o Plot: No details yet, but it will continue directly on from Rey coming face-to-face with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. Release Date: 15 December 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Thor: Ragnarok Director: Taika Waititi Taika Waititi Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo Plot: Story details are minimal as of now, but Thor's third return to screen has already been teased to feature a loose adaptation of the famous 'Planet Hulk' storyline. Release Date: 27 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 You Were Never Really Here Director: Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola Plot: A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Annihilation Director: Alex Garland Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A biologist's husband disappears. She thus puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Wonderstruck (image from Far From Heaven) Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves Plot: The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Mother (image of Darren Aronofsky) Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, and Ed Harris Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (image from The Lobster) Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone Plot: A surgeon forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Blade Runner 2049 Director: Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto Plot: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years. Release Date: 6 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Lady Bird (image of director Greta Gerwig) Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Lucas Hedges Plot: The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (image of director Steven Spielberg and star Mark Rylance) Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Mark Rylance, Oscar Isaac Plot: The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara recounts the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858 who, having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents' struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that pits the Papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties Director: John Cameron Mitchell John Cameron Mitchell Cast: Elle Fanning, Ruth Wilson, and Nicole Kidman Plot: An alien touring the galaxy breaks away from her group and meets two young inhabitants of the most dangerous place in the universe: the London suburb of Croydon. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Dark Tower Director: Nikolaj Arcel Nikolaj Arcel Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor Plot: Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world. Release Date: 28 July 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Suburbicon Director: George Clooney George Clooney Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Josh Brolin, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A crime mystery set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, where the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal. Release Date: 24 November Gurira will next appear in Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, the actor playing the icons mother, Afeni Shakur, an actual member of the Black Panthers. Her other work includes Mother of George, Law & Order, and Treme. Meanwhile, Captain America himself, Chris Evens, has been discussing the character's story in the upcoming Avengers, saying the two films will wrap up his story. Avengers: Infinity War hits UK cinemas 27 April 2018, while Black Panther touches down 18 February 2018. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Kamala Harris. Elizabeth Warren. Kirsten Gillibrand. In a time of such strife for American politics, there is hope in seeing these brave women (and many more) take a stand and demand their voices be heard. Meanwhile, cinema screens are currently inspiring the next generation of women that their voices deserve to be heard, too. Hillary Clinton recently made a surprise video appearance at the Women in Film Los Angeles' Crystal + Lucy Awards, to pay tribute to her friend and vocal activist for women's rights, Elizabeth Banks, who received one of the evening's highest honours, the Crystal Award for Excellence in Film. She also thanked the WIF for its "commitment in lifting up women directors, producers, writers, composers, and executives", before name-dropping Wonder Woman and its director Patty Jenkins, who broke the record for the biggest US opening by a female director. Clinton confessed she hadn't seen Wonder Woman yet but was going to, not only because of Jenkins' involvement, but because "something tells me a movie about a strong, powerful woman fighting to save the world from a massive international disaster is right up my alley." The film sees Gal Gadot's hero leave Themyscira, a utopian island inhabited only by women, to aid mankind in their darkest hour and help defeat Ares, the treacherous god of war. She also said of Banks, "She is such a special person, again, on screen and off. You're not only a creative force in front of the camera and behind it, you are a passionate advocate for women's equality and opportunity; I can vouch for that." Wonder Woman is out in cinemas now. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Anita Pallenberg, the actor and model who was also a muse to the Rolling Stones, has died aged 73. She is perhaps best known for her tumultuous relationship with Stones guitarist Keith Richards, with whom she had three children. A spokesman for Richards said: Anita Pallenberg passed away peacefully at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester yesterday 13 June with her family by her side. She was 73 years old and had been ill for some time. The cause of death is currently unknown, but it was first announced on Instagram by her friend and actor Stella Schnabel, who said she never met a woman quite like her. Go in peace my Roman mother, she wrote. Schnabel has since made her social media account private. Pallenberg dubbed the original rock chick by The Independent was born in German-occupied Rome in 1944, to German and Italian parents. She began her career as a model aged 16, becoming one of the eras best known It Girls after she became associated with Andy Warhols iconic studio Factory in the 1960s. Pallenberg met Brian Jones, guitarist and original founder of the Rolling Stones, in 1965. A relationship developed, which she claimed quickly turned violent. She left him two years later for fellow Stones member Keith Richards. The pair began a relationship which was to last from 1967 until 1980, and was characterised by a very public battle with drugs. The couple had two sons, Marlon and Tara Jo Jo, and a daughter named Angela. Tragically, Tara Jo Jo died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 1976, and in 1980 the couple separated. She was also rumoured to have had an affair with Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger, while they were shooting the 1970 British crime drama film Performance together although she always denied it. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Pallenberg was rumoured to have had an affiar with Jagger (left) after separating from longterm partner Richards (right) (Getty) The bands one-time PA Jo Bergman said that Pallenberg had a profound influence on the band. She sang backing vocals on their iconic track Sympathy for the Devil, and Jagger is said to have remixed tracks on their 1968 record Beggars Banquet based on her feedback. She almost single-handedly engineered a cultural revolution in London by bringing together the Stones and the jeunesse doree, wrote actor and songwriter Marianne Faithfull in her autobiography. The Stones came away with a patina of aristocratic decadence that served as a perfect counterfoil to the raw roots blues of their music.Thistransformed the Stones from pop stars into cultural icons. Faithfull also had a highly publicised romantic relationship with a Stones member Jagger and became Pallenbergs best friend, appearing with her on the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Faithfull also posted a touching tribute on her official Facebook page: She writes: Anita used to say that we (the two of us) are light years ahead of the Rolling Stones. Witty and probably true! I will miss Anita so much; 52 years! I really loved her. We had good times and bad times, but I only remember the good times now. She taught me so much, especially after we got clean; it was very good, and so much fun! Farewell my love, go well. In his autobiography, Richards described Pallenberg as a very strong woman, who was extremely bright and a great beauty. Today he paid tribute to his former lover and mother of his children, saying: A most remarkable woman. Always in my heart. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} At 72, Rod Stewart has undoubtedly seen a lot in his day, but even the Mod can admit these are troubled times. Headlining the 2017 Isle of Wight festival on Sunday, the Maggie May crooner took a pause in an otherwise upbeat set, remarking: These are troubled times, dangerous times, we must admit, before breaking into Rhythm of My Heart, a tune the artist has long dedicated to soldiers everywhere. And Stewart wasnt the only one with current events weighing heavily on his mind. In the wake of the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London, artists were quick to acknowledge that simply showing up at a music festival can feel like a rebellious act. Recommended Artists explain what makes Melt Festival so unique No one can stop us from living the way we want to live, David Guetta cried out from the main stage on Friday night. The chorus of his hit song Titanium, featuring Sia, seemed to carry fresh meaning, as fans belted out the lyrics: Im bulletproof, nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away ... You shoot me down, but I wont fall. The French DJ pulled out all the stops for his performance, giving fans a taste of his new collaboration with Justin Bieber, 2U. The song has already shot up to Number 1 on the UKs Official Trending Chart. David Guetta played his new song with Justin Bieber 2U at the festival (PA) Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler echoed Guettas sentiments the following evening, closing out what felt like a more subdued show from the Canadian band, saying: Dont let the people make you f***ing scared. He also bellowed to the crowd earlier on in the Canadian bands set:What happens in the US matters to us. What happens here in the UK matters to us in Canada. F*** this f***ing shit. Lets go! Of course, what had happened in the UK on the first day of the festival was an election that has been regarded one of the greatest political upsets of our time. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Thousands dance and sing along as David Guetta takes over the stage (Esther Payne) A festival is a strange place to be in the wake of such a crucial vote. Many festivalgoers woke up in their tents Friday morning more eager to check their phones and find out the latest about the general election results than to check the stage line-ups for the day. And performers didnt shy away from giving their two cents. Whatever your political persuasion, The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard said to cheering fans on Saturday, I think we can all agree that Theresa May is a tw*t. Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler told fans dont let the people make you f***ing scared (PA) Other bands were a bit more subtle. Blink and you might have missed Bastille cleverly blasting the Prime Minister, playing Fake It, as LED screens on the stage spelled out Theresa Mays go-to mantra on the campaign trail: strong and stable. The lyrics lets do our very best to fake it seemed to be perfectly timed with the stump speech message. These are strange times, the indie pop bands frontman Dan Smith admitted, but otherwise, the group kept their performance light, with the star making his way into the crowd and singing along with fans. The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard didnt beat around the bush in giving his take on the election results (PA) Of course, not all artists were willing to share the stage with the political drama unfolding in the UK. The Kaiser Chiefs put on an energy-packed performance so upbeat that for at least that hour, all fears for the future were drowned out by frontman Ricky Wilsons fervour. And hip hop legends Run-DMC managed to teleport us all back to the Eighties, setting the stage with the groups 1983 debut single Its Like That. Their genuine surprise over the fact that thousands of voices young and old were still able to chime in with the lyrics more than three decades later, was enough to offer some hope for the future and perhaps enough to bring the group further out of retirement. I cant believe it, Joseph Simmons said. Joseph Simmons (left) and Darryl McDaniels seemed surprised to see so many fans singing along to their lyrics (PA) The hip hop giant asked fans to hold a moment of silence for Jam-Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, who was shot and killed at his recording studio in Queens on 30 October, 2002. The legendary DJs two sons TJ Mizell and Jason Mizell Jr also took the stage and proved that both have managed to inherit their fathers turntable skills. A final moving moment came just before the curtain fell on the four-day festival, with organisers closing out an unforgettable weekend with a fireworks show as Oasiss Dont Look Back in Anger rung out from the main stage speakers. Thousands sung along a resounding message of resilience and a sign of respect to those who lost their lives leaving a similar celebration of music just weeks ago. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jo Cox: Death of an MP was as much about the life of her assailant as the circumstances of her murder a year ago and a timely reminder that not all terrorists are Islamists. Her assassin, Thomas, Tommy, Mair was a fairly conventional, if thats the right word, fascist and white supremacist. In a sort of grotesque parody of Jo Coxs much-quoted abiding words, he had more in common, arguably, with at least some of those who murder and maim in the name of Allah than that which divided him from them. He acted alone, as some Islamists have, and he was radicalised online, as is also so often the case. Mair used his local library to search for extremist material, starting with the Wikipedia entries on the Third Reich and going on from there, though no-one has tried to blame Google for Mairs self-indoctrination. His home was a sort of shrine to National Socialism, with various bits of memorabilia and esoteric literature littering the place. I say littering, but the other striking thing about Mair was that he had obvious signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, such as the extreme neatness with which he stacked his tins of beans, for example, all at precisely the same angle on the kitchen shelf. How mad Mair was was realised to an extent by some in his community, and he was receiving some attention for mental health issues, again as some Islamists have. Yet no-one actually realised that he harboured such dangerous views, let alone such violent intent. No-one, until his capture, had ever seen his collection of Nazi stuff because he had no visitors. He never attended political meetings or rallies and was not a member of any party or grouping. He was a classic loner. He could not have slipped through the net because there was no net, that is intelligence gathering or surveillance, which could conceivably have caught him. He had no criminal record. Thus, there was no opportunity, apparently, to lead him away from his plan to take the life of a member of Parliament, someone he regarded as a race traitor. We know that at least because at his magistrates court hearing he gave his name as Death to Traitors, Freedom for Britain, and because when he was carrying out his assault he uttered the phrase Britain First. Mair, serving life at HMP Frankland, has said nothing more about the motivations for his crime. In some respects, his life was a mirror of the would-be political assassin Khalid Masood, responsible for the Westminster attacks earlier this year, and around the same age as Mair. The lessons to be learned were clear enough. The most disturbing one is that there is no way in which our own war on terror can be won, because there is no shortage of recruits, no shortage of material for them to be instructed and inspired by, and no way for every potential assassin, bomber or knife-wielding fanatic can be detected, let alone detained. Mairs community could not have done more to restrain him because they had no idea what he was really like. The programme also suggested but rightly did not lay too much emphasis on it that the nasty and hysterical political atmosphere that accompanied much of the EU referendum campaign (Jo Cox was killed a week before polling last June), may have been the final factor that pushed Mair over the edge. Like the makers of this compelling, forensic and understated piece of work, I need not, I hope, labour that particular point. The Baby Boomers' Guide to Growing Old had a great deal of sex in it, and the various celebrities lined up to explain how the generation that invented sex, drugs and rock and roll spent a good deal of time discussing the merits of lovemaking in the twilight (metaphorical and literal). Edwina Currie, 70, for example, still regards herself as fun in bed, although that declaration was delivered with just a hint of menace. Could have been deliberate, I suppose. John Prescott, 79, seemed keen to discuss playing with himself, but his segment that was mercifully short (I mean the amount of time spent on this topic in the show, not his notoriously modest manhood, famously described by one former lover as resembling a chipolata). Some, such as Amanda Barrie, 81, Henry Blofeld, 77, and Stanley Johnson, 76, were apparently blissfully happy in their relationships, but others had just a touch of loneliness about them. I was much taken, for example, by the lively force of nature that is Esther Rantzen, 76, but looking a little vulnerable these days. She was visibly rejuvenated by a dance class where she was swarmed by lots of old blokes whose dream woman off the telly, circa 1976, had miraculously sashayed into their wrinkly lives. One of them she even fancied, but maybe he didnt feel the same way about her. Thats life, eh? Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A woman has attempted to abduct a British baby girl at a hotel in Majorca, Spain, according to mother Blaise Deacon. Blaise Deacon claimed a woman tried to take her daughter from her arms late at night in the HYB Eurocalas Hotel in Calas de Mallorca. The incident occurred while Ms Deacon was on holiday with her 23-month-old child Darcie, sister Kealy and her partner, believed to be George Deacon. Ms Deacon, a cleaning company director from Biggin Hill, Kent, explained in a post on Facebook: As most of you know we are on holiday in Spain. Its now day five and on our second day we had the worst thing happen to us. The incident happened on Saturday night and police are currently investigating the claims. Ms Deacon says that the woman approached her at around 11pm while Darcie was on her lap and her father had gone to the toilet. Recommended Police arrest mother on suspicion of abducting her two sons The lady put her arms around her telling us that she was taking her. But I held on tight as my sister told her no. When the women realised she wasn't getting her she took off running. I chased her and she ran out of the hotel into a car, Ms Deacon added. The hotel then refused to call the police as it would make the hotel look bad. I googled Spanish emergency services, we then spent the next two hours with the police. Ms Deacon wrote that the police were excellent and came up to her hotel room to check on daughter Darcie. Shes too young to have realised what very nearly happened, but we certainly weren't, Ms Deacon explained. According to Ms Deacon, the police have found a match for the woman and have started the search which has made her "feel safer. Police were not available for comment on Wednesday. Ms Deacon turned to Facebook in order to warn other holiday makers to keep a close eye on their young children. Please be aware on your holidays! Anyone can enter the hotels. Be extra vigilant. Please share and make families aware. According to Ms Deacon, the woman was blonde with dark skin and had left her car outside the hotel with the engine running. Family friends have commented on Ms Deacon's Facebook post in shock. Hope you're little girl's okay and you too. Can't put into words how you must have felt, it's frightening who can just walk into hotel's. Another commented: Id have been punching ten bells of s##t outta her the minute she put her hands on my child. The Deacon family returned to the UK on Tuesday. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} President Donald Trump is on the brink of adding six new trademarks to his growing Chinese portfolio according to reports. The new trademarks will be in sectors as diverse as veterinary services and construction, the New York Times reported, potentially sparking fresh concerns about possible conflicts of interest. After repeatedly blaming China for the decline in US industrial jobs, the President has softened his stance and rhetoric on the country in recent weeks, especially since meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April. Chinas trademark office reportedly granted preliminary approval for six of Mr Trumps trademarks on 6 June. They will be formally registered after three months if no objections are filed. According to the New York Times, Mr Trump applied for the new trademarks in April last year, which was the same month he accused Beijing of launching an economic assault against the US during his presidential campaign. Mr Trump currently has over 120 registered and provisionally approved trademarks in China according to reports, the vast majority of which are registered under his name. In April, the Associated Press reported that the presidents daughter, Ivanka Trump, had won provisional approval for three new trademarks in China, giving her company monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewellery, bags and spa services in the world's second-largest economy. More recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that at least 14 applications were filed by Ms Trumps business on 28 March. Although Ms Trump no longer has a management role at her company, she reportedly retains an ownership stake and therefore still could benefit from the companys profits despite her attorney insisting that her assets had been moved into a trust. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} As smokers quit the habit, British tobacco giant Imperial Brands is seemingly looking towards another plant to bring in the billions: cannabis. Imperial, which dropped the word tobacco from its name eighteen months ago, has hired medicinal cannabis expert Simon Langelier to join its board as a non-executive director. Mr Langelier, who spent thirty years at rival tobacco firm Philip Morris, is also chairman of Canadian firm PharmaCielo which supplies medicinal cannabis oil extracts. That experience could be valuable in helping Imperial maximise opportunities from a wave of marijuana legislation spreading across the US. Recommended What a regulated UK cannabis market might mean for business Dozens of states have legalised the drug for medical applications, and several have now allowed recreational use. The chance that cannabis could be legalised at a federal level in the US has become a realistic possibility. In a statement, Imperial chairman Mark Williamson said Imperial stands to benefit from Mr Langeliers experience in tobacco and wider consumer adjacencies though he stopped short of confirming a move into commercial cannabis sales. Speculation has mounted that tobacco firms could apply the experience they have in crop farming and distribution to the nascent, but potentially massive, cannabis business. One estimate by Cowen & Co. predicts consumers will buy $50bn (39bn) of legal cannabis this decade. Legal weed could boost the economy of California by as much as $5bn, according to a new study by the University of California Agricultural Issues Centre. Besides cannabis, Mr Langelier could also help to spearhead Imperials move into vaping and other smoke-free nicotine products. At Philip Morris, he headed up the next-generation products unit from 2007 to 2010. Imperial has invested in e-cigarettes but has not looked to capitalise on another smoking alternative heated tobacco devices. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. Philip Morris has put its weight behind heated tobacco as its primary next-generation product. Its biggest seller in the reduced-risk market is a heated tobacco device called iQOS. In May, Imperials chief development officer Matthew Phillips said the company was waiting to see if the technology would catch on outside of Japan, which is currently the biggest market. There, the iQOS has captured 9.6 per cent of the cigarette market since launching two years ago. Mr Phillips claimed Imperial could have a competing product on the market within months, if it thought the market was big enough. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Health Check email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A pregnant girl seeking an abortion in Ireland was detained in a mental health facility, according to a report on court proceedings. The girl and her mother, whose identities have been withheld, were sent to Dublin after a psychiatrist evaluated the child as depressed and suicidal. They believed the girl would be able to access an abortion in the Irish capital, but the girl was reportedly very agitated when she was sectioned on arrival and discovered she would be placed in a psychiatric unit. Abortion is a criminal offence under the Irish constitution, even if the pregnancy is caused by rape, or if the foetus cannot survive outside the womb. It is only considered if the womans life is in immediate danger. An abortion could therefore have been legally provided to the girl if she was found to be suicidal as a result of the pregnancy. However, the first psychiatrist argued her risk of self harm could be treated by mental health services, because termination of the pregnancy was not the solution for all of the childs problems at that stage, according to the Child Care Law Reporting Project (CCLRP). The case was heard in late 2016, several days after the incident, when a district judge ruled the girl should be discharged after a second doctor had said she did not show signs of mental illness and therefore could not be detained under Irelands Mental Health Act. The CCLRP, an independent organisation based in Dublin supported by the Irish governments Department of Children and Youth Affairs, reported that the second consultant psychiatrist said the girl was agitated and angry but did not suffer from an acute mental disorder. Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights Show all 5 1 /5 Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS This consultant psychiatrist was of the opinion that the young girl was not suicidal and was not in immediate danger of committing suicide, said the report, published online. As the young girl did not have a mental illness she could not be detained under the Mental Health Act, it said. The consultant psychiatrist also reported that the young girl had very strong views as to why she wanted a termination of her pregnancy. Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for the Abortion Rights Campaign, said the case showed Ireland cannot continue to treat women, girls, and pregnant people like this. We also saw similar treatment of Ms X in 1992, another suicidal child in need of an abortion who was prevented from accessing the care she needed by the State, she said. That we are still seeing cases of this kind 25 years later is a disgrace and an indictment of successive Governments failure to deal with this issue. Abortion is also restricted to Northern Irish women, where the majority of women have to travel to England or another country to access a termination. MPs vote to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales The Supreme Court ruled earlier today that women from Northern Ireland cannot receive free abortions on the NHS, narrowly rejecting an appeal by a mother and daughter. The judges who dismissed the appeal argued for the need to afford respect to the democratic decision of the people of Northern Ireland. In 2014, a woman who sought an abortion in Ireland when she was eight weeks pregnant, saying she was suicidal, was refused and later legally forced to give birth by caesarean section. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Health Check email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A radiologist who was allowed to continue working despite being at the centre of a breast cancer scandal has failed to spot signs of the disease in another woman. Dr Kong Fa Lan Keng Lun was found by the General Medical Council (GMC) to have deficiencies in his care of women at St Margarets Hospital in Epping, where 6,000 scans had to be reviewed in 2005. Now it has emerged he failed to properly treat another patient in 2012 while working at Ipswich Hospital. The GMC, which originally placed conditions on Dr Lans registration after the Epping scandal, has looked at the more recent case but decided to take no action against the doctor. This is despite an independent radiology expert appointed by the GMC saying Dr Lans care fell seriously below the standard that would normally be expected. In the most recent case, the 46-year-old woman, from Suffolk, who does not wish to be named, attended Ipswich Hospital in June 2012 and September 2013. She had been referred by her GP after suffering pain in her right breast for six months and nipple discharge both signs of breast cancer. Dr Lan carried out a mammogram and ultrasound but concluded there was no abnormality in either breast that would suggest the disease. Queen praises Ariana Grande as she meets Manchester attack victims in hospital He said a small mass was most likely a small lymph node and did not order follow-up tests. But 14 months later, the woman was urgently re-referred to the hospital by the same GP with the same symptoms and extreme pain. She had another mammogram and ultrasound performed by Dr Lan, who then requested a biopsy. This showed that the woman had breast cancer. Fearing time was running out, the patient went to a private hospital and paid for a double mastectomy. She told the Press Association: I initially went to Ipswich because the pain I was suffering was unbearable I was in agony. For a further 14 months I experienced horrendous swelling and pain that was so bad I passed out. The impact on my health of all this has been devastating. Every day is agony and I've been left with terrible health problems. I developed lymphedema. I still suffer from exhaustion. I'm still undergoing regular blood tests as my immune system is so low. It makes me so angry to think that I could have died because this cancer wasnt treated for 14 months after I was first seen by Dr Lan. But what makes matters worse is that he has failed patients before and been allowed to come back and carry on treating women. The woman now takes a daily anti-cancer drug anastrozole which she says has debilitating side-effects. She is suing Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, claiming the 14-month delay in getting an accurate diagnosis caused serious health complications and has shortened her life expectancy. The trust has admitted that during the initial consultation in June 2012, when Dr Lan identified a mass, more tests should have been arranged which could have shown the need for further investigation. However, it disputes the claim that the delay has reduced the womans lifespan. 13 ways to help prevent cancer Show all 13 1 /13 13 ways to help prevent cancer 13 ways to help prevent cancer Stopping smoking. This notoriously difficult habit to break sees tar build-up in the lungs and DNA alteration and causes 15,558 cancer deaths a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Avoiding the sun, and the melanoma that comes with overexposure to harmful UV rays, could help conscientious shade-lovers dodge being one of the 7,220 people who die from it 13 ways to help prevent cancer A diet that is low in red meat can help to prevent bowel cancer, according to the research - with 30 grams a day recommended for men, and 25 a day recommended for women 13 ways to help prevent cancer Foods high in fibre, meanwhile, can further make for healthier bowels. Processed foods in developed countries appear to be causing higher rates of colon cancer than diets in continents such as Africa, which have high bean and pulse intakes 13 ways to help prevent cancer Two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day were given as the magic number for good diet in the research. Overall, diet causes only slightly fewer cancer deaths than sun exposure in Australia, at 7,000 a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Obesity and being overweight, linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, causes 3,917 deaths by cancer a year on its own Getty 13 ways to help prevent cancer Dying of a cancer caused by infection also comes in highly, linked to 3,421 cancer deaths a year. Infections such as human papilloma virus - which can cause cervical cancer in women - and hepatitis - can be prevented by vaccinations and having regular check-ups 13 ways to help prevent cancer Cutting back on drinks could reduce the risk of cancers caused by alcohol - such as liver cancer, bowel cancer, breast cancer and mouth cancer - that are leading to 3,208 deaths a year 2014 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Sitting around and not getting the heart pumping - less than one hour's exercise a day - is directly leading to about 1,800 people having lower immune functions and higher hormone levels, among other factors, that cause cancers 2011 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Hormone replacement therapy, which is used to relieve symptoms of the menopause in women, caused 539 deaths from (mainly breast) cancer in Australia last year. It did, however, prevent 52 cases of colorectal cancers 2003 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Insufficient breastfeeding, bizarrely, makes the top 10. Breastfeeding for 12 months could prevent 235 cancer cases a year, said the research AFP/Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Oral contraceptives, like the Pill, caused about 105 breast cancers and 52 cervical cancers - but it also prevented about 1,440 ovarian and uterine (womb) cases of cancer last year 2006 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Taking aspirin also prevented 232 cases in the Queensland research of colorectal and oesophagal cancers - but as it can also cause strokes, is not yet recommended as a formal treatment against the risk of cancer Between October 2007 and October 2009, Dr Lan had 18 conditions placed on his registration by the GMC following the Epping scandal. The GMC found Dr Lan had acted irresponsibly and inappropriately and provided inadequate care to a patient who was subsequently found to have breast cancer. It also said Dr Lan failed to meet the screening standards expected of him in the care of a further eight women. But the GMC also blamed the NHS trust, saying the unit was unsupported, understaffed and under-resourced. In the more recent Ipswich case, an independent expert appointed by the GMC was critical of Dr Lan's examinations of the patient. They said further investigations should have been carried out after the first appointment, while the second examination resulted in a failure to note several masses. The expert also said there were significant failings in the way Dr Lan reported mammogram results. But the GMC concluded that no further action was required. It noted that Dr Lan has decided to take flexible retirement, although he will still report on some breast screenings. Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said: Where a doctor's conduct falls below the standard we expect and puts patients or the public confidence at risk, we can and will take action. In assessing whether a doctor is safe to continue practising, the law and case law dictate that we must take into account whether a doctor has admitted their mistake and taken action to address their shortcomings. The patient's lawyer, Victoria Gofton, a clinical negligence specialist from Slater and Gordon, said: We believe Dr Lan's failure to recognise the significance of the mass and order follow-up tests caused a 14-month delay in receiving treatment which she urgently needed. We are investigating if her condition was significantly worse as a result of the delay. A spokeswoman for Ipswich Hospital, which employs Dr Lan, said: The trust is aware of the ongoing investigations in this matter. As a legal claim is being pursued, the trust is unable to comment save to confirm that a response to the claim has been sent to the claimant's solicitor. We understand that the claimant's solicitor is investigating further. PA For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Petrica drives his family around Naples on a balmy June evening, searching for a safe spot to park until the morning. This is not a tourists jaunt, nor will he, his wife and 18-month-old daughter be leaving the car overnight the decade-old Vauxhall Astra has been their only shelter for the past two months. Tonight, like they have done every night following their forced eviction from an informal Roma settlement in the Italian city, the young family will push flat the seats of their aluminium, four-wheeled home and fill the gaps with clothes and bags to create a small, lumpy bed. The baby is often crying at night, which is hard in such a tiny space, 31-year-old Petrica explains. When we are all so close it means we cannot sleep easy. Since leaving the Gianturco camp, the family has not been able to enjoy a single cooked meal, relying only on cold food for sustenance as they have no access to kitchen facilities, while washing and sanitation is as bad as one can expect from this bleak situation. It is difficult; its not at all like being at home, Petrica says. Each evening, after the father and mother have spent the day begging on the street with their young daughter in tow, they return to their car with usually only enough money to buy a loaf of bread and clamber in, hoping to get some rest before they have to travel to the next spot. They never stay long in one location; always moving on after only a day or two, as they are conscious of the inadequate shield from any trouble the car bestows on them. We are two days in one parking place, then two days in another depending on what we find, Petrica says. We are in different areas of the city every day. We do not feel safe, not at all. What kind of safety can you have in a car? He and his family were among 1,300 other people who were evicted by cruel irony, on the eve of International Roma Day on 7 April from Gianturco, which had stood on a site for the past six years; the site has now been rendered to rubble. The eviction followed six months of heavy police presence and threats of immediate removal, meaning many dozens of people fled the camp before the proposed eviction day in fear of what they might face if they stayed. Ultimately, the expulsion took place earlier than the agreed date: before Roma-rights NGOs and local activists had managed to complete the emergency Rule 39 request for interim measures to the European Court of Human Rights that they had been preparing. They [the local authority] informed us they were going to evict the camp less than two weeks before the eviction date, Jonathan Lee of the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) tells The Independent. Together with Associazione 21 Luglio, we began preparing an emergency request to the ECHR to halt the eviction. It seems the authorities found out, because they brought the date forward and evicted Gianturco four days before they had said they would. Petrica, in spite of the challenging circumstances, feels his family is one of the more fortunate as many hundreds of others have been deprived of the luxury of any sanctuary at all and are now left destitute. There are others who are not so lucky and do not even have a car like us, he says. They are staying and sleeping where they can, in parks and bus stations. These areas are always very dangerous. Alex, 13, along with his mother and father, is just one of those facing this perilous situation and sleeping rough after being forced to leave Gianturco. They have made a traffic island opposite Naples Central Train Station their home. From this concrete platform, which they share with many other homeless people, Alex spends his days collecting scrap metal and watching the flow of cars and trucks travelling around the city, trying to piece together what typical daily life must feel like for locals. The Gianturco camp was demolished on the eve of International Roma Day (Amnesty International/Catrinel Motoc) Meanwhile, 17-year-old Viorica and her mother fled to Forcella to seek refuge with relatives who were already living there. The mother and daughter now share a two-room home with five other people from an aunts family, and understand this situation must only be temporary before things become thorny and they outstay their welcome. Conditions may have been squalid in Gianturco, but Viorica misses the life she had led there since she was 12. She is now isolated, and many members of her family have become separated some have lost contact entirely. She remembers, with desolation, the day the local authorities came to evict them and describes how it made her feel like the country she had considered her home for the past nine years no longer accepted her. I was feeling very bad, Viorica says. It was hard to believe that we had to leave that place. After five years, you can imagine. It was a very ugly thing, what they did to us. I got scared a bit, it all felt somehow strange. They came and they told us to get out, because we could not stay there, they said that this was not a place for us. I felt like they meant not just Gianturco, but that this place, Napoli, Italy was not for us. Gheorghe, 45, also says the eviction highlighted the disparities between his race and the Italian nationals. He made his way to another informal Roma settlement in a neighbouring area and will stay there for as long as he can under one small roof with his wife, eight-year-old daughter, 19-year-old son, daughter-in-law and 10-month-old grandson. But he is excruciatingly aware of the fact that this is no way to live permanently and raise children. This is not normal, he admits. We should be in the same street with the Italians in a neighbourhood, but we are not. We are on the outside. If we had a permanent home we could get our kids to school and we can go to work, the same as everybody else is doing. The ERRC says the new development at Via del Riposo essentially amounts to racial segregation (Alex Sturrock) Other families from Gianturco travelled to Romania,where many originally descended from descended decades ago, and a number simply disappeared and become invisible, according to Amnesty International. But a small minority, just some 140 people, was rehoused in a state-sponsored, heavily fenced-off and guarded container park in Via del Riposo. Sandwiched between a multi-storey cemetery, six-lane motorway and an airport, this is an ostensibly temporary solution to a long-established social housing crisis. Noticeably, the next nearest residential buildings are at least a 15-minute walk away. The perimeter brick wall surrounding this emergency housing reveals an even more worrying aspect to this story, and exposes the extent of the hostility faced by the estimated 170,000 Roma and Sinti living in Italy. It is marred with brazenly racist graffiti that threatens Roma people specifically with death and the firebombing of their homes a warning that would be irresponsible to dismiss, given that this development stands on the site of a previous Roma settlement that was burned down by arsonists in 2013. And just last month, three Roma sisters, aged four, eight and 20, died when their camper van home became overwhelmed by flames as they slept after it was torched by attackers on the outskirts of Rome. Notwithstanding, the select few chosen ones living inside this clinical ghetto, with its sterile, flat-pack-style, grey-corrugated metal-walled dwellings, are the envy of those who are left outside. A formal, pre-authorised appointment was required to gain access to the camp, but once inside it is clear to see that a sense of community is flourishing within the imposingly high fences. Some of the adults also have access to work one works in a local bakery while many of the children have places in nearby schools. The perimeter wall surrounding the emergency housing is marred with anti-Roma graffiti (Alex Sturrock) Abiade, 22, lives in the container park with her partner and four children in a small, two-room unit yet appears grateful for their new home. Its very safe; we have no problems here, she says. My children can all go to school. Its very important for the camp that the children go to school. Her six-year-old daughter, Maria, exuberantly interjects, I am the best in my class. And my brother is also a good scholar. Other residents are a little more reticent, and it is difficult to gauge the true feelings they have towards their circumstances. A couple of men in their late 30s, when I ask if they are willing to be photographed, suggest speaking to a man they refer to as Capo Vincenzo Esposito, a social worker for Roma and Sinti, who has been sent by the local municipality to escort the visit. It is difficult to figure out why they feel the need to relinquish their right to either agree or disagree, and instead put this decision in the hands of a proxy. Local activists have also been vocal about their concerns over the camp, and fear the situation could take a worrying turn if the residents are not provided with a long-term solution and properly housed. Andrea Belfiore, a project coordinator with medical organisation Emergency, says: Im quite apprehensive about infection and what could happen during the summer when the temperature rises. When you get a lot of people living in a small place with little open space and no air conditioning, diseases can be passed on really easily, especially if you have say a baby with measles, for example. And in general Roma dont have proper healthcare assistance. Abiade lives in the container park with her partner and four children in a two-room unit (Alex Sturrock) But Esposito says life in the development is very peaceful and there is a waiting list of families still hoping to get a coveted place here. However, these are exclusively Roma people and no other ethnicity in need of housing is asking to be moved to Via del Riposo. The non-Roma do not want to be put in this camp, Esposito explains. He also says the town councillor has proposed to paint a mural on the boundary walls to cover the hate speech, which he insists is old and not a recent and immediate threat a fact that only makes it more difficult to fathom why it has been left there as the Roma families move in, and many are forced to walk past it daily when taking their children to school. The severance from wider society that the walled community borders create for the residents has attracted stern reproach from human rights organisations. Amnesty launched a public campaign pushing for Italian authorities to urgently initiate a consultation with the Romani families in the ghetto, in order to develop sustainable housing plans that comply with international and regional human rights standards and are consistent with Italys National Strategy for Roma Inclusion. The call has already gathered nearly 15,000 appeals, that have been sent to the local municipality and the Italian Interior Minister. The ERRC, meanwhile, says the new development essentially amounts to racial segregation and is currently building a legal case against it. This is happening all over Italy, Lee says. The countrys solution to dealing with disadvantaged Roma is to bulldoze their homes and block access to work. Their solution to the housing crisis is to place these Roma in ethnically segregated container camps where they control their lives. Italy is systemically, on a national level, infringing the human rights of its Romani minority. We are currently building a case around the new camp at Via del Riposo, which we find to be discriminatory. Authorities should place these people in ordinary, integrated social housing not an ethnically segregated container camp. Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma Show all 10 1 /10 Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma The new development at Via del Riposo houses about 140 people Alex Sturrock Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma A young girl plays peekaboo from inside her new home Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma Roma children play between the metal housing containers Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma There are communal outdoor areas where children can play and ride bikes Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma A sense of community is growing and card games are often played among the residents Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma A young girl cuddles her kitten Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma Abiade lives in the container park with her partner and four children in a two-room unit Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma A boy poses for the camera Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma A young girl hugs her mother and baby brother Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo Inside Italys new emergency housing development for Roma A number of the children living in the development have places at nearby schools Alex Sturrock/children from Via del Riposo His claims, it appears, are not unique. In April, the Financial Times reported that the European Commission has so far hesitated in publishing a document that recommends Italy faces sanctions for mistreatment of Roma in housing policy. Brussels opened a preliminary investigation into the country almost five years ago, but no infringement proceeding has been launched allegedly because of fears within some quarters that it could fray yet further relations between Italy and the EU. The Commission is monitoring the situation concerning Roma housing in Italy and is in contact with the Italian authorities on this matter, a Commission official tells The Independent. The European Commission works closely with member states to fight discrimination and advance the social and economic inclusion of Roma through financial support, policy advice and other tools. Infringements are one of the different tools that can be used, depending on the specific situations. But Amnesty International is calling on Brussels to take immediate action. It is time for the European Commission to stop paying lip service to Roma rights and take meaningful action to end the shameful discrimination and segregation against Roma in Italy, insists Catrinel Motoc, the NGOs regional campaigner on discrimination. Thousands of Romani families, forced to live in poor conditions in segregated camps, have waited almost five years for the Commission to complete its investigation into Italys discrimination against Roma and finally launch an infringement proceeding against the country. In that time, hundreds of forced evictions have taken place with men, women and children thrown out of their homes without genuine consultation or compensation and with nowhere to go, just like in the case of Gianturco. However, it cant be ignored that Italy is already grappling at the frontline of some of Europes most complex and urgent humanitarian problems. Indeed, the escalating refugee crisis alone is a considerable challenge, with a total of 181,000 migrants reaching the country from Libya last year, and estimates suggesting that 21,900 migrants arrived in the first three months of this year up from 14,500 in the same period in 2016. And Italys own citizens face hardship amid high unemployment, which currently sits at 11.1 per cent, and the highest public debt in the Eurozone after Greece about 132 per cent of GDP. A number of the children who have been housed in Via del Riposo attend nearby schools (Alex Sturrock) And it is partly the impact of these factors that leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of Italian locals who have witnessed the formation of the new container park in Via del Riposo. Jordano, who runs a nearby shop and bar, says: They come in here and they buy coffee, so they are good for business. They dont cause any problems, things are calm and everyone gets on with his own business. Look, he continues, Naples is a poor city with many problems; we have high unemployment, poverty and criminality. If you give these people free accommodation but not others it will create tensions. The former Gianturco residents make it clear that they are not after handouts from the Italian government; they only want to be able to put down roots in safe spaces where they can raise their families and develop some level of cohesion with the wider community. Gheorghe, in particular, is anxious that it wont be long before his family is again forced to up sticks, creating yet more instability and distress. He wants only a more sustainable future for his family. We would not like something with luxury conditions, he pleads. We would just like to have a place where we do not have to leave all the time. We have always had someone asking us to leave, telling us to move on. We can build our own homes; we do not need anyone to do it for us. They have made those 26 or so houses at Via del Riposo and they pretend they are doing something for everybody, but look where we are. They destroyed our homes and wont let us settle anywhere. We do not want government containers, just somewhere we can live in peace. The Italian authorities did not respond to a request for comment. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The cladding that might have led to the horrifying blaze at Grenfell Tower was added partly to improve its appearance. During a refurbishment aimed at regeneration last year, cladding was added to the sides of the building to update its look. The cladding then seems to have helped the fire spread around the building, allowing it to destroy almost the entirety of the structure and kill people inside. And that cladding a low-cost way of improving the front of the building was chosen in part so that the tower would look better when seen from the conservation areas and luxury flats that surround north Kensington, according to planning documents, as well as to insulate it. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Due to its height the tower is visible from the adjacent Avondale Conservation Area to the south and the Ladbroke Conservation Area to the east, a planning document for the regeneration work reads. The changes to the existing tower will improve its appearance especially when viewed from the surrounding area. The document, published in 2014 and providing a full report on the works, makes repeated reference to the appearance of the area. That is the justification for the material used on the outside of the building, which has since been claimed to have contributed to the horror. The materials used were chosen to accord with the development plan by ensuring that the character and appearance of the area are preserved and living conditions of those living near the development suitably protected, according to the same report. A number of conditions were attached to the 2014 decision to approve the plan many of which related specifically to the material used in the cladding, so that the council could ensure the "living conditions of those living near the development" were "suitably protected". The council noted that the cladding would also improve insulation, helping keep sound and cold out from the building, and improve ventilation. An environmental statement said that the "primary driver behind the refurbishment" was to address the insulation and air tightness. "The reclad materials and new windows will represent a significant improvement to the environmental performance of the building and to its physical appearance," the planning application reads. "The design of the scheme as a whole has fully considered policy requirements, expectations and aspirations, fully taking into consideration the immediate and wider surroundings, particularly focussing on creating a wider environment that works as a coherent place," another part of the same document says. That planning application concludes with a statement that "the development will provide significant improvements to the physical appearance of the Tower, as well as the environmental performance and the amenity of its residents". Rydon, the company behind the refurbishment work, said the cladding and other changes had been made to help with "improving thermal insulation and modernising the exterior of the building". Grenfell Tower fire: How the community responded A statement from Rydon after the work was finished noted that "rain screen cladding, replacement windows and curtain wall facades have been fitted giving the building a fresher, modern look". That statement included a quote from Nick Paget-Brown, the leader of the council, who remarked on how happy he was to see "first-hand how the cladding has lifted the external appearance of the tower". That public statement after the completion made no reference to insulation, only discussing the change in the external appearance of the building. The refurbishment work that added the cladding cost 8.6m and finished in May last year. Both before and since that time, residents have repeatedly complained about the safety of the block, but were assured that there was no problem. Councillor Judith Blakeman said questions would now be asked in the wake of those assurances. If the cladding was partly responsible for the fire we need to know what the specification for the cladding was and why it suddenly just went up (in flames) in about five minutes, because it should have been fire resistant, surely, she said. Ms Blakeman lives across the road and said she heard about the fire at 5am on the radio. I just rushed outside, she said. Neighbours had been watching it all night, they said the cladding went up like a nightdress by a fire it just went whoosh. This is obviously part of the big refurbishment that finished about a year ago. Grenfell Tower fire: What we know so far The tower was built in 1974. But the refurbishment work brought a number of changes new areas were added to the building, as well as the cladding. Experts have repeatedly warned that the addition of cladding, which is regularly used to refresh old or unsightly buildings, can help spread fire. It can work like a chimney, they have warned, bringing up air that allows it to spread across a building quickly. Chartered surveyor and fire expert Arnold Tarling, from Hindwoods, said the process can create a 25-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation. It produces a wind tunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building," he said. So had it been insulated per se, the insulation could fall off and fall away from the building, but this is all contained inside. He said not all insulation used in the process is the more expensive non-flammable type. So basically you have got a cavity with a fire spreading behind it," he added. Angus Law, of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, said: Early media reports suggest that this event has similarities with other fires that have occurred recently around the world. He added: The UKs regulatory framework for tall residential buildings is intended to prevent the spread of fire between floors and between apartments. If spread of fire does occur, as has happened at Grenfell Tower, the consequences are often catastrophic. Construction firm Rydon, which carried out a 8.6m refurbishment of the exterior of Grenfell Tower last year, installing cladding and new windows, said its work met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The family of a 27-year-old woman missing in the Grenfell Tower fire has appealed for information as to her whereabouts. Mariem Elgwahry, a senior marketing manager who lived with her mother on the 19th floor of the block, has not been heard from since the early hours of the morning, a family friend told The Independent. Her mother, Suhar, was also missing. Family and friends have been searching local hospitals, along with shelters and reception centres set up in the West Kensington area, but have had no news that either is safe. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty At least 50 people were being treated across hospitals in the capital after the 24-storey block went up in flames around 1am on Wednesday. The Metropolitan Police confirmed six people died in the blaze and many residents remain unaccounted for. If anyone is aware of either woman's whereabouts, please call the Casualty Bureau on 0800 0961 233. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The company responsible for managing the Grenfell Tower block that was engulfed by fire is asking the public to help cover the cost of supporting the victims of the blaze. Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), which is facing accusations over alleged safety failings at the 24-story tower, has asked people to donate to a fund set up by a local charity to help those affected by the fire. The company claimed every penny raised will go to those affected but did not say if it would be donating any more itself. Critics have suggested it should not be relying on public donations to help tenants who have lost homes and belongings and, in some cases, family and friends. Recommended Family of Syrian refugees among those missing in Grenfell Tower fire The Independent has contacted KCTMO for comment. The company said in an earlier statement that it was doing everything it can to assist the residents of Grenfell Tower. Twelve people are confirmed to have died in the fire and almost 80 are being treated in hospital, 18 of them in critical care. Police said they expected the death toll to rise. KCTMO is accused of failing to ensure the safety of tenants in the tower block. The company was reviewing the buildings fire safety policy at the time of the fire. It emerged in the hours after the incident that residents had repeatedly raised concerns about the buildings fire safety. The Grenfell Action Group, a campaign group set up by residents, warned last year: It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO. Reports suggest the building was covered in flammable cladding in order to make it look nicer to people in nearby luxury homes. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Although the tower underwent a 10.3m renovation that was completed in May 2016, it continued to have just one emergency exit, which residents had warned would become blocked in the case of a fire. The building contained 120 flats and was home to more than 200 people. KCTMO described the fire as a tragedy and said it was wrong to speculate about what caused it. We wish to repeat our sincere and heartfelt condolences to all those who have been affected as a result of this devastating event at Grenfell Tower, the company said in a statement We also wish to pay tribute to the bravery of the emergency services and to those members of the public who continue to selflessly do all they can to assist. The events of last night and early this morning are a tragedy. KCTMO, in conjunction with RBKC and others, is doing everything it can to assist the residents of Grenfell Tower and those affected by the tragedy. This will remain our immediate concern and focus. It is too early to speculate what caused the fire and contributed to its spread. We will co-operate fully with all the relevant authorities in order to ascertain the cause of this tragedy. We are aware that concerns have been raised historically by residents. We always take all concerns seriously and these will form part of our forthcoming investigations. While these investigations continue with our co-operation, our core priority at the moment is our residents. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Police have confirmed at least 12 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire in west London. Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said that number was likely to rise further still. Earlier in the day, police confirmed six residents had died after the blaze took hold in the 24-storey block of flats near Latimer Road Tube station. Officials refused to comment on whether the death toll would rise "significantly" but said there were still bodies inside the building. Some victims have been removed from the smouldering remains of the tower, which contains 120 flats thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people. Mr Cundy said: "Sadly I can confirm that there are now 12 people that have died that we know of. "This is going to be a long and complex recovery operation and I do anticipate that the number of fatalities will sadly increase beyond those 12." Firefighters are still working to extinguish "pockets of fire" before a full search of the building can be carried out. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Steve Apter, director of safety and assurance at London Fire Brigade (LFB), said at the same news conference that firefighters had managed "to get through particularly arduous conditions up to the top floor". LFB said it had rescued 65 people from the building. A number of those who are still missing have been named by family and friends, including a 12-year-old girl said to have been living on the 20th floor. Other stories have emerged of those inside the tower who narrowly escaped the blaze. A baby dropped from a window miraculously escaped serious harm, witnesses said, despite falling from the "ninth or tenth floor". Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Residents of the London tower block engulfed by a devastating fire on Wednesday morning are believed to have warned of alleged safety problems as recently as the end of last year. Members of an action group at Grenfell Tower wrote that they believed the building posed a fire risk, and that "only a catastrophic event will expose" the issues after their concerns fell on "deaf ears". Flames and smoke engulfed the tower in Kensington from the second to the 27th floor, according to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), which sent 200 firefighters to the blaze at about 1am. In November 2016 residents wrote on the Grenfell Action Group website that they feared such a fire could break out and warned of the potential for a "major disaster". Recommended Everything we know so far about west London tower block blaze Following the fire, the group posted: "All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time." It claimed access to the building was "severely restricted" for emergency services and other vehicles and that residents had been advised to stay in their flats in case of fire. One witness told the BBC the advice had been to wait in residences for up to an hour in case of fire. He ignored that advice and fled with his family, and said he believed he "would have perished" if he had not done so. The Independent has contacted the block's managers, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, for comment. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty More than 50 people have been taken to five hospitals across the capital, London Ambulance Service said, but other residents are unaccounted for. Some are thought to have died, according to LFB. Additional reporting by agencies Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sadiq Khan has urged anyone concerned about their loved ones in the wake of the horrific West London fire to call the Casualty Bureau to seek help. Many are thought to be trapped in their homes after a massive blaze engulfed Grenfell Tower in north Kensington in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Hundreds of firefighters fought to rescue residents from the 24-storey block as clouds of smoke billowed into the sky. At least 50 people have been taken to five hospitals in London for treatment and the fire brigade has said there are a number of fatalities but is yet to confirm numbers. The Mayor of London advised friends and family to call an emergency hotline set up by the Metropolitan Police on 0800 096 1233. There is a number available for anyone who is at all worried about their loved ones or friends or family, Mr Khan told Radio 4s Today programme. If you are worried please feel free to ring the number. Its manned by professional staff and theyve got records of who they know is accounted for and can take your details and ring you back if there is anybody that youre worried about. The Met Police warned Londoners to avoid the area near the fire which flared up on Latimer Road, near Notting Hill, just before 1 am. There are cordons in place around the scene and nearby residents have been evacuated. Met Police Commander, Stuart Cundy, said: "Anyone who is concerned about loved ones in relation to the fire should contact Casualty Bureau which has been opened following the fire. If you do not get through immediately please do try again. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty He added: The A40 is closed in both directions. We kindly ask that the public stay away from the area. Jamie Oliver has announced he is providing free food, drink and shelter to all those effected at his Jamies Italian Westfield restaurant in the near vicinity of Grenfell Tower. Writing in a post in Instagram, the chef and campaigner said: "To any of the hundreds of FAMILIES effected by this terrible fire at Grenfell Tower Notting hill today, You are all welcome to come hang out in my restaurant and be fed and watered by my Jamies Italian team. "We are in the Westfield just around the corner. Food and drink free of charge, so just go and speak to my manager Juan and we will sort you out and give you some love .... This is for victims of the fire. Our thoughts, love and prayers are with you all. Big love Jamie x x x x." Nearby mosques and churches have opened their doors to offer help to those affected by the blaze. Residents have rallied together to urge people to donate clothing, toiletries, toys and spare clothes to St Clements Church, W11 4EQ, and other places in the near vicinity. Local resident Jade Ellis delivered water to a church where some of the survivors from Grenfell Tower are being looked after. Witnesses described seeing residents waving, shouting and screaming from their windows and entrapped on the upper storeys as the block went up in flames. Dany Cotton, the London Fire Brigade commissioner, said: This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale. She added: At this time I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities. I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building, and it would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} West London residents are offering to open their homes to people displaced by the Grenfell Tower fire. Posting on Facebook and Twitter, dozens of people living in the Kensington area and beyond posted messages of support, offering food, clothes and a place to stay. Red Nose Day director and broadcaster Emma Freud, Writer Emily Reynolds and X-Factor finalist Gifty Louise joined local businesses and several other members of the public in pledging assistance. Recommended Sadiq Khan condemns fire advice to Grenfell residents to stay in flats Freud, who is married to the screenwriter and director Richard Curtis, and lives with her family in Kensington, said: "If anyone needs help and a roof, please let me know. We live very near and can look after you." Gifty Louise said: "I will happily pay for an Uber for anyone caught in this horrible fire to come stay at mine... I just want to do something". Tottenham MP David Lammy urged Londoners to donate food and other items to help those forced out of their homes on Wednesday morning. Nearby St Clement's Church opened its doors to victims and is accepting supplies from donors - acting as a temporary evacuation and support centre for those affected. Al Mannar, a local mosque, the Clement Attlee Estate Hall and Central Gurduara Sikh temple are also offering their services. The chairman of Queens Park Rangers said he was enquiring as to whether their Shepherd's Bush stadium, on Loftus Road, could also be used as an evacuation centre. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Tony Fernandes tweeted: Our community team will be mobilised. We will do whatever. A youth and children's charity based near the block of flats has also stepped in and offered help. The Rugby Portobello Trust said they are with many of the residents and have asked people to hold off on dropping anything to RPT until we can put together a list of what is needed. Former England rugby player Will Greenwood had urged the public to send emergency provisions to the trust, at 221 Walmer Road, London, W11 4EY. The group also set up a Facebook event, urging people able to offer space in their homes to come forward. The British Red Cross said its volunteers were also at the scene, with volunteers providing practical help and emotional support at a rest centre. The huge fire, which engulfed the large block of flats, broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Some 200 firefighters were still tackling the flames by mid-morning on Wednesday, and the London Ambulance Service said more than 50 people were being treated in hospital. An unknown number of people have died, according to London Fire Brigade. Commissioner Dany Cotton said she could not confirm the exact figure due to the size and complexity of the building. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A west London community has been left reeling and searching for answers after an unprecedented blaze ripped through a tower block, killing at least a dozen people and injuring scores more. Emergency services worked through Tuesday night and the following day to rescue survivors and extinguish the large flames, which were still alight in parts of the building 18 hours later. Firefighters were called to the 24-storey block in Latimer Road, near Notting Hill, at 12:54am and arrived to find the blaze spreading at a rate greater than expected, prompting early calls of a major incident, which saw 250 firefighters tackling the flames at the height of the inferno and the rescue of 65 people. Sixty-eight people were taken to six hospitals across the capital and 10 made their own way there, according to the London Ambulance Service, which had more than 100 clinicians and specialist teams working on site throughout the day. Eighteen of those in hospital were critically injured. Metropolitan Police meanwhile confirmed on Wednesday evening that 12 people were confirmed to have died in the blaze, adding that the figure was likely to rise. Commander Stuart Cundy told reporters: Sadly I can confirm that there are now 12 people that have died that we know of. This is going to be a long and complex recovery operation and I do anticipate that the number of fatalities will sadly increase beyond those 12. He added that the fire was of a precedence we have not seen in London for many, many years, with Met Police call handlers having received hundreds of calls. Emergency services were unable to indicate how many people remained unaccounted for, but there were believed to be 400 and 600 people living in Grenfell Tower, and the building is thought to have 120 homes inside. The Metropolitan Police set up a casualty bureau hotline for people concerned about loved ones, using the numbers 0800 0961 233 or 020 7158 0197. Facebook activated its safety check-in feature. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty London Fire Brigades Steve Apter told reporters the fire was unprecedented in terms of scale speed and spread, and that the firefighters were preparing to tackle the incident through Wednesday night. At its height over 40 appliances and over 250 fire fighters were tackling what was a serious and significant fire. This was an unprecedented fire in terms of scale speed and spread, he said. This continues to be a challenging incident for us. Im proud of the efforts of our firefighters for bringing this blaze under control. He said firefighters had managed to reach all floors the building, but made clear that this did not constitute a full search. A number of firefighters suffered minor injuries, he added, before praising their professionalism and dedication. The cause of the blaze is so far unknown, but several residents reported one man had said it started in his faulty fridge. It has emerged that the insulation material used in a refurbishment of the structure completed in May last year, at a cost of 8.6m, will burn if exposed to a fire of sufficient heat and intensity, according to its manufacturer. There were fears on Wednesday night that similar cladding may have been used in other buildings. Theresa May promises 'proper investigation' into Grenfell Tower fire Residents have expressed anger that previous warnings about the safety of the building fell on deaf ears when flagged up the council. Resident association Grenfell Action Group had highlighted issues with evacuation procedures, warning that there was only one entry and exit to the tower during improvement works at the block and that only a catastrophic event would expose the problems. Kensington and Chelsea Council admitted it received complaints over the refurbishment of a west London tower block. When asked whether the council had received complaints and was acting on them, leader of the council Nick Paget-Brown said it was "undoubtedly the case that the council received some complaints about the way the work was being conducted". The council, which established an emergency centre for evacuees at the Harrow Centre, a short walk from the burning tower, said in a separate statement: "At present all our focus is on supporting the rescue and relief operation. The cause of the fire will be fully investigated." More than 200 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze (PA) Construction firm Rydon, which completed a refurbishment of Grenfell Tower in 2016, said it was shocked to hear of the devastating fire adding that the work met all required building control, fire regulation and health & safety standards. Witnesses of the disaster described terrifying scenes including of people jumping from their flats. I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window ... hearing screams, I was yelling everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors', one told the BBC. Another, called Samira, told BBC News: I think the speed of the fire was the most shocking thing for everyone, how quick it literally went from zero to 100." She claimed she had seen a lot of people jumping out that basically didn't make it. Actor and writer Tim Downie, who lives about 600m from the scene, said: It's the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. I just hope they have got everyone out. The first I knew was the noise of sirens, helicopters and shouting. I saw it engulfed in flames. People have been bringing water, clothes, anything they've got to help, out to the cordon. Grenfell Tower fire: How the community responded London mayor Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: It's very distressing, not just for those of us watching as lay people, but also very distressing for the emergency services. I will be demanding answers and I can assure you I will be ensuring there is independence in relation to it. The reassurance we need is to make sure lessons are learned and also if and this is a big if if there are mistakes made, we want to make sure we learn from them. More than 100 police officers were on scene, alongside 100 medics and 250 firefighters, he said. Pressed on reports that residents had been advised to stay inside their flats in the event of a fire, Mr Khan said: Thankfully, residents didn't stay in their flats and fled to safety"One of the concerns that we have is it's a 24-storey building but for obvious reasons, with the scale of the fire, our experts weren't able to reach all the way to the top, so of course these are questions that need to be answered as soon as possible." Theresa May said there would be a proper investigation into what happened, adding that if there are any lessons to be learned they will be, and action will be taken. Speaking from Downing Street on Wednesday evening, the Prime Minister said: There are people tonight who have no home to go to, they have lost absolutely everything, so our focus must be on support to them. In due course, when the scene is secure, when it's possible to identify the cause of this fire, then of course there will be proper investigation and if there are any lessons to be learnt they will be, and action will be taken. Her remarks echoed those of Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, who said a full investigation would be carried out to try and prevent a similar incident taking place in future. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said "searching questions" needed to be asked about the tragedy including around safety and funding. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} UPDATE: The family have now been found safe and well but have lost everything in the blaze. A family of Syrian refugees are among those believed to be missing following a huge fire at a London's tower block. The family, said to consist of two parents and three women aged between 19 and 24, are reported to have lived in a flat around halfway up the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in North Kensington. A friend of the younger women raised fears over their safety after the fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Recommended Theresa May orders urgent meeting to tackle fallout from deadly blaze Catherine Lindsay, who works at the Clement James Centre, a local charity that helps people find education and employment, said she had been helping to teach the daughters English. She had reported them missing and was worried that they appear to have not been seen or heard from since the fire, Ms Lindsay told the Huffington Post. I just hope that they are alive and well," she said. The Metropolitan Police said six people had died in the blaze and the death toll is likely to rise. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Five London hospitals were treating 74 people, with 20 of them in critical care. Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 and contains 120 homes. It was renovated late last year but residents later complained about poor safety standards. The building had just one emergency exit and the its fire safety policy was being reviewed by the owner, Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Association (KCTMO). London mayor Sadiq Khan has admitted that questions need to be answered about safety standards in the tower. The Government is also facing scrutiny after it delayed a consultation on changes that would tighten regulations relating to tower blocks. The housing minister responsible for the delay, Gavin Barwell, was appointed as Theresa Mays new chief of staff this week. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The London Fire Brigade says that a structural engineer is monitoring the stability of Grenfell Tower, the 24-storey residential block which was engulfed by a devastating fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The building has been described as safe for now, and firefighters continue to work inside. "We have got a structural engineer, who in conjunction with my urban search and rescue advisor, is monitoring the stability of the building," London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton said. Follow our live blog on the Grenfell Tower fire here "At the moment the building continues to be safe for our crews to go and work in." Cotton also said crews had only reached as far as the 19th and 20th floors of the building so far. People who escaped the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in north Kensington spoke of others, including children, screaming for help, some holding babies from windows and others jumping from their flats high above the ground. Cotton said there had been a "number of fatalities" but could not say how many due to the size and complexity of the building. She told reporters: "This is an unprecedented incident. "In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale." Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Here's what we know about the fire so far. Close London fire: Flames engulf Grenfell Tower in Kensington Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A huge fire has engulfed a large block of flats in London, killing at least a dozen people. Hundreds of firefighters were sent to 24-storey Grenfell Tower in north Kensington, as large plumes of smoke billowed above the capital after the blaze broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Witnesses spoke of "terrifying" scenes, with some residents suggesting they heard no alarm go off when the fire began. At least 75 people are being treated at six hospitals across the capital. Please wait a moment for the live blog to load. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Muslims awake for Ramadan might have helped save lives after noticing the horrific blaze at Grenfell Tower. Residents have told of how they didn't hear alarms as the fire swept through the 24-storey tower block in West London. But they were instead alerted to the blaze by fellow residents, some of whom may have been Muslim people who were awake early in the morning because of Ramadan and were among the first to notice the fire. The fire broke out not long after midnight and when many people living inside the tower block were asleep. Grenfell Tower fire: How the community responded Muslims were among the first people on the scene as people were evacuated from Grenville Tower. Andre Barroso, 33, told The Independent: "Muslims played a big part in getting a lot of people out. "Most of the people I could see were Muslim. They have also been providing food and clothes." Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty He said lots of people were still searching for friends and relatives who lived inside the tower. Many people have donated water, food and clothing to the nearby St Clement church, where locals have taken refuge. Others are distributing water bottles to those waiting outside. "Everybody was hands on. It was wonderful to see everyone come together." Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Prime Minister Theresa May has said there will be a proper investigation following the Grenfell Tower fire, adding that if there are "any lessons to be learned they will be, and action will be taken. At least twelve people were killed and scores injured after flames ripped through the 24-story block of flats in west London in the early hours of Wednesday. Hundreds of firefighters tackled the blaze after they were called to the building in the early hours of Wednesday, rescuing 65 people. More than 70 required hospital, according to the London Ambulance Service, with 18 left in critical care. Speaking from Downing Street, the Prime Minister said: There are people tonight who have no home to go to, they have lost absolutely everything, so our focus must be on support to them. In due course, when the scene is secure, when it's possible to identify the cause of this fire, then of course there will be proper investigation and if there are any lessons to be learnt they will be, and action will be taken. Ms May also paid tribute to the efforts of the emergency services and said support should be given to the hundreds affected by the fire. Her comments came after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said following the tragedy that questions must be asked about the facilities and resources available to local authorities to maintain tower blocks. I believe we need to ask questions about what facilities and resources have been given to every local authority that has tower blocks within their area, and frankly most do," Mr Corbyn told the BBC. "We need to deal with this, we need people to be safe living in high-rise buildings." Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty London mayor Sadiq Khan said earlier in the day that he would be "demanding answers" following the fatal incident, adding that lessons must be learned. It's very distressing, not just for those of us watching as lay people, but also very distressing for the emergency services. I will be demanding answers and I can assure you I will be ensuring there is independence in relation to it," said Mr Khan. "The reassurance we need is to make sure lessons are learned and also if and this is a big if if there are mistakes made, we want to make sure we learn from them. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Women from Northern Ireland are not entitled to receive free abortions on the NHS in England, the Supreme Court has ruled. Judges at the UKs highest court announced their decision to narrowly reject an appeal by a mother and daughter with a three to two majority. The three judges who dismissed the appeal argued for the need to afford respect to the democratic decision of the people of Northern Ireland. The news comes as Theresa May holds talks with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which has long opposed abortion about backing a minority government. The 20-year-old woman at the centre of the appeal was 15 in October 2012 when she and her mother, both of whom cannot be named for legal reasons, travelled from Northern Ireland to Manchester. She was told she had to pay hundreds of pounds for a private termination because she was excluded from free abortion services. More than 724 women travelled from Northern Ireland to England for abortions in 2016, according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas). Announcing the Supreme Courts decision, Lord Wilson said the justices had been sharply divided about the outcome. The UK's own abortion ban, explained in 3 minutes The Courts deputy presidents Lady Hale and Lord Kerr said they would have allowed the latest appeal, because the policy is incompatible with the Convention rights of women from Northern Ireland. The difference in treatment by the NHS in England between women from England and women from Northern Ireland cannot be justified by respect for the democratic decisions made in Northern Ireland as to what will be provided by the NHS there, they wrote in the judgement. However, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed and Lord Hughes said these views command considerable respect, but dismissed the appeal because to allow the ruling would contribute to both a substantial level of health tourism into England from within the UK and from abroad and a near collapse of the edifice of devolved health services. Although this court must acknowledge respect for the ethical pro-life convictions which inform the law in relation to abortions in Northern Ireland ... it remains easy to understand why the plight of women who find themselves in unwanted pregnancy there is deeply unenviable, they said. They said travelling to the UK for abortion services did not represent a special case, as it is easy to think of other people suffering a grave medical condition who could mount an equally convincing special case. The mother and daughter originally lost their action in Londons High Court in May 2014 when a judge ruled that the exclusion was lawful, and suffered a further defeat at the Court of Appeal in 2015. The High Court judge concluded that the Health Secretary was entitled to adopt a residence-based system so that women resident in Northern Ireland are not entitled to benefit from NHS abortion services in England, even though they are UK citizens. The young woman, who is referred to as A and her mother as B, have now vowed to take their case to Europe. They said in a statement: We are really encouraged that two of the judges found in our favour and all of the judges were sympathetic to As situation. We have come this far and fought hard because the issues are so important for women in Northern Ireland. For this reason, we will do all that we can to take the fight further. We have instructed our legal team to file an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to protect the human rights of the many other women who make the lonely journey to England every week because they are denied access to basic healthcare services in their own country. Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights Show all 5 1 /5 Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Thousands march in Dublin for Irish abortion rights REUTERS Ann Furedi, chief executive of Bpas said it was morally right to provide NHS-funded abortions to women in Northern Ireland in England. NHS-funded abortion care may not have been declared a legal right for Northern Irish women today, but it is morally right to provide it, she said. 724 women travelled from Northern Ireland to England for abortion care in 2016. They deserve the same care and compassion as all other UK citizens. Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, said: The UK Government can and must take a stand against laws which criminalise abortion. Will ministers continue to turn a blind eye to the suffering caused by these antiquated laws or will they challenge their DUP partners and push for a change supported by the majority of Northern Irelands population? Additional reporting by Press Association Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Inmates at Pentonville Prison are facing totally unacceptable delays in receiving crucial mental health provision, according to a report raising concerns that insufficient action has been taken to abate serious shortcomings reported at the prison in recent years. One prisoner waited six months for a psychiatric transfer, while half of the 111 inmates listed for transfer to a secure mental health unit last year the largest the inspectorate has ever come across waited longer than the transfer target of two weeks. The delays occurred in an environment where 84 per cent of prisoners report having arrived at the prison with problems of some kind, with a quarter of these including feeling depressed or suicidal. One in five men was taking anti-psychotic drugs when the research was carried out in January, which has significant implications for all staff dealing with their care and management, according to the report. The findings, published today by the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, expresses increasing concern about the poor outcomes for prisoners at Pentonville, which has been subject to criticism in recent years, having been given the bottom score in healthy prison tests in February 2015. Inspectors said the notorious London prison, designated to accommodate 906 men but holding 1,230 at the time of the inspection, found that it had suffered from years of under-investment and remained unsafe. The latest findings come two years after conditions at the prison were criticised in a damning report cataloguing habitual violence and easy access to drugs, in which inspectors raised concerns with staff about blood stains on cells and beds and nothing being done to remove them. While it was hoped such reports would encourage prison leaders and staff to address some of the main concerns, the latest report states there remain significant concerns, particularly regarding safety, with levels of violence too high and sometimes serious including a homicide in late 2016. There had been 196 assaults on staff and prisoners in only six months, with some incidents involving weapons and 70 per cent of prisoners saying they had felt unsafe at some time. The report also cites frailties in the case management and care for men vulnerable to suicide and self-harm", with five self-inflicted deaths having been recorded since the last inspection. Two further men are reported to have taken their own lives in the prison in the five months between the inspection and the publication of the report, according to the Howard League for Penal reform. There had been some proactive measures to address levels of disorder, with signs that this was having a positive impact, the report states, but it conceded that significant work was still needed to address our concerns about safety", and warned that it was obvious there had been serious under-investment in the infrastructure of the prison,. While there was some good work with the large number of foreign nationals in the prison, the report stated that staff did not fully understand the needs of this group and what they could do to support them better. Resettlement work had meanwhile improved and was rated as "reasonably good" overall, with work having been done to support the inmates with accommodation problems and in maintaining contact with their children, families and friends. Peter Clarke concluded that the outcomes for prisoners at Pentonville were not good enough, saying: It is clear that Pentonville remains an immensely challenging prison, and that outcomes for prisoners remain, in many respects, not good enough. However, we were encouraged to see at this inspection a tangible sense of purpose and optimism among the governor and his senior management team, which were having a galvanising effect on the staff group as a whole. Nevertheless, the complexities of the prison mean that its leadership will continue to need significant external support from HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) if Pentonville is to deliver acceptable and consistent outcomes for prisoners. In light of the findings, Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, urged the Government to take bold but sensible action to ease the pressure on Pentonville through heightened efforts to reduce the prison population. One of the first documents to land on the desk of the incoming Secretary of State for Justice is a disappointing report on Pentonville prison, as was the case when his predecessor-but-one, Michael Gove, assumed the position less than two years ago, Ms Crook said. That so little has changed in that time only serves to illustrate the scale of the challenge, and the need for urgency to resolve the many problems in our failing prison system. The new government must take bold but sensible action to put less pressure on prisons such as Pentonville. By reducing the prison population, we can prevent more people being swept into deeper currents of crime, violence and despair. Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, meanwhile said: We have been here many times before against impossible odds a titanic effort by the Governor and staff makes a failing prison a little less disgraceful. But the fundamentals remain most prisoners share cells designed for one, and even the luckiest of them spend 18 hours a day locked in those unacceptable conditions. Shockingly, we are now told that that represents a reasonable outcome, even though levels of mental ill health are exceptionally high. Mr Dawson added that improving the prisons problems were now the job of the new justice secretary, David Lidington, warning that if he fails to do so Pentonville will continue to burn out good people. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA Pentonvilles problems cant be solved by the prison service. They lie squarely at the door of the new justice secretary, he said. He must tackle why we still cram so many sick people into a grossly inadequate and unsuitable space. If he does not, Pentonville will continue to bump along the bottom, burning out good people as it does so. Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, said: Pentonville has been through a very challenging period and Im pleased that the Inspectorate have recognised progress has been made. The Governor and staff deserve credit for what has been achieved in difficult circumstances but as the report makes clear, there remains more to do. More prison officers are now being recruited for Pentonville and for prisons across the estate. With these additional resources in place Pentonville will be able to address the Inspectorates concerns and accelerate progress. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Chancellor Philip Hammond will reportedly argue for the UK to stay in the European Union's customs union in a bid to soften Brexit and alter Theresa Mays approach. Ms May outlined her vision of a hard break with the EU in January, saying she wanted Britain to be able to make its own trade deals while maintaining trade with Europe that was as frictionless as possible. But following the Prime Minister's failure to win a majority in the General Election, Mr Hammond, who is seen as one of the most pro-EU members in the Cabinet, will attempt to change Ms May's mind on leaving the customs union, according to The Times. He will urge the Government to rethink its plan to pursue an independent trade policy outside the trade group, which guarantees tariff-free trade within the bloc but prohibits members from striking third-party trade deals, several unidentified sources told the newspaper. A Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. The remarks appear to be a U-turn by the Chancellor, after he announced in March that Britain would not stay within the EUs customs union after Brexit, saying it was clear the UK would leave the trading area. Ms May has been subject to mounting pressure to soften her approach on Brexit, after her decision to call an election to obtain a mandate for her vision of Brexit backfired. Former Prime Minister, David Cameron, waded in on the debate on Tuesday, saying Ms May should talk to Labour to develop a more consensual approach to Brexit. In his first public comments since the election, Mr Cameron told a business conference in Poland that the result should force the Prime Minister to listen to other parties on how to leave the EU. John Major, another former Tory prime minister, urged Ms May to negotiate a better deal on free movement and on the EU single market, saying: A hard Brexit was not endorsed by the electorate. Labour MPs and pro-European Tories have reportedly been holding private talks to discuss how bills might be amended to keep the UK inside the customs union and leave open the possibility of staying in the single market. In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images But Ms May has so far rebuffed calls for cross-party talks to build a parliamentary consensus on how to deliver Brexit with the creation of a so-called Brexit commission. Pro-Brexit Tory minister Michael Gove meanwhile said Britain would leave the group in line with government policy before the election. We will be outside of the customs union as it is understood, he told the BBC, adding that the Government will have to make sure the measures it presents in its Queen's Speech legislative programme command broad support in order to be voted through. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron and Ken Clarke have joined a concerted push by Conservative heavyweights for Theresa May to accept her hard Brexit policy is doomed. The former prime minister urged his successor to consult more widely with other parties on the exit talks, saying: I think there will be pressure for a softer Brexit. The call was quickly followed by a plea from Mr Clarke, the former Chancellor, for new trade barriers between us and our most important market in the world to be avoided at all costs. Meanwhile, Philip Hammond, the current Chancellor, is believed to be leading a Cabinet push for the Prime Minister to abandon her plan to pull out of the EUs customs union. Yesterday, Sir John Major warned Ms May that her stance was increasingly unsustainable, with the loss of her Commons majority, insisting: A hard Brexit was not endorsed by the electorate. However, Ms May at least publicly is refusing to change course. The Cabinet endorsed the current Brexit policy when it met yesterday. And speaking in Paris, alongside French president Emmanuel Macron, she claimed: The timetable for the Brexit negotiations remains on course and will begin next week. Shortly before, the Prime Minister appointed Steve Baker, the leader of Parliament's most prominent Eurosceptic group, to a key ministerial post in the Brexit department. Mr Camerons intervention came when he spoke to a conference in Poland, where he warned the dramatic election results made Ms Mays approach difficult. Arguing the Parliament deserves a say on any deal, he said: Perhaps [there is] an opportunity to consult more widely with the other parties on how best we can achieve it. Mr Clarke, speaking to BBC Radio 4, called for a new Brexit policy in the national interest, which can command a majority on a cross-party basis. Warning of revolts to come, he said Ms May would be making a big mistake if she simply sought the agreement of the Democratic Unionist Party and then expected the entire Conservative party to agree. It was most crucial to achieve no new customs barriers, no new regulatory barriers, no tariffs put in place, hampering trade with the EU. Laying bare the Parliamentary turmoil ahead, he said: There has to be a majority for something but nobody knows quite what it is. However, Mr Clarke said Mr Macron was wrong when he suggested Britain could still reverse Brexit. We are destined now to leave the European Union, he insisted. The Times newspaper reported that Mr Hammond will lead a battle within the Government to keep Britain inside the customs union even though it would prevent trade deals being struck with non-EU countries. One source described the Treasury as being in street-fighting mode, with support likely to come from Damian Green, the Prime Minister's newly appointed deputy. Leaving the customs union would impose tariffs on British exporters, plus the huge red tape of filling in forms and putting goods through customs checks. But any attempt to retain membership will infuriate the Tory right, including Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and Liam Fox, the Trade Secretary, who believed that they had won the battle. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Newspaper readers largely followed the party allegiances of their favourite publication when they voted in the general election, new data has shown. Over the three days after voters went to the ballot box, YouGov polled more than 50,000 British voters. The data showed that the Financial Times had the most divided readership. While the newspaper endorsed the Conservative Party, just 40 per cent of its readers voted Tory, while 39 per cent opted for Labour. However, the majority of readers of the Conservative-backing Daily Mail, Telegraph, Express, Sun and Times voted Tory. Readers of the Labour-backing Guardian and Mirror were overwhelmingly more likely to have voted for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. Readers of The Independent, which did not officially endorse any party were overwhelmingly more likely to have voted Labour than Conservative. YouGov asked voters a series of questions, including which newspaper they usually read if any. The Independent, which went digital only last year, had the highest number of highly shared articles across social media relating to the general election throughout the campaign, according to data from Buzzsumo. Sixty-six per cent of Independent readers said they had voted Labour, compared to just 15 per cent who had voted Tory. A further 12 per cent opted for the Liberal Democrats. The Guardian had the highest percentage of Labour voters at 73 per cent, with just eight per cent of the papers readers opting for the Conservatives and 12 per cent for the Liberal Democrats. Mirror readers were the second-most likely to have voted Labour, with 68 per cent of them preferring Mr Corbyn's party and just 19 per cent backing the Tories. In spite of the Suns strong endorsement of the Tories, 30 per cent of the papers readers still backed Labour at the polling booths. And 24 per cent of the Tory-backing Times still voted red, with 58 per cent backing the blues and 14 per cent opting for Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats. Readers of the true-blue Telegraph were most likely to have voted Tory, at 79 per cent, with just 12 per cent backing Labour and 6 per cent giving their backing to the Lib Dems. Daily Mail readers showed a clear preference for the Conservatives, with 74 per cent of its readers backing her compared to just 15 per cent who voted Labour. The Express showed a similar breakdown to the Mail and Telegraph, with 77 per cent blue and 15 per cent red. UK Election Day 2017 Show all 38 1 /38 UK Election Day 2017 UK Election Day 2017 Door of Number 10 Downing Street is seen on the morning after Britain's election in London REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should "go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country" PA UK Election Day 2017 Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell arrives at Labour Headquarters on June 9, 2017 in London, England. After a snap election was called by Prime Minister Theresa May the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday. The closely fought election has failed to return a clear overall majority winner and a hung parliament has been declared Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britain's Green Party, speaks after retaining her seat in the general election, in Brighton REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Patrons watch the results for Britain's election in London REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Leader of the Liberal democrats Tim Farron celebrates beating Conservative party candidate James Airey (R) following the announcement of the results at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre on June 9, 2017 in Kendal, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 Paul Nuttal, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party reacts after failing to win the seat of Boston and Skegness at the counting centre for Britain's general election in Boston REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election. PA UK Election Day 2017 Anna McMorrin hugs Jo Stevens MP after winning Cardiff North for Labour at the Sport Wales National Centre on June 9, 2017 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 Vince Cable wins the Twickenham election for the Liberal Democrats. Richmond and Twickenham election Rex Features UK Election Day 2017 Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn rubs his face after arriving for the declaration at his constituency in London AP UK Election Day 2017 Emily Thornberry speaks after holding her Islington South and Finsbury seat at the Sobell Leisure Centre in Islington, north London PA UK Election Day 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May listens as the declaration at her constituency is made for in the general election in Maidenhead, England, Friday, June 9, 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May's gamble in calling an early election appeared Friday to have backfired spectacularly, after an exit poll suggested her Conservative Party could lose its majority in Parliament AP UK Election Day 2017 Labour Party candidate Emily Thornberry smiles at a counting centre for BritainaAAs general election in London REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 A picture shows the Elizabeth Tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament in central London on June 8, 2017, on the night of Britain's general election. Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to win Britain's snap election but lose her parliamentary majority, a shock exit poll suggested on June 8, in what would be a major blow for her leadership as Brexit talks loom AFP/Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 DUP candidate for Lagan Valley Jeffrey Donaldson celebrates following his election at the Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK Election Day 2017 Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd attends the count for her seat at a counting centre for Britain's general election in Hastings REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for BritainaAAs general election in London Reuters UK Election Day 2017 The London Eye is illuminated in blue, representing the Conservative Party, after the first exit polls announced in Britain's general election AP UK Election Day 2017 Election officials count votes in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK Election Day 2017 The London Eye is illuminated in red, the color of the Labour Party, after first exit polls of Britain's national election announced in London AP UK Election Day 2017 BBC Television centre is illuminated with the exit poll results for Britains general election Eddie Keogh/Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Labours Bridget Phillipson (centre) smiles after being announced as the winner of the election for the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South at a counting centre Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Members of the election staff prepare to count ballots, in Theresa Mays constituency in Maidenhead AP UK Election Day 2017 Ballot papers are checked ahead of the count at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre Getty UK Election Day 2017 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for Britains general election in Kendal Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Theresa May arrives to vote at a polling station in Maidenhead AP UK Election Day 2017 Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his ballot at a polling station in north London EPA UK Election Day 2017 Lib Dems leader Tim Farron outside a polling station at Stonecross Manor Hotel in Kendal, Cumbria PA UK Election Day 2017 The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) Paul Nuttall arrives to vote at a polling station in Congleton Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter Murrell (left) the CEO of the SNP after casting their votes at a polling station at Broomhouse Community Hall, Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK Election Day 2017 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britains Green Party, arrives with her husband Richard Savage, to vote in Brighton Reuters UK Election Day 2017 An advertising van showing caricatures of Tim Farron, Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Paul Nuttall with the message who will be looking for a new job as Britain goes to the polls to elect a new government Rex UK Election Day 2017 Performers pose with puppet caricatures of Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Tim Farron and leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in front of the Palace of Westminster Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Dogs wait for their owner outside a polling station in Penally, Wales Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Police officers speak with a Labour Party activist outside a polling station in London AP UK Election Day 2017 Benedictine nuns from Tyburn Convent leave after voting in Britain's general election at a polling station in St John's Parish Hall, London AP UK Election Day 2017 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty The Daily Mail was the most-read newspaper among the 52,615 people surveyed by YouGov, followed by the Guardian and the Sun. Media commentator Roy Greenslade said the fact that over 40 per cent of the electorate had backed Labour in spite of what he called the demonising of Mr Corbyn showed that newspapers are waning in importance. Spending basically two weeks demonising a man, a leader, and still they dont pull off a victory for their chosen one, suggests they are out of touch, out of touch with the electorate as a whole, though not necessarily their readers, said the former Mirror editor. Its the end of the hegemony of news print from the right. Almost a third of those polled 31 per cent said they did not vote. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Owen Smith, who unsuccessfully challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the party, has re- joined the Labour leaders revamped frontbench as the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. Mr Smith - an adviser to the Northern Ireland Secretary during Tony Blairs Labour administration - is the first to return Mr Corbyn's frontbench team in the wake of the partys electoral gains last week. Announcing the changes to his Shadow Cabinet, Mr Corbyn said: I am delighted to announce four appointments to fill shadow cabinet vacancies. I look forward to working with the strengthened shadow cabinet as we prepare a government in waiting to carry out our manifesto for the many not the few. Our party is now on a permanent campaign footing in anticipation of the failure of Theresa May's attempt to establish a stable administration with the support of the DUP. I am therefore appointing Ian Lavery, Co-National Campaign Coordinator, to the additional role of Labour Party Chair to strengthen our campaigning and party organisation, as we prepare to contest a new general election and form the next government. Mr Corbyn also appointed his ally, Ian Lavery, as co-national campaign coordinator and party chairman while Dawn Butler has returned to her diverse communities brief after she resigned from the post earlier this year over Labours position on the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Lesley Laird - elected as an MP last week - has been appointed Shadow Scotland Secretary and Andrew Gwynne, a prominent figure in the partys general election effort, has now taken on the communities and local government brief, alongside his duties of coordinating Labours national campaigns. More announcements are expected to be announced before the end of the week as Mr Corbyn fills positions that have been vacant since the summer of 2016 after he faced a vote of no confidence in his leadership. Earlier this week the former Labour deputy leader, Harriet Harman, urged her colleagues to accept any invitations to join Mr Corbyns Shadow Cabinet. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa May has ordered an emergency meeting to ensure the authorities are best prepared to help tackle the fallout from the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze. A spokesman for Prime Minister said she was deeply saddened by the incident which has claimed the lives of at least six people already, with many more injured. With questions already being asked as to the responsibility of both local and national government, Ms May ordered the gathering this afternoon. Recommended Met Police confirm six deaths in Grenfell Tower block blaze A Number 10 spokesman said: The Prime Minister is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower and is being kept constantly updated on the situation. She has asked for a cross-Government meeting at the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to take place at 4pm to co-ordinate the response and ensure the Government is ready to assist the emergency services and local authorities as necessary. London Mayor, Sadiq Khan (Getty Images) He added: The PMs thoughts are with all of those affected by this terrible incident and the emergency services, who are working tirelessly in very difficult circumstances. Hundreds of firefighters were sent to 24-storey Grenfell Tower in north Kensington, as large plumes of smoke billowed above the capital after the blaze broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Witnesses spoke of terrifying scenes, with some residents suggesting they heard no alarm go off when the fire began. At least 30 people have been taken to five hospitals and six are confirmed dead. It has already emerged that Ms Mays new chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, had failed as housing minister to carry out a fire safety review of tower blocks, despite the recommendation to deliver one being years overdue. A fire expert behind the report calling for the desperately needed safety appraisal, said he had spoken to Mr Barwell earlier this year and the then-minister told him he was still looking at it. London fire: At least six dead in Grenfell Tower blaze London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said there are "questions that have to be answered" after residents of the tower were told to stay in their flats in the event of a fire. Mr Khan condemned the "bad advice" given to residents of the West London tower block that was engulfed in flames overnight, killing several inhabitants and leaving many trapped inside the burning building. A newsletter to residents in 2014 said the "stay put" policy worked because the block had been designed according to rigorous fire safety standards. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has suggested Theresa Mays new chief of staff must face questions over a delayed fire safety report after a deadly blaze tore through the Grenfell Tower in London. Mr Corbyns comments came after it emerged Gavin Barwell, the former housing minister who was recently appointed as the Prime Ministers adviser, failed to give the green light to a fire safety review he had received during his tenure in Whitehall. During an interview with LBC Radio, Mr Corbyn also suggested spending cuts could have contributed to blaze, adding searching questions need to be asked about what happened at the west London tower bloc. If you deny local authorities the funding they need, then there is a price thats paid," he added. Mr Corbyn said that calls for sprinklers to be installed in high-rise buildings after a fatal fire at Lakanal House in Camberwell in 2009 had not been heeded. While the Labour leader said every focus and every concentration must be on saving lives in the immediate hours, he added: A review took place after the fire in Camberwell and the Government has that review. I believe we need to ask questions about what facilities and resources have been given to local authorities that have tower blocs in the area and, frankly, most do. We need to deal with this we need people to be safe living in high rise buildings. Asked whether that involved any current serving frontbench politicians, he replied: Obviously ministers that served and received those reports must be questioned. But today every focus and every concentration must be on saving and protecting life. The fire expert behind the report calling for the desperately needed safety appraisal, said he had spoken with Mr Barwell earlier this year and the then-minister told him no decision on the review had been taken. Former chief fire officer Ronnie King said: Mr Barwell said he was still looking at it. He added: Mr Barwell said he was still looking at it and was preparing to meet with the All-Party group. That's when the election was called and the meeting never happened. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Hundreds of firefighters were sent to 24-storey Grenfell Tower in north Kensington, as large plumes of smoke billowed above the capital after the blaze broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Asked whether lessons have been learnt from Camberwell fire Mr Corbyn added: There were very clear lesson to learned then about the insulation of sprinklers and the need for equipment to fight fires in high-rise buildings. Our country has more high-rise buildings than ever before. There has to be very, very strong fire regulations, which there are, but there has to be a sprinkler system installed particularly in residential blocs that maybe dont have them at the present time. I am not making that statement yet. Today is the day to support the emergency services and the residents and thank all of those that have also given other help: food, water, clothing and shelter. Tomorrow is the time to ask all of those questions but today lets concentrate on dealing with the consequences of this fire and try and bring comfort, safety and save life wherever it possibly can be saved. The areas one has to look at are the preventative measures that were available, or not available in the tower. The facilities that are available to get in and out of it in an emergency situation and the numbers of people available to the fire services , paramedics and emergency services to deal with a crisis like this" Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Retired voters were the only employment group to support the Tories over Labour in the general election, according to a new poll. Jeremy Corbyns party was backed by a majority of working people, including those in full-time and part-time employment. A majority of those identifying as unemployed or students also backed Labour, a YouGov poll taken in the five days after the election showed. The survey will offer little comfort to Theresa May, who suffered a humiliating election night on Thursday when her majority was reduced in the Commons, leaving her dependant on support from the Northern Irish unionists to form a new government. Labours appeal among young and student voters was boosted in the weeks before polling day after Mr Corbyns pledge to scrap university tuition fees. The latest YouGov findings suggest the Tories are struggling to win support even among those in employment, despite claims to be the workers party. According to the survey, 63 per cent of retired voters backed the Tories, while just 24 per cent opted for Labour. The remainder was split between the other parties, including 7 per cent for the Liberal Democrats. However, those working part time (fewer than 30 hours a week) showed a slight preference for Mr Corbyns party, with 44 per cent expressing support for Labour to 40 per cent for the Tories. The share among full-time workers (more than 30 hours a week) was even better for Labour, with 45 per cent backing the party versus 39 per cent who favoured Ms May. Full time students backed Labour by 64 per cent to the Tories 19 per cent and the Lib Dems 10 per cent, while more than half (54 per cent) of unemployed voters in the 2017 election gave their backing to Mr Corbyn, compared to 28 per cent favouring the Tories. Several Labour MPs attributed their surprise success in the snap election to the youth vote. Jeremy Corbyn: There'll be another election and Labour will be back in bigger numbers Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said young people had borne the brunt of austerity measures embraced by the Conservative-led governments since 2010. "They're worried about housing, tuition fees, the gig economy, stable jobs it's no surprise they are fed up," he said. Government figures showed more than two million people aged 34 or under signed up online to vote in the month before the 22 May registration deadline compared to 1.46 million in the same period ahead of the 2015 election. The YouGov survey, described by the pollster as one of the biggest surveys ever undertaken into British voting behaviour, was based on responses from 52,615 British adults taken between 9 and 13 June who voted in the 2017 general election. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa Mays government is under pressure to explain claims that it neglected to improve fire safety in buildings despite warnings about the potential for tragedies like that at Grenfell House tower block. Gavin Barwell, the Prime Ministers new chief of staff, failed to give the go-ahead to a safety review during his tenure as housing minister, despite it already having been delayed for years. His predecessor as housing minister Brandon Lewis declined to bring in regulation forcing developers to fit sprinklers because he said it was not the Government's responsibility. Jeremy Corbyn ramped up pressure by calling for Mr Barwell and others who had failed to act on calls for a safety review to face questioning. Recommended Theresa May promises to investigate Grenfell Tower disaster Theresa May ordered an urgent meeting of officials on Wednesday afternoon to ensure authorities were best placed to deal with the fire and its fallout, with the group concluding that checks should be carried out other blocks. In 2013 the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group called for a review of safety regulation, after six people died and more than 20 were hurt in the 2009 blaze at Lakanal House in Camberwell . But the groups honorary administrative secretary, Ronnie King, said successive ministers had failed to carry out the review that the groups report called for. Speaking to LBC radio, he said the group had looked at fire suppression measures in all the tower blocks with similar designs as Grenfell and noted that there were around 4,000 buildings with no fire sprinklers fitted. He added: Our group recommended that due to the speed that the fire spread in Lakanal House, that building regulations should be reviewed. It's nearly 11 years since it has been reviewed. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Former chief fire office Mr King confirmed that earlier this year, Mr Barwell told him he was still considering the proposals for a review. He added: Mr Barwell said he was still looking at it and was preparing to meet with the All-Party group. That's when the election was called and the meeting never happened. As the Grenfell death toll rose to 12, it also emerged that Mr Lewis, recently promoted to immigration minister, had declined in 2014 to force building developers to fit sprinklers. The coroner's report into Lakanal House had recommended regulations be updated, and called for developers refurbishing high-rise blocks to be encouraged to install sprinkler systems. But five years later, Mr Lewis told MPs: We believe that it is the responsibility of the fire industry, rather than the Government, to market fire sprinkler systems effectively and to encourage their wider installation. He said the Tory government had committed to being the first to reduce regulations nationwide, pledging a one-in-two-out rule. He added: The cost of fitting a fire sprinkler system may affect house building something we want to encourage so we must wait to see what impact that regulation has. Grenfell fire update: 12 dead with death toll expected to rise Mr Corbyn hit out at the Governments record demanding that ministers be forced to answer questions on fire safety. Suggesting spending cuts may also have a role to play, he said: If you deny local authorities the funding they need, then there is a price thats paid. He went on: A review took place after the fire in Camberwell and the Government has that review. I believe we need to ask questions about what facilities and resources have been given to local authorities that have tower blocs in the area and, frankly, most do. We need to deal with this, we need people to be safe living in high rise buildings. Asked whether that involved any current serving frontbench politicians, he replied: Obviously ministers that served and received those reports must be questioned. But today every focus and every concentration must be on saving and protecting life. A government spokesman said that following the Lakanal House fire, the coroner recommended the guidance relating to fire safety within the building regulations be simplified, work he said is on-going. The coroner also asked government to write to councils encouraging them to consider retro-fitting sprinklers, he said, adding that it had happened. The fire-damaged lower floors of the 24-storey residential Grenfell Tower block (Leon Neal/Getty Images) The spokesman added: Our thoughts are with the residents and families of everyone caught up in this dreadful event. We stand ready to help in anyway possible as the emergency services continue to stabilise the situation. The London Fire Brigade will be conducting their investigation and at this stage it would not be appropriate to comment on the cause of the fire. The cause of the fire is so far unknown, but residents had previously raised concerns that a 'catastrophic' event could happen, with an action group claiming that their warnings fell on deaf ears. The group said there was one entry and exit to Grenfell Tower during improvement works at the block in Latimer Road and it had issues with evacuation procedures. Following the fire, the group posted: All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time. Grenfell was fitted with zinc rainscreen cladding and glazed curtain walling after a 10m refurbishment and some have suggested this could have exacerbated the spread of the fire, though the firm that carried out the work said it all met safety regulations. Announcing an urgent meeting of ministers and officials in the wake of the fire, the Prime Minister said she was deeply saddened. After the session finished Policing and Fire Minister Nick Hurd said they wanted to provide reassurance to people living in other buildings as soon as possible. He said: We have discussed with the Department for Communities and Local Government, local authorities and the fire service a process whereby we seek to identify towers that might have a similar process of refurbishment, run a system of checks so that we can, as quickly as possible, give reassurance to people. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said there are questions that have to be answered after residents of the tower were told to stay in their flats in the event of a fire. Mr Khan condemned the bad advice given to residents of the west London tower block that was engulfed in flames overnight, killing several inhabitants and leaving many trapped inside the burning building. A newsletter to residents in 2014 said the stay put policy worked because the block had been designed according to rigorous fire safety standards. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa Mays former chief of staff Nick Timothy has lashed out at political strategist Lynton Crosby over the Conservatives failure to win a majority at the election. Mr Timothy blamed the Australian election guru for pushing the Prime Minister to follow the wrong strategy and mocked him for predicting on the eve of the election that the Tories would do well. It comes after Mr Timothy and Ms Mays other all-powerful aide Fiona Hill lost their jobs in the wake of the botched election that saw the Conservatives squander a working majority in the Commons. Since the result came out, reports of a major split between the two aides and Mr Crosby have emerged, with the political strategist understood to have blamed the manifesto Mr Timothy helped pen and in particular the social care fiasco for the stuttering campaign. Mr Timothy wrote in an article for The Spectator that the campaign should have been run on different lines, but that campaign consultants prevented it. He wrote: Because this election failed to produce the majority we needed, it is impossible to call the campaign anything but a failure. Before it began, we envisaged a return to traditional campaigning methods, with daily press conferences to scrutinise Labour and promote our policies. Theresa, never comfortable hogging the limelight, expected to make more use of her ministerial team. UK Election Day 2017 Show all 38 1 /38 UK Election Day 2017 UK Election Day 2017 Door of Number 10 Downing Street is seen on the morning after Britain's election in London REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should "go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country" PA UK Election Day 2017 Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell arrives at Labour Headquarters on June 9, 2017 in London, England. After a snap election was called by Prime Minister Theresa May the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday. The closely fought election has failed to return a clear overall majority winner and a hung parliament has been declared Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britain's Green Party, speaks after retaining her seat in the general election, in Brighton REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Patrons watch the results for Britain's election in London REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Leader of the Liberal democrats Tim Farron celebrates beating Conservative party candidate James Airey (R) following the announcement of the results at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre on June 9, 2017 in Kendal, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 Paul Nuttal, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party reacts after failing to win the seat of Boston and Skegness at the counting centre for Britain's general election in Boston REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election. PA UK Election Day 2017 Anna McMorrin hugs Jo Stevens MP after winning Cardiff North for Labour at the Sport Wales National Centre on June 9, 2017 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 Vince Cable wins the Twickenham election for the Liberal Democrats. Richmond and Twickenham election Rex Features UK Election Day 2017 Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn rubs his face after arriving for the declaration at his constituency in London AP UK Election Day 2017 Emily Thornberry speaks after holding her Islington South and Finsbury seat at the Sobell Leisure Centre in Islington, north London PA UK Election Day 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May listens as the declaration at her constituency is made for in the general election in Maidenhead, England, Friday, June 9, 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May's gamble in calling an early election appeared Friday to have backfired spectacularly, after an exit poll suggested her Conservative Party could lose its majority in Parliament AP UK Election Day 2017 Labour Party candidate Emily Thornberry smiles at a counting centre for BritainaAAs general election in London REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 A picture shows the Elizabeth Tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament in central London on June 8, 2017, on the night of Britain's general election. Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to win Britain's snap election but lose her parliamentary majority, a shock exit poll suggested on June 8, in what would be a major blow for her leadership as Brexit talks loom AFP/Getty Images UK Election Day 2017 DUP candidate for Lagan Valley Jeffrey Donaldson celebrates following his election at the Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK Election Day 2017 Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd attends the count for her seat at a counting centre for Britain's general election in Hastings REUTERS UK Election Day 2017 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for BritainaAAs general election in London Reuters UK Election Day 2017 The London Eye is illuminated in blue, representing the Conservative Party, after the first exit polls announced in Britain's general election AP UK Election Day 2017 Election officials count votes in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK Election Day 2017 The London Eye is illuminated in red, the color of the Labour Party, after first exit polls of Britain's national election announced in London AP UK Election Day 2017 BBC Television centre is illuminated with the exit poll results for Britains general election Eddie Keogh/Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Labours Bridget Phillipson (centre) smiles after being announced as the winner of the election for the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South at a counting centre Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Members of the election staff prepare to count ballots, in Theresa Mays constituency in Maidenhead AP UK Election Day 2017 Ballot papers are checked ahead of the count at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre Getty UK Election Day 2017 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for Britains general election in Kendal Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Theresa May arrives to vote at a polling station in Maidenhead AP UK Election Day 2017 Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his ballot at a polling station in north London EPA UK Election Day 2017 Lib Dems leader Tim Farron outside a polling station at Stonecross Manor Hotel in Kendal, Cumbria PA UK Election Day 2017 The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) Paul Nuttall arrives to vote at a polling station in Congleton Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter Murrell (left) the CEO of the SNP after casting their votes at a polling station at Broomhouse Community Hall, Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK Election Day 2017 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britains Green Party, arrives with her husband Richard Savage, to vote in Brighton Reuters UK Election Day 2017 An advertising van showing caricatures of Tim Farron, Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Paul Nuttall with the message who will be looking for a new job as Britain goes to the polls to elect a new government Rex UK Election Day 2017 Performers pose with puppet caricatures of Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Tim Farron and leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in front of the Palace of Westminster Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Dogs wait for their owner outside a polling station in Penally, Wales Reuters UK Election Day 2017 Police officers speak with a Labour Party activist outside a polling station in London AP UK Election Day 2017 Benedictine nuns from Tyburn Convent leave after voting in Britain's general election at a polling station in St John's Parish Hall, London AP UK Election Day 2017 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty On the advice of the campaign consultants, and following opinion research that showed Theresa to be far more popular than the party or her colleagues, we eschewed our instincts. We were wrong to do so. In a direct swipe at Mr Crosby, hailed as the Wizard of Oz after he helped David Cameron win a majority in 2015, Mr Timothy revealed a message the strategist sent him on the eve of polling. The aide opened his article writing: Nobody inside CCHQ [Coservative Campaign Headquarters] was prepared for election nights 10pm exit poll. Lynton Crosbys last text to me predicted that we were going to do well, which according to our expectations would mean a Conservative majority of more than 60. As the final election result was emerging on Friday morning, ex-Chancellor George Osborne slammed the Conservative manifesto as the worst in history a claim Mr Timothy also hit back at. David Davis: Theresa May is 'fine' and wasn't sobbing when I saw her He argued the document had been honest with voters, particularly on social care, and the suggestion it should not have been was tantamount to saying politicians should mislead the public. He wrote: The manifesto was later written off as the worst in history. One of the criticisms is that, instead of offering voters giveaways and bribes, we spelt out where cuts would fall. While I accept that the manifesto might have been too ambitious, I worry that the implication of this argument is that politicians should not be straight with the electorate. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sinn Fein will meet Theresa May face-to-face, to raise fears that her planned deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will prevent the restoration of power sharing in Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams, the partys president, and Michelle ONeill, its Stormont leader, will be in Downing Street on Thursday, even as the prolonged Conservative talks with the DUP grind on. I will be making it very clear that any deal between the Tories and the DUP cannot be allowed to undermine the Good Friday and subsequent agreements, Ms ONeill said in a statement. Both London and Dublin must recommit to the word, spirit and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement if power sharing at Stormont is to be re-established, she said. She added: Progress will not come from a deal between the DUP and Tories to prop up a Government in Westminster with an austerity and Brexit agenda. Concerns have been raised, including by Sir John Major, that the Government can no longer be the necessary honest broker in talks in Northern Ireland, if it is formerly allied with the DUP. The former Prime Minister warned of a return to violence, pointing to the danger posed by hard men still there, lurking in the corners of communities. Downing Street insisted tomorrows talks will focus on restoring the Stormont Assembly. The Prime Minister will also meet the other Northern Ireland parties, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionists and the Alliance. The announcement came after the DUP postponed any agreement to prop up the Tories at Westminster because of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. No 10 has refused to confirm the further delay and the Prime Minister refused to answer questions about the negotiations as she left Downing Street. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement commits the UK and Irish Governments to demonstrate rigorous impartiality in all their dealings with the different groups in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein has declined to say whether it might challenge a Tory-DUP tie-up in the courts, but Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein member of the Belfast Assembly, said it could prove to be reckless. Power sharing at Stormont collapsed in March over the DUPs refusal to hold a public inquiry into a renewable heating funding scandal. In the talks to restore the assembly, which began on Monday, issues such as the introduction of an Irish language act, supported by Sinn Fein but opposed by the DUP, could also prove crucial. Meanwhile, the DUP said diary commitments meant the conclusion of a confidence and supply agreement at Westminster for could be delayed until next week. Under the deal, the party would offer support for key votes, such as backing the Queen's Speech and the Budget, and crucially in any votes of no confidence. The Queens Speech is now expected to be delayed from next Monday until the following week and the start of the Brexit talks also penciled in for next Monday is also likely to be put back. Even without the impact of the London fire, the talks were said to be making slower progress. Downing Street said only that they were ongoing. The DUP is known to be pushing for a cut to air passenger duty and increased infrastructure spending, as part of any agreement. But more controversial issues, such as altering the definition of a Troubles victim or doing away with allowances for MPs who don't take up their seats, might yet be raised. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Outgoing Conservative MP Stewart Jackson has contacted a former constituent who had been critical of him on Facebook to call him a "thick chav" days after losing his Peterborough seat to Labour. Mr Jackson, a prominent Brexiteer and ex-Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Davis, warned Christian Stanley, a businessman in his constituency, "If you print any shit about me on Facebook in the future you will regret it." Mr Stanley, who has lived in Peterborough for more than ten years, had written a number of public posts on Mr Jacksons Facebook page and other Conservative websites in the weeks before the election, detailing his MPs historic expenses claims, that included work to his swimming pool, one of which called Mr Jackson a "scumbag." Recommended Expenses watchdog takes action against Tory MP Stewart Jackson in On Monday night, Mr Stanley received a unsolicited message over Facebook Messenger from Mr Jackson which said: Not many benefits of losing the election but one of them is probably not having to engage with thick chavs like you Stanley. Bye for now In further messages, Mr Jackson called him a "pillock" and said: "Youre so thick you could chop meat on your head." < > Asked if this was an acceptable way to speak to a constituent, Mr Jackson replied: "Youre not my constituent as youve just acknowledged. Im a private citizen and dont have to take any crap from you." Mr Stanley told The Independent: "Peterborough is a great town, and it is a shame it had to have such an arrogant, rude and backward MP." Asked by The Independent to comment on the messages, Mr Jackson said: "I have nothing to say to you, or to The Independent." Stewart Jackson was MP for Peterborough for twelve years, where he has been a consistent critic of the European Union from the backbenches. In 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported he had claimed 66,000 for home expenses over three years, including for work to a swimming pool, which he later admitted was excessive. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa Mays new chief of staff faced questions on Wednesday over his role in a delayed fire safety review, after a deadly blaze tore through the Grenfell Tower in London. Gavin Barwell failed to give the review the green light during his tenure as housing minister, despite it already having waited for years. The fire expert behind a report calling for the desperately needed safety appraisal, said he had spoken to Mr Barwell earlier this year and the then-minister told him no decision on the review had been taken. London fire: Flames engulf Grenfell Tower in Kensington Recommended Met Police confirm six deaths in Grenfell Tower block blaze Former chief fire officer Ronnie King said: Mr Barwell said he was still looking at it. Ex-MP Mr Barwell lost his ministerial job after being beaten by Labour in his Croydon constituency at the general election. But after Ms May sacked her two chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill in the fallout of a botched campaign, Mr Barwell was hired as their replacement. He was housing minister for 12 months before the election, but even before he came to office a review into the fire safety regulations had been outstanding for years. Grenfell tower fire Show all 42 1 /42 Grenfell tower fire Grenfell tower fire Local residents watch as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire Getty Images Grenfell tower fire London Fire Brigade said there has been a number of fatalities from the blaze Rex Features Grenfell tower fire The fire was first reported in the early hours of Wednesday and continued into the morning Rex Features Grenfell tower fire A local resident sees the fire over the rooftops @Ebajgora Grenfell tower fire A firefighter reacts at the scene of the blaze Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Residents watch as the blaze continues Getty Images Grenfell tower fire More than 200 firefighters have been fighting the blaze PA Grenfell tower fire London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a major incident Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block of flats Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A woman runs to assist paramedics working at the fire at the Grenfell Tower Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of Wednesday morning Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the 24-storey building in West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Ambulances are stationed nearby Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Paramedics arrive with oxygen Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Emergency services believe it will take some time to establish the cause of the fire Grenfell tower fire Tens of people have been taken to five different hospitals across London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man comforts a boy after the tower block was severely damaged Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters stand amid debris in a childrens playground nearby Reuters Grenfell tower fire Firefighters are stationed at the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke engulfs Grenfell tower Rex Features Grenfell tower fire Lots of people donating water, food and clothing to St Clement's church for the residents of Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Samuel Osborne Grenfell tower fire A man speaks to a fire fighter after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze. Residents in the tower were evacuated and a number of people were treated for a range of injuries EPA Grenfell tower fire A resident of Grenfell Tower is trapped as smoke billows from the window after a fire engulfed the building Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in Latimer Road Getty Images Grenfell tower fire According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters are working to put out the blaze EPA Grenfell tower fire Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire The burnt facade of Grenfell Tower, the night after the fire in Latimer Road, West London REUTERS/Neil Hall Grenfell tower fire Local residents gather at a community centre near Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A resident in a nearby building watches smoke rise from Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London AP Grenfell tower fire Police and rescue services operate near the fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire A man stands amid debris on the A40 after a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London REUTERS/Toby Melville Grenfell tower fire A view of the empty A40 highway after it was closed in both directions, due to the proximity of the fire at Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road EPA Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Bodies are removed from the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Rick Findler/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire Provisions on tables at the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Grenfell tower fire Beds are laid out in the Westway Sports Centre close to the scene after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London Jack Hardy/PA Wire Grenfell tower fire A pile of donated clothes, sleeping bags and water lie next to a police cordon near the burning the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Signs asking for donations are seen outside the Notting Hill methodist Chruch Getty Images Grenfell tower fire Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Grenfell tower fire A man is rescued by fire fighters after a huge fire engulfed the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty It was called for by the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group, after six people died and more than 20 were hurt in the 2009 blaze at Lakanal House in Camberwell . But Mr King, the honorary administrative secretary of the group, said the review its report recommended had been shelved by successive ministers over the past four years. Speaking to LBC radio, he said the group had looked at fire suppression measures in all the tower blocks with similar designs and noted that there were around 4,000 buildings with no fire sprinklers fitted. He added: Our group recommended that due to the speed that the fire spread in Lakanal House, that building regulations should be reviewed. It's nearly 11 years since it has been reviewed. Successive ministers since 2013 have said they are still looking at it. Mr King confirmed that earlier this year, Mr Barwell told him he was still considering the proposals. Grenfell Tower fire: Appeals for help He added: "Mr Barwell said he was still looking at it and was preparing to meet with the All-Party group. That's when the election was called and the meeting never happened. Hundreds of firefighters were sent to 24-storey Grenfell Tower in north Kensington, as large plumes of smoke billowed above the capital after the blaze broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Witnesses spoke of terrifying scenes, with some residents suggesting they heard no alarm go off when the fire began. At least 30 people have been taken to five hospitals and six are confirmed dead. Recommended Londoners offer Grenfell Tower residents a place to stay London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said there are "questions that have to be answered" after residents of the tower were told to stay in their flats in the event of a fire. Mr Khan condemned the "bad advice" given to residents of the West London tower block that was engulfed in flames overnight, killing several inhabitants and leaving many trapped inside the burning building. A newsletter to residents in 2014 said the "stay put" policy worked because the block had been designed according to rigorous fire safety standards. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Tim Farron has resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats, following a furore over his beliefs concerning gay sex. The politician admitted some of his comments concerning the matter could have been wiser when asked if homosexuality is a sin he had previously responded: We are all sinners. After the matter refused to go away and surfaced again during the election campaign, Mr Farron said it had felt impossible to be both Lib Dem leader and a Christian. Recommended Tim Farron refuses to say whether being gay is a sin Earlier on Wednesday Lib Dem Lord Paddick, a gay former senior Met police officer, resigned from his post as the partys home affairs spokesman. In a statement, Mr Farron said: I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in. In which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society. Thats why I have chosen to step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats. He said that from the very first day of his leadership he had faced questions about his Christian faith and that he had tried to answer with grace and patience, adding: Sometimes my answers could have been wiser. General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Show all 7 1 /7 General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Gavin Barwell Getty General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Angus Robertson General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Nicola Blackwood PA General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Alex Salmond PA General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Rob Wilson Rex Features General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Ben Gummer PA But with the vital election campaign kicking off and the Lib Dems desperate to capitalise on any anti-Brexit feeling, Mr Farron said the issue was distracting attention from the partys message. When the results came in last Friday the party had gained four seats, leaving them with 12 not as many as had been hoped for in the wake of the EU referendum. Mr Farron added: Journalists have every right to ask what they see fit. The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader. Tim Farron says it's 'bizarre' journalists keep questioning him on faith A better, wiser person than me may have been able to deal with this more successfully, to have remained faithful to Christ while leading a political party in the current environment. Taking to Twitter earlier in the day, Lord Paddick said: Ive resigned as Lib Dems Shadow Home Secretary over concerns about the leaders views on various issues that were highlighted during GE17. The announcement clears the way for one of the other well known figures in the party to step forward and take on the top job. Potential contenders include Jo Swinson, newly returned to Parliament, former cabinet ministers Vince Cable and Ed Davey and ex-health minister Norman Lamb. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Two men have been arrested for their role in a violent altercation outside the Turkish ambassadors residence during a recent visit to Washington by Turkeys president, police said Wednesday. The Metropolitan Police Department said in a brief statement that Sinan Narin had been arrested in Virginia on an aggravated assault charge. It said Eyup Yildirim had been arrested in New Jersey on charges of assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. The department released no further details about the men but said additional information would be available Thursday. Yildirim made his first appearance before Federal Magistrate James Clarke in Newark, N.J., who ordered him held without bail pending his next court date in Washington. Public defender David Holman sought home confinement, arguing that Yildirim wasnt a flight risk and had never been convicted of anything before. Clarke said he was less concerned with him being a possible flight risk and more concerned about the nature of the crime. Holman told the judge that Yildirim has received death threats because of the case. He said Yildirim is a business owner with three kids and ties to the local community. Prosecutors told the judge Yildirim had been arrested twice in the late 90s on simple assault charges, but the charges were later dismissed. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Holman declined to comment to a reporter, as is office policy. Narin and Yildirim were both participants in the protests, according to a U.S. official familiar with the case. On the day of the violence, police detained two members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans security detail but released them shortly afterward. Two other men were arrested at the scene one for aggravated assault and the other for assaulting a police officer. The U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the matter and demanded anonymity, said DC police had identified 34 of 42 people who were involved in the fight, and are seeking their arrests. Police are expected to release photos of the other 8 possible suspects and appeal to the public for information on their identities, the official said. The clash happened as Erdogan arrived at the ambassadors residence after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on May 16. Video of the protest showed security guards and some Erdogan supporters attacking a small group of protesters with their fists and feet. Men in dark suits and others were recorded repeatedly kicking one woman as she lay curled on a sidewalk. Another wrenched a womans neck and threw her to the ground. A man with a bullhorn was repeatedly kicked in the face. After police officers struggled to protect the protesters and ordered the men in suits to retreat, several of the men dodged the officers and ran into the park to continue the attacks. In all, nine people were hurt. The fracas added to already strained U.S.-Turkish ties. The NATO allies have publicly clashed over a U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish rebels fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. Turkey considers the fighters to be an extension the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey known as the PKK, and claims without evidence that protesters who showed up during Erdogans visit to Washington last week were themselves associated with the PKK. U.S. officials had strongly criticized the Turkish government after Erdogans security forces for the violence, and the State Department summoned Turkeys ambassador to the U.S. to complain. The Turkish Foreign Ministry then summoned the U.S. ambassador to Turkey to complain about the treatment of the detained security guards. Turkeys U.S. embassy alleged the demonstrators were associated with the PKK, which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey and is considered a terrorist group by the United States. Turkeys official Anadolu news agency said they chanted anti-Erdogan slogans, and that the Turkish presidents team moved in to disperse them because police did not heed to Turkish demands to intervene. The Turkish Embassy claimed the demonstrators were aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the president. The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense and one of them was seriously injured. But Mehmet Yuksel, who arrived immediately after the incident and knows almost all of the dozen or so demonstrators, said they werent connected with the PKK. The victims included Americans, he said at the time, and there was no justification for the attack. -AP Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Five people, including the head of Michigans health department, were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flints lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires disease. Nick Lyon is the highest-ranking member of Republican Gov. Rick Snyders administration to be snagged in a criminal investigation of how the citys water system became poisoned after officials tapped the Flint River in 2014. Lyon, 48, the director of the Health and Human Services Department, is accused of failing to alert the majority-black population about an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. Recommended Flint official resigns after using racial slur to describe residents If convicted, Lyon and the others charged with involuntary manslaughter could each face up to 15 years in prison. The health crisis in Flint has created a trust crisis for Michigan government, exposing a serious lack of confidence in leaders who accept responsibility and solve problems, said state Attorney General Bill Schuette, who said his probe is moving to the trial phase and signaled that Snyder, who has apologized for his administrations failures that led to and prolonged the crisis, may not be charged. We only file criminal charges when evidence of probable cause of a crime has been established. And were not filing charges at this time, he said. In pictures: Flint water crisis Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Flint water crisis In pictures: Flint water crisis Anthony Fordham picks up bottled water from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan to deliver to a school after elevated lead levels were found in the city's water in Flint Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Michigan National Guard Staff Sergeant William Phillips (L) assists a Flint resident with bottled water at a fire station in Flint Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Flint residents Arthur Woodson, left, and Tony Palladino Jr. protest the arrival of Flint native and filmmaker Michael Moore as Moore accuses Gov.Rick Snyder of poisoning Flint water during a rally outside of city hall in Flint AP In pictures: Flint water crisis Flint residents pick up bottled water and water filters at a fire station in Flint. Michigan National Guard members were set to arrive in Flint to join door-to-door efforts to distribute bottled water and other supplies to residents coping with the city's crisis over lead-contaminated drinking water Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Soldiers from the Michigan Army National Guard Flint prepare to give Flint residents bottled water at a fire station in Flint Getty Images In pictures: Flint water crisis Justin Roberson (L), age 6, of Flint, Michigan and Mychal Adams, age 1, of Flint wait on a stack of bottled water at a rally where the Rev. Jesse Jackson was speaking about about the water crises at the Heavenly Host Baptist Church in Flint Getty Images In pictures: Flint water crisis A man sits next to a stack of bottled water at the Heavenly Host Baptist Church in Flint 2016 Getty Images In pictures: Flint water crisis The top of a water tower is seen at the Flint Water Plant. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Michigan and ordered federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts to an area affected by contaminated water Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Rosie Wright, center, rallies with the crowd over Flint's water crisis in Ann Arbor, Michigan AP In pictures: Flint water crisis Rick Catherman participates in a rally around Flint's water crisis in Ann Arbor, Michigan AP Lyon also is charged with misconduct in office for allegedly obstructing university researchers who are studying if the surge in cases was linked to the Flint River. The others charged with involuntary manslaughter were already facing other charges. They are: Darnell Earley, who was Flints emergency manager when the city used the river; Howard Croft, who ran Flints public works department; Liane Shekter Smith; and Stephen Busch. Shekter Smith and Busch were state environmental regulators. Prosecutors also brought charges Wednesday against a sixth person the states chief medical officer, Dr. Eden Wells, 54, who is accused of obstruction of justice and lying to an investigator. Dr. Wells vehemently denies the charges, defense attorney Jerry Lax said. Shekter Smiths lawyer, Brian Morley, said: Its my understanding neither she nor the Department of Environmental Quality were responsible for legionella issues. So I fail to see why the charge is being filed against Liane. Earleys attorney Todd Perkins said hes very disappointed in these new charges, adding his client has done nothing wrong. Other attorneys in the case have not returned calls seeking comment from The Associated Press. Snyder expressed support for Lyon and Wells. Director Lyon and Dr. Wells have been and continue to be instrumental in Flints recovery, he said in a statement. They have my full faith and confidence, and will remain on duty at DHHS. Flint began using water from the Flint River while under state emergency management, but did not treat it to reduce corrosion. Toxic lead from old plumbing leached into the water system, causing elevated levels in children and leaving residents to drink and bathe with bottled or filtered water. Some experts also have linked the water to Legionnaires disease, a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water and infect the lungs. People can get sick if they inhale mist or vapor, typically from cooling systems. There were nearly 100 cases in the Flint area, including 12 deaths, in 2014 and 2015. Lyon, Croft, Earley, Shekter Smith and Busch are blamed in the death of Robert Skidmore in December 2015. He was admitted to McClaren Flint hospital in June 2015 with symptoms consistent with pneumonia. He died at home six months later. Lyon was personally briefed in January 2015 but took no action to alert the public of a deadly outbreak until nearly a year later, special agent Jeff Seipenko told a judge as the charges were filed. Lyon has admitted that he was aware of the Legionnaires outbreak for months but wanted to delay saying anything public until state Health and Human Services Department investigators finished their own probe. He told state lawmakers that experts likely wanted to solve the problem before they raised it with senior officials in the Snyder administration. The investigation, he said, wasnt one that was easily solved. Schuette has now charged 15 current or former government officials in an ongoing probe that began in early 2016, including two emergency managers whom Snyder appointed to run the impoverished city of roughly 100,000 residents. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission issued a report in February blaming systemic racism going back decades for the problems that caused the water crisis in Flint. In March, Corrine Miller, the states former director of disease control, was sentenced to probation and ordered to write an apology to residents after pleading no contest to willful neglect of duty. She is a key cooperating witness for Schuettes team. -AP Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A massive police presence has responded after a man open fired at a UPS facility, killing at least four people and injuring several others. Reporters at the scene noted before the deaths were confirmed that there were two bodies under yellow tarps were visible on the street outside of the facility. Later reports indicated that the shooter was among those injured, and that the wound was self-inflicted. "It's fluid right now", Brent Andrew, a hospital spokesperson, told the San Francisco Chronicle regarding the number of victims and injuries. "We've accepted some and we're expecting more". Recommended Trump calls for unity after Virginia shooting and hails heroism People in the area were advised to shelter in place while they secured the scene. One nearby resident said that he watched as police and firefighters dragged bodies covered in blood from the building and loaded them into ambulances. "I was sick to my stomach, seeing those bodies", the man, who the San Francisco Chronicle identified only as Chino, said. "They were looking pretty bad". Virginia Shooting Show all 20 1 /20 Virginia Shooting Virginia Shooting House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and others were shot Wednesday at a congressional baseball practice, officials said AP Virginia Shooting Police and emergency personnel are seen near the scene where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot during a Congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting A man receives medical attention from first responders on the scene following a shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, US EPA Virginia Shooting The Republican House majority whip Steve Scalise and at least four others have been shot shot at a congressional baseball game practice session, according to media report EPA Virginia Shooting Police close a street near the scene of a shooting in Alexandria, Virginia EPA Virginia Shooting Police close a street near the scene of a shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, USA EPA Virginia Shooting The Republican House majority whip Steve Scalise and at least four others have been shot shot at a congressional baseball game practice session, according to media reports EPA Virginia Shooting First responders on the scene following a shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, USA EPA Virginia Shooting Alexandria, Va. Police Chief Michael Brown speaks about the shooting in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich. talks on the phone while walking past a damaged vehicle at a shooting scene where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La. was shot at a Congressional baseball practice AP Virginia Shooting A Capitol Hill Police officer walks past an automobile with the driver's window damaged at the scene of a shooting in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn. is seen near the scene of a shooting in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting A Capitol Hill Police officer stands his post at the entrance to the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington AP Virginia Shooting Law enforcement officers investigate the scene of a shooting near a baseball field in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting An Alexandria, Va. police officer tapes off an area near the YMCA after a shooting in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. walks toward media gathered at the scene of a shooting at a baseball field in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting The baseball field that is the scene of a shooting in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting Law enforcement officers gather near a shooting scene at baseball field in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas and other members of the Republican Congressional softball team, stand behind police tape of the scene of a multiple shooting in Alexandria, Va AP Virginia Shooting Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. meets with reporters in Alexandria, Va AP Another man, in a UPS uniform, said that he had been inside the UPS building when the shooting started. He said that the gunman was a UPS employee, and was brandishing a handgun. The attack reportedly occurred during a morning meeting in the building. Several employees at the UPS branch were later photographed standing on the roof of the building as police surrounded the facility and secured the scene. "UPS confirms there was an incident involving employees within the company's facility in San Francisco earlier this morning. Local law enforcement have control of the facility and are conducting an investigation. The company is cooperating with law enforcement. We cannot provide information as to the identity of persons involved at this time, pending the police investigation", UPS wrote in a statement following the shooting. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The US Ambassador to Qatar has announced she is leaving her role amid a tense situation in the region. Ambassador Dana Shell Smith's tweet - where she says her time at the State Department is ending later this month - comes just a week after several Gulf nations cut diplomatic ties with Qatar over the small monarchys alleged financial ties to terrorist groups. She has been the head diplomat in Doha for the last three years, having been appointed by President Barack Obama. Normally, Ambassadors serve in three-year terms. The US State Department said in an email to The Hill newspaper that Ms Smiths assignment as Ambassador comes to an end this month and she will depart Qatar later this month as part of the normal rotation of career diplomats throughout the world. We wish her the best as she moves on from the Department of State. Ms Smith has not given an indication whether the ongoing crisis or the Trump administration played any part in the move. Egypt has long thought Qatars support of Islamist groups Muslim Brotherhood was dangerous for their country. Saudi Arabia also re-ignited tensions over Dohas alleged support for Iran, which has been at odds with Saudi Arabia. The Maldives, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen joined in coordinated effort to cut ties. Iran then blamed Donald Trump for setting the stage for the diplomatic mess during his recent trip to Riyadh. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked that the six nations in the anti-Qatari effort ease the blockade against Qatar and requested that Doha be responsive to its neighbors concerns over terror financing. However, just hours later Mr Trump applauded the coalition and said Qatar was a funder of terrorism at a very high level and even raised the possibility that the cutting of ties was due to his urging that Middle East countries more effectively address financing terrorists during his Riyadh trip. Ms Smith re-tweeted Mr Tillersons comments but not the Presidents tweets. Ms Smith also gained attention when she tweeted in the wake of Donald Trumps sacking of former FBI Director James Comey that it was getting increasingly difficult to do the job of a diplomat in explaining our democracy and institutions. She also said when domestic partisan acrimony [is] so high the work of the foreign service can be tough. She also retweeted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcettis tweet in response to Mr Trumps criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the wake of the London Bridge attack. Ms Smith nor the US embassy in Qatar have responded to a request for comment. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Journalists have accused Senate officials of banning them from filming or recording audio in hallways, a move that prompted an outcry from Democrats and free-speech advocates. The apparent move - which would break with decades of tradition sparked an afternoon of confusion. Journalists from various organisations said that had been told to stop filming unless they had prior permission from Senators, raising fears that access was being restricted amid a number of important events, including the passing of a new healthcare act and testimony in investigations against Russia's alleged meddling in the presidential election last year. The American Civil Liberties Union was one group to decry the move, with the organisation's political director Faiz Shakir saying: Closing the shutters now, while Congress is secretly considering a bill that would cause over 20 million people to lose health insurance, is utterly unreasonable and flies in the face of the First Amendment. Crowds of reporters in the Capitols hallways have recently hit record sizes, as journalists seek to cover the often unprecedented workings of the Trump administration. Last month, in the wake of scandals that rocked the White House, the directors of the Senate Media Galleries print and broadcast sent a letter to bureau chiefs and editors saying that the Capitol has reached its capacity for reporters. Collectively, the press following Senators have become large and aggressive, officials with the two galleries wrote. We are concerned someone may get hurt. In a tweet responding to the apparent move, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar ranking member on the Senate Rules Committee, who would be the group to impose such a move called on the majority to allow reporting in the Capitol to proceed as usual. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy also lambasted the rule change, tweeting, Maybe not the right moment to lower the secrecy veil on Congress. To whoever is trying to protect Senators we can fend for ourselves. In response, the Senate Rules Committee denied issuing new restrictions, while press gallery staffers refused to explain their part in the drama. The Rules Committee has made no changes to the existing rules governing press coverage on the Senate side of the Capitol complex, the Rules Committee chairman, Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), said in a statement. The Committee has been working with the various galleries to ensure compliance with existing rules in an effort to help provide a safe environment for Members, the press corps, staff and constituents as they travel from Senate offices to the Capitol. Ms Klobuchar later tweeted that she had spoken to Senator Shelby and that he had said he wouldn't [make a] change to press access without consulting me. In another tweet, she added: This is no time for limiting press access in U.S. Senate. Russia hearings, Sessions testifying & (secret?) health care bill being drafted! Reporters were then told that they may continue to follow the rules as if it was yesterday, according to NBC reporter Kasie Hunt. Ms Klobuchar said she would fight any possible attempt to change the rules, telling journalists at the Capitol: You dont shut down the press if you dont want to do interviews. You just say, I dont want to do interviews today, she added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against three European Union member states who refused to take in refugees. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been accused of not fulfilling their obligations outlined in a 2015 plan to relocate migrants from Italy and Greece, to help ease their burden. "I regret to see that, despite our repeated calls to pledge to relocate, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland have not yet taken the necessary action," the EU's migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told a news conference. The Commission is now launching infringement procedures against the three nations, which would allow the top EU court to potentially impose fines. However, the legal battle could take months, even years, to conclude. The Polish and Hungarian governments refused to take anyone in, while the Czech Republic initially accepted 12 people but has since said it would not welcome more. Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski told state TV that the action "unnecessarily heats up political tensions, of which there are already too many in the European Union". World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty He added: "If necessary, Poland is ready to defend its legal arguments in court." In a separate legal battle on the matter, Hungary and Slovakia have challenged the agreement altogether in a top EU court and an indication of the ruling is due next month. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Leo Varadkar has been formally elected Ireland's youngest and first openly gay prime minister in the majority-Catholic country. The 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant will also be the youngest-ever person to hold the office of Taoiseach after succeeding Enda Kenny. The new ruling Fine Gael leader won 57 votes in the Irish parliament against 50 for his nomination as premier. Some 45 parliamentarians abstained in the vote. Accepting his elevation to the most powerful office in the country, the 38-year-old said: "I've been elected to lead but I promise to serve." Leo Varadkar poised to become Ireland's first gay Taoiseach Mr Vardkar, who was nominated in parliament by departing Mr Kenny, won the votes of the independent lawmakers backing his Fine Gael party's minority government and secured the abstention of main opposition party Fianna Fail. "As the country's youngest holder of this office, he speaks for a new generation of Irish women and Irish men, he represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other," Mr Kenny told parliament ahead of the vote. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Yesterday, Mr Varadkar warned the Prime Minister, Theresa May, that doing a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party could put the Good Friday Agreement at risk. He said the British government should not get too close to any Northern Irish party. Our role as governments is to act as co-guarantors [to the Good Friday Agreement], not to be too close to any particular party in the North, whether its nationalist parties or unionist parties, he added. Thats certainly something I will emphasis in any contacts that I have with the Prime Minister. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Vladimir Putin supporter was dragged away by police at a protest in Moscow despite expressing his support for the Russian leader. The unidentified man was being interviewed by journalists when he was seized by officers in riot gear even though he had praised Mr Putin for making the country strong again. He was in the vicinity of a protest about plans to tear down Soviet-era apartment buildings across the capital. More than 4,500 buildings will be destroyed and 1.6 million people will be forced to relocate after the Russian Duma, or parliament, voted overwhelmingly to allow Moscow City Hall to proceed with the plans. The redevelopment project, one of Russia's largest, has rattled many in Moscow who see the plans as an encroachment on their constitutional rights. Some have also claimed it is a ruse to evict them from leafy neighbourhoods to high-rise ones on the city's outskirts. The Moscow government insists that the buildings are dilapidated and their maintenance too costly. As dozens rallied outside one the buildings earmarked for demolition, protesters shouted: For shame! It is unclear why the Putin supporter was at the demonstration but when he was interviewed, he justified the arrest of a protester behind him by claiming he had threatened to detonate a bomb. A woman behind the camera said she heard no such threat, insisting the man had shouted: Putin is a thief. In an attempt to defend his president, the man begins said: Well you know what? In 2000 when Putin was elected for the first time, I said then, he had been Prime Minister for only two years by that time so I said back then let him take as much as he can to only make Russia... World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Before he could finish his sentence, he was dragged off by five or six riot police. People on the video are then heard laughing that a member of Nod had been arrested at an anti-Putin rally. Nod, or National Liberation Movement in English, is a far-right, nationalist group which calls for the return of Russian sovereignty which it believes became subordinate to the US after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Additional reporting by AP For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused Saudi Arabia of supporting militants inside Iran, days after Isis claimed responsibility for a terror attack which killed 17 in the capital Tehran. Speaking to reporters at a conference in Oslo, Mr Zarif said Iran had intelligence that the Saudis were actively engaged in promoting terrorist groups in the Sunni-majority border province of Baluchestan. The majority of the country is Shia, while Saudi Arabia is dominated by the conservative Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam. As the two great powers in the region and in part due to these religious differences, the countries have fought proxy wars throughout the Middle East. In 2015, Riyadh intervened in the Yemeni civil war to oust Houthi rebels who had taken over the seat of government while backed by Iran. The resulting conflict has cost at least 10,000 lives according to recent estimates by the UN, with millions more at risk of famine and thousands hit by a cholera epidemic. Iran and Saudi Arabia accuse each other of subverting regional security and support opposite sides in conflicts including those in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. "On the Western side, the same type of activity is being undertaken, again abusing the diplomatic hospitality of our other neighbour," Mr Zarif said, without elaborating. Iran also accused the US of being responsible for Islamist militancy in the region. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The situation has been exacerbated by the decision of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen to cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar over its perceived links to terrorism. Qatar, which is on a peninsula off Saudi Arabia, has had its air, sea and land connections severely restricted and its citizens have been expelled from its five Arab neighbours. Doha and Riyadh have been long standing rivals despite its small size Qatar has vast oil reserves and is among the wealthiest countries in the world per capita. Qatar backed the Arab Spring with its main media outlet, Al Jazeera, and is accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Mr Zarif called for the establishment of a regional forum to help solve regional problems. He said: "It is absolutely imperative... to establish a permanent mechanism for consultation, conversation and conflict resolution in our region, using some variation of the Helsinki approach," said the foreign minister, in reference to the 1975 Helsinki Accords. "I think it worked at the height of the Cold War here in Europe, it should work (for the Middle East too)." Asked about President Donald Trump's comments on Iran, which he described in a recent tweet as a state sponsoring terrorism, Mr Zarif referred to the fact that most of the 9/11 attackers were Saudi nationals, not Iranians. "President Trump is trying to change the nationality post-mortem of 15 of the 19 9/11 suicide bombers, or of every other suicide bomber that attacked US soil or any Western country over the past 20 years," he said. "They did not come from Iran. None. Why is he trying to change history? We are not intimidated by these moves." Additional reporting by Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump received an unwanted present on his 71st birthday - lower presidential approval ratings than three of his predecessors. Of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama, only Mr Bush reached the 60 per cent disapproval mark. But multiple polls showed Mr Trumps approval ratings dropped to just 36 percent over the weekend, close to the all time 35 per cent low he achieved in March. Nearly 43 percent of American voters also support the idea of beginning the official impeachment process for Trump, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll published this week. The sacking of FBI director James Comey has heightened fears over Trumps unpredictable leadership, according to Inderjeet Parmar, professor of international politics at City University of London. He told The Wire that the presidents style is so divisive "that there is almost no middle ground in attitudes to the maverick commander-in-chief. The downward spiral in Trumps popularity comes after his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. Most US states were in favour of the Paris Agreement according to the Yale programme on climate change communication, which found that almost 70 per cent of Americans wanted to stay within the agreement. Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad There is also the continuing investigation by the Senate intelligence committee into alleged Russian meddling in the US elections. Al Green, Democratic representative in Congress for Texas launched an official challenge on 17 May to impeach the president over obstruction of justice. But Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader downplayed the calls to bring about Mr Trump's impeachment, although she told Politico: I think hes going to self-impeach. The Californian Democrat's comments were made during a terse communication over Brad Sherman who had a draft article of impeachment, saying he might bring the debate to the House floor. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Human rights groups have criticised the use of the white phosphorus chemical by US-led coalition troops in the Iraqi city of Mosul. New Zealand Brigadier General Hugh McAslan admitted the potentially lethal substance had been used as they attempted to free civilians trapped in neighbourhoods controlled by Isis. He said that around 28,000 civilians have travelled out of Isis strongholds in the city over the last few days. Iraqi troops assisted by US-led coalition forces were in control of 90 per cent of the western area of Mosul, he added. But Isis is still holding out and using people as human shields, according to the United Nations. Brigadier General McAslan told NPR: "We have utilised white phosphorous to screen areas within west Mosul to get civilians out safely". However, the deployment of the chemical was criticised by Human Rights Watch. No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities like Raqqa and Mosul and any other areas with concentrations of civilians, said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. US-led forces should take all feasible precautions to minimise civilian harm when using white phosphorus in Iraq and Syria. In early June, an internet cafe in Raqqa was hit by white phosphorus, killing approximately 20 people, a local resident told The New York Times. Use of white phosphorus has been called into question, as it puts civilians in danger, but Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) claimed on 4 June that it was used to create a smoke screen. A US-led coalition statement said: While protecting civilians fleeing from the Jamouri Hospital the Coalition used smoke and precision munitions to suppress the enemy and provide cover for fleeing civilians. "In conjunction with Iraqi Security Forces, the Coalition used appropriate munitions to suppress and obscure ISIS snipers so that the civilians could reach friendly forces. In pictures: Mosul offensive Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Mosul offensive In pictures: Mosul offensive A doctor carries an Iraqi newborn baby at a hospital in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi girls play at a yard of a school in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017alal Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A woman on crutches who is a relative of men accused of being Islamic State militants is seen at a camp in Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq July 15, 2017. Picture taken July 15, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A displaced girl, who fled from home carries a doll at Hamam al-Alil camp south of Mosul, Iraq July 13, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi federal police members and civilians celebrate in the Old City of Mosul on 9 July 2017 after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said he was in "liberated" Mosul to congratulate "the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people on the achievement of the major victory" AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken on 9 July 2017, shows a general view of the destruction in Mosul's Old City. Iraq will announce imminently a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from jihadists, a US general said Saturday, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city. AFP In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of the Iraqi federal police raise the victory gesture as they ride on a humvee while advancing through the Old City of Mosul on 28 June 2017, as the offensive continues to retake the last district held by Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Smoke billows as Iraqi forces advance through the Old City of Mosul on 26 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district held by the Islamic State (IS) group. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi man wearing the green scarf of the Shi'ite faith kisses an Iraqi Army soldier on safely reaching the Iraqi forces position as Iraqi civilians flee the Old City of west Mosul where heavy fighting continues on 23 June 2017. Iraqi forces continue to encounter stiff resistance with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken from the inside of an Iraqi forces armoured vehicle shows residents walking through a damaged street as troops advance towards Mosul's Old City on 18 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State (IS) group. Military commanders told AFP the assault had begun at dawn after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. They said the jihadists were putting up fierce resistance. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi Army soldiers advance in a destroyed street after an Iraqi forces airstrike targeted an Islamic State sniper position 17 June 2017 in al-Shifa, the last district of west Mosul under Islamic State control. IS snipers, as well as car and suicide bomb attacks continue to hinder the Iraqi forces efforts to retake the final district. A series of airstrikes by Iraqi helicopter gunships attempted to hit multiple Islamic State sniper positions in al-Shifa. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier frisks a displaced Iraqi man at a temporary camp in the compound of the closed Nineveh International Hotel in Mosul on 16 June 2017 which was recovered by Iraqi troops from Islamic State group fighters earlier in the year. A screening centre set up in the compound's fairgrounds sees a constant stream of Iraqis fleeing the battle for Mosul, awaiting their turn to be checked by the Iraqi forces who are searching for suspected Islamic State (IS) group members. The small fairground lies at the end of a pontoon bridge across the Tigris recently opened to civilians that is the only physical link between the two banks of the river. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis staying at the al-Khazir camp swim in a river near the camp for internally displaced people, located between Arbil and Mosul on 11 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi government forces drive on a road leading to Tal Afar on 9 June 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi policeman carries a poster bearing an image of Mosul's iconic leaning minaret, known as the "Hadba" (Hunchback), on 22 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis stand in line to receive food aid in western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood on 7 June 2017, during ongoing battles as Iraqi forces try to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Living conditions in Mosul have again deteriorated since the start of the Iraqi government's offensive on the city in October in which they retook a large part of the west of the city. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced Iraqis carry lightbulbs and sacks as they evacuate from western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood as government forces advance in the area during their ongoing battle against Islamic State (IS) group fighters on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) flashes the victory gesture as he patrols in western Mosul's al-Islah al-Zaraye neighbourhood on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi army soldiers from the 9th armoured division on a truck flash the sign of victory as they drive back from Mosul to the town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya) Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of Iraqi forces flash the sign of victory on their vehicle as they advance towards Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi security forces gestures in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi children, one flashing the sign of victory, greet Iraqi army's soldiers from the 9th armoured division in the area of Ali Rash, adjacent to the eastern Al-Intissar neighbourhood of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Peshmerga forces look at a tunnel used by Islamic State militants near the town of Bashiqa, east of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier takes a photograph with his phone as his comrade stands next to a detained man, whom the Iraqi army soldiers accused of being an Islamic State fighter, who was fleeing with his family in the Intisar disrict of eastern Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families, who fled their homes in Hamam al-Alil, gather on the outskirts of their town Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced people walk past a checkpoint near Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadists of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering in an area near Qayyarah In pictures: Mosul offensive A boy who just fled Abu Jarbuah village is seen with his family at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi child eats a pomegranate upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive People who just fled Abu Jarbuah village sit as they eat at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A couple who just fled Abu Jarbuah village are escorted by Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Women carry a boy over a wall as civilians flee their houses in the village of Tob Zawa, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier and a civilian ride a motorbike as smoke rises behind them, on the road between Qayyarah and Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces, wearing a skull mask, waits at a checkpoint for people fleeing the main hub city of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier sits at a checkpoint in an area near Qayyarah Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi men prepare food portions for Iraqi forces deployed in areas south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi forces celebrate upon the arrival of vehicles bringing food to them Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi childen smoke cigarettes upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces distributes drinks to children in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty White phosphorus is known by the military as WP or Willie Pete and used to create a smokescreen for hiding troop movements. It can also be utilised to target enemy positions. But if the chemical lands on skin, it can cause horrific injuries, burning deep into the muscle and bone, according to Amnesty International. If particles of ignited white phosphorus land on a person's body, they can continue to burn through flesh to the bone. Toxic phosphoric acid can also be released into wounds, risking phosphorus poisoning. Inhaling the smoke can cause damage to the heart, liver and kidneys. Under military law, it is not illegal for the military to use white phosphorus, although its use in populated areas is prohibited by international legislation. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Save the Children has warned that the rate of cholera infection in Yemen has tripled over the past 14 days, with an average of 105 children contracting the disease every hour or one every 35 seconds. The country is now on the verge of total collapse according to Grant Pritchard, the charity's director. During the war currently raging in the Middle Eastern country, more than 7,600 people have lost their lives and 42,000 have been injured since March 2015. Most were killed in air strikes by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. This conflict has caused a humanitarian disaster which is hitting young children the hardest. More than two million Yemeni children are extremely malnourished, leaving them vulnerable to disease. Cholera is one form of acute, watery diarrhoea, a symptom that can be caused by any number of bacteria, viruses and parasites, Caroline Anning, of the charity, told The Independent. In its most severe form, cholera is one of the swiftest lethal infectious diseases known characterised by an explosive outpouring of fluid and electrolytes within hours of infection that, if not treated appropriately, can lead to death within hours. In places where drinking water is unprotected from faecal contamination, cholera can spread with stunning speed through entire populations. With prompt and appropriate treatment, child deaths can be kept low through a combination of public health interventions. These include medical cholera kits, provision of safe water and hygiene promotion. The war-torn country is facing a perfect storm, Ms Anning said. Bombing has affected sanitation works, with health facilities unable to run. Its very difficult to ship in supplies to Yemen as there is a de facto blockade, with Sanaa, the countrys primary international airport, closed to commercial flights, she added. Save the Children fund, together with other humanitarian agencies, have developed a new Integrated Cholera Response Plan seeking a total of 52m ($66m) three times more than the previous appeal to implement health provisions including cholera kits and chlorinated water. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} If you thought tourists carving their names into the Colosseum walls was as bad as it gets, think again. One of Iceland's famous moss-covered hills has this week been graffitied with the immortal line, Send nudes. The words have been formed on the hill near near Nesjavellir on the south of the island by tearing clumps of moss from the ground. It is expected that the slogan will remain there for decades while the moss grows back. The damage was spotted by tour guide Gunnar Birgisson. "I think someone was trying to be funny," he told The Independent. "But they don't realise they are vandalising nature and possibly causing this to spread." Birgisson told Iceland Monitor that something has to give. The hill has many words written on it, he says; and while some are in Icelandic, the increase in English specifically LIFE and now SEND NUDES suggests theyre the work of tourists. Birgisson, whos seen ugly tourist behaviour including people defecating in the countryside and spray-painting a deserted farm in the name of art, says They believe everything is allowed in Iceland. "People come from such different places from Iceland that they don't know what's right and wrong," he told The Independent. "And it's a herd mentality. Some guy went up there many years ago and wrote his name. He was an Icelander, and by doing so he started it. One pair of footprints can motivate thousands to follow. It's the same with offroading - an area will be untouched for decades until one person drives on it and then everyone thinks it's allowed, so the whole area gets covered with tyre tracks. Everyone I know has caught someone offroading. They always say the same thing - that they didn't know it wasn't allowed - even though they all have a big yellow sticker on the dashboard of their rental car telling them not to do it. People need to know the law and respect it." Tourism has exploded in Iceland in recent years. 2016 saw more American tourists on the island than the entire Icelandic population, and 2 million visitors are expected to descend on Iceland this year a ten-fold increase from the 200,000 who visited in 1996. The growth is seen by many locals as toxic, with Airbnbs pushing out residents, Reykjavik heaving with travellers and the main sites swamped by camera-wielding visitors. Tour guide Arni Tryggvason, who has written a book about how tourists should behave in his country called What, Where and How, fears that mindless tourism is causing environmental problems that will be here for decades. He told The Independent: Iceland is famous for its moss-covered landscape (Vifilsfell Moss shown here) is famous - but damage to it can take decades to repair (Hafsteinn Robertsson/Flickr (cc by 2.0)) Today, with a rapidly growing tourism we can see endless new bad footprints all over the country. People are writing in moss, driving off-road, stacking stones, writing with stones and spilling vegetation. Ill say that the damage is not made by bad intention, only by people who don't know how vulnerable nature and especially the vegetation is in this country where the summer only lasts for two or three months. The graffiti we see there will last for at least 70 years. Its a horrible view and is a challenge for other shallow people who see it to do the same. Someone wrote the first words and others followed. However, he added that defacing the landscape is not something only foreigners have done. Writing in moss was something too many Icelanders thought was OK until around 1960, he told The Independent. Not so far from Reykjavik we can see big mossy mountain slopes where some Scout groups wrote their names in about 1950 and the words are still clearly visible. However, he added, Since then, we think differently about nature. Now we have to teach our guests that we have zero tolerance against behaviour like that." Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The chairman of Ryanair is at the centre of a storm over sexism. David Bonderman resigned as a director of Uber after making a derogatory joke about women directors in a meeting about combating sexism in the technology firm, but he is continuing as chairman at Europe's biggest budget airline. The 74-year-old American billionaire became chairman of Ryanair in 1996, and has overseen its remarkable rise from a small Irish carrier to the airline that carries more passengers in Europe than any other. But during its rapid expansion, Ryanair, too, has repeatedly been accused of sexism. For several years, the airline produced a charity calendar featuring scantily clad female cabin crew. In 2011, the airline published a newspaper ad using one of these images with the slogan Red hot fares & crew!!!. When Ryanairs chief executive, Michael OLeary, took part in a Twitter Q&A in 2013, he commented Nice pic. Phwoaaarr! MOL in response to a question from a woman apparently unaware that it would be seen by everyone. His remark was rapidly retweeted, with responses such as @Ryanair how is it appropriate for an airline CEO to be a sexist pig?. Mr OLeary then tweeted: Just found out what hashtags are. Learning on da job! Always compliment ladies pics. Other budget airlines have frequently drawn criticism for their depiction of women. Southwest, which created the template for low-cost aviation when it began in 1971, initially required female cabin crew to wear hot pants. In 1972 it ran a television ad featuring three stewardesses wearing the uniform. Another US carrier, Spirit Airlines appears deliberately to court controversy with a series of profoundly sexist ads as well as a video on its website entitled Theresa Goes Bare Fare that shows a female passenger stripping to her underwear. Ryanairs board comprises 10 men and two women. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican-Wisconsin asserted last week that if the President were a Democrat, the House wouldn't be pursing impeachment. He must know that's not true. If FBI Director James B. Comey had angered a President Hillary Clinton by restarting the investigation into her private email server and she had fired him, Republicans would be howling. Rightly so. Instead, Donald Trump won the election. Comey was pursuing an investigation into Russian meddling. It angered President Trump, and he fired Comey. But rather than howling, Republicans are whimpering. The chair of the Republican National Committee has even called for a halt to all investigations of collusion with Russia. That's a problem. I was on the House Judiciary Committee that began the consideration of impeaching of President Bill Clinton. Armed with information from independent counsel Kenneth Starr, we were convinced the president had lied under oath. We drafted articles of impeachment, and a majority of the House concurred with our assessment. The Senate subsequently determined that there wasn't sufficient cause to remove him from office. In retrospect, a public censure or reprimand may have been more advisable. Recommended Lawsuit may force Trump to choose between presidency and businesses Regardless, Clinton was impeached for charges less serious than the ones before us now. In the current case, Comey was exploring the possibility of American involvement in the Russian plot, a treasonous offence. While it's not time to start drafting articles of impeachment, it is time to pursue this investigation into Russian meddling in our presidential election with vigour, without friends to reward and without enemies to punish. Confronting Trump will take more courage than it took when Republicans told President Richard Nixon that it was time for him to leave office. Not that Trump is more imposing than Nixon; Nixon was a serious president with significant accomplishments. The difference, now, is the presence of sycophantic media. When Republicans confronted Nixon in 1974, they faced three, 30-minute, nightly news broadcasts. The networks competed, but their newscasts and the facts presented were virtually identical. Those Republicans knew that their political futures rested upon their maintenance of credibility. Today, Fox News, talk radio, Breitbart and others fawn over Trump, Vice President Pence and the rest of the administration. They amplify the White House's words while defying the journalistic calling to test and to probe the government's claims. Recall, for example, how those outlets immediately affirmed Trump's unsubstantiated morning tweets about President Barack Obama's wiretapping of Trump Tower. With Fox and others clogging the media landscape, Republicans' political futures now rest on feeding the passions and proclivities of Trump's hard-core base - the 39 percent of the electorate that likes him and responds to his code of grievance. That 39 percent is the dominant force in Republican primaries today. Cross them and you die. That's why Senator Marco Rubio, Republican-Florida, for example, used his time at last week's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to ask Comey questions that excused, lessened and dismissed the possible connection between the Russians and Trump. It's not that Trump has wooed Rubio; it's that the Florida senator is aware of the power of the 39 percent. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images Of course, the 39 percent will ultimately kill the Republican Party unless we can turn them around. A dead GOP would deprive a generation of Americans of the free-enterprise and individual-accountability solutions that thoughtful people such as Rubio would like to offer. Furthermore, a hostile foreign power has struck at the heart of our constitutional republic. As Comey said with passion last week, If any Americans were part of helping the Russians do that to us, that is a very big deal. Republicans must be prepared to follow those facts all the way to the president, his family and his campaign, if that's where the facts lead. Fox News alerts play it down, the RNC says drop it, and the 39 percent shrugs, but we need real courage from real Republicans and a real investigation. The Washington Post Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} I was woken up this morning at 4am by the buzz of my phone: a friend was standing outside the Grenfell Tower block in Kensington, watching it burn, and felt like she needed to speak to someone. She lived down the road was born and bred in the borough, back when it was slightly less affluent than it is now and had been alerted to the fire by an impossibly large plume of yellow smoke outside her window as she got ready for bed around 1am. When I spoke to her, shed been wandering the streets for three hours, talking to other residents who had come out of their homes to find out what the commotion was and stayed because they knew someone who lived in the tower or simply felt they couldnt go back to bed knowing what was going on a few metres away. She sent me photos of herself standing at the police cordon, the tower an unrecognisable pillar of flames behind it. The pavements were covered in black ash for a mile. Grown men were crying. Although this happened in Kensington, a famously prosperous area of London with an extremely high number of properties worth 1m or more, it didnt happen in a block of luxury flats. It happened in a high-rise building on a council estate. Those responsible for managing social housing in the area on behalf of the borough were the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), a company which says on its website that it is responsible for nearly 10,000 properties and a company which the people who lived at Grenfell Tower had complained about for many years. The Grenfell Action Group residents association had consistently warned about the possibility of such a tragedy; this morning, they updated their website with a post which reads: Regular readers of this blog will know that we have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in RBKC [the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]. ALL OUR WARNINGS FELL ON DEAF EARS and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time. Links to their earlier posts prove it: in 2013 they warned that shutting down the blocks car park would mean just one narrow, restricted road for emergency vehicle access, something which eyewitnesses reported slowed down the fire engine response this morning; the same year, they wrote a long post about continuous electrical surges which had been causing fire hazards in the building (decisive action was only taken yesterday after highly distressed residents descended en masse on the estate office to demand help and assistance. They had woken to find smoke issuing from various electrical appliances in their homes, including the light fixtures, and descended in panic to the estate office to demand help) ; and in November 2016, their frustration about what they called inadequate fire escapes culminated in a frighteningly prescient post titled Playing With Fire: The Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring to an end the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block is the most likely reason those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice. Baby was 'dropped from ninth or tenth floor' of Grenfell Tower as fire raged Of course we dont know what caused the fire at Grenfell Tower yet, and finding out how this happened will be a painstaking task over the days to come. But whatever caused the initial spark, the fact that it escalated into an all-consuming blaze implies that something, somewhere went seriously wrong. Weve been here before. In 2009, a tower block fire at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London led to the loss of six lives and Southwark Councils criminal prosecution for fire safety lapses (the council paid a 570,000 fine.) Just three months ago, it was reported that a government delay in reviewing fire safety regulations for tower blocks one of the recommendations made after the Lakanal House inquest could lead to future tragedies. At that time, fire safety expert Sam Webb was reported as saying that there is a conflict between fire safety and the materials used to make buildings more energy efficient (The materials used are not fire-resistant and in some cases theyre flammable.) We know that the 1970s-built Grenfell Tower had recently been refurbished with modern materials, and that questions have been raised by people who escaped the building about whether the new cladding might have ignited and spread the fire: one man on LBC Radio this morning said that the cladding went up like a matchstick. Conservative MP Mike Penning, a former firefighter, told BBC News that the cladding was clearly spreading the fire We need to find out what went on. Those who questioned how Kensington could possibly have swung to Labour during the recent general election now have their answer. This is a borough with a serious wealth disparity: it is the most unaffordable area of London, yet it also has the highest rate of out-of-borough homeless placements, one of the highest rates of residential overcrowding, and one of the highest rates of wage inequality (the top quarter of earners in Kensington and Chelsea earn three times or more than the bottom quarter). Grenfell Tower fire: Appeals for help The Conservatives have consistently voted against tenants rights over the last few years, most memorably voting down a bill requiring landlords to make their homes fit for habitation, where 72 of the MPs voting against the measure were landlords themselves, in 2016. Little wonder Kensington fell out of love with them. And lets not forget that this is also a party which oversaw the loss of 7,000 firefighters over the last five years, leading to a 25 per cent reduction in the number of fire prevention visits to homes. As the still-burning Grenfell Tower shows, the time has come when even the politicians of boroughs like Kensington and Chelsea have to listen to the concerns of all their residents. Grenfell is where they shove all the people who dont have any choice, said an angry man to my friend this morning (shes still at the scene at the time of writing.) Now those people have lost almost everything everything except the blog they were keeping to detail their endless frustrations with the company contracted to take care of the building they lived in. That, at least, cannot be erased by the flames. Politicians said it after Lakanal House, but this time they actually have to mean it: something like this should never be allowed to happen again. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Since the advent of nuclear weapons, nations and grassroots movements across the world have sought to eliminate the risk they pose to life on Earth through nuclear prohibition and disarmament. The foundation for these efforts has been the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Article VI of which calls on its 190 signatories for a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. Last autumn, 123 states issued a call on the United Nations for a nuclear ban treaty, which lead to a draft of a legally-binding text to prohibit nuclear weapons on 22 May 2017. Now, from 15 June-7 July, representatives from roughly 130 nations will negotiate the final text and try to make the treaty a reality. Sadly, all the recognised nuclear-weapons states and their allies have voiced strong opposition to the historic talks. Though the five recognised nuclear powers are signatory to the NPT and have been obligated to pursue disarmament for nearly 50 years, they have not only failed to do so but now have far-reaching plans to upgrade and extend the lifespans of their nuclear weapons. Even more egregious, they have de facto supported the proliferation of nuclear weapons by establishing strategic relations with countries like India, Pakistan and Israel, which have rejected the NPT and amassed sizeable weapons arsenals. All told, there exist about 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, of which the US and Russia possess around 7,000 each. Americas nuclear modernisation program alone is estimated to cost the country $1 trillion over the next 30 years. Since the NPT went into effect, the reality has been that the world has been split between the haves and have-nots of nuclear weapons, and the haves have been able to selectively agree on the new haves. This longstanding status quo has now led to a majority of nations cognisant that the world has been held hostage to the weapons stockpiles of the nuclear-armed states to push for a prohibition treaty, to put political and legal restraints on the possession of nuclear weapons. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty One state supporting the ban treaty negotiations, Iran, can play a unique role in making the talks a success. Three chief reasons explain why Iran can and should be a strong advocate to advance the causes of nuclear non-proliferation and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). First, the July 2015 nuclear deal agreed to by Iran and six major world powers formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) sets a new global nuclear non-proliferation standard far stronger than the NPT. As President Obama has stated, the deal cuts off every single one of Irans pathways to a [] nuclear weapons program, and establishes the most comprehensive and intrusive inspection and verification regime ever negotiated. Consequently, the JCPOA can serve as a new basis for the verification and enforcement provisions of the disarmament treaty that the prohibition treaty will call for. To this end, Iran can play an instrumental role in pushing for the globalisation of the JCPOAs principles, and can even position itself as a regional nuclear fuel hub as part of future prohibition and disarmament treaties. What happened when US officials were asked why they criticised Iran but not Saudi Arabia Second, Irans long-established track record of seeking to advance the cause of nuclear non-proliferation gives it a responsibility to continue its role of spearheading non-proliferation initiatives. In 1974, Iran first proposed a Middle East nuclear-weapon-free zone (ME-NWFZ) at the UN General Assembly, which was passed by the body and has been renewed annually since 1980. The ban treaty negotiations provide Iran and other regional states the opportunity to realise a ME-NWFZ. Third, Iran is the only country that at the highest religious levels has issued religious edicts banning WMDs. Irans position in this regard was shaped during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, during which it was the victim of WMDs in the form of chemical weapons attacks, but refused to retaliate in kind due to religious considerations. This was due to a fatwa, or religious decree, by Irans revolutionary father Ayatollah Imam Khomeini, against the production or use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. Irans current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has upheld this fatwa, uniquely binding Iran to be unequivocally against WMDs of all kinds and making it a sincere voice in any WMD-prohibition debate. The ban treaty negotiations represent a potential major historical turning point, where a majority of the worlds nations will act to safeguard humanitys future from the threat of nuclear holocaust. While the nuclear-weapons states argue that they need their weapons for reasons of deterrence and strategic balance, their logic does not hold in a world where their nuclear-weapons monopoly is unsustainable. Increasingly, other countries may seek the same status relying on the same logic as the five-recognised nuclear-weapons powers. The North Korean case serves as an example of how an NPT member may leave the treaty and develop nuclear weapons. If global peace and stability is to be ensured for future generations, a new model for international security must be created, one that does not rely on WMDs of any kind. Iran, given its longstanding commitment to the non-proliferation of WMDs, must play a decisive role in ensuring the success of the nuclear ban treaty negotiations to bring about such a world. Ambassador Seyed Hossein Mousavian is Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at Princeton University and former head of Foreign Relation Committee of Irans National Security Council. His latest book, Iran and the United States: An Insiders view on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace was released in May 2014 Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa May and no other living politician of any political shade can take the blame for the Grenfell fire disaster. It has been an accident waiting to happen, after decades of failed housing policy and faulty shuttered-concrete building techniques dating back half a century. Ronan Point under a Labour government proved that the prefabricated high-rise architecture of the post-war era was a death-trap in the making. Both Labour and the Tories of the 1960s and 1970s oversaw such sprawling projects. Now, the blackened hulk of Grenfell, under a 21st-century Tory government, underlines the past folly of creating and patching up bunkers in the sky without adequate respect for fire safety. These hideous towers are inhuman, unsafe and most should have been torn down, not covered in flammable composite cladding. The exact cause, route of spread and final toll of this inferno have yet to be found. One thing is certain: no one party or politician can wholly be blamed nor cover themselves in glory on UK housing policy since the 1960s. State planning and local authority ownership, and privatised, devolved management both failed the residents of Grenfell Tower. Politics must be set aside in resolving the thorniest issue in social policy apart from the NHS. Anthony Rodriguez Middlesex The horrendous fire in West London clearly needs a thorough investigation. However, it highlights the need for effective fire safety. We need to ensure the fire service is funded better to prevent fire as much as fight it. My heart bleeds for those affected; we need to do more. Gary Martin London, E17 I applaud those courageous individuals who are working tirelessly with extraordinary heroism, determination, strength and resilience during the Grenfell disaster. The blaze raises many questions that need be answered about public health safety, the failure of alarm systems, availability of lifts, emergency exits, protective equipment and safety procedures used in emergency situations. Last but not least, it was heartening to know that Muslims have offered shelter, food, water, clothes and succour. This is a vivid testament of cross-cultural and religious benevolence, and community bonds at their best. Munjed Farid Al Qutob London, NW2 Indyref The word is that Nicola Sturgeon, with close advisers, is planning to rebrand a new Scottish referendum. As what? If it walks like a ref and talks like a ref, its a ref. Jill Stephenson Edinburgh Brexit Theresa May sought a clear mandate to proceed with a hard Brexit, but her reckless election gamble has left her struggling to command a majority for any version of departure. Devoid of an innate ability to handle an unruly House of Commons, it is clear she must have a formal coalition on the subject with the other parties and nations of the UK. Her best hope is that France and Germany will broker a deal involving a reformed system of free movement, of the sort Angela Merkel mistakenly refused to offer David Cameron. Macron and Merkel will hopefully grasp this unexpected opportunity to keep the UK within the single market and the customs union, and guide the EU out of this fatuous debacle. John Cameron St Andrews The considered view of Lord John Kerr is that Article 50 is reversible. He was our ambassador and UK Permanent Representative to the European Communities and European Union in the 1990s, and was one of the drafters of the constitutional treaty which included the process by which states can leave the EU. His view is supported by Xavier Bettel, the Luxembourg Prime Minister, and is now confirmed by Emmanuel Macron, the French President. The correct way forward, therefore, is for the British Government to establish what the true terms and consequences of Brexit really are. If they are such that they are significantly worse or even if they are no better than our current situation, the Government should put the matter to the general populace for their approval to go ahead with Brexit. I cannot see how a minority Government has either the legal or moral right to take the Brexit process to its conclusion, if, say, more than 50 per cent of the populace disagree with the actual Brexit terms. David Ashton Kent Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin as he receives his seal of office as Taoiseach from President Michael D Higgins New Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has vowed to lead a government of "the new European centre". The son of an immigrant Indian doctor and Irish nurse was formally elected the country's youngest and first gay Taoiseach after securing 57 votes against 50 in the Dail. Some 45 parliamentarians abstained in the vote. Accepting his elevation to the most powerful office in the country, the 38-year-old leader of the minority ruling Fine Gael party rejected his characterisation as a right-winger. "The government I lead will not be one of left or right," he said. "While others in the house may be obsessed with the debates of the 1980s, I can assure you I am not and nor will my government. "We will be focused on the solutions of the 21st century and the future. "So the government I lead will be one of the new European centre, as we seek to build a republic of opportunity, and that is a republic in which every citizen gets a fair go and has the opportunity to succeed and in which every part of the country has a chance to share in our prosperity." A qualified doctor who has held three Cabinet posts, Mr Varadkar only revealed he was gay months before Ireland, once regarded among Europe's most socially conservative states, became the first country in the world to back same-sex marriage in a referendum in May 2015. His parents, Ashok and Miriam, and partner Matt Barrett, also a medic, were among the guests in the Dail's distinguished visitors' gallery for his election. Paying tribute to his predecessor, Enda Kenny, who resigned on Tuesday, Mr Varadkar said: "I have no doubt, only for him, this country as we know it would not be here today. "On a personal note, I would like to add, were it not for Enda Kenny I have no doubt I would not be standing here in this seat today." The new Taoiseach, Ireland's 13th, was elected to the office exactly 10 years to the day since he first took his seat in parliament as a TD for Dublin West. He has "grown and evolved" since then but was still motivated by a belief in the power of politics as the best way of solving problems and building a better future, he said. One of his first official contacts as leader will be to British Prime Minister Theresa May to pass on the sympathies of the Irish people following the London tower block fire. "The United Kingdom has been through some dreadful and terrible tragedies in the past few weeks, and to them, on behalf of this House, we offer our sympathies, solidarity and support," he said. Mr Varadkar also vowed a "genuine willingness" to work together with all parties "on matters relating to Northern Ireland and matters outside the State". "We all have responsibilities," he said. "Our responsibility as a government is as co-guarantor of the (Good Friday) Agreement and of course the responsibility of all parties in Northern Ireland, after two elections, is to form an administration." Mr Varadkar will meet the leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein in Dublin on Friday. "Leadership should never be about just one person," he said. "Leadership is not just about setting a course for the future, it is also about listening. In the months ahead, I will seek to do exactly that." Mr Kenny said his successor would meet urgent challenges, including Brexit and Ireland's future in the European Union, head on. "As the country's youngest holder of this office, he speaks for a new generation of Irish women and Irish men," he said. "He represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other, an Ireland in which each person can fulfil their potential and live their dreams." In a drawn out heave to replace Mr Kenny, Mr Varadkar secured the backing of a majority of the party's elected representatives earlier this month. His rival in the race, 44-year-old father of three Simon Coveney, had the hearts and minds of most of the grassroots membership and has since been appointed deputy leader. Mr Kenny announced last month he was stepping down after 15 years leading Fine Gael and six years as Taoiseach. He had been under sustained pressure within his own ranks to allow a successor to be elected so the party is prepared for the next general election. Questions already loom over how long Mr Varadkar can hold on to the office. The administration is propped up by Fine Gael's ancient rivals Fianna Fail as part of a supply and confidence arrangement after an unprecedented schism in the electorate. The European Parliament is set to vote in favour of strict new 2030 climate targets for agriculture and other non-industrial sectors, despite lobbying efforts by the Irish Farmers' Association. A vote tomorrow by the 751-seat Parliament is to endorse environment MEPs' bid to make it more difficult to use forests and grasslands to offset emissions cuts under the 2030 plan. The IFA was in Brussels last week to try to talk MEPs down from their attempts to toughen up the rules, which are the EU's contribution to the Paris climate accord. IFA environment chairman Thomas Cooney (above) said MEPs were "negatively targeting agriculture by seeking to significantly reduce the positive contribution that forestry is making to reducing greenhouse gas emissions". Under the new rules - which were proposed by the European Commission last summer, but have still to be agreed by MEPs and governments - Ireland would have to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 30pc by 2030 (compared to 2005 levels), but could offset up to 26.8 million tonnes of CO2 with savings from forestry or grassland. MEPs want to reduce those potential offsets to 18.2 million tonnes. The IFA said the move "would result in over nine million tonnes of carbon savings from forestry generated by farmers being disregarded". "Members of the European Parliament should not be unravelling existing agreements," Mr Cooney said. "They should be doing everything in their power to maximise the carbon-saving potential of agriculture." The EU wants to cut emissions in the agriculture, transport, building and waste sectors - those not covered by the bloc's carbon trading scheme - by 30pc by 2030 (on 2005 levels), as part of an overall target - including heavy industry - of 40pc (compared to 1990 levels). The issue for Ireland is that current projections for 2020 show the State will be 12 to 14 million tonnes of carbon off its target. At 40 a tonne, this means Ireland will have to write a cheque to the Commission in the region of 1bn. Bankers to AIB's 2.6bn to 3.3bn initial public offering have ordered investors to lodge bids above the floor price as early indications confirm the Government will have little difficulty offloading a quarter slice of the bank. The development came as shares in the bank fell heavily yesterday following the publication of the prospectus on Monday evening, which set out the valuation range of the float. The Government is seeking to sell 679m shares, or 25pc of the bank, at 3.90 to 4.90 per share. That equates to a market capitalisation of 10.6bn-13.3bn. An over-allotment option, or greenshoe, would expand the deal to 29pc. The display of demand for the bank's shares at the lowest end of the range was widely expected, and has renewed speculation about the final valuation. As the Irish Independent reported last week, hedge funds are angling for 4.50 a share. That marks a mid point in the pricing range and is might win the Government market support for future share selldowns. Sources close to the deal said impaired loans and the relatively poor performance of PTSB's shares after their Government's selldown, as well as uncertainty about the impact of deferred tax assets will weigh on AIB's valuation. The Central Bank has reported a more than 300pc surge in whistle-blower calls in the first three months of this year, after the Irish Independent revealed that a dedicated hotline set up after the crash was not manned. In the first quarter of 2017, the Central Bank received 30 reports through its Whistleblower Desk - compared with nine in the same period in 2016, Deputy Governor Sharon Donnery told the Commission, or board, that oversees the regulator. That's according to minutes of a monthly meeting of the Commission held on April 28. In January, the Irish Independent reported the Central Bank's whistle-blower phone hotline was unmanned and voicemail was not activated. There were also issues with emails sent to the dedicated whistle-blower address not being answered. The helpline was originally set up and launched in the wake of the financial crisis as part of a so-called protected disclosure facility allowing staff in financial services companies to report questionable and illegal activity, particularly in banks. Minutes from January meeting of the Central Bank Commission showed members of the board expressed concern about the whistle-blower line being left unmanned. At the April board meeting the members were told that the spike in contact by whistle-blowers occurred around the time of media coverage of what was described as "the technical issues regarding the line". Responsibility for managing whistle-blower complaints was shifted from the Organisational Risk Division of the Central Bank to the Enforcement arm this year, which the Bank said was previously planned. The same minutes show that staffing issues remain a problem. There had been a 64pc increase in the number of staff in the last 10 years, with 200 more roles to be filled this year. With more than half of all vacancies being filled internally, and 70 staff at any time absent on secondment, the Central Bank said it does not believe that it will be feasible to expect all vacancies to be filled this year. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who comes from Tallaght in south Dublin, has been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in the birthday honours of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, for his services to the aviation and tourism industries, gender equity and support of indigenous education. It's one of the highest honours that can be received in Australia. Mr Joyce, who is now an Australian citizen, is joined by others including actress Cate Blanchett who received the award in the latest honours list. Mr Joyce was appointed CEO of Qantas in 2008, having previously headed its low-cost arm, JetStar. Following the global financial meltdown he was responsible for keeping Qantas flying when it endured arguably the worst crisis of its history. As Mr Joyce fought to turn around the ailing carrier, he received death threats and was forced to use bodyguards. He grounded the Qantas fleet in 2011 amid an acrimonious industrial dispute. On receiving the award, Mr Joyce told the 'Australian' newspaper that his parents "have always been his heroes" and how their work ethic and belief in education spurred him and his brothers to achieve success. "One thing I love about Australia is the fair-go mentality," Mr Joyce (50) said. "Everybody should have an equal go. People who try to impose their opinions - try to intimidate or get people to back down because maybe they have a weaker or lesser voice in some way - it's just something that is against the whole philosophy of this country. You have to stand up to that." He added: "I didn't fly in an aircraft until I started work at Aer Lingus at 23 because my family couldn't afford to fly anywhere on holidays. "This is why my parents have always been my heroes, because of their hard work and their dedication to making education the big leveller for people. "I think that was the reason myself and my brothers all did really well - thanks to the dedication of my parents." Holidaymakers are taking huge risks by not buying adequate travel insurance, a financial expert has warned. Families are leaving themselves financially exposed by having no travel cover in place or by having inadequate insurance. Many holidaymakers rely on the fact they have health insurance, but this often does not cover them for claims if they have problems while abroad, according to Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie. Some health insurance policies have no cover for foreign travel at all. Many people under-insure which means they will have no cover in the event of a claim, he said. Mr Goode warned medical treatment outside Ireland can be even more expensive than here. Most private hospitals abroad look for evidence of travel cover or seek a deposit on a credit card before they will treat a visitor. "A deposit of between 1,500 and 2,500 is not unusual and you can expect to pay between 750 and 1,000 per day depending on the hospital and the medical treatment required," he said. It can cost up to 30,000 for knee surgery in the UK. Some consumers rely on the limited cover on their health insurance plan for emergency medical treatment while abroad, but this may not be sufficient, Mr Goode said. Last year alone there were 219,000 holidays to the US and Canada, according to the Central Statistics Office. The US is one of the most expensive countries in the world for medical care. "Comprehensive cover when travelling to the US is an absolute must," he added. Mr Goode said holidaymakers with a pre-existing medical condition need to be careful. "If you don't have health insurance in place, many travel policies will exclude any conditions that have been treated for in the past 18 to 24 months." Large numbers of travellers under-insure. They may be away for longer than is covered on their policy. Others do not realise that hazardous sports, such as bungee jumping, may be excluded on their policy. "While travel insurance is important cover, the devil is always in the detail and many consumers still get caught out as they don't check everything in advance. "You have to understand that a policy that costs 75 for the family for the year which covers you up to 5m for medical expenses is going to have restrictions." Mr Goode said the golden rule is you must contact your travel insurer and your health insurer prior to travelling to double-check what is covered. He said holidaymakers need to check if there are any pre-existing exclusions on the policy. Also, check if there is an excess that you need to be aware of before travelling. An excess is the amount you have to pay before travelling. Dental cover is often limited on travel policies and may only apply in emergencies. Most policies are designed to cover hospital admissions only. This means that if you are treated in an A&E facility, but not admitted to the hospital, you could run up a sizeable bill which you will be expected to pay first, Mr Goode said. Apple has shed new light on its top-secret driverless car project, as chief executive Tim Cook described the challenge of building autonomous vehicles as "the mother of all" artificial intelligence projects. Mr Cook said Apple was ploughing resources into developing technology to control driverless vehicles, although he refused to rule out the Silicon Valley firm building its own car at some point. The Apple boss spoke as shares in his company and other US tech firms came under pressure amid concerns that a sector-wide boom is losing steam. Mr Cook tried to restore faith in Apple's ability to strike out into new territory with his most detailed comments yet about a venture shrouded in secrecy. "We're focusing on autonomous systems," said Mr Cook in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "Clearly one purpose of autonomous systems is self-driving cars. There are others. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI [artificial intelligence] projects." He added: "It's probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on." It was initially thought the company was going to challenge the automotive giants of Detroit, which are racing to build their own self-driving cars. But Apple's ambitions narrowed last year after Apple veteran Bob Mansfield was put in charge of the programme, dubbed Project Titan. Google parent company Alphabet has also shifted the focus of its driverless technology for installation in cars built by established automotive firms. The Bank of England has said insurers in Britain should hire a wide range of board members to avoid "group-think" and improve how companies are run. The BoE, which supervises insurers, proposed changes to its rules that make senior managers at insurers directly accountable for their actions. British companies in general have been urged by the government to appoint more women board members to boost diversity. Shareholder advisory group PIRC last month criticised Britain's largest insurer Prudential for the absence of a target to increase the number of women on its board. The Bank of England proposed that insurers should have a policy of considering a "broad set of qualities and competencies" when recruiting board members, and have a policy to promote diversity among board members. The Bank said diverse boards would provide a more effective challenge to management and bring a broader set of perspectives. These should help boards to identify a wider range of risks and be better able to understand their impact, which would in turn provide greater protection for policy holders, the BoE said in a consultation paper. (Reuters) David Bonderman, founding partner of TPG Capital, speaks during a panel discussion at the Bloomberg Year Ahead: 2015 conference in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg An Uber board member has resigned after making an inappropriate comment at a meeting addressing sexual harassment yesterday, marking the companys third high-profile departure in a week. US billionaire David Bonderman made the comment to fellow board member Ariana Huffington, of the Huffington Post, who was espousing the benefits of having more females on the Uber board of directors. Bonderman founded Texas Pacific Group (TPG) in 1992 with Jim Coulter and has served as its chairman since 2014. Hes also on the board of Ryanair Holdings Plc, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc., Kite Pharma Inc. and almost 20 other companies, according to Bloomberg. "Theres a lot of data that shows when theres one woman on the board, its much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board," Huffington told the group, according to the Washington Post. "Actually," Bonderman reportedly interrupted, "what it shows is, its much more likely there'll be more talking." Both Uber and TPG confirmed the resignation of Bonderman (74). Mr Bondermans resignation is just the most recent source of upheaval for the multi-national taxi company. Earlier this week the companys chief, Travis Kalanick, announced that he would be taking time away from the company. In an email to staff, Mr Kalanick said the decision to leave, which also comes after the sudden death of his mother in a boating accident, is part of an effort to create "Uber 2.0". The companys Senior Vice President, Emil Michael, also resigned this week. Uber is undergoing a major image-overhaul at the moment, focusing on reforming the companys culture after a series of internal sexual harassment allegations. Recommendations from a report by former US attorney general Eric H Holder were released yesterday, which focused on Ubers workplace culture. Holder had been hired to address mounting criticism of the company. The issue of sexual harassment, which is believed to have been included in the reports recommendations, was the reason for the board meeting at which Mr Borderman made his comments. There were 47 recommendations in total, spanning almost every aspect of the companys management. Under the proposals, senior managers will undergo mandatory leadership training and Ubers current position of head of diversity will be renamed as the chief diversity and inclusion officer and report directly to the chief executive or chief operating officer. Uber also will adopt a rule requiring that when the company is filling a key job, at least one woman and one minority candidate be interviewed before the hire can go forward. Following the meeting, Mr Bonderman (74) circulated an email to Uber employees, apologising for making the disrespectful comment and referring to it as "inappropriate." A few hours later he resigned and issued the statement: "Uber is examining the issues with its culture, and making significant changes and working to right what has been done wrong, which is extremely important for the future of the company. "I do not want my comments to create distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud. I need to hold myself to the same standards that were asking Uber to adopt." Ms Huffington praised Mr Bondermans decision, saying he had done the "right thing" for the company. Following the decision, the Washington Post described Ubers situation as "corporate chaos." Glastonbury staff are working closely with police to make sure the festival is the most safe place that it can possibly be in the wake of the terror attacks in London and Manchester, co-organiser Emily Eavis has said. More than 150,000 people will flock to Worthy Farm in Somerset next week for the music and arts event and Eavis, the daughter of festival founder Michael, said every precaution was being taken to keep them safe. She told BBC 6Music: We have had a lot of security meetings in the last couple of weeks and our head of security, who is also in charge or the operations here, he is incredibly experienced in this area so we have put in place lots of extra provisions and extra security checks. We have sent an email out to the public to let them know that coming in will take a bit of extra time this year because we are going to doing extra searches and you will notice that on the way in, there will be extra space made for those searches to take place and some extra security and police. She added: We are working very closely with the police and we just want to make it as safe as possible and you can rest assured we have got the best team making sure that happens and that its the most safe place that it can possibly be. This years event is being headlined by Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran while Hollywood star Johnny Depp was recently added to the bill. The Pirates Of The Caribbean star, 54, is the guest of honour at a new drive-in movie area, Cineramageddon. Members of the Garda Underwater Unit at the Glenmacnass waterfall in the Wicklow Mountains yesterday. Photo: Collins Dublin The Wicklow Mountains are an incredible vista on the doorstep of our capital city. The small winding roads, the dense foliage and vast terrains give it an other-worldly feel despite being only a short drive from the sprawling metropolis of Dublin. This unique landscape has also combined to make the area a favourite burial ground among murderers. And since 1925 a startling number of young women have been found dead in the area. Names like Antoinette Smith - a young mother of two - who was murdered after attending the David Bowie concert in Slane in 1987. Her body was discovered a year later dumped in a drain by a turf-cutters' road outside Enniskerry. Phyllis Murphy was murdered in 1979 but it took some 20 years before gardai would track down her killer, John Crerar, using advances in DNA. And more recently Marioara Rostas - a Roma girl (18) who was kidnapped off the street, repeatedly raped and murdered before she was buried in a shallow grave in the Wicklow mountains, to be discovered some 1,500 days later. Each case shows new levels of depravity and violence. Given the gruesome history you could forgive gardai and emergency workers in the area for feeling a little detached from this latest perverse episode. But this week senior officers have described their horror and personal anguish at the depraved act that has taken place. What now appears to have happened is that a young woman was brutally murdered at an unknown location. Her body was then chopped up by one or more people and this was then driven along Military Road, right in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains, where at intervals parts were discarded unceremoniously in grass, forest and water. Last Saturday, a family returning from a picnic made the first chilling find. Frustrated that their car had been broken into, a crime that is in no way connected to the murder, the young family went searching the area for their stolen items. Instead they located part of a torso. More members of the public made the second find a day later. Yesterday, the most significant discovery was made. A head and hands were discovered wrapped inside a plastic bag. The find was made approximately 3km from Glenmacnass waterfall, around lunch time. There can be little doubt that advances in technology and Garda practice have helped detectives to bring this result around so fast. This shows that dedicated police work, and a willingness to pursue an investigation to the end, even if it does sometimes lead you the wrong direction, can bring about faster results. However, this will be little comfort to her family, or indeed to the many other families whose beloved relatives have been murdered in the Wicklow Mountains. Allegations former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan attacked the character of whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe have been supported by witnesses who have come forward to the Disclosures Tribunal. Counsel for the tribunal Diarmaid McGuinness SC said "allegations of the systematic destruction of the character of Sgt McCabe" were "to some extent" supported by a number of witnesses who had come forward to disclose conversations they had with Mr Callinan. These included journalists, he told a sitting of the tribunal. Mr McGuinness said these accounts had been vehemently denied by Mr Callinan. The barrister also said there had been no direct evidence from potential witness that current Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan was involved in spreading unpleasant or nasty comments about Sgt McCabe. He also said Ms OSullivan appeared not to know about a meeting between Mr Callinan and John McGuinness, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in the car park of Bewleys Hotel in Dublin on January 24, 2014. Counsel for the tribunal said that PAC chairmans account was accepted the conversation included inappropriate comment from which it could be inferred Mr Callinan had the motivation and emotional charge to attack the character of Sgt McCabe and perhaps direct his press officer to do likewise. Former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan is alleged to have described whistleblower Maurice McCabe as a kiddie fiddler in conversation with the former chairman of the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The claim was made to the Disclosures Tribunal by former garda press officer David Taylor, who alleged the comment was made after a PAC meeting on January 23, 2014. It is alleged Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan, Garda communications director Andrew McLindon and Assistant Commissioner John OMahoney were also present when the comment was allegedly made. In a separate statement, former PAC chairman John McGuinness told the tribunal Mr Callinan told him at a meeting in the car park in Bewleys Hotel in Dublin the following day that rumours about Sgt McCabe were true, that he had sexually abused someone and was not credible. The TD said Mr Callinan asked him if he was aware Sgt McCabe had abused family members and suggested he had gotten the committee into a lot of trouble for investigating the penalty points controversy. Details of the alleged comments, which Mr Callinan vehemently denies making, were revealed at the Disclosures Tribunal today. Counsel for the tribunal Diarmaid McGuinness said allegations of the systematic destruction of the character of Sgt McCabe were to some extent supported by a number of witnesses who had come forward to disclose conversations they had with Mr Callinan. These included a number of journalists and John McGuinness. The barrister also said there had been no direct evidence from potential witnesses that current Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan was involved in spreading unpleasant or nasty comments about Sgt McCabe. He also said Ms OSullivan appeared not to know about the meeting between Mr Callinan and John McGuinness at Bewleys. Counsel said that if the former PAC chairmans account was accepted, the conversation included inappropriate comment from which it could be inferred Mr Callinan had the motivation and emotional charge to attack the character of Sgt McCabe and perhaps direct his press officer to do likewise. The tribunal is investigating allegations made by the former Garda press officer, Superintendent David Taylor, that he was directed by Mr Callinan to brief against Sgt McCabe. Supt Taylor has also said that while he was not directed by current Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan, she was aware of what was going on. Ms OSullivan has denied any knowledge. In a response to the tribunal, Mr Callinan gave a different account of the conversations with Mr McGuinness. The word paedophile never entered the conversation, he said in relation to the Bewleys meeting. I never at any stage indicated to Mr McGuinness that Sgt McCabe abused anyone or that an investigation was underway. I never at any stage indicated to Mr McGuinness that Sgt McCabe had sexually abused a family member and that he was not reliable. Mr Callinan insisted Mr McGuinness told him he already knew of certain allegations, which proved to be totally unfounded, that circulated at the time about Sgt McCabe. In relation to the alleged conversation following the PAC meeting, Mr Callinan said the assertion that I said this man fiddles with children is outrageous, is simply incorrect and untrue. However, Diarmaid McGuinness told the tribunal that the Comptroller & Auditor General Seamus McCarthy had also given an account of a conversation he had with Mr Callinan after the PAC hearing. Mr McCarthy said Mr Callinan told him that Sgt McCabe was not to trusted, that he had questions to answer and there were sexual allegations against him. The tribunal heard Mr Callinan recalled speaking with Mr McCarthy, but denied introducing any allegations about Sgt McCabe into the conversation. Counsel for the tribunal also gave details of a statement provided by RTE journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes, a presenter of the Crimecall programme. He detailed how a stand-off ensued between RTE and the commissioner when Mr Callinan indicated he would not answer questions about the penalty points controversy during a scheduled appearance on December 17, 2013. In a bid to defuse the situation, the journalist said he spoke Mr Callinan in a corridor. He said Mr Callinan was only willing to offer background information, but this largely related to Sgt McCabe and another whistleblower, John Wilson, rather than the substantive penalty points issue. The journalist said the then commissioner told him Sgt McCabe was trouble, had psychiatric issues, was motivated against Garda management and was not to be trusted. He said Mr Callinan told him he knew horrific things and the worst kind of things about Sgt McCabe. Mr Boucher-Hayes said he was told that if he wanted to know more he should speak to Supt Taylor. The journalist said immediately after the programme he was buttonholed by Supt Taylor who said to him: Now you understand what the problem is with Maurice McCabe and penalty points. The account of the conversation with Mr Boucher-Hayes is being disputed by Mr Callinan. Earlier, Diarmaid McGuinness said Supt Taylor alleged he was briefing the media negatively to the affect that an allegation of criminal misconduct had been made against Sgt McCabe in December 2006, relating to an event which had supposedly taken place in his house as far back as 1998. The barrister said that when this complaint was referred to the DPP, the referring officer said, based on the facts presented, no sexual assault had occurred. The DPP directed there should be no prosecution. Counsel said that it would have been shocking if Supt Taylor had spread the story off his own bat. But he said it would be even more shocking if those tasked with leading the Garda Siochana were to resort to a culture of deceit in order to destroy those whom it was thought were making life uncomfortable for them. The barrister said the tribunal had been unable to find evidence that any professional media organisation took up and ran with the allegations. An Irishman described by the FBI as the world's 'largest facilitator of child pornography' will make a last-ditch legal bid later this month aimed at halting his extradition to the United States. Eric Eoin Marques, who is alleged to be the owner and administrator of an anonymous hosting site known as Freedom Hosting, is wanted by the US authorities to face charges relating to conspiring to distribute and advertise child pornography and advertising and distributing child pornography. The charges against Mr Marques relate to images on over a hundred anonymous websites described as being extremely violent, graphic and depicting the rape and torture of pre-pubescent children. The 30-year-old with an address at Mountjoy Square in central Dublin, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2013. His surrender was ordered by the High Court in 2015 December, which he opposed. His appeal against that order was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Mr Marques also brought actions over the DPP's decision not to prosecute him in respect of the offences for which his surrender is sought. He had offered to plead guilty to the alleged offences in Ireland. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal dismissed that action. Last month the Supreme Court turned down Marques bid to bring an appeal on that issue before it. An application to the European Court of Human Rights, that would have put a stay on the extradition, had also been unsuccessful, the High Court has heard. Mr Marques has now launched fresh judicial review proceedings aimed at halting his surrender over the Minister for Justice's alleged refusal to use her discretion to halt his extradition. Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly fixed June 30 next as the date for hearing. A discovery application in respect of records that were before the Minister when she allegedly refused to use her discretion will be heard on June 26. Court of Appeal Dismissing Mr Marques' earlier legal actions in the Court of Appeal last December, Mr Justice Michael Peart said he agreed with the High Court's conclusion that the DPP's decision not to prosecute Mr Marques in Ireland was not reviewable and the Director was not obliged to give reasons for her decision not to prosecute. Mr Marques had no right be it statutory, constitutional or otherwise to be prosecuted for an offence here even where he offers to plead guilty. There was simply no such right known to the law, Mr Justice Peart said. Citing case law, he said the constitutional right of access to the courts is a right to initiate litigation, not a right to compel suit or prosecution. Mr Justice Peart said Mr Marques had no free standing right to be given reasons for the decision not to prosecute. If he had no right to even request what he was requesting, he had no right to reasons why his request was refused. Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan said they agreed with Mr Justice Peart's judgment. Dismissing Mr Marques' appeal against his extradition order, Mr Justice Peart said the single ground of appeal was essentially that, if he was convicted, Mr Marques would be exposed to a sentencing regime in America that would be unconstitutional here. It was submitted that a sentencing jugde in America is obliged to take account of other uncharged conduct as well as conduct an accused has been acquitted of at sentencing and to do so on the lower standard or proof on the balance of probabilities. Mr Justice Peart said the apprehensions expressed by Mr Marques were based on speculation. In so far as he feared that a potential sentence could be enhanced by reference to him allegedly making a financial gain, that fear could not amount to a substantial or real risk of unfairness. Mr Justice Peart said he agreed with the High Court judge's conclusions that all of the common law cases referred to the court concerned the burden of proof at trial. None of them demonstrated a universal requirement that all matters at sentencing be determined beyond reasonable doubt. Referring to the European Court of Human Rights case known as 'Abu Qatada v the United Kingdon', Mr Justice Peart said the facts relied on by Mr Marques cannot by any stretch of the imagination be compared to the heinous and egregious prospect of a conviction based upon evidence or confessions extracted through the use of torture. That, unlike the apprehended regime in the present case, was something that very clearly breached an international norm. Mr Justice Birmingham and Mr Justice Sheehan again said they agreed with Mr Justice Peart's judgment. Gardai investigating the murder of Mark Desmond have made two further arrests this morning. The men, both in their late 20s, were arrested by gardai in the Clondalkin area in west Dublin. On Tuesday a former criminal associate and close friend of Mark Desmond has been arrested by armed gardai in relation to his murder. Desmond, who was known as the 'Guinea Pig', was shot dead last December in a west Dublin park. He was the chief suspect in at least four murders and had been working for a drugs gang at the time of his killing. Early yesterday, heavily armed gardai raided two properties in west Dublin and arrested two men, one aged 39, the other aged in his 20s. The Irish Independent can reveal that one of these men was a long-time associate of Desmond (41) and had been involved in the drug trade with him. The 39-year-old man is also a target of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and his home was recently raided. He is originally from the Clondalkin area but currently has an address in another part of west Dublin. The man was previously questioned in relation to a 3m drug bust carried out by the then Garda National Drug Unit. However, he was never charged in relation to the seizure. Exam chiefs are investigating a breach in security that led to the Leaving Certificate higher level Irish Paper 2 being posted on Facebook. Screen grabs of the paper appeared online within an hour of about 21,500 candidates sitting down to start the three-hour exam at 9.30am yesterday. The paper turned up on a forum hosted by teachers of Irish. It is a private social media account, known as Muinteoiri Gaeilge, to which about 3,000 teachers have access. The premature public release of the paper could not have worked to the benefit of any student, as candidates must be in the hall within 30 minutes of the start of an exam, and the Facebook posting came after that. Strict security surrounds the annual Leaving and Junior Certificate exams - and the State Examinations Commission (SEC) treats any breaches or suspected breaches of protocols very seriously. An SEC spokesperson said they were satisfied that the release of the paper had not compromised the integrity of the exam. However, the spokesperson said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the release of the paper on to a closed social media account. It is not known whether someone took the paper out of an exam centre, or had electronic access to it. As well as strict limits on when candidates can enter an exam centre, there are also rules about how early they can leave. Students must stay in the hall for at least 30 minutes after the start of the exam, and any student who finishes before the scheduled time may leave only after handing in their sealed answer paper, and the exam paper. The release of papers before the end of exams is in breach of SEC protocols for the custody of exam papers, the SEC spokesperson added. The unauthorised release of exam papers is covered by the Education Act. Because the Facebook posting did not compromise the integrity of the exam, there is no question of candidates having to resit the paper, which was the second of two for students of Irish higher level. While the SEC is satisfied that there has been no damage to the integrity of the exam, the issue does highlight the growing challenge to exam security arising from the spread of social media. The SEC will be keen to get to the bottom of the incident, at the very least to establish if it needs to put any more safeguards in place to protect the process. One of the popular themes of this year's exams, Brexit, featured again in the Junior Certificate higher level business exam. The 'B Word' itself wasn't used in the question, but candidates were asked about the impact of Britain leaving the EU. Teacher Vanessa Byrne of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) approved of the "simple" language in the question, which would be a help to those who may not have understood the term Brexit. Higher level candidates sat two papers and, Ms Byrne, who teaches at Presentation College, Askea, Co Carlow, said students were "very happy" after their day's exams. Ruairi Farrell of the Teachers' Union of Ireland agreed the papers were fair. A teacher at Colaiste Chraobh Abhann, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, Mr Farrell said that the second paper was more challenging than the first, but that was to be expected. But Mr Farrell said there was "plenty of choice" on the afternoon paper. Padraic McWeeney, also of the ASTI, and a teacher at St Mel's, Co Longford, described the higher level paper as a "good mix between the familiar and some topical issues". The paper included a home budgeting question involving a couple where one had been promoted and the other was taking parental leave. Even though Brexit is not on the syllabus, Mr McWeeney said students would have read about it and he welcomed questions on such topical issues. Mr Farrell described the ordinary level paper as "very student-friendly". Some widely anticipated topics surfaced on the Leaving Certificate higher level Irish Paper 2, which would have pleased students. One such was the poem 'Geibheann', which, according to teacher Robbie Cronin, a representative for the Association of Secondary Teachers' Ireland (ASTI), "all the students were predicting as it hadn't been asked for a while". Ruth Morrissey, of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), said students were delighted with its appearance and the questions asked. Ms Morrissey, of St Michael's Community College, Kilmihil, Co Clare, said students would also have been expecting something about TG4, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and which was the subject of one of the comprehension texts. While she said students felt the language was friendlier than in previous years, Mr Cronin of Marian College, Ballsbridge, Dublin, said there were different levels of questioning and some students found it tough. Mr Cronin also thought the second comprehension, on the Syrian crisis, was "difficult although being able to take the answers directly from the text makes it a bit easier." Ms Morrissey said students may also have anticipated 'Hurlamaboc' in the prose section. She had "no difficulties" with ordinary level, although Mr Cronin regarded the text on the comprehension, about the Wild Atlantic Way as "quite challenging". However, she said the questions were "accessible." Among his other quibbles were that the question on the film, 'Caca Milis', "was very wordy". He also pointed to the question on the poem 'Colscaradh/ Divorce': "Not only were students asked about what the solution to the problem was, they were asked if they thought if it was a satisfactory one!" The shooting of three teenagers at a bonfire has led to fears of a further escalation of violence in north Dublin. The young men were struck by shotgun pellets after a man opened fire at Shangan Green, Ballymun, shortly before 8pm on Monday. The pellets sprayed out and hit the victims, causing minor injuries to their necks and heads. It has emerged that one of the three injured teenagers had been stabbed in the arm just hours earlier. The males, aged in their late teens, were taken by three ambulances to the Mater Hospital and Temple Street Children's Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries. Local councillor Noeleen Reilly said the attack was "disgraceful" and called for the allocation of increased Garda resources in the area. She said: "We have never had fewer gardai on the beat in Ballymun. The shooting last night has shocked the community and we are terrified of an escalation of this violence." A source said the two incidents were "most likely" connected to a local feud. The teenager who was both stabbed and shot is linked to notorious criminal Glen Kiely, who was himself injured in a shooting in Ballymun at the start of the year. Kiely (30), who has more than 40 convictions and was previously jailed for his part in a violent attack on a man, was struck a number of times in January. It is believed that the attack on Kiely was carried out by members of the so-called 'New INLA' as part of a dispute between gangs that has been ongoing since the murder of Ian McConnell (28), who was shot dead in Ballymun 11 years ago. The source added: "This incident last night had the potential to be fatal. The shooter fired indiscriminately at a group of men standing at a bonfire from around 40 metres. "Any number of innocent people could have been injured or worse." The number of abortions in 2016 is a slight dip from 3,451 in 2015 and compares with 6,673 in 2001. (Stock picture) Some 141 late abortions were performed on women from the Republic in the UK last year on the grounds that their baby would be born with a severe disability, including Down Syndrome. The women, who were more than 24 weeks pregnant and were granted terminations under special grounds, were among 3,265 who travelled to UK clinics for an abortion last year, new figures reveal. The severe disability grounds recorded included fatal foetal abnormalities such as Edward's Syndrome and anecephaly, where the baby would be born without a full brain. However, 43 of the abortions were carried out on babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome and on six assessed as having spina bifida. Nine were carried out on babies with severe congenital heart defects. Most abortions relate to unwanted or unplanned pregnancy, and 677 of the women had a previous termination. Nearly half of the women were married or in a civil partnership, while 753 had no partner. The number of abortions in 2016 is a slight dip from 3,451 in 2015 and compares with 6,673 in 2001. However, the HSE pointed to the high numbers of women in the Republic inquiring about buying abortion pills over the internet. Helen Deely of the HSE said figures from one online provider showed a 162pc rise in contacts from the Republic over five years - up from 548 in 2010 to 1,438 in 2015 - although it is unclear how many were purchased. The 2016 figures show 240 abortions among teenagers, including 10 under 16 years of age. There were 255 terminations by women over 40, but the majority were among women in their 20s and 30s. Some 1,175 women gave Dublin as their address, followed by Cork (241), Kildare (130), Galway (113), and Meath (100). Some 520 did not provide county details. Niall Behan, chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association, said forcing women to go abroad for abortion was "reproductive coercion". Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign, however, said the decline over 15 years was a "very welcome development". Leo Varadkar was named as the new leader of Fine Gael Leo Varadkar will today be elected as Ireland's youngest ever Tasoieach. Enda Kenny will nominate his successor Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach in the Dail today. Mr Kenny, who officially stepped down as the countrys leader yesterday, will make a short address in the Dail before proposing Mr Varadkar as the new Taoiseach. Fine Gaels Dublin Rathdown TD Josepha Madigan will second Mr Varadkar in the Dail. Ms Madigan is a first-time TD and was an influential member of Mr Varadkars Fine Gael election campaign team. The Dail vote and debate on the Taoiseach is scheduled for midday. The new Taoiseach will then travel to Aras an Uachtarain to receive his seal of office. He is then due to take calls with world leaders who will congratulate Mr Varadkar on his appointment. It is expected he will begin calling TDs and ministers about Cabinet changes at this stage. The new Cabinet will be presented to the Dail at around 6pm. Among those tipped for promotion are junior ministers Michael Ring and Eoghan Murphy. Mr Murphy led Mr Varadkar's leadership campaign. Speaking this morning Mr Kenny said he was "happy to conclude my business as Taoiseach" at the launch of National Gallery of Ireland. Kenny attended the event with his Minister Heather Humphreys and Paschal Donohoe. Asked if he had any words of advice for Leo Varadkar he replied: "I am here to open the gallery that's what I'm confining my business to at the moment. The Dail will do its business afterwards and I want to wish Leo and the ministers the best of luck in the many challenges ahead. "The country is in good shape, much better than it was and I'm sure the incoming government will mind itself very carefully in the interests of the people" Garda closure at the Sally Gap/Laragh crossroads, Wicklow after human remains are discovered. Photo: Kyran O'Brien Garda closure at the Sally Gap/Laragh crossroads, Wicklow after human remains are discovered. Photo: Kyran O'Brien Garda close a road by the Sally Gap in the Wicklow Mountains after further human remains believed to be from a murdered young man have been found dumped in the area Members of the Garda Underwater Unit at the Glenmacnass waterfall in the Wicklow Mountains yesterday. Photo: Collins Dublin Defence Forces personnel assist Garda officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains after human remains were found DETECTIVES have arrested a man in connection with the murder of a female relative, whose dismembered remains were found dumped in the Wicklow Mountains. Gardai believe the woman in her late fifties was killed during a row in which she was struck over the head with a blunt instrument. Officers are working on the theory she was murdered in Dublin and an attempt was then made to dispose of her body in a shallow grave in Co Wexford. Several crime scenes have now been sealed off in Rathfarnham; a grave area near Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford; near the Hellfire Club and other parts of the Dublin-Wicklow Mountains. A number of body parts have now been recovered by officers including a torso, legs as well as a head and arms in a plastic bag. A major investigation led by Assistant Commissioner Fintan Fanning of the South Eastern Division, Supt Pat Ward and Det Supt Frank Keneghan of Bray gardai made a breakthroug last night with the arrest of the suspect, who is in his 30s, in Co Wexford. Expand Close Defence Forces personnel assist Garda officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains after human remains were found / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Defence Forces personnel assist Garda officers searching the Military Road area in the Wicklow Mountains after human remains were found The gardai are working on the theory there was a row involving the middle-aged woman up to 10 days ago. They fear the killer struck her over the head in a violent row and then placed the body in the boot of his car. The killer then drove to the Kilmuckridge area where he dug a grave and tried to dispose of her body. Teeth and hair thought to be from the victim were found at a suspected crime scene there. Expand Close Members of the Garda Underwater Unit at the Glenmacnass waterfall in the Wicklow Mountains yesterday. Photo: Collins Dublin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the Garda Underwater Unit at the Glenmacnass waterfall in the Wicklow Mountains yesterday. Photo: Collins Dublin Officers believe the killer panicked when he struck hard ground and put the body back into the boot of his car. At some stage he cut up the womans body with a hacksaw. He made the return journey to Dublin and started disposing of the body parts across an area of at least 30km in and around the Wicklow Mountains. Read More The woman was reported missing earlier this month but nothing at the time suggested her disappearance was suspicious. Gardai based at Bray, Co Wicklow, got their first big breakthrough last night with the arrest of a suspect in the case. Officers have been working flat out on this case for the last few days and we got a lucky break yesterday when we identified a suspect, a source told the Irish Independent. Expand Close Garda close a road by the Sally Gap in the Wicklow Mountains after further human remains believed to be from a murdered young man have been found dumped in the area / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Garda close a road by the Sally Gap in the Wicklow Mountains after further human remains believed to be from a murdered young man have been found dumped in the area The investigation team is now searching for the weapons used in the crime. Gardai initially believed that the human remains recovered over the last number of days were that of an adult male aged in his mid-20s. Expand Close Garda closure at the Sally Gap/Laragh crossroads, Wicklow after human remains are discovered. Photo: Kyran O'Brien / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Garda closure at the Sally Gap/Laragh crossroads, Wicklow after human remains are discovered. Photo: Kyran O'Brien However, DNA results confirmed that the dismembered remains actually belonged to a adult woman. A garda spokeswoman last night confirmed: As part of this ongoing murder investigation a man is his early 30s was arrested late this evening in Wexford and is currently detained in garda custody. Over 200 gardai and Defence Forces personnel have been involved in the large-scale search operation. Members of the Garda Water Unit and Dog Unit are also involved. Shortly after 1pm yesterday a human head was found around 3km north of Glenmacnass waterfall, where remains had previously been found. Further remains, including an arm, were located later in the afternoon. A partial torso, a leg, a backbone and internal organs were recovered as part of the investigation. The initial discovery was made by walkers on Old Military Road at 7.45pm on Saturday. A family returned from a hike to discover that their car had been broken into. As they searched the area for their belongings, they made the grim discovery. The theft was coincidental and is not linked to the investigation into the human remains. A source stated that the body parts that have so far been recovered had been badly mutilated, with certain remains including the head and hands recovered in plastic bags. Supt Pat Ward last night confirmed the gruesome discovery of limbs and more torso parts. The findings today reveal, and I may be a little gruesome in what I have to say, and Im particularly conscious of the fact that the body found is that of a loved one, but I have to say that what we have found today are limbs and weve also found some significant parts of the torso. And weve also found in one of the locations, a bag with the head and hands of the deceased, Supt Ward said. The forensic examinations that have been carried out now indicate that the body is that of a female an adult female. While earlier indications were that the body was that of a male, the significant investigations and complex investigations up to this point now indicate that the body is that of an adult female, the senior investigator added. The Lord Mayor of Dublin has called for residents of the city to stand against racism after a video emerged online showing a young black woman being physically and verbally abused. The attack occurred in front of shoppers on O'Connell Street last month and was posted online on Sunday. Responding to the video, first reported on in the Irish Daily Star, Mayor Brendan Carr (Lab) said it was a "sickening and disgusting" attack. "It's an isolated incident but when it does happen we need to let the victims know that we stand with them and we need to let the perpetrators know that we won't stand for it." In the video a female attacker can be seen tussling with the young black woman and punching her in the head. When the black woman manages to drag her attacker to the ground a man steps in and pulls her away by the arm. A security guard then tries to separate the pair as the victim shouts "she hit me first". It is at this point that the attacker screams "you're a n****r". She calls the young black woman a "n****r" a further seven times, also accusing the victim of "putting on that accent". The video has already caused outrage since it was posted on Youtube at the weekend. The person who filmed the incident said it was captured on May 28 and posted on Show Me TV this weekend. He told Independent.ie: "I was just walking Down O'Connell street and I saw the white girl bumped off the black girl and called her a n****r and very quickly it turned into a fight. " Mayor Carr said: "We made huge efforts this year under the interfaith forum mode to sign a charter to do away with racist and xenophobic views. "It's not normal in Dublin to have these kinds of attacks. It's a sickening and disgusting attack and the perpetrators should be brought to justice. "It is not reflective of Dublin, it is not who we are," he said: "Anyone who expresses racist views in the city is not welcome." He said everyone who wants to come into the city can "have their own culture or religion as long as they don't interfere with anybody else". The video has emerged just two weeks after another clip, showed a young girl being violently dragged to the ground and beaten outside a pizza restaurant in Limerick. During the attack the assailant screamed: "The next time you get cheeky with me I'll murder you, you dirty spring roll." A man discovered with serious injuries in the underground car park of a Dublin apartment block has died. Gardai have renewed their appeal for help after the victim was pronounced dead at Beaumont Hospital last night. The man was discovered in the underground car park at Carnegie Court Apartments on North Street, Swords at 6am on Tuesday. He suffered blunt force trauma. The white male, believed to be in his late 30s/early 40s, with brown hair and of medium build. He was wearing a white Slazenger t-shirt, navy track suit bottoms and black Skecher runners - size 8. There was no form of identification on this man and he remains unidentified. It is not known at this stage how he sustained the injury. A source said gardai have no idea who the victim is and are desperately trying to identify him. Photos of the man will be circulated among garda members in a bid to identify him. Gardai have appealed for anyone who was in the area between the hours of 10pm on Monday night and 6 am on Tuesday to contact them at Swords Garda Station 6664700 the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111 or any Garda Station. The scene in Co Wexford where gardai are searching this morning A woman whose dismembered remains were found dumped in the Wicklow Mountains has been remembered as a much-loved mother and grandmother. The victim, named locally as Patricia O'Connor, was reported missing from her South Dublin home on June 2. Gardai believe Ms O'Connor, a chef in her late 50s, was killed during a row in which she was struck over the head with a blunt instrument. Officers are working on the theory she was murdered in Dublin and an attempt was then made to dispose of her body in a shallow grave in Co Wexford. At least eight crime scenes have been sealed off, including a family home in Rathfarnham; a grave area near Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford; near the Hellfire Club and other parts of the Dublin-Wicklow Mountains. A man being held in connection with the murder of grandmother Patricia O'Connor will be held overnight. A decision over whether to charge or release him will be made by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the morning. Expand Close The scene in Co Wexford where gardai are searching this morning / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The scene in Co Wexford where gardai are searching this morning One neighbour described how the community was left horrified as news of the death emerged yesterday. "Patricia was a lovely woman, she moved out of the area ten years ago but returned around a year ago. Expand Close Members of the Garda Underwater Unit at the Glenmacnass waterfall in the Wicklow Mountains yesterday. Photo: Collins Dublin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the Garda Underwater Unit at the Glenmacnass waterfall in the Wicklow Mountains yesterday. Photo: Collins Dublin "She kept to herself but she would always say hello and goodbye. She was very polite." Mother-of-two Patricia had a number of grandchildren and she had worked up to recently as a chef in Mount Carmel Hospital, Churchtown. A number of body parts have now been recovered by officers including a torso, legs as well as a head and arms in a plastic bag. A major investigation led by Assistant Commissioner Fintan Fanning of the South Eastern Division, Supt Pat Ward and Det Supt Frank Keneghan of Bray gardai made a breakthrough last night with the arrest of a 32-year-old suspect in Co Wexford. The gardai are working on the theory there was a row involving the middle-aged woman up to 10 days ago. They fear the killer struck her over the head in a violent row and then placed the body in the boot of his car. Read More The killer then drove to the Kilmuckridge area where he dug a grave and tried to dispose of her body. Teeth and hair thought to be from the victim were found at a suspected crime scene there. Officers believe the killer later disinterred the body and returned it to the boot of his car. At some stage he cut up the womans body with a hacksaw. He made the return journey to Dublin and started disposing of the body parts across an area of at least 30km in and around the Wicklow Mountains. Ms O'Connor was reported missing on June 2 but nothing at the time suggested her disappearance was suspicious. Gardai based at Bray, Co Wicklow, got their first big breakthrough last night with the arrest of a suspect in the case. Officers have been working flat out on this case for the last few days and we got a lucky break yesterday when we identified a suspect, a source said. Independent.ie has learned that the suspect presented himself to gardai in Rathfarnham earlier this week and volunteered information about the investigation. The suspect helped gardai with their inquiries and was brought by officers to a scene in Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford. He was subsequently arrested at this locatiion. The investigation team is now searching for the weapons used in the crime. Gardai initially believed that the human remains recovered over the last number of days were that of an adult male aged in his mid-20s. However, DNA results confirmed that the dismembered remains actually belonged to a adult woman. A garda spokeswoman last night confirmed: As part of this ongoing murder investigation a man is his early 30s was arrested late this evening in Wexford and is currently detained in garda custody. Over 200 gardai and Defence Forces personnel have been involved in the large-scale search operation. Members of the Garda Water Unit and Dog Unit are also involved. Shortly after 1pm yesterday a human head was found around 3km north of Glenmacnass waterfall, where remains had previously been found. Further remains, including an arm, were located later in the afternoon. A partial torso, a leg, a backbone and internal organs were recovered as part of the investigation. The initial discovery was made by walkers on Old Military Road at 7.45pm on Saturday. A family returned from a hike to discover that their car had been broken into. As they searched the area for their belongings, they made the grim discovery. The theft was coincidental and is not linked to the investigation into the human remains. A source stated that the body parts that have so far been recovered had been badly mutilated, with certain remains including the head and hands recovered in plastic bags. Supt Pat Ward last night confirmed the gruesome discovery of limbs and more torso parts. The findings today reveal, and I may be a little gruesome in what I have to say, and Im particularly conscious of the fact that the body found is that of a loved one, but I have to say that what we have found today are limbs and weve also found some significant parts of the torso. And weve also found in one of the locations, a bag with the head and hands of the deceased, Supt Ward said. The forensic examinations that have been carried out now indicate that the body is that of a female an adult female. While earlier indications were that the body was that of a male, the significant investigations and complex investigations up to this point now indicate that the body is that of an adult female, the senior investigator added. Leo Varadkar surrounded by his political supporters at the Mansion House in Dublin during the Fine Gael leadership contest. Photo: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Taoiseach Leo Varadkars Cabinet has just three new faces but includes a series of departmental changes. In the biggest switches leadership rival Simon Coveney is moving to the Department of Foreign Affairs while Charlie Flanagan is to take over the embattled Department of Justice. Mayo TD Michael Ring and Dublin Bay South TD Eoghan Murphy have been promoted from the junior ranks to Minister for Rural Affairs and Minister for Housing respectively. Donegal TD Joe McHugh is the new Government Chief Whip and will also be Minister for the Gaeltacht. Regina Doherty, the current chief whip, is to become the new Minister for Social Protection, taking over from Mr Varadkar. Frances Fitzgerald is to remain as Tanaiste and will move to the Department of Jobs and Enterprise, while Paschal Donohoe is to become Finance Minister. Expand Close President Michael Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar Credit: Steve Humphries / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp President Michael Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar Credit: Steve Humphries Simon Harris has been reappointed as Health Minister, despite being the only Cabinet member to back Mr Coveney in the leadership battle. Significantly Mr Varadkar only demoted one minister, Mary Mitchell OConnor, who is likely to become a super junior minister with responsibility for higher education. This means she can sit at the Cabinet table but no longer has voting rights. Other junior minister who will sit at Cabinet are Paul Kehoe (Defence) and Finian McGrath (Disabilities). Among the ministers staying in their current portfolios are Michael Creed (Agriculture), Richard Bruton (Education), Shane Ross (Transport), Katherine Zappone (Children) and Denis Naughten (Communications, Climate Change and Environment). The Cabinet list is: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise & Innovation Frances Fitzgerald Minister for Finance and Department of Public Expenditure & Reform Paschal Donohoe Minister for Health Simon Harris Minister for Justice & Equality Charlie Flanagan Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine Michael Creed Minister for Education & Skills Richard Bruton Minister for Employment & Social Protection Regina Doherty Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade Simon Coveney Minister for Housing, Planning & Local Government Eoghan Murphy Minister for Community & Rural Affairs Michael Ring Minister for Arts and Culture Heather Humphreys Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Shane Ross Minister for Children & Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone Minister for Communications, Climate Action & Environment Denis Naughten Chief Whip & Minister of State at the Department of Culture with responsibility for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht and the Islands Joe McHugh Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Defence with special responsibility for Defence - Paul Kehoe Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Justice & Equality, and the Department of Health with special responsibility for Disability Issues - Finian McGrath Minister of State at the Department of Education with special responsibility for Higher Education - Mary Mitchell O'Connor Shane Ross and Cllr for Glencullen/Sandyford Kevin Daly at the reopening of Stepaside Garda station. Photos: Justin Farrelly Transport Minister Shane Ross stands accused of 'stroke politics' after securing the reopening of a local Garda station during Enda Kenny's final Cabinet meeting. Mr Ross's campaign for Stepaside Garda station in South Dublin came to fruition moments before Mr Kenny formally told the Dail of his resignation. But it has emerged the Cabinet held off selecting five other stations to reopen until they receive a full report from the Garda Commissioner at the end of the month. Ministers conducted an unusually high level of business at yesterday's meeting, also nominating the Attorney General as a judge in the second highest court in the country. Mr Ross previously railed against the process of judicial appointments that could be perceived as 'cronyism'. However, when asked about Maire Whelan's nomination to the Court of Appeal, his spokesperson said: "He did point out at Cabinet that he didn't like the process, but he went along with it." The Cabinet also approved the end of the Good Friday ban on pubs opening and decided not to increase the mandatory set-back distance for high-powered wind turbines. And in a move that personally pleased Mr Kenny, who is also Defence Minister, it was agreed to award a medal to the men who fought in the Siege of Jadotville in 1961. Government sources admitted there was a "clearing of the decks" before incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announces his new ministerial line-up today. But it is the reopening of Stepaside Garda station that stood out. Sources close to the new Fine Gael leader last night insisted there was no special deal done on the issue with Mr Ross during their meetings last week. The Programme for Government commits to reopening six out of 139 stations that were closed as cost-saving measures in 2011 and 2012. Last year, Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan was asked to identify stations suitable for reopening, based on crime trends and population. Ms O'Sullivan is just a fortnight away from finalising her review - but decided to provide the Cabinet with an interim report this week. It concluded that Stepaside should be reopened, and possibly Rush in north Dublin. The Commissioner also indicated she is likely to recommend the reopening of Leighlinbridge, in Co Carlow, and Donard, in Co Wicklow. Two other stations have yet to be identified. As a result of the interim report, the Cabinet agreed "in principle" to reopen Stepaside and parked all other decisions on the issue. However, Labour's Aodhan O Riordain told the Seanad: "This from the minister, Deputy Ross, who apparently came into politics to get rid of stroke politics, wants an independent judiciary and does not want to have any political interference in the judicial system, yet is now able to announce just as the new Cabinet is going to be announced that he himself has gotten his Garda station reopened." The Social Democrats attacked Mr Ross for not opposing the "naked political appointment" of Ms Whelan to the Court of Appeal. Roisin Shortall described the move as "the height of hypocrisy from a Government that is supposed to be introducing a law to take politics out of the appointment of judges". Fianna Fail justice spokesman Niall Collins said rural areas would now rightly question why they should be treated any differently. "It has been clear to us from day one that this policy of Garda station closures was very dangerous," he said. "We can now see exactly the serious impact the policy has had on rural communities. Towns across the country feel increasingly isolated and more vulnerable to criminals." Residents in one of the most affluent and desirable suburbs in south Dublin have vowed to "fight back" as developers ratchet up plans for a raft of new "high density" developments in the area. A specially convened meeting in the Foxrock Pastoral Centre last night heard how the area now faces an "existential crisis". It was claimed the "floodgates could be opened to large scale construction" if a series of proposed developments get the green light. Members of the Foxrock and Carrickmines Residents' Alliance (FACRA) explained how at least four planning applications are currently in the pipeline for development in the "heart" of the area. These include an 84,000 sq foot three storey commercial nursing home complex. Another scheme is located at the crossroads in the village, opposite the famous Gables pub. It is also proposed to construct a terrace of eight, four storey townhouses, in the middle of an Architectural Conservation Area, where "no residential property comes close in height." In a planned development at Weaver's Hall, off Westminster Road, it is proposed to create road access for up to 93 cars, 50 apartments up to four storeys high, and a single two bed house. And while Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council refused permission for a fourth project in April - a development of eight three-storey maisonettes - the developer has since appealed the judgement to An Bord Pleanala. The threat posed by these developments is "transparent", according to Robert McGee, chairman of the FACRA group. He told more than 150 locals how such projects would cause "instant and severe" traffic problems, as well as "buckle" the existing infrastructure. "The projects being discussed at the moment have a scale, design, and ambition to them, which means there will be irreversible damage to the locality." He stressed the community shoud develop "organically" though "sustainable" development. He said talks must now take place with all relevant stakeholders. "You do not solve a national housing crisis by destroying a tiny geographic footprint. "You do not solve a national nursing home shortage by building one in the biggest in the country in a tiny village. That is not good national policy." Meanwhile, a guiding a price in excess of 5m is being asked for a 0.45 hectare (1.1 acre) residential development site on the Stillorgan Road in Foxrock. The site is being offered to the open market by way of tender. Situated in close proximity to Foxrock village (1.4km), Cabinteely village (1.5km) and Dublin city centre (10.5km), the subject property benefits from direct access onto the N11 (Stillorgan Road). The site has full planning permission from Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for the demolition of the existing dwelling and the construction of 24 dwelling units. The proposed scheme consists of a mixture of apartments - ranging in size from 73 sq m to 135 sq m - and houses ranging from 184 sq m to 195 sq m. The UK's highest court has narrowly rejected an appeal by a mother and daughter in their legal battle for women from Northern Ireland to receive free abortions on the NHS in England. Supreme Court justices announced their three to two majority decision in London on Wednesday. The 20-year-old woman at the centre of the appeal was 15 in October 2012 when she and her mother travelled from Northern Ireland to Manchester and was told she had to pay hundreds of pounds for a private termination because she was excluded from free abortion services. They originally lost their action in the High Court in London in May 2014 when a judge ruled that the exclusion was lawful. The judge concluded that the Health Secretary was entitled to adopt a residence-based system so that women resident in Northern Ireland are not entitled to benefit from NHS abortion services in England, even though they are UK citizens. The mother and daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a further defeat at the Court of Appeal in 2015. The Supreme Court's deputy president Lady Hale and Lord Kerr said they would have allowed the challenge against that earlier decision. The interior of the Citroen Aircross Another MPV morphs into an SUV. With the new C3 Aircross, Citroen has made an SUV out of what would have been the C3 Picasso people carrier in the normal course of events. But these are not normal times - everyone seems to want a Crossover or SUV. And Citroen are only happy to oblige, it seems. Revealed this week, the Aircross ticks lots of boxes as it sets out to woo buyers from the car that sets the pace in the smaller SUV segment, Nissan's ubiquitous Juke. The Aircross is due to arrive in Ireland in November, I'm told, but prices will be announced a fair bit in advance - in September. Expand Close The interior of the Citroen Aircross / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The interior of the Citroen Aircross There are suggestions that prices will only represent a slight increase on the old Picasso, but we'll have to wait and see about that. It may be a funky-looking motor, but there is a lot of practicality behind the facade, with Citroen claiming "class-leading" space in the cabin. The French marque says it wants to "migrate" people across from the Picasso to the Aircross SUV/Crossover. And their executives say they, naturally, also want to attract younger buyers. One big improvement is the less-cluttered dash - a major criticism of the current/old C3 Picasso. That is mainly thanks to the presence and scope of the 7ins touchscreen infotainment system. It embraces smartphone integration and sat-nav among other functions. The Aircross may only be 15mm longer and 75mm taller than the Juke, but it manages to eke out 410 litres of boot space - and that extends to 1,289 litres with the seats folded. The experts say that's 100 litres more than the Nissan. There's a removable luggage shelf and 'double' floor too. The 60:40-split rear bench can slide forwards and backwards by up to 150mm depending on the need for more luggage or passenger space. They're promising three PureTech 3cyl engines (108bhp to 128bhp) and three diesels (89bhp to 118bhp) from the get-go. Among the elements giving the Aircross (4.15m long) its SUV looks are raised ground clearance, front and rear skid plates, a high-set driving position, large wheels and wing extenders. You can also have their Grip Control system, which boosts traction. There will be a spread of driver assist technologies, depending on individual model specification, I presume. They will include the likes of reversing camera, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring, as well as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and a driver fatigue sensing system. In the unlikely event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop down from the panel above your head Secure your own mask before helping others. Youve heard the spiel so many times you could probably recite it by heart. But actually gaining sight of these mysterious devices is exceedingly rare. So rare, in fact, that when United Airlines crew deployed them on a flight to Denver in 2015 after several passengers said they felt unwell, the biggest concern for those on board appeared to be documenting the event with a selfie. Under what circumstances are oxygen masks released? As the flight attendants briefing explains, its all about cabin pressure. The air at high altitudes is thin, and oxygen levels very low, so aircraft have clever systems in place to keep cabin pressure at a level equivalent to an altitude of around 5,000-8,000 feet. Sitting on a plane, in a way, is like visiting Mexico City or Bogota. Expand Close Airplane window. Photo: Getty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Airplane window. Photo: Getty A loss of pressure, therefore, is a significant issue and potentially dangerous. If it happens suddenly because of a bomb, for example the resultant forces may damage or destroy the plane. Luckily, the vast majority of decompressions are not explosive and are easy for the crew to handle. Crashes or fatalities from pressure problems are extremely uncommon, even with a fairly rapid decompression brought on by a hole or puncture, explains Patrick Smith, a pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential. If cabin pressure falls below a certain threshold, the masks will deploy from the ceiling, exposing everybody to the so-called rubber jungle. Should you be confronted by this spectacle, strap your mask on and try to relax. The plane will be at a safe altitude shortly, and there are several minutes of backup oxygen for everybody. What's going on in the cockpit while this happens? Up front, the pilots will don their own masks and commence a rapid descent to an altitude no higher than 10,000 feet, he continues. If the emergency descent feels perilously fast, this isnt because the plane is crashing: its because the crew is doing whats its supposed to do. Smith speaks from experience. Recalling a flight from South America to the US, he says: Expand Close A cabin crewmember presents an oxygen mask. Photo: Deposit / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A cabin crewmember presents an oxygen mask. Photo: Deposit All was quiet high over the Caribbean, when suddenly there was a loud whooshing sound that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. I could feel my ears popping and sure enough, a glance at the instruments showed we were quickly losing pressurisation. The captain and I put our masks on, took out the book, and began to troubleshoot. Part of that troubleshooting involved one of those steep descents. Commencing such a drop is a multistep process: set 10,000 in the altitude window; select flight level change from the autoflight panel; increase the speed command to a point slightly below maximum; deploy the speedbrakes; retard the thrust levels to idle "To the passengers, Im sure it felt like a rollercoaster, but everything was carefully coordinated and the autopilot was engaged the whole time. But what if you cant descent to 10,000 feet? What if you're flying over a high mountain range, for example? Pilots will follow predetermined depressurisation routes that allow for a more gradual descent, in stages, says Smith. Even over mountains, there is always the opportunity to reach a safe altitude before supplemental oxygen runs out. In fact, Smith's estimate of several minutes may be too conservative. Other sources and evidence from the, ahem, fatal crash of Helios Airways Flight 522 suggest there is actually 12-15 minutes of oxygen at hand. Expand Close Stock photo: Deposit Photos / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Stock photo: Deposit Photos So, really, try to relax. And dont forget that selfie. What if you decline to use the mask? If the cabin really has lost pressure, hypoxia (basically a lack of oxygen) will quickly take effect on the brain, with symptoms including nausea and headaches but also euphoria. Tracey Bryan outlined her experience of decompression, the rubber jungle, and a rapid descent, on the website Quora. I was extremely calm, she said. I even remember giggling, teasing other passengers for putting on the oxygen masks, and insisting that they werent required. In fact, due to the delay in putting on the mask Id become hypoxic and wasnt thinking clearly. Eventually, my friendly practically forced the mask onto my face and as the hypoxia faded I began to feel nervous. According to Airbus, if a plane loses pressure at 40,000 feet, those on board have as little as 18 seconds of useful consciousness without supplemental oxygen. Once the euphoria is over, hypoxia renders one unconscious and can cause brain damage or death. So wear the mask. How do the masks actually work? Firstly, what youre supplied isnt exactly oxygen nor is it not compressed air in the scuba diving sense. Oxygen tanks are heavy and bulky so aircraft use a more complicated system. The panel above each seat actually contains a cocktail of chemicals that, when burned, release oxygen. They might include barium peroxide, a fine white powder used in fireworks, sodium chlorate, more commonly used as a weedkiller, and potassium chlorate, a staple of school science lab experiments (it reacts violently with sugar). Tug the mask, like youre told in the demonstration, and the chemical process starts. Once it starts, it cannot be stopped until everythings burned up (around 12-15 minutes, as stated above). Expand Close Airplane interior. Photo: Deposit / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Airplane interior. Photo: Deposit Do not expect the bag to inflate. Passengers have reportedly suffered hypoxia after believing their mask was broken because the bag wasnt inflating, prompting them to remove it. Hence the warning given during every safety briefing. Oxygen is supplied in a constant flow, explained a BA spokesman. The bag does not inflate like a respirator bag used in a medical theatre. How full it gets depends on an individual's rate of breathing. If the rate of breathing is very quick, air is inhaled at a faster rate and so the bag will inflate less. If all the air isn't inhaled, some will remain in the bag, partially inflating it. The oxygen generator can also get extremely hot so dont touch it and passengers may even notice a burning smell (so dont be alarmed). Are all these burning chemicals dangerous? Sort of. The crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in 1996, in which all 110 on board perished, was caused by an oxygen generator fire. However, the devices to blame were in the cargo hold, out of date, and missing their safety caps. A jolt lit one, and the rest followed. Understandably, masks are not deployed if there is an on-board fire as the production of oxygen may make matters worse. And are they safe to inhale? You might get some small bits of chemical dust, Arch Carson, an occupational health expert, told The Huffington Post last year. But its way better than the alternative, which is passing out due to lack of oxygen. Agreed. Read more: Read More Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Vogue Williams has well and truly got back to business as she soaks up the sun in Monaco. The Howth native (31) came under fire recently after she wrote in her newspaper column that she supported the internment of Muslim extremists. After a barrage of abuse, she issued an apology for what she had said, but pointed out that her opinion did not warrant the death threats she received after her column was published. Not one to hide away, Vogue has dipped her toe back into work and head- ed back on her travels with rugby star Tommy Bowe. Expand Close Vogue Williams spotted walking with boyfriend Spencer Matthews on Dublin's Coppinger Row / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vogue Williams spotted walking with boyfriend Spencer Matthews on Dublin's Coppinger Row Currently filming for RTE series Getaways, the pair are enjoying a whirlwind trip in France. They were on the Cote d'Azur on Monday before hitting the beaches of Monaco on Tuesday after they finished film- ing. Vogue said she has been having some "fun in the sun" while she films the upcoming series, which was previously hosted by former Today FM presenter Mairead Ronan. However, it hasn't been altogether a stroll in the park for the former Fade Street star. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference While she's having the time of her life filming the show with Tommy, Vogue is missing boyfriend Spencer Matthews. Vogue shared a snap of the Made In Chelsea star while they're apart. Video of the Day The couple have been dating since January after meeting on Channel 4 series The Jump and spend most of their time in London. Describing Getaways as her "dream gig", Vogue previously spent time filming in Ibiza with Tommy shortly after she modelled in former TV3 star Virginia Macari's glitzy fashion show on the island. Gunmen posing as military forces are holding dozens of hostages inside a popular restaurant in Somalia's capital, in an attack that began when a car bomb exploded at the gate. The extremist group al Shabab claimed responsibility. Police said at least nine people had been killed and several wounded. Most of the victims were young men who were entering the Pizza House in Mogadishu when the vehicle exploded, Captain Mohamed Hussein said. A burst of gunfire was later heard inside the restaurant, Mr Hussein said. The gunmen "were dressed in military uniforms. They forced those fleeing the site to go inside," witness Nur Yasin said. The blast largely destroyed the restaurant's facade and sparked a fire. While al Shabab claimed to have attacked the neighbouring Posh Treats restaurant, which is frequented by the city's elite and was damaged in the blast, security officials said the Pizza House was targeted instead. Security forces rescued Asian, Ethiopian, Kenyan and other workers at Posh Treats as the attack continued, Mr Hussein said. The Somalia-based al Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu, including hotels, military checkpoints and areas near the presidential palace. It has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it. Al Shabab last year became the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Washington-based Africa Centre for Strategic Studies. The extremist group also faces a new military push from the United States after President Donald Trump approved expanded operations, including air strikes, against al Shabab. On Sunday, the US military in Africa said it carried out an air strike in southern Somalia that killed eight Islamic extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp. Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed confirmed that air strike and said such attacks would disrupt the group's ability to conduct new attacks. With a new federal government established, pressure is growing on Somalia's military to assume full responsibility for the country's security. The 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to start withdrawing in 2018 and leave by the end of 2020. Also on Wednesday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the UN political mission in the Horn of Africa nation, which is trying to rebuild after more than two decades as a failed state, until March 31, 2018. The resolution recognised that "this is a critical moment for Somalia". AP The tremor was centred five miles south-west of Tajumulco, Guatemala, about 69 miles below the surface, the US Geological Survey reported A magnitude 6.9 earthquake in western Guatemala, near the border with Mexico, has caused damage to homes, triggered landslides across roads and injured at least one person, officials said. The tremor was centred eight kilometres (five miles) south-west of Tajumulco, Guatemala, about 111 kilometres (69 miles) below the surface, the US Geological Survey reported. The quake struck at 1.29am local time in the department of San Marcos, west of the capital Guatemala City, near the Mexican border, but was felt throughout the country, Guatemala's emergency co-ordination agency said. One person was injured in San Sebastian Retalhuelu in southern Guatemala when part of a church collapsed, the country's National Civil Police said. Volunteer firefighter Julio Sanchez said the man, who was passing by the church when the earthquake struck, was receiving care. Authorities reported several departments, or states, without electricity. Across the border in Chiapas, Mexico, governor Manuel Velasco said via Twitter that there were reports of cracked walls and shattered windows in Huixtla, but so far no injuries. The state's Civil Protection authorities said the quake was felt throughout the state. There was no tsunami warning. AP Frightening CCTV video shows the moment a mother, who was putting her children to bed, discovered a gang of burglars in her house in London. Footage from the attack on March 8, 2016 was released by police and shows the masked gang creeping into the house. The victim, who has not been named, can be seen walking along the hall, before screaming as she eyes the thugs. One of the intruders is caught on camera grabbing her and throwing her through a doorway. The brave young mother told the court of her terror in court. "Obviously time is a big healer, but in some ways [the effects] havent been diminished," she said. "Its one of those cases when you hear a noise in the night and you never think its going to be anything ... Everything from then on was slow motion. "You look across, and I saw the masked person. My son and I were in my bedroom. There were men pushing me, grabbing me, asking me 'give me the money'. "My son was crying, only six years-old, 'leave my mum alone, just take the money and go.'" Four of her attackers, who also burgled 15 other properties in recent months, were jailed for a combined 23 years. Stephen Kelly (22), Danny Logan (21), Beau Abououf (27) and Daniel Hill (22) were all linked to the raid by detectives. These young men were all professional burglars who committed crime in order to fuel a lavish lifestyle, according to Detective Inspector James Hale of the Mets Trident and Area Command. "They have shown a complete disregard for the victims of their crimes, many of whom have suffered severe financial and psychological damage." Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill are to meet with the UK Prime Minister in Downing Street tomorrow, according to reports. According to UK media the party's leadership want to speak with Theresa May about her proposed deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the formation of the Northern Executive. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference The anticipated deal with the DUP has forced Mrs May to reject claims that the Government will fatally undermine its supposed impartiality in Northern Ireland, in particular in the ongoing process to restore Stormont powersharing. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement commits the UK and Irish Governments to demonstrate "rigorous impartiality" in their dealings with the different political traditions in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein's Stormont leader, Michelle O'Neill, said she would raise the issue with the Prime Minister in face-to-face talks in London on Thursday. Mrs O'Neill said she would discuss her concerns with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar the following day. "I will be in London and Dublin over the coming days for talks with both Theresa May and the new Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar," she said. "I will be making it very clear that any deal between the Tories and the DUP cannot be allowed to undermine the Good Friday and subsequent agreements. "It's imperative that both Governments recommit to the word, spirit and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement if there is to be any prospect of re-establishing the Executive." Mrs O'Neill added: "Progress will not come from a deal between the DUP and Tories to prop up a Government in Westminster with an austerity and Brexit agenda but through the full implementation of the agreements and an Executive that respects the rights and delivers for all in society." Talks between the Tories and the Democratic Unionist Party were continuing on Wednesday amid reports that any announcement of a deal may be delayed because of the tragic fire in a London tower block. Theresa May needs the votes of the DUP's 10 MPs to prop up her minority administration as she hopes to steer government business - including crucial measures on Brexit - through the Commons. The BBC reported DUP sources who said the talks were going well but it was thought "inappropriate" to make an announcement while events were unfolding at the Grenfell Tower in west London, where at least six have died. It was reported that diary commitments meant finalisation of any deal could be delayed until next week. A Conservative source said there was so far no deal to announce and that a decision on the timing of any announcement would have to wait until an agreement was finalised. Ministers have already said that the Queen's Speech may have to be set back from its scheduled date of next Monday, June 19, because of the ongoing negotiations. Mrs May is coming under intense pressure to change her approach to leaving the European Union, with predecessor David Cameron among those suggesting a softer stance with a greater effort to seek a consensus. Talks with the DUP broke up on Tuesday night without an agreement, but Mrs May said the discussions had been "productive". A senior Conservative source said: "We are making a lot of progress. It's all being done in the spirit of cooperation, with a real focus on strengthening the union and providing stability at this time." DUP leader Arlene Foster, who travelled to Westminster for talks with the Tories on Tuesday, said she hoped a deal could be reached "sooner rather than later". The proposed "supply and confidence" deal would see the DUP back the Conservatives in votes on the Budget and confidence motions. For Labour, shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said the prospect of a Conservative-DUP deal was "worrying", telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It would create a lot of instability in terms of the peace process in Northern Ireland." One of the most pressing issues facing Mrs May is the process of leaving the EU, with Brexit talks set to start in Brussels on Monday. Former prime minister Mr Cameron said Mrs May would have to change her approach to Brexit as a result of the election. "It's going to be difficult. There's no doubt about that, but perhaps an opportunity to consult more widely with the other parties on how best we can achieve it," he said at a conference in Poland. "I think there will be pressure for a softer Brexit," Mr Cameron added, saying that Parliament now "deserves a say" on the issue. He also suggested that the Scottish Tories led by Ruth Davidson could also add to the pressure on Mrs May to change course. "There's no doubt that there is a new player on the stage," Mr Cameron said. "Scotland voted against Brexit. I think most of the Scottish Conservatives will want to see perhaps some changes with the policy going forward." The Times reported that Chancellor Philip Hammond was preparing to fight for the UK to remain within the EU's customs union. That would help safeguard jobs and trade with EU members, but would severely restrict the UK's ability to strike its own trade deals around the world. At a joint press conference with Mrs May in Paris on Tuesday night, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the door was still open for the UK to remain within the European Union. "Until the negotiations come to an end, of course there is always the possibility to re-open the door," said the French President. "But let us be clear and organised and once the negotiations have started we should be well aware that it'll be more difficult to move backwards." Mrs May stressed that Brexit would happen and the timetable remains on course. She said: "I think there is a unity of purpose among people in the United Kingdom. "It's a unity of purpose, having voted to leave the EU, that their Government gets on with that and makes a success of it, and we are committed to developing a deep and special partnership with the EU. "We want the EU to continue to remain strong and we want to continue to cooperate." With additional reporting from PA French President Emmanuel Macron says the door remains open for Britain to change its mind about Brexit, after talks with Theresa May in Paris. Mr Macron threw out the olive branch, even amid rising EU anger about the delays to the exit talks which he said should be launched as soon as possible. Of course the door remains open, always open until the Brexit negotiations come to an end, the President said, when asked if Britain could yet stay in the EU. Mr Macron said it was not for him to say whether the decision should be questioned. Once the negotiations have started we should be well aware that it'll be more difficult to move backwards. Alongside him, the British Prime Minister dodged a question about whether she would pursue a softer Brexit after her election setback, insisting there was a unity of purpose in the UK about leaving. And she refused to respond to John Majors warning of the danger of violence returning to Northern Ireland if she strikes a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, to prop her up in Parliament. Instead, on the withdrawal talks, Ms May claimed: I confirmed to President Macron that the timetable for the Brexit negotiation remains on course and will begin next week. However, in Brussels, it was reported that the British delegation was unable to say on what date it wanted the talks to start when asked to do so by Michael Barnier, the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator. Almost certainly, they will not get underway next Monday as Ms May had promised repeatedly during the election campaign. On whether the terms of Brexit would now change, the Prime Minister said only: "I think there is a unity of purpose among people in the United Kingdom. "It's a unity of purpose, having voted to leave the EU, that their Government gets on with that and makes a success of it, and we are committed to developing a deep and special partnership with the EU. Intriguingly, Mr Macron's comments came just hours after Wolfgang Schauble, the powerful German finance minister, sent out an identical message saying the UK would find open doors in Brussels if it decided not to leave the EU. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Mr Schauble said: The British Government has said we will stay with the Brexit. We take the decision as a matter of respect. But if they wanted to change their decision, of course, they would find open doors. On Northern Ireland, Ms May insisted her Government was absolutely steadfast in its commitment to the Irish peace process after Sir John's dramatic intervention, warning that a DUP-Tory alliance would put fragile agreements at risk. We continue to work with all the parties in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in ensuring that we can continue to put in place those measures necessary to fulfil those agreements, she said. She went on: What we are doing in relation to the productive talks that we are holding with the Democratic Unionist Party is ensuring that it is possible to, with their support, give the stability to the UK Government that I think is necessary at this time. We stand at a critical time with those Brexit negotiations starting only next week I think that stability is important. We have worked as a party with the DUP before and those are productive talks. The intent is to ensure that we have the stability of Government in the national interest. Earlier, DUP leader Arlene Foster indicated that a deal to support the Conservatives' minority government is close to being finalised. It is expected to be concluded on Wednesday. Observers noted that Mr Macron's welcome of the Prime Minister to the Elysees Palace was notably less warm than his greeting of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. And the press conference got off to a difficult start for Ms May when she dropped her notes in the gusty wind. Most of the hundreds detained at Monday's anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow were released overnight, while opposition leader Alexey Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in jail for his role in organising the unsanctioned rally. Of the more than 800 people detained in Moscow, at least 32 were still being held at 4am local time yesterday, according to OVD-Info, a group that provides legal aid. Mr Navalny, a 41-year-old lawyer whose use of social media has helped mobilise a new generation to protest against Russian corruption, quipped on Twitter that his sentence meant he would miss the July 15 Depeche Mode concert. Another opposition leader, Ilya Yashin, was sentenced to 15 days, according to his Twitter account. Over 1,000 were detained in cities around the country at Monday's protests against official corruption, with the largest rallies reported in Moscow and St Petersburg. The turnout, which like the last major Navalny-backed demonstrations in March was driven in part by people in their teens and twenties, suggested government interference and police pressure aren't enough to discourage attendance. Mr Navalny's sentence was reasonable because his call for protests in the centre of the capital were "counterproductive," Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Kremlin's human rights council, said on Ekho Moskvy radio yesterday. The number of arrests brought about a rare criticism of the Kremlin from President Donald Trump's administration, which called on Russia to "immediately release all peaceful protesters", White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing. Despite Mr Trump's announced intention to improve relations when he took office, several US senators said they'd struck a bipartisan deal to expand sanctions against Russia that will be debated this week. This marks the second jail term this year for Mr Navalny, who says he will run in Russia's March 2018 election against President Vladimir Putin. Police block a street near a subway station in Munich, Germany where a number of people were shot. A POLICEWOMAN was shot in the head by a man who grabbed an officer's gun and opened fire, also injuring bystanders, at a commuter station in a Munich suburb. Officers had been called to the Unterfoehring subway station following reports of a row among passengers on a train. When officers arrived at the S-Bahn station in the northeastern suburb of the Bavarian city yesterday morning, a man attempted to push them onto the tracks. Fired Munich police spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said the attacker then managed to grab an officer's service pistol and fired several shots, before he was shot himself and was taken into custody. The officer was described as being in a life-threatening condition. Two bystanders who were shot suffered less serious injuries. The suspect was seriously injured in the gunfire, German police said. "There was one suspect and we've got him," Mr da Gloria Martins told reporters at the scene. The station is popular with commuters heading to the Bavarian city. Authorities do not believe that the incident was terrorism-related. Police later said that there had been "no political or religious motive" in the shooting. "The sole male perpetrator was motivated by personal reasons. There is no political or religious background here," Mr da Gloria Martins told reporters. The incident happened in the Unterfoehring area of Munich. Force spokesman Michael Riehlein said that the area had been "secured". He said that there was no danger to the wider public. Munich police said in a tweet: "Several people were injured by shots. "A female police officer was badly wounded." Authorities were called to the station at 8.20am to deal with a fist fight aboard a subway train, Munich police said in a written statement. The first two officers to arrive on the scene confronted one of the men. He shoved one of the officers and took his pistol. Treated The man then fired at the policeman's colleague, hitting her in the head. The 26-year-old officer was being treated in hospital for her injuries, police said. Other officers arriving on the scene were able to arrest the suspect after an exchange of fire with him. Police had initially said the suspect had grabbed the wounded officer's pistol. But they corrected that in a statement issued later. Four people have been injured in a shooting at a UPS package delivery facility in San Francisco, a company spokesman said, adding that the shooter was an employee. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said he believed the shooter "turned the gun on himself" but did not have additional information. He said the four victims were taken to a hospital but did not know their conditions. In life, as in literature, the more complex character is the more compelling and the more realistic. We may crave heroes, but we end up with humans. The cardboard figure of unblemished rectitude, who performs impeccably under pressure and is impelled only by the purest motives, gives way to a real person, with all the inevitable blemishes and failings that human nature is heir to. So it is with James B Comey, the fired FBI director. America's first introduction to Mr Comey came a decade ago, with his dramatic account of racing to the hospital room of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to head off an effort to pressure the gravely ill Mr Ashcroft to reauthorize a secret surveillance programme. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr Comey described the tense scene as top White House aides arrived at Mr Ashcroft's room in an effort to secure his signature. FBI agents, dispatched by, yes, then-FBI Director Robert S Mueller III, were posted outside the door to prevent Mr Comey's ouster as he faced down the president's men. This was Mr Comey as superhero, able to leap up hospital stairs in a single bound. It was Mr Comey as resolute public servant, leader of a brave band prepared to quit rather than waver in defence of the rule of law. "I couldn't stay, if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Department of Justice had said had no legal basis," Mr Comey testified. "I just simply couldn't stay." Comey, the sequel, presents a figure more nuanced, imperfect - and realistic. He may have an aw-shucks demeanor ("Lordy, I hope there are tapes"), but he exposed himself as a Washington operator and survivor, with all the bureaucratic maneuvering and sail-trimming that entails. This Comey didn't confront, he navigated, walking the treacherously narrow path between his desire not to alienate the new president and his mounting alarm at Donald Trump's heedlessness of proper boundaries. Thus, according to Mr Comey's account, he found himself at an uncomfortably intimate dinner with the president in the Green Room, seeking to defuse Mr Trump's demand for loyalty first with stone-faced silence, next by acceding to the president's oxymoronic "honest loyalty." As Mr Comey recalled, "I decided it wouldn't be productive to push it further." Less than a month later, left alone with the president in the Oval Office, Mr Comey again ducked a direct challenge. As Mr Comey testified, when Mr Trump expressed his "hope" that Mr Comey could drop the case against fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, the FBI director lunged for their common ground: "He's a good guy." Asked why he did not rebuff the president, Mr Comey offered, "Maybe if I were stronger I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in." This was not Comey the brave but Comey the self-protective bureaucrat. He didn't confront, but he did write a memo to the file. Nor was this the first administration in which Mr Comey chose his battles with an eye to political realities. When then-attorney general Loretta E Lynch asked him to call the Hillary Clinton email probe a "matter," not an "investigation," Mr Comey testified, "I just said, 'all right . . . this isn't a hill worth dying on'." And then there is the matter of Mr Comey's bank-shot leak, from him to Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman to, anonymously of course, the 'New York Times' - all in the service, Mr Comey testified, of seeing a special counsel appointed. Not exactly the behaviour of a boy scout, unless there is now a merit badge in Machiavelli. That is not to say that Mr Comey was wrong to get out the word about his chilling encounter. It's just that his aura of by-the-book self-righteousness comes with a slightly less honourable tinge. Mr Comey has managed to infuriate both Democrats - with his imperious decision to assume an outsize role on the Clinton, ahem, matter - and Republicans, a decade ago and now. Listening to Mr Comey's testimony called to mind Benjamin Wittes's account of a conversation when, Mr Comey, still in his job, expressed "palpable" concerns about deputy attorney general nominee Rod J Rosenstein, a career prosecutor who had managed to keep his political appointment under Republican and Democratic presidents. "Rod is a survivor," Mr Comey observed. As Wittes paraphrased: "You don't get to survive that long across administrations without making compromises." Did Mr Comey recognise something of himself? Once he was, or presented himself as, the archetype of unyielding probity, now he has morphed into something more complex - less heroic, more flesh-and-blood. This Mr Comey is more flawed and, perhaps for that very reason, more believable. ( Washington Post Service) US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he never spoke with Russian officials concerning "any type of interference" with the 2016 presidential campaign and called any suggestion he colluded with Russia during the election an "appalling and detestable lie". Under questioning by Senate Intelligence Committee members yesterday, Mr Sessions added that he was within his responsibilities as attorney general to sign off on the firing of FBI Director James Comey, even though he had recused himself from involvement in a federal probe of Russia's role in the election that was led at the time by Mr Comey. With pressure growing on the White House over Mr Comey's dismissal and the Russia probe, Mr Sessions also defended himself against Democratic allegations that he gave misleading testimony about his contacts with Russian officials during his confirmation hearing. "That is false," Mr Sessions said. While the hearing lacked the detailed revelations that Mr Comey provided in his testimony last week, it featured sharp exchanges between Mr Sessions and committee Democrats over accusations the attorney general recused himself from the Russia probe, in part, for reasons that haven't been publicly disclosed. "Why don't you tell me," what those accusations are, Mr Sessions said to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. "There are none - I can tell you that for absolute certainty," he continued, adding that he doesn't appreciate "secret innuendo" being leaked about him. Mr Sessions sought to pre-empt questions from the panel about conversations with President Donald Trump regarding the Russia investigation and the May 9 firing of Mr Comey, saying he "cannot and will not violate my duty to protect the confidential communications I had with the president." Democrats said he had little basis for doing so without the White House claiming executive privilege. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico repeatedly said Mr Sessions' answers amounted to "obstructing" the congressional probe and his refusal to answer was without justification. In a response to Maine independent Senator Angus King, the attorney general suggested he wanted to keep the president's options open. "It would be premature to me to deny the president a full and intelligent choice on executive privilege," Mr Sessions said. Mr Sessions, in his first public testimony on Capitol Hill since his January confirmation hearing, suggested he's only aware of the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia attempted to undermine the election because of media reports. He said he never read classified reports about the meddling or got a briefing, even before he joined the administration. "It appears so," Mr Sessions said when asked whether Russians interfered in the 2016 election. "I know nothing but what I've read in the paper." Responding to questions about the firing of Mr Comey, Mr Sessions said he never informed the FBI chief of concerns about his job performance, which the administration cited in his dismissal. And he added that he discussed the need for a "fresh start" at the FBI with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein before either of the men were confirmed to their posts. Mr Sessions largely confirmed a key portion of Mr Comey's description of a February meeting at the White House, at which the attorney general and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner left the Oval Office so the president and Mr Comey could speak alone. He said Mr Comey expressed concerns afterwards about being left alone with the president, a point highlighted in the former FBI director's testimony last week. Cambodian visitors see skulls and bones of victims of the Khmer Rouge on display near Phnom Penh as prosecutors sum up in the trial of the two surviving leaders of the regime (AP/Heng Sinith) Prosecutors in the trial in Cambodia of two surviving leaders of the former Khmer Rouge regime have begun summing up their case, declaring that, despite the defendants' denials, the evidence clearly shows they knew of the suffering and deaths of their countrymen. Khieu Samphan, the regime's 85-year-old former head of state, and 90-year-old Nuon Chea, right-hand man to the group's late chief, Pol Pot, are being tried in Phnom Penh on charges including genocide, rape and murder. The Khmer Rouge's brutal policies during the regime's 1975-79 reign are blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians from execution, starvation and inadequate medical care. Co-prosecutor Chea Leang on Wednesday described Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge as a "slave state" in which everyone had to work on huge infrastructure projects or in the rice fields from before dawn until well into the night, and any attempt at escape was punished by death. "The accused claimed they did not know of the suffering. But we have proved they knew everything," he said. "They were Angkar, the pineapple with many eyes." Angkar was the term used at the time to refer to the Khmer Rouge government. In the collectivist "Big Brother" society it tried to establish, the concept of privacy barely existed. The two defendants have already been convicted of crimes against humanity in an earlier trial. Proceedings were split into two parts by the UN-backed court for fear that the defendants might die before a verdict was reached if it was kept as one. The portion coming to a close this month began in October 2014. Nuon Chea did not appear in the courtroom on Wednesday due to ill health. He followed the arguments on a video-link in a holding room. Khieu Samphan sat listening to the prosecution case with his team of lawyers. The accused men are due to address the judges on June 22, the last day of the closing statements. A verdict is expected later in the year. The Khmer Rouge was a group of Maoist insurgents who seized power in 1975 after a bloody, five-year civil war. They immediately attempted a radical transformation of Cambodia into a peasant society, emptying cities and forcing the population to work on the land. They backed up their rule with ruthless elimination of perceived enemies. AP Russian police detain a protester against Moscow City's project to pull down Soviet-era apartment blocks (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) The Russian parliament has adopted a much-disputed bill that would allow Moscow's City Hall to pull down Soviet-era apartment buildings and relocate 1.6 million people. The State Duma passed the bill overwhelmingly while dozens rallied outside, chanting: "For shame!" Police grabbed several people from the crowd and took them to a police van. The controversial plan would allow Moscow City Hall to pull down entire neighbourhoods, involving more than 4,500 buildings. The redevelopment project, arguably Russia's largest, has rattled many in Moscow who see the plans as an encroachment on their constitutional rights and a ruse to evict them from leafy neighbourhoods to high-rise ones on the city's outskirts. City Hall insists that the buildings are dilapidated and their maintenance too costly. Thousands of people took to the streets last month to protest against the plans in what was described as the city's largest non-political protest in years. The bill now has to secure the approval of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament and be signed by President Vladimir Putin. AP Donald Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change accord, former United Nations Secretary-General has said. Mr Ban said: "If the US withdraws, this has a much bigger political impact. I'm afraid that any leadership vacuum could be filled by others, and this is not what we want to see. He called the choice made by the US President "misguided" and said that it responded to "a short-term vision". He also called on the public to raise its voice and said commitment to the agreement from governors, mayors, business leaders and civil society in the US was "very encouraging". For almost a decade, Mr Ban spearheaded negotiations to combat climate change that eventually led to the pledge to keep global temperatures from raising another degree Celsius by 2100. Nearly 200 countries, including the US, signed the agreement in December 2015. "I sincerely hope that President Trump stands on the right side of history," Mr Ban said in Madrid. As the world's largest economy, the United States is also the planet's number one polluter, accounting for 14% of global emissions. "The decision has implications and effects politically and psychologically much larger than 14%, because smaller countries have traditionally followed Washington's leadership," said Mr Ban, calling on the US leader to show "global vision". Mr Ban joined more than 50 former world leaders who criticised the current US administration's view on climate change and warned of "unpredictable and possibly regrettable" consequences. They also called on other signatories of the Paris agreement to "show greater urgency and commitment in the fight against global warming". The leaders represented about half of the members of the Club de Madrid alliance, which Mr Ban joined recently as an honorary member. Among the signatories were former Chilean president and former UN envoy for climate change Ricardo Lagos, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former East Timor leader Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who also headed the UN's development agency. Mr Ban also referred to the situation in the Korean Peninsula as "very worrisome" following Pyongyang's continuing weapons launches, against UN Security Council resolutions, including recent anti-ship missiles. The former South Korean foreign minister said the testing of ballistic technology is putting Kim Jong Un's regime "on the verge" of being able to develop a nuclear-tipped long-range missile. "Never before since the Korean War has the level of tension been so high," Mr Ban said, calling on North Korea "to stop all provocations" in order for the international community to restart a dialogue. He also said that the leaders of the US and South Korea should devise solutions to reduce the tension in the Korean Peninsula during a summit in Washington in late June. AP Civilians rush out of damaged buildings after air strikes hit a school housing a number of displaced people (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP) The US has deployed a truck-mounted missile system into Syria, an official confirmed. The equipment was supplied to a group of rebels and US military advisers that have repeatedly clashed with government forces. The deployment raises the stakes in eastern Syria, where Iranian-sponsored pro-government forces have outflanked US advisers and rebels holding the Tanf border crossing to establish their own link to Iraq for the first time in years. They are now waiting for pro-Iranian forces to link up with them on the Iraqi side of the border, while preparing to march on Islamic State (IS) positions to the north, in the Euphrates River Valley. Shifting the HIMARS missile system into eastern Syria from Jordan will give the US a precise, long-range weapon to protect its advisers and allies in Tanf, and to attack IS militants further downfield. It has a range of 186 miles. The deployment also ensures that the military can protect itself from attacks in the area when weather would limit the ability of strike aircraft to reach there in time. US-backed rebels were advancing north along the Syrian-Iraqi frontier, against IS militants, when pro-government forces cut them off with a flanking manoeuvre last week. US special forces operators are embedded with the rebels in an advisory capacity, the Pentagon said, though they have fought alongside their allies in defence battles. They hold two outposts in the desert region. The US central military command has said it remains committed to reaching and defeating the IS group in its strongholds along the Euphrates, beginning with Boukamal, 137 miles north-east of Tanf. Meanwhile, a UN investigative commission for Syria reported that last month's "de-escalation" agreement has reduced violence in only one of the four zones included in the deal and has not led to greater humanitarian access to besieged areas across the war-torn country. Underscoring the ongoing violence, a barrage of air strikes and artillery shells pummelled different areas of southern Daraa province on Wednesday, leaving at least eight people dead, including children, first responders and activists said. A western diplomat said that the US, Russia and Jordan were holding closed door-meetings in Amman to halt the fighting between rebels and the government in southern Syria. The three states are debating the boundaries of a ceasefire line between the government and rebels in what is hoped to be a comprehensive agreement that would delineate the control of border crossings with Jordan, the diplomat said. In Geneva, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry told the UN Human Rights Council that fighting around the central province of Homs, near Damascus and in the southern city of Daraa has continued - despite the deal brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran in May. Only in the northern Idlib province and western Aleppo has there been "discernible reduction" in violence, said the chair of the UN commission, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. AP HARRISBURG- Two cultures came together when students from Cannon School visited the Charlotte Islamic Academy, and are still connecting with each other through Snapchat. Located on Hickory Ridge Road in Harrisburg, Charlotte Islamic Academy is an AdvancED accredited comprehensive community school with a college preparatory focus. A group of about 25 Upper School students from Cannon visited the academy to learn about its procedures and more about the religion. The trip was organized by Cannon Cultures and history teacher Laura Huffman. I was actually contacted by parents who are part of our Cannon Cultures group. They do all kinds of programming for and related to diversity on campus, Huffman said. They are constantly looking for ways to expose students to cultures they may not be very aware of. They were looking to do something with Charlotte Islamic Academy. Huffman teaches World History to freshman and part of that curriculum is to study Islam. In preparation for this trip, she visited the academy in Harrisburg and met its principal; who told her they wanted to establish a relationship with Cannon on all levels. Bringing the schools together That relationship kicked off this year with fourth grade classes. The fourth grades at each school are now pen pals. Students write letters to each other talking about their lives. Huffman said the middle school is still deciding on a plan to collaborate, but the high school began with this trip. We have a fantastic Upper School diversity club called Spectrum and we have a Muslim Student Association and Im the chapter advisor. Both groups said yes to going on this trip, Huffman said. The academy told Huffman the goal was to match each of its high school students with a student from Cannon. So she was told she needed to bring about 25 kids. I recruited and got mostly freshman who had been very interested in learning about Islam or studying religion, she said. We actually do a project in the freshman year called a religious schools project. After the students study all the main religions they are put on a design team and create a religious school. I asked any of the kids who had worked on Islam schools. The day of the trip Cannon students Noah Baez and Chrissy Stamey went along on the trip. Both said they agreed to go because of the excitement and passion Huffman expressed leading up to it. When she kept talking about it, she had that passion, Baez said. And when do you ever get to do this? I thought it would be a cool experience. Throughout the day, Cannon students ate lunch with the Islamic students and watched a prayer session. The best part was meeting the girls. We split up into guys and girls and we had lunch with girls that go to the academy, Stamey said. We talked for a really long time about basically everything and it was fun to meet those girls and have something to talk about and get to know them. The Charlotte Islamic Academy has 160 students in grades kindergarten-12th. It has been open for 12 years and is private, so families are required to pay tuition. According to Huffman, 75 percent of the Islamic students parents are immigrants. The best part was meeting the people and getting to experience it because you never get to really see any of this stuff, Baez said. So its really cool and amazing to see how these people live. The students added that other great parts of the trip were watching the prayer session and listening to a Muslim scholar speak on the religion. Staying connected through Snapchat When it came time to leave, Huffman said it was like pulling teeth to try to get her students back on the bus. She said they all felt like there wasnt enough time to learn and experience everything. But before they headed out, the students exchanged Snapchat information and Stamey said they have stayed in touch ever since. Snapchat is an application that allows you talk with friends and view live stories from around the world. I loved that before we left the students were sharing their Snapchat info, because thats how they are going to communicate with each other is through social media, Huffman said. I think one of the greatest things that education can do is to allow students to learn about people who are different from them and recognize that in many ways they arent that different from them. Thats what I felt that a lot of them got from the trip. Stamey agreed and added a funny Snapchat incident that happened right before the prayer session. We were talking with one of the girls and she was running us through their whole routine and how they have to wash themselves before they pray. And someone asked how long that usually takes and she said Oh, five minutes when you arent checking Snapchat in the bathroom, Stamey said. So it didnt even occur to us, I mean yeah they are a different religion than most people at our school but they still slack off and they still Snapchat. We are a lot more similar right off the bat. Its cool we can connect on that level. In this issue of India Briefing magazine, we take a look at the bilateral and multilateral trade agreements th... Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has reminisced about the times when he was working in Yash Chopra's "Kaala Patthar", says being on the late filmmaker's set was like a picnic. "Working with Yash-ji was always a picnic... Informal, relaxed and filed with humour and eating delicious food. He encouraged the families of artists to accompany them at the shoot destination... Whether it was Pune or Kashmir or Amsterdam or Delhi, it was always the same," Amitabh posted on his blog on Monday night. He recounted how evenings were spent at a common place where everyone chatted, played games and enjoyed each others' company. "Antakshari was the favourite, along with dumb charades... Haha... What wonderful moments shared," added the actor, who is currently in Malta to shoot "Thugs of Hindostan". Big B, 74, particularly mentioned how shootings in Kashmir, where he shot for Chopra's romantic drama "Silsila", were a delight. "After pack up, we would all migrate to the Dal Lake, where several 'dongas' - boat platforms - would be tied together to make one floating large boat and all of us would spend the evening, moving about in the lake, eating, singing... Music by local folk musicians, until the late hours. "Now all forgotten... And in memories... Sad. Time waits for no one... And neither must we," he added on an emotional note. Toronto, June 13 (IBNS): Hate crimes rose by 5% in Canada in 2015, largely due to an increase in incidents targeting certain religious and ethno-cultural groups, specifically the Muslim population and Arabs or West Asians, a new study has said. For the year, police reported 1,362 criminal incidents that were motivated by hate in Canada, 67 more than the previous year. These findings are included in the new Juristat article "Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2015" released on Tuesday. Police-reported hate crimes refer to criminal incidents that, upon investigation by police, are found to have been motivated by hatred toward an identifiable group, as defined in subparagraph 718.2(a)(i) of the Criminal Code of Canada, as per the Statistics Canada website. An incident may be against a person or property and may target race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, language, sex, age, mental or physical disability, among other factors. In addition, there are four specific offences listed as hate propaganda offences or hate crimes in the Criminal Code of Canada: advocating genocide, public incitement of hatred, willful promotion of hatred, and mischief motivated by hate in relation to religious property. Police determine whether or not a crime was motivated by hatred based on information gathered during the investigation and common national guidelines for record classification. Overall, police reported 469 Criminal Code incidents in 2015 that were motivated by hatred of a religion, 40 more incidents than the previous year. These accounted for 35% of hate-motivated crimes reported in 2015. Police-reported hate crimes targeting the Muslim population increased from 99 incidents in 2014 to 159 incidents in 2015, an increase of 61%. At the same time, the number of police-reported crimes targeting the Jewish population declined from 213 in 2014 to 178 in 2015. Hate crimes targeting the Jewish population accounted for 13% of all hate crimes, followed closely by hate crimes targeting the Muslim population (12%). Approximately 10% of the population in Canada were part of a non-Christian religion in 2016. According to recent projections by Statistics Canada, the number of people in Canada with a non-Christian religion could almost double by 2036. Within this group, the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths would see the number of their followers grow more quickly, although still representing a small portion of the population overall. In 2015, a number of police services increased outreach to ethnic groups, including Muslim communities. In addition, the National Council of Canadian Muslims made efforts to encourage reporting of hate crimes to police. From 2014 to 2015, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity increased 5%. Much of this increase was a result of more hate crimes targeting Arab and West Asian populations (+33%). Although down in 2015, crimes targeting Black populations remained the most common type of hate crime related to race or ethnicity (17% of all hate crimes). Overall, 48% of all police-reported hate crimes in 2015 were motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity. In all, 8 of 10 provinces reported an increase in the number of police-reported hate crimes from 2014 to 2015. The increase was most pronounced in Alberta, where police reported 193 hate crimes compared with 139 the year before (+39%). This increase was primarily driven by a higher number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred against the Muslim population (+12 incidents), Arab or West Asian populations (+10), Black populations (+9), and the Jewish population (+8). It should be noted that Alberta also reported an overall increase in their 2015 crime statistics. In contrast, in Ontario, which historically records close to half the total number of hate crimes in Canada (46%), the number of police-reported hate crimes declined by 5% from 2014. The decrease in Ontario was primarily driven by fewer police-reported hate crimes motivated by hatred against the Jewish religion (-30 incidents) and against the Black population (-19). From 2014 to 2015, police-reported crime motivated by hatred against the Muslim population increased in all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the totals remained virtually the same. More than 80% of police-reported hate crimes in Canada occurred in census metropolitan areas (CMAs). The 10 largest CMAs in Canada, home to over half of Canada's population, accounted for 71% of hate crimes in 2015. The three most populous CMAs of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver together accounted for 43% of police-reported incidents in 2015. Of the 10 largest CMAs in Canada, 4 reported more hate crimes in 2015 compared with the previous year, while 5 reported fewer such crimes. Vancouver reported the same number of incidents in 2015 as in 2014. The largest increases in hate crime incidents were reported in Edmonton (+45 incidents), Montreal (+39) and KitchenerWaterlooCambridge (+23). The increase in the Edmonton CMA was driven by more reported hate crime incidents against a race or ethnicity (+25) and against a religion (+17), mainly targeting the Muslim (+8) and Jewish (+7) populations. The number of hate crimes in Montreal was attributable to 33 more reported incidents targeting a religion. Of the additional incidents, 20 of these targeted the Muslim population. In the CMA of KitchenerWaterlooCambridge, counts were primarily driven by more incidents targeting different races or ethnicities (+12) and religions (+10). Females were more likely to be victims in incidents targeting a religion, and the presence of female victims in violent crimes motivated by hatred of a religion increased in 2015. That year, 53% of these victims were female, compared with 40% in 2014. The increase in female victims of religious hate crimes is attributed to an increase in female victims for Jewish and Muslim hate crimes from 2014 to 2015. Police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation declined 9% for the year, down from 155 incidents in 2014 to 141 incidents in 2015. They accounted for 11% of the hate crimes reported in 2015. Unlike other types of hate crimes, almost 6 in 10 of reported crimes motivated by hatred of a sexual orientation were violent. This compares with 45% of anti-race or ethnicity offences, and 24% of anti-religion hate crimes. Just over 4 in 10 victims of hate crimes targeting a sexual orientation (42%) reported an injury, compared with victims of violent crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity (29%) and of a religion (12%). Victims of violent hate crimes targeting sexual orientation were more likely to list the relationship as acquaintance or family member (47%). This compares with victims of violent crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity (36%) and of a religion (26%). Violent offences accounted for 38% of police-reported hate crimes in 2015. Violent offences included such things as assault, uttering threats, and criminal harassment. Overall, the number of violent hate crimes increased 15% from the previous year, driven by increases in common assault and uttering threats. From 2014 to 2015, the total number of non-violent hate crime incidents increased by 5%. Mischief, which includes vandalism and graffiti, was the most commonly reported offence among police-reported hate crimes, accounting for 44% of all hate crime incidents in 2015. Keystone Realtors (Rustomjee) IPO to open on 14th November The IPO of Keystone Realtors will open on November 14th. It will close on November 16th. The issue size is of Rs 635 crore. Price band has been set at Rs 514 - 541 per share. Mi... November 10, 2022 | 10-11-2022 3:51 pm GST officials detected Rs 55,575 crore worth of tax evasion, arrested over 700 people, in the past 2 Over the previous two years, the GST officials have discovered fraud totalling Rs55,575 crore and have detained over 700 people for defrauding the exchequer, an official told ET on Thursday. Th... November 10, 2022 | 10-11-2022 2:58 pm Bharat Electronics inks agreement with Goa Shipyard for development of autonomous navigation Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has signed an MoU with Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) for joint development of products/solutions in the area of Autonomous Navigation an... November 10, 2022 | 10-11-2022 12:54 pm PSP Projects secures work order worth Rs200 crore; Stock rises PSP Projects Limited has informed to the exchanges regarding receipt of work order. In a regulatory filing, the company said, "We are pleased to inform that we are in receipt of... November 10, 2022 | 10-11-2022 12:37 pm Five Star Business Finance IPO receives .02 times subscription application at the end of day 1 Five Star Business Finance IPO has received .02 times subscription application at the end of day 1. Five Star Business Finance, a non-banking financial organization with headqu... November 10, 2022 | 10-11-2022 11:39 am In a bid to shed 'colonial traditions' IIT-Kanpur has instructed its students to don ethnic attire like kurta, pyjamas and churidaar during their convocation ceremony and ditch the ceremonial black robes and head gear. Picture for representation The convocation ceremony will be held on June 15 and 16 in which some 1,600 students of graduate and post graduate levels will receive their degrees from chairman of Tata Sons, Natarajan Chandrasekaran. "For the first time, students will receive their degrees in the institute not in the British-time gowns and headgear but in kurta pyjamas (boys) and kurta-churidaar (girls) along with stoles in different colours to mark their specific courses," IIT-K Director, Professor Indranil Manna told PTI over the phone. PTI British-era ceremonial robes have been a moot point for a long time now. Back in the late APJ Abdul Kalam, then the President, had said that "the foreign inspired gown should go". Kalam suggested the indigenous dress featuring Lucknow's famous chikankari in its place, reports TOI. In December last year, UP Governor Ram Naik called the black robes a "redundant British custom" and ditched the attire at the convocation of King George Medical University, Lucknow. Since then many universities have followed suit, IIT Kanpur being the newest to join the bandwagon. At Lucknow's Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya Law University, students ditched the gowns to don safas and stoles at their convocation back in 2015. BCCL Professor Indranil Manna added that students will be required to wear Indian clothes during all future convocations. According to reports, coinciding with the golden jubilee of the institute, the ceremony will also see professors donning golden coloured robes fully covering their suit. They will also not be needed to wear black leather shoes and will be free to go in for Indian footwear in leather, Manna said. It is, in present times, too often that one finds effortless exhibition of inhuman behaviour. In a shockingly similar incident in UP, a man ended up carrying his seven-month-old nieces corpse to the hospital on a bicycle after being denied an ambulance to carry her. The girl Poonam lost her life in the hospital while her treatment was on in a district hospital. Frequent complaints of vomiting and incessant motion had led to her admission in the district hospital. After admitting his daughter to the hospital, father Anant Kumar left for Allahabad to arrange some money for the treatment of his daughter leaving her with brother-in-law Brijmohan to be taken care of. DNA India "We have taken cognizance of the incident. An inquiry has also been initiated," Chief Medical Officer (CMO) S.K. Upadhyay, Kaushambi said. "I called an ambulance driver several times to provide, but he refused to come. At last, I had to take my niece on a bicycle," Brijmohan said. Reportedly, an FIR has been lodged against the doctor on duty and the ambulance driver, who allegedly refused to carry the body. In a similar incident, on June 5 in Bihar, a man carried his wife's dead body on a motorcycle to reach his home for her last rites as he was denied a mortuary van at a government hospital. On May 21, a man was forced to carry the body of his dead wife on a stretcher after the hospital authorities refused to render an ambulance service to him in Kaushambi. Nilakshi Elizabeth Jorendal, an Indian-born Swedish national met her biological mother in Yavatmal, Maharashtra. Jorendal, now 44-years-old, was adopted by a Swedish family when she was three. She tracked her biological mother through Anjali Pawar who runs 'Against Child Trafficking' NGO in Pune. Nilakshi Elizabeth Jorendal blog Pawar said, "It was an emotional reunion on Saturday at the government hospital in Yavatmal. The mother-daughter duo broke into tears. Nilakshi, who was on a mission to trace her biological parents, had met her mother briefly earlier but this was a more elaborate, public reunion." reuters Jorendal's father who worked as a farm labourer committed suicide in 1973 - the same year when she was born at Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission's adoption home in Kedgaon, Pune. She was left there by her mother. Jorendal was subsequently adopted by her Swedish parents in 1976. She visited India six times since 1990 to trace her biological mother. 13 Indian Army personnel have been injured six different militants attacks in Kashmir valley in the past 24 hours. BCCL The attacks, four in south and one in north Kashmir, came in a span of four hours. A grenade was hurled at a CRPF camp at Ladiyar in Tral area of Pulwama district. 10 paramilitary jawans were injured in the attack, a police official said. "Two jawans were seriously injured, but they are out of danger," Vaid said. In the second attack, the militants opened firing on the security personnel guarding the residence of a retired high court judge at Anchidora in Anantnag district,resulting in injuries to two cops, he said. BCCL The third attack took place on a CRPF camp at Padgampora in Pulwama, but no one was hurt in it as the grenade hurled by the militants exploded mid-air. The militants also hurled a grenade at Pulwama police station, resulting in minor injuries to a policeman. Another attack took place near Bomai in North Kashmir's Sopore, but no damage was caused. BCCL The attacks come at a time when there is also an increase in cross border firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) and a spike in infiltration attempts. Ever since the winter snow subsided, making it easier for terrorists from across the LoC to infiltrate, there have been an increase in militancy, which has left the Indian security agencies concerned. Crash test ratings may not be all the rage in India (yet), but in the international markets, its something that car makers take pride in. Consumers too are more aware and prefer to buy cars that receive a higher safety rating. The newest cars to receive the highest 5-star crash test rating is Teslas SUV, the Model X. Heres a video of the crash test. The crash test was conducted by American road safety agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The front crash test shows the blue Model X crashing into a concrete wall and the bonnet crumpling. There doesnt seem to be any changes to the passenger cell and the A-pillar retains its shape. NHTSA According to a release by Tesla Motors, the Model X was awarded a 5-star safety rating in all the categories frontal impact, side impact and side impact pole barrier test. This resulted in an overall 5-star rating, a first for an SUV. Incidentally, the NHTSA database lists the Model X as an MPV. Tesla Motors says that the Model X has a lowest probability of rolling over among SUVs, because of the low centre of gravity it has thanks to the placement of the battery pack beneath the floor of the vehicle. Here are the other two crash tests conducted. Side impact crash test Side impact pole barrier test Its the end of an era. Yahoo, once the biggest online search engine and granddaddy of the Internet, has been purchased by US telecom service provider Verizon for $4.5 billion. Reuters As a result, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO since 2012, has stepped down as the last executive to hold the platforms post. Shes expected to receive a compensation package of over $23 million as she leaves the company behind for good. Mayers fate under the new Verizon management had so far not been certain, but it was often predicted she would resign. Verizon was able to acquire Yahoo and its 1 billion monthly users for a steal price, after years of internal turmoil wrecked its financial stability and public image. Though Yahoo has had a few different CEOs ever since it was founded in 1995, there was a period of major uncertainty and instability in 2012, when the company saw four different CEOs, ending with Mayer in charge late in the year. In fact, the acquisition was very nearly called off when it came to light that there was a major data breach under Mayers leadership in December 2016, resulting in data from over 1 billion user accounts being leaked online. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo While, obviously, not many users still used services with tied accounts like Yahoo mail, it still posed a danger, seeing as how people tend to reuse old passwords across multiple accounts, giving cyber criminals a chance to brute force password hacks using the data at their disposal. At the time, Verizon lowered its standing bid for Yahoo from $4.8 billion to $4.5 billion. Verizon doesnt really value the Yahoo platform itself, at least not as much as its ad services platform and stakes in Chinese online retail giant Alibaba. Security issues aside, Mayer has also been criticised by Yahoo insiders and the media alike, for being an indecisive micro-manager, among other things. She also been accused of spending company funds highly irresponsibly, including on a $7 million Great Gatsby-themed Christmas party in San Francisco in 2015. Other accusations involved $450 million she spent on free food for company employees 2012 to 2016, as well as $2 million she spent giving away JawBone trackers (she was also on the board of directors for that company). Here's how the money was spent. Yahoo party! #yahoo #roaringyep #marissamayer #christmas A post shared by Katie (@kjverb) on Dec 4, 2015 at 9:16pm PST trapeze artist pouring champagne A post shared by paige louise (@paigelouise_29) on Dec 5, 2015 at 6:01pm PST In a separate incident, a prominent former media executive for Yahoo, who was fired in 2015, later sued Mayer for supposedly leading a campaign to purge male employees. He claimed she encouraged the use of a performance rating system that accommodated for managers subjective biases, mostly against men in the office. Mayer was also criticised for forcing employees in remote locations to come in to work every day, instead of conferring over Skype and phone calls as was their allowance previously, following which she promptly built a nursery next door to her office in order to be able to bring her own children to work. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong will take over Mayers leadership, but not as it stands. Instead, Verizon will place him at the helm of a new subsidiary called Oath, which will merge all of Yahoos and AOLs properties, including The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail, Flickr and Tumblr, and many more. Yahoo Japan will instead remain a separate company called Altaba. Reuters Given the inherent changes to my role, I'll be leaving the company, Mayer wrote in a Tumblr post announcing her decision. In it, she thanked Yahoo employees, saying they rebuilt, reinvented, strengthened, and modernised the company. Looking back on my time at Yahoo, we have confronted seemingly insurmountable business challenges, along with many surprise twists and turns. Verizons acquisition of Yahoo is, apart from other possibilities, primarily about leveraging the companys ad services to break into the online advertising market. Its main competition here is stiff, coming in the form of Google and Facebook. The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a church warden identified as , Olabanji Oguntayo, at the Saviour Anglican Church in Abeokuta. for allegedly duping a businessman of N18.5 million. He allegedly took over some landed property of the victim, Jacob Erinle, and sold them without remittance of the sales. The arrest of the suspect was effected following a petition written to the police by a Non-Governmental Organisation on behalf of the victim, a pensioner who doubles as an elder (Baba Ijo) of the same church the suspect serves. The petition accused the suspect of issuing dud cheques, obtaining money by trick and threat to life. The suspect had earlier been invited by the police on May 17, but was granted bail having produced a surety and agreed to re-appear on May 25. He, however, jumped bail and defaulted, while his surety also absconded having failed to produce him, a police source said. Oguntayo, 54, was re-arrested on June 12, and pledged to return the money. The police have, however, resolved to charge him to court for obtaining money under false pretence, stealing and conduct likely to cause breach of peace. Source: ( Instablog9ja.com ) An army lieutenant has been declared missing in Festac area of Lagos during a military operation, this was made known by his father who claimed in a Facebook post that his son Lieutenant Davou Mwankon Gyang was kidnapped, the authorities are yet to comment on the missing officer. The incident is, however, shrouded in mystery as the Army is yet to contact the parents of the missing officer and most importantly locate him, according to Naij.com. The missing officers father in his post stated: I Da. Price Gyang Mwankon of Turu Village Vwang District of Jos South Local Government of Plateau state. My son graduated from Nigerian Defense Academy on the 13th September, 2014 as a second Lieutenant in the Nigerian Army. He was posted to Lagos State, 149 Battalion Ojo Barracks. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 2015 at the same Ojo Barrack 149 Battalion. We have been communicating with him via phone, since February 2017. Over 3 weeks we have have been trying to reach him and his number was not going through. I decided to go with one of his younger brother named GWONG GYANG MWANKON, to his office at 149 Ojo Barrack to visit him, on reaching the office on the 13th March, 2017, we met the adjutant, and we introduced ourselves to him and he told the Commanding Officer that we are around, then the Commanding Officer Lt Col Archibong (07069353889) came and directed us to his office. I introduced myself to him as the father of Lt Davou Mwankon Gyang, he told us that Lt DM Gyang went for operation on 18th February, 2017 with five other soldiers (other ranks) at Festac Village a few kilometers away from 149 Battalion Ojo Barracks, Lagos state. He told us he heard some gun shots, after a while a Captain called him and told him that Lt D M Gyang was kidnapped and he immediately called the adjutant to confirm if it was actually true, the adjutant confirmed it was true and that the other soldiers that went with him came back sound and safe. Lt. Col. Archibong also told us that he immediately went down to the office and he met the soldiers went with Lt. DM Gyang for the operation, and he asked them what actually happened, and the soldiers responded that they went for operation with Lt. DM Gyang at Festac Village Lagos. On reaching the operation ground, Lt. DM Gyang gave one of the soldier his phone and 1050 Naira that was in his pocket to return back to office. After a while the militants started shooting at them and they were running to escaped, and that they took different routes and that was how they escaped back to the Barracks and Lt. DM Gyang was kidnapped. Lt. Col Archibong further explained that he was not satisfied with their statements, and he locked them up in the guard room for further interrogations. After then the Commanding Officer took 300 soldiers with snuffing dogs to where the operation took place, and they could not trace Lt. DM Gyang and one of the snuffing dogs died in the process. Lt. Col. Archibong gave me his phone number (07069353889) that he was going to get back to us immediately. Since then he did not call us and whenever I call him, he doesnt pick up my calls. The father of the missing officer pleaded with the authorities to come to his aid and help locate the whereabouts of his son. Source: ( PM News ) The Police have arrested a retired officer of the Nigeria Police Force identified as Mr. Christopher Archibong at the Mbukpa Police station for allegedly raping a 9 year old girl in Calabar, Cross River State. The mother of the victim, Mrs. Peace Edem Okon said she had gone to the market and left instructions with the victim to wash the clothes of her siblings and upon her return discovered that something foul had happened. When I got back I discovered that my daughter wasnt herself, all efforts to make her tell me what was wrong were futile. Then the younger ones told me that blood was coming out from her bottom. I was surprise and thought she had started seeing her period. It was when I bought pad and tried helping her fix it that I discovered it was mucus, and upon persuasion she told me what happened. The victim said the incident occurred on May 31, 2017 when her mother went to the market. She said the accused visited asking about the whereabouts of her father and mother whom she replied had gone out. So (he) told me to come and pick some firewood. So as I went to pick the firewood, he came and held me to the ground and climbed on me, read her statement. She said she shouted and was going to tell her mother but the accused threatened that he will kill her and she will sleep and will not wakeup and unzipped his trouser and raped her. The victim said when the mother came and saw her and asked what has happened she was scared to speak-up as the accused had threatened that she would die and she only told her mother because my mother wanted to die. Mrs. Theresa Okpa of Basic Rights Council (BRCI), the law firm handling the case reveals that the family of the victim fears the case may be compromised, especially as the accused is a former Police officer. She added that the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Commissioner are already involved and aware of the case as the organization will do all it can do make sure this particular case is not swept under the carpet. The medical report Form D5 of the victim shows that she was defiled. Source: (Instablog9ja ) More details have emerged as notorious billionaire kidnapper, Evans has begged for forgiveness, promising to be a good Christian if he is finally freed from detention. Nigerian billionaire kidnap kingpin, Chukwudi Dumeme Onuamadike, also known as Evans, who was paraded by the police in Lagos on Sunday, has made some shocking revelations as he begged for forgiveness while promising to be a good Christian if he is freed. The father-of-five who is known for not negotiating his ransom admitted that he collects his ransom in American dollars to be different from other kidnappers, also said he had already relocated his wife and children from Ghana to Canada. He also said though his mother was aware of his life of crime, she was never in support and has never visited him or known where he lives. Heres his confessions in full; My mum has never been to my house. She knows Im into crime but never supports me. It all started in the year 2000 when I fled my home town in Opi, Nsukka Local Government of Enugu State to Lagos after stabbing my fiancee when she decided not to marry me I started in Anambra state during the tenure of Peter Obi as the governor of the state when a hunch man introduced me to kidnapping. We were later forced to leave Anambra state and moved to Edo later Lagos. I had boys I had boys from Warri, Delta state who worked for me. The first job I got in Lagos was at Johnbulls Ikoyi as a driver to the CEO. One day we were going to his office and my boss said that he wanted to visit a friend. The moment he stepped into his friends house, I took the sum of N350,000 he had in the car and ran away to Ghana he continued. I later returned to Nigeria after few months and avoided Ikoyi where my ex-boss office is situated. I then got a new job as a driver in the fashion I did before. I also stole N600,000 and eloped to Ghana again. I returned to Lagos in 200 and used my old method to secure another job as a driver at the home of the first family I kidnapped their daughter. When I realised that they are very rich and loved their daughter deeply. I took the girl to Ghana from where I demanded a ransom of only N20m but the girls father paid N22m instead. I then freed the girl in Ghana. Once I got this money, I ventured into an extravagant lifestyle and bought a house in Ghana. Then, I bought over five exotic cars and a truck. I began to show prominently in social functions where people hailed the way I was spending money. I spent over N2m on orphanages and local primary schools in Ghana. The Deputy Nigeria Ambassador to Ghana and other prominent Nigerians were also in attendance at the handing over ceremony of my donations. Early this year, I was arrested along with my wife, in Lagos. We were brought to the court but we later regained our freedom due to the power of my money and connections. I have to admit, I have done wrong and I have caused pains to several families but I want to live and pay for my evil crimes. I heard several stories about SARS and their operations but I never thought that I would one day be brought here for reckoning. I am just asking for another chance, I am sorry for my action, I will become a Christian, if only I have another chance. I cannot remember the number of people I have kidnapped so far. I took part in high profile kidnappings in Edo State where I got N10million as my share. A little boy has been brutally r*ped and strangled after he was lured by a man disguised as a woman in burka. A really chilling CCTV footage has shown disturbing footage of an alleged killer disguised in a burka moments before the rape and murder of a young boy. According to Daily Star UK, Azan Majid Janjua, 11, was taken from outside a mosque in Abu Dhabi after attending a Quran reading and afternoon prayers during Ramadan last week. Local media outlet Gulf News reports that the suspected killer, pictured in the above video, posed as a woman in a burka as he knew the boy would not leave the area with a man without asking his parents. The clip shows the pair emerge into the lobby of an apartment block, waiting for a number of seconds until an elevator arrives. The person in the video is then seen leading the boy into the lift, before they disappear from view as the short clip ends. Azans half-n*ked body was discovered by air-conditioning engineers on the roof of the building on May 31 with his Quran beside him. He was fasting and he went to the mosque for Asr prayers and Quran recitation and then went missing, Dr Majid Janjua, the boys father, said. I was shocked to know that AC technicians, who went to our buildings rooftop to check a malfunctioning chiller, found his body there around 10am. His body was half-naked. His Quran was beside him. The suspect, believed to be a Pakistani immigrant to Abu Dhabi, a city in the United Arab Emirates, was arrested less than 48 hours after the discovery of Azans body. He has confessed to the crime and is said to be known to the family of the victim. The case against the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has been ruled out by the Code Of Conduct Tribunal,according to the reports, the senate president has no case to answer no case to answer in the 18 charges of non-declaration of assets brought against him by the Federal Government. The CCB had on September 16, 2015 filed a 13-count charge against Saraki for alleged false and anticipatory declaration of assets. The charges were increased to 15 on April 18, 2016 and another charge was added on April 27, 2016 to make it 16. The government later increased the charges to 17 on January 11, 2017 and finally to 18 on February 23, 2017. The Danladi Umar-led two-man panel of the CCT had reserved its ruling after hearing Sarakis no-case submission and the Federal Governments objection to it on June 8. The Senate President, through his no-case submission filed before the CCT on May 26, 2017, contended that none of the exhibits tendered and no evidence given by the four prosecution witnesses linked him to the alleged offences to warrant him to defend the charges. Source:( Instablog9ja ) The Military Defence Headquaters, Abuja, set up a committee on Tuesday to investigate the clash between officials of the navy and police in Calabar, Cross River State, with the aim of sanctioning the culprits. The DHQ Director of Information, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, said the mandate of the committee included recommending the sanctions to be meted out to erring navy ratings and civilians behind the incident. Some naval ratings and policemen had on Tuesday, May 30, clashed at the Akim Police Station along the IBB Way, Calabar, during which at least two persons were shot dead. Enenche said on Tuesday that the panel comprised senior officers from the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Navy. He said, The Defence Headquarters has set up a high-profile committee to investigate the causes of the clash between personnel of the Nigerian Navy and the police, which led to the destruction of lives and property. The committee comprises senior officers from the three services. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) Masqueraders in Ikun-Ekiti, in Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State were, on Tuesday, dragged to court by the incorporated trustees of National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations, over an attack on Muslims of Ansarudeen Central Mosque, in the community on May 30 that left worshippers injured. The attack took place at sunset around 7pm when the Muslims had gathered in the mosque to observe the Maghrib prayer after breaking their Ramadan fast. It was gathered that the masqueraders were irked that the Muslims had the gut to call for prayers when they were still celebrating their Egungun festival. The masqueraders are Obee Atokun Agba, Saje Alarawo, Dada Owarunkun, Ojo Edisun and Segun Aderupoko Also joined in the suit filed before the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti, is the traditional ruler of the town, Oba David Olusola. The Muslim community accused the Onikun of Ikun (Oba Olusola) of supervising the attack on them. The plaintiff is seeking N20 million as compensation for the assault and injuries inflicted on the Muslims and another N5m as special and exemplary damages for the destruction of the mosque and valuables of the worshippers during the attack. The Motion on Notice was brought pursuant to Order II Rules 1, 2, & 3 of the Fundamental Right (Enforcement procedure) Rules 2009; Sections 34 (1)(a); 35, 38 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) and Articles 5, 8, 11 & 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP 10) Laws of the Federation under the inherent jurisdiction of the court. The plaintiff is seeking a declaration that the invasion of the mosque by the Respondents and their agents (being the devotees of Ajagunmole Masquerade) is unlawful, illegal, wrong and a derogation of the Fundamental Human Rights of the Muslims of Ikun Ekiti to dignity of human person, freedom of thought, conscience and religion. They also sought a declaration that the cultural practice of Ikun Ekiti during the masquerade festival whereby women of Ikun Ekiti are restrained indoors and prohibited from moving about from sunset to dawn is illegal, unlawful and an infringement on the Fundamental Human Right to freedom of movement and personal liberty of the Ikun Ekiti Muslim women. *An order restraining the Respondents, their agents, privies, cronies etc. from further invasion of the mosque of the Ikun Ekiti Muslim Community and banning the Respondents and their agents from further assault of the Muslims of Ikun Ekiti during the performance of their religious obligations and/or at all times. *An order mandating the Respondents to only observe their Ajagunmole Egungun Festival in such a way and form as it will not disturb, interfere and collide with the free and uninterrupted worship of the Muslim Community of Ikun-Ekiti. The plaintiff prayed the court to declare that the letter of the Onikun of Ikun-Ekiti (Oba Olusola) of May 26, 2017 to the Ikun-Ekiti Muslim Community requesting the restraint of Muslim Women of Ikun-Ekiti indoors from 6:30pm of May 30, 2017 to the dawn of May 31, 2017 is an invasion of the freedom of movement of the Muslim women and as such wrong, illegal, unlawful, null and void. *A declaration that the wanton and monumental destruction of the Ansaruddeen Central Mosque of Ikun-Ekiti and the vehicles of the members of Ikun Ekiti Muslim Community by the Respondents and their agents are barbaric, unlawful, illegal and wrong. *An order directing the Respondents to pay the sum of N20m to the Muslim Community of Ikun-Ekiti for the unwarranted distortion of their worship and the assault of her members which resulted in serious bodily injuries. *AN ORDER mandating the Respondents top pay the sum of N5m as special and exemplary damages to the Muslim Community of Ikun Ekiti for the brutal destruction of her Ansaruddeen mosque and the valuables of members. *AN ORDER mandating the Respondents to tender a public apology to the Muslim Community of Ikun-Ekiti via two national daily newspapers for the unwarranted infringement on the rights of the Muslims of Ikun- Ekiti to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; dignity of human person; personal liberty; and right to freedom of movement. Source: Tori The doctors have finally released the autopsy of Late Nollywood actress, Moji Olaiya, this was confirmed in a statement released by the family. The statement indicates that the autopsy conducted on her remains showed that she died of a natural medical cause. In a statement by Mojis brother , Femi Olaiya, the family dismissed rumours that the late actress was posioned in Canada where she was delivered of a baby girl in Feburary. However, doctors, who spoke with our correspondent on Monday, said that the autopsy report suggested that the late mother of two must have died of a traceable and demonstrable medical cause. A medical consultant with the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Dr. Adeoye Oyewole said, Someone is said to have died of a medical cause when there is a traceable and demonstrable medical pathology that is related to the death. The term natural medical cause is not medical. For instance, if the person had suffered a heart or cardiovascular event just before he/she died, that is a traceable medical cause. If the person also had an underlying medical condition like an enlarged heart but an event triggered a shock to the system to have caused the death, it is also a medical cause. A cardiologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Dr. Afolabi Akinkunmi, corroborated Oyewoles views, saying there was always a medical cause to every death; and an autopsy was usually carried out to establish the exact or underlying cause of the individuals death. Akinkunmi said, There is always a medical cause for every natural death. If you have any doubt, then the autopsy report is conducted and the coroner will state it on the death certificate. Another expert. Dr. Babajide Saheed, noted that a person who suffered a sudden cardiac arrest or a condition that shuts down the brain or nervous system in a short time is said to have died of a natural cause. Saheed said, There is always a medical pathology to every natural death. So a natural death means that there is nothing you could have done to help the individual, such as if the person experienced a sudden cardiac arrest and died even before getting to the hospital. If a person that has a terminal disease such as leukemia dies, it is a natural death because there is nothing you could have done for the patient. These are natural deaths with a traceable medical pathology. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) A man was sentenced to one month in prison for breaking his fast and smoking during the fasting month of Ramadan in Tunisia, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Amnesty International condemned the move as a clear violation of individual freedoms. He was charged with public indecency in the town of Bizerte, north-west of Tunis, for smoking outside a courthouse. He is the fifth man to receive a jail sentence for breaking his fast during the holy month. Four men were sentenced to one month in prison after eating in public on June 1. Imprisoning someone for smoking a cigarette or eating in public is an absurd violation of an individuals personal freedoms. Failing to conform to religious and social customs is not a criminal offence, Heba Morayef, North Africa Research Director at Amnesty International, said. According to Amnesty, there are no laws in Tunisia requiring individuals to fast or preventing them from eating publicly during Ramadan. During Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to dusk. Arresting people for eating publicly during Ramadan is not uncommon in the Arab world. While there no laws that ban people from eating publicly during the day in Ramadan in Egypt, dozens are reportedly arrested every year for breaking their fast. In 2016, police launched a raid campaign to clamp down on cafes operating during Ramadan. In the United Arab Emirates, it is against the law to eat or drink during daytime in the holy month, where violators can face up to one months imprisonment. Source: (dpa/NAN) Nigerias controversial US trained journalist, Kemi Olunloyo, has revealed how she got married in prison. Kemi was recently released from a Port Harcourt prison after spending 81 days in detention. Recall that the daughter of former governor of Oyo State, Victor Omololu Olunloyo, was remanded in prison for purportedly publishing materials believed to have defamed an influential cleric, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, of the Salvation Ministries in Port Harcourt. In a message she shared on her Instagram page, the journalist wrote I GOT MARRIED LIKE I PROMISED TO IN 2017. Yes I got MARRIED to someone in prison. This is my FIRST SUNDAY away from #PHMax prison. I lean towards Catholism and Islam which I grew up in and attended the Catholic church inside the prison. There are up to 4 churches and a mosque in there plus the Pentecostal churches that visits inmates weekly and bring us the word of God and provisions. I became a bible reader. The same bible I ripped in 2016 as being a storybook of fiction may have been real. I studied what the prophets of old said. It seems unreal but these things likely happened. But why are we commercializing religion and brainwashing the congregation? I will become a Woman of God very soon and use my prophetic abilities and bible story knowledge to apply wisdom to your lives. Prison always make all inmates spiritualright?. Hell No! Jesus shows up in the most expected places. Unlike the enemies of the #freethesheeple movement who are so Christ obsessed? I did not find #Jesus. He found me! Jesus is my first and new HUSBAND! I have never been married or divorced in my entire life. This will be an everlasting relationship. Say Alleluia! May God forgive your sins too! Dont be obsessed with religion. Minimize! #HAPPYSUNDAY to all of you and my former inmates. My seat in the front row near our Catholic female leader and 76yo #MamaOwerri will be empty today as Father tells the church about my release last week. Source: Dailypost The International Criminal Court chiefs prosecutor Wednesday called for the immediate arrest and surrender of Moamer Kadhafis son Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly set free by a militia in Libya. An arrest warrant issued by the Hague-based ICC against Seif in 2011 remains valid and Libya is obliged to immediately arrest and surrender Mr Gaddafi regardless of any purported amnesty law in Libya, Fatou Bensouda said. Seif al-Islam, the second son and heir apparent of the late deposed Libyan dictator, was said to have been released on Friday by a militia that controls the town of Zintan in western Libya. The group, which had held Seif al-Islam for more than five years, said he had been set free under an amnesty law promulgated by a parliament based in the countrys east during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But the prosecutor generals office in Tripoli, where a rival UN-backed administration is based, said the amnesty could not apply to Seif al-Islam because of the severity of his crimes, saying he was still wanted for a 2015 conviction. Bensouda said the world war crimes court is now verifying Seif al-Islams whereabouts. She called on Libya, the UN Security Council and all other relevant countries to provide my office with any relevant information in their possession. The ICC also called for the arrest and surrender of Libyas former security chief Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, who is wanted on similar charges as Seif for his role in attempting to quash the 2011 revolt against slain strongman Kadhafi. The ICC in April unveiled an arrest warrant for Khaled. It is imperative for both suspects to be apprehended and immediately surrendered to the custody of the ICC so that their guilt or innocence can be establishedfor justice to be done, and seen to be done, Bensouda said. Source: (AFP ) Days after the ultimatum given to the Igbos living in the Northern Part of the country by the Arewa Youth Group,according to reports hundreds of northerners leaving Port Harcourt, Rivers state on Sunday, June 11, has hit the internet. Days after the ultimatum given to the Igbos living in the Northern Part of the country by the Arewa Youth Group,according to reports hundreds of northerners leaving Port Harcourt, Rivers state on Sunday, June 11, has hit the internet. The quit notice to all the Igbos in the region is coming from the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY). It was learnt that the group also urged northern people in the south-eastern part of the country to immediately start moving back to their various states. NAIJ.com regional reporter in Port Harcourt has confirmed seeing large numbers of northerners boarding commercial vehicles at a popular park along Ikwerre road. Controversial US trained journalist Kemi Olunloyo has revealed how her long term enemy, Linda Ikeji contributed to get her out of prison. The drama between Kemi and Linda dates back to years ago. Kemi even claimed she placed a gag order on Linda preventing the blogger from publishing any report about her. Also Kemi never misses an opportunity to blast or call out the blogger. But the journalist, who revealed recently that she got married and became born again in Port Harcourt prisondailypost.ng/2017/06/11/got-married-became-born-prison-kemi-olunloyo/, has now revealed that Linda was the first person to donate to her legal expense travel fund while she was in prison. She wrote via her Instagram page, SPECIAL THANKS to @officiallindaikeji#LindaIkeji who secretly donated to my legal expense travel fund. Today I found out she was the very FIRST DONOR on May 16th N100,000. Thank you Linda. We women in Nigeria should now collectively form a powerful force showing the world that girl power belongs here. Cheers to you Linda!! I appreciate all your donations Nigeria. However big or small. Lets get @hnnafricaback on track. A GoFundMe appeal has been set up as well. Source: Dailypost The planned arraignment of Mohammed Adoke, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum, for involvement in the $1.1 billion Malabu oil scandal, could not go on Tuesday as they were again absent in court. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had on March 2, 2017 filed fresh charges against them, along with two international oil giants Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company, and Eni, as well as Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, Rocky Top Resource Ltd, Imperial Union Ltd, Novel Properties & Dev. Co. Ltd, Group Construction Ltd, Megatech Engineering Ltd. They are alleged to have defrauded the Nigerian government of the said sum, in a fraudulent deal involving the transfer of ownership of Oil Prospecting Licence, OPL 245. At the resumed sitting, prosecuting counsel, Johnson Ojogbane, told Justice J.T. Tsoho that until now, we have not been able to secure attendance of most of the defendants because they are outside jurisdiction. Ojogbane had at the April 3, 2017 sitting requested Justice Tsoho to issue an arrest warrant for the defendants who were currently on the run, noting that the prosecution was having difficulties serving Adoke with the charges as he is outside the jurisdiction of the court. Justice Tsoho, however, declined, explaining that the court could only grant such a request, if such a person has been arraigned before a court and is attempting to escape. While seeking for an adjournment, Ojogbane stressed that, The federal government is doing everything within its power to bring them back to Nigeria to face their trial. He added that: The EFCC wants to ensure a holistic approach to the case and we want to ensure that those who are charged are tried together; all we need is some time, if we are able to do this, then well continue, otherwise we take a major decision to see how we can proceed with those available for the trial . Their arraignment has now been fixed for October 26, 2017. Source: ( PM News ) A witness has opened up on how an Abuja man beat his own wife to death after tracing her to her destination when she went out. Insp. Raymond Isama, a prosecution witness, has narrated how one Clement Davis, allegedly beat his wife to death on August 8, 2016. NAN reports that Isama of FCT Police Command, led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Afraabasi Ebong, was testing in a culpable homicide charge preferred against Davis in an FCT High Court, Lugbe. Isama said that the woman fell down and became unconscious after the defendant slapped her, adding that she was rushed to the hospital where she was confirmed dead. The witness said that the case was transferred from the Apo Police Division to the CID Department, Homicide Section, on Aug. 11, 2016. Isama said that Davies, in his statement, said that when he came back from office, the door to his house was locked, the wife was not around and nobody was in the house. He said when the wife later came back and opened the door, she immediately left and went back to where she was coming from. Isama said that in the statement, Davis said he followed his wife, to trace where she was heading to. The witness said that when the woman got to her destination, Davies approached her and slapped her on the face, beat her and she fell down. She fell down and became unconscious, she was taken to the hospital by the defendant but later confirmed dead by a doctor, the witness said. Ebong sought to tender the statement made by Davies, but was opposed by the counsel to the defendant, Mr Bank Akomolafe. Akomolafe said that the statement in question was an extra-judicial statement written by the police, adding that it did not constitute any evidence. He said that the Supreme Court had ruled that extrajudicial statement by the police could not be admitted as an exhibit, adding that Section 232 of the Evidence Act frowns against that. Akomolafe said that the statement that the victim was slapped, beaten and then collapsed, were what the police, as represented by Isama, was told and not that he was physically present at that point in time. Ebong, in his response, said that the statement should be admitted as exhibit since it complied with the Evidence Act. The judge, Justice Angela Otaluka, in her short ruling, admitted the statement as exhibit and adjourned the case until July 12 for further hearing. A Nigerian man is currently wanted in the United Kingdom after allegedly perpetrating fraud which has come to the knowledge of security operatives. The United Kingdom police has anounced a nationwide search for a Nigerian male of Yoruba descent named Gbenga Ajibade over allegations of financial crimes. The offences were reportedly linked to Kent and Birmingham in Britain. The announcement made on Twitter included a number that should be called by members of the public if they have any information about his whereabout. This is not the first time a Nigerian has misrepresented the values of his come country abroad. The arm of the police which announced his search with his picture attached didnt specify the crime committed by the man who is presumed to be elusive. A 45 year-old man identified as Lucien Tosume, who is suspected to be a ritualist has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command, for possessing a human skull. Tosume was arrested last week following an intelligence report in Iraye village in Sagamu Local Council of Ogun State. According to spokesman of the Lagos State police command, Olarinde Famous-Cole, the suspect, who specializes in the sale of human skull, was accosted by police intelligence officers, who disguised as buyers. Upon negotiation, the suspect agreed to sell a skull for N150,000, but the officers convinced him to sell it for N81,000, which he agreed to. The suspect was arrested immediately the money was paid to him. Tosume, who confessed to the crime, said he sells fresh skulls for N1 million. Famous-Cole says investigations are ongoing to ascertain where he got the human part. The commands spokesperson added that the suspect will be transferred to Panti for further investigation, as he advised members of the public and parents to keep a watchful eye on children and know their whereabouts at all time. Source: ( Instablogja.com) A top Nigerian lawyer has told of why he transferred as much as N750,000 to a serving Nigerian federal judge. A senior Nigerian lawyer, Joseph Nwobike, has narrated how he transferred N750, 000 to a serving federal judge, Justice Nasiru Yinusa, saying the money was to help the judge pay for his mothers medical treatment, and not to bribe him. According to Premium Times, Mr. Nwobike said this on Wednesday at his ongoing corruption trial before an Ikeja division of the Lagos State High Court. An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission witness, Daniel Danladi, had on March 29 told the court that the funds transferred by the lawyer into the bank account of a serving judge were meant for purposes which included a library upgrade. Mr. Danladi, an operative of the EFCC, said during cross-examination that the money was not meant to pervert the course of justice. He had also said that the defendant confirmed to the EFCC that the N750, 000 was for the treatment of Justice Yunusas mother and the judge also confirmed same to the commission. Mr. Nwobike is facing trial for allegedly offering gratification to judges. The judges names include Mohammed Yinusa, H.A Ngajiwa, and Musa Kurya of the Federal High Court; and James Agbadu-Fishim of the National Industrial Court. Testifying during his trial on Wednesday, Mr. Nwobike said he could recollect doing a few cases against the EFCC and I came back from court one day and received a call from a fellow who described himself as an officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and introduced himself as Mr. Zakari. I remember cross examining him in a case involving my client and the EFCC. He said I should find time and come to the office to clarify some issues and he did not tell me what the issue was, said the senior lawyer. Mr. Nwobike further said, When I came to the office 30 minutes thereafter, he brought a document, which I discovered was a statement of account of Joseph Nwobike and Co. firm with UBA. He showed me an entry of transfer of N750, 000 from the account of Joseph Nwobike and Co. to one Justice Yinusa. According to the senior lawyer, he had known Justice Yinusa from his days as a staff of the Federal Ministry of Justice and had become friends. I saw him one day and he told me his mother was ill and had dialysis and was afraid that she would die, that he had spent over N250, 000 weekly on the illness. I felt pity not because he was a judge, but because he had been my friend for 19 years. He gave me his account details that day. When I had some money, in my own signature, I transferred the sum of N750, 000 only to his account for that purpose, said Mr. Nwobike. In his witness statement, Mr. Nwobike also told the court that he had never at any time given any other money to Justice Yinusa and had never discussed any official matter whether in relation to cases or any other official matter with Mr. Yinusa whether before or after the money was given to him. Justice Raliatu Adebiyi adjourned the matter to July 3 and 4, for continuation of trial on the understanding that the defence would close his case on July 4. If that fails, another date will be fixed before the end of the legal year. Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi has blasted the Former president, Goodluck Jonathan,saying he did not do anything to the Igbo community even though they massively supported him in 2011. The minister added that those who served under Jonathan from the South-east region should be ashamed of themselves because they were seeing the president five times in a day but could not get key roads constructed. The Igbos gave Jonathan support, what did he do? Of course! Nothing!, he said in Lagos at a Forum. GEJ went to Onitsha and danced and promised to construct Onitsha bridge. Right? After that nothing happened. Now we are fixing the bridge without making promise. Or did we promise to construct Onitsha bridge? I didnt hear him (President Buhari) say he would construct Onitsha bridge during the campaign, except someone spoke on his behalf. Today we are constructing the second bridge, which is the River Niger bridge, The relevance of a politician is not determined by how much he has in his pocket. It is determined by how much development he is able to bring. The Port Harcourt-Owerri road was terrible. One day I made the mistake as governor to try to go to Owerri and I passed through Aba. I wept. Now we are constructing that road; it may not be at the speed that you want but we are constructing the road. The next road I mentioned is the Enugu-Onitsha. We are doing Port Harcourt-Enugu, the most important road to the Igbo. The next most important road to the Igbo is Enugu to Onitsha, and he (Buhari) is doing it again. So who is better? The last man you people were dancing with at Onitsha bridge that promised you people that Azikiwe commissioned this bridge and the second Azikiwe commissioned it again never put a stone. But the man who doesnt talk at all; who didnt make promise and he is doing it, which one do you prefer? Dont be deceived by those who depended on government alone for survival. Source: ( Instablog9ja) South Korean Police said Wednesday they have arrested a 46 year-old Nigerian for smuggling large amounts of methamphetamines, also called meth, into the country through international mail from China. The Nigerian yet to be identified is being detained by the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency in Seoul. Yonhap, the Korean news agency said the Nigerian twice last week and via post attempted to smuggle into the country 605 grams of meth , worth some 2 billion won (US$1.77 million). The drug was hidden in womens cosmetic products. Each parcel was delivered via international express mail. The volume of meth he tried to sneak into Korea is large enough for about 20,000 people, the police said. The suspect, who lives in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, and has a blue-collar job, received the mail from China through Cambodia. The police received intelligence about possible drug smuggling earlier and impounded the drugs at customs located at Incheon International Airport, it added. The police said they are investigating whether the suspect had any accomplices. It appears a Nigerian drug smuggling ring is very active in Asia, especially in India where many Nigerians have been arrested. Source: (NAN ) A mother-of-two was found unconscious in her car near her home in the Bronx, New York, after she died undergoing a string of botched plastic surgery operations overseas. The never-ending search for beauty ended tragically for a woman who died of complications from a series of plastic surgeries she got in the Dominican Republic. 25-year-old Janelle Edwards, was found unconscious in her car on Bellamy Loop near Co-op City Blvd. in the Bronx at 8:10 p.m. Thursday, as sources said her parents found her slumped behind the wheel and called police. It was gathered that edwards died 30 minutes later at Montefiore Medical Centers Albert Einstein Hospital where she once worked, according to a Facebook post. We found her in the car unresponsive, her grieving mother Marjorie Edwards, 57, told the Daily News. We dont know what happened. An initial autopsy on Saturday was inconclusive as more tests were ordered, but a doctor told detectives that Edwards died of a blood clot caused by her recent surgeries, police sources said. Edwards older sister Samantha Edwards believes the operations; breast enhancement, a tummy tuck and butt implants which were performed in Santo Domingo, killed her sibling, although she doesnt think her family has any legal recourse. She was a very loving person, Edwards said. Thats how I want to remember my sister. She lived her life and God took her early. Family members told detectives that Edwards complained of stomach and breast pain since she returned from her 1,500-mile trip. Yet she apparently wouldnt slow down and showed no signs of distress on the day she died. Busy, busy, busy, she posted on Facebook Thursday, roughly three hours before she died. I must sleep good tonight. Neighbors said the deceased returned home about a month ago. She was all wrapped in bandages and had an IV on a stand. She was in a lot of pain, said Elia Mayo, 50, a Bronx cleaning woman who lives next door to Edwards. Its such a shock, Mayo said. She was a nice girl. She had such good manners. The deceased leaves behind two daughters, one 7 years old, the other just 1, family members said. Activities was disrupted at the secretariat of Baruten Local Government Council of Kwara State by some irate youths on Tuesday over the composition of its new Transitional Implementation Committee (TIC). The youths, who were mainly from Kosubosu, the councils headquarters, had marched to the secretariat and chased away workers before locking up offices. The youths also lit a bonfire on the expressway leading to the border with Benin Republic. It was learnt that the youths were dissatisfied with the reported substitution of one Umar Galadima who was in May appointed as a member of the TIC. Galadima, a former Revenue Officer in the council, hails from Kosubosu. The youths displayed placards with various inscriptions such as Baruten will not know peace without Galadima, No to marginalisation of Kosubosu community and Reinstate Galadima for peace in Baruten. Although the youths refused to address newsmen, one of them, however, said that reports filtering into the community indicated that Galadimas name had been substituted. He said the youths were angry as this was the first time an indigene of Kosubosu would be appointed a TIC member. But the Chairman of the TIC, Alhaji Danjuma Sabi, condemned the action of the youths, saying they were only reacting to rumours. As far as I am concerned, there has not been any official announcement that Galadima has been changed. The youths are only acting on rumours as there had not been any announcement that Galadimas name has been substituted, he said. Sabi warned the youths against disruptions that could cause setback to the area in its quest for development. He urged the youths to always explore dialogue in conflict resolution rather than resort to violence. Source: ( PM News ) Mondelez opens new Technical Center in Poland Mondelez International has inaugurated its newest global Technical Center in Wroclaw, Poland. The facility will support new products and technologies for many of the company's Power Brands. Mondelez International has inaugurated its newest global Technical Center in Wroclaw, Poland. The facility will support new products and technologies for many of the company's Power Brands, including Milka and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate as well as Oreo, belVita and Barni biscuits. The Wroclaw Technical Center is part of the company's previously announced $65 million investment in nine large R&D hubs, strategically positioned around the globe. These centres will enable Mondelez International to better recruit, retain and develop talent across a range of science and technical disciplines, the company believes, while accelerating its growth and innovation. "With these advantaged Technical Centers, we're focusing our investment in research, equipment and capabilities, driving innovation to support our growth strategy, margin and quality platforms," said Rob Hargrove, Executive Vice President, Research, Development, Quality and Innovation. "These R&D hubs will improve speed, efficiency and effectiveness, while increased scale will enable us to more quickly address evolving consumer needs." "Poland is one of our most important markets in Central Europe, and Wroclaw is a modern city that's open to investment. Embedding one of our largest Technical Centers here clearly signals the importance of Poland and Europe within our global R&D network." The Wroclaw Technical Center will be home to nearly 250 scientists, engineers and other specialists from all over the world. The site is equipped with innovation labs, a large pilot plant and a "collaboration kitchen" a creative space of 9,500 square meters for new ideas and experimentation. The Wroclaw Technical Center will closely collaborate on innovations with more than 40 sites in the companys manufacturing network across Europe. The Wroclaw hub joins four other Mondelez International Technical Centers East Hanover, New Jersey, in the United States; Curitiba in Brazil; as well as Bournville and Reading, both in the UK that are already in full operation. The remainder of the company's network of redesigned Technical Centers in India, Singapore, Mexico and China are expected to open in the second half of 2017 and in 2018. Hog Futures Weaken on Thursday Barchart - Thu Nov 10, 4:46PM CST Front month lean hog prices closed the Thursday session with 32 to 82 cent losses, but are still in the black on net for the week due to the Monday strength. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price was... HEZ22 : 84.875s (-0.47%) HEJ23 : 94.225s (-0.42%) KMZ22 : 95.500s (+0.05%) Mixed Close for Thursday Cotton Barchart - Thu Nov 10, 4:46PM CST Cotton futures worked both sides of UNCH on Thursday, and settled the day mixed. December traded in a 251 point range on the day to close 12 points red. May 23 through the new crop futures were higher,... CTZ22 : 86.62 (+0.28%) CTH23 : 84.80 (+0.28%) CTK23 : 84.18 (+0.25%) Cattle Rise on Weaker Grains Barchart - Thu Nov 10, 4:46PM CST Live cattle futures firmed up after a red midweek trade, erasing yesterdays action and going home back up by $0.72 to $1.50 in the front months. USDA reported cash sales from $149 to $150 in the South... LEZ22 : 153.075s (+0.99%) LEG23 : 155.025s (+0.57%) LEJ23 : 158.500s (+0.46%) GFX22 : 178.625s (+0.51%) GFF23 : 181.700s (+1.14%) Wheat Holds Relatively Firm Barchart - Thu Nov 10, 4:46PM CST As corn and soybean futures fell 1-2% on Thursday, wheat markets were relatively firm on 1 1/2 to 8 cent losses across the complex. MGE wheat faired the worse of the domestic classes, and went home 6 3/4... ZWZ22 : 808-0 (+0.56%) ZWH23 : 829-6 (+0.48%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.3619 (-0.41%) KEZ22 : 929-4 (+0.46%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.8355 (-0.51%) MWZ22 : 936-2 (+0.51%) Double Digit Drop in Corn Market Barchart - Thu Nov 10, 4:46PM CST Corn futures faded the Thursday session with double digit losses and closed near the low. December dropped the most on an 11 1/4 cent pullback to lows not seen since mid/late August. USDA announced a... ZCZ22 : 656-6 (+0.54%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.5135 (-1.71%) ZCH23 : 662-6 (+0.49%) ZCK23 : 663-0 (+0.53%) Beans Close 2% in Red Barchart - Thu Nov 10, 4:46PM CST Soybean futures ended the Thursday session with losses of 22 3/4 to 29 1/2 cents, and closed near their daily low. For Jan futures that was nearly a new low for the month of November. Products were mixed... ZSX22 : 1439-2 (+0.61%) ZSPAUS.CM : 13.9431 (-1.91%) ZSF23 : 1436-6 (+0.97%) ZSH23 : 1442-2 (+1.00%) Real estate developer Martin Taradejna intends to convert a former Lincoln Logs factory in Chicago to self-storage. Taradejna acquired the property at 1750 N. Lawndale Ave. in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on June 2 for $2.2 million. The acquisition includes more than 1 acre, a 45,834-square-foot building and an attached 23,380-square-foot warehouse. The facility will comprise about 600 units and offer indoor and outdoor parking, according to the source. Expected to open early next year, itll be operated by self-storage real estate investment trust and third-party management firm CubeSmart. The factory is the former home of Playskool Manufacturing Co., which used the plant to produce Lincoln Logs from the 1940s through the 1960s, the source reported. Taradejna and a business partner purchased the property from owner Don Glisovich through an entity called Platform II Lawndale LLC. The property is at the west end of the Bloomingdale Trail, a 2.7-mile elevated park and trail that runs through the neighborhoods of Bucktown, Humboldt Park, Logan Square and Wicker Park. The trail was built on the unused portion of the Bloomingdale railroad and is part of a larger project known as The 606, a system of parks and access points, according to the Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail website. "Being on The 606 is an attractive thing and [also] having the YMCA as a neighbor. It's a nice dense population there, and not a lot of self-storage," Taradejna told the source. Glisovich was the sole owner of the property, though he originally purchased it with other investors in 2015. He acquired it with the intent on turning it into a destination spot and initially envisioned a brewery, cafe, theater or other tenant at the site, according to the source. Stor-All Self Storage, which operates five facilities in Nevada, is teaming up with Charity Storage to raise money for Austins House, an emergency shelter for children. The operator is seeking new and gently used donations of household items to fill a storage unit at its Gardnerville, Nev., facility. If enough items are received, the contents will be auctioned on June 20 via StorageTreasures.com, a website that serves self-storage auction buyers and sellers. Sixty percent of the proceeds from the sale will benefit Austins House, while 20 percent will be donated to Kure-It Cancer Research, a nonprofit dedicated to funding kidney and other cancer research. The remaining funds will be split between Charity Storage to cover operating costs and the national Self Storage Association Foundation Scholarship program. Charity Storage is a nonprofit that has established a national network of participating storage facilities to serve as collection points for goods donated by tenants as well as the general public. Donated goods are stored and later sold during the facilities public auctions. Founded in 2007, Austins House provides housing for up to 10 children, from newborns to 18 years old. The children have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect. Theyre cared at the home until theyre reunited with their family or an appropriate long-term placement is made. Stor-All was founded by Robert and Twyila Whear in 1971. The family-operated business includes two sites in Gardnerville and one each in Dayton, Elko and Winnemucca, Nev. World Class Capital Group LLC (WCCG), which operates the Great Value Storage brand, has acquired a three-property self-storage portfolio in the Denver area that formerly operated as Bargain Storage. The facilities comprise more than 103,060 square feet of storage space and include land for expansion, according to a press release. WCCG plans to renovate and rebrand the properties immediately. It will also expand them in the future, the release stated. We are pleased to expand our Great Value Storage footprint into the Denver market with the acquisition of this initial three-property portfolio, said Nate Paul, CEO and president. We plan to grow our self-storage portfolio throughout the state of Colorado with additional acquisitions and ground-up development. The real estate firm is also expanding its self-storage presence in Texas. Earlier this year, it purchased land for a new development as well as two existing storage properties. WCCG is a national real estate investment firm focused on acquiring, developing and managing real estate. Its portfolio includes investments in industrial, land, multi-family, office, retail and self-storage properties. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, WCCG has offices in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City. Great Value Storage, a privately owned self-storage company, operates 69 self-storage facilities in 11 states totaling 4.8 million square feet of rentable space in 34,000 units. Headquartered in Portland, Ore., Bargain Storage owns 25 storage properties in Arizona, Colorado and Texas. About 55 percent of limited partners expect a serious cyberattack on their firms in the next five years, according to a Coller Capital report. Investors in private equity will increasingly demand that fund managers assess cybersecurity risks before handing them money, according to Coller Capital. Limited partners such as pension funds and endowment contribute billions of dollars globally to funds raised by private-equity firms. While relatively few have been attacked, their concern over threats to cybersecurity is high. A cyber-attack could impact LPs in many ways, ranging from data being stolen or deleted, to attackers demanding ransom or converting funds, Frank Morgan, a partner at Coller Capital, said in an email. About 55 percent of limited partners expect a serious cyberattack on their firms in the next five years, Coller Capital found in its survey of 110 private-equity investors globally. As a result, the firm said in a report this week that a greater portion will require fund managers to assess cyber risks in the next few years. Their concern about cyberattacks is merited, according to Samir Jain, a partner at Jones Day, and former senior director for cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council for the White House. Any significant organization in the financial industry faces cybersecurity threats whether thats a criminal threat, a hacktivist or a nation state, he said in a phone interview. According to Jain, a private-equity investor could face criminal threats, like the ransomware attacks at Englands National Health Service last month. He said that a company in a fund managers portfolio could also see such attacks. Were seeing an increasing in the number of cybersecurity attacks across the board, Jain said. A cyberattack can come from literally anywhere in the world. You dont need any expertise. While cyber-threats are growing, Coller Capital found that just 5 percent of limited partners have experienced a significant cybersecurity incident in the past five years. Fund managers and their investors need to be successful 100 percent of the time in protecting assets from a cyberattack, as a hacker has only to succeed once to cause major problems, Jain said. He pointed to Yahoo as an example of how a company can lose a large portion of its market value after experiencing cyberattacks. Verizon Communications agreed in July to acquire Yahoo for $4.83 billion. Two months later, Yahoo said the internet companys user information had been stolen by a state-sponsored actor. Then, in December, the company confirmed that another hack had taken place. Verizon and Yahoo lowered the purchase price by $350 million after the data breaches were disclosed, completing the $4.48 billion deal this month. While 20 percent of limited partners surveyed by Coller Capital already require private-equity firms to perform cybersecurity risk assessments, roughly half expect to do so in the next three to five years, according to the report. A cybersecurity risk assessment is the first step, Jain said. Its a systematic look at what types of risk are involved in the investment. Morgan agreed, saying that private-equity firms have more than their own businesses to worry about. They need to make sure there are systems and procedures in place at their own management companies to protect their assets from cyberattack, he said. They also need to assess the risk at their portfolio companies, which should form part of their operational due diligence. JPMorgan Chase & Co.s asset management business is wooing large clients in part to keep up with the new landscape emerging from consolidating pension plans in Europe. Pension consolidation, more demanding investors, and fee pressure have pushed the firm to focus on winning the business of the biggest investors globally, according to Patrick Thomson, J.P. Morgan Asset Managements head of international institutional clients. We are focusing our efforts on the larger clients, he said in an interview. One of our strategic priorities is looking at top tier clients. The consolidation trend is putting pressure on asset management fees, as economies of scale help pensions increase their purchasing power. J.P. Morgan Asset Management will now offer smaller clients a pre-selection menu of products and services, while larger investors will benefit from bespoke services, according to Thomson. There are fewer smaller clients, he said. We have observed a market consolidation and we are responding to that. Britains Department for Work and Pensions said in a February report that theres a strong case for voluntary consolidation of defined benefit plans, and that itd like to see more pensions merge. It would offer significant savings in terms of administrative costs, as well as the benefits of scale such as access to more sophisticated investment advice and the ability to access better investment opportunities, the department said. J.P. Morgan Asset Management has seen consolidation in the U.K. with the Local Government Pension Scheme, as well as in the Netherlands, where theres now less than half the number of defined benefit plans than existed a decade ago, according to Thomson. Ten years ago, there were over 800 plans in the Netherlands, thats down to 320 plans at the end of last year, he said. The Dutch regulator has encouraged the idea of getting that to around 240 plans by the end of next year. JPMorgans Asset and Wealth Management division had $2.5 trillion in client assets globally at the end of last year, according to its annual report. The firm has direct relationships with 60 percent of the worlds largest pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and central banks, as well half the worlds wealthiest individuals and families, the bank said. Thomson said the market has entered an era where larger investors expect more customized information from fund managers, instead of the traditional request-for-proposal searches. With international regulation such as Solvency II being interpreted differently from country to country, Thomson said hes found it necessary to hire insurance industry specialists with geographical market knowledge. He said he hopes this will appeal to major insurance groups. Solvency II is a new set of rules governing insurance companies in the European Union to help ensure they have adequate capital in a steep and sudden downturn. Like any industry, we are making sure that we are delivering the appropriate level of service to the right sort of clients, Thomson said. Ten years ago, insurers may have been buying conservative fixed-income through Luxembourg-domiciled funds, but today, they are asking for strategic partnerships to outsource significant, holistic mandates with high service levels. In its annual Safety & Shipping Review 2017, Allianz reported that while it has seen fewer shipping losses, there are still a number of interconnected risks that could threaten the space.The report, prepared by Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE ( AGCS ), found that large shipping losses have declined by 50% over the past decade, suggested to be the result of shipowners efforts in recent years to create a more robust safety environment.In 2016, there were 85 total losses reported across the shipping world, down 16% compared to 2015, the report noted. Preliminary figures also show that last year set safety records with the lowest number of losses in the past decade. The number of shipping incidents also declined year-over-year by 4%.Despite the encouraging figures, Allianz believes that the shipping and insurance industries must still be prepared for factors such as tighter regulations, cost-cutting measures, and the overreliance on technology.While the long-term downward loss trend is encouraging, there can be no room for complacency, commented AGCS Hull & Marine Liabilities global product leader Baptiste Ossena. The shipping sector is being buffeted by a number of interconnected risks at a time of inherent economic challenges.A perfect storm of increasing regulatory pressure combined with narrowing margins and new risks is gathering, explained Ossena.A number of regulations currently enforced could put more pressure on shipowners, the company suggests. For instance, environmental scrutiny is increasing, with record fines for vessel pollution. The cost of complying with new ballast water management rules could also have a severe impact on shippers, along with the increase in political risk in areas such as Yemen and the South China Sea.Allianz also suggests that shipowners who take cost savings approaches on their maintenance budgets, training and crewing levels could also see a loss in activity. AGCS additionally pointed out that negligence and/or poor maintenance is one of the top causes of liability loss in the shipping sector.Crew negligence and inadequate vessel maintenance are two potential areas of increasing risk, particularly if shipowners opt to recruit crew with less experience and training, or choose to stretch maintenance work to the longest possible intervals in order to save money, said AGCS Marine Claims global head Duncan Southcott.The company also recognized the role technology plays in potentially reducing risk things like electronic navigational tools as well as shore-based monitoring of machinery crew welfare can certainly help keep a ship safe, but could expose shipowners to other problems.Cyberattacks on the shipping industry are relatively unheard of, but the risk that one could happen still looms.The shipping sector doesnt have a particularly heightened risk awareness when it comes to cyber. As no major incident due to a cyberattack has taken place yet, many in the industry are still complacent about the risks, commented AGCS Marine Risk Consulting head Captain Rahul Khanna.The overreliance on technology has also been outlined as a possible risk that could lead to losses.Crews and officers must understand the shortcomings and limitations of technology, said Khanna. Sometimes replacing common sense decisions with digital inferences is not such a good idea. Fairfax Holdings has announced its investment in a tech-driven insurance start-up based in Bangalore.The start-up, called Digit, has already received preliminary approvals from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). It will have a paid-up capital of Rs 385 crore (approximately $79 million), with Fairfax controlling 45% of the firm. The rest of the company will be held by Kamesh Goyal former Allianz executive who once led the companys business in India along with other Indian investors; Goyal will serve as chairman of the company.Times of India reported that Digit is staffed by former members of Bajaj Allianz, which include top executives Vijay Kumar, V Philip and Jasleen Kohli.Digit chief marketing officer Sandeep Komaravelly said that the company plans to officially launch within the next six to 12 weeks, subject to final approvals from the IRDAI.We want to bring about a change in insurance. The differentiation is from the point of view of making the entire experience for the customer seamless, Komaravelly told Times of India. Timothy MontalesYesterday, Kelly King, chairman and CEO of BB&T, joked that he likes the insurance business as it was revealed that insurance makes up about 15% of BB&Ts total revenue. Kings aim is for it to eventually account for 20% of revenue.It does not correlate with lending risk. It does not correlate with natural economic risk. It correlates to disasters, which is an entirely different set of correlations. Theres nothing about growing the insurance business that bothers me, King expressed during the Morgan Stanley Financial Services conference, as reported by American Banker.BB&Ts insurance arm generated $458 million in noninterest income in the first quarter, a 9% upgrade from the same period last year. The insurance business also helped BB&T with its capital management, he said, as banks are not required to hold as much capital against insurance assets.Despite not making an acquisition in more than a year, the company may look to again become active on the M&A front. Since the 90s, BB&T has clinched more than 100 insurance agencies, with nine agencies under its belt in 2008 alone. by Timothy MontalesSafeco Field will have a new name after the 2018 season, following the Mariners announcement yesterday that the organization and Safeco Insurance will not extend their naming rights agreement for the ballpark beyond 2018 when the original two-decade deal ends.The Mariners called it a successful 20-year agreement with the Boston-based insurance company in a press release. The same press release also stated that the Mariners have begun preliminary discussions with potential partners on a new naming rights deal.Safeco Field has been the ballparks name since 1999, according to ESPN Seattle.Safeco Insurance has been a great partner of the Mariners dating back to the earliest days of the franchise, including the ballpark naming rights for the last 20 years. We appreciate everything Safeco has done over the years to support our organization and look forward to continuing the relationship in the future, Kevin Mather, CEO and president, Mariners, said in the press release.It has been an honor to host the naming rights for the last 20 years and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the Mariners, Tyler Asher, president, Safeco Insurance, said in his response to the press release. While our marketing approach is changing, we intend to remain active partners with the organization for years to come. Safeco and our parent company Liberty Mutual are committed to our presence in the Seattle community, by providing jobs to thousands of people in the region and supporting non-profits that help make Seattle one of the finest and exciting cities in the US and across the globe. The Swedish Competition Authority has raided several insurance companies, including American International Group, according to a Reuters report. The raids were part of an investigation into suspected collusion over tendering for contracts.According to court documents, raids were carried out at the Swedish unit of AIG Europe, along with insurers IF Skadeforsakring, Trygg-Hansa Forsakring, and Folksam Omsesidig Sakforsakring.The competition authority has been investigating whether insurers colluded in anti-competitive practices, according to Reuters. A number of insurance brokers have been investigated for suspected market abuse. According to Reuters, the brokers are suspected of having given insurance companies information on rivals tenders. That information would allow insurers to change their prices depending on the level of competition.I can confirm we have made unannounced visits, Jimmy Dominius, spokesman for the Swedish Competition Authority, told Reuters.Folksam confirmed it was raided, but would not comment further. Meanwhile, IF Skadeforakring spokeswoman Caroline Uliana said the company was cooperating with the investigation.It is good that they are doing a full investigation of this, Uliana told Reuters. The start of hurricane season made me think about a topic that many of us dont often think about in P&C insurance: residual markets. The 21st century insurance marketplace in the US is nominally a free market, but we all know that it isnt perfectly so. This market has requirements that take away some of the choice and freedom. Our current system creates gaps that must be filled. In a truly free market, people can choose whether or not they bought a product like insurance. However, there are limits to our freedom in the insurance marketplace. Most states require that drivers purchase insurance so that they can drive. The federal government currently requires that many employers provide health insurance. If an employer isnt required to provide health insurance, people still have to buy health insurance. Most employers are required to buy workers compensation insurance by laws. Its not a completely free market. There are market forces that naturally create insurance requirements. Anytime a person has a loan for an asset, the loaning institution wants that asset to be protected. Whenever a person buys a house, the mortgage company wants to know that there is enough insurance in place to protect their investment if something were to happen to it. This isnt an infringement on the freedom of the market. Its an application of freedom in the market. The fact that these requirements exist create another fact that limits the exercise of a free market. Some risks are not insurable by the standard market. Insurance companies dont want to write policies on every risk thats out there. There are risks that are simply uninsurable for a number of reasons. Yet that doesnt relieve a person of the requirement to insure it. You might say that this is why the excess and surplus (E&S) market exists. By the way, the E&S market is much more of a free market than the standard market. Because the E&S market is less regulated, they are willing to take on risks that other markets dont want, but it will cost. E&S carriers have the liberty to price themselves out of risks that they dont want to deal with. This still leaves a gap because there are still risks that might be eligible in E&S, but the pricing can become prohibitive. Even worse, there are risks that even the E&S market doesnt want. What do consumers do then? This is where the residual market steps in. What is a residual market? According to International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), a residual market is defined as: Insurance market systems for various lines of coverage (most often workers compensation, personal automobile liability, and property insurance). They serve as a coverage source of last resort for firms and individuals who have been rejected by voluntary market insurers. Residual markets require insurers writing specific coverage lines in a given state to assume the profits or losses accruing from insuring that states residual risks in proportion to their share of the total voluntary market premiums written in that state. LINK In many states, this refers to an assigned risk pool in the personal auto market or a FAIR plan in the homeowners market. There are some states whose residual markets are a little different, but were going to ignore those for today. There are drivers who are generally unacceptable for the standard market. These are the drivers that the assigned risk pool was created to serve. You know which drivers make up this population. They have either had too many accidents, or they have had their licenses suspended or revoked for some time. Many of these drivers will be required to have a SR-22, certificate of financial responsibility. A FAIR plan is a high-risk homeowners insurance program. FAIR stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements. It was established to provide homeowners insurance for homes that cant qualify in the standard market. Not every state calls it a FAIR plan, but the idea is similar state-to-state. Every home that has a mortgage is required to have insurance. Sometimes that insurance is hard to get. Why would a home be hard to insured? It may be due to the location. You may not have realized this, but this country has areas that are impacted by different types of natural disaster risks. The Atlantic and Gulf coasts spend half the year at risk of a tropical cyclone making land fall somewhere, which can dump several inches of rain and brings with it winds in excess of 50 mph. Another reason a home may need a FAIR plan could be other risk factors, including older mobile homes. Many newer mobile homes (or manufactured homes) are built much stronger than they used to be. The rules and laws that govern how they are to be installed have changed over the years, so a mobile home may not be properly tied to the ground. You did realize that mobile homes are not secured to a foundation like other homes are, didnt you? Search mobile home tie downs for more information. Recognizing a risk that is going to be placed with a residual market is part of properly serving customers. Sure, you could simply sell them those insurance policies, but you and your customer would be better served by helping them to understand their particular insurance policies and helping them to move out of the residual market, if thats possible. Keep in mind that these plans often limit coverage in ways that standard market carriers do not. Liability limits will be lower than is available in the standard market and underwriting guidelines may be very tight. Residual markets are a necessary part of the insurance world when you have regulations or requirements that some customers will struggle meeting. Being educated about your local residual markets (and other E&S options) is a way to make sure that youre serving your customers. Topics Excess Surplus Anbang Insurance Group, one of Chinas most aggressive buyers of overseas assets, said on Wednesday its chairman was temporarily unable to fulfill his duties, just over a week after denying reports he had been barred from leaving the country. The brief statement, citing only unspecified personal reasons for moving Wu Xiaohui aside, came hours after Chinese magazine Caijing reported the chairman had been taken away for investigation. The article, citing unnamed sources, was removed shortly after it was posted online. Anbang said Wus duties would be managed by other senior executives, and that its business was operating normally. No other details were provided. Best known overseas for its 2015 purchase of New Yorks landmark Waldorf Astoria hotel, Beijing-based Anbang has pursued a string of high-profile foreign acquisitions under Wu. After a spate of successful deal-making worth over $30 billion, Anbang ran into recent roadblocks, failing to close on a handful of investments, and facing criticism over its opaque shareholding structure. Anbangs vertiginous rise has also brought unwanted attention. One of Anbangs units was censured by Chinas insurance regulator in May for designing products to skirt a regulation aimed at curtailing risk. As a result, the unit was barred from issuing new products for three months. That move came amid a widespread regulatory crackdown on what was seen as excessive use of universal life products by some insurers, and as Chinas leadership moves to curb risk in the financial system. A handful of insurers, led by Anbang, have issued higher-yielding products to raise funds to acquire stakes in listed companies. Earlier this year, the countrys chief insurance regulator, who had overseen a doubling of the size of the industry in three years, was removed from his post after being placed under investigation. Outside of China, Anbangs deal-making has faltered as well. Its planned $1.6 billion takeover of U.S. annuities and life insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life collapsed in April after failing to get the required U.S. regulatory approval. Attempts by the Chinese insurer to invest in a real estate project affiliated with the family of U.S. President Donald Trumps son-in-law floundered earlier this year. When asked if Wu was within China or if he could be reached, a spokesperson for Anbang which employs more than 30,000 people and manages 1.97 trillion yuan ($290 billion) in assets said the company had nothing to add. Anbang earlier this month denied a Financial Times report that Wu had been prevented from leaving the country, citing four sources who had business dealings with him. That statement fueled speculation about Wus well-being, at a time when Chinese business circles were already spooked by the mysterious disappearance of a China-born billionaire from Hong Kong early this year. Calls to Wus mobile phone went unanswered on Wednesday. Chinas insurance regulator did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment or phone calls. RISE TO PROMINENCE Anbangs recent difficulties come during a highly sensitive year in China, with the ruling Communist Party set to hold its five-yearly party congress later this year, and amid a broader crackdown on corruption led by President Xi Jinping. Established in 2004 by Wu as an automotive and property insurer, Anbang has stormed to prominence in recent years, buying Dutch insurer Vivat, South Koreas Tong Yang Life Insurance and Strategic Hotels & Resorts in the United States. It has also taken significant stakes in a handful of listed domestic banks and property firms, including China Mingsheng Banking Corp , Agricultural Bank of China and China Vanke. Anbang also became embroiled in an unusually public war of words with a leading Chinese business magazine, Caixin, about the insurers ownership structure. In an article published in April, the magazine had described Anbangs structure as opaque and said its funding was a maze of capital flow involving more than 100 firms. Anbang, in response, called the descriptions malicious and inaccurate and later said it filed a lawsuit in Canada against the author of the article. Described by those who know him as smart and passionate, Wu is politically connected he married the grand-daughter of former leader Deng Xiaoping and has cultivated relationships on Wall Street with the likes of private equity giant Blackstone Group LP, despite speaking little English. ($1 = 6.7964 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Additional reporting by Engen Tham in Shanghai; Editing by Tony Munroe and Lincoln Feast) Related: Topics Carriers USA Legislation China Founded as a provincial auto insurer, Anbang Insurance burst from obscurity with a $2 billion bid for New Yorks Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 2014, casting the company and its ambitious chairman as flagbearers for a new breed of Chinese dealmakers. But its headline-grabbing deals and the connections forged by chairman Wu Xiaohui from Beijing to President Donald Trumps son-in-law have invited closer scrutiny. On Wednesday, the privately held company said Wu had temporarily stepped aside, following unverified reports of his detention in China. It has not provided further details. Wu, who married the grand-daughter of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, has been the driving force at Anbang since founding the company in 2004. The group worked in obscurity before turning to more aggressive financing to catapult it over rivals who rake in much larger volumes of premiums. Over the past three years, Anbang has secured acquisitions worth more than $30 billion a diverse list that has raised regulatory questions at home and abroad. As queries grew, the low-profile Wu made more public appearances this year at key events including the annual Boao Forum, Chinas answer to the Davos World Economic Forum. On one panel there he playfully sparred with Levin Zhu, the politically powerful former CEO of China International Capital Corp. and a former Anbang director, who repeatedly questioned him on the companys finances, attendees reported. Anbangs rise to international prominence has been much like that of modern China itself meteoric, with mystical origins, and often misunderstood, said Brock Silvers, managing director of Kaiyuan Capital, a Shanghai-based investment advisory firm. The company was continuously dogged by rumors regarding its capital origins, yet continued to succeed, he added. HARD-DRIVING, HANDS-ON Known for his hard-driving, hands-on approach and single-minded ambition, Wu is not the first high-profile executive reported to be targeted or questioned by Chinese authorities. China-born billionaire Xiao Jianhua was taken from a luxury Hong Kong hotel in a wheelchair in January, a source told Reuters. Local media reported the group that took him away were mainland Chinese agents, which Chinese authorities have not commented on. Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang reportedly lost contact with the healthcare-to-insurance conglomerate in 2015 before re-emerging to say he was assisting authorities in a probe. Wu says he works at least 12 hours a day, and those working with him say calls from Wu at all hours of the day or night are not uncommon. Occasionally, he sleeps in his office. We must win the first battle and every battle thereafter as we are representing Chinese enterprises going global, Wu, now 51, told students at Harvard University in 2015. We must have conviction that we can make profit even under the worst case scenario in order to move forward on each investment. DEAL OR NO DEAL Many of Anbangs latest deals, though, have faltered. The Beijing-based firm in 2016 offered $14 billion for U.S. hotel operator Starwood but pulled out from what would have been the largest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company. A year later, it held talks with Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, to develop a New York office tower. That deal foundered amid controversy over the extended family of the U.S. president selling to a politically connected Chinese tycoon. Anbangs $1.6 billion offer for U.S. annuities and life insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life fell through in April. Anbang had separately sought to list its life insurance business in Hong Kong and invited banks last August to pitch for the deal, sources familiar with the matter said at the time. That too went quiet. Wus strategy echoed that of famed U.S. investor Warren Buffett an aggressive pursuit of yield-producing companies, funded by cash from selling insurance products and other sources. In addition to his international deals, Wu also bought significant stakes in a number of Chinese banks and financial companies. He also aligned with powerful allies. When he set up Anbang, Wu enlisted a small consortium of private and state investors, led by Shanghai Automotive Industry Group Corp. (SAIC), the parent of a government-owned automaker. State-owned China Petrochemical Corp later bought a stake. In addition to Levin Zhu, Anbangs original board included Long Yongtu, Chinas chief negotiator when it joined the World Trade Organization. Wu also turned to Chen Xiaolu, a son of Chinese Marshal Chen Yi, for support. One source who has advised Anbang said Wu worked hard to cultivate connections with politically connected figures and princelings, the children of the countrys political elite, including the Deng family. Even if you marry a princeling, that doesnt necessarily mean you are a full member of the family, the source said. (Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in HONG KONG; Writing by Clara Ferreira Marques; Editing by Lincoln Feast) Related: Topics Mergers & Acquisitions USA China Around 220,000 car drivers in the Netherlands, England and Wales joined forces on Tuesday in what could become a pan-European lawsuit against German carmaker Volkswagen seeking compensation over its dieselgate emissions scandal. UK law firm Harcus Sinclair and Dutch Foundation Stichting Volkswagen Car Claim, a U.S.-style class action on behalf of an estimated 180,000 Dutch VW car owners, have teamed up in a move that could spark a wave of coordinated litigation across Europe. VW, Europes biggest carmaker, has said about 11 million cars worldwide were fitted with software to cheat diesel emissions tests that are designed to limit car fumes blamed for respiratory diseases and global pollution. The company has already agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the United States to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and has offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles. But it has not reached a similar deal in Europe and faces billions of euros in claims from customers and investors. The carmaker has offered European drivers a software update for all affected vehicles, but lawyers say this does not resolve the problem and they are demanding adequate compensation. The Dutch Foundation, which says it has been trying to reach a reasonable settlement with VW since 2015, said it was also cooperating with partners representing drivers in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and was in talks with others in Spain, France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia. We are delighted to be teaming up with Harcus Sinclair UK Limited, who have done an excellent job in paving the way for car owners to seek redress from VW through the courts, said Guido van Woerkom, director of the foundation. The expanding lawsuit is seeking compensation for damage suffered by VW, Audi, SEAT, Skoda and/or Porsche car owners, alleging VW and supplier Bosch were responsible for the sale of cars that breached toxic nitrogen oxides emissions rules. To date, the owners of the 8.5 million affected European cars remain in the cold, said Harcus Sinclair, which launched its case in January 2016 and has signed up about 41,000 English and Welsh VW drivers. A London trial is expected in early 2019. VW said it took the trust of its customers very seriously, but it saw no legal basis for consumer lawsuits, as its plans to fix cars in Europe had been coordinated with regulators and price fluctuations for diesel cars were within a normal range. All vehicles affected are and have been technically safe and roadworthy. They can be driven on roads without any limitations and can be sold without loss in residual value, it said in a statement. Even if we were to hold talks with law firms we would maintain this position. (Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer in Frankfurt; Editing by Mark Potter) Related: Topics Lawsuits USA Auto Fraud Europe Pollution Residents in a small western Nebraska town were clearing away tree and building debris Tuesday after a suspected tornado tore through the town but injured no one. The storm struck Bayard around 7:10 p.m. on June 12, tearing the roof off a city-owned nursing home and damaging several homes. Utility crews were trying to restore power to an estimated 80 percent of Bayard, which has about 1,200 residents and sits in the central Nebraska Panhandle, 380 miles west of Omaha. Neighbors were helping neighbors with the cleanup, said Mayor Michelle Coolidge. People are trying to make quick, light work of it, she said. The storm felled trees and power lines all over town, and water supplies are low because city wells lacked the power to pump, Coolidge said. The 45 residents at the nursing home, Chimney Rock Villa, were evacuated to the high school, which was turned into a temporary shelter despite losing a portion of its roof over the wood shop. The mayor said the residents have since gone home with relatives or been temporarily housed at other area nursing homes. Damaged homes and agricultural buildings and dead livestock were reported north of Bayard. Coolidge said semitrailers were blown over on nearby highways, but the drivers werent hurt. A regional emergency services official didnt immediately return a call from The Associated Press. The National Weather Service was expected to dispatch a survey team to Bayard to check the damage and confirm whether a tornado caused it. Heavy rain and hail also was reported in the area and earlier Monday in eastern Nebraska. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Agribusiness Nebraska Residents in suburban Minneapolis hauled out their snow blowers after a quick-moving hail storm left the area looking like winter. Hail piled up in local roads and led to flooding Sunday in Coon Rapids, prompting public works crews to use front-end loaders and even a snowplow to clear away several inches of hail from the streets, KARE-TV reported. It was like a snow storm of hail, said local resident Ron Busch, who estimated the storm lasted about 20 minutes. Busch said he had pulled out his snow blower to clear away some of the hail. Another resident, Liz Birkelo, said the storm hit hard, fast and loud. Kind of unbelievable, she said. Mother nature decides to say hello every once in a while. No injuries were reported due to the weather, according to Anoka County emergency dispatchers. But there were reports of property damage, such as shredded screens and holes in the siding of homes. Some longtime residents told the television station that in 40 years of living in the area, theyd never seen anything like the piles of hail that accumulated during the storm. Coon Rapids is about 15 miles north of Minneapolis. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Minnesota Prime Holdings Insurance Services, Inc., a Utah-based holding company for excess and surplus lines insurance services firms, said it received $10,000,000 from an undisclosed insurance enterprise in exchange for 2,000 shares of non-voting common stock. The holding company said that all proceeds will be contributed to Primes wholly-owned excess and surplus lines insurance carrier subsidiary, Prime Insurance Co., launched in 2006, which is expanding. This additional capital raises Prime Insurances A. M. Best financial size category from VI to VII. The company said the investment will assist in expediting Prime Insurances expansion into New York and California, where it now meets the capitalization requirements of those states. The company also expects that the added capital will benefit Prime Insurance as it seeks future increases in its A. M. Best Financial Strength Rating, which currently stands at A-. Prime Holdings Insurance Services Inc. provides the business structure, financing and administrative functions for its network of insurance services. Prime Holdings wrote $52.8 million in premiums during 2016. In addition to Prime Insurance, its companies include transportation specialty insurer Prime Property & Casualty Insurance Co. and Evolution Insurance Brokers, an excess and surplus lines broker. Prime Insurance writes hard-to-place risks including commercial property, inland marine, healthcare services, commercial liability, garage services and professional liability. Topics California New York Obtaining prescriptions for highly addictive opioid drugs in Louisiana will soon be more difficult under bills signed into law on June 12 by Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is hoping to turn the state into a leader in battling the nationwide opioid epidemic. Edwards signed three bills that had breezed through the Legislature during the recently concluded regular session. All three had been part of the Democratic governors agenda. Theres hope for anyone at risk of falling into addiction as well as those who are already struggling, said Edwards, whose state has the nations sixth-highest opioid prescription rate. We hear you and were acting. The measures include one that will require physicians to consult a statewide prescription monitoring system before prescribing opioid drugs to patients, some of whom may be doctor-shopping. The monitoring program already exists, but doctors had not previously been mandated to use it. Doctors need to think before they wield the pen, said Dr. Karen DeSalvo, the former acting U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, who supported the proposals. Another bill, sponsored by New Orleans Rep. Helena Moreno will limit first-time prescriptions for acute pain to seven days, down from 30. The law does not apply to chronic conditions. Edwards also signed a bill sponsored by Rep. Walt Leger of New Orleans to establish a task force that will study how to prevent opioid abuse. Federal data shows there were 861 fatal drug overdoses in Louisiana in 2015, a 12.4 percent increase from the previous year. Morenos and Legers bills go into effect Aug. 1. The prescription monitoring bill, sponsored by St. Martin Parish Sen. Fred Mills will take effect Jan. 1. The measures are House Bills 192 and 490, and Senate Bill 55. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Louisiana Drugs What Are Social Security Benefits? Social Security benefits are payments made to qualified retired adults and people with disabilities, and to their spouses, children, and survivors. Social Securityofficially the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program in the U.S.is a comprehensive federal benefits program designed to provide partial replacement income for retired adults and their spouses, those whose spouse or qualifying ex-spouse has died, and people with disabilities. Under specified conditions, it also supports the children of beneficiaries. Key Takeaways Social Security benefits provide partial replacement income for qualified retired adults and individuals with disabillities, as well as for their spouses, children, and survivors. An individual must pay into the Social Security program during their working years and accrue 40 credits in order to qualify for benefits. The benefit amount someone receives is based on their earnings history, the year they were born, and the age when they start to claim Social Security. Spouses who don't work or haven't amassed the requisite number of credits can receive benefits based on their spouse's work record. Benefits may be taxed depending on one's income and tax filing status. How Social Security Benefits Work President Franklin Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act into law in 1935. The current law, after a number of amendments, encompasses several social insurance and social welfare programs, including the issuance of Social Security benefits. Benefits are determined by a specific set of criteria issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Payroll taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or the Self Employed Contributions Act (SECA) (for self-employed individuals) fund Social Security and all of its benefits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects tax deposits and formally entrusts them to the Social Security Trust Fund, which is actually made up of two separate funds: the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund. How Do You Qualify for Social Security Benefits? You qualify for Social Security old age (or retirement) benefits by paying into the program during your working years. Full insurance is based on accumulating 40 quarters or "credits" from covered wages, and a worker can earn up to four credits a year. One credit is awarded for every $1,640 in earnings for 2023 (and $1,510 in 2022), an amount that is adjusted annually to keep up with inflation. A payroll tax cap sets the maximum amount of earned income that is subject to the Social Security payroll tax. The payroll tax cap in 2022 is $147,000 (and rises to $160,200 in 2023). The SSA keeps track of your earnings throughout your career, indexes each year's total earnings, and uses the 35 highest-earning years to determine your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Next, your AIME is used to arrive at your primary insurance amount (PIA), the monthly amount you can begin to collect when you reach full retirement age. For individuals born in 1938 or later, the full retirement age gradually increases from 65 until it hits 67 for those born after 1959. You can collect Social Security retirement benefits at age 62, but the amount of the benefit will be reduced to compensate for receiving it earlier and, presumably, for a longer period of time. If you wait until you're 70 instead of 62 to collect benefits, you'll get an extra 8% a year, which means you'll collect 132% of your PIA for the rest of your life. Once you reach age 70 the increases stop. In 2022, the maximum monthly Social Security payment for retired workers is $3,345, rising to $3,627 in 2023. The SSAs retirement calculators can help you determine your full retirement age, the SSAs estimate of your life expectancy for benefit calculations, rough estimates of your retirement benefits, actual projections of your retirement benefits based on your work record, and more. Retired adults with non-FICA or SECA-taxed wages will require additional help because rules for those individuals are more complex. Types of Social Security Benefits Spousal Benefits Spouses who didnt work or who didnt earn enough credits to qualify for Social Security on their own can receive benefits starting at age 62 based on their spouses work record. Similar to claiming benefits on one's own record, a spouse's benefit will be reduced if they claim benefits before reaching full retirement age. The highest spousal benefit someone can receive is half the benefit their spouse is entitled to at their full retirement age. Survivor Benefits When a spouse dies, the surviving spouse is entitled to file for a survivor's benefit as early as age 60. The benefit will be reduced if they file prior to reaching their full retirement age. They are permitted to switch to their own benefit at any point they wish starting at age 62 and through age 70 if that benefit is higher than the survivor's benefit. People who were married for 10 years or longerand are divorced and have not remarriedare entitled to collect the spousal benefit and the spousal survivor benefit. The rules are complicated so review them carefully. Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) are made annually to Social Security benefits to counteract the effects of inflation. There have been years with no increase due to negligible inflation rates, and years with large ones to compensate for rising pricessuch as the 8.7% COLA for 2023. Special Considerations If an individual taxpayer's income exceeds $25,000, or a married couple filing jointly has income that's more than $32,000, they will be required to pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. The portion of benefits that is subject to taxation depends upon income level, but no one pays taxes on more than 85% of their Social Security benefits, regardless of income. Benefits received due to disability are, in most cases, tax-free. If your child receives dependent or survivor benefits, this money does not count towards your taxable income. What Happens to Unused Social Security Benefits? Unused Social Security benefits are kept in the Social Security trust funds and used to pay individuals receiving payments right now. Money contributed to Social Security cannot be refunded and contributions are not returned if an eligible worker dies before collecting benefits. Which States Tax Social Security Benefits? There are 12 states that currently tax Social Security benefitsColorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia. What Percentage of Social Security Benefits Does a Widow Receive? Widows can receive up to 100% of the deceased spouses primary insurance amount (PIA). Widows of a divorced spouse (married for at least 10 years) are also eligible to collect up to 100% of the former spouses PIAassuming they have not remarried. When Does Social Security Benefits Recalculate? Social Security benefits are evaluated each year. That is, the Social Security Administration reviews benefits each year for the previous years income. If the latest year is one of your highest-earning years, your benefit is recalculated to reflect the increased benefit duewhich is retroactive to January of the year after you earned the money. Top News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) Facial and Body Recognition Patent Application Received a Notice of Allowance San Diego, CA - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) with GBT Tokenize Corp. ("GBT/Tokenize") received a notice of allowance for its facial and body recognition non-provisional patent application. Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Enters into Agreement with Newgate Motor Group, one of Ireland's most Recognized Auto Groups, to Distribute the Mullen I-GOTM in Ireland and United Kingdom BREA, Calif. - November 9, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle manufacturer, announces today that it has entered into an agreement to appoint Newgate Motor Group, one of Ireland's most recognized dealership groups, as marketing, sales, distribution and servicing agent for the Mullen I-GO in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: GBT's (OTCPK: GTCH) AI Driven Financial Technology Patent Application Received a Notice of Publication San Diego, CA - November 3, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) received a notice of publication for its financial software patent application. Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: Intellagents, a FatBrain AI (OTCQB: LZGI) Company, Announces Hiring of Insurtech Industry Veteran as Chief Revenue Officer NEW YORK, NY - November 2, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, announces the hiring of Euan King, an experienced and respected Insurtech industry leader as Chief Revenue Officer for insurance technology-focused subsidiary Intellagents. Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by Investorideas.com Newswire: Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire Reuters notes that Rouhani, who was re-elected to a second term in Mays sham elections, will struggle to fulfil campaign promises of job growth, increased freedoms, and increased investment by foreign companies. However, it is important to note here, that whilst the infighting in the Iranian Regime will not help Rouhani to run the country, that is not the reason that the Iranian people will not see the benefits promised by the President. Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies, blamed the lack of behavioural change for lack of foreign investment. He said: Rouhani will continue to solicit the return of foreign businesses to Iran without providing them with a much-needed change in behaviour to boost their confidence. Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, agreed. He said: Irans regional strategy has been consistent for four decades, regardless of who is president of the country. Opposition to the U.S. and Israel hasnt changed, and opposition to Saudi Arabia has intensified. Rouhani is referred to by Reuters and others in Western media as a moderate but in reality, he is anything but: he executes children and political prisoners, defied the landmark nuclear weapons deal, and hates the West as much as anyone in the Iranian Regime. Also, considering how many promises Rouhani broke in his first term (releasing political prisoners, fixing the economy) how can any Iranians trust him to keep his promises this time. A senior official in the Iranian Regime, revealed that others within the Regime are attempting to bring Rouhani down. This is not surprising, given that the Iranian Regime is locked in constant struggles for power and they believe that by taking Rouhani down, they can seize power for themselves. The Regime does not differ on policy, all of the members just want to be the ones in control. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: To weaken Rouhani, they will try all possible ways, from provoking hawks in Washington to imposing more political limitations at home and isolating Iran economically. The only person with the power to change anything within Iran is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who warned that the Saudis faced downfall for their alliance with the US which was strengthened last month. Therefore, it is time to stop appeasing the mullahs and work with the Iranian Resistance instead. Related However, this is not the case. During Rouhanis first term in office, he presided over more than three thousand executions. He deceived world leaders and the people of his own country. He presided over numerous test-firings of ballistic missiles. He advocated cruel and inhumane punishments for petty crimes. He ordered crackdowns on dissent. He allowed the suppression of the people. Now that he is president for another term, he is on a path of no hope when it comes to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). During the nuclear deal negotiations, Rouhani made several concessions that will not be forgiven or forgotten by the IRGC. And neither will the fact that the IRGC does not want any transparency in the economy as suggested by Rouhani. For the people of Iran, Rouhani completely failed during the first four years in office. The people are still living in poverty and social conditions have not improved. Young people are still faced with high levels of unemployment. Getting increasingly fed up, the Iranian people are making their dissent heard more than ever, and the Iranian regime, the IRGC, Rouhani and the Supreme Leader, despite their differences and the internal disputes, have this one huge fear in common. Rouhani, even though he is president, has very little control when it comes to foreign policy matters. This is determined by the Supreme Leader who uses the IRGC to realise his goals. Because the IRGC receive orders from the Supreme leader himself, it will never hesitate to challenge Rouhani. In fact, the IRGC has already vowed to ignore Rouhanis wishes to improve relations with the West. So Rouhani who was up against Raisi in the elections is now up against the IRGC. And this is another situation where nether could be described as the lesser of two evils. They are both, quite simply, evil. Neither have the interests of the people in mind. As diplomatic clash emerges between OPEC member, specifically between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, earlier gains of oil has erased out. Futures slipped 0.6% in New York, erasing an earlier gain of 1.6%. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt said they will suspend air and sea travel to and from Qatar, escalating a crisis that started over its relationship with Iran. While the diplomatic spat hasnt affected shipments, any further escalation could raise the prospect of supply disruptions from the Middle East, including Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar. The nations all use the Strait of Hormuz, through which the US Department of Energy estimates about 30% of seaborne oil trade passes. Crude had fallen in three of the previous four sessions amid concern that an extension of Opecs cuts wont be enough to shrink global inventories as US output expands. Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd in London, said, Given the persisting bearish sentiment in the oil market, the unprecedented move might not have a long-lasting impact on oil prices, but it is worth keeping in mind. West Texas Intermediate for July delivery slipped 43 cents to US$47.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:48 pm in London. Total volume traded was about 50% above the 100-day average. Prices lost 70 cents to close at US$47.66 on Friday, capping a 4.3% decline for the week. Brent for August settlement fell 49 cents to US$49.46 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices fell 4.2% percent last week. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of US$2.04 to August WTI. While OPEC members have fought political disputes and even wars through the organizations 57-year history, their shared economic interests have meant policies on oil production have still been implemented. The same will probably happen during the current dispute, said Abdulsamad Al-Awadhi, a London-based analyst who was one of Kuwaits representatives to the group between 1980 and 2001. Drillers targeting crude in the US added rigs for the 20th straight week to the highest level since April 2015, according to data Friday from Baker Hughes Inc. American producers are pumping at a rate of 9.34 million barrels a day, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The OPEC-led deal to curb output wont stabilize the market over the long term as US shale fills the supply shortfall, according to the chief executive officer of Russias Rosneft Oil Co PJSC. Saudi Arabia raised pricing for July sales of all crude grades to Asia, the US and Northwest Europe as it seeks to take advantage of increased demand after suppliers extended output cuts. Hedge funds trimmed bets on rising WTI prices to the lowest level since November. | Soruce: The Star | By S.Seal In 2017, Genel Energys Taq Taq oilfield has seen falling output. However, the rate of decline has slowed down of late. However, the oil producer said it would target further investment in Taq Taq, and cautioned that "it remains too early to extrapolate long-term conclusions" from oil field's production trends. Nathaniel Rothschild, Genel co-founder, joining co-founder Tony Hayward and chief financial officer Ben Monaghan, has announced plans to depart. Hayward, formerly chief executive of BP, said in the company's statement that its board composition is under review. Genel shares have plunged after two downgrades to reserves at Taq Taq, failed exploration campaigns in Africa, political unrest in Iraq and a sharp drop in oil prices since 2014. Under Chief Executive Murat Ozgul, who took over from Hayward in 2015, Genel is focused on retrieving money it says it is owed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for oil it has sold and on finding a partner to develop two gas fields in the region, with the aim of linking them to neighboring Turkey. Hayward said, "The economic situation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq continues to improve." He also added that KRG has made gross payments of $316 million so far this year. KRG has made gross payments of $316 million so far this year. Genel said it has now received oil export payments for 18 consecutive months, adding it expects to continue receiving payments. The company also said its Tawke field in Iraqi Kurdistan continued to perform in line with expectations, while it expects the Peshkabir field, situated west of Tawke, to add to production from the end of 2017. Genel further stated that net production averaged 37,700 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in the year to May 31, with average production from Taq Taq of 23,300 bopd. | Soruce: NASDAQ | By S.Seal The High Court is expected to deliver judgement next month on a second request for Ian Bailey's extradition to France in relation to the death of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier. Mr Bailey (60) of The Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, west Cork, denies any involvement in the death of Ms du Plantier, who was found dead outside her holiday home in Schull in December 1996. French authorities previously sought the surrender of Mr Bailey in 2010 but this application was refused by the Supreme Court in 2012. A second extradition request was transmitted to Ireland last year, seeking the surrender of Mr Bailey for alleged voluntary homicide. In the High Court today, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said he would give judgement on July 24 next on the principle issues discussed at hearings in May. Mr Justice Hunt said he would make clear to the parties what arguments he regarded as left over which may have to be the subject of further hearing. These include legal matters relating to the issuing judicial authority, among others. Lawyers for the State had sought an adjournment. Opposing surrender, counsel for Mr Bailey, Garrett Simons SC, said last month that his client had a very straightforward and obvious case. Mr Simons said there was no way around the Supreme Court decision in 2012 which identified an absolute jurisdictional bar to Mr Bailey's extradition to France in relation to the alleged offence. He said section 44 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, which implemented the European Framework Decision on extradition between member states, was determined by the Supreme Court as an absolute bar to Mr Bailey's surrender and that continued to apply. A five-judge panel of the Supreme Court refused to surrender Mr Bailey in 2012 and four of the five judges upheld Mr Bailey's argument that section 44 prohibits surrender because the alleged offence was committed outside French territory and Irish law does not allow prosecution for the same offence when committed outside its territory by a non-Irish citizen. Applying for the surrender of Mr Bailey, counsel for the Justice Minister, Robert Barron SC, said the State was asking the High Court to refer the Supreme Court's 4-1 interpretation of Section 44 to the European Courts of Justice for determination. Mr Barron said O'Donnell J, the single dissenting Supreme Court judge on the Section 44 matter, was correct in his interpretation of the framework decision and the act; That the majority Supreme Court interpretation was "incorrect" and that it would be appropriate to have a reference from the High Court to the European Courts on the matter, Mr Barron submitted. He said it was recognised by the Supreme Court that there were two interpretations and the only way it could be resolved conclusively was by the court in Luxembourg. Mr Justice Tony Hunt remarked that somebody, somewhere had apparently decided that the Supreme Court got it catastrophically wrong and the way to correct it is to get the European Courts to tell the Supreme Court they got it wrong. It appeared as though the application was an exploration of a method by which the Supreme Court decision might be revisited, Mr Justice Hunt remarked. Mr Barron agreed his submission was that the High Court should refer the matter to Europe because the Supreme Court got it wrong. However, with respect, Mr Barron said, nobody was trying to usurp the courts and there was no ulterior purpose. He stressed he was simply making legal submissions. Mr Barron agreed the High Court did not need to go further than O'Donnell J's dissenting view but denied he was asking the High Court to decide the Supreme Court majority got it wrong. Mr Justice Hunt asked Mr Barron what the French authorities had been doing between the Supreme Court's judgment in 2012 and the decision to issue a new warrant in respect of Mr Bailey in 2016. When did Mr Bailey become a triable person rather than a chargeable person, the judge asked. Mr Barron said today that a request had been made of French authorities for more information but that a reply was not yet forthcoming. Sophie Toscan du Plantier ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS Mr Simons further submitted that it was an abuse of process for the Minister, who has litigated an issue all the way to the Supreme Court, to seek to litigate the issue again, adding that it was in the public interest that there be finality to litigation. He said the Minister was insulting the Irish courts, was not respecting the sovereignty of the Irish courts and was misunderstanding European law. It was extraordinary that the Minister does not say the Supreme Court was wrong, Mr Simons said. The most the Minister could say was that Section 44 was unclear but that could not provide a basis for setting aside a Supreme Court judgement. He said case law showed there was an obligation on a central authority, in this case the Minister, to exercise a level of discernment with respect to extradition requests. He referred to the right of an individual to be free from harassment and free from vexatious litigation. Mr Simons said the public interest in facilitating extradition requests was to avoid the creation of safe havens but Mr Bailey had lived in Ireland for 25 years and was always at hazard of being prosecuted. The alleged offence took place here and Mr Bailey would have been prosecuted here "had there been any evidence". He submitted extracts from the 'Fennelly Commission' set up in light of the recording of phone calls to An Garda Siochanna, said that was part of the background and noted that the Minister had nothing to say about that. Further to his submission that the application to surrender Mr Bailey was an abuse of process, Mr Simons recounted the concerns expressed by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, that the Garda investigation into the death of Ms du Plantier was thoroughly flawed and prejudicial He said the former DPP's concerns were shocking and struck a blow against the fundamentals of the rule of law in Ireland. One would expect a robust response from the Minister to those concerns in this application, Mr Simons said, but instead, the Minister "washes her hands of it" and says "allegations of Garda misconduct" were "not matters of relevance". That was a wholly inadequate response to "serious allegations put by a former DPP" and the High Court was blithely being told nothing to see here. Mr Simons said there was a point when trust and confidence between nations in relation to extradition requests "breaks down". It was never the intention of the European extradition framework decision for countries to mount prosecutions where one's own independent prosecutor has characterised the investigation as thoroughly flawed and prejudicial or to rely on evidence condemned by those authorities, Mr Simons said. That's not trust and confidence and it was an abuse of process to do it, he said. Presumably, he said, the French authorities were going to seek to rely on the fruits of the flawed garda investigation in their own investigation, Mr Simons said, and he referred to the late Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman's comments in the Supreme Court about an Irish resident (Mr Bailey), long established in Ireland, being forcibly delivered to France for an offence allegedly committed in Ireland. Counsel for the Minister for Justice, Robert Barron SC, said there were no grounds for criticism of the Minister. Mr Barron said extradition was a process between judicial authorities and the Minister's role is to produce warrants to the courts for endorsement. Once the warrant is received it must be presented to the court for endorsement. The UK's highest court has narrowly rejected an appeal by a mother and daughter in their legal battle for women from Northern Ireland to receive free abortions on the NHS in England. Supreme Court justices announced their three to two majority decision in London on Wednesday. In an early indication of strong investor demand, the partial IPO was fully subscribed yesterday the first day brokers marketed the shares to potential investors. They will continue to market the stock for the next 10 days in a bid to secure the highest possible share price. While only around 0.1% of AIB is currently owned by retail investors, the banks share price opened trading yesterday at a price of 6.50. That soon changed, with the share price plummeting by nearly 30% as investors heeded previous warnings from Finance Minister Michael Noonan that the banks stock was overpriced. That opinion was underlined with the publication on Monday night of the prospectus for the partial sale of the States stake in the bank, which tentatively priced AIB shares at between 3.90 and 4.90. The actual flotation price is set to be announced on or around June 23, with the new shares being admitted to both the Irish and London stock exchanges in the final week of this month. AIBs existing share price closed yesterday at 5.60, still above the IPO pricing range, but ultimately almost 14% lower than where it began the day. While the current price is still seen as unrealistic, analyst opinion is upbeat. We are very comfortable that AIB is well positioned to grow and of relatively low risk to investors, said Merrion Privates Darren McKinley, who added that the bank is now focused on sustainable profit growth and shareholder returns as evidenced by its recent resumption of dividend payments. The economic backdrop for future lending growth is very attractive. Ireland remains one of the strongest growing economies in Europe with the number of people in employment back to record levels of around 2m. With mortgage rates and housing affordability attractive, on historical basis, across the country, we expect net new loan demand to gain traction. Mr McKinley said AIB looks well positioned to sustain earnings at a 1.2bn run rate over the medium term. At their current equity position, this would equate to an 11.3% return on equity, he said. Based on the estimates and projections in this weeks prospectus, AIB is heading for a company valuation of between 10.6bn and 13.3bn upon its partial float. The State, which bailed out the struggling lender to the tune of almost 21bn nearly seven years ago, should still be well on course to recover the 3bn it originally targeted from its first tranche sale, but the overall figure could rise to as much as 3.8bn. Mr Noonan said this week that the time is right to progress the AIB sales process, adding that market conditions remain favourable and there had already been a strong level of interest from investors. If successful, the transaction would be an important milestone in the Governments journey to dispose of its banking investments, he said. Fianna Fail finance spokesperson Michael McGrath called the move a statement of confidence in the Irish financial system and an important step in understanding the value of the States overall stake in AIB. Managing director Niall MacCarthy said the likelihood of a softer Brexit following UK prime minister Theresa Mays failure to secure an overall House of Commons majority should not mask the potential for difficulty ahead. A hard, cliff-edge Brexit would be catastrophic for the Irish tourism industry and we need to do everything we can to ensure we avoid that, he said. It is looking more likely that it may be soft but it is critical we dont take that outcome for granted, because we have to ensure tourism is protected. I cannot emphasise enough that we cant rest on our laurels regarding a soft planned and structured Brexit. Aviation is also facing a huge potential headache, with Ryanair boss Michael OLeary saying a hard Brexit could lead to a period where there are no flights to the UK and people here might have to go back to using the boats. Ryanair will have to make plans to move all its planes out of the UK as early as the end of 2018 if the UK fails to stay in the current Open Skies agreement, Mr OLeary said in March. Mr MacCarthy said: If the UK falls outside the customs union and the single market, then it makes it much harder and it will be more complex and take potentially longer for the UK to renegotiate back in to Open Skies. Mr MacCarthy said that whether it was a soft or hard Brexit, Irish tourism had to concentrate on expanding markets. UK tourists by far make up the biggest cohort of Irelands visitors, although there has been a big increase in north American visitors this year to date. It shows we must diversify and that it why the airlines and Tourism Ireland are spending 1.2m marketing Cork abroad as a gateway to both the Wild Atlantic Way and Irelands Ancient East, Mr MacCarthy said. The number of visitors from the UK fell more than 10% to 866,000 between February and April this year compared to the same three months in 2016, according to CSO figures. Failte Irelands tourism barometer has found counties in the north and west were badly hit by falling numbers. While the British visitor market was down between February and April, north American visitor numbers were up 27% to 360,000. Chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, Eoghan OMara Walsh said a 12m stimulus package for the industry was needed now more than ever following the UK election. The figures emerged as the northbound lane of the citys main street was closed yesterday for the summer to facilitate public transport upgrades, sparking fears of another massive drop in traffic volumes into the city. It prompted calls last night for the scrapping of the increased parking charges introduced by the city council last December, for incentivised parking deals, and for the St Patricks Street upgrade work to be done at night. Cork Business Association (CBA) chief executive, Lawrence Owens, said the parking figures bear out concerns expressed last year by the CBA. People are not coming into the city because the parking prices went up its as simple as that, he said. Hiking the charges sends out the wrong message, its poor optics and that has been reinforced now by the statistics. Its just another reason not to come to the city centre. And he said if the quarterly trend continues for the rest of the year, the city could potentially lose up to 60,000 carloads more than 1,000 a week of potential customers. He was speaking after a report on the citys off-street car parking performance showed the number of cars parking in the Paul St and North Main St car parks fell by 16,000 from just over 213,300 in the first quarter of 2016 to just over 197,000 in the first quarter of this year. Car parking charges in both car parks were hiked in December and a key Dunnes Stores outlet in the North Main St Shopping Centre closed. The number of cars in Paul St dropped by just over 11,600 from 170,910 in the first quarter of 2016 to 159,238 in the same period this year. The North Main St figures dropped by around 4,500 from 42,431 in the first quarter of 2016 to 37,834 in the first quarter of this year. However, while the parking figures dropped, price hikes delivered an income increase from 809,000 to 813,000. City officials pointed to an increase in city bus usage, and a slight increase in park and ride usage, and said further study is required to establish whether the price hikes are to blame for the decline in the figures. They also welcomed a slight increase in the numbers using the Black Ash park and ride which have gone from 29,181 to 30,381, with income up from 146,000 to 155,000. Overall, the city raked in 968,000 in off-street parking income in the first quarter 13,000 more than the same period last year despite an overall 15,000 reduction in vehicles. But Sinn Fein councillor Thomas Gould said it was clear parking hikes have had a huge impact. We should be encouraging more people to come into the city centre. We should reverse the car parking hikes and look at giving cheap parking at off-peak times to get more people back into the city, he said. Meanwhile, City Hall has warned of traffic disruption during the St Patricks Street works but insisted that access to all shops and businesses will be maintained. Pedestrian crossings are being repaired and the street will be resurfaced as part of a wider plan focusing on Bachelors Quay, the Middle Parish and around the Mercy University Hospital which aims to make public transport more reliable. transportforcorkcity.ie Cork Film Festival, which was on the brink of financial collapse last year, is on a sound financial footing, city councillors have been told. Its board has met all of its obligations so far under the terms of the loan, which was approved by the city council in May 2016. Cllr Nicholas OKeeffe, chair of the councils arts committee, confirmed the festival board had repaid the first 25,000 instalment of the eight-year interest-free loan, and is focusing on the festivals 65th anniversary celebrations in 2021. It was a difficult decision for council to approve the loan last year. It certainly was controversial, and we had a lot of intense discussion around it before we approved the loan, he said. But we had faith in the film festival brand we felt the brand was 60 years in the making, and that walking away from it was not the right thing to do. Mr OKeeffe, along with councillors Laura McGonigle and Chris OLeary, met with members of the festival board last week to discuss the companys recovery. We wanted clarity on all of the legacy debts which were mostly local creditors, and we were told that they have now all been paid for in full. All legacy debts are now cleared which is good news obviously, he said. The board demonstrated clear, financial prudence, he said, adding that councillors and city officials are happy with the organisational and management safeguards the board has put in place. He said board members told them they are focusing on their core activity and are not seeking to take on expanded festival roles or activities yet. He expressed the hope that if box office numbers continue to improve, the loan may even be cleared early. In May 2016, it emerged Cork Film Festival was at immediate risk of receivership, and that its board had requested a 200,000 loan from city council. Councillors were told the situation had arisen from a combination of factors, including financial commitments arising from a restructuring of the company in 2013, funding a more ambitious programme in the run-up to its 60th anniversary in 2015, and loss of its headline sponsor in the recession. The Irish convert, who spoke at a press conference organised by a prominent Dublin Imam last Friday, also claimed there were 150 extremists living here. While counter-terrorism officers stress they do not yet know if, or to what extent, the claims are accurate, sources said they were taking them very seriously. Gardai have already identified that one of the terrorists, Rachid Redouane, had lived in Ireland, with known addresses in Dublin. An Irish woman from Limerick, referred to as Aaliyah, told the media that a second London attacker and suspected ringleader, Khuram Butt, had also been in Ireland. Butt was known to police and MI5 after publicly associating himself with hate preacher Anjem Choudary and other extremists in his Islamist network, al-Muhajiroun. Aaliyah, who converted when she was 18, associated with Choudarys network in Britain and was engaged to one of its associates. The now 26-year-old told the media that not only had Redouane been in Ireland but so too had Butt. She claimed she saw Butt in Ireland two or three times and that he and other extremists operated out of a house in the Santry area of north Dublin and that many of them also lived in properties in Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary. She claimed Butt was visiting people in Ireland and giving talks while staying here for a few weeks on and off. She claimed the dream of the extremists here was to have an army for jihad. The woman said she was deradicalised with the assistance of a London-based Imam and his wife. Recently she approached Dr Umar Al-Qadri, imam of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Blanchardstown, west Dublin. Garda security officers have interviewed Aaliyah at length and are now investigating her claims. Absolutely, this is a serious development, if what she says is true, said one source. Inquiries are being conducted to see can we confirm or dismiss the claims. It is not known how specific Aaliyah has been in terms of addresses, when she was here, names or contact details of landlords, and names of other extremists that were present. If what she says is true it would change our attitude to things, but it is early days in the investigation, said a source. Detectives will try and piece together any contact between Redouane and Butt here and will examine the extremely serious issue of whether any pre-planning for the London attacks occurred here. Gardai are likely to contact the London Met and ask them to interview the London imam about Aaliyahs story. Members of Counter Terrorism International will try and locate and interview any relevant persons here. The officers are set to be questioned on the issue, and also on a series of other financial scandals at the Garda college, amid separate calls for the Official Secrets Act to be scrapped because it could block further Garda whistleblower revelations. As revealed in yesterdays Irish Examiner, the gardais civilian head of human resources John Barrett has resigned from the Policing Authoritys ethics committee in response to his ongoing dispute with Garda commissioner Noirin OSullivan and others over the Garda college scandal. It is understood Mr Barrett, who attended a lengthy Dail PAC meeting on the issue two weeks ago, felt he could not continue in the role as a representative on the ethics committee. Mr Barrett informed the committee that he would be stepping aside from his role in relation to the rollout of the code of ethics by the Garda Siochana, a Policing Authority statement said on Monday. Speaking to the Irish Examiner last night, PAC chair and Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming said the issue will be formally raised with the Policing Authority when it attends the PAC alongside Garda commissioner Noirin OSullivan and the Department of Justice next week. Todays full-day PAC meeting on the Garda college will see a number of senior officials attend, including Garda assistant commissioners, deputy commissioners, the author of the 2008 garda college audit and other high-ranking officials. In addition to Mr Barretts resignation, it is expected they will be grilled on the escalating financial crisis at the Garda college, which includes: n Concerns about when Ms OSullivan first knew of the issue. n Claims that large quantities of cheques were given to gardai for unvouched expenses, potentially including trips to Australia. n Allegations that some funds were transferred to an account controlled by a former senior Garda officer. n Unanswered questions over whether five secret bank accounts linked to the Garda college are breaching tax laws. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats last night said Mr Barretts resignation means the Officials Secrets Act must be scrapped as it is blocking garda whistle-blowers from speaking out. We have whistleblower legislation which seems wholly inadequate for public servants, including members of An Garda Siochana and the Defence Forces, said PAC member and Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy. The Fine Gael leader is also expected to reflect on values in his party, in his first address to the Dail as successor to Enda Kenny. A theme of his tenure is expected to be equality of opportunity, including in education, employment, peoples personal lives and their rights, according to sources close to him. The Dublin West TD is also expected to mention the importance of battling Brexit as well as other international developments. The future of Europe will likely be addressed. The incoming Taoiseach will formally replace outgoing leader Enda Kenny in a Dail vote this afternoon, officially beginning his long-awaited leadership of the party and country. However, while Mr Varadkar's election is guaranteed due to the fact he will secure 58 votes and Fianna Fail will abstain, new jobs for those who believe they are among his closest allies remain in doubt. As reported in this morning's Irish Examiner front page, Simon Coveney is likely to fail in attempts to be made Tanaiste after he was announced as the party's new deputy leader last night. It had been strongly hinted Mr Coveney was seeking the Tanaiste role. However, it is being reported that he will not be given the position, and in addition will move from Housing to Foreign Affairs - a change Mr Coveney is believed to have sought but which is likely to leave him open to severe criticism he is walking away from a national emergency role. The non-change at Tanaiste means crisis-hit Frances Fitzgerald is now expected to remain in the role, although she is still likely to move from the Department of Justice. She will potentially be replaced by Richard Bruton, who is understood to be keen to instead move to an economic portfolio, leaving a role open in Education. Mr Varadkar's campaign manager in the recent Fine Gael leadership election, Eoghan Murphy, has been widely tipped to become Jobs Minister in the reshuffled cabinet, a key promotion for the current junior finance minister. However, he is instead now rumoured for a super junior minister role focusing on Brexit, an issue which has only been suggested in recent days. While Mr Varadkar has said he will not make major changes to cabinet, there are clear questions over the future of current Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan, current Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O Connor, and others. In addition, a series of junior ministers - including Regina Doherty, Helen McEntee, Dara Murphy and others - are vying to either remain in their roles or gain significant promotions. While the cabinet reshuffle is seen by many as mere Dail drama, it is vital to the functioning of a Government. This is because of the key role ministers hold, but also because a failure to promote influential party members or a decision to remove too many ministers risks creating powerful enemies to Mr Varadkar early in his new tenure. See updates throughout the day at www.irishexaminer.com and from the Twitter feeds of the political team; political editor Daniel McConnell, and political correspondents Fiachra O Cionnaith, Juno McEnroe and Elaine Loughlin. The owner found it a very bad experience as a stranger tried to force his way into his home where his baby and daughter were asleep. The mans wife arrived home during the incident and she too was upset by the experience, Inspector John Deasy said at Cork District Court. Judge Aingil Ni Chonduin described it as, a nasty, nasty experience for the home owner. Gary Mills, aged 25, of Kielduff, Tralee, Co Kerry, pleaded guilty to the charge of trespassing on the curtilage of the house on Blarney Rd, Cloghroe, Co Cork, on January 7. Insp Deasy said gardai got a call about a man attempting to break into a house in the early hours. Insp Deasy said the gardai were told the man had been trying to gain entry by pulling open the door of the house. Gary Mills was seen in an intoxicated condition on Blarney Rd and was arrested. Mills had 10 previous convictions including counts for theft and causing criminal damage. Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the householders impression of Mills was quite true and the accused was under the influence of some substance: He was off his head and under the influence of a narcotic substance. He thought the house belonged to someone he knew. He went to the wrong house. He could not be persuaded he was in the wrong house. The solicitor said the defendant wished to apologise and he appreciates it is a serious matter. The owner said from the body of the courtroom that Mills should realise that, because it was very upsetting and that he had tried to push his way past the owner as children slept inside. Judge Ni Chonduin said: I am sure he would not like someone to knock on his door in the same fashion. The judge convicted and fined Mills 500. South Kerry TD Brendan Griffin was responding to criticisms that the plan to allow Cahorreigh National School, known locally as Two Mile School, re-open as a multi-denominational community national school (CNS) leaves Educate Together continuing to seek accommodation. Educate Together was selected by parents in the Killarney area in a 2013 Department of Education survey to open a multi- denominational school. Two Mile Schools enrolment fell to 17 last year and parents did not send children back in September, meaning Bishop Browne was considering its viability. The department did not answer the Irish Examiners offer to respond to Educate Togethers claim it suggested the vacant school as a suitable location for it to move into last October and again in March. Mr Bruton has approved the transfer of patronage for Two Mile School from Bishop Browne to Kerry Education and Training Board (KETB) after being told that its CNS model was selected by local parents. Mr Griffin put KETB and the community in contact last January and organised a public meeting in Two Mile in March. He told the Irish Examiner that the idea of the school being used as a CNS came up in discussions with locals around the time Mr Bruton publicised his support for the model in January. Unlike Educate Together schools which do not permit faith-specific teaching or sacramental preparation during school hours, pupils at CNS can receive such instruction if their parents wish them to do so. The CNS model is preferred by the Catholic bishops but Educate Together says they are given undue influence in new plans by Mr Bruton for reconfiguring school ownership. The proposals Mr Bruton announced in January mean a local bishop has ultimate say in what patron he transfers a school property to. A range of questions was sent to the Kerry Catholic diocese about the process that led to Bishop Browne deciding to lease Two Mile School to KETB for a CNS. The Two Mile Community Group explored options for a school at a public meeting held the 2nd of March 2017. The group chose the route forward that resulted in Mondays announcement, said its statement. Educate Together and another patron body, An Foras Patrunachta, say they were not asked to put their model forward as an option. Mr Griffin told the Irish Examiner that the 70 people at the meeting included prospective parents of primary pupils, parents of children previously attending Two Mile School and grandparents, but he could not say in what proportions. He said he had no contact from Educate Together locally and parents who selected it four years ago might have done so because the CNS model was not as well known then. Sometimes regarded as the witty schoolmaster of the Dail, with a razor-sharp tongue capable of putting down any on the benches, the Limerick man will leave a mixed legacy, full of drama, struggles, and scandals, but also humour and political command. Having taken the reins at the Department of Finance, on Merrion Street, Dublin, during the fraught bailout days, when Ireland was close to going bust, Noonan, after adroitly overseeing the escape from the Troika paymasters, will likely be remembered for helping mend the damaged economy. Equally, though, his success has left behind a litany of inquiries and unanswered questions about State asset sell-offs, banking decisions, and Irelands tax arrangements for foreign firms here. Michael James Noonan, the son of a schoolmaster, was born in Loughill, County Limerick, close to the Kerry border. He studied primary school teaching at St Patricks College, Drumcondra, followed by economics at University College Dublin. It was here, while teaching, that he met his future wife, Florence Knightley. Having taken an interest in politics from his mother, who was involved in Fine Gael, Noonan later took up teaching at Crescent College, in his home county, before canvassing for FG in the Limerick East by-election. After several years as a county councillor, Noonan won a seat for Limerick East in the 1981 general election. He held that for another 10 Dail elections, a feat not many TDs can claim. Former Minister Michael Noonan TD with his mother Mrs. Anne Noonan, Mount Trenchard, Foynes, Co. Limerick, and his wife Florence, in a file picture from 1983. Beyond chairing the Public Accounts Committee, between 2004 and 2007, he was justice minister in the 1980s, and industry and health minister in the 1990s. In health, he had some of his greatest troubles, including the blood-contamination scandal. When back in opposition, Noonan won a race for the party leadership in 2001, seeing off competition from Enda Kenny, clinching 44 votes, compared to the Mayo TDs 28. But it was a short-lived tenure as leader. The 2002 general election saw Fine Gael drop from 54 seats to 33. Noonan announced his decision to step aside before all seats were filled, with Kenny becoming leader. The tenacious TD was worrying about his wifes eroding mental health, but he waited a decade before going public about her battle with Alzheimers disease. Kenny helped Fine Gael recover in 2007 and gave Mr Noonan the powerful role of finance minister, in the 2011 Fine Gael-Labour government. With the IMF camped in government buildings, it was no easy task. A decade after Noonans brief leadership spell, he was now back at the apex of political life. But his hands were full, with the banks, Irelands debt, unemployment, and the fact that the country was being run by the Troika. Immediately, the incoming, Fine Gael-led governments ambition to burn the bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide was shot down by ECB. Flor died in 2012. Nonetheless, the widowed father-of-five carried on relentlessly. He introduced austerity budgets to stabilise finances. By early 2013, there was a break, with the reconfiguring of the Anglo promissory note. During those years, Noonan had kept his focus on a key goal, saying: Well pop the champagne corks the night the Troika leave town. This week, the outgoing finance minister recalled how he was able to ring Enda Kenny in late 2013, the day the news came that Ireland would be leaving the bailout: He [Enda Kenny] was touring Donegal, at the time, and he still talks about pulling the car off the road and that being the start of a great 48 hours. Michael Noonan with Enda Kenny Still, during these troubled years, and before them, too, the witty Limerick man often had time for humour, put-downs, and straight-talking that will be fondly remembered. Recently, he caught out Sinn Fein in the Dail, quipping the party was like an auld fella walking up and down the boundaries of the ballroom of romance and nobody wants to dance with him. Many years ago, Noonan rang into the Late Late Show, on which comedian and performer, Dermot Morgan, was mimicking him. Noonan brought the house down with laughter, inviting Morgan to Thomond Park and threatening to collapse a scrum on him. But the initial successful exit from the bailout, and Anglo promissory note changes, have been overshadowed in recent years. Stories of vulture funds snapping up cheap assets, of shortcomings by Nama, and of questionable actions by Noonan in the sale of Project Eagle have caused the Limerick TD problems. Decisions Mr Noonan took in relation to the care of Grace, a disabled girl in foster care, are also the subject of a commission investigation. Not all ends well in politics. But the respect Mr Noonan, 73, will take from the Dail, his colleagues, his own party, and from his department will cushion any criticism. He was the minister in charge when Ireland exited the bailout and history will remember that. CICERO said a nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. As an amateur (ie, unpaid) historian, philosopher, and psychologist, Mr Justice Peter Charleton is likely to be familiar with the above words, written more than 2,000 years ago by the Roman lawyer, philosopher, and political theorist. Judge Charleton will preside over the Disclosures Tribunal, which will investigate an alleged smear campaign against Garda whistleblower, Sgt Maurice McCabe. As a music lover, choir member, occasional pianist, and father of three, Judge Charleton is grounded, while, at the same time, in possession of an imposing intellect. He wears such brilliance lightly and is known to be charming, engaging, and approachable. He has served as chairman of the National Archives of Ireland advisory council and is supervisor of the Judicial Researchers Office. He was a founder member of the RTE Philarmonic Choir and is a member of the board of the Irish Baroque Orchestra. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Kings Inns, Judge Charleton was called to the Bar in 1979, and became a senior counsel in 1995. He was appointed as a judge of the High Court in 2006, and assigned to the Commercial Court from 2010. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in June, 2014. He worked as counsel for the Morris Tribunal into allegations of corruption in the Donegal division of the Garda Siochana, and appeared in many high-profile murder trials, including Catherine Nevins. Judge Charleton is the author of a number books on criminal law and has also published on family and constitutional law, copyright, extradition, and judicial review. He has published papers in journals, including the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, the International Journal of Law and the Family, and the Yearbook of the International Commission of Jurists. As a judge he will be familiar with the sly whispers and downright lies uttered in courtrooms by way of evidence. Like most members of the legal profession, Judge Charleton knows a lot about lies: who tells them, when they are told, and for what reason. Unlike most of his judicial colleagues, he has brought his knowledge of criminality to bear in an essay on the human condition, exploring how lying facilitates criminality. Drawing on his experience as a barrister, he wrote Lies in a Mirror: An Essay on Evil and Deceit. It isnt just an essay; it is a magisteral treatise on the nature of evil and an exploration of criminal and deviant behaviour. The book, published by Blackhall Publications, created a stir among academics, as well as legal circles, when it was first published, in 2006. Its central thesis is that there is a lie behind every crime. He concludes that deceit is the engine of evil, while what he calls lying myths are the driving force behind many crimes. In 2007, the book was reviewed in the Irish Theological Quarterly by Rev Dr D Vincent Twomey SVD, professor emeritus of moral theology at St Patricks College, Maynooth. Dr Twomey, noting that Judge Charleton spent a quarter of a century as a criminal barrister, suggested that his experience of dealing with criminals, it seems, provoked a search for some understanding of the inner dynamic of evil. Trinity College law lecturer, Diarmuid Rossa Phelan, described the book as a treasure trove of examples of evil, citing the judges use of his own experience of crime in Ireland and his research on some of the major genocides of the 20th century. Last year, in an address to the law school of Bangor University, in Wales, Judge Charleton spoke about homicide and hatred, and about how long-time criminal lawyers can become dispirited, but that writing about it can be cathartic. In an abstract to the lecture, he said that, although there are patterns to human conduct, people are not predictable. Surrounded by various pressures and driven by instincts which remain powerful, despite our reasoning factor, human beings can be driven to cruelty and can rationalise plain evil by resorting to justifications, to group support, to distancing, and to bizarre notions of just deserts. The patterns in homicide, on an individual scale, are not so different to the patterns in mass homicide. Ideology plays a part, as do ignorance and revenge. He sees lying as the driving force behind the most extreme forms of violence. In Lies In A Mirror, Judge Charleton writes: When you meet people who have subjected themselves to a process of self-deceit over years and, certainly, the criminal courts are just one of a number of good places to meet them it strikes you that they have been diminished by their lies. A lie is an attack on reality. It affronts creation. It undermines the clarity of our perception, the very basis of consciousness, and leaves us vulnerable to unpredictable consequences. On the opening day of the Disclosures Tribunal, in Dublin Castle, Judge Charleton made his position on lying abundantly clear. Neither is he prepared to tolerate any person or institution, before the tribunal, that engages in ducking and diving or delaying tactics. Every lie told to this tribunal will be a waste of what ordinary men and women have paid for through their unremitting efforts, he said. Every action of obfuscation, of diversion of focus and non-cooperation, is unwelcome for that reason. Liers and deceivers have been warned. Wednesday, June 14th, 2017 (12:12 pm) - Score 992 Fixed wireless ISP Boundless Networks, which serves a growing number of homes and businesses with superfast broadband services around rural parts of the United Kingdom, has doubled its network capacity and boosted their top package speeds up to 50Mbps. Overall the upgrade meant that more than 300 of the ISPs 550 Access Points needed to be upgraded with the latest Cambium Networks ePMP Elevate solution, which means that all of the providers base stations are now able to handle double their previous capacity. In keeping with that, a performance improving software upgrade was also applied to thousands of subscribers Over-The-Air (OTA). The upgrade helps to enhance the networks ageing 802.11n based WiFi kit, which would otherwise have had to undergo costly and disruptive hardware upgrades. Instead ePMP Elevate is installed on subscriber modules from other manufacturers already in the network and those are then connected to Cambiums base station, adding useful features to 802.11n-based equipment (e.g. frequency reuse enabled by GPS Synchronization, Airtime Fairness and Smart Beamforming). Clever stuff. David Burns, CEO of Boundless, said: Cambiums ePMP Elevate platform arrived at the perfect time for Boundless, as it promised to solve three problems in one; speed, spectrum and service. As our customers expectations for bandwidth and service level rose and our success in high-demand areas decreased spectrum availability, we were faced with a significant business challenge to deliver better service and higher performance in crowded airspace, without making the huge investment of replacing every access point and customer radio. As a result of the upgrade, our customers are getting more consistent service delivery, making streaming and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) far more realistic. We can bring speeds to rural locations that are better than the UK average speeds in large cities, making our proposition more compelling than ever. All in all, we have been delighted to see that Cambiums claims are true and we have seen no down-side to this migration so far. At present theres no sign of a new 50Mbps package on the Boundless website, with their top residential package offering unlimited (Fair Usage Policy) download speeds of up to 30Mbps (10Mbps upload) for 30 per month on a 12 month contract. A one-off installation charge of 150 also applies. Wednesday, June 14th, 2017 (10:37 am) - Score 1,195 The Scottish Government has today claimed that their 428m Digital Scotland project with BT (Openreach) has successfully ensured that 750,000 extra Scottish homes and businesses can access a fibre broadband (FTTC/P) service, with superfast speeds covering more than 90% of the country. The programme currently aims to ensure that 95% of premises in Scotland are put within reach of the new high speed fibre broadband network by the end of March 2018, although sadly this figure drops to 86% for the rural Highland and Islands region by the end of 2017 (here). Most of the funding has come from public sources, with BT also contributing 126 million to the effort. We posted an update on superfast broadband coverage across the United Kingdom last week (here), which estimated that over 89% of Scotland could access a fixed line fibre network capable of delivering speeds of above 30Mbps. Meanwhile the raw fibre footprint (includes both superfast and sub-24Mbps capable network coverage) stood at just shy of 94%, although official figures always tend to be a little more optimistic. Fergus Ewing, Scottish Connectivity Secretary, said: I am delighted that more people are now able to benefit from fibre broadband, with over 750,000 premises across Scotland now able to connect. Businesses like this one here in Lochgelly one of the 77,000 connected in the last six months can now connect to their fastest-ever broadband speeds for the first time showing our investment in digital infrastructure is paying off. The programme, is reaching more communities than originally planned and will continue to do so in the coming months. However, local people need to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic. I am of course aware that many homes and businesses do not yet have access. Under the further R100 contract, we will be proceeding with the next phase of our pledge to enable access to broadband for every home and business to Scotland within the lifetime of this Scottish Parliament. As hinted above, the work doesnt stop once the current contract with BT comes to an end. The SNP ruled Scottish Government, which is headed by Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister), recently published their 2017 Digital Strategy for Scotland. This document reiterated last years R100 proposal by committing them to extend superfast broadband access to all by 2021, while encouraging the growth of ultrafast services, although were still waiting to get some more details on this (a public consultation was planned for Q2 2017). Interestingly the SNPs recent 2017 manifesto (here) stated that the current contract aims to deliver superfast broadband to 95 per cent of properties across Scotland by the end of 2017, which seems to ignore the March 2018 completion date on the projects own website. The use of superfast also indicates speeds of 30Mbps+, although previously the 95% target was only ever spoken of as a reference to the raw fibre footprint. Suffice to say that politicians are notoriously terrible at clearly communicating their broadband targets and we suspect that Scotland, which has an awful lot of rugged rural terrain and sparse communities, may struggle to hit 95% coverage of superfast speeds by the end of 2017, although theyll definitely achieve that figure in terms of the raw fibre footprint (including sub-24Mbps speed areas). UPDATE 11:38am In keeping with the above, the Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) have also announced that their half of the contract has so far extended high speed fibre broadband to an additional 160,000+ premises in the region, which they claim brings the total number (plus commercial roll-outs) of homes with access to fibre in the region to 205,000 or around 84% of all premises. We note that last weeks independent estimates produced a fibre based coverage figure of 85.70% for the HIE region, albeit dropping to around 70% for those areas able to receive superfast broadband speeds of 30Mbps+. Officially todays update re-confirms that coverage is expected to reach 86% of premises by the end of the 2017/18 financial year . Fergus Ewing added: The Highlands and Islands project is one of the most challenging broadband infrastructure roll-outs in Europe. When it started only 4% of the regions premises could access next generation broadband. Every day roll-out reaches increasingly remote communities and smaller and smaller groups of homes, including locations like the island of Scalpay in the Outer Hebrides, and villages like Lonmore and Roskhill in Skye. The majority of the latest connections to be upgraded were previously on the dreaded Exchange Only (EO) lines, which require a complex and expensive network rearrangement to resolve. Wednesday, June 14th, 2017 (8:56 am) - Score 974 The Welsh Government (WG) has launched a 30 day public consultation into their proposed 80 million plan to extend the roll-out fast reliable broadband (defined as 30Mbps+) to every property in Wales by 2020, which could see a further 98,145 premises being covered by the service. At present the existing state aid supported Superfast Cymru project with Openreach (BT) aims to make fibre broadband (FTTC/P) services available to around 95% of Wales (so far 645,000 extra premises have been covered), although the proportion that can actually access superfast speeds of 30Mbps+ is currently around 90%. However its not unreasonable to say that the programme is running some-way behind the original 2011 aspiration, which over optimistically sought to ensure that all residential premises and all businesses in Wales will have access to Next Generation Broadband [defined as 30Mbps+] by 2015, with the ambition that 50 per cent or more have access to 100Mbps (here). In the end they never stood a chance of being able to deliver on that. The current contract, which is worth 225m (total public funding), is on-going and according to the Welsh Government, BT has confirmed it expects to deliver 30Mbps download speeds to around 690,000 premises before the [current] programme closes at the end of December 2017. This is said to be in line with the UK Governments targets (i.e. 95% coverage of superfast broadband [defined at the lower figure of 24Mbps+] by the end of 2017), although it remains to be seen if theyll achieve that. Last year a second roll-out project was proposed to follow the existing one, which would be backed by a public sector budget of around 80 million and begin its deployment in January 2018 (here). Since then we havent heard anything new, until last night when the WG launched a public consultation on their plans (details here). The consultation also outlined the premises that cannot currently access superfast broadband and where telecommunications companies have no plans to reach in the next three years, which is based on the outcome of an Open Market Review (OMR) that was conducted between 5th January 2017 and 3rd February 2017. Julie James, Welsh Minister for Skills and Science, said: I am keen to hear the views of both the telecoms industry and residents and business owners on whether any further premises should be included or whether any premises currently on the list should be excluded. The consultation will help us to further refine the list of unconnected premises. The more responses we receive, the more comprehensive the list will be. If there are communities that have an interest in driving their own solutions, I want to hear from them. If there are views on how we should lot the procurement, I want to hear them. If there are views on how we should prioritise or target the funding, I want to hear them. We have already transformed the situation in Wales through Superfast Cymru. The most recent Ofcom report showed that Wales has the best superfast broadband availability amongst the devolved nations, with over eight out ten premises with access. This compares with just over half in 2014. But the work does not end when Superfast Cymru ends. We want to reach the final few premises. There will be further engagement with the industry and key stakeholders over the summer to refine the procurement approach with a view to invite formal tenders to deliver the new project in September with the new project beginning in early 2018. I am committed to achieving our ambitions in Taking Wales Forward to offer fast reliable broadband to every property in Wales. Interestingly the new document claims that the Welsh Government has been allocated up to 200m additional public funding which includes contributions from the Welsh Government, BDUK, the EU and Local Authorities which can be committed via the forthcoming procurement, although initially they only seem to be tendering on a lower figure of 80 million. Funding from the EU is obviously susceptible to Brexit. The consultation itself will run until 13th July 2017 and after that ISPreview.co.uk understands that the Welsh Government aims to issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) during September 2017, with a contract then being awarded before the end of 2017. Given the new EU state aid rules, wed expect more interest from alternative network providers (altnets) as well as the usual big boys (e.g. BT). However we have our doubts about whether the original aspiration to start the roll-out in January 2018 is viable (unless theyre only talking about the paper work / admin side) and likewise, given the remote rural nature of remaining areas, we wouldnt be surprised to see the 2020 completion target slip by a year or two. A very fresh report claims that Qualcomm will drop Samsung and is set to work with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or most commonly known as TSMC. The goal of the partnership is to build and produce a 7nm mobile system-on-chip or SoC, in tech terms. Qualcomm, over the past few years, has worked with Samsung in order to make its chips possible using the South Koreans technology. For the record, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820, Snapdragon 821 and this years new Snapdragon 835-series chip are all built with Samsung, according to Android Headline. However, it appears that the American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications company is no longer interested in continuing its good partnership with Samsung. And maybe, the tech giant is also set to partner up with TSMC since the company previously helped it create the Snapdragon 810 SoC. Until now, it is still unknown why Qualcomm set this big switch, but the increasing popularity and demand of Samsungs own Exynos chipsets may have played a much bigger role in the decision. After all, the Korean smartphone maker is gradually replacing third-party chips with its very own chips. On the other hand, rumors surrounding a new in-house graphics processing unit (GPU) surely havent helped the circumstances. If Samsung were to have its own GPU, it would put the giant company in even more direct competition with Qualcomm being one of the many manufacturers that produce their own chips. The progress on TSMCs 7nm process has played the larger part in Qualcomms decision. In fact, TSMC has made no secret that the firm is focused on a 7nm mobile chip instead of the 10nm. Along with this fact is a news that the firm is set to be producing 7nm chips by the end of next year. If this happens, it will provide a significant advantage over its rivals like Samsung, which are said to be a number of months behind with this technology. According to PhoneArena, ever since the second half of 2016, Qualcomm has been creating 7nm Snapdragon mobile chips using tools provided by TSMC. However, a report out of Korea suggests that once Qualcomm is already set for the production of the chips using the 7nm process, Samsung will be surely dropped in favor of TSMC. OnePlus, a Chinese startup phone-maker, has made a name for itself by making very reliable smartphones with the latest hardware at a reasonable price. In fact, its OnePlus 3 is called as "the best budget Android phone you can buy." Just a few days from now, the lineup will have another member which will be called as the OnePlus 5, the tech firms' new flagship mobile device. OnePlus habitually leaks its own account and this time is no different. Two weeks ago, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau posted on Weibo a teaser picture to announce that the upcoming smartphone was in the works. On the opposite of taking a page from Apple's playbook, OnePlus seems to be both celebrating in the speculation around the anticipated phone and fueling it with clues on an almost daily basis. OnePlus 5 Specs According to CNET, the internet has complemented all of that official and rumored content with a steady supply of unofficial leaks of images. Here are the most promising and interesting specifications that OnePlus 5 might have: 5.5-inch display with 440-pixel QHD resolution Dual rear cameras 8-megapixel front camera Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor Variant of 6GB or 8GB of RAM Refined microphone technology 4G LTE multimode modem 3,600mAh battery Front fingerprint scanner OxygenOS based on Android Starting price at $449 Latest OnePlus 5 Photo Teases Awesome Picture In addition to the specs mentioned above, a new photo was leaked and it is rumored to be a picture shot using the camera of the OnePlus 5 lens. According to Trusted Reviews, the pictures are OnePlus 5 camera samples and it shows a clear bid to boost hype for the expected smartphone. Earlier this month, the smartphone maker already revealed a camera sample displaying an impressive performance in low-light conditions. And today, weve got another snap to its awesome lens. Lau, who posted the image above claimed that it was taken by the imminent lens of the OnePlus 5 handset. Tech giant Google is looking to use peer pressure for a good reason that is to sustain alternative energy and save the planet. Thanks to Google's new project, you can able to see which of your neighbors have solar panels installed and that will make you much more likely to be inclined to get solar panels of your own. According to a study conducted by a professor of economics at Yale University, Kenneth Gillingham, one of the best predictors of whether people will install solar panels on their houses is not their race, age, their level of income, or as well as their political affiliation. It is whether their neighbors have it first. Google's latest creation, named as the Project Sunroof, targets to pressure Americans to make an investment in solar paneling on their homes by using the power of groupthink and also popularity. The application teams up with Google maps to find or locate and identify homes which appear to use solar panels on their roofs. The tool has identified approximately 700,000 solar installations in America, which sums up short of the 1.3 million estimated by the Solar Energy Industries Association's (SEIA) count, however, like any good program, its creator explained it must require some more data to improve. Moreover, the app goes further than just identify homes with solar panels, it also offers resources to individuals looking to get a break into the solar game. The Project Sunroof will inform you how much sun hits your roof, and would also tell you how much money having solar panels could save. At the moment, the Project Sunroof delivers data for 60 million houses all over the United States that it has already set with its algorithms, however, Google aims to add 40 million buildings in the next few years. Of the figure, Vietnams exports to the EU rose 4.2 percent, mostly apparel, footwear, agro-forestry-aquatic products and computers, while its imports from the EU up 14 percent, including machinery, equipment, pharmaceuticals and dairy products. The countrys major importers were Germany, the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Exporters hope that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which is expected to take effect in 2018, will increase Vietnams exports to the bloc by 50 percent by 2020. The ministry said in order to navigate the demanding EU market, domestic firms must overcome technical barriers by meeting strict requirements regarding food safety and hygiene and origin traceability. First Counsellor of the EU Delegation to Vietnam Miriam Garcia Ferrer said through the EVFTA, the EU could help Vietnam improve trademark and product quality./. Representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy and Vietnamese Women Club in Malaysia visit the class. (Photo: VNA) The class is aimed at children of Vietnamese women who have married Malaysians, or foreigners who live and work in Malaysia. It also welcomes children of Vietnamese staff. Initially, about 30 students were enrolled. They were divided into two classes by age and arranged to study during the weekend. Teacher Nguyen Thi Lien said that at the beginning, most of the children who spoke Vietnamese were not fluent or they didnt speak regularly. In class, according to their habit, they often used Malaysian, Chinese or English to communicate with each other, rarely using Vietnamese. To help them study Vietnamese and form a habit of using Vietnamese, the teachers have made great efforts and they have seen gradual but significant changes. So far, most of them can speak Vietnamese fluently. They can understand the contents of lessons in the curriculum compiled by Vietnams Ministry of Education and Training. On the occasion of the Southern Liberation and May Day recently held at the Vietnamese Embassy, the children performed a Vietnamese song and they were praised and encouraged by the community. Most importantly, they have formed the habit of communicating in Vietnamese with each other in class, thus creating a foundation for learning Vietnamese more effectively and more methodically. Ms. Nguyen Thuy Thien Huong, one of two main teachers of the class, said that at first it was difficult for teachers to create a habit of Vietnamese communication among the children. After a time of teaching, the teachers asked the children to only speak Vietnamese in class. At the same time, they also proposed that the students parents increase communication in Vietnamese with them at home, creating a real environment for them to practice. Ms. Huong also said that not only being taught Vietnamese language, the children are also taught knowledge about Vietnamese culture such as how to greet, how to behave between student and teacher, and between student and student. This result is thanks to the interest of the Vietnamese Women Club, Embassy and community in Malaysia. Particularly, a member of the club with a Malaysian husband has voluntarily organized the class at home. This is a precious support for the class. Mr. Bui Khanh Long, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia, said that teaching Vietnamese for children of the Vietnamese community in Malaysia is a significant thing. It not only helps them to speak their mother tongue, but more importantly helps them to understand Vietnamese culture and history, thereby helping them become more attached to the homeland and their origins. He also said the initial results and experiences gained through this first Vietnamese class would be studied by the Vietnamese Embassy, to replicate the model in other localities in Malaysia. In the immediate future, the Embassy will remodel some rooms in its facility to serve as classrooms for the children./. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. Close THE family of Luke Miller has vowed to pursue justice after remaining convinced the 26 year old Isle of Wight man was unlawfully killed on a Thai island. Their pledge came after an open conclusion was reached today (Wednesday) at an inquest into the death of Mr Miller. Bricklayer Mr Miller's body was found at the bottom of a bar's cloudy swimming pool the morning after a night out drinking with friends. A post mortem in Thailand found he had suffered head injuries on January 7, 2016 and drowned, but a UK Home Office examination described the cause of death as "unascertained." Mr Miller, from Woodbine Close, Newport, had become separated from his friends late at night and his body was found later that morning in the pool in a resort on the Thai isle of Koh Tao. The backpackers' paradise has gained a grim reputation in recent years highlighted by the double murder of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in 2014. There had been four other murders of western tourists in the preceding year and Nicola Gissing, the sister of Mr Miller's best friend James Gissing - who was on holiday with him - made exhaustive efforts to get information from a Thai police officer. Mr Gissing and other friends of Mr Miller, who remained convinced he had been killed, angrily left the hearing as the conclusion was delivered by the coroner. His family have been supported by the Island-based Lucie Blackman Trust in their quest for information. Matt Searle, the chief executive of the trust which supports families of those missing or who have died abroad, was at the inquest with the family including Luke's mum, Sara, and his stepfather Mike Cotton. Mr Searle said after the inquest: "This case highlights the difference in the way cases are investigated in this country and in Thailand where the police are under-funded and often seemingly disinterested. "I will continue to support the family efforts." Mrs Cotton said: "We are as satisfied as we could be with the verdict on the basis of the evidence the coroner had before her. "But there are far too many inconsistencies in the police reports. "We know what happened and we will continue to fight for justice. Luke was unlawfully killed." In reaching her conclusion Island coroner Caroline Sumeray said Thai police reports had probably been the most comprehensive she had ever seen from a foreign force but there was no evidence that Mr Miller had either died as a result of an accident, a fight or had been unlawfully killed. By continuing to browse or by clicking "Accept," you agree to our site's privacy policy. Today is Flag Day, so we are devoting todays column to questions about Old Glory. Q: Can you give us some background on Flag Day? How did it originate? Why is it on June 14? W.G. Answer:On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag, the Library of Congress says in its American Memory project. The earliest known suggestion of a Flag Day commemorating that day was in 1861 in Hartford, Conn., but it was a one-time event. According to The United States Flag Page, www.usflag.org, a website devoted to the history and traditions of the American flag, the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. B.J. Cigrand, a school teacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisc. Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of the Stars and Stripes) as Flag Birthday. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as Flag Birthday, or Flag Day. The idea began to catch on, and local celebrations grew and spread. Flag Day was established nationally in 1916 by a proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson. And congressional legislation designating June 14 and National Flag Day was signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1949, the Library of Congress says. Q: Where did the phrase Old Glory come from to refer to the American flag? A.E. Answer: That name was coined by Capt. William Driver, a shipmaster from Salem, Mass. The flag in question was presented to Driver sometime in the mid-1820s the exact year is unclear. Then in 1831, when he was about to leave on a voyage, he exclaimed Old Glory! as his familiar flag opened in the ocean breeze. The name originally referred to that specific flag, but has now gone on to become associated with the American flag in general. When the Civil War began and Tennessee, where Driver had moved, seceded from the Union, the flag survived, sewn inside a quilt, according to the Smithsonian Institute, which has the original flag after it was donated by one of Drivers relatives. It was unfurled when Union troops occupied Nashville in 1862. It never flew again, but passed into legend and bequeathed its name to all American flags. Q: The American flag appears to be backward on soldiers uniforms. Why is that? T.H. Answer: The flag is not backward with respect to military regulations. The explanation is on the frequently asked questions section of the Department of Defense Web site (www.defense.gov): Army Regulation 670-1, Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia, says that when authorized for application to the proper uniform the American flag patch is to be worn, right or left shoulder, so that the star field faces forward, or to the flags own right. When worn in this manner, the flag is facing to the observers right, and gives the effect of the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward. The appropriate replica for the right shoulder sleeve is identified as the reverse side flag. When Reality Winner was arrested last week under the Espionage Act for allegedly removing classified information from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet, opponents of the Trump administration were quick to be alarmed. The 25-year-old federal contractor had been critical of President Trump on social media, and the document she allegedly leaked to the Intercept contained details of Russian attempts to hack into state and local election systems last fall details that get to the heart of what Trump calls the fake news investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russian intelligence. Donald Trumps frequent threats against leakers paved the way for Reality Winners arrest, HuffPost wrote. The crackdown on leaks has begun in earnest, a New York Times national security reporter said on Twitter. Organizers of a rally in New York called the arrest the opening salvo in the Trump Administrations self-described war on leaks and said Winner deserves widespread support. Edward Snowden said the law under which Winner was charged must be resisted. On social media, people called Winner a hero and a whistleblower and began raising money to support her and her family. But put aside Trumps vows to crack down on leakers amid a steady stream of embarrassing revelations. There is nothing surprising or unusual about the criminal charges against Winner. Nor is there any indication that the White House had any involvement in this matter. The fact that Trump wants to silence leakers does not turn Winner into a whistleblower or a martyr of the resistance, no matter how much some may wish to applaud her actions. In our system, someone doesnt earn the title whistleblower just because her actions might support a particular ideological agenda. The classified document Winner allegedly revealed was obviously newsworthy, but nothing in it exposes any type of fraud, waste or abuse or, most important, any unlawful conduct by the U.S. government. If she was, indeed, the source of the Intercepts reporting, Winner failed to blow the whistle on anything. As a matter of law, no one who leaks classified information to the media (instead of to an appropriate governmental authority) is a whistleblower entitled to legal protection. That applies to Winner, Snowden and Chelsea Manning, no matter what one thinks of their actions. The law appropriately protects only those who follow it. Anyone who acts contrary does so at their own peril. When representing national security whistleblowers, my job is to ensure the fullest protection possible for those with a story to tell. And as a person authorized by the government to have access to classified information, Winner had a lawful obligation to protect any such material from unlawful disclosure to third parties, including news outlets. The Trump administration did exactly what the Obama administration would have done and did do, at least nine times under the Espionage Act, when faced with an obvious apparent violation of well-settled law. If Winner believed that the information she allegedly purloined revealed something that was being ignored or misused, she could have legitimately pursued any number of avenues to bring attention to the document within the system, such as complaining to an office of inspector general, an independent counsel or government lawyers; submitting her written views to the National Security Agency for review to attempt to create an unclassified document that she could distribute; or even creating legal claims to take her before a federal judge. Of course, having represented national security whistleblowers for more than two decades, I will be the first to admit that the system has serious flaws that demand strengthening, especially in ways that reassure whistleblowers that their concerns are actually being addressed. But that does not relieve the legal, and frankly moral, obligation for Winner to make every possible effort short of unlawful disclosure before crossing that dangerous line of leaking. Few individuals other than the president have the legal right to decide unilaterally what constitutes the national security interests of the United States, and Winner was certainly not one of them. In fact, the argument can be made that every time a leaker illegally discloses classified information, even if the motive is sincere, it causes the government to cast a wider net to identify and prevent perceived insider threats, i.e., leakers. The repercussion is that true whistleblowers are deterred from coming forward while other innocent individuals have their careers derailed or ruined. Sadly, I have encountered this numerous times within the intelligence community, as agencies desperately seek to use sledgehammer approaches where laser precision is required to try to prevent another Snowden breach or another Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter, whose colleagues had many security concerns about him that were either ignored or unreported. There was one surprise in Winners case, however, and perhaps this really should serve as a warning to would-be leakers in the Trump era: the speed at which criminal charges were brought. It took the FBI just days to identify and apprehend Winner. In fact, the Justice Departments announcement of the charges coincided nearly simultaneously with the Intercepts publication of a redacted version of the leaked document, which the outlet said arrived anonymously via U.S. mail. Partly because the case was made so quickly, critics have accused the Intercepts reporters of burning their source by failing to take proper operational security precautions. They point to the claim in the FBIs affidavit that government investigators took note of the folds in the document shown to them by the Intercept and speculated that it had been printed by the leaker, a lucky guess on their part (especially since the folds could have been created instead by the journalists). In any event, that led the government to determine that only six individuals had printed this specific document, and only one Winner had been in contact with the Intercept from her personal email account, which she had accessed from her work computer. The case could not have been handed more easily to the government on a silver platter. That ease is the new norm in the world of classified leakers. The Obama administration was roundly condemned for prosecuting more leakers of classified information than all prior administrations combined. Some styled it a war against whistleblowers, but in reality, it was nothing of the sort, and that criticism is unfair. The Obama administration was able to prosecute more leakers because technology is a double-edged sword, making it both easier to leak vast amounts of classified information and to trace those leaks directly to their sources. This, combined with often poor tradecraft by leakers or journalists, means it is now much simpler for the government to collect tangible evidence permitting prosecution in ways that were previously unavailable. It is a fact that the Trump administration has been besieged by leaks some of which were clearly themselves illegal in releasing classified information at a level that far exceeds that of previous presidencies within the first 130 days. To many, this is to be applauded, and one day history will judge the consequences of these actions. To be sure, we absolutely need whistleblowers. Whether the Trump administration ultimately survives or fails, however, should be determined by lawful oversight and accountability, rather than by selective leaks of classified information that could harm our national security interests. Mark S. Zaid is a Washington lawyer who regularly handles classified matters, including representation of national security whistleblowers. Summerville, SC (29483) Today Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. JURIST Guest Columnist Surya Rajkumar of O.P. Jindal Global University, discusses the prospects of relief for victims of violence in the Kashmir dispute On the 1st of May 2017, the mutilated bodies of two personnel of the Indian Border Security Force were found in the disputed Line of Control (LoC) area in Jammu and Kashmir, India. In a press release, the Indian Army held the Border Action Team of the Pakistani Army responsible for the mutilation. The statement promised an appropriate response to such a despicable act. Further, the defense minister said such attacks dont even take place during war, let alone peacethe sacrifice of these soldiers will not go in vain. While acts such as these have been responded to through demarches, military aggression or even war, justice is never gained for the families of the victims of such acts through the Indian governments recourse. Thus, an approach to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was considered but, India invoking this option would pave the way for the internationalization of the Kashmir dispute. In this light, this article seeks to explain why India cannot take this matter to the International Court of Justice and even if it does, the ICJ can afford no relief. Instances of Mutilation and Suspected Perpetrators Mutilation is not new to the conflict along the LoC. In May 1999, six soldiers were held captive by the Pakistani Army, tortured for weeks and, finally, killed and handed over to India. In a conspicuous and outrageous violation of the Geneva Convention, the soldiers ear drums were pierced with hot iron rods, eyes punctured and genitals cut off. The autopsy of the bodies also revealed that they were burned with cigarettes butts, their limbs were chopped off, teeth broken and skulls fractured during the torture. Even their nose and lips were cut off. However, the Indian Government refused to move the ICJ on this matter. In June 2008, a soldier who lost his way was captured by a Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) and his body was found beheaded a few days later. Additionally, in January 2013 and October 2016, mutilated bodies of Indian soldiers were found along the LoC. Pakistans governmental response has been uniform in such instances they categorically deny any involvement. Whilst the claim that Pakistani troops involvement in such incidents comes from the Indian government as well as the Indian media, no international media house has held Pakistan accountable or even acknowledged the involvement of Pakistan in such incidents of mutilation. Thus, it becomes critical to examine the evidence to indentify the perpetrators of such attacks. The Indian government has not presented any concrete evidence as regards Pakistani involvement vis-a-vis the latest incident. However, previous instances of mutilation suggest likely Pakistani involvement. The 1999 incident saw the Pakistani army giving the mutilated bodies of the Indian soldiers, clearly indicating some involvement. Subsequent incidents have had autopsy reports to prove mutilation. As regards the perpetrators in such attacks, there exist two possibilities: one is the Pakistani Army and the other is militants in the Kashmir valley. In the latest instance of mutilation, the act took place during shelling and exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani forces. As such, only Pakistani troops were present at the time of this latest barbaric act. Similar patterns of events exist in all of these instances of mutilation. It might be argued that the evidence required to prove Pakistani involvement needs to be stronger, which lies at the root of the demand for the intervention of the ICJ. The ICJ could provide a credible and unbiased investigation and gathering evidence to determine the perpetrators and accord justice to the deceased. Moreover, ICJ intervention seems desirable because it is unlikely that the outcome would prove anything contradictory to Indias claims. However, even if an investigation is conducted and the Pakistan Army held accountable, the perpetrators cannot be brought to justice. International Law and Applicability Both India and Pakistan are state parties to the Geneva conventions. As per Article 2 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the convention is applicable because there is an armed conflict between two High Contracting parties which are India and Pakistan. Since all instances of mutilations have seen Indian soldiers as victims in the Pakistan Armys hands, as per Article 4A(1) of the same convention, those mutilated can be classified as prisoners of war. Most importantly, Article 13 of the convention mandates the humane treatment of prisoners. It states no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation and doing so will be a serious breach of the conventions. With respect to the May 1999 mutilation, the Pakistani Army has blatantly violated the aforementioned articles by mutilating the bodies of soldiers. However, even if Pakistani involvement were proven in the International Court of Justice, the conduct could not be prosecuted. This is because the jurisdiction of the ICJ does not apply to Pakistan in cases of armed conflict. This indemnity for armed conflicts also applies to India. The indemnity is offered by the optional jurisdiction declarations signed by the two countries respectively. Thus even the grossest form of violation of international humanitarian law is beyond the jurisdiction of the ICJ in cases of armed conflicts between India and Pakistan. Further, even if India approaches the ICJ at the cost of internationalizing the Kashmir issue, the exercise would be futile because of the optional jurisdiction clause. The Indian government invoked this jurisdictional immunity in the Atlantique incident, Case Concerning the Aerial Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India), in which the Indian Air Force shot down an unarmed Pakistani military patrol aircraft carrying 16 young trainee cadets near the international border at Kutch. The ICJ upheld the Commonwealth reservation and dismissed the case brought by Pakistan against India. Conclusion The demand for taking cases of mutilation accelerated after India was able to stay the execution of its national Kulbhushan Jadhav, Jadhav Case (India v. Pakistan), through an order from the ICJ. This cannot apply to the cases of mutilation for two reasons: 1) whereas the Jadhav case involved questions on the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the mutilation cases relate to the Geneva Convention and 2) whereas there was no armed conflict in the Jadhav case, all mutilations happened in the course of an armed conflict. The third Geneva Convention only applies to cases of war and armed conflict, both of which are exceptions to India and Pakistan through the optional jurisdiction declarations of the ICJ signed by the two countries respectively. The optional jurisdiction declarations legitimize the violation of the third Geneva Convention. Thus, for true justice to be done for the members of the families of those who were martyred through mutilation, India and Pakistan will have to withdraw their optional jurisdiction of the ICJ and comply with original jurisdiction with ex post facto effect. This, however, seems a utopian idea and unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future. Surya Rajkumar is a student at O.P. Jindal Global University with interests in Indian geopolitics, international law and human rights. He has been published in various other sources including Oxford Universitys Human Rights Blog Suggested citation: Surya Rajkumar, International Justice is Blind to the Mutilation of Soldiers, JURIST Student Commentary, Jun. 16, 2017, http://jurist.org/dateline/2017/06/Surya-Rajkumar-international-justice-is-blind.php This article was prepared for publication by Kelly Cullen, a JURIST Assistant Editor. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org US Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official websites] on Tuesday in relation to his alleged ties to Russia and its coordination with President Donald Trumps campaign in 2016. During the two-and-a-half-hour session, Sessions repeatedly refused to answer questions claiming a Justice Department policy protects private conversations between the president and cabinet secretaries. He also often said he couldnt recall specifics when asked about conversations he had previously denied having with Russian officials. When asked why he had initially stated those conversations did not take place, Sessions said that he was flustered by the questioning and misunderstood what was being asked of him. He also said that he did not recuse himself from the investigations because of his failure to disclose [JURIST reports] those meetings. However, Sessions decision to step away from the matter came the day after The Washington Post [media website] reported on the meetings. Sessions also refused to comment on possible conversations between him and the president regarding Trumps decision to dismiss [JURIST report] former FBI director, James Comey. Allegations of Russian connections have been a problem for the Trump administration since the early stages of his presidency. Last month Former FBI director James Comey testified [JURIST report] in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Earlier in May the committee issued a subpoena [JURIST report] compelling former National Security Adviser Lieutenant General Michael Flynn to provide documents related to the committees investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election. Also in May former acting US Attorney General Sally Yates testified [JURIST report] before the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that she had warned about Flynns vulnerabilities to blackmail by Russia less than a week after President Donald Trump assumed office. In March now-former FBI Director James Comey confirmed [JURIST report] that the FBI was investigating allegations of Russian interference with the 2016 US presidential election. Sergio Cabral, former governor Brazils Rio de Janeiro state, was sentenced to 14 years and two months on Tuesday for corruption and money laundering. Cabral was governor [BBC report] from 2007 to 2014 and was instrumental in bringing the Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro. Cabral was detained [JURIST report] in November as part of a massive corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash. Prosecutors accused Cabral of receiving hundreds of thousands dollars a month in kickbacks for giving construction firms lucrative contracts such as a petrochemical plant in Rio and the refurbishment of Maracana Stadium. It is estimated that the former governor had taken nearly 2.7 million reais (USD $813,000) in bribes. Also sentenced [LAT report] were former state Interior Minister Wilson Carlos Carvahlo and Cabrals associate, Carlos Miranda. Cabrals wife, Adriana Ancelmo, was acquitted of charges for lack of proof of her participation. Rodrigo Roca, Cabrals lawyer, said [AP report] he will appeal the sentence. Cabral is a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party of President Michel Temer, who was recently part of a corruption probe [JURIST report] authorized by the Brazilian Supreme Court. Brazil has endured tumultuous times as former president Dilma Rousseff was impeached for corruption [JURIST op-ed] last year amidst a time of economic turmoil. In April Brazils Supreme Court ordered investigations into eight cabinet ministers [JURIST report] and dozens of lawmakers who are allegedly linked to the countrys so-called car wash bribery scheme. The investigation was ordered on the tails of an anti-corruption measure that was passed last December by the Brazilian Lower Chamber of Deputies. Operation Carwash [JURIST report] allows individuals who are subject to prosecution to seek criminal consequences against their prosecutors and judges if the officials abuse their powers. Operation Carwash was passed as charges have been filed against some of Brazils most powerful politicians, including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva [JURIST report]. In late September former finance minister Antonio Palocci was arrested [JURIST report]. In November Rousseffs lawyers filed documents [JURIST report] with the Superior Electoral Court in Brazil alleging that Temer was involved with bribery. Ricardo Martinelli [CIDOB profile, in Spanish], the president of Panama from 2009 to 2014, was arrested in Coral Gables, Florida on Monday, according [press release] to the US Embassy in Panama [official website]. The arrest is the result of an extradition request by the Panamanian government made in September 2016, related to allegations that Martinelli embezzled money and spied on his political opponents while in office. The 66-year-old businessman is currently being held in a Federal Detention Center in Miami [official website], according to the Embassy. Mr. Martinelli is being well-treated and has access to his legal counsel. The presentation of the extradition request by the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of Florida [official website] on behalf of the government of Panama was done pursuant to the bilateral extradition treaty between the two countries. The United States maintains with Panama, as it does with sovereign partners around the world, a strong and productive law enforcement relationship, one grounded in support of the rule of law. An extradition hearing is currently scheduled for June 20. Martinellis arrest comes two weeks after the death of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega [JURIST report]. Noriega spent the last 27 years of his life [NYT report] serving prison sentences in France, the US and Panama for embezzlement, corruption and murder during his reign in the 1980s. In January he was allowed to go on house arrest [JURIST report] to prepare for brain surgery that was necessary to remove what his doctors described as a benign tumor. Nearly 200 Democratic Senators and House members have filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against US President Donald Trump for allegedly accepting foreign payments and gifts, breaching a clause of the Constitution. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution [LII materials] prohibits any individual holding office from accepting any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State without the consent of Congress. Trump, who has a financial interest in vast business holdings around the world that engage in dealings with foreign governments and receive benefits from those governments, has admittedly taken the position that the Foreign Emoluments Clause does not require him to obtain such approval before accepting benefits arising out of exchanges between foreign states and his businesses. Although Trump has given his adults sons control [BBC report] over his real estate empire and other assets, he has not taken the recommendation to sell them off to avoid any conflicts of interest. Lawyers for Trump have contended that the Emoluments Clause does not apply to payments, such as a bill for a hotel room, but instead is designed to prevent the acceptance of gifts and other considerations intended to coerce or influence policy decisions. This is the fourth such suit filed against the president, and the second filed by a government entity. Earlier this week the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, DC, also filed suit [JURIST report] against Trump for breaching the Emoluments Clause. In January the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] claiming Trumps continued business dealings violate the emoluments clause. And in March a DC restaurant filed suit, claiming a new Trump hotel is unfair competition. Alexei Navalny, a Russian lawyer and activist known for establishing the Anti-Corruption Foundation [advocacy wevite], was arrested outside his home in Moscow on Monday, according [TASS report, in Russian] to a state-media new report. His arrest, and almost immediate conviction for organizing an unauthorized rally, occurred shortly before an anti-corruption protest targeting President Valdimir Putin and the Kremlin [TASS report, in Russian] was scheduled to take place on Tverskaya, a four-lane avenue and main thoroughfare in Moscow. Navalny was sentenced to a 30-day prison term. According to state-run media [TASS report, in Russian], Moscow officials had approved a protest in a public square just outside the citys center district, and Navalnys arrest was the result of a post he had made the night before [YouTube video, in Russian] the protest redirecting protesters. Tweeting from his verified Twitter account shortly after his arrest on Monday, Navalnys wife Yulia said [Tweet, in Russian] the protest in the Tverskaya area would proceed as planned. The protest in Moscow and similar ones throughout Russia resulted in more than 1,000 arrests. This is not the first time Navalny has trouble with the Russian legal system. Navalny was arrested [JURIST report] in March at a demonstration protesting the alleged corruption of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev [official website]. In February he was convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] for embezzlement. That same month, the European Court of Human Rights ordered [JURIST report] Russia to pay more than 63,000 for arresting Navalny multiple times between March 2012 and February 2014. In May a Moscow court declined [JURIST report] authorities request to convert Navalnys suspended sentence into a prison term. He had been convicted of fraud and sentenced to three-and-a-half-years suspended sentence. In 2015 Navalny was handed [JURIST report] a 15-day prison sentence for distributing leaflets attempting to publicize an anti-crisis demonstration. In 2014 Navalny and his brother, Oleg Navalny, were charged [JURIST report] with embezzling approximately 30 million rubles (USD $518,000) from French cosmetics company, Yves Rocher Vostok, and the Multidisciplinary Processing Company by a fraud scheme between 2008 and 2012. Both Israel and Palestine have failed to prosecute war crimes, according to a report [text, DOC] presented Monday to the Human Rights Council [official website]. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein [official profile] submitted the report, reviewing the compliance of Israel and Palestine with recommendations made by the Council dating back to 2009. Since 2009, the Council has made more than 900 recommendations aimed at improving the human rights circumstances existing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The report reviewed the status of 773 such recommendations. The commissioner raised concerns over the impunity experienced in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law. Zeid condemned both Israel and Palestine for woefully inadequate measures taken to hold wrongdoers accountable for violations of international law, some violations of which may amount to war crimes. The report found that the overall full implementation rate to be .4 per cent by Israel and 1.3 per cent by Palestine. The International full implementation rate is 17.9 per cent. Earlier this month Human Rights Watch alleged that Israel has occupied the West Bank through human rights abuses for the past fifty-years [JURIST report]. In May the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced concern [JURIST report] over the treatment of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. In April the UN Secretary-General, expressed his discontent [JURIST report] with Israels latest decision to build settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and repeated his previous calls for a two-state solution to resolve the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In March Israels Security Cabinet voted unanimously to approve the first settlement in the West Bank in more than 20 years [JURIST report]. The UN Human Rights Committee [official website] found [text, PDF] Monday that Ireland must remedy harm done to a woman in 2010, after denying her an abortion. Siobhan Whelan had to travel to the UK to receive medical care. Whelan was diagnosed [Guardian report] with fatal fetal syndrome. The Committee ruled that the country violated the womans right to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment after forcing her to travel to another country to undergo the procedure. Whelans rights to equality and privacy were ruled to be infringed. The preservation of human rights and equal treatment of women is an international concern. Earlier this month a UN expert presented a report [JURIST report] to the UN Human Rights Council calling for governments to do more to reduce violence against women and LGBTQI individuals. That same day the Delaware legislature approved a bill [JURIST report] that guarantees access to abortion. Conversely, the day before Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed [JURIST report] a series of abortion regulations into law. In March Human Rights Watch sent a letter and a memorandum to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament with recommendations [JURIST report] for amendments to a proposed domestic violence bill. Also in March the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women urged [JURIST report] the government of Australia on Friday to include all women in the fight to stop violence against women. New transport An-132D built in Ukraine under order of Saudi Arabia to debut at Le Bourget 2017 An-132D multipurpose plane-demonstrator built in Ukraine as part international cooperation will be first presented to mainstream international audience at the 52nd Le Bourget 2017 Air Show to take place in Paris on June 19 through June 25. The press service of Antonov State Enterprise reported on Tuesday that new An-132D will take part in the demonstration program of the show and will be exhibited to potential buyers at the planeside. An-132D multipurpose plane-demonstrator with a carrying capacity of 9.2 tonnes is modification of light transport An-32 aimed to replace An-32 and An-26 on the market. Antonov is implementing the program under a contract signed in April 2015 with Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Taqnia Aeronautics Co. The plane is being built with participation of leading western manufacturers: Pratt & Whitney Canada, CMC Electronics (Canada), U.S. Honeywell, France's Liebherr and Britain's Dowty Propellers. The assembly of the plane-demonstrator was finished at Antonov's facilities in December 2016. In March 2016, the plane successfully completed its first flight. German supplier Benteler Automotive has hosted an opening reception for its new sales and engineering office location in Coventry, England. Laurent Favre, CEO Benteler Automotive, and Andrew Gill, Global Customer Line director and Key Account executive Benteler Automotive, welcomed guests from key customer Jaguar Land Rover, Department for International Trade (UK) representatives and Benteler employees. The new location in England is a second location next to the Benteler component plant in Corby which was built in 1996. Benteler says it represents an important step in Benteler Automotives development in England and also within its customer relationship with Jaguar Land Rover. We are close to our customers: We aim to be present in their key markets to closely collaborate on excellent products and services, explains Laurent Favre, CEO Benteler Automotive. Bentelers customers benefit from the competence the company has and shares globally across markets. Coventry will be the eighth location supplying Jaguar Land Rover, who is one of Bentelers key customers. Our new location in England will primarily focus on improving the relationship with our customer Jaguar Land Rover. Coventry houses the activities of engineering, programme management and sales, added Andrew Gill, Global Customer Line director and Key Account executive Benteler Automotive. With this new location and the existing component plant in Corby, Benteler strengthens its existing relationship with Jaguar Land Rover who has been a key customer since the late 1980s. Due to our long-term working relationship, we are able to support in various fields and develop new technologies. We provide a high level of innovation skills and problem-solving expertise, Gill completes. In addition to England, Benteler also supplies Jaguar Land Rover in Brazil, India and China, as well as continental Europe. Coventry is situated in the West Midlands, near to the city of Birmingham. This location ensures a quick and responsive reaction to customer needs with convenient access to Benteler worldwide facilities and headquarters. By 2019, Benteler expects to employ around twelve employees (FTE) in this location. The decision of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation to collect 150 million Russian rubles from subsidiary of Roshen Corporation (Kyiv) Roshen LLC (Lipetsk) for dividends removed to Ukraine is not in line with the agreement on avoidance of double taxation signed by the Ukrainian and Russian governments on February 8, 1995. According to the report of the corporation, a copy of which has been sent to Interfax-Ukraine, the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation for Lipetsk region conducted a tax audit of Roshen LLC (Lipetsk) for 2014-2015. "As a result of the inspection, the bodies of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation came to an unjustified conclusion that LLC Roshen during the payment of dividends to Ukraine did not have the right to apply the benefits established in the Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation of Income and Property and Prevention of Tax Evasion between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Ukraine since February 8, 1995," Roshen said. The corporation said that the tax claims by the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation were calculated, taking into account undistributed profit as of late 2016 (dividends were paid in 2014-2015). "The Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation actually demands to pay additional taxes from funds that were under control in Ukraine as of late 2016," Roshen said. These claims are an attempt to recover additional taxes that were duly paid to the budget of Ukraine from Roshen Corporation. Roshen Corporation is confident that the tax authorities of Ukraine will take into account the position and actions of their Russian counterparts on the actual denunciation of the agreement on avoiding double taxation between the government of the Russian Federation and the government of Ukraine since February 8, 1995 when taxing dividends paid by Ukrainian companies to their Russian beneficiaries. "Roshen Corporation states that these claims by the Federal Tax Service are illegal and violate the international obligations of the Russian Federation in accordance with the above-mentioned agreement," Roshen said. The corporation will use all available legal means to protect its violated interests and rights to prevent improper taxation of corporate profits by bodies of the Federal Tax Service to the detriment of the budget of Ukraine. Roshen LLC (trading house) is a subsidiary company of Roshen Corporation, which dealt with sale of products made at the Lipetsk factory, and imported products of Ukrainian factories of the corporation to Russia (until July 2013). The activities of Roshen LLC were stopped, as well as the Lipetsk Confectionery Factory. Dallas, 06/13/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/ Technology is capable of making life easier and more enjoyable. From smart cars to smartphones, advances in computers and other tech continue to move at a rapid pace. However, technology is not without downsides. In recent years, certain technologies have raised numerous privacy concerns. In Minnesota, for example, a state agency has acknowledged that it included GPS tracking capabilities on ignition interlock systems for years without notifying individuals whose vehicles were equipped with the devices. If you have been charged with a DWI, or you believe your legal rights have been compromised by the police or a government agency, its important to get in touch with a Texas DWI defense and criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible. Secret GPS Tracking for Drunk Driving Offenders According to a recent report, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has admitted that it secretly installed thousands of GPS trackers when it put ignition interlock systems in the vehicles of drunk driving offenders. The tracking capabilities were not disclosed to the individuals who received the ignition interlock devices. An ignition interlock device is a breathalyzer that requires a motorist to submit a breath sample before the vehicle will start. If the individual has alcohol in his or her system, the device will prevent the car from turning on. The inclusion of GPS tracking technology raises Fourth Amendment concerns, as tracking a persons movements without their knowledge or consent may be a violation of the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The Fourth Amendment specifically states that citizens have a right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects The central question is whether an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her vehicleand whether this expectation extends to their routes and destinations when they drive. For example, if someone with an ignition interlock device consistently drives in and out of an area of town known for being a high-crime area, or a place where drug deals are carried out, do the police have probable cause to follow the person simply for driving to a certain destination? Its a potential slippery slope for the erosion of privacy rights. One Minnesota lawyer pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has already addressed the issue of GPS tracking devices in Jones v. U.S., in which it ruled that the use of GPS tracking technology by the government is unconstitutional except in limited circumstances. A Minnesota congressman stated that he thinks the trackers are a bad idea with serious questions surrounding the legality of it and will call for hearings on the issue unless the agency discontinues the practice. Discuss Your Case with a Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer The government and the police do not have a blank check to trample your rights in the name of stopping a crime. If you believe your privacy rights have been violated by a police or government investigation, help is available. The Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers at Broden & Mickelsen are Board Certified in Criminal Law and Criminal Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Get your free case evaluation from a Texas federal criminal defense lawyer today by calling 214-720-9552. Broden & Mickelsen, LLP 2600 State St Dallas, Texas 75204 Main Phone: (214) 720-9552 Office Direction Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer on Facebook SOURCE: Broden & Mickelsen source: http://www.brodenmickelsen.com/blog/dallas-dwi-defense-lawyer-talks-secret-gps-tracking-drunk-driving-offenders/ Social Media Tags:Dallas DWI Defense Lawyer, Drunk Driving, GPS Tracking for Drunk Driving Offenders, Texas criminal defense lawyer Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution SubmitMyPressRelease.com Like Us on Facebook It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print Should You Be Concerned About the Safety Of Your Childs Rear Seat? Eberstein Witherite LLP 1800 Car Wreck Fort Worth, 06/13/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/ The Digest of Motor Laws published on the American Automobile Association (AAA) website, states that all 50 states have a child restraint law, with a majority of these states requiring child rear seats for children between birth and the age of 6. Despite the fact that child rear seats have significantly reduced injuries and deaths caused by car accidents, there is growing evidence that the consequences of some types of car wrecks may be worse in these seats. No one would argue against the statistics that show how effective child safety seats have been when it comes to protecting kids from injuries and death, stated Car Wreck attorney Amy Witherite of Eberstein Witherite, LLP. But what were finding out through safety crash tests is that there may be some real danger in where parents place a childs rear seat. In fact, according to a piece on Autoblog written by Pete Bigelow, the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) has issued a report that urges parents to understand the dangers of placing a child rear safety seat directly behind an occupied front seat. Bigelow quotes CAS Executive Director Clarence Ditlow who said: While the rear seat is the safest location for a child, it is safer still if the child is placed behind an unoccupied front seat or behind the lightest front-seat occupant. Ditlow said that this recommendation is based on studies that have found that the backs of some front seats tend to collapse in a rear-impact car accident. And when the car wreck occurs at a speed that exceeds 30 miles per hour, the front seatback can smash into children in rear safety seats, causing fatalities. From 1990 to 2014, 900 children in rear safety seats were killed in rear-impact car accidents where a passenger occupied the front seat. Although there is not enough information known about these deaths to confirm that they were all directly caused by the collapse of the front seatback, Ditlow believes that the National Highway Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) should investigate the exact cause of those deaths. Until cars on the American highway are equipped with adequately strong front seats and seatbacks, children in rear seats behind occupied front seats will continue to be in danger of death or severe injury from front seatback failures in rear-end impacts, stated Bigelow. So Where Do I Put The Seat? Even prior to the findings of this new study, where you decide to put a child seat in the back has been the subject of some debate. When the seats were first introduced, some parents thought that they were safe enough to place in the front passenger seat, an idea that was quickly dispelled by safety experts. The Mayo Clinic advises that all child rear seats should be placed in the back seat, away from active air bags. But if only one row of seats is available, then parents should turn off all front air bags to ensure that they do not deploy in the event of an accident. If parents are only placing one child seat in a vehicle, the safest place is in the middle of the back seat, to reduce the danger of injury from a door that is crushed during a car wreck. That placement is backed up by a government study that found children seated in the middle of a back row are 43 percent safer than children seated to the either side of a back row. Getting People Back On Their Feet The sad truth is that no matter how diligent parents are about where they place their childs rear seats, accidents can still result in serious injury. Thats the time when the team at Eberstein Witherite really earns its reputation. With nearly 20 years of experience as a leading personal injury law firm serving all the major cities in Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Katy, Austin and El Paso, the lawyers and staff at 1-800-Car-Wreck have had one goal when helping victims of a car wreck: Keep Your Life Running! What sets us apart is that from the moment you call us, we know that our number one priority is to restart all the things that come to a screeching halt when youre hurt in a car wreck. Simple tasks such as getting to a doctors appointment or shopping for groceries can become giant challenges after a car injury, and its even worse if you have to miss work for any length of time. We will be there to provide you with assistance, transportation to medical appointments and patient understanding when you just need to vent. We hope you never need us, but when you do, we will go above and beyond to keep your life running and get you back on your feet, states Amy Witherite. Media Contact Lucy Tiseo Eberstein Witherite, LLP Phone: 800-779-6665 Email: [email protected] Connect with Eberstein & Witherite on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ source: http://www.1800-car-wreck.com/concerned-safety-childs-rear-seat.html Social Media Tags:car accidents, car wrecks, Child rear seats Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution SubmitMyPressRelease.com Like Us on Facebook It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print Photo Creidt: Riviera Maya Property Consultants Tulum has been evolving in the past years from a laid-back Mexican Caribbean village suitable for backpackers and adventure seekers into a sleek, eco-chic, and fashionable tourist destination. While New Yorkers sip on chili margaritas at the fancy Gitano lounge or stand in line to get into the trendy Hartwood restaurant, a few in-the-know people visit the secret spots of Tulum. Many know that Tulum is a yoga mecca, but what else is there to do when you feel like taking some time off from the beach/lounge/dinner routine? Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Cenotes Yucatan peninsula is uniqueit has an inter-connected underground water system and countless natural fresh water sink holes, or cenotes. Clear, azure and magic, considered sacred by Mayans, cenotes are wonderful for a refreshing swim, snorkeling and even spectacular cave diving experience. Dos Ojos is one of the most impressive cenotes in Tulum. Its possible to snorkel with a guide who will take you around and show you caverns of incredible beauty. Sac Aktun Underwater Cave System Sac Aktun, located next to Tulum, is the second biggest underwater cave system in the world with incredible geological formations, perfect for snorkeling or diving. It amazes visitors with its white walls, crystal clear water, hundreds of stalactites and stunning formations. If you are a diver, you can start by entering through Gran Cenote or Calavera. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Mayan Heritage Besides the ancient Mayan port city of Tulum and its remaining pyramids, there is rich Mayan heritage to explore all around. Tulum used to be a part of the ancient Mayan territory, and many Mayan cities remain. Cobathe tallest pyramid in Yucatanis just 40 minutes away, though you might also want to visit Chichen Itza (often considered the 7th Wonder of the World), or Ek Balam, the lesser known, but still fascinating ancient Mayan city. Gourmet and Local Food The food scene in Tulum varies from sophisticated gourmet options to local tacos in the village. Worlds best chef, Rene Rendzepi from Copenhagens Noma, has recently opened a pop-up restaurant in Tulum. His $600-per-person reservations were immediately sold out. The beach zone food scene is indeed boomingyou can try Simple for fish, Casa Banana for a nice gourmet dinner or Hartwood for local food interpretations cooked in an open outside oven. Venture to Tulum village and enjoy a mojito at Batey Mojito bar and eat local tacos at one of the street side restaurants. You will not regret it. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Akumal and Sea Turtles Akumal is another beach town, located 25 min north of Tulum near Cancun. Its probably best known for snorkeling and swimming with turtleseven its name means land of turtles. Akumal is one of the favorite beaches for local turtles to spawn, and has been so for many years. So get a snorkel and enjoy your turtle experience! Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Yal-Ku Lagoon After going to Akumal, wander into the close-by Yal-Ku park and snorkel in the clearest lagoons with myriads of colorful fish. Rent one of the palapas to rest and sunbathe. Aktun Chen Cave Aktun Chen means natural well inside a cave, and is a spectacular 640 meter long dry cave. It offers a walk through the five million year old environment where history stands still. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Spas Yoga is everywhere in Tulum, but how about a relaxing spa experience? Pamper yourself with ancient Mexican techniques of rejuvenation at one of hotel apas along the beach zone. Yaan Wellness Energy Spa, for example, offers holistic treatments, such as a traditional Mayan service that uses fresh herbs, sacred copal and deep massage. Labnahas Eco Park This park is called the Magic Mayan World, and offers tours only to small guided groups. Descend on a zip line into the Sacred Lakes, and snorkel in cenote Labnaha. Labnahas Eco Park hires only professional, qualified guides and intends to preserve local eco-systems. Photo Credit: Riviera Maya Property Consultants Sian Kaan Biosphere Nature Reserve Just drive past the arch on the beach zone and you will find yourself in Sian Kaan, the natural and protected biosphere reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its a stunning place where wild lagoons meet the Caribbean Sea, and thousands of species of birds, animals, fish, turtles and dolphins roam freely in wetlands. Photo Credit: Emporer Cruises The central hub of Cat Ba is now framed by a chain of low-rise concrete hotels along its once lovely bay, but the rest of the island is largely untouched and as wild as ever. With idyllic Lan Ha Bay just offshore, you'll soon overlook Cat Ba Town's over-development. The two first nights, we stayed at Hung Thang Hotel for an island experience. Photo connoisseurs hunted the best shots of sunset at the Cannon Fort on the mountain top. Visitors can find the landmark of President HCM, created when he visited the Island and the Cat Ba Fisheries Port in 1959. Cannon Fort (also known as high peak 177) is close to the three beaches, and here you can enjoy a panoramic view of the island from above. Head out of Cat Ba Town to the entrance of Cannon Fort, just 15 minutes away, and take a leisurely 20 minute stroll to the fort. In one direction are the green-clad limestone karsts stretching into the distance, while the opposite side is dotted with colorful fishing boats, beaches, and the town itself. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Cat Ba National Park We started early in the morning to explore the forest in the hope of seeing some wildlife while escaping the burning summer heat. We chose the short trek trail leading to Ngu Lam Peak and the Kim Giao Forest with our guide, Van Anh. She was very informative and knowledgeable about the park and history. We walked the gentle two and a half kilometer Cat Ba National Park Education Trail, starting at the entrance to the National Park Headquarters, and Van Anh introduced us to some of the wonders of this special island. Its animals, plant life and diverse habitats are unique in Vietnam. Another activity is to visit typical karst caves with amazing features, such as Trung Trang and Quan Y or Hospital Cave. We visited Trung Trang Cave on our way back from the trek to Ngu Lam Peak, and were thoroughly impressed. According to Van Anh, Cat Ba National Park (officially founded in 1986) is 15 kilometers from Cat Ba Town, and covers an area of 152 acres. It is one of the only two protected areas in Vietnam that include both a marine and a terrestrial component. A small forest trail behind the national park headquarters leads to Ngu Lam peak, which contains a nice watchtower with a spectacular panorama of forest-covered karts. Foreign tourists can hire a local guide to head for a trek through limestone labyrinth leading to Frog Lake in the center, replete with small freshwater swamp forest area that provides water to the population of Cat Ba Island. There are many primary forest on the surrounding kart towers, and moving through to Viet Hai Village, tourist boats take guests back to Cat Ba Town or to some new low-key resorts in Lan Ha Bay. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve is adjacent to the Halong Bay World Heritage Site. It is one of the best examples in the world of a kart landscape by the sea. The 366 limestone islands contain landforms, caves and cave deposits that provide evidence of a long history of erosion and landscape evolution. Many of the small islands rise steeply or vertically from the shallow marine waters and are the distinguishing feature of the region. The bigger islands, including Cat Ba Island itself, are covered green tropical monsoon forest. The archipelago is of global importance due to the high number of species found nowhere else. The golden-headed langur is one of the 10 rarest primates in the world due to its restricted range and small population size (about 60 in all on Cat Ba Island.) There are also regionally important habitat types including fringe coral reefs, mangrove forests, sea grass beds, willow swamp forest and tropical limestone forest. Most of the habitats are under severe threat, especially due to encroachment. With these special values, Cat Ba was acknowledged as the World Biosphere Reserve in 2004. There are 5 villages on Cat Ba Island and the Cat Hai District administrative offices. Cat Ba is a major coastal fishing zone, and has tremendous potential in agriculture and fisheries as well as other development opportunities such as nature-based tourism, near shore artisanal fisheries and aquaculture. The famous local products here are Cat Ba Honey and Cat Hai Fish Sauce. Cat Ba has archaeological sites dating to the Pleistocene area, and relics such as ceramics pieces date to the Bac Son Culture about 6,000 years ago. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com A Secret Hideaway Staring from Beo Seaport, 10 minute from the main Cat Ba town by bus, we jumped into our private chartered wooden boat and ventured out on Lan Ha Bay. The floating village in Lan Ha Ba was amazing and probably the biggest in the Tonkin Bay. We got off the boat to visit visit the fishing farm. As all destinations have their growth stages, the backpackers always come first, and the middle class and luxury travelers follow. It seems that Cat Ba is still in the first stage. Lot of bars, cafes and restaurants open late, some small resorts and party cruises please the people who have more time than money. A resort run by an Australian and Vietnamese couple just for backpackers is a prime example. They come for rest, relaxation, sun and fun. The summer, in particular, is busy and Cat Ba tourism is still seasonal; busy with Vietnamese for the summer period, and quiet for foreigners from September to April. While cruising we saw the Monkey Island with long and white sandy beaches appearing from nowhere. Others travelers avoid the crowded Cat Co beaches; they can rent a boat and take them to Monkey Island and nearby empty beaches where they have their own peace and privacy. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com The scenery is breathtaking, and biking with the bike view is amazing. We spent one hour biking to reach the village and en route we could hear the fog singing and admired the charm of a quiet countryside with distant echoes of wild animals. Local people keep their village very clean, even on the water. They are particularly friendly, and the only vehicles present are electric cars, which makes it a peaceful place. We arrived the prestigious and pristine Ba Trai Dao Beaches just 30 minutes after the cruise. One of our colleagues said Thailands islands and beaches are nothing compared to ours. Vietnam is too hidden, and we seem to keep our best beaches and islands a secret only for ourselves. Our next excursion was some light kayaking in the afternoon, before checking in to the Nam Cat Resort. Hang Ca Area belongs to the national park, and is known by locals for its dark coves. With two people fitting snugly in each kayak in Hang Ca, we paddled on the bay and through the first cave to enter an amazing cove surrounded by limestone. The tour guide says that there are only 60 individuals on the island, a truly rare and important species indeed. Japan's government has started working on cancelling visas for Ukrainian citizens, MP Leonid Yemets of the People's Front faction reported. "We've scheduled a diplomatic trip of a delegation of the Ukraine-Japan inter-parliamentary group for the day of the launch of the visa-free regime [with the EU] with a specific goal of extending the list of countries with the visa-free regime to include the friendly Japan The Cabinet of Ministers of Japan has started to work on the issue of cancelling visas for Ukrainians. The parliaments promised to assist in every possible way," Yemets wrote on Facebook. He said it was too early to talk about a specific timeframe, but they were working so that Ukrainians could visit the 2020 Tokyo Olympics without visas. The Ukrainian law on changes to the Ukrainian Code of Administrative Violations regarding the ban on the production and propaganda of St. George's (Guard) ribbon was published in the parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrainy on Wednesday. Thus, the law will take effect on June 15. The law was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on May 16. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed it on June 12. The law adds to the Ukrainian Code of Administrative Violations a new article introducing liability for the production and propaganda of St. George's ribbons. According to the document, public use, demonstration, or wearing of St. George's ribbons or their images are punishable by a fine in an amount of 50 to 150 tax deductible minimal revenues of citizens with the confiscation of St. George's ribbons and objects bearing their image. The government of Ukraine has proposed the Verkhovna Rada to stipulate targeting for the national budget deficit up to 2% of GDP and reduce the level of public debt to 55% of GDP in 2020 in the draft law "Budget Policy Basics for 2018-2020 (Budget Resolution)." "We are introducing budget targeting to reach a deficit-free budget in the long term. In the short term we plan to reduce the deficit to 2% from 3% of GDP," Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk said, when presenting the document at a Cabinet meeting. "In the debt policy our task is to reduce the level of public debt in 2018-2020 to 55% in 2020 from 66.8% of GDP," the finance minister added. The government approved this bill with the condition of finalizing within three days. The headquarters of the Ukrainian anti-terrorist operation in Donbas said on Facebook has said the Ukrainian army positions came under 52 attacks on Tuesday; one serviceman was killed and seven were wounded. There were 22 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in the Mariupol sector. Army strongholds came under attack of 120mm mortars near Chermalyk, 82mm mortars near Vodiane, and grenade launchers and small arms near Talakivka, Lebedynske, Hnutove, Berezove and Pavlopil. Anti-aircraft guns, infantry combat vehicle weapons and sniper rifles were also engaged in the hostilities. A number of homes and infrastructures were destroyed in a residential area of Olhynka, the staff said. The hostilities intensified in the Donetsk sector, especially in the suburbs of Avdiyivka and in the Svitlodarsk bulge area, after dark, the staff said. Ukrainian army strongholds came under fire of 120mm and 82mm mortars, infantry combat vehicle armaments, grenade launchers, and small arms of various calibers near Avdiyivka, Kamianka and Luhanske, the staff said. A woman sustained a shin wound in Avdiyivka. She was given aid on the spot and refused to go to hospital, the staff said. Militants shelled Ukrainian army strongholds near Novotoshkivske in the Luhansk sector, using 120mm and 82mm mortars; 82mm mortars were fired near Krymske, Novooleksandrivka and Schastia, and grenade launchers and small arms were used near Donets, Stanytsia Luhanska, Troitske and Lobacheve, the staff said. The European Commission launched the European Solidarity Corps promising to help 100,000 young Europeans find placements for voluntary work and even paid jobs for between two and twelve months. However, critics warn that some quality jobs risk to be replaced by unpaid volunteering. Solidarity has been the keystone of the European unification since its very beginning.Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity, reads the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950. The future of European solidarity is in the hands of its younger generations. This year, while celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus Programme, one of the most successful initiatives of the EU, the European Commission launched the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) a new initiative meant to empower young Europeans willing to help vulnerable people and ready to tackle societal challenges facing the continent. Junckers promise The creation of the Corps was first announced with great fanfare by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in his 2016 State of the Union address: We often show solidarity most readily when faced with emergencies. When the Portuguese hills were burning, Italian planes doused the flames. When floods cut off the power in Romania, Swedish generators turned the lights back on. When thousands of refugees arrived on Greek shores, Slovakian tents provided shelter. In the same spirit, the Commission is proposing today to set up a European Solidarity Corps. Juncker pledged that young Europeans should be able to find a job within four months after having completed their training or studies. In yet another announcement, made when he took office almost three years ago, Mr. Juncker pledged then that young Europeans should be able to find a job within four months after having completed their training or studies. Is it thus possible that the Commission sees the Solidarity Corps as a way of lowering youth unemployment, in addition to improving the practical training of young adults and broadening their understanding of the Union. 100,000 young Europeans to join the ESC by 2020 The initiative was officially launched in December 2016. Eight different EU programmes and funds Erasmus+, Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI), LIFE, Asylum and Migration Fund, Health, Europe for Citizens, European Regional Development Fund, Agricultural Fund for Rural Development were mobilised to offer volunteering, traineeship and job opportunities. In the current phase, the ESC is financed and managed by these eight programmes and their funds, but once the draft regulation presented on May 30, 2017 enters into force, the solidarity initiative will have its own legal basis and budget and will be implemented by the European Commission, the Erasmus+ National Agencies in the Member States and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). On May 30, the Commission consolidated the initiative by proposing a budget of more than 340 million for the next three years. According to its plans, 80 percent of this budget will be dedicated to volunteering activities and the remaining 20 percent to job placement . The draft Regulation presented by the Commission not only endows the European Solidarity Corps with its own financial resources, but also equips it with one single legal base and a broader set of solidarity activities. Adoption by the European Parliament and the Council is expected by the end of this year. The declared objective is to enable 100,000 young Europeans to take part in the Solidarity Corps till the end of 2020. So far, more than 30,000 young people have signed up and the first participants have already started their placements. How does it work? The new initiative offers young Europeans between 18 and 30 years of age the opportunity to do voluntary / unpaid or, on some occasions, paid work in their own country, somewhere else in the EU, or in Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Applicants can choose among volunteering activities for up to 12 months, traineeship placements for 26 months, or job placements for 212 months. The new draft Regulation also offers EU youth the opportunity to set up their own solidarity projects or to volunteer as a group. The ESC supports a vast variety of projects that touch on some key societal challenges facing the EU. For instance, applicants can work with people with disabilities, deal with minority groups such as Roma, help in the reception and integration of refugees and migrants, support communities to recover after natural disasters and teach foreign languages. All those participating in a project covered by the ESC will receive at the end of their experience a certificate that documents their engagement. The ESC brings together two complementary strands: volunteering and occupational. Those who decide to volunteer will not receive a wage, but will still be entitled to lodging, food and pocket money. A subsistence allowance will be provided also to those doing a traineeship, while participants that are recruited for a job will get a formal labour contract. Anyone who is looking for a traineeship, or has been unable to find a job after completing their studies, is invited to register with the ESC on a dedicated website, indicating their preferred type from one of the three categories mentioned above and location of placement. Applicants are also asked about language skills, education and special abilities. There are no special requirements and, in this regard, also untrained school dropouts are free to apply. Once registered, they can be contacted by organisations interested in offering a placement. These organisations are invited by the European Commission to apply for funding or for other support for projects, which fit the Mission and Principles of the initiative. Once their projects are approved, they can access the pool of participants to select the young people that could best contribute to those projects. A deja vu feeling? The idea of European volunteering draws from successful international experiences, like the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and the US Peace Corps. The UNV is a UN programme that was established in 1970 and mobilises more than 7,700 volunteers every year. UN volunteers are active around 130 countries and receive a financial allowance to cover basic living expenses. Minimum age to participate in the programme is 25 years, while there is no upper age limit. The US Peace Corps, on the other hand, was founded in 1961 by President J.F. Kennedy, and aims at helping people outside the US to understand American culture and helping Americans to understand the culture of other countries. Volunteers are American citizens who engage themselves to work abroad for a period of two years. In Europe, the predecessor of the ESC is the European Voluntary Service (EVS), which was established in 1998. This program, which is still in place, is funded by the European Commission and enables young people resident in the EU, between 18 and 30 years of age, to carry out an international volunteer service in Europe, Africa, Asia or South America for a period from 2 to 12 months. Volunteers receive reimbursement of travel expenses and coverage of the costs of food and accommodation. According to Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, the ESC will be an EVS + with more funding available and a new one-stop shop portal. Commenting on the fact that 100,000 people volunteered with the EVS in the last 20 years the same amount that the Commission aims to reach by 2020 with the ESC the Commissioner said: We have to admit that the European Voluntary Service has not been very successful. He added that the European Solidarity Corps will now cover the 28 EU member states, while the EVS will survive for projects outside of the EU. Good intentions, potentially bad outcomes? One cannot but praise the Commissions stated goal to help 100,000 young Europeans willing to serve a good cause and find a temporary position, be it paid or unpaid. Nevertheless, not everybody is enthusiastic about this new initiative. The initiative does not provide a clear distinction between volunteering activities and job placements. Jutta Steinruck, MEP, S&D Group spokesperson on employment and social affairs, points out: What we need the most today is to create new high-quality jobs, training and apprenticeships for young people. The initiative, however, does not provide a clear distinction between volunteering activities and job placements. We find this troubling, as we fear that through this initiative paid jobs would be replaced by unpaid volunteering. We must make sure that this does not happen. Marian Harkin, MEP of the ALDE group, echoed the same concern during a debate with Mr. Navracsics: How can we make a clear distinction between the volunteering and the occupational strand? What criteria do you intend to use, Mr. Commissioner? How can we ensure that there are no abuses in the system and that young, energetic, idealistic young Europeans do not find themselves in the fringes of precarious work? Other MEPs focused on the importance of avoiding duplications with existing programs: There should be no competition between the ESC and the already existing EVS, which made a good service to those young people willing to engage themselves in volunteering activities, warned Sabine Verheyen, MEP (EPP). This concern is shared also by the other side of the political spectrum, like the Italian Curzio Maltese (GUE/NGL), who said that the Commission should remove many ambiguities and dangers from this proposal []. These are the risks of making duplications [with existing programs] and offering a new instrument to exploit youth workforce. The Corps should not be seen as a fake solution to tackle youth unemployment, creating precarious working conditions instead of quality jobs. The European Youth Forum (EYF) expressed similar concerns. Luis Alvarado, president of the EYF, commented: Great to see EU institutions putting the spotlight on volunteering. To make the Solidarity Corps a success, though, it is vital to put youth organisations in the driving seat! Also, when it comes to the occupational strand of the Corps, this should not be seen as a fake solution to tackle youth unemployment, creating precarious working conditions instead of quality jobs for young people. The Commission thus faces an uphill battle. It will not be an easy task to ensure that the initiative is properly funded and that quality jobs are not replaced by unpaid volunteering. The viability and legitimacy of the European Solidarity Corps depends on the fulfilment of these two conditions. Otherwise, good intentions will inevitably lead to bad outcomes. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at its meeting on June 14 intends to approve the main guidelines for the development of weapons and military equipment for a long-term period. According to the agenda of the meeting posted on the government's website, this issue will be presented at the meeting by Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak. The Cabinet intends to approve a plan of measures for the implementation of the Concept for the Development of the Electronic Services System in Ukraine for 20172018. The government also plans to confirm state guarantees for the obligations of PJSC "Ukrainian Railways" and approve the composition of the supervisory board of the State Specialized Financial Institution "State Fund for Assistance to Youth for Housing Construction." The Cabinet also plans to approve a draft agreement with the government of Japan on sending experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to develop a modernization project for the Bortnychi Aeration Station. It is planned to approve academic scholarships of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to students of higher educational institutions and post-graduate students. The government plans to change the composition of the tender commission for the selection of candidates for the posts of members of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. Also, the Cabinet intends to approve the draft presidential decree on declaring the water area of the Azov Sea as the 'Prymorsky' hydrological reserve of national importance. In addition, the government intends to consider personnel issues. Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said the situation involving the National Agency of Corruption Prevention (NACP) can be salvaged only by reshuffling the staff or adoption of a new law regulating the agency. "Unfortunately, the situation is festering. Even the first wave of declarations for 2015 has not been checked. Government officials, whose e-declarations should have been checked in May, should have had their declarations checked in May More than 100,000 e-declarations for 2015 and about 1 million declarations for 2016 this can not continue," Petrenko told journalists on Tuesday. "We have announced our position: either NACP officials must resign and allow a new competition to take place for appointing individuals who will fulfill their responsibilities or parliament will adopt a law to reboot the agency," Petrenko said, adding that the resignation of NACP board member Ruslan Riaboshapko is "a good sign and a civilized step." "I count on the integrity of the individuals who are there [on the NACP board]. The government position is to adopt a new [NACP] law, maybe during the next week of plenary sessions," Petrenko said. As earlier reported, on April 11 the government proposed a bill, titled "On introducing changes to the law on preventing corruption" (regarding the improvement of procedures for the working of NACP No. 6335)." Petrenko earlier said if the bill was adopted NACP would remain an independent agency and NACP leaders would be personally responsible for the agency's work. The bill also introduced a mechanism to conduct independent audits of NACP work. The minister said then that consultation for drafting the bill took place in consultation with civil society activists. CAMBRIDGE Ted D. Hosick, 79, died Monday, June 12, 2017, at his home in Cambridge. Graveside services with military rites will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Fairview Cemetery in Cambridge with Jim Jones presiding. Visitation for friends to sign the memorial book will be until 6 p.m. today. He was born in Moorefield on March 30, 1938, to Vance and Wanda (Stinnette) Hosick. Ted attended and graduated in 1956 from the University of Nebraska School of Agriculture in Curtis. Ted married his high school sweetheart, Mary Lou Owens, on Aug 4, 1957, in Curtis, and they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in August. After high school graduation, Ted and his father went into partnership and owned the Hosick John Deere Implement in Curtis. In 1961, Ted enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. While in the services Ted was an information specialist, which lead to employment by the IBM Corp. in Denver. Ted received an honorable discharge in 1963. In 1973, Ted and Mary Lou returned to Nebraska to start a family hardware business in Cambridge. They owned and operated the Gambles Hardware and later Coast to Coast store. After closing this business, Ted worked for Ben Franklin of McCook, and Ag Valley Co-op in Indianola. In 2004, he started working at Lockenour-Jones Mortuary of Cambridge and Herrmann-Jones Funeral Chapel in McCook. Ted was community minded and was active in the Cambridge Volunteer Fire Department/EMTs, Furnas County Sheriffs Posse, Butler Memorial Library Board, and the Airport Authority Board. Ted enjoyed many hobbies including team roping with the Cambridge Saddle Club, boating, camping, country music festivals, working in his shop, and his latest adventure of building and flying radio controlled airplanes with his neighbor. Ted enjoyed spending time with his friends and family, and especially teasing his grandchildren. Ted had a creative mind and his family will remember his ability to invent or fix anything. Ted was preceded in death by his parents; parents-in-law, Lewis and Ava Owens; infant brother, Benny; sister, Bonnie Hosick; twin granddaughters, Korrine and Ashley Hosick; brother-in-law, Kenneth Mullen. Ted is survived by his wife Mary Lou of Cambridge; two sons, Doug of Hutto, Texas, and Don and wife Shelley of Minden; daughter; Denise and husband, Brad Wolfe, of Grand Island; sister, Yvonne Mullen of Sun Lake, Ariz.; six grandchildren; and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins. Friends may leave on-line condolence at lockenour.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be left in Teds name to either the Cambridge Fire/Rescue Squad or the Cambridge Senior Center. It has been said, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our founding fathers were well aware of this when they designed the U.S. Constitution. They agreed to a bundle of compromises which included both a separation of powers and checks and balances. These were safeguards to protect against the frailties of human nature. The institutions that were created valued safety over efficiency. It is worth noting that the Constitution was conspicuously silent in reference to political parties. In fact, James Madison in the Federalist Papers warned against organized special interest groups. Today, many Americans blindly pledge their loyalty to a political party over the Constitution. Political parties use the power of the gerrymander to emphasize party power over that of the individual voter. The Bill of Rights provided protections against the federal government. The 14th Amendment applied most of these protections to state and local governments. In essence, this was a second Bill of Rights. The strength of our political system lies within an informed public. Blind obedience to a political party is not what our founding fathers had in mind. The 3rd Congressional District allowed Adrian Smith to run unopposed. He has amassed a very large campaign war chest. Smith has chosen to hold telephone conversations with constituents rather than town hall meetings. This makes it difficult for people to interact with Smith and each other. Just as importantly, it makes it exceedingly difficult for the media to convey his positions to a wider public. Smith is the closest contact we have with the federal government. Finally, very few people have the opportunity to ask questions about explosive issues such as Medicaid, the fiduciary rule regarding retirement protection, controlling the cost of prescription medication, the proposed tax reform bill, and proposed cuts in the federal budget. Smith speaks in glittering generalities. He advocates ending the estate tax, saying hes helping farmers. However, he fails to explain the increase in the federal debt that will result. Only 0.2 percent of the wealthiest Americans currently pay this tax. I encourage Smith to hold town halls across the 3rd District. By hiding in the bushes, he doesnt explain anything. Roger Green, Scottsbluff Despite the headlines, it wasnt all controversy for the 2017 Legislature. Some pretty necessary things were discussed and passed by lawmakers before they left Lincoln last month. Senators adopted a resolution (LR127) offered by Omaha Sen. Bob Krist to create a new Nebraska Justice System Special Oversight Committee. The committee will continue work already done on issues involving the Nebraska Department of Corrections and review the role of state agencies in their involvement with the justice system. The committee will not have investigative or subpoena powers. It will be led by Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete. A prior investigative committee had studied the circumstances surrounding the incarceration and release of Omaha inmate Nikko Jenkins who subsequently murdered four people in Omaha within weeks of his release. That committee also looked at the administration of good time laws, segregation and the availability of programs. Krist rightfully pointed out that issues such as staffing, overcrowding, mental and behavioral health and restrictive housing continue to plague the department. ONeill Sen. Tyson Larson opposed the resolution and called on his colleagues to have patience and faith in Department Director Scott Frakes who also spoke in opposition to the proposal at a meeting of the Legislatures Executive Committee. Its not a lack of faith that caused the Legislature to do the right thing by approving the committee. Patience has obviously run thin. One of the sessions Christmas Trees (a bill to which several similar measures are attached) was from the Education Committee (LB512) drafted to make technical changes to education law. Along the way, the measure which was intended to restrict a levy limit exemption for teachers voluntary termination agreements picked up several other education-related provisions. The Coordinating Commission on Postsecondary Education will be allowed to assess a fee on for-profit post-secondary institutions in the state and direct the proceeds to a cash fund, under a proposal from Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks. This will allow the commission to receive, evaluate and pay claims to students to recover lost tuition and fees resulting from the closure of such an institution. Technology companies that contract with schools will be prohibited from using student data for targeted advertising or creating student profiles for non-educational purposes under a measure from Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld. Start-up or expansion of summer food programs through schools would be facilitated by allowing the schools to spend the full grant amount under a measure offered by Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont. J.L. Schmidt, a registered Independent, is the Nebraska Press Associations statehouse correspondent. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form First Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Ivan Rusnak has said that the preparation of the Russian Federation for holding the West 2017 large-scale military exercises causes concern around the world. Rusnak said this during a meeting with Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Michal Dworczyk on Tuesday, the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported. "Preparations of the Russian Federation to hold the West 2017 large-scale military exercises cause concern throughout the world," Rusnak said. He also briefed his Polish counterpart about the situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, noting "the non-compliance by the Russian-occupation forces to the Minsk Agreements." In addition, on behalf of Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Rusnak thanked his Polish counterparts for their assistance. As reported, the West 2017 Russian-Belarusian strategic maneuvers will be held simultaneously at several training grounds of the two countries. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that despite any pressure, the Belarusian-Russian exercise West 2017 will be held on a large scale. Farhat Rehman, Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) speaks during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 13, 2017. The National Council of Canadian Muslims commented on the release of the latest annual police-related hate crimes data from Statistics Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Const. James Forcillo leaves court in Toronto on Jan. 25, 2016. A Toronto police officer who gunned down a troubled teen on an empty streetcar four years ago says the judge overseeing his trial was wrong to exclude evidence meant to suggest the 18-year-old was trying to commit "suicide by cop." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves after a meeting with the Leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arlene Foster at 10 Downing Street after the general election in London, Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Britain's prime minister has begun talks with a Northern Ireland-based party Tuesday to see if they can create an alliance to push through the Conservative Party's agenda after a disastrous snap election left her short of a majority in Parliament. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) WAUKESHA The man who parlayed a run on TVs The Apprentice into a winning presidential campaign said Tuesday the nation needs a stronger system of apprenticeship to match workers with millions of open jobs. I love the name apprentice, President Donald Trump declared. He said he wants every high school in America to offer apprenticeship opportunities and hands-on-learning. Joined in Wisconsin by daughter Ivanka Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Trump described his push to get private companies and universities to pair up and pay the cost of such arrangements. Its called earn while you learn, Trump said of his initiative at Waukesha County Technical College. The president toured a classroom full of tool-and-die machines that simulated a factory floor, accompanied by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Trump said the learn-and-earn arrangements are going to be a big, big factor in his effort to add jobs that employers are having trouble filling. The hope is that students will work at paid internships while they go to school to gain the skills for those hard-to-fill openings. The Labor Department says nine in 10 apprentices who complete their programs find jobs. Theres evidence of bipartisanship, at least for the idea of apprenticeships. The White House said Trumps push is aimed at training workers with specific skills for particular jobs that employers say they cant fill at a time of historically low unemployment. However, the most recent budget for the federal government passed with about $90 million for apprenticeships, and Trump so far isnt proposing to add more. Gateway sees demand Kate Walker, director of operations at Gateway Technical Colleges Business and Workforce Solutions division, said Trump addressed the nations skilled worker gap. Were happy to hear him speaking on our behalf and bringing light to something so important to us: the skills gap, Walker said. As the boomers are starting to retire, that knowledge transfer hasnt happened. For a while, people werent attracted to going into the trades. Careers in manufacturing, construction, cosmetology and plumbing will be some of the most in-demand in the coming years, Walker said. She said parents are beginning to realize a liberal arts education does not guarantee a high-paying job. Technical education is a great option, Walker said. Gateway has nearly 220 students enrolled in apprenticeship programs, which usually cost less than a four-year liberal arts education. I think people havent really thought about trades for a while, Walker said. Were trying to let them know that its available to them and a nice way to go to school and earn money while theyre in school. On Tuesday, a signing ceremony and open house will be held for a new mechatronics apprentice program at Gateways S.C. Johnson iMET Center, 2320 Renaissance Blvd., in Sturtevant. Employers in need of workers with this skill set are being encouraged to attend the event. We hope to do more outreach at middle schools and high schools in the coming year, Walker said. Attitude change needed The Trump administration has said theres a need that can be met with a change in the American attitude toward vocational education and apprenticeships. A November 2016 report by former President Barack Obamas Commerce Department found that apprenticeships are not fully understood in the United States, especially by employers, who tend to use apprentices for a few, hard-to-fill positions but not as widely as they could. The shortages for specifically trained workers cut across multiple job sectors beyond Trumps beloved construction trades. There are shortages in agriculture, manufacturing, information technology and health care. Participants in some apprentice programs get on-the-job training while going to school, sometimes with companies footing the bill. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said Trumps rhetoric doesnt match the reality of budget cuts hes proposing that would reduce federal job training funding by 40 percent from $2.7 billion to $1.6 billion. If youre really interested in promoting apprenticeship, you have to invest in that skills training, said Mike Rosen, president of the American Federation of Teachers union chapter at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Few apprenticeships Apprenticeships are few and far between. Of the 146 million jobs in the United States, about one-third of 1 percent or slightly more than a half-million were filled by active apprentices in 2016. Filling millions more jobs through apprenticeships would require the government to massively ramp up its efforts. Scaling is the big issue, said Robert Lerman, a fellow at the Urban Institute. Another complication: Only about half of apprentices finish their multi-year programs, Lerman said. Fewer than 50,000 people including 11,104 in the military completed their apprenticeships in 2016, according to Labor Department. The president was attending a closed fundraiser for Walker later in the day. Wisconsin was a key part of his 2016 election triumph, when Trump became the first Republican to carry the state in a presidential election since 1984. Trump also met on an airport tarmac in Milwaukee with four people he described as victims of President Barack Obamas health care law. Trump said the health care law was one of the greatest catastrophes that our country has signed into law and the victims are innocent hard-working Americans. He singled out Michael and Tammy Kushman of Marinette County and Robert and Sarah Stoll of Kenosha. The mayor of Chop in Zakarpattia region, Valeriy Samadrak, has been freed from jail after posting UAH 128,000 bail, according to the Zakarpattia-based Mukachevo.net news portal, citing the Zakarpattia region court of appeals. "Immediately after the hearing, Samadrak posted UAH 128,000 bail. He is no longer in custody and is not allowed to leave the country. According to bail conditions, the former Chop mayor must appear if summoned for questioning by investigators," the article says. The Zakarpattia region appeals court left in force provisions for the arrest of Samadrak's property. The court lowered bail from UAH 1 million to UAH 128,000. Zakarpattia region head Hennadiy Moskal and Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy Robert Horvat, who attended the hearing, offered guarantees that Samadrak would not jump bail. Moskal on his website on Tuesday said Samardak's accuser is Russian citizen Sergei Nikulin, a resident of the city of Berehove. Nikulin is unemployed and is being sought by law-enforcement agencies for unpaid bank debts. Moskal called him "an employee-provocateur of the Directorate of Economic Protection of Zakarpattia region" who regularly appeals to officials with bribe offers, who from 2011 has regularly appeared as a witness in bribe-taking cases. "The Zakarpattia region appeals court for some reason ignored these details. I signed an official letter about violations by the Directorate of Economic Defense and sent it to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO). As a former law-enforcement officer with extensive experience, I declare these provocations do not constitute a war on corruption," Moskal said. As earlier reported, on May 30 PGO head Yuriy Lutsenko said Zakarpattia's Prosecutor's Office together with the National Police of Ukraine arrested Samardak taking a $3,000 bribe, as well as a Chop architect and a middleman a city council deputy. A criminal investigation has been opened pursuant to Part 3 of Article 368 (bribery) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Conviction of the crime entails a jail term of 5 to 10 years. The origins of Veterans Day Throughout the year, we have a few different observances for those who have served our country. We have Memorial Day to celebrate those who gave... Spindle Items .. PLANNING YOUR TRIP For those of you who are planning to visit Universal Studios this winter, you may want to know that Universal... Out of the Past 25 Years AgoNov. 12, 1997 With only one resident questioning its adoption, the Tonawanda Town Board Thursday night adopted the 1998 budget totaling $61,242,060. The... Winter parking restrictions update There is a lot going on in the Town of Tonawanda this month, so lets get right to it, along with some presidential quotes for... The instrument of ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement signed by the King of the Netherlands was published on the Dutch government's website on Wednesday and will take effect on June 15. The document declares the entry into force of the law dated July 8, 2015, which approved the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part, concluded in Brussels on June 27, 2014. The Dutch parliament's lower chamber, the House of Representatives, formally confirmed the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement on February 23. The upper chamber, the Senate, put the ratification to a vote on May 30. The ratification process is deemed completed after the document is signed, published in the Official Journal of the Netherlands, and handed over to the archives of the General Secretariat. Once that is done, the European Union needs to finalize the approval process and to submit the instruments of ratification to the archives. The agreement will take effect on the first day of the second month after the last instrument of ratification or the approval document is submitted to the archives. The Netherlands was the last country of the European Union, which ratified the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli said earlier he expected the agreement to take full effect on September 1, 2017. 'Normandy Four' summit to take place before end of this summer Leaders of the 'Normandy Four' member countries (France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia) will meet this summer, Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said. "Negotiations are in progress, and I cannot endanger them by telling you the approximate date right now. Everything will happen much faster than before the end of this summer," Prystaiko told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday, replying to the question regarding the date of a possible meeting between the 'Normandy Four' leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron said after he had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 30 that the 'Normandy Four' negotiations should be held as soon as possible. 315 Shares Share Delivered at the Harvard Medical School Class Day Ceremony, May 25, 2017. Distinguished faculty, dedicated staff, and most importantly, loving parents and family members: Thank you for all youve done to support us and transform us into doctors. Harvard Medical School Class of 2017, congratulations. It is an enormous honor to address you all today. When I was a third-year medical student, I scrubbed in on the surgery of a woman with ovarian cancer. The purpose of the surgery was to see whether her cancer had spread to other organs. The surgeon instructed me to put my hand on the patients liver. As I ran my gloved hand over it, I felt hard nobs of cancer press against my fingertips. I realized that after the anesthesia wore off, the surgeon would have to tell her patient that the cancer had metastasized. I, however, wasnt there for that conversation. As medical students, we periodically get pulled out of the hospitals for PowerPoint presentations, group discussions, and role-play scenarios. On the day of this surgery, it just so happened that I had to participate in a medical school exercise called breaking bad news. Along with each of my classmates, I was given a pretend patients medical history: a middle-aged woman with back pain that turned out to be due to metastatic cancer. In a mock exam room, I sat across from an actor pretending to be this patient and told her the diagnosis. It was purely a coincidence that the breaking bad news exercise coincided with the operation I observed that morning. But the fact that my attending surgeon was communicating such a serious diagnosis with her real patient as I play-acted the same scenario with an actor reminded me that medical school has been a dress rehearsal for the real responsibility of medicine. When I consider that responsibility whether it be performing surgery or telling someone life-altering news I am struck by the vulnerability of patients. The word vulnerability comes from the Latin root vulnus, meaning wound. To be vulnerable means, being capable of being wounded. Our patients come to us so that we may heal their wounds, but in seeking care, they open themselves to being wounded anew both physically and emotionally. Being a patient almost always entails physical pain, uncertainty, and a loss of control. Patients let us into their stories before they can know if we will respond with compassion and understanding, or if we will brush them off or make them feel ashamed. By saying out loud this hurts and I dont know what to do, patients open the possibility of sustaining further wounds. But yet, it is only through telling their stories and putting trust in others that they may be healed. In this way, vulnerability is a prerequisite for healing. When we started medical school, our faculty told us our best teachers would be our patients. I think we have a lot to learn from our patients about the power of vulnerability. Though no one says it directly, medical culture implies that vulnerability is for patients, not for doctors or medical students. It wasnt until I became a patient myself that I learned to embrace my own vulnerability. After my third year of medical school, I was diagnosed with depression. Though research published by our own classmates and faculty shows that greater than one in four medical students have the symptoms of depression, the experience itself can be painfully isolating. In my new role as a patient, I told my story. I said out loud this hurts and I dont know what to do. It was scary just like its a little scary telling you this story today but I learned that my vulnerability was rich, fertile soil for my own healing and growth, for forging more meaningful relationships, and for gaining a deeper understanding of my patients. This next stage of our training will be incredibly exciting: we will step out of this extended dress rehearsal and take on the responsibility of caring for patients. In addition to providing excellent care to our patients, many of us will make important contributions to research, health policy, global health, or social justice. But at the risk of a being a downer on graduation day, we will also all face challenges. There will be the daily struggles of sleep deprivation and feeling like we just dont know enough. Many of us will deal with family illness, personal loss, and yes, depression. We may wonder if were cut out for the heavy responsibility of medicine. In these moments, I hope we will embrace our vulnerability and share whatever is troubling us with each other, our friends, and our families. The alternatives silence and isolation might feel safer in the moment, but in the long run, keep us from growing into our best selves. Just as importantly, I hope when our colleagues and students open up to us about their struggles that we recognize their vulnerability for what it is: not weakness, but courage. I really believe that when we take care of ourselves and each other in this way, we are so much better equipped to care for our patients. Our patients will come to us with challenges far beyond what many of us will ever experience. Our patients will be wounded not just by disease but also by trauma and neglect, marginalization and inequality. As physicians, we will be in the unique position to see our patients vulnerability and help transform it into healing. To do that well we need to see that we are not fundamentally different from our patients. We are all human and therefore all vulnerable. And that is a powerful, beautiful thing. Colleen Farrell is an incoming internal medicine resident. She can be reached on Twitter @colleenmfarrell. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Ukraine is looking for an optimal combination of mechanisms for intensifying control on the border with the Russian Federation, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said. These mechanisms will, on one hand, work for the safety of Ukraine, and, on the other hand, will not hurt Ukrainian citizens, including those who are on the territories uncontrolled by Kyiv, he said. "We should reliably control who crosses our border. We are in a state of war with Russia. Therefore, we should work on introducing effective control. For this reason, I believe we should go over to biometric passports. Then we should gradually go over to a requirement to announce trips. This will give us a possibility of additional control," Klimkin told a briefing in Odesa on Wednesday. Such an approach does not abolish the possibility of moving towards the introduction of a visa regime with Russia, he said. "We understand perfectly that visas don't work now the way they worked 20 years ago. And everyone understands very well that visas that are just stamped in passport are becoming a thing of the past. The future belongs to electronic visas. And we are working on making Ukrainian visas electronic," Klimkin said. By Julia Edwards Ainsley and Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday denounced as a "detestable lie" the idea he colluded with Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and he clashed with Democratic lawmakers over his refusal to detail his conversations with President Donald Trump. Sessions, a senior member of Trump's Cabinet and an adviser to his election team, had a series of tense exchanges with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee during about 2-1/2 hours of high-stakes testimony as they pressed him to recount discussions with the Republican president. "You raised your right hand here today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich said. "Now you're not answering questions. You're impeding this investigation." Sessions refused to say whether he and Trump discussed FBI director James Comey's handling of an investigation into possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia during the election campaign before the president fired Comey on May 9. He declined to say whether Trump expressed concern over Sessions' decision in March to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, and he refused to say if Justice Department officials discussed possible presidential pardons of individuals being looked at in the probe. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told Sessions, "I believe the American people have had it with stonewalling. Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant questions are privileged." "I am not stonewalling," Sessions replied, saying he was simply following Justice Department policy not to discuss confidential communications with the president. Sessions' testimony did not provide damaging new information on any Trump campaign ties with Russia or on Comey's firing, but his refusal to discuss conversations with Trump raised fresh questions about whether the White House has something to hide. Last week, Comey told the same Senate committee that Trump had fired him to undermine the FBI's investigation of the Russia matter. Sessions had recommended that Comey be fired, and Trump's decision prompted critics to charge that the president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation. Sessions on Tuesday defended his involvement in Comey's firing despite recusing himself from the Russia probe. Senator Angus King, an independent, questioned Sessions' legal basis for refusing to answer questions after Sessions said Trump had not invoked executive privilege regarding the conversations. Executive privilege is a power that can be claimed by a president or senior executive branch officials to withhold information from Congress or the courts to protect the executive branch decision-making process. Sessions said it would be "inappropriate" for him to reveal private conversations with Trump when the president "has not had a full opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to approve such an answer." 'APPALLING AND DETESTABLE LIE' Sessions' clash with the Democratic senators was the latest chapter in a saga that has dogged Trump's first five months as president and distracted from his domestic policy agenda including major healthcare and tax cut initiatives. "The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," Sessions said. "I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected with the Trump campaign." U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report released in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to interfere in the election to help Trump in part by hacking and releasing damaging emails about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Russia has denied any such interference, and Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign with Moscow. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March after revelations that he had failed to disclose two meetings last year with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak. In his testimony on Tuesday, Sessions addressed media reports that he may have had a third previously undisclosed meeting with Kislyak at Washington's Mayflower Hotel last year. Sessions said he did not have any private meetings and could not recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the hotel but did not rule out that a "brief interaction" with Kislyak may have occurred there. Sessions, a Republican former senator, was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign. But there has been tension between the two men in recent weeks because Trump was annoyed that Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe. Sessions said on Tuesday he did not recuse himself because he felt he was a subject of the investigation himself but rather because he felt he was required to by Justice Department rules. (Reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Richard Cowan, Andy Sullivan, Amanda Becker, Warren Strobel, Steve Holland, David Alexander and Mohammad Zargham; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) * IPO priced at HK$5.10/shr, just below middle of indicative range * Guangzhou Rural Bank shares to debut in Hong Kong on June 20 * Tepid demand from retail investors on valuation, NPL concerns (Adds details on demand for GRCB deal, comments, upcoming bank IPOs) By Elzio Barreto and Julie Zhu HONG KONG, June 14 (Reuters) - Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank Co Ltd (GRCB) priced its Hong Kong IPO slightly below the middle of expectations, a source said on Wednesday, underscoring tepid demand for the $1 billion deal amid concerns over rising non-performing loans in China. China's No.5 rural commercial bank by assets priced the deal at HK$5.10 per share, after marketing it in a HK$4.99-HK$5.27 indicative range, said a person with direct knowledge of the deal, who did not want to be identified as details of the transaction were not public. The initial public offering consisted of 1.58 billion shares, with 91 percent new shares and the remainder existing stock from a group of 13 state-owned shareholders. It was the largest IPO in Hong Kong this year, surpassing the $511 million raised by WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc last week. GRCB declined to comment on the IPO pricing. The shares are slated to debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 20. Chinese lenders are barred from selling new shares below book value, making some IPOs less appealing to investors since several banks already listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange trade at lower valuations. Hong Kong brokerage Phillip Securities, which offers margin loans for retail investors to buy into share offerings in the city, said demand from retail investors for the GRCB deal amounted to just HK$30 million worth of stock. "That was quite a small amount, given the size of the IPO," said Jasper Chan, assistant manager of corporate finance at Phillip Securities. "Retail investors don't really want to buy it because they can get similar stocks in the secondary market and they're cheaper than buying into IPOs." Worries about rising bad debt in China also dragged on investor sentiment. Non-performing loans at Chinese commercial banks rose to 1.58 trillion yuan ($232.4 billion) at the end of March, from 1.51 trillion yuan in December, regulatory data showed. With the world's No.2 economy growing at a slower pace, that figure is expected to grow further, analysts said. The benchmark index for financial firms listed in Hong Kong is up 10.8 percent this year, well below the 17.1 percent gain in the broader market index . GRCB's deal comes ahead of other expected listings from medium-sized Chinese lenders in Hong Kong, including Zhongyuan Bank and Bank of Gansu, which plan to raise about $1 billion and $700 million respectively. Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank Corp raised $446 million in an IPO in January, with its shares up 7.5 percent since the lender went public. ($1 = 6.7974 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Julie Zhu, writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Himani Sarkar) By Robert Hogg LONDON, June 14 (IFR) - The Republic of Belarus has mandated Citigroup and Raiffeisen Bank International for fixed income investor meetings in the US and Europe commencing June 19, according to the leads. A dual-tranche 144A/Reg S senior unsecured US dollar offering comprising long five-year and 10-year maturities is expected to follow. One team representing the issuer will visit London, Zurich and Frankfurt, and a second delegation will meet investors in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. The roadshow finishes on June 21. The issuer is rated Caa1/B-/B-. (Reporting by Robert Hogg; editing by Alex Chambers) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will pay a visit to Washington next week, where he will hold a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, a source in diplomatic circles has told Interfax-Ukraine. "Indeed, an agreement was achieved on the meeting [with Trump], the visit will be held on June 19-20," it said. BEIJING, June 14 (Reuters) - China's outstanding total social financing was 165.2 trillion yuan at the end of May, up 12.9 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said on Wednesday. TSF includes off-balance sheet forms of financing that exist outside the conventional bank lending system, such as initial public offerings, loans from trust companies and bond sales. It can also hint at trends in China's vast shadow banking sector. China's foreign exchange deposits were $779 billion at the end of May, compared with $777.5 billion a month earlier, the central bank added. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) By Samuel Shen and Lee Chyen Yee June 14 (Reuters) - China's securities regulator has tightened registration rules for Hong Kong-focused mutual funds, requiring equity funds with "Hong Kong" in their names to invest at least 80 percent of their non-cash assets in the Chinese territory's stocks. The guidelines came after complaints by investors earlier this year that some funds with "Hong Kong" in their product names actually had little exposure to the stocks there. In a document obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, the guidelines also require fund managers with substantial Hong Kong experience to manage the Hong Kong-labelled products. The guidelines, which the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued to domestic fund houses, could accelerate mainland money flows into Hong Kong as fund houses rush to launch funds that invest in one of the world's best-performing markets so far this year. Li Kai, vice head of product development at First Seafront Fund Management Co, which received the guidelines, said that although the rules apply to new funds, regulators may also ask existing funds to renew their registration and meet new asset allocation requirements. Currently, over 100 mutual funds in China have "Hong Kong" in their names. China's institutional and retail investors can now invest in Hong Kong stocks via the cross-border Stock Connect schemes. The new schemes have channelled steady inflows of mainland money, which helped push Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index to the highest level in nearly two years. The guidelines also require that Hong Kong-focused funds have at least two employees, one of whom has to be a fund manger, who have at least two years of investment management experience in Hong Kong. Under the new rules, Chinese mutual funds without "Hong Kong" in their names must not invest over 50 percent of their equity assets in Hong Kong stocks, the documents showed. (Reporting by Samuel Shen in Shanghai and Lee Chyen Yee in Singapore; Editing by Mark Potter) June 14 (Reuters) - Dutch tycoon John de Mol launched a full cash offer on all outstanding shares in Telegraaf Media Group through his investment vehicle Talpa, it said on Tuesday, valuing the Dutch media group at around 300 million euros. Talpa said it would offer 6.50 euros ($7.29) in cash per share. A lower bid around 274 million euros or 6 euros per share by Belgian publisher Mediahuis and partner VP Exploitatie received TMG's supervisory board's backing in April. Mediahuis and VP Exploitatie have taken notice of de Mol's offer, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday, adding that their offer is the only one leading to the acquisition of TMG. Mediahuis and VP Exploitatie already have a near 60 percent stake in the owner of De Telegraaf, the Netherlands' largest newspaper. ($1 = 0.8916 euros) (Reporting by Wout Vergauwen; Editing by Sunil Nair) ROME, June 14 (Reuters) - Any solution for banking crises should always take financial stability into account, the European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Wednesday when asked about ailing Italian lenders Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca. Italy is seeking to agree with European authorities a rescue of the two Veneto-based banks that limits losses for investors, hitting only shareholders and junior bondholders in an effort to avoid knock-on effects for the wider banking system. "It's a general message that financial stability considerations have to be always involved in solutions ... to address difficult situations in the banking sector," Constancio said on the sidelines of an event. Constancio said he was not referring to specific situations, but warned that financial instability could eventually lead to higher costs than a state bailout. (Reporting by Isla Binnie, Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Crispian Balmer) BERLIN, June 14 (Reuters) - The German government is examining a request for loan guarantees for loss-making Air Berlin , a spokeswoman for the German Economy Ministry said on Wednesday. "We are looking into this application for a guarantee along with the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin," the spokeswoman told reporters. She added that presenting a "sustainable concept the future" was key to getting such a guarantee. Air Berlin's CEO said on Wednesday that details of a request by the German airline for loan guarantees from two German states are "confidential". (Reporting by Michelle Martin and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Madeline Chambers) By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS, June 14 (Reuters) - European Union regulators should consider the social impact of winding down banks when they apply new liquidation rules that could affect depositors, retail investors and senior bondholders, a German-Italian joint paper said. The document, seen by Reuters, appears to challenge rules on bank failure in force since last year and that aimed to stop taxpayers having to rescue failed banks by mandating that bondholders, shareholders and uninsured depositors bare the brunt of any losses. The rules have been criticised by Italy, which reached a preliminary deal with the EU this month for an exception so it could use public money to rescue Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena , the country's fourth biggest lender. Many Italian banks have a high number of retail investors, and the government wants to protect them from losing all of their investments when a lender fails. Germany has previously been a staunch defender of the rules that it helped shape after the 2010-2012 euro zone debt crisis. Berlin now says it recognises the social impact may need to be considered when a bank is put under "resolution", the EU procedure to liquidate a failing lender that was applied for the first time in the case of Spain's Banco Popular when it was rescued last week by Santander . In the joint paper, Germany said banks' customers were diversified and "in some cases deserve more protection" as they were not always well informed about risks of bank failure. "This may also have an impact on the way resolution is managed due to the different social impact," the paper said. Current rules only focus on protecting financial stability and reducing costs for taxpayers. Bail-in rules have never been fully applied so far. The resolution of Popular spared depositors and senior bondholders. Italy is now in talks with the EU on a rescue plan for two struggling banks - Veneto Banca and Popolare di Vicenza. Whatever the outcome of those talks, depositors would not be affected, a Commission spokesman said on Tuesday. (Editing by Edmund Blair) Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM) reports a monthly production record in May and also announces that it will complete a partial redemption of its senior secured convertible debentures due in 2020. Notice will be provided to holders that on July 31, Gran Colombia will use excess cash flow accumulated through the first half of 2017 to complete a redemption totaling $3 million of 2020 debentures outstanding, applied on a pro-rata basis. As for output, Gran Colombia reports that its mines produced 15,444 ounces of gold in May, a monthly record and bringing the total for the first five months of 2017 to 68,783 ounces, up 21% over the first five months last year. The trailing 12 months' total gold production as of the end of May now stands at 161,809 ounces, up 8% over 2016 annual gold production and above the company's 2017 production guidance of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces. In particular, the company cites improved head grades at the Segovia operations. Segovia's gold production of 13,621 ounces in May, also a monthly record, brought the total for the first five months of 2017 to 58,711 ounces, up 25% over the same period last year. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Lundin Gold Draws $150 Million Under Project Financing Package Lundin Gold Inc. (TSX: LUG) reports that it has now drawn $150 million under its project financing package. The company owns the Fruta del Norte gold project in Ecuador, which officials describe as one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped gold projects in the world. Lundin announces that, following receipt of an initial draw of $30 million on May 30, it has now received an additional $120 million under its previously announced project finance package with the Orion Mine Finance Group and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. ATHENS, June 14 (Reuters) - Greece sold 1.3 billion euros ($1.46 billion) of three-month T-bills to refinance a maturing issue, the country's debt agency PDMA said on Wednesday. The three-month paper was sold at a yield of 2.70 percent, unchanged from a previous sale earlier this month. The amount raised included 300 million euros in non-competitive bids. The sale's bid-to-cover ratio was 1.30, unchanged from the previous auction. In a rollover T-bill holders renew their positions instead of getting paid on the maturing paper they hold. The settlement date of the new bills is June 16. ($1 = 0.8922 euros) (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. STOCKHOLM, June 14 (Reuters) - Shares in measurement technology and software firm Hexagon AB soared on Wednesday after the Wall Street Journal reported it had held talks on a possible sale to a U.S. or European rival which could value the Swedish company at about $20 billion. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported late on Tuesday the talks between Hexagon and the potential buyers were at an early stage and that the company may ultimately decide not to pursue a sale. Hexagon said in a statement on Wednesday it "regularly evaluates various opportunities to optimise the company's positioning and shareholder value". "Should these evaluations lead to concrete results, the market will be immediately informed," the company said. Hexagon shares rose 17 percent at 0704 GMT, compared with a 1.2 percent rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Technology Index . (Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard) By Lawrence Delevingne NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) - Jonathan Yalmokas has resigned as Bank of America Corp's head of prime brokerage in the Americas to lead an equity financing business at Royal Bank of Canada , a person familiar with the move said on Wednesday. Yalmokas will start at RBC's New York office in September in a bid to expand its financing business for investment managers, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the information publicly. Yalmokas had joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2011 from UBS Group AG , where he also worked in a role providing investment services to hedge funds. He resigned from the bank last week, the person said. Reuters could not immediately learn who is replacing Yalmokas at Bank of America. Representatives for the two banks did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication. (Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Diane Craft) Russia is strengthening its military infrastructure along Ukraine's borders, National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has said. "The situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone pushes us to make decisions, which we discussed at the start of this conversation [about a new format for resisting Russia]. Several ceasefires have been called during the last several months, but the aggressor did not abide by one, even for a day," Turchynov said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. The NSDC secretary said Russian-occupation forces daily fire from weapons forbidden under the Minsk agreements. "We suffer losses not only among soldiers, but the civilian population. Unremitting attempts are made to penetrate Ukraine's defenses," Turchynov said. He said troops and munitions continue to flow from Russia into Ukraine. "What worries us most is the build-up of Russian troops on the border. These large assault units at any moment might start conduct military actions against Ukrainian Armed Forces. We must do everything we can to get ready for such an eventuality," Turchynov said. The NSDC secretary said the build-up of Russian troops is in sectors [of the border] with Russia's Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions to the north and east of Ukraine "From the Sea of Azov to the border of Belarus a powerful military infrastructure has been created. In addition, Russia is preparing to conduct the large Zapad-2017 military exercise, which is scheduled to kick off in September. The training exercise will also take place in Belarus and include aviation, armor units, artillery and special operations forces. There will be a gigantic and dangerous concentration of military forces on Ukraine's western borders," he said. Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours): M3 MONEY SUPPLY The central bank will publish M3 money supply data for May at 1200 GMT. LPP Poland's leading clothes producer LPP expects results improvement in autumn, after it booked a significant loss in the first quarter, its chief executive officer told Rzeczpospolita daily. HEALTH The health ministry plans to propose law which will allow state hospitals to offer paid services, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily said. WARSAW BOURSE The prime minister will take over direct control over the Warsaw Stock Exchange from the finance minister, to have an influence on the appointment of the company's new CEO on June 19, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna said quoting unnamed sources. The paper also said that former head of the financial market regulator KNF Stanislaw Kluza is one of the candidates for the job. ALIOR BANK Former deputy treasury minister Michal Chyczewski may become state-run Alior Bank's new chief executive officer, Puls Biznesu daily said quoting unnamed sources. HOTELS The government wants to consolidate hotels and resorts owned by state-controlled firms in one holding company, Puls Biznesu said. LOTOS Polish state-run oil refiner Lotos to hold the annual shareholders meeting at 0900 GMT. ****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.**** For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau) BUCHAREST, June 14 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Wednesday. RULING SOCIAL DEMOCRATS Romania's ruling Social Democrats meet on Wednesday to decide whether to reshuffle the government of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu. A dismissal of the prime minister would require a new apointment, his approval by President Klaus Iohannis and a vote of confidence in parliament. INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT, ENERGY RESOURCES The National Statistics Board will release industrial output and energy resources data for April at 0600 GMT. CURRENT ACCOUNT Romania's current account recorded a deficit of 1.4 billion euros ($1.57 billion) in the four months, compared with a deficit of 906 million euros in the same period of 2016, central bank data showed on Tuesday. AVERAGE WAGE Romania's net average monthly wage rose by 13.4 percent on the year to 2,366 lei ($580.60) in April and was up 1.0 percent on the month, the National Statistics Board said on Tuesday. CEE MARKETS The Czech crown jumped to its strongest level against the euro since the central bank (CNB) removed its currency cap two months ago, supported by figures showing a surprise current account surplus in April and a buy recommendation from Citigroup. E.ON Power and gas distributor E.ON Romania, a unit of Germany's E.ON said on Tuesday it aims to invest 450 million lei ($110.73 million) this year, to improve grid performance and to install smart meters. FORMER PRESIDENT Romania's military prosecutors sent former president Ion Iliescu and former prime minister Petre Roman to trial on Tuesday on charges of crimes against humanity over violent clashes in Bucharest in 1990. WHEAT Egypt's state grain buyer GASC purchased 300,000 tonnes of wheat in a purchase tender on Tuesday, it said. The purchase included 180,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat, and 60,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, it said. For the long-term Romanian diary, click on For emerging markets economic events, click on For an index of all diaries, click on For other related news, double click on: --------------------------------------------------------------- Romanian equities RO-E E.Europe equities .CEE Romanian money RO-M Romanian debt RO-D Eastern Europe EEU All emerging markets EMRG Hot stocks HOT Stock markets STX Market debt news DBT Forex news FRX For real-time index quotes, double click on: Bucharest BETI Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ---------------------------------------------------------------- HANOI, June 14 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0411 GMT. June 14 USD/VND mid-point 22,408 USD/VND interbank 22,695/22,705 USD/VND unofficial 22,695/22,710 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.24/36.46 Interbank offered rates Overnight 2.0-2.5 1 week 2.3-2.7 1 month 3.0-3.7 3 months 3.9-4.5 NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources. One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co. For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on . For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom) JOHANNESBURG, June 14 (Reuters) - South Africa's Chamber of Mines said it will not take part in a meeting with the mines minister to launch a much anticipated mining charter on Thursday because of a lack of consultation. The charter, which sets industry targets for black ownership and participation in the sector, will become law this week, Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has said. South Africa's mining industry has said that it has not been consulted enough and it is losing investment as a result. Zwane is scheduled to hold a meeting of the forum through which the 2010 version of the charter was negotiated on Thursday ahead of a press briefing on the revised charter, which was approved by the cabinet in May. The Chamber of Mines, which represents companies such as Anglo American and Glencore , said in a statement it will not be "participating in an attempt by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to provide any support into what we believe has been a flawed process". The Mining Charter was introduced in 2002 to increase black ownership of the mining industry, which accounts for around 7 percent of South Africa's economic output. However the Chamber of Mines has taken the government to court over ownership interpretations in the latest draft, which requires companies to keep black ownership at 26 percent even if black shareholders sell their stakes. The new charter also requires companies to provide housing and other amenities in mining communities, many of which are mired in poverty and neglect. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Alexander Smith) ZURICH, June 14 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening 0.1 percent higher at 8,876 points on Wednesday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer . Here are some of the main factors that may affect Swiss stocks: SWISS BANKS Singapore and Hong Kong together will hold as much overseas wealth as Switzerland in four years' time, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group. COMPANY STATEMENTS * Adecco named Franz-Josef Schuermann as its chief sales and innovation officer. * BioTelemetry said the offer for LifeWatch had been successful. Aevis Victoria confirmed that its public takeover offer for LifeWatch did not succeed. * Zueblin Immobilien Holding said it signed a contract to sell its German portfolio the contract to CLS Holdings plc. Closing of the transaction including 12 properties with an underlying gross asset value of 152.2 million euros is expected during the first half of the financial year 2017/18, the company said. * Basilea Pharmaceutica said Basilea Pharmaceutica International Ltd has entered into a distribution and license agreement with Avir Pharma Incavir for Basilea's antifungal Cresemba and antibiotic Zevtera (ceftobiprole) in Canada. * Bossard Holding AG says high sales growth continued in all market regions after Q1 2017, trend will yield an above-average mid-year profit; consolidated net income in first half of 2017 is expected to be more than 30 percent above last year's 31.3 million francs. * Flughafen Zuerich AG said 2.5 million passengers were handled at Zurich airport in May (+3.8 percent versus previous year) * Feintool said it has signed a syndicated loan agreement totalling 90 million Swiss francs with six banks from Switzerland and Germany. * Zehnder Group said it aims to restart production in Manisa from the beginning of July 2017 after a production stop that began on May 31, 2017. The reason for the production stop was the stronger earthquakes that were recently recorded and the related assessment of the safety of the production building, the company said. * Schindler Holding appointed Julio Arce, head of Schindler Iberia, as a member of the group executive committee responsible for field quality and excellence. He succeeds Albert Haffert, who will retire at the end of June. * Straumann and Rapid Shape said they have deepened the partnership formed earlier this year with the goal of accelerating the uptake of 3D printing technology in dentistry. Straumann has purchased a 35 percent non-controlling stake in Rapid Shape for an undisclosed sum. * Zwahlen et Mayr said CFO Yves Bosson will leave the company. * Kuehne + Nagel said premium carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has appointed it to manage three warehouses in France, Spain and Italy in a contract that also includes transport management control tower function and customer contact centres for Jaguar Land Rover retailers for the region. * Lonza Swiss Finance announced the pricing of its dual-tranche 235 million Swiss francs in straight bonds. * Alpiq said it and fine chemicals manufacturer DSM had made secondary balancing power available to Swissgrid. * WISeKey International Holding said it will partner with the Blockchain interface company, RIDDLE&CODE, to develop solutions for securing Internet of Things via Blockchain technology and crypto-hardware. * Sulzer said the Guangdong Higher Court in April rendered a final decision awarding Sulzer a permanent injunction and a final damage award against a Chinese rival in a patent dispute. ECONOMY Results of government bond tenders due around 0900 GMT (Reporting by Zurich newsroom) Daily Swiss stock market report in German................ All SMI constituent stocks............................ News on major Swiss stock price moves.................. FTSE Eurotop 300 index................................ DJ STOXX index........................................ Top 10 STOXX sectors............................. Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors........................ Top 10 Eurotop 300 sectors....................... Top 25 European pct gainers... , losers... Swiss mid-cap index SMI futures Swiss all-share index Market statistics Swiss market digest Sector overview All Swiss news Swiss research news All equity news INTERNET ADDRESSES: Swiss Exchange / Eurex STOXX Ltd SPEED GUIDES: )) Keywords: MARKETS SWISS STOCKS/ OSLO, June 14 (Reuters) - Norway's central bank sold the following government bond (NST-476) in a uniform price auction on Wednesday: Coupon: 3.00 pct Maturity: March 14, 2024 Settlement date: June 16, 2017 AUCTION DATE June 14, 2017 Oct 21, 2014 YIELD (pct) 1.25 2.12 ALLOTMENT PRICE (pct) 111.26 107.39 SCHEDULED OFFER (bln NOK) 3.00 3.00 TOTAL BIDS (bln NOK) 6.055 6.896 ALLOTED (bln NOK) 3.00 3.00 BID-TO-COVER RATIO 2.02 2.30 NOTE: The central bank said that there was about 72 percent allotment on lowest accepted bids. (Reporting by Oslo newsroom) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. ISTANBUL, June 14 (Reuters) - Here are news, reports and events that may affect Turkish financial markets on Wednesday. The lira stood at 3.5198 against the U.S. dollar at 0502 GMT, little changed from 3.5185 at Tuesday's close. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was at 10.45 percent in spot trade on Tuesday and was at 10.53 percent in Wednesday-dated trade. The main BIST 100 share index fell 0.14 percent to 99,299.67 points on Tuesday. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian shares turned mixed on Wednesday as investors everywhere awaited clarity on the Federal Reserve's future path for U.S. policy after a likely rate rise later in the day. Economic data out of China showed retail sales and industrial output topped forecasts in May, but a miss in urban investment reinforced views the world's second-largest economy will soon start to lose some momentum as lending costs rise and the property market cools. QATAR Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Qatar for talks with his Qatari counterpart. He will also meet the country's emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani during the visit which coincides with a deep dispute between Qatar and other Gulf Arab states. PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin will hold a news conference at the presidential palace. (1000 GMT) ERDOGAN President Erdogan will host a delegation from the gendarmerie headquarters (1030 GMT) and will meet Burundi's foreign minister (1230 GMT). YILDIRIM Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will hold a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner for members of parliament (1726 GMT). For other related news, double click on: Turkish politics Turkish equities Turkish money Turkish debt Turkish hot stocks Forex news All emerging market news All Turkish news For real-time quotes, double click on: Istanbul National-100 stock index , interbank lira trading , lira bond trading (Writing by Daren Butler) ANKARA, June 14 (Reuters) - Turkey hopes to begin official talks on updating its customs union agreement with the European Union by the end of the summer, Turkish Customs Minister Bulent Tufenkci said on Wedsnesday. Tufenkci made the comments during an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) - U.S. fund investors downgraded their expectations for the domestic economy and snapped up bonds during the latest week, dropping the most cash into debt funds in more than 23 months, Investment Company Institute data showed on Wednesday. Bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the United States pulled in $13.6 billion during their 24th consecutive week of inflows and posted their best result since June 2015, the trade group said. Stock fund withdrawals were $7.7 billion during the week ended June 7, with $11.1 billion in domestic equity outflows offset a bit by funds focused on international shares taking in $3.4 billion. The week ended June 7 came ahead of a British general election, the European Central Bank's policy meeting and former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before a Senate panel. "There's more concern, but it's not general concern about risk, it's more focused on the diminishing expectations for the Trump administration agenda," said Kristina Hooper, global market strategist for Invesco Ltd , in New York. Hooper said Comey's testimony offered further evidence that Congress is "distracted" and unlikely to pass market-friendly legislation of the scope initially expected. "It's almost like sand running through your finger watching the agenda come to fruition." The period measured by the ICI did not include the dramatic shift on Friday and Monday from technology stocks into banks and other sectors. "If there was some sign that the economy was in trouble, I'd be worried," said Ted Theodore, chief investment officer at TrimTabs Asset Management LLC in New York. Theodore said investors are still scarred by the 2008 financial crisis and are ready to quickly sell an investment that stalls. "You just have a generation of people who think the world is going to end." The following table shows estimated ICI flows for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (all figures in millions of dollars): 6/7 5/31 5/24 5/17 5/10/2017 Equity -7,726 13,999 -828 4,356 7,420 -Domestic -11,093 8,482 -5,487 -5,604 -984 -World 3,367 5,517 4,659 9,961 8,404 Hybrid -860 -271 -212 -315 122 Bond 13,621 4,923 8,012 10,381 6,357 -Taxable 12,305 4,678 7,347 9,791 5,720 -Municipal 1,316 245 665 590 637 Commodity 997 -458 -152 -150 288 Total 6,031 18,193 6,820 14,273 14,187 (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Diane Craft) (Adds details, TMG reaction) June 14 (Reuters) - Dutch tycoon John de Mol has launched a full cash offer on all outstanding shares in Telegraaf Media Group through his investment vehicle Talpa, dragging out a battle over control the Netherlands' largest newspaper. Talpa said late on Tuesday it would offer 6.50 euros ($7.29) in cash per share, valuing the Dutch media group at around 300 million euros. TMG would not immediately comment on the situation. A rival bid of around 274 million euros or 6 euros per share by Belgian publisher Mediahuis and partner VP Exploitatie received TMG's supervisory board's backing in April. Mediahuis and VP Exploitatie, which already hold a nearly 60 percent stake in TMG, have taken notice of de Mol's offer, they said in a joint statement. De Mol's Talpa Holding has built a rival 25 percent stake in TMG, which he had earlier pledged not to sell, effectively blocking Mediahuis' intent to reach the 95 percent threshold required to initiate buy-out proceedings and take the company private. TMG publishes the popular Telegraaf daily and also owns Sky Radio and several leading magazines in the Netherlands. Mediahuis owns another major Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad. De Mol, best known as the creator of hit television show Big Brother, owns 33 percent of television broadcaster SNS and several leading Dutch radio stations through Talpa. ($1 = 0.8916 euros) (Reporting by Wout Vergauwen; editing by Sunil Nair and Jason Neely) Almost two-thirds of Ukrainians (60%) say that their financial state has worsened over the past year, almost one-third (30%) say it has not changed, and 6% have improved their fiscal state, according to a survey conducted by the Rating sociological group. According to the results of the study, which were presented at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine, more than 60% of respondents are unable to pay bills for housing and utilities services, 35% have the opportunity to pay for them. In addition, the absolute majority of respondents (97%) feel the increase in prices for consumer goods and services this year. According to 65% of respondents, the main reason for the socio-economic situation, in which the country now is, is a lack of professionalism and corruption of the current government. At the same time, more than half (54%) of them consider the main reason are military actions in the east, almost one-third (31%) - the inability of the Verkhovna Rada to pass the necessary laws, 28% - a lack of professionalism and corruption of the previous Ukrainian government. The survey was conducted by the Rating sociological group on May 19-25, 2017. Some 2,000 respondents older than 18 years of age were interviewed. The margin of error is no more than 2.2%. HARARE, June 14 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government plans to issue a three-year $50 million bond to finance irrigation infrastructure in the country, part of efforts to improve its long term food security, according to a term sheet of the bond seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The southern African nation has struggled to feed itself since 2001, partly due to frequent droughts and President Robert Mugabe's seizures of white-owned farms, which hit commercial agriculture production. The Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC), which regulates Zimbabwe's insurance and pension industry, is helping the government to raise the money. The bond will have a maturity of 3 years and a coupon rate of 6 percent. An IPEC official said the issuance of the bond was "imminent" and that the pension and insurance industry had pledged to subscribe to at least $40 million. Zimbabwe was cut out of the international debt market in 1999 when it started defaulting on its foreign loans and has had to rely on taxes and domestic borrowing to finance its budget. The country has 206,000 hectares of farming land under irrigation, well short of its long-term target of 2.5 million hectares. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa was unavailable for comment. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Hugh Lawson) CARACAS, June 14 (Reuters) - Venezuela's central bank said on Wednesday the exchange rate of its Dicom currency auction system was 2,200 bolivars per dollar, a small devaluation from the previous rate of 2,161 bolivars. The auction saw some $26.8 million sold off in weekly auction, a relatively low amount suggesting that this mechanism introduced in May will fail to assuage demand for greenbacks in the crisis-hit OPEC nation. (Reporting by Diego Ore) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said work on a draft law on reintegrating Donbas, which will include a number of measures for the return of occupied Ukrainian territories, is in progress, according to the president's website. "A bill initiated by me was drafted, titled "On reintegration of occupied territories of Donbas of Ukraine." The legislative act encompasses a broad array of measures and steps required for reintegration, for the establishment of a legal regime," the presidential website quoted Poroshenko as saying. The president said the key position is the reintegration of these territories. Experts and parliament members are involved in drafting the document. In addition, it is based on conditions included in the Minsk agreements, he said. In addition, Poroshenko stressed the importance of ensuring Ukrainian soldiers have the right to act adequately in conditions of continued Russian aggression against Ukraine. "If we change the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) construct and do not give Ukraine's military rights to adequately operate when faced by aggression, we will leave Ukraine defenseless," the head of state said. Poroshenko said that together with work on drafting the law, political and diplomatic efforts, which have already yielded results, would continue. For Ukrainians, the doors of Europe have opened recognition of the effectiveness of Ukrainian reforms on all fronts, Poroshenko said. "The president also said it's necessary to continue sanctions against the aggressor country [Russia]," the website said. The United States Senate has approved an amendment that toughens sanctions against Russia, an Interfax correspondent has reported. U.S. lawmakers voted 97-2. The point at issue is the amendment to the bill that originally foresaw pressure on Iran. Speaking prior to the day of the vote, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said that "the Russians have largely learned to live within the economic confines of the existing sanctions regime." In his words, "the legislation not only ratchets up pressure against the Russian Federation for its illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea, continuing escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine, and malign cyber activities against businesses and citizens of the United States, but it also importantly provides Congress with a strong oversight process over almost any termination or suspension of these sanctions." "In summary, the Crapo-Brown-Corker-Cardin amendment does four things: It escalates and expands the current sanctions regime against Russia; It creates new sanctions against Russia; It engages Congress at a higher level than before by providing a mechanism for Congress to vote before lifting any sanctions on Russia; It increases the Treasury Department's ability to track illicit finance, including illicit flows linked to Russia," he said. The amendment would sanction Russia for a variety of unlawful actions, including the annexation of Crimea and military aggression in eastern Ukraine and military involvement in Syria, as well as attempts to interfere with and influence the U.S. 2016 presidential election. The sanctions suggest tightening existing measures against Russia. According to the wording of the amendment, U.S. companies and individuals will be banned from dealing with Russian banks in funding for longer than 14 days. Currently, the period is limited to 90 days. In addition, it introduces restrictive measures for the energy sector. The document suggests limiting the duration of transactions for financing of Russian energy companies to 30 days. The document also describes a new provision by which the U.S. president will not be able to weaken or cancel sanctions against Russia without the Congress's consent. U.S. President Donald Trump will receive this document for signature after it is adopted by the Congress. For this, it must also be approved by the House of Representatives. By Park Si-soo South Korea's top actor So Ji-sub has donated 100 million won ($88,880) to help poor children. He made the donation to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut. Some of the money came from fan meetings, according to his agency. NGO Good Neighbors will decide how to use the money, in consultation with the actor. Seo, 40, debuted in 1995 as a fashion model. He has starred in several hit TV dramas, including "I'm Sorry, I Love You" (2004), "Master's Sun" (2013) and film "Rough Cut" (2008). Actors of the film "Okja," directed by Bong Joon-ho, pose during a press conference at the Four Seasons Seoul, Wednesday. From left are Byun Hee-bong, Tilda Swinton, Ahn Seo-hyun, Steven Yeun, Giancarlo Esposito, Daniel Henshall and Bong. / Yonhap 'Okja' filmmaker blames himself for controversy By Kim Jae-heun Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho said he caused the controversy revolving around the distribution of his new movie "Okja" and he respects the decision of both Netflix and the local cinemas. "I am causing a stir everywhere I go. And these stirs are creating new rules," said Bong during the press conference at Four Seasons Seoul, Wednesday. "Cannes International Film Festival is discussing how to deal with Netflix films in the future. I guess this is the destiny for Okja." "I also understand and respect the decisions of local multiplexes. The cinema chains want at least three weeks of holdback time and Netflix will follow its principle of screening its original content concurrently on its platform and at theaters. I can't take that priority right from Netflix subscribers who pay fees to watch the original content including Okja," Bong said. The filmmaker said that he wanted the audience to watch his movie on a big screen and shot the film with the intention that Okja will be screened in as many theaters as possible. Bong said the controversy started from his desire to make a quality movie. However, the director believes this is a good chance for the film industry to adopt a new system or new rules. "I think it would have been easier if France had this controversy fixed beforehand at Cannes. We were only invited to the festival with "Okja," but we had to face the controversy suddenly. We felt ashamed," said Bong. In the last month, the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF) declared its position against inviting Netflix films to Cannes. The international film festival's organizing committee later confirmed it will maintain the two Netflix productions including "Okja," which was invited to join the competition category for the Palme d'Or award. Cannes later announced that it will only invite films being screened in French theaters beginning next year. "Okja" is not quite welcomed here either. Despite the film distributor, NEW's effort to screen "Okja" across the country, the three biggest cinema chains refused to play Netflix's original content alleging that it is disrupting the local film distribution market. Bong's latest film will only be screened at 100 independent theaters for now. "Okja" is a story about a country girl, Mija, travelling to New York in search of her lost pet Okja, a giant pig-like creature. Mija and Okja grew up in the countryside of Gangwon Province in Korea for 10 years until one day, Lucy Mirando, played by Tilda Swinton, takes Okja to the U.S. to use it in a lucrative project. The sci-fi drama is set for release at theaters in Korea, the United States and England on June 29. Netflix will open the film concurrently on its online platform on the same day. Unfair contracts and practices are posing a grave threat to the livelihood of cultural artists operating in Seoul, a survey conducted by the metropolitan government said Monday. In the poll of 315 cartoonists and webtoon writers and 519 illustrators from last December to February this year, four of five illustrators, or 79 percent, and 37 percent of cartoonists and webtoon writers said they were forced to sign unfair contracts. Among the unfair contracts signed by illustrators, demand for excessive modification accounted for 23.6 percent of complaints, followed by non-payment of draft work at 20.2 percent and copyright transfer agreement at 15.2 percent, the survey found. The poll also said that among cartoonists and webtoon writers who were forced into unfair contracts, 31.4 percent cited facing a copyright transfer agreement, with another 31.4 percent pointing their fingers at unfair profit distribution. The amount of financial damage caused by unfair profit distribution averaged 7.66 million won ($6,800) for cartoonists and webtoon writers and 3.4 million won for illustrators. About 55 percent of illustrators and 36 percent of cartoonists and webtoon writers said they received an unreasonable notice of contract cancellation. According to the Seoul government, one webtoon writer was paid merely 4 million won though his work became a huge hit and generated sales of 100 million won a month. As the writer attempted to terminate his contract, his company filed a lawsuit for damages of 400 million won. An unidentified illustrator also complained of being once asked to modify a textbook illustration 20 times but was not paid for the additional labor. The survey also found that human rights violations are another serious problem in the cultural art sector, with around a third of cartoonists, webtoon artists and illustrators subject to such violations. By type of human rights violations, 22 percent of cartoonists and webtoon writers cited insults and abuse, followed by private work instructions at 16 percent and sexual harassment at 9.5 percent. The Seoul government said it will ask the relevant authorities to investigate all companies suspected of legal violations and other wrongdoings based on the results of the latest poll. "The local pop culture business could be dealt a blow if the unfair business practices persist amid the poor creative conditions. We'll expand the investigation to the fields of movies, broadcasting and art and design," said Seo Dong-rok, director of the Economic Promotion Department of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. (Yonhap) Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko says that the format of talks on Ukraine with the participation of representatives from Russia and the United States will soon be examined. "You remember there was the Nuland-Surkov format [Victoria Nuland of the United States and Vladislav Surkov of Russia]. There were talks in the Geneva format without Nuland and Surkov. There is information that the Department of State is engaged in selecting a person who could replace Nuland on this track. Again, it does not have to be Nuland and Surkov again. There could be another format that we will also discuss with our American colleagues in the near future," he told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday. As reported, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft said that no decision had been taken yet to resume negotiations on Ukraine, which were earlier held under the former U.S. administration between Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. In his words, this question was addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but he was unable to answer the question. It is still clear who can take up Nuland's place in this dialogue, he said. Ron Mueck's "In Bed" (2005) / Courtesy of Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain By Kwon Mee-yoo "The Highlights" exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), held in collaboration with the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, broadens the spectrum of contemporary art. Some 100 major works from the foundation's collection are on display at the three-story museum in downtown Seoul, inquiring into unusual themes for art such as the environment, mathematics, shamanism and voodoo. Founded in 1984, the foundation has been organizing exhibitions centering on expansion of visual art and pursuing long-term relationships with artists. Currently, the foundation's collection has 1,500 pieces by 350 artists from 50 countries. Herve Chandes, general director of the foundation, said this exhibit is a turning point for the foundation since it is the first time such a large part of its collection has been taken out of France for display. "Seoul is the point of departure for our traveling exhibition," Chandes said. "This is the beginning of a new adventure. We will discover Korean artists and work with this creative city of Seoul." The foundation owns three of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck's hyper-realistic sculptures, all three of which are on display in Seoul. "In Bed" portrays an anxious-looking woman lying in bed, who is six meters tall. Her hair, wrinkles and veins under her skill are extremely realistic and shocking and fascinating at the same time. "Woman with Sticks" and "Woman with Shopping" are in different scales, but they all exaggerate everydayness in weird ways. Jean-Michel Othoniel's works present how the foundation maintains a long-term relationship with artists. Othoniel took part in the foundation's residency in 1989 and the artist developed his interest in iconography and new materials with support from the foundation. He later held a solo exhibition "Crystal Palace" at the Fondation Cartier in 2003 and glass works " The Unicorn" and " Loving Landscape" were showcased there. View of the exhibition "The Great Animal Orchestra" by Bernie Krause at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris in 2016 / Courtesy of Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain What differentiates the Cartier Foundation from other luxury brands' art collections is that the foundation commissions artists to create new works, exhibit the commissioned works and collects them. It enables artists to explore commercially less viable themes such as environment and mathematics. Diller Scodio + Renfro's "EXIT" is a video installation that visualizes statistics of human migrations in a 360-degree projection in which globe rotates around the room and displays various data in maps and texts. It was commissioned for "Native Land, Stop Eject" exhibit at the foundation. Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret's project "Hear Them Speak" features nine languages of ethnic minorities, questioning the notion of roots in relationship with land and history. They also worked on " Mathematical Bliss," in which nine scientists talk about their life in a mathematical way. The foundation also supports artists to explore different genres. Japanese film director Takeshi Kitano created "The Animal and Flower Vases" with animal-shaped vases and flowers and drawings and lithographs of American director David Lynch are also on view. Musician and artist Patti Smith made an installation "The Coral Sea Room," combining Smith's poem with music created with Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine and video projection of nature images. For "The Highlights" exhibition, the foundation worked together with Korean artists and commissioned exclusively for the Seoul exhibit in the context of the nation. Lee Bul held a solo exhibition at the Cartier Foundation in Paris in 2007 and her installation "Heaven and Earth" re-examines the paradox of history by borrowing the name from the lake in Baekdu Mountain, the holy mountain of Korea now located in North Korea. "Sternbau No. 16" is one of Lee's signature sculptures, hanging over "Heaven and Earth." PARKing CHANce _ the artistic duo of director Park Chan-wook and his brother media artist Park Chan-kyong _ unveils "Decades Apart," a short 3D film with immersive 3D audio. Filmed at the soon-to-be demolished set of the 2005 film "Joint Security Area" directed by Park Chan-wook, the 3D video contrasts the atmosphere between the two Koreas in the 2000s and in the present situation. Young artist Sunwoo Hoon's "The Flat is Political" is a political satire in web cartoon style as viewers scroll down to see recent social issues in Korea from presidential impeachment to the Gangnam Station murder case portrayed in dot graphics. The exhibit runs until Aug. 15. Admission is free. For more information, visit sema.seoul.go.kr or call 02-2124-8800. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan By Lee Hyo-sik SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon and 100 other heads of large companies are expected to accompany President Moon Jae-in when he visits the United States from June 28 to July 1. Moon's upcoming trip has been attracting keen attention from business leaders here as it is the first summit between leaders of the two allies. U.S. President Donald Trump has made it more difficult for Korean firms to ship goods to and operate in the United States since his inauguration in January. According to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Wednesday, the KCCI, which plans to organize a business forum in Washington D.C., June 28, the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business and other associations have been receiving applications from member companies. The KCCI is consulting with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to finalize the list of business leaders joining Moon's U.S. visit after receiving approval from Cheong Wa Dae. The list will likely be made public early next week. "It is hard for us to talk about who has expressed interest in accompanying President Moon because Cheong Wa Dae has been very sensitive about the release of any information," KCCI official Yoon Cheol-min said. "We cannot even discuss how many have applied to secure a spot on the upcoming business mission." Another KCCI official said the heads of many small and large companies want to go to the U.S. because it is the first overseas trip by President Moon, who has yet to meet with the heads of family-controlled conglomerates since his inauguration in early May. "Many have expressed keen interest in accompanying the President whether they have business interests there or not. We will probably have to include as many CEOs as possible on the list," he said. Among business tycoons, Chey has been eager to be part of the delegation as Korea's third-largest conglomerate seeks to enlarge its presence in the booming U.S. energy industry. "Chey will accompany President Moon as we work to expand our energy and other businesses in the U.S.," an SK Group official said. LG Group Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon, POSCO's Kwon, GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo and Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho are some of the business leaders expected to fly to the U.S. KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan and other heads of business associations will also visit the U.S. this month. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is behind bars, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin are not likely to cross the Pacific with the President, according to group officials. Instead, CEOs of each group's key units will visit the U.S. in place of their bosses. KOTRA CEO Kim Jae-hong By Lee Hyo-sik The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) will help exporters bolster their shipments and attract more foreign investment to facilitate a government-wide job creation campaign, its chief said Wednesday. "KOTRA will overhaul the way it conducts business to boost job growth by extending more support to small exporters and draw more inbound investment," KOTRA CEO Kim Jae-hong told reporters."As a public entity promoting trade and investment, we will further increase cooperation with ministries and other government agencies to enable small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to expand their presence abroad." Kim said SMEs employ 88 percent of workers here, stressing that strengthening their competitiveness will lead to more jobs and higher household income. "If we help small firms ship more products abroad and attract foreign investors to build plants here, this will generate jobs, increase household income and stimulate consumer spending," the CEO said. "SMEs currently sell about 36 percent of their goods in foreign markets. But if we can increase the ratio to over 50 percent, this will create tens of thousands of new jobs. Marking our 55th anniversary this year, now is the right time for us to offer more tailored and effective consulting services for businesses seeking to enter or expand a presence in foreign markets," he said. The state export promoter has been running the "export voucher system" through which exporters can choose consulting services from any of its divisions in accordance with their needs. On June 20, it will launch the "KOTRA foreign market bigbot system" based on big data analysis to provide company-specific help services to each exporter. "We have created the big data system that integrates corporate information with market data collected from 127 KOTRA offices across the globe," Kim said. "This will then analyze the data and produce an optimal solution for each exporter. Companies will be better informed about where they should go to sell their products." KOTRA will also support exporters' endeavors to diversify their markets by providing more practical market information and administrative support to help companies export more products to the West, South Asia and Southeast Asia. "We will hold large exhibitions at home and abroad throughout the year to arrange a venue for local consumer goods makers and IT firms to meet with overseas buyers," he said. From Thursday to Friday, KOTRA will hold the Korea Consumer Goods Showcase 2017 and the Korea Service Market 2017 at the COEX in southern Seoul. By Yoon Ja-young The new chief of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said the government should not try to reform chaebol in one big push. "I told President Moon Jae-in and Cheong Wa Dae that the reform of conglomerates should be different from reform of the prosecution since there are many stakeholders. It should be done in a consistent and predictable way, based on detailed examination and a rational plan," FTC Chairman Kim Sang-jo told reporters Wednesday. The former economics professor who has dedicated himself to shareholder activism and chaebol reform took office without the confirmation of the National Assembly. The opposition parties opposed him, but Cheong Wa Dae went ahead with the appointment Tuesday citing public opinion that Kim, nicknamed the "chaebol sniper," was the right person to reform the country's unfair business practices. Since his nomination, however, Kim has not spoken out about chaebol reform. "The President told me and presidential chief of staff for policy Jang Ha-sung to co-ordinate with each other and to execute what we have researched. The President stressed that we should show that the reform creates new growth momentum for businesses instead of hampering them," he said. Jang and Kim have been the two main pillars of the country's activism to reform conglomerates, and their appointments drew much attention as chaebol dominate the economy. By Park Hyong-ki The country created 375,000 jobs last month on increased hiring in the construction sector, according to Statistics Korea, Wednesday. As it added more than 300,000 jobs for the fourth consecutive month, the employment rate reached 61.3 percent, the highest since the agency began compiling data in June, 1999. It also exceeded the government's initial expectations of 260,000 jobs, it noted. "This is due to growth in the construction sector. Unemployment also decreased in manufacturing," a Statistics Korea official said. The decrease in manufacturing unemployment comes amid a rebound in exports led by semiconductors and displays, the statistics agency explained. Even though the job rate hit a record, more than a million people remain jobless. Since this January, the number of the jobless has been over a million on average per month. The record job rate may have pushed down the country's youth unemployment to 9.3 percent last month from 11.2 percent a month earlier. But 419,000 young adults are still jobless. Youth unemployment reached a record 12.3 percent in February, then slightly decreased to 11.3 percent in March. Corporate debt restructuring in the shipbuilding and shipping sectors has negatively affected youth employment. Despite some positive data stemming from growth in construction and exports, the youth jobless rate would be nearly 23 percent when taking into account the number of part-time workers, college graduates preparing for state exams and women leaving the labor market due to marriage or childbirth. Analysts say youth unemployment would further push the government to carry out its expansionary fiscal spending and policy promoting higher wages in labor in the latter months of the year. President Moon Jae-in has urged the National Assembly to pass the government's supplementary budget of 11.2 trillion won for job creation for young adults. "The extra fiscal spending is expected to support consumption in the second half of the year," said Kim Doo-un, an economist at Hana Financial Investment. The analyst expects exports will lead growth later in the year. Kim Dae-jun, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said that the economy is beginning to see an improvement in sentiment, investment and then employment. This will lead to a revival of a virtuous economic cycle later this year. "I don't believe the government's policy for higher wages to support consumption and growth is going to affect this cycle," he said. Two bulls lock horns during a bullfighting festival in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, in 2012. Animal rights activists are demanding the city government drop its plan to build a new bullfighting stadium. / Yonhap Animal rights activists protest new arena construction By Jung Min-ho Animal rights activists are locking horns with a local government over its plans to construct a new bullfighting stadium. The activists have demanded the Jeongeup City Government to drop its plan, which they say will promote "nothing but animal abuse." The conflict began after the city government recently announced that it planned to invest 11.3 billion won ($10 million) into building facilities to promote its livestock industry as part of an effort to attract tourists. But the activists have expressed concerns, saying they don't want to see their city become a hub of the "crucial tradition," in which bulls have to be abused in competition. They also worry that the facilities will lure residents, including teenagers, into ringside gambling. The activists have staged protests near the city government building and handed out flyers on the streets to convince more people to join them. The liberal Justice and Green Parties have backed their movement. "Many bulls suffer from bloating as their owners force them to eat excessively for bullfighting," the Green Party said in a statement. "They also suffer because of the intense heat as they are moved from one city to another city during bullfighting seasons." "All this is an act of animal abuse." An animal rights activist protests in front of Jeongeup City Hall, Tuesday. / Yonhap But the city government believes the activists are complaining to the wrong institution, saying it is just trying to make it more convenient for people to enjoy bullfighting, which is legal in Korea. Bullfighting has been a part of the country's culture for a long time, and the city has held its bullfighting festival since 1996, which will continue with or without the new facilities. "Besides, unlike Spanish bullfighting, we don't kill the bulls," a city official was quoted as saying. "Concerns over gambling are also overblown because we are not planning to sell tickets." In fact, bulls rarely die during the contest. The fight is over as soon as one turns tail. Humans are not allowed in the ring. People in the livestock industry have also supported the city government's plan. They say the facilities will be greatly helpful in reinforcing Jeongeup's brand as a hub of the livestock industry, in which more than 10 percent of its population works. If the city government pushes ahead with the plan, which is likely, the construction project is expected to be finished in late 2018. By Yi Whan-woo Jeannie Rhee A Korean-American lawyer has joined the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller on the possible collusion between President Donald Trump's associates and Russian officials in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Washington Post and other U.S. media outlets reported early this week that Jeannie Rhee, a former deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, is on Mueller's team. Rhee, 45, has been working for WilmerHale's D.C. office since 2011 after serving as deputy assistant attorney general for two years. She first joined WilmerHale, a multinational law firm, in 2006. She had left the firm to serve at the justice department. "She advised the Attorney General, the White House and senior agency officials on constitutional, statutory and regulatory issues regarding criminal law, criminal procedure, executive privilege, civil rights and national security," WilmerHale said on its website. A friend of Rhee said, "She faithfully carries out any given work." Prior to joining WilmerHale, Rhee was an assistant attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. She worked on more than 30 trials, including the prosecution of the Washington Teachers' Union. She was also a legislative fellow in the office of former Senator Tom Daschle and served as a counsel in the justice department's Office of Legal Policy. She was a law clerk for the Honorable Judith Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as well as for the Honorable Stanley Sporkin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Rhee graduated from Yale Law School. She served as the editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities and editor of the Yale Law Journal. She was the president of the Yale Law School Alumni Association of Washington, D.C. She served as a member of the U.S. District Court Standing Committee on Electronic Case Filing, as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and as co-chair of the Criminal Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Litigation. Mueller worked at WilmerHale for the past three years, according to The Washington Post. The firm represents several people who could be caught up in the special investigation. They include Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The ethics experts at the justice department still allowed Mueller to lead the investigation. Other investigators on Mueller's team include the justice department's Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben and Andrew Weissmann, the chief of the justice department's fraud section. By Jung Min-ho Chung-Ang University has been removed from the QS World University Rankings 2018 after one of its officials fabricated data to boost its standing. According to Chung-Ang and its student union, Wednesday, the school has been ruled out of the rankings after it fabricated "employer reputation" data, one of the evaluation items. Employers, not the school, are supposed to write reviews of Chung-Ang graduates in terms of their performance in workplaces, but a Chung-Ang official did the job with intent to raise its ranking. Chung-Ang said the official will be punished soon according to school rules. Its student union has asked Chung-Ang to reveal all the details of the incident, which gravely damaged the school's reputation. Chung-Ang was ranked 386th in the 2017 assessment, up from 461st from the previous year. Students and their Professor Min Byoung-chul of Kyung Hee University's Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies take a photo marking the final session of their Business Creativity class, at the school's campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. The students presented business proposals including creating capsule rooms in school dormitories to provide safe and affordable accommodation to students needing to stay overnight. / Courtesy of Min Byoung-chul Students propose 'Capsule Dorm' By Kim Bo-eun A team of students proposed furnishing school dormitories with capsule rooms in order to provide safe, affordable accommodation for students staying on campus until late. The proposal came during a business class at Kyung Hee University's Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. The idea came from a student's personal experience commuting to school from Seoul. "Sometimes I studied until late at night in the library and on other days I had to attend club events and drink with members," Kang Bong-jun said. "Because I lived far from school, I couldn't afford the pricy taxi fare, so I ended up staying at a friend's place or went to a 24-hour spa." Kang, who studied in Osaka, Japan, on an exchange program last semester, came across "capsule hotels" while there. These are single-bed-sized rooms for people who need an affordable overnight stay, the first of which opened in Osaka in 1979. "My aim is to renovate a few rooms of all university dormitories in Korea. The students will be able to check room availability and use them with room charges," he said. Since the average dormitory room has space for eight capsule rooms, renovating five rooms will provide 40 students with accommodation every night, Kang said. The team met up with SK Networks, SK's trading unit which also operates hotels. The "Capsule Dorm" was among proposals presented by four teams in the final session of Professor Min Byoung-chul's Business Creativity class. Another team presented a proposal on developing an app aimed at generating interest in the upcoming 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics via mobile games. Over the semester, students come up with business ideas and draw up proposals. The class provides students the opportunity to meet with people in the business sector, from which they receive help in improving their proposals and also get the chance to network. "It is my aim for students to discover their passion and field of interest, and design the process of starting their own businesses, so they attain competitiveness in the global job market as well as the knowledge and experience required in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Min said. He quoted Harvard Business School professor Ted Levitt who said "Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." "It is important to put ideas into action," Min added. This semester the class had students from Colombia, Poland, Morocco and Denmark. The class is conducted in English. "I learned how to present my ideas. And I found this is very important in connecting with people in the business field," said Ann-Sofie Legina, a student from Denmark. "The best part of the course was trying to solve problems with my classmates. Whenever we were stuck in the creative process, the most engaging moments were when we tried to come up with new solutions and innovative alternatives," said Pedro Prieto Vargas from Colombia. Min is known for his English-learning publications and broadcasts. He has also developed "Autospeaking" _ an app for practicing English. It has been downloaded 150,000 times in countries such as Korea, Japan and China. South Korea's Chung-Ang University has been removed from an international QS university ranking assessment for 2018 for data manipulation. / Korea Times file By Lee Han-soo South Korea's Chung-Ang University has been removed from an international QS university ranking assessment for 2018 for data manipulation. The Seoul-based school admitted to the manipulation and apologized, but claimed it was done solely by a misguided employee assisting the evaluation, not an organized scheme involving the school's decision-makers. The school did not disclose detailed information about the employee. Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a world-renowned university ranking company, said the school will be reinstated for the 2019 edition if "no further irregularities occur." According to the QS website, the company discovered a "substantial number of anomalous responses" lodged in favor of Chung-Ang during routine screening of surveys. The survey results were said to be an important factor for evaluation. "We contacted the university to discover that they were as surprised as we were," the company wrote on its website. "To their great credit, they have cooperated fully with our investigation into the matter and with their help we have been able to identify that an unsanctioned undertaking to lodge a large number of false responses in favor of their university had originated from their campus." The school apologized to QS and its students. "The employee was found to have committed the manipulation to put the school in a higher position," the school said. "We will do everything we can to prevent a similar thing from happening again." Chung-Ang ranked 386th in QS's 2017 edition, which evaluated 916 universities around the world. A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea on Tuesday after crossing the border bisecting the two Koreas, Seoul's military said. "A North Korean soldier crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) in the middle sector (of the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ) at around 7:50 p.m. and came to the South's guard post (GP)," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The JCS added that the South Korean soldiers first found the North Korean soldier and guided him to the general outpost (GOP) after checking his intention to defect and securing him in custody. Questioning is currently underway to find out what caused him to flee to the South and how he made it over, the JCS said, adding that there was no exchange of fire between the two Koreas during his defection. "We currently don't have any information on the defector at this moment," a South Korean military official said on the condition of anonymity. "We will probably find out his reason for defection tomorrow morning." This is first time since Sept. 29, 2016, that a North Korean soldier defected to South Korea through the border. Since 2010, five to 10 North Koreans are reported to have defected to the South by crossing the MDL. The two Koreas technically remain at war to this day since the Korean War (1950-53) ended in a cease-fire and not a peace treaty. (Yonhap) A Yonsei University graduate student arrested as a suspect for a nail bomb blast that injured a professor this week told police Wednesday he designed the explosive by himself without searching the Internet. Police apprehended the student, identified only as 25-year-old Kim, Tuesday night for sending a homemade bomb to his professor's office at the engineering faculty building of the university in western Seoul earlier in the day. The professor also surnamed Kim suffered burns after opening a box containing the explosive. According to the police, the student confessed that he made the bomb on his own without Googling or looking up YouTube clips. The explosive, which was placed inside a drink tumbler, had a detonator connected with wires and four batteries that can be purchased from any hardware store. It was filled with gunpowder and dozens of small bolts, which police suspect were intended to maximize the damage. "It seems that the suspect used his own basic scientific knowledge to design the bomb," a police officer said. The picture is not related to the story. / Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons By Lee Han-soo Police have caught a man who allegedly cut a painter's safety rope in a dispute over noisy music, causing the worker to plunge to his death from a 15-story building. The painter, 46, the father of five children, fell 40 meters on June 8. Police have sought a warrant to arrest the suspect -- a resident of the building in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province -- on a murder charge. The tragic incident took place at 8:10 a.m. on June 8, according to police. The painter was listening to music on his cell phone while working on the building's exterior. The "noisy" music provoked the resident, who was drunk after failing to get a job, police said. The resident complained to the painter but was ignored. The resident then ran up to the roof and cut the painter's safety rope. Gimpo police have launched free driving lessons for migrant workers, marriage migrants and their spouses. / Courtesy of Gimpo Police Station By Lee Han-soo Police have launched free driving lessons for migrant workers, marriage migrants and their spouses in Gimpo. Gimpo Police Station said Tuesday it will team with driving schools in Gyeonggi Province to help migrants become accustomed to Korean traffic and prepare them for the license test. Forty migrant workers, marriage migrants and their spouses will take part. The police have also opened a class for foreigners who work on weekdays and do not have a chance to study for the test. Gimpo police believe the program will help prevent traffic accidents and expand job opportunities for the migrants. "Even though I needed a license in Korea, I did not know how to obtain it," a migrant worker told the Kyeonggi Ilbo, a local news outlet. "I am very grateful that the police have helped me. The police officer even accompanied me to the examination room and helped me write the application form." FM nominee gets flood of support By Choi Ha-young Kim Sang-jo Kim Yi-su Kang Kyung-wha The ruling and opposition parties clashed Wednesday over President Moon Jae-in's appointment of Kim Sang-jo as chief of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) the previous day although he had been rejected by opposition parties. Opposition parties harshly criticized Moon for ignoring their calls some lawmakers even alleged that he has taken the path of a dictator. However, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) defended the President and Kim, urging the opposition to engage in constructive dialogue for the good of the country instead of "opposing all for the sake of opposition." The situation may worsen further amid speculation Moon may also appoint Kang Kyung-wha as foreign minister and Kim Yi-su as Constitutional Court president, of whom were also rejected by the opposition parties. The People's Party, which will have a deciding vote in the 299-seat National Assembly if conservative opposition parties stick to their anti-Moon stance, stepped up its political offensives against Moon and the DPK. The DPK holds 120 seats and the People's Party has 40 seats. "If the President also pushes ahead with the appointment of Foreign Minister nominee Kang, we will conclude Moon is scrapping cooperation with the opposition bloc," interim party leader Park Joo-sun said, Wednesday. "In this case, I clearly state the People's Party cannot go along with Cheong Wa Dae and the DPK." Since the opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) is boycotting all inter-party dialogue as well as cooperation with Cheong Wa Dae, Moon's reform agenda cannot pass without the cooperation of the People's Party. By Kim Rahn President Moon Jae-in is seeking a Constitutional revision to set up "Second Cabinet" meetings which will include mayors and governors of 17 local governments. During a meeting with the municipality heads at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday, Moon, said he would decentralize power for co-development of the capital and the provinces. "As a campaign pledge, I promised to set up a decentralized system tantamount to a federal one, as well as Second Cabinet meetings comprised of municipality heads," the President said. "So when seeking Constitutional revision next year, I plan to set the legal grounds for such meetings and add clauses to strengthen local governments' authority." His comments were in line with the election pledge: During campaigning, Moon promised to seek a referendum to amend the Constitution alongside local elections slated for June 2018, to limit excessive presidential authority, empower local governments and reform the election system. The President also said it would take more than a year for the revision and full implementation of the system even if the Constitution is revised. "So until then, I suggest we have these kind of meetings regularly, or whenever needed, to discuss regional development," Moon said, telling the local government heads to suggest holding a meeting anytime they have something to discuss. The participants consented to Moon's proposal, saying such meetings will help them deliver the needs from local governments and people in the provinces to the President directly. Moon also asked for the local governments' support for his job creation efforts. The central government submitted a supplementary budget bill worth 11.2 trillion won ($9.95 billion) last week, and 3.5 trillion won of it was earmarked for municipalities. "The purpose of the extra budget bill is to create jobs, so I ask you to use the money for creating jobs according to each region's needs," he said. "We'll review your job-related projects, and the central government will benchmark successful cases." Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon explained to them the details of the supplementary budget bill. Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon, who is the head of the Governors Association of Korea, said the municipality heads agreed on the need for job creation and they would cooperate. Some local governments have already set their own extra budget plans along with that of the central government, he said. "We ask for the President's efforts to disperse power, budgets and information to all parts of the country, so regional polarization will be alleviated," Choi said. Heads or acting heads of all the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces took part in the meeting. Other participating government officials included Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, Interior Minister Hong Yun-sik, Office of Government Policy Coordination head Hong Nak-ki, presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok, chief of staff for policy Chang Ha-sung, and presidential job committee vice chairman Lee Yong-seop. By Ted Gover Much has been said of Beijing's influence on Pyongyang and its ability to compel the regime towards change. Through sustained support for Pyongyang since the 1950s, China has demonstrated its strategic interests in ensuring the Kim Dynasty's survival. Seemingly disregarding this fact, expectations in Washington for Beijing to rein in Pyongyang are rising. Yet, what can Beijing do to change Pyongyang's behavior, and to what extent is it willing to act given its interests? It's well known that China has leverage over North Korea given the North's dependence on Beijing for its energy, food and trade. Many assert that China can constrain North Korea's actions by cutting off commercial ties. Some contend that China's civilizational ties to the Korean people, its support for Pyongyang during the Korean War and its decades-long role as an ideological partner give it a moral authority with the Kim regime that others do not have. Others claim that China's rise as a power gives it more clout with Pyongyang than it ever had before. However, Washington must come to terms with the reality that Beijing is willing to live with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang. Why? Because taking measures to change Pyongyang's conduct runs counter to Beijing's interests in these ways: Regime collapse: A heavy hand by Beijing may contribute to the fall of Kim's regime. A collapse would likely bring a flood of refugees into China, creating an expensive humanitarian nightmare for Beijing. This development may result in Seoul coming to secure the North's territory, ending North Korea's role as a buffer state for China. Beijing eyes the prospect of a Washington-allied Seoul controlling the entire peninsula as a threat to its territorial sovereignty. Instability & loose nukes: Chinese moves to clamp down on North Korea may create instability inside the Kim regime, increasing chances of parts of its nuclear arsenal getting into the wrong hands. Such a development would threaten China's security, particularly if the weapons came into the possession of groups hostile to Beijing, such as pan-Turkish supporters of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and East Turkistan Liberation Organization. Backlash: Strong efforts by Beijing to curtail Pyongyang may result in Kim believing his existence is threatened, resulting in the regime creating a crisis or even sparking a war. Such tactics have been used by the North before for exacting concessions. Should Beijing conclude that Pyongyang's nuclear program must be stopped, it has an option. China could negotiate an agreement where it becomes the North's security guarantor, thereby creating the conditions for the regime to relinquish its nuclear program. It should be noted that some assert this prospect is without merit, arguing that Pyongyang's ultimate aim is to vanquish Seoul and unite the peninsula under its rule. These considerations aside, it is improbable at best that Beijing will see it in its interests to oblige Mr. Kim to change course. Ted Gover, Ph.D. is Instructor of Political Science at Central Texas College, Camp Pendleton, California. Write to tedgover@gmail.com. Just as we all were getting used to the idea that our species has been around roughly 195,000 to 200,000 years, paleontologists now tell us it's time to put another 100,000 candles on the birthday cake. Last week, two new studies published in the journal Nature laid out a new theory based on the study of fossils discovered in Morocco in 1961 that Homo sapiens i.e., humans have been around for at least 300,000 years. This represents a considerable shift in the timeline when it comes to the theory of humanity's origins. Previously the oldest human skull fragments were estimated to be a little shy of 200,000 years old. Skull fragments from Omo-Kibish are believed to be 195,000 years old, while fossils found in Ethiopia and parts of East Africa are believed to be between 154,000 and 160,000 years old. With the official inclusion of the Moroccan fossils into the human family, the territory for where humans are believed to have gotten our start has dramatically expanded, too. We're no longer just from one neighborhood in East Africa. There's a growing consensus in the scientific community that early humans may have arisen in several regions across the continent at once, though it was a relatively small band that left East Africa 70,000 years ago that we owe special thanks to. Those were our ancestors. The Moroccan fossils have opened the door to the past in ways we didn't expect when we first began to study them nearly 60 years ago. When they were first discovered, they were strangers. Over the course of a generation of scientific scrutiny, we found out they were family. This editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 2 allies apart in key issue amid low expectations A clash of egos or an unexpected forging of friendship? The summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump on June 29 and 30 in Washington, D.C., comes with their stances poles apart on virtually every key issue. Clouding the outlook are the two leaders' strong personalities _ Moon riding on a convincing electoral victory and Trump on quixotic autopilot for self-praise despite his troubled presidency. Still, the success of the summit can't be ruled out just because expectations have been significantly lowered. At the top of the agenda is the halted deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery. Trump recently gathered his top lieutenants _ Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis _ about the row over the missile interceptor, and unusually issued a statement that Korea is expected to cooperate with the deployment. Moon went out of his way to put the brakes on the deployment, though his aides affirmed Korea's commitment to it, despite a delay of up to two years. Trump takes it as a matter of pride for the superpower, especially considering its rival China's strong opposition. Moon sees it as a test of his will to keep his promise to his supporters. The THAAD issue comes on top of even more fundamental differences between the two. Moon wants to start a dialogue with the North and wishes to put the diplomacy of equidistance between China, its strategic partner, and the U.S., its military alliance partner. Moon now vows to stick to the current sanctions-oriented policy toward the North, which has rejected a series of reconciliatory proposals from the new government. Trump has switched from one extreme to another _ offering talks with the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, while promising to apply maximum pressure with a chance of dialogue with caveats. Trump also geared down his conditions for talks with Pyongyang from dismantling its nukes to a moratorium. More broadly, China is at the center of the Trump-Moon summit because Moon has a nine-year-old itch he was bequeathed from his mentor, former President Roh Moo-hyun, who wanted to push the Middle Kingdom as a counterweight to escape the U.S. orbit. By many signs, Moon, who objected to the two countries' free trade agreement (FTA), can't get away by giving a few goodies to Trump, who also doesn't favor the FTA, and conceding a victory to him. There is simply too much at stake for Moon to imitate Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's brown-nosing. It remains to be seen how this tricky summit with Trump will end _ a jerky handshake as in Abe's case, a pass on it as in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's case, a contest of hand grasps as in French President Emmanuel Macron's case or a long stroll as with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Or none of the above _ an open spat that makes the two leaders red in the face. In this kind of situation, anything outside the worst case scenario can qualify as a success. By John Burton The Moon Jae-in administration last week signaled the importance it places on job creation by proposing a $10 billion supplementary budget aimed at improving work prospects and fighting record youth unemployment. Korea finds itself in the enviable position of having the financial clout to address the problem. Its government debt is among the lowest for OECD economies and its 2017 fiscal deficit is expected to amount to only 1.7 percent of gross domestic product. The goal of the new spending program will be on creating 100,000 more jobs, including 66,000 in the public sector, while providing subsidies for start-ups and support for small businesses. Whether this will make a dent in youth unemployment, which stood at 11.2% in April, is another matter. The young are finding it difficult to get jobs because of structural problems with the economy, including a rigid labor market and a seniority-based wage system. In addition, the unemployment problem is likely to get worse, particularly in declining manufacturing industries, as Korea faces increased foreign competition. More than 35,000 jobs are expected to be lost this year in the shipbuilding industry as the sector undergoes restructuring due to weaker global demand. In the long-term, Korea will face the same challenges as other advanced economies in dealing with the impact of automation, known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, on future job growth. Within the next decade, for example, self-driving cars and drone deliveries could eliminate jobs for couriers and taxi and truck drivers. 3-D printing will cause job losses in companies manufacturing components. Car plants will become fully automated, with smart robots performing most of the duties due to the use of the Internet of Things technology. Big data will result in the disappearance of many jobs in the service sector, from financial analysts to middle managers. This disruptive trend will undermine the modern industrial economy, which is built on the premise that mass demand supports mass production. How can companies survive if only a few are paid a decent wage to afford to buy goods and services? By Choi Ha-young Sim Sang-jung The official website of the former presidential candidate of the Justice Party, Rep. Sim Sang-jung, has fallen victim to a worldwide ransomware attack. Her website remained closed for five days as of Wednesday after suffering from the attack, the party said. The ransomware encrypts a victim's data and demands cyber payment. It has been attacking servers of enterprises and organizations worldwide especially in Europe. Last month, 14 Korean companies were hit by the malicious software, according to Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). Internet server vendor Nayana, which has maintained the database for Sim's website, said the hackers initially demanded 5 billion won ($4.4 million) for 153 servers, on the condition of the data recovery. After detecting the attack Saturday, the vendor struggled to decode data but it has failed to recover it. The nation's cyber police are investigating the case. Following negotiations, the company reached an agreement to pay 1.3 billion won. According to experts, it is difficult guarantee full data recovery. If it manages to do so, the vendor will be embroiled in lawsuits from commercial websites for financial damages. Due to a shortage of funds, the company is considering shutting down. "Since we've mainly used a blog instead of the website, we didn't suffer material damages so far, but we may lose some old data," Sim's secretary told The Korea Times. "I'm not sure if Nayana could provide backup data." Sim, the chairwoman of the progressive party, ran for the presidency and clinched 6.2 percent of votes, the highest ever figure as a nonmainstream progressive candidate. Recently, she proposed bills named "Superwoman Prevention Act" that obliges paid maternity and paternity leave for those who recently gave birth. "We, Korean women, have been forced to become superwomen between work and home. I pledged to put an end to this misfortune, and will do so," she said Sunday. Seen above is the Patrind hydropower plant in Pakistan. K-water said the project will be completed this year. / Courtesy of K-water By Park Jae-hyuk K-water, the nation's public enterprise specializing in water management, has offered international education programs to teach other countries how to manage water resources, based on its 50-year knowhow. By this, the company seeks to expand its global networks and business partnerships overseas. According to K-water, Wednesday, 4,045 people from 97 countries have joined the program over the past 20 years. It has increased water resource awareness in various countries, cooperating with such international organizations as the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and UNESCO. Last year, K-water launched a website for the program, aiming to be Asia's top educational institution specializing in water management. The firm led the establishment of the Asia Water Council (AWC) in 2016 as well, which helps Korean firms enter global markets. The council is also trying to resolve water-related problems with its 120 members, including central governments, UNESCO and the ADB. The council's smart water business in Denpasar, Indonesia, has been praised for focusing on users. K-water will host the Asia International Water Week (AIWW) this September, expanding its presence in global markets. Large projects in other countries Most Korean companies dealing with water have focused on the domestic market so far, rather than overseas markets having higher entry barriers. Feeling the necessity of powerful support from the state, K-water has encouraged local firms to tap into the global water market, which is expected to grow to 1 quadrillion won ($889 billion) by 2020. The size of the global water market is 800 trillion won as of 2016. Since K-water began its first overseas project in 1994, the public enterprise has completed 68 projects in 24 countries as of this February and is involved in 13 projects in 11 countries. The total project costs amount to 2.3 trillion won. In the initial stages, K-water's global projects were carried out as official development assistances (ODA). However, it recently began investment projects, based on networks and technical skills accumulated over the years. Its first investment project is the construction of the Patrind hydropower plant in Pakistan which will be completed this year. K-water launched the project in 2009, cooperating with a Korean construction company. The hydropower plant is expected to relieve the electric power shortage of the South Asian nation. K-water is also carrying out projects in Georgia, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Chile, the Solomon Islands and Cambodia. By entering the global market, K-water expects to create synergy with private enterprises and invigorate the state economy. In addition, it seeks to increase national wealth by diversifying its business portfolio into smart water management, water and sewage and seawater desalination. By Lee Hyo-sik POSCO will offer free educational courses on big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoTs) for young jobseekers, the steelmaker said Wednesday. The company said professors and researchers at its affiliate Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) will create both online and offline courses on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The tech-centered university will provide an eight-week online-based course for jobseekers and others so anyone can learn about the rapidly emerging fields for free. In addition, the school will select about 100 young jobseekers from low-income families and offer more in-depth theoretical and field lectures at its campus in Pohang, South Gyeongsang Province. "We have decided to finance POSTECH's endeavor to provide free courses on big data, AI and IoTs because those familiar with these areas find jobs more easily," a POSCO official said. "POSCO Group University in Incheon will also offer practical career guidance for young people." Visit the websites of POSTECH at postech.ac.kr and POSCO Group University at e-campus.posco.co.kr for more. By Park Jae-hyuk Hosigi Chairman Choi Ho-sig Harim Chairman Kim Hong-kuk Genesis BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun The Korean chicken industry has recently drawn criticism from consumers over a series of controversial incidents. Some chicken business owners have come under fire for immoral acts while with others is with their business strategies. At the same time, chicken consumption is suffering a setback due to the nationwide avian influenza outbreak. The most troubled company appears to be Hosigi, one of the biggest fried chicken companies in Korea. The company's Chairman Choi Ho-sig is suspected of having molested a female employee in her 20s at a hotel after drinking alcohol together in Gangnam, Seoul, earlier this month. The 64-year-old is facing a police investigation this week. Although Hosigi dismissed Choi from its management, consumers have begun to boycott the brand. They are criticizing the company's cursory apology written under the name of the staff last Friday, not under the chairman's name. Against this backdrop, franchisees of Hosigi Chicken are asking consumers to stop the boycott. Since Choi launched the brand in 1999, the company has opened more than 1,000 stores as of last August. Consumers, however, vowed to continue the boycott, saying the chairman and the company should compensate the franchisees for their losses. Also, the consumers still believe there's a good possibility the chairman will continue to engage in management. Hosigi is registered as an individual business, unlike Korea's other top 9 chicken franchises which are registered as corporations. The chairman, then, should shut down his company if he resigns from being the representative director. Another chicken firm suffering from liabilities of the owner is Harim Group. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly set to investigate the company, which is the country's leading poultry processor, as Chairman Kim Hong-kuk dubiously transferred the company's managerial control to his 25-year-old son. The chairman's eldest son, Kim Jun-young, has become the biggest shareholder of the 10 trillion won group, although it is uncertain whether the college student paid the full amount of gift taxes when he inherited the group's subsidiary from his father. Harim claimed the group fully obeyed the law during the transfer process. However, its denial of the allegations could not calm the controversy. While Hosigi and Harim are in hot water regarding their owners, Genesis BBQ has come under fire for its business strategies, especially its pricing policy. Genesis BBQ raised prices for about 20 products this month, which followed its initial price hike last month. The unit price, or price for a whole chicken, was raised to around 20,000 won ($18). Consumers have been more upset over the price hike even as the company's head office is alleged to be shifting advertising costs onto its franchisees. Genesis claimed the price hike was inevitable for its franchisees' welfare. However, the franchisees are unable to fully benefit from the price hike if they are to pay for advertising expenses. The FTC is set to investigate the case, according to industry watchers. Consumers have begun to boycott the Genesis BBQ franchises as well. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado, Panama's vice president and foreign minister, attend a press conference after their meeting in Beijing, capital of China, June 13, 2017. China and Panama signed a joint communique Tuesday on the establishment of diplomatic relations. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING/TAIPEI, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Panama signed a joint communique with China in Beijing Tuesday to establish diplomatic relations and break so-called "diplomatic ties" with Taiwan, a move perceived as more extensive recognition of the one-China principle and a warning to the Taiwan administration. After signing the communique, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters that the political decision made by the Panamanian government meets the fundamental interests of the country, and accords with the development trend of the times as well as the one-China framework already in place in the international community. Also on Tuesday, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the move accords with the will of the people and represents an irresistible trend, urging the Taiwan administration to clearly understand the situation and make the right choice. Jiang Shixue, director of the Latin America research center at Shanghai University, said it is natural for China, the second largest user of the Panama Canal, to attract countries that previously have not had diplomatic relations, especially with its years of development and strengthened national power. "The establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries will promote cooperation between China and Central America and the Caribbean region, and will have a demonstrative effect," he said. Tuesday's news has triggered a strong rebound in public opinion in Taiwan. Many in Taiwan regarded Panama's choice of severing "diplomatic relations" with the island a serious defeat for the current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, saying the DPP has only itself to blame. Hung Meng-kai, deputy director-general of the KMT Culture and Communications Committee, said the breaking of "ties" meant the DPP administration's "foreign policy" had completely failed, and would only lead Taiwan to isolationism. "The DPP's so-called maintaining the status quo policy in cross-Strait relationship has also been a complete failure. Two countries have broken 'ties' with Taiwan within a year, is this the outcome our administrators, who claimed themselves as the best communicators, have given us?" said Hung, who warned that more countries might follow suit. Panama is the second country to break ties with Taiwan since the DPP administration took office in May last year. It was Taiwan's most important "friend" in Central and South America and was the first nation Taiwan's current leader Tsai Ing-wen visited after she took power. According to Hsieh Ming-hui, chief executive officer of the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum, the DPP administration's refusal to recognize the 1992 Consensus had damaged the political mutual trust between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, and hence resulted in the reduction of international space for Taiwan. "The DPP should be fully responsible," Hsieh added. Ties between China and Panama go back more than 160 years. The first group of Chinese immigrants arrived in Panama in the mid-1850s to work on the construction of the trans-isthmus railway, which served as the main international cargo route until the Panama Canal was built. The establishment of diplomatic relations did not come as a surprise for Wu Hongying, director of the Latin America office of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. "Both the politicians and business people in Panama have witnessed China's increasing influence and regard it as an active and responsible power," Wu said. Yuan Zheng of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the one-China principle, which was acknowledged in the Resolution 2758 adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 1971, has become a universal consensus in the international community. "More and more countries that have so-called 'diplomatic relations' with Taiwan will establish diplomatic ties with China in the future," Yuan said. Thousands of Missourians wonder what happened to their state tax refunds. They still haven't gotten their checks yet from the Missouri Department of Revenue. Missouri law requires that any personal income tax refund issued more than 45 days later than when the return was filed to be paid with interest. Taxpayers who try to check on their refunds experience long waits on the phone, only to get no satisfaction when someone answers, or generic online messages that their returns are being processed. More than 1,000 complaints by agitated taxpayers have gone to State Auditor Nicole Galloway's office. Now her office is auditing the Department of Revenue to try to find what's causing the delay. "Citizens work all year long, they pay their taxes, and they file they tax returns online. They expect to get their money back on time as well," Galloway said in an interview when she was in Springfield on Monday. If you still haven't received your Missouri tax refund, you can call the Department of Revenue at (573) 751-3505, but expect to be on hold for awhile. News release from Galloway on June 6: More than 1,000 Missourians from throughout the state have contacted State Auditor Nicole Galloway to report missing refunds and other concerns about their tax returns. In a letter issued today, Auditor Galloway is calling on the director of the Department of Revenue to take quick action and address taxpayers' complaints. "Over the last six weeks, more than 1,000 Missourians have contacted my whistleblower hotline seeking information on the status of their tax refund. They report long wait times, disconnected calls, the inability to speak to a representative when seeking status information on their refunds, and receiving a refund after 45 days without receiving interest. Missourians are becoming understandably frustrated by the delay and I urge the Department of Revenue to take all necessary steps to complete refund processing as quickly as possible," Auditor Galloway said. Missouri law requires that any personal income tax refunds issued after 45 days past filing be paid to taxpayers with interest. Refunds were due on June 2 to all taxpayers who filed income tax returns by the April 18 deadline. Auditor Galloway is currently auditing the Department of Revenue. The audit includes a review of the processes used to ensure refunds are paid timely and with all appropriate interest. The audit will review the Department of Revenue's compliance and timeliness over the past two years. Updated information on the amount refunded by the state is available online at auditor.mo.gov/statedailyspending. Un militant de gauche hostile a Donald Trump a tire mercredi sur des republicains du Congres qui jouaient au baseball pres de Washington, blessant grievement un elu. Le tireur est mort apres une fusillade avec la police. L'attaque a provoque une vague d'emotion au Capitole, ou republicains et democrates ont exprime leur inquietude face a la recrudescence des violences, verbales ou physiques, dans le debat politique aux Etats-Unis depuis la derniere campagne electorale. Donald Trump et sa femme Melania ont rendu visite mercredi soir a l'elu Steve Scalise dans l'hopital MedStar ou il a ete opere apres avoir ete touche a la hanche. Selon le dernier bilan diffuse par l'etablissement, il etait toujours dans un etat critique, apres avoir recu plusieurs transfusions sanguines. "D'autres operations seront necessaires", a-t-on precise de meme source. Une vingtaine d'elus ainsi que des collaborateurs, membres de l'equipe de baseball republicaine, s'entrainaient au petit matin a Alexandria, en banlieue de la capitale, en vue d'un match caritatif jeudi, quand un individu a commence a faire feu depuis le bord du terrain. L'homme, James Hodgkinson, 66 ans, etait arme d'un fusil, selon les temoignages. Les autorites ont egalement retrouve un pistolet. Heureusement pour l'equipe, deux agents de la police du Capitole accompagnaient Steve Scalise. Ils ont riposte avec leurs armes de poing, touchant l'assaillant qui a succombe a ses blessures a l'hopital. "De nombreuses vies auraient ete perdues sans les actes heroiques des deux policiers qui ont mis le tireur hors d'etat de nuire (...) durant cette attaque tres tres violente", a declare le president Donald Trump depuis la Maison Blanche, appelant le pays a "l'unite". Des dizaines de balles ont ete tirees dans la fusillade, les elus presents decrivant plusieurs minutes interminables de tirs a vue, sur un terrain completement ouvert. Steve Scalise, 51 ans, representant de Louisiane et numero trois de la Chambre des representants, est le seul parlementaire blesse par balles. Un lobbyiste de la societe Tyson Foods, Matt Mika, blesse par balles, se trouvait lui aussi dans un etat grave. Une policiere et le collaborateur d'un elu ont egalement ete blesses par balles, mais leurs jours ne sont pas en danger. L'autre policier du Capitole et un parlementaire ont subi des blessures secondaires, selon le FBI. Acrimonie politique James Hodgkinson s'etait engage dans la campagne de Bernie Sanders aux primaires democrates de 2016, et etait decrit par des connaissances comme un homme un peu misanthrope et aigri par les inegalites. Le senateur du Vermont, figure de la gauche de la gauche, s'est dit "revolte par cet acte abject". Sur sa page Facebook, James Hodgkinson enrageait contre Donald Trump. "Trump a detruit notre democratie. L'heure est venue de detruire Trump et compagnie", ecrivait-il en mars. C'est ce mois-la que cet originaire de l'Illinois est venu a Alexandria, ou il dormait dans son vehicule, selon l'agent du FBI Tim Slater. Indice de premeditation ? L'elu Ron DeSantis dit qu'un individu ressemblant fortement au suspect lui aurait demande peu avant la fusillade s'ils etaient democrates... ou republicains. L'equipe s'entrainait la depuis des semaines avant un match traditionnel entre democrates et republicains, organise depuis 1909. Il se jouera comme prevu jeudi soir a Washington. A la Chambre, tous les votes ont ete annules et les parlementaires se sont rassembles a huis clos dans une salle, priant et se tenant les mains. "Une attaque contre l'un d'entre nous est une attaque contre nous tous", a ensuite declare Paul Ryan, president de la Chambre. Les democrates, partisans d'un renforcement de la legislation sur les armes, etaient reticents a rouvrir immediatement ce debat. Mais la droite pro-Trump a denonce, a l'instar de Newt Gingrich, ancien "speaker" de la Chambre, "une hostilite croissante de la gauche". "Les elus ne sont plus consideres comme des gens", a dit Joe Barton, qui etait sur le terrain avec son jeune fils. Il a rappele que de nombreuses reunions publiques de republicains etaient perturbees dans le pays par des electeurs furieux. Plusieurs elus ont renouvele leur soutien au deuxieme amendement de la Constitution, relatif au port d'armes. Steve Scalise, ultra-conservateur, est le "whip" de la Chambre, charge de la discipline. Ce sont ses gardes du corps qui etaient presents sur le terrain. Les autres parlementaires ne sont generalement pas proteges hors du Congres. La derniere attaque par balles contre un membre du Congres remontait a janvier 2011 a Tucson en Arizona, quand un desequilibre avait tue six personnes et grievement blesse l'elue democrate Gabrielle Giffords a la tete. "Cela peut servir de coup de semonce pour nous tous, afin qu'on reflechisse a notre facon de debattre en politique", a dit la republicaine qui lui succeda, Martha McSally. When the famed pilot Charles Lindbergh launched a motorless sailplane from Mount Soledad in 1930 and headed north above the coast, he was the first person to realize the cliffs at Torrey Pines generate a lift that can be used for gliding, writes Gary Fogel in his book, Images of America: The Torrey Pines Gliderport. Since the 1930s, sailplanes have been taking off from the Torrey Pines Gliderport (with a three-year break for World War II) until 2009, the last year a license agreement was signed between the Associated Glider Clubs of Southern California (AGCSC) and UC San Diego the owner of the land where the runway sits. Prior to that, the sailplanes that once flew whenever the wind was good, were restricted to flying the windiest month of the year, February. Its a fantastic thing to have a historic site operating the way it always had, so it would be a huge loss, not only for San Diego but the country, to shut one of the last glider operators, said Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) director Bruce Coons. Weve been supporting the effort to keep the Gliderport working for 10 years now. The flying of sailplanes at Torrey Pines Gliderport was first curtailed in 2009, when UCSD built the Stem Cell Core Facility at 10010 North Torrey Pines Road. AGCSC historian Fogel told La Jolla Light between construction staging and trying to meet the requirements the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) demands, We havent been able to operate. UCSDs director of marketing and communications Laura Margoni wrote in an e-mail to the Light that the Regents of the University of California have issued licenses periodically for more than 20 years (stemming) from requests made by AGCSC, which uses the university land to launch and land their fixed-wing gliders. AGCSC has not signed a license agreement since 2009. For Coons, who has been at most meetings between the associated gliders and UCSD, (The university) assures us they want to continue operations, but theyve been putting so many restrictions on it, theyve made it impractical. Some of those restrictions include a runway redesign that took place in 2009 with CalTrans approval, financial obstacles and high insurance requirements. Their insurance requirements are higher than anything thats ever happened in the world of soaring in America, Fogel said. With UCSDs growing development in mind, Fogel fears the future of the sailplanes at the Torrey Pines Gliderport is doomed. The construction of the universitys proposed Living & Learning Neighborhood (2,000 residential beds, 1,200 parking spots and several academic and community buildings) on North Torrey Pines Road is slated for completion in 2020, and although the likely 10-story buildings wont affect the runway, in Fogels opinion, What would (affect us) is the construction staging for those projects because the Gliderport is a great place for them to store their equipment. At the projects Environmental Impact Review scoping meeting in May, Fogel said he wrote a comment for the use of the sailplane runway to be taken into consideration when planning construction at the universitys new hub. Whats a sailplane? A sailplane or glider is an airworthy vehicle that flies without an engine, manned by a pilot. To make that possible, Fogel said, the secret is in the takeoff. If youre flying a kite, and you have a tight string and pull on it, (the kite) goes up. If you pull on that line really quickly, it will go up really quickly. Its the same thing for the gliders, he explained. On a windy day, Fogel continued, a sailplane can be launched by a truck or a car, but in general pilots use a winch mechanism. When they get to the top of the line, they release it, and then theyre free to fly as a bird, he added. In the Torrey Pines wind lift, a glider may soar all day or until they need to go to the bathroom. Without an engine, the flight of a sailplane is silent. A glider has no motor, so its always falling, Fogel explained. If you have wind thats going up, you can keep flying. Good pilots know where to find that. To someone who doesnt know, it looks like magic, but if you know, as long as you can find that current, you stay up. Torrey Pines lift Most days in San Diego, we have the ocean next to us, which remains cool, cooling the air above it, while the desert to the east is heating the air. That combination creates a sea breeze from 1 to 4 p.m. almost every afternoon traveling west to east. When it hits the tall and almost perpendicular Torrey Pines cliffs, it has to go up and then goes over the cliff, and that upward current extends very high over the cliffs, and further than you might think, he added. The upward-moving air is used by all types of gliders to experience motorless flight at Torrey Pines Gliderport. Gliderport history in La Jolla Reassured by Lindberghs discovery of the Torrey Pines lift, high school students began trying out their gliders at Torrey Pines Gliderport in the 1930s. Some of them learned to build gliders in woodshop class at San Diego High School, Fogel explained. Woodbridge Woody Brown, a La Jolla resident known for his surfing and surfboard shaping, was also a gliding pioneer at the spot. Gliding was taking off at Torrey Pines when in the early 40s, the area was occupied by Camp Callan, a training center operational during World War II, ironically, for anti-aircraft training, Fogel pointed out. After the conflict ended in 1946, the sailplanes came back. In the 50s, San Diegans visited the Gliderport to watch the airborne men and women soar. Tournaments and gliderclubs were organized. In 1956 and 1958 elections, San Diegans voted to give away (at no cost) 500 acres of City land to UCSD for its expansion. The sailplane club at the time went to the City and said, Do you realize youre giving away part of the Gliderport? They tried to stop that from happening, but not successfully, Fogel said. Roger Revelle recognized this Gliderport issue with the property use. There are newspaper clips about him saying he wanted the flying to continue. (Revelle, who died in 1991, was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in UCSDs formative years.) During the early 70s, other forms of gliding reached the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Hang gliding (a foot-launched flying apparatus where the operator is suspended from a harness) enthusiasts arrived in La Jolla, recognizing the superior soaring conditions that exist at the location, Fogel reports. Paragliders where the pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprised of interconnected cells and model sailplane experts, who fly miniature versions of sailplanes with no engine controlled by radio, took advantage of the wind conditions at Torrey Pines, slowly making up the four Gliderport uses: sailplanes, hang gliders, paragliders and model gliders. The last three occur in the City park portion of the Gliderport, while the sailplane runway still sits on UCSD land. Theres a lot of traffic at that Gliderport because you have those four forms of flying. There are times when its pretty crowded. There are specific rules for that, and when enforced, allow for safe operations to continue, Fogel said. The 1989 long-range plan for UCSD first threatened the existence of the flying resource. The plan had half of the Gliderport slated for development, he related, adding that the sudden threat helped spur interest in saving the area, and the historical designation process began. In a 1993 letter signed by then-President Bill Clinton, the traditional flying spot was designated historical at the national level. As the only remaining Gliderport in America thats directly adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, Torrey Pines Gliderport serves as an extraordinary site for the enjoyment of all Americans who are interested in the wonders of human flight, the letter reads. As a historical resource, the Gliderport couldnt be built upon, and so UCSD changed its plans, sending its growth to the eastern side of campus. Since then, the Torrey Pines UCSD-owned side has remained largely untouched. UCSD marketer Margoni, wrote in an e-mail to the Light, UC San Diego has used this university land in the past for construction staging, parking, fixed-wing glider operations and other activities, which is allowable under the Coastal Development Permit issued by the California Coastal Commission. The future of flying UCSD is in the process of finishing the Environmental Impact Review for its long-range development plan. The draft, which was presented to community attendees at two meetings, will be available by early 2018, and will cover the direction the campus will move on until 2035. Fogel pressed, My hope would be that in next long-range development plan, the University could make the entire Gliderport a recreational asset rather than an academic reserve. Im fine with them doing construction staging on their property, it makes sense, theres a value to them using it like that, but Id rather say if theres construction staging, its done in a way that allows sailplanes to continue operations. For him, an ideal outcome includes a 10-year agreement between UCSD and AGCSC to lease the runway yearly in February rather than negotiating a new deal every year. When asked if the universitys planning department would consider this option, Margoni wrote, The (California Coastal) Commission does not issue long-term permits for occasional and temporary use. California Coastal Commission (CCC) senior planner Diana Lilly told the Light the use of the area as a sailplane runway predates the California Coastal Act of 1976, and therefore, does not require a permit. As long as theyre doing what theyve always been doing, they wouldnt need any permits from us. The operation of these sailplanes ... is not something we have regulated, she explained. She added that in the past, the CCC has reviewed a number of use permits, but it wouldnt be involved in a lease agreement between AGCSC and UCSD, unless the use of the land was changed. Similarly, CalTrans division of aeronautics has been issuing yearly Temporary Airport Authorizations for the use of the runway. Aviation safety officer Michael Smith told the Light when it comes down to authorizing use, the most important requirement is that the applicant owns or controls the property at the time. It doesnt matter how long it is, you have to own or control the property, he said. As for the future of the Torrey Pines Gliderport, Margoni stated, Through the long-range development plan process, UC San Diego continues to look at the best use of university land for future academic and recreational use to meet its educational mission for all Californians. Lower Hermosa resident Anthony Stiegler, who first noticed an increase in airplane noise sometime between March and April, had been calling in complaints to the San Diego Airport Authority every time he heard a commercial jet pass by. It took a long time to make the phone call, he told La Jolla Light. You had to make the call, leave a 20- to 30-second voicemail message to give them the data they were requesting you had to do that for any and every flight that came by. Acknowledging the frustration, Chris McCann, a software developer and former Air Force pilot, and the La Jolla rep on the Airport Noise Advisory Committee (ANAC) subcommittee, started testing and ultimately released an easier system for filing complaints automatically. It simplified the process, Stiegler attested. Instead of me having to make a phone call or get online to make the complaints, it now just takes a second as opposed to minutes or much longer. Another user, Lee Miller of La Jolla agreed. Its a sanity saver, she said. Airnoise, as the platform is called, features two options: 1) A $5 monthly membership to create an account and use the service, which may be activated through the website or a switch; 2) A noise button that can be purchased for $20 and is a physical switch connected to the users Wi-Fi that sends a signal to a remote computer when the user hits it. When the button is pressed, it transmits a signal over the Internet to a system I set up, McCann began. People have already signed up from their website, put their address in, and we geo-code that address, figure out the latitude and longitude, and that info is used to look for air traffic thats near you, in about a 5-mile radius of you, up to 10,000 feet. Once the system has found the airplane likely generating the noise, the user receives a report with information about the flight and a complaint is automatically input into the Airport Authoritys system, Flight Tracker. The Airport Authority recently switched from WebTrack to Flight Tracker, a system that came with enhanced features but removed the option to input complaints by e-mail. Staff member Sjohnna Knack said at a past ANAC meeting that eliminating the e-mails freed up time for employees to analyze the data. When we get that info, we can do some investigation, when previously, all we were doing is inputting data, she explained. Beatriz Pardo of Bird Rock said she used to input her complaints by e-mail before she started using the Airnoise button. Its like a dream, she told the Light, before it took so much time. And not only that, but I wasnt able to identify the aircraft, and now I press the button and it tells me what aircraft it is, how far it is from my house, the altitude, the airline. That kind of information is what the Airport Authority needs to create analysis and reports. However, San Diego Airport public relations specialist Rebecca Bloomfield wrote in an e-mail to the Light, Some of the airnoise.io app complaints are not as helpful because they lack sufficient detail (precise location, precise time of event, etc.) needed to accurately investigate the cause of the concern. However, Airnoise creator McCann responded, Regarding ANACs comments about the complaints, the system fills in their Web form with all fields that they say are required to investigate a complaint. At one point, they made a change to the format of the date field that I wasnt aware of, but that was easily detected and corrected. In fact, Airnoise adds more information than is required about the specific flight the user is complaining about, when that information is available to the system. When asked why he decided to create this service, McCann explained, (The Airport Authority) doesnt understand how emotionally draining it is for people who are inundated by aircraft noise for three to five hours a day in their homes to go on its website and file a complaint. Im hoping to provide a mechanism to raise the signal from people over the noise. As to the cost, he said, Id love to make it completely free to people, because I didnt get into this as a business, I got into this to solve a problem, but it costs money to do this stuff and I dont want to be in a hole for providing a service. He added that more than 4,000 complaints have been generated and sent to the Airport Authority since March, and some 20 users have already signed up. The UC San Diego student-run organization CALPIRG made a presentation June 8 during the La Jolla Town Council (LJTC) meeting at the Rec Center to convince trustees to join its fight to save bees and declare La Jolla a Bee City USA. However, citing concerns about their authority to self-proclaim as a bee-friendly city, trustees approved a motion to recommend the City of San Diego become one. Some people view bees as a simple summer annoyance, but they help pollinate 90 percent of our native crops, said CALPIRG volunteer Ron Pacheco. La Jollan Diane Bush, who is a member of the San Diego Beekeeping Society, said shes been a beekeeper for 20 years. I inherited my dads two hives, she said. Ive been talking about this (issue) since 2002 when I noticed my hives go from day to night. Bush described how, in her experience, pesticides and GMO (genetically modified organism) crops can be detrimental to bees. They eat the (contaminated) pollen, they feed their babies, they go out, they forget how to get back, and thats how they die. Pacheco confirmed that yes, there have been mysterious disappearances of bees since 2006. There are 47 cities listed on the Bee City USA register, from States such as North Carolina, Wisconsin and California. To become one, a City must: 1)help raise awareness, 2) enhance habitats for bees and 3) celebrate achievements as a bee-friendly area. UCSD chemistry student and CALPIRG volunteer Steven Russum said one of the biggest factors decimating the bee population is the fragmentation of their habitat, which is something you can help with. He told trustees that, for La Jolla to become a Bee City USA, all that was needed was control over the landscaping. Id like to support your efforts, but whether we can certify if we control landscape in La Jolla, is an open question, said LJTC president Ann Kerr Bache. Trustees agreed that landscaping requirements are divided among the City of San Diego Urban Forestry Division and the La Jolla Community Plan. Trustee Gail Forbes offered, the Community Plan requires certain kinds of landscapes and trees on certain streets, so that might be another place where if you do have a list of plants that are bee-friendly, might be added in (but its) a long, slow process. A motion to encourage the City of San Diego to enter the Bee City USA register was approved unanimously. A second motion to contribute to raise awareness about bee conservancy in La Jolla was also approved. In other LJTC news: Organizations Forum: There are 13 boards that guide community life within La Jolla. According the Kerr Bache, Sometimes its difficult for the public to know what functions they provide and which one to turn to with a problem, or how to get involved. To help, the Town Council hosted a forum where the leaders of the key community boards summarized their responsibilities. La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA). Member Patrick Ahern represented the association saying, Its a very juicy powerful group, and we like juicy. LJCPA meets 6 p.m. first Thursdays at the Rec Center and overlooks land-use issues. We do about 90 projects a year. Eighty-one percent get approved (by the City), so I guess they listen to us, Ahern said. Contact: info@lajollacpa.org or lajollacpa.org La Jolla Traffic & Transportation (T&T). Chair Dave Abrams stated its focus as providing a local point for community input on traffic and transportation matters. The topics dealt with range from special events to traffic circles. T&T meets 4 p.m. third Wednesdays at the Rec Center. Contact: manana@san.rr.com La Jolla Parks & Beaches (LJP&B). President Ann Dynes introduced the group and delegated member Patrick Ahern to present its features. Our focus is the parks and the beaches of La Jolla, he related. What we do is, if theres a great plan, we get it funded, either publicly or privately. LJP&B meets 4:30 p.m. fourth Mondays at the Rec Center. Contact: lajollaparksandbeaches.org or lajollaparksandbeaches@gmail.com La Jolla Parks & Recreation, Inc. (LJPRI). Trustee Bill Robins informed, We are La Jollas back yard, he said. The board is working on a plan to renovate the playground at the facility. LJPRI meets 5 p.m. fourth Wednesdays at the Rec Center. Contact: bit.ly/ljreccenter Bird Rock Community Council (BRCC). Vice-president John Newsam said BRCCs chief function is to handle the funds of the Maintenance Assessment District (MAD) established in 2000. We also run the Bird Rock Neighborhood Watch thats been in place for many years now, he added. BRCC meets 6 p.m. first Tuesdays at local venues. Contact: info@birdrockcc.org or birdrockcc.org La Jolla Shores Association (LJSA). Chair Nick LeBeouf said the Association is a forum for matters affecting The Shores community and reporting them to the City. We also give recommendations about the City parks within our boundaries, he said. LJSA meets 6:30 p.m. second Wednesdays at 8840 Biological Grade. Contact: ljsa@gmail.org La Jolla Shores Business Association (LJSBA). President Angie Preisendorfer said the group banded together three years ago as a response to the City construction projects that took over The Shores (Sewer & Water Group 809). Were working to get over 3 million visitors to come to Avenida de la Playa, the only business district in The Shores, she said. LJSBA meets 9 a.m. third Thursdays at local businesses. Community groups not present at the forum included La Jolla Village Merchants Association, Development Permit Review Committee, La Jolla Planned District Ordinance Committee, La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee and La Jolla Shores Planned District Advisory Board. La Jolla Town Council meets 5:30 p.m. second Thursdays at La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollatowncouncil.org Lake Geneva police were able to identify three persons of interest in connection with a sexual assault investigation through a posting on Facebook. Police were able to pull the pictures of three men from surveillance cameras at a downtown Lake Geneva tavern. Police Lt. Ed Gritzner said only one of the three men is suspected of committing a misdemeanor sexual assault, inappropriately touching of one of the female patrons in the bar. The other two men came into the bar with the suspect and are believed to know him, Gritzner said. Gritzner said the apparent assault was caught by the bars surveillance camera. According to a police Facebook posting on Monday, someone identified all three men to police. Thanks to our community, once again, the persons of interest regarding the sexual assault investigation have been identified, the Facebook posting says in part. All three men live in Illinois, Gritzner said. He said police are now trying to contact the suspect to get his statement. Gritzner said the three photographs on Facebook are still on the page, but are hidden from the public. It is with great sadness we announce Charles Francis Thometz, DDS, 83, Lake Geneva, passed away peacefully in his sleep in the morning hours of June 6, 2017 at Mercy Hospital, Geneva Township. Throughout his stay in the hospital, Charles was surrounded by his family, sharing their memories, support, and prayers. Charles was born in the home of his parents, John Thometz and Louise Schick Thometz, on March 24, 1934, with his three brothers and one sister welcoming him into this world. In 1952, Charles graduated from Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Following in his fathers and brothers footsteps, Charles earned a degree in dentistry from Loyola University in 1958. He served his country in the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, from July 1958 to July 1960. Loving to make people smile, it was only natural that Charles pursued a career as an orthodontist after leaving the Army. He spent the rest of his working years perfecting other peoples smiles. At a Viator Club gathering in 1960, Charles met the love of his life, Mary Ann Sue Laske. After two years of blissful courtship, they married on June 2, 1962, and honeymooned in Yosemite National Park, a place he and his family would return to many times over the years. His love of nature and the outdoors was instilled in his children with their many trips to the national parks around the U.S., especially Yosemite, and summers in Lake Geneva. Charles and Sue developed the travel bug and journeyed extensively throughout Europe and South America. In 2010, they retired to the home Charles designed in Lake Geneva. Charles devoted his time to a multitude of organizations, causes and students. Charles spent numerous years teaching at Loyola University preparing the next generation of orthodontists. Career affiliations included American Dental Association, Illinois State Dental Society, the Chicago Dental Society (west side branch), American Association of Orthodontics and Midwest Society of Orthodontists. Charles spent more than a decade on the board of the Sunset Hills Association and he was a member of the Lake Geneva Evironmental Protection Agency. Charles was a devoted Christian and was a parishioner of St. Francis de Sales Church. Charles is survived by his wife, Mary Ann Sue; their four children, Timothy C. (Jen Choi) Thometz, DDS, Linda (Dave) Fromholz, James M. (Miryam-Catthy) Thometz and Michael C. Thometz; and their four grandchildren, Jessica, Jennifer, Eric and Brian. He is also survived by his siblings, Ruth and William. He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Louise; and his brothers, John and Richard. Visitation was Sunday from 4 until 8 p.m. in the chapel of Derrick Funeral Home in Lake Geneva. Mass of Christian Burial was Monday June 12, at 11 a.m., at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Lake Geneva. Bishop James Scheurman officiated. There also was visitation Tuesday, June 13, from 4 until 8 p.m. at Oehler Funeral Home in Des Plaines, Illinois. A prayer service was held on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the funeral home with burial in All Saints Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to a favorite charity or Yosemite Conservancy Fund (yosemiteconservancy.org). To sign the online guest registry, go to www.derrickfuneralhome.com. Bloomfield Municipal Judge David Schiltz should resign from his seat immediately. He shouldnt sit on the bench as the sheriffs department investigates him for practicing law without a license. The citizens of Bloomfield, its police department and the licensed litigators who practice there deserve better. According to records from the Wisconsin Bar Association, Schiltz has had his license suspended twice. While his license was suspended, Schiltz submitted bills for legal work done in the town of Linn. Theres no excuse for this, he must step down. The integrity of the position is too important. It may come as a surprise to many of our readers, but a municipal judge doesnt need to have a law degree to serve on the bench. The local judges oversee proceedings that stem from alleged violations of municipal law speeding tickets, property nuisance ordinances and first-offense drunken driving citations. Circuit court judges handle criminal offenses misdemeanors and felonies. Circuit court judges need law degrees and also must meet other requirements. Throughout Walworth County there are municipal judges who are not practicing attorneys, and there are others who are accomplished in the legal field. In Genoa City, Robert Klabunde has served for decades, and hes not a lawyer. In the town of Geneva, Scott Letteney is also a long-standing judge, and is also an accomplished counselor for the city of Racine. Both are well-regarded municipal judges. Municipal judges arent required to have a law license because the judge oversees proceedings that occur at the local level. The decisions they make should be based in common sense, which is the one of the main requirements for the position. Clearly, Schiltz lacked the main requirement when his law license was suspended and he failed to immediately inform his municipal client. The town of Linn will certainly face hurdles and ramifications for his decision, especially cases where Schiltz acted as the prosecutor for the village. We wont opine on whether Schiltz should face criminal charges for his actions. We trust Walworth County District Attorney Zeke Wiedenfeld who has a law license and is in good standing to make that judgement. However, Schiltz shouldnt wait for a decision from Wiedenfeld to step down. He should do it now. The Regional News editorial board consists of General Manager and Editor Robert Ireland, Resorter Editor and Special Project Coordinator Jessica Franzene-Miller, Office Manager Sue Hinske and Managing Editor David Michels. Honoring Cesar Chavez Op Ed by Ruben Martinez, Ph.D. Cesar Chavez died near his hometown of Yuma, AZ on April 22, 1993 at the age of 66. Chavez was in San Luis, AZ to assist UFW attorneys defend the union against a lawsuit brought by Bruce Church Inc. (BCI), a giant California-based lettuce and vegetable producer. Eastern Michigan University's 12th annual Cesar Chavez celebration YPSILANTI: Eastern Michigan University is the most diverse university in Michigan, which it holds as a defining and singular strength. As part of that, EMU is proud to host various events throughout the year that celebrate all races, cultures and ethnicities. Por: Isabel Flores, corresponsal La Prensa DETROIT, MI: La Comision Nacional de Libros de Textos Gratuitos (Conaliteg) cuenta en su portal de internet con el acervo digital de todos los libros de texto gratuitos para el ciclo escolar 2019 - 2020. El catalogo puede consultarse en la direccion: http:/libros.conaliteg.gob.mx De esta manera, los ninos podran mantenerse entretenidos con informacion en su propio idioma y estar al dia con sus materias, mientras se encuentran en casa por la contingencia. Census 2020: Todos Debemos ser Contados (File photo) WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The "One Country, Two Systems" policy in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been a success and continues to benefit Hong Kong people, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau Kurt Tong said on Tuesday. "The unique form of governance that is exercised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has been largely successful," said Tong here at an event hosted by Center for Strategic & International Studies. "China, the United States and other nations, but most importantly the people of Hong Kong themselves, continue to benefit from the unique 'One country, Two systems' framework that allows Hong Kong to be special and different while still being part of China," said Tong, adding that the people of Hong Kong are "prosperous and safe." The upcoming July 1 marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR. Enacted in accordance with China's Constitution, the Basic Law of the HKSAR specifies the guidelines of "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" with a high degree of autonomy. PRESS RELEASE Bill Perry Blasts Bush and Obama on North Korea, Says This Is a Promising Window for Negotiation June 13, 2017 (EIRNS)Former Defense Secretary William Perry spoke "from the heart" (as he said) at the Institute for Korean Studies at George Washington University today. His recent book, "My Journey at the Nuclear Brink," which has just been released in Chinese, issued a stern warning against Obamas drive for war in Asia, and has advised the new administration on the urgency of talking to North Korea. A beautiful anecdote he gave: In 2006, four years after the Bush/Cheney team had ripped up the Agreed Framework which Perry and others had negotiated in 1994, and set North Korea on the path to building nuclear weapons, Perry was invited to Pyongyang to attend a guest performance of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which had been invited by North Korea. Perry had been attending the inauguration of the new South Korean President the day before, and explained that he could not make it (one had to travel to the North via Beijing, so there was not time). They offered to drive him across the Demilitarized Zone, and he accepted. He knew this was a signal, and asked Condoleeza Rice if she would go. She said, "No, its only a concert." Perry said: "Thats like saying the ping-pong with China was only ping-pong." He then attended the concert, which he said was magnificent, Everyone stood for the Star Spangled Banner, and the final piece, a Korean folk song, had the most hardened North Korean generals in tears. A twenty-minute standing ovation followed the concert. "And I was the only U.S. official there." After this failure to respond to a message from Pyongyang, he said, it was all downhill. "Sixteen years of feckless policyor rather, no policy," he said about Bush and Obama, "Im bi-partison on this." "You have to understand what the other side wants in diplomacy. We stopped listening. Bush wanted to overthrow the Kim Dynastywell, thats okay, but there was no way to do it, so it was foolish. Then Obamas "strategic patiencesqueeze them and the Kim regime will collapse. Foolish, the same feckless policy." From years of working with North Korea, he said, he knows that they will never use their nuclear weapons, since they are neither crazy nor irrational, despite their ruthless actions. He understands that they have three goals: sustain the Kim dynasty; gain international respect; and build the economybut it is important that it is in that order. They need economic development, and are calling for it, but never at the expense of losing the dynasty nor of being humiliated internationally. Their nuclear weapons give them these two things. Therefore, he believes, a solution requires granting them their nukes, at least for now, and calling for an end to testing, both bombs and missiles. This can be verified without inspectors on the ground. But, the United States has no dis-incentives, since they have cut all support and loaded on sanctions. Only China has disincentives available, but will not go too far. Thus, the U.S and China must, together, talk to the North, and assure them there will be no war, no regime-change, no humiliation. EIR intervened to add that Russia must be part of that, and that it is only if Pyongyang believes that the United States, China, and Russia are truly working together, as Trump is tending to do, that they will make any deal. Perry responded: "I agree with you. I strongly agree. China is key, but Russia is crucial, and must not be left out." On the Six-Party Talks, he said they clearly failed, but the reason is that neither Bush nor Obama had a policy. Economic offers are good, but not sufficient. They must first be given security and respect, and are willing to give up economic support if they dont get it. Now, he said, with the new administrations in South Korea and the United States, there is a new window of opportunity, "a very promising window." PRESS RELEASE Senators Concoct a New Sanctions Bill Against Russia; Tillerson Calls for Dialogue June 13, 2017 (EIRNS)On June 12, a bipartisan group of senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and ranking Democrat Ben Cardin (Md.), announced an agreement on a legislative package that would codify sanctions on Russia that were imposed by the Obama Administration, thus taking out of President Trumps hands the ability to end them as quickly as Obama imposed them. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested as much in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning. Tillerson said that the U.S. and Russia "have some channels that are open where were starting to talk, and I think what I wouldnt want to do is close the channels off with something new." Coverage in Politico hints that Tillersons opposition "spells trouble" for the sanctions deal. The House has yet to take up the bill, which is currently scheduled for a Senate vote tomorrow. The new Senate anti-Russia bill places new economic restrictions, in an effort to economically harm specific individuals and Russias economy. The new sanctions would be placed on Russians "who violate human rights, supply weapons to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria or who are involved in the Russian defense and intelligence industry," reported NBC News. Yahoo Newss Michael Isikof reported on June 5 that the Obama moles in the State Department, cronies of former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, gave birth to this effort, after going "berserk" last Winter, over the possibility that President Trump might succeed in improving U.S.-Russia relations. The senators also agreed that these sanctions could not be lifted without Congressional approval. "By codifying existing sanctions and requiring Congressional review of any decision to weaken or lift them, we are ensuring that the United States continues to punish President Putin for his reckless and destabilizing actions," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a statement endorsing the package, based on the lie that the Democrats lost the election because of the mythical Russian interference. "These additional sanctions will also send a powerful and bipartisan statement to Russia and any other country who might try to interfere in our elections that they will be punished." The measure is to be attached as an amendment (identified as the Corker amendment) to Iran sanctions legislation that passed a Senate procedural vote 92-7 last week. PRESS RELEASE Senate Narrowly Defeats a Resolution that Would Have Blocked U.S. Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia June 13, 2017 (EIRNS)The Senate voted 53 to 47, today, against a resolution of disapproval that would have blocked the sale of $500 million worth of air-dropped munitions to Saudi Arabia. The resolution, which was co-sponsored by Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.), specifically addressed the proposed sale of GPS guidance kits for air-dropped bombs, fuses for those bombs, and laser-guided bombs. A similar resolution, last Fall, garnered only 27 votes. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumers announcement yesterday, that he would support the resolution, undoubtedly helped to lift the vote in its favor. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) argued that the guidance kits were necessary so that the Saudi Air Force could bomb targets more accurately in Yemen and not kill civilians. Sen. Paul rejected that argument, pointing out that the Saudi bombing of a funeral observance in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, last October, was no accident. That bombing killed 125 people and wounded over 500 others and was clearly aimed at the Houthi leadership that was present at the gathering. "This was no mistake," Paul said. "This was no error." Furthermore, the Saudis put protestors in jail, they behead and crucify them, they supported ISIS, and, "They are the greatest purveyors of hatred of Christianity and Judaism," Paul said. "We dont have to encourage their behavior by selling them weapons." A documentary about Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) My Railway, My Story has recently gone viral in Kenya. Some 1/7 of Kenya's total population has watched the show. The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation ran it six times in three days and its view count soon exceeded 30 million in mere five days. All these figures sufficiently reflect Kenyan peoples enthusiasm on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway. Do you know why Im so strict to you? You're the first Kenyan doing this test. If you dont do it well, you cant teach others, this is what Jiang Yafeng told his protege Onesmus, a laboratory technician of the railways Sections 6 Project Site Office, before Jiang went back to China. Jiang had been working on the project for 8 years. He is not only a mentor to Onesmus, but also a friend. On the day of the opening of the SGR, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta sent out 11 tweets, and one of them stated: The SGR is a milestone marking Kenyas transformation to an industrialized, prosperous and middle-income country. A very important reason is that Chinese builders brought the advanced technology, management and service. Moreover, they taught a strong construction team step by step. This can make me tell my children... Ill be telling them about me working at the Standard Gauge Railway and what I used to do here, said Miriam, a plant operator. She believed that the working experience she gained at the SGR is a precious memory to the next generation, which embodies Kenyan peoples expectations of the future. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing regarding the Russia probe on Tuesday took a brief turn toward the literary, with Sessions and a Republican senator referencing the work of several spy novelists. Sessions appeared before the committee to deny that he played any part in colluding with Russia to swing the 2016 election in President Trumps favor, which he called scurrilous and false allegations. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who has been skeptical about suggestions that the Russians might have interfered with the election, used his turn at the microphone to ask Sessions whether he was familiar with trade craft, a term used to describe techniques used in espionage. Advertisement After Sessions confirmed he was familiar with the term, Cotton asked, Do you like spy fiction, John le Carre, Daniel Silva, Jason Matthews? Yeah, Alan Furst, David Ignatius I just finished Ignatius book, Sessions responded. Have you ever, in any of the fantastical situations, heard of a plotline so ridiculous that a sitting United States senator and an ambassador of a foreign government colluded in an open setting with hundreds of other people to pull off the greatest caper in the history of espionage? Cotton asked. In fact, this is not such a far stretch for fiction. In the recently reissued novel The Twentieth Day of January by Ted Allbeury, a Republican presidents former campaign manager and his chief of staff are Russian sleeper agents that a British intelligence officer hopes to expose. Slate notes that the book, originally published in 1980, was written by a former British intelligence officer. Sessions seemed unaware of that book, and appeared to agree that Cottons proposition sounded too preposterous for even fiction. Thank you for saying that, Sen. Cotton, Sessions said. Its just like through the looking-glass. I mean, what is this? I explained how, in good faith, I said I had not met with Russians because they were suggesting I as a surrogate had been meeting continuously with Russians. I said I didnt meet with them. John le Carre, perhaps the most famous English-language spy novelist, declined to comment on the testimony, his publisher Viking said. Le Carre's novels have often dealt with Russian espionage. His 1974 book Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was about a Soviet mole who had infiltrated a British foreign intelligence agency, and he wrote about the Soviet Union in novels like Smileys People and The Russia House. His next book, A Legacy of Spies, is scheduled for release in September. It will be the first book in 25 years to feature his most famous character, British intelligence officer George Smiley. Daniel Silva, whose latest novel House of Spies will be published next month, didnt directly address the shout-out from Cotton, but retweeted a post from his wife, CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel: The timing of Cottons question was felicitous for Jason Matthews,whose novel Palace of Treason was released in paperback on Tuesday. The book is about a Russian double agent secretly working for the CIA, and includes Vladimir Putin as a character. Matthews inclusion in Cottons question didnt go unnoticed by his publisher: Do you know your spy fiction & trade craft like @SenTomCotton? Keep an eye out for a new #JasonMatthews in 2018 https://t.co/pmMXQ91EYi Scribner (@ScribnerBooks) June 14, 2017 Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz seconded Sessions endorsement of Alan Furst, whose latest novel, A Hero of France, was published in February: If you've never read Alan Furst, do so now and thank Jefferson Beauregard Sessions for introducing you to him. John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) June 13, 2017 David Ignatius, a spy novelist and Washington Post columnist, seemed delighted to have been mentioned by Sessions: It's not the Oprah Book Club, but I'll take it! (H/t @AdriUsero ) pic.twitter.com/qsqcZz9c4p David Ignatius (@IgnatiusPost) June 13, 2017 Ignatius next book, The Quantum Spy, is scheduled to be published in November. On an early June day, Tracy K. Smith looked out the window of her office at Princeton University at a sculpture by Picasso as students and their families prepared for graduation activities. None of them knew that Smith, who was fielding a battery of phone calls, would soon be announced as the U.S. poet laureate. The Library of Congress makes it official Wednesday. At 45, Smith is unusually young to receive the honor other younger recipients include Rita Dove, Robert Lowell and Natasha Tretheway. Established in 1936 as the consultant in poetry and changed in 1985 by Congress to poet laureate, the position has also been held by Donald Hall, Robert Pinsky, Robert Penn Warren, Philip Levine and Joseph Brodsky. Smith succeeds Juan Felipe Herrera who was the first Latino poet laureate. From a childhood in Fairfield, Calif. which is between San Francisco and Sacramento to winning the Cave Canem poetry prize for 2003s The Bodys Question and on to being awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her most recent collection, Life on Mars, Smith has shown a singular focus and dedication to her craft. If the role of the poet laureate is, in part, to be an ambassador, Smith will be a representative for listening, quiet and contemplation. She spoke to me by phone from that office; our conversation has been edited. The poet laureate title often caps off a career, but youre getting it at 45. What does that mean to you? Theres a different kind of weight that Ive been mulling over in that regard. Anytime acknowledgement comes and this is the greatest acknowledgement that Ive experienced ever as a writer it makes me feel like, OK, someones listening, and someone wants me to keep doing what I love and need to do. And that feels really good. Beyond that, I try and push away any sense of the external pressure to be a certain kind of writer, and really focus on the work that sustains me, which is quiet, and its private, and its contemplative. I feel really fortunate that Natasha Tretheway, who was also a young laureate, is a friend seeing how her work as a writer continues to grow and change, and shes pushing herself now into a new genre, I feel heartened that this doesnt have to be the end point of anything in my career, but rather a turning point. I have this idea that this forum of the laureateship might open up inroads to different, quieter kinds of conversations than Im used to having. Tracy K. Smith Being poet laureate includes having a public engagement role. Do you know what you might do? Thats something Im beginning to think about. Luckily I have a little bit of time to formulate a clear sense of what Id like to do, and what might be still new for the office. I know my curiosity as a writer and as a person makes me really interested in moving to parts of the country that I havent explored through writers festivals or through the kind of campus visits that I do on a regular basis, and engaging with people who may be readers of poetry and may not. And listening to what their reactions to this art form sound like, and what kinds of stories within their own set of experiences are spoken to. What stories get activated by that conversation. I have this idea that this forum of the laureateship might open up inroads to different, quieter kinds of conversations than Im used to having, in places that have maybe less access to festivals or reading series. When you say quieter, what do you mean? I like to use that word because I feel like a poem draws us, draws me, into a quieter space, a decibel level that sits below the register of the media that we live with. Im talking about advertising and the sound bites that we are drawn toward with and without our consent. I like the way that when youre reading a poem, its one voice talking quietly to you about something that has happened. Something that has made the speaker of the poem to feel powerfully changed, powerfully present, powerfully alive. And the conversations that come out of that kind of engagement are also thoughtful. Theyre not about reacting immediately with utter confidence to something, but teasing out something that is nuanced and a little bit unusual. A poem, necessarily, sits at a register thats different from our usual conversational voices. You have to listen more actively to get to the heart of whats being said, what you as a reader or listener are being asked to feel, or notice. Read Tracy K. Smith's poem "Wade in the Water" at the New Yorker, where you can also hear her read it aloud Could you tell me about that experience of reading, listening? I first got caught up in this marvelous feeling of being spoken to in that very direct, private, magical way by a poem when I was really young. I was in grade school and had found an Emily Dickinson poem in a textbook. The poem that begins, Im nobody, who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then theres a pair of us! Dont tell! Feeling like I was in collusion with someone that knew more about me than I knew about myself, and who I suspected was right. And I liked that feeling. Then it was a handful of years later when I realized there were poets who were still alive and writing; reading publicly and talking about their work. Thats when I understood that this was a vocation that could be real for me. It wasnt just a matter of dreaming about bygone days when people wrote poems but of actually finding communities of people who were still doing that, and who could teach me how to do it. What role did the organization Cave Canem have in creating community for you? Cave Canem is a yearly retreat for black poets where there are workshops with a group of faculty members and readings. Its this really beautiful gathering where a lot of art gets made and a lot of conversations and teaching happen. Theres also a book prize that Cave Canem sponsors for a book of poems by a black poet. So its kind of a home for black poetry. What I really have seen happen over the last 20 years is how Cave Canem has, I think, reinvigorated American poetry. And now other organizations have kind of followed suit. Kundiman, which is an Asian American retreat similar to Cave Canem, has been going for close to 20 years now. And there are other ways that the chorus of American poetry has broadened and deepened in ways that I think are really beautiful, owing in really direct ways to what Cave Canem has done. What advice would you give to a poet who doesnt have a community, has only reached the dead poet speaking to them from the page? There are so many more resources now for finding the community that will nurture you. Part of it I think comes from doing a little bit of investigation online and saying, where is there going to be a reading near me? Or what journals post their poems online so I can be in real time observation of things that people are writing right now? And then I would also say, reading is probably a pretty good thing to cleave to. As Ive been teaching longer and longer, I realize I learn so much from the voices Im naturally drawn to, the writers I love on an instinctive level but I also learn so much from the writers that I have to work to grasp. I learn so much about different approaches to question asking, and even different contexts to explore. Im always telling young writers, continue to read what you love, but push yourself beyond the bounds or limits of your own taste, because it helps you to grow. Youre a professor at Princeton, serve as the chair of its creative writing department, are married and have young children. How do you create the quiet and space to write? I think that since having kids, its really easy. My tolerance for noise has probably changed a lot. For me, quiet and space to create is 8:45 in the morning, everybodys at school, and theres just the hum of the refrigerator. Thatll do it for me. Thats my trick. Just close the door and sit down, knowing I only have a handful of hours before its going to get noisy again. Our current conversation is so racially charged. What role do you think poetry can have to play in that? Does it have a responsibility? I feel like the responsibility of the poet is to the urges that set the poem into motion. And generally those urges are for something that is more concrete, more nuanced, more visceral, move observable and more mysterious than the kind of things that are attempting to call our attention to them in the discourse youre talking about. I feel like thats so necessary. Its so necessary to look away from your computer screen where things are popping up, and where some of your strong opinions some of which are founded on real, measured thought, but many of which are founded on a kind of gut reaction where those things are challenged. What youre forced to do is listen anew to something. And to say that the most successful path through a set of questions is not to go to the simplest, flattest, loudest point and rush out, but to move, with a lot of attention, and with some self-doubt, and with a willingness to be persuaded through all of the more nuanced facets of the conversation. Another way of saying that would be, our lives are so much more interesting than the ways that they are described from the outside. Were so much more important to one another as individuals with experiences and questions and histories than we are as social categories. Its important to think about those sources that are saying, wait, you have a mother, and this is your relationship with her, this is what you wish could be different, and this is what you wish you could return to. I have a mother too, and she looks nothing like yours, but we can have something to say to each other. Those are the kind of conversations that art fosters. I think theyre incredibly necessary right now. Always. But any time that we feel social uncertainty, those are the kinds of conversations that are steadying. Here are some findings about Obamacare repeal that congressional Republicans and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price will have trouble explaining away: Under the GOPs Affordable Care Act repeal bill, individuals will be paying an average 27% more for their insurance by 2026 than under current law. Thats $162 per month more, on average. Stunningly, cost-sharing that is, co-pays and deductibles would rise by an average 61% compared to current law. Gross premiums would be lower than under the current law, in part because insurance would offer fewer benefits, but net premiums after subsidies would be higher. The new estimate was released Tuesday by the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CMS is nominally under Prices jurisdiction, but he may not have been paying attention to their work on the estimated financial effect of the American Health Care Act, the House Republican repeal bill. The results give the lie to Prices assertion just one day ago that repeal will relieve Americans of rising insurance premiums. Advertisement The results also come as Senate Republicans are trying to cobble together their own version of the repeal bill passed by the House in early May. The Senate effort is being conducted behind closed doors by a small cadre of Republicans so secretive that not even other Republican senators, much less members of the general public, have seen their work. For all the pain of higher individual costs, the report finds that the repeal measure would have a negligible effect on overall healthcare spending in the U.S. a reduction of a mere $258 billion, or 0.2% of gross domestic product, over 10 years. U.S. GDP is currently about $18 trillion. The new report can be read as a supplement and complement to analyses of the repeal measure by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO projected that the repeal bill would drive about 23 million Americans out of the insurance market by 2026. The CMS actuaries project that there will be about 13 million more uninsureds by that point. The reason for the discrepancy isnt entirely clear, though the actuaries project that the repeal will drive 8 million Americans off Medicaid, and the CBO says the loss would be 14 million, or 17% of enrollment. The Republican bill eviscerates Medicaid by repealing the Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion after 2020, and cutting more than $830 billion out of the programs spending over 10 years. The actuaries focus more than the CBO on dollar costs at the household level. Their findings are shocking. They project that households would face nearly $221 billion more in medical expenses in 2017-2026 under the repeal bill, largely because subsidies would be skimpier and some states would take advantage of the repeal measures provisions allowing them to waive community rating, which mandates that premiums be the same for everyone regardless of medical condition. The total burden on households would be lower only $21 billion but thats mostly because the repeal measure eliminates a Medicare tax paid now by high-income taxpayers, as well as a tax on health insurance premiums scheduled to go into effect next year. In other words, a good portion of the netting out goes only to high-income households. Everyone else pays more. Costs would also rise for state and local governments, which would be saddled with an increase of $253 billion, or 1.9%, in comparison to existing law. Obviously, this would translate into a cost for taxpaying households, too. Medicare would do poorly, with its deficit increased and its trust fund depleted in 2026, two years earlier than under current law. Thats mostly because of repeal of the Medicare tax. The actuaries point out that the effect of repeal would vary widely by age. Put simply, older Americans would be stomped. Thats because the repeal measure changes the premium differential from the ACAs three-to-one (older insurance buyers can be charged no more than three times the premium of younger buyers) to five-to-one, while changing the ACAs premium subsidies from one based on income to one based on age. But the subsidy differential would only be two-to-one, so older buyers would get much less assistance than their younger cohorts. As a result, the actuaries estimate that by 2026, enrollments in the 18-29 age range would be 10% higher than under current law, but for those 50-59 enrollments would plummet by more than 12% and for those over 60 theyd be lower by 16%. That foretells a major public health crisis, because older Americans tend to be sicker and need more medical services. Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com. Return to Michael Hiltziks blog. MORE FROM MICHAEL HILTZIK Trumps sabotage of Obamacare has just claimed 10,000 new victims How price-cutting middlemen are making crucial drugs vastly more expensive While you watched Comey, Senate GOP moved to cripple healthcare (and California moved to expand it) The same month that a viral video depicted a United Airlines passenger being dragged from his seat, complaints against airlines in the U.S. soared 70%. A U.S. Department of Transportation report Wednesday showed that 1,909 complaints were filed in April against airlines flying in the U.S., up from 1,123 complaints in the same month last year. Although flight delays and cancellations increased somewhat in April, the most likely cause of the complaint surge was the public reaction to the bloody incident April 9 that put a focus on the treatment of passengers by the nations airlines. Advertisement David Dao, a passenger on a flight from Chicago to Louisville, Ky., was dragged from a seat and down the airplane aisle by airport security officers after refusing to give up the seat, which United wanted for an airline crew member. Dao suffered a broken nose, a concussion and lost two teeth in the incident. United and Daos attorneys reached a settlement over the incident but both sides declined to disclose the terms. Paul Hudson, founder of the passenger rights group Flyersrights.org, said the Dao incident may have emboldened passengers to speak out about how airlines are treating them. A lot of people have realized that things are bad and that they can complain about it, said Hudson, whose group has more than 60,000 members. The biggest number of complaints filed in April were against American Airlines (324), followed by Delta Air Lines (297) and United (265), the federal report said. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airline had the highest rate of complaints, 7.2 complaints for every 100,000 passengers, compared with 3.04 complaints for every 100,000 passengers for United Airlines. Most complaints were about flight problems such as cancellations and delays. Those complaints more than doubled in April, to 753 from 372 the year-earlier period, the federal agency said. Complaints about overbooking also more than doubled, to 89 from 42 in April 2016. In April, 78.5% of all flights by U.S. carriers arrived on time, down from the 84.5% on-time rate a year earlier. The rate of canceled flights rose to 1.6% of all scheduled domestic flights from the 0.9% cancellation rate posted in April 2016, according to the agency. hugo.martin@latimes.com To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter. President Trump intends to nominate Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel to return to the Federal Communications Commission after her term lapsed at the end of last year because of political maneuvering. The White House announced the coming nomination of Rosenworcel, a supporter of tough net neutrality rules for online traffic, late Monday night. But her nomination is not expected to impede efforts by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, to roll back the net neutrality rules later this year. If confirmed by the Senate, Rosenworcel would become only the second FCC commissioner to serve nonconsecutive terms. Advertisement Her first five-year term expired in May 2016, but she was allowed to stay on until the end of the year as Democrats pushed Senate Republican leaders to allow a confirmation vote after President Obama renominated her. Although Rosenworcel had bipartisan support, Senate Republican leaders did not bring her nomination up for a vote. President Obama had renominated her in January shortly before he left office, but Trump withdrew the nomination a few weeks later. Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a Georgetown University law professor and longtime telecommunications consumer advocate, cheered the decision to renominate Rosenworcel. This appointment rights a wrong because she deserved confirmation last year and should have been sitting on the commission all along, he said. I look forward to her zealous advocacy for universal broadband deployment, especially for younger Americans. The five-member commission now has two Republicans Pai and Michael ORielly and one Democrat, Mignon Clyburn. Pai, who joined the FCC three days after Rosenworcel in 2012, congratulated her on the nomination. She has a distinguished record of public service, including the four and a half years we worked together at this agency, and I look forward to working with her once again to advance the public interest, he said. Clyburns term expires at the end of the month, but she could stay on until the end of the year unless a replacement is confirmed. The agency generally needs at least three members for a quorum to vote on rules and take other formal actions. Clyburn also congratulated Rosenworcel on Wednesday. I look forward to working with her in the fight for an open Internet, affordable broadband and strong consumer privacy protections, Clyburn said, indicating she hoped to stay on at the FCC for another term. Trump appears to intend to nominate Rosenworcel, a former FCC and Senate staffer, to fill the Democratic vacancy created when former Chairman Tom Wheeler stepped down Jan. 20 upon Trumps inauguration. The White House will specify which seat Rosenworcel would fill when it formally sends the nomination to the Senate. Trump could renominate Clyburn along with another Republican, which would allow the agency to retain its GOP majority. The political party of the president gets to hold three of the agencys five seats. FCC nominations usually move through the Senate in bipartisan pairs. Rosenworcels nomination is expected to be paired with the renomination of Pai, whose five-year term expires later this year. When Democrats controlled the agency in 2015, Rosenworcel joined with Clyburn and then-Chairman Wheeler to pass the controversial net neutrality rules that subjected broadband providers to the same utility-like oversight as conventional phone companies. The move was strongly opposed by Republicans and major broadband providers, such as AT&T Inc. The regulations are designed to ensure the unfettered flow of online content. They prohibit broadband providers from slowing Internet speeds for some content such as video streams, selling faster lanes for delivering data or otherwise discriminating against any legal online material. Pai has proposed to reverse the utility-like oversight of broadband providers, a move Democrats and consumer advocates said would make it difficult to police net neutrality regulations. Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com ALSO Trump nominee denies that he was trying to imply he had an Ivy League degree Mnuchin calls for major rollbacks of Dodd-Frank financial reforms To fight unemployment, Trump plans to push apprenticeships. But will he spend more money on them? UPDATES: 8:45 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, along with some additional analysis. This article was originally published at 5:50 a.m. Three executives from Japan loom large in a cramped courtroom here at least their photos do, mounted on a white poster board propped in front of the jury. They were the key decision-makers, one attorney said during opening arguments in a lawsuit brought by a local widow against a giant Tokyo-based medical device maker. Theresa Biglers case is the first to go to trial in the U.S. stemming from a series of deadly superbug outbreaks across the country that were linked to contaminated medical scopes. She is suing Olympus Corp., claiming that one of its tainted devices caused the infection that led to her husbands death in August 2013. Advertisement The Olympus executives, her attorneys say, remained silent for too long about a design flaw that hindered cleaning of these reusable scopes. The executives, however, will not be testifying. Each is currently under criminal investigation and would potentially risk their freedom to attend, Olympus said in a May 22 court filing. Each executive invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in depositions late last year in Tokyo. Richard Bigler, 57, was one of at least 35 patients in U.S. hospitals to have died since 2013 after developing infections tied to Olympus duodenoscopes flexible, lighted tubes used to peer deep inside the body. More than 25 patients and families, from California to Pennsylvania, have sued Olympus alleging wrongful death, negligence or fraud. Several members of Biglers family testified this week, tearfully recalling how they thought the funny, affectionate husband, father and grandfather was beating pancreatic cancer diagnosed in late 2012. Then he contracted the infection. His wife told jurors Wednesday that he declined so rapidly, neither she nor her four children had a chance to say goodbye. Only months later, when she read a newspaper account of an outbreak of drug-resistant infections blamed on the scopes, did she realize what had happened and confirm it with the Seattle hospital, Virginia Mason Medical Center, said Bigler, who lives in Woodway, outside Seattle. In California, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and Huntington Hospital in Pasadena have reported lethal infections linked to Olympus scopes. The Seattle case may serve as a bellwether for future litigation. It also offers a preview of the evidence federal prosecutors in New Jersey could use against Olympus in a possible criminal case. Olympus said its cooperating with the prosecutors, who have declined to comment on their investigation. In his opening argument in the Seattle courtroom, plaintiffs attorney David Beninger said the company put sales ahead of safety to achieve market dominance. Olympus controls 85% of the U.S. market for gastrointestinal scopes. Its a dont ask, dont tell policy, Beninger said. Keep selling, no telling. At Virginia Mason Medical Center, 39 people were infected from contaminated Olympus scopes and 18 of them died. The Seattle hospital said the patients who died had other underlying illnesses. Bigler, a small-business owner who loved the outdoors, had been battling pancreatic cancer when he underwent a scope procedure in 2013. Olympus attorney Mark Anderson defended the companys scope as a medical breakthrough and cast blame on the hospital for failing to follow the companys cleaning instructions. Mr. Bigler missed out on life events as a result of the care he got at that hospital. There is an issue about whether they were properly cleaning these scopes. But no, the data doesnt show that it is a product defect, Anderson told the jury. An investigation by federal, state and county officials concluded that Virginia Mason followed proper cleaning procedures. In an unusual strategy, the hospital and Bigler family have teamed up against Olympus at trial and both sides are seeking damages. The hospital and the family have focused primarily on Susumu Nishina. He told the companys U.S. managers in February 2013 not to issue a broad warning to American hospitals despite reports of scope-related infections in Dutch, French and U.S. hospitals, internal emails show. Those emails, introduced as evidence in the trial, were first reported in July 2016 by Kaiser Health News and the Los Angeles Times. Nishina and the two other executives who declined to testify, Hisao Yabe and Hiroki Moriyama, hold top roles in regulatory affairs, quality assurance or medical manufacturing. All three have declined to comment. An expert witness called to the stand last week testified that Olympus would have realized its scopes were defective if it had sufficiently tested its cleaning and disinfection process before putting the devices on the market in 2010. I found there was completely inadequate premarket validation testing. It was essentially nothing in my opinion, William Rutala, an infection-control expert at the University of North Carolina, told the jury. Rutala has served as an expert witness for Olympus in the past during litigation involving other types of scopes. He said that the company asked him twice to testify on its behalf for this trial but that he refused because of the companys failure to ensure patient safety. I have been deceived. I thought there were meaningful data associated with [reprocessing] validation, Rutala testified. This device was intrinsically defective. Other documents released at the trial show that Olympus received a complaint from Virginia Mason as early as January 2011 about patient debris trapped inside the tip of the scope that was extremely difficult to remove. During the trial, a company official said there was no evidence of infection or other devices becoming contaminated so Olympus didnt report the matter to federal regulators. Outbreaks at European and U.S. hospitals started to occur soon after. In 2012, after an outbreak at a Dutch hospital, an independent expert hired by Olympus and the hospital concluded in a report that the scopes design could allow blood and tissue to become trapped, spreading bacteria from one patient to the next. The experts report called on Olympus to conduct a worldwide investigation and recall all of its scopes if similar problems turned up. Nishina disputed many of the experts findings in his own 2012 report, released publicly for the first time as evidence in this case. The Olympus executive said the engineers report includes many unscientific views, and isnt valuable to be trusted. Nishina said the expert has a prejudiced imagination and the endoscope has been confirmed to be sufficiently reprocessable following the instruction manual, according to the report. By 2013, Olympus executives in the U.S. were complaining internally about Tokyos response to the infections, according to company documents filed in court. Some U.S. hospitals and clinics had asked about a safety alert the company issued to European customers that year. I was pushing [Olympus Japan] to take a position on this EU [European Union] action, but as you can see from my communications with [Japan], they feel that no universal communication is required, Laura Storms, vice president of regulatory and clinical affairs in Center Valley, Pa., wrote in a Feb. 6, 2013, email to a U.S. colleague that was introduced as evidence. Therefore, it places us in an awkward position, she added. However, this is part of the bigger problem, in my viewpoint, of lack of leadership and direction from [Olympus Japan]. With the Tokyo executives absent, however, Storms has been the companys chief defender during several days on the witness stand. She emphasized that the company thoroughly investigated each report of contamination or infection and regularly sent company employees to hospitals to provide training and technical assistance. But Beninger, the plaintiffs attorney, pressed Storms as to why she didnt tell doctors at Virginia Mason about previous outbreaks in the Netherlands, France, Germany, New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania that had already been reported to the company. I told them we did have complaints, Storms said. Chad Terhune and JoNel Aleccia are senior correspondents for Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent publication of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Lyft casts itself as the softer, kinder alternative to Uber. But theres nothing gentle about the way the countrys second-largest ride-hailing company is capitalizing on its chief rivals missteps. While Uber has been engulfed in months of turmoil, capped off Tuesday by the release of the findings of an investigation into workplace culture and news of founder Travis Kalanicks hiatus, Lyft has raised an additional $600 million in funding to fuel its expansion. It has announced a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to unveil a fleet of luxury vehicles, once Ubers forte, and announced self-driving car partnerships with General Motors and Googles parent company, Alphabet, which is suing Uber, accusing it of stealing trade secrets. And dont think for a second that Lyft wasnt giddy about the #DeleteUber campaign in January, when social media users lashed out at Uber for appearing to continue to offer service at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York during a taxi strike over President Trumps ban on travel from seven majority Muslim countries. Advertisement Were woke. Our community is woke, and the U.S. population is woke, Lyft President John Zimmer told Time magazine in an interview, using a term popularized by black activist communities to denote familiarity with class struggle and hidden power dynamics. He also described his company as the better boyfriend. Ubers loss is already proving to be Lyfts gain. The smaller San Francisco ride-hailing company has seen its U.S. market share rise to 24.7% from 21.2% since Feb. 19 when former Uber employee Susan Fowler published a blog post alleging widespread harassment at the San Francisco company. The post sparked the internal investigation at Uber. Meanwhile, Uber has seen its share of rides in the U.S. drop to 75% from 90% over the last two years, according to data provided to USA Today by TXN Solutions, which used credit card receipts to estimate sales for Uber and Lyft. Raising optimism at Lyft is the fact that the #DeleteUber bump in ridership has been sustained. All told, the 70.4 million rides Lyft registered in the first three months of this year was nearly 2.5 times more than a year earlier. Lyft declined an interview but provided a statement saying the companys recent growth has been driven by the same set of business strategies and values that have defined Lyft since Day 1. Analysts say the torrent of bad Uber news can only help Lyft as it may persuade more riders to give the service a chance, whereas in the past, theyd automatically swipe toward the Uber app, assuming the dominant service would have more cars nearby. The key to Lyft gaining more ground will be to make sure there are enough drivers to give those new riders a reason to switch. Uber has created a crack, said Michael Ramsey, an analyst for Gartner research. Lyft has to make sure theres drivers on the other side. Ramsey said Ubers corporate culture may steer drivers over to Lyft (though many work for both services). A poll conducted by TheRideShareGuy.com, a blog for drivers, found that 75.8% of 1,150 of drivers surveyed said they were satisfied with Lyft. Only 49.4% said they were satisfied with Uber. Those statistics matter. History shows that the underdog can triumph in the face of scandal, said James Haggerty, a crisis communications expert and president and chief executive of PRCG/Haggerty. Just take Toyota, an automaker with a history of being at the top of the chain. After recalling millions of vehicles because of acceleration issues, previously loyal Toyota owners and car buyers turned to the companys rivals, particularly GM and Ford, as Toyotas market share plummeted in 2010. Still, Haggerty says Lyft must ensure that its selling the real deal a product that isnt pandering to the publics calls for social equality in the workplace. In this day and age, business is done in real time and reputations are won and lost in real time, he said. If you aint woke, you better not be running around saying you are. david.pierson@latimes.com makeda.easter@latimes.com Silicon Valley knew well the aggressive corporate culture key to Ubers global dominance and all about that cultures downsides. Tech workers had seen it in lawsuits filed against the ride-hailing service, candidates turning down jobs at the San Francisco company and those fleeing the firm amid a drumbeat of scandals and critical news articles. So the 47 structural and policy recommendations handed down by attorneys to the ride-hailing company Tuesday werent revelatory. But for venture capitalists, the stark assessment underscores a growing concern: As company founders have amassed historic amounts of funding in the last five years, they have also attained greater control and autonomy. That has allowed entrepreneurs including Uber co-founder and Chief Executive Travis Kalanick to pursue aggressive tactics and foster cultures that trouble workers and investors with limited checks on their power for longer than ever before in the tech industry, observers say. Advertisement Are we as investors giving up too much of the store to entrepreneurs? said Jonathan Tower, who recently founded investment firm Catapult VC after working at TriplePoint Capital. Maybe during this boom period, weve become too founder-friendly. Had Uber been created in a different era of the tech industry, the 8-year-old firm probably would have been publicly traded by now or at least nearing the day of an initial public offering. And many of the changes that former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Tammy Albarran put forward would have long been in place. Those would include substantial performance reviews for senior executives, an oversight committee on the board of directors, a well-oiled human resources department and clear guidelines on romantic relationships between employees. Such bureaucracy, which often comes as large start-ups prepare for an IPO, has long been seen as a curb on growth by entrepreneurs who prioritize fast decision-making and rapid expansion. You dont want to snuff out that germ of innovation at an early stage, Tower said. But despite Uber reaching more than 12,000 employees, Kalanick who announced Tuesday that he would take an indefinite leave of absence has been able to delay the introduction of accountability measures typical for companies of its size. Boundless cash from investment firms around the world has given companies leeway to stay private. Venture capital fundraising alone has topped $55 billion in three straight years, according to research firm Preqin. With no shortage of investors knocking at the door, the power of any single one has also taken a hit, according to venture capitalists. That limits the amount of oversight they can exercise. They are chasing the same deals, pushing up the valuations, and softening deal terms, Tower said. Uber, like many tech companies, has different classes of shares that give some owners founders and early employees more voting power. Some Uber shares allow the owner to cast a single vote, while other shares come with 10 votes. Uber is a private company, and it is not clear how many of those super-voting shares Kalanick owns, or the extent to which he and other insiders control the firms super-voting shares. A company spokesman did not respond to questions about share structure and Kalanicks voting power. But analysts say Uber is like other big tech companies including Alphabet, Facebook and Los Angeles chat app maker Snap Inc. in that Kalanick controls a majority of Uber votes either by himself or with fellow board members (co-founder Garrett Camp and early employee Ryan Graves). Natasha Lamb, a managing partner at investment firm Arjuna Capital, said this type of share structure makes it easier for problems to fester. Ubers record on sexual harassment, diversity and company culture has been a big hit to their brand, Lamb said. You run into these issues because of culture, and the voting structure entrenches that culture. Dovi Frances, who runs the SGVC start-up investment firm out of Beverly Hills and sits on six corporate boards, said he recognizes that entrepreneurs can get carried away. He tries to protect against that by passing on investment opportunities where he has doubts about leadership. I dont want to impose restrictions on them driven by the fear of them doing the wrong thing, said Frances, whose investments include SoFi, OpenGov and Wondermall. Im investing in them because I know they are going to do the right thing. He said he spends enough time with managers of the companies in which he invests that he can spot when somebody is losing their moral balance. He also demands transparency about issues only visible deeper inside the company, such as a junior manager engaging in tawdry behavior. I expect senior management to bring it up, especially when it comes to sensitive issues like gender inequality, he said. These are supercharged issues today, and I definitely want to be aware. Why it took former employee Susan Fowlers blog post complaining of a sexist workplace to ignite an investigation into Ubers culture rather than an earlier board action isnt clear. But Kalanick was allowed to start operating in a vacuum the second his company raised $258 million in 2013 from GV, the investment arm of Google parent company Alphabet, said Amit Shah, a partner at Artiman Ventures. That and subsequent investments probably diluted the influence of early board member Bill Gurley, a general partner at venture capital firm Benchmark. GV declined to comment, and Benchmark didnt respond to a request to comment. In the high times, when youre a hot company, you can get away with anything, Shah said. Its a delicate balance what makes Silicon Valley tick is the lack of too much structure, and the way current public-company boards have to operate is a nightmare for business. The lack of diversity on Ubers board, which recently picked up a female member in media impresario Arianna Huffington, may have contributed to lax oversight too. Its something Silicon Valley has been grappling for years, Tower said of diversity. Its moving in the right direction. Julie Goodridge, chief executive of Boston-based NorthStar Asset Management, has asked companies including Facebook and Alphabet to change their share structures so that every share has the same voting rights. Though many outside shareholders supported that proposal at the companies recent annual meetings, the proposals predictably failed to win a majority of shareholder votes. That, she said, could be problematic for the companies in the long term. If Alphabet, Facebook or Uber limit the influence of many investors and shareholders, they risk missing out on valuable insight that could help them avoid reputational problems. Lamb of Arjuna Capital noted that Google is now under investigation by the federal Department of Labor for allegedly underpaying women. Shareholders have raised the issue of a gender pay gap at the company for two years, she said. If the company had been more proactive, maybe they wouldnt be in this predicament, Lamb said. Despite the fact that shareholders have expressed concerns about gender pay equity and other good governance issues, with the structure of these companies, were not able to effect change through a vote. Advisers to technology companies point to Uber as an extreme example and say that it shouldnt be the basis for sweeping changes in how the industry treats founders. The overwhelming majority of the time, the founders are the ones best equipped to make big decisions for a company, said Jonathan Greechan, co-founder of business incubator Founder Institute. If anything, [the Uber case] just highlights that the best founders hire to fill the gaps in their shortcomings, and it doesnt seem like Uber did a great job of this or simply didnt empower those people to properly do their job. Investors Lamb and Goodridge said despite their misgivings, Uber may continue on the same path as Alphabet, Facebook and others with control consolidated among Kalanick and a few others. Despite that, there should be continued demand for Uber shares. People would totally buy Uber shares if the company went public, Goodridge said. A lot of people, all they care about is short-term performance. paresh.dave@latimes.com / PGP Twitter: @peard33 When chief executives take a leave of absence, its typically because they have a serious problem on their hands. So when Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick announced Tuesday that he was going on indefinite leave, people took notice. Kalanicks announcement came at a tumultuous time for Uber. Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. had just wrapped up a months-long investigation into allegations of systemic sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying at the company. Holders firm, Covington & Burling, had made 47 recommendations on how Uber could address its toxic culture. Kalanicks move signaled a shift in the companys too big-, too hot- and too-innovative-to-fail attitude. It was an admission that as CEO he had to bear some of the responsibility for the mess in which Uber now found itself. But his leave of absence means a lot more, business and management experts said. What does it mean for a CEO to go on leave? When CEOs go on leave, it means that theyre taking a break from their day-to-day duties and that others will step in to perform their roles. Its different from taking a vacation because it signals that the executive, for whatever reason, is unable to effectively do his or her job at that point in time. One of the more common reasons for executives taking a leave of absence is health issues, said David Mayer, a professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business. Steve Jobs, for example, took multiple leaves of absence from Apple when he was receiving cancer treatment. Patrick Byrne, chief executive of Overstock.com, went on indefinite leave last year because of hepatitis C complications. He returned three months later. Another reason a CEO might go on leave is because there are performance or ethical issues, Mayer said. David Baazov, who was chief executive of online gambling company Amaya, took an indefinite leave of absence in March 2016 after he was accused of insider trading. He resigned from the company five months later. Kalanick has not given a timeline for when he expects to be back. Why would a board of directors put an executive on leave instead of just firing him or her? Putting an executive on leave doesnt necessarily mean that a board of directors has lost faith in that person, said Micah Alpern, an organizational and leadership expert at A.T. Kearney. It could be that there are things going on in their personal life, that theyre distracted and are not able to manage right now, Alpern said. It doesnt signify that they dont think theyre the right person to run the company in the long term. In Kalanicks case, he cited his mothers recent death in a boating accident as the reason for wanting to take time off. One possible reason for putting Kalanick on ice instead of firing him is that Kalanick and his allies on the board Garrett Camp, Ubers co-founder, and Ryan Graves, senior vice president of operations reportedly have disproportionate voting rights that would make it difficult for other board members to oust him. But even if the board could fire Kalanick, Silicon Valley has shown a reluctance to get rid of founders who are perceived to be the secret sauce in a companys success. Travis explained his vision to me of a future where no one owned a car, there was no need for parking lots, less congestion, fewer accidents, fewer DUIs, said Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Strategies, who has worked with Kalanick and Uber in the past, but is not a member of the companys board. That was back in 2011. It's just as cogent and accurate of a vision today as it was then. Not having him driving the vision would be a mistake. This Oct. 20, 2015, photo shows Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick at the WSJD Live technology conference in Laguna Beach. (Glenn Chapman / AFP/Getty Images) (GLENN CHAPMAN / AFP/Getty Images) What are the benefits to putting the CEO on leave? First, its good symbolism, according to Alpern, who said it sends a strong message to employees and the public that the company is serious about changing. But its also an opportunity for the executive to reflect, to undergo leadership training and for the company to implement changes without the distraction of a beleaguered CEO. The CEO is typically the leader that the culture of an organization is anchored around, said Gary Mangiofico of the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business and Management. So if they want to see a culture shift in the organization, they have to dislodge that anchor, if you will, in order for people to even believe theres a possibility things will change. Are there any downsides? In Ubers case, not having a second in command step up to fill Kalanicks shoes while he is away could create uncertainty at the company, Mangiofico said. The firm is currently without a chief operating officer, a chief marketing officer, a chief financial officer, a head of engineering or general counsel. Kalanicks duties will, instead, be spread among the 14 people who report directly to him. Without a central leadership figure, the vision of a company can start to become fuzzy, Mangiofico said. And if that happens, the strategy potentially begins to break down. The indefinite nature of Kalanicks leave of absence could also hurt morale, Alpern said. An employee is sitting there thinking, I can focus on my job, but theyre also going to think about whats going to happen to our role or our policies? What will it be like to work here? So what happens when Kalanick comes back? In Holders report, the top recommendation was for the company to review and reallocate some of Kalanicks responsibilities. This could mean that he returns as a CEO who gets support from a newly hired COO. It could mean that he is moved into another role entirely. Based on Kalanicks talk about taking time off to reflect and work on himself, the expectation of investors and other stakeholders is likely to be that if he returns, he will do so as a changed man. Theres going to be a lot of skepticism around it, Mayer said. Employees and stakeholders will have their antennas up. The company and its board will have to figure out a way to measure that change and to hold Kalanick accountable. Otherwise the Holder report and Kalanicks leave of absence will just be lip service, business and management experts said. Culture matters a lot, and over time it has a significant impact not just on the people but on the bottom line, said Jim Barnett, co-founder of human resources platform Glint. Companies that fail to create inclusive environments where people feel a sense of belonging will struggle to succeed in the new work world. tracey.lien@latimes.comTwitter: @traceylien (File photo) DPRK has released a U.S. college student who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after attempting to steal a propaganda poster from his Pyongyang hotel last year. Otto Frederick Warmbier is due to arrive home in Cincinnati on Tuesday evening, after being evacuated through a US military base in Sapporo, Japan, according to The Washington Post. The U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, Joseph Yun, traveled to Pyongyang with doctors on a military medical plane last Thursday. They landed in Sapporo with Warmbier on Tuesday night local time, before continuing on to Cincinnati. Warmbier's parents have confirmed to AP that their son is in a coma. The Washington Post earlier reported that he has been in a coma for more than a year, since shortly after his last public appearance at his trial in March 2016. The J. Paul Getty Museum announced Tuesday its intention to voluntarily return to Italy a marble statuette dating to the 1st century BC. The Statue of Zeus Enthroned is a 29-inch-high piece thought to have been Greek in origin. Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts said the Italian government came into possession of a fragment that it believed joined the sculpture at the Getty. Italian officials tested their theory on a visit to the museum in 2014. For the record: This article has been corrected to fix two time references. Marion True resigned from the Getty in 2005, not 2006. And then-director Michael Brand announced the museum was returning a number of disputed objects in 2007, not 2006. The fragment gave every indication that it was a part of the sculpture we had, Potts said in an interview. It came from the general region of Naples, so it meant this object had come from there. Advertisement This, coupled with the fact that there was no documentation of export, led to the decision to repatriate the statuette. The sculpture is thought to have originally been housed in the private shrine of a rich Greek or Roman home. It appears to have spent a good deal of time in the ocean, as it is partially covered with marine incrustations. The Getty purchased Zeus Enthroned from Americans Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman in 1992. The Times 1997 obituary for Lawrence Fleischman noted that the couple agreed to donate the bulk of their collection, valued at $60 million, to the Getty in 1996. The museum agreed to purchase another portion of the collection. At that time Zeus Enthroned was acquired, the museums senior antiquities curator was Marion True, who was later indicted by the Italian government for conspiracy to traffic in illegal antiquities. True resigned from the museum in 2005, and in 2007 then-director Michael Brand announced the museum would return a number of disputed objects to Italy. Dozens have been repatriated to Italy and Greece, while prosecutors did not pursue the case against True. The Gettys policy is that when a foreign government submits compelling evidence that an object in its collection was put on the antiquities market illegally, the museum will seek to return the object. The Getty values greatly its relationships with Italian colleagues in museums and other cultural sectors, Potts in a statement. The decision to return this object continues our practice of working with the Ministry [of Cultural Heritage] to resolve issues of provenance and ownership of works in our collection in a way that responds to new information as it emerges, and respects the good faith and cultural missions of both parties. jessica.gelt@latimes.com @jessicagelt Sometimes, the smallest childhood experiences can have the biggest impact on a life. As a kid in Southern California in the 1980s, Kamala Sankaram rode to school with her Indian father accompanied by the hypnotic, warbling vocals of South Indian classical music. When her white mother was at the wheel, Beethovens decisively Western melodies flowed through the speakers. For the record: An earlier version of this article called Beth Morrison the creative director of Thumbprint. She is a creative producer. A fusion of those two distinct childhood soundtracks permeates the score for Thumbprint, Sankarams ripped-from-the-headlines chamber opera about Mukhtar Mai, a Muslim Pakistani woman who overcame a brutal sexual assault to bravely pursue justice and social change. Advertisement Thumbprint receives its West Coast premiere Thursday through Sunday at REDCAT as part of Los Angeles Operas Off Grand series, often contemporary works with unconventional formats or edgier themes. Mai is flying to L.A. from Pakistan to see the production for the first time. Just as she did at the operas 2014 world premiere in New York, Sankaram is playing the lead role of Mai in the L.A. performances of Thumbprint. Kamala being Mukhtar just makes so much sense, said Beth Morrison, the creative producer for Thumbprint, noting Sankarams South Asian ancestry. I think Kamala is a unique example of a very high level composer/performer. I feel like her career is really just about to explode. Juggling multiple roles is something Sankaram has managed throughout an eclectic career. An easygoing thirtysomething who lives in the Bronx with her longtime partner and two cats, Sankaram has a resume that includes singing gigs at a Catholic church and a recent jazz festival in Germany, voice-acting on Comedy Central and Cartoon Network shows, commissions from Houston Grand Opera and Washington National Opera and an upcoming recording project with her indie-Gypsy-operatic rock band, Bombay Rickey. Sankaram plays the accordion and sitar, the latter picked up at 19 after her Indian grandfather gave her the instrument as a gift. Her PhD, however, is actually in psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York. She became interested in music and theater as a high school student in Ramona, Calif. With the help of friends, she launched the schools drama club. She also was active in show choir. I started doing arrangements for my choir and wrote a couple songs that we sang in the talent show, Sankaram recalled with a bubbly laugh. After that I studied music and theater and psychology at Sarah Lawrence College. The PhD in psychology was, to some degree, a way to appease her father, who was never comfortable with the idea of music as a career and offered to pay for a degree that was more practical. Sankarams doctoral interest in semiotics and pragmatics influences her compositional practices. Her manipulation of musical motives and tonalities is informed by her understanding of music as language. When telling a story through music, she contemplates melodic and harmonic signifiers as a way to reveal character. We shouldnt give up hope even if it seems kind of impossible. I think that message is important for us now more than ever. Composer Kamala Sankaram Sankaram stayed in New York after school, and it was there, among the young experimental opera theater crowd, where she met producer Morrison. In 2008 Morrison had seen a production of Seven, a documentary play that relays the true stories of seven women who fought for social justice. One monologue in particular playwright Susan Yankowitzs telling of Mais story struck a chord. Mai was gang raped in 2002 by members of a powerful Pakistani clan as an act of honor revenge. Local custom called for her to commit suicide after the rape, but the young woman defied tradition. Not only did she choose to live, but she took her case to the police in an attempt to prosecute her rapists. As she navigated the court systems, Mai had to use her thumbprint to sign documents because she could not read or write. Mais experiences in court inspired her to start Mukhtar Mai Womens Organisation, a foundation dedicated to educating young women in Pakistan. Morrison suggested Mais story to Sankaram as the basis for a song cycle. The resulting music premiered in 2009 at Beth Morrison Projects 21C Liederabend concert at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. But Sankaram felt that more music needed to be written to tell Mais story fully. Morrison agreed. Its a story that needs to be told, the producer said. People need to know it and hear it. Morrison put Sankaram in touch with Yankowitz, who became the operas librettist. Her Seven monologue and her Thumbprint libretto are based on interviews she conducted with Mai through a translator. SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter As she composed the music, Sankaram said she was intensely focused on making a piece that was true to people who had been assaulted. That was the hardest part, the composer said, noting that the assault scene in Thumbprint was developed with director Rachel Dickstein. We went through several drafts. Theres no music. Its just a chorus of breaths. Sankaram acknowledged that Thumbprint is a difficult story to tell. Still, in the end, its a piece about optimism and hope. Thats part of why Im glad that were doing it now, she said. I think that the central message of the piece is that one person with conviction can make a change, even to something that is deeply entrenched in a society. We shouldnt give up hope even if it seems kind of impossible. I think that message is important for us now more than ever. Thumbprint Where: REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., L.A. When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $69 (subject to change) Info: (213) 972-8001, LAOpera.org Support coverage of the arts. Share this article. ALSO Julius Caesar, young and gay: A groundbreaking 1971 opera gets revived for a new era Donald Trump Jr. asked, the NEA answered: No funds went to Public Theaters Julius Caesar Tonys spread the love in a year of innovation and risk-taking on Broadway On a bitterly cold night in January 1941, French composer Olivier Messiaen debuted a new work. It was an unusual premiere. Messiaens audience was an assembly of war prisoners and their guards. The concert hall was an unheated barrack in a Nazi prison camp near the Polish-German border where Messiaen, who had served in the French Army, was being held as a prisoner himself. The composition, Quartet for the End of Time, was a piece of chamber music in eight movements inspired by themes of the apocalypse as described in the Revelation of St. John in the Christian Bible. The musicians played an unusual combination of instruments: piano, cello, violin and clarinet. These were the only ones available to the composer during his roughly two years in detention. At that first recital, Messiaen played the piano. Fellow POWs rounded out the rest of the ensemble. Advertisement Los Angeles artist Susan Silton cant quite remember when she first stumbled onto Messiaens legendary work, which New Yorker music critic Alex Ross describes as the most ethereally beautiful music of the 20th century. Perhaps it was on the radio, perhaps a music streaming service. What she knows is that it was in the wake of last falls U.S. presidential election and her reaction to the works dissonant piano chords and siren clarinet notes was immediate. It created this visceral response, she says. I put on this piece and it made me weep I didnt know its history when I cried. Then I researched it and I find out its incredible history. She was so moved, that she is now staging Quartet for the End of Time for an experimental production on Friday and Saturday in downtown Los Angeles. His interest was in collapsing time into the infinite. Thats what he meant by the end of time. Susan Silton, artist Susan Silton was inspired to stage Messiaens most famous work after hearing it in the wake of the U.S. presidential election. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) As a prologue, actor Cristina Frias will read a text inspired by the writings of Hannah Arendt. A dance component has been developed by independent choreographer Flora Wiegmann, known for her spare approach to movement. All of this will unfold on two stages separated by a scrim through which musicians and dancers will travel back and forth in space and time. The miracle of the quartet, wrote Times critic Mark Swed in 2008, in which bird song is used to represent freedom and gloriously colored harmonies the glory of infinity, is its transcendence of time and space. Messiaen, who died in 1992, regularly toyed with ideas about time, doing away with traditional meters and the development of themes. His interest was in collapsing time into the infinite, Silton says. Thats what he meant by the end of time. Some of the movements are so slow that time really seems to stop its kind of suspended, says Siltons collaborator Vicki Ray, a Grammy-nominated pianist and a founding member of Piano Spheres, a group that promotes the creation and performance of major new piano compositions. Hes really trying to evoke this sense of time completely stopping. It has some of the most rapturously beautiful music ever written in the cello solos and the violin solos. Vicki Ray, pianist Pianist Vicki Ray is leading the musical team on Olivier Messiaens Quartet for the End of Time, composed in a German prison camp. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) The presentation will take place not at a concert hall, but in a bare industrial warehouse in the Arts District one whose functional brick-and-concrete architecture better evokes the chilliness of Stalag VIIIA, where Messiaen was held. Its a space, says Silton, that has this sense of oppressiveness inside. Perhaps most interestingly: The production will consist entirely of women. I wanted it to be in stark contrast to what the original context was, says Silton. Between how it was first presented according to Messiaen, with male POWs and played by men and how I felt I wanted the work to be. Part of her desire to produce the piece with women was prompted by the election. I always want to insist on our presence, she says, but in the shadow of this president, I believe its even more critical that we insist, and persist. The performance is part of a series of new site-specific pieces for downtown Los Angeles organized by the arts nonprofit Los Angeles Nomadic Division. In addition to Siltons performance, the series, titled Exchange Value, also includes upcoming works by Los Angeles artist Olga Koumoundouros, artist and filmmaker Alison ODaniel and the duo of Ivan Navarro and Courtney Smith. Shamim Momin, the director of LAND, as the organization is known, says she was immediately drawn to Siltons project. It was this idea of coerced beauty, how we can be forced into this creative process, she says, this opportunity to explore problematic themes and things that can give you insight. Silton is an artist whose work incorporates many forms, including photography and printmaking. In the latter case, she produces optical art-inspired works that toy with human perception. She also regularly stages performances. In 2013, she gathered a circle of volunteers at USCs Fisher Museum for a collective re-typing of John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath. Last year, she created a public opera, A Sublime Madness in the Soul, that could be viewed from the now-demolished 6th Street Bridge in downtown Los Angeles. For Messiaens Quartet for the End of Time, she was intrigued by what the work represented and found herself wanting to work with it even though she is not a musician herself. The perseverance of the spirit, of the artistic spirit, she says. I was struck by the range of emotion from one movement to the next. Some movements are extremely angst-ridden and angry and not so much assaultive, but reflective of passion and oppression. Others are extremely quiet and poignant and accepting. Its message, and the story of the conditions under which it was made, felt especially poignant to her in this fractured political time. I felt so vividly that the piece reaches all of those emotions that Im feeling in this present moment. So she reached out to Ray, whom she had once seen perform a work by Morton Feldman at LAXART. To her surprise, the pianist who has played Quartet for the End of Time on more than half a dozen occasions over her career immediately signed on, compelled by the music, which she describes as landmark. It has some of the most rapturously beautiful music ever written in the cello solos and the violin solos, Ray says. When you get done playing the quartet, you feel like youve been through some kind of alchemical process. You come out inspired, elevated, exhausted and rewarded; its cathartic every time you play it. Also, her concept of using all women is interesting, she adds. I think as a person who is very involved in the womens movement, I feel like it will be interesting to see what kind of singular power an all-woman group brings to it. The players Ive picked are ferocious and they can be ferocious but also incredibly tender. Messiaen was asking them to do things that pushed them to the limits of their own instruments and their ability to play. Flora Wiegmann, choreographer Flora Wiegmann is a choreographer known for her minimalist works. She has created a choreography for Messiaens quartet. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) Wiegmann, likewise, was equally intrigued by the incredible story behind Messiaens composition, but also by the challenge it presented on the level of choreography. It is such a dynamically diverse piece, she says. It shifts so many times. Its truly incredible and unpredictable. After listening to it over and over, I said, Yes, I would love to be involved! Her goal, she says, is to help reveal the boundary-breaking nature of the composition without overshadowing it. Its about highlighting, she says. Its about giving an added dimension to experiencing the sound. She says she continuously thinks of the bleak conditions under which the original musicians performed: Messiaen, along with cellist Etienne Pasquier, violinist Jean Le Boulaire and clarinetist Henri Akoka (an Algerian Jew who somewhat miraculously survived the war). Thinking about how the musicians have described learning their part for this it was probably frustrating and thrilling, she says. Messiaen was asking them to do things that pushed them to the limits of their own instruments and their ability to play. For me, its trying to physicalize that and understand it. In the end Silton is hopeful that, above all, she can stage not just a meaningful concert, but create a space for sound and thought, a moment for viewers to consider history and the lessons it might offer us at this moment in time. Messiaen wanted to banish time, I want to emphasize time, she says. Responding to time and to history its the only hope. Quartet for the End of Time Where: 1399 Factory Place, Los Angeles When: 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday Admission: Free, but space is limited; RSVP required Info: nomadicdivision.org Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter carolina.miranda@latimes.com @cmonstah ALSO Saying goodbye to the 6th Street Bridge with artist Susan Siltons Sublime Madness opera Vijay Iyer jazzes up the Ojai Music Festival The Other Mozart? Her name was Maria Anna, and she dazzlingly comes to life onstage Celebrating #HarryPotter20: How Harry Potter and his blockbuster films came of age on screen The Boy Who Lived has cast his spell on the box office since Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, the first film in Warner Bros. blockbuster franchise, hit theaters in 2001. The bestselling, seven-book series was adapted into eight record-breaking films -- and a two-part play -- as the boy wizard ventured through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the wizarding world with his pals Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, taking on the enigmatic Lord Voldemort and his magical henchmen each school year. As J.K. Rowlings debut novel Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone -- the first of the books from which the decade-spanning films were adapted -- marks its 20th anniversary, heres a reminder of how Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviewed the Harry Potter films. (Spoiler alert: He didnt always like them.) 1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone film is imaginative and faithful but shuns any risk-taking (2001) As his 11th birthday approaches, orphan Harry Potter learns that hes a wizard and enrolls at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where his reputation as the Boy Who Lived precedes him during his magical training. The result is a remarkably faithful copy of the book that treats the text like holy writ (hence its 2-hour-and-33-minute length), wrote The Times film critic Kenneth Turan. From the gold in Gringotts, the safe-as-houses goblin-run bank, to the centaur lurking in the forbidden forest that adjoins Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so much is presented just as written that Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone starts to resemble one of those fiendishly exact replicas of great works of art that Sunday painters can be seen working on in galleries of museums. 2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets doesnt capture the well-balanced tone of the book (2002) In their second year at Hogwarts, Harry and his pals Ron and Hermione contend with a celebrity author professor and a well-meaning house elf named Dobby who thwart the trio in unexpected ways. The darkness that invades Chamber of Secrets underlines how well the books managed to exactly balance good and evil, dark and light, so that within their pages you seemed to be experiencing both at the same time. Not so here, Turan wrote. Because Chamber of Secrets cant seem to get the balance right, it ends up broadly overdoing things on both ends of the spectrum. The films scary moments are too monstrous and its happy times have too much idiotic beaming, making the film feel like the illegitimate offspring of Alien and The Absent-Minded Professor. 3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film comes close to capturing the essence of the books (2004) The wizarding world gets markedly darker as convicted murderer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who is believed to have killed Harrys parents, escapes from the Azkaban prison and the soul-sucking Dementors are loosed to chase him down. Director Alfonso Cuaron takes the helm from Chris Columbus, who directed the two previous films. "[T]he final hour of the two-hour-and-21-minute Azkaban is the closest any of the films has gotten to capturing the enormously pleasing essence of the Potter books, wrote Turan, adding, Those three leads (Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, Rupert Grint as Ron) play characters who are now 13, an age when anger and frustration are more publicly expressed. One of the benefits of Cuarons direction, his expertise with younger actors, means that the constant determination and occasional fury exhibited by the characters, especially Harry and Hermione, are completely convincing. 4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finally gets Harry Potter right (2005) Harrys surprising inclusion in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament, as a fourth-year student, raises concerns and brings danger to the Hogwarts castle. Its taken them long enough, but the movies have finally gotten Harry Potter right, wrote Turan. It has fallen to the veteran [director] Mike Newell, eager, in his own words, to break out of this goody-two-shoes feel, to make the first Harry Potter film to be wire-to-wire satisfying. Though memorable acting is neither called for nor delivered on the part of Goblets collection of juveniles, Radcliffes Harry does get one thing exactly right. Watching him face myriad challenges, were convinced that Harrys heart will lead him to do the right thing. He does good in the most natural way and, like so much of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, thats just how it should be. 5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cant shake an episodic feeling (2007) With the Ministry of Magic refusing to acknowledge Lord Voldemorts (Ralph Fiennes) return, fifth-year Harry is brooding at school as he contends with spooky visions and Ministry transplant Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton). His knowledge of the dark magic-fighting organization, the Order of the Phoenix, and a prophecy further complicate matters. "[Director David] Yates and his team handle the films visuals well, including the impressive sets for the atrium of the Ministry of Magic and its Hall of Prophecy, as well as fine flying sequences involving either broomsticks or equine creatures called Thestrals, Turan wrote. The director also works well with the films juvenile leads, which is important, because these are the raging hormone years at Hogwarts School, and that is especially true where Harry is concerned. Looking so disgruntled in his gray hoodie that you fear he might start rapping, Harry comes off as more Grumpy Potter than the bright light of the wizarding world. 6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is well-crafted but sometimes hard to endure (2009) As dark magic spills into the Muggle world, Harrys mentor, Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), tasks him with bringing down Lord Voldemort. But Harrys discovery of an old textbook teaches him more than he expected about his past. Now in its sixth episode shot over an eight-year span, with two more features still to come, this one-of-a-kind film cycle has become as comfortable and reliable as an old shoe, providing a degree of dependability thats becoming increasingly rare, Turan wrote. As directed by David Yates, who did the previous film and is on tap for the final two, Half-Blood Prince demonstrates the ways that the Potter pictures have become the modern exemplars of establishment moviemaking. We dont turn to these films for thrilling or original cinema, we look for a level of craft, consistency and, most of all, fidelity to the originals -- all of which we get. 7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1" (2010) The penultimate film sees Harry, Hermione and Ron venturing out into the real world to locate and destroy Lord Voldemorts soul-encapsulating Horcruxes as Hogwarts and the wizarding world fall to He Who Must Not Be Named. Much of the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows involves the attempt to find and destroy a series of Horcruxes, and if you havent a clue about what they are or why theyre important, you might as well stay home, Turan wrote. There is something different, however, about this Potter movie, and that is the words Part 1' that end the title. Understandably distraught about Hallows being the last of the phenomenally popular J.K. Rowling novels, Warner Bros. has split the final effort into two films and is likely kicking itself for not having thought of that with the earlier books. (It should be noted that the studio reboots the wizarding world with the forthcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series. The first film hit theaters in 2016.) 8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2" (2011) Harry goes wand-to-wand with Lord Voldemort, concluding Harrys final year at the wizarding school with the epic Battle of Hogwarts. In a classic storybook finish, however, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2' turns out to be more than the last of its kind. Almost magically, it ends up being one of the best of the series as well, Turan wrote. The Harry Potter films, like the boy wizard himself, have had their creative ups and downs, so its especially satisfying that this final film, ungainly title and all, has been worth the wait. Though no expense has been spared in its production, it succeeds because it brings us back to the combination of magic, adventure and emotion that created the books popularity in the first place. For more of The Times Harry Potter anniversary coverage, go here. Its right there in the name. As the organizers of the L.A. Film Festival look to more strongly define their position amid a cluttered landscape of other festivals and summer events, they have focused on their place in the city and the very idea of why to have a film festival in the first place. Festivals in general, and definitely the L.A. Film Festival, have become more important in terms of building and fostering a specific type of community that I think people have a real need and desire for now, said Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, the organization that produces the L.A. Film Festival. The studios have turned their backs on everything except tentpoles, which makes independent film hugely exciting in a new way, said Welsh. But there are also challenges with that. You need a venue where you can go and be part of an artistic experience, a filmmaking experience with like-minded people who come together. I just feel like there is an urgency to the work of festivals, where youre really creating a space where this work can thrive and connect. Advertisement Although the festival has experimented with various identities over the years, it has lately settled into a full embrace of the city, emphasizing the decentered sprawl of Los Angeles often seen as a challenge for building sustained audiences. While keeping its main hub for the second year at the ArcLight Culver City, the festival is looking to better solidify tendrils to venues in Santa Monica, downtown and Hollywood. I really do look at it as though we are in dialogue with our city, said Jennifer Cochis, a producer and programmer marking her first year as festival director. So not only do I want [the festival] to be something unique and specific for filmmakers to come to, but I want it to be something where were engaged with the place where we live. This years program runs from June 14-22 and finds the festival continuing its longtime commitment to diversity in front of and behind the camera. Across five competition sections, 42% of the films are directed by women and 40% by people of color. Theres so much remarkable talent out there from all different backgrounds, said Welsh. The people who complain that theres no diverse talent out there or that youre going to have to compromise on quality, they are just not trying hard enough. The festival opens Wednesday night with the world premiere of The Book of Henry, directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Jacob Tremblay and Maddie Ziegler. Written by Gregg Hurwitz, the film ambitiously veers from an offbeat family tale to dark, grief-stricken thriller and back again. After his breakthrough with Safety Not Guaranteed Trevorrow directed the blockbuster Jurassic World and is now part of the team working on the sequel to that film while he is also preparing to make Star Wars: Episode IX. I have a responsibility to make original movies and tell original stories. Colin Trevorrow, director of The Book of Henry Which makes The Book of Henry even more unusual, because besides what Trevorrow describes as the films coming of parenthood story, it is also a film of a decidedly different scope from Trevorrows other current work. For Trevorrow it is important to continue to try his hand at storytelling of differing scale. As a filmmaker who has been given extraordinary opportunities and been allowed to leap forward into these larger franchise films, I have a responsibility to make original movies and tell original stories. And in this case an aggressively original story, he said. I didnt get into filmmaking to solely tell new versions of the stories we all love, he added. I wanted to have an impact as a voice that is willing to take risks and potentially move the art of storytelling forward. Hopefully that doesnt sound arrogant, but we cant just keep doing the same thing over and over again. Among the most original films in the festival, playing as part of the U.S. Fiction competition, is one with a name that cannot be fully printed in a family newspaper. Izzy Gets the Across Town is made by Christian Papierniak, a longtime screenwriter making his feature directing debut. In the film, a young woman named Izzy (Mackenzie Davis) wakes up in a strangers bed in Santa Monica to a message on her phone that her ex is newly engaged. Hoping to make her way to his engagement party for some kind of confrontation, without a car or much money she struggles to cross the city to Los Feliz. Along the way she encounters an unusual cast of characters played by Alia Shawkat, Lakeith Stanfield, Haley Joel Osment, Carrie Coon, Annie Potts and others. The movie includes a spellbinding performance by Davis and Coon of the riot grrrl anthem Axemen. (Coon can also be seen in Karen Moncrieffs The Keeping Hours, premiering at the festival.) As Izzy continues on her way, the film attempts to capture the distinct feelings of each neighborhood. You can go from this block to that block and everything feels different and not homogenized, Papierniak said. L.A. can be such a random place, of people and collisions. I think that was sort of the idea, that each place she goes is such a different type of person. The storys origins are in something that actually happened to Papierniak, when he tried to win back an ex-girlfriend by struggling across the city to show up at a party. As to why he flipped genders for the movie, he said, I was just trying to tell the best story possible and this movie is way more boring if this is a guy. I feel like weve seen that, weve seen the guy version. Other notable premieres in the U.S. Fiction section include And Then I Go, directed by Vince Grashaw, Dont Come Back From the Moon, directed by Bruce Thierry Cheung and Never Here, directed by Camille Thoman. Among the documentaries premiering at the festival are Built to Fail: A Streetwear Story, directed by Bobby Kim, Alexis Spraic and Scott Weintrob, Monkey Business: The Adventure of Curious Georges Creators, directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki, The Classic, directed by Billy McMillin and Opuntia, directed by David Fenster. As with so many festivals now, this years L.A. Film Fest will also spotlight television work. The festival will feature the world premiere of the first episode from the second season of Queen Sugar with a Q&A with series creator Ava DuVernay and members of the shows female directing team. Other TV events will spotlight Portlandia, Documentary Now! Baroness von Sketch Show and The Sinner. Among films that have premiered at other festivals are The Beguiled, Patti Cake$, Maudie, The Big Sick, Lady Macbeth, Brigsby Bear and the LAFF closing night film Ingrid Goes West. Playing as part of the LA Muse competition section is The Year of Spectacular Men, the feature directing debut from actress Lea Thompson. The film is written by her daughter Madelyn Deutch, who stars in the film as a young woman struggling to find her way just after college. Deutchs sister Zoey Deutch plays her sister and Thompson plays their mother. Madelyn Deutch wrote the script coincidentally with a lead character named Izzy in part out of her own dissatisfaction with the scripts she was being sent as a young actress. Its really easy to feel misunderstood as an actor. As a girl you are sent nerd, punk, cheerleader, bitchy ex-girlfriend, and I really felt this was my opportunity to not be any of those things. My hope with the movie is that girls and women feel more seen. But I have zero illusions about the fact that Izzy is a really specific character, she has very specific privilege, very specific neuroses, very specific mistakes and choices, and so I know that not all women and girls and people in general will relate to those specificities, Deutch added. We tried to represent some of those more jagged, uneven edges of what it means to be a woman. We tried to represent some of those more jagged, uneven edges of what it means to be a woman. Madelyn Deutch on The Year of Spectacular Men Spectacular Men is one of four films premiering in the festival that mark the directorial debut of a well-known actress, alongside Jennifer Morrisons Sun Dogs, Kyra Sedgwicks Story of a Girl and Whitney Cummings The Female Brain. Sun Dogs stars Michael Angarano and Melissa Benoist as a pair of young misfits who come to believe they have stumbled upon a terror plot, with Allison Janney as Angaranos characters mother and Ed ONeill as his stepfather. Though Morrison, until recently a regular on TVs Once Upon a Time, could have perhaps more easily transitioned to television directing, it was important to her to make her intentions clear as someone who wants to direct feature films. Were in a time where people are fired up, where women feel really motivated to take the extra step to have our voices heard, said Morrison. I hope its just the beginning of the rest of filmmaking and not just a momentary trend. Women really are feeling compelled to step forward and tell stories from their perspective, she added. Some of it is gender driven, and some of it is just coming from where you get to a place where you want to tell the big story and you want to make the big decisions and see what you can create. Whitney Cummings, likewise a familiar face from TV, had grown frustrated by how slow the studio development process was going on another movie project, so she enlisted friend Neal Brennan to co-write an adaptation of Louann Brizendines book The Female Brain. Crafting a story from the neuroscience of Brizendines book became what Cummings described as a weird Rubiks Cube of four different story lines about four different couples. Besides Cummings, the movie also stars Sofia Vergara, James Marsden, Deon Cole, Toby Kebbell, Cecily Strong and Deon Cole. At a moment when there are so many options how to tell a story, there is still a pull toward the relatively compact form of a feature film. We unapologetically wanted to make a cerebral neurology comedy, and that didnt feel like a TV series, said Cummings. It didnt feel like it was sustainable for eight years. And we didnt know how to tell that story. We wanted to tell the story of these characters in 90 minutes. On a gut level it just felt like a movie. Los Angeles Film Festival Where: ArcLight Cinemas, 9500 Culver Blvd., Culver City with additional events at the Culver Studios, ArcLight Hollywood, ArcLight Santa Monica, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Theatre at Ace Hotel. When: June 14-22 Info: 1-866-FILM-FEST, filmindependent.org SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter Mark.Olsen@latimes.com Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus When you think of a beverage to accompany a doughnut, what comes to mind? Coffee certainly. Perhaps milk. But what about beer? The combination of craft beer and sweet doughnuts is a decadent way to explore how beer and food interact. Be it through acidity, alcohol, effervescence or hoppy bitterness, beer slices through oils and fats to refresh the palate in preparation for the next bite. And with local breweries just blocks away from some of L.A.s best doughnut shops, there are plenty of opportunities to indulge in some experimentation. The easy entry into the beer-plus-doughnut equation is to go on-the-nose with a coffee beer. Coffee and doughnuts are a comfortable combination, and its difficult to go wrong. To venture beyond the beginners territory, here are a few suggestions for doughnut and beer pairings. Three Weavers Brewing and Randys Donuts The starting point for any pairing is to consider the intensity of the food and the beer. Doughnuts are both rich and sweet and not subtle when it comes to flavor. So this isnt the time for a delicate beer. To stand up to the mouth-coating and sugary confections, youre going to need a bold beverage. The higher alcohol and more bitter offerings such as the Three Weavers Brewing Knotty double IPA or Midnight Flight imperial stout are better choices than the lighter offerings that could be lost after a bite of doughnut. Three Weavers brewmaster Alexandra Nowell suggests trying Midnight Flight alongside an apple fritter from Randys (which happens to be just a couple blocks away from the Inglewood tasting room). Its a combo that works because the beers coffee and chocolate flavors from dark malts build a bridge from beer to doughnut. And the bitterness of the beer sharply contrasts each sugary bite. At nearly 10% alcohol, and considerably bitter, not even a heavy duty apple fritter will overwhelm Midnight Flight. Randys Donuts , 805 West Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, (310) 645-4707, randysdonuts.com; Three Weavers Brewery - 1031 W. Manchester Blvd., Suite A, Inglewood, (310) 400-5830, www.threeweavers.la. Advertisement Highland Park Brewery and Donut Friend When youre ready to move on from classic doughnuts, theres Donut Friend, a punk-rock-themed doughnut shop in Northeast Los Angeles thats just a few doors down from the Hermosillo Bar home of the lauded Highland Park Brewery. At Donut Friend, you can choose a prebuilt doughnut with a punny name or build your own combination of pastries, fillings and topping to craft the perfect accompaniment to your favorite HPB brew. Brewer Grant Schollers favorite combo is the Angry Samoa doughnut (a cake doughnut with chocolate and caramel topped with toasted coconut) with the brewerys Big No No baltic porter. Similar to Midnight Flight, Big No No relies on roasted malts to complement the chocolate flavors of the doughnut, and it has the elevated alcohol level (about 8.5% alcohol) to stand up to the Angry Samoa. If you get the chance to try Really Big No No a rare variant of the porter infused with coffee and tobacco theres not a more on-the-nose pairing for a doughnut. Highland Park Brewery is best known for its IPAs, and whether youre trying the traditional bright and bitter West Coast style IPAs or the newer, hazy New England IPA style, you can find a doughnut to match at Donut Friend. Try the Husker Blu cake doughnut topped with blueberry glaze with a West Coast IPA like Hello L.A. or Bonkers. The tropical and often berry-like hop aromas will connect to the blueberries in the doughnut, and the beers bitterness will balance out the doughnuts sugar. The softer, more fruity hazy IPAs might look like orange juice, but theyre a much better match for a doughnut than O.J. Try pairing one with the Hot Rosewater Music doughnut (made with rosewater and lemon glaze with pistachios) or the Yo La Mango doughnut (made with mango glazed with chili and lime zest). Donut Friend, 5107 York Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 995-6191, donutfriend.com; Highland Park Brewery, 5127 York Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 739-6459, hpb.la. Alosta Brewing Co. and the Donut Man Speaking of fruit on a doughnut, its strawberry season. And that means the famous strawberry doughnuts from Glendoras the Donut Man are available (and the fresh peach doughnuts are just around the corner). The sweet-tart and extra sticky doughnuts are a local favorite, and there are now a couple of breweries close-by the doughnut shop. Both Alosta Brewing and the Arrow Lodge brew pub are about three miles away in Covina. Try the dry and spicy 1887 Belgian-style tripel from Alosta Brewing with a fresh strawberry doughnut. The Donut Man, 915 E. Rte. 66, Glendora, (626) 335-9111, www.thedonutmanca.com; Alosta Brewing Co., 692 Arrow Grand Circle, Covina, (626) 470-7897, www.alostabrewing.com. food@latimes.com @latimesfood ALSO: Five mistakes to avoid when youre buying craft beer L.A. Beer Week is back. Heres how to make the most of it Think you dont like beer? Try these coffee, tea and cocktail-inspired brews Strolling through the modern design fair known as Dwell on Design is a lot like exploring the new Ikea store in Burbank: Even if youre just looking, its fun to see whats new. And there will be much to see that is new as roughly 300 vendors return to the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 23-25 to share the latest furnishings, appliances, technology and concepts. Not sure you want to attend? Here are six reasons why we think you should: Graphic lines and geometric units combine in this Minarc design, open on June 25 in conjunction with Dwell on Design. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) House tours The popular Home Tours give design fans an opportunity to go inside modern Dwell-like homes. Tours are divided into two days and will include five homes in Santa Monica, Culver City and Venice on June 24 and five in Hollywood, Silver Lake and Laurel Canyon on June 25. Tickets are $110 to $125 and often sell out. Register online at la.dwellondesign.com The ASA-D2 modular outdoor kitchen by Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens. (Brown Jordan ) More than 2,0000 home products Shop for the latest interior design products such as the ASA-D2, shown above, an innovative modular outdoor kitchen by Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens that starts at $33,000. Other exhibitors include Able and Baker, the Concrete Collective, Bolefloor, Harkavy Furniture, Knoll and Nana Wall Systems, among others. The kitchen of the Neolith Tiny House. (Neolith Tiny House ) Tiny homes There will be a variety of tiny homes on display this year: A 500-square-foot luxury home featuring Toto toilets, Miele interior appliances, a 36-inch Wolf outdoor gas grill and Neolith surfaces. Theres also a 560-square-foot trailer design for the "desert dweller" created by Kim Lewis and the Happier Camper, an ultra-light, retro-modern, fiberglass camper that features a modular interior. Method Homes new Anatta Series highlights indoor-outdoor living. (Method Homes) Prefabs Method Homes will launch the new Anatta Series, a prefab home with a focus on indoor-outdoor living designed by Methods architect partners at Chris Pardo Design: Elemental Architecture. A chance to mingle with designers Who will be there? Celebrity designer Nate Berkus, for one. Noted interior designers and authors Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Christiane Lemieux will also be speaking at Dwell on Design along with architect David Adjaye who recently completed the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Adjaye will talk with Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne at 11:45 a.m. Friday. Santa Barbara Autocamp Airstream in Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara Autocamp) (Santa Barbara Autocamp / Santa Barbara Autocamp) Outdoor living showcase Dwell Outdoor will feature prefab homes, an Outdoor Cinema curated by Architecture + Design Film Festival and Autocamp's Outdoor Adventure featuring two full-size custom Airstreams and a luxury tent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What: Dwell on Design 2017 Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, South Hall, 1201 S. Figueroa St., downtown Los Angeles. When: June 23, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; June 24, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; June 25, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission: Tickets and passes start at $30 and go up from there, depending on events selected. Multiple-day discounts available. Info: dwellondesign.com ALSO: A modern home connects a family to the outdoors and to one another This new guesthouse is a mere 380 square feet but still feels sunny and spacious More Southern California home tours The financial giant Anbang Insurance Group Co. announced Wednesday that its chairman, Wu Xiaohui, was stepping aside temporarily for personal reasons and that he had authorized relevant senior executives to continue running the business. The announcement, which spurred a decline in stocks in which Anbang has significant investment, came just hours after the independent Chinese financial magazine Caijing reported that authorities had detained Wu. The story was later deleted from the magazines website, but the BBC reported that police had taken Wu away from the Anbang offices in Beijing on Thursday. Advertisement The global insurance company, which acquired the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel in 2014, is one of the largest insurance groups in China, according to its website. A short statement from the company did not address the magazine story or indicate how long Wu might be gone. But his abrupt departure doesnt come as a total surprise. In recent years, dozens of senior executives have mysteriously vanished. Most are believed to have been caught up in an aggressive anti-corruption campaign that has targeted financial industry executives, government officials and the heads of state-owned companies. In many cases, the disappeared have returned. In others, they have turned up in custody or were found dead. Here are some cases: Xiao Jianhua A Chinese-born Canadian citizen, Xiao Jianhua vanished from his residence at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong in the early hours of Jan. 27. The Times reported that his disappearance fueled speculation that Chinese security agents illegally nabbed him from the former British colony and whisked him to the mainland, possibly as part of a crackdown on the financial industry and an investigation into whether he was involved in financial crimes. Xiaos reported $6-billion fortune made him Chinas 32nd richest person in 2016. His conglomerate, the Tomorrow Group, includes investments in real estate, insurance, banking, coal, cement and rare earth minerals. Zhou Chengjian The billionaire chairman of Metersbonwe, one of Chinas leading clothing companies, Zhou Chengjian was reported missing on Jan. 7. According to CNBC, Zhous company issued a statement saying it was looking into reports that police had detained the business executive. The Financial Times reported that Zhou, whose fortune was estimated at $4 billion in 2015, returned to work a week later together with Tu Ke, the companys board secretary, who had also temporarily vanished. Guo Guangchang Guo Guangchang, the chairman of the private-sector conglomerate Fosun, which owns the resort company Club Med and Cirque du Soleil, disappeared in December 2015. Company officials said in a statement that Guo had been assisting in certain investigations carried out by judicial authorities, according to CNBC. The executive, who reportedly has a personal fortune of close to $10 billion, subsequently reappeared at a company meeting in Shanghai. No further explanation was given for his temporary absence. Lei Jie Lei Jie, the former chairman of Founder Securities Company Ltd., a joint venture partner of Swiss bank Credit Suisse, went missing in 2015. The Wall Street Journal reported that company officials initially said Lei had requested a weeks leave through relatives on Jan. 12, 2015, but then fell out of contact a week later. On Jan. 22, the company announced that it had appointed an interim chairman, Reuters reported. Lei was released from police custody a few months later after assisting authorities with an inquiry, according to media reports. Mao Xiaofeng Mao Xiaofeng, the president of China Minsheng Banking Corp. who at 43 was reportedly the youngest president of a listed Chinese bank (one whose shares are traded on an official stock exchange) also disappeared in January 2015. Quartz reported that Mao was taken away by the Communist Partys anti-graft agency to help with an investigation into Ling Jihua, a onetime senior aide to former President Hu Jintao, and that officials at Minsheng, the worlds 49th largest bank, said Mao had resigned for personal reasons. Mike Poon Ho Man Mike Poon Ho Man, the former chief executive of China Aircraft Leasing Group, mysteriously resurfaced in Hong Kong in November 2015, six months after he submitted a letter of resignation and his company said he could no longer be contacted. According to the South China Morning Post, Poon had been in detention as part of an inquiry into graft in Chinas booming aviation sector. Yang Zezhu In January 2016, Yang Zezhu, a prominent banker and former chairman of the Chinese brokerage Changjiang Securities, fell to his death from the 12th floor of a building in Chinas Wuhan city. According to Human Rights Watch, it is unclear whether Yang, who had been under investigation for corruption, was free at the time of his death, or had been detained by the authorities. Reuters reported that Yang had left a suicide note. ann.simmons@latimes.com Special correspondent Jessica Meyers in Beijing contributed to this report. For two years, Maggie White has been delivering impassioned speeches as a student appointee on California State University s board of trustees. Shes traveled 300 miles each way to board meetings in Long Beach. Shes trekked across the state to meet with fellow students on each of the systems 23 campuses. Shes done this while also working toward a masters degree in public administration at Cal State Stanislaus and interning 20 hours a week in the public works department of the rural city of Patterson. All while driving at least a couple of hours each day because she lives at home with her parents. White grew up in Modesto, about 30 minutes from Patterson. Both of her parents are teachers her father took it up after years of firefighting. In her hometown, going to a four-year college wasnt a sure thing for many. She worked at a frozen yogurt shop and took classes at Modesto Junior College before applying to Cal State Stanislaus, her parents alma mater. She got her bachelors degree in communication studies in 2016 and hopes to earn her masters in 2018. Whites no relation, by the way, to Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White, though the two occasionally messed up the roll call by answering for each other at board meetings. In July, she takes over as the newly elected president of the California State Student Assn., the official group representing the university systems entire student body. Shes busy preparing for her new role, but took a moment to talk about the students she serves and the challenges facing the largest public university system in the country. How do you get to know almost 480,000 students and their concerns, at campuses as different as Bakersfield, Chico and San Francisco? That was the question I had going into this.... How could any one person, especially one person like me, possibly represent all these students? I decided I was going to have to spend as much time as I possibly could visiting the campuses, meeting with students who were different from me. I think the most important part of my job is knowing that I'm not speaking for myself when I'm in that boardroom I'm speaking for the 479,999 students who aren't me. Ive learned a lot going to the big cities, San Francisco, L.A., where rent is so high. I dont know how these students do it. The first thing that comes up is always money. If you look at the numbers comparing California State University to other comparable universities in the country, we actually have lower tuition. But the cost of living in California is so much higher. So I think we're going to have to see some sort of state support or some kind of support for housing, especially in metropolitan areas. When I applied to be a trustee I had no idea what anyone was talking about. It was all sorts of jargon, this initiative and that proposal, and I was like, What does that even mean? And so I came into this thinking, if I do nothing else, maybe I can break down some of this and speak it in plain English to students and just be on their level, because I'm there with them. Maggie White addresses the Cal State board of trustees at her last meeting as a voting member in June. Youve tackled a number of issues with fellow trustees tuition hikes, homeless students, four-year graduation rates hovering at 20%. What other issues would you like to see addressed? The first thing that comes to mind is mental health resources. We were just talking about doing some sort of study of how many mental healthcare providers there are across the system. We know that several campuses have hired a lot, some have hired less, and I'm hearing concerns from students. It takes three or four weeks, I've heard six weeks, to get an appointment with a counselor. Can you believe that? When you have a mental health crisis, and you finally get the guts or the initiative or the time to go on campus, go to your psychological services center and say, I need an appointment with a mental health counselor, and they say, OK, come back in a month if it's not Come back tomorrow or Come back in an hour, that's not good enough. If someone was standing in front of you with a broken arm, you wouldn't say: Come back in a month and we'll try to see you. Getting an education is the No. 1 thing that you can do to take control of your own fate, your own destiny, and not let life just happen to you. Maggie White, Cal State student trustee Maggie White speaks as a voting member of the Cal State Board of Trustees (Allen Bimbach/Courtesy of Cal State University ) Whats it like sitting in the meeting chambers, surrounded by legislators, the chancellor and university presidents? Jorge Reyes Salinas [the other student trustee] and I say this to each other before meetings: Speak up even if your voice shakes. With the tuition issue this year, it was not easy or fun to talk about. It wasn't fun or easy for anyone on that board to talk about.... You've got a really intense crowd, and they have the right to be intense and I'm glad they're there being intense, but it is really difficult to sit there and sometimes say the thing that needs to be said, knowing that it's not what people want to hear. That doesn't mean you don't say it. It just means that your voice shakes as you say it. (Allen Bimbach/Courtesy of Cal State University) What are some issues at Cal State that people might not know about? I think about my dad a lot.... Hed gone to a couple junior colleges. Working three jobs and going to school, he literally would work nights as a security guard at a construction place, then go work somewhere else during the day, and then he would go to class in the evenings. He didn't finish his degree and went on to become a firefighter and did everything that he needed to do that. He'd been a firefighter for a few years, married my mom, had my older brother and realized that eventually he wanted to be a captain. Well, it's extremely competitive. So even though he was a good firefighter, he was told you've got to get a bachelor's degree if you want to be competitive. And so my dad went back, he's doing shift trades to be able to go to his classes in the afternoon. And my dad would go literally study all night at Kinkos so that he wouldn't keep my mom and the baby up in their little house. So when he got that bachelor's degree I think he was either 30 or 31 he was the youngest fire captain in the history of our city.... We don't talk a lot about students who are parents, students who are married, students who are working full time. We talk a lot about students working two or three jobs, and that's important. But what about the person that works 40-plus hours a week, has a family but wants to get that bachelor's or master's degree? We need to make sure there are enough childcare options. I'd really like to see more classes on Fridays and Saturdays, perhaps more online options. We still cater so much to this 18-, 22-year-old model, but is that really our students? Is that really Cal State? What do you see yourself doing after graduation? Because of this position, I'm now so interested in higher ed advocacy and leadership. Hopefully Ill be making schools better so that girls like me and guys not like me and anyone else similar, not similar to me, has that opportunity to make their life better. Because getting an education is the No. 1 thing that you can do to take control of your own fate, your own destiny, and not let life just happen to you. Read more at Essential Education, our daily look at education in California and beyond Immigration detainees launched hunger strikes this week at the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County to bring attention to what they say is excessively high bail, inadequate medical care and bad food, among other complaints. A half-dozen asylum seekers from Central America stopped eating Monday and resumed at lunch Wednesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a statement. About 30 female immigration detainees told officials Wednesday they planned to start a hunger strike and refused breakfast and lunch, Kice said. Advertisement ICE personnel at the facility have been meeting with the women to get a better understanding of their concerns and this afternoon the women indicated they intended to resume eating beginning with dinner [Wednesday] evening, Kice said in a statement. In a news release, the women said they are striking for better medical care, lower bond amounts, more respect from guards and for mothers at the facility to be reunited with their children. The male asylum seekers from Central America said that bail for detainees had been set impossibly high and that they have faced humiliation and discrimination, bad food and incompetent medical staff. The strike began with eight detainees, but two resumed eating Tuesday, officials said. Tristan Call, a spokesman for Surenxs En Accion, a Nashville-based activist organization that has been working with the detainees, said he has not heard from them and could not confirm that the strike had ended. The privately run Adelanto facility has long faced scrutiny from immigrant advocates over alleged neglect, lack of adequate medical care and other issues. It faced increased attention this year after the deaths of three detainees. Detainee Isaac Lopez Castillo said in a statement that the hunger strikers hoped to bring outside attention to conditions at Adelanto. The facility is operated by the GEO Group, a private contractor that owns and runs dozens of private prisons and detention centers across the country. We are from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, Lopez Castillo said in the statement released through Surenxs En Accion. Adelanto is one of the prisons which exists for those who are seeking political asylum, and in reality our records are clean, none of us have prior criminal records. The bail is set impossibly high, and its a humiliating joke because we are poor, we dont have that kind of money. The detainees issued demands that included reduced bail, political asylum, new uniforms, more time for religious services and clean water at all hours of the day. They came to the United States as part of a caravan fleeing violence in Central America, Call said. In late 2015, 26 asylum seekers wanting to be released from custody while their cases were processed launched a hunger strike at Adelanto that lasted nearly two weeks. Earlier that year, more than two dozen members of Congress wrote a letter to the U.S. Justice Department and ICE officials expressing concerns about reports of medical neglect at Adelanto. Three Adelanto detainees have died since March. Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez-Gadba, 32, of Nicaragua, died at a local hospital six days after he was found hanging in his cell on March 22. In April, Sergio Alonso Lopez, 55, of Mexico, died several days after he was taken to the hospital after vomiting blood. Immigration officials said he had a history of serious medical issues. The preliminary cause of death was internal bleeding, officials said. Vicente Caceres-Maradiaga, 46, a Honduran national, died in late May in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. The preliminary cause of death was listed as acute coronary syndrome, immigration officials said in a statement. paloma.esquivel@latimes.com Twitter: @palomaesquivel ALSO Decision time at the Supreme Court: Rulings expected soon on religion, free speech and immigration U.S. citizen detained by immigration authorities asks California lawmakers to support sanctuary state bill Trump administration will press Central American countries and Mexico to keep their people at home UPDATES: 5:35 p.m.: This article was updated with details of a hunger strike by female detainees. This article was originally published at 2:25 p.m. Pic:The picture shows the barns and modern machines of the Kimberly farm. (Photo by Gao Shi from Peoples Daily) A Chinese think tank delegation on Sunday paid a visit to Kimberly farm in Iowa State, whose name became popular among Chinese people after hosting the then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinpingin 2012, with the aim to remove the obstacles to the development of Sino-US agricultural cooperation. Headed by Wei Jianguo, who was a former vice minister of commerce, the delegation is to attend aUS-China Think Tank Summit after visiting the farm in the outskirt of Des Moines, capital city of Iowa, a state of fish and rice. Farm owner Rick Kimberly and his son Grant Kimberly showed the delegates around the machinery, barns and farmland, sharing their experience in the business model and management. When addressing the US-China Agricultural Symposium in 2012, Xi said Chinese government pays great attendance to the development agriculture and rural areas because food security is key to the welfare of 1.3 billion people. The delegation wishes to listen to the US farmers expectation toward the agricultural exchange between China and the US and respond to their concerns, so as to resolve problems, said Wei, who is the executive deputy director of China Center for International Economic Exchanges. Xis visit has brought dramatic and surprising changes to our lives, Rick said. In October 2016, the 4,000-acre Kimberly farm inked an agreement with Lishucounty inNortheastern Chinas Jilin Province to set up a model farm to showcase modern agriculture. In November, 2016, Terry Branstad, now US Ambassador to China and then Iowa Governor signed an agreement with Chengde city, HebeiProvince to build a friendship farmland during his visit to China. Rick told the Peoples Daily reporters that China is a major producer, trader and consumer of agricultural products that enjoys rich resources and a huge market. The rapid economic development in recent years has driven up Chinese consumers attention on food security, Rick said, adding that their high demand for imported healthy food will bring chances to US farmers. I have visited China eight times since 2013, and the people there are the most hospitable ones I have ever met, Rick said, suggesting that every US citizen should pay a visit to the country. He added that exchange deepens mutual understanding, and the Chinese people are just as friendly and simple as the Iowans. Rick took out a photowhich shows that Xi met with his son Grant at the Great Hall of the People in 2013. Xi asked Grant to convey his regards to me and my wife, which made me feel honored and warm, Rick said proudly. Grant, who serves as the director of Market Development for the Iowa Soybean Association, has visited dozens of Chinese cities since 2008 and witnessed all the changes China had made. Hailing China is the most energetic agricultural market in the world and the largest export destination of US agricultural products, he noted that China will transform from extensive development to intensive growth with the emphasis on innovation and agricultural technology, which means abundant opportunities for the US agriculture. Wei said that he has felt the strong desire of US people to cooperate with China after talking to the Kimberlys, adding that there is vast space for cooperation and mutual learning between China and the US, such as how to attract young talents to work on modern agriculture. Statistics from US-China Business Council indicated a rapid growth of Iowas export to China during 2006 and 2015. In 2015, the state exported $1.4 billion of agricultural products to China and achieved a 257 percent growth. China and Iowa enjoy profound friendship, Bill Northey, secretary of the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship, told the Peoples Daily. He said he was impressed by Chinas continuous development and huge market in agriculture. Iowa is an agricultural state that tops the US in terms of corn, egg and pork production, the secretary said, adding that the two countries share a well-established and unshakable foundation for agricultural cooperation. Northey hoped that the two countries could deepen cooperation and learn from each other for the sake of common development. A woman was struck and killed by a car and her infant granddaughter was injured in Anaheim on Tuesday when a woman backing out of an apartment complex lost control of the vehicle, police said. The incident occurred on a sidewalk area about 2 p.m. when the driver was leaving a gated complex off Nutwood Avenue between Ball Road and Beacon Street, said Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt. The female driver was backing up when she hit the gas, plowed through the gate and into 44-year-old Norma Revolorio, KCBS-TV reported. Advertisement Revolorios 1-year-old granddaughter, who was in a stroller, was injured and Revolorio died later at the hospital, Wyatt said. The driver was cooperating with police and drugs and alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the crash, Wyatt said. Neighbors told KCBS that the driver and Revolorio lived in the same apartment complex. She was always with her grandkids always watching them and they were always full of joy, neighbor Arielle Hernandez told KCBS. Revolorio was babysitting for her daughter at the time, KCBS reported. joseph.serna@latimes.com For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter. ALSO Four killed in shooting at San Francisco UPS facility, including gunman Panorama City shooting, car crash leaves 1 dead, 3 injured Two killed in fiery car crash on Hollywood Boulevard A man in Central California discovered that the Anti-Piracy Warning Seal and message that plays before every Hollywood movie is not just for show. Just eight days after the February 2016 release of the Marvel film Deadpool, federal authorities said Trevon Maurice Franklin illegally uploaded it to Facebook, allowing more than 5 million people to watch it for free. It did not take long for the FBI to notice. On Tuesday, federal authorities arrested the 21-year-old Fresno man, charging him with copyright infringement, according to a U.S. District Court grand jury indictment. Advertisement The felony offense carries a sentence of up to three years in federal prison, the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles said. Federal authorities said Franklin illegally uploaded the action flick starring actor Ryan Reynolds and posted it on his Facebook page using the screen name Tre-Von M. King. He is accused of reproducing and distributing at least 10 copies of Deadpool, the indictment said. Federal authorities estimated the total retail value of the copies was $2,500. veronica.rocha@latimes.com Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA ALSO The online ad industry is rallying to fight piracy, fraud, extremists and fake news. Does it stand a chance? Josh Brolin joins Deadpool 2' as Cable, beefing up his comic-book cred Deadpool animated series from Donald Glover is headed to FXX The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a spending plan Tuesday for millions of dollars from a special sales tax to fight homelessness. On a unanimous vote, the supervisors accepted virtually all of the recommendations of a 50-member planning committee on how to divide nearly $259 million projected in the first year of Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax increase approved by county voters in March. Declaring it a signal day in the county of Los Angeles, board Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas nonetheless cautioned against complacency. Advertisement Weve got to make it work for the good of this county and the sake of our very moral fiber, he said. A parade of about 70 speakers stepped up mostly to praise the board for its courage, leadership, determination and vision. Others argued for several motions that offered nuanced direction to county officials who will administer the funds. Ridley-Thomas introduced one of the motions, asking for a report in 45 days on how the county planned to use data to track the progress of the homeless strategies. Other motions asked for 200 shelter beds to be provided for victims of domestic violence and requested studies on addressing youths and college students and providing day care and additional funds to cities. The board sidestepped the only contentious issue, whether to provide $1.2 million to the Sheriffs Department to beef up its homeless outreach team. Several members of the citizen planning group strongly opposed the allocation, saying that working with homeless people was an inherent responsibility of the department and should be funded out of its regular budget. Sheriff Jim McDonnell and police chiefs from several cities argued Tuesday that law enforcement officers often make the first contact with homeless people under stressful conditions. In a compromise, the board committed $6.6 million from the AB 109 prison reform bill for homeless outreach by law enforcement. The Sheriffs Homeless Services team would receive $1.2 million annually for three years. The remainder would be divided among other police agencies, excluding the Los Angeles Police Department, to support their homeless outreach. The planning committee last month forwarded a nearly unanimous consensus to supervisors on how to divide the money over 21 strategies approved for funding by the board last year. The bulk of the money will be spent on rental subsidies, services to support those placed in permanent housing, outreach and strengthening and expansion of the shelter system. Measure H is projected to raise $355 million annually for 10 years. The three-year spending plan adopted Tuesday included tentative budgets of $374 million in the second year and $431 million in the third. Those budgets would commit all the $1.07 billion projected in the first three years, but would reach a pace exceeding the projected annual revenue in the fourth year. The sales tax increase will raise the rate in most cities to 9.5% effective Oct. 1. County officials earlier said it would start July 1, but an agreement worked out with the state Board of Equalization, which will collect the money, pushed the date back. The increase will not apply in Compton, La Mirada, Long Beach, Lynwood, Pico Rivera, Santa Monica and South Gate because the sales tax in those cities is already at the maximum allowed by state law. Phil Ansell, director of the countys Homeless Initiative, said the delay in receiving the funds will not slow down any programs. Internal county borrowing will be used to start on schedule July 1, and the smaller first-year budget will come in just under the nine months of tax collections. doug.smith@latimes.com @LATDoug A gunman shot and killed three people at a United Parcel Service facility in San Francisco on Wednesday morning before fatally shooting himself in front of police officers, authorities said. Two others were wounded by gunfire, according to San Francisco police, and five had injuries that were probably sustained during the rush to evacuate. The lone gunman, identified by police as Jimmy Lam, 38, shot himself in the head, Assistant Chief Toney Chaplin said. Two guns were recovered at the scene. Advertisement Authorities said the incident was not believed to be connected to terrorism. Police Chief William Scott told The Times that investigators were uncertain about Lams motive. Police were still conducting a very active investigation on what may have caused this as well as [the gunmans] background, Scott said. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said Lam was a driver who was wearing his uniform when he opened fire inside the four-story shipping facility. At the time, workers were gathering for their morning meeting before departing to deliver parcels, he said. Lam, a resident of San Francisco, had filed a grievance in March complaining about excessive overtime, Joseph Cilia, a Teamsters Union official, told the Associated Press. The Teamsters local represents UPS workers in San Francisco. Cilia said the gunman seemed to have targeted the three drivers who were fatally wounded. I never knew Jimmy to not get along with people, Cilia said. Jimmy wasnt a big complainer. The names of the three people who died were not released. A UPS official said the package service was working with law enforcement to notify the workers families. Family and friends identified one of the victims as Mike Lefiti, a longtime UPS driver. His cousin, Mack Toia, told KGO-TV Channel 7, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco, that he arrived to pick up Lefiti, a married father of five. I came out of the van, I walked up toward the gate and I looked over and I saw my cousin sprawled out on the concrete, Toia told the news station. He ran over toward Lefiti but was pushed away by arriving first responders. I got to touch him, but I couldnt hug him, Toia said. The gunfire began about 8:55 a.m. and it prompted police to issue a shelter-in-place alert to residents near the UPS building, located at the border of the Mission District and the Potrero Hill neighborhoods. A Twitter user across the street from the building wrote that he heard seven or eight gunshots and saw employees standing on the buildings rooftop parking lot with their hands up. I want to offer my condolences to the individuals & families affected by the senseless act of violence at the @UPS facility in Potrero Hill. Mayor Ed Lee (@mayoredlee) June 14, 2017 When police arrived, they encountered numerous victims and evacuated them, Chaplin said. Officers learned that the gunman was still inside the cavernous facility and actively targeting people. A team entered the building, found Lam and saw him turn his weapon on himself, Chaplin said. The officers did what they were trained to do, and that is when we have an active shooter we engage an active shooter to stop the shooting, and the officers did that, Chaplin said. This person took their life because our officers confronted him. Officers did not fire at the gunman, authorities said. Police announced that the building was secure shortly after 10:30 a.m. Meanwhile, officers continued searching the premises for witnesses and additional victims. Officers found two bodies outside the facility; others were inside, Chaplin said. This was a frightful scene, and we just wanted to make sure someone wasnt so terrified that they were hiding and we didnt know they were inside the facility, Chaplin said. Gaut, the UPS spokesman, said the facility processes packages for delivery in the San Francisco area and has 350 workers. It is unknown how many employees were in the facility at the time of the shooting, company officials said. Our thoughts & prayers are with everyone impacted by senseless violence today in SF & Alexandria. Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) June 14, 2017 Incredibly difficult day. My thoughts are with the injured and the families of those lost in todays shooting at UPS in SFs Potrero Hill. Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) June 14, 2017 Praying for the shooting victims at the UPS facility in San Francisco. Way too many shootings in this country. It's depressing. Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) June 14, 2017 Our thoughts & prayers are with the victims, families & those affected by the senseless violence today at the UPS facility in San Francisco. San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) June 14, 2017 Relatives of workers began arriving to reunite with their loved ones, who were being interviewed by police. Maria Olmedo, 42, rushed to the area when she learned of the shooting. Her 21-year-old son is a loader and wasnt responding to her panicked texts, she said. Its a scary situation, Im a mom, Olmedo said, standing about a block away from a church where police had relocated employees. One of her sons co-workers sent Olmedo a text message, assuring her that he was fine. Condolences began to flow in through social media after word spread that the rampage was over and the gunman was dead. As investigators continued to process the crime scene Wednesday afternoon, motorcycle officers escorted a black van from the facility. In the passenger seat, a woman sobbed and held her head in her hands. At an afternoon news conference, Mayor Ed Lee reassured UPS workers and the families of those killed that they would be taken care of. They are happy and hardworking people, Lee said. We know them in every single neighborhood in the city. In days to come, city officials will review the incident to determine if any safety improvements can be made. Rosemary Turner, president of UPS North California District, said counselors would be on hand to provide support. Please keep UPS-ers in your prayers, she said. UPS shooting across the st from my bedroom. Heard ~7-8 shots fired, then police storm the ramp to roof as UPS workers had hands up #ups pic.twitter.com/R5hDZ2Bwhh raydeng (@raydeng) June 14, 2017 (Raoul Ranoa / Los Angeles Times) joseph.serna@latimes.com veronica.rocha@latimes.com maura.dolan@latimes.com Times staff writers Matt Hamilton and Richard Winton contributed to this report. Dolan reported from San Francisco, Serna and Rocha from Los Angeles. ALSO L.A. mayor thinks a monorail over the 405 Freeway could tame traffic gridlock Signs of past California mega-quakes show danger of the Big One on San Andreas fault Column: Dying malls offer a chance to build something better and address how our lives are changing UPDATES: 10:15 p.m.: This article was updated with the age of the gunman. 9:20 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with comments from union officials, Chief William Scott and the identity of one of the victims. 4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Chaplin. 2:10 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Lee and Turner. 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from a UPS worker. 12:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from employees families. 12 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from the San Francisco mayor. 11:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from San Francisco police. 10:45 a.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from a UPS spokesman. 10:20 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from a hospital spokesman and San Francisco police. 10 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from a UPS spokesman. 9:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from the citys Department of Emergency Management. This article was originally published at 9:35 a.m. An Orange County judge has ruled that Trinity Broadcasting, a dominant broadcaster of Christian-oriented programming, must pay the full $2-million verdict to its founding televangelists granddaughter. A jury had decided June 5 that Trinity founder Jan Crouch had caused outrageous harm to her then-teenage granddaughter, Carra Crouch, after she told her grandmother she had been sexually assaulted by a Trinity employee. But the jury had decided that others were also at fault, such as the girls mother and the assailant, so it divided up eachs liability. Jurors said Trinity Broadcasting had to pay only 45% of the total verdict, or $900,000. Advertisement On Monday, Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson wiped away the division of damages and ruled that Trinitys parent organization, Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, had to pay the entire sum plus interest. The decision is a setback for Trinity, which has gained millions of viewers around the world and assets of about $750 million by touting an uplifting message of faith and prosperity. Trinity attorney Michael King did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday, but he previously said the television network was inclined to appeal the outcome. Carra Crouch, now 24, said in her lawsuit that in 2006, she was attending a fundraising telethon for Trinity in Georgia when a 30-year-old employee coerced himself into her hotel room and ordered wine from room service. At the time, she was 13. The man pressured her to drink and then offered a glass of water, which she contends was laced with a sedative, according to the suit. When she awoke the next morning, she said, blood was on the sheets and her body was sore, which indicated she had been molested and raped, according to the lawsuit. Shortly after, she went to her grandmothers Newport Beach estate and told her what had happened. The elder Crouch became enraged and upbraided her granddaughter, according to court papers. The grandmother said, Why would you have that man in your room? Why would you let this happen? Carra Crouch testified in a deposition. The Trinity employee was soon fired but he was not arrested or charged with a crime. Carra Crouch alleged her grandmother sought to avoid a firestorm of damaging headlines and covered up the matter. The lawsuit said that under Californias child protection laws, an ordained minister such as Jan Crouch was required to report the suspected sexual abuse to police. King, the lawyer for Trinity, countered at trial that Jan Crouch was told about the incident in her capacity as a grandmother, not as a Trinity employee, so the mandatory reporting requirement did not apply. Jurors agreed that Jan Crouch was acting as a grandmother but still faulted her for causing her granddaughter to suffer. Jan Crouch died in 2016. Her husband, Paul Crouch Sr., who co-founded the network, died in 2013. Both disputed the lawsuits allegations, and King has said the legal battle one of many faced over the years when the Crouches led the network was painful for them. You can imagine what a grandmother feels when her granddaughter sues her over something like this, King said. He insisted Jan Crouch was not informed of the alleged sexual assault, and instead was told of spurned sexual advances made by the Trinity employee. Her position was, if she knew something, she would have acted. matt.hamilton@latimes.com Twitter: @MattHjourno ALSO An 8-year-old was taken off life support, his organs donated. Now, police are investigating Man arrested by feds after 5 million people watched illegal Deadpool upload on his Facebook A dog sitter and extra legroom. A look at the latest legal drama in Durst murder case Vice President Mike Pence and three members of President Trumps Cabinet will meet leaders from Mexico and several Central American countries Thursday at a conference in Miami to press them to prevent their citizens from migrating to the United States. Officials describe the effort as a partner to the Trump administrations push to increase deportations of immigrants in the country illegally and to boost border security. The Trump administration appears to be shifting the focus of its policies on Central America away from political and social improvements that gained traction under President Obama and more on law enforcement, especially stopping illegal immigration and cracking down on drug trafficking. Advertisement Critics worry about a return to a militarized, drug war approach in Central America that put law enforcement ahead of other concerns. They say money is needed to reduce the so-called push factors, especially violence and poverty, that propel Central Americans and Mexicans to flee their countries. The White House has proposed cutting overall State Department funding for Central America to $460 million next year a 39% reduction over 2016. Its critics say those cuts, if approved by Congress, will undermine efforts to keep impoverished families from heading north. State Department officials say the two-day conference in Miami which will also be attended by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly and Secretary of Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin shows the U.S. commitment to the region. In terms of U.S. engagement and support in the region, the fact that we have a conference of this magnitude involving the vice president, three U.S. cabinet members and numerous other U.S. government agencies and U.S. officials shows our continued commitment to Central America, said John Creamer, a deputy assistant secretary of State for Mexico and Central America. Also scheduled to attend are the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, countries that comprise the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America, which suffer from soaring murder rates, extreme poverty and corrupt governments. We have asked them [Northern Triangle countries] to ask their citizens to not waste the money and head north, do not get on that terribly dangerous network, Kelly said in testimony to the Senate last week, stay where they are, because if they come here, this is no longer an illegal-alien-friendly environment. Kelly, a retired Marine general who previously headed the Southern Command responsible for U.S. military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, has long experience with interdiction and crime-busting in the region. Under the Obama administration and in response to an abrupt flood of minors crossing into the United States in the summer of 2015, Congress allotted more than $1 billion for the Northern Triangle over a two-year period. Under then-Vice President Joe Biden, the administration partnered with the three Central American countries to form the Alliance for Prosperity, which would match the U.S. funds and was tasked with showing results. The money helped finance both security and social projects, including anti-corruption programs, police training, judicial reform and youth leadership. Murder rates did drop some, and there were sporadic advances in prosecuting corrupt officials. With Kelly taking a key role dealing with Latin America, many advocates who long worked in the region worry that U.S. attention and money is too narrowly focused on law enforcement, migrants and drugs. You can see the pendulum start to swing back, said Eric Olson, an expert on Central America at the nonpartisan Wilson Center think tank in Washington. The first day of the Miami conference will focus on prosperity but includes private sector groups. The second day focuses on security and will be held at Southern Command, with Kelly leading discussions. Tillerson will not participate. While private sector investment can help ... the U.S. must continue to lead by example in supporting this alliance to address root causes of migration from Central America, Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), who has made several fact-finding trips to the region, said this week. I hope that the Trump administration will reconsider its proposal to dramatically cut funding to our partners in the Alliance for Prosperity. Kelly has demanded that Mexico do more to secure its borders and stop migrants from heading north. In 2015, Mexico arrested more Central Americans trying to cross Mexico than U.S. authorities arrested Central Americans attempting to cross into the United States. But the Mexican arrests have led to a spike in reports of abuse, beatings and rapes of migrants by Mexican soldiers and blanket denial of asylum claims. Mexico wants to cooperate with the United States to improve its own bargaining position with a hostile Trump administration. In shifting part of the focus back to the drug war, U.S. officials have been careful to recognize U.S. demand for drugs as a major engine in the problem. U.S. drug demand, Kelly said last month, generates all the problems. But even that, critics say, minimizes the institutional flaws that cripple good governance in Central America. Weak institutions helped fuel the violence and insecurity that creates the immigration flow, said Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy and research organization. Going backward from previous administrations commitments will do little to address those underlying causes. tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter The pioneers who built Seattle polluted and plumbed the lower Duwamish River for a century, straightening its wild curves and saturating its sediment with toxic chemicals from an asphalt plant, Boeing manufacturing facilities and other industries. The damage was so severe that the last five miles of the river before it empties into Elliott Bay were designated a federal Superfund cleanup site in 2001 an official stamp of devastation that came all too late in the view of Native American tribes that once fished for salmon here. Now, even as progress has been made in the $342-million cleanup, the river and the effort to clean it face a new threat: climate change. Scientists say that rising seas could flood riverbanks by midcentury and that potential increases in storm-water runoff and downstream flows could bore into sediment and release toxins sealed below. Advertisement The challenges are not isolated to the Duwamish. Experts say that Superfund sites across the country including Portland Harbor in Oregon, naval bases in Virginia and landfills in the Midwest are at risk from the increasingly extreme weather and rising sea levels associated with climate change, and that longstanding methods for cleaning them may need to be rethought. Under President Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency began doing just that, proposing technical guidelines in 2015 to make Superfund cleanups more resilient to climate change. Yet how the Trump administration will address the dual threat of past and future is unclear. Scott Pruitt, the new head of the EPA, has said cleaning up Superfund sites is at the top of his back to basics approach for the agency. He has promised to streamline the Superfund process, including by getting directly involved with large projects. Like Trump, Pruitt has repeatedly questioned the broad scientific consensus that human activity is driving climate change. He has had information about climate science removed from the EPAs website and played a prominent role in Trumps recent decision to withdraw from the landmark Paris climate accord. Environmental groups worry that Pruitt will favor inexpensive cleanup methods that fail to withstand the test of time. Climate change impacts everything, said Gregg Small, executive director of the nonprofit Climate Solutions, based in Seattle. You cannot solve any problem if you are not dealing with climate change, because it exacerbates every other problem in the environment. The Superfund program was once among the nations highest-profile environmental efforts. For four decades, it has identified and sought to remediate sites contaminated by industrial waste, runoff, mining, chemical use and other types of pollution. Rivers and ports have frequently been designated Superfund sites, as have older manufacturing locations. Cleanups may involve removing acres of contaminated soil and replacing it with healthy soil, capping a site with a heavy layer of new soil, or trusting nature to slowly break down pollutants. But an increasing understanding of climate change presented new questions. Would capped toxins at a Superfund site stay sealed amid more extreme weather? What if storm water surged into an area more powerfully than in the past? What if floods forecast to occur once in a century happened once every couple decades? A system that was designed for remedial action under one set of circumstances may fail completely under other circumstances, said Peter deFur, a longtime consultant on Superfund cleanups who is based in Virginia. Nobody knows what Pruitt means by back to basics, he said. If it means requiring air permits, water permits, cleaning up Superfund sites thats great, we want to do that. But if back to basics means forgetting about climate change, were going to fail. Those concerns have also been raised within the EPA. On March 28, Michael Cox, a longtime climate change expert for the agency, helped lead a workshop to consider how the climate might affect the cleanup of the Duwamish. Three days later, Cox retired and made his feelings known in a blistering open letter to Pruitt that was circulated widely within the agency and eventually made it to the news media. You will continue to undermine your credibility and integrity with EPA staff, and the majority of the public, if you continue to question this basic science of climate change, Cox wrote. In an interview this month, Cox said prioritizing Superfund cleanups could not be separated from accepting climate science. If were spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on cleanups, I sure hope were looking out 50, 60, 70 years to make sure they are resilient to the changing climate, he said. Why in the heck would we spend close to half a billion dollars on something thats not going to stand up over time? It doesnt make any sense. Dave Schuchardt, the Superfund program manager for Seattle Public Utilities, was among dozens of federal, state and local officials who attended the March workshop. Schuchardt said in an interview that stronger storm and river flows projected under climate change can scour away at layers of soil intended to seal in toxins. As we work through that set of decision points, well want to consider how this particular river might be affected by climate change and how it might or might not affect the scouring situation, Schuchardt said. EPA officials in Washington did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story. Dagmar Cronn, who lives with her husband in a small house overlooking the Duwamish, spent two years watching Boeing spend millions of dollars removing waste from the river. She said she was pleased with the work, even as she has seen the river wash away trees on her bank and slowly erode her property. But Cronn, 70, also imagined unprecedented sea levels and storm flows churning the riverbed and the toxins it contains. They could all be picked up and carried God knows where, she said. A scrap metal operation on the bank of the Duwamish River. (William Yardley / Los Angeles Times) Police are set to announce charges against a dozen Turkish security agents who were involved in a violent altercation when Turkeys president visited Washington last month, a U.S. official said Wednesday. The District of Columbia police are expected to say that seven men are being charged with felonies and five with misdemeanors. The official wasnt authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a Thursday news conference that includes Washingtons mayor and police chief. The action is likely to exacerbate what has become a major irritant in U.S.-Turkish ties. Relations were severely strained even before the May 16 clash, which happened as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived at the Turkish ambassadors residence in Washington after a White House meeting with President Trump. Advertisement The NATO allies are still at odds over a U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish rebels fighting Islamic State in Syria. Turkey considers the fighters to be an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey known as the PKK, and claims without evidence that protesters who showed up during Erdogans visit to Washington were themselves associated with the group. U.S. officials have said law-abiding Americans were affected. Erdogans security detail returned with him to Turkey after his visit, so it is unclear whether any will face legal repercussions in the United States. However, they could end up being threatened with arrest if they return to the U.S. If any are still in the country, they could be expelled if Turkey refuses to waive diplomatic immunity. Video of the protest showed security guards and some Erdogan supporters attacking a small group of protesters with their fists and feet. Men in dark suits and others were recorded repeatedly kicking one woman as she lay curled on a sidewalk. Another wrenched a womans neck and threw her to the ground. A man with a bullhorn was repeatedly kicked in the face. After police officers struggled to protect the protesters and ordered the men in suits to retreat, several of the men dodged the officers and ran into the park to continue the attacks. In all, nine people were hurt. Earlier Wednesday, police said two men were arrested for their role in the fracas. The Metropolitan Police Department said in a brief statement that Sinan Narin had been arrested in Virginia on an aggravated assault charge. It said Eyup Yildirim had been arrested in New Jersey on charges of assault with significant bodily injury and aggravated assault. Yildirim made his first appearance before Federal Magistrate James Clarke in Newark, N.J., who ordered him held without bail pending his next court date in Washington. Public defender David Holman sought home confinement, arguing that Yildirim wasnt a flight risk and had never been convicted of anything. Clarke said he was less concerned with him being a possible flight risk and more concerned about the nature of the crime. Holman told the judge that Yildirim has received death threats because of the case. He said Yildirim is a business owner with three kids and ties to the community. Prosecutors told the judge that Yildirim had been arrested twice in the late 1990s on simple assault charges, but the charges were later dismissed. Narin and Yildirim were both participants in the protests, according to a U.S. official familiar with the case. On the day of the violence, police detained two members of Erdogans security detail but released them shortly afterward. Two other men were arrested at the scene one for aggravated assault and the other for assaulting a police officer. The U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the matter and demanded anonymity, said District of Columbia police had identified 34 of 42 people who were involved in the fight, and are seeking their arrests. Police are expected to release photos of the other eight possible suspects and appeal to the public for information on their identities, the official said. American officials strongly criticized Turkeys government and Erdogans security forces for the violence; the State Department summoned Turkeys U.S. ambassador to complain. The Turkish Foreign Ministry then summoned Americas ambassador to address the treatment of the detained security guards. Turkeys U.S. embassy alleged the demonstrators were associated with the PKK, which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey and is considered a terrorist group by the United States. Turkeys official Anadolu news agency said they chanted anti-Erdogan slogans, and that the Turkish presidents team moved in to disperse them because police did not heed to Turkish demands to intervene. The Turkish embassy claimed the demonstrators were aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the president. The Turkish-Americans responded in self-defense and one of them was seriously injured. UPDATES: 6:20 p.m.: The story was updated with background and more details about the charges. The story was originally published at 3:58 p.m. Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Wednesday, June 14, and heres whats happening across California: TOP STORIES Uber founder takes leave Travis Kalanick, Ubers co-founder and chief executive, will take an indefinite leave from the company after a months-long investigation into allegations of pervasive harassment inside the ride-hailing firm. Los Angeles Times Advertisement Plus: -- To make matters worse, an Uber board member resigned Tuesday after making what he called an inappropriate comment about women at a companywide meeting that was aimed at addressing the harassment of women and other unprofessional conduct. Los Angeles Times -- How serious a threat do the various scandals pose to Ubers future? Wired -- Inside Ubers frat boy culture. Wall Street Journal -- Is Ubers problem really Silicon Valleys problem? Time -- And is there a lesson in this for Donald Trump? BuzzFeed News Not the movie San Andreas worse Get ready to get scared. No, this isnt some farcical horror movie, its whats happening on the dusty slopes of the San Gorgonio Pass. The pass sits at a key geological point, separating the low desert from the Inland Empire, and, beyond that, the Los Angeles Basin. California earthquake experts believe what happens at the San Gorgonio Pass during a major rupture of the San Andreas fault could have wide-ranging implications for the region and beyond. Los Angeles Times Lets make a deal Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers unveiled a final state budget deal Tuesday, settling disputes over how to spend tobacco tax dollars and boosting the bottom line of Californias largest public employee pension fund. Los Angeles Times The state heats up Holy smokes, its about to get super-hot in California. Starting Thursday, a heat wave will grip the mountains, deserts, valleys and major cities for several days as temperatures soar into the 90s and 100s. Los Angeles Times L.A. STORIES Imagine the possibilities: With malls as we know them dying out, Times columnist Steve Lopez wonders if they can be used to make L.A. better. He welcomes your thoughts. Los Angeles Times Above the 405: On Tuesday, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti raised a new idea to relieve traffic congestion on the busy freeway: a monorail. Los Angeles Times Coming out of retirement: Vin Scully will take two days off from retirement to lend his remarkable voice to a historic composition in American history live at the Hollywood Bowl. Los Angeles Times A sign setback: Local groups that want Los Angeles to reopen a popular access point to a Hollywood sign trail were dealt a setback in court Tuesday. Los Angeles Times IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER That doesnt sound right: Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants have been granted work permits by the Trump administration under an Obama-era deferred-action program that President Trump had promised to end on his first day in office, according to federal data. Washington Post Get ready: During congressional testimony, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that people here illegally need to be worried. The Huffington Post Some interesting testimony: Guadalupe Plascencia told state lawmakers on Tuesday that she was frustrated and humiliated when she was handcuffed and detained in March by immigration authorities in San Bernardino, despite having become a U.S. citizen about 20 years ago. Los Angeles Times POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT Harris the interrogator: Sen. Kamala Harris and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions faced off Tuesday over his refusal to answer questions before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Los Angeles Times Becerra weighs in: California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Tuesday that he supports a proposal for California to adopt a single-payer health plan and believes it will eventually be enacted because consumers will become fed up with the current system that he said is unaffordable to many. Los Angeles Times New coroner appointed: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed a new coroner to take the helm of an agency that has been plagued by autopsy and toxicology backlogs. Los Angeles Times Sex ed protest: More than 1,600 parents in Palo Alto, Calif., have signed a petition to stop their school districts sex education program until its changed. The Daily Beast CRIME AND COURTS The saga continues: The Orange County grand jury said Tuesday that it had found no definitive evidence of a structured, wide-ranging informant program in the countys jails, completing a months-long review sparked by conversations between a confessed mass shooter and a prolific jailhouse snitch. Los Angeles Times Gang roundup: An extensive six-month investigation has culminated in the arrest of eight gang members in connection with three murders and two attempted murders in the Pasadena area. CBS LA THE ENVIRONMENT Changes made: The Trump administration announced Monday that it has canceled proposed limits on the number of endangered whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be killed or injured by sword-fishing nets on the West Coast. Los Angeles Times New gig for Brown: California Gov. Jerry Brown will serve as a special envoy to states at the next United Nations Climate Change Conference, further elevating his international profile on climate change as President Donald Trump backs away. Los Angeles Times CALIFORNIA CULTURE An institution ends: KPCC and longtime host John Rabe announced on Monday that the weekend show he created 11 years ago, Off-Ramp, will end its run on July 2. LA Observed About that campus: The plan for Googles proposed campus in downtown San Jose keeps growing and growing. The Mercury News Take a peek: Go inside Carrie Fishers home to see what will soon be up for auction. Los Angeles Times Why it flopped so bad: Heres why the Mummy reboot unraveled in the U.S. and what it means for Universals monster plans. Los Angeles Times CALIFORNIA ALMANAC San Diego and Los Angeles area: sunny Wednesday and Thursday. San Francisco area: sunny Wednesday, cloudy Thursday. Sacramento: sunny Wednesday, partly cloudy Thursday. More weather is here. AND FINALLY Todays California memory comes from Robert A. Benowitz: My wife and I, as newlyweds, moved to Newport Beach from Atlanta in 1974. There were many local attractions we were drawn to such as Corona Del Mar Beach, Balboa Island, and at the tip of Balboa Peninsula, the world-famous body surfing beach the Wedge. Giant 25-foot waves formed as the swells came in against the rocks that made up the channel to Balboa Harbor and broke directly on the beach with a thunderous roar. The Wedge was not for the faint of heart, and only the most skilled body surfers could navigate these watery behemoths. The sight of these crashing waves at the Wedge is a true California memory. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad. Ministerial level workshops raising awareness against wildlife trafficking amongst Chinese nationals living and working in Namibia and Zimbabwe were jointly hosted by Chinas State Forest Administration, Chinas CITES Management Authority, TRAFFIC and WWF last weekend, supported by the respective Chinese Embassies. Zimbabwe is a popular destination for Chinese tourists to Africa thanks to its abundant wildlife resources. There has been a steady growth in economic and technological co-operation and investment between the two countries in recent years, with China supporting the construction of various infrastructure and factories in Zimbabwe. Namibia is also a popular tourism destination and likewise also maintains extensive economic and cultural exchanges with China following the establishment of diplomatic relations. However, the increasingly closer ties between China and the two African nations have also created opportunities for illegal exploitation of wildlife species, with products smuggled to meet demand in the Chinese marketplace. The two workshops provided an opportunity for Chinese citizens based in Namibia and Zimbabwe to be made fully aware of the illegality of such activities and the risks of becoming engaged in them. More than 160 local Chinese nationals from State-owned enterprises, private businesses and residential communities attended the workshops held in Windhoek and Harare respectively. Local NGOs and both local and international media were also present. Tommy Nambahu, Namibias Vice Minister of Environment and Tourism and Mandoga, Zimbabwes Director of Environment and Natural Resources Department, Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate made the opening remarks at the respective workshops. The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting wildlife species and rigorously combatting wildlife crime and has made positive efforts to eliminate endangered wildlife trafficking through establishing a national inter-agency co-ordination mechanism for CITES implementation and enforcement, strengthening Customs inspection and market surveillance, and especially through co-hosting consecutive advocacy workshops in African countries to raise Chinese nationals awareness of wildlife conservation,Zhang Yongli, Vice Minister of Chinas State Forest Administration said. From the strategic height of Chinas overall national development, the Chinese government has been consistently improving the legal framework and the laws that provide legal protection to strengthening wildlife protection and combatting illegal trade in wildlife. China will, as always, fulfill in good faith our obligations under international conventions and take active part in international co-operation on wildlife conservation,said Huang Ping, the Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe. Li Nan, Charge daffaires, Embassy of China in Namibia said: The Chinese government values endangered wildlife conservation. China and Namibia realize the need for mutual support and collaboration on CITES implementation and enforcement and have achieved good progress in attacking wildlife crime. We travelled thousands of miles to Africa to deliver this simple but clear message to Chinese people in African countries: do not purchase ivory or other illegal wildlife products, said Zhou Fei, Head of TRAFFICs China office. We expect representatives attending these workshops to help relay that message to their respective companies and Chinese communities. During the workshops, local Chinese company representatives pledged to continue raising their staffs awareness about protecting wildlife. A special wildlife conservation fund among Chinese companies and communities operating locally in Namibia was established and raised an initial fund of NAD110,000 (USD8,500). During the visits, constructive bilateral consultations also took place between Chinas State Forestry Administration and their counterparts in Namibia and Zimbabwe respectively. Both sides recognized their shared responsibility in ensuring compliance with CITES regulations and agreed to strengthen information exchange and build enforcement capacity to prevent the smuggling of wildlife products. This was the seventh outreach workshop of its kind jointly conducted by TRAFFIC and WWF in collaboration with the Chinese government. The first took place in Kenya in January 2014. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia pledged this week to wean their ports off dirty diesel and other fossil fuels and switch to zero-emission equipment by 2035. This is the most aggressive plan yet to cut air pollution at the ports, by far. And its an essential transformation both to clean Los Angeles notoriously unhealthy air and to cut the carbon emissions that are fueling climate change. Its no coincidence that the two progressive, Democratic mayors are making this announcement now, in the wake of President Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Garcetti is a co-founder and Garcia a member of a coalition of mayors who have pledged to uphold the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals in the Paris agreement. Together, the two publicly owned ports that the mayors oversee form the single largest source of air pollution in the region, with trucks and ships spewing smog-forming pollutants and cancer-causing diesel particles. The ports are also major emitters of greenhouse gases. Advertisement Although the ports have significantly cut emissions over the last decade, they are still largely reliant on diesel- and gas-powered trucks and equipment. They have been under increasing pressure from environmentalists and regulators to stop using fossil-fuel-powered equipment altogether and to switch to electric, hydrogen or other zero-emission technology. The mayors joint declaration puts the ports on that track. Under the agreement, the ports will require the companies operating on their property to switch to zero-emission cargo-handling equipment by 2030 and zero-emission trucks by 2035. It also directs the ports to begin large-scale testing of zero-emission trucks as soon as possible. Garcetti and Garcia hope that by setting a deadline to switch to cleaner equipment at the nations largest port complex, theyll send a message to manufacturers that there is a market for zero-emission vehicles. Theres little doubt that switching the two ports to zero-emission equipment will be hugely expensive and technologically difficult. The companies that do business at the ports are understandably concerned that the new mandates will make it more expensive to operate and will put the region at a competitive disadvantage with ports elsewhere in the country. Thats why Los Angeles and Long Beach are wisely taking the lead in creating a new Green Ports Collaborative to work with other West Coast seaports to adopt similar zero-emission and pollution-reduction goals. Often these ports are competing against each other for shipping business. Ironically, Trumps anti-climate change policies may prod them to work together to help drive market innovation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and clean the dirty air above their facilities. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook In Hamlet, the villain King Claudius is shown a play about a Viennese murderer thats meant to make Claudius face his crimes as a Danish murderer. Is there no offense in it? Claudius asks, nervously, as the play begins. Hamlet, the plays director and producer, makes light of the question. A moral drama staged to be inoffensive would hardly be drama at all. While watching the performance, Claudius does not confess to his crimes, stand up for himself, or otherwise reveal himself to be conscience-stricken. Instead, he calls for the house lights and an end to the play: Give me some light! Claudius thereby reveals both his cowardiceand, paradoxically, his guilt. Similar cowardice has surfaced this week in the announcements by Delta Air Lines and Bank of America that they are withdrawing support from the New York Public Theater for its Central Park production of Shakespeares Julius Caesar. Like Claudius, the sponsors are anxious that the playwhich likens the assassinated Julius Caesar to Donald Trumpmight give offense. Like Claudius, they refuse even to engage with the themes of the play. They just want to wave it away. According to Deltas announcement, the production crossed the line on the standards of good taste. Advertisement Theyre aiming to keep artists, journalists, scholars and intellectuals in line by treating their work not as art but as a branding opportunity. Good taste! Thats rich. Plainly Delta and Bank of Americasupremely square, conflict-averse, aesthetically anodynedont know from taste, unless that taste is for synthetic fabrics, primary colors and garish logos. And yet their high aesthetic standards are evidently not met by Oskar Eustis, the illustrious artistic director of the Public Theater, and William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English language. If its absurd to even address the charge of bad taste, thats because we all know the corporate rejection of Eustis Julius Caesar is not about taste. Its about politics. Just as CNN cited taste when it fired first the comedian Kathy Griffin and then the intellectual Reza Aslan, both of whom gave offense when they caricatured the president, so Bank of America and Delta now cite taste rather than politics for fear of appearing to be guilty of American Misdeed No. 1: the inhibition of the free expression of ideas. But that is what theyre aiming to do. Theyre aiming to keep artists, journalists, scholars and intellectuals in line by treating their work not as art but as a branding opportunity for Delta and Bank of America. Sure, a branding executive can be fired for bad taste, for stepping on toes, waxing political or using curse words. After all, her job is to promote, placate and sell. But artists, journalists, scholars and intellectuals have much different tasks: They have to inspire, entertain, enlighten and provoke. Sometimes the tasks of marketing and media dovetail; more often, they diverge. I once found myself mistaken for a marketer by a tech company that claimed to want to get into media. As time went on, it became clear that writers at this company would get no credit for scoops, enterprise or eloquencebasic journalistic goalswhile they could be fired in a heartbeat for making the company look bad with controversial political arguments or improper jokes. Only over time did we journalists realize wed been hired mostly to burnish a branda job steeply at odds with our professional commitment to telling the truth. Thats something much worse than a shame. If Delta or Bank of America had taken the position that, as American companies, they recognize the importance of the arts, provocative or otherwise, that would have been admirable. Or they could have noted that likening Trump to Caesar is hardly an endorsement of assassination; Caesars murder leads to a disastrous civil war, after all. If that was too much for them, they ought to have either stayed silent in deference to artistic freedom or framed their disapproval of the play as what it was: political. I can even imagine an especially vigorous or ambitious mind at Delta or the Bank of America making a bold if long-shot case that this production of Julius Caesar borders on seditiousand thats why they were withdrawing support. But that would have been far too honest and brave for these craven corporations which, in this supercharged political environment, have lost their way amid even the Square One principles of American life. Virginia Heffernan cohosts the Trumpcast podcast for Slate and is the author of Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art. She is filling in for Doyle McManus. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Some fraction of the country the young, the curious, the rebellious, the rootless went to San Francisco 50 years ago; much more of the country watched it and read about it. The 1967 Summer of Love is a freeze frame, a template, sometimes even a self-parody of flower power, of love and LSD, of mind-blowing music and countercultural thinking. Its backdrop was the Vietnam War, the generation gap and the 1967 urban riots. Its future, diluted somewhere amid political assassinations and law and order and Kent State and more Vietnam. William Schnabel was a 17-year-old high school student during the Summer of Love; he hung out in the Haight when he could, going to the seminal Human Be-In, the happenings, the ground-breaking and earth-shaking ballroom rock concerts. Fifty years on, hes written about the time and the place in the book Summer of Love and Haight: 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love. Hes a historian now retired from a French university, and remembers and analyzes that seminal season. Click here for the full archive of "Patt Morrison Asks" podcasts For a teenager like you to go down and spend your weekends there, it sounds a bit like a carnival people riding bicycles and blowing bubbles and clanging finger cymbals. What did it look like walking down the streets there? Well, it was, to use the idiom of the period, it was a mind-blowing experience! It was revolutionary. It was a cultural revolution was going on. An artistic revolution was going on. A political revolution was going on in many ways too. It was revolutionary. It was like a carnival, too. Sometimes there were parades organized by the Diggers; a lot of them came from a theatrical background. Some of them had worked with the San Francisco mime troupe and a lot of them left the San Francisco mime troupe because they wanted to do it in the streets, not on a stage. There were a lot of students; there were artists. It was called the new Bohemia. Young people were going there because you could rent a room at a very reasonable price. Young people were getting together and living communally in the Victorians. So they had similar ideas, They were certainly more liberal-minded than most. A lot were smoking grass that created a kind of general movement that just sprouted and grew, I think. The idea of communal living was that everybody put into the pot and everybody took out. How did that work in practice when it came to the food and sleeping and drugs? It didnt always work out so well, unfortunately. Its one thing to have certain goals and ambitions and ideologies, but to put it into practice is not always successful. Some people might not pay their fair share. Some people might be more selfish than others. Its very difficult to generalize about communal living. The rock band the Grateful Dead lived together at 710 Ashbury. That worked for them pretty well. It depended on the communal stew; it depended a lot on the ingredients you put into it. Did you spend a lot of time hanging out in those places, besides the ballrooms and the music venues? Me and my friends, if we needed something, if we were looking for a lid, is what we called an ounce of marijuana at the time, it was easy. You just walked down Haight Street and usually youd walk by someone whod be advertising their wares. I might crash there on the weekend with friends in a crash pad. Some of them were Digger crash pads. What were the Diggers? The word Digger comes from the 17th century. English diggers that believed every Englishman should own a plot of land that he could farm, that the government should be run by the people. In many ways women did seem to have a subservient role in the counterculture. San Franciscos Diggers generally speaking were opposed to authority. Everyone was equal, right? The San Francisco Diggers felt that everything should be free. Food should be free. In fact, they set up free food in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. They did that for a while every day at 4 p.m. They had a Digger store; everything in the store was free. Sometimes people would go to the Digger store and say, well whos in charge here? And if there was a Digger around, hed say, well, you are. Where did all that good stuff come from? If youre giving away food, you have to get it from somewhere. Some of it was excess, Some might be produce that was not really fresh or that had been thrown out. Some of it was donated. Theyd go to bakeries do you have any stale bread? Yeah weve got some over there. Theyd take that. Some of it was just ripped off. Emmett Grogan was arrested a couple of times because he saw an open door of a meat truck, hed just help himself. So many of the kids who were there seemed to be white and middle-class for the most part, educated for the most part. What was the class nature of what was going on then? Youre right. The hippies by and large were white; there were not that many Afro-Americans or Hispanic Americans or Asian Americans. Basically they were white, middle class. They rejected materialism. They came from nuclear families, they rejected the American dream. The neighborhood that is right next to the Haight Ashbury is the Fillmore district. I dont know if its changed today, but in the 50s and 60s it was predominantly black. The Afro-Americans wanted part of the American dream. They wanted all these so-called meaningless goods that the hippie culture was rejecting. Thats why Jimi Hendrix is something of an anomaly in psychedelic rock. Because he was a black American. And there was a guy who sold acid. His name was Super Spade, spade meaning black. But by and large the people in the Haight Ashbury were white, middle-class or working-class. What about women there? What were women doing during this period in the Haight Ashbury? In many ways, women did seem to have a subservient role in the counterculture. Women in the Diggers tended to have a subservient role. By that I mean they didnt make the major decisions. Things had to be decided, right? Where are we going to go, what are we going to do? And the men in the Diggers tended to do that. In a lot of the communes, that seemed to be what was happening as well. The women took care of the children, they did the housework, they did the cooking the traditional kind of family situation. And this is while the guys were out there preaching equality? I dont know if they were all preaching equality. They were preaching for rights. Its somewhat contradictory; some people have said that out of the hippie movement, feminism grew as well. But Im not so sure about that. Law enforcement and much of the political establishment regarded these kids and their ideas with suspicion. Youve got two diametrically opposed mindsets. You have a really conservative mindset, the older generation who fought World War II. And then you had the younger generation that was smoking marijuana. Our parents did not smoke marijuana, you know. They drank bourbon, they drank whiskey, they drank beer, They saw their children letting their hair grow. You have these two contradictory cultures clashing. One is opposed to the Vietnam War; our parents were for the Vietnam War. You do what the government says, right? You dont contradict the government. So whatever the reason that drew so many people to this moment in San Francisco, whether it was the war and the draft or drugs or spirituality, it was about challenging authority. That was the common thread? Not necessarily challenging, but rejecting. Trying to decipher it yourself. Do your own thing, which was one of the slogans of the time. That implies, think for yourself. Dont be a robot, dont accept what everybody tells you, because it might not be true, The psychedelic counterculture felt the American dream and imperialism and the arms race and the Cold War, that was chaos. That would lead to destruction. That, I think, explains why a lot of young people rejected the ideas of their parents. In all the time you got to spend there, did you sense that Vietnam was a cloud that was just off the horizon, if it wasnt actually hanging above everyones head? Sure. For young people that was the fear. Timothy Leary talked about dropping out. And dropping out could have its risks too. If you were in school, in college, you had to maintain a certain grade point average. Otherwise Uncle Sam would send you his letter of greetings notifying you to appear at your local draft board in the very near future Young males who were drafted were sent to Vietnam where they could be killed for no good reason. What were the elements of the disintegration of that singular moment in San Francisco? Something destroyed the Haight. As a history teacher, Im interested in that because I dont think things just happen for no reason. There are causes and there are consequences. What killed the Haight Ashbury? Well, the media killed the Height Ashbury by simply making it become a cliche. If you repeat something often enough, it tends to become automatic and people tend to forget what the meaning is. Too many people overwhelmed a small district of San Francisco. That killed the Haight Ashbury. Before the Summer of Love, there was the Human Be-In [in January 1967 in Golden Gate Park], which I think was the high-water mark for the Summer of Love. In 66 and up to the be-in, peoples attitudes were different. People believed in sharing. You could see people tried to be sincere. People were, I think, more honest. After the be-in, there tended to be kind of a decline. People started getting more selfish. There were people who were drawn to the Haight Ashbury because of all the publicity, and because they wanted to take something out rather than give something. There were a lot of the people in the establishment who didnt like the hippies. [Then-Gov. Ronald] Reagan had a joke about the hippies that you probably heard at one time or another, that a hippie dresses like Tarzan, he walks like Jane and he smells like Cheetah. I was talking about LSD. Owsley Stanley was the clandestine chemist who manufactured LSD. His LSD was pure, he wasnt mixing it up with garbage. You knew what you were getting. Then all of a sudden he was arrested in December of 1967. After that you got these weird drugs. The quality of LSD got very bad after that. Then there were a lot of weird drugs. The hard drugs were dumped into the Haight Ashbury. What do you think the lasting influence has been, all these years later? I think there are a lot. Look at the United States today. Look at marijuana. Look at the number of states that have de-penalized marijuana. A lot of states authorize marijuana for medical purposes. How things have changed! And in many other areas as well. Ecology today people know that you cannot pollute the planet indefinitely. Look at music many songs from the 60s are still played today. People have a healthy questioning of authority I think a lot of that came from the counterculture. The importance of the human body people are not afraid to show their bodies today. Look at the integration of homosexuals, minorities, perhaps to some extent the feminist movement as well all of that stemmed from the ideas of the counterculture. Pacifism, people who were opposed to war. Look at how the sexual mores have changed. All of those things have changed because they started in the 60s with the counterculture The Summer of Love, its a buzzword, and everyone knows or thinks they know what it is, but in fact its an extremely complicated and complex period in American history. There seems to be no question it was a turning point in American history. It was a turning point, because look what happened afterwards. In 68, you have the assassination of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, the escalation of the Vietnam War, [the killing of civilians] at My Lai. Three years after the Summer of Love, the [violent radical group] Weather Underground declared war against the United States of America. After the Summer of Love, there was a radicalization. After the summer of 1967, San Francisco was being emptied of its counterculture. Everyone who could get out was leaving. The young people were leaving the Haight Ashbury because of the police brutality, because of the bad drugs, the hard drugs. There was a lot more violence peace and love were gone. Is there one piece of music for you that brings it all back, that takes you right back there? One album in particular: Jefferson Airplane and Surrealistic Pillow, that I think in many ways captures the essence of the period. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook MORE PATT MORRISON ASKS Former Playboy model Dani Mathers is on a body-shaming apology tour. Here's what her victim has to say Jimmy Webb on Auto-Tune, lying to keep John Lennon from being deported and how cocaine changed music Caitlyn Jenner talks Trump, being a transgender Republican and missing Bruce Your guide to talking like a Californian. Tips for the 'hella tricky' dialect Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions went before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday to defend his honor against scurrilous and false allegations. How did he do? The first allegation Sessions addressed was actually fairly easily disposed of that he was involved in collusion with Russia as an adviser to the Trump campaign, an assertion he called an appalling and detestable lie. This allegation is partly a product of Sessions misleading testimony during his confirmation hearings when he said that I did not have communications with the Russians. It later emerged that he had twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign, once at the Republican National Convention and once in his Senate office. He later said he hadnt mentioned those meetings in his testimony because he had been asked about contacts as a surrogate for the Trump campaign, not as a senator. Advertisement Talk of collusion increased last week when fired FBI Director James B. Comey testified that there were facts that I cant discuss in an open setting that would make [Sessions ] continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic. On Tuesday, Sessions complained about a rambling question from Sen. Al Franken that had prompted his answer. More persuasively, he dismissed questions about whether he had a third meeting with Kislyak at a speech by Trump at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April 2016. He recalled attending a reception before the speech attended by two dozen people, but said he had no recollection of talking to the Russian ambassador. The outrage rang true. The Mayflower event was hardly a venue for swapping secrets. As for recusal, Sessions credibly insisted that he withdrew from the Russia investigation not because of any improper contacts on his part with Russia but because of his involvement in the Trump campaign. Although it might not qualify as an allegation, let alone a scurrilous one, another impression left by Comeys testimony last week was that Sessions was indifferent to Comeys complaint that Trump had cornered him after a meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 14. That was the conversation in which, according to Comey, Trump said he hoped that Comey would drop the investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. In his testimony, Comey said that when he told Sessions that he should never be left alone with the president again Sessions did not reply. That sounds sinister. But Sessions offered a not-that-different account. He told the committee that Comey expressed concern about being left alone with the president. Far from being silent, Sessions said he backed [Comey] up in his concerns. Sessions also offered a plausible defense to the argument that he violated the terms of his recusal by participating in the firing of Comey. It is absurd, frankly, he said, to suggest that a recusal from a single specific investigation would render an attorney general unable to manage the leadership of the various Department of Justice law enforcement components that conduct thousands of investigations. The problem with that explanation is that it assumes that Russia had nothing to do with Comeys firing. And its on that question the reason Comey was fired that Sessions performance was the least assured and the most evasive. Sessions resisted an attempt by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to pin him down on whether he knew, when he recommended to Trump that he fire Comey based on a memo by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, that the president had already decided to fire the director. Also, the Rosenstein memo faulted Comey for mishandling the investigation of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. Yet Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) confronted Sessions with the fact that last year he had praised Comey for the way he had handled the Clinton investigation. Overall, Sessions seemed curiously uncurious about Trumps real motives in firing Comey, or about whether he and Rosenstein had been enlisted to supply what was in effect a cover story. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) asked him: If you had known that the president subsequently was going to go on TV and in an interview [with] Lester Holt of NBC would say this Russian thing was the reason for his decision to dismiss the FBI director, would you have felt uncomfortable about the timing of the decision? Sessions responded: I dont think its appropriate to deal with those kind of hypotheticals. I have to deal in actual issues. I would respectfully not comment on that. Perhaps most frustrating for Democratic senators on the committee, Sessions refused to discuss conversations he had with Trump that might shed light on the presidents motives in firing Comey even though he acknowledged that only the president can invoke executive privilege. It was a less than persuasive legal argument but one that Trump probably appreciated. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: As a mother who lost a child, I can only feel a parents pain of loss once again reading about the accusation that an anesthesiologist hastened a vegetative childs death so his organs could be harvested. (An 8-year-old was taken off life support, his organs donated. Now, police are investigating, June 12) There is much crime in the world that deserves dogged pursuit by detectives, but the effort of registered nurse Denise Bertone, a Los Angeles County coroners investigator who examines child deaths, is over the line. Her expertise has been aresource for many cases and a relief, Im sure, to many parents. Still, nearly every minute of every day, I wrestle with the feeling of guilt for not having done enough to save my child. I feel for Cole Hartmans family and Dr. Judith Brill, the physician whose care of the dying 8-year-old was flagged for investigation by Bertone. No one in their right mind wants to lose a child, and no parent wants to be forced to relive those moments again and again. Advertisement Eva Larson, Agoura Hills .. To the editor: Organ donation after cardiac death versus brain death is a complex issue. Many values are in tension, including making certain the patient is dead in order to respect that individual and not to kill him or her or hasten death for organ harvesting. A benefits-burden comparison, informed consent and respect for human dignity are the primary factors in deciding whether to continue or forgo life-sustaining medical treatment. Where theres a gray area, some may see a way to unfairly manipulate the decision to withdraw treatment to favor a potential organ recipient. Cole Hartmans case involving a persistent vegetative state should include consideration of the sanctity of life versus quality of life. Richard Boudreau, MD, Marina del Rey The writer is a bioethicist at Loyola Marymount University. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: I see that President Trump plans to cut back on ties with Cuba because President Raul Castro has failed to improve human rights or expand political freedoms since Trumps predecessor restored diplomatic relations with that nation in 2015. (Trump considers reversing historic Obama-era opening with Cuba, June 11) Perhaps if Cuba had public beheadings and stonings like our good friends in Saudi Arabia theres human rights for you Trump could travel to the Caribbean nation, do his sword dance and receive a gold medallion from the king. Oh, wait, Cuba doesnt have very much oil. Never mind. Jay Berman, Manhattan Beach Advertisement .. To the editor: President Obama restarted U.S. relations with Cuba without negotiating an arrangement for getting back the U.S. fugitives given sanctuary by Cuba, including the convicted murderer of a New Jersey state trooper. Obama, clearly not the negotiator Trump is, also failed to get Castro to give his people greater civil rights. This last year gave the Cuban people a good idea of what meaningful relations with the U.S. could be. Bob Guarrera, Laguna Niguel .. To the editor: Human rights is something thats very strong to him, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said to reporters about Trump. The current administration doesnt want everyone in the U.S. to have healthcare, and ties with other countries with worse human rights records than Cuba are not being severed, so Spicers statement cannot be true. Therefore, I must conclude that The Times got the quote wrong, the press secretary made up something about Trump, or he was told to say it. Punishing Cuba is yet another trick by this administration to keep our focus off real issues such as healthcare, education, immigration and financial industry regulation. Gregg Ferry, Carlsbad .. To the editor: Apparently, our president does not remember the Cuban missile crisis. Russia has announced that it plans to invest $2 billion in the Cuban rail system and is considering reopening a military base on the island. Scaling back U.S. relations with Cuba and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord will allow nations like China and Russia to fill the leadership void. We can only guess what Trumps real reason is for giving these gifts to Russia and China, but it certainly is not in the best interests of our country. Lucia Dzwonczyk, San Pedro Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The latest congressional hearing into Russias election meddling and the Trump administrations handling of the subsequent FBI probe may not have changed many minds. But the nonetheless riveting spectacle offered a very public stage for an ambitious class of new senators, some of whom may harbor hopes of someday succeeding President Trump. Sen. Kamala Harris of California treated Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions as a defendant under her prosecutorial glare, to the point that she was admonished to ease up on interrupting him. Another Democrat, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, got off one of the lines of the day when he laid a trap for Sessions and accused him of impeding the Senate investigation. Advertisement Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, more aggressive than most Republicans, mocked the idea of the Trump administration colluding with Russia as something that would never pass muster in a spy movie. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, another first-termer, offered Sessions a comfortable respite from hard-charging Democrats. The unexpected election of Donald Trump, and the even more unexpected series of events that have spiraled from his administration in the last four and a half months, have unhinged official Washington, now operating on a tense, what-will-happen-next footing. But for some there is advantage in the chaos. Notably, most committee members Tuesday hewed to what was expected of them given their party, with Democrats asking questions intended to uncover Trumps failings and Republicans intent on poking holes in the version of events laid out last week by fired FBI director James B. Comey. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Republican from Florida, was nearly alone in putting a foot in both camps. The relatively young senators on display were not the only ones to make stinging points one way or the other. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California toed the line of sarcasm when she noted that Trump had suggested hed fired Comey because of his Russia inquiry and not for management incompetence, the reason Sessions repeatedly detailed on Tuesday. Do you really believe that this had to do with Director Comeys performance with the men and women of the FBI? asked Feinstein, at 83 the oldest member of the Senate. Her question harked back to last weeks description by Comey that Trumps accusations of the former director bungling his control of the FBI were lies, plain and simple. But Feinstein and other more veteran senators also gave off a whiff of decorum, of playing by the Senates rules. While that may be appropriate given the high stakes, in this fraught political environment it left an opening for others to mix it up. Heinrich, who has served in the Senate since 2013, opened by asking Sessions whether the president was angry about Sessions decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, as published reports have indicated. The question, predictably, prompted Sessions to refuse to testify about conversations with Trump. You said that you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, Heinrich replied firmly. And now youre not answering questions. Youre impeding this investigation. Sessions argument, simplified, was that he was not refusing to answer because Trump had declared his executive privilege, but rather in order to preserve Trumps option to do so in the future. That vein was thoroughly picked apart by Harris when the California senator, sworn in only weeks before Trump himself, got her turn. For Harris, the Russia hearings have been a boon, a way to flesh herself out in a way that her careful Senate campaign last year did not. To some, she had been more style than substance until recently, needing the right set of circumstances to be seen with more gravitas. She also has been in a somewhat difficult position in that she is ambitious in a party whose leftward lurch does not necessarily ensure general election popularity when it comes to the next step up, the presidency. Yet the former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general has found solid footing in the hearings, at least among Democrats. She has pushed her questioning past the comfort zone of the Republican leaders of the panel, who have taken turns tut-tutting that she was badgering witnesses. That, of course, is precisely what her national Democratic constituency wants to see, and has already prompted fundraising efforts on her part. In machine gun style, Harris demanded, over Sessions attempts to foil her, any written policies and paperwork he used to inform his testimony and his refusal to speak more openly. As appropriate, I will supply the committee with documents, he replied. Can you please tell me what you mean when you say appropriate? she asked archly. She clearly got under Sessions skin, at one point drawing the attorney general to demand more time to explain himself lest she accuse [him] of lying. Their back-and-forth ended with other Republicans coming to his defense. The young Republicans, not surprisingly, were far more solicitous of the sitting attorney general. Even if they disagree with Trumps approach and many in his party do, privately Republican politicians are aware that most Republican voters remain loyal to Trump, so a deft touch is required. Lankford of Oklahoma, elected in 2014, offered Sessions a restful rhetorical hammock. You speak as a man eager to set the record straight, he told Sessions, before defending the attorney generals right to keep presidential conversations private. Theres a long history of attorney generals standing beside the president saying there are some conversations that are confidential, Lankford said. Cotton, another Republican from the class of 2014, more overtly mocked the whole proceeding in a commentary that seemed meant to attract GOP voters who see the current investigations as a thin attempt to disenfranchise Trump. Do you like spy fiction or James Bond movies, Cotton asked Sessions, ticking off authors names and prompting the attorney general to look at first confused, then delighted. The accusations of collusion, Cotton said, wouldnt pass muster in any of those confections. Thank you for saying that, Sen. Cotton, a relieved Sessions replied. Its just like through the looking glass. It may have been a reflection of temperament, experience or the stinging repudiation of voters in his 2016 run for the presidency that made Rubio comport himself far differently. Much as he did when Comey testified last week, Rubio seemed to follow a bright line right down the middle. The second-term senator extracted testimony that Sessions had, in fact, been one of the last people to leave a meeting that ultimately included only Trump and Comey. That confirmed the former FBI directors claim. But Rubio also went out of his way to pull from Sessions, after some back-and-forth, that he was unaware if he had been courted by anyone who might have been working for the Russian government, a statement that helped the Trump campaigns argument. Whichever approach is more winning, the young senators will have far more time to refine them as the Trump investigations persist, over what looks now to be at least a span of months. For more on politics cathleen.decker@latimes.com Twitter: @cathleendecker ALSO Sessions calls any accusation of collusion with Russians a detestable lie The latest from Washington Updates on California politics The targeted shooting of Republican lawmakers at play yielded a kaleidoscope of emotions Wednesday anger, revulsion, horror but little in the way of surprise. The attack almost seemed a natural, if sick, extension of the virulence that surrounds the countrys increasingly tribal politics. As if to prove it, events quickly settled into a familiar pattern: finger-pointing, blame-laying, partisan positioning. People today dont just disagree. Theyve grown to hate the other side, from President Trump on down. Advertisement Not necessarily over issues or ideology, which can be debated or leavened by compromise. But rather as an outgrowth of a deeper pathology, a contempt toward people for merely existing. Its hard to suggest its an ideological conflict, as if, say, the abortion issue has suddenly grown more heated, said Marc Hetherington, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University. What its all about is bad feelings. He cited studies showing Republicans say they hate Democrats more than they hate atheists, and Democrats hate Republicans more than they despise religious fundamentalists. Both sides, he said, hate the other more than they hate illegal immigrants, the inflammatory phrase used to gauge respective animosities. The overwhelmingly majority of people, of course, dont take up weapons to vent their anger as did gunman James T. Hodgkinson, a supporter of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a fierce Trump critic. In the aftermath of Wednesdays brutality there were many instances of grace, not least from those most directly affected. We dont shed our humanity when we enter this chamber, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said in a moving oration on the House floor. For all the noise and fury, we are one family. San Franciscos Nancy Pelosi, the leader of House Democrats, responded, On days like today, there are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans united in our hopes and prayers for the wounded. The coming-together recalled a similarly transcendent moment after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, ventured to the steps of the Capitol and side by side delivered a spontaneous rendering of God Bless America. But that brief harmony proved a mere pause as the country descended into an even deeper slough of animosity and political loathing. Similarly, the high-flown words of party leaders were quickly and loudly drowned out Wednesday by partisans grasping for tactical advantage. Among them was the presidents son, Donald Trump Jr., who used Twitter to link the shootings to a controversial New York production of Julius Caesar, in which a presidential doppelganger is murdered onstage. Events like today are EXACTLY why we took issue with NY elites glorifying the assassination of our President, commentator Harlan Hill wrote in a Tweet the younger Trump amplified by sharing with 1.7 million Twitter followers. The Left in this country is ushering in a new #CultureofViolence where violent hate is the new normal, tweeted Bill Mitchell, a pro-Trump radio host. #DomesticTerrorists, he added. On the Democratic side, some more virulent partisans openly celebrated the critical wounding of Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 3 Republican in the House leadership, or summoned eye-for-an-eye memories of the hatred directed at President Obama and his supporters. (A number of Democratic lawmakers reported receiving death threats immediately after the attack.) We dont shed our humanity when we enter this chamber. For all the noise and fury, we are one family. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan The junior Trumps tweet drew a string of angry rejoinders: Did you have a problem when [candidate Trump] said I could shoot someone on Fifth Ave. and my approval would go up? Or when Trump advocated violence at rallies to show people a lesson? Lol Trump is a major contributor [to] the type of violence that led to this in the first place. The president, for his part, responded with a call for national unity, a show of equanimity in notable contrast to his stance during the campaign, when he sometimes encouraged violence and, at one point, seemed to invite opponents to take up arms against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a true friend and patriot, was badly injured but will fully recover. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2017 While many were quick to blame Trump for Wednesdays violence just as they implicated him after a Republican congressional candidate body-slammed a reporter for asking about healthcare its not as though he overnight transformed a nation bathed in love and light. Its been building and building, said Hetherington, who has written extensively on the countrys polarization. He cited the pugnacious Newt Gingrich, who in 1994 broke a 40-year Democratic stranglehold on the House by shattering the ordered rules of engagement and urging acolytes to tar their opponents with words like corrupt, pathetic and traitor. (On Thursday, the former House speaker tweeted a link to Ryans speech and the quote an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.) The contagion spread well beyond the Capitol in the aftermath of the fiercely disputed 2000 presidential campaign, which ended in an effective tie broken by a partisan 5-4 Supreme Court decision. It deepened with the antagonism directed at President George W. Bush and, as though to outdo the hostility, the contempt aimed at his successor, President Obama. David Axelrod, who helped steer Obama to the White House, said Trump must shoulder some blame for the countrys growing chasm. Ultimately, though, he said it was the voters who must take responsibility. In our democracy, its not just up to the leaders to decide what our politics is going to be like. Its also up to the citizens, said Axelrod, who now lectures on politics at the University of Chicago, in Obamas old hometown. It remains to be seen, he continued, whether the Virginia assault would be jarring enough that politicians start paying a penalty for this kind of blood-sport approach. He didnt hold out much hope, however, echoing others believing a sad and sick political culture on Wednesday grew just a little sadder and sicker. Times staff writer Michael Finnegan contributed to this report. mark.barabak@latimes.com @markzbarabak ALSO Heartbreak on the baseball field: What the annual game means to Congress President Trump appeals for unity after lawmaker, several others shot at congressional baseball practice Gunman who opened fire at GOP baseball practice was a Bernie Sanders supporter from Illinois Virginia shooting: Members of Congress have been targets of attacks in the past It was perhaps the most memorable phrase that came from the testimony given by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on Tuesday, his assertion of an appalling and detestable set of accusations. Of course, its the same kind of thing that one could imagine critics of Sessions and President Trump saying about the accusations of collusion with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign. In other words, Sessions session likely generated more heat than light. Advertisement Good morning from the state capital, where we await Thursdays big vote on a new state budget agreement. Im Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and well get to those details in a moment. SESSIONS STAYS MUM ON TRUMP Over the course of nearly three hours in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the attorney general stridently defended his own actions and largely stayed quiet on those of his boss. Sessions rejected all assertions of improper contacts with Russian officials, calling any suggestion that he aided Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election an appalling and detestable lie. The former Alabama senator also deflected all questions about his conversations with Trump. And he bristled at assertions that he was obstructing the Senate investigation. I am not stonewalling, Sessions insisted. I am following the historic policies of the Department of Justice. KEY MOMENTS, SESSIONS VS. COMEY Weve got an extensive menu of offerings from Tuesdays Sessions hearing. For starters, weve assembled what you could call a greatest hits of sorts from the event. Then there are Sessions vague memories on some details (compared to crystal-clear recollections elsewhere). Or the full testy exchange between the attorney general and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on the refusal to answer questions, and many other notable exchanges from Sessions testimony. And then check out the comparison between Sessions testimony and the appearance last week of James Comey, the former FBI director whose comments raised serious questions about whether Trump sought to squash a key part of the agencys investigation. THE QUESTIONS ASKED SAID A LOT ABOUT THE SENATORS Cathleen Deckers analysis of the big event focuses on what she calls the ambitious class of new senators who had yet another moment in the spotlight of the biggest story in American politics. As she points out, theres advantage to be found for some in the chaos. We also take a closer look at the performance of Californias two senators, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Kamala Harris. It was Feinsteins questions that made clear Sessions was throwing up a wall in discussing his conversations with the president. And Harris, the former district attorney, used her prosecutorial approach to elicit one of the most memorable quips from the nations top cop: Im not able to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous. No doubt there will be more reaction this week, and well have all of it on our Essential Washington news feed. THE MUELLER QUESTION Meanwhile, another hot topic remains on all things Trump: Would, or could, the president fire Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigations? David Lauter examines the legal part of the question, which is based on a theory floated by one of the presidents confidants that Trump was considering it. The answer is, at best, muddled. But the person with the clearest power the man overseeing Muellers work seemed to pretty much silence the debate on Tuesday. Im not going to follow any order unless I believe they are lawful and appropriate orders, said Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein when asked about a theoretical order from the president to fire Mueller. The buzz prompted a response from the White House late Tuesday night: Trump has no intention of booting the special counsel. By the way, dare we say it? Mueller only got the job four weeks ago. A STATE BUDGET DEAL DELAYED, BUT DONE Were prepping for a formal vote on Thursday here in Sacramento on a new state budget, a $183.2-billion deal that finally was sealed after negotiations on two topics. Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders had long been at loggerheads over how to spend new tobacco tax dollars. In the end, Brown gave more than he wanted earmarking money to boost payments to doctors that treat Medi-Cal patients but less than demanded by advocates who helped pass the tax through last falls Proposition 56. Like most state budget spending plans, there are some unusual items tucked into this one. Perhaps none are as controversial as a provision to revamp state law pertaining to recall elections, just in time to change the rules, should a pending effort to oust an Orange County state senator who voted to raise Californias gas tax. Also controversial: a budget provision making big changes to the beleaguered state Board of Equalization, including the elimination of many of its duties and shifting the job of holding tax appeal hearings to a new office of administrative law judges. The budgets fine print also includes a ban on firearms for Californians with outstanding warrants for a felony or certain misdemeanors. And the spending plan would allow medical and recreational marijuana to be sold out of the same locations. The pot industry had sought the change to cut costs and the number of operations. Well be covering Thursdays big vote as well as more details from the budget agreement on our Essential Politics news feed. UNDERSTANDING THE PUSH FOR BAIL REFORM State lawmakers in December introduced a twin-bill effort to overhaul Califiornias bail system, as calls for action and legal challenges have spurred momentum for changes to court and jail practices nationwide. But after one of those proposals stalled in the state Assembly last week, the future of the other hangs in the balance. Jazmine Ulloa offers a sharp look at the remaining plan and the challenges it faces this summer. TODAYS ESSENTIALS -- Senate leaders have struck a deal to toughen U.S. sanctions on Russia. -- The Treasury secretary said he supports major rollbacks of the financial reforms put in place after the 2008 recession. -- Brown welcomed the prime minister of Fiji to Sacramento on Tuesday, who promptly made the governor a special advisor the next United Nations conference on climate change. -- The House of Representatives has given final approval to making it easier to fire Veteran Affairs Department managers accused of misconduct. -- Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said on Tuesday he supports the push for single-payer healthcare in California. -- Thousands of L.A. voters have already gone to the polls four times in the past four months. And a couple of more elections may be on the way. LOGISTICS Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics? Miss Mondays newsletter? Here you go. Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox. As the president of this years United Nations conference on climate change, Fijis prime minister is responsible for rallying countries to battle global warming. But on Tuesday, that effort drew him not to a national capital but to Sacramento, where he endorsed Gov. Jerry Browns ambitious plans on climate change. Prime Minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama signed an international agreement that California has spearheaded with states and provinces around the world to set tougher targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a symbolic step intended to help counterbalance President Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris deal on climate change. Advertisement If theres one thing we have all learned over the last two weeks, for every action, there is a reaction, Bainimarama said during a ceremony in the governors mansion. People of all walks of life across America have spoken very loudly, telling the world that America will continue to tackle climate change. He announced that Brown will be a special advisor for states and regions at the November conference in Germany, where countries will flesh out more details on the agreement reached in Paris. Are you with me, governor? he asked. Im with you! Brown replied. Bainimarama, who represents an island nation threatened by rising sea levels, is trying to demonstrate to the rest of the world that progress can still be made to reduce emissions despite Trumps retreat. He joked that Trumps decision to pull the country out of the Paris agreement will make the next round of negotiations, which are set for Germany in November, very exciting but insisted that the fight must move on. It has nothing to do with politics, he said. It has to do with our existence. While only national governments have had a formal seat at the table during United Nations negotiations, the announcement comes at a time when theres talk of finding a larger stage for state and local leaders like Brown. Hes spent the last few years promoting the Under 2 MOU, a coalition aiming to reduce emissions enough to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. Were going to be there [for the climate negotiations]. Were going to play an important role, the governor said on Tuesday while joined by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. Brown has traveled widely to talk about climate change in recent years, and hes gaining a higher profile for his work on the topic in contrast to Trump. He recently returned from China, where he sat down with the Chinese president, and last week he met with Germanys environmental minister in San Francisco. Theres no question that if you want action on these issues from the United States governments, you have to work with leaders like Gov. Brown, said Terry Tamminen, a former state environmental official now serving as chief executive of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which works on climate issues. Not only is the Trump administration incapable of handling issues like this, theyre openly hostile. Tuesday wasnt the first time someone of Bainimaramas stature has visited Sacramento. When Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres was the top United Nations official on climate change, she came here before the Paris summit in 2015 to praise Californias leadership. But her visit came at a time when the Obama administration was committed to reaching an international accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, something that was achieved in Paris two years ago. Bainimarama arrived here soon after Trump pulled the country out of the agreement. Building a counterweight to Trump, however, hasnt been easy. Most of the countrys emissions come from areas that havent pledged support for the Paris accord or joined an agreement like Californias Under 2 MOU, according to numbers compiled by the Washington-based nonprofit Climate Interactive. The target is further out of reach. Its incumbent on all of us to make sure everyone else whos in succeeds, said Elizabeth Sawin, co-director of Climate Interactive. Carl Pope, the former executive director of the Sierra Club who co-wrote a book on climate change with Michael Bloomberg, is optimistic that the economics of clean energy will help turn the corner from fossil fuels. Lots of people are going to get us to the Paris goal without thinking about the Paris goal, he said. chris.megerian@latimes.com Twitter: @chrismegerian ALSO: Trump is creating a void on climate change. Can California persuade other states to help fill it? China is now looking to California not Trump to help lead the fight against climate change Updates on California politics Zhang Yingying (file photo) Four days after a Chinese exchange student went missing in Urbana, Illinois, Chinese-American communities have yet to give up hope of finding the 26-year-old. Volunteers have already arranged several independent investigations. Yingying Zhang, a Chinese student visiting the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, was reported missing by her friends on June 9. As of press time, the case has been handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while specific information about a black Saturn Astra that Zhang entered before going missing has been identified. Zhangs friends notified local police a few hours after she went missing, but the authorities did not pay enough attention, assigning only one police officer to follow the case, Liu Yunchuan, former director of the local Chinese-American Association chapter, told news portal Haiwainet.cn. In an effort to find the girl as soon as possible, hundreds of local Chinese Americans, including professors, doctors and lawyers, have combed over the city, hoping to locate the victims lost phone or even a piece of clothing. As of press time, the search had almost concluded, without yielding any promising results. Social media platforms have also been utilized in the search. Several WeChat public accounts have been steadily updated with information about the ongoing case. A petition titled We are looking for Yingying Zhang. Please help us was posted on We the People, the official White House petition website, garnering over 20,000 signatures after it was started on June 12. Any petition that collects over 100,000 signatures within one month is guaranteed to receive a response from the White House. We feel quite down now. We hope Yingying can come back safely, but even if she does, such an incident will leave a scar on the hearts of local Chinese-American communities, said Liu. In response to the growing doubts, Patrick Wade, the universitys police spokesperson, told Thepaper.cn on June 13 that local authorities will not give up until they solve the case. Trumps latest tweet in media war is a literal show of mock pugilism By Laura King President Trump on Sunday circulated a doctored video clip on Twitter that showed him physically attacking a crudely rendered stand-in for CNN, a post that drew rebukes from critics as an incitement to violence, but prompted renewed expressions of support from backers. In doing so, Trump also ignored pleas to stop tweeting or at least take a more presidential tone -- from lawmakers in his own party -- after he took his war against news media to new heights last week with a coarse post on the appearance and intellect of cable television host Mika Brzezinski. On Saturday he also posted several anti-media messages as Americans began their Fourth of July celebration. Sundays tweet, which used an edited version of a years-old promotional video for professional wrestling, showed Trump, clad in a business suit and tie, administering a choreographed beat-down to a figure whose face was obscured by CNNs logo. #FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017 CNN, which has been a particular target of the president since the network was forced to retract a story relating to an element of the sprawling investigation into possible collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign, quickly condemned the tweet. It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters, the network said in statement. It also tweeted a recent assertion by White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders that Trump had never engaged in such incitement. "The President in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary." - @SHSanders45 6/29/17 CNN Communications (@CNNPR) July 2, 2017 As is often the case, the presidents surrogates were left scrambling to explain or justify an inflammatory Twitter outburst. Homeland security advisor Thomas Bossert, who was shown the clip while appearing on ABCs This Week, watched it stone-faced and then declared: No one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they dont. The night before, Trump had used a celebration of veterans at Washingtons Kennedy Center to again denounce the news media. The president, who had briefly broken a weekend golf getaway to appear at the rally, pounded away at the theme that he is being treated unfairly. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, he told the raucous crowd. But Im president, and theyre not. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Increasing number of states reject request for personal information on voters from Trump commission By Colleen Shalby (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) A growing number of states have rejected a request for personal information about voters from a presidential commission on vote fraud led by Kansas controversial Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission, sent letters to each state and Washington, D.C., asking for voters personal information. The request asked for names, addresses, voting history and the last four digits of voters Social Security numbers. The commission was set up to look into voter fraud after President Trump alleged that he lost the popular vote in 2016 only because millions of people voted illegally -- a claim that numerous states election officials from both parties and outside experts have dismissed as groundless. As of Friday afternoon, at least 13 states had outright rejected the request from the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity. Officials in several other states either said they would not supply all the information or needed more information before making a decision. Some officials did not mince words in their nos. They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great State to launch from, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann wrote in a statement. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement that strongly criticized Kobach that he would continue to defend the rights of all eligible voters to cast their ballots free from discrimination, intimidation or unnecessary roadblocks. Secretary Padilla's response to the Election Commission's request for personal data of CA voters: pic.twitter.com/UdUt55HSim CA SOS Vote (@CASOSvote) June 29, 2017 As a Kansas official, Kobach has been a leading backer of immigration restrictions and of measures to put new requirements on who is allowed to vote. His opponents note that he was fined last week for misleading a federal court in a voting rights case. Democratic elected officials in several states criticized the commission, itself, not just the information request. The president created his election commission based on the false notion that voter fraud is a widespread issue it is not, Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Grimes wrote. "I do not intend to release Kentuckians' sensitive personal data to the fed. gov't." Sec. Grimes Statement on Pres. Commission request: pic.twitter.com/9Js05x99eF Alison L. Grimes (@KySecofState) June 30, 2017 In an odd contradiction, Kobach said that Kansas, like some other states, will partially reject at least one aspect of the request. In Kansas, the Social Security number is not publicly available. Every state receives the same letter, but were not asking for it if its not publicly available, he told the Kansas City Star. The states that have fully rejected the request include California, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi and Minnesota. Others, including Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Missouri, Kansas, Utah and Texas will turn over some of the requested information. Vermont has requested an affidavit from the commission. And Wisconsin has suggested that the commission could purchase the publicly available information, just as political campaigns do. Officials in Washington state said they were reviewing the request. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Look at possible conflicts of interest in Trump teams OneWest Bank probes, 2 Democrats urge By Jim Puzzanghera Protesters gather outside a OneWest Bank in Pasadena in 2014. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) Two House Democrats want Congress to look into possible conflicts of interest in the Trump administrations handling of investigations into Pasadenas OneWest Bank a bank formerly headed by now-Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Al Green (D-Texas) said Friday that there was room for considerable doubt as to the impartiality and the adequacy of this administrations investigations into OneWest and a subsidiary, Financial Freedom. Mnuchin was the banks chairman from 2009 to 2015. President Trump has nominated Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of OneWest, to be comptroller of the currency, a key bank regulator who is part of the Treasury Department. And Brian Brooks, who was OneWests vice chairman, reportedly will be tapped to be deputy Treasury secretary. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Healthcare issue delivers nothing but pain for Nevadas embattled Sen. Dean Heller By David Montero Dean Heller is Stephanie Diaz-Gonzalezs problem now. Shes never met Nevadas Republican senator and hadnt had much time to familiarize herself. How could she? The 25-year-old is holding down a full-time job and ra+ising a 7-year-old son, who keeps her busy with soccer games, math homework and those too-often terrifying moments when he cant breathe. When President Trump was elected and congressional Republicans moved on their top priority to dismantle Obamacare, Diaz-Gonzalez got to know Heller a whole lot better. Given his back-and-forth on the issue, she came to distrust him. I dont know if I could vote for him or support him, the Democrat said. He seems very contradictory. Which is why Heller is also Karen Steelmons problem. Steelmon, a 48-year-old Republican who grew up in northern Nevada, isnt happy with the lawmaker, who is considered the most vulnerable GOP senator in the country when he comes up for reelection next year. Obamacare has always been an abomination to Steelmon, an ardent supporter of repeal. To her, deeply held principles are at stake. Heller has never acted in favor of what I would consider conservative, constitutional principles as a general rule, said Steelmon, who would like to see the incumbent taken out in a GOP primary. And on the very few times he has, its always come as a surprise. This is Hellers dilemma. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump will meet face-to-face with Putin in Germany next week By Brian Bennett (Alexei Nikolsky / Associated Press) President Trump has governed five months under a cloud of questions about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, yet the two men will meet next week for the first time, on the sidelines of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, Germany. White House officials on Thursday confirmed plans for the private meeting but said no decisions had been made about the topics Trump will raise. So its unclear whether the men will discuss Russias election-year cyberattacks that are the focus of criminal and congressional investigations. Our relationship with Russia is not different from any other country in terms of us communicating with them, really, what our concerns are, where we see problems in the relationship but also opportunities, said Trumps national security advisor, H.R. McMaster. McMaster said he expected the two men to have a broad, wide-ranging discussion about problems in the relationship but also about where the U.S. and Russia have common interests. Theres no specific agenda, McMaster said. Its really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about, he added. The White House has refused to say whether Trump would sign legislation with new sanctions on Russia for meddling in the elections by hacking, including into some states voting systems, and by spreading false news stories. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated the existing restrictions against Russia were sufficient. Weve got plenty of those as well, Mnuchin said. Trump will also meet with the leaders of China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore and other countries during the summit of 20 major world economies. Trumps director of the White House National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, said the meeting would fall short of a typical bilateral discussion between the American president and the head of another country, but would be more than whats known in diplomacy-speak as a pull aside a quick, informal get-together on the edge of a conference. Trumps scheduled meeting with Putin in Hamburg places added significance on his stop in Poland next Wednesday. In Warsaw, McMaster said, Trump intends to bolster U.S. relationships with Poland and other central European and Baltic states that were once in Moscows orbit under the Soviet Union, but now rely on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S. to counter pressure from Russia. Trumps meetings there seem designed to strengthen his hand with Putin. McMaster called Poland a front-line NATO nation with regards to the eastern flank, noting that it sent troops to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq and has exceeded its pledge on NATO defense spending. As a candidate and president, Trump has criticized other NATO countries that have not yet met those pledges for military spending equal to at least 2% of the size of their respective economies. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Travel ban seen a win by at least one conservative; Breitbart focuses on upcoming votes in Congress By Kurtis Lee After it stalled for several months in federal courts, a portion of President Trumps travel ban is set to take effect Thursday evening and will bar individuals from six majority-Muslim countries. Some in conservative media are viewing it as a much-needed political victory for Trump. Here are some of Thursdays headlines: Two wins for Trump (Washington Times) Trump has seen setbacks in his fledgling administration probes into possible collusion with Russia, infighting among his party over a healthcare overhaul, federal courts halting his travel ban. But now, the president gets a W. The Supreme Courts decision to allow portions of President Trumps travel ban to proceed is a much-needed victory for the administration, Cal Thompson writes. In doing so the unanimous court affirmed at least temporarily, pending a full hearing on the case in the fall a presidents constitutional authority to determine whether people seeking admittance to the U.S. pose a threat to our safety and security. Thompson also highlights the Supreme Court decision this week that churches have the same right as other charitable groups to seek state money for new playground surfaces and other non-religious needs. Thompson called the ruling in the case, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer, a victory for religious institutions and Trump, who at times has touched on the issue of religious freedom. Breitbart prods GOP leaders to pass pro-American immigration reforms (Breitbart) For Trump, Breitbart hasnt always delivered the most approving headlines for his administration particularly on immigration. Some right-wing bloggers and pundits dont think Trump has done enough on immigration, a key pillar of his campaign platform. This piece turns the attention to members of Congress, where two bills focused primarily on detaining people in the country illegally could come up for a vote . The GOP-run House is expected to vote for two modest immigration-reform bills as soon as this week, but pro-American reformers are using the two votes to build loud and energetic public pressure for major reform legislation, notes the right-wing website. Trump attacks Psycho Joe Scarborough, Crazy Mika Brzezinski in Twitter tear (Fox News) At first, they were friends; now, perhaps, enemies? Trump used Twitter early Thursday to jab Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who the president in past has said he admires. The tweets have drawn the ire of Republicans. Heres what the president wrote: I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 ...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 And the response? pic.twitter.com/8YhzcCUwM1 Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 29, 2017 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump plans to nominate Brendan Carr to fill final FCC seat and provide crucial vote on net neutrality rules By Jim Puzzanghera President Trump intends to nominate Brendan Carr, a former aide to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, to fill the final open seat at the agency and provide a crucial vote on the future of tough net neutrality rules. Carr, the FCCs general counsel, would fill a Republican slot on the commission and would be expected to support Pais push to roll back the regulations for online traffic. Carrs intended nomination was announced by the White House on Wednesday night. It comes after Trump nominated Jessica Rosenworcel, a former FCC commissioner, on June 14 to fill a Democratic seat. If the Senate confirms both nominees, as expected, the FCC would have its full complement of five commissioners and a 3-2 Republican majority. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gorsuch is already pushing Supreme Court to the right on religion, guns and gays By David Savage Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) When Judge Neil M. Gorsuch went before the Senate in March as President Trumps first nominee to the Supreme Court, he sought to assure senators he would be independent and above the political fray. There is no such thing as a Republican judge or Democratic judge, he said more than once. We just have judges. But in just his first few weeks on the high court, Justice Gorsuch has shown himself to be a confident conservative activist, urging his colleagues to move the law to the right on religion, gun rights, gay rights and campaign funding. He dissented along with Justice Clarence Thomas when the court rejected a gun-rights challenge to Californias law that strictly regulates who may carry a concealed weapon. The 2nd Amendments core purpose, they said, shows the right to bear arms extends to public carry. He wrote a dissent, joined by Thomas and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., when the court struck down part of an Arkansas law that gave opposite sex-couples, but not same-sex couples, the right to have both spouses listed on a childs birth certificate. The court said it had already decided that same-sex couples deserve fully equal rights under state law. And when Trumps travel ban came before the court this week, Gorsuch dissented from the majoritys middle-ground approach, which allowed the ban to take effect except for foreign travelers who had a relationship with this country, such as a close relative or a student enrolled in a university. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print When he meets South Koreas president, Trump will be asking for trade concessions and help confronting North Korea By Brian Bennett (Nicholas Kamm / AFP Photo) President Trump plans to pressure South Korean President Moon Jae-in to make trade concessions when they meet Friday, while at the same time seeking closer cooperation against North Koreas accelerating nuclear program. Both aims, outlined Wednesday by a senior administration official, could make for some difficult discussions, especially since the newly elected Moon campaigned for a softer approach to the government in Pyongyang. Moon, who arrived Wednesday in Washington, began his four-day visit by laying a wreath at a memorial at Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia to the U.S. Marines who died during the Korean War in the battle at Chosin Reservoir. Trump will host Moon and his wife, Kim Joon-suk, for dinner at the White House on Thursday before the two leaders meet one-on-one in the Oval Office on Friday morning. Having criticized the two countries trade agreement when he was running for president, Trump will argue for a more balanced trade relationship, the administration official said in a background briefing. In particular, Trump will cite the large amount of Chinese steel that is sometimes processed in South Korea before being sold cheaply in the U.S. market. The two leaders will have a friendly, frank discussion about the trade imbalance between South Korea and the United States, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Seouls trade surplus is shrinking, the official added, but there is still a large gap. The visit will mark the first time the two leaders have met since the liberal Moon took office last month after the ouster of President Park Geun-hye, a scandal-tarred conservative who had taken a hard line against North Korea. Trump and Moon share precisely the same goal, the Trump aide said -- the complete dismantlement of North Koreas nuclear program. But the approach of the two leaders is starkly different. Trump has called for maximum pressure against North Korea, seeking additional economic sanctions and demanding that China, North Koreas main ally and patron, do more to shut off assistance to Pyongyang. Moon has risen through the ranks of his countrys politics advocating for closer ties between the Koreas, which technically are still at war. Already he has taken steps to delay the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as THAAD, an anti-missile system intended to counter any North Korean strikes. The anti-missile system is a divisive issue in South Korea; it prompted protests last weekend at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. China has objected to installation of the powerful radar defense as well, but the White House believes the U.S. system will ultimately be fully operative. The delay should not be equated as a reversal of the decision to deploy THAAD, the official said, and suggested that the topic would not be central to the two presidents discussions. As important as anything [will be] building a rapport and getting to know each other, the official said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Senate Republicans aim for new healthcare bill by Friday, but skeptics remain By Lisa Mascaro (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Senate Republicans reconvened behind closed doors Wednesday trying to break the impasse on their healthcare overhaul but emerged with no apparent strategy for resolving differences by an end-of-week deadline. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky vowed to try again for a vote after the Fourth of July recess, despite having abruptly delayed action this week. Senators were aiming for a revised bill by Friday, the Republican whip, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, told reporters, so it could be assessed by the Congressional Budget Office during the break. But senators remained skeptical after the lengthy lunchtime huddle that appeared to run long on ideas but short on consensus. I think its going to be very difficult, said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). McConnell surprised senators by delaying this weeks expected votes once it became clear he did not have a majority for passage or possibly to even open the debate. As many as 10 Republican senators now publicly oppose the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, and leaders are scrambling to win them over with an estimated $200 billion in savings from the bill that can be applied to their particular states needs. But even with that fund of resources, it is not clear McConnell will be able to satisfactorily improve the legislation, which now threatens to cut 22 million Americans off health insurance. He can only afford to lose two Republican votes in the face of Democratic opposition. Its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes... have to make us an offer we cant refuse, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said on a telephone town hall late Tuesday, according to journalist Jon Ralston, who monitored the call. Fresh polling Wednesday showed paltry support for the Republican approach to overhauling the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which has enjoyed a surge in popularity now that Republicans are closer than ever to repealing it. A USA Today poll put approval of the Senate GOP bill at 12%. Republicans, though, are under enormous pressure from their most conservative supporters and big dollar donors, including the powerful Koch network to deliver on their promised to end Obamacare. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, suggested that President Trump convene all 100 senators much the way then-President Obama did during his first days in office for a session at Blair House to see how they might be able to work together to improve, rather than repeal, the Affordable Care Act. Id make my friends on the Republican side and President Trump an offer: Lets turn over a new leaf. Lets start over, said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). President Trump, I challenge you to invite us all 100 of us, Republican and Democrat to Blair House to discuss a new bipartisan way forward on healthcare in front of all the American people. No such invitation, however, seemed forthcoming. Trump dismissed Schumers proposal he just doesnt seem like a serious person, the president said and instead promised his own big surprise on healthcare. Healthcare is working along very well, Trump told reporters at the White House. We could have a big surprise, with a great healthcare package. Asked what he meant by a big surprise, Trump simply repeated: A great, great surprise. The Republican bill, like its counterpart passed by House Republicans, does not fully gut Obamacare, but rescinds the new taxes imposed on high-income individuals and healthcare companies to pay for expanding coverage through Medicaid and subsidies for private insurance on the ACA marketplace. Senators said the private talks Wednesday focused mainly on changes to the Obamacare marketplace that could bring down the cost of insurance premiums. One idea from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to allow insurers to offer policies that do not meet the Obamacare benchmarks for what insurance needs to cover met with mixed reaction, senators said. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician, warned that such changes would alter the risk pool, keeping insurance costs high. You end up with policies that, for example, dont cover maternity, Cassidy said. Do you want a policy that doesnt have maternity, which would be principally appealing to young men, when obviously typically men have had a role in that pregnancy? Other senators were floating new ideas, but McConnell gave no indication whether those proposals would be included in the final revised product. Michael A. Memoli contributed to this report. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement No new laptop bans, but air travelers to the U.S. will face tighter screening all over the globe By Joseph Tanfani Homeland Security officials said Wednesday they will order stricter passenger screening and other new security measures for all flights entering the United States but will not bar laptop computers in carry-on luggage as airlines and passenger groups had feared. The new order will cover about 2,000 flights a day from 280 airports in 105 countries, a move that could make international flying even more onerous just as the busy summer travel season starts. Security officials would not detail the new measures but said passengers headed to the United States will face more intensive screening at airports, and probably more security dogs. They gave no date for when the new procedures will start. If carriers dont implement the measures effectively, Homeland Security still may ban laptops, e-readers and other electronic devices larger than cell phones from cargo holds as well as passenger cabins. The decision follows intelligence, reportedly gathered from Islamic State in Syria by Israeli spy services, suggesting a lethal new threat from bombs that could be concealed in digital devices and that could evade detection by airport screening devices. In March, U.S. and British authorities banned laptops in cabins on flights from eight Muslim-majority countries in North Africa and the Middle East, saying terrorists were seeking innovative methods to bring down commercial jetliners. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly told a security conference in Washington on Wednesday that the new security measures will be both seen and unseen and will be phased in over time. He said they will include tougher screening, particularly of electronic devices, plus new technology and procedures to protect planes from so--called insider attacks by airline employees. It is time that we raise the global baseline of aviation security, Kelly said. We cannot play international whack-a-mole with every new threat. He said terrorists still see commercial aircraft as the crown jewel target for attacks, and that intelligence has shown renewed interest by terrorists to attack airlines. Kelly told a House committee several weeks ago that the department was considering extending the laptop ban to 71 more airports overseas. But Kelly ultimately decided to tighten screening across the board, instead of focusing on laptops or chasing after each item that might be used to bring down a jetliner, senior Homeland Security officials said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Kelly worked with airlines to find ways to improve screening without unduly inconveniencing passengers. Intensive doesnt always mean slower, said one official. In some cases, airlines have been doing these things at international airports for some time. The officials said more security dogs, which sniff for explosives, may be used. And they said airlines and airports may institute pre-check programs like those approved by the Transportation Security Administration for use in U.S. airports. The officials said restrictions on the first 10 airports will be lifted once airlines in those countries satisfy the new security protocols, officials said. Airport authorities in the eight countries affected by that ban Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates have been told about the new security measures and will put them in place so the ban is lifted, the officials said. In recent weeks, Kelly and his aides have huddled with their counterparts overseas, as well as with representatives of major airlines, to discuss whether to expand the ban around the globe. Airlines protested that a laptop ban would inconvenience passengers and not remove the threat. Aviation experts and European security officials warned that putting laptops in cargo holds would pose other dangers because the lithium batteries could start fires. In 1988, a bomb hidden in a radio cassette player exploded aboard a Pan Am jet flying over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew. The plot was blamed on then-Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi. In 2010, powerful bombs hidden in printer ink cartridges were found aboard two cargo jets headed from Yemen to Chicago. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula later claimed responsibility for the plot. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Its crunch time for McConnell after Senate GOP is forced to delay vote on healthcare bill By Lisa Mascaro ( (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)) The abrupt decision Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to temporarily shelve a vote on the Republican Obamacare overhaul gives him a few extra weeks to build support for a revised bill before it risks becoming hopelessly stalled by the opposition. The seasoned GOP leader will be aided by what amounts to a $200-billion piggy bank to push Republican holdouts into line. Thats the bills extra cost savings, compared with the House version, that McConnell can tap to provide perks to individual senators, from more opioid assistance to expanded tax-free health savings accounts. A similar strategy delay and enticements worked well in the House, where Republicans last month passed their healthcare bill on the third try. But prolonging the debate also gives Democrats and other critics time to mobilize, and ensures that senators will be exposed to an onslaught of opposition as they head home for the weeklong holiday break to defend a bill that has estimated would leave tens of millions of Americans without insurance. After the delay was announced, President Trump hosted a White House gathering of all GOP senators. But rather than rally them around the bill with the power of the presidential bully pulpit, he struck a surprisingly detached tone. This will be great if we get it done, Trump told senators in the East Room. And if we dont get it done, its just going to be something that were not going to like. And thats OK. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print As vote looms, concerns over Medicaid cuts rise from some in conservative media By Kurtis Lee Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press ) The vote for now is delayed. As President Trump has urged Senate Republicans to pass a bill that would overhaul the Affordable Care Act, some, including Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada and Rob Portman of Ohio, have expressed concerns over cuts to Medicaid. Both represent states that, under Obamacare, expanded Medicaid coverage to low-income adults. The current Senate healthcare bill would deliver deep cuts to Medicaid, leaving millions uninsured. While Trump awaits a vote in the coming weeks originally scheduled for this week, but pushed back until after the July 4 recess its on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to gather enough support from within his GOP caucus to secure the bills passage. Some in the conservative media are questioning the current bill. Here is an overview of todays headlines on this and other issues: Republicans have a Medicaid problem (Weekly Standard) The Republican healthcare bill would cut Medicaid spending by $772 billion over the next decade. Chris Deaton writes that Republicans aim to offset the consequences of these Medicaid changes by offering tax credits for private insurance to people under the poverty line. In this piece, Deaton raises the question of whether low-income earners would be better off with Medicaid coverage or obtaining insurance through a GOP tax credit? He answers by noting, Its long been a contention of conservative thinkers that healthcare outcomes improve with private insurance rather than Medicaid. Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, registers as foreign agent (Associated Press) Hes among those facing scrutiny in an FBI investigation into Russian meddling in last years election. Now, Paul Manafort, who at one time served as Trumps campaign chairman, has registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent. In a filing with the department, Manafort notes that his consulting firm received nearly $17 million between 2012 and 2014 from a Ukrainian political party with links to Russia, according to the Associated Press. Last spring, former national security advisor Michael T. Flynn, who resigned from his position in February after misleading administration officials about contacts with Russians, also registered as a foreign agent, for consulting work he did for a Turkish businessman. A Democratic road to recovery (American Spectator) The party is attempting a reboot. After Hillary Clintons 2016 loss and defeats in several special elections this year, Democrats are in search of a new face for the party. Even so, liberals are in lock-step in their opposition to Trump. This piece offers Democrats some advice from the right on how to recover. Leftists: You have been lied to and taken advantage of. When you eventually come out of this haze you are in, you will realize that it was done not by the president, but by the snake oil salesmen and charlatans, who took advantage of your sickness and weakness, simply for money and power, writes Judah Friedman. Ask yourselves this: What is the Democratic Party, right now, without this rage, and hate, with which it is fueling your addictions? The answer is nothing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sarah Palin sues the New York Times for tying her PAC ad to mass shooting By Associated Press Former vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is accusing the New York Times of defamation over an editorial that linked one of her political action committee ads to the mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, Palins lawyers say the Times violated the law and its own policies when it accused her of inciting the 2011 attack that killed six people. The lawsuit refers to a June editorial in the Times on the recent shooting of Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise. The editorial later was corrected. Palin is seeking damages to be determined by a jury. A spokeswoman for the Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, says the company hasnt seen the lawsuit but will defend against any claim vigorously. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump succeeds where Obama failed spawning a new wave of liberal activism By Mark Z. Barabak Amanda Litman and Ross Morales Rocketto launched the Democratic activist group Run For Something, which encourages people under 35 to seek elected office. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) The night Hillary Clinton lost the White House, Amanda Litman cried so hard she threw up. In Atlanta, as the returns rolled in, Traci Feit Love faced a question from her anguished 8-year-old daughter: Now what do we do? Across the country, in the heart of Silicon Valley, Rita Bosworth wondered the same thing. The three never met, never spoke, never communicated in any fashion. But in the days and weeks that followed, they became common threads in a sprawling patchwork: the angry and politically aggrieved who with no help from politicians, political parties or any formal campaign structure have joined to fight President Trump and his policies. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump on healthcare bill: If we dont get it done ... thats OK By Associated Press (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump said that if the healthcare bill fails to pass in the Senate, he wont like it but thats OK. Trump spoke Tuesday at a gathering of Senate Republicans after their leaders delayed a vote on their healthcare bill until at least next month. Trump said, This will be great if we get it done and if we dont get it done its going to be something that were not going to like and thats OK and I can understand that. He added, I think we have a chance to do something very, very important for the public, very, very important for the people of our country. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Watch live: Press briefing with Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Energy Secretary Rick Perry Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Senate GOP leaders abruptly delay vote on healthcare bill until after July 4th recess By Lisa Mascaro Facing resistance from their own party, Senate Republican leaders said Tuesday they would postpone a vote on their healthcare bill until after the July 4th recess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to provide more time to make changes to the bill to try to convince reluctant GOP senators to vote for the measure. Were going to press on,' McConnell said, adding he remains optimistic. Were continuing to talk. Since the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would leave 22 million more Americans without insurance after 10 years, several Republicans senators had said they would not even support allowing the bill to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote. Meanwhile, President Trump invited all GOP senators to the White House for a meeting Tuesday afternoon. But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who has expressed serious doubts about the bill, questioned whether revisions would make a difference. I have so many fundamental problems with the bill, that have been confirmed by the CBO report, that its difficult to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concerns about the bill,' Collins said on CNN. McConnell is struggling to appease two factions in his party. Centrists like Collins want to lessen the impact of proposed cuts to Medicaid, while conservatives want to go further in repealing benefits provided under Obamacare. Senate leaders hope to continue talks this week, with an eye toward moving quickly when Congress returns after the holiday. McConnell plans to wait for the CBO to review any changes and reissue a score. He can only afford to lose two Republicans given the partys 52-seat majority in the Senate. Theres more work that needs to be done, its pretty obvious, said Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho as he was leaving a Senate lunch with Vice President Mike Pence. Pence ignored reporters questions about the decision. If more work needs to be done, you shouldnt try to light the fire. But the delay in a vote will give Democrats and other opponents of the repeal bill more time to mobilize, particularly as Republicans return to their home districts during the holiday. We know the fight is not over,' said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump administration warns of Syrian chemical attack, but with damaged credibility By Noah Bierman The Trump administration Monday night sent the kind of dire warning -- of the Syrian regimes apparent preparation for another chemical weapons attack, and a threat of U.S. retaliation -- that requires credibility to have a receptive national and foreign audience. Yet the initial bafflement about the warning among U.S. defense officials, and the simultaneous distraction of President Trumps unrelated tweets, seemed to undercut the seriousness of the moment. More broadly, the episode is testing the damage Trump has done to his and his administrations trustworthiness by his assaults on the intelligence community as well as other perceived enemies. Trump has spent months attacking the credibility of the intelligence community, at one point comparing their tactics to Nazis and repeatedly calling its findings of Russian meddling in the election a hoax and witch hunt, even as foreign policy experts cautioned that he was diminishing the reputation of a community he would need in times of crisis to rally public support. At a moment of crisis when U.S. decisions and actions rest upon information coming from the intelligence community, [Trump] may have diminished the credibility of that information in the eyes of the public and the eyes of the international community, said Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Assn. Kimball called the White House statement unusual and said such messages would normally be sent through private diplomatic channels. He added that the public allegation should be followed by a formal presentation of the evidence to the United Nations Security Council, to build international support against suspected Syrian violations of the chemical weapons ban. The four-line statement on Syria from the White House Press Secretary came just after 9:44 p.m. EDT Monday. The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children, the statement read. The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack. If Syrian President Bashar Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price, it concluded, citing a U.S. missile strike after the previous chemical attack to reinforce the new threat. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed Tuesday that preparations for a chemical attack were observed at the same base in Syria from which its military launched a sarin nerve gas attack that killed 86 people, including children, in April. We have observed activities at Shayrat Air Base that suggest possible intent by the Syrian regime to use chemical weapons again, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway said in a statement. These activities are similar to what we observed prior to the regime chemical weapons attack against Khan Sheikhoun in April. But some senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials reached late Monday and early Tuesday were caught off guard by the White House statement. Some knew, some didnt, said a U.S. official who sought anonymity to discuss the intelligence matter. The official described the release of the nighttime statement as ungraceful, but said the assessment that Syria was preparing for an attack is sound. Such official statements are typically distributed widely across an administration for internal vetting before theyre publicly released. The White House said the relevant agencies were informed before the statement was published. Yet Trump lent further confusion about the urgency of the matter and his own level of concern by sending out a tweet about domestic politics only minutes later. He cited a Fox news report about the FBIs Russia investigation, writing as he often does about the probe, Witch Hunt! From @FoxNews "Bombshell: In 2016, Obama dismissed idea that anyone could rig an American election." Check out his statement - Witch Hunt! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017 Indeed, Trump continued through the next morning to demonstrate his frustration with the Russia investigation and what he calls the American medias fake news with posts on his Twitter feed. Many tweets quoted supportive conservative commentators and Fox News reports. Trump was eager to go after CNN, one of his top media targets, after it retracted a Russia-related story and three journalists involved resigned. So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017 Trumps willingness to mix politics and his administrations ominous red line to Syria opened him up to criticism that he was trying to divert attention from other unfavorable news Monday. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had found that the Republican plan to replace Obamacare would strip 22 million people of health insurance coverage over the next decade. The Syria statement also prompted a sharp backlash from the Kremlin, which is Assads military ally in his nations civil war. Russian officials denied there is evidence of an imminent chemical attack and called the White House threat unacceptable. The tensions have heightened as Trump is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week at the G20 Summit of industrialized nations in Germany. Mondays statement may be seen as a warning not just to Syria but to Russia, which is widely seen as enabling Assads harsh tactics by bolstering his military as he has tried to retain power. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Kremlin calls White House warning to Syria unacceptable, denies any Assad chemical attack in the works By Sabra Ayres The Kremlin is calling unacceptable a White House warning to Syrias government that it would pay a heavy price if it carries out another poison gas attack against its own people. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, also declared Tuesday that there is no indication that a chemical weapons strike is in the works. The White House said late Monday night that activity had been detected similar to that preceding a nerve gas attack on April 4 that killed dozens of civilians, including children, in rebel-held Idlib province. President Trump responded by launching nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield that U.S. officials said was used for the chemical attack. It was the first U.S. attack on Syrian forces in the six-year civil war. Russia continues to deny that Assads forces carried out the April 4 gas attack and Peskov criticized the White House for saying there were signs of preparation for another such strike. Peskov said the Kremlin does not think it is possible to lay the blame on the Syrian armed forces for the April strike on the village of Khan Sheikhoun, which the U.S. and its allies said involved sarin, a banned nerve agent. Despite all the demands from the Russian side, an impartial international inquiry into a previous tragedy using chemical agents has not been carried out, the spokesman told Russian news agencies. Peskov criticized the White House warning to Assad, saying such threats to Syrias legitimate leaders are unacceptable. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Senate healthcare overhaul hits trouble as Republicans hesitant to proceed to vote By Lisa Mascaro The Senate Republican healthcare bill ran into serious trouble late Monday when key GOP senators indicated they may block the Obamacare overhaul from proceeding to a vote this week. Political turmoil has been building over the bill for days. But GOP tension burst open after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that 22 million more Americans would lose insurance coverage under the plan and that out-of-pocket costs for many of those buying policies on the Affordable Care Act marketplace would rise. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hoped to start procedural votes by Wednesday, and President Trump called key senators over the weekend as support splintered. Its the same political dynamic that stalled the House Republican bill last month, as conservative and centrist factions wrestle for dominance. Conservatives want a more complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which they hope will lower premium costs, while centrists are trying to avoid leaving millions of Americans without health coverage. Senate bill doesnt fix ACA problems for rural Maine, tweeted Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). I will vote no on mtp, she said, referring to the motion to proceed to the bill. Conservative Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is also working to change the bill so that he can vote yes on the procedural motion. We are not there yet, Lees spokesman said. Senators have bristled at what they viewed as McConnells secretive and rushed process, and several other senators said they wanted more time before voting. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was among those Republicans who shared concerns in weekend calls with Trump. We continue to make progress, Cruz told reporters Monday, as Democrats, who oppose the bill, planned an almost-all-night protest session. Cruz is part of the gang of four conservatives -- including Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky -- who have said they cannot vote for the bill as is. Among the changes being pursued is one provision that would allow insurers to offer cheaper policies that do not meet ACAs requirements and another to let consumers sock more money into health savings accounts We can get there and Im hopeful we will get there, Cruz said. However, he declined to say whether he would agree to Wednesdays procedural vote. Also hesitant to proceed was Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who has strongly criticized undoing Obamacares Medicaid expansion that has enabled about 200,000 people to gain coverage in his state. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, for example, wanted changes to help residents in her geographically far-flung state where healthcare costs are particularly high. Some senators, though, dismissed the budget analysis and said keeping the ACA would be worse. Its clear the CBO cannot predict the purchasing patterns for millions of Americans, said Georgia Sen. David Perdue, a Trump ally, in a statement. This bureaucratic analysis will do nothing to prevent Obamacare from failing. Others are weighing their votes. Republican Sen. Bob Corker, whose office is receiving thousands of daily calls, spent part of Monday on the phone with health officials in Tennessee as he assesses the fallout in his state of 22 million more people in the country without healthcare. I kind of figured it was going to be a pretty big number, said Corker, who remains undecided. Theres a lot of incoming. CBO says 22 million people lose insurance; Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans; access to healthcare in rural areas threatened. 2/3 Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) June 26, 2017 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Supreme Court puts off decision in three pending cases about borders and immigration By David Savage ((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Amid its flurry of decisions Monday about Trumps travel ban and cases involving religious liberties and guns, the Supreme Court put off final rulings on three pending cases involving immigration and the U.S. border. In Hernandez vs. Mesa, the court in an unsigned opinion told the U.S. appeals court in New Orleans to take a second look at a border shooting case. The parents of a 15-year-old Mexican boy sued a U.S. border patrol agent who shot and killed the teenager when he was standing a few feet from the border on the Mexican side. The 5th Circuit had thrown out the parents suit. The facts alleged in the complaint depict a disturbing incident resulting in a heartbreaking loss of life, the court said in sending the case back for a further hearing. The court said it would rehear in the fall a Los Angeles case involving whether immigrants awaiting deportation can be jailed indefinitely, or instead have a right to a bond hearing after six months. The courts action suggests the eight justices were evenly split in Jennings vs. Rodriguez. The court also said it will rehear the case of Sessions vs. Dimaya to decide whether non-citizens can be deported for an offense like breaking into an empty home because it may be deemed a crime of violence. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Refugee advocates says even partial reinstatement of travel ban will cause hardship By Laura King Immigration and refugee advocates expressed disappointment Monday with the Supreme Courts partial reinstatement of President Trumps travel ban, saying even limited implementation could cause hardship to refugees and others seeking to travel to the United States from six affected Muslim-majority countries. However, organizations taking part in the months-long legal fight against the revised travel ban expressed hopes that the high court ultimately will reject the restrictions after arguments are heard in October. And they welcomed what they described as an implicit rebuke of the White Houses assertion that Trump has unfettered powers to exclude arrivals based on purported national security concerns. The initial rollout of the ban, days after Trump took office in January, caused pandemonium at airports across the United States and overseas as tens of thousands of visa-holders arriving from seven affected countries were turned away without warning or detained. After courts blocked that order, Trump issued a revised travel ban that took Iraq off the list. A replay of Januarys travel chaos was unlikely Monday because the courts action will allow visa-holders with bona fide ties to people or entities in the U.S. to enter, meaning students, employees and family members can still get in. But refugee advocates said the courts limited ruling, which the administration can move to implement on Thursday, could leave many would-be arrivals in limbo pending the finalizing of new vetting procedures. The administration had originally said a three-month travel ban was needed in part to review the checks to which would-be entrants are subjected. David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, said the partial reinstatement of the ban particularly threatens vulnerable people waiting to come to the U.S., including those with urgent medical conditions. We urge the administration to begin its long-delayed review of the vetting process and restart a program which changes lives for the better, said Miliband. The National Immigration Law Center, one of the groups that challenged the ban, said that as of this week, approximately 50,500 refugees from the six affected countries had been approved for travel and resettlement in the United States all having already undergone intensive checks. The Middle East Studies Assn., one the groups contesting the ban in the lower courts, said many students and academics were ensnared by the original order. Even though Mondays court move should allow entry to those studying or working at American academic institutions, many from the affected countries remained wary of leaving and then attempting to re-enter the United States, the group said. Iran along with Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya is one of the affected countries, and Southern California is home to a large Iranian American community that was hit hard by the original ban. Some advocates said even with Mondays limited action, there has already been a chilling effect on movement. Todays Supreme Court decision immediately places the status of many Americans families into question again, said Shayan Modarres, legal counsel for the National Iranian American Council. The group said that visas issued to Iranian passport-holders had fallen by nearly half since the legal battle over the ban began, and that obtaining a U.S. visa was becoming so onerous that many would not even try to get one. The Trump administrations new idea is to make it so hard on Iranians and Muslims to get a visa that visa officers will have the unrestricted discretion to reject visa applications, Modarres said. He added that grounds for rejection could be social media postings critical of Trump or not being able to produce airline boarding passes that could have been issued and used more than a decade ago. Advocacy groups reiterated their position which was argued in a number of the lower court cases that propelled the issue to the high court that the travel restrictions run counter to core American traditions and values. Mark Hetfield, president of the refugee resettlement agency HIAS, said the group considered the courts move an affirmation that the president does not have unfettered, unchecked authority to bar refugees from the U.S. without evidence to justify such action. But he added that the executive orders partial resurrection would once again cause irreparable damage to refugees, immigrants, and Americas reputation as a welcoming country. The initial ban prompted large nationwide protests, and advocates suggested they would again seek to marshal popular opposition to the restrictions. When the first order went into effect, tens of thousands of Americans showed the world that this is not who we are and not what we want, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, another of the groups involved in the legal challenge. We will never give up defending the rights of those who are affected by this discriminatory executive order. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump says Supreme Court action on travel ban gives him important tool By Michael A. Memoli .@POTUS statement says SCOTUS action allows him to "use an important tool for protecting our Nation's homeland." Will admin press further? pic.twitter.com/gxBJO5aYYZ Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) June 26, 2017 President Trump celebrated the Supreme Courts decision Monday to allow a curtailed version of his travel ban to take effect, calling it a clear victory for our national security. In an official White House statement, the president said he was particularly gratified that at least part of the ruling was 9-0; three conservative justices said they would have let the presidents revised executive order take effect completely. My number one responsibility as Commander in Chief is to keep the American people safe. Todays ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our Nations homeland, he said. The White House has long maintained that the president was acting within his authority in seeking to temporarily restrict travel to the United States. They most often point to a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that states a president can suspend or limit entry of individuals whenever the president finds that the entry ... would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Rival Senate factions push competing agendas as healthcare bill hangs in balance By Laura King Heading into a week of intense jockeying and arm-twisting over the Senates polarizing healthcare plan, the rift appeared to widen Sunday between moderates who consider the measure too punitive and conservatives who want to see the sweeping bill toughened up before agreeing to back it. President Trump, who made the repeal of his predecessors signature Affordable Care Act a campaign centerpiece, expressed optimism about chances for Senate passage, but declared again that he wanted to see a plan with heart suggesting he might undercut Republican efforts to bring recalcitrant conservatives on board. With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seeking to push ahead with a vote this week, the bills prospects hung in the balance. Five GOP senators have said publicly they oppose the measure as written; the defection of only three Republicans would be enough to sink it. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Analysis: Atop 2017 losses, a sobering challenge for Democrats aiming at Trump next year By Cathleen Decker Republican Karen Handel, winner of last weeks special House election in Georgia. ( (Bob Andres / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)) Democrats have hoped that President Trumps deep unpopularity would propel them to gains in next years midterm election as they fight to take control of the House and improve their position in the Senate. But last years contests and this years special elections suggest a complication: Trump is so distinctive a politician that its hard to persuade voters that other Republican candidates are carbon copies of the president. Trumps outsized persona makes even those Republicans who share his views seem more moderate, an important attribute to swing voters. That presents a problem for the party out of power. Midterm elections traditionally serve as referendums on the president, but voters complicated views of Trump may give Republicans more running room than his popularity figures suggest. The votes cast by individual Republican incumbents may be more important to their survival than any linkage with the president. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Conservatives at Koch summit outline changes to Senate healthcare bill to win their support By Lisa Mascaro Tim Phillips, who heads Americans for Prosperity, the largest of the Koch networks advocacy groups, speaks to the media at the White House in Washington on March 8. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Conservatives floated two amendments for toughening up the Senates Obamacare overhaul this weekend at the influential Koch networks confab of wealthy donors, as Republicans seek ways to win over detractors and tip enough GOP votes for passage. That the Koch network quickly panned the Senate bill is no surprise. The organization of deep-pocketed conservative advocacy groups similarly rejected the House GOP bill this spring until party leaders tacked on tough amendments to appease right-leaning Republicans. Weve been disappointed that movements not been more dramatic toward a full repeal or a broader rollback of this onerous law Obamacare, said Tim Phillips, who heads Americans for Prosperity, the largest of the Koch networks advocacy groups. But we are not walking away, he said. We worked to make the House bill better and it did get better. Were doing the same thing on the Senate front. One key lawmaker attending the weekend summit at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a chief negotiator on the House bill, outlined two key changes to the bill that he said could likely win enough conservative support for passage. One amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would allow companies that offer insurance policies on the Obamacare marketplace to also offer plans that do not meet the ACAs strict requirements. Such a change would in essence allow insurers to offer cheaper, though skimpier, policies that may help achieve the GOPs goal of lowering premiums for consumers. Another amendment would broaden the ability of those who buy insurance on the marketplace to sock away more money in tax-free Health Savings Accounts to help them pay for their premiums. Cruz is one of four Senate conservatives who have said they would not support the bill unless changes are made, positioning them for negotiations in the days ahead. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs to win back some of their votes to pass the bill with his slim 52-seat Republican majority. One of the conservatives, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), was among those feted Saturday night at a reception with Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist who funds the conservative network. Koch told those gathered for an outdoor cocktail reception on a breezy Colorado Springs evening about how far his team has come over the years at promoting what is a libertarian-leaning conservative agenda. Now when I look at where we are, at the size and effectiveness of this network, Im blown away, he told donors. Koch met Friday with Vice President Mike Pence. But the politics in the Senate remain difficult as McConnell continues to negotiate behind closed doors and rushes the bill to a vote expected this week. On Sunday, one key centrist, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, doubted a swift resolution. Its hard for me to see the bill passing this week, she said on ABCs This Week. Another crucial vote, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who had offered his own proposal, also criticized the rush. I frankly would like a few more days to consider this, Cassidy said on CBSs Face the Nation. But Republicans are anxious to resolve the healthcare debate, which has created a logjam in their legislative agenda. Meadows also told reporters if the Senate passes the bill this week, the House could quickly follow with a weekend session -- ahead of a Fourth of July bill signing by the president. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Schiff: Obama should have acted on Russian interference, but Trump shouldnt complain By Laura King A top House Democrat says President Obama should have reacted more forcefully upon learning of Russian election-meddling, but also asserted that it was illogical for President Trump to levy such criticism against his predecessor. I think the [Obama] administration needed to call out Russia earlier, needed to act to deter and punish Russia earlier, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), said in an interview aired Sunday on CNNs State of the Union. Failure to do so, he said, had been a very serious mistake. But Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Trumps criticism of Obama made little sense in light of the current presidents own inaction in the face of decisive U.S. intelligence conclusions about Kremlin efforts to tip the 2016 race to Trump. Trump, Schiff said, is in no position to complain here in light of the fact that as a candidate, he openly urged the Russians to hack Clintons emails. To criticize Obama is now a bit like someone knowingly receiving stolen property blaming the police for not stopping the theft, said Schiff, a former prosecutor. On Saturday, Trump issued a statement on Twitter referencing a Washington Post report a day earlier detailing the previous administrations wrestling with how, when and whether to make public the degree of Russian interference. Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not T! the president tweeted. The Post report said Obama was worried about the appearance of improperly using mounting intelligence reports about Russian activities to aid Clintons candidacy. The subject was particularly inflammatory because at that point in the race, Trump had complained repeatedly about the rigged political process and even suggested he might not respect the election outcome. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump says hes optimistic about Senate approval of GOP healthcare measure By Laura King President Trump says he believes that backers of a sweeping GOP healthcare measure are going to get there and pass the measure despite the refusal of five Republican senators to endorse the bill as written. Healthcare is a very, very tough thing to get, but I think were going to get it, Trump said on Fox and Friends in an interview aired Sunday that he had touted beforehand on Twitter. We dont have too much of a choice because the alternative is the dead carcass of Obamacare, the president said, referring to the Affordable Care Act, his predecessors signature piece of legislation. Opinion polls have indicated low public support for the version of the healthcare bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), wants to bring the Senate version, unveiled days ago, to a vote this week. In addition to the five Republican senators who have publicly aired their opposition, several others have declined to explicitly endorse the bill, which would overhaul the U.S. healthcare system and set the stage for massive tax breaks that would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans. With a 52-seat Republican advantage in the 100-member chamber, only three GOP defections would be sufficient to derail the measure, since Vice President Mike Pence could cast a tie-breaking vote. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Pro-Trump group launches new attack ad against special counsel Robert Mueller By Lisa Mascaro A Southern California group backing President Trump is out with a new ad attacking special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, criticizing the investigation into the Trump campaigns possible cooperation with Russian interference in the 2016 election. The ad, called Witch Hunt, features conservative favorite Tomi Lahren reflecting Trumps own language to complain about the probe. The more than $400,000 ad buy is expected to start running Sunday. Only in Washington could a rigged game like this be called independent, Lahren says, using air quotes in the ad to emphasize her point. She is now a senior advisor to Great America Alliance, which backs Trump. The ads chief complaint echoes Trumps criticism that Muellers team has ties to Democrats, because some of the lawyers have given campaign contributions to the party. Trump has also complained of the relationship between fired FBI Director James B. Comey and Mueller, who was once his boss. Mueller is a registered Republican. Among the members of the legal team he is assembling for the Russia probe -- which is also looking into whether the president obstructed the federal investigation by firing Comey -- four have donated to Democrats. One who gave the maximum donation to Trump rival Hillary Clinton also donated to Republicans. Both Republicans and Democrats have praised Muellers credentials and ability to handle the Russia probe as an independent investigation. The group, which ran a similar attack against Comey ahead of his testimony earlier this month on Capitol Hill, has emerged as a key pro-Trump organization. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Koch brothers political network says Senate GOP healthcare bill is insufficiently conservative By Associated Press ( (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)) Chief lieutenants in the Koch brothers political network lashed out at the Senate Republican healthcare bill on Saturday, becoming a powerful outside critic as GOP leaders try to rally support for their plan among rank-and-file Republicans. This Senate bill needs to get better, said Tim Phillips, who leads Americans For Prosperity, the Koch networks political arm. It has to get better. Phillips called the Senates plans for Medicaid a slight nip and tuck over President Obamas healthcare law, a modest change he described as immoral. The comments came on the first day of a three-day private donor retreat at a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains. Invitations were extended only to donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers Freedom Partners a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote small government. No outside group has been move aggressive over the years-long push to repeal Obamas healthcare law than the Kochs, which vowed on Saturday to spend another 10 years fighting to change the healthcare system if necessary. The Koch network has often displayed a willingness to take on Republicans including President Trump when their policies arent deemed conservative enough. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions wants to get tough on crime. These people think hes got it all wrong By Jaweed Kaleem Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions has vowed to crack down on crime by sending more criminals to prison for longer periods of time. Every one of our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to be safe in their homes and communities from the scourge of criminal gangs, rapists, carjackers and drug dealers, Sessions said in an address to law enforcement officials in Memphis, Tenn., last month. In his view, imprisoning more criminals would make families safer, and fewer people would break the law if there were more severe punishments for crimes such as drug offenses. In a recent memo to federal prosecutors, Sessions instructed them to pursue the harshest punishments legally allowed, a reversal of an Obama-era move giving federal lawyers more leeway to reserve such prosecutions for repeat offenders and people who had committed the worst of crimes. Department of Justice officials hope the changes at the federal level where a sliver of crimes across the country is prosecuted will trickle down to a similar approach to crime in states. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Vice President Mike Pence stops in for an unscheduled chat with billionaire Charles Koch By Lisa Mascaro Vice President Mike Pence popped in for a visit this weekend with Charles Koch, the billionaire GOP donor hosting his semi-annual confab of like-minded business leaders assessing their priorities for the White House and Congress. The meeting was not listed on Pences official schedule for the day. President Trump never much enjoyed backing from Koch s sprawling, secretive, political enterprise, which has emerged as a libertarian-leaning power center, sometimes overshadowing the traditional Republican Party apparatus with its high-dollar donors and vast operations. Kochs group did not endorse the GOP presidential nominee. But the network has always had close ties with Pence. The vice president had previously attended the exclusive gathering of donors, held this weekend at the luxurious Broadmoor hotel. And his top staff was plucked from a key Koch organization, Freedom Partners. Pence and Koch and their top aides spoke for nearly an hour late Friday, according to a Koch spokesman. They discussed tax reform, the GOPs healthcare overhaul and other heavy legislative lifts that have run into resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress. The aide described the talks as casual. Pence was in the area making other stops, including at the Air Force Academy and an evening fundraiser for GOP Sen. Cory Gardner. Even without investing in Trump, the Koch network has made impressive strides in advancing its agenda this year. Congress swiftly rolled back more than a dozen regulations, including some intended to protect the environment, that Koch-backed groups complained were too rigorous and invasive in industry operations. The Koch network groups, including Freedom Partners, a free market-oriented, chamber of commerce-type organization, is pushing the Trump administration and Congress to pass tax reform and overhaul healthcare. Both those efforts have stalled in Congress amid Republican infighting, but the Koch groups is able to put their army of resources money, staff and volunteers in the states to pressure lawmakers to act. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Kris Kobach fined for misleading court and refusing to produce previously exposed Trump memo By Colleen Shalby (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been fined $1,000 for misleading a federal court in an effort to keep two documents private. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last year against Kobach arguing that his states proof of citizenship law violates the National Voter Registration Act. ACLU lawyers asked Kobach to produce two documents they said pertained to the case. One of those documents was a draft of a proposed amendment to the National Voter Registration Act. The second was a document that had been photographed and widely shared in late November after Kobach met with then-President-elect Donald Trump. The power of a zoom lens exposed certain details of his proposal to Trump to deport potential terrorists. In a 24-page ruling made public Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge James OHara wrote that Kobach did not accurately represent the contents of the documents when he argued against producing them. Defendant refused to produce these documents, asserting that they are beyond the scope of reopened discovery, do not seek relevant information, and are protected by the attorney-client, deliberative-process, and executive privileges, the judge wrote. The court took Kobach at his word, OHara wrote, but upon review of the documents produced under a court order found that they did relate to the voting rights case. The judge wrote that while the court could not say that Kobach flat-out lied, the defendants statements can be construed as wordplay meant to present a materially inaccurate picture of the documents. For now, the documents will remain classified, as Kobach designated them. But, OHara wrote, that status could change. Trump tapped Kobach last month to serve as vice chairman of a presidential commission that would oversee a voter fraud investigation. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Number of refugees admitted to U.S. drops by almost half By Tracy Wilkinson (Patrick T. Fallon / For the Los Angeles Times) The number of refugees admitted to the United States was cut by nearly half in the first three months of the Trump administration compared with the final three months of the Obama presidency, reflecting the new presidents skepticism toward immigration. Government statistics released Friday showed that more than 25,000 refugees were permitted to enter and reside in the United States at the end of the Obama administration. In the initial months under President Trump, the number fell to 13,000. The statistics were released by the Department of Homeland Security, based on information supplied by the State Department. Countries of origin were largely unchanged. In both periods, two-thirds of the arrivals came from five countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Myanmar. Refugees from two of those countries Syria and Somalia would have been banned under Trumps executive order against entries from certain Muslim-majority nations, but federal courts have blocked the order. Trumps original order covered Iraqis as well, but he omitted Iraq from his revised order. The data suggest that the Obama administration, as it was about to turn over power to Trump, significantly stepped up the number of refugees admitted. Arrivals in its final three months reflected an 86% year-over-year increase compared to the same period the previous year. In Trumps first three months, arrivals were 12% lower than for the same period in the previous year. Trump has sought to limit the number of refugees to 50,000 this year. But adverse rulings in the courts could work against him. The United States already has one of the lowest quotas of refugee admissions among major receiving countries. Nations closer to conflict zones such as Syria have taken in millions of refugees. More people have been displaced from their home nations, because of violence and poverty, than at any time since World War II. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump nominates former Dodgers co-owner Jamie McCourt as ambassador to Belgium By Lauren Rosenblatt Trump nominated Jamie McCourt, former co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as ambassador to Belgium. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) President Trump nominated Jamie McCourt, former co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, to be the ambassador to Belgium on Thursday night. McCourt, who co-owned the Dodgers with her husband, Frank, until their messy 2011 divorce, has donated money to several Republican organizations, including funds for Trumps campaign and his transition to the White House. McCourt was among many business leaders who signed their support for Trump early on in his campaign, praising his plan for economic development and growth. In the months leading up to Trumps victory, McCourt gave more than $400,000 to the Trump victory fund, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. She signed a letter in October 2016 with 100 other business executives and CEOs championing Trumps plan and criticizing opponent Hillary Clinton for having thrown in the towel on strong economic growth. McCourt was listed as a 2016 State Victory Finance Chair for Trumps campaign in July, according to a report from the GOP. Robert Wood Johnson, chairman and CEO of the New York Jets and Trumps nominee for ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was also on the list as Trump Victory vice chair. After Trump won the election, McCourt continued to financially support his transition to office. In December, she helped host a fundraiser breakfast for the incoming president where tickets sold for $5,000 a piece. Prior to her support for Trump, McCourt also donated to the campaigns of several other Republican presidential candidates, including John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina, although in much smaller amounts. In the past, she has also supported former President Obama, contributing to his campaign and victory funds in 2011 and donating $50,000 to the inauguration in 2009. She donated about $2,000 to Hillary Clinton for her presidential campaign in 2007, according to the FEC. McCourts ex-husband said his former wife had political aspirations of her own, with an end goal of ending up in the White House, according to a March 2010 Los Angeles Times article. Her high-profile divorce gathered a lot of public attention and ended in dispute over finances and assets. McCourt has founded and directed entrepreneurial enterprises in Los Angeles and Boston throughout her career as a entrepreneur and attorney. Her investment firm, Jamie Enterprises, invests in real estate and technology start-ups. She has degrees from Georgetown University, the University of Maryland School of Law and from MIT/ Sloan School of Management. The Senate must confirm McCourts nomination for ambassador. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Nevada Sen. Heller -- a key swing vote -- says he opposes Senate healthcare bill By David Lauter (Andrew Harnik / AP) Nevada Sen. Dean Heller said Friday that he planned to vote against the Republican healthcare bill, a potentially key defection. Although the White House and Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have said they plan further negotiations over the bill, its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes, Heller said at a news conference in Nevada with Gov. Brian Sandoval (R). The bill unveiled Thursday by McConnell is simply not the answer, he said. In this form, I will not support it. Given the unified Democratic opposition to the bill, McConnell can afford to lose only two Senate Republicans, so Hellers announcement is significant. A no vote by Heller would not seal the fate of the bill, however. Heller is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in 2018 -- the only one running in a state that Hillary Clinton carried last year -- and Republican leaders have been hoping to avoid having to count on his vote. Heller cited several reasons for opposing the bill, but the chief one was its deep reductions in federal support for Medicaid. This bill will mean a loss of coverage for millions of Americans and many Nevadans, he said. Nevada, under Sandoval, has used its authority under the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid, which has given health coverage to more than 210,000 additional state residents, Sandoval said. These are folks who are worth fighting for, he added. The cutbacks the Senate bill, which would end Medicaid expansion, would cost the state $120 million a year by 2022, with the cost rising sharply after that the governor said. Thats a cost that the state cannot sustain. Heller also cited the bills impact on treatment for opioid addiction and the likelihood that the plan would fail to reduce premiums. There isnt anything in this piece of legislation that will lower your premiums, he said, contradicting one of the main arguments that supporters of the bill have made. Hellers announcement increases the pressure on McConnell to find ways of persuading several other reluctant senators to support the bill. Four conservatives, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said Thursday they were opposed to the bill in its current form because it does not go far enough to roll back the Affordable Care Act. Several more centrist senators, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, have voiced concerns similar to Hellers about the depth of the bills Medicaid cutbacks and its impact on opioid treatment. Collins and Portman have both said they want to review the analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office before making up their minds. The budget office has said it will release that assessment early next week. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump signs VA reform bill to make it easier to discipline and fire employees By Lauren Rosenblatt President Trump signed into law Friday a bill that will ease restrictions on the discipline and termination of employees from the troubled veterans affairs department. The Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 is designed to speed up the process to discipline an employee for misconduct and put more decision-making power in the hands of Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin. The act is in response to the 2014 VA scandals involving long wait times for medical care and attempts by VA employees to cover up the delays. Trump, who promised to improve healthcare for veterans during his campaign, said the bill was one of the largest reforms to the VA in its history and is essential to making sure our veterans are treated with respect. The bill passed the House with bipartisan support June 13 and the Senate on June 6. Although the bill is widely supported by veterans advocacy groups, civil servant unions condemn the legislation as a way to get around long-standing protections for government employees and whistle-blowers. The reform, Shulkin said, will not be used as a tool for mass firings, but rather a way to raise morale throughout the department and attract new employees. Slow, steady, incremental change isnt what this organization needs, Shulkin said. Right now, I believe this is progress. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Mexico pushes back against Trumps tweet calling it the second deadliest country in the world By Kate Linthicum Mexicos Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray speaks during a news conference in Cancun, Mexico, on June 19. (PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images) After President Trump incorrectly tweeted that Mexico is the second deadliest country in the world after Syria, the Mexican government responded quickly. No, Mexico isnt the second deadliest place on the globe, said a tersely worded statement issued by Mexicos secretary of foreign relations, pointing to a host of other Latin American countries that have higher per capita murder rates. And while homicides have been rising in Mexico in recent years, rising violence in Mexico is inextricably linked to demand for drugs in the United States, the statement said. Illicit drug trade is indeed the most important cause of violence in Mexico and drug trafficking is costing thousands of lives both in Mexico and the U.S., the foreign ministry said Thursday. However, as has been repeatedly stated by the U.S. government itself, drug trafficking is a shared problem that will end only by addressing its root causes: high demand for drugs in the U.S. and supply from Mexico and other countries. In order to be effective, we must be able to move beyond finger-pointing, the statement said. The Mexican government issued the response after Trump tweeted a reference to a controversial recent study that ranked Mexico as the worlds second most-dangerous conflict zone after Syria. Trump misrepresented the study in his tweet, saying Mexico was just ranked the second deadliest country in the world. He also neglected the considerable debate about the studys accuracy. The annual Armed Conflict Survey, released this year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has been called into question by the Mexican government and others who say it wrongly points to the existence of an armed conflict in Mexico. The existence of criminal groups is not sufficient criteria to speak of a non-international armed conflict, said a joint statement issued by Mexicos secretaries of governance and foreign relations in May, adding that drug-war violence is part of a bigger regional problem. Although Mexicos homicide rate has soared the first two months of 2017 were the most violent since the government started releasing such statistics in 1997 other countries are experiencing higher homicide rates. In January, Mexico had a homicide rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a Times analysis of Mexican crime statistics. By comparison, El Salvadors homicide rate was 81 deaths per 100,000 people in 2016, according to InSight Crime, a think tank that studies organized crime in Latin America. Venezuela had a homicide rate of 59 deaths per 100,000 people. Trump ended his tweet with a frequent campaign mantra: We will BUILD THE WALL! Mexico was just ranked the second deadliest country in the world, after only Syria. Drug trade is largely the cause. We will BUILD THE WALL! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Supreme Court says final decisions of term will come on Monday By David Savage The Supreme Court is shown at sunset on Feb. 13, 2016. (Jon Elswick / Associated Press) (Jon Elswick / Associated Press) The Supreme Court announced it will hand down its final rulings for this term on Monday. But that does not mean the justices will actually decide the six cases that remain, which include three significant disputes involving immigration and the U.S. borders. Heres a look at the notable decisions so far. On Nov. 30, with one seat on the court still vacant, the eight justices heard arguments in a Los Angeles case on whether noncitizens who face possible deportation can be held in jail indefinitely or instead have a right to a bond hearing after six months. The case, Jennings vs. Rodriguez, has taken on added importance in the Trump era, but the long delay may signal that the justices are split 4-4. If so, the court may announce Monday that the case will be reheard in the fall, leaving it to new Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to cast the tie-breaking vote. Also still pending, since January, is a California case that will decide whether a crime such as breaking into an empty home qualifies as a crime of violence, triggering automatic deportation, even for an immigrant who is a longtime legal resident. A ruling in Sessions vs. Dimaya could affect thousands of deportations The third case, pending since February, is a closely watched border shooting. At issue in Hernandez vs. Mesa is whether a U.S. agent can be sued for fatally shooting a 15-year-old who was standing on the Mexican side of the border. On Friday, the justices gave a second chance to a Korean restaurant owner from Memphis who faces deportation for selling Ecstasy pills. Based on his lawyers advice, he pleaded guilty to the drug charge, having been assured it would not trigger his deportation. The lawyer was wrong. By a 6-2 vote in Lee vs. United States, the court said the Korean man may withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial. But for his attorneys incompetence, he would not have accepted a plea, said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.. Dissenting were Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.. The justices, including Gorsuch, are likely to rule in a significant case on religion and funding for church schools. In Trinity Lutheran vs.Comer, the justices will decide whether states may exclude church schools from receiving public funds. Also still pending, but on a different track, is the Trump administrations appeal over his blocked foreign travel ban. The court may act on that appeal at any time. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump backs L.A. Olympic bid in meeting with IOC officials By Michael A. Memoli The opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times) President Trump pledged his full support for the Los Angeles bid to host a future Summer Olympics, the White House said Friday after an Oval Office meeting with the head of the International Olympic Committee. Trump met Thursday with IOC President Thomas Bach and three U.S. members of the IOC -- Larry Probst, Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero. A White House official called it a very constructive conversation in which Trump backed a potential third Summer Games in Los Angeles. With only L.A. and Paris bidding to host the 2024 games, the IOC is moving to reward both cities, giving one hosting duties in 2024 and the other in 2028. The United States hasnt hosted a Summer Olympics since the Centennial games in Atlanta in 1996. Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he discussed the citys Olympic bid during a post-election conversation with Trump last November and that the then-president elect pledged his backing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Trump says he tweeted about tapes to influence Comeys account of their private conversations By Michael A. Memoli .@POTUS on why he wanted former FBI Dir. James Comey to believe there were tapes of their conversations pic.twitter.com/pCuibM5Z6k FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 23, 2017 President Trump called it bothersome that the special counsel now overseeing the Russia probe was good friends with fired FBI Director James B. Comey, and said he hinted at having tapes of his private conversations apparently falsely to try to influence Comeys eventual testimony. The president made his remarks during an interview that aired Friday morning on Fox & Friends, but was recorded on Thursday just hours after he tweeted that he did not, in fact, have tapes. Trump said that floating the possibility they did exist might have forced Comey to tell what actually took place at the events. When he found out that, I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether its governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed, Trump said. My story didnt change. My story was always a straight story. Foxs Ainsley Earhardt followed up: So it was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest in those hearings? It wasnt very stupid, I can tell you that, Trump answered. Many disagree, including Republicans. Comey testified that Trumps tweet is what prompted him to as Under a three-year arts plan that the Burbank school board approved earlier this month, Luther Burbank Middle School will launch an orchestra program this fall as part of the school districts commitment to expanding students access to arts education. In the next three years, through 2020, school officials said they also want to develop orchestra programs at David Starr Jordan Middle School and John Burroughs High School. I dont want anyone to feel discouraged, because were moving forward, and we have been moving steadily forward for the last few years, said Peggy Flynn, referring to the instrument programs offered to local students. Flynn, the districts arts and career technical education coordinator, said Burbank Unified will also commit to setting aside $20,000 annually to repair instruments for the next three years. Elsewhere, five full-time credentialed teachers will provide general music instruction to students in the second, third, fourth and fifth grades. School officials said they will continue to weigh how they can also offer instrumental instruction to students in the fourth and fifth grades. They also aim to purchase ukuleles for all fifth-graders to learn to play, but that goal comes with the caveat: as funding allows. In addition, they will look to hire more staff to teach music to students in kindergarten and the first grade. Meanwhile, physical education teachers across Burbanks middle schools will receive more training on teaching dance something instructors requested during a study session held earlier this year. Two middle schools Luther and Jordan havent offered theater courses recently, but they will be available again in the fall, Flynn said. School board members lauded Flynn and her colleagues for laying out the districts arts priorities for the next few years based on input she received from teachers. This was something that was hard, said Steve Ferguson, school board president. Weve pushed you on this. You did it with grace, and you did it with dignity. Fellow member Armond Aghakhanian added: I want to thank you because youre making arts available to all, and thats whats important access for everyone. kelly.corrigan@latimes.com Twitter: @kellymcorrigan Speeding and reckless driving are major problems for many Burbank residents, according to the results of an online survey commissioned in April by the Burbank Police Department. The survey results were released Thursday, with 1,011 people across the city responding. The survey, which was online for several weeks, asked residents several questions including how safe they feel in the city, what major issues they thought affected their quality of life and how the Burbank Police Department is performing. Of the five ZIP Codes that make up Burbank, a majority of respondents came from the 91505 part of the city, with 297 people participating, followed by 91504 with 265 people, 91506 with 199 people, 91501 with 137 people and 91502 with 54 people. Not all of the questions were answered by the respondents. Of the 858 residents who responded to questions concerning their quality of life, 63% thought speeding and reckless driving are major problems in the city. Meanwhile, 22% considered them a minor problem, 12% were neutral and 3% thought they arent issues at all. Thats good information for us to have. Not all areas of the city are treated equally, Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse said. Most of our complaints seem to come from the hillside. LaChasse said the department has been increasing its presence in the hillside area to help deter speeding. He also said its up to residents to be vigilant and report speeders in their neighborhood. Property crimes, such as break-ins, burglaries and thefts, also ranked highly among residents but not to the same level as speeding and reckless driving. Only 31% considered residential burglaries a major problem in the city, and 32% thought the same for general theft. For quality-of-life issues, the main concerns were homelessness and traffic congestion, with 855 people responding to those questions. Roughly 36% of respondents considered homelessness a major problem in Burbank, while 34% thought it was a minor problem, 24% were neutral and 6% didnt think it was a problem. Traffic congestion was considered a major problem for 47% of respondents, 31% thought it was a minor problem, while 18% were neutral and 4% didnt see it as a problem at all. Police performance was rated fairly positively among the 522 people who answered questions concerning the department. Over 90% of residents thought the department was professional, helpful and responded to calls for service in a timely manner. LaChasse said he was not surprised by the survey results. We have a lot of support in the community, but theres always room for improvement, he said. LaChasse said the results give department officials a better idea of where they need to focus, such as on traffic. However, for homelessness, theres not much the department can do because its not a law-enforcement issue, LaChasse said. The department does work with the city on education initiatives to inform people about what causes homelessness and what can and cant be done by the police. We do what we can do, but what everybody has to understand is that the city needs to have alternatives to incarceration, he said. You need to have homeless shelters, and we dont have enough beds in any facility in the city. To view the full results of the survey, visit burbankpd.org. andy.nguyen@latimes.com Twitter: @Andy_Truc As part of a hearing for the 2017-18 state budget, members of the California legislature are expected to vote Thursday to allocate $3 million toward construction of the proposed Armenian American Museum in Glendale and $10 million to implement a curriculum for instructors to teach about the Armenian Genocide. If the California budget is approved by the legislature Thursday, the total funding for the museum would reach $4 million. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown approved $1 million toward the proposed project. In May, Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) joined Zaven Kazazian, executive board member of the proposed museum, to present the Glendale project to the Senate Budget Subcommittee, where it was later approved for entry into the Senate version of the budget. The Budget Conference Committee soon adopted the Senate proposal and allowed the museum fund proposal to enter into the state budget for consideration. Portantino did the same for the implementation of a genocide curriculum update, which will create a framework to train California teachers about the Armenian Genocide, according to a statement released by Portantinos office on Tuesday. I am extremely happy that, as a member of the budget committee, I was able to bring these two important proposals to light this year, Portantino said in the statement. It was such a pleasure to invite Zaven Kazazian from the Armenian American Museum board to Sacramento to present this significant human-rights project to the attention of the Senate and then into the state budget. Kazazian said in a phone interview Tuesday that he appreciates all the help Portantino has been able to give the project, slated to be built in downtown Glendale. I think its very exciting to see the support we are getting from the community and from the state, and were looking forward to building a wonderful, attractive museum in the city of Glendale for all of California, Kazazian said. Should the budget pass Thursday, it will then head to Brown for final consideration. Portantino represents the 25th Senate District, which includes Glendale, Burbank, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge. jeff.landa@latimes.com Twitter: @JeffLanda For most of the day on Sunday, Glendale residents walked, biked and skated along a 3-mile route closed off to vehicles as part of the citys first-ever, car-free, open-streets CicLAvia event. The 21st CicLAvia, called Glendale meets Atwater Village, was also the largest open-space event in the United States, according to city of Glendale officials. Travelers could enter at any point from Brand Boulevard at Doran Street in Glendale to Glendale Boulevard in Atwater Village and stop at various booths along the route. Glendale meets Atwater took place thanks to a partnership between the city of Glendale, city of Los Angeles, Metro and the nonprofit CicLAvia Inc. jeff.landa@latimes.com Twitter: @JeffLanda Leo Varadkar took office Wednesday as Irelands prime minister, also known as the taoiseach. The son of an Irish mother and an Indian immigrant father, he is the first openly gay politician to serve in the post. Ive been elected to lead, but I promise to serve, the 38-year-old Dublin native said. Advertisement Varadkar, a doctor who has held three previous Cabinet posts, defeated rival Simon Coveney in a contest to replace Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who resigned. Varadkar was backed by most lawmakers and local representatives, giving him victory under the center-right Fine Gael partys electoral college system. The crowded but cozy, two-room apartment where Aleksander and Alyona Rumyantsev live in northwest Moscow once belonged to Alyonas great-grandparents, who received the apartment from the Soviet government. The small rooms and running water were a drastic improvement from the barracks they had moved from in 1963, where they shared a kitchen and stood in line for the outhouse. The five-story, brick apartment block was constructed in the early 1960s for workers from a nearby factory as part of a national program started in 1955 under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Hundreds of thousands of the prefab, box-like structures were erected across the former Soviet Union to house nearly 54 million people. Advertisement These houses are the blood and sweat of our grandparents, Aleksander Rumyantsev said. They built a life here for us, and we dont want to lose it. The long, simple block structures became known as Khrushchevki, and they remain an enduring remnant of the former communist state. A controversial plan to knock down Soviet-era apartment blocks, like these dwarfed by modern skyscrapers, has led to an outcry, with many Moscow residents saying the program is a ploy to funnel state funds into construction companies. (Alexander Nemenov / AFP/Getty Images) But now the Rumyantsevs and their neighbors now see their tranquil region under threat, thanks to a government program that aims to tear down more than 4,000 apartment houses in the Russian capital and relocate the residents into newly built apartment blocks. If the government plan goes through, it will be one of the biggest demolition programs in history. Forty-three Khrushchevki buildings in the Rumyantsevs region are on the list for demolition, meaning an entire neighborhood would be nearly flattened for new construction. The Moscow city government says the sweeping urban development plan, which has been backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will replace aging housing and improve the lives of the residents. But Alyona Rumyantsev said she doesnt believe a word of the governments promises. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin devised the tear-down plan not to help the thousands living in dilapidated houses though some of the targeted buildings are in dire shape but to line the government elites pockets with profits from lucrative development contracts, she said. Putin or Sobyanin it doesnt matter who want to change the face of Moscow. But its all just for corruption, the 43-year-old mother of two said. In Europe, they have houses that are older than ours, even 100 years old, and they simply repair them, she said. Why cant they do that to ours, which is only 54 years old and doesnt have any serious problems? Alyona Rumyantsev, in her Moscow apartment, has helped organize opposition against plans to demolish Soviet-era apartment blocks and replace them with modern buildings. (Sabra Ayres / For The Times) Since the plan was announced three months ago, Muscovites like the Rumyantsevs have mobilized on social media and neighborhood groups to organize demonstrations, gather signatures for petitions and swap ideas on how to fight the plan. More than 20,000 people showed up for the first protest on May 14, a huge turnout that shocked the governing elite eager to show progress and prosperity as Russia enters the 2018 election year. A second round of protests was held May 27 and 28 with a smaller but still sizable turnout of several thousand in central Moscow. There are signs that the government might be listening. When the plan was first announced, there were close to 7,900 houses listed for demolition, affecting nearly 10% of Moscows housing stock and 1.6 million people. The government has since edited the list of houses down to 4,000. Meanwhile, many activists remains skeptical of government concessions, viewing them as nothing more than a public relations ploy from the mayors office before next years elections. Before the election, they want to talk to us and promise everything is going to be OK, said Lydia Malysheva, a retired artist who has lived in her two-room apartment for 43 years. As soon as the election is over in 2018, the government wont care about angry voters at risk of losing their homes and for many, their life savings, she said. Weve seen this thing before, we know how it works, Malysheva added. Under the proposed plan, owners of apartments in buildings listed for demolition would be offered compensation for their property either in equal value or in equal square feet for a new apartment in the same region. Opponents of the measure say the projects problems are multifaceted. Many wonder if the government will keep its promise to rehouse them in the same district. Others fear their buildings will be replaced by massive high-rise apartment complexes of poor-quality construction, such as the ones that cropped up on the outskirts of Moscow during a housing boom shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Demonstrators say at the heart of the matter is a government plan that would take away their property without their permission. They want to take away our perfectly good homes so that they can rebuild expensive, elite housing complexes on top of them, said Olga Roslova, whose two-room apartment is about half a mile north of the Rumyantsevs building. From her window, Roslova can see a view of the Moscow Canal, which feeds into the Moscow River. Expensive high-rise apartment buildings have sprung up along the river near her house in recent years, and Roslova said she fears her building will be sacrificed for a riverside development project. In the last several weeks, Roslova has gotten to know the Rumyantsevs and other families through Facebook groups. In May, she began going door to door in her building, collecting signatures to see who favored or opposed the demolition and relocation program. The city government has set up an online survey, and Mayor Sobyanin announced that 88% of the surveys participants voiced support for the project. Olga Roslova, in her Soviet-era apartment building in Moscow, has collected signatures on petitions opposing government plans to tear down such buildings. Her building is not slated for demolition. (Sabra Ayres / For The Times) Meanwhile, the Kremlins Council of Civil Society and Human Rights recommended that the Duma, Russias parliament, postpone or cancel the proposal to add amendments that address concerns of the protesters. The Duma continued to push the law through this month and scheduled a third and final reading for Wednesday, despite continued protests outside the parliament as deputies debated the bill. For many opponents, faith that their activism might lead to results was fading. A lot of people are passive and just dont realize what could happen. They just think theyll get a bigger apartment and arent paying attention, Roslova said. But I shouldnt have to give up my home, my investment, just because one of my neighbors wants a bigger bathroom in a new apartment. Ayres is a special correspondent. Twitter: @sabraayres ALSO Russian authorities arrest opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but protests go forward without him Heres why Vladimir Putin should fear Russias millennials: They bypass state-controlled media In Russia, a green-colored antiseptic becomes a weapon in attacks against opposition activists and journalists Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito pledged Tuesday to devote himself to the role of emperor as his father did when he assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne. I will devote myself body and soul to every single duty, Naruhito said. Japans parliament passed a law last Friday allowing Emperor Akihito to abdicate within three years. Advertisement In August, Akihito indirectly expressed his wish to abdicate, saying his age and health might start limiting his ability to fulfill his duties. No date has been announced, but officials are reportedly considering an abdication at the end of 2018, when Akihito turns 85 and his reign is in its 30th year. Akihito would be the first emperor to abdicate in 200 years. Naruhito said he understands and respects his fathers feelings. While serving many years as a symbol of the people, the emperor has tackled his tasks extremely seriously, taking every one of them close to heart and sincerely seeking out how his ideal role should be, Naruhito said. Naruhito, 57, the emperors eldest son and first in line to the throne, made the comments to journalists ahead of a trip to Denmark marking 150 years of diplomatic ties. Akihito is the first emperor to ascend to the throne with his role defined as the symbol of the people under Japans post-World War II pacifist Constitution. His father, Hirohito, was worshiped as a living god and was the symbol of Japans plans to colonize Asia until he renounced his divinity after Japans defeat. Akihito has attempted to soothe some of the old wounds from the war and has traveled to areas that once were torn by Japans aggression. He has repeatedly said he fully respects his constitutional status as a symbol, and he has brought the once-cloistered imperial family closer to the people. Naruhito said he would follow his fathers example. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson achieved a momentary consensus among Israeli and Palestinian officials but not in the way he may have hoped. Officials in Tel Aviv and the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday denied remarks by Tillerson a day earlier before the U.S. Senate that the Palestinians had agreed to stop a long-standing policy of providing financial support to the relatives of individuals involved in attacks against Israelis. They have changed their policy, Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Their intent is to cease the payments to the family members of those who have committed murder or violence against others. Advertisement But Palestinian officials said payments to relatives of attackers and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel would continue. Support for Palestinian prisoners and families of so-called martyrs enjoys wide consensus among the Palestinian public. Nabil Shaath, an advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Palestinians were surprised by Tillersons remarks. This is not something that the secretary of State should announce. If we want to do it, we will announce it. Giving a concession to the Israelis is not something for the U.S. secretary of State to do, said Shaath, speaking by telephone. This creates a serious problem with our people, to say that. Israeli politicians have recently seized on the payments to argue that Abbas is insincere about pursuing a peace agreement with Israel. In talks with the Palestinians about renewing peace talks, President Trump and U.S. officials have pressed for a change. On a May 23 visit to the West Bank, Trump told reporters, Peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded or rewarded. But on Wednesday, Israeli officials were also flummoxed by Tillersons comments, saying they were unaware of any change. I havent seen any sign that the Palestinian Authority has stopped or plans to stop payments to terrorists or families of terrorists, said Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman in an interview with Israel Radio. We are following this closely. Mitnick is a special correspondent. @joshmitnick The China-Panama Trade Development Office, currently Chinas highest representative office in the country, will be upgraded to a full Chinese embassy. Wang Weihua, permanent representative of the office, disclosed that the embassy will be built in Panama City. Wangs remarks came soon after China and Panama signed a joint communique on the establishment of diplomatic relations on June 13. More staff will be recruited and a new location will be scouted to build a more permanent embassy, Wang said. The Office of China-Panama Trade Development is located in an office building. The resumption of diplomatic ties will bring about positive changes in terms of visa applications, investment and maritime cooperation, benefiting Chinese people and enterprises, Wang said. Cooperation and exchange under the framework of the UN will flourish as well, he added. Sergio Cabral, former governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges and is the latest in the ongoing saga of politcal scandals across Brazil that might feel very familiar to Americans. Cabral served two terms as governor of Rio de Janeiro from 2007 to 2014. Cabral and his right hand man in the state's interior department Wilson Carlo Carvalho were convicted on charges of corruption after it was proven that they recieved bribes from private construction firms in exchange for awarding them pricey government contracts. His arrest was just one of many investigations into government corruption dubbed "Operation Car Wash" that is sending shockwaves through the halls of Brazilian government at the state and national levels. Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office in August 2016 amidst allegations of giving kick backs to her former employers at state-run oil company Petrobras. Rousseff's running mate and current President Michel Temer is currently feeling the heat from the judiciary investigations into corruption. Although Temer is personally not under investigation, almost a third of his administration is. Temer is also denying the existence of a recording of him allegedly bribing a jailed official for his silence in upcoming investigations. Does any of this sound familiar? The political and economic climates in Brazil haven't been looking good and don't seem to be clearing up soon. Rousseff's predecessor former President Lula da Silva will stand trial on corruption charges. Thousands of angry demonstrators marched to Congress in the capital of Brasilia to protest economic reforms that President Temer is endorsing and to demand his resignation amidst a storm of corruption and pay-for-play charges. China Eastern Airlines has been showered in public criticism after tendering a controversial compensation offer for a pet owner whose dog died mysteriously on one of the airline's flights. The dog, a 3-year-old golden retriever, was found dead after a flight from Shenzhen to Wuhan on June 11. According to its owner, surnamed Zuo, the dog appeared to be in extreme pain before its death, tearing up the barbed wire on its cage. The airline has yet to issue any official apology to me. They told me that the compensation will be based on the standard set for luggage, meaning that they can only pay me 100 RMB per kilogram. My dog is 35 kilograms, so they intend to give me 3,500 yuan in compensation. This is emotionally unacceptable to me, as my dog was like my child, Zuo told Thecover.cn in a June 13 interview. This is not the first time China Eastern Airlines has been criticized for its management of animal transportation. In May, an 11-month-old golden retriever on a China Eastern Airlines flight was shot over 50 times by local airport staff after it escaped from its cage and ran free on the apron. Negotiations between me and the airline are not done yet. I will demand an autopsy in order to find out the real cause of my dog's death, said Zuo. In addition to Zuo, the companys compensation plan upset many netizens. The hashtag ChinaEasternAirlinesPayForDeathOfGoldenRetriever on Sina Weibo had garnered over 2 million page views as of press time, with many calling the company inhumane and heartless. In response to the incident and subsequent reactions, Chen Jun, a Beijing-based lawyer, told Thecover.cn that, as the current compensation standard was established in 2006, it is outdated and should be amended. Currently, regulations and laws regarding animal transportation are incomplete in China. Authorities should establish a new law to regulate the industry, Chen said. A total of 45,000 civilian drones in China had been registered under real names by June 12, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) at a June 13 conference. The civil aviation regulator believes that the achievement is satisfactory, and that it will promote better management in the future. Tough measures have been taken to protect registrants information, said Wang Jingling, deputy director general of plane airworthiness under the CAAC. Wang noted that worries over information leaks are absolutely unnecessary. Chinas registration of civilian drones started in May after a total of 326 civil aircraft flights were disrupted by drones. These cases indicated that unregulated civilian drones could pose a threat to the safety of civil aviation. Wang noted that some registrants didnt register with correct personal information. She said that honesty is an essential quality, and called upon registrants to provide the right information. Jun 14, 2017, 12:59pm ET Legislators prepare bill to pave way for autonomous cars The Senate Commerce panel is still gathering input from the industry before announcing specific details. A group of senators has announced plans to draft new federal legislation for autonomous vehicles. Legislators have faced increasing pressure to fast-track changes to federal laws that will allow automakers to sell highly automated and fully self-driving vehicles. A patchwork of state-level regulations has allowed automakers to test autonomous vehicles, however critics argue that the federal government must introduce a common regulatory framework before the technology can be formally commercialized. "Self-driving vehicle technology will have a transformational impact on highway safety," said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, as quoted by The Hill. "These principles underscore our commitment to prioritizing safety, fixing outdated rules, and clarifying the role of federal and state governments." Backed by a bipartisan group of senators that includes Florida's Bill Nelson and Michigan's Gary Peters, the measure is currently short on specifics as the Commerce panel begins to hear comments and opinions from stakeholders. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration already released voluntary guidelines under the Obama administration, but President Trump reportedly plans to amend the recommendations as the rule-making process moves forward. Some disagreement is expected as automakers push for relaxed regulations and safety advocates call for a more cautious approach. In any case, there appears to be a consensus that current regulations are incompatible with autonomous technologies. The Trump administration is expected to release more details of its revised guidance in the coming weeks. Jun 14, 2017, 4:01am ET Report: FCA diesel engines pollute too much The EcoDiesel V6 engine allegedly emits up to 20 times more NOx than it should; Fiat disagrees with the report. The researchers who uncovered Volkswagen's infamous defeat device in 2015 claim Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' EcoDiesel engine exceeds legal emissions levels by up to 20 times. "We saw emissions results in simulated on-road cycles on chassis dynamometers that were much lower than the actual on-road results were, suggesting that the vehicle was controlled in different fashions," Daniel Carder, the director of West Virginia University's Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions, told Automotive News. The tests were carried out on five Ram and Jeep models from the 2014 and 2015 model years. They all emitted between three and 20 times more nitrogen oxide (NOx), according to the report. Unsurprisingly, FCA disagrees with the researcher's conclusion. In a statement, the company asked for more information about how the tests were conducted. "This testing appears to have been commissioned by the plaintiffs' law firm for purposes of litigation," the company added. The statement -- which was sent to Automotive News -- goes on to explain some of the test results were obtained by driving faster than the tests require, and by adding more weight to the vehicle. Testing an engine while it's going faster and pulling more weight will result in increased fuel consumption and emissions. Carder acknowledged the tests were carried out in "more demanding conditions" -- notably on a steep mountain road. However, he insists the results are troublesome. The report comes just a few weeks after the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against FCA over its 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6 engine, which is supplied by VM Motori. The suit claims the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Ram 1500 use an illegal system to pass emissions. Photo by Nat Shirley. Jun 14, 2017, 9:57am ET Toyota considers acquisitions to 'survive' industry changes President Akio Toyoda suggests the automaker must become more aggressive to compete against rivals. Toyota has promised to embrace a more aggressive strategy to retain its position as the automotive industry experiences significant changes. Speaking at the company's annual investor gathering, Toyota chief executive Akio Toyoda acknowledged a need to more quickly prepare for the looming shift toward electric vehicles and autonomous technology. "The auto industry is undergoing big changes, and issues and ideas which we may have thought were far off in the future could affect us tomorrow," he said, as quoted by Reuters. "That's why we need to go on the offensive while also preserving our areas of strength." Toyota, the world's largest automaker, will consider mergers and acquisitions if such investments are deemed critical to "survive in the future," Toyoda says. Other automakers have been teaming with or acquiring Silicon Valley tech companies in recent years. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently cited the coinciding disruption from self-driving technology, electrification and ride-sharing services as the company's primary reason for entering the automotive industry. Toyota has not yet disclosed any potential buyout targets. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe today to get the latest headlines straight to your inbox with our free email updates Details have been revealed of a new 250 room hotel which will play a key part in Leicester's Waterside regeneration plans. The 50 million project will see a 150 room Novotel created alongside a 100 room "aparthotel" for Adagio. Both will create around 60 new jobs. The apartment hotel will offer people longer stay options, with more independence, but with the convenience of staying in a hotel. The complex will go up on derelict land in Vaughan Way, opposite Highcross shopping centre, and between Great Central Street and Highcross Street. Pending planning permission the joint hotel should open in early 2019, and will be built alongside new build offices, a restored former Great Central Railway station and a new public area to be known as Great Central Square. The news comes a couple of days after Leicester Tigers announced further details of plans to build a 22 million, 165 room, five storey hotel on the former Granby Halls site. That hotel, next door to the Welford Road stadium, will also have a fitness suite, restaurant, sky bar and shops. The Vaughan Way hotel and apartments will be run by AccorHotels under a franchise agreement with site developers Charles Street Buildings Group, who will own the buildings. Joseph Murphy, a director of Thurmaston-based Charles Street Buildings, said: "AccorHotels is a highly prestigious international hotel group, whom we are proud to partner with. "This is our first partnership with AccorHotels and the relationship is an important one for us. "As a Leicester-based company we are proud to bring the quality of Novotel and Adagio to our city centre as part of the wider regeneration programme that we are undertaking and the transformation the city is undergoing. "We are proud to partner with Adagio for its 4th UK property. As a Leicester based company we are proud to bring the quality of Adagio to our city centre as part of the wider regeneration programme that we are undertaking and the transformation the city is undergoing." Thomas Dubaere, managing director of AccorHotels UK & Ireland said: "The Novotel network in the UK is showing strong growth, with the signing in Leicester complementing recent announcements in Canary Wharf, Heathrow and Stansted. "We are seeking further growth and our development team is actively seeking new opportunities to add to our portfolio across our brands, particularly in the economy and midscale segments. "The blend of Novotel and Adagio offers guests in Leicester a choice without compromising on quality; a hotel experience in Novotel or the comforts of an apartment style room in Adagio." The Adagio will feature 100 apartments, 70 studios and 30 one bedroom apartments, Karim Malak, Adagio Deputy CEO, commented: "The UK remains our priority market for expansion, following a period of growth in Latin American and the Middle East. "The new property will be our fourth in the UK, following openings in Liverpool, Birmingham and most recently, Edinburgh. The Leicester opening is particularly significant to our business, being the first franchise Adagio to open in the UK. We are in discussion with other partners and sites across the UK with a review to establishing 10 properties in the UK by 2020." It will offer hotel-like services such as 24hr reception, free wifi and housekeeping; kitchen, living and sleeping spaces; inclusive breakfast options; contemporary design; a convenient and comfortable location and tiered pricing offering cheaper deals the longer someone stays. An elderly Limerick man who was allegedly held against his will by his son was located after a member of the public noticed him crying in a car more than 120km from his home. Limerick District Court has heard Jim OConnor (80) was wearing slippers when located by gardai in Co Laois who responded to the 999 call on June 2, last. Food and blankets were also found in the car which was seized by gardai. The pensioner, who is from the city, had been reported missing a number of days earlier by a relative who lives in Boston. James OConnor, aged 40, who has an address at Lord Edward Street, Limerick appeared in court this week charged with falsely imprisoning his father. Opposing bail, Detective Garda Brian Culbert said said it will also be alleged the pensioner, who is now in safe and secure accommodation, was forced to withdraw 7,000 from his credit union account on three separate dates in May and that his son also withdrew his pension from a post office without permission. Gardai believe the alleged injured party was then forced to travel with his son to the midlands and that they stayed at a flat in Mountmellick for up to 12 days. Solicitor Darach McCarthy said his client is entitled to the presumption of innocence and he rejected suggestions he will not stand trial if released. He said he was concerned with some of the detectives evidence describing it as a narrative which was not relevant. The detective accepted the defendant has a fractious relationship with other members of his family. Granting bail subject to the lodgment of substantial independent surety, Judge Larkin imposed a number of restrictions on the defendant. One of the conditions is that Mr OConnor not have any contact with his father or with any potential witnesses in the case. Irish Water Safety has issued a warning to those using Kildares waterways to stay safe this weekend. It issued this advice to minimize the risk of drowning, as the warm weather forecast for the weekend will tempt many people to swim in open waters for the first time this year. Many Kildare people may also travel to beaches across the country and it advises people to swim at lifeguarded waterways. If not lifeguarded, then swim with others, never alone, at recognised traditionally safe bathing areas. As we approach National Water Safety Awareness Week commencing on Monday, we appeal to the public to inform themselves of the dangers and so reduce the chance of drowning tragedies that average five per fortnight get more advice at www.iws.ie, said Irish Water Safety. It urges people to swim within your depth, parallel and close to shore. Supervise children at all times as drownings can happen quickly and silently. In Ireland 30 children have drowned in the past ten years. Never use inflatable toys in open water, or swim out after anything drifting. Never swim in the dark, or late at night or jump into water from heights. Rivers can be dangerous due to currents, hidden hazards and colder water under the surface that can result in hypothermia. 62% of drownings occur inland with 80% of drownings occurring close to the victim's home. Alcohol impairs judgment, balance and coordination - all essential for swimming and boating and avoiding hazards in the water. Almost 30% of drowned victims had consumed alcohol. Wear a lifejacket when on the water, and make sure it has a correctly fitting crotch strap. In Marine Emergencies, call 112 and ask for the coastguard. Funding has been made available to Monasterevin Youth Action Group for their new youth cafe and to finish a substantial renovation of a building in the town. The grant is one of over 120 from the Communities Integration Fund, a 500,000 national fund to promote the integration of migrants into local communities. According to the Census 2016, Monasterevin has seen the fourth largest population expansion in the County of Kildare with a 12.6% rise to 4,896 but services and facilities for young people are almost non-existent in the town. When complete, this Youth Cafe is expected to provide a very necessary place for local young people to go. The move was welcomed by Deputy Fiona OLoughlin: Id like to congratulate Monasterevin Youth Action on their successful application for funding. Local community action is the key to integration. We need to support communities to help foster a sense of belonging among its new migrant members. When this happens, we can all benefit from diversity. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin The Irish Horse Welfare Trust (IHWT) presents Irish Equus a Living History on Sunday July 9th in Blessington, Co.Wicklow. The show is a short 1km farm walk where spectators walk around a series of large storyboards and are told of the Irish horse in mythology, sport, transport, farming and war. Supported by riders in costume, part of this show and tell will include, the Kerry bog pony, Irish hunter, Connemara pony, Clydesdale and Thoroughbred. The IHWT based near Woodenbridge in Wicklow, is Irelands largest Equine welfare charity and was established in 1999 to deal with forgotten horses. They have a dedicated centre that cares for 70-80 horses and also promote the ownership of retired racehorses. Although supported by a small Government grant, the cost of running the centre relies mainly on public donations. Organising the event at Buttercup stables Blessington is Ronan Wilson who had run a history on horseback trek a number of years ago. I was clearing out a shed when I came across the old posters and had the idea it might work as a charity walk. The 90 minute event will have a limited number of 50 tickets available with prices of 10 for children, 20 for Adults or a family ticket for 50. Bookings can be made on line at buttercupstables.ie. 374,372.59 in funding has been announced for 14 projects in Leitrim for Safety Measures and Play Areas under the CLAR Programme as part of the Governments Action Plan for Rural Development. Roscommon will receive 289,555.00 for nine projects, Cavan 288,731.00 for 11 projects; Longford 155,588.06 for seven projects; Sligo 274,650.00 for seven play areas and Donegal 48,480.00 for two. The announcement was made by Michael Ring T.D., Minister of State for Regional Economic Development at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs this morning. Speaking today, Minister Ring said: I am delighted to be in a position to announce 5 million in funding to support schools and communities throughout rural Ireland to improve public safety around their facilities, as well as funding to develop or improve play areas in rural communities. "A diverse ranges of projects will benefit from this funding and will see improvements being made in small towns and villages in and around their schools and community facilities. It is also important that we provide children in isolated rural areas with places where they can play safely and enjoy their childhood. (Xinhua) 18:12, June 14, 2017 PANAMA CITY/BEIJING, June 14 -- China and Panama on Tuesday established formal diplomatic relations in a historic move that will herald a new chapter for comprehensive and mutually beneficial cooperation. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela announced the move in the nationally televised address Monday, saying he is convinced that this is "the correct path" for his country. "The People's Republic of China has always played a relevant role in Panama's economy," he said. China is the second-biggest user of the Panama Canal and the leading provider of merchandise to a free-commerce zone in the Panamanian city of Colon, according to the president. During a press briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Panama is an important Latin American country, and the Chinese people value the traditional friendship with the Panamanian people. He said the political decision made by President Varela and the Panamanian government meets the fundamental interests of the country. "We both agreed that the establishment of bilateral ties will bring broad prospects for us to expand the comprehensive cooperation of mutual benefits," he said. The two sides will engage in friendly exchanges of various levels and areas, and deepen political mutual trust, Wang said, adding that China welcomes Panama's active participation in the Belt and Road Initiative. The establishment of diplomatic relations did not come as a surprise for Wu Hongying, director of the Latin America office of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. "Both the politicians and business people in Panama have witnessed China's increasing influence and regard it as an active and responsible power," Wu said. The establishment of diplomatic ties was also interpreted by some analysts in Panama as a historic move which will open up a promising prospect for the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries. Julio Yao, a professor of international law at the University of Panama, said that the decision has great significance for both Panama and China. During an interview with Xinhua, Yao congratulated the Varela administration for taking the step of establishing diplomatic relations with China, which, he stressed, was not easy. The expert, who helped negotiate the 1977 Panama Canal handover treaty, said that the move can be seen a gesture of independence in the country's diplomatic decision-making. Meanwhile, Yao said that the move opens a wide range of cooperation opportunities between Panama and a major global economic power. "It will give a boost to Panama's trade growth, revenue increase as well as scientific and technological development," Yao said. He believes that China can contribute a lot to Panama's technological innovation, especially as far as the Panama Canal is concerned. "It's a decision, in which Panama has much to gain and nothing to lose," Yao said. Brexit may indeed mean Brexit, though that looks a little less certain these days. But what else does it mean? To answer the question of meaning, you have to delve back into history, especially in a nation where Brussels assumed the peculiar position of Rome in the English psyche in centuries gone by. But there are some truths that are not really communicable in the usual think-tank reports with an executive summary. Sometimes you have to fall back on fiction to help people understand parallels that are actually a good deal stranger. So I have. I have become obsessed with understanding the significance of Brexit in this way, especially the parallels with the 1530s when England went through a sudden withdrawal from mainstream Europe and a parallel selling off of the public service infrastructure (in this case, the monasteries) to the new rich. I have always said that this was likely to be repeated first as tragedy and then as farce, as they say but had not expected it so soon, nor predicted the strange alliance of May and the hardline Ulster protestants who would seek to bring it about. Which is strange, because my Brexit thriller set during the EU referendum and taking place on the Pilgrims Way is just published, and imagines the conspiracy is led by a forgotten quango, still beavering away in the bowels of Whitehall, set up by Thomas Cromwell, and now dedicated to a protestant Brexit. The novel is called The Remains of the Way and is now available in most formats. It is strange that it should be published just as the extreme protestants re-enter government for the first time since the reign of Edward VI. My other recent book Dunkirk also looks at a peculiar Brexit parallel, though much a more recent, and a much more sudden one * David Boyle is a former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and the author of Tickbox (Little, Brown). You can buy the book from Hive or Amazon. The morning after another disastrous General Election for the Liberal Democrats, the partys press office issued a statement which started with the breath-taking words: It has been a good night for the Liberal Democrats. It went on to say: We hoped to hold our ground but instead we have increased our number of MPs by 50%. We welcome back big hitters to our ranks in Jo Swinson, Vince Cable and Ed Davey, who all regained their seats with emphatic majorities. We have won stunning victories in Eastbourne, Bath, Edinburgh West, Caithness and Oxford West & Abingdon. Well yes, and I cheered every one of them. But we lost five of the nine seats we were defending including four which had been held at the calamitous election in 2015. Many more seats that we recently held or which were strong targets fell back badly so that the number of possible winnable seats has shrunk to levels not seen for decades. We lost 375 deposits and it was clear that the basic Liberal Democrat vote in large parts of the country was still close to zero and that the much-vaunted fight-back in many areas had simply not happened at the Westminster level. So lets start again. It was a disastrous night for the Liberal Democrats. The best that can be said is that in an election when the very presence of the party in the House of Commons was in danger, we survived. The increase from eight seats in 2015 to 12 this time is welcome but only gets us back to the position in 1966. The truth is that over much of the country hardly anyone voted for us. The countrywide core vote we had been building up in the first decade of the 2000s has gone and shows no signs of coming back. So whats to be done? Before answering that, we need to recognise a few things that are different now. First, while the toxicity of the Coalition is still there in many places (not least when stirred up by the nasty elements in the Labour Party) it is far less potent than it was two years ago. As time goes by it will fade further. Tuition fees remain the most dangerous thing for us, as we saw again this time, but even that complaint will in the course of time become the preserve of leftwing eccentrics. Second, it is clear that the old Liberal vote has gone for good. There used to be a steady vote of around 10% for any Liberal Democrat candidate in all but the most unfavourable circumstances. That has gone. Our base vote now, in the absence of strong reasons to vote for us which overcome the reasons to vote for other candidates, is 2-3%. That has been clear in Council elections in the past year though the partys publicists (and perhaps too many wishful thinkers in higher reaches in the party) have masked that fact by over-stressing the string of successes where the strong reasons to vote for us test has been achieved. Third, in the absence of favourable conditions, we cannot build our vote in a particular seat in the four or five weeks of an election campaign. We can break through but it needs hard work for many months and years before the election campaign. Its campaigning that builds strength and on that score we are still going backwards. Fourth, people are now more flexible in their political choices than ever before. The movement in this General Election was very real and the overall figures mask ever greater churn within them. The people who are fixed in their votes for a lifetime or even from election to election are fewer than ever. And more and more people will vote for different parties in different kinds of elections even in the same ballot boxes on the same day, or just a few weeks apart as we saw this time in many places. Fifth, each election result (like opinion polls) is no more than a snap-shot in time. The result indicates the views of the people who voted in that area, on that day, at the time they voted. Those views may be deeply held and longstanding; increasingly they may be neither. And while the result in a particular area often has an effect on the conditions in which the next election in that same area takes place, but it is only one factor. Of course the national tide may come in again for us, probably due to circumstances over which we have only reactive control. But tides that come in go out again and sometimes faster. If it does happen, its still important that we are prepared for it. I will explore what we do about all of this in my next piece which will appear tomorrow. * Tony Greaves is a backbench Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. Brexiters claim that 82% of voters supporting the Tories and Labour validated Brexit in last weeks General Election. This has a grain of truth in it. However subsequent polls found issues such as health, the economy, and security were more important to voters. Furthermore, the election marked a return to two party politics in which smaller parties, including ours, were squeezed. A vote for Labour was not necessarily a vote for its ambiguous Brexit stance, but arguably one for hope and an end to Tory austerity. Shielded from many by her two former advisers and campaign managers, yet at the same time vulnerable to Tory ideological Europhobes, Mays closet premiership progressed an empty Hard Brexit. Instead of trying to unite a divided country after the 2016 referendum by reaching out to the 48% voting remain, May divided the country further by progressing a Hard Brexit which few voted for. Fully aware that half of voters wanted to stay in the Single Market and Customs Union as do most businesses, she seemed unbothered about harming the economy for the sake of meeting unrealistic immigration targets which were consistently missed when she was Home Secretary. Businesses could only engage with Government Ministers if they were enthusiastic about Brexits (unknown) opportunities. Her General Election bid for a personal blank cheque on Brexit (and seemingly everything else), possibly along the lines of the Canada-EU deal, left the electorate cold. So last week the people called time on her bunker Brexit. So too it appears has business, her Cabinet, and parliamentarians. A weakened May is now in discussion with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to prop up her minority Government. Meanwhile her Brexit secretary makes contradictory statements saying last Friday that the Government has lost its mandate for leaving the Single Market and Customs Union whilst implying the opposite on Radio 4s Today. However, the DUP wants to avoid a hard Irish border, a demand which appears incompatible with the Tory manifesto pledge to leave the EU customs union. Similarly, the Scottish Conservatives want an open Brexit, which appears to conflict with the Tory manifesto pledge to leave the EU Single Market. The two, with 10 and 13 seats respectively, effectively could each veto a Hard Brexit. But let us not forget the newly emboldened, but hitherto pusillanimous, pro-European Tories. Under the new parliamentary arithmetic, a handful of them could also frustrate Hard Brexit. The renewed prospect of a soft Brexit merits recalling Norways, Switzerlands and even Liechtensteins relations with the EU. As an European Economic Area (EEA) member, Norway has full access to the EU Single Market but must accept all EU policies and rules (except notably fishing and agriculture) and, unlike us, all migrating EU and non-EU nationals. As noted in a 2012 Norwegian Government report: This raises democratic problems as Norway is not represented in (EU) decision-making our form of association with the EU dampens political engagement and debate in Norway and makes it difficult to monitor the Government and hold it accountable in its European policy. Norway also has to contribute to the EU budget. Switzerland, outside the EEA, has an even less advantageous deal. Unlike Norway, the Swiss have to negotiate ad hoc bilateral agreements ad nauseam, adding uncertainty, bureaucracy and cost. Most of Switzerlands financial firms do not enjoy access to the Single Market, so in the past they set up major London operations. The access to the Single Market and EU research funding which Switzerland enjoyed was jeopardised by a 2014 referendum which narrowly rejected free movement. However last December, the Swiss Government was obliged to back down and agreed to continue granting EU nationals the right to work in Switzerland subject to Swiss residents having precedence over foreign applicants. Liechtenstein, another EEA member, has a similar arrangement to Norways pay, no say model. Additionally it enjoys a little known immigration safeguard measure (EEA Protocol 15) allowing exemption from free movement. While the UK is hardly small Liechtenstein, the latters EU arrangement shows there is not inevitably a tradeoff between full Single Market access and immigration control (i.e. we might be able to have our cake and eat it too). Although these countries arrangements fall far short of the best British deal which we currently enjoy as an EU member, a less destructive Brexit now appears possible. If the May government is to survive, it will have to accept a softer Brexit. Mays problem is that some of her 60 ideological Europhobes may not like this. May, or her successor, therefore might have to seek cross-party support for a softer Brexit in Parliament. Lib Dems can therefore still play a meaningful role in moderating, perhaps even burying Brexit. * Nick Hopkinson is chair of the Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG) and former Director, Wilton Park, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. THE CREATION of small pools of jobs in Limerick should never be taken for granted, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has urged, citing the example of Northern Trust. From seedling beginnings in 2007 when the US financial services company opened here with 19 staff, it now employs 1,000 people across its two sites in Limerick at Hamilton House and City East Plaza. This Mondays announcement that the company is to create a further 400 jobs over the next five years is a further sign that the city has shaken off the shackles of its past, he said. Tangible benefits in an economic upswing, such as job creation, produces many more intangible benefits which are much harder to quantify, he outlined. Sometimes the intangible is more important than the tangible. Were proud people again. That sense of Weve all been ruined thats gone now. Theres a buzz out of the place the buzz of confidence, the buzz of morale, and the buzz of We can do it. Thats a great position to be in. The city has a huge future, said Minister Noonan. It was his fourth time being associated with jobs announcements in Northern Trust in recent years, with the IDA creating a record 1,400 jobs in the region in the past 12 months alone. Minister Noonan was presented with a first edition copy of Early Irish Laws and Institutions by Eoin MacNeill, the first Minister for Finance in the State in 1919, on behalf of the company. Minister for Jobs, Innovation & Enterprise, Mary Mitchell OConnor, said 400 lives and families will be positively impacted by the announcement. Clive Bellows, country head of Northern Trust, Ireland, said the creation of these jobs underlines Northern Trusts commitment to Ireland. We have seen growth in the scale and operation of our Irish business over the years and the continued expansion of our office in Limerick reflect this, said Mr Bellows, who acknowledged the support of IDA Ireland, the University of Limerick and the Limerick Institute of Technology. He said half their staff are graduates of those two institutions, and it was due to their presence that they chose Limerick as one of their main bases. Martin Shanahan, head of IDA Ireland, said the companys commitment to Limerick and the country has been exemplary. Labour deputy Jan OSullivan said this jobs boost is another welcome vote of confidence in Limerick. At a time when people are worried about a concentration of new jobs on the east coast, it is most welcome to see a big boost like this for Limerick over the next five years, said deputy OSullivan. Sinn Fein deputy Maurice Quinlivan said the announcement by Northern Trust shows that Limerick is a fantastic city in which to do business and highlights the potential of the city and the region to become a hub for global companies looking for an Irish location. The Mayor of the City and County of Limerick, Kieran OHanlon, praised the company for constantly expanding its operations in the Limerick city region. A NUMBER of banks have refused to install automatic teller machines at University Hospital Limerick due to the footfall levels at the Dooradoyle campus, the Limerick Leader has learned. The hospital does not have an ATM on site, despite numerous requests from members of the public, patient representatives and staff to install one. According to minutes of a patients council meeting in February, received by the Chronicle under freedom of information legislation, AIB was one bank that refused to install a machine. Declan McNamara, UHL, confirmed that negotiations were underway with other providers at the time. A spokesperson for the UL Hospitals Group said that it has made representations to a number of banks. However, feedback from them is that footfall within the hospital is not at a level to justify the costs of installation and ongoing management, she said. During the launch of the hospitals new emergency department, CEO Colette Cowan said that at least 2,000 people walk through the hospital every day. That amounts to at least 730,000 people using the hospital space every year, excluding visitors and staff members. The spokesperson added: There are two ATMs within walking distances of the hospital and the hospital shop located at the entrance to the main reception offers customers cash back. The purpose of the patients council is to establish a group of people who have an interest in the hospital group, to plan and advise on improving services for patients and families who use any of the six hospitals across the Group. The council convened its first meeting on April 5, 2016, and sees an average attendance of 10 people. At least two people, since April 2016, have resigned from the council committee. FORMER Limerick Person of the Year Richard Lynch was honoured with a mayoral reception at City Hall in recognition of his years of promoting Limerick. The ceremony, which took place at Merchants Quay last Thursday evening, celebrated the popular presenter, actor and Limerick Chronicle columnist's work as owner of the well-known I Love Limerick website. Praising Richards work, Mayor of Limerick city and county, Cllr Kieran OHanlon said that Richard does a lot of work for a lot of communities in Limerick and he only puts out positive news because he loves Limerick and we all love Limerick. Richard has been the driving force behind the I Love Limerick website since it was set up in 2008. The site was first used to promote the Limerick Pride Festival, in which he has been involved since 2008. Richard is the son of the late Eric and Florence Lynch, who were proprietors of the legendary singsong house Erics Pub on St Joseph Street. The local actor said that he was very honoured to be recognised by his home city. And speaking on the success of I Love Limerick, he said: It developed into a community website dedicated to reporting and promoting positive news about Limerick people, communities, charities and events. "I Love Limerick was set up to help people, to give people a platform that normally wouldnt have one. I started the project in an effort to counteract the negative press Limerick was getting in the national media at the time; little did I know the adventure I was undertaking. I have been so blessed to meet so many incredible people, to work with so much talent and to given the chance to make a difference and do something positive. He added money and fame never motivated his work, and that the emotional payback from the work is immeasurable. I do love Limerick. Its been so good to me and the people inspire me everyday. All the hard work has been worth it and I would do it all over again. Limerick is really about the people who make up this great city and county. A MAN accused of falsely imprisoning his elderly father and forcing him to withdraw thousands of euro from his credit union account has been granted bail despite a garda objection. James OConnor, aged 40, who has an address at Lord Edward Street faces multiple charges relating to incidents which are alleged to have happened in recent weeks. Opposing bail, Detective Garda Brian Culbert said gardai received a missing persons report in relation to Jim OConnor on May 25 last and that the 80-year-old was located in County Laois a number of days later. He said gardai were alerted after a member of the public rang 999 after they observed him crying in a car while appearing to be held against his will. Det Garda Culbert said it will be alleged that Jim OConnor, who is now in safe and secure accommodation, was forced to withdraw 7,000 from his credit union account and that his son also withdrew his pension from a post office in the city without his permission. Judge Mary Larkin was told CCTV footage has been obtained as part of the investigation and that a number of witness statements have also been taken. Solicitor Darach McCarthy said his client is entitled to the presumption of innocence and he rejected suggestions Mr OConnor will not stand trial if released. He said he was concerned with some of Det Garda Culberts evidence describing it as a narrative which was not relevant. Cross-examined by Mr McCarthy, the detective accepted the defendant has a fractious relationship with other members of his family. Granting bail subject to the lodgment of substantial independent surety, Judge Larkin imposed a number of restrictions on the defendant. He must live at his home address, obey a nightly curfew and sign-on daily at Henry Street garda station. Mr OConnor was also ordered not have any contact with his father or any potential witnesses in the case. As a file is to be be prepared for the DPP, the matter was adjourned to June 27, next. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to our free email alerts for the top daily stories sent straight to your e-mail Archaeologists expect to reveal some spectacular finds during a five-month dig along the 40-mile route of the Triton Knoll onshore power cable. Lincoln-based Allen Archaeology has won a 500,000 contract which involves three of its mobile teams digging 270 trial trenches in the countryside between Mogg's Eye on the coast to Bicker Fen, near Boston. Exciting evidence of ancient salt production, changing coastline, and the wool trade that made medieval Lincolnshire rich could be found hidden beneath the modern fenland fields. Mike Wood, project manager at Allen Archaeology, the company that discovered medieval pottery and buildings under the old bus station in Lincoln, said: "We cannot go too much into specifics yet, but over such a long route you are looking at their being some big hits and I expect we will find some sites. "You have to remember that the sea level has changed a lot. "In the late Iron Age/early Roman period, you will have had salt making sites. "Then sea levels dropped and the Romans would have had some large farmsteads out there. "In the medieval era there would have been lots of sheep and monastic farms - all of the things connected to the wool trade that brought Lincolnshire a lot of money." A series of non-intrusive geophysical surveys have been done to inform where to dig, with the co-operation of landowners and councils. The trenches will be about 2m wide and up to 50m long. Triton Knolls cable system will transmit electricity generated from its offshore wind farm off the Lincolnshire coast in the North Sea all the way to the National Grid substation at Bicker Fen. Mr Wood said Allen Archaeology's Triton Knoll team is being drawn from its 40-strong workforce. He said: "Triton Knoll is certainly a major contract for us. Its local, in an exciting and dynamic landscape, and just the kind of work that we feel we should be involved in. Were increasingly adopting the 'grow our own' principle, and placing new locally selected recruits through our award winning training programme, to become our archaeologists of the future. "The contract with Triton Knoll provides security of future business and means we can be confident in continuing with this approach. The dig starts later this month and sites include the landfall location, the onshore substation and intermediate electrical compound sites. The results will ensure important archaeological sites can be sensitively managed during future constructions works. Triton Knoll project director James Cotter said: Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm is a hugely important clean energy infrastructure project for the UK, and will make a significant contribution towards the Governments drive for sustainable, low cost electricity for UK consumers and businesses. This latest round of survey works will be our most significant onshore activity to date. "Im delighted that weve been able to appoint local firm Allen Archaeology to carry out this vital work. "We hope to be celebrating even more successes for local firms in future. Lincolnshire County Councils executive councillor for economy and place, Cllr Colin Davie said he was pleased that local firms were benefitting from the wind farm development. He said: "Congratulations to Allen Archaeology on winning this major contract. "It's only right that Lincolnshire businesses are the ones to reap the economic benefits of this development. Hopefully, this is just the first of many such success stories. Since the Government has consented to this major planning application, I'd encourage any firm that believes it could play a role in the development to register its interest in the project." Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to our free email alerts for the top daily stories sent straight to your e-mail The Royal Netherlands Air Force is sending two of its F-16 Fighting Falcons to join an international line-up of attractions at the forthcoming Scampton Airshow. The fast jets will be joining the Canadian CF-18 in the static park, and there will be flying displays of Belgian F-16s, French Alpha Jets, the Typhoon and the Red Arrows. One of the original European customers for the F-16 in the 1970s, the Netherlands now operates a much smaller fleet of Fighting Falcons than was the case during the Cold War. Two squadrons each at Volkel and Leeuwarden operate the Royal Netherlands Air Force's F-16s. As well the an exhilarating five hour flying display, Scampton Airshow will give visitors the unique chance to walk among the aircraft in the static park and meet crews from around the world. Paul Sall, airshow director, said: "With the Canadian Air Force sending the CF-18 and now the Netherlands and their F-16 Fighting Falcons, the static line up is shaping up to be something very special." Advance tickets are available at www.scamptonairshow.com Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to our free email alerts for the top daily stories sent straight to your e-mail A Misterton tattoo parlour inked 22 worker bee tattoos to raise money for the victims of the Manchester terror attack. Staff at Anarchy Ink in Misterton along with a team of helpers collecting from passers-by managed to raise 1552 for the cause. The Manchester worker bee has become a symbol of solidarity since the attack, with thousands of people in the UK having the design tattooed to pay tribute to all those affected by the attack. Owner Barbara Langton said on facebook on June 11: "A massive massive thankyou to everyone that helped all day today from 10am-7.30pm i managed 22 tattoos with the help of my fabulas crew!! "Julie Elizabeth, Ann Douglas, Kay Morley, Lisa Woollas, Steph Moore, Sarah Bingham and the unforgettable Elyce Myfanwy Fitton. We managed a whopping 1552. "Thank you so much to everyone who has donated especially Brian Cooper and Elaine Cooper who donated 100." Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Guarantee you'll never miss another big story by signing up for our free email updates New augmented reality experience is set to bring heritage to life at Lincoln Cathedral. Lincoln is one of 12 of Englands historic cities which have collaborated to develop an innovative augmented reality (AR) product. The ground-breaking experience consists of an app and videos which transport the user back in time to unveil the hidden lives of some of historys most fascinating characters at Lincoln Cathedral. Joel Murray, digital marketing coordinator at Visit Lincoln said: The premise of the app is to capture significant historic moments in time whilst providing visitors the opportunity to explore Englands most historic cities. It uses cutting-edge technology to give the historical moments a fresh perspective and make historys fascinating characters come to life. It is set to transform Lincoln Cathedrals appeal by introducing it to a new, more technologically motivated and younger audiences. The app will also encourage return visitors by offering them the chance to experience Lincoln Cathedral in a different way. In a rapidly changing and competitive tourist environment, the use of AR technology will offer a point of difference that will attract visitors and showcase the best of the city. For 249 years, Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building on Earth, and it remains a towering example of English heritage to this day. The app will enable visitors to explore the many hidden secrets of this stunning structure and set out on a marvellous voyage from skyscrapers to seabeds. Guided by Lincolnshire hero Joseph Banks, users will learn about Banks favourite view in the Cathedral, hear the legend of the famous Lincoln Imp, explore Englands most beautiful room, and be transported up into the high rafters of the Cathedral usually only accessible on Roof Tours. Not only does the app bring the Cathedrals history to life in a new and innovative way, but it gives access to areas often off limits or inaccessible for some visitors. Jackie Croft, Chapter Clerk at Lincoln Cathedral, said: Lincoln Cathedral was built to inspire and this app enables everybody to experience Lincoln Cathedral as never before. The stories told and the views shown are sure to inform and excite in equal measure. We look forward to welcoming you! Englands Heritage Cities cover the length and breadth of England, from Canterbury to Durham and Salisbury to Carlisle. They offer diverse experiences and all of them are well-connected via rail, making it easy for tourists to travel to more than one at a time. The app Englands Historic Cities is available to download for free in google play and on the app store or at www.historic-cities.com/stories The exciting new project is one of a number of projects to benefit from the by the 40 million Discover England Fund - a central government funded programme of activity administered by VisitEngland supported by match-funding from private and public partners. Have a look at the new technology by watching this video by Visit Lincoln. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Our free email updates are the best way to get headlines direct to your inbox The walls and floors of a disabled mans house were covered in blood after he was allegedly killed by his pensioner neighbour, a jury has heard. Vidmantas Svedarauskas was drinking with his alleged victim Manfred Jaedke, 61, at Mr Jaedke's bungalow in Porcher Way, Boston. Christopher Donnellan, prosecuting, told the jury at Lincoln Crown Court that Mr Jaedke, a German national, used a wheelchair after having a leg amputated. His death in July 2016 occurred just three months after he suffered a stroke which weakened his left side. Mr Donnellan said "On the night of July 7 - 8 last year Manfred Jaedke was subjected to a sustained assault whilst in his own home. He suffered injuries from which he died. "The person who repeatedly hit him was the defendant Vidmantas Svedarauskas who was one of his neighbours. "The sustained attack and the vulnerability of Manfred meant that he bled easily. The combination of these blows, and repeated blows, indicate that the defendant at the time of inflicting those injuries intended at the very least to cause really serious injury or to kill. "We may never know what sparked this episode of violence. It came at the end of an evening in which none of the neighbours had seen any trouble between the two men but we do know they had been spending the evening sharing a drink." Mr Donnellan added: "On any view Manfred was a vulnerable person. He kept his house very neat and had assistance from his neighbours. Manfred was not a regular drinker. He had never been seen drunk. He didn't have any enemies." Mr Jaedke's body was found inside his home when his neighbour Georgina Haw called to see him after he failed to respond to text messages. Mr Donnellan said "She went inside and saw him lying on the floor. "There was blood everywhere and he was clearly dead. She came out and called the emergency services." Paramedics who arrived at the scene believed Mr Jaedke had been dead for some hours. The prosecutor said "The room was a bit of a mess. Many items were strewn on the floor. The walls had blood on them. "There was a significant amount of blood in the lounge but blood was also found in the bathroom. It was found on the hallway floor and it was found in the bedroom. It was on the bedsheets and on a jacket belonging to the defendant. That was covered in the blood of the deceased" Mr Donnellan told the jury that that after Mr Jaedke died his body was then moved by Svedarauskas to the position where he was found. Svedarauskas, who lived across a grassed area from Mr Jaedke, was arrested by police. The tee-shirt he was wearing had blood stains on it. His shirt and jogging bottoms were also blood-stained. Mr Donnellan said that Svedarauskas carried out the fatal attack. He told the jury "No-one saw the assault. Nobody knows why it started. The precise nature of it is not known but the number of injuries he had are far too many for him to have received them accidentally." Vidmantas Svedarauskas, 67, of Porcher Way, Boston, denies the murder of Manfred Jaedke between July 6 and 9, 2016. He also denies a second charge of the manslaughter of Mr Jaedke. The trial continues. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to our free email alerts for the top daily stories sent straight to your e-mail Thieves have taken a number of expensive items from 20 cars in Grantham in the space of a week. Items taken include an Ipod, Ray-ban sunglasses, wallets, cash, laptops and video cameras. The thefts have prompted police to issue a warning to residents to make sure they are properly securing their vehicles. A number of the vehicles targeted during the raids between June 6 and June 13, were not locked and thieves simply opened a door. Other items taken include keys, paperwork, tools, drills, a coat and even a lighter. During the same period entry was only forced to one vehicle a Volkswagen Transporter had tools stolen from it. Gary Stewart, Inspector for Grantham, says: If you leave your car or van unlocked your vehicle is a sitting-duck for thieves who will rummage around for literally anything of value and sometimes they will take trivial items too. Thefts of this nature are incredibly frustrating for the victims and for our officers investigating as they can be simply avoided. Please check your vehicles are always locked and remove anything that could make you a target it isnt worth taking a chance as you could become the next victim. If you have seen suspicious activity or have been a victim of this crime please call 101. For help and advice about vehicle security see here. We have more newsletters Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Our free email updates are the best way to get headlines direct to your inbox A road has been closed in Boston following a crash between three vehicles. The A1121 at Boardsides is currently blocked and traffic is slow due to the incident. The smash happened at B1192 at the Langrick Road junction. (Image: Google) Traffic reports say the road is closed near the level crossing. The BBC is reporting the crash as severe. It is not yet known if anyone was injured in the incident. This comes after a three-vehicle crash yesterday, Tuesday, June 13 just before 9.15pm. Firefighters scrambled to High Street in Holbeach where they gave oxygen to two casualties. Reports on social media claimed the crash took place at the Holbeach traffic lights and that all junctions were closed off. We have more newsletters Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Never miss a Skeggy story and read the latest headlines with our free email updates A 29-year-old woman is to appear in court charged with maliciously wounding a man who lost his eye. Amy Coleman, of Mel Marshall Way, Wrangle, will appear at Boston Magistrates Court charged with maliciously wounding Carl Benham with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. She will appear at the court at 10am on Wednesday, June 14. The 30-year-old victim, Carl Benham, was allegedly assaulted with the glass at the Marine Boathouse pub, Lumley Road, Skegness, just after 11pm on February 25 and rushed to hospital. He was treated at Boston Pilgrim Hospital but his eye couldn't be saved. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. (Xinhua) 18:48, June 14, 2017 TAIPEI, June 14 -- Hung Hsiu-chu, the incumbent Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman, announced on Wednesday that she would step down as party chief by the end of June to guarantee a smooth transition within the party. At Wednesday's meeting of the KMT Central Standing Committee, Hung said KMT Vice Chairman Lin Junq-tzer will hold the post of acting chairman from July 1 to Aug. 20, when Wu Den-yih is scheduled to take office as the party chief. Hung was elected as the KMT's first female leader in March 2016, but lost the KMT chairmanship election last month to Wu, who won the election on May 20 by garnering more than 52 percent of all valid votes. (Xinhua) 19:20, June 14, 2017 LONDON, June 14 -- At least six people were killed in a massive fire that engulfed a 27-story apartment building in west London early Wednesday, police said Wednesday. Around 30 people were taken to hospital, said London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton. The cause of the fire is unknown at the time. One side of the building was totally blackened, with heavy smoke billowing into the air. Naked flames have been extinguished. Xinhua correspondent at the scene said he could smell a burning odor as a police copter was hovering above. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared the fire a "major incident." A local resident who called herself Saha told local radio that she woke up at around 1:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT), because of the sounds of sirens and people shouting for help. "We came outside and we just saw that half of the building was in flames and it was slowly seeping up the other side and there were people signalling their lights on and off," she said. The Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate, built in the 1970s and renovated several times, contains 120 homes. It is feared that many have been trapped inside the blazing building, as the fire broke out on early Wednesday. Local reports cited witnesses as saying that they saw people jumping from the building to escape the fire, and they heard screams for help. Other eyewitnesses said there have been fears the residential building could collapse. The London Ambulance Service said earlier that it sent "a number of resources." Currently, there are 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters tackling the fire. London Ambulances' hazardous environments team has also rushed to the scene. The Metropolitan Police have closed major road A40 and asked people to avoid the area, so as to allow emergency services to get to the scene. Police received report of the fire at the building at 1:16 a.m. local time (0016 GMT). The Grenfell Action Group has posted an entry on its blog this morning, stating that it has previously raised concerns about fire safety at the tower block. "Regular readers of this blog will know that we have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in (the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea)." Although the cause of the fire is not yet clear, some residents have pointed to plastic cladding, which can be found on the ground, as a possible cause. Claims have also emerged online that residents at the tower block had been warned last year that their building had a risk of fire. The building underwent a 10 million-pound refurbishment as part of a wider transformation of the estate last year. An interviewee told local radio that the fire started at the fourth floor, but the smoke alarms had not gone off. China to set up pilot zones for green finance (Xinhua) 20:20, June 14, 2017 BEIJING, June 14 -- China's State Council, the cabinet, on Wednesday announced its decision to set up pilot zones for green finance to support its industrial upgrading. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: First Vice Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ziyafet Asgarov has said he does not expect positive results from the upcoming visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the South Caucasus region. The OSCE Minsk Group refuses to take responsibility for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, making the conflict sides liable, he told reporters in Baku June 14. Mediators always say that the conflict sides should come to an agreement themselves and only offer their support, according to him. Asgarov noted that if Azerbaijan and Armenia could come to an agreement by themselves, there would be no need for the Minsk Group. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs should clearly point to Armenia as an aggressor country and demand that it leaves the Azerbaijani territories it occupied, he added. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Shaking off a cool streak that included scattered showers, fog and rare thunderstorms, the Bay Area is expected to heat up this week with temperatures approaching the century mark in some inland areas, forecasters said Monday. It should get downright hot in East Bay cities such as Livermore and Concord with a high of 96 degrees forecast for Friday, said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Monterey. Even as Wells Fargo was reeling from a major scandal in its consumer bank last year, officials in the companys mortgage business were putting through unauthorized changes to home loans held by customers in bankruptcy, a new class action and other lawsuits contend. The changes, which surprised the customers, typically lowered their monthly loan payments, which would seem to benefit borrowers, particularly those in bankruptcy. But deep in the details was this fact: Wells Fargos changes would extend the terms of borrowers loans by decades, meaning they would have monthly payments for far longer and would ultimately owe the bank much more. ALSO: Wells Fargo may have opened as many as 3.5 million unauthorized accounts (story continues below): Any change to a payment plan for a person in bankruptcy is subject to approval by the court and the other parties involved. But Wells Fargo put through big changes to the home loans without such approval, according to the lawsuits. The changes are part of a trial loan modification process from Wells Fargo. But they put borrowers in bankruptcy at risk of defaulting on the commitments they have made to the courts, and could make them vulnerable to foreclosure in the future. A spokesman for Wells Fargo, Tom Goyda, said the bank strongly denied the claims made in the lawsuits and particularly disputed how the complaints characterized the banks actions. Wells Fargo contends that the borrowers agreed to the changes and the bankruptcy courts were notified. Modifications help customers stay in their homes when they encounter financial challenges, Goyda said, and we have used them to help more than 1 million families since the beginning of 2009. According to court documents, Wells Fargo has been putting through unrequested changes to borrowers loans since 2015. During this period, the bank was under attack for its practice of opening unwanted bank and credit card accounts for customers to meet sales quotas. Outrage over that activity which the bank admitted in September 2016, when it was fined $185 million cost John G. Stumpf, its former chief executive, his job and damaged the banks reputation. It is unclear how many unsolicited loan changes Wells Fargo has put through nationwide, but seven cases describing the conduct have recently arisen in Texas, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. In the North Carolina court, Wells Fargo produced records showing it had submitted changes on at least 25 borrowers loans since 2015. Bankruptcy judges in North Carolina and Pennsylvania have admonished the bank over the practice, according to the class-action lawsuit filed last week. One judge called the practice beyond the pale of due process. The lawsuits contend that Wells Fargo puts through changes on borrowers loans using a routine form that typically records new real estate taxes or homeowners insurance costs that are folded into monthly mortgage payments. Upon receiving these forms, bankruptcy court workers usually put the changes into effect without questioning them. It is unclear why the bank would put through such changes. On one hand, Wells Fargo stood to profit from the new loan terms it set forth, and, under programs designed to encourage loan modifications for troubled borrowers, the bank receives as much as $1,600 from government programs for every such loan it adjusts, the class-action lawsuit said. But submitting the changes without approval violates bankruptcy rules and puts the bank at risk of court sanctions and federal scrutiny. When a lawyer for a borrower has questioned the changes, Wells Fargo has reversed them. Abelardo Limon Jr., a lawyer in Brownsville, who represents some of the plaintiffs, said he first thought Wells Fargo had made a clerical error. Then he saw another case. When I realized it was a pattern of filing false documents with the federal court, that was appalling to me, Limon said in an interview. The unauthorized loan modifications really cause havoc to a debtors reorganization, he said. Limon represents Ignacio and Gabriela Perez of Brownsville, who say Wells Fargo put through an improper change to their payment plan last year. After experiencing financial difficulties, the Perezes filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in August 2016. They owed about $54,000 on their home at the time, and had fallen behind on the mortgage by $2,177. The value of their home was $95,317, records show, so they had substantial equity. In September, the Perezes filed a payment plan with the bankruptcy court in Brownsville; the trustee overseeing the process ordered a confirmation hearing on the plan for early November. But in a letter to the Perezes dated Oct. 10, Wells Fargo said their loan was seriously delinquent and offered them a trial loan modification. Time is of the essence, the letter stated. Act now to avoid foreclosure. Because they were going through bankruptcy, the Perezes were not under any threat of foreclosure. Ignacio Perez said in an interview that the letter worried him, so he asked his lawyer to investigate. Then, on Oct. 28, 2016, DeMarcus Jones, identified in court papers as VP Loan Documentation at Wells Fargo, filed a notice of mortgage payment change with the bankruptcy court. It said the Perezes new monthly payment would be $663.15, down from $1,019.03. In the notice, the bank explained that the reduction was a Payment change resulting from an approved trial modification agreement. The changes had not been approved by the Perezes, their lawyer or the bankruptcy court, their complaint said. Although the monthly payment Wells Fargo had listed for the Perezes was lower, there was a catch. The Perezes had been scheduled to pay off their mortgage in nine years, but the loan terms from Wells Fargo extended it to 40 years. The Perezes would owe the bank an extra $40,000 in interest, the legal filing said. I thought that I was totally crazy, or they were totally crazy, Ignacio Perez said. I am 58, in what mind could they think I would agree to extend my mortgage 40 years more? I dont understand much maybe, but it doesnt sound legal to me. Limon quickly fought the changes. If he had not, the Perezes could have faced further complications. The new Wells Fargo payments were so much less than the payments the Perezes had submitted to the bankruptcy court that if the trustee had started making the new payments with no court approval, the Perezes would have emerged at the end of their bankruptcy plan owing the difference between the amounts. The Perezes would be unwittingly in arrears, and the bank could begin foreclosure proceedings if they were unable to make up the difference. This is not the first time Wells Fargo has been accused of wrongdoing related to payment change notices on mortgages that it filed with the bankruptcy courts. Under a settlement with the Justice Department in November 2015, the bank agreed to pay $81.6 million to borrowers in bankruptcy whom it had failed to notify on time when their monthly payments shifted to reflect different real estate taxes or insurance costs. That settlement in which the bank also agreed to change its internal procedures to prevent future violations affected 68,000 homeowners. Borrowers having financial difficulties often file for personal bankruptcy to save their homes, working out payment plans with creditors and the courts to bring their loans current in a set period. If the borrowers meet their obligations over that time, they emerge from bankruptcy with clean slates and their homes intact. Changing these payment plans without the approval of the judge and other parties can imperil borrowers standing with the bankruptcy courts. In the class-action lawsuit filed last week, the lead plaintiffs are a couple in North Carolina who say that Wells Fargo submitted three changes to their payment plan in 2016 without approval. The first time, Wells Fargo put through the changes without alerting them, according to the couple, Christopher Dee Cotton and Allison Hedrick Cotton. The Cottons monthly payments declined with every change, dropping to $1,251 from $1,404. Buried deep in the documents Wells Fargo filed but did not get approved by the borrowers, their lawyers or the court was the news that the bank would extend the Cottons loan to 40 years, increasing the amount of interest they would have to pay. Before the changes, the Cottons owed roughly $145,000 on their mortgage and were on schedule to pay off the loan in 14 years. Over that period, their interest would total $55,593. Under the new loan terms, the Cottons would have incurred $85,000 in interest costs over the extended period, on top of the $55,593 they would have paid under the existing loan, their court filing shows. Theodore O. Bartholow III, a lawyer for the Cottons, said Wells Fargos actions contravened the intent of the bankruptcy system. When it goes the right way, the debtor and mortgage company agree to do a modification, go to court and say, Hey judge, modify or change the disbursement on my mortgage. Instead, Wells Fargo did a total end run around the process, said Bartholow, of Kellett & Bartholow in Dallas. The Cottons declined to comment. Goyda, the Wells Fargo spokesman, denied that the bank had not notified borrowers. The terms of these modification offers were clearly outlined in letters sent to the customers and/or to their attorneys, and as part of the Payment Change Notices sent to the bankruptcy courts, he wrote by email. Goyda said that such notices are not part of the loan modification package, or part of the documentation required for the customer to accept or decline modification offers. He added, We do not finalize a modification without receiving signed documents from the customer and, where required, approval from the bankruptcy court. Limon and other lawyers say that while the bank may wait for approval to complete a modification, it has nevertheless put through unapproved changes to borrowers payment plans. According to a complaint he filed on behalf of clients in Texas, instead of going through the proper channels to try to modify a loan, Wells Fargo filed the routine payment change notification. The clients also accuse the bank of making false claims by contending that the borrowers had requested or approved the loan modifications. In many cases, the trustees who handle payments on behalf of consumers in bankruptcy would accept the changes Wells Fargo had submitted on the assumption they had been properly approved. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: Azerbaijan expects more serious work from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs for reaching a fair decision as they will visit the region, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov told reporters in Baku June 14. He noted that the Minsk Group should not consider its mission accomplished by paying visits to the region. The OSCE Minsk Group members have long been carrying out activities, but no proper steps have been taken to find a fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Ahmadov. They carry out certain work and I dont want to give an unfair assessment to their activities. However, the main work to resolve the conflict and improve the lives of IDPs has not been done. Azerbaijani lands have not been liberated and the conditions for the return of our compatriots to their homes have not been created, he said, adding this is what Azerbaijan expects from the OSCE Minsk Group. Ahmadov added that the unresolved conflict increases tension in the region. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Brett Coomer/Staff After more than a year of legal proceedings, the owner and developer of the downtown tract that formerly housed the Houston Chronicle's main offices is suing an adjacent property owner over the cost of building a "cocoon" around its basement during demolition in order to provide court-ordered protection for underground facilities. The dispute began not long after the Chronicle building at 801 Texas was sold and developer Hines announced plans to tear it down. In April 2016, the owners of the city block southwest of Market Square Park sued Hines and the new owner of 801 Texas, Block 58 Investors. Chronicle parent company Hearst Newspapers also was named as a defendant. A House Among the Trees By Julia Glass Pantheon. 352 pp. $27.95 --- Is it possible for an author to be too generous to her characters? That question arises during the course of Julia Glass' latest novel, "A House Among the Trees," in which a broad cross-sampling of artists, eccentrics and strivers all come knocking at our door, demanding our attention. At their center lies Mort Lear, a revered children's book author and illustrator, "the King of Kid Lit," who has been living in prosperous seclusion on seven acres of prime Connecticut real estate. (His name evokes both Shakespeare's king and the great artist/nonsense poet Edward Lear, but his sexuality and sensibility suggest Maurice Sendak.) Over the past three decades, Mort had been trapped somewhere "between solitude and celebrity," and, thanks to his recent and untimely death, he has left behind a big mess of mysteries and broken promises - and three people gyring in his wake: the spinsterish caretaker charged with keeping Mort's life in order, the hyperstressed museum curator with designs on Mort's artistic corpus, and the handsome Oscar-winning British actor who will (implausibly) be playing Mort in an upcoming major motion picture. With each of these characters, Glass does just what a generous author should do. She unfolds backstories; she demarcates key traumas; she recapitulates thoughts. For company, she also throws in ancillary fauna: a brutish chauffeur and a legendary movie director and a legendary actress and a forgotten actress and a dying mum and a dead mom and a stage mom and a creepy landscaper and Mort's long-dead lover and Mort's original model and an accountant and a blackmailer. It should all be confusing, but because Glass is a pro, the trains keep running, and we wait to see what happens when her three co-protagonists all converge on Mort's estate with their private agendas. If you're expecting fireworks or farce - something on the order of "Smiles of a Summer Night" or even "Wonder Boys" - this isn't that book. By now, a shrewd reader has already grasped that the biopic of Mort will be made, regardless of anything that happens, that the actor will return to his fabulously successful career (will it be the Stoppard next or the Ayckbourn?), that the art curator will likely keep her job, and that the caretaker will have more than enough money to get on with her life. In the absence of narrative tension, then, we are left with this thresh of rival perspectives, all generously delivered in the same third-person omniscient. And we are reminded that, like St. Peter, we sit at the pearly gates of our own tastes, deciding (in the absence of clear direction) whom we want to spend our time with. This was a danger Glass flirted with even in her charming and justly praised "Three Junes," which won a National Book Award for fiction in 2002. And the danger is even greater in "A House Among the Trees," which gives up a lot of white space to that caretaker, although she never shakes off the drabness of her conception. As for the actor, he seems to drag Glass out of her comfort zone - New York geography, the covalent bonds of gay men and straight women - into some nebulous showbiz world where "biopics of living geniuses are all the rage now" and actors subsist in a "cyclone of parties and awards and talk shows and photo shoots and more parties" while feeling "far from home, far from certain, far from any sort of lasting love." And now I zig in the other direction to declare my sincere fondness for Meredith, the 39-year-old curator whose marriage has been "shipwrecked on the shoals of infertility angst," whose apartment has been "stripped of rent stabilization (what is stable anymore?)" and who is "careening perilously toward a size twelve, wondering if it's time to stop coloring her hair and whether, if she does, she'll luck into that stately shade of chrome, the one you picture whenever you hear someone - though is it ever a woman? - described as an eminence grise." Meredith worries more than once about being an urban cliche, but even if she is, and even if she belongs in some other, more rigorous novel, hers is a thread I wouldn't mind following out to its full length. --- Bayard is a novelist and reviewer. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center 5601 S. Braeswood; erjcchouston.org HOW TO RE-ESTABLISH A VODKA EMPIRE: Dan Edelstyn tracks down his lost Jewish Ukrainian heritage and attempts to relaunch his great grandfather's once-glorious vodka empire. 1 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday 14 Pews 800 Aurora; 14pews.org RAISING BERTIE: An intimate six-year portrait of three African-American boys growing into adulthood in rural North Carolina. 7 p.m. Friday River Oaks Theatre 2009 W. Gray; landmarktheatres.com AKIRA: A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop. Midnight Friday and Saturday Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 1001 Bissonnet; mfah.org LEONARDO FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY LONDON: An exclusive access to opening night at a British exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. 2 p.m. Thursday and Sunday Paris Blues: During the 1960s, two American ex-pat jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls. 7 p.m. Friday WHO'S CRAZY?: A group of escaped mental-institution patients finds refuge in a barn. 7 p.m. Saturday DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE: Artist and filmmaker David Lynch discusses his early life and the events that shaped his outlook on art and the creative process. 5 p.m. Sunday ERASERHEAD: Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child. 6:30 p.m. Sunday Central Green Park 23501 Cinco Ranch, Katy; drafthouse.com THE SECRECT LIFE OF PETS: The quiet life of a terrier named Max is upended when his owner takes in Duke, a stray whom Max instantly dislikes. Dusk Saturday Market Square 301 Milam; marketsquarepark.com DIRTY DANCING: Spending the summer at a Catskills resort with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle. 8:30 p.m. Wednesday Houston Museum of Natural Science 5555 Hermann Park Drive; hmns.org DREAM BIG 3-D: Learn how today's engineers are shaping the world of tomorrow. Multiple screenings daily PENGUINS 3-D: The tale of a penguin's journey through his species' central rite of passage. Multiple screenings daily AMAZON ADVENTURE 3-D: A Victorian-era naturalist discovers a butterfly that reinforces Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Multiple screenings daily Kechi Okwuchi just reduced a TV audience to tears. The Pearland resident earned four yes-es from the "America's Got Talent" judges during Tuesday's audition rounds with a rendition of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" that was full of clarity, simplicity and honesty. But it was Okwuchi's harrowing story that set the emotional tone. She was one of two survivors of the Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 plane crash in Nigeria that killed 107 people. Okwuchi and her family moved to Texas in 2007 for treatment at Shriner's Hospital for Children in Galveston. She's undergone more than 100 surgeries. In 2015, she graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a degree in economics and gave a speech during her commencement ceremony. Okwuchi, 27, told the TV crowd she has been singing since she was a child in Nigeria and credits it with helping her pull through tragedy. "Lying in the hospital bed, bandaged head to foot, not being able to move or do anything else, music was my escape. That's why it means so much to me," she said. "What happened to me was horrible. But I refuse to let it define me. Instead, I draw strength from it." Okwuchi earned a standing ovation from Simon Cowell, Howie Mandell and much of the crowd. Many were in tears. Mandell called her "one of the most beautiful people I've ever met in my life" "There's more than even you know you're capable of," Cowell said. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 15 Trend: Azerbaijan marks the National Salvation Day on June 15. Azerbaijan gained independence in October 1991. The first years of the country's independence were characterized by the crisis within the country and in the government. Chaos occupied all the spheres of social life. The situation in the army worsened and the number of deserters increased. Armenian aggression was increasing day after day. Azerbaijan was facing the crisis of power. Separate groups and individuals were fighting for control. After coming to power on May 14, 1992, the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party showed a complete inability to run the country with its ill-determined management. There was a real threat of a civil war in Azerbaijan in the summer of 1993. In these difficult times, Azerbaijan's outstanding son Heydar Aliyev accepted the persistent invitation of the people and came to Baku June 9. Heydar Aliyev succeeded to prevent the civil war in Azerbaijan in a very short time. On June 15, 1993, he was elected chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan and this date entered the country's history as the National Salvation Day. With the insistence of the people, in June 1997, Azerbaijani Parliament declared June 15 as a holiday. Less than 1 percent of students in Webb County school districts were exempt from required vaccines for religious or philosophical reasons, new data shows. In the 2016-17 school year, 0.10 percent of students enrolled in Webb County opted out of vaccinations, Department of State Health Services data shows. While it represents an increase from the prior school year's mark of 0.08 percent, it's still one of the lowest rates in Texas. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate District Attorney Isidro Alaniz has filed a lawsuit against the Webb County Commissioners Court, alleging they are compromising his offices commitment to public safety by failing to set a fair salary that allows for the hiring of experienced investigators. Alaniz filed a petition for writ of mandamus Monday, requesting the 49th District Court command the Commissioners Court to place an agenda item and set a reasonable salary for the hiring of two investigators, Clemente Camarillo, former United ISD police chief, and Michael Wu, a Laredo police detective who retired in 2016. A writ of mandamus is a written order from a higher court to a lower court, or to a government official, office, or corporation, commanding that a specified thing be done. In April, the District Attorneys Office requested commissioners approve the hiring of Camarillo and Wu at salaries of $58,147. Two commissioners and Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina voted against the motion due to the suggested salaries not matching the countys implemented wage scale. READ MORE: Vaccine exemptions in Webb County on the rise, but still very uncommon The petition, filed against Commissioners Court, Tijerina and commissioners John Galo and Rosaura Wawi Tijerina, alleges the courts refusal to set a salary that will allow for the hiring of experienced investigators is compromising Alanizs ability to discharge the duties of his office, affecting his commitment to public safety. The courts refusal to set requested salaries of the investigators also interferes with the offices ability to conduct joint investigations with federal law enforcement agencies, according to the petition. The Webb County District Attorneys Office mission is to protect the children, families and members of the communities of Webb and Zapata counties, Alaniz said in a statement to Laredo Morning Times. The two senior investigator positions that the office seeks to employ are critical and inherent to our mission. We have exhausted all diplomatic means and remedies in securing the support from the county judge and the Commissioners Court. Our plea to employ these investigators at a reasonable salary has fallen on deaf ears, Alaniz said. Judge Tijerina said he cannot comment on the lawsuit due to pending litigation. However, the positions that (Alaniz) seeks to employ are available just not at the starting salary he would like, he said. I think it is sad that we are constantly being sued for doing the right thing, which is protecting the taxpayers dollars. I will continue to do the right thing for the taxpayers, regardless of friends or not. I will never jeopardize the safety of our community. Galo declined to comment, saying he is awaiting a response from legal counsel. Commissioner Tijerina said she isnt aware of the nature of the litigation as she hasnt been served yet. The dispute On April 24, Alaniz made his application to the Commissioners Court to hire Camarillo and Wu at salaries of $58,147, using funds which the court had already approved for use in hiring district attorney investigators. The petition states Tano Tijerina, Galo and Wawi Tijerina voted against Alanizs request. Wawi Tijerina and Galo declined to approve the hires because the salaries did not match the salary levels of the countys implemented Condrey plan, the lawsuit states. The Condrey plan consists of a comprehensive analysis conducted by a private company that sets the wages at what is deemed fair in comparative positions throughout the state of Texas. The plan sets out a classification of the person who has been hired by the county to a particular pay. Commissioners have frequently deviated from the Condrey plan when hiring employees, Alanizs lawsuit states. Alaniz gave notice of withdrawal from the Condrey plan on April 27. He then submitted a standard request to employ the investigators at the set salary of $58,147. On May 9, 2017, the Commissioners Court replied with a letter and memorandum of counsel denying the request. The Commissioners Court conceded that the District Attorney had authority to withdraw from the Condrey plan; however the Commissioners Court also claimed that the Condrey plan was nevertheless part of the county budget and that the District Attorney could not hire the investigators except at the salary set by Commissioners Court, which was $44,535.15, the petition states. RELATED: Tenants vacate north Laredo apartment complex labeled 'unsafe for occupancy' Alaniz says the $44,535.15 salary makes it impossible for him to hire experienced investigators and doesnt create a competitive pay system. Over time, as current investigators retire, the district attorney will have a considerably less-experienced corps of investigators, consisting mostly or entirely of new hires supervised by persons whose sole experience has been working for the district attorney as investigators, the petition states. On at least three occasions between March and June, Alaniz claims he has been advised that his office would be denied an annual cost-of-living adjustment of approximately 2 percent, which the county has provided on a regular basis for all county-paid positions, due to opting out of the Condrey plan. The petition states the filing of the petition for writ of mandamus was necessitated by ongoing violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act, the anticipated removal of District Attorneys Office employees from cost-of-living adjustments and continued misrepresentations regarding the Condrey plan by the county judge and Commissioners Court. The case is scheduled to be heard Aug. 29 before 49th District Court Judge Joe Lopez, records state. After watching the documentary Letters From Baghdad by Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum, you might be forgiven for wondering why David Lean, when mulling over making a film about British influence in the Middle East, didnt choose Gertrude Bell as his subject instead of T.E. Lawrence. Although Lawrence of Arabia is a great movie, and Lawrence was obviously an intriguing and important figure, Bell (1868-1926) also fits that bill. Bell was a British noblewoman who developed a fascination with the Middle East, became fluent in Arabic, became a friend of various tribes and eventually helped advise the British on the formation of modern Iraq. A conventional movie about Bell was released earlier this year. The critically drubbed Queen of the Desert, not seen by me, starred Nicole Kidman as Bell and is available for streaming. But Krayenbuhl and Oelbaum take an interesting approach with their film. They pretend as if theyre making the film in the late 1920s, soon after Bells death: basically, making a movie about current events. They interview Bells friends and colleagues, including Lawrence they are actually actors playing those real-life characters, and their words are taken from their correspondence and journals. We hear Bells own words, also through correspondence and journals, through the voice of Tilda Swinton. The result is something that feels fresh and modern. Add to that the newsreel and documentary footage from the Middle East during the early 1900s and archival photographs, and the filmmakers successfully transport the viewer to places such as Baghdad, Syria and London during the first two decades of the 20th century. Although it would take much more than a 95-minute documentary for true enlightenment, Letters to Baghdad also helps us understand the complex political situation stemming from the gradual dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which made Turkey a world power for centuries and the increasing presence of Western influence (and later, occupation) in Iraq and Syria during World War I, when the value of oil became an economic priority for the first time. Bell began as a kind of ethnographer and historian, but her work was immediately seen as political. Her book on Syria was seen as a threat to the Ottomans, who thought she was a British spy. Eventually she did work in an official capacity for Britain, and worked with Lawrence and Winston Churchill. She was instrumental in brokering a political compromise that made Prince Faisal the guy played by Alec Guinness in Lawrence of Arabia the first king of Iraq. And yet, she had reservations about Britains involvement. In one letter, she writes, We rushed into this business with our usual disregard for a comprehensive political scheme. Can you make people take your side when theyre not sure youll be on theirs? Did I say this seemed like current events? G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BRfilmAllen Letters From Baghdad Documentary. With the voice of Tilda Swinton. Directed by Sabine Krayenbuhl, Zeva Oelbaum. (Not rated. 95 minutes.) Menemsha Films The Womens Balcony, about a rift within an Orthodox Jewish congregation in Jerusalem, is such an agreeable, crowd-pleasing film that its light touch could be mistaken for being lightweight. But beneath its gentle, comic exterior is a serious look at social and religious tensions not always apparent in the West. The conflict revolves around a neighborhood synagogue, which is populated by quirky, appealing folks who seem to have known each other for most of their lives. Aside from some comic pratfalls, all is well until the second-floor balcony where the women are segregated during services collapses during a bar mitzvah. 1 U.S. cybersecurity: Cybersecurity in the United States is in a severe state of disrepair, leaving the country vulnerable to attack from hacking groups backed by its opponents, two witnesses testified in a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The witnesses told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy that they believe a massive cyberattack is imminent unless the U.S. ratchets up its efforts to protect against and deter offensives from countries such as Russia, China and North Korea. 2 Religion lawsuit: A federal judge dismissed a former inmates religious freedom lawsuit against a Pennsylvania jail, saying he had no right to a cleric from the specific Muslim sect he preferred. Gregory Bush sued Lackawanna County in 2014, alleging his religious expression was hampered when he was an inmate in 2012. The Scranton Times-Tribune reported that the judge agreed with an attorney for the jail who argued that the jail did offer Muslim services and religious items but that Bush didnt participate because the cleric wasnt affiliated with the Nation of Islam. Courts have ruled inmates have a right to practice their religious, but that right isnt unlimited and must be balanced against the jails ability to run safely and efficiently. California, 10 other states and New York City sued the Trump administration in San Francisco on Tuesday for halting action on new federal energy-efficiency standards for portable air conditioners, building heaters and other appliances, saying the delays are illegal and are harming consumers and the environment. Environmental and consumer groups filed a similar suit in the same federal court. The proposed rules were issued by the Obama administrations Energy Department in December after years of review and were supposed to take effect by mid-March, the states said in their lawsuit. They said Energy Secretary Rick Perrys failure to publish the rules, which would allow them to be enforced, violates federal environmental and regulatory laws. The rules, if implemented, would reduce planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions by more than 26 million metric tons per year the equivalent of taking nearly 5.5 million cars off the road and would save U.S. energy users $24 billion over 30 years, the states said. Every family and every business can be part of the climate-change solution by using more energy-efficient appliances, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. However, the Department of Energy is blocking common-sense energy efficiency standards. ... The Trump administration should stop stalling and start following the law. The other suit, challenging the same delays, was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Consumer Federation of America. The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment. The case may test the reach of President Trumps Jan. 30 executive order requiring federal agencies to repeal two existing regulations for every new rule they propose. Earlier, Trumps chief of staff, Reince Priebus, had ordered most agencies to put a 60-day hold on regulations proposed by the Obama administration to allow new appointees to review them, a process hindered by Trumps slow pace in making appointments. At issue are conservation standards for floor-standing portable air conditioners, commercial boilers that heat office and apartment buildings, walk-in coolers and freezers used by markets and restaurants, air compressors that power various tools, and battery chargers that provide backup power supplies for electronic products. Laws passed by Congress between 1978 and 2007 require the Energy Department to set energy-saving standards for certain categories of appliances and to update them every six years, the lawsuits said. They said the department last updated its standards for commercial boilers in 2009 and for some types of walk-in coolers and freezers in 2014 but has no current standards for the other three products. If the Energy Department wanted to change the rules proposed by the Obama administration, it could propose new rules and submit them for public comment, the suits said. The department has not done so. The other states filing suit were Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington. The advocacy groups and most of the same states sued the Trump administration last month for postponing action on new energy-saving standards for ceiling fans. The Energy Department later agreed to implement those standards in September. Three graduates from the Katy Independent School District are among 50 high school seniors who received on June 7 a total of $100,000 in Ford Driving Dreams scholarships from the Fort Motor Company Fund and Houston Area Ford dealers. The Katy graduates are Katherine Martinez of Cinco Ranch High School and Reed Reddell and Margaret Sloan, both of Obra D. Tompkins High School. This marks the second time Ford Fund has helped students from the Houston area pursue their academic dreams of going to college. The scholarship awards celebration was at Space Center Houston, a science and space learning center and the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center. Students with their parents heard from Alex Montoya, a motivational speaker who encouraged them to accept challenges as opportunities. Community leaders, Ford Fund representatives and Houston Ford dealers joined the celebration. Recipients from the Cy-Fair Independent School District include Samiksha Ray and Brittney Robison both of Cypress Ranch High School; Bhavesh Sayal of Cypress Falls High School and Marissa Garcia of Langham Creek High School. Scholarship recipients from Houston Independent School District include: Andres Garcia, Austin High School; Sahar Fattani, Angelina Ossimetha and Luz Rodriguez all of Bellaire High School; Ronen Melloul, Carnegie Vanguard High School; Matthew Diaz, Energy institute High School; Noelia Rosas, KIPP Generations Collegiate; Kyra Thomas, Young Women's College Preparatory Academy; and Katelyn Dykas and Robyne Petitt, both of Westside High School. Through Ford Driving Dreams, Ford Fund provides tools and resources to guide students through school, and recently launched a new website www.FordDrivingDreams.com that features educational information for students, parents, and teachers. "At Ford, we believe that the world is only as strong as how we help and impact the next generation. We want to make higher education accessible to every student because academic attainment will allow them to reach their dreams," said Joe Avila, manager, Ford Motor Company Fund. "We are happy to have the support and commitment of the Houston Area Ford dealers to help make a positive impact in the communities where they do business." The Ford Driving Dreams Tour was designed by Ford Motor Company Fund to help youth graduate on time and pursue higher education. Launched in 2012, the program has reached more than 100,000 students in California, Chicago, Florida, Indiana, Texas, Panama and Puerto Rico. The scholarships awarded in Houston will be administered by LULAC National Education Services Centers Inc. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: President of Moldova Igor Dodon will pay a visit to Azerbaijan, a diplomatic source told Trend June 14. The first official visit of the Moldovan president to the country will supposedly take place on June 21-23, according to the source. Dodon is expected to hold meetings at the highest level and discuss prospects of developing cooperation with Azerbaijan in various fields. Moldovas Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Lilian Darii earlier said that the country is interested in using transit opportunities of Azerbaijan. According to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee, trade turnover with Moldova exceeded $2 million in January-May 2017. When conventional communication methods break down, the responsibility of transmitting vital information to the essential agencies falls on a network of more than two million individuals worldwide who have agreed to uphold communication systems in times of need. The word "unsung" has repeatedly been used to describe ham radio operators' contributions in the wake of catastrophic events. "Ham" refers to licensed amateur radio operators. John Nobile, member of a Kingwood-based ham radio club called the Texas Emergency Amateur Communicators (TEAC) has been a ham radio operator for nearly three decades. "As an amateur radio operator, when you get your license, you actually agree to be put into service by the government if there is a need during emergencies. So, you become a link for when telephone lines and stuff like that goes down," Nobile said. He explained that many people may not realize the people reporting updates during emergency situations, like severe weather events, are often ham radio operators. "Many members in the TEAC club belong to something called ARES, which is Amateur Radio Emergency Services, and we have a direct alliance with Homeland Security and many of the police departments around the country, so if there is an emergency event, such as a hurricane, we will be placed into operation at different locations that have been set up, or right from our home if we have the means to provide emergency services," Nobile said. "Then, what we do is report back to Homeland Security, which disseminates the information to all the news agencies. "Many times, those early warnings do come from ham radio operators even though they usually don't give any credit to that. They actually get that information for all those resources." Ham radio operators may serve anonymously most of the time, but for one weekend every year, tens-of-thousands across North America get the chance to showcase the function of amateur radio as a hobby, as well as a vitally important tool during emergency situations. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day event takes place annually on the fourth weekend of June. Ham radio operators convene to practice emergency response, compete to establish the most contacts with other ham stations and showcase the roles ham radio operators play in their communities on the local, national and global levels. TEAC invites the community to attend its Field Day event Saturday, June 24, and Sunday, June 25 in the LSC-Kingwood Performing Arts Center. Participating ham radio operators will begin setting up equipment Friday, June 23, at 3 p.m. "During Field Day, we set up radios and antennas as if we were deployed in an emergency situation," Nobile said. "It's a 24-hour event and the point is to make as many contacts as possible. Your goal, as a ham radio operator, is to hit every state, Canada and Mexico. It's sort of an informal contest, but it's really more of an expose of Field Day to showcase what we do and why we have those big antennas up at our houses. It shows the community we actually have a service to provide." Field Day is a free event and open to the public. TEAC suggested the public visit Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and Sunday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. However, Nobile said anyone interested in staying overnight to hang out with the TEAC hams is more than welcome. During the event at LSC-Kingwood, people have the opportunity to witness firsthand the different methods and mediums by which ham operators are able to communicate. There will be a satellite station that communicates with amateur radio satellites in orbit around the earth. And this year, TEAC will be selling raffle tickets for the chance to win prizes, including a radio and software to get licensed as an amateur radio operator. Nobile encourages people of all ages from the community to come out to the Field Day event and learn about the function ham radio operators serve. "Field Day really showcases the use of ham radio and why it's important, especially during emergency events," Nobile said. "Ham radio sends a lot of information back and forth to federal agencies and local agencies. It also gets a lot of information back to the media and helps spread the word about different events. It's definitely worth learning about. And, it's a great hobby. If you want to get your kids into science, it's a good hands-on learning opportunity." TEAC has more than 80 members from areas as far out as Spring and Conroe. TEAC meets the first Saturday of every month at the Christ the King Lutheran Church on West Lake Houston Drive in Kingwood. For more information about Field Day and TEAC, visit www.teac.net. Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, a Namibian independence leader whose struggle against his country's South African rulers landed him for 16 years in the infamous Robben Island prison, where with his steadfastness he earned the admiration of Nelson Mandela, a fellow inmate, died June 9. He was 92. His death was reported by the Associated Press and by Namibian outlets including New Era, which said ya Toivo died at his home in a suburb of Windhoek, the country's capital, of a suspected heart attack. Ya Toivo fought what the London Guardian once described as a decades-long "war of nerves" with South Africa in behalf of Namibia. South Africa assumed control of the onetime German colony through a League of Nations mandate at the end of World War I. To ya Toivo and his supporters, South African rule became particularly intolerable - although it had always been unacceptable - after the country instituted its apartheid system of racial segregation in 1948. An activist since the early 1950s, he had helped found the independence movement known as the South West Africa People's Organization, or SWAPO, which challenged South African rule through protest and guerrilla warfare. (Namibia at the time was known as South West Africa.) In 1968, after being convicted of violating a South African terrorism law, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, where he would survive torture and solitary confinement. He had faced possible execution but credited a lawyer, who reportedly engaged the help of American officials including U.S. Sens. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., with helping him avoid that fate. Ya Toivo's declamation at the Pretoria courthouse where he was tried helped draw international attention to his - and the Namibian - cause. "We find ourselves here in a foreign country, convicted under laws made by people whom we have always considered as foreigners. We find ourselves tried by a judge who is not our countryman and who has not shared our background," he said. "We are Namibians and not South Africans." Entering prison, he said he knew "the struggle will be long and bitter," according to the publication the Namibian, but "I also know that my people will wage that struggle, whatever the cost." Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader and future South African president who would serve 27 years in prison, arrived at Robben Island in 1964 and came to regard ya Toivo as "a formidable freedom fighter." In prison, ya Toivo declined to participate in the behavior grading system instituted by wardens that might have allowed him improved conditions - but that also, in his view, would have conceded the legitimacy of South African authority. "He didn't care to be promoted and he wouldn't cooperate with the authorities at all in almost everything," Mandela recalled,according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation. "He was quite militant," Mandela said. "He wanted very little to do with whites, with the warders." At one point, Mandela participated in a hunger strike to show solidarity with Namibians including ya Toivo. On another, after a guard reportedly attacked him, ya Toivo returned the assault, ending up in solitary confinement. He said that he received three or four visits in all his years of imprisonment. Even his captors noticed his resolve. "Ya Toivo would not bend when others took bribes in prison in order to get more privileges," Christo Brand, a former Robben Island guard, told the Namibian in 2014 on ya Toivo's 90th birthday. Brand described him as "cut out of the same rock as Mandela." Ya Toivo was released in 1984 and spent the following years in exile. Namibian independence did not come until 1990, in part because of its small role in the ongoing Cold War. Namibian insurgents received support from the Soviet Union and Cuba. In exchange for the peace agreement that permitted independence, Cuban troops were ultimately forced to withdraw from another Communist-backed African nation, Angola. After independence, SWAPO became Namibia's ruling party, with ya Toivo serving as secretary general. For periods he was minister of mines and energy, labor and prisons under President Sam Nujoma, a former SWAPO organizer who had spent many of the preceding years in exile. According to most accounts, ya Toivo was born Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo in the village of Omangudu, in northern Namibia, on Aug. 22, 1924. The Canadian Globe and Mail wrote that he was born Andimba Mwandecki and was given the name Toivo ya Toivo, meaning Hope of Hope, at the Finnish mission school he attended. After finishing his schooling and serving with the Allies in World War II, he worked as a teacher before moving to Cape Town in 1951. He became a leader in the Modern Youth Society and helped form precursors to SWAPO. Shortly after his release from prison, while attending a rally held by the radical feminist leader Angela Davis in New York, ya Toivo met Vicki Erenstein, an American lawyer, whom he married in 1990. They had twin daughters, Mutaleni and Nashikoto, and three adopted children. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available. "I have come to know that our people cannot expect progress as a gift from anyone, be it the United Nations or South Africa," ya Toivo said, speaking before the court that would send him to prison in 1968. "Progress is something we shall have to struggle and work for. And I believe that the only way in which we shall be able and fit to secure that progress is to learn from our own experience and mistakes." Sacramento, Calif. California Gov. Jerry Brown was named Tuesday as a special envoy to states at the next United Nations Climate Change Conference, further elevating his international profile as a leader on the issue as President Donald Trump backs away from an international agreement. The announcement of Brown's role at the November conference in Bonn, Germany, by Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama comes on the heels of the governor's meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks to discuss climate change. "I will lean on Gov. Brown to continue to bring the great leadership he has demonstrated time and time again, and to mobilize a strong contingent of like-minded leaders from around the world, to show the world that we mean business," Bainimarama said during a news conference at the historic governor's mansion in Sacramento. The four-term governor has made reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting green technology a key tenet of his administration. He's launched non-binding climate change pacts, including the newly formed U.S. Climate Alliance of states committed to upholding the carbon reductions goals in the Paris climate agreement, from which Trump plans to withdraw. Bainimarama on Tuesday joined Fiji in the Under2 Coalition, a pact among cities, states and countries that Brown helped launch in 2015 aimed at keeping the rise of global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. Bainimarama hailed U.S. states' commitment to upholding the Paris agreements. He noted Trump's choice to withdraw could bring fireworks to the U.N. conference, known as "COP 23." Brown won't be the only governor potentially playing an outsize role at the conference. Fellow West Coast Govs. Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington, both plan to attend with other governors in the Climate Alliance. Details added (first version posted at 15:23) Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: President of Moldova Igor Dodon will pay a visit to Azerbaijan, a diplomatic source told Trend June 14. The first official visit of the Moldovan president to the country will supposedly take place on June 21-23, according to the source. Dodon is expected to hold meetings at the highest level and discuss prospects of developing cooperation with Azerbaijan in various fields. Moldovas Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Lilian Darii earlier said that the country is interested in using transit opportunities of Azerbaijan. According to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee, trade turnover with Moldova exceeded $2 million in January-May 2017. LUBBOCK -- A Lubbock man, Brian Landon Brown, 32, appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge D. Gordon Bryant Jr. and pleaded guilty to a federal offense stemming from his role in a fentanyl distribution conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas. Brown pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute furanyl fentanyl. He faces a statutory penalty of not more than twenty years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. Judge Bryant recommended that the district court accept Browns guilty plea. BEIJING - Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen reacted angrily on Tuesday to Panama's decision to shift diplomatic ties to China, insisting that Taipei would never bow down to threats and intimidation from Beijing and was determined to uphold its sovereignty. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela announced on television Monday evening that he was establishing diplomatic ties with China and breaking with Taiwan, saying he was "convinced this is the correct path for our country." He added that China constituted 20 percent of the world's population, has the second-biggest economy and is the second-biggest user of the Panama Canal. The move comes as Beijing steps up efforts to isolate Taipei internationally since last year's election of Tsai. "The Government of the Republic of Panama recognizes that only one China exists in the world, the Government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government that represents all China, and Taiwan forms an inalienable part of Chinese territory," a joint statement from China and Panama read. Panama is the second country to break with Taiwan since Tsai's election last year, following the small African islands of Sao Tome and Principe. Taiwan was not invited to the annual assembly of the World Health Organization last month for the first time in eight years, and was also excluded from a global forum of the International Civil Aviation Organization last year. Both moves reportedly came at Beijing's insistence, as it makes clear its displeasure with Tsai's reluctance to explicitly endorse the idea that there is only one China, encompassing both the mainland and the island of Taiwan. China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory, and insists that any country that establishes diplomatic relations with Beijing must cut them with Taipei. It says its own relationship with Taipei is founded on the "1992 consensus" between the two sides that effectively rules out the idea of Taiwan ever gaining independence. But that was a deal reached by a government run by the Kuomintang party in Taiwan, not Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party, and while Tsai has indicated she respects the agreement and says she wants dialogue and friendly ties with Beijing, she has been reluctant to spell out an explicit endorsement. In the past China and Taiwan had competed with each other to win diplomatic allies, wooing poorer countries with promises of aid and investment. But they established an unofficial truce under the Kuomintang government, with neither trying aggressively to upset the status quo, experts say. Panama's move brings to 20 the number of countries formally recognizing Taiwan, most of them in Latin America and the Caribbean. Former Mexican ambassador to China, Jorge Guajardo, tweeted that he expected the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua to follow suit soon. "Big question is, will Vatican ditch Taiwan for Beijing?" he added. Tsai addressed the Taiwanese people on Tuesday afternoon vowing that Taipei would not engage in a "diplomatic bidding war," nor succumb to Beijing's threats "We are a sovereign country. This sovereignty cannot be challenged or traded," she said, insisting that her people want peace but that Beijing was pushing relations toward confrontation. "Coercion and threats will not bring the two sides together. Instead they will drive our two peoples apart," she said. "On behalf of the 23 million people of Taiwan, I declare that we will never surrender to such intimidation." Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Taiwan's international isolation was not in the interests of the United States or the rest of the world. "Taiwan has a great deal to offer the international community ranging from top quality medical services to strong IT talent, and active international NGOs that provide disaster relief to countries in need," she said, adding that the United States and other countries should find "creative ways" to engage with Taiwan. Nor are China's pressure tactics doing anything to help it win hearts and minds in Taiwan, experts say. "So far the tactic has only succeeded in alienating the Taiwanese public and reinforced notions of separateness," said J. Michael Cole, a senior fellow at the University of Nottingham's China Policy Institute and chief editor of the Taiwan Sentinel website. "As long as such efforts do not substantially undermine Taiwan's ability to function as a sovereign state - and no theft of smallish diplomatic ally will ever achieve this - then I don't see how or why the Taiwanese would give in to such pressure by deciding to accommodate Beijing," he said. A poll released by the Taiwanese government last weekend showed nearly three-quarters of respondents rejected Beijing's insistence on the one-China principle as a precondition to political ties, while more than 80 percent said China's efforts to limit Taiwan's international space hurt their interests, and a similar proportion said China should recognize the existence of the "Republic of China," as Taiwan officially calls itself. Cole said Taiwan needs to focus more on developing healthy relations with unofficial allies that are democracies and important economies, and not worry about maintaining official ties with small states that want infrastructure investment Taiwan cannot afford. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has viewed restoration work and met with local residents in Jojug Marjanli village of Jabrayil district. The head of state started his visit by opening a new village road in Jojug Marjanli. The President was informed that the road is 9km in length, and 12m in width. A 24m-long bridge over the road was reconstructed. President Ilham Aliyev then visited local resident Ogtay Haziyevs house. The Haziyevs have lived in the village since 1994, and never left it despite security concerns. The first stage of the reconstruction saw the building of a total of 50 private houses and necessary infrastructure in the 10 hectare area. IDPs from Jojug Marjanli with temporary residence in Baku will be resettled here. Twenty houses have two rooms, 25 have three rooms and five have four rooms. President Ilham Aliyev spoke with Ogtay Haziyevs family members. The president then viewed a new 96-seat school. Deputy Prime Minister, chairman of the State Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov and head of Jabrayil District Executive Authority Kamal Hasanov informed the head of state that the reconstruction work saw the installation of the lighting system on the village streets, the building of water, gas and telephone lines, the digging of a sub-artesian well and the construction of a 100 cm water reservoir. Jojug Marjanli is the 96th residential area built for refuges and IDPs in Azerbaijan, and the first settlement to welcome IDPs back to their homeland. President Ilham Aliyev met with a group of military schools cadets here. A mosque reminiscent of Shusha mosque was built in Jojug Marjanli under an order of President Ilham Aliyev. The building of this mosque is a message to Armenia and the international community that Azerbaijan is part of the Islamic world and is committed to its history. The head of state viewed the mosque. President Ilham Aliyev then toured the village. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided Tuesday that it should not have granted discretionary review in a Woodlands resident's voter fraud case and will not accept the case, thus upholding a lower court's reversal of his conviction and opening the door for a retrial. James Alan Jenkins was one of four people convicted of voter fraud stemming from a 2010 board election for The Woodlands Road Utility District. However, Jenkins appealed his verdict on the grounds that prosecutors with the Texas Attorney General's Office failed to inform jurors of their ability to consider "mistake of law" as a defense. More than two years, ago, the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston reversed Jenkins' conviction and three-year prison sentence, which resulted in the request for discretionary review with the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court. The Texas Attorney General's Office now will decide whether to retry the case in the 359th state District Court in Montgomery County. The criminal charges came down after 10 individuals changed their voting address to that of a Woodlands hotel, checked into the hotel and ousted the RUD board incumbents in a 10-2 vote. However, the three incumbents filed suit alleging the results were obtained by illegal votes. A visiting judge ruled that the 10 Montgomery County residents who changed their voting address to the hotel and voted in the RUD election did not reside within the RUD boundaries and their votes were thrown out. The three incumbents were reinstated to the board. The 10 voters, including Jenkins, claimed they consulted with state officials before changing their voter registration addresses to The Residence Inn in The Woodlands. Jenkins, Adrian Heath, Sybil Doyle and Roberta Cook were convicted of voter fraud. Two others received pretrial probation to avoid prosecution, while the other four were never charged. Jenkins' defense hinges on a theory called "mistake of law," which means a defendant had a reasonable belief that what he or she was doing was not illegal. In his case, Jenkins claims the 10 voters consulted with multiple local and state officials, including a representative with the Texas Secretary of State's Office, who made the voters come to the conclusion that they would be within the legal parameters of the Texas Election Code by casting their ballots in the RUD election. The jury on Jenkins' case was never made aware of the "mistake of law" defense, however. They found him guilty of illegal voting in June 2013 and sentenced him to three years in prison. Jenkins' Houston-based attorney, George Secrest, appealed the conviction arguing that visiting trial Judge John Stevens, of Jefferson County, refused to relay to the jury that Jenkins had consulted with the state of Texas before carrying out his plan and reasonably understood his actions were legal. The 14th Court of Appeals agreed. In July 2015, prosecutors with the AG's Office asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to take a look at the 14th Court of Appeals' decision by filing a petition for discretionary review, which the Court of Criminal Appeals accepted in September 2015. However, the Court of Criminal Appeals changed its mind Tuesday. Secrest was not available for comment. Representatives with the AG's Office declined to comment due to the ongoing case. Heath, whose three-year prison sentence in the RUD case started in February, is currently eligible for parole. No decision has been made on his conditional release, although the decision makers with the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles have started the parole review process. The jurors in Heath's case were informed of the "mistake of law" defense and therefore he could not use that argument in his appeals process. Doyle, who later passed away, and her daughter Cook received probation. WASHINGTON - Attorney General Jeff Sessions' repeated refusal to answer lawmakers' skeptical inquiries Tuesday draws on a long legal and political tradition: Private deliberations involving the president and his top advisers often can be kept out of public view. But analysts disagreed on whether the attorney general was appropriately using executive privilege to advance a worthy goal, or merely suggesting it as a shield to fend off questions he did not want to take. Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee lambasted the attorney general for failing to provide responses, particularly when they were not asking about classified material or ongoing investigations. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said he believed Sessions' reasoning for not commenting was faulty: There was no "appropriateness bucket," he said, for declining to answer a legitimate congressional inquiry. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Sessions was being improperly "selective" in what he revealed. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Sessions was "stonewalling," and the public was frustrated by it. The president undoubtedly has the right to assert executive privilege and stop an adviser from revealing details of deliberations, and Justice Department policies on releasing information to the public note the concept of "deliberative process privilege," which is meant to "encourage open, frank discussions on matters of policy between subordinates and superiors." Legal analysts, though, were split on whether Sessions did so correctly on Tuesday. Importantly, Sessions said Trump had not yet asserted executive privilege, and he himself had no power to claim it. But Sessions said he did not want to reveal details that the president might want out of the public eye, if he were given more time to consider. "It's my judgment that it would be inappropriate for me to answer and reveal private conversations with the president when he has not had a full opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to approve such an answer," Sessions said. Scott Fredericksen, a former federal prosecutor and associate independent counsel now in private practice at Foley & Lardner, said Sessions had taken a "legitimate position . . . to protect the confidentiality of his conversations with the president." "I think there's fairly good history that the Department of Justice resists revealing internal deliberations and discussions, whether it be investigations or policy, as a matter of separation of the executive from the legislative branch," he said. But Cornell Law School professor Jens David Ohlin said Sessions' reasoning did not make sense. "His justification for refusing to answer the questions was completely incoherent. He claimed executive privilege but then denied that he had done so," Ohlin said. "It made no sense whatsoever. He's basically trying to have his cake and eat it, too: claim executive privilege but then pretend that he didn't. His position has no basis in law, common sense, or logic." Sessions declined to detail his conversations with the president on a number of topics - including the firing of FBI Director James Comey and possible discussions of pardons or the Russia investigation. He did, though, offer some specifics on why Comey was fired - a point King said showed he was being choosy in what he was willing to discuss. Legal analysts agreed it was the president who would have to invoke privilege - although Fredericksen said Congress would have to push the issue if the members really wanted answers. Ultimately, Fredericksen said, a court might determine whether the information is public or not, but all involved would probably want to avoid that outcome. Last week, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers also declined to answer questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee about their conversations with the president. Coats, like Sessions, said he did not know whether the White House would block his participation in the questioning by asserting executive privilege. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., pressed Sessions to promise that he would at least provide documentation to help the committee's investigation, but Sessions allowed only that he would review Justice Department rules. President Richard M. Nixon famously invoked the notion of executive privilege to try to withhold White House tapes of himself and others discussing the Watergate scandal, and he resigned not long after he lost in the Supreme Court and was ordered to turn the materials over. More recently, President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege to block Attorney General Eric Holder from releasing documents in the Fast and Furious scandal. A House panel voted to hold Holder in contempt, and a federal judge eventually rejected Obama's privilege claim - ruling that it was undercut by public disclosures about the case. --- The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett contributed to this report. President Donald Trump has two problems. First, public disapproval of the president and a lack of confidence in him are skyrocketing. Second, Republicans' solace that "at least the GOP is with him" may be misguided. As for the overall numbers, his disapproval rating hit a new high of 60 percent in the Gallup poll. In the latest Politico-Morning Consult poll, 53 percent of voters think former FBI director James Comey is very or somewhat honest. By a margin of 45 percent to 32 percent, voters pick Comey over Trump when it comes to honesty. A strong plurality of voters think Trump fired Comey over the Russia investigation, not due to concerns about his performance (47 percent to 36 percent). By a large majority, voters disfavor his signature bill, the American Health Care Act (which now he concedes is "mean"!). Big tax cuts for the rich, the heart of his tax plan, are unpopular as well. In short, even if Trump could get back to his agenda, it is not going to find favor with the voters. As for GOP support, let's keep in mind a few things. First, he's a minority president who got only 46.1 percent of the vote. He cannot afford to lose voters; he needs to gain support from independents and even Democrats. Second, the Virginia gubernatorial primary results and generic congressional polling show that Democrats have a decisive advantage when it comes to enthusiasm and engagement. Third, we have the Virginia gubernatorial primary results and in a week we will have the results of Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election to test the proposition that as the GOP becomes the Party of Trump, it becomes less attractive to a mass of voters who have traditionally considered themselves to be Republicans. A shrunken GOP means losses in 2018, the potential for the House to flip to Democratic control and proceed to impeachment, and the emergence of either a primary challenger to Trump, a third-party movement or an enlarged Democratic Party with GOP defectors. It is not illogical to conclude that Trump is losing the curious or skeptical voters who were willing to give him the chance given his Democratic opponent in 2016, the perception that he was a successful manager and his image as a less ideologically dogmatic kind of Republican. Republicans would dearly love to keep running against Hillary Clinton, but she won't be on the ballot in 2018 or 2020. Trump has proved himself thoroughly incapable of managing the executive branch, so much so that Republicans now try to defend his misconduct by saying he's new to all this. The lack of progress on major issues cements the argument that he is less capable than the "stupid" politicians he decried in the campaign. His stumbles on the world stage - getting into spats with allies, pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, inviting trade wars with key partners - reinforce the image of a blunderbuss who is making the United States less respected. Finally, Trump has jettisoned his populist rhetoric and positions (promise of no tax cuts for the rich and no cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security) for a Scrooge-like agenda that would roll back Medicaid, make health insurance more expensive for many who voted for him, and deliver big tax cuts for the rich that would require big cuts in popular programs and would unleash a torrent of red ink. Ironically, Trump offered the GOP the hope for an expanded GOP, one big enough to reach white, working-class voters. The GOP he now presides over is not only politically dysfunctional and unpopular, but also arguably smaller than the one he took over in 2016. Democrats have a tremendous opportunity if they keep their heads about them, make the case against not just Trump personally but also his Trumpian agenda, and offer their own agenda that is both positive and non-radical. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has given the Pentagon new authorities to decide the troop levels in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said Tuesday. The move could lead to a deployment of thousands more troops as commanders decide the way forward in the now 15-year-old war. The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more freely, said the move is similar to the April decision that gave the Pentagon more authority to set troop levels in Iraq and Syria. The change, the Pentagon said, was so that units could deploy at their proper strength to better maintain unit cohesion. With the new authority, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis could authorize deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan, something commanders on the ground there have been requesting for months. Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan as well as his direct superior, head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, have both made cases for sending a "few thousand" more troops. If sent, the forces would help the fledgling Afghan military regain portions of the country that have fallen to the Taliban since U.S. forces ended their combat mission there in 2014. The decision from the White House comes the same day Mattis told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee that "we are not winning" in Afghanistan. Mattis said the Taliban was surging throughout the country and that he planned to present lawmakers with a strategy for the United States' longest running war by mid-July. Incensed, chairman of the committee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Congress couldn't pass a budget without a strategy. "We can't keep going like this," McCain said. "We know what the strategy was for the last eight years: Don't lose. That hasn't worked." When asked what "winning looks like," Mattis replied that it would mean a long-term U.S. presence and Afghan security forces that were capable enough to control violence at local levels. "It's going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we're to get it to that position," Mattis said. In the short-term, Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chief's of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said additional U.S. troops sent to the country would provide more fire and air support to the Afghans. Airstrike and artillery, they reasoned, would give the Afghan forces breathing room to build a more effective force. In the first eight months of 2016, Afghan forces suffered 15,000 casualties including more than 5,000 killed. Recruiting efforts have been barely able to keep the Afghan security forces from maintaining their current ranks, let alone growing to a size large and capable enough to project security in the country. The Taliban "had a good year last year," Mattis said. With an air force that is still in its infancy and corruption still rampant in the ranks, some experts think it could take years for the Afghan forces to mature enough to negate the U.S. role in the country. There are currently around 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and roughly 5,000 additional NATO forces in the country. The U.S. contingent is currently split between conducting counterterror operations alongside Afghan commandos, and providing assistance to the Afghan military. More than 2,000 U.S. troops have died there since the war began in 2001. Thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed as well. More than 3,000 Afghan civilians were killed in 2016 making it the deadliest year for civilians in the country since the U.N. mission there began tracking casualty numbers in 2009. On Saturday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in an apparent insider attack in Afghanistan's restive east where U.S. Special Operations forces are battling the Islamic State's Afghan affiliate. CARACAS, Venezuela - For more than a dozen years, Hugo Chavez led a socialist-inspired movement that transformed Venezuela, winning one presidential election after another with the support of an army of red-shirted "chavistas." But four years after Chavez's death, the movement he founded is splintering, with current and former government officials, as well as residents of poor neighborhoods that were once adamantly pro-government, turning on his successor, Nicolas Maduro. The criticism from Maduro's former allies has helped to energize a protest movement that has drawn demonstrators onto the streets almost every day for two months. The participants are angry at what they call Maduro's increasingly authoritarian rule and a severe economic crisis. Polls indicate some 80 percent of the population wants him to resign. "This is not about government versus opposition anymore," said Vladimir Villegas, who used to be the director of the government's national television station and helped write a new constitution championed by Chavez. "This is about a whole country against the government." The most prominent dissident in Venezuela's government is Luisa Ortega Diaz, a Chavez loyalist who has served as attorney general for nearly a decade. In late March, she criticized an attempt by the pro-Maduro supreme court to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress, saying it was against the law. In early May, she upbraided the government for its role in violence against protesters. And last week, Ortega came out against a plan by Maduro to rewrite the constitution, saying it was "destroying the legacy of President Chavez." She asked the supreme court to annul the process, a request that was denied. On June 6, a prominent retired general in the Venezuelan army resigned from a senior government job. Maj. Gen. Alexis Lopez Ramirez, who had formerly served as director of Chavez's presidential guard as well as commander of the army, was a top defense adviser to Maduro. Lopez said in a statement on Tuesday that he stepped down due to his "disagreement with the process" used by Maduro's government to convene an assembly to change the constitution. Many proud socialists who served in top roles in Chavez's government have turned on Maduro. They tend to be particularly alarmed by the attempt to strip the legislature's powers and by Maduro's plan to hold a vote later this summer to elect delegates to change the constitution. "Maduro is not the man that Chavez thought he would be," said Ana Elisa Osorio, a former environment minister in Chavez's government, who described the current president as "authoritarian" and "almost Stalinist." So far, Maduro has maintained his grip on power because he retains the support of key institutions such as the armed forces, the police, the electoral agency and the supreme court. But the popular protests appear to be putting strain on these bonds as well. The military and other security forces are in a particularly fraught position. Nearly every day for the past two months, Maduro has relied on the police and National Guard to block opposition marches and demonstrations. Security forces in armored vehicles and riot gear have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters. At least 67 people have died, and more than 1,200 have been injured in the violence, according to government statistics. On June 6, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez warned that he did not want to see one more National Guard member "committing illegal acts against people," and said that anyone who does not respect human rights or behaves unprofessionally "will have to face the consequences." The next day, however, Padrino appeared to take a step back from that criticism, tweeting about his "solidarity" with the National Guard, who are "always loyal to their duty." In March, three army lieutenants who opposed Maduro sought asylum in Colombia. But there have been few other public signs of major turmoil within the military. One former Venezuelan officer described discontent among many low-ranking soldiers. If big protests continue, there will be "a moment when the National Guard won't take it anymore," he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by authorities. Maduro has already lost support in many of the lower-income neighborhoods where Chavez was long a hero for providing subsidized food and new schools and clinics. In an act that would have been unthinkable until recently, protesters in the western state of Zulia toppled a statue of Chavez in May, according to video provided by local media. In this deeply divided climate, some former Chavez supporters want to carve out more space in the political middle. The "chavistas" are skeptical of the main opposition alliance, known as Democratic Unity, which they see as antagonistic to their socialist goals, but also disapprove of Maduro. Some have criticized Maduro for using dwindling state funds to pay off international bondholders at a time when Venezuelans face severe shortages of food and medicine. "Maduro is disconnected from the masses and is more worried about the price of oil," said Nicmer Evans, a political analyst and leader of Marea Socialista, a movement that formerly supported Chavez but has turned against the president. At a meeting recently at the Hotel Presidente in downtown Caracas, dozens of former Chavez supporters discussed how a third political bloc might emerge. Former government ministers and Chavez supporters said they wanted to mediate new talks between the opposition and the government, even though previous attempts at dialogue have failed. As it stands now, social unrest and political violence have "accelerated the possibility of a civil war," said Gustavo Marquez Marin, a former minister of industry and commerce during Chavez's tenure, who attended the gathering. "Most of the country doesn't want violence, they want peace," he said. "We want to save the nation." Among opponents to Maduro, there are differences of opinion about how to move forward. While many in the opposition demand early elections, the anti-Maduro socialists say that holding elections before 2018, when they are scheduled, would violate the law. But Maduro's plan to convene a special assembly - aimed at rewriting the 1999 constitution that many "chavistas" still revere - seems to have united opponents from different political backgrounds. Maduro's government has described the assembly as a way to restore peace. His opponents consider it a maneuver to avoid elections, and many say they plan to boycott the July vote to choose the 545 delegates. Earlier this month, Gabriela Ramirez decided to step down from her position as adviser to the supreme court, due to her concerns about the assembly, which she called tantamount to a "coup." Ramirez, a former pro-Chavez congresswoman and top government human rights official, said she still believes in the social aspects of Chavez's ideology. But she has grown concerned about Maduro's stewardship of the economy and the threats to democracy. The final straw came when she saw how the delegates to the constituent assembly will be chosen - with many to be selected by pro-government groups such as labor unions. If Chavez were alive today, she said, "I have no doubt that he would be on our side." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MARTINSVILLE, Va. - After decades of lawsuits, public campaigns and painful struggles, Americans have finally done what once seemed impossible: Most of the country has quit smoking, saving millions of lives and leading to massive reductions in cancer. That is, unless those Americans are poor, uneducated or live in a rural area. Hidden among the steady declines in recent years is the stark reality that cigarettes are becoming a habit of the poor. The national smoking rate has fallen to historic lows, with just 15 percent of adults still smoking. But the socioeconomic gap has never been bigger. Among the nation's less-educated people - those with a high-school-equivalency diploma - the smoking rate remains more than 40 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, rural residents are diagnosed with lung cancer at rates 18 to 20 percent above those of city dwellers. By nearly every statistical measure, researchers say, America's lower class now smokes more and dies more from cigarettes than other Americans. This widening gap between classes carries huge health implications and is already reshaping the country's battle over tobacco control. Cigarette companies are focusing their marketing on lower socioeconomic communities to retain their customer base, researchers say. Nonprofitand advocacy groups are retooling their programs for the complex and more difficult work of reaching and treating marginalized groups. As inequality in America continues expanding by many measures, smoking is a growing aspect of that divide that is a matter of life and death, with wealthier and more-educated Americans now largely spared the cost and deadly effects of the vice. Advocacy groups say funding for smoking cessation is dropping, and they worry the attention and political will needed for tobacco control is also waning as America's upper and middle classes see smoking as an already solved, bygone problem. "If you're educated and live in a well-off area, the smoking problem we're talking about these days is now largely invisible to you," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "In some places, you can go days without bumping into a smoker. So you start to hear the question, why push more resources into this? Meanwhile, the need is getting even greater, because the people left smoking are the ones who can least afford to." - - - Debbie Seals, 60, has fought on the front lines of this new class battle for the past six years from her home in the rural foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. She has driven her tiny blue Fiat to the farthest corners of southern Virginia and West Virginia to hold classes aimed at helping smokers quit. Her cessation clinics are often the only ones offered for miles around. "It's like there's two worlds now," Seals said. Every month, she travels to Northern Virginia to visit her grandchildren in the D.C. suburbs. In Alexandria, she sees couples jogging on the streets and buying expensive organic groceries at Whole Foods - and not a single one smoking. But in her home town of Martinsville, Va., cigarettes are ubiquitous. People smoke on their morning drive to work and on weekends mowing their lawns. Tobacco stores line the strip malls, and cigarette ads are in the windows of every gas station and convenience store. The smoking is a symptom of deeper problems here, Seals said on a recent afternoon as she headed out to check on three former students from her cessation class. Martinsville was once known as the "Sweatshirt Capital of the World," a booming center of textile mills and furniture factories. Now it is littered with abandoned factories and vacant storefronts. So many families here live in poverty that all children in elementary and middle school automatically qualify for free and reduced-price meals. "People down here smoke because of the stress in their life," Seals said. "They smoke because of money problems, family problems. It's the one thing they have control over. The one thing that makes them feel better. And you want them to give that up? It's the toughest thing in the world." Seals - who retired years ago from a career with Girl Scouts of the USA - began teaching her classes as a volunteer for the American Lung Association. After seeing the desperate need, she began working full time on cessation for the nonprofit. She's taught many classes in recent years at the handful of furniture factories left. Many of the participants attend her clinic over and over, unable to stop smoking. She is careful not to make any of them feel like failures. "If they manage to quit for a week or even a day, they succeeded," she said. "I tell them if you were able to quit once, you can do it again." Meeting up with three of her former students at a diner last week, Seals probed gently, asking how much they are smoking these days. "I've slid back," admitted Victoria Cassell, 57, who has attended Seals's seven-week program every year for four years. "There was just too much going on in my life last year." First, Cassell's sister died. Then her husband started having heart problems again. On top of it all, her daughter and grandson moved back in. The last time Cassell tried to quit was three months ago, after a doctor's test gave her a lung cancer scare. "It was like losing my best friend," she said. "My cigarettes have kept me company for 40 years, longer than just about anyone in my life." She ate lunch alone at the factory where she works, because her friends all smoke. She tried coloring while watching TV, just to keep her hands busy. Three days in, an argument with a co-worker pushed her over the edge, she said. She ran to a friend at her first chance to bum a cigarette. Pulling out her pack of Winstons, she tried to describe the feeling of that first cigarette after a hiatus. "It makes you feel like you're floating," she said. "You get lightheaded like you could just lay down and sleep. It almost gets you a little bit drunk." Seals, sitting nearby, said: "I'm proud of you for holding out as long as you did." - - - It wasn't always this way. When smoking first gained popularity in the early 20th century, it was a habit of the rich, a token of luxury dusted with Hollywood glamour. Then came the 1964 surgeon general's report on its deadly effects, and during the next 3 1/2 decades, smoking among the nation's highest-income families plummeted by 62 percent. But among families of the lowest income, it decreased by just 9 percent. "There's this tendency now to blame the ones still smoking," said Robin Koval, president of Truth Initiative, a leading tobacco-control nonprofit group. "The attitude is, 'You're doing it to yourself. If you were just strong enough, you'd be able to quit.' " What isn't taken into account, Koval said, are the vast resources tobacco companies are spending to hold onto their last remaining strongholds. In recent years, studies have found those companies' discounts often target low-income and minority communities. New research also shows that lower-income neighborhoods have a much higher density of tobacco retailers. "Poorer people don't smoke because anything's different or wrong about them," Koval said. "Their communities are not protected like others are. They don't have access to good health care and cessation programs. If you have a bull's eye painted on your back, it's harder to get away." Tobacco companies have also invested considerable resources in recent years lobbying against smoking restrictions and taxes, especially in poorer, rural and often southern states, where smoking remains highest. Several major tobacco companies did not respond to requests for comment on the socioeconomic disparities related to the use of their products. The country's largest tobacco company - Altria, based in Richmond - said it uses the same marketing approach across rural, suburban and urban retail locations and makes sure its signage follows legal limits. Altria spokesman George Parman also pointed to more than $112 billion that tobacco companies have handed over for smoking prevention as part of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Parman said that it has been state lawmakers across the country who keep diverting those massive funds to other budgetary needs, leaving just a fraction for anti-tobacco programs. Even that funding is now shrinking, and nonprofits and health agencies have begun revamping their approach to fit the new socioeconomic trend. This winter, the Truth Initiative launched a series of ads framing tobacco companies' targeting of black and low-income neighborhoods as a social-justice issue. "It's not a coincidence. It's profiling," the ads say. The CDC has used a national ad campaign of its own to reach especially hard-hit populations, including low-income, rural, Native American, mentally ill and minority smokers. In the tobacco control world, "disparity" and "health equity" have become new catchwords, and pilot programs in some states have been launched. "But the frustrating thing for folks in the public-health community is we know from research exactly what would make the biggest difference," said Brian King, deputy director for the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "They're just not being implemented at the policy level. It's bread-and-butter strategies like getting states to pass smoke-free laws, increasing cigarette taxes and funding tobacco cessation and prevention." In the face of such frustrations and challenges, Seals - the cessation teacher in Martinsville - said she tries relentlessly to keep herself and her students focused on the positive. "They need someone who will come in and say, 'It's okay, you're going to be able to stop,' " she said. As Seals's visit with her former students came to a close, Cassell - the factory worker who has now tried quitting six times - said she measures her victories these days in smaller increments: cutting back to a pack every three days, holding out until after her morning cup of coffee to light up. "Do I ever think I'll be able to quit?" she said. "No." Seals responded with a smile, unfazed. "Well, are you going to be at the next clinic?" "I'll be there," Cassell promised. "I don't know if it's ever going to take, but I'll keep trying." Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: Today is the day of restoration of the Jojug Marjanli village, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev during his visit to the village and meeting with Ogtay Haziyevs family members. Today is a significant day, historic day in the life of our country," noted President Aliyev. "Today is the day of restoration of the Jojug Marjanli village. I congratulate you and the all Azerbaijani people on this wonderful event. The restoration of the Jojug Marjanli village is a historic event. You, as the people living in this village, know its history well. Now the whole Azerbaijan knows the history of the Jojug Marjanli village. The whole world knows Jojug Marjanli. This village has a special place in Azerbaijan's history. You are well aware that the Jojug Marjanli village was under the Armenian occupation only for a few months. The Armenian occupation forces completely destroyed the village and destroyed all the buildings in a few months," he said. The president added that the village is a living proof of atrocities committed by Armenians. He reminded that thanks to the successful military operation Horadiz, held under the leadership of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in December 1993, more than 20 villages were liberated from the Armenian occupation, including the Jojug Marjanli village, and Horadiz settlement todays Horadiz city. However, living here was risky, dangerous. Despite this, the Haziyevs lived here. In April of the previous year, when the Armenian military provocation was prevented, the Azerbaijani army conducted a successful counteroffensive operation and liberated thousands of hectares of Azerbaijani land. Thousands of hectares of Aghdere, Fuzuli, Jabrayil districts were liberated and today, the Azerbaijani army controls tens of thousands of hectares of land, said the president. The head of state noted that living safely in the Jojug Marjanli village became possible after the Lele Tepe height was reclaimed. In late last year, when I was in this region, on Lele Tepe, in the lands liberated from occupation, during my meeting with servicemen, I asked whether it is possible today to live in Jojug Marjanli in safety or not. I was told that this is possible, said President Aliyev. A relevant decree was signed in January this year, funds were allocated from the Presidents Reserve Fund and construction work started on March 20, He added that the construction work lasted only for two months from March 20 to May 20. All this construction work was carried out in front of your eyes. This is indeed a historic event. A part of the village was restored during the two months. Fifty houses, a school, a mosque were built at the first stage, noted the head of state. A mosque looking like the Shusha mosque was built in Jojug Marjanli, said President Aliyev, adding that a road was built from Horadiz to Jojug Marjanli. Nearly 100, maybe even more houses will be built in the village in the next stage, added the president. President Aliyev said a medical center will be built and additional measures will be taken in order to create jobs in Jojug Marjanli. This is the history of the Jojug Marjanli village a glorious history indeed. The village that suffered from occupation has been restored. Azerbaijan has liberated a part of its lands from occupants. This is really a historic event, noted the president. President Aliyev voiced confidence that the future of the Jojug Marjanli village will be successful and happy, and the village will revive even more after the return of its residents. Today we are on the eve of the Salvation Day. The Salvation Day is a turning point in modern history of Azerbaijan, the president noted. President Aliyev said stability was restored and development started in Azerbaijan as a result of return of National Leader Heydar Aliyev to power, adding todays Azerbaijan is a country standing out on a global scale. President Aliyev said that today the Azerbaijani army is among the strong armies in the world and the April battles once again demonstrated that. We and the Azerbaijani public knew that. But the April battles clearly showed to the whole world and the enemy that today the Azerbaijani state is ready and capable to restore its territorial integrity, added the president. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Elena Kosolapova Trend: The next round of talks on the new strategic partnership agreement between the European Union and Azerbaijan is planned to be held in July, Denis Daniilidis, first counselor of the EU Embassy in Azerbaijan, told reporters in Baku June 14. It has not been yet determined whether the talks will be held in Baku or Brussels, according to Daniilidis. He reminded that the second round of negotiations was held on June 13-14. Daniilidis noted that the negotiations were very successful and good progress was made in the talks. He said there is good will in both sides to reach an agreement quicker and both sides are ready for compromises. The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan in November 2016. The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today. The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighborhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan. Sebastian Romero, a baby born four months ago without a functioning immune system, has been discharged from Texas Children's Hospital, weeks earlier than expected. Doctors had said the baby would likely need to spend up to another month in isolation at the hospital after receiving a stem cell transplant from his mother last month. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: Azerbaijan and the EU plan to finish negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement before the EU summit, to be held by late 2017. This was stated at the meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Luc Devigne, director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia and OSCE of the European External Action Service, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said June 14. A delegation led by Devigne is now on a visit in Azerbaijan to attend the next round of negotiations on the agreement. During the meeting, the sides expressed satisfaction with the constructive and intensive course of negotiations. At this stage, the talks are ongoing on cooperation in the political and trade spheres. In the upcoming June 16 talks, various aspects of cooperation, in particular in transportation, trade, communications, etc. will be discussed. A delegation headed by EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn will visit Baku to participate in the negotiations. The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan in November 2016. The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today. The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighborhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan. A longtime teacher in the San Antonio Independent School District, Margaret Glenn Pruitt Emery loved her work. She took her responsibilities as a teacher and to the students very seriously, longtime friend and colleague Ann Vargas said. She felt a very deep responsibility to nurture their minds and hearts to be all they could be. Teaching ninth-grade English at Cooper Junior High School, Emery moved to Lanier High School when the ninth grade swtiched from the junior high to the high school level. Emery also was involved with the students her husband taught while he was a band director at Jefferson High School, accompanying young musicians to Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles to perform. More Information Margaret Glenn Pruitt Emery Born: May 22, 1918, Owensboro, Kentucky Died: June 8, 2017, San Antonio Preceded by: Husband Kenneth Charles Emery. Survived by: Kenneth C. "Ken" Emery Jr. and daughter-in-law Esther, and Robert Duke "Bob" Emery and daughter-in-law Alison; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren. Services: Visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, funeral at 11 a.m. Saturday, both at Porter Loring Mortuary, 1101 McCullough Ave. See More Collapse It was an active band, her son Kenneth C. Ken Emery Jr. said. She kept up with the students and their parents for many years. Emery, who celebrated her 99th birthday in May, died June 8. Raised in Owensboro, Kentucky, Emery had a happy childhood, despite growing up during the Depression. She later traded stories with Vargas, who was raised in the same town, though decades later. She loved to talk about living in Owensboro, Vargas said. I got to see the city through her eyes; she was so happy there. After graduating from the University of Kentucky with a degree in education focusing on physical education and English, Emery was teaching in Illinois when she met her future husband, who was the schools band director. In those days, they were forbidden to date other faculty members, Ken Emery said. Still, the couple prevailed and married in 1942. Emery stayed in Illinois when her husband, who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was sent to what later became Lackland AFB. Joining him at the base in 1944 after he was diagnosed with rheumatic fever, Emery and her husband fell in love with San Antonio and never left, Ken Emery said. Once settled in the Jefferson High School area after her husbands discharge, Emery stayed at home with their two sons until they were older, then returned to teaching in the 1950s. It was about the same time she developed an interest in magic while helping her son learn about it. Years later she started doing magic herself, mainly after she retired, Ken Emery said. She would perform a few tricks at club presentations. mheidbrink@express-news.net We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. One of the most prestigious spare parts yards in New Zealand can be found on Clayden Road, between Warkworth and Matakana. The business, RJR Spares, owned by Rob Waters, sells both new and used parts for Jaguars, Daimler, MGF, Rovers and Land Rovers. It began more than 50 years ago as a part-time effort between Des Waters and Jim Martin, who were both mechanics in Warkworth. They worked from Jims garage on Matakana Road, salvaging parts from used vehicles and selling them on. The business was originally called Rodney Wreckers and moved to its current site on Clayden Road in 1963, when the men turned it into a full-time venture. Initially, parts were taken from all cars, but Des had a passion for Jaguars and Jim for Rovers, so they decided to specialise in what they saw as a gap in the market. In 1995, Des son Rob bought his fathers share and the name changed to Rodney Jaguar Rover Spares. Seven years ago Ken Marsh, who had bought Jims share, passed away leaving Rob as the sole owner of what is now RJR Spares, believed to be the largest seller of Jaguar parts in New Zealand. The business hasnt changed much over the years, but there have been plenty of changes in the market were in, Rob says. The biggest change came when Ford purchased Jaguar in 1990 and then developed the X-Type and S-Type models, which were designed to appeal to a larger market, rather than just the high-end market, which they had previously targeted. Originally, there were only about 20 places in the country dealing in Jaguars, but now there are a lot more with a lot more models being released. This means we have to work closely with our clients so we know exactly what they need because there are so many options. Rob says the technology has also changed rapidly over the years, although RJR Spares still sells parts they collected in the 1960s to classic car owners. Their range of second-hand parts has grown, with most of them sourced from vehicles that have been written off and sold at auction. Rob says initially Rover parts were the most prominent part of the business, but following the collapse of Rover and the growing popularity of Jaguar the demand has changed. RJR Spares sells predominantly across New Zealand, but does get overseas requests as well. Details added (first version posted on 17:30) Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: Today is the day of restoration of the Jojug Marjanli village, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev during his visit to the village and meeting with Ogtay Haziyevs family members. Today is a significant day, historic day in the life of our country," noted President Aliyev. "Today is the day of restoration of the Jojug Marjanli village. I congratulate you and the all Azerbaijani people on this wonderful event. The restoration of the Jojug Marjanli village is a historic event. You, as the people living in this village, know its history well. Now the whole Azerbaijan knows the history of the Jojug Marjanli village. The whole world knows Jojug Marjanli. This village has a special place in Azerbaijan's history. You are well aware that the Jojug Marjanli village was under the Armenian occupation only for a few months. The Armenian occupation forces completely destroyed the village and destroyed all the buildings in a few months," he said. The president added that the village is a living proof of atrocities committed by Armenians. He reminded that thanks to the successful military operation Horadiz, held under the leadership of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in December 1993, more than 20 villages were liberated from the Armenian occupation, including the Jojug Marjanli village, and Horadiz settlement todays Horadiz city. However, living here was risky, dangerous. Despite this, the Haziyevs lived here. In April of the previous year, when the Armenian military provocation was prevented, the Azerbaijani army conducted a successful counteroffensive operation and liberated thousands of hectares of Azerbaijani land. Thousands of hectares of Aghdere, Fuzuli, Jabrayil districts were liberated and today, the Azerbaijani army controls tens of thousands of hectares of land, said the president. The head of state noted that living safely in the Jojug Marjanli village became possible after the Lele Tepe height was reclaimed. In late last year, when I was in this region, on Lele Tepe, in the lands liberated from occupation, during my meeting with servicemen, I asked whether it is possible today to live in Jojug Marjanli in safety or not. I was told that this is possible, said President Aliyev. A relevant decree was signed in January this year, funds were allocated from the Presidents Reserve Fund and construction work started on March 20, He added that the construction work lasted only for two months from March 20 to May 20. All this construction work was carried out in front of your eyes. This is indeed a historic event. A part of the village was restored during the two months. Fifty houses, a school, a mosque were built at the first stage, noted the head of state. A mosque looking like the Shusha mosque was built in Jojug Marjanli, said President Aliyev, adding that a road was built from Horadiz to Jojug Marjanli. Nearly 100, maybe even more houses will be built in the village in the next stage, added the president. President Aliyev said a medical center will be built and additional measures will be taken in order to create jobs in Jojug Marjanli. This is the history of the Jojug Marjanli village a glorious history indeed. The village that suffered from occupation has been restored. Azerbaijan has liberated a part of its lands from occupants. This is really a historic event, noted the president. President Aliyev voiced confidence that the future of the Jojug Marjanli village will be successful and happy, and the village will revive even more after the return of its residents. Today we are on the eve of the Salvation Day. The Salvation Day is a turning point in modern history of Azerbaijan, the president noted. President Aliyev said stability was restored and development started in Azerbaijan as a result of return of National Leader Heydar Aliyev to power, adding todays Azerbaijan is a country standing out on a global scale. President Aliyev said that today the Azerbaijani army is among the strong armies in the world and the April battles once again demonstrated that. We and the Azerbaijani public knew that. But the April battles clearly showed to the whole world and the enemy that today the Azerbaijani state is ready and capable to restore its territorial integrity, added the president. The opening battle lines ahead of the next general election were drawn over the weekend as Fine Gael set its stall out to re-establish its Oireachtas presence in Longford. Heading up that offensive will be County Councillor Micheal Carrigy after the Ballinalee man secured the party's nomination at a selection convention last Friday night. The Ballinalee man clinched victory thanks to a 66 vote winning margin over fellow County Councillor Paul Ross. Around 500 or more party members lined the inner confines of the Longford Arms Hotel in a ballot which also took in an appearance from party leader and incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. And despite much of the media spotlight being foisted on the shoulders of the Dublin West TD, it was his north Longford party colleague who won the adulation of those watching on. Now, and with the welcoming cushion of a weekend to gather his thoughts, the father of three has set his sights on cementing his new found mandate between now and the next election. The campaign recommences from today, were his exact words some 72 hours after his electoral triumph was rubber-stamped. There is a lot of work to be done in Longford. But I am confident of doing that work to maintain and improve our services so that the Fine Gael party reclaims the seat it lost while at the same time improving our county and county town. For more, see pages 6-7. Voluntary organisations across the county are toasting the arrival of close to 170,000 in state funding this afternoon under the Government's CLAR programme. Office of Public Works Minister Kevin 'Boxer' Moran made the announcement earlier today, saying the investment would go a long way towards supporting rural communities across Longford. One of the biggest allocations, or 45,000 in total, is to go to Newtownforbes Tidy Towns for the construction and upgrading of footpaths which adjoin various community facilities. Another 19,000 is ring-fenced for Colmcille Community Centre to provide car parking facilities with over 15,500 going towards Edgeworthstown District Development Association for similarly designated works. Other notable recipients include Ballymahon Tidy Towns as they look to carry out improvements to a local boat club area. A few miles down the road, in nearby Abbeyshrule, Tidy Towns organisers are to secure monies for works at Newcastle Park car park as well as an aquaduct amenity area. Both bodies are to receive sums of 25,500 and 36,550 respectively. Mr Moran said the funding streams handed out would help underpin several small scale capital projects in areas that have experienced significant levels of depopulation. "CLAR is a very important programme for communities in remote parts of rural Ireland and its benefit cannot be underestimated as it is all about improving the lives of people who go about their daily lives," said the Longford-Westmeath TD. Details of the latest round of government backed funding comes barely two weeks after 83,000 was distributed to various groups across Longford under the same programme. For more on this story, see next week's Longford Leader. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Seasonal & Current Events By Long Island News & PR Published: June 14 2017 Sparklers may be legal, but are still dangerous; FASNY advises against using them. Long Island, NY June 14, 2017 The Fourth of July is rapidly approaching and with it, the time-honored tradition of patriotic firework displays. The Firemens Association of the State of New York (FASNY) urges New Yorkers not to use fireworks or other similar devices themselves, but instead to leave them to the professionals. New York State recently legalized the use of certain sparkling devices, and many counties now allow the sale of these types of fireworks. Despite their legalization, sparkling devices remain dangerous in amateur hands. According to a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) report, sparklers accounted for more than a quarter, or approximately 28 percent, of all fireworks injuries in 2014. Despite their relatively benign appearance, sparklers can be extremely dangerous. The tip of a sparkler burns at a temperature of nearly 2,000 degree Fahrenheit, which is as hot as a blow torch. Furthermore, nearly half of all fires reported on Independence Day were caused by fireworks or similar devices. The misguided legalization of sparklers and other devices does not change the fact that fireworks and sparklers are extremely dangerous, said FASNY President Ken Pienkowski. Fireworks should only be used by professionals who have undergone the proper training and certification. There are countless, excellent fireworks displays across New York State, and FASNY urges all New Yorkers to enjoy these shows and avoid a serious injury over the holiday. In 2015, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that 67 percent of all fireworks-related injuries occurred in the month surrounding July 4, and that children and young adults under the age of 20 constituted 42 percent all those injured. For children under the age of five, sparklers accounted for 65 percent of the total number of injuries sustained. We hope everybody has a happy, safe Fourth of July. Should there be an emergency or unsafe situation, we urge New Yorkers to call 911 for help. Its better to be safe than sorry, said President Pienkowski. About FASNY Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Samir Ali Trend: Azerbaijans Armed Forces are completely ready to liberate the occupied Azerbaijani lands, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Nizam Osmanov said in Baku June 14. Osmanov recalled that in April 2016, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, preventing a provocation of Armenia, inflicted a crushing blow on it. This once again demonstrated the power of the Azerbaijani army, he noted. Today, the Azerbaijani flag flies in our territories liberated in the April battles. The April battles demonstrated that the Azerbaijani people and state will never reconcile with aggression, and will restore the countrys territorial integrity at any cost, added Lieutenant-General Osmanov. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements. Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry had said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire. Police: Crooks Make Off with Over $30,000 in Tires, Rims from Westbury Fiat Dealership Local News, Crime By Long Island News & PR Published: June 14 2017 An unknown number of subjects broke into the parking lot and removed a total of 20 tires with rims from vehicles, officials report. NCPD are investigating Grand Larceny that occurred on Tuesday, June 13, in Westbury. Westbury, NY June 14, 2017 The Third Squad is investigating Grand Larceny that occurred on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 2:50 am in The Third Squad is investigating Grand Larceny that occurred on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 2:50 am in Westbury According to detectives, an unknown subject (s) did enter the property of Westbury Fiat located at 928 Jericho Turnpike through a hole in a chain linked fence on Waterbury Road. The subjects (s) did remove a total of 20 tires with rims from at least 6 vehicles using a floor jack leaving the vehicles elevated on cinder blocks that caused damage. The subject fled on foot in an unknown direction. The floor jack was later recovered on the property. The total loss and damage is in excess of $30,000 thousand dollars in US currency. There is no description of the person (s). Local News, Health & Wellness, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: June 14 2017 Brooks: "Far too many lives have been lost on the Southern State Parkway." Albany, NY June 14, 2017 On Tuesday evening, the New York State Senate passed legislation that directs the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) to conduct a study of the Southern State Parkway. Senator Brooks, a co-sponsor of this legislation, carries a similar bill in the Senate (S.4541). Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Brooks said, Far too many lives have been lost on the Southern State Parkway. The configuration of ramps and signs on the parkway pose a serious risk to drivers, and a study is needed in order to assess these problems so that we can modernize and upgrade the parkway. As one of Long Islands most heavily traveled roads, a fatality occurs every other month on the Southern State Parkway largely due to antiquated exit and entrance ramps and poor signage. This legislation seeks to identify solutions and correct these problems to prevent collisions and the instances of wrong-way drivers on the Southern State Parkway. This study would evaluate design and safety of entrance and exit ramps and the visibility of signage, while identifying federal funding that may be available for highway safety improvements. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: June 14 2017 Francine Goldstein Honored by NY State Senate for Tirelessly Fundraising Against AIDS. Long Island, NY June 14, 2017 Senator John Brooks presented the New York State Liberty Medal to Francine Goldstein of North Senator John Brooks presented the New York State Liberty Medal to Francine Goldstein of North Merrick on Thursday evening. The New York State Liberty Medal award program is the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed by a Member of the New York State Senate upon a resident of New York State. Ms. Goldstein was recognized for her selfless commitment to fighting the AIDS virus after it claimed the life of a dear friend nearly three decades ago. Over the past 28 years, Ms. Goldstein has raised more than half a million dollars individually. Senator Brooks remarked, Francine Goldstein is an unsung hero who grasps onto a life mission to help others, not for glory or profit, but to alleviate suffering and provide assistance to others who might otherwise be uncared for. Francine's selflessness and consideration of others is something to be admired and respected. I am proud to recognize her remarkable commitment and accomplishment. Ms. Goldstein said, I was really thrilled that Senator Brooks was kind enough to recognize me for the work that I have done for AIDS Walk New York over the past 29 years. John knew the story of the friend that I had lost and the promise that I made to her that I would prevent others from suffering the way that she did. I thank the Senator for being just as caring and dedicated to the community that he serves. We need more people like him in public service that truly care about the needs of their constituents. US special forces and fighters from Maghaweir al Thowra at the Tanf border crossing in late May. Photos released by a news outlet affiliated to a Free Syrian Army-branded group show that US special forces have been conducting joint patrols in southern Syria near the Al Tanf crossing. The position of these troops has been the catalyst for US airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in the area in recent weeks. Hammurabis Justice News, a news outlet affiliated with Maghaweir al Thowra (MaT), has released several photos and videos in recent weeks showing US special forces conducting joint patrols with the group. In addition, several photos show fighters from MaT and American troops guarding the Al Tanf border crossing with Iraq. Special forces from other allied countries are likely featured in some photos, as British and Norwegian special forces are also in the area. According to the commander of MaT, around 150 US special forces are stationed with the group near Tanf. The commander also said that five other countries have troops stationed with MaT, including two Arab states. MaT is the current incarnation of the New Syrian Army, formed with US support in 2015. After failing to respond to US warning shots and Russian dissuasion, a pro-regime convoy last month was struck by US airstrikes as it approached within 25 kilometers of a US deconfliction zone northwest of the Tanf base. Initially withdrawing following the US strike, the Iranian-directed militias have continued to hold positions near Tanf. A couple weeks later, another airstrike occurred in the same area on more Iranian-backed groups. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Iran tests the US in southeastern Syria.] Last week, US warplanes shot down a pro-regime drone near Tanf. These strikes, as well as the heavy presence of Iranian-backed militias from Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, has forced the US to deploy long-range artillery to Tanf. According to CNN, the US military moved a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) from Jordan into Syrian territory. The deployment is likely meant to dissuade the Iranian-backed militias from targeting US troops. Regime forces, alongside its Iranian-controlled allies, recently circled around the Tanf area to reach the Iraqi border. The maneuver allowed the regime to reach the Iraqi border without confronting US troops and several Free Syrian Army-branded groups in the area. However, these forces continue to pose a threat, as the US-led coalition recently stated: The demonstrated hostile intent and actions of pro-regime forces near coalition and partner forces in southern Syria continue to concern us, and the coalition will take appropriate measures to protect our forces. Pro-regime forces are attempting to conquer territory, reach the besieged Deir Ezzor, check the expansion of US-backed forces in southern and eastern Syria and connect a land supply route to Iraq. These movements raise the risk of further clashes with the US. This risk will be further raised if the coalition, alongside local forces, move to dislodge the Islamic State near Abu Kamal further along the border area in Deir Ezzor. Photos released by Hammurabis Justice and MaT showing US and coalition forces in southern Syria: Videos: Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. A Lebanese Hezbollah media arm released a photo of Irans Revolutionary Guard Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani today by the Syrian border with Iraq. On Monday, Tasnim News Agency a propaganda outlet affiliated with the Guard Corps posted photos of Soleimani allegedly by the Iraqi border in Syria. The precise location and date of these photos are unclear. The promotion of the Iranian generals recent photos underscore the importance of operations in the Iraq-Syria border area to the Islamic Republic as the Islamic States territorial hold collapses. Soleimani was previously spotted in Tehran late last month. Prior to that, he was photographed close to the Syrian border in northwest Iraq, according to social media posts and Iranian media outlets. In the latest picture, Soleimani was seen giving a prayer of gratitude in desert and visiting Afghan Fatemiyoun Division militiamen under his command, according to Tasnim. This unit has been operating near the Coalition military base at Tanf, and has assisted pro-regime forces in offensives near Palmyra in central Syria and toward the Iraqi border. Several Iranian-backed militias have taken photos by the Iraqi border in Syria as they move toward that front. These militias included the Iraqi Ansar Allah al Awfiya in Iraq and Syria, al Jihad Companies and the Seyyed al Shuhada Brigades. The Iraqi Imam Ali Brigades, Harakat al Abdal and Harakat al Nujaba have also been spotted on that front. These groups are members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which was enshrined into a permanent security institution in Iraq last year, thus technically making these militias Iraqi security forces that are de facto allied with the US in Iraq. The Syrian Imam al Baqir Brigade and the Sayida Roqaya Brigade have deployed to the southeastern Syrian front, as well. Lebanese Hezbollah has furthermore deployed some forces to that front, according to Guard-affiliated media. Last week, pro-regime forces in Syria claimed they reached the Iraqi border northeast of the US Tanf base, just outside the deconfliction zone. According to pro-regime claims, US forces agreed to Russias request to reach al Boudah village by the border, and US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA)-branded forces withdrew from the area. The Russian defense ministry released a map of pro-regime forces reaching the Iraqi border (right), and a Syrian propaganda outlet published images of several soldiers raising the Syrian regime flag. Russia has also deployed assets there, as reflected in yesterdays statement by Defense Secretary James Mattis before the Senate. The pro-regime forces presence and line of communication is more tenuous than the pro-regime propaganda claims. General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied before the Senate yesterday that pro-regime forces have encircled US forces in Tanf: We still have freedom of movement outside of the Tanf area we are not limited from moving up toward the Euphrates River valley, according to comments carried in Stripes. Later in the day, CNN citing US officials reported the deployment of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) from Jordan to Tanf, boosting US combat power. The tactical circumstances surrounding the latest pro-regime movements toward the Iraqi border are thus far unclear, and the situation on the ground is very fluid. Iran and the pro-regime alliance are attempting to maximize their gains in the Iraq-Syria border area. In Iraq, the PMF last month reached the border with Syria in the northwestern countryside and is moving southward toward the Qaim-Albukamal border crossing in west Anbar province. Meanwhile, pro-regime forces in Syria have launched offensives in southern and central Syria. They seek to reach the besieged Deir Ezzor, capture a major border crossing into Iraq and deny territory to US and US-backed forces. That is reflected in announcements and a map released by Guard-affiliated Mashregh News, which boasts that linking forces and especially the capture of the Qaim-Albukamal crossing would re-establish a land route from Tehran to the Levant for the first time in 6 years, facilitating the movement of manpower and materiel. If successful and this is a big if at this time a viable land crossing between Iraq and Syria would complement Irans air bridge to Syria, though achieving and holding that faces significant hurdles, such as a potential US-backed advancement into Deir Ezzor by the Iraqi border. In the past month, the US has struck pro-regime forces including Iranian-backed militias three times and has downed an Iranian Shahed-129 drone inside the US deconfliction zone. In the US militarys latest announcement on the clashes in Tanf, it stated that it sought to de-escalate and only focus on the campaign against the Islamic State, though warned about the risk of escalation as long as pro-regime forces are oriented toward coalition and partner forces. That statement makes sense. As the US calibrates its anti-Islamic State strategy in eastern Syria and pro-regime forces challenge the US in a bid to gain territory, the risk of further clashes persists. Amir Toumaj is a independent analyst and contributor to FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. The US State Department officially designated the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI) jihadist group as a foreign terrorist organization yesterday. The group was formed in 2000 and has ties to al Qaeda. States designation noted that MMI has conducted attacks in Indonesia, including claiming responsibility for a May 2012 attack at the book launch of Canadian author Irshad Manji; the attack left three attendees hospitalized. In addition, State explained that MMI was formed by Abu Bakar Bashir, a co-founder of Jemaah Islamiyya (JI), al Qaedas regional affiliate. Bashir left the group in 2008 and helped form another splinter group, Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT). Shortly after Abu Bakr Baghdadis announcement of the caliphate in 2014, Bashir pledged allegiance to Baghdadi on behalf of himself and JAT. However, Bashirs two sons and several other leaders left and formed their own group, Jemaah Ansharusy Syariah. According to the Jakarta Post, more than 50 percent of Bashirs followers abandoned him and joined Jemaah Ansharusy Syariah. It is directly part of al Qaedas global network now, according to its leader. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Islamic State launches suicide assault in Indonesias capital.] Mochammad Achwan, the emir of Jemaah Ansharusy Syariah, has also said that his group receives its orders from our respected clerics in JN [Jabhat al Nusrah, al Qaedas official branch in Syria], and we have supported the group in many ways. States designation notes that MMI also supports Al Nusrah, now part of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS). Indonesians are known to hold ranks in both HTS and Baghdadis Islamic State. Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. The US has reportedly killed a senior commander for the Haqqani Network in a drone strike in northwest Pakistan yesterday. If confirmed, the strike is the fourth recorded in Pakistan so far this year. Pakistani officials told The Express Tribune that US unmanned aerial vehicles fired two missiles at a compound owned by Abu Bakar Haqqani in the district of Hangu in Pakistans Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Abu Bakar and two close aides from the Afghan province of Paktika were killed in the attack. The Haqqani Network is an integral part of the Taliban, and is closely allied with both al Qaeda and Pakistans Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate. The networks leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is also one of two deputy emirs of the Afghan Taliban. Afghan officials accused the Haqqani Network of detonating the massive truck bomb in Kabuls diplomatic quarters that killed more than 150 people, including mostly civilians, on May 31. The Taliban and Sirajuddin have denied involvement in the Kabul attack multiple times. The US has targeted the Haqqani Network in Hangu at least one other time in the past several years. On Nov. 21, 2013, US drones hit a seminary in Tal in Hangu where Haqqani Network leaders had gathered. At least six Haqqani commanders were reportedly killed. Sirajuddin is believed to have been the target of the strike. Haqqani Network leadership has been targeted numerous times during the US drone campaign in Pakistan, which began in 2004 but was ramped up in 2008 under President George W. Bush. The US has killed 13 Haqqani Commanders, according to data compiled by FDDs Long War Journal. Among those killed were Badruddin Haqqani, Sirajuddins brother and a top deputy; Jan Baz Zadran, the groups third in command; Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a senior military commander who was the Talibans shadow governor of Paktika; and Abdullah Haqqani, who coordinated and trained the groups suicide bombers. Fourth strike reported in Pakistan this year The June 13 strike is just the fourth bombing reported in Pakistan this year. It is also only the fourth since the US killed Afghan Taliban emir Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour in an airstrike in Baluchistan province in May 2016. In the most recent strike, on May 24, the US killed Abdullah, who was identified by the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan as a great master in electronics. Abdullah was associated with Akhtar Muhammad Khalil, the Talibans emir for North Waziristan. On March 2, US drones reportedly killed two jihadists as they rode on a motorcycle in the tribal agency of Kurram. An Afghan Taliban commander known as Qari Abdullah Subari is believed to have been killed in the strike, according to Reuters. And on Apr. 29, US drones reportedly killed al Qaeda commander Abdul Raheem. Drone strikes in Pakistan have tapered off significantly since the peak of operations against al Qaedas leadership and allied jihadist groups in 2010, when 117 strikes were recorded. In 2015, the US launched just 11 attacks. In 2016, there were only three more, including the one targeting Mansour in May 2016, which was the final one for the year, the last of President Obamas second term. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) hold a meeting dedicated to the Day of National Salvation of the Azerbaijani People, which is celebrated on June 15. The meeting gathered BHOS management, professors, teachers and staff members. Opening the gathering, BHOS Vice-rector for General Affairs Rashad Hasanov told about importance of this date in the modern history of Azerbaijan and the matchless services of the national leader Heydar Aliyev for creation and development of independent Azerbaijan state. June 15, 1993 went down to our history as National Salvation Day. It was difficult and tragic time for all true patriots of Azerbaijan witnessing the dangerous development of the events. The people saw the only way to salvation in Heydar Aliyev. During the difficult period, the national leader returned to power, restored stability in the country and carried out successful reforms in political, social and economic spheres. His contribution towards achievement of the state independence and further progress cannot be overestimate, said the Vice-Rector. Rashad Hasanov emphasized that the President of the Azerbaijan Republic is a worthy successor of the national leader Heydar Aliyev. Associate professor of BHOS English Language and Humanitarian Disciplines Centre Alamdar Shahverdiyev made a report about unknown aspects of Heydar Aliyev oil diplomacy and his role in developing and successful implementation of the national oil strategy. He emphasized that wise and forward-looking policy conducted by Heydar Aliyev made it possible to sign the Contract of the Century and laid the groundwork for the prosperity and successes of independent Azerbaijan. Third-year Process Automation Engineering student Pakiza Pashayeva made a speech about path of life and multifaceted activity of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people. In conclusion, a documentary film dedicated to Heydar Aliyev was shown. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: Azerbaijan was more popular among the CIS countries than Georgia for the Russian tourists in January-March 2017, says the popular tourist portal TurStat. According to TurStat, the number of trips from Russia to Azerbaijan increased to 6.7 million in January-March 2017 compared to 5.4 million trips in January-March 2016. Azerbaijan and Georgia remain the most popular destinations among Russian tourists. The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Turkey, Vietnam, the UAE and Thailand were the most popular beach destinations in January-March 2017. The Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and France are popular tourism destinations this year. Why on earth would you want to use your iPhones camera to scan a two-dimensional block-and-dot code? How could this possibly have a benefit worth the trouble? Why would Apple have any interest in building this in as an automatic feature within its Camera app? Ask folks in Chinaand Japan, where advertisers, handset makers, and cell carriers pioneered 2D codes over 15 years ago. Apple says its listening to the Chinese market in adding 2D code scanning, but the benefits will be there for users worldwide. Apples addition to iOS 11 will let you open URLs, add contacts, and even join Wi-Fi networks with just the Camera app plus a tap to confirm. While its common to ridicule QR codes, that was because of pure inconvenience. With ease, will usage grow? Code talking . This QR code will never give you up or let you down. Youve certainly seen 2D codes, which largely appear in the square QR code format pioneered in Japan. 2D codes get used on airline boarding passes, as part of your digital affinity card at Starbucks, or when using a smartphone ticket app at an event. 2D codes distribute binary data across black and white areas to make it easy for software to recognize and convert back into the original bits. Codes include extra data for error correction, because the assumption is that a physical object might be blurry, partly obscured, or have damage. The density is far higher than 1D conventional bar codes. Instead of several bytes, a 2D code can build in from tens to thousands of characters. IDG A third-party app available for years, QuickMark, works just fine, by requires a separate launch. Most QR codes you enter encode a URL, but all manner of data can be placed in one, and several standards have been set that allow contact information or Wi-Fi connection details including a password. Several sites let you convert your web address, text, or other information into a QR code. Google offers QR codes on its Google Charts developer site, which lets you embed a reference that the Google automatically converts into an image. Follow this link, for instance, and youll see an image load thats a QR code pointing to Macworld.com. No programming is neededjust a URL. Another site packages Wi-Fi details into the Android format that iOS 11 supports as well. In Japan, because of a partnership across advertising, phones, and cell networks, QR codes helped people access online resourcesespecially to grab coupons, follow ad links, and reach retail websitesbefore smartphones existed and web access was severely constrained. Even punching in an address was an ordeal. They took off for a different reason in China: before the relatively recent support for accessing a website using a name entirely in Han characters (a combined set of ideograms from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other languages), it was a real pain to punch in a URL. A QR code bypassed that, providing analog-to-digital glue. That was much less of an issue in America, Europe, and some other markets, and handset makers and carriers didnt opt in to several competing efforts to incorporate a QR code mode in camera apps or even automatic recognition. Without any native support, you needed to install a third-party app, and thats no path to full-scale adoption unless theres something incredibly compelling. Instagram was compelling; scanning QR codes to get a coupon not so much. Google decided QR codes were the bomb several years ago, and started using them with Google Play, some of its local branding for retail stores, and other products. Android didnt have native QR code support, but some phone makers offered various ways to scan them. Motorola added automated scanning in its camera app in August 2015, for instance. Unless you use a particular app that uses proprietary or single-category codes, like Walmarts for in-store payment or a second-factor authentication app, its possible youve never scanned a 2D code. In fact, theres a joke site created in 2012 called Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes. The joke? There are no photos. Why scan instead of typing? IDG When a QR code comes into the field of view of the camera, its recognized, and youre prompted that you can take action, like opening a URL. Integrating QR code automated recognition in iOS 11 solves the chicken-or-egg problem. While I saw and reported on spates of interest in 2D codes over the last eight years, they always fizzled because they required too much effort. Now, Apple provides an asymmetrical benefit: the feature, on by default, requires a user to do nothing, and its discoverable if you happen to hold your camera up and a QR code is anywhere in the frame. I expect many people will be surprised by it. Apple, like Motorola, has built in a safeguard. Scanning a QR code doesnt automatically take action on it. That would be horrific, because imagine people tagging things with unspeakable images reached by simply scanning. Instead, you get a preview of the URL in full, the contacts name or the Wi-Fi network, among other categories, and have to tap to proceed. Well likely see abuse of this, but because it requires a physical interaction, its unlikely to turn into a viral problem. Because many people take pictures of things simply to remember them, storing them in Evernote or just referring to a picture later, someone creating a poster, flyer, menu, receipt, or other visual design can just include a QR code as a bonus. With positive feedback, it can become a virtuous cycle, leading to customers asking businesses or clients telling designers to include a QR code for ease of use. (You cant clip from QR code in the Camera app directly to Evernoteit looks like it only opens Safari, Contacts, and a few other apps directly.) Some of the best uses of these codes Ive seen are site-specific ones, permanently installed, often in a subtle place, near a monument or location next to text information. This lets someone scan and pull up a wealth of information. On the advertising front, QR codes offer the benefit of trackingyes, real-world ad trackers! While a poster cant display a unique code for every person who views it, it can embed a source code. A point-of-sale or other device that displays codes can append tracking information. Catalogs and other mass-printed products can have laser-printed unique codes as well. While having a benefit for advertisers, its another privacy concern, too. I can also see this as a widely used way to ease access to a Wi-Fi network, as Android users have already found. A cafe could make friends by posting alongside its network name and password a QR code, avoiding users having to type in a password. The QR code reader in iOS 11 knows when its a WiFi network and offers to join. pic.twitter.com/pCHwGi1abF Dayton Lowell (@daytonlowell) June 5, 2017 I also havent found a way to exchange contact information that was as easy as an infrared passoff in Palm devices until now. Youll be able to show someone your contact information on a screen, print it a brochure, or put it on the back of a business card, and its just as easy as you texting or emailing them your contact card. Another good bit of glue, and maybe the death knell for business-card scanning hardware. Chinese consumers make huge use of QR codes to ease in-person payment. A consumer can scan a code from a merchant to then use a payment card in their phone or use a payment option to bring up a 2D code on screen that a merchant then scans. Walmart adopted a similar approach, which I tested last year and found surprisingly straightforward, even in one of the first days it had rolled out nationally after local tests. (The CurrentC system created by the MCX consortium of retailers trying to bypass credit-card fees had a similar, but much clunkier approach, and it failed to reach market.) Apple QR codes are among the several features aimed at the market in China. NFC touch-based payment systems like Apple Pay and Android Pay would seem to largely bypass the need for 2D codes at checkout, providing a similar analog-to-digital glue made through physical proximity. So its possible well never see that kind of use emerge at scale in the U.S., although NFC payment remains available at only a subset of all retail locations nationwide. 2D code payment can happen through a software upgrade to any point-of-sale system with a screen, while NFC requires new hardware. Apples integration would conceivably allow URL schemas tied to payment apps, thus allowing a Camera-based scan to ask if you want to open a URL in a given app, providing a simple workflow. Frictionless physical data Ive been expecting a QR code usage breakthrough for many years, because it felt like the utility they provided were enough of an advantage that Apple or Google would feel compelled to roll out it. They resisted, possibly because it seemed like a passing fad that AirDrop, NFC, and other technology would make it pointless. But the world of atoms is surprisingly persistent and effective. Despite my interest, Ive referred folks to the Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes Tumblr because its a good laugh. But now, I think its likely that it could start filling up with photos. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: Azerbaijan has signed a number of bilateral agreements on customs cooperation with the CIS countries. The signing ceremony was held in Baku as part of the 65th meeting of the heads of the customs bodies of the CIS countries. The Azerbaijani State Customs Committee signed agreements with customs bodies of Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The protocol on the exchange of preliminary information on goods and vehicles between the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee and the Federal Customs Service of Russia was signed by Aydin Aliyev, head of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, and Vladimir Bulavin, chairman of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. The protocol on cooperation in vocational training and professional development of personnel between the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee and the Kyrgyz State Customs Service was signed by Aydin Aliyev, head of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, and Azamat Suleymanov, head of the Kyrgyz Customs Service. Moreover, a protocol on cooperation and mutual assistance, as well as a protocol on the procedure for interaction in comparing the data of customs statistics on mutual trade between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were signed. Sources say Klaus Grabinski, president of the UPCs Court of Appeal, is known for his engaged approach and for always doing his homework Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: Unrecognized countries cannot be admitted to international organizations, Aydin Aliyev, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, said on the sidelines of the 65th meeting of heads of the CIS customs bodies in Baku June 14. Aliyev was commenting on Kosovo's accession to the World Customs Organization (WCO). He added that Kosovo's accession to the WCO is being discussed at today's meeting because this issue will be raised at the WCO meeting next month. This issue is one of the main issues at todays meeting, he said According to Azerbaijans and Russias positions, the unrecognized countries cannot be admitted to international organizations. Improving the legal framework in the customs sphere and transit cargo transportation will also be discussed at the meeting, he said. Moreover, a number of bilateral agreements, including those between Azerbaijan and Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, will be signed following the meeting, Aydin Aliyev said. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: Saeed Mohammadzadeh, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, and Javid Gurbanov, head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, during their meeting in Tehran have signed an agreement within the framework of the Construction and operation of [Iranian] Astara loading and unloading terminal project, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC said in a message June 14. The agreement provides for the construction of a 1.4-km long railway line and four terminals with high transshipment capacities on the Iranian territory with the support of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC. In accordance with the document, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC will rent the above-mentioned railway line for a period of 15 years, and terminals - for 25 years. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Javid Gurbanov and Saeed Mohammadzadeh noted that this project will serve to strengthen the two countries ties, as well as transit and economic potential in the railway sector and will also give impetus to attracting freight traffic in this direction. At the meeting, the sides discussed the current state of the International North-South Transport Corridor Project. They noted the acceleration of work after the laying of an 82.5-meter railway bridge across the Astara River on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border April 20, 2016. In shortest time, a single-track railway was built from Astara station (Azerbaijan) to the Iranian border and the bridge itself, along which a test train was launched across the Azerbaijani-Iranian border. It was also reported that currently, construction of a railway station and an unloading terminal on the territory of 35 hectares in Irans Astara continues. During the Obama Administration, the Department of Justice adopted a troubling practice of settling lawsuits by requiring companies to donate huge amounts of money to organizations that were not directly affected by the allegations in the lawsuit. This policy permitted unelected bureaucrats to select groups of their liking to receive huge sums from corporations found having done something wrong, allowing nongovernment groups to receive millions of dollars without authorization or oversight from Congress. The previous Administration did it many times. In fact, the House Judiciary and Financial Services Committees found nearly a billion dollars were given to activist groups via these mandatory donations in the last two years. In the Senate, a 2016 report examined DOJ settlements in the housing industry, after financial institutions were accused of contributing to the housing bubble. Some financial institutions, such as Bank of America and Citibank, were found to have done wrong. They were targeting low income people with mortgages they knew they couldnt afford, sometimes called predatory lending, and then sold these mortgages to investors without disclosing the risk. The Senate report cited that through a settlement, Citibank and Bank of America were required to donate money to several groups, including millions to National Council of La Raza. This report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs says, The National Council of La Raza, in particular, has had a particularly checkered history. The group has garnered attention from some lawmakers as being particularly extreme in its views on immigrationwith some suggesting that La Raza promotes illegal immigration and advocates for benefits and drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. The report also says that Congress specifically removed funding to these groups, but DOJ basically restored the funding, by requiring Bank of America and Citigroup to donate a combined $30 million. DOJ decided to direct the funds to these activist groups, instead of finding ways to get the money directly to the victims. The settlement did not even give Congress the right to oversee how these groups spend the money they receive from the Bank of America and Citigroup donations, thus allowing groups to advance an agenda of their own. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced this settlement practice will be prohibited going forward. When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced the new policy. Unfortunately, in recent years the Department of Justice has sometimes required or encouraged defendants to make these payments to third parties as a condition of settlement. With this directive, we are ending this practice and ensuring that settlement funds are only used to compensate victims, redress harm, and punish and deter unlawful conduct. I agree! In fact, Congress should pass a law making it clear this is our national policy. If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. Morgan Griffith serves as the representative for Virginias 5th District in the U.S. House In Defence of Marxism is committed to safeguarding your privacy. At all times we aim to respect any personal data you share with us, or that we receive from other organisations, and keep it safe. This Privacy Policy (Policy) sets out our data collection and processing practices and your options regarding the ways in which your personal information is used. This Policy contains important information about your personal rights to privacy. 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Please let us know if you have any queries or concerns whatsoever about the way in which your data is being processed by emailing the Data Protection Manager at webmaster@marxist.com Marea Socialista states that the main problem facing Venezuela is the authoritarian shift of the Maduro government. Starting from a wrong premise they reach conclusions which are completely mistaken and put them on the wrong side of the barricade. Lets see. [This article was published by Lucha de Clases, the International Marxist Tendency in Venezuela, on May 24, as a response to the political position of Marea Socialista (Socialist Tide)an organisation which was part of the PSUV until recentlyregarding the current crisis in Venezuela] What is happening in Venezuela is clear: a sustained and concerted effort to overthrow the Maduro government by force in order to install a direct government of the oligarchy (capitalists, bankers, and landowners) under imperialist tutelage. If such a government were to come to power (whether through elections or an insurrection), that would be an unmitigated disaster for the working class and the people and their organisations. Such a government would implement a brutal austerity package as well as carry out an assault on democratic freedoms and a violent campaign against the workers and peoples movement activists. In this context it is clear what revolutionaries (and more broadly, democrats) must do: denounce and oppose by all means this counter-revolutionary offensive. As well as this, it is legitimate and necessary to criticise, in the strongest possible terms, the policy of the Maduro government, which is insufficient and even counterproductive in facing up to this offensive (making concessions to the capitalists on the economic front, and suffocating the revolutionary initiative of the masses on the political front). We dont necessarily have to agree on the latter in order to struggle in a united front for the former. However, the position of the comrades from Marea Socialista starts from a wrong analysis and therefore proceeds to draw wrong conclusions which put them in the camp of the counter-revolution. Marea Socialista states that the central point of the situation in Venezuela is the deepening of the totalitarian course of the government. From this they draw the conclusion that in 2017 the priority, from our point of view, is to confront the totalitarian course which the government is following through the widest unity in action (from which they do not exclude anyone, and therefore we assume it also includes the opposition) for which all sorts of actions should be developed: local, national, and international. Nowhere in their statement there is any criticism of the attempted coup by the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). They are only criticised for their erratic, vacillating, and powerless policy and the statements seems to lament that it becomes very difficult to understand how experienced politicians, backed by powerful international and local operators, with the cooperation of an important section of the anti-Chavista intellectuals, have, in less than a year, wasted such an overwhelming electoral victory. Finally, the Marea Socialista statement criticises reaction, not for wanting to overthrow the government and install one of brutal austerity against the workers, but rather, because a section of this leadership is prepared to make a deal with the government in order to improve its position in the sharing out of the national income. All the quotes above come from the Marea Socialista statement on March 27. It could be said that at that time the current offensive of the counter-revolution had not yet started (it was unleashed with the excuse of the Supreme Court rulings on the last week in March). But a later statement by Marea Socialista about the convening of the Constituent Assembly is not better, but worse, and follows exactly the same political line. Again, in this statement they do not say a word about the offensive of the counter-revolution and imperialism, but limit themselves to criticising some actions of foco-ist [vanguardist] groups, or possible trained sharpshooters, which act under the cover of the MUD leadership, but at the same time they centre their argument on without any doubt we defend the right of self-defence exercised by the demonstrators when the state violates the exercise of citizens rights. Falsifying the truth, they state that the majority of those killed, unarmed youth and women, have been killed as part of demonstrations which were exercising the legitimate right to protest. Furthermore they point at the state as the main culprit for violence: This constant violation is the main feature of authoritarian regimes which move to totalitarianism, and is one of the main factors which whips up violence. But perhaps the most scandalous case is that of the Merida Marea Socialista statement regarding those who were killed on April 24 in this Andean city. What happened there was that sharpshooters from within the ranks of the opposition protesters killed two people who were part of a Bolivarian rally against the opposition. One of them was a regional government worker, the other a crime investigator, who was also employed by the (Chavista) regional government. The Merida Marea Socialista statement about these events does not even mention foco-ist groups nor possible trained sharpshooters . . . under the cover of the MUD leadership. No, the statement blames the events on . . . the governor of Merida! Scandalously, the statement describes the reactionary opposition protests as the intervention of the Merida people to raise their voice against the national policies, and in order to sort out in practice the repression of participatory and protagonistic democracy which is viciously been violated by the higher body [the national electoral council]. The incident in which workers of the regional government were shot at is described as a violent delay [sic] which by chance resulted in one person dead and four wounded by gunfire, all of them workers of the regional government, according to the governor. BY CHANCE!! Opposition sharpshooters fire on a group of workers, but they are killed BY CHANCE! The statement then proceeds to accuse those killed of being paramilitaries, in order to justify their assassination: the citizens must ask themselves if the Merida State Governorship has changed its address to the aforementioned area, or this group of five belong to the terrorists or the killer collectives which have been threatening people throughout Merida with their motorbikes, armed with weapons, and there is no moral authority to sanction these paramilitary activities, or perhaps these armed gangs belong to the government? Just in case, to cover themselves, they finally blame the governor: If these state workers were in this high risk area, it has to be highlighted . . . under which interests were they in this high risk area. So, those responsible for the killings were not the opposition sharpshooters who fired the bullets who killed the workers, but the regional government workers for being in the line of fire (!!), or the governor, for putting them in that high risk place. At this point one doubts if Marea Socialista members should be addressed as comrades any more. In reality they have put themselves on the wrong side of the barricade. Those who know the opinions of the author of this article are aware of the fact that I am a fierce critic of the policies of the [Venezuelan] government. Not just now, but for a long timeprecisely because I think that the policies of the government, instead of pushing the revolution forward towards socialism, set it back. In many of these criticisms it is possible that we agree with Marea Socialista. But it is one thing to criticise the government and its policies; it is quite another to ignore that there is a counter-revolutionary offensive with the aim of overthrowing it and replacing it with a government which, far from improving the situation, would make it a thousand times worse, from the point of view of the working class and the people. In this battle we are not neutral. We cannot be neutral. It would be like if in Spain in March 1936 one would argue that it does not make a difference, that we support neither the government of the Republic, which represses workers, nor the fascists who conspire to carry out a coup. Worse still, it would like if in Spain 1936 we said nothing about the preparations of the ruling class to carry out a coup, and at the same time concentrated our fire against the government of the Republic. Leon Trotsky, whose writings we are convinced some in Marea Socialista must have read, was a fierce critic of the Spanish Popular Front government in 1936, during the Second Republic. He criticised it for maintaining bourgeois property of the land and the economy, for stopping the revolutionary initiative of the workers, for attempting to conciliate with the bourgeoisie, for its class collaborationist policy, etc. But Trotsky did not have a neutral attitude regarding the reactionary assault and the military fascist uprising which followed it. In his statement to the Dewey Commission, which investigated the Moscow Trials, Trotsky was specifically asked about this question. This was his answer: With whom would you side at the present time in Spain? TROTSKY: I gave the answer in many interviews and articles. Every Trotskyite in Spain must be a good soldier, on the side of the Left. Naturally, it is so elementary a question you know it is not worth discussing. A leader or any other member in the Government of Caballero is a traitor. A leader of the working class cannot enter the bourgeois government. We did not enter the Government of Kerensky in Russia. While we defended Kerensky against Kornilov, we did not enter his Government. As I declared that I am ready to enter into an alliance with Stalin against the fascists, or an alliance with Jouhaux against the French fascists. It is an elementary question. In his response, Trotsky mentions the Kornilov offensive in Russia during the 1917 revolution. Trotsky, like Lenin, opposed the Kerensky government, which was a class collaborationist government, backed by the reformists within the labour movement. It was a government unable to satisfy the demands of the masses who had carried out the February Revolution. In fact, the policy of the government was precisely the opposite: it continued with the imperialist war, it refused to give the land to the peasants, etc. But when General Kornilov, in August 1917, attempted to overthrow that government, with the aim of restoring the old regime, a direct dictatorship of the ruling class, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate, nor did they take a neutral position. Without giving any political support to Kerensky, without ceasing their opposition to his policies, they put themselves in a united front with Kerensky against Kornilov. We shall fight, we are fighting against Kornilov, just as Kerenskys troops do, but we do not support Kerensky. On the contrary, we expose his weakness. There is the difference. It is rather a subtle difference, but it is highly essential and must not be forgotten. Unfortunately, the comrades from Marea Socialista seem to have learnt nothing from Lenin or Trotsky. Perhaps they think that there is no difference between a government of Maduro and a government of the MUD. Or worse, perhaps they think that the main enemy to fight is Maduros government. In fact, they are letting themselves be influenced by the pressure of petty bourgeois public opinion, and that pushes them into a position in which objectively they are on the wrong side of the barricade. If the MUD comes to power, it is likely that the repression it will unleash will not distinguish between Chavistas and critical Chavistas (as they, wrongly, describe themselves). Those who support Marea Socialista abroad and publish their statements without any comment, are also responsible for this criminal political line. Details added (first version posted on 11:37) Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: Azerbaijan has signed a number of bilateral agreements on customs cooperation with the CIS countries. The signing ceremony was held in Baku as part of the 65th meeting of the heads of the customs bodies of the CIS countries. The Azerbaijani State Customs Committee signed agreements with customs bodies of Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The protocol on the exchange of preliminary information on goods and vehicles between the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee and the Federal Customs Service of Russia was signed by Aydin Aliyev, head of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, and Vladimir Bulavin, chairman of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. The protocol on cooperation in vocational training and professional development of personnel between the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee and the Kyrgyz State Customs Service was signed by Aydin Aliyev, head of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, and Azamat Suleymanov, head of the Kyrgyz Customs Service. Moreover, a protocol on cooperation and mutual assistance, as well as a protocol on the procedure for interaction in comparing the data of customs statistics on mutual trade between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were signed. Gordon Hayward has received most of the free-agency buzz this offseason, but The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski believes the Boston Celtics are also a real threat to sign Blake Griffin from the Los Angeles Clippers. On the latest episode of The Vertical Podacst with Woj, published Wednesday, Wojnarowski broke down the Clippers' complicated situation, which includes the free agency of three starters, Griffin, Chris Paul and J.J. Redick. While doing so, the great reporter suggested the Celtics have a realistic chance to pry Griffin away. "Blake Griffin, and I think the Clippers may think this too, and certainly some other teams, Boston is really the danger for Blake Griffin," Wojnarowski said on the podcast. "I think Boston's two primary free-agent targets right now are Gordon Hayward and Blake Griffin. Now they're not going to get both of them, but they're both players who would potentially have interest there, and who Boston I think looks at in different ways with their future. "So the one thing to know about Blake Griffin, he was (in Boston) when Paul Pierce came in with the Clippers for his last game in Boston, Blake was obviously there with the team. He saw how Boston reacted to Paul Pierce and what it means to have been a great player in Boston. Now, Blake doesn't have enough left in his career to be beloved and be the all-time Celtic that Paul Pierce was, but it does give you a sense - and I know it gave Blake a sense, it did not go unnoticed with him - about how that building and that city and the way they loved Paul. And I'm sure Paul being around the last couple years with him, I'm sure they discussed it. "But they're certainly a threat too in this. But I just think the Clippers are a unique situation because you talked about what it's going to cost to keep together Golden State and Cleveland; it's another thing to pay this money to keep a Clipper team around that hasn't achieved yet. It is a lot of money to go where they need to go to pay all these guys and say to yourself, 'This team hasn't even been out of the second round yet.'" If health concerns didn't exist, Griffin might be the obvious No. 1 target for Boston. He's just 28. He has recorded five All-Star berths and four All-NBA team nods. He would help fix the Celtics' rebounding issue, he has added the beginnings of a 3-point shot, and, alongside Al Horford, he would give Brad Stevens the best big-man passing duo in the league. Imagine what the Celtics offense could do with all that frontcourt skill. But Griffin's body has been through a lot. Over the last three regular seasons, he has missed 15 games, 46 games and 21 games, respectively. A right toe injury forced him out of this year's playoffs. Because of his troubling injury history, there are real concerns about how productive he will be throughout his next contract -- and whether he can stay on the court. The Celtics have avoided risk throughout their rebuild, but it would obviously be enticing to give up no assets while acquiring a 20-something big man who, when healthy, ranks as one of the NBA's best players. If his body holds up, Griffin might be the prize of this year's free-agent class. Because the question marks do exist, Hayward is probably a safer target. Discussing the Utah Jazz wing, Wojnarowski pointed out how difficult it would be for Hayward to leave such a promising situation. Listen to the full podcast here. A few Boston social media influencers are teaming up to create the purrr-fect way to celebrate Adopt a Shelter Cat Month. Audrey Spencer, best known as @Cakes1toDough1 on Snapchat and her boyfriend Alex Richter are raising money for Gifford Cat Shelter during the month of June. Founded in 1884 in Boston, Gifford Cat Shelter was the first cageless, no-kill shelter in the United States. The shelter currently has 33 cats listed on its website as available for adoption. If you're not ready to adopt -- or already have a couple of cats -- Spencer and Richter are using the GoFundMe to help raise money for the day to day operations of the shelter. "Any donation helps," the GoFundMe says. "$5 will help vaccinate a kitten against distemper, $75 helps cover spay/neuter surgery and $500 covers dental surgery for a cat suffering from a painful dental disease." As part of a larger MassLive project, known as Project Pawsibility, Spencer and Richter will be at Gifford Cat Shelter on June 24 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to meet fans. The event will include a meet and greet, photo booth and lots of cats. Attendees can also bring selected items to donate to the shelter. In her sophomore year of high school, life felt stagnant for Emily Perez. "I went from having really good grades in middle school to hating high school," said Perez, of Holyoke. "I was doing bad and was unhappy. I thought about dropping out." Then, she learned of an alternative. Perez joined the first class of LightHouse Personalized Education for Teens in 2015, an alternative school on Race Street in downtown Holyoke. The school, an individualized learning opportunity during their teenage years, offers customized coursework for students. Lighthouse doesn't feature classrooms with rows of desks but instead a music room full of instruments, a growing library, couches, multi-use tables in collaborative spaces and Mac computers for individualized learning. The school is painted in warm, bright colors and filled with natural light. Students choose from four education paths: college prep, which offers a mix of high school and college-level courses; entrepreneurship, with support offered from educational and business leaders in the community; creative arts; and technology. Within each path, students choose classes suited to their interests, from a class on Afrocentric feminism to "Unleash Your Company," a guide to starting a business. Lighthouse opened in 2015 with a student body of 30 teenagers. The school is now at full enrollment of 45 students, with a waiting list for the fall. Just over a dozen Western Massachusetts communities are represented in their student body, with 50 percent of students from Holyoke. Tuition costs just under $10,000 annually, with financial aid available. Over 200,000 in tuition discounts were given out this year, with 88 percent of families receiving financial aid, said Lighthouse co-founder Josiah Litant. The school does not consider previous education struggles and behavioral history of prospective students. "We're not interested in who you were but who you want to be," Catherine Gobron, a co-founder of the school said in 2015 when accepting the first class of students. This was welcome news to Alexis Diaz. As a student at Holyoke High School, Diaz said he was getting into fights and was arrested in his sophomore year. "I was stressing my mom out," he said recently, thinking back to his behavior two years ago. "To be honest, I was going to drop out and was thinking of getting a job at McDonald's." Soon after enrolling at Lighthouse, Diaz said his advisor called him in for a meeting. "He asked me what I wanted to do, how I wanted to learn. Nobody had ever asked me that." Diaz spent his upperclassman years in the college prep track, taking college-level courses in psychology. Diaz and Perez are two of nine students in Lighthouse's first graduating class. Six of the teens had dropped out of school or were in the process of dropping out before attending Lighthouse. Now, each student is college bound or pursuing chosen career paths. Perez - accepted at each college and university she applied to - will attend Hampshire College this fall on a full scholarship. Diaz has enrolled at Holyoke Community College, where he plans to earn his associate degree before transferring to a liberal arts college. Now in its second year of operation, school officials are exploring a potential partnership with Holyoke Public Schools. "We hope to make this program more widely accessible," Litant said. "We're really interested and invested in Holyoke having great schools, great options for everyone." SPRINGFIELD - In its statistics on the health of older people in the country today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that both men and women at 65 have a life expectancy of 19 more years. Longevity means many people will be faced with long-term care expenses that are not covered by Medicare, and covered by Medicaid only when income eligibility requirements are met. Government statistics also show that 84 percent of nursing home residents are individuals 65 or older. Ninety-three percent of residential care community residents are said to be 65 years or older as are 83 percent of home health agency patients. To help individuals consider whether long-term care insurance is a good investment to help with such health-care related expenses, Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts is holding a workshop, "Understanding Long-Term Care Insurance," on Thursday, June 22, from 1 to 2:30 p.m., in its community room at 1160 Dickinson St. Presenters are Mark Vaclavicek and Dennis "DJ" Morin of Streetlight Financial. Vaclavicek is certified in long-term care insurance and is a co-founder of Streetlight Financial, which is based in the Florence section of Northampton. Both men are financial advisers and financial services executives and will discuss what long-term care insurance is and its place in a financial plan. The workshop is free to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Parking is is on the Converse Street side of the Jewish Community Center campus. Register online www.jfswm.org or call (413) 737-2601. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Azerbaijan and Georgia discussed the possibility of joint exports to other countries, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy said June 14. The possibility of joint supplies was discussed at a meeting between Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev and Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Gakharia in Baku. The ministers also discussed jointly presenting the transit opportunities of Azerbaijan and Georgia in China, the expansion of trade, the development of ties in agriculture, ICT, tourism, the use of capabilities of the Azerbaijani satellite, holding a tripartite forum in Ganja in the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Iran format and other issues. Mustafayev stressed the high level of relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia. He added that at present, almost 280 companies with Georgian share operate in the country and more than 200 companies with Azerbaijani share operate in Georgia. In his turn, Gakharia appreciated the amount of Azerbaijan's investments made in the Georgian economy. He also added that both countries have great potential for expanding economic cooperation. According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Georgia amounted to $232.2 million in January-May 2017, $202.87 million of which accounted for export to Georgia. Azerbaijan mainly exports natural gas, oil, electricity, building materials, etc. to Georgia. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: The International Association of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TCITR) signed a memorandum of cooperation with the China Communications and Transportation Association, the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC said in a message June 14. The memorandum was signed at a meeting of the TCITR participants in Astana, Kazakhstan, according to the message. A round table discussion was organized as part of the meeting. The forum participants were provided with information on TCITR and its advantages, as well as current state and prospects of its development, the message said. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then through Turkey and Ukraine to Europe. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Russian Gazproms statement about irrelevance of considering a discount for Turkey during the period of low gas prices is quite natural, Salihe Kaya, a research assistant at the Turkish Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), told Trend over the phone. "Gazproms decision is quite natural as oil prices have been declining in the world market since 2014 and it negatively affects the countries exporting natural gas," Kaya said. The expert added that energy companies are forced to take some actions to avoid losses. Kaya said Gazproms decision will not benefit Ankara, as Turkey expected to get discounts when buying Russian gas. The expert also ruled out the political nature of Gazproms statement. "Taking into account the normalization of the Ankara-Moscow relations, this decision cannot be regarded as an attempt to put pressure on Turkey," Kaya said. Earlier, Alexander Medvedev, deputy chairman of Gazproms board, said at a press conference that it is appropriate to talk about extra charge, rather than a discount for Turkey in the period of low gas prices. "We have started negotiations during a period of very high gas prices, but now there is a period of low prices," he said. "It is time to talk about extra charge, rather than discounts." "If we want to move people from Chicago, New York and the Bay, we have to have the complete package here," Ellis said. "If we can get schools back to being reasonable, thats a big help." Leaders from Oregons technology industry spoke in favor of a new corporate tax plan Tuesday, during the first public hearing on the proposal introduced by two top Democrats last week. "We really want to encourage politicians to come to compromise, instead of take a corner," said Mat Ellis, Founder & CEO of Portland-based Cloudability. By Hillary Borrud [email protected] The Oregonian/OregonLive Full Story: http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/06/oregon_tech_leaders_voice_supp.html#incart_river_index Tony Hsieh is sporting a Mohawk, the first Ive encountered atop a gainfully employed billionaire. I ask the Zappos CEO, who sold out to Amazon for $1.2 billion but continues to run his operation largely without interference, how the Mohawk got there. "I try to do one uncomfortable thing every day." Noted. Micah Solomon Full Story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2017/06/12/tony-hsieh-spills-the-beans-the-one-word-secret-of-zappos-customer-service-success/#18659e61accc Le Dr Renganaden Payayachy a repondu a une question parlementaire du depute du MMM de la 19e circonscription. destinee au ministre de la Sante, lors de la seance parlementaire du 29 mars 2022. B/23 The Honourable Second Member for Stanley and Rose Hill (Mr Nagalingum) To ask Dr the Honourable Minister of Health and Wellness Whether, in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, he will state the quantum of funds received from the levy of Rs2 per litre on MOGAS and Gasoil for the purchase of vaccines and since the application of the said levy to date, indicating the quantum thereof disbursed as at to date? Monsieur le President, Jai ete informe par la State Trading Corporation que le prelevement de 2,00 roupies par litre sur lessence et le diesel est en application depuis le 1er juillet 2021 afin de permettre a tous les citoyens de ce pays davoir acces gratuitement aux vaccins contre la Covid-19. Le National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Fund a recu un montant de 372 937 550 roupies de la STC. Le montant total a ete transfere au Ministere de la Sante et du Bien-etre pour lachat des vaccins contre la COVID-19. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires The think-tank and network for Indian MBA education India has one of the biggest MBA education infrastructures in the world, with 3500+ B-schools and more than 500,000+ students enrolled in various MBA or equivalent programs. However, today, the Indian MBA market is going through a crucial phase of shake-out & consolidation. MBAUniverse.com, a think-tank and network for Indian MBA community, sees this as a painful, but constructive development. MBAUniverse.com plays an important role in fostering the ecosystem by connecting B-schools to its peers (through conferences & online e-portal), and with quality MBA aspirants seeking admissions. Virtually all of the Top 100 Indian B-schools & University MBA programs, including XLRI, SPJIMR, MDI, IMT, NMIMS University utilize MBAUniverse.com as a platform to inform & engage with stakeholders. MBA aspirants rely on us to prepare for CAT, XATor GMAT, and our independent un-biased counselling to choose the best-fit B-school. Our annual conferences like Indian Management Conclave (IMC) held at New Delhi, Hyderabad hosted by ISB Hyderabad, Ahmedabad hosted by IIM Ahmedabad and MBA Directors Roundtable, held every year, are the Mecca for Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, Directors & Deans from Top 100 B-schools & Universities. MBAUniverse.com also convenes international management conferences. Asian Management Conclave is convened at Singapore. AMC 2015 and 2016 were hosted by Singapore Management University, Singapore. MBAUniverse.com also co-hosts a bi-annual International MBA Directors conference in China, in collaboration with Shanghai Jaio Tong University, Shanghai. To help stakeholders take right decisions, MBAUniverse.com conducts various researches and surveys. Its B-school Rankings in parternship with the Hindu Business Line and chaired by Dr Bakul Dholakia, former director, IIM Ahmedabad, is recognized as the most definitive, transparent and scientific reflection of state of our Top 100 B-schools. MBAUniverse.com-Metrictrac MBA Employability study 2012 was widely quoted in national and international media. The survey said that only 21 % of Indian MBAs are employable. MBAUniverse.com is led by Amit Agnihotri, an alumnus of Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon. The core team comprises of alumnus from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Rourkee, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and other leading Institutions. More details on our conferences follow: Indian Management Conclave Indian Management Conclave is India's definitive annual Management Education Conference & Awards Platform, organized by MBAUniverse.com in partnership with Indias top B-schools and knowledge organizations. Launched in 2010, in a short span of seven years, IMC has emerged as India's definitive management education conference and a must-attend platform for Academic Leaders and Decision-makers from Top 250 B-schools and Universities. After first five editions in Delhi NCR, 6th IMC 2015 was hosted by Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad on the theme of Enhancing B-school Competitiveness. 7th IMC 2016 was hosted by Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) on the theme of nurturing Institutional Leadership in Management Education Entities. The 8th Indian Management Conclave 2017 will be hosted by IIM Lucknow at its Noida Campus in Delhi NCR on August 4-5, 2017. Set up in 2013, IMC Award for Excellence in Management Education (IMC Awards) furthers the vision of IMC Conference by identifying, documenting and recognizing the best initiatives by Indian B-schools. India's most distinguished MBA educators like former Directors of ISB, IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, XLRI, SPJIMR judge the award entries and select the winners. Awards have been presented by HRD Minister, Global Management-Thinkers and Business icons. The winning initiatives are published by Pearson and McGraw Hill. IMC Awards is a non-commercial initiative and no participation/ registration fee is charged from participating institutions. Asian Management Conclave Time has come for Asian B-schools to come together and inject new energy in global management education by researching and delivering new management ideas from Asia, and also by developing new models in management education. To galvanize efforts in this direction, Asian Management Conclave (AMC), a Singapore-based annual Pan-Asia conference, was conceptualized by MBAUniverse.com, a think-tank & community on management education in Asia. The core purpose of AMC is to help Top 500 Asian B-schools to excel locally and compete globally. The inaugural Asia Management Conclave (AMC 2015), jointly organised by management education think-tank, MBAUniverse.com, and Singapore Management University (SMU), was held in Singapore on 12 to 13 March 2015. Themed Management Education in Asia: Strategies to Leapfrog, AMC 2015 featured presentations and discussions by Asian business schools Presidents and Deans from 15 Asian economies, global education thought leaders from the United States (US) and Europe, and CXOs based in Asia. 2nd Asian Management Conclave organized by MBAUniverse.com and hosted by Singapore Management University (SMU) was held at SMU Singapore campus on the theme Enhancing Competitiveness of Asian B-schools. AMC 2016 saw whos who from Asian Management education addressing the august house comprising top deans, management gurus and delegates from the B-schools across Asia. In addition to host SMU Singapore, leading Asian B-schools like CUHK Business School, Hong Kong and SASIN were Knowledge Partners of AMC. CUHK Hong Kong was ranked No #30 in the World by FT Global MBA Ranking 2015. Economist Full Time MBA Ranking 2015 also ranked it amongst Top 100 B-schools in the World. In 2015, only six B-schools feature in both these coveted rankings from Asia. Set up in 1982, Sasin is the first business school in Thailand to have earned both AACSB and EQUIS accreditations. Global knowledge organizations GMAC, Harvard Business Publishing and Bloomberg were AMC partners. MBA Directors Round Table in Bangalore MBAUniverse.com held the 3rd Annual Directors Round Table on November 27, 2013 at IIM Bangalore with the theme Conquering the Chaos. The conference was addressed by Mr. Ravi Venkatesan, Board member Infosys and AB Volvo and former Chairman Microsoft India. Special Address was delivered by Dr. S Raghunath, Professor and Dean IIM Bangalore. 1st MBA Directors RoundTable conference on April 25, 2012 was addressed by noted management thinker Dr Jagdish Sheth and Ms Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries. Directors from Top 20 B-schools participated in the RoundTable discussions. More than 150 delegates representing leading B-schools from India attended this forum, and were greatly impacted by the discussions. The forum was supported by MINT newspaper and IBM. Taking this initiative forward, we held the 2013 MBA Directors Round-table on 2nd April 2013. The theme for 2013 wasIndian MBA Education Rethinking for Revival. We deliberated and charted out an agenda of revival of MBA education. Round Table at Chennai The Round Table Chennai held on February 27, 2014 with the theme Conquering the Chaos- Imperatives for B-schools was addressed by Dr S S Mantha, Chairman AICTE, Mr K Pandiarajan, Non exec chairman, Randstad India while the special address was delivered by Dr David A Wan, President & CEO, Harvard Business Publishing. Western Round Table at Pune MBA Universe.com held Western India Round Table in Pune on March 28, 2014 on the theme Conquering the Chaos. The key note address was delivered by Dr S S Mantha, Chairman AICTE and special address by Dr Shubhro Sen, Management Guru and co-founder,Conscious Capitalism institute USA; and Dr Peter Lorange, Former President IMD Lausanne and President & CEO Lorange Institute of business, Zurich. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Gas consumption in the European Union (EU) rose sharply by 30 billion cubic meters in 2016, or 7.1 percent the fastest growth since 2010, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The volume of gas consumption in the EU stood at 428.8 billion cubic meters in 2016, as compared to 399.1 billion cubic meters in 2015, said the report. However, BP estimates show a 2.2 percent decline in the EU gas consumption in 2005-2015. Natural gas production in EU countries stood at 118.2 billion cubic meters in 2016, or 1.6 percent less than in 2015, said the report. Currently, the basic element of the EU energy policy is diversification of gas supply sources and routes. In this context, one of the priority projects for the EU is the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages gas supply from the Caspian Sea region to Europe. At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage. As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Global oil production rose by only 0.4 million barrels per day (Mb/d) in 2016, the slowest growth since 2013, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. BP analysts said that production outside the Middle East fell by 1.3 Mb/d, with the largest declines in the US (-400,000 b/d), China (-310,000 b/d) and Nigeria (-280,000 b/d). The weakness on the supply side was driven by non-OPEC production which fell by 0.8 Mb/d, its largest decline for almost 25 years, said the report. This fall was led by US tight oil, whose production fell 0.3 Mb/d, a swing of almost 1 Mb/d relative to growth in 2015. China also experienced its largest ever decline in oil production (-0.3 Mb/d), said BP. In contrast, OPEC production recorded another year of solid growth (1.2 Mb/d), with Iran (0.7 Mb/d), Iraq (0.4 Mb/d) and Saudi Arabia (0.4 Mb/d) more than accounting for the increase. Earlier, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) said in its report that OPEC crude oil production is expected to average 32.3 million barrels per day in 2017 and 32.8 million barrels per day in 2018. On May 25, OPEC member countries and non-OPEC parties, Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and the Republic of South Sudan agreed to extend the production adjustments for a further period of nine months, with effect from July 1, 2017. The reductions will be on the same terms as those agreed in November. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 Trend: Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Azercell Telecom LLC continues to provide its support to the development of education and students in the country. The Center, also known as an organizer of regular training events for students, held a meeting titled What to start from and how?. The meeting took place in Barama Media Center at Baku State University on June 13 with the organizational support by Azercell Telecom LLC and PASHA Bank. Mr. Tural Yusifov, the founder of Avto Stop Media and manager of various radio projects in Azerbaijan, and Mr. Farid Pardashunas, young founder of Technote Media and IT specialist, met with the students. The meeting was aimed to support the students in their career building from the academic years and promote a socially beneficial and a solid professional life. The meeting attended by the students from various universities was carried out in an interactive manner facilitating active participation of the audience. It should be noted that Barama Media Center established in the faculty of journalism at Baku State University is primarily aimed to support the youth in realizing their innovative ideas, organize training events and workshops, as well as interesting meetings and enable the university students to present their projects in Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. For more information, please contact [email protected] The leader of the mobile communication industry of Azerbaijan and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. With 48% share of Azerbaijans mobile market Azercells network covers 80% of the territory and 99,8% of population of the country. Currently, 4,5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, 24/7 Customer Care, online customer services, GPRS/EDGE, M2M, MobilBank, one-stop- shop service offices Azercell Express, mobile e-service ASAN signature, etc. Azercell deployed first 4G LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality surveys of Global Wireless Solutions company and international systems specialized in wireless coverage mapping such as Opensignal and Testmy.net, Azercells network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Morgan County Veterans Day Parade slated Nov. 11 Audio Article The Morgan County Veterans Day Parade will be held on Friday, Nov. 11. The parade will form at the Commons, in McConnelsville, at 9:30 a.m. and set out at 10 a.m. The American Legion Post 24 will render honors at the monuments at the Commons, Riecker Building, the Square, at... A concert with two purposes Audio Article Wednesday, Nov. 30, a concert with dual purposes is being held at the Twin City Opera House in McConnelsville, Ohio. Its a thank-you to healthcare workers, who can attend for free, and its a benefit for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. In September 2021, Rick Shriver contracted COVID-19. He collapsed... BOE reminder of early voting hours and polling location change Audio Article Remaining early voting hours at the Morgan County Board of Elections are as follows: from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov, 2 through Friday, Nov. 4; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5; from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6; and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.... Lions Club announces annual Wreaths Across America Audio Article On Saturday, Dec. 17, the Chesterhill Lions Club will be joining with National Wreaths Across America in the laying of wreaths at each of the seven cemeteries located in Marion Township. The mission is to honor the local veterans who have served our nation so their families can rest assured... Governor DeWine awards $6.7 million for domestic violence survivor programs Audio Article Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has announced that he is awarding $6.7 million to support the work of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN) to offer mobile and health advocacy services and temporary residential services for domestic violence survivors across the state. The announcement comes during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.... CDC committee vote wont change Ohio school vaccine requirement Audio Article Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, MBA has released the following statement: The CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendation for the COVID-19 vaccine to be added to the formulary or schedule of vaccines for children does not mandate this vaccine for school children. Ohio law determines... Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 14 By Demir Azizov Trend: Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a decree to approve the agreement between Uzavtosanoat JSC and Frances Peugeot Citroen Automobiles S.A. (PSA Group) on creation of a joint venture to produce light commercial vehicles (LCV). As it was previously reported, Uzavtosanoat JSC and PSA Group signed an agreement in May 2017 to create a joint venture in the form of a limited liability company Uzbekistan Peugeot Citroen Automotive (UzPCA LLC). According to the decree posted on the Uzbek presidents website, the joint ventures authorized capital totals 29.3 million euros. The estimated total cost of the project for organization of light commercial vehicles production will be 133.3 million euros. This partnership aims at building a production plant in the Free Industrial Zone of Jizzakh, located 200 km from the Tashkent, in Uzbekistan, to produce Peugeot and Citroen LCVs, for passenger and freight carriage. Production capacity is estimated to be at up to 16,000 vehicles per year, and the vehicles will be sold in Uzbekistan and exported to foreign countries. The plant is planned to be commissioned in 2019. President Mirziyoyev also approved an investment agreement signed by the Uzbek government presented by the State Committee for Investments, PSA Group and Uzavtosanoat JSC. The agreement reflects the specific obligations of the foreign investor and measures for state support provided by the government of Uzbekistan to UzPCA LLC. Under the decree, UzPCA LLC and other participants of the project are granted significant tax benefits for the construction period, as well as for a period of 10 years from the commissioning of facility for the production of light commercial vehicles for a ten-year period. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 14 By Demir Azizov Trend: President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev called for taking measures to strengthen the people's confidence in the countrys judicial system, Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) reported. The president criticized the cases of corruption, indifference to the peoples concerns and making decisions that violate the principles of justice. Considerable part of complaints lately coming from citizens have had to do with the activity of courts and judges, and this points to the presence of numerous problems in this sphere, he noted. Special attention should be paid to the training of judges and legal personnel as well as appointment of judges, Mirziyoyev said and suggested to organize a specialized educational institution, the Academy of Justice, in order to increase effectiveness of the work done in this area. Le poste : Assistant technique en charge des Maladies Tropicales Negligees AVIS DE RECRUTEMENT Who we are? Created and registered in the US in 2004 and in DRC in 2005, UFAR (United Front Against Riverblindness) is a nonprofit organization with a primary objective of contributing to the improvement of health and well-being of the poor and helpless people living in regions of the DRC ravaged by neglected tropical diseases. Since 2006, UFAR has been working in partnership and close collaboration with the DRC Ministry of Health, the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), other humanitarian organizations and community leaders as well as community volunteers towards control and elimination of onchocerciasis initially, and more recently against selected neglected tropical diseases through the use of preventive chemotherapeutic agents. The initial efforts were focused primarily in the Maniema Province where now about 10 years later well over one million people have benefited from the one yearly free dose of Mectizan. With the closure of APOC at the end of 2015 and the paradigm shift from control to elimination of onchocerciasis as well as the expansion in scope of targeted diseases and implementation of new strategies to fight against them, UFAR with years of field experience and a reputation of good exemplary work was in an excellentposition to attract other organizations interested in supporting the implementation of DRC Ministry of Healths Master Plan for elimination of NTDs in establishing new partnerships and strong collaborations. This is how the UFAR/Sightsavers alliance came to be to provide support to the MSP for the Ituri-Nord and Lubutu projects since 2011, and the Katanga-Sud project since 2013. The partnership agreement between UFAR and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) followed in 2014 for UFAR to act as the judiciary agent for the support of the Kongo Central (Bas-Congo), Katanga-Nord, Lualaba, Kasai and Sankuru projects. With funding from End Fund, UFAR currently covers 40 health zones with interventions targeting all tropical diseases in 4 provinces, including Sankuru, Maniema, Kongo Central and Lualaba. Our vision is to contribute to ending the NTDs into the poorest areas of DRC, and contribution to the enhancement of the wellbeing all of the beneficiaries ofour healthcare interventions. TITRE DU POSTE ASSISTANT TECHNIQUE EN CHARGE DES MALADIES TROPICALES NEGLIGEES (Consultant pour une periode de 9 mois). LIEU DAFFECTATION : LUBUMBASHI avec voyages frequents dans les zones de sante. NUMERO DAVIS DE VACANCE : UFAR-SSI/MTN/RDC/01/2017 DATE DE PUBLICATION DE POSTE : 15 JUIN 2017 DATE DE CLOTURE DE LA PUBLICATION : 25 JUIN 2017 DESCRIPTION DU POSTE : Sous la supervision du Representant de United Front Against Riverblindness (UFAR) /Sightsavers International (SSI) en RDC, lAssistant Technique en charge des MTN de UFAR est responsable dappuyer le projet MTN de sa juridiction dans la planification, lorganisation, la coordination et la supervision technique, administrative et logistique dans lexecution du programme de lutte contre les Maladies Tropicales Negligees ainsi que la recherche operationnelle, lies aux MTN. Ce poste assurera la gestion et le suivi des interventions des Projets UKaid, End Fund et servira de point focal sur toutes les questions liees aux Maladies Tropicales Negligees dans la Province concernee. Le titulaire sera base a Lubumbashi avec frequentes missions de services sur terrain dans la Province du Haut Katanga et de Lualaba. FONCTIONS ESSENTIELLES : Assurer le suivi de l'evolution du programme de lutte contre les maladies tropicales negligees dans la Province du Haut Katanga et Lualaba, le soutien au personnel de terrain dans la preparation des plans de travail et des budgets, ainsi que les rapports aux bailleurs ; Tenir le Representant de UFAR/SSI informe des realisations du programme et de differents defis rencontres, a travers des rapports de progres reguliers ; Assurer la collecte de donnees et le flux d'informations provenant des programmes de terrain pour la preparation des rapports annuels et trimestriels tels que requis par les bailleurs de fonds ; Superviser lequipe financiere dans la gestion des fonds de subvention et les depenses du projet et informer la hierarchie sur les ecarts et variations ; Assurer le rapportage financier et programmatique regulier, en collaboration avec lequipe des Finances du projet ; Fournir une assistance au developpement du projet pour sa durabilite tels que les reseaux, identifier les opportunites, et preparer une contribution technique, le reseautage et la culture des relations avec les partenaires, les donateurs et d'autres partenaires techniques de mise en uvre des programmes ; Rester a jour sur les nouvelles connaissances liees a la gestion des programmes en effectuant des recherches sur Internet ; et assister a des ateliers et conferences pour apprendre sur les meilleures pratiques ; Etablir la credibilite professionnelle en mettant en uvre et le maintien d'une chaine d'autorite et de responsabilite clairement definis ; RepresenterUFAR/SSI a des conferences professionnelles au niveau National/Provincial Participer a des publications et la presentation des realisations au sein des instances professionnelles ; Participer a lOrganisation des ateliers, des reunions et / ou des evenements lies au programme. Humaniser le programme en demontrant l'impact des interventions de UFAR/SSI sur la vie des individus a travers des histoires et des photographies sur le terrain. Faciliter le transfert des histoires d'interet humain du terrain vers lagent des communications du UFAR/SSI ; Responsable pour documenter les lecons apprises et les innovations du projet en consultation avec le personnel de terrain ; Coordonner et appuyer les recherches operationnelles conduites dans les projets appuyes par UFAR, Preparer larrivee des visiteurs/delegations internationales ou locales dans laire du projet Participer aux reunions de coordinations avec dautres partenaires uvrant dans le domaine de MTN Executer dautres activites lui assignees par la hierarchie QUALIFICATIONS : Maitrise en Sante Publique ou dans un domaine connexe ; 3-5 ans d'experience pertinente sur terrain dans la gestion et lexecution des programmes de developpement avec les agences gouvernementales ou les ONGs internationales, de preference dans le suivi et levaluation des maladies tropicales negligees. Bonnes capacites analytiques. Maitrise des applications Microsoft Office, y compris MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint ou Project. COMPETENCES REQUISES Maitrise parfaite du Programme de lutte contre les Maladies Tropicales Negligees ; Maturite professionnelle Etre capable de maintenir une attitude positive, sauto motiver et motiver l'equipe a travailler de maniere efficace sous pression. Demontrer la ponctualite au travail et dans la preparation des rapports. Pensee critique et analytique - Avoir une approche logique pour resoudre les problemes ; gerer les situations difficiles en sappuyant sur sa propre base de connaissances et de l'experience ou en faisant appel aux autres, si necessaire. Communication orale et ecrite - Exprimer clairement et efficacement les idees, et les concepts verbalement et sous forme ecrite ou graphique, en utilisant la grammaire correcte et appropriee, l'organisation et la structure, et les medias de presentation efficaces et les techniques. Leadership- Demontrer dexcellentes competences interpersonnelles et manageriales. Capable de diriger et gerer le changement, tout en inspirant les equipes a collaborer efficacement. Planification strategique et integration - Demontrer des connaissances et des capacites pour favoriser le developpement d'une vision commune. Identifier les pistes de solutions pour atteindre les objectifs strategiques en elaborant des plans a court et a long terme qui sont suffisamment complets, innovants, realistes et efficaces pour atteindre les objectifs. La connaissance/Maitrise de lAnglais parler et ecrit est obligatoire, COMMENT POSTULER Les dossiers de candidature devront comprendre une lettre de motivation, un curriculum vitae detaille et a jour, y compris les coordonnees de contact (telephone, email) de trois personnes de reference et la photocopie du (des) diplome (s) et des autres documents utiles. Les dossiers de candidatures seront adresses au et envoyes exclusivement aux adresses electroniques ci-apres : arthurnondo@ufar-rdc.org , vincentkamwasha@ufar-rdc.org en copiant dlshungu@aol.com avec comme objet du message : UFAR-SSI-EF-MTN/RDC/01/2017, et soumises au plus tard le 25 JUIN 2017. NB : LES CANDIDATURES FEMININES SONT PARTICULIEREMENT ENCOURAGEES Contact ONG : UFAR Site Internet : www.riverblindness.org Email : arthurnondo@ufar-rdc.org, dlshungu@aol.com A newly described protein could be an effective target for combatting drug-resistant malaria parasites. The protein, the transcription factor PfAP2-I, regulates a number of genes involved with the parasite's invasion of red blood cells, a critical part of the parasite's complex life cycle that could be targeted by new antimalarial drugs. A paper describing the protein PfAP2-I and its role in the invasion process appears in the journal Cell Host & Microbe . "The reality is that there are resistant parasites to every known antimalarial drug," said Manuel Llinas, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and lead author of the paper. "We need new drugs targeting different aspects of parasite biology." Nearly half of the world's population lives in areas at risk of transmitting malaria, a serious and sometimes fatal disease that produces symptoms such as fevers, chills, and flu-like illness. According to the World Health Organization, over 212 million cases of malaria were reported in 2015, with an estimated 429,000 deaths, the majority of which occur in young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites, which have a complex 3-stage life cycle. After a parasite-carrying mosquito bites a person, the parasite infects liver cells, where it grows and multiplies. The parasites then invade red blood cells, where they multiply further, releasing daughter parasites, or merozoites, that in turn must invade new red blood cells. Symptoms of malaria are expressed during this cyclical 48-hour red blood cell life-stage. "Quite simply, if you prevent the parasite from invading red blood cells, you prevent any disease," says Llinas. "We want to understand how this invasion process is regulated at the genetic level. One of the unique features about Plasmodium is that it has very few transcription factors - proteins that bind to specific DNA sequences to direct which genes should be turned on and when. Most multi-celled organisms have hundreds of these regulators, but it turns out, so far as we can recognize, the parasite has a single family of transcription factors called Apicomplexan AP2 proteins. One of these transcription factors is PfAP2-I." PfAP2-I is the first known regulator of invasion genes in Plasmodium falciparum - the species that causes the deadliest form of malaria. In total, PfAP2-I specifically regulates over 150 genes, eighteen percent of which are known to be involved in the red blood cell invasion process. The new study also indicates that PfAP2-I likely recruits another protein, Bromodomain Protein 1 (PfBDP1), which was previously shown to be involved in the invasion of red blood cells. The two proteins may work together to regulate gene transcription during this critical stage of infection. "Red blood cell invasion has been seriously considered for a long time as a candidate for antimalarial vaccines," says Llinas. "Many proteins that are found on the surface of the merozoite - proteins that help the parasite bind to and pull itself inside of a new red blood cell - have been targeted with vaccines, but they've all failed. Why? The surface proteins are very redundant, so unless you interfere with all of them, you can't block invasion. But disrupting PfAP2-I would prevent the invasion program from ever getting turned on in the first place." Instead of targeting the merozoite surface proteins with a vaccine, a new drug could focus solely on inhibiting PfAP2-I. Preventing PfAP2-I from binding to DNA and initiating the expression of invasion genes, or preventing PfAP2-I from recruiting other important proteins like PfBDP1, would stop an infection before it even reaches the red blood cell stage. Because PfAP2-I does not have parallels in humans, a drug targeting this transcription factor may have the added benefit of specificity, making it safer with fewer potential side-effects in humans. "Now that we know how the invasion process is regulated," says Llinas, "we have a completely new angle for targeting the parasite through pharmacological intervention." In addition to Llinas, the research team includes Joana Santos, Gabrielle Josling, Philipp Ross, and Lindsey Orchard, postdoctoral researchers and research assistants at Penn State at the time of the research, and Preeti Joshi, Tracey Campbell, Ariel Schieler, and Ileana Cristea at Princeton University. The research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and the Princeton Center for Quantitative Biology. Additional support was provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation, EMBO, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research, the American Heart Association, and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. Advertisement Cynthia R. Clark, Meghan A. Bowler, J. Caleb Snider, W. David Merryman. Targeting Cadherin-11 Prevents Notch1-Mediated Calcific Aortic Valve Disease. Circulation, 2017; 135 (24): 2448 DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.027771 Aortic stenosis - ( https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000178.htm) Around one-fourth of the Americans, has been found to suffer from the hardening of the valves by the age of 65. And around half of them by the age of 85.Surgical replacement of the valves is the only treatment. Cyndi Clark, research assistant professor of biomedical engineering, said, "Very elderly patients' bodies can't handle that.""I hope to see an earlier treatment option available within the next decade."The rheumatoid arthritis drug is an anti-inflammatory agent, that is capable of binding to cadherin-11 (CDH-11) on the surface of the cells so that they cannot bind together.W. David Merryman, associate professor of biomedical engineering, said, "Aortic valve stenosis, even though it involves only a little piece of tissue, has a catastrophic effect on the heart.""The antibody we're working with blocks fibroblasts from becoming the active type that leads to disease. It keeps them from becoming inflamed.""We believe there is potential for using this drug at the first sign of valve disease to prevent the progression. You likely cannot reverse the damage, but we believe the drug can prevent it."The surgeons can replace the damaged valves with ones that are made with pig or cow tissue along with mechanical versions. However, the only option for the physicians is to monitor the calcifying valves when they are detected and then could be operated when the symptoms appear.Baker said, "Once the patient becomes symptomatic, they start running a significant risk of heart failure or even death.""The exciting thing about this drug's potential is that it could allow us to consider a strategy of prevention, as we do with other forms of heart disease -- like lowering cholesterol or using ACE inhibitors. We don't have any interventions for aortic valve stenosis that slow its progression."The research on CDH-11 may date back to 2013 when two Ph.D students compared the two studies of heart valve cellular responses that has come to completely different conclusions.One of the studies found that a chemical compound caused valve fibroblasts that can become active and could be similar to what is observed during valve disease.However, the other study indicated that the same compound prevented the cells from calcifying, indicating that a key piece of the valve disease was missing.The research team realized that the teams behind those studies turning CDH-11 production on and off, that could affect the outcome.The heart valves that were preserved from surgeries at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and found that patients suffering from calcification. However, in some cases, 50 times such as CDH-11 present in the valves as patients without the condition.The study showed a NOTCH1 genetic mutation may likely ensure that carrying it eventually would suffer from heart valve disease as it could lead to CDH-11 overproduction.The aorta is the main artery that carries the blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Aortic valve calcification occurs because of calcium deposits on the aortic valve in the heart. In aortic stenosis, the aortic valve may not open fully and could decrease the blood flow to the heart.The culprit is cadherin-11, a binding protein that is necessary for normal wound healing. Fibroblasts are present in the connective tissue and heart valves are composed of this type of cell.As the heart age and loses elasticity, the fibroblasts could become overactive and produces more amount of the binding cadherin-11 protein until the leaflets that make the aortic valve immobile.The heart might pump harder in an attempt to push the blood through the valve, by causing the heart chambers to enlarge and could lead to heart failure if the valve is not replaced.Source: Medindia While we all are eagerly awaiting the release of the Akshay Kumar-starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha which addresses the sanitation problems and issues related to building toilets, there is one director who is actually turning it into a reality. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who is known for creating marvels like Rang De Basanti and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, is currently busy working on a film based on lack on toilets and has been building toilets in the slum where hes shooting. The film he is working on is titled Mere Pyare Prime Minister and is being shot in a slum in Ghatkopar. Mehra, in fact, got a NOC from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to build 20 toilets, including separate toilets for men and women. So far he has built nearly 800 toilets. Facebook In fact, Mehra has joined forces with Yuva Unstoppable, an NGO, and together they have been building toilets for the past four years, thus transforming the face of the slum area. Mehra said, We dont just build toilets and walk away but we also make sure the locals maintain them. Weve been having meetings with slum-dwellers and corporators of the area, urging them to put one rupee in the donation box so that the community workers can be given their dues. Mehra further said that his contribution is not even a drop in the ocean. On one hand where some directors are creating awareness through their movies, Mehra has already set an example in the real world. Flickr He took inspiration from Mahatma Gandhis model toilets at the Sabarmati Ashram, and these toilets are said to be as good as the ones that private buildings have, with proper pipelines and tap extensions. Mehra has reportedly moved shooting to a slum behind the Powai Lake and he is planning to build toilets in that area as well. Talking about his film, it revolves around four kids living in a Mumbai slum where one of them wants to build a toilet and appeals to the Prime Minister for the same. We salute Mehra for working towards the betterment of the society. It seems that Bollywood has finally taken a fancy towards civic issues and lets just hope that people dont just watch it in theatres but also implement it in their real lives. Source: DNA Since the day the first look of film 'Daddy' was released, people have been talking about it ever since. The trailer of the film was highly anticipated and now that it is out, we have to say that Arjun Rampal looks spot on as gangster Arun Gawli. We have waited for a very long time to see Arjun in a dark and edgy avatar. And Daddys trailer brings the 'Rock On' actor in a role he has never played before. Daddy Directed by Ashim Ahluwalia, this film is a biopic on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli. Arjun previously had said, The film is not an image-building exercise and steers clear of glorifying anything that is undesirable. And Daddys trailer is all about this. The trailer recreates Mumbais Underworld in the 1970s. What starts as a story on shutting of the mills and factories in the 70s soon turns into an intriguing tale of crime. Daddy_Youtube Arjun is seen as a perfect Maharashtrian, donning white kurta and Gandhi cap. His Marathi accent, dialogues, and body language everything is unerring. Arjun, who might be seen as an unlikely fit for the role, has sunk his teeth deep into the role proving otherwise. As promised by the makers, 'Daddy' definitely traces Aruns journey as Mumbais most feared mobster and eventually becoming a politician. The trailer of the film looks like a saga that the Indian audience would love to watch. If the movie is as good as the trailer, then this could be Arjun's best film till date. Daddy_Youtube The film also stars Farhan Akhtar in a cameo, where he will be seen playing a cameo as Dawood Ibrahim. The film stars Aishwarya Rajesh alongside Arjun. The movie is set to release on 21st July. Whenever someone asks me What is the most cherished moment you remember from your school days? I would think of the long walks I took with my friends in the school playground. Those lunch breaks where I shamelessly shoved food down my throat from others lunch boxes. Bunking extra classes and intentionally annoying the teacher to get punished and walk out of the class to give company to other friends. Well, the memories are endless and I am sure you too must have something to add to this list. However, excluding the creme-de-la-creme of the class, the rest of us would hardly remember going to the library because in all honesty we rarely went there. I am sure most of us wouldnt even remember seeing a library and we dont blame the kids because visiting library was kind of boring. Pexels Talking about libraries, visiting them wont be boring anymore as Delhi is hosting an unusual event a Human Library. Yes, you read that right! Now, instead of looking for self-help or motivational books, you can actually borrow people and ask them gazillion of questions or queries that you have. Reportedly, you can borrow them for around 20 minutes and once you are through with your conversation, you can return them to the depot. The reason why this initiative is being lauded is because it can help the ones at the receiving end get rid of any kind of misconceptions or problems they have. They can become better informed about any subject or idea. Facebook/BD News Portal The Human Library isnt particularly a concept invented by Delhi, although we are glad that they are hosting such an event. It was started in 2000 by Ronni Abergel in Copenhagen, Denmark with an aim to bring about a social change and encourage interaction among the marginalized communities. This Human Library movement has already spread across 80 countries. In India, it was first introduced in Hyderabad, then Mumbai and is now coming to Delhi on June 18th. According to a report in The Indian Express, Neha Singh, Delhis book depot manager said that it will showcase human books from 11 categories and will range from a tea-vendor turned author, female solo traveller, cancer survivors, to people recovering from drug abuse, and victims of bullying. These books have been chosen based on their knowledge of the subject and personal experience. So, guys gear up for this unusual yet enriching experience of opening your heart in front of strangers. The event will be held at Innov8, Connaught Place between 2 pm and 7 pm. Source: The Indian Express In the wake of growing tensions between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (GCC) countries and Qatar, Pakistan has abandoned the $2 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah gas pipeline project, Daily Pakistan reported. A key decision was taken during a high-level meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the first week of June, while the Federal Ministry of Petroleum was directed to drop the Gwadar-Nawabshah gas pipeline project and commence work on the new Port Qasim LNG terminal in Karachi. The PML-N government reportedly took the critical decision after American objections. This project was considered as an alternate to the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline since the US sanctions on Iran for their nuclear programmes. On the other hand, the decision would be a setback for the Chinese, who had signed an agreement in April 2015 for the laying of the Gwadar-Nawabshah gas pipeline project. As per the IP gas pipeline agreement reached with Iran, Pakistan was supposed to start receiving gas from January 2015, and in case this agreement wasnt honoured, the latter would have to pay a penalty amounting to $3m daily. Under this gas-supply purchase agreement (GSPA), Iran was legally allowed to sue Pakistan for not meeting its obligation, but decided against it. This project has been shelved due to its high cost but the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) had done a detailed cost evaluation and given it the go ahead earlier on. Exim Bank of China would have provided funding for the Gwadar-Nawabshah gas pipeline project at London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) plus two per cent. Google has hired Apples chief chip architect and will now be building custom SoC chips for Googles flagship device, the Pixel. Manu Gulati is a veteran when it comes to being a chip architect and has now joined Google in the last few weeks. Gulati publicly listed his move to Google on this Linkedin profile and is now the Lead SoC architect at Google. Gulati was responsible for spearheading Apples own chip development and worked at the Cupertino giant for almost 8 years. Apart from Gulati, Google is now expanding their team of chip experts so that Google can build their own chipsets for future Pixel smartphones. Gulati was instrumental in Apples bid to build custom chips for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. In the past, Gulati has been responsible for the A4 and A9 chips which powered the 2010 iPad. Apple Much like most smartphone manufacturers, Google was dependant on Qualcomm for their debut smartphone and many of these chips are being used on various other Android smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S8, LG, Lenovo and Asus smartphones. Qualcomm is the leader in the smartphone industry when it comes to chip development and manufacturing and has left companies with very little choice to implement other SoCs in their devices. Youtube Googles decision to hire Gulati means only one thing, the company wants a competitive edge over other smartphone companies and if successful, a custom Google processor will reduce performance gaps between the iPhone and the Pixel. Youtube Apple has already been experimenting with the chip design, the latest being a W1 wireless chip that is used wireless audio products like the AirPods. The other new chip is integrated into the touch bar of the MacBook Pro and is now working on chips that support AR and are based on ARM processors. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 13 By Farhad Daneshvar Trend: Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia is reportedly scheduled to attend a ceremony in Seoul over the coming weeks to ink an agreement on luring the countrys largest investment since the world removed nuclear sanctions on Tehran last January. Under the expected agreement, South Korean entities would provide $13 billion worth of financing for development projects in the Islamic Republic. A well-informed source familiar with the issue has told Irans Shargh newspaper that the sides have already agreed on 102 items of the deal and the talks are underway to conclude the two remaining items. According to the report, KExim Bank is expected to provide $8 billion out of the total amount and Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) will allocate $5 billion to complete the deal. About $1.7 billion is slated to be allocated to overhauling Esfahan Refinery and $3 billion will go to the Siraf condensate refinery. In the meantime, some parts of finance will be allocated for building a modern hospital in Iran. According to the government, Iran, in order to reduce the rising unemployment rate needs over $233 billion worth of investments. President Hassan Rouhahi earlier said that the country needs a permanent 8-percent GDP growth to create one million new jobs annually. A recent study by the parliaments research center suggests that Iranian unemployment rate would reach 16 percent by 2020 in an optimistic scenario. However, the report adds that the figure may hit 26 percent in a pessimistic scenario. According to Irans statistical center, the countrys unemployment rate over the last fiscal year (starting March 20) stood at 12.4 percent with an estimated 2.2 million unemployed job seekers. Tehran, Iran, June 14 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: Iran has started to export vegetables to Qatar after the Arab country was put under embargos by Saudi Arabia and a number of following states. Iran started the export with 200 tons of vegetables including cabbage, pumpkin, carrot, turnip, and beet, Mehr news agency reported June 14. Iran increased its export to Qatar in recent days after a political rift between Doha and some Arab states, which resulted in them sanctioning Qatar. Iran sent the first food cargo to Qatar on June 8. Iranian Homa Airlines Boeing 747 plane delivered the cargo. Earlier, Arab media outlets reported that the foodstuff available in Qatar will suffice for four weeks. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE announced about breaking their diplomatic relations with Qatar June 5, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East. Later, the authorities of Libya, Yemen as well as the Maldives and Mauritius also announced about severing diplomatic relations with Qatar. US Senators on Wednesday voted to approve a measure that would expand sanctions on Russia and limit the presidents ability to lift restrictions. The measures take aim at Russia's defense, intelligence, banking, mining, and transportation industrial sectors, Sputnik reported. Senators voted in favor of Senator Mike Crapos amendment to a bill that censures Iran over its ballistic missile program. The sanctions mark a rare bipartisan effort in the Senate. The new measures achieve three goals championed by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. Schumer wanted to codify existing sanctions into law, usher in further punitive measures for Russian meddling in the recent presidential elections, and provide Congress with a procedure for reviewing the lifting of the sanctions. With the last measure, Schumer locked in Congress ability to prevent Trump from unilaterally lifting sanctions. The move is seen by multiple political analysts as a concession for Democrats who, in exchange for bundling Iran and Russia sanctions into one bill, will roll over and play dead when Republicans try to jam through a secretive repeal and replace bill for the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare). US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the Senate this week that new measures against Moscow could jeopardize Russia's willingness to engage a dialogue on reaching a political resolution in Syria. The bill still must pass the House of Representatives before it goes to President Donald Trump's desk. The Trump administration does not plan to lift the existing sanctions imposed on Russia, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the Kremlin seeks to avoid a "pique of sanctions" in response to the US Senate's newly proposed sanctions against Russia but called for patience until the measures are codified. The new sanctions will target Russia's defense, intelligence, mining, shipping and railway industries. The bill would also restrict debt dealings with Russian banks and energy companies to 14 days and 30 days, respectively. The new measures were introduced in the Senate on Monday in an amendment to the Iran sanctions bill that censures the Islamic Republic over its ballistic missile program. When asked if he thinks that the bill will be adopted, Larsen, stated, "I do think it will be." "Increasing the sanctions on RussiaI think is something thats going to get a lot of bipartisan support in the Senate and in the House," the lawmaker added. "I think its important to understand that in the United States we are very frustrated and angry about the role that Russia had in interfering with our elections last year," he explained. "The fact that a foreign country at all attempted to interfere and influence our elections is something that every American is angry about. In this case it was Russia, and we have high confidence of that." Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Qatar on Wednesday amid regional tensions between Gulf states, the ministry said in a statement. Cavusoglu will be received by emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and discuss bilateral relations and recent regional developments in a bilateral meeting with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Anadolu reported. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen abruptly cut diplomatic relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Mauritania followed suit shortly thereafter, while Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations with Qatar. Doha vigorously denies the accusations and characterized as unjustified the attempt to isolate it diplomatically. Turkey has said it stood with Qatar against sanctions and urged Saudi Arabia to take the lead in finding a solution to the crisis. "The king of Saudi Arabia, as leader of the Gulf, should solve this issue. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. I especially think that he should lead the way towards resolving this crisis." Baku, Azerbaijan, June 6 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Istanbul police are carrying out raids against supporters of Fethullah Gulen, accused of being involved in the military coup attempt in Turkey July 15, 2016, the countrys media outlets reported June 14. Several persons, including lawyers, have been detained as the result of the raids, according to the information. The number and the names of the detainees are not disclosed. On July 15, 2016 Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country as a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed. The death toll as a result of the military coup attempt was over 200 people. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu It is with great pleasure that I welcome the 1st Session of the Foreign Ministry's Scientific Council, and I want to thank all of you who accepted what is, in my opinion, a position of distinction that, at the same time, honours us by your acceptance. I thank the Service, the Secretariat General and the Committee that, as provided for by the new law, proposed a list from which those present were chosen. First of all, I want to thank the President of the Scientific Council, Professor Christos Rozakis, whom all of you know. He was Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights, he is the Chair of the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe, he was an exceptional figure and Professor and the Kapodistrian University of Athens, and we know that he is one of the world's top experts on International Law, and above all the Law of the Sea. I first became acquainted with this Law, personally, even though I am not a jurist in the strict sense of the term, through articles by Christos Rozakis, and I am always grateful for the knowledge I gained from him. Christos Rozakis is also well known because he has dealt extensively with the legal aspect of Greek-Turkish problems, and he was among the first people, internationally, to deal with the Exclusive Economic Zone. That is, he is someone who has knowledge and experience of the whole range of issues of International Law and Science. Because, as we know, the Scientific Council is an advisory organ that seeks and makes recommendations regarding the long-term problems our country is facing and regarding long-term Legal problems, because while our Legal Service also participates, at the same time it deals with the day-to-day, short-term issues that are associated with foreign policy and have to be dealt with through Legal Science. I wanted to thank Christos Rozakis in particular. It is a great honour personally and for our Ministry. The second is a good friend of mine, but he isn't here for that reason. He is a great legal mind, Haris Pamboukis, who has served as a Secretary General at our Ministry and as a government Minister as has Christos Rozakis, as Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Haris Pamboukis is a Professor of Law who has been honoured with the right and, concurrently, I would say, the duty to teach at the Hague Academy of International Law, which is the highest honour for someone in his field, and he is the top expert our country has in International Private Law. He knows the problems of Greek foreign policy on the practical and theoretical levels, including Greek-Turkish issues, International Agreements, the International Community, International Relations. I thank him very much. I am honoured by his accepting to be a member of our Scientific Council. Third is Fay Pazartzis, who has helped us a great deal in the negotiations we are carrying out on the legal aspect of the Cyprus issue. A person from whom we recently read an important book on the Treaty of Lausanne; a Treaty many people would like to revise. She is a professor who teaches, very successfully, and researches human rights issues, the international position of human rights, as well as problems associated with the UN. If I remember correctly, she has written an exceptional book not only on Lausanne, but also on issues such as the International Court of Justice in The Hague and Greek-Turkish relations. She has a brightening presence, and I would also like to thank her for accepting the proposal. The fourth, also a Professor and Emeritus at the University of Athens, Antonis Bredimas. I first read his writings on International Agreements, on International Institutions. A very special case for legal experts. He deals with International Law and International Organizations. He will help and advise us from that perspective, but at the same time he also has a great deal of experience with Cyprus and Greek-Turkish relations. Fifth, Professor at the University of Macedonia, Paroula Perraki, who is among those people with unparalleled expertise in International Organizations, in combination with the European Community and the European Institutions. She has also dealt with human rights. As you can see, our Scientific Council has many professors who are experts in International Law, the Law of the Sea, Institutional Law, Human Rights, and with individual specializations. If I remember correctly, Paroula also served as an ad hoc judge at the Court of Human Rights, so you are another member of our Scientific Council who has experience of the European system, the Court of Human Rights. Sixth is Petros Liakouras, who is participating in the capacity of Scientific Director of the Centre for Analysis and Planning. An Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Piraeus, among the few experts on the legal aspect of the Cyprus issue, Greek-Turkish relations. He has written about and has in-depth knowledge of the organization of foreign policy, the Law of the Sea, which our Ministry deals with extensively, of course. I would like to thank you, Mr. Liakoura, and Paroula Perraki individually for accepting our proposal. The seventh, I think he is the youngest, and he will arrive later, teaches at Oxford University, honouring Greek letters abroad. Antonis Tzanakopoulos. He is an Associate Professor at Oxford University. He has profound knowledge in a special area that concerns international conventions and international agreements, and he has also written about and specialized in issues concerning the Security Council and the functioning of the UN, and he is very useful. On the one hand, Paroula Perraki will link us with the Thessaloniki Institutes that deal with the Balkan countries, so that we can study legal issues we have with those countries. On the other hand, Antonis Tzanakopoulos will link us with the extensive scientific community of the best universities in the UK. If the honour of your presence, for me, and the honour you do the Ministry by accepting the proposal distinguishes you, if you are all distinguished by something, it is profound knowledge, profound love for the law and human rights, the international recognition you all have. It is that you have experience and theoretical perspectives some more than others, no doubt, but others just as much on the issues of international law, of international organizations and conventions that are linked to Greece's problems. You are not just theoreticians. Rather, all of you have worked as practitioners in many, many negotiations or in key positions in the Greek state. What you have taught, you have tested in practice, and it is a great source of wealth for our Foreign Ministry and a great honour for us that you accepted and that you will work gratis, in fact for the Foreign Ministry, for Greek foreign policy, and you are yet another step in the implementation of the last small bill that we submitted to Parliament and that, apart from one political party, was supported unanimously. And it will be resubmitted, with certain additions, as part of the larger bill we are preparing on the Ministry's Statute. Mr. Pamboukis and Mr. Liakouras also have practical experience of this, because they worked on older versions of the statutes in the 1990s. At that time, we began working on the Ministry's statute during the term of our late and unforgettable friend Giannos Kranidiotes, whom I always feel the need to honour, the Minister who combined the indomitable Cypriot spirit with scientific knowledge and practical insight here at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I want to thank you all once again. I hope that we succeed in capitalising on your willingness and knowledge and that, first of all, we meet the responsibilities we have, some of which we will share with you; responsibilities concerning the future of this land, human rights in this land and anywhere else necessary, and the needs of our Ministry. Again, thank you all very much. Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: The independence referendum of Iraqs Kurdish Autonomous Region is unacceptable for Turkey and Ankara will not recognize the results of this referendum, Yalcin Topcu, chief adviser to the Turkish president, said June 14. He added that Iraqs Kurdish Autonomous Region is responsible for its actions. Turkey stands for the integrity of Iraq, rather than for holding a referendum on the status of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a meeting with the Justice and Development Party members in Ankara earlier. Erdogan said that those in Iraqs Kurdish Autonomous Region should understand that they are not alone in the region and there are also Arabs and Turkomans living there. Iraq's territorial integrity is a priority for Turkey, Erdogan said. Last week, Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, said the KRG is ready to hold an independence referendum. Barzani noted that the referendum is scheduled for September 25. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: The Qatar crisis is factitious and will not last long, Turkish media outlets cited Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus June 14. There are no real reasons for this crisis, according to him. Kurtulmus also noted that Turkey can take the initiative to solve the Qatar crisis. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will today visit Qatar and Saudi Arabia to mull the situation in the region. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE announced about breaking their diplomatic relations with Qatar June 5, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East. Later, a number of other countries also announced about severing diplomatic relations with Qatar. -- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu The Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee continued debating the Tiran and Sanafir islands issue until the early hours of Tuesday morning Heated discussions over the ownership of Tiran and Sanafir islands continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning, with the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee holding a third session on the issue. Early on Tuesday, parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said that discussions were still ongoing, with members seeking to reach the full truth regarding Tiran and Sanafir." The parliamentary committee is debating the ownership of the two Red Sea islands, which the Egyptian government declared the sovereign territory of Saudi Arabia after an Egypt-Saudi demarcation agreement was signed in April 2016. The deal has been the subject of much controversy since then, and MPs have been debating the issue and examining various documents in the case, with a view to a possible vote by parliament as a whole. On Tuesday, Abdel-Aal said that several fake maps had been shared on social media incorrectly showing the positions of the two islands. He said the maps were being shared "on purpose by certain bodies to stir up public opinion". Maps from various sources have been shared on social media over the past year, with both supporters and opponents of the deal presenting maps that serve their purposes. Abdel-Aal said that only maps coming from the armed forces would be considered in debates on the issue, since they were the only valid, official maps for the area. Abdel-Aal made the statements after armed forces representative Magd El-Din Barakat told parliament that the armed forces is not interfering in the deal, aside from contributing on technical issues. He stressed that the armed forces would never relinquish Egyptian sovereign territory. No Egyptian blood was spilled on two islands of Tiran and Sanafir, and we have a full documentation of where the martyrs are buried nationwide, Barakat said. He said there is no Saudi presence on the two islands, in accordance with the 1979 peace treaty. Opponents of the deal have argued that Egypt would be giving up territory it obtained as a result of the 1979 peace treaty following war between Egypt and Israel. Wahdan presented the testimony of a South Sinai investor called Hisham Yehia, who had met with ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2006. According to Wahdan, Mubarak told Yehia that the islands were Saudi but he wasnt going to hand them over now. In 1986, the owner of a Port Said boat called me to tell me that his boat has been confiscated. He then called the MP of his district to meet with the prime minister to have his boat released. However, the PM said he would not interfere as the land where the boat was seized was Saudi, Wahdan said, indicating that the location was one of the islands. The third session also witnessed the withdrawal of demarcation expert Haidy Farouk from the session, following a verbal attack by MP Mortada Mansour. Farouk had suggested that the islands were Egyptian, to which Mansour objected. During her talk, Farouk said she was instructed by former intelligence chief Omar Sulieman and former defense minister Field Marshall Hussien Tanatawy to research the ownership of the islands. During the research, which she conducted with Ambassador Medhat Kamal of the foreign ministry, she sent through seven boxes of documents from British and American history archives. She said that her research showed that the islands were indeed Egyptian, being part of Egypts Sinai Peninsula and not Saudis Hijaz, according to a document from 4 October 1934. She added that she found 75 documents showing letters and wires exchanged between Egypt, Saudi King Faisal and the American administration, indicating that the Islands were Egyptian territory. Following her talk, Mansour asked Farouk what her nationality was and queried whether she had indeed received her instructions from Sulieman, causing Farouk to quickly withdraw. After her withdrawal, members of the opposition parliamentary bloc "25-30", which opposes the deal, engaged in arguments with Mansour, causing Abdel-Aal to intervene. Several fierce quarrels have erupted in the course of the three days of parliamentary debate. On Monday, Abdel-Aal said he would adjourn the meeting to prevent it from descending into chaos after the 25-30 group fought with pro-government majority bloc Support Egypt. Abdel-Aal said that a closed-door evening meeting, including only members of the legislative and constitutional affairs committee, would be held at 9pm on Monday. The Monday altercation took place after the 25-30 parliamentary bloc, which opposes the deal, insisted that parliament was not permitted to discuss the deal until the Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled on legal jurisdiction issues. The border demarcation deal, which places the two Red Sea islands in Saudi territory, was signed during the visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdel-Aziz to Cairo in April 2016. The deal has faced a number of legal challenges since it was announced in April 2016, including disputes over which courts have jurisdiction to hear such cases. In January 2017, the High Administrative Court ruled that the deal was null and void. In April, however, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters followed with a ruling that administrative courts have no jurisdiction over issues relating to national borders. On the ruling of the High Administrative Court, I say for the thousandth time that we will not allow any authority to violate that of the parliament, Abdel-Aal said on Tuesday. He reaffirmed the view he expressed on Monday that parliament would not implement any court ruling on the islands. "As the constitution gives parliament full and exclusive authority to discuss foreign agreements, we will never honour any court rulings, because they would be considered null and void to us," he said on Monday. Search Keywords: Short link: The Egyptian parliament's Support Egypt bloc issued a statement on Wednesday praising its members for supporting the deal to hand over the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, according to the maritime border demarcation agreement signed by Egypt and the Gulf kingdom in April 2016. On Tuesday, members of the bloc in the legislative and constitutional affairs committee voted in favour of the deal during a committee vote. The committee approved the deal, with 35 out of 43 members voting in favour, passing it to a vote in the general assembly after heated sessions that began on Sunday. According to the bloc, the parliamentary administration was keen to hear different points of view, including views opposing the deal. Parliament will vote on the deal in a plenary session tomorrow or next week. The Support Egypt bloc praised its members for passing the deal despite "threats" and "blackmail attempts" but did not clarify the nature of those threats or attempts. The largest bloc in parliament, Support Egypt praised both parliamentary administration and the cabinet for providing its members with the necessary maps and documents to inform their decision. The statement added that unecessary documents and maps were disregarded as "they were intended to extend the discussion." The bloc also criticised "some members," without giving names, of attempting to sabotage the sessions and force their points of view on others. Support Egypt accused the members of the 25-30 bloc of attacking the experts in "an unacceptable way." The members of 25-30 bloc have already declared their complete rejection of the deal and of parliament's authority to discuss or decide on this issue. Search Keywords: Short link: Kamel Amer, head of the national security and defence committee, said the committee had reviewed all technical and historical aspects of the deal Egypt's House of Representatives is expected to hold a final vote on Wednesday on the controversial maritime border demarcation deal which places the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, currently administered by Egypt, in Saudi Arabia's territorial waters. The vote comes after the legislative and constitutional affairs committee and the national security and defence committee approved the deal on Tuesday and Wednesday. Kamal Amer, head of the national security and defence committee, told reporters Wednesday morning that the committee had completed a review of the deal's technical and historical aspects. "In a meeting on Wednesday morning, the committee reviewed all the UN historical documents and maps, which all agree that the two islands of Tiran and Sanafir belonged to Saudi Arabia," said Amer. Amer said that MPs affiliated with the committee showed trust in state institutions, especially the armed forces. "There was consensus among members of the committee that the two islands belonged to Saudi Arabia," he said. Mohamed Akl, a member of the committee, told reporters that he rejected the deal because it was pushed through the committee without adequate discussion. "I wonder why we were in such a rush," said Akl. Akl also said "if former president Hosni Mubarak ratified the deal in 1990, then why did he refuse to implement it? These questions should be raised and we want answers, but the whole matter was discussed in great haste," said Akl. Akl said he also voted against the deal because the two islands are strategically important to Egypt's national security. "Egypt should be in control of at least the island of Tiran because it leads to the Gulf of Aqaba and this area is very important to Egypt's national security," he said. Amer said an understanding exists between Cairo and Riyadh that would allow Egypt's military to use the islands in the event of any threat to the country's security. Search Keywords: Short link: Three people have been arrested in the 1990 rape and murder of a social worker who had been involved in a case that put one of the suspects' children in foster care. Connie Reyes, 57, was found dead in her home nearly 13 years ago. The medical examiner's office determined that she died of asphyxia by strangulation. Growing up on a 15-acre family farm in central California, Morgan Boyd never dreamed of a career in agriculture. He recalled harvesting corn by hand in the sweltering heat in the Huasna Valley and hawking produce at farmer's markets around San Luis Obispo County. "I didn't see the farm as something I ever wanted to pursue at all," he said. But after serving a dozen years in the Army, during which he deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, he was medically retired and struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. He found peace back on the farm. "My transition out was really rough -- I didn't know what I was going to do with my life," he said in a telephone interview with Military.com. "I was coming home and helping my family on the farm, and I was finding a lot of peace and solitude and, to be quite honest, some healing out there." Now, Boyd, a remarried father of two, wants to inspire other veterans interested in trading their combat fatigues for overalls. He launched the Farmer Experiential Education and Development, or FEED, program at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo to give beginner farmers a crash course in farming. Morgan Boyd, an Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has launched the Farmer Experiential Education and Development, or FEED, program at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo to give beginner farmers a crash course in farming. (Video courtesy Cal Poly) Combat Fields to Cornfields Boyd enlisted in the Army shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, along with his younger brother, Eric. The two attended Basic Training together, served as cavalry scouts in the same unit -- the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment -- and even deployed to Iraq together. Eric was shot in Iraq and medically retired from the service. Morgan continued to serve, became an officer and led a reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition, or RSTA (pronounced "rista"), platoon in a particularly volatile part of Afghanistan as part of the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. "Our brigade still to this day has the most KIAs out of any brigade that went to Afghanistan," he said, referring to troops killed in action. "It was a rough deployment. It was a tough go. That kind of affected me more than Iraq did." After returning from war, Boyd sought medical treatment for injuries to his shoulder and back. He was surprised to learn that despite being a captain with 12 years of experience and combat deployments under his belt, he would be a casualty of the Army's push to downsize the force. "I was a senior captain -- I thought I was going to spend 20 years in the service," he said. "They decided to tell me it was time to go, which was a tough pill to swallow at the time. Looking back now, I'm really grateful that it happened." Back to School In addition to taking over operations of his family's Pepper Creek Family Farms in Arroyo Grande, Boyd started taking classes at California Polytechnic State University, known as Cal Poly, where he received a master's degree in with a focus in veteran employment and sustainment agricultural policy. He came up with the idea for the FEED program at Cal Poly after learning of the Farmer's Veterans Coalition, a 9,000-member nonprofit based in Davis, California, which works to connect veterans with jobs in agriculture. The coalition offers a Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund to provide financial aid to vets who want to work in agriculture and a Homegrown by Heroes Label to distinguish veteran produce in the marketplace. Michael O'Gorman, executive director of the coalition, praised the efforts of Boyd and his brother Eric, who teaches a soil management class at Cal Poly's Pomona campus. Like the Boyds, many veteran farmers boast traits well-suited for farming or other careers in agriculture, he said. "Work ethic is huge" for these jobs, he said. "Determination -- not giving up easily, standing up after you've been knocked down. A symptom of PTSD -- hyper-vigilance -- that's the best thing you could take to a farm. That's a trait you look for in somebody -- somebody with eyes in the back of their heads and sleeping with one eye open." O'Gorman also said that while the solitude of the farm attracts many veterans to the field, it can also be dangerous -- and it's important for people entering these careers to maintain personal relationships with colleagues and professionals. "Farmers in general have high incidence of suicide and depression because of isolation," he said. "A lot of what we do is try to make vets in our program talk to other people." Indeed, PBS recently aired a movie, "Farmer/Veteran," about Alex Sutton, a veteran who struggled to keep up with the work on a 43-acre family farm he took over from his grandfather, who purchased the property after his own service in Korea. Revitalizing Rural Communities While the numbers are sometimes debated, Boyd said roughly 44 percent of service members come from rural populations, but only 24 percent of them stay in rural areas after leaving the service in part because of the lack of economic opportunities. "A lot of our veterans are not staying in rural communities -- they're leaving when they get out," he said. "But what we're starting to see is a lot of veterans are trying to find a way to get back." There are 20.1 million veterans in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. Of those, 4.8 million, or about 24 percent, live in rural areas, mostly in the South and Midwest, according to a January report from the bureau. By comparison, some 15 million vets live in urban areas. Of the vets who live in rural areas, only about 70,000, or slightly more than 1 percent, work in agriculture -- or related jobs such as forestry, fishing, hunting and mining, according to the report. But there is a push from government officials to develop strategies to reinvigorate rural communities, which have seen a decline in economic activity in recent decades as more of the population flocks to cities, Boyd said. "I think bringing back veteran farmers is a great natural progression," he said. Not Your Typical Ag Course The FEED program is an intensive, 12-week foundational course designed to introduce vets and other interested applicants to farming, Boyd said. It's one of just a handful of such programs in the state to be certified by the Veterans Affairs Department and eligible for GI Bill benefits coverage, he said. The 15-credit course is estimated to cost $6,000, excluding room and board, and is designed to accommodate up to 24 students per quarter, Boyd said. The university is currently accepting applications for a course scheduled to run Sept. 5 through Dec. 15. Information on how to apply can be found at its website. The goal is to provide students with a cross-section of courses that combine classroom work and field experience over a relatively short period so they can seek employment on a farm, start their own business or find other jobs in the agricultural industry, according to Dr. Brian Tietje, vice provost for international, graduate and extended education at Cal Poly. "Most ag education is very focused on large-scale production agriculture, and the assumption is then that there are high degrees of specialization so, for example, if you look at an ag school and their curriculum, they're not claiming to teach you to be a farmer -- you might choose a major in crop science," he said. "I do believe that something like this could serve any number of potential markets." As for Boyd, he's working to get word out about his program and encouraging veterans to apply, especially those who recently separated and may be struggling to adjust to life without the structure and camaraderie they're used to. "That six-month window of post-separation is, quite frankly, a dangerous time in many veterans' lives," he said. "They're kind of left to their own devices and that can be dangerous. "Not every veteran is prepared to enter into a four-year university -- they're just not, to be very honest," Boyd added. "A lot of veterans have these educational benefits that they should be able to apply to training programs that meet their own personal needs, and that to me is where this program fits." -- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry. Related content: Following a series of parliamentary hearings this week, the Egyptian parliament approved a maritime border demarcation deal that places the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, currently under Egyptian control, in Saudi Arabia's territorial waters. Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal told MPs in a plenary session on Wednesday morning that the final debate and vote on the deal would be democratic. "We are an old parliament established 150 years ago, and as a result we should conduct a democratic and objective dialogue on the deal," said Abdel-Aal, adding that "we are all under one flag, live in the Egyptian state, and we all, opponents or proponents, are patriots who love their country." Abdel-Aal said the discussion of the deal came after the legislative and constitutional affairs committee held four meetings before voting on the agreement. "As many as 250 MPs [out of a total of 596], in addition to experts who were members of the national committee that negotiated the deal, attended the meetings," said Abdel-Aal, adding that "experts in geography, land survey, history, geology and maritime demarcation were also invited to give their say on the deal." Abdel-Aal said experts who were both in favor and against the deal were in attendance. "I also want to point out that an international agreement on maritime borders in 1982 has defined the technical basics according to which borders among countries should be drawn," said Abdel-Aal. According to Abdel-Aal, a national committee including members of the Armed Forces negotiated the deal. "We trust the Armed Forces because they would never agree to the dispensing of any part of the country's land," said Abdel-Aal, adding that "as a result, we have nothing to hide because we are all keen on achieving national interests." Supporters and opponents of the deal engaged in heated debates on the agreement in three sessions held on Monday and Tuesday by the parliament's legislative and constitutional affairs committee. Shortly after the vote on Wednesday afternoon, which was conducted by a show of hands in the general session, MPs from the opposition 25/30 bloc, which opposes the deal, said the parliament's discussion and vote on the deal was "invalid." Haitham El-Hariri, a leading member of the group, said during a press conference on Wednesday that around a 100 MPs have signed a petition objecting to the passing of the agreement. Dozens of MPs are contemplating mass resignation in protest of the approval of the deal, according to Nadia Henry, another member of the opposition group. The border demarcation deal, which places the two Red Sea islands in Saudi territory, was signed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia in April 2016. The deal has faced a number of legal challenges by opponents and led to disputes over which courts have jurisdiction to hear such cases. In January 2017, the High Administrative Court ruled that the deal was null and void. In April, however, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters followed with a ruling that administrative courts have no jurisdiction over issues relating to national borders. On Monday, MPs who opposed the deal argued that parliament should not discuss the deal without a ruling from the Supreme Constitutional Court on legal jurisdiction complaints. Today, the head of the national security and defence committee Kamal Amer said that "MPs who reviewed the deal agreed that Tiran and Sanafir are part of Saudi territorial waters." "But we are sure that although the two islands belong to Saudi Arabia, they will remain ready to serve Egyptian and Arab national security," said Amer. Amer also said that after Saudi Arabia asked Egypt in 1988 and 1990 to hand the two islands over to Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian government issued a decree in 1990 stating that the two islands belong to Saudi Arabia. Amer said the deal will serve the national interests of both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. "I also want to highlight that the legislative and constitutional affairs committee has concluded that the deal does not violate Article 151 of the constitution, because it does not involve the ceding of Egyptian land," said Amer. Search Keywords: Short link: Two senators on Wednesday introduced a bill aimed at boosting pay rates for enlisted personnel by requiring presidents to go by the Employment Cost Index in recommending raises. The bill proposed by Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, would also correct what they called "discrepancies" resulting in different pay rates for senior enlisted personnel of the same rank and equal responsibilities. "Except for seven senior enlisted positions, enlisted personnel do not receive a pay increase as their responsibility levels grow, creating great discrepancies," the two senators said in a joint statement. "For example, the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff [Gen. Joseph Dunford] gets paid more than the senior enlisted adviser to the commander of Pacific Command [Adm. Harry Harris], even though they both are of the same rank with equivalent levels of responsibility," the two senators said. Related content: In addition, the senators said that presidents of both parties for years have skirted the mandate that pay raises for enlisted personnel should match the Employment Cost Index -- "unless the president cites economic concerns or a national emergency." "Unfortunately, previous presidents have cited economic concerns to deny troops their pay raise while simultaneously claiming a growing economy publicly," the two senators said. They said that the current 2.1 percent proposed pay raise for service members in President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget "does not match the Employment Cost Index," which would call for a 2.4 percent increase. The senators said that their bill, called The Leadership Recognition Act, "addresses these discrepancies by ensuring fair compensation among senior enlisted advisers and removes the president's ability to block pay raises by citing economic concerns." The language of the bill on senior enlisted personnel, if enacted, states that "the rate of monthly basic pay for senior enlisted adviser to the commanders of the combatant commands shall be equivalent to the rate of monthly basic pay for the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Ernst and Warren said their proposal has received support from the American Legion, the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States, and the Military Officers Association of America. "Senior enlisted service members carry a great responsibility leading our men and women on and off the battlefield, and we must ensure they receive appropriate compensation as we seek to retain them and strengthen our military," Ernst said in a statement. Warren said that enlisted personnel "know they won't get rich in the military, but they serve with skill and dedication, and they are entitled to basic pay increases that will give them a chance to build some economic security." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. A Trump administration official on Wednesday said decreasing military spouse unemployment is among President Donald Trump's priorities for improving the U.S. economy. "We at the White House know the service and the sacrifice that each of you is putting towards the betterment of your nation," Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to the president, said at a military spouse hiring summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We also know many of our military spouses across the country are in search of employment," she added. "This is an issue that is under active examination and search for solutions in this administration." Conway, who said spouse employment falls under her portfolio, said the administration is particularly interested in continuing public-private partnerships to help expand spouse employment opportunities and working with states to decrease the financial burden of transferring professional licenses over state borders. Related links: "We don't want military families to decide if they have $500 to put towards another license in a different state or $500 to put towards groceries or other necessities that month," she said. "We would like to continue to look towards a way to make sure those choices are not so difficult." Conway spoke at a Military Spouse Employment Summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes Foundation in Washington, D.C. Transferring a professional license to a new state during a military move can be time consuming and expensive. Although all 50 states and the District of Columbia have spouse license portability laws aimed at making transfers easier, the laws are not consistent and many only apply to specific career fields. For example, teachers and attorneys are often excluded from the rules. And although federal officials can work to push states to adopt new rules, the decision to do so is ultimately up to the state lawmakers. Meanwhile, military spouses remain unemployed at four times the rate of their civilian counterparts, with more than a quarter who took a recent survey working part-time or multiple jobs, according to a new U.S. Chamber Foundation report released at the summit. The unemployment rate of military spouses, which was 23 percent in 2015, according to Defense Department statistics, has dropped to 16 percent, according to the Department of Labor. But that rate is still four times that adult female Americans, according to the U.S. Chamber Foundation report, which is based on a survey of 1,200 active duty spouses or spouses of veterans who recently left the military. "Our spouses live in a perpetual recession, so while the economy isn't in recession, as a whole we have some space to move for spouses," said Adam Jones, an economist at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, who presented the finding at the event. "Clearly there's an opportunity here to do something." Of the employed spouses surveyed, more than a quarter said they are working part time, while half of those said they would prefer full time work. More than 18 percent said are in a seasonal or part time job, and 71 percent said they are overeducated for their current job. Almost half said they took a pay cut to accept their current jobs. Over 88 percent said they have at least some post-high school education. Many military spouses experience job hunt and employment woes due to frequent moves or getting stationed far from large cities in areas with slim job prospects. More than 65 percent of those surveyed had to quit their jobs for a military move. Nearly two-thirds of those needed more than four months to find new ones, and a quarter needed more than a year, the report says. Spouse employment challenges also hurt military retention, the survey found. Some 43 percent of spouses surveyed said their employment ranked between an 8 and 10 -- with 10 being the most important -- as a factor on deciding whether to leave the military. "That's kind of shocking," Jill Biden, spouse of former Vice President Joe Biden who helped lead a White House military spouse hiring program during the Obama administration, said at the event. "If we hope to recruit and retain the best service members to build the best fighting force in the world, then we must address this military spouse employment issue," she said. "This is critical to our troops, to our military strategy ... it's simply unacceptable." There are currently over 641,000 military spouses, according to the Pentagon, with over 92 percent of those female and almost half 30 years old or older. Over 40 percent of military spouses have children, and over 70 percent of those have children 11 years old or younger. The Pentagon has programs to help military spouses find employment, including a job board through the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) and education, resume and career support through the Spouse Education and Career Support program. Military spouse employment is also a key component in the department's offerings that help military families transition out of military life. -- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com. Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go. Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune... Thousands of Syrian refugees are returning home for a visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, after Turkey temporarily opened two border crossings with its war-torn neighbor. For some of the younger ones travelling back, the visit means seeing some of their relatives, even siblings, for the very first time. Ankara says those who go back can return with their papers and a special "religious holiday permission." Turkey has taken in more than 3 million Syrian refugees who arrived by way of legal or illegal crossings since the start of their country's civil war more than six years ago. The official border crossings were shut in 2015 barring exceptions such as serious injuries to prevent a spillover of the conflict and stem the flood of refugees. Ankara has also been building a wall along the boundary to curb cross-border movement of fighters. Many Syrians welcomed the opportunity to go back, even briefly. Twenty-one-year-old Ismail Hadidi Jafar was waiting to cross into Syria from the Oncupinar gate in the southern province of Kilis on Tuesday, to visit his parents and family in Aleppo. He left two years ago and hadn't gone back since "I have a young sibling whom I've never met," Jafar told The Associated Press, preparing to cross over. As he waited, the crowds swelled and hundreds of refugees had to stand in the scorching sun to be individually processed by police and migration officials for the crossing. Seeing the lines, some abandoned plans to visit, but excitement remained high. Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said that since June 1 when the crossing of Cilvegozu in Hatay province opened, some 30,000 Syrians have left to visit their homes. Oncupinar opened for the first time on Tuesday for the Ramadan visits. Turkey has also grown increasingly involved in the Syrian conflict. It launched a cross-border operation last summer, sending in tanks and troops along with Syrian opposition forces to clear its border and a swath of northern Syria from the Islamic State group and also to counter the spread of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters there. The Turkish government views Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as YPG, as a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish militants who have been waging a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey. The two crossings will remain open for departures to Syria until June 23. Returns will be allowed through Oncupinar until July 14 and Cilvegozu until Sep. 30 but Turkish authorities reserve the right to amend these dates. Mohammed Izzo, 28, who also hails from Aleppo province in northern Syria, said he's been longing to see his family. "The area we were in was under Daesh control," he said using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. "I didn't go visit after Daesh left so I'm going now." Izzo said he will return to Turkey after Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. Mohammed Dede, a father of three, said he's thinking about leaving Turkey for good. He is headed first to Jarablus, a town on the Syrian side of the border that was taken from IS by Turkey-backed fighters in August. "If the situation is calm there I want to open up a business and return," the 37-year-old refugee said. "I want to continue my life there." Search Keywords: Short link: All that talk about restrictor plates possibly coming to Michigan International Speedway have died down since that August afternoon in 2014 when Jeff Gordon lit up the track with a qualifying mark of 206.558 mph. Times have dropped and stabilized, but don't tell NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series veteran David Ragan that the fast-approaching FireKeepers 400 is going to be a relaxing Sunday afternoon drive. Joey Logano's mark of 199.557 mph during this past August's Pure Michigan 400 was the quickest for a pole winner last year. In fact, nine drivers cracked 200 mph at Michigan in the opening round of qualifying in August. "Every track is a little unique," said Ragan, who drives the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion. "It's so wide. It's the fastest race track that we qualify at on the circuit, over 195 mph and close to 200, depending on the aeropackage. It has so much grip and it's so wide, you can run all over the track. "You can see the speeds of the cars, you can see them moving around and there is a lot of available room to pass. With the length of race track, you will need fuel before you need tires. Michigan is really easy on tire wear. It always turns into a fuel mileage race, which is very different, it's unique and always gives the crew chief and team engineers something to think about." Ragan and the Monster Energy Cup field will qualify Friday for Sunday's 3 p.m. FireKeepers 400, the 15th stop on the series schedule. While the track record that Gordon set three years ago will likely be safe, Ragan said Michigan should still set the pace when it comes to laying down fast times. MIS' two-mile oval underwent a repave prior to the 2012 season, and the superspeedway has never been the same. Ryan Newman set the track record at just over 194 mph in 2005, so the repave hiked mark up by over 12 mph. While MIS has become the fastest track, Ragan said let's table the plate talk. "The speeds are OK where we don't need (restrictor plates) today," Ragan said. "When we were qualifying over 200 mph at Michigan that might have been an option to do something like that. I think Talladega and Daytona are good places for restrictor plates and that style of racing is unique to those tracks. Let's have the other tracks have their own identities and let the race play out natural." Ragan, a 31-year old native of Unadilla, Ga., has returned to Front Row Motorsports this season, reuniting him with the team he raced for from 2012-2015. Look for Ragan's Fusion to feature a special paint scheme for this weekend's action. Ragan's car will be decked out with a special Shriners Hospital for Children paint scheme at Michigan, along with upcoming races at Sonoma and Daytona. "That is something that is special to me because I am a Shriner and I've seen firsthand all the good work the hospitals do around the country," Ragan said. "It's great to have those guys on board for a couple of races. We have to raise a lot of awareness and donations for the hospital, and we are going to have some fun at the hospitals with the patients and their families. "I chose the Shriners as my charity of choice when I was a rookie 11 years ago. I visited some of the hospitals in my home state of Georgia and I felt like the hospitals were a little underappreciated for the great things they did for young kids all over the country. They do a lot of great work and improve the quality of kids' life. I felt like a lot of people didn't know about the Shriners and their hospital network and everything they are involved with. I wanted to help out and went through the process of becoming a Shriner five years ago." ANN ARBOR, MI - 2017 has already been a big year for LLamasoft. The Ann Arbor-based software company is assisting more customers than ever with supply chain management, developing new applications and hiring more employees to fill its headquarters at the McKinley Towne Center. Toby Brzoznowski is co-founder and executive vice president of LLamasoft, and told The Ann Arbor News Monday, June 12, that so many announcements to share is a "good problem to have." Probably the biggest news is LLamasoft's new partnership with TPG Capital, the investment company behind Uber, McAfee and Airbnb. The deal officially closed June 1 with TPG now controlling a majority stake of the company. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. A written statement released by LLamasoft states Goldman Sachs remains a shareholder in the company. "This investment and partnership with TPG is a great thing for our customers and the supply chain software market as a whole because we share the vision that supply chain leaders need new disruptive technology that provides better access to information and more advanced capabilities to analyze and optimize their entire supply chain," said Don Hicks, LLamasoft CEO, in the statement. It is TPG's second investment in supply chain technology. The investment firm also controls a majority stake of Transporeon, a European cloud-based business network. According to Brzoznowski, TPG Capital is one of the most respected tech investment firms in the industry. "When they decided to get into the supply chain technology space, and looked around at all the partners, they saw LLamasoft as a company that could be a platform," Brzoznowski said. "They've invested in the company, taking on leadership positions in the board and will help drive the next five to ten years' worth of growth." What does the next decade look like for one of Ann Arbor's largest software firms? More of the same, Brzoznowski said, but perhaps on a faster scale. "We're really looking at continued growth, doubling down on innovation and investment in technology," he said. "It's about expanding both our technology portfolio as well as our support organization around the world." He cited a rapidly growing customer base, with about 30 to 40 clients each quarter over the past year, that has meant additional feedback on LLamasoft products and ideas for new applications to assist companies with their supply chain needs. LLamasoft now has more than 700 customers globally, Brzoznowski said. "I think the acceleration will continue for some time," he added. New products and applications means the company also needs more employees to help with developing the software, walking customers through its use and working as a global team to promote its Supply Chain Guru program. Brzoznowski expects LLamasoft to continue its hiring trend into the rest of 2017, and said the company has averaged between 75 and 100 news hires over the last two years. "That trend is continuing this year. We'll probably add around 100 new employees in 2017," he said. "The growth we're on is really significant, double-digit growth that requires more talent, and more talent globally." It was a year ago LLamasoft moved into the MicKinley Towne Center at 401 E. Liberty, into a space formerly occupied by Google. That gave the company a lot of room for growth in Ann Arbor, where Brzoznowski said "a lot of engineering and support happens." His team is keeping an eye out during Ann Arbor events like Tech Trek, organized by Ann Arbor SPARK, for new talent that can keep driving LLamasoft's momentum. "We're no doubt certainly always looking for top talent in a number of different areas. It's not just about programming, it's in consulting support and customer support, finance, HR," Brzoznowski said. "Everything you need to run a global business." Brzoznowski and the LLamasoft team are also readying for the trainings, speakers and presentations that make up the company's three-day SummerCon event, June 14-16 in Detroit. As a global leader in supply chain design, Brzoznowski said SummerCon gives its customers a chance to network with other users and train to use LLamasoft products and applications with help from company officials. It is the seventh year for the event, attended by more than 600 people from at least 15 different countries. Last year, it took place in New Orleans but a decision was made to bring SummerCon back to Michigan. "It's really the place to get together to understand what are the best practices and what other people are doing around the world to model, analyze and design their supply chains," Brzoznowski said. "There's about 20 simultaneous tracks of trainings people are participating in over the next few days." Customers such as General Motors, Cabela's, Whirlpool and The Dow Chemical Co. plan to share their own experiences working with the supply chain software developed by LLamasoft. One highlight of the event is a keynote speaker who Brzoznowski said brings global supply chain and economic experience: Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, secured as a speaker for this year's SummerCon in 2016. "At that time, obviously as the presidential campaign was in full swing, the global economy and manufacturing outside of the U.S. becoming a very interesting topic," Brzoznowski said. "We thought it was appropriate, regardless of the election." SummerCon is about providing different points of view for LLamasoft customers, he added. "These people sit around all day deep in the middle of supply chain challenges and crises within their companies and this is one of the few opportunities they get to step away from that, put their heads up and get a chance to look around and see what others are doing and get some new perspectives," said Brzoznowski. The company plans to unveil the next generation of its supply chain design technology, Supply Chain Guru X, along with two new applications coming out in the second half of 2017 that will allow companies to see their own supply chain logistics in one place. Updates for popular products like Supply Chain Guru X come straight from surveying LLamasoft's 700-plus customers, Brzoznowski said. That kind of customer feedback is a core part of the business and one that allows LLamasoft to engage more deeply and better their own portfolio. "When we started, there were a few individuals modeling chain and using products that are now global centers of excellence," Brzoznowski said. "What we've found is by getting people to think more clearly and model supply chain, it introduces them to better ways for visibility and planning." Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com Note: This is one in a series of feature stories on unique restaurants and businesses in Michigan. BY AMY SHERMAN | asherma2@mlive.com Heading to the Northern Lower Peninsula this summer and want a unique, delicious experience that can't be duplicated anywhere else? Of course you do. And you'll find it at the one of a kind Dam Site Inn located in Pellston, at the tip of the mitten. This place has a throwback interior, with a downright amazing bar straight from the 1960's. White tablecloths, but no dress code. The best use of a lazy susan since 1976. And some of Michigan's Best fried chicken. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com Originally on this site stood a building that functioned as the dining hall for the many local lumberjacks that worked in the area. In the early 1900's, the Efting sisters bought the building. They also owned the building across the street, and ran it as the Maple River Inn. The plan was that they were going to move the Inn to the current spot of the Dam Site Inn, but that never happened. The ladies were known not only for their chicken and noodles (surprise!) but also for, possibly, offering a few other things during Prohibition. There is a legend that one of the sisters still haunts the Inn today, with appearances most frequently in the "N" dining room. All of the dining rooms have names to differentiate them for the staff, the "N" stands for new, as that room was new in 1960. The restaurant offers beautiful views of the Northern Michigan countryside from huge windows all the way around the building. Grab a table, and soak in the best the mitten has to offer this summer. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com In 1953, Ken and Kathy McLaughlin purchased the inn with the intention of running it as a bed and breakfast. Their chicken dinners, inspired by both the Maple River Inn, and the equally impressive (and another of Michigan's Best) Iva's Chicken Dinners in Sterling, proved so popular that they just stuck with dinner. They still only serve dinner at the Dam Site Inn, opening at 5 pm during the week and 3pm on Sundays. The bar chairs, and the walls, feature naugahyde from Buick. Both Ken and his brother worked there. Both the bar chairs and the cocktail tables in the bar are original, and designed by Eero Saarinen who also designed the St. Louis Arch and the JFK airport. He also worked with Charles Eames at the Knoll furniture company in Grand Rapids. A bit of furniture history with your fried chicken. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com In 1977, Joe and Betty Church purchased the Dam Site, and the family still owns it today. Ray and Pam East are current owners, and their daughters, and the Church's granddaughters, Erica and Olivia are on site almost every day, making sure that the history and traditions are still honored. The Inn has many long time employees, who come back year after year, that have really become part of the family now. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com It's worth a visit to the Dam Site Inn for the relish tray alone. Brought out prior to your meal, this beauty is served on an actual lazy susan, something not seen in a restaurant for quite some time. There's nothing snooty about this tray, it's just solid. Pickles, olives, cranberry relish, canned peaches, corn relish, pickled beets, and green onions. Something for everyone, and just try not to keep spinning it. 3 item relish tray is $10, 9 item tray is $15.50. Don't Edit Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com It is all about the chicken here. They've got custom built fryers in the spacious kitchen, and a dedicated cook who just focuses on them. There are four of these shallow fryers, with lids, that through a proprietary system of packing the chicken in, can cook about 2 dozen pieces at a time. The cook who works this station is constantly on the move, and has a real flair for chicken management. They might be cooking well over a hundred pieces of chicken at a time. That's called talent. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com The custom fryers help to create a crispy, yet moist piece of fried chicken. This is simple chicken, not overly seasoned, but with just the right amount of salt and pepper that flavors the bird right to the bone. If you get the all you can eat chicken dinner (and we recommend that you do), you'll get platters of this fantastic chicken piled high. Also, you'll enjoy some of the best homemade noodles you've ever had, cole slaw OR salad, hot buttered peas, homemade mashed potatoes, and chicken gravy. Plus...... Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com Hot homemade buttermilk biscuits and honey. These little beauties are made fresh every single day by hand and by the thousands. Baked every 20 minutes or so, they arrive piping hot, flaky, and ready to be devoured. The all you can eat menu is $22.95 per person. All dark meat is $2 extra, all white meat is $4 extra, and if you want to pick exactly what pieces you get, $5 extra. Kids can get a chicken dinner for $10.95. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com Not a fan of fried chicken? Well, we're not totally sure what's wrong with you, but there are plenty of other choices at the Dam Site. Steaks are big here, as are their many seafood entrees. These massive seafood platters feature frog legs, lobster, shrimp, scallops, shrimp and fish. All the other entrees come with the myriad of sides that also are offered with the chicken dinner, so you won't miss out on those homemade noodles. Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com The onion rings at the Dam Site Inn? Absolutely fantastic. Thin, but not stringy, perfectly crisp, with a meaty, sweet interior. Try to only eat one. Or four. Even after the whole chicken dinner experience, we just couldn't stop enjoying these babies. Don't Edit Don't Edit Amy Sherman | asherma2@mlive.com A classy dinner, in a fun, retro setting. Settle in for a wonderful, peaceful view. Enjoy the classic service, including the most welcome warm, wet towel to clean up with after your feast. You'll dine with locals, with large families, with people who have traveled hundreds of miles to visit. You may also dine with a ghost. You'll certainly dine with traditions, history, and with a family who loves to take care of their customers. If you go: Dam Site Inn 6705 Woodland Rd Brutus, Michigan, MI 49716 (231) 539-8851 Things to know: -Although this is a nice, sit down restaurant, its located in the Northern lower peninsula, so you can dress casual. -They are open for dinner only, starting at 5pm. Sundays they open at 3pm. -Dam Site Inn is open from Easter weekend until the third week in October. Don't Edit Milt Klingensmith | Mlive MORE MICHIGAN'S BEST: Where is the BEST mac and cheese in Michigan? 10 SUB SHOPS in Michigan you must visit now. Check out the happiest sandwich shop in the state. Don't Edit Michigan's Best Fried Chicken Don't Edit More on unique places and products in Michigan The view from the patio of this Michigan eatery is worth the trip The happiest sub shop in Michigan is Ernie's Market in Oak Park Kitch-iti-Kipi is the prettiest spot in Michigan you've never heard of This Michigan-made beer is brewed with pig heads Yes, there is a Moist Towelette Museum in Michigan A helicopter ride above Traverse City might be the best date idea ever ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions held their second of three minicamp practices on Wednesday afternoon at team headquarters. Here are some observations from another muggy day in Allen Park: -- Perhaps nobody was put on more notice this offseason than Quandre Diggs. He's started much of the last two seasons in the nickel, but watched Detroit add D.J. Hayden to the position in free agency and then Jamal Agnew in the draft. Agnew snagged an interception off a ricochet on Tuesday, too -- but then Diggs topped him today with a magnificent pick on a deep ball into the corner of the end zone. Matthew Stafford launched a missile for Marvin Jones, but overthrew the pill slightly and Diggs beat Jones to the spot -- and even managed to get both feet down as his momentum carried him out of bounds. It was perhaps the best defensive play I've seen this offseason. I still think Hayden has a shot to win the job, but don't count out Diggs quite yet. He's still taking the bulk of the first-team reps, and holding his own. -- Stafford was picked on that play, but connected on a couple other deep balls to receiver Michael Rector and tight end Eric Ebron. The pass to Ebron was especially pretty. The tight end was locked in single coverage with safety Tavon Wilson, and got some good separation downfield. Stafford nailed him in stride for the long score, offering a reminder of what makes Ebron so dangerous in this offense -- especially if he can ever figure out how to curb his drop issues. I didn't see any of those today, but he's had a few throughout the offseason. -- Robert Tonyan, an undrafted tight end out of Indiana State, came up with a brilliant catch despite tight coverage from safety Alex Carter during team work -- but then promptly fumbled the ball after turning upfield. He faces long odds of making the team, with Ebron, Michael Roberts and Darren Fells all assured roster spots at the position, but the catch was outstanding nevertheless. -- Jim Caldwell spoke glowingly of QB Brad Kaaya before opening camp on Tuesday, but I'd be careful about reading too much into that. Caldwell thinks everybody is doing great these days, or at least that's what he says. But from what I can tell through OTAs and two days of camp, Kaaya is decidedly behind Jake Rudock in the backup QB battle. He made a few questionable throws today, including throwing behind the target on what should have been an easily completed pass into the flat during team drills. It's important to remember that's a really difficult position, and Rudock was still struggling at this time last year too. Kaaya has time to figure it out. But right now, you can tell he's dealing with a lot in his transition to the NFL. -- The Lions altered their security protocol in Allen Park today, just one day after a disturbed man barged into practice through an open gate and began berating players and reporters during the first day of minicamp. The Lions are continuing to leave that gate unlocked, which allows visitors to come and go as needed, but they have stationed a security official there to control who accesses practice. As for the man who broke in, he was sent to medical professionals for evaluation in lieu of criminal charges. -- Detroit is prohibited from doing one-on-ones this time of year, but got around that rule Wednesday by basically running two one-on-ones simultaneously -- so two-on-twos, if you will. During this portion of practice, Stafford and Rudock looked sharp -- as they should -- and Marvin Jones was getting some good separation. He lit up Bademosi on a deep route, though Stafford overthrew that pass, and then beat Nevin Lawson on a comebacker. -- The Lions have cycled through a bunch of players at kick/punt returner this offseason, as they pursue a replacement for the dearly departed Andre Roberts. But today, it was just Dwayne Washington, TJ Jones and Keshawn Martin working at kick returner. Not sure what to make of that, but I wouldn't read a whole lot into it. The returner battle isn't really going to be settled until the bullets start flying in training camp and especially the preseason. -- Jared Abbrederis has had some bright moments in that ongoing receiver battle, but wasn't on the field for the second day of minicamp. Linebacker Antwione Williams also sat out after going through drills on Day 1. The rest of the players who did not participate: RB Theo Riddick, RB Mike James, G T.J. Lang, OT Taylor Decker, OT Corey Robinson, DE Artmonty Bryant, DE Jeremiah Valoaga, LB Tahir Whitehead and S Don Carey. At least nine people were killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday when a suicide bomber rammed a car into a hotel, police and witnesses said, in an attack claimed by militant Islamist group al Shabaab. Gunfire followed the attack on the Posh Hotel, the only venue with a discotheque in the capital, a Reuters witness said. Witnesses said the whole district was cordoned off by police, and that sporadic gunfire could still be heard. "So far, we can confirm that nine people - mostly women who were hotel staff - have died," said Mohamed Hussein, another police officer. Hussein told Reuters the suicide attacker rammed the explosive-laden car laden into the hotel's entrance. Another police officer said gunmen had stormed a restaurant adjacent to the hotel in central Mogadishu. Al Shabaab, which has carried out a campaign of suicide bombings in its bid to topple the Somali government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam, claimed responsibility. "A mujahid (fighter) with his suicide car bomb martyred himself after he rammed into the Posh Hotel, which is a nightclub. The operation goes on," Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's military spokesman, told Reuters Since losing large swathes of territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the government, the group has frequently launched raids and deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government. The Horn of Africa country has been racked by armed conflict since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Search Keywords: Short link: ANN ARBOR, MI - The public will have an opportunity to offer feedback on Ann Arbor Public Schools' 2017-18 budget at a school board meeting Wednesday, June 14. Members of the Ann Arbor Education Association are hoping the budget will include a pay raise for teachers. The board of education needs to pass a balanced budget by July 1 - the start of the new fiscal year - and Wednesday will bring the first of two public hearings on the budget proposal before trustees vote. Wednesday's budget hearing will be part of the regular school board meeting, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Huron High School, 2727 Fuller Road. Live updates from Wednesday's meeting will be posted in the comments section below. Prior to the school board meeting, the teachers union is planning a "fair pay" rally outside Huron High School. The teachers' current agreement is set to expire June 30. At this point, Ann Arbor Public Schools is expecting to bring in $3.4 million in additional revenue in 2017-18, based on a 300-student rise in enrollment, and an extra $50 per student from the state's per pupil foundation allowance, according to projections previously presented to the school board by CFO Jill Minnick. The school district also is anticipating spending another $2.5 million on the hire of 25 additional full-time staff members to accommodate the growing student body, $450,000 more on increasing bus driver pay and $930,000 on contributions to the Michigan Public School Employee Retirement System. Another $800,000 will be spent on employee salaries to maintain a higher pay rate that went into effect mid-way through the current school year, reversing a previous pay cut. Replacing 50 full-time retiring employees with less experienced - and less expensive - new hires will save the district approximately $1.75 million in 2017-18. Overall, AAPS is looking at a $235.5 million budget for 2017-18 and the ability to invest $1.16 million in the district's fund balance by the end of the upcoming school year, bringing its reserves to $22.95 million - or roughly 10 percent of annual operating expenses. AAPS is set to the end the 2016-17 school year with its fund balance at $21.8 million, or 9.3 percent of total operating expenses. The state intervenes if a school district's fund balance drops below 5 percent. Members of the teachers union believe the school district has saved enough money in its fund balance, and would like to see a substantial increase in teacher salaries for the coming school year. AAPS teachers received a 2 percent increase in total compensation for 2016-17 and a 1 percent raise in 2015-16, which followed a 3-percent pay cut in 2013-14 that continued through the 2014-15 school year and a 2.2-percent pay cut in 2010. Also at Wednesday's meeting, the trustees will vote on: BAY CITY, MI -- Two more members of Saginaw's infamous Sunny Side Gang have been sentenced to federal prison for their roles in distributing heroin and cocaine across the Great Lakes Bay Region. U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Wednesday, May 31, sentenced Darreyon R. "D-Money" Mayfield to 87 months -- or 7.25 years -- in prison, with supervised release of four years to follow. A month prior, Ludington sentenced Jeremy A. "Jig" Cameron to 145 months -- a little more than 12 years -- in prison. Like Mayfield, he's to be under supervised release for four years once he's discharged. The two men also had to forfeit nine firearms, an abundance of ammunition, a Rolex watch, and $70,436 in cash. Each man was also ordered to pay $100. Cameron and Mayfield are the fourth and fifth of 18 men indicted on a combined 35 charges to be sentenced. They had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin. By pleading, Cameron agreed he had sold a cumulative 9.84 grams of heroin to law enforcement agents on seven occasions, for a total of $1,960. He stipulated that he told a fellow conspirator he planned to kill a person he believed was working with police. Mayfield admitted to selling a combined 1.43 grams of heroin to a police operative on two occasions for $180. A grand jury in October indicted 13 members and associates of the Sunny Side Gang, with superseding indictments issued against five more in April. The trafficking conspiracy involved more than 500 grams of mixtures containing cocaine and more than 1,000 grams of mixtures containing heroin, prosecutors allege. The defendants "used various locations and houses to conduct drug transactions, to store controlled substances, paraphernalia used in the distribution of controlled substances and firearms, and to gather in furtherance of the controlled substances conspiracy," the indicting documents state. The first of the 18 to be sentenced was the gang's main supplier, Derek D. Riley, whom Ludington ordered to spend 160 months in prison in March. Upon his release, Riley is to be supervised for an additional eight years. Ludington also sentenced Riley to 30 months in prison for violating the terms of a prior supervision by committing his latest offenses. Riley is to serve the two sentences consecutively. Ludington subsequently sentenced Javon M. "YaYo" Pratt and Marquise D. "Ooh Stacks" Ashworth to 70 months and 135 months in prison, respectively. Codefendants Brandon O. "Blue" Pratt and Jauane R. Allen have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. All of those who pleaded agreed the gang was responsible for the distribution of at least 711.65 grams of cocaine, 127.91 grams of base cocaine, and 632.06 grams of heroin. Case background Of the 18 codefendants, the following have not been convicted and have open charges against them: Damarlin D. "Bleed" Beavers Terence J. "Big Cheese" Johnson Alvin R. "La" Pratt Michael A. Pratt Jr. Eugene "Spank" Smith III Lamar T. "Marley" Simon Calvin E. Reynolds Jr. Kendrell Stephens Morie D. Broaden Dewayne J. McKinney Allan G. Jones Jr. Beavers is considered a leader in the organization, having worked his way up the ranks from an enforcer. According to sworn affidavits authored by FBI Special Agent Mitchell L. King, his agency began investigating the Sunny Side Gang in June 2015. On Aug. 30, 2016, personnel with the FBI's Bay City-based Mid-Michigan Safe Streets Task Force executed eight search and arrest warrants in Saginaw as a result of an investigation into the area's heroin problem. The search of just one Saginaw stash house saw investigators seize 584.07 grams of cocaine, 92.89 grams of cocaine base, and 418.79 grams of heroin, three guns, and various paraphernalia associated with packaging and selling drugs. The investigation began in Bay City before leading to Saginaw, police have said. Investigators have also described the group as the area's main suppliers of heroin. As part of the bust, the Bay City Department of Public Safety seized $127,910 in heroin in 2016, compared to $16,175 in 2015 and $11,355 in 2014. Nevertheless, fatal opiate overdoses keep happening in Bay County, with 23 reported in 2016. The issue is part of national trend, with opiate-related deaths now considered the number one killer among Americans younger than 50, according to The New York Times. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that since 1999, the number of opiate-related overdose deaths has quadrupled. In 2015, 33,091 people died from opiate-related overdoses nationally, more than any other year on record. "From 2000 to 2015 more than half a million people died from drug overdoses," the CDC states, adding that 91 Americans die each day from an opiate overdose. Michigan itself experienced a 13 percent increase in the number of opiate-related fatal overdoses from 2014 to 2015, according to the CDC. Though the total of opiate-related deaths across the nation for 2016 hasn't yet been determined, estimates are that it will exceed 59,000. DETROIT, MI - A 16-year-old boy has been charged in connection with two brick-throwing incidents, including one that injured a 2-year-old girl in May. The teen was charged with two counts each of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, felonious assault, throwing objects at trains/cars causing property damage and malicious destruction of property more than $200 and less than $1,000, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced Tuesday. A Detroit woman told police a teenager threw a brick at her car while she traveled on the Chrysler Freeway about 11:35 p.m. May 24. About an hour later, a teen allegedly threw a brick at another vehicle, according to the prosecutor's office. The brick broke through a window and injured the driver's 2-year-old granddaughter, according to police. The toddler was taken to a hospital to treated for a head injury. Detroit Police on May 26 released a composite sketch of a person of interest in the case and later identified and arrested a 16-year-old male. The teen will appear in juvenile court for a pre-trial hearing Friday, June 16. He was lodged at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility. Activists are planning to protest and announce a lawsuit Wednesday against a recent Immigration Customs Enforcement recent sweep that primarily targeted Iraqi immigrants who now face deportation. The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) plans to announce a class-action lawsuit to halt the deportations. "We are filing our class action immigrant rights lawsuit to halt the death deportations of over a dozen Chaldean, Muslim and other immigrants who were picked up during the ICE raids over the weekend," said BAMN national coordinator and lead attorney Shanta Driver, in a news release. "We are demanding asylum for all these immigrants, who face death if they are deported back to Iraq, a where they are a persecuted minority." A series of Sunday arrests targeted Iraqi immigrants in suburban Detroit. ICE officials haven't released the number of arrests made, but said those targeted all had previous felony convictions. The raids were sparked by a deal with the Iraqi government in which the war-torn Middle Eastern nation agreed to take back Iraqi nationals subject to removal from the U.S., Detroit ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said Monday. "As part of ICE's efforts to process the backlog of these individuals, the agency recently arrested a number of Iraqi nationals, all of whom had criminal convictions for crimes including homicide, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, drug trafficking, robbery, sex assault, weapons violations and other offenses," Walls said. Walls added that each of the people arrested went through full and fair immigration proceedings, and that a federal immigration judge found each "ineligible for any form of relief under U.S. law and ordered them removed." The BAMN protest was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. oustisde the McNamara Federal Building, 477 Michigan Ave. in Detroit. Separately on Wednesday, a Sterling Heights Chaldean group expressed concern over the pending deportations. "With news that deportations may be imminent, the Chaldean Christian community implores the U.S. government to do whatever it can in its power to stay those removals until such time that conditions in Iraq allow for a safe repatriation," said Martin Manna, president of the Chaldean Community Foundation, in a statement. A mosque in Farmington Hills says allegations it paid the doctor at the center of landmark female genital mutilation case to perform surgeries are lies. Anjuman-e-Najmi Detroit, a mosque attended by Detroit-area Muslims of the India-based Dawoodi Bohra sect, issued a letter demanding the "false claim" be retracted. Members of the mosque, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, both of Livonia, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, are charged with crimes related to female circumcisions the U.S. Attorney's Office says were performed on two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota. The Detroit Free Press reports a fourth defendant, Tajera Shafiq, who was present when Nagarwala performed the surgeries with the assistance of Farida Attar, was charged Wedensday. She is also a member of Anjuman-e-Najmi Detroit. While the federal criminal proceedings progress toward a tentatively scheduled Oct. 10 trial date, Child Protective Services had filed petitions in Wayne and Oakland counties to remove the Attars' 7-year-old daughter and Nagarwala's two children from the defendants' custody. Anjuman-e-Najmi representatives say that attorney Cynthia M. Nunez of Walker & Associates of Michigan law firm in Detroit, who is representing the interests of Nagarwala's children, told the family court the congregation was compensating Nagarwala for performing the procedures. Nunez told the court that Nagarwala's husband acts as treasurer for the mosque and accepted payment for work performed by his wife, who formerly worked at Henry Ford Medical Center. "At no time has the Anjuman-e-Najmim, Detroit mosque paid for any religious medical procedure whatsoever," an statement from the mosque issued Wednesday says. "Any comments made by anyone to that effect are false. "These comments are made without factual evidence to back it up and are intended to intently misstate, overstate and inflame an already difficult situation." The statement accompanied a copy of the letter sent to Nunez asking the attorney to retract her statements and correct the record: Female genital mutilation Letter to Cynthia Nunez (1) by Fergus Burns on Scribd Nagarwala remains in custody without bond pending trial. The Attars were released on house arrest last week. The trio are charged with a count of conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation; two counts each of genital mutilation; conspiracy to obstruct a federal proceeding Nagarwala and Fakhruddin Attar are additionally charged with conspiracy to transport a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison; and making a false statement to a federal officer. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Woodward said the two Minnesota victims are "only the tip of the iceberg," and estimates their could be as many as 100 girls who've undergone female genital mutilation surgeries over the last 12 years, the length of time she says the Attars have been participating in the procedures. Investigators believe the defendants were communicating with a religious leader with ties to Dawoodi Bohra residents in Minnesota, who helped coordinate the procedures conducted by Nagarwala at the Atttars' since-closed clinic in Livonia. A study of female circumcision that involved interviews with 50 women who've underwent the procedure was entered into evidence. Document submitted be defense explaining female circumcision According to the paper, there are an estimated 500,000 members of the The Dawoodi Bohras, nearly half of whom reside in Bombay, India, who practice female genital circumcision. FENTON, MI -- Marking the end of the road, the Back to the Bricks Heritage Promo Tour roared into Fenton on Friday, June 14, after a six-day ride emphasizing cities in Michigan with rich history and heritage. The group of 207 cars made stops and held car shows in Adrian, Coldwater, Muskegon, Big Rapids, Clare and Fenton. Rhonda Rau, the chairperson of the Back to the Bricks Promo Tour, said "every town had something to see historically to share with us. It was great seeing the town, eating at the restaurants, checking out the shops and opera houses and all the different things we did." With 1950s period music playing, car owners ate lunch catered by The Laundry, El Topo and Crust of Fenton, which was provided by Lasco Ford at the final leg of the promo tour. "We are all tired, we had a long five and a half days, everybody has a full tummy, they want to go on and go home but we have to give out awards for 140 participants that did all six days," said Rau. Wearing a bright pink polka-dot bra, 82-year-old, Bob Moore celebrated driving the entire tour and getting an award among the drivers. "I messed up so now I get to wear it (the bra)," said Moore. "I flashed two guys at yesterday's car show." Wiping down rain drops from his car Ronald Hazel didn't let the short lived rain bring down his spirits. "My favorite part about being a part of these car shows are meeting the people, getting to go to different places and learn about the history of each car from the owners," said Hazel of Byron. Hazel has been participating in car shows since 1990 and brought his 1956 Mercury to the show today. The main event, Back to the Bricks in Flint, will be held on August 15-19. "We are hopping the towns we went to this year will come out to Flint this fall," said Rau. "The Promo Tour shares with them what Back to the Bricks is all about and if they want to see nice cars and more cars, they should come out to Flint." FLINT, MI -- Attorneys for current and former Flint and state employees facing new charges, including manslaughter, in connection with the city's water crisis are speaking out in their client's defense. It was announced Wednesday, June 14, that former Flint Department of Public Works Administrator Howard Croft and former Emergency Manger Earley would face the felony charge, along with Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Drinking Water Chief Liane Shekter-Smith and former DEQ District Supervisor Stephen Busch. The manslaughter charges are tied to the death of 85-year Genesee Township resident Robert Skidmore. Skidmore died in December 2015 after contracting Legionnaires' disease. Lyon also faces one count of misconduct in office. DHHS Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. The pair had not previously been charged. A joint statement from Chip Chamberlain and Larry Willey of Willey Chamberlain Law, the Grand Rapids-based firm representing Lyon, reads "the true facts simply do not support the prosecution's claims. This case appears to be a misguided theory looking for facts that do not exist." "To that point, we've witnessed numerous press conferences by the prosecution that have been intentionally prejudicial to the process and unfair to those targeted. Worse yet, they have made many statements that are completely false," according to the statement. "We absolutely and vehemently dispute the charges. They are baseless." Lyon becomes the highest-ranking state employee to face criminal charges for his role in the water crisis. Gov. Rick Snyder issued a statement following a Wednesday morning press conference in Flint by Attorney General Bill Schuette to announce the new charges, expressing his continued support of Lyon and Wells whom he said "will remain on duty at DHHS." James White, attorney for Croft, told MLive-Flint Journal Wednesday afternoon that the Flint resident continues "to maintain his innocence on this forthcoming charge and the charges previously brought against him." Croft was arraigned in December 2016 on charges of false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses. While there had been talk of a manslaughter charge, which carries a potential 15-year prison sentence and/or $7,500 fine, White commented Croft is "disappointed" with the news while claiming other potential factors are at play. "He feels as if he is being scapegoated for the purposes of politics and public pressure, but he's looking forward to the truth coming out and being vindicated," said White. When asked what that truth is, White said: "That (Croft) had no part in this and at no point and time participated negligently or intentionally in the harm that has been alleged." Speaking on behalf of Earley, Detroit attorney Todd R. Perkins echoed White's disappointment in the day's announcement. "Earley has stood pat where he's at in not having done anything wrong. I believe it will bear itself out in the process," he said. "It's something we'll vigorously defend. We believe we'll be on the right side of this." Snyder expressed his own disappointment in the investigation process, noting some state employees charged more than one year ago and suspended "have still not had their day in court," which he said "is not justice for Flint nor for those who have been charged." A total of 15 people have now been charged on more than 50 total counts in the course of the attorney general's investigation tied to the Flint water crisis, which began in April 2014 after the city switched its water source to the river. FLINT, MI - The 10-mile route for the Crim Festival of Races will change in August for the first time since 2013. The opening two miles of the 10-mile race will be altered because of ongoing remediation work along the Flint River downtown. Consumers Energy is working to dredge up 75,000 cubic yards of soil near its' former manufactured gas plant in the downtown area to remove coal tar. "Unfortunately, we had to make some changes to the route this year," said Andrew Younger, race director. "The Crim route has been running alongside the river for some time, but we'll still be crossing it along the course. We wanted to minimize the amount of changes so we could get runners back onto the same course as quickly as possible." The river remediation project, spanning from the Hamilton Dam to East Fifth Avenue, will include mobilization of equipment and site preparation, with dredging of impacted sediment and excavation of riverbank soil to start this month. The first two miles of the course will now be as follows for the Saturday, Aug. 26, for the 41st annual race: * Starting on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint (within 50 to 100 feet of the 2016 starting line) * Head over the bridge * Right turn at Second Avenue (sharp turn, about 90 degrees and earlier than 2016 route) * Turn right again onto Harrison Street, southbound * Turn left onto Kearsley Street * Turn left onto southbound Chavez Drive, heading north * Turn left onto Robert T. Longway Boulevard, head over the Flint River * Turn left onto Root Street (a tiny block) * Veer left onto Martin Luther King Avenue * Then, a quick right onto University Avenue The first mile marker will be located just as runners advance onto southbound Chavez Drive, and the second mile marker will appear near the intersection of University Avenue and Garland Street, where the course will continue its original and familiar route. Addressing concerns of potential bottlenecking of runners at the first unfamiliar sharp turn onto Second Avenue, Younger said the race will double the number of corrals at the start of the race by cutting the number of participants per wave in half. The race formerly released 1,500 runners per starting corral, and will now release about 750 runners with each wave. "It will really reduce the number of people waiting, and not have people feeling backed up by other runners, especially early in the course," Younger said. "That's the biggest potential challenge of this new course, and we're working to make sure that it doesn't negatively impact running times." In 2016, the 10-mile race attracted about 9,000 runners, and nearly 15,600 total through all races, including the 5K, 8K and Michigan Mile. This isn't the first time the course has changed, but only a few other alterations have happened over its 41-year mainstay in the city. When the race began in 1976, the starting line was located at Mott Community College's campus. The starting line was moved downtown after four years or so, Younger said. It again changed when downtown's bridge had renovations in the late 2000s, starting at Grand Traverse Street. "To be honest, they will feel that there is very little change," Younger said. "We're still going to go through UM-Flint's campus, over Robert T. Longway and the Flint River. Our intent is they will hopefully notice no difference between the past years running and this year's changes for their times and overall experience running in Flint." Though the opening miles of the race have changed throughout the years, its finish line remains the same -- along Saginaw Street downtown on the bricks. FLINT, MI -- Laura Rose "Cookie" Wascha interviewed people like Malcolm X and Dr. Seuss during her journalism career. At a young age, she served a cheeseburger to Elvis Presley. While the former Flint Journal "Tempo" editor met big celebrities and figures, her passion was telling the stories of all people. Wascha died Monday, June 12, at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. She was 71 years old. Born in Kentucky on Nov. 1, 1945, Wascha attended Murray State University and the University of Missouri, where she earned a bachelor's degree in journalism. She spent time at newspapers in Kentucky and Missouri before arriving at the Journal in 1968. In 1970, she left after she became pregnant. She returned to the Journal in 1979 to serve as food editor and restaurant critic before serving as Tempo editor until her retirement in 2008. During her time at the Journal, she earned awards for Best Writing for a Feature Story, Best Headline Writing and Best Features Section. Misty Gower succeeded Wascha as Tempo editor at the Journal. She recalls Wascha leading about 10-15 reporters on her desk. "Cookie was kind but feisty," Gower said. "Her reporters responded well to her because she was so sincere. She helped them be their best." Andrew Heller, a former columnist at the Journal, had Wascha as an editor for 23 years and called her "just the best." He added she came up in an era in journalism which wasn't easy for women. She did fantastic in a high position, he said. "Cookie was the best editor I ever had and a great journalist, but she was a far better person," Heller said. "I've never known anyone who was quicker to smile or laugh. That was her true gift to the world: The ability to make those around her smile and laugh right along with her." Lew Morrissey, a former metro editor at the Journal, attended the journalism school at the University of Missouri around the same time as Wascha, and the two ended up at the Journal as reporters. The two formed a friendship socially as they and their spouses would play bridge at each other's houses. Laura "Cookie" Wascha (left) congratulates Lew Morrissey at his goodbye party in 1989. "She was an extremely talented, gifted writer," Morrissey said. In addition to her career as a journalist, Wascha spent time as director of communications for 42 libraries via the Mid-Eastern Michigan Library Cooperative from 1971-76. She won a national John Cotton Dana Award from the American Library Association. Wascha also worked in communications for Flint Community Schools, edited and published two cookbooks and wrote for Data Diva in St. Louis, Missouri, and Ohno Design in Bay City. Known for her devotion to her community, Wascha was also involved with the YWCA of Flint and Junior League of Flint. Gower, who like Wascha is also from Kentucky, said she helped her pick out her wedding dress. She said anytime you left a conversation with Wascha, you just felt better about yourself. "She really helped people thrive in their positions as a person of leadership in a newspaper," Gower said. "She brought out the best in people just because of the type of personality that she had. "She was one of the kindest people that you would ever meet." Wascha is survived by her husband Don Wascha, whom she married on April 4, 1970. She is also survived by her daughter Amy, son Chris (Christina Ragone) and Chris's three children: CJ, Callie and Cole Wascha, along with many family members and friends. Visitation takes place from 2-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Friday, June 16, at Sharp Funeral Home, 6063 Fenton Road, in Grand Blanc Township. The funeral takes place at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 17, at the funeral home, with visitation from 10 a.m. until the time of service. Burial will follow at New Calvary Catholic Cemetery, 4142 Flushing Road, in Flint. Those desiring to make an expression of sympathy may consider a donation to the YWCA of Flint. FLINT, MI -- Special Flint water crisis prosecutors say new charges against top officials in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are directly tied to how they handled a Legionnaires' disease outbreak that killed 12 people in Genesee County. Special agent Jeff Seipenko said Wednesday, June 14, that DHHS Director Nick Lyon "took no action to alert the public" or Gov. Rick Snyder after he became aware of a rapid spike in Legionnaires' cases that coincided with the city's use of the Flint River as a water source starting in April 2014. A task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder has said that Lyon was aware of suspicions that the Flint River was the source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County by January 2015, nearly a full year before telling the governor. Lyon was charged in Genesee District Court Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter, a 15-year felony, and misconduct in office, while Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive of DHHS, was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. The manslaughter charge against Lyon is tied to the individual death of Robert Skidmore, who died Dec. 13, 2015, "as a result of Lyon's failure to warn the public of the Legionnaires' outbreak. Seipenko told Genesee District Judge David Guinn that the DHHS director also "participated in obstructing" an independent research team from Wayne State University that was investigating the presence of Legionella bacteria in Flint's water. "Defendant Lyon participated in covering up" information related to the Legionnaires' outbreak, Seipenko told Guinn. The charges against Wells allege that she obstructed justice by "knowingly providing false testimony" to an investigator with the Michigan Attorney General's Office and "threatening to withhold funding for the Flint Area Community Health and Environmental Partnership if the partnership did not cease its investigation into the source of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak ..." The leaders of France and Britain on Tuesday announced an anti-terror action plan to crack down on radicalisation through social media. After talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said both countries agreed that social networks were not doing enough to stamp out terror propaganda. Speaking after terror attacks in Manchester and London, Macron said the two countries had worked on a "very concrete" action plan. He said one of the key measures would aim at preventing the incitement of "hate and terrorism" on the internet. May said she and Macron agreed that "more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online". She said the British and French campaign was aimed to "ensure the internet cannot... be used to host the radicalising material that leads to so much harm." May said the British government was already working with social media companies "to halt the spread of extremist material and poisonous propaganda that warps young minds", adding: "But we know they need to do more. "Today we can announce that the UK and France will work together to encourage organisations to do more and abide by their social responsibility to step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks." The campaign includes exploring the possibility of legal penalties against tech companies if they fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content, May said. Britain was rocked by a suicide bombing at a pop concert on May 22 which killed 22 people, including children, followed two weeks later by a knife and van attack in central London, which left eight dead. France has been a constant target for jihadist attacks since 2015, with more than 230 people killed. Search Keywords: Short link: FLINT, MI -- Watch live as Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette discusses the newest criminal charges his office has filed regarding the Flint water crisis. Flint water crisis charges press conference Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announces new charges in Flint water crisis: Posted by MLive.com on Wednesday, June 14, 2017 MLive-The Flint Journal will have coverage of Schuette's 11 a.m. news conference on Wednesday, June 14, at Riverfront Banquet Center in downtown Flint. You can watch the event live at the top of this post. Michigan's public health director and chief medical executive were charged with criminal wrongdoing related to the Flint water crisis earlier this morning. Genesee District Judge David Guinn authorized charges Wednesday, June 14, for Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells. Lyon, appointed by Snyder to lead DHHS in April 2015, was charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter, a 15-year felony. He also faces a single count of misconduct in office. Wells, who has worked in public health in the state for more than a decade, faces charges of obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. In April, July and December of 2016, a total of 13 current and former city of Flint and state employees were charged with criminal wrongdoing related to the water crisis. Charges have ranged from conspiracy to willful neglect of duty to misconduct in office to tampering with evidence. Schuette will be joined Wednesday by Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, Special Counsel Todd Flood and Lead Investigator Andy Arena. The Flint water crisis developed after the city, while being run by emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, changed the city's water source from pre-treated water from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Local, state and federal officials have said the state should have required further treatment of the river water to make it less corrosive to lead in Flint residents' service lines and home plumbing. FLINT, MI -- Michigan's public health director and chief medical executive have been charged with criminal wrongdoing related to the Flint water crisis, moving an investigation by state Attorney General Bill Schuette closer than ever to Gov. Rick Snyder. Genesee District Judge David Guinn authorized charges Wednesday, June 14, for Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells. Lyon, appointed by Snyder to lead DHHS in April 2015, was charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter, a 15-year felony. He also faces a single count of misconduct in office. Wells, who has worked in public health in the state for more than a decade, faces charges of obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. Attorney General Bill Schuette has scheduled a news conference to discuss his water investigation, which has resulted in 15 criminal prosecutions of current or former government employees, at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Flint. Lyon becomes the highest-ranking state employee to face criminal charges for his role in the water crisis. In 2016, he was identified as a target of Flint water prosecutors and his attorney told MLive-The Flint Journal previously that his client received a subpoena for a felony criminal case though he wasn't initially charged. Prior to his appointment to serve in the governor's cabinet, the Yale University graduate had led a major division within DHHS. A task force appointed by Snyder has said that Lyon was aware of suspicions that the Flint River was the source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County by January 2015, just eight months after it became the city's water source. Snyder has said he was not told of that suspected link until a full year later, allowing Flint emergency managers to continue using the river. Wells has said that DHHS missed opportunities to address Legionnaires' but did not attempt to withhold information. Wells was named by Snyder to be Flint's drinking water public health adviser after the governor acknowledged rising levels of lead and the potential connection between the use of the river and Legionnaires'. DHHS officials initially concluded that spikes in blood lead levels in children immediately after the city changed its water source to the Flint River were seasonal and not related to water. The department also initially questioned the findings by a Hurley Medical Center pediatrician, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who in September 2015 reported blood lead levels of children in some parts of the city tripled after the switch to river water. Lyon said in an email in advance of a news conference by Hanna-Attisha, "I would like to make a strong statement with a demonstration of proof that the lead blood levels seen are not out of the ordinary and are attributable to seasonal fluctuations." Wells later endorsed Hanna-Attisha's work, agreeing that blood lead levels were rising among Flint children under 5 years old. Snyder's Flint water task force concluded in its report to the governor that DHHS's "response to two public health concerns, related to lead exposure and cases of Legionella infection, did not meet the agency's own standard of performance" and was "fundamentally flawed." Check back with Mlive.com for more information on this story as it develops. VIENNA TWP, MI - A woman died after a single-vehicle accident that tied up traffic on Interstate 75 and Interstate 475 for hours in northern Genesee County. Clio Area Fire Battalion Chief Jim Bronson said the crash took place around 4:30 p.m. Friday, June 9, on northbound I-75, just south of the Vienna Road exit in Vienna Township. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Bronson said. Northbound I-75 at I-475 and northbound I-475 at Clio Road were closed to traffic for around three hours. Mt. Morris fire Stations 1 and 2 responded along with Clio firefighters to assist in shutting down the roadways. HARBOR SPRINGS, MI - A collaboration between a group of students and one of the state's fastest-rising bands is turning heads in Northern Michigan. The music video released just before the end of the school year on June 9 features elementary students from Harbor Springs singing a version of "Michigan and Again," the popular love song to Michigan released by The Accidentals, a genre-bending trio from Traverse City. Recoded with instrumental music supplied by the band, about 60 third grade students at Shay Elementary were involved in the production, which took more than 30 hours from initial recordings to final cut. The more than four minute video has caught on in Northern Michigan and is beginning to spread throughout the state. It has more than 36,000 views on Facebook and nearly 3,000 views on Youtube. "They rocked it," said music teacher Jason Byma, who led the production. "These kids have just locked on. Not all of them want to be the featured voice or the face in the front but the ones that do it's easy to make that call, they want that." Byma, who came to Harbor Springs from St. Ignace, said he loves to use technology to teach his students. The "Michigan and Again" recording is the latest of several productions he's led since being hired, but none have quite caught on like this one. The production developed over several weeks from Byma playing the chords on his ukulele to eventually mixing an arrangement of the song for his students to sing to. That arrangement just didn't sound right though, Byma said. That led him to reach out the band to request an instrumental track of the song. To his surprise, band members Savannah Buist, Katie Larson and Michael Dause did not hesitate to help. Once the final cut was released, Byma sent the band a personal message with the video. Because they were on tour, The Accidentals didn't immediately respond, which made the music teacher nervous to say the least. "I was worried that maybe we overstayed our welcome," he said. But, in fact, quite the opposite was true. The video was posted to the band's Facebook page just after 9:30 a.m. on June 11. "Not gonna lie. This tour was a little tougher than the rest," the post reads. "Thanks for the beautiful video reminder of why we do what we do. We're headed home today for a handful of Michigan shows and a couple of days off." Byma was ecstatic when when he saw the post, which was accompanied by a slew of positive comments praising the students and the district. Every student's voice can be heard at some point in the song and every face involved in the production appears at least once. The faces are juxtaposed against scenes from Michigan and photos and video footage of the students. Byma hopes the students learned several things from producing and recording the music video including work ethic, collaboration, teamwork and patience. He also praised the district for its willingness to invest in arts education, something that is often swept under the rug or eliminated with budget cuts. The Accidentals are one of the fastest-rising bands in the folk music scene. In the last year they've been named to Huffington Post's "Sweet 16" of music and signed a record deal with Sony Music Masterworks. They will play at Founders Fest in Grand Rapids this weekend. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Rapids Public Schools has launched a national search to find the next principal of Ottawa Hills High Schools, and will also be searching for a new leader for its International Baccalaureate program, City High Middle School. Grand Rapids Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal recently told the school board she intends to move current Ottawa Hills principal Rodney Lewis to central office to oversee secondary education. While Human Resources says his title isn't finalized, GRPS has previously had an executive director of secondary schools. In a school board work session Monday, June 12, Neal announced the departure of Michael Pascoe, principal of the test-in, high-performing City. Pascoe will be the assistant superintendent of instructional services for Portage schools. During the work session, Neal shared her commitment to expanding programming and investing resources into Ottawa Hills and talked about its future. It is the district's only high school on Southeast Side, located at 2055 Rosewood Ave. SE. The school building with a capacity for 1,800 students, only uses one side of the building due to low enrollment. The Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information reports 442 students were enrolled this year, down 117 students from 559 in 2015-16. Since 2012-13, enrollment is down 165 students. "I am totally committed to Ottawa Hills,'' Neal said. "I am going to do all that I can to flip that school and have it work so children on the Southeast Side have a high school." The next Ottawa Hills principal will take the reins as the district launches its first Middle College program in partnership with Grand Rapids Community College. The program allows students to earn both a diploma and associate's degree by committing to a fifth year of high school. Neal also spoke about other efforts to elevate the school including the partnership established with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). For example, in May, Florida A&M University awarded a total of $240,000 in scholarships to nine Ottawa Hills students. Black students make up 79.1 percent of the population, according to the state. The school board was also updated on Neal's plans to use the other half of the Ottawa Hills building to create what she calls a "career and apprenticeship type school'' that potentially could boost enrollment. Over the next couple of years, Neal said her team envisions developing several areas of focus, including homeland security, advanced manufacturing, and design and technology. She said they would look to partner with Kent ISD, businesses and colleges and universities. "It is not built in stone but those are some of the areas we are looking at to help young people, not only to prepare for college but get into some of the more technical fields,'' she said. Board member John Matias inquired about why enrollment has been a challenge at the school. Neal said she thinks there are several issues, including perception, race and the interest of people to help students at Ottawa Hills not being as great as with other schools. There was some discussion about what's driving the lack of racial diversity at the school. Neal told the board they would have to ask a diverse group of parents. "We are being very intentional about working the family feeder pattern," she said, about efforts to engage families in the feeder schools to the high school. Board member Kristian Grant, an Ottawa Hills High School graduate, said that tech lane is something parents get really excited about. She recently hosted a Ladies in Tech conference at the high school for seventh-grade girls attending feeder schools. "I think that is an interest that is universal," she said, about growing the enrollment in numbers and diversity. Ottawa has a 68.6 percent graduation rate, up from 52.9 percent in 2013-14. The school ranked in the middle on the state color-coded accountability scorecards with a yellow designation. The designation reflects how schools stack up based on various indicators, including student achievement and growth. Yellow means Ottawa attained 60 to 69 percent of possible points. Ottawa Hills is one several schools receiving renovations through the $175 million school improvement bond approved in 2015. Approximately $17 million is being invested in its makeover. CHICAGO -- Zeeland furniture-maker Herman Miller is generating buzz at NeoCon this week after unveiling new technology that is being described as Fitbit for the office. The smart technology, dubbed Live OS, reminds workers to get out of their seats, while also collecting data for companies on how and when their office furniture is being used. "Just like everyone has a Fitbit today, we really want to encourage them to move and change postures throughout the day and so with the app, we will encourage people to do that," said Jared Vermeulen, as he gave a demonstration of Live OS at the Herman Miller showroom in Chicago's Merchandise Mart. He added the app lets workers set goals and activities for the day, such as how often they want to sit or stand at their workstation. While sit-to-stand desks are a growing trend in the U.S. to combat unhealthy sedentary lifestyles, they aren't always getting workers out of their chairs. Herman Miller is betting that pairing Live OS technology with its desks will change behavior. The technology cost $100 for a sensor plus and an annual subscription fee of $60. In January, Herman Miller plans to roll out an Internet connected version of its iconic Aeron chair that will have sensors to detect a worker's posture problems and software that will respond to recommend adjustments. The app also lets mobile workers who touch down in different offices or work spaces throughout a building quickly adjust workstations with their phones so their desk is always at the right height. "This is a system about trying to improve the workplace for the individual and really giving a personal touch to it, and at the same time giving information to the workplace so they can make better decisions about their space," said Nick Butterfield, a Herman Miller spokesman. While Herman Miller is selling more products through its retail chain, Design Within Reach, the Live OS platform is geared toward the company's contract furniture market. "We can definitely see a use for it in small businesses and retail, but it isn't a target for us right now," Butterfield said. To create the technology, Herman Miller worked with five companies including OST in Grand Rapids and Twist Think in Holland. Herman Miller picked OST, a firm it has been working with for two decades, to to create its "Internet of Things" architecture and data analytic platform. Twist Think designed and engineered the hardware and software to collect and transmit data to the Live OS cloud infrastructure that OST built. "This is a great example for Herman Miller thinking about technology in a new way," said Jim VanderMey, OST's Chief Innovation Officer. "(It's) creating a technology solution for their customer that makes them behave in a different way. There are some very interesting thing on the horizon that Herman Miller will be able to do because of this." United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday that intensified coalition air strikes supporting an assault by U.S.-backed forces on Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa in Syria were causing a "staggering loss of civilian life". The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a U.S.-led coalition, began to attack Raqqa a week ago with the aim of taking it from the militants. The SDF, supported by heavy coalition air strikes, have taken territory to the west, east and north of the city. Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry also told the Human Rights Council that 10 agreements between the Syrian government and armed groups to evacuate fighters and civilians from besieged areas, including eastern Aleppo, "in some cases amount to war crimes" as civilians had "no choice". Rescue workers battled Wednesday to reach victims of the worst landslides ever to hit Bangladesh, as the death toll rose to 146, with dozens more still missing. Villagers in some of the worst-hit areas used shovels to try to dig bodies out of the mud that engulfed their settlements as they slept. Authorities say hundreds of homes were buried by mud and rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains dumped 343 millimetres (13.5 inches) of water on the southeast of the country in just 24 hours. Disaster Management Department chief Reaz Ahmed said the landslides were the worst in the country's history and warned the death toll would rise as rescuers reached cut-off areas. Firefighters in the district of Rangamati said they had pulled 18 people out from under the mud on Tuesday, but did not have the manpower to reach all the affected areas. "People called us from several places saying people had been buried. But we did not have enough men to send," said Didarul Alam, fire services chief for Rangamati district. "We have been unable to reach some of the more remote places due to the rain. Even in those places we have reached, we have been unable to recover all the bodies." The army said thousands of troops stationed in the affected districts as part of efforts to quell a long-running tribal insurgency had joined the rescue efforts. "Our soldiers based in all parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have participated in the rescue operations," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP. Four soldiers were killed in a landslide on Tuesday and another is missing. Those caught up in the disaster spoke of the horror that the rains had unleashed. Khodeza Begum emerged from her home just after dawn Tuesday to see the mountainside collapsing in front of her. "As I came out I saw a huge slab of earth rolling down from the hill. Instantly I got all my relatives out of their homes. We survived narrowly," she told a local news website. "My house was buried under mud within moments. I have never seen a disaster like this in my life," she said, adding that 11 people in her village were killed. Rangamati district chief Manzurul Mannan told AFP 98 people had been killed there and 200 injured, some of them seriously. At least 37 people died in Chittagong, four in Cox's Bazar and seven more in the neighbouring hill districts of Bandarban and Khagrachhari, officials said. The latest toll makes this year's disaster deadlier even than a 2007 landslide that killed 127 people in Chittagong. Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been evacuated, a minister said. Among the victims were two fishermen who drowned off the coast of Cox's Bazar after their boat apparently capsized. Other trawlers and their sailers were still missing. As rain pounded Teknaf in Cox's Bazar for a third day, police confirmed that a father and daughter were killed after their home was buried by a landslide. The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh's southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes. South Asia is frequently hit by flooding and landslides in the summer with the arrival of the annual monsoon rains. But experts say unplanned development and excessive encroachment -- such as cutting into hillsides -- exacerbates the damaging effects of the monsoon. "It's a backlash effect. Such abnormal acts accelerate the disasters to become more fatal," S.M.A. Fayez, an environmental science professor at Dhaka University, told AFP. More than 200 people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when the monsoon triggered landslides and the worst flooding the island has seen in well over a decade. Search Keywords: Short link: Romania's ruling left-wing party withdrew its support for Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu on Wednesday, a move likely to bring down his government, which has only been in power since January. It is the second major crisis to rock the government since it won a thumping poll victory in December, barely a year after being forced from office over a deadly nightclub blaze. "A prime minister is only legitimate as long as he has the support of the parties that voted for him. We have withdrawn that support," Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social Democrats (PSD), said after cabinet ministers resigned en masse on Wednesday evening. Grindeanu however refused to step down, saying he would only quit once centre-right President Klaus Iohannis had appointed his successor from the PSD. "I will not resign, I am a responsible person," the 43-year-old told journalists in Bucharest. His statement appeared to contradict Dragnea, who said the premier had agreed to leave. The PSD, holder of a parliamentary majority with the small ALDE party, accused Grindeanu of failing to implement economic reforms in the European Union's second-poorest country after Bulgaria. But some observers say the move is the result of a fallout between the prime minister and Dragnea. The powerful party boss, 54, was barred from running for premier because of a voter fraud conviction and is currently on trial for alleged abuse of power, a charge he denies. The surprise development comes after mass protests forced the PSD to scrap a controversial decree aimed at watering down anti-corruption laws in February. Analysts say the internal disagreement may have been linked to the failed proposal, which could have allowed Dragnea to run despite his conviction. "Liviu Dragnea only wants one thing -- amendments to the anti-corruption laws" that currently prevent him from becoming premier, according to former PSD member Alin Teodorescu. The government had already got off to a rocky start when President Iohannis rejected the PSD's first prime ministerial candidate, who would have been the country's first female and Muslim head of government. The crisis eventually ended with Grindeanu's nomination in January. Dragnea has made no secret of the fact he had chosen a candidate close to him. Grindeanu, a former communications minister, was seen as a "disciplined soldier" within the PSD ranks, having joined the party at a very young. "I wanted a man I could trust, a man who wouldn't use his government position as a springboard," Dragnea said after Grindeau's appointment. The PSD quit following angry protests in 2015 over a nightclub fire in Bucharest that killed 64 people. The inferno was blamed on corrupt officials turning a blind eye to fire rules. A decade after joining the European Union, the nation of 20 million inhabitants remains mired in poverty. Nonetheless, the former communist state logged first-quarter economic growth of 5.7 percent, according to data released last month -- the fastest rate in the EU. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt will see a "significant increase" in the number of tourists starting this winter, chairman of the Tourism Promotion Authority Hisham El-Demery told Ahram Online on Wednesday. The campaign to promote tourism to Egypt, which was launched in September in 2016 in 11 countries, has significantly improved tourism, El-Demery said. El-Demery said that $19 million were spent on the campaign in 2016, while in 2017 $9 million have been spent so far. The campaign has played a great role in improving the image of Egypt abroad, leading to the recent lifting of the flight bans imposed by many of the main European markets for tourism to Sharm El-Sheikh, which was hit hard after the crash of a Russian passenger flight in Sinai in October 2015, El-Demery said. Tourism revenues dropped to $3.4 billion in 2016, a 44.3 percent decline from the previous year. The number of tourists visiting Egypt during the first quarter of 2017 rose by 51 percent compared to the same period last year. Egypt aims to attract 12 million tourists by the end of 2017 through a plan that includes increasing the international presence of national carrier EgyptAir, tourism minister Yehia Rashed said in an interview with Reuters last year. Search Keywords: Short link: The temporary exhibition in Astana is to include a number of artefacts selected from the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo Under the title, "Sultan Bebars and his reign," the Astana National Museum in Kazakhstan is to host its first temporary exhibition from Egypt. Elham Salah, head of the museums sector of the Ministry of Antiquities, explained that the exhibition includes a collection of 22 Islamic objects from the reign of Mameluk Sultan Bebars that were carefully selected from the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. The objects, Salah told Ahram Onine, include a copper food container gilded with silver, a lion-shaped white marble sheet, a copper basin gilded with silver and gold, a wooden holder of the Quran embellished with ivory and a collection of silver and gold coins. The exhibition will last until August. Search Keywords: Short link: The International Criminal Court chief's prosecutor on Wednesday called for the "immediate arrest and surrender" of Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly set free by a militia in Libya. An arrest warrant issued by the Hague-based ICC in 2011 "remains valid and Libya is obliged to immediately arrest and surrender" the late dictator's son "regardless of any purported amnesty law in Libya," Fatou Bensouda said. Kadhafi's second son and heir-apparent was said to have been released on Friday by a militia that controls the town of Zintan in western Libya. The group, which had held Seif al-Islam for more than five years, said he had been set free under an amnesty law promulgated by a parliament based in the country's east during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But the prosecutor general's office in Tripoli, where a rival UN-backed administration is based, said the amnesty could not apply to Seif al-Islam because of the severity of his crimes, saying he was still wanted for a 2015 conviction. There was however no independent confirmation of Seif al-Islam's release, which could spark further instability in a country already wracked by divisions and violence. Bensouda said the world war crimes court -- where he is wanted for crimes against humanity including murder -- is now "verifying" Seif al-Islam's whereabouts. She called on Libya, the UN Security Council and "all other relevant" countries "to provide my office with any relevant information in their possession". The ICC also called for the arrest and surrender of Libya's former security chief Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, who is wanted on similar charges for his role in attempting to quash the 2011 revolt against slain strongman Kadhafi. The ICC in April unveiled an arrest warrant for Khaled. "It is imperative for both suspects to be apprehended and immediately surrendered to the custody of the ICC so that their guilt or innocence can be established," Bensouda said. "For justice to be done, and seen to be done." Seif al-Islam's whereabouts remain a mystery and even his lawyer, Karim Khan, has declined to confirm or deny the militia has let him go. Seif al-Islam had been held in Zintan since being detained in November 2011, just days after his father was killed in a NATO-backed uprising against his decades-long rule. The Zintan militia, which opposes Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital, had refused to hand him over to authorities despite several legal cases. A court in Tripoli convicted Seif al-Islam in 2015 in connection with attempts to put down the revolt and sentenced him in absentia to death. His reported release came with the North African country still rocked by infighting, with authorities in the east, reportedly allied with the forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar, refusing to recognise the GNA. Born in the Janzour area of Libya, west of Tripoli, in 1942, Khaled was known by several aliases, and had "at least 10 different passports, some issued under other identities," his arrest warrant says. According to Libyan media, Khaled was arrested in Cairo in April 2012, but was released again as there was no warrant against him. Since then he is believed to have dropped out of sight. Search Keywords: Short link: live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More In continuous to our earlier letter dated 8th June, 2017, we are pleased to inform that manufacturing operations at our unit situated at 188/2, Ranipur Village, Opp. CNI Church, Narol, Ahmedabad has re-started from 13th June, 2017 in evening.You are requested to take note of the same pursuant to regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.Source : BSE live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Pursuant to the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (SEBI Listing Regulations), we hereby notify that:The Twenty-third Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank will be held on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, at 2.00 p.m. at Hotel Sheraton Grand (formerly, Hotel Le Meridien), Raja Bahadur Mill Road, Pune 411 001, Maharashtra.Further, in terms of Regulation 42, the Register of Members and Share Transfer Books shall remain closed from Thursday, July 20, 2017 to Wednesday, July 26, 2017 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of the Bank's AGM and for determining the entitlement of dividend for the year ended March 31, 2017, subject to approval of the members in the AGM.All applications for transfer of shares received upto the close of business hours on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 will be given effect to, and the dividend will be paid to the transferees.The dividend would be made payable to the Members of the Bank on or after Monday, July 31, 2017Source : BSE live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More In terms of the Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements),Regulations, 2015, this is to inform you, d that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 14th June 2017, has issued 49148498 Equity Shares of Rs. 2/- each, fully paid, in lieu of 49148498 Equity Shares of Rs. 10/- each, in terms of Scheme of Reduction of the Share Capital of the company reducing the paid up value of each Equity Share of the company from Rs. 10 per share to Rs. 2 per shareuly approved National Company Law Tribunal, New Delhi.Source : BSE live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More We wish to inform you that:1. The 29th Annual General Meeting ('AGM') of the Company will be held on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 10.00 a.m. at the Registered Office of the Company at 139/25, Ring Road, Domlur, Bengaluru - 560 071.2. The Board of Directors at their meeting held on April 19, 2017 has recommended a final dividend of Rs.4.50 per equity share of Rs.10 each, subject to approval of shareholders at the forthcoming AGM.3. The Register of Members and Share Transfer Books will remain closed on Saturday, July 15, 2017 for determining the list of members eligible for final dividend on equity shares, if declared at the AGM.4. Dividend as may be declared at the AGM will be disbursed on or before Monday, July 31, 2017 to the shareholders whose names are recorded in the Register of Members as at Friday, July 14, 2017 as under:a. To Beneficial Owners in respect of shares held in electronic form as per the data made available by the National Securities Depository Limited and the Central Depository Services (India) Limited as of the close of business hours on Friday, July 14, 2017; andb. To Members in respect of shares held in physical form after giving effect to valid transfer in respect of transfer requests lodged with the Company and / or Registrar and Share Transfer Agent as of the close of business hours on Friday, July 14, 2017.5. The e-voting period commences on Thursday, July 13, 2017 at 9.00 a.m. and ends on Monday, July 17, 2017 at 5.00 p.m. (both days inclusive).6. The Company has entered into an arrangement with Karvy Computershare Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, our Registrar & Share Transfer Agent for facilitating e-voting, through their e-voting platform i.e. https://evoting.karvy.com.7. The voting rights of the members shall be in proportion to their shares of the paid-up equity share capital of the Company, subject to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, as amended, as on the cut-off date, being Tuesday, July 11, 2017.8. In order to comply with Regulation 34 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we will be submitting the Annual Report for FY 2016-17 after it is adopted by shareholders at the AGM.Source : BSE The Apple logo is seen on the facade of the new Apple Store in Paris, France, January 5, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau - RTX2XOBX Stopping short of confirming whether Apple is working on its own car, companys CEO Tim Cook said that they are focusing on developing technology for autonomous cars. In an interview with Bloomberg, Cook said Were focusing on autonomous systemsits a core technology that we view as very important. He added that Apples project is the mother of all projects and "probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on. After the likes of Google, Tesla and Uber, Apple is another giant from Silicon Valley which has expressed intrest in developing autonomous vehicles. Googles parent company Alphabet has also said that they are shifting the focus towards developing the technology for installation in cars built by established automotive firms. It confirmed it will be phasing out its Firefly bubble car. Apple driverless car: The journey so far February 2015: Business Insider quotes Bryan Chaffin, co-founder of Apple site The Mac Observer that he was certain Apple is working on a car. The Wall Street Journal give details of the Project Titanas the project is known internallyadding that Apple had okayed the creation of a 1,000 strong team. August 2015: Reuters reported of a possible courtship between Apple and BMW. There were reports that Apple employees, including Time Cook, had visited BMWs facility in Germany. April 2016: Few people noticed white Ford Transit and Dodge Caravan belonging to Apple with mounted Lots of Lidar on top. Lidar sensor is employed by self-driving vehicles to detect objects in their surroundings, like other cars and pedestrians. Although Lidar is also used by Mapping vans, the set up on top of the car was unusual. October 2016: Bloomberg reported that Apple might scale back its titanic plan to take on Detroit. April 2017: Apple was given the all-clear to trial driverless cars on Californian roads from the American authorities. Two weeks later, images of custom built cars kitted with a number of sensors, including 64-channel lidar, two radars, and several cameras emerged. June 2017: Tim Cook confirms that Apple would be focusing on developing technology as of now. With Google and Apple out of the race, the focus will be on the tussle between Elon Musk's Tesla, which the frontrunner in the driverless car segment and traditional auto giants such as Ford, BMW, Volkswagenall working on their versions of autonomous cars. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Jet Airways and IndiGo have resumed using the UAE airspace for their flights to Doha, more than a week after they were forced to re-route their planes due to an embargo by several Gulf nations on flights to and from the Qatar capital. The development came after UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority clarified today that the ban applied only to airlines, aircraft and companies registered in Qatar. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia too issued identical statements explaining that the embargo did not apply to all airlines, according to local media reports. The ban applies to "all Qatari aviation companies and aircraft registered in the state of Qatar", several media reports quoted the agencies of the three countries. Both IndiGo and Jet Airways have returned to flying over the UAE to reach Doha, the capital of Qatar. Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, was yet to go back to its original route plan. The three Indian carriers operate flights to and from Doha. Since the imposition of the ban by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, the Indian carriers had to alter their routes and fly over Karachi (Pakistan), Bandar Abbas (Iran) to Doha resulting in longer flying hours and additional operational costs due to higher fuel burn and deployment of additional human resources. Full-service carrier Jet Airways today said in a statement that it had received permission to use the UAE airspace. "The airline will start operating on its earlier routes via the UAE with immediate effect, helping it reduce guest inconvenience as well as additional flight time," the airline said. Jet Airways, whose strategic partner is the UAE-based Etihad Airways, operates flights from Delhi, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mumbai and Thiruvananthpuram. Low-cost carrier IndiGo, which operates a flight each from Delhi and Mumbai to Doha, said that it received a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) informing about the change and its flight from Delhi on Wednesday morning will fly over the UAE. However, Air India Express has not yet revised its route, according to an official. It operates 14 flights to Doha from Kozhikode, Mangalore and Mumbai. The restrictions on use of airspace came while nine countries -- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Mauritius, Mauritiana, Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives -- severed diplomatic ties with Qatar last week. Ankara has gone too far in its defence of Qatar when it should have been trying to persuade the emirate to change its policies What's happening in relation to the Qatari crisis clarifies to a great extent that the Arab region is in a state of severe liquidity. There is a re-positioning in regional relations and behind it there are precursors for international changes that so far have not materialised, especially as every day new Arab and African countries are joining the boycott of Qatar, punishing it for spreading extremism and financing terrorism. At the same time, a regional party, Turkey, has made a strange and shocking move to many of the Arab Gulf countries. It was supposed that Turkey accorded its relations with the big Arab Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates a special status. However, it has blown these considerations on account of calculations based on delusions of establishing an Islamic caliphate supported by the Muslim Brotherhood's international organisations, pursuing military influence in the heart of the Arabian peninsula, backing Qatar and appointing itself a protector and a guardian. This has thwarted entirely everyones thoughts about a Sunni-based regional alliance in which Erdogan's Turkey plays a pivotal role. Thus, Turkey has proved during Erdogan's term that it doesn't care except about its short-term self interest and cares not for principles or even promises that Erdogan had made many a time to monarchs and princes of the highest calibre in their countries and in the region as a whole. But even more so, Erdogan fancies himself as the regions commander and the custodian of its countries, so that when he commands, others should obey. The Turkish president has issued a silly threat asserting that his estimations have gone astray. He made a demand of the Bahraini foreign minister that the boycott be ended before the holy month of Ramadan is concluded. The minister explained the reality of the Qatari stances and its danger for the region's security and the world, and the reasons driving the four Arab countries to boycott Doha. The Turkish standpoint doesn't need any explanation, for Ankara's decision is to benefit from these developments by reaching the Arab Gulf coasts, and stationing there in order to stand up to the major Arab countries without any provocation to Iran. There are big economic and commercial interests that bring Turkey and Iran together, in contrast to what seems to be their places on conflicting sides of the Syrian conflict. Instead of considering the importance of Qatar reversing its policies, Ankara has gone too far in defending Doha, and why not? They are the main agents in supporting terrorism and extremism in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. This shocking exposure of Turkey is a logical result of the country's place as the centre of gravity, along with Britain, for the Brotherhood's international organisation. What's more, Turkey is the group's first protector and the protector of other branches, especially in Asia. These countries are known to everybody. Thus, it won't be strange that with pressures mounting on Qatar, most of the terrorist figureheads will leave it for Ankara. Thus, Turkey will become unashamedly, unequivocally the leader of the terrorist organisations. Then the world will know the extent of the huge scam Turkey is playing and the extent of devastation it has practised on neighbouring countries. Turkey's exposure in this way will pose several questions to the Arab powers in the Gulf, who must re-evaluate their political, economical, commercial and cultural policies of openness towards Ankara during Erdogan's term. If this happened the way it should be done, this will constitute a big blow to Turkish politics and to Erdogan personally. Perhaps the calls by Saudi Twitter users and citizens to boycott Turkish commodities and drama series will be followed by other stricter and clearer standpoints. With the tightening of the boycott of Qatar and the widening of its scope, the biggest question remains: what benefits will Turkey gain from sending some thousands of its soldiers to be stationed permanently on Qatari lands, while at the same time the biggest American military base is situated on the same territory? It is a kind of superficiality that some see the stationing of these soldiers there as a master stroke, and believe that they will consolidate Turkey's regional role. This will take place simultaneously with a loss of its relations with the Arab Gulf and with the Arab powers, whose importance exceeds that of Qatar's a hundredfold. Supporters of that move are among the terrorist groups followers backed by Ankara, and they consider it a kind of protection of their biggest financing branch. But this constitutes a major delusion for those short-sighted people, who haven't yet grasped that the Trump administration is leading a change in relation to halting the financing of terrorism and its subversive organisations. This change will drive the world to take a congruent, serious stand, so long called for by Egypt. What we see in Tunisia, for instance, is that an investigation was opened regarding the role of the Qatari ambassador in Tunisia during the Brotherhood's Al-Nahda party's rule under Rachid Al-Ghannouchis leadership in 2013. Eight billion dollars were channelled from the Tunisian branch of the Qatar bank to another bank in Libya controlled by terrorist groups, especially the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and the Libya Dawn militia. This was done in order to support those groups in wreaking havoc in Libya, Egypt and Algeria. The opening of the investigation, in part, aimed at revealing the truth but also in acquitting Tunisia, during the rule of its President Essebsi, from covering up the corruption of Al-Nahda and its subversive role in neighbouring countries in coordination with Qatar. What's happening in Tunisia now won't be the last Arab or regional movement; it will be repeated in the next few days, and it is likely that Turkish fingerprints will appear on this dirty work. Will Erdogan send his soldiers to every country that may uncover his involvement with his protege Qatar in creating chaos in Arab countries in order to serve the delusion of a so-called caliphate? The four countries which began the Qatar boycott must coordinate their moves in the UN and present all their evidence to the secretary-general and the Security Council, in order to open an international investigation that can uncover Qatar's involvement in supporting international terrorism. It is anticipated that some countries, especially European states, will resist the opening of such an investigation. Some of them know that they are involved and that Qatari money has been transferred through prestigious European banks. We also know that those facts rob many European countries of their dignity. The writer is a political commentator. Search Keywords: Short link: Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh declined to comment on farm loan waivers, but accused the Congress of instigating and politicising the farmers' stir in Madhya Pradesh. "The role of Congress leaders in farmers' agitation in Madhya Pradesh has proved that they are instigating the farmers. The party and the family (Gandhi family) which has ruled the country for more than 60 years is talking about welfare of farmers. What have they done for all these years? Were they sleeping?" Singh wondered. He alleged that three congress MLAs were involved in the violence in Madhya Pradesh and were trying to score political brownie points on the issue. While the Narendra Modi government was working for the speedy development of villages and welfare of the poor and the farmers, the Congress was feeling frustrated and scared, he said. "Rahul Gandhi is expressing solidarity with farmers. Where was he when farmers were deprived of basic amenities for irrigation? It is the Narendra Modi government which took steps for the development of farmers," he said. To a question whether the Centre will waive loans of the farmers, Singh declined to give a direct reply and said, "A lot of schemes were just on paper. We gave a lot of funds so that these schemes can be properly implemented." Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday said the Union government would not partake in states' fiscal leverage in waiving farm loans and made it clear that the cost has to be borne by them. Allowed | Farming operations (Image: PTI) The Cabinet today gave ex-post facto approval to an agreement signed between India and Palestine in agriculture. The two countries had inked the memorandum of understanding (MoU) last month during the visit of the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs to India. "Under the MoU, an agricultural steering committee will be constituted to determine the programmes and action plans to achieve the objectives provided in the MoU. It will also set the agenda for cooperation," an official statement said. The MoU provides for cooperation in agricultural research, veterinary field, including capacity enhancement of Palestinian veterinary services and animal health, irrigation and climate change. It will also be extended to areas such as plant and soil nutrition, exchange of experiences in sanitary and phytosanitary legislation and plant protection, animal husbandry, modern irrigation technology, including exchange of experiences, and training and capacity building, it added. A labourer works at the construction site of the Delhi-Jaipur national highway in Manesar in the northern state of Haryana, India, July 9, 2015. To match insight INDIA-INFRASCTRUCTURE/ REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RTX1KM9A The Centre's plan of achieving record road construction targets is not going too well with 22 projects worth Rs. 18,300 crore lagging behind. The road projects, awarded in last two years and spanning 1,239 km, missed the scheduled date for starting construction owing to problems related mainly to land acquisition and various clearances, Financial Express reported. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRT) had set an ambitious target of constructing 15,000 km of National Highways in FY17. Yet, only 6,604 km - less than half - was constructed till the end of February, said the ministrys press release. The ministry cited land acquisition, utility shifting, unavailability of soil, environmental and forest clearance as the main factors behind the delay. Issues with Railways and arbitration disputes with contractors were also among the list of the obstacles. For example, the Lucknow to Sultanpur road project has been delayed due to issues with forest clearance and utility shifting cost. The project was awarded under the hybrid annuity model (HAM) to Dilip Buildcon for Rs 2,016 crore, mentioned the report in Financial Express. MoRTs target of achieving road construction of 40-km per day slowed to 23-km/day in FY17. The Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari said in an interview to CNBC TV 18, I am confident that next March end, we will complete that 40 km a day. Gadkari cited issues of cooperation from state governments as the bigger reason behind projects being delayed. Land acquisition, environmental clearance and encroachment clearance are all required from the state governments for the projects to go ahead. Nearly 40 percent of PNC infratechs road projects are "stuck" due to land acquisition issues, according to a report by Phillips Capital published this month. The ministry has created an infrastructure group under the chairmanship of Nitin Gadkari to resolve clearance issues related to environment, forest, railways, and defence. National Level Project Monitors have been appointed to track languishing highway projects. Although the MoRT is facing issues with contractors, private builders have already emerged as key players in road construction. In FY16, road projects worth USD 2.21 billion were awarded under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, stated a 2017 report published by India Brand Equity Foundation of the Commerce Ministry. The government has also moved from the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model to the EPC and HAM model to increase efficacy of road projects. Congress general secretary B K Hariprasad accused the BJP president Amit Shah of presenting "fake" statistics, and claimed that GDP growth declined after the demonetisation. "The economy has witnessed a steep decline due to the demonetisation. When the UPA government left the office, the GDP growth was 6.7 per cent which has now declined to five percent," Hariprasad said at a press conference here. Asked about Shah's claims over GDP growth, the Congress leader referred to cases of fake encounters in Gujarat in which Shah had faced allegations, and added, "Shah is also good at presenting fake statistics." Hariprasad, who is Congress' in-charge for Chhattisgarh, was in Raipur as a part of his party's national campaign to highlight 'failures' of the NDA government. The BJP government at the Centre can not understand how to save the "falling" economy and is busy coining slogans, he said. The Narendra Modi government has given unlimited powers to the Income Tax department which is now raiding and harassing honest taxpayers for no reason, he said. Despite fall in the international crude prices, the government is keeping the petrol and diesel prices high, he said. Even seven months after the demonetisation, the government has failed to inform people about the amount of money which returned to the banks, he said. The law and order situation in the country has deteriorated, he claimed. "Murders and rapes are being reported frequently in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and other areas. Atrocities on Dalits have increased. The situation in Kashmir is out of control. For the first time in the history, curfew was imposed for 130 days in the valley. Our jawans were attacked brutally on the border," he said. "Prime minister Narendra Modi has no time to meet the families of farmers, but when Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tried to meet the kin of the affected farmers (in Madhya Pradesh) he was stopped," Hariprasad said. "Protests in Neemuch, Mandsaur and Dewas were not carried out by Congress workers...but it's a birthright of Congress to stand by farmers," he said, when asked about an FIR against Congress MLA for inciting farmers during the protests. He however added that Congress never defends any kind of violence, and asked why no action has been taken against senior BJP leaders for giving provocative speeches. 1968| Morarji Ranchhodji Desai's Budget, commonly known as the People's Budget, simplified the assessment of goods by introducing the system of self-assessment for all manufacturers. This Budget also abolished 'spouse allowance'which was a tax saving tool for both the taxpayers - husband and the wife. This was done in order to "to eliminate this unintended strain on the relationship of marriage." live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said it had identified 12 NPA accounts, which can be immediately taken up under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). These accounts contribute around 25 percent to India's gross NPAs, the RBI said. The Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) recommended IBC reference for all accounts with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5000 crore, with 60 percent or more classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016, RBI said on its website late on Tuesday. The central bank did not reveal the names of the 12 companies which it has shortlisted but experts believe that the focus will be mainly on companies belonging to the steel and power sector. A risk profile of select industries as at end September 2016 showed that iron & steel and power industries had high leverage as well as interest burden, a report by CLSA said. The steel sector contributes to over 30 percent of gross NPAs as companies like Essar Steel (Rs 44,000 crore), Bhushan Steel (Rs 35,000 crore), and Electrosteel Steels (Rs 10,000 crore) have large amount of stressed assets (see graph below). Loans to the power sector contribute over 40 percent to the lenders watch-list. "The total borrowings by companies in chemical, computer, food products, hotel, rubber and textiles industries decreased during the period from September 2015 to September 2016. On the other hand, cement, construction, electrical machinery, power, iron & steel, jewellery, mining, automobiles, papers, pharmaceuticals, real estate, telecommunications and transport industries contributed towards an increase in total borrowings," CLSA says. Why are steel and power ailing? The menace of bad loans has stayed hidden in plain sight, slowly bloating into a monster that has engulfed the entire economy. As per the Reserve Bank of India, the gross NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) are around Rs 7.65 lakh crore, which make up a bulk of the banking system's total NPAs. Experts blame lax lending norms during the boom years of 2009-2012 as one of the key reasons for rising NPAs, coupled with high competition. Weak global steel prices, now at their lowest since 2003, have also been a factor. That combined with high costs means Indian companies have struggled with to compete with cheap imports from China, Japan and South Korea. Steel production in India averaged 3001.32 thousand tonnes from 1980 until 2017, reaching an all-time high of 9000 thousand tonnes in March 2017. Local demand, however, has not kept up. Source: tradingeconomics.com As shown in the chart below, steel prices have been sliding gradually since the past decade and reached an all-time high of 1265 in June 2008 and a record low of 90 in March 2016. source: tradingeconomics.com Exports of iron & steel in India decreased to USD 833.59 million in 2016 from USD 3177.14 million in 2015. Exports of iron & steel in India averaged USD 4012.57 million from 1996 until 2016, reaching an all-time high of USD 9223.38 million in 2013 and a record low of USD 662.18 million in 1998. Source: tradingeconomics.com The story with the power sector has been one of chronic problems. Large underutilised capacities, muted demand, bunched-up capacity addition, soft merchant power prices, continued investments in renewable capacities, and weak discoms are the main reasons why thermal power plants have struggled to hold their heads above water. With a sub-50 per cent plant load factor (PLF), they have a high probability of debt default. Under the current scenario, the survival of such players is not possible, ratings firm India Ratings said. The firm in its report said that there is a possibility of sector consolidation, which could be triggered by the new bankruptcy code. Ind-Ra expects the PLFs of coal-based power plants to decline further in FY18 and rise thereafter, though they would continue to remain sub-65 per cent until FY22, it said. IRB Infrastructure Developers | In 2020 so far, the share price has moved up 76 percent to Rs 131.20. It's trailing twelve months (TTM) P/E was 6.40 multiple while 5-year average P/E was 8.30 multiple. A 36-year-old property developer allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his licensed pistol in southwest Delhi's Dwarka area. Reports said that Sumit Aggarwal was depressed since he had incurred financial losses in property investments made in Jaipur. More than a year ago, Thane-based builder Suraj Parmar had shot himself in a flat in his under-construction project and had left behind a 13-page suicide note, in which he had named some corporators for allegedly harassing him. Later, two of the four corporators were charged with driving the builder to commit suicide by alleging irregularities in his buildings. The Parmar episode had forced developer associations to push for a single-window clearances for projects. The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India or Credai at that time, in a letter to Mumbai commissioner, said that the suicide note left by him is a painful indictment of our system. Developers are concerned that smaller developers, especially those who are broker-turned-builders and who have absolutely no experience in the construction business, may have diverted money collected from homebuyers into acquiring more lands and may succumb to pressure, especially now that the Real Estate Regulation & Development Act, 2016 has kicked in. Under RERA, developers have to deliver projects as per the timelines promised to homebuyers. While the Act does not demand developers to reveal his funding, it does monitor whether the developer has registered an ongoing project with the regulatory authority and named his brokers and the architects. It is all about streamlining the sector and ensuring that developers who follow unethical practices go out of business or face penalty. Real estate experts say that the biggest challenge faced by developers today is that of falling sales and prices more or less remaining stagnant. Residential sales across top eight Indian cities has been falling and unsold inventory is on the rise. According to the research firm Liases Foras, the unsold stock in top eight cities across the country stands at almost 9 lakh units with maximum unsold inventory in NCR market at 2.61 lakh followed by Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) at 2.26 lakh and Bengaluru at 1.13 lakh. Many developers are victims of their own decision making. The market crashed after the Lehman crisis and has been slow after 2012. A handful of developers, that form barely 0.1 per cent of the sector, have all along resorted to bungy jumping. They are the ones who have used customer advances to acquire more land banks and not concentrated on completing projects, Pankaj Kappor of Liases Foras said. Until now for most projects at least 60 percent to 65 percent cash flows came from customer advances. In a slow moving market, reduction in sales has resulted in customer advances going down. "In most cases, these developers, especially those who are broker-turned-builders, have bought land at a high price from private money lenders. They are now victims of borrowing money at high rates. They are the ones who had betted heavily on huge profits and never envisaged a situation wherein sales could be slow and customer confidence low, he said. It is financial indiscipline of some developers that is forcing them to take this extreme step, said an expert not wanting to be named. Also, many people saw real estate as an opportunity to make a fast cash local property dealers jumped into the business, some even left their corporate jobs to get into property brokerage, without realising that while there was money to be made, there could be enormous pressure in a slow moving market, the expert added. With RERA coming in, developers will come under a lot of pressure. Those who cannot adhere to norms such as registering incomplete projects or the delivery timelines promised, will either have to pay penalty or suffer imprisonment. Even today, many of us are unable to register projects as some states do not have a website or even the rules in place. Our sales have been impacted because we are unable to sell without registering our projects. But we are hopeful that things will streamline in six months or in a year, says Parveen Jain, President NAREDCO. Global airlines' bodies have expressed concern over the debt-ridden Air India's disinvestment or privatisation, saying such a move should not "distort" the national carrier's competitiveness or affect its alliance with global players. International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief Alexandre de Juniac, in an interview to PTI, parried questions on the proposals to privatise Air India, while observing that this was the second time such an announcement had been made. Maintaining that "we don't have a position on that (privatisation)", de Juniac said "the government can do whatever they like with the airline, provided they do something which is competitive or competition-oriented. If there is no distortion in the market, it's okay. Then do it." While the IATA has said that the national carrier's privatisation process should not "distort" competitiveness in the aviation market, the Star Alliance, of which Air India is a prime member, has said the ownership and control should not affect its network or lead to the "backdoor entry" of an airline into the grouping. Talking to PTI on the issue, Star Alliance CEO Jeffrey Goh said, "if the ownership and effective control of Air India is within the Star Alliance family, we don't have a problem with that." "If, however, the ownership and effective control is outside Star Alliance, we will need to review the situation to see whether it is still compatible with our strategy. Because if particularly it's an airline (which takes over Air India), we don't want the acquisition of one of our members becoming a back door entry into Star Alliance," Goh said. Star Alliance is the biggest airline grouping, whose 28 member airlines serve 1,300 destinations with about 5,000 aircraft flying over 650 million passengers per year. Besides Air India, its members include Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, United, Air China, Air Canada, ANA, Swiss and South African Airways. Goh said the national carrier had big challenges, not only in terms of a large organisation, but also "lots of financing or funding challenges, that is quite high, USD 8 billion." Staying afloat on little over Rs 30,000 crore bail-out package extended by the previous UPA regime, Air India is saddled with nearly Rs 50,000 crore debt and is in discussions with lenders on ways to restructure the loans. Earlier, a senior official said Air India had been bleeding due to huge debt overhang and if a solution can be reached on restructuring the debt that would be helpful. "Debt restructuring would be one important component of the process," the official said, adding that Air India has been talking to banks for the last 4-5 months. The officials remarks had come after a top government official said the Cabinet was expected to take a decision on whether to privatise Air India, whose financial situation is "very bad". "For us, as the alliance, Air India is important because India is a huge market and AI provides us with connectivity to the domestic market. That's very important for us, without which of course, it's difficult to reach many domestic destinations of India," he said. "So I think so far, so good with Air India. I think they obviously continue to enjoy a good time from the announcements to expand. They have announced Copenhagen, Stockholm, US and many other destinations," said Goh, who had earlier played a key role in getting Air India into the Star Alliance fold. By CNBCTV18.COM "The problem is that there is too much oil on the market. There is too much oil from the U.S., too much oil from Libya, too much oil from Nigeria," said Fereidun Fesharaki, founder and chairman of consulting group FGE, which focuses on oil and gas markets east of the Suez and in Europe and the U.S. A leading global energy market academic warned that crude prices could sink back to $30 a barrel if OPEC fails to make additional cuts to production. "The problem is that there is too much oil on the market. There is too much oil from the U.S., too much oil from Libya, too much oil from Nigeria," said Fereidun Fesharaki, founder and chairman of consulting group FGE, which focuses on oil and gas markets east of the Suez and in Europe and the U.S. "While the demand is robust, there is a serious likelihood that prices will sink next year to $30-$35 a barrel and will stay there for a while," he told Squawk Box on the sidelines of the Credit Suisse Australia Energy Conference in Sydney on Wednesday. Fesharaki, who has studied Asia Pacific and Middle East energy markets since the early 1980s, said he believes the so-called red line for Saudi Arabia is 9 million barrels of oil per day, and any failure to cut below that level would cause a price pullback. "You have to cut another 700,000 barrels per day right away or prices will sink," he said. "Even if you do this, next year you'll still have to cut more, so it comes down to how far the Saudis are prepared to cut." Late last month, OPEC said it would extend an 1.8 million-barrel-a-day cut to oil output by nine months, though March 2018, after the November deal failed to fully clear a global oversupply in oil, which has been keeping prices relatively low. Some non-OPEC producers have also signed on to the deal. Fesharaki said his assumption wasn't just based on oversupply. Taking a contrarian view, he also believes that a slump in crude prices could lead to a slump in demand. "A drop in the price of oil is like an earthquake or a tsunami," he added. "If you have a small drop in the price of oil, then actually it's good for demand and good for economic growth, but last time the price of oil fell, the stock markets fell with it. I think there is a scary environment now that a substantial drop in the price of oil would actually create a global recession." Other analysts have previously noted that a sharp drop in oil prices can weigh heavily on the economies of oil producers, which then can see declining consumer confidence and spending. Qatar in crisis Fesharaki believes the diplomatic crisis engulfing Qatar is unlikely to have a long term or substantial impact on global oil prices. "It's not threatening any production, so the markets have yawned," he said. Several Saudi-led Arab states abruptly cut off ties to tiny Qatar earlier this month. Saudi Arabia has issued demands of Qatar, including ending relations with Iran, breaking all ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and expelling all members of Hamas, according to an Al Jazeera report. It also demanded Qatar shut down broadcaster Al Jazeera, which came under cyber attack last week. The catalyst for the rift was an alleged statement by Qatar's emir that criticized Saudi Arabia and President Donald Trump, who recently visited Saudi Arabia in his first foreign trip, agreeing to new military contracts and a broader economic relationship. Doha denies allegations that it has supported terrorism. Turkey, a strong ally of Qatar, will send its foreign minister to Doha on Wednesday and possibly to Saudi Arabia, as it looks to end the feud. "I don't see this as a factor impacting the oil market unless you get into a military confrontation which is very unlikely," he said. "With Turkey now taking troops to Qatar and the Iranians supplying food and water, I think the stakes for the Saudis have become much bigger. If they escalate this further, then it can get very ugly." The NITI Aayog has drafted a recommendation which proposes to bring down the government's stake in the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) to 25 percent, a deal that could potentially earn the government around Rs 960 crore for the exchequer. The current stake of the government in the Navratna Public Service Unit (PSU) Shipping Corporation of India stands at 63.75 percent. NITI Aayog recommends that the Ministry of Shipping should do away with its stakes in an elaborate three stage process. The first stage asks the government to sell 26 percent of its stake at one go, bringing down its stake to 37.75 percent. Subsequently, the Shipping Ministry will gradually transfer the management control to Shipping Corporation of India in the second phase. The final stage advises the government to gradually keep selling its stakes over a period of one year, until the stakes come down to 25 percent. On June 2, the core group of secretaries on disinvestment headed by the cabinet secretary came to a conclusion that the Shipping Ministry should provide its comments after reviewing the legal hassles around the issue. After the comment from the Shipping Ministry arrives, the final decision on the matter would be taken by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs. The reason for the dilution of government stakes has also been cited in the recommendation. With the growing number of private players in the Shipping Industry, the government indulgence is unnecessary, says the recommendation. The government has budgeted to raise about Rs 15,000 crore through strategic sale of PSUs this fiscal year. With PTI inputs Handset maker Samsung will expand its mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, to more affordable devices in its portfolio in India over the next few weeks. The service, which was launched in March this year in India, allows users to just tap and pay using the debit/credit cards and wallets stored on their mobile devices. Samsung Pay is available for users of flagship devices like Samsung S8, Samsung S7 Edge, S7 and S6 Edge Plus among others. The company today launched two new devices - J7 Max and Pro, priced at Rs 17,900 and Rs 20,900, respectively that feature Samsung Pay. "Since its launch in India, we have received tremendous response to Samsung Pay and we remain committed to taking it to maximum number of consumers. Over the next few weeks, we plan to extend Samsung Mini as an update to some existing users of devices like J7 Prime," Samsung India Senior Vice President Mobile Business Asim Warsi told PTI. The J7 Pro is equipped with Samsung Pay, while J7 Max comes loaded with Samsung Pay Mini. Designed to work on mid-range smartphones, Samsung Pay Mini comes with UPI and mobile wallet integration. However, it does not support tap-and-pay using credit and debit cards like the main app. "Samsung Pay Mini is designed to cater to requirements of mid-segment consumers. While J7 Max is the first device to get Mini, it will be made available on select existing J series devices shortly," he said. The J series, which now has 10 devices after J7 Pro and J7 Max, accounts for a huge chunk of Samsung India's sales. The J7 Max features a 5.7-inch display, 1.6 GHz Octa-core processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB internal memory (expandable up to 256GB), 13MP front and rear camera and 3,300 mAH battery. It will be available in stores from June 20. The Galaxy J7 Pro has a 5.5-inch display, 3GB RAM, 64GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB) and 3,600 mAH battery. The device will hit the stores mid-July onwards. Both the devices feature 'social camera' that allows consumers to add filters or stickers on-the-go and share the picture instantly on social media apps. The instant discovery feature -- through the augmented reality camera -- allows users to discover their surroundings for popular photography spots, restaurants and shopping areas. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Oil giant Saudi Aramco wants to enter into exclusive talks with India to buy a stake in the planned 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) refinery on the South Asian nation's west coast, India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. The proposed talks come as Saudi Arabia seeks to secure customers for its oil amidst a global supply glut. With the 1.2 million bpd refinery, the world's largest, India wants to have a greater say in the global fuel trade, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters in New Delhi. The country's top refiner Indian Oil Corporation will initially hold a 50 percent stake in the project, while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation will own 25 percent each. SpiceJet has made a debut in the retail segment with the launch of its ecommerce portal called SpiceStyle, which is expected to boost the ancillary business of the company. Ajay Singh, CMD, Spicejet said in an effort to increase the ancillary revenues, the company has tied up with Amazon. The company also plans to partner with other market places besides Amazon to sell their merchandise and add to the ancillary revenues. So going forward, the ancillary revenues would grow from the current 16 percent to 18-19 percent of the total revenues, he said. For their core business, FY18 looks better than FY17 on back of reduction in fuel costs and market continues to grow. Talking about the UDAN scheme, he said flying to the sectors that don't have flights currently will turn out ot be profitable. They will fly to cities like Kanpur, Jalandhar, Porbandar and Kandla, he said. Singh is also confident of the occupancy remaining in the range of over 93 percent, which has been the case for the last 24 months. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More With new measures (power) from the government to tackle non-performing asset issues, the RBI increased pace of NPA resolution process by identifying 12 accounts but that may pose credit cost risk for banks, CLSA feels. Even the research house is worried about the success of this new tool, especially after limited success to previous tools like Strategic debt restructuring, S4A, insolvency proceedings, 5/25 etc. Hence, it said, quality and speed of resolution will be key going forward. If all the 12 accounts are resolved with 60 percent haircuts, CLSA sees 8 percent upside to FY19 adjusted net worth (higher for public sector banks), but feels earnings may face risk from credit cost towards haircuts. Following the governments announcement of steps to resolve NPLs, RBI announced its plans to speed up the process by identifying 12 large corporate non-performing loans (NPLs) for resolution under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). These 12 large corporate non-performing loans account for 25 percent of total NPLs or around 2 percent of loans. "This will require banks to submit a plan to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), but more importantly loans have been identified objectively; resolution plan will need to be approved within 180-270 days; and bank employees may get insulated from risk of inquiries," CLSA said. Internal Advisory Committee of independent Board Members that constituted by RBI recommended for IBC reference all accounts with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5000 crore, with 60 percent or more classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016, the RBI said in its note. Besides the 12 accounts, the banking regulator instructed banks to finalise a resolution plan for all other accounts within six months, it added. "We understand that these loans might cover about 35-40 cases and account for 15 percent of banking sector's NPLs (based on overall plan to resolve top-50 NPLs that form 40 percent of banking sectors NPLs)," CLSA said. In the case of PSU banks, the government is also likely to link capital infusions with targets on resolution of stressed loans & exiting unprofitable/non-core businesses, it said. Majority of stressed assets issue restricted to two sectors that are power that dominate the watch-list and steel which lead NPLs (around 30 percent of total loans). Source: CLSA report Companies that have huge debts on their books are Adani Power (Rs 52,200 crore), Bhushan Power (Rs 37,300 crore), Bhushan Steel (Rs 43,300 crore), Essar Steel (Rs 36,500 crore), GMR Infrastructure (Rs 46,200 crore), GVK Power (Rs 25,800 crore), Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 67,300 crore), Jindal Steel & Power (Rs 46,200 crore), Monnet Ispat & Energy (Rs 11,900 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 45,800 crore) and Videocon Industries (Rs 43,300 crore). Figures are based on FY16 financials, CLSA said. CLSA said improvement in asset quality will be most positive for PSU banks and private corporate banks where stressed loan ratios are high, at 8-20 percent. ICICI Bank is its top pick in the sector given a valuation discount to peers and potential fall in stressed loans which could abate concerns, the research house said. Among PSUs, while tier II PSUs may benefit more from stressed loan reduction, it prefers SBI and Bank of Baroda given their stronger franchise/manageable stressed loans. Posted by Sunil Shankar Matkar Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest. Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well. This week, Kunal Saraogi, Sumeet Jain and Jay Thakkar battle it out for top honours. Below their top stock picks and analysis: Sumeet Jain of Destimoney Securities Buy Godrej Properties with a stoploss at Rs 521 and target of Rs 564 Buy BEML with a stoploss at Rs 1299 and target of Rs 1341 Buy Exide Industries with a stoploss at Rs 221 and target of Rs 238 Sell Just Dial with a stoploss at Rs 415 and target of Rs 383 Jay Thakkar, Head-Technical and Derivatives Research, AnandRathi Share & Stock Brokers Sell Capital First with a stoploss at Rs 695.50 and target of Rs 647 Sell Federal Bank with a stoploss at Rs 116.90 and target of Rs 109.50 Buy Kolte-Patil Developers with a stoploss at Rs 177.90 and target of Rs 188.90 Buy Prestige Estates Projects with a stoploss at Rs 248.90 and target of Rs 265.80 Kunal Saraogi of Equityrush Buy Cholamandalam Investment with a stoploss at Rs 1070 and target of Rs 1130 Buy LIC Housing Finance with a stoploss at Rs 770 and target of Rs 795 Sell Just Dial with a stoploss at Rs 410 and target of Rs 395 Buy Muthoot Finance with a stoploss at Rs 456 and target of Rs 475 Amit Gupta of ICICIdirect told CNBC-TV18, "Power Grid Corporation of India is coming up very nicely from Rs 200 levels. In fact if you look at the volume pattern in Power Grid, we had seen a very huge volume in the month of March near Rs 190 levels. Those kind of volumes were seen and then stock did not go below Rs 190 though it came down from Rs 208 to Rs 190 but it finally held those levels." "Now, we have seen just in the last month those volumes near Rs 200 levels. So these are very significant volume patterns on the weekly basis which have come in these stocks and it did not breach Rs 200 level despite some jitters in the market. What we are observing that the tier II stocks of Nifty are performing much better because the top 10 stocks are still stuck up but the tier II like Asian Paints, or Power Grid, these kind of stocks, I think they have started performing." "It can provide some support to the Nifty also. Yesterday it closed near Rs 210, so my sense is the base formation which happened at Rs 190 and Rs 200, now it is going to happen at Rs 210. So, the base has come up, we should start looking buying the stock and look for a target of Rs 220 plus in the coming sessions." "Another one which we are picking is Adani Ports. If you look at the last three or four weeks, it has been consistently trading near Rs 355. Now, Rs 355 is very important because in 2015 it made a high, life high near these levels. It was a life high closing near Rs 355. However, the last couple of months, it is just hitting that level and then coming down to Rs 320 or Rs 330." "However, when we look at the delivery buying near Rs 330, it is really encouraging. Almost 35 percent of shorts we have seen have got covered and there has been a lower rollover of short positions from the last series to the current series. So, that gives an indication that finally Rs 355 on closing basis is going to be taken out and we can see the move towards Rs 385-400 level. So, I think these two stocks which have consolidated for a long time and have given a good short covering trend, we should start looking buying and having them in our portfolio," he added. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Infosys Brokerage: Bank of America Merrill Lynch | Rating: Neutral | Target: Rs 1,000 The global financial services firm said that information technology (IT) spends in financial services was a positive, but can take time to translate into projects. It is betting on innovation over consulting as a differentiator. Larsen & Toubro Brokerage: Deutsche Bank | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 2,050 The brokerage highlighted that the management is seeing the start of a strong 4-5 year upcycle. The company took its market share in ordering to 30-45 percent in a weak market, its report added. Brokerage: CIMB | Rating: Hold | Target: Rs 1,750 The research firm said that the companys further margin expansion would depend on infrastructure segment, which has been sluggish. It raised FY18-19 earnings per share (EPS) forecasts by 3-4 percent on lower interest expense. Brokerage: Credit Suisse | Rating: Outperform | Target: Rs 2,060 The brokerage reiterated the rating on the back of domestic pick-up and steady profitability. Telecom Brokerage: Goldman Sachs The global brokerage house said that Bharti added more subscribers than Reliance Jio for the first time, but there was no uptick in mobile number portability (MNP). Incremental subscriber additions for Jio is likely to remain challenged, it added. Further, GS said that trends for Bharti were strong and market share for smaller telcos were mostly at risk. Godrej Cons Brokerage: Macquarie | Rating: Outperform | Target: Rs 2,070 The research firm said that Godrej Consumer was on a solid footing before the rollout of goods and services tax (GST). It believes transition stock losses due to GST will be insignificant, it added. Further, it expects the company to continue to deliver earnings growth ahead of peers. Vedanta Brokerage: Macquarie | Rating: Outperform | Target: Rs 311 Macquarie highlighted that the company is its top pick in the Indian metal sector. RBI Circular on NPA Resolution Brokerage: CLSA CLSA said that the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) focus is on resolve top 12 accounts that are 25 percent of non-performing loans (NPLs). Further, it said, the focus will be on sectors like steel, which lead NPLs as well as power sector and large-stressed corporates. The resolution package will give a clearer path to stressed loan reduction despite upfront haircuts. Assuming the 25 percent NPL resolution with 60 percent haircuts, there is 8 percent upside to FY19 adjusted net worth. For PSU banks, the government is likely to link capital infusions with performance with respect to NPA resolution. Going forward, the better asset quality will be a positive for PSU banks and private banks where stressed loan ratios are high. It has ICICI Bank as the top pick in the sectors given the valuation discount to peers, while among PSU banks, it prefers State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda even as Tier-II banks may benefit more. Brokerage: Credit Suisse The brokerage estimates that two large steel companies account for over 50 percent of 12 accounts. Further, it estimates 40-60 percent provisions needed on steel accounts and even larger provision for others. It believes that only ICICI Bank will not need further dilution to provide for haircuts. Brokerage: Bank of America Merrill Lynch The global research firm termed the bankruptcy code invoked by the central bank as a long term positive. It believes that most private players have already initiated insolvency resolution process under the said Code. It assumes banks have made provisions of 40/10 percent on reported NPLs and restructured book. Going ahead, the government may have to recapitalize PSU banks after write down due to possible haircuts. Large lenders like SBI are better placed to benefit from this theme, while private banks with better provisioning like HDFC Bank, Yes Bank remain the top picks. Brokerage: JPMorgan JPMorgan believes that the announcement could trigger a short term rally in the banks with high NPLs. The preferred way to play this theme would be through ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI, it said. The move, it said, is a positive as most resolution processes had reached dead ends. In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Anuj Singhal and Surabhi Upadhyay, SP Tulsian spoke about his readings and outlook on the fundamentals of the market and specific stocks. Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview. Anuj: You were saying in the morning that you would look at the developments as positive, but specifically on names like Allahabad Bank, IDBI Bank and a couple of others like Syndicate Bank, do you think this rally could continue? A: In the morning I have said that I am taking a positive view on all PSU banks and in the morning I have said that rather I will be taking more on the larger banks like Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda or maybe State Bank of India (SBI) kind of stocks. But now, we are seeing the smallcap or maybe midcap PSU banks are seen moving up like Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Dena Bank, Syndicate Bank. Actually, if you take this non-performing asset (NPA) resolution probably, I have been hearing all the experts and some of the banks managers, but these bank officials, I have always found them either to be very 'thanda' or with no motivation seen on the NPA recovery. In fact sometimes, I feel that if they would have been prompt and active, probably the things would not have gone such a messy for all these things. But anyway coming on all this NPA resolution move which I strongly expressed in the morning also that I am seeing extremely positive outcome to come on. If you have heard Sajeev Sanyal, the way he has narrated the things, that they are looking for resolution and not for winding up or maybe insolvency or maybe liquidation of the companies and that is if it fructifies. I have given the example of five steel accounts also amongst the 12 having identified by the ministry or maybe by the banks for tackling that resolution part. That will ultimately be seen quite beneficial because if you see, in all these 2 accounts, or for that matter any of the exposure having more than Rs 5,000 crore to any company, all these 15-18 PSU banks are all involved and everyone will be having the pie of shares of the recovery of this amount which will be seen extremely positive. So I am keeping positive view on all this PSU Banks as well as a positive view on the five steel sector stocks because if you have the potential acquirer for any sector which is seen quite hot and which is seen quite acceptable, I do not think that you need to worry for recovery. In fact this is the intention of the promoters of those five companies which are in fact not allowing these things to happen. But now since having taken up by the ministry, by RBI so seriously, I am very positive on the outcome and hence, have the positive view on the PSU banking stocks going forward. Anuj: What explains this counter-trend move that we are seeing in Yes Bank, because of course, there was a brokerage note as well? But as we see the Bank Nifty moving to the high point, the Yes Bank stock has moved to the low point of trade. Is this is a comfortable level for you to start accumulating? A: I have been keeping a positive view on the Yes Bank and when you have seen this divergence in the NPA, at that time what is happening now, I am not saying that everyone should take a positive call or everyone should take a negative call, but I do not think that things have all understood in a correct manner and if you correlate that with the meeting of Chanda Kochhar had with Finance Minister, where the presentation was made by her as gathered by the media report or maybe from your channel where it has been explained that why this divergence in NPA should not get reported, at that time also we have seen the things negative happening on Yes Bank. And again, now with some kind of report which I have not gone through or which I am not aware of, again we are seeing this kind of profit booking corrections happening, largely because of the trading or maybe the weak traders because they create long positions when the stock starts moving up and when you see these kind of reports coming in, they quickly get out or either the stop loss they are forced to get out with the stop loss getting triggered and all that. But on a fundamental basis I am very much comfortable with Yes Bank, the kind of growth, the kind of asset quality, the kind of management commentary which we have been hearing. So I have no worry as an investor on the stock. Surabhi: Some of these heavily indebted companies, these stocks have been down and out right from the morning and that trend still continues, Bhushan Steel, Lanco Infratech, Electrosteel Steels, etc. Is there any advice you have for shareholders at present because there is a lot up in the air and I guess the rights of equity holders anyway will come after the rights of the creditors, even if these companies were to go through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) route, even if they were to find new buyers? A: If we take the text book view which you have said that the equity comes at the end then probably you will be taking the most pessimistic view. But I have said in the morning also that I see huge value in the steel stocks. Just to give you an example, take the case of the most worried company that is Bhushan Steel. The company has capacity of six million tonne of steel plant. JSW Steel, which is the best company having enterprise value of Rs 90,000 crore having three times the capacity of what Bhushan steel has that is 18 million tonne. Now Bhushan Steel is an operating company having annual turnover of Rs 15,000 crore against JSW Steel having turnover of Rs 57,000 crore. Now, Bhushan Steel has an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of 21 percent, but JSW Steel has an EBITDA margin of 20.7 percent. Now where the problem lies is the lower operating capacity because obviously, if the company is into stress, if they have not been making payment, obviously, they will not be getting the working capital finance, they will not be able to service the long-term debts which they have availed from the bank. If you take even the situation on the net position, Rs 48,000 crore of the total debt including working capital finance to Bhushan Steel, Rs 10,000 is very well supported by the current assets because as I said, Rs 15,000 crore is the annual turnover of the company, the largest auto grade steel maker. That means, you are left with Rs 38,000 crore debt with Bhushan Steel. Now, I see the value of this six million tonne. If you take a ballpark that it costs you about one billion per dollar for creation of this kind of one billion capacity. That means that is the net present value is closer to about Rs 42,000-43,000 crore and if you are expecting a haircut of even 40 percent, that means the value of the banks or the exposure of the banks can get settled for Rs 25,000 crore. Your market cap is less than Rs 2,000 crore. So whatever accretion which will happen in the value of the shares or with the value of the company will get reflected into the share price. I will not be surprised. In fact I have been giving a buy call on Bhushan Steel for the last 3-4 months on your channel from the levels of Rs 50-55. And I am expecting that because of the many suitors there for acquiring this company, the fortunes of the company will get changed and I will not be surprised to see the share appreciating by 100 percent in the next 12 months. But if you take a daily call and if you take a textbook view that equity comes at the last and nothing will remain and you expect that company will go into liquidation, all the assets will get thrashed out and will put on the disposer, I do not buy that theory that why that will happen when there are potential acquirers for the company and that is why I have said, I see huge value. Just paid up equity of Rs 45 crore for Bhushan Steel. So let us not take a fundamental call. If you are taking a garbage call or dirty dozen call, then analyse the company accordingly and take the valuation call accordingly whether a new acquirer can come into the company or not. So similar stand is being taken by me on the companies like Monnet Ispat , companies like Bhushan Steel. Bhushan Power and Essar Steel, both are not listed, so I will not be able to give you any comment on those stocks. Mitessh Thakkar of mitesshthakkar.com told CNBC-TV18, "Raymond after that news flow which happened and the stock went through volatility, it has kind of come back into some kind of range at about Rs 750, roughly about Rs 690. It is still in the range, I think if it starts breaking Rs 690 we will have a bigger correction. Maybe for the next few days this range will continue because as of now we dont have a signal for breakdown. However, I would want to keep a close watch on levels of around Rs 690." He further added, "I dont like much in the pharmaceutical space. Dr Reddy's Laboratories is the only one which could give some more continuation of the reversal. As long as it is above Rs 2,590-2,600 levels, I think we can look at around Rs 2,700 being tested. Canara Bank looks weak to me. I think that is a stock which is slipping further and could be sold with a stoploss at Rs 356." business Sell IOC, Ceat, Vedanta; buy Shipping Corporation: Ashwani Gujral Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com is of the view that one may sell Indian Oil Corporation, Ceat and Vedanta. Yogesh Mehta of Motilal Oswal told CNBC-TV18, We are recommending sell on Vedanta, and currently price is Rs 236-236.50 in the future segment and Rs 240 should be the stoploss and keeping a target of Rs 228. On the buy side, we are recommending Dr Reddys Laboratories which has given a good momentum above Rs 2660 level and currently it is quoting at Rs 2696 levels in futures, one can initiate a buy with a stoploss of Rs 2665 with a price target objective of Rs 2740-2750 level. In Dewan Housing Finance there is strong run up since last few session and still is continuing, Rs 444.50-445 is a price right now, keeping a small stoploss of Rs 440 and one can look at Rs 454-455 at the target, he added. Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com told CNBC-TV18, "If you are looking to invest in Reliance Industries this is a good price for an investment. I dont think there is a trade there. Yes Bank is a short selling idea, there is a trade, if rallied short trade in Yes Bank. So while Reliance is good for investing, Yes Bank for short term trader is a sell. The sense is that more weakness could come on chart, thats what the charts are suggesting. Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments and moneycontrol.com. He further added, There is buying opportunity in Bharti Infratel, it is in a trading range, if not anything a small rally intraday is possible, so consider going long for the intraday. There are two short sell Ambuja Cements , where cement is weakening and Coal India , which is in a consistence downtrend. So we are taking advantage of the midcap decline and looking to buy Bharti Infratel, which is relatively strong, he said. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday welcomed the Centre's decision to lower interests on short term crop loans for farmers for the 2017-18 fiscal. He said this step will substantially alleviate the woes of small and marginal farmers, and urged the Prime Minister to go all the way to waive the existing farm debts of cultivators. In a statement issued here after the Union Cabinet's approval of the Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) for farmers, Amarinder said the Central government should move forward to waive the loans of at least the small farmers, who were resorting to "extreme measures" to escape their mounting debts. Farm Crisis: Why Bumper Harvests Are Becoming Painful For Indian Farmers "The situation is critical," Amarinder said, claiming that the entire nation was "in the grip of a humanitarian crisis" due to the unrest among the farmers, who had taken to the streets in many states to draw the government's attention to their plight. "Caught in a vicious cycle of debt, farmers around the country, including in Punjab, are resorting to suicide," the Chief Minister said. Given the nationwide repercussions, the situation merits urgent intervention by the Centre, he said. The entire farming community, across states, is in the "grip of a serious financial crisis" as a result of their debt cycles, coupled with low MSP for their produce, the Chief Minister claimed. The farmers, who feed the nation, are unable to make both ends meet and they need the government's support to wade them through the crisis, Amarinder stressed. The Chief Minister demanded immediate implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report to fix the MSP to ensure remunerative prices for farm produce, saying the implementation of the recommendations "were the only real solution to the problem in the long run". While reiterating his government's commitment to waive farm loans, as promised by the Congress in its poll manifesto, Amarinder said, "Knee-jerk reactions by individual states, most of which were struggling to cope with the agrarian crisis, could not lead to a permanent resolution of the problem." "The Central government needs to take a holistic view of the problem from a national perspective and intervene immediately to bring the farming community back from the brink of disaster to the path of development and progress," the Chief Minister said. Amarinder warned that failure to address the issue could lead to a serious food crisis for the country, which could lose its self-sufficiency in food grains and regress to the state in which it was before the green revolution. Pakistani artist Mubarak Hussain puts the final touches on a statue of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, next to statues of other national heroes, ahead of Pakistan's Independence Day in Karachi August 12, 2014. Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day on August 14. REUTERS/Athar Hussain (PAKISTAN - Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS) - RTR425V7 While one shouldn't dwell in the past, it shouldn't be forgotten either for it shapes events which play out in the future. Moneycontrol takes a look at some of the crucial episodes on June 14, which had a bearing on the fortunes of India and the world. On this day in 1947, the Congress Working Committee headed by Sardar Patel gathered in New Delhi to draft the resolution for the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan, paving way for Partition which would carve out Pakistan from India. The resolution was later presented before the All India Congress Committee. The Mountbatten Plan aimed at an immediate transfer of power on August 15, 1947 as well as dividing Bengal and Punjab, so that a consensus could be reached between the Congress and the Muhammad Ali Jinnah-led Muslim League when Pakistan would be formed. Let's go back in time and see what else happened on this day in history: Will be travelling to meet my grandmother & family for a few days. Looking forward to spending some time with them! Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) June 13, 2017 Right in the middle of a heated political season, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has announced on Twitter that he will be leaving India to visit his maternal grandmother abroad, leaving many opposition leaders perplexed about the timing of the trip. In the build-up to the development, the Congress had been claiming the moral high ground by attacking the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh over the killing of five farmers, allegedly by the police, at a mass protest over rural distress. Gandhi himself was arrested briefly while trying to visit the families of the victims in Mandsaur. The current period is also politically significant as the date for Presidential elections have been announced and opposition parties are in talks about nominating a consensus candidate. Gandhi's trip triggered taunts from the opposition BJP which had called the visit the picnic of a kid during his summer vacations. Congress spokesperson RS Surjewala said that the controversy was unnecessary as it was just a regular visit to check on his 93-year-old grandmother. This is not the first time that Gandhi has left the country at a politically sensitive time. In 2015, the Congress leader had taken a 56-day sabbatical soon after his party was wiped out in Delhi Assembly Elections, a move that drew flak. Meanwhile, Vivek Pradhan, a Congressman in Meerut has been removed as the President of Meerut District and from all other party positions over calling Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi pappu in a WhatsApp group for the party. Speaking to News18, Pradhan said, Rahul Gandhi is my leader and I have never disrespected him. I would never dream of using a derogatory word like that for him. This is a conspiracy against me by some people within the party to malign my image so that they can take over the reins of the district Congress. Delhi High Court A student who wrote the class XII board exams this year from Saudi Arabia has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the CBSE's November last year decision to do away with re-evaluation of answer sheets. A bench of justices S Muralidhar and C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE) and its controller of exams and sought their stand on the student's plea also seeking re-evaluation of his Physics, Chemistry and Maths answer sheets. The petitioner has claimed that CBSE had recently made a statement before the Orissa High Court that the facility of re-evaluation of answer sheets is still available. The submission was made during hearing of a plea by some students who were seeking re-evaluation of their answer sheets. Subsequently, the Odisha High Court had allowed the students to apply for re-evaluation and had directed the Board to set up an expert committee to carry out the exercise within three days, the petition has said. The petitioner student from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, has sought parity with the students from Odisha who were allowed to apply for re-evaluation of their answer scripts. The Delhi High Court while seeking the CBSE's reply to the petition by 21 June, also directed the Board to place on record the statement made by it before the Odisha High Court. The petitioner student has also challenged the CBSE's 29 May, 2017 notification which lays down the process and fees for re-verification of the marks and for obtaining the photocopies of the evaluated answer sheets. As per the 29 May notification, Rs 700 per subject has to be paid for getting a copy of the answer sheet and Rs 500 per subject for re-verification of the marks, the petition has said and added that neither process provides a student with a remedy if the evaluation has been erratic. In the instant matter, the petitioner student has contended that he and several other students whose exam centre was at the Al Alia International School in Riyadh, have been awarded very low marks, especially in Science stream, due to erratic evaluation of their answer sheets. In a first, High Court judge CS Karnan became the only judge to retire while absconding. He has been evading the police since May 9 after the Supreme Court sanctioned an arrest warrant against him, sentencing him to a six-month jail term. The Supreme Court had held Karnan in contempt of court following a series of defiant counter-orders he had repeatedly issued against the apex court. Justice Karnan was originally slated to retire on June 11. Since he has been absconding, he has missed the formal farewell which is usually given to every retiring high court judge. The end of his career as a HC judge comes even as Karnan has had a chequered history of fights with fellow judges of Madras High Court where he was initially posted. Karnan, a Dalit, has been in the crosshairs of the Supreme Court judges for some time now for going against the edicts of the apex court. In 2016, following his accusations of corruption and discriminatory behaviour against the Madras HC Chief Justice, the Supreme Court ordered Karnan's transfer to Kolkata. Justice Karnan stayed his own transfer order and said he was being victimised for being a Dalit. But his stay order was lifted by the SC later on. Karnan then wrote to the then-CJI apologising for his actions which he claimed were result of him being mentally disturbed. In a historical landmark, the Supreme Court signed an order of arrest, setting a new precedent in trying a SC or HC judge. However, Karnan has escaped the ignominy of an arrest while still in power as he still is seen missing. Karnan's Tit-for-tat In January 2017, Justice Karnan jolted the judiciary when he alleged that 20 sitting and retired Supreme Court and High Court judges were corrupt. Afterwards, a bench of seven SC judges started contempt of court proceedings against Karnan on February 8 for repeatedly accusing other judges of corruption and degrading the judiciary's esteem. The seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar granted Karnan four weeks to respond to the contempt notice and withdrew his judicial and administrative powers as a serving high court judge. Karnan, in his reply, did not express any regret for his actions and instead asked the Supreme Court to restore his authority. As the SC did not take heed of his plea, Karnan issued a suo moto judicial order asking the CJI along with six other SC judges to appear before him at his make-shift court cum residence in Kolkata. They faced charge of violating the SC/ST Act as they had, according to Karnan, insulted him with malafide intention. Interestingly, the validity of the order remained in question as his power to issue suo moto orders was earlier barred by the apex court. He also directed the Air Control Authority to not let the 8 judges fly abroad while he was prosecuting them. Karnan continued to not comply with the court orders and refused to go through a mental health check-up instructed by the seven-judge bench of SC. He instead issued an order against SC and asked the Director General of Police, New Delhi to produce the seven SC judges before a psychiatric examination board. On May 8, Justice Karnan went further and sentenced the eight SC judges to five years of prison time along with the fine of Rs 1 lakh each under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act from his home court. A day later, the seven-judge SC bench sentenced him to six-months behind bars. Karnans lawyer Mathews J Nedumpara filed a writ petition seeking recall of the order awarding him six-month jail term. He argued that as a HC Judge, Karnan was not under the Supreme Court benchs jurisdiction. But the SC registry dismissed his plea and said the findings against him have attained finality. Nedumpara claimed to have made a representation to President Pranab Mukhejee for suspension of the Supreme Courts order. The intervention was sought as, under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President has the power to suspend sentence of any convict. The plea was not entertained by the President and finally, on June 11, the controversial HC judge retired from his position while on the run. Shree Pushkar Chemicals & Fertilisers Q1 | Profit at Rs 1.01 crore versus Rs 6.35 crore, revenue at Rs 63.8 crore versus Rs 92.1 crore YoY. (Image: Reuters) Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray warned ally BJP that his party would take a "big step" if the loan waiver for farmers announced by the Maharashtra government is not implemented by next month. Terming the announcement of a complete loan waiver as a victory of farmers' unity, he said, "Our demand is very clear. We want their loans to be written off completely," he said. Speaking to reporters here, after meeting farmers from across the state, including Puntamba village, Uddhav said, "I would like to thank the farmers. We have heard of a green revolution but the farmers of Maharashtra have shown that those who can bring about a green revolution can also cause a revolution." "I don't believe in the word 'karz mafi' it should be called as 'karz mukti'. 'Mafi' is given to those who have committed a crime. Farmers have not committed any crime but have brought about a revolution," the Sena chief said. Uddhav said, "I congratulate the Maharashtra government. This is a moment to be celebrated, but most importantly, fast implementation of the announcement is necessary." "Loan waiver has been announced now. We will be patient enough to wait now and give the government time until July to implement its announcement. If they do not do so, a big step will be taken next month," he said. Meanwhile, a farmer who was present at the event said they met the Sena president to thank him for his support to their stir. "His support forced the government to give us a loan waiver. We give full credit to Uddhav ji and the Shiv Sena," he said. Earlier in the day, the Shiv Sena had said the loan waiver decision was due to its constant "throttling" of the Maharashtra government and the party has opted to remain in power to shake the chair of "lazy" persons. Farmers in Maharashtra, who had been on a war path from June 1 to press for their various demands, had on June 11 called off their stir after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced loan waiver for them. On June 14 every year, countries all over the world come together to celebrate Blood Donor Day and to raise awareness about need for safe blood and blood products. On this day, Moneycontrol takes a look at some of the existing facts regarding the illegal blood donation industry in India Indias illegal blood industry is worth Rs 300 crore which is growing every day. Less blood, more demand There is a huge shortage of blood in the country despite the large number of blood donation camps. People in the country are still in the dark about blood donation. Black market transactions and poor facilities are also contributing factors. As per a 2012 report by World Health organisation, only 9 million blood units are available annually whereas the demand is 12 million units. Blood sales Blood is illegally sold at higher price most of the time and not given to patients on the basis of critical medical conditions. It almost functions as an auction. Plasma extraction A lack of mechanism for what happens to blood after it is donated leads to hospitals in place that extract plasma out of blood and sell it to the pharma companies, who in turn make pure profits running into crores of rupees. The Black market can even pay donors for blood Despite the sale of blood being illegal and getting money for donations as well, there are agents that can arrange for everything, for a few thousand rupees. The Caste Taboo as a deterrent The caste system in the country still continuing to prevail in several pockets make it difficult for the people from such background to come forward and donate blood. Blood Farms There are several donors from poor villages who are lured into blood farms with the promise of good money. But after some time, they are trapped, beaten and used as blood donors forcibly, sometimes giving over more than 12 times a month, rendering them too weak to fight back. Blood Transfusions There are several blood transfusions that happen directly, without any collecting or testing. This is especially true for the rural areas were patients who cannot afford high cost take blood directly from a donor making them prone to diseases. In 2013, two children with thalassemia died and 21 others were diagnosed with HIV after a single, unlicensed blood bank was found to be transfusing patients without testing in Junagadh, Gujarat, reported the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. Adulterated Blood Blood samples have been found diluted with unfiltered water or saline solution. There are often an intricate networks of people who adulterate blood and have everything set up down to the last detail, including syringes, saline bottles, wrappers of registered hospitals and blood banks, stickers of blood groups, and other instruments used in drawing blood from donors. Why is this happening ? Till today, India lacks a central blood collection agency, which is the prime reason for illegal blood donation. This continues to happen despite a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that banned paid donors and unlicensed blood banks. Overall health- The donor must be fit and healthy, and should not be suffering from transmittable diseases. Age and weight- The donor must be 1860 years old and should weigh a minimum of 50 kg. Pulse rate should be between 50 and 100 without irregularities. Hemoglobin level- A minimum of 12.5 g/dL. Blood Pressure Diastolic 50100 mm Hg, Systolic: : 100180 mm Hg. Body temperature - Should be normal, with an oral temperature not exceeding 37.5 C. The time period between successive blood donations should be more than 3 months. A person who has been tested HIV positive. Individuals suffering from ailments like cardiac arrest, hypertension, blood pressure, cancer, epilepsy, kidney ailments and diabetes. Individuals who have undergone immunization in the past 1 month. Individuals treated for rabies or received Hepatitis B vaccine in the past 6 months. A person who has consumed alcohol in the past 24 hours. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Individuals who have undergone major dental procedures or general surgeries in the past 1 month. India has several different blood donation organizations both governmental and non-governmental. Some of these include Rotary Blood Bank, Indian Red Cross Society, Khoon Organisation and Sankalp India Foundation. Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya attends a news conference in Mumbai February 6, 2007. REUTERS/Adeel Halim (INDIA) - RTR1M1NG Former liquor baron Vijay Mallya's extradition hearing in London could be put off till 2018. As India hasn't yet submitted relevant evidence supporting its claim that Mallya had defaulted on loans of about Rs 9000 crore to Indian banks, the British Court in today's hearing didn't rule out a delay on his extradition. The Chief Magistrate of London's Westminster Magistrates' court has pushed the extradition hearing to December. If the evidence against Mallya did not come within its next hearing on July 6, the British court said the final extradition hearing would be postponed to April of next year. This Tuesday the Indian tycoon appeared before the London court for a case management hearing which was earlier scheduled to be held on May 17. Mallya was arrested in London on April 18 this year on an extradition warrant. But he availed a conditional bail within a few hours of paying a bond of 650,000 pounds. Indias Ministry of External Affairs, in February, had submitted an extradition request for Mallya whose Kingfisher airlines owes over Rs 9,000 crore to a consortium of 17 banks in India. He had fled to England in March last year. The request for evidence against Mallya was sent to India six weeks ago and the subcontinent couldn't respond in time for today's hearing. The Indian officials, who had gone to London a few months earlier, to push for Mallyas extradition, were asked to submit documents proving that the Kingfisher had 'intentionally' defaulted on loans. Now India could be preparing a second extradition request along with newer charges against Mallya, his lawyer said at the hearing today. Mallyas Denial Mallya has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him. Before entering the court he said to reporters: I deny all allegations that have been made and I will continue to deny them. He also said the allegations of money laundering against him were false, and he had evidence to back him up. Taking a dig at the Indian media, he said, reporters could "keep dreaming" about the billion-dollar scam he is accused of, but they would not be able to prove anything. Last week, Mallya who was seen in the audience at the Oval watching the India-South Africa Champions Trophy match, was subject to a few fans' catcalls. Earlier too, Mallya was made to feel unwelcome at the India vs Pakistan match in Birmingham on June 4, by a certain section of the media. Afterwards, he tweeted that he would attend all of Indias matches in ICC Champions Trophy. Wide sensational media coverage on my attendance at the IND v PAK match at Edgbaston. I intend to attend all games to cheer the India team. Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) June 6, 2017 With inputs from PTI. Rabbis installation at Keneseth Israel will get a boost of student creativity June 14, 2017 The War In Afghanistan Is A Racket The United States will again escalate the war in Afghanistan. Sixteen years ago the U.S, invaded the country and decided to eliminate the ruling Taliban for something that was planed elsewhere by a different group. Since the invasion the U.S. tried to defeat the Taliban. It has lost that fight. As soon as it leaves Afghanistan the Taliban will be back in power. But no one is willing to pull the plug on the nonsensical military approach. The Taliban are part of Afghanistan and a significant segment of the population supports them. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan it put the brutal and utterly corrupt warlords back into power. These were exactly the people the Taliban were created to hold down and the reason why they could take power in the first place. While demanding a strict religious life the Taliban successfully took care of local security and eliminated the lawless and corrupt rule of the warlords. It is no wonder then that a large part of the population wishes to have them back in power. The U.S. supported government in Kabul is utterly corrupt. The Afghan military and police the U.S. pays is likewise only motivated by money. It is not willing to fight. It takes high casualties during Taliban attacks and therefore avoids contact with them whenever possible. Some 60 % of the country is now more or less back under Taliban control. The government's say is restricted to the bigger cities. It is obvious that this trend will continued and sooner or later the Taliban will be back in power. The only sensible strategy is to negotiate with them and to find some solution that allows them to rule while they guaranteeing that no harm will emanate from Afghanistan for the rest of the world. But no one in the U.S. is willing to take responsibility for that. Who would want to be blamed for "neglecting" Afghanistan when another 9/11 happens - as unlikely as that might be? Therefore additional troops need to be send whenever the Taliban seem to gain the advantage over the puppet government forces. President Trump has punted on the issue and has given full authority to the Defense Department to continue the war in Afghanistan with as many troops as it sees fit. It is now the generals, not Trump, who will be blamed should things in Afghanistan go wrong. But the military has no idea what to do about Afghanistan. Yesterday the Secretary of Defense Mattis was asked during a Congress hearing what "winning" in Afghanistan would mean: The idea, [Mattis] said, would be to drive down the violence to a level that could be managed by Afghan government forces with the help of American and allied troops in training their Afghan counterparts, providing intelligence and delivering what Mr. Mattis called high-end capability, an apparent allusion to air power and possibly Special Operations forces. The result, he said, would be an era of frequent skirmishing, but not a situation in which the Afghan government no longer faced a mortal threat. Winning in Afghanistan is an "era of frequent skirmishes" in which the proxy government is continuously endangered? That does, of course, not make any sense. It is a holding strategy that will only work as long as the general framework stays the same. Should the Taliban change their strategy or a new actor come in the "holding" strategy will be finished. One new actor is already there. An Afghan variant of the "Islamic State" just kicked out the Taliban from the Tora Bora cave complex near the Pakistani border. Tora Bora was once though to be the retreat area of Al-Qaeda's Osama Bin-Laden and was attacked during the U.S. invasion in 2001/2. But who is behind the Islamic State Khorasan Provinces (ISKP) in Afghanistan? Most of its fighters seem to be former Taliban who either defected in Afghanistan or were kicked out of Pakistan when the Pakistani military put pressure on their home areas. The real question now is who pays them and what do they want? Officially no one seems to know. For the warlords in Afghanistan the U.S. occupation has become a huge source of money. The U.S. pays them for protecting the goods shipped in from the states and elsewhere. It is a protection racket. Should the U.S. not pay, its convoys will be attacked by "Taliban". As soon as it pays the local warlords, the "Taliban" will be defeated and the area will be clear again for the trucks to pass. The money the Afghan government receives is likewise dependent on a continuation of the U.S. occupation. No one in the ruling class of Afghanistan has an interest in ending that. The government in Kabul will do nearly anything to keep its money source available. That may well be the reason why ISIS in Afghanistan was created. It was feared in Kabul that sooner or later the U.S. would find a compromise with the Taliban and leave the country. A new reason had to be found to continue the war. It is therefore not astonishing that the Afghan secret services, the National Directorate for Security (NDS), was the first sponsor of "ISIS" in Afghanistan. The first "ISIS" fighters were refugees of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) who settled in the eastern province of Nangahar and were put on the NDS payroll: The most well-known case of these militants finding a welcoming home in Nangarhar is that of the Lashkar-e Islam group led by Mangal Bagh. ... Hoping to use them against Pakistan, the Afghan government started to woo some of these fighters, according to influential tribal elders involved in helping relation-building from the districts that sheltered the guest militants. ... [E]fforts by the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), to woo Pakistani militants in Nangarhar have not been confined to Lashkar-e Islam or to militants from Khyber. Tribal elders and ordinary residents of Achin, Nazian and Kot testify that fighters from Orakzai and Mohmand agencies belonging to different factions of the TTP have been allowed free movement across the province, as well as treatment in government hospitals. ... It was from these guests that the bulk of the Nangarhar-based ISKP foot soldiers emerged, following the official announcement of ISs expansion to Khorasan Province. It is not clear if or to what extend the "ISIS" group in Afghanistan is still controlled by the Afghan government services. Their weapon and ammunition supply is now allegedly coming from Pakistan. But what is clear is that these new participants in the war were first sponsored by the Afghan government and are now a welcome reasons for an extension of the U.S. occupation and the money flows originating from it. Meanwhile the media can reuse its old scary graphics of the Tora Bora complex and sell more advertisement. The war in Afghanistan has no longer a real purposes. This or that radical group will always exist in Afghanistan. The war helps the U.S. military to claim more budget and to hand out promotions. It helps the Afghan government officials and the warlords to fill their pockets. What it does not do is to better the situation of the general population of Afghanistan or of the United States. The war has become the proverbial self-licking-ice-cream-cone. It will unfortunately continue to be such under this and probably also the next U.S. presidents. Posted by b on June 14, 2017 at 18:07 UTC | Permalink Comments Members from Lighthouse Church will join with several from Stuart, Va. for a special mission that of serving others in Tenjo, Colombia. Leaving on July 24, the team will head out of Charlotte, flying to Atlanta and finally landing in Bogota, Colombia followed by an hour and a half ride to their final destination of Tenjo, Colombia. This will be the third time that a mission team from Lighthouse Church has been there to serve. This years team, ranging in age from 17-66, will include nine from Lighthouse Church (EPC), which is located at 246 Blume Road, Mooresville and two from Stuart, Va. Team members include Drew Salmond, Don Salmond, Sarah Price, Shannon Price, Kelsey Ahrens, Kaelan Ahrens, Erin Baker, Betsy Clark and Jim Clark, all of Mooresville and Gerald Williams and Bucky Hunsicker of Stuart, Va. The church members first learned of this mission opportunity from their former interim pastor, Dr. Bucky Hunsicker from Stuart, Va. who had gone previously on two trips to Tenjo and then accompanied the local group on their first trip. While there, the teams focus will be working at a camp, which is in the process of being converted to a seminary. Duties will include light construction work in the units converting these to livable spaces for families and/or students, adding laundry facilities, building cabinets and adding to the entrance of the camp. Once completed, the seminary will in turn train Colombian nationals to go to unreached peoples that have never heard the gospel, going into places where others cant go, said Betsy and Jim Clark. In addition to camp duties, the group will visit three area senior homes as has been their custom on past trips. They will have a chance to visit with the seniors, play games and sing with them and present them with goodies bags that the team will take with them including items such as gloves, ponchos, toothpaste and much more. (Its) really fun going in, Betsy Clark said. The seniors are so sweet to each other. They take care of each other, she continued. Visiting with the seniors is not only a fun time for the group, but it is also an opportunity for them to join with the area pastors to partner with the churches and encourage them, Jim noted. The team will also have the opportunity to worship at Iglesia Bautista Valle de Tenjo, a church of approximately 150, which the group has partnered with on past trips. The team has become close to them. Some of the teens that have gone still keep in touch with the teens they met by face timing them, Jim said. Two of the youth they met, Laura and Nick Catalan Torres, will once again serve as the groups interpreters, which has been a blessing for the team. The trips have been a blessing to the group. We are more blessed than they are from the experience, both Betsy and Jim stressed. To help the mission team raise supported needed for the trip, there will be a barbecue fundraiser on June 24 from 10 a.m. until. The group will be at Joshs Farmers Market, 189 Williamsons Road, Mooresville, selling Holy Smokes Barbecue. Available for purchase will be barbecue ribs by the rack for $20 and pulled pork for $10 per pound. The whole reason for the trip is to train people to reach nationals, going to places and reaching people who have been forgotten or dont have families, Jim Clark said. And we couldnt go without the support of our church. They have been very generous, he shared. A drastic N.C. Senate revision of a bipartisan House bill that reins in behavioral health managed care organization expenditures may be an attempt to preserve the status quo by threatening to eliminate the entities altogether, according to bill opponents. House Bill 403 passed April 6 by a 109-0 vote. HB403 would establish limits on Cardinal Innovation Healthcare Solutions' executive pay no more than 30 percent of the average salary of peers and provide for clawing back compensation as warranted. The Senate rewrite of HB403 represents the chamber's first action on the bill since receiving it April 10. The Senate version would dissolve the state's eight behavioral health MCOs, including Cardinal, on the same day that the state's proposed Medicaid waiver reform goes into effect. The request is currently stalled before the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The rewrite was introduced by Sen. Ralph Hise, R-McDowell, and a Health committee co-chairman. The rewrite will be heard Thursday with the potential for a recommendation vote, according to Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, and a committee co-chairwoman. Cardinal oversees behavioral health providers who serve more than 812,000 enrollees in 20 counties, including Alamance, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Rockingham and Stokes in the Triad. Cardinal took over CenterPoint Human Services of Winston-Salem in June 2016 as part of a state effort to reduce the number of MCOs to three or four. Cardinal announced plans Jan. 12 to acquire Eastpointe Human Services, which covers 12 counties in eastern N.C. If approved by state Health Sec. Mandy Cohen, Cardinal would have oversight over nearly one-third of the state. Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, is a primary sponsor of HB403 and the lead legislator on the state's hybrid Medicaid reform waiver request before federal health regulators. "The House will not go along" with the Senate rewrite, Lambeth said. "This appears to be an effort to soften any attempt to fix the problems at one of the MCOs." subhed Stirring the contentiousness over HB403 was a state audit, released May 17, that determined that Cardinal executive director Richard Topping's board-approved salary of $635,000 was nearly 3 times the $187,364 maximum recommendation in state guidelines for the top executive of a behavioral health MCO. The audit also cited nearly $500,000 in "unreasonable" non-core spending, including high-end board meetings and retreats, employee Christmas parties, including at Topping's residence, spending on alcohol, and perks for Topping, such as a $1,000-a-month car allowance. The audit, requested by legislators in February 2016, drew a strong bipartisan reaction decrying the non-core expenditures. Krawiec has said she is receiving complaints from constituents "regarding the reduction in (local) services since the takeover by Cardinal." N.C. Department of Health and Human Services officials, including Cohen, have not commented publicly about the audit and Topping's compensation. Cohen has, by state law, the authority to replace Topping and the Cardinal board for poor performance and rescind state Medicaid contracts. Cardinal received $83.8 million in state Medicaid funding in 2015-16. In April, Cardinal Chairwoman Lucy Drake said that Topping had requested, and the board approved, reducing his salary back to its 2015 level of $400,000 which remains more than double the recommended state guideline. The Senate version of HB403 addresses the audit issues in part by eliminating the MCOs, and in part with specific language that prohibits MCOs from using funding for expenses for alcohol, first-class airfare, charter flights, holiday parties or similar social expenditures, and any MCO meetings, whether formal or informal retreats, outside North Carolina. If an MCO or its board fails to prevent such spending, the state Health secretary would to be able to delay or reduce state funding. The Senate version also would require the Office of State Human Resources to conduct a study of compensation for MCO executive directors. The State Human Resources Commission would revise the salary range for those executive directors by March 1. There also would be a voiding of the current salary range for the executive directors. Lambeth said the Senate rewrite of HB403 "is disappointing given the seriousness of the audit report and an irresponsible attempt to kill the bill." "The problems are real, the problems need to be corrected, and it appears certain persons have no interest in correcting these problems." Cardinal spokeswoman Ashley Conger said the MCO is "currently evaluating the language of the bill." "As always, our focus remains on the best interest of our members, and ensuring that they have equal access to integrated care and choice under Medicaid reform." subhed The rewrite also reopens what appeared to have been a settled divisive issue from the 2014-16 legislative sessions. House leaders supported a Medicaid reform role for not-for-profit health-care systems, while Senate leaders favored putting for-profit insurers in charge of the state program. The reform initiative, submitted by the McCrory administration on June 1, 2016, represented a hard-fought compromise representing a hybrid approach with up to three for-profit insurers offering prepaid health plans covering the state and up to 10 provider-led entities serving regions of the state. The Senate rewrite pushes again the for-profit prepaid health plan initiative while dissolving the MCOs. That factor alone is likely to derail the Senate version of HB403 if it returns as rewritten to the House floor, Lambeth cautioned. The Senate rewrite also would require the N.C. DHHS to notify the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid and N.C. Health Choice if the agency submits an amendment to the state Medicaid plan to federal health regulators, or a modification of a previously submitted amendment. The main reason for the inaction appears to be a federal legal fight over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's attempt to amend the reform request with the Trump administration to expand the state's Medicaid program to more than 500,000 North Carolinians. Republican legislative leaders strongly oppose Cooper's request. "Cardinal has certainly done a good job of setting an example of how to provide services at a lower cost, but they have certainly failed in the example of how to make best use of those funds," Krawiec said in May. Critics of Cardinal say they believe the Senate rewrite of HB403 is geared toward supporting Cardinal's view that it operates not as an MCO, but it is evolving toward becoming a commercial insurer. As we appear to be closing in on the final weeks of the legislative session, its no surprise that the Senate would amend a House bill to emphasize Senate priorities," said Mitch Kokai, policy analyst with Libertarian think tank John Locke Foundation. "These are issues the two chambers will have to work out, so House Bill 403 ends up being the chosen vehicle to help begin those negotiations. Jonathan Miller: Welcome to the Morningstar Manager Check-up for the latest from our fund research team. We start with the Aberdeen Indian Equity fund, where the teams Asia head, Flavia Chang, leads a large analyst team who contribute to the fund. Quality and value are the teams twin mantras, as they look to sustainable business models, high returns on capital and strong balance sheets. A heavy emphasis is also placed on management and corporate governance. We think this is an important factor given the heavy influence of family run-firms in listed Indian equities. The end result is a punchy portfolio of around 30 names and we like the patient approach with around 20% annual turnover. This is a competitive space, where we believe the fund can hold its own and weve reaffirmed its Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze. Next up is the Investec UK Alpha fund managed by Simon Brazier since late 2014. Brazier blends bottom-up stock research with top-down analysis as he believes a clear understanding of the macro and thematic background is important. This research is backed up by a dedicated analyst team, where their valuation analysis considers both the upside potential and downside risk of a stock. Braziers constantly seeking to balance out the risk/reward opportunities, not only at the individual stock level, but more importantly at an overall fund level. We see this very much as a core offering for UK equities, where Brazier has a sufficiently strong team to enable him to execute his investment process effectively. The fund retains its Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze. Finally the BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC) investment trust, where Mike Prentis has been at the helm for 15 years. He invests very much at the lower end of the UK stock market and also incorporates AIM stocks to the tune of 40% of the portfolio. IPOs are selectively embraced, with recent examples being Joules, Premier Asset Management and Warpaint. This is very much a bottom up approach, with the team meeting 750 companies a year, but there are certain distinct themes. This includes growth businesses with predictable revenues, cash flow compounders and innovation. We believe Prentis is an extremely capable manager in this specialist space, with a solid process and a strong team to support him, so the trust maintains its Gold Rating. Sarah Culver, an operations manager from High Wycombe, used to be hopeless at saving. But she now has a more disciplined approach after saving for a house deposit. Culver explains: While I was at university I was hopeless at saving anything. But I realised this would have to change if I wanted to get on the housing ladder. After leaving university four years ago, together with her partner Culver started to save through the Governments Help to Buy ISA. These tax-efficient schemes get a 25% top up from the Government, up to a maximum of 3,000 a year. Culver says: We started saving each month, and put in 4,000 to which the Government added a further 1,000. This money had to be kept in cash, but I guess that made sense as it was a fairly short-term investment. This savings strategy has certainly paid off, with the couple recently moving into their first flat. Fund Picks to Supplement Cash Savings Alongside their cash savings in the Help to Buy ISA the pair also started saving into a stocks and shares ISA. Culver initially invested in a range of different funds. These included Fundsmith Equity and Woodford Equity Income Fund. Culver says: I liked the idea that the fund managers running both of these funds had a good track record. Morningstar analysts certainly agree. Fundsmith Equity, run by Terry Smith has a coveted Gold Rating. Smith co-founded Fundsmith and launched this fund in 2010 on the back of the success he achieved as investment advisor to the Tullett Prebon pension fund. The fund has a five star rating, reflecting its strong outperformance against peers in recent years. Peter Brunt, an analyst at Morningstar says: This is one of the strongest options for investors seeking exposure to high quality global equities. Smith's investment philosophy is to buy and hold, ideally forever, high-quality businesses that will continually compound in value. But he adds: Investors should be aware that this is a very high-conviction and long-term approach. There are elements of sector concentration the approach excludes large parts of the market and valuation risk in the portfolio. However, we believe Smith has a good handle on the risks, and over the long term will serve investors well. Woodford Equity Income is managed by veteran stock picker Neil Woodford. The fund has a Silver Rating. Brunt says: Our confidence is growing in this fund. It is managed by one of the most talented fund managers in the equity income sector, and, after some initial teething problems, we are reassured to see a period of increased stability at Woodford Investment Management. Brunt says Woodford applies the same investment approach with which he created an impressively strong and consistent track record during his near three decades at Invesco Perpetual. This can be described as: high-conviction, long-term, and contrarian in nature. The fund is managed with a total return mind-set, the object being to grow both capital and income with a keen eye on capital preservation. As such, Brunt warns, investors should be aware that there may be periods where the fund is not always the highest yielding relative to peers. Fund that Fail to Deliver While Culver has benefited from good returns from these two funds, it is not true of some of her other selections. I think we put some money into a Russia fund, but then changed our mind about this, she said. I was picking various funds before, but without any overall plan. Instead she has now outsourced fund selection to a professional, opting for Chelsea Financial Services. She has not sold all her previous holdings though: Ive also have some money in Jupiter India and Pictet Water. I realise both of these are more expensive funds and higher risk, but over the long term I think these are areas that have the potential to deliver excellent returns. Jupiter India has a Bronze Rating from Morningstar analysts. Analysts say: We continue to have a high opinion of the research-intensive approach applied here. Manager Avinash Vazirani has been investing in the Indian equity market for over 20 years, and has run this fund since its inception in February 2008. The fund has what Morningstar describes as a growth at a reasonable price approach. The manager aims to identify under-researched stocks with strong growth prospects that have not been priced fully by the market. This approach has led the manager to favour mid- and small-cap names, many of which are not in the benchmark. However, he also has capital-preservation as a priority, preferring to invest in high-quality companies with strong fundamentals. As you would expect from a fund invested in an emerging economies returns can be volatile. But in recent years it has delivered strong growth for investors: returning 25% over the past three years. Culver says she invests monthly so hopefully this will smooth out some of the volatility inherent in such markets. As the name suggests, Pictet-Water invests in equities issued by companies operating in the water and air sector worldwide. The fund launched in 2015 and has an environmental focus. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The family of the man fatally choked outside of a Denny's restaurant in east Harris County has filed a civil lawsuit against the people they say are responsible for his death. Attorneys Troy Chandler Randall Kallinen said the family chose to file the lawsuit in an effort to seek financial support. John Hernandez was the family's sole breadwinner, Kallinen said. With his death, family members are worried that they will not be able to provide for Hernandez's 3-year-old daughter, Alexa Hernandez. JUDGE'S RULING: Ex-deputy, husband in Denny's case must take drug tests, no access to guns Story continues below... Hernandez died three days after an altercation with Terry Thompson and his wife, Chauna Thompson, a Harris County sheriff's deputy, at the Harris County restaurant on May 28. According to the Harris County medical examiner, Hernandez died from strangulation. Both Thompson and his wife were charged with murder, following a sheriff's office investigation and a grand jury indictment. The civil suit was filed Monday. VIDEO SURFACES: Bystander captured fatal Denny's fight on camera In it, attorneys further explain what they say happened that night in May. According to the documents, Terry Thompson was a trained mixed martial arts fighter. He approached Hernandez after he witnessed him urinating in public, according to a police report. That's when tensions escalated. CHARGES FILED: Harris Co. sheriff's deputy, husband charged with murder No one is certain who threw the first punch. Thompson's attorney says it was Hernandez. But attorneys for Hernandez's family said who threw the first punch doesn't matter. "This is not about how it began, but who ended it and how they did it," Chandler said. "This is about making sure John's daughter is taken care of now that he's gone. We are collating signatures to petition ... GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. A major redevelopment project is moving forward in the small, historic town of Eatonville in North Orange County. $16 million deal redevelops old Hungerford school property Town center-style mixed-use development Eatonville Town Council unanimously approved the sale The project site, which is located off I-4 between Lee Road and Maitland Boulevard, will redevelop the now-closed Hungerford School, which has long been a centerpiece for the Town of Eatonville. If Im able to just get out of my car now and just walk across the street, maybe to have dinner and just walk around and enjoy it, versus I have to go to Altamonte (Springs) or Winter Park, Im happy," said Eatonville Mayor Eddie Cole. The redevelopment of the Hungerford School property will mimic a town center-style development. Yet the design will remain historic in nature, paying homage to the town's 1887 roots. A project of mixed-use that we can see homes, retail, green space, some places that people can see the history of Eatonville, Florida," Cole continued. Cole also expressed excitement about the propertys proximity to I-4. A better tax base, we also have exposure," Cole said. The Eatonville Town Council unanimously approved the sale and purchase agreement of the property to UP Development Monday night. However, its only a piece of Eatonvilles development puzzle. This is definitely an anchor, with another project thats going up, Host Dime, and with other projects. We have a Zaxbys coming in now. We have an insurance company (Sunshine Health) that has 500 employees," Cole explained. The 90-acre property will be sold for $16 million. Orange County Public Schools will receive about $10.3 million. The Town of Eatonville and the Hungerford Trust, which is a community-based group providing college scholarships, will split the remaining $6 million dollars. The $3 million infusion for Eatonville is expected to have a major impact because Mayor Cole said the town's annual budget normally hovers around $5.2 million. The important thing for me, and I hope for our residents, is that theyre going to be engaged or their going to be participators with the growth, and not spectators," Cole said. For the project to truly be transformative without leaving behind the towns 2,000 residents, stakeholders of all ages will have a say in the projects final design. The town was founded by former slaves 130 years ago. We have enough of our seniors, we have some as old as 99 years old. They give us that history, what made Eatonville significant, so we will be asking them to sit at the table as well, just so we will have that portion that needs to go with the future of Eatonville," Cole said. The sale of the property is expected to close by December 2017. Town leaders hope to see construction begin by August 2018. Between now and then, town leaders will come to terms on a developer's agreement, which will dictate what the developer and town are responsible for during the zoning and construction of the mixed-use project. Some of the programs that are losing out on funding by United Way of Volusia and Flagler Counties said they will soon feel the impacts of the cuts. 30 of 53 programs that applied received funding Programs that didn't receive funding look to alternatives PREVIOUS: United Way of Volusia-Flagler announces program funding for next 2 years "If we don't feed them of the school, chances are they don't eat," said Joe Sullivan, chief professional officer of Boys & Girls Club of Volusia/Flagler Counties. Sullivan stressed the importance of keeping the agency's doors open. "A lot of the poor working folks, their kids come here, they can continue to work, make their mortgage payment, make the house payments," Sullivan said. The Boys & Girls Club is like a second home during the day for more than 1,000 children in the Volusia-Flagler area, Sullivan said. That's why each dollar the organization has received from United Way for the last 24 years has counted. "It's been a very significant source of revenue for us over that time, and we've been chipped in half," he said. According to Sullivan, funding from United Way to the Boys & Girls Club went from $50,000 to $25,000 to fund each of its eight area clubs. The organization is one of the 30 programs that were given United Way dollars under its new community impact model, which aligns the way funds are distributed and how the programs are classified. "Now 1 percent from United Way, we have got to go out and find the rest," Sullivan said. "This is revenue that we can use where we need it to pay for utilities, to pay staff, to pay insurances." Meanwhile, the American Red Cross of Florida's Space Coast, which provides services to the armed forces and disaster services to residents in Flagler, Volusia and Brevard counties, completely lost its bi-annual $120,000 in funding. Funding for seven other agencies was also cut. Rebecca DeLorenzo, executive director of the Space Coast chapter, said they are disappointed but are prepared to bounce back. "Our service delivery will maintain its level we never turn away anybody," DeLorenzo said. "We have that structure with American Red Cross that we can get resources from our national organization. We will look at increasing what we do as far as fundraising in our local chapters to make that difference." Dennis Burns, CEO of United Way Volusia-Flagler, added: "In this year's agency-funding process, we had requests for $3.4 million ... and had only $1.4 million to give out. This is the first year we implemented an open, competitive request for proposal process. This means any charitable agency was able to submit a proposal focused on our areas of education, income and health in Volusia and/or Flagler counties. We had 53 programs apply and we were able to fund 30 of those programs. Due to limited resources, some programs received less than requested and others were not able to be funded at all." Officials from American Red Cross and the Boys & Girls Club said they still plan to apply for the same funding in two years. A bill going to President Trump will make it easier to fire employees at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Bill makes it easier to displine or fire VA employees Accountability bill also includes whistleblower protections D.C. Digest: Lastest News | Find Your Congressmen | D.C. Calendar The House passed the bipartisan bill on a 368-55 vote. The Senate passed the measure last week. That bill was sponsored by Sen. Bill Nelson and Sen. Marco Rubio, both of Florida. "The brave men and women who have served our country deserve the very best care our nation can give them," Nelson said before it passed the Senate. "This bipartisan bill will help improve the quality of care our veterans receive by reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs." "Weve been working hard on this for years," Rubio said last week. "Today is a great day. I cant wait to get it to the presidents desk." The bill lowers the burden of proof needed to discipline or fire employees. The current appeals process for such actions can currently last years. The VA secretary can also revoke bonuses from underperforming staffers and, in some cases, reduce pensions of executive-level employees who are disciplined. Trump supports the legislation. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. AMARILLO -- Dr. Glenn Blodgett, resident veterinarian and manager of the 6666 Ranch horse division, has been named the 2017 National Golden Spur Award winner, the most prestigious honor given by the ranching and livestock industries in recognition of accomplishments by an individual. In his 35 years at the largest individually owned ranch property in Texas, Dr. Blodgett has been an industry leader in equine embryo transfer and artificial insemination, and the ranch has become the all-time leading breeder of both racing and performance American Quarter Horses. Dr. Blodgett will be honored by industry leaders at a dinner hosted by the National Ranching Heritage Center on Oct. 14 at the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Honorees for the past 39 years have represented virtually every aspect of the agribusiness industry and all of the major U.S. livestock and ranching areas, said NRHC Executive Director Jim Bret Campbell. This award recognizes that a single individual has earned notable respect and admiration from peers within the industry. Established in 1978, the award is a joint recognition given by six of the leading state and national organizations in the ranching and livestock industry: American Quarter Horse Association, National Cattlemens Foundation, Ranching Heritage Association, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas Farm Bureau; and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. When you talk about Dr. Blodgett, you have to talk about credibility, said AQHA Past President Johnny Trotter. The horse business is more of a reputation-based business than it is just a horse-trading business He has a reputation and its not all about making a quick dollar on a horse. First and foremost, hes a fine person with all the integrity and credibility that goes with it. Second of all, he is a good businessman, good horseman and a tremendously successful veterinarian. A native of Spearman, Dr. Blodgett received his bachelors degree in animal science from Oklahoma State University and his degree in veterinary medicine from the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He has since been recognized as an outstanding alumnus of both universities. After receiving his veterinarian degree, Dr. Blodgett joined Spur Veterinary Hospital, a mixed veterinary practice in Spur. Then he became self-employed at Hansford County Veterinary Hospital in Spearman, servicing primarily large-animal clientele. He joined Burnett Ranches LLC (6666 Ranch) near Guthrie, in 1982 and subsequently earned the ranch numerous awards and distinctions, including the coveted Zoetis AQHA Best Remuda Award in 1993. Dr. Blodgett oversees all of the veterinary and reproductive services at the Four Sixes, as well as horse breeding and management responsibilities. Dr. Blodgett was named Equine Practitioner of the Year in 1990 by the Texas Veterinary Medical Association after being cited as a driving force behind the Texas Racing Commissions adoption of medical rules, policies and procedures. He was appointed to the Texas Racing Commission in 1988, served the commission as vice chairman from 1993 to 1995 and received the 2011 Racing Council Special Recognition Award. Dr. Blodgett began representing Texas as an AQHA director in 1991, a director-at-large in 2011, an AQHA Executive Committee member in 2012 and AQHA president in 2015. He was inducted into the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2015 and serves on the American Horse Council Board of Trustees. The American Association of Equine Practitioners presented Dr. Blodgett with a Distinguished Life Member award in 2016 for his leadership and exemplary service. The award dinner begins at 6 p.m. Oct. 14. Individual tickets are $100 ($75 for RHA members), and a table for eight is $1,250. Tickets must be purchased in advance by contacting Vicki Quinn-Williams at vicki.quinn-williams@ttu.edu or calling 806-834-0469. John Mackey, the embattled chief executive officer at Austin-based Whole Foods Market Inc., referred to activist investor Jana Partners as greedy bastards interested only in profiting from a forced sale of the grocer. We need to get better, and were doing that, Mackey said in an interview with Texas Monthly. But these guys just want to sell us, because they think they can make 40 or 50 percent in a short period of time. The remarks signal an escalation in tension between Mackey and Jana, which disclosed a stake in the grocery chain earlier this year and pushed to shake up the board. The New York-based investment firm has been calling on Whole Foods to overhaul its operations and seek potential buyers. Decrying Whole Foods poor performance, Jana vowed to reassess everything from the companys brand to the way it schedules worker hours. Jana made its campaign public at the same time that Mackey was launching a new book on the benefits of vegan eating timing that Mackey now says was intentional. They hijacked my book tour, he said in the Texas Monthly interview. Its not that I think that they were trying to harm the book tour. Its just like, OK, the CEO is going to be distracted. Hes not going to be able to give full attention to this. Representatives for Jana and Whole Foods declined to comment . The companys same-store sales a closely watched measure have declined for seven straight quarters. The slump has put intense pressure on the former darling of the organic-food movement. Mackey co-founded Whole Foods in 1980 with a single store and built it into an industry powerhouse, but now organic food is widely available at mainstream supermarkets. Last month, in a bid to avoid a fight with Jana and other restless shareholders, Whole Foods overhauled its board of directors, appointing five new members and replacing the chairman. The grocer had hoped the changes would be enough to reach a truce with the activist investor, but Jana decided to keep its options on the table. Whole Foods has already held its 2017 annual meeting, meaning a potential proxy fight for control of the board has to wait until next year. Jana, which had a stake of more than 8 percent as of May 27, has named four potential board nominees who could be part its slate in 2018: Glenn Murphy, who previously ran Gap Inc.; Thomas Dickson, the ex-CEO of Harris Teeter Inc. who helped sell that chain to Kroger; Meredith Adler, a former equity analyst who serves as a food consultant; and Celeste Clark, a former Kellogg Co. executive who has been working as a regulatory and nutrition consultant. The crisis has become a morality play between conscious capitalism and greedy, short-term financial capitalism, Mackey said in the interview. Theyre greedy bastards, he said. And theyre putting a bunch of propaganda out there, trying to destroy my reputation and the reputation of Whole Foods, because its in their self-interest to do so. Mackey, 63, has made incendiary comments before. Though an advocate for conscious capitalism, hes also a libertarian who has railed against Obamacare and minimum-wage laws. Thats put him at odds with some Whole Foods customers and employees. As he faces what could be his biggest showdown, the CEO said he wont go down without a fight. These people, they just want to sell Whole Foods Market and make hundreds of millions of dollars, and they have to know that Im going to resist that, Mackey said. Thats my baby. Im going to protect my kid, and theyve got to knock Daddy out if they want to take it over. PEWAUKEE, Wis. The man who parlayed a run on TVs The Apprentice into a winning presidential campaign said Tuesday the nation needs a stronger system of apprenticeship to match workers with millions of open jobs. I love the name apprentice, President Donald Trump declared. He said he wants every high school in America to offer apprenticeship opportunities and hands-on-learning. Joined in Wisconsin by daughter Ivanka Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Trump described his push to get private companies and universities to pair up and pay the cost of such arrangements. Its called earn while you learn, Trump said of his initiative at Waukesha County Technical College. The president toured a classroom full of tool-and-die machines that simulated a factory floor, accompanied by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, as his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, faced questions before the Senate Intelligence Committee on potential Trump campaign ties to Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The White House said Trumps push is aimed at training workers with specific skills for particular jobs that employers say they cant fill at a time of historically low unemployment. However, the most recent budget for the federal government passed with about $90 million for apprenticeships, and Trump so far isnt proposing to add more. The Trump administration has said theres a need that can be met with a change in the American attitude toward vocational education and apprenticeships. A November 2016 report by former President Barack Obamas Commerce Department found that apprenticeships are not fully understood in the United States, especially by employers, who tend to use apprentices for a few, hard-to-fill positions but not as widely as they could. The shortages for specifically trained workers cut across multiple job sectors beyond Trumps beloved construction trades. There are shortages in agriculture, manufacturing, information technology and health care. Participants in some apprentice programs get on-the-job training while going to school, sometimes with companies footing the bill. IBM, for example, participates in a six-year program called P-TECH. Students in 60 schools across six states begin in high school, when they get a paid internship, earn an associates degree and get first-in-line consideration for jobs from 250 participating employers. But at the Wisconsin event, the president also heard more broadly about vocational education. Ella Johnson told the president that she had graduated from Waukesha West High School last weekend and received a certification in welding two weeks earlier from the technical college as part of a dual enrollment program. I plan on welding for a good part of my life, until retirement, she said. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said Trumps rhetoric doesnt match the reality of budget cuts hes proposing that would reduce federal job training funding by 40 percent from $2.7 billion to $1.6 billion. If youre really interested in promoting apprenticeship, you have to invest in that skills training, said Mike Rosen, president of the Milwaukee chapter of the American Federation of Teachers union. Apprenticeships are few and far between. Of the 146 million jobs in the United States, about 0.35 percent or slightly more than a half-million were filled by active apprentices in 2016. Filling millions more jobs through apprenticeships would require the government to massively ramp up its efforts. Scaling is the big issue, said Robert Lerman, a fellow at the Urban Institute. Another complication: Only about half of apprentices finish their multi-year programs, Lerman said. Fewer than 50,000 people including 11,104 in the military completed their apprenticeships in 2016, according to Labor Department. The president was attending a closed fundraiser for Walker later in the day. Wisconsin was a key part of his 2016 election triumph and Trump became the first Republican to carry the state in a presidential election since 1984. Trump also met on an airport tarmac in Milwaukee with four people he described as victims of President Barack Obamas health care law. Trump said the health care law was one of the greatest catastrophes that our country has signed into law and the victims are innocent hard-working Americans. He singled out Michael and Tammy Kushman of Marinette County, Wisconsin, and Robert and Sarah Stoll of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Miss Rodeo Texas Pageant continues more than five decades of tradition this week in San Antonio. Miss Rodeo America 2017 Lisa Lageschaar, who is also the reigning queen of Miss Rodeo Texas, will be along those in attendance of the pageant-filled week that started Monday and goes to Friday. The struggle for iconic San Antonio restaurants to stay afloat in a market where landlords, tax collectors and customers all want something more has hit a bittersweet crossroads. The 84-year-old landmark Earl Abels Restaurant is moving from the Austin Highway location its occupied since 2006. Thats half the story. The other half is that Earl Abels is moving into the The Pearl-area location of Timbos, which is closing Saturday after 10 years of burgers and Shypoke Eggs at 1639 Broadway. The tentative opening date is Oct. 1, said Earl Abels owner Roger Arias, with a soft opening around Sept. 15. Arias said he plans to keep the Austin Highway location open until Sept. 30. For Arias, the move comes as the restaurant is looking to downsize and streamline from its current 10,000-square-foot space and sprawling diner menu. The new location covers just 2,800 square feet, and Arias said the new menu will focus more narrowly on the most popular dishes, things like fried chicken, pies, burgers, chicken-fried steak, breakfast and a few comfort food staples. Earl Abels began as a diner on North Main Avenue in 1933, then branched into several locations and ultimately consolidated into one location in a circular building at Broadway and Hildebrand where it operated for 66 years until the Abel family sold the property to a developer who would later demolish the building to make way for The Broadway highrise condos. Determined to see the Earl Abels legacy live on, Arias bought the rights to the restaurant in 2006. He opened the Austin Highway location in June of that year just one month after the old location closed. Business ticked up steadily after opening Arias said, until 2011 when the shopping center that includes Earl Abels underwent a 20-month renovation that choked off traffic to the restaurant. Arias said business hasnt returned as strongly as hed hoped, and mounting property taxes on the restaurant and its adjacent special events room led to the decision to find a smaller space. But Arias sees the move not as a re-entrenchment but rather a reinvigoration of the concept. He plans to give the new space a contemporary look that moves away from diner hallmarks, and the restaurant will shift to the fast-casual model of ordering at the counter rather than traditional table service. The restaurant also will add organic greens and artisan bread to its sandwich lineup along with a full bar with Texas beers and cocktails inspired by classic Earl Abels recipes, Arias said. But as Earl Abels seeks to reinvent itself in Timbos spot on Broadway, Timbos owner Tim Lang is writing the last lines of another restaurant chapter. He worked for 27 years at Little Hipps on McCullough Avenue before it closed in 2002 after 40 years in business. Lang carried the Little Hipps torch to Spring Branch in 2003 when he opened Timbos. In 2007, he closed that site and moved to its current location on Broadway near The Pearl. Timbos was notified by landlord Harper Huddleston Inc. on March 31 that the restaurants lease was being terminated in 90 days. Saturday is the restaurants final day. Lang said he tried to work out a deal to stay, but in the end, it was time to go. He said he doesnt plan to relocate. Ive been working 80 hours a week for 10 years. Im tired, he said Wednesday. I just want to thank the people of San Antonio. Theyve been great customers. Right across the street from Timbos, the popular bar Stay Golden also is closing, with a final bash Friday. The location will be cleared for an office and retail tower from Pearl developer Silver Ventures. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The colors of the rainbow should never trump the red, white and blue, says a retired Navy SEAL and unflagging defender of the president. Frequent Fox News guest Carl Higbie ripped the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS on Twitter Tuesday over a gay pride flag display outside the Americas headquarters of RBS in Stamford, which the financial services giants share. The Greenwich native, who has attracted a national following with his pro vocative views and support of Donald Trump, posted a photo of the ubiquitous rainbow flag appearing to be flown slightly higher than the American flag for gay pride week. Higbie said thats not proper flag etiquette. Lower that flag below my American flag, Higbie told Hearst Connecticut Media. I would never fly a flag above the American flag. I think anybody who does is putting whatever that cause is above patriotism. RBS, now part of NatWest Markets, acknowledged the flap and said it was inadvertent. The height of the rainbow flag raised as the same height as the American flag was an oversight and in no way was it our intention to offend anyone in any way given the spirit of our message, said Kathleen Hanley, a spokeswoman for NatWest Markets. The height of all flags have now been rectified. At NatWest Markets we are committed to fostering an environment that celebrates our diversity and creates a culture of inclusion and respect. Raising the rainbow flag sends a strong message of support to our employees and the wider community which we care so much about. UBS declined to comment. Higbie took the photo from Interstate 95 from the opposite end of the 630,000-square-foot banking hub, prompting some critics to question the angle. Both flags appeared to be flying at the same height an hour later, in addition to the Connecticut state flag. All three flagpoles outside the 12-story complex are the same height. Drew Marzullo, a Democratic selectman from Greenwich who is exploring a run for lieutenant governor and is gay, said it was a likely misunderstanding of flag etiquette. The rainbow flag, which symbolizes support for the LBGT community, displayed is a beautiful thing and companies like RBS and UBS should be celebrated and not knocked or maligned for a probable unintentional oversight so easily corrected, Marzullo said, referring to reaction on social media to Higbies tweet. Happy Pride! The United States Flag Code stipulates that the flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs. Higbie, who served two tours of duty in Iraq, said he has nothing against gay pride. Im not telling them to take it down, Higbie said. It doesnt bother me. If you want to be gay and proud of it, I dont care. Just lower it one flag length, and Ill be happy. That goes for the Connecticut flag, too, not just the gay pride flag. The subject of a Washingtonian magazine report that he interviewed for White House Press Secretary Sean Spicers job, which was disputed by Trumps administration, Higbie has been a lightning rod. Last month, he told Katy Perry to go to hell during a Fox News appearance in which he slammed the pop starlets call for tolerance after the Manchester, England, terrorist attack. Higbie made headlines last fall, when he suggested that a Muslim registry would be constitutional and compared it to Japanese internment camps during World War II. nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436; twitter.com/gettinviggy STRATFORD Police have confirmed that the body recovered from the Housatonic River Wednesday afternoon was identified as Tavares Harris. Harris, 26, of Florida, jumped from the Washington Bridge into the Housatonic River Wednesday, June 7 around shortly after midnight. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Texas City Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Texas City Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Texas City police officers acted fast to rescue a woman whose car was submerged in Galveston Bay off the Texas City Dike on Tuesday night. At about 10:40 p.m. on June 13, police responded to a call for a vehicle that went off the road and landed upside down in the water in the 1000 block of Dike Road. St. Mark's Episcopal Church, The Islamic Institute of Houston, and St. Luke's Presbyterian Church will co-host an Iftar dinner in Hauser Hall on the St. Mark's campus, 3816 Bellaire Blvd., at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 22. An Iftar dinner is the evening meal when Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset. "We are co-hosting this dinner," said the rector of St. Mark's, the Rev. Patrick Miller, "to gain a better understanding of Islam and to share the common thread of hospitality found in Islam and Christianity. The evening will be filled with lively conversation, wonderful food, and an opportunity to connect with people of different faiths." During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset to purify the soul through self-examination. Ramadan encourages observers to share with those less fortunate the bounty they enjoy. Interfaith Iftar dinners have become more common in recent decades, but some authorities credit Thomas Jefferson with the first such White House observance in 1805, when dinner was postponed until sunset to accommodate an envoy from Tunis. The U.S. Department of State has held an annual Iftar dinner since 1996. This interfaith event is free to all, and all ages are welcome. To register, call Kim Thompson at the church office (713-664-3466). Childcare will be provided by reservation for children under age 4. To reserve childcare, contact Lynette Huron by June 15 (lynette.huron@stmarks-houston.org). Houston Community College (HCC) Brays Oaks Center will host a "Block Information Party" from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, at the HCC Brays Oaks Center at West Bellfort Avenue and Riceville School Road. As part of the open house, HCC Southwest Student Services will set up special admissions, advising, and financial aid areas to make it as easy as possible for students and the community to register for classes. The event will highlight all the services available at HCC Brays Oaks Center. Experts will be available to answer questions about new HCC classes and programs offered close to home. The event is an opportunity for participants to register early to avoid long lines, while having some fun thrown in for good measure. Participants can meet with representatives from numerous HCC programs, including health care, construction, business, and technology skills, as well as receive information about GED and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Surrounding businesses and community organizations also will be on hand to offer their services. There will be games, prizes, a gift card raffle during each hour of the event, music, and much more. Swoop, the HCC mascot, also will be there to take photos and dance with the crowd. The Kreole Soul Food Truck will provide a full menu for purchase and Southern Ice Cream will be providing free ice cream samples. Bee Busy Wellness Center is bringing a Mobile Unit to administer free HIV testing and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) counseling. Registration is now open for summer and fall classes. The second 8-week summer semester starts Monday, July 10. The deadline to register for summer classes is Sunday, July 9. Fall classes start Monday, August 28 and the deadline to register for fall classes is Sunday, Aug. 27. To sign up, go to: hccs.edu/apply. Thomas Xiong, a senior at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, has been selected as a gold medalist in the 15th annual USA Biology Olympiad (USABO). USABO's four-member 'Dream Team' will represent the United States as Team USA at the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) from July 23-30 in Coventry, United Kingdom. "I feel very honored," said Xiong after Team USA was announced. "There's a lot of responsibility and trust that's been put on my shoulders to represent the United States. This has been an amazing experience and I'm super-excited to go to IBO." Xiong was chosen from among 20 USABO National Finalists based on practical and theoretical tests that followed 10 days of intensive biology instruction at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. At Marymount, USABO finalists studied with leading U.S. experts in the fields of cellular and molecular biology, plant anatomy and physiology, animal anatomy and physiology, genetics and evolution, ecology, ethology, and biosystematics. Nearly 10,000 high school students from across the country registered for this year's USABO. The IBO is an annual competition for pre-university students, ages 14 to 19. All IBO participants place in the top four of their countries' National Biology Olympiad. Kathy Frame, CEE director of USABO and Special Projects, will accompany Team USA to the U.K. in July. All Team USA Members have medaled in the IBO since the United States first began competing in 2003, garnering a total of 42 gold, eight silver and two bronze medals. At IBO, Team USA has earned no less than two gold medals each year for 14 consecutive years, and has achieved the coveted world #1 ranking in 2011, 2013, and 2015. In addition to Xiong, Team USA 2017 Gold Medalists are: Edward Lee of Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA), Austin, Texas Alexander Tsao of Troy High School, Fullerton, California Catherine Wang of Lexington High School, Lexington, Massachusetts The mission of the USABO is to encourage excellence in biology education throughout the United States and to challenge students and their teachers to reach the gold standard in biology, said Frame. The 20 finalists-representing nine states-were selected based on their scores from the USABO Open and Semifinal Exams. USABO alumni have earned MacMillan Grants, Goldwater Scholarships, Hollings Scholarships (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), American Heart Association Undergraduate Fellowships, National Science Foundation Fellowships, The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, the Linen Prize in Chinese, and the Clara Levillain Prize. They have also been selected as Marshall Scholars and Churchill Scholars. The Center for Excellence in Education was founded in 1983 by the late Admiral H.G. Rickover and Joann P. DiGennaro, president of the Center. The center's mission is to nurture high school and university scholars to careers of excellence and leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and to encourage collaboration between and among leaders in the global community. CEE's programs include the Research Science Institute (RSI), the USA Biology Olympiad (USABO), and the Teacher Enrichment Program (TEP). Visit USA Biology Olympiad: http://www.cee.org/usa-biology-olympiad-usabo, Center for Excellence in Education: http://www.cee.org/, Marymount University: http://www.marymount.edu/ or International Biology Olympiad: http://ibo2017.org/ for more information. During Monday evening's Oak Ridge North City Council meeting, council members agreed to make their voices and the voices of ORN citizens heard during the special legislative session beginning on July 18. On June 6, Governor Greg Abbott called for a special session to address legislation not passed during the 85th legislature session. An allotted 30-day maximum is set for the special session. Council members agreed to write letters (or carpool to the state capital if needed), to oppose special session legislation which would affect the small city. Specifically, ORN council members showed concern for legislation that could take away local control, such as Texas Senate Bill 2, tree ordinances and a municipal annexation reform. In March, city council members approved a resolution opposing House Bill 15, which was created to act as a property tax reform. SB 2 is the doppelganger of ORN-opposed HB 15, placing a 5 percent tax cap increase on property taxes. SB would require an election to be held to determine whether to ratify the tax rate adopted from the previous year if local governments impose more than a 5 percent increase on property taxes. According to ORN's resolution opposing property tax caps, elections can cost upward of $10,000, adding to the requested fund amount. Additionally, elections are in May and November, but a May election would fall before tax rate calculations are released. Tax rates also are required to be secure by October, making a November election void. During the council meeting, Mayor Jim Kuykendall once again voiced his disapproval of state government overshadowing into city government. He said a bill like SB 2 could damage and bankrupt Texas' small cities, thus preventing cities from providing services to residents. "Big tax bases can do stuff like that (have a tax cap) because they have a million or hundreds of thousands of people to draw from-we do not," Kuykendall said. "That is going to hurt our city and all other (small) cities." City Manager Vicky Rudy echoed Kuykendall's sentiment, saying the government is "finding every kind of way to limit our revenue and limit our control." Other local regulations are being addressed in the special session, such as a proposed tree ordinance requiring a municipality to make it easier for property owners to remove trees if the removal is necessary for development or construction. Rudy said ORN's "beautiful tree canopy" could be at risk if municipalities were required to allow property owners to apply to plant a small tree to offset removal fines. Rudy addressed the municipal annexation reform during the council meeting, which would guarantee all citizens the right to vote on annexation. ORN is a general law city, therefore a petition is required prior to any annexation. However, Rudy said the issue is not with guaranteeing the right to vote, it is instead more about the state "misunderstanding" why a city would annex unincorporated surrounding areas. Although unincorporated areas receive services, such as police department, fire department and utilizing municipal roads, residents in those areas do not pay city taxes. "As cities, we're always concerned about local control," Rudy said in a phone interview. "When the state tries to make decisions across the board, as if it could apply in every situation ... as if one law could take care of the needs of every city, it is just impossible." Looking forward to the July 18 special session, Kuykendall said proposed bills take power from the city and local citizens and centralizes the government in the state. "(Abbott) has made a comment in the papers that he doesn't want Washington in his business, and I don't want the state in our business," Kuykendall said. "They do not know what the city of Oak Ridge North needs or wants." For the first time, conjoined twins Abby and Erin Delaney can sleep in separate beds. The 10-month-old girls from North Carolina were born connected at the head, an extremely rare condition. Following months of planning and preparation, the pair underwent a successful 11-hour separation surgery last week at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in southeastern Pennsylvania, according to the hospital. "Separating conjoined twins is a very complex surgery followed by a long and complicated recovery, but we are very hopeful for a positive outcome," Jesse Taylor, a plastic surgeon who co-led the operation with neurosurgeon Gregory Heuer, said Tuesday in a statement from the hospital. "Erin and Abby are now recovering in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit under close monitoring by our expert teams." With identical twins, an embryo splits in two early in a pregnancy; but with conjoined twins, the embryo does not separate all the way and the twins remain connected, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Conjoined twins are uncommon, occurring once in about every 200,000 births - and craniopagus twins, those who are connected at the head, are the rarest form, accounting for about 2 percent of conjoined twins, according to the medical center. The severity of the condition depends on how and where the conjoined twins are connected. One expert said that most craniopagus twins do not survive. Abby and Erin's parents, Riley and Heather Delaney, learned that their girls were conjoined early last year when Heather Delaney was about 11 weeks pregnant. Although it was too soon to know whether the twins would be able to be separated, Heather Delaney started traveling from North Carolina to Pennsylvania for her prenatal care. Eventually, she moved into a hospital facility in Philadelphia for mothers carrying babies with complex congenital conditions, according to the hospital. On July 24, 2016, Abby and Erin were delivered by C-section 10 weeks prematurely, each weighing about 2 pounds, the hospital said in a statement. Doctors there worked on a comprehensive plan to try to separate them. Alan R. Cohen, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said that he could not comment on the Delaneys' case specifically but that separating craniopagus twins "can be a high-risk surgery." Cohen said surgeries are done at major medical centers where teams of neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and critical-care physicians spend months studying patients' brain scans and, often, 3-D models "to try to find the safest way to make the disconnection." "Depending on where the heads are joined and how much they are fused, that determines the complexity of the operation," Cohen said. He added that "the most feared complication of the surgery is how to manage the shared blood vessels - particularly the veins that drain the brain - because usually one twin gets the good veins and the other doesn't." There are also ethical considerations with separation surgery, Cohen said. He said that the twins may not survive the intervention, or sometimes one twin survives and the other does not or is in poor neurological condition. He said "success" means the surgeons are able to separate the twins, but "in terms of the long-term prognosis, it's usually a long road ahead for the family and the medical team caring for them." The night before the Delaneys' surgery on June 6, someone posted on a Facebook page set up for the twins. "The girls have a big procedure tomorrow," the post read. "We ask for as many prayers as you can spare. It will be a long day for us." For days after, the messages asked others to "bear with us" and "keep praying for us." Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said about 30 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel worked to separate the twins - a first for the hospital. The hospital said it has separated 22 other pairs of conjoined twins over the past 60 years but never a pair of craniopagus twins. The surgery was meticulously orchestrated: Surgical equipment was color-coded with green and purple tape - one color assigned to each patient. The medical team worked essentially on one body - and then once the girls were separated - the team split to care for two. "During the separation surgery, our team first meticulously separated the infants' shared blood vessels and dura, the tough protective membrane surrounding both brains, then moved on to separate the sagittal sinus, the most difficult portion of the operation," Heuer, the neurosurgeon, said in the statement. "Finally, we divided our team into two halves, one for each of the girls, and finished the reconstruction portion of the surgery." The hospital said the twins will likely have additional surgeries but plans to send them home later this year. "When we go home, it's going to be a big party," Heather Delaney said in a statement from the hospital. "Welcome home, baby shower, first birthday." FAIRFIELD Police are investigating a report of a car stolen from a Southport business. A Massachusetts resident called to report the theft Tuesday. She said she was having car trouble and got permission from the owner of Southport Automotive, 3430 Post Road, to leave the car there to await a tow truck. She said she left the keys in the car for the tow truck, rented a car and started on her way back to Massachusetts. Iranian forces pointed a laser at an airborne Marine Corps helicopter on Tuesday in an encounter that involved three U.S. ships and was deemed "unsafe and unprofessional" by the Navy, U.S. military officials said. The incident occurred in the Strait of Hormuz, a heavily trafficked waterway off Iran's southern coast that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and the dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers were maneuvering through the strait when an Iranian vessel pulled alongside the U.S. ships, shining a spotlight on the Cole and then training a laser on a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter flown by Marines from the Bataan, said Navy Cmdr. Bill Urban, a U.S. military spokesman. "The Iranian vessel then proceeded to turn its spotlight on Bataan, scanning the ship from bow to stern and stern to bow before heading outbound from the formation," Urban said in a statement. "During the interaction, the Iranian vessel came within 800 yards of Bataan." Navy Forces Central Command, which oversees U.S. naval operations in the region, said the shining of the laser at the helicopter is what made them consider the incident unsafe and unprofessional. "Illuminating helicopters with lasers at night is dangerous as it creates a navigational hazard that can impair vision and can be disorienting to pilots using night vision goggles," Urban said. The incident was first reported by CBS News, which said two other incidents considered unsafe by U.S. military officials have occurred since March. In one, the USNS Invincible, a ship equipped with sonar and radar, was forced to change course to avoid Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast boats that cut in front of the ship. Two days earlier in March, an Iranian frigate came within 150 yards of the Invincible in the Gulf of Oman. In the most serious incident this year, Navy officials reported in January that the destroyer USS Mahan opened fire with warning shots from a .50-caliber machine gun in the Strait of Hormuz after four Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps patrol boats performed "harassing" maneuvers. One of the patrol boats traveled within 900 yards of the Mahan with a sailor manning its main gun, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said at the time. The Mahan was traveling in formation at the time with two other U.S. vessels, the amphibious craft USS Makin Island and the oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl, Davis said. The January incident marked a return to volatile interactions after relative calm in the second half of 2016. Davis said the Navy counted 23 interactions in 2015 and 35 in 2016 that were considered "unsafe and unprofessional." The 2016 events all occurred in the first half of the year. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Some students know where they want to attend college from the first day of high school, planning every move and making precise decisions to ensure their future. However, there are other students who may not decide to attend college until after graduation or may not choose to attend college at all. Those who make the last-minute decision to enroll at a university must take a placement exam. Associate Professor of Mathematics at Lone Star College-Montgomery Tarcia Hubert said these students often "go in blind," unprepared for the various subjects covered on the test. When she was an educator at Austin Community College, Hubert witnessed students, specifically minority students, struggling in developmental Making Awesome Things Happen courses, which do not count toward college credit hours. "The biggest issue I found was minorities placing in developmental M.A.T.H. courses," Hubert said. "As I started teaching those (developmental M.A.T.H.) courses, I saw a lack of basic math skills, things that should have been developed in K-12." That is where M.A.T.H. came into play. As executive director of M.A.T.H., Hubert focuses on pushing minorities to have more interest in science, technology, engineering and math professions. "The goal is to take low-income students in poverty situations who don't know what they want to do in life and bring them to campuses show them different careers," Hubert said. "There's a variety of different things to choose from that will take two years to complete, and then they can get a decent job and a decent salary to try and change their socioeconomic status." M.A.T.H. has been offering camps for elementary and middle school students in the Austin and Waco area since its inception in 2010. The students who attend M.A.T.H. camps end up "loving it" once they see the cultural relevance of it, Hubert said. By incorporating culturally relevant and familiar aspects into learning math, such as music, magazines or cooking, for example, Hubert has found that students' attitudes toward math change. But now, for the first time, M.A.T.H. will offer a two-week summer institute for 30 Conroe Independent School District juniors and seniors. M.A.T.H. and Minorities in STEM Summer Institute, or M&M, will give local high school students the opportunity to witness STEM-related careers and programs. Some LSC-Montgomery STEM opportunities include the biotechnology, radiology and nursing programs, which will be showcased to M&M participates to encourage STEM interest. The summer institute is free for students who get free or reduced lunch. Additionally, all students will be helped to develop their math skills over the two-week course in preparation of the college placement exam, Texas Success Initiative Assessment. Participants will take the TSI for free at the end of the program, which will make them eligible to attend college in the fall. "One of the things I'm hoping will inspire them is to bring in guest speakers with STEM-related careers to expose them to role models who look like them," Hubert said. "That, combined with them touring the different programs, increases the student's desire to go into a STEM field and make a difference." Making Awesome Things Happen M&M in STEM will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, July 24, thru Thursday, Aug. 3, on the Lone Star College-Montgomery campus, located at 3200 College Park Drive. Deadline to fill out an application is June 30. To fill out an application, visit www.makingawesomethingshappen.org. WASHINGTON - The armed North Carolina man who commandeered a pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington apologized to his victims and residents in the nation's capital Tuesday in a letter to a federal judge seeking leniency at his June 22 sentencing. Writing in his own hand, Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, said he was "truly sorry for endangering the safety of any and all bystanders who were present that day. Unfortunately, I cannot change what I did, but I think I owe it to the families and the community to apologize for my mistakes." Federal prosecutors countered in their own memo to the judge that it was "entirely the product of good luck" that no one was shot when Welch entered Comet Pizza carrying a fully loaded AR-15 military style rifle and revolver seeking to investigate a viral Internet rumor known as "Pizzagate." False stories propagated am unfounded conspiracy theory that linked Hillary Clinton to an alleged child-sex-trafficking ring run from the family restaurant, where Clinton's presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta, occasionally dined. Welch pleaded guilty in March to a District assault and a federal firearms charge in the Dec. 4 incident, which drew national headlines and lured other gawkers to the commercial block where the restaurant is located. In court filings, assistant federal defender Dani Jahn asked for an 18-month prison sentence for Welch, saying Welch "does not seek to minimize the impact his reckless and frightening actions had on those who encountered him . . . Rather, Mr. Welch is hopeful that those victimized by his actions can forgive him." Welch, whose neat cursive handwriting on ruled paper was excerpted and cited by his lawyer, said he "came to D.C. with the intent of helping people," and to relieve suffering, "especially the suffering of a child." He expressed "sincere regret for any emotional trauma I might have caused, especially to the families who were present." Welch added, "It was never my intention to harm or frighten innocent lives, but I realize now just how foolish and reckless my decision was." U.S. prosecutors called for a 4-1/2 year prison term, urging U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to send a strong message to deter those who would commit violence based solely on "malicious and misguided" Internet rumors. Welch "was lucid, deadly serious, and very aware" that he would end up dead or in jail, prosecutors wrote, on the drive from his home in Salisbury, N.C., in a Toyota Prius. "Beyond Pizzagate, the Internet is full of wild conspiracy theories where people urge members of the public . . . to take action," wrote assistant U.S. attorneys Demian Ahn and Sonali Patel. "A significant sentence is required to deter other people from pursuing vigilante justice based only on their YouTube feed," prosecutors wrote. "The fact that no one was shot was entirely the product of good luck . . ." Both sides filed unusually lengthy and detailed sentencing documents, which included Welch's letter for the defense. Prosecutors included transcripts of interviews with several witnesses with whom Welch communicated, online files he downloaded, wrenching victim impact statements and additional disturbing threats made by people fixated on fake news accounts. Prosecutors included the arrest warrant of a Shreveport, La., man, Yusif Jones, who pleaded guilty to telephoning a copycat threat to nearby pizza shop on Dec. 7, saying, "I'm coming to finish what the other guy didn't. I'm coming there to save the kids, and then I'm going to shoot you and everyone in the place," according to court charging documents. Welch "traumatized the employees and customers at the restaurant, and his crimes affected an entire community, leaving many people feeling threatened," prosecutors wrote. The defendant "made clear that he had no respect for the public institutions of the District of Columbia, telling detectives that everyone in D.C. is 'crooked,'" and did not trust the FBI to investigate the truth, prosecutors wrote. In plea papers, Welch, a father to two young girls, acknowledged he had become agitated by reports and videos he read and saw online about the supposed sex ring. "Raiding a pedo ring, possible [sic] sacrificing the lives of a few for the lives of many," Welch wrote in one text messages in an unsuccessful effort to recruit friends for what he believed would be a violent confrontation, authorities said. "Standing up against a corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes babies and children in our own back yard," he wrote in another exchange. Shortly before 3 p.m. Dec. 4, Welch parked and left a loaded 12-gauge shotgun and box of shells in the car, then walked into the restaurant carrying a loaded, six-shot revolver on his hip, and holding the 9mm long rifle with about 29 rounds of ammunition across his chest. After a panicky evacuation by workers and customers, including children, Welch fired the rifle multiple times at a locked closet door, striking computer equipment inside, court documents said. He also pointed the rifle toward an unwitting employee retrieving pizza dough who entered at the back of the restaurant, then immediately turned and ran for his life, according to the government's evidence signed off on by Welch. Welch ultimately did not shoot anyone and surrendered after he found no evidence of hidden rooms or sex trafficking. Friends and family members had said they thought Welch was on a mission to save children, not to hurt anybody. Welch agreed to forfeit the rifle, revolver, a shotgun and ammunition he carried with him that day and to pay restitution of $5,744.33 to the restaurant for damaged computer systems, a door, lock and ping-pong table. In March, conservative radio host and Infowars website operator Alex Jones apologized for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy. Jones posted a six-minute video on his website in which he read a prepared statement stating that neither the restaurant nor its owner, James Alefantis, had anything to do with human trafficking. The statement came after Alefantis's attorneys had requested a retraction. The Michigan attorney general's office on Wednesday charged the director of the state's health department and four other public officials with involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the Flint water crisis, which has stretched into its third year. Nick Lyon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, also faces a felony count of misconduct in office. While much of the attention in Flint has focused on the lead-tainted water that exposed thousands of young children to potential long-term health risks, the crisis also has been linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that contributed to at least a dozen deaths. Those cases ultimately led to the charges Wednesday for Lyon, as well as for the state's chief medical executive, Eden Wells, who faces charges of obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer but is not accused of manslaughter. Attorney General Bill Schuette also charged four other state and city officials, who already were facing various criminal accusations, with involuntary manslaughter: Stephen Busch, a water supervisor for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; Darnell Earley, who had been a state-appointed emergency manager for Flint; Howard Croft, former director of the city's public works department; and Liane Shekter-Smith, who served as chief of the state's Office of Drinking Water. Lyon was aware of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak by early 2015 but "did not notify the public until a year later," according to charging documents filed in court and reviewed by the Detroit Free Press. According to the documents, he "willfully disregarded the deadly nature of the Legionnaires' disease outbreak," later saying "[we] can't save everyone," and "everyone has to die of something." The attorney general's office alleges that Lyon was personally briefed on the situation in Genesee County, where figures showed the number of Legionnaire's cases was more than three times the annual average. Lyon allegedly also refused an early offer of help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and hindered scientists from researching whether the spike in Legionnaires' cases was linked to the city's switch to water from the Flint River. Those failures, investigators claim, led to the 2015 death of Robert Skidmore, an 85-year-old man who was treated at McLaren Flint hospital. Investigators separately accused Wells of threatening to hold back funding for the Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership if the organization did not stop looking for the source of the outbreak. She also was charged with lying to an officer about when she became aware of the sharp increase in Legionnaires' cases. "We absolutely, vehemently dispute the charges. They are baseless," Lyon's attorney, Chip Chamberlain, said Wednesday. "We intend to provide a vigorous defense of Mr. Lyon. We expect the justice system to vindicate him entirely." In a statement, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) also defended Lyon and Wells, saying they have his full confidence and would remain employed at the health department. "Nick Lyon has been a strong leader at the Department of Health and Human Services for the past several years and remains completely committed to Flint's recovery," Snyder said. "Director Lyon and Dr. Eden Wells, like every other person who has been charged with a crime by Bill Schuette, are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Some state employees were charged over a year ago and have been suspended from work since that time. They still have not had their day in court. That is not justice for Flint nor for those who have been charged." Schuette on Wednesday addressed the pressure he has gotten to charge Snyder, who has heard repeated calls to resign for his appointment of emergency mangers in Flint and the state's delayed and inadequate response there. "We only file criminal charges when evidence of probable cause to commit a crime has been established," Schuette said. He later revealed that investigators have been unable to speak with Snyder about his role in the catastrophe. "We attempted to interview the governor. We were not successful," he said. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint doctor who went public with test results showing the spike in high blood-lead levels in the city's children, said Wednesday that, regardless of the charges, Wells was instrumental in getting top state officials to acknowledge the growing disaster after they initially dismissed its seriousness. "I do want to remind everyone that after my research went public, and the state went after me, Dr. Wells was critical in getting her colleagues in the Snyder administration to finally understand and respond to the gravity of the crisis," Hanna-Attisha said. But, she added, "restorative justice and accountability are critical to the journey toward healing Flint." For decades, Flint paid Detroit to have its water piped in from Lake Huron, with anti-corrosion chemicals added along the way. But in early 2014, with the city under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, officials switched to Flint River water in an ill-fated effort to save money. State officials failed to ensure proper corrosion-control treatment of the new water source. That failure allowed rust, iron and lead to leach from aging pipes and wind up in residents' homes. The ensuing catastrophe exposed thousands of children to high levels of lead, which can cause long-term physical damage and mental impairment. Since a task force began probing the debacle in early 2016, Schuette has filed more than 50 criminal charges against 15 state and local officials - many of whom now face multiple felonies - as well as civil suits against outside companies that worked with the Flint water system. He and his team have insisted they will continue to follow where the evidence leads. Former Wayne County prosecutor Todd Flood, who is helping lead the Flint investigation, said the latest charges reflect a "willful disregard of duty" on the part of numerous public servants. He said that while he hopes the charges bring accountability and a sense of justice to Flint residents, there was little cause for celebration. "There are no winners here," he said. "We cannot bring back Mr. Skidmore. We can't bring back the lost loved ones that died from legionella. I wish we could turn back the hands of time, but we can't." - - - Video: Take a look at the key moments that led up to Flint, a city of 90,000, getting stuck with contaminated water. URL: http://wapo.st/1lwBepz Embed code: BEIRUT - Airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition have caused a "staggering" loss of civilian life in recent months around the Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, a United Nations investigative body said Wednesday. A U.S.-backed ground force entered the city with the help of coalition air raids last week, three years after the area became a hub from which Islamic State leaders planned expansion throughout the region and attacks around the world. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said Wednesday that coalition airstrikes have deepened the suffering in the city held by extremist fighters. "We note in particular that the intensification of airstrikes, which have paved the ground for an SDF advance in Raqqa, has resulted not only in staggering loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced," Pinheiro told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. He referred to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed militia dominated by Syrian Kurds. The commission recorded 300 civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes in Raqqa province between March 1 and May 31, according to Karen AbuZayd, an investigator for the Commission of Inquiry on Syria. Human rights and monitoring groups have warned for months of the rising human cost of the coalition's air war in Syria and Iraq as Islamic State forces stake out positions in densely populated civilian areas across what remains of the group's self-proclaimed caliphate. On March 22, the U.N. commission recorded 200 civilian deaths at an old school building in the village of Mansoura that was sheltering displaced families from across the province. "These figures have been corroborated by multiple witnesses," AbuZayd said. The U.S. military said at the time that it was aware of the reports and was opening an investigation. The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which monitors violence in the province, provided The Washington Post with the names of 40 people who it said were killed at the school in Mansoura. A representative from the group said the bodies of dozens more people without identification cards were believed to have been buried in mass graves. The U.N. refugee agency made a public plea this week for better access to the province, where tens of thousands of civilians need assistance amid the fighting. The U.S.-led coalition includes military personnel from dozens of countries, among them Britain, France and Australia. According to its latest report, at least 484 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition airstrikes since June 2014. But the Britain-based tracking group Airwars puts that figure eight times higher, claiming that more than 3,800 people were killed in that period. Although the nonprofit group previously tracked casualties from both U.S.-led and Russian strikes, it said it now is concentrating resources on claims relating to the U.S.-led coalition to keep up with their pace. Fatalities from coalition bombing raids now outstrip those caused by Moscow's warplanes, according to Airwars. The U.S. military said Tuesday that it has added five full-time members to a team that monitors civilian casualty claims. The team previously consisted of two full-time and two part-time personnel. Army Col. Ryan Dillon said that aviation, intelligence and legal experts were added to help boost the team's response time on civilian casualty reports. At the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday, Pinheiro warned that the fight against Islamic State forces must not be undertaken at the "expense of civilians who unwittingly find themselves living in areas" where the group is present. On its face, the idea seemed as startling as it was preposterous: A president firing a special counsel appointed to investigate his campaign's possible role in Russia's interference with the 2016 U.S. election. But this president is Donald Trump, who speculates about firing people as sport and who dispatched two key officials connected to the probe of Russia's election meddling during his first five months in office. To some of Trump's most loyal allies, terminating Robert Mueller III as special counsel of the expanding Russia investigation is a tantalizing idea - one that has gained currency on the right and, according to one of Trump's friends, has been considered by the president himself. After Christopher Ruddy, a Trump friend and president of the conservative media outlet Newsmax, said on PBS's "News Hour" Monday night, after visiting the White House, that the president was "weighing" firing Mueller, official Washington on Tuesday sounded a collective and resounding call: Do not do it. "I think the best thing to do is to let Robert Mueller do his job," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said. "I think the best vindication for the president is to let this investigation go on independently." Ryan went on to say that the discussion about a possible firing amounted to a mere "rumor." White House press secretary Sean Spicer sought to undermine Ruddy's credibility by pointing out that Ruddy had not met directly with the president during his Monday visit. "Chris Ruddy speaks for himself," Spicer said. Trump has been counseled strongly against trying to remove Mueller and appears unlikely to take such a drastic step, according to White House officials and other people close to the president. But neither Spicer nor other Trump aides would explicitly dispute Ruddy's assertion that the president has considered firing Mueller. "While the president has a right to, he has no intention to do so," principal deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night. All day, Trump repeatedly declined to put the issue to rest. Reporters asked Trump four times during a health-care meeting at the White House whether Mueller should be fired, and the president gave no answer. They asked again as he walked across the South Lawn to board the Marine One helicopter, and again he gave no answer. Reporters asked once more as Trump stepped off Air Force One in Milwaukee, and once more he had no answer. "If Trump fired Mueller, it would be an act of uber hubris never seen before in American history," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. "It would pale, compared to what Nixon did with the firing of Archibald Cox. . . . We would be in a constitutional crisis." Brinkley was referring to the "Saturday Night Massacre" of 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon sought to order his attorney general to fire Cox, who had been serving as the independent special prosecutor overseeing the Watergate investigation. How or even whether Trump could fire Mueller was the subject of debate among legal and political experts on Tuesday. Trump last month fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been overseeing the Russia probe before the appointment of a special counsel. Earlier in his term, Trump fired acting attorney General Sally Yates after she warned the administration that national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled the White House about his contacts with Russian officials. But the termination of the special counsel would be more complicated. It ordinarily would fall to the attorney general, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from Russia matters after he was found to have misled the Senate during his confirmation hearing about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Thus the decision to fire Mueller would fall to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller to the job last month. In a Tuesday appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rosenstein described Mueller as operating independently from the Justice Department in his investigation and said that if Trump ordered him to fire Mueller, he would comply only if the request were "lawful and appropriate." "I'm not going to follow any orders unless I believe those are lawful and appropriate orders," Rosenstein said. He added later: "As long as I'm in this position, he's not going to be fired without good cause," which he said he would have to put in writing. "If there were good cause, I would consider it," Rosenstein testified. "If there were not good cause, it wouldn't matter to me what anybody says." Later Tuesday, Sessions appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked the attorney general whether he has confidence in Mueller. "I have known Mr. Mueller over the years," Sessions said. "He served 12 years as FBI director. I knew him before that. And I have confidence in Mr. Mueller." But, Sessions added, "I am not going to discuss any hypotheticals or what might be a factual situation in the future that I'm not aware of today, because I know nothing about the investigation and fully recuse myself." When Warner asked whether Sessions believed Trump had confidence in Mueller, the attorney general said: "I have no idea. I've not talked to him about it." The notion of dismissing Mueller has been bubbling on the political right in recent days, as Trump supporters grow weary of an expanding investigation that the president considers to be an illegitimate political "witch hunt." Ruddy's PBS interview came a day after Jay Sekulow, a prominent conservative attorney who has been informally advising Trump, left open the possibility that Trump could decide to remove Mueller, in a Sunday interview on ABC News's "This Week." Asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos whether Trump would promise not to attempt at any time to order Rosenstein to fire Mueller, Sekulow said, "Look, the president of the United States, as we all know, is a unitary executive." Sekulow added that "the president has authority to take action. Whether he would do it is ultimately a decision the president makes. I think that's complete conjecture and speculation." Ruddy said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday that he based his comments to PBS largely on Sekulow's statement. "I think it's a smart thing to have it as an option," Ruddy said of firing Mueller, though he added, "I personally don't think it's a wise thing to do." Ruddy said White House aides became agitated with his comments to PBS and said Spicer sought his help Monday night with damage control as news organizations cited Ruddy's statement in reporting that the president was considering firing Mueller. "Sean called me last night and asked me to qualify what I was saying, that I did not speak to the president," Ruddy said. "I said, 'I never claimed I spoke to the president, so why would I issue a statement saying I didn't speak to the president?' " Ruddy added: "It's amateur hour over there. . . . It's amazing to me that the White House press office has done such a poor job exposing the special counsel and defending the president." This is not the first time Ruddy has wreaked havoc for the West Wing with his suggestions about who may be in Trump's crosshairs. In February, after having a drink with the president at Mar-a-Lago - Trump's private resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where Ruddy is a member - Ruddy told The Post and other news organizations that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus was "in way over his head." Plenty of other Trump supporters on the outside have been stoking a "Fire Mueller" campaign. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich tweeted Monday that it was "time to rethink" the special counsel's investigation, while talk radio hosts including Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have endorsed the idea of Trump dismissing him. Roger Stone, a former Trump consigliere and political adviser, tweeted Tuesday: "Mueller is a establishment neocon ringer and Comey crony - and the fix is in to falsely indict @realDonaldTrump for obstruction." Democrats on Tuesday called for an end to the right-wing trash talk about Mueller and said the special counsel must be left alone to pursue his investigation. "The effort to suppress it, to smear Mueller, to call it a 'witch hunt,' is part of a calculated and orchestrated effort, in my view, to undermine justice and the credibility of this investigation," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said it seemed ridiculous that Trump would seriously consider ordering Mueller's removal. "I have to think this is just the president venting," said Schiff, also on "Morning Joe." "But then again, I remember talking about whether I thought there was any chance that the president would fire Comey, and that didn't seem possible, either." --- The Washington Post's Sari Horwitz and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report. Parents hoping to give their children the best education from an early age are best off doing so in the North Side, according to a recent ranking of San Antonio's elementary schools. Roan Forest Elementary School took the top spot in the ranking from Children at Risk, followed by Hardy Oak and Vineyard Ranch elementary schools, all located in North East ISD. Schools in the NEISD and Northside ISD accounted for 15 of the top 20 schools listed. midlandtexas.gov The city of Midland has confirmed that the Texas Rangers are investigating its interim fire chief. City spokeswoman Sara Bustilloz said Wednesday that in late May the city was made aware of an allegation concerning interim Chief Chip Balzer. She said the allegations were immediately turned over to the Texas Rangers for an independent investigation. Despite the cries of her two infant daughters left in a vehicle outside a friends home in Kerrville last week, authorities say Amanda Hawkins wouldnt bring them into the house where she stayed overnight. Theyll cry themselves to sleep, she told one person who expressed concern during the 15 hours that Brynn Hawkins, 1, and Addyson Overgard-Eddy, 2, spent in a parked SUV, Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said Tuesday. He also revealed that a second person at the residence slept in the vehicle with Hawkins children from about 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. last Wednesday morning before going back inside. It was roughly four hours later, as the outdoor temperature climbed into the mid-80s, that the children were discovered unconscious in the vehicle and attempts were made to revive them. Hawkins, 19, bathed them before seeking professional help at Peterson Regional Medical Center in Kerrville about 1 p.m. Wednesday, Hierholzer said. Accompanied by a 16-year-old boy whose relationship to the mother wasnt named she initially claimed to hospital staffers that the girls had collapsed while on an outing at a local park, authorities say. The children, described as being in grave condition, were transferred to University Hospital in San Antonio, where they died about 5 p.m. Thursday. A spokesman at the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office said it could be two to three months before the cause and manner of their deaths is released publicly. Hawkins, who was arrested in San Antonio on two charges of child endangerment and held there under $70,000 bail, was transferred to the Kerr County Jail on Monday, Hierholzer said. He said it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether the charges against Hawkins would be upgraded due to her kids deaths, or if anyone else will be charged in the case. District Attorney Lucy Wilke said Tuesday that she met Monday to review the case with investigators from the sheriffs department, but that no charging decisions will be made until the investigation concludes. Hierholzer said a witness at the house where Hawkins spent the night last Tuesday expressed concern about the children outside. Evidently he could hear the babies crying and he said, Why dont you bring them in? and she said, No, theyll cry themselves to sleep. He said another person at the house joined the kids in the car for about three hours early the next morning. Isaac Hawkins, the father of Brynn Hawkins, is separated from Amanda Hawkins and was not present at the home, Hierholzer said. Neither he nor Austin J. Overgard, the father of Addyson R. Overgard-Eddy, could be reached for comment. zeke@express-news.net A man was hospitalized in serious condition late Tuesday after he was struck by a driver while walking across an East Side street where there was no crosswalk. Officers responded to the accident around 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of South New Braunfels Avenue and Denver Boulevard. SAN ANTONIO Police arrested a 19-year-old man Tuesday for allegedly shooting his roommate and stealing items from him in an altercation outside an apartment complex, according to court documents. Gabriel Lupio Rodriguez was charged with a first-degree felony count of aggravated robbery and a Class B misdemeanor for possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces. RELATED: Mugshot: Teen mom accused of leaving children to die in vehicle transferred to Kerr County The incident occurred April 25 in the 1800 block of Bandera Road, where police found the 22-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to the hip. Police say Rodriguez told the victim to empty his pockets while pointing a handgun at him while they were inside a car. The victim got out and tried to flee, but Rodriguez allegedly shot him, according to the arrest affidavit. The victim fell to the ground and Rodriguez exited the car, going toward the victim and pushing him to the ground. Rodriguez then allegedly took the victims cellphone and fired another shot at him, but missed, the affidavit said. The victim later told police he knew who the suspect was and that he had known him since 2010. The two men had lived together for a year as roommates, according to the document. RELATED: Pedestrian hospitalized in serious condition after driver strikes him on East Side street Its unclear from the affidavit if the suspect and victim were recently living together. If convicted, Rodriguez faces five to 99 years or life in prison for the felony charge. Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com twhite@mysa.com Twitter: @tylerlwhite I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris, President Donald Trump bragged as he announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord a plan meant to fight climate change. How sadly ironic. He was boasting about representing people in one of the most polluted cities in the country. As Trump moves to reverse plans to curb global warming and reduce air pollution, such as lifting a moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands and rolling back fuel economy standards for cars, a troubling and deadly history threatens to repeat itself in some of the very states that voted him into office, like Pennsylvania and Texas. Long considered a proud member of coal country, with five coal-fired plants nearby, the Pittsburgh area has consistently been rated as one of the top 10 U.S. cities with the dirtiest air, according to the American Lung Associations 2017 State of the Air report. Pennsylvania has gravitated away from coal and toward natural gas, a cheaper and more abundant fuel source, but the air is still dangerous. And as history shows, under the right weather conditions, polluted air can turn deadly. On Oct. 27, 1948, the mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania, sat under an anticyclone a temperature inversion of high atmospheric pressure, sealing a lid over the town and trapping the pollution from a nearby zinc plant and steel smelting plant. Donoras toxic smog lasted for five days, killed 20 people and sickened thousands. But this was not a lone event. Four years later, there was another devastating smog, this time in London. Some may remember it from an episode of the Netflix series The Crown. As many as 12,000 people died from the choking five-day toxic fog, also caused by coal, as well as diesel pollution from Londons vaunted double-decker bus fleet. Millions more suffered from respiratory issues that shortened their lives. The Great Smog of 1952 was the worlds deadliest air pollution disaster a human-made catastrophe that has never been surpassed. The world has since made tremendous progress in how we generate energy, and the air is much cleaner thanks in no small part to the air-quality laws passed in the United Kingdom in 1956 and the United States in 1970 both in direct response to those disasters. But America is now at risk of backsliding. This year, Pittsburghs county, Allegheny, received a failing grade from the American Lung Association for air quality. Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and El Paso were in the top 20 cities with the highest levels of ozone. Texas and Pennsylvania arent the only states in danger. Coal mining hubs in Kentucky and West Virginia topped the list for worst air quality. Those states also voted overwhelmingly for Trump. But even blue states such as California arent immune. Almost 40 percent of the nation lives in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, deadly poisons that can shorten lives. When Trump loosens energy regulations, air quality will only worsen and major cities like Houston, Dallas and Pittsburgh are at risk. Lifting regulations on fossil fuel production and rolling back vehicle emission standards will contribute to poor health, even premature deaths. And Trump will likely eliminate the Environmental Protection Agencys enforcement branch. Trumps decisions about the environment endanger our health. Americans must elect state legislators who will refuse to cut funds to agencies that protect environmental quality something that happened in Texas in April. Voters must support the almost 200 mayors who pledged to honor the Paris agreement. And Americans have to hold federal lawmakers accountable during next years midterm elections. The lessons of Londons Great Smog of 1952 and Donora, Pennsylvania, should not be forgotten. Pollution threatens our air and our lives. Kate Winkler Dawson is a senior lecturer of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Her forthcoming book, Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City, is due out Oct. 17. Never before has, or presumably again will, a former FBI director say such harsh things about a sitting president of the United States. In his much-anticipated congressional testimony, James Comey called President Donald Trump a liar who fired him over the Russian investigation. In any other context, involving any other president, Comeys words would be very damaging, perhaps to the point of debilitating. But his appearance had been billed as Watergate and the Clinton impeachment rolled into one, another step toward Trump getting permanently helicoptered out of the White House in a Nixonian tableau, and by this standard, his testimony didnt deliver. Comey doesnt have Trump nailed for high crimes and misdemeanors so much as amateurish and ham-handed scheming, which is not an impeachable offense. The Comey-Trump relationship is a tale of a bureaucratically agile and self-serving careerist matched against an institutionally ignorant and self-serving outsider. One was careful, memorializing every conversation and calculating his every move; the other was blundering around in the dark and eventually blew the whole thing up. The narrative that Democrats want to believe is that Trump is in so deep with the Russians that he took the incredible risk of firing his FBI director to cover his tracks. The picture presented by Comey is instead of a president driven mad by the investigation, in particular by his inability to get the FBI director to say publicly that he isnt under investigation when, in fact, he wasnt under investigation. Trump became desperate to get this fact out in the public and badgered Comey about it, to no avail. Even though Comey talks a lot. He said during last years campaign that the Hillary Clinton investigation was closed, opened and closed again. A couple of months ago, he told a congressional committee that a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign was ongoing. Besides telling Trump he wasnt under investigation, Comey had briefed congressional leaders, telling them the same thing. It wasnt crazy for Trump to wonder why, with so much blabbing, Comey couldnt simply let this be known? Especially with half the political universe believing that the authorities were rapidly closing in on Trump. Comeys own account undercuts the idea that Trump wanted to shutter the Russia investigation more broadly. In his written statement to the committee, Comey says that in one phone conversation, Trump said that if there were some satellite associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out. In other words: Have at it with Manafort, Page and Stone, et al. This doesnt sound like obstruction of justice. Which is not to say there isnt plenty else that is damning. Comey makes it clear, if any doubt remained, that the memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein cataloging Comeys mishandling of the Clinton case prior to his firing was always a ridiculous smokescreen. As for Trumps request that Comey not pursue a case against Michael Flynn, this wasnt illegal. Trump expressed a hope and an opinion (Flynn had already been punished enough), and didnt issue an order to drop the case. Even if he had, it would only be obstruction if he had corrupt intent, for which there is no evidence. Still, this conversation was foolhardy and inappropriate. Finally, in no universe is it OK for a president to demand loyalty of his FBI director, as Comey alleges Trump did during their one-on-one dinner at the White House (Trumps lawyer disputes this). No doubt, if a Democratic president had behaved this way, Republicans would be going bonkers. The Comey testimony was, at the very least, a stinging portrayal of a president who doesnt understand or evidently much care how our government is supposed to work. But that falls short of what Democrats, in their current fevered state, hyped this into. They hoped and expected to get a swift hanging. Comey landed blows, but the political and legal fight goes on. comments.lowry@nationalreview.com Re: Are conservatives incapable of revulsion? Michael Gerson, Other Views, May 31: When David Brooks spoke at Trinity University recently, I went to the microphone to ask a question and mentioned that Mr. Brooks is the only conservative I respect. It is now time to add Mr. Gerson to this list. He asks whether conservatives are incapable of revulsion. Some are capable, such as Mr. Brooks, Mr. Gerson himself, John McCain and George F. Will, among others, but most of them seem to care only about getting publicity, making money or getting re-elected. I have begun to wonder what conservative really means. It should presumably be someone who wants to preserve things. A good example would be Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican president who started the national park system. Now, President Donald Trump and many members of Congress have no interest in conserving anything only short-term profit. Trump recently canceled Obama-era rules preventing the dumping of mining waste into streams, claiming this would bring back coal jobs. This will not happen coal cannot compete with fracked oil and gas. The coal companies will make more money sickened people will pay the price. Of course, so-called conservatives do worse than that. Some of them make up lies and publicize them, such as those claims that President Barack Obama was a Muslim not born in the United States. I recently learned from the CBS show 60 Minutes of a smear campaign against the founder and CEO of Chobani Yogurt, Hamdi Ulukaya, a Kurdish immigrant. Mr. Ulukaya, who came here to learn English, became a billionaire philanthropist who gave jobs to thousands of people refugees as well as Americans. In my naivete, I would have assumed that such job creation would have won him praise. In fact, right-wing radio host Alex Jones accused him of importing migrant rapists, without any evidence. Mr. Ulukaya sued him and won. Something the Founding Fathers knew but we seemed to have forgotten: With freedom comes responsibility. Thomas L. Arnow has a bachelors degree in chemistry, a masters degree in computer science from UTSA, and a masters and doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. London suffered another tragedy, and the leader of our country chooses to quote the mayor (out of context) who was telling his city not to be alarmed about more police presence on the streets. In a push for his ban of Muslims, President Donald Trump implied that the mayor is soft on terrorism. What a lack of class and what a time to be vindictive of a person who didnt support you, Trump. Yet, no matter what Trump does, his supporters find no wrong in anything. I read letters to the editor criticizing those who dont condone his many unscrupulous actions, demanding we respect the president, no matter what he says or does. My military experience taught me to salute, respect the rank and follow orders, not to necessarily respect the person in command. Respect, even in the military, is earned! Ive always respected the presidency, and always will; but respect for this president? For the sake of our country, I wish him well, and for those who continue to follow him, God bless you, as well. As for me, he has not yet earned my respect. J.J. Torres An ocean of love Its been some time since the attack in Portland, and I cant seem to forget it. It was on a Friday when three brave men, two of whom died in this incident, courageously stood up to a violent man who was threatening and using racial slurs against two young girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab. After hearing about this hate crime, I felt so scared and vulnerable because I am also a Muslim woman identified to the world by her head covering, or hijab. Still, I must remember that in a society where hate and ignorance may be on a rise, there are people out there, such as those bystanders who protected and defended a girl like me. As Gandhi once said, We must not lose faith in humanity because humanity is an ocean, and if a few drops of the ocean are dirty the ocean does not become dirty. Therefore, I thank those unforgettable men for truly demonstrating the meaning of Love for All, Hatred for None, which is a motto firmly believed by me and my community. Maliha Ahmed, Austin The good ol days? As poorly as I view the president pulling out of the Paris pact, I think the deregulations coming from the EPA will have much more severe and long-lasting negative effects on our health and pocketbooks giving up good-paying clean energy jobs for nasty, sickening jobs in the coal mines. Yes, make America great again, bringing back the nasty coal-fueled pollutions of past years? Boy, those were the years! Frank Bent, Schertz Saving the planet By eviscerating the EPA, rolling back environmental rules meant to restore planetary health, and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, the president has embraced an irresponsible and morally indefensible denial of global warming, which may endanger our future as a species. President Donald Trump, his administration, many Republicans and the fossil fuel lobby against scientific evidence will continue to support the extraction and use of fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, which are accelerating the heating of Earth. The hottest years on record: 2014, 2015, and 2016. Arctic sea ice is vanishing. Antarctics ice sheets, including the Ross Ice Shelf, which is the size of California, could disintegrate if the global mean temperature continues to rise. The resulting sea-level rise by as much as 6 feet would be catastrophic for our coastal cities. Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, must be convinced that investing in clean energy sources, such as wind turbines, solar panels, battery-powered electric or hydrogen-powered cars, and newer, safer nuclear reactors would offset our dependence on fossil fuels. Stabilizing global heating would guarantee a livable planet for future generations, including President Trumps grandchildren. Joseph Dunwoody Changing times Re: 1946 polio scare closed schools, S.A. Tricentennial, June 5: Your reproduction of the first page of a 1946 edition of the San Antonio Express was a real eye-opener: It contained 15 articles, only one of which was continued on an inside page. The first page of the same days Express-News contains just three articles, all of which are continued inside. Sometimes one forgets how much things have changed in just one lifetime. Ken Phelps Civility on the ropes Re: We are in the golden age of incivility with Texas on top, Ruben Navarrette, Other Views, June 2: I would like to commend Ruben Navarrette. He asked, When did being civil go out of style? What happened to good manners? I am so happy someone has brought those questions to the forefront. I dont blame just the politicians. All one has to do is visit any department store or doctors office. There seems to be no respect left. In offices, with their mothers present, I have seen children run around, in front of me, yell at their peers and generally disturb the peace. Some mothers have failed to stop and correct that behavior, and I, personally, would not dare to say anything to them, for fear of any wrath against me. Good manners and civility are going, but not yet, out of style. It should be taught, at home, reinforced in public places, not allowed by politicians. We must stop using threatening or bad language in movies or on TV. If we continue, then someday the world will forget there was a such an odd thing as good manners. Civilizations do crumble, as history has shown us. B.A. Kaler This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SACRAMENTO Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced a budget deal Tuesday that strips University of California President Janet Napolitanos office of some of its financial autonomy, limits the authority of the embattled Board of Equalization, increases tax credits for the poor and saves the Middle Class Scholarship program at public universities. The budget deal includes a plan for spending money from new tobacco taxes approved under Proposition 56 in November. That revenue would go toward increasing payments by up to $325 million for doctors and up to $140 million for dentists who see Medi-Cal patients. Consumer groups said those increases are desperately needed to restore access to medical services for the poor. Another $50 million from the tobacco taxes would fund family planning services, such as Planned Parenthood, and $27 million would be spent on rate increases for intermediate-care facilities for developmentally disabled people. This budget keeps California on a sound fiscal path and continues to support struggling families and make investments in our schools, Brown said in a statement. The proposed $125.1 billion general fund budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is slightly bigger than the current years $122.3 billion budget. The states general fund pays for basic state services such as education, prisons and social-service programs. The budget deal includes: A $6 billion payment to CalPERS, the pension plan for state and government workers, in hopes of reducing the states unfunded liabilities and saving $11 billion in payments over the next 20 years. An expansion of the states Earned Income Tax Credit so that more people qualify for the benefit by including taxpayers who are self-employed and by raising the income eligibility from $14,000 a year to $22,300 a year. A rejection of Browns plan to phase out the Middle Class Scholarship program at the University of California and California State University. Instead, the scholarship program would be kept and Cal Grants would increase to cover rising fees at campuses. An addition of $1.8 billion to the states budget reserve, bringing the total this year to $8.5 billion. An increase of $1 billion in public-school funding since Browns first budget proposal in January. Total K-12 and Community College spending would be $74.5 billion in the next fiscal year. Lawmakers have to approve most elements of the deal by Thursday. When passed, the budget bills would then head to Brown for final approval. Included in one of the budget bills pushed by Democratic leadership is language that would help an Orange County Democrat fight a recall effort. State Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton is facing a recall campaign after his vote in April to increase gas taxes and vehicle fees to pay for the states roads and bridges. Language in a budget bill would increase the time it takes to qualify a recall for the ballot, which proponents of the Newman recall called an abuse of power and said they will challenge. By adding the change to a budget bill, the longer timelines would go into effect immediately and potentially help Newman keep his seat. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County) defended the effort to help Newman, saying the Legislature is committed to oversight and that includes monitoring procedures for recalls. He said this years budget extends that oversight to the UC presidents office and Board of Equalization. We have talked repeatedly about the need for oversight, Rendon said. We take our accountability role seriously. The main budget bill, AB97, sends $296.4 million for Napolitanos office in the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1 and another $52.4 million for UC Path, the universitys payroll and human resources system. In the past, the state gave that money to campuses, which were then charged campus assessment fees by Napolitanos office. That indirect state funding gave the presidents office exclusive control over how to spend that money. Under the deal, the state would instead directly send money to Napolitanos office and require UC to eliminate the campus fees, so that lawmakers could oversee and control how that money is spent. UC opposed the change, which would be for one year. Lawmakers could decide during budget negotiations next year whether to continue the oversight of Napolitanos budget. Lawmakers moved to wrest control of spending by Napolitanos office after a state audit found a litany of problems there, including hidden funds and misleading accounting practices. The budget bill also includes other strings on the presidents office, such as barring it from providing supplemental retirement payments for new senior administrators. The state would withhold $50 million in funding if UC doesnt fix financial problems the state auditor identified in the review. After the findings of the auditor, we decided to take action, said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. We will be providing greater oversight. Lawmakers also imposed significant reforms on the Board of Equalization, the states tax collector. The agency will see most of its authority and staff stripped away and given to a to-be-created California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. The tax board made up of four elected board members and the state controller will continue to oversee property-tax assessments, assess taxes on insurers and collect taxes on alcohol because those duties are enshrined in the state Constitution. Tax appeals and sales-tax collection would move to the new state department, along with many of the Board of Equalizations 4,700 staff members. Lawmakers said the agency was the picture of dysfunction, pointing to long waits for taxpayers to get resolutions and an audit that found the agency misallocated tens of millions of dollars without explanation. Something had to be done to restore public trust, said state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside. Board of Equalization member and state Controller Betty Yee recommended the changes earlier this year, saying the agency has lost the publics trust after audits highlighted poor accounting and spending on events seemingly unrelated to collecting taxes. Board member George Runner, however, blasted the changes, saying they were not properly vetted. This last-minute budget power grab would strip California taxpayers of their right to bring their tax appeals before their elected peers, Runner said in a statement. In its place the bill would establish yet another unelected and costly tax bureaucracy. Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez A Thokozani Khupe ally is planning to confront Nelson Chamisas MDC Alliance with a court challenge seeking to stop the beleaguered opposition from using the name MDC. This follows recent court rulings declaring Chamisas rise to the helm of the main opposition as illegal and that MDC Alliance was not a political party but a coalition. The courts also restored the partys leadership in the hands of Khupe, who was 2018 elbowed out of the race to succeed late founding MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai by Chamisa and allies. Little known Bulawayo MDC activist, Divine Mafa has plans to front the challenge through the High Court. Divine is son to former Magwegwe legislator and newly appointed MDC-A deputy national spokesperson Felix Mafa. The two have contrasting views over the trajectory of opposition politics in the country. I have decided to file a lawsuit to challenge use of the party name in any other form by anyone including Chamisas Alliance, he wrote in a request to party Thokozani Kupe to sanction the challenge. In this regard, I am waiting for your decision and go ahead. It is my belief that we should have one MDC that was founded in 1999. By filing this lawsuit, I would have done my part to add to democracy and help to protect the poor and weak. The younger Mafa expressed his support for Khupe to restore the main opposition to constitutionalism. I am behind you in this issue of returning to constitutionalism of The MDC PARTY because I, myself, have been advocating for constitutionalism in our movement for some time and it seemed no one heard me. He added, I would like to urge you to look into the issue of imposition of candidates and the use of the militia to cow people by candidates who were imposed to represent MDC in parliament. These you must recall from parliament since they did not follow the due processes of primary elections. They were imposed on the people and some with their deep pockets. The grassroots were deprived of their constitutional right to choose leaders of their choice. By filing this lawsuit, I would have done my part to add to democracy and help to protect the poor and weak. Mafa also hailed Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora the partys secretary general for recalling four MDC Alliance MPs from parliament. I applaud you for the staunch position that you took when you recalled Charlton Hwende and others from Parliament. As for Hwende, he was never elected by the grassroots. He was imposed, and when the people wanted to resist him, they were met with violence like that which visited you at Saves (Tsvangirai) funeral. The imposition of candidates and the use of violence on perceived enemies defies democracy. NewZimbabwe Breaking News via Email This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT By Diane Rusignola WASHINGTON Philadelphia transplants to the nations capital are rejoicing: The Wawa goose is flying to D.C. At a private event at the Newseum in downtown Washington last night, Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens shared with a crowd of a few hundred plans for the companys first D.C. store, set to open in December 2017. D.C.s first Wawa will be located at 1111 19th Street NW, four blocks from the citys bustling downtown Farragut Square. It will be the retailers largest store to date and feature its latest food offer, including test items that may not be available at other locations. Gheysens said some of Wawas new food concepts include a hormone-free roasted chicken sandwich, custom salads, mac & cheese mash-ups and nitro coffee. The new store will also feature Wawas first Wild Goose Cafe, including a bar, counter and table seating inside and outside the store. The outdoor patio seating will mesh with a neighborhood that includes popular lunch locations like Chopt Creative Salad Company, Corner Bakery and Pret A Manger. Gheysens said that in its first two years, Wawa plans to open 5-10 stores in D.C. neighborhoods including Georgetown, West End, NOMA, Capitol Hill and Capitol Riverfront, as well as nearby Maryland and Virginia neighborhoods. By 2022, Wawa expects to have 10-20 stores open in the Washington area, with an ultimate goal of 30-50 stores when at full density. Wawa, a privately-held, associate- and family-owned company, currently has 757 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida, and is on pace to open one store per week across the East Coast and Florida. The retailer serves 500,000 cups of coffee and 300,000 hoagies to 1.6 million customers every day. Wawa first confirmed its plans to open a D.C. store in May. Diane Rusignola is NACS deputy editor and visited her first Wawa as a little girl in Cape May, N.J. She can be reached at drusignola@convenience.org. By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends much of her time in Asia and is currently researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as scribbles occasional travel pieces for The National. The New York Times reports that nearly 200 congressional Democrats sued Trump in federal court today, arguing that he accepted funds from foreign governments and thereby contravened the (foreign) emoluments clause of the U.S Constitution, as reported in Democrats in Congress Sue Trump Over Foreign Business Dealings. Democrats continue to pursue a line of similarly misguided suits, as Ive discussed before in three previous posts, see Senate Democrats Discuss Doubling Down on Losing Strategy of Suing Trump on Emoluments, Law Profs Sue Trump, Alleging Violation of the Emoluments Clause, and US Constitutions Emoluments Clause: a Nothingburger for Trump. These suits allege that activities that arise out of Trumps business holdings violate the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, found in Article 1, Section 9, and that states that No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. Now, as problematic as these conflicts of interest may be, as Ive written before, beginning in this December post, US Constitutions Emoluments Clause: a Nothingburger for Trump, the basic hurdle that those wishing to use the US legal system to shut down Trumps alleged violations of the emoluments clause must clear is to establish that they have standing to sue. As Ive written before, Just because somethings unconstitutional, doesnt mean that any such unconstitutional activity will necessarily be prevented, precluded, or punished. To elaborate further: This often comes as a surprise to non-lawyers, but the reality is that the US legal system strictly limits who can sue. Persons must have standing in order to bring a suit (as compared to some countries, such as India, and US states, such as California (but only for state law violations), where it is possible to bring a public interest litigation to right an obvious wrong). In US federal court, the authority for bringing a suit comes from Article III of the Constitution. To summarize very broadly an extremely complicated area of the law, to have standing to sue, plaintiffs must be involved in an actual case or controversy meaning that one cannot bring a case just to determine what a court MIGHT decide. Further, a long series of cases has also established that plaintiffs must have suffered a particularized injury in order to prevail in a lawsuit. This provision prevents someone from bringing a suit arguing, hypothetically, that as a taxpayer, s/he has been harmed by a general policy of the US government. Standing Hurdle Remains And so far, neither a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit watchdog group, which I discussed in this post, Law Profs Sue Trump, Alleging Violation of the Emoluments Clause, nor another suit filed earlier this week and reported by the New York Times here, Maryland and District of Columbia Sue Trump Over His Businesses, nor this latest suit filed by congressional Democratsand which, tellingly, no Republicans have joined and which I anticipated and discussed in this post, Senate Democrats Discuss Doubling Down on Losing Strategy of Suing Trump on Emoluments manages to clear that basic standing hurdle. Left to my own devices, I would have ignored the latest suit, as Ive written about similar cases before, and I continue to maintain these cases are going nowhere. But I noticed that the Grey Lady hasnt yet fully grappled with the standing problem, and indeed, cited a source to suggest that the mere filing of multiple lawsuits can surmount the standing obstacle: Yet each new set of plaintiffs makes it harder for the Justice Department to defend the president on the grounds that his opponents have no legal standing to sue him, Mr. Trumps critics said. It puts the government in the position of saying that nobody can address this not hotel competitors, not states, not members of Congress, said Norman Eisen, the chairman of CREW, which started the legal efforts. And you cannot get away with that in a rule-of-law system. Hmm, I dont think so. Either a plaintiff has standing to sue, or s/he does not. And just because multiple plaintiffs may assert, over and over again, that they do have standing to sue in order to address Trumps alleged violations of the emoluments clause, or any other issue, for that matter does not mean that these assertions will wear down the federal judges to whom these claims are presented until someone anyone? decides to allow a claim to proceed and to address its particulars on the merits. Shame on the New York Times for not taking on board this basic fact. Lets turn now to the Washington Posts account, Congressional Democrats to file emoluments lawsuit against Trump, which focuses on the basic error of using courts to try to address whats actually a political problem: Other legal scholars were skeptical, particularly since the lawsuit was filed only by Democrats, the minority party in both houses of Congress. Just because they cant convince their peers doesnt mean you can go to court to get what you want, said Andy Grewal, a law professor at the University of Iowa. Generally, a lawmaker can sue if he or she has suffered individual injury, Grewal said. In addition, Congress can sue as a body, as has happened in the past, such as with the lawsuit challenging President Barack Obamas health-care overhaul. But a case like this is problematic, he said, Because this is individual legislators who dont have any individual injuries, it will be hard for them to get standing, he said. More importantly, I should mention, noticeably absent from todays NYT account is any discussion of whats widely understood to be the appropriate constitutional remedy for violating the emoluments clause, as Ive written previously, Senate Democrats Discuss Doubling Down on Losing Strategy of Suing Trump on Emoluments: the Constitution is quite specific in outlining remedies for violations. In the case of the emoluments clause, the remedy would be impeachment. In my December post, I discussed the basics of impeachment, because at that time, many otherwise sane and sensible people were suggesting that was a real possibility despite the majorities Republicans hold in both houses of Congress. So, bottom line, even if Trump is in violation of the emoluments clause, and members of Congress wish to pursue him for that reason, the appropriate constitutional remedy is not to be found via the courts, but through impeachment. Lets assume, then, that the political process impeachment is successful. The consequence: We end up with President Pence. Do we really want to go there? Yves here. I wonder if the problem of women finding it harder to pay off student debt is compounded by reduced marriage prospects. People under budget stress cant spend as much money going out or on the personal maintenance that helps in making a better appearance. Sad but true: virtually all the women I knew in business school looked markedly more attractive a few years later because they had the money to get better haircuts, more flattering and often better tailored clothes. This sort of superficial stuff matters more in dating, at least for women. And on top of that, a man might shy from marrying an indebted partner, particularly if he wants kids. All sorts of studies show married women are much better off financially on average in the long term than single women. If nothing else, two can live more cheaply than one. By Lauren Kaori Gurley, a freelance writer and masters candidate in Latin American studies and journalism at New York University. Her work has been published in In These Times, the American Prospect and the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. Follow her on Twitter: @laurenkgurley. Originally published at Alternet American women owe nearly twice as much of the nations $1.3 trillion in student loan debt as men do, according to a recent study. Since the 1950s, major strides have been made to shrink the gender gap in enrollment at American colleges and universities, and today, women make up 57 percent of college students in the United States. But despite these gains, women face disproportionate burdens when it comes to student loan debta lifelong economic disadvantage that can weigh down graduates for decades after theyve earned their degrees. The student loan debt crisis is frequently cited as one of the primary reasons millennials are waiting longer than previous generations to move out of their parents homes, have children and get married. According to an American Association of University Women study, women are facing these challenges at higher rates than men. The reasons behind this discrepancy stem from a number of interrelated factors, including the unremitting gender wage gap. Today, women earn 10 percent less than men when taking into account factors including occupation, experience and education. Women graduating with bachelors degrees this year earned on average $17.88 per hour, while men earned $20.87, making it harder for women to repay loans. Women are also more likely to attend for-profit schools, which are often convenient for working mothers, but less generous with financial aid, and which do not teach skills that lead to upward economic mobility. Its a systemic problem, Kevin Miller, a researcher at the American Association of University Women, told the Boston Globe. According to the same study, African-American women with bachelors degrees are particularly weighed down with debt, on average facing over $29,000 in student loans. The average American woman graduating from a four-year college or university carries $21,000 in college debt, about $1,500 more than the average American man. Superconducting nanowire memory cell (Nanowerk News) Developing a superconducting computer that would perform computations at high speed without heat dissipation has been the goal of several research and development initiatives since the 1950s. Such a computer would require a fraction of the energy current supercomputers consume, and would be many times faster and more powerful. Despite promising advances in this direction over the last 65 years, substantial obstacles remain, including in developing miniaturized low-dissipation memory. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new nanoscale memory cell that holds tremendous promise for successful integration with superconducting processors. The new technology, created by Professor of Physics Alexey Bezryadin and graduate student Andrew Murphy, in collaboration with Dmitri Averin, a professor of theoretical physics at State University of New York at Stony Brook, provides stable memory at a smaller size than other proposed memory devices. The device comprises two superconducting nanowires, attached to two unevenly spaced electrodes that were "written" using electron-beam lithography. The nanowires and electrodes form an asymmetric, closed superconducting loop, called a nanowire 'SQUID' (superconducting quantum interference device). The direction of current flowing through the loop, either clockwise or counterclockwise, equates to the "0" or "1" of binary code. Superconducting nanoscale memory device. The binary information is encoded in the direction of the electrical current in the loop. When the current flows clockwise, this is considered a '0' state of the memory device. When it flows counter clockwise, this is a '1' state of the memory device. Because the electrons are superconducting, the current flows indefinitely in the loops, making the memory nonvolatile. (a) A photograph of the memory device, consisting of a superconducting strip of Mo 75 Ge 25 (yellow) with a pair of superconducting nanowires forming a closed loop (also yellow): The width of the nanowires is 24 nm and 22 nm, as marked. (b) The critical current, i.e., the maximum current which can be injected into the device without destroying superconductivity, is plotted as a function of magnetic field. To set the memory state '0', we apply positive current targeting the shaded diamond. To set the memory to the state '1', a negative current is applied (as the same external magnetic field). To read out the memory state, the current is ramped to a higher value, as shown by the red rhombus, and the current value at which voltage occurs is measured. Such value is the critical current. Its statistical distribution is shown in (c). The measured value of the critical current depends on the pre-set memory value, '0' or '1'. Thus by measuring the critical current we are able to determine the state of the memory cell. (Image: Alexey Bezryadin and Andrew Murphey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) (click on image to enlarge) The memory state is written by applying an oscillating current of a particular magnitude, at a specific magnetic field. To read the memory state the scientists ramp up the current and detect the current value at which superconductivity gets destroyed. It turns out that such destruction or critical current is different for the two memory states, "0" or "1". The scientists tested memory stability, delaying reading of the state, and found no instances of memory loss. The team performed these experiments on two nanowire SQUIDS, made of the superconductor Mo 75 Ge 25 , using a method called molecular templating. The results are published in the New Journal of Physics ("Nanoscale superconducting memory based on the kinetic inductance of asymmetric nanowire loops"). Bezryadin comments, "This is very exciting. Such superconducting memory cells can be scaled down in size to the range of few tens of nanometers, and are not subject to the same performance issues as other proposed solutions." Murphy adds, "Other efforts to create a scaled-down superconducting memory cell weren't able to reach the scale we have. A superconducting memory device needs to be cheaper to manufacture than standard memory now, and it needs to be dense, small, and fast." Up to now, the most promising supercomputing memory devices, called 'single-flux quanta' devices, rely on manipulating circuits composed of Josephson junctions and inductive elements. These are in the micrometer range, and miniaturization of these devices is limited by the size of the Josephson junctions and their geometric inductances. Some of these also require ferromagnetic barriers to encode information, where Bezryadin and Murphy's device does not require any ferromagnetic components and eliminates magnetic-field cross-talk. "Because the kinetic inductance increases with decreasing cross-sectional dimensions of the wire, nanowire SQUID memory elements could be reduced further, into the range of tens of nanometers," Bezryadin continues. The researchers argue that this device can operate with a very low dissipation of energy, if the energies of two binary states are equal or near equal. The theoretical model for such operations was developed in collaboration with Averin The switching between the states of equal energy will be achieved either by quantum tunneling or by adiabatic processes composed of multiple jumps between the states. The glue that keeps cells together (Nanowerk News) Controlled adhesion and division are crucial for our body's cells. This is the case, for instance, when the organs develop in an embryo or when broken skin is repaired during the healing process. The importance of close cell-cell adhesion becomes evident especially when it is dysfunctional, for example when cells become loose in a tumour and break free. The tumour cell complex tends to dissolve in this case and create metastases. Cadherins as key actors The cadherin proteins assume a central role in the above mentioned examples. Located in the cell membranes, they are capable of creating strong bonds both among themselves and with the cadherins of other cells. A bond between two cadherin molecules of two cells triggers the formation of extensive contact zones. The process of establishing and detaching contacts seems to be much more dependent on purely physical effects than thought previously. This is shown by computer simulations and experiments published in Nature Physics ("Membrane fluctuations mediate lateral interaction between cadherin bonds") by Dr Susanne Fenz from the University of Wurzburg's Biocentre with colleagues from Julich, Stuttgart, Erlangen and Marseilles. Snapshots of the bond of a giant vesicle on a plane model membrane. Dark pixels mark the points of contact between the membranes. They grow larger and more numerous over time. (Image: Susanne Fenz) (click on image to enlarge) Connecting model membranes The biophysicist brought together model membranes containing cadherin and then selectively changed different physical parameters that influence the membrane's fluctuation behaviour such as the concentration of sugar and salt. "We observed that already very small changes had a huge impact on the formation and growth of cell-cell contacts," says Dr Fenz, who leads a junior research group at the Department for Cell and Developmental Biology (Zoology I). "So it is possible to regulate a biological process by changing only physical parameters such as the temperature or local lipid composition of the membrane." But according to Fenz, it is still doubtful to what extent the results for the model membranes can be transferred to living systems. "We will have to confirm the relevance of our observations in living systems," says Susanne Fenz. Focus on pathogens that cause sleeping sickness The Wurzburg researcher has a general interest in the biophysics of membranes. For example, she also studies the pathogens that cause the sleeping sickness. The protozoa of the species Trypanosoma are one of Professor Markus Engstler's focal areas of research; he is the head of the Department for Zoology I at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) in Wurzburg, Germany. Last week the Mayhem for Meningitis group gathered in Morrisseys Bar to hand over a cheque to the Meningitis Research Foundation. The night was filled with happiness and pride as we handed over 11,100. We had not set a target but we never dreamed we would reach such a sum. We decided to participate in Mayhem in memory of beloved friend Grainne ODonnell who passed away suddenly in February after contracting meningitis. We felt that the challenging Mayhem course would give us something to focus on whilst also raising vital funds for the Foundation. We laughed the whole way through the Mayhem course even while we went head first into muck and dirty water and feel there was no better way to share the happiness and light that Grainne brought to each of our lives, all in aid of The Meningitis Research Foundation. Monika Marchlewicz accepted the cheque for the Meningitis Research Foundation and told of the hard work done by the organisation to combat meningitis and septicaemia in Ireland by focusing the funding into prevention, detection and treatment, raising awareness of the diseases and supporting people who have already been effected. The Foundation is not Government funded and depends on donations and so are extremely grateful for the huge amount raised that will go towards the fight against Meningitis. We cant even begin to thank everyone who supported us but can only say how extremely grateful we are for the support we received from the very start! Firstly we would like to thank The ODonnell family who played a huge part in everything and made the whole event even more special. One special thank you we make from the bottom of our hearts is to the Meagher family. We thank them all for their support and we also pay our deepest condolences on their loss of Pat Meagher. Pat was an amazing support to the group from the minute he agreed to our participation in Mayhem and did everything he could to ensure its huge success. He allowed us go as through together as a group and we have the custom t-shirts that we are forever grateful for to remind us always of an amazing day. We will remember Pat for his kind heart, the generosity he showed us and the memories we have from Mayhem because of him. Our final thank you is to Brian & Mags in Morrisseys Bar for kindly hosting the presentation and Walsh Printing for the posters. We are extremely proud that as a group and community we came together to raise much needed funds for the Meningitis Research Foundation, in honour of a person who holds a very special place in all of our hearts. (Natural News) One of the milestones in a young adults life is learning how to drive. Driving serves as a rite of passage for many teens because it paves the path to adulthood. Add the fact that being behind the wheel always brings a certain kind of thrill. However, with the proliferation of self-driving cars, babies born today may never experience the joy of driving a car. Self-driving cars can take over the roads in the next 20 years. A study by the Boston Consulting Group predicted that about 12 million fully-autonomous vehicles will be sold each year by 2035. The comprehensive study also estimated 18 million of partially-autonomous vehicles would be sold annually worldwide. The technology behind cars that can drive themselves is developing at such an impressive rate that U.K. roads will filled with autonomous cars as early as 2032. Babies born today may never have to take a driving test, said Amanda Blanc, chief executive at AXA UK. She also added that the insurance sector must keep up with the evolution since self-driving cars have the potential to eliminate human-related accidents. The scenario presents two possibilities for car insurers: an opportunity to improve their business or a challenge that may lead to their demise. For the longest time, car insurance has been a very lucrative business, generating billions in annual revenue and providing thousands of jobs to people. The change that vehicle autonomy could bring might disrupt the current business model, and that poses a serious concern. The main challenge here is that human error accounts for 90 percent of road accidents. Autonomous cars are designed to make driving a lot safer. By improving road safety and lowering the probability of accidents, self-driving cars may push insurance premiums to go down. A report by accounting firm KPMG said that the personal auto insurance sector could reduce its current size by 40 percent in the next 25 years when cars become a lot safer to use. By 2035, car crashes are expected to go down by 80 percent as a result of self-driving vehicles. Lower accident rates will drive insurance costs to fall. This gives insurers an opportunity to play a key role in creating a new framework for the future. Some companies are already taking steps. Ever since it installed Autopilot in 2015, Tesla vehicle crash rates went down by 40 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Administration. This means the insurance premium needed to be adjusted. Tesla plans to include insurance in its final price. Volvo is also a supporter. In fact, it is so confident about its technology that its CEO Hakan Samuelsson is willing to accept liabilities for its self-driving cars when in autonomous mode. In the U.K., one possible solution is for insurance companies to offer two types of protection: one for when the car is driving itself and one when a human is behind the wheel. There are other factors to consider as well, such as protection against cyberattacks. Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles in 2015 after researchers successfully remotely controlled a vehicle driving down the highway. The potential for cars to be compromised is a genuine concern and should be heavily considered. The future of car technology offers safety and convenience that most drivers and passengers would enjoy. And once the important stuff is covered, like insurance, theres nothing else to be worried about, right? But what about the exhilarating thrill you get from driving? Does it even matter anymore? Sources include: Independent.co.uk Betanews.com BCG.com Assets.kpmg.com (Natural News) Climate change magnate and multi-millionaire Al Gore seems to have emerged from the woodwork of his $9 million mansion with a new message for the world: Global warming is already here! He apparently saw it personally during a recent trip to Miami, where an unusual tide event brought water and fish into the streets in a few areas of the city along the coast on a sunny day, no less. The National Weather Service (NWS) says a super moon and particularly aggressive easterly winds are to blame for this otherwise non-event. But Gore claims to know better, insisting during an interview on an episode of The New York Times DealB%k show that melting ice has clearly raised sea levels all around the world, and that quite a number of coastal cities are now being affected. Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, currently the worlds largest naval base, is also in trouble, according to Gore. Though nothing has changed there as far as water levels are concerned, Gore says the entire base is going to have to be relocated to escape being inundated with water in the same way as Miami though he provided no insights as to when the nation should expect this to occur. As Gore was trying to spread fear and climate hysteria, the NWS was quick to explain that the water and fish incident in Miami was caused primarily by a combination of the new moon and blustery winds neither of which are global warming. But why miss an opportunity to spread climate myths, especially when your entire lifes work centers around them? Watch the video and see for yourself as Gore bumbles through his tall tale expressing feigned concern over its supposed ramifications. Al Gore is going to need a new hobby and income stream once every last climate lie has been exposed and debunked As you may recall, Al Gore is the same climate conspiracy theorist who released a documentary back in 2006 entitled An Inconvenient Truth that made all sorts of wild claims about where the world was headed due to global warming. In the film, Gore claimed that by the year 2016, the world would reach a point of no return, which clearly hasnt happened. Just a few days ago, Fox News Chris Wallace took Gore to the woodshed over his crazy past claims that never claim true. Wallace asked Gore point blank, Werent you wrong? Gore would have been smart to fess up and just admit that climate lies are the bread and butter of his existence, and that it was all just a big politically-motivated fraud. Instead, he answered with a no, adding: Well we have seen a decline in emissions on a global basis. For the first time theyve stabilized and started to decline. So some of the responses for the last 10 years have helped, but unfortunately and regrettably a lot of serious damage has been done. Wait, so global warming is a serious problem because fish and water are flooding the streets of Miami. But now that we know this isnt actually true, the story has morphed into, well, emissions have dropped and theres no more global warming. Gore just cant seem to keep his story straight, but who really cares when youve already made your millions, right? Al Gore isnt concerned with saving the planet; hes concerned with lining his pocketbook and his maintaining his livelihood. Hes made millions of dollars spreading climate lies, which means he has to keep the jig going or else face losing his one, and probably only, source of income: Spreading delusions about climate change. Sources: TheFederalistPapers.org PalmBeachPost.com TheRightScoop.com One night in 1851, Henry David Thoreau woke from a dream. In it, astride two ungovernable horses literal nightmares he galloped through the woods, but the horses bit each other and occasioned endless trouble and anxiety, and it was my employment to hold their heads apart. At that time, the 34-year-old naturalistwriter was trying to reconcile two contending forces in his life: the transcendentalism he had long espoused and the rigours of science he had recently discovered. Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, where the naturalist Henry David Thoreau lived for two years in the 1840s as an experiment. Credit: Tetra Images/Getty Transcendentalism emerged in the mid-1830s as an intoxicating set of philosophical, literary and spiritual tendencies unified by discontent with American life. Its core tenet, derived from Romantic philosophy, was that God permeated everything. As the movement's best-known spokesperson, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, put it, behind nature, throughout nature, spirit is present. Transcendent divinity could be perceived only through intuition and inspiration not through reason and was best found in nature. This set of beliefs fuelled the experiment in self-reliance and simple living on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, in the mid-1840s that led to Thoreau's masterpiece, Walden, published in 1854. But something happened to Thoreau before his best-known book was finished, subtly changing its final form, making it more empirical, and thus scientific. Always fascinated by the natural world, he began to ponder more on its physical processes. Every day, rain or shine and usually for at least four hours, he tramped through the woods and fields surrounding his native Concord, collecting specimens and writing down what he observed in a series of small notebooks. He measured and weighed, pressing the leaves of red currant, poison sumac and many other species for his herbarium. In the evening, he transferred his observations into larger journals. Occasionally he worried about this new tendency. I fear, he wrote on 19 August 1851, that the character of my knowledge is from year to year becoming more distinct and scientific that, in exchange for views as wide as heaven's cope, I am being narrowed down to the field of the microscope. He tried to fit the data he gathered into a larger, transcendentalist vision of the cosmos, but his focus was inexorably drawn to the material world. In 1860, he encountered Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published the previous year. He was already familiar with Darwin, having devoured The Voyage of the Beagle (1839) almost a decade earlier. Thoreau first learnt of Origin at a dinner party on New Year's Day 1860, a gathering that included radical abolitionist Franklin Sanborn, child-welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace and transcendental philosopher Bronson Alcott. This quartet of progressive intellectuals discussed the book at length, and Thoreau was immediately captivated. He pestered the local library to acquire a copy, and was the first person to check it out when it arrived later that month. Engine of creation By February, Thoreau was copying extracts from Origin into his natural-history notebook. He seems to have been drawn to Darwin's examples of the delicate interplay of causes that lead to the survival or extinction of species. For instance, Darwin wrote: The number of humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree on the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests. Thoreau was most taken, however, with Darwin's idea that the struggle between species was an engine of creation. It undermined transcendentalist assumptions that nature was inherently good, that the Universe bent toward moral goodness. It also corroborated Thoreau's own observations. While living on Walden Pond, he had tried to discover the unbroken harmony of the environment, the celestial dews of the pond, but sometimes a darker reality intruded. Not a pickerel or shiner picks an insect from this smooth surface but it manifestly disturbs the equilibrium of the whole lake, he wrote in Walden. Something ominous lurks around this sentence. That animals must consume other animals to survive disturbed the transcendentalist urge for harmony. But Darwin provided an explanation for nature's murderous subtext: competition and struggle, he wrote, influenced the whole economy of nature. It drove species to change and adapt. It was the cost of doing nature's business. Thoreau was also struck by Darwin's discussion of geographical distribution the way in which plants and animals are dispersed across the globe. In 1850, Thoreau had noticed a pine seedling in his yard, far from any other pine, prompting him to wonder how it had arrived there. He began to study how squirrels transported nuts and seeds, then followed the aerial voyages of milkweed and dandelion seeds. Soon he was observing cockleburs and other barbed seeds that attach themselves to animals and clothing. The question he was trying to answer was one he had asked in Walden: Why do precisely these objects which we behold make a world? Darwin reinvigorated the issue for him in 1860. When an American forest is cut down, the British biologist wrote, a very different vegetation springs up ... What a struggle between the several kinds of trees must here have gone on during long centuries, each annually scattering its seeds by the thousand. Thoreau took special note. As soon as he finished Darwin's book, he began consolidating the data he had gathered over the years. He re-read his journals thousands of pages and copied every observation about plants and animals on to slips of paper. He transcribed this material again in a series of prototype 'spreadsheets' (it is possible that he invented the concept). On each page, Thoreau listed a month, with a column for every year from 1852 to 1860. Here he recorded all the information he had gathered, in tiny, nearly illegible handwriting. Henry David Thoreau, pictured in 1856. Credit: Granger/Rex/Shutterstock What was he up to? We don't entirely know. But the painstaking work enabled Thoreau to capture and quantify the process of growth and death in nature to discern patterns in nature's chaotic creativity. It also allowed him to verify Darwin's theories as they applied to the natural environs he knew so well. Six months after reading Origin, he incorporated the book's ideas into a new essay, 'The succession of forest trees'. Delivered as a lecture at Concord's annual cattle show and printed throughout the nation's newspapers, this was one of Thoreau's most popular essays in his lifetime. It refuted a common theory that the appearance of new forests was the product of spontaneous generation. Nonsense, Thoreau declared: forests are regularly planted each year by various quadrupeds and birds. In a series of detailed descriptions, he proceeded to corroborate and explain Darwin's statement about American forests. More importantly, Thoreau suggested how a transcendentalist might begin to appreciate a natural world that did not rely on God to function. He did this by locating mystery and wonder within materialism. His touchstone was the seed: Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, he wrote, I have great faith in a seed. Self-directing wonder There is a wondrousness in a natural world that is blindly self-directing, driven by struggle and contingency, authored by itself. That passage has much in common with the final paragraph of Origin, describing an entangled bank, clothed with plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes. Thoreau's point like Darwin's was that nature's fecundity had produced a world of wondrous scope and intricacy. Millions of seeds and spores are produced and broadcast by wind and animals; only a few plants find their niche. The countless complex interactions necessary to produce a single maple, he discovered, need involve nothing intelligent, omniscient or all-seeing. And there is a wondrousness in a natural world that is blindly self-directing, driven by struggle and contingency, authored by itself. Thoreau's essay on forest succession was an early response to a world Darwin had introduced, made wonderful by science. We will never know how far Thoreau might have extended these ideas. Nor can we know what insights he might have extracted by applying the principles of variation and natural selection to his beloved woods and fields. On 3 December 1860, he caught a cold, which exacerbated a dormant case of tuberculosis. He died in 1862. Comparing Notes: How We Make Sense of Music Adam Ockelford Profile: 2017. 9781781256039 Whether tapping a foot to samba or weeping at a ballad, the human response to music seems almost instinctual. Yet few can articulate how music works. How do strings of sounds trigger emotion, inspire ideas, even define identities? Cognitive scientists, anthropologists, biologists and musicologists have all taken a crack at that question (see go.nature.com/2sdpcb5), and it is into this line that Adam Ockelford steps. Comparing Notes draws on his experience as a composer, pianist, music researcher and, most notably, a music educator working for decades with children who have visual impairments or are on the autistic spectrum, many with extraordinary musical abilities. Through this prism of the overtly remarkable, Ockelford seeks to shed light on music perception and cognition in all of us. Existing models based on neurotypical children could overlook larger truths about the human capacity to learn and make sense of music he contends. How the human brain processes music remains a mystery. Credit: George Pickow/Three Lions/Getty Some of the children described in Comparing Notes might (for a range of reasons) have trouble tying their shoelaces or carrying on a basic conversation. Yet before they hit double digits in age, they can hear a complex composition for the first time and immediately play it on the piano, their fingers flying to the correct notes. This skill, Ockelford reminds us, eludes many adults with whom he studied at London's Royal Academy of Music. Weaving together the strands that let these children perform such stunning feats, Ockelford constructs an argument for rethinking conventional wisdom on music education. He positions absolute pitch (AP) as central to these abilities to improvise, listen and play. Only 1 in 10,000 neurotypical people in the West have AP the ability to effortlessly, without context, name the note sounded by a violin or a vacuum cleaner (That's an F-sharp!). Among those on the autism spectrum, the number rises to 8%, roughly 1 in 13. For people born blind or who lost their sight early in infancy, it is 45%. AP, Ockelford argues, enables children to sound out and tinker with familiar tunes; that experimentation leads to a deep grasp of musical structure. Many of the children Ockelford works with were born blind and autistic. For them, the predictability of the keyboard experienced through the lens of AP can trigger obsessive fascination. The US television programme 60 Minutes featured footage of musical savant Rex Lewis-Clack as a toddler: as he falls asleep next to a keyboard, we see his hand drowsily reaching out to play two last notes before he drifts off. Children with this kind of passion can spend hundreds of hours at the keyboard, mapping sound to movement. An experiment with Derek Paravicini one of Ockelford's most accomplished students, now an adult supports the idea that AP underlies a sense of musical structure rather than being solely responsible for remarkable performances. Ockelford asked Paravicini to play back two versions of the same piece: one flouting the conventional rules of Western harmony, the other following them. Paravicini's performance of the second was much more accurate. This suggests that he relies on intuition about structures typical to Western music, to which he was exposed during some crucial period of brain plasticity. Ockelford devotes much of Comparing Notes to an entertaining but idiosyncratic romp through music theory and psychology, including his own zygonic theory. This holds that repetition and transformation of musical elements can be perceived as intentional imitation an insight born in improvisation games with his students. Although few would argue with its central tenet, zygonic theory has not gained much traction, partly because its complex notation does not seem to produce insights different from those of simpler tools. In one diagram, an arrow between two identical notes shows that repetition leads to a sense of imitation and derivation surely better conveyed in a sentence. The increasingly intricate diagrams do not seem to communicate more than basic concepts such as transposition (the repetition of a pattern of notes at a different pitch level). Ockelford also misses opportunities to develop his ideas about how structure and repetition work. In comparing music and language, he refers only once to Aniruddh Patel's influential Music, Language, and the Brain (Oxford University Press, 2008), which explores this terrain. He never mentions Diana Deutsch's speech-to-song illusion, a demonstration of how repetition can transform a spoken phrase into a perceived song (D. Deutsch J. Acoustical Soc. Am. 124, 2471; 2008), or my 2014 On Repeat (Oxford University Press), which takes a psychological approach to understanding how repetition in music 'plays' the mind. No statistical methods were used to predetermine sample size. The experiments were not randomized and the investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment. Ethics statement The clinical studies from which samples were obtained were evaluated and approved by the relevant Institutional Review Boards/Ethics Review Committees at Hospital General de la Plaza de la Salud (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), University of the West Indies (Kingston, Jamaica), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (Tegucigalpa, Honduras), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Centro de Investigaciones EpidemiologicasUniversidad Industrial de Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia), Massachusetts Department of Public Health (Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts), and Florida Department of Health (Tallahassee, Florida). Informed consent was obtained from all participants enrolled in studies at Hospital General de la Plaza de la Salud, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and Universidad Industrial de Santander. IRBs at the University of West Indies, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and Florida Department of Health granted waivers of consent given this research with leftover clinical diagnostic samples involved no more than minimal risk. Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Institutional Review Boards/Ethics Review Committees provided approval for sequencing and secondary analysis of samples collected by the aforementioned institutions. Sample collections and study subjects Patients with suspected ZIKV infection (including high-risk travellers) were enrolled through study protocols at multiple aforementioned collection sites. Clinical samples (including blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and saliva) were obtained from suspected or confirmed ZIKV cases and from high-risk travellers. De-identified information about study participants and other sample metadata are reported in Supplementary Table 1. Viral RNA isolation RNA was isolated following the manufacturers standard operating protocol for 0.141-ml samples32 using the QIAamp Viral RNA Minikit (Qiagen), except that in some cases 0.1 M final concentration of -mercaptoethanol (as a reducing agent) or 40 g/ml final concentration of linear acrylamide (Ambion) (as a carrier) were added to AVL buffer before inactivation. Extracted RNA was resuspended in AVE buffer or nuclease-free water. In some cases, viral samples were concentrated using Vivaspin-500 centrifugal concentrators (Sigma-Aldrich) before inactivation and extraction. In these cases, 0.84 ml of sample was concentrated to 0.14 ml by passing through a 30-kDa filter and discarding the flow-through. Carrier RNA and host rRNA depletion In a subset of human samples, carrier poly(rA) RNA and host rRNA were depleted from RNA samples using RNase H selective depletion9,33. In brief, oligo d(T) (40 nt long) and/or DNA probes complementary to human rRNA were hybridized to the sample RNA. The sample was then treated with 15 units Hybridase (Epicentre) for 30 min at 45 C. The complementary DNA probes were removed by treating each reaction with an RNase-free DNase (Qiagen) according to the manufacturers protocol. Following depletion, samples were purified using 1.8 volume AMPure RNAclean beads (Beckman Coulter Genomics) and eluted into 10 l water for cDNA synthesis. Illumina library construction and sequencing cDNA synthesis was performed as described in previously published RNA-seq methods9. To track potential cross-contamination, 50 fg synthetic RNA (gift from M. Salit, NIST) was spiked into samples using unique RNA for each individual ZIKV sample. ZIKV negative control cDNA libraries were prepared from water, human K-562 total RNA (Ambion), or EBOV (KY425633.1) seed stock; ZIKV positive controls were prepared from ZIKV Senegal (isolate HD78788) or ZIKV Pernambuco (isolate PE243; KX197192.1) seed stock. The dual index Accel-NGS 2S Plus DNA Library Kit (Swift Biosciences) was used for library preparation. Approximately half of the cDNA product was used for library construction, and indexed libraries were generated using 18 cycles of PCR. Each individual sample was indexed with a unique barcode. Libraries were pooled at equal molarity and sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 or MiSeq (paired-end reads) platforms. Amplicon-based cDNA synthesis and library construction ZIKV amplicons were prepared as described8,11, similarly to RNA jackhammering for preparing low-input viral samples for sequencing34, with slight modifications. After PCR amplification, each amplicon pool was quantified on a 2200 Tapestation (Agilent Technologies) using High Sensitivity D1000 ScreenTape (Agilent Technologies). Two microlitres of a 1:10 dilution of the amplicon cDNA was loaded and the concentration of the 350550-bp fragments was calculated. The cDNA concentration, as reported by the Tapestation, was highly predictive of sequencing outcome (that is, whether a sample passed genome assembly thresholds) (Extended Data Fig. 5). cDNA from each of the two amplicon pools was mixed equally (1025 ng each) and libraries were prepared using the dual index Accel-NGS 2S Plus DNA Library Kit (Swift Biosciences) according to the manufacturers protocol. Libraries were indexed with a unique barcode using seven cycles of PCR, pooled equally and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq (250-bp paired-end reads) platform. Primer sequences were removed by hard trimming the first 30 bases for each insert read before analysis. Zika virus hybrid capture Virus hybrid capture was performed as previously described9. Probes were created to target ZIKV and chikungunya virus (CHIKV). Candidate probes were created by tiling across publicly available sequences for ZIKV and CHIKV on NCBI GenBank35. Probes were selected from among these candidate probes to minimize the number used while maintaining coverage of the observed diversity of the viruses. Alternating universal adapters were added to allow two separate PCR amplifications, each consisting of non-overlapping probes. (To download probe sequences, see Supplementary Information.) The probes were synthesized on a 12k array (CustomArray). The synthesized oligos were amplified by two separate emulsion PCR reactions with primers containing T7 RNA polymerase promoter. Biotinylated baits were in vitro transcribed (MEGAshortscript, Ambion) and added to prepared ZIKV libraries. The baits and libraries were hybridized overnight (~16 h), captured on streptavidin beads, washed, and re-amplified by PCR using the Illumina adaptor sequences. Capture libraries were then pooled and sequenced. In some cases, a second round of hybrid capture was performed on PCR-amplified capture libraries to further enrich the ZIKV content of sequencing libraries (Extended Data Fig. 6). In the main text, hybrid capture refers to a combination of hybrid capture sequencing data and data from the same libraries without capture (unbiased), unless explicitly distinguished. Genome assembly We assembled reads from all sequencing methods into genomes using viral-ngs v1.13.3 (refs 36, 37). We taxonomically filtered reads from amplicon sequencing against a ZIKV reference, KU321639.1. We filtered reads from other approaches against the list of accessions provided in the Supplementary Information. To compute results on individual replicates, we de novo assembled these and scaffolded against KU321639.1. To obtain final genomes for analysis, we pooled data from multiple replicates of a sample, de novo assembled, and scaffolded against KX197192.1. For all assemblies, we set the viral-ngs assembly_min_length_fraction_of_reference and assembly_min_unambig parameters to 0.01. For amplicon sequencing data, unambiguous base calls required at least 90% of reads to agree in order to call that allele (major_cutoff = 0.9); for hybrid capture data, we used the default threshold of 50%. We modified viral-ngs so that calls to GATKs UnifiedGenotyper set min_indel_count_for_genotyping to 2. At three sites with insertions or deletions (indels) in the consensus genome CDS, we corrected the genome using Sanger sequencing of the RTPCR product (namely, at 3,447 in the genome for sample DOM_2016_BB-0085-SER; at 5,469 in BRA_2016_FC-DQ12D1-PLA; and at 6,5166,564 in BRA_2016_FC-DQ107D1-URI, coordinates as in KX197192.1). At other indels in the consensus genome CDS, we replaced the indel with ambiguity. Depth-of-coverage values from amplicon sequencing include read duplicates. In all other cases, we removed duplicates with viral-ngs. Identification of non-ZIKV viruses in samples by unbiased sequencing Using Kraken v0.10.638 in viral-ngs, we built a database that included its default full database (which incorporates all bacterial and viral whole genomes from RefSeq39 as of October 2015). Additionally, we included the whole human genome (hg38), genomes from PlasmoDB40, sequences covering mosquito genomes (Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Anopheles albimanus, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Culex quinquefasciatus, and the outgroup Drosophila melanogaster) from GenBank35, protozoa and fungi whole genomes from RefSeq, SILVA LTP 16 S rRNA sequences41, and all sequences from NCBIs viral accession list42 (as of October 2015) for viral taxa that have human as a host. (To download the database, see Supplementary Information.) For each sample, we ran Kraken on data from unbiased sequencing replicates (not including hybrid capture data) and searched its output reports for viral taxa with more than 100 reported reads. We manually filtered the results, removing ZIKV, bacteriophages, and known laboratory contaminants. For each sample and its associated taxa, we assembled genomes using viral-ngs as described above; the results are in Extended Data Table 1a. We used the following genomes for taxonomically filtering reads and as the reference for assembly: KJ741267.1 (cell fusing agent virus), AY292384.1 (deformed wing virus), NC_001477.1 (dengue virus type 1) and LC164349.1 (JC polyomavirus). When reporting sequence identity of an assembly to its taxon, we used BLASTN43 to determine the identity between the sequence and the reference used for its assembly. To focus on metagenomics of mosquito pools (Extended Data Table 1b), we considered unbiased sequencing data from eight mosquito pools (not including hybrid capture data). We first ran the depletion pipeline of viral-ngs on raw data and then ran the viral-ngs Trinity44 assembly pipeline on the depleted reads to assemble them into contigs. We pooled contigs from all mosquito pool samples and identified all duplicate contigs with sequence identity >95% using CD-HIT45. Additionally, we used predicted coding sequences from Prodigal 2.6.3 (ref. 46) to identify duplicate protein sequences at >95% identity. We classified contigs using BLASTN43 against nt and BLASTX43 against nr (as of February 2017) and discarded all contigs with an E value greater than 1 104. We define viral contigs as contigs that hit a viral sequence, and we manually removed all reverse-transcriptase-like contigs owing to their similarity to retrotransposon elements within the Aedes aegypti genome. We categorized viral contigs with less than 80% amino acid identity to their best hit as likely novel viral contigs. Supplementary Table 4 lists the unique viral contigs we found, their best hit, and information scoring the hit. Relationship between metadata and sequencing outcome To determine whether available sample metadata are predictive of sequencing outcome, we tested the following variables: sample collection site, patient gender, patient age, sample type, and the number of days between symptom onset and sample collection (collection interval). To describe sequencing outcome of a sample S, we used the following response variable Y S : mean ({I(R) * (number of unambiguous bases in R) for all amplicon sequencing replicates R of S }), where I(R) = 1 if median depth of coverage of R 275 and I(R) = 0 otherwise. This value is listed in Supplementary Table 1 under Dependent variable used in regression on metadata. We excluded the saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, and whole blood sample types owing to sample number (n = 1), and also excluded mosquito pool samples and rows with missing values. We excluded samples from one collection site (prefix JAM_2016_WI-) because most had missing values. We treated samples with type Plasma EDTA as having type Plasma. We treated the collection interval variable as categorical (01, 23, 46, and 7+ days). With a single model we underfit the zero counts, possibly because many zeros (samples without a replicate that passed ZIKV assembly) are truly ZIKV-negative. We thus view the data as coming from two processes: one determining whether a sample is ZIKV-positive or ZIKV-negative, and another that determines, among the observed passing samples, how much of a ZIKV genome we are able to sequence. We modelled the first process, predicting whether a sample is passing, with logistic regression (in R using GLM47 with binomial family and logit link); here, the observed passing samples are the samples S for which Y S 2,500. For the second, we performed a beta regression, using only the observed passing samples, of Y S divided by ZIKV genome length on the predictor variables. We implemented this in R using the betareg package48 and transformed fractions from the closed unit interval to the open unit interval as the authors suggest. To test the significance of predictor variables, we used a likelihood ratio test. For variable X i we compared a full model (with all predictors) against a model that used all predictors except X i . The results of these tests are shown in Extended Data Fig. 1a, d. We explored the effects of sample type and collection interval on obtaining a passing assembly in Extended Data Fig. 1b, c, respectively. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals derived from binomial distributions. We explored the effects of these same two variables on Y S (in passing samples only) in Extended Data Fig. 1e, f. Criteria for pooling across replicates We attempted to sequence one or more replicates of each sample and attempted to assemble a genome from each replicate. We discarded data from any replicates whose assembly showed high sequence similarity, in any part of the genome, to our assembly of the genome in a sample consisting of an African (Senegal) lineage (strain HD78788) of ZIKV. We used this sample as a positive control throughout this study, and considered its presence in the assembly of a clinical or mosquito pool sample to be evidence of contamination. Similarly, we discarded data from four replicates belonging to samples from the Dominican Republic because they yielded assemblies that were unexpectedly identical or highly similar to our assembly of the ZIKV isolate PE243 genome, another positive control used in this study. We also discarded data from replicates that showed evidence of contamination, at the RNA stage, by the baits used in hybrid capture; we detected these by looking for adapters that were added to these probes for amplification. For amplicon sequencing, we considered an assembly of a replicate to be passing if it contained at least 2,500 unambiguous base calls and had a median depth of coverage of at least 275 over its unambiguous bases (depth includes duplicate reads). For the unbiased and hybrid capture approaches, we considered an assembly of a replicate passing if it contained at least 4,000 unambiguous base calls. For each approach, the unambiguous base threshold was based on an observed density of negative controls below the threshold (Fig. 1a). For amplicon sequencing assemblies, we added a coverage depth threshold because coverage depth was roughly binary across replicates, with negative controls falling in the lower class. On the basis of these thresholds, 0 of 99 negative controls used throughout our sequencing runs yielded passing assemblies and 32 of 32 positive controls yielded passing assemblies. We considered a sample to have a passing assembly if any of its replicates, by either method, yielded an assembly that passed the above thresholds. For each sample with at least one passing assembly, we pooled read data across replicates for each sample, including replicates with assemblies that did not pass the assembly thresholds. When data were available from both amplicon sequencing and unbiased/hybrid capture approaches, we pooled amplicon sequencing data separately from data produced by the unbiased and hybrid capture approaches, the latter two of which were pooled together (henceforth, the hybrid capture pool). We then assembled a genome from each set of pooled data. When assemblies on pooled data were available from both approaches, we selected for downstream analysis the assembly from the hybrid capture approach if it had at least 10,267 unambiguous base calls (95% of the reference genome used, GenBank accession KX197192.1); when this condition was not met, we selected the one that had more unambiguous base calls. The number of ZIKV genomes publicly available before this study was the result of an NCBI GenBank35 search for ZIKV in February 2017. We filtered any sequences with length <4,000 nt, excluded sequences that are being published as part of this study or in refs 10, 11, excluded sequences from non-human hosts, and excluded sequences labelled as having been passaged. We counted fewer than 100 sequences, the precise number depending on details of the count. Visualization of coverage depth across genomes For amplicon sequencing data, we plotted coverage across the 110 samples that yielded a passing assembly by amplicon sequencing (Fig. 1b). With viral-ngs, we aligned depleted reads to the reference sequence KX197192.1 using the novoalign aligner with options -r Random -l 40 -g 40 -x 20 -t 100 -k. Because of the nature of amplicon sequencing, duplicates were not identified or removed. We binarized depth at each nucleotide position, showing red if depth of coverage was at least 100. Rows (samples) are hierarchically clustered to ease visualization. For hybrid capture sequencing data, we plotted depth of coverage across the 37 samples that yielded a passing assembly (Fig. 1c). We aligned reads as described above for amplicon sequencing data, except we removed duplicates. For each sample, we calculated the depth of coverage at each nucleotide position. We then scaled the values for each sample so that each would have a mean depth of 1.0. At each nucleotide position, we calculated the median depth across the samples, as well as the 20th and 80th percentiles. We plotted the mean of each of these metrics within a 200-nt sliding window. Multiple sequence alignments We aligned ZIKV consensus genomes using MAFFT v7.221 (ref. 49) with the following parameters: --maxiterate 1000 --ep 0.123 --localpair. In Supplementary Data, we provide sequences and alignments used in analyses. Analysis of within- and between-sample variants To measure overall per-base discordance between consensus genomes produced by amplicon sequencing and hybrid capture, we considered all sites at which base calls were made in both the amplicon sequencing and hybrid capture consensus genomes of a sample, and we calculated the fraction in which the bases were not in agreement. To measure discordance at polymorphic sites, we searched for positions with a polymorphism in all genomes generated in this study that we selected for downstream analysis (see Criteria for pooling across replicates for choosing among the amplicon sequencing and hybrid capture genome when both are available). We then looked at these positions in genomes that were available from both methods, and we calculated the fraction in which the alleles were not in agreement. To measure discordance at minor alleles, we searched for minor alleles in all genomes generated in this study that we selected for downstream analysis. We then looked at all sites at which there was a minor allele and for which genomes from both methods were available, and we calculated the fraction in which the alleles were not in agreement. For these calculations, we tolerated partial ambiguity (for example, Y is concordant with T). If one genome had full ambiguity (N) at a position and the other genome had an indel, we counted the site as discordant; otherwise, if one genome had full ambiguity, we did not count the site. After assembling genomes, we identified within-sample variants by running V-Phaser 2.0 via viral-ngs37 on all pooled reads mapping to each sample assembly. When determining per-library allele counts at each variant position, we modified viral-ngs to require a minimum base (Phred) quality score of 30 for all bases, discard anomalous read pairs, and use per-base alignment quality (BAQ) in its calls to SAMtools50 mpileup. This is particularly helpful for filtering spurious amplicon sequencing variants because all generated reads start and end at a limited number of positions (owing to the pre-determined tiling of amplicons across the genome). Because amplicon sequencing libraries were sequenced using 250-bp paired-end reads, bases near the middle of the ~450-nt amplicons fall at the end of both paired reads, where quality scores drop and incorrect base calls are more likely. To determine the overall frequency of each variant in a sample, we summed allele counts (calculated using SAMtools50 mpileup via viral-ngs) across libraries. When comparing variant frequencies between amplicon sequencing (seven technical replicates) and hybrid capture (seven technical replicates) replicates of the PE243 positive control (Fig. 1d), we included only positions at which the mean (pooled) frequency across replicates within at least one method was 1%. When comparing allele frequencies between replicate libraries, we restricted the sample set to only samples with a passing assembly in both methods, and included only samples with two or more replicates. By contrast, when comparing alleles across methods, we included samples that have a passing assembly by either method, with any number of replicates. For these comparisons, we included only positions with a minor variant; that is, positions for which both libraries/methods had an allele at 100% were removed, even if the single allele differed between the two libraries/methods. Additionally, we considered any allele with frequency <1% as not found (0%). When comparing allele frequencies across methods: let f a and f hc be frequencies in amplicon sequencing and hybrid capture, respectively. If both are non-zero, we included an allele only if the read depth at its position was 1/min(f a , f hc ) in both methods, and if depth at the position was at least 100 for hybrid capture and 275 for amplicon sequencing. If f a = 0, we required a read depth of max(1/f hc , 275) at the position in the amplicon sequencing method; similarly, if f hc = 0 we required a read depth of max(1/f a , 100) at the position in the hybrid capture method. This was to eliminate lack of coverage as a reason for discrepancy between two methods. When comparing allele frequencies across sequencing replicates within a method, we imposed only a minimum read depth (275 for amplicon sequencing and 100 for hybrid capture), but required this depth in both libraries. In samples with more than two replicates, we considered only the two replicates with the highest depth at each variant position. We considered allele frequencies from hybrid capture sequencing verified if they passed the strand bias and frequency filters described in ref. 25, with the exception that we imposed a minimum allele frequency of 1% and allowed a variant identified in only one library if its frequency was 5%. In Fig. 1f and Extended Data Table 3, we considered variants validated if they were present at 1% frequency in both libraries or methods. When comparing two libraries for a given method M (amplicon sequencing or hybrid capture): the proportion unvalidated is the fraction, among all variants in M at 1% frequency in at least one library, of the variants that are at 1% frequency in exactly one of the two libraries. Similarly, when comparing methods: the proportion unvalidated for a method M is the fraction, among all variants at 1% frequency in M, of the variants that are at 1% frequency in M and <1% frequency in the other method. We called SNPs on the aligned genomes using Geneious version 9.1.7 (ref. 51). We converted all fully or partially ambiguous calls, which are treated by Geneious as variants, into missing data. We then removed all sites that were no longer polymorphic from the SNP set and re-calculated allele frequencies. A nonsynonymous mutation is shown on the tree (Fig. 3b) if it includes an allele that is nonsynonymous relative to the ancestral state (see Molecular clock phylogenetics and ancestral state reconstruction section below) and has a minor allele frequency of >5%; all occurrences of nonsynonymous alleles are shown. (Two mutations, at positions 2,853 and 7,229, had nominal derived allele frequencies over 95%; in both cases, the ancestral allele was seen only in a small clade within the tree, suggesting that the ancestral allele was incorrectly assigned. These are not shown.) We placed mutations at a node such that the node leads only to samples with the mutation or with no call at that site. Uncertainty in placement occurs when a sample lacks a base call for the corresponding mutation; in this case, we placed the mutation on the most recent branch for which we have available data. We also used this ancestral ZIKV state to count the frequency of each type of substitution over various regions of the ZIKV genome, per number of available bases in each region (Fig. 3d and Supplementary Table 3). We quantified the effect of nonsynonymous mutations using the original BLOSUM62 scoring matrix for amino acids52, in which positive scores indicate conservative amino acid changes and negative scores unlikely or extreme substitutions. We assessed statistical significance for equality of proportions by 2 test (Fig. 3c, middle), and for difference of means by two-sample t-test with WelchSatterthwaite approximation of d.f. (Fig. 3c, right). Error bars are 95% confidence intervals derived from binomial distributions (Fig. 3c, left and middle; Fig. 3d) or Students t distributions (Fig. 3c, right). Maximum likelihood estimation and root-to-tip regression We generated a maximum likelihood tree using a multiple sequence alignment that included genomes generated in this study, as well as a selection of other available sequences from the Americas, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. The sequences are listed in Supplementary Information. We ran PhyML53 with the GTR substitution model and 4 gamma substitution rate categories; for the tree search operation, we used BEST (best of NNI and SPR). In FigTree v1.4.2 (ref. 54), we rooted the tree on the oldest sequence used as input (GenBank accession EU545988.1). We used TempEst v1.5 (ref. 55), which selects the best-fitting root with a residual mean squared function, to estimate root-to-tip distances. We performed regression in R with the lm function47 of distances on dates. The relationship between root-to-tip divergence and sample dates (Extended Data Fig. 2) supports the use of a molecular clock analysis in this study. In Supplementary Data, we provide the output of PhyML, as well as the dates and distances used for root-to-tip regression. Molecular clock phylogenetics and ancestral state reconstruction For molecular clock phylogenetics, we made a multiple sequence alignment from the genomes generated in this study combined with a selection of other available sequences from the Americas. We did not use sequences from outside the outbreak in the Americas. Among ZIKV genomes published and publicly available on NCBI GenBank35, we selected 32 from the Americas that had at least 7,000 unambiguous bases, were not labelled as having been passaged more than once, and had location metadata. We also used 32 genomes from Brazil published in ref. 10 that met the same criteria. The sequences are listed in Supplementary Information. We used BEAST v1.8.4 to perform molecular clock analyses56. We used sampled tip dates to handle inexact dates57. Because of sparse data in non-coding regions, we used only the CDS as input. We used the SRD06 substitution model on the CDS, which uses HKY with gamma site heterogeneity and partitions codons into two partitions (positions (1+2) and 3)58. To perform model selection, we tested three coalescent tree priors: a constant-size population, an exponential growth population, and a Bayesian Skyline tree prior (ten groups, piecewise-constant model)59. For each tree prior, we tested two clock models: a strict clock and an uncorrelated relaxed clock with log-normal distribution (UCLN)60. In each case, we set the molecular clock rate to use a continuous time Markov chain rate reference prior61. For all six combinations of models, we performed path-sampling (PS) and stepping-stone sampling (SS) to estimate marginal likelihood62,63. We sampled for 100 path steps with a chain length of 1 million, with power posteriors determined from evenly spaced quantiles of a Beta(alpha = 0.3; 1.0) distribution. The Skyline tree prior provided a better fit than the two other (baseline) tree priors (Extended Data Table 2), so we used this tree prior for all further analyses. Using a constant or exponential tree prior, a relaxed clock provides a better model fit, as shown by the log Bayes factor when comparing the two clock models. Using a Skyline tree prior, the log Bayes factor comparing a strict and relaxed clock is smaller than it is using the other tree priors, and it is similar to the variability between estimated log marginal likelihood from PS and SS methods. We chose to use a relaxed clock for further analyses, but we also report key findings using a strict clock. For the tree and tMRCA estimates in Fig. 2, as well as the clock rate reported in main text, we ran BEAST with 400 million MCMC steps using the SRD06 substitution model, Skyline tree prior, and relaxed clock model. We extracted clock rate and tMRCA estimates, and their distributions, with Tracer v1.6.0 and identified the maximum clade credibility (MCC) tree using TreeAnnotator v1.8.4. We visualised the tree in FigTree v1.4.2 (ref. 54). The reported credible intervals around estimates are 95% highest posterior density (HPD) intervals. When reporting substitution rate from a relaxed clock model, we give the mean rate (mean of the rates of each branch weighted by the time length of the branch). Additionally, for the tMRCA estimates in Fig. 2c with a strict clock, we ran BEAST with the same specifications (also with 400M steps) except using a strict clock model. The resulting data are also used in the more comprehensive comparison shown in Extended Data Fig. 3. For the data with an outgroup in Extended Data Fig. 3, we ran BEAST as specified above (with strict and relaxed clock models), except with 100 million steps and with outgroup sequences in the input alignment. The outgroup sequences were the same as those used to make the maximum likelihood tree (see Supplementary Information). For the data excluding sample DOM_2016_MA-WGS16-020-SER in Extended Data Fig. 3, we ran BEAST as specified above (with strict and relaxed clocks), except we removed the sequence of this sample from the input and ran 100 million steps. We used BEAST v1.8.4 to estimate transition and transversion rates within the CDS and non-coding regions. The model was the same as above except that we used the Yang96 substitution model on the CDS, which uses GTR with gamma site heterogeneity and partitions codons into three partitions64; for the non-coding regions, we used a GTR substitution model with gamma site heterogeneity and no codon partitioning. There were four partitions in total: one for each codon position and another for the non-coding region (5 and 3 UTRs combined). We ran this for 200 million steps. At each sampled step of the MCMC, we calculated substitution rates for each partition using the overall substitution rate, the relative substitution rate of the partition, the relative rates of substitutions in the partition, and base frequencies. In Extended Data Fig. 4, we plot the means of these rates over the steps; the error bars shown are 95% HPD intervals of the rates over the steps. We used BEAST v1.8.4 to reconstruct ancestral state at the root of the tree using CDS and non-coding regions. The model was the same as above except that, on the CDS, we used the HKY substitution model with gamma site heterogeneity and codons partitioned into three partitions (one per codon position). On the non-coding regions we used the same substitution model without codon partitioning. We ran this for 50 million steps and used TreeAnnotator v1.8.4 to find the state with the MCC tree. We selected the ancestral state corresponding to this state. In all BEAST runs, we discarded the first 10% of states from each run as burn-in. In Supplementary Data, we provide BEAST input (XML) and output files. We also provide the sequence of the reconstructed ancestral state. Principal component analysis We carried out principal component analysis using the R package FactoMineR65. We imputed missing data with the package missMDA66 and we show the results in Fig. 2d. Diagnostic assay assessment We extracted primer and probe sequences from eight published RTqPCR assays26,27,28,29,30,31 and aligned them to our ZIKV genomes using Geneious version 9.1.7 (ref. 51). We then tabulated matches and mismatches to the diagnostic sequence for all outbreak genomes, allowing multiple bases to match where the diagnostic primer and/or probe sequence contained nucleotide ambiguity codes (Fig. 3e). Data availability Sequence data that support findings of this study have been deposited in NCBI GenBank35 under BioProject accession PRJNA344504. Zika virus genomes have accession numbers KY014295 KY014327 and KY785409 KY785485. The dengue virus type 1 genome sequenced in this study has accession number KY829115. See Supplementary Table 1 for a mapping of sample names to accession numbers. A move into industry after a PhD may not bring immediate financial rewards, but it pays to know your strengths. Andy McLachlan had always intended for his PhD in chemistry to lead to a job in industry. His research at the University of Manchester, UK, had been funded by a pharmaceutical firm, and focused on using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to analyse the components in mixtures after chemical reactions. But when he started his search, it took him a year to land the industry position he wanted. With a doctorate, he didn't want to do routine work, and felt deserving of a salary that was higher than the 30,000 (US$39,000) or so that he would earn as a UK postdoc. But when the search turned up his ideal job as a technical specialist at a scientific software company in Toronto, Canada McLachlan took the salary offered, which was comparable to what he would have earned as a postdoc. Credit: Adapted from Getty Of course, I'm worth millions in reality, he jokes, but it's important to understand your hand. At the time, he says, securing the job, and recognizing the opportunities that it could lead to, mattered the most. He didn't feel comfortable negotiating a higher salary because the company knew that he needed the job. Several years later, McLachlan was able to push for a 30% higher salary with his current employer, UK-based Oxford Instruments, where he provides support for university and industry clients who use the company's nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers. Researchers who are transitioning from their degree or a postdoc into their first contract or permanent position outside academia are often unprepared when it comes to negotiating a compensation package. Many have spent years trying to satisfy the demands of a dissertation committee, but have thought little about how to market themselves or their research experience to a potential employer in industry. Some dislike talking about money, or don't recognize where they have leverage. Although there's no single best way to negotiate a wage packet, career advisers and experienced job seekers say that a few key principles can help junior researchers to secure the optimal package for a non-academic position. It's important for candidates to create, and stick to, a strategy, know the appropriate salary range, consider benefits beyond salary and remain confident about their value as an employee. Make a strategy Three years ago, cell biologist Juan Gabriel Giarrizzo thought that he could walk into any company in his discipline and command a high salary, but he's learnt otherwise. Giarrizzo, who works for informatics consulting firm LabAnswer in Sugar Land, Texas, soon realized after several interviews with different employers that his starting salary would be akin to the pay he might have received as a postdoc. He put his unrealistic expectations aside and accepted a job. But he also began thinking strategically about how he could increase his responsibilities, and his pay, in the future. He used LabAnswer's internal review process, which includes self-evaluations, to document the work he was doing, to set concrete goals and to demonstrate when he had accomplished those goals. He learnt to articulate clearly how his work benefited clients, and how it affected LabAnswer's bottom line. And he carefully considered when and how he would ask for a pay rise. Go in when you can show something tangible and sustainable that illustrates 'This is what I've done, and my target salary is this', he says. The preparation has paid off for Giarrizzo, who, after two reviews, now earns a salary that he thinks matches his current level of experience and responsibilities. Lauren Celano, co-founder and chief executive of Propel Careers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, encourages job candidates to be judicious. Candidates who have questions about pay should never just blurt them out during an interview, says Celano, who provides advice to people with PhDs seeking private-sector jobs. Instead, she says, they should e-mail or call the company's human-resources department to set up another time to talk. It's best, she adds, to prepare a few non-salary-related questions, so that the conversation isn't only about money. Candidates should write down what is most important to them, including money and other benefits, and be prepared with counter-proposals if a request is rejected. It's also crucial to keep a level head during negotiations. She has seen job offers pulled when applicants are inflexible or angry. Negotiators should always have a realistic, carefully conceived idea of what they want, or need, to earn. You have to come through that door with a figure in mind, Giarrizzo says. The problem, says business executive Joanne Kamens, who advises scientists on their career, is that many early-career scientists leap into the job-search process without first doing the legwork on potential pay. Any information you can get helps, says Kamens, who is executive director of the non-profit plasmid bank Addgene in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Kamens says that jobseekers often fail to seek out surveys or other resources that track pay (see 'Know what you should earn'). They also shy away from networking and making contacts in their field who could share insights. You have to know people well enough for them to tell you what they make, she advises. Make connections long before a specific job is in one's sights, she adds. Understanding what a job is likely to pay is empowering for nervous or timid jobseekers who might not have the gumption to ask for what they deserve, adds Celano. Some say, I'm a postdoc and I make $45,000. I'd be happy with $50,000, she says. I tell them, OK, but you should know what's standard. Another detail to keep in mind, Celano adds, is that compensation isn't only base pay. Some companies throw in bonuses or offer other perks such as stock incentives. For some, additional income is not as important as attending more conferences or getting the title that they want. PhDs aren't used to the non-salary sorts of compensation, Celano says. My first piece of advice is, always look at the whole package. Earlier in his career, before McLachlan joined Oxford Instruments, he accepted a better title at his then-employer instead of pushing for a pay rise or searching for a better-paid job because his priorities were to continue working at home in Manchester and to maintain control over his schedule. Child number two was on the horizon, and stability was necessary, he says. Kamens, who has a PhD in genetics, says that she has often bargained for extra holiday time instead of salary bumps. Jobseekers with a PhD often need to unlearn some habits from academia, suggests Carole Chapin, a consultant with the start-up Adoc Metis in Strasbourg, France, which works on human-resources policies for research careers. Many may need to train themselves to focus on the bottom line: a hiring committee doesn't need the nuanced discussion of experimental results that a dissertation panel might want. You'll be in competition with people who are focused on completion, Chapin says. In interviews it's better to be assertive and say, 'Yes, I have these skills, I finished a PhD and I defended it'. Similarly, she says, PhDs and postdocs need to present themselves as professionals with relevant work experience, rather than as candidates who have just emerged from training. Translate your research skills into a vocabulary that would be understandable for industry, Chapin says. Talk about project management, communication and operational skills. Giarrizzo touts his coding expertise, a skill that he argues many PhDs have. Victor de Graaff, who has a computer-science PhD and works as a freelance data scientist for ING Bank in Amsterdam, says that he always promotes his PhD experience when seeking a new assignment and negotiating terms. That he earned a doctorate shows that he's goal oriented and works well independently, he says. You don't get the PhD if you don't work hard, he says. If a company doesn't see the added value of the PhD, I don't want to work for them. Honesty, says McLachlan, is another quality of science PhDs that helps in salary negotiations. In science, he says, you're dealing in facts. By the same token, employers respect honesty. He negotiated a higher salary when he joined Oxford Industries by explaining in a letter why he deserved higher pay. In many nations, including the United Kingdom and the United States, the topic of salary is usually off the table at the first interview. But, says Kamens, by the time the subject does come up, the company really wants the candidate this, in turn, provides the potential employee with some leverage to bargain. Candidates may not get everything they want, but they also shouldn't avoid finding out what the employer is willing to pay. It never hurts to ask, she says. If someone offers you $90,000, and you say, 'I want $100,000', they may give you $94,000. Or they may say no, but they won't rescind the offer. And if they do, that would be weird. It's a lot of work to find a good person. But negotiation doesn't always work. Although asking for a 10% bump over an initial offer is generally reasonable, Celano says that she has noticed a trend for companies to start with their best offer and delay salary-increase discussions until the candidate has started work. In that case, she encourages candidates to ask for a performance review in six months instead of in a year. This still allows for an increase in annual compensation if the new employee performs well. In some nations, however, even that option isn't available. In Japanese culture, we don't negotiate, says Toshiyuki Misu at the Global Career Design Center at Hiroshima University, who studies the careers of people with PhDs. People just want to be hired, and they're afraid that, by negotiating, they won't get hired. They prefer to get employed first and not worry about the conditions, he says. Even in countries where negotiations are more accepted, some say that discussing salary is taboo. With Brits, people don't talk about salaries; it's the height of bad manners, says McLachlan. De Graaff, who has spent some time in the United States, says that Americans seem much more comfortable talking about money than do his European colleagues. But sometimes, negotiation while in a role doesn't lead anywhere, and that may mean it's time to leave. McLachlan's previous employer had started giving him less interesting work, and more of it, with no promise of a rise. It was up to me to make myself fit into something that didn't seem to exist, or move on, he says. In the end, everything worked out just as it should have, McLachlan says. I love my job. I get to travel, I get to meet lots of people, he says. I'm solving problems, I'm doing cool stuff. It's not megabucks, but I'm really proud of it. If it went south tomorrow I wouldn't regret a thing. When Ripley Ballou Rip to his friends started to feel sick at a party in 1987, he thought it was because of his friend's home-brewed beer. Left to right: Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Una Ryan, Bahija Jallal, Ripley Ballou. Credit: Illustration by Miles Donovan; photos: Val Adamson, Steffen Thalemann, MedImmune, GSK, Getty, Shutterstock Ballou was taking a break from his work on developing a malaria vaccine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, which he was doing in collaboration with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Back then, researchers could be a principal investigator as well as volunteer in their own projects. We had a great tradition at Walter Reed where it was normal if you were developing a vaccine you had to take it yourself and you got your friends to take it with you, Ballou says. So you'd walk down the hall and you'd get pulled in and they'd say, 'Would you be in my vaccine trial?' 'Sure, if you'll be in mine'. He and his colleagues injected themselves with a candidate, then allowed themselves to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. If the vaccine worked, it would mean they were well on their way to conquering a disease that may have killed half of all the people who have ever lived. He realized he was wrong about the beer when he got home from the party. He developed a fever of 39 C and the worst headache of his life. He had shaking chills, followed by a soaking sweat, in a cycle that was repeated half a dozen times over 48 hours. The experience had a profound impact. I had no appreciation of what malaria was until I had it, Ballou says. You're working on it, you read about it, you see people with it, but having it yourself was another experience and it made me want to beat that disease. Seeing people endure malaria during field trials of vaccine candidates in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is endemic, drove the point home. He especially remembers a young girl in a Burmese refugee camp bringing a sick baby to him. He ran across the camp with the baby in his arms to get to the hospital, where the child was treated and survived. This is a disease that really does touch people and families, and having had this disease myself and knowing how sick I was it's just hard to believe that people can survive in an environment where this is part of their daily life, he says. It kept me going. Personal experience, a love of science and a desire to make the world a better place are all factors that fortify researchers as they move through the long process of drug discovery. Shepherding a drug from the preclinical stage to regulatory approval can take a decade or more, and the journey from fundamental research to practical application can last even longer. For scientists facing that long slog sometimes with hypotheses that don't pan out, drug candidates that fail to meet their promise and funding that gets slashed a certain amount of emotional fortitude is necessary. Commitment to the cause You really have to be passionate about doing what you're doing. It helps to have passion for your work, says Bahija Jallal, who is executive vice-president of the biotechnology company MedImmune in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a subsidiary of the UK-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. It requires a very personal investment, and you're also working on a much bigger goal, which is helping patients, she says. But it's also not for the faint of heart. Drug development is tedious, it's long, it's hard, and so you really have to be passionate about doing what you're doing. She also feels lucky. Her team currently has 50 compounds at some stage of clinical development. But even with the best efforts, research does not always turn out so well, she says. There are some great scientists who will work their whole lives and will not be associated with one single medicine. For Ballou, persistence paid off. He remembers the day in 1997 when he got word that a vaccine candidate was actually working. He and his team had created a vaccine by adding an adjuvant to boost the immune response, and were testing it on volunteers. One weekend morning, he called the lab from his kitchen to get the day's test results. Whereas everyone in the control group was infected, six out of seven people on the vaccine were showing complete protection. He called his colleagues at GSK in Belgium with the good news. I can clearly remember just being euphoric about that success after so many years, he says. I mean it was literally ten years of failure, over and over again not really getting any significant protection. There were still years of work ahead, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the international non-profit organization PATH, both in Seattle, Washington. But GSK now has a malaria vaccine, and Ballou is vice-president and head of the GSK Global Vaccines US R&D Center in Rockville, Maryland. The vaccine will be distributed in a pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi beginning next year. Another GSK malaria researcher, Yannick Vanloubbeeck, admits that stumbling blocks sometimes get to him. Vanloubbeeck is head of preclinical research and development in Rixensart, Belgium, where he's working on ten other potential vaccines, some or all of which may never make it out of the lab. Obviously there is frustration, he says. Instead of getting discouraged, he tries to find out which candidates won't work as early as possible. The sooner you stop a programme it means the sooner that you start another one, he says. And if researchers understand the weaknesses of a drug candidate, it can help them to refine their research. Quarraisha Abdool Karim is philosophical about dud experiments. If we knew something would work we wouldn't need to do any research, says the epidemiologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and associate scientific director of CAPRISA (Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa) in Durban, South Africa. Even when something that you thought was going to work doesn't work, we learn a lot from that process. One of the challenges that Abdool Karim has had to face as a researcher is the social customs of rural South Africa. She is working on tackling the HIV epidemic there, where women often lack the standing to refuse sex or demand that men wear condoms, and has spent years on the hunt for methods that women could use to prevent infection. In 2010, she showed that women can halve their chance of contracting HIV if they use a gel containing the antiretroviral drug tenofovir at least 80% of the times they have sex (Q. Abdool Karim et al. Science 329, 11681174; 2010). Quarraisha Abdool Karim discusses the importance of HIV prevention with young women in South Africa. Credit: Loreal Foundation That was the first demonstration that a woman-initiated approach could work. To be able to make some contribution to that is quite an incredible feeling, Abdool Karim says. But it also is a really sobering moment knowing that the work needs to continue. Her clinical trials put her in direct contact with the women she's trying to help, and knowing them motivates her. They are a constant reminder of the urgency for women-initiated technologies, she says. Childhood dream For Una Ryan, the desire to help people through science came early. When she was five, her aunt took her to see her first film; a story by some missionaries about a little boy with leprosy who was taken away from his family. I just decided there and then that was heartbreaking and when I grew up I was going to be a missionary doctor, cure all the dread diseases in the world, she says. You know these great noble thoughts you have as an impractical child. Not that impractical, it turns out. She wound up as a researcher at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida. My career at the beginning was very much driven by innate curiosity, but also personal tragedies that made me want to discover how things work, she says. At the time, her father was dying from complications from high blood pressure, and she'd had a premature son who died from respiratory distress. She wanted to explore what lay behind those conditions, so she looked at where breathing and blood pressure intersected. Her studies of capillaries, where gases pass between the bloodstream and the lungs, led to her discover that these small vessels contain angiotensin-converting enzymes (ACEs), which help to regulate the volume of fluids. Based in part on her findings, scientists went on to develop ACE inhibitors, which are widely used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. Ryan even takes one herself, which she calls a positive kind of poetic justice. She's had other successes, too. She was president and chief executive of Avant Immunotherapeutics in Needham, Massachusetts, which in partnership with GSK developed Rotarix, an oral vaccine against rotavirus in infants, which she estimates saves about 400,000 lives a year. She does not want to measure her success with hard numbers, though. I did not want to have on my gravestone, 'She saved X million lives' with a sort of tally of things, Ryan says. I wanted to leave behind something that people wouldn't have had if I hadn't been here. The difference between life and death Mark O'Connor knows the ups and downs that drug development can take. He joined a biotech start-up KuDOS Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, UK in 1999 to work on the DNA damage response. A number of biological pathways check for and correct errors as cells replicate, but some of them are disabled in cancer cells. Steve Jackson, a molecular biologist at the University of Cambridge and founder of KuDOS, thought that if an inhibitor could be discovered to block the ones that persist in tumour cells, it would make an efficient cancer-specific therapy. The team eventually identified olaparib. The drug showed promise in cancers with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 two genes that are normally involved in repairing DNA damage and, when mutated, are linked to some breast and other tumours. As with most small companies, there were struggles with money. O'Connor remembers the uncertainty when early funding was running out and new sources had not been secured, but he learned to set that worry aside. If you spend all your time worrying about things you can't control then that's not good for you, so we just focused on delivering the science, he says. By 2005, the company had made enough progress to be acquired by AstraZeneca, which helped to ramp up the research. But progress stalled. It had decided to test olaparib on a broader sample of ovarian cancers, not just those with BRCA mutations. The results seemed promising, but regulatory agencies wanted more data on long-term survival, and in 2011, the company decided not to go into phase III trials. Rather than give up, the researchers refocused their efforts on just the cancers with BRCA mutations. They collected enough data that in 2012 they convinced the new AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, to move to phase III testing. Olaparib was ultimately approved in 2014 by both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Not long ago, O'Connor, now a chief scientist at AstraZeneca, was reminded of the real impact of the drug's success. A patient who had been taking olaparib wanted to meet the scientists who developed it. The 5-year survival rate for people with end-stage ovarian cancer is just 17%, but this woman had responded well to chemotherapy and had been taking olaparib for more than six years to stop the tumour from growing again. She told O'Connor and his colleagues that the treatment had kept her alive to see two new grandchildren. It was just brilliant, O'Connor says. She just was really thankful, and she encouraged myself and other people who had been working on this 'you just need to keep going', because it had made such a difference to their lives. Initial necropsy results on the dead blue whale washed ashore northern California revealed that the whale most likely died after being struck by a ship. Found at Agate Beach in Bolinas, the 79 feet long female blue whale appears to have a major blunt force trauma along its left side. "We found out that it was blunt force trauma due to a boat strike," said Barbie Halaska, a biologist and research assistant at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, in a report from Mercury News. "The whole left side of her body was damaged. We found 10 broken ribs and 10 fractured vertebrae near the tail and mid-body." According to the report from the Huffington Post, the dead blue whale is included in the database of Cascadia Research Collective. They noted that the tail of the blue whale is similar to the photographs in the database. This whale has been spotted 11 different years since 1999 and was most often observed off Santa Barbara. Aside from the broken ribs and vertebrae, the blue whale also suffered hemorrhage and necrotic muscle along its left side. Its skull also shows signs of blunt force trauma. The death of the whale is surely saddening. However, the scientific community sees this event as an opportunity to study a fresh carcass of a blue whale. "It is a tragedy that this whale's story ended due to vessel collision," commented Halaska in a report from SF Gate. "These types of examinations have enabled the scientific community to make recommendations for slower shipping speeds and route changes, and hopefully that will help future whales." Full necropsy report will be available in two weeks. The carcass of the whale was left on the beach decay or be eaten by birds. Towing the whale's body back to the sea is difficult due to the reef along the Agate beach. Climate change alters many aspects on Earth. The threat is imminent, and more and more people are finally acknowledging the risks posed by the changing times. A new NASA research says that climate change will cause more rainfall in tropical regions that are typically sunny. According to a new NASA study called "Tightening of Tropical Ascent and High Clouds Key to Precipitation Change in a Warmer Climate," as the climate continues to warm up, there will be a significant increase in rainfall. The study was recently published in the journal Nature and was led by NASA scientist Hui Su from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Using climate change models, experts reveal that in the future, humans will experience a small amount of rain and a decrease in high clouds in tropical regions due to global warming. There will also be fewer clouds but a heavier amount of rain in some regions. NASA scientists explain that this is because rainfall is not entirely linked to clouds. Heat in the atmosphere will also get trapped in tropical clouds. With fewer clouds, the tropical atmosphere will be cooler but the heat will be trapped in a layer. The warmer the climate, the fewer high clouds will be created. Nature will then try to balance things out and will heighten tropical rainfall due to the trapped heat from the air. Scientists compared older data from 23 climate simulations to see the results. They backed up the claims with satellite data from the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and ground-based instruments. This is how scientists found out that the predicted amount of rainfall was underestimated due to the continuous surface warming or climate change in the recent times. The new study will help researchers enhance their systems used to predict precipitation change. A new project by German scientists, engineers and science communicators plans to make baking in the International Space Station (ISS) possible with the help of crumb-free bread and a specialized oven. The Problem With Crumbs The project, dubbed as "Bake in Space," is considered by some to be an ambitious goal. Bread can be pretty dangerous at microgravity as crumbs floating around in space shuttles or the ISS could get into the eyes of the astronauts or cause damage to the equipment. Due to this, bread has been banned in space. "As space tourism takes off and people spend more time in space we need to allow bread to be made from scratch," said Sebastian Marcu, founder of Bake In Space, in a report from New Scientists. At present, astronauts living in the ISS are using tortilla wraps as an alternative to bread. Just like tortilla wraps, bread that is tough and chewy won't produce any crumbs. However, this kind of bread is also unpalatable. Due to this, the Bake in Space company and German Aerospace Centre is developing a new dough mixture that could yield a palatable crumb-free bread. Space-Friendly Oven Aside from the special dough mixture, Bake in Space also needs to develop a special type of oven that could be delivered to and used by astronauts at the ISS. This oven should operate at 250 watts and have an exterior surface temperature not exceeding 45 degree Celsius. One possibility researchers are looking into is vacuum baking. In vacuum baking, the pressure inside the oven is lowered. Lower atmospheric pressure could decrease the boiling point of water. This means the lower pressure inside the oven could bake bread at lower temperatures. The initial concept of the Bake in Space project was made in October 2016. After proving proof that their project is feasible, the company, along with their partners, officially launched the project in May 2017. The company plans to launch their project to the ISS in June 2018. The state Attorney General's Office is considering filing felony embezzlement charges against a Bay Area district attorney for his alleged personal use of campaign funds, according to court documents obtained by NBC Bay Area on Tuesday. The investigation into Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson stems from his alleged use of $66,000 in campaign monies for personal expenses, according to an affidavit filed by the state AG's Office. A search done last month of Peterson's bank accounts revealed campaign committee funds were used to pay for items at grocery and jewelry stores and other retailers such as Guitar Center, court documents show. Committee funds were also transferred multiple times into Peterson's personal bank accounts. According to a search warrant return, investigators last week detained Peterson in Antioch while they seized his iPhone, iPad and appointment calendar as evidence to support felony charges. "There's no doubt that what's happened to Mr. Peterson casts shadows over the employees at the office and the good work we do every day," deputy district attorney Kristen Busby said. Peterson says he simply borrowed the money and had intended to pay it back. But the affidavit says Peterson failed to disclose he'd borrowed any money. Investigators are also considering possible felony perjury charges. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys said the criminal investigation is warranted. "The appearance is horrifying. The appearance is somebody who's committing crimes is prosecuting other people," defense attorney Dan Russo said. "He's a bright guy, he's a good lawyer. What was he thinking?" Peterson not only faces the possible criminal charges, but a civil grand jury also filed an accusation calling for his removal from office. He will appear before a judge on that matter Wednesday. Peterson did not respond to repeated requests for comment Tuesday. Emergency crews contained a four-alarm vegetation fire in northern Vallejo Tuesday afternoon, a fire spokesman said. The fire was reported just after 2 p.m. in the vicinity of Bennington Drive in the Hiddenbrooke area. The Vallejo Fire Department has requested mutual aid from other firefighters in the area, according to spokesman Kevin Brown. No injuries had been reported and no structures were threatened, Brown said. Fire crews responded to a JC Penney store in Antioch where an unknown substance was released and sickened nearly a dozen people, according to the Contra Costa Fire District. Fire officials reported 11 people were affected by the release, and two were transported to a hospital. The initial call came at about 6:30 p.m. A hazmat team also was called to the scene, fire officials said. They said the release was confined to the JC Penney store, and hazmat crews were preparing to enter the building a little after 8 p.m. The nature of victims' illnesses was not provided. One adult was transported immediately with breathing problems, fire officials said. The second transported patient was a minor, they said. All other victims declined to go to the hospital. No further details were available. New details Tuesday in the case of an alleged racial "kill list" at a South Bay high school show that despite a sheriff's office investigation, the threats didn't stop. A day after it was revealed an African-American student at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino filed a civil complaint against the school district, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith released a statement saying her office launched a criminal investigation into the incident in September and recently submitted its findings to the county DA's Office. But the threats have not stopped, according to the student's attorney, Richard Richardson. He said a Monta Vista student used a school computer on April 24 to post that his goal for the day was to kill black people. Richardson also revealed details on the alleged kill list post on Instagram in September. "They talked about my client, who is a minor, and this is a specific credible threat, that they would blow her away with bullets," he said. "And they even said how many bullets it would take." In the civil complaint, which accuses the Fremont Union High School District of negligence, the student said she feared for her life after seeing her name on the alleged kill list, and that fear forced her to transfer to another school. The complaint alleges the district knew about the threats and failed to take action. At a community meeting Tuesday, parents, community leaders and officials were outraged at the incident and the response. "I'm really wondering what happened, where's the disconnect," said David Kennedy of the Santa Clara County Office of Education. "This was a kill list, and if the situation was flipped and there was a black student accused of posting a kill list for white people, I doubt the response would be the same." The school district issued a statement Monday, saying administrators immediately investigated the incident, took appropriate disciplinary action and notified the sheriff's office. Smith said in her statement that hate crimes will not be tolerated. "It is a failure of our community to allow racist, vile and misogynist discourse to flow freely within adolescent interactions," she said. "As community caretakers, we share in the responsibility of educating our youth that words matter, and we must conduct ourselves with deference, empathy and compassion. Such hateful rhetoric should not be allowed to grow in the minds of the impressionable." The alleged kill list threatened to kill or shoot all black students at the school. The student suffered mental and emotional distress and was forced to transfer to another school out of fear for her life, the complaint said. According to court documents, some students on the Monta Vista campus repeatedly harassed the student because of her race, frequently calling her the "n" word. The complaint, filed on behalf of the girl's mother last month, also alleged students labeled themselves kill spree masters on social media and named all African-American students at school. The district also breached the education code by failing to investigate the allegations thoroughly and notify parents, the complaint said. A deadly shooting rampage at a UPS facility in San Francisco Wednesday morning prompted city officials to issue condolences to the victims as well as condemn the violent act. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee immediately took to Twitter, decrying the shooting as a "senseless act of violence." "We are always saddened by the loss of life to gun violence," Lee tweeted. "Any shooting is one shooting too many." [NATL-BAY]Gunman Opens Fire at UPS Facility in San Francisco Scott Wiener, representing San Francisco on the California State Senate, shared his thoughts and prayers with the victims and their families. "Praying for the shooting victims at the UPS facility in San Francisco," he tweeted. "Way too many shootings in this country. It's depressing." Toney Chaplin, the assistant police chief for San Francisco Police Department, said the deadly shooting at a UPS facility is a tragedy that has touched many lives today. California Senator Kamala Harris echoed her colleagues' heartache and called for an end to gun violence. "The news of a senseless act of gun violance at the San Francisco UPS facility is heartbreaking," she tweeted. "Please keep the community in your prayers." Jane Kim, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, also offered a similar sentiment by writing #gunviolencemustend in her post-shooting tweet. Stay tuned for more details regarding this developing story. Popular droning sites along the San Francisco Peninsula no longer allow the use of any unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) following a park superintendent order. While drones are currently allowed in California State Parks, local district superintendents are allowed to ban them at any of its local sites. Christopher Spohrer, the Santa Cruz District Superintendent joined other regional park districts in May when he signed new restrictions on drone use at its parks. Santa Cruz District's new order is not yet online, but a notice should be posted at all parks and beaches it is being enforced. It includes restrictions on all use of model aircraft, UAS or gliders at any the state parks and beaches in its district, which encompasses the Santa Cruz Mountains as well as the parks along the coast from Watsonville to Half Moon Bay, including Half Moon Bay State Beach, New Brighton State Beach, Pescadero State Beach, Pomponio State Beach and San Gregorio State Beach. The Bay Area District previously restricted model aircraft and UAS in September, which included Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, as well as all parks in the East Bay Regional Park District. Spots You Can Still Legally Fly Your Drone in the Bay Area Where to Fly Your Drones in the Bay Area: Airplane Hill, located south of the four-corner intersection on Panoramic Highway in Mount Tamalpais State Park, is the only exception to the ban at state parks in the Bay Area District. A grassy field in the upper parking lot of Seacliff State Beach was also excluded from the Santa Cruz District. Shoreline Muir Beach Overlook and Fort Funston are also open to drone use when hang gliders and para-gliders are not in the air, according to the National Park Service. Know Before You Fly Between the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) easing its unmanned aircraft guidelines last year and new drone models being released each year, more drones are in the air than ever. According to a FAA report, sales of consumer drones were expected to spike from 2.6 million drones in 2016 to 7 million in 2020 with some of the highest concentrated users in the Silicon Valley. Here are some things to keep in mind before you fly: Yahoo was officially acquired by Verizon Tuesday, ending an era for the one-time dot com wunderkind, NBC News reported. And its CEO, Marissa Mayer, who has been one of the most high-profile female executives in Silicon Valley, wrote on her Tumblr that she'll be leaving the company. "While reaching this moment has certainly been a long road traveled, it marks the end of an era for Yahoo, as well as the beginning of a new chapter it's an emotional time for all of us," she said. "Given the inherent changes to my role, I'll be leaving the company." An earlier company filing in the $4.48 billion deal revealed Mayer is receiving a $23 million golden parachute. Police arrested a woman they say caused a disturbance while on board an American Airlines flight and then assaulted an officer. KLAS-TV reports Las Vegas Metropolitan Police received a request Tuesday to meet a flight from Chicago at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport after a woman on board allegedly assaulted a passenger and a flight crew member during the flight. Las Vegas resident Ryan Flanigan says he was an assault victim in the incident. Flanigan says the woman claimed there was a carbon monoxide leak on the plane and President Donald Trump was going to fix it. After asking her to quiet down, Flanigan says the woman punched him. While being escorted off the plane, police say the woman assaulted one of the officers and was placed under arrest. More than 230 flights have been canceled at O'Hare and Midway international airports as severe weather threatens the Chicago area. A bulk of the cancelations 232 were at O'Hare, which was reporting an average delay of 51 minutes. Midway reported one cancellation and an average delay of 44 minutes. Periods of scattered showers and thunderstorms, some possibly becoming strong to severe, developed in Chicago's far west suburbs early Wednesday afternoon. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued across the area, from west central McHenry County to Cook County and Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana. The National Weather Service warned of quarter-size hail, high wind gusts and wind damage to roofs, siding and trees in those areas. The warning also was issued in Lake, Grundy, Kankakee and Livingston counties and extended in McHenry County. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued across the Chicago area into northwest Indiana until 8 p.m. Developing storms could move east toward Chicago later in the afternoon and into northwest Indiana by about 8 or 9 p.m. If the atmosphere destabilizes a second time Wednesday evening, another round of storms could also move into the area. The entire Chicago area is under a "slight" risk for severe weather, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are forecast to reach into the upper-80s and low-90s with heat index readings of up to 100 degrees. The warm weather was already met with some storms Tuesday afternoon, prompting warnings in some parts of northern Illinois. More rain is expected Thursday morning before a dry stretch in the afternoon, while showers and storms could then return late Thursday night through the day on Friday and into the weekend. Even with storms possible, high temperatures are forecasted to stay in the upper 80s through the weekend before cooling to around 78 degrees on Sunday. Democratic lawmakers, led by Connecticut's Sen. Richard Blumenthal, are suing President Donald Trump over foreign money flowing into his global business empire. Almost 200 senators and representatives are plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging Trump is violating the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution. It's being filed early Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawmakers said. The plaintiffs argue they have standing to sue because the clause says only Congress may approve foreign gifts and payments. "The framers gave Congress a unique role, a unique right and responsibility," said Blumenthal, who helped organize the lawsuit. Although Trump turned over control of his real estate development, management and marketing company to his adult sons and a senior executive, he did not divest from it. That means he stands to benefit financially from the Trump Organization's profits, including from foreign governments. Since he's become president, the Trump Organization has secured dozens of potentially valuable patents, including in China, and collected fees from lobbyists working for Saudi Arabia and other countries using his properties. The new suit - the third of its kind - says the full scope of foreign payments to the Trump Organization cannot be known because the president has not made public his tax returns. Earlier this week, two Democratic attorneys general filed a similar claim. Days after Trump's inauguration in January, a liberal-funded government watchdog filed an emoluments lawsuit. A restaurant group and two individuals in the hotel industry later joined as co-plaintiffs. Trump and the Justice Department have called these lawsuits baseless. They argue the clause isn't intended to prevent normal business such as hotel payments and real estate transactions. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said he and Blumenthal have amassed the "greatest number of congressional plaintiffs on any lawsuit against a president." He said they're taking the action "not out of any sense of pleasure or partisanship but because President Trump has left us with no other option." Ahead of the filing, only Democrats were asked to sign on, but Blumenthal and Conyers plan to send letters to their Republican colleagues Wednesday asking them to join the effort. Senators will discuss the lawsuit further at a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Speaking following an event held at the Mohegan Sun Casino, Tribal Chairman Kevin Brown said the governor and the federal government are all on the same page when it comes to authorizing the states first casino off tribal land. Ryan Zinke, the secretary of the Department of the Interior, spoke during the event, a significant appearance for the groups in attendance and for the state, Brown said. "It was really monumental to see the state of Connecticuts governor Dannel Malloy stand with the secretary of the interior particularly in the shadow of this agreement that weve struck with the state to build a third casino," Brown said. The Connecticut General Assembly approved legislation last week that would allow the Mashantucket and Mohegan tribes to build and operate a casino in East Windsor. Since there is no tribal land in East Windsor, it would become the states first commercial casino. Malloy said Tuesday that he thinks the legislation and legal reasoning are sound, which will likely to lead his signature on the bill. The governor said recent guidance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs factored into his and lawmakers decisions. "I dont think that without the advisory opinion from the BIA to begin with, I dont think the legislature would have sent that package to me and so you know I think those two things are very much linked," Malloy said. MGM has been the loudest voice against the process that would allow solely the tribes to operate a third casino. MGM, which will open a new casino north of the Connecticut border in Springfield, Massachusetts later this year, has argued and lobbied for an open competitive bid process. The vision from MGMs standpoint, has been for a casino closer to the New York City market. To that end, MGM employed the law firm of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who penned a letter to Connecticuts Attorney General, warning of "serious questions," and constitutional concerns surrounding the closed casino award process. Malloy could sign the legislation as soon as it reaches his desk, which could be tomorrow. Kevin Brown with the Mohegan Tribe said just having Zinke in attendance this week could provide a guide for the future of the third casino. "Governor Malloy and Secretary Zinke had a very fulsome conversation that identified and recognized the respect that the federal government has for our relationship with the state of Connecticut and they support what were doing with the state of Connecticut," Brown said. A new statement from NBC Connecticut can be found at the bottom of this article. Megyn Kelly defended her decision to feature "InfoWars" host Alex Jones on her NBC newsmagazine despite taking heat this week from families of Sandy Hook shooting victims saying it's her job to "shine a light" on newsmakers. Critics argue that NBC's platform legitimizes the views of a man who, among other conspiracy theories, has suggested that the killing of 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 was a hoax. The network released a brief portion of the interview, which is scheduled to air on Sunday. Kelly, who interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin on the June 4 premiere of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly," said on Twitter that President Donald Trump has praised Jones and been on his show. Since many people don't know Jones and his views, Kelly noted the importance of explaining them. NBC hasn't immediately commented on the criticism. But the executive producer of Kelly's show, Liz Cole, told CNN that Jones does not go unchallenged. "Until you see the full program, in the full context, I wouldn't judge it too much," Cole said. "Judge it when you see it. Megyn does a strong interview. We're not just giving him a platform." Nelba Marquez-Greene, whose 6-year-old daughter Ana Grace was killed at Sandy Hook, said she fears that giving Jones exposure would encourage Jones' followers who have harassed her and others. "You can't just put him in a box and say he's just a character," Marquez-Greene said. "He's really hurting people." A year ago, a New York City man who was a follower of Jones was sentenced to probation after approaching a sister of slain Sandy Hook teacher Victoria Soto during a charity road race and angrily claiming the shootings never took place. On Facebook, Soto's family said the "incessant need for ratings at the cost of the emotional well-being of our family is disgusting and disappointing." Lenny Pozner, father to slain student Noah Pozner, wrote an op-ed in the Hartford Courant Wednesday detailing the threats and harrassment he has faced from hoaxers. "The very fact that Jones has some semblance of influence over our president's thinking speaks to my position that we should challenge his warped and pernicious views out in the open public forum," Pozner said. "Let him have his 15 minutes under the bright lights. Maybe then people will see the monster that he truly is." In an interview clip released by NBC, Kelly said to Jones, "When you say people faked their childrens' deaths, people get very angry." When he tried to change the subject, Kelly said, "that's a dodge." The network has been taken aback by the response to booking Jones, the "Infowars" host who has questioned whether the killing of 26 people in 2012 at the school in Newton, Connecticut, was a hoax. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said the story will be edited with the sensitivity of its critics in mind. "It's important to get it right," Lack said. Reporters have interviewed controversial characters like Syrian President Bashar Assad and child molesters in the past without getting this kind of a reaction, Kelly said in an interview Tuesday. "What I think we're doing is journalism," she said. "The bottom line is that while it's not always popular, it's important. I would submit to you that neither I nor NBC News has elevated Alex Jones in any way. He's been elevated by 5 or 6 million viewers or listeners, and by the president of the United States. As you know, journalists don't get the choice over who has power or influence in our country." Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun violence group, said it had asked Kelly to step down as host of its Wednesday-night gala in Washington. The group cannot support Kelly or NBC's decision to give a platform to Jones and hopes NBC reconsiders its plan to broadcast the interview, said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director. Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed at Sandy Hook, founded the organization with Mark Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son Daniel. Kelly said she understood and respected the decision, but was disappointed. NBC's plans have cost it some advertisers for this week's edition of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly." It was not immediately clear how many; only the financial firm JPMorgan Chase has been publicly identified. "That comes with the territory," Lack said. "It's not unusual. We kind of know when we're doing controversial stories, that's going to happen. It doesn't stop us from doing controversial stories." To some critics, NBC's timing makes the decision worse airing on Father's Day an interview that has been publicly denounced by parents who lost young children at Sandy Hook. NBC said it was scheduled for competitive reasons, because Jones had been booked to appear on ABC's daytime show "The View" next week. A representative of "The View" said Jones had canceled his appearance there and he will not be rescheduled. Lack noted that he had suggested approaching Jones for an interview to David Corvo, the NBC News executive who supervises the network's newsmagazines. He said there's nothing new about putting people on the air even if they're unpopular or have views that are deplorable to many. "I've got tremendous understanding of why they're so upset, as they have every right to be," he said. "Of course we're looking at it. We're looking at the editorial process." NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said the story will be edited with the sensitivity of its critics in mind. "It's important to get it right," Lack said. Reporters have interviewed controversial characters like Syrian President Bashar Assad and child molesters in the past without getting this kind of a reaction, Kelly said in an interview Tuesday. "What I think we're doing is journalism," she said. "The bottom line is that while it's not always popular, it's important. I would submit to you that neither I nor NBC News has elevated Alex Jones in any way. He's been elevated by 5 or 6 million viewers or listeners, and by the president of the United States. As you know, journalists don't get the choice over who has power or influence in our country." Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun violence group, said it had asked Kelly to step down as host of its Wednesday-night gala in Washington. The group cannot support Kelly or NBC's decision to give a platform to Jones and hopes NBC reconsiders its plan to broadcast the interview, said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director. Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed at Sandy Hook, founded the organization with Mark Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son Daniel. Kelly said she understood and respected the decision, but was disappointed. NBC's plans have cost it some advertisers for this week's edition of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly." It was not immediately clear how many; only the financial firm JPMorgan Chase has been publicly identified. "That comes with the territory," Lack said. "It's not unusual. We kind of know when we're doing controversial stories, that's going to happen. It doesn't stop us from doing controversial stories." To some critics, NBC's timing makes the decision worse airing on Father's Day an interview that has been publicly denounced by parents who lost young children at Sandy Hook. NBC said it was scheduled for competitive reasons, because Jones had been booked to appear on ABC's daytime show "The View" next week. A representative of "The View" said Jones had canceled his appearance there and he will not be rescheduled. Lack noted that he had suggested approaching Jones for an interview to David Corvo, the NBC News executive who supervises the network's newsmagazines. He said there's nothing new about putting people on the air even if they're unpopular or have views that are deplorable to many. "I've got tremendous understanding of why they're so upset, as they have every right to be," he said. "Of course we're looking at it. We're looking at the editorial process." After his interview had been taped, Jones denounced it on "InfoWars" as "fake news, in my view." He said he expected a "rigged" report because a day's worth of interviews will be boiled down to an 11-minute report. "They're scared of what we're covering," he said. "They're scared of what we're doing." Jones also described Kelly as not feminine, cold and robotic. "I felt zero attraction to Megyn Kelly," he said. Jones went on to call for Kelly to "cancel the airing of our interview for misrepresenting my views on Sandy Hook." Among Kelly's social media critics was Shannon Watts, the founder of the anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action, who suggested that Kelly "turn your light off and let him back under the refrigerator." NBC Connecticut wanted to share the following statement Wednesday on the upcoming Megyn Kelly interview: "Whenever there is news regarding the Sandy Hook tragedy, the pain resurfaces for our community and our viewers. With the upcoming interview airing on Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly, WVIT NBC Connecticut will make sure to give voice to those most affected by the tragedy, and most impacted by the interview. On Tuesday's 11 p.m. newscast, we interviewed Sandy Hook mother Nicole Hockley for her perspective. Additionally, anchor Kevin Nathan is in Washington, DC tonight to cover the Sandy Hook Promise Champions gala. As part of that reporting, we are talking to local parents and covering their commitment to change. We will continue our coverage throughout the week, including a special report on our Sunday 11 p.m. newscast after Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly. NBC Connecticut is committed to giving the Sandy Hook families a voice, today, tomorrow and in the future." A Clinton woman is frustrated with the United States Postal Service (USPS) after her spinning wheel, worth $1,000, was lost in the mail and her insurance claim was denied. Crafts enthusiast Taylor Chona, who is an avid knitter, funneled her passion for spinning yarn from wool, silk and banana fibers, into refinishing spinning wheels themselves. Over the years, Chona purchased, refinished and sold several wheels painted with different designs. She found a buyer for her latest work online at Ravelry.com, a web forum for knitting, weaving and crochet aficionados. Her buyer agreed to pay $1,000 for the spinning wheel, plus the cost of shipping and insurance through USPS. A few days after mailing the package, Chona checked the tracking information online and was surprised to see it stopped in Tennessee, short of its destination in New Orleans. Chona said she called USPS and was informed the package had been lost. She filed an insurance claim but said her claim and subsequent appeal were both denied almost immediately. "They said I needed to submit more proof of value," Chona said. She filed a second appeal, but she said, "It didnt go anywhere. I waited two to three weeks and nothing happened with the claim." After NBC Connecticut Responds reached out to the postal service, they reviewed the case and approved her claim for $1,042. A spokesperson for USPS provided this statement advising those who buy insurance for valuable items they want to mail that, it is important for the mailers to remember that they must be able to prove the value of the items mailed with appropriate documentation of their value. The spinning wheel, featuring Chona's irreplaceable artwork, remains missing, though she said the USPS informed her they are looking for the package. In the meantime, Taylor is moving forward and already started painting her latest design on a new wheel. She told us she might sell when shes finished, but said, I dont think Id put it through the mail again. I think Id sell it locally. A man was hospitalized from a condition caused by a rare disease after eating fried red snapper at a Connecticut shoreline restaurant, an official with Ledge Light Health District said. The 36-year-old man was admitted to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London for about three weeks after consuming the contaminated fish in April, said Russ Melmed, epidemiologist and supervisor of health education and community outreach for Ledge Light. Melmed said two day after eating the red snapper, the man suffered from Rhabdomyolysis, a condition that can be caused by Haff disease. The condition causes a breakdown of skeletal muscle and can damage the kidneys, Melmed said. Haff disease is so rare, that Melmed said experts are still trying to identify the specific toxin that's suspected of causing Haff disease. Its believed that it's a toxin because the cases of Haff disease are always associated with somebody who's eaten cooked fish. So, the cooking process kills bacteria, kills viruses the things that normally cause you to become ill," Melmed said. Melmed would not identify the restaurant nor the man, who was on dialysis at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, according to Melmed. That patient is no longer at the hospital, confirmed hospital spokesperson Michael OFarrell. O'Farrell said seeing cases linked to Haff disease are "incredibly rare". Maura Downes, director of communications for the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), said there have only been around 30 cases of Haff disease in the United States. The DPH communications director would not comment on the recent case in Connecticut but said Haff disease is believed to occur when fish is not stored at the proper temperature on the boat or on the dock. The restaurant would not be at the fault for Haff disease. Ledge Light Health District is the local health department for East Lyme, Groton, New London, Old Lyme, Stonington, Ledyard and Waterford. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela announced late Monday his Central American country would switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China, a move analysts said is a major success to Beijing in its drive to isolate the self-governing island it claims as its own territory. In a televised address on Monday Varela said Panama, which has strategic significance to China, was upgrading its commercial ties with Beijing and establishing full diplomatic links with the second most important customer of its key shipping canal. "I'm convinced that this is the correct path for our country," he said. Panama's sudden break in relations with Taiwan has hardened the Asian governments defiance against China, which it suspects of engineering the move, with no signs of Taipei meeting Beijings longer-term demands. Taiwan reacted by severing formal ties with Panama and all aid. Taiwan's government vented toward China as well as Panama, which announced the cut in diplomatic relations after recognizing Taiwan's government for more than a century. Taiwan warned China against inflaming ill will in Taiwan. China Keeps Pressure on "Mainland China's suppression of our country's international space, interference in our international participation and temptation of our allies to break ties are all still present and have not eased," said Chiu Chui-cheng, spokesman for the Taiwan government's Mainland Affairs Council. "We would like to severely warn mainland China here against pushing, step-by-step, cross-Strait relations to a dangerous brink from which it cannot turn back," he said. China, supported by a $11.2 trillion economy and more than 170 diplomatic allies, has taken a series of measures over the past year to pressure Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen into negotiations with a pre-condition that each side see itself as part of one country. Taiwan Citizens Like Their Democracy Most Taiwanese prefer their democratic self-rule to a tie-up with China, opinion polls have found. "I think mostly we are getting tired of Taiwan being isolated," said Shane Lee, political scientist at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan, referring to the erosion of diplomatic relations. "We have to tell China you cannot threaten Taiwan's existence forever. You have to let people live." Tsai rejects China's conditions for dialogue and officials in Taipei believe Beijing has retaliated by forming ties with former Taiwan ally Sao Tome and Principe in December. Also that month China passed an aircraft carrier near Taiwan's coastlines. Last month, Beijing blocked Taipei from observing the World Health Organizations annual assembly. Panama's Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo (left) shakes hands with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during a joint press briefing after signing a joint communique on establishing diplomatic relations in Beijing, China on June 13, 2017. /AP China Leaves Door Ajar But analysts said China just wants to warn Taiwan without fanning outrage and while holding a door open in case Tsai shifts to a Beijing-friendlier policy. An enraged Taiwanese public is seen as more likely to elect people who take a tougher stand against Beijing. China will use caution in paring down Taiwan's remaining 20 diplomatic allies, which are mostly poor countries in Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific, said Alex Chiang, international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. "I think China will be selective because they don't want to embarrass Taiwan, so I think they will only try to go slowly and also give time to Taiwan to react," Chiang said. "China still has some hope to have a friendly relationship with Taiwan, but if you push too hard, if our diplomatic ties (go) down to five or six, then it's going to be very difficult for Taiwan." Taiwan Will Survive Taiwan can get by on fewer than 10 allies if needed, political scientists have said. The Taipei government looks to them largely for a voice in the United Nations, which Taiwan left in 1971 when the global organization admitted China. Taiwan maintains strong informal relations with Japan and the United States, as well. Both may help Taiwan in a deeper diplomatic crisis, Lee said. Taiwan offers development aid to its allies and before 2008 it would vie with China to give higher sums of money to make allies switch sides. Under former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou, no allies switched sides, but three other Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed interest in formalizing relations with China and may now be able to do that, Chiang said. Panama's decision follows several years of private discussions between Chinese and Panamanian leaders. China is the second biggest investor in the Panama Canal, the chief marine shipping link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, after the United States, reported the Latin American news website El Universo. Over the past fiscal year, China sent 38 million tons of cargo, or 19 percent of the total, through the canal, it said. In June last year Tsai visited Panama to improve ties. She attended a ceremony for the a Panama Canal expansion and saw Taiwan donate 3,000 boxes of flu medicine to fight an epidemic according to the Taipei-based Central News Agency. China's Foreign Ministry said on its website Tuesday that Panama had agreed to recognize only Beijing as the government of China. Panama's president "for business interests went along with the authorities in Beijing by making a diplomatic switch," Taiwan's ministry said in a statement. "This is an extremely unfriendly act and the last time [Taiwan] will be cheated." Stamford will reportedly pay to settle one of three lawsuits filed by the family of three girls who died in a Christmas morning house fire that also killed their grandparents. Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed when it was announced last month but are contained in Stamford Probate Court papers obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, which reports the settlement is $6.65 million. NBC Connecticut reached out to the city attorney, who would not release the amount in the settlement by phone or email. The 2011 fire killed 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah Badger, 9-year-old Lily Badger and their maternal grandparents, Lomar and Pauline Johnson. The city had been accused of failures in inspecting renovations at the home. The probate papers show the city will pay $3.87 million to the children's estates. Attorneys' costs amounted to $2.52 million. The settlement also includes a $250,000 annuity for the Stamford chapter of the Girl Scouts of America. A woman was stabbed after meeting up with a man for a date she connected with online, police said. Police were called at 1:28 a.m. for a stabbing in Torrington, Connecticut, on Tuesday. The woman told police she had arranged a date with a man she met online and met him at his residence. The man, identified as 21-year-old William Hill, stabbed the woman in the abdomen after they got into a verbal argument. The woman was able to get away from Hill and run down the street where she called for help. Officers responded at High Street in the area of Funstone Avenue, and transported the woman to Hartford Hospital where she remains in stable condition, Torrington police said. Hill, of 11 Culvert Street, was charged with first-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault and tampering with evidence. His bond was set at $150,000. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney. Senators sharply criticized Pentagon leaders Tuesday for not completing a new strategy for the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged that "the enemy is surging right now." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., demanded that Mattis wrap up the plan now, threatening that, "unless we get a strategy from you, you're going to get a strategy from us." He said he had expected the plan in the first 30 to 60 days of the new administration and snapped, "we want a strategy. I don't think that's a helluva lot to ask." Mattis, in response, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he will provide details on the new strategy for the war in mid-July. "We're putting it together now and there are going to be -- there are actions being taken to make certain that we don't pay a price for the delay," he said. "But we recognize the need for urgency and your criticism is fair, sir." Mattis did not say what those steps are. The U.S. has about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan. Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has told Congress that he could use an infusion of U.S. and allied troops to bolster support for the Afghan army. Earlier this year, the Pentagon was considering a request for roughly 3,000 more troops, mainly for training and advising. That decision, however, has been stalled by the broader administration review of Afghan policy and a push for NATO to contribute more troops. Mattis, when pressed again about the plan, said getting a government-wide strategy can't be done quickly, and that there are ongoing efforts to ensure NATO participation so that it's "not all on the backs of American taxpayers." He added: "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now. And we will correct this as soon as possible." The Taliban's resurgence has been coupled with a growing threat from Islamic State militants trying to establish a foothold in the country. The increased fight has led to a recent string of American deaths. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded on Saturday when they were attacked by an Afghan soldiers, who was then killed. And two U.S. Army Rangers died in a April 27 raid on an IS compound in eastern Afghanistan. Officials were investigating whether they were killed by friendly fire in the opening minutes of the three-hour battle. Their deaths came just days after a U.S. Army special forces soldier was also killed in the region. The Afghanistan war has been dragging on since October 2001, and the U.S.-led coalition ended their combat mission against the Taliban in 2014 but they are increasingly involved in backing up Afghan forces on the battlefield. Asked what he hoped the situation in Afghanistan would look like a year from now, Mattis said violence would be down, government corruption would be reduced and the Taliban would be "rolled back," with less freedom of movement on the battlefield. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that he hoped Afghan troop casualties would be lower a year from now. McCain, however, listed the names of the three 101st Airborne Division soldiers who were killed Saturday and said, "Let's not ask these families to sacrifice any further without a strategy which we can then take and implement and help you. I'm fighting as hard as I can to increase defense spending. It's hard when we have no strategy to pursue." Food poisoning at a camp for displaced residents of Mosul has made more than 700 people sick, with hundreds hospitalized, Iraqi officials said Tuesday. The incident at the Hassan Sham U2 camp, about 20 kilometers (13 miles) east of Mosul, has become part of the ongoing dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Saudi media accused a Qatari charity of supplying tainted food to the residents of the desert camp. Iraqi Health Minister Adila Hamoud told The Associated Press that 752 people in the camp became ill following a Monday night iftar the meal breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. At least 300 people remain in serious condition, he said. The Health Ministry reported that no one had died from food poisoning. Two deaths cited earlier were from other causes. The provincial governor said there had been one death. The U.N. refugee agency at first reported one death but later said nobody had died. The conflicting reports could not immediately be reconciled. Amira Abdulhaliq of the UNHCR said it was unclear when the meals had become contaminated, whether it was during its preparation, packaging, transportation or distribution. "So far, we have received around 800 cases. Around 200 have been transported to the hospitals in Irbil," she said. Irbil Gov. Nawzad Hadi said the food was prepared in an Irbil restaurant by a local NGO, Ain el Muhtajeen, and funded by a Qatari charity known as RAF. In Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a recent campaign to isolate Qatar, state media quickly seized on the issue with coverage that implied Qatar was poisoning refugees deliberately. On Twitter, Saudi state television accused RAF of supplying tainted meals and posted images it said showed the camp's children "poisoned by the terrorist Qatari RAF organization." An Iraqi lawmaker who visited the camp overnight also accused the Qatari charity of providing the tainted food. At midday Tuesday, medics were treating patients in a large tent at the edge of the camp. About 20-30 patients, mostly children, lay on blankets on the floor as several more serious cases were taken away in ambulances. Most were suffering from stomach cramps and dehydration resulting from vomiting and diarrhea. Raad al-Dahlaki, chairman of the Iraqi parliament's immigration and displacement committee, visited the camp overnight and said the meal contained rice, a bean sauce, meat, yogurt and water. He put the number of sick at 850. Al-Dahlaki said the food was distributed by RAF, adding that Iraqi officials were to meet those from the organization later Tuesday. The Doha-based charity did not immediately respond to requests for comment. At a joint news conference in the camp, Irbil Police Chief Abdulhaleq Talaat said seven people were arrested in connection with the incident. Since a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and other Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia began June 5, Arab media across the greater Persian Gulf have unleashed a daily barrage of reports highly critical of Qatar. Those reports include stories that alleged Qatar has tried to undermine regional security, often presented without attribution or evidence. RAF is the acronym for the Qatar-based Thani Bin Abdullah Al Thani Foundation for Humanitarian Services, a charity that collects donations for aid work around the world, including meals for needy families during Ramadan. RAF is also among 12 organizations and 59 people put on what Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini officials described Friday as a list of terrorist entities and individuals. On Qatari state television, a repeatedly aired program has discussed how the ongoing diplomatic dispute has stopped it from providing meals to Syrian refugees at a major camp in Jordan. The Hassan Sham U2 camp houses thousands who have fled their homes in and around Mosul after a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive was launched in October to dislodge the Islamic State group from Iraq's second-largest city. According to the U.N. refugee agency, it is home to 6,235 people. Mosul fell to ISIS in the summer 2014 as the militants swept over much of northern and western Iraq. Weeks later, the head of the Sunni extremist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the formation of a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Months after the start of the offensive, ISIS militants control only a handful of neighborhoods in and around the Old City, located west of the Tigris River, which divides Mosul into western and eastern sectors. Salaheddin reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writers Muhanad al-Saleh in Baghdad; Malak Harb in Doha, Qatar; and Jon Gambrell and Fay Abuelgasim in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed. A roach killer canister prompted a scare on an American Airlines flight that landed at Miami International Airport Wednesday afternoon. A captain on a flight arriving from Belize City found what was intially thought to be a suspicious canister in the cockpit, but it was later determined to be a roach trapper, an American Airlines spokeswoman said. The plane landed in the "penalty box" area of the airport as Miami-Dade Fire Rescue investigated the item. Passengers were evacuated as a precaution. The plane was later deemed safe. Dallas city council members will introduce a resolution on Wednesday that will order Atmos Energy to show cause demonstrating the reasonableness of its natural gas distribution rates in the city. The city has reason to believe that Atmos is over earning and that its current rates are excessive, the resolution reads, in part. Atmos Energy is the largest natural gas provider in Texas. Earlier this year, Atmos requested a rate hike in Dallas that would equate to $10.7 million in additional revenue and result in a $3.25 per month increase in the average residential customers bill. City staff negotiated a settlement with Atmos that would have resulted in $7.8 million in increased revenue for the natural gas provider at a cost of about $2.50 more per month from the average residential customer in Dallas. Dallas city council members later voted to reject that increase. The rate hike is meant to cover costs incurred by Atmos in its ongoing process to upgrade and install new infrastructure in the city, according to a company spokesperson. Over the last three years, Atmos Energy has invested over $200 million dollars in Dallas with $80 million spent in FY 16 to maintain the safety and reliability of our system here, said Jennifer Altieri, Director of Public Affairs for Atmos. Atmos Energy continues to responsibly invest in modernizing and upgrading our system and replacing aging infrastructure. Annual incremental rate increases allows us to recover these necessary costs, which is crucial in maintaining a safe system. If the resolution is passed by Dallas city council members on Wednesday, it would authorize the city to obtain financial information from Atmos in an effort to make a determination whether the existing rates of Atmos are unreasonable or unjust, including whether they are in any way in violation of any provision of law, and if such rates should be revised. In 2014, more than 130 Texas cities fought the Dallas-based company on what they said was an effort to enrich the companys executives and shareholders at the expense of local customers. The fight centered on whether Atmos [was] being allowed to earn a rate of return far beyond what it needs to upgrade its infrastructure, according to the Dallas Morning News. The Texas Railroad Commission ultimately sided with Atmos in that instance. A Florida fire-rescue crew has been evicted from its station by an invasion of bats. The Tampa Bay Times reports anywhere from 500 to 1,000 bats found their way into the station in Pasco County, north of Tampa. The nocturnal winged critters have been found in several parts of the building and created an unsanitary and unsafe working environment. Officials are working with a trapper to remove them. The newspaper reports emergency workers first spotted them at dusk five years ago. Then the officials tried offering them bat boxes, which have holes in the bottom and rods that run horizontally inside for hanging. But the colony moved into the station anyway. It's illegal to completely remove them until after August when the baby bats mature. Until then, officials will seal off entrances to the living quarters. "They've found them in the sleeping quarters, they found them in the weight room, they found them in the bathrooms and it's gotten to the point that it's become a risk," said Pasco Fire Rescue Deputy Chief of Administration Andrew Fossa. Wildlife officials will then continue to monitor the situation and determine the best way to remove the colony. Fossa said there will be no lapse in coverage while the station is closed. Authorities were looking for a motorcyclist in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday night who led them on a high-speed chase from Hacienda Heights that reached speeds of up to 140 miles per hour. California Highway Patrol officers tried to stop the motorcyclist for speeding at the westbound Pomona (60) Freeway and the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway at 10:40 p.m., said Officer Francisco Villalobos. The motorcyclist exceeded speeds of 100 mph, prompting authorities to follow the suspect with a helicopter. At one point, the motorcyclist traveled up to 140 mph. The motorcyclist traveled on the 710, 105 and 110 freeways and on surface streets in San Gabriel and Long Beach. He eventually exited the 110 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, Villalobos said. There was a large police presence downtown late Tuesday night as authorities searched for the suspect in the area of Hope and Third Street. California is ordering immediate spillway inspections at about 70 aging dams that it believes might not be sound enough to protect downstream communities in a flood. Supervising engineer Daniel Meyersohn at California's dam-safety division said Wednesday that a state records review is identifying large, aging dams that have people downstream for on-site spillway reviews. Meyersohn said the state is sending letters to dozens of those dam owners ordering them to carry out extra design reviews and site inspections. The orders are part of stepped-up state reviews after this winter's failures of both spillways at the Oroville Dam, the nation's tallest. That crisis forced the evacuation of newly 200,000 people in February. A full report on the spillway failure hasn't been completed, but a consultant's report delivered to the state's water resources department indicated a "high velocity flow" of water that went under the slab and caused it to lift, eventually leading to cracks. Construction crews have been working on the damaged spillway at Oroville Dam for the past four months. This week, workers cleared concrete left behind after controlled blasts on what remains along part of the spillway chute. The top 1,000 feet of the upper chute are expected to be replaced next year. Meyersohn said some of the dams targeted for extra inspections date back to California's 19th-century Gold Rush. One of the worst civil engineering disasters in U.S. history occurred in Southern California in 1928. More than 450 people were killed when a dam in San Francisquito Canyon, about 40 miles northwest of, collapsed on March 12, 1928. More than 12 billion gallons of water swept across the region on a deadly five-hour march to the ocean near Oxnard, collecting mud, debris, bridges, buildings utility poles and anything else in its path. When it comes to single disasters in California, only the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires accounted for more fatalities. In the space of less than 10 months, actress Chae Soo-bin has appeared in two highly successful period dramas, "Love in the Moonlight" and "Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People." Chae doesn't seem to mind tight, busy schedules. In fact, she has fond memories of the shoot and still misses the cast and crew of "Rebel," which wrapped its 30-episode run about a month ago. "I thought I would cry when it ended, but it hasn't fully sunk in yet. It was a long series, but it didn't feel that way because there was such great chemistry among the cast and crew. I'll miss the show very much," she said. One of Miami's infamous "cocaine cowboys" who was set to be released from prison later this week will instead be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, NBC 6 has learned. Augusto Willy" Falcon took a plea deal in 2003 and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars but was scheduled for release from a Kentucky prison on June 17, according to the Bureau of Prisons. But sources familiar with the case told NBC 6 that Falcon will be picked up from prison Saturday and immediately placed in ICE detention before he has to appear before an immigration judge. The sources said Falcon, originally from Cuba, is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. ICE officials later confirmed in a statement that they plan to take custody of Falcon. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer on Augusto Guillermo Falcon Ramos, 61, a citizen of Cuba, on June 7, so that ICE can take custody of him upon his release from federal prison," the statement read. "ICE is focused on identifying, arresting and removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nations immigration laws." Willy Falcon, his brother Gustavo, Salvador "Sal" Magluta and others were originally charged in a 1991 indictment that claimed they were involved in a major cocaine smuggling operation in the 1980s. The gang purportedly smuggled at least 75 tons of cocaine into the U.S., earning some $2 billion during the hyper-violent "Miami Vice" era. Gustavo Falcon vanished after the indictment and spent some 26 years on the lam before he was arrested by U.S. marshals in April near Orlando, where he lived under the fake name Luis Reiss with his wife. Investigators tracked down Falcon after the false name surfaced in a 2013 car accident near Kissimmee, Florida, and was linked to a house in Hialeah, Florida, once owned by Falcon. Augusto Falcon and Magluta were acquitted at a 1996 trial, but it turned out that the pair had bought off witnesses and at least one member of the jury, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison after admitting taking a $400,000 bribe. Magluta was tried a second time and convicted of drug-related money laundering in 2002, receiving a 205-year prison sentence later cut down to 195 years. A former president of Panama is fighting an effort to send him from the U.S. back to his homeland to face charges in a case of political espionage. Ricardo Martinelli made his initial appearance Tuesday before a federal judge in Miami following an arrest on an extradition warrant from Panama. The judge set a June 20 hearing to determine if former president can be released on bond as he challenges extradition. Martinelli was arrested Monday at the request of Panama's government. The former president failed to show up at a December 2015 court hearing there on charges that include illegally monitoring phone and other conversations of at least 150 people with an extensive surveillance system he created with public funds. He denies wrongdoing and is seeking asylum. The spa and showers at two LA Fitness clubs in Florida are closed as health officials look into reports that four clients contracted Legionnaires' disease. Kent Donahue, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, tells the Orlando Sentinel three cases are tied to one club near Orlando, and one is linked to another. Donahue says it's not certain the disease was contracted at the health clubs. But all four people visited the LA Fitness centers and officials aren't aware of other commonalities. The health club sent notices to customers last week, warning them to watch for signs of Legionnaires'. Local media reports the spa and showers are closed. Legionnaires' disease is a respiratory illness caused by Legionella bacteria and is typically contracted through water systems or air-conditioning systems. A man who walked into a District of Columbia pizza restaurant with an assault rifle, intent on investigating internet rumors dubbed "pizzagate," has apologized and said he realizes now "just how foolish and reckless" he was. Edgar Madison Welch made those statements in a letter submitted to a judge Tuesday ahead of his sentencing set for June 22. In a court document, his attorney asked he be sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison. In a separate document, prosecutors wrote he should be sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. Welch, who is from Salisbury, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in March to two charges in connection with the case. As part of his guilty plea Welch has acknowledged entering the Comet Ping Pong restaurant on Dec. 4 with an AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver. He also acknowledged driving to the restaurant from North Carolina to investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there. Patrons fled when they saw Welch enter the restaurant, and when he encountered a locked storage closet he fired multiple times. No one was injured. In his 1-page, handwritten letter filed with the court Tuesday but dated June 2, Welch wrote that he "came to D.C. with the intent of helping people I believed were in dire need of assistance, and to bring an end to a corruption that I truly felt was harming innocent lives." He wrote that he wanted to apologize, and he acted without considering the repercussions of his actions or the possible harm. "It was never my intention to harm or frighten innocent lives, but I realize now just how foolish and reckless my decision was," he wrote. Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis has said the "Pizzagate" hoax that spread on the internet threw the lives of everyone connected with the shop into chaos. Welch's attorney Dani Jahn wrote to the court and said Welch has previously worked as an emergency medical technician and volunteered in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there. She wrote that he's an involved parent to his 7-year-old stepdaughter and 4-year-old daughter. She also noted he surrendered peacefully after realizing that no children were being harmed at the restaurant. In their own filing, prosecutors wrote that the fact that no one was shot was "entirely the product of good luck -- the fortuitous facts that nobody interfered with the defendant's progress and that nobody was behind the door which he ultimately shot through." Prosecutors Demian Ahn and Sonali Patel wrote that a "significant sentence" was required not only to punish Welch but to "deter other would-be vigilantes from attempting similar crimes against innocent subjects of the next internet-inspired conspiracy theory." Welch has pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. As part of the guilty plea, prosecutors will drop a third charge, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, which had carried a mandatory minimum prison term of five years. Lawyers said in court in March that under sentencing guidelines Welch likely faces 1 1/2 to two years in prison as a result of the interstate transportation charge and 1 1/2 to five years for the assault charge. Sentences on the charges could run either consecutively or concurrently. Prosecutors are asking for two years on the first charge and 4 1/2 years on the second charge to run concurrently. What to Know Two men hurled avocados and bananas at deli employees in the Bronx, police say The two men became angry because a deli worker who didn't speak English couldn't understand them A deli clerk suffered a broken jaw and fractures to his face after being hit with the weaponized fruit A deli clerk's jaw was broken after two men pummeled him with avocados and bananas during an argument over food in the Bronx, police said. Chaos erupted at Stadium Gourmet Deli on East 161st Street after the 21-year-old clerk tried to kick out the two men for causing a scene over their food order. Police said the suspects were trying to order food, but a deli worker who didn't speak English couldn't understand them. They became angry and the 21-year-old clerk tried to kick the two of them out. Surveillance video shows one of the suspects casually grabbing several avocados before getting into a pitching position and throwing them at the clerk and other employees. The other suspect joins in and starts hurling avocados and bananas at the employee. Surveillance video shows the clerk grabbing his head after one of the avocados hits him. Another employee tries to dodge the flying fruit. This action, what he do, its not normal, an employee told News 4 New York. They start arguing with each other and the customer grabbed the avocado and threw it right in his face. The two men also smashed watermelons and tossed merchandise before leaving the store. The clerk suffered a gash, fractures to his face and a broken jaw. He was listed in serious but stable condition at Lincoln Hospital. An employee at the deli said he had to have surgery on his eyes. The attack happened on Memorial Day, but police released the video Tuesday in the hope of finding the two suspects, who authorities believe are in their 20s. A spider is being blamed for a car crash in the Florida suburbs. The driver of the wrecked Honda Civic told Mike Jachles, spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriffs Office, that a spider was to blame for the accident in Cooper City, northwest of Miami. Apparently, the creature was spinning a web above her head before it descended down and landed on her body. That's when the driver, who was heading north on Nob Hill Road, collided with a concrete light pole on Southwest 57th Street. The driver wasnt seriously injured she has since been released from Memorial Regional Hospital, Jachles said. In a tweet, Jachles said while he doesn't know what kind of spider caused the one-vehicle crash, it definitely was "not #itsybitsy." Establishment candidates prevailed in Virginia's gubernatorial primaries Tuesday, with Ed Gillespie squeaking by Corey Stewart for the Republican nomination while Ralph Northam had an easier path to the Democratic nomination, defeating Tom Perriello. Voters went to the polls across the commonwealth Tuesday to set the stage for what will be one of the most high-profile political contests in the nation, but the race expected to be the close one -- Northam-Perriello -- wasn't. Speaking to his supporters in Woodbridge Tuesday night, Stewart, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors chairman, maintained the GOP race was too close to call, but he said Wednesday he accepts the result of the primary. He tweeted before polls closed he expected a razor-thin Republican primary. "We didn't win this battle, but there's a lot more to go," Stewart said Wednesday. "I got into this not for a political position. I got into this to lead and take back Virginia, and that fight continues." He had a similar message for supporters Tuesday night. "We've been backing down too long in defense of our culture, of our heritage and our country," he said. "And we for the last several months have been fighting. That fight will continue. I will continue to fight with you as long as you continue to fight with me." Stewart said the results validate his positions on issues like a crackdown on illegal immigration and phasing out the state income tax. About a half hour later, in a Richmond room much happier than two hours earlier when supporters brimmed with worry, Gillespie accepted the Republican nomination, saying he is going to unify the party. "For all of those, who supported my opponents, Corey Stewart and Frank Wagner, who waged hard-fought campaigns, not only do they appreciate your efforts, but we do, too," Gillespie said. "We want you to know that we not only will listen to you, we will fight for you through November to win this election and we want you to be part of our effort, and you are very welcome to join this campaign," he added. "We cannot afford four more years of a liberal governor in the commonwealth of Virginia." Northam learned of his victory much earlier in the evening. He won 56 percent of the votes in what was projected to be the closest race of the day. "We're going to focus on building our team, building our party out in Virginia, and we feel confident about running the race in November," he told News4. Several prominent Virginia Democrats joined Northam on stage in Crystal City after his victory, including U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Gov. Terry McAuliffe. "What we're celebrating here tonight, it is a very long night for the Republican party of Virginia," McAuliffe said. Prior to their remarks, opponents of a Dominion Energy pipeline took over the podium to protest. Northam's opponent also is a strong opponent of the pipeline. In Falls Church, Perriello said his campaign will continue to make a difference into the fall. "Together we have helped elevate and mainstream ideas that should have been there all along," he said. The Democratic primary contest was a hard fought battle between Lt. Gov. Northam, the state party establishment's favorite, and insurgent candidate Perriello. Both candidates pledged fierce opposition to President Donald Trump and his policies. On the Republican side, frontrunner Gillespie, a moderate Washington insider, fended off under-funded but spirited campaigns from avid Trump supporter Stewart and State Sen. Frank Wagner. Voters also chose candidates for lieutenant governor and several state House seats. Justin Fairfax won the Democrats' nomination for lieutenant governor, and Jill Vogel won the Republican nomination. Danica Roem won the Democratic nomination for the House of Delegates 13th District seat. Roem is the first transgender person to ever run for the Virginia General Assembly, according to her Facebook page. Other Democrats winning nominations for the House are Elizabeth Guzman in the 31st District, Tia Walbridge in the 33rd, Kathy Tran in the 42nd, Hala Ayala in the 51st, Melissa Dart in the 56th and Karrie Delaney in the 67th. For the Republicans, Bob Thomas won the nomination for the 28th District of the House of Delegates, Bobby Orrock won the 54th District, Jackson Hunter Miller won the 50th and John McGuire won the 56th. The Democratic nomination for the 2nd District of the House of Delegates was too close to call. Jennifer Carroll Foy led Joshua King by just 10 votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting. Perriello, who served in the U.S. House from 2008 to 2010, ran as a liberal crusader supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders, promising to stand up to both Trump and the entrenched business interests that dominate state politics. His pitch to voters was emotional, saying Trump's victory signaled a new moment in American politics and a more progressive pushback is needed. Northam also vowed to fight Trump but said he will work with state Republicans to move a progressive -- and realistic -- agenda forward. He courted reliable Democratic voters, saying he is the more pragmatic choice who can win in the general election. In Fairfax and Loudoun counties more Democratic ballots than Republican ballots were being cast, in part because the Democratic race for governor between Northam and former Perriello was seen as the closest race. More than 500,000 Democrats cast ballots in the commonwealth, almost 150,000 more than the Republicans. Some Democrats said they were motivated by Trumps presidency to vote Tuesday. His agenda and Repulicans in Congress scare me, so very motivating for me to be out, Democratic voter Ray Crittenden said. Democrats are hopeful that trend will carry through to November. The contest was in a swing state Hillary Clinton won in November. New Jersey, the only other state electing a governor this year, had its gubernatorial primary last week, and establishment candidates in both parties won easily. In Richmond, Kelly Barrows cast her ballot for Perriello because she said the former congressman more closely aligns with her progressive views. The 29-year-old restaurant manager said having Trump in the White House has pushed her to become more interested in state and local politics. It has made me realize how important local politics has become, considering I don't really feel like I have a whole lot of control in federal politics at the moment, Barrows said. But Frank Von Richter said he voted for Northam because he likes that the lieutenant governor is more middle of the road than Perriello and thinks he will work better with a Republican-controlled General Assembly. The retired Richmond resident said Northam is strong on issues like education and health care and will continue McAuliffe's efforts to bring more jobs to Virginia. In northern Virginia, some voters told News4 they also preferred Northam for being more middle of the road and for his experience. To be honest, Im happy with either one but feel like Ralph has the experience, Judy Helmich said. Perriello gained ground on Northam with the help of prominent national Democrats. He cast himself as an unapologetic liberal and front-line warrior in the resistance to Trump and has been endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and heavily bankrolled by Democratic super donors George Soros and Donald Sussman. Perriello's big test was whether that national support would attract more voters in a primary, which typically has lower turnout compared with a general election. He has taken a hardline stance against two proposed natural gas pipelines, a move that's separated him from Northam and been cheered by some environmentalists and land owners. Northam, a well-liked pediatric neurologist, had a head start on the trail and in money raised. He used those advantages to shore up support from many of the state Democratic Party's core constituencies, including teachers' groups and African-American political and religious leaders. He has highlighted his strong support for abortion rights and gun control, two issues where Perriello has baggage from his past votes in Congress. Perriello has apologized for an anti-abortion amendment he voted for in Congress and has distanced himself from his past praise of the National Rifle Association. Northam was critical of some of Perriello's promises, like raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for social programs, saying they aren't realistic in a state where Republicans control the legislature. But like Perriello, Northam has been unsparing in criticism of Trump, calling him a narcissistic maniac. On the Republican side, Stewart has tried to make his support of Trump a top issue while Gillespie has largely tried to keep Trump at arm's length. Gillespie was backed by most of the state party establishment and has focused on pocketbook issues, including proposing a modest cut to the state's income tax rate. Stewart tried to overcome his campaign's financial disadvantage by continually courting controversy, notably with a full-throated defense of Virginia's Confederate history and monuments. Wagner, meanwhile, touted his experience as a veteran lawmaker who can fix the state's congested highways. Kevin Felty, a Norfolk Republican, said he voted for Gillespie because of his fundraising prowess in what's likely to be a bloody general campaign. Felty, a 48-year-old surgical assistant, said a GOP victory in Virginia would wrestle back the narrative being touted in the mainstream media that the Democrats are gaining traction under Trump. Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn't answer a number of questions from senators during his testimony on Tuesday but he didn't invoke executive privilege to avoid doing so. Sessions told the Senate Intelligence Committee he had a different reason for not answering certain questions: It's how such matters have been handled in the Justice Department for years. That led to a series of frustrated and sometimes tense exchanges with critics of President Donald Trump on the panel, NBC News reported. Sen. Mark Warner, D., Va., asked the attorney general if he had confidence in former FBI Director Robert Mueller's appointment as special counsel to probe whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Warner cited reports that a friend of Trump's suggested that he was considering removing Mueller from the investigation. Sessions responded that he had confidence in Mueller. But he refused to discuss the reports "because I know nothing about the investigation." Warner asked Sessions if he was evoking executive privilege. Sessions said no. For 18 years, they had each other's backs. They hunted together, helped each other with homework, even pretended to be each other. On Friday, 10 Carbondale Area High School students, each a twin, will walk the stage for their diplomas. As high school seniors around the region prepare for graduation this month, Friday may mark the last accomplishment the twins will have to share with each other. The high number of twin sets seems to have some precedent at Carbondale Area. High school secretary Melissa Regal's husband, Frank Regal, was a twin. When he and his sister, Brenda Regal Cominsky, graduated in 1983, they were among six sets of twins. There are eight fraternal twins this year: Alexandra and Maresa Artone, 18; Kati and Kenny Cotton, 18; Genna and Zachary McDonough, 18; and Devin and Patrick Smith, 18. And, there are two identical twins: Alaina and Alyssa Gerek, 17. "We never really try to take advantage of people," said Devin, who bears a striking resemblance to his brother. "But, there's always moments where people will come up to me and have an entire conversation and think I'm my brother, and I'll just roll with it, because it's just easier sometimes." Patrick fondly recalled the time last year when they switched places while accepting academic awards and pulled it off. The Smith brothers are the only two going to the same college. Bound for Keystone College, Patrick is studying information technology while Devin is enrolled in the environmental studies program. Every twin said, unfortunately, they have been compared to each other. And although they cop to finishing each other's sentences, they reject the notion that they're the same. "People like to compare us a lot," said Alyssa, who shared classes, played softball and was a cheerleader with her twin sister. "That's really something that grinds my gears." Alyssa is going to Arcadia University for the international studies program. Alaina has her sights set on the University of South Florida to study criminology. "It's really funny when people, they can tell you're twins but they still ask the question, 'Are you twins?'" Alaina said, adding that her sister recently dyed her hair darker, but people still confuse them. Kenny went to the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County, while Kati stayed north at Carbondale Area. However, they will walk the commencement stage together. They also share the same muses. "We both hunt. We're both outdoorsy. We both like to hike," Kati said. She is going to Penn State Worthington Scranton, then later to the main campus in Centre County, to study animal science. She wants to be a veterinarian. Kenny is jumping right into the workforce, looking forward to a job on the railroad with aspirations of management. "She's the older one, she's always the one that has to be the boss," he said, pausing for a second before revealing a harsh reality for some twins. "I was always compared to her, because she was always smarter in certain things," he said. For twins, a few seconds are the difference between a life of bragging rights for one or the other. "He always holds over my head that he's four minutes older than me," Genna said of her twin brother, Zach. She and Zach are very close, she said, but he never lets that one go. She will attend East Stroudsburg University, possibly to study hospitality and management, she said. Zach is going to Marywood University to study secondary education. He is grateful for his sister because, "you always have somebody," he said. For Alexandra and Maresa, next year will be a lot of adjustment. "She's always there. I hate it." Alexandra said flatly while her sister gushed beside her. "I'm the twin that needs her. She would be fine without me," Maresa said looking adoringly at her sister. "I haven't done my own homework since second grade." Alexandra will study geology at the University of Pittsburgh next year while Maresa heads to West Virginia University, unsure of her field of study yet. However, Maresa already has plans to visit her twin. "I'm only 45 minutes away," she said. A North Korean drone that crashed on a remote mountain near the border last week had been spying on the site of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in southeastern Korea. While South Korean politicians were bickering over the deployment of the THAAD, North Korea sent a drone 270 km south of the heavily fortified border to snoop around the base in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province. "It looks like it took detailed photos of the THAAD base and surrounding area using pre-programmed coordinates," a military source said Tuesday. The source added North Korea "probably figured out the coordinates quite easily because the deployment was broadcast live and TV stations use drones and helicopters to film the base." The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced their analysis of the 64GB memory card found in the digital camera fitted in the drone. It started snapping pictures several kilometers north of Seongju, flew over the THAAD base and continued to take photos as it headed back north. Between 200 and 300 photos were found on the memory card, of which 10 were images of the THAAD battery, according to the JCS. The resolution was good enough for the THAAD launcher and radar to be distinguishable as well as the overall layout of the battery, a spokesman said. The commercial Sony Alpha 7R camera has a resolution of 36.3 megapixels, which is adequate for semi-professional photography. Asked when the surveillance photos were taken, the spokesman said, "The camera was reset so we couldn't assess the exact date." But since a drone can operate for only a few hours at a time, the photos showed relatively recent activities. As it was discovered last week, they were likely taken in last two weeks." One military source said, "Although the drone was discovered in a remote area, it was probably not too long after it crashed." These photos released by North Korea in April show the site of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province. The drone is believed to have been launched from North Korea's Kangwon Province, where the North's first and fifth divisions are stationed. The most probable causes of the crash are lack of fuel or engine problems. Seongju is around 270 km south of the inter-Korean border, so the drone flew at least 500 km. The North Korean drones that were discovered in Paju north of Seoul and Samcheok, Gangwon Province and on Baeknyeong Island in 2014 had ranges of between 180 and 300 km. Read this article in Korean A Pennsylvania burglar has settled his excessive force lawsuit against a police department and prosecutor's office stemming from his 2011 arrest. Jose Torres is serving seven to 15 years in prison for an unrelated 2012 burglary conviction but sued Allentown police and the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office over his 2011 arrest. Torres claims he was wrongly beaten and demeaned as he was pulled from a vehicle that smashed into a van driven by an undercover police officer. That happened as Torres was meeting with an undercover informant who sought to buy a gun from him. Torres sued saying he panicked when an armed undercover officer rushed at him with a gun, saying he crashed trying get away from a what he thought was a "crazy guy." Torres received $25,000 in the lawsuit. The (Allentown) Morning Call obtained the settlement though a Right-to-Know request. Charges have been dropped against a man who was initially arrested in the shooting of a 6-year-old boy in Delaware. Chelsea Outlaw was arrested Thursday and accused of shooting 6-year-old Jashown Banner back on June 6. Outlaw was charged with attempted murder and other offenses. Charges against Outlaw were dropped however after investigators determined he was not involved in the shooting. Outlaw was released and police continue to search for the people responsible. Banner, a Kindergarten student at Thomas Edison Charter School, remains in critical condition at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children. The boy and his 31-year-old mother were inside an SUV at a stop sign on the 700 block of E. 6th Street when an unidentified gunman got out of another car and opened fire. Irene Turner, a woman who lives in the area and witnessed the shooting, told NBC10 she heard seven gunshots. "I was sitting right there in that chair and it happened down there," Turner said. "The white van backed up and flew down the street real fast." The boy was shot in the head while his mother was cut by glass on her arm. "When he got shot it went across his nose and mouth and it was bleeding," Turner said. The boy's mother was taken to St. Francis Hospital. She was later released. If you have any information on the shooting, please call Wilmington Police Detective Devon Jones at 302-576-6206. Information may also be submitted through the Delaware Crime Stoppers Tip-Line at 1-800-TIP-3333. Information leading to an arrest may result in a reward. Tips may also be texted to NIXLE at 888777. A toddler has died after he was found in a backyard pool in D.C., and medics in Montgomery County, Maryland, responded to accidents amid a heat wave. A boy who would have turned 2 years old at the end of the month died after he was found in a small pool at a home day care in Northeast D.C. Tuesday morning. A woman died early Wednesday morning after she was found at the bottom of a pool in the 9700 block of Corral Drive in Potomac. Montgomery County medics rushed 22-year-old Jesusa Sarmiento Onton to a hospital after CPR was performed. Onton, of Gaithersburg, was visiting a woman who was cleaning the home when she went swimming alone, police said. The cleaning woman found the woman unresponsive in the pool and called 911. Also Tuesday evening, a child was pulled out of a pool in the 11500 block of February Circle in Silver Spring. Montgomery County medics responded and found that an automated external defibrillator had been used to resuscitate the child. The child, whose age was not released immediately, was taken to a hospital. On the Montgomery County/Howard County, Maryland, line, the search for a person who went missing while swimming ended when a body was recovered. The 20-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. The swimmers likely were seeking relief from the heat; temperatures climbed into the 90s on Tuesday. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh is mild-mannered almost to a fault. But dont mistake that for any weakness. This case is about the right of hundreds of millions of Americans to honest government, Frosh said Monday as he stood by his D.C. counterpart, Karl Racine. The two joined forces to sue President Donald Trump over basically profiting from his presidency. Elected leaders who serve the people and not their own financial interests are the indispensable foundation of our democracy, Frosh declared. Our constituents must know that a president who orders their sons and daughters into harms way is not acting out of concern for his own business. Its not the first suit to challenge Trump for failing to distance himself sufficiently from his private businesses, including the lavish Trump International Hotel here in Washington. But some legal experts say the Frosh-Racine case may have a better chance in the courts than others. The two attorneys general are representing millions of constituents, not narrow interests. They are both Democrats but say the case is nonpartisan. Racine said theyd be suing if Oprah Winfrey or Mark Zuckerberg were doing the same thing as president. The White House has pushed back on this and other suits, contending the president is not violating the U.S. Constitutions provisions against enriching himself or herself from either domestic or foreign sources. Mondays news conference thrust the two local lawyers into national prominence. Both earlier have supported legal cases against the Trump attempts to impose an immigration ban. Frosh and Racine invited other attorneys general to join their effort. Mondays case also is not the first anti-Trump legal move right here in the nations capital. In March, the owners of the Cork Wine Bar, 1720 14th St. NW, sued President Trump and the Trump International, saying the hotel unfairly enriches Trump as president and draws business from other establishments, including theirs. What the president is doing is unethical and unfair, and thats why we launched our lawsuit, said co-owner Diane Gross. She said that the business received a lot of support for filing the suit. But in this day of open warfare on social media, she and her husband Khalid Pitts have also received abusive messages our share of negative emails and phone calls and people telling us they hoped our business failed. The case has bounced between local D.C. Superior Court and federal courts. It is awaiting a ruling on jurisdiction from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon. You may recognize his name, because he is also overseeing a suit against the proposed Purple Line rapid transit route in suburban Maryland. New top lawyer. The good news: President Trump finally has nominated someone to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The not-so-good-news: She lives in Virginia. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Jessie Liu would replace interim U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips, a veteran of the office and one of the most knowledgeable about the inner workers of the massive federal office here. Unlike other U.S. attorneys across the nation, the federal office here prosecutes major local crimes because the District is not allowed to fully run its own justice system. Liu currently serves as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Treasury Department. Its helpful that she also had been an assistant U.S. attorney in the Washington office before entering private practice. The District also is the only place we know of where the top prosecutor doesnt have to live in the jurisdiction he or she oversees. Pride Parade misstep? NBC4 first reported last weekend that the largest ever Capital Pride Parade was missing a hometown hero, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. It turns out Norton, a staunch advocate of civil rights for all, never got an invitation to join the parade supporting LGBTQ rights. She said she had marched in every parade for decades. This year she was told she would have to pay a $600 entry fee and at first she thought she was being waitlisted because the parade was full. News4s Twitter recounting prompted a lot of complaints from people who thought the Pride organizers had disrespected one of the communitys biggest supporters. It didnt help that the Capital Pride organization is faulted by some for being too white. Well, News4 inquired about the flap. It turns out that there may have been miscommunication about being waitlisted, but the organizer said the $600 fee is assessed against all participants and has been for years. We regret the confusion and look forward to Delegate Nortons participation in future Capital Pride Parades, wrote spokesperson Peter Morgan. We hope so. A lot of equal rights protections have been earned over many tough years by a lot of people standing up for those rights. Norton has been an ally, and we look forward to seeing her in the parade next summer. (The Notebook will check back in May 2018 just to be sure.) And as we wrote about last week, there was an expected, brief disruption of this years parade by the No Justice, No Pride protest group. The activists contend neither police nor corporations should be allowed to march in the parade because they remain opposed to true equal rights and protections for people of color, transgender people and other minorities. Advocates supporting the parade contend it has taken decades to win marriage and other rights and to get the military, the police and other institutions to end discrimination. They contend Capital Pride is right to welcome allies into the fold because true equal rights and anti-discrimination laws are still to be gained. Tom Sherwood, a Southwest resident, is a political reporter for News 4. A Virginia woman who was put into deportation proceedings after she went to a regular check-in with immigration officials last month may be deported on Tuesday -- as an organization in the D.C. area honors her for her bravery. Liliana Cruz Mendez, 30, is being detained in Louisiana and is expecting to be deported to El Salvador at any time. The CASA will recognize Cruz Mendez in an event Tuesday night. "She's an extraordinary human being," the group's executive director, Gustavo Torres, said. "She was fighting as a member of CASA for comprehensive immigration reform." The Falls Church resident who fled violence in her home country is not doing well, her cousin Yanira Zabala said. "Her heart is completely broken to be separated from her family," Zabala said in Spanish, through an interpreter. For nearly a month, she has been separated from her husband and two U.S.-born children, an 11-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. "They really have been destroyed by what has happened," Zabala said about the family. CASA officials said Cruz Mendez entered the U.S. illegally and skipped an appearance in immigration court. That triggered an "in absentia" deportation order against her, according to her attorney Nick Katz. Cruz Mendez stayed off immigration officials' radar until she was stopped by police in 2013 for a broken taillight, and was convicted in 2014 of driving without a license, CASA said. She qualified for stays of deportation in 2014 and 2015. Then, she was arrested last month when she went to her regular check-in with immigration authorities. CASA said she had no other criminal record, and was employed at a restaurant, with a federal work permit. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe pardoned the driving offense last month, saying it hoped it would prevent her deportation. The governor said he wanted to send a "clear message that tearing this family apart will not make our Commonwealth or our country safer." Immigration arrests have soared since Trump signed executive orders on Jan. 22 to boost deportations. U.S. immigration arrests increased nearly 40 percent in early 2017 as newly emboldened agents detained more than 40,000 people suspected of being in the country illegally. More than one in four had no criminal convictions. CASA will continue working to keep immigrant families from being separated because of deportation, Torres said. The trial against the man accused of killing Bella Bond continued Wednesday after several witnesses testified on the investigation of the little girl's death. Michael McCarthy's ex-girlfriend, a newly added witness who had originally refused to be interviewed by both the defense and prosecution, nervously took the stand. She testified that she dated McCarthy off and on for more than six years in their teens and 20s. Devlin said their group of friends including McCarthy and Michael Sprinsky would hang out, drinking and doing drugs, in several locations near McCarthy's Second Street home in South Boston. "Off of First Street, there were a couple of places that everyone would meet up," Devlin said. Devlin circled the locations, along the Reserved Channel in South Boston, for jurors. It's the same location where Rachelle Bond testified that McCarthy dumped Bella Bond's body. "They were out of the way, quiet and dark at night, just isolated areas," Devlin said. After the jury was dismissed for the day, the defense had a significant objection to the prosecution's request to add involuntary manslaughter to the verdicts the jury can weigh during deliberations. They were initially supposed to be considering just first or second degree murder. "We don't think that there's any evidence in the record that would justify that so we would object to giving an involuntary manslaughter charge," defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro said. McCarthy was indicted on first degree murder charges, so the jury is already allowed to weigh that and the lesser charge of second degree murder. The judge hasn't decided yet whether she'll allow the prosecution's motion to add involuntary manslaughter as a possible verdict. Trial Underway for Man Accused of Killing Bella Bond Crime lab forensic scientist Jennifer Montgomery also took the Wednesday stand regarding DNA evidence found in the Maxwell Street apartment of Rachelle Bond and Michael McCarthy. Montgomery said that a handful of long strands of hair was found in the refrigerator and freezer. Rachelle Bond previously told police she thought McCarthy may have put Bella Bond in the refrigerator, according to prior testimony. Bond had testified that her boyfriend may have put her daughter in the fridge. Montgomery said that DNA testing could not distinguish whether it was from Bond or her child. The jury in the Bella Bond murder trial could get the case next week. The judge told jurors late Wednesday that the prosecution and defense are expected to wrap up by mid-week next week. A nurse was seriously injured after being stabbed multiple times by a patient in a Massachusetts hospital's emergency room Wednesday morning, according to authorities. Officials at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge say it happened around 10:15 a.m. when the suspect, who was being triaged for an apparent wrist injury, furnished a knife and stabbed the nurse four times. The suspect was later identified as 24-year-old Conor O'Regan. The nurse was immediately treated in the hospital's emergency room, stabilized and then airlifted to UMass Medical Center in Worcester where she underwent surgery. She is listed in critical but stable condition. The nurse's identity has not yet been released. "Our thoughts and prayers are with our employee and her family at this time," hospital spokesperson Joseph Klimavich said. "I dont know if anything like this has ever happened at Harrington." Southbridge police said O'Regan initially fled the scene after the stabbing but officers were able to apprehend him. Authorities said it was an isolated incident and that there is no threat to the community. "We dont have anything concrete in why this attack occurred," said Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. "No one expected to be coming to work today and be working on one of their good good friends in the emergency room." His manager at the McDonalds where ORegan works says he appeared to be going downhill. "We always knew he was off," said Sarah Taylor, a co-worker of the suspect at an area McDonald's. "He just seemed kind of angry... like something was getting to him but he just held it in a lot." O'Regan's manager at the McDonalds where he works says he appeared to be going downhill. "We always knew he was off," said Sarah Taylor, a co-worker. "He just seemed kind of angry... like something was getting to him but he just held it in a lot." O'Regan is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Central District Court in Worcester to face charges of assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. "We will be moving forward for a mental health evaluation tomorrow morning," Early added. The investigation is ongoing. The rotting clamshells that were used to pave an access road in a small Rhode Island community are being removed after neighbors complained about the stench and maggots. WJAR-TV reports that workers were at the Tiverton property Wednesday morning to remove the clams after the property owner was issued a cease-and-desist order giving him until the end of the week to remove them. A crew with heavy equipment was seen scooping up shells. The owner used the shells to pave an access road two weeks ago. But they had meat still attached, leading to a putrid smell as it decomposed. Video showed maggots crawling all over the road. State environmental authorities said the clamshells were considered waste because of the decaying clam meat. The property owner has refused to comment. The Chinese government recently asked Seoul to allow an on-site inspection of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery the U.S. recently stationed here, a government source said Tuesday. China opposed the deployment because it believes that its powerful radar could be used to spy on its own military maneuvers. The source said, "The Chinese side wanted to check if the radar is capable of monitoring activities even on the Chinese mainland." Beijing is making the demands "through various channels," the source added. The X-band radar has a "forward-based mode" capable of detecting targets 1,800 km away as well as a "terminal mode" that can track missiles 600 to 800 km away. The U.S. says it is set on terminal mode in Korea due to the short detection distances that are required for missiles from North Korea and will not be switched, but China wants to verify that. Cheong Wa Dae is in a dilemma. One official said, "It's an excessive demand, but we can't simply refuse as Beijing is becoming increasingly vocal about its opposition." National security officials at Cheong Wa Dae have discussed asking China in turn to inspect its own radars in its northern region that are used to monitor the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Since 2011, China has been operating a powerful radar with a range of up to 5,500 km that is capable of monitoring not only the Korean Peninsula, but Okinawa, the Philippines and even Guam. Monitoring employee communications Andrew Egan of Charles Lucas and Marshall A RECENT case involving the messaging service WhatsApp raises issues about the monitoring of staff communications by employers, says Andrew Egan of Charles Lucas & Marshall. In March, the FCA issued a large fine to a former Jefferies investment banker for using WhatsApp to disclose confidential client information to a friend and to a client. Some of the information that the banker disclosed concerned a client company which was a competitor of the client to whom he sent the WhatsApp messages. The messages were discovered when the banker voluntarily handed over his phone as part of an investigation into an unrelated complaint against him. He was suspended pending a disciplinary investigation, but he resigned before a decision was made about his employment. When deciding to monitor employees use of IT and social media in the workplace, there are a number of matters to consider in accordance with the Data Protections Act 1998 as well as the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998. Employees are allowed some degree of privacy in relation to their conversations at work. The main issue will be whether the employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether or not the monitoring was in accordance with the law. It is important for an employer to have a clear and well-publicised IT policy in place, setting out the extent to which the employees IT usage will be monitored. This would also have to include up-to-date details of the types of messages that would be monitored in order for it to be carried out lawfully. The employers monitoring should go no further than necessary to investigate any alleged misconduct and to ensure that other areas of an employees email or internet usage that are not relevant, are ignored. Employers are recommended to provide staff with information in relation to the circumstances in which monitoring may take place, the nature of the monitoring, how the information will be used, and the safeguards in place for employees. Employers may breach the implied duty of trust and confidence by inappropriate monitoring. This could justify an employee resigning and claiming constructive unfair dismissal. Similarly, an employer who just relies on evidence obtained through illicit monitoring as the basis for dismissing an employee, may render such a dismissal unfair. If an employer believes that confidential information is being disclosed by employees inappropriately, then the employer should consider monitoring employee communications, provided that such monitoring is proportionate and that it does not extend to areas which are not relevant to its concerns. Employers should have an electronic communications policy, which may extend beyond monitoring, to set standards, cross-refer to other relevant policies and to address the many risks and hazards arising from email use and internet access, including: * Constructive dismissal * Discrimination, harassment and defamation claims * Intellectual property issues * Contractual liability * The loss of productivity For further information contact Andrew Egan on 01635 521212 or andrewegan@coffinmew.co.uk Steve Dally, Chief Executive of BCMS Overseas corporations and investors have stepped up acquisitions of UK businesses since the EU referendum, according to market analysis by Kingsclere-based BCMS. The business sale advisor said around 25% of the 4,500 UK companies sold in the nine months to the end of March went to an international buyer headquartered abroad, with European, American and Asian acquirers all increasingly vying with each other to snap up UK SMEs. The UKs open business culture, and the enduring reputation for innovation among home-grown SMEs are helping drive this surge of interest, BCMS added. BCMS chief executive Steve Dally said: The strong appetite of overseas acquirers for UK SMEs is good news. It gives entrepreneurs more options when seeking to grow or sell, creating a competitive bidding scenario to drive up the asking price. Its also accompanied by follow-on investment in equipment and restructuring, which is typically positive for job creation and beneficial to staff career development. Traditionally, interest has always been strong from North America and Europe, but with more big players from Japan, India and China joining the fray, it still feels very much like a sellers market. The trend is borne out by BCMS client businesses who sold to overseas buyers in recent months. These include school gym equipment supplier Sportsafe acquired by ABEO of France; hospital furniture maker Sunflower Medical sold to Indutrade of Sweden; and motorsports engineering firm BRP Composites bought by Indian aerospace group Neterwala. Searching far and wide As a result of increased overseas appetite, the deal-making community of advisors, lawyers and accountants are having to invest in language skills and data to globalise their operations to find potential acquirers. For example, BCMS where staff speak 27 languages between them has recently welcomed new recruits from countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa and India, to complement existing UK colleagues based in Kingsclere, and the BCMS northern office in Haslingden. Steve Dally said: There are many reasons why an entrepreneur decides to sell up, but theres no point having a great company on the books to sell if no one knows its for sale. But not all advisors can afford to invest in this global approach, and its really noticeable later on in the process, with little or no interest, and a business owner wondering when theyll be able to pass on the company. Why big foreign companies buy SMEs So why do multinational groups chase after small UK businesses? Generally, there are three reasons although this depends on what sector they operate in. Buyers from emerging markets often want to acquire technology and know-how to use in their home markets. For North American companies, buying a UK subsidiary is either a first step to international expansion, or they are already global and already in the UK and looking to add further capabilities. Elsewhere, European acquisitions into the UK are often about offering customers pan-European coverage, or simply to gain market access to the worlds fifth biggest economy. Entrepreneurs dilemma When owners sell up, the most common dilemmas are based on whether the final buyer is the right choice, and, of course, their offer, payment and terms. By having a wider choice of buyers, the owner-director significantly increases their chance of selling, achieving maximum value and the peace of mind knowing that no stone is unturned in the search for the best fit acquirer. Despite some concern about the level of foreign ownership of UK businesses, BCMS says that, at SME level, the benefits are overwhelmingly positive for the vendor, their staff and for the local economy. Overseas corporations have been a longstanding feature of the UK business landscape, and in the aftermath of Brexit and Trump the signs are that this looks set to continue. By Express News Service BENGALURU: A fire broke out adjacent to the intensive care unit of the Malathi Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru which required some 40 patients to be shifted to safety Wednesday morning. The fire broke out at around 9.45 am due to a short circuit on the first floor of the hospital. Fire serve personnel rushed to the hospital and shifted the patients to another Manipal hospital on airport road. The fire was doused by four fire tenders. No casualties were reported. The CEO of Malathi Manipal Hospital, Dr Pramod Krishnan said, "There was a short circuit on the first floor of the hospital. Now it is under control and some of the patients will be shifted back to the floor." BENGALURU: A fire broke out adjacent to the intensive care unit of the Malathi Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru which required some 40 patients to be shifted to safety Wednesday morning. The fire broke out at around 9.45 am due to a short circuit on the first floor of the hospital. Fire serve personnel rushed to the hospital and shifted the patients to another Manipal hospital on airport road. The fire was doused by four fire tenders. No casualties were reported. The CEO of Malathi Manipal Hospital, Dr Pramod Krishnan said, "There was a short circuit on the first floor of the hospital. Now it is under control and some of the patients will be shifted back to the floor." By Express News Service BENGALURU: After 11 long years of trial, an Additional Superintendent of Police has won a case against a Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer, who is accused of getting the job by producing a fake caste certificate. The officer is currently posted as personal secretary to medical education minister Sharan Prakash Patil. Sangappa Hasanappa Malennanavar, the ministers secretary, had challenged the order of the Commissioner of the Backward Classes Welfare Department of January 23, 2006, wherein the caste certificate issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Income and Caste Verification Committee, Bagalkot, was held to be not genuine. The commissioner had also ordered criminal proceedings against Sangappa, a Lingayat (3-B), for obtaining a caste certificate showing him to be a Ganiga (2-A category), to claim reservation benefits. Justice L Narayanaswamy of the Dharwad bench, while considering the contentions of the Additional Superintendent of Police M V Chandrakanth, Bengaluru Rural, on Tuesday dismissed Sangappas petition. Sangappa was among the 1999 batch candidates selected for appointment to Gazetted Probationers Group A and B posts. He was posted as Assistant Commissioner on February 1, 2006 and Chandrakanth was appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Police. In his judgment on Tuesday, Justice Narayanaswamy said, It is made clear that the caste certificate of Sangappas father are of more probative value and not the certificate of Sangappa himself. The certificate of the father shows that he belongs to a particular caste (Lingayat) and therefore he cannot claim a different caste, for the benefits which he is not entitled to. The order passed by the Commissioner of Backward Classes is sound and proper. Sangappas counsel appealed to the judge to stay the order for one month to allow him to file an appeal against the order. When the judge refused, he pleaded that the judgment be kept in abeyance for 15 days. But judge did not consider that too, and observed, Sorry.. you have played fraud with the state. During hearing of the case, the court had passed an interim order asking the government to maintain status quo since the appointment order was not yet issued after the selection list was announced by the Karnataka Public Service Commission. Ignoring this, the state issued Sangappas appointment order. Later, he served as personal secretary to then Deputy CM M P Prakash. In the meantime, Sangappa got promotion from KAS Junior Scale, Senior Scale and Super Time Scale. After serving in different posts including as additional deputy commissioner, Sangappa was posted as personal secretary to Minister Sharan Prakash Patil from 2013. BENGALURU: After 11 long years of trial, an Additional Superintendent of Police has won a case against a Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer, who is accused of getting the job by producing a fake caste certificate. The officer is currently posted as personal secretary to medical education minister Sharan Prakash Patil. Sangappa Hasanappa Malennanavar, the ministers secretary, had challenged the order of the Commissioner of the Backward Classes Welfare Department of January 23, 2006, wherein the caste certificate issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Income and Caste Verification Committee, Bagalkot, was held to be not genuine. The commissioner had also ordered criminal proceedings against Sangappa, a Lingayat (3-B), for obtaining a caste certificate showing him to be a Ganiga (2-A category), to claim reservation benefits. Justice L Narayanaswamy of the Dharwad bench, while considering the contentions of the Additional Superintendent of Police M V Chandrakanth, Bengaluru Rural, on Tuesday dismissed Sangappas petition. Sangappa was among the 1999 batch candidates selected for appointment to Gazetted Probationers Group A and B posts. He was posted as Assistant Commissioner on February 1, 2006 and Chandrakanth was appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Police. In his judgment on Tuesday, Justice Narayanaswamy said, It is made clear that the caste certificate of Sangappas father are of more probative value and not the certificate of Sangappa himself. The certificate of the father shows that he belongs to a particular caste (Lingayat) and therefore he cannot claim a different caste, for the benefits which he is not entitled to. The order passed by the Commissioner of Backward Classes is sound and proper. Sangappas counsel appealed to the judge to stay the order for one month to allow him to file an appeal against the order. When the judge refused, he pleaded that the judgment be kept in abeyance for 15 days. But judge did not consider that too, and observed, Sorry.. you have played fraud with the state. During hearing of the case, the court had passed an interim order asking the government to maintain status quo since the appointment order was not yet issued after the selection list was announced by the Karnataka Public Service Commission. Ignoring this, the state issued Sangappas appointment order. Later, he served as personal secretary to then Deputy CM M P Prakash. In the meantime, Sangappa got promotion from KAS Junior Scale, Senior Scale and Super Time Scale. After serving in different posts including as additional deputy commissioner, Sangappa was posted as personal secretary to Minister Sharan Prakash Patil from 2013. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Thirty people were rescued by firemen this morning from the terrace of a six-floor building in Shamshabad near Hyderabad after a fire broke out on the ground floor housing an ESI dispensary. No casualties or injuries were reported. The fire was ignited in a doctor's room on the ground floor of Anupama Residency, a six-floor building that the Fire Service said lacked fire-fighting equipment. As the fire spread on the ground floor, smoke filled the upper floors, forcing people living there to rush to the terrace. The fire service suspects a faulty electric switchboard shorted and ignited the fire. Fire engines from Rajendranagar, Chandulal Baradari, Maheshwaram and Shamshabad were rushed to fight the fire. As some firefighters controlled the fire in the ESI dispensary, others got into the first floor using a ladder and escorted people to the top of the building. A Bronto sky lift was also rushed to the spot but it was not needed. Fire officer G V Prasad of Ranga Reddy district said the ESI dispensary had no fire extinguishers and the building itself did not have the mandatory no-objection certificate from Fire Department. Prasad said the owner of the building will be prosecuted. HYDERABAD: Thirty people were rescued by firemen this morning from the terrace of a six-floor building in Shamshabad near Hyderabad after a fire broke out on the ground floor housing an ESI dispensary. No casualties or injuries were reported. The fire was ignited in a doctor's room on the ground floor of Anupama Residency, a six-floor building that the Fire Service said lacked fire-fighting equipment. As the fire spread on the ground floor, smoke filled the upper floors, forcing people living there to rush to the terrace. The fire service suspects a faulty electric switchboard shorted and ignited the fire. Fire engines from Rajendranagar, Chandulal Baradari, Maheshwaram and Shamshabad were rushed to fight the fire. As some firefighters controlled the fire in the ESI dispensary, others got into the first floor using a ladder and escorted people to the top of the building. A Bronto sky lift was also rushed to the spot but it was not needed. Fire breaks out from a #hotel, Fire brigades rescue 20 persons, #Hyderabad, @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/JLTi4SzVTM Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) June 14, 2017 Fire officer G V Prasad of Ranga Reddy district said the ESI dispensary had no fire extinguishers and the building itself did not have the mandatory no-objection certificate from Fire Department. Prasad said the owner of the building will be prosecuted. Hyundai on Tuesday held a press junket to unveil its first small SUV. Hyundai vice chairman Chung Eui-sun drove a neon-green Kona on to the stage, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and jeans in an attempt to illustrate the concept of the SUV, which is named after a vacation spot in Hawaii. Chung Eui-sun, the son of chairman Chung Mong-koo, was heavily involved in the development and marketing of the small SUV, which fits in a booming segment of the largely saturated Korean market. He said the Kona boasts both "fuel efficiency and safety" and added that it will be the first Hyundai compact to be marketed in all major markets around the world. Latecomer Hyundai is a Johnny-come-lately in the small SUV market, which is dominated by Ssangyong's Tivoli, Renault Samsung's QM3 and GM Korea's Trax. Last year, Hyundai affiliate Kia joined the fray with the Niro. Hyundai vice president Jeong Rak said, "We believed we had no choice but to develop one that would stand out of the pack." The Kona is equipped with latest safety features and gadgets despite a relatively cheap price tag of between W18.95 and W27.10 (US$1=W1,129). By IANS NEW DELHI: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan ditched his regular luxury car drive for an autorickshaw ride back from the Mehboob Studio in Bandra here. The 51-year-old actor, who was accompanied by filmmaker Ramesh Taurani, was spotted wearing a black T-shirt and dark brown pants while he was returning from the studio on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, another video had emerged featuring the actor riding his newly launched 'Being Human' e-cycle on the streets of Mumbai. Salman currently awaits the release of his forthcoming film "Tubelight". Directed by Kabir Khan, the film also features Salman's brother Sohail Khan, Chinese actress Zhu Zhu and late actor Om Puri. 'Tubelight' releases on June 25. NEW DELHI: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan ditched his regular luxury car drive for an autorickshaw ride back from the Mehboob Studio in Bandra here. The 51-year-old actor, who was accompanied by filmmaker Ramesh Taurani, was spotted wearing a black T-shirt and dark brown pants while he was returning from the studio on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, another video had emerged featuring the actor riding his newly launched 'Being Human' e-cycle on the streets of Mumbai. Salman currently awaits the release of his forthcoming film "Tubelight". Directed by Kabir Khan, the film also features Salman's brother Sohail Khan, Chinese actress Zhu Zhu and late actor Om Puri. 'Tubelight' releases on June 25. Aishik Chanda By Express News Service Simmering since 1907, the separate Gorkhaland agitation has flared up again. Mamata Banerjees 3-language policy making Bangla compulsory in schools in West Bengal and the Gorkha Janmukti Morchas opposition to it have combined to cause a volatile situation. Aishik Chanda explains The hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal are on the boil again over Mamata Banerjees decision to make Bangla compulsory in all schools of the State regardless of mediums or boards. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the party ruling the autonomous council Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) that governs the two districts, has taken to the streets, and burnt police vehicles, government offices and enforced an indefinite shutdown of government offices, banks and courts, terming the fight as that of Gorkha existence against what it termed Bengals slavery. Though the West Bengal chief minister said Bangla would not be imposed on the Nepali-speaking hills of north Bengal, the GJM wanted a Cabinet resolution regarding the same. With the GTA elections slated to be held in October, the GJM called the autonomous council a failure and demanded a Gorkhaland State. On the other hand, Banerjee constituted a six-member committee to conduct a special audit of the GTA to check misappropriation of Central funds to the autonomous council in the past five years. What sparked the recent agitation in Darjeeling hills? Mamata Banerjee declared in a Facebook post on May 16 that students have to opt for three languages out of a pool of seven official languages of West Bengal from Class I till Class X, of which one has to be Bangla. She called this the 3-language policy of the State government and said it will be implemented in all schools in the State irrespective of their medium or board. The other two languages can be chosen from English, Hindi, Nepali, Santhali, Punjabi or Urdu. Has there been any official notification on making Bangla compulsory? No. There has been no official circular regarding the implementation of the 3-language policy from the State government. The Jan Andolan Party (JAP), the GJMs rival in Kalimpong district, has distanced itself from the agitation and refused to call it a language movement as no government order has been passed on making Bangla mandatory. Is there any link between the agitation and polls in the recent past and the near future? Maybe. Trinamool Congress broke into the GJM bastion and formed the board in Mirik municipality and won a few seats in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong municipalities. The electoral setback had forced the GJM on the back foot in the hills. Also, the current term of the GTA is ending in July and the election to the 45-member body is expected in October. The TMC aims to break into this. Currently all members in the body are from the GJM. According to JAP chief Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Mamata Banerjees untimely decision to implement Bangla came as a boon in disguise for the cornered GJM. What is the Gorkhaland statehood movement? It is a century-old demand for separation of Nepali-speaking hills from Bengal. The present Gorkhaland statehood demand comprises Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts along with Bhaktinagar, Malbazar, Chalsa, Nagrakata, Banarhat, Birpara, Madarihat, Jaigaon, Kalchini and Kumargram blocks of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts of north Bengal. Were Darjeeling and Kalimpong historically a part of Bengal? No. Darjeeling was a dominion of Chogyal of Sikkim and was overrun by Nepal in 1780. The region was annexed by the British during the 1814 Anglo-Nepal War and was ceded by Nepal to British India in the Sugauli Treaty of 1815. Kalimpong was a part of Bhutan and was ceded to the British in the Sinchula Treaty of 1865 after the 1864 Anglo-Bhutan War. The present Darjeeling district as part of Bengal came into being in 1866. However, administratively it was classified as a Non-regulated area before 1861 and 1870-74 and as Regulated area between 1862 and 1870. It was termed as Scheduled district in 1874, as Backward Tracts in 1919 and Partially-excluded area from 1935 till 1947. When did the agitation for Gorkhaland begin? The Hillmen Association of Darjeeling submitted a memorandum demanding a separate administrative setup of the hills to Morley-Minto Reforms in 1907, chief secretary of Bengal and secretary and viceroy of India in 1917 and to the Simon Commission in 1929. Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha Leagues N B Gurung met Jawaharlal Nehr in 1952 at Kalimpong demanding separation from Bengal. Indra Bahadur Rai of Pranta Parishad met Indira Gandhi at Darjeeling demanding a separate State. Did the Gorkhaland statehood demand witness bloodshed? Yes. The Gorkhaland statehood movement turned into an armed rebellion led by Subhash Ghising of Gorkha National Liberation Front after large number of statehood agitators were killed in CRPF firing during a rally in Kalimpong on July 27, 1986. According to some estimates, more than 1,200 Gorkhas were killed during two years of violent armed rebellion. The GNLF made truce with the governments of West Bengal and India in 1988, leading to the formation of the autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) led by Ghising. The movement saw peace from 1988 till 2007. Did the Indian Idol show renew the Gorkhaland movement in 2007? Yes. Kolkata Police constable Prashant Tamang won Indian Idol Season 3 in 2007 after Subhash Ghisings security guard Bimal Gurung mobilised Gorkhas to vote for Tamang. After gaining immense popularity, Bimal Gurung formed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha with the single-point agenda of forming the Gorkhaland state. Gurung eventually replaced Ghising as DGHC chief, which was renamed by the Left Front government as Gorkha Territorial Administration with the same powers. What is the Madan Tamang murder case? Influential veteran Gorkha leader Madan Tamang of Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) was hacked to death in public at Darjeeling allegedly by GJM activists on May 21, 2010. Prime accused GJM chief Bimal Gurung and 17 others were tried at the Calcutta High Court and are currently out on anticipatory bail in the murder case. What are ethnic development boards? Stating that the Gorkhas were not indigenous to the Darjeeling hills and were better off than the native communities, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee formed the Lepcha Development Board in 2011 for betterment of the Lepcha tribe, who along with Limbu and other Animist and Buddhist tribes are said to be indigenous to the hills. Over the next six years, she formed 16 other development boards for different ethnicities of the hills. The GJM has always argued that the ethnic boards were a conspiracy to divide the Gorkhaland movement. Does Gorkhaland creation require the West Bengal Legislative Assemblys approval? No. As witnessed during Telangana formation, creation of a new State does not require the approval of the parent State. So, if the Centre, which is witnessing peak of animosity with Mamata Banerjee since demonetisation, brings a Bill in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for creation of Gorkhaland, they State may become reality. However, the Centre fears that granting statehood to Gorkhaland would intensify other statehood movements across the country. Darjeeling district Area 2,095.40 sq km Population 15,95,163 (including plains of Siliguri subdivision) Major towns Siliguri, Darjeeling, Mirik, Kurseong, Naxalbari Assembly seats Darjeeling, Kurseong, Siliguri, Matigara-Naxalbari Lok Sabha seat Darjeeling Kalimpong district Area 1,053.60 sq km Population 2,51,642 Major towns Kalimpong, Gorubathan, Algarah Assembly seats Kalimpong Lok Sabha seat Darjeeling Simmering since 1907, the separate Gorkhaland agitation has flared up again. Mamata Banerjees 3-language policy making Bangla compulsory in schools in West Bengal and the Gorkha Janmukti Morchas opposition to it have combined to cause a volatile situation. Aishik Chanda explains The hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal are on the boil again over Mamata Banerjees decision to make Bangla compulsory in all schools of the State regardless of mediums or boards. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the party ruling the autonomous council Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) that governs the two districts, has taken to the streets, and burnt police vehicles, government offices and enforced an indefinite shutdown of government offices, banks and courts, terming the fight as that of Gorkha existence against what it termed Bengals slavery. Though the West Bengal chief minister said Bangla would not be imposed on the Nepali-speaking hills of north Bengal, the GJM wanted a Cabinet resolution regarding the same. With the GTA elections slated to be held in October, the GJM called the autonomous council a failure and demanded a Gorkhaland State. On the other hand, Banerjee constituted a six-member committee to conduct a special audit of the GTA to check misappropriation of Central funds to the autonomous council in the past five years. What sparked the recent agitation in Darjeeling hills? Mamata Banerjee declared in a Facebook post on May 16 that students have to opt for three languages out of a pool of seven official languages of West Bengal from Class I till Class X, of which one has to be Bangla. She called this the 3-language policy of the State government and said it will be implemented in all schools in the State irrespective of their medium or board. The other two languages can be chosen from English, Hindi, Nepali, Santhali, Punjabi or Urdu. Has there been any official notification on making Bangla compulsory? No. There has been no official circular regarding the implementation of the 3-language policy from the State government. The Jan Andolan Party (JAP), the GJMs rival in Kalimpong district, has distanced itself from the agitation and refused to call it a language movement as no government order has been passed on making Bangla mandatory. Is there any link between the agitation and polls in the recent past and the near future? Maybe. Trinamool Congress broke into the GJM bastion and formed the board in Mirik municipality and won a few seats in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong municipalities. The electoral setback had forced the GJM on the back foot in the hills. Also, the current term of the GTA is ending in July and the election to the 45-member body is expected in October. The TMC aims to break into this. Currently all members in the body are from the GJM. According to JAP chief Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Mamata Banerjees untimely decision to implement Bangla came as a boon in disguise for the cornered GJM. What is the Gorkhaland statehood movement? It is a century-old demand for separation of Nepali-speaking hills from Bengal. The present Gorkhaland statehood demand comprises Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts along with Bhaktinagar, Malbazar, Chalsa, Nagrakata, Banarhat, Birpara, Madarihat, Jaigaon, Kalchini and Kumargram blocks of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts of north Bengal. Were Darjeeling and Kalimpong historically a part of Bengal? No. Darjeeling was a dominion of Chogyal of Sikkim and was overrun by Nepal in 1780. The region was annexed by the British during the 1814 Anglo-Nepal War and was ceded by Nepal to British India in the Sugauli Treaty of 1815. Kalimpong was a part of Bhutan and was ceded to the British in the Sinchula Treaty of 1865 after the 1864 Anglo-Bhutan War. The present Darjeeling district as part of Bengal came into being in 1866. However, administratively it was classified as a Non-regulated area before 1861 and 1870-74 and as Regulated area between 1862 and 1870. It was termed as Scheduled district in 1874, as Backward Tracts in 1919 and Partially-excluded area from 1935 till 1947. When did the agitation for Gorkhaland begin? The Hillmen Association of Darjeeling submitted a memorandum demanding a separate administrative setup of the hills to Morley-Minto Reforms in 1907, chief secretary of Bengal and secretary and viceroy of India in 1917 and to the Simon Commission in 1929. Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha Leagues N B Gurung met Jawaharlal Nehr in 1952 at Kalimpong demanding separation from Bengal. Indra Bahadur Rai of Pranta Parishad met Indira Gandhi at Darjeeling demanding a separate State. Did the Gorkhaland statehood demand witness bloodshed? Yes. The Gorkhaland statehood movement turned into an armed rebellion led by Subhash Ghising of Gorkha National Liberation Front after large number of statehood agitators were killed in CRPF firing during a rally in Kalimpong on July 27, 1986. According to some estimates, more than 1,200 Gorkhas were killed during two years of violent armed rebellion. The GNLF made truce with the governments of West Bengal and India in 1988, leading to the formation of the autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) led by Ghising. The movement saw peace from 1988 till 2007. Did the Indian Idol show renew the Gorkhaland movement in 2007? Yes. Kolkata Police constable Prashant Tamang won Indian Idol Season 3 in 2007 after Subhash Ghisings security guard Bimal Gurung mobilised Gorkhas to vote for Tamang. After gaining immense popularity, Bimal Gurung formed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha with the single-point agenda of forming the Gorkhaland state. Gurung eventually replaced Ghising as DGHC chief, which was renamed by the Left Front government as Gorkha Territorial Administration with the same powers. What is the Madan Tamang murder case? Influential veteran Gorkha leader Madan Tamang of Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) was hacked to death in public at Darjeeling allegedly by GJM activists on May 21, 2010. Prime accused GJM chief Bimal Gurung and 17 others were tried at the Calcutta High Court and are currently out on anticipatory bail in the murder case. What are ethnic development boards? Stating that the Gorkhas were not indigenous to the Darjeeling hills and were better off than the native communities, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee formed the Lepcha Development Board in 2011 for betterment of the Lepcha tribe, who along with Limbu and other Animist and Buddhist tribes are said to be indigenous to the hills. Over the next six years, she formed 16 other development boards for different ethnicities of the hills. The GJM has always argued that the ethnic boards were a conspiracy to divide the Gorkhaland movement. Does Gorkhaland creation require the West Bengal Legislative Assemblys approval? No. As witnessed during Telangana formation, creation of a new State does not require the approval of the parent State. So, if the Centre, which is witnessing peak of animosity with Mamata Banerjee since demonetisation, brings a Bill in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for creation of Gorkhaland, they State may become reality. However, the Centre fears that granting statehood to Gorkhaland would intensify other statehood movements across the country. Darjeeling districtArea 2,095.40 sq kmPopulation 15,95,163 (including plains of Siliguri subdivision)Major towns Siliguri, Darjeeling, Mirik, Kurseong, NaxalbariAssembly seats Darjeeling, Kurseong, Siliguri, Matigara-NaxalbariLok Sabha seat Darjeeling Kalimpong districtArea 1,053.60 sq kmPopulation 2,51,642Major towns Kalimpong, Gorubathan, AlgarahAssembly seats KalimpongLok Sabha seat Darjeeling By PTI GREATER NOIDA: A woman has alleged that her daughter was kidnapped and gang-raped in Jewar and when she went to the police to lodge a complaint the accused assaulted and threatened to rape her too, police said today. She alleged that initially police were not registering her complaint. It was only after a local court's order that the complaint was lodged. According to the woman's complaint, her daughter was kidnapped and gang-raped around three months ago, SHO of Jewar police station Rajpal Tomar said. When she approached the police, the accused assaulted and threatened to rape her too. They had also allegedly robbed goods from her house, the police official said. A case has been registered and investigation is underway, Tomar said. Meanwhile, Kasna Police has arrested four persons and seized three luxury cars from them. During interrogation, the accused have confessed to have stolen over 200 vehicles from Delhi and NCR areas, a police official said. GREATER NOIDA: A woman has alleged that her daughter was kidnapped and gang-raped in Jewar and when she went to the police to lodge a complaint the accused assaulted and threatened to rape her too, police said today. She alleged that initially police were not registering her complaint. It was only after a local court's order that the complaint was lodged. According to the woman's complaint, her daughter was kidnapped and gang-raped around three months ago, SHO of Jewar police station Rajpal Tomar said. When she approached the police, the accused assaulted and threatened to rape her too. They had also allegedly robbed goods from her house, the police official said. A case has been registered and investigation is underway, Tomar said. Meanwhile, Kasna Police has arrested four persons and seized three luxury cars from them. During interrogation, the accused have confessed to have stolen over 200 vehicles from Delhi and NCR areas, a police official said. Aishik Chanda By Express News Service KOLKATA: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung on Wednesday threatened to halt the ongoing hydel projects in north Bengal to press for Gorkhaland statehood. We will do everything it takes to achieve Gorkhaland. This will include halting the ongoing hydel projects on Teesta river. This is our non-cooperation movement against the West Bengal government and Gorkha workers in government offices are also skipping work as they are also part of the Gorkhaland statehood agitation, Gurung said. He also asked the tourists to stay away from the hills for some time. Our homeland is not only for tourism. We as human beings also exist in these hills. I urge the tourists not to visit the hills now as the situation is very tense, he added. On the other hand, tourism minister Goutam Deb said that disrupting tourism during its peak period in the hills would not be tolerated. Meanwhile, state police forces led by new Darjeeling superintendent of police Akhilesh Chaturvedi surrounded Kanchanjunga School in Darjeeling during meeting of youth GJM activists to decide the course of action for Gorkhaland statehood agitation. However, none of the sides showed any signs of violence while police surrounded the venue of the agitation. Neither GJM activists resorted to stone-pelting as witnessed earlier nor the police forces took an aggressive posture to deal with GJM, which was witnessed on Tuesday. On the other hand, after deputing three IPS officers acquainted with the realities of the Darjeeling hills to control the law and order situation in the hills, Mamata Banerjee appointed an officer of North Bengal Development Board to a top post in Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) on Wednesday. She also sent a report to the Central government on the situation in the hills. The report was summoned by home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday. KOLKATA: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung on Wednesday threatened to halt the ongoing hydel projects in north Bengal to press for Gorkhaland statehood. We will do everything it takes to achieve Gorkhaland. This will include halting the ongoing hydel projects on Teesta river. This is our non-cooperation movement against the West Bengal government and Gorkha workers in government offices are also skipping work as they are also part of the Gorkhaland statehood agitation, Gurung said. He also asked the tourists to stay away from the hills for some time. Our homeland is not only for tourism. We as human beings also exist in these hills. I urge the tourists not to visit the hills now as the situation is very tense, he added. On the other hand, tourism minister Goutam Deb said that disrupting tourism during its peak period in the hills would not be tolerated. Meanwhile, state police forces led by new Darjeeling superintendent of police Akhilesh Chaturvedi surrounded Kanchanjunga School in Darjeeling during meeting of youth GJM activists to decide the course of action for Gorkhaland statehood agitation. However, none of the sides showed any signs of violence while police surrounded the venue of the agitation. Neither GJM activists resorted to stone-pelting as witnessed earlier nor the police forces took an aggressive posture to deal with GJM, which was witnessed on Tuesday. On the other hand, after deputing three IPS officers acquainted with the realities of the Darjeeling hills to control the law and order situation in the hills, Mamata Banerjee appointed an officer of North Bengal Development Board to a top post in Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) on Wednesday. She also sent a report to the Central government on the situation in the hills. The report was summoned by home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday. By PTI MANDSAUR: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today visited Mandsaur, where five cultivators were killed during the farmers' stir, and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the family of one of them. The state government yesterday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on June 9 had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Chouhan along with his wife Sadhna reached Mandsaur in a special plane and went to Badwan village to meet the kin of farmer Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. The chief minister handed a cheque of Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of Dhakad, as promised. He also assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those who shot dead the farmers. Chouhan is also scheduled to visit Lodh, Nayakheda, Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth and Budha villages to extend condolences to the kin of the other farmers killed in police firing. The district administration made elaborate security arrangements for Chouhan's visit. Five helipads were made at various places to ensure that the chief minister reaches the venue without any trouble, a senior official said. Congress has also made arrangements at Dusshera maidan in Bhopal for senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's 'satyagraha' on the issue of farmers' deaths in police firing. The protest will begin around 2 pm, a Congress spokesman said. Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Scindia had also tried to visit Mandsaur but they were denied permission. Political leaders and social activists have continued to make futile attempts to visit Mandsaur despite peace having returned there. Chouhan, who came under severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off the indefinite fast on Sunday, 28 hours after its launch, claiming peace had been restored. Though the stir has ebbed away, three farmers have ended their lives in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the number of farmer suicides in the state in the past one week to five MANDSAUR: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today visited Mandsaur, where five cultivators were killed during the farmers' stir, and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the family of one of them. The state government yesterday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on June 9 had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Chouhan along with his wife Sadhna reached Mandsaur in a special plane and went to Badwan village to meet the kin of farmer Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. The chief minister handed a cheque of Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of Dhakad, as promised. He also assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those who shot dead the farmers. Chouhan is also scheduled to visit Lodh, Nayakheda, Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth and Budha villages to extend condolences to the kin of the other farmers killed in police firing. The district administration made elaborate security arrangements for Chouhan's visit. Five helipads were made at various places to ensure that the chief minister reaches the venue without any trouble, a senior official said. Congress has also made arrangements at Dusshera maidan in Bhopal for senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's 'satyagraha' on the issue of farmers' deaths in police firing. The protest will begin around 2 pm, a Congress spokesman said. Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Scindia had also tried to visit Mandsaur but they were denied permission. Political leaders and social activists have continued to make futile attempts to visit Mandsaur despite peace having returned there. Chouhan, who came under severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off the indefinite fast on Sunday, 28 hours after its launch, claiming peace had been restored. Though the stir has ebbed away, three farmers have ended their lives in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the number of farmer suicides in the state in the past one week to five By PTI MUMBAI: Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti, leader of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna which is an ally of BJP, today alleged that a Jet Airways flight which he was supposed to board left for Delhi without taking him onboard. The airline, later in the day, said that Shetti missed the flight as he didn't turn up at the boarding gate on time. "I was at T2 (terminal 2) of Mumbai airport for my morning flight to Delhi. It was necessary for me to board the flight. I was waiting in the lounge with my boarding pass. "After sometime I realised that the boarding doors are closed. When I enquired, I was told that my flight had taken off," Shetti claimed. "Jet Airways knew that I was travelling and despite being a people's representative, no one informed me about the boarding doors being closed. When I asked for a ticket on the next flight, I received a rude response. "I had to pay Rs 2,000 extra when it was not even my fault. I am going to raise this issue before the Ministry of Civil Aviation," said the MP from Hatkanangle constituency. Jet Airways, in a statement, said that Shetti did not turn up at the boarding gate on time. "A guest, who checked in for Jet Airways flight 9W 762...did not present himself at the boarding gate on time and was therefore considered as `Gate No Show'," it said. As Mumbai airport is a silent airport, no PA announcements are permitted, Jet said. He was offered an alternative flight, and "apologies were tendered and charges levied inadvertently were refunded," said the airline. MUMBAI: Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti, leader of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna which is an ally of BJP, today alleged that a Jet Airways flight which he was supposed to board left for Delhi without taking him onboard. The airline, later in the day, said that Shetti missed the flight as he didn't turn up at the boarding gate on time. "I was at T2 (terminal 2) of Mumbai airport for my morning flight to Delhi. It was necessary for me to board the flight. I was waiting in the lounge with my boarding pass. "After sometime I realised that the boarding doors are closed. When I enquired, I was told that my flight had taken off," Shetti claimed. "Jet Airways knew that I was travelling and despite being a people's representative, no one informed me about the boarding doors being closed. When I asked for a ticket on the next flight, I received a rude response. "I had to pay Rs 2,000 extra when it was not even my fault. I am going to raise this issue before the Ministry of Civil Aviation," said the MP from Hatkanangle constituency. Jet Airways, in a statement, said that Shetti did not turn up at the boarding gate on time. "A guest, who checked in for Jet Airways flight 9W 762...did not present himself at the boarding gate on time and was therefore considered as `Gate No Show'," it said. As Mumbai airport is a silent airport, no PA announcements are permitted, Jet said. He was offered an alternative flight, and "apologies were tendered and charges levied inadvertently were refunded," said the airline. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: Another body, identified as Deben Nath, who was missing since Tuesday's floods in Guwahati, was recovered from a water body on Wednesday evening. The latest death brings the toll to 15. It did not rain in most parts of the region on Wednesday much to the peoples relief. Ten people were washed away in Mizorams Lunglei district while two others, including a school student, were electrocuted in Assams capital Guwahati, on Tuesday. The body of a man, who fell into a swollen rivulet in Guwahati on Tuesday, was recovered by the SDRF on Wednesday. Tragedy struck Pintu Das when he had gone to buy meat from a market. Das, a native of eastern Assams Dibrugarh, had moved to Guwahati two months ago to work for a construction firm. Meanwhile, while water receded from flooded localities of Guwahati, landslides were reported in five areas. According to state disaster management authorities, 130 affected people were lodged in a relief camp in the city. Floods were reported from Lakhimpur, Darrang, Hailakandi and Kamrup (Metro) districts, affecting 13,238 people. In Manipur, a farmer was swept away by the swirling water from the Imphal river in Kangpokpi district. The 35-year-old victim, Paominlal, hailed from Khaochangbung village in the district. Official sources said hundreds of localities in Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Senapati districts were in the grip of the flash floods. Sources said rivers including Imphal, Nambul, Kali and Senapati and the tributaries of Barak, Nambul and Thoubal were overflowing at various places. In Mizoram, nine of the 10 bodies of people who were washed away on Tuesday are yet to be recovered. The flood is subsiding as the rains have stopped. But as of now, there is no news about the recovery of the nine bodies, ruling Congress spokesman David Sangliana told the New Indian Express. GUWAHATI: Another body, identified as Deben Nath, who was missing since Tuesday's floods in Guwahati, was recovered from a water body on Wednesday evening. The latest death brings the toll to 15. It did not rain in most parts of the region on Wednesday much to the peoples relief. Ten people were washed away in Mizorams Lunglei district while two others, including a school student, were electrocuted in Assams capital Guwahati, on Tuesday. The body of a man, who fell into a swollen rivulet in Guwahati on Tuesday, was recovered by the SDRF on Wednesday. Tragedy struck Pintu Das when he had gone to buy meat from a market. Das, a native of eastern Assams Dibrugarh, had moved to Guwahati two months ago to work for a construction firm. Meanwhile, while water receded from flooded localities of Guwahati, landslides were reported in five areas. According to state disaster management authorities, 130 affected people were lodged in a relief camp in the city. Floods were reported from Lakhimpur, Darrang, Hailakandi and Kamrup (Metro) districts, affecting 13,238 people. In Manipur, a farmer was swept away by the swirling water from the Imphal river in Kangpokpi district. The 35-year-old victim, Paominlal, hailed from Khaochangbung village in the district. Official sources said hundreds of localities in Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Senapati districts were in the grip of the flash floods. Sources said rivers including Imphal, Nambul, Kali and Senapati and the tributaries of Barak, Nambul and Thoubal were overflowing at various places. In Mizoram, nine of the 10 bodies of people who were washed away on Tuesday are yet to be recovered. The flood is subsiding as the rains have stopped. But as of now, there is no news about the recovery of the nine bodies, ruling Congress spokesman David Sangliana told the New Indian Express. YATISH YADAV By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Until farmer violence flared up in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh was the model the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) was looking to adopt to solve the country's agrarian crisis. And then on June 6, five farmers fell to police bullets in that district and it changed the entire discourse. Until then, top sources said, the Narendra Modi government had been examining suggestions on farm policy drafted by a Washington-based think tank, India Agriculture Group. The exercise was meant to harvest solutions to solve the agrarian crisis and accelerate growth. It was initiated in February when minister of state for agriculture S S Ahluwalia forwarded the think tanks suggestions to the Prime Minister. Among the suggestions government officials were examining was the success story of Shivraj Singh Chouhans Krishi Cabinet (agriculture cabinet). The Krishi Cabinet is comprised of representatives from the states agriculture and related departments who address farmer issues at the block and village level. India Agriculture Groups note forwarded by Ahluwalia talks of a Krishi Cabinet that monitors the "progress of farm activities, crop performance, procurement under MSP and addresses any storage and marketing problems." The note also claims that Madhya Pradeshs growth has been consistent in the past decade and that it could be replicated in other states. "Madhya Pradesh remains the finest example of integration and implementation of various issues that have yielded agriculture growth, said a government official said. But at the same time there are concerns related to the state's role in implementing certain policies like fair prices for farmers produce. There is no doubt that a Krishi Cabinet is a fantastic idea but the Mandsaur incident is a glaring example that it failed to attend to some issues. The Union government is working on an action plan to double farmers income by 2022. It is examining some recommendations towards that goal, one of which is to examine the Madhya Pradesh model to prioritise the overall management of the agriculture sector according to the local situation. So now, if not Mandsaur, what next? The government is also examining the China model to improve farmers conditions. According to India Agriculture Groups note the Chinese farm sector has more or less similar conditions like India. But its per hectare productivity is higher. "China's production of all crops except soybean is much than the average production in the world," the note said. NEW DELHI: Until farmer violence flared up in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh was the model the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) was looking to adopt to solve the country's agrarian crisis. And then on June 6, five farmers fell to police bullets in that district and it changed the entire discourse. Until then, top sources said, the Narendra Modi government had been examining suggestions on farm policy drafted by a Washington-based think tank, India Agriculture Group. The exercise was meant to harvest solutions to solve the agrarian crisis and accelerate growth. It was initiated in February when minister of state for agriculture S S Ahluwalia forwarded the think tanks suggestions to the Prime Minister. Among the suggestions government officials were examining was the success story of Shivraj Singh Chouhans Krishi Cabinet (agriculture cabinet). The Krishi Cabinet is comprised of representatives from the states agriculture and related departments who address farmer issues at the block and village level. India Agriculture Groups note forwarded by Ahluwalia talks of a Krishi Cabinet that monitors the "progress of farm activities, crop performance, procurement under MSP and addresses any storage and marketing problems." The note also claims that Madhya Pradeshs growth has been consistent in the past decade and that it could be replicated in other states. "Madhya Pradesh remains the finest example of integration and implementation of various issues that have yielded agriculture growth, said a government official said. But at the same time there are concerns related to the state's role in implementing certain policies like fair prices for farmers produce. There is no doubt that a Krishi Cabinet is a fantastic idea but the Mandsaur incident is a glaring example that it failed to attend to some issues. The Union government is working on an action plan to double farmers income by 2022. It is examining some recommendations towards that goal, one of which is to examine the Madhya Pradesh model to prioritise the overall management of the agriculture sector according to the local situation. So now, if not Mandsaur, what next? The government is also examining the China model to improve farmers conditions. According to India Agriculture Groups note the Chinese farm sector has more or less similar conditions like India. But its per hectare productivity is higher. "China's production of all crops except soybean is much than the average production in the world," the note said. By Express News Service GUNTUR: RTA officials led by Deputy Transport Commissioner GC Raja Ratnam, conducted a special drive in the city on Tuesday and seized 12 school buses for not possessing fitness certificate. The special drive was conducted to ensure the safety of children in the wake of commencement of new academic year. The Deputy Transport Commissioner warned that stern action would be taken against the the managements of private educational institutions if they run school buses without fitness certificate. GUNTUR: RTA officials led by Deputy Transport Commissioner GC Raja Ratnam, conducted a special drive in the city on Tuesday and seized 12 school buses for not possessing fitness certificate. The special drive was conducted to ensure the safety of children in the wake of commencement of new academic year. The Deputy Transport Commissioner warned that stern action would be taken against the the managements of private educational institutions if they run school buses without fitness certificate. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Reacting to the alleged excesses by the Anantapur and Rachakonda police commissionerates, the High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the top police authorities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, circle inspectors and station house officers of Anantapur and Rachakonda, asking them to respond to the horrible trauma of the family of a retired officer of Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Anantapur. Reacting to a letter written by Pushpalatha Vittal of Anantapur, whose husband is now battling for life in a hospital, the bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice T Rajani, issued the notices. In the letter, Pushpalatha charged the Anantapur police with detaining her husband, ill-treating him and beating him for no fault of his. It was also alleged that some officers of the Rachakonda police commissionerate in Hyderabad also played an undue role in the case. According to the letter, Pushpalathas son Sai and Soumya of Hyderabad fell in love with each other. Sai, a businessman, used to visit Hyderabad, became friends with Soumya and later fell in love with her. Some days back, Soumya went to Sais residence at Ganganagar in Anantapur and told his parents about their relationship. She threatened to commit suicide if they did not perform their marriage. The boys parents obliged and performed the marriage, and the couple was living in Anantapur. However, the girls parents in Hyderabad lodged a missing complaint with the Ibrahimpatnam police in Rachakonda commissionerate. Police, on coming to know that the couple was living in Anantapur, influenced the police there. Meanwhile, nearly 20 members of the girls family and relatives went to Anantapur, forcibly entered Vittals house and manhandled Vittal and Pushpalatha. Simultaneously, they lodges a complaint in Anantapur against the boys parents. Anantapur police took Vittal into custody, detained him in the station for an entire day and abused him. According to the letter, Vittal felt humiliated and swallowed a large quantity of sleeping pills to end his life. He was rushed to a hospital and is currently battling for his life. Pushpalatha then wrote a letter to the High Court, seeking action against the errant policemen. The High Courts PIL Committee, which went through the letter, felt the need to make it a PIL and, accordingly, converted the letter into a PIL. In view of the FIRs related to love marriages, there were also demands for making some general guidelines to the police as to how they should deal with such cases. On Tuesday, the bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan heard the case and gave two weeks time to the authorities to respond. HYDERABAD: Reacting to the alleged excesses by the Anantapur and Rachakonda police commissionerates, the High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the top police authorities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, circle inspectors and station house officers of Anantapur and Rachakonda, asking them to respond to the horrible trauma of the family of a retired officer of Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Anantapur. Reacting to a letter written by Pushpalatha Vittal of Anantapur, whose husband is now battling for life in a hospital, the bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice T Rajani, issued the notices. In the letter, Pushpalatha charged the Anantapur police with detaining her husband, ill-treating him and beating him for no fault of his. It was also alleged that some officers of the Rachakonda police commissionerate in Hyderabad also played an undue role in the case. According to the letter, Pushpalathas son Sai and Soumya of Hyderabad fell in love with each other. Sai, a businessman, used to visit Hyderabad, became friends with Soumya and later fell in love with her. Some days back, Soumya went to Sais residence at Ganganagar in Anantapur and told his parents about their relationship. She threatened to commit suicide if they did not perform their marriage. The boys parents obliged and performed the marriage, and the couple was living in Anantapur. However, the girls parents in Hyderabad lodged a missing complaint with the Ibrahimpatnam police in Rachakonda commissionerate. Police, on coming to know that the couple was living in Anantapur, influenced the police there. Meanwhile, nearly 20 members of the girls family and relatives went to Anantapur, forcibly entered Vittals house and manhandled Vittal and Pushpalatha. Simultaneously, they lodges a complaint in Anantapur against the boys parents. Anantapur police took Vittal into custody, detained him in the station for an entire day and abused him. According to the letter, Vittal felt humiliated and swallowed a large quantity of sleeping pills to end his life. He was rushed to a hospital and is currently battling for his life. Pushpalatha then wrote a letter to the High Court, seeking action against the errant policemen. The High Courts PIL Committee, which went through the letter, felt the need to make it a PIL and, accordingly, converted the letter into a PIL. In view of the FIRs related to love marriages, there were also demands for making some general guidelines to the police as to how they should deal with such cases. On Tuesday, the bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan heard the case and gave two weeks time to the authorities to respond. This will be Moon's first summit with a foreign leader. President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump will meet at the White House on June 29-30, the two countries announced Tuesday. Meanwhile, Moon hailed the Seoul-Washington alliance when he visited the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command in Yongsan, Seoul the same day. "The alliance has successfully deterred North Korea's aggression in the over 60 years since the Korean War, which has helped maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said. "That has, in turn, laid the groundwork for the democracy and economic growth Korea is now enjoying." He added Korean and U.S. troops "have contributed to world peace and shed blood together in various places around the world, including Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan." By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: In pursuance of Indias Act East policy, Eastern Fleet under the command of Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Fleet, Rear Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, is on an overseas deployment to the South East Asia and southern Indian Ocean. Indian Naval Ships Jyoti, Shivalik and Kamorta are on a port visit to Freemantle, Australia, from June 13 to June 17. Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral HCS Bisht is also visiting Freemantle during the period. According to ENC officials, the visit of the ships seeks to underscore Indias peaceful presence and to ensure good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between India and Australia. The two countries share a rich history and a strategic relationship. During the stay, various activities like official calls, formal reception on board ships, guided tours for Indian naval personnel and professional interaction between naval personnel of both the nations have been planned. Ausindex-17, a bilateral maritime exercise, between the two navies would also be held. This would be the second edition of the exercise with the maiden edition conducted in Vizag in 2015. The exercises aim to increase interoperability and are in consonance with the growing cooperation between the two countries, the officials said. INS Shivalik is commanded by Captain R Vinod Kumar while INS Kamorta, an Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette, is commanded by Commander Vipin Gupta and INS Jyoti, the fleet replenishment tanker, is commanded by Captain S Shyam Sundar. VISAKHAPATNAM: In pursuance of Indias Act East policy, Eastern Fleet under the command of Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Fleet, Rear Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, is on an overseas deployment to the South East Asia and southern Indian Ocean. Indian Naval Ships Jyoti, Shivalik and Kamorta are on a port visit to Freemantle, Australia, from June 13 to June 17. Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral HCS Bisht is also visiting Freemantle during the period. According to ENC officials, the visit of the ships seeks to underscore Indias peaceful presence and to ensure good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between India and Australia. The two countries share a rich history and a strategic relationship. During the stay, various activities like official calls, formal reception on board ships, guided tours for Indian naval personnel and professional interaction between naval personnel of both the nations have been planned. Ausindex-17, a bilateral maritime exercise, between the two navies would also be held. This would be the second edition of the exercise with the maiden edition conducted in Vizag in 2015. The exercises aim to increase interoperability and are in consonance with the growing cooperation between the two countries, the officials said. INS Shivalik is commanded by Captain R Vinod Kumar while INS Kamorta, an Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette, is commanded by Commander Vipin Gupta and INS Jyoti, the fleet replenishment tanker, is commanded by Captain S Shyam Sundar. By Express News Service PARADIP: Indias Ambassador to Morocco Dr Kheya Bhattacharya was on a visit to Paradeep Phosphates Ltd and the jetty to witness the functioning of different units. Bhattacharya also interacted with senior executives of the company and expressed happiness with its functioning. She called upon them to maintain good business relationship with OCP Morocco. Morocco is a strategic partner of India diplomatically. Among others, VP (Mfg) of PPL Nitin M Kantak explained the details of operation. Zuari Maroc Phosphates Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture of Zuari Industries Limited and Maroc Phosphore SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCP Morocco, took over PPL in February 2002. PPL draws almost 90 per cent of its main raw material Rock Phosphate from Morocco making it a strategic partner in Complex Fertiliser production. As Adventz is a conglomerate of a large number of industries starting from agriculture business to infrastructure and lifestyle, it can take a lead in expanding business with Morocco further which currently amounts to 1.5 billion dollar bilateral trade. Additional District Magistrate, Paradip, Biswajit Biswal attended the meeting. PARADIP: Indias Ambassador to Morocco Dr Kheya Bhattacharya was on a visit to Paradeep Phosphates Ltd and the jetty to witness the functioning of different units. Bhattacharya also interacted with senior executives of the company and expressed happiness with its functioning. She called upon them to maintain good business relationship with OCP Morocco. Morocco is a strategic partner of India diplomatically. Among others, VP (Mfg) of PPL Nitin M Kantak explained the details of operation. Zuari Maroc Phosphates Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture of Zuari Industries Limited and Maroc Phosphore SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCP Morocco, took over PPL in February 2002. PPL draws almost 90 per cent of its main raw material Rock Phosphate from Morocco making it a strategic partner in Complex Fertiliser production. As Adventz is a conglomerate of a large number of industries starting from agriculture business to infrastructure and lifestyle, it can take a lead in expanding business with Morocco further which currently amounts to 1.5 billion dollar bilateral trade. Additional District Magistrate, Paradip, Biswajit Biswal attended the meeting. By Express News Service KENDRAPARA: Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram was on Wednesday attacked by eggs and shown black flags by BJD and Congress activists respectively, in Kendrapara district where he attended the Sabka Sath Sabka Vikash event. Over a hundred people were detained for waving black flags at Jual Oram, in the second incident. In the first incident, sources said BJD activists threw at least three eggs at Jual Orams vehicle when he was on his way to Rajkanika to attend the programme organised to mark the NDA government's achievements on completing three-years at the Centre. Meanwhile, Congress workers protesting the Mandsaur police firing and the Centres negligence towards the state waved black flags at the minister at Aul. Congress MLA from Aul Debendra Sharma and several supporters were detained. Sharma alleged that the NDA Government has failed to deliver what they had promised. We will continue to oppose the union ministers wherever they go, he warned. BJP leaders, however, blamed police for the incident. Former BJP district president Gyanadeb Beura said police had turned mute spectators and handled things very casually. Had they stopped the protesters and prevented them from going close to the minister, it could have been avoided, he said. I condemn in the strongest terms the anti-Adivasi mindset of the BJD who have thrown eggs on me in Kendrapara, Oram tweeted. Frequent egg attacks on ministers and senior politicians visiting Odisha have raised serious questions on VIP security. A few days ago Youth Congress activists egged the carcade of union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh in front of the state guest house. Similarly, BJD MP Baijayant Panda was attacked with eggs and stones on May 30 by his own supporters in Odisha. KENDRAPARA: Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram was on Wednesday attacked by eggs and shown black flags by BJD and Congress activists respectively, in Kendrapara district where he attended the Sabka Sath Sabka Vikash event. Over a hundred people were detained for waving black flags at Jual Oram, in the second incident. In the first incident, sources said BJD activists threw at least three eggs at Jual Orams vehicle when he was on his way to Rajkanika to attend the programme organised to mark the NDA government's achievements on completing three-years at the Centre. Meanwhile, Congress workers protesting the Mandsaur police firing and the Centres negligence towards the state waved black flags at the minister at Aul. Congress MLA from Aul Debendra Sharma and several supporters were detained. Sharma alleged that the NDA Government has failed to deliver what they had promised. We will continue to oppose the union ministers wherever they go, he warned. BJP leaders, however, blamed police for the incident. Former BJP district president Gyanadeb Beura said police had turned mute spectators and handled things very casually. Had they stopped the protesters and prevented them from going close to the minister, it could have been avoided, he said. I condemn in the strongest terms the anti-Adivasi mindset of the BJD who have thrown eggs on me in Kendrapara, Oram tweeted. Frequent egg attacks on ministers and senior politicians visiting Odisha have raised serious questions on VIP security. A few days ago Youth Congress activists egged the carcade of union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh in front of the state guest house. Similarly, BJD MP Baijayant Panda was attacked with eggs and stones on May 30 by his own supporters in Odisha. By PTI THANJAVUR: A 19-year old woman paramedical student was found murdered in a lodge near Kumbakonam in the district, police said today. The woman was found stabbed with a broken CFL lamp in a room in the lodge at Tirunageswaram last night, they said. The woman along with a man had checked into the lodge yesterday morning. As the room remained locked, lodge staff grew suspicious and opened it with the duplicate key and found the woman dead. Police who identified the deceased as a student of a paramedical college at Kumbakonam said further investigation was on. THANJAVUR: A 19-year old woman paramedical student was found murdered in a lodge near Kumbakonam in the district, police said today. The woman was found stabbed with a broken CFL lamp in a room in the lodge at Tirunageswaram last night, they said. The woman along with a man had checked into the lodge yesterday morning. As the room remained locked, lodge staff grew suspicious and opened it with the duplicate key and found the woman dead. Police who identified the deceased as a student of a paramedical college at Kumbakonam said further investigation was on. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Dismissing the demand for a CBI probe into the Miyapur land scam, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao asserted that the state exchequer did not lose a single rupee by fraudulent registration of lands. Rao, who held a high-level meeting with officials, directed the latter to furnish all the information regarding Miyapur lands to the Supreme Court judge so that government could protect its lands. He also directed them to come out with a policy on reforming stamps and registration department. Rao said that the government lands in Miyapur were in the possession of the government and no private persons took physical possession. However, some private persons approached the court and cases were pending before the SC over Miyapur lands. In this regard, Rao directed the officials to give all the relevant information to the Apex Court judge. The sub-registrar provides litigation rights to private persons for 810 acres of land. Actually it was not transfer of land registration, Rao noted.If it was transfer of land registration, the parties should pay `415 crore stamp duty. But, they paid only `60 lakh. There is no basis even for collecting this amount, he said. Rao further noted that the lands should be registered under immovable property in Book-1. But, the lands were registered under movable property in Book-4 of the sub-registrar office. Thus, this registration has no sanctity and is not vaild, he said. Some persons approached the courts to get rights on Jagir lands in the past. They only resorted to fake registrations to present their arguments in the court that lands belonged to them, he noted. Rao also reviewed the Balanagar land registration scam. Sub-registrars were helping private persons to get rights over lands through registrations, the Chief Minister felt. Revanth asks poor to encroach on Miyapur lands Hyderabad: Telangana Telugu Desam Party working president A Revanth Reddy called upon the poor to encroach upon the 700 acres of lands in Miyapur which were registered illegally by some private persons. A TDP delegation called on Governor ESL Narasimhan on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum to him on the scam. Speaking to reporters, Revanth said he wanted the poor to encroach the lands in Miyapur and take the possession till the government constructed 2BHK houses on them. The TDP delegation demanded a CBI probe into the land scam as several ministers, MLAs, MLCs and IAS officers were involved in it. HYDERABAD: Dismissing the demand for a CBI probe into the Miyapur land scam, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao asserted that the state exchequer did not lose a single rupee by fraudulent registration of lands. Rao, who held a high-level meeting with officials, directed the latter to furnish all the information regarding Miyapur lands to the Supreme Court judge so that government could protect its lands. He also directed them to come out with a policy on reforming stamps and registration department. Rao said that the government lands in Miyapur were in the possession of the government and no private persons took physical possession. However, some private persons approached the court and cases were pending before the SC over Miyapur lands. In this regard, Rao directed the officials to give all the relevant information to the Apex Court judge. The sub-registrar provides litigation rights to private persons for 810 acres of land. Actually it was not transfer of land registration, Rao noted.If it was transfer of land registration, the parties should pay `415 crore stamp duty. But, they paid only `60 lakh. There is no basis even for collecting this amount, he said. Rao further noted that the lands should be registered under immovable property in Book-1. But, the lands were registered under movable property in Book-4 of the sub-registrar office. Thus, this registration has no sanctity and is not vaild, he said. Some persons approached the courts to get rights on Jagir lands in the past. They only resorted to fake registrations to present their arguments in the court that lands belonged to them, he noted. Rao also reviewed the Balanagar land registration scam. Sub-registrars were helping private persons to get rights over lands through registrations, the Chief Minister felt. Revanth asks poor to encroach on Miyapur lands Hyderabad: Telangana Telugu Desam Party working president A Revanth Reddy called upon the poor to encroach upon the 700 acres of lands in Miyapur which were registered illegally by some private persons. A TDP delegation called on Governor ESL Narasimhan on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum to him on the scam. Speaking to reporters, Revanth said he wanted the poor to encroach the lands in Miyapur and take the possession till the government constructed 2BHK houses on them. The TDP delegation demanded a CBI probe into the land scam as several ministers, MLAs, MLCs and IAS officers were involved in it. By AFP SOFIA: Twenty-three customs officers and businessmen have been arrested in a probe into corruption at a major checkpoint on Bulgaria's border with Greece, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The investigation focusses on alleged kickbacks by Bulgarian transport firms to let trucks pass through the Kulata border point without a check. Police carried out 83 raids on the homes of customs offices and transport firms in Kulata and Sofia, and seized 63,000 leva ($36,000, 32,000 euros) in cash, the spokeswoman of the public prosecutor's office, Rumiana Arnaoudova, said. The operation, launched on Tuesday, led to a six-kilometre (three-mile) tailback of trucks and buses. The Bulgarian authorities have been embroiled in a years-long effort to stamp out graft, smuggling, tax fraud and human trafficking at the country's border posts. SOFIA: Twenty-three customs officers and businessmen have been arrested in a probe into corruption at a major checkpoint on Bulgaria's border with Greece, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The investigation focusses on alleged kickbacks by Bulgarian transport firms to let trucks pass through the Kulata border point without a check. Police carried out 83 raids on the homes of customs offices and transport firms in Kulata and Sofia, and seized 63,000 leva ($36,000, 32,000 euros) in cash, the spokeswoman of the public prosecutor's office, Rumiana Arnaoudova, said. The operation, launched on Tuesday, led to a six-kilometre (three-mile) tailback of trucks and buses. The Bulgarian authorities have been embroiled in a years-long effort to stamp out graft, smuggling, tax fraud and human trafficking at the country's border posts. By AFP HELSINKI: Finland's intelligence and security agency Supo on Wednesday raised the country's terror threat level by a notch, seeing an increased risk of an attack committed by the so-called Islamic State (IS). The threat level was raised from "low" to "elevated", the second notch on a new four-tier scale just introduced, Supo said in a statement. "Supo has become aware of more serious terrorism-related projects and plans in Finland. Foreign terrorist fighters (who have) left from Finland have gained significant positions within IS in particular and have an extensive network of relations in the organisation," it said in its new assessment. The agency said it was keeping a particularly close eye on around 350 individuals, an increase of 80 percent since 2012. "Finland's profile within the radical Islamist propaganda has become stronger. Finland is considered as a Western country and a part of the anti-IS coalition, and propaganda is produced in the Finnish language and directed against Finland. The propaganda incites attacks in Finland," it wrote. Supo's two higher threat levels are "high" and "severe". Contrary to its two Nordic neighbours, Norway and Sweden, Finland has never experienced a terrorist attack on its soil. HELSINKI: Finland's intelligence and security agency Supo on Wednesday raised the country's terror threat level by a notch, seeing an increased risk of an attack committed by the so-called Islamic State (IS). The threat level was raised from "low" to "elevated", the second notch on a new four-tier scale just introduced, Supo said in a statement. "Supo has become aware of more serious terrorism-related projects and plans in Finland. Foreign terrorist fighters (who have) left from Finland have gained significant positions within IS in particular and have an extensive network of relations in the organisation," it said in its new assessment. The agency said it was keeping a particularly close eye on around 350 individuals, an increase of 80 percent since 2012. "Finland's profile within the radical Islamist propaganda has become stronger. Finland is considered as a Western country and a part of the anti-IS coalition, and propaganda is produced in the Finnish language and directed against Finland. The propaganda incites attacks in Finland," it wrote. Supo's two higher threat levels are "high" and "severe". Contrary to its two Nordic neighbours, Norway and Sweden, Finland has never experienced a terrorist attack on its soil. By Associated Press WASHINGTON: Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave more than two hours of sometimes heated testimony to Congress, with Democrats demanding details of matters including conversations with President Donald Trump, interactions with the Russian ambassador and the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The appearance before the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday gave Sessions a chance to defend himself, but offered little new insight. Some takeaways from Sessions' appearance before the committee: COLLUSION Sessions, a close Trump adviser during the battle for the presidency, said in his opening statement that it was a "detestable and appalling lie" to suggest he was aware of or participated in any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. He said he never met with, or had conversations with, Russians about election interference. Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe in March after it was revealed he twice met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign but failed to say so at his confirmation hearing. Sessions reiterated Tuesday those meetings were in his capacity as a lawmaker and not about the campaign. ___ RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR Sessions was adamant he never had a third meeting with the Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He did allow for the possibility the men could have had a brief interaction "in passing" at a well-attended reception at the Mayflower Hotel before an April 2016 foreign policy speech by then-candidate Trump. But Sessions said he had no recollection of that. He's been hounded by speculation over the possibility of a third meeting, with Democratic senators calling for an investigation. But Sessions angrily denounced such claims as "secret innuendo," a likely reference to media accounts of a closed-door briefing lawmakers had last week with Comey that suggested the FBI had been looking into whether another meeting had taken place. ___ RECUSAL Sessions insisted he stepped aside from the Russia investigation because he was a principal adviser to the Trump campaign, not because he did something wrong or was a subject of the probe. Comey testified publicly last week the FBI was aware of reasons it would be problematic for Sessions to remain involved in the probe before he recused himself. Sessions was sworn in Feb. 9 but did not actually step away from the investigation until March 2, the day after The Washington Post reported on his two previously undisclosed Kislyak meetings. But he said Tuesday he anticipated the conflict of interest and effectively recused himself on his first day on the job, and was never briefed on the Russia investigation. He disputed that his involvement in Comey's firing violated the recusal. He said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had long discussed their concerns with Comey's job performance. Namely, they were upset with his very public handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, which Sessions said was a "usurpation" of Justice Department authority. Sessions said it would be "absurd" to suggest that a recusal from a single investigation would render him unable to manage the leadership of the FBI. ___ EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE Sessions repeatedly refused to discuss private conversations with Trump on a wide variety of topics. He did not say he was using executive privilege, but rather adhering to longstanding tradition of Justice Department leaders to refrain from revealing the contents of private conversations with the president. That position was similar to the one taken at a separate hearing last week by the country's intelligence chiefs. His refusals to comment, including about conversations with Trump on Comey's firing, repeatedly irked committee Democrats. But time and again, Sessions returned to lines such as: "I am not able to discuss with you or confirm or deny the nature of private conversations that I may have had with the president on this subject or others." The Justice Department subsequently released decades-old memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that it said supported Sessions' position. ___ COMEY Sessions contradicted Comey, who last week told the intelligence panel that after an encounter with Trump in which he said Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, Comey "implored" Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the president again but that Sessions didn't respond. "He didn't recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House," Sessions told the panel. He also said Comey should have shared his concerns about the Trump conversation with another Justice Department official, Dana Boente, who was then acting deputy attorney general, and would have been Comey's direct supervisor. If Comey had information that Sessions would need to recuse himself, he said, that would have been "double reason" to talk to Boente. WASHINGTON: Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave more than two hours of sometimes heated testimony to Congress, with Democrats demanding details of matters including conversations with President Donald Trump, interactions with the Russian ambassador and the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The appearance before the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday gave Sessions a chance to defend himself, but offered little new insight. Some takeaways from Sessions' appearance before the committee: COLLUSION Sessions, a close Trump adviser during the battle for the presidency, said in his opening statement that it was a "detestable and appalling lie" to suggest he was aware of or participated in any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. He said he never met with, or had conversations with, Russians about election interference. Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe in March after it was revealed he twice met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign but failed to say so at his confirmation hearing. Sessions reiterated Tuesday those meetings were in his capacity as a lawmaker and not about the campaign. ___ RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR Sessions was adamant he never had a third meeting with the Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He did allow for the possibility the men could have had a brief interaction "in passing" at a well-attended reception at the Mayflower Hotel before an April 2016 foreign policy speech by then-candidate Trump. But Sessions said he had no recollection of that. He's been hounded by speculation over the possibility of a third meeting, with Democratic senators calling for an investigation. But Sessions angrily denounced such claims as "secret innuendo," a likely reference to media accounts of a closed-door briefing lawmakers had last week with Comey that suggested the FBI had been looking into whether another meeting had taken place. ___ RECUSAL Sessions insisted he stepped aside from the Russia investigation because he was a principal adviser to the Trump campaign, not because he did something wrong or was a subject of the probe. Comey testified publicly last week the FBI was aware of reasons it would be problematic for Sessions to remain involved in the probe before he recused himself. Sessions was sworn in Feb. 9 but did not actually step away from the investigation until March 2, the day after The Washington Post reported on his two previously undisclosed Kislyak meetings. But he said Tuesday he anticipated the conflict of interest and effectively recused himself on his first day on the job, and was never briefed on the Russia investigation. He disputed that his involvement in Comey's firing violated the recusal. He said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had long discussed their concerns with Comey's job performance. Namely, they were upset with his very public handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, which Sessions said was a "usurpation" of Justice Department authority. Sessions said it would be "absurd" to suggest that a recusal from a single investigation would render him unable to manage the leadership of the FBI. ___ EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE Sessions repeatedly refused to discuss private conversations with Trump on a wide variety of topics. He did not say he was using executive privilege, but rather adhering to longstanding tradition of Justice Department leaders to refrain from revealing the contents of private conversations with the president. That position was similar to the one taken at a separate hearing last week by the country's intelligence chiefs. His refusals to comment, including about conversations with Trump on Comey's firing, repeatedly irked committee Democrats. But time and again, Sessions returned to lines such as: "I am not able to discuss with you or confirm or deny the nature of private conversations that I may have had with the president on this subject or others." The Justice Department subsequently released decades-old memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that it said supported Sessions' position. ___ COMEY Sessions contradicted Comey, who last week told the intelligence panel that after an encounter with Trump in which he said Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, Comey "implored" Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the president again but that Sessions didn't respond. "He didn't recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House," Sessions told the panel. He also said Comey should have shared his concerns about the Trump conversation with another Justice Department official, Dana Boente, who was then acting deputy attorney general, and would have been Comey's direct supervisor. If Comey had information that Sessions would need to recuse himself, he said, that would have been "double reason" to talk to Boente. By AFP WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday vehemently denied any collusion with Russia to tilt last year's election in Donald Trump's favor, branding the suggestion an "appalling and detestable lie." In closely-watched congressional testimony, Sessions angrily denounced allegations he acted improperly during meetings with Russian officials -- or that he knew of any attempt at collusion by members of the Trump campaign team. And he repeatedly refused to reveal whether he had spoken to the president regarding James Comey's handling of the probe into Russian election meddling -- which the former FBI director believes to be the reason he was fired. WATCH VIDEO: Democrats blast US Attorney General for 'stonewalling' A Trump loyalist and early backer of the billionaire businessman's presidential bid, the 70-year-old Sessions has recused himself from all ongoing Russia investigations. But the nation's top law enforcement official -- who recommended Comey's dismissal last month -- has himself become a focal point in the crisis roiling the White House. Sessions kicked off his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by asserting that he had "never met with or had any conversations with any Russians" about interference in the 2016 presidential race. "I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign," he said. "The suggestion that I participated with any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country... is an appalling and detestable lie." The appearance was Sessions's first sworn public testimony since being confirmed as attorney general in February. During the two-and-a-half hour hearing, he engaged in testy exchanges with several senators who pressed him for details on his discussions with Trump -- which he refused to provide in the name of confidentiality. Some Democrats grew impatient, warning Sessions was stonewalling on vital issues. "You are obstructing that congressional investigation by not answering that question," charged Senator Martin Heinrich. "Your silence... speaks volumes." Sessions responded: "I am not stonewalling. I am following the historic policies of the Department of Justice." 'Innuendo' Testifying last week before the same committee, Comey recalled that Trump had asked him to "let go" of a probe into onetime national security advisor Michael Flynn -- exposing the president to accusations of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense. Flynn was sacked two weeks into the job amid concerns he lied over his Russian contacts, becoming the first high-profile victim of the scandal that has overshadowed Trump's young presidency. Trump has recently expressed frustration with Sessions, who has come under pressure over his own Russia contacts. While the Justice Department has said Sessions recused himself in March because of his involvement in Trump's campaign, Comey testified that the FBI knew of information that would have made it "problematic" for Sessions to be involved. But the attorney general pushed back hard when asked what those problematic matters could be, retorting: "There are none. I can tell you that for absolute certainty. "This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don't appreciate it," he added. 'No knowledge' of Russia probe Barely a month after Trump dismissed Comey, rumors have been circulating that he may yet seek to sack Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed following the FBI chief's ouster to head the agency's Russia investigation. Sessions declined to comment on those reports, stating only that he had "confidence" in Mueller and would not be involved in any effort, should it arise, to fire the special counsel. Following the hearing, a White House spokeswoman said Trump "has no intention" of dismissing Mueller. Sessions added that since his recusal, "I have no knowledge about this investigation" beyond media reports. Addressing allegations that he had unreported meetings with Russian officials while he advised the Trump campaign, Sessions said he had already acknowledged two encounters last year with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. But he denied any substantive discussion with Kislyak at a third encounter, at an April 27, 2016 reception for Trump at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. Sessions also pushed back against Comey's suggestion he may have failed to take appropriate steps to protect the FBI chief from political pressure. At the conclusion of a February 14 meeting, the sacked FBI chief testified, Trump urged everyone but Comey to leave the Oval Office, including Sessions. Comey said the president then leaned on him to halt the Flynn investigation. Sessions said he learned from Comey that he felt concerned about being left alone with the president but that, since Comey did not relay details of the conversation, he had no way of knowing it was improper. Tuesday's hearing was followed by predictably partisan reaction from Republicans and rival Democrats. "With no evidence of collusion, wrongdoing, or obstruction of justice by President Trump or the White House, how much longer is this going to go on," said Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, praising Sessions's "honesty and professionalism". However Democrat Congressman Jim Langevin said Sessions fell short of the standard of evidence required at such a hearing. "The Attorney General's testimony this afternoon was unsubstantial, unresponsive, and unacceptable. Mr Sessions -- like every government employee -- has an obligation to answer to the oversight of Congress. He failed that obligation and his oath to the Constitution with his stonewalling of senators." WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday vehemently denied any collusion with Russia to tilt last year's election in Donald Trump's favor, branding the suggestion an "appalling and detestable lie." In closely-watched congressional testimony, Sessions angrily denounced allegations he acted improperly during meetings with Russian officials -- or that he knew of any attempt at collusion by members of the Trump campaign team. And he repeatedly refused to reveal whether he had spoken to the president regarding James Comey's handling of the probe into Russian election meddling -- which the former FBI director believes to be the reason he was fired.WATCH VIDEO: Democrats blast US Attorney General for 'stonewalling' A Trump loyalist and early backer of the billionaire businessman's presidential bid, the 70-year-old Sessions has recused himself from all ongoing Russia investigations. But the nation's top law enforcement official -- who recommended Comey's dismissal last month -- has himself become a focal point in the crisis roiling the White House. Sessions kicked off his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by asserting that he had "never met with or had any conversations with any Russians" about interference in the 2016 presidential race. "I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign," he said. "The suggestion that I participated with any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country... is an appalling and detestable lie." The appearance was Sessions's first sworn public testimony since being confirmed as attorney general in February. During the two-and-a-half hour hearing, he engaged in testy exchanges with several senators who pressed him for details on his discussions with Trump -- which he refused to provide in the name of confidentiality. Some Democrats grew impatient, warning Sessions was stonewalling on vital issues. "You are obstructing that congressional investigation by not answering that question," charged Senator Martin Heinrich. "Your silence... speaks volumes." Sessions responded: "I am not stonewalling. I am following the historic policies of the Department of Justice." 'Innuendo' Testifying last week before the same committee, Comey recalled that Trump had asked him to "let go" of a probe into onetime national security advisor Michael Flynn -- exposing the president to accusations of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense. Flynn was sacked two weeks into the job amid concerns he lied over his Russian contacts, becoming the first high-profile victim of the scandal that has overshadowed Trump's young presidency. Trump has recently expressed frustration with Sessions, who has come under pressure over his own Russia contacts. While the Justice Department has said Sessions recused himself in March because of his involvement in Trump's campaign, Comey testified that the FBI knew of information that would have made it "problematic" for Sessions to be involved. But the attorney general pushed back hard when asked what those problematic matters could be, retorting: "There are none. I can tell you that for absolute certainty. "This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don't appreciate it," he added. 'No knowledge' of Russia probe Barely a month after Trump dismissed Comey, rumors have been circulating that he may yet seek to sack Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed following the FBI chief's ouster to head the agency's Russia investigation. Sessions declined to comment on those reports, stating only that he had "confidence" in Mueller and would not be involved in any effort, should it arise, to fire the special counsel. Following the hearing, a White House spokeswoman said Trump "has no intention" of dismissing Mueller. Sessions added that since his recusal, "I have no knowledge about this investigation" beyond media reports. Addressing allegations that he had unreported meetings with Russian officials while he advised the Trump campaign, Sessions said he had already acknowledged two encounters last year with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. But he denied any substantive discussion with Kislyak at a third encounter, at an April 27, 2016 reception for Trump at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. Sessions also pushed back against Comey's suggestion he may have failed to take appropriate steps to protect the FBI chief from political pressure. At the conclusion of a February 14 meeting, the sacked FBI chief testified, Trump urged everyone but Comey to leave the Oval Office, including Sessions. Comey said the president then leaned on him to halt the Flynn investigation. Sessions said he learned from Comey that he felt concerned about being left alone with the president but that, since Comey did not relay details of the conversation, he had no way of knowing it was improper. Tuesday's hearing was followed by predictably partisan reaction from Republicans and rival Democrats. "With no evidence of collusion, wrongdoing, or obstruction of justice by President Trump or the White House, how much longer is this going to go on," said Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, praising Sessions's "honesty and professionalism". However Democrat Congressman Jim Langevin said Sessions fell short of the standard of evidence required at such a hearing. "The Attorney General's testimony this afternoon was unsubstantial, unresponsive, and unacceptable. Mr Sessions -- like every government employee -- has an obligation to answer to the oversight of Congress. He failed that obligation and his oath to the Constitution with his stonewalling of senators." By AFP LONDON: A huge blaze today engulfed a 24- storey residential tower block in west London housing over 100 families, killing at least 12 people and injuring 74 others, with police suspecting the death toll could rise further. The fire at Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road was reported at 01:16 local time. About 600 people were believed to have been inside the tower's 120 flats when the blaze ripped through the building. The Metropolitan Police, which previously had put the number of fatalities at six, now raised the death toll to 12. Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police earlier said the recovery operation would be complex "over a number of days." He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. The fire is thought to have started because of a faulty refrigerator on the 3rd or 4th floor of the building soon after midnight and destroyed flat after flat. By noon, the building looked to be just smoking ruins but the fire again took hold, and cladding began to fall to the ground. Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved. Firefighters rescued many people and are still trying to put the fire out in the 24-storey block 12 hours on. Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for. Eyewitnesses said they saw lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows - some holding children. It is understood that "several hundred" people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping. "This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale," London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton told reporters. "Extensive cordons remain in place and a number of nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution," Cundy said. Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be "complex and lengthy", and the number of fatalities was expected to rise. He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing. He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. Firefighters rescued "large numbers", but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said "a lot" of people were unaccounted for. Eyewitnesses reported seeing people trapped inside the burning building screaming for help and shouting for their children to be saved. People screamed for help as the fire took hold of the building. Some residents were seen using bedsheets to make their escape from the tower block. As fire-fighters fought the blaze, witnesses said a baby was caught by members of the public after being dropped from the window of the 9th floor. Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours and she would not speculate about the cause of the blaze. She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe. Prime Minister Theresa May is "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life", said Downing Street. The area around Grenfell Tower is home to a large number of Muslims. Many were awake at the time the fire broke out having their early morning meal before beginning the daily fast for the holy month of Ramzan. The survivors, whose belongings are presumed to have been destroyed, gathered in the nearby Rugby Portobello community centre where they were given water, clothes and blankets. Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home. "If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out," he said. "I'm lucky to be alive and lots of people have not got out of the building I've lost everything I own. Im standing here in everything Ive got," one survivor said. Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, spoke of his escape. "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible," he told the BBC. Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door. "The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary," she said. Refurbishment of the housing block had been completed last year and the Fire Brigades Union said something had gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building. London Mayor Khan declared the fire as a "major incident" and said questions will need to be answered over the safety of such tower blocks. "We can't have a situation where people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained," he said. Grenfell Tower is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the local council. The local Grenfell Action Group had claimed, before and during the refurbishment, that the block constituted a fire risk and residents had warned that access to the site for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted". Eyewitnesses reported seeing the building burning through to "its very core". Distraught relatives have been using social media to try and make contact with missing loved ones. LONDON: A huge blaze today engulfed a 24- storey residential tower block in west London housing over 100 families, killing at least 12 people and injuring 74 others, with police suspecting the death toll could rise further. The fire at Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road was reported at 01:16 local time. About 600 people were believed to have been inside the tower's 120 flats when the blaze ripped through the building. The Metropolitan Police, which previously had put the number of fatalities at six, now raised the death toll to 12. Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police earlier said the recovery operation would be complex "over a number of days." He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. The fire is thought to have started because of a faulty refrigerator on the 3rd or 4th floor of the building soon after midnight and destroyed flat after flat. By noon, the building looked to be just smoking ruins but the fire again took hold, and cladding began to fall to the ground. Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved. Firefighters rescued many people and are still trying to put the fire out in the 24-storey block 12 hours on. Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for. Eyewitnesses said they saw lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows - some holding children. It is understood that "several hundred" people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping. "This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale," London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton told reporters. "Extensive cordons remain in place and a number of nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution," Cundy said. Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be "complex and lengthy", and the number of fatalities was expected to rise. He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing. He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. Firefighters rescued "large numbers", but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said "a lot" of people were unaccounted for. Eyewitnesses reported seeing people trapped inside the burning building screaming for help and shouting for their children to be saved. People screamed for help as the fire took hold of the building. Some residents were seen using bedsheets to make their escape from the tower block. As fire-fighters fought the blaze, witnesses said a baby was caught by members of the public after being dropped from the window of the 9th floor. Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours and she would not speculate about the cause of the blaze. She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe. Prime Minister Theresa May is "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life", said Downing Street. The area around Grenfell Tower is home to a large number of Muslims. Many were awake at the time the fire broke out having their early morning meal before beginning the daily fast for the holy month of Ramzan. The survivors, whose belongings are presumed to have been destroyed, gathered in the nearby Rugby Portobello community centre where they were given water, clothes and blankets. Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home. "If we had stayed in that flat, we would've perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out," he said. "I'm lucky to be alive and lots of people have not got out of the building I've lost everything I own. Im standing here in everything Ive got," one survivor said. Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, spoke of his escape. "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible," he told the BBC. Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door. "The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary," she said. Refurbishment of the housing block had been completed last year and the Fire Brigades Union said something had gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building. London Mayor Khan declared the fire as a "major incident" and said questions will need to be answered over the safety of such tower blocks. "We can't have a situation where people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained," he said. Grenfell Tower is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the local council. The local Grenfell Action Group had claimed, before and during the refurbishment, that the block constituted a fire risk and residents had warned that access to the site for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted". Eyewitnesses reported seeing the building burning through to "its very core". Distraught relatives have been using social media to try and make contact with missing loved ones. The government should speed up the transformation of government functions to stimulate the market and bring convenience to people, Premier Li Keqiang said at a teleconference held June 13 on streamlining administration, combining power delegation with enhanced supervision and optimizing services. It is a profound revolution of the government itself, the Premier said. By changing the traditional government management system based on administrative approvals, eliminating room for rent-seeking and illegal profit-making, and reforming related functions, the government will be able to minimize approval procedures, enhance regulation and services, create a fair market, and promote modern governance. Hard work is needed to advance the reform, the Premier said. In recent years, reform has seen positive progress that has greatly helped the country develop productivity, withstand economic downward pressure, promote employment, cultivate new growth drivers, and promote social equity and justice. Nevertheless, continued efforts and resilience are still needed to promote economic and social development and meet public expectations. Even though Chinas economy is maintaining stable growth, we should not ignore the difficulties and challenges, the Premier said. Focusing on supply-side structural reform, efforts should be made to implement the tasks put forward by the Central Economic Working Conference and the government work report, he added. The government should promote business license reform to greatly ease market access and promote the list management system in an all-around way. Burdens on market entities should be eased. Policies that cut taxes and fees should be put in place and measures of cutting 1 trillion yuan ($147 billion) in enterprise burdens in 2017 should be earnestly implemented. The government should also stimulate investment, remove hurdles hindering private investment, overhaul pre-review procedures, and reduce industrial production permits. Premier Li also urged facilitating foreign investment and carrying out record management of over 95 percent foreign investment projects. Premier Li urged creating a fair business environment and delegating power to lower levels while improving regulations and services. Governments should make it clear what is off-limits to major market players. Those who breach laws and regulations or harm the interests of the people should be weeded out of the market. Those in charge of administrative approvals should take on the responsibility of supervision, and this should be strictly implemented, so as to put the correspondent responsibility in place while using power, the Premier stressed. More efforts should be made to facilitate peoples lives, such as abolishing redundant certificates or those with no legal basis, improving utilities services and connecting isolated islands of information to enhance government functions. The Premier asked the State Council departments and local governments to be better organized and integrated, establishing an interconnected system and shared information directory by the end of this year. The unified government service system is expected to be connected with the national platform of information sharing by June next year, he said. Supervision and accountability should be enhanced to deepen the reform of government functions, said the Premier. Supervision should not merely be conducted through listening to reports, but most importantly by hearing the true voices of the people, in a bid to understand the real situation, find out the crux of the problem and difficulties in advancing the reform, he said. We should strengthen the legal system as the foundation to promote the reform of streamlining government administration, and accelerate the process of making, revising, abolishing and interpreting of relevant laws and rules, the Premier said. By the end of this year, governments at all levels should conduct a comprehensive cleanup of administrative rules, regulations and normative documents to provide a legal basis and facilitate the reform, he added. As reform enters a critical stage, each region and department should strengthen the sense of responsibility and consciousness for taking action and enhance the resilience in promoting reform, Premier Li stressed. Governments at all levels should push forward the reform of streamlining government administration and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the economy and society, to be better prepared for the upcoming 19th CPC National Congress. Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli hosted the meeting. Vice-premiers Liu Yandong, Wang Yang and Ma Kai, and state councilors Yang Jing, Chang Wanquan, Yang Jiechi, Guo Shengkun and Wang Yong also attended the meeting. By AFP WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has granted the Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official said Tuesday, a move that could lead to the deployment of thousands more soldiers. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that Pentagon chief Jim Mattis can now directly adjust troop numbers, though the official would not confirm whether a new "force management level" -- currently at around 8,400 -- had been finalized. "The White House has done the same that it did with Iraq and Syria, which is to grant the secretary of defense the authority to set troop levels," the official said, referring to recent adjustments Trump has approved for the fight against the Islamic State group in those two countries. Under Barack Obama, troop levels in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were closely managed by the White House and commanders complained they felt shackled by the strictures. The development came just hours after Mattis gave lengthy testimony to lawmakers, some of whom were exasperated at how long it has taken for Trump to come up with a new strategy in Afghanistan. The official said the final decision to give Mattis the power to adjust trooplevels actually came during his testimony, at which he said America still is "not winning" in Afghanistan. The "Taliban had a good year last year, they are trying to have a good one this year," Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing about the Pentagon's budget. "Right now, I believe the enemy is surging." Mattis's latest assessment comes nearly 16 years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and amid a war that continues to claim the lives of US troops each year -- and those of thousands of local forces and civilians. US military commanders, who saw fragile security gains eroded under Obama-era troop drawdowns, have been pushing for a new strategy that could see thousands of additional soldiers deploy to Afghanistan to help train and advise beleaguered Afghan partners. Media reports have said Mattis is considering asking for 3,000 to 5,000 additional US and NATO troops, but the defense chief has said little on the matter. In February, General John Nicholson, who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan, warned that he needs "a few thousand" more troops to reverse what he called a stalemate. Despite months of expectation that a full Afghanistan strategy announcement is imminent, Mattis said the new plans not be ready before mid-July. Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, voiced his "palpable" frustration. "We're now six months into this administration, we still haven't got a strategy for Afghanistan," McCain said, noting it was difficult to get behind an Afghanistan budget request without knowing what the plan is. "We know what the strategy was for the last eight years: Don't lose. That hasn't worked." Mattis acknowledged the reality on the ground. "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now. We will correct this as soon as possible," he said. Residual force The defense chief, who was a Marine combat commander in Afghanistan at the start of the war, stressed America must not walk away from the country and suggested a long-term residual US force needs to remain to help the Afghan army maintain a baseline of security. "It's going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we're to get it to that position," Mattis said. The Afghan conflict is the longest in American history, with US-led NATO troops at war there since 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime just months after the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. The ongoing security crisis has seen not just the Taliban gain ground, but also the emergence of other groups such as a local Islamic State affiliate. On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an insider attack in which an Afghan commando turned his weapon on American troops, killing three and wounding another. number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, who mainly serve in a training and advisory capacity.AfghanistanUS troops in WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has granted the Pentagon authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official said Tuesday, a move that could lead to the deployment of thousands more soldiers. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that Pentagon chief Jim Mattis can now directly adjust troop numbers, though the official would not confirm whether a new "force management level" -- currently at around 8,400 -- had been finalized. "The White House has done the same that it did with Iraq and Syria, which is to grant the secretary of defense the authority to set troop levels," the official said, referring to recent adjustments Trump has approved for the fight against the Islamic State group in those two countries. Under Barack Obama, troop levels in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were closely managed by the White House and commanders complained they felt shackled by the strictures. The development came just hours after Mattis gave lengthy testimony to lawmakers, some of whom were exasperated at how long it has taken for Trump to come up with a new strategy in Afghanistan. The official said the final decision to give Mattis the power to adjust trooplevels actually came during his testimony, at which he said America still is "not winning" in Afghanistan. The "Taliban had a good year last year, they are trying to have a good one this year," Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing about the Pentagon's budget. "Right now, I believe the enemy is surging." Mattis's latest assessment comes nearly 16 years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and amid a war that continues to claim the lives of US troops each year -- and those of thousands of local forces and civilians. US military commanders, who saw fragile security gains eroded under Obama-era troop drawdowns, have been pushing for a new strategy that could see thousands of additional soldiers deploy to Afghanistan to help train and advise beleaguered Afghan partners. Media reports have said Mattis is considering asking for 3,000 to 5,000 additional US and NATO troops, but the defense chief has said little on the matter. In February, General John Nicholson, who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan, warned that he needs "a few thousand" more troops to reverse what he called a stalemate. Despite months of expectation that a full Afghanistan strategy announcement is imminent, Mattis said the new plans not be ready before mid-July. Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, voiced his "palpable" frustration. "We're now six months into this administration, we still haven't got a strategy for Afghanistan," McCain said, noting it was difficult to get behind an Afghanistan budget request without knowing what the plan is. "We know what the strategy was for the last eight years: Don't lose. That hasn't worked." Mattis acknowledged the reality on the ground. "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now. We will correct this as soon as possible," he said. Residual force The defense chief, who was a Marine combat commander in Afghanistan at the start of the war, stressed America must not walk away from the country and suggested a long-term residual US force needs to remain to help the Afghan army maintain a baseline of security. "It's going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we're to get it to that position," Mattis said. The Afghan conflict is the longest in American history, with US-led NATO troops at war there since 2001, after the ousting of the Taliban regime just months after the September 11 terror attacks in the United States. The ongoing security crisis has seen not just the Taliban gain ground, but also the emergence of other groups such as a local Islamic State affiliate. On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an insider attack in which an Afghan commando turned his weapon on American troops, killing three and wounding another. number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, who mainly serve in a training and advisory capacity.AfghanistanUS troops in By AFP ISTANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Qatar today for talks with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the foreign ministry said, amid a crisis in Doha's ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Cavusoglu will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a ministry statement said, as Ankara eyes with concern the crisis between its chief regional ally Qatar and its Gulf neighbours. The ministry said "recent regional developments" would be discussed, without giving further details. ISTANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Qatar today for talks with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the foreign ministry said, amid a crisis in Doha's ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Cavusoglu will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a ministry statement said, as Ankara eyes with concern the crisis between its chief regional ally Qatar and its Gulf neighbours. The ministry said "recent regional developments" would be discussed, without giving further details. By Associated Press MADRID: Donald Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate change accord, former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday. "If the U.S. withdraws, this has a much bigger political impact. I'm afraid that any leadership vacuum could be filled by others, and this is not what we want to see," Ban said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. He called the choice made by the U.S. president "misguided" and said that it responded to "a short-term vision." He also called on the public to raise its voice and said that commitment to the agreement from governors, mayors, business leaders and civil society in the U.S. was "very encouraging." For almost a decade, Ban spearheaded negotiations to combat climate change that eventually led to the pledge of keeping global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius by 2100. Nearly 200 countries, including the U.S., signed the agreement in December 2015. "I sincerely hope that President Trump stands on the right side of history," Ban said in Madrid. As the world's largest economy, the United States is the planet's number two polluter after China, accounting for 14 percent of global emissions. "The decision has implications and effects politically and psychologically much larger than 14 percent, because smaller countries have traditionally followed Washington's leadership" said Ban, calling on the U.S. leader to show "global vision." On Wednesday, Ban joined more than 50 former world leaders who criticized the current U.S. administration's view on climate change and warned of "unpredictable and possibly regrettable" consequences. They also called on other signatories of the Paris agreement to "show greater urgency and commitment in the fight against global warming." The leaders represented about half of the members of the Club de Madrid alliance, which Ban joined recently as an honorary member. Among the signatories were former Chilean President and former U.N. envoy for climate change Ricardo Lagos, Nobel Peace winner and former East Timor leader Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who also headed the U.N.'s development agency. Ban also referred to the situation in the Korean Peninsula as "very worrisome" following Pyongyang's continuing of weapons launches, against U.N. Security Council resolutions, including recent anti-ship missiles. The former South Korean foreign minister said the testing of ballistic technology is putting Kim Jong Un's regime "on the verge" of being able to develop a nuclear-tipped long-range missile. "Never before since the Korean War has the level of tension been so high," Ban said, calling on North Korea "to stop all provocations" in order for the international community to restart a dialogue. He also said that the leaders of the U.S. and South Korea should come up with solutions to reduce the tension in the Korean Peninsula during a summit in Washington in late June. MADRID: Donald Trump should stand "on the right side of history" by reconsidering the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate change accord, former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday. "If the U.S. withdraws, this has a much bigger political impact. I'm afraid that any leadership vacuum could be filled by others, and this is not what we want to see," Ban said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. He called the choice made by the U.S. president "misguided" and said that it responded to "a short-term vision." He also called on the public to raise its voice and said that commitment to the agreement from governors, mayors, business leaders and civil society in the U.S. was "very encouraging." For almost a decade, Ban spearheaded negotiations to combat climate change that eventually led to the pledge of keeping global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius by 2100. Nearly 200 countries, including the U.S., signed the agreement in December 2015. "I sincerely hope that President Trump stands on the right side of history," Ban said in Madrid. As the world's largest economy, the United States is the planet's number two polluter after China, accounting for 14 percent of global emissions. "The decision has implications and effects politically and psychologically much larger than 14 percent, because smaller countries have traditionally followed Washington's leadership" said Ban, calling on the U.S. leader to show "global vision." On Wednesday, Ban joined more than 50 former world leaders who criticized the current U.S. administration's view on climate change and warned of "unpredictable and possibly regrettable" consequences. They also called on other signatories of the Paris agreement to "show greater urgency and commitment in the fight against global warming." The leaders represented about half of the members of the Club de Madrid alliance, which Ban joined recently as an honorary member. Among the signatories were former Chilean President and former U.N. envoy for climate change Ricardo Lagos, Nobel Peace winner and former East Timor leader Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who also headed the U.N.'s development agency. Ban also referred to the situation in the Korean Peninsula as "very worrisome" following Pyongyang's continuing of weapons launches, against U.N. Security Council resolutions, including recent anti-ship missiles. The former South Korean foreign minister said the testing of ballistic technology is putting Kim Jong Un's regime "on the verge" of being able to develop a nuclear-tipped long-range missile. "Never before since the Korean War has the level of tension been so high," Ban said, calling on North Korea "to stop all provocations" in order for the international community to restart a dialogue. He also said that the leaders of the U.S. and South Korea should come up with solutions to reduce the tension in the Korean Peninsula during a summit in Washington in late June. By Associated Press BUCHAREST: Romania's ruling party withdrew political support for Premier Sorin Grindeanu and his Cabinet on Wednesday after the party's leader said he had lost confidence in the government, throwing the country into a political crisis. The Social Democratic Party voted unanimously to withdraw support for its government after a meeting lasting more than five hours. Party leaders said Grindeanu, who has been in office for six months, had failed to respect the party's governing program. Grindeanu was defiant, saying later: "I am not resigning," and adding: "This is the government of Romania, not of the executive committee of the Social Democratic Party." Dozens of people rallied outside the government offices in support of Grindeanu. The prime minister said he would step down in the future when President Klaus Iohannis nominates a premier from the Social Democratic Party. Grindeanu remains in office, but the party threatened to expel him if he did not resign. Party Chairman Liviu Dragnea said the party had shown "an act of courage...to do this." He said the government's direction was good, but the speed of implementing its governing program was too slow. He claimed nearly all Cabinet ministers had resigned. Dragnea himself cannot be prime minister because he was convicted last year of vote-rigging. Dragnea has said he is dissatisfied with the government's performance, except in ministries headed by his political allies. Grindeanu said the evaluation of his Cabinet was done unfairly. Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the leader of a junior party in the governing coalition, said his Alliance of Liberals and Democrats no longer supports the government and the party's three ministers have agreed to resign. Former Premier Victor Ponta, a Social Democrat, accused Dragnea of sparking a futile crisis and suggested he was envious of Grindeanu's relative popularity. Grindeanu moved to decriminalize official misconduct in January, sparking huge protests that led him to withdraw the decree. Critics said Grindeanu's government was backtracking on its anti-corruption campaign. BUCHAREST: Romania's ruling party withdrew political support for Premier Sorin Grindeanu and his Cabinet on Wednesday after the party's leader said he had lost confidence in the government, throwing the country into a political crisis. The Social Democratic Party voted unanimously to withdraw support for its government after a meeting lasting more than five hours. Party leaders said Grindeanu, who has been in office for six months, had failed to respect the party's governing program. Grindeanu was defiant, saying later: "I am not resigning," and adding: "This is the government of Romania, not of the executive committee of the Social Democratic Party." Dozens of people rallied outside the government offices in support of Grindeanu. The prime minister said he would step down in the future when President Klaus Iohannis nominates a premier from the Social Democratic Party. Grindeanu remains in office, but the party threatened to expel him if he did not resign. Party Chairman Liviu Dragnea said the party had shown "an act of courage...to do this." He said the government's direction was good, but the speed of implementing its governing program was too slow. He claimed nearly all Cabinet ministers had resigned. Dragnea himself cannot be prime minister because he was convicted last year of vote-rigging. Dragnea has said he is dissatisfied with the government's performance, except in ministries headed by his political allies. Grindeanu said the evaluation of his Cabinet was done unfairly. Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the leader of a junior party in the governing coalition, said his Alliance of Liberals and Democrats no longer supports the government and the party's three ministers have agreed to resign. Former Premier Victor Ponta, a Social Democrat, accused Dragnea of sparking a futile crisis and suggested he was envious of Grindeanu's relative popularity. Grindeanu moved to decriminalize official misconduct in January, sparking huge protests that led him to withdraw the decree. Critics said Grindeanu's government was backtracking on its anti-corruption campaign. Championship game berths on the line for Island football teams The stakes dont get much higher for the Portsmouth, Middletown and Rogers high school football teams this weekend. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Mostly clear. Low 44F. S winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 44F. S winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph. Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). The placenta is an organ attached to the womb lining that supplies a developing fetus with nutrients and oxygen, as well as removing fetal waste and secreting hormones. The microbiome refers to the trillions of microorganisms that reside within or on the human body. Microorganisms influence a number of bodily processes such as metabolism and digestion and are suspected to play a role in important illnesses such as diabetes and obesity. Although the microbiomes of various different body sites have been well-characterized recently, the placental microbiome remains somewhat a mystery. Previous studies detailing the composition of the amniotic sac and intestine of newborn babies during their first week of life have suggested that microbiota are established and functioning long before a baby is born, but comparatively little had been published about the placental microbiome until fairly recently. In 2014, Kjersti Aagaard and colleagues from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Childrens Hospital published a study examining the placental microbiome. The research was part of a broader initiative across the scientific community to explore the microbiome. To investigate whether links exist between the composition of the placental microbiome and fetal development, the researchers performed genetic sequencing to characterize populations of bacteria in 320 placenta samples taken from preterm and full-term infants. The findings were compared with existing information on microbiota from the vaginas, intestine, mouths, airways and skin of women who were not pregnant. Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today Aagaard and team discovered a small community of microbes that was unique to the placenta. Metagenomic sequencing showed that certain bacteria in the placenta were abundant compared with other areas of the body, with E.coli being the most abundant. The placental microbiome most closely resembled that of the mouth and not the vagina, skin, gut or other body parts. Species such as Neisseria, which is known to be part of the oral microbiota, were found to be abundant in the placenta. The researchers suggest that the microorganisms may move from the mothers mouth to the placenta via the bloodstream, which is an interesting possibility, given the correlation that has been established between gum disease and preterm births. It also upends a previous hypothesis that microorganisms in the placenta originate in the vagina. The researchers also found differences in placental microbiome composition between preterm births (around 34 to 37 weeks) and full term births. For example, there was an abundance of the proteobacteria Burkholderia in the placentas of mothers who had a preterm birth, while the endospore-forming bacteria Paenibacillus was highly prevalent in the placentas of mothers who gave birth at full term. The authors suspect that a certain combination of bacteria in the placenta may be a contributory factor to preterm births and that the study may also help to explain why periodontal disease in pregnant women is associated with an increased likelihood of preterm births. The findings also point to a need for further research into the effects of women taking antibiotics while they are pregnant. In addition, if the findings are confirmed by further research, this may be reassuring to women who give birth or plan to give birth by C-section, as some experts have claimed that children born this way fail to acquire the beneficial bacteria that babies are exposed to when delivered via the birth canal. Sources How Bacteria in the Placenta Could Help Shape Human Health, www.scientificamerican.com/.../ The Placental Microbiome, www.microbiomeinstitute.org/blog/2015/6/4/the-placental-microbiomeStudy Sees Bigger Role for Placenta in Newborn Health, www.nytimes.com/.../...igger-role-for-placenta-in-newborns-health.html Placenta Microbiome Revealed! www.integratedscienceprogram.com/.../ Further Reading Pancreatic cancer is associated with bleak five-year survival rates and limited treatment options, but new research is offering hope. A first-in-human study presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) demonstrates the feasibility and safety of the novel human monoclonal antibody HuMab-5B1 with highly specific targeting for the cancer antigen (CA) 19-9, which is expressed on pancreatic tumors and a variety of other malignancies, including small cell lung cancer and tumors of the gastrointestinal system. It holds the promise of better identifying tumors and directing treatment. "This new agent is intensely accumulated in pancreatic cancer and finds very small metastases with PET/CT imaging," explained Christian Lohrmann, MD, lead author of the study from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. "There are promising data that HuMab-5B1 could become a theranostic drug used in both targeted imaging and therapy, which could eventually improve the prognosis for pancreatic cancer patients." The researchers evaluated the antibody with and without radiolabeling with zirconium-89 (89Zr-DFO-HuMab-5B1). With further validation, 89Zr-DFO-HuMab-5B1 could lead to a host of improvements in pancreatic cancer management--more accurate staging of tumors, better surgical guidance, restaging of metastases and potential drug selection for CA 19-9 targeted therapies. The high uptake of the antibody alone suggests that it could be used by itself, or radiolabeled, or coupled with another molecular compound to treat high-risk pancreatic tumors that are inoperable or metastatic. For this study, nine patients with CA 19-9-positive metastatic malignancies underwent a series of four whole-body PET/CT scans--one the first day of injection with the imaging agent, then again on day two and around days four and seven. Subjects also received a diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis within the four weeks leading up to baseline PET/CT. Results of the CT scan were used to verify the results of 89Zr-DFO-HuMab-5B PET/CT imaging. Maximum standard uptake values normalized for body weight were analyzed for agent uptake in tumors. The agent was well tolerated and led to no serious side effects. Significant uptake was detected in local tumor recurrences as well as in metastases (for example in the lymph nodes, lungs, bone and peritoneum lining of the abdominal cavity). Uptake was analyzed for a total of 52 lesions. Highest uptake was shown on day seven in the lymph nodes. Results of the study showed that PET/CT imaging with the monoclonal antibody led to the detection of tiny tumors in the peritoneum and mesenteric lymph nodes that were not found by CT alone. A Melbourne study is set to improve treatment options for patients with the second most common type of lung cancer, lung squamous cell carcinoma, a disease for which new anti-cancer drugs are urgently needed. The researchers demonstrated a better way to recruit the right participants for promising new anti-cancer drugs called FGFR (fibroblast growth factor receptor) inhibitors, which are being investigated for treating lung squamous cell carcinoma. Using a research tool that mimics the complexity of human tumors, the researchers identified a 'biomarker' that would better categorize the patients who would respond to the treatment. They also showed that combining the 'targeted' FGFR inhibitors with chemotherapy had the potential to improve treatment outcomes. Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers Dr. Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, Dr. Clare Weeden and Dr. Aliaksei Holik worked closely with medical oncologist Professor Ben Solomon and Richard Young from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre on the study, published today in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Dr Asselin-Labat said the teams discovered a better biomarker for identifying those lung cancer patients who were most likely to respond to FGFR inhibitors. "We found that high levels of the anti-cancer drug's target - FGFR1 - in a patient's tumor RNA were a better predictor of their potential response to the drug than the current tests that are used," Dr. Asselin-Labat said. Professor Solomon said the finding could improve the design of future clinical trials by selecting the right patients to participate. "Fewer than 10 percent of new cancer drugs make it past phase 1 clinical trials. In many cases this isn't because of the drug itself, but because of a limitation in clinical trial design," he said. Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today "Understanding which patients are most likely to respond to certain drugs in clinical trials is crucial both for patients to receive the best treatment, and for new drugs to make it to the clinic. "Hopefully these data will help to improve trial outcomes by recruiting patients who otherwise might not have been matched to the right trial for them," Professor Solomon said. In addition to identifying which patients would respond to the targeted therapy, the study found that FGFR inhibitors could be 'turbo-charged' when combined with chemotherapy, Dr. Weeden said. "FGFR inhibitors stop cancer cells from growing and adding in chemotherapy kills the cancer," she said. "Our research shows combining FGFR inhibitors with chemotherapy should be looked at in future clinical trials". Dr. Weeden said lung cancer tissue samples donated to the Victorian Cancer Biobank by patients were key to the research. "Our laboratory models - known as patient-derived xenografts (PDX) - are the most accurate representation of real patient tumors that can be used for testing," Dr. Weeden said. "These models, using samples donated to the biobank by people with lung cancer, were crucial to define which tumors responded best to FGFR inhibitors." The researchers hope to apply their findings to other forms of non-small cell lung cancer, which together account for 85 percent of people with lung cancer, Dr. Asselin-Labat said. "This research is a great example of the benefits of collaboration between basic scientists and clinical specialists," she said. Source: https://www.wehi.edu.au/news/hope-better-lung-cancer-treatment-horizon insights from industry Mike Clayton Abbott An interview with Mike Clayton, Abbott, conducted by April Cashin-Garbutt, MA (Cantab) How important are diagnostic tests in clinical decision making? Diagnostic tests are critical as up to 60 to 70% of critical clinical decisions are influenced by diagnostic test results. It's of huge importance to the running of any healthcare system. Here at Abbott, we believe that providing clinicians with quick access to diagnostics information and insights can help them make quick clinical decisions around the appropriate treatment for a patient, which is important for good patient outcomes. For me, it all starts with a rapid and accurate diagnostic test. What was Abbotts vision behind Alinity? Alinity was just over five years in the making. We spent a long time talking to both laboratory professionals and physicians because we wanted to observe them at work to understand their challenges and listen to their feedback so we could design an overall solution not just an instrument that helps them provide high quality diagnostics in the most efficient way. We understood that healthcare providers were facing a large number of unprecedented challenges, such as needing higher testing volumes and increased flexibility. Issues such as staffing, lack of space, and complex, time intensive processes and instruments present ongoing challenges. Having spent a lot of time understanding those aspects, we recognised that we needed to develop a series of solutions for both instrumentation and the IT and service support side (which helps provide insights), to ensure that we could address our customers challenges. The result of these efforts is Alinity, our new unified suite of systems, which has effectively been designed and shaped to meet the needs of our lab and healthcare professionals. . In particular, Alinity is designed to help improve operational productivity in the lab. The goals are faster delivery of test results, more automated processes that make it easier for staff to manage, and helping busy laboratories do more with fewer resources. What additional challenges had to be overcome? After understanding the challenges our healthcare providers and laboratory professionals faced, we knew that one we had to overcome was the design of diagnostic testing systems across related specialities, such as clinical chemistry, immunoassay, point-of-care, hematology and molecular diagnostics. We asked how we could achieve a common user interface, that would then be easy to use. Within that, one particular challenge was the development of instruments that could produce more test results without requiring a larger footprint; one of the biggest dilemmas laboratory professionals described was the need to do more, but in a space that was only going to become smaller. Finally, the other main challenge we had to overcome was delivering these benefits without lots more hands-on training being required for laboratory professionals. Those are three good examples of challenges that we had to overcome in the design and development, whilst also having to properly understand what challenges our customers were facing in order to deliver better patient care. How did you arrive at the name Alinity? The name was born out of three key attributes we offer, which are 'alignment', 'innovation' and 'unity'. By merging these three words, we are referring to how the suite of products is aligned to the clinicians' and laboratory professionals' goals; aimed at providing innovative solutions to address the challenges they meet every day, and finally, how the harmonization of the systems and the IT suite, provides unity in allowing those challenges to be met. These three key elements or attributes have been woven into the name. This ties in nicely with our vision of what we're trying to achieve, which is helping these laboratories and hospital institutions improve the performance of the lab and contribute to better outcomes for patients. Can you please give an overview of the different Alinity products? For the first time, lab professionals and physicians will have a unified, family of systems across laboratory disciplines. The Alinity family includes point of care, immunochemistry, haematology, molecular and blood screening systems, and features common operational functionality and increasing confidence and efficiency of diagnostic testing. An advantage of the Alinity family of systems is what we call a lock and key design of the different reagent bottles; its impossible to put the wrong bottle in the wrong slot in the door of the instrument. If you think about the benefits of minimising human error and therefore being far more efficient with staffing and making it easier to train laboratory professionals in using the system effectively, what that does is help deliver fast, efficient and accurate results of the highest quality. You can therefore get results to the clinician faster, while doing so within a smaller footprint. The CE mark for Alinity ci, which is the clinical chemistry and immunoassay system, was announced in January 2017. It is designed to help labs run more tests in less time, reduce human error, increase test productivity and help a laboratory be far more efficient in quickly delivering chemistry or immunoassay results to the clinician, so they are able to make a better and quicker decision. One of the key challenges discussed was that, traditionally, and with diagnostics at the moment, the two major aspects of the instruments specimen sample processing and the loading and storage of reagents are side-by-side. Firstly, this means the instrument is physically quite large, and, secondly, if you want to reload reagents, you have to pause the instrument, lift up the lid, and replace them. With the Alinity ci system, we have overcome this by providing a stacked carousel design, where one sits above the other, rather than side-by-side. The sample processing is on the top and the reagent loading and storage are on the bottom. There are three key benefits to this design. Firstly, it means you can do more testing within a smaller footprint and it provides a scalable design to allow flexibility for the changing needs of the laboratory as volumes shift. Secondly, when you open the door of the Alinity ci system, there's a reservoir you can load reagents into while the instrument is running, so you don't have to pause it. This improves speed and productivity. The increased loading capacity for samples and tests with the ci system means that if a stack of samples come in, but one is an emergency sample from A&E that needs the result turned around very quickly, instead of having to use two designated fast lanes, you can use any of the lanes on the front of the system itself. Simply pushing a button tells the instrument that a particular sample in a lane is a STAT emergency sample, so again, you're not interrupting the everyday laboratory workflow and you are getting results back to the clinicians quickly when it is key. Finally, the design of the Alinity ci is very intuitive and the interface is user-friendly. This is common across all of the Alinity platforms. If you imagine that within the one lab you have one team of professionals operating the chemistry or immunoassay systems and then a different team operating the hematology instrumentation, with a common user interface, you can have the same team easily trained in operating both systems. This is because the system is designed to be intuitive from a user interface perspective, and since some of the key features such as the lock and key design of the reagent bottles are common to all the instruments, you can be far more streamlined in how you use staff and therefore improve that operational productivity side. In January of this year, we also announced CE mark for Alinity s, which is for blood and plasma screening. As with any Alinity platform, it has the same user interface and method of use. Some other key features this system has are the capacity to run up to 600 tests per hour in a compact footprint and the user has the ability to walk away from the instrument for atleast three hours after loading samples, while they are being analyzed. In blood and plasma screening, laboratory professionals find having the opportunity to move away and do other things, without having to keep returning to the instrument, a key benefit. You can have continuous access to samples and supplies and reload without pausing and stopping the instrument. Another member of the Alinity family is the i-STAT Alinity, for which we received CE mark at the end of November 2016. The i-STAT Alinity is a hand-held, portable blood testing system, that allows a large menu of blood tests from a single device, from different types of blood chemistries to different types of cardiac markers, but all using just two or three drops of blood at the patients side. You can get a test result into the clinician's hands in anything between two and ten minutes. If you are looking after a patient that might not necessarily be in a hospital, for example, but you want a quick result on a cardiac marker, you can get a rapid result there and then and make the right and informed treatment decision quickly. With the i-STAT Alinity, you can be wireless or it can be hard-wired, so healthcare providers can manage the data from a central point and hub. There's also the potential for things like cloud connectivity, which uses standard browsers and makes it very easy for the health systems to customize the i-STAT Alinity instrument. This provides a really nice solution, where you have a hand-held, portable i-STAT Alinity device that can sit hand-in-hand with the larger core laboratory and be flexible about addressing those different diagnostic testing needs, whether it be within a core laboratory or out at an offshoot doctor's surgery, for example. At the same time, all would have the same user interface, making it very easy for the operator to use. Again, this offers clinicians better information more quickly, enabling them to make quicker, better decisions to improve patient outcomes. One of the key elements in terms of improving operational productivity and helping laboratories improve patient outcomes is AlinIQ. Alinity is the instrumentation, and AlinIQ, which we launched last year, is a suite of professional services and software tools to help labs adapt to their most pressing challenges. If you have very high quality data being quickly generated by the instruments, AlinIQ helps convert that information into intelligent insights. It's those insights that enable you to bring huge value to the laboratory, both within the laboratory and in terms of the impact that the lab can have on its whole healthcare system. AlinIQ is a suite of professional services and informatics that can be broken down into four areas. The first is its proactive and preventative services, which we call the AlinIQ Always On Services. This offering provides predictive alerts to labs and enables the detection and prevention of potential instrument downtime, up to three days in advance. By keeping an eye on and monitoring specific information, AlinIQ can help predict if an instrument may go down within three days, which allows us to do some very quick preventative work to ensure the instrument doesn't go down. You're therefore keeping that continuity of service. If an instrument should go down, it can be a lengthy process to get it back up again. Next there are data harmonization services, called the AlinIQ Analyser Management System or AMS. This tool provides labs and hospital networks with the ability to integrate different software systems into a single standardized platform. That offering helps optimize sample processing time and workflow efficiency across the instrument, while at the same time producing quality results. Then there are the operational services called the AlinIQ Business Intelligence System or BIS. This offering helps optimize the capacity of existing systems to help the busy labs absorb different volume increases, without the need for additional budget. This tool, which is very much hand-in-hand with our experts, helps provide business intelligence, expertise and outcomes. For example, it's a great tool to better align the right staffing across the full working day and at the right times, depending on the sample volumes. It's one very simple way of ensuring you're neither overstaffed, nor understaffed no matter what point in the day. The final arm to AlinIQ is inventory management and optimisation, which is called the AlinIQ Inventory Management System or IMS. That tool combines innovative RFID technology with streamlined processing consulting, which allows labs to get ahead on things like operational needs. It helps laboratories ensure that they have the right volume of correct reagents at the appropriate time within their organisation. As well as being crucial in helping minimise shortages, this tool has a huge impact in helping reduce waste and also takes out the time involved in potentially lengthy manual processes. If you think of AlinIQ being used in a dovetailed way with Alinity, along with our experts and professional services, this is particularly crucial in helping those laboratories maximise and achieve the better patient outcomes and performance that they're looking to do. Do health institutions need all the different systems or can they work in isolation and in conjunction with other systems? They can work in isolation, but you start to get the true benefits when you link them together and also build in some of the AlinIQ aspects to deliver those insights. If you can deliver one test more quickly, for example, laboratories then say "Well, we want all our testing delivered more quickly, not just one area, but in chemistry or in immunoassay, for example. Are all the products now available? At the moment, we've made CE mark announcements for i-STAT Alinity, Alinity s, and the Alinity ci series. Alinity h, which is the hematology instrument, and Alinity m, which is for molecular diagnostics, are expected to announce CE marks later this year. What feedback have you received from users of the Alinity instruments so far? The early feedback has been met with excitement and I think customers have been surprised by how small the footprint is, given the volumes that are coming out of it. How do Abbott plan to update the Alinity systems moving forward? That's a good question. Abbott will continue to build the testing menu and will add more and more tests throughout the year. For me, one of the key aspects here is that this is just the start of a journey in terms of rolling out and making this system with Alinity and AlinIQ a reality for our customers. One of the things that has worked really well was taking the time to truly understand the challenges that were being faced by laboratories and hospital institutions. In terms of other, further developments, we're ensuring that we stay really close to the laboratory professionals so that we can continue to make sure that, firstly, Alinity meets the challenges they're facing now and, secondly, meets the evolving challenges that may not be fully understood yet. What do you think the future holds for diagnostics? Diagnostics has a really bright future as it continues to become increasingly important within hospital institutions in helping them deliver better patient outcomes and better healthcare performance. We're excited about continuing to work very closely with labs and helping to make them more efficient and able to have a greater impact on patient outcomes. Where can readers find more information? Alinity References WHO Global Health Expenditure Atlas, September 2014. World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/health-accounts/atlas2014.pdf. Global Health and Aging Report. National Institute on Aging and the World Health Organization: https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/publication/global-health-and-aging/preface. Forsman, RW. Why is the laboratory an afterthought for managed care organizations? Clinical Chemistry. 1996; 45(5): 813-16. About Mike Clayton Mike joined Abbotts Diagnostics Division as Managing Director of the Region North (United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) in April 2016. Over his 21 years of service at Abbott, Mike has held a number of senior posts, most recently as General Manager for UK and Ireland for Abbotts Diabetes Care Division. He has also headed the Rheumatology, Marketing, Sales, and Business Development teams within the company. His responsibilities have included leading, motivating and developing a staff of more than 150 employees, alongside strategically planning for both brand and corporate milestones and overseeing the delivery of financial reviews. Milestone successes of Mikes career to date include the successful launch of Freestyle Libre in the UK & Ireland, and leadership of the team that led the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to visit the company. Alongside these achievements, Mike also built and executed a major Government Affairs program within the company. Mike also led the UK Direct-to-Consumer Freestyle InsuLinx campaign, which won him the companys Divisional Vice Presidents Award in December 2012. Mike received his bachelors degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Sunderland. The results of a study presented today at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 have confirmed that Fluorescence Optical Imaging (FOI), a technique used to visualize inflammation in arthritic joints, is as effective as ultrasound with Power Doppler (US / PD) at monitoring response to treatment in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). FOI was also found to be more effective than US / PD at detecting inflammation in the absence of symptoms and signs. To a certain degree, US / PD is acknowledged to be operator dependent and potentially limited in visualizing very detailed inflammatory changes, such as altered blood flow in tiny blood vessels and/or capillary leakage, especially in very small finger joints. In contrast, FOI may provide greater information on the microcirculation in these joints. Also, FOI is a time-efficient and operator-independent imaging modality, which can be performed by nurses or other non-medically qualified personnel. "Accurate detection of inflamed joints is essential both to guide treatment decisions and to assess treatment efficacy in patients with JIA," said lead author Professor Gerd Horneff, from the Asklepios Children's Clinic, Sankt Augustin, Germany. "FOI may be used in clinical practice to accurately identify joint inflammation earlier and with greater confidence. It should be particularly useful in identifying those children with clinically non-apparent joint inflammation of the hands and/or wrists who need to start on anti-rheumatic drug treatment," he said. In this study, out of 37 patients with polyarticular JIA, 24 were started on methotrexate and 13 on a biologic for the first time (11 on etanercept, 1 on adalimumab and tocilizumab respectively). Clinical examination showed an effective response to these treatments with the percentage of affected joints in the hand and fingers reducing from 23.6% at baseline to 16.4% and 9.0% at week 12 and 24 respectively. Measurements of disease activity also showed an effective response with a significant reduction in the mean Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score from 17.7 at baseline to 12.2 at week 12 and 7.2 at week 24. The percentage of patients achieving JIA American College of Rheumatology 30 / 50 / 70 / 100 response rates at week 24 were 85% / 73% / 50% / 27% respectively. Using ultrasound at baseline, week 12, and week 24, 19.4%, 16.1%, and 11.5% of the wrist or finger joints showed an effusion (fluid in the joint), 18.8%, 12.7%, and 9.6% showed thickening of the joint lining and, with the Power Doppler function, 6.9%, 1.8%, and 5% of the joints showed excessive blood flow (hyperperfusion), which are all signs of inflammation. Overall, any sign of arthritis was detected by US / PD in 24.5%, 19.2%, and 17% of joints at baseline, week 12 and week 24 respectively. Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today FOI images are interpreted in three phases: an early phase (phase 1) where the flow of dye into the blood vessels can indicate a higher perfusion, an intermediate phase (phase 2) where the dye stays longer in a pathological than a normal vessel, and a late phase (phase 3) where dye remaining in the tissues demonstrates more vessel formation due to chronic inflammation. Among this patient population, FOI showed a signal enhancement suggesting active inflammation in at least one phase in 38.7%, 29.2%, and 27.6% of the joints at baseline, week 12 and week 24 respectively. Summarizing the data across all 3 time points, the highest number of signals suggesting active inflammation were detected by FOI with 32% of joints (especially in phase 2), compared to 20.7% with US / PD and 17.5% by clinical examination. A high number of joints (21.1%) had FOI signals suggesting inflammation but were clinically inactive. 20.1% of joints with FOI signals did not show any effusion, synovial thickening or hyperperfusion on US / PD. "The ability of FOI to detect inflammation in joints not detected by clinical examination or US / PD will be helpful in guiding treatment decisions based on determining the number of affected joints. Also, being able to discriminate between painful but uninflamed joints and those with inflammation will avoid unnecessary treatment with conventional DMARDs or biologics in the former," Professor Horneff concluded. JIA is a chronic debilitating disease of childhood and adolescence characterized by arthritis persisting for at least 6 weeks with onset before the age of 16 years. The polyarticular form involves more than four joints within the first 6 months. The incidence of polyarticular JIA varies worldwide with a vast difference in reported cases between different global regions as well as within individual countries. The incidence of JIA ranges from 0.83 per 100,000 children in Japan to 23 per 100,000 in Norway, with low rates in Asian populations and relatively higher frequencies in those of European descent, with an overall trend that this rate is increasing. Osaka University researchers find an unexpected mutation in proteins of the exosome could be a valuable biomarker for diagnosing the risk of kidney disease Medullary cystic kidney disease type 1 (MCKD1) is a rare genetic kidney disease. Despite this, because it is an autosomal dominant disease, once the mutation is in a family, many family members are affected. Current diagnostic methods discover the disease late in its development. Osaka University researchers studied one family in which 9 of 26 members were positive for MCKD1 and found a new mutation in the MUC1 gene that may act as an early marker of the disease. "Besides renal failure and genetic testing, there is little we have to identify the disease," says Associate Professor Jun-Ya Kaimori, a nephrologist at Osaka University Hospital. "There are very few early signs that show illness." Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today At the point of renal failure, patients are usually left with only extreme and invasive treatment options, such as dialysis or transplantation. "MCKD1 is caused by a single mutation in MUC1 gene discovered in 2013," he continued. The mutation is located in a region of the gene that includes GC-rich variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR). This, explains Kaimori, makes it very difficult to analyze. "The standard technique to analyze is next-generation sequencing. VNTR have a tertiary structure that makes it very difficult to analyze by next-generation sequencing. Even finding the mutation took immense time and effort," he said. In his latest research study, Kaimori and his colleagues used whole-exome sequencing to analyze the gene and found a second mutation outside the VNTR. "The mutation was a deletion of just two base pairs, but that was enough to change the protein structure." The original MUC1 mutation was found by a collaboration of scientists from U.S. and European institutes. When asked why his group found the mutation but the international collaboration did not, Kaimori frankly replied, "It was an unexpected discovery." Unlike the first mutation, the location of the new mutation allowed the scientists to study the effects of the mutated protein further. Experiments suggested that the mutation disrupts the function of MUC1 and changes its location inside cells. This last observation excited Kaimori, because it suggested a potential biomarker to diagnose patients before renal failure. "We found patients had high levels of mutant MUC1 in urinary exosomes, but healthy people had normal MUC1 in urinary exosomes. These results suggest we can use urinary exosomes for non-genetic testing to evaluate the risk of MCKD1". In a new study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcome and Policy Research and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia examined the factors influencing the likelihood of missed nursing care in a pediatric setting. Their findings indicate that pediatric nurses with poor work environments and higher patient loads are more likely to miss required care. "It's a complex and provocative subject when we talk about a health-care professional to be unable to give the care that's needed," said Eileen T. Lake, the Jessie M. Scott Endowed Term Associate Professor of Nursing and Health Policy at Penn Nursing. "There has been a lot of research on this topic but very little in pediatrics. Given that children are a particularly vulnerable population, our question was, To what extent do nurses in pediatrics miss care and how does it relate to levels of staffing and their work environment?" Lake was first author on the paper, published this week in the journal Hospital Pediatrics, an official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She collaborated with Penn Nursing's Linda H. Aiken, the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing and the senior author on the paper, and Chief Nurse Paula D. Agosto and researchers Kathryn E. Roberts and Beth Ely at CHOP, as well as several colleagues now at other institutions. To address their questions, the researchers relied on a survey data collected from 2,187 pediatric registered nurses in 223 hospitals between 2006 and 2008. Among other questions, nurses were asked whether they had omitted any required or necessary care activities due to a lack of time. They were also asked which activities were missed. More than half of the nurses, which included staff from neonatal intensive care, pediatric intensive care and general pediatrics units, reported having missed at least one care activity. As has been found in other settings, care such as planning, comforting, teaching and counseling were missed most frequently, while pain management, treatments and procedures were missed rarely. Notably, the fraction of nurses who said they failed to complete at least one activity varied considerably from hospital to hospital. "Seeing that, we say, Okay then, there are some places where nurses can complete required care and others where they don't; that's a fundamental finding," said Lake, "The next question is, How does this relate to the nurses' work environment?" The quality of the environment was determined from survey responses regarding nurses' relationships with physicians, whether they had a capable and supportive nurse manager, whether a nursing philosophy formed the basis of their care, whether their resources and staffing were adequate and the extent to which nurses participated in decision making at the hospital. Categorizing hospitals into poor, mixed and better work environments, Lake and colleagues found that, while 61 percent of nurses in poor environments missed care, only 46 percent of those in better environments reported a missed care activity. Nurses in better environments also missed fewer care activities: 1.2 compared to 1.9 in poor environments. Work load made a difference as well. For every additional patient, nurses were 70 percent more likely to miss care. "The implications are that quality of care differs pretty significantly across institutions and that if we can either provide better staffing or better work environments or both that nurses can get their care completed," Lake said. She noted that not only would ensuring that nurses have supportive work environments and manageable workloads improve care quality, but it could also improve care efficiency for hospitals. "Completing tasks like providing education and discharge instructions helps parents have what they need to leave the hospital and feel comfortable doing so," Lake said. Such attention to quality care is particularly significant in pediatric nursing, where patients have specific vulnerabilities. "They're vulnerable developmentally, cognitively and in terms of their ability to express their symptoms and advocate for themselves," Lake said. "One of nursing's roles is an advocacy role, so offering quality care is especially key in this population." Americans spend billions of dollars each year on antidepressants, but the National Institutes of Health estimates that those medications work for only 60 percent to 70 percent of people who take them. In addition, the number of people with depression has increased 18 percent since 2005, according to the World Health Organization, which this year launched a global campaign encouraging people to seek treatment. The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA is one of a handful of hospitals and clinics nationwide that offer a treatment that works in a fundamentally different way than drugs. The technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, beams targeted magnetic pulses deep inside patients' brains -- an approach that has been likened to rewiring a computer. TMS has been approved by the FDA for treating depression that doesn't respond to medications, and UCLA researchers say it has been underused. But new equipment being rolled out this summer promises to make the treatment available to more people. "We are actually changing how the brain circuits are arranged, how they talk to each other," said Dr. Ian Cook, director of the UCLA Depression Research and Clinic Program. "The brain is an amazingly changeable organ. In fact, every time people learn something new, there are physical changes in the brain structure that can be detected." Nathalie DeGravel, 48, of Los Angeles had tried multiple medications and different types of therapy, not to mention many therapists, for her depression before she heard about magnetic stimulation. She discussed it with her psychiatrist earlier this year, and he readily referred her to UCLA. Within a few weeks, she noticed relief from the back pain she had been experiencing; shortly thereafter, her depression began to subside. DeGravel says she can now react more "wisely" to life's daily struggles, feels more resilient and is able to do much more around the house. She even updated her resume to start looking for a job for the first time in years. During TMS therapy, the patient sits in a reclining chair, much like one used in a dentist's office, and a technician places a magnetic stimulator against the patient's head in a predetermined location, based on calibrations from brain imaging. Neuroscience eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today The stimulator sends a series of magnetic pulses into the brain. People who have undergone the treatment commonly report the sensation is like having someone tapping their head, and because of the clicking sound it makes, patients often wear earphones or earplugs during a session. TMS therapy normally takes 30 minutes to an hour, and people typically receive the treatment several days a week for six weeks. But the newest generation of equipment could make treatments less time-consuming. "There are new TMS devices recently approved by the FDA that will allow patients to achieve the benefits of the treatment in a much shorter period of time," said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, director of the Semel Institute's TMS clinical and research service. "For some patients, we will have the ability to decrease the length of a treatment session from 37.5 minutes down to 3 minutes, and to complete a whole course of TMS in two weeks." Leuchter said some studies have shown that TMS is even better than medication for the treatment of chronic depression. The approach, he says, is underutilized. "We are used to thinking of psychiatric treatments mostly in terms of either talk therapies, psychotherapy or medications," Leuchter said. "TMS is a revolutionary kind of treatment." Bob Holmes of Los Angeles is one of the 16 million Americans who report having a major depressive episode each year, and he has suffered from depression his entire life. He calls the TMS treatment he received at UCLA Health a lifesaver. "What this did was sort of reawaken everything, and it provided that kind of jolt to get my brain to start to work again normally," he said. Doctors are also exploring whether the treatment could also be used for a variety of other conditions including schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and chronic pain. "We're still just beginning to scratch the surface of what this treatment might be able to do for patients with a variety of illnesses," Leuchter said. "It's completely noninvasive and is usually very well tolerated." Literary stalwarts from across the world are set to share their unique perspectives on globally relevant issues such as environmental conservation, natural history and spirituality at the eighth edition of the Mountain Echoes Literary Festival to be held in Bhutan from August 25. An initiative by the India-Bhutan Foundation, in association with Indian literary consultancy, Siyahi, the three-day festival will enable the audience to engage in myriad forms of storytelling. "Over the last eight years Mountain Echoes has established itself as one of the most thoughtful, moving and evocative celebrations of literature anywhere on our planet. The shared narratives of Bhutan and India, and of mountain regions everywhere, expand the space for insights across cultures and geographies," festival co-director and celebrated author Namita Gokhale said in a statement. Major themes that will dominate the festival this year include natural history and environment, business and leadership, fashion, magic and mentalism, food, spirituality and Buddhism. A special inaugural ceremony will be held in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan, on August 24, the organisers said. Australian author Markus Zusak, known for international best-sellers such as The Book Thief; Francesca Beard, a London-based writer and performance poet; American television host and author Padma Lakshmi and noted Indian author Ashwin Sanghi are among the leading personalities set to attend this festival of ideas, creativity and culture. The highlights from the Bhutanese delegates will include ace photographer and filmmaker Pawo Choyning Dorji, Khenpo Sonam Bumdhen of the Central Monastic Body, and front-runners of the Bhutanese fashion world Chimmi Choden and Chandrika Tamang. Other well known authors set to attend the 2017 edition of the festival include Prayaag Akbar, award winning journalist and author of the bestselling book Leila; leading mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik, Sahitya Akademi Award winner Jerry Pinto and Sharanya Manivannan, author of the critically acclaimed The High Priestess Never Marries: Stories of Love and Consequence, among others. "The vision of the festival is to present a confluence of literature, art and music from both India and Bhutan," Siok Sian Dorji, festival co-director and Founder of the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy, said, adding, Masterpieces on canvas, through music and performances, or literature, there's something for everyone. The festival, as always, is free for everyone to attend." Gaya: Bihar students may have performed poorly in the Class XII Board exams, but the scene is different in Patwa Toli village of Gaya district. This year, 20 students from the village have cleared the IIT entrance exams. Most of those who cleared the exams are from low-income families. Sunny Kumar was ranked 284 in Other Backward Class (OBC) category and 1862 in general category. Sunnys father is a labourer in a handloom firm. Kedarnath, who obtained 571 in OBC category and 3609 in general category, also comes from a family of labourers. Both his parents work in the handloom industry. As many as 300 students from the village cleared various engineering entrance exams till date. Jitendra Prasad was the first student from the village to join an IIT. Inspired by Prasads success story, students of the students started preparing for the entrance exams and the village became famous for producing IITians. 15 students qualified for IIT in 2016 and 17 got through in 2015. Sunny said the reason behind the success of the students of the village is that that they dont go to places like Kota for preparation but instead focus on group study and local teachers. Navprayas is one such organisation formed by the former engineering students of Patwa Toli who extend help to students preparing for IIT. We were known as a village of weavers but now we are now known as a village of IITians. This is a matter of pride for us, Gopal Prasad, president of Weavers Welfare Association, told News18 The weavers in Patwa Toli trace their roots to Rajasthan. They were brought to Bihar during Man Singhs rule. The clothes from here are sent all across the country. Most people in this village of 10,000 earn their livelihood through the weaving industry. Gorakhpur (UP): Following the recent caste-based disturbance in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday had lunch with people from the Dalit community and unveiled a statue of B R Ambedkar in Harmanpur village. Over 100 people participated, including the Dalits, at a programme where the CM urged the assemblage to take the Dalit community along. The state government has faced criticism in the wake of tensions between upper castes and Dalits that have led to violence in UP, three months after the BJP's stunning victory in the Assembly polls. The Congress accused the UP government of practising untouchability after reports emerged last month that the state administration distributed soap and shampoo to Musahar Dalit families ahead of a public meeting with Adityanath. Earlier, Adityanath said that the temple town here will soon have air connectivity with Mumbai and Nepal's capital Kathmandu. He said this after inaugurating the new terminal at Gorakhpur airport. Emphasising on the importance of regional air connectivity, he said the priority of the state government is to start flight services to places like Allahabad, Bareilly, Kanpur, Jhansi and Faizabad. "From development point of view, it is important that districts in Uttar Pradesh have low-cost air connectivity with the rest of the country and inauguration of this terminal is an effort in that direction," Adityanath said. "Soon, air service from Gorakhpur to Mumbai and Kathmandu will be started," the chief minister said. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to providing cheap aviation services to citizens, adding "His dream is that even a poor person should fly in an aeroplane". Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha, who was also present on the occasion, said, "Another addition has been made to the developmental programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi". He also asked officials to start construction of the second terminal of Gorakhpur airport at the earliest. (With inputs from PTI) Kolkata: In a major setback to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, around 30 Trinamool Congress functionaries have left the party to join Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) and Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) amid protests for a separate state of Gorkhaland. More party members are poised to join the two groups soon. Speaking to News18, GNLF spokesperson Neeraj Zimba Tamang said some TMC members have already joined them and more have expressed their wiliness to join the movement. Soon we will officially announce their names publicly, he said. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee held an emergency meeting with Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and briefed him about the current situation in the hills. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also sought a report on the ongoing crisis. GJM president Bimal Gurung, however, said the movement would not stop even if all CRPF personnel of the country are sent here. GJM sources said that on Tuesday night some TMC workers met party leaders in Darjeeling, Kurseong and in Kalimpong to discuss the common agenda of Gorkhaland. So far 30 TMC workers have joined us and more will join soon. They have taken this decision after being annoyed with the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her anti-Gorkhaland stand. We are not publicly announcing their names. It will be done at the right time, said Tamang. GJMs assistant general secretary Vinay Tamang said some prominent faces are among those willing to switch. They are all Gorkhas and this movement is for them too. Hopefully they will also join us soon. On Tuesday, the TMC unit in the Hills had suffered another major setback as former chairman of the Kalimpong Municipality C. K. Kumai resigned from the party to join the separate Gorkhaland movement. The one-month partial strike called by GJM for its demand of a separate Gorkhaland entered its third day today. Most of the shops were closed in Chowkbazar and Mall Road in Darjeeling. Morcha supporters took out rallies at various places in support of separate state, but the protests were largely peaceful. A large number of policemen have been deployed in front of all vital installations, officials said. Government staff in the hill districts of Bengal have alleged that GJM supporters are forcing them to participate in the bandh and have threatened government against attending office. There are also reports that GJM is planning to create hurdles for the developmental projects recently announced by the Chief Minister. GJMs movement for a separate Gorkhaland has gained momentum with six other hill parties including TMCs ally GNLF extend their support. The parties had on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution demanding a separate state. Mandsaur: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday visited Mandsaur, where five cultivators were killed during the farmers' stir, and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the family of one of them. The state government on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaur collector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of Mandsaur district. Locals on June 9 had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. Chouhan along with his wife Sadhna reached Mandsaur in a special plane and went to Badwan village to meet the kin of farmer Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. Dargalal, father of deceased Ghanshyam told Chouhan that he did not want government job or compensation, all he wanted punishment for those responsible for his sons death. The chief minister handed a cheque of Rs 1 crore as compensation to the kin of Dhakad, as promised. He also assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those who shot dead the farmers. The chief minister on the occasion said that Ghanshyams two-year-old daughter Vanshika and four-year-old son, Raghunandan were state governments responsibility. Chouhan is also scheduled to visit Lodh, Nayakheda, Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth and Budha villages to extend condolences to the kin of the other farmers killed in police firing. Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Scindia had also tried to visit Mandsaur but they were denied permission. Political leaders and social activists have continued to make futile attempts to visit Mandsaur despite peace having returned there. But, hours before the visit from CM Chouhan, the section 144 was relaxed on Tuesday night. The district administration made elaborate security arrangements for Chouhan's visit. Five helipads were made at various places to ensure that the chief minister reaches the venue without any trouble, a senior official said. Reacting strongly to CMs visit to Mandsaur, Congress state head Arun Yadav claimed If CM Chouan could visit Mandsaur, then Congress leaders would also visit the town. Congress has also made arrangements at Dusshera maidan in Bhopal for senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's 'satyagraha' on the issue of farmers' deaths in police firing. The protest will begin around 2 pm, a Congress spokesman said. Chouhan, who came under severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off the indefinite fast on Sunday, 28 hours after its launch, claiming peace had been restored. Though the stir has ebbed away, three farmers have ended their lives in the state in the last 24 hours, taking the number of farmer suicides in the state in the past one week to five. (With PTI Inputs) Lucknow: The district Congress president of Meerut has been sacked for allegedly posting messages in a WhatsApp group addressing party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as Pappu. In the message, which has gone viral on social media, Vinay Pradhan lauds Rahul for visiting Madhya Pradeshs Mandaur, which is the epicenter of farmer protests. Rahul Gandhi is also known as Pappu among a section of people. Pappu never took part in parties thrown by industrialists like Adani and Ambani because Pappu knew that these people would only exploit the common peoples resources. Pappu could have easily become the Prime Minister of this country but he did not, the message purportedly said. Speaking to News18, Pradhan said, Rahul Gandhi is my leader and I have never disrespected him. I would never dream of using a derogatory word like that for him. This is a conspiracy against me by some people within the party to malign my image so that they can take over the reins of the district Congress. Vinay Pradhan reached Delhi on Wednesday to meet UPCC Chief Raj Babbar at his residence along with hundreds of supporters. The screenshots being circulated have been Photo-shopped, added Pradhan. The action against Pradhan was confirmed by Congress spokesperson Dwijendra Tripathi. Vinay Pradhan was relieved from all the posts; this was done due to indiscipline showed by him. Also, he has been served a show-cause notice for using derogatory words for senior party leadership, he said. Kaushambi: In yet another case of medical apathy in the state, a man carried the body of his 7-month-old niece on a bicycle after the hospital authority refused to provide an ambulance. The incident, which took place on Monday, prompted the authorities to lodge an FIR against the doctor on duty and the driver of the ambulance. The hospital too has launched an inquiry in this regard. Seven-month-old Poonam, the daughter of Anant Kumar, a daily wage labourer of Malak Saddi village in Majhanpur tehsil in the district, was admitted to the hospital two days ago after she started vomiting, accompanied by loose motion, reported PTI. After getting her admitted to the hospital, Kumar left for Allahabad to arrange money for her treatment asking his brother-in-law, Brijmohan, to look after her. "My niece died during treatment yesterday. Despite repeated pleas to the hospital, no vehicle was made available to carry her body. I had to borrow a bicycle and carry it for almost 10 km to reach the village," Brijmohan told reporters. When contacted, S K Upadhyay, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Kaushambi, said, "We have taken cognisance of the incident. An inquiry has also been initiated. Once the report of the inquiry is available, we will take stringent action against the guilty." Hospital sources claimed that an ambulance could not be arranged as there was no budget for fuel. District Magistrate, Kaushambi, Manish Kumar, told PTI that an FIR was lodged against the doctor on duty, Vivek Kumar, and the ambulance driver, Ashish Kumar Pandey, who allegedly refused to carry the body. On May 20, the pregnant wife of a man from Chak Ahmadipur village in the district was declared "brought dead" by the hospital authorities. As he was denied an ambulance, the man carried the body of his wife on a stretcher for some distance. Subsequently, sensing trouble, the doctors at the hospital arranged for an ambulance to transport the body. In a similar incident, Dana Majhi, a tribal, had to carry his wife's body on his shoulder for over 10 km, with his daughter walking alongside, in Odisha's Kalahandi district in August, last year as the hospital authorities failed to arrange for a hearse. The incident had triggered a controversy and led to widespread criticism after it was reported in the media. Last month, a labourer had to carry the body of his 15- year-old son on his shoulders after allegedly being turned away by the doctors at a government-run hospital in Etawah. (With PTI inputs) GOI must waive farmer loans throughout the country. When the farmers are agitating, GOI cannot be silent 1/3 Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) June 14, 2017 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday blamed the Narendra Modi governments demonetisation move for the present agrarian crisis in the country.They (BJP) made tall promises about loan waivers before the polls but have done nothing since then, she said in a series of tweets, adding that demonetisation had severely affected farmers.In her tweet, she wrote, Farmers are protesting because the central government is not paying any attention in waiving farmers loan. The ruling party at Centre must honour the commitment it had made.They must waive farmer loans throughout the country. When the farmers are agitating, they cannot be silent. This farmer distress is the effect of demonetisation. An assurance was given by the ruling party and now they must fulfil their commitment without trying to pass the buck to the states, her tweet reads.Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on Monday said that states would have to generate funds from their own resources for loan waivers and should expect no help from the Centre.On June 7, Mamata expressed condolences to family members of six farmers who were killed in police firing in Madhya Pradesh.Incident in MP unfortunate. Sad six farmers lost their lives. My deepest sympathies to the bereaved families. We always stand by our farmers, Mamata tweeted.Her government on April 3 had waived agricultural tax in the state to provide relief to farmers. She said, This issue should be addressed without any delay for the betterment of farmers.She said her government is ready to bear a revenue loss of about Rs 200 crore to help farmers in distress. The farming community in the country is under great distress. There are reports of farmers committing suicide in several states," she said, reiterating her demand to the Centre for farm loan waiver so that farmers could "overcome" the crisis. New Delhi: Pakistani Army continued ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir with the latest incident being reported from Balakot sector of Poonch district. Army sources said no injuries have been reported so far. On Saturday night, Pakistani Army resorted to heavy shelling of forward military posts and civilian areas in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani troops used mortar bombs and fired with automatic weapons from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati sector, prompting Indian troops to retaliate, a senior army officer said. Earlier, a General Engineering Reserve Force (GREF) labourer was killed while two others including a BSF jawan were injured as Pakistan on Thursday violated the ceasefire by shelling mortars and firing on forward posts along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi: In 2014, the government amended the Companies Act to mandate that every company with annual revenues more than Rs 1,000 crore had to give 2% of net profit to charity. India thus became the first country in the world to introduce mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Opinion has been divided on the merits of the move, with some saying it would mean more funds for development projects while others maintaining that mandatory CSR kills the spirit of giving to charity. Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhis grandson, is a managing trustee of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation and has worked in the field of CSR. In an interview with News18, he spoke about how CSR has evolved over the years and how companies are funding gaushalas and Swacch Bharat projects through CSR. Q. How has mandatory CSR changed corporates attitudes to their social responsibility? The real spirit of CSR lies in the spirit of giving because you want to give. The legal necessity of mandating 2% of profits to be given to CSR has turned it into a mere ritual. These days when you go to companies, you can be turned down by saying that theyre fulfilled this years CSR obligations, and theyll ask you to come back next year. The other thing that has happened is that CSR has now become part of Public Relations. Most corporates only do CSR projects that promote the companys image. Spending on CSR has become part of the advertising budget rather than a commitment to helping communities. Q. Are Companies using CSR to be on the right side of the powers that be? Absolutely. Now with mandatory CSR, it has become official. Take Swachch Bharat for instance. In rural areas, Ive seen toilets built by companies with their logos displayed prominently on the walls and door. Its another matter that these toilets are totally useless because they require a lot of water for maintenance. In six months, the villagers use the toilets as a storeroom. In a lot of villages, shallow, open drains are built using MP/MLA funds. These become a pool of sewage and waste. If the government really wants to keep villages clean, they could consider building sewage collection and treatment plants and link all village homes to such a system. Q. Have gaushalas become the latest CSR trend? With every new regime theres a new fashionable cause to adopt and at the moment it is gaushalas. Everyone wants to flaunt the number of cattle they own and how well they are taking care of them. It may be your plastic bags that are killing the cows, but establishing or donating to a gaushala absolves you of responsibility. Other fashionable causes right now are friends of animals, love the animals and being kind to animals. Donating to the Chief Ministers gaushala has two purposes: It curries favour and makes the political class obligated to return favours in the future. Gaushalas have come about because Swachch Bharat has been diminishing in the public perception. Q. Can you give some examples of how CSR is done? Nowadays it is fashionable to hold CSR conventions in 5-star hotels. Foreigners come and show their fancy eco-friendly toilets at these conventions. The enzymes and compounds used in these toilets are proprietary. Each unit costs Rs 5-10 lakhs while the recurring cost on the enzymes is Rs 5,000-6,000. Everybody then pats themselves on the back. Q. What would a genuine programme of CSR be? That would mean making an assessment and identifying projects that make a real difference to peoples lives and not just a difference to your PR strategy. Companies dont have a ceiling on profitability, so why have a ceiling on philanthropy? Whats stopping a corporate from sending an executive to work in a rural area for six months? But instead they will just write out a cheque and ask their accountants if the requirement has been fulfilled. Q. Are you in favour of repealing mandatory CSR? Repealing the 2% mandatory CSR would remove the obligation on the part of companies and only those who are genuinely interested would contribute. Why not rate companies on the amount of CSR they engage in, so that ethical investors also have a chance to assess which companies they would like to invest in. New Delhi: Pregnant women should control lust, hang "beautiful" pictures on the wall and shun non- vegetarian food if they wish to have a healthy baby, a booklet released by the government's AYUSH ministry says. The booklet -- 'Mother and Child Care' was distributed at a recent function here, presided over by the Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Naik, ahead of the International Day for Yoga observed on June 21. "Pregnant women should detach themselves from desire, anger, attachment, hatred and lust. Avoid bad company and be with good people," the tract, issued by the government-funded Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy, says. Minister Naik told PTI that the booklet, published three years ago, is a compilation of yoga practices that are believed to help pregnant women. "The Booklet does not contain any advice on abstaining from sex," he said. The booklet has a list of items that it believes pregnant women should steer clear of. "Avoid tea, coffee, sugar, white flour products, garam masala, fried and oily items, egg and non-veg etc," it says. It advises them to have "spiritual" thoughts and read the life histories of "great personalities". The booklet recommends hanging "good and beautiful pictures" on bedroom walls, which, it says, will also have a positive impact on the foetus. "The booklet puts together relevant facts culled out from clinical practice in the fields of yoga and naturopathy. It also contains wisdom accumulated over many centuries of yogic practice," Naik says. The extradition proceedings in a court at London on Tuesday made at least one thing clear Vijay Mallya will not be in India on July 10 to let the Supreme Court decide his prison sentence under charges of contempt.On May 9, a two-judge bench led by Justice Adarsh K Goel had held Mallya guilty of contempt of court for concealing his assets and violating other court orders, fixing July 10 for deciding his quantum of punishment.The top court had directed the government to make sure the founder-owner of Kingfisher Airlines was present at 2 pm on July 10 to hear his jail term. We direct the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi to secure and ensure presence of Mallya before this Court on July 10, the bench had ordered.But what transpired in the UK court on Tuesday has nullified every possibility of getting Mallya before the apex court on July 10, leaving MHA in a fix on how to justify its failure. Significantly, while admitting Mallya to bail till December 4, the UK magistrate questioned the delay on the part of the Indian government to bring on record the evidence against the flamboyant UB group chairman.Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot had to adjourn the case only because the Indian government could not adduce the evidence despite a fixed date of hearing, and she had to add that the matter could even go to spring 2018. "If there is still no sign of the evidence, then April 2018 is a possibility (for the full hearing). If we have everything, then it may look like December," observed the UK court.An adjournment in the foreign court on account of laxity by the Indian government officials is definitely damaging when they are running against the time with a deadline set by the highest court of the land to get Mallya back.Notably, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had spearheaded the fight on behalf of a consortium of banks against Mallya, and had repeatedly pressed for pronouncing him guilty of contempt of the court.Now that the bench has accepted such contentions, how this order will be executed, as the UK court could not propose a timeline for completion of the extradition proceedings, remains to be seen.On July 10, the government may find it difficult to explain, to the apex court, reasons for deferment of extradition proceedings against Mallya in UK.However, since the bench has already expressed its mind about expediting proceedings against Mallya in India, there is still a minor possibility that Supreme Court could pronounce the prison sentence against Mallya in absentia on July 10.And if such an order is passed on a basis that he would be sentenced to jail as and when he is brought back, another pertinent aspect of dealing with various assets of Mallya, which are currently under the jurisdiction of Indian courts and authorities here, may also be examined during the proceeding.Either way, the July 10 hearing is going to be an intriguing one, especially when another man sentenced to a jail term under contempt charge retired high court judge C S Karnan, is still on the run. New Delhi: A day after being convicted for trespassing and simple hurt under section 323 and 451 of the Indian Penal Code, well known RTI activist Nikhil Dey on Tuesday got bail. He is set to file an appeal against the conviction order. Four others were convicted with Dey. Calling the verdict shocking and extremely unfortunate, Dey said that such orders were threatening RTI activists to take up causes. The case dates back to 1998 to a dispute with Pyarelal, the then sarpanch of Harmada, a village near Jaipur, who had been accused by the activists of widespread corruption. The sarpanch was accused of meddling with payments for toilets, homes and other government schemes and cheating actual beneficiaries. On May 6, Dey and the others went to the village to find out more about the alleged allegations. The activists are said to have Pyarelals residence to deliver an official letter, after his office was found closed. The activists were assaulted by the sarpanch, who then filed a case against them for trespassing and hurt. The case was closed by the police in 1998, but was revived three later by the sarpanch himself. The verdict was announced on Monday. New Delhi: Actor Salman Khan has spoken in favour of talks with Pakistan at a time of tension in ties over increased militancy in Kashmir, saying those who demand wars should be sent to the border to end the warmongering. "Those who order wars should be sent to the forefront and be told that you fight first. Their hands and feet will tremble. The war will be over in a day. Then they will sit across the table and talk," Salman Khan said at a press conference to promote his new film Tubelight. Khan went on to say that sufferings from war doesnt affect just one nation. "Whenever there is war, people die on both sides of the border," he said. Salman, who was joined by his brother Sohail at the press conference, said dialogue and peace was the only way forward for both India and Pakistan. Immediately after Khan's press conference, the Shiv Sena hit out against him saying the star Bollywood actor had "crossed his boundaries". "The way he has said this is really objectionable. Who doesn't want peace. Why does he always cross his boundaries," Sena MP Arvind Sawant said. Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha told CNN-News18 that Salman Khan's statement batting for peace between India and Pakistan was a "sane, sensitive and mature one". NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik dismissed Khan's remarks, saying it was merely a publicity stunt by the actor ahead of the release of his film which was set against the India-China war. Salman's father and scriptwriter Salim Khan said, "This is what every great person in history has said .. war is not a sensible thing." Director Kabir Khans Tubelight is a historical war drama set against the backdrop of the Indo-Sino war set in 1962 and also features Chinese actors Zhu Zhu and child actor Matin Rey Tangu. This is not the first time Khan has spoken out in favour of talks and peace. Last time when there was a call for a ban on Pakistani artistes in the background of increased cross-border terror, he had said there "is a difference between the terrorists and the artistes". Mumbai: Actor Saqib Saleem has shot for a new short film titled Aamad for Father's Day, which falls on June 18. Directed by Neeraj Udhwani for digital platform Terribly Tiny Talkies, Aamad is a story about the pure relationship between a father and his son who is embarrassed that his dad is a kathak dancer. The plot explores how the father-son overcome their personal apprehensions and start a new friendship by building their relation over a period of time. Talking about the project, Saqib said in a statement: "I know Neeraj (Udhwani) for a while now as he wrote 'Mere Dad Ki Maruti' and we meet often to discuss ideas. He shared the idea of 'Aamad' with me and asked me what I thought. "When I read it, I instantly fell in love with the story and I told him that he shouldn't look for anyone else as I want to do it. It's such a simple yet complex film as it speaks about the unsaid things in a father-son relationship." Saqib was last seen on screen in Prawaal Raman's movie Dobaara: See Your Evil with his sister Huma Qureshi. Patna: Defying all official norms, a team of government doctors were posted at the residence of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav for about eight days. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has lashed out at the Yadav family and alleged that it has been in habit of the Yadavs to misuse power. Lalu Prasad has come under attack from various corners as his eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav is the health minister of the state. Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi said that deputing three doctors and two nurses of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) for personal caretaking is a gross offence and misuse of official power. Tej Pratap is the chairman of the governing body of IGIMS. He must have pressed the hospital administration for deputing doctors at his fathers residence. Doesnt he know that patients are dying at government hospitals due to lack of doctors? Patients are in queue and doctors are attending the Health Ministers family, he said. News18 has a copy of the letter signed by the IGIMS superintendent, directing a team of doctors to return back from the RJD leaders house and report back to their respective departments. The JDU, which is heading the ruling alliance with the RJD and Congress, has distanced itself from the controversy surrounding Lalus family. JDU spokesman Rajeev Ranjan said that it was for Tej Pratap and his ministry to look into this matter. He declined to comment more on this. On the other hand, the RJD has defended this decision further providing fodder to the opposition. Party spokesperson Shakti Yadav said that as chairman of the IGIMS board, Tej Pratap can request the services of the doctors. But he could not show any such request letter. RJD leaders also were reluctant to disclose details of the patient in the family. IGIMS Director NR Vishwas told News18 that he was fed up of favour requests from politicians and ministers. He even pleaded with the media to do something which could stop this menace. As per the letter issued by the IGIMS, the below mentioned doctors and nurses were posted at the residence of Lalu Prasad Yadav: - Dr (Prof.) Naresh Kumar HOD (General Medicine) - Dr Krishna Gopal Associate Superintendent - Dr Aman Kumar Deputy Superintendent - Anil Saini Staff Nurse (CCU) - Vikram Charan Staff Nurse (OT) Bhubaneswar: Activists of Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal burnt an effigy of union minister V K Singh on Wednesday, a day after he said Odisha does not require special category status. The activists led by BJD MLA Sanjay Dasburma staged a demonstration before the Raj Bhavan here and submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee through Odisha Governor S C Jamir. Shouting anti-BJP slogans, they demanded that the union minister of state for external affairs withdraw his statement and demanded an apology from him. "We condemn the remarks of VK Singh and demand his apology. The BJP in its poll manifesto had promised to accord special category status to Odisha. However, Singhs statement has exposed the real motive of the party," Das Burma said. The BJD leaders said that Odisha has been demanding the special category status since 1979. Chief Minister Patnaik during his 17-year rule has raised the issue in different forums including at the National Development Council meeting. Beside the state assembly, all the elected bodies like panchayats, zilla parishad and urban bodies have passed resolutions seeking special category state staus. A signature campaign by one crore people of the state urged the Centre to accord special category status ton Odisha in 2013. Dasburma said the state has 22.8 per cent tribal population against only 8.6 per cent of population in the national average. Besides, the KBK region comprising 8 districts remain the most backward districts of the country. All these make Odisha suitable for the special category status even as the state has been making progress in certain sectors, they said. "In this background, we are surprised to hear union minister V K Singh's statement rejecting the long standing demand of Odisha for special category status. Without examining our demands, how did Singh say that special category status is not required for Odisha?" the BJD said in the memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee. New Delhi: Amidst the escalating protests in Darjeeling and adjoining areas, Minister of State for Agriculture SS Ahluwalia has written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh to examine the demand for a separate hill state Gorkhaland. Sources in the Home Ministry have told CNN-News18 that Ahluwalia, who won Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling on BJP ticket with the support of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), met Singh and the Home Secretary earlier this week in Delhi and drew the attention of the ministry on the escalating crisis in his constituency. This is for the first time that a senior BJP leader has gone on record in a communication to the government to seek intervention on the core issue of the formation of a separate state from West Bengal. Sources in the BJP say that Ahluwalia has also communicated with the Party President Amit Shah on this issue. In its manifesto for 2014 general elections BJP had said it will sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long pending demands of the Gorkhas, the Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling district and the Dooars region; of the Kamtapuri, Rajbongshi and other people of North Bengal (including recognition of their language). GJM, which is spearheading the separate statehood campaign now, currently controls the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). It is also the main challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress which has for long attempted to make inroads in the region. In the process, GJM has tactically leveraged its stakes at the center vis-a-vis the state government by supporting a national party in the Lok Sabha polls. In 2009 general elections, it supported former Defence Minister and BJP leader Jaswant Singh. The GTA was formed in 2012 after a tripartite agreement was signed between the state and union government and GJM which had been agitating for a separate hill state. The agreement led to the passage of a bill by the West Bengal Assembly delegating administrative and financial powers to the council. The state government, however, retained legislative powers with itself. The latest round of protests were triggered by GJMs opposition to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees decision to implement three language policy in the state making Bangla compulsory in at primary and secondary levels. GJM sought exemption from the rule in the Nepali speaking areas of the state. Amidst the unrest, and in a challenge of sorts, Banerjee also travelled to the hills earlier this month to hold the maiden meeting of her cabinet in Darjeeling. Former chief minister SS Ray had done the same at the peak of Naxal movement 34 years ago to send across a message that all was well and under control. The anti-language movement soon metamorphosed to reignite the separate statehood demand with all political parties in the sub-division passing a resolution on Tuesday seeking to separate from West Bengal. In his missive to Singh, Ahluwalia has also sought the State Government should through an executive order exempt Nepali speaking areas from compulsorily studying Bangla. New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh on Wednesday said the farmer suicides in the state may be due to personal reasons. "If a farmer is committing suicide it is not necessary that he was into debt. There can be various reasons for a farmer to commit suicide," Singh said. This comes on a day when Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is visiting Mandsaur to meet the families of farmers who were killed in police firing during a protest. Ahead of CM's visit, Section 144 of CrPC has been revoked from the violent-hit region. Mandsaur became the epicentre of a farmers' agitation over a demand for loan waivers and better prices for their produce. During the agitation, six farmers were gunned down by the police, thereby drawing criticism from political parties. The situation forced the district officials to impose Section 144 and restricted prominent personalities from visiting the violence-hit district. A number of political leaders, including Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, and social activists tried to visit Mandsaur but the police didn't let them enter the area. The curfew was lifted from Mandsaur, but prohibitory orders remained. Earlier on Sunday, Chouhan, who started an indefinite fast in June, ended his fast by consuming coconut water. "We will make the state land use advisory service so that farmers get correct and timely information about climate change. I, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promise that we will irrigate every land. We have decided to implement every policy with the consent of farmers," he said before ending the fast. He further said not only in India but in the entire world, Madhya Pradesh stands at number one position in the agriculture sector. : US President Donald Trump may be ringing in his 71st birthday amid a US Senate investigation into possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 election, but thousands of miles away, a group he has probably never heard of organized a birthday bash for the billionaire President. Hindu Sena, a radical fringe Hindu outfit, celebrated Trumps birthday, complete with a birthday cake, at New Delhis Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.A small tent was erected at the designated protest site near Jantar Mantar and decorated with saffron and blue balloons. At 1 pm, Vishnu Gupta, leader of the Hindu Sena, got out of his car with a cake weighing 7.1 kg, to mark their messiahs 71st birthday. A group of men, all owing allegiance to Trump, scurried to put up pictures of the 45th US President, including one of baby Trump, on the tent wall. In addition to a handful of Hindu Sena workers and a few media persons, nobody really turned up for Guptas party.Speaking to News 18, Gupta was all praises for Trump, who he believes is the savior of humanity. He even hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will learn from Trump on ways to fight radical Islamic terror a phrase Trump threw up repeatedly during the 2016 US Presidential election campaign. This is not the first time we are celebrating his birthday. We are his fans because he has said what was in the entire worlds heart. He said he would fight against radical Islamic terrorism and win. He has won. Radical Islamic terrorists are now hiding in the ground, he said.Gupta even has birthday presents he would like to send to his hero and his choice of courier service is rather unusual. I have received many gifts from Donald Trumps supporters in India. I would like to send at least one of those gifts to Mr. Trump. Prime Minister Modi is meeting Donald Trump Ji later this month. If I get in touch with the PM, I will request him to take the gift and give it to the President. I am sure that their meeting will be nice and positive.This is not the first time Hindu Sena has gathered at Jantar Mantar to show solidarity with Trump, considered a polarizing figure in American politics. In May last year, when Trump was still just a candidate, the outfit held a Havan to pray for his victory in the elections. In October, they burnt posters of Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of State and Trumps opponent, for defaming the savior of humanity. A day before Trump was sworn in as the 45th American President, the outfit even held their own Raj Tilak (Coronation) ceremony for him. "Look, we have tied up the numbers. So there is no need to go for someone outside the Sangh Parivar. We have decided that our candidate will come from the BJP stable, will be someone moored in the Sangh tradition, and will be an active politician," this person said. "Sushma Swaraj is a strong woman contender who enjoys a political stature. She has built critical associations across parties because of her long standing career as a parliamentarian," social scientist Manisha Priyam said. Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "We have not come up with any name as yet. The government has approached us saying they want to discuss the issue. They will meet each party separately and once this happens, we will sit together and take a decision." : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has emerged the lead contender to become NDA's candidate to succeed Pranab Mukherjee as the next President of India, three top sources from the BJP and RSS have told News18.Swaraj qualifies in every criteria laid down by the BJP top brass and also has the endorsement of the Sangh, they said, adding that her name could figure in Friday's talks between the ruling dispensation and the Opposition to build consensus ahead of the presidential elections slated for this month end. Senior BJP leaders Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu are to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPM's top honcho Sitaram Yechury in this regard on Friday.A top BJP leader who is privy to deliberations on who should be the party's presidential candidate said a decision was made earlier on not to field any apolitical candidate just for the sake of building a consensus.This leader hinted Swaraj, 65, was also the hot favourite for a variety of reasons, not least being the expectation that she could pull in votes from a few regional parties too. "Leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik will find it difficult to oppose her," he said, adding that the final name will be made public in a matter of few days.Swaraj's office declined to comment on this story.A seven-time MP and three-time MLA, Swaraj has been in public life since the Janata Party days. She grew up in a family of swayamsevaks and commands respect across party lines. As External Affairs Minister, her personal interventions in bringing home stranded Indians have made her a darling of the social media.According to sources, the BJP team has already spoken to BSP's Satish Chandra Mishra and NCPs Praful Patel regarding the presidential elections.Names of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu were also doing the rounds for the top post, but it seems the final choice has now narrowed down to Swaraj and Mahajan.An RSS leader involved in early deliberations said the Sangh preferred BJP veteran MM Joshi as the candidate. However, he was recently chargesheeted in the Babri demolition case a criminal case -- along with BJP patriarch LK Advani, ruling out the chances of both.Sangh, the RSS leader said, was equally keen on Sushma Swaraj's candidature.News18 spoke to several leaders of regional parties, including the TMC and JD(U), and they said Swaraj's moderate image makes her an acceptable candidate among most leaders. "She has been sincere in working for the cause of the middle class and women,' said a leader who has known Swaraj for decades.A BJP source said the NDA candidate is likely to file nomination before June 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for his official trip to the US.Commentator Neerja Chowdhury says the political messaging with such an appointment will be about consensus building. "The BJP cannot find a better name than Sushma Swaraj for president today. They can build national consensus around her name. Consensus for top position of the country, who is the head of the state and custodian of the Constitution, will mean a lot, particularly at this juncture when politics is contentious," said Chowdhury.The fact that Swaraj's appeal cuts across party lines was for everyone to see during the last Budget Session of the parliament, when she returned after a six-month break during which she underwent a kidney transplant. As Swaraj entered the House, members from all parties stood up as a gesture of respect and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed her on behalf of everyone.Considered by many as the best orator in the present Lok Sabha, Swaraj is respected not only for her seniority, but also for her knowledge of legislative matters. She chose politics over legal practice in the Supreme Court and became a minister in Haryana at the age of 25.Since then, she has served as Chief Minister of Delhi, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Union Health Minister and the Leader of Opposition. In her current profile, she has a personal rapport with many world leaders.While Swaraj's candidature is likely to find support among regional Opposition parties, it may be tougher to convince the Congress. Swaraj has unique distinction of taking on both Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in electoral battles.Recalling one of Swarajs speeches during the elections in 1980s after the Emergency, Chaudhury said, While campaigning in a village against Indira Gandhi, Swaraj asked people "aapke gaon mein kitne logon ne beti ko Kaushalya ka naam diya hai?' Several hands went up. 'Ab bataiye Keikai ka naam kitne logon ne diya hai?' That was her style of targeting Indira Gandhi that Keikai tried to appoint her own son while Kaushalya, Rams mother, didn't do that.'In 1999, Swaraj was nominated to contest against Sonia Gandhi from the Bellary constituency in Karnataka. During her campaign, she addressed public meetings in Kannada. Swaraj questioned the Congress president's so-called foreign origin and got 358,000 votes. Even though Gandhi won that election, Swaraj continued attacking her.In 2004, when Congress-led UPA came to power and there were demands to make Sonia Gandhi the Prime Minister, Swaraj went to the extent of saying that she would shave her head, eat only gram and live in a hut if a "foreigner" was made the PM. Since then however, both Gandhi and Swaraj have developed a good relationship.When asked, a BJP leader said while the party was trying to build consensus, but if Congress wants to stay out, his party wouldn't mind it. "Once all other parties agree on a name, Congress will have no other option," he added.Recently, Venkaiah Naidu Union minister and one of the three top leaders tasked with speaking to Opposition on the presidential polls had told News18 that the government will try its best to create a consensus on this matter."We will try our best. After all, we have to elect the President of India, and not a party president," he had said.The Opposition parties have met thrice on the issue first at Sonia Gandhi's residence on May 26; then at DMK supremo Karunanidhi's birthday in Chennai on June 4; and most recently on June 14 in New Delhi. After the June 14 meeting, Leader of Opposition in Rajya SabhaOn its part, BJP seems confident that its candidate will sail through. The Electoral College for choosing the President consists of 4,896 voters. While the Lok Sabha has 543 voters and the Rajya Sabha 233, the overwhelming majority, 4,120, comes from state assemblies. The total value of votes in the election is 10,98,903 5,49,408 for MPs and 5,49,495 for MLAs.The value of each vote of an MP is 708 but this differs for MLAs from state to state. The value of an MLAs vote in Uttar Pradesh is the highest (208) and the lowest is Sikkim (7).The NDA by itself is short of about 18,000 votes. But it expects to gain the support of many smaller parties, besides all the factions of the feuding AIADMK, which has vote value of over 26,000. Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP K Keshav Rao has decided to cancel the sale deed of his land after it was revealed that it was a government land. CNN News 18 has exposed, how Keshav Rao's daughter, Vijaya Lakshmi, and other family members, had purchased 50 acres of land in Ibrahimpatnam area, of which 38-acre was found to be government land in the audit. The family had purchased land from controversial Goldstone firm, whose director Goldstone Prasad, is suspected to be the kingpin of the multi-crore land scam in Telangana. The involved sub-registrar was also suspended by the government in the crackdown. Speaking to CNN News18, Keshav Rao said, "Government holds the view that it's their land. I don't want to fight against my own government." Keshav Rao had, earlier, defended himself, saying that he had not done anything wrong and purchased the land as per the law, after court orders. After Keshav Rao, the name of another TRS Rajya Sabha MP, Dharmapuri Srinivas, has surfaced in the multi-crore Telangana land scam. In 2015, Srinivas, along with others, purchased 8.9 acres of land at Girmapur village in Medchal Mandal. Now, it is found that the land is a government-assigned land. Speaking to CNN-News18, D Srinivas said,"We bought the land after checking and verifying all the records, and then the revenue records did not show that it was an assigned land. When we applied for Mutation, we were informed it was a government land." Alleging involvement of influential people in the scam, the opposition has been demanding a CBI probe. Reacting to the allegations by the opposition, the Telangana government said that there was no scam at all. After a high-level meeting, the Chief Minister issued a statement clarifying, "State government has come to a conclusion that the government treasury did not lose even a single rupee or an inch of government land." "The government has clarified that no one can ever get the registration of the government lands and even if someone did, it has no legal validity and the land can never be transferred. The CM has clarified that some of those involved have been arrested and some more will be prosecuted however big and mighty they are. The CID will continue the probe," the statement said. Questioning the alleged involvement of TRS leaders, BJP Spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao said, "CM KCR's statements are misleading and clearly show the intention of the government to protect the land sharks. Who is CM trying to shield? Why is he not ordering a CBI inquiry? Still, nobody knows how the mega scamster and kingpin of the scam Goldstone Prasad managed to escape from Hyderabad? The Telangana BJP has also informed the Central government about the scale of the land scam in the state." The entire opposition has united in their attack on the ruling TRS government. Congress leaders visited the Miyapur scam site and reiterated the demand for a CBI inquiry. Accusing the Chief Minister of shielding the leaders, Congress Spokesperson Krishank said,"The government says sub-registrars were notified about government land, but sub-registrars went ahead and registered the lands. For KCR, it's entirely an omission and a mistake on the part of the sub-registrar. But what about corrupt ministers and senior leaders who lured sub-registrars into illegal deeds. No action against them? Government's move is to save the leaders and book sub-registrars. Such investigation is merely and eye wash." Calling it the mother of all land scams, the opposition will only up the ante against the ruling TRS government. The government has promised that nobody will be spared. Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday warned ally BJP that his party would take a "big step" if the loan waiver for farmers announced by the Maharashtra government is not implemented by next month. Terming the announcement of a complete loan waiver as a victory of farmers' unity, he said, "Our demand is very clear. We want their loans to be written off completely," he said. Speaking to the reporters in the city, after meeting farmers from across the state, including Puntamba village, Uddhav said, "I would like to thank the farmers. We have heard of a green revolution but the farmers of Maharashtra have shown that those who can bring about a green revolution can also cause a revolution." "I don't believe in the word 'karz mafi' it should be called as 'karz mukti'. 'Mafi' is given to those who have committed a crime. Farmers have not committed any crime but have brought about a revolution," the Sena chief said. Uddhav said, "I congratulate the Maharashtra government. This is a moment to be celebrated, but most importantly, fast implementation of the announcement is necessary." "Loan waiver has been announced now. We will be patient enough to wait now and give the government time until July to implement its announcement. If they do not do so, a big step will be taken next month," he said. Meanwhile, a farmer who was present at the event said they met the Sena president to thank him for his support to their stir. "His support forced the government to give us a loan waiver. We give full credit to Uddhav Ji and the Shiv Sena," he said. Earlier in the day, the Shiv Sena had said the loan waiver decision was due to its constant "throttling" of the Maharashtra government and the party has opted to remain in power to shake the chair of "lazy" persons. Farmers in Maharashtra, who had been on a war path from June 1 to press for their various demands, had on June 11 called off their stir after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced loan waiver for them. HTC U11, the company's flagship smartphone, is set to launch in India. The smartphone will launch in India on June 16 at an event. The India price of the HTC U11 and availability is yet to be announced.It is pertinent to note that the HTC U11 was listed on the company's India website last week, hinting at the imminent launch. HTC had launched the U11 last month at an event in Taiwan. A major highlight of the U11 is the Edge Sense: a user can interact with it through a squeeze. Opening applications and the camera can be done by squeezing the U11.Read more: HTC U11 Review: It Squeezes Into the iPhone 7 & Samsung Galaxy S8 Territory However, different levels of pressure can be used for opening different functions of the device. Also, the HTC U11 has both Google Assistant and Alexa support for the United States, the UK and Germany, which both work with the Edge Sense functionality.In terms of design language, the U11 looks the same as the rest of the U series. It uses the same 'liquid surface' glass on the rear with colours embedded into the glass, which make it highly glossy and render a unique look from various angles.The U11 will come in five different colours, including Sapphire Blue, Amazing Silver, Solar Red, Brilliant Black, Ice White (varies in different regions). The listing on HTC India website suggests that the phone will come in Brilliant Black and Amazing Silver colours.In terms of specifications, the U11 features a 5.5-inch Quad HD 2K display. The design also includes 3D glass on both front and rear to essentially make the device feel more secure and comfortable to hold.The latest and one of the fastest chips currently on the market - Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC powers the device.HTC has also introduced what it calls the UltraSpeed focus along with a 12-megapixel rear camera with dual-pixel autofocus, f/1.7 aperture, OIS and electronic stabilisation. HTC is also introducing Auto HDR Boost which will provide the benefits of a HDR camera sans the lag. The 16-megapixel selfie camera has been optimised for taking snaps in low light and comes with a wide-angle lens. It also has a Selfie Panorama mode.HTC U11 doesn't have a standard 3.5-mm jack and features a USB Type-C port, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou on board.The HTC U11 also comes with USonic Boomsound Hi-Fi Edition speakers. The company is also bundling a pair of noise cancelling headphones in the box.The smartphone has a water resistant design with 64GB or 128GB of internal storage that can be further expanded. The phone packs a 3,000 mAh battery, which supports Qualcomms Quick Charge 3. HMD Global is betting heavily on the emotional connect that brand Nokia has had with the masses in the past to sell its new line of Android phones in India.Armed with 10-year rights to market the iconic brand, HMD is confident of soon becoming a part of the top smartphone players in the country.Read more: Nokia 6, 5, Nokia 3 Launched in India: Here Are The Prices, Specifications and More "Nokia is a people's brand and we have had a phenomenal legacy. The brand is known to be reliable and trustworthy and it continues to have a strong recall among consumers even today. The new line of smartphones will continue to deliver on that promise," Nokia India Vice-President Ajey Mehta told.Read more: Cheaper 'Nostalgic' Alternatives to Nokia 3310 You Can Buy The company hopes to be among the top smartphone players in the country soon, he added.But will emotional connect be enough to compete in the world's second largest telecom market."We have seen a tremendous response to the new 3310 that we launched last week. We want to leverage the values of Nokia and script the next chapter," Mehta said.Read more: Moto E4 Plus, Moto E4 Launched: All You Should Know HMD is focusing strongly on the millennials with strong design and rich feature sets, he said.India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally. As per IDC, sales grew 4.7 per cent to 27 million units in the January-March period compared to the previous quarter.Samsung continued to dominate the market with 28.1 percent share. Xiaomi followed with 14.2 per cent while Vivo, Lenovo and Oppo had 10.5 per cent, 9.5 per cent and 9.3 percent share, respectively.HMD has chosen the sub-Rs 15,000 category to launch three smartphones. The devices will be manufactured by Foxconn inIndia, sold under the Nokia brand.This category -- which is growing at a steady pace -- is also witnessing fierce competition with the likes of Samsung, Lenovo (and Motorola), Xiaomi and vivo lining up a slew of devices."We are focused on what the consumers want... While the current lineup is priced between Rs 9,000-15,000, going ahead,we will have phones on both sides of this range," he said.Nokia 3310 review: Blast from the past in a new shellOnce a dominant player in the Indian market, some time around 2012, Nokia began to see a downfall in its marketshare, hurt by its slow response to changing trends like dual SIM, touch screen smartphones.This was also the time when homegrown firms like Micromax and others like Samsung began to eat into Nokia's marketshare, leaving it with under 10 per cent share at the end of 2012.In 2011, Nokia announced its partnership with Microsoft to bring out Windows operating system-based smartphones. In 2014, Nokia sold its mobile phones business to Microsoft for $7.2 billion.Last year, Microsoft sold the feature phone business to HMD Global and contract manufacturer Foxconn for $350 million. HMD Global, in a separate arrangement with Nokia, said it will bring out Android-based smartphones.Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 smartphones will be available in India only through retail stores for Rs 9,499 and Rs 12,899, respectively. Nokia 3 will be available from June 16 while Nokia 5 will be up for grabs for pre-booking from July 7.Nokia 6 -- the flagship -- is priced at Rs 14,999 and will go for pre-booking from July 14, exclusively on Amazon.in.In India, HMD has partnered with 400 exclusive distributors reaching over 80,000 retail points. In its hay days, Nokia ruled the mobile market in India. After its slow demise, Samsung took over to be the smartphone market leader and still continues to dominate the top 5 brand list. While several brands joined the race to defeat Samsung, they could barely manage to hold their fortresses in between the no.2 and no. 5 positions.Nokia, with all the nostalgia and clever marketing, is gearing up to regain market share quickly with the hope to ultimately be the leader again.Interestingly, during the Nokia Android phone launch in India, the company did not speak about the hardware specifications of the Nokia Android smartphones, not even for once. Nokia wants the hardware spec-war to take the back seat. But are consumers eager to go beyond the obsession over specs?share how Nokia is looking at the smartphone market right now and the strategy it is adopting. ExcerptsThere is no better time than now for Nokia to introduce Android smartphones. If you just see the Indian market, in the beginning of 2016, Samsung was the market leader. Then there was four Indian brands which existed in the top five list. I call them MILKMicromax, Intex, Karbonn and Lava. Now by the end of 2016, Samsung retained its leadership position at almost the same market share. But the four Indian brands, MILK, were replace by the Chinese brands, which I call LOVELenovo, Oppo, Vivo and (E)Xiaomi.If in a year, no. 2 to no. 5 top brands in the country can get completely replaced, this means consumers are clearly saying something and it is definitely not more specs for less price. Consumers need a brand they can trust and get the right experience.In other words, the market needs a differentiated approach as same products from countless brands have confused buyers by selling just spec sheets and not deliver that premium experience in the budget segment.I completely believe that the spec war doesnt excite consumers. But this doesnt mean we will not provide the right hardware required for a smooth experience. We want consumers to focus on the overall experience and not just specs.For example, battery life of a smartphone is the most common concern for consumers. When someone buys a smartphone, the person expects to get at least one full days worth of battery. At Nokia, we are saying that we will meet that expectation irrespective of the mAh capacity we provide. The entire experience is based on backend optimisation and not just specs.Nokia was and is always about simplicity, consumer trust and meaningful innovation. We dont believe in the spec-sheet eye-wash.Absolutely not. We cannot share any specific details right now but there will be premium offerings from Nokia as well.We want to be wherever the consumers are. Nokia has a huge retail network in the country and we simply cannot ignore that. While the Nokia 3 and 5 will be sold offline, the Nokia 6 will be exclusively available on Amazon.in. This will help us to reach more buyers.It might sound boring but the plain latest Android OS is offered by very few brands at select price points. The best Android experience is offered by either Nexus or Pixel devices. However, these are expensive handsets. We are trying to deliver that same best pure Android experience of the Nexus or Pixel phones on the Nokia 3 or 5 or 6. The Europe-wide travel reservation platform has weighed up criteria including accessibility, comfort and water temperature to rank Europe's best beach destinations. With a score of 98.14 out of 100, Alicante tops the list of GoEuro's top 100 city beach destinations in Europe. Situated on the Costa Blanca, the Spanish city treats vacationers to easily accessible sandy beaches with a wide variety of watersports and nightlife options. Unsurprisingly, Spain rides high in the list with other summer vacation hotspots like Palma, on the Balearic Island of Majorca, in third place and Barcelona in fourth. Italy breaks up the Spanish run of success with the Sicilian cities of Catania in second place and Palermo in sixth. Top French city beach destinations include Marseille (ninth) and Cannes (tenth). The ranking is based on several criteria, including the number and type of beaches, ease of access from the airport and the city center, water temperature, watersports and nightlife, including the average price of a pint of beer and a bottle of water. In terms of travel convenience, a German beach close to Denmark comes out on top. Westerland is just four minutes away from the nearest airport, and visitors can walk from the city to the beach in just 10 minutes. Puerto del Carmen in Spain comes second (15 minutes' journey from airport to city and six minutes from city to beach) and Nice on the French Riviera comes in third (11 minutes' journey from airport to city and 12 minutes from city to beach). See GoEuro's top 100 European city beach destinations: www.goeuro.com/travel/european-destinations Croatia will move forward with building a bridge linking the two parts of its Adriatic coastline, which should cut travel times for tourists, after the EU on Wednesday approved 357 million euros ($400 million) in financing. A small sliver of Bosnian territory that juts to the Adriatic means Croatian territory is split in two, creating a lengthy detour for tourists travelling along the coast. The 2.4-kilometre (1.5-mile) bridge will take advantage of the fact that the Bosnian coast is at the end of a narrow channel made by a Croatian peninsula. When completed in 2022 the bridge should shave hours off the travel time to the southern resort of Dubrovnik, known as the 'Pearl of the Adriatic,' as travellers will no longer need to make a border crossing. Tourism is a major industry for Croatia, with the nearly 16 million visitors that the former Yugoslav nation welcomed last year far outstripping its population of 4.2 million. Most tourists visited the stunning Adriatic coast, with more than 1,000 islands and islets which served as a location for numerous scenes in the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones. The European Union, which Croatia joined in 2013, is financing 85 percent of the bridge project. Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Zalac, who signed the deal in Brussels, hailed it as a "historic moment for both Croatia and the EU." "We are finally on the path... to completely link Croatia's territory which will also secure the continuity of EU's territory," Zalac said, according to her ministry statement. Croatia started building the bridge in 2007, but the project was halted due to budgetary constraints. New York: A writer has charged that rock legend Bob Dylan lifted sections of his Nobel Prize lecture from SparkNotes, the free online study guide aimed at students. Dylan, the surprise winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, last week delivered a long-awaited speech that was a requirement to receive the eight million kroner (Rs 5.9 crore) prize from the Swedish Academy. Author Andrea Pitzer, examining his lecture for the news site Slate, said she found striking similarities between Dylan's quotations from Herman Melville's classic novel "Moby-Dick" and the SparkNotes version. Dylan, for example, quotes Melville as calling the elusive whale Moby "the embodiment of evil." But Pitzer pointed that the phrase does not appear in the novel itself, although it appears in the SparkNotes synopsis. At least 20 references in Dylan's lecture about "Moby- Dick" bear some similarity to the SparkNotes version, she wrote. Pitzer noted that Dylan has long been unabashed about adapting musical and lyrical passages into his songs. "Dylan remains so reliant on appropriation that tracing his sourcing has become a cottage industry," she wrote. Lifting from earlier works is much more commonplace in music than in literature, where accusations of plagiarism are a major dent on reputation. The Swedish Academy stunned observers by choosing "rock poet" Dylan for literature's top prize. Dylan - whose representatives did not reply to the Slate article - took more than two weeks before acknowledging the prize and skipped the ceremony in December, citing pre-existing commitments. But Dylan, famously taciturn when he is not singing, finally explored his connections with literature in his Nobel lecture in which he also cited as influences Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey" and World War I novel "All Quiet on the Western Front." Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, had described the lecture as "extraordinary and, as some might expect, eloquent." London: Christians in a Philippines town are disguising themselves by borrowing hijabs to escape the Islamic State (IS) terrorists group that has been holding 1,500 people hostage. More than three weeks after the terrorist group stormed the southern Filipino town of Marawi, starving locals are said to have resorted to extreme measures including eating their blankets to stay alive, Dailymail reported on Tuesday. Five police officers and five Christian civilians dashed across the town's commercial district this morning, ducking for cover from a sniper, to reach a government-controlled area on the Agus River western bank, the report said. "We ran the last part. We could see the bridge ahead of us. We had to take cover several times when we saw a sniper," an officer was quoted as saying. Almost the entire population of more than 200,000 fled after May 23, when fighters from local groups allied to IS rampaged through the Muslim-majority town, killing and kidnapping Christians. The military estimates 300 to 600 civilians are still trapped or being held as human shields in areas occupied by the terrorists. Cairo: Egypt's parliament on Wednesday backed plans to hand over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia under an agreement that has attracted widespread public criticism. House of Representatives Speaker Ali Abdelaal said the required majority of lawmakers had voted for the agreement, which the government signed last year, despite a court striking it down in March. "I announce the House's final approval of the maritime demarcation agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed on April 8, 2016," Abdelaal said before adjourning the session. The treaty must now be ratified by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, which is a formality. The vote came very swiftly. The House Committee on Defence and National Security unanimously backed the plan earlier on Wednesday and referred it to the House for a final vote. A majority approved it less than four hours later. Those opposed to the measure stood up in protest and chanted "Egyptian, Egyptian" in reference to the islands. Sisi's government last year announced the maritime demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which has given billions of dollars of aid to Egypt, ceding control of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir. The plan triggered street protests last year from many Egyptians, who say their country's sovereignty over the islands dates back to a treaty from 1906, before Saudi Arabia was founded. Dozens of protesters gathered in downtown Cairo on Tuesday evening. The press union, where the protest was held, said three of its members were still being detained. A total of eight people were being questioned on accusations of illegally protesting and insulting the president. The Egyptian and Saudi governments say the islands are Saudi but have been subject to Egyptian protection since 1950 at the request of Saudi Arabia. JURISDICTION SPAT The treaty has been referred to the courts, irritating Riyadh and raising tensions between two Arab allies. Egypt's highest administrative court blocked the deal but parliament insisted the matter was constitutionally within its domain. Parliamentary leaders and government lawyers say the House of Representatives is the only entity allowed to rule on matters of sovereignty while the Supreme Administrative Court insists it is within its jurisdiction to scrap the deal. The Supreme Constitutional Court will rule on who has jurisdiction but has not set a date or even started discussing the issue. It was not immediately clear what the legal situation of the treaty was following Wednesday's vote. A government report advising parliament on the terms of the agreement said Egypt would keep administrative control over the islands and Egyptians would not need visas to visit them if they were transferred to Saudi Arabia. Opposition groups accuse Sisi of handing over the islands to please his Saudi backers and in return for continued aid. Saudi Arabia was Sisi's biggest international supporter when he led the military in ousting an elected but unpopular Islamist president in 2013 following mass protests. Dubai: A 52-year-old Indian national, who has been illegally living in the deserts of Saudi Arabia for 24 years, will soon return to India after the government announced a 90-day amnesty period, according to a media report. Gana Prakasam Rajamariyan came to Saudi Arabia in August 1994 to work as a farm-hand in a remote village in Hail province. Rajamariyan, hailing from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, said he was paid only Saudi Riyal 100 a month for six months by his first employer. He was then "transferred" to another employer and a third a few months later. He has spent 24 years in the desert, without going home for once, a Saudi Gazette report said. "Of the three employers, I was not sure which one was my sponsor. Above all, I did not receive any salary from them, so I decided to abscond and live illegally out of compulsion," the newspaper quoted Rajamariyan as saying. He said his destiny was the deserts where he spent half of his life. "My four daughters were very young when I left home. Now when I return, I have grandchildren of the same age," he said. Rajamariyan said he was able to marry off three of his four daughters with his earnings in Saudi Arabia. He said he did not own a house nor did he have the Adhaar card or a voter ID, all of which were introduced after he left the country. He made his last phone call to his wife, Ronikyam, before she was admitted to hospital in 2015. After that, he did not call her as she was not able to speak and died a year later. Rajamariyan has completed all formalities for his return to India with the help of Hail-based social worker Sarfuddin Thayyil. He hopes to leave Saudi Arabia soon. Thousands of Indian workers stranded in Saudi Arabia after travelling there illegally and those who overstayed their visas, including a large number from Tamil Nadu, are ready to return to India under a 90-day amnesty period that the Saudi government has offered them. "By approaching the passport departments to solve their status from March 29, illegal workers "will be exempt from the consequences associated with the deportee fingerprint system and will be able to return to the Kingdom on the condition of pursuing legal methods to gain entry," the General Directorate of Passports (GDP) in Saudi Arabia had said last month. Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmed Javed had reiterated that people listed as matloob (wanted) in criminal cases and those holding valid residence visas and passports were not covered by the amnesty. Javed had appealed to all illegal residents to utilise the amnesty period to leave the country, saying they could come back to work legally in Saudi Arabia at any time they wanted. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Jeddah received a total of 26,713 applications for emergency travel passes and issued 25,894 since the general amnesty was announced 56 days ago. People from Uttar Pradesh formed the majority with 11,390 applicants while Telangana had 2,733 applicants, West Bengal 2,332, Tamil Nadu 2,022, Kerala 1,736, Bihar 1,491, Andhra Pradesh 1,120 and Rajasthan 853. The committee of experts will rectify the errors in the satellite survey of the areas conducted by the Forest department and Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre two months ago. Washington: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday denounced as a "detestable lie" the idea he colluded with Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and he clashed with Democratic lawmakers over his refusal to detail his conversations with President Donald Trump. Sessions, a senior member of Trump's Cabinet and an adviser to his election team, had a series of tense exchanges with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee during about 2-1/2 hours of high-stakes testimony as they pressed him to recount discussions with the Republican president. "You raised your right hand here today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich said. "Now you're not answering questions. You're impeding this investigation." Sessions refused to say whether he and Trump discussed FBI director James Comey's handling of an investigation into possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia during the election campaign before the president fired Comey on May 9. He declined to say whether Trump expressed concern over Sessions' decision in March to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, and he refused to say if Justice Department officials discussed possible presidential pardons of individuals being looked at in the probe. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told Sessions, "I believe the American people have had it with stonewalling. Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant questions are privileged." "I am not stonewalling," Sessions replied, saying he was simply following Justice Department policy not to discuss confidential communications with the president. Sessions' testimony did not provide damaging new information on any Trump campaign ties with Russia or on Comey's firing, but his refusal to discuss conversations with Trump raised fresh questions about whether the White House has something to hide. Last week, Comey told the same Senate committee that Trump had fired him to undermine the FBI's investigation of the Russia matter. Sessions had recommended that Comey be fired, and Trump's decision prompted critics to charge that the president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation. Sessions on Tuesday defended his involvement in Comey's firing despite recusing himself from the Russia probe. Senator Angus King, an independent, questioned Sessions' legal basis for refusing to answer questions after Sessions said Trump had not invoked executive privilege regarding the conversations. Executive privilege is a power that can be claimed by a president or senior executive branch officials to withhold information from Congress or the courts to protect the executive branch decision-making process. Sessions said it would be "inappropriate" for him to reveal private conversations with Trump when the president "has not had a full opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to approve such an answer." 'APPALLING AND DETESTABLE LIE' Sessions' clash with the Democratic senators was the latest chapter in a saga that has dogged Trump's first five months as president and distracted from his domestic policy agenda including major healthcare and tax cut initiatives. "The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honour for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," Sessions said. "I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected with the Trump campaign." US intelligence agencies concluded in a report released in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to interfere in the election to help Trump in part by hacking and releasing damaging emails about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Russia has denied any such interference, and Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign with Moscow. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March after revelations that he had failed to disclose two meetings last year with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak. In his testimony on Tuesday, Sessions addressed media reports that he may have had a third previously undisclosed meeting with Kislyak at Washington's Mayflower Hotel last year. Sessions said he did not have any private meetings and could not recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the hotel but did not rule out that a "brief interaction" with Kislyak may have occurred there. Sessions, a Republican former senator, was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign. But there has been tension between the two men in recent weeks because Trump was annoyed that Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe. Sessions said on Tuesday he did not recuse himself because he felt he was a subject of the investigation himself but rather because he felt he was required to by Justice Department rules. New Delhi: A week after two Chinese citizens were kidnapped in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan Province and allegedly killed by the Islamic State (IS), an opinion piece in Chinese media has called Pakistan a hotbed for terrorism and has put Chinas Belt and Road initiative on precarious grounds. As an increasing number of Chinese enterprises are going global, the likelihood that China falls victim to international terrorist forces is correspondingly rising. With the advancement of Beijing's Belt and Road initiative, a large number of Chinese engineers, workers and citizens are expected to participate in building infrastructure and other economic projects in countries along the route and thus may be exposed to higher security risks. This doesn't mean that terrorist groups are now targeting China - it's a result of scale. The percentage of Chinese citizens being attacked overseas is not as high as that of foreigners, said the article in Global Times. It further went on to say that Pakistan, in particular, was one of the worst-hit countries by terrorism, and may see a higher number of security incidents. As an intimate friend of China, Pakistan is a pilot country in the Belt and Road initiative, and a destination of a large amount of economic, trade, infrastructure and other projects that China has invested in. Beijing's huge investments in Islamabad are coveted and thus may easily fall victim to terrorist groups, it said. In addition, the article said, Pakistan is known for its poor security record, and has long been a hotbed of international terrorism. This may pose a severe threat to China's projects in the region. The article states that China does not tend to get involved in other countries domestic affairs and has steered away from the Middle East quagmire, which is why its citizens have not been targeted by terrorist groups. However, it added, that the number of Chinese kidnapped overseas seemed to be on an upward spiral. Terrorists kidnap citizens for various reasons. Beijing has no intent in meddling in other countries' politics, and thus politics is unlikely to be a motive. However, China, with its growing international influence, is now playing an increasingly active role in the world arena, and as a result, some extremists may target Chinese citizens for ransom or for sensational media impact. Religion is another motive for the abduction. The two Chinese citizens kidnapped were reported to be doing missionary work in Pakistan, and this may offend local religious groups, especially radical ones, it said. The article is of the view that it was tough to ask Beijing to strike a balance between security and the need to go global. With the advancement of the Belt and Road initiative and enhanced regional connectivity, China is expected to put more efforts into relevant security issues. Things will be better if the Chinese government can forge close links and have effective communications with its local partners, it said. Additionally, the article also noted that with the rampant activity of IS, religious extremists were expanding clout worldwide, and penetrating into regions with tough security situations, such as South Asia. How to react to terrorist groups when asked for ransom is an issue worth attention as well. The US once claimed that it would never pay ransom to kidnappers as this may encourage more kidnappings. Whether Washington's way of handling the issue could be adopted as a universal practice is still hard to say. After all, each country has its respective national condition. Wisdom and time are needed for the Chinese government to find a solution to balance the need to go global and the need to lower the security risks for its citizens, it said. Islamabad: Pakistan expects China to fund a long-delayed Indus river mega dam project in Gilgit-Baltistan, part of disputed Kashmir, with work beginning next year, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said in an interview. Pakistan has been keen for years to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus flowing down from the Himalayas, but has struggled to raise money from international institutions amid opposition from its nuclear-armed neighbour India. Those ambitions have been revived by China's Belt and Road infrastructure plans for Pakistan, a key cog in Beijing's creation of a modern-day Silk Road network of trade routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa. The $12-$14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns. Iqbal, the Islamabad lead on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), said a Chinese company from a Beijing-picked shortlist and a local partner would build the dam over a 10-year period, and work should begin in the "next financial year", which begins in July. "This water reservoir is most critical for food security in Pakistan, so is a very high priority project for Pakistan," Iqbal told Reuters late on Monday at his ministerial home in Islamabad. China and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding in December for Beijing to help fund and develop Pakistan's Indus Basin dams, though no timelines have been released. Pakistan estimates there is 40,000 MW of hydro potential. The Diamer-Bhasha dam and reservoir would displace more than 4,200 families in nearby areas and submerge a large section of the Karakoram Highway to China, Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority estimates. Iqbal said Pakistani and Chinese engineers are also surveying other projects, including the 7,100 MW Bunji hydro power project that will be the first in the cascade that stretches down to the Tarbela Dam near Islamabad. India's foreign ministry and ministry for water resources did not respond to requests for comment. India has previously opposed any construction in the Indus Basin it claims as its own, and has criticised CPEC because the $57 billion corridor runs across disputed territory. India this year fast-tracked $15 billion worth of dam projects on its side of Kashmir, despite fears from Islamabad that the power stations will disrupt vital Indus water flows into Pakistan. Iqbal, a close ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said India needs to "stop its myopic thinking towards CPEC" and accept the Chinese-funded project is going ahead. Better still would be for India to become part of Beijing's Belt and Road plans, he said. "$20 BILLION PLUS" Future CPEC plans are increasingly focused on how Beijing can help build up Pakistan's ailing industries, creating special economic zones and opening up sectors from mining to agriculture to Chinese firms. But Iqbal said infrastructure construction won't stop, with contracts set to be signed for roads and for mass rail transport systems in Quetta, Peshawar and Karachi. He said about $10 billion in new deals should be signed in the next year on top of Chinese pledges topping $50 billion, and that was likely to double by 2020. "I would say conservatively $20 billion plus (in new investment by 2020)," Iqbal said, adding this would also include private investment. Kandahar, Afghanistan: An Afghan official says a suicide bomber targeted a checkpoint run by rival insurgents in the southern Helmand province, killing nine of them. Mohammad Saleem Rohdi, chief of the Gareshk district, says six other militants from a breakaway Taliban faction were wounded in the attack early Wednesday. Taliban spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment. Rival Taliban factions have clashed in the past, with the supporters of Mullah Rasoul, a commander in Helmand, contesting the overall leadership of Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada. "Kim" from #thevulnerabilityseries 200x150cm oil and acrylic on canvas #abdallaalomari @ayyamgallery #ayyamgallery #ayyamgallerydubai #kimjonghyun #dubai A post shared by Abdalla Al Omari (@abdalla.al.omari) on Jun 1, 2017 at 1:57am PDT David from #thevulnerabilityseries 200x150cm oil-acrylic on canvas #abdallaalomari @ayyamgallery #ayyamgallery #ayyamgallerydubai #dubai #davidcameron A post shared by Abdalla Al Omari (@abdalla.al.omari) on Jun 3, 2017 at 2:16am PDT Recep" from #thevulnerabilityseries #oil-#acrylic on #canvas 190x140cm. on view at @ayyamgallery #alserkalavenue until 6 July 2017 #dubai #erdogan #ayyamgallery #ayyamgallerydubai A post shared by Abdalla Al Omari (@abdalla.al.omari) on Jun 5, 2017 at 2:27am PDT Vlad" from #thevulnerabilityseries show. Oil-acrylic on canvas. On view at @ayyamgallery #dubai until July 6 #vladimirputin A post shared by Abdalla Al Omari (@abdalla.al.omari) on Jun 10, 2017 at 2:38am PDT An art exhibition in a Dubai gallery titled "The Vulnerability Series" shows world leaders as displaced or disenfranchised people, moving them away from the corridors of power that they normally occupy.Syrian refugee artist Abdalla Al Omari's work, which took 19 months to make and was created in his Brussels studio, includes paintings US president Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Kim Jong-un, former US president Barack Obama and other world leaders as the homeless and as refugees."Being a refugee is like having a new lump in your body that you had nothing to do with, and it will stay until the last day, so you better deal with it," Al Omari told CNN."My aim somehow shifted from an expression of anger to a more vivid desire of disarming these figures, (to) picture them outside their positions of power," Reuters quoted Omari as telling Al Jazeera.Omari started painting in Damascus shortly after the start of the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. He fled and was granted asylum in Belgium."People are sometimes too fond of their politicians. They cannot see them fall off their thrones. They cannot see them weak," Al Omari told CNN.Gallery visitor Sami Azraq said the portraits were a unique take on the refugee crisis."I do think it's an interesting way or it's a nicer way to look at the problem rather than our usual news or social media or other outlets," he said.(With inputs from agencies) Washington: US President Donald Trump has given Defence Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official told Reuters on Tuesday, opening the door for future troop increases requested by the US commander. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no immediate decision had been made about the troop levels, which are now set at about 8,400. The Pentagon declined to comment. The decision is similar to one announced in April that applied to US troop levels in Iraq and Syria and came as Mattis warned Congress the US-backed Afghan forces were not beating the Taliban despite more than 15 years of war. "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now," Mattis said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier on Tuesday. "And we will correct this as soon as possible." Mattis said the Taliban were "surging" at the moment, something he said he intended to address. A former US official said such a decision might allow the White House to argue that it was not micromanaging as much as the administration of former President Barack Obama was sometimes accused of doing. Critics say delegating too much authority to the military does not shield Trump from political responsibility during battlefield setbacks and could reduce the chances for diplomats to warn of potential blowback from military decisions. It has been four months since Army General John Nicholson, who leads US and international forces in Afghanistan said he needed "a few thousand" additional forces, some potentially drawn from US allies. Current and former US officials say discussions revolve around adding 3,000 to 5,000 troops. Those forces are expected to be largely comprised of trainers to support Afghan forces, as well as air crews. Deliberations include giving more authority to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban fighters. Some US officials have questioned the benefit of sending more troops to Afghanistan because any politically palatable number would not be enough to turn the tide, much less create stability and security. To date, more than 2,300 Americans have been killed and more than 17,000 wounded since the war began in 2001. Any increase of several thousand troops would leave American forces in Afghanistan well below their 2011 peak of more than 100,000 troops. The Afghan government was assessed by the U.S. military to control or influence just 59.7 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts as of Feb. 20, a nearly 11 percentage-point decrease from the same time in 2016, according to data released by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. A truck bomb explosion in Kabul last month killed more than 150 people, making it the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a NATO-led coalition after ruling the country for five years. On Saturday, three US soldiers were killed when an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan. The broader regional US strategy for Afghanistan remains unclear. Mattis promised on Tuesday to brief lawmakers on a new war strategy by mid-July that is widely expected to call for thousands more US troops. Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, pressed Mattis on the deteriorating situation during the Tuesday hearing, saying the United States had an urgent need for "a change in strategy, and an increase in resources if we are to turn the situation around." "We recognise the need for urgency," Mattis said. Residents of Anil Nagar and Nabin Nagar being evacuated by State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) from flood affected areas in Guwahati on Wednesday. The district administration had ordered closure of government and private schools and colleges today. (Image: PTI) Medan: A forest ranger holds a pangolin confiscated from smugglers during a press conference in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. The Indonesian navy confiscated dozens of live and dead pangolins in a raid on a suspected smugglers' warehouse Tuesday as the anteaters were allegedly being prepared for shipment to Malaysia. (Image: AP) Seeking a nonexistent pattern I take issue with Jimmy Carters June 13 letter to the editor, Historical perspective, concerning the existence of a putative 400-year climate cycle. Regrettably, he is both uninformed and lacking in scientific perspective. To the best of my knowledge, nowhere in reputable scientific literature can any mention of such a cycle be found. The warming period in Europe around 1000 AD has been attributed to numerous causes, such as the lack of volcanic activity, which raises the albedo of the planet by reflecting more of the solar radiation. It also could have resulted from a significant increase in deforestation, which reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and also to changes in solar radiation. All these factors could well have played some role. During the 14th to the 18th century, the opposite occurred. The causes mentioned include a very significant increase in volcanic activity in the first couple of centuries. The buildup of sulfuric acid crystals in the upper atmosphere, (which takes decades to dissipate) is considered a major factor, too. Also the reduction in solar output due to the absence of solar sunspots has been cited, however the evidence for this is rather weak due to the lack of data. Volcanism, always a potent factor increased again significantly during the 19th century. Humans have the inclination to impose structure and regularity on what are essentially chaotic events, that is, developments of a deterministic although unpredictable nature. I believe it is better to admit to honest ignorance than to assert spurious certainty. You will at least be spurred to try to inform yourself, instead of getting pilloried as an ignoramus. President Trump is a case in point, as far as climate change is concerned. HANS VANDEGRAAF Lynchburg Special treatment? Thank you to The News & Advance for reporting on the speeding incident involving Rep. Bob Goodlatte in the June 8 edition of the newspaper. As an interested constituent, I researched this further and have some concerns. I called the Nelson County Sheriffs Office and learned that the issuing officer was Deputy D. Jones. Kudos for his courage and integrity! He could have charged Goodlatte with reckless driving as correctly reported. The charge was only speeding under Section 46.2-873. The Code of Virginia lists this violation as speeding in a school zone. He was written up as doing 69 mph in a school zone designated at 35 mph. Daniel Rutherford, newly elected commonwealths attorney and also a Republican, personally handled the case, according to his office. In my experiences, the commonwealths attorneys office does not normally prosecute speeding cases, much less the prosecutor himself. However, I accept that this was more than a normal violator case. A possible 200 percent error is certainly a defective calibration and rather unbelievable. What about Goodlattes perception of speed? That too seems defective to me. Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Erik Laub stated, Our office tried to treat him exactly the same way we would anyone else. Really? A plea deal from such a reckless violation to the least offense possible, a non-moving equipment defect charge. Rep. Goodlatte, a U.S. congressman and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has every right to a defense in court. But, why not man up and pay the speeding ticket, the same as anyone else? DONALD W. STOKES Forest A fox in the hen house? Thank God that Jerry Falwell Jr. is going to be on the White House education task force. The synergies between this White House and Liberty University will be sure to produce recommendations for the Department of Education that will make schools like Liberty much freer and less taxed. Because thats what we need in this country: more universities like Liberty. Yet another case of this White House putting people in charge of things that they hate and/or dont understand. Bravo, Covfefe! BRIAN LONG Lynchburg Relief for Bajan on the way Two days after Newsday highlighted his plight, the notes of evidence needed for the start of his appeal hearing were sent to the court of appeal. Responding to Newsdays email queries into Worrells peculiar situation, the Judiciarys communications department yesterday informed that the notes of evidence needed for the initiation of Worrells appeal hearing were sent to the court last Friday. An explanation was not given as to why the notes were not sent over the last four years despite several requests from Worrells attorney Tempu Nefartari-Moheni and from the chief justice himself. Worrell, however, was just happy to hear that hope was on the horizon. I feel really good, really good, man, said a jubilant Worrell to Newsday yesterday afternoon. To be stranded here year after year has been very hard. But give thanks for this and give thanks to you. I can finally give my family some good news. I miss them so much. Worrell, 41, of Half- Moon Fort, Barbados, was arrested, charged and granted bail pending appeal for possession of ten grammes of marijuana in 2013. But his appeal was not heard after four years of waiting because the notes of evidence needed for the appeal hearing were not sent from the Tunapuna Magistrates Court to the Court of Appeal. Worrell said he could have used illegal means to return to his family, but chose to remain in Trinidad to have his day in court. Get the news faster. Tap to install our app. Access Newser even faster. Click here to install our app on your desktop. X Years after being exonerated for the rape and murder of a 68-year-old woman in Nebraska, Debra Shelden catches herself starting to describe the crime scene. I dont remember what I did at the crime ... because I wasnt there, apparently. The Beatrice Six are a unique case in the history of American crime, and the New Yorker takes a long look at their harrowing experience. The six were convicted of raping and killing Helen Wilson in 1985 despite not matching blood and semen found at the scene. Even after a judge in 2009 found they were innocent "beyond all doubt," many of the six still have vivid memories of committing the crime. Some still don't seem convinced of their own innocence; they can feel the pillow they believe they used to smother Wilson and remember who else was in her apartment when they did it. Psychiatrist Eli Chesen says the Beatrice Six suffered Stockholm syndrome at the hands of a local psychiatrist named Wayne Price. A number of the Beatrice Six had been treated by Price before becoming suspects in the crime. They had histories of abuse, mental health issues, and more. We were all broken in one way, shape, or form," says one. A pig farmer-turned-sheriff's detective obsessed with the case started fingering people on the fringes of Nebraska society as guilty, and Price convinced the already suggestible suspects of that guilt, insisting their dreams were real memories of the crime. He was so successful that one of the Beatrice Six still claimed she was present for the murder in her pardon request. Read the unbelievable story of false memories and false convictions here. (Read more Longform stories.) In what the AP characterizes as a "surprising critique," sources say President Trump called the House health care bill "mean" during a lunch Tuesday with more than a dozen GOP senators. When the House passed the AHCA in May, Trump hosted a celebration at the White House and called the bill "incredibly well crafted," CNN reports. According to Politico, he's also called the House bill "terrific" in the past. Sources say Trump didn't specify what he now found "mean" about the AHCA, though he seemed to indicate he was happy the Senate was working on its own version, which he wants to be "more generous." During the lunch, Trump twice said the Senate needed to "add more money" to its bill, though the specifics of what he was asking were unclear. The president did make it clear he wants it to seem less like the Senate bill is punishing poor households. Aides say Trump doesn't really know what was in the AHCA but wants the news coverage of the Senate version to be more positive. (Read more health care reform stories.) Senators were accused of sexism and possible racism Tuesday after the only minority woman on the Senate Intelligence Committee was shut down by male colleagues during the questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, was reprimanded by GOP Sens. John McCain and Richard Burr for interrupting Sessions' answers while she was questioning him, NBC reports. Critics accused senators of having a double standard, noting that male senators before and after Harris interrupted Sessions without being told off for doing so. Less than a week ago, the same scene played out with McCain and Burr interrupting Harris's questioning of deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, CNN reports. Harris, the second black woman ever to serve in the Senate, is a former prosecutor who uses what the New York Times calls "a rapid-fire questioning pace more commonly seen in courtrooms." During Tuesday's questioning, Sessions complained that she was making him nervous. "I'm not able to be rushed this fast," he said. When Harris asked what policy allowed him to refuse to discuss his conversations with President Trump, she interrupted him when he started describing the principle instead of the policyand was cut off by McCain. After the hearing, Harris tweeted: "It was a simple question. Can Sessions point to the policy, in writing, that allows him to not answer a whole host of our questions today." She added: "The women of the United States Senate will not be silenced when seeking the truth." (Read more Kamala Harris stories.) Blue and white ribbons lined the street near Otto Warmbier's family home Tuesday night as the American student freed by North Korea arrived back in Cincinnati. The 22-year-old, who is believed to have been in a coma for more than a year, was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for urgent treatment after he arrived on a US military flight. A US official confirmed to Fox that Warmbier is a coma, but said he was unable to confirm Pyongyang's claim that he contracted botulism and took a sleeping pill before falling into a coma after his March 2016 trial, in which he was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for stealing a propaganda banner. The latest: Parents Cindy and Fred boarded the plane when it landed, the Washington Post reports. A few minutes later, Warmbier was carried out on a stretcher by medical personnel. He had a shaved head and a tube in his nose. Well-wishers outside the airport fence held "WELCOME HOME OTTO" signs. In Warmbier's hometown of Wyoming, just outside Cincinnati, residents say they are happy he is free and they are doing their best to support his family. "Everybody feels a sense of relief that he is coming back to the United States," resident Amy Mayer tells the AP. "I think we're very excited yet very prayerful about what is happening because we've heard he is in a coma." A doctor with the Cincinnati Health Department tells WLWT that it is very unlikely that botulism or sleeping pills caused the coma. "This is not consistent with what botulism causes in terms of symptoms. It may cause paralysis, but a coma means that you are no longer conscious," Dr. Steve Englander says. Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert says Warmbier's release has nothing to do with Dennis Rodman's latest trip to North Korea, CBS News reports. Ohio's Sen. Rob Portman released a statement condemning Warmbier's sentence as "unnecessary and appalling." "North Korea should be universally condemned for its abhorrent behavior," he said. Former ambassador and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson said he had spoken with Warmbier's parents, who were only informed of his condition a week ago. "We received a call from Cindy and Fred Warmbier early today to update us on Otto's condition," he said in a statement, per AFP. "In no uncertain terms, North Korea must explain the causes of his coma." White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Warmbier's release was "a big priority" for President Trump and he worked "very hard and very closely" with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the issue. (Read more North Korea stories.) The upside to former President Obama's landmark deal to normalize relations with Cuba is that the Cuban people have benefited, says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The downside, he says, is that they haven't benefited enough. While commending the increased commercial activity in Cuba, Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that "we have achieved very little" in regards to how the Cuban government treats its people, per the Wall Street Journal. To fix that, President Trump is expected to unveil an updated Cuba policy Friday that will "allow as much of this continued commercial and engagement activity to go on as possible" but also encourage Cuba to end human rights violations, Tillerson says, per the Guardian. An anonymous White House official tells the AP that the US embassy in Havana will remain open but that trade with Cuban companies with ties to the military will be outlawed. The Journal also reports on a possible tightening of travel restrictions since much of Cuba's tourism industry is controlled by its military. In this way, the US is "inadvertently or directly providing financial support to the regime," Tillerson says. At the same time, "political opponents continue to be imprisoned, dissidents continue to be jailed, women continue to be harassed." The US is also expected to request the release of prisoners and the return of US fugitives from Cuba. Numerous groups have penned letters in an attempt to sway policy, reports the Miami Herald. (Read more Cuba stories.) The suspect in a triple homicide in northern Ohio is actually believed to have killed a total of five people in a 24-hour period. After allegedly killing a mother and her two daughters in a North Royalton home, police believe 45-year-old George Brinkman Jr. murdered a Lake Township couple he'd been house-sitting for, per the Canton Repository. Stark County Sheriff George Maier says Brinkman's vehicle was seen in the driveway of Rogell and Roberta John's home after they returned from a vacation on Sunday. The next day around 4pm, Rogell John's son called 911 to report that he'd found his father, 71, and stepmother, 64, dead under blankets in their bedroom, their luggage "still by the stairs." Police say they'd been shot to death. Their deaths followed those of Suzanne Taylor, 45, and her daughters Taylor Pifer, 21, and Kylie Pifer, 18, who were found dead in bed on Sunday, though police believe they died Saturday. It isn't clear how her daughters died, but Taylor's throat had been cut, reports Fox 8. Relatives tell the station that Taylor and Brinkman were longtime friends who went to high school together. Brinkman was taken into custody for the triple homicide Tuesday after a standoff with police. Before his arrest, he briefly exchanged Facebook messages with a reporter, denying any involvement in the women's murders, per Cleveland.com. Stark County authorities later described Brinkman as a former boyfriend of the Johns' daughter who worked for a family business. (Read more murder stories.) Best-selling author Roxane Gay gave a podcast interview to Australian website Mamamia that went well enough, but the aftermath of the sit-down has not been so amicable. The description for the podcast, which focused on Gay's new memoir Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, mentioned Gay's "super-morbidly obese" frame and wondered whether she would "fit into the office lift" and whether there would be "a comfortable chair that will accommodate her," among other things. Mamamia founder Mia Freedman also published an article on the website, since removed but available via archive, detailing the steps she says needed to be taken to accommodate Gay, whose size, per Freedman, can be a "logistical nightmare" for the author. Gay responded with outrage, tweeting Monday that her treatment by the website was "cruel and humiliating." "'Can she fit into the lift?' Shame on you," Gay tweeted. The criticism continued throughout the week; she added in a tweet Tuesday, for example, that "I have never once in my life worried about fitting into an elevator nor have I made such a request." She gave a statement to the New York Times Tuesday mentioning that at least now the world can see "what fat-phobia looks like." On Wednesday, Freedman apologized in a statement on her website, noting, "I am beyond mortified, horrified and ashamed that I could have, in any way contributed to Roxane Gay feeling anything other than fierce, brilliant and beautiful." Mamamia also issued an official statement explaining that the podcast intro and description had been updated after Gay's complaints, but also pointing out that "many requests" were made by Gay's publishers related to "logistics." (Read more Roxane Gay stories.) Lawrence John Ripple told police he robbed a Kansas City bank in September to get out of living with his wife. During sentencing Tuesday, he got the very opposite of his wish. In a rare move, a federal judge sentenced 71-year-old Ripple, who pleaded guilty to bank robbery in January, to six months of home confinement. A prosecutor and public defender had both asked for leniency, noting Ripple was suffering from undiagnosed depression at the time of the robbery, reports the Kansas City Star. After a fight with his wife, Ripple had walked into the Bank of Labor, handed a teller a note claiming he had a gun, received roughly $3,000, and then waited for police. When police arrived, Ripple confessed, handed back the money, and was found to have nothing more on his person than a hairbrush and nail clippers, per the Star and Topeka Capital Journal. He later told police he'd decided he'd rather be in prison than at home with his wife. A public defender described the robbery as a "cry for help," and said Ripple is now remorseful and taking medication for depression. "I feel great now," Ripple said in court. "I feel like my old self." Ripple, who could've faced 37 months in prison, was also sentenced to three years of supervised probation, 50 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $227 to the bank and $100 to a crime victim fund. (Read more bank robbery stories.) Australia has agreed to pay $52 million to 1,900 refugees and asylum seekers kept in one of its heavily criticized offshore detention centers, which could lead to more settlements with detainees from other camps, reports CNN. If approved by a court, the settlement will cover $20 million in legal fees for those detained on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island from 2012 to 2016, who claimed they suffered physical and sexual abuse, psychological harm, inadequate medical treatment, and other trauma, report ABC Australia and the Guardian. The rest will be split depending on a detainee's experience. The lead plaintiff in the case, a 35-year-old Christian man who fled religious persecution in Iran, described his 11 months on the island as "hell," noting, "I was in pain every minute of every day and I cried every night until I had nothing left." "Most were fleeing religious persecution and violence and came to Australia seeking protection, only to be denied their basic human rights," a plaintiffs' lawyer adds. An Australian politician called the settlement "a stunning admission of the barbaric conditions in the detention center" and "unambiguous proof of the need to shut down all offshore processing immediately." But Australia's immigration minister says the government did not admit liability and "strongly refutes and denies the claims made in these proceedings." After Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court found the Manus Island camp to be "illegal and unconstitutional" last year, Australia announced it would be closed. However, no closure date has been given. More than 800 men remained at the camp as of April. (A former judge has offered to move there.) Two inmates who killed a pair of corrections officers to escape a prison transport bus in Georgia carjacked a vehicle Tuesday and drove 25 miles north to the town of Madison where they broke into a home, authorities say. They changed clothes and were reportedly spotted soon after at a nearby Family Dollar store, reports the AP. But with no more recent sighting, the pair could be just about anywhere by now, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills tells WSB-TV. Hoping for a quick resolution, multiple law enforcement agencies have provided a $70,000 reward for information leading to the capture of 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose, whom Sills says are armed and "dangerous beyond description." Authorities say Rowe and Dubose somehow escaped a locked compartment in the bus around 6:45am Tuesday as 33 inmates were being moved between prisons. "I can't tell you how the gate got open," says Sills, who notes the bus was equipped with a camera. "It should have been locked. It may have been locked. I have no idea." The men overpowered Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue, stole their weapons, and "brutally murdered" both, Sills says, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "I have their blood on my shoes." Rowe began serving life without parole in 2002, while Dubose, who has highly noticeable facial tattoos, began a 20-year sentence in 2015. They were last seen driving a green Honda Civic, license plate RBJ 6601. Sills is urging anyone with information to call 911. "My biggest worry is they're going to kill somebody else," he says. (Read more escaped criminal stories.) A convoluted cold case that has fascinated France for decades may have taken a big step toward resolution. Authorities say three family members have been detained for questioning in the 32-year-old murder of 4-year-old Gregory Villemin. Gregory's body was found tied up in the Vologne River in eastern France in October of 1984, and from the start, the case was full of twists. Hours before Gregory was found dead, the boy's uncle said he'd received a call from a person claiming to be his kidnapper, reports the BBC. A day later, Gregory's parents said they received a letter reading, "Your son is dead, I have been avenged." A month after that, Bernard Laroche, a cousin of Gregory's dad, was arrested when his sister-in-law told police she'd seen Lorache with Gregory on the banks of the Vologne, reports Le Parisien. When the 15-year-old retracted her statement months later, Laroche was released. But Gregory's father, Jean-Marie Villemin, then killed Laroche. While Villemin was in jail, his wife, Christine Villemin, was imprisoned for Gregory's killing after cords similar to those used to tie him up were found in the family home, but she, too, was later cleared, per the Local in a 2013 story. On Wednesday, however, authorities announced they'd detained three people on suspicion of complicity in the murder, failing to report a crime, and failing to helping a person at risk. All three are members of the Villemin family, per Le Parisien and Le Monde. The BBC describes them only as a couple in their 70s, along with a woman. Gregory's grandmother was reportedly brought in as a witness. (This 47-year-old cold case may be solved.) An actor and model who dated two of the Rolling Stones (and is rumored to have had an affair with a third) died Tuesday in a hospital in England, the New York Times reports. Anita Pallenberg was 73; a cause of death was not given. Pallenberg was perhaps best known for her connection to the Rolling Stonesshe happily described herself as a hanger-onfor whom she served as a muse. According to the Guardian, Pallenberg got backstage at her first Stones concert in 1965. She supplied guitarist Brian Jones with marijuana and hash and soon started a relationship with him. After Jones reportedly physically abused her, Pallenberg moved on to Keith Richards, with whom she would have three children prior to their split in 1980. Richards has said he was attracted to Pallenberg's artistic sensibility and strength. "I like a high-spirited woman," the Hollywood Reporter quotes from Richards' memoir. "And with Anita, you knew you were taking on a valkyrieshe who decides who dies in battle." Pallenberg sang backing vocals on "Sympathy for the Devil," and Mick Jagger is said to have remixed parts of Beggars Banquet on her input. She starred in the film Performance with Jagger in 1970 while denying the two were having an affair. She also memorably appeared as the Black Queen in Barbarella. Pallenberg kicked a heroin addiction and earned a four-year degree in fashion. She once said a memoir about her life would be too "salacious." (Read more obituary stories.) Sorry! This content is not available in your region Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low near 10F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 50%.. Tonight Snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low near 10F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 50%. New Delhi: Delhi Police has filed a case against unknown suspects after complaint was made by a woman squadron leader, who was driving home in southwest Delhi. An FIR has been filed for outraging the modesty of a woman and wrongful restraint. The lady officer has alleged that she had an argument at a traffic signal with five men because of overtaking on the wrong way. ALSO READ: Gurugram: Woman, daughter raped, accused arrested She further said that the five men were inebriated and harassed her at the traffic signal. Delhi police claims to have identified a Haryana registration Honda City car with the help of the CCTV footage. READ: Woman allegedly gangraped in an auto rickshaw, 9 month old killed New Delhi: Delhi University will announce its first cut-off list on June 23 evening, after it was deferred for three days from June 20. Though the varsity had announced six cut-off lists earlier, as of now dates for five have been announced, according to a release. After the announcement of first cut-off on June 23 evening, admissions for it would begin the next day, the DU registrar said in a release. The second, third, fourth and fifth cut-offs will be announced on July 1, 7, 13 and 18 respectively. Read more: DU admissions 2017: St Stephens College releases first cut-off list The timing for documents verification and approval for admissions will be between 9:30 am and 1:30 pm for morning colleges and 4 pm to 7 pm for evening colleges. "After approval of admissions, the applicant has to log on to undergraduate admission portal to make online admission fee payment which can be done till noon of the next day of the given admission list deadline", said the release. New Delhi: The Delhi Universitys St Stephens College has released its first cut-off for admission to its undergraduate courses on Wednesday. Students seeking admission to Delhi university can check the cut-off list by going to the official website. The St Stephens College was suppose to release the cut-off on Tuesday morning but after the Delhi University extended the deadline, the college said it would release the cut-off at midnight on Tuesday. However, St Stephens College released its first cut off on Wednesday. Last year, the highest cut-off at the college was 99% (for commerce students) for admission to BA (Honours) English. Check out cut-off list here: Kolkata: The wetlands of Kolkata, which are gradually shrinking in size, have come under the focus of a study by a joint team of the IIT-Kharagpur and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The study will look into the increasing presence of non bio degradable chemicals in the water of the wetlands, an IIT-KGP spokesperson said on Tuesday. "Our joint study will deliberate on what should be the role of urban planners in a metropolitan city like Kolkata,"the spokesperson said. At a workshop, organised by IIT-KGP and IUP recently,experts said that the East Kolkata Wetlands, a key component of Kolkata's waste-management resilience, was facing a crisis of existence. The joint study will look at "how the East Kolkata Wetlands can be effectively used as resources for urban life,"the spokesperson said. Regional Chair for South-Asia Commission on Ecosystem Management, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Dr Dhrubajyoti Ghosh told the workshop that the wetlands had been declared recently as one among the most outstanding wetlands in the world for its ability to treat waste water. "We need to raise awareness among Kolkatans about this issue," he said. West Bengal environment minister and chairperson of the East Kolkata Wetlands Development Authority SovanChatterjee said during Environment day function on June 5 that the government was committed to maintaining "the crucialbalance in ecology". The East Calcutta Wetlands came under Ramsar site under Ramsar Convention on August 19 2002, Chatterjee informed. Ramsar sites (related to wetland) comprises wetlands deemed to be of "international importance" under the Ramsar Convention. According to WWF-India, wetlands are one of the most threatened of all ecosystems in India. New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that home ministry is constantly monitoring the heavy flood situations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and other states for necessary help. The home ministry is constantly monitoring the heavy flood situations in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and other states for necessary help, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters here. The minister said the home ministry control room is monitoring the severe landslides and floods in the north-eastern states round the clock. Eight people were killed and six went missing in floods triggered by heavy rainfall in Mizoram. Flash floods wrecked havoc at Tlabung in Mizorams Lunglei district, while the National Highway 54, which links the state with Assam, was cut off at different places due to landslides. Guwahati witnessed massive water-logging due to incessant rains, while landslides occurred at three places in the state capital. Also read: Sri Lanka floods: Indian Navy teams join rescue ops, toll reaches 193 Also read: Sri Lanka floods: Death toll rises to 146, 112 still missing; rescue operations on For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Pakistani troops on Wednesday initiated indiscriminate firing along LoC in Bhimber Gali sector between 05:00 am to 05:40 am. The Pakistani troops fired small arms, automatics and 82 mm mortars. The Indian Army retaliated strongly to the unprovoked firing. The Pakistani troops also violated ceasefire in Nowshera sector. The Indian Army has retaliated and firing was on in the region. There have been nine ceasefire violations in the past four days and total 12 along the LoC and IB in Jammu region since January one in which one civilian died and seven others were injured. "Pakistan Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics RPG and recoilless rifles from 0930 hours inNaushera sector along the Line of Control in Rajouri district on Wednesday", Defence Spokesman Lt. Col. Manish Mehta said. "The Indian Army posts are retaliating strongly and effectively and the firing is presently on," he said. The Indian Army posts have responded strongly and effectively. ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 Earlier, Pakistan carried out indiscriminate firing from0500 hours to 0545 hours in Bhimbher Gali sector along theLoC, he said. There were three ceasefire violations on June 12. Also Read | J-K: Army kills four Pakistani infiltrators in Kupwara; operation underway For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mandsaur/Bhopal: Seeking to douse the smouldering embers of the farmers unrest, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday visited Mandsaur where six people were killed in police action, and presented Rs 1 crore to the kin of three of the deceased. In a gesture loaded with symbolism, Chouhan visited the families of the slain farmers with his wife Sadhna, and promised action against those responsible for their bereavement. Meanwhile, Congress heavyweight from Madhya Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was on Tuesday detained and prevented from visiting Mandsaur, where prohibitory orders barring assembly of more than four people is in force, began a 72-hour Satyagraha in Bhopal as a mark of solidarity with farmers. Chouhan, who has been facing a firestorm of political protests following the killing of farmers, reached Mandsaur on a special plane and headed straight to Badwan village to give a healing touch to the family of Ghanshyam Dhakad. The state government had on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore for the families of each of the six deceased killed during the peasants stir. Madhya Pradesh has seen a phenomenal growth in agriculture under Chouhan, clocking an average of 13.9 per cent over the five-year period 2010-15. However, farmer suicides have also gone up because of rural indebtedness. Also read: Madhya Pradesh farmers protest: Shivraj Singh Chouhan appeals farmers to end protests, says will fast to bring peace in state Chouhan later visited Lodh village and consoled the family members of another deceased farmer Satyanarayan. He then went to Nayakheda in neighbouring Neemuch district to meet the family of Chainram Patidar. On the demand of Chainrams father Ganpat, Chouhan announced a tarred road to be laid from Kuchlod to Nayakheda, a community centre in the village and a memorial to the deceased farmer. He handed over the family members of the slain farmers documents relating to the compensation amount transferred to their accounts online. The chief minister also visited Piplyamandi and took stock of the properties burnt during the violence. He spoke to traders and assured them of compensation for destruction of their properties during the agitation. Later, at Barkheda Panth, Chouhan met the kin of the deceased farmer Abhishek Patidar and assured his mother Rukabai that action would be taken against those responsible for the death of her son. He also visited Chillod Piplia to meet the family of Kanhaiyalal, another victim of police firing. Chouhan promised Kanhaiyalals widow Sumitra Bai that a job would be given to their daughter. Chouhan assured Kanhailyalals father Dhurilal Patidar of action against policemen who were allegedly threatening villagers after the firing incident. Also read: MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan: I have always tried doing a lot for farmers, and their problem is ours The chief minister will stay in Mandsaur overnight, officials said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants demanding a loan waiver and remunerative prices for their produce turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village, also in Mandsaur, allegedly after being beaten up by police. Meanwhile, Scindia, Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, began a 72-hour Satyagraha at T T Nagars Dussehra Maidan in Bhopal this afternoon. The scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, garlanded the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on stage before sitting on satyagraha. Pictures of six farmers - five of them killed in police firingwere also put up on the stage. Scindia and his supporters were yesterday detained in Ratlam while on way to Mandsaur, amid dramatic scenes. He had accused the states BJP government of being dictatorial and vowed to fight for the cause of the farmers. The farmers protests, which began on June 1 over various demands, including loan waiver and better prices for their produce, took a violent turn on June 6, when five of them were killed in police firing at Mandsaur. The protests soon spread to the other districts of western Madhya Pradesh, including Neemuch, Dhar, Ratlam and Jhabua. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited Mandsaur on Wednesday and met the family members of farmers killed in police firing. The chief minister handedover a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the family of one of them. The state government on Tuesday sanctioned financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of the six farmers killed during the violent stir by peasants in Mandsaur. The aid was sanctioned from the chief minister's discretionary fund and it would be given by the Mandsaurcollector through e-payment facility, a public relations official earlier said. On June 6, five farmers were killed as the agitation by peasants turned violent in Mandsaur. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Baldwin village of Mandsaur district. Locals on June 9 had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen. The chief minister had already announced compensation of Rs one crore to the kin of deceased in the incident and had observed fast for peace in the state. He had also announced several initiatives for the welfare of farmers. On Tuesday, the Madhya Pradesh government had appointed a single-member commission to inquire into the police firing incident in Mandsaur, in which five persons were killed on June 6. Retired High Court judge Justice J K Jain would chair this Commission of Inquiry. The commission headquarters will be at Indore and it will submit its report in three months, a state public relations department official had said. #TopStory: MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan to visit Madhya Pradesh's #Mandsaur today, to meet families of farmers killed in police firing. pic.twitter.com/Zm7vXvpWdF ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 The commission will find out, among other things, the circumstances under which the firing incident took place and whether the force used by the police was reasonable under prevailing circumstances or not, and if not, who was responsible for this. The points of the commissions inquiry also include whether the district and police authorities had taken timely and appropriate steps during the prevailing circumstances and the incident. The commission will also suggest ways to prevent such incidents in the future, the official said. The farmers protest in Madhya Pradesh, which began on June 1, took a violent turn on June 6, when five persons were killed in the police firing at Mandsaur. Also Read | MP farmers protest | Shivraj Singh Chouhan at fast: We will help our farmer brothers to earn better profits Subsequently, the farmers protest had witnessed bandh and arson as the agitation spread to other districts of western Madhya Pradesh including Neemuch, Dhar, Ratlam and Jhabua. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A proposal to introduce a Bill in Parliament for setting up a Resolution Corporation to deal with bankruptcy in banks, insurance companies and financial entities received Cabinet go-ahead on Wednesday. The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017, which aims to instill discipline in financial service providers in the event of a financial crisis by limiting the use of public money to bail out distressed entities, was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official statement said. The proposed Bill will provide for a comprehensive resolution framework to handle any bankruptcy situation in banks, insurers and financial sector entities. According to the statement, the Bill when enacted will pave the way for setting up of the Resolution Corporation. It would also lead to repeal or amendment of resolution-related provisions in sectoral Acts as listed in Schedules of the Bill. It will also result in the repealing of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961, to transfer the deposit insurance powers and responsibilities to the Resolution Corporation, it said. Also Read: Reserve Bank of Indias action on NPA resolution expected soon, says FM Arun Jaitley The Resolution Corporation would ensure the stability and resilience of the financial system, protecting the consumers of covered obligations up to a reasonable limit and public funds to the extent possible. The government has recently enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, for the insolvency resolution of non-financial entities. The proposed Bill complements the Code by providing a resolution framework for the financial sector. Once implemented, this Bill together with the Code will provide a comprehensive resolution framework for the economy. It seeks to give comfort to consumers of financial service providers during any financial distress. It would help in maintaining financial stability in the economy by ensuring adequate preventive measures while at the same time providing necessary instruments for dealing with a post-crisis situation. Also Read: Jaitley discusses NPA scenario with top bankers, takes stock of banks' finances The Bill aims to strengthen and streamline the current framework of deposit insurance for the benefit of a number of retail depositors. Further, this Bill seeks to cut down the time and costs involved in resolving the problem of the distressed entities. Modi govt clears Bill to deal with crisis in banks, insurers New Delhi: A proposal to introduce a Bill in Parliament for setting up a Resolution Corporation to deal with bankruptcy in banks, insurance companies and financial entities received Cabinet go-ahead on Wednesday. The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017, which aims to instil discipline in financial service providers in the event of a financial crisis by limiting the use of public money to bail out distressed entities, was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, an official statement said. The proposed Bill will provide for a comprehensive resolution framework to handle any bankruptcy situation in banks, insurers and financial sector entities. According to the statement, the Bill when enacted will pave the way for setting up of the Resolution Corporation. It would also lead to repeal or amendment of resolution-related provisions in sectoral Acts as listed in Schedules of the Bill. It will also result in the repealing of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961, to transfer the deposit insurance powers and responsibilities to the Resolution Corporation, it said. The Resolution Corporation would ensure the stability and resilience of the financial system, protecting the consumers of covered obligations up to a reasonable limit and public funds to the extent possible. The government has recently enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, for the insolvency resolution of non-financial entities. The proposed Bill complements the Code by providing a resolution framework for the financial sector. Once implemented, this Bill together with the Code will provide a comprehensive resolution framework for the economy. It seeks to give comfort to consumers of financial service providers during any financial distress. It would help in maintaining financial stability in the economy by ensuring adequate preventive measures while at the same time providing necessary instruments for dealing with a post-crisis situation. The Bill aims to strengthen and streamline the current framework of deposit insurance for the benefit of a number of retail depositors. Further, this Bill seeks to cut down the time and costs involved in resolving the problem of the distressed entities. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: With the commencement of presidential election, the BJP's electoral victory in the recent assembly polls is set to help its nominee get elected as the next president of India. The BJP has initiated moves to reach out to the Opposition parties on selecting a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential poll. But the party's victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have ensured that its share in the electoral college, which would elect the next president, goes up significantly. The term of President Pranab Mukherjee is coming to an end on July 24 and the nomination process for the July 17 poll began on Wednesday. Read more: Prez poll: PM Modi invites Uddhav Thackeray for dinner to discuss strategy The electoral college which elects the president through the system of proportional representation comprises elected MPs and members of state legislative assemblies -- a total of 4,896 voters including 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs. While 233 are elected members of the Rajya Sabha, 543 are from the Lok Sabha. While the Lok Sabha Speaker, an elected member, can vote, two nominated members from the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha and 12 nominated MPs in the Rajya Sabha cannot. The value of an MLA's vote depends on the size of the state he or she represents. But the value of the vote of an MP is the same and does not vary. The total value of the electoral college is 10,98,882. Before the assembly polls, the NDA was short of 75,076 votes in terms of value. But after BJP's astounding performance in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, the gap will narrow down to 20,000 votes, an official in the Election Commission explained. If it is able to get the support of parties like AIADMK with 134 MLAs and BJD with 117 MLAs, it can see the person of its choice in the Rashtrapati Bhawan easily. Read more: Opposition leaders meet to discuss Presidential election strategy In the 243-member Rajya Sabha, the BJP as of now has 56 members, while the Congress with 59 is the single largest party. With wins in assembly polls, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha too next year and the NDA's tally would be close to 100. It would, however, still be short of a majority in the upper house. Mayawati's BSP, which finished a poor third in Uttar Pradesh with a tally of just 19 seats, will not be in a position to send her to the Rajya Sabha again when her current term ends next year. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Opposition leaders met to chalk out their presidential poll strategy on Wednesday as the process started for the filing of nominations for the July 17 election. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that no names were discussed in the meeting. After the meeting Ghulam Nabi Azad said the the 10-member opposition panel would meet again to decide on a suitable presidential nominee. The sub-group formed for this purpose met in the chambers of Azad, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. This is the first meeting of the sub-group since its formation a few days ago. Sources said the leaders would discuss names, but await a government initiative in this regard. A three-member government panel comprising senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu is slated to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi on this issue tomorrow. A united opposition, after several rounds of parleys between leaders of various parties, is hoping to zero in on a mutually acceptable presidential candidate with the ruling dispensation. If that does not happen, it is expected to put up a united candidate against the official NDA nominee. Also read: Presidential election: Assembly poll wins set to help BJP nominee Also read: President election: PM Modi invites Uddhav Thackeray for dinner to discuss strategy For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Chennai: DMK MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin were on Thursday detained by the police as they blocked roads outside the state secretariat premises following their eviction from Tamil Nadu Assembly. The Tamil Nadu Assembly witnessed noisy scenes leading to en masse eviction of opposition DMK members after they tried to raise the issue of alleged horse trading of AIADMK MLAs ahead of the February 18 trust vote sought by Chief Minister K Palaniswami. Speaker P Dhanapal ruled that the issue was sub-judice and cannot be discussed and ordered the eviction of the DMK MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin, as they insisted on raising it. Earlier, Dhanapal pointed out that the issue was sub-judice as DMKs petition challenging the trust vote, won by the Palaniswami Ministry, was pending in the Madras High Court. He also referred to the DMK yesterday making an urgent mention about the sting operation by a TV channel which had aired a video footage, purportedly showing an AIADMK MLA making some claims of pay-offs to ruling party MLAs ahead of the trust vote. ALSO READ | Nitish Kumar believes MK Stalin will head Tamil Nadu's next government However, the DMK members remained on their feet and raised slogans in support of their demand for a discussion on the issue. The Speaker stuck to his stand that the issue cannot be raised and cited precedents from 2011 when similar matters were not allowed on the ground of sub-judice. He also said that the MLA S S Saravanan of Madurai South and a member of the OPS camp have clarified on the matter. ALSO READ | MK Stalin questions PM Modis decision to meet OPS over farmers in Delhi For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray gave a stern warning to ally BJP on Tuesday while claiming that his party would take a "big step" if the loan waiver for farmers announced by the Maharashtra government is not implemented by July 2017. Terming the announcement of a complete loan waiver as a victory of farmers' unity, he said, "Our demand is very clear. We want their loans to be written off completely," he said. Speaking to reporters at Mumbai, after meeting farmers from across the state, including Puntamba village, Uddhav said, "I would like to thank the farmers. We have heard of a green revolution but the farmers of Maharashtra have shown thatthose who can bring about a green revolution can also cause arevolution." "I don't believe in the word 'karz mafi' it should becalled as 'karz mukti'. 'Mafi' is given to those who have committed a crime. Farmers have not committed any crime but have brought about a revolution," the Sena chief said. ALSO READ: BJP ally Shiv Sena criticises Chouhan for his indefinite fast Uddhav said, "I congratulate the Maharashtra government. This is a moment to be celebrated, but most importantly, fast implementation of the announcement is necessary." "Loan waiver has been announced now. We will be patient enough to wait now and give the government time until July to implement its announcement. If they do not do so, a big step will be taken next month," he said. Patient enough to wait&give them(govt) time to implement(loan waiver) till July. If they unable to do it, big step can be taken: U Thackeray pic.twitter.com/kStmpl2tp3 ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 Meanwhile, a farmer who was present at the event saidthey met the Sena president to thank him for his support to their stir. "His support forced the government to give us a loan waiver. We give full credit to Uddhav ji and the Shiv Sena," he said. READ: Maharashtra will witness political earthquake next month, says Raut Earlier in the day, the Shiv Sena had said the loan waiver decision was due to its constant "throttling" of the Maharashtra government and the party has opted to remain in power to shake the chair of "lazy" persons. Farmers in Maharashtra, who had been on a war path from June 1 to press for their various demands, had on June 11 called off their stir after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced loan waiver for them. With PTI inputs For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Meerut: A senior Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh has been sacked from all party positions for repeatedly calling Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Pappu in a message on WhatsApp, reports said on Wednesday. According to a report in Times of India, the social message massage was meant to praise Rahul Gandhi for his recent attempt to visit Mandsaur following the death of farmers in police firing during protests. Rahuls critics have been using Papu term when mocking him, especially on social media. Vinay Pradhan, Congress Meerut district president, allegedly referred Rahul as Pappu in a message sent on a WhatsApp group titled 'Indian National Congress', the report said. The message sought to laud Rahul for "putting the interest of the nation before his own". Ramkrishna Dwivedi, chairman of the disciplinary committee in Congress on Monday issued a letter announcing Pradhans removal from all party posts for the "provocative" message. "This is an attempt to malign the party leadership. Other parties appear to be involved in this. It is also an effort to divert attention from the main issues, like the plight of farmers in Madhya Pradesh," he said in the letter, adding, "Vinay Pradhan is guilty of violating the constitution of Congress party." ALSO READ | Rahul Gandhi reprimands Sandeep Dikshit for comment against Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat Pradhan clarified that the message was not sent by him. "This is an effort by some people in the party to malign me. I have not sent any such message. The screenshots being circulated have been photoshopped. I respect Rahul Gandhiji and would never use such language for him. The party should have at least heard me out before removing me from all posts. I am seeking an appointment with him and will explain the matter to him," he said. ALSO READ | After facing detention, Rahul Gandhi allowed to meet families of farmers killed in Mandsaur For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, has detected cool dust around the black holes that are energetic active. The researchers at the University of Texas San Antonio have observed that the dust surrounding these black holes is much more compact than previously thought. Most of the massive galaxies are home to a supermassive black hole which exists at the centre. Many of these black holes are relatively inactive and quiet. One of the examples is the black hole which is present at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. However, there are some supermassive black holes that emit huge amounts of energy because they consume significant amounts of material that are being drawn into them. Such active black holes are known as active galactic nuclei. As per previous studies, all the active black holes or active galactic nuclei have a donut-shaped structure called a torus and surrounds the supermassive black hole. The team used the instrument called the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope, FORCAST to study the infrared emissions found around 11 supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei located at distances of 100 million light years and more. They also determined the size, opacity and distribution of dust in each torus. The study has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The team has said in the report that the tori are 30 per cent smaller than predicted. It has also said that the peak infrared emission is at even longer infrared wavelengths than previously thought. The implication is that the dust obscuring the central black hole is more compact that previously thought. Also, there are indications that most of the energy radiated by active galactic nuclei is at wavelengths that are not observable from the ground as the water vapour in Earths atmosphere absorbs the energy. Flying above 99 per cent of the Earths water vapour, SOFIA allows the team to characterize the properties of the torus-shaped dust structures at far-infrared wavelengths. "Using SOFIA, we were able to obtain the most spatially detailed observations possible at these wavelengths, allowing us to make new discoveries on the characterization of active galactic nuclei dust tori," said Lindsay Fuller, graduate student at the University of Texas San Antonio and lead author of the published paper. ALSO READ | Two black holes merge to become one, give food to LIGO to detect ripples predicted by Albert Einstein Future observations are necessary to determine whether or not all of the observed emission originates with the tori, or if there is some other component adding to the total emission of the active galactic nuclei. "Next, our goal will be to use SOFIA to observe a larger sample of active galactic nuclei, and at longer wavelengths. That will allow us to put tighter constraints on the physical structure of the dusty environment surrounding the active galactic nuclei," Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez, principal investigator of this project and Universities Space Research Association staff scientist at the SOFIA Science Center said. ALSO READ | Massive black hole spotted binging on its remains for a decade For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Based on the data revealed by NASAs Mars Curiosity rover, scientists have claimed that the Gale Crater on Mars had the right physical and chemical conditions for life for 700 million years. They have also claimed that during that period, it also had a lake that could have hosted a wide variety of microbial life. The new findings have found space in the journal Science. The report shows a long-lasting Martian environment having the potential to host a wide variety of living things during that period. It helps to broaden our understanding of what it meant to be a habitable environment on Mars, 312 billion years ago, said lead author Joel Hurowitz, a geochemist at Stony Brook University. The NASA Mars Curiosity rover reached Gale Crater in 2012 and since then it has drilled, X-rayed and laser-blasted a variety of rocks in order to find out whether Mars could have conditions to support life. NASA Mars Curiosity rover with its instruments was on a mission to drive to Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-high mound in the middle of the crater. It would climb its slopes, studying each sedimentary layer of rock like a chapter in the geologic history of Mars. Curiosity had also discovered evidence of water on Mars as well as the right chemical ingredients required for life. According to recent studies, Gale Crater was once home to a series of lakes that may have risen and fallen over time. Scientists have now brought together the evidence from several spots that fall to and up Mount Sharp and include six drilled rock samples pulled from very different ancient environments. As a result, a wealth of life supporting ingredients such as carbon compounds, nitrogen, and phosphate minerals, as well as iron and sulfur minerals in different redox states were found. Our analysis of those rocks indicates that gradients in lakewater oxidation state were present in the primary lacustrine environment, the study authors wrote. Taken together, these results provide compelling evidence that the physical, chemical and energetic conditions necessary to establish a habitable environment were present on Mars between 3.8 and 3.1 (billion years ago). Also, a strange pattern in a stretch of layered rock was seen. Some regions had lots of coarse sediment being rapidly dumped, making the shallows where water flowing into the lake from a stream or river would have dropped much of its heavy material. Also some areas had much finer-grained sediment been layered on more gradually closer to the middle of the lake, and farther away from the river mouth. It appears that the minerals present in the shallower parts of the lake were more exposed to oxygen in contrast to the minerals in the deeper areas. Apparently, the waters in Gale Craters lake had differentiated into an oxygen-rich layer near the surface, and an oxygen-poor layer in its depths. Thats quite similar to like lakes on Earth, which differentiate in the same way. ALSO READ | NASA Curiosity rover finds wide diversity of minerals in rock samples from Mars Its that relationship between the mineralogy and the thickness of the sediment layers that allows us to connect the dots, said study co-author Ashwin Vasavada, the missions project scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Hurowitz said this complex lake could have lasted from hundreds of thousands of years to 10 million years. Like the lakes on Earth, the one in Gale Crater could have hosted a variety of microorganisms. ALSO READ | NASA Curiosity Rover mission: Ancient lake on Mars may have offered suitable environment to microbial life For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: 5 people were killed whereas 4 others were wounded in a suicide bombing that targeted Taliban splinter-group in Gereshk. The suicide car bomber targeted members of Taliban splinter group run by Mullah Rasoul in Gereshk district, Helmand, Afghanistan. Earlier this month, a deadly suicide truck bomb attack in Kabuls diplomatic quarter had killed nearly 90 people apart from wounding more than 300 hundreds. Afghanistans intelligence agency had blamed the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network with direct help from Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). The Talibancurrently in the midst of their annual spring offensivedenied they were involved, while strongly condemning the blast. The insurgent group rarely claims responsibility for attacks that kill large numbers of civilians. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for several recent bombings in the Afghan capital, including a powerful blast targeting a NATO convoy that killed eight people earlier this year. ALSO READ: Kabul blast: Afghanistan blames Haqqani Network and Pakistan's ISI Amnesty International had said the bombing displayed that the conflict in Afghanistan is dangerously widening in a way that should alarm the international community. Germany was forced to postpone a scheduled deportation flight of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers in the wake of the attack. Afghan troops are backed by US and NATO forces, and the White House is considering sending thousands more soldiers to break the deadlock in the battle against the Taliban. READ: Kabul: Taliban attack at Indian guesthouse during peace talks US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 now, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies. They mainly serve in an advisory capacitya far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Dhaka: Bangladesh on Wednesday stepped up search and rescue operations as the death toll in one of the worst landslides to hit the country triggered by torrential rains climbed to 146, with most of the causalities reported from a remote hill district close to the Indian border. The southeastern Rangmathi hill district, which borders Mizoram and Tripura, was the worst hit with at least 20 landslides hitting it. The district alone saw 105 deaths, including four army personnel who were engaged in rescue operations. Bandarban and Chittagong were the other two affected districts. According to the officials, the death toll will rise further as many are still missing under tonnes of debris in southeastern hills. Though officials confirmed only 129 deaths but media reports put the toll as high as 146 in nearly three days of torrential rains due to a depression in the Bay of Bengal which have triggered a series of landslides since Monday in the three districts. At least 105 people were reported dead in Rangamati alone. Several army officers and soldiers are among the victims, Dhaka Tribune reported. According to an official at the Disaster Management Ministry some 4,000 people were moved to 18 government shelters as the landslides ravaged their homes and were exposed to the danger of getting buried in fresh mudslides. Officials feared that the death toll could rise as rescuers find it difficult to reach remote areas where telephone and transport links have remained cut. Local people said a landslide pushed 15 army men down to around 30 feet, killing four instantly while a military spokesman in Dhaka said an army major and a captain were among four of their dead personnel. The officials said the troops were called out to clear the landslide rubble from a highway linking port city of Chittagong with Rangamati. A fresh landslide at the scene buried the detachment killing the four while one soldier is still missing. Ten personnel were wounded in the (fresh) landslide, he said. Many of the victims belonged to the ethnic minority or tribal groups who live in makeshift structures along the hills in Bandarban and Rangamati where power cuts and no road connection have enhanced miseries of the residents, officials said. At least 33 deaths were reported from the port city of Chittagong which witnessed five landslides while the rest of the casualties were reported from neighbouring Bandarban district where the torrential rains triggered three landslides. Authorities temporarily halted the rescue campaign at around 10 last night after recovering 129 bodies. Specialised teams of fire servicemen and troops were mobilised to launch afresh the salvage drive. We need to accomplish a crucial task of resuming Chittagongs road communications with Bandarban and Rangamati and Bandarban alongside salvaging the landslide victims, a Disaster Management official told reporters. Densely populated Bangladesh is battered by storms, floods and landslides every rainy season but this years rain is the worst since 2007 when landslides killed 127 people in the port city. The incessant rains caused water-logging in many parts of Chittagong and submerged a number of coastal villages apart from triggering the landslides. The situation forced us to demolish a protection embankment against tidal surges as it appeared to be obstructing drainage inundating homes and roads, an official of the city corporation said. Experts and environmentalists attributed the latest spell of landslides to illegal mining in hills which exposed them to quick erosion during rains. ALSO READ | Landslides in Bangladesh: PM Narendra Modi condoles loss of lives The three southeastern hill districts of Ragamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari known as Chittagong hill tracts received over 300mm of rainfall in the 24 hours till yesterday. Meteorologists said the port city of Chittagong alone experienced 222 mm of rainfall during the same period calling the huge quantum of downpour in such a short time to be unusual. The landslides triggered by the monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora hit Bangladesh, leaving eight people dead and damaging hundreds of homes. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Lahore: The verdict in the detention case of Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed to be announced by the Lahore High Court on June 19. A division bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan had reserved the decision on June 7 after the Punjab government law officer submitted a reply and Saeeds counsel advocate A K Dogar completed his arguments. The Lahore High Court (LHC) will announce the verdict in Saeeds detention case on June 19, a court official told PTI. According to the Punjab governments reply, Saeed and his aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - were detained on the instruction of the federal government for their alleged involvement in activities prejudicial to peace and security of the country. The government had also submitted the report of the judicial review board on the detention of Saeed and his aides. In his arguments, Dogar had said that the government did not produce the petitioners before the judicial review board prior to the expiry of their detention period on April 30 and extended their detention on its own. He argued that extending the detention period without the mandatory approval of the review board was illegal. Dogar claimed the government detained the petitioners to please India and America only. Also read: JuD chief Hafiz Saeed spreading terrorism in name of jihad: Pakistan's interior ministry He said the courts of the country in past had declared detention of the JuD chief illegal as government failed to prove its charges against him. He requested the court to set aside the detention of the petitioners for being unconstitutional. Earlier, the three-member review board headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan of the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the detention of Saeed. Saeed last month had appeared before the review board and told it that he had been detained by the Pakistani government in order to stop him for raising voice for Kashmiris. The federal interior ministry rejected his arguments and told the board that Saeed and his four aides have been detained for spreading terrorism in the name of Jihad. Also read: Pakistan to keep Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed under house arrest for 3 more months On April 30, detention of Saeed and his four aides was extended by the Punjab government for another 90 days under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The Punjab government on January 30 had put the five men under house arrest in Lahore under the Second Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The Nawaz Sharif government had reportedly acted against Saeed after the US clearly told Islamabad that in case of not taking action against JuD and Saeed it may face sanctions. JuD is believed to be the front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The organisation is accused of involvement in militant activities in India and has already been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2014. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. London: A huge blaze on Wednesday engulfed a 24-storey residential tower block in west London housing over 100 families, killing at least 12 people and injuring 74 others, with police suspecting the death toll could rise further. The fire at Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road was reported at 01:16 local time. About 600 people were believed to have been inside the towers 120 flats when the blaze ripped through the building. The Metropolitan Police, which previously had put the number of fatalities at six, now raised the death toll to 12. Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police earlier said the recovery operation would be complex over a number of days. He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, and it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. The fire is thought to have started because of a faulty refrigerator on the 3rd or 4th floor of the building soon after midnight and destroyed flat after flat. By noon, the building looked to be just smoking ruins but the fire again took hold, and cladding began to fall to the ground. Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning tower, in north Kensington, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved. Firefighters rescued many people and are still trying to put the fire out in the 24-storey block 12 hours on. Police say there may still be people in the building who are unaccounted for. Eyewitnesses said they saw lights - thought to be mobile phones or torches - flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows - some holding children. Also read: Fire breaks out at Sales Tax office in Lucknow It is understood that several hundred people would have been in the block when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, most of them sleeping. This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale, London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton told reporters. Extensive cordons remain in place and a number of nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution, Cundy said. Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police, said the recovery operation would be complex and lengthy, and the number of fatalities was expected to rise. He declined to give any details of the number of people who may be missing. He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. Also read: Fire breaks out at Election Commissions office; no casualties reported Firefighters rescued large numbers, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said a lot of people were unaccounted for. Eyewitnesses reported seeing people trapped inside the burning building screaming for help and shouting for their children to be saved. People screamed for help as the fire took hold of the building. Some residents were seen using bedsheets to make their escape from the tower block. As fire-fighters fought the blaze, witnesses said a baby was caught by members of the public after being dropped from the window of the 9th floor. Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters expected to be on the scene for at least another 24 hours and she would not speculate about the cause of the blaze. She said there were concerns that people were still inside the tower and she urged all residents to make sure they had reported themselves to police so that the authorities know they are safe. Prime Minister Theresa May is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life, said Downing Street. The area around Grenfell Tower is home to a large number of Muslims. Many were awake at the time the fire broke out having their early morning meal before beginning the daily fast for the holy month of Ramzan. The survivors, whose belongings are presumed to have been destroyed, gathered in the nearby Rugby Portobello community centre where they were given water, clothes and blankets. Michael Paramasivan, who lives on the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter, said he ignored official advice to stay in your home. If we had stayed in that flat, we wouldve perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out, he said. Im lucky to be alive and lots of people have not got out of the building Ive lost everything I own. Im standing here in everything Ive got, one survivor said. Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, spoke of his escape. As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible, he told the BBC. Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door. The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms werent going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary, she said. Refurbishment of the housing block had been completed last year and the Fire Brigades Union said something had gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building. London Mayor Khan declared the fire as a major incident and said questions will need to be answered over the safety of such tower blocks. We cant have a situation where peoples safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained, he said. Grenfell Tower is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the local council. The local Grenfell Action Group had claimed, before and during the refurbishment, that the block constituted a fire risk and residents had warned that access to the site for emergency vehicles was severely restricted. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the building burning through to its very core. Distraught relatives have been using social media to try and make contact with missing loved ones. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: At least six persons were killed and over 50 others injured on Wednesday after a massive fire engulfed a 24-storey residential tower block in west London, with police expecting the death toll to rise. The fire at Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road was reported at 01:16 local time. About 600 people are believed to have been inside the towers 120 flats when the blaze ripped through the building. I can confirm six fatalities at this time but this figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days, said Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan Police. He said it was likely to be some time before police could identify the victims, adding that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire, BBC reported. The 24-storey block, which is still on fire, looks at risk of collapsing, it said. We have now taken over 50 patients to five hospitals across London following the fire at #GrenfellTower Tower. pic.twitter.com/Lt4AFEvQrP London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 14, 2017 London Metropolitan police has said that extensive cordons are in place and nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution. An emergency number has been set up for anyone concerned for loved ones in #NorthKensington fire please call Casualty Bureau 0800 0961 233 or 0207 158 0197. Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 14, 2017 An emergency number has been set up for anyone concerned for loved ones in by the London Metropolitan police: Casualty Bureau 0800 0961 233. We have taken 30 patients to five London hospitals following the fire at #GrenfellTower & we remain on scene pic.twitter.com/lxfRseAIkg London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 14, 2017 An emergency rest centre has also been opened for evacuees at the Harrow Centre on Freston Road. Fire is from 2nd to top floor of 27 storey building, the fire service said on Twitter as rescue workers try to evacuate the building in Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington, London Fire Brigade said. READ: London Fire: Grenfell tower engulfs in massive blaze, 50 injured, London Ambulance service confirms fatalities Buses serving West London have been delayed up to forty minutes due to the building fire at Ladbroke Grove, W10. Routes 23, 52, 70, 228, 295, 316 and 452 have been diverted due to it. #WATCH: Fire engulfs 27-storey tower block in Latimer Road, west London. 40 fire engines & 200 firefighters at the spot. pic.twitter.com/OeRK7P33g9 ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 Police said in a statement they were called at 1:16 AM (local time) to reports of a large fire at a block of flats in the Lancaster West Estate. Firefighters working hard to bring fire under control on Lancaster West Estate #NorthKensington https://t.co/Gy6gUYc4ML pic.twitter.com/ptd6dOUTE7 London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) June 14, 2017 The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries on Twitter. Terrified residents are being evacuated from the surrounding streets and smoke is still being witnessed from miles around. Residents continue to be evacuated from the tower block fire in #NorthKensington. A number of people being treated for a range of injuries. Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 14, 2017 ALSO READ: Fire breaks out at ECs office; no casualties reported Grenfell Tower The 24-story Grenfell Tower was built in the 1970s and recently subject to a $10.9 million redevelopment, according to property firm Rydon. Our latest statement on the #NorthKensington tower block fire. We have sent over 20 ambulance crews to the scene. More to follow. pic.twitter.com/j9JD8t6I3t London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 14, 2017 Situated close to Notting Hill, the tower block is around a five minute walk from the Latimer Road Underground station and near the Westfield shopping center in the west London suburbs. A40 is closed in both directions following the #NorthKensington fire. Pls avoid the area to allow emergency services access to the scene. Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 14, 2017 Sources claim that those present at the scene reported falling of debris, loud explosions and shattering of glass. Major incident declared at Grenfell Tower in Kensington. 40 fire engines & 200 firefighters at the scene - follow @LondonFire for updates. Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 14, 2017 In 2016, residents organisation Grenfell Action Group claimed that the tower had a serious health and safety issue. "It has burned through to its very core. It looks very bad, very very bad. I've never seen anything like this. It's just such a big fire. The whole building is just crumbling.It's just billowing black smoke," an eyewitness said. READ: Delhi: Fire breaks out in Okhla Phase 1 area, one fireman injured #Visuals Lancaster West Estate tower block fire: London Fire Brigade says crews at work, fire is from 2nd to top floor of 27 storey building pic.twitter.com/0y3DKf8c0a ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 What eyewitnesses said? Eyewitnesses reported seeing people trapped inside the burning building screaming for help and shouting for their children to be saved. People screamed for help as the fire took hold of the building. Some residents were seen using bedsheets to make their escape from the tower block. This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale, London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton told reporters. Cotton said the cause was unknown as yet. Scotland Yard has confirmed a number of fatalities and at least 50 people have been treated in hospital, according to London Ambulance. Extensive cordons remain in place and a number of nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution. The A40 is closed in both directions. We kindly ask that the public stay away from the area, Cundy said. Im lucky to be alive and lots of people have not got out of the building Ive lost everything I own. Im standing here in everything Ive got, one survivor said. Eyewitnesses said they saw lights thought to be mobile phones or torches flashing at the top of the block of flats, and trapped residents coming to their windows some holding children. Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, spoke of his escape. As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible, he told the BBC. Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door. The whole landing was thick with smoke. The smoke alarms werent going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary, she said. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the building burning through to its very core. Distraught relatives have been using social media to try and make contact with missing loved ones. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will appear on Thursday before a Supreme Court-appointed team probing the Panamagate graft case, an unprecedented development that will make him the first sitting premier to depose before such a panel. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) chief Wajid Zia had summoned the prime minister to appear before the six-member probe team at 11:00 AM (11:30 IST) on June 15 with all documents relevant to the case. Amidst tight security, Sharif will appear before the probing officers at Islamabads Judicial Academy ? which is temporarily turned into the JITs secretariat. The summons was issued to Sharif, 67, after he returned last Saturday from Kazakhstan where he had attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. ALSO READ | Panama papers case: Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif narrowly escapes corruption ruling in jinxed April month In its judgement of April 20 in the Panama Papers case, the Supreme Court had constituted a JIT and empowered it to summon the prime minister, his sons and any other person necessary, to investigate allegations of money-laundering, through which the four apartments in Londons posh Park Lane area were purchased. Sharif has denied any wrongdoing. The Joint Investigation Team had questioned Sharifs sons Hussain and Hasanlast month over the familys alleged improper business dealings. His eldest son Hussain was questioned five times while Hasan, the youngerson, was summoned twice. The court last year took up the case and issued a split decision over allegations of money laundering when Sharif was prime minister in 1990s. On May 5, the Supreme Court set up a high-level six-member JIT to probe Sharif and his sons alleged corruption in the Panama Papers case. The JIT is bound to complete the probe in 60 days unless it is granted additional time. It is for the first time that a sitting prime minister would appear before a high-level probe team traditionally constituted to investigate high-profile criminal cases. It is not yet clear that Sharif will be questioned for once or would be called again like his two sons. Media reports had also said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar may also be questioned tomorrow by the JIT before Sharifs appearance. The JIT probing the offshore holdings of Prime Minister Sharif and his children has also summoned his younger brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to appear before it on June 17. ALSO READ | Panama papers case: Pakistan SC to decide PM Nawaz Sharif's fate today For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The percentage of homes in negative equity, often referred to as underwater, continues to decline across the nation, though reports place Connecticut among the states with the highest share of these properties. CoreLogics latest report places Connecticuts negative equity share, or percentage of mortgaged homes in which the loan amount is higher than what the home is currently worth, at 9.9 percent the fifth-highest total nationally. Nevada has the highest negative equity share, at 12.4 percent. Florida, Illinois and New Jersey rounded out the top five. Im not surprised if that were the case, said Michael Barbaro, president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors. I can tell you that what Ive witnessed is a lot of sellers or would-be sellers that just dont have the equity to sell. Although definitive numbers are hard to come by estimates for homes with negative equity in the U.S. range from 2.2 million to 5.5 million most research shows the number has steadily decreased since the peak in the first quarter of 2012. CoreLogic reported that over the last year, one million homeowners regained equity in their homes. One million borrowers achieved positive equity over the last year, which means mortgage risk continues to steadily decline as a result of increasing home prices, said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, in the companys report. Unlike CoreLogic, which estimates 6.1 percent, or 3.1 million mortgaged homes in the U.S. were in negative equity in the first quarter of 2017, Attom Data Solutions puts the number of homes underwater nationwide at 5.5 million, or 9.7 percent. Black Knight Financial Services puts the number of negative equity homes even lower, at 2.2 million. Barbaro, who is based in New Haven, said the fact that millions of people are still underwater shouldnt be surprising considering what was happening in the lending world before the recession. Prior to the crash, there was a prevalence of high-ratio loans, such as 100 percent financing, he said. In addition to the fact that they purchased at the height of the market, (homeowners) didnt have a lot of equity to begin with. In response to the recession, Congress created the Home Affordable Refinance Program to assist homeowners unable to refinance their mortgages due to declines in the value of their homes. In Connecticut through March, nearly 39,000 people have used HARP to refinance, which includes just 260 in the first three months of 2017, according to the Federal Housing Finance Authority. Although some people fall into foreclosure, Barbaro said short sales are often the end result of a homeowner looking for ways to sell their underwater home. A short sale is when the lender agrees to accept less than the original value of the mortgage loan. Cynthia Hughes, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker in Danbury, said Fairfield County currently has 127 foreclosures, a combination of single family and condos. Danbury has 10. So, the impact of foreclosures isnt as strong as it has been and the price of homes on the market has gone up roughly 6 percent, Hughes said. The market is much stronger than the collapse eight to 10 years ago. It has rebounded with smarter buyers and stronger policies on the mortgage side. In Stamford over the past year, there were 62 single-family homes that had either a short sale or foreclosure. Those homes were on the market for a median of 70 days, with a median closing price of $386,000. Stamford is still a very strong market and the number of distressed properties compared with what it was in 2008 is becoming less and less, said Craig Oshrin, a Stamford-based Realtor with Coldwell Banker. I think what were seeing with these numbers is a repair back to what our economy was. I think this market is going to continue to recover. The 10 Fairfield County community banks that concentrate their lending largely in their own backyards recently reported a 2.4 percent increase in mortgages outstanding, topping the $4 billion mark as reported to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Peoples United, which reports totals from throughout its Northeast markets, increased its year-over-year mortgage lending a full 10 percent to $8.7 billion as of March, even as troubled mortgages with late payments increased 16.8 percent, totaling $6 million in all. Barbaro noted, however, that having negative equity is only a problem if a homeowner cant make their mortgage payment or plans to sell their underwater home for some other reason. If youre making that payment, the value of the house is really irrelevant, he said. Staff writers Chris Bosak, Paul Schott and Alexander Soule contributed to this report. ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PetVet Care Centers has raised $675 million in debt financing as it contemplates adding to its 100-plus animal hospitals and veterinary clinics in 19 states. Backed by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, PetVet has its headquarters office at Westports Gorham Island building on the Saugatuck River. The new financing was arranged by Golub Capital, which has its own offices in New York City, with Golub Capital also securing some $225 million in debt financing to support Ontario Teachers 2014 acquisition of PetVet. In Connecticut, PetVet clinics include South Wilton Veterinary Group and Newtown Veterinary Specialists. On its website, PetVet discloses having spent $300 million on vet clinics between 2012 and 2016. PetVet CEO Gino Volpacchio did not respond immediately Wednesday to Hearst Connecticut Media queries on the companys plans for the new funding. Volpacchio founded the company in 2012, having previously ran BrightHeart Veterinary Centers which he sold in 2007 to the predecessor company of Los Angeles-based VCA. With its initials standing for Veterinary Clinics of America, VCA has lived up to that mission by owning or leasing out well over 800 centers in 43 states, locally to include the VCA Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in Norwalk; VCA Darien Animal Hospital; VCA Davis Animal Hospital in Stamford; and VCA Northside Animal Hospital in Danbury. Another major national player is Vancouver, Wash.-based Banfield Pet Hospital, which has a location in Norwalk on Connecticut Avenue. VCAs vet clinics average between 20 and 30 employees, giving VCA 14,700 total as of 2016 when it earned $217 million with revenue increasing 23 percent to $2.1 billion. VCA headed into 2017 with plans to spend some $200 million more on veterinary clinic and laboratory acquisitions, according to CEO Bob Antin who discussed the companys plans in an October 2016 conference call with investment analysts. On the acquisition side I think its raging, Antin said. Overall its a very exciting time in veterinary medicine, and you can see it just by all the competitive interest thats out there. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-354-1047; www.twitter.com/casoulman A United Kingdom company completed its acquisition of Connecticut-based Bobs Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports, after a bankruptcy process resulting in the closure of multiple southwestern Connecticut stores in the past year. Sports Direct International stated Wednesday it will maintain 50 Bobs and EMS stores in the Northeast, along with five EMS outdoor adventure schools. SDI bills itself as the United Kingdoms largest sporting goods retailer, with brands including Everlast, No Fear and Slazenger. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KENT A large bear was shot and killed Monday within yards of the spot where a pet donkey was killed by a bear three weeks ago. Ted Hoffman, whose donkey was killed in the earlier attack on his Fuller Mountain Road property, said a 557-pound male black bear was shot with a rifle by a caretaker around 6 a.m. There is no way to know, as of now, if its the same bear, Hoffman said. He and his wife, Megg, lost one of our buddies, a 15-year-old miniature donkey, Radar, to a bear on May 21. Two other donkeys were also injured in the attack. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection took the bear carcass and are investigating, said spokesman Dennis Schain. All the facts and circumstances must be determined and evaluated before any decision can be made about the disposition of this matter, Schain said. Schain agreed that its hard to say whether the dead bear was the same animal that killed Radar. Its unlikely we could tell, he said. Probably too much time has passed to find evidence in its digestive system. Megg Hoffman said shes almost certain its the same bear. Mondays visit marked the seventh time since May 1 that a bear visited the couples property, she said. After the caretaker killed the bear, the Hoffmans called DEEP, which took the carcass to its wildlife headquarters in Burlington to conduct a necropsy. That just gives us a chance to study the specimen, Schain said. DEEP estimates that the state has more than 700 bears and the population might be growing at 10 percent a year. Tracy Rittenhouse, an ecology professor in UConns Department of Natural Resources & the Environment, said black bears, which have been spreading through western Connecticut since the early 1980s, surprisingly prefer exurban areas such as Kent to forests and rural areas. Earlier this month, Rittenhouse published a five-year study seeking to answer whether there are more bears in the state or or just more reported sightings. She concluded that there are more bears, and that they are flourishing on large crops of acorns from the states mature oak forests. The assumption is that the reason bear density is higher in exurban areas is that they get added food sources, she said. Human housing is driving bear density. Kent First Selectman Bruce Adams said bear sightings in town have gone from exciting glimpses of wildlife to common occurrences. Theyre almost like squirrels now, Adams said. I passed two of them on my home from Litchfield the other day. The Hoffmans say they feel slightly relieved that the bear is dead, but its a bittersweet feeling. Bears are still a beauty to me, Megg said. It was very painful seeing that one. Theyre a part of nature. We love animals, Ted added. The bears, the deer, the turkeys. All the things we see out here. blytton@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3411; @bglytton Congress designated June 14 as Flag Day in 1949, thereby giving official status to a custom of many years standing. The flag, which has been a rallying banner to many and an object of scorn to a few, must be thought of as just that: a symbol. These were the words of President Woodrow Wilson: The things that the flag stands for were created in experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment but of history. It represents the experiences made by men and women, those who do and live under the flag. It was during Wilsons first term that an obscure congressman from Connecticut took to the floor of the House to recite a patriotic poem about the flag, thus ending an acrimonious debate over the Mexican border crisis. (Editors note: Congressman Thomas L. Reilly recited the poem by Wilbur Nesbit on April 20, 1914). The poem, titled Your Flag and My Flag, brought him a brief flash of notoriety and he often incorrectly is given credit as its author. Your flag and our flag And how it floats today! Oer your land and my land And half the world away. Blood-red and rose-red Its stripes forever gleam; Snow white and soul white, the good forefathers dream. Sky blue and true blue, With stars that beam aright A glorified guidon of the day, A shelter through the night. Your flag and my flag Oh, how much it holds! Your heart and my heart Secure in its folds. Your heart and my heart Beat quicker at the sight; Sun kissed and wind tossed, The Red and White and Blue. The one flag! The great flag! The flag for me and you! Glorified, all beside, the Red and White and Blue. It will never rank as great poetry and its sentiments may seem trite to some. But to Americans who stir at its sight, it surely holds great meaning. WILTON An illegal immigrant is at risk of being deported for the third time after police caught him driving drunk with two young children in the car, police said. A man who identified himself as Enrique Lopez-Lopez was pulled over around 6 p.m. Sunday for swerving over the double yellow line while driving south on Ridgefield Road, police said. Upon being pulled over, the driver informed police that he had no drivers license or any other form of identification in his possession. In addition to smelling a strong odor of alcohol escaping the windows, police observed two of the mans children, both under 10 years old, sitting in the backseat of the car. Lopez-Lopez was asked to perform the field sobriety test, which he was unable to do, police said. The driver also refused to submit to a breath analysis test. After placing the man under arrest, police contacted the childrens mother and had her pick them up from the scene before transporting the suspect back to headquarters. As police processed the driver back at the department, they learned that the man had initially lied to police about his identity. Fingerprint analysis revealed that the man was Antonio Guzman-Retana, a 36-year-old Danbury resident who already been deported twice from the U.S for illegal immigration. Guzman-Retana was charged with driving while under the influence, driving while under the influence with children in the car, operating with no drivers license and failure to drive in the proper lane. He was held on a $15,000 bond, and he was scheduled to be arraigned the next day. While in lockup, police also discovered that Guzman-Retana also had an active warrant for his arrest out of Danbury for first-degree failure to appear, which means he missed a date to face felony charges in court. For this offense, Guzman faced an additional $7,500 bond. Since the suspect is an illegal immigrant, Lt. Rob Kluk, a police spokesman, said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was also informed about the arrest. ptomlinson@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1046; Twitter: @Tomlinson_PE The Government of Canada encourages Canadians to share their stories from the Canada 150 Red Couch OTTAWA, June 13, 2017 /CNW/ - Today, at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Mona Fortier, MP for OttawaVanier, participated in the launch of the Canada 150 Red Couch Tour organized by ELPIO Production. Ms. Fortier attended the launch on behalf of the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage. For this Canada 150 signature project, ELPIO Production will travel across the country with a red couch, inviting Canadians to take a seat and share their stories, with cameras rolling. At the end of the tour, the organizers will produce a video compilation of the stories, as well as a digital photo mosaic of the people they met on the journey. The Government of Canada is funding the Tour through the Canada 150 Fund. Through the Fund, the Government supports local, regional and national activities designed to give Canadians across the country an opportunity to join in the Canada 150 celebrations and make 2017 an unforgettable year. Quotes "2017 is an exceptional year. Canada 150 invites us to reflect on our past and look to the future with optimism. I am delighted that the Canada 150 Red Couch Tour is giving Canadians an opportunity to share their stories nationwide. Let's take advantage of Canada 150 to express what it means to be Canadian and to strengthen the bonds that unite us!" the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage "ELPIO Production's concept to celebrate Canada 150 was to discover Canadians' stories and their hopes for the future. It's a wonderful opportunity to share what Canada means to us. I invite one and all to join us in celebrating this important anniversary. Come take a seat on the couch!" Mona Fortier, MP for OttawaVanier, Ontario "We are honoured to be one of Canada 150's pan-Canadian signature projects and to have an opportunity to share stories of Canadians from all walks of life and what Canada means to them. The Red Couch has visited the Canadian North and Labrador and will be continuing the journey with an eight-week national tour from Newfoundland to British Columbia. These stories will be collected into 150 video clips and shared with all Canadians through social media." Ela Kinowska, Project Manager, ELPIO Production Quick Facts The Government of Canada is providing $198,572 in funding for ELPIO Production's Canada 150 Red Couch Tour. is providing in funding for ELPIO Production's 150 Red Couch Tour. The main themes of the Government of Canada's vision for Canada 150 are diversity and inclusion, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the environment and youth. vision for 150 are diversity and inclusion, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the environment and youth. The Canada 150 Fund was created in April 2015 and has a total budget of $200 million. 150 Fund was created in April 2015 and has a total budget of $200 million. Through the Fund, the Government of Canada makes strategic investments in activities that support the themes of Canada 150 and encourage Canadians to participate in the celebrations. Associated Links Canada 150 http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1468262573081/1468262646675 ELPIO ProductionCanada 150 Red Couch Tour www.redcouchtour.ca/en SOURCE Canadian Heritage For further information: (media only): Pierre-Olivier Herbert, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, 819-997-7788; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected] Related Links http://www.pch.gc.ca New Book Details History of Profession from Confederation On TORONTO, June 14, 2017 /CNW/ - With its 30-year-old roots, CAPIC, the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants of Canada, today announced that it would be publishing a comprehensive history of the immigration consultant profession in Canada. The book will serve as a reference work for all immigration industry stakeholders, detailing the milestones, challenges, and achievements of the profession as it grew to meet changes in immigration throughout Canada's history. Topics will include: Early practitioners Changes in Canadian immigration policy Unauthorized Practitioners (UAPs) The profession's critical role in Canadian immigration Challenges to the profession "The Immigration Consulting profession is a noble profession. Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCIC) assist thousands of immigrants and those seeking Canadian citizenship each year. It has existed for centuries in a variety of forms, and it is important to provide the public with a reference book to better understand how it has evolved." Dory Jade, CEO of CAPIC. Over 4,000 RCIC handle thousands of immigration applications every year. Most RCIC have never had a complaint filed against them and have a very high success rate with their clients. Today, however, the profession once again faces a major challenge, as its self-regulation authority is currently under review by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. CAPIC and its members want to be part of the solution: to improve the profession's self-regulatory status, making it more stable, strong, and efficient. With amended self-regulatory powers related to the pursuit of unauthorized practitioners, professional immigration consultants will be able to maintain an even higher level of ethics and excellence. To learn more about the book, please contact Robert McClements, CAPIC Communications Coordinator, at [email protected] or 416-483-7044 ext. 28. About CAPIC Created in December 2004, the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC) is the national advocacy group for Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCIC), founded on the pillars of Education, Information, Lobbying, and Recognition. Its mission is to lead, connect, protect, and develop the profession, serving the best interest of its members. A brief history of our profession: http://capic.ca/uploads/files/Long%20version_Executive%20Summary_FINAL.pdf SOURCE Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants For further information: CAPIC web address: http://www.capic.ca/en/index.php?page=main Related Links www.capic.ca "Habitat GTA is a complex organization with a simple mission. Our model can be difficult to demonstrate and explain. This newly designed website allows us to overcome this barrier, and engage supporters online in a simple yet dynamic way that we have never been able to do before," says Ene Underwood, CEO of Habitat GTA. Alex Chepovetsky, Chief Digital Officer at Havas Canada, who spearheaded this initiative, says "From the very beginning, we set out to gain a deep understanding of Habitat's mission in order to identify the areas where we could make an impact. By dramatically simplifying the experience, we made it easier for people to see the impact their involvement makes on families in the GTA by donating their time, money and stuff." "When Alex volunteered his teams and resources to give us a much needed upgrade, we were so thankful; their generous support will make a huge difference in helping more families move from crowded, unhealthy living conditions into a safe, affordable Habitat homes," continues Ms. Underwood. The new website offers a responsive interface and a brand new design, paving the path for volunteers to get involved and for families to have access to affordable housing. "This is where we live, work, and play. Given the state of the housing market in the GTA, our team decided to get involved and help make a difference for families in need, and we're grateful that we're able to give back in this way," says Alex Chepovetsky. ABOUT HABITAT GTA Habitat for Humanity Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is a non-profit housing organization working with communities to build homes for local families in need of affordable housing. By offering zero down payment, no-interest mortgages capped at 30 percent of a family's income, Habitat GTA empowers families to achieve stability and self-reliance, so that they can build a better life for themselves and their children. With the support of donors and volunteers, we build homes along with partner families in Toronto, Brampton, Caledon and York Region, serving two-thirds of the GTA. Since 1988, Habitat GTA has built more than 360 homes for families, including over 1,000 children. Habitat GTA is one of more than 1,400 Habitat for Humanity affiliates worldwide sharing a common vision and purpose. Habitat for Humanity GTA also operates 10 Habitat ReStore retail home improvement stores across the GTA, which sell donated, new and gently-used home furnishing and renovation materials at a fraction of the original price. ReStore proceeds go directly toward building Habitat homes. ABOUT HAVAS CANADA Havas Canada is the Canadian division of a global integrated communication agency that brings digital, mobile, media, and creative services to local and global brands. With reach into 121 markets, Havas helps Canada's leading brands become market leaders, while trailblazing into new markets worldwide. SOURCE Habitat for Humanity GTA For further information: MEDIA CONTACT: Colin Penstone, [email protected]; Joanna Dwyer, [email protected] Related Links http://www.torontohabitat.on.ca TORONTO, June 14, 2017 /CNW/ - From June 18 22, more than 4,000 midwives from around the world will gather in Toronto for the International Congress of Midwives. WaterAid will participate in the Congress, and is calling on midwives everywhere to join its Healthy Start campaign advocating for quality healthcare for all by 2030 by ensuring every healthcare facility in the world has clean water, good sanitation and good hygiene. From providing emotional and medical support during labour, to teaching new parents how to care for their newborns, WaterAid's new photo series reveals how much midwives around the world have in common, no matter where they work. The charity photographed and interviewed new mothers and their midwives in the hours and days immediately after birth about their experiences from the UK and Canada, to Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Bangladesh. To view and download photos please click here. While midwives in modern hospitals fill birthing pools without a thought and benefit from stringent hygiene protocols, those in many areas of the developing world may start their day with a struggle to find enough water to clean floors and bedlinens, wash their hands and offer labouring women a drink. Yet, whether new mothers delivered in state-of-the-art hospitals or in healthcare centres without clean water, decent toilets and functioning hand basins, all shared the same joy in their new babies, and great appreciation for the midwives who helped bring those babies into the world. In Canada, first-time mom Colleen, who gave birth to baby Soraia at home said: "My midwife's medical background put me at ease. I was confident in her skills and her abilities. But also, her demeanour and the way she talks. She's so gentle with everybody. So compassionate. When it was crunch time, she wasn't soft then." "I have thought about developing countries. It must be really hard, especially with sanitation. They have to carry clean water. They have to go find clean water. They have to boil the water." In Malawi, first-time mother Ruth, 19, who gave birth to her baby son in the Ngokwe Health Centre in Machinga, said: "When I was coming here, I brought with me three 'Chitenje' fabrics of which one is to used to cover the baby, and the other two used during and after giving birth, for cleaning myself. I also brought with me a plastic wrapper used during birth to hold the water and blood This helps to keep the bed clean, as the ward has only two beds. "Despite facing these challenges, I was happy to have received the best care from our nurse-midwife. She was very helpful all the time. She would come even to check my and my baby's pulse and temperature." In 2015, 2,100 newborns died each day from sepsis, tetanus, pneumonia or diarrhoea all infections strongly linked to unhygienic conditions. WaterAid wants to ensure healthcare facilities everywhere have access to clean water and have adequate toilets and are committed to good hygiene practice and promotion. Yet 38% of health care facilities in developing nations do not have a water supply, 19% do not provide adequate sanitation and 35% do not have soap and water to sustain good hygiene practices. For more information about our participation at the Congress, please see www.wateraid.org/ICM2017. WaterAid WaterAid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to clean water and sanitation. The international organisation works in 37 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Region to transform lives by improving access to clean water, hygiene and sanitation in some of the world's poorest communities. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 25 million people with clean water and, since 2004, 24 million people with sanitation. For more information, visit www.wateraidcanada.com, follow @WaterAidCanada on Twitter. SOURCE WaterAid Canada For further information: In Ottawa: Christine LaRocque, Director of Communications, [email protected] or +1 (613) 230-5182 ext. 243 Related Links http://www.watercan.com/ LONDON, June 12, 2017 /CNW/ - An improving world economy boosted public pension fund, sovereign fund and central bank assets to $33.5tn at end-2016, according to Global Public Investor (GPI) published by OMFIF, the London- and Singapore-based think tank. The ranking table of 750 public institutions shows asset growth of 1.4% over 2015. The increase is largely propelled by pension funds, with assets up $435bn, and sovereign funds, up $143bn. Central banks showed the biggest decline, down $103bn. The publication highlights increased GPI interest in 'green economy' investments, though such holdings account for only a small proportion of the total. This year's GPI asset allocation survey shows 38% of respondents plan to increase green bond investments and 35% plan to invest in renewables over the next 12-24 months. Investments in green equity, fixed income and alternative vehicles represent one way for public investors to achieve adequate returns while meeting low-carbon requirements. Yet green finance remains beset by challenges, including over bond issue standardisation. Europe registered an increase in total GPI assets, led primarily by central banks, with regional AUM rising $197bn to $6.4tn. Ranked seventh in the GPI list, the Swiss National Bank accounted for a rise of $76bn, caused by intervention to hold down the Swiss franc and strong returns on equities, making up one-fifth of Swiss reserves. Total official gold holdings rose by 377 tonnes, led by the central banks of Russia, China and Kazakhstan. Turkey, Venezuela and Azerbaijan saw the biggest declines. Total gold holdings are the highest since 1999. Asia Pacific remains the largest region by AUM, with $12.7tn, 37.9% of the total. North America is the second, with $8.1tn (24%). Europe with $6.4tn IS third. Asia has the largest public investment institutions, with four in the top 10 - People's Bank of China, Bank of Japan/Ministry of Finance, Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund and China Investment Corporation. The PBoC remains the biggest GPI by assets, despite suffering the largest decline ($307bn). The publication features the Gender Balance Index, a study of female representation in central banking. "I strongly welcome OMFIF's decision to raise awareness of the role that women play in central banking," writes Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, in a GPI foreword. Global Public Investor is available from http://www.omfif.org on 14 June 2017. OMFIF is an independent think tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment. SOURCE OMFIF (Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum) For further information: Media contact: [email protected], +44(0)2079654492 Emily Zbaraschuk is the national winner in the "Write it!" category PRINCE ALBERT, SK, June 14, 2017 /CNW/ - Emily Zbaraschuk of Meath Park Public School in Prince Albert is the national winner of the Canada Day Challenge in the "Write it!" category. The other 2017 winners are Joshua Sprigg of Mount Albert, Ontario, in the "Snap it!" category and Fiona Tung of Markham, Ontario, in the "Draw it!" category. Emily submitted a poem under the theme "Celebrate Your Future." In her poem, entitled Where are we from, she evokes the idea that people, places and ideas are what shape our country. Emily and her mother have been invited to visit Canada's Capital Region as of June 27 to participate in Canada Day celebrations, which are taking place on Parliament Hill as part of Canada 150. Emily and the other winners will have the opportunity to visit Parliament, museums and national historical sites during their visit, thanks to the support of official collaborators. Her entry will also be displayed at the Canadian Museum of History from June to September. Additionally, she will receive an iPad from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and will have the opportunity to work with a team of experts from the NFB to produce her own short film. Quotes "Canada is filled with extraordinary young talent, and the Canada Day Challenge shows that our youth are bursting with ideas, projects and dreams. In this year of Canada 150 celebrations, the theme 'Celebrate Your Future' was quite timely. It allowed young people to reflect on our past and express their vision for Canada's future and their own. It's very inspiring! Congratulations to the winners and all the participants in the 2017 Challenge." The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage Quick Facts The winners and finalists will receive several wonderful prizes. Canadians can admire the winning entries, as well as those by the finalists, by visiting the Canada Day Challenge website or the Canadian Museum of History from June to September. The official collaborators of the 2017 Canada Day Challenge are the National Film Board of Canada, Parks Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Encounters with Canada, the Trans Canada Trail, Canada Post, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Canadian Mint. Related Products A Great Challenge for Young Canadians! https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2016/11/great-challenge-young-canadians.html Associated Links Canada Day Challenge http://www.canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1449069450337/1449069580788 SOURCE Canadian Heritage For further information: (media only), please contact: Pierre-Olivier Herbert, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, 819-997-7788; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected] Related Links http://www.pch.gc.ca TORONTO, June 14, 2017 /CNW/ - SPOT COFFEE (CANADA) LTD. (TSX-V: SPP) ("SPoT" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update of its financial and current operations including franchise activities. Franchise Development Progress As announced by the Company in its news release of June 1, 2017, SPoT, through a wholly owned subsidiary, SPoT Coffee West Hartford, LLC, entered into a lease agreement with SOF-IX Blueback Square Holdings, LP to lease premises municipally known as 69 Memorial Road in West Hartford, Connecticut, comprising 3,000 sq. ft. of floor space. The Company further retained the architectural firm of L'ARC to provide architectural and interior design services, mechanical and electrical plans, and to secure the necessary approvals and building permits to commence the development of the SPoT West Hartford cafe. As has been planned by SPoT and its franchisee, Parisco Cafes, LLC, ("PCL"), the Company expects to complete the development of the SPoT West Hartford cafe in the third quarter of 2017. SPoT is now working closely with its real estate agents to find a suitable location for PCL's second SPoT cafe in Connecticut. Last week, the Planning Board of the Town of Clarence approved the long-awaited site plan application of the Company to build a drive-thru to service customers of the SPoT Transit cafe, located in the commercial neighbourhood of Transit Road in Buffalo. Accordingly, the Company is confident in obtaining the building permit for the proposed drive-thru this month. For more information concerning this event, please refer to the Company's news release of December 19, 2016. The development of SPoT Coffee Express cafe in Waterfront Village announced by the Company in its news release of April 18, 2017 has been rapidly progressing and has now reached at a stage where it will be ready to open for business in the middle of next month. On May 16, 2017, and at the invitation of Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo ("Roswell Park"), the Company submitted a proposal, under the terms of Roswell Park's Request for Proposal - Formal Bid # 17-48 Lobby Food Service, to build and operate a SPoT Coffee Express cafe in the hospital's main lobby. SPoT has been negotiating with several serious franchisees who have expressed their interest in owning and operating this express cafe. The Company will report on the progress of this opportunity once it hears back from Roswell Park. For more information on this event, please refer to the Company's news release of April 12, 2017. The Company signed a franchise deposit agreement with a franchisee who is bidding for and negotiating a lease within the West Seneca Community Center and Library of Buffalo where he intends to build, own and operate a SPoT Coffee Express cafe. The Community Center and Library are presently under construction, which is scheduled to be completed in early spring of 2018. The franchisee plans to start the development of their SPoT Coffee Express cafe in early 2018, and anticipate being ready to open at the same time the construction of the Community Center and Library is completed in early spring of 2018. SPoT signed a deposit agreement with a franchisee to develop a SPoT Coffee Express cafe in the newly renovated Larkin Center of Commerce ("LCC") of Buffalo. Accordingly, the Company is presently negotiating to lease 1,500 sq. ft. in the main lobby area with direct access to the street for the planned Spot Coffee Express cafe. LCC is comprised of 1.3 million sq. ft. in 12 adjoining buildings on 32 acres under one roof. The LCC is New York's largest mixed-use facility. It contains office space, retail space, manufacturing space and warehouse space in Buffalo's redeveloped commercial, cultural and historic Larkin District. The Company expects to finalize the lease with LCC once the plans for the engineering work in the LCC lobby are delivered. The Company is now finalizing franchise agreements with 2 serious franchisees for an additional full SPoT cafe and another new SPoT Coffee Express cafe. Two locations have been identified for leasing and are being studied as to their suitability for SPoT. The Company will be reporting shortly on the progress of these two franchise opportunities and their locations in the Buffalo area. New Multi-Unit Franchise and Territories Consistent with the Company's new multi-unit franchise policy in response to franchisees who have indicated interest in purchasing the rights to develop and own no more than five SPoT cafes in an exclusive territory, the Company has started negotiations with prospective franchisees in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Mid-Atlantic areas. In a multi-unit operation, SPoT requires a franchisee to work in the daily operations of a single main cafe, and to rely on experienced and well-trained general managers and staff to oversee the daily operations of the other SPoT cafes. SPoT will be hosting in Buffalo next month multi-unit potential franchisees who will be touring the Company's cafes, coffee roasting and central kitchen facilities and negotiating multi-unit franchise agreements as well. Shares for Debt Issued As reported by the Company in its news releases of May 8, 14 and 24, 2017 respectively, SPoT issued a total of 833,333 common shares to two of its creditors at the price of $0.18 per share in full settlement of their combined debt of $150,000. 2018 Outlook SPoT's business plan, which considers the strong demand for SPoT franchises in the State of New York and neighboring states, foresees the full development and operation of approximately thirty-five (35) SPoT full cafes and Spot Express cafes before the end of 2018. This represents the minimum growth of nineteen (19) new cafes to the sixteen (16) SPoT cafes currently open for business. The Company's management will keep SPoT shareholders informed as these new cafes are fully developed and commence their operations. The anticipated number of SPoT cafes in the Company's business plan is a moving target and may well be accelerated by participation by multi-unit franchises and the opening of the market of Connecticut and adjacent states for SPoT's franchises. About SPoT Coffee SPoT Coffee trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol SPP. SPoT designs, builds, operates and franchises community oriented cafes and express cafes in New York State. SPoT's community cafes provide its customers with the highest quality service, signature made-to-order meals and award-winning micro-roasted coffee. Each SPoT cafe is distinctively designed to suit its local neighbourhood, creating a warm and friendly gathering place for the community. SPoT's commercial business focuses on the sale of roasted coffee beans to food service and grocery chains, business offices and third party resellers such as universities and hospitals. Forward Looking Statements Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements. In particular, forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, the potential use of proceeds of the financing that is the subject of this release. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the release. SOURCE Spot Coffee (Canada) Ltd. For further information: Anton Ayoub, CEO & President, (416) 368-2220 Ext 228, [email protected] Billionaire kidnap kingpin who was recently arrested by men of the Lagos State Police Command, Chukwudi Onuamadike also known as Evans, has pleaded for forgiveness, promising to become a Christian if he is freed.Evans made the appeal while revealing more details into his life as a wealthy kidnap kingpin.The 36-year-old father of five while addressing newsmen also disclosed that his mother was aware of his life of crime but she was never in support.According to Evans, My mum has never been to my house. She knows Im into crime but never supported me.I started in Anambra state during the tenure of Peter Obi as the governor of the state when a hunch man introduced me to kidnapping.We were later forced to leave Anambra state and moved to Edo later Lagos. I had boys.I had boys from Warri, Delta state who worked for me. The first job I got in Lagos was at Johnbulls Ikoyi as a driver to the CEO. One day we were going to his office and my boss said that he wanted to visit a friend. The moment he stepped into his friends house, I took the sum of N350,000 he had in the car and ran away to Ghana he continued.I later returned to Nigeria after few months and avoided Ikoyi where my ex-boss office is situated. I then got a new job as a driver in the fashion I did before. I also stole N600,000 and eloped to Ghana again.I returned to Lagos in 200 and used my old method to secure another job as a driver at the home of the first family I kidnapped their daughter. When I realised that they are very rich and loved their daughter deeply. I took the girl to Ghana from where I demanded a ransom of only N20m but the girls father paid N22m instead. I then freed the girl in Ghana.Once I got this money, I ventured into an extravagant lifestyle and bought a house in Ghana. Then, I bought over five exotic cars and a truck. I began to show prominently in social functions where people hailed the way I was spending money.I spent over N2m on orphanages and local primary schools in Ghana. The Deputy Nigeria Ambassador to Ghana and other prominent Nigerians were also in attendance at the handing over ceremony of my donations.Early this year, I was arrested along with my wife, in Lagos. We were brought to the court but we later regained our freedom due to the power of my money and connections.I have to admit, I have done wrong and I have caused pains to several families but I want to live and pay for my evil crimes.I heard several stories about SARS and their operations but I never thought that I would one day be brought here for reckoning.I am just asking for another chance, I am sorry for my action, I will become a Christian, if only I have another chance. I cannot remember the number of people I have kidnapped so far. I took part in high profile kidnappings in Edo State where I got N10million as my share. Senator Dino Melaye, has called for the declaration of a state-of-emergency in Kogi, saying there was insecurity and anarchy in the state.His call at the Senate plenary on Tuesday was against the backdrop of two alleged assassination attempts on his life. The Senator represents Kogi West.Melaye, who came under Order 43 of Senate Standing Rule, prayed the senate to order the Inspector-General of Police to immediately undertake an audit of the police armoury in Kogi command.He said he would move a motion for the upper chamber to prevail on the Federal Government to impose emergency rule in the state.He claimed that before the Gov. Yahaya Bello assumed office, Kogi never experienced the high number of kidnappings, killings and anarchy as being recorded currently.On Monday l left my village and arrived at Lokoja in the company of Directorate of State Services (DSS) operatives and Police.When I arrived at Lokoja, I phoned the state Director of DSS that I had an intelligence report that the governor brought in assassins to kill me and the DSS director provided a truckload of DSS men to accompany me.I also called the Commissioner of Police and we were halfway talking and the line went off and I put a call to the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal Department.I told him that I was in town and that I had few places to go and I wanted to also go to the Federal Medical Centre to pay the bills of indigent civil servants.He alleged that the patients could not pay the medical bills because the state government had not paid their salaries for 15 months, adding that some of them needed surgery.Melaye said that the Constitution empowered the President of Nigeria to issue proclamation of state of emergency in state, adding that there was breakdown of law and order and public safety in Kogi.In his remark, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary said, Speaking on behalf of this Senate, I must condemn what happened in Kogi.Section 14 (2) of the Constitution is very clear on the primary purpose of government which is the security and welfare of the people and government must not be seen abdicating that responsibility.So, I want to appeal to both State and Federal Government to ensure that the citizens are protected and also their property.We cannot have a situation where this government will sit by and watch people taking laws into their hands and behaving as if there is no law and order in this land.We need to be serious; we need to be firm. Government needs to ensure that people are not allowed to take laws into their hands and of course, the reckless statement that we are hearing from here and there.Government needs to do something about it. The unity of this country cannot be compromised and the security of individuals must be assured.This is condemnable and we will never allow this to continue in a democratic society, Ekweremadu said. According to a new report by Sahara Reporters, some sources within the presidency claim that the wife of President Buhari, Aisha Buhari, w... According to a new report by Sahara Reporters, some sources within the presidency claim that the wife of President Buhari, Aisha Buhari, was not allowed to see him when she traveled to the UK last month. Recall that Mrs Buhari departed Nigeria for the UK to see President Buhari on May 30th and returned on June 6th, just a week after her departure. The online medium claim that members of the cabal prevented Mrs Buhari from seeing her husband. Read the report after the cut... President Muhammadu Buhari was not allowed to see his wife during her recent visit to the United Kingdom, presidency sources informed SaharaReporters on Tuesday. In the stunning disclosure, the sources affirmed that the president has been kept away] from several of his aides and even those bodyguards who supposedly traveled with him. The President's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari who also frequents London to take care of himself, is still the manipulator-in-chief, according to the sources. Furthermore, SaharaReporters learned that Mr. Buhari has not spoken to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for several weeks following his departure from Abuja for a second round of medical treatment for an undisclosed medical condition suspected to be cancer. The sources gave the example of Wednesday last week when members of Buhari's cabal called the Acting President and asked him to await a call from the ailing President, pointing out that no such call was received except one that was just a few seconds of hellos before the person hung up the phone. SaharaReporters also learned that the public declaration by Orji Uzor Kalu, a former Governor of Abia State, that he met Buhari in London is a complete fabrication as Buhari did not at any time receive the Mr. Kalu, who recently decamped to the presidents All Progressives Congress party. One particular presidency source told SaharaReporters they suspect Kalu was using that gimmick to intimidate the judge who is trying him for corruption, considering that he wore a turban to court a few days later. Our sources confirmed that Buhari is incommunicado, and is only reached by two aides, Tunde Saburi and Sarki Abba, who have maintained stoic silence about his condition. It is notable that when Mrs. Buhari returned from her recent trip, she sent messages to her family members in Adamawa claiming her husband was recovering fast but asked for intensification of prayers. The cabal reportedly reduced access to Buhari in an effort to control information leaks to the public. The cabal reportedly as far as forging Buhari's signature so as to give the impression that he is still in control even after Buhari himself had handed over power to his vice, trying to create the impression that he is still in charge. Mr. Kyari is said to be in charge of all the behind-the-scene moves. It was he, they claimed, who a few days ago passed a fake document to Garba Shehu, one of Buhari's spokespersons, claiming that Buhari had given Osinbajo the go-ahead to sign the 2017 budget. According to their account, Osinabjo had already decided on the date he would sign the budget, a decision that was delayed only by a last-minute discussion to include some projects such as the Lagos-Apapa Port road repairs. They said they were not surprised at Mr. Shehu's fake statement claiming Buhari sent a letter granting the Acting President the right to sign the budget. Buhari is said to be rather unaware of his environment, his memory somewhat affected. For instance, on his way to the UK, he was said to have asked if he was on his way to Sokoto. Our sources said that the cabal working with Buhari might bring him back the same way he was returned in February, in a scheme to use his presence to perpetrate more fraud and control power. Senate Presient, Bukola Saraki, has reacted to ruling at the Code of Conduct Tribunal sitting in Abuja which discharged and acquitted him o... Senate Presient, Bukola Saraki, has reacted to ruling at the Code of Conduct Tribunal sitting in Abuja which discharged and acquitted him on Wednesday. The case which bothered on false declaration of assets started in September, 2015. In a statement by his Special Assistant, Bamikole Omishore, Saraki recalled that he at the beginning of the trial, maintained that he would clear his name. It reads further: The conclusion of this trial has vindicated my position. With the outcome of this case, our faith is renewed in our courts and our hope is restored that the judiciary in our country could indeed provide sanctuary for all those who seek justice. I thank the Almighty Allah, the ultimate Judge and the repository of all powers. He alone has brought about this victory. I am immensely grateful to all my colleagues in the National Assembly for their abiding support. All through my trial, they demonstrated their strong conviction about the choice we all decided to make two years ago. I thank members of my family for their unflinching support. I thank all friends and supporters back home in Kwara State and across the length and breadth of our country for their prayers and their sacrifices. My gratitude also goes to all members of my legal team for their tireless efforts to ensure the cause of justice is served. After undergoing the crucible of a tortuous trial, my vindication today calls for celebration. It is my belief however that if there should be any celebration at all, it should be a celebration of the hopes that this judgment gives us as citizens that despite all the challenges that we face as a country, we are well on our way to building a country where the innocent needs not be afraid. L I therefore urge all my supporters to refrain from any unbridled triumphalism. The challenges that our country faces today are enormous and do not allow for wanton celebration. Instead, we should all reflect on the significance of this moment and what it meant for our democracy. On a personal note, I harbour no grudge against anyone, regardless of the role they might have played in the persecution that I had endured in the last two years. I believe that If my trial had in anyway given hope to the common man that no matter the forces arraigned against him, he can still get justice in our courts, then my tribulation had not been in vain. Once again, I thank my colleagues in the 8th Senate for standing firm. Regardless of the distraction of my trial, we have achieved more as legislators than the previous Senates. Now that this distraction is over, we can even achieve so much more. We must now proceed from here with greater vigour to deliver on the expectations of Nigerians and show that this 8th Senate can indeed play a central role in improving the quality of lives of our people. Lastly, I thank all the gentlemen of the press for your abiding interest in this case, which I believe had contributed in no small measure in ensuring that truth and reason ultimately prevailed. The acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, read the Riot Act to all those beating the drums of war across the country, saying the full force of the law would be applied where necessary.Osinbajo gave the warning while addressing leaders of thought from the northern part of the country at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.The meeting, which was held behind closed doors, was called in the wake of the recent notice to quit some youths from the northern part of the country handed down to people from the South-East to leave their region.Osinbajo, in his opening remarks before journalists were asked to leave the venue, said the Federal Government was determined to ensure unity in the country.He said hate speeches and other divisive behaviours would be met with the full force of the law.He said government would take very seriously any attempts to cause violence or disrupt the peace of the country.The acting President said, As a government, we are determined to ensure the unity of the country along the lines of our constitution and I want to say that hate and divisive speech or divisive behaviour where it is illegal will be met with the full force of the law.I want to ensure that there is no doubt at all that it is the resolve of the government that no one will be allowed to get away with making speeches that can cause sedition or that can cause violence.This is especially so because when we make this kind of pronouncement and do things that can cause violence or destruction of lives and property, we are no longer in control. Those who make those speeches are no longer in control.So I want to emphasize that government will take very seriously any attempts to cause violence or disrupt the peace of this country. And that is very important because you cannot control violence once it begins.Osinbajo likened violence or hate speech to a stone thrown in the marketplace which would hit targets that would be deadly.He said Nigerians needed to be fully conscious so that they would not create a crisis that was not intended.Osinbajo admitted that as part of living together, misunderstandings and frustrations would always arise and people would always want to get the best part of the deal.Those at the meeting included the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin; Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum and former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie; spokesman for the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi; and a former governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko.Others are a former deputy governor of Plateau State, Pauline Tallen; the Publisher of Leadership newspapers, Sam Ndah-Isaiah; Paul Unongo, Chairman, Liberty Radio and Television, Tijani Ramalan; and the Editor-in-Chief, Daily Trust, Dan Ali, among others.Osinbajo is expected to meet with leaders from the South-East separately before he would eventually meet with both groups together.His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, confirmed this in a series of tweets on his Twitter handle on Tuesday.Acting President Osinbajo will start a series of consultations with the Leaders of Thought from the northern and eastern regions of the country this afternoon (Tuesday).Osinbajo will first meet each group separately on different days this week and then meet them together afterwards, Akande wrote.He also confirmed that the acting President met with security chiefs over the weekend on the need to ensure that Nigerians were protected in every part of the country.The acting President met over the weekend with security chiefs and gave firm instructions on the need to protect lives and property of all Nigerians always, everywhere, he added.Meanwhile, the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the North has met with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, over the tension generated by the notice to quit issued by Arewa groups for the Igbo to vacate the North.The meeting also discussed the prevailing security situation in the North especially in Southern Kaduna as well as the alleged marginalisation of Christians by some governors in the region.The Niger State Chairman of CAN, Reverend Mathias Echioda, who confirmed the meeting while addressing journalists in Minna on Tuesday, said CAN in the 19 northern states took exception to the quit notice issued to the Igbo.Though Echioda did not give further details of the meeting he, nonetheless, asked the elders in the North to put pressure on the Arewa groups to withdraw the ultimatum issued to the Igbo. Human right lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to ensure that arrested kidnap kingpin, Chukw... Human right lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to ensure that arrested kidnap kingpin, Chukwudi Onwuamadike also known as Evans is well protected in custody. In a statement he signed, the activist lawyer said Evans should be adequately protected so he can face justice squarely. Falana commended the police for a good job, towards ensuring that crime, especially kidnapping is eradicated in the country. He urged the Force to ensure the prosecution of Evans and his accomplices. The statement reads, The Nigeria Police Force deserves commendation for the recent arrest of a notorious kidnap kingpin, Chukwudi Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans. Since he is alleged to have named his accomplices, they should all be arrested by the Police without any delay. All the members of the criminal syndicate should be charged to court for trial. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, should ensure that the kingpin is adequately protected in custody. This is one suspect that should not be shot dead while trying to escape from custody. If Evans is killed in custody, his evidence will be destroyed to the detriment of the society as his accomplices will continue their nefarious business of kidnapping and killing innocent members of the public. ... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday grilled suspended former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, for five hours at its Abuja head office.Jibrin, a self-acclaimed whistle-blower, arrived at the office of the EFCC around 10am where he remained until 3pm after which he was asked to leave.Sources within the commission said Jibrin was asked to shed more light on the budget process and how some lawmakers allegedly implemented constituency projects through some companies that they owned.An official of the EFCC said, Jibrin came on Tuesday as requested. He was with us from 10am till 3pm.He explained the process of budgeting and how the questionable insertions were put into the budget.A lot of those accused actually have a lot of explaining to do. We will invite all the accused persons separately.Meanwhile, the commission is set to invite the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, Minority Leader, Leo Ogor and the Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.The EFCC had last week blocked over N116m belonging to Ogor.The cash is the outstanding sum in the accounts of five of the six companies owned by Ogor with which he secured contracts from some agencies as constituency projects.The EFCC further claimed that N318m was paid to two of Ogors companies by the Niger Delta Development Commission. The Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has threatened to take legal action and embark on protests if the Ayode... The Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has threatened to take legal action and embark on protests if the Ayodele Fayose administration misapplies the N9.6 billion Paris Club refund.The party said it was aware of the governors alleged move to launch a fresh wave of brainwashing sessions among workers and traditional rulers to distort facts on the Paris Club cash in order to short-change Ekiti people again.It faulted Fayoses claim that the states share of the money was N4 billion after debts and local government deductions.APC insisted that under the Paris Club refund protocol, the cash released to the state was neither subject to debts nor local government deductions because it is a special fund meant for the payment of salaries.In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, APC said it will be on the side of the people and will disallow fraud, selfishness, greed and wickedness to continue to the advantage of one man while Ekiti people suffer as a responsible opposition party.The statement said: We are aware that after our great party, the APC, yesterday (Monday) educated Ekiti people and workers in particular about the details and truth about the N9.5 billion Paris Club refund to Ekiti State, Governor Fayose has begun a fresh and more aggressive propaganda to have his way to selfishly misapply the money. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State on Wednesday said that he had received messages from Fulani threatening him over the anti-open grazing law recently enacted by his administration.Ortom stated this when he addressed members of National Council of Tiv Youths who protested to government house over what they described as outburst and unguided utterances against Tiv nation and the Indigenes of Benue state by leaders of Fulani cattle rearers.The governor said that he would not be intimidated by the threat coming from the Fulani, stating emphatically that the law has come to stay and that the full implementation of the law would commence latest November 2017.Governor Ortom had a few weeks ago assented to anti-open grazing bill passed by the state assembly which prohibits open grazing of cattle and livestock.The law had among others provided that anyone who engages in open grazing in Benue State and on conviction will now be liable to five years imprisonment and provided for monetary compensation in case of any damage to a property and imprisonment of two years of the livestock owner or manager in case of injury to any person in the state.The governor said that the enactment of the law was necessitated following the constant attacks on farmers in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen, adding that he has the constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property of residents of his state.According to him, just this morning (Wednesday) one Fulani called my wife and asked her to warn me that I (Ortom) am joking with them (Fulani), but my response when my wife told me this, is that am not joking, this law has come to stay.I challenge anyone who has superior solution to the senseless killings of our people other than anti-open grazing law should bring it forward, before the passage of the bill by House of Assembly, due process was followed, every nationality living in the state; the Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas/Fulanis and others were invited to the public hearing.Whoever chooses to live in Benue must obey the law of the land, there is no grazing in Benue, I was elected to protect lives and property of every resident of the state, not to preside over dead people.The governor expressed assurance that with the enactment of the anti-open grazing law peace would return to the state.He also said that the enforcement of the law would commence between October and November 2017.Earlier, the leader of the protesters, Mr John Akperachi while addressing the governor had regretted that no herdsmen have been prosecuted over the killings of farmers in the state since 2012.Akperachi called on federal government to prevail on security agencies to arrest leaders of Miyeitti Allah for opposing the anti-open grazing law and laying claim to natural resources of the state.The protesters carried play cards with various inscriptions; Security: call Miyeittii Allah to order, Why value cows more that human lives, Our land, our ancestors, our possession!, ranch your cows now, respect the laws of our land, and we say no to open grazing among others. The Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has denied receiving N24bn from the first tranche of the London/Paris loan refunds. The Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has denied receiving N24bn from the first tranche of the London/Paris loan refunds.He said his government got N14.5bn, contrary to a recent allegation by an online news medium that the state got N24bn but declared N14.5bn.The governor, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media Relations, Mr Francis Agbo, said some disgruntled politicians from Bayelsa were behind all the negative reports on the state.The governor, therefore, called on the people of Bayelsa and the general public to ignore false publications on the state. A former governor of Rivers State and Nigerias Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday said he once rejected N1 billion bribe wh... A former governor of Rivers State and Nigerias Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday said he once rejected N1 billion bribe when he served as governor of the oil rich state. Amaechi, who spoke in Lagos at a forum convened to discuss the place of social media in Nigerias political and socio-economic development, said the social media contributed to the erroneous perception Nigerians have about him. The minister, who said he rejected the bribe because of his principled stance on corruption, said Nigeria needed to go back to its value system. My first confrontation with bribe was with a big contractor in Rivers State. After awarding the contract, he brought a billion naira. I screamed. I asked, where did you get the money? and he said from what he got (from the contract) and I said look, that means you over quoted the contract. I said the only reason you are giving me N1 billion was because if the contract was N32 billion, you made it N37 billion. I have been special assistant to the governor for two years; speaker, eight years; governor, eight years; minister nearly two yearsthats nearly twenty years. So I know Nigerian politics well. Very, very well, he said. Mr. Amaechi argued that in spite of its positive uses, the social media is capable of destroying Nigeria if not checked. He said, Social media can destroy this country, true or false? Just look at Biafra; and thats why Nnamdi Kanu can say all he is saying and still get a forum. Most politicians pay young men to post all sorts on social media. While commenting on attacks launched against him on social media, the minister said falsehood spreads online because Nigerians do not verify information. I was governor for eight years, for about seven years people used to say this man is arrogant, how did they suddenly say this man is corrupt?, he said. PDP used to say Amaechi is our response to Fashola. So when did they suddenly say Oh, he didnt do anything. And I say to people, because somebody just went to pay AIT money and, on social media too, theres no rule. AIT came to put some things on their television, then social media came to write nonsense. The first time they attacked us we came out with document. But they (social media users) dont verify. On the controversial $43 million Ikoyi fund, Mr. Amaechi said people claiming that he owned the money were peddlers of false information. When they said that I owned $43 million Ikoyi money I made just a one-page reply: I dont even own a house in Lagos. I thought people would have said, Ah, eight years as governor, he should be a very rich thief, so he should be able to get a property in Lagos and use it as a form of investment. Nobody! Many people started celebrating, Its Amaechis money, its Amaechis money. But people who know me know (that) if I have money, you will know. When people meet me and I am not able to spend, it is just basically because I dont have money The important thing is, money doesnt govern me. But social media twist it the other way; so the problem with social media (users) is that they misinformthey dont verify their information, they have no rules. Only decent ones. Amaechi said he was principled and Nigerians do not value principled people. Nigerians say I am stubborn, am I stubborn?, he asked. His question generated echoes of Yes! from the audience. Stop there, he continued, Let me tell you why you are wrong: once you are a principled man, then you are stubborn. Nigeria doesnt have any word called principle, Amaechi said. It just shows that we need to go back to our value system, so that we can put a place where we can add principlewhere they can give you money and you look at the man and tell the man, keep the money. Commenting further, Amaechi said the removal of Goodluck Jonathan as Nigerias president, was a bigger threat than Biafra. The removal of President Jonathan was a bigger threat than Biafra. Nigeria was inching towards the civil war. So, forget the talk about secession; Nigeria cannot breakup, Amaechi said. He also said that the social media would play an important role in the 2019 general elections. A 45-year-old suspected ritualist, who was arrested by the Police in Lagos with a human skull, has disclosed that he sold fresh human s... A 45-year-old suspected ritualist, who was arrested by the Police in Lagos with a human skull, has disclosed that he sold fresh human skull for N1 million. The suspect, Lucien Tusume, was arrested at Iraye village in Sagamu area of Ogun State, following intelligence report.This is just as the command arrested six suspected members of a robbery gang that invaded a hotel in Agbara area of the state, Monday. Explaining the circumstance that led to the arrest of the suspected ritualist, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous-Cole, said some policemen, who disguised as buyers, contacted the suspect for a human skull.The suspect reportedly agreed to sell a dried skull for N150,000 to the undercover operatives, but the officers bargained for N81,000 which he accepted. It was gathered that the suspect later took the dried human skull to the buyers, and he was subsequently arrested after payment was made to him. During interrogation, the suspect disclosed that the dried skulls were sold between N80,000 and N120,000, adding that fresh human skulls were more expensive.He said: I sell fresh skull for N1 million. He was, however, silent on how he gets the skulls.The suspect, according to Famous-Cole, had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, where investigation to ascertain where and how he usually got human skulls would be carried out.He advised parents to keep a watchful eye on their children and wards at all time. Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday met with elders and leaders of thought in the Northern states at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.... Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday met with elders and leaders of thought in the Northern states at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He warned youths in the North that the Federal Government will not take the threats issued to the Igbos lightly. The parley also had in attendance the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief of Staff, Service Chiefs and other top officials of government. Osinbajos spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a series of tweet quoted him as saying Our country will always be a place where we can always live together in peace Our defining strength is what our constitution calls a nation under God. Any attempt to cause violence. FG is determined to ensure unity of Nigeria & hate speeches where illegal ll be met with full force. Those who make such speeches cannot themselves control what could follow, FG will act to enforce law. The presidency has now released a short clip of the meeting. Indications have emerged of a looming industrial unrest in the Ministry of Defence, MoD, Education, and others following workers restiveness over unpaid salaries, and other benefits including promotion arrears totaling N290billion.Secretary General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, Mr. Bashir Alade Lawal, told Journalists at the ongoing 106th session of the International Labour Conference, ILC, in Geneva, Switzerland, that Labour leaders could no longer control workers restiveness.He contended that the situation in the ministries especially defence and education was getting out of control and lamented that the N10billion released by the government was grossly inadequate, judging that the total indebtedness was N290billion.According to him: If you look at the entire problem you will agree that government is not sincere with workers. This indebtedness is dated back to 2007, and you want to imagine that workers who are working are being promoted as at when due but government is refusing to pay them their promotion arrears. Somebody that has been promoted from level 8 to 9, from 9 to 10, from 10 to 12 and so on, is still earning level 8 salary because the employer, which is the federal government, has refused to do the right thing.READ: APC crisis deepens as NEC members write BuhariSo, this issue has brought these arrears that run to N290billion. And the insincerity of the federal government is demonstrated in the first instance, when the federal government gave out the bailout funds to states totaling about N734billion, the federal government took 52.2 percent of the amount as a result of the revenue sharing formula. Then, the states took their shares. The federal government is asking the states to use their share to pay arrears of workers salaries. But the federal government took its share and diverted it into other use without using it to pay salaries. That is the height of insincerity. So, now the federal government has accepted that there is a problem. I speak with you , the situation is very tensed, workers are very restive and no labour leader can guarantee that the situation will not go out of hand.We are just trying to manage the situation, knowing some of the other challenges facing the country. Now we have come together, including the National Assembly on the issue of this N290billion, the National Assembly has offered a window that we should utilise what is currently in the budget. What is in the budget is N30billion and so the two side would then meet and look at the possibility of packaging a sort of loan or bond to be able to sort this out. So, this N10billion released by the government is just in the interim, to just start doing something. The N30billion in the budget is not what is readily available because of the process involved before it can be accessed.However, the agreement we have with the National Assembly and other stakeholders is that as soon as the budget becomes law, the money will be released immediately. So, from the N290billion, you would have sorted out 40billion, remaining N250billion. With the National Assembly, we are hopeful with the kind of interest shown. Because most of the lawmakers saw what happened during May Day in Abuja where they were evacuated into their vehicles during workers reaction as a result of frustration. So, let us see the result of all these initiatives and hopefully the way we are looking at it that we will be able to sort it out this year. Anything short of that or should they decide to foot drag on this, I bet you even with the leadership of the union, peace will not be guaranteed. Federal Government said yesterday that it is making necessary arrangements to extradite a former Attorney General of the Federation and ... Federal Government said yesterday that it is making necessary arrangements to extradite a former Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Mohammed Adoke, to face charges for alleged fraud.Counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Johnson Ojogbanesaid this day in Abuja.The EFCC charged Adoke and two multinational oil companies, Shell and ENI, to court for their roles in the Malabu $1.1 billion scam.The money was paid by the oil firms into a Nigerian government account in London for OPL 245, an oil block considered one of the richest in Africa.Adoke then authorised the transfer of the funds into private accounts of former Petroleum Minister Dan Etete, in controversial circumstances.Over $800 million of the money was eventually transferred.Most of the money is believed to have ended in private pockets of officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, including Adoke, who has, however, denied any wrongdoing.Justice John Tsoho had fixed yesterday for arraignment of Adoke and the other co-defendants, including Etete.Ojogbane, however, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the matter could not proceed because the EFCC had been unable to get Adoke and other defendants.The matter was adjourned until today for arraignment of the defendants, but up till now, we have not been able to secure the attendance of most of the defendants, because they are outside jurisdiction; that is, they are outside the country.The Federal Government is doing everything within its powers to bring them back to Nigeria so that they can face their trial.The government will take steps, in collaboration with the international police, to locate them and bring them back to Nigeria through extradition, which is a very cumbersome process. But it will be done, Ojogbane said.He said the court adjourned the matter until October 26, after the courts vacation to enable the process of bringing Adoke and others back to Nigeria to be intensified.Adoke, who had initially pledged to make himself available for trial, made a u-turn, saying he feared he would not be treated fairly by the EFCC.The EFCC had in December 2016, charged nine suspects, including Adoke, over the purchase of OPL 245.The Federal Government had also on March 2, filed fresh charges against Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited and Agip Nigeria Exploration Limited, a subsidiary of ENI, for alleged complicity in the Malabu $1.1 billion scandal.Adoke, Etete, Aliyu Abubakar, ENI Spa, Ralph Wetzels, Casula Roberto, Pujatti Stefeno, Burrafati Sebestiano and Malabu Oil and Gas were charged along side the two multinational oil companies. National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, has warned that Nigerians may vote against the party in 2019. ... National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, has warned that Nigerians may vote against the party in 2019. We created a machine that has started a significant move in entrenching democracy in this country. What is democracy? It is the ability to hire and fire, he said. It was the first time that Nigerians had the ability of firing and it has become internalised in our political psyche. We know that we should not make the mistakes of the PDP. We too now know that we can be fired and that is democracy, he added. Oyegun spoke on Tuesday at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, when he was formally presented with the book APC: The Making of a Change Agent written by Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla. Obono-Obla served as the Secretary of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Alliance/Merger Committee. Oyegun urged others who participated intimately in the formation of the APC to document their record of events for posterity. It is important because in a few years, peripheral people like happens today in the case of June 12, sort of claim ownership of an event they know very little about In fact, we encourage all those who participated intimately to document their record of what they think happened, he said. Historians will then later take these slightly different versions considering the perspectives were you were standing to watch the show. And we will eventually have a comprehensive rendition of what happened. It was the first time a merger of that type had succeeded. It is the first time people had the intense nationalism to make the degree of sacrifice that was called for in agreeing to a merger. Oyegun however hailed the contributions of chairmen of parties that merged, ex-vice president, Atiku Abubakar, ex-governor of Lagos state, Bola Tinubu and new PDP entrants in ensuring victory for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. The new PDP members where senators, Reps members, governors under the Peoples Democratic Party that defected to the APC after its formation. We had three party chairmen, and a lot of other individuals- former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and a few others who participated actively. And we must not forget the role that was played by the new PDP. Speaking, Obono-Obla said, The book tells the story of the APC; How the APC was founded; the intense negotiations; support of the governor; and how the APC dethroned an incumbent government, unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. It was necessary for a member of the merger committee to tell the story so that there is no distortion and misrepresentation of facts. This generation and generations to come will read this story and also see how the PDP failed so that the APC will not make the same mistake. Because if we make that mistake, the Nigerian people will punish us as they punished the PDP. We should run a democratic party. I am happy that the APC National Chairman is doing his best and despite all the turbulence, the Party is still one. Present at the book presentation were the APC National Auditor, George Moghalu; National Organising Secretary, Osita Izunaso and National Vice Chairman (South East), Emma Eneukwu. This morning, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) dismissed the charges of false asset declaration against Senate President, Bukola Saraki. ... This morning, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) dismissed the charges of false asset declaration against Senate President, Bukola Saraki. Chairman of the tribunal, Danladi Umar, in his ruling said the prosecution team had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that Saraki was indeed guilty of false asset declaration. With this, Nigerians took to social media to share their views on the ruling. As expected many believe the fight against corruption is a futile effort. See their comments below. With this, Nigerians took to social media to share their views on the ruling. As expected many believe the fight against corruption is a futile effort. See their comments below. Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday read the riot act to purveyors of hate speeches, saying they wont be allowed to destabilise th... Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday read the riot act to purveyors of hate speeches, saying they wont be allowed to destabilise the country.The Federal Government, he said, would ensure the countrys unity, adding that nobody would be allowed to get away with seditious speeches.As a government, we are determined to ensure the unity of the country along the lines of our constitution and I want to say that hate and divisive speeches or divisive behaviour where it is illegal will be met with the full force of the law, the Acting President said at a meeting with some elders from the North at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Some members of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), among other groups, were at the meeting.It was the first in the series of meetings with leaders from the six geo-political zones over the brewing discontent between the North and the Southeast.Last week, the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY) gave easterners in the North 90 days to quit.The ultimatum followed the May 30 sit-at-home observed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the east to mark the 50th anniversary of Biafra.Also yesterday, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha described as nonsensical agitations for Biafra.Osinbajo said those pushing for disintegration by ordering other Nigerians in their domains to quit would face the law.The government, he said, would not fold its arms and allow peace and order to be disrupted in any part of the country.The Acting President said: Every form of violence, every form of hate speech, any stone that is thrown in the market place will hit targets that are going to be deadly. So I need us to be fully conscious of that and the Nigerian people must be made to be fully conscious of that so that we do not create a crisis that is not intended.As part of living together I know that misunderstandings and frustrations will always arise and people will always want to get the best part of the deal but we must be careful to recognise that we can only begin to talk about any part of anything if we are together in peace.These days, wars do not end and I am sure that those who have seen or experienced war in any shape or form will not wish it on their worst enemies.This is not a time to retreat behind ethnic lines, moments like this are not for isolating ourselves, I want to urge all of us here and the entire Nigerian populace to come together and work together.He added: And I want to ensure that there is no doubt at all that it is the resolve of the government that none will be allowed to get away with making speeches that can cause sedition or that can cause violence especially because when we make these kinds of pronouncement and do things that can cause violence or destruction of lives and property we are no longer in control. Those who make those speeches are no longer in control.So, I want to emphasise that government will take very seriously any attempts to cause violence or disrupt the peace of this country. And that is very important because you cannot control violence once it begins.At the meeting were ACF leader Ibrahim Coomassie, NEF leader Prof Ango Abdullahi, who gave his backing to the Arewa youths threat, former Sokoto State Governor Aliyu Wamakko, former Plateau State Deputy Governor Pauline Tallen, Second Republic Minister and Benue State elder Dr. Paul Unongo, Leadership publisher Sam Ndah-Isaiah, Liberty Radio/Television Chairman Tijani Ramalan and Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust Dan Ali, among others.The acting President was supported by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olanishakin.Today, Osinbajo will meet with leaders from the southeast; the regions traditional rulers will take their turn on Friday. On Sunday, the acting president will meet with traditional rulers from the North. A member of the National Executive Committee of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Mohammed Yakubu, has said the North will vote Presid... A member of the National Executive Committee of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Mohammed Yakubu, has said the North will vote President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 even if he is on wheelchair. Yakubu made the remark while faulting the calls by a cross section of Nigerians that the President should resign due to his ill-health. An All Progressives Congress aspirant in the Osun-West senatorial district, Chief Ademola Adeleke, may have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the July 8 senatorial by-election.A chieftain of the PDP, who pleaded anonymity, said this while speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, on Tuesday.The PDP chieftain said Adeleke would contest on the platform of the opposition party.He said, We have been talking to our leaders and members on this. We want to win this election and we know that he is popular. Adeleke will contest on the platform of the PDP.The APC has decided to clear Mudashiru Hussain despite his disqualification and the Adeleke group is aware that the APC primary would be manipulated to favour Hussain.One of the supporters of Adeleke, who pleaded not to be named, confirmed this to our correspondent on the telephone.He, however, said the camp was waiting for the PDP to break the news.Adeleke could not be reached as calls placed to his telephone indicated that the line had been switched off.His media aide, Mr. Olumide Lawal, did not pick the call placed to his telephone to confirm or deny the insinuation.But the Chairman of the PDP in Osun State, Soji Adagunodo, confirmed the defection of Adeleke to the PDP via a text message to our correspondent.The Secretary, Adeleke Support Group, Alhaji Saheed Afolabi, who is a chieftain of the APC, said Adeleke had picked the PDP nomination form to contest the primary expected to hold on Wednesday.He said, Otunba Ademola Adeleke has picked the PDP nomination form. You will see him at the PDP primary election tomorrow. He is only going for affirmation because the PDP has talked to their aspirants and they have all agreed that Ademola Adeleke should be given the ticket.The APC Screening Committee disqualified Senator Mudashiru Hussain, the Appeal Committee disqualified him but the NWC, after an intervention by some powerful persons, manipulated the whole thing and overturned it. We know what they mean but we are also ready for them.The entire people of the Osun-West senatorial district are solidly behind Ademola Adeleke. They cannot stop him and he is going to win this election. Our appeal to INEC and the acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, is that they should not allow the desperate APC leaders in Osun State to use them to rig the election. Aspirants for the Osun West Senatorial District By Election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party have stepped down for Chief Ademola Adeleke.Adeleke defected to the party last night.The aspirants said they decided to step down based on the appeals from the leaders of the party from within and outside Osun State.Colonel Olayiwola Falabi (retd), who was the first to address the PDP delegates, said all aspirants agreed to step down for the new entrant.A former Minister of Youth Development, who, also represented the district at the Senate at a time, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, also announced that he had stepped down.Olasunkanmi said, I stepped down for the party. Imo State Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, has announced plans by the state command to confer posthumous promotion on the two officers,... Imo State Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, has announced plans by the state command to confer posthumous promotion on the two officers, Sergeant Chukwudi Iboko and Sergeant Sunday Agbo, killed during a bank robbery in Owerri, the state capital in February this year. This awards come as Zenith bank where the police officers were stationed, also released funds as compensation to the deceased families. The CCTV footage of the bank robbery went viral last week with many Nigerians calling for the families of the brave mobile police officers to be adequately compensated. (Watch video Sergeant Chukwudi Iboko was the officer who ran out of the security post during the robbery attack. He succeeded in killing one of the robbers before running out of the security post. Many Nigerians have applauded him for the bravery he displayed during the attack. At a press briefing in Owerri yesterday, the police boss said This awards come as Zenith bank where the police officers were stationed, also released funds as compensation to the deceased families.The CCTV footage of the bank robbery went viral last week with many Nigerians calling for the families of the brave mobile police officers to be adequately compensated. (Watch video HERE Sergeant Chukwudi Iboko was the officer who ran out of the security post during the robbery attack. He succeeded in killing one of the robbers before running out of the security post.Many Nigerians have applauded him for the bravery he displayed during the attack.At a press briefing in Owerri yesterday, the police boss said "Let me state for the avoidance of doubt that the trio of Sergeant Chukwudi Iboko, Sergeant Sunday Agbo and Sergeant Otu Attang, remain our heroes. They were gallant, professional, and courageous; they displayed encouraging passion in defence of lives and property. The Nigeria Police Force, under the able leadership of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has not, did not and will not abandon them and/or their families. As you are well aware, the Nigeria Police Force is a Federal Government agency governed by laws, rules and regulations in all matters, including financial matters. Be rest assured, therefore, that the financial rights, entitlements, benefits and even privileges of these our own shall be fully paid, and on time too. The two deceased officers were recommended for posthumous promotion, while the injured officer was also recommended for a special promotion to his next rank. I am very confident that very soon, the Inspector-General of Police will graciously announce the promotions. Similarly, the command is in constant touch with the families of the deceased officers. We have made and will continue to make financial assistance to cushion the effect of the loss of their loved breadwinners. We want to thank the bank for the financial assistance rendered for the burial expenses, release of start-up business funds for the families of the deceased officers, monthly allowances to the families, payment of hospital bills and the promise of scholarship to any level for the families of the deceased officers. You are our partners in the security project and we appreciate you even for understanding to bankroll the further treatment of our injured and gallant Sergeant Otu Attang.he said A go-fund me account set up for the deceased police officers family has gathered over $18,000, exceeding the $15,000 target by those behind the fund raising. The Senate has asked the Ministry of Health at all levels to set up free and accessible mental health stations in all government-owned hospitals and clinics across the country.The Upper Chamber also urged the Federal and State Ministries of Health to embark on mental health sensitisation and awareness campaign, even as it called on the citizenry to lookout for possible symptoms of unhappiness, depression, among others, and seek professional help where necessary.Senators also attributed the increasing rate of suicide in the country to the present economic recession.The resolutions of the Senate were sequel to a motion by Senator Oluremi Tinubu, APC-Lagos Central, titled, Need to Ensure Affordable Mental Health Care for Nigerians.In her presentation, Senator Tinubu said: The Senate is worried about the rising spate of suicide and suicide attempts in Nigeria; Nigeria was ranked 78th happiest nation in the world and 4th in Africa in the 2015 world happiness report;The report published in March 2017 rates Nigeria as 95th happiest nation out of 155 countries. The Senate is concerned that suicide and its attendant causes, namely depression, social and economic problems, low self-esteem, traumatic experiences, physical and emotional abuse, substance abuse, bullying etc. are not alien to Nigerians. Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has revealed the real reason behind the support ex-President of the United Stat... Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has revealed the real reason behind the support ex-President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, gave to the anti-Jonathan movement in the 2015 Presidential election in Nigeria. According to him, Jonathans anti-homosexuality stance which was demonstrated through his signing of the Same Sex Prohibition Bill of 2013 into law pitched him against Obama. Omokri stated this on Wednesday during a live Facebook video. He noted that Obama, out of desperation to clinch a second term in office, promised the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community in the US to fight against any government overseas that opposed the global movement for the acceptance of same sex relationship. The erstwhile Presidential aide said: The reason why the Obama administration turned against Goodluck Jonathan was because Jonathan signed the Same Sex Prohibition Bill of 2013. For Obamas second term, he reached a deal with the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. They supported him but they gave him a condition which reads: You must move against any government overseas that come against their movement anywhere in the world. When Jonathan signed that Bill into law on January 13, 2014; they (Obamas government) turned against him. That is the reason why that administration did everything that they could to remove him. You can also see that the governors that were against Jonathan were invited to the White House, and Obamas National Security Adviser (NSA), Susan Rice, met with them, particularly the Borno state governor Kashim Shettima. Less than a month after, the abduction of Chibok girls happened. Susan Rice (Obamas NSA) met with MKO Abiola when Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar was the military Head of State. She was the one who actually made the (poisoned) tea and served to Abiola. After he drank that tea, he began fuming in the mouth and died. I am not saying she did anything but this was the sequence of events. When this same woman became the National Security Adviser to Obama, she met with Borno state governor on March 18, 2014. Less than a month letter on April 14, 2014 Chibok happened the girls were kidnapped. NEW YORK -- A 33-year-old woman had 27 pounds of cocaine hidden in her wheelchair when she went through customs at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday, authorities said. A woman tried to smuggle 27 pounds of cocaine into the U.S. in her wheelchair, officials said. Yoncela Stanley, of Griffin, Ga., faces federal narcotics smuggling charges after inspectors noticed something unusual about the rear cushion of her wheelchair, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release. Officers removed it and found six bricks containing a white substance which tested positive for cocaine. The street value of the cocaine is about $468,000. Stanley arrived in the U.S. on a flight from St. Lucia. Her arrest is at least the fifth since March in which passengers tried to smuggle drugs through Kennedy airport. In April, two passengers on the same flight to New York from the Dominican Republic were arrested after being found with cocaine taped to their bodies. Earlier in the month, a passenger dressed in a pilot's uniform and carrying fake Delta Airlines identification had five pounds of cocaine hidden in a secret compartment in his suitcase. In March, a man allegedly had 10 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $164,000 taped to his body under his clothes. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. For many reasons - the hypocrisy, the hyperactive right wing echo chamber that missed the central point, and above all, the importance of freedom of expression in the arts - the critics doth protest too much, we-thinks. The show must go on for Shakespeare in the Park's Julius Caesar. After this New York City production cast a Trump lookalike as Caesar, in a gold-plated bathtub with a "pouty Slavic wife," Breitbart News reported with its usual nuance: "Trump stabbed to death in Central Park Production of 'Julius Caesar'." Outrage over Trump-themed 'Julius Caesar' grows as Delta, Bank of America cancel support Fox News piled on, then sponsors like Delta and Bank of America withdrew their funding. Much ado about nothing, really. This idea that Trump is being treated unfairly is nonsense. Conservatives and corporate sponsors - including Delta - supported the play when it was cast with an Obama-inspired Caesar. A reviewer with the American Conservative hailed a New York production in 2012 that included an Obama stand-in and a capital rocked by Occupy Rome protests as "riveting." Other Presidents portrayed as Caesar have included Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln. Each was killed in the middle of the play. We would object if this were a glorification of assassination, like Kathy Griffin's tasteless stunt with the severed Trump head. But anyone who's read Julius Caesar would know it's the opposite: A play about the follies of political violence. The assassination is always gory, but its outcome is chaos and bloodshed, which backfires. The lesson could be weaponized by Trump's supporters: Those who try to defend democracy by undemocratic means "pay a terrible price and destroy the very thing they are fighting to save," as Director Oskar Eustis put it. No federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts went to support his production, but it does have New York City funding. Here's to the city for standing its ground, and we hope others make up for the lost dollars. A key role of theater is to provoke; it shouldn't have to depend on the whims of government or squirming corporate sponsors. Maybe if we funded the arts more robustly, Shakespeare wouldn't have been so misunderstood. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Where shoppers and commuters saw two curbside parking places, the creative minds behind the Arts Council of Princeton saw the potential for an interactive energy playground. And so was born the second of the council's "parklets" - an ordinary utilitarian space transformed as if by magic into a mini-recreational area complete with a bike room, a game room, a library room and more. It wasn't quite magic, of course. The engaging new project, which formally opened on Saturday in Princeton's Palmer Square, took months of effort, as well as a commitment by such diverse partners as NRG Energy, Hamilton Building Supply and Princeton University Architecture. The diminutive park will be in place through November outside jaZams toy store. Under the vision of Princeton architect Joseph Hobart Weiss, the parklet features five separate areas - "rooms" - which offer teachable moments highlighting renewable energy. Parent and kids can pedal on stationary bicycles connected to generators, stretch out on a bench strategically placed below solar panels, or marvel at a small wind farm arrayed on the roof. For the literary-minded, there's a reading room with materials supplied by the Princeton Public Library, as well as a game room featuring toys from jaZams. It's an ambitious project, following on the heels of Princeton's first parklet outside of Small World Coffee two years ago. The concept of reclaiming Lilliputian amounts of public space for relaxation and enjoyment is relatively new; San Francisco was one of the pioneers in 2005. According to the AARP's Livable Communities Project, the facilities can be as simple as a row of benches offering rest to weary shoppers, or as elaborate as an enclosed space lined with grass mats for toddlers to crawl on. The common denominator is the desire to create an atmosphere of serenity amidst life's stresses, as refreshing as a five-minute yoga session or a well-earned coffee break. Many parklets, such as the ones in Princeton, represent a collaboration between the host city and local retailers. They can also involve residents and/or neighborhood associations. In addition to boosting spirits, the initiatives are also a boon to commerce. When the San Francisco Great Streets Project conducted an impact study in 2011, researchers found that the presence of the tiny parks led to an increase in foot traffic of up to 37 percent for the adjacent businesses. That the new Princeton parklet offers lessons on renewable energy along with the chance to chill out for a few moments is a bonus. The Arts Council deserves shout-out for pulling it all together, for making life just a little more delightful for residents and visitors. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. TRENTON -- Fulfilling a pledge he made in March to craft legislation that would give some former prison inmates a better opportunity at finding a job, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday announced a bipartisan deal on legislation that would make it easier for criminal records to be expunged. The governor unveiled a trio of bills that prohibit employers from discriminating against people with expunged criminal records, accelerate some expungements, increase the number of convictions that can be expunged and reduce the waiting period to expunge an entire juvenile record. The bills are the product of closed-doors discussions with state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson), who Christie worked with three years ago on "ban the box" legislation that requires companies to wait until they have interviewed job applicants before asking if he or she has ever been convicted of a crime. Cunningham is the prime sponsor of three new bills that Christie says will help former drug addicts and people with criminal records find jobs. "I commend Sen. Cunningham for working with me on this legislation that will return many more recovering addicts to their families, as productive members of society and help break the costly cycle of recidivism," Christie said in a statement. "It prevents a childhood or adolescent mistake from ruining someone's future, while still ensuring there are appropriate consequences for unlawful behavior and lessons are learned," he said. "These reforms represent a second chance at life for our family members, friends, neighbors and coworkers, and they provide the same opportunities we would desperately want for ourselves." Cunningham, who was in the audience at a forum for prisoner reentry when Christie announced he wanted to sign reforms before leaving office, echoed the governor's comments. "A minor criminal offense should not lead to a lifetime of punishment," Cunningham said. "These bills are about removing barriers for residents and helping them to overcome the obstacles that exist to finding employment, taking care of their families and setting their lives on the right path." The first bill (S3306) would strengthen ban the box legislation to include language in the original bill for people who had their records expunged. Another bill (S3308) cuts down the waiting period to expunge an entire juvenile record from five years to three years. The other bill (S3307) in the trio would make changes to expunging criminal records, according to the governor's office. They include: * Allowing a petitioner to expunge up to four, instead of three, offenses or multiple offenses that occurred within a short timeframe, if the petitioner has not been convicted of any prior or subsequent offense. * Reducing the expungement eligibility waiting period from 10 years to six years, following the latest of any conviction, payment of fine and completion of probation, parole or prison sentence. * Further reducing the expungement eligibility waiting period if satisfaction of a fine or restitution is the petitioner's only remaining barrier and the court finds that the expungement is in the public's interest. * Aligning expungement and sentencing statutes, allowing expungement for possession of marijuana with the intent to sell up to one ounce, which is the threshold for a fourth-degree crime. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. TRENTON --Warren County Republican leader Doug Steinhardt has withdrawn his name from consideration as New Jersey state GOP chair after Gov. Chris Christie appointed his wife to the state parole board, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno announced Tuesday evening. "When I read today for the first time that his wife was nominated by the governor to be a member of the parole board, I thought the optics were bad," Guadagno said at a public event in Hamilton shortly after the decision was announced. The lieutenant governor, who is the Republican nominee in the race to succeed Christie, said Steinhardt will be replaced by former Hackettstown Mayor Michael Lavery. Guadagno said she only learned of the appointment of Steinhardt's wife, Trudy Steinhardt, "for the first time at about 4 o'clock" on Tuesday. Steinhardt, who has been the Warren County GOP chairman for over a decade and had been Guadagno's choice to lead their party, said the appointment created the appearance of a quid pro quo that neither Steinhardt nor Guadagno could tolerate. "I have spoken with the lieutenant governor and she agrees with this decision. I've known Michael for many years and I am confident he is the right choice to lead the Republican State Committee and its candidates to victory," Steinhardt said in a statement released to media late Tuesday evening. "Doug had to choose: 'Do I get my dream job or does my wife get her dream job?' Having been in that position as a woman who works, you know, he made the right choice," Guadagno told reporters Tuesday evening. Trudy Steinhardt, who resides in Phillipsburg with Doug Steinhardt, is currently a senior probation officer for the Warren County Court. She made $81,559.48 last year, according to state salary records. Her new position as an associate member of the state parole board pays $116,000 a year, according to state salary data. Lavery, a partner at the law firm of Lavery, Selvaggi, Abromitis & Cohen, served as the mayor of Hackettstown from 2005-2011. He also served as Republican State Committeeman for Warren County and as legislative aide to former state Sen. Leonard Lance, who's now the GOP congressman for the 7th District. Lavery will replace state GOP chairman and Saddle River Mayor Sam Raia, who served as party chairman since 2011. On Tuesday, the governor also named Robert Balicki of Millville and reappointed Robert Riccardella of Wood Ridge to associate members of the state parole board. Balicki retired as warden of the Cumberland County Jail in January after eight years in that post. With his reappointment Tuesday, Riccardella -- a former police commissioner of the Borough of Wood Ridge -- begins his third term on the parole board, having been nominated by both Christie and former Gov. Jon Corzine. The state parole board conducts more than 2,400 hearings per year, and assigns parole officers who supervise more than 15,000 offenders statewide, including all registered sex offenders. Meanwhile, at Tuesday's meeting of the Republican state committee, Lynda Pagliughi was elected vice chair, Irene Kim Asbury was named secretary and April Bengivenga elected as treasurer. Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. TRENTON -- A state Superior Court judge on Wednesday dismissed state lawmakers' lawsuits against Gov. Chris Christie's $300 million Statehouse renovation, knocking down the final barrier to the extensive renovation of the historic Capital complex. Judge Mary Jacobson declared the case brought by Republican and Democratic lawmakers moot, finding the financing scheme they objected to could not be unraveled. "The court finds that there's no effective relief that can be issued by the court at this point," she said. State Assemblyman John Wisniewski and state Sen. Raymond Lesniak said they will now consider whether to appeal but suggested Christie would act swiftly to commence construction. "I'm sure Christie is going to roll out the big wrecking ball this weekend," Lesniak said. "He might be there right now," Wisniewski added. Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) and Lesniak (D-Union), both longtime lawmakers and thorns in Christie's side, argued the cases themselves, even shooting "odds and evens" to decide who would argue first. Lesniak warned Jacobson it was only his second time appearing as a lawyer in court in 15 years. They had sued separately on the basis that Christie routed project approvals through unelected panels in violation of constitutional rules for taking on public debts. The modernization was approved by the State Capitol Joint Management Commission and financed through the Economic Development Agency. The Joint Management Commission is leasing the Statehouse Complex to the Economic Development Authority, which will sublease it back. The state will reimburse the EDA the project costs through rent payments from the state treasury. Lesniak and Wisniewski accused the administration of rushing through the financing for the project -- the funds were borrowed in a private sale the same day the EDA approved the arrangement -- to outrun potential litigation. Jean Reilly, a deputy attorney general, argued before Jacobson that because the bonds had been sold and resold and funds were already encumbered, the complaints were moot. The state does not have enough proceeds left on hand to redeem the bonds and would have to come up with $45 million, Reilly said, knocking the lawmakers for sending out press releases before it was finalized instead of filing lawsuits. "Undoing this will be complicated, but it is that complexity that the state seeks to use to say this is why we can't do it," Wisniewski countered. "And having served in the Legislature for 21 years, it's not the first time I've seen the argument made that what is being done is bad but fixing it is even worse." Jacobson's ruling hinged largely on a state Supreme Court ruling in which a mayor and state lawmaker challenged former Gov. Christie Whitman's Pension Bond Financing Act. That case was dismissed as moot because the bonds had already been sold. After the hearing, Lesniak said they probably should have filed suit sooner, "but none of us thought that the governor would be as devious as he was." "It's a crafty manipulation of the law, and unfortunately he's getting away with it," he said. Christie has said the four-year modernization is necessary for "shameful" conditions of the golden-domed capitol. "To leave the statehouse in this condition is an embarrassment," he's said. State Sens. Michael Doherty (R-Warren), Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset), and Richard Codey (D-Essex) also sued. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. TRENTON -- Top Democratic state lawmakers who had been pushing competing plans to repair education funding in New Jersey said Wednesday they have agreed to a deal that would increase state funding by $125 million. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) said their plan would add $100 million in new K-12 funding and $25 million to expand pre-kindergarten. Notably, it would also reallocate $46 million in existing school funding to some of the state's neediest districts, including those that have experienced major enrollment increases. The lawmakers did not immediately say which districts would see a reduction in state aid if the plan is approved by Gov. Chris Christie. The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The deal retains New Jersey's framework for funding public schools, rejecting Christie's call last year for a drastic overhaul that would pump more aid into suburban districts. Importantly, it would eliminate a cap lawmakers had placed on how much a district's state aid can increase in a given year, a major win for districts that had gained many new students but seen little-to-no increase in state funding. In doing so, however, New Jersey could eventually be on the hook for hundreds of millions in additional school aid. Republican leaders have called that spending unsustainable, but Sweeney previously said the state would find a way to gradually meet that commitment. "This is a significant reform that lifts the Growth Cap to provide increased aid to fast-growing districts," Sweeney said in a statement, adding that the plan would begin to phase out an aid formula that provides more state aid to some districts "than they are entitled to receive." Sweeney wanted to increase funding over five years and reverse a stipulation added to the formula by state lawmakers that guarantees school districts at least the same level of state aid they've received in prior years. He threatened to hold up the state budget, due at the end of this month, unless it increased aid for public schools. Prieto has long resisted backing Sweeney's plan, which the senator announced last year. He had objected to any proposal that would reduce a district's aid. This agreement would shift money away from districts considered overfunded based on the current funding formula -- but by no more than 1.5 percent of their budget. Prieto's plan would have added $125 million to help some of the state's most financially distressed school districts for one year. It included the $25 million to expand pre-K. "I'm thrilled at the $25 million to expand preschool education," Prieto said. "Expanding preschool education may be the most significant aspect of this agreement." Though lawmakers described the funding plan as "groundbreaking," it's just a small fraction of the $13 billion the state spends on education funding each year, including more than $9 billion in direct support. The agreement is far from the complete funding overhaul Christie had sought when he introduced his own plan to give every school district the exact same amount of state aid per student. That would have been a windfall for 75 percent of school districts but would have dealt a major blow to districts with the highest percentage of students from low-income families, primarily urban districts that Christie criticized for high spending and low graduation rates. He gave up that plan in February, instead challenging the Democratic leadership to work with him to devise a new formula within 100 days, a deadline that passed last week. NJ Advance Media staff writer Adam Clark contributed to this report. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. WASHINGTON -- Joel Massie won't be spending Father's Day with his dad this year. The 13-year-old Metuchen boy's father was deported last month as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration. Arino Massie had been living in the U.S. for 16 years after fleeing persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority Indonesia. "I am sad that he can't live the dream of a life in America with his family," Joel, a U.S. citizen, said at a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday as U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th Dist,) and others vowed to work to allow his father to return to the U.S. Trump pledged during the campaign to deport all 11 million unauthorized immigrants. He also said he would make criminals his top target. "We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out," Trump said during his third debate with Hillary Clinton. After becoming president, Trump signed executive orders on immigration that has led to stepped up enforcement. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 41,318 individuals were arrested by deportation officers between Jan. 22 and April 29. During a similar period a year ago, they arrested 30,028. While the enforcement agency said criminals and those who repeatedly violated immigration laws are among the top priorities for deportation, it's also arresting long-time residents with families, such as Massie, who had been allowed to remain in the country as long as he regularly checked with immigration officials. "Arino Massie isn't a bad hombre but a good father," Menendez said. "He isn't a criminal but rather a casualty of a mass deportation agenda." Pallone said Massie missed a legal deadline for requesting asylum. He has introduced the Indonesian Family Refugee Protection Act, giving refugees another chance to apply for asylum if their initial request was rejected solely because they missed the deadline. "We have here kids who are going to be without their fathers who were detained and deported on a technicality," Pallone said. At the press conference, Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park said Massie was punished because he obeyed directives and regularly checked in with immigration officials. "Honesty is what leads you to become a low-hanging fruit," said Kaper-Dale, the Green Party nominee for New Jersey governor. "I'm so sorry we have removed your dad. We will fight and highlight this until we see something change." Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. The law firm of Hoffman DiMuzio has allocated close to half a million dollars to its "Gift of the Heart" Community Scholarship Foundation. Forty-one graduating seniors from Gloucester and Salem County high schools have been selected to receive a $1,000 scholarship for embodying the service ideals of the program. This week, the 2017 "Gift of the Heart" Hoffman DiMuzio Community Service Foundation recipients are from Woodstown High School -- Mikayla Morrell and James Bates. Mikayla Morrell -- At a young age Mikayla Morrell was diagnosed with Celiac disease. Her personal experience dealing with, and ultimately overcoming, her illness inspired her to create 'Silly Acts for Celiac.' To raise money for research, students performed various acts in a talent show. Ultimately the fundraiser has raised over $5,000 for Beyond Celiac, an organization dedicated to awareness and research. Mikayla explains that she believes there's immense value in all levels of impact, even if only one person benefits from a given project. In addition to creating this fundraiser, Mikayla has volunteered with Inspira Elmer. For one summer she regularly visited patients in the orthopedic ward and aided them in whatever way she could. Primarily this involved providing a friendly person to talk to during a trying time. During this summer she also went on a Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic where she helped to provide supplies to certain communities, decorate a room for an orphanage, and build a house. In her school, Mikayla is a member of the National Honor Society, Concert and Marching Band, Philosophy Club, and the Woodwind Ensemble. James Bates -- There are many means by which a student can give back to his or her community. James explains that his interest in playing the trumpet led him to perform at Memorial Day services and Taps for Veterans Day. He also has helped to run the school blood drive, and aid his church chorus with their equipment set up and sound checks. Beyond these acts of volunteering however, James cites Boy Scouts as one the most substantial means by which he can support his community. With Boy Scouts, James has participated in road cleanups and helped with various Eagle Scout projects. These projects have ranged from retiling a church floor to building a rest area at a ferry boat port. James also planned and executed his own Eagle Scout project. While visiting Fort Mott in Pennsville, he saw that an old communications room was in need of repairs. It began as a concrete room, overgrown with moss. James endeavored to power wash the room, paint the walls, and install two doors to safeguard the space. In his school, James is a member of marching, concert, and jazz band as well as the National Honor Society, Chess, and AV clubs. Congratulations are extended to Ashley Campbell and Kyle Bailey as well as their proud family and friends. Their community service embodies a Gift of the Heart. This item submitted by Bridget Benjamin for Hoffman DiMuzio Law Firm. STATEN ISLAND -- Former Linden police officer Pedro Abad was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison for driving drunk the wrong way on a highway leading to a head-on crash that killed two men. Judge Mario F. Mattei imposed the sentence for the March 20, 2015 crash that left Linden police officer Frank Viggiano and Linden resident Joseph Rodriguez dead and critically injured former Linden officer Patrik Kudlac. "You were a time bomb waiting to explode," Mattei told Abad, noting that the former officer had two prior drunk-driving crashes. "It was a matter of if, not when." Under the sentence, Abad will be eligible for parole after 8 1/3 years, but will likely be denied, lawyers familiar with the case have said. Abad's attorney, Mario Gallucci, said he expects Abad will serve 16 or 17 years in prison. Mattei, in his sentencing, said Abad's statements have always been about himself. The judge said Abad had sent a letter to him requesting that he be placed on probation or given a one-year sentence to demonstrate that even in prison he could be a good citizen. "When I read that request, I realized you have no idea the magnitude of what you did," the judge told Abad. Abad, now with short hair and no beard -- in stark contrast to his appearance during the trial -- gave a rambling 30-minute statement before he was sentenced, talking about his faith in God and about Viggiano and Rodriguez. He asked if he could turn to face the victim's families as he spoke, but the judge advised him to look forward. "If it helps, try to be happy knowing they are literally here right now above us with God. They are happy. They want to see you happy," Abad said. He repeatedly maintained that he has no memory from the night of the crash, which occurred after the men left the Staten Island strip club Curves, and Abad turned the wrong way onto the West Shore Expressway and crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer. "I swear on my life and I swear to God that I don't remember any of this. ... I really am sorry," he said. Abad said taking a plea deal, when he wasn't sure he committed the crime, would be like "looking God in the face and lying," and that he felt like a juror at his own trial, hearing the facts for the first time. Abad also appeared to put some blame on the men who got in his car. "We were four grown men," Abad said. "I did not, or I don't believe I did, force them to get in my car. If I was so belligerent, they should've taken an Uber home. They chose to get in my car." He also had a message for Kudlac, saying he has called Kudlac several times, right after the crash and recently, but he does not pick up. "We were best friends once," Abad said. "I was always there for you. Even when no one was, I always was. I'm proud of you. Know how much I care for you and wish you the absolute best." Before Abad spoke, sisters of the two men who died gave statements, both struggling to speak through tears. Roseann Rodriguez, Joseph Rodriguez' sister, said she has suffered depression and has withdrawn from friends after the crash. She said the loss of her brother continued to haunt her and her father. "I hate you. I don't feel bad for you. I actually hope you die before it comes time for you to be released," Roseann Rodriguez said. "I saw God, too, and he told me his plan for you. He said you're going straight to hell." Kathleen Viggiano, the sister of Frank Viggiano, asked Mattei to impose the maximum sentence. She said her brother was an intelligent man who often worked to help others. "I can only hope Pedro can live with the knowledge he killed two men and that will be a prison sentence in itself," Kathleen Viggiano said. Viggiano expressed a kind thought for Abad. "I hope God forgives you for what you have done," she said. When it was his turn to speak, District Attorney Mark Palladino called Abad "a narcissistic, self-centered, reckless criminal," and showed photos from Abad's Instagram account saying he loved "recklessness" and "chaos." "You are no hero. You are no inspiration. You're just a guy that got drunk at the strip club and killed two people," Palladino said. "You are an inspiration to nobody. You are a lesson on how not to live." Gallucci asked the judge to consider Abad's life outside of his three drunk-driving crashes. "Three days in 29 years and 343 days," Gallucci said, before mentioning several charitable causes Abad has donated money or time to, and the numerous letters written from those organizations to the judge. Gallucci said Abad went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and stopped drinking after the accident, except for one day when he and a friend went back to Central Park, the Roselle bar that he and Kudlac visited before going to the Staten Island strip club. In court Wednesday, Roseann Rodriguez referred to that visit, saying, "How disrespectful was that for you to do to me, my family and the city." Mattei, in his sentencing, criticized Abad for his comments. Abad said he was happy that Kudlac had found another job. Kudlac testified during the trail that he was starting a job at a hospital. "I'm glad you're happy," Mattei said, "but I don't think Patrik Kudlac is happy with his situation in life right now. How anyone could stand here and use the term happy with regard to what happened to those three people, is beyond me." The judge said Abad had never expressed any grief or remorse at the deaths of Viggiano and Rodriguez. "For you to tell me that they are happy in heaven makes me wonder why they were in such a rush to get there. I don't think they were. They're there because of you. And I don't think they're happy about it," Mattei said. "You killed two men. Can you comprehend that?" Mattei imposed the maximum sentence for each count of aggravated vehicular homicide, with all the sentences to run concurrently. Mattei also imposed sentences of charges aggravated vehicular assault, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment, with all sentences to run concurrently, as required under New York State law. Gallucci said that after the sentence was announced, Abad "was fine" and said to him, "I guess it's God's will that I go to jail and I do good there." Palladino noted that in a pre-sentence report Abad said he plans to appeal the verdict. Abad, in his comments, had actually praised the district attorneys for their work. "Yes, it is against me, but you definitely did do a superb job. So, good job," he said. "I believe we are all related. We are all children of God. You are my brothers. God bless you, both." Linden police Chief Jonathan Parham, in a statement issued after the sentencing, said, "Abad had his day in court, and whether he serves a year, or a hundred years, lives were forever altered on that day." "We continue to pray for Frank and Joe, their families, and all those affected by this tragedy," Parham said. The 29-year-old Abad was convicted in May of nine charges, including multiple counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, for the crash. Viggiano, and Rodriguez, both 28, who were passengers in Abad's Honda Civic, were killed. Kudlac, then 23, was critically injured, as was Abad. A toxicologist at Abad's trial said he had a blood-alcohol level of .24 - three times the legal limit - at the time of the crash. Abad's attorney, Mario Gallucci, argued during the trial that the blood sample taken from Abad was tainted with medication he had received from emergency response personnel, and the blood-alcohol estimates were wrong. Kudlac was later forced to resign from the police force because of his injuries, and Abad was fired because his injuries prevented him from returning to work. Before his trial, Abad rejected Assistant District Attorney Mark Palladino's plea offer of a sentence of 7 to 21 years in prison. Read more from today's sentencing on Twitter from @JessicaRemoNJ and @Tom_HaydonSL. Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 2 men robbed man at gunpoint after asking for a cigarette in Treme: arrest warrants In 'EPIC' effort, New Orleans police work to stop officer misconduct before it happens Once elected, members of the Public Service Commission typically have an easy time hanging onto their jobs. Voters dont know much about them or their work, and the only real money in the campaigns has traditionally come from utilities and others Fernando Butch Lecuona, executive director of the CB Community Education Foundation, has resigned effective June 30, the board announced Tuesday morning. Hes leaving us in very good shape, said Barry Cleaveland, chairman of the board. Lecuona has had a good relationship with the board and helped get a rainy day fund started, Cleaveland said. He has grown Kids & Co. the foundations before- and after-school care program and brought some good people on board. Since arriving at the foundation in 2009, Lecuona has organized it into four business units: the foundation itself, which serves as the umbrella organization for its programs; Kids & Co.; the Council Bluffs Alumni Association; and the STARS Scholarship program, which helps adults living in Pottawattamie County earn job certificates, associate degrees and bachelor degrees. I have enjoyed my tenure leading the foundation, Lecuona said in a press release. I have always believed that a person knows when its time to move on, and now is the time. A call made to him was not immediately returned Tuesday night. Lecuona was named to the American Schools Foundation alliances honor roll during the 2014-15 school year. The CB Community Education Foundation also sponsors programs for students in need, a classroom teacher grant program, the Council Bluffs Community School Districts teacher and staff recognition programs, annual awards, student awards, attendance incentives and 30 scholarships for high school seniors graduating from the school district. Along with the citys Rotary clubs, it also sponsors the fifth-grade career fair. Three Walnut men and an Avoca man have been arrested and charged with the burglary of a Walnut house where they allegedly stole a washer and dryer, then were spotted by the landlord with the appliances in the back of their truck, according to authorities. Walnut residents Cody Varnes, 20, Jacob Jens, 24, Phillip Houston, 31 and Avoca resident Daniel Rosse, 23, have been charged with third-degree burglary and third degree theft and face up to five years in jail if convicted. On June 9, Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Office deputies were dispatched to a house near Country and Hopley streets for a possible burglary at 3 p.m. The landlord met with authorities and said someone had broken into the house without using force; and several items were missing, including a white hutch, washer, dryer and table saw. The man said while he was having coffee at 5 a.m. that day, he saw a red Chevy pickup truck drive down Atlantic Street with the same washer and dryer in the back, and he knew the driver was usually at Houstons house nearby. Deputies went to Houstons home and found the red truck, along with the four suspects. Rosse told authorities they took the items earlier that day after Houston said they had gotten permission from the landlord. Houston told deputies the previous tenant at the house said it was okay to take the items, not the landlord. I asked Houston why he would go at 4 a.m., and he stated it just worked out that way, the report reads. Deputies contacted the previous tenant who denied giving anyone permission to take things from the house. Jens told deputies it seemed strange to be taking the stuff out of a house at 4 a.m. but that Houston had assured him it was okay. Varnes agreed with Jens. The stolen items were retrieved, deputies said. The four men were arrested and taken to the Pottawattamie County Jail and are being held on $10,000 bond each. Their preliminary hearings are set for June 22. The following editorial was published in The Quad-City Times on June 11: Local governments didnt have a chance when it came to regulating fireworks. Iowa Legislature, hot to remake Iowa in its own image, saw to it. Republican lawmakers were so giddy with the partys unilateral control that 2017 session devolved into a chaotic blur of partisan bills. Long-meandering legislation fraught with pitfalls were rushed through, a show of force about GOP domination that bolstered the conservative bonafides of individual legislators. The legalization of consumer-grade fireworks was among the slew of partisan rush-job. And, unsurprisingly, the Legislatures exuberance to reshape Iowa as quickly as possible left local governments with few options. Officials in Davenport, Bettendorf and Scott County would love to regulate fireworks prior to the Fourth of July. Perhaps its a local ban on use. Maybe its tightened restrictions on when fireworks can be fired. But, thanks to legislative haste, any local oversight simply isnt workable. Unlike lawmakers, city councils and county boards believe in due diligence. Unfortunately, its that very commitment to good government thats undermining them. For years, legalizing the sale and use of fireworks has been kicked around the Capitol. Its been hotly debated. Medical experts warned of missing fingers and third-degree burns. Proponents cautioned against overblown hysteria. But previous iterations would have kicked the actual legalization out a full year. But Iowa lawmakers werent in the mood for giving local governments time to exercise any power. This year was about hammering things through, from sweeping deregulation of guns to closing abortion clinics. The former, mind you, robbed local governments of home rule by limiting their ability to ban firearms from public buildings. And, now, consumer grade fireworks are legal from June 1-July 8 and Dec. 10-Jan. 3, under state law. Ironically, the rush-job has even hindered the state itself. Iowa regulators are struggling to grapple with the licensing paperwork for would-be dealers in time. Ours isnt an all-or-nothing binary that simply opposes fireworks legalization. Its about respecting the purview of local governments. With guns, lawmakers directly undermined local authority. With fireworks, the immediacy of the legislation rendered local action basically impossible. Its an inconsistent approach from Republican lawmakers who regularly rail about the ills of centralized control. But that gripe only seems to apply when its about the federal government and Democrats happen to be in charge. Rants about one-size-fits-all policy suddenly disappear when its the state issuing the edicts or federal institutions happen to share conservative political philosophies. So, now, Bettendorf and Davenport have little choice but to bow to state law without crafting regulations that best fit their individual communities. These concerns could have been dealt with early on, as the bill moved through the committee process, if legislators has any real interest in empowering local governments. It wasnt. Many a local official have thrown up their hands and said it happens anyway. Theres some truth to that, but such defeatism doesnt eliminate the necessity of local regulation. Many of the threats posed by small, colorful explosions differ between urban neighborhoods and rural farmland. But cities and counties throughout Iowa werent granted the time to study and react, which was present in previous stalled iterations of the fireworks bill. It was foisted on them because good policy wasnt the goal in Des Moines. This was about political expediency and sudden unchecked power. Home rule be damned. You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. Great Lakes steel production rose slightly to 630,000 tons last week, an increase of 1.4 percent. Steel mills in the Great Lakes region cranked out 621,000 tons of metal the previous week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Most of the steel made in the Great Lakes region is produced in Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana. So far this year, U.S. steelmakers have produced 39.8 million tons of steel, about 2.6 percent more than they did during the same period in 2016. Steel mills have been running at a capacity of 74.4 percent so far this year, up from 72.6 percent through the same time last year. Domestic steelmakers used about 73.7 percent of their steelmaking capacity in the week that ended June 10, down from 75 percent the previous week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Some analysts say 90 percent would be considered healthy for the industry. Steelmaking capacity utilization was 75.1 percent during the same time period in 2016. Overall, U.S. national steel output dipped by 31,000 tons last week to 1.749 million tons, a 1.77 percent decrease, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Production in the Southern District, the country's second-largest steel-producing region, which spans mini-mills across the South, fell to 623,000 tons last week, down from 665,000 tons the previous week. Gary is throwing open the doors of architecturally significant downtown buildings, both occupied and abandoned, during an open house this Saturday. The Gary Redevelopment Department and AmeriCorps volunteers are hosting an open house across downtown Gary from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that's similar to the popular Open House Chicago, where people explore historic and unique buildings throughout the city. Visitors can check out the Gary State Bank building, the Lake County Courthouse, Gary City Hall, the Gary Land Company Building, the abandoned Union Station, the Old Gary Post Office, the outside of City Methodist Church and the Genesis Towers, formerly Hotel Gary. There will be historic information at each site, and docents can talk about redevelopment plans. "Some structures slated for the open house are in active use while others have been left abandoned," the city said in a news release. "By displaying downtowns historic architecture, the Gary Preservation Tour seeks to tell the history of Gary, Indiana. Furthermore, the Open House will promote historic preservation while branding downtown as a vibrant, walkable space." Tour participants can take part in a tasting event at ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen, 411 E. Fifth Ave., and tour the Human Rights Museum in The Gary Human Relations Commission that's located in the historic Sears, Roebuck & Co. building at 839 Broadway. They also can visit the abandoned General Services building at 900 Madison St. to talk to artist Jan Tichy about his Heat, Light & Water Project. Tichy will talk about his vision for the building and give out art pieces made from salvaged materials. Gary raised more than $9,000 in donations on Patronicity and secured a $7,500 grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority to stage the tour. There is no cost or registration. Tour participants must wear closed-toes shoes and sign waivers. Any out-of-town visitors also could swing by Gary's Miller neighborhood for the Lake Effekt 2017 graffiti expo Saturday or listen to music at the concurrent 2017 Gospel Music and Art Festival in Gateway Park downtown. Visit facebook.com/PreserveGary for more information. INDIANAPOLIS Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb appointed Gary attorney Tony Walker to the State Board of Education for the second time. Walker will serve as a member of the board, filling a vacated term set to expire June 30, 2020. Walker is chairman of The Walker Law Group P.C. and previously has served on the State Board of Education. Walker, who also works with Thea Bowman Leadership Academy charter school in Gary, said, "I look forward to returning to the front line of the fight to improve the quality of education received by all Hoosier children. Gov. Holcomb has a clear vision of where he wants to take the state's education policy, and I look forward to helping him implement it. I am humbled by his confidence in me and will do my best." Holcomb also appointed Kathleen Mote, of Madison, filling a vacated term set to expire June 30, 2020. The governor reappointed Vince Bertram, of Zionsville, and Gordon Hendry, of Indianapolis. All four board terms are effective July 1, 2017. The governor appoints eight individuals to the SBOE, each from a different congressional district. At least six of the eight must have professional experience in education, and no more than five of the eight may be members of the same political party. HOBART A saddened community converged inside the local high school Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil eulogizing a freckled, redheaded, bright-eyed girl whose life was cut short days earlier. Nine-year-old Olivia Hummel, of Hobart, was rushed to the hospital Saturday with a gunshot wound to the head after police say her father was playing with a 9 mm Glock handgun and pointed the gun at her head, fatally shooting her. About 200 family, friends and classmates came out to celebrate the Joan Martin Elementary school student's life. Luminary paper bags with messages for Olivia and her family lined the track as those in attendance shared stories and a moment of silence for the young girl, united in the question of Why? following Saturdays accidental shooting death. I was devastated and shocked. I instantly thought of my own children. I cant imagine what her dad and family must be feeling right now, said one mother, Ginger Hanenkratt, of Hobart, whose daughters went to school with Olivia and her twin brother. Its a shame Officers were called about 5 p.m. Saturday to the family's home in the 100 block of East 10th Avenue, according to police. They found the father kneeling by an unresponsive Olivia, according to police, and Hobart fire paramedics rushed her to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead minutes later. Olivias two brothers told officers at the home that they believed their father forgot he had put the bullets back in the 9 mm Glock when he pointed it at Olivia and inadvertently shot her in the head, according to a probable cause affidavit. After the shooting, the girls father, Eric Hummel, 33, reportedly told an officer on scene that day, "I thought (the gun) was empty, according to court records. Police said he later said in a phone call with Olivias mother, "I shot her. I'm so sorry, court documents show. Stacy Tillberry, of Hobart, said she was shocked when she heard the news. You dont want to believe it. Its a shame that bad things happen to good people, said Tillberry, whose daughter was on the cheer squad team with Olivia. (Olivia) got along with everyone. She was always cracking jokes, Tillberry said. She was always a blast. I miss you so much A community in utter shock gathered Tuesday night at the Hobart High School field house, shifting attention away from the tragedy that occurred and focusing, instead, on the little girls life. Banners and cards from Olivias elementary school teachers and classmates were on display. I miss you so much. I wish I can see you right now but you are in a better place where nothing bad can happen to you, one message wrote. Another read, Your smile lights up any room. Keep shining down on us. School Principal Kacey Allen read aloud teachers memories of Olivia, many of whom noted a brave child with a spunky personality, a knack for drawing and a love for her family. She was definitely loved and knew love to love back, Allen said. A second grader, Peyton English, loved playing freeze tag with Olivia. I used to play with her a lot, Peyton said, as his mother, Michelle English, gently patted him on the head. And I miss her a lot right now. Jason Hastings, of Hobart, said he posted the candlelight vigil event on Facebook over the weekend and was shocked to see the number of people who showed up in Olivias honor. I just thought it was the right thing to do, Hastings said. Charges filed Olivias father, Eric Hummel, was charged in her death this week with felony neglect of a dependent resulting in death, battery resulting in death of a person less than 14, reckless homicide, and two counts of neglect of a dependent, court records show. At a news conference earlier this week, Hobart Police Chief Richard W. Zormier refused to call it just another accidental shooting, saying he believed the father committed a series of heinous and depraved acts, endangering the lives of all three children and ultimately stealing Olivias life. One officer at the scene Saturday described in court documents how Eric Hummels hands were trembling and his eyes had a red ring around them as he had been crying earlier. Hobart police spokesman Lt. James Gonzales said earlier this week the two surviving brothers were "in good hands" and the Indiana Child Protective Services are actively involved. Police said their mother wasn't at home at the time. A probable cause affidavit filed in Lake Criminal Court alleges the two brothers were cleaning the house and preparing to go to a summer festival when their father walked in and began telling the boys not to play with his gun. The boys told police Hummel had aimed the weapon at one of the boys and pulled the trigger more than once, prompting one of the boys to run from him. They said they heard a popping noise when their father pulled the trigger, so they believed the gun was unloaded. An officer asked one of the boys whether their father pulled the top of the gun back, which would chamber a round, and one of the boys advised, "Oh yes, He did that once." Police said evidence indicates Hummel fired the gun within three feet of the girl, who had just entered the room. Gonzalez said Hummel legally possessed the weapon and there were no signs of intoxication. Police said Hummel declined to give police a formal statement, asked to speak with a lawyer and was transferred to the Lake County Jail. An initial hearing for Hummel is set for June 28 in Lake County Superior Court with Judge Clarence Murray. EAST CHICAGO A moment of silence was held prior to Monday's City Council meeting to honor the memory of Councilman Ronald London, D-at-large. Council President Lenny Franciski said London died earlier on Monday. No official cause of death was announced, but several council members speculated that it was related to diabetes. London was retired from the East Chicago Police Department with 25 years of service when at the age of 55 he was chosen just last August from among nine candidates by a caucus of the city's Democratic precinct committee members to fill the seat once held by former Councilman Juda Parks. Parks, an East Chicago police officer, decided to resign from the council rather than continue to fight a state law that would not allow a municipal employee to also hold office in that same municipality. Councilwoman Gilda Orange, D-6th, said she believes London did a good job for the short time he was in office. "He really never was a politician, but he was always a good person, was always a community person, always making sure things got done in the community," Orange said. "He's going to be missed by one and all." Franciski said London was well-respected as a former police officer. "He just came on not even a year ago, but he was picking it up quite well," Franciski said. INDIANAPOLIS The Republican supermajorities in the Indiana House and Senate overwhelmingly voted in accordance with the preferences of the state's most powerful business organization during the 2017 legislative session. A vote analysis released Wednesday by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce found all but one GOP representative and GOP senator supported policies backed by the interest group at least 70 percent of the time. State Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, was the only Democrat in the General Assembly to meet the 70-percent threshold required for potential endorsement by the chamber's political action committee, Indiana Business for Responsive Government. "We want employers and citizens to take note of this report, because it makes it very clear which legislators were supportive of bettering Indiana's economic climate and which were not," said Kevin Brinegar, chamber CEO. Two Northwest Indiana lawmakers earned 100 percent ratings: state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, who shepherded chamber-backed road funding legislation to enactment; and state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, sponsor of several water infrastructure measures supported by business interests. State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, tallied the lowest score in the House 39 percent largely due to his opposition to chamber policies favoring expanding Indiana's charter and private school voucher programs. Across the rotunda, state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, tied for the distinction of opposing the chamber on more votes than any other Hoosier lawmaker with a 29 percent score. One significant Region project was among the roll calls used by the chamber to rank legislators. House Enrolled Act 1144, providing for transit-oriented development near South Shore Line stations, passed the House, 96-4, and the Senate, 49-1. Smith and Randolph both voted "no." Art Van Furniture invites Chicago area families to turn in tattered or torn Old Glories from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and receive new 3-by-5-foot American flags to display proudly and patriotically. The American-built company will ensure the old flags are respectfully disposed of in accordance with the U.S. Flag Code. VALPARAISO Investigators from the Indiana State Fire Marshal's office, ATF and local department are working to find the cause of a fire that severely damaged a retail building in Thornapple Plaza Tuesday afternoon. Assistant Fire Chief Jon Daly said the department is also working with the city's building department to determine if and when the businesses can move back into their building. Daly also said that the ATF and state fire marshals are involved in the investigation since the fire was at a commercial building and because chemicals were involved. Firefighters were called to the one-story brick strip mall about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. When they arrived, flames were visible from the roof and smoke rolled from the building across U.S. 30. Officials believe the fire may have started in Colonial Cleaners & Laundry, where damage was the heaviest. Also damaged was Once Upon a Child children's resale shop, Diva Salon and One Main Financial. Daly said a box alarm was called bringing in firefighters from Union Township, Portage, Washington Township, South Haven and Boone Grove. Porter County EMA and Porter EMS also responded. "With how hot it was, we asked for the box alarm," said Daly, adding the extra manpower allowed them to rotate firefighters more frequently. An air conditioned tent and cooling bus was also brought in. Local businesses donated food. Daly said firefighters were on scene until about 10 p.m. to overhaul the scene and douse hot spots. PORTER The Town Council has agreed to donate surplus air packs and equipment from the Fire Department to a fire department in Chicago. The equipment has not been used since the Fire Department received a grant last year to replace and upgrade its equipment. Council members Tuesday also unanimously approved an ordinance to remove a budget line for the town's MS4 drainage work that was previously done in-house since the storm water board recently hired a consultant to take over those responsibilities. They also agreed to appropriate $150,000 in additional funds from the rainy day fund to purchase a plow truck for the towns public works department. Public Works Director Brenda Brueckheimer told the council that she found a $149,500 truck that was used for demos but has never been titled, saving the town an estimated $25,000 to $30,000 off the purchase price; therefore, the town legally did not have to seek bids. Assistant Fire Chief Jay Craig said the towns new search and rescue dog, Jacob, has just completed his search and rescue training and is ready to go. Parks director Brian Bugajski said last weekends Safety Fest in Hawthorne Park was a success. He thanked the members of the police, fire and parks departments for their efforts, especially while working in the heat. We had over 20 different events, vendors and exhibits, including two helicopters that landed in the park, he said. Bugajski said the parks department will host a free fishing derby for those ages 6 to 12 on June 21 at Indian Springs Park. Interested anglers should register through the park department. He also recommended the lowest bid, $10,400, on a 60-inch zero-turn mower, with funding to come from the park department budget. Police are searching for two men they say assaulted a Bronx deli employee with fruit from the store where he works. Police say the men threw avocados and bananas at the 21-year-old man after a dispute over a food order. It happened inside the Stadium Gourmet Deli on East 161st Street around 4:45 a.m. on May 29. The victim suffered a broken jaw, cuts and fractures to his face. Both suspects are described as 25 to 30 years old. Police say they drove away in a dark-colored sedan in an unknown direction. Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com. WASHINGTON (AP) Attorney General Jeff Sessions heatedly denied on Tuesday having an undisclosed meeting with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. or conversations with any Russian officials about the U.S. election that sent Donald Trump to the White House. He vowed to defend his honor "against scurrilous and false allegations." Testifying at a Senate hearing, Sessions, who was a close Trump adviser during the battle for the presidency, said it was a "detestable and appalling lie" to suggest that he participated in or was aware of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. In his dramatic appearance before former colleagues, Sessions also contradicted a contention made by former FBI Director James Comey at a hearing before the same panel last week. Comey told the intelligence committee that, after an encounter with President Trump in which he said Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into the former national security adviser, Comey "implored" Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the president again but that Sessions didn't respond. "He didn't recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House," Sessions said. The former Alabama senator defended himself against accusations that he misrepresented himself during his confirmation hearing by saying he hadn't met with Russian officials during the campaign. Sessions argued that in the context of that hearing, "my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it." Sessions said he recused himself from the Justice Department's current Russia investigation only because of a regulation that required it because of his involvement in the Trump campaign. He never, he insisted, knew anything about the Russia probe or had any role in it. "Many have suggested that my recusal is because I felt I was a subject of the investigation myself, that I may have done something wrong," Sessions added. "But this is the reason I recused myself. I felt I was required to under the rules of the Department of Justice." And while he had recused himself from the Russia probe, Sessions insisted, "I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations." Despite Sessions' statement about the reasons for his recusal, the attorney general did not actually step aside from the Russia probe until March 2, the day after The Washington Post reported on his two previously undisclosed meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Days after that, Sessions also corrected his confirmation hearing testimony to inform the committee about the two meetings with Kislyak. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon asked Sessions about suggestions arising from Comey's testimony last week that there was something "problematic" about his recusal. Wyden asked Sessions what problematic issues existed. "Why don't you tell me? There are none, Sen. Wyden, there are none," Sessions insisted, his voice rising. "This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don't appreciate it." Sessions lent his support to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is now in charge of the Justice Department's Russia investigation. "I have confidence in Mr. Mueller," he said. At a separate hearing Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, overseeing that effort since Sessions stepped aside, said he's seen no basis for firing Mueller, the former FBI director he appointed as special counsel. He said he would agree to dismiss Mueller only if there were a legitimate basis to do so, and an order from the president would not necessarily qualify. Mueller also won votes of support Tuesday from the top two Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, both of whom said they have confidence in him. As for his role in Comey's firing, Sessions told senators that he and his second-in-command, Rosenstein, had a "clear view ... that we had problems there, and it was my best judgment that a fresh start at the FBI was the appropriate thing to do. And when asked I said that to the president." Asked about Trump's own contention that the president fired Comey with the Russia probe in mind, and regardless of any recommendation from anyone else, Sessions said: "I guess I'll just have to let his words speak for themselves. I'm not sure what was in his mind specifically." Sessions refused to say whether he had ever discussed the Russia investigation with Trump, arguing that he could not disclose private communications with the president. Democratic senators pressed Sessions on the legal rationale for his refusal to discuss those private conversations, as Sessions acknowledged that Trump had not asserted executive privilege around the hearing. He asserted that "I am protecting the right of the president to assert if it he chooses and there may be other privileges that may apply." Ahead of the hearing there had been suggestions that Sessions might have had a third, unreported, encounter with Kislyak, at the Mayflower Hotel in April 2016, where candidate Trump was giving his first major foreign policy speech. Sessions was adamant that he did not have a private meeting with Kislyak at that event. But he did allow for the possibility that he encountered him in a reception that he says was attended by a couple dozen people, though he said he had no specific recollection of that. Democratic senators have seized on the possibility of a third meeting at that event to suggest that Sessions has not been forthcoming about the extent of his communications with the ambassador. Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont have sought an FBI investigation and have requested to be briefed on what the bureau knows about any such encounter. On another hot-button issue, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked Sessions whether Trump records his conversations in the White House. Trump has suggested there might be tapes of his encounters with Comey; Comey said last week that "lordy" he hopes there are. "I do not" Sessions said when asked whether he knows whether the president records his conversations. "I don't know Sen. Rubio, probably so," Sessions added, when Rubio asked whether any such tapes would have to be preserved. Efforts to fund healthcare programs, increase early childhood education and bolster the states economy have all played into the rise in overall well-being of Alabamas children over the last few years, according to state researchers. The increase is shown in the 2017 Kids Count Data Book released Tuesday that ranked Alabama 44th in the nation in overall child well-being, two spots higher than the 2016 report. Only six states are behind Alabama in the ranking: Arkansas, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi. Its a good report for Alabama, but the reality is we ranked 44th in the nation in overall child well-being, said Rhonda Mann, policy and research director for VOICES for Alabamas Children, a nonprofit that seeks to ensure the well-being of children through research, public awareness and advocacy. Weve got a lot of work to do, and were not ignoring that at all. The report, produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, measures the health, education, economic well-being, and family and community of children in the United States. Out of 16 indicators used to rank states, Alabama improved in 11, the most it has seen since the report began in 2012, Mann said. Alabama saw improvements in all four indicators that measure economic well-being for the first time since 2012. Fewer children are in poverty, have parents without secure employment and live in households with a high housing cost burden than they did in 2010. Only seven percent of teens are not in school and not working, compared to 11 percent in 2010. Health measurements Alabama improved in three health indicators including cutting the number of children without health insurance from 6 percent in 2010 to 3 percent. Mann attributed the coverage to funding for programs like ALL Kids, which helps families who may not qualify for Medicaid receive affordable coverage for children based on household income and size. Healthcare funding has teetered over the years, and with possible cuts coming to Medicaid from congress, Alabama legislators set aside $93 million in the 2019 budget to supplement cuts, Mann said. She added that lack of care at an early age can lead to setbacks later on in life. The health of our children is a reflection of the health of our state and our cities and our counties, Mann said. That child coming into the world healthy is going to get off to the right start and wont have to deal with an extra health-related issue when theyre trying to start school. Teens who abuse alcohol or drugs also dropped from 7 to 5 percent, and preventable child and teen deaths per 100,000 dropped from 37 to 35. But low-birthweight babies increased from 10.3 to 10.4 percent. Education factors High school students graduating on time and fourth-graders proficient in reading are up, but the number of 3- and 4-year-olds in school and eighth-graders proficient in math is down. High school students not graduating on time dropped from 28 percent in 2010-2011 to 11 percent in 2014-2015. Mann attributes the progress to programs like Alabamas state-funded First Class Pre-K program. She added that other programs, like career readiness opportunities, will continue to help engage students and lead them to success after graduation. Mann hopes rising reading rates will lead to higher proficiencies in math. We have been at the bottom, and we need to figure out what the solution is, Mann said. The programs may already be in place, and they just havent filtered through to affect the data yet. Family and community Though the number of children in poverty is down, the number of children in high poverty areas is up from 15 percent between 2008 and 2012 to 16 percent between 2011 and 2015. Alabama has several pockets of poverty, Mann said, where households of four earn less than $24,000 a year. However, Mann said education is the key to getting out. Research done on the impact of Alabamas First Class Pre-K program shows the program closes the achievement gap between children in low-income families and their peers by 25 percent, Mann said. Thats why its so important that we are getting to our children early, Mann said. Its not just an impact initially when they start, but it is an impact in some of those foundational things that are being put into place to get them ready to learn and then that they are successful when they start learning. While she celebrates the successes, Mann said Alabama has a lot of ground to cover to reach national averages in several categories. The 2017 Alabama Kids Count Data Book will be released in September evaluating child well-being for each county in Alabama. Sila Sutharat, a roasted chicken street vendor from Phetchaburi, Thailand, has come up with an ingenious way of cooking chicken. Instead of an oven or a charcoal barbecue, he uses 1,000 mobile mirrors that concentrate sunlight into a strong beam. He basically cooks meat with over 300 degrees Celsius of natural sunlight. Like most other street vendors, Sila used to cook his chicken over a charcoal fire, but that all changed in 1997, when a mundane observation gave him a brilliant idea. One day, he was hit by the sunlight reflected off the window of a passing bus, and he felt its heat. I could possibly change it into energy, Sila told himself, and started working on a contraption to capture the sunlight and use it to cook his chicken. Photo: video screengrab They said that Id gone mad, that cooking chicken like this was impossible, Sutharat told AFP about how people reacted to his idea. But he didnt let their jokes and insults get to him, and in the end he was the one who had the last laugh. His invention, a panel featuring 1,000 small, movable mirrors worked exactly as he predicted, allowing him to cook a 1.5 kg chicken in just 10 to 15 minutes. After a long time passed by, theyd say: Actually, you could do it, the vendor recalls. Photo: Media-Wok The curbed metal frame to which the mirrors are attached concentrate sunlight onto a rotating row of marinated chickens. In just a few minutes, the meat and skin starts to sizzle. Suthrat claims that his invention can generate up to 312 degrees Celsius, which is why he always wears a welders mask instead of a cooks hat, when operating it. Photo: Media-Wok Silas solar roaster is an unusual sight that has attracted quite a few curious clients eager to taste Silas sun-cooked chicken. Hes been using this sustainable cooking method for two decades now, and claims its much better than traditional roasting methods. Its virtually free, cooks the chicken evenly, and best of all, its 100% clean. The Phetchaburi Rajabhat University acknowledged Silas ingenious idea and awarded him an honorary science degree. Katrin Kuhlmann, an economic and trade policy pro, has joined Portlands international advisory council. Katrin Kuhlmann The former negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative handled policy regarding Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. She also was senior advisor at the Corporate Council on Africa. Currently, Kuhlmann is president/founder of the New Markets Lab, a non-profit working on law, social issues and economic issues. At Portland, she will advise clients of the Omnicom unit in areas such as pan-African development, corporate philanthropy, global trade and infrastructure. Tim Allan, Portlands group managing director, expects Kuhlmanns internationally recognized reputation across Africa and extensive background in international development and trade issues will benefit Portland and its clients. Agricultural News Ag on Route 66- the Summer Tour of the Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom Program is Rolling in Green Country Audrey Harmon is the State Coordinator for the Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom program- and she is helping lead a tour in northeast Oklahoma this week, showing a group of Oklahoma educators about agriculture and how the food we eat is produced. Audrey is blogging for us on the Oklahoma Farm Report- and here is her report from Day One: "Educators from across Oklahoma are traveling on Route 66 with Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom to experience agriculture up close and personal. The purpose of this trip is to allow teachers to ask questions and interact with agricultural producers in the state in the hope that their Ag Literacy will be increased and they will educate students about agriculture. This trip is sponsored by the Oklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma AgCredit, Southwest Dairy, and a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, so the cost to the educators is minimal. "Tom and Phylis Holcomb greeted teachers at their farm and shared their lifestyle with the teachers encouraging them to ask questions about agriculture and raising beef. Rick and Ginger Reimer discussed Temple Grandin and demonstrated moving cattle calmly, calling cattle to feed, and roping calves. "Teachers were able to pick blueberries at Canyon Berry Farm. Then they moved on to Shepherd's Cross to learn about sheep- teachers participated in carding, spinning and dying wool. Representative Mark Lepak joined the teachers at this stop and welcomed them to Claremore. At Swan's Dairy they were able to see the cows being milked, which was a first for several. "The day concluded with Mike and Martha Armitage becoming the tour guides. Mike joined the teachers on the bus to explain their beef and quarter horse operation. Martha prepared a delicious Chuckwagon feast for supper, including Rib Eye Sandwiches. What a great first day, and there's two more ahead!" The picture above is of Mike Armitage, showing the teachers his cattle ranch via a bus tour. There are more pictures posted on the Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom Facebook page- click here to check them out. WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady NSI Top Agricultural News First there was CRISPR, the molecular scissors hailed in the scientific world and beyond as a faster, cheaper and more precise way to edit the DNA of plants, mice, potentially even humans. But while CRISPR has proved useful at snipping out bits of DNA, some scientists say it has been less effective when it comes to inserting pieces of genetic material or making changes that can switch genes on and off. Now a University of Nebraska Medical Center researcher and his team, with collaborators from seven institutions as far away as Japan, have taken that next step, using a new patent-pending twist on CRISPR called Easi-CRISPR to make the kinds of changes needed to create designer animal models for research on human diseases even more quickly and inexpensively than with the original. In a paper published recently in the journal Genome Biology, Dr. Channabasavaiah Gurumurthy and his collaborators reported that they were able to insert long sequences of DNA at 13 points on CRISPR-cut mouse genomes, with success rates of between 8.5 percent and 100 percent. Gurumurthy, assistant professor of developmental neuroscience at UNMCs Munroe-Meyer Institute, noted that the results with three genes were 100 percent and most were more than 40 percent successful. The point of this one is, you can insert genes, you can modify genes very easily, he said. Being able to create designer animal models allows scientists to identify the basic function of genes, study the role they and their mutations play in human disease and disability and explore the use of gene therapy, new drugs and other treatments, said Gurumurthy, the papers lead author. Other members of his team are Rolen Quadros and Donald Harms. Researchers from several other UNMC departments also were involved. Scientists began using whats now called genetic engineering to inactivate, or knock out, single genes in mouse embryos some 40 years ago. Using such knock-out animals, researchers have systematically determined the function of roughly 5,000 of the approximately 20,000 genes in the human body, which are largely the same as those in mice. But those efforts, funded by organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, have cost about a third of a billion dollars and left about 15,000 genes to go. As a result, scientists and research organizations have been looking to speed up the process and trim the cost. CRISPR came on the scene in 2013. Derived from a defense mechanism bacteria use to fend off viruses, it refers to a system with a guide RNA that leads to the correct place in the DNA to cut and an enzyme that does the slicing. But it still has proved somewhat difficult and expensive to make some of the more complicated models that involve adding genes or creating those with switches that, say, turn on only when an animal is given an antibiotic. Such models, the authors wrote, now make up 90 percent of mouse models created. George Church, the pioneering Harvard geneticist, said CRISPR editing has produced only incrementally better results than previous methods. Making the more complicated models, which is important, also has been slow and difficult. Easi-CRISPR, he said in an email, shows much greater precision, and the method looks like it lives up to its acronym Easi. Church was not involved in the research. Dr. Karoly Mirnics, the Munroe-Meyer Institutes director, said Easi-CRISPR helps solve the previous inefficiencies involved in inserting DNA into genomes. This technical advance will be immediately useful for developing much-needed complex genetic models used in biomedical research, he said. Gurumurthy and Mirnics noted that such technologies can help cure diseases down the road, but they do raise ethical implications. CRISPR has spurred considerable debate, and the NIH has said it will not fund the use of the technology in human embryos. William C. Skarnes, director of cellular engineering for the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Connecticut, said Easi-CRISPR is a significant advance in genome-editing technology. With this tool, researchers can move beyond simple, crude knockouts to make much more sophisticated alleles (variant forms of a given gene) with nucleotide precision, he said in an email. A leading researcher in the field, Skarnes was not involved in the research. Gurumurthy said the increased efficiency stems from inserting single-stranded DNA rather than the usual double-stranded version. While the researchers dont yet know precisely why it works, they suspect that it has to do with how DNA repairs itself. The idea, he said, came to his long-term collaborator, Masato Ohtsuka of Japans Tokai University, while the two were scribbling on a napkin at a conference in Scotland in 2014. Joe Runge, director of business development at UNeMed Corp., said Easi-CRISPR is a good partner for CRISPR, and one thats likely to lead to additional advances. I think you will see an acceleration of these technologies, so it just raised the bar, he said. UNeMed is UNMCs technology transfer arm. The results of the current study previously were posted on an online preprint archive operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. Because of that early availability, Gurumurthy said, at least a half-dozen laboratories have been able to replicate his method. Because of the interest in the technique, Gurumurthys team also has posted another article with a step-by-step recipe for using Easi-CRISPR. Gurumurthy and his collaborators also are working on new techniques, including working to make Easi- CRISPR even easier. Park systems in Omaha and Lincoln rank with some of the best in the country, according to the Trust for Public Land. Omaha tied with Milwaukee and Sacramento for 21st on the list, released in May. Lincoln landed 24th alongside cities in California, Las Vegas and Virginia Beach, Virginia. The national conservation group analyzed parks in the 100 largest U.S. cities. The rankings took into account park size, park acreage, spending on public parks, park amenities and access (residents who live within a 10-minute walk of a park). Last year, Omaha was 25th and Lincoln was 27th. Omahas jump came from an increased score in amenities, said Charlie McCabe, director for the Center for City Park Excellence. Overall, in Omaha, you guys do really well, McCabe said. Omaha also did well when it came to park size. Two areas in the rankings leave room for improvement: spending and dog parks, McCabe said. Average spending on parks per resident is $80. Omaha falls at $76. The biggest challenge that parks have is keeping everything up and running and moving while hundreds and thousands enjoy their parks every day, McCabe said. A little additional spending goes a long way, but I know thats challenging. Minneapolis came in first on the list, followed by St. Paul. Indianapolis was last on the list. There was plenty of back-patting to go around when news hit Monday that trade officials had finalized the rules governing exports of U.S. beef to China. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tweeted that the deal was Thx to @POTUS and @SecretarySonny praise for President Donald Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. Others were quick to fire back that it was in President Barack Obamas final months in office that China lifted its 13-year ban on U.S. beef. Trumps team, they said, closed a deal already in motion. It really was a long-term team effort, said Nebraska officials and businesses who were among those who nudged the deal along over the past several years, pressing the case for exporting the states top commodity to the worlds biggest country. And it will be a Nebraska business that will make what it believes to be the first shipment of U.S. beef to China under the new deal. Greater Omaha Packing is set this morning to load a test run of beef for shipment to a customer in China. We expect it will go directly to the president of China, said Henry Davis, chief executive officer of Greater Omaha. The South Omaha plant was a stop on a September tour through Nebraska that appeared to influence Chinas decision to end its ban just one way Nebraskans contributed to the trade agreement. The U.S. Meat Export Federation, an industry trade group based in Denver, hosted a delegation of Chinese officials who wanted to see whether U.S. beef sellers would be able to trace their product to its source the individual farms where the livestock are born and raised. Unlike some other countries, the U.S. doesnt have a national, mandatory animal identification law. The trade group lined up a tour of Nebraska ranches, feedlots and slaughterhouses, said Thad Lively, the groups senior vice president for trade access. The group visited two plants: Tyson in Lexington and Greater Omaha Packing. Both are approved to ship beef to the European Union, which bans cattle treated with growth hormones, and therefore have demonstrated tracking ability. We needed to give them the clearest understanding of how this would work, Lively said of a system to comply with Chinas import requirements. Greater Omahas Davis said hes not certain what the delegation thought of his plant but noted that it was immediately following the Nebraska trip, on Sept. 22, that China announced that it would end the ban. Its taken until this week to finalize the rules surrounding beef shipments to China. Nebraska hospitality was part of the package. Greg Ibach, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, and state beef industry groups hosted the Chinese visitors for dinner at Ibachs ranch near Lexington, serving a meal of smoked tri-tip roasts. Thats what helps things move along is a time to build a relationship, said Stan Garbacz, the departments trade official, who helped host the group. Garbacz has worked for years on expanding Nebraska trade in Asia, pushing the USDA to work on beef access, Ibach said. There wasnt much public progress on the fine details of a deal, though, over the winter, and in April beef industry groups pressed Trump to raise the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the leaders meeting in Florida. Out of that meeting came a 100-day plan for trade talks to include ways to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China. In mid-May, officials announced a July 16 deadline for beef shipments, pending a few technical trade details. A few days later, on May 16, Greater Omaha Packing took the opportunity to strengthen a business relationship, sponsoring a rib-eye dinner for visiting Chinese officials at Spencers steakhouse in downtown Omaha. The group from Chinas Shaanxi province was in town for a Midwest International Trade Association event. They anticipated the opening of trade between the U.S. and China and they wanted to move forward with that and establish some relationships, Davis said. He said his office has had hundreds of calls in the past month from companies looking to import U.S. beef to China. Greater Omaha, which has about $1.7 billion in annual sales, reassigned some of its salespeople to handle this line of business. China currently imports an estimated $2.6 billion in beef annually. Meanwhile this spring, Nebraskan Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemens Beef Association, was involved in discussions of what trade restrictions the industry could accept, and communicating that to government trade officials. The industry had to respond and say, This is what we could deliver, he said. As the nations top state for beef exports, Nebraska is now in an ideal position to take advantage of the deal that came together this week, Gov. Pete Ricketts said. Nebraska has about an 18 percent share of total U.S. beef exports, about $1.1 billion worth. Ricketts visited China on trade missions in 2015 and 2016, signing letters of intent with Chinese importers who pledged to buy Nebraska beef. It was a lot of people involved to make this happen, and we supported that process on a lot of different levels, he said. Nebraskans will try to take a leading role in the next phase of trade. Were probably in about second gear right now, Ibach said, and well go from third to fourth really fast. The work ahead will look something like the marketing efforts his office has handled in Europe and in other Asian countries. Using samples provided by meatpackers, and marketing dollars provided through cattle industry sales, the Agriculture Department and other partners will host events to promote Nebraska beef. That might include teaching chefs how to prepare new cuts of beef, or hosting events for bloggers who might spread the word about beef on social media. Theres reason to be skeptical about how quickly Nebraska will win market share and benefit from the trade deal. Just a small percentage of beef today would qualify for export to China because most hasnt been raised to Chinas specifications, or cant be traced to the animals place of birth, Nebraska beef producers told The World-Herald. Potential exporters need to negotiate with overseas buyers, who may not be willing to pay what producers here need to cover their costs. But Chinas population is so big, Ibach said, that capturing even a sliver of the market there would be significant. If we can generate the excitement weve been able to generate for Nebraska beef in other marketplaces, if we can match that, this is going to be a very important marketplace for Nebraska beef producers. APACHE, Okla. The body of a man who died after an encounter with Omaha police last week was lowered into a grave Wednesday as his mother sobbed and his relatives sang tribal-language hymns and whooped cries of mourning. Hes home. Hes home, said Alonzo Chalepah, the patriarch of the family on his mothers side, as he stood over Zachary Bearheels grave. Bearheels was buried in a family plot next to one of his grandfathers. Motioning to the graves of family members, Chalepah said: We miss a lot of these people, just like we are going to miss him. The 29-year-old died June 5 after an Omaha police officer shocked him 12 times with a Taser stun gun and another officer struck him repeatedly at a convenience store/gas station. Police had been called to the station because a man had been refusing to leave. Bearheels, who family members say suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was in Omaha because he had been kicked off a bus while traveling from Murdo, South Dakota, to Oklahoma City. Family members believe he had stopped taking his medication. Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said last week that the department had failed to handle the encounter with Bearheels properly. He has recommended that the two officers be fired. Wednesdays funeral service was a Christian one layered with Native American traditions. Bearheels was an enrolled member of his fathers tribe, the Rosebud Sioux of South Dakota. His mother comes from the Apache and Kiowa Tribes of Oklahoma. The cemetery where he was laid to rest founded in 1934 as the Comanche Indian Cemetery is in a rural area, about 30 miles from Mountain View, Oklahoma, where Bearheels grew up. Relatives remembered Bearheels as a joyful person. He had an extended family in southwest Oklahoma, with cousins numbering about 100, family said. Yet he remembered everyones names and observed native traditions by being respectful to his elders. He was a good boy, a good boy, said Rose Autaubo, 66, of Anadarko, Oklahoma, a sister of one of Bearheels grandfathers, and therefore by tribal tradition one of his grandmothers. He joked. He was a happy person. His illness kept him from working, but he remained helpful, family members said. Its not like him to do anything unless he was provoked, unless he was afraid, Autaubo said. Bearheels often traveled by bus to and from South Dakota with no problems, she said. Thats why its just really a shock to the mother. Brother Mitchell Chalepah, 26, of Phoenix said he wants his brother to be remembered for who he was, not a man wandering the streets of Omaha. He hugged everyone he knew, he said. My brother wasnt a loner. Everyone loved him. Kimit Chalepah, another family member, remembered Bearheels as a youth who liked to walk along a creek near his home and fish. Yes, he had his problems. But when he was on his medicine he was a good kid, said Chalepah, 51. Kyle Chalepah, another brother, acknowledged that law enforcement officers have a tough job but said how they handle the mentally ill needs to be examined. The whole country probably needs to look at mentally ill people, he said. There is probably not enough training there. Said Autaubo: Were just hoping that the judicial system will look at this. We hope they learn from this (so) that this wont happen again. The arrival of Bearheels body at the cemetery was announced by the sirens of two local police SUVs that escorted the hearse to the gate. The gold-colored casket was wrapped in quilts representing the Sioux and Kiowa Tribes of his mother and father. Pallbearers, most wearing new black T-shirts reading RIP, Forever 29, and Native Lives Matter slowly walked the casket to the burial site. A young man in mourning yelled a high-pitched whoop. Kyle Chalepah, 32, of Mesa, Arizona, read out his brothers obituary information: He was born in Lawton at the Indian Hospital. He loved listening to music, writing songs, and journaling, football, basketball and weightlifting. He graduated from Riverside Indian School in nearby Anadarko in 2006. He was a fan of the Dallas Mavericks and the Tennessee Titans. Chalepah recited a list of survivors. It took more than a minute for him to read them all. The service was conducted by the Rev. Marilyn Bread, who talked of Bearheels joyful nature and concern for others. Zachary would tell you, Family, dont weep for me. Im OK, Mama, Im OK, the Rev. Bread said. And with that she recited ashes to ashes, dust to dust, put a handful of dirt on the casket and led the mourners in the Lords Prayer. The mourners sung many hymns in native languages, including Amazing Grace. It was a tragedy that stunned the Omaha community and left parents shaken as they thought of Lane Graves mother and father. Wednesday marked one year since the 2-year-old Elkhorn-area boy was killed by an alligator at a Walt Disney World resort in Florida. Now Disney has announced plans to honor Lane with a sculpture. The sculpture is of a lighthouse, a symbol of the Lane Thomas Foundation, which was created in memory of the child. The foundation is dedicated to supporting families of children needing life-saving organ transplants, Walt Disney World Resort President George A. Kalogridis said in a statement Tuesday. To provide continued awareness of the foundation and its mission, weve commissioned an original sculpture of the lighthouse the foundation uses as a symbol of love and hope. The sculpture will be installed at Walt Disney World this summer. The location hasnt been disclosed. Lanes parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Last month in advance of the anniversary, Lanes father released a statement through a family representative: On behalf of Melissa and myself, thank you for allowing us our privacy these past 11 months after the loss of our beautiful son, Lane. As the one-year mark of this very sad day approaches, we are aware of your heightened interest in our family. For now, we choose to continue to live quietly, with no current desire to speak publicly. The Omaha community has shown its support in numerous ways. Just days after Lanes death, hundreds of people flocked to an Elkhorn-area lemonade stand to donate to his family. En route to the event, cars passed royal blue ribbons tied on poles and trees as a sign of solidarity with the family. Blue, for the baby boy. When the tragedy occurred, Lane was playing along the Seven Seas Lagoon beach outside Disneys Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. According to final reports by Florida authorities, Lane was fetching wet sand to build a sandcastle when the alligator grabbed him and dragged him into the water. Four days after the attack, Disney installed signs that warned of danger from alligators and snakes. This report includes material from the Associated Press. Fighting to keep its thrift stores exemption from property taxes, Goodwill Omaha representatives told the Douglas County Board on Tuesday that the organization has cut its executive pay by about $1 million. Goodwill previously had paid 14 people $100,000 a year or more. Now the nonprofit organization pays only three people at least $100,000, said Jordan Adam, an attorney for Goodwill. Those three are the interim chief executive officer, the vice president for missions and the vice president for retail operations, he said. Goodwill representatives did not detail the reductions in executive pay. Weve had some involuntary resignations and voluntary resignations, interim CEO Pauli Bishop told the board. She said some positions have not been filled due to budget restrictions. A spokeswoman for Goodwill said Tuesday that through departures and reorganization, the top nine executive positions have been reduced to three. Overall, Bishop said Goodwill has cut its workforce from 630 employees in Omaha in 2016 to about 515 or 520 now. Thats more than a 15 percent reduction in the nonprofits workforce. She said the nonprofit is running a budget deficit this year because of reductions in donations and thrift store sales after a series of articles in The World-Herald last fall. The articles revealed corporate-style executive pay and a profit-driven internal culture at Goodwill Omaha. The newspaper found that most of its thrift store profits were going to administrative overhead, not its mission of helping the disabled and those with barriers to employment. It takes time to rebuild community trust, Bishop told the County Board on Tuesday. Were working hard on that. The Douglas County Assessors Office wants Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity to begin paying property taxes on their retail stores. The Assessors Office is recommending that the County Board deny the three nonprofit organizations applications to be exempt from 2017 property taxes. The Assessors Office contends that the stores are predominantly used as retail businesses and not for charitable purposes. The Assessors Office made the same recommendation for the same reason in 2016. But the County Board voted 6-1 to grant the exemptions. County Assessor Diane Battiato appealed the boards decision to the Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission. The case is pending. The County Board appears less eager to overrule the Assessors Office this time around. Board member Mike Boyle made a motion to grant the exemptions. The motion died for a lack of a second. The board then voted to postpone a decision for at least one month. Board member P.J. Morgan, who made the motion to postpone the vote, said he felt it would be better to have all the board members present and prepared for the vote. Board Chairwoman Mary Ann Borgeson was absent on Tuesday. Board member Marc Kraft said he would abstain from voting Tuesday because he had missed meetings after undergoing heart surgery. Morgan said the delay will give Kraft time to catch up on the issue. Representatives of all three nonprofits urged the board not to require them to pay taxes. Goodwill, Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity contended that their stores are used predominantly for charitable purposes, including job training. Andrew Collins, an attorney for Salvation Army, said its thrift stores employ four people in a work therapy program and generate jobs for 35 to 40 more people in Salvation Army programs. Howard Hahn, an attorney for Habitat for Humanity, noted that the County Board agenda on Tuesday included approving an agreement between Douglas County General Assistance and the Habitat ReStore. Under the agreement, the county sends people to do court-ordered community service work at the ReStore. Doesnt that kind of halfway say it all? Hahn said. The board spent nearly two hours on the issue Tuesday. Most of that focused on Goodwill. Adam, the attorney, said Goodwill will have to pay $300,000 to $400,000 in property taxes if the board denies the exemption. Goodwill would have to seriously look at its operations and whether or not well have to make certain hard financial decisions, whether or not well have to close stores, whether or not jobs will have to be cut, Adam said. Fourteen percent of Goodwills budget now goes to administrative overhead, he said. That means, he said, that charitable operations would have to be cut in order to pay the property taxes. Adam said it would be premature of the board to deny the exemption and inflict such immediate financial consequences on Goodwill when the matter is under litigation. Either way the board decides on the exemption, Adam said, the matter will be appealed to the state, and the case could drag on until 2020. Mike Goodwillie, a compliance officer for the Assessors Office, argued for denying the exemptions. In the case of Goodwill, the executive compensation revealed by The World-Herald series was an added reason for declaring the thrift store properties taxable, Goodwillie said. Goodwill lawyers contended that Goodwillie was basing that on old information, from 2014 and 2015, that is no longer relevant. Attorney Pat Barrett disputed the assertion that the executive pay was excessive. He said thats one of the issues in an ongoing Nebraska Attorney Generals Office probe of Goodwill, and he urged the board to let experts decide that issue. County Board member Jim Cavanaugh asked Goodwillie if the recent reductions in executive pay changed his opinion. The answer was no. Goodwillie said Goodwill had disqualified themselves (from a property tax exemption) based on their past practices. Goodwillie said, There ought to be some sort of price to be paid for paying salaries and bonuses that were more commensurate with a for-profit than a nonprofit. Barrett called that unreasonable and unfair. World-Herald staff writer Henry Cordes contributed to this report. DILLER, Neb. (AP) Officials are investigating what caused the collapse of a large wind turbine tower in the Steele Flats Wind Farm in southeastern Nebraska. The turbine had been standing southwest of Diller and was part of the $138 million wind farm developed by Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources, according to Beatrice radio station KWBE. The wind farm includes 32 turbines in southeast Jefferson County and 12 in southwest Gage County. NextEra Energy spokesman Bryan Garner said the company is investigating the cause of the collapse. Garner said the turbine went offline shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday. He said theres no evidence of sabotage and that the manufacturer will be able to help the company look into the cause of the failure. WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic lawmakers are suing President Donald Trump over foreign money flowing into his global business empire. Almost 200 senators and representatives are plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging Trump is violating the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution. It's being filed early Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawmakers said. The plaintiffs argue they have standing to sue because the clause says only Congress may approve foreign gifts and payments. "The framers gave Congress a unique role, a unique right and responsibility," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who helped organize the lawsuit. Although Trump turned over control of his real estate development, management and marketing company to his adult sons and a senior executive, he did not divest from it. That means he stands to benefit financially from the Trump Organization's profits, including from foreign governments. Since he's become president, the Trump Organization has secured dozens of potentially valuable patents, including in China, and collected fees from lobbyists working for Saudi Arabia and other countries using his properties. The new suit the third of its kind says the full scope of foreign payments to the Trump Organization cannot be known because the president has not made his tax returns public. Earlier this week, two Democratic attorneys general filed a similar claim. Days after Trump's inauguration in January, a liberal-funded government watchdog filed an emoluments lawsuit. A restaurant group and two individuals in the hotel industry later joined as co-plaintiffs. Trump and the Justice Department have called these lawsuits baseless. They argue the clause isn't intended to prevent normal business such as hotel payments and real estate transactions. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said he and Blumenthal have amassed the "greatest number of congressional plaintiffs on any lawsuit against a president." He said they're taking the action "not out of any sense of pleasure or partisanship but because President Trump has left us with no other option." Ahead of the filing, only Democrats were asked to sign on, but Blumenthal and Conyers plan to send letters to their Republican colleagues Wednesday asking them to join the effort. The University of Nebraskas two Omaha campuses are in an unusual situation. For the time being, theyre led by a common chancellor, Dr. Jeffrey Gold. The arrangement offers opportunities for administrative efficiencies and strengthened research partnerships. Its welcome news that NU leaders plan to pursue those possibilities, along with their assurances that they dont foresee a full-blown merger. Combining the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which have distinct missions, would involve huge consequences and complexities. The priority should be maximizing the benefits of collaboration and efficiencies. A key need for NU leaders is to reach out to faculty and staff at the two campuses by listening, sharing information and moving beyond the current impression that everything will be determined in a top-down command approach. At present, some UNO faculty are feeling uncertain and puzzled, based on reporting by The World-Heralds Rick Ruggles. UNO and UNMC certainly have great potential for strengthened partnerships. A key area is research collaboration, where current work has already laid an encouraging foundation. UNOs nationally respected biomechanics laboratory, under the leadership of director Nicholas Stergiou, is pursuing projects in coordination with UNMC and its commercialization arm, UNe- Med. UNO biomechanics faculty have worked with UNeMed to commercialize a UNO-developed concussion-detection technology via an Omaha-based startup company called MotoMetrix. Such collaborations, along with projects pursued separately by UNMC, can help nurture biomedical startups as a niche sector for the Omaha economy, a goal supported by local business leaders. The two campuses also will work toward efficiencies in back-office areas such as purchasing, information technology and human resources, NU President Hank Bounds says. Thats a worthy goal. Whatever specific form the two-campus relationship takes in coming weeks and months, things will need to function properly. Gold has demonstrated great capability and vision at UNMC, but hes only one person, with only 24 hours in a day. NU will need to provide an appropriate support system to ensure coherent and efficient operations on both campuses. The need now is energetic outreach by NU leaders to faculty and staff on the two campuses, to create the coordination and buy-in that can bring about the full benefits from this new partnership. Mamata Banerjee on 3-day visit to Darjeeling to attend swearing-in ceremony of GTA members Around 30 TMC Members join Gorkhaland protest India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Amid protests for a separate state of Gorkhaland around 30 Trinamool Congress members resigned from the party to join Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) and Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), reports said. According to reports, GNLF spokesperson Neeraj Zimba Tamang said that some TMC members have already joined them and more have expressed their willingness to join the movement. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee held an emergency meeting with Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and briefed him about the current situation in the hills. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also sought a report on the ongoing crisis. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung has warned that agitation in Darjeeling hills will not stop until and unless a separate 'Gorkhaland' in achieved and warned the TMC not to play with fire. GJM's movement for a separate Gorkhaland has gained momentum with six other hill parties including TMC's ally GNLF extend their support. The parties had on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution demanding a separate state. OneIndia News Biological father taking away child is not kidnap, centre tells court India oi-Vicky By Vicky The External Affairs ministry has told a court in Mumbai that a man cannot be charged with kidnapping his child. The court was hearing a petition by a Mumbai businessman who was challenging his extradition request from the Netherlands to India. It was alleged that he had abducted his daughter from Amsterdam following a complaint by his estranged Dutch wife. The MEA told the court it had rejected the Dutch government's request to arrest and extradite Sajid Shah. His estranged wife Nazneen had filed a criminal complaint against him after he brought their two-year-old daughter back to India in September 2016. She also launched an online campaign in which she alleged that he had violently abducted the child. Following an Interpol notice, the Netherlands government approached the Indian authorities. The centre in its affidavit submitted, "Since the taking away of a child by her biological father does not amount to kidnapping, it is not an extraditable offence." The MEA also rejected the extradition request while stating that Sajid shall not be arrested and no coercive steps will be taken against him and his daughter. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 6:26 [IST] DigiLocker users can now store Ayushman Bharat health records: Here's how to do it Delhi: Cops arrest man for printing fake Rs 2000 notes India pti-PTI New Delhi, Jun 14: A man has been arrested here for allegedly printing counterfeit Rs 2,000 notes as fake currency worth face value of Rs 1.78 lakh was seized from him, the police said. A raid was carried out by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch on Tuesday at the accused's house in Shastri Nagar area and 89 fake notes were seized, they added. On a tip-off about counterfeit currency being printed, a team was constituted and a raid was conducted. Imran Khan was arrested from a house in Shastri Nagar and police also seized a printer and computer that were being used to print the currency, said a senior police officer. Khan said he was printing the fake Rs 2000 notes on instruction of a person named Michael alias Bunty, who is a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad. The accused also said that Michael was supposed to come there to collect the notes yesterday but somehow did not turn up. The paper used for printing the fake notes was thick and the currency did not have the thread line and the watermark, the police said. Police are questioning Khan to identify the other accused and establish the trail of the fake currency. PTI DU UG first cut off list 2022 out: How to check CUET impact? Only 1 from Kerala board in Hindu College's popular course so far DU admission 2017: Tamil to be optional language in journalism course India oi-Vicky By Vicky Tamil would be an option language in the five-year integrated journalism course in Delhi University. Tamil is spoken in various South East Asian countries, including Singapore and Malaysia. Learning the language will help the students if they visit these countries, said Prof. Maharaj K Pandit, Chairperson, Admission Committee, Delhi University. Another Indian language, Bengali, besides foreign languages such as Arabic, Spanish, French and Mandarin, will also be made available for students who are interested. According to the university officials, there will be no entrance examination for the course and the admissions will be on the basis of merit. "The admission process for the programme will be deferred a bit. It will not take place simultaneously with the other programmes," said Prof. Pandit. The faculty of social sciences will be hosting the programme and a student can quit it after three years with a BA degree. "The course has been prepared in such a way that it produces experts in particular areas of journalism," said Prof. Pandit, adding that if a student is interested in business journalism, he will be taught accordingly. The course fee would be Rs 30,000 per semester and 60 students will be admitted in the current academic year. DU's Standing Committee on Academic Affairs, at a meeting last week, gave its approval to the integrated course. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 8:06 [IST] Why Punjab farmers burn stubble at this scale when others do not 30 per cent down: How Haryana aced the decrease in stubble burning Farmers agitation: Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh cancels China trip India oi-PTI New Delhi, June 14: In view of farmers' agitation in some parts of the country, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Wednesday cancelled his trip to China for the BRICS agriculture meeting scheduled from June 15-17. Farmers are up in arms in some states like Madhya Pradesh demanding loan waiver and higher procurement price as rates of several agri-produce have fallen in a bumper crop year. "The agriculture minister has cancelled his trip to China in the interest of farmers in the current situation and to provide all help to states in the policy decisions," an official statement said. In his place, the agriculture secretary will represent the country in the BRICS meeting, it added. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have already announced loan waiver to provide relief to farmers. Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and several other states are under pressure to announce loan waiver, which renowned agri-scientist M S Swaminathan on Tuesday said was temporarily necessary. Farmers are protesting in several parts of the country but the agitation turned violent in Madhya pradesh. PTI Flood situation in Assam is so bad that CM failed to enter his office due to heavy waterlogging India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Guwahati, June 14: Guwahati, the hub of northeast India, has turned into a watery grave. Thanks to the incessant rains on Tuesday, the entire city, which hosts Assam's capital Dispur, is in knee-deep water. Flood water has entered the houses in almost all the localities of the city making it look like an island. Incessant rains sparked flash floods in Guwahati disrupting normal life and causing immense suffering to lakhs of people. Even Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal failed to reach his office at Janata Bhavan in Dispur due to waterlogging on roads. CM Sonowal was to go to Karbi Anglong to address two public rallies regarding the forthcoming election in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. The programme was cancelled as the chopper he was supposed to take failed to take off due to heavy rains. The administration ordered the closure of schools and other educational institutions on Wednesday. There were reports of landslides from some areas in the city also. Two persons died due to electrocution in the city, reported the administration. Kamrup Deputy Commissioner M Angamuthu said the dead included a school student and a man who were electrocuted on Zoo Road. "We have ordered a probe into the incident," he said. He said rescue operations were on to help the marooned in different areas of the city. "I have asked to set up five relief camps immediately at various locations in Guwahati. We have already started distributing relief materials to people at these identified places," Angamuthu said. The incessant rains that began on Tuesday morning blocked the two main arterial routes in the city, triggering traffic congestion and submerging several localities. In neighbouring Mizoram, 10 people reportedly died due to landslides triggered by heavy rains on Tuesday. Flood is an annual affair in Assam as villages after villages get submerged in water. Along with loss of properties, hundreds die due to floods in Assam every year. Even the hub of the state is not spared. However, flood in Guwahati is unlike flood in other parts of the state. Experts call flood in Guwahati as an "artificial" one caused due to lack of infrastructure and illegal construction across the city. Because of bad drainage system often rainwater remains stagnant in various parts of the city. Experts alleged that like the previous Congress government, the current BJP regime is also not serious to solve the waterlogging issue of Guwahati. Videos circulating on social media narrate the plight of the city. Watch them below: #WATCH: Flooding in residential areas of Guwahati following heavy rains (Assam) pic.twitter.com/Uaztx7O7kF ANI (@ANI_news) June 13, 2017 Assam: Flooding in residential areas of Guwahati following heavy rains pic.twitter.com/pQoB7DbGjT ANI (@ANI_news) June 13, 2017 OneIndia News Hindu Rashtra in India by 2023? Right wing groups chalk out plans in Goa India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Panaji, June 14: While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its powerful think-tank Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have decided to stay away from a conclave to build a roadmap to turn India into a "Hindu Rashtra", around 150 Hindu outfits are meeting in Goa on Wednesday to fulfill their long cherished "dream". The four-day-long event-- Hindu Rashtra in India by 2023 --is being organised by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, the sister outfit of the Sanatan Sanstha, reported The Hindustan Times. In fact, the HJS is the same Hindu outfit whose members have been accused in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in August 2013. The conclave will discuss on subjects like--'Need For A Countrywide Beef Ban,' 'Failed policies of government in rehabilitation of Kashmiri Hindus,' 'Future of India: Islamic State or Hindu Rashtra,' and 'Road Map to the Establishment Of The Hindu Rashtra'. The event will be streamed live on Facebook, according to the HJS. The BJP has strongly denied having any link or connection with the HJS. "We have no connection with the Sanathan Sanstha or the HJS as we differ from them in the very philosophy of Hinduism. For us, religion cannot be the basis for any nation or state. We treat Hindutva as a way of life," BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari was quoted as saying by The Hindustan Times. Even the RSS has rubbished the entire conclave as an eyewash. "Our country is already a Hindu Rashtra for centuries and we are identified by this," said a senior activist of the RSS. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, another prominent right wing group, also disassociated itself from the HJS and its ideologies. "We are interested in the cultural aspect [of a Hindu Rashtra] and not the political one," said Ashok Chowgule, all-India vice president of the VHP. Jayant Balaji Athavale, a psychiatrist, founded the HJS in 2002, with the aim to establish a Hindu nation and protect Hindu culture. Athavale has also started the Sanatan Sanstha. While experts and members of the BJP and the RSS have dismissed the conclave as an attempt by the HJS to hog the limelight, leaders of the outfit insisted that public wants the country to be a "Hindu Rashtra". "Public will is supreme and this was proved during the Anna Hazare agitation where the Lokpal was introduced due to public demand," said Ramesh Shinde, national spokesperson of the HJS. "Today we are seeing that public sentiment is in favour of 'Hindu Rashtra'. This was seen in Uttar Pradesh where the people voted for Hindutva," he added. Shinde denied that the HJS is a fringe outfit. "It's a fashion to term those advocating Hinduism as fringe elements whereas we are a registered outfit with dedicated cadres and we file our returns regularly," said Shinde. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 8:50 [IST] Trump likely to announce bid for presidency next week Hindu Sena celebrates saviour of humanity' Trump's birthday India oi-Vikas By Vikas Right wing radical outfit Hindu Sena on Wednesday celebrated United States Donald Trump's 71st birthday at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The group, which calls Trump 'saviour of humanity', had even last year celebrated his birthday and performed a 'havan' praying for his win in US Presidential elections. Hindu Sena founder Vishnu Gupta heaped praises on Trump even during last year's run-up to the US elections and said that Prime Minister Modi "learn from Trump" on ways to fight "radical Islamic terror", said reports. There was a 7 kg cake and a few Hindu supporters at Jantar Mantar to take part in the celebrations. In May last year, the group held a havan, again at Jantar Mantar, praying for Donald Trump's victory in the then upcoming United States presidential election. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 18:56 [IST] MHA showcauses Bathinda SSP, 5 other officers over 'major lapses in security' during PM's visit How UK is drilling down on FCRA licences in India Home Ministry gaffe: A report on India's border shows photo of Spain-Morocco border India oi-Vikas By Vikas In a major gaffe, Home Ministry's annual report titled 'floodlighting along the border' shows the photo of Spain-Morocco border which was taken in 2006. The photograph reportedly shows a region of Spanish border in the north coast of Africa that have a fenced and floodlit border with Morocco. The ministry report is about India's border with Pakistan and Bangladesh which has been floodlit to prevent terrorists and immigrants. The report claims that 647 km of India's border has been floodlit. The photograph on the report is, however, of Spain-Morocco border taken in 2006 by Spanish photographer Javier Moyano, said reports. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi has reportedly demanded an explanation over the matter and said that if it's a mistake by the ministry, then they will apologise. The BSF officers are however scurrying for answers. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 20:52 [IST] How Mallya routed the Rs 400 crore loan amount abroad India oi-Vicky By Vicky Did liquor baron, Vijay Mallya route Rs 400 crore abroad? A probe has found that out of the Rs 900 crore loan obtained from the IDBI Bank Ltd, Mallya had allegedly routed Rs 400 crore abroad. The probe learnt that he allegedly routed the monty abroad as payments for aircraft renting leasing apart from other operational expenses. The bank had granted a short term loan of Rs 150 crore to Kingfisher Airlines in October 2009. Rs 750 was granted in the second tranche of which Rs 200 crore was in the form of a bridge loan. 'You can keep dreaming about billion pounds', says Mallya post hearing Indian agencies say that Kingfisher owes Rs 9,000 crore to 17 lenders including SBI, Punjab National Bank among other banks. The cases against Mallya who is facing extradition proceedings in London are being probed by multiple agencies including the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Mallya is alleged to have colluded with the IDBI Bank officials to secure the loan without giving any valuable collateral. The allegation is that the money was used for other purposes other than what it was given for. Rs 53 crore of the loan amount to Mallya's Force India Formula One Team Ltd while about Rs 70 crore was diverted to two UB Group firms, the probe agencies have alleged. It was also found that the airline had allegedly diverted money by paying higher rentals for aircrafts leased from foreign firms run by former employees of UB Group. Probe agencies are also looking into the discrepancies in the valuation of the Kingfisher airlines, which was kept as a collateral with the IDBI Bank for the loan. The bank had not taken an expert opinion on whether they could enforce the brand which was valued at around Rs 3,400 crore. OneIndia News Indian Army gives befitting reply to Pak after ceasefire violation at J&K India oi-Vicky By Vicky The Indian Army has given Pakistan a befitting response following a cease fire violation in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan army violated the cease fire at the Bhimber Gali sector early this morning. The Indian Army retaliated to the cease fire violation. Official sources say that the Army has given a befitting response. The Pakistan army had resorted to indiscriminate firing of small arms, and 82 mm mortars early Wednesday morning along the Line of Control in Bhimber Gali sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan again violated ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir's Naushera Sector on Wdnesday. The Indian Army responded strongly and effectively, as per reports. The firing comes just two days after an alert Indian army foiled an infiltration bid by a group of heavily armed terrorists from across the Line of Control in Poonch sector, even as Pakistani troops resorted to mortar shelling, apart from automatics and small arms fire at various places in Krishna Ghati and Nowshera sectors on Defense ministry spokesperson Lt Colonel Manish Mehta said that "alert soldiers deployed along the LoC in Poonch noticed some suspicious movement of a group around 3.30 am. On being fired by own troops, the group returned the fire and ran back across the LoC". OneIndia News J&K on 'very' high alert as Pak steps up the heat India oi-Vicky By Vicky Jammu and Kashmir has been placed under 'very' high alert after security personnel carried out a series of attacks. These attacks come in the wake of a major crackdown by the Indian Army in the past month. An Intelligence Bureau official in Kashmir told OneIndia that militants are likely to carry out more attacks and hence security forces must stay on high alert. At least 12 security personnel from the CRPF were injured in J&K after militants attacked several security installations on Tuesday. 10 personnel were injured in Tral alone. The IB official further added that militants from Pakistan would also attempt several infiltrations in the days to come. Intelligence about launch pads being activated has been trickling in and the same has been shared with the Army, he also said. As the Indian Army launched an operation to wipe out militants from Kashmir, there is bound to be desperation on the part of Pakistan, the officer also added. He further said that the militants on the ground in the Valley too are becoming desperate and would stage multiple attacks. OneIndia News Maharashtra: Girl forced-fed buffalo dung by exorcist to get rid of evil spirit India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Mumbai, June 14: One more bizarre case of superstition has come to light from Latur district in Maharashtra, where a 17-year-old girl was forced to eat buffalo dung allegedly to exorcise evil spirits who had possessed her. The incident took place in Dhangarwadi village, near Chakur, in the district last week, and came to light after a villager lodged a complaint with the local police. As per reports, the girl and two other women relatives were accused of being haunted by evil spirits as they regularly pick up fights with the menfolk in the household. Thus their relatives forcibly took them to a tantric (godman) to a village in neighbouring Karnataka's Bidar district who claimed he could exorcise the evil spirits from the women. When the girl protested, the tantric became furious and ordered her to be tied down. As her relatives pinned and tied her down, the tantric allegedly forced globs of buffalo-dung into her mouth which she choked and swallowed. During the bizarre ritual, the girl allegedly named a person who was practicing black magic in her village, affecting both humans and cattle. When that person learnt of the developments, he feared for his safety and lodged a complaint with the police last Sunday, naming at least five accused in the matter. Investigations have been launched and police teams have fanned out in neighbouring villages to trace out some of the absconding accused. A secret video recording of the incident has gone viral on social media and several civil society members, including Hamid Dabholkar, son of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, have strongly condemned it and demanded action in the matter. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 13:00 [IST] Three down in three days: Congress loses yet another MLA to BJP in Gujarat Mandsaur unrest: Scindia begins 72-hour 'satyagraha' in farmers' support India pti-PTI Bhopal, Jun 14: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday launched a 72-hour 'satyagraha' in support of farmers, three days after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called off his indefinite fast on the issue. Scindia, the Congress' Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, launched the protest at around 3.30 pm at TT Nagar's Dussehra Maidan. The scion of the erstwhile Gwalior dynasty garlanded the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the stage before sitting on the 'satyagraha'. The photos of the six farmers killed in Mandsaur district earlier this month were also displayed on the stage. The farmers' protest, which began on June 1 over various demands, including loan waiver and better prices for their produce, took a violent turn on June 6, when five of them were allegedly killed in police firing at Mandsaur. Another farmer from the district, who was allegedly beaten up by the police, succumbed to his injuries later. The protest spread to the other districts of western Madhya Pradesh subsequently, including Neemuch, Dhar, Ratlam and Jhabua. The farmers' agitation prompted the opposition parties to launch an attack on the BJP government in the state and corner Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the issue. An under pressure Chouhan had launched an indefinite fast here on Saturday with an appeal for peace, but called it off the next day claiming that peace had been restored in the areas affected due to the farmers' protest. On June 8, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was detained by the police while he was on his way to Mandsaur to meet the kin of the farmers killed in police firing. Scindia, his party colleague Kantilal Bhuria and a number of Congress supporters were detained by the police yesterday at the Nayagaon-Jaora toll booth in Ratlam when they were headed towards neighbouring Mandsaur. PTI Next President of India: No names discussed in opposition meet, says Congress India oi-Anusha A crucial meeting of opposition parties for Presidential elections was held in the Parliament on Wednesday. While the meeting was convened to decide on the common opposition candidate for the July 17 elections, the Congress maintained that no names were discussed. "Today was the first official meeting. No names were discussed during the meeting. We are united and will meet again on deciding on our Presidential poll candidate. The process has just begun. A sub-committee meeting will be held where further discussions will take place," said Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad. Opposition leaders' meeting over #PresidentialElection underway inside the Parliament in Delhi pic.twitter.com/I7ST5crS4L ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 Headed by the Congress, the meeting saw leaders of TMC, RJD, JD(U), Left parties in attendance. Close to 17 opposition parties including regional parties were invited to take part in the discussion on the next President of India. The meeting came on the day the BJP decided to meet Sonia Gandhi to discuss the possibilities of unanimously electing the President of India. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu are expected to meet with Sonia Gandhi on Friday. Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected While the BJP-led NDA has formed a panel to decide on a candidate, opposition parties are yet to arrive at a consensus. A luncheon hosted by Sonia Gandhi earlier in May saw leaders of Left parties, TMC, DMK, RJD and JD(U) come together. All leaders present in the meeting had claimed that they would not field a candidate if the government suggested a candidate who could be elected unanimously. The election to the post of President would be held on July 17. The votes would be counted on July 20. OneIndia News Presidential Election 2022: Does Yashwant Sinha have a chance against Draupadi Murmu? Draupadi Murmu is India's first tribal and youngest President ever Draupadi Murmu becomes 15th President of India with 64% votes against Yashwant Sinhas 36% Next President of India: LJP to support NDA nominee India oi-PTI New Delhi, Jun 14: Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party on Wednesday said the party would support the NDA nominee for the presidential poll to be held on July 17. "Our party has decided to support a presidential candidate chosen by the Prime Minister. Whosoever the Prime Minister names, we will support that person," Paswan told PTI from London. Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected His LJP is a constituent of the ruling NDA. Paswan is in London for medical treatment. He underwent heart surgery there and was now recuperating. He will return India on June 17. Meanwhile, several opposition leaders met to discuss their presidential polls strategy as the process for the filing of nominations for the election to the country's top constitutional post began today. A three-member panel of the BJP on the presidential election comprising three senior ministers is scheduled to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi this week. The presidential election is due on July 17, while the last date for the nomination is June 28. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 18:12 [IST] Next President of India: Poll notification released India oi-Vicky By Vicky The formal notification on nominations for the Presidential elections 2017 is out. The nomination process would begin once the NDA and UPA decide on the candidate who would be the next President of India. The notification for the Presidential elections has been released by the Election Commission of India. This comes in the wake of both the ruling and Opposition camps starting their deliberations on the preparations for elections. While the Opposition parties feel that the BJP has failed to reach out to them despite the electoral process being on, the BJP said it will soon hold discussions with other parties on the possibilities of arriving at a broad consensus. [Next President of India: How BJP gains in selecting Draupadi Murmu] Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who is a member of the BJP's panel to hold discussions with other parties, said the internal discussions within the party are on. He said that views on the subject were exchanged with Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Once Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is back, we will discuss and take the matter forward, Naidu also said. He added that the exercise will be done in the "true spirit of democracy", and appealed to all that they should go by the mandate of the people, which is for this government. Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected Meanwhile, the 10-member core committee of 17 Opposition parties will hold a meeting here on Wednesday. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who is also a member of the 10-member panel, said the opinion of the Left is that the Opposition should put up a candidate. Next President of India: Election schedule: Date of notification: June 14 2017 Last date for nominations: June 28 Scrutiny of nominations: June 29 Last date for withdrawal of nominations: July 1 Election date: July 17 between 10 am and 5 pm Counting of votes: July 20 OneIndia News Next President of India: Rajnath, Naidu to meet Sonia Gandhi India oi-Vicky By Vicky Rajnath SIngh and Venkaiah Naidu will meet with Sonia Gandhi to hold discussions on a candidate for the next President of India. The meeting is expected to held after the opposition meets later today. The BJP led NDA has formed a panel to decide on a candidate. The opposition has been demanding that a consensus candidate be selected. The BJP has however not stated who the candidate would be. Indications are that the candidate of the BJP's candidate would file his or her nomination by June 23. The election to the post of President would be held on July 17. The votes would be counted on July 20. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 16:16 [IST] Summons for Ramdev in lawsuit by doctors over misinformation on allopathy Non-bailable warrant against Baba Ramdev for 2016 'beheading' remark India oi-Anusha The additional chief judicial magistrate court in Rohtak on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Yoga guru Baba Ramdev. The warrant was issued after he failed to appear before the court in a 2016 controversial 'beheading remark' case. Rohtak ACJM Harish Goyal who issued the non-bailable warrant asked Ramdev to be produced before the court on August 3. In April last year, the Yoga Guru had courted controversy after claiming that if not bound by law, he would have beheaded lakhs for refusing to chant 'Bharath Mata Ki Jai'. He made the statements while addressing a gathering in Rohtak. He was booked under IPC sections 504 for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace and 506 for criminal intimidation. Ramdev claimed that he was responding to a statement by AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi who refused to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai "even if a knife was put to his throat". Incidentally, Ramdev's statements were made in a rally convened to promote peace. Former home minister and senior Congress leader Subhash Batra moved court against Ramdev's remarks. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 17:28 [IST] PM Modi to ride Kochi Metro, Metro man Shreedharan excluded from dais India ians-IANS By Ians English Kochi, June 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday travel on a Kochi metro rain when he inaugurates Kerala's first metro, it was announced on Wednesday. But "Metro man" E. Sreedharan has not been given a seat on the dais. In the first 25-km phase, trains will run for 13 km between Palarivattom and Aluva. Work is on the remaining section. Those on the dais will be Modi, Governor P. Sathasivam, Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Elias George, the Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Corp, told the media that " the list of invitees to the dais was prepared and sent to the Prime Minister's Office. The final list is made by the PMO. We have no role in this." Among others who have been excluded from the dais are Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, local MP K.V. Thomas and local legislator P.T. Thomas. Reacting to the exclusion of Sreedharan from the dais, P.T. Thomas said: "This shows the arrogance of the BJP. "When the foundation stone for Kochi Metro was laid by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, none was left out from the dais. This is Kerala's dream project and key people behind this are now asked to sit in the audience. This is totally unfair." IANS For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 19:48 [IST] Police work like TMC cadre, says GJM chief Bimal Gurung India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung on Wednesday slammed the police for their action against GJM supporters. Bimal Gurung, said 'Police work like TMC cadre, even if all CRPF personnel of country sent here our fight won't stop. ' Gurung has warned that agitation in Darjeeling hills will not stop until and unless a separate 'Gorkhaland' in achieved and warned the TMC not to play with fire. Last week, at the beginning of the protest, Bimal Gurung projected himself as the "chief minister of the hills" and challenged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to stop the agitation in the area. "As the chief minister of West Bengal, she is trying to show her strength. But she must not forget that I am an elected member of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). I am the chief minister of the hills, I challenge her to stop the agitation in the hills," Gurung said. Gurung also said he will directly talk to the Centre about the deployment of Army and the alleged police atrocities in the hills. (With agency inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 13:21 [IST] Talented, driven and great potential: President Putin is all praise for India and Indians Russia not reliable for energy or security, US warns India The Western bias and why it cannot digest Indias success Next President of India: NDA candidate likely to file nomination on June 23 India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar The ruling NDA coalition is likely to decide on presidential candidate before Prime Minister Narendra Modi' s visit to the US. The NDA candidate to file nomination on June 23, according to ANI. In the run-up to the election, two names are doing the rounds for the top posts. NDA is likely to field Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for President and Thawarchand Gehlot for vice president's post. Earlier, the notification for the Presidential elections has been released by the Election Commission of India. This comes in the wake of both the ruling and Opposition camps starting their deliberations on the preparations for elections. Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh on Wednesday briefed PM Modi on the presidential election, in a meeting with senior leaders, say sources. The presidential election is due on July 17, while the last date for the nomination is June 28. OneIndia News Rs 50,000 crore farm loan is key election agenda for Congress, JD(S) and BJP in Karnataka India oi-Anusha Compelled to react to the burning issue of farmers' protests across the country and the rush to please the farming community, political parties have their eyes set on farm loans. The Congress, BJP as well as the JD(S) are attempting to make an agenda out of Rs 50,000 crore farm loan in election-bound Karnataka. With the government undecided on loan waiver, parties are in a race to gain the most out of farmers hit by consecutive droughts. State BJP demands waiver, centre shirks responsibility The Congress in Karnataka is under severe pressure to waive off the massive Rs 50,000 crore farm loans. With Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh government announcing huge waiver schemes, Karnataka continues to be undecided. Seizing the opportunity, the BJP has accused Siddaramiah government of being anti-farmer. State President of the BJP, B S Yeddyurappa has announced that he would sit on a satyagraha demanding loan waiver. Fully aware that 80 percent of the Rs 50,000 crore farm loan is from nationalised bank, B S Yeddyurappa continues to attack Congress government in the state without urging BJP government in the Centre to waive off farmers' loans. Will sit on Satyagraha from 7th to 9th July at Bengaluru demanding waiver of farmer loans from Congress state govt. B.S. Yeddyurappa (@BSYBJP) June 13, 2017 Appeasement or financial burden is Congress' dilemma Caught between appeasement and financial burden, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who also handles the finance portfolio, is undecided on loan waiver. However, it is learnt that senior leadership of the Congress party has urged Siddaramaiah to waive off farmers loans. Keeping the 2018 elections in mind, the Congress wants to project itself as a farmer-friendly party. It has become essential at a time when farmers are protesting against BJP government in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan etc. Party vice president Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Bengaluru is said to have asked the Chief Minister to ease the burden on farmers. For a man who has presented a record number of budgets in the state, Siddaramaiah, sources claim, is not keen on waiving the Rs 50,000 crore farm loans. Siddaramaiah and many ministers in his cabinet are reluctant to waive the loans on the grounds that it discourages repayment by farmers and benefits defaulters. Added burden on the state government is another concern. CM Siddaramaiah has so far written multiple times to the Centre asking it to waive loans from nationalised bank. He has also told the media that he would waive loans of cooperative and state-run banks if the centre waived off loans from nationalised banks. Neither has happened so far. The BJP at the centre clearly wants the Rs 50,000 crore farm loan to remain an issue to politicise about for the 2018 elections. But with elections around the corner, the Congress is compelled to appease the farming community. JD(S) plays the farmers' party card JD(S) is currently not a stakeholder in the decision to waive farm loans. Taking advantage of the party's agrarian roots and leaders from the farming community, H D Devegowda's party is projecting itself as the lone fighter of farmer causes. While H D Kumaraswamy is attacking the state government for refusing to waive off farm loans, H D Devegowda has chosen to attack the centre. Absolving state government's responsibility from the matter, the former Prime Minister has urged the Centre to waive off loans. JD(S) has promised to waive off farm loans if voted to power. With less than a year for the assembly elections in Karnataka, the Rs 50,000 crore farm loan is emerging as an agenda with the highest priority for all three parties. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 14:21 [IST] We cannot wait longer now: SC to hear Vijay Mallyas contempt case in January for final disposal SC to announce Mallyas prison sentence on July 10, extradition in doubt India oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, June 14: The extradition proceedings of Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya in a court at London on Tuesday has nullified every possibility of getting Mallya back before the apex court on July 10, leaving MHA in a fix on how to justify its failure. On May 9, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Adarsh K Goel had held Mallya guilty of contempt of court for disobeying its orders by not disclosing full particulars of his assets and also violating the orders of Karnataka High Court by transferring USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo, to his three children. The Supreme Court has directed the Union Home Ministry to secure and ensure the presence of embattled businessman Vijay Mallya, who is currently in the United Kingdom, before it on July 10 for the hearing on the quantum of punishment for contempt of court. But what transpired in the UK court on Tuesday made clear that Vijay Mallya will not be in India on July 10 to let the Supreme Court decide his prison sentence under charges of contempt. Meanwhile, while admitting Mallya to bail till December 4, the UK magistrate questioned the delay on the part of the Indian government to bring on record the evidence against the flamboyant UB group chairman. Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at Westminster magistrates' court noted that there were delays in the evidence arriving from the government of India. This observation was made after Aaron Watkins representing India said that the Crown Prosecution Service needed 4 weeks times to receive the rest of the evidence India and also to review it. On July 10, the government may find it difficult to explain, to the apex court, reasons for deferment of extradition proceedings against Mallya in UK. However, since the bench has already expressed its mind about expediting proceedings against Mallya in India, there is still a minor possibility that Supreme Court could pronounce the prison sentence against Mallya in absentia on July 10, News 18 reports. Mallya, the 61-year-old chief of the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to various Indian banks, has been living in self-imposed exile in Britain since March last year. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 23:19 [IST] Stop the abuse, the Army has enough on its plate already India oi-Prabhpreet By Prabhpreet The debate regarding freedom of speech and expression has again gained momentum in the country and it usually does so following any action, which is thought to be a detriment to such a right of citizens. Actions of such sort usually come from the government of the day and are either directed at a private citizen or an institution, especially those linked with the press or politics. And though it might seem that it is only an occurrence found in India, these take place all over the world. Though these are serious issues, the focus here is not on the legal right guaranteed in the constitution; not about allegations of governments trying to muzzle out descent; not about the press and it taking on the government of the day. It is about the speech that critics including the public, media and political leaders have chosen to make. And as if rash and harsh statements were not a big enough problem, they are now being targeted directly at the Army and its brass. Just a cursory glance at the statements recently made would show words like, "Gunda", "Dyer", among other which can be labelled as nothing but abuse, being used to describe Army chief, General Bipin Rawat's actions and statements. Even though this too can be defined under the freedom of speech and expression bracket, barring a few, no one would argue that this a problematic development. And the few who wouldn't, are mostly political leaders who have tried to argue otherwise in their attempts to grab the spotlight or serve some other motives. So now in India, when it comes to what can be done using such freedom of speech has crossed levels which are not enjoyed in any other democratic country in the world where the Army has never made an attempt to take over from the civilian government. The extent of the abuse and terms used recently are not even witnessed in country's such as the US, which is seen as the standard to strive for when it comes to giving citizens the freedom of speech and expression. Abuse is not the same as criticism Being the largest democracy in the world with nearly a 130 crore population means India as a whole by its very nature is supposed to have a plethora of opinions and judgments on various matters. This is exactly how it should be, as a difference in thinking leads to broader debates and more agreeable solutions to complicated problems. And it is no different when it comes to the issue of actions of the Armed Forces. As with a strength which makes it the third largest in the world and by being deployed on various fronts as well as civilian areas, various controversies are bound to appear. A critical debate on such matters can help the government of the day in adopting better strategies. While taking part in such an exercise it should be remembered that in a democracy, unlike countries where the Army holds all the power, it is the civilian government that decides where the armed forces are to be involved. This is the reason why it should be the criticism of the policies of the government and not the abuse of the head of the Army, that should be the focus of all well-meaning critics. And for the betterment of the country, they should raise issues they have with Army actions by bringing them up in the media and push for appropriate actions to be initiated in line with the judicial remedies available in the country. But the fact that abuse is not the same as criticism is something that should be remembered by those who are either trying to earn brownie points with some constituency or settle political scores. This is also true for those trying to gain more viewers or readers by making their stories contain sensational headlines and photos. Army works on morale and hierarchy Armed forces all over the world work on the principle of duty and sacrifice towards their country and its people while asking for little in return. This is also true in the case of India, where soldiers are faced with difficult circumstances throughout the year, in particular in border areas the country shares with a hostile neighbour, which has engaged in a proxy war in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The constant fight for survival and to eliminate the enemy is fought not on just the use of weaponry and power that the forces are provided but mainly on a high morale which the soldiers on the ground feel when performing their duty. This along with the discipline, that is instilled in all the forces due to the clear structure of the hierarchy where orders are to be followed in letter and spirit, are the backbone on which they are able to safeguard the future of all citizens. This is exactly where abuse or critique, in the form and language that has been released recently, does the most damage. While those defending the recent words used for the Army chief would say that they were to throw light on his comments and actions, they have failed to grasp the serious threat that it is to the Army's morale when its chief is targetted in such a manner. It is truer in Kashmir than anywhere else, as it faces combat conditions which only a few others in the world do, while also being surrounded by allegations of human rights violation and abuse, along with the actual threat from enemy forces which are mixed in with the general population. This situation has been made worse as Pakistan has again raised its efforts to create unrest by helping terrorist strike in the Valley. These can lead to more cases of insubordination which are already being reported. And damage the forces which are already thought to be fighting with depleted resources both in equipment and manpower. The country needs to realise that the Army has enough on its plate already, without being subjected to even more challenges from withing the country that it is trying to defend. Army is not a tool of politics Soon after India got independence, the role and position of the defence forces were supposed to have in the structure being selected for the system of governance was debated widely, and it was made sure that the chances of the military becoming supreme to the civilian government did not arise. This was the reason that actions such as creating a position of joint chief of all the all the three defence forces- Army, Navy and Airforce- was not put in place so as not to give a single officer authority over all soldiers. The history of the country proves that the decisions made in this regard were correct as there have been no attempts by the Army to take over the reigns of the country. And if doubts still exist on how big an achievement this is, a look at the history of the martial rule in Pakistan which became independent along with India should be enough to clear them. The country has witnessed the rule of Generals for a majority of the period since 1947. And it is not alone, many other countries around the world have also faced similar consequences. But recent incidents that have taken place have pointed to the fact that in order to make political gains, an attempt is being made to use the Army as a political tool. And all parties, across political fences, can be judged to be guilty of this. Though this has not reached any serious levels as of yet, any such attempts would be contrary to the successful policy on the matter which has been adopted so far. It should also be considered as a serious issue as political criticism of the Army can very easily make the army becoming political. Such a result, given the conditions of India's neighbour, can be seen as nothing but disastrous for the country. While freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right which helps the growth of the country along with maintaining the quality of life, it should be exercised with extreme caution in the case of the army, not in criticism of its action, but the language, it is conveyed in. Especially since the soldier on the ground does not have the same liberty of voicing his concerns like the rest. And in case that such statements ultimately lead to either a loss of morale or the Armed Forces turning political, concerns such as enjoying such rights would be the least of the country's worries. This is something that Indians, due to any absence of such a threat so far, seem to be unaware of. And the hope is that generations, both present and future, will not have the need to learn them as well. OneIndia News Petrol, diesel new rates: Check the price of fuel in your city today India stands up again, sends 40,000 Metric Tonnes of diesel to Sri Lanka Strike deferred: Petrol pumps to stay open today India oi-Vikas By Vikas The strike of petroleum dealers, which supposed to be held on June 16 over the government's decision on daily price revision, has been deferred. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, however, said the dicision to revise fuel prices daily from June 16 onwards would stay. Decision to revise petrol/diesel prices to stay, will start from June 16: Union Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. pic.twitter.com/9CeBrPD0lX ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 The petroleum dealers had earlier said that they will not sell petro-products on June 16. Petroleum dealers were preparing to observe a 24-hour bandh from the midnight of June 15. They are upset over the government's decision to revise petrol and diesel prices every day from Thursday, June 15. Dealers from seven states had met Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on June 14, and said that will go ahead with the protest if their concerns are not addressed. State-run oil marketing companies on June 8 decided to revise the prices of petrol and diesel daily from June 16 onwards. Currently, the fuel prices are reviewed by the oil companies every fortnight while taking global fuel prices and Rs-Dollar exchange rate into account. A pilot project to review fuel prices on a daily basis was carried out at five locations - Pondicherry, Chandigarh, Jamshedpur, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam - from May 1, 2017. Experts say that this daily revision of prices may cause problem for the dealers to manage their inventory. OneIndia News Persecuted Hindu Tamils from Lanka can obtain Indian citizenship under CAA says Madras HC Tamil Nadu Jamaat issues fatwa against judges; Madurai bench condemns India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar The Madurai bench of Madras High Court condemned Tamil Nadu's Jamaat-ul-Sabha for issuing fatwa against secular court judges and calling them 'kaafir' for backing victims of triple talaq. The bench stated that it would not allow that Muslim body pass fatwas hereafter, according to TV reports. Abdul Latif, Secretary, All India Muslim Conference, said ' Lot of people speak against judges. If judge occupies the important chair and doesn't deliver justice then what do we say ?' To justify the fatwa, he cited the recent comment of Rajasthan HC judge calling a peacock 'celibate'. He further said, 'Anyways the word 'Kaafir' neither a bad word or abuse. It means a non-believer, someone who rejects God.' Legal activists have called for stern action against the so-called 'Ulemas' for contempt of court. Also, they urged the court to ban 'Jamaat' as it is a dangerous trend to challenge court. OneIndia News The times when Rahul Gandhi was absent when his party needed him most India oi-Anusha A big opposition meeting is scheduled over the Presidential elections but Vice President of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi will give it a miss. Rahul Gandhi is in Italy to meet his grandmother and spend time with family and will once again miss a key event. But Wednesday's opposition meeting won't be the first time that Rahul Gandhi was 'missing in action' when his party needed him. Here is a list of events that Rahul Gandhi has missed giving the opposition an opportunity to call him a 'part time politician'. The Congress is going all out to get the support of each opposition party to counter the NDA's Presidential candidate. Wednesday's meeting is crucial in building consensus but Rahul Gandhi who was present for a luncheon hosted by Sonia Gandhi earlier will give Wednesday's meeting a miss. In the past, Rahul Gandhi has missed key meetings as well as bills when he was away on a vacation. The phenomenon is nothing new and 'missing in action' seems to come naturally to Rahul Gandhi. Rahul missing from key party events The Congress celebrated its 130th Foundation Day in 2014. Fresh from massive loss of face in the general elections earlier that year, Rahul Gandhi, being the vice president of the party, was nowhere to be seen. Sonia Gandhi unfurled the Congress' flag at 24 Akbar Road in the presence of senior leaders like former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Sheila Dikshit but Rahul's was absent. Neither Rahul nor the party offered any explanation on why Rahul Gandhi gave the event a miss. Manmohan Singh's farewell dinner in May 2014 was Congress' way of honouring a man who was at the helm of UPA government for 10 years. While Sonia Gandhi hosted the dinner. Rahul was a no show. Party leaders attempted to salvage the situation and claimed that he was away on personal work. While almost all of the party's ministers and members of the Congress Working Committee attended the dinner, Rahul Gandhi was away. Congress leaders maintained that he was 'out of town on personal work'. Some leaders claimed that Rahul Gandhi had taken a 'short break' after three months of rigorous campaigning for the elections. Missing in action even in parliament In 2015, Rahul Gandhi took a vacation between February and April. The long leave led to the Congress leader missing his very first chance of attacking the Narendra Modi government in its first budget session. The 56-day vacation came to an end on the eve of the second leg of the budget session. During his sabbatical, Rahul Gandhi missed the first half of the session as well as the carefully crafted protest against Land acquisition bill that his party was leading. The party including his mother Sonia Gandhi maintained that he wanted to go away for a few weeks to introspect. They party was tight-lipped about where Rahul was and why he missed the parliament session. During the same year, Rahul Gandhi became unavailable for his party for the Bihar elections in September. Oppostion's 'part-time politician' jibe Time and again, opposition parties have referred to Rahul Gandhi as a 'part-time politician'. Soon after the 2014 general elections drubbing, Congress was careful not to allow criticisms come Rahul Gandhi's way. The party and its spokespersons defended the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family time and again. His absence from key events was looked at as a means to keep him away from media glare immediately after the loss in 2014 polls. But many other times, it has been Rahul Gandhi's vacations that have kept him away from key events. Congress leaders like Randeep Surjewala have time and again reiterated that he had a personal life and deserves to take a break. While vacations of Rahul Gandhi always land him in controversies, his constant absence during key meetings and events has also not gone down well with party members as well. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 13:26 [IST] When 'Jai Shri Ram' becomes provocative Several Afghans on Germany's evacuation list have died 13th batch of medical assistance to Afghanistan delivered by India UN calls on Taliban to release women's rights activists Taliban bans women from parks and gyms in Afghanistan Afghanistan: 5 killed as suicide car bomber targets Taliban fighters International oi-Madhuri A Suicide car bomber targeted members of Taliban splinter group run by Mullah Rasoul in Gereshk district, Helmand on Wednesday. According to recent reports, five persons were killed and 4 were injured in suicide bombing that targeted Taliban splinter-group in Gereshk District. A source from Mullah Rasoul's group confirmed a suicide bomber targeted their fighters but did not provide details of casualties OneIndia News Are Indians prompt in their response? UK judge on India's delayed proof in Mallya case International oi-Vicky By Vicky Many in India are hoping that liquor baron Vijay Mallya would be extradited from the United Kingdom soon. While many claimed his brief arrest in the month of April as a major diplomatic victory for India, the fact of the matter is that the process from the Indian side has been delayed. Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at Westminster magistrates' court noted that there were delays in the evidence arriving from the government of India. This observation was made after Aaron Watkins representing India said that the Crown Prosecution Service needed 4 weeks times to receive the rest of the evidence India and also to review it. Are Indians normally prompt in their responses. They have taken six months so far and we haven't got any further forward in the past 6 weeks, the judge observed. If there is still no sign of the evidence, then April 2018 is a possibility for the full hearing. If we have everything, then it may look like December, the judge noted. Watkins however said that the the material received was not insubstantial. Thereis a close working relationship with India on the case. The court granted conditional bail to Vijay Mallya till December 4. The case will be heard next on July 6 when the court will see if all the evidence has been admitted. Mallya will not have to attend court on July 6. Ben Watson representing Mallya said that they are yet to get the final evidence from the government of India. The evidence had been requested six weeks ago. "This began on January 31 and it's now June and we still don't have the case," he said, pushing for the hearing to be postponed till spring 2018. There has also been a second extradition request which we have not yet seen which adds to the uncertainty of this," Watson added. Mallya had faced a "battle to enter the court building and cameras were thrust In his face, Watson said while requesting for physical barriers to be put up so that his client is protected from the press. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 10:30 [IST] Balochs protest against Pak atrocities in Geneva International oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer The Baloch Voice Association demonstrated against atrocities committed by Pakistan in front of the iconic Broken Chair in Geneva, during the 35th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The association highlighted the atrocities of Pakistan against Balochs and Pashtuns. The protest was joined by the Baloch Kashmiri Pashtoon and Uighur representatives. One of the representatives alleged that the China-Pakistan Economic project originally aimed to develop the Baloch and Pashtun regions was shifted to Punjab while using Pashtun and Baloch resources. The activists alleged that Pakistan had used brute force in suppressing any demands of independence. One of the protesters said, Balochistan was illegally annexed by Pakistan in March 1948. The Pakistan Government, by design, has kept the province underdeveloped, while looting its rich natural resources. He blamed that the Punjabi-dominated state establishment of Pakistan has used brutal force against the Baloch population and to suppresses any demand of independence. The activist urged the UN to take notice of the grave human rights violations in these regions including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. (With inputs from agency) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 10:37 [IST] Fire breaks out in BEST AC bus, no passenger hurt | VIDEO On Camera: Bengaluru-bound IndiGo flight grounded at Delhi airport after wing catches fire Govt orders probe after Indigo flight catches fire moments before take-off in Delhi Bihar: Fire breaks out amid Chhath Puja celebrations in Aurangabad; many critical 12 killed as fire engulfs 27-storey London tower block International oi-Madhuri Twelve people died and over 50 people were hospitalized after a huge fire ripped through a 24-storey London apartment block early on Wednesday, according to emergency services. A 27-storey tower block on Latimer Road in west London has been engulfed in a horrifying blaze, with reports saying people have been trapped in flats. London Ambulance said 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. According to the latest report, Grenfell Tower around 30 adjacent flats have been evacuated by police. Footage on social media shows the building engulfed in fire, with flames stretching over a number of floors. #WATCH: Fire engulfs 27-storey tower block in Latimer Road, west London. 40 fire engines & 200 firefighters at the spot. pic.twitter.com/OeRK7P33g9 ANI (@ANI_news) June 14, 2017 Earlier, Metropolitan police tweeted that A40 is closed in both directions to allow emergency services access to the scene. The massive fire has engulfed the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington from the 2nd storey to the top floor, the London Fire Brigade has tweeted. At least 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters have been called to the Lancaster West Estate tower block fire. According to Metropolitan Police, residents continue to be evacuated from the tower block fire in North Kensington. A number of people being treated for a range of injuries. The tower block is on the Lancaster West Estate, between Latimer Road Underground station and Westfield's White City shopping centre.The apartment block was built in 1974. OneIndia News Imran Khan discharged from hospital, to resume long march from same point where he was shot This cop from Pakistan became a millionaire overnight: Here is how Opposed by India, Pak eyes China funding for mega dam project International oi-Vicky By Vicky We expect that China would fund the long delayed Indus river mega dam project in Gilgit-Baltistan, with work beginning next year, Pakistan's planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said in an interview. Pakistan has been keen to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus flowing down the Himalayas. However it has not been able to raise funds from international institutions due to opposition from India. Those ambitions have been revived by China's Belt and Road infrastructure plans for Pakistan, a key cog in Beijing's creation of a modern-day Silk Road network of trade routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa. The $12-$14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns. Iqbal, the Islamabad lead on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), said a Chinese company from a Beijing-picked shortlist and a local partner would build the dam over a 10-year period, and work should begin in the "next financial year", which begins in July. "This water reservoir is most critical for food security in Pakistan, so is a very high priority project for Pakistan," Iqbal told Reuters late on Monday at his ministerial home in Islamabad. He further said that Pakistan and Chinese engineers are also surveying other projects which includes the 7,100 MW Bunji hydro power project which will be the first in the cascade that stretches to the Tarbela Dam near Islamabad. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 5:48 [IST] Imran Khan discharged from hospital, to resume long march from same point where he was shot Panamagate graft case: Nawaz Sharif to appear before probe team International oi-PTI Islamabad, Jun 14: In an unprecedented development, Nawaz Sharif will be the first Pakistan's first Prime Minister to appear before a Supreme Court-appointed team probing the Panamagate graft case. The Joint Investigation Team chief Wajid Zia had summoned the prime minister to appear before the six-member probe team at 11:00 AM (11:30 IST) on June 15 with all documents relevant to the case. The summons was issued to Sharif, 67, after he returned last Saturday from Kazakhstan where he had attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit. In its judgement of April 20 in the Panama Papers case, the Supreme Court had constituted a JIT and empowered it to summon the prime minister, his sons and any other person necessary, to investigate allegations of money-laundering, through which the four apartments in London's posh Park Lane area were purchased. Sharif has denied any wrongdoing. The Joint Investigation Team had questioned Sharif's sons -- Hussain and Hasan -- last month over the family's alleged improper business dealings. His eldest son Hussain was questioned five times while Hasan, the younger son, was summoned twice. On May 5, the Supreme Court set up a high-level six- member JIT to probe Sharif and his sons' alleged corruption in the Panama Papers case. The JIT is bound to complete the probe in 60 days unless it is granted additional time. It is for the first time that a sitting prime minister would appear before a high-level probe team traditionally constituted to investigate high-profile criminal cases. Sharif may be questioned for once or called again like his two sons. Media reports had also said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar may also be questioned tomorrow by the JIT . The JIT has also summoned his younger brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to appear before it on June 17. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, June 14, 2017, 19:50 [IST] 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. Eurasia Review 07 Nov 2022 American voters go to the polls on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, in whats called the mid-term election, which will see all the.. eBaums World 02 Nov 2022 Elon Musk has made it clear that verified twitter accounts who want to keep their coveted blue checkmarks will have to pay a price. Daily Record 05 Nov 2022 John Paul confessed to officers at Hammersmith Police station last year that he had tied up and beat Anthony Bird in his West.. January 04, (THEWILL) Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has visited Magodo Phase II Estate over Tuesdays protest by residents against alleged police siege. THEWILL reports that the Estate management had on Tuesday ordered a closure of the Estates gates in protest against the planned demolition of property in the estate. Policemen numbering about 50 had recently accompanied suspected land grabbers and members of a family who had planned to demolish property in the estate to execute a Supreme Court judgement. Addressing residents of the estate on Tuesday, Sanwo-Olu, while appealing for calm, said a meeting had been scheduled with the judgement creditors on Wednesday, adding that representatives of the association and the police would also be involved in the meeting. He said, My great people of Magodo, I bring you good tidings. The Chairman of the residents association; the honourable Attorney General; other cabinet members; the Assistant Inspector General of Police and also the leader of the team from the IGs office are all here. First is to wish all of you a happy New Year. It is a very difficult one to start the year like this and it is because of the importance that we see to the lack of proper information that I had to take up this assignment myself. Trending Anxiety As FG Takes Terrorism Financiers to Court When the first attempt happened about two weeks ago, I intervened and if you remembered very well, the action was immediate and there were no incidents again and throughout the festive period, we had started communication. One of the things to first understand is that the residents, the people that have gone to court and the police are my subjects. I have the responsibility to ensure that fairness, equity is entrenched. The people that have come said they have Supreme Court judgement, rightly so, the residents living here have proper title and a means to live here and of course the Nigerian Police. In the car, I had spoken extensively with the IGP and with the honourable Attorney-General and we have resolved all of the issues. What we will see is that there will be a total stand-down and tomorrow, around 11am, we will be inviting the representatives of the judgement creditors. The Governor said a committee had been set up to officially invite all parties concerned to his office tomorrow, adding that the state government was bent on resolving the matter. We will all go through every line of it and come to an amicable solution. To ensure that peace would be restored into the estate, I want all of our citizens to go about their lawful businesses, knowing fully well that nobody will be harassed or property trampled upon pending these conversations as we will have conversations tomorrow so that we can bring this to final closure. So, I want to ask the residents and executives not to take laws into their hands and go back home peacefully as the policemen have been recalled back. The judgement creditors claimed that the people we met with are not their full representatives. We will meet the full representatives again so we will be able to bring everything to final closure. All of you have been wonderful, so, let us continue to maintain the peace that we have in Magodo and I can assure you that none of your houses would be marked again and the ones that have been marked, we will try and see how we will sort it out because war doesnt take anybody anywhere, it is on the table that we will all resolve it. I want to appeal to all of you to stand down and go back to your houses as nothing will happen to anyone as I am here to ensure that Magodo continues to remain in peace and safety for our residents. Whatever property that has been locked would be opened as everything would be resolved, he added. V-Belts Market 2017- Norma Group SE, Ideal Clamp, Togo Seisakusyo, Kale Clamp, Rotor Clip, BAND-IT, Ladvik, Gates, Mikalor, Sogyo V-Belts Market https://goo.gl/ByHa5F https://goo.gl/kLArq4 http://marketreports.biz/ MarketReports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "V-Belts Market" across the global, regional and country level. 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Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Miniature Ball Bearings Market 2017-Minebea Group ,NSK ,SKF ,NTN ,FAG ,Timken ,HONGSHAN ,GRW Bearings ,CW Bearings ,Shanghai HengAn Miniature Ball Bearings Market https://goo.gl/a7AlzH https://goo.gl/Qyc2jm http://marketreports.biz/ MarketReports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Miniature Ball Bearings Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Miniature Ball Bearings Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. 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Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Wine Barrel Market Global Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecast, 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2206 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2206 www.futuremarketinsights.com A wine barrel is a hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of Oak wood staves and bound with wooden or metal hoops. The wine barrel is majorly used for the aging of wine. After the fermentation of wine, it gets stored in the barrel for sedimentation of large solid particles and make it smooth. While the aging process, various flavors are imparted to wine as it goes through various chemical changes and allows a slow introduction of oxygen into the wine. Wine barrels are last for up to 100 years. While the aging of wine in barrels, usually gets the 50% extract that the barrel has on the first use and it gets decrease simultaneously as per the further utilization.Wine Barrel Market: DynamicsThe global wine barrel market has expected to register the significant growth as a demand of wine is increasing globally over the forecast period. Use of oak wine barrels for aging the wine makes it rich in taste and quality which is leading factor drives for the growth of the global wine barrel market. The controlled oxidation takes place during the aging in the barrel and resulted into decreased astringency and increased colour and stability of wine over the use of other barrels made up of plastic and metals which also boost the global wine barrel market in terms of revenue and volume.However, the many wine producers have started using alternative to oak wine barrels such as oak powders, chips and blocks in the normal metal vats of wine to give the essence of oak aromas and flavors which hampers the growth of the global wine barrel market. The prices of the oak wine barrels are increasing due to the difference between demand and supply, which can also restrain the growth of the global wine barrel market.Wine Barrel Market: SegmentationThe global wine barrel market has segmented on the basis of type of oak wood, type of wine processed, toast level of oak wood barrel and geographical region.Request For Sample@Based on type of oak wood, the global wine barrel market has segmented into:French oak woodAmerican oak woodEastern oak woodBased on type of wine processed, the global wine barrel market has segmented into:Red wineWhite wineBased on toast level of oak wood, the global wine barrel market has segmented into:UntoastedLight toastMedium toastHeavy toastWine Barrel Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the global wine barrel market has been divided into five key regions, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The global wine barrel market has expected to register moderate growth over the forecast period. North America has contributed the major share to the global wine barrel market due to the rapidly growing parent market of wine in the North America. North America followed by Europe has also registered a significant growth rate in terms of revenue due to increasing demand of wine. Latin America and APAC are also contributing descent market shares to the global wine barrel market over the forecast period. MEA is at nascent stage in the global wine barrel market and anticipated to register the healthy growth over the forecast period.Request For TOC@Wine Barrel Market: Major PlayersSome of the key players of the global wine barrel market are OENEO, Francois Freres, THE BARREL MILL, Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage, StaVin Inc., G & P Garbellotto S.p.A., Barry's Barrels, Canton, Bouchared Cooperages Australia PTY. Ltd. and Nadalie Australia.Various global companies are contributed descent growth to the global wine barrel market. The key players from North America and Europe has contributed major share to the wine barrel market in terms of revenue and volume.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Distributed Control System (DCS) Market 2017- ABB, Yokogawa, Honewell, Emerson, SIEMENS, Foxboro, HITACHII, HollySys, Supcon Distributed Control System (DCS) Market https://goo.gl/tpQEAp https://goo.gl/4E1207 http://marketreports.biz/ MarketReports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Distributed Control System (DCS) Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Distributed Control System (DCS) Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Distributed Control System (DCS) industry, and estimates the future trend of Distributed Control System (DCS) market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Distributed Control System (DCS) Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportABBYokogawaHonewellEmersonSIEMENSFoxboroHITACHIIHollySysSupconSciyonGuodianShanghai AutomationThe market research report explores the Distributed Control System (DCS) market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Distributed Control System (DCS) Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Distributed Control System (DCS) market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Distributed Control System (DCS). Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Distributed Control System (DCS) market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Distributed Control System (DCS) is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Distributed Control System (DCS) market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Distributed Control System (DCS) market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The worldwide Distributed Control System (DCS) market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Distributed Control System (DCS) production volume, data pertaining to demand and Distributed Control System (DCS) supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Distributed Control System (DCS) along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Distributed Control System (DCS) across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Indonesia Telecom Sector Report 2017: Operators Focus on Data Network Coverage and Quality Enhancement Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1117979 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1117979 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/indonesia-operators-focus-on-data-network-coverage-and-quality-enhancement-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Presented report, "Indonesia Telecom Sector Report 2017: Operators Focus on Data Network Coverage and Quality Enhancement", is a new Country Intelligence Report by Market Research Hub, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Indonesia today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband, and mobile, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.Request Free Sample Report:Telecom services revenue in Indonesia is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% during 2016-2021, primarily driven by growth in mobile data, VoIP and fixed broadband revenue. Mobile data will be the largest revenue-contributing segment until 2021. Going forward, operators will focus on data-centric services and invest in 4G and FTTH deployments to boost broadband penetration in the country. Operators push for smartphone bundles will create significant opportunities for smartphone vendors to capitalize from rising data demand.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following -- Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Indonesia compared with other countries in the region.- Economic, demographic and political context in Indonesia.- The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.- A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, and mobile data markets.- Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2016 to 2021.- The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.- In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, and mobile data services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.- Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Indonesia's telecommunications markets.Make An Enquiry:Scope- The overall telecom service revenue in Indonesia will grow at a CAGR of 4.8% during 2016-2021, mainly driven by growth in the mobile data, VoIP and fixed Internet segment.- Mobile revenue will account for 87.2% of the total telecom revenue in 2021, with mobile data accounting for 68.6% of mobile revenue in 2021.- 3G will be the most adopted mobile technology through 2021. However, 4G will witness a faster growth rate as customers migrate to higher-speed 4G services.- The top two operators, Telkom Indonesia and Indosat Ooredoo, accounted for 73.9% share of overall service revenue in 2016. We expect competition to intensify further as operators focus on fixed and mobile broadband expansions across Indonesia and services such as M2M/IoT, smart cities, enterprise solutions to drive additional revenue.- Operators will continue to focus on investments in 4G network expansion and fiber deployments to increase connectivity and cater to the rising data demand.Reasons to buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Indonesias telecommunications markets, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying Market Research Hubs Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Indonesias mobile communications, fixed telephony, broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Indonesias telecommunications markets.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Indonesia.Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Pearlescent Pigment Market expected to increase at 4.1% CAGR through 2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-139 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-139 www.futuremarketinsights.com Future Market Insights (FMI) offers key insights on the global pearlescent pigment market in its latest report titled Pearlescent Pigment Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2015 - 2025. According to the report, the global pearlescent pigment market is expected to increase at 4.1% CAGR through 2025 in terms of value.Preference for aesthetically-appealing finishes in cars is a key factor driving the growth of the pearlescent pigment market. Demand for pearlescent pigments from coatings and automotive paints sector is expected to create sustained demand during the forecast period.Request For Sample@A key trend identified in the global market is that over the last few years, numerous small and medium-scale players have exited the market, owing to challenges in fulfilling regulatory compliance. Further, cost of pearlescent pigments is higher in Western Europe and North America as compared to Asia Pacific, where low labour costs and easy raw material availability have helped in keeping price at competitive levels.Many key players are shifting production from natural mica based pearlescent pigments to synthetic variants. Further, many companies are setting up base in Asia Pacific to leverage on the highly lucrative market in the region.Global Pearlescent Market SegmentationThe global pearlescent pigment market is segmented on the basis of product type, structure type, application and region.On the basis of product type, the market is segmented into natural, synthetic, and glass. Among the product types, the natural pearlescent pigment segment is the largest contributor to the market growth in terms of revenue, accounting for more than 65% of the market share in 2014; however, the synthetic pearlescent pigments segment is anticipated to expand at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, with the key players shifting their focus form natural to synthetic pearlescent pigments.Send An Enquiry@On the basis of structure type, the market is segmented into monolayer, substrate free, and multilayer.On the basis of application, the market is segmented into personal care, plastics, paints & coatings, automotive paints, printing and others (decorative paints, home appliances, architecture, and textiles). In 2014, demand for pearlescent pigments was highest in the automotive sector, accounting for 39.5% market share. In terms of volume, paints and coatings segment dominated the global demand.The report also offers a region-wise analysis of the pearlescent pigment market, and covers, offering 10-year market forecast in the regions of Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), and Japan.Western Europe and North America were the most lucrative markets for pearlescent pigments in 2014. APEJ is forecasted to witness the highest growth rates over the forecast period.Key Companies in Pearlescent Pigment MarketKey companies covered in the report include Fujian Kuncai Material Technology Co Ltd, Sudarshan Chemicals Industries Ltd, Spectra Colours Ltd, DIC Corporation, Merck KgaA, Huaian Concord Industrial Product Co. Ltd, Sinpearl Pearlescent Pigment Co. Ltd Shanghai Zhuerna Oxen Special Chemicals Co. Ltd, BASF SE, ALTANA AG, CRISTAL, High-Tech Powder Material Co. Ltd, Aal Chemicals Ltd, Effect Pigments Co. Ltd, Lansco Colours, Zhejiang Ruicheng, and Kolorjet Chemicals Pvt Ltd.Merck KgaA, Fujian Kuncai Material Technology Co. Ltd and BASF SE are estimated to account for the leading share of the global pearlescent pigment market in 2015.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Current and forecast analysis of Contactless Cards Payment market including Major Vendors, Market Strategies, Major Products 2017 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/721402-insight-report-the-future-of-consumer-payments-contactless-cards-or-nfc-mobile https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/721402-insight-report-the-future-of-consumer-payments-contactless-cards-or-nfc-mobile www.linkedin.com/company/4828928 https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts WiseGuyReports.com adds Exclusive Research on Insight Report: The Future of Consumer Payments Contactless Cards or NFC Mobile reports to its database.The report further explores the status of contactless payments globally, and regional differences in adoption. It provides detailed insights on the contactless payment market by region, including Europe, North and South America, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East and Africa.The report also provides detailed insights on key indicators such as global contactless transaction value, contactless card shipment, NFC payments and the number of contactless POS terminals.Get Sample Report @Summary'Insight Report: The Future of Consumer Payments Contactless Cards or NFC Mobile?' provides market analysis, information and insights on contactless payments globally, including: Current and forecast analysis of contactless payment market, including previous and future market growth. Comprehensive analysis of contactless payments through cards and mobile handsets. Insights on the evolution and the level of adoption of contactless payments by region. Comprehensive analysis on the impact of contactless on payment participants, including consumers, merchants, PSPs and card schemes.Outlook Provides a comprehensive analysis of the contactless payment market worldwide. Provides the current value and forecast analysis of the contactless payment market. Covers regional analysis with respect to contactless cards and NFC mobile payments. Assesses the impact of contactless on participants in the payment sector. Analyzes regional differences in the adoption of contactless.Reasons to Buy Gain understanding of the future of consumer payments, including contactless cards or NFC mobile. Gain insights into the evolution of contactless payment. Understand the impact of contactless on payment participants, including PSPs, merchants, schemes and consumers. Understand why some regions are falling behind whereas others are developed. Understand the impact of the EMV migration on contactless payments.Key Highlights Research estimates that US$358 billion in contactless transactions will be made in 2016, through both cards and mobile devices, on 23 million contactless-enabled POS terminals globally. While most contactless payments globally are still card-based, near-field communication (NFC) mobile payments are likely to grow faster than contactless card payments. Australia, Europe and Canada account for the majority of contactless card payments globally, while the US leads in mobile NFC payments. Mass transit systems are one of the largest markets for contactless transactions, and as a result, have played a key role in the promotion and adoption of contactless.Table of Contents1 Definitions and Methodology1.1 Definitions1.2 Methodology2 Executive Summary3 The Evolution of Contactless Payments4 The Impact of Contactless on Payment Participants5 The Status of Contactless Payments: Global Overview6 Regional Differences in Adoption of Contactless6.1 Europe6.1.1 Contactless cards in key countries6.1.2 Regional overview6.1.3 Contactless payments market size and future outlook6.1.4 Key trends and insights6.2 North and South America6.2.1 Regional overview6.2.2 Key trends and insights6.3 Asia-Pacific6.3.1 Regional overview6.3.2 Key trends and insights6.4 The Middle East and Africa6.4.1 Regional overviewContinuedAccess Report @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Global IoT Sensor Market 2017 Robert Bosch, Invensense, Infineon Technologies, Analog Devices, ARM Holdings, Omron, Sensirion IoT Sensor Market 2017 http://bit.ly/2sXgpZD http://bit.ly/2snYPBk http://bit.ly/2rmJPn4 The latest report IoT Sensor Market by QY Research added to it's database and brings to light the comprehensive study and factual information of global market. The report also provides the global market segmentation based on applications, end-users, technology, and geography. The IoT Sensor research report offers a comprehensive assessment of the IoT Sensor market and consists of historical data, scope, significant approaches and statistical data of the global market. Besides these, it also includes anticipated facts that are assessed with the aid of an appropriate set of postulations and techniques.Request for FREE SAMPLE Report @The report includes rigorous data, in-depth analysis in two ways, namely, quantitative and qualitative, industry professionals inputs and data given by the industry members and industry analysts involved in the complete value cycle. The report features thorough study of important market and their current trends, coupled with respective market segments. Information about the numerous factors and their influence on the global market and its segments is also mentioned in the IoT Sensor report.The study report evaluates the range of factors of the IoT Sensor industry, such as definition, demands, share, analysis, supply, sales, size, specification, forecast trends, production, classification, industry policy, news, and application.The IoT Sensor report covers the precisely studied and evaluated data of the global market players and their scope in the market using a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such as investment return analysies, SWOT analysis and feasibility studyare used to analyze the key global market playersgrowth in the IoT Sensor industry.Browse Complete report With TOC available @Moreover, the report assessed key market features, including price, revenue, capacity utilization rate, growth rate, capacity, production, gross, supply, consumption, cost, market share, demand, import, gross margin, export, and much more.The IoT Sensor report is a useful documentation that aids distributors, manufacturers, suppliers, customers, investors & individuals who are interested in this market.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global marketTexas InstrumentsSTMicroelectronicsTe ConnectivityNXP SemiconductorsBroadcomRobert BoschInvensenseInfineon TechnologiesAnalog DevicesARM HoldingsOmronSensirionSmartthingsKonuxRenesasMicrosemiconductorBy types, the market can be split intoTemperature Sensor & Humidity SensorPressure SensorImage SensorTouch SensorProximity SensorAcoustic SensorMotion SensorOccupancy SensorOtherBy Application, the market can be split intoConsumer ElectronicsHealthcareAutomotiveIndustrialBuilding AutomationOtherBy Regions, this report coversNorth AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaDo Inquiry Before Buying This Report @MRS Research Group is the worlds giant collection of the Market research Reports. Where we specialized in global publisher, tailor made reports and specialists consulting. Global Publisher provides in-depth analysis of global and Chinese market. Tailor-made reports represent methodologies deliverable to proper insight of the client. While, expertise research specialist helps to provide strategic solution in specialists consulting. It consists of head such as, latest report, category, niche market and news. Reports published on the million of category like chemical, machinery and equipment, consumer goods, manufacturing and construction etc. Latest national, international, business News published under news portal.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com Global ECG Systems Market to be Driven by Increasing Prevalence of Cardiovascular Diseases http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ecg-systems-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=10847 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Electrocardiography (ECG) is a way of measuring the electrical activity of the heart. During each heartbeat, cardiac muscles undergo depolarization, creating a small electrical charge. This charge, the frequency and magnitude of which serves as a sign of heart health, is detected via electrodes on the chest and limbs. ECG systems allow cardiologists to diagnose several cardiac conditions, such as arrhythmias, congenital cardiac problems, and poor blood supply. The ease of conducting an ECG test has led to it becoming widely used for primary cardiologic diagnosis.The primary driver for the global ECG systems market is the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. The increasing acceptance of the Western lifestyle in developing regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America has led to an increasing prevalence of lifestyle disorders such as diabetes and obesity, which are major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Cardiac diseases are already among the deadliest groups of diseases across the world and are expected to increase in morbidity in the coming years due to the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of the modern populace. This will likely propel the global ECG systems market at a brisk pace.Obtain Report Details @Steady technological innovation in medical devices, required to iron out the tiniest of flaws and make vital medical devices as precise as possible, has led to the development of advanced ECG systems that monitor cardiac activity with a high degree of precision. This has made diagnosis through ECG systems increasingly reliable, consequently increasing patient confidence and thus driving the global ECG systems market.Several governments across the world have been proactive in establishing advanced, modernized health-care networks. This has led to steady government support for the development of disease monitoring devices that can provide accurate diagnoses and thus help reduce the incidence of diseases. This has worked in favor of the global ECG systems market in the past few years and is expected to remain an influential factor in the coming years.On the flip side, the instability of economic conditions in many parts of the world and the lack of promising reimbursement policies are the major restraints on the global ECG systems market. The ECG systems market has also suffered from saturation in developed economies, where healthcare networks have already reached a high level of sophistication. However, the rising demand for ECG systems from emerging countries will help market players overcome this concern.The ECG systems market remains highly competitive at present, with many companies able to offer devices at similar levels of technological sophistication. Collaboration for R&D as well as other parts of the product lifecycle has thus emerged as a major opportunity for players in the global ECG systems market. Collaboration will help players improve their R&D channels, while M&As will also allow multinational players to expand their geographical reach. Major players in the global ECG systems market include Royal Philips Healthcare, Nihon Kohden Corp., Welch Allyn, GE Healthcare, and Medtronic.Make an Enquiry @The global ECG systems market was dominated by North America in 2015. The high prevalence of lifestyle disorders such as diabetes and obesity is a major factor responsible for the dominance of North America in the global ECG systems market. The increasing aging population, which is more prone to cardiac trouble than younger demographics, is another key factor expected to shape the trajectory of the ECG systems market in the region. The Europe market for ECG systems took up the second-largest share in the global market.The future of the global ECG systems market, though, is expected to be dominated by Asia Pacific, with the increasing prevalence of cardiac disorders and increasing government support in APAC countries expected to help the regional market post strong figures in the coming years.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis Market : Analysis, Opportunities, Segmentation, Dynamics & Demand 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/asia-preimplantation-genetic-diagnosis-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=9989 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the inspection of an embryo in vitro in order to eliminate a genetic condition in case a high risk of that condition is known. PGD is an evolving technique that provides a practical alternative to prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy for couples who are at substantial risk of transmitting a serious genetic disorder to their offspring. Growing incidence of infertility across the world is the major driver of the PGD market. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis plays an important role in the detection and determination of genetic disorders, sex-linked diseases, and chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo before IVF can be performed. Rising incidence of infertility coupled with growing awareness about IVF and PGD is the major factor driving the PGD market in Asia.Obtain Report Details @The preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) market in Asia has been segmented based on test type, end-user, and geography. Based on test type, the market has been segmented into aneuploidy screening, chromosomal aberrations, gender selection, HLA typing, single gene disorder, and X-linked diseases. The market analysis is based on market size and forecast in terms of US$ Mn for the period 2013 to 2023 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) for the period 2015 to 2023, considering 2014 as the base year. The aneuploidy screening segment accounted for the largest share of 35% of the PGD market in Asia in 2014. Based on end-user, the market has been segmented into fertility clinics, health care facilities (including hospitals, diagnostic centers, and health care facilities), and academic institutes and research centers.The market overview section of the report demonstrates major market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current and future status of the industry. The market overview section includes Porters Five Forces Analysis, overview of PGD, Regulatory Policies and Legality Framework for PGD, Heat Map Analysis for key market players, and country-wise number of PGD Centers in Asia. The report provides a detailed industry analysis of the preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) market in Asia with the help of market attractiveness analysis, by geography, for the year 2014.The market has been analyzed for Asia covering South Eastern Asia, Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, Central Asia, and Western Asia. The market size and forecast of the regional and country-wise markets is provided for the period 2013 to 2023. CAGR (%) for each region is also estimated for the period 2015 to 2023, considering 2014 as the base year. South Eastern Asia includes Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Rest of SEA. Eastern Asia comprises China, Japan, South Korea, and Rest of Eastern Asia. Southern Asia constitutes India, Sri Lanka, and Rest of Southern Asia. Western Asia includes Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Rest of Western Asia. Eastern Asia accounted for the largest share of the PGD market in Asia.Fill The Form To Gain Deeper Insights On This Market @The report also provides recommendations for market players and new entrants. These recommendations would enable existing market players to expand their market shares and help new companies to establish their presence in the PGD market in Asia. The report concludes with the company profiles section, which includes key information about major players in the market such as financial overview, business strategies, and recent developments. Major players in this market are Genesis Genetics (U.S.), Genea Limited (Australia), Illumina, Inc. (U.S.), Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (U.S.), Natera, Inc. (U.S.), PerkinElmer, Inc.(U.S.), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (U.S.), Reprogenetics (U.S.), and Reproductive Genetics Innovations LLC (U.S.). The market share analysis of key players involved the study of company products or services portfolio, post sales services and maintenance, sales revenue, and its geographical presence.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Process Analytical Technologies for Pharmaceuticals Market - Global Industry Analysis 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/process-analytical-technologies-pharmaceuticals-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=9028 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Pharmaceutical product manufacturing comprises stringent procedure in which monitoring and regulation of each and every step is highly essential and crucial affair. The pharmaceutical products are related with the health and life of an individual; hence the errorless analysis of each and every step is required.According to the U.S. FDA, process analysis technology (PAT) can be defined as a mechanism or system used to analyze, evaluate and control pharmaceutical manufacturing process with the help of evaluation of critical process parameters (CPP) that influences critical quality attributes (CQA). Owing to tight regulations and requirements of various international certificates such as ISO and GMP for critical monitoring of pharmaceutical processes, the demand of these techniques has been increased.Browse Market Research Report @The market of process analytical technologies for pharmaceuticals can be segmented on the basis of processes (services), equipment and applications of PAT. The equipment are further divided into spectrophotometers (mass spectrometer, UV-Visible spectrophotometer, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrophotometer, infrared spectrometers), chromatography instrument set (thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography), dissolution instrument, particle size analyzers (sieving, sedimentation, dynamic light scattering, aerosol mass spectrometry), capillary electrophoresis devices and others (hardness tester, physical properties [size, shape, color], friability test).On the basis of services, it is segmented into consultancy, calibration and database management system (DBMS). Moreover, on the basis of applications, it is divided into lyophilization, coating, compression, evaporation, raw material selection, packaging and others. Additionally, the market is segmented on the basis of geography, such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). At present, North America and Europe are the most prominent markets, owing to extensive pharmaceutical industries. However, Asia-Pacific and some countries in RoW are expected to show lucrative growth in the upcoming period, owing to increase in number of pharmaceutical infrastructure and technologies.The market of process analytical technologies for pharmaceuticals is expected to show a lucrative growth during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. This growth is expected to fuel by the factors such as strong pharmaceutical infrastructure in developed countries and rapid increase in number of pharmaceutical production units in the developing countries and technological advancements. Increasing pharmaceutical production and R&D are considered as the most important drivers of this market.For instance, according to the statistics provided by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Association (EFPIA), the pharmaceutical production in Europe has increased from USD 112,000 million in 1990 to USD 2,620,000 million in 2012. This astonishing increase in pharmaceutical sector is expected to propel the market growth during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. Furthermore, owing to technological advancements, a number of new and technologically sound devices are entering in the global market and the entry of these devices is anticipated to contribute in the growth of the market.For more information on this report, fill the form @Other important factors that are likely to drive market growth include increasing regulatory and government pressure to implement various tests during manufacture, rising prevalence of different diseases that fuels the demand of pharmaceutical formulations and others. On the other hand, high cost and tedious operations of the instruments, lack of technically competent workforce and threat of malfunctions and false results are the key hurdles that are likely to limit the growth of PAT market during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020.Some of the major companies operating in this market include Danaher Corporation, Honeywell, Agilent Technologies, Fluke Biomedical, Tektronix, Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. and Carl Zeiss AG amongst others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Roaring Penguin Software releases CanIt 10.1.5 http://www.roaringpenguin.com 13 June 2017 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Roaring Penguin Software Inc., the email filtering experts, makers of the acclaimed CanIt-PRO, CanIt-Domain-PRO, CanIt Archiver and Hosted CanIt anti-spam outbound filtering, email encryption and email archiving solutions, announce the release of CanIt 10.1.5. CanIt 10.1.5. improves e-mail security, particularly with improvements to CanIts Custom Rules and user interface.CanIt 10.1.5 provides the following new features:URLs re-written by the URL Proxy feature are now restored to their original destination when forwarded. 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Weve seen how Irish innovation is reducing complexity and increasing automation across a whole range of business functions.In conjunction with Gala Fresh Foods, one of Irelands leading retail symbol groups, Ken Halpin is speaking at the Food and Drink Supply Chain Event at Londons Millennium Mayfair today.The one-day, industry-led conference explores how to drive cost-efficiencies and retailer-supplier collaboration for a lean logistics operation and supply chain.Audrey Constantine, Gala Logistics Manager said, for owner operators of increasingly complex supply chains, visibility is a must. 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A new generation of digital vendor management tools is emerging to help companies make more confident and informed procurement decisions.TradeHub:Buy delivers a single process for managing all your suppliers irrespective of size, technical capability and geographical location. The system automates the procure to pay process byproviding a central hub for every interaction with suppliers.Irish companies can meet Celtrino to discuss their supply chain challenges at the End2End Supply Chain Conference at the Radisson Blue Hotel, Dublin on Thursday, 22nd June 2017.Celtrino provides supply chain solutions that improve the efficiency of B2B trading activities. 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The 3D orthopedic scanning systems through its scanning abilities help in designing customized items for individual and is finding increasing application in surgical practices.United States 3D Orthopedic Scanning System Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.This study highlights current dynamics and developments in the 3D Orthopedic Scanning System Market. The report incorporates in-depth analysis of the Industry growth drivers as well as the inhibiting factors in the 3D Orthopedic Scanning System Market. The scope of the report covers an extensive evaluation pertaining to the winning imperatives and stakeholder strategies through a presentation of the segmentation of this Market in the report.This section of the market research report includes analysis of major raw materials suppliers, manufacturing equipment suppliers, major players of the 3D Orthopedic Scanning System industry, key consumers, and supply chain relationship. Along with this, analysis of depreciation cost, manufacturing cost structure, manufacturing process is also carried out. Price, cost, and gross analysis of this market is also included in this section.Download PDF Sample:There are numerous factors that are considered in order to provide the analysis and forecast of this Industry. Some of the factors are technological, political, social, and economic 3D Orthopedic Scanning System Industry factors. Various analytical tools such as Porters Five Forces Analysis and 3D Orthopedic Scanning System Industry SWOT analysis are utilized to analyze the data of this Industry and help provide a better understanding of the Industry. The data has been presented via charts, tables, and graphics in this Industry research report. This visual presentation of the data is very useful in providing a clearer view of the leading applications, end users, and key segments of this Industry.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the 3D Orthopedic Scanning System in United States market, especially in North America, Europe and United States, Latin America, Middle and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.For More Enquiry:This report delivers an extensive overview of United States 3D Orthopedic Scanning System industry with a focus on China. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies. It also helps the companies to better understand the trends of Soups market to seize opportunities and formulate crucial business strategies.Key Vendors:ElinvisionArtec EuropeOrthopaedic Innovation CentreFuel 3D Technologies LimitedTechMed 3D IncFARO Technologies3D SystemsSCANNY3D S.R.LAGE Solutions S.r.l.About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat United States competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com , EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices Market Analysis and Forecasts 2022 https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=80370 https://www.researchnreports.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=80370 www.researchnreports.com EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.This study highlights current dynamics and developments in the Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices Market. The report incorporates in-depth analysis of the Industry growth drivers as well as the inhibiting factors in the Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices Market. The scope of the report covers an extensive evaluation pertaining to the winning imperatives and stakeholder strategies through a presentation of the segmentation of this Market in the report.This section of the market research report includes analysis of major raw materials suppliers, manufacturing equipment suppliers, major players of the Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices industry, key consumers, and supply chain relationship. Along with this, analysis of depreciation cost, manufacturing cost structure, manufacturing process is also carried out. Price, cost, and gross analysis of this market is also included in this section.Download PDF Sample:There are numerous factors that are considered in order to provide the analysis and forecast of this Industry. Some of the factors are technological, political, social, and economic Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices Industry factors. Various analytical tools such as Porters Five Forces Analysis and Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices Industry SWOT analysis are utilized to analyze the data of this Industry and help provide a better understanding of the Industry. The data has been presented via charts, tables, and graphics in this Industry research report. This visual presentation of the data is very useful in providing a clearer view of the leading applications, end users, and key segments of this Industry.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market, especially in North America, Europe and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Latin America, Middle and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.For More Enquiry:This report delivers an extensive overview of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Mycoplasma Diagnostics Devices industry with a focus on China. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies. It also helps the companies to better understand the trends of Soups market to seize opportunities and formulate crucial business strategies.Key Vendors:Agilent TechnologiesThermo Fisher ScientificPromoCell GmbHCharles River Laboratories InternationalMerck KGaALonza GroupTakara HoldingSavyon DiagnosticsTecan GroupSartorius Stedim BioOutsourceAmerican Type Culture Collection (ATCC)F Hoffmann-La RocheAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com , Sheep Milk 2017 Global Market Key Players - Spring Sheep, Sheep Milk Company Ltd, Origin Earth, Haverton Hill Creamery, Velvet Cloud, Alimenta, Maui Milk Ltd And Forecast To 2022 Sheep Milk Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1409478-global-sheep-milk-market-professional-survey-report-2017 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1409478-global-sheep-milk-market-professional-survey-report-2017 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1409478 Sheep Milk MarketWiseguyreports.Com Adds Sheep Milk Market -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:This report studies Sheep Milk in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringSpring SheepSheep Milk Company LtdOrigin EarthHaverton Hill CreameryVelvet CloudAlimentaMaui Milk Ltd.....Request for Sample Report@By types, the market can be split intoLiquid MilkMilk PowderCheeseButterYogurtIce CreamBy Application, the market can be split intoChildrenAdultThe AgedBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Sheep Milk Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Sheep Milk1.1 Definition and Specifications of Sheep Milk1.1.1 Definition of Sheep Milk1.1.2 Specifications of Sheep Milk1.2 Classification of Sheep Milk1.2.1 Liquid Milk1.2.2 Milk Powder1.2.3 Cheese1.2.4 Butter1.2.5 Yogurt1.2.6 Ice Cream1.3 Applications of Sheep Milk1.3.1 Children1.3.2 Adult1.3.3 The Aged1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Sheep Milk2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Sheep Milk2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Sheep Milk2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Sheep Milk3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Sheep Milk3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Sheep Milk Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Sheep Milk Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Sheep Milk Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Sheep Milk Major Manufacturers in 2016..8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Sheep Milk8.1 Spring Sheep8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 Spring Sheep 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Spring Sheep 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Sheep Milk Company Ltd8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Sheep Milk Company Ltd 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Sheep Milk Company Ltd 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Origin Earth8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Origin Earth 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Origin Earth 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 Haverton Hill Creamery8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 Haverton Hill Creamery 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 Haverton Hill Creamery 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Velvet Cloud8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Velvet Cloud 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Velvet Cloud 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Alimenta8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Alimenta 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Alimenta 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Maui Milk Ltd8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Maui Milk Ltd 2016 Sheep Milk Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Maui Milk Ltd 2016 Sheep Milk Business Region Distribution AnalysisContinued..Buy now @Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune 411028: Maharashtra, Global: Ph: +91 841 198 5042 Global Downstream Processing Market Overview | Forecast & Analysis Outlook -2022 http://www.marketintelreports.com/pdfdownload.php?id=qyrc17343 http://www.marketintelreports.com/purchase.php?id=qyrc17343 www.marketintelreports.com 2022This report studies the global Downstream Processing market, analyzes and researches the Downstream Processing development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia.This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeThermo Fisher Scientific IncDanaher CorporationMerck MilliporeSartorius Stedium Biotech S.AGE HealthcareMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Downstream Processing can be split intoFiltersSingle-Use ProductsChromatography ColumnsResinsMembrane AdsorbersConsumablesAccessoriesMarket segment by Application, Downstream Processing can be split intoMonoclonal Antibody ProductionInsulin ProductionErythropoietin ProductionFusion ProteinsBlood Coagulation FactorsMedical EnzymesColony Stimulating FactorsInterferonsGrowth HormonesAnticoagulantsGet Free Sample Brochure of report @For complete report @About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.MIR intends to be a one-stop shop with an intuitive design, exhaustive database, expert assistance, secure cart checkout and data privacy integrated. It curates the list of reports, publishers and studies to ensure that the database is constantly updated to dynamically meet the targeted, specific needs of our clients.MarketIntelReports currently has more than 10,000 plus titles and 35+ publishers on our platform and growing consistently to fill the Global Intelligence Demand Supply Gap. We cover more than 15 industry verticals being: Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Chemicals, Building & Construction, Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Banking & Finance, Media and Government, Public Sector Studies.Contact us:Mayur S.Sales Manager2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington, Delaware, 19808United Statessales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343 Medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software 2017 Global Key Players GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, Carestream Health Market Analysis and Forecast to 2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/473940-global-medical-x-ray-equipment-and-trends-and-forecasts-2014-2020 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/473940-global-medical-x-ray-equipment-and-trends-and-forecasts-2014-2020 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=473940 Medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market 2017Report Details:Over the past few years, rapid technological advancements & innovations has led software to develop as an integral part of the diagnostic machines in order to offer better quality of images, in a less time. It has become the work horse of any machines/equipment used in the current scenario; with medical devices being no exception.Rapid increase in baby boomers along with growing health concern has accelerated the need for efficient and effective medical procedures, consuming less time; thereby boosting the growth of medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market which are generally used for varied purposes such as training, viewing, storing data, sharing data etc.Medical image softwares are used to analyze varied health related problems with the help of digital image processing technique and various imaging modalities. Such medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software are used by the medical professionals to make processes within the human body visible so that they can diagnose pathological changes and precisely target therapeutic proceduresSome of the major market players mentioned in the report areGE HealthcarePhilips HealthcareToshiba Medical Systems CorporationCarestream Health, Inc.Siemens Healthcare.To get Sample Report Visit @Growing geriatric population, increasing government initiatives, rapid technological advancements and increasing demand for cost effective solutions are some of the factors stimulating the growth of the Medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market, globally. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.12% for the six year forecasted period.X-ray devices held the largest market share in the Global X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market in 2014. Easy availability & acceptability of x-ray devices along with growing incidence of disorders are the major factors providing key impetus to the market growth.In 2014, North America held the largest market share of 28.45% in the Global X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market, followed by Europe owing to developed healthcare infrastructure, technological advancement and rise in demand for quality healthcare services in the region.Whereas, growing demographics and economies in the developing countries such as India and China with increase in ageing population, developing healthcare infrastructure and government initiatives are some of the key factors driving the growth of X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market in the Asia Pacific region. The region is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period (2014-2020).Emerging opportunities such as growing eHealth market along with growth in emerging economies like India, China and Brazil will act as a catalyst for the innovators in X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market.However, inherent software difficulties and security issues such as hacking and cybercrime will largely impact the growth of the X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market.The Global Medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market has been broadly segmented on basis of technology, image type, end users and geography. As per technology the market for Medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software has been segmented into X-Ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, Computer tomography (CT) and others. Whereas, as per image type the market has been segmented into 4D, 3D and 2D images. As per end users the market has been segmented into hospitals, Diagnostic Centre and others.Increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, growing online portals, rise in number of collaborations and partnerships along with new product launches and open source software are some of the latest trends that have been observed in the global medical x-ray equipment and imaging software market.Complete Report Details@Table of Content:Introduction1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Methodology2.Executive Summary3.Key Findings Of The Study4.Market Overview4.1 Overview4.2 Industry Value Chain Analysis4.3 Industry Attractiveness Porters 5 Force Analysis4.3.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers4.3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers4.3.3 Threat of New Entrants4.3.4 Threat of Substitute Products or Services4.3.5 Competitive Rivalry.Global Medical X-Ray Equipment and Imaging Software Market Analysis & Forecast6.1 Global Market - Segmented By Technology6.1.1 X-RAY6.1.2 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)6.1.3 Ultrasound Systems6.1.4 Computer Tomography (CT)6.1.5 Others6.2 Global Market - Segmented By Image Type6.2.1 4D6.2.2 3D6.2.3 2D6.3 Global Market - Segmented By End Users6.3.1 Hospitals6.3.2 Diagnostic Centre6.3.3 Others.Competitive Intelligence - Company Profiles8.1 GE Healthcare8.2 Fonar Corporation8.3 AMIRSYS, INC.8.4 Philips Healthcare8.5 Hitachi Medical Corporation8.6 TOSHIBA MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION8.7 Shimadzu Corporation8.8 AGFA-GEVAERT N.V. (AGFA)8.9 Hologic, Inc.8.10 Siemens HealthcareContinued.Buy this Report @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Global Anisindione Market 2017-2022 Know the Industry Growth, Sales, Present Scenario and Forecasts Anisindione Market http://bit.ly/2rXE5if http://bit.ly/2reoWWV www.researchnreports.com Global Anisindione Sales Market: Anisindione is a synthetic anticoagulant and an indanedione derivative. It prevents the formation of active procoagulation factors II, VII, IX, and X, as well as the anticoagulant proteins C and S, in the liver by inhibiting the vitamin K-mediated gamma-carboxylation of precursor proteins.Global Anisindione Sales Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The report on the Global Anisindione Sales Market is a comprehensive overview of the market, covering various aspects such as product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, distribution channel, supply chain analysis, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles exhaustive information sourced via proven research methodologies. The information of the Anisindione Sales Market is accessible in a logical chapter-wise format. It is also interspersed with relevant graphs and tables to enable readers to get a better perspective of the Global market.Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the Global Anisindione Sales Market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat from new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the markets trajectory between forecast periods.Download Sample Copy @Moreover, with the help of analytical tools, the research study gives insights into the main growth barriers, drivers, promising opportunities, and limitations in the Global Anisindione Sales Market. The research report additionally addresses some of the very important questions regarding the development and latest trends in the Global market. Some of these questions are mentioned below: What are the main factors likely to encourage the growth of Global Anisindione Sales Market? Which factors are expected to limit the development of the market? Which application and product segments are anticipated to top in the forecast period? Which geographical segment is expected to lead and hold main share of the Global Anisindione Sales Market in the next few years? What are the projected values and growth rate of the Global market? Which are the key players operating in the Global Anisindione Sales Market?Key Vendors:AimpowToronto Research ChemicalsSantacruz BiotechnologySchering PloughBayerInquiry before Buying This Report@About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com , Global Interferon Market by Region, Types, Key Vendors and Forecasts 2017-2022 http://bit.ly/2ro8tUf http://bit.ly/2skZUcg www.researchnreports.com Global Interferon Market report shows the information about Interferon Industry. Interferon is protein released by animal cells, usually in response to the entry of a virus, which has the property of inhibiting virus replication.Global Anisindione Sales Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The report on the Global Interferon Market is a comprehensive overview of the market, covering various aspects such as product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, distribution channel, supply chain analysis, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles exhaustive information sourced via proven research methodologies. The information of the Interferon Market is accessible in a logical chapter-wise format. It is also interspersed with relevant graphs and tables to enable readers to get a better perspective of the Global market.Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the Global Interferon Market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat from new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the markets trajectory between forecast periods.Download Sample @Moreover, with the help of analytical tools, the research study gives insights into the main growth barriers, drivers, promising opportunities, and limitations in the Global Interferon Market. The research report additionally addresses some of the very important questions regarding the development and latest trends in the Global market. Some of these questions are mentioned below: What are the main factors likely to encourage the growth of Global Interferon Market? Which factors are expected to limit the development of the market? Which application and product segments are anticipated to top in the forecast period? Which geographical segment is expected to lead and hold main share of the Global Interferon Market in the next few years? What are the projected values and growth rate of the Global market? Which are the key players operating in the Global Interferon Market?Key Vendor:MerckRocheHemispherxHycult BiotechThermoInquiry before Buying This Report@About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com , At the UN Ocean Conference: a call for an intergovernmental panel on ocean governance. www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/news/articles/2017/27.html New York - The recent U.S. decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement has increased the urgency to protect the world's oceans and its resources even more. A recent announcement at the UN this week on a new initiative and funding commitments by the Nippon Foundation may help.Ever since records were kept from the late 18th century, atmospheric CO2 levels have risen almost 40% with average global temperatures up by almost one degree Celsius. Resultant effects are seen in rapidly increasing loss of polar sea ice, acidification of our oceans, warming, and coral bleaching.The UN Ocean Conference was held in New York from June 5th to June 9th where delegates from 193 Member States gathered to discuss the future of the world's oceans.The current working frameworks within the UN makes it difficult to address ocean issues from a comprehensive, global perspective. With each of the nine UN organizations working in ocean-related areas - including the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) - each operate under its own set of treaties, agreements, and protocols.The IMO, for example, has over 50 conventions under which it operates but no enforcement authority. Similarly for fishing rights, there is the FAO with little ability to practically combat or dissuade illegal fishing practices.For over 30 years, the Nippon Foundation funding and training initiatives on the world's ocean resources have trained up over 1,200 ocean experts from 140 countries around the globe. This extensive experience led the foundation to propose not just the need for a new framework to govern ocean resources but also the funding to help launch a new intergovernmental panel that would address this need.Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, proposed that the United Nations establish an intergovernmental panel for comprehensive ocean governance. Such a panel would serve under the UN Secretary General and initiatives communicated through the UN General Assembly via the Secretary General. He further proposed a fund to support the establishment and operations of such an interrgovernmental panel."The seas of the world are in the state of crisis" Sasakawa indicated in this statement to the UN; "there has not a second left for us to spare."Nippon FoundationThe ocean is essential to human life.Today, however, the world's seas and oceans face a variety of problems, including pollution, kidnapping and piracy, and the depletion of marine food resources.Resolving these problems requires human resources to tackle these issues.Even if there are people and organizations who share this sense of crisis for the future of our ocean, they are not able to work together and effectively realize their full potential.We are cultivating people to clear the future for the world's oceans, while at the same time building a foundation that connects these people and organizations, to pass on the ocean's riches to future generations.The Nippon FoundationThe Nippon Zaidan Building1-2-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo 107-8404, JapanTEL : +81-3-6229-5111 FAX : +81-3-6229-5110email : cc@ps.nippon-foundation.or.jp Lighting Melbourne City - 2017 Intelligent Community of the Year http://www.lightingconference.com.au www.expotradeglobal.com Along with its long-running standing as the worlds most liveable city, Melbourne has claimed the title as the 2017 Intelligent Community of the Year, conferred by the Intelligent Community Forum. Smart lighting plays a crucial role in the citys smart-enabled landscape with more works now underway to futureproof Melbournes lighting domain.Since his presentation at the Australian Smart Lighting Summit 2016, Ironbark Sustainabilitys Business Manager Alexi Lynch has seen a plethora of changes in the smart control street lighting domain. Councils have moved beyond the innovator phase of technology adoption to an early adopter phase where more mature discussion can transpire concerning smart lighting controls and smart cities, says Lynch.Public lighting guidelines, policies and strategies set out by councils are increasingly taking into consideration smart city elements, controls and networks with the Federal Governments $50m Smart Cities and Suburbs Program investment.Technology trials and pilots are underway in most major centres with Victoria leading the way, in an Australian-first, network-wide, smart street lighting system for councils that includes thousands of smart-city enabled LEDs for Melbourne.The City of Ryde is a notable case study as the fourth largest CBD in Australia located in an local government area with residential and city smart controls installed over two years ago.Anthony Ogle is the Asset Systems Manager for the City of Ryde, responsible for the operations of city roads, streetscapes, street lighting, stormwater and local civil infrastructure for the City of Ryde.Since 2002, the City of Ryde has seen public street lighting through public domain upgrades with Multi-Functional Poles (MFPs) by developers as well as underground metered circuits. The Council is currently converting existing MFPs to LED with smart controls.The work of Dr Fred Watson, Head of Lighting and Environment at the Australian Astronomical Observatory, raises awareness of light pollution concerns associated with LED lighting.Dr Watson will be presenting at the Summit which also plays host to Ironbark Sustainabilitys Managing Director Paul Brown among a range of local and international lighting specialists who will profile major developments in the lighting sphere.Following his well-received appearance at the Summit in 2016, Washington DCs Smart Outdoor Lighting Alliance Executive Director Bob Parks is presenting up-to-date information on quality public lighting design at the 2017 edition of the Summit. Parks showcases real-world examples to emulate, as well as those to avoid.Florida Power & Light is undertaking one of the largest smart street lighting projects in the world. The utility is expected to implement nearly half a million networked energy-efficient LEDs with 75,000 lights already installed. Florida Power and Lights Principal Lighting Engineer, Joe Hancock, reflects on the challenges in delivering North Americas largest street light control network.Instrumental in the provision of Auckland Transports inventory of 105,000 street lights which represent a third of all those in New Zealand, Technical Principal of Lighting Design from New Zealand Opus International Consultants, Andy Collins, delivers a trans-Tasman perspective on energy efficient street lighting.Australias premiere symposium on smart lighting, smart cities and the Internet of Things, the 5th Annual Australian Smart Lighting Summit underscores the industrys commitment to developing innovative and intelligent lighting solutions. The Summit takes place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 13th and 14th of September 2017.Please visit:for more information.About ExpotradeExpotrade is a global conference and event organizer with its head office based in Melbourne, Australia. Expotrade has delivered some of the largest, most successful B2B industry conferences and events in the areas of infrastructure, major projects, sustainability, technology & architecture. For almost 10 years, our unique blend of knowledge, experience and flexibility has accomplished an array of consistently top quality events. Today, Expotrade events enjoy such a distinctive edge, they are amongst the best patronised in the calendar.For more information, visitSuite 1, Level 1, 2 Brandon Park DriveWheelers Hill VIC 3150 Australia Global Aero-engine Market Research Report 2017 http://qyresearchglobal.com/ http://qyresearchglobal.com http://qyresearcheurope.com The Global Aero-engine 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Aero-engine industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Aero-engine market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Aero-engine industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):GEPratt & WhitneyRolls-RoyceSafranMTUIAENPO Saturn...Table of Contents1 Aero-engine Market Overview2 Global Aero-engine Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Aero-engine Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Aero-engine Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global Aero-engine Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Aero-engine Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Aero-engine Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Aero-engine Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Aero-engine Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Aero-engine Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Aero-engine Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Aero-engine Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Aero-engine Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Aero-engine Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Aero-engine Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixRelated Reports:US Aero-engine Market Report 2017Europe Aero-engine Market Report 2017India Aero-engine Market Report 2017China Aero-engine Market Report 2017Korea Aero-engine Market Report 2017Japan Aero-engine Market Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Hebe | Sr. Manager Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) Global Aluminum Billets Market Research Report 2017 http://qyresearchglobal.com/ http://qyresearchglobal.com http://qyresearcheurope.com The Global Aluminum Billets 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Aluminum Billets industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Aluminum Billets market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Aluminum Billets industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):Noranda AluminumMatalcoNorsk HydroEGAAlcoaGlencoreRio TintoRusalSignature Aluminum CanadaVista MetalsTable of Contents1 Aluminum Billets Market Overview2 Global Aluminum Billets Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Aluminum Billets Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Aluminum Billets Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global Aluminum Billets Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Aluminum Billets Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Aluminum Billets Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Aluminum Billets Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Aluminum Billets Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Aluminum Billets Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Aluminum Billets Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Aluminum Billets Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Aluminum Billets Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Aluminum Billets Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Aluminum Billets Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixRelated Reports:US Aluminum Billets Market Report 2017Europe Aluminum Billets Market Report 2017India Aluminum Billets Market Report 2017China Aluminum Billets Market Report 2017Korea Aluminum Billets Market Report 2017Japan Aluminum Billets Market Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Hebe | Sr. Manager Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:QYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) Thailand Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/thailand-medical-tourism-market-and-forecast-to-2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/enquiry?report_id=40114 ReportsWorldwide has announced the addition of a new report title Thailand Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 to its growing collection of premium market research reports.Thailand medical tourism market surpassed US$ 4.6 Billion mark in 2016. Thailand, being a world leader in medical tourism, has world-class medical facilities with its high-profile private hospitals and clinics. Thailand has been one of the favorite medical tourism destinations for all over the world. This may be primarily due to the cultural heritage, state-of-the-art medical facilities, personalized hospitality and reasonable medical costs. Thailands medical tourism industry is likely to grow at an impressive rate primarily due to its expanding network of medical facilities catering to international visitors and proactive marketing by tourism officials.Among the top source market for Thailand Medical Tourism, Japan topped the list being followed by Asia. Middle East is standing at the third spot in terms of medical tourist arrivals in Thailand. United States and South Asia and Britain stands at fourth, fifth and sixth position respectively in terms of medical tourist arrivals to Thailand. Thailand is witnessing an increase in medical tourist arrivals from various countries like Australia, Taiwan and China, South Korea, France and Germany among others.For a Detailed description and table of contents of this report please click here:This is the 2nd edition report on Thailand Medical Tourism Industry. The report entitled Thailand Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 provides a comprehensive assessment of the fast-evolving, high-growth Medical Tourism Landscape in Thailand.This 84 Page report with 64 Figures and 2 Tables provides a complete analysis of Top 15 source country for medical tourist arrivals in Thailand.The Thailand Medical Tourism Market have been studied from 2 viewpoints.I. Medical Tourist Arrivals in Thailand - Country Wise (2001 - 2022)II. Medical Tourists Spending in Thailand - Country Wise (2001 - 2022)Thailand Medical Tourist Arrivals & Spending - 15 Countries Analyzed1. Japan2. Asia3. Middle East4. United States5. South Asia6. Britain7. Taiwan & China8. Australia9. France10. Germany11. South Korea12. Canada13. East Europe14. Scandinavia15. Other CountriesTo Get Sample Copy of Report please visit @About ReportsWorldwide.comReportsWorldwide.com is a leading provider of global market intelligence reports and services. With research reports from top publishers, consulting and advisory firms, ReportsWorldwide.com offers instant online access to a growing database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, geographies and trends.Press Contact:Abigail CrastoSenior Vice President101, Arch StreetBoston, MA 02110USPhone +1 (617) 398-4994Fax +1 (617) 398-4995abigail@reportsworldwide.com South Korea Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/south-korea-medical-tourism-market-and-forecast-to-2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/enquiry?report_id=40113 ReportsWorldwide has announced the addition of a new report title South Korea Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 to its growing collection of premium market research reports.South Korea medical tourism market is likely to surpass US$ 2 Billion mark by the year 2022 driven by factors such as technologically advanced treatments and medical procedures, pioneer in plastic/cosmetic surgery and dentistry, excellent medical practitioners & medical facilities, affordable medical costs and strong government support and initiatives.China topped the medical tourist arrivals list in South Korea being followed by United States. Russia is standing at the third spot in terms of medical tourist arrivals in South Korea. Japan and Mongolia stands at fourth and fifth position respectively in terms of medical tourists visit to South Korea. Mongolia and Kazakhstan have a traditional preference for South Korea when looking for medical treatment abroad. South Korea is witnessing an increase in medical tourist arrivals from various countries like Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, UAE and Vietnam among others.In terms of types of medical treatment, the general health check-up, dermatology, cosmetic surgery, Gynecology, Traditional Korean Medicine, ophthalmology, orthopedics, dental services and Neurosurgery are the popular services for which medical tourists visit South Korea.For a Detailed description and table of contents of this report please click here:This is the 2nd edition report on South Korea Medical Tourism Market. The report entitled South Korea Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 provides a comprehensive assessment of the fast-evolving, high-growth Medical Tourism Landscape in South Korea.This 95 Page report with 69 Figures and 2 Tables provides a complete analysis of top 14 source country for medical tourist arrivals in South Korea and Top 9 Medical Treatment/Services for which patients visit South Korea.The South Korea Medical Tourism Market have been studied from 3 viewpoints.I. Medical Tourist Arrivals - By Type of Medical Treatment (2009 - 2013)II. Medical Tourist Arrivals in South Korea - Country Wise (2009 - 2022)III. Medical Tourists Spending in South Korea - Country Wise (2009 - 2022)Medical Tourist Arrivals in South Korea by Types of Medical Treatment - 9 Types Medical Treatment Analyzed1. General Health Check-Up2. Gynecology3. Dermatology4. Cosmetic Surgery5. Traditional Korean Medicine6. Dental Services7. Ophthalmology Department8. Orthopedics Department9. Neurosurgery departmentActual and Forecast for Medical Tourist Arrivals & Spending in South Korea - 14 Countries Analyzed1. United States2. Canada3. China4. Japan5. Russia6. Mongolia7. Vietnam8. Philippines9. Kazakhstan10. Saudi Arabia11. Uzbekistan12. Indonesia13. United Arab Emirates14. OthersTo Get Sample Copy of Report please visit @About ReportsWorldwide.comReportsWorldwide.com is a leading provider of global market intelligence reports and services. With research reports from top publishers, consulting and advisory firms, ReportsWorldwide.com offers instant online access to a growing database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, geographies and trends.Press Contact:Abigail CrastoSenior Vice President101, Arch StreetBoston, MA 02110USPhone +1 (617) 398-4994Fax +1 (617) 398-4995abigail@reportsworldwide.com Singapore Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/singapore-medical-tourism-market-and-forecast-to-2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/enquiry?report_id=40112 ReportsWorldwide has announced the addition of a new report title Singapore Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 to its growing collection of premium market research reports.Singapore medical tourism market is likely to grow with single digit CAGR during the period 2017 - 2022. International patients come to Singapore each year for a whole range of medical care from health screenings to high-end surgical procedures in specialties such as cardiology, neurology, oncology, ophthalmology, organ transplants, orthopedics, and pediatrics. However, in recent years, Singapore is finding it harder to retain its title as the region's top medical tourism destination, as patients eye better value for money in neighboring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and India. The government support for medical tourism in Singapore has also waned in couple of years. It will be increasingly difficult for Singapore to maintain its position as the leading medical-tourism hub in South-east Asia, given the high cost of medical treatment and strength of the Singapore dollar.Among the top source market for Singapore Medical Tourism, Indonesia topped the list as all other countries combined market share is lower than that of Indonesia alone. Malaysia is standing at the second spot in terms of medical tourist arrivals to Singapore in 2016. China is the third largest source market for Singapore medical tourism. United States, Philippines, Africa and India are competing closely to grab maximum share of the Singapore medical tourism market. Australia, UK, Hong Kong and Thailand are the other popular source market for Singapore medical tourism.For a Detailed description and table of contents of this report please click here:This is the 2nd edition report on Singapore Medical Tourism Industry. The report titled Singapore Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 provides a comprehensive analysis of the Top 16 source market for Singapore Medical Tourism.This 80 Page report with 62 Figures has been studied from 2 viewpoints:I. Medical Tourist Arrivals in Singapore - Country Wise (2004 - 2022)II. Medical Tourists Spending in Singapore - Country Wise (2004 - 2022)Actual and Forecast for Medical Tourist Arrivals and Spending in Singapore - 16 Countries Analyzed1. United States2. Canada3. Indonesia4. Malaysia5. Philippines6. Thailand7. China8. Taiwan9. Hong Kong10. South Korea11. India12. Netherlands13. United Kingdom14. Australia15. Africa16. OthersTo Get Sample Copy of Report please visit @About ReportsWorldwide.comReportsWorldwide.com is a leading provider of global market intelligence reports and services. With research reports from top publishers, consulting and advisory firms, ReportsWorldwide.com offers instant online access to a growing database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, geographies and trends.Press Contact:Abigail CrastoSenior Vice President101, Arch StreetBoston, MA 02110USPhone +1 (617) 398-4994Fax +1 (617) 398-4995abigail@reportsworldwide.com Malaysia Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/malaysia-medical-tourism-market-and-forecast-to-2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/malaysia-medical-tourism-market-and-forecast-to-2022 ReportsWorldwide has announced the addition of a new report title Malaysia Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 to its growing collection of premium market research reports.Malaysia medical tourism market is likely to surpass US$ 535 Million mark by the year 2022. Malaysia is fast becoming a preferred destination for cost effective and world-class healthcare services for medical tourists around the world. Malaysia is eyeing the medical tourism sector which is inherent with considerable revenue-generating potential as patients in developed western countries are looking for good quality but low-cost sites which offer not only medical services but also have attractive tourism attributes. Malaysia offers a wide choice of state-of-the-art private medical centers boasting an impressive array of sophisticated diagnosis, therapeutic and in-patient facilities. According to the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council and the Universiti Sains Malaysia, there are a total of 88 accredited hospitals in Malaysia, of which 8 are JCI accredited.For the health-conscious traveler, Malaysia offers a unique combination of good quality, low-cost healthcare and an attractive tourist destination. While visiting Malaysia, the travelers can undergo medical check and use facilities involving preventive wellness, spas, cosmetic and dental surgery, etc. The popular medical procedures available in Malaysia include eye surgeries, orthopedics, cosmetic, urology, neurology, rheumatology, endocrinology, obstetrics and gynecology, oncology, and cardiology.For a Detailed description and table of contents of this report please click here:The number of medical tourist arrivals in Malaysia is increasing year on year, driven by factors, such as availability of good healthcare infrastructure, government support through promotional programs, and well-skilled medical professionals. Indonesia is the leading source market for Malaysia medical tourism. Medical institutions have promoted cardiology and orthopaedics in high demanding areas like Indonesia and the Gulf states. India is the second leading source market for Malaysia medical tourism in 2016. China and Hong Kong stands at the third position in the Malaysia medical tourism market being closely followed by Japan. United States, United Kingdom, Libya, Nepal, Bangladesh, Iran and Australia are the other emerging market for Malaysia medical tourism.This latest report titled Malaysia Medical Tourism Market and Forecast To 2022 is a 120 Page report containing 96 Figures and 2 Tables. This report analyses the Top 23 source market for Malaysia Medical Tourism.The Malaysia Medical Tourism Market have been studied from 2 viewpoints.I. Medical Tourist Arrivals in Malaysia - Country Wise (2006 - 2022)II. Medical Tourists Spending in Malaysia - Country Wise (2006 - 2022)Actual and Forecast for Medical Tourist Arrivals and Spending in Malaysia - 23 Countries AnalyzedTo Get Sample Copy of Report please visit @About ReportsWorldwide.comReportsWorldwide.com is a leading provider of global market intelligence reports and services. With research reports from top publishers, consulting and advisory firms, ReportsWorldwide.com offers instant online access to a growing database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, geographies and trends.Press Contact:Abigail CrastoSenior Vice President101, Arch StreetBoston, MA 02110USPhone +1 (617) 398-4994Fax +1 (617) 398-4995abigail@reportsworldwide.com High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) - Company Profile, Product Analysis and Recent Development of 20 HIFU Manufacturers https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/high-intensity-focused-ultrasound-hifu-company-profile-product-analysis-and-recent-development-of-20-hifu-manufacturers https://www.reportsworldwide.com/enquiry?report_id=40109 ReportsWorldwide has announced the addition of a new report title High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) - Company Profile, Product Analysis and Recent Development of 20 HIFU Manufacturers to its growing collection of premium market research reports.The global market for High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is increasing rapidly primarily driven by the increase in cancer patients population, growing demand for minimally invasive treatment procedures, and increasing public-private investments. The factors that influence the growth of HIFU Therapy are the increasing development in medical technology and its wide range of application used in the treatment of Prostate cancer, Uterine fibroids, Neurological disorders, Cosmetic medicine and others. Furthermore, stringent regulatory guidelines for the approval of innovative HIFU technologies, rising price pressure and unfavorable reimbursement scenario are the key challenges faced by market players restraining the growth of this market.In HIFU treatment, Ultrasound beams are focused on diseased tissue, and due to the significant energy deposition at the focus, temperature within the tissue rises to more than 65C, destroying the diseased tissue. Development of HIFU therapy has been greatly enhanced through the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to guide and monitor the procedure. This therapy is more accurately called MRgFUS (MR guided Focused UltraSound).For a Detailed description and table of contents of this report please click here:This is the 2nd edition report on High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) Industry. The report titled High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) - Company Profile, Product Analysis and Recent Development of 20 HIFU Manufacturers is a 241 Page report with 8 Figures and 41 Tables.This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the HIFU manufacturers, research sites, pre-clinical research sites, clinical research sites, technical research sites and commercial treatment sites. Furthermore, the company analysis segment covers attributes such as company overview, HIFU products and revenue analysis, and recent developments.High Intensity Focused Ultrasound(HIFU) Company Analysis - 20 Companies Covered1. EDAP TMS2. Haifu Medical3. SonaCare Medical4. Mianyang Sonic Electronic Ltd.5. Shanghai A&S Co., LTD6. Insightec7. Alpinion Medical Systems8. FUS Instruments9. Theraclion10. Image Guided Therapy11. Eye Tech Care12. Philips Healthcare13. Profound Medical Corp14. Promedica Bioelectronics15. Shenzhen Wikkon16. Sonic Concepts17. Shenzhen PRO-HIFU Medical Tech. Co., Ltd.18. Verasonics19. Changjiangyuan Technology Development Co., Ltd20. EpiSonicaThe above companies have been analyzed from 3 view points1. Company Profile2. HIFU Products Analysis3. Recent Development in High Intensity Focus Ultrasound (HIFU) MarketThe Global - High Intensity Focus Ultrasound (HIFU) report also covers List of HIFU Manufacturers (North America, Europe, Asia, Global) List of HIFU Research Sites (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Middle East, Global) List of HIFU Pre-Clinical Research Sites (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Middle East, Global) List of HIFU Clinical Research Sites (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania) List of HIFU Technical Research Sites (North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, Global) List of HIFU Commercial Treatment Sites (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania)To Get Sample Copy of Report please visit @About ReportsWorldwide.comReportsWorldwide.com is a leading provider of global market intelligence reports and services. With research reports from top publishers, consulting and advisory firms, ReportsWorldwide.com offers instant online access to a growing database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, geographies and trends.Press Contact:Abigail CrastoSenior Vice President101, Arch StreetBoston, MA 02110USPhone +1 (617) 398-4994Fax +1 (617) 398-4995abigail@reportsworldwide.com Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Research Report 2017 http://qyresearchglobal.com/ http://qyresearchglobal.com http://qyresearcheurope.com The Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the False Lashes (False Eyelashes) industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The False Lashes (False Eyelashes) market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the False Lashes (False Eyelashes) industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):ArdellESQIDOElfKissRevlonShu uemuraMACMakeup GeekBenefitNARSBio TakaraTable of Contents1 False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Overview2 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixRelated Reports:US False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Report 2017Europe False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Report 2017India False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Report 2017China False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Report 2017Korea False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Report 2017Japan False Lashes (False Eyelashes) Market Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Hebe | Sr. Manager Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) Global Cement Mortar Mixer Market Research Report 2017 - CreteAngle Mixers, Eibenstock, Knauf PFT, Sofraden, OMAER Srl http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1085477&type=E http://www.qyresearchreports.com Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Cement Mortar Mixer in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Cement Mortar Mixer market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingARCEN ENGENHARIABELLEGROUPCooper Research TechnologyCreteAngle MixersEibenstockIMER International SPAKnauf PFTLBGsrlLINO SELLA WORLDMBW IncorporatedOMAER SrlPemat Mischtechnik GmbHQinhuangdao Puda ElectronicSofradenSPE International LtdTesting Feuerherdt & BluhmOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCement MixerMortar MixerOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Cement Mortar Mixer for each application, includingCivil BuildingsCommercial BuildingsRoad and BridgeOtherGet a Free Sample Copy of this Research Report @Table of Contents1 Cement Mortar Mixer Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Cement Mortar Mixer1.2 Cement Mortar Mixer Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Cement Mortar Mixer Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Cement Mortar Mixer Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Cement Mixer1.2.4 Mortar Mixer1.3 Global Cement Mortar Mixer Segment by Application1.3.1 Cement Mortar Mixer Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Civil Buildings1.3.3 Commercial Buildings1.3.4 Road and Bridge1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Cement Mortar Mixer Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Cement Mortar Mixer Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYResearchReports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Global Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market 2017 - Dupont, Solvay, EMS-CHEMIE, Mitsui Chemicals Polyphthalamide (PPA) http://bit.ly/2s8MU7j http://bit.ly/2rfJQoI Global Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market Research Report by Type, Manufacturers, Application, Type, and Regions, Forecast till 2022Scope of Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market:A market study based on the "Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Polyphthalamide (PPA) industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Polyphthalamide (PPA) market on the basis of this analysis.Do Request For Sample Report :Top Manufacturers Companies Covered In This Research Report -DupontSolvayEMS-CHEMIEMitsui ChemicalsArkemaEvonikSabicBASFAKRO-PLASTICKEPDZTNHU Special MaterialsHighlights of Global Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market reports:The global Polyphthalamide (PPA) market 2017 is also analysed on the basis of product pricing, Polyphthalamide (PPA) production volume, data regarding demand and Polyphthalamide (PPA) supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tool of Polyphthalamide (PPA) such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in Polyphthalamide (PPA) market research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Polyphthalamide (PPA) across the globe.Do Enquiry Before Purchasing Report, Here :Global Polyphthalamide (PPA) Market report usually covers 15 Division. They are as follows:Division 1 explore about Polyphthalamide (PPA), product scope, market opportunities, Polyphthalamide (PPA) market overview, market risk, Polyphthalamide (PPA) market driving force;Division 2 analyzes the top Manufacturers Profiles of Polyphthalamide (PPA) , with price, revenue, and sales of Polyphthalamide (PPA), in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, displays the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with shares, revenue and market sales in 2016 and 2017;Division 4, Shows the global Polyphthalamide (PPA) market by regions, with revenue, sales and market share of Polyphthalamide (PPA) market from 2012 to 2017;Division 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, analyzes the Polyphthalamide (PPA) market by region, by manufacturers, by application and by type, with shares, revenue and market sales by key countries in these regions;Division 10 and 11, shows Polyphthalamide (PPA) market by type and application, with sales market growth and shares rate by application, type, from 2012 to 2017;Division 10 and 11, shows Polyphthalamide (PPA) market by type and application, with sales market share and development rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Division 12, Polyphthalamide (PPA) market forecast, by application, type and region, with revenue and sales, from 2017 to 2022;Division 13, 14 and 15, describes Polyphthalamide (PPA) sales channel, dealers, traders, distributers, Research Findings and appendix, conclusion and data sourceAbout Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA Latin America Heavy Construction Equipment Market Expected to Reach $6,391 Million, by 2023 Latin America Heavy Construction Equipment Market - Allied Market Research https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2316 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2316 According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, Latin America Heavy Construction Equipment Market by Equipment, Application, and End User: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014-2022", the Latin America heavy construction equipment market size was valued at $4,310 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $6,391 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2016 to 2022. The construction segment accounted for the dominant share of total heavy construction equipment market in 2016.Early buyers will receive 20% customization on this report.The heavy construction equipment comprises heavy-duty vehicles, which are specifically designed for use in various construction operations such as drilling, hauling, excavating, paving, and grading. The market players in the Latin America heavy construction equipment industry cater to various end-user industries including manufacturing, oil & gas, forestry, mining, construction, and infrastructure. Heavy construction equipment manufacturers focus on designing high-quality products that have high-performance and efficiency. The prominent players have introduced advanced heavy construction equipment, which adhere to the government norms and cater to the demand from these end users.Request Sample Report @The key factors that drive the Latin America heavy construction equipment market include recovery of construction sector, surge in public-private partnerships, and rapid urbanization. However, the Latin America heavy construction equipment market growth is restrained by the increase in carbon footprint, shift in oil prices, and weaker economic conditions in countries such as Brazil and Argentina. The demand for heavy construction equipment has increased within the region, especially in Colombia and Chile, owing to rapid urbanization and heavy investment in infrastructure segment. In addition, prominent players, such as Caterpillar Inc. and Volvo AB, are inclined toward developing efficient earthmoving machines to reduce carbon emission and improve performance.The Latin America heavy construction equipment market is segmented based on equipment type, application, end user, and country. In 2016, the earthmoving equipment segment dominated the Latin America heavy construction equipment market, with 48.5% share, followed by the material handling equipment segment. This is attributed to the plummeting operational costs with the advent of smart and intelligent excavators. In addition, the market is driven by proactive initiatives by the government to develop industrial and commercial sectors.In 2016, excavation & demolition application dominated the market, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5%. Excavators, cranes, and dozers are major equipment used for excavation & demolition activities. The heavy lifting application is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 7.4% from 2016 to 2022.Do purchase inquiry @Construction industry is the major end-user industry for heavy construction equipment in Latin America, accounting for 34% in 2016. Equipment such as excavators, loaders, motor graders, backhoe, cranes, dumpers, and tippers are utilized for large-scale construction activities. Manufacturers are continuously designing advanced products with advanced technology and increased performance. The manufacturing segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.4% to reach $671 million by 2022.Key Findings of the Latin America Heavy Construction Equipment Market: The material handling equipment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.2% from 2016 to 2022. The tunnelling application segment was valued at $743 million in 2016. Brazil heavy construction equipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5%. Chile is the fastest growing market among all the Latin American countries.The key companies profiled in the report include AB Volvo, Caterpillar Inc., Komatsu Ltd., Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd, Doosan Infracore, Leibherr Group, CNH Industrial N.V., Terex Corporation, J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB), and Atlas Copco.About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:Pankaj Kumar5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: + 44-845-528-1300 Small Cell Power Amplifier Market Expected to Reach $6 Billion, Globally, by 2023 Small Cell Power Amplifier Market- Allied Market Research https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2077 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2077 According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, Small Cell Power Amplifier by Type, and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023, the global small cell power amplifier market accounted for $1 billion in 2016, and is projected to reach $6 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 22.5% from 2017 to 2023. Asia-Pacific dominated the global small cell power amplifier market in 2016, accounting for a share of over 43%.Early buyers will receive 20% customization on this report.Small cell power amplifiers are used to improve the signal strength of different communication spectrums such as 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE. It also improves the data transmission rate for these spectrums. These power amplifiers are used along with the small cells that are low-powered radio access nodes, including those that operate in licensed spectrum and unlicensed carrier-grade WiFi.Request Sample Report @The growth in demand for mobile network traffic and increase in internet penetration across the globe leads to intricate network congestion. However, increase in focus of users on network quality, customer feedback, and telecom improvements has forced the telecommunication companies to provide a heterogeneous and upgraded network, which holds a very high scope of use of small cells and small cell power amplifiers.Based on amplifier gain, the 36 dB segment dominated the overall market as in 2016. Moreover, it is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 20% during the forecast period. Whereas, small cell base station accounts for the majority revenue share amongst the small cell power amplifier applications.Do purchase inquiry @The global small cell power amplifier market is analyzed based on its geographical level distribution across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Asia-Pacific is the dominant region and is estimated to be the highest in terms of revenue till the end of the forecast period, with a high involvement in the electronic manufacturing and telecommunication industry.Key Findings of the Small Cell Power Amplifier Market: In 2016, the 36 dB generated the highest revenue, accounting for over 28% of the global small cell power amplifier market. In 2016, small cell base station generated the highest revenue, accounting for over one-fourth of the market. Asia-Pacific accounted for the highest revenue and dominated the market with over 43% of the market share throughout the forecast period from 2017 to 2023.The key companies profiled in the report include Broadcom Corporations, Qorvos Inc., RFHIC Corporation, Anadigics Inc., Skyworks Solutions, TekTelic Communications Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm Inc., and Huawei Technologies.About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:Pankaj Kumar5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: + 44-845-528-1300 Global Feed Preservatives Market 2016 Industry Analysis & Forecast 2024 https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/feed-preservatives-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/toc/feed-preservatives-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/feed-preservatives-market http://www.zionmarketresearch.com https://zionmarketresearch.wordpress.com/ Zion Market Research, the market research group announced the analysis report titled Feed Preservatives Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts 20162024Global Feed Preservatives Market: OverviewPreservatives play an important role in preventing spoilage of food. Feed preservatives are used in animal food products to avoid any spoilage of food product and enhance shelf life. Especially in animal food products, preservatives or antioxidants are essential to avoid animal fats and oils from oxidizing. They are also essential in kibble or dry pet food products. Preservatives are available in two forms, namely, natural and artificial preservatives. Artificial preservatives are also called as synthetic preservatives. Natural preservatives are naturally occurring in various forms such as citric acid, rosemary, and vitamin E. They also offer anti-inflammatory health benefits.Request Free Sample Report @Global Feed Preservatives Market: SegmentationThe global feed preservatives market is classified based on feed types as feed meal, compound feed, silage, feed premix, and others. Based on types, the global market is fragmented as anticaking agents, mold inhibitors, feed acidifiers, and feed antioxidants. On the basis of livestock, the global feed preservatives market is segregated as aquaculture, cattle, swine, poultry, and others. The geographical region is segmented as Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East.Global Feed Preservatives Market: Growth FactorsFeed preservatives are widely preferred in the feed premix industry, hence the demand for feed preservatives is growing rapidly; this is expected to boost the global market growth. They are also used in wide range of applications propelling the global feed preservatives market in future. Feed premixes are the broadly accepted in the feed preservatives market owing to increased need to sustain the quality of premix ingredients include amino acids, vitamins, and minerals those are easily perishable and can deteriorate in the presence of heat, and light. Escalating demand for feed premixes in order to maintain livestock health is projected to fuel usage of feed preservatives by many vendors in order to maintain the premix quality.Request Report TOC (Table of Contents) @Global Feed Preservatives Market: Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific region is anticipated to grow at the highest rate owing to consumer inclination towards organized farming in poultry and aquaculture sectors. Growth in the disposal income also fosters the global feed preservatives market growth. Emerging markets such as Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia are projected to propel the global market growth due to the growing demand for compound feed and feed premix in these regions. Adoption of innovative technologies in North America positively influences the global market in this region. Latin America may show significant growth in future. Europe is also considerably grabbing the major market. Increasing popularity for feed acidifiers as a suitable alternative in this region is anticipated to foster the global market growth in future. The European region is prominently expanding its niche market across the country. The European regulatory authorities are focusing towards food safety and livestock health, which may positively affect the global market growth.Browse detail report @Global Feed Preservatives Market: Competitive PlayersMajor players in the global feed preservatives market are Perstorp Holding AB, Alltech, Inc., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Biomin Holding GmbH, and Novus International, Inc. Other players include Kemin Industries, Inc., Impextraco NV, Nutreco N.V., and Cargill, Incorporated.Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristically, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, a company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with Vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from Cardinal Industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.Contact Us:Zion Market Research4283, Express Lane,Suite 634-143,Sarasota, Florida 34249, United StatesTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll-Free No.1-855-465-4651Email: sales@zionmarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Our Blog: Global Chromatography Systems Market Key Players, Size, Share, Demand and Research Report 2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2324 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/chromatography-systems-market-2324 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/liquid-chromatography-instruments-market Market HighlightsThe global chromatography systems market has been evaluated as steadily growing market and it is expected that the market will continue to grow similarly in the near future. Chromatography is a laboratory technique which enables us easy and efficient separation of the mixture of the essential particles and the chemical compounds. Chromatography system is designed in such a way that the mixture of compounds is dissolved in a fluid which is called as a mobile phase. Fluid carries mixture through a different material which is called as stationary phase. Due to the different properties of the compounds in the mixture, it travels at different pace through the stationary phase causing the compounds to separate.The largest segment of the chromatography systems market is liquid chromatography which is expected to grow continuously during the forecast period of 2016 - 2022. Such high growth of this market is majorly because of the increased use of the chromatographic techniques in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, development of the new biologic drugs, development of the new formulations, increasing government funding and support for the research and development. Apart from these, there are certain factors such as continuous development of the novel techniques in chromatography by the existing market players, increasing research and healthcare expenditure in the developing countries such as India, and rising adoption of the chromatographic techniques in the low economy countries all around the world has impacted positively on the growth of the chromatography system market. Companies such as Agilent Technologies, Shimadzu Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., and WATERS has dominated the market in recent years. However, the high cost of the systems and the maintenance cost is bit of an issue causing the hindrance in the chromatography systems market. Big market players can make an effort to reduce the costs of the systems in order to cater even to the small economy countries all around the world.Global market for chromatography systems is growing continuously and expected to reach USD ~11.5 Billion by the end of 2022Request a Sample Copy @Key Players for Chromatography systems Market: Agilent Technologies, Apex Chromatography Pvt. Ltd., Apix Analytics, Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., GE Healthcare, GL Sciences Inc., JASCO Inc., Novasep Holding S.A.S., OI Analytical/Xylem Inc., PAC L.P., Pall Corporation, PerkinElmer Inc., Phenomenex Inc., QUADREX CORPORATION, Shimadzu Corporation, Siemens Industry Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., WATERS, Others.Segmentation:Chromatography systems market has been segmentedOn the basis of type :Gas Chromatography, Liquid chromatography which includes High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC), and Low Pressure Liquid Chromatography (LPLC), Other types which includes Affinity Chromatography, Ion Exchange Chromatography, Column Chromatography, and Thin Layer Chromatography.On the basis of end users: pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, hospital and research laboratories, agriculture and food industry, and others.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread in 110 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on Chromatography Systems Market Research Report- Global Forecast To 2022Intended Audience Chromatography systems manufacturers and suppliers Contract Research Organizations (CROs) Research and Development (R&D) Companies Government & Independent Research Laboratories Government and Independent Regulatory Authorities Market Research and Consulting Service Providers Academic Institutes and UniversitiesBrowse full report with TOC @Table of Content1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope Of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations1.2.2.1 Assumptions1.2.2.2 Limitations1.3 Market Structure:2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process:2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Macroeconomic Indicators4 Market Factor Analysis4.1 Porters Five Forces Model4.2 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers4.3 Bargaining Power Of Buyers4.4 Threat Of New Entrants4.5 Threat Of Substitutes4.6 Intensity Of Rivalry5 Global Chromatography Systems Market, By TypeContinueList of TablesTable 1 Global Chromatography Systems Market, By Type, 2013-2022 (Usd Million)Table 2 Global Chromatography Systems Market, By End User, 2013-2022 (Usd Million)Table 3 Global Chromatography Systems Market, By Region, 2013-2022 (Usd Million)Continue Related ReportGlobal Liquid chromatography Instruments Market Information by Type (High pressure liquid chromatography, Liquid-solid chromatography, Chiral chromatography), by End User (pharmaceuticals, Hospitals, research laboratories) - Forecast to 2027.Know more about this report @At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Cloud Business Software Market Insights, Growth Prospect, Trend Analysis, Share and Forecast 2022 Cloud Business Software https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/global-cloud-business-software-size-status-and-forecast-2022-market http://bit.ly/2rZ02NS http://bit.ly/2smN4dx https://www.bigmarketresearch.com The global Cloud Business Software market, analyzes and researches the Cloud Business Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeQuickBooksMicrosoftSAPGoogleDropboxCarboniteFreshBooksApptivoLay eyes on complete report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Cloud Business Software can be split intoCloud AccountingERPOthersMarket segment by Application, Cloud Business Software can be split intoService-Oriented BusinessesNonprofit OrganizationsProduction EnterpriseDownload sample report @Fundamentals of Table of Content :3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 QuickBooks3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Cloud Business Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Microsoft3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Cloud Business Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 SAP3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Cloud Business Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Google3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Cloud Business Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Dropbox3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Cloud Business Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent DevelopmentsAsk for discount @About Company :Big Market Research uniqueness lies in its highly ethical reports at economical rates because we value your relationship and growth more than money. Your growth is our aim. With the arsenal of different search reports, we help you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization.Contact Us :5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesDirect : +1-971-202-1575Toll Free : + 1-800-910-6452Email: help@bigmarketresearch.comWeb: Plastic Food Market 2017 - Bemis Sealed Air Corporation, Wihuri https://goo.gl/i0omqu http://marketreports.biz/report/global-plastic-food-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-market/ http://marketreports.biz/ Marketreports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Plastic Food Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Plastic Food Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Plastic Food industry, and estimates the future trend of Plastic Food market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Plastic Food Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportBemisSealed Air CorporationWihuriCoverisLock&LockHuhtamakiSabertPrintpack IncorporatedVisy Proprietary LimitedTupperwareSilganConsolidated ContainerReynoldsPakPlastLINPAC Packaging LimitedChuo KagakuPlaconALPLAAmcorOXORubbermaidGenpakRing Container TechnologiesEMSALeyiduoWorld Kitchen-snapwareSerioplastBonsonHebei BoqiangBeijing YuekangJoseph JosephNingbo LinhuaAvio PackThe market research report explores the Plastic Food market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Plastic Food Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Plastic Food market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Plastic Food. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Plastic Food market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Plastic Food is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Plastic Food market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Plastic Food market globally.Read full report with TOC @The worldwide Plastic Food market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Plastic Food production volume, data pertaining to demand and Plastic Food supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Plastic Food along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Plastic Food across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Neurostimulation Devices Market Predicted to Rake US$ 10,445.7 million by 2020 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/neurostimulation-devices-market.asp http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/neurostimulation-devices-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2824 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com The global neurostimulation devices market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing prevalence of chronic pain and rising incidences of neurological diseases. Moreover, rising awareness about various neurological diseases, growing geriatric population, and increasing investments in research and development of innovative neurostimulation devices are also driving the market. However, availability of alternative treatment therapies for neurological diseases and side-effects of neurostimulation therapy inhibit the growth of the market. The global neurostimulation devices market is anticipated to grow from an estimated US$ 5,088.9 Mn in 2014 to US$ 10,445.7 Mn by 2020 at a CAGR of 12.7% during the forecast period.Browse Complete Report @According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Neurostimulation Devices - Deep Brain Stimulation Devices to Witness Highest Growth by 2020, the global neurostimulation devices market was valued at US$ 5,088.9 Mn in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% from 2014 to 2020, to reach US$ 10,445.7 Mn by 2020.Neurostimulation technology involves the use of microelectrodes to activate elements of the nervous system. It involves the use of a neurostimulation device - a battery-powered stopwatch-sized device - which is surgically implanted in the brain and delivers electric signals at scheduled time intervals to the nervous system. These electric signals develop tingling sensations (paresthesia) in the damaged nerve and helps chronic pain and neurological disorders. In chronic pain conditions, these electric signals block the pain messages from the damaged nerve from reaching the brain. These devices are gaining importance in the management of chronic conditions such neuropathic pain, nociceptive pain, Parkinsons disease, epilepsy, and depression. Neuropathic pain occurs due to nerve damage, while nociceptive pain arises from diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. These devices are mostly used in cases where systemic drug therapies are not effective.In North America, the neurostimulation devices market is growing due to increasing incidence of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons disease. Moreover, initiatives taken by various government and private associations for increasing awareness about various chronic pain and neurological disorders and rising investments in the research and development of novel neurostimulation devices in North America is driving the market in the region.The neurostimulation devices market in Europe is growing due to initiatives taken by various governments to improve healthcare facilities in the region. Furthermore, increasing incidences of chronic pain and neurological diseases and growing aging population are also boosting the growth of the Europe neurostimulation devices market. According to WHO, every year, neurological disorders affect one-third of the population in Europe, and approximately 1% to 2% of the population is diagnosed with psychotic disorders. According to the NHS England - a government organization primarily involved in the improvement of healthcare services in England - approximately 8 million people suffered from chronic pain in the U.K. in 2010, and the number reached 14 million in 2012.Request to view table of content @Asia Pacific represents the fastest-growing region in the neurostimulation devices market. This is primarily due to growing aging population in various countries such as India and China. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - an organization involved in biomedical and health related research activities - approximately 110 million people in China were aged 65 years and above in 2011 and the number is expected to reach 330 million by 2050. In India, approximately 60 million people were aged 65 years and above in 2011 and the number is expected to reach 227 million by 2050.A sample of this report is available upon request @Medtronic, plc, St. Jude Medical, Inc, Boston Scientific Corporation, and Cyberonics, Inc. are some of the leading players in the neurostimulation devices market. Other major players of neurostimulation devices market include Cochlear, Ltd., NDI Medical, LLC, NeuroPace, Inc., NeuroSigma, Inc., and MED-EL.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Textile Chemicals Market 2017- Transfar, Archroma, Huntsman https://goo.gl/ulsas3 http://marketreports.biz/report/global-textile-chemicals-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-market/ http://marketreports.biz/ Marketreports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Textile Chemicals Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Textile Chemicals Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Textile Chemicals industry, and estimates the future trend of Textile Chemicals market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Textile Chemicals Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportTransfarArchromaHuntsmanCHT/BezemaDymatic ChemicalsLonsenRudolf GmbHZschimmer & SchwarzNICCAPulcraLanxessTanatex ChemicalsZhejiang RuntuMatsumoto Yushi SeiyakuAkzo NobelBozzetto GroupSolvayTotalWackerZhangjiagang Duplus ChemicalDr.PetryTakemotoSumitomoTianjing Textile AuxiliariesSino SurfactantTaiyangNantong DonghuiE-microchemThe market research report explores the Textile Chemicals market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Textile Chemicals Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Textile Chemicals market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Textile Chemicals. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Textile Chemicals market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Textile Chemicals is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Textile Chemicals market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Textile Chemicals market globally.Read full report with TOC @The worldwide Textile Chemicals market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Textile Chemicals production volume, data pertaining to demand and Textile Chemicals supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Textile Chemicals along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Textile Chemicals across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) Market 2017 - Japan Radio Co, Furuno https://goo.gl/AZZo0o http://marketreports.biz/report/global-voyage-data-recorders-vdr-market-by-manufacturers-market/ http://marketreports.biz/ Marketreports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) industry, and estimates the future trend of Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportJapan Radio CoFurunoInterschalt Maritime SystemsConsiliumL-3 CommunicationsW?rtsil? SAM ElectronicsKongsberg MaritimeBeijing HighlanderRaytheon AnschutzDanelec MarineKelvin HughesMaretronThe market research report explores the Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Voyage Data Recorders (VDR). Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market globally.Read full report with TOC @The worldwide Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) production volume, data pertaining to demand and Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Titanium Composites Brazing Market to Rear Excessive Growth During 2017-2025 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/titanium-composites-brazing-market.asp http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/15178 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/15178 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Titanium composites have higher wear resistance, stiffness, and strength compared to conventional titanium alloys. It has contain particles such as TiC or TiB which are responsible for the self-lubricating behavior of titanium composites. This in turn, results in lower wear and elastic modulus than other metal-matrix-composites. Titanium composites is used in various industries including aerospace, automotive, and electronics. Titanium composites is used for most of the application in as a substitute for titanium alloys, which is responsible for the growth of global titanium composites brazing market. Titanium composites brazing market registers significant growth rate, owing to increasing demand for heat resistant metal filler in the aerospace and automotive industry. North America titanium composites brazing market is expected to contribute for major revenue share, attributed to growing aerospace industry across the region.Get access to full summary @:Global Titanium Composites Brazing Market Dynamics:The growth of the global titanium composites brazing market is driven by growing industries such as aerospace, automotive, and electronic. Moreover, increasing demand for heat resistive metal filler also fueling the global titanium composites brazing market. The advantages of titanium alloy filler over other ceramic and metal filler including high heat and thermal conductivity, and high pressure tolerance, fueling the demand for global titanium composites brazing market. However, high prices of raw material used in the production of titanium composites brazing restraining the titanium composites brazing market across the globe. The company operates in the titanium composites brazing market can increase its share in the global titanium composites brazing market by increasing their investment in Asia-Pacific region.Global Titanium Composites Brazing Market Segmentation:The global titanium composites brazing market is segmented on the basis of application, end-use, and region. Based on application, the global titanium composites brazing market is further classified into aero-engines, gas turbines, and high-pressure systems. Among which, aero-engines segment is expected to account for significant revenue share followed by gas turbines segment in the global titanium composites brazing market. By end-use, the global titanium composites brazing market segmented into aerospace, semiconductor, automotive, healthcare, and other industries. Among these, aerospace segment is growing at a substantial CAGR in global titanium composites brazing market with relatively high revenue share over the forecast period.Based on application, the global titanium composites brazing market is segmented into: Aero-Engines, Gas Turbines, High-Pressure Systems. Based on end-use, the global titanium composites brazing market is segmented into: Aerospace, Semiconductor, Automotive, Healthcare, Other Industries.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Titanium Composites Brazing Market Regional Outlook:On the basis of geographies, the global titanium composites brazing market is segmented into seven regions North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific except Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among the regions, North America account for a relatively high share of the global titanium composites brazing market in terms of value, attributed to the growing aerospace industry across the regions. Western Europe is followed by North America in global titanium composites brazing market, owing to high demand for automotive across the region. Eastern Europe and Japan also accounts for significant value share in the global titanium composites brazing market, owing to high technological advancement in the regions. The Asia-Pacific is expected to register relatively high growth in the global titanium composites brazing market over the forecast period, owing to rapid rate of advancement in industries such as automotive, medical devices, and electronic across the region. The developing economy such as Middle East Africa and Latin America have a moderate growth in the global titanium composites brazing market, attributed to industrial development across the regions. Overall, the outlook for the global titanium composites brazing market will have a positive growth over the forecast period.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Titanium Composites Brazing Market Player:Few players in the global titanium composites brazing market include Morgan Advanced Materials and its affiliates, Titanium Brazing Inc., Advanced Materials Technology GmbH, Superior Flux & Mfg. Co., Wesgo Metals, and Aimtek, Inc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Neurosurgical Products Market Predicted to Rake US$7,756.2 Mn by 2022 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/neurosurgical-product-market.asp http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/neurosurgical-product-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3303 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com The global neurosurgical products market is witnessing significant growth due to growing geriatric population. Moreover, increasing the incidence of brain tumors, growing government funding, and rising awareness about neurosurgical disorders are also driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, growing demand for minimally invasive surgeries is expected to create growth opportunities for the neurosurgical products market over the forecast period. However, stringent regulatory requirements, long approval times for new neurosurgical products, and availability of alternative treatment for neurosurgical diseases inhibit the growth of the market. The neurosurgical products market is anticipated to grow from an estimated US$3,685.8 Mn by the end of 2015 to US$7,756.2 Mn by 2022 at a CAGR of 11.2% during the forecast period.Browse Complete Report @According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Neurosurgical Products: AsiaPacific to Witness Highest Growth by 2022, the global neurosurgical products market is estimated to be valued at US$3,685.8Mn by the end of2015 and expand at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2015 to 2022, to account forUS$7,756.2Mn by2022.The North America market is growing at a significant rate due to increasing healthcare expenditure, rising geriatric population, and increasing the prevalence of brain tumor in the region. According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, approximately 6 million people in the U.S. have a unruptured brain aneurysm and annually around 30,000 people suffer from brain aneurysm rupture. Moreover, initiatives taken by various government associations are helping to spread awareness about advanced neurosurgical products in North America.In Europe, increasing aging population, high healthcare expenditure, and increasing awareness about neurological conditions are driving the growth of the neurosurgical products market. According to the European Commission, Germany had the highest geriatric population (60 years and above) base among all European Union member states, accounting for 20.6% of the total population of the country in 2011. This number is poised to reach approximately 50% by 2030. Moreover, according to the NHS Commissioning Board in England, the U.K., Great Britain, neurosurgery is witnessing an annual growth of 2%-5%. With increasing number of neurosurgical procedures, demand for neurosurgical products is also poised to rise over the next few years.Request to view table of content @Growth of the neurosurgical products market in Asia-Pacific is primarily attributed to rising geriatric population, increasing healthcare expenditure, and growing awareness of the neurological condition in the region. According to UN reports, 10.1% of the total population of China is aged 60 years and above and this is expected to reach 30% by 2050. Moreover, the incidence of brain cancer is also increasing in the region. According to GLOBOCAN-an international agency, for research on cancer-5,510 people in Japan suffered from brain cancer in 2012 and this number is poised to reach 5,960 by 2020.A sample of this report is available upon request @Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation, KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG., Medtronic plc, Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Stryker Corporation, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Terumo Corporation, and Elekta AB. some of the major players of the neurosurgical products market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Semiconductor Packaging Material Market - Revenue, Opportunity, Segment and Key Trends 2017-2020 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/semiconductor-packaging-material-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3129 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Semiconductor packaging material consists of material used for protecting electronic components such as ICs and semiconductors from external impact, corrosion and other similar factors. These materials are used in conjunction with various other advanced packaging technologies for packaging of integrated circuits and semiconductors.Browse Market Research Report @Semiconductor packaging material can be classified in eight sub-types which include bonding wires, organic substrates, encapsulation resins, leadframes, die attach materials, ceramic packages, solder balls and thermal interface materials amongst others. The organic substrates accounts for the largest market share in semiconductor packaging material. Organic substrates are extensively used as base materials for semiconductor packaging. Bonding wires have been used widely as packaging material for semiconductors, but recently there has been a shift towards copper bonding wires for semiconductor packaging. The market for encapsulation resins is expected to witness strong growth in the next few years since encapsulation resins are relatively novel packaging materials. The semiconductor packaging materials are application specific and available across the globe. The various packaging technologies include GA, SOP, QFN, DFN, QFA and similar others which generally depends on the end-use.The market for semiconductor packaging material is expected to witness strong growth in the next few years on account of explosive growth in communication and mobile computing devices such as tablets and smartphones across the globe. Growth in mobile devices is also anticipated to drive the demand for wafer level packages. With the continued growth in the mobile devices market the market for semiconductor packaging materials is expected to witness strong growth in the next few years. The increase in demand for semiconductor packaging material is expected to be in line with the growth in the electronics industry across the globe. The semiconductor packaging material market is currently concentrated in Asia Pacific due to vast electronic industry present in the region. With growing demand for electronics and mobile communication devices the demand for semiconductor packaging materials is also expected to witness robust growth in the next few years.For more information on this report, fill the form @Owing to the growing electronics industry in Asia-Pacific region and increased demand for mobile computing devices particularly in countries such as China, India Indonesia etc. the demand for semiconductor packaging material is anticipated to witness strong growth in these regions. Asia Pacific was the dominant market for semiconductor packaging material followed by Europe and North America. In North America, U.S was one of the largest markets for semiconductor packaging material. U.S economy has been recently recovered and has been close to pre-recession levels. Looking forward, the packaging industry in North America is expected to show stable growth in the next few years, which in turn is anticipated to drive the semiconductor packaging material market in this region. In Europe, Germany accounted for the largest market share followed by Italy, France and the U.K. The semiconductor packaging material market in North America and Europe is characterized by similar market conditions. In the Rest of the World (RoW), especially in countries such as Brazil, the market is expected to witness strong growth on account of increased demand for semiconductors from the electronics industry in this region.Some of the major companies operating in the global semiconductor packaging material market are Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., BASF SE, Henkel AG & Company, Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd., Alent plc, and Kyocera Chemical Co. Ltd., among others.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Silicone Fluid Market to Maintain Healthy Growth by 2022 http://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1101454 http://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1101454 http://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-silicone-fluid-market-research-report-2017/1101454 http://www.researchtrades.com In this report, the global Silicone Fluid market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Silicone Fluid in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering, North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, IndiaAsk for sample copy@Global Silicone Fluid market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including, Dow Corning Corporation (U.S.), Wacker Chemie A.G. (Germany), Momentive Performance Materials Inc. (U.S.), Shin-Etsu Chemical Co.,Ltd (Japan), ACC Silicones (U.K.), Gelest Inc. (U.S.), KCC Basildon (U.K.), BRB International (Netherlands), Siltech Corporation(Canada)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into, Straight Silicone Fluid, Modified Silicone Fluid.Buy a copy of this report for single user price $ 2900@On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Silicone Fluid for each application, including, Agriculture, Energy, Home Care, Personal Care, Textiles, OthersKey elements for this report:1 Silicone Fluid Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Silicone Fluid1.2 Silicone Fluid Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Silicone Fluid Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Silicone Fluid Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Straight Silicone Fluid1.2.4 Modified Silicone Fluid1.3 Global Silicone Fluid Segment by Application1.3.1 Silicone Fluid Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Agriculture1.3.3 Energy1.3.4 Home Care1.3.5 Personal Care1.3.6 Textiles1.3.7 Others1.4 Global Silicone Fluid Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Silicone Fluid Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)2 Global Silicone Fluid Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Silicone Fluid Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Silicone Fluid Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Silicone Fluid Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Silicone Fluid Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Silicone Fluid Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Silicone Fluid Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Silicone Fluid Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Silicone Fluid Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Silicone Fluid Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionView this report@About Us:Research Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights.Contact Us:Address: Flat No.10, Wing C, S. No. 245/4/2+245/5/1, Baner, Pune-411045Call us: +91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconEmail: sales@researchtrades.comWeb: Food Packaging Market Emerging Trends and New Technologies Research 2017 to 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/food-packaging-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=7283 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Food packaging market is by far the largest application segment of the packaging industry, accounting for more than one-third of the global packaging market. From a global perspective, the food packaging market is at a very interesting situation, where the market has almost reached a plateau in terms of technology in the more developed nations in North America and Europe, while the emerging countries of Asia Pacific region are playing catch up to the packaging technologies and food supply chain management. Different types of food products require varied packaging types according to their individual usage and perishability.Browse Market Research Report @The sea change in food habits and preference for processed food has propelled the food packaging market in the past. The market for packaged food has already reached a holistic level in North America and Western Europe, while rapid lifestyle changes and economic growth, coupled with rising population in Asia Pacific countries such as China and India, has spiked the growth rate of food packaging in the region. The growth rate in South America and the Middle East is also on the higher side compared to the developed economies. The main reason for increasing preference for processed food is the shifting population dynamics towards urban centers from rural areas. This has resulted in the advent of dual income urban families, who prefer processed food due to time constraints. Packaged food has evolved from super markets to neighborhood stores in countries such as China, India, Brazil and Thailand among others. The market dynamics in North America and Europe however, is governed by branding activities undertaken by food processing companies.Tremendous opportunity exist in the food packaging market in emerging economies as the food packaging technology is in its growth phase in this region. Antimicrobial packaging technique is of particular interest as it helps to improve the shelf life of perishable food products. The market is however, slightly restrained by the declining growth in North America and Europe.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @The food packaging market can be segmented into application segments such as convenience foods, confectionary items, dairy items, fruits and vegetables, meat and sauces and dressings. The popularity of the different food applications is different across the globe. For instance packaged meat is making foray into Asia Pacific region while it is mainstream in North America and Europe. Materials used to package food can also be segmented into plastic, paper & board, metal and glass. They may also be classified as rigid, semi-regid and flexible by type of packaging material. The preferences for different packaging materials also vary with regions due to the food habits specific to the regions. Flexible packaging accounts for the largest share of food packaging.North America is the largest food packaging market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. However the growth rate exhibited by these regions has subsided considerably as the market is close to its peak. The growth parity is however, restored by the high growth regions of Asia Pacific and South America. China and India have exhibited exceptional growth potential and is expected to overtake the market leading position from North America in the near future.Some of the major players in the food packaging market are American Packaging Corporation, Anchor Packaging, Crown Holdings, Inc. and Bemis Company, Inc., among many others.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Auto-Injectors Market projected to exhibit CAGR of 15.1%, 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1642 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1642 Improving healthcare infrastructure across several countries and regions, coupled with availability of well-developed manufacturing units, facilitates the growth of medical device businesses. The changing attitude of patients towards treatment of generic diseases has indicated a significant rise in preference for self-administration devices such as auto-injectors. Promoting this notion, auto-injectors continue to gain prominence not just as an alternative route for drug delivery but also as point-of-care devices in homecare settings. Future Market Insights recently published its report on the global market for auto-injectors, which projects that by the end of 2026, more than US$ 6,800 Mn worth of auto-injectors will sold globally. Currently valued at US$ 1,673.7 Mn, the global auto-injectors market is being projected to exhibit an impressive value CAGR of 15.1%.In the report, titled Auto-Injectors Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, nearly three-fourth of global auto-injector revenues have been estimated to come from the US and Canada. While North America is being observed as the largest market for auto-injectors in the world, auto-injector sales will be relatively high in Western Europe as well. And, majority of auto-injectors are expected to be distributed through online pharmacies. Online pharmacies as a distribution channel will register the fastest revenue growth at 18% CAGR, while retail pharmacies will be procuring one-fourth of global market value by the end of 2026.Ask For Report Sample@Impact of Self-Injection Practices & Novel Drug Delivery SystemsThe global market for auto-injectors is projected to expand aggressively, and the report draws this forecast from identifying the most direct, impactful factors that drive the demand for auto-injectors. Firstly, the demand for auto-injectors is expected to keep soaring on the account of high adoption of self-injection practices by patients. Doctors, as well, are prompting patients to take up self-administration devices such as auto-injectors in order to fulfil their prescribed medication dosages through invasive yet safe administration routes.Along with that, the global demand for auto-injectors is also expected to be driven by growing development of novel drug delivery systems. Manufacturers of medical devices are collaborating with clinical scientists in order to pave way for next-gen tools in drug administration. In the years to come, the global auto-injectors market is anticipated to garner surplus demand, particularly for prefilled auto-injectors. In 2017 and beyond, more than 92% of global auto-injectors revenues will be emanating from sales of prefilled auto-injectors. Fillable auto-injectors, on the other hand, will incur a downtick in terms of global revenue share over the latter half of forecast period.Higher Demand for Auto-Injectors in Treatment of AnaphylaxisAnother factor that is inducing growth in demand for auto-injectors is the prevalence of multiple sclerosis and anaphylaxis. Notable disease monitoring associations from across the globe are predicting that these disorders are less likely to cease their occurrence rate among geriatric populations, which is incidentally boosting the demand for auto-injectors. In 2016, anaphylaxis as a disease indication accounted for an estimated US$ 1,500 Mn of global auto-injector revenues. Through 2026, almost nine out of ten auto-injectors sold globally are likely to be used for treating anaphylaxis. Meanwhile, auto-injectors sold for treatment of multiple sclerosis will register a marginal rise through the forecast period. And, revenues amassed from sales of auto-injectors for rheumatoid arthritis are expected to showcase highest CAGR of 18.3%.Ask For More Information@Parallel to their rising demand, the global supply of auto-injectors is also expected to propel by the end of 2026. Increased development of biologics, their use in production of advanced drug delivery devices, reduction of manufacturing prices, and additional cost-savings conferred by technological advancements, are all collectively bolstering the global production of auto-injectors. The report has profiled leading players in the global auto-injectors market, which include Amgen Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi, Pfizer, Inc., Becton, Dickson and Company, Mylan NV, Bayer AG, Eli Lily and Company, Janssen Global Services, LLC, and Antares Pharma, Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 Global Photo Printing and Merchandise Market will grow at 2.6% CAGR, 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1588 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1588 According to Future Market Insights,Advent of digital imaging technology can be identified as the point from where roll films were ordained to go out of business.The declining demand for cameras with film rolls is directly associated with growing adoption of digital cameras. Consumers grew more inclined towards digital cameras, thereby making photo printing and merchandise obsolete.Furthermore, time consumed by dye sublimation photo printers added to this shift towards instantaneously-rendered digital images. Poor image quality and expensive costs of conventional inkjet printers further deterred consumers from photo printing & merchandise.Ask For Report Sample@Future Market Insights recent report predicts a very unavailing future for the global photo printing & merchandise market. Above factors have been compiled in the report to define the dynamics of global market for photo printing & merchandise. Based on these, the US$ 16.8 Bn market for photo printing & merchandise will see a decelerated revenue growth at 2.6% CAGR, bringing in just over US$ 21.7 Bn by the end of 2026. Future Market Insights projects that in the ten-year forecast period, photo printing & merchandise worth a little less than US$ 5 Bn will be sold across the globe. The report also highlights trends which will, in one way or another, boost the sluggish adoption of photo printing among digital age consumers.Firstly, manufacturers of photo printing merchandise are expected to maintain more focus on introducing kiosks for increasing marketing exposure. Companies like Fujifilm Group have already deployed their SmartPix photo kiosks across various commercial settings such as supermarkets, malls and camera shops, and have also augmented them with enhanced connectivity features. Instating NFC capabilities in photo printing kiosks can be also observed as another promising opportunity for manufacturers to generate interest among customers towards conventional photo printing.Although, almost half of global photo printing & merchandise revenues are likely to be coming from online sales. While instant kiosks account for less than 10% of the market value, online distribution of photo printing & merchandise will bringing more than US$ 12.2 Bn revenues through 2026. Meanwhile, distribution of photo printing & merchandise through retail channels will be scaling down rigorously, exhibiting a negative 1.6% CAGR during the forecast period.Ask For More Information@The report has analysed that in 2016, an estimated one-third of global photo printing & merchandise revenues emanated from sales of film printing. This indicates that a majority of consumers are preferring digital printing merchandise. Also, over the forecast period, the report projects an impressive growth in demand for mobile application-based photo printing. Desktop applications are expected to lose out to mobile applications as this mode of printing is projected to register a comparatively faster revenue growth at 4.9% CAGR.The report also predicts fastest revenue growth in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan region 3.9% CAGR. North America is also expected to dominate with nearly one-fourth stake in global revenues, although the region is likely to lose out its presence beyond 2020. Leading manufacturers of photo printing & merchandise, profiled in the report, include Sanpfish, Eastman Kodak Company, Cimpress NV, Bay Photo Inc., Digitalab, AdoramaPix LCC, Shutterfly, Inc., and Mpix.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 Global and Chinese Methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate (PTBBMe) Industry Growth Analysis Forecasted till 2022 Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1114443 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1114443 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-and-chinese-methyl-4tert-butylbenzoate-ptbbme-industry-2017-market-research-report-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Use of methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate as an important additive during the production of PVC heat stabilizer, PP nucleating agent, sunscreen and scaling powder impacts its growth to an extreme level. Moreover, Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added an analyzed report titled as Global and Chinese Methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate (PTBBMe) Industry, 2017 Market Research Report to its vast database. The report is an overall evaluation that provides an in-depth insight of 2012-2022 global and Chinese Methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate (PTBBMe) industry covering all important parameters.Request Free Sample Report:Methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate (PTBBMe) appears as white crystalline powder, being slightly soluble in water. As the alkyd resin modifier, it can improve the resin luster, color, and speed up the resin drying time and improve the chemical resistance of the performance and thus adds to its market growth. Its ammonium salt can improve the performance of friction parts and also prevent rust. Similarly, sodium salt, barium salt, zinc salt can be used as polymer stabilizer and as nucleating agent. Altogether, these applications on various fields acts as the catalyst for the PTBBMe industry and increasing its demand.The provided report commences with the introduction of methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate industry giving a brief introduction, development, and finally the status of the PTBBME industry. Moreover, the manufacturing technology of methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate is described discussing the development, analysis, and trends of the PTBBME manufacturing technology. In the next section, the key manufacturers are listed and briefed along with their name, profile, product information, 2012-2017 production information and the contact data.Make An Enquiry:Moving to the next section, the 2012-2017 evaluation of global and Chinese market of methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate is completed. The report details the market status of methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate industry that describes market competition by the company, country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.) and a market analysis of consumption by application/type.Lastly, the researched study has also forecast the 2017-2022 market of global and Chinese methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate (PTBBME) industry. The provided research study presents an analysis of the methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate industry chain that discusses industry chain structure, upstream raw material, and the downstream industry. Finally, the global and Chinese economic impact on the methyl 4-tert- butylbenzoate industry is evaluated that detail global and China macroeconomic environment analysis, development trend and the effect to PTBBME industry. The provided study concludes by briefing the market dynamics and the new projects entry strategies, countermeasures of economic impact, marketing channels and the feasibility study of new project investment and thus suspending the report.Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Global Aircraft Refurbishing Market will bring in more than US$ 7.13 Bn revenues by the end of 2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1617 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1617 Future Market Insights recently published report on global market for aircraft refurbishing projects that during a forecast period from 2016 to 2026, the market shall exhibit a steady revenue growth at 5.8% CAGR. The report estimates that in the years to come, the luxury quotient of airline interiors will surge as the number of wealthy air travellers is slated to increase. Frequent air travel by well-heeled people is also prompting aircraft companies to opt for refurbishing of VIP cabins. Setting aside the impact of wealthy travellers on refurbishment of VIP aircraft cabins, the demand for aircraft refurbishing is also expected to gain traction due to its benefits for the aircrafts operational efficiency.According to the report, airline companies aiming to improve performance of their aircrafts are refurbishing the interiors & lowering gross weight of the aircraft. This results in lesser fuel consumption and maximum power retention, thereby upgrading the aircrafts operational performance. Owing to such factors, the global aircraft refurbishing market, which is presently valued at a little over US$ 4 Bn, will bring in more than US$ 7.13 Bn revenues by the end of 2026.Ask For Report Sample@Middle East & Africa to Record Rapid Sales of Aircraft RefurbishmentsDuring this ten-year forecast period, around 890,000 units of aircraft refurbishments will be consumed across the globe. The demand for aircraft refurbishing is projected to remain relatively high across the US and Canada. Through 2026, North America is likely to dominate with more than 30% share on global revenues. However, in terms of volume, the aircraft refurbishing market in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region will register a relatively rapid growth at nearly 6% CAGR.The report also projects that by the end of 2026, the demand for aircraft refurbishing will rise across Western Europe, Latin America and Japan. But, during this period, the Middle East & Africa (MEA) aircraft refurbishing market is expected to incur fastest revenue growth. Registering a value CAGR of 6.9%, the MEA aircraft refurbishing market will gain traction during the latter half of the forecast period. Higher concentration of wealthy individuals across Middle Eastern countries such as the UAE or Saudi Arabia is likely to fuel the refurbishment of VIP cabins among aircrafts commuting through this region.Retrofit Refurbishments Likely to Garner Surplus DemandThe report, titled Aircraft Refurbishing Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, further reveals that more than half of the markets global revenues will arise from refurbishment of narrow body aircrafts. While large body and wide body aircrafts will collectively account for more than 40% share, refurbishing revenues emanating from narrow body aircrafts will register highest value CAGR 6.1%. Based on the type of refurbishment, commercial cabin refurbishing will hold the majority of global revenues with 83% share, while VIP cabin refurbishing will witness a marginal decline in terms of its contribution to global aircraft refurbishing revenues.Ask For More Information@More than two-third of aircraft refurbishing revenues collected from across the globe are presently accounted by retrofit fittings. While this share is likely to incur a slight downtrend towards the end of 2026, the global aircraft refurbishing market will witness an uptick from fitting segments such as passenger seats and IFEC. The report has also profiled prominent manufacturers of aircraft refurbishments, which include B/E Aerospace, Inc., Diehl Stiftung & Co. KG, Gulfstream Aerospace, Ltd., Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited, JAMCO America, Jet Aviation AG, Lufthansa Technik AGm Sabreliner Aviation LLC, SCI Cabin Interiors, United Technology Corporation, SIA Engineering Co. Ltd, and Zodiac Aerospace SA.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 Global Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare Market Professional Survey Report 2016 http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=898438&type=E http://www.qyresearchreports.com This report studies Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2011 to 2015, and forecast to 2021.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringLotte AluminiumHydroUACJ Foil CorporationCatty CorporationOracle PackagingAnchor PackagingRUSALLoftenAlcoaMitsubishi AluminumNovelisSchott AGOwens-IllinoisSGDBruni GlassBerlin PackagingArdaghFusion GlassworksWest Pharmaceutical ServicesNiproLinuoAmcorMeadWestvacoBemisCCL IndustriesCatalentKPBeaconPrintpackGet a Free Sample Copy of this Research Report @By types, the market can be split intoAluminum Foil TypeGlass Packaging TypeBlister Packaging TypeBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaTable of Contents1 Industry Overview of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare1.1 Definition and Specifications of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare1.1.1 Definition of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare1.1.2 Specifications of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare1.2 Classification of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare1.2.1 Aluminum Foil Type1.2.2 Glass Packaging Type1.2.3 Blister Packaging Type2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare Major Manufacturers in 20153.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare Major Manufacturers in 20153.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare Major Manufacturers in 20153.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Packaging and Labeling in Healthcare Major Manufacturers in 2015QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYResearchReports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Global Ethylbenzene (EB) Industry Estimated to Witness Strong Growth during 2017-2021 Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1116392 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1116392 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-ethylbenzene-eb-industry-2017-trends-and-forecast-report-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Recently, it has been analyzed that the global ethylbenzene market is expected to witness moderate growth in the coming years on account of increasing demand from plastic industry. To explore further information on this rapidly growing market, a new study titled Global Ethylbenzene (EB) Industry 2017, Trends and Forecast Report has been published to the online repository of Market Research Hub (MRH). The report examines the prospects of the Global Ethylbenzene Industry through 2021, offering actionable insights into the key factors that will shape up the market during the forecast period of 2017-2021.Request Free Sample Report:Ethylbenzene (also known as EB) is an aromatic hydrocarbon and one of the greatest large-volume commodity chemicals. It is used virtually exclusively as an intermediate for the production of styrene, raw material for polystyrene, which is a common plastic. It is also used as a solvent for coatings and in the making of rubber and plastic wrap. Ethyl Benzene is a good solvent which finds its application in different sectors like in the rubber industry, ink industry, and other related industries. The global demand for ethylbenzene is growing wherein the Asia Pacific region has retained more than 47% of the market. China is the largest consumer and producer of ethyl benzene, having a market share of 28%. As per the findings, Ethyl Benzene is used on a large scale in the production of polystyrene and due to the growing market of polystyrene which is used make a wide variety of consumer products, the ethylbenzene market is expected to experience new and wide opportunities in the upcoming five years.Make An Enquiry:The report covers data on global, regional and national markets including current & future trends for supply and demand, prices, and downstream industries. North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific are the major regions highlighted in the study. Also, the leading countries including United States, South Korea, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan and China are analyzed for the better understanding of the market. Moreover, the report contains demand, production analysis and forecasts, drivers and restraints, end user analysis and forecasts, and market share analysis for major producers in the major regions of the world. The growth in demand will continue to be in China and will be supported by new EB capacity in the Middle East and Northeast Asia.Browse Full Report With TOC:At last, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis. This is projected to help the leading players in comparing the different product segments in order to determine the new opportunities and make more effective business policies in the next few years. Key companies operating in market for ethylbenzene are also profiled.About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Global Acai Berry Market exhibiting a CAGR of 12.6%, 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1207 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1207 Nowadays, consumers are becoming more aware about the benefits of acai berry, particularly to the use of acai berry products in production of organic cosmetics. Gradually yet resolutely, consumers are getting accustomed to the fact that acai berry promotes healthier skin with youthful-look and elasticity. Acai berry products are rich in vitamin A, C and E, and help in regeneration of the skin. In addition to this, acai berry has numerous skin benefits, owing to which they are used in various products such anti-aging creams. Future Market Insights latest report projects that increasing usage of acai berry in organic cosmetics products will play an instrumental role in boosting global acai berry sales in the future.The report, titled Acai Berry Market: Global Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, estimates that in 2016, more than 300,000 tonnes of acai berry products were sold across the world. Future Market Insights anticipates an impressive rise in global consumption of acai berry products, and expects the global sales to surpass 1 million tonnes by the end of 2026. During this forecast period, the global market for acai berry will reflect a volume CAGR of 12.5%. In terms of value, the global acai berry market has been estimated to be valued at US$ 696 Mn in 2016, and is expected to reach US$ 2,285.7 Mn towards the end of 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.6%.Ask For Report Sample@In addition to the rising use of acai berry in production of organic cosmetics, the report also observes that robust nutritional content of acai berry products have helped them to gain applicability in production of protein drinks and other beverages. Likewise, sales of acai berry increased over past three years due to the positive perception towards super-food, which consists enormous amount of nutritional content. The report predicts that in the years to come, the demand for acai berry pulp will be considerably higher than dried acai berries. Higher nutritional content of acai berry pulp will help it procure more than 80% of global acai berry sales throughout the forecast period.Increasing demand for All Natural preserving for frozen fruits, coupled with rising preference for acai with guarana (in Latin America) has also propelled the application of acai berry. In 2017 and beyond, acai berry products will be largely used for food & beverage applications, revenues from which are expected to surge at 13% CAGR. Application of acai berry in production of nutraceuticals is also expected to gain traction, showcasing an absolute $ opportunity of close of US$ 137 Mn between 2016 and 2026.Ask For More Information@According to the report, the largest market for acai berry is expected to be Latin America. With more than 55% share, Latin America will dominate the global acai berry sales towards the end of forecast period. Brazil-based Acai Frooty is among the key players in the global acai berry market. South Africas Phyto Nutraceuticals Inc. is also observed as prominent manufacturer of acai berry products, while US-based companies such as Sambazon, Inc., Acai Roots, Inc., Nativo Acai, Acai Exotic LLC., Jamaba Juice, Inc., Sunfood, Naked Juice Company and The Coca-Cola Company are also profiled in the report as active participants of global acai berry market. Owing to the dense presence of US-based acai berry manufacturers in global market, North America is also expected to be at the forefront, registering rampant growth at 12.8% CAGR.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 Helium Leak Test System Market to Observe Strong Development by 2025 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/helium-leak-test-system-market.asp http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/16024 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16024 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Helium Leak Test System Market: Market OverviewThe helium leak test system is a kind of test system for leak inspections of high pressure and with high accuracy in which helium gas is used as the detection or tracer gas. A helium leak testing system can control the leaking if product leaks more helium than what is acceptable and it also measures the leak rate. In most of the helium leak test systems, the testing is done by loading the product into a vacuum chamber along with connecting a vacuum below the product, then the product along with the chamber is pumped to a comparatively low vacuum level. Helium is put into the object and then the concentration of helium inside the chamber is measured. The helium leak test system is considered to be the only reliable leak detection method when very small leaks below 10-4 mbar l / s have to be detected. The helium leak test system is very useful when extremely fast cycle times are required; it also has useful applications where complete automation is required and human errors or mistakes are not acceptable. Helium being a non-poisonous and non-explosive gas is preferred for leak testing systems. Hydrogen is the lightest element followed by helium; helium can penetrate into the small leaks where other heavy elements cannot.Get access to full summary @:Helium Leak Test System Market: Market DynamicsThe increase in demand for examining leaks in the object during operation or cycle times is fueling the growth of the helium leak testing system. The need to prevent unplanned and expensive shutdowns of many manufacturing plants and industries is creating the demand for the helium leak test system. The need for ensuring the integrity of machined parts has become essential in many industrial processes today, which in turn is leading to the growth of helium leak test system. The rise in helium costs is a restraining factor for the growth of the helium leak test system market. The manufacture of the customized helium leak test system for the specific needs of the customer sets the scope for the development of the helium leak test system market. The ability of helium leak test systems to detect the minutest of the leaks is beneficial for the manufacturers bending towards the fully automated manufacturing processes.Helium Leak Test System Market: Market SegmentationThe global helium leak test system market can be segmented on the basis of the number of chambers in the whole system: Single chambered, Double chambered, Multi-chambered. It can also be segmented on the basis of end-use industries: Automobiles, Aerospace & Aeronautics, Quick connectors and fitting, Construction, Medical, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Food & Beverages, Electronics, Power Generation & Power Plants, Oil & Gas Industry (Fuel pipes), Cogeneration Stations, Cryogenics, Heat Treating and Brazing.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Helium Leak Test System Market: Segmentation OverviewThe different types of helium leak test system are vacuum test, sniffer test, helium spray and bombing test. The vacuum test is used to test components such as airbags, canisters, condensers, evaporators, fuel tanks, hoses, pipes, tubes and thermostatic valves. The sniffer test is used for the parts which cant be pushed inside a vacuum chamber such as refrigerators or refrigerated food displays. It is also used to locate a leak which has already been detected by other methods, in order to allow for repair of other parts. The helium spray test is repeatedly used to check porosity in the cast parts or parts which operate in the vacuum such as water pumps and brake pumps. The bombing test is used to detect small leaks, where the usual leak range to be detected is from 5.0 x 10-2 mbar*L/s to 1.0 x 10-4 mbar*L/s.Helium Leak Test System Market: Regional OutlookThe global helium leak test system market geographically is segmented as North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe hold a significant share of the helium leak test system market owing to the fully automated manufacturing processes. Furthermore, the increase in R & D activities related to aerospace and automobiles, wherein helium leak test system are useful for detecting minutest leakages, aids in boosting the growth of helium leak test system market in the region. The market in the APEJ region is more inclined towards growing demand for helium leak test system because of the increasing industrial automation and increasing number of manufacturing plants.A sample of this report is available upon request @Helium Leak Test System Market: Prominent PlayersSome of the prominent players in the global helium leak test system market are: FUKUDA Co., Ltd, FUKUDA USA Inc., NOLEK, Lowener Vacuum Services AB, Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH, Telstar Vacuum Solutions, Marposs S.P.A., Alliance Concept, HVS Leak Detection, Agilent Technologies, Cincinnati Test Systems.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Drill Pipe Market - Estimation, Forecast, demands and development analysis examined in new research report https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1445 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1445 https://www.tmrresearch.com/drill-pipe-market Global Drill Pipe Market: OverviewDrill pipes, usually made from aluminum or steel, are hollow and thin-walled and utilized in drilling rigs. Drilling fluid is pushed down the hole and back up the annulus. They are available in the market in different sizes, strengths, and wall thicknesses. Their length is usually between 27 and 32 feet. They can withstand massive internal and external pressure, distortion, bending, and vibration as they can rotate and lift the bottom hole assembly (BHA). The two types of drill pipes are standard drill pipes and heavy weight drill pipe.Global Drill Pipe Market: Key TrendsAt the forefront of driving growth in the global drill pipe market is the spiking demand for energy, which has necessitated exploration of offshore reserves on account of tanking production from onshore fields. The progress in drilling technologies such as pad drilling and horizontal drilling have also helped up output and lowered drilling rig downtime, which has expedited drilling operations. This is slated to push up demand even further.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Countering the growth in the global drill pipe market is the tanking crude oil prices. This has also resulted in a steady decline in rig rental capital in the offshore market. Customers now have strong bargaining power in negotiating new contracts and extensions too on account of the downward pressure on prices.Global Drill Pipe Market: Market PotentialAt present there are way too many offshore drilling rigs chasing too little work. Hence, many are being idled or scrapped. Offshore opportunities, however, are abound in Africa and the Middle East that provide an avenue for growth for the market. The onshore oil and gas presents much greater opportunity than the offshore ones because the explosive drilling activities from shale reserves, coal bed methane, and tar sands. Additionally, the continued spike in global petroleum consumption is also predicted to create major growth opportunities for the market in the near future.Request TOC of the Report @Going forward, the premium grade drill pipe segment is slated to hold out a lot of potential because of the growth in the exploration activity in deepwater and ultra deepwater regions primarily in Europe and Africa, where recent oil and gas discoveries have occurred in the offshore regions. Premium grade drill pipe is helpful in deepwater exploration on account of it being immune to high pressure and high temperatures.Global Drill Pipe Market: Regional OutlookFrom a geographical perspective, North America is a key region on account of the burgeoning shale gas exploration and production in the U.S., which has favored the drill pipe market and will continue doing so in the near future. Canada is another important market in the region. The Middle East and Africa are other crucial markets on account of the presence of a large number of reserves.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@In terms of growth, however, Asia Pacific, powered by China, will outshine all other regions. This will be mainly on account of the flexible and hassle-free regulatory scenario in the countries of China, India, Indonesia, and Singapore.Global Drill Pipe Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the prominent players in the global drill pipe market are Superior Manufacturing, Tenaris S. A, Drill Pipe International, Oil Country Tubular Limited, Texas Steel Conversion, Inc., Hilong Group of Companies, TMK Group, DP Master, Vallourec S.A., Tejas Tubular Products, Inc., Jiangyin Long Bright, National Oilwell Varco.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Home Automation System Market 2017 Application, Trends, Growth, Opportunities Worldwide and Forecast To 2022 Home Automation System Market http://emarketorg.com/pro/global-home-automation-system-market-research-report-2017/ http://emarketorg.com/product-enquiry/?product-id=97683 https://twitter.com/emarketorg The report covers forecast and analysis for the Home Automation System market on a global and regional level. The study includes drivers and restraints for the Home Automation System market along with the impact they have on the demand over the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes the study of opportunities available in the Home Automation System market on a global level.For this report, the Home Automation System market value is provided for 2016 in USD millions, an expected CAGR % as well as USD million worth of industry in 2022. Regionally, the globe is segmented into United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and India to study their market size and local analysis. End user applications of Home Automation System market covering Behavioral and Proactive are studied in this research. Share of Home Automation System market is covered by applications as well supported with potential applications in the future.Buy the complete Home Automation System report with Comprehensive table of contents @The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the Home Automation System market involves a primary and a secondary research. A systematic procedure has been used to arrive at the global size of the Home Automation System market and present revenue of key players in the market. Accurate data has been collected by conducting extensive interviews with people holding key decision making positions in the industry such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives.Inquire for discount for this report @Industry chain analysis covering upstream raw materials and equipments of Home Automation System market, their suppliers' information as well as analysis of downstream major consumers for Home Automation System is provided to understand the complete industry chain structure. Overall market analyzed in this report is divided by regions, types and manufacturers/companies. The research estimates 2017-2022 Home Automation System market development trends covering capacity, production and revenue forecasts as well as regional supply consumption forecasts.Towards the end, this report includes a feasibility analysis of New Project Investment covering SWOT analysis of Home Automation System OR marketing strategy analysis and market effect factor analysis. Overall, the report provides factual insights collected and analyzed with detailed primary and secondary research on Home Automation System market.The research compiles profiles of small and big Home Automation System market companies covering their product details as well as important statistics on production, capacity, price and more. These active companies' numbers are supported with information on marketing traders and/or distributors of the Home Automation System industry along with their contact information. This data gives valuable industry insights and direction to individuals and/or companies that are new entrants, eyeing to enter or grow in the Home Automation System market. Some of the Key vendors profiled in this research include: Legrand Schneider Honeywell ABB Control4 Corporation Crestron Electronics Johnson Controls SiemensPartial list of Tables and Figures for this report include:Figure India Home Automation System Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Home Automation System Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Home Automation System Capacity, Production (K Units) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Home Automation System Major Players Product Capacity (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Home Automation System Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Home Automation System Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Home Automation System Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Figure Global Home Automation System Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2017Figure Global Home Automation System Major Players Product Production (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Home Automation System Production (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Home Automation System Production Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure 2016 Home Automation System Production Share by ManufacturersFigure 2017 Home Automation System Production Share by ManufacturersAbout Us:eMarketOrg.com aims to provide businesses and organizations market intelligence products and services that help in making smart, instant and crucial decisions. Our database offers access to insights from industry leaders, experts and influencers on global and regional sectors, market trends, user behaviour, for companies as well as products. With data and information from reputable and trusted private and public sources, our clients are never short of statistics and analysis that are up to date.Contact Details:Ronald Aldensales@emarketorg.cominfo@emarketorg.comeMarketOrg.com aims to provide businesses and organizations market intelligence products and services that help in making smart, instant and crucial decisions. Our database offers access to insights from industry leaders, experts and influencers on global and regional sectors, market trends, user behaviour, for companies as well as products. With data and information from reputable and trusted private and public sources, our clients are never short of statistics and analysis that are up to date.Starting with market research reports, eMarketOrg.com plans to add conferences, knowledge products, which can be periodically subscribed to, and more to its range of business offerings. Spread across the globe, our network of partners, in collaboration with our service specialists, ensure that our clients receive the right product, service and/or solution that meet their requirements in convenient timelines and within comfortable budgets that neither go underutilized nor dig a big hole into their monthly, quarterly and/or yearly spends.Get in touch with us to experience a new one-stop market intelligence and business service.F/3, 4A Bharat Pushpa Apt.,Subhash Nagar, Shukrawar Peth,Pune 411002 Top 10 Cloud Technology Market Outlook : Region, Types, and Industry Overview 2017-2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1451 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1451 https://www.tmrresearch.com/top-10-cloud-technology-market Global Cloud Technology Market: OverviewIn general terms, cloud computing is the delivery of hosted services over the Internet. Rather than maintaining and building an in-house computing infrastructure, cloud computing enables companies to use resources of compute, such as machines, storage or an application. Pay-per use, self-service provisioning, and elasticity are the key benefits of cloud computing that can be availed by businesses and end users. Cloud migration, cloud analytics hybrid cloud, cloud orchestration, cloud storage, Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS), multi cloud management, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS), Video-as-a-Service (VaaS), and Wi-Fi-as-a-Service are the major cloud technologies.Global Cloud Technology Market: Key TrendsThrough a massive shift to cloud, organizations and businesses are able to move their computing resources such as databases, infrastructure, applications, platforms, and email onto the cloud. It assists in lowering the costs, aids in recovering files, speeds operations, and manages other mission-critical tasks. It also enables business continuity while shifting workload to the virtual environment from the data center. Faster deployment, agility, mobility, scalability, lower total cost of ownership, and business continuity are the major drivers of cloud migration.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The exponential growth of digital services and their applications, along with the increasing need of business enterprises for greater scalability and flexibility, has augmented the implementation of hybrid cloud services and solutions, thereby driving the demand for cloud technology.Global Cloud Technology Market: Market PotentialMore and more organizations and end-use industries are resorting to cloud computing. Several health organizations digitize their abundant data and are on a constant lookout for cloud providers to help them understand the scalability of cloud environments without foregoing compliance and security controls. As per a report by SADA Systems a premier business and technology consulting firm and cloud partner, 58% of healthcare organizations globally that are not using cloud today are likely to do so in the next two years, while 95% of healthcare organizations using cloud today propose to increase their cloud usage.Request TOC of the Report @Recently it was announced that by late 2018, Belarusian government agencies will start using beClouds cloud computing platform. After signing relevant documents, all government agencies have to migrate to the beCloud platform. Over 60 government organizations and agencies are required to make the switch.However, many federal agencies are not in sync with the given cloud computing advantage and find that such migration has little or no impact on functionality. It is causing newer applications to load slowly, become non-intuitive, and above all, difficult to work with. According to the findings of Deloitte and the Government Business Council (GBC), many employees from major government, defense, and civilian agencies have reported that cloud computing had no obvious influence or any impact on their organization.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Cloud Technology Market: Regional OutlookNorth America, especially the U.S., accounted for a large share in the f cloud technology market in 2015. Collaborations, content and communications along with customer relationship management are the key drivers for the growth of the regional market during the forecast period. However, as the market in North America is nearing maturity, various industry players are venturing into the emerging markets of the Middle East, hence boosting the market for cloud technology.The Middle East is fast becoming a lucrative market for cloud technology. Under the paid-subscription category, numerous organizations have started implementing cloud-based applications that do not require any downloading or upgrading nor is there any need to maintain any servers. To be at par with IT developed nations, governments in the Middle East have largely invested in the development of IT skills to help solution providers to tackle the dearth of skilled professionals in the region.Global Cloud Technology Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the prominent players operating in the global cloud technology market are IBM Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., VMware, Inc., Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, HP Enterprise, Rackspace Hosting, Inc., Google, Inc., and SAP SE.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Extremity Reconstruction Market : By Product Type, Market, Players and Regions-Forecast to 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1175 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1175 https://www.tmrresearch.com/extremity-reconstruction-market Global Extremity Reconstruction Market : SnapshotThe global market for extremity reconstruction is expected to witness a high level of growth in the next few years. The rising number of cases of abnormalities and injuries in the lower and upper extremity of the human body is one of the vital factors estimated to encourage the growth of the global market in the coming years. In addition, several advancements in the healthcare infrastructure are anticipated to accelerate the development of the market in the near future. The implant devices for different parts of the human body comprises the extremity reconstruction market in the coming years.A tremendous rise in the geriatric population and the rising incidences of obesity and diabetes are some of the major factors that are estimated to fuel the development of the global extremity reconstruction market in the near future. Moreover, the increasing cases of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid are likely to accelerate the growth of the market in the coming years. The rising awareness regarding the benefits of small joint reconstruction implants among patients is predicted to encourage the growth of the global extremity reconstruction market in the next few years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Technological advancements and the availability of required infrastructure are projected to augment extremity reconstruction market in North America market in the next few years. The leading players operating in the extremity reconstruction market across the globe are emphasizing on introducing innovative implants in order to attract a large number of consumers and attain a leading position in the market. Additionally, the rising level of competition is predicted to expand the product portfolio and benefit the patients in the coming years.Global Extremity Reconstruction Market: OverviewThe increasing incidence of injuries, abnormalities, and congenital defects in the upper or lower extremity of human body has fuelled the demand for reconstructive surgical procedures. Implant devices for the shoulder, wrist, ankle joints, digits, elbow, and foot are part of the extremity reconstruction market.Request TOC of the Report @The primary driver of the global extremity reconstruction market is the large pool of geriatric population. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, with a rise in the geriatric population in the U.S., by the year 2040, the number of patients affected by arthritis is expected to increase to 78 million. Since aged people are more prone to injuries, growth in geriatric population is expected to fuel the demand for reconstructive surgical procedures.Global Extremity Reconstruction Market: Key TrendsThe rising incidence of joint disorders such as rheumatoid and osteoarthritis arthritis, coupled with the globally increasing incidence of diabetes and obesity, and rising geriatric population are driving the global extremity reconstruction market. Moreover, growing awareness among patients about the advantages of small joint reconstruction implants and enhanced technology such as development of reverse shoulder implants, stem less shoulder implants, and ankle reconstruction implants, which aid in recovering ankle mobility are projected to boost the market. The zest to get back to the active lifestyle, post-injury or trauma will supplement the demand for extremity reconstruction surgeries.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@On the downside, complications associated with extremity reconstruction surgeries and unfavorable reimbursement scenario will pose as threat to the global extremity reconstruction market.Global Extremity Reconstruction Market: Market PotentialThe global market for extremity reconstruction surgeries is evolving at fast pace. 3D implants are fast gaining traction among arthritis patients. It helps in better motion, it is less painful, and results in quick recovery. Various market giants have largely invested in this technology, to hold their position over the forecast period.In February 2016, Zimmer Biomet received the US FDA approval for its 3D printed ankle fusion system. Similarly, in 2015 Stryker added 3D printed patellas and tibial baseplates to their Triathlon Tritanium Cone Augments and Triathlon Tritanium Knee System, which are used in knee surgeries. The company also has plans to build 3D manufacturing facility with investment of around US$ 400 mn.Recently, a shoulder hemiarthroplasty or a shoulder replacement surgery was successfully carried out in Gandhi Hospital. This is a first-of-its-kind surgery performed by the doctors of the state-run hospital. Shoulder arthroplasty is a fast evolving field of orthopedics concentrated on treating specific, painful ailments of the gleno humeral articulation.Global Extremity Reconstruction Market: Regional OutlookThe region to hold a leading share of the market is North America, and is expected to grow at a strong rate during the forecast period. Increased awareness regarding the benefits of extremity reconstruction devices, rise in occurrence of joint disorders, coupled with escalating geriatric population, encouraging reimbursement rates, presence of innovative technologies, and quest for better quality of life are the factors fuelling the demand for reconstruction procedures in this region.During the forecast period, Asia Pacific is forecast to emerge as a lucrative market for extremity reconstruction. The rate of growth can be attributed to increase in acceptance of advanced technologies, presence of ample growth opportunities for the treatment of small joint disorders, and rise in awareness about the advantages of extremity reconstruction surgeries.Global Extremity Reconstruction Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the leading players operating in the global extremity reconstruction market are Arthrex, Inc., DePuy Synthes, Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corporation, Acumed, Inc., CONMED Corporation, Stryker Corporation, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., Wright Medical Group N.V., Smith & Nephew plc, and Skeletal Dynamics LLC.The key market participants are bringing out innovative implants, which are wear and corrosion resistant to gain a stronghold in the market. Established players to boost clinical outcomes are making improvements in reconstruction procedures.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Global D-Glutamic Acid Market 2017 - Chengdu Baishixing, Zhangjigang Specom, Organic-Biotechnology, Dachang Biotechnology https://goo.gl/L1qSkK https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/57543/request-sample www.fiormarkets.com http://www.universalmarketresearch.com/ The D-Glutamic Acid Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on industry Size, Share, Trends, Growth, Application, Consumption Volume and Value, Forecast, Supply, Production, Price, Professional Survey 2017 to 2022Access Full Report With TOC:The report, titled D-Glutamic Acid is an in-depth analysis of the D-Glutamic Acid market across the world. A brief historic overview of the D-Glutamic Acid market has been mentioned in the report, followed by the present scenario of the market. The report analyses the size of the market and forecasts the valuation and the growth rate of the market in the span of next couple of years. Key drivers and restraints of the overall market has been pointed out. The report cites the various opportunities to favor the growth of the D-Glutamic Acid market during the forecast period. It also indicates the key market trends shaping up the market.The D-Glutamic Acid market has certain distinct aspects. The report throws light on each of these aspects and studies the various segments of the market in detail. The growth of each of the market segments during the forecast horizon has been analyzed in the report. The present state of the Chinese economy has lowered the demand from every market. The report discusses the impact of the various initiatives taken by the government in China to revive the economy and how this would impact the demand from D-Glutamic Acid market in the nation. The report also takes note of the various micro- and macro-economic factors governing the overall market in rest of the world.Discussing about the key players operating in the D-Glutamic Acid market, the report provides crucial information about them. The D-Glutamic Acid market has become very competitive worldwide. The report profiles the key players and analyzes their growth in the next couple of years. The report serves as a useful tool for enterprises looking out to invest in projects in the D-Glutamic Acid market.Request for Sample Report:Various analytical tools are applied in the analysis on the D-Glutamic Acid market to achieve an accurate understanding of the market players into the potential development of this market. These tools include feasibility analysis, investment return analyses, as well as SWOT analysis of the major market players.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Stainless Steel Forgings Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2022 https://marketsizeforecasters.com/get-sample/105972/?utm_source=OPR-NL https://marketsizeforecasters.com/enquire-for-discount/105972 https://marketsizeforecasters.com/global-modular-plc-market-qy-research https://marketsizeforecasters.com/2017-china-stainless-steel-angle-valve-industry-report http://www.marketsizeforecasters.com/ https://marketsizeforecasters.com/news Market Size Forecasters released a new research report of 105 pages on title Global Stainless Steel Forgings Market Professional Survey Report 2017 with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and important Manufacturers such as PCC Forged Products, ISGEC Heavy Engineering, Forge Products, The Reserve GroupThis report studies Stainless Steel Forgings in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering - PCC Forged Products, ISGEC Heavy Engineering, Forge Products, The Reserve Group, Harihar Alloys, Accurate Steel Forgings, Investacast, Sinteris, SintexRequest a sample copy of Global Stainless Steel Forgings Market Research Report @By types, the market can be split into - Hot Forging, Warm Forging, Cold ForgingBy Application, the market can be split into AeroSpace Application, Automotive Application, Building & Consturction Application, Consumer Goods, OthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want) -North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, IndiaThe lisetd pricing for this Stainless Steel Forgings market report starts at US $3500. Request Discount for Global Stainless Steel Forgings Industry Research Report @Table of Contents:Industry Overview of Stainless Steel ForgingsManufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Stainless Steel ForgingsTechnical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Stainless Steel ForgingsGlobal Stainless Steel Forgings Overall Market OverviewStainless Steel Forgings Regional Market AnalysisGlobal 2012-2017E Stainless Steel Forgings Segment Market Analysis (by Type)Global 2012-2017E Stainless Steel Forgings Segment Market Analysis (by Application)Major Manufacturers Analysis of Stainless Steel ForgingsDevelopment Trend of Analysis of Stainless Steel Forgings MarketStainless Steel Forgings Marketing Type AnalysisConsumers Analysis of Stainless Steel ForgingsConclusion of the Global Stainless Steel Forgings Market Professional Survey Report 2017Browse full table of contents and data tables For Global Stainless Steel Forgings Report @Related Reports: -2017 China Stainless Steel Angle valve Industry ReportThis report is an essential reference for who looks for detailed information on China Stainless Steel Angle valve market. The report covers data on China and its regional markets including historical and future trends for supply, market size, prices, trading, competition and value chain as well as China major vendors' information.MarketSizeForecasters.com, a Skyline Market Research LLP brand, is an online aggregator of market research reports. MarketSizeForecasters.com offers a comprehensive collection of full length reports on global and regional markets in 100+ industry verticals. We have partnered with some of the leading business and market research publishing houses and regularly update our online library to offer wide range of reports to our customers.Market Size ForecastersThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: +1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: +1 866-764-2150Email: sales@marketsizeforecasters.comWebsite:News:Connect with us: LinkedIn| Twitter Global Cancer Diagnostics Market anticipated to grow at 8.9% CAGR during 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1090 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1090 According to a new report, the global cancer diagnostics market is anticipated to grow at 8.9% CAGR during the forecast period 2016-2026. The market was valued at over US$ 32 Bn in 2016, and it expected to surpass US$ 76 Bn in revenues by 2026.Biopsy/Tissue Diagnostics Largest Segment by Test TypeBy test type, the global cancer diagnostics market has been segmented into tumour biomarker tests, imaging, biopsy, liquid biopsy, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridisation. Among these, biopsy/tissue diagnostics is the largest segment by test type, accounting for 36% revenue share. In terms of revenues, the global market was valued at US$ 11.76 Bn in 2016.Ask For Report Sample@By disease indication, Future Market Insights segments the global cancer diagnostics market into,Breast cancerLung cancerColorectal cancerMelanomaBlood cancerProstate cancerOvarian cancerStomach cancerLiver cancerOthersAmong these, use of diagnostics was highest in lung cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer. These three segments collectively accounted for over 45% revenue share by disease indication. Future Market Insights estimates these three segments to remain dominant during the period 2016-2026.Hospital Associated Labs Largest End-userBy end-user, key segments include cancer research institutes, diagnostic imaging centers, independent diagnostic laboratories, hospital associated labs, and others. Use of cancer diagnostics systems was highest in hospital associated labs and independent diagnostic laboratories. This segment accounted for nearly 43% revenue share of the market in 2016. Future Market Insights estimates it to remain the largest end-user throughout the forecast period.Ask For More Information@North America Largest MarketNorth America is the most lucrative market for cancer diagnostics. The North America cancer diagnostics market was valued at over US$ 12.29 Bn, and it is projected to increase at a CAGR of 9.8% through 2026. The U.S. remains the dominant region for cancer diagnostics in North America, accounting for over 83% share. Future Market Insights projects market share of the U.S. to reach 87.1% by 2026. As is the case globally, lung cancer is the largest segment by disease indication in North America as well. This segment accounted for US$ 2.43 Bn in 2016, and is projected to grow at 11.7% CAGR throughout the forecast period. According to Future Market Insights research, elderly population aged 65 and above is more susceptible to lung cancer due to changing tissue landscape. Diagnosis and confirmation of lung cancer remains one of the most vexing challenges for pathologists and clinicians.UK and Germany are the two largest markets for cancer diagnostics in Western Europe. According to Future Market Insights, these two markets collectively account for nearly 40% revenue share of the market. As per Institut fur Krebsepidemiologie e.V statistics, Western Europe shows highest incidence of breast cancer ranging from 83 to 101 cases per 100,000 women (age 25 to 80 years) in 2014. On account of this, demand for cancer diagnostics systems will continue to remain strong in Western Europe.China continues to be the largest market for cancer diagnostics in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ). The country accounted for nearly 32% revenue share of the market, and Future Market Insights estimates it to reach 33% by 2026.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705 Global and Chinese Methyl glycolate (MG) Industry Outlook & Forecast Analysis until 2022 Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1111203 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1111203 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-and-chinese-methyl-glycolate-mg-industry-2017-market-research-report-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Use of methyl glycolate in leather tanning, textile dyeing, as a flavoring agent, as a preservative in food processing, in water treatment industries and as chemical intermediates acts as the driving force for its industry growth. Moreover, to detail the market an industry outlook is provided by Market Research Hub (MRH) that has been recently added to its vast database and is titled as Global and Chinese Methyl glycolate (MG) Industry, 2017 Market Research Report. The report is an in-depth analysis of the methyl glycolate market status, its manufacturers, and is a forecast source of guidance and direction for the individual or company analyst of the MG industry.Request Free Sample Report:The report commences with the introduction of methyl glycolate industry giving a brief introduction, development, and status. Moreover, the manufacturing technology of methyl glycolate is described discussing the development, analysis, and trends in the technology. In the next section, the key manufacturers are listed and briefed along with their name, profile, product information, 2012-2017 production information and the contact information.Moving further, the 2012-2017 data evaluation is completed for methyl glycolate global capacity, production & production value, global cost & profit, global & Chinese supply & consumption, and lastly Chinese import & export of methyl glycolate. In addition, the market comparison analysis by 2012-2017 is also completed for global and Chinese methyl glycolate. Furthermore, the report details the market status of methyl glycolate industry that describes market competition by company, country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.) and an analysis of consumption by application type.Make An Enquiry:The researched study has further forecast the 2017-2022 market of global and Chinese methyl glycolate (MG) industry. The provided research study has detailed an analysis of the methyl glycolate industry chain that discusses industry chain structure, upstream raw material, and downstream industry. Finally, the global and Chinese economic impact on the methyl glycolate industry is evaluated that provides global and China macroeconomic environment analysis, development trend and its effect to this concerned industry. The provided study concludes by briefing the market dynamics and the new projects entry strategies, countermeasures of economic impact, marketing channels and the feasibility studies of new project investment and thus suspending the report. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2012-2022 global and Chinese Methyl glycolate (MG) industry covering all important parameters along with the tables and figures that show the required forecast and thus giving evidence for easy decision making by the decision makers of this industry.Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Agricultural Drones Market by States, Type, Application & Manufacturers DJI, Yamaha, 3DR Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/496498-united-states-agricultural-drones-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=496498 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/496498-united-states-agricultural-drones-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/496498-united-states-agricultural-drones-market-1 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 119 pages on title 'United States Agricultural Drones Market by Manufacturers, States, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and important players such as DJI, Yamaha, 3DR..................SummaryAgricultural drones are drones applied to farming in order to help increase crop production and monitor crop growth. Through the use of advanced sensors and digital imaging capabilities, farmers are able to use these drones to help them gather a richer picture of their fields. Information gathered from such equipment may prove useful in improving crop yields and farm efficiency.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Agricultural Drones in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDJIYamaha3DRParrotAeryon LabsEHangMicrodronesAlpha Unmanned SystemsAeryonCybAeroTrimble NavigationAeroVironment Lockheed MartinPrecisionHawkDraganflyerChina AerospaceIsrael Aerospace IndustriesMarket Segment by States, coveringCaliforniaTexasNew YorkFloridaIllinoisMarket Segment by Type, coversFixed WingRotary BladeMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoSprayingMappingLivestockOthersBuy this report @There are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States Agricultural Drones market.Chapter 1, to describe Agricultural Drones Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Agricultural Drones, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Agricultural Drones, for each state, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, Agricultural Drones market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Agricultural Drones Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source.Get Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Agricultural Drones Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Fixed Wing1.2.2 Rotary Blade1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Spraying1.3.2 Mapping1.3.3 Livestock1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Telecom Technologies Market : Industry Overview and Forecasts 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1460 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1460 https://www.tmrresearch.com/telecom-technologies-market Global Telecom Technologies Market: OverviewTelecom technologies have been evolving beyond our imagination. The development of three areas devices, applications, and networks has led to the present technological progress in the telecommunication technologies market, promising significant growth. The telecommunication technologies industry is concerned with the delivery of electronic communication in addition to a multitude of products and services such as text-based communication and cell phone audio, Internet access, online video streaming, and the likes. Wired subscriber lines and wireless connections that use satellites to transmit data are the key delivery modes.Global Telecom Technologies Market: Key TrendsIncreasing efforts to deploy 4G and 5G networks, the emergence of IoT (Internet of Things), and increased penetration of technology worldwide have been fuelling the growth of the global telecom technologies market. Increased deployment of over-the-top (OTT) services has also been a major growth driver due to rising demand for non-linear media consumption.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The markets growth might face restriction from high costs of deployment, upgrading, and maintenance of telecommunication technology devices. Privacy and security issues arising on account of the widespread use of cloud-based systems might also affect market expansion. However, significant opportunities will arise with the emergence of big data.Global Telecom Technologies Market: Market PotentialA rising number of network reconfiguration plans are being announced by several leading market players. This trend is expected to guide the growth of the global telecom technologies market. Over the last few years, Japan-based NTT, U.S.-based AT&T and Verizon, and German company Deutsche Telekom have witnessed the adoption of upgraded reconfiguration, emphasizing the need for telecom technology.Request TOC of the Report @Another instance is the launch of the premier carrier-grade rack scale NFV (Network Function Virtualization) solution at the Mobile World Congress 2017, in collaboration with China Telecom and Intel announced by Inspur. This hyperscale infrastructure leverages open source technology. Besides securing this joint venture, Inspur has established strong partnerships with leading companies such as Cisco, Nokia, and Siemens.A large volume of investments have been pouring in for internal R&D activities. For instance, Australian company Telstra has been investing in video platforms via Ooyala, and in digital signatures via Docusign. Several operators are forced to enhance their connectivity and network capacity as the demand from a towering number of businesses and consumers is constantly increasing.Global Telecom Technologies Market: Regional OutlookBased on geography, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Europe are the key segments. The rising level of deployment of telecom technologies in countries such as China and India is contributing towards the expansion of the market in Asia Pacific. The growth in this region can be attributed to the phenomenal growth in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, which covers wireless communication, satellites, landlines, private networks, and the Internet. The high technological development and presence of numerous leading market players in several countries of Europe and North America have contributed towards the growth of these regional markets.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Telecom Technologies Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the major companies operating in the global market for telecom technologies are Cisco Systems, AT&T, HP, Comcast, IBM, Oracle, Intel, and Qualcomm.A variety of new services and products are being launched by several market players, apart from attaining strategic partnerships and acquisitions. For instance, Spanish company Telefonica has launched an IoT product named Thinking Things. Through this product, individuals can create programs that can change the climate and lighting in settings such as offices. U.K.-based firm Orange has collaborated with Coca-Cola and Nespresso to develop a machine-to-machine (M2M) communications system. India-based Bharti Airtel, in a joint venture with the State Bank of India, has come up with mobile apps that provide access to local bank branches.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Market Research Report on Solar Street Lighting Price, Working, Manufacturers Demand, Street Light with Solar Panel and Industry Forecast 2025 solar street lighting https://www.progressivemarkets.com/enquiry-about-report/solar-street-lighting-market https://www.progressivemarkets.com/request-sample/solar-street-lighting-market https://www.progressivemarkets.com/request-customization/solar-street-lighting-market Solar street lights work on the principle of photovoltaic cells, which absorb solar radiation and convert it into electrical energy. The electricity produced is stored in the battery, which is drawn by the solar lights when in use. Solar street lights can be standalone or on grid. They are used to illuminate streets, carparks, walkways, jetties, and other public spaces.For further inquiries, about Global Solar Street Lighting Market enquire here >>>>Market Report by Application Residential Commercial IndustrialMarket Dynamics:Drivers: (solar street lighting solutions market) Standalone solar street lightings provide light in remote locations Reducing dependency on fossil fuels for energy generation Supportive government policies to reduce carbon foot printsRestraints: (solar street lighting system market) Investment requirements of the solar street lighting is high in developing regions Lack of industry-wide dimming standards for LED lightingMarket Players: (solar street light manufacturer in market)The top players in the global solar street lighting market include Bridgelux Inc., Covimed Solar, Dragons Breath Solar, Elecssol, Fosera, KCP Solar, Omega Solar, Philips Lighting, Solar Street Lights USA, and Su-Kam Power Systems.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @:Market Report by Lighting Source Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) Light Emitting Diode (LED)The Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the dominant contributor to the global solar street lighting market owing to increased spending on renewable energy by (solar street lighting solutions) emerging (solar street light working in market) economies, such as China and India. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) anticipates that Indias solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment would be about 209 GW by 2030. Moreover, supportive government policies to the use of renewable power sources is expected to boost growth of the global solar street lighting market.Key Point from Table of Content8. Company profiles8.1. Bridgelux Inc.8.1.1. Overview8.1.2. Financials and business segments8.1.3. Recent developments8.2. Covimed Solar8.2.1. Overview8.2.2. Financials and business segments8.2.3. Recent developments8.3. Dragons Breath Solar8.3.1. Overview8.3.2. Financials and business segments8.3.3. Recent developments8.4. Elecssol (solar street light project market)8.4.1. Overview8.4.2. Financials and business segments8.4.3. Recent developmentsRequest for Customization:Market Report by Type Standalone On-gridMarket Report by Geography North Americao U.S.o Canadao Mexico Europeo UKo Germanyo Franceo Spaino Italyo Rest of EuropeAbout us:Progressive Markets is the answer to every possible business query. It is a market research and business consulting firm, headquartered in India with an aim to deliver up-to-date executive support to foster overall growth of an organization in its domain.Contact us:Antviews Global,Serve No. 721/1 Flat No 404,Sudhanshu co. op Housing Society,Shastri Road, Near Kalavati Devi Mandir,Fatak Baug, Pune 411 030.help@progressivemarkets.com Sorbates Market Driven by Pharmaceutical Industry is One of the Leading Consumers of Artificial Preservatives http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sorbates-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3442 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Global Sorbates Market: OverviewThe global sorbates market is anticipated to witness a substantial overall growth owing to factors such as increasing disposable income and growing population. Application of sorbates is found in various industries such as chemical, cosmetics, feed, leather, paint, food and beverages, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, growing demand for artificial preservative in pharmaceuticals and medical industry is predicted to further the overall demand for sorbates in the coming years. Furthermore, increasing in incidents related to intolerance of artificial preservatives is expected to fuel the overall sorbates market. Sorbates also find application in the beverage industry especially that are involved fermentation process.Obtain Report Details @The report provides detail overview on the global sorbates market along with the factors influencing the growth of the market such as its drivers, restraints, trends, challenges, and opportunities. The report offers deep insight of global sorbates market discussing all crucial parameters. The study also focuses on key market participants leading the growth of the global sorbates market.Global Sorbates Market: Drivers and RestraintsPharmaceutical industry is one of the leading consumers of artificial preservatives attributed to growth of sorbates market. Additionally, the growing demand for packaged food is likely to raise the overall demand for artificial preservative. Increase in dependency on junk food coupled with rise in number of people suffering from several aliments are expected to fuel the global sorbates market. On the other hand, rise in incidents related to intolerance of artificial preservative is holding the growth of the global sorbates market. In addition, presence of stringent environmental regulations is anticipated to spread negative effect on the market growth for sorbates.Enter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @Global Sorbates Market: Geographical OutlookThe global sorbates market is geographically distributed across different regions such the Middle East and Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. The North American market is one of the largest manufacturer and consumers of the sorbates amongst all the regions. The market in Asia Pacific is likely to emerge as a fastest growing market for sorbates on account of growing chemical, paints, and coating industry especially in developing countries such as China and India. In the coming years, Europe is predicted to grow at rapid pace owing factors such as improved political atmosphere and increasing investments in infrastructure.Global Sorbates Market: Competitive LandscapeSydney Essential Oil Company, Zhejiang Bossen Technology Co., APAC Chemical Corporation, Seidler Chemical Co, Inc., and Nantong Acetic Acid Chemical Co., Ltd. are some of the leading market participants making a huge contribution towards the growth of the sorbates market. Some of the market players are concentrating on the new methodologies to increase the manufacturing of sorbates. Many of them spending more on research and development activities to formulate new strategies to cope with market challenges.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edgeUS Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) Market 2017 - Kraton, Westrock, Forchem, Georgia-Pacific, Eastman, Harima, Lascaray https://goo.gl/b776Vn https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/57595/request-sample www.fiormarkets.com http://aperturegames.com/ Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) Market analyzed the Industry region, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis to 2022The Report has announced the addition of a new report titled Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) to its research database. The study presents a comprehensive overview of the global Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) market and delves into discussing the growth drivers, restraints, and potential opportunities. It provides an executive level blueprint on the market, with key focus on evaluating the market trends exhibited in the emerging regional markets. In a coherent chapter-wise format the report presents the historical data and statistics of the market and evaluates how the demand and supply trends have impacted the global Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) market dynamics.Access Full Report With TOC:The report has been compiled with the intent of presenting a 360 degree snapshot of the global Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) market to the industry participants. The findings and observation constituted in the report will help stakeholders measure the success quotient of their existing policies and assist them in determining their future course of action. To study the competitive landscape of the Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) market in detail, key industry participants are profiled in the report. Using SWOT analysis, the report studies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the key players in the market.Market segmentation in terms of product types, end-users, applications and geography constitute a significant inclusion in the report. To study the market in details the report evaluates the primary market operations and studies the specific features of the products and services which the market provide. Impact of technological advances and economic recession on the products and services offered by the market is also analyzed in the study. Based on market classification the report analyzes the prevailing competitiveness in the market.Download Sample Report:The information included in the report is obtained through primary and secondary research. Other industrial sources such as financial records of key players, historical statistics and insights from industry leaders are also referred to for the purpose of the study. The report utilizes several analysis tools, namely investment return analysis, market attractiveness analysis, Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis to assess the Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) market globally. This gives an exhaustive review of the historical changes in the worldwide Tall Oil Fatty Acids (TOFA) market and also investigates various gainful business procedures for new as well as leading market players. Furthermore, a segmentation of prominent players on the basis of geography is also conferred via this report.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Global Xylitol Market 2017 - Danisco, Roquette, Futaste, Huakang, Shandong LuJian Biological, Shandong Longlive Bio-Technology https://goo.gl/gShdbh https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/57603/request-sample www.fiormarkets.com http://www.universalmarketresearch.com The Xylitol Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on industry Size, Share, Trends, Growth, Application, Consumption Volume and Value, Forecast, Supply, Production, Price, Professional Survey 2017 to 2022Access Full Report With TOC:The report, titled Xylitol is an in-depth analysis of the Xylitol market across the world. A brief historic overview of the Xylitol market has been mentioned in the report, followed by the present scenario of the market. The report analyses the size of the market and forecasts the valuation and the growth rate of the market in the span of next couple of years. Key drivers and restraints of the overall market has been pointed out. The report cites the various opportunities to favor the growth of the Xylitol market during the forecast period. It also indicates the key market trends shaping up the market.The Xylitol market has certain distinct aspects. The report throws light on each of these aspects and studies the various segments of the market in detail. The growth of each of the market segments during the forecast horizon has been analyzed in the report. The present state of the Chinese economy has lowered the demand from every market. The report discusses the impact of the various initiatives taken by the government in China to revive the economy and how this would impact the demand from Xylitol market in the nation. The report also takes note of the various micro- and macro-economic factors governing the overall market in rest of the world.Discussing about the key players operating in the Xylitol market, the report provides crucial information about them. The Xylitol market has become very competitive worldwide. The report profiles the key players and analyzes their growth in the next couple of years. The report serves as a useful tool for enterprises looking out to invest in projects in the Xylitol market.Request for Sample Report:Various analytical tools are applied in the analysis on the Xylitol market to achieve an accurate understanding of the market players into the potential development of this market. These tools include feasibility analysis, investment return analyses, as well as SWOT analysis of the major market players.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Network-as-a-Service Market : Size, Analysis, Industry Demand, Growth And Forecast Report To 2017 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1466 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1466 https://www.tmrresearch.com/network-as-a-service-market Global Network-as-a-service Market: SnapshotCommunications service providers (CSP) in the telecommunication industry continue to use the delivery of a number of new value-added services as their distinguishing trait in the highluy competitive global market, especially at a point when the cost of standard connectivity have begun to bottom out. Virtualization of network functions and software-defined networking are increasingly forming the crux of the futuristic completely digital telecommunications industry and CSPs are offering their consumers commercial-quality network-as-a-service (NaaS) products that deliver quick and on-demand activation of services, to deliver the consumer the best possible experience.The increased delivery of network-as-a-service products holds immense promise in allowing telecommunications companies gain larger consumer confidence in developing economies such as India and China, where the telecommunications industry is rapidly witnessing the transformations to a completely digital one. However, as the switch from manually operated procedures to a completely digital infrastructure is a lengthy process, the scope for the network-as-a-service market to gain prominence is expected to expand in the next few years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @One of the key challenges that telecommunication communications service providers will face in the process of increasing their delivery of network-as-a-service products to their consumers is the nature of service-level agreements that bind companies to deliver a persistent standard of services over a certain period of time. Owing to the restrictions of such service-level agreements, CSPs cannot upend network architecture that already exists or is operational even when the goal is an improved set of services for the consumer. The scenario is expected to change significantly over the next few years and network-as-a-service products are expected to become one of the most popular deliverables from telecommunications companies.Global Network-as-a-Service Market: OverviewThe business model designed for carrying out network services virtually over the Internet is known as network-as-a-service (NaaS) and is a pay-per-use service or can be monthly subscription-based. The requisites for creating an information technology (IT) network is an Internet connection, a computer, and access to the providers NaaS portal. This model looks attractive to new business owners as it saves them from spending money on network hardware and the staff it takes to manage a network in-house.NaaS is like utility, paid for just like water, heat, or electricity. NaaS is an old concept, however its positioning has been delayed by some of the same reasons that have affected other cloud computing services. NaaS offerings shift the risk and resource requirements related to updates, operation, backups, and infrastructure maintenance to third-party vendors or service providers.Request TOC of the Report @Global Network-as-a-Service Market: Key TrendsIn order to minimize cost among enterprises, many companies or end users are shifting towards an operational expenditure (OPEX) model and this is the major factor driving the market growth. With on-demand network services such as pay-per-use pricing model, network-as-a-service (NaaS) enables the client to pay only for the resources used. In addition, with the aid of cloud computing services, end users are adopting cloud-based networking services that provide on-demand network resources. The market is expected to grow over the forecast period as several telecom companies are investing information technologies to improve an omnichannel customer experience. However, the key challenges for NaaS are developing standards for network interoperability and portability.Global Network-as-a-Service Market: Market PotentialThe market for NaaS has tremendous potential, hence companies are jumping on the bandwagon to extract maximum profit from it. In order to cater to the growing needs of todays digital enterprises, Riverbed Technology, an SD-WAN company, has announced the Riverbed Service Delivery Platform, which is designed to enable service providers to deliver network-as-a-service, with increased flexibility and speed. With the aid of the Service Delivery Platform, service providers will be able to bring in new services, make sure those services are delivered as planned, give their customers the ability to scale services up and down on demand, and expand into new areas such as IoT and Edge Compute.Recently, Cincinnati Bell Business (CBB) and CBTS launched a fully managed network-as-a-service (NaaS) solution that is offering customers a scalable, simple method to offload complex tasks of expanding, maintaining, supporting, and securing a commercial network. Cincinnati Bell Business and CBTS through network-as-a-service allows customers to control the power to deliver a fully managed network with security, monitoring, cloud integration, switching, Wi-Fi, management, and SD-WAN. For equipment and support, customers are required to pay a single, predictable monthly price.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Network-as-a-Service Market: Regional OutlookThe global network-as-a-service market can be geographically segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. In 2015, North America was the leading regional market; however this region is expected to witness a decline in market share to some extent over the said period owing to the rising lucrativeness of Asia Pacific.Asia Pacific is a promising regional market for NaaS and is projected to grow further over the forecast period. This regions growth can be attributed to certain factors such as development activities in emerging economies such as India and China, which require efficient IT services and systems, coupled with sprawling broadband penetration and the emergence of local players.Global Network-as-a-Service Market: Competitive AnalysisThe global network-as-a-service market is still an emerging one. However, it is projected to grow tremendously during the forecast period. The competition is expected to get intense with the inclusion of innovations in technology, new vendors, and commercial partnerships.The leading players operating in the market are Talari Networks, Cisco, Aerohive Networks, CloudGenix, HP, Intellipath, Netcraftsmen, Pertino, Silver Peak Systems, VeloCloud, Fatpipe Networks, Viptela, IBM, Akamai Technologies, Juniper Networks, Aryaka Networks, and VMware.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com #SsangYong Motor-court receivership SsangYong Motor graduates from court-led debt rescheduling program SsangYong Motor Co. said Friday it has graduated from the court-led debt rescheduling program 1 1/2 years after it was placed under court receivership amid the COVID-19 pandemic. ... U.S. supports helping N. Korean people, but Pyongyang ultimately responsible: State Dept. The United States supports and is taking steps to help the people of North Korea despite differences with the North Korean regime, a state department spokesperson said Thursday. ... Baby Stroller Market by States, Type, Application & Manufacturers Good Baby, Combi, Seebaby Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/496501-united-states-baby-stroller-and-pram-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=496501 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/496501-united-states-baby-stroller-and-pram-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/496501-united-states-baby-stroller-and-pram-market-2 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 121 pages on title 'United States Baby Stroller and Pram Market by Manufacturers, States, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and important players such as Good Baby, Combi, Seebaby .................Summary""A stroller is designed for infants who have begun to sit. A stroller should have safety equipment like harness and safety belts to ensure that the baby is safe sitting inside one. Besides, a stroller also comes with a hood or a canopy to protect the baby.Strollers today come in many varieties with many different features, giving lots of options to choose. And consumers may prefer the strollers with advantages like lighter, compact, easy to store and avoid waking baby.A stroller generally has three or four wheels for move easy. Some can folds into a significantly smaller size, which can make storage in a back of a small car trunk practical and makes storage at home simpler too.""Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Baby Stroller and Pram in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversGood BabyCombiSeebabyArtsanaNewell RubbermaidShenma GroupBBHMybabyAingEmmaljungaUPPAbabyStokkeRoadmateHauckDorelABC DesignPeg PeregoMarket Segment by States, coveringCaliforniaTexasNew YorkFloridaIllinoisMarket Segment by Type, coversSingle-Child StrollerMulti-Child StrollerPramMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoUnder 1 years old1 to 2.5 years oldAbove 2.5 years oldBuy this report @There are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States Baby Stroller and Pram market.Chapter 1, to describe Baby Stroller and Pram Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Baby Stroller and Pram, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Baby Stroller and Pram, for each state, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, Baby Stroller and Pram market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Baby Stroller and Pram Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source.Get Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Baby Stroller and Pram Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Single-Child Stroller1.2.2 Multi-Child Stroller1.2.3 Pram1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Under 1 years old1.3.2 1 to 2.5 years old1.3.3 Above 2.5 years old1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Global and Chinese Beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate (CAS 77011-63-3) Industry Analysis for Present and Forecasted (2017-2022) Period Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1115191 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1115191 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-and-chinese-beclomethasone-dipropionate-monohydrate-cas-77011633-industry-2017-market-research-report-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Use of beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate for curing the various chronic nasal problem such as asthma, rhinitis, polyps and other has prompted its growth at the global scale, which is mainly focused in the Chinese market. To further clarify, Market Research Hub (MRH) has added a researched report titled as Global and Chinese Beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate (CAS 77011-63-3) Industry, 2017 Market Research Report to its vast report repository. The study is a key statistics on the market status of the beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Request Free Sample Report:Beclomethasone dipropionate, monohydrate, the active component of nasal spray or inhaler, is an anti-inflammatory steroid. It is a white to creamy-white, odorless powder slightly soluble in water. Occasionally, it may cause a cough upon inhalation, but this side effects may usually be prevented by rinsing the mouth with water after using the inhaler.The report starts with the introduction of beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate industry that provides a brief introduction, development, and status of the industry. Further, the manufacturing technology of beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate is briefed with development analysis, and trend of the manufacturing technology. In the next section, the manufacturers are analyzed and listed along with the company profile, product information, 2012-2017 production information and the contact information.Make An Enquiry:Moving further, the global and Chinese market of beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate is evaluated from the year 2012-2017, with the main factors including global capacity, production & production value, global cost & profit, Chinese supply & consumption and finally Chinese import & export of beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate. Moreover, the report also gives the market status of beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate industry providing market competition by the company, country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.) and market analysis by consumption for application/type.The study forecast the market of global and Chinese beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate industry for the year 2017-2022. The industry chain analysis is done in the provided research report that discusses industry chain structure, upstream raw material, and downstream industry for beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate. Finally, the global and Chinese economic impact on beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate industry that shows the macroeconomic environment analysis and macroeconomic environment development trend on the global & Chinese market are detailed in brief. The report concludes with new project entry strategies, countermeasures of economic impact, marketing channels and its feasibility studies for investment.Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Job Needs and Car Leasing Market by Region, Type, Application & Manufacturers Enterprise, Hertz, LeasePlan Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/437510-global-job-needs-and-car-leasing-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=437510 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/437510-global-job-needs-and-car-leasing-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/437510-global-job-needs-and-car-leasing-market-2 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 116 pages on title 'Global Job Needs and Car Leasing Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes North & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and important players such as Enterprise, Hertz, LeasePlan ..................SummaryThis report studies the Job Needs and Car Leasing market. This report mainly focuses on the fleet leasing and management.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Job Needs and Car Leasing in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversEnterpriseHertzLeasePlanAvis BudgetEuropcarALD AutomotiveArvalLocalizaAlphabetCAR IncSixtYestock AutoACE Rent A CareHi Car ServicesMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversCar LeasingTruck LeasingVan LeasingSUV LeasingOtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPersonal UseGovernmentBusinessOthersBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Job Needs and Car Leasing market.Chapter 1, to describe Job Needs and Car Leasing Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Job Needs and Car Leasing, with sales, revenue, and price of Job Needs and Car Leasing, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Job Needs and Car Leasing, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Job Needs and Car Leasing market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Job Needs and Car Leasing sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Job Needs and Car Leasing Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Car Leasing1.2.2 Truck Leasing1.2.3 Van Leasing1.2.4 SUV Leasing1.2.5 Other1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Personal Use1.3.2 Government1.3.3 Business1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Critical Issues Surrounding the Worlds Most Important Cities: In-Depth Scenario & Status Check Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1107168 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1107168 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/metropolis-in-turmoil-examining-dangerous-issues-faced-by-some-of-the-worlds-most-important-cities-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Megacities are a recent development of the 20th century, as the world population increased rapidly the development of megacities too increased, especially as the global population has become more urbanized. Another important fact is that cities may be getting larger, particularly in the developing world, but that does not make them better. From economic distresses, population booms, rising sea levels, crime and corruption and political instability, the issues affecting some major cities around the world are legion. Considering this fact, Market Research Hub (MRH) has freshly broadcasted a new study to its wide online repository, which is titled as Metropolis in Turmoil: Examining dangerous issues faced by some of the worlds most important cities.Request Free Sample Report:Through this study, the analyst's find that some of the biggest issues in the modern world are so dangerous they could cause a city to become failed and many issues are relatively new with no immediately obvious solution. From the past few years, several megacities all over the world are facing dangerous issues which are highlighted in brief in the study. A megacity is defined by a metropolitan area with a population in excess of 10 million people. The growth of megacities, urban areas with a population of over 10 million, is a reflection of the rapid pace of urbanization in countries across the world. Megacities mentioned in the report include Greece, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, London, Delhi and Ethens.Make An Enquiry:With a prime focus on above cities, the report examines the problems caused to Miami by seemingly endemic gang crime issue, assesses the post-Olympic future of Rio de Janeiro, looks at the challenges London faces outside of the EU and impact rampant overpopulation on Delhi. As per the key highlights of the study:Rio de Janeiro is suffering under the strain of bankruptcy, corruption which inflated the costs of the Olympic Games and police brutality. All of these are hampering efforts to recover economically and encourage the growth of the business.Miami is significantly worse than the rest of the country. It has a huge environmental problem looming.Pollution in Delhi is dangerous and miserable for inhabitants. Population density is completely out of control. Also, Crime and corruption are intrinsic in the citys culture.London needs greater infrastructure investment to maintain position. At present, property prices and availability withinLondon pose social and economic problems for the capital. Air pollution now poses a serious threat to the future of London.Browse Full Report With TOC:However, it is important to be aware of other challenges facing megacities today, including water supply and sanitation, housing and shelter, traffic infrastructure, atmospheric pollution and environmental degradation.About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Global Explosive Market Share, Size, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017-2025 http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/us-explosives-market-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/us-explosives-market-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-prepared-explosives-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/eu-prepared-explosives-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/germany-prepared-explosives-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/ www.indexbox.co.uk IndexBox has just published a new report "U.S. Explosives Market. Analysis And Forecast to 2025". (The report provides an in-depth analysis of the U.S. explosive market. It presents the latest data of the market size and volume, domestic production, exports and imports, price dynamics and turnover in the industry. In addition, the report contains insightful information about the industry, including industry life cycle, business locations, productivity, employment and many other crucial aspects. The Company Profiles section contains relevant data on the major players in the industry.Countries coverage: the U.S.Product coverage:Explosives and blasting accessoriesCompanies mentioned:Dyno Nobel Inc., Orica USA Inc., Austin Powder Company, Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Company (california), Geodynamics, Maxam Us, Hodgdon Powder Company, Accurate Energetic Systems, Buckley Powder Co., Maxam North America, Hanley Industries, Copperhead Chemical Company, The Ensign-Bickford Company, Mp Associates, Titan Dynamics Systems, Nelson Brothers Mining Services, Wampum Hardware Co., Owen Oil Tools, Spectra Technologies, Orica U.S. Services Inc., Nelson Brothers, Alliant Techsystems Operations, Holston Defense Corporation, AAC Investments, Davis Mining & Manufacturing, Jessee Brad or Heather D, US Test Company 305, Austin Star Detonator Company, Nelson Brothers, Austin Powder Holdings Company, Dyno Nobel Holdings Usa, Bae Systems Ordnance SystemsData coverage:- Explosive market size;- Explosive production, value of shipments;- Key market players and their profiles;- Exports, imports and trade balance;- Import and export prices;- Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term;- Key industry statistics;- Life cycle of the explosive industry;- Number of establishments and their locations;- Employment data;- Explosive industry productivity.Reasons to buy this report:- Take advantage of the latest data;- Find deeper insights into current market developments;- Discover vital success factors affecting the market.TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION1.2 REPORT STRUCTURE1.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2.1 KEY FINDINGS2.2 MARKET TRENDS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1 MARKET VALUE3.2 TRADE BALANCE3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES3.4 MARKET FORECAST TO 20254. DOMESTIC PRODUCTION4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2008-20154.2 PRODUCTION BY STATE4.3 PRODUCER PRICES5. IMPORTS5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-20155.2 IMPORTS BY TYPE5.3 IMPORTS BY COUNTRY5.4 IMPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY6. EXPORTS6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-20156.2 EXPORTS BY TYPE6.3 EXPORTS BY COUNTRY6.4 EXPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY7. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE7.1 INDUSTRY SNAPSHOTS7.2 INDUSTRY LIFE CYCLE7.3 BUSINESS LOCATIONS7.4 EMPLOYMENT7.5 ANNUAL PAYROLL7.6 INDUSTRY PRODUCTIVITY7.7 ESTABLISHMENT SIZE AND LEGAL FORM8. COMPANY PROFILESDownload a free sample of the report now!Browse Related Reports:World: Prepared Explosives - Market Report. Analysis and Forecast to 2025EU: Prepared Explosives - Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2025Germany: Prepared Explosives - Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2025IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world.You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.We collect this data from hundreds of highly reliable sources, verify it and carry out market analysis, uncovering new business opportunities and empowering you with actionable insights.The structure of our reports is intuitive and clear. We do our best to allow you to make strategic decisions and take immediate action. If you want to go further and be a step ahead of the market, just tell us your goals and we will tailor a report to your needs.With IndexBox, simply take the data from our Box and think outside it.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, 44 Main Street, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, ML11 0QWWebsite: Global Radar Level Transmitters Industry Anticipated to Remain Well-Sustained till 2021 Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1116391 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1116391 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-radar-level-transmitters-industry-2017-trends-and-forecast-report-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ With more than 20 different level measurement technologies on the market today, it is important to choose the right level transmitter. Due to the wide adoption of level measurement technology across many sectors such as construction, industrial, manufacturing, oil and gas, the demand for radar level transmitters has shown a significant increase. Considering this fact, Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently added a new report titled Global Radar Level Transmitters Industry 2017, Trends and Forecast Report to its massive offerings. This report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years.Request Free Sample Report:In the first part, the study starts by defining the radar level transmitters together with an analysis of application and market overview. Level measurement mainly refers to the instrumentation technique used to identify the height of fluid or solid within a vessel. Radar level transmitters are preferably used for harsh environment where dust, vapor or a foaming surface avoids the usage of ultrasonic measurement.This research report analyzes this market depending on its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report include North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific; and the major countries such as United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea and China. In addition to this, the study presents a detailed study on the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast to 2021. Regionally, suppliers can expect to see the prime growth in Asia, where heavy investment in new plant construction remains positive in core sectors such as chemical, petrochemical and refining, where radar level transmitters are used expansively.Make An Enquiry:These devices work by using non-contacting radar techniques. A fascinating attribute of this technique is that it requires minimum maintenance, which makes the radar units extremely popular. The radar level transmitters are used for liquids, solids or interface application. Radar level measurement technology depend on echo signal which is reflected back from the surface. Therefore, radar level transmitters provide accurate results for any liquids & solids under high pressures and temperatures.The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market. This section highlights details about key players such as business overview, financial overview, and recent developments. The strategies adopted by the companies and the challenges faced by them are also stated. Furthermore, the report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the current market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis. At last, the report acquaints with new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis and investment return analysis.Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) Market 2017-SABIC, SINOPEC, LyondellBasell, CNPC, Huntsman, Eni, Formosa Plastic Group, Petronas Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) Market https://goo.gl/9dkARq https://goo.gl/EPtKly http://marketreports.biz/ MarketReports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) industry, and estimates the future trend of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportSABICSINOPECLyondellBasellCNPCHuntsmanEniFormosa Plastic GroupPetronasReliance IndustriesENOCPemexSIBURChinas CNOOCApicorpOxeno AntewerpenQatar Fuel Additives Company LimitedPETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG)Jiangsu Xinhai PetrochemicalGuangxi Yuchai MachineryWanhua ChemicalPanjin Heyun Industrial GroupThe market research report explores the Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE). Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The worldwide Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) production volume, data pertaining to demand and Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether(MTBE) across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz EVOH Market 2017-Kuraray, Arkema Group, Chang Chun Petrochemical, Nippon Gohse EVOH Market https://goo.gl/JneYHx https://goo.gl/fGmHav http://marketreports.biz/ MarketReports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "EVOH Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "EVOH Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global EVOH industry, and estimates the future trend of EVOH market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "EVOH Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportKurarayArkema GroupChang Chun PetrochemicalNippon GohseThe market research report explores the EVOH market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "EVOH Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the EVOH market based on major product types, application and end users industries of EVOH. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for EVOH market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for EVOH is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, EVOH market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the EVOH market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The worldwide EVOH market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, EVOH production volume, data pertaining to demand and EVOH supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of EVOH along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for EVOH across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz Liquid Water Enhancer Market Driven by Consumer Demand for Innovative Beverages http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/liquide-water-enhancer-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25709 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Liquid water enhancer are products comes in small size containers of concentrated flavored liquid are designed to be mixed with plain water to give different flavor and taste to the plain water. Only a few drops need to be mixed in plain water to give flavor. Liquid water enhancers come in different flavors such as sweet or may be in fruit flavors, and colors, they also give different neon color to the plain water. These liquid water enhancers also come with added minerals and vitamins, and it is claimed to make us drink more water than that of plain water. They are sweetened with artificial or natural sweeteners and natural colors. Consumer demand for innovative beverages and similar products is fueling market demand for liquid water enhancers in the global marketplace.Obtain Report Details @Liquid Water Enhancer: Market SegmentationLiquid water enhancer market is segmented on the basis of its types as flavored water enhancers, energy water enhancers, and fitness drops and others. Among all types market segments flavored and energy water enhancers grab majority market shares of global liquid water enhancer market. Fitness water enhancer is another major market segment expected to grow at significant growth rate over the forecast period. Others segment comprises of products which include water enhancers with multi-functionality such as the combination of flavor and energy.Liquid water enhancers market is further segmented on the basis of active ingredients in the water enhancers, as vitamins, electrolytes, antioxidants, and sweeteners. The vitamins and electrolytes based water enhancer are the market segments grabs more than 50% share of global liquid water enhancer market. The majority of these water enhancers comes with natural colors, flavors extracted from fruits, vegetables etc. Lemon, coconut water, strawberry etc. fruit flavors possess higher market demand.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Liquid Water Enhancer Market: Regional AnalysisLiquid water enhancer market is segmented on the basis of five key regions as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe dominates liquid water enhancer market due to increased awareness about this products. Manufacturers are marketing water enhancers in western regions by promoting their health benefits over that of carbonated and other energy drinks. Asia-Pacific is an emerging market for liquid water enhancers in near future, due to rapid urbanization, globalization, and increased adoption of Western culture and trends. Moreover, there is a growing number of health and fitness-conscious people in this region, which is expected to contribute to a higher growth rate of water enhancers in the region.Liquid Water Enhancer: Market DynamicsThe growing number of obese population in the Western countries, rejecting of fizzy energy and soft drinks due to health awareness and health issues associated with consumption of carbonated drinks. Thus, to avoid carbonated drinks consumers are preferring water enhancers as a healthy substitute. Further supported by attractive marketing, this has stemmed into a significant expansion of consumer base for health improving foods and beverages, globally. Also, growing number of health conscious consumers in developing countries like Japan and Singapore is another factor expected to fuel market demand in Asia Pacific region. Even the changing consumer preference towards healthy flavored drinks has driven the water enhancer market. Lack of stringent regulations from regulatory bodies such as the FDA and ESFA are major restraints for the global liquid water enhancer market.Liquid Water Enhancer: Key Market PlayersThe major key players operating in the liquid water enhancer market includes Dyla LLC, Nestle, PepsiCo, Cott Beverages, The Coco-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, Stur Drinks, and Vitamin Squeeze etc. These companies are in constant expansion of production capacities and product range with a strong marketing strategy have gained a sizeable consumer demand. Start-ups are focused on efficient supply chain management to compete with the big players. In a nutshell, with both major and new players actively contesting for supremacy, the global liquid water enhancer market is anticipated to expand at significant growth rate over the forecast period.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Flapping Wind Turbine Market : Growth, Demand, Key Manufacturers Analysis and Forecast Report 2017-2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1493 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1493 https://www.tmrresearch.com/flapping-wind-turbine-market Global Flapping Wind Turbine Market: OverviewWith depleting natural energy resources, it has become imperative to invest and develop other sources and technologies to meet the increasing need raised by rapidly increasing population across the world. The concept of wind turbine has been quite useful in the past decade but besides the requirement for vast landscapes wherein wind blows consistently at its full mighty, noise produced by the turbines has restricted its widespread installations. This issue is swiftly solved by the concept of flapping wind turbines, of which the latest form of biomimicry has been developed by a company called Tyer Wind. Flapping wind turbines use only two spinning blades instead of three, coping the graceful motion of the hummingbird, who are rated among the natures most skilled flyers. This concept also solves the issues pertaining to space required for a traditional wind turbine. Owing to these glaring benefits of flapping wind turbine, the global market for the same is projected to expand at a robust growth rate during the forecast period of 2016 to 2024, though it currently is in development stage.This report on the global flapping wind turbine market studies the concept and aggregates the latest developments, including the investments made by prominent companies. The report also delves into the factors that are expected to influence the growth of this nascent market and estimates their eventual impact. This report aims to provide the essential information that the buyers need to base their business decisions on.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Flapping Wind Turbine Market: Trends and OpportunitiesConsistently increasing need for energy is the primary driver of this market. Moreover, with apparent issues pertaining to pollution, added emphasis has been given to the cleaner energy. Wind turbine produced power ideally serves this need too, and hence is expected to gain subsidies from the governments in developed and developing countries. Another advantage of flapping wind turbine over traditional wind turbine, besides being quieter, is that they are less prone to damages and pose considerably less threats to birds. This factors is also expected to lure the investors to develop the technology of flapping wind turbines and thereby increment the demand. Conversely, as this concept is still in development stage and the creators are currently testing the prototypes in real world conditions, high price of flapping wind turbine is expected to marginally hinder the growth rate over the course of the forecast period.Request TOC of the Report @Global Flapping Wind Turbine Market: Regional OutlookThe company, Tyer Wind, hails from North African country of Tunisia, with Hassine Labaied as the partner and co-founder. However, the cost factors are expected to pass-on and further develop the concept in financially and technologically equipped countries such as the U.S., France, Germany, the U.K., and Russia.Companies mentioned in the research reportTyer Wind has been able to develop this concept in association with Saphon Energy. Currently, only these two companies are functional in global flapping wind turbine market, although several other prominent technology and energy vendors are expected to catch this developing trend of flapping wind turbines and meet the ever escalating energy demands.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Construction in Kuwait Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report 2021 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1153939 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1153939 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Construction in Kuwait - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Construction in Kuwait - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Kuwaiti construction industry, including:The Kuwaiti construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activityAnalysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in KuwaitCritical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Kuwaiti construction industryProfiles of the leading operators in the Kuwaiti construction industryTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @SummaryIn real terms, the Kuwaiti construction industry registered an average annual growth rate of 5.6% during the review period (20122016). This growth was supported by the governments Five-Year Development Plan 20092014, under which the government invested in developing transport infrastructure, industrial parks, healthcare facilities and residential buildings.The countrys construction industry will continue to expand in real terms over the forecast period (20172021), driven by the governments focus on the development of transport infrastructure, energy and utilities facilities, and affordable housing.Under the Five-Year Development Plan 20152020, the government plans to spend KWD34.2 billion (US$117.7 billion) to develop roads, rail, airports networks, water infrastructure, power projects and social infrastructure projects by 2020.Furthermore, in January 2017, the government launched New Kuwait 2035 strategy with an aim to transform the country into regional financial and cultural hub by 2035. The government plans to launch 164 sub-programs and projects to develop tourism infrastructure, IT parks, commercial buildings and other related infrastructure by 2035.ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Kuwait. It provides:- Historical (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2021) valuations of the construction industry in Kuwait using construction output and value-add methods- Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project type- Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services)- Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricing- Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in KuwaitReasons To Buy- Identify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.- Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.- Understand the latest industry and market trends.- Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight.- Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.- Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Key Highlights- To bridge the gap between supply and demand for housing units in the country, the government is focusing on the construction of residential buildings under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. In 2016, the government announced plans to invest KWD14.5 billion (US$47.6 billion) to build the Mutlah Residential City, Al Subiyah Residential City, Sabah Al-Ahmad township, Bubiyan Island, Al Khairan residential city project and the Kuwait City by 2020.- The energy and utility construction market is expected to benefit from government plans to double the countrys water desalination capacity by 2030. The government plans to increase the countrys water production capacity from 450 million gallon per day to 900 million gallon per day by 2030.- The government is focusing on the construction of new refineries in the country, driving growth in the energy and utilities construction market over the forecast period. The government plans to increase crude oil production from 3.3 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in 2015 to 4.0mmbpd by 2020. Accordingly, the government plans to build new oil refinery in Al Zour under the PPP model by 2020.- Under the Kuwait Development Plan 20152020, the government plans to transform the country into a regional trade and financial hub by 2035. Accordingly, with an investment of KWD305.5 million (US$1.0 billion), the government plans to build the Mubarak-Al-Kabeer Seaport on Boubyan Island by 2021.- The government is focusing on developing healthcare infrastructure to provide adequate medical support to all citizens in the country. Accordingly, under the Healthcare Infrastructure Development program the government plans to invest KWD2.2 billion (US$7.3 billion) on the construction on new hospitals and healthcare centres by 2020.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Construction in Kuwait Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1412570-construction-in-kuwait-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1412570-construction-in-kuwait-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2021 www.linkedin.com/company/4828928 https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts SynopsisConstruction in Kuwait - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Kuwaiti construction industry, including: The Kuwaiti construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity Analysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in Kuwait Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Kuwaiti construction industry Profiles of the leading operators in the Kuwaiti construction industryGET SAMPLE REPORT @SummaryIn real terms, the Kuwaiti construction industry registered an average annual growth rate of 5.6% during the review period (20122016). This growth was supported by the governments Five-Year Development Plan 20092014, under which the government invested in developing transport infrastructure, industrial parks, healthcare facilities and residential buildings.The countrys construction industry will continue to expand in real terms over the forecast period (20172021), driven by the governments focus on the development of transport infrastructure, energy and utilities facilities, and affordable housing.Under the Five-Year Development Plan 20152020, the government plans to spend KWD34.2 billion (US$117.7 billion) to develop roads, rail, airports networks, water infrastructure, power projects and social infrastructure projects by 2020.Furthermore, in January 2017, the government launched New Kuwait 2035 strategy with an aim to transform the country into regional financial and cultural hub by 2035. The government plans to launch 164 sub-programs and projects to develop tourism infrastructure, IT parks, commercial buildings and other related infrastructure by 2035.ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Kuwait. It provides: Historical (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2021) valuations of the construction industry in Kuwait using construction output and value-add methods Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project type Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services) Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricing Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in KuwaitReasons to Buy Identify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies. Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts. Understand the latest industry and market trends. Formulate and validate strategy using critical and actionable insight. Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures. Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Key Highlights To bridge the gap between supply and demand for housing units in the country, the government is focusing on the construction of residential buildings under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. In 2016, the government announced plans to invest KWD14.5 billion (US$47.6 billion) to build the Mutlah Residential City, Al Subiyah Residential City, Sabah Al-Ahmad township, Bubiyan Island, Al Khairan residential city project and the Kuwait City by 2020. The energy and utility construction market is expected to benefit from government plans to double the countrys water desalination capacity by 2030. The government plans to increase the countrys water production capacity from 450 million gallon per day to 900 million gallon per day by 2030. The government is focusing on the construction of new refineries in the country, driving growth in the energy and utilities construction market over the forecast period. The government plans to increase crude oil production from 3.3 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in 2015 to 4.0mmbpd by 2020. Accordingly, the government plans to build new oil refinery in Al Zour under the PPP model by 2020. Under the Kuwait Development Plan 20152020, the government plans to transform the country into a regional trade and financial hub by 2035. Accordingly, with an investment of KWD305.5 million (US$1.0 billion), the government plans to build the Mubarak-Al-Kabeer Seaport on Boubyan Island by 2021. The government is focusing on developing healthcare infrastructure to provide adequate medical support to all citizens in the country. Accordingly, under the Healthcare Infrastructure Development program the government plans to invest KWD2.2 billion (US$7.3 billion) on the construction on new hospitals and healthcare centres by 2020.Table of Content: Key Points1 Executive Summary2 Industry Outlook2.1 Commercial Construction2.2 Industrial Construction2.3 Infrastructure Construction2.4 Energy and Utilities Construction2.5 Institutional Construction2.6 Residential Construction3 Key Issues and Developments4 Market Data Analysis4.1 Construction Output and Value Add4.1.1 Construction output by project type4.1.2 Construction output by cost type4.1.3 Construction output by activity type4.1.4 Construction value add by project type4.2 Commercial Construction4.2.1 Commercial construction output by project type4.2.2 Commercial construction output by cost type4.2.3 Commercial construction output by activity type4.2.4 Commercial construction value add by project type4.3 Industrial Construction4.3.1 Industrial construction output by project type4.3.2 Industrial construction output by cost type4.3.3 Industrial construction output by activity type4.3.4 Industrial construction value add by project type4.4 Infrastructure Construction4.4.1 Infrastructure construction output by project type4.4.2 Infrastructure construction output by cost type4.4.3 Infrastructure construction output by activity type4.4.4 Infrastructure construction value add by project typeContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Flipped Classroom Market In North America To Grow At A CAGR Of 34.61% During The Period 2016-2020 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=860259 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=860259 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Flipped Classroom Market in North America 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.Various hardware and software vendors are exploring the education ecosystem to develop products and services by leveraging their competencies; this is due to the growing penetration of education technology in North America that has upgraded the overall learning process in the education sector. This is a key factor favoring the adoption of flipped classrooms in North America. As the US is a pioneer in inventing and implementing education technology solutions, this report broadly covers insights pertaining to the country's economic situation and its education sector, which significantly influences the overall flipped classroom market in North America.Technavios analysts forecast the flipped classroom market in North America to grow at a CAGR of 34.61% during the period 2016-2020.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the flipped classroom market in North America for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the the report considers revenue generated primarily from the following components of the flipped classroom market in North America.Technavio's report, Flipped Classroom Market in North America 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsCisco SystemsEcho360PanoptoSonic FoundryOther prominent vendorsAccordent TechnologiesCrestron ElectronicsDellMediaCoreOpenEyeQumuTechSmithVBrick SystemsTelestreamMarket driverStudent-centered learning modelFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeDisparity in Internet accessibility between home and schoolFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendFlexibility in incorporating teaching methodsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Leak Tester Market by Region, Type, Application & Manufacturers ATEQ, USON, Vacuum Instrument Corporation Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/437188-global-leak-tester-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=437188 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/437188-global-leak-tester-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/437188-global-leak-tester-market-1 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 120 pages on title 'Global Leak Tester Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes North & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and important players such as ATEQ, USON, Vacuum Instrument Corporation..................SummaryLeak testing is a process used to detect manufacturing defects which helps verify the integrity of products and improve consumer safety. For example, the automotive industry consistently uses leak testing to verify that assembly operations were completed properly and subcomponents are leak free.Leak tester is the equipment that used to test whether a product such as package is leaking or not. There are many types of leak testers in the market. Most common types are gas leak testers, liquid leaking tester, etc.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Leak Testers in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversATEQ, USON, Vacuum Instrument Corporation, ATC INC.., AFRISO, Delta Engineering, Pfeiffer Vacuum, Advanced Thermal Solutions Inc., Kanomax., Tecna, CETA, WOHLER, TM Electronic, Inc., INFICON, TASI, Hermann Sewerin, InterTech, Bacharach, Rothenberger, Gastech instrumentsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPortable Leak TesterCompact Leak TesterStationary Leak TesterMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoAutomotiveConsumer GoodsEnergyHVAC/RMedicalMilitaryBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Leak Testers market.Chapter 1, to describe Leak Testers Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Leak Testers, with sales, revenue, and price of Leak Testers, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Leak Testers, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Leak Testers market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Leak Testers sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview 11.1 Leak Tester Introduction 11.2 Market Analysis by Type 21.2.1 Portable Leak Tester 31.2.2 Compact Leak Tester 41.2.3 Stationary Leak Tester 41.3 Market Analysis by Applications 51.3.2 Industrial 61.3.3 Automotive 61.3.4 Medical 71.3.5 HVAC/R 71.3.6 Laboratories 81.3.7 Energy 81.4 Market Analysis by Regions 91.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) 91.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) 111.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) 141.4.4 Latin America, Middle East and Africa 17....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Global Amines Market to Maintain Healthy Growth By 2022 http://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1101284 http://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1101284 http://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-amines-market-research-report-2017/1101284 http://www.researchtrades.com Research Trades adds a new report package Global Amines Market Research Report 2017In this report, the global Amines market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Amines in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, Etc.Get a sample copy of this report @Global Amines market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingAkzo Nobel, BASF, Dow, Eastman, Huntsman, Clariant AG, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Taminco, Oxea GmbH, Delamines B.V, Tosoh Corporation.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into, Ethanolamines, Alkylamines, Fatty Amines, Specialty Amines, EthyleneaminesOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Amines for each application, including, Agricultural Chemicals, Cleaning Products, Gas Treatment, Personal Care Products, Petroleum, Water Treatment, OthersBuy a Copy ofthis report for a single user price of $2900@Key Chapters1 Amines Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Amines1.2 Amines Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Amines Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Amines Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Ethanolamines1.2.4 Alkylamines1.2.5 Fatty Amines2 Global Amines Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Amines Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Amines Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Amines Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Amines Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)3 Global Amines Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Amines Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Amines Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Amines Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Amines Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)ToView Full Report @Who we are:Research Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights. The research encompasses information gathered and examined by subject-matter experts, laying down growth opportunities and developmental strategies for enterprises.Reach at us:Flat No.10, Wing C,S. No. 245/4/2+245/5/1,Baner, Pune-411045Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us:+91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconWeb: Adult Diapers Market In The Middle East And Africa To Grow At A CAGR Of 12.22% During The Period 2016-2020 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=850986 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=850986 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Adult Diapers Market in the Middle East and Africa 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.The adult diaper market in MEA is still in its nascent stage. The social stigma related to adult diapers is still prevalent in this region. Adults diagnosed with urinary incontinence often feel embarrassed to wear diapers and are uncomfortable discussing their problems with physicians. However, manufacturers are collaborating with hospitals in the region to educate consumers about adult diapers.Technavios analysts forecast the adult diapers market in the Middle East and Africa to grow at a CAGR of 12.22% during the period 2016-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the adult diapers market in the Middle East and Africa for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the retail sales of the following types of adult diapers in the MEA market:Pad-type adult diaperPant-type adult diaperFlat-type adult diaperTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AfricaMiddle eastAdult Diapers Market in the Middle East and Africa 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsKimberly-ClarkP&GSCAUnicharmOther prominent vendorsAbdullah ShamsanCura Hygiene GroupDSG InternationalFadercoFirst Quality EnterprisesHayat Kimya SanayiINDEVCOKaoLodestone BrandsMedtronicNippon Paper IndustriesNovatisOntex InternationalWemy IndustriesMarket driverGrowing diagnosis of urinary incontinenceFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengePolitical instability in Middle EastFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEmergence of smart diapersFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Global Membrane Separation Market Poised to Account for USD 39.2 Billion in 2019 Membrane Separation Market http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/membrane-separation-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2888 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/2888 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Persistence Market Research Released New Market Report on Global Market Study on Membrane Separation: Water & Waste Water Segment to Witness Highest Growth by 2019, the global membrane separation market was valued at USD 19.0 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.8% from 2013 to 2019, to reach an estimated value of USD 39.2 billion in 2019.Request to view Table of Content @Mandatory government regulation and increasing demand for clean processed drinking water is propelling the water processing industry to provide the public with clean processed drinking water free of impurity. Providing growth opportunity for water treatment industry among which, Membrane separation technology is one of the most popular methods used for cleaning water. Mandatory adherence of certain environmental standards by the national government such as the Clean Water Act especially in areas with water scarcity have influenced the demand for better water treatment technology, including membrane separation technology. Shifting from chemical to physical treatments of water is also a major driver as chemical treatments are perceived as an environmentally unclean technology with associated disposal costs. Additional awareness of water scarcity has influenced the demand for water reuse in water stressed areas.Governments and municipal authorities are increasingly waking up to the effects of environmental degradation on the economy. Worldwide industrial expansion and growing population are propelling the demand for better water treatment technology, providing growth opportunity for the global market of membrane separation technology. Additionally, the oil and petroleum industry is well established in the gulf and European countries such as Italy and Germany which involve membrane separation technology for liquid separation. Expansion of such industry is expected to increase the overall demand for membrane separation technology. Membrane separation technology is bifurcated into four major processes, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. Microfiltration dominates the market with more than 35% global market share in 2012. Whereas water & wastewater dominates the end-user market with 36% global market shares in 2012. The global membrane separation market grew from USD 19.0 billion in 2010 to USD 21.2 billion in 2013.Sample of this report is available upon request @European membrane market (largest in 2013) is expected to reach USD 13.8 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 9.6%. In 2012 water & wastewater sector was the major end-user of membrane separation technology and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 11.1% during 2013-19. The membrane separation market is fragmented with several players in the market supplying membrane separation products to the end-users (water and wastewater, industrial and healthcare) in the market. Most of the companies produce different types of membrane products such as microfiltration, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis and sell them globally. Major companies operating globally and manufacturing all four products are Evoqua Water Technologies, Pall Corporation, Koch Membrane Systems Inc., Merck Millipore, Degremont SA, Dow Chemical Company, GEA Filtration, 3M Company, Nitto Denko Corporation and Veolia Environnement.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Health IT Security Market : Development, Key Manufacturers Analysis and Forecast Report 2017-2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1481 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1481 https://www.tmrresearch.com/health-it-security-market Global Health IT Security Market: OverviewIncreasing incidences of highly specialized and extensive data security breaches in the healthcare industry has brought to the fore the pressing need to employ effective security measures across healthcare IT systems. Data breaches continue to cost the healthcare industry hefty sums on an annual basis, with countries having technologically advanced healthcare infrastructures such as the U.S. and several European countries suffering the most. As a result, the tremendous monetary pressure as well as negative publicity that weak cybersecurity can bring to an organization is garnering increased focus and the healthcare industry is ramping up its spending on IT security.This report on the global health IT security market presents a detailed overview of the growth dynamics of the market in present times and includes vast projections regarding the growth prospects of the market over period between 2016 and 2024. The report includes comprehensive qualitative as well as quantitative data pertaining to key market segments and their valuation, expected rate of growth over the mentioned period, and overall attractiveness across regional markets.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Health IT Security Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe healthcare industry is coming to terms with the fact that data breaches have been consistently rising in terms of impact, frequency, volume, and cost over the past few years. Also, the fact that data breaches in present times are highly professional in the way they are planned and executed makes it necessary for healthcare organizations to be equally proactive and prepared in the way security of the organization is planned and executed. The need to assess the present state of security readiness and implement a much more effective security model is the key factor driving the global health IT security market.The market is also driven by the increasing penetration of mobile devices in internal networks of a healthcare IT infrastructure, stringent regulations, and rising spending by government bodies on IT security. Evolution of highly effective futuristic IT security solutions for the healthcare industry and the increasing adoption of cloud computing models for accessing IT security solutions at economical and pay-as-use pricing models are also fueling the adoption of health IT security solutions globally.Request TOC of the Report @Global Health IT Security Market: SegmentationThe key product varieties offered by the health IT security market include risk and compliance management solutions, disaster recovery, firewalls and unified threat management solutions, antimalware and antivirus, intrusion detection/intrusion prevention systems, and identity and access management solutions. On the basis of services, the health IT security market can be segmented into upgradation, maintenance, implementation, managed services, consulting, and on-going support.The key applications of health IT security solutions are found across areas such as endpoint security, content security and network security. Based on the mode of delivery of health IT security solutions, the market is segmented into on-premise, cloud, and hybrid. The key end users of health IT security solutions are healthcare payers (insurance firms) and healthcare providers.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Health IT Security Market: Regional and Competitive OutlookFrom a geographical perspective, developed regions such as Europe and North America are the leading contributors to the revenue of the global health IT security market. The digitally and technologically advanced healthcare infrastructures in these regions have been the prime targets of the recent times most costly and sophisticated cyber-attacks. In response to this, these regions are significantly increasing spending on cybersecurity. These regions are expected to remain the leading contributors to the global market in the next few years as well.In the highly competitive and fragmented vendor landscape of the global health IT security market, no major vendor accounts for a dominant share. Some of the leading companies operating in the market are Intel Corporation, SailPoint Technologies, Symantec, Hewlett Packard, AT&T, EMC Corporation, IBM Corporation, Wipro, and Verizon.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Global Electronic Access Control Systems Market is Expected to Witness Significant Growth of US$31.2 Billion in 2019 Electronic Access Control Systems Market http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/electronic-access-control-systems-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2885 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/2885 www.persistencemarketresearch.com As per the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global Market Study on Electronic Access Control (EAC) Systems: Biometric Systems to Witness Highest Growth by 2019, the global electronic access control systems market stood at US$15.4 bn in 2013 and is expected to reach to reach an approximate value of US$31.2 bn in 2019. It is anticipated to expand at a 12.60% CAGR between 2014 and 2019.Request to view Table of Content @According to the report, the market has grown expeditiously in the past five years due to rising concerns of break-ins, thefts, and white-collar crimes, thus driving demand for advanced security systems from both residential and commercial bodies. In addition, the market for EAC systems is fuelled by the benefits provided by these systems, such as the time-efficiency, high accuracy, and convenience of these systems. In addition, the increasing cases of vandalism, terrorist attacks, and public place violence in educational institutions and city centers are amongst the major factors augmenting the market for EAC systems. Furthermore, the construction of roads, healthcare centers, residential buildings, and educational institutes is predicted to rise in the coming years and this will also raise the demand for EAC systems for attaining enhanced security levels.On the basis of process, the market is segmented into authentication systems, intruder alarm systems, and perimeter security systems. Authentication systems are segmented into biometric systems and card-based authentication systems. Biometric systems include face recognition, fingerprint recognition, palm recognition, iris recognition, vein recognition, signature recognition, voice recognition, and automated fingerprint identification system/live scan. The card-based authentication systems include smart card and proximity card. Perimeter security systems include buried perimeter security and free-standing perimeter security. Amongst the processes, authentication systems held the biggest share in the market in 2013, expanding at a CAGR of 13.10% from 2009 to 2013, and reached US$11.7 bn in 2013. Sophisticated sensor-based mobile devices are increasing the preference for biometric systems and these systems will record the highest growth rate by 2019.On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into the industrial, government, residential, and commercial segments. Amongst these, the utilization of EAC systems was the highest within the commercial sector in 2013 US$4.6 bn expanding at a 13.90% CAGR from 2009 to 2013.Sample of this report is available upon request @On the basis of geography, the market is segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Rest of the World (RoW). Amongst these, the regional market of Asia Pacific is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR of 16.70% from 2014 to 2019, to reach US$9.6 bn.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @As per the report, the prime companies manufacturing all three process categories include Tyco International Ltd., United Technologies Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., and Godrej Industries Limited. Major companies providing products under two process categories include Safran SA (intruder alarm and authentication systems), Panasonic Corporation (perimeter security and intruder alarm ), 3M Cogent, Inc. (authentication and perimeter security systems), and Honeywell International Inc. (authentication system and intruder alarm). The companies providing only one type of EAC system product include Hitachi Ltd. (intruder alarm), Magal Security Systems Ltd. (perimeter security system), and Siemens AG (authentication system).About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Healthcare IT Market : Share, Key Players and Growth Rate Report 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1496 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1496 https://www.tmrresearch.com/healthcare-it-market Global Healthcare IT Market: OverviewHealthcare IT solutions are being increasingly acknowledged for their ability to provide better data management, reduce medical errors, and cut down the healthcare costs. The advent of the cloud technology has further facilitated the exchange of data and real-time communication. Owing to their benefits, several governments worldwide are showing green lights to regulatory acts focusing on the adoption of advanced healthcare IT solutions. Thus, the global healthcare IT market is expected to tread along a phenomenal growth track with the rising awareness regarding their benefits.The common modes of delivery of these solutions are cloud-premises, on-premises, and web-premises. The components used in healthcare IT are software, services, and hardware. There is a massive demand for software solutions such as hospital information systems, ambulatory care management systems, electronic health and medical record systems, and patient management systems from clinics and hospitals to deliver better patient care.The research report is compiled using data from various paid and unpaid sources such as journals, presentations, and white papers. It presents an in-depth analysis of all the important parameters of the global healthcare IT market, including its dynamics, vendor landscape, and region-wise outlook.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Healthcare IT Market: Drivers and RestraintsGlobally, governments are allocating large funds for the advancement of healthcare infrastructure. They, along with several private organizations, are emphasizing on improving the quality of care and clinical outcomes. This, in turn, is promoting the adoption of healthcare IT solutions worldwide. Moreover, the soaring need for managing regulatory compliance is working in favor of the global healthcare IT market.Despite the cost-effectiveness, the high installation and maintenance costs of these solutions are hampering the growth of the market. Furthermore, the uneven regulatory environment in developed and developing countries is hindering the growth of the market. The dearth of skilled IT professionals in the healthcare sector is also keeping the market from realizing its utmost potential.Request TOC of the Report @Global Healthcare IT Market: Geographical SegmentationThe key regions studied in the report are Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. The domicile of a large number of IT giants along with the high adoption of smart technologies across healthcare infrastructure is making North America a prominent destination for key players in the global market. Strict legislative and accreditation requirements regarding healthcare coupled with stringent regulatory requirements regarding patient safety are propelling the growth of the region.Asia Pacific is expected to rise at a tremendous CAGR during the review period. The growth of the region can be attributed to the rising consumer spending on healthcare, expanding medical tourism sector, and increasing government initiatives to create eHealth platforms. The growing adoption of healthcare IT solutions and increasing number of private hospitals in rural areas in countries such as India, China, and Taiwan are contributing to the growth of the region. Healthcare setups in the region are vigorously moving towards digitization to streamline workflow systems and ensure patient safety and care.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Healthcare IT Market: Competitive LandscapeWith the immense growth prospects of the global healthcare IT market, a large number of new players are anticipated to venture into this market. Their participation and the presence of many established players is rendering the market highly competitive. Key players in the market are investing sizeable amounts in research and development of innovative products and services to consolidate their presence in the market. Several players are also focusing towards customization to cater to the specific needs of customers.Some of the prominent global participants in the healthcare IT market are Athenahealth Inc., Epic Systems, GE Healthcare, McKesson Corporation, Philips, Siemens Healthcare, NextGen Healthcare Information System LLC, Allscripts, Cerner Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Carestream Health Inc., and Medical Information Technology Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com GRP Rainer Rechtsanwalte: Assessing obligation to make social security payments in the case of managing directors https://www.grprainer.com/en/legal-advice/company-law.html www.grprainer.com/en/ www.grprainer.com/en Whether a managing director is obliged to make social security contributions depends on various factors. GRP Rainer Rechtsanwalte has carried out an assessment of the obligation to make social security payments.Whether a managing director is obligated to make contributions to social security depends on whether he is self-employed or classed as an employee. We at the law firm GRP Rainer Rechtsanwalte note that this is not based merely on the employment contract but also the factual circumstances as they relate to the managing directors job. Things can prove to be particularly problematic if no social security contributions are made on behalf of the managing director despite there being an obligation to do so, with this potentially resulting in subsequent demands from the relevant social security agencies. To prevent this kind of legal dispute and the potential consequences associated with it, it is a good idea to look into whether there is an obligation to make social security contributions in a given case beforehand.In principle, managing directors who are employees are required to pay social security contributions. This is the case if the managing director works for a third-party company and is subject to the directions of the employer, e.g. in relation to working hours, the place of work or even the type of work. These conditions are usually met in the case of external managing directors.The situation is often different in the case of managing directors who are also shareholders in the respective GmbH. Notwithstanding this, it still needs to be clarified in these instances whether the managing director is in fact self-employed and whether he does not have to make social security contributions. Typical indications of self-employment include, e.g. if the managing director is free to determine how as well as how long and where he works. Similarly, a stake in the GmbH and assuming personal entrepreneurial risks point to self-employment.In practice, it is not always possible to define the criteria without any problems. For instance, the employer may be able to give the managing director instructions, but this right is severely limited. Moreover, the extent of any financial interest in the company might indicate whether the relationship can be characterized as self-employment or employment.That is why it is not simply the managing directors employment contract that needs to be considered for the purposes of classifying the relationship. The factual circumstances need to be taken into account as well.Lawyers who are experienced in the field of company law can advise managing directors and companies in relation to social security obligations.GRP Rainer LLPis an international firm of lawyers and tax advisors who are specialists in commercial law. The firm counsels commercial and industrial companies and corporations, as well as associations, small- and mid-sized businesses, self-employed freelancers and private individuals worldwide from offices Cologne, Berlin, Bonn, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart and London UK.Contact Michael RainerLawyer, Managing PartnerGRP Rainer LLPGurzenich-QuartierAugustinerstrae 1050667 CologneGermanyPhone: +49 221-27 22 75-0info@grprainer.com Logistics Robots Market by Region, Type, Application & Manufacturers KUKA, Daifuku, Knapp Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/437191-global-logistics-robots-market-7 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=437191 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/437191-global-logistics-robots-market-7 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/437191-global-logistics-robots-market-7 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 120 pages on title 'Global Logistics Robots Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that include North & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and important players such as KUKA, Daifuku, Knapp..................SummaryLogistics Robots are professional robots used in logistics network. These robots are widely used in warehouse, sorting center or Outdoor. It is become more and more popular in logistics network, and playing an important role in decrease of labor cost.Compared with labor, logistics robots can pick up heavy cartons and heavy payloads in assembly lines and warehouses, while ensuring the safety of workers, reducing product damage and minimizing loss due to thefts.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Logistics Robots in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversKUKA (Swisslog)DaifukuKnappDematicGrenzebachBastianCIM CorpAmazon RoboticsVanderlandeVecnaHitachiHi-tech Robotic SystemzAdept TechnologyGrey OrangeIAM RoboticsFetch RoboticsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina)Middle East and Africa (Egypt, South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPicking RobotsAGVsOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoWarehouseOutdoorBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Logistics Robots market.Chapter 1, to describe Logistics Robots Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Logistics Robots, with sales, revenue, and price of Logistics Robots, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Logistics Robots, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Logistics Robots market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Logistics Robots sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview 11.1 Logistics Robots Introduction 11.2 Market Analysis by Type 21.2.1 Picking Robots 31.2.2 AGVs 31.2.3 Others 41.3 Market Analysis by Applications 41.3.1 Warehouse 51.3.2 Outdoor 51.4 Market Analysis by Regions 61.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) 61.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 61.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 71.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 71.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) 81.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 81.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 91.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 91.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 101.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 101.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) 111.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 111.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 121.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 121.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 131.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 131.4.4 South America 141.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 141.4.4.2 Argentina Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 151.4.5 Middle East and Africa 161.4.5.1 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 161.4.5.2 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2017) 171.5 Market Dynamics 171.5.1 Market Opportunities 171.5.2 Market Risk 191.5.3 Market Driving Force 19....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US White Phosphorous Market 2017-2024 Industry Trends and Demands Research Report www.gminsights.com/request-toc/upcoming/1604 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/white-phosphorous-market www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1604 www.gminsights.com Global White Phosphorous Market size is likely to expand at a prominent CAGR in the forecast period. White phosphorous, a highly reactive allotrope of phosphorous, is a wax-like substance which ignites instantly on exposure to air.The prime factor responsible for driving the global white phosphorous market size in future will be the booming arms and ammunition sector across the globe. Countries including the U.S., China Russia, etc. are investing resources and money on arms, ammunition supply to strengthen their military.Purchase hexyl acetate market Report by calling Global Market Insights, Inc. at 1-888-689-0688 (Toll Free) or 1-302-846-7766.The product is an essentially used in hand grenades, smoke bombs, incendiary devices and many other artillery weapons. Its highly reactive nature on exposure to air at lower temperatures makes it desirable in weapon manufacturing. Additionally, due to its toxicity, it is in great demand from the fertilizers and pesticides industry, which is exponentially growing in Asia Pacific and Latin America.The major challenge to white phosphorous market share in the coming years is the environmental threat it poses as a Hazardous Air Pollutant (as declared by EPA) during its manufacturing, storage and transportation. It reacts rapidly in air to produce toxic chemicals, which on inhalation can cause respiratory problems. In water bodies, it is found in bottom sediments of lakes and river.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @It reacts with oxygen in water slower than air, its toxicity affects aquatic life to a substantial extent. It also causes some severe health problems such as skin burn, heart, kidneys and lungs damage, etc., when exposed for a longer time, even for small traces/amount. The relevant damage caused to environment by the product through air, soil and water contamination may obstruct its demand in future.The product has main application in arms and ammunitions industry. Other areas where the product has prominent usage is synthesis of other phosphorous compounds, manufacturing of organic pesticides, metallurgy and pharmaceuticals.In ammunition industry, it is widely used in smoke bombs and flares that are used to produce smoke for concealing troop movements, displaying infrared signatures and identifying targets. Due to its instant ignition properties, it is used to destroy enemy equipment such as vehicles and storage tanks for oil, lubricants and petroleum in war situations.Browse key industry insights from the report, White Phosphorous Market Size, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa), Application Development Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 2024The product is used as an intermediate to produce phosphoric acid, red phosphorous, carbon pentoxide and phosphorous trichloride. It is also employed as a raw material in manufacturing of organic phosphorous pesticides. In pesticides and fertilizers, white phosphorous is extensively used as an insecticide in pest control as a substitute for chlorinated hydrocarbons.Asia Pacific led the global white phosphorous market share in 2016 in terms of consumption and production. This can be attributed to the booming pharmaceuticals, metallurgy and pesticides & fertilizers industry in this region. As the consumption and demand of pesticides is comparatively higher in Asia Pacific, due to huge agricultural lands and pressure of increasing population, the product demand is likely to boost in the coming years from the pesticides industry.The prominent market share contributors functional in white phosphorous market are UPL Europe Limited, Yunphos (Taixing) Chemical Company Limited, Changzhou Qishuyan Fine Chemical Company Limited, 5-Continent Phosphorus Company Limited, Taj Pharmaceuticals Limited and Prasol Chemicals Limited. Other companies include Excel Industries Limited, Viet Hong Chemical and Trading Company Limited, Shymkent, Yunnan Phosphorus Group Company Limited, Sichuan Chuantou Chemical Industry Group Company Limited and Taraz.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog: gminsights.wordpress.com Global American Whiskey Market to grow at a CAGR of 6% during Forecast Period 2016-2020: Current Trends and Opportunities http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=850963 http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Latest Research Report titled " Global American Whiskey Market 2016-2020 " features Key Market Players, Survey, Growth, Challenges and Forecast.The production and labeling of American whiskey has to be under the Title 27 of the US Code of Federal Regulations. American whiskey was traditionally produced within the boundaries of the US and can be classified as bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, rye whiskey, corn whiskey, wheat whiskey, blended whiskey, and malt whiskey. With the exception of Tennessee whiskey and Canadian whisky, Kentucky (US) can produce all kinds of North American whiskey. It has the largest concentration of distilleries in North America.The global American whiskey market to grow at a CAGR of 6% during the period 2016-2020. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global American whiskey market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the retail sales of American whiskey products to individual consumers as well as clubs, pubs, and bars.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAGet a Sample Research PDF with TOC:Technavio's report, Global American Whiskey Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsBeam SuntoryBrown-FormanDiageoGruppo CampariHeaven HillOther prominent vendors- Alexandrion Grup Romania- Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling- Barrel House Distilling- Boone County Distilling- Boundary Oak Distillery- Kirin Brewery- Michters Distillery- Sazerac- Willett DistilleryMarket driver- Rising number of distilleries- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Stringent government rules and regulations- For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at: E-Clinical Solution Software Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 MRRSE http://www.mrrse.com/sample/932 http://www.mrrse.com/e-clinical-solution-software-market https://www.linkedin.com/company/mrrse https://twitter.com/MRRSEmrrse E-clinical solution is a software that helps researchers with new ways to manage and analyze clinical data. It helps clinical research organizations, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and research organizations to magnify their clinical research investment by the use of innovative technologies. Globally, the rising availability of computers and internet has helped the clinical trial industry by creating E-clinical Technologies. It is used widely in the management of clinical trials due to its effectiveness over paper process. Increasing number of clinical trials and increasing spending on clinical research and development in the pharmaceutical industry are the key growth drivers for the e-clinical solution software market. In addition, increasing clinical trial outsourcing would provide opportunities for new market entrants, which would further drive the growth of the e-clinical solution software market.Request for Sample Report:On the other hand, long approval time for clinical trials, high cost of implementation and less skilled manpower are major concerns for the industry. Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies require approval from competent regulatory authorities in every country before starting a clinical trial. Another challenge faced by the e-clinical solution software market is the lack of high speed broadband facility in remote areas.This report provides in-depth analysis and estimation of the e-clinical solution software market for the period 2014 to 2020, considering 2013 as the base year for calculation. In addition, data pertaining to current market dynamics including market drivers, restraints, trends and strategic developments has been provided in the report. The e-clinical solution software market is categorized on the basis of mode of delivery, end-users, products and geography. Based on mode of delivery, the e-clinical solution software market comprises web based e-clinical solution software, cloud based e-clinical solution software and licensed enterprise e-clinical solution software. Based on product type, the market comprises clinical data management system, clinical trial management system, electronic clinical outcome assessment solution, randomization and trial supply, and safety solution.Browse Full Report with TOC:In the geographical analysis, the report identifies and analyses market size and forecast of North America, Europe, Asia and Rest of the World (Row). North America is further segmented into the U.S and rest of North America. Similarly, Europe is further segmented into Germany, France and Poland. Asia is further segmented into South Korea and China. Some of the major players in the e-clinical solution software market are Oracle Corporation, Medidata Solutions, PAREXEL International Corporation, BioClinica, OmniComm Systems. These key market players have been profiled on the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, growth strategies, sustainability and financial overview.About UsMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comFollow Us on LinkedIn-Follow Us On Twitter- RFID Pallet Wrappers Market Is Expected To Profits by 2017 - 2027 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3782 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3782 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/rfid-pallet-wrappers-market http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ RFID pallet wrappers are the machine that wraps a stretched film of plastic around a loaded pallet to provide primary function of extra support to products being transported, and with the new technological advancement of RFID labels embedded in the machine, the shipment can be tracked from several feet away. RFID pallet wrappers are the buzz in the packaging industry as it helps to improve the supply chain and thus improve quality. The mounted RFID refers to radio frequency identification refers to an electronic device which consists of chip and antenna. The inevitable process of manufacturing and distribution that involves the package to travel in a conveyor and since tracking product movement is the key aspect for RFID. Thus its an important function that the antenna should be able to track tagged packages. The RFID pallet wrappers help to provide distinctive ID to each product wrapped and with individual information such as date shipped, manufacturing location, lot number, etc. After the wrapping process, the labels is printed with the help of thermal-transfer printer that is human readable information and then is encoded with RFID. The application of RFID pallet wrappers has penetrated in improving the supply chain in retail, transportation, and automation.Global RFID Pallet Wrappers Market: DynamicsWithstanding the soft economy RFID pallet wrappers deployment has gained tremendous traction in last year. The key driver to RFID pallet wrappers is its ability to track pallet and identify valuable commodities in the course of global commerce. Moreover, the asset tracking helps to maintain the whereabouts of the valuable asset that is fueling the growth of the RFID pallet wrappers. RFID pallet wrappers, especially with ultra-high frequency, is a potential factor for the growth of the market. Owing to its perfect match for tracking and asset management and getting a return on investment. Moreover, the tags can be encrypted to provide minimum information of the package thereby securing the details. Through RFID pallet wrappers faster delivery of the order and fill the order in a timely manner, and customer relationship is ensured, the potential factor adds advantage to the growth of RFID pallet wrappers. The companies driving RFID pallet wrappers market are Wal-Mart Stores Inc., The Home Decor Inc., ACE Hardware Corp, and Wegmans Food Market Inc. are some of the major companies that use RFID pallet wrappers for improvement of business process and overall supply chain operation. Enabling such infrastructure that is fully equipped with RFID pallet wrappers requires relatively higher investment as compared to traditional method of pallet wrapping which is a challenging factor to the growth of RFID pallet wrappers market.Request For Report Sample:Global RFID Pallet Wrappers Market: SegmentationBased on RFID: Global RFID Pallet Wrappers Market is segmented intoUltra-High FrequencyHigh frequency and Near Field CommunicationLow FrequencyDual Frequency (NFC & UFH)Global RFID Pallet Wrappers Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global RFID pallet wrappers market is divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America holds the major share in the RFID pallet wrapper market due to rising demand for packaging in manufacturing and food & beverage industry. The market in APAC and Latin America is expected to be the prominent contributor to the growth of RFID pallet wrapper market owing to the proliferation of manufacturing industries in the region. The regions in Europe is anticipated to grow at moderate CAGR; this is due to the restrained manufacturing operation in the Western and Eastern Europe. The strong development in the region of MEA for pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and food & beverage industry is anticipated to attract demand for RFID pallet wrappers over the forecast period.Request For TOC:Global RFID Pallet Wrappers Market PlayersFew of the prominent players in the global RFID pallet wrappers market are as followsREO-PACKKalamazoo Packaging SystemsPallet Wrapz, Inc.AIDA Centre, S.L.Lantech, IncEAgile Inc.SATO America, LLC.Browse Full Report:ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesCONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) Market to grow at a CAGR of 6.214% during Forecast 2016-2020 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=850953 http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Latest Research Report titled " Global Oil Country Tubular Goods Market 2016-2020 " features Key Market Players, Survey, Growth, Challenges and Forecast.The global oil country tubular goods market pertains to the family of consumables consisting of drill pipe, casing, and tubing that are extensively utilized in the global oil and gas operations. They refer to a class of steel pipe products that have varied applications across the upstream oil and gas industry. These goods are seamless or welded; however, a new segment of pipes is slowly evolving, which is neither of the above two mentioned classes.The global OCTG market to grow at a CAGR of 6.214% during the period 2016-2020. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global OCTG market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of the products in the market. It also includes the revenues generated from the replacement of previously used products.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAGet a Sample Research PDF with TOC:Technavio's report, Global OCTG Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- ArcelorMittal- NSSMC- Tenaris- TMK- U.S. SteelOther prominent vendors- ACE O.C.T.G- Benteler- Corpac Steel Products- ISMT- JFE Steel- Jindal Steel & Power- Tata Steel- Vallourec.Market driver- Opening up of new avenues for oil and gas markets- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Prolonged periods of lull in global steel prices- For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at: Global Moissanite Market is Expected to Surpass US$ 48.84 Million by 2025 Moissanite Market http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4327 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/moissanite-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/4327 www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global Market Study on Moissanite: North America to Be the Most Lucrative Region and Also To Witness Highest Growth By 2025, the global moissanite market is estimated to be valued at US$ 26.80 Mn by the end of 2015 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2015 to 2025, to account for US$ 48.84 Mn by 2025.Sample of this report is available upon request @Moissanite is a lab-created gemstone that is generally perceived as a diamond substitute by consumers. Moissanite is composed of silicon carbide and is created through a thermal process that is patented by Charles & Colvard Ltd., the only manufacturer of moissanite across the globe. Moissanite, a synthetic diamond, has been estimated to account for around 1.6% share of the overall gemstone market by 2015 end.Currently, the global moissanite market across the world is mainly driven by factors, such as resemblance of the product as diamond, rising consumer awareness about the product, and increasing consumer inclination towards luxurious jewelry products. However, factors such as the emergence of new technologies for creating other similar gemstones may restrain the market growth over the forecast period. The global moissanite market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.2 % from 2015 to 2025, to account for US$ 48.84 Mn by 2025.On the basis of application, the moissanite market has been segmented into rings, earrings, bracelets, and pendants. The rings segment is expected to account for 80.4% share of the global moissanite market by 2015 end, and is expected to register a moderate CAGR of 6.5% in terms of value over the forecast period (20152025). There has been a stupendous rise in adoption of moissanite in rings, which are the most preferred products among consumers, who buy them as gifts for their partners or mothers, in turn driving the segment growth in the near future. Earrings segment has been estimated to account for 9.8% value share of the overall market by 2015 end and is expected to register a CAGR of 6.0% in terms of value over the forecast period.Request to view Table of Content @On the basis of region, the moissanite market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, North America is expected to account for 88.2% value share of the global moissanite market by 2015 end. The market in the region is expected to expand at CAGR of 6.3% in terms of value during the forecast period. Increasing consumer preference for pocket-friendly luxurious jewelry products is expected to fuel the growth of the market in the North America region over the forecast period.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @The report provides detailed information about the various trends driving each market segment and offers analysis and insights into the potential of the global moissanite market in specific regions.Currently, Charles & Colvard, Ltd is the only player operating in the market. Meanwhile, Cree Inc. and Norstel AB are the key raw material suppliers in the global moissanite market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Microscope Digital Cameras Market Value Share, Analysis and Segments 2017-2027 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3523 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3523 www.futuremarketinsights.com Microscope Digital Cameras its a new generation for microscope to visualization and characterization of the biological activities under the microscope. Microscope was evolved at Netherlands in1620s, it was a compound microscope. Microscope digital cameras provide the image in a classic way to analysis and process for further understanding in biological research, cancer research, and clinical research.Microscope digital cameras are of various type based on the lens, sensors, and used as CCD cameras is the most mature camera in technology and in pixels. Microscope digital cameras is the perfect balance between technology and biological actives or industrial actives.Microscope Digital Cameras Market: Drivers and RestraintsMicroscope digital cameras market is expected to grow over the forecasted period as the demand of high end research and examination for the sample. Microscope digital camera are used in both biological and industrial segments. The industrial microscope digital camera measure the quality and inspect the process, biological microscope provide the live analysis of the sample with quality and quantity. This segments provide a broad range to the market to come up with new and improve microscope digital camera. The price range of the microscope digital camera with unique feature also provide a growing market. As of restraints the very less players are investing time for research on different microscope digital cameras for different application or used.Request Report Sample@Microscope Digital Cameras Market: SegmentationMicroscope Digital Cameras segmentation based on:Based on type:Biological MicroscopeIndustrial MicroscopeVisualization:ColourMonochromeCamera Mount:C-mountOcular MountSensor Type:Cooled CCD/CMOSNon-Cooled CCD/CMOSCMOS (Complementary metal oxide semiconductor)CCD (Charge-coupled device)End users:HospitalsResearch labs (Clinical and Non-Clinical)Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industryCosmetologist ClinicMicroscope Digital Cameras Market: OverviewMicroscope digital cameras market is highly fragmented due to the several local and international players with different product in biological and industrial as (DP 74, DP 27 launched by Olympus for microscope with the Image analysis software as Olympus stream). Various other new product are under development, so that the outcome from the cameras will be up to the mark for making the analysis flexible and ease to use.Microscope Digital Cameras Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, Microscope Digital Cameras Market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America and Asia Pacific is a growing market as many research oriented programs are going on and the industrial are also using the microscope digital cameras market.Visit For TOC@Microscope Digital Cameras Market: Key PlayersSome of the players in microscope digital cameras market are Leica Microsystems, Nikon Metrology NV, Vision Engineering, Olympus Corporation, ZEISS Group, Local players are also have their presence.About Us Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Aortic Stents Grafts Market Trends, Regulations And Competitive Landscape Outlook to 2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-865 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-865 www.futuremarketinsights.com An Aortic Stent Graft is a devices which is used to support a weak spot in an artery known as aneurysm. A stent graft is a fabricated tube composed of a metal mesh. The graft is used to seal the artery above and below the aneurysm. Over the time, high blood pressure can happen to damage the weak area, causing it to bulge and eventually rapture.Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAAs) and Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm (TAA) are the major indications for the Aortic Stent Graft implantation. Abdominal aortic aneurysms are more common in men and amongpopulation aged 65 years and above. The prevalence of AAA is six times greater in men than in women. As per various screening studies on the older population, the prevalence of AAA was 1.3% in women compared with 7.6% in men.Request For Report Sample@Aortic Stents Grafts Market: Drivers and RestraintsWith the aging population, there is a rising prevalence in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. The patients with these indication are at high risk of Aortic raptures with age. Grafts manufacturers are continuously focusing on the technologies. Since, Endovascular grafting is a minimally invasive procedure. Hence, more patients desires to opt for minimally invasive technique over open surgery. There is much scope of product development in the forecast years with proper access to clinical trials data.Development in imaging techniques, there is significant improvement in accuracy and safety in graft implantations resulting in increase in the number of endovascular grafting procedures.However, high cost of these grafts and procedures cost act as a major barrier for this market.Aortic Stents Grafts Market: SegmentationGlobal vascular market is further segmented into following types:Abdominal Aortic Stent GraftsThoracic Aortic Stent GraftsAortic Stents GraftsMarket: OverviewWith rapid technological advancement and wide acceptance of grafting procedures among patients with AAA, the global Aortic stent grafts market is expected to witness a healthy growth of 5-7% in the forecast period (2015-2025).Aortic Stents Grafts Market: Region- wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global aortic stents grafts market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.North America dominates the global Aortic Stents Grafts market due to the significant spending power of large segments of the population and technological advancement. With the increase in procedure volumes and Europes healthy reimbursement system, this market is expected to experience a rapid growth. Asia-Pacific is the fastest emerging market for global aortic stents grafts because the cost of surgery is reasonable as compared to other regions.Visit For TOC@Aortic Stents Grafts Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in global Aortic Stents Grafts market are, Cook Medical Corporation, W.L. Gore & Associates, Medtronic Inc, Terumo Corporation, MicroPort Scientific Corporation and Endologix.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Polyamide 6,6 Market 2017 - Invista, Ascend, Solvay, BASF, Asahi Kasei Polyamide 6,6 http://bit.ly/2szvPpD http://bit.ly/2rpIdJi Global Polyamide 6,6 Market Research Report by Type, Manufacturers, Application, Type, and Regions, Forecast till 2022Scope of Polyamide 6,6 Market:A market study based on the "Polyamide 6,6 Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Polyamide 6,6 Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Polyamide 6,6 industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Polyamide 6,6 market on the basis of this analysis.Do Request For Sample Report :Top Manufacturers Companies Covered In This Research Report -InvistaAscendSolvayBASFAsahi KaseiDupontRadici GroupShenmaHua YangHighlights of Global Polyamide 6,6 Market reports:The global Polyamide 6,6 market 2017 is also analysed on the basis of product pricing, Polyamide 6,6 production volume, data regarding demand and Polyamide 6,6 supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tool of Polyamide 6,6 such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in Polyamide 6,6 market research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Polyamide 6,6 across the globe.Do Enquiry Before Purchasing Report, Here :Global Polyamide 6,6 Market report usually covers 15 Section. They are as follows:Section 1 explore about Polyamide 6,6, product scope, market opportunities, Polyamide 6,6 market overview, market risk, Polyamide 6,6 market driving force;Section 2 analyzes the top Manufacturers Profiles of Polyamide 6,6 , with price, revenue, and sales of Polyamide 6,6, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, displays the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with shares, revenue and market sales in 2016 and 2017;Section 4, Shows the global Polyamide 6,6 market by regions, with revenue, sales and market share of Polyamide 6,6 market from 2012 to 2017;Section 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, analyzes the Polyamide 6,6 market by region, by manufacturers, by application and by type, with shares, revenue and market sales by key countries in these regions;Section 10 and 11, shows Polyamide 6,6 market by type and application, with sales market growth and shares rate by application, type, from 2012 to 2017;Section 10 and 11, shows Polyamide 6,6 market by type and application, with sales market share and development rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Section 12, Polyamide 6,6 market forecast, by application, type and region, with revenue and sales, from 2017 to 2022;Section 13, 14 and 15, describes Polyamide 6,6 sales channel, dealers, traders, distributers, Research Findings and appendix, conclusion and data sourceAbout Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA Spectrophotometers Market Growth with Worldwide Industry Analysis to 2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-961 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-961 www.futuremarketinsights.com Spectrophotometers are the instruments that send an electromagnetic radiation into the target and measure the resulting interaction of the energy and the target.Spectrometry is a quantitative technique which is used for determination of compounds by measurement of the radiations emitted by an object within a specified electromagnetic spectrum or wavelength. Spectrometry Plays very important role in the chemical analytical industry and Life sciences. Spectrophotometry has a wide range of applications such as Pharmaceutical applications, Food and beverages testing, Biotechnological Testing. Atomic spectrometers generally provide information about elemental composition of samples based on emission of lights and their wavelength determines the characteristics of elements present in that sample. Mass spectrometry plays a pivotal role in the drug discovery and determining unknown compounds, isotopic composition in of elements in a molecule and determine structure of compound.Spectrophotometers Market: Drivers and restraintsSpectrophotometry has used in majority of laboratories for detection of chemicals. The majority of clinical chemistry procedures have been developed to a color end product. Which can be detected to and measured by photometer. Increasing demand for drug discovery and development and bimolecular analysis from life science industry is boosting Spectrometry market. Innovation in spectrometry applications such as environmental and Space applications such as not only understanding solar system but also helped to land a man safely in space are creating demand for spectrometry. Research and Development in pharmaceutical and biotechnological sector is also a great driver of market. Increasing applications of spectrometry devices in toxicology and proteomics and disease marker is contributing wide range of growth in global spectrophotometer market. Spectrophotometers are highly expensive and lack of skilled professionals are the restraints of spectrometry market.Request For Report Sample@Spectrophotometers Market: SegmentationGlobal Spectrophotometer market can be segmented as following typesBy Technology:Molecular Spectrometry:UV-Visible SpectrometryIR- SpectrometryNuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)Near Infrared SpectrometryRaman SpectrometryAtomic Spectrometry:Atomic absorption SpectrometryElemental AnalyzersX- Ray diffraction SpectrometryX-Ray fluorescence SpectrometryInductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission SpectrometryMass Spectrometry:Liquid ChromatographyGas ChromatographyMatrix Assisted Laser DesorptionTriple Quadra pole Liquid ChromatographyQuadra pole Time of flight LiquidInductively Coupled Plasma MassBy Application:Pharmaceutical ApplicationBiotechnological ApplicationsIndustrial ApplicationsSpace ApplicationsEnvironmental ApplicationsSpectrophotometers Market: OverviewSpectrophotometers are having wide range of applications in various categories such as Pharmaceutical drug discovery, Chemical Analysis, Biotechnological Applications. Now a days these spectrometry has creating an innovative applications in space. So these Global Spectrometry market has a tremendous growth rate in forecasting period.Spectrophotometers Market: Region-Wise OutlookDepending upon the geographic regions Spectrophotometer market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and AfricaAdvanced regions like North America and Europe are having high market share due to significant spending power and technological advancement and widening applications in various segments will contributes good market. Asia Pacific countries are anticipated to witness lucrative growth rate in spectrophotometers market.Visit For TOC@Spectrophotometers Market: Key playersSome of the key players in Spectrophotometers market are Agilent Technologies, Bruker Corporation, Perkin Elmer, Inc.ThermoFisher Scientific, Inc., Danher, Inc. Water Corporation, Shimadzu Corporation, Bio Rad Corporation and others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: LED Lighting Market Regulations and Competitive Landscape Outlook to 2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1014 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1014 www.futuremarketinsights.com LED light is a light-emitting diode product which is accumulated into the utilization in lighting fixtures. It is basically a semiconductor lighting source operate in different applications such as automotive lighting, general as well as backlighting. It has been noticed that LEDs are smaller and have a lengthier operating life as well as lower cost of ownership as compared to previous technologies in the similar area. The prices of LEDs have reduced to a point where such type of lighting is becoming the economic choice in every application. The acceptance of LED lighting is escalating in almost all major end uses such as industrial buildings, residential and commercial buildings, as well as outdoor application areas. The LED lighting systems provide more energy efficiency and longer life span. The LED light provides a lifetime of nearly 50,000 hours of brightness and work effectively by using only a fraction of energy as is utilized by traditional bulbs and CFLs. The LED lights compete with old and traditional bulbs on various parameters which include longer lifetime, energy efficiency, enhanced environmental friendliness, better durability, lower heat and smaller size. The Global LED lighting market has showcased rapid growth over the past few years. The Global LED lighting market is anticipated to grow at a stupendous CAGR over the period 2015-2025 with a substantial revenue in 2025. Thus, the revolution in LED is gaining traction in terms of market dynamics.Global LED Lighting: Market SegmentationThe Global LED lighting market is segmented on the basis of organizational structure such as organized and unorganized. The Global LED lighting market is further bifurcated by application areas such as automotive, general and backlighting. The LED lighting market in automobile industry is rising as LEDs are initiating to be used in mass market automobiles. The Global LED lighting market is also divided on the basis of end-user segment such as commercial, general, residential, industrial, outdoor and architectural. The Global LED lighting market is further segmented by technology which includes ultraviolet LEDs, basic LEDs, high brightness LEDs, polymer LEDs and organic LEDs.Request For Report Sample@Global LED Lighting Market: Growth DriversThe global LED lighting market is influenced by various factors such as macroeconomic conditions which is impacting the new construction and subsequently new lighting installations. Less replacement, less heat as well as the lower price are fostering the demand for LED lights across the globe and strengthening the market of global LEDs. Such factors along with inclining demand for cost efficient lighting systems from communities and buildings will intensify the market for global LED lighting from 2015-2025. Besides this, innovation and change in technology along with different product designs by LED light manufacturers are anticipated to bolster the global LED lighting market. The rising government initiatives for conservation of energy is also fostering the growth of global LED lighting market.Global LED Lighting Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the Global LED Lighting industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. In 2014, Asia Pacific captured the highest share in the global LED lighting market due to significant population growth, huge private sector LED lighting projects as well as the suitable government policies. The LED lighting has become popular in Japans educational institutions, retail stores and hospitals. Followed by it, Europe stood at second position in the revenue of global LED lighting market as the demand for LED lights are gaining traction especially for architectural and commercial lighting functions. Apart from this, U.S. holds third position in the global LED lighting market.Visit For TOC@Global LED Lighting Market: PlayersSome of the top vendors identified across the value chain of the global LED lighting market include Cree Corporation, International Light technologies, American Bright Optoelectronics Corporation, Philips Lumileds Lighting company, Samsung Electronics Limited and OSRAM Licht AG. It has been noticed that new companies from consumer electronics as well as from semiconductor segments are entering the LED lighting. Thus, the LEDs showcases a higher opportunity for service providers as well as the component manufacturers to enhance their activities in the areas of LED lighting.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017 http://qyresearchglobal.com/ http://qyresearchglobal.com http://qyresearcheurope.com SummaryThe Global Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):SinomatechEverest Kanto CylindersWorthington IndustriesLuxfer GroupHexagon CompositesBeijing Tianhai IndustryRama CylindersQuantum TechnologiesFaber IndustrieCIMC ENRICAvanco GroupKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) CylindersChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017India Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017China Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Cylinders Industry Market Research Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact meHebe | Sr. Manager Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) Global Gas Processing Plants Industry Expected To Grow By 13% Till 2021 - Africa to Experience Most Capacity Growth Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1142803 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1142803 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-capacity-and-capital-expenditure-outlook-for-gas-processing-plants-africa-to-experience-most-capacity-growth-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Globally, the Gas Processing Industry is expected to grow by around 13% over the next four years. Among regions, Africa and the Middle East lead in terms of planned gas processing capacity additions by 2021. Among companies, National Iranian Oil Company, Gazprom, and Saudi Aramco would lead in terms of capacity additions. Gazprom also leads in terms of capital expenditure on new planned projects, with over US$12 billion is expected to be spent by 2021. The Amur terminal in Russia and the Prudhoe Bay II terminal in the US are the largest planned processing plants globally in terms of capacity by 2021.Request Free Sample Report:ScopeUp-to-date global gas processing capacity data by major regions, forecast of planned capacity additions up to 2021Annual breakdown of capital expenditure on planned (new-build) gas processing plants for the period 2017 to 2021Planned (new-build) global gas processing capacity additions by key countries and companiesCapital expenditure spending on new build gas processing plants by key countries and companies in a regionDetails of major global planned gas processing plants up to 2021Reasons to buyKeep abreast of key global planned gas processing plantsAssess your competitors planned gas processing plants and capacitiesObtain the most up to date information available on global gas processing plantsIdentify growth segments and opportunities in the global gas processing industryDevelop business strategies with the help of specific insights about the global planned gas processing terminalsMake An Enquiry:1. Table of Contents 11.1 List of Tables 21.2 List of Figures 32. Global Gas Processing Industry 52.1. Key Highlights 52.2. New Project Announcements 62.3. New Project Cancellations 62.4. Stalled Gas Processing Projects 62.5. Global Gas Processing Capacity and Capex Outlook 92.6. Regional Capex Spending Outlook by Country and Company 132.7. Capacity Additions through Planned (New Build) Gas Processing Plants by Facility Type 222.8. Global Planned (New Build) Major Dehydration Type Gas Processing Plants 242.9. Global Planned (New Build) Major Fractionation Type Gas Processing Plants 252.10. Global Planned (New Build) Major Sulfur Recovery Type Gas Processing Plants 262.11. Global Planned (New Build) Major Sweetening Type Gas Processing Plants 272.12. Global Stalled Gas Processing Plants 293. Appendix 303.1. Abbreviations 303.2. Methodology 303.2.1. Coverage 303.2.2. Secondary Research 303.3. Contact Us 313.4. Disclaimer 31Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Peripheral Embolization Device Market Growth, Trends and Value Chain 2016-2026 by FMI http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1793 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1793 www.futuremarketinsights.com Embolization is a process through which embolus is placed into the blood vessel to block the blood flow to a particular area of the body. The embolus is usually a blood clot formed due to clotting of blood cells. However, the artificial embolus is used to close off blood vessels to prevent the blood from reaching a particular part of the body to eliminate abnormal conditions in the body like a renal aneurysm, arteriovenous fistula, hypogastric artery embolization, endoleak embolization, GI bleeding and treatment of tumors. Peripheral embolization is usually used to shrink tumors by blocking the blood flow to it. Peripheral embolization devices often use embolus made up of various drugs which along with blocking the blood flow also are targeted towards the treatment of a tumor. Embolization is efficient and less invasive as compared to open surgery and therefore poses a little risk to the patient.Peripheral Embolization Device Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global peripheral embolization device market is driven by the rising incidence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) by 2025, 19.3 million cases of cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed each year, which in turn is expected to increase demand for peripheral embolization devices for early treatment of malignant tumors. The increasing mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases is expected to boost demand for peripheral embolization devices. Increasing cardiovascular patients owing rising global geriatric population is expected to provide high growth opportunities for the peripheral embolization devices manufacturers over the forecast period. Moreover, technological developments in new peripheral embolization devices aimed to increase safety among patients and ease of use for physicians is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for the peripheral embolization devices manufacturers. However, the high cost of peripheral embolization devices and complications like coil migration, perforations, and spasms among patients is expected to hamper market growth over the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@Peripheral Embolization Device Market: SegmentationThe global peripheral embolization device market are segmented into product type and end userSegmentation based on product typeEmbolization GuidewiresMicrocathetersOcclusion SystemsOcclusion BalloonsPlatinum CoilsSegmentation based on end userHospitalsAmbulatory surgical centersSpecialty clinicsPeripheral Embolization Device Market: Region wise OutlookThe peripheral embolization device market is expected to witness healthy growth throughout the forecast period with North America expected to be the leading market. High demand for peripheral embolization devices from cancer patients is expected to boost the market growth over the forecast period. Favorable reimbursement policies and up gradation in the compensation for the patients is North America is projected to drive demand for peripheral embolization devices in North America over the forecast period. Moreover, several global manufacturers in this region are expected to promote the use of peripheral embolization devices and in turn is supposed to increase the adoption rate of the devices. Western Europe is expected to be second largest market followed by North America owing to high awareness related to the use of peripheral embolization devices for treatment of cardiovascular and bleeding disorders. APEJ (Asia-Pacific excluding Japan) and Japan are expected to follow next after Western Europe owing to high population and increasing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in these regions along with growing per capita healthcare expenditure in countries like India and China. Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is expected to increase significantly owing to the rise in cancer incidence rate and manufacturers focusing on expansion strategies in this regions.Visit For TOC@Peripheral Embolization Device Market: Key PlayersSome key players in peripheral embolization market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., Cook Medical, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Penumbra, Inc., Metactive Medical, Inc., Terumo Corporation and others. The companies are focused on development of new peripheral embolization devices with increased safety and ease of use.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Market: Analysis and Segment Forecasts To 2022 http://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1116194 http://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1116194 http://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-gel-permeation-chromatography-gpc-sales-market-report-2017/1116194 Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited States China Europe Japan Southeast Asia IndiaGlobal Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingWaters Malvern Agilent Technologies Shimadzu TOSOH Schambeck SFD YL InstrumentsLabtech LC Tech Gilson J2 Scientific Schambeck SFD TOSOH Corporation Polymer CharTo Receive a Sample Copy of Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoDetectors SystemsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) for each application, includingSalts & Amino Acids Separat From ProteinsFractionation & Purification of Proteins Polysaccharides & Nucleic Acids OtherBuy a Copy of Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Report for single user price of $ 4000@Key Chapters1 Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC)1.2 Classification of Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) by Product Category1.2.1 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Detectors1.2.4 Systems1.3 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Salts & Amino Acids Separat From Proteins1.3.3 Fractionation & Purification of Proteins Polysaccharides & Nucleic Acids1.3.4 Other2 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)3 United States Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) Sales Volume and Market Share by TypeTo View Full Report @Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights. The research encompasses information gathered and examined by subject-matter experts, laying down growth opportunities and developmental strategies for enterprises.Reach at us:Flat No.10, Wing C,S. No. 245/4/2+245/5/1,Baner, Pune-411045Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradescon Cider Packaging Market Poised for Steady Growth in the Future http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2137 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2137 www.futuremarketinsights.com Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented juice of apples. Cider beverage is made up of cider apples which is mostly produced in U.S. There is great demand of innovation in packaging of cider in market. The growth of hard cider has been driven largely by the highly coveted millennial generation. Market is mainly driven by increased disposable income and demand for innovative packaging product and safe packaging.Global Cider Packaging Market: DynamicsReducing unit cider packagingsize is creating more consumption opportunities.The presence of premium brand such as woodchuck, Kopparberg and angry orchard has increased the demand for premium quality cider packaging. Premium cider packagingbrand are high in demand as compared to economically priced product due to rise in consumption of alcohol as a status symbol, disposable income and association of premium labels with the beverage quality and taste. cider packaging market is highly competitive which led competitors to come up with innovative product and new strategy in packaging world.The vendors in cider packaging are coming with bottles prepared with a high barrier coating technology to upturn its shelf life and minimize the risk of saturation. With the technological innovations in the cider packaging market, there is increasing demand for water-based coating technology as it is environmentally-friendly, tasteless, odorless and decreases the usage of sprig powder. The global demand of cider packaging is expected to grow at impressive CAGR in near future.Request For Report Sample@Global Cider Packaging Market: SegmentationThe global cider packaging market can be segmented on the basis of material type packaging type and region. On the basis of material cider packaging market can be segmented on glass, plastic and metal. On the basis of packaging type cider packaging market can be segmented as bottles, cans and stand up pouches. Among all material type used for cider packaging, plastic is gaining preference over glass bottles and metal cans because plastic are light in weight, compatible lower in cost and are available in various design. The development of plastic packaging solution will be key driver for the growth of overall cider packaging market. Another driving factor for cider packaging id the increasing demand for alcoholic beverage has pushed vendors to focus on shelf-life packaging that is easy to store, easy to transport and is convenient to unpack. The manufactures are coming up with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which shelters the cider products for long period. On the basis of region North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa.Global Cider Packaging Market: Regional OverviewNorth America cider packaging market is expected to register strong growth in near future while cider packaging market is expected to slowdown in largest market of Europe. Europe market is focusing in innovative packaging so that product become more appealing to consumers. The launch of low calorie and craft cider in Europe is expected to create demand in new cider packaging product which can add volume sale in this region. Cider packaging market in Asia Pacific region is expected to show nominal growth during forecast period. Middle East and Africa is expected to dominate the cider packaging market in near future and projected to account highest market share.Visit For TOC@Global Cider Packaging Market: Key PlayersThe main player of global cider packaging in market are Amcor limited , Ardagh group, Ball corporation, Crown Holdings, Rexam Owens-Illinois. Some of the other prominent players are Plastipak Packaging, Silgan Holdings, Consol Glass, Vetropack, Allied Glass Containers, Can-Pack, MeadWestvaco, Nampak and VidralaABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: UV Curing Systems Market Expected to Witness A Progressive Growth In The Coming Years Due to The Requirement of Less Equipment Space And Energy http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/uv-curing-systems-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=24797 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com UV curing systems is a process in which visible light and ultraviolet light is used to initiate a photochemical reaction that is used to instantly dry or cure inks, adhesives or coatings. UV curing is a low temperature and a high speed process that helps in curing by polymerization rather than evaporation. It is adaptable to coating, printing, decorating and assembling of a variety of products and materials. The global UV curing systems market is anticipated to witness a robust growth rate during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025 owing to the increasing demand for improved quality of the finished products and for greater consistency.The global UV curing systems market is expected to witness a progressive growth in the coming years due to the requirement of less equipment space and energy since there is no need to wait for the product to get dry. This helps in creating an efficiency that exists through the entire manufacturing process. In addition, it is a one part system that requires no need to measure or mix and does not have any pot life concern. It also allows testing of parts soon after assembly that helps in eliminating possible quantities of work in process scrap. In addition due to the UV curing systems UV-LED printers enjoy a higher degree of traction compared to conventional printers due to their versatility and energy efficiency.Obtain Report Details @However, when curing in the air the oxygen in the atmosphere can cause the oxygen to inhibit the cure on the surface layer. This causes the top layer to become uncured sticky and wet while the bottom layer have hardened into dry finish. This affects the long term reliability of the coated layer. This is one of the reason which can hamper the growth of UV curing systems market.For the purpose of providing detailed research report, the global UV curing systems market is segmented on the basis of product type and application. On the basis of product type the market is segmented into free radical systems and cationic systems. Among the different product types of UV curing systems available in the market, free radical system is expected to grow at a higher rate owing to its facilities that majority of the commercial light cure products are of free radical types and use acrylic components that helps the polymerization to stop as soon as the light gets eliminated.UV curing systems also finds its application across various end user segments including automotive, electronics, telecommunication, graphic arts and others.Geographically, the global UV curing systems market has been further divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. North America is expected to hold the largest share of the UV curing systems market among the different regions in 2016. The UV curing systems market of North America is majorly driven by the U.S owing to increasing demand for electric vehicle. Tesla, one of the major car electric manufacturer sells nearly 6,500 electric car every month in U.S. Government is also encouraging sale of electric car by giving discounts and providing incentives due to the decreasing oil resources and increasing demand for petrol. On the flip side, the Asia Pacific UV curing systems market is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. UV curing system is widely used in Indonesia and are mostly in the wood based industry such as coating of parquet, table top fancy plywood and others.Some of the key vendors operating in the global UV curing systems market includes BASF SE (Germany), DSM AGI Corporation (Taipei), Nippon Gohsei ( Japan), Wanhua Chemical Group Co. Ltd.( China), Toagosei Co. Ltd (Japan), Jiangsu Sanmu Group Corporation (China) and many moreFill The Form For An Exclusive Sample Of This Report @The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Wearable Fitness Technology Market : In-Depth Qualitative Insights, Historical Data, And Verifiable Projections About Market Size. http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wearable-fitness-technology-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=23444 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Wearable fitness technology concerns any kind of electronic product that have been designed to be worn by the person so that it can keep a track of its footsteps, heartbeat so that one can keep himself fit and fine and also give a real time information about the health of the overall body. The global Wearable Fitness Technology market is anticipated to witness a robust growth rate during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025 owing to the rise in disposable income in the developing economies that have led to the awareness about fitness among the common peopleThe global Wearable Fitness Technology market is expected to witness a progressive growth in the coming years due to the increasing consumer preferences regarding Wearable Fitness Technology. This wearable fitness help the consumer to track their footsteps and also display the notification of smartphone. In addition the growing awareness of chronic diseases and obesity have led to the adoption of such wearable devices so that it can give real time information about the overall health of the body. These wearables can provide information like, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, calorie intake and also other information that is required by the body for day to day activities.Obtain Report Details @However, the high initial cost and the limited battery life of the wearable devices is predicted to inhibit its adoption rate to some extent in the coming eight years. In spite of this challenges the increasing demand for connected devices have accelerated the growth of this market.For the purpose of providing detailed research report, the global Wearable Fitness Technology market is segmented on the basis of product type, component, technology, end use and geography. On the basis of product type the market is segmented into wrist wear, body wear, neck wear, eye wear and others. Among the different product types of wearable technology available in the market, the wrist wear is expected to grow at a higher rate owing to its facilities to track the footsteps, heartbeats and manage smartphone notification as compared to the other product types. On the other hand, based on component, the market has been classified into display, processor, memory chip, power management components, sensors and others. The display holds the largest market share compared to the other components due to the fact that day by day display technology is evolving like haptic touch/tactile, active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED), organic light emitting diode(OLED). Thus it is one of the most expensive part of wearable device On the basis of technology the market has been classified into display technology, computing technology, positioning technology, sensor technologies and others.Wearable fitness technology also finds its application across various end user segments including healthcare, consumer electronics, defense, fitness and wellness and others. Among various end user segment, fitness and wellness is expected to witness the growth rate at a highest CAGR during the forecast period. Attributes such growing concern of obesity and other chronic diseases have led to the adoption of Wearable Fitness Technology in the fitness and wellnessGeographically, the global Wearable Fitness Technology market has been further divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. North America is expected to hold the largest share of the wearable fitness technology market among the different regions in 2016. The Wearable Fitness Technology market of North America is majorly driven by the U.S owing to increasing awareness about fitness. On the flip side, the Asia Pacific Wearable Fitness Technology market is expected to witness a high growth rate during the forecast period owing to the rise in disposable incomes in the developing countries.Fill The Form For An Exclusive Sample Of This Report @Some of the key vendors operating in the global Wearable Fitness Technology market includes Adidas (Germany), Apple, Inc. (The U.S.), Fitbit, Inc. (U.S.), Google, Inc. (The U.S.), LG Electronics Inc. (South Korea), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (South Korea), Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd (China) and many more.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Malaysia Crude Oil Refinery Outlook to 2022: Share, Scope and Industry Growth Analysis Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1142807 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1142807 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/malaysia-crude-oil-refinery-outlook-to-2022-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Presented report, Malaysia Crude Oil Refinery Outlook to 2022: Share, Scope and Industry Growth Analysis, is a comprehensive report on crude oil refinery industry in Malaysia. The report also provides details on oil refineries such as name, type, operational status, operator apart from capacity data for the major processing units, for all active and planned refineries in Malaysia for the period 20122022. Further, the report also offers recent developments, financial deals as well as latest contracts awarded in the countrys oil refinery industry.Request Free Sample Report:ScopeUpdated information related to all active and planned refineries in the country, including operator and equity detailsInformation on CDU, condensate splitter, coking, catalytic cracking and hydrocracking capacities by refinery in the country, where availableKey mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, private equity and IPOs in the countrys crude oil industry, where availableLatest developments, financial deals and awarded contracts related to crude oil refineries in the countryKey HighlightsReasons to buyGain a strong understanding of the countrys crude oil refining industryFacilitate decision making on the basis of strong historic and forecast capacity dataAssess your competitors major crude oil refining assets and their performance in the countryAnalyze the latest developments, financial deals and awarded contracts related to the countrys crude oil refining industryUnderstand the countrys financial deals landscape by analyzing how competitors are financed, and the mergers and partnerships that have shaped the marketMake An Enquiry:1. Table of Contents 11.1. List of Tables 31.2. List of Figures 52. Introduction 62.1. What is This Report About? 62.2. Market Definition 63. Malaysia Refining Industry 73.1. Malaysia Refining Industry, Key Data 73.2. Malaysia Refining Industry, Overview 73.3. Malaysia Refining Industry, Total Refining Capacity 73.4. Malaysia Refining Industry, Crude Distillation Unit Capacity 93.5. Malaysia Refining Industry, Condensate Splitter Unit Capacity 93.6. Malaysia Refining Industry, Coking Capacity 103.7. Malaysia Refining Industry, Catalytic Cracking Capacity 103.8. Malaysia Refining Industry, Hydrocracking Capacity 113.9. Malaysia Refining Industry, Asset Details 123.9.1. Malaysia Refining Industry, Active Asset Details 123.9.2. Malaysia Refining Industry, Planned Asset Details 254. Recent Contracts 334.1. Detailed Contract Summary 334.1.1. Awarded Contracts 335. Financial Deals Landscape 525.1. Detailed Deal Summary 525.1.1. Acquisition 525.1.2. Debt Offerings 545.1.3. Partnerships 595.1.4. Asset Transactions 606. Recent Developments 636.1. Other Significant Developments 636.1.1. Aug 31, 2016: Pertamina Looks For Partner To Process Algerian And Malaysian Crude Oil 636.1.2. Dec 20, 2016: Konsortium Selects Hainan Zhenrong For $20bn Refinery Project In Malaysia 637. Appendix 647.1. Abbreviations 647.2. Methodology 647.2.1. Coverage 647.2.2. Secondary Research 647.3. Contact Us 657.4. Disclaimer 65Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Global Liposuction Surgery Devices Market 2017 : Solta Medical, Cynosure, Sciton Inc., Vaser Lipo, Smart Lipo Liposuction Surgery Devices http://bit.ly/2szuYp2 http://bit.ly/2rgAt8k A market study based on the "Liposuction Surgery Devices Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Liposuction Surgery Devices Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Liposuction Surgery Devices industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Liposuction Surgery Devices market on the basis of this analysis.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :Top Manufacturers Analysis Of This Research ReportSolta MedicalCynosureSciton Inc.Wells Johnson CoInvasix LtdZeltiq AestheticsVaser LipoSmart LipoPro LipoThe report studies the industry for Liposuction Surgery Devices across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Liposuction Surgery Devices market & dynamics of demand and supply of Liposuction Surgery Devices into consideration. The 'Liposuction Surgery Devices' research study covers each and every aspect of the Liposuction Surgery Devices market globally, which starts from the definition of the Liposuction Surgery Devices industry and develops towards Liposuction Surgery Devices market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Liposuction Surgery Devices market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Liposuction Surgery Devices market. The geographical segmentation of the Liposuction Surgery Devices industry has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Liposuction Surgery Devices is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Liposuction Surgery Devices market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Liposuction Surgery Devices market worldwide.Enquire Here :The global Liposuction Surgery Devices market 2017 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Liposuction Surgery Devices production volume, data regarding demand and Liposuction Surgery Devices supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Liposuction Surgery Devices across the globe.About Us :Worldwide Business are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Worldwide Business, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries such as Automotive and Aerospace, Medical Devices, Technology, Machinery & Manufacturing.Contact Us :Worldwide BusinessUnited States United Arab Emirates Crude Oil Refinery Outlook and Industry Forecast till 2022 Market Research HUB http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1142810 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1142810 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/united-arab-emirates-crude-oil-refinery-outlook-to-2022-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Presented report, United Arab Emirates Crude Oil Refinery Outlook and Industry Forecast till 2022, is a comprehensive report on crude oil refinery industry in United Arab Emirates. The report also provides details on oil refineries such as name, type, operational status, operator apart from capacity data for the major processing units, for all active and planned refineries in United Arab Emirates for the period 20122022. Further, the report also offers recent developments, financial deals as well as latest contracts awarded in the countrys oil refinery industry.Request Free Sample Report:ScopeUpdated information related to all active and planned refineries in the country, including operator and equity detailsInformation on CDU, condensate splitter, catalytic cracking and hydrocracking capacities by refinery in the country, where availableKey mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, private equity and IPOs in the countrys crude oil industry, where availableLatest developments, financial deals and awarded contracts related to crude oil refineries in the countryKey HighlightsReasons to buyGain a strong understanding of the countrys crude oil refining industryFacilitate decision making on the basis of strong historic and forecast capacity dataAssess your competitors major crude oil refining assets and their performance in the countryAnalyze the latest developments, financial deals and awarded contracts related to the countrys crude oil refining industryUnderstand the countrys financial deals landscape by analyzing how competitors are financed, and the mergers and partnerships that have shaped the marketMake An Enquiry:1. Table of Contents 11.1. List of Tables 31.2. List of Figures 42. Introduction 52.1. What is This Report About? 52.2. Market Definition 53. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry 63.1. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Key Data 63.2. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Overview 63.3. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Total Refining Capacity 63.4. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Crude Distillation Unit Capacity 83.5. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Condensate Splitter Unit Capacity 83.6. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Catalytic Cracking Capacity 93.7. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Hydrocracking Capacity 93.8. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Asset Details 103.8.1. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Active Asset Details 103.8.2. United Arab Emirates Refining Industry, Planned Asset Details 234. Recent Contracts 254.1. Detailed Contract Summary 254.1.1. Awarded Contracts 255. Financial Deals Landscape 345.1. Detailed Deal Summary 345.1.1. Acquisition 346. Recent Developments 356.1. Other Significant Developments 356.1.1. Mar 31, 2016: Bangladesh To Import 1.3 MT Of Crude Oil In 2016 From UAE And Saudi Arabia 356.1.2. Mar 13, 2016: Enoc To Expand Jebel Ali Refinery In UAE 356.1.3. Jan 20, 2016: Pyramid E&C Announces Ecomar Refinery Nears Completion 356.1.4. Aug 06, 2015: ADNOC Suspends Operations At RFCC Unit Of Ruwais Refinery 366.2. New Contracts Announcements 366.2.1. Jan 09, 2017: Saudi Aramco selects Tecnicas for clean fuels project contract in Ras Tanura refinery 366.2.2. Oct 11, 2016: Amarinth Secures A Further 500K Order For The Al Dabbiya Facilities Development Phase III Project 366.2.3. Sep 19, 2016: ENOC Announces Technip As Main EPC Contractor For Refinery Expansion Project 376.2.4. Jan 31, 2016: Enersul Receives Equipment Supply Contract From Petrofac International (UAE) 387. Appendix 407.1. Abbreviations 407.2. Methodology 407.2.1. Coverage 407.2.2. Secondary Research 407.3. Contact Us 417.4. Disclaimer 41Browse Full Report With TOC:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News At: Global Lead Carbon Battery Sales Market Trends & Forecasted Growth with Positive CAGR 2017 Market Research Hub http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1128737 http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-lead-carbon-battery-sales-market-report-2017-report.html http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1128737 https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ To study the market for Lead Carbon Battery, Market Research Hub (MRH) has added a fresh report to its database. This research study is titled as Global Lead Carbon Battery Sales Market Research Report 2017, which offer details regarding the production, consumption, revenue as well as market share. 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MRHs expansive collection of power market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comRead More Industry News @ Train Communication Gateways Systems Industry Growth Will Be Backed by the Advance Technology in the Coming Years Train Communication Gateways Systems Industry http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/319411 http://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-train-communication-gateways-systems-market-2017-2021 http://www.orbisresearch.com/contact/purchase/319411 Train communication gateways systems enable the exchange of information throughout the train. Gateways help to connect to the train communication network. They are also called protocol converters and may communicate using more than one protocol. There are two interface buses used in the TCN: Vehicle bus: Used for intra-vehicle communication, and Train bus: Used for wide information exchange. The wire train bus (WTB) gateway is used as a train bus, and a multifunction vehicle bus (MVB) gateway is used as a vehicle bus. Gateway bus technologies such as controller area network (CAN), serial links, and Ethernet train bus (ETB) are used as a vehicle bus. They provide larger bandwidths and a flexible network.Research analysts forecast the global train communication gateways systems market to grow at a CAGR of 21% during the period 2017-2021.Request for sample copy of this report at:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global train communication gateways systems market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of different types of gateways.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAResearch report, Global Train Communication Gateways Systems Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this marketRead more details of the report at:Key vendors AMiT Duagon EKE-Electronics Quester Tangent SAIRA Electronics SYS TEC electronicMarket driver Rise in adoption of PPP model For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge High initial investments For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Increase in mobility and interoperability For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Enquire more details of the report at:About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019 Piling Machine Market 2017 Size, Trend, Share, Latest Application & 2021 Global Industry Growth Analysis Report http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/311719 http://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-piling-machine-market-research-report-and-forecast-to-2017-2021 http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/311719 Global Piling Machine Market Research Report provides information on Products, Services, Trends, Top Companies, Verticals, Countries, Material, Application, and Geography globally. This report will help the viewer in Better Decision Making ,offers by OrbisResearch.comPiling Machine Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).The report firstly introduced the Piling Machine basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. 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We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019 Asia-Pacific 3D Image Sensors Market Manufacturer Players : Infineon Technologies, Microchip Technology, Omnivision Technologies, PMD Technologies, Softkinetic, Asustek Computer, Cognex Corporation http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/1151639 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1151639 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Report Asia-Pacific 3D Image Sensors Market Report 2017 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"In this report, the Asia-Pacific 3D Image Sensors market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split Asia-Pacific into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of 3D Image Sensors for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), includingChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanIndiaSoutheast AsiaAustraliaView Report @Asia-Pacific 3D Image Sensors market competition by top manufacturers/players, with 3D Image Sensors sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingInfineon TechnologiesMicrochip TechnologyOmnivision TechnologiesPMD TechnologiesSoftkineticAsustek ComputerCognex CorporationIFM Electronic GmbHIntel CorporationLMI TechnologiesMicrosoft CorporationGet Sample Copy Of This Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCCD(Charge Coupled Device)CMOS(Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of 3D Image Sensors for each application, includinConsumer ElectronicsMedical CareAerospace and DefenseIndustrial RobotAutomobileOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. 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QYResearch Group is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651 Global Computer Tanker Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2021 Computer Tanker Market http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-computer-tanker-market-research-report-2017-132204 https://goo.gl/cPlsPj The report, titled Global Computer Tanker Market 2017 is a methodical research study based on the Computer Tanker market, analyzing the competitive framework of the industry in the world. 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The company profiles of the major participants operating in the global Computer Tanker market have been reviewed in this study.Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact UsJoel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651Email: sales@marketresearchstore.com Avocado Oil Market Global and Chinese Growth and Key Manufacturer Report 2017-2022 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001731692/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/avocado-oil-industry-global-and-chinese-market-research-report-2017 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001731692/discount http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001731692/buy/3000 Reportsweb.com adds "Avocado Oil Industry Global and Chinese Market Research Report 2017" to its Database. 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Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Avocado Oil industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2017-2022 market development trends of Avocado Oil industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Avocado Oil Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2012-2022 global and Chinese Avocado Oil industry covering all important parameters.Browse complete report atTable of ContentChapter One Introduction of Avocado Oil Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Avocado Oil1.2 Development of Avocado Oil Industry1.3 Status of Avocado Oil IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Avocado Oil2.1 Development of Avocado Oil Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Avocado Oil Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Avocado Oil Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key ManufacturersChapter Four 2012-2017 Global and Chinese Market of Avocado Oil4.1 2012-2017 Global Capacity, Production and Production Value of Avocado Oil Industry4.2 2012-2017 Global Cost and Profit of Avocado Oil Industry4.3 Market Comparison of Global and Chinese Avocado Oil Industry4.4 2012-2017 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Avocado Oil4.5 2012-2017 Chinese Import and Export of Avocado OilChapter Five Market Status of Avocado Oil Industry5.1 Market Competition of Avocado Oil Industry by Company5.2 Market Competition of Avocado Oil Industry by Country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.)5.3 Market Analysis of Avocado Oil Consumption by Application/TypeChapter Six 2017-2022 Market Forecast of Global and Chinese Avocado Oil Industry6.1 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Capacity, Production, and Production Value of Avocado Oil6.2 2017-2022 Avocado Oil Industry Cost and Profit Estimation6.3 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Market Share of Avocado Oil6.4 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Avocado Oil6.5 2017-2022 Chinese Import and Export of Avocado OilGet discount on Purchase report atChapter Seven Analysis of Avocado Oil Industry Chain7.1 Industry Chain Structure7.2 Upstream Raw Materials7.3 Downstream IndustryChapter Eight Global and Chinese Economic Impact on Avocado Oil Industry8.1 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Analysis8.1.1 Global Macroeconomic Analysis8.1.2 Chinese Macroeconomic Analysis8.2 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Development Trend8.2.1 Global Macroeconomic Outlook8.2.2 Chinese Macroeconomic Outlook8.3 Effects to Avocado Oil IndustryChapter Nine Market Dynamics of Avocado Oil Industry9.1 Avocado Oil Industry News9.2 Avocado Oil Industry Development Challenges9.3 Avocado Oil Industry Development OpportunitiesChapter Ten Proposals for New Project10.1 Market Entry Strategies10.2 Countermeasures of Economic Impact10.3 Marketing Channels10.4 Feasibility Studies of New Project InvestmentChapter Eleven Research Conclusions of Global and Chinese Avocado Oil IndustryPurchase complete report atTables and FiguresFigure Avocado Oil Product PictureTable Development of Avocado Oil Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Manufacturing Process of Avocado OilTable Trends of Avocado Oil Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Avocado Oil Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Production Global Market ShareFigure Avocado Oil Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Production Global Market ShareFigure Avocado Oil Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Product Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value ListFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Production Global Market ShareFigure Avocado Oil Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Production Global Market ShareFigure Avocado Oil Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Product Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value ListFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Avocado Oil Production Global Market ShareFigure Avocado Oil Product and SpecificationsContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. 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We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Global Healthcare Supply Chain Management Market , By Manufacturers (McKesson, SAP SE,Oracle Corporation)Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 https://goo.gl/pK1M7v https://goo.gl/Vvkjrs https://goo.gl/5e0Rbf https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/ Healthcare supply chain management is the regulation of the flow of medical goods and services from manufacturer to patient, it mainly includes hardware and software, the downstream customer mainly includes the manufacture, providers, and distributors.Scope of the Report: This report focuses on the Healthcare Supply Chain Management in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.For More Info, Get Sample :Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers McKesson SAP SE Oracle Corporation Infor HighJump Manhattan Associates JDA TECSYS Kinaxis BluJay Solutions Jump Technologies LogiTag SystemsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Software HardwareAlso Request For Discount :Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Manufacturers Providers DistributorsThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Healthcare Supply Chain Management market. Chapter 1, to describe Healthcare Supply Chain Management Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Healthcare Supply Chain Management, with sales, revenue, and price of Healthcare Supply Chain Management, in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Healthcare Supply Chain Management, for each region, from 2012 to 2017; Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions; Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017; Chapter 12, Healthcare Supply Chain Management market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022; Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Healthcare Supply Chain Management sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceEnquire About Report :Table of Contents 1 Market Overviewo Healthcare Supply Chain Management Introductiono Market Analysis by Type Software Hardwareo Market Analysis by Applications Manufacturers Providers Distributorso Market Analysis by Regions North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022) Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022) Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022) France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)About Us:With the arsenal of different search reports, Big Market Research helps you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. 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So, we try and provide with latest changes in the market that can suit your needs and help you take decision accordingly.Contact Us:5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesDirect: +1-971-202-1575Toll Free No: +1-800-910-6452Email: help@bigmarketresearch.comWeb: Global Canned Mushroom Industry Development Study, Opportunities and Key Manufacturers Report 2017-2022: Special Focus on United States, Europe, Japan and China Markets ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001731700/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/canned-mushroom-industry-global-and-chinese-market-research-report-2017 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001731700/discount http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001731700/buy/3000 Reportsweb.com adds "Canned Mushroom Industry Global and Chinese Market Research Report 2017" to its Database. The report provide basic overview of the industry, competitive landscape analysis, market development trends and currant market status.The 'Global and Chinese Canned Mushroom Industry, 2012-2022 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Canned Mushroom industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Canned Mushroom manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Request for free sample copy atFirstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2012-2017 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Canned Mushroom industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2017-2022 market development trends of Canned Mushroom industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Canned Mushroom Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2012-2022 global and Chinese Canned Mushroom industry covering all important parameters.Browse complete report atTable of ContentChapter One Introduction of Canned Mushroom Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Canned Mushroom1.2 Development of Canned Mushroom Industry1.3 Status of Canned Mushroom IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Canned Mushroom2.1 Development of Canned Mushroom Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Canned Mushroom Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Canned Mushroom Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key ManufacturersChapter Four 2012-2017 Global and Chinese Market of Canned Mushroom4.1 2012-2017 Global Capacity, Production and Production Value of Canned Mushroom Industry4.2 2012-2017 Global Cost and Profit of Canned Mushroom Industry4.3 Market Comparison of Global and Chinese Canned Mushroom Industry4.4 2012-2017 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Canned Mushroom4.5 2012-2017 Chinese Import and Export of Canned MushroomChapter Five Market Status of Canned Mushroom Industry5.1 Market Competition of Canned Mushroom Industry by Company5.2 Market Competition of Canned Mushroom Industry by Country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.)5.3 Market Analysis of Canned Mushroom Consumption by Application/TypeChapter Six 2017-2022 Market Forecast of Global and Chinese Canned Mushroom Industry6.1 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Capacity, Production, and Production Value of Canned Mushroom6.2 2017-2022 Canned Mushroom Industry Cost and Profit Estimation6.3 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Market Share of Canned Mushroom6.4 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Canned Mushroom6.5 2017-2022 Chinese Import and Export of Canned MushroomGet discount on Purchase report atChapter Seven Analysis of Canned Mushroom Industry Chain7.1 Industry Chain Structure7.2 Upstream Raw Materials7.3 Downstream IndustryChapter Eight Global and Chinese Economic Impact on Canned Mushroom Industry8.1 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Analysis8.1.1 Global Macroeconomic Analysis8.1.2 Chinese Macroeconomic Analysis8.2 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Development Trend8.2.1 Global Macroeconomic Outlook8.2.2 Chinese Macroeconomic Outlook8.3 Effects to Canned Mushroom IndustryChapter Nine Market Dynamics of Canned Mushroom Industry9.1 Canned Mushroom Industry News9.2 Canned Mushroom Industry Development Challenges9.3 Canned Mushroom Industry Development OpportunitiesChapter Ten Proposals for New Project10.1 Market Entry Strategies10.2 Countermeasures of Economic Impact10.3 Marketing Channels10.4 Feasibility Studies of New Project InvestmentChapter Eleven Research Conclusions of Global and Chinese Canned Mushroom IndustryPurchase complete report atTables and FiguresFigure Canned Mushroom Product PictureTable Development of Canned Mushroom Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Manufacturing Process of Canned MushroomTable Trends of Canned Mushroom Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Canned Mushroom Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Production Global Market ShareFigure Canned Mushroom Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Production Global Market ShareFigure Canned Mushroom Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Product Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value ListFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Production Global Market ShareFigure Canned Mushroom Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Production Global Market ShareFigure Canned Mushroom Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Product Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value ListFigure 2012-2017 Canned Mushroom Capacity Production and Growth RateContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Global Kosher Salt Market 2017 Status & Growth Factors in Retail and Food & Beverage Processing http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/320648 http://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/discount/320648 Summary:Orbis Research released a new research report of 109 pages on title 2017 Market Research Report on Global Kosher Salt Industry with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies.Description:In our aim to provide our erudite clients with the best research material with absolute in-depth information of the market, our new report on Global Kosher Salt Market is confident in meeting their needs and expectations. The 2017 market research report on Global Kosher Salt Market is an in-depth study and analysis of the market by our industry experts with unparalleled domain knowledge. The report will shed light on many critical points and trends of the industry which are useful for our esteemed clients. The report covers a vast expanse of information including an overview, comprehensive analysis, definitions and classifications, applications, and expert opinions, among others. With the extent of information filled in the report, the presentation and style of the Global Kosher Salt Market report is a noteworthy.The Global Kosher Salt Industry report provides key information about the industry, including invaluable facts and figures, expert opinions, and the latest developments across the globe. Not only does the report cover a holistic view of the industry from a global standpoint, but it also covers individual regions and their development. The Global Kosher Salt Industry report showcases the latest trends in the global and regional markets on all critical parameters which include technology, supplies, capacity, production, profit, price, and competition.Request Sample of this Report at:The Key Players covered in the report provide a detailed analysis of the competition and their developments in the Global Kosher Salt Industry. Accurate forecasts and expert opinion from credible sources, and the recent R&D development in the industry is also a mainstay of the Kosher Salt Market report. San Francisco Slat Company Morton Salt, Inc. Cargill, Inc. Redmont, Inc. Flavor Delite, Inc Saltworks, Inc. K+S Windsor Salt Ltd. Qingdao Huifenghe Msg Co., Ltd. Thai Refined Salt Co., Ltd Marblehead Salt Co.The report also focuses on the significance of industry chain analysis and all variables, both upstream and downstream. These include equipment and raw materials, client surveys, marketing channels, and industry trends and proposals. Other significant information covering consumption, key regions and distributors, and raw material suppliers are also a covered in this report.Check Discount on this Report at:Chapter One: Kosher Salt Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Kosher Salt1.2 Kosher Salt Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Kosher Salt Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Kosher Salt Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Smoked Kosher Salt1.2.4 Kosher Salt Crystals1.2.5 Kosher Salt Flakes1.2.6 Others1.3 Global Kosher Salt Segment by Application1.3.1 Kosher Salt Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Retail1.3.3 Food & Beverage Processing1.4 Global Kosher Salt Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Kosher Salt Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Kosher Salt (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Kosher Salt Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Kosher Salt Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Chapter Two: Global Kosher Salt Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Kosher Salt Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Kosher Salt Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Kosher Salt Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Kosher Salt Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Kosher Salt Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Kosher Salt Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Kosher Salt Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Kosher Salt Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Kosher Salt Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionChapter Three: Global Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Kosher Salt Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Kosher Salt Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Kosher Salt Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Kosher Salt Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)Orbis Research is a single point aid for all your Market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customised reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialisation. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required Market research study for our clients.Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com Global Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Market Report 2017 http://qyresearchglobal.com/ http://qyresearchglobal.com http://qyresearcheurope.com SummaryThe Global Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales 2017 Market Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Grapefruit Essential Oil market.The report provides a basic overview of the Grapefruit Essential Oil industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.The report then analyzes the global Grapefruit Essential Oil market size (volume and value), and the sales segment market is also discussed by product type, application and region.The major Grapefruit Essential Oil market (including USA, Europe, China, Japan, etc.) is analyzed, data including: market size, import and export, sale segment market by product type and application. Then we forecast the 2016-2021 market size of Grapefruit Essential Oil.The report focuses on global major leading companies providing information such as company profiles, sales, sales revenue, market share and contact information. Then the Grapefruit Essential Oil OEM market and Grapefruit Essential Oil production market status is discussed.Finally the marketing, feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):AFUVivi's SecretJcareOshadhiGOODHERBORCAMENAEPretty ValleyPBAANUOLDLANDNow FoodsYoung LivingTable of Contents1 Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Overview2 Global Grapefruit Essential Oil Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Grapefruit Essential Oil (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Grapefruit Essential Oil (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Grapefruit Essential Oil (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Grapefruit Essential Oil (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7.1 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales and Value (2012-2017)7.1.1 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)7.1.2 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)7.1.3 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)7.2 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Volume and Market Share by Players7.3 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Volume and Market Share by Type7.4 Southeast Asia Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Volume and Market Share by Application8 India Grapefruit Essential Oil (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8.1 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales and Value (2012-2017)8.1.1 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)8.1.2 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)8.1.3 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)8.2 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Volume and Market Share by Players8.3 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Volume and Market Share by Type8.4 India Grapefruit Essential Oil Sales Volume and Market Share by Application9 Global Grapefruit Essential Oil Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Grapefruit Essential Oil Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixRelated Reports:US Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Report 2017Europe Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Report 2017India Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Report 2017China Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Report 2017Korea Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Report 2017Japan Grapefruit Essential Oil Market Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Hebe | Sr. Manager Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) Coconut Water Industry Key Manufacturer, Analysis and 2022 Forecasts for United States, Europe, Japan and China Markets ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001731704/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/coconut-water-industry-global-and-chinese-market-research-report-2017 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001731704/discount http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001731704/buy/3000 Reportsweb.com adds "Coconut Water Industry Global and Chinese Market Research Report 2017" to its Database. The report provide basic overview of the industry, competitive landscape analysis, market development trends and currant market status.The 'Global and Chinese Coconut Water Industry, 2012-2022 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Coconut Water industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Coconut Water manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Request for free sample copy atFirstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2012-2017 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Coconut Water industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2017-2022 market development trends of Coconut Water industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Coconut Water Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2012-2022 global and Chinese Coconut Water industry covering all important parameters.Browse complete report atTable of ContentChapter One Introduction of Coconut Water Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Coconut Water1.2 Development of Coconut Water Industry1.3 Status of Coconut Water IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Coconut Water2.1 Development of Coconut Water Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Coconut Water Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Coconut Water Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key ManufacturersChapter Four 2012-2017 Global and Chinese Market of Coconut Water4.1 2012-2017 Global Capacity, Production and Production Value of Coconut Water Industry4.2 2012-2017 Global Cost and Profit of Coconut Water Industry4.3 Market Comparison of Global and Chinese Coconut Water Industry4.4 2012-2017 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Coconut Water4.5 2012-2017 Chinese Import and Export of Coconut WaterChapter Five Market Status of Coconut Water Industry5.1 Market Competition of Coconut Water Industry by Company5.2 Market Competition of Coconut Water Industry by Country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.)5.3 Market Analysis of Coconut Water Consumption by Application/TypeChapter Six 2017-2022 Market Forecast of Global and Chinese Coconut Water Industry6.1 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Capacity, Production, and Production Value of Coconut Water6.2 2017-2022 Coconut Water Industry Cost and Profit Estimation6.3 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Market Share of Coconut Water6.4 2017-2022 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Coconut Water6.5 2017-2022 Chinese Import and Export of Coconut WaterGet discount on Purchase report atChapter Seven Analysis of Coconut Water Industry Chain7.1 Industry Chain Structure7.2 Upstream Raw Materials7.3 Downstream IndustryChapter Eight Global and Chinese Economic Impact on Coconut Water Industry8.1 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Analysis8.1.1 Global Macroeconomic Analysis8.1.2 Chinese Macroeconomic Analysis8.2 Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Development Trend8.2.1 Global Macroeconomic Outlook8.2.2 Chinese Macroeconomic Outlook8.3 Effects to Coconut Water IndustryChapter Nine Market Dynamics of Coconut Water Industry9.1 Coconut Water Industry News9.2 Coconut Water Industry Development Challenges9.3 Coconut Water Industry Development OpportunitiesChapter Ten Proposals for New Project10.1 Market Entry Strategies10.2 Countermeasures of Economic Impact10.3 Marketing Channels10.4 Feasibility Studies of New Project InvestmentChapter Eleven Research Conclusions of Global and Chinese Coconut Water IndustryPurchase complete report atTables and FiguresFigure Coconut Water Product PictureTable Development of Coconut Water Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Manufacturing Process of Coconut WaterTable Trends of Coconut Water Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Coconut Water Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Coconut Water Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Production Global Market ShareFigure Coconut Water Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Coconut Water Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Production Global Market ShareFigure Coconut Water Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Coconut Water Product Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value ListFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Production Global Market ShareFigure Coconut Water Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Coconut Water Product Capacity, Production, and Production Value etc. ListFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Production Global Market ShareFigure Coconut Water Product and SpecificationsTable 2012-2017 Coconut Water Product Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value ListFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure 2012-2017 Coconut Water Production Global Market ShareFigure Coconut Water Product and SpecificationsContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Global Persulfates Industry 2017-2022 & Market Overview ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/global-persulfates-market-research-report-2017 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001832483/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001832483/buy/2900 ReportsWeb.com added Global Persulfates Market Research Report 2017 to its vast collection of research Database. The report is spread across 107 pages and supported by 10 company leaders.The Global Persulfates Market Research Report 2017is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Persulfates industry. In a word, This report studies Persulfates in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer. Key companies included in this research are Peroxychem, United Initiators, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Incorporation, Ak-Kim Kimya, Adeka Corporation, E.I.Du Pont De Nemours & Company, Vr Persulfates Private Limited, Hebei Yatai Electrochemistry Company Limited, Hebei Jiheng Group Company Limited and Fujian Zhanhua Chemical Company Limited.Browse complete report @Market Segment by Region, this report splits Global into several key Region, with sales, revenue, market share and growth rate of Persulfates in these regions, from 2011 to 2022 (forecast), like North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. Firstly, Persulfates Market On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Ammonium Persulfate, Sodium Persulfate and Potassium Persulfate. On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales) , market share and growth rate of Persulfates for each application, including Electronics, Cosmetics & Personal Care, Pulp, Paper & Textile, Water Treatment and Other Applications.Request for Sample @Major points from Table of Contents:1 Persulfates Market Overview2 Global Persulfates Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Persulfates Output, Revenue by Regions4 Global Persulfates Supply (Output) , Consumption, Export, Import by Regions5 Global Persulfates Output, Revenue, Price Trend by Types6 Global Persulfates Market Analysis by Applications7 Global Persulfates Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Peroxychem7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Persulfates Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Peroxychem Persulfates Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 United Initiators7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Persulfates Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 United Initiators Persulfates Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Incorporation7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Persulfates Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Incorporation Persulfates Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Persulfates Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Persulfates Market Forecast13 Research Findings and ConclusionList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of PersulfatesFigure Global Persulfates Production (K MT) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Persulfates Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of Ammonium PersulfateTable Major Manufacturers of Ammonium PersulfateFigure Product Picture of Sodium PersulfateTable Major Manufacturers of Sodium PersulfateFigure Product Picture of Potassium PersulfateTable Major Manufacturers of Potassium PersulfateFigure Global Persulfates Consumption (K MT) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Persulfates Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Electronics ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in ElectronicsFigure Cosmetics & Personal Care ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in Cosmetics & Personal CareFigure Pulp, Paper & Textile ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in Pulp, Paper & TextileFigure Water Treatment ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in Water TreatmentFigure Other Applications ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in Other ApplicationsFigure Global Persulfates Market Size (Million USD) , Comparison (K MT) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure North America Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Persulfates Capacity, Production (K MT) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Persulfates Major Players Product Capacity (K MT) (2012-2017)Table Global Persulfates Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Persulfates Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Persulfates Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Figure Global Persulfates Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers in 2017Figure Global Persulfates Major Players Product Production (K MT) (2012-2017)Table Global Persulfates Production (K MT) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Persulfates Production Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure 2016 Persulfates Production Share by ManufacturersFigure 2017 Persulfates Production Share by ManufacturersFigure Global Persulfates Major Players Product Revenue (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Persulfates Revenue (Million USD) by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Persulfates Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Place a Direct Purchase Order of Complete Report @Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Earthmoving Equipment Market in construction industry forecast to surpass USD 85 billion by 2023. https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/408 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/408 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/earthmoving-equipment-market https://www.gminsights.com https://gminsights.wordpress.com The research report, Earthmoving equipment market size is projected to reach USD 192.45 billion by 2023; as per the latest research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. growing adoption in the commercial sector, favorable Government initiatives and growing transport infrastructure development worldwide will drive the global market size.Global Market Insights has announced the addition of a new market study based on the Earthmoving equipment market. The report analyzes the restrainers, drivers and challenges of the market, future growth potentials and its impact on the demand shaping the market during the predicted period from 2015 to 2023.Request for a sample of this research report @Excavators will continue to be the most attractive equipment with more than 9% CAGR from 2016 to 2023. Real-time monitoring features for identyfying and supervising system failure are expected to drive demand.The multifunction equipment is preferred over single-function equipment for saving the cost. This also reduces the time and labor required to accomplish the task with improved efficiency and extended productivity as added advantages. Rising investments in R&D to discover solutions to enhance product offerings will propel the market.Earthmoving machinery is mainly applied in the construction industry. The construction industry is predicted to maintain its dominance, with more than 60 % of the Earthmoving machinery market share. Excavator are used in surface level and below ground operations. Rising demand in factories and manufacturing facilities will drive the excavator segment growth. Obtaining construction equipment on rent or lease is a rising trend. The construction equipment rental market is predicted to exceed USD 85 billion by 2023.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @In Private and Government sectors, increasing demand for technologically advanced solutions, featuring better material handling and improved fuel efficiency combined with lower emissions and safety is expected to propel the market worldwide. Europe earthmoving equipment market share will remain steady, with revenue forecast to exceed 43 billion in predicted timeframe.The growing trend towards the usage of used heavy machinery across numerous countries may prove to be a threat to the new products that are to be launched in the segment. Increasing expenditure on infrastructure activities is also forecast to escalate demand, notably over the coming years.Some of the key participants operating in the global earthmoving equipment include John Deer, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo, Hitachi, Liebherr, Doosan, etc.To access sample pages or view this report in detail along with the table of contents, please click on the link below:About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:Connect with us: Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter Global Guitar Amps Sales Market Report 2017 http://qyresearchglobal.com/ http://qyresearchglobal.com http://qyresearcheurope.com SummaryThe Global Guitar Amps Sales 2017 Market Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Guitar Amps market.The report provides a basic overview of the Guitar Amps industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.The report then analyzes the global Guitar Amps market size (volume and value), and the sales segment market is also discussed by product type, application and region.The major Guitar Amps market (including USA, Europe, China, Japan, etc.) is analyzed, data including: market size, import and export, sale segment market by product type and application. Then we forecast the 2016-2021 market size of Guitar Amps.The report focuses on global major leading companies providing information such as company profiles, sales, sales revenue, market share and contact information. Then the Guitar Amps OEM market and Guitar Amps production market status is discussed.Finally the marketing, feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):BlackstarAmpegBehringerFenderMarshallFishmanHughes & KettnerJohnsonLaneyOrangePeaveyRiveraRolandVoxYamahaTable of Contents1 Guitar Amps Market Overview2 Global Guitar Amps Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Guitar Amps (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Guitar Amps (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Guitar Amps (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Guitar Amps (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7.1 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Sales and Value (2012-2017)7.1.1 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)7.1.2 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)7.1.3 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)7.2 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Sales Volume and Market Share by Players7.3 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Sales Volume and Market Share by Type7.4 Southeast Asia Guitar Amps Sales Volume and Market Share by Application8 India Guitar Amps (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8.1 India Guitar Amps Sales and Value (2012-2017)8.1.1 India Guitar Amps Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)8.1.2 India Guitar Amps Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)8.1.3 India Guitar Amps Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)8.2 India Guitar Amps Sales Volume and Market Share by Players8.3 India Guitar Amps Sales Volume and Market Share by Type8.4 India Guitar Amps Sales Volume and Market Share by Application9 Global Guitar Amps Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Guitar Amps Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Guitar Amps Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixRelated Reports:US Guitar Amps Market Report 2017Europe Guitar Amps Market Report 2017India Guitar Amps Market Report 2017China Guitar Amps Market Report 2017Korea Guitar Amps Market Report 2017Japan Guitar Amps Market Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact me~O(_)O~Hebe | Sr. Manager Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86 20 2209 3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20 2209 3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) Solar Simulator Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/global-solar-simulator-market-research-report-2017 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001832425/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001832425/buy/2900 ReportsWeb.com added Global Solar Simulator Market Research Report 2017 to its vast collection of research Database. The report is spread across 118 pages and supported by 14 company leaders.The Global Solar Simulator Market Research Report 2017is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Solar Simulator industry. In a word, This report studies Solar Simulator in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer. Key companies included in this research are Newport Corporation, Meyer Burger, Gsolar Power, Spire Solar, Solar Light, Abet Technologies, Sciencetech Inc, Spectrolab, OAI, Asahi Spectra, Iwasaki Electric, Nisshinbo Mechatronics, Endeas Oy and Wacom Electric.Browse complete report @Market Segment by Region, this report splits Global into several key Region, with sales, revenue, market share and growth rate of Solar Simulator in these regions, from 2011 to 2022 (forecast), like North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. Firstly, Solar Simulator Market On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Xenon Arc Lamp, LED Lamp, UV Lamp and QTH Lamp. On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales) , market share and growth rate of Solar Simulator for each application, including PV Cell, Automotive Testing, Biomass Study and Others.Request for Sample @Major points from Table of Contents:1 Solar Simulator Market Overview2 Global Solar Simulator Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Solar Simulator Output, Revenue by Regions4 Global Solar Simulator Supply (Output) , Consumption, Export, Import by Regions5 Global Solar Simulator Output, Revenue, Price Trend by Types6 Global Solar Simulator Market Analysis by Applications7 Global Solar Simulator Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Newport Corporation7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Solar Simulator Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Newport Corporation Solar Simulator Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Meyer Burger7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Solar Simulator Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Meyer Burger Solar Simulator Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Gsolar Power7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Solar Simulator Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Gsolar Power Solar Simulator Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Solar Simulator Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Solar Simulator Market Forecast13 Research Findings and ConclusionList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Solar SimulatorFigure Global Solar Simulator Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Solar Simulator Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of Xenon Arc LampTable Major Manufacturers of Xenon Arc LampFigure Product Picture of LED LampTable Major Manufacturers of LED LampFigure Product Picture of UV LampTable Major Manufacturers of UV LampFigure Product Picture of QTH LampTable Major Manufacturers of QTH LampFigure Global Solar Simulator Consumption (K Units) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Solar Simulator Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure PV Cell ExamplesFigure Automotive Testing ExamplesFigure Biomass Study ExamplesFigure Others ExamplesFigure Global Solar Simulator Market Size (Million USD) , Comparison (K Units) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure North America Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Solar Simulator Capacity, Production (K Units) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Solar Simulator Major Players Product Capacity (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Solar Simulator Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Solar Simulator Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Solar Simulator Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Figure Global Solar Simulator Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2017Figure Global Solar Simulator Major Players Product Production (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Solar Simulator Production (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Solar Simulator Production Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure 2016 Solar Simulator Production Share by ManufacturersFigure 2017 Solar Simulator Production Share by ManufacturersFigure Global Solar Simulator Major Players Product Revenue (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Solar Simulator Revenue (Million USD) by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Solar Simulator Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Place a Direct Purchase Order of Complete Report @Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Mosquito Repellant Market Evolving Region, Type, Application & Manufacturers SC Johnson, Spectrum Brands, Reckitt Benckiser Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/437200-global-mosquito-repellant-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=437200 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/437200-global-mosquito-repellant-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/437200-global-mosquito-repellant-market-2 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 121 pages on title 'Global Mosquito Repellant Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes North & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and important players such as SC Johnson, Spectrum Brands, Reckitt Benckiser..................SummaryAccording to the report, global revenue for Mosquito Repellants market was valued at $ 3100.77 million in 2016, and is expected to generate revenue of $ 4776.76 million by end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of slightly above 7.34 % between 2017 and 2022.SC Johnson, Spectrum Brands and Godrej Household captured the top three revenue share spots in the Mosquito Repellants market in 2016. SC Johnson dominated with 24.26 % revenue share, followed by Godrej Household with 7.01 % revenue share and Spectrum Brands with 6.88 % revenue share.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Mosquito Repellant in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSC Johnson, Spectrum Brands, Reckitt Benckiser, 3M, Zhongshan LANJU, Godrej Household, Avon, Tender Corporation, Dainihon Jochugiku, Nice Group Co., Ltd. , Coleman, Manaksia, Omega Pharma, Sawyer ProductsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversCoilsVaporizerMatsAerosolsCreamsMarket Segment Analysis of Active Ingredient (Insecticides), coversIcaridin (Picaridin)DEETTransfluthrinBAAPEEucalyptus OilPeppermint OilMeperfluthrinDimefluthrinPrallethrinPallethrinGeranium OilCitronella OilOtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoUrbanRuralBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Mosquito Repellant market.Chapter 1, to describe Mosquito Repellant Introduction, product scope, market overview;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Mosquito Repellant, with Revenue, revenue, and price of Mosquito Repellant, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with Revenue, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with Revenue, revenue and market share of Mosquito Repellant, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with Revenue, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with Revenue market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Mosquito Repellant market forecast, by regions, type and application, with Revenue and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Mosquito Repellant Revenue channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview 11.1 Mosquito Repellant Introduction 11.1.1 Definition of Mosquito Repellants 11.1.2 Work Flow of Mosquito Repellants 21.2 Market Analysis by Type 21.3 Global Insecticides Sales Volumes (MT) by Types 2012-2016 31.4 Market Analysis by Applications 41.5 Market Analysis by Regions 51.5.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) 51.5.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) 61.5.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) 71.5.4 South America 81.5.5 Middle East and Africa 91.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Mosquito Repellants 9....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Variable Frequency Drive Market Insights, Trends and Forecast to 2025 The Insight Partners http://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/variable-frequency-drive-market http://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPTE100000488 http://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPTE100000488 TheInsightPartners.com added Variable Frequency Drive Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Product Type, Voltage Rating, Application and End - use Industry to its database.A Variable Frequency Drive is a device deployed to adjust the voltage and frequency of the motor which aids in controlling the speed of the motor in order to achieve required efficiency of the system. Gearboxes or multi - speed motors provides discrete process control and is frequently replaced by VFD which provides continuous process control. Application of VFD include centrifugal fans & pumps, blowers, HVAC systems, mixers, conveyors, compressors, machine tools, lathes, and punch presses. Variable Frequency Drives offers significant economic benefits in terms of electricity consumption, reduce wear & tear on seals and shafts etc.Rising energy prices across several regions has escalated the demand for efficient motor controls thereby driving the market for VFD. Further, with an aim to reduce overall energy consumption, operation engineers are continuously focusing towards the deployment of advanced variable frequency drives. Emergence of new application areas leveraging the benefits of low operation cost with deployment of VFD is also expected to create fortunate revenue opportunities in the global variable frequency drive market. Advancement in VFD to support integration of variable frequency drives with existing motor is also increasing the adoption. This trend is more pronounced in North America as end - users there are more aware regarding the benefits of VFD in such applications.Complete report is available atThe objectives of this report are as follows:- To provide overview of the global Variable Frequency Drive market- To analyze and forecast the global Variable Frequency Drive market on the basis of Product Type, Voltage Rating, Application and End - use Industry.- To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Variable Frequency Drive market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub - segmented across respective major countries.- To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend.- To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.- To profiles key Variable Frequency Drive players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies.Request sample is available atSome of the important players in Variable Frequency Drive market are Fuji Electric Co., Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Siemens AG, ABB Ltd., American Electric Technologies Inc. (AETI), General Electric Company, Hitachi Limited, Honeywell International Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., Johnson Controls Inc., Emerson Industrial Automation, Toshiba International Corporation, and Schneider Electric.Major Points from Table of ContentIntroductionKey TakeawaysMarket LandscapeMarket - Key Industry DynamicsMarket Analysis- GlobalMarket Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Product TypesMarket Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - ComponentsMarket Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - End User IndustryMarket Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Geographical Analysis (North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South America)Industry LandscapeCompetitive LandscapeKey Company ProfilesInquire before buying atAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Global Stacked CMOS Image Sensor Market Overview, Top Key Players, Industry Growth Analysis and Forecast to 2022 Stacked CMOS Image Sensor Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2734 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/stacked-cmos-image-sensor-market-2734 Market Highlights:A complementary metal-oxide semi-conductor imager can be defined as the transition of voltage to pixel level and it is operated with a single source of power. CMOS imager is basically integrated into a small chip. Also, it is consumer oriented which depends on the process of technology with some standard adaption for imaging. Basically CMOS transforms light into electrons and it requires various types of technology to perform effectively.The main factor contributing to the growth of the stacked CMOS image sensor market are the implementation of image sensor in various sectors such as automotive, consumer electronics and others, technological innovations and features such as data safety. Also, the increasing demand for tablets and smart phones is expected to boost the market over the forecast period.In 2015, Sony Corporation announced a new plan to boom the production of CMOS image sensors. The company increased its investment into CMOS sensors that aided in the increase in its production of Stacked CMOS Image Sensors. Stacked CMOS image sensors have two chips- one for image sensing pixels and the other for digital circuit. They are widely used in smart phones and tablets.Major Key Players: Sony Corporation (Japan) Panasonic Corporation (Japan) Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (South Korea) Canon Inc. (Japan) OmniVision Technologies Inc. (U.S.) STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland) Galaxy Core Inc. (China) Sharp Corporation (Japan) SK Hynix Inc. (South Korea)Request a Sample Report @Stacked CMOS Image Sensor Market:According to Market Research Future, market has been segmented into specification, application, and region.Market Research Future Analysis:The global stacked CMOS image sensor market is expected to grow significantly. The market is highly application basis. Consumer electronics segment of stacked CMOS image sensor market globally drives the market. The market is expected to have higher growth rate as compared to the previous years.North American region accounted for the largest market share, majorly in countries such as U.S. because of development of new technologies, adoption of new of technologies by consumers and increase in focus on research and development. Whereas, countries such as China, Korea in the Asia-Pacific is expected to grow over the forecast period, majorly due to large number of semiconductor manufacturers and presence of cheap labor.Regional Analysis:Regionally, North America accounted for the largest market share majorly due to focus on innovations, adoption of new technologies and high investments for the new technologies. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow over the forecast period majorly due to easy availability of cheap labor, increasing demand for consumer electronics and manufacturing hub.Access Report Details @Intended Audience: Original Equipment Manufacturers Distributors Research firms/ Consultancy firms Educational Institutes Software Developers Vendors Semiconductor Manufacturers Stakeholders End-user sectors Technology InvestorsTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Network Solution2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size EstimationContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Stacked Cmos Image Sensor Market, By SpecificationsTable 2 Stacked Cmos Image Sensor Market, By ApplicationTable 3 Stacked Cmos Image Sensor Market, By GeographyContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Research SpecificationsFigure 2 Stacked Cmos Image Sensor Market, By Specifications (%)Figure 3 Stacked Cmos Image Sensor Market, By Application (%)ContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Paclitaxel Market Evolving Region, Type, Application & Manufacturers Phyton, ScinoPharm, Novasep Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/437347-global-paclitaxel-market-5 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=437347 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/437347-global-paclitaxel-market-5 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/437347-global-paclitaxel-market-5 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 123 pages on title 'Global Paclitaxel Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes North & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and important players such as Phyton, ScinoPharm, Novasep..................SummaryPaclitaxel is a mitotic inhibitor used in cancer chemotherapy; Paclitaxel was discovered in 1962 as a result of a U.S. National Cancer Institute-funded screening program; Monroe Wall and Mansukh Wani isolated the drug from the bark of the Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia, and named it ""taxol"".Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Paclitaxel in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversPhytonScinoPharmNovasepSamyangPolymedTAPI (Teva)Fresenius-kabiSouthpharmaHaiyaoHuiang biopharmaYunnan HandeHainan Yew PharmMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversNatural PaclitaxelSemi-synthetic PaclitaxelMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoOvarian CancerCervical CancerBreast CancerOtherBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Paclitaxel market.Chapter 1, to describe Paclitaxel Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Paclitaxel, with sales, revenue, and price of Paclitaxel, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Paclitaxel, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Paclitaxel market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Paclitaxel sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Paclitaxel Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Natural Paclitaxel1.2.2 Semi-synthetic Paclitaxel1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Ovarian Cancer1.3.2 Cervical Cancer1.3.3 Breast Cancer1.3.4 Other1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) Market Forecast, 2014 - 2022 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/IGBT-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/165 Allied Market Research recently published a report titled, Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) Market Report. The report projects that the global market is estimated to generate around $11 billion by 2022. The global market was dominated by Asia-Pacific, accounting for around 50% revenue share of the total IGBT market, followed by Europe.Early buyers will receive 20% customization on this report.IGBT module is the most popular device widely used in different industries. In the current scenario, the major driving factors of the market include growth in demand for higher efficiency, faster switching, and minimal power loss. In addition, augmented demand for high voltage operating devices is forecasted to create huge opportunities for the market players. The IGBT module is the leading category in the global market, and is projected to continue with the trend throughout the analysis period. However, owing to its compact size and improved efficiency, discrete IGBT segment is estimated to witness significant growth in the future.View Detail Summary of this report :As these modules are used for power transmission in high voltages with minimum current loss, high power IGBT segment is predicted to retain its lead in the overall IGBT market. In addition, Asia-Pacific is the major contributor in terms of revenue in the market owing to surge in demand for electric vehicles utilizing IGBT for power transaction. The major consumers of IGBT in the Asia-Pacific region include, China, India, and Japan.In 2014, among the different applications, energy & power segment dominated the global market, accounting for around 23% share. Proactive government initiatives to establish smart grids and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) has boosted market growth. However, electric vehicle is forecasted to be the most lucrative application segment, and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.1% during the forecast period. This is largely due to increase in demand for power management in electric vehicles. In addition, in terms of revenue, Asia-Pacific was the leading contributor to the electric vehicle market in 2014.Get PDF of this Report @In 2014, Asia-Pacific accounted for most of the revenue, and is forecasted to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. This is attributed to the growing number of electric vehicles and increasing industry systems, that increase the demand for IGBT. In addition, progress in consumer electronic and inverters & UPS would fuel the growth of the IGBT market, particularly in Asian countries such including Japan, South Korea, China and India.As High-Voltage IGBTs allow power management and reduce power leakage, they are widely used in automotive applications. In addition, they also offer several benefits such as high efficiency, reduced system complexity, and minimum system maintenance. Owing to its resilience and higher efficiency, IGBT module represents around 60.62% of the total IGBT market. In addition, according to Rakesh Singh, Manager, Research, Semiconductor & Electronics, AMR, significant growth in demand for electric vehicles and customer shift towards progressive power semiconductor to achieve better efficiency are likely to promote its adoption in inverter & UPS, energy & power, industry systems and consumer electronics.The Asia-Pacific region is forecasted to be the fastest growing market throughout the study period, due to growth in focus on renewable energy, power transmission, and adoption of IGBT in electric vehicles. In addition, increase in IT expenditures in numerous countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea to cater to end-user storage needs have boosted the prospects for market growth. In addition, progress in technology to tackle power loss issues in IGBT would offer lucrative opportunities for the market players.The major players in the IGBT market focus on expanding their business operations in the fast-growing emerging countries with new product launch as the preferred strategy. The major players profiled in this report include STMicroelectronics N.V., ABB Group, IXYS Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Semikron International GmbH, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Renesas Electronics Corp, Infineon Technologies AG, Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., and NXP Semiconductors N.V.About UsAllied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact UsPankaj Kumar5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesDirect: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1 (800) 792-5285 (U.S. & Canada)Fax: +1 (855) 550-5975E-mail: sales@alliedmarketresearch.com Target Drones Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/global-target-drones-market-research-report-2017 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001832428/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW0001832428/buy/2900 ReportsWeb.com added Global Target Drones Market Research Report 2017 to its vast collection of research Database. The report is spread across 108 pages and supported by 10 company leaders.The Global Target Drones Market Research Report 2017is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Target Drones industry. In a word, This report studies Target Drones in Global market, especially in United States, EU, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer. Key companies included in this research are The Boeing Company, Qinetiq Group PLC, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., Airbus Group, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Leonardo S.P.A., BSK Defense S.A., Air Affairs Australia Pty Ltd. and Saab AB.Browse complete report @Market Segment by Region, this report splits Global into several key Region, with sales, revenue, market share and growth rate of Target Drones in these regions, from 2011 to 2022 (forecast), like United States, EU, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Firstly, Target Drones Market On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Aerial Targets, Ground Targets, Underwater Targets and Sea Surface Targets. On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales) , market share and growth rate of Target Drones for each application, including Defense, Full Scaled, Sub-scaled, Free Flying, Towing and Sporting.Request for Sample @Major points from Table of Contents:1 Target Drones Market Overview2 Global Target Drones Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Target Drones Output, Revenue by Regions4 Global Target Drones Supply (Output) , Consumption, Export, Import by Regions5 Global Target Drones Output, Revenue, Price Trend by Types6 Global Target Drones Market Analysis by Applications7 Global Target Drones Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 The Boeing Company7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Target Drones Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 The Boeing Company Target Drones Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Qinetiq Group PLC?7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Target Drones Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Qinetiq Group PLC? Target Drones Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Northrop Grumman Corporation?7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Target Drones Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Northrop Grumman Corporation? Target Drones Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Target Drones Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Target Drones Market Forecast13 Research Findings and ConclusionList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Target DronesFigure Global Target Drones Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Target Drones Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of Aerial TargetsTable Major Manufacturers of Aerial TargetsFigure Product Picture of Ground TargetsTable Major Manufacturers of Ground TargetsFigure Product Picture of Underwater TargetsTable Major Manufacturers of Underwater TargetsFigure Product Picture of Sea Surface TargetsTable Major Manufacturers of Sea Surface TargetsFigure Global Target Drones Consumption (K Units) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Target Drones Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Defense ExamplesFigure Full Scaled ExamplesFigure Sub-scaled ExamplesFigure Free Flying ExamplesFigure Towing ExamplesFigure Sporting ExamplesFigure Global Target Drones Market Size (Million USD) , Comparison (K Units) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure United States Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure EU Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure South Korea Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Taiwan Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Target Drones Capacity, Production (K Units) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Target Drones Major Players Product Capacity (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Target Drones Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Target Drones Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Target Drones Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Figure Global Target Drones Capacity (K Units) of Key Manufacturers in 2017Figure Global Target Drones Major Players Product Production (K Units) (2012-2017)Table Global Target Drones Production (K Units) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Target Drones Production Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure 2016 Target Drones Production Share by ManufacturersFigure 2017 Target Drones Production Share by ManufacturersFigure Global Target Drones Major Players Product Revenue (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Target Drones Revenue (Million USD) by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Target Drones Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table 2016 Global Target Drones Revenue Share by ManufacturersTable 2017 Global Target Drones Revenue Share by ManufacturersTable Global Market Target Drones Average Price (USD/Unit) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Market Target Drones Average Price (USD/Unit) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturers Target Drones Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales AreaPlace a Direct Purchase Order of Complete Report @Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Aromatic Isocyanates Market to Register Steady Growth During 2017 - 2025 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/aromatic-isocyanates-market.asp http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13123 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/13123 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Isocyanates are organic compounds containing the N=C=O group. When two of these functional groups are attached to a compound, in such a case the group is known as a di-isocyanate. There are two types of isocyanate compounds; aromatic isocyanates and aliphatic isocyanates. Aromatic isocyanates involve direct attachment of an NCO group with aromatic rings. Aromatic isocyanates are mainly used in the production of polyurethane foam; which is formed by a reaction between aromatic isocyanates and polyols in the presence of a catalyst. Aromatic Isocyanates are generally used in the production of flexible or rigid foam, elastomers and protective coatings, among others. These compounds are highly reactive and toxic in nature. Owing to their toxic nature special care is taken in their handling and during their production. Raw materials used for the production of aromatic isocyanates are generally tolune, benezene and aniline, among others. Toluenediisocyanate (TDI) and Methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) these two aromatic which are mostly used in construction industry applications for manufacturing rigid foam.To access full report @Global Aromatic Isocyanates Market Dynamics:The demand for aromatic isocyanates stems from the increasing demand for polyurethane foam, especially in the construction industry. Second to that, the demand for adhesives and protective coatings, and their growing applications are expected to, in turn, drive the growth in demand for aromatic isocyanates over the forecast period. Both these factors are expected to propel the growth of aromatic isocyanates market. Prices of raw materials used in the production of aromatic isocyanates depend highly on crude oil prices. This leads to a relatively high margin of fluctuation in prices, which is a key restraint in the aromatic isocyanate market. Various stringent regulations from government associations such as OSHA, REACH, among others, on the production of aromatic isocyanates restrict the growth of this market. Increasing demand for bio based chemicals and the initiative taken by developed countries such as U.S., EU-5 countries, among others, which are expected to impact the demand for the aromatic isocyanates. Also, aromatic isocyanates are produced through a complex process which requires a controlled environment for safety of personnel and process operation. Aromatic isocyanates are generally available in small quantities; if bulk production is made possible it will create a new opportunity for growth of the market.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global Aromatic Isocyanates Market Segmentation:On the basis of type of compound, global aromatic isocyanates market is segmented into:Toluenediisocyanate (TDI)Methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI)Naphthalene 1,5-Diisocyanate (NDI)P-Phenylene Diisocyanate (PPDI)OtherOn the basis of application, global aromatic isocyanates market is segmented into:Polyurethane foamFixedRigidElastomersAdhesive and sealantCoatingOtherOn the basis of end use, global aromatic isocyanates market is segmented into:ConstructionPackagingFurnitureTransportationChemicalOthersGlobal Aromatic Isocyanates Market: Regional outlookNorth America is expected to dominate the global aromatic isocyanates market over the forecast period, owing to a rise in demand from the construction industry and adhesives market. Europe is anticipated to be the second largest market in terms of consumption owing to strong presence of key end users. Europe is anticipated to register relatively sluggish growth. In the Asia Pacific region, presence of emerging economics such as China and India, and rising demand from industries for aromatic isocyanates is expected to boost demand over the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to register healthy CAGR over the forecast period. China is expected to be the main consumer and hence will hold the major market share. Japan, Middles East and Africa are expected to register relatively slow growth over the forecast period.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Aromatic Isocyanates Market Players:Examples of some market participants in the global aromatic isocyanates market, identified across the value chain include Vencorex, The Dow Chemical Company, BASF SE, Wanhua Chemical Co., Ltd, Covestro AG, Huntsman Corporation, Cangzhou Dahua Group Co., Ltd., Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Chemtura Corporation, and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited, among others.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, compound type, end use and applications.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market SegmentsMarket DynamicsMarket SizeSupply & DemandCurrent Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedValue ChainRegional analysis includes:North AmericaLatin AmericaAsia PacificJapanWestern EuropeEastern EuropeMiddle East & AfricaThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts, and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides an in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macroeconomic indicators and governing factors, along with market attractiveness within the segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and various geographies.Report highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics in the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and products offeredPotential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective on market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Global Thymidine Market 2017 - Lonza, Carbopharm GmbH, Zhejiang NHU, Hebei Anminuo, Ducheng, Chengzhi https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/67567/request-sample https://goo.gl/Y4bJek www.fiormarkets.com www.albaniantimes.com Thymidine (deoxythymidine; other names deoxyribosylthymine, thymine deoxyriboside) is a pyrimidine deoxynucleoside. It is a pharmaceutical intermediate that used to make anti-AIDS drugs Zidovudine.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Thymidine in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Request For Sample Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversLonzaCarbopharm GmbHZhejiang NHUZhejiang Xianfeng Science TechnologyAnhui Golden Sun BiopharmaceuticalsHebei AnminuoDuchengChengzhiMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversChemical Synthesis MethodFermentation MethodMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoZidovudineOtherAccess Full Report With TOC @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Thymidine market.Chapter 1, to describe Thymidine Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Thymidine, with sales, revenue, and price of Thymidine, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Thymidine, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Thymidine market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Thymidine sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceAbout Fior MarketsFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerOffice-108, Sanskriti AspirationsBaner Road, Pune,MH 411045IndiaPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Compression Therapy Market to 2024: Trends, Business Strategies and Opportunities with Key Players Analysis http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/compression-therapy-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1537 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Compression therapy is a medical procedure in which external pressure is applied to the skin and underlying structure (organ) to promote normal flow of venous blood in the body. Recognized as a gold standard for treating lymphedema, chronic venous insufficiency, and deep vein thrombosis, compression therapy is safe, easy-to-use and provides effective treatment in a short time span. The therapy aims to increase venous and lymphatic fluid in the limb through the utilization of an external force (exerted by compression products). This report studies the current scenario as well as future market potential for compression therapy across the globe. The research comprises an elaborate executive summary, which includes a market snapshot that provides market dynamics of various segments and sub-segments that are included in the report in a precise manner. The report provides in-depth analysis of the compression therapy market. The stakeholders for this report include companies involved in the manufacturing of compression pumps, bandages, tapes and stocking. The executive summary section further summarizes the market size, trends and competition in different regions.Transparency Market Research forecasts the global compression therapy market to reach US$4.25 bn by 2024 from a valuation of US$2,693.4 mn in 2015. If these figures hold true, the market will exhibit a CAGR of 5.3% between 2016 and 2024.Prevalence of Obesity Creates Ample Opportunities for Expansion of Compression Therapy Market in Developed EconomiesThis 84 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Compression Therapy Market. Browse through 31 data tables and 17 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) has stated that around 129,000 knee arthroplasty surgeries were conducted in the U.S. in 1990. The number had reached over 600,000 surgeries in 2010. Furthermore, the AAOS projects the number of arthroplasty surgeries to be conducted in the U.S. by 2030 to surpass 3 million. Considering the incredible rise in number of cases reported in the U.S. alone, the incidence of orthopedic conditions globally is projected to increase at a rapid pace. This creates ample opportunities for the expansion of the compression therapy market.As obesity increases the risk of vascular diseases due to the pressure exerted by the bodyweight on underlying organs, its rising prevalence is often linked with the increasing demand for compression therapy. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of obesity has nearly doubled since 1980. With experts projecting the number to surge during the reports forecast period, opportunities for the global compression therapy market are likely to bolster.Lack of proper reimbursement policies will, however, limit the markets success to an extent, finds TMR. Nevertheless, the rising investments in emerging economies and widespread unmet medical needs in these countries will support the markets growth in the near future.North America Emerges Dominant with Most Attractive OpportunitiesRegionally, North America has been exhibiting the most lucrative prospects for leading enterprises in the market. The region held around 47.2% of the market in 2015, followed by Europe, which accounted for a share of 32.2% in the market in the same year. The prevalence of vascular diseases in both these regions is relatively higher. In North America, TMR finds the alarming rate of obesity as a prime driver of the compression therapy market. Among other regions exhibiting prospects for the compression therapy market, Asia Pacific is expected to report the highest CAGR.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Compression Therapy Market during 2016 2024:Some of the prominent companies operating in the global compression therapy market include 3M Health Care, Bio Compression Systems, Inc., BSN Medical, Covidien plc, Paul Hartmann AG, and others.Supported by Clinical Evidence, Static Compression Therapy Emerges as Dominant Market SegmentDemand for static compression therapy is forecast to rise at a rapid pace. The segment in 2015 held the largest share in the market and is expected to sustain its dominant position through the forecast period. The low cost and easy availability of static compression products have consequently boosted their sales. These products are also supported by clinical evidence, due to which doctors around the world seem to prefer static garments more. Besides this, the aesthetic appearance and comfortable material of static compression hosiery have made them a preferred choice among patients.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Precipitated Calcium Carbonate Market 2017 - Omya, Imerys, Minerals Technologies, Okutama Kogyo, Maruo Calcium, Mississippi Lime https://goo.gl/Uaatuu https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/64449/request-sample www.fiormarkets.com http://www.universalmarketresearch.com/ Precipitated Calcium Carbonate Market analyzed the Industry region, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis to 2022The Report has announced the addition of a new report titled Precipitated Calcium Carbonate to its research database. The study presents a comprehensive overview of the global Precipitated Calcium Carbonate market and delves into discussing the growth drivers, restraints, and potential opportunities. It provides an executive level blueprint on the market, with key focus on evaluating the market trends exhibited in the emerging regional markets. In a coherent chapter-wise format the report presents the historical data and statistics of the market and evaluates how the demand and supply trends have impacted the global Precipitated Calcium Carbonate market dynamics.Access Full Report With TOC:The report has been compiled with the intent of presenting a 360 degree snapshot of the global Precipitated Calcium Carbonate market to the industry participants. The findings and observation constituted in the report will help stakeholders measure the success quotient of their existing policies and assist them in determining their future course of action. To study the competitive landscape of the Precipitated Calcium Carbonate market in detail, key industry participants are profiled in the report. Using SWOT analysis, the report studies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the key players in the market.Market segmentation in terms of product types, end-users, applications and geography constitute a significant inclusion in the report. To study the market in details the report evaluates the primary market operations and studies the specific features of the products and services which the market provide. Impact of technological advances and economic recession on the products and services offered by the market is also analyzed in the study. Based on market classification the report analyzes the prevailing competitiveness in the market.Download Sample Report:The information included in the report is obtained through primary and secondary research. Other industrial sources such as financial records of key players, historical statistics and insights from industry leaders are also referred to for the purpose of the study. The report utilizes several analysis tools, namely investment return analysis, market attractiveness analysis, Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis to assess the Precipitated Calcium Carbonate market globally. This gives an exhaustive review of the historical changes in the worldwide Precipitated Calcium Carbonate market and also investigates various gainful business procedures for new as well as leading market players. Furthermore, a segmentation of prominent players on the basis of geography is also conferred via this report.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Yogadaycelebration.com is ready to take People into Thick of the History of Yoga Day http://www.yogadaycelebration.com/ New Delhi, Tuesday, June 13, 2017-After a strong call from Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for spreading awareness about the benefits of Yoga, and inculcating the habit of practicing yoga, on 11th December 2104, 21st June was declared as Yoga day. PM Modi during his address to the UN General assembly on 27th September 2014 introduced the idea to the World. Later on, looking at the wonderful history of yoga day and the benefits of yoga, the World bodies agreed and introduced 21st June as International Yoga day.Yoga day history has a very straight connection with the obscure picture of the evolution of yoga. This unclear picture is because of the oral communication of its existence in mysterious teachings. The early writings on yoga have been described on fragile leaves of palms which could be very easily damaged, lost or destroyed. It is known that, the existence of yoga is around 5000 years old, but on the contrary, some researchers say that Yoga is not less than 1000 years old. The long known history of Yoga has been divided into four periods. And, it has a huge space altogether to explore, which led to the promulgation of 21st June as the Yoga day.Theres this short history of Yoga day which got its establishment as early as in 2014. Narendra Modi, the man behind the formation of Yoga Day, while addressing the UN General Assembly introduced yoga as an ancient tradition of India. Yoga is the practice which unites mind with the soul, thoughts with actions and restores harmony between nature and the man. It is a holistic approach to the mankind. It is not just about moving ones body but about discovering a sense of oneness. It can help us in dealing with various lifestyle flaws that we are accustomed to. And so we have thought to unite with the idea of helping people to explore about Yoga day history at yogadaycelebration.com with a variety of the pages, said the Senior Manager of the website Mr. Mukesh Kumar.In order to showcase this historical moment which has spread its wings at such a fast pace throughout in World, yogadaycelebration.com has emphasized the need of putting yoga day into everyday lives of people with its variety of pages. It was a great moment in the history of India as it has happened for the first time in history that a proposal of some country in UN general assembly has been accepted within 90 days. To find more about the history of Yoga day one can go through the website yogadaycelebration.comYogadaycelebration.com is an informative website which has been built in order to spread awareness among masses about numerous benefits of Yoga. The world is gradually moving towards artificial thing avoiding the use of natural products. That makes them vulnerable to various diseases and stressful lifestyle. So, theres a strong need for an antidote that a naturally kill these ailments. And, truly Yoga is the cure. Yogadaycelebration.com, though its websites and long list additional pages like yoga day history, benefit of yoga explains to its readers. For further information people may visitContact Us-New Delhi, India Global Wind Power Generator Market 2017 - Siemens, Vestas, Goldwind, Enercon, Gamesa, United Power, Ming Yang, Senvion, Nordex https://goo.gl/WoAyR6 https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/64456/request-sample www.fiormarkets.com http://aperturegames.com The Wind Power Generator Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on industry Size, Share, Trends, Growth, Application, Consumption Volume and Value, Forecast, Supply, Production, Price, Professional Survey 2017 to 2022Access Full Report With TOC:The report, titled Wind Power Generator is an in-depth analysis of the Wind Power Generator market across the world. A brief historic overview of the Wind Power Generator market has been mentioned in the report, followed by the present scenario of the market. The report analyses the size of the market and forecasts the valuation and the growth rate of the market in the span of next couple of years. Key drivers and restraints of the overall market has been pointed out. The report cites the various opportunities to favor the growth of the Wind Power Generator market during the forecast period. It also indicates the key market trends shaping up the market.The Wind Power Generator market has certain distinct aspects. The report throws light on each of these aspects and studies the various segments of the market in detail. The growth of each of the market segments during the forecast horizon has been analyzed in the report. The present state of the Chinese economy has lowered the demand from every market. The report discusses the impact of the various initiatives taken by the government in China to revive the economy and how this would impact the demand from Wind Power Generator market in the nation. The report also takes note of the various micro- and macro-economic factors governing the overall market in rest of the world.Discussing about the key players operating in the Wind Power Generator market, the report provides crucial information about them. The Wind Power Generator market has become very competitive worldwide. The report profiles the key players and analyzes their growth in the next couple of years. The report serves as a useful tool for enterprises looking out to invest in projects in the Wind Power Generator market.Request for Sample Report:Various analytical tools are applied in the analysis on the Wind Power Generator market to achieve an accurate understanding of the market players into the potential development of this market. These tools include feasibility analysis, investment return analyses, as well as SWOT analysis of the major market players.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Global Outlook for Skin Replacement Market by Key Trends and Analysis 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/skin-replacement-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11672 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Skin replacement therapy helps treat severe skin burns or chronic skin wounds. Skin cancer, eczema, and psoriasis are some of the skin diseases that can be painful and can compromise the quality of life led by a person. Thus arises a need for skin replacement therapy. The skin is the largest external organ of the human body and is one of the organs most vulnerable to injuries and damages. Since the skin protects the musculoskeletal system, the organs, and also helps maintain the temperature of the body, it becomes very essential for the skin to function properly. Moreover, the skin also regulates the level of fluids in the body. Thus, any skin disease or injury needs to be treated immediately as the lack of it can impact the persons ability to lead a normal life.Obtain Report Details @The global skin replacement therapy market is segmented on the basis of material used, end user, and geography. On the basis of material used, the market is segmented into spider silk and collagen. By geography, the global skin replacement therapy market is segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and the Rest of the World.The report is a professional and detailed study on the current state of the market, taking into consideration historical figures. The future projections of the global skin replacement therapy market is forecast for the period from 2016 to 2024. The report offers accurate data and compiles fruitful information with the help of primary and secondary research methods, enabling enterprises and interested individuals to have a competitive edge above the rest.An increasing prevalence of skin diseases and injuries among people and subsequently the rising consciousness among them to have healthy and beautiful skin are driving the global skin replacement therapy market. The continual expansion of product range available in the market enables consumers to access specific skin replacement therapies in line with the skin condition they are suffering from. The ability of consumers to spend on these therapies or products has motivated manufacturers to develop and introduce newer products, thus helping the global skin replacement therapy market to grow.The global skin replacement therapy market is challenged by the availability of low-cost substitutes. The lack of clinical support is another probable factor that may threaten the growth of the global skin replacement therapy market. However, bio-engineered skin replacements will open new opportunities for growth in the market. These replacements are capable of closely mimicking almost all functions of the natural skin and are thus expected to be in huge demand.Make an Enquiry @By geography, North America contributes a significant portion to the skin replacement therapy market revenue. The demand for skin replacement therapies in Asia Pacific is expected to rise in the coming years as many countries in the region are offering attractive medical tourism packages.The report studies key players operating in the global skin replacement therapy market. The challenges faced by companies and the strategies adopted by them have been thoroughly studied. The report includes the business and financial overviews of the companies. It also includes the recent developments regarding mergers and acquisitions of the companies, new product developments, and the product picture, price, and specifications. Such in-depth analysis of each of the companies enables readers to make smart and informed decisions regarding investments in the skin replacement therapy market. The companies profiled in the report include: Cellular Dynamics International, Tengion, Cynata Therapeutics Limited, Platelet BioGenesis, and TissueGene, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Fasteners Market 2017 - Gem-Year, Boltun, Changshu City Standard Parts, Xingyi Fasteners, Jiaxing Brother https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/67690/request-sample https://goo.gl/3hxkhO www.fiormarkets.com www.enrollpress.com "A fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Welding is an example of creating permanent joints.Fasteners can also be used to close a container such as a bag, a box, or an envelope; or they may involve keeping together the sides of an opening of flexible material, attaching a lid to a container, etc. There are also special-purpose closing devices, e.g. a bread clip.Some types of woodworking joints make use of separate internal reinforcements, such as dowels or biscuits, which in a sense can be considered fasteners within the scope of the joint system, although on their own they are not general purpose fasteners."Request For Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Fasteners in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversShanghai Prime MachineryGem-YearBoltunChangshu City Standard PartsXingyi FastenersJiaxing BrotherNingbo JindingZhejiang ZhapuTianbao FastenerTong HweiRuibiaoSHBCXinxing FastenersMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversSteel TypeCooper TypeAluminum TypeOtherAccess Full Report With TOC @Market Segment by Applications, can be divided intoAutomotive IndustryMachinery IndustryConstruction IndustryMROOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Fasteners market.Chapter 1, to describe Fasteners Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Fasteners, with sales, revenue, and price of Fasteners, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Fasteners, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Fasteners market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Fasteners sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.About Fior MarketsFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Medical Automation Market: Advanced Technologies & Growth Opportunities in Global Industry by 2024 New York http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/medical-automation-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11921 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com In a highly competitive pharmaceutical industry, automation can prove to be a massive operational advantage and a key differentiator for players of all sizes. The future of the healthcare industry is increasingly being defined by the advent of faster, more accurate, and easy-to-use devices that are riding high on the wave of medical automation. With a massive number of people crossing the 60-year threshold, the healthcare industry is facing a pressing need to scale up resources and brace for a spike in healthcare needs. This is where automation is expected to be the real game changer.Obtain Report Details @There are several market dynamics that are collectively creating a need for more automation in the medical industry. According to an article published in Health Affairs, there will be a shortage of 260,000 registered nurses by 2025 in the U.S. The scenario wont be drastically different in other developed countries where the workforce is aging rapidly. With fewer humans available to carry out all of the tasks in the healthcare industry, healthcare institutions and pharmaceutical companies are focusing on automation to get redundant and repetitive tasks done. However, as has been the case with several other industries, automation is regarded as a job killer and has been opposed in several countries worldwide.These push and pull factors will decide how this market shapes up in the coming years. This is what the report aims to assess. The report creates segments of the global medical automation market based on criteria such as applications, end-users, and geography.Companies and medical institutions are channeling more funds into medical automation systems and software enticed by benefits such as cost containment, increased speed, greater transparency in processing, and reduction in errors. This thus lays a strong foundation for the growth of the global medical automation market. Another change that is driving the adoption of medical automation is the high degree of interest in point-of-care testing devices for pregnancy, blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and HIV.On the flip side, the lack of widespread standardization and a heterogeneous regulatory environment will create several obstacles for companies operating in the medical automation market. Moreover, not all healthcare institutions can afford medical automation. It will be a few years before developing countries wholly embrace this trend.The top trends that are shaping the global medical automation market are affordable automation software and systems that make everyday tasks easier. There is a massive market that hitherto remains untapped in emerging countries, where the healthcare sector is heaving under the burden of obsolete machinery and techniques. This gap could provide a window of opportunity for companies offering medical automation software and solutions.The global market for medical automation can be segmented broadly based on the following fronts: End user, application, and geography. The key application areas of medical automation are therapeutic automation, lab automation, pharmacy automation, and medical automation. The segment of medical automation is composed of automated imaging and analysis and point of care testing market. The market for therapeutic automation can similarly be split into surgical and non-surgical automation. Each of these sub-segments can be further segmented based on the automation devices.Fill the Form for an Exclusive Sample of this Report @Likewise, the market for lab automation can be classified into liquid handling, automated storage systems, robots and informatics, and microplate readers. The market for pharmacy automation can be further split into automated dispensaries, automated pharmaceutical packaging, and automated/smart medication compounding. The key end users in the global medical automation market are: Research labs, pharmacies, hospital and diagnostic centers, and home care centers.Using geography as a criteria, the global medical automation market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The market for medical automation is currently the largest in North America. It is also well-established in Europe. The rising demand for medical automation solutions and software in Asian countries such as Taiwan and China will be a crucial turning point for the market.Companies that are currently at the forefront of the global medical automation market are: Carefusion Corp, Medtronic, Inc., GE Healthcare, Intuitive Surgical Inc., Roche Holding AG, Omnicell, Inc, Siemens Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Stryker Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Market Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report 2017 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1102273 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1102273 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Automotive Emission Sensors market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Automotive Emission Sensors for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Automotive Emission Sensors market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Automotive Emission Sensors sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingDelphiBoschDensoTennecoFaureciaContinentalHyundai KEFICONGK Spark PlugSensataFujikura Ltd.On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoO2-Lambda SensorsNOX SensorsParticulate Matter SensorsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Automotive Emission Sensors for each application, includingCommercial VehiclesPassenger VehiclesIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Market Report 20171 Automotive Emission Sensors Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Automotive Emission Sensors1.2 Classification of Automotive Emission Sensors by Product Category1.2.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 O2-Lambda Sensors1.2.4 NOX Sensors1.2.5 Particulate Matter Sensors1.3 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Commercial Vehicles1.3.3 Passenger Vehicles1.4 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Market by Region1.4.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Automotive Emission Sensors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Automotive Emission Sensors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Automotive Emission Sensors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Automotive Emission Sensors (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume) by Application3 United States Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application6 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Value (2012-2017)6.1.1 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.2 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.3 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)6.2 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players6.3 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type6.4 Japan Automotive Emission Sensors Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Global CPV Solar Sales Market Report 2017 | Now Available at Researchmoz.us http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=949293 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=949293 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global CPV Solar Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies sales (consumption) of CPV Solar in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe and Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringSolFocus USAEmcore USALORENTZ GermanyAmonix USAOPEL USAGreen Volts USACool Earth Solar USAAbengoa SpainIsofoton SpainArima Eco Energy TaiwanComp Solar TaiwanEverphoton TaiwanSuntrix ChinaSanan Optoelectronics XiamenLida Optoelectronics HenanSolar Systems AustraliaWS Energia PortugalES System KoreaWhitfield UKCPower ItalySquare Engineering IndiaSoitec FranceHanlong Group ChinaSKYSource ChinaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of CPV Solar in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaSplit by product Types, with sales, revenue, price and gross margin, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoLCPV(2-100)MCPV(100-300)HCPV(>300)Split by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of CPV Solar in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Table of ContentsGlobal CPV Solar Sales Market Report 20171 CPV Solar Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of CPV Solar1.2 Classification of CPV Solar1.2.1 LCPV(2-100)1.2.2 MCPV(100-300)1.2.3 HCPV(>300)1.3 Application of CPV Solar1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.4 CPV Solar Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of CPV Solar (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global CPV Solar Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global CPV Solar Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global CPV Solar Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global CPV Solar Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global CPV Solar Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global CPV Solar Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global CPV Solar (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global CPV Solar Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global CPV Solar (Volume and Value) by Regions2.3.1 Global CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global CPV Solar Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)2.4 Global CPV Solar (Volume) by Application3 United States CPV Solar (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States CPV Solar Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States CPV Solar Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States CPV Solar Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States CPV Solar Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 United States CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 United States CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Application4 China CPV Solar (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China CPV Solar Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China CPV Solar Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China CPV Solar Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China CPV Solar Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 China CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 China CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Application5 Europe CPV Solar (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe CPV Solar Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe CPV Solar Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe CPV Solar Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe CPV Solar Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers5.3 Europe CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe CPV Solar Sales and Market Share by ApplicationMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Global Radial Tire Market expected to Gain Popularity Worldwide http://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1000652 http://www.researchtrades.com/discount/1000652 http://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-radial-tire-market-outlook-2016-2021/1000652 http://www.researchtrades.com A radial tire (more properly, a radial-ply tire) is a particular design of vehicular tire. In this design, the cord plies are arranged at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, or radially (from the center of the tire).This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Radial Tire from 2011-2015 and provides extensive market forecasts 2016-2021 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the key technological and market trends in the Radial Tire market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Radial Tire, and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.Get sample copy for this report @GCC?s report, Global Radial Tire Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Radial Tire market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. The major players in the global Radial Tire market are Michelin (France), Bridgestone (Japan), Goodyear (USA), Continental (Germany), Pirelli (Italy), Yokohama (Japan), Cooper Tire & Rubber (USA), Hankook (Korea), Kumho (Korea), Toyo Tire (Japan), Giti (Singapore), Hangzhou Zhongce (China), Triangle (China), Xiamen Zhengxin (China), Shandong Linglong (China), Xingyuan Group (China), Aeolustyre (China), Double Coin Holdings (China), among others.Enquire for discount @The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of Radial Tire industry has been provided.Table of Contents:Part 1. Exclusive SummaryPart 2. Methodology2.1 Research Methodology2.2 Geographic Scope2.3 Years ConsideredPart 3. Introduction3.1 Definition3.2 Supply Chain Structure3.2.1 Raw Material Supply3.2.2 Traders & Distributors3.2.3 Key Customers3.3 Manufacture3.3.1 Manufacturing Process3.3.2 Production CostPart 4. Market Landscape4.1 Global Radial Tire Market Size (Volume) 2011-20164.1.1 Overview4.1.2 Global Radial Tire Production4.1.3 Top 10 Radial Tire Companies (Volume Share)4.2 Global Radial Tire Market Size (Value) 2011-20164.2.1 Overview4.2.2 Global Radial Tire Production Value4.2.3 Top 10 Radial Tire Companies (Revenue Share)Part 5. Segmentation by Products5.1 Type 15.2 Type 25.3 Type 3View this report @Who we are:Research Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights.Reach at us:Address: Flat No.10, Wing C, S. No. 245/4/2+245/5/1, Baner, Pune-411045Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us:+91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconWeb: Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market - Detailed Study Analysis and Forecast by 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1511 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1511 https://www.tmrresearch.com/anti-corrosion-coatings-market.html Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: OverviewAnti-corrosion coatings protect various metal components from oxidation, exposure to industrial and environmental chemicals, moisture, and salt sprays. Preventing contact between corrosive materials and chemical compounds, these coatings might also feature nonstick properties. As rust and corrosion prevention is a key concern of a number of industries that have high humidity, salt, water, and mist, the global market for anti-corrosion coatings market is expected to soar.Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Key TrendsWidespread usage in oil and gas equipment such as drill pipes and oil storage tanks is fuelling the demand for anti-corrosion coatings. As these equipment are exposed to underground water and marshy land, they need to be protected from corrosion from moisture. Moreover, the increasing demand for energy generation via oil sands, tar sands, shale gas, and oil shale is likely to further provide an impetus to the market.Request a Brochure of the Report @The polyurethane coatings segment has been exhibiting significant growth thanks to the availability of a wide range of colors and glossy finish that attracts consumers. These products can endure temperatures up to 110 degrees Celsius. By application, the solvent based coatings might emerge at the fore due to government regulations emphasizing the use of low volatile organic compounds in products.Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Market PotentialIn February 2017, NEI Corporation announced that the patent and trademark regulatory body of the U.S. has issued allowance for two patent applications of the firm. These two products possess hydrophobic coatings, displaying high corrosion resistance, apart from their excellent adhesive properties.Request for TOC of the Report @In the same month, Guntner launched a new coil protector designed for the food industry. The product possesses powder coating that is highly resistant to corrosion apart from being food safe.U.S.-based manufacturer of grapheme, Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) has been aiding James Briggs Ltd, a paints manufacturer, in the development of anti-corrosion grapheme coatings.A group of engineers and scientists has developed a hexagonal boron nitride monolayer that exhibits exceptional resistance to corrosion. Although this product needs to be developed further for it to be introduced in the commercial market, the future potential for it is immense, experts believe. Both anodic and cathodic currents were found to be unsuccessful at penetrating the automatically thin layer coating.Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Regional OutlookNorth America dominates the anti-corrosion coatings market, which is supported by rising volume of military investment. The U.S., flaunting one of the worlds largest fleet bases, is likely to represent maximum share of the anti-corrosion coatings market in North America.Read Complete Report @Asia Pacific is likely to emerge as a leading regional market owing to the foreign investments that have been pouring in. The extensive growth of the end-use industries such as oil and gas, power and energy, marine, tanks and pipes, and construction are responsible for increasing demand for anti-corrosion coatings in the developing countries of this region such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and China. China is slated to emerge at the fore, as a vast population, immense production base, and growing volume of foreign investments propel its expansion.Global Anti-Corrosion Coatings Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the leading companies operating in the global anti-corrosion coatings market are Hempel, The Sherwin-Williams Company, BASF, RPM International, PPG Industries, Chugoku Marine Paints, AICA Kogyo, Jotun, Axalta Coating, Kansai Paints, Ashland, Tnemec, Akzonobel, Sokema, Valspar, Nippon Paints, and AnCatt.Japan-based Kansai Paint is planning to acquire Sadolin Tanzania, Sadolin Kenya, and Sadolin Uganda, with a view to tap the vast potential of the market in this region.Several companies are also making sure that they improve their production capabilities. For example, PPG Industries completed a new production line at Wuhu, China. The plant produces highly efficient high solids and waterborne coatings.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Tattoo Needles Market by Global Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/437518-global-tattoo-needles-market-3 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-nowformat=1&report=437518 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/437518-global-tattoo-needles-market-3 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/437518-global-tattoo-needles-market-3 HTF Market Intelligence released a new research report of 124 pages on title 'Global Tattoo Needles Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022' with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers key regions that includes North & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and important players such as Mithra, Eikon Device, Pro Needle ..................SummaryTattooing is quite a favorite choice for a large number of people today. The tattoo parlors are also available in plenty to meet this increasing demand. Also, unlike the olden times where there were pretty much fixed patterns to be tattooed, not its possible to get any of your dream images to be tattooed on to the skin. The designs can be made even by using the advanced computer graphics technology. For those who are planning to make use of the situation to start a tattoo parlor, it is essential to have some basic tattoo supplies. One of the inevitable and most precious elements needed for perfect tattooing are tattoo needles. While tattooing, the needle is used to supply the ink rightly on to the skin.Request a sample report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Tattoo Needles in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversMithraEikon DevicePro NeedleMagic MoonBulletCheyenneBarber DTSPrecisionKwadronStigma-RotaryTATSoulBlack WidowPowerlineTommy's SuppliesWujiang ShenlingCloud DragonWujiang ShenliDongguan HongtaiGuangzhou YuelongMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers#12, 0.35mm#10, 0.30mm#8, 0.25mmOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoFeel RebelliousFeel More SexyFeel More IntelligentOthersBuy this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Tattoo Needles market.Chapter 1, to describe Tattoo Needles Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Tattoo Needles, with sales, revenue, and price of Tattoo Needles, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Tattoo Needles, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Tattoo Needles market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Tattoo Needles sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceGet Customization in the Report, Enquire Now @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Tattoo Needles Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 #12, 0.35mm1.2.2 #10, 0.30mm1.2.3 #8, 0.25mm1.2.4 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Feel Rebellious1.3.2 Feel More Sexy1.3.3 Feel More Intelligent1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketre)port.com+1 (206) 317 1218 (US Global Curved OLED TV Market 2017 - LG, Samsung, Philips, CHANGHONG https://goo.gl/U228M6 https://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/64499/request-sample www.fiormarkets.com http://aperturegames.com/ The Curved OLED TV Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on industry Size, Share, Trends, Growth, Application, Consumption Volume and Value, Forecast, Supply, Production, Price, Professional Survey 2017 to 2022Access Full Report With TOC:The report, titled Curved OLED TV is an in-depth analysis of the Curved OLED TV market across the world. A brief historic overview of the Curved OLED TV market has been mentioned in the report, followed by the present scenario of the market. The report analyses the size of the market and forecasts the valuation and the growth rate of the market in the span of next couple of years. Key drivers and restraints of the overall market has been pointed out. The report cites the various opportunities to favor the growth of the Curved OLED TV market during the forecast period. It also indicates the key market trends shaping up the market.The Curved OLED TV market has certain distinct aspects. The report throws light on each of these aspects and studies the various segments of the market in detail. The growth of each of the market segments during the forecast horizon has been analyzed in the report. The present state of the Chinese economy has lowered the demand from every market. The report discusses the impact of the various initiatives taken by the government in China to revive the economy and how this would impact the demand from Curved OLED TV market in the nation. The report also takes note of the various micro- and macro-economic factors governing the overall market in rest of the world.Discussing about the key players operating in the Curved OLED TV market, the report provides crucial information about them. The Curved OLED TV market has become very competitive worldwide. The report profiles the key players and analyzes their growth in the next couple of years. The report serves as a useful tool for enterprises looking out to invest in projects in the Curved OLED TV market.Request for Sample Report:Various analytical tools are applied in the analysis on the Curved OLED TV market to achieve an accurate understanding of the market players into the potential development of this market. These tools include feasibility analysis, investment return analyses, as well as SWOT analysis of the major market players.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog: Global Micromotor Market Set For Expansive Growth By 2022 http://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1102439 http://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1102439 http://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-micromotor-market-professional-survey-report-2017/1102439 http://www.researchtrades.com This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringCOMMEX srl AB SHOT TECNICS, S.L FAULHABER Pinted Motor Works Portescap Precision MicrodrivesSHENZHEN CHENGFANG ELECTRIC MACHINE Chinabase MachineryMinebeaBy types, the market can be split intoDc Motor Ac Motor Ac/Dc Motor OtherTo Receive a Sample Copy of Global Micromotor Market Survey Report @By Application, the market can be split intoFood Machinery Textile Machinery Medical Machinery Smart Windows and Doors Household Appliances OtherBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North America China Europe Southeast Asia Japan IndiaBuy a Copy of Global Micromotor Market Survey Report for single user price of $ 3500@Key Chapters1 Industry Overview of Micromotor1.1 Definition and Specifications of Micromotor1.1.1 Definition of Micromotor1.1.2 Specifications of Micromotor1.2 Classification of Micromotor1.2.1 Dc Motor1.2.2 Ac Motor1.2.3 Ac/Dc Motor1.2.4 Other2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Micromotor2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Micromotor2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Micromotor3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Micromotor3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Micromotor Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Micromotor Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Micromotor Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Micromotor Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Micromotor Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Micromotor Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales AnalysisTo View Full Report @Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights. The research encompasses information gathered and examined by subject-matter experts, laying down growth opportunities and developmental strategies for enterprises.Reach at us:Flat No.10, Wing C,S. No. 245/4/2+245/5/1,Baner, Pune-411045Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconWeb: US Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Report 2014 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=242175 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=242175 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "US Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) Industry Report: 2014 Edition" to its huge collection of research reports.In the US, Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) deals with the management of prescription drug programs. It acts as an intermediary between health plans, drug companies, retail pharmacies and patients. Initially, PBMs used to process pharmaceutical claims for health plans. But nowadays in addition to this, PBMs have created more significant pharmacy benefit by providing a system for reimbursement of drug claims, processing and cost control. The US prescription volume and pharmaceutical sales has witnessed an exceptional growth over the past few years and the same pattern is likely to continue in the near future. Therefore, through rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers, price discounts from retails, and effective mail service pharmacies, the PBMs emphasis on enabling the plan sponsors and individuals to obtain prescribed drugs at lower prices.The PBM providers control drug spending and utilization by virtue of their advanced tools and techniques, encouraging use of generics and other lower-cost medications. In the US, there are some independent PBMs while some are owned by managed care organizations and retail pharmacies. Today, thePBM industry has become more determined through a series of mergers and acquisitions.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Some of the factors driving the growth of the PBM industry are: accelerating US aging population, increasing life expectancy rate and incidences of chronic and infectious diseases which further increase the healthcare expenditure and pharmaceutical sales in the US. The ongoing trends and development in the PBM industry include rising medicare enrollments and increased acceptance of specialty drugs.This report assesses the US PBM industry in terms of both market volume and market value. The increasing competition in the PBM industry has been analyzed on number of factors: revenue, dispensing specialty pharmaceuticals, claims and PDP lives. The top three companies having a vicious competition with each other and dominating the PBM industry are- Express Script, CVS Health and Catamaran. These players are being profiled in the report along with their key financials and strategies for growth.Table Of Content1. Overview1.1 Introduction1.2 History of PBM1.3 Retail Dispensing Process & Flow of Funds1.4 Mail Dispensing Process and Flow of Funds2. The US PBM Market2.1 Rx Market- Market Volume- Growth Rate- Market Segments- Branded Vs Generic Growth- Dispensing Channels2.2 Pharmaceutical Sales- Sales Growth- Branded Vs Generic Market- Dispensing Channels2.3 Specialty Drugs3. Market Dynamics3.1 Growth Drivers3.1.1 Increasing Life Expectancy Rate in the US3.1.2 Rising Healthcare Expenditure in the US3.1.3 Rising Pharmaceutical Sales3.1.4 Accelerating US Aging Population3.1.5 Ameliorating Economic Conditions3.1.6 Rising Incidences of Chronic and Infectious Diseases3.1.7 Rising Medicare Enrollments3.2 Trends and Developments3.2.1 PBM Mergers and Acquisitions3.2.2 Trends in Drug Prices3.2.3 Increased Acceptance of Specialty Drugs3.2.4 Average Wholesale Price Trend3.3 Challenges3.3.1 Lack of Insurer Capabilities3.3.2 Regulator Risk4. Competitive Landscape- Share by Revenue- Share by Prescription Volume- Share by Claims- Share by PDP Lives5. Company Profiles5.1 Express Script5.1.1 Business Overview5.1.2 Financial Overview5.1.3 Business Strategies- Introduction of Programs- Development through Acquisitions5.2 CVS Health5.2.1 Business Overview5.2.2 Financial Overview5.2.3 Business Strategies- Strategic Acquisitions- HealthCare Programs5.3 Catamaran5.3.1 Business Overview5.3.2 Financial Overview5.3.3 Business Strategies- Mergers and Acquisitions- Expansion of HealthCare ReformsMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Practice Management Systems Market: Advanced Technologies & Growth Opportunities in Global Industry by 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/practice-management-systems-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12185 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Medical practice is defined as the science and the art of healing in accordance with scientific diagnosis of the disease. Medical practice therefore, requires significant volume of patient data which is difficult to maintain in the long run especially if its recorded in the physical form of documents and files. The entry of computer software and software systems like SaaS (Software as a Service) has greatly assisted in the overall process of patient data and medical practice data management.Medical Practice Management System (PMS) is a software that helps medical organization (or clinic) to record patient data, fix appointments with practitioners, maintain record of insurance payment companies (and contacting them when required), perform billing related tasks and generate final reports. PMS nowadays are integrated with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) that deals strictly with patient medical data (medical and treatment history) as an all inclusive data management system.Obtain Report Details @PMS is designed according to the volume of data that needs to be maintained, the size of the organization and their financial capacity. Generally PMS are classified as; desktop variants for limited computers, client-server (physical servers) for large institutions with strong finance and requirement for easy access to patients confidential data, and internet server (virtual/cloud servers) for institutions that require cost saving alternatives. Software companies offer services in different price ranges varying from few hundreds to thousands of dollars depending upon aforesaid parameters. Integrated systems (EMR and PMS) are more expensive in comparison to standalone services. Some companies that provide these services are Acrendo Softwares, Allegiance MD, WRS Health, Practo Ray and Athena Health to name a few.PMS have a great future ahead, as medical institutions worldwide see it as a better alternative to physical document records which have a very high error rate bringing into light the nature of human incompetency, that are minimized to a great extent in PMS. Also, medical errors result in severe adverse events and death, this is efficiently tackled by the presence of automated programmed software. Cost saving is another financial reason for a shift into PMS, it reduces data management costs and as a result the overall medical treatment costs. Medical insurance claims and payouts also see a positive change with fast processing times. Countries like the U.S. also offer subsidies to hospitals opting for such systems.Make an Enquiry @PMS however, is useful only as long as the personals are trained in the dynamics of the software, this requires training and practice. Many countries also have strict patient confidentiality laws, any breach or leak patient records may pose a great threat to the integrity of the whole process and shall render an institution liable for prosecution by the law. In such a situation, PMS becomes more of a liability than assistance. However, with entry of Asian software companies like Practo Ray who have developed portable android based software systems can be easily accessed and require minimum training. Cost effective alternatives are on the rise along with better algorithms to integrate the complete process of medical practice.PMS market is expected to increase owing to the presence of virtual/cloud based service systems, these enable companies far offshore to provide services at competitive prices. Service providers are at present largely based in the North America and European region, where the demand is the highest owing to large population patients with health insurance. The PMS market in Asia-Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR owing to more number of companies establishing business in this region coupled shift in service providers from the North American region to emerging economies. Also, with greater returns on investment a large number of Asian medical institutions are now opting for PMS.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Worldwide Telehealth - Market by Region, Type, Analysis and Forecast To 2021 Reportsweb http://www.reportsweb.com/world-telehealth-market-forecast-to-2021 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001709593/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001709593/buying Publisher's Telehealth market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, Analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry Players.The Players mentioned in our reportHoneywell Life Care Solutions HealthcareMedtronicTunstall HealthcareCerner CorporationCisco SystemsGE HealthcareMckesson CorporationFor More Information About This Report:Global Telehealth Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSouth East AsiaGlobal Telehealth Market: Application Segment AnalysisLive Video (Synchronous)Store-And-Forward (Asynchronous)Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)Mobile Health (Mhealth)Request Sample Copy At:Table of ContentChapter 1 About the Telehealth IndustryChapter 2 World Market Competition LandscapeChapter 3 World Telehealth Market shareChapter 4 Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 5 Company ProfilesChapter 6 Globalization & TradeChapter 7 Distributors and CustomersChapter 8 Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by Major CountriesChapter 9 World Telehealth Market Forecast through 2021Chapter 10 Key success factors and Market OverviewInquire For This Report At:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 North America Ventricular Assist Device Market is expected to reach US$1.07 bn with a healthy CAGR of 9.20% till 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/north-america-ventricular-assist-device-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=16508 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ North America Ventricular Assist Device Market: SnapshotThe market for ventricular assist devices (VAD) in North America has exhibited an excellent rate of growth and the rate of adoption of these devices continues to remain strong. Several factors are responsible for the rising demand for ventricular assist devices in the region, with the chief ones being the rising rate of incidence of cardiovascular diseases and the vast pool of patients awaiting donor hearts for transplant.It is estimated that advance heart failure affects nearly 2.3% of the total population of North America and is a major socioeconomic burden. The rise in the regions geriatric population, which is a demographic more susceptible to heart failures, the rising population of smokers, strong focus on R&D activities aimed at the development of more effective devices, and favorable government initiatives are also driving the market for ventricular assist devices in the region.Obtain Report Details:Transparency Market Research states that the market will exhibit a promising 9.20% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024, rising from a valuation of US$0.49 bn in 2015 to US$1.07 bn by 2024.LVADs to Continue Amass Maximum Share in North America VAD MarketThe key ventricular assist devices in the North America market include bi-ventricular assist devices (Bi-VADs), left ventricular assist devices (LAVDs), right ventricular assist devices (RVADs), and total artificial hearts (TAHs).Of these, the segment of left ventricular assist devices has been witnessing a relatively higher demand for ventricular assistance in the North America market. The trend is expected to remain strong over the next few years, with the segment expected to exhibit a promising 9.6% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. The segment of total artificial hearts is also expected to exhibit growth at a promising pace over the said period as technological advances allow the development of products with excellent operational capability. The increasing availability of such products is leading to their increased use as a bridge to transplant and in destination therapy.Increased R&D Activities and Awareness to Help U.S. Retain DominanceFrom a geographical perspective, the ventricular assist devices market has been examined for the U.S. and Canada. Of these, the U.S. accounted for over 80% of the overall market in 2015 and is expected to continue to account an equally significant share over the next few years as well. The U.S. market is expected to retain its dominance owing to the presence of some of the North America and global markets leading companies, a significant rise in new research and development activities, and increased patient awareness about the variety of products available in the market to effectively manage a number of heart disease.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:The Canada market presently accounts for a relatively meagre share in the North America ventricular assist devices market but is expected to witness growth at a steady pace in the next few years. The rising rate of incidence of cardiovascular diseases and a favorable reimbursement picture are expected to fuel the market for ventricular assist devices in the country in the next few years. Moreover, the market in Canada is also expected to benefit from the low intensity of competition in the vendor landscape, which makes the country a promising investment ground for companies aspiring to enter into the field of ventricular assist devices.The highly competitive market for ventricular assist devices in North America features vendors such as Abiomed, Berlin Heart GmbH, Sunshine Heart Inc., St. Jude Medical, SynCardia Systems LLC, and Heart Ware International Inc. To gain a larger share in the market, companies have relied upon strategies such as product innovation and strategic alliances with new vendors and companies with technological prowess.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Coffee Machine Market 2017 Top Companies - Nespresso, Delonghi, Philips Senseo, Bosch, Melitta, Illy, Morphy Richards, Russel Hobbs https://marketsizeforecasters.com/get-sample/19699/?utm_source=OPR-SP https://marketsizeforecasters.com/enquire-for-discount/19699/?utm_source=OPR-SP https://marketsizeforecasters.com/global-coffee-machine-market https://marketsizeforecasters.com/global-espresso-coffee-machine-market/?utm_source=RR-SP http://marketsizeforecasters.com/ Worldwide Coffee Machine Market report of 2017 provides a detailed market overview as well as industry analysis for / of companies, manufacturers and distributors covering data on gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, sale price and more.Coffee machine is cooking appliance used to brew coffee. Common commercially available coffee machine contains different types using different brewing principles. Its application includes household, office and commercial consumption.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Coffee Machine in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Request a Sample Copy of Global Coffee Machine Market Research Report @Global Coffee Machine Market Top players have been profiled in this research report such as Nespresso, Delonghi, Philips Senseo, Bosch, Melitta, Illy, Morphy Richards, Russel Hobbs, Electrolux, Gaggia, Lavazza, Jura, Krups, La Cimbali, DualitMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers areNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Global Coffee Machine Market Segment by Type, covers are Drip Coffee Machine, Steam Coffee Machine, Capsule Coffee MachineGlobal Coffee Machine Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into: Commercial Coffee Machine, Office Coffee Machine, Household Coffee MachineEnquire about this report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Coffee Machine market.Chapter 1, to describe Coffee Machine Market Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Coffee Machine, with sales, revenue, and price of Coffee Machine, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Coffee Machine market, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to Coffee Machine market analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the Coffee Machine market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Coffee Machine market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Coffee Machine sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceList of Tables and Figures Coffee Machine MarketFigure Coffee Machine PictureTable Product Specifications of Coffee MachineFigure Global Sales Market Share of Coffee Machine by Types in 2016Table Coffee Machine Types for Major ManufacturersFigure Drip Coffee Machine PictureFigure Steam Coffee Machine PictureFigure Capsule Coffee Machine PictureTable Coffee Machine Sales Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Commercial Coffee Machine PictureFigure Office Coffee Machine PictureFigure Household Coffee Machine PictureFigure USA Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Canada Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Mexico Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Germany Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure France Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure UK Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Russia Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Italy Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Korea Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Brazil Coffee Machine Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)..For more information about Global Coffee Machine Market Report @Related Reports: -Global Espresso Coffee Machine Market Research Report Forecast 2017 to 2021The Global Espresso Coffee Machine Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2021 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Espresso Coffee Machine industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.MarketSizeForecasters.com, a Skyline Market Research LLP brand, is an online aggregator of market research reports. MarketSizeForecasters.com offers a comprehensive collection of full length reports on global and regional markets in 100+ industry verticals. We have partnered with some of the leading business and market research publishing houses and regularly update our online library to offer wide range of reports to our customers.Market size forecastersThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketsizeforecasters.comWebsite:Connect with us: LinkedIn | Twitter Ferroalloy Market Deep Research Study with Forecast by 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1550 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1550 https://www.tmrresearch.com/ferroalloy-market.html Global Ferroalloy Market: OverviewFerroalloys are studied to hold a high fraction of one or more types of substances such as silicon, manganese, and aluminum and form a wide range of iron alloys. These alloys are used for the eradication of oxygen during the manufacture of iron and steel. They could also be employed for the manufacture of watch bodies, hand railings, dairy equipment, cutlery, automobile bodies, and road rails. Electric arc and blast furnace are the two key methods utilized for producing ferroalloys. Out of the principal sorts of ferroalloy, ferromanganese, ferrosilicon, and ferrochrome are prominently used.Global Ferroalloy Market: Key TrendsFerroalloy is involved in the manufacture of various steel grades, including stainless steel and carbon steel. In the years to come, the demand in the world ferroalloy market is prognosticated to thrive significantly as it looks to ride on the availability of abundant iron ore and need for practicable substitutes in the steel sector. It is estimated that the production volume of the worldwide steel industry could rise considerably. Some of the other important factors of growth are anticipated to take birth from other sectors such as construction, shipbuilding, and automotive.Request a Brochure of the Report @The demand for ferromanganese alloy is prophesied to gain strength, owing to its easy availability, low cost, and application in foundry sectors for the purpose of improving physical properties. The ferrochrome alloy market could rake in a handsome revenue growth in respect of its ability to enhance physical properties, offer rust-proof features, and provide stainless characteristic to steel.Global Ferroalloy Market: Market PotentialThe ferroalloy market in India is engaged in a close combat with the Malaysia and Indonesia markets as they allow for cheap imports into the Indian land. While an additional capacity of 180,000 tons of ferroalloy is scheduled to hit the market in 2017, a whopping 365,000 tons was brought in the previous year. Besides this, the power tariff in India is extortionate compared to that of the other markets producing ferroalloy. This is likely to put the non-captive producers in a challenging position. There is an upward pressure expected on the part of ferroalloy production because of the anti-dumping duty on phos coke in China. The challenge is anticipated to aggravate with the less availability of low phos coke in India.Howbeit, the growth in the stainless steel sector displaying a decent percentage is predicted to cover up for the losses. On the backs of India and China alone, the stainless steel market is forecasted to be backed by a telling advancement. Moreover, a differentiating increase in the supply of silico manganese is envisaged to raise the hopes of the global ferroalloy market players.Request for TOC of the Report @Global Ferroalloy Market: Regional OutlookThroughout the span of the forecast period, Asia Pacific is envisioned to not lose hope in the light of aggressive construction and industrialization activities. The demand in this ferroalloy market could be catapulted as shipbuilding and automobile sectors see a rise and pave way for pronounced infrastructural developments. All of these factors are expected to help Asia Pacific gain a higher share in the world market.The Europe ferroalloy market is foreseen to witness a steady growth because of the significant presence of automobile manufacturing firms and strong industrial population in countries such as France, the U.K., and Germany.Read Complete Report @Global Ferroalloy Market: Competitive LandscapeThe top five companies slated to make a difference in the international ferroalloy market could be Shanghai Shenjia, China Minmetals, S.C. Feral, Sinosteel Jilin, and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. Due to the presence of a multitude of small, medium, and large scale manufacturers, the global market is projected to possess a highly fragmented nature.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Industrial Safety Gloves Market Research Study For Forecast 2025, Challenges, Demand, Woldwide Overview https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1559 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1559 https://www.tmrresearch.com/industrial-safety-gloves-market.html Global Industrial Safety Gloves Market: OverviewThe global market for industrial safety gloves is predicted to grow at a healthy pace in the next few years. The rising awareness among workers concerning their safety while at workplace is estimated to fuel the growth of the overall market in the next few years. In addition, the strict rules and regulations for the use of safety devices are likely to create promising opportunities for key players operating in the global industrial safety gloves market in the coming years. The rising demand from diverse industries is anticipated to bolster the global market.Global Industrial Safety Gloves Market: Key TrendsThe rising technological advancements in order to offer safety devices for workers and the increasing rate of industrialization are estimated to encourage the growth of the global industrial safety gloves market in the next few years. In addition, the rising awareness regarding the safety and security of workers and the occupational safety regulations are predicted to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the coming few years. On the flip side, the increasing issues to the skin allergies owing to the use of latex is likely to restrict the growth of the market in the near future.Request a Brochure of the Report @Global Industrial Safety Gloves Market: Market PotentialThe global market for industrial safety gloves is anticipated to grow significantly in the coming years, with the introduction of non-latex alternatives. The rising concern of infections related to the use of gloves is being focused, which is expected to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the coming years. The expansion of the application base is another major factor projected to supplement the growth of the market in the near future.The use of safety gloves helps in avoiding injuries to workers as well as contamination of products. As a result, industries and manufacturing units across the globe are anticipated to rise the demand for industrial safety gloves across the globe.Global Industrial Safety Gloves Market: Regional OutlookAccording to the research study, North America is estimated to experience a strong growth throughout the forecast period. The high growth of this region can be attributed to the rising construction sector in the U.S. In addition, the increasing rate of industrialization and the growing focus on health awareness in industries are estimated to encourage the growth of the North America industrial safety gloves market in the next few years.Request for TOC of the Report @Furthermore, strict regulatory framework for the use of industrial safety gloves is projected to fuel the growth of the Europe market in the coming years. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is likely to register a substantial growth rate throughout the forecast period, thanks to the increasing contribution from China, India, Japan, and South Korea.Global Industrial Safety Gloves Market: Competitive AnalysisThe global market for industrial safety gloves is anticipated to witness a increasing level of competition throughout the forecast period. At present, the market is consolidated in nature with a few players accounting for a key share of the overall market. In order to maintain a leading position in the global market, the key players in the market are making remarkable efforts to create an awareness regarding the importance of using industrial safety gloves.Read Complete Report @Some of the prominent players operating in the industrial safety gloves market across the globe are Riverstone Holdings, Honeywell International, Latexx Partners, Towa Corporation, Rubberex, Dipped Products, Supermax Corporation, Longcane Industries, Top Gloves, RFB, Acme Safety, Kossan, Showa, Ansell, MCR Safety, and Hartalega. The research study offers a detailed overview of the competitive scenario of the market, emphasizing on the key aspects that are encouraging the growth of the market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Lignosulfonates Market - Industry Shares, Market Strategies and Key Players 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1562 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1562 https://www.tmrresearch.com/lignosulfonates-market.html Global Lignosulfonates Market: OverviewLignosulfonates is one of the most abundantly available wood chemicals across the globe. Lignosulfonates is majorly obtained as a by-product from a sulfite processing of wood pulp. The rising emphasis of key players on the expansion of the application base is anticipated to encourage the growth of the global lignosulfonates market throughout the forecast period. Some of the key industries boosting the demand for lignosulfonates, such as oil and gas, chemicals, construction, animal feed additives, and ceramics.Global Lignosulfonates Market: Key TrendsThe rising demand from the animal feed industry is one of the key factors expected to encourage the growth of the global lignosulfonates market in the next few years. In addition, the rapid growth of the construction industry is anticipated to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the forecast period. On the other hand, the potential threat from product substitution is anticipated to restrict the growth of the global lignosulfonates market in the coming years. Nevertheless, the rising demand for animal feed binder, especially from developing economies is projected to generate promising opportunities for key players operating in the market across the globe.Request a Brochure of the Report @Global Lignosulfonates Market: Market PotentialThe growing demand for oil well additives, especially in the Middle East and Africa is expected to create promising opportunities for the prominent players operating in the global lignosulfonates market. Furthermore, the commercialization of key products of lignosulfonates is projected to fuel the growth of the overall market in the next few years. The increasing competition in the market is estimated to enhance the product portfolio and attract a large number of consumers in the near future.Global Lignosulfonates Market: Regional OutlookIn the last few years, North America held a massive share of the global lignosulfonates market and is projected to maintain its topmost position throughout the forecast period. The high growth of this region can be attributed to the presence of a large number of animal feed mills in the U.S. As a result, the production of the finished animal feed is anticipated to increase tremendously, which is likely to encourage the growth of the North America market in the near future.Request for TOC of the Report @On the other hand, the Asia Pacific market for lignosulfonates is likely to witness a substantial growth in the next few years. The rising contribution from Japan and India is estimated to augment Asia Pacific market in the forecast period. Moreover, the rising demand for animal feed from China is predicted to accelerate the growth of the market in the near future.Global Lignosulfonates Market: Competitive AnalysisThe global lignosulfonate market is characterized by a high level of consolidation, owing to a few prominent players who are accounting for a key share of the global market. These players are making remarkable efforts to maintain their position in the global market and expand the application base across diverse industries. In addition, the enhancement of their distribution channels so as to reach a large scale of audience is projected to encourage the growth of the overall market in the next few years.Read Complete Report @Some of the leading players operating in the lignosulfonate market across the globe are Domsjo Fabriker AB, Shenyang Xingzhenghe Chemical Co., Ltd., Green Agrochem, Flambeau River Papers LLC, Tembec Inc., Burgo Group S.p.A., Sappi Limited, Borregaard LignoTech, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., and Qingdao New World Material Co. Ltd. A rise in the number of players in the coming years is expected to increase the competition among the leading players across the globe.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Metalworking Fluids Market - Complete Study of Current Trends and Growth Drivers For 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1523 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1523 https://www.tmrresearch.com/metalworking-fluids-market.html Global Metalworking Fluids Market: OverviewMetalworking fluids is a term used for a range of fluids such as oils that are used for reducing fiction and heat, apart from removing metal particles in industrial processes. Primarily used as lubricity bases in formulation of water-soluble grinding and cutting fluids, metalworking fluids are deployed in forming operations such as rolling, stamping, and drawing. These fluids can be mixtures of anti-weld agents, oils, corrosion inhibitors, emulsifiers, biocides, extreme pressure additives and buffers.Global Metalworking Fluid s Market: Key TrendsThe usage of metalworking fluids in several end-use industries such as appliances, aerospace, machinery and automotive are likely to result in increased demand. Presently, there has been a rising preference for synthetic fluids. As against conventional fluids, synthetic fluids possess advanced functions and forms, providing precise concentration measurements and reducing the chances of oil contamination. The growing demand for these metalworking fluids is expected to accelerate the market expansion.Request a Brochure of the Report @On the other hand, the occupational and environmental hazards posed by these fluids are considered key factors restricting the growth of the market. Workers who are exposed to these fluids might develop respiratory disorders such as asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and chronic bronchitis apart from skin related conditions.However, the negative impact of these deterrents can be counterbalanced by the introduction of bio-based metalworking fluids. These are obtained from natural materials such as plant oil and animal fats. As bio-based metalworking fluids are not only cost-efficient, but also environment friendly and safe for workers, this segment is slated for stupendous growth.Global Metalworking Fluids Market: Market PotentialA number of product innovations in the field of metalworking fluids have cropped up over the last few years. For example, in February 2017, TRIM MicroSol 590XT, a new metalworking fluid launched by Master Chemical Corporation, received the approval of Boeing, a leading aerospace company. The product is to be used in the making of aircraft families such as 767, 737, and 777.Request for TOC of the Report @In the same month, a nitrate-free acid mixture possessing extraordinary resistance to ferrous corrosion was launched by Verdezyne Inc., in partnership with Aceto Corporation. This product can be used in the production of metalworking fluids.Similarly, Milacron Holdings Corp. announced the launch of CIMPERIAL 35-880, a highly efficient emulsion fluid designed for heavy-duty machine operations, in early February 2017. Aimed at catering to the needs of aerospace sector, the product can also be used in automotive and industrial applications. The product claims to have high resistance to corrosion, apart from boasting CimShield technology.Global Metalworking Fluids Market: Regional OutlookThe metalworking fluids market in North America is expected to display tremendous growth. Benefitted by the increasing opportunities in the U.S., this region is likely to emerge at the fore of the global landscape. Steady recovery of the automotive manufacturing and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) from economic downturn is likely to aid expansion. Europe might also witness considerable growth, driven by the presence of leading automotive manufacturers in Germany.Asia Pacific promises great potential for further expansion owing to the flourishing automotive sector, large scale industrialization, growing infrastructural development, and beneficial policies of the governments. The Asian countries such as India, China, Indonesia, and Japan are likely to emerge as the key contributors.Read Complete Report @Global Metalworking Fluids Market: Competitive AnalysisIn terms of competition, the market appears to be highly fragmented, with smaller players catering to a majority of end users. Some of the major companies operating in the global market for metalworking fluids are Castrol Limited, FUCHS, The Lubrizol Corporation, Apar Industries Ltd, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Lukoil Oil Company, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, Total S.A., and Chem Arrow Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Silver Nanoparticles Market Analysis Detailed Profiles of Top Industry Players and Their Segments Till 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=53 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=53 https://www.tmrresearch.com/silver-nanoparticles-market Silver Nanoparticles Market: OverviewSilver nanoparticles exhibit distinct electrical, thermal, and optical properties and are amongst the most widely used nanoparticles for consumer products. They find application in a wide range of products such as chemical and biological sensors and photovoltaics. For instance, silver nanoparticles are used in photonic devices and molecular diagnostics, which make use of novel optical properties of these materials. Additionally, they are extensively used in cosmetics, healthcare, chemical industries, electronics, nonlinear optical gadgets, food and feed, textiles, electronics, and electrochemical applications.Silver Nanoparticles Market: Key TrendsThe rising application scope of silver nanoparticles in healthcare and food and beverages due to its antimicrobial properties is expected to drive the global silver nanoparticles market. Silver nanoparticles improves product shelf life and prevents pathogens from infesting them.Request a Brochure of the Report @Silver nanoparticles are the most used commercially amongst all nanoparticles and accounted for more than half of the consumption of overall nanoparticles in the recent past. The advanced catalytic and optic properties of silver nanoparticles make them highly suitable for electronic goods. Silver nanoparticles are preferred in various applications including food packaging, wound healing, and plastic bags owing to its ability to destroy bacterial cells and weaken the cell membrane.Top beauty products companies around the world are using silver nanoparticles in their products for added offerings. For instance, Dior has introduced a nano-based product Diorskin Forever for improved skin. The roll out of differentiator products gives a competitive edge for product manufacturers over their peers, which is leading to the increased demand for silver nanoparticles.Strict regulations pertaining to the use of silver nanoparticles, particularly in North America and Europe is countering the growth of this market. However, research is underway to find out if silver nanoparticles have a detrimental effect on the environment.Request for TOC of the Report @Silver Nanoparticles Market: Market PotentialNanoparticles are at the forefront of biological research is well established in a recent industry development. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University have reported the design and development of the most complex crystal made from nanoparticles.The work demonstrates that nanotechnology can bring together materials in new ways, forging new design capabilities. For instance, crystals made of nanoparticles, such as the newly developed ones, can be used to control light this is because nanoparticles display coordinated interaction with light waves due to their similar sizes.Silver Nanoparticles Market: Regional OutlookNorth America, led by the U.S. is a major regional market for silver nanoparticles. The flourishing food and beverage industry along with regulations to adhere to food safety standards has positively impacted the growth of the regional market. Moreover, clothes sterilization is increasingly being adopted due to the increasing health safety considerations among workers.In Europe, Germany contributes significant revenue to the regional market due to the growth of the healthcare industry. Moreover, increasing healthcare expenditures combined with regulatory compliances for safe healthcare practices is contributing to the growth of this regional market.China and South Korea are key contributors to the growth of the Asia Pacific silver nanoparticles market. The presence of some of the top electronic goods manufacturing companies along with favorable FDI policies are the major factors supporting the industrys growth in the region.Read Complete Report @The Middle East and Africa is expected to exhibit significant growth in healthcare and life sciences segment.Silver Nanoparticles Market: Competitive LandscapeKey participants in the global silver nanoparticles market include Emfutur Technologies, Nanocs, Cima Nanotech, American Elements, NanoHorizons, Nanoshel, Cline scientific, and Applied Nanotech. Some other prominent companies in the market are Bayer, Ames Goldsmith, Meliorum Technologies, and Advanced Nano products.R&D initiatives and mergers and acquisitions for strong presence across the value chain and for strong distribution networks is among the key growth strategies.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Market: IBM, Jive Software, Lithium, Oracle, Microsoft- Industry Demand, Forecast, Application Analysis To 2022 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Market http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/245595 http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/united-states-social-customer-relationship-management-crm-software-market-by-manufacturers-states-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022-d-20 http://www.globalinforeports.com/check-discount/245595 http://www.globalinforeports.com/send-an-enquiry/245595 http://www.globalinforeports.com http://www.globalinforeports.com/blog Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an approach to managing a company's interaction with current and potential future customers that tries to analyze data about customers' history with a company and to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth.Get a Sample of Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Market research report from Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers:IBMJive SoftwareLithiumOracleSalesforceMicrosoftNetsuitePegasystemsSapSugarCRM.Market Segment by States, covering:CaliforniaTexasNew YorkFloridaIllinoisBrowse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Market Report @Market Segment by Type, covers:Social Monitoring and Social ListeningSocial MappingSocial MiddlewareSocial ManagementSocial MeasurementMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into:Customer Service and SupportMarketingSalesOthersThere are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Market.Chapter 1, to describe Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software, for each state, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source.Check for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Social Monitoring and Social Listening1.2.2 Social Mapping1.2.3 Social Middleware1.2.4 Social Management1.2.5 Social Measurement1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Customer Service and Support1.3.2 Marketing1.3.3 Sales1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @No. of Report Pages: 118Price of Report (Single User Licence): $4480GIR Market Research is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. GIR Market Research is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@globalinforeports.comWeb-Blogs- Global Window Alarms Market 2017 : Bosch, Horn, Focus, Tycoon, Samsung Window Alarms Market http://bit.ly/2rqUahW http://bit.ly/2rv7ZXt A market study based on the "Window Alarms Market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Window Alarms Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Window Alarms industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Window Alarms market on the basis of this analysis.Ask Sample of Window Alarms Report Here :Dominant players in Window Alarms market:-HoneywellBoschHornFocusTycoonSamsungSwannMyfoxElgatoKarassnThe report studies the industry for Window Alarms across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Window Alarms market & dynamics of demand and supply of Window Alarms into consideration. The 'Window Alarms' research study covers each and every aspect of the Window Alarms market globally, which starts from the definition of the Window Alarms industry and develops towards Window Alarms market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Window Alarms market is classified and analysed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Window Alarms market. The geographical segmentation of the Window Alarms industry has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Window Alarms is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Window Alarms market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Window Alarms market worldwide.Inquiry about report Here :Global Window Alarms Sales Industry Report 2017 Covers:-1. Window Alarms Overview2. Global Window Alarms Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application3. United States, China, Europe, Japan, South-east Asia Window Alarms (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4. Worldwide Window Alarms Manufacturers Analysis5. Window Alarms Manufacturing Cost Analysis6. Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers7. Industrial Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders8. Market Effect Factors Analysis9. Worldwide Window Alarms Market Forecast (2017-2021)10. AppendixThe global Window Alarms market 2017 is also analysed on the basis of product pricing, Window Alarms production volume, data regarding demand and Window Alarms supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Window Alarms across the globe.About Us:Worldwide Business is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles.Contact US:Worldwide Business, United States Global PC Liquid Cooling Market 2017: EKWB, NZXT, Corsair, Enermax, LEPA and Swiftech PC Liquid Cooling https://goo.gl/MWbXRv https://goo.gl/m7VJeN The Market Research Store report offers majority of the latest and newest industry data that covers the overall market situation along with future prospects for PC Liquid Cooling market around the globe. The research study includes significant data and also forecasts of the global market which makes the research report a helpful resource for marketing people, analysts, industry executives, consultants, sales and product managers, and other people who are in need of major industry data in a ready-to-access format along with clear presentation of graphs and tables.Browse Complete Report with TOC @The report comprises the current size of the PC Liquid Cooling market. It also provides with different types of product segments of the global market. Furthermore, the PC Liquid Cooling market research report gives an in-depth information about the overall market and various product segments and their growth trends. The future market forecasts about the global PC Liquid Cooling market are also covered in the research report. In addition, the overall market potential is further described in the report along with different countries around the globe.The latest and the newest trends of the PC Liquid Cooling industry are also included in this report. Moreover, overall global market size, the market size by product segment, growth rates of the global market along with and different product segments of the market, and various product segments with their value and volumes evaluation are also included in the research report.The Market Research Store report offers the global market potential rates of the PC Liquid Cooling market along with various product segments. The research report provides an overview of the current market situation, historic development, and future outlook of the PC Liquid Cooling market. It also tracks the industry developments trends and identifies the global market opportunities. The report helps to plan and develop precise marketing, market expansion, market-entry, and other business strategies through identifying the major market prospects and opportunities.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The data in the report is clearly presented which can be easily integrated into presentations and internal reports.About Us:QYResearch Group is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. QYResearch Group also carries the capability to assist you with your customized market research requirements including in-depth market surveys, primary interviews, competitive landscaping, and company profiles. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics. QYResearch Group is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651 Global Conductive Inks Market Professional Survey Report 2017 http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1147938&type=E http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-conductive-inks-market-professional-survey-report-2017.htm This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringFujikura Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan)Inktec Corporation (Korea)Advanced Nano Products Co. Ltd. (Korea)Creative Materials IncNovacentrixConductive Compounds IncVorbeck Materials CorporationAgfa-Gevaert N.V. (Belgium)Agic Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (Texas, U.S.)Bando Chemical Industries, Ltd. (Japan)Cartesian Co. (New York)Cima Nanotech Inc. (Oakdale, U.S.)Colloidal Ink Co., Ltd. (Japan)Daicel Corporation (Tokyo, Japan)Methode Electronics, Inc. (Illinois, U.S.)Parker Chomerics (Massachusetts, U.S.)Ppg Industries Inc. (Pennsylvania, U.S.)Promethean Particles Ltd. (Nottingham, U.S.)Get a PDF sample of this report @Table of ContentsGlobal Conductive Inks Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Conductive Inks1.1 Definition and Specifications of Conductive Inks1.1.1 Definition of Conductive Inks1.1.2 Specifications of Conductive Inks1.2 Classification of Conductive Inks1.2.1 Silver Conductive Inks1.2.2 Copper Conductive Inks1.2.3 Conductive Polymers Ink1.2.4 Carbon Nanotubes Ink1.2.5 Dielectric Ink1.2.6 Carbon/Graphene Ink1.2.7 Others1.3 Applications of Conductive Inks1.3.1 Photovoltaic1.3.2 Membrane Switches1.3.3 Displays1.3.4 Automotive1.3.5 Biosensors1.3.6 Radio Frequency Identification1.3.7 Printed Circuit Board1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 IndiaTo Browse a Full Report with TOC:2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Conductive Inks2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Conductive Inks2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Conductive Inks2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Conductive Inks3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Conductive Inks3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Conductive Inks Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Conductive Inks Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Conductive Inks Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Conductive Inks Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Conductive Inks Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Conductive Inks Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Conductive Inks Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Conductive Inks Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Conductive Inks Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Conductive Inks Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Conductive Inks Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Conductive Inks Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Conductive Inks Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Conductive Inks Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Conductive Inks Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Conductive Inks Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Conductive Inks Market Share Analysis5.2 China Conductive Inks Market Analysis5.2.1 China Conductive Inks Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Conductive Inks Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Conductive Inks Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Conductive Inks Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Conductive Inks Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Conductive Inks Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Conductive Inks Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Conductive Inks Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Conductive Inks Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Conductive Inks Market AnalysisQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States Chemical Polishing Slurry Market Size by Semi and Industrial Applications 2022 https://goo.gl/DO1Ypu https://goo.gl/fkGrxT https://goo.gl/3ID5f7 Global Chemical Polishing Slurry Market 2017 report spread across 120 pages gives Market Segment Analysis by Key Manufacturers, Countries, Types and Applications. Chemical Polishing Slurry is a type of slurry product that using the chemical method (either electroltic or e-less deposition) to reach polishing effect, rather than the mechanical method.Complete report is available atScope of the Report:This report focuses on the Global Chemical Polishing Slurry market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers: Dow, Hitachi Chemical, Eminess, Fujimi, Cabot Microelectronics, AGC Group Group, Saint-GobainMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers: North America (USA, Canada and Mexico); Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy); Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia); South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.); Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers: Alumina Slurry, Diamond Slurry, Nano Abrasive Slurries, OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into: Semi, Industrial, OthersRequest for discount atThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Chemical Polishing Slurry market.Chapter 1 to describe Chemical Polishing Slurry Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2 to analyze the top manufacturers of Chemical Polishing Slurry, with sales, revenue, and price of Chemical Polishing Slurry, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3 to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4 to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Chemical Polishing Slurry, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11 to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Order copy of report atChapter 12 Chemical Polishing Slurry market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15 to describe Chemical Polishing Slurry sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.ReportsnReports.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 500,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets.Ritesh Tiwari,+ 1 888 391 5441sales@reportsandreports.com Nephrotic Syndrome Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis, 2017 - Clinical Trials & Results, Patent and Other Developments www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/nephrotic-syndrome-therapeutics-pipeline-analysis www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/nephrotic-syndrome-therapeutics-pipeline-analysis/toc-sample www.psmarketresearch.com/industry-report/pharmaceuticals https://www.psmarketresearch.com The growth in the pipeline of nephrotic syndrome is attributed to the increase in prevalence of individuals affected with diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. Unhealthy lifestyle and unhygienic crops and fruits are also the factors that are contributing to the growth of therapeutic pipeline of nephrotic syndrome. Environmental factors are also thought to be responsible for occurrence of nephrotic syndrome. Funds from various organizations are contributing to the research and developments in the therapy area which in turn is believed to help in early diagnosis of the disease.Explore Report at:Nephrotic syndrome is a collection of symptoms such as, proteinuria, hyperlipidemia, edema or swelling and hypoalbuminia, which mainly affects kidneys. Edema is caused when albumin leaks into the urine and body loses its capacity to absorb its extra fluid. The anomalies in kidney filters, glomeruli, is the main risk factor of nephrotic syndrome. Tiny blood vessels in glomeruli removes waste and excess fluid from blood and direct them to urinary bladder in the form of urine. Nephrotic syndrome can also be caused by metabolic disease such as diabetes and lupus. Weight gain, fatigue, foamy urine and loss of appetite are the main symptoms observed in patients with nephrotic syndrome. Complication associated with nephrotic syndrome are hypothyroidism, anemia, coronary artery disease or coronary heart disease, high blood pressure or hypertension and acute kidney injury.Request for Table of Content at:In 2014, Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Zenyaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. of Japan entered a license agreement, under the terms of which Zenyaku Kogyo Co., Ltd. got the rights for the development and commercialization of subcutaneous blisibimod in Japan and potentially in other Asian countries. In October 2014, the National Institutes of Health announced to provide funding of $5.8 million over a five-year period to the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network, also known as NEPTUNE.Browse Other Related Report at:Some of the companies having a pipeline of nephrotic syndrome therapeutics include, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, Mallinckrodt LLC, Novartis AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Genentech, Inc., Bellus Health Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Retrophin, Inc., Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:KundanManager Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb: Global Testing, Inspection and Certification Market by Application (Oil & gas, Aerospace, Food & beverages, Automotive & Automation) : Share and Research 2017 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=808491 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=808491 Albany, New York, June 14, 2017 : The primary role of testing, inspection, and certification companies is to ensure the maintenance of health, safety, and quality requirements of their clients products. Testing, inspection, and certification companies are engaged in inspection, verification, testing and certification services wherein the major purpose is to help increase the productivity and also help local manufacturers to comply with the global standards. The global testing, inspection, and certification market on the basis of application has been segmented into seven types; oil & gas (onshore facilities and offshore facilities), aerospace (avionics, interior and exterior lighting systems, air frames, Passenger Service Units, rotor systems and others), food and beverages (processed meat and poultry products, dairy products, infant food products, organic food, beverages and others), automotive (environmental exposure, durability/life cycle, fuel systems, engine systems and batteries and others) ,automation (energy, security and safety and other industrial equipment), textile (fibre identification, chemical testing, feather & down testing, thermal & water vapour resistance testing and others) and others.The market for testing, inspection, and certification is primarily driven by factors such as stricter regulations and globalization. In recent years, regulations pertaining to health, quality, and environment safety have become strict. Food safety in particular needs various certifications as it is concerned directly with an individuals health. Adherence to international testing, inspection, and certification becomes critical as it increases the acceptability of the product. Processed food contains various preservatives and the manufacturers have to limit their use as per set standards. Globalization on the other hand has led to increasing trade between emerging economies. Imports from developing countries are required to pass stringent tests in order to comply with international standards. This results in an increased demand for TIC services on the part of the manufacturers. Increase in the volume of traded goods has a direct implication on the number of exercised inspecting and certification services. Moreover, there has been an increasing focus on the part of various companies to outsource their testing, inspection, and certification services. Strict regulatory requirements have resulted in increased cost to run in-house laboratories. This has led to various companies outsourcing their testing, inspection, and certification activities.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @However, lack of internationally accepted standards is a major restraint impacting the growth of the testing, inspection, and certification market. Different countries have their own different set of standards. This factor influences the decision making of a manufacturer whether to export or not to a given country. Standards and regulations also vary between different types of products or services. Meeting the international standards often results in an increased cost as it might lead to the changing of the design of a particular product or service.The competitive profiling of the key players in the global testing, inspection, and certification market and their market shares across five major geographic regions which include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) Middle East and Africa and Latin America has been exhaustively covered under the purview of the study. Moreover, the distinct business strategies that have been adopted by the major players in the market have also been included in the report. For providing a detailed insight into the global testing, inspection, and certification market, the market attractive analysis has been provided in the report.A comprehensive analysis of market dynamics, which include the market drivers, restraints and opportunities, is included under the scope of the report. Market dynamics are the distinctive factors that influence the growth of the specific market and therefore help to study the current trends in the global market. Thus, this report provides an inclusive study of the global testing, inspection, and certification market and also provides the forecast of the market for the period from 2016-2024.Some of the major players in the market are: Bureau Veritas SA, Intertek Group PLC, SGS Group, ALS Ltd., ASTM International, AsureQuality Ltd., Dekra SE, Underwriters Laboratories Inc, Lloyd's Register Group Limited, DNV GL, TUV SUD AG and TUV Rheinland Group.The global testing, inspection, and certification market has been segmented into:Global testing, inspection, and certification market, by ApplicationOil & gasAerospaceFood & beveragesAutomotiveAutomationTextileOthersMake an Enquiry of this report @Global testing, inspection, and certification market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into:North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States Peppers Seeds Market Analysis 2017 Research - Monsanto, Limagrain, Syngenta https://goo.gl/mmO6rN https://goo.gl/LWAmu6 www.topmarketreports.com This report studies the Peppers Seeds market, Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Pepper seeds were imported to Spain in 1493, and from there spread to other European, African, and Asian countries. Today, China is the worlds largest pepper producer.Sample copy of report @Market Segment by Manufacturers:-MonsantoLimagrainSyngentaNunhemsTakii SeedRijk ZwaanEnza ZadenAdvantaSakataJingyan SeedBeijing Haihua BiotechHunan Xiangyan SeedChina Vegetable Seed TechnologyChongqing Keguang SeedBrowse Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Peppers Seeds in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversHot PeppersSweet PeppersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoIn Intertropical AreaIn Subtropics AreaIn Temperate AreaOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Peppers Seeds market.Chapter 1, to describe Peppers Seeds Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Peppers Seeds, with sales, revenue, and price of Peppers Seeds, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Peppers Seeds, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Peppers Seeds market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Peppers Seeds sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceAbout US:TopMarketReports is a top provider and consulting services and leading market Intelligence Company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Contact US:TopMarketReports304, S. Jones Blvd, #3299,Las Vegas, NV 89107USA : +1 702-425-8599Email : Sales@topmarketreports.comWeb : Market Development : LED Lighting Market for Horticulture Application Globally Grow at a CAGR of 22.55% by Revenue During the Period 2017-2021 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=860272 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=860272 Albany, New York, June 14, 2017 :Lighting sources such as incandescent lighting, fluorescent lighting, and tungsten photonic lighting were used. However, the industry is witnessing transition to the latest lighting technology like LED lighting. LED lighting devices provide high-intensity brightness, along with other advantages like low voltage requirements, low radiated heat, high reliability, negligible ultraviolet (UV) rays, and a longer life span over the conventional lighting sources.Technavios analysts forecast the global LED lighting market for horticulture application to grow at a CAGR of 22.55% during the period 2016-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global LED lighting market for horticulture application for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report presents the major vendors that manufacture LED lighting products for horticulture applications in the Americas, APAC, and EMEA.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAGet PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Technavio's report, Global LED Lighting Market for Horticulture Application 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsCreeFluence BioengineeringHeliospectraHubbell LightingIllumitexKessil LightingLemnis OreonLumiGrowOSRAM SYLVANIASmart Grow TechnologiesMarket driverHigh electricity consumption and increasing power prices.For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeInsufficient horticulture infrastructure.For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendDeclining manufacturing cost of LED.For a full, detailed list, view our reportMake an Enquiry of this report @Key questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMoz90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States Global Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices Market 2017 Share will grow high beyond 2022 Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices Market http://bit.ly/2t1wq0J The Global Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices Market 2017-2022 research report by QY Research describes, A detailed analysis of the market on the basis of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices market throughout the globe is provided. The research report inspects the past as well as present performance of the global Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices market, along with forecast trends and does estimations on the upcoming position of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices market based on this analysis.OverviewReport on the Global Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices Market 2016 gives the complete description of the market across the globe. The contents that are provided in the report are briefly discussed below.The Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices Market Research Report contains : Market segmentation along with its sub-segmentation is included in the Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Devices MarketReport The drivers of the market along with the restraints The global demand, supply, and sales of the product is included in the market report The current and the future market size and position The current challenges and opportunities that the market is confronting The trends that are currently dominating the market Company profiles and their future strategies are included Technological advancements that have been developed Future predictions of the market is also includedPrimary research and secondary research were made in order to validate the data that was collected. Qualitative assessment and quantitative assessment were made across several market verticals and industrial aspects.Read Sample Research Report @What our report offers : The complete market size and share analysis is done The prominent industry players in the market are included The opportunities for the new entrants in the market are included Based on the forecast trends the market estimations are made for the strategic recommendations in the business segments Detailed company profiles are includedAbou Us: MRS Research Group provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Prof Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com Industry Analysis of The US SaaS Mortgage Software Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts 2017-2021: Key Players are Wipro, Ellie Mae, Accenture etc. http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1064498 http://www.researchmoz.us/saas-market-reports.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG http://deep-research-report.blogspot.com/ ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " The US SaaS Mortgage Software Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021) " to it's Large Report database.Scope of the ReportThe report titled The US SaaS Mortgage Software Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021), provides an in-depth analysis of the US SaaS mortgage market opportunity by value. The report also gives an insight of the global SaaS software market and the share of the US in same.The report also includes the analysis of the US total production expenses per loan and non-personnel expenses per loan.It assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall US Saas Mortgage Software market has also been forecasted for the period 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the subprime lending crisis of 2008-2009, the growth drivers and the current and future trends. The competition in the US SaaS Mortgage Software market is fragmented. However Ellie Mae dominates the market.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:Further, key players of the US SaaS Mortgage Software Market, Ellie Mae, Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., Accenture and Wipro are also profiled with their financial information and respective business strategies.Company CoverageEllie Mae, Inc.Black Knight Financial Services, Inc.AccentureWiproExecutive SummaryThe collateral that is kept while initiating a loan for the purchase of real estate or property or a house is known as mortgage. The banks or the mortgage lenders loan a large chunk of money that is around 80% of the price of home that the borrower is required to pay back with interest over a set period of time. On failure of repaying the loan, the lender takes the mortgage through a legal process known as foreclosure.Read All SaaS Market Research Reports @Table of Content1. Executive Summary2. Introduction2.1 Mortgage Industry: An Overview2.1.1 History of Mortgages2.1.2 The Emerging Future of Mortgage Origination2.1.3 Technology in Mortgage2.2 Cloud Computing: An Overview2.2.1 Cloud Computing on the Basis of Service2.2.2 Software-as-a Service (SaaS) Software2.3 Loan Servicing Software: An Overview2.3.1 Advantages/Features of Loan Servicing Software2.3.2 Types of Loan Servicing Software2.3.3 Types of Loan Servicing Software: A Comparison2.3.4 SaaS Mortgage Software2.3.5 Working of SaaS Mortgage Software3. Market Analysis3.1 Global SaaS Market: An Analysis3.1.1 Global SaaS Market by Value and by GeographyAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at: Construction in the Philippines, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1268606-construction-in-the-philippines-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1268606-construction-in-the-philippines-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2021 www.linkedin.com/company/4828928 https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts WiseGuyReports.com adds Exclusive Research on Construction in the Philippines, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 reports to its database.SynopsisIn real terms, the Philippine construction industry registered an average annual growth rate of 12.0% during the review period (20122016). This growth was supported by the Philippines Development Plan 20112016, under which the government invested heavily on transport infrastructure projects, residential buildings and social infrastructure. Investment in energy projects under the Philippines Energy Plan 20122030 also contributed to growth during the review period.GET SAMPLE REPORT @The Philippine construction industry is expected to continue to grow over the forecast period (20172021). Industry growth will be supported by the countrys development plan 20172022, as well as population growth, urbanization, and favorable government policies with regards to public-private partnerships (PPPs).In February 2017, the government launched the Philippines Development Plan 20172022, with an aim to make the Philippines an upper-middle-income country by 2022. Consequently, it plans to reduce unemployment from 5.5% in 2016 to 3.0% by 2022.The industrys output value in real terms is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.79% over the forecast period; compared to 10.68% during the review period.SummaryConstruction in the Philippines, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Philippine construction industry including: The Philippine construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity Analysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in the Philippines Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Philippine construction industry Profiles of the leading operators in the Philippine construction industry Data highlights of the largest construction projects in the PhilippinesScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in the Philippines. It provides: Historical (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2021) valuations of the construction industry in the Philippines using construction output and value-add methods Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project type Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services) Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricing Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in the PhilippinesReasons to Buy Identify and evaluate market opportunities using standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies. Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts. Understand the latest industry and market trends. Formulate and validate strategy using critical and actionable insight. Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures. Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Key Highlights The governments plan to bridge gap between the demand and supply of affordable houses in the country is expected to support the growth of the residential construction market over the forecast period. According to the government estimate, demand for housing units is growing by 345,941 units annually and it is expected to reach to 6.2 million units by 2030. To meet this, the government plans to provide financial assistance to middle- and low-income families through various programs, such as the Pag-IBIG Affordable Housing Program, Community Mortgage Program (CMP), Core Housing Program and the Abot-Kaya Pabahay Fund Developmental Loan Program (AKPF - DLP). With robust and modern infrastructure vital for economic growth, the government is focusing on infrastructure development. Accordingly, in September 2016, the National Economic and Development Authority announced its plan to spend PHP8.2 trillion (US$173.9 billion) on nine infrastructure projects by 2022. In the Budget 2017, the government increased its total spending on the Department of Transport by 25.0%, rising from PHP42.6 billion (US$903.3 million) in the budget 2016 to reach PHP53.3 billion (US$1.1 billion). The government also increased the budget of Department of Public Works and Highways by 18.3%, rising from PHP384.4 billion (US$8.2 billion) in 2016 to PHP454.7 billion (US$9.8 billion) in 2017, to improve the countrys transport infrastructure. In March 2017, the government approved National broadband plan with an aim to support economic development and growth. Through this, the government aims to create investment opportunities and ensure social and economic inclusion. Consequently, the government plans to deploy fiber optic cables and wireless technology across the country with an investment of PHP200.0 billion (US$4.3 billion), to equip all schools and government offices with a high speed internet connection. Over the forecast period, the governments plan to expand the capacity of manufacturing plants is expected to support growth of the industrial construction market. Under the Manufacturing Resurgence Program (MRP), the government aims to enhance the existing capacity of manufacturing industries, support new entries, increase employment, and maintain the competitiveness of industries by 2025.Table of Content: Key Points1 Executive Summary2 Industry Outlook2.1 Commercial Construction2.2 Industrial Construction2.3 Infrastructure Construction2.4 Energy and Utilities Construction2.5 Institutional Construction2.6 Residential Construction3 Key Issues and Developments4 Market Data Analysis4.1 Construction Output and Value Add4.1.1 Construction output by project type4.1.2 Construction output by cost type4.1.3 Construction output by activity type4.1.4 Construction value add by project type4.2 Commercial Construction4.2.1 Commercial construction output by project type4.2.2 Commercial construction output by cost type4.2.3 Commercial construction output by activity type4.2.4 Commercial construction value add by project type4.3 Industrial Construction4.3.1 Industrial construction output by project type4.3.2 Industrial construction output by cost type4.3.3 Industrial construction output by activity type4.3.4 Industrial construction value add by project type4.4 Infrastructure Construction4.4.1 Infrastructure construction output by project type4.4.2 Infrastructure construction output by cost type4.4.3 Infrastructure construction output by activity type4.4.4 Infrastructure construction value add by project typeContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wind Power Converter Market Report 2017: Top Players including ABB, Alstom, Corona, Schneider etc. http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1147926 http://www.researchmoz.us/power-market-reports-26.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG http://deep-research-report.blogspot.com/ ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wind Power Converter Market Report 2017 " to it's Large Report database.In this report, the EMEA Wind Power Converter market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Wind Power Converter for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:EMEA Wind Power Converter market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Wind Power Converter sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingABBAlstomAMSC Windtec(USA Suzhou)Emerson Network Power Co., LtdSchneiderSungrow Power Supply Co., LtdCoronaJiuzhou ElectricalChino-harvest wind power technologyGuodian Longyuan Electrical Co.,LtdDongfang HitachiRead All Power Market Research Reports @Table of ContentsEMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wind Power Converter Market Report 20171 Wind Power Converter Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Wind Power Converter1.2 Classification of Wind Power Converter1.2.1 EMEA Wind Power Converter Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Wind Power Converter Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Double-fed converter1.2.4 Full-power converter1.3 EMEA Wind Power Converter Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Wind Power Converter Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Wind Power Generation System1.3.2 Application 21.4 EMEA Wind Power Converter Market by Region1.4.1 EMEA Wind Power Converter Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Middle East Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Africa Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 EMEA Market Size (Value and Volume) of Wind Power Converter (2012-2022)1.5.1 EMEA Wind Power Converter Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 EMEA Wind Power Converter Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at: Trichloroethylene Sunset date causes Aerospace Component Manufacturers new challenges - fortunately Layton Technologies were able to solve these challenges. www.laytontechnologies.com Innovation in Lubrication from Layton TechnologiesAerospace component manufacturers have faced a number of challenges over recent years when they need to lubricate their components either as part of their manufacturing process or as a final process.Some companies had been using Trichloroethylene but when their process was identified as an intermediate process they were unable to continue using Trichloroethylene beyond the sunset date. Some companies had anticipated this and had switched to an alternative chemistry only to be advised later that the alternative chemistry was no longer acceptable to their Health & Safety dept. There were also issues around the manual handling of components and the impact on operators.This left some component manufacturers with the real possibility of having to discontinue the manufacture of specialist components which formed an integral part of their business.One international aerospace component manufacturing company, having worked on cleaning projects previously with Layton Technologies approached them with this challenge to see if there were any alternatives available. Since cleaning and coating use similar methodology this seemed like a logical approach.A series of trials were conducted which eventually identified IPA as a very successful alternative to Trike. The manufacturer was already familiar with IPA, using it for other functions within their business but had not considered it for this particular process due to its potential flammability. Fortunately, Laytons ATEX approved design equipment is used worldwide for numerous applications utilising all types of flammable solvent so Layton were confident that they could meet the Process Specification and Health & Safety brief.Layton Technologies developed a design which included ultrasonic agitation and sub surface jets to agitate the fluid when parts are being processed to facilitate a consistent flow of fluid through and around the substrates coupled with an in-tank basket rotation system which ensured that all parts were coated with the lubrication.The health & safety teams reviewed the proposed machine specification with Layton, identifying the ATEX approved design with vapour detection, flame detection, fire protection and suppression system and approved it for use in their standard manufacturing facility. External automated handling combined with the standard features of the system to allow for process and quality consistency with minimal operator interventionThis particular machine was additionally fitted with a multi-station automated rotating load table protected by guarding and a fail-safe light curtain to ensure the safety of operators.The system, like all those from Layton Technologies, has the advantage of being fully designed and manufactured by Layton Technologies who offer a full technical, process and engineering aftercare service, full 5-year warranty and planned maintenance support to ensure maximum future efficiency.Over the term of the project Layton were approached by several other manufacturers with the same or similar lubrication issues and Layton have determined several alternative solutions using similar technology.The team at Layton have been successful in identifying several new processes in order to overcome the issues with the Trike Sunset Date and other chemistry concerns, address any Health & Safety issues and also to fully automate previously completely manual processes.About the company: Staffordshire-based Layton Technologies Limited is a global leader in the design, manufacture and installation of precision cleaning equipment for the medical, aerospace and specialist engineering industries. The company is located in the heart of England, with easy access to main transport networks via road, rail and air.Layton TechnologiesParkhall Business ParkParkhall RoadWeston CoyneyStaffordshire. UK ST3 5XAFor more information on Layton Technologies please contact;marketing@laytontechnologies.comTel +44 (0) 1782 370400 Antibacterial Drugs Market Expected to Reach USD 38.9 Billion Globally in 2023 - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=174477 http://www.researchmoz.us/pharmaceutical-market-reports-38.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG http://healthcare-research-report.blogspot.in/ ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Antibacterial Drugs Market (By Class - Aminoglycosides, B-Lactams, Tetracyclines, Sulfonamides, Quinolones/ Fluoroquinolones, Macrolides, Phenicols and Miscellaneous Antibacterials, and Pipeline Drugs) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023 " to it's Large Report database.This report on antibacterial drugs market studies the current as well as future prospects of the market globally. The market for antibacterial drugs is segmented on the basis of major classes of drugs,namely,aminoglycosides,B-lactams, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, quinolones/fluoroquinolones, macrolides, phenicols and miscellaneous antibacterials. The market for each of these classes has been extensively analyzed on the basis of leading drug launch, patent expiry, drug efficacy, annual sales revenue and geography wise regulatory approval. The market size and forecast in terms of USD million for each of these classes has been provided for the period 2013 to 2023, considering 2013 and 2014 as the historical and base year respectively, while the market forecast has been provided for the period 2015 to 2023. The report on antibacterial drugs market also provides compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for each market segment for the forecast period 2015 to 2023.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:Geographically, the antibacterial drugs market has been categorized into five regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Rest of the World (ROW). Each of these geographies have been further segmented with respect to major countries; where North America is segmented in U.S. and Canada, Europe is segmented in U.K., Germany and rest of Europe, Asia Pacific is segmented in China, Japan and rest of Asia Pacific, and Latin America is segmented in Brazil and rest of Latin America. The report also comprises a section on pipeline analysis, which provides sales forecast for various drugs currently under phase III clinical trials and are expected to be launched during the forecast period. Forecast of seventeen pipeline drugs has been provided since their launch in the U.S., till 2023. Apart from the quantitative information, the report also provides details on various qualitative factors impacting the antibacterial market trends such as drug recalls, black box warning, changes in regulatory policies, drug patent expiry and subsequent launch of generics and others.Read All Pharmaceutical Market Research Reports @Table of ContentChapter 1 Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Market Segmentation1.3 Research Methodology1.3.1 Sources1.3.1.1 Secondary Research1.3.1.2 Primary ResearchChapter 2 Executive Summary2.1 Market Snapshot: Global Antibacterial Drugs Market2.2 Comparative Analysis: Global Antibacterial Drugs Market, by Geography, 2014 and 2022 (Value %)Chapter 3 Market Overview3.1 Introduction to Antibacterial Drugs3.2 Drivers3.2.1 High prevalence of infectious diseases3.2.2 Government support in research and development of antibacterial drugs3.3 Restraints3.3.1 Upcoming patent expirations and subsequent launch of generics3.3.2 Rise in drug resistant species3.4 Opportunities3.4.1 Product differentiation through technological innovation, use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), combination products, new formulations and indications3.5 Market Attractiveness Analysis: Global Antibacterial Drugs Market, by GeographyAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at: Potassium Sorbate Market Driven by Increasing Demand of Processed Food http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/potassium-sorbate-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=13142 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Potassium sorbate is a kind of salt or chemical that has wide applications in food and beverages as a preservative, as a chemical for industrial purpose and as a type of solution in personal care products. Demand of potassium sorbate in market is primarily increased in food industry where it has greater demand in preprocessed food. In terms of its functionality it is used as a preservative to avoid the food from spoilage as it prime function is to prevent food and beverages from growth of fungus, microbes, mold, yeast etc. The reason behind its excessive usage in food industry is because it does not make any effect in terms of taste, color and smell of food and protect the food from decomposition, which is driving the market growth in the near future.Obtain Report Details @Market Dynamics of Potassium Sorbate Market:Increasing demand of processed food is one of the major driver behind the rising demand of potassium sorbate in global market. This driver is influencing food manufacturing companies to offer the products which has longer shelf life as it is used as preservative in their products. On the other side in terms of trends, mostly the potassium sorbate is gaining importance because of increase in consumption of baked food, processed fruits, vegetables and fast food products.. Excessive consumption of potassium sorbate causes health problems such as nutritional deficiencies, problems of vomiting, diarrhea etc. which may restrain the market growth in the near future.Market Segmentation of Potassium Sorbate Market:Potassium sorbate market is segmented on two different basis which includes types and application. As per the types it includes granule, powder and liquid form. Among these segments, granules segment contributes the largest market share. Market segment on the basis of application includes food & beverages, pharmaceutical products, personal care and industrial usage. Further the food & beverage segment is sub-segmented into bakery, dairy products, canned foods carbonated beverages, non-carbonated beverages & powdered mixes. Major demand of potassium sorbate is from the side of food processing industry followed by pharmaceutical and cosmetic sector.On analyzing the demand of potassium sorbate, it is observed that highest percentage of its application is in canned fruit and vegetable products, canned meat, desserts and from dairy sector which includes products like cheese, ice-cream, yogurt etc. Results of pie chart show that majority of share in market of potassium is from food & beverage industry. It is due to increasing demand of processed food products among growing population in emerging economies of world. On the other side, potassium sorbate is also gaining demand in wine industry where it is used in fermentation process and it also used as a stabilizer in beverage industry to prevent the drinks from secondary fermentation and reinfection. Similarly in personal care products it is used in shampoo, lotion, cream etc. It is also used in industrial coatings to prevent the industrial products from fungus, yeast, mold etc.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Regional Outlook of Potassium Sorbate:On the basis of geographical market segment, it is segmented into seven different regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific region, Japan and Middle East and Africa. Asia-Pacific region is expected to be lucrative market. China is expected to account for major share in terms of volume contribution. On the other side in terms of consumption, U.S. is expected to be the largest consumer of potassium sorbate in the world followed by European region.Key Market Players in Potassium Sorbate Market:Major players in Potassium Sorbate are APAC Chemical Corporation, FBC Industries, Inc., Parchem fine & specialty chemicals, WANGLONG CHEMICALS, Sorbic International PLC, Jinneng Science and Technology Company Limited, ICIS, TENGZHOU AOLONGCHEMICAL CO., LTD. and Lubon Industry Co., Ltd.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Patient Portal Market - Outlook and Opportunity Analysis by 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/patient-portal-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=17999 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ A patient portal is an online website that helps to maintain all data of patients. Patients, medical practitioners, and pharmacists have access to this portal at any time and place. This helps the patient to interact with the health care provider. Basic information available on the patient portal includes information about recent doctor visits, patient history, chronic diseases, discharge summaries, current medications, chronic disease medication, vaccines information, allergies, and laboratory test reports. Some patient portals have value-added service such as exchange patient information with health care teams, schedule appointments with physician, request to refill prescription, check benefits and coverage under various insurance providers, update personal information, make payments, order products, download and complete forms, and view educational and disease awareness materials. The patient portal centralizes the information about the patient which helps health care provider to act accordingly and provide effective treatment and track the patients health. Patient portals are affordable and easily accessible that increases the medical security and safety of the patient. These portals are helpful during emergencies when a patient is unconscious and for routine check-ups which reduce the time of the patient as well as the physician.Browse through Patient Portal Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:The global patient portal market has been segmented by portal type, delivery mode, end-user, and geography. On the basis of portal type, the patient portal market is segmented into standalone patient portal and integrated patient portal. Integrated patient portal is more preferred because of the electronic health record (EHR) and holds a significant share in the patient portal market. Based on delivery mode, the patient portal market is categorized into web-based delivery and cloud-based delivery. The cloud-based delivery is the latest trend and is expected to rise at a rapid rate in the near future owing to technological advancement, convenience, improved efficiency, and affordability. In terms of revenue, web-based delivery mode is projected to hold a significant share of the patient portal market due to more preference by medical practitioners. The end-user of the market includes hospitals, physician clinics, individual patient, research centers, pharmacies, diagnostic centers, academics, and government organizations. Hospitals hold a significant share of the patient portal market due to increasing accessibility and affordability in health care system.Geographically, the patient portal market has been classified into five regional markets: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is projected to continue its dominance in the market owing to increase in the demand for improved efficiency and easy access to portal. Moreover, government initiatives in the region have fueled the market growth. North America is followed by Europe in terms of market size, and it is expected to register a high growth in the near future. Emerging markets such as Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa are estimated to record lucrative growth during the forecast period. China, Brazil, and India are expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period owing to increasing investments by government bodies to enhance health care facilities.In addition, there are number of factors that are anticipated to drive the growth of the patient portal market such as rise in adoption rate by health care facilities, technological advancement, health data maintenance awareness in developing countries, and increase in the demand for EHR. However, the market is anticipated to witness certain restraints such as lack of skilled health care professionals across different facilities.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Patient Portal Market by 2024:Major players operating in this market include Athenahealth, Inc., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., Cerner Corporation, CureMD Healthcare, eClinicalWorks, Epic Systems Corporation, GE Healthcare, Greenway Health, LLC, InteliChart, McKesson Corporation, Medfusion Inc., and QSI Management, LLC.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Animal Antibacterial Peptide Market Analysis 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/animal-antibacterial-peptide-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=18662 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Peptides are derived from animal source and possess antibacterial activity that comes under animal antibacterial peptides. They contain residue of amino acids generally about 15 to 45. Antibacterial peptides are the effector molecules of innate immunity. Majority of the antibacterial peptides are cationic in nature. In insects, the cecropin type of linear peptide without cysteine are found. Now, more than 900 sequences of proteins and antibacterial peptides from plants and animals are stored in database. The antibacterial peptides are broad spectrum in activity. The antibacterial peptides are amphipathic in structure and contains positive charge.Browse through Animal Antibacterial Peptide Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:The use of low levels of antibiotics in animal feed as growth promoters and rise in use of antibiotics in animal and human infections are causes of antibiotics resistance among gram negative, gram positive, and bacterial pathogens. The natural and synthetics antibacterial peptides are good candidates for antibiotics alternatives. The natural antibiotics are rich source of proteins as well as amino acids and have less side effects as compared to synthetic antibiotics. They possess synergistic activity with conventional antibiotics and promote wound healing. Domestic animals are good source of antibacterial peptides. The antibacterial peptides are expressed in many polymorphonuclear leukocytes, tissues, macrophages, and mucosal epithelial cells. Antibacterial peptides are preserved in their function, structure, and mechanisms of action. Thus, it is attractive to speculate that synthetic antibacterial peptides or their congeners might be used to prevent or treat infections. Antimicrobial peptides are good applicants for the design of new antimicrobial agents for specific application because of their low propensity for the development of bacterial resistance and natural antimicrobial properties. The major driving factor of antibacterial peptides is their ability to kill multi drug resistance bacteria.The market of animal antibacterial peptide is segmented on the basis of peptide type, product origin, and geography. On the basis of peptide type, the animal antibacterial peptide market is segmented as linear cationic -helical peptides, anionic peptides, cationic peptide containing specific amino acid, and anionic & cationic peptides that possess cysteine and form disulfide bonds. Anionic peptides are rich in glutamic and aspartic acids whereas cationic peptides are rich in arginine, phenylalanine, glycine, tryptophan, and proline. These peptides are good candidates for supplements to conventional antibiotic therapy and for development as novel therapeutic agents. These are broad spectrum in nature and possess bactericidal activity. Insects peptides are one of the largest groups of antimicrobial peptides. Cecropins constitute the most important host defense system against bacterial infection. By product origin, the animal antibacterial peptide market is segmented into cattle origin, sheep origin, goat origin, pig origin, horse origin, and poultry. The animal antibacterial peptides are derived from above sources.By geography, the market for animal antibacterial peptide is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe are expected to dominate the market. The rise in research is the key driving factor of the animal antibacterial peptide market in North America. Asia pacific is the most progressive region for the animal antibacterial peptide market. The rise in expenditure on animal health care is a key factor responsible for growth of the market. The increasing resistance to conventional antibiotics is likely to be the key driver of the animal antibacterial peptide market during the forecast period. Furthermore, the rise in use of antibiotics to treat various infections and disease in animal feed is projected to fuel the growth of the animal antibacterial peptide market during the forecast period.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Animal Antibacterial Peptide Market by 2024:Major players operating in the animal antibacterial peptide market include Zoetis, Merck Animal Health, Merial, Elanco (Eli Lilly and Company), Bayer HealthCare, Animal Medics, Biogenesis Bago, and Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica. The rising demand for alternatives for conventional antibiotics is estimated to increase the competition between market players of animal antibacterial peptide.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Lithotripsy Device Market Analysis by Key Growth Factors and Opportunities Forecasts to 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lithotripsy-device-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=19094 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Lithotripsy is the treatment used to cure stones or other calculus in kidney or other organ of body such as gall bladder or liver. Stones occur due to deposition of minerals and other substances in crystalline form. Stones appear in different forms such as tiny small stones, sharp-edged, large size stones. Stones are usually removed from the body through urination. Large size stones are not able to pass through routine urination. Lithotripsy is a procedure where sound waves are used to break large stones into tiny particles which can be easily excreted through urination. The shock waves used in lithotripsy are high energy shock waves.Browse through Lithotripsy Device Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:Lithotripsy is an outpatient treatment. High energy shock waves are generated which are allowed to pass through the body to the site where stone is present. These waves break the large stone into tiny small particles, which are easily removed from the body through normal urination process. It is a non-invasive procedure to get rid of stones with the help of acoustic pulse. It is used to treat stones of kidney, gall bladder, and liver, and have been reported to be used for treatment of salivary stones and pancreatic stones. Lithotripsy is a non-invasive procedure, which is preferred to surgery. A patient does not need to get hospitalized and is discharged on the same day and can attain his routine lifestyle from the next day. Non-invasive nature of the treatment makes it safe and helps in quick recovery as compared to invasive surgery procedures. Non-invasive procedure, safe, and rapid recovery are projected to drive the lithotripsy device market. Several risks are associated with lithotripsy treatment. This treatment is not considered for patients suffering from bleeding disorder and pregnant women. The results are much satisfactory in case of large stones than small stones. Sometimes the procedure results in internal bleeding and may need blood transfusion. It can lead to adverse side effects where kidney may be damaged due to blockage in flow of urine passage caused because of tiny stone particles. Complications such as high blood pressure and above factors restrain the market.The lithotripsy device market can be segmented based on technology, application, and region. In terms of technology, the market can be segmented into intracorporeal lithotripsy and extracorporeal lithotripsy. Intracorporeal lithotripsy can be sub-segmented, based on instruments used for generation of energy and breaking of stones, into mechanical lithotripsy, electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL), laser lithotripsy, and ultrasonic lithotripsy. EHL and laser lithotripsy require direct visualization, which becomes difficult technically. Intracorporeal lithotripsy is carried out with the help of ureterscopy in cases where extracorporeal lithotripsy is not possible due to its position, size, and density. Extracorporeal lithotripsy also termed as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is carried outside the body where high energy shock waves are allowed to pass through the body. The energy generator is used to attain required intensity of shock wave which cleaves the large stone into tiny sand size particles. ESWL has rapidly replaced the surgery options due to its non-invasive nature, outpatient process, and quick recovery.Based on application, the lithotripsy device market can be segmented into kidney stone, pancreatic stones, bile duct stone (biliary lithotripsy). Lithotripsy seems to be safe and reliable treatment for bile duct stone and pancreatic stone. Rise in prevalence of kidney stone disorders and awareness about lithotripsy technology among urologists has estimated to cover the largest market in this segment.In terms of region, the lithotripsy device market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Europe is estimated to be the largest market for lithotripsy devices. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing market due to its new and advance technology development and awareness about these technology among the population and health care sector.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Lithotripsy Device Market by 2024:Key players in the lithotripsy device market are Siemens Healthineers, Medtronics, Boston Scientific, DirexGroup, Ince Medical, ELMED Elektronik ve Medikal San. TIC. A.S., Grupo Maxwerk, Haiying Enterprises Group Co. Ltd., and Olympus Corporation.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: KACO new energy is partnering with Microcare. Expansion from Cape of Good Hope to the edge of the Sahara. Christoph Heinermann, CEO of KACO new energy Africa (Pty) Ltd. http://microcare.co.za/ http://kaco-newenergy.com www.kaco-newenergy.com Neckarsulm, 12. June 2017 The new collaboration with local company Microcare is opening up further opportunities for growth in South Africa for KACO new energy GmbH, and helping strengthen the German inverter manufacturers presence on the African continent, south of the Sahara.The South African office of KACO new energy GmbH opened in 2013, since when it has recorded an increase in turnover of more than 300 percent annually. To enable further expansion, including beyond national borders, Christoph Heinermann, CEO of KACO new energy Africa (Pty) Ltd., recently entered into a strategic partnership with local manufacturer Microcare. The company, based in Port Elizabeth, produces photovoltaic systems with a focus on battery solutions.The decision was an easy one for both parties, as the advantages are obvious. The inverters produced by KACO new energy and the projects they manage have the image of German quality at a good price. Their market share of projects on commercial roofs, which has now grown to over twelve percent, is also based on this reputation. As a regional company that offers qualified service and trainings, Microcare opens the door to new market segments, and rounds off the range with photovoltaic products and components manufactured in South Africa. This is a key point, as the South African government requires at least 50 percent of products to be locally produced, especially for public projects. In the case of Microcare, the products in question are battery inverters and power storage solutions adapted to the local market standards.We carefully evaluated the partnership options, and chose Microcare as the best partner for us, says Christoph Heinermann. We see the benefits of this collaboration in further improving our services and in the continued expansion of the Commercial Roofs segment, as well as in the Residential sector for the South Africa region. For the rest of the sub-Saharan regions, we want to strengthen our provision of stand-alone photovoltaic systems. In other words, we will offer better access to electricity for villages and farms that are not connected to the power grid, by expediting solar power storage. In doing so, we support the need to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, which are frequently used for power generation in regions remote from the grid.Here, KACO new energy is acting in line with the energy suppliers in the region, who turned to renewable energy sources at an early stage, and is getting involved with the development of large-scale PV projects at the regional level. Other countries in Africa have now also turned to regenerative sources of energy, and in particular to solar power.Heinermann continues: Through this collaboration with Microcare, we can now cover the entire spectrum of technical solutions and services. We see this new partnership providing great opportunities for both parties and for the spread of solar PV in Africa.About Microcare:Microcare is a South African company established in 1990 in the city of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Microcare has been manufacturing solar components for 26 years with the MD Jimmy Catt having been involved in manufacturing solar electronic components for over 40 years. He heads a dynamic team responsible for being the only South African company to manufacture MPPT Solar Regulators, Pure Sine Wave Bi-Directional Inverters, Grid-Tied Inverters and the unique Grid Tied Limiter on one premises in Port Elizabeth. All products built use the best possible components sourced from suppliers worldwide using the latest cutting-edge technology and development. Microcare offers assistance with system designs and a comprehensive free generic and tailor made solar course to all installers, dealers, agents, and distributors of Microcare products.More atAbout KACO new energy:KACO new energy is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of inverters for grid feed-in of solar power. Its product range covers the full power spectrum, from systems designed for a single family home to those for solar parks that produce megawatts of electricity. Since 1999, KACO, based in Neckarsulm, Germany, has supplied inverters with a cumulative power output of nine gigawatts. KACO new energy is the first company in the photovoltaic industry to achieve CO2-neutral production. Our technology offering extends from grid- and battery-connected solar inverters to inverters for combined heat and power plants and concentrator modules, as well as energy storage systems for solar power systems. In 2014 the firm celebrated the 100th birthday of the original parent company that, at the end of the 1930s, was one of first ever inverter manufacturers.More atKACO new energy GmbHKornelia LauserDirector Global Marketing & Power Plant SolutionsCarl-Zeiss-Str. 174172 NeckarsulmGermanyTel. +49 7132 3818-0Fax +49 7132 3818-703p(at)kaco-newenergy.de Navigation Satellite System Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth And Forecast Report To 2022 Navigation Satellite System http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/request-sample/282294 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/report/global-navigation-satellite-system-market-research-report-2017 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/send-an-enquiry/282294 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/check-discount/282294 https://goo.gl/AU2m0S https://goo.gl/X1CfFh http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/ http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/blog The Global Navigation Satellite System Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Navigation Satellite System Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.Request For Sample Of Navigation Satellite System Market Research Report @The report on Global Navigation Satellite System Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Navigation Satellite System industry a propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Navigation Satellite System Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain.The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Navigation Satellite System Market.Complete Report On Navigation Satellite System Market Report Spread Across 163 Pages, Profiling 10 Companies And Supported With Tables And Figures Available@This report studies the global Navigation Satellite System market, analyzes and researches the Navigation Satellite System development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, like1. Qualcomm2. Trimble Navigation3. Broadcom4. CSR5. Laird6. Furuno Electric7. Rockwell Collins8. Texas Instruments9. Cobham10. HexagonMarket segment by Type, Navigation Satellite System can be split into Core Satellite Navigation Systems Regional Satellite Navigation Systems Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS)Market segment by Application, Navigation Satellite System can be split into Location-Based Services (LBS) Road Aviation Rail Maritime Agriculture Surveying Time and Synchronisation (Timing & Sync)Lastly, This Market Report Offers Fathoming Perception In Terms Of Many Product Types And The Applications. The Product Types Are Further Gathered Focusing On The Revenue, Price, Production, Rate Of Growth, And Market Share Of Each Type. Likewise, Depending On The Applications, This Report Addresses The Market Share, Growth Rate And Consumption Of Navigation Satellite System Every Application. The Comprehensive Summary, In-Depth Analyses, Accurate Definitions, And Opinions From The Experts, On Each Application, Together Make This Report An Excellent Piece Of Presentation.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert:Some Points From TOCPart I Navigation Satellite System Industry OverviewChapter One Navigation Satellite System Industry Overview1.1 Navigation Satellite System Definition1.2 Navigation Satellite System Classification Analysis1.2.1 Navigation Satellite System Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Navigation Satellite System Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Navigation Satellite System Application Analysis1.3.1 Navigation Satellite System Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Navigation Satellite System Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Navigation Satellite System Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Navigation Satellite System Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Navigation Satellite System Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Navigation Satellite System Product Market Development Overview1.6 Navigation Satellite System Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Navigation Satellite System Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Navigation Satellite System Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Navigation Satellite System Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Navigation Satellite System Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Navigation Satellite System Global Market Development Trend AnalysisGet Discount on this Report @Related Reports:1. Global Navigation Satellite System Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022:2. United States Navigation Satellite System Market Report 2016:About Us:Market Research Globe is a competent consulting company in the field of Global Market Research. We provide our clients a wide range of customized Marketing and Business Research Solutions to choose from, with the help of our ingenious database developed by experts. We help our clients understand the strengths of diverse markets and how to exploit opportunities. Covering a diverse range of business scopes from Digital products to Food industry, we are your one- stop solution right from data collection to investment advices.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@marketresearchglobe.comWeb-Blogs- Orthopedic Drill Market Analysis- Size, Share, Growth, Industry Demand, Forecast, Application Analysis To 2022 Orthopedic Drill http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/request-sample/282317 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/report/global-orthopedic-drill-market-research-report-2017-d-303 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/send-an-enquiry/282317 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/check-discount/282317 https://goo.gl/YBDAt1 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/ http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/blog The Global Orthopedic Drill Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Orthopedic Drill Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.Request For Sample Of Orthopedic Drill Market Research Report @The report on Global Orthopedic Drill Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Orthopedic Drill industry a propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Orthopedic Drill Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain.The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Orthopedic Drill Market.Complete Report On Orthopedic Drill Market Report Spread Across 163 Pages, Profiling 4 Companies And Supported With Tables And Figures Available@This report studies sales (consumption) of Orthopedic Drill in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe and Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, covering1. Pro Orthopedic2. Content3. Zimede4. Jinlu MdeicalSplit by product Types, with sales, revenue, price and gross margin, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided into Type I Type IISplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Orthopedic Drill in each application, can be divided into Application 1 Application 2Lastly, This Market Report Offers Fathoming Perception In Terms Of Many Product Types And The Applications. The Product Types Are Further Gathered Focusing On The Revenue, Price, Production, Rate Of Growth, And Market Share Of Each Type. Likewise, Depending On The Applications, This Report Addresses The Market Share, Growth Rate And Consumption Of Orthopedic Drill Every Application. The Comprehensive Summary, In-Depth Analyses, Accurate Definitions, And Opinions From The Experts, On Each Application, Together Make This Report An Excellent Piece Of Presentation.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert:Some Points From TOCPart I Orthopedic Drill Industry OverviewChapter One Orthopedic Drill Industry Overview1.1 Orthopedic Drill Definition1.2 Orthopedic Drill Classification Analysis1.2.1 Orthopedic Drill Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Orthopedic Drill Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Orthopedic Drill Application Analysis1.3.1 Orthopedic Drill Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Orthopedic Drill Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Orthopedic Drill Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Orthopedic Drill Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Orthopedic Drill Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Orthopedic Drill Product Market Development Overview1.6 Orthopedic Drill Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Orthopedic Drill Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Orthopedic Drill Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Orthopedic Drill Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Orthopedic Drill Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Orthopedic Drill Global Market Development Trend AnalysisGet Discount on this Report @Related Report:Europe Orthopedic Drill Market Report 2017:About Us:Market Research Globe is a competent consulting company in the field of Global Market Research. We provide our clients a wide range of customized Marketing and Business Research Solutions to choose from, with the help of our ingenious database developed by experts. We help our clients understand the strengths of diverse markets and how to exploit opportunities. Covering a diverse range of business scopes from Digital products to Food industry, we are your one- stop solution right from data collection to investment advices.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@marketresearchglobe.comWeb-Blogs- Aircraft Headsets Market - Global Trends, Market Share, Industry Size, Growth, Opportunities, And Market Forecast To 2022 Aircraft Headsets http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/request-sample/282375 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/report/global-aircraft-headsets-sales-market-research-report-2017 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/send-an-enquiry/282375 http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/check-discount/282375 https://goo.gl/jLcQjD https://goo.gl/bGswlI http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/ http://www.marketresearchglobe.com/blog The Global Aircraft Headsets Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Aircraft Headsets Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.Request For Sample Of Aircraft Headsets Market Research Report @The report on Global Aircraft Headsets Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Aircraft Headsets industry a propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Aircraft Headsets Market on a regional as well as global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain.The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Aircraft Headsets Market.Complete Report On Aircraft Headsets Market Report Spread Across 163 Pages, Profiling 10 Companies And Supported With Tables And Figures Available@Lastly, This Market Report Offers Fathoming Perception In Terms Of Many Product Types And The Applications. The Product Types Are Further Gathered Focusing On The Revenue, Price, Production, Rate Of Growth, And Market Share Of Each Type. Likewise, Depending On The Applications, This Report Addresses The Market Share, Growth Rate And Consumption Of Aircraft Headsets Every Application. The Comprehensive Summary, In-Depth Analyses, Accurate Definitions, And Opinions From The Experts, On Each Application, Together Make This Report An Excellent Piece Of Presentation.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert:Some Points From TOCPart I Aircraft Headsets Sales Industry OverviewChapter One Aircraft Headsets Sales Industry Overview1.1 Aircraft Headsets Sales Definition1.2 Aircraft Headsets Sales Classification Analysis1.2.1 Aircraft Headsets Sales Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Aircraft Headsets Sales Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Aircraft Headsets Sales Application Analysis1.3.1 Aircraft Headsets Sales Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Aircraft Headsets Sales Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Aircraft Headsets Sales Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Aircraft Headsets Sales Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Aircraft Headsets Sales Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Aircraft Headsets Sales Product Market Development Overview1.6 Aircraft Headsets Sales Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Aircraft Headsets Sales Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Aircraft Headsets Sales Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Aircraft Headsets Sales Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Aircraft Headsets Sales Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Aircraft Headsets Sales Global Market Development Trend AnalysisGet Discount on this Report @Related Reports:1. United States Aircraft Headsets Market Report 2017:2. China Aircraft Headsets Market Research Report 2017:About Us:Market Research Globe is a competent consulting company in the field of Global Market Research. We provide our clients a wide range of customized Marketing and Business Research Solutions to choose from, with the help of our ingenious database developed by experts. We help our clients understand the strengths of diverse markets and how to exploit opportunities. Covering a diverse range of business scopes from Digital products to Food industry, we are your one- stop solution right from data collection to investment advices.Contact us:+1-888-376-9998 (US)Email- sales@marketresearchglobe.comWeb-Blogs- Germanys True Fleet market performance the strongest for 2017so far www.dataforce.de After a roller coaster ride in the first four months (up in January and March, down in February and April) the May performance for the German True Fleet Market was strong, registering a + 16.0%. This pushed the year-to-date performance into the positive (+ 2.5%) with almost 341,000 fleet registrations from January to May helping to achieve an all-time high. For the Total Market, May ended just shy of 324,000 units, up by 12.9% over last year.17 out of the Top-20 brands in True Fleets were able to increase their volume over May 2016. Mercedes (+ 39.7%, ranking 3rd), Seat (+ 55.3%, 9th) Nissan (+ 38.8%, 10th) and Toyota (+ 41.5%, 11th) all achieved very positive figures but Peugeot really dazzled in May. The French carmaker more than doubled its fleet registrations thus gaining four positions in the ranking (from rank number 16 to 12). This considerable increase was fuelled by four different models: 208, 3008, Partner and 2008. While 3 of these reported a solid three-digit growth rate, 1 of these actually managed a four-digit rate.Unsurprisingly SUV was the strongest segment, now for the seventh time in a row in Germany and with Mays + 41.3% continues to grow significantly stronger than any other group of vehicles. Within the segment there were a few interesting changes. The Mercedes GLC took the crown for the first time ever and achieved an all-time high in the German fleet market both in market share and in volume. You can find the usual suspects of Volkswagens Tiguan and Nissans Qashqai on rank number two and three. However the biggest surprise came from the all new Skoda Kodiaq which clinched fourth place. Having only been introduced into the market three months ago the compact SUV from Czech Republic is already imposing itself onto the leading group for this segment.Another change in leadership can be reported in the Higher Middle Class segment. Thanks to a massive growth of + 167.0% the E Class from Mercedes Benz also scored a double header, registering its highest market share for the segment and also ranking 1st place in terms of volume. These milestones last achieved almost 7 years ago in September 2010.(368 words, 2157 characters)Publication by indication of source (DATAFORCE) onlyDATAFORCE Focus on FleetsDataforce is the leading provider of fleet market data and automotive intelligence solutions in Europe. In addition, the company also provides detailed information on sales opportunities for the automotive industry, together with a wide portfolio of information based on primary market research and consulting services. The company is based in Frankfurt, Germany.Contact: Mario ZagarDataforce Verlagsgesellschaft fur Business Informationen mbHHamburger Allee 1460486 Frankfurt am MainGermanyPhone: +49 69 95930-229Fax: +49 69 95930-333Email: mario.zagar@dataforce.de Global False Eyelashes Market Top Players - Ardell International, MAC Cosmetics, Revlon, Ulta Beauty Market Research Future https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2921 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/false-eyelashes-market-2921 Market Research Future adds new report of Global False Eyelashes Market Research Report- Forecast to 2023 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentMarket Definition:False Eyelashes are defined as artificial eyelashes which are worn to define the eyes and to thicken the upper eyelashes. The false eyelashes are worn with the help of a special glue and can be self-applied. The product majorly is categorized into two types: Strip lashes and Individual lashes. Strip lashes are worn directly across the eyelashes while the individual eyelashes needs to be applied each separately. False eyelashes are available all across the globe in a huge variety of designs, colors, lengths and material-type. The growing trend of highlighting the lash line to make it look more defined is one of the major factor influencing its market.Market Scenario:Increasing demands for innovative cosmetic products to enhance the overall appearance has a major impact on the False Eyelashes market. High demands for unique beauty products is influencing the growth of False Eyelashes market on a global level. Advancement in technologies in the beauty and fashion sector has supported in fueling up the market share by bringing innovations in the cosmetic product line. The increasing beauty consciousness amongst the population of women also has a positive impact on the false eyelashes marketSynthetic hair amongst the raw-material of false eyelashes is evaluated to grow at higher rate based on the ease of usage and comparatively low cost price. Based on the product-type, the share held by strip lashes is found to escalate due to convenience usage and high durability. Based on the production of the product, the machine made production is found to be dominating the segment based on the high demands and convenience in manufacturing. E-commerce is found to be the hub for the sale of false eyelashes backed up by the hectic life-style of present women population and ease of ordering the product.Request a Sample Report @Study Objectives of False Eyelashes Market Detail analysis of the markets segments and sub-segments To estimate and forecast market size by Raw Material, Product-Type, Production, Distribution Channel and Region To analyze key driving forces which are influencing the market Region level market analysis and market estimation of North America, Europe, Asia, and rest of the world (ROW) and their countries Value chain analysis & supply chain analysis of False Eyelashes Company profiling of major players in the market Competitive strategy analysis and mapping key stakeholders in the market Analysis of historical market trends and technologies along with current government regulatory requirementsMarket Segments False Eyelashes has been segmented on the basis of Raw Material which comprises Synthetic Hair, Human Hair, Fur, Feather, Others. The Synthetic Hair segment is found to hold a major share due to high consumers preference. False Eyelashes has been segmented on the basis of Product-Type which Individual Lashes (Natural lashes, Flare lashes, Others) and Strip Lashes (Full Volume lashes, Long and short lashes, Natural lashes, Others). Among the two segments Strip lashes hold a major share with the increasing sale of majorly Full Volume Lashes globally. False Eyelashes has been segmented on the basis of Production which comprises Machine made, Handmade, Semi-handmade. Machine made lashes are found to hold a major share followed by semi-handmade eyelashes. False Eyelashes has been segmented on the basis of distribution channel which comprises Supermarket/hypermarket, Specialty stores, Cosmetic stores, E-commerce, others. Sale through E-commerce is growing at a higher growth rate backed up by the advancements in technology.Browse Report Details @Key Players:The key players profiled in the Global False Eyelashes Market are: Ardell International, Inc. (U.S.) MAC Cosmetics (U.S.) Revlon, Inc. (U.S.) Ulta Beauty, Inc. (U.S.) Kiss Cosmetics (U.S.) Velour Lashes (U.S.) Shu Uemura Cosmetics Inc. (Japan) Leeyo Cosmetics Co. (China)Key Findings: The share held by full volume lashes among the strip lashes is found to be growing at a higher rate Top exporters of false eyelashes include U.S., China, Indonesia, Thailand and South AfricaIntended Audience False Eyelashes Manufacturers Beauty Products Manufacturers Retailers and Wholesalers Traders, Importers and ExportersRegional Analysis of False Eyelashes Market:The Global False Eyelashes Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world (ROW). North America has the major market share followed by Asia-Pacific. Developing economy has led to increase in disposable income due to which North America is projected to generate a high revenue during the given forecast period. Urbanization leading to changing fashion sense will support the sale of False Eyelashes in Asia-Pacific region during the forecast period. The Major importers of False Eyelashes include U.S., South Africa, U.K, Korea and Indonesia. Based on the rising demands for variety of false eyelashes, the import and export in the developed countries is found to rise at a steady growth rate.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com PremFina Wins Prestigious 2017 Bully Award http://www.whitebull.com http://www.premfina.com PremFina, a U.K. based insurtech company, honoured as a leading new European TMT company at White Bull SummitsBARCELONA and LONDON 14 June 2017 PremFina Ltd, a U.K. based insurtech company, was announced as a winner of the 2017 Bully Awards at the White Bull Summits seventh annual Pathways event, Europes exclusive event for technology entrepreneurs and investors.The Pathways awards gala, which took place on 7 June 2017 in Barcelona, saw PremFina secure the prestigious title in the Longhorn category, awarding post-Series A and growth stage Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) companies. PremFinas Software-as-a-Service enables the financing of insurance premiums in the U.K. insurance market.A total of 60 European companies were shortlisted as finalists for this years Bully Awards, selected from a pool of nearly 500 entries. PremFina, one of thirty deserving winners, was selected by a panel of notable journalists and industry experts. The full list of the 2017 White Bull Bully Award winners can be seen here.Elizabeth Perry, Co-founder and Creative Director of White Bull Summits, said: Year-on-year were always impressed by the standard of entries and overwhelming interest to the Bully Awards. This years submissions were particularly strong in the Nordics and the UK, emphasising the huge amount of entrepreneurial talent coming out of Europe. Its also great to see our judges impressed and excited to witness a new evolution of technology businesses step into the spotlight and spur on Europes innovation scene.Bundeep Singh Rangar, Chief Executive Officer of PremFina, said: Its been a true team effort to get to this point of success and win the prestigious 2017 Bully Award. To be recognised as one of the leading new insurtech companies in Europe, only motivates us further to work even harder towards achieving our goals.PremFina empowers brokers by allowing them to maximise control over their customer relationships through providing them with their own-branded premium finance software and financing options.The Bully Awards is now in its seventh year and celebrates the excellence in product innovation, leadership and performance, growth and growth potential. The White Bull judges carefully reviewed seed-stage, early-stage and growth-stage companies. They selected the winners based on those they felt demonstrated clear potential for sustainable growth and a high probability of further success. White Bull has a successful track record in identifying European TMT companies that are poised for a bright future, with over 75% having received significant funding, expansion, or moving on to exit.About White BullWhite Bull Summits celebrates and champions European Tech innovation, connecting the innovators with the global investment, corporate development, services and resources they need to succeed. Built upon the extensive knowledge and network of its founders and advisors, and in the spirit of the wily beast inside all successful businesses, White Bull brings together the best and the brightest Europes top technology and media leaders, entrepreneurs, visionaries, global investors, thought leaders, and global icons.For more information, please visit White Bull at, like us on Facebook or follow White Bull on Twitter @whitebullsummit.About PremFinaPremFina supplies insurance brokers with their own branded premium financing through the provision of both the software to manage the sale of broker-branded insurance policies to consumers and businesses as well as financing from third parties, to enable brokers customers to pay their policy premiums via monthly instalment plans. With PremFina, brokers receive higher profit, greater autonomy and opportunity to increase the lifetime value of their customers as well as the chance to cross-sell and up-sell additional products.For more information, please visit PremFina at, like us on Facebook or follow PremFina on Twitter @PremFina.Press contactsFieldHouse AssociatesCharlie Hamilton, Senior Account Director, FieldHouse AssociatesE: charlie@fieldhouseassociates.comT: +44 (0)7500 804013Cordelia Meacher, Managing director, Fieldhouse AssociatesE: cordelia@fieldhouseassociates.comT: +44 (0)7961 311080White Bull SummitsElizabeth Perry, Co-founder of White Bull SummitsE: elizabeth@whitebull.comT: +34 (0)935 192 912PremFinaKarolina Komarnicka, Marketing AssistantE: Karolina.Komarnicka@premfina.comT: +44 (0) 207 745 6216PremFina14-18 Heddon Street, MayfairLondon, W1B 4DA, UK Distribution Boards Market 2023 Top Players - Eaton Corporation PLC, General Electric Corp, Siemens and Schneider Electric https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3197 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/distribution-boards-market-3197 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3197 Market Research Future adds new report of Global Distribution Boards Market Report - Forecast to 2023 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentMarket ScenarioThe comprehensive industrial growth worldwide and the growing demand for construction and infrastructure are expected to drive the demand for electricity supply system products. A distribution board is a segment of an electricity supply system that segregates an electrical power feed into ancillary circuits, while catering a protective fuse or circuit breaker for each circuit in a common enclosure. The growth in global distribution board is mainly due to the enormous growth in the construction industry so as to meet the needs of the rising population. These factors have led to growing demand for power supply, giving rise to the power transmission & distribution market, which simultaneously has driven the market for electricity supply system products such as distribution boards panel-board, breaker panel, or electric panel. The distribution boards market is expected to grow with the CAGR of approximately 6% from 2017 to 2023.Market Segmentation By Voltage Rating; Low Voltage, Medium Voltage By End-User; Transmission & Distribution Utilities, Manufacturing & Processing Industry, Commercial & Residential Sector By Region; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of WorldRequest a Sample Report @Study Objectives of Distribution boards Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next five years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global distribution boards market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global distribution boards market based on various tools such as Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Forces Analysis To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by material type, product, application and region To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the distribution boards marketBrowse Report Details @Key PlayersThe key players of drill pipe market are Eaton Corporation PLC (Ireland) General Electric Corp (USA) Siemens (Germany) ABB Group (Switzerland) Schneider Electric (France) Larsen & Toubro (India) Legrand (France) Hager (Germany) NHP Electrical Engineering Products Pty. Ltd. (Australia) Industrial Electric Mfg. (USA)Intended Audience Distributer & Supplier companies End Users Consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory Authorities.Global AnalysisThe current transmission & distribution groundwork in developed economies such as Europe and North American regions have become obsolete and need to be altered to modern ones. These economies are now upgrading their grids and replacing old installations. Enormous investments in renewable resources such as wind farms will also be a major factor to drive the distribution boards market. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to lead the distribution boards market due to the comprehensive development in this region. The urbanization and industrialization growth in these region is compelling, which will have a great impact on the demand for distribution boards market. China dominated the global distribution boards market till 2016, on account of large scale advancement of electrical infrastructure and installation of new transmission & distribution lines. China and India are estimated to be the fastest-growing markets for distribution panel boards in the region from 2017 to 2023.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Product Analysis Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product types.Additional Information Regulatory Landscape. Pricing Analysis. Macroeconomic Indicators.Geographic Analysis Geographical analysis across 15 countries.Company Information Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Global Autonomous Vehicles Market to cross USD 55.68 Billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 25.6% Autonomous Vehicles Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/statistical-reports/enquiry/2477 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/statistical-reports/global-autonomous-vehicles-type-market-2477 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/statistical-reports/europe-autonomous-vehicles-type-market-2404 The Autonomous Vehicles Market statistical report, published by Market Research Future contains succinct information on the autonomous vehicles market, segmented by Types (semi-autonomous, fully autonomous) and forecast from 2016-2027. The various factors driving the autonomous vehicles market are rise in the aging population, technological advancement, ride sharing, and fuel efficiency.Semi-autonomous vehicles are not far from the hitting the roads and can be expected by the end of the year 2017. Semi-Autonomous vehicles are equipped with sensors and advanced technology to help the driver keep the car in one lane, cruise control and some more intermediary features of the car. As the arrival of fully autonomous vehicles is little far, companies are equipping their vehicles with advance technology to assist the driver. Global Semi-Autonomous Market is expected to reach USD 55.68 Billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 25.6%Get a Sample Report @Table of Contents1. Info graphics Information1.1 Global Autonomous Vehicles Market, By Type, 2016 VS 2027 (USD Billion)2. Introduction3. Global Autonomous Vehicles Market, By Type, Market DataList of TablesTable 1 Global Autonomous Vehicles Market, By Type, 2016-2027 (USD Billion)List of FiguresFigure 1 Global Autonomous Vehicles Market, By Type, 2016-2027 (USD Billion)Browse Report @Browse Related Reports on Autonomous Vehicles Market:Europe Autonomous Vehicle Market has been valued at USD billion in the year 2015 and is projected to grow at CAGR during the forecast period. Contribution from major companies such as BMW, Volkswagen and Audi AG is giving boost to the Europe Autonomous Vehicle market. As these companies succeed in their assignments and get closer to the reality of autonomous vehicles existence, the market in the Europe region will rise subsequently.Europe Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Market is expected to reach USD 14.19 Billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 23.7%Browse Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Automotive E-Tailing Market Research Report by Technological Development, Applications and Forecast 2025 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-etailing-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25670 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Retail purchase and sales through public access websites is known as electronic retailing. E-tailing is the short form of electronic retailing. Automotive e-tailing is online retailing of automotive components and parts in aftermarket. The other distribution channel of automotive aftermarket is brick and mortar stores. Brick and mortar business is the selling of automotive components by a physical store.Automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vendors are those manufacturers who manufacture automotive components that are used by automobile manufacturers for vehicle production. Automotive 3rd party or aftermarket vendors manufacture replacement parts of a vehicles after it is sold to customers. DIY (Do It Yourself) customers themselves install the automotive component and DIFM (Do It For Me) get the component or part installed by another technician.The market is segmented by vendor type into OEM vendors and 3rd party or aftermarket vendors. By service type the market is segmented into DIY and DIFM. By vehicle type the market is classified into passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles.Obtain Report Details @By geography the market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. North America is a significant automotive e-tailing market. The U.S is a major market in the region and also the second largest automotive market in the world. Other significant automotive e-tailing markets in the region are Canada and Mexico. Europe is another major automotive e-tailing market. Germany is a significant market and the largest automotive market in Europe. The U.K, France, Italy and Spain are the major automotive e-tailing markets in Europe. Asia Pacific is a significant automotive e-tailing market. China is a significant market in the region as it is the largest automotive market in the world. Japan, South Korea and India are major automotive e-tailing markets in Asia Pacific. Adoption of automotive e-tailing is low in Middle East & Africa and Latin America. Iran, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina are major automotive e-tailing markets in Middle East & Africa and Latin America.Currently automotive e-tailing penetration is low as compared to brick and mortar stores but it is anticipated to grow in future. Rise in demand for e-commerce business channel including same-day delivery concept is anticipated to increase the adoption of automotive e-tailing. Increased continence, faster delivery and greater selection range is making customers choose automotive e-tailing over conventional brick and mortar purchase. Rising demand for better service from aftermarket industry is anticipated to increase the adoption of e-tailing among automotive aftermarket suppliers. Other than customers, automotive technicians are preferring e-tailing for purchase of automotive components due to same day component delivery. Increase in average age of vehicles are anticipated to increase demand in automotive aftermarket and subsequently adoption of automotive e-tailing will rise. DIY customers prefer on-line purchase due to low price, ease of purchase and home delivery. A major restrain for automotive e-tailing market is managing high inventory levels. E-tailing firms maintain high inventory to increase customer service. E-tailing firms maintain high volume of products find it difficult to maintaining quality as counterfeit products may be sold to customers. A major opportunity for automotive e-tailing is increasing acceptance of electric and hybrid vehicles across the world. Major automobile manufacturers plan to increase production of electric vehicles in future.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Automotive E-Tailing Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report provides the various competitive strategies adopted by key players operating in the market to gain market share. Company profiles include company details, market presence by segment and geography, strategic overview, SWOT analysis and historical revenue. The report also contains details of market share analysis of key players in the market. Major firms operating in the automotive e-tailing market are Amazon (the U.S), eBay Motors (the U.S), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (China), AutoZone, Inc. (the U.S), Delticom AG (Germany), Rock Auto LLC. (U.S), OReilly Automotive Inc. (U.S.), CARiD.com (U.S), Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (U.S) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (the U.S) among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to rovide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Automotive Glove Box Market: Key Players and Production Information analysis with Forecast 2025 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-glove-box-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25679 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Automotive glove box is also known as glove compartment or glovie. It is an interior component of an automobile and part of the vehicles dashboard. It is used for miscellaneous purposes.Automotive component suppliers produce glove box and supply it to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) such as Volkswagen AG, BMW AG, Daimler AG, Renault and PSA Group among others. The OEMs install the glove box in automobiles. The glove box is a vital component required for the manufacturing of an automobiles.By vehicle type the market is segmented into passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles. The market share of passenger vehicles is more than commercial vehicles.Obtain Report Details @By geography the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. North America is a major automotive glove box market with the U.S. being the largest market in the region. The U.S is the second largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Canada and Mexico are other significant markets in this region. Recently KSTN Plastic Solutions, Germany (part of Ashok Minda Group) has opened a new manufacturing facility in Mexico to manufacture glove box and other automotive components for Volkswagen and other automotive OEMs. This is anticipated to increase the market size of glove box in Mexico and North America. Europe is another major automotive glove box market in the world with Germany being the largest market in this region. Germany is the largest automotive market in Europe. The U.K, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands are other major markets in this region. Asia Pacific is a dominant automotive glove box market in the world with China being the largest market in this region. China is the largest automotive market in the world. Japan, South Korea, India and Australia are other significant markets in this region. Middle East & Africa and Latin America are other major automotive glove box markets. Turkey, Iran, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina are prominent markets in the above regions.Rising demand of vehicles across the world is anticipated to increase the demand for automotive glove box market. A major short term restraint faced by automotive OEMs is decreasing production of glove box. Automotive component supplier Recitals production of glove box was hampered due to fire. This forced OEMs such as Volkswagen to stop their production for limited number of days and store their Passat cars until enough glove boxes were available.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Automotive Glove Box Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@A major opportunity in automotive glove box market is increasing the use of polycarbonate and other polymer and plastic material in glove box production. Fuel efficiency is inversely proportional to the weight of vehicle. If polycarbonates are used to produce automotive glove box and other interior vehicle components it will reduce vehicle weight and increase fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle emission. There is an increasing acceptance of hybrid and electric vehicles across the world. Major automotive manufacturers are producing electric vehicles which is anticipated to increase the demand for automotive glove box market.The report highlights the various competitive strategies adopted by key players operating in the market to gain market share. Company profiles include company details, market presence by segment and geography, strategic overview, SWOT analysis and historical revenue. The report also contains details of market share analysis of key players in the market. Major firms operating in the automotive glove box market are Magna International Inc. (Canada), IAC Group (Luxembourg), Visteon Corporation (the U.S), ITW (the U.S), Moriroku Holdings Company (Japan), Yanfeng Automotive Interiors (China), Faurecia (the U.S), Trinseo S.A (the U.S), Hyundai Mobis (South Korea), Minda KTSN Plastic Solutions GmbH & Co.KG (Germany) and Recticel (Belgium)The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to rovide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Automotive HVAC System Market: Key Players and Production Information analysis with Forecast 2025 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-hvac-system-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25682 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are meant for ensuring proper ventilation and air conditioning within a vehicle. Such a system provides good air quality within the vehicle and makes the environment comfortable for the driver and co-passengers. There are two different types of air conditioning system used in the automotive industry such as the expansion valve system and the fixed orifice tube system. In an expansion valve system, the compressor compresses the low pressure refrigerant received from an evaporator into a high pressure refrigerant vapour, which is sent to a condenser. During this stage, the low pressure refrigerant vapour, which enters the compressor is cold but at the compression process the vapour temperature is increased considerably. During the compression process, heat absorbed by the refrigerant vapour is released out in the atmosphere.The components of an automotive air conditioning unit includes compressor, condenser, evaporator, pressure regulating devices, orifice tube, thermal expansion valve, receiver-drier and accumulator. The compressor is considered the heart of automobile HVAC system. It is a pump which is belt driven and attached to the engine. The compressor helps in the compressing and transferring of refrigerant gas. A condenser is used to help radiate heat and is normally located in front of the vehicle. When the hot compressed gases are introduced on the top of a condenser, they are cooled instantly and after the cooling is complete, they condense and exit from the bottom of the condenser as a high pressure fluid. An evaporator is a heat absorber component of the HVAC system. The main purpose of an evaporator is to remove the heat from inside the vehicle and dehumidify the environment within it. Pressure regulating devices are meant for controlling the evaporator temperature by regulating the refrigerant pressure and flow into the evaporator.Obtain Report Details @The automotive HVAC System market can be classified by air conditioning system type, by application and by geography. The air conditioning system type segment can be classified into the expansion valve system and the fixed orifice tube system. By application, the market can be segregated as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles. By geography, the market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.Increasing demand for passenger vehicles and the requirement for air conditioning systems under extreme weather conditions are the major driving forces for the global automotive HVAC system market. In addition, economic reforms in developing countries, growth in the global automotive sector and rising private equity investments in automotive HVAC system manufacturing companies across the world is set to influence the growth of this market positively. Moreover, increasing production of vehicles is also set to bolster the growth of this market globally. In terms of market revenue share, Asia Pacific is expected to hold the largest share by the end of forecast period followed by Europe, North America, Latin America and, Middle East and Africa.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Automotive HVAC System Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report also provides company market share analysis of the various industry participants. Acquisition is the main strategy being widely followed by leading market players. In case of an acquisition, the acquirer takes advantage of existing synergies. As a result, both companies are expected to emerge more profitable and stronger than before. Key players in the global automotive HVAC system market have been profiled and their company overview, financial overview, business strategies and recent developments have been covered in the report. Major market participants profiled in this report include: Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. Kg, Air International Thermal Systems, Calsonic Kansei, Denso Corporation, DelStar Technologies, Engineered Plastic Components, Hanon Systems, Japan Climate Systems Corporation, Mahle Behr GmbH, Johnson Electric, Sanden Holdings Corporation, Valeo Group and Sensata Technologies among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to rovide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Automotive Trailer Market: Key Players and Production Information analysis with Forecast 2025 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-trailer-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25688 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Automotive trailers are unpowered vehicles pulled by a powered vehicle. It is usually used for the transportation of materials and goods and is pulled by means of a hitch. Trailers are used for many purposes such as recreation, to carry fishing boats, and to carry luggage, mobile homes, and bicycles as a part of the load, in addition to transportation of goods and materials from one place to the other. These trailers are predominantly used by cargo companies for transference of goods nationally and internationally. Furthermore, these companies use trailers frequently to move construction material from the factory to the construction site and vice versa. North America is likely to observe considerable requirement for automotive trailers due to extensive usages in construction, manufacturing industry, and transport.Rising demand for trailers, enhancement in standards of living of people, and reduction of railway network in Europe and North America are expected to be some of the major drivers for the growth of the automotive trailers market during the forecast period. The number of in-service railway boxcars fell by 41% in North America in the past decade as 101,600 cars were done away with and merely 13,800 substitutes were added in the consecutive year. Moreover, the disposable income of the population is increasing at a significant rate in Europe and North America. In the U.S., the average household disposable income per capita was around US$ 41,071 per year, greater than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of around US$ 29,016 a year. Limited construction capacity for car trailers, especially specialized car trailers, and prolonged procurement process are some of the challenges faced by the global automotive trailers market. Nevertheless, improvement of design of trailers and growth in the untapped markets of developing economies including Indonesia, China, and India are likely to offer significant opportunities to the automotive trailers market.Obtain Report Details @The global automotive trailers market is segregated by vehicle type, axle type, trailer type, and geography. By trailer type, the market is divided into box trailers, trippers, dry van, open car, flatbed, and others. The dry van segment is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period owing to their enhanced functionalities and ease of use. On the basis of axle type, the market is classified into tandem axle and single axle. By vehicle type, the automotive trailers market is categorized into passenger cars, two wheelers, and commercial vehicles. The commercial vehicles segment is likely to expand at a significant pace owing to the rise in demand for trailers in construction and other industries.The global automotive trailers market is segmented into five regions. They are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. In terms of revenue, North America held a significant share of the market. However, the Asia Pacific region is likely to gain significant traction during the forecast period. Some of the other factors responsible for the growth of the global automotive trailers market are rise in regional transportation of goods, low damage of goods carried, development in roadways, and regional treaties that encourage trade amongst regions. The rising demand for HCVs or heavy commercial vehicles in North America and Asia Pacific (chiefly in China, Japan, and India), is likely to fuel the market for more developed trailer systems in commercial vehicle segments in these regions, thereby augmenting the overall growth of the automotive trailers market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Automotive Trailer Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Some of the major companies functioning in the global automotive trailers market include Miller Industries Inc., Humbaur GmbH, Wabash National Corporation, Ifor Williams Trailers Ltd, Dennison Trailers Ltd, Great Dane, and HYUNDAI Translead. Some of the other companies operating in the market are Pace American, Big Tex Trailers, MAXXD Trailers, Aluma, and ANG Industries Limited.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to rovide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Ammunition Market Research Report and Forecast up to 2021 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ammunition-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1225 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Global Ammunition Market: SnapshotConcerns over terrorism are escalating in several regions across the world and especially in Europe. Terrorist disturbances are growing in count and government bodies are doing what they can to curb it. This includes increasing expenditure on ammunitions of all types and calibers. Countries such as South Korea, Indian, China, and Pakistan are also increasing their spending on ammunition due to disturbances created by neighboring countries.A related event is the growing pace of the arms race in countries from the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. Several countries from these regions are strengthening their troop count as well as modernizing their military equipment. This growing arms race is creating a very high demand for ammunitions, further driving its global market.However, the U.S. and several European countries are on their way to steadily demilitarizing themselves, a move which started after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The demilitarization, coupled with the recent economic meltdown, have caused North America and Europe to lose share values in the global ammunition market.The resultant effect of all the above factors and more can be seen in a predicted CAGR for the markets revenue, which is 3.7% from 2015 to 2021. By the end of 2021, the revenue is expected to reach US$14.87 bn.View Report @APAC and MEA Demand for Ammunitions Increases RapidlyAlthough North America and Europe currently hold leading shares in the market value for ammunitions, their growth rate is expected reduce over the coming years due to substantial reductions in overall demand. At the same time, the demand for ammunitions is expected to increase rapidly in Asia Pacific and the MEA region. By the end of 2021, the share of ammunitions revenue held by Europe will be 31.78%.At the moment, most of the demand for ammunitions in Europe is coming from the strengthening of national defense forces to combat the rising waves of terrorism. Both North America and Europe are currently focusing more on the replacement and refurbishment of older weapons and ammunitions, creating a moderate demand for new ammo. The current largest market for ammunitions lies in Russia, a country which is expected to maintain its leading position till 2021.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Ammunition Market Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Military Demand for Ammunition Keeps Player Revenues at Steady Growth RateBy the end of 2021, the revenue share in the ammunitions market held by the military sector is expected to be 57.14%. The military receives significant financial aid and interest from the national governments, which allows the military to create a consistent level of research and development efforts in making efficient, precise, and tougher rounds. The military sectors is currently showing a high demand in all types of bullets and in all calibers. Law enforcement and civil sales of ammunition are primarily done in small caliber rounds. The sale of commercial ammunitions, meanwhile, is reducing in developed economies and is increasing in the emerging ones, primarily as a source of self-defense.The leading manufacturers of ammunition from a global perspective include Fiocchi Munizioni S.p.A., General Dynamics Corporation, Hornady Manufacturing Company, Inc., Orbital ATK, Inc., Nammo A.S., and RUAG Holding A.G.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Advanced Materials Market SWOT Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecasts To 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/advanced-materials-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=7307 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Global Advanced Materials Market: SnapshotAdvanced materials are known to have superior qualities as compared to traditional materials. Thus, they are used in varied applications. These materials are known to deliver excellent performance due to their exceptional strength and high endurance to tolerate fatigue. The research report states that the global advanced materials market is expected to be worth US$102.48 bn by 2024 as against US$42.76 bn in 2015. Between the years of 2016 and 2024, the global market is expected to surge at a CAGR of 10.4%.Sophistication in Material Spurs DemandAnalysts anticipate that the demand for advanced materials will continue to be on the rise as it is expected to transform the overall manufacturing industry in the coming years. Over the years, these materials are expected to replace plastics and metals with improved ceramics and composites that are light in weight, higher strength, and excellent resistance to abrasion. Emerging technologies and advancements in product development and manufacturing are expected to keep the demand for advanced materials at an all-time high during the forecast period. The growing expenditure on research and development of these materials is also projected to make a significant impact on the growing demand in the global market.View Report @Show of Excellent Strength Boosts Demand for CeramicsThe various products available in the global market are ceramics, polymers, composites, metals and alloys, and glasses. Of these, the ceramics and composites are popularly consumed advanced materials. The demand for ceramics has been on the rise due to their application in the production of medical devices. As uptake of ceramics will continue to remain high as the healthcare industry grows and the need for medical attention surges during the forecast period.Meanwhile, the composites segment is also expected to show exceptionally growth as they can be mass-produced as per requirement and can be used in several applications such as construction, automotive, and oil and gas industries. Ceramics are made by using two or more constituents that have significantly different physical or chemical traits. A combination of these results in a material with characteristics different from its individual components. These constitutes are selected on the basis of the end-use application of these ceramics. Thus, composites have an edge over other products and are thus likely to exhibit rapidly growth in the coming few years.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Advanced Materials Market Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Large Production Capacities in North America and Europe Ensure Regions DominanceGeographically, the global advanced materials market is segmented into North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Of these, North America and Europe were the dominant consumers of advanced materials in the global market. The growing consumption of advanced materials in these regions will be attributable to the mammoth production capacities and sophistication with the advancement of technologies. Asia Pacific is also expected to be an emerging region in the global market over the forecast period as manufacturing industries pick up pace in developing countries of India and China. The booming industrial development in this region is expected to make a significant contribution of the rising revenue of the Asia Pacific advanced materials market between 2016 and 2024.Some of the key leading players operating in the global advanced materials market are 3M Advanced Materials, Morgan Advanced Materials plc, Huntsman Corporation, Hexcel Corporation, Hanwa Group, and Materion Corporation..About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Global Market Analysis and Major Key Players (Garmin, Raytheon, Thales, Universal Avionics, Many More) Foresight 2021 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1634 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/satellite-based-augmentation-systems-market The key factors driving the demand are the growing developments of ATC infrastructure, need for authentic and accurate information to avoid errors, and rise in the development of airports constriction and modernization. As per the MRFR analysis, factors restraining the market are the cost associated with air traffic management (ATM) infrastructure modernization and the retrofit older aircraft with the upgraded systems.The Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% during 2016-2021.Request a Copy of Sample Report @Access the market data and market information presented through more than 85 market data tables and figures spread in 103 numbers of pages of the project report Satellite Based Augmentation Systems MarketKey Players Garmin, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, Thales, Universal Avionics, Advanced Navigation and Positioning Corporation, Copperchase Ltd., Intelcan Technosystems, Honeywell International, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Saab ABStudy Objectives of Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Market To provide insights about the factors affecting the market growth To analyse the Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country-level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country-level analysis of the market for segment by elements To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems MarketTarget Audience Satellite OEMs Equipment / System Suppliers Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerThe report also covers country level analysis:Americas (North & Latin) US Canada Brazil OthersEurope Germany France Italy Spain U.K Rest of EuropeAsia Pacific China India Japan Australia/New Zealand Rest of Asia-PacificMiddle East & Africa UAE Kuwait Israel Rest of Middle East & AfricaBrowse Report Details @The market report for Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems Market Research Report Forecast 2016-2021 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Food Container Market: Global Survey, Trends, Outlook, Overview and 2022 Forecast https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1799 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/food-container-market The key drivers contributing to the growth of the food container market are increasing awareness of environmental issues, adoption of new regulatory requirements, health awareness and new packaging material development. The growing requirement for brand differentiation in an increasingly competitive environment is expected to drive the market. The plastic packaging both rigid and flexible has been dominating the market.Request a Copy of Sample Report @Access the market data and market information presented through more than 75 market data tables and figures spread in 130 numbers of pages of the project report Food Container MarketPlastic packaging has been dominating the market. The food container market has grown over the years. The products are required to be preserved for longer span of time; they are required to be packed using durable, efficient and protective methods. Food& Beverage industry contributes the highest to the overall growth in the food container market. North America contributes largest share to the market. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing region for the food container market, followed by Europe.Key Players Bemis Company Incorporated, Berry Plastics Corporation, Crown Holdings Incorporated, Graham Packaging Company Incorporated, Graphic Packaging Holding Company, Ball Corporation, Constar International Incorporated, Anchor Glass Container Corporation, Alcan Packaging Food Americas, and Associated Packaging Technologies.Study Objectives of Food Container Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Global Food Container Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Global Food Container Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, material, product, application, and regions To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Food Container Market.Regional Analysis of Global Food Container MarketNorth America contributes largest share to the market. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing region for the food container market, followed by Europe. The reasons contributing to the growth in this region include increasing disposable income, changing lifestyle, increased popularity of packaged food and increasing aggregate demand for canned food.Browse Full Report Details @Target Audience Manufactures Raw Materials Suppliers Aftermarket suppliers Research Institute / Education Institute Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerProduct Analysis Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Global Food Container Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Food Container Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Global Cardamom Oil Market - Trends & Forecast, 2016-2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/report/global-cardamom-oil-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 https://www.reportsworldwide.com/enquiry?report_id=36518 ReportsWorldwide has announced the addition of a new report title Global Cardamom Oil Market - Trends & Forecast, 2016-2022 to its growing collection of premium market research reports.Cardamom oil is extracted from dried cardamom through the steam distillation procedure which is used in various application such as food processing, pharmaceutical, fragrance in soaps and perfumers etc. The cardamom oil extract is comprises various essential components like pinene, methyl eugenol, sabinene, geraniol, linalyl acetate, myrcene, nerol, phellandrene, citronellol, linalool, limonene, a-terpineol acetate, 1, 8-cineole, terpinene, a-terpineol, p-cymene, terpinen-4-oil, terpinolene, and trans-nerolidol. The demand for cardamom oil is significantly increasing due to its numerous benefits for health, skin, and hair. It is finds wide application in aromatherapy.Cardamom oil market has been growing with increasing consumer awareness about health benefits of cardamom oil and its rising application in personal care products is also supporting the market growth. Increasing popularity of essential oil will boost cardamom oil sales and by 2021, cardamom oil sales will reach 4307 tons with CAGR of 6.74%.Gautemala is largest producer of cardamom oil and it is estimated that cardamom oil market will reach 1374 tons by the end of 2021.To view a detailed description and Table of Contents please visit:After Guatemala, India is the major producer of cardamom oil and by end of 2021 the cardamom oil market in India will reach at 1213 tons with CAGR of 7.99% which show cardamom oil market is growing faster in India compare to Guatemala.Cardamom oil is made from two genre of cardamom plants i.e. Elettaria and Amomum (Subulatum/ costatum). Elettaria is also known as true cardamom or green cardamom which is mostly grows in India and Guatemala whereas Amomum is known as black cardamom or java cardamom which is mainly found in China and India subcontinent. Depend upon these two types of cardamom plants (i.e. Elettaria and Amomum), cardamom oil is segmented in to Elettaria cardamom oil and Amomum subulatum cardamom oil. Elettaria cardamom oil has the major market share and contributing more than 50% market share with 346 USD Million market value in 2016.The cardamom oil market is driven by factors including rising demand for natural flavoring and coloring agent in food. Increasing demand from various downstream markets including food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, personal care and home care product manufacturers is fueling cardamom oil market growth. Cardamom oil is majorly used in food and beverages application and it will reach at 1720 tons in 2021. Pharmaceutical application of cardamom oil is growing faster than other application with CAGR of 6.8%.Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global cardamom oil market primarily are Nelixia, Green Fields Oil Factory, Shiv Sales Corporation, Aromaaz Internationa, IL Health & Beauty Natural Oils Co., Inc., Aksuvital, Shaanxi Guanjie Technology Co., Ltd, Natures Natural India, Piping Rock Health Products Llc and Greenleaf Extractions Pvt LtdTo Enquire about this Report please visit @About ReportsWorldwide.comReportsWorldwide.com is a leading provider of global market intelligence reports and services. With research reports from top publishers, consulting and advisory firms, ReportsWorldwide.com offers instant online access to a growing database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, geographies and trends.Press Contact:Abigail CrastoSenior Vice President101, Arch StreetBoston, MA 02110USPhone +1 (617) 398-4994Fax +1 (617) 398-4995abigail@reportsworldwide.com Global Pillow Market Consumption, Price, Demand, Revenue, Trend, Opportunity and Forecast to 2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2766 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/pillow-market-2766 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2766 www.marketresearchfuture.com MarketResearchFuture.com add new report of Global Pillow Market Research Report- Forecast to 2023 it contains Company information, geographical data and Market AnalysisGlobal Pillow Market Information- by Material (100% Cotton, 100% Bamboo Fiber, 100% Silk, 100% Polyester and Others), by filling material (Memory Foam, Hollow Fibre, Latex, Microfiber and Others), by shape (Square, U-Shape, Rectangle, Wave, Round, Convex and Others), by feature (Therapy, Cooling, Anit-Static, Anti-Bacteria and Others), by application (Decorative, Sleeping, Bedding, Travel, Massage and Others) by Region Forecast to 2023Global Pillow Market has seen significant growth form last decade due to increasing application of pillow for decoration and sleeping purpose. The filling material used in pillow provides special features to pillow which is used for different application. Rising awareness among consumer about selection of a pillow which suits their sleeping position has changed the dynamics of pillow market. In North America, square and rectangle shaped pillow are dominating the market and it is anticipated to maintain their dominance during forecast period. Huge potential in Middle East and Africa region is attracting key players to enter in that particular market and pillow market in these region will witness significant growth in upcoming region.Get a sample report atStudy Objectives of Pillow Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global pillow market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the market based on various factors - price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by material, filling material, shape, feature, application and region To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments globally.Intended Audience Pillow manufacturers Cotton manufacturers Silk and Polyester manufacturers Latex and fiber manufacturers Agriculture Industry E-commerce Retailers and wholesalers Traders, importers and exportersBrowse complete report atKey Findings: Pillows with therapy feature is growing at faster rate compare to pillows with other feature types Pillows made from hallow fiber is in high demand from developed countries like U.S., France, Canada and U.K.SegmentsPillow market has been segmented on the basis of material which includes 100% Cotton, 100% Bamboo Fiber, 100% Silk, 100% Polyester and OthersPillow market has been segmented on the basis of filling material which includes memory foam, hollow fibre, latex, microfiber and othersPillow market has been segmented on the basis of shape which includes square, u-shape, rectangle, wave, round, convex and othersPillow market has been segmented on the basis of feature which includes therapy, cooling, anit-static, anti-bacteria and othersPillow market has been segmented on the basis of application which includes decorative, sleeping, bedding, travel, massage and othersRegional AnalysisThe Global Pillow market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world (ROW). Asia Pacific has the major market share followed by Europe. Population in Asia Pacific region contributes around half of the worlds population which has created huge customer base for pillow market. Innovation by key players in pillow filling material and attractive designs and shapes of various pillows is attracting consumers from Europe and North America region.Key PlayersThe key players profiled in the pillow market are as Hollander (U.S.) American Textile Company (U.S.) Wendre (Estonia) Romatex (South Africa) Hunan Mendale Hometextile Co., Ltd (China) Luolai (China) Dohia Home Textile Co., Ltd (China)The pillow market is segmented under the following regions mentioned below:North America US Canada MexicoEuropeGermany France Netherlands Spain UK Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacific China India Australia Malaysia Rest of Asia PacificRest of the world Brazil Argentina Saudi Arabia South Africa OthersGet a discount atThe report for Global Pillow Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regions.Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the study2.2.1 Research Objectives2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Markets Structure2.4 Stakeholders3 Research methodology3.1 Research PROCESSING3.2 Secondary research3.3 Primary research3.4 Forecast model3.5 Market Size estimation4 MARKET DYNAMICS4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges5 MARKET TRENDS5.1 Trends in Supply/Production5.2 Trends in Demand/Consumption5.3 Emerging Markets (Supply & Demand)5.4 Emerging Brands5.5 Trade (Import-export) Analysis5.6 Innovations in Products/PROCESSING5.7 Macroeconomic indicators Analysis for top 5 Producing countries6 MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS6.1 Introduction6.2 Value chain analysis6.3 Porters five forces6.4 Supply Chain Analysis7. MARKET-By Material7.1 Introduction7.2 Market size (sub segments)7.2.1 100% Cotton7.2.2 100% Bamboo Fiber7.2.3 100% Silk7.2.4 100% Polyester and7.2.5 Others8. MARKET-By Filling Material8.1 Introduction8.2 Market size (sub segments)8.2.1 Memory Foam8.2.2 Hollow Fibre8.2.3 Latex8.2.4 Microfiber and8.2.5 Others9. MARKET-By Shape9.1 Introduction9.2 Market size (sub segments)9.2.1 Square9.2.2 U-Shape9.2.3 Rectangle9.2.4 Wave9.2.5 Round9.2.6 Convex and9.2.7 Others10. MARKET-By Feature10.1 Introduction10.2 Market size (sub segments)10.2.1 Therapy10.2.2 Cooling10.2.3 Anit-Static10.2.4 Anti-Bacteria and10.2.5 Others11. MARKET-By Application11.1 Introduction11.2 Market size (sub segments)11.2.1 Decorative11.2.2 Sleeping11.2.3 Bedding11.2.4 Travel11.2.5 Massage and11.2.6 Others12. MARKET -By Region12.1 Introduction12.2 North America12.2.1 U.S.12.2.2 Canada12.2.3 Mexico12.3 Europe12.3.1 Introduction12.3.1 Germany12.3.2 France12.3.3 Italy12.3.4 U.K12.3.5 Rest of Europe12.4 Asia Pacific12.4.1 China12.4.2 India12.4.3 Japan12.4.4 Rest of Asia-Pacific12.5 RoW12.5.1 Brazil12.5.2 Argentina12.5.3 Egypt12.5.4 South Africa12.5.5 Others13. Competitive landscape13.1 Introduction13.2 Product Launch/Development13.3 Partnerships and collaborations13.4 Acquisitions13.5 Business Expansion14. COMPANY PROFILES14.1 Hollander (U.S.)14.2 American Textile Company (U.S.)14.3 Wendre (Estonia)14.4 Romatex (South Africa)14.5 Hunan Mendale Hometextile Co., Ltd (China)14.6 Luolai (China)14.7 Dohia Home Textile Co., Ltd (China)At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W: LED and OLED Display Global Market Survey, Latest Technology, Demand and Forecast to 2027 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1096 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/led-oled-display-market The major growth driver of LED & OLED Display Market includes growing acceptance of LED in commercial & residential sectors, growing demand for flexible display products, and government regulations such as mandating OLED and LED lighting in public places among others.However, lack of skilled employment and complex manufacturing process are the major factors which are hindering the growth of LED & OLED Display Market.Request a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players LG Electronics Inc.(South Korea), Corning (U.S.), OSRAM GmbH (Germany), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Panasonic Corporation (Japan), Philips Electronics (Netherland), Microchip Technologies (U.S.), Sony Corporation (Japan), Universal Display Corporation (U.S.) among others.SegmentsGlobal LED & OLED Display Market can be segmented as follows:Segmentation by Type: Passive-matrix OLED (PMOLED), Active-matrix OLED (AMOLED), organic LED, inorganic LED and high brightness LED among others.Segmentation by Application: Commercial, residential and industrial among others.Industry News:Universal Display Corporation has announced about its acquisition of BASFs OLED intellectual property on June 2016. BASF is one of the leading chemical industries in the globe. This acquisition would help in the development in commercial blue emissive system.Sony Europe has announced in August 2016 that it has acquired eSATURNUS NV, a Belgium based company which provides clinical video in medical field. This acquisition covers intellectual property rights and technological and software capabilities of the organization.Objective of LED & OLED Display Market Study: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global LED & OLED Display market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the LED & OLED Display Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, by applications and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global LED & OLED Display market.Browse Full Report Details @Americas North America US Canada Latin AmericaEurope Western Europe Germany France U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsia PacificAsia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificThe Middle East & AfricaThe report for LED & OLED Display Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from LED and OLED Display Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2027 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com MEMS and Sensors Global Market Analysis, Trend, and Global Forecast to 2027 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1059 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/request-toc/1059 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/mems-sensors-market The major growth driver of MEMS & Sensors Market includes growing demand for security in automobile industries, growing consumer electronics market, and innovative government regulations for energy efficient applications among others.However, functional and operational issues are one of the major factors which are hindering the growth of MEMS & Sensors Market.Request a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players Texas Instruments (U.S), InvenSense (U.S.), Qualcomm (U.S.), Infineon (Germany), Honeywell (U.S.), Allego microsystems (U.S.), Bosch (U.S.), Asahi Kasei Microsystems (Spain), Mega Chips Corporation (Japan), Panasonic (Japan), Denso Corporation (Japan), Delphi Automotive (U.K.), Hitachi Ltd. (Japan) among others.Industry News:- Infineon has launched IoSense pilot line projects in Dresden on May 2016 to strengthen European microelectronic market. IoSense is derived from internet of sensors which is been developed to extend the Infineons position in the sensor technology market.- Allergo Microsystems has announced on July 2016 about its new linear half-effect current sensors IC product with reverse battery protection. The sensors have 240 kHz bandwidth, high precision which is ideal for automotive applications.Objective of MEMS & Sensors Market Study: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global MEMS & Sensors market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the MEMS & Sensors Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by materials, by components, by applications and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global MEMS & Sensors market.Request Table of Contents for this Report @SegmentsGlobal MEMS & Sensors Market can be segmented as follows:Segmentation by Materials: Silicon, polymers, metals and ceramics among others.Segmentation by Components: Sensors (Pressure sensors, humidity sensors, temperature sensors, accelerometers) and Actuators among others.Segmentation by Application: Consumer electronics, healthcare, industrial, aerospace & defense, and automotive among others.Americas North America US Canada Latin AmericaEurope Western Europe Germany France U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsia Pacific Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificThe Middle East & AfricaThe report for MEMS & Sensors market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Browse Full Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from MEMS & Sensors Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2027 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Midland Public Schools is forecasting another budget surplus in the school year that begins July 1. At an MPS Board of Education meeting Monday night, Associate Superintendent Robert Cooper presented a budget with $79.13 million in revenue and $78.22 million in expenditures, resulting in a surplus of about $900,000. With an expected budget variance of 1 percent, that surplus could rise to $1.69 million. School boards in Michigan are required to approve the following school years budget by June 30. The MPS board is expected to vote on the budget at its June 26 meeting. Unlike in the last three years, the state of Michigan has not settled its school aid budget, and Cooper said MPS made a conservative estimate based on assumptions including a $60-per-pupil increase and the possibility that the district may finally receive some money for at-risk students. A major sticking point in negotiations between lawmakers and Gov. Rick Snyder has been the shape of the retirement system for new teachers, and Cooper noted there has been a hybrid pension system in place since 2010. MPS budget assumptions also include an enrollment decline of 63 students, some reductions in federal programs, a flow-through provision to help pay for services the district provides to parochial school students, a salary increase of about 1 percent for employees, a decrease in district funding of health saving accounts and the ending of some employee groups concessions from the past two years. Cooper said the budget also reflects continued use of the Balance our Budget process which will keep building and department expenditures close to 2016-17 levels. If approved, the budget could mean an increase in the districts unrestricted fund balance to $11.86 million, or 15.2 percent of expenditures. Its so nice to see the fund balance increasing. Its refreshing to see this, said Board Member Lynn Baker. In a related matter, the board approved the hiring of former Midland High School Principal Janet Greif as associate superintendent, providing an additional member of top-level administration. In addition to the hiring of Greif, who has been superintendent at Bay City Public Schools for the last two years, the board approved the hiring of Matt Wenzel as assistant principal at Midland High School, the promotion of Melissa Toner to the post of Media Instructional Tech Specialist and the naming of Interim Plymouth Elementary School Principal Margaret Doan to permanent status in the post. Superintendent Michael Sharrow said he had been extremely aggressive in cutting administrative staff when he first arrived, given budget concerns. With the budget recovering, he felt it was time to add some staff, although he said the new configuration would not be a return to a previous structure. I feel like were a changing organization, he said. The board also approved a contract renewal for Sharrow, adding an additional year so that the contract now expires in 2022. Like other district employees, he will receive a 1 percent raise. Sharrow noted that construction funded by the school bond is about to ramp up, with a big push for the summer, including the completion of the new Central Park Elementary School and Central Auditorium renovations as well as new secure entrances for most schools. Its going to be very exciting this summer in all our schools, said Board President Angela Brandstadt. Board members also saw the logo and mascot for the new school, and a group of students sang the new school song composed by retiring Carpenter Street Elementary music teacher Barbara Jacques. Sharrow said a grand opening ceremony for the school, to which community members will be invited, is set for Oct. 13. Also at Mondays meeting, Sharrow gave the June Shining Star awards to Woodcrest Elementary first-grade teacher Lynn Verdusco and Eastlawn Elementary EnviroClean employee Dave McDonald. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Family members and police are looking for Pamela Flagg, 52 of Breckenridge, who has not been seen since May 31. Flagg left Breckenridge on May 31 for Midland, about a 30-minute drive. She told family she was going to see other family members, but she never arrived at her destination. Neither relatives nor police have seen her since. She left in a silver 2002 Chevrolet Impala, license plate 1LU W50. She is between 5-foot-7-inches and 5-foot-9-inches tall and about 150 pounds. She has red hair and glasses. As of right now, no one has come across this car, Breckenridge Police Chief James Durham told the Daily News on Tuesday morning. She didnt say anything to anybody. She never showed up. I think it just kind of shocked everybody. Police have tried to piece together leads one that she was down in Indiana and another closer to home, as an acquaintance reported seeing her at the Walmart in Alma. Were still chasing down those video cameras and looking for search warrants on her phone number and Facebook history, Durham said. We do have Walmart looking into their tapes, but its kind of like a needle in a haystack. Information on Flaggs Facebook account indicates she started school at Davenport University in late May. Durham said police had contacted the school, which said it has no record of her being a student. Anyone with information is asked to call Breckenridge police at 989-842-5657 or Gratiot County Central Dispatch at 989-875-7505. Police said Flagg is not wanted for any outstanding warrants. Police and family said her phone goes straight to voicemail. Shes cut off communication with all her family, and there was no note left with her husband saying she was leaving, Durham said. On Friday, June 2, two days after Flagg had left, neighbors in Breckenridge told police they had seen Flaggs car at her house. It was parked alongside a white Chrysler in the driveway. The neighbors reported seeing an unfamiliar white male in the Chrysler. They didnt see Flagg. The trunk lids were up like people were putting things in a car, but she wasnt seen, Durham said, adding Flagg had initially taken some personal effects, including photos of a deceased son, makeup, nail polish and shoes, but very little clothing. Which makes us believe she truly packed up a few things and left, he said. Theres nothing wrong with that, the police chief said, but what concerns us is she didnt take her medication with her. We want to find Pam and make sure shes OK, Durham said. Wed like to know who was with her, who was in the white Chrysler. Police and family said Flagg was taking medication for depression. Her son, Trevor Weaver, said she had also been taking pain medications for scoliosis. Weaver, 29, of Merrill, said he had spent the past weekend driving around Midland and across the state looking for his mother. Its extremely out of the ordinary, he said. No one has heard from her, no one has seen her car, police havent seen her either. Michigan State Police say theyve arrested a Midland man for possessing and distributing child sexually abusive materials. Ronald Rospierski, 70, was arrested after authorities seized digital evidence from his home. Google reported that Rospierski was sharing child sexually abusive materials through his account, according to a state police news release sent Tuesday. State police say an investigation was prompted after several cyber tips were provided to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Rospierski is charged with one count of distribution of child sexually abusive materials, two counts of possession of child sexually abusive materials and one count of using a computer to commit a crime. He was arraigned on the charges on May 25. Felony charges for possessing child sexually abusive material carry a maximum four-year prison sentence and/or $10,000 fine. Felony charges for distributing carry a maximum seven-year prison sentence or $50,000 fine. According to Midland County District Court records, Rospierski was found to have attempted to fail to report as a sex offender on Nov. 2, 2015. He lived on East Carpenter Street at the time, records show. The Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit encourages parents to speak to their children about the safe use of the internet. There are many resources available to parents to assist in keeping children safe online. The NCMEC provides a comprehensive list of resources on its website at www.missingkids.org If you have information regarding possible child sexual exploitation, report it to the CyberTipline at www.missingkids.org/cybertipline Mackinac Center for Public Policy President Joseph G. Lehman is proposing that Michigans state lawmakers cast legislative votes from their home districts instead of only at the Capitol building. Lawmakers would thereby have more flexibility to divide their time between the districts and Lansing, he said. Removing the geographic voting restriction would instantly change the dynamics of lawmaker-constituent relationships, election campaigns, and lobbying, Lehman said. Legislators who choose more time at home instead of at the Capitol could find a healthier balance of influence from constituents versus Lansing-based special interests. Lawmakers presently go to where the lobbyists are, which is convenient for lobbyists, Lehman said. Under our proposal, lobbyists would more often have to come to wherever lawmakers spend most of their time. I would expect every election campaign to be filled with promises to spend more time in the district and less in Lansing, Lehman said. State House and Senate practices require votes to be cast at the Capitol, which was the only practical option before modern communication technology. Neither statute nor the state constitution addresses the subject. The Open Meetings Act may need revision in order to accommodate hearings and meetings conducted remotely, according to Lehman. Lehman proposed the change at the Detroit Regional Chambers Mackinac Policy Conference, where he and former Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville discussed legislative term limits in Michigan for an audience of state business, government and community leaders. Some government insiders have proposed eliminating term limits or lengthening them, but polls suggest voters continue to support the constitutional provision enacted in 1992 by a strong margin. Lehman said, Term limits havent lived up to the highest hopes of their supporters, but voters are unlikely to extend them until they trust lawmakers more. Making the time spent in home districts a competitive element of every election, and putting some distance between lawmakers and concentrations of lobbyist power, might build some trust. Legislators have the power to put this in front of the voters right now, Lehman said. It should be done as a constitutional amendment, just like term limits. Many details need to be studied, and the idea can stand alone without linking it to term limits. But without some tangible effort by lawmakers to earn constituents trust, Michigans voters will keep the sell-by date of term limits on their time in the Legislature. BLOOMINGTON Despite a shakeup of several major retailers, economists with Busey Bank are forecasting an increase in retail sales this year in McLean County along with good news in the housing market. Ed Scharlau, vice chairman of Busey Bank, presented a generally upbeat forecast at the 19th Economic Outlook for McLean County at Illinois Wesleyan University on Wednesday morning. Scharlau described the Bloomington-Normal community as a vibrant area of our state with a strong economic base. Retail sales the past two years have been relatively flat with $2.468 million in retail sales in 2016, according to figures from the Illinois Department of Revenue. But Scharlau said that figure is expected to increase to $2.488 billion this year. We're starting to see a slight increase already, Scharlau told the audience of nearly 200 people in the Hansen Student Center. Scharlau noted that while most communities are seeing less people collecting sales taxes, McLean County increased from 4,080 in 2015 to 4,114 in 2016. Another sector that's showing growth is housing. I think we can call the housing market here pretty healthy, said Scharlau. If you're thinking of building or buying, now is a good time. Average home prices in 2015 and 2016 were $171,000, up slightly from $169,000 in 2014. But Busey economists are predicting a slight increase to $175,000 in 20117. New home construction also is anticipated to increase slightly, from 161 last year to 165 in 2017, Scharlau reported. The news was less upbeat on the agricultural front, where agriculture output which includes crops and livestock is forecast to fall to $441 million in 2017 after hitting $485 million last year, said Scharlau. McLean County's unemployment rate continues to be among the lowest in the state. Although it's predicted to be 5 percent for 2017, Scharlau said it could be lower the way figures are unfolding now. The April unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, compared to 4.8 percent a year ago, he said. Kyle Ham, chief executive officer of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, said it is important for McLean County to get its story out. There are some pretty amazing things going on in our community, he said, while also acknowledging that it's no secret that the state of Illinois is in turmoil. Ham said the community's rich quality of life is something to celebrate but also something to build upon. That is particularly true when it comes to attracting and retaining millennials who are leading the exodus from the state, he said. Among recently completed or soon to be completed projects in the Twin Cities that will have a positive economic impact on the community, according to Scharlau, are the five-story building under construction on the circle in uptown Normal, a new Kroger grocery store planned in Bloomington, the recently completed Destihl Brewery and the highly anticipated Portillo's restaurant. BLOOMINGTON Its been in development for six months, but the proposed Jefferson Street Community House will officially open Friday as a work in progress, said the director of resource development and community engagement for Mid Central Community Action. A grand opening event for the joint project among the Bloomington Police Department, Community Action, and the West Bloomington Housing Collaborative is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, said Matthew Drat. When we talk about it being a work in progress, we mean two things, he said. First, we still have to make the house ADA compliant. We have to finish the restroom and we will be installing a ramp. So, there is still work to be done. But more importantly, it is another step toward working with the neighborhood to improve the community as a whole and we think we have seen great strides in that during the last six months. Community Action acquired and rehabbed the house with Illinois attorney general grant money. City officials announced plans in December to lease the property at 828 W. Jefferson from Community Action for $1 a month, but called it a substation. After receiving negative feedback from the community, it was referred to as the Jefferson Street Community House and called a place to improve relations between police officers and neighborhood residents. We are very happy that the house is open and it will serve and strengthen our community relations with people at a neighborhood level, said Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner. We will be there to hear issues and concerns and to focus on crime prevention by speaking to neighbors on a regular basis so the neighborhood kids can see us in an everyday, human light. Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said the house will serve the purpose for which city officials intended. This will prove to be an exciting project and asset to the west side, Renner said. I think it will do really great things to improve our relationship between our police and the neighborhood. Its a form of community policing and everybody gets to know everybody. Originally, several people spoke out against the project, including members of Black Lives Matter, arguing the house would serve as an intrusive police presence in the neighborhood. A spokesman for BLM could not be reached for comment Tuesday. To help alleviate those concerns, the Jefferson Street Community House Advisory Council was formed. The group included a number of neighbors who provided input on the project. We learned a great deal from that and much more than just what the house should be for the community, Drat said. We learned from neighbors about their needs for transportation and health care and the everyday problems they face. There are individuals who live and work in the community and they need to have their voice heard and so already, through this project, I think we have accomplished that and will continue to hear those voices as we go forward. While several neighbors originally opposed the project, others said they think the mood has changed since the project was originally announced. I think some people jumped to some conclusions and thought it was going to be different than what it turns out it is going to be, said Millie McMillian, who lives in the 600 block of West Jefferson. There were worries that the police were going to be jailing people there, but from what I hear, its just going to be a place for community events and neighbors to interact with police officers. Fridays event is open to the public and will have games, youth activities and food, Drat said. BLOOMINGTON An 31-year-old Indiana man is expected to face formal charges Thursday related to a Wednesday morning robbery at the PNC Bank, 2217 W. Market St. Bloomington police were called to the west side bank at 11:25 a.m. where witnesses reported a man entered the bank, unarmed, and demanded money from an employee. The suspect, identified by police as Zachary Finchum of Fort Wayne, took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled east on foot. There were no injuries reported. Officers arrived in the area and were given additional information that included a still photo taken from a video camera and vehicle information. Officers released that information to other police agencies and a short time later, the suspect's vehicle was spotted on Interstate 74 near LeRoy by an Illinois State trooper. A traffic stop was made and Finchum was taken into custody, said BPD. The McLean County Sheriffs Department and LeRoy Police Department assisted. Finchum is being held in McLean County jail. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Bloomington police at 309-434-2359 or detective Steve Moreland at smoreland@cityblm.org. BLOOMINGTON A Normal woman said she will appeal a McLean County judges decision that bars her from being in contact with a Parkside Elementary School teacher for the next two years. Associate Judge Brian Goldrick on Wednesday approved a two-year, no-contact order against Darlene Hedrick, who made threats the court considered severe enough to extend the order, originally approved in April. After receiving the court papers, Hedrick, who already had been warned several times by Goldrick about her behavior during the hour-long hearing, called a witness who testified on behalf of the teacher a liar and then shouted to the court that the case wasnt over. I will be filing an appeal, she shouted at the teacher. The teacher has not been identified by The Pantagraph because she is the victim of an alleged stalking. After Hedrick stormed out, Goldrick instructed her attorney, Hal Jennings, to have his client return to the courtroom. You have just been served with papers ordering you to have no contact with her and your comments could be interpreted by this court as a violation, he told her. Hedrick then repeated her promise to file an appeal. You have every right to do that, Goldrick said, but you cannot communicate with the person listed on the order in any form. Hedrick is the guardian of a third-grader who was in the teachers class. In January, the child left her boots in the elementary school gym, according to testimony at Wednesdays hearing. The teacher did not allow the student to retrieve them after they returned to class and the child went home without them. Later that night, Hedrick left a message on the schools voice mail that was played in court. She is on my hit list, Hedrick said on the voicemail. Hedrick testified that she meant for the teacher to be fired. Shannon Kocar, a receptionist at Unit 5, testified that in April, Hedrick came to the district office to speak to an administrator and file a complaint because the teacher had called the Department of Child and Family Services about concerns she had about the student. Kocar testified that Hedrick made another threat at that time. Kocar testified that Hedrick stated, If they dont remove my baby from her class, I will kill her. Hedrick denied making the statement. The teacher, however, said the comment made her fear for her safety and after talking with administrators, they filed a police report. Hedrick is barred from being within 500 feet of the teacher, her home and the school where she works. Hedrick has since moved and said her child will be attending school in a different district next year. We are happy with the ruling and glad that the judge listened to the evidence and issued the order, said the teachers attorney, Tristan Bullington. Unit 5 is not a party to the legal action filed by the teacher, however, several Unit 5 teachers and administrators were in attendance at the hearing. BLOOMINGTON A public hearing on whether to amend the city's liquor ordinance to address a complaint about businesses giving out complimentary samples of alcohol, especially during First Friday events downtown, has been moved to next month. The hearing could not be held at the city liquor commission's meeting Tuesday because public notice was not posted on the city's website in time, said Mayor Tari Renner, who heads the three-member commission. The public hearing will be held at the commission's meeting July 11. "Then probably the month after that we'd come back and talk about it again because it's more complicated than we thought," said Renner. Renner, in the absence Tuesday of liquor commissioners Lindsey Powell and Jack Bataoel, did forward liquor license requests for several businesses, including Giordano's Pizza, onto the City Council to act on July 10. Giordano's Aaron Uftring, who will own the franchise location in the former Qdoba restaurant at 1505 N. Veterans Parkway in Bloomington, said he expects to open in August. He requested a restaurant liquor license to allow the sale of beer and wine by the glass for consumption at the restaurant seven days a week. Uftring said the restaurant will employ about 50, seat about 70 and offer the standard menu of a full-service Giordano's, including stuffed deep dish pizza, sandwiches, soups, salads, appetizers and desserts. Lil' Beaver Brewery Chad Bevers and business partner Dale Thomas want to open a small brewery and tasting room at 16 Currency Drive, to turn Bevers' hobby of brewing beer at his Heyworth home into a business, Lil' Beaver Brewery. Bevers said he has received a permit from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to make alcohol. "But we're still waiting on the city for our building permits to be able to complete our location, and on top of that we've just applied for our state license which would grant us permission to make and sell beer," said Bevers. "In order to sell it direct to consumers we need to have a local liquor license." The local liquor license would allow for the sale of beer and wine for consumption on the premises and sale of packaged beer and wine to go seven days a week. Zoning would permit a capacity of 23 people in the tasting room, which Bevers said he hopes to open in August or September. HuHot Mongolian Grill HuHot Mongolian Grill plans to open at 2103 N. Veterans Parkway, said Leila Kietzman, a district manager for the franchise group. HuHot has requested a restaurant liquor license to allow the sale of beer and wine by the glass for consumption at the restaurant seven days a week. "HuHot is a create-your-own Asian stir fry restaurant," said Kietzman. "You can create your meal and take it up to the big grill in the center of restaurant and watch while it's cooked up." Renner also recommended forwarding to the City Council on July 10 a temporary liquor license request from the McLean County Fair Association, which wants to sell cans of beer for consumption by people 21 and older in the grandstands during several fair events Aug. 2-5. Events include a demolition derby, a concert and two tractor-pulls, said fair director Mike Swartz, "It's our first time. We're trying to police it the best we can," he added. There seems to be progress in the ongoing battle against the opioid epidemic, but there is clearly a long way to go to stemming the problem. As The Pantagraph's recent series updating the crisis made clear, opioid abuse remains a significant health care concern in Central Illinois and beyond. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 1,877 Illinoisans died of an opioid overdose in 2016. Of those, 1,002 died of a heroin overdose. The rest died from other opioids, including prescription painkillers. As Dr. Darrell Rust, an emergency department physician at Pontiac's OSF Saint James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center, puts it, "I don't know that I can say it's getting worse. But it's still a huge problem. Hopefully, things are turning around. There are a lot of things (initiatives) trying to make a difference." A lot of that has to do with the continuing education that is going on. From public service campaigns and the distribution of educational materials to community forums, officials are working hard to educate people about the dangers of opioid abuse. In Lincoln, for example, the police department has trained two more officers in the DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) to work with youths. No one wants to see another person in pain. That's a basic instinct. It's also instinctive to want to alleviate that pain. Opiates are not a modern creation. Assortments of plants have been used and combined for centuries to reduce pain. The difference now is we can create drugs to deal with pain, but we don't always control their use. Some people too many turn to buying an illegal opioid, mainly heroin, on the street when they cannot get their prescriptions refilled. Heroin is far cheaper than prescription painkillers. If opiates are responsibly prescribed and used, we have a solution to the pain. Responsibly is the key word. There are penalties when we misuse opiates. If we choose to abstain or use less than recommended, we unnecessarily experience pain. If we use too much or continue using after the need for the drugs has dissipated, we face the possibility of crippling addiction. There also is a financial cost to abuse. The legal system is jammed with investigations, arrests and prison time while first-responders react to more and more overdose cases. That cost is prohibitive, and continues when an addict completes time in the system and attempts to rebuild a life. It's unrealistic to think we can make opiates disappear. Used responsibly and they are by millions of people the drugs are effective in dealing with chronic pain. That is an important part of the debate the understanding that use does not equate to abuse, and abuse is not inevitable. We didn't get here overnight. We won't end this crisis overnight. But we need to recognize the extent of the problem, and the necessity in making some difficult but thoughtful decisions to address it. As put by Ed Betzelberger, director of addiction services for Tazwood Center for Wellness, "If you're still drawing a breath, it's not too late. People who recover realize, 'My life is worth saving.'" That is enough to never stop trying. You'll be forgiven if you're not familiar with Oly Innes, but perhaps the party-starter known as OLLYWOOD rings a bell. Perhaps, if you've been lucky enough to be London-based, you've experienced his baby, the regular Daddy Issues party he throws with Borja Pena. The party's reputation for fun is outstretched only by its signature merch line, with everyone from Boomer Banks to Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander sporting the Rooney-designed shirts. Next week, OLLYWOOD brings the event to the States (where he has relocated), starting in Los Angeles this June 22 at the LASH. Jealous denizens of New York worry not--a pop-up will launch an the east coast this fall). We talked with OLLYWOOD about the origins of the Daddy Issues name, what makes a "daddy," and what Americans can expect at the inaugural jam. What inspired you to bring the party to the States and to LA? Daddy Issues is now celebrating its first birthday this month in London. DJ Borja Pena and I ran the party together until February in the UK, then I moved to Los Angeles. I wanted to bring the party to the States now that I'm based here. The party is very popular back home and the demand was already there to bring it here. We did a pop up in San Francisco which was really fun. We are really excited to now have the party happening every month in London and Los Angeles. We launch in LA at the Lash downtown on Thursday, June 22. Where did the name "Daddy Issues" come from? Right now, the concept of the "daddy" is so on trend. I think older men are having a moment. I saw really young kids on Instagram starting to call me daddy and I thought it would be fun to start making t-shirts; Borja came to me with the idea of doing a party together and the ideas just sort of merged together. We work with Instagram star @heyrooney on all our branding and now the t-shirt line is just as in demand as the party and we are expanding to hats, swimwear, sweatshirts and more. How would you describe the vibe of a Daddy Issues party? Do you think anything about that will change with a new location? Daddy Issues is all about inclusion and no intimidation. We celebrate all types of the queer community. It's the perfect party, where all types of guys from super masc top daddies to mega twink fem boys can mix. Usually parties will try to sell the idea of getting wasted or getting laid. We are all about great music and fun. Who would you describe as the ideal DI party-goer? What's their aesthetic, their attitude? Who can people in LA expect to see attending? I always say there's three types of guys at Daddy Issues. First there's the daddys, the baby daddys (Daddys in the making) then daddy boys (daddy admirers). Our party is welcoming of anyone who is out for a good time. I think we definitely have a strong sense of humor in all our branding and creative that other parties might lack. We don't take ourselves too seriously and I think that makes us more accessible. What do you think DI brings to the LGBTQ nightlife scene that other parties don't? We don't run the party for money and happily put everything we earn back into the next party. We always make sure the venue is decorated so it feels like an individual experience. We always give away free @heyrooney tee's and pins at all our parties. We give out tequila shots and Daddy boys dance with little clothes on. It's going to be FUN. Any plans to expand around the US? Yes! We have just confirmed September 8th as our NYC launch where we will also be launching the first Daddy Issues zine. More info to come on that soon. Please follow us on Instagram to keep up to date. All photos courtesy of Daddy Issues. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions A truck drives past China Shipping and Cosco shipping containers in the Port of Miami in Miami, Florida, US, May 19, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] ATHENS - The Piraeus Port Authority (PPA), together with Chinese giant COSCO Shipping, the majority shareholder of PPA, and the world's largest commercial port of Shanghai signed two Memorandums of Understanding on Monday in the Greek capital of Athens to boost commercial ties. The Shanghai International Port Group, which manages 25.7 percent of China's international trading volume, signed the memorandums with COSCO Shipping and PPA in the presence of Han Zheng, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee. Under the deal, which is within the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Piraeus will strengthen its strategic position on the world trade map by increasing the incoming cargo from China to Europe. The two sides also agreed to strengthen cooperation in staff training, technical assistance, information exchange, as well as develop synergies to create new business opportunities. "The current agreement with the port of Shanghai is very important. It means that through Piraeus huge quantities of goods will be transported from China to the rest of the world," Greek Deputy Economy and Development Minister Stergios Pitsiorlas told Xinhua on the sidelines of the event. The document highlights the great perspective of growth not only for Piraeus, but for Greece as well, and Greece plays a key role for the Belt and Road Initiative and Piraeus is the first step for this cooperation, Pitsiorlas said. "The agreement will strengthen the national economy and employment. We need investments in this period. Such investments show that the foreigners trust our country," said Christos Lampridis, secretary general of Ports, Port Policy and Maritime Investments of the Ministry of Shipping. Since 2010, Cosco Shipping's subsidiary Piraeus Container Terminal has been operating Piers II and III at Piraeus port under a 35-year concession agreement. In 2016, COSCO Shipping acquired 67 percent of the shares of PPA, turning the port into an important transport hub at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa. Earlier today we posted a report titled "Apple's 3D-Sensing Camera Supplier says they're on Target to ship the new Lenses for Facial and Iris Recognition." Now the news gets even better. Apple supplier Wistron has confirmed that wireless charging and further waterproofing will be coming to the new 5.5" iPhones to be launched in September. The Nikkei report further noted that "Apple is expected to release another 4.7-inch handset with flat display and a premium version with a slightly curved screen." With three reports coming in today talking up iPhone parts and shipments, it seems that there's a concerted effort to calm Wall Street down with concerns over the delivery of the next generation iPhones. Apple's stock has lost over 6% in recent days after Abhey Lamba, managing director, Americas research at Mizuho, downgraded Apple to neutral from buy. Lamba based his downgrade on the view that the stock's price already accounts for much of investor enthusiasm, and that further gains were limited. Lamba also lowered his price target to $150 from $160. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. In April Patently Apple posted a report titled "Foxconn to make 'Capital Intensive' Investment in the U.S. that will be revealed at a Special Event this Summer" Foxconn's Chairman Terry Gou stated at the time that "We are planning a number of investments in America. This project will include both capital-intensive and skilled labor-intensive and high-tech investment." Gou had noted that he would tell the press more about his plans later this summer once the location was chosen. While the deal hasn't been cemented just yet, it would appear that Wisconsin is going to get the new Foxconn Plant. President Donald Trump alluded to negotiations with an unspecified company during a visit to Milwaukee yesterday, saying Walker might get "a very happy surprise very soon." Trump added that "we were negotiating with a major, major incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions." A person with direct knowledge of the negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the state is in talks with Foxconn. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, noted that Wisconsin is already home to similar electronic manufacturers."It would be great for Wisconsin for a lot of reasons. I am assuming Foxconn was attracted by the fact there's already a skilled workforce here and there's a foundation to produce more such workers through the tech colleges and the other parts of the education system. Governer Scott Walker made a brief, previously unannounced trip to Japan the weekend of June 2 to pursue an undisclosed economic development opportunity. Wisconsin state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, a Republican, said Wednesday he would "jump at the chance" to work with the Walker administration to pass any economic development incentives deemed necessary to land the Foxconn plant. For more on this, read the full Wisconsin State Journal report here. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. Iran has intelligence of Saudi Arabia propping up terrorists near its borders: FM Zarif 06/13/17 Source: Press TV Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran has obtained intelligence showing that Saudi Arabia is "actively" propping up terrorist groups along Iranian eastern and western borders. Speaking at the opening of the Oslo Forum in Norway, Minister Zarif referred to recent remarks by Saudi officials that foreshadowed the recent terrorist attacks in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and called those remarks a "direct threat and very dangerous provocation" by Riyadh. Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Oslo Forum in Norway on June 12, 2017 (photo by Islamic Republic News Agency) Zarif said Iran is "alert," adding, "We have intelligence that Saudi Arabia is actively engaged in promoting terrorist groups" operating near both the eastern and western borders of Iran. Last month, Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said in vague remarks that Saudi Arabia would work to move "the battle" to Iran. Then, on June 6, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Iran had to be "punished" for what he called "its interference in the region." Just hours later, early in the morning of June 7, twin terrorist attacks struck the Iranian capital. A total of 17 people were killed and nearly 50 others were wounded in the terrorist attacks. The terrorist group of Daesh, which is closely associated with the extremist Wahhabi ideology preached by Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for both attacks. 'US ignoring Saudi role in terror' Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif said the United States under President Donald Trump was turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, which killed some 3,000 people, and other attacks elsewhere in the West. On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists - 15 of them Saudi nationals - engaged in a multi-pronged attack on US soil, including hijacking passenger planes and crashing them into what were then the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. In Oslo, Zarif said in figurative remarks that Trump was seeking to change the nationality of the 15 Saudi assailants or every other bomber who has attacked the US or Western countries over the past 20 years postmortem. The US is "trying to change... history," he said. Meeting with Mogherini Earlier on Monday, Zarif met and held talks with the European Union (EU)'s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, on a range of issues, including the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran. Iranian FM Javad Zarif (R) with the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini Oslo, Norway, June 12, 2017 (photo by Islamic Republic News Agency) Minister Zarif and High Representative Mogherini exchanged views on international and regional issues as well as the nuclear accord, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on Monday. On his arrival at the Oslo Airport, Zarif told reporters that he had sent two messages to Mogherini in the past few weeks about the US's failure to live up to its commitments under the JCPOA and the consequences of Washington's "destructive policies" in that regard. The issue had been discussed in the latest session of a joint commission that monitors the implementation of the JCPOA and would be on the agenda of the commission's future meeting, he said. The top Iranian diplomat also stressed that the JCPOA was currently being implemented in its natural manner as the Islamic Republic and the EU member states were committed to the deal. Zarif said the US's failure to honor its obligations was not a new issue and that Iran had little economic interaction with the US beyond the purchases of aircraft, which he said proceeded well despite the US's failure to perform in other areas. Iranian airlines have placed orders for American-made Boeing aircraft worth a total of around 19.6 billion dollars, purchases made possible under the terms of the JCPOA. While attempts have been made at the US Congress recently to block the sale of those aircraft to Iran, the implementation of the deals between the Iranian airlines and Boeing seems to face no hindrance as the JCPOA is clear in that area. Zarif also stressed that the US could not affect Iran's relations with other countries. The JCPOA was inked between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, namely Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany, in July 2015. Barring the new US administration, the governments in all of those countries have stressed the sustenance of the JCPOA. The agreement took effect in January 2016. Under the deal, limits were put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. The administration of US President Donald Trump, which took over in January this year, has been apparently opposed to the nuclear accord, which was negotiated under the former US administration. The US Congress has been a stronger opponent of the deal, however. Last week, the US Senate voted overwhelmingly to advance a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program, which Tehran has repeatedly said is defensive, and analysts have expressed concern that the new US measure can undermine the JCPOA. Zarif said the Senate's move showed "the US's short-sightedness" and was a sign of the "wrong policy" adopted by the US government. He said Iran would "definitely" react if a reaction was found warranted "based on the joint commission's discretion." 'EU to continue to engage with Iran' Later, speaking at a news conference, Mogherini said she was confident that the US would stick to the nuclear deal, despite its declarations to the contrary. "I am confident that the review in the United States will bring [American statesmen] to wise decisions, which means keeping something that is working," she said, referring to the Trump administration's engagement in a review of whether to stick to the JCPOA or not. "In any case," Mogherini said, "the European Union will guarantee that the deal keeps, that we stick to that... and that our policy of engagement with Iran continues." The Iranian foreign minister has traveled to Norway to participate in the Oslo Forum, which gathers leading armed conflict mediation practitioners. On the sidelines, he is expected to hold more one-on-one meetings with participating dignitaries. Iran's Foreign Minister Says In U.S. Best Interests To Abide By Nuclear Deal 06/13/17 Source: RFE/RL Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the United States has sent signals that are "not very promising" on a 2015 nuclear accord struck with major powers, but in the end will likely abide by the deal because it is in the country's best interests. Iranian FM Javad Zarif meets Norwegian counterpart Borge Brende on June 12 (photo by ISNA) "Unfortunately the behavior from the new administration in Washington is not very promising," Zarif told reporters after meeting his Norwegian counterpart on June 12 in Oslo. "I believe the U.S. administration will find it in the interest of the United States, as well as the interest of international peace and security, to live up to its commitments," he added. The nuclear agreement with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia put limits on Iran's nuclear program in return for the easing of economic sanctions against Tehran. U.S. President Donald Trump has routinely criticized the deal, calling it a "disaster." During his presidential campaign, he vowed to pull the United States out of the agreement but has since backed off those comments. Based on reporting by Reuters and Iran Front Page Copyright (c) 2017 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org U.S. Senate Narrowly Defeats Bid To Block Some Saudi Arms Sales 06/14/17 Source: RFE/RL The U.S. Senate has narrowly defeated a move to block President Donald Trump's planned sale of $500 million in precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia out of concern they could be used to kill civilians in Yemen. The Senate's 53-47 vote on June 13 cleared the way for the United States to deliver the weapons, which are part of Trump's proposed $110 billion arms package for Riyadh. Trump, Saudi Arms Deal cartoon by Hani Ansari, Iranian daily Shargh The Trump deal reversed a decision by former President Barack Obama to withhold sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia's armed forces after a Saudi air strike on a funeral in Yemen last year killed more than 140 people. While Trump has touted the arms sales as a boon for jobs in the U.S. defense industry and the fight against Iran-backed militias and terrorists in the Middle East, opponents of the sales are concerned about Saudi human rights abuses and mass killings of civilians in Yemen's civil war. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other senators who supported the sales said the United States can't deny its Middle East allies the weapons they need to combat Islamic State extremists and rein in Iran's aggression in the region. Senator Lindsey Graham said rejecting the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia would have been a victory for Iran. "If you don't think containing Iran and keeping them from toppling Yemen, Iraq, Syria, [and] Lebanon is in our national interest, you're making a huge mistake," he said. But Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who led opposition to the arms sales along with Republican Senator Rand Paul, said the close vote showed that "Congress is finally taking notice that Saudi Arabia is using U.S. munitions to deliberately hit civilian targets inside Yemen." Paul, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination last year, said Saudi Arabia was the "No. 1 exporter of jihadist philosophy" in the world. "I am embarrassed that people would bring up trying to feather the nests of corporations in order to sell these weapons," Paul said. "Saudi Arabia is not a reliable ally." The Mission and the Kingdom: Wahhabi Power Behind the Saudi Throne by David Commins - November 2016 (order from amazon) The war in Yemen is pitting the country's internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, against Iranian-backed Shi'ite rebels known as Huthis. The Saudi-led coalition, which is supported by the United States, has been carrying out air strikes in Yemen since March 2015, and thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting, most of them due to the air strikes, according to the United Nations. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Senate should have refused to give the most sophisticated and deadly weapons to the Saudis. "We need to send a message to both the Trump administration and the Saudis to work much harder to avoid civilian casualties, expedite humanitarian relief, and push for a peaceful end to the war through a negotiated political settlement," Cardin said. With reporting by AP and Reuters Related Articles: A Call to End U.S. Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia - A coalition of activists and U.S. lawmakers alarmed about Saudi Arabia's punishing war in Yemen is trying to block the Trump administration's pending $510 million weapons sale to Riyadh. The coalition is backing a pair of resolutions in both houses of Congress to overrule the sale. In a June 8 letter signed by 41 human rights groups, including Win Without War, Project on Middle East Democracy, and the Yemen Peace Project, activists have called upon legislators to reject the Trump's administration's proposed arms deal. -Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, LobeLog Response to Passing of Deeply Flawed Iran Sanctions Bill (S.722) - "With a vote for this flawed sanctions bill the Senate Foreign Relations Committee decided to give Donald Trump new tools to kill the Iran deal and stumble into war with Iran. After Iranians overwhelmingly voted for openness and engagement, Senators have effectively endorsed Trump's calls for a provocative and dangerous approach to the Middle East. NIAC Action condemns this vote and urges the full Senate to abstain from moving the bill forward." -NIAC Action Costs of the Clenched Fist - - In his first inaugural address, one of President Barack Obama's messages to America's adversaries was that "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." A few years later, the unclenching of Iran's fist was marked by the election of reformist Hassan Rouhani and the entry of Iran into negotiations with the United States and five other powers, leading to a detailed agreement in which Iran accepted severe limitations on, and intrusive scrutiny of, its nuclear program and closed all possible pathways to possible acquisition of a nuclear weapon. -Paul R. Pillar, LobeLog Trump's Alignment with Sunni Autocrats Masks Shallow Understanding of Region - President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia has engendered endless press reporting and analysis. Two key points stand out in the media coverage. First, the trip was mostly show than action. Second, the Saudis played up to Trump's craving for adulation and narcissism. They knew he was a fickle showman and acted accordingly. He of course loved it, and they proved that rich princely Bedouins could capture the world stage, at least for a fleeting moment. -Emile Nakhleh JUST WHISTLING A TUNE IN A HURRICANE Mr. Trump's Historic First Foreign Trip - I watched with great disgust President Trump's long delivery at the gathering of Moslem heads of state in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His half-hour-long speech was eloquently worded, obviously not his words, as he lacks the degree of literacy or the command of the language required for that. The content of his speech was rhetorical, hypocritical and transparently shallow and, I might add, disgracefully dishonest. -Kambiz Zarrabi Arms Deal Stories Omit War Crimes Arms Will Be Used For - The Trump administration wrapped up a weapons deal with the Saudi Arabian government this week that will be worth up to $350 billion over the next ten years. News of the deal came as Trump visited Riyadh and paid fealty to one of the United States' most enduring allies in the Middle East. -Adam Johnson, LobeLog Trump's Riyadh Speech: Bowing to the Saudi Regime - The bar for Donald Trump's speech in Riyadh had been set so low that it was scraping the sand. How much could be expected from a notorious exploiter of Islamophobia speaking to a gathering of leaders of majority Muslim countries? Getting through the experience without causing major new damage should perhaps be considered a success. Perhaps Trump and his speechwriters were wise not to attempt anything more. -Paul R. Pillar, LobeLog 5/24/17 Trump in the Middle East: From 'America First' to Saudi and Israel first - President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East has turned out as expected: no single act of outreach to the Muslim world could undo his fueling of Islamophobia and no amount of Iranophobia could cover up the irony of Trump and Saudi Arabia uniting against intolerance. -Trita Parsi, Middle East In Slight to President Rouhani, Iran's Supreme Leader Forbids Adoption of UNESCO 2030 Educational Guidelines 06/14/17 Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran Iran's supreme leader has forbidden the government of President Hassan Rouhani from implementing any part of UNESCO's non-binding 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into the country's educational system. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development "Some say they have altered this document and won't carry out any part that's unacceptable," said Khamenei on June 8, 2017, indirectly referring to Rouhani. "However, that's not the issue." The supreme leader added that the Education 2030 Framework for Action shouldn't be implemented "even if we assume, wrongly, that there's nothing in this document that's blatantly anti-Islamic." Continued Khamenei: "I'm saying that our national education policy should not be written from abroad... Whether it has anything against Islam or not, it doesn't matter. This is Iran. This is the Islamic Republic. This is a great nation. Why should a few people at UNESCO or the United Nations write our education policy? This has to do with our independence." On August 16, 2016, Rouhani's cabinet agreed to put the Education Ministry in charge of integrating some of the agenda's guidelines into the country's educational system. "(My conservative opponents) were telling lies about this document to the supreme leader and the people in order to gain advantage in the (May 19, 2017) elections," said Rouhani on May 22, three days after he was re-elected. In an apparent reply, Khamenei said on June 8: "Those who think we received false reports are wrong. Our reports are correct reports." Although no member country is bound by the 2030 agenda, conservatives across Iran began attacking it after Khamenei indirectly accused Rouhani-two weeks before the 2017 presidential election-of attempting to "quietly" implement it. In a speech to the staff of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council on May 7, the supreme leader also denounced UNESCO for allegedly "giving itself the right to give instructions to nations with different histories, cultures and civilizations on behalf of influential world powers." "This UNESCO 2030 document is not something that the Islamic Republic will surrender to," said Khamenei. "It's wrong to sign some document and then quietly go ahead and implement it. That's absolutely forbidden." According to UNESCO, the agenda was adopted in September 2015 to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." The agency was entrusted to "lead and coordinate" the agenda with "governments and partners on how to turn commitments into action." On June 8, Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, a senior theologian at the Qom Seminary School, added his voice to the growing opposition by conservatives demanding that the Rouhani government "annul" the voluntary guidelines. "It's not enough to stop implementing UNESCO's 2030 Agenda. We must annul the document and return it to UNESCO," he said. "Every time the West wants to colonize the East, they first try to penetrate through cultural colonialism, which then paves the way to political and economic colonialism." Following Khamenei's speech on June 8, Deputy Education Minister Mehdi Faiz stated he understood that "the supreme leader's commands are the final word" on the topic. "I think it would have been better if we had rewritten the document in accordance with our native culture," said Faiz in an interview with the semi-official Mehr News Agency on June 8. "We could have avoided the sensitivities created by the document and our society would not have become so worried about this." However, Faiz added that the opponents to the initiative "lacked expert knowledge." In a May 2017 interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), UNESCO sociologist Said Peyvandi described the UN agenda as "simply a guideline for the future." "The argument is over what kind of human beings we want to raise and what kind of society we want to have," said Peyvandi, a member of UNESCO's Peace and Education Commission. "The UNESCO document is diametrically opposed to Ayatollah Khamenei's thinking." What Will Trump, Gulf Instability Mean for the JCPOA? 06/14/17 By Derek Davison (source: LobeLog) Watch the event's webcast The Iran nuclear deal-Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA-is facing multiple threats, and whatever hope there may once have been that it could serve as a basis for improving U.S.-Iran ties is probably gone. Between the Trump administration's emerging focus on Iranian regime change and recent instability in the Persian Gulf, simply maintaining the deal itself is proving to be a serious challenge. That was the consensus at a June 13 panel discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council as part of its day-long "Preserving and Building on the Iran Nuclear Deal" event. Panelists-the Atlantic Council's Amir Handjani, the Brookings Institution's Suzanne Maloney, and the National Iranian American Council's Reza Marashi-agreed that Washington's shift in attitude toward Iran and recent tensions related to Qatar and the June 7 terrorist attacks in Tehran have made this a critical time for the JCPOA's survival-even for avoiding another war in the Persian Gulf. Flirtation With Regime Change The Trump administration increasingly represents a break not just with the Obama administration, which itself broke with over three decades of Washington consensus on Iran to adopt a policy of engagement after the 2013 election of relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, but with the previous consensus as well. U.S. policy toward Iran has occasionally hinted at or even offered limited support to the idea of regime change in Tehran, but for the most part it has focused on containing Iran's regional ambitions. According to Maloney, who acknowledged that a Hillary Clinton administration would also have been more confrontational toward Iran than the Obama administration was, it's still too early to really say what Trump's Iran policy will eventually look like. Still, there's something different about the Trump administration's approach: This administration has a certain commonality in terms of Iran policy, which is a fairly hardline stance across all relevant cabinet officials and at the sub-cabinet level. So to the extent that there was going to be a shift toward confrontation, there's really no counterbalance to that perspective within the administration that I've been able to discern at this stage. At this stage there is a determination to turn up the heat on Iran on a variety of fronts-with respect to [the administration's JCPOA] review, which is very serious and intended to look for ways to improve upon the deal and to police its terms better, and with respect to the regional tempo of activities, in terms of American military presence, support for regional allies, and efforts to interdict Iran's support for its proxies. The corollary to this is that I think there is a fundamental perception, shared at high levels within the administration, that we can't fix the problem of Iran simply by virtue of the "carrot and stick" approach that's been used since November 1979-that what we need is no longer just a constructive change in some areas of behavior, but that we need a fundamental change in the regime. And that's led to some in the administration dabbling in the notion of regime change. I don't think it's a serious policy yet, but I don't think it's wholly off the table either. The administration may only be "dabbling" in regime change now, but as Maloney says its highest-ranking foreign policy figures are all strong supporters of a heavily confrontational approach toward Tehran, without much in the way of an alternative viewpoint among them. So it may not take much for regime change to take on greater importance as Trump's Iran policy coalesces. And an administration interested in regime change in Tehran isn't likely to worry about the niceties of upholding a single nuclear agreement, whether it's working as intended or not. Since Trump's election, supporters of the JCPOA have often pointed to its multilateral nature as one of its strengths. The government in Washington might not support the deal, but there were five other countries who were party to its negotiation in addition to the U.S. and Iran. Those other countries, particularly the "European 3" (France, Germany, and the U.K.), will ensure it remains in place. Marashi argued that Europe can be expected to defend the deal to a point, but that it's unlikely to diverge too far from whatever the U.S. does: I give [E.U. foreign policy chief] Federica Mogherini a lot of credit for repeatedly coming out, even earlier today, and saying that [the E.U. is] very much in favor of making sure that this deal remains in place and are willing to-to some degree-go our own way if the Trump administration doesn't want to adhere to its JCPOA commitments. I'm a bit skeptical as to how far the E.U. is willing to go in terms of policy divergence with Washington. We don't have a lot of precedent for it. I do think we're going to test the veracity of transatlantic relations as it pertains to Iran, but if past is prologue I think there's going to be a way to work out these kinds of issues before they cause policy divergence. Fallout from the Tehran Attacks JCPOA supporters saw Rouhani's May 19 reelection as a hopeful sign for the deal's chances of survival and for the possibility that it might serve as the starting point for an overall thaw in relations between Iran and the West. But Handjani believes that the twin terrorist attacks in Tehran on June 7, which were claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) but which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has already tried to pin on Saudi Arabia, are likely to strengthen hardline forces in Iran that are opposed to improving relations with the U.S. in particular. The attacks and the IRGC's response, Handjani said, put Rouhani in a bind. During the Iranian election, none of the other candidates said they would undermine or withdraw from the nuclear agreement. They recognized that it was an agreement signed not with the Rouhani administration, but with Iran. However, their philosophy on how to approach the world, and the United States, after the nuclear deal was quite different. Many in the hardline camp wanted to confront the U.S. both regionally and internationally, whereas President Rouhani and the moderate camp wanted to continue opening up the path of dialogue and looking for areas of cooperation. I think with what happened in Tehran last week, and with the Trump administration's very hardline stance on Iran, possibly even regime change-those in the hardline camp in Iran absolutely see it that way-[hardliners'] voices are going to get louder, and they're going to have a following among some Rouhani voters, who want moderation but may say "hold on, we're now having terrorist attacks by Sunni groups in Iran, let's think through this a little bit, let's take a step back." Maloney added the historical context within which the Iranian establishment views terrorism, and concluded that the attacks likely have drastically limited Rouhani's ability to engage diplomatically with Western nations: The Iranian political establishment has been concerned about terrorism since the inception of the revolution-terrorism as a tool to undermine the stability and simple functioning of the Iranian government. This is what happened in 1979-1981, [when Iran suffered] a spate of terrorist incidents that were seen as foreign-directed. This all feeds into a sort of complex that has been articulated consistently and repeatedly by [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei and the rest of the political establishment, about the threat of ISIS and its relationship to an American determination to unsettle the Islamic [community] more broadly and to specifically destabilize the Islamic Republic. I was not confident that Rouhani came out of his reelection with a clear mandate from the system to embark on a more ambitious policy for opening toward the West. He certainly has a public mandate for that, but I didn't see an endorsement for that from the system. But even if it existed, what happened last week is going to undercut any maneuverability, simply because it reinforces that deeply set paranoia. Handjani also suggested that the expected rally-around-the-flag effect stemming from the attacks will deepen public support for Iran's regional military activities, perhaps the biggest source of discord between Washington and Tehran: One thing the Islamic Republic has always stood on is that it provides security, and when you threaten that, it destabilizes things and [it] means that narrative of stability and security can be attacked. You're already seeing that in Tehran, where there is a massive rally-around-the-flag effect, but also [people are] buying into the narrative that it's the people outside Iran, it's Iran's neighbors and the U.S. who have allowed these things to happen. For the government and the deep state, this is the biggest priority, and I think people really believe that if the IRGC is not in Syria, if they're not in Iraq fighting ISIS, that those forces are going to be in Iran. What It All Means for the JCPOA When asked how regional developments might impact the JCPOA's survival, Maloney sounded a somewhat pessimistic note. She focused on the unpredictability of the region and the potential for U.S.-Iran tensions to escalate: Fundamentally, U.S. policy is no longer JCPOA-centric with respect to Iran. The regional dynamic is now the primary vector through which the United States is going to be contesting Iran's destabilizing activity in the region. That's not to say that the deal is going to be set aside, but these regional policies, and the corresponding economic penalties that are under consideration [in Congress] that have broad bipartisan support, I think are going to be the most dramatic aspects of U.S. policy toward the region. In terms of how that plays out, there's a real range of scenarios and the most important aspect of that is that it's incredibly unpredictable. As we've seen over the past two weeks, with the eruption of this crisis between Qatar and its neighbors and the terrorist attack in Tehran, this is going to move very quickly, there are going to be developments that we don't anticipate, and the prospects for moving quickly up an escalatory ladder between the U.S. and Iran are very high. Handjani agreed, arguing that the Washington consensus may be overestimating how much punishment the Iranians are prepared to take before they decide to be more confrontational in their approach to U.S. policy in the Middle East: I think we have a tendency [in Washington] to think that we can ratchet things up and ratchet things up, put Iran in the penalty box and make it cower, without thinking through what the Iranian reaction is going to be. If Iran feels that the United States is going to step out of the JCPOA in practice, if not in name, they have a lot of cards to play in the region-in Iraq, in the Persian Gulf, and in Syria. The Iranians have had 40 years of confronting the United States in the Middle East, so they can quickly revert to that game. And that could lead to a very combustible situation. It could lead to a third war in the Middle East. So that's something the Trump administration will really have to think through. I think the more prudent course is to look for ways to deescalate with Iran and look for areas in which we can work together, which is what we saw with the JCPOA. If we swing too far to the right on our Middle East policy, I think we're edging toward the precipice of another war. About the Author: Derek Davison is a Washington-based researcher and writer on international affairs and American politics. He has Master's degrees in Middle East Studies from the University of Chicago, where he specialized in Iranian history and policy, and in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied American foreign policy and Russian/Cold War history. He previously worked in the Persian Gulf for The RAND Corporation. Iran will never tolerate Saudi warmongering: Supreme Leader's adviser 06/14/17 Source: Press TV Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, says the comments by "inexperienced" Saudi diplomats against the Islamic Republic show their ignorance about Iran and the region, stressing that Tehran will never tolerate Riyadh's warmongering policies. Ali Akbar Velayati "The problem that Saudi Arabia has been grappling with over the recent years is the callowness and inexperience of the individuals who are serving in its foreign ministry. They sometimes make comments which indicate [their] lack of knowledge about Iran and the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, told reporters on Tuesday. He added that Saudi diplomats are unable to maintain their own country's security and cannot pose a threat to Iran. Last month, Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said in vague remarks that Saudi Arabia would work to move "the battle" to Iran. Then, on June 6, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Iran had to be "punished" for what he called "its interference in the region." Just hours later, early in the morning of June 7, twin terrorist attacks struck the Iranian capital Tehran. A total of 17 people were killed and more than 50 others were wounded in almost simultaneous assaults on Iran's Parliament and the Mausoleum of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini. The terrorist group of Daesh, which is closely associated with the extremist Wahhabi ideology preached by Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for both attacks. cartoon by Mehdi Azizi, Shargh daily Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday that the United States and Saudi Arabia are directing, guiding and supporting acts of terror by Daesh terrorist group. He added that Daesh Takfiris conduct their terrorist moves against regional countries with the support of Riyadh and Washington. His comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Oslo that Iran has obtained intelligence showing that Saudi Arabia is "actively" propping up terrorist groups along Iranian eastern and western borders. Velayati further said Saudis claim that a coalition has been formed among Muslim countries; however, only few minor states which are receiving financial aid from Riyadh responded positively to the invitation. After that, a deep rift was created among these Arab countries which shows that the new Saudi rulers have no capacity to remain committed to their claim and maintain unity among the Arab nations, he added. The senior adviser to the Leader pointed to the "unprecedented" diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and some of its allies with Qatar and said it displays Riyadh's diplomatic incompetence that it "cannot live in peace with its closest neighbors." Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, the Maldives, and Egypt recently broke off ties with Qatar. In their apparent bid to secure US support and that of Israel, the four countries cited Qatar's links with Hamas and accused it of supporting terrorism, an accusation that the Qatari government denies. The regional countries also blocked their transit routes to Qatar and ordered most of Qatari nationals to leave. The measures have also made family visits difficult. Qatari airways has also been banned from using the airspace of the Saudi-led bloc of countries. Related Article: Saudi Arabia prime suspect in Tehran attacks: Iranian official - An Iranian official says Saudi Arabia is the "prime suspect" behind the recent terrorist attacks in Tehran. In a tweet on Wednesday, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a special adviser on international affairs to the Iranian Parliament speaker, said former Saudi intelligence chief and long-time ambassador to Washington Bandar bin Sultan had "directed the November 2013 terrorist operation against the Iranian Embassy in [the Lebanese capital of] Beirut." "Now, Riyadh is the prime suspect in the Tehran terrorist incidents," Amir-Abdollahian said. -Press TV One of the most enterprising financial establishments in the country, uniBank (Ghana) Limited, having made an immense contribution in providing pivotal social interventions through its agile CSR commitments, has again donated substantial support, including a health post, marketplace, a cow, 50 bags of rice, 25 bags of sugar, cartons of drinks and bottled water, etc. to the Muslim community at the Hajj Village in an estimated amount of Two Hundred and Seventy Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH275,000.00). Speaking on behalf of the newly appointed CEO of uniBank, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor II, Clifford Duke Mettle, Director, Marketing & Alternate Channels, thanked the Muslim Community for the opportunity to partner them and offer its unrivalled products and services on a much larger scale. He proffered the banks exhilarating product offering of Bridge Financing, a Trade Finance Loan which amounts to GH24,000,000.00, this he indicated, was to facilitate the transfer of funds to the Saudi Arabian Authorities to ensure that prospective Ghanaian pilgrims will be secured in Mecca. He further listed a variety of support packages including the banks preparedness to sponsor the organization of this years Ghana Hajj Agents Association Seminars, support towards the celebration of the end of Ramadan and media announcements/ adverts to ensure full participation of the Muslim community in the 2017 Pilgrimage to Mecca. This, he stated, was uniBanks way of showing its gratitude and celebrating the spirit of togetherness. The National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, through his spokesperson, Alhaji Marzuq thanked Management of uniBank for the support and prayed for the success of the bank. Sheikh I.C. Quaye, Chairman of the National Hajj Board, expressed gratitude to management of uniBank for their conspicuous care for the Muslim community; he indicated that the Hajj Board has instituted measures to ensure that pilgrims are taken good care of both at home and abroad. Her Excellency, Samira Bawumia, the Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana, who was also present at the event, applauded uniBanks efforts and urged pilgrims to accept and corporate with the new Hajj Board to ensure their safety. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Ghanaian financial crimes consultant, David Antwi of Financial Crimes Africa Consultancy, has stressed the need to put long term digital structures in place that will prevent fraudsters from getting the better of state and financial institutions. Mr. Antwi made this known while he was speaking to a cross-section of the Government of Zanzibar on June 6, 2017. The meeting was at the behest of the Government of Zanzibar and attended by all 16 ministers of the state of Zanzibar, deputy ministers of state and the Chief of Staff. The Deputy Chief of Staff, Hassan Yakout, who kicked off the meeting, underscored the need to address the current scourge of financial crimes which continues to affect state and financial institutions. He especially asked Mr. Antwi to discuss the issue of ATM fraud, what the current trends are and ways to mitigate it. Responding to the deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Antwi who is a graduate of Achimota School and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, intimated that in most cases, financial crimes are undetected due to a combination of insufficient training for both staff and customers, failure to recognize red flags or not having best-in-class software to track and prevent these crimes. Mr. Antwi who is a Certified Fraud Examiner, was speaking on behalf of PerTerms, a local consultancy. He outlined some of the ways in which the state of Zanzibar could safeguard their financial assets such as awareness of financial crime trends and red flags, staff training and reliance on the appropriate software and technical know-how. These steps, he indicated, would allow Zanzibar institutions to be more proactive, rather than merely reacting to the actions of fraudsters. He also stressed that such actions would boost consumer confidence and attract much required capital from foreign investors. The key steps in dealing with financial crimes are prevention, detection and deterrence, with prevention and deterrence the most important, David Antwi said. The right training coupled with application of appropriate software will mitigate financial crimes and thwart even the savviest fraudsters. Mr. Antwi also spoke about the evolution of financial crimes, some of his financial crime experiences at US financial institutions, critical policies and strategies to prevent fraud and some of the best practices and world-class software to fight these financial crimes. Mr. David Antwi can be reached at: [email protected] or 055-871-0847 (local) or +1-571-247-6944 (US). Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007 Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The widow of slain Major Maxwell Adam Mahama is to be interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Spokesperson for the CID has said. ASP Olivia Turkson said this forms part of on-going investigations into the dastardly manner in which the army officer was killed at Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region on May 29. In an interview on Asempa FM Tuesday, she said they are still pursuing leads which will enable them to prosecute those arrested. The late Major Mahama was buried last Friday at the Military Cemetry in Osu after a state funeral at the forecourt of the Banquet Hall. He was murdered while on national assignment at Denkyira-Obuasi. The residents said they mistook him for an armed robber after he was spotted with a weapon and killed him. The action by the residents has been condemned with a renewed preparedness by the country to end all forms of mob justice. The list of persons who allegedly played a role in the horrid murder of the fallen hero has risen to 52. There are currently 44 males and eight females in police custody Between last Thursday and Friday, at least 16 out of the 52 suspects have been put before an Accra High Court. They include a nursing mother whose child has been given to a police officer to take care of. Although police are still investigating what led to the brutal killing, there has been discrepancies regarding the turn of events. The official report by the police said the officer who loves to keep fit had gone for his usual morning jogging around 8:30 am when he was attacked by the mob. However, the tribute by his wife, Barbara Mahama is said to infer something else. Yo, what was for breakfast was the last message I sent you on Monday at 9:12 am after we spoke at 6 am and you said you were going to have your bath. "For the first time in my life, I experienced a ripping heart on Monday night, I woke up to throw up, I had tummy issues too, I just felt sick,' was the opening sentences of Mrs Mahama's tribute. To this ASP Turkson told KABA that the account by Mrs Mahama presents an important component which will assist the CID in their investigation. She added that they are not in a hurry to interrogate her as she needs time to deal with the traumatic incident, although some seniors officers have spoken to her. What is important is that we know the situation she was in, what she was going through and we shall invite her, she said. She stated that the widows tribute provided them with useful information but their priority is arresting all those connected to the murder and putting them before the law. Source: myjoyonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Between 75 and 78 Ghanaians have arrived at the Kotoka International Airport from the United States of America as the second batch of deportees following Donald Trumps crackdown on illegal migrants. Most of the deportees were handcuffed as they disembarked from the chartered flight, Accra-based Onua FM reported. Officers of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Police Service were on stand-by to assist the deportees go through screening. According to the station, out of the deported aboard the flight bearing an American flag, only three had been successfully screened and cleared to leave after an hour since arrival. Most of them had no belongings and are finding it difficult to reach their relatives in Ghana. The three said their colleagues are finding it difficult with immigration officers as some have no records, and what is more, cannot bear the embarrassment. The deportation comes on the back of US President Trumps resolve to rid his country of illegal migrants including Ghanaians. About 7, 000 Ghanaians in the US are said to be affected by the decree. Last month, the US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson, disclosed that 100 have already arrived in Ghana with more to follow. US Deports 80 Ghanaians - classfmonline.com 80 illegal Ghanaian immigrants in the United States of America have been deported. They arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra on Wednesday, 14 June in handcuffs. The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Ghana Police Service screened the deportees upon arrival. The deportees, most of whom had no records on them, are the second batch of immigrants to be brought back since Donald Trump became president of the US. In April this year, the US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P Jackson said about 7,000 Ghanaians living illegally in the US were being processed for deportation. In fact, about 7,000 of them are currently at different stages of the deportation process. And we are not apologetic about that, Mr Jackson said in the Brong Ahafo Region on Thursday, 27 April. Shortly after Mr Donald Trump won the American election on Wednesday, 9 November 2016, Mr Jackson told Class91.3FM in an interview at the American Embassy in Accra that Ghanaians who had overstayed their visas in the US must be concerned because the new administration will ask them to depart. One thing that I do think that Ghanaians need to be aware of is, I think the president-elect, as I mentioned, is likely to be more rigid about illegal immigration. We have a lot of Ghanaians who have overstayed their visas in the U.S. and I think that they need to be concerned about whether they would be allowed to remain illegally. My guess is they will be given some options but the president will be serious about asking those whove violated their visa status to depart, Mr Jackson said. Asked if that meant more Ghanaians should be expected back home through deportation, Mr Jackson said: I think thats already underway in the Obama administration. I think its likely to accelerate under a Trump administration, but apart from that I do not expect major changes in our policy and whatever government emerges here after the elections on December 7 will have a friend in the U.S. and Im confident will be a friend of the U.S. Mr Jackson also said the Trump administration would not paint every African country with the same brush. Ghanas economy is growing, Nigerias is shrinking. We have a very different relationship with Ghana. Ghana is more supportive of free trade and shares a long history of peaceful existence which Nigeria does not have, so I think we need to be cautious, he added. Just a week to the declaration of the US election results, the U.S. deported 108 Africans, 54 of them being Ghanaians. There were some 50 Liberians among the deportees as well. They refused to disembark from the plane that transported them to Accra describing as inhumane the treatment meted out to them by U.S. authorities. They claimed the U.S. officials were being hypocritical in their deportation as they were not treated with dignity while on board the plane en route to Accra. Some of them, who spoke to Class News in an interview at the KIA said although their deportation had nothing to do with criminal issues, they were handcuffed and treated as criminals by the U.S. authorities in Louisiana and even while on board the plane. According to them, when they reached the airport, the authorities attempted to take off the handcuffs to create the impression that they were treated with respect, an act they thought was hypocritical. One of the deportees said: They [U.S. authorities] handcuffed us, they handcuffed us before we boarded the plane. That is why we say we are not getting down unless they allow us to get down with the handcuffs for everybody to see how they have been treating us. That is why we said no, we are not getting down They called some immigration officers (at the airport) to come and talk to us but we said no we want to come down with the handcuffs on and so they said we should come down. They handcuffed us in the United States. My waist, hands and my legs were all cuffed. Both legs [were cuffed], so you cannot even walk, you cannot eat, you cannot do anything. Another deportee narrated: We have been handcuffed from Monday to today, a lot of people here (Kotoka Airport) today saw it. If you think I am lying, you can ask the people around. If you want to urinate you struggle in the handcuff before passing urine. Another disgruntled deportee indicated: We all left Ghana to America to go and better our future, so we passed through Brazil to Colombia and some of us even died on the way Now the people handcuffed us, they only gave us bread and water from morning till evening, so when we came here [Kotoka] a lot of the people were fighting them that: You cannot deport us empty-handed; we need money to go home [with]. Source: adomonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video President Michael D Higgins and wife Sabina Coyne watch outgoing Taoiseach Enda Kenny (R) leaving the Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin, on his last day as taoiseach, June 13, 2017. [Photo/VCG] DUBLIN - Ireland's Enda Kenny on Tuesday afternoon formally resigned as taoiseach (prime minister) after six years as head of government. Kenny told the Dail Eireann, lower house of Irish parliament that he plans to travel to Aras an Uachtarain (official residence of the Irish president) to submit his resignation to President Michael D Higgins. "This has never been about me, it has always been Ceann Comhairle (the chairperson of Dail Ereann) about the challenges that our people and our country face," Kenny said in his farewell speech to parliament. "That said, I'm very happy to have the opportunity to thank you and your predecessors, and indeed all the staff of this house for their assistance and their unfailing courtesy over the last six years as taoiseach but over the last 42 years since I've been a member of this house," he said. Kenny has been taoiseach since 2011 and leader of Fine Gael (United Ireland Party) since 2002. He is the longest-serving Fine Gael taoiseach and the first in his party to serve two consecutive terms as taoiseach. The 66-year-old former teacher, born in west Ireland's County Mayo, is the longest serving member of Irish parliament, having first been elected in 1975. On Tuesday afternoon, leaders of Fianna Fail (Republican Party) and other opposition party paid tribute to Kenny, who helped steer the country out of recession following the global financial crash. Describing Kenny as a proud representative of the office of taoseach, Fianna Fail Leader Micheal Martin said he was an Irish patriot. Martin said he wanted, on behalf of his party, to thank the taoiseach for putting the country first during his difficult period in office. When Kenny came to power in 2011, Ireland was still suffering from a deep recession caused by the global financial crash and the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy. He has been praised for leading the country out of recession and driving down the national debt, albeit with an austerity agenda that saw big cuts in welfare, health, education and policing. Last month, Kenny resigned as leader of Fine Gael under pressure from both inside and outside of the party. He has led the center-right party for 15 years. Early this month, Leo Varadkar, who currently served as minister for social protection, was elected as leader of Fine Gael. It is expected that Varadkar will be appointed as taoiseach on Wednesday by President Higgins following the approval of Dail Eireann. The United States Embassy in Accra has explained the 63 Ghanaians deported from the US to Ghana Wednesday morning was based on the orders of an immigration judge. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 63 Ghanaian nationals to Ghana and 12 Liberian nationals to Liberia in accordance with their final orders of removal, the Embassy said in a statement. Most of the deportees were handcuffed as they disembarked from the chartered flight on Wednesday. The deportees, according to the US Embassy, were found to be either ineligible to remain in the United States for reasons including overstaying their visas or committing crimes. The statement clarified that the removal exercise was carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as mandated by law, stating They were ordered removed by an immigration judge. An order of removal, also known as an order of deportation, is a legal and enforceable order of expulsion from the United States and the suspension from returning to the U.S. for a specific amount of time. Read the full statement issued by the US Embassy On Tuesday, June 13, and Wednesday, June 14, 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 63 Ghanaian nationals to Ghana and 12 Liberian nationals to Liberia in accordance with their final orders of removal. All those removed were found ineligible to remain in the United States for reasons including overstaying their visas or committing crimes while in the United States. They were ordered removed by an immigration judge. As mandated by law, ICE carried out their lawful removal orders. It is the policy of the U.S. government to attempt to have individuals under removal orders return to their home countries by flying on regular commercial flights. ICE Air Operations conducts special charter flights to accommodate certain individuals, including those who failed to cooperate with efforts to remove them via commercial flights. The U.S. Embassy works to facilitate the legitimate travel of international visitors to the United States. The proper use of visas by Ghanaians and the quick repatriation of deportees contribute to our ability to facilitate Ghanaians future travel to the United States. We are grateful to the Government of Ghana and the Embassy of Ghana in the United States for their support in facilitating the return of these Ghanaian nationals. Source: Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy Accra Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur has asked the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to put aside their differences and protect the interest of our people. According to him, in order to protect the interest of Ghanaians, the party need to ensure that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) fulfil all its promises. The NDC must continue to champion the agenda of the people of this country...we have to protect the interest of our people. I have been told that they (NPP) have made 170 promises. They have to ensure that all those 170 promises are fulfilled so the people of Ghana can also benefit from the work that they came to do he said. Speaking at a rally at Ashaiman on Saturday 10 June as part of the 25th anniversary of the NDC, the former Vice President added: the 2016 election is over and it is important for us to move on because the agenda of the Ghanaian people is important. We must unite our people so that we can work together combining all strengths and attributes of the people in the NDC so that we can work for the good of this country. Meanwhile, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, speaking at the same event has urged supporters of the NDC not to give up on the party but rather focus on coming together to snatch power from the NPP in 2020. Lets all put 2016 behind us and stop the babbling as to what accounted for the defeat of the NDC. Lets focus on the future, lets unite and resolve to take the battle to the NPP in 2020 and beyond and restore and recapture political power Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The former boss of the Volta River Authority (VRA) Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby has chided President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for surrendering to an emotional media coverage of the death of Major Maxwell Mahama. According to Dr. Wereko-Brobby, the media coverage coerced the President to honor Mr. Mahama while neglecting other officers who died in similar circumstances. The suspended NPP member also slammed the media describing it as unprofessional and irresponsible the manner in which it whipped up emotions of Ghanaians on the lynching of Major Mahama. Dr. Wereko-Brobby who is leading a campaign for the state to give due recognition and attention to the family of Lance Corporal Robert Kumi Ackah, who was tragically shot by his own colleagues, said the President was pressured to act because of the attention the media gave to the military commander much to the neglect of the police officer. Speaking in an interview with Starr News Regina Borley Bortey, Dr. Wereko-Brobby said it was wrong for government to have chosen to honour major Mahama and neglect the police officer who was also killed in the line of duty. I resent the fact that the political class of this country did not treat two servicemen equally. Why would government go and issue GHC500, 000 and go over the top and visit families, justifiably, but I believe it should have been done equally. The media precipitated that whole thing and forced the government to respondso [government] was forced by the media coverage and if the media had devoted even half of the kind of expression they put to the one I think government may have been forced to do the same thing. Source: starrfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Do you want to name Young Henrys next beer? If so, you will need to get in quick smart. The Sydney brewery is looking for a National Marketing Coordinator (SYD) but applications are closing very soon. You will be across the voice of Young Henrys, comfortable with content production and a people person who is as good at making friends online as IRL. An appreciation of good beer, cider and spirits is an obvious bonus, as is familiarity with simple website CMS and HTML. Keen to be involved? Find out more here. Are you into emerging digital platforms and creating your content? If so, the Canberra Theatre Centre is looking for a Marketing Coordinator Social Media (CAN) to come on board. You will need to be a pro at Facebook and Instagram, as well as jumping on board new platforms as they emerge. Adherence to shifting deadlines is important, and you will create daily pictorial and video content so a creative flair is encouraged. Sound like you? Get in touch today. Marketing Sweet is looking for a self-motivated Digital Marketer (ADL) to join their team. Their ideal candidate is a team player who enjoys challenges and problem solving, and is someone who is willing to go the distance to meet the deadline. You will have impeccable writing and editing skills, brilliant time management and be able to communicate effectively with clients. If this peaks your interest, find out more now. Rather something short and sweet? Get your eyes around these jobs: Got a handle on Lightroom? Raw Digital Lab needs a talented Lightroom Editor (SYD) to come on board. Get around it here. Does giving back give you the warm and fuzzies? Oaktree need a Director of Community Engagement (MELB) to help them across their Live Below the Line campaign. Apply now. Work with market leading shopper engagement agency Extravert as their new Account Manager (SYD). Find out more here. Dont let your dream job slip you by Love your work! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and get yourself signed up to our Daily Job Alerts. In what is believed to be the largest settlement for a human rights class action lawsuit in the countrys legal history, the Australian government has agreed to pay out $70 million in compensation to 1,905 asylum seekers who were detained on Manus Island between 2012 and 2016. The case, headed by lead plaintiff Majid Kamasaee, alleged that the government and co-defendants G4S and Broadspectrum held them in conditions that caused serious physical and psychological injuries and that they had been falsely imprisoned since Papua New Guineas Supreme Court ruled indefinite detention to be unconstitutional. In a statement, Kamasaee described detention on Manus as hell: I came to Australia seeking peace, but I was sent to Manus, which was hell. Every day in the harsh sun, my skin felt like it was on fire. I was in pain every minute of every day I cried every night until I had nothing left. This case is not just about me, it is about everyone who has been trapped on Manus Island. Our voices have never been listened to, but today we are finally being heard. Unsurprisingly, Immigration Minister and professional potato impersonator Peter Dutton said that the settlement was not an admission of guilt and, actually, this was all Labors fault: Labor imposed this cost on Australians when it handed control of the nations borders to criminal people-smuggling syndicates. [] An anticipated six-month legal battle for this case would have cost tens of millions of dollars in legal fees alone, with an unknown outcome. In such circumstances, a settlement was considered a prudent outcome for Australian taxpayers. The Commonwealth strongly refutes and denies the claims made in these proceedings. Settlement is not an admission of liability in any regard. The settlement also very conveniently means that the government will avoid undergoing an intense and hitherto unseen level of scrutiny of and access to the details of their detention practices on Manus. Those that were detained will be paid out proportionately to the time spent on the island and the experiences they had. It is expected the government will also have to pay out another $20 million in legal costs. Source: SMH, ABC, Huffington Post. Photo: Getty Images. The BBC is reporting that six people have been confirmed dead in the fire that ripped through 24-storey London apartment building Grenfell Tower. The fire began just before 1am local time and quickly spread through every floor above the ground floor, with several hundred people estimated to have been inside when the fire started, most of them asleep. Over 70 people have been taken to hospital, with at least 20 reportedly to be in a critical condition. At time of writing, firefighters are still working to combat the blaze, which was been going for roughly 12 hours. Its still unclear what caused the fire, but the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that it is believed that aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding could have contributed to its intensity. Fire safety engineer Stephen Kip told the paper that fires like this involving combustible exteriors spread quickly: All of the fire safety systems in buildings, like sprinklers, are in the inside, not the outside. Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said that while they could not reveal the number of people believed to be missing, it was expected that the death toll would continue to rise. In 2016, concerns were raised by a group of residents about the fire safety of the building. Source: BBC. Photo: Getty Images / Cal Court. HOLLIDAYSBURG (AP) -- Three Franciscan friars are asking a judge to dismiss criminal charges that they didn't properly supervise a suspected sexual predator accused of molesting more than 100 children, most at a Pennsylvania high school. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday on the defense motions filed by attorneys for Giles Schinelli, Robert D'Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli. State prosecutors say the friars assigned or supervised Brother Stephen Baker when he served at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown in the 1990s. Baker killed himself in 2013, shortly after a settlement was announced that he had molested students in Youngstown, Ohio. That settlement prompted more than 80 former McCort students to come forward with molestation allegations that have resulted in more than $8 million in settlements. The friars say they're not responsible. NORRISTOWN - The jury in the Bill Cosby case has entered its third day of deliberations and, so far today, things have been quiet. Cosby was on trial last week, accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele and defense attorney Brian McMonagle made their closing arguments on Monday and the jury began their deliberations. They deliberated for four hours Monday night and roughly another 11 hours on Tuesday with no verdict. They resumed their deliberations today at 9 a.m. While the jury had several questions for the judge over the last few days, they had none today as they work towards a verdict for the 79-year-old entertainer. As he sent them home last night, Judge Steven T. O'Neill told jurors their lengthy deliberations "only shows this court you are conscientious and engaged in the deliberation process." They have asked to: Review Cosby's See the context of Cosby referring to the three pills as "friends" to help her relax, Get some elaboration on the definition of "without her knowledge" in the aggravated indecent assault charge, And review the testimony of the Canadian police to whom Constand first reported the incident. Court officials say lunch has been ordered for the jury. The trial has included testimony from Constand, who told jurors Cosby gave her three pills he called "friends." Those pills incapacitated her, Constand said, and while she could not move, Cosby sexually assaulted her. Another accuser, Kelly Johnson, testified that Cosby did the same thing to her in the 1990s. Check with PennLive for updates today. Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, has stressed the importance of Sino-UK relations, despite the prospect of Britain's exit from the European Union. Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming He was speaking in London on Wednesday at a gathering of entrepreneurs and other players in the international trade sector. Liu said, whatever the change in the UK's relationship with the EU, there will be confidence in UK-China and Europe-China cooperation, which "remains firmly grounded and enjoys a strong momentum". Liu said: "One year on from the Brexit referendum, many changes have taken place, both internationally and regionally, including the official launch of Brexit negotiations. But I want to stress that my confidence in China-Europe and China-UK cooperation remains unchanged." Liu said his confidence comes from the steady and positive momentum of economic growth in China. "The fundamentals of China's economy remain positive in the long run and China's door will open wider to Britain, to Europe, and to the rest of the world," he said. "This means a vast market of huge potential and opportunities." Liu explained that his optimism also comes from "increasingly mature and steady China-Europe relations" and "the huge untapped potential and broad prospects that await China and Europe". "China and European countries have much to offer to each other, with a wide and high degree of convergence of interest," he said. Liu noted that Sino-UK relations have been full of cooperation and, while the British people voted to leave the European Union, they did not vote to leave Europe. "In this sense, China-UK cooperation will always be an important part of China's cooperation with Europe," he said. With the spirit of entrepreneurship and further communication and cooperation, the ambassador believes this will push China-Europe and China-UK relations to new heights. At the same event, Gordon Brown, a former UK prime minister, said that, despite changes such as the recent general election, the UK remains determined to build the strongest possible relationship with "our friends in China". Brown also praised the achievements and visions of the Belt and Road Initiative. "I understand the infrastructure investment and how massive it is in the future," he said. "I know that millions of people will get a better job and employment and standard of living opportunities as a result." Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former prime minister of France, hailed Beijing's efforts in working with Europe on climate change in line with the Paris Agreement. He said both sides can create jobs, wealth, and numerous projects as they build both Europe and China. PSEG. T-Mobile. Tommy Hilfiger. Verizon. These are some of the familiar names that account for a portion of the more than $1.2 billion in unpaid back taxes and associated penalties, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. To put the number in perspective, that's the equivalent of the gross domestic product of Antigua and Bermuda or the amount Hillary Clinton spent last year on her losing presidential campaign. Incidentally, it's roughly the same amount lawmakers have to scrounge from the state's metaphorical couch cushions to balance next year's budget. (Ignoring, of course, the $300 million-plus shortfall from the current year.) That fiscal reality led to Pennsylvania's fourth-ever tax amnesty program, allowing 60 days for some 860,000 delinquent taxpayers to pay their back taxes without penalty while paying just half of the interest they owe. The program, which ends Monday, had garnered 21,000 applications worth an estimated $72 million by the end of last month. It was orginally expected to raise about $130 million in much-needed revenue after $20 million in administration costs, including an $8.9 million contract with a credit agency. "Time is running out so those who are behind on their state taxes should apply now and avoid the last-minute rush," said Acting Revenue Secretary C. Daniel Hassell. READ MORE: Database of taxes owed to the state of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania has promoted the programm via mailers, phone calls and social media in an effort to increase awareness and, consequently, increased revenue. The most recent version of the tax lien list, provided by the department, dates o May 12. It covers nearly 60,000 liens against businesses, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop shops across every sector of the economy. Another 116,000 liens were placed against individuals. Liens represent the primary means for the state to collect unpaid taxes, placing it near the front of the line for payment before other financial transactions like business transfers or loans. This graphic shows the amount of money owed the commonwealth from delinquent taxpayers by tax types. Department of Revenue spokesman Kevin Hensil said the list excludes liens that are being appealed out of fairness to the businesses and individuals involved. The liens represent the amount that was owed and any penalties at the time they were filed. In that sense, they are a snapshot in time rather than a comprehensive look at the amount owed. The utility company Public Service Enterprise Group is at the top of the business list, with a $6.2 million tax lien from 2012. PSEG spokesman Michael Jennings said the company is in the process of resolving its lien. At No. 2 is GTE Wireless Incorporated with two liens from last year totaling $5.8 million. The company formed the backbone of what became Verizon and continues to operate as part of the larger corporation. Verizon spokesman Michael Murphy said a GTE tax payment had been inadvertently applied to the wrong taxpayer. Verizon was working with the state to remove the lien, he said. Other businesses with large unresolved tax liens did not respond to requests for comment. They include name brands like T-Mobile (three liens totaling $3.2 million) and Tommy Hilfiger (three liens worth $1.1 million), as well as lesser known entities like the Illinois-based long-distance phone service UniTel (two liens worth $4.1 million) and the Bucks County structural steel fabricator Samuel Grossi & Sons (three liens worth $3.6 million). The Department of Revenue does not comment publicly on delinquent tax accounts, which are deemed confidential by law. Tax liens, however, are public records. People whose troubled finances were closely linked to their businesses also dominate the individual list. Lackawanna County-based State Petroleum Distributors and its owners, Robert Lambert and Joseph Occhipinti, are at the top of the list with more than $15 million in unpaid fuel taxes. Neither businessman could be reached for comment. Messages left at phone numbers formerly associated with them were not returned; others were disconnected. Occhipinti told The Times-Tribune in 2009 that he once owned a 7-percent stake in the company, which is no longer operating, but that he was no longer affiliated with it. He disputed the amount of tax owed. "Is that the tax that's owed? Absolutely not," he said. In 2012, a judge dismissed criminal theft charges against Occhipinti, who was accused of offering a pre-pay deal to supply gas to a supermarket only to cease deliveries after the initial deliveries. The other individual at the top the list, Roy D. Davis, apparently died in 2015. According to state data, he faced liens totaling $10.6 million that were filed in 2011 in Allegheny County. Roy D. Davis, Jr., his estranged son, said Davis was involved in the Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernie Madoff. Davis was included in a list of purported Madoff accountants, agents, customers and lawyers compiled by a court-appointed trustee and published by The New York Times. "The last thing I received since his death was about Bernie Madoff," the younger Davis said. "I've washed my hands of that whole crowd." Those, of course, are the individuals at the top of the list. The roughly 116,000 individuals with tax liens represent an average debt of $6,785. PennLive chose not to publish the names of the more than 90,000 individuals who face tax liens less than $5,000. It also has not published the roughly 47,000 businesses that owe less than $5,000. Individuals and businesses can apply or get more information at backtax.pa.gov or by calling 844-PA-STATE-TAX (1-844-727-8283) from 8:00 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday, from 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Fridays, and 8:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. During ten days last month in York County, nine residents killed themselves. The deaths continued this month with three more suicides, including a woman who jumped off the Norman Wood bridge. While the death of a 25-year-old woman after plunging from the bridge on June 6 generated news headlines because of its public location, dozens of other tragic suicides have occurred this year behind closed doors and without public notice. York County Coroner Pam Gay said the burst of suicides, sometimes with multiples on a single day, caused her to consider issuing a news release like she did last year after a spate of youth suicides to call attention to the public health situation. But Gay said she could not determine any pattern or commonalities among the nine deaths last month. The mounting deaths in such short succession add to a rising number of suicides in recent years across the country and in York County. The county averaged 58 suicides per year between 2007 and 2012, but that average jumped to 73 per year in the most recent four years. The year of 2014 represented the peak with 88 suicides, more than five times the county's annual homicide rate. And those are just the suicides that were identified. Experts say suicide statistics arguably could be under-reported because suicides through overdoses and accidents can be overlooked if the evidence isn't clear. "We're on the same pattern to have another horrible year," said Cindy Richard, who started a suicide prevention organization in York County about 10 years ago. "I don't know what it is. We just don't know enough about the brain to understand it." The county hasn't gone a month without a suicide since December 1998, Richard said This year's suicides roughly mirror last year's as far as age breakdown with 17 victims under the age of 50 and 11 victims who are 50 and older. Overall, the victims ranged in age from 22 years old to 90 years old. Suicide statistics are lower in Dauphin County, but higher per capita. Still, the statistics in Dauphin County aren't on an upward trajectory. Instead, the figures have been up and down in recent years with an average of 47 per year over the past five years. Domestic problems, including breakups and child custody disputes, are the number one reason cited in York County for triggering suicides through stress that overwhelms coping skills. But there are usually multiple causes for suicide, experts say, and many of the victims have underlying mental illness. Stressors eventually pass and mental illnesses are treatable, which is why most suicides are considered preventable, Richard said. The fact that suicides don't often get publicity can lull people into thinking it doesn't happen very often. But in York County, it is typically among the top four causes of death investigated by the coroner dwarfing statistics for auto accidents (47 deaths last year) and homicides (17 last year.) People who kill themselves often feel like a burden, or that they can't contribute to society and they gradually inch closer over time to the idea of taking their life, Richard said. That's why it's important to try to reach suicidal people before "they get too far down that tunnel," Richard said. People shouldn't be afraid to ask a loved one if that person is considering suicide, "because that puts everything on the table," Richard said. "We need to start talking about it. We need to tell people what we're thinking." Avoiding the topic can make a suicidal person feel even more isolated and misunderstood. Broaching the topic can put relatives in a better position to help. Richard's organization provides free resources and screenings. They also offer support groups and an annual conference on suicide prevention set for September. A change in behavior or the presence of entirely new behaviors is a red flag, especially if the new or changed behavior is related to a painful event, loss, or change, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Most people who take their lives exhibit one or more warning signs, either through what they say or what they do, according to the foundation's website, which includes specific warning signs. Richard can be reached at 717-227-0048. The National Suicide Prevention hotline is 1-800-273-8255. NORRISTOWN - As they passed the 20-hour mark in their deliberations, Bill Cosby's jury asked the judge if they could hear part of the testimony of the comedian's accuser again. The court reporter is now reading that part of former Temple University employee Andrea Constand's statements to the jury from the 300-pages transcribed from her testimony and cross-examination. Cosby is accused of giving Constand three pills that she says incapacitated her before he sexually assaulted her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Trial began June 5, and the jury started their deliberations Monday night. They had several questions for Judge Steven T. O'Neill through their deliberations. They wanted to hear Cosby's statements in his 2005 deposition again, and they also wanted clarification on the terminology "without her consent," which is part of one of Cosby's aggravated indecent assault charges. They also wanted to hear Cosby's wording when he referred to the three pills as "friends," as well as Constand's initial statements to authorities in Canada. This afternoon, the jury wanted to hear Constand's testimony about the night of the incident. When they returned to the courtroom, most had stern, but weary, expressions on their faces from the hours and hours of deliberations. Check back with PennLive.com for updates throughout trial. A Virginia man was charged with attacking a co-worker with a knife at the Red Roof Inn early today. Ryan Benson, 27, of Manassas, Va., is accused of stabbing the co-worker and another workmate who tried to intervene, Swatara Township police said. Benson had facial injuries in the incident, and all three, who police said were intoxicated, were taken to area hospitals for treatment. Benson is being charged with aggravated and simple assault, reckless endangerment and public drunkenness Swatara Township police ask anyone with information to call them at 717-564-2550 or submit a tip through the Dauphin County Crime Watch web site. NORRISTOWN - After a second day of deliberations, the jury in the Bill Cosby case has not yet reached a verdict. Judge Steven T. O'Neill released the jury for the night just after 9 p.m. They deliberated for four hours Monday night following closing arguments, and began their deliberations again today around 10 a.m. Cosby is accused of giving three pills to former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, incapacitating her, and sexually assaulting her, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. The jury came back into the courtroom several times today with questions for the judge. They wanted to: Review Cosby's See the context of Cosby referring to the three pills as "friends" to help her relax, Get some elaboration on the definition of "without her knowledge" in the aggravated indecent assault charge, And review the testimony of the Canadian police to whom Constand first reported the incident. Deliberations will resume Wednesday morning. By Ivey DeJesus Don't Edit Top 50 ACT scores: by school The ACT (originally known as American College Testing) like its cousin the SAT, measures knowledge gained in high school and college readiness. It is often the first thing most admissions counselors scrutinize. The higher the score, the more likely a student will excel in college. Don't Edit ACT Test Tip: Answer every question! There is no penalty for guessing. pic.twitter.com/FZi53IMXqi ACTStudent (@ACTStudent) June 8, 2017 How the ACT is scored ACT scores range from a low of 1 to a top score of 36. ACT test scores are the average of sectional scores (also 1-36) in English, math, reading and science. The average ACT score is 20.8. Don't Edit Julia R. Masterman Secondary School A nationally ranked school, Julia R. Masterman Secondary School in Philadelphia placed in the #1 spot in ACT composite score of 30. Don't Edit Downingtown STEM Academy At their recent graduation, Downingtown STEM Academy students were encouraged to change the world with a single idea. STEM Academy came in at No. 2 in top ACT score statewide: 28 Don't Edit Don't Edit Camp Hill High School No. 3: Camp Hill Senior High School: 27 Don't Edit Harriton Senior High School No. 4: The Lower Merion School District school scored a composite ACT score of 27. Don't Edit Lower Merion High School No. 5: Kobe Bryant's alma mater scored a 27 composite ACT score. The school is part of the Lower Merion School District. Don't Edit Radnor Senior High School No. 6: Radnor Senior High School in the Radnor Township School District scored 27. Don't Edit Congrats, SRHS Class of 2017! It was a memorable night! pic.twitter.com/GUuV89Ycou Slippery Rock Area (@RocketSchools) June 3, 2017 Slippery Rock Area High School No. 7: Slippery Rock Area High School District: 27 Don't Edit Don't Edit 5am - 1 hour left at #MiniTHON - time for ships and sailors at #USCHS pic.twitter.com/mTFCqWFkoY Upper St. Clair HS (@USC_High_School) April 22, 2017 Upper Saint Clair High School Upper Saint Clair High School: 17. The school is part of the Upper Saint Clair School District. Don't Edit Abington Heights High School Abington Heights High School in Lackawanna County: Composite ACT score: 26 Don't Edit The AGCS Micro Farm Apiary is a buzz with activity. Check out the High School Bee Academy students monitoring the... Posted by Avon Grove Charter School on Friday, June 2, 2017 Avon Grove Charter School The Avon Grove School Board (Chester County) recently unanimously renewed the charter schools charter for another five years. Composite ACT score: 26 Don't Edit Central Bucks High School-East Composite ACT score: 26 Don't Edit Plymouth-Whitemarsh Senior High School Composite ACT score: 26 Plymouth-Whitemarsh Senior High School is part of the Colonial School District. Don't Edit Don't Edit Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com Council Rock North High School Composite ACT score: 26. The school is part of the Council Rock School District in Bucks County. Don't Edit Kalim A. Bhatti/For PennLive Hershey High School The Hershey High School graduation ceremony was held last week at Founders Hall in Hershey. The school had a composite ACT score of 26. Don't Edit Emmaus High School The school had a composite ACT score of 26. Don't Edit Northwest PA Collegiate Academy The school had a composite ACT score of 26. Northwest PA Collegiate is part of the Erie City School District. Don't Edit Hampton High School The school had a composite ACT score of 26. Hampton High is in the Hampton Township School District in the northern Pittsburgh area. Don't Edit Don't Edit Hempfield Senior High School The Lancaster County-based school had a composite ACT score of 26. Don't Edit Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School had a composite ACT score of 26. Don't Edit Methacton High School The school had a composite ACT score of 26. The school is part of the Methacton School District in Montgomery County. Don't Edit Mt. Lebanon Senior High School The school had a composite ACT score of 26. Mt. Lebanon School District is in Pittsburgh. Don't Edit North Allegheny High School Composite ACT score: 26. Don't Edit Don't Edit Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School The Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School is a public cyber charter school approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Composite ACT score: 26. Don't Edit Phoenixville Area High School Composite ACT score: 26. Don't Edit The Penncrest High School Class of 2017! Congratulations!! pic.twitter.com/mwah555Cid Dr. Robert Salladino (@SpringtonLakeMS) June 8, 2017 Penncrest High School Composite ACT score: 26. Penncrest is in the Rose Tree Media School District in Media. Don't Edit Congratulations to newest members of SAHS National Honor Society. Classy celebration hosted by advisor, Mr. Hughes, and the NHS officers. pic.twitter.com/VDHcfNVUU8 Souderton Area HS (@SASD_SAHS) May 22, 2017 Souderton Area Senior High School Composite ACT score: 26. The Souderton Area School District is in Montgomery County. Don't Edit State College Area High School Composite ACT score: 26. Don't Edit Don't Edit Conestoga Senior High School Composite ACT score: 26. Conestoga is in the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District, Chester County. Don't Edit Unionville High School Unionville had a composite ACT score of 26. The school is in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. Don't Edit Upper Dublin High School Upper Dublin had a composite ACT score of 26. The Upper Dublin School District is in Fort Washington. Don't Edit Strath Haven High School Strath Haven had a composite ACT score of 26. The school is part of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District in Delaware County. Don't Edit Last night, 317 students crossed the stage during Commencement! Congratulations and best wishes to the Class of 2017! pic.twitter.com/wpaaf2T51S Wissahickon SD (@WissahickonSD) June 9, 2017 Wissahickon Senior High School Wissahickon had a composite ACT score of 26. Don't Edit Don't Edit District IV Champs!! pic.twitter.com/BGjsLJJ1S5 Athens Area Schools (@AthensAreaSD) May 31, 2017 Athens Area High School Athens Area High School had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Avon Grove High School Avon Grove had a composite ACT score of 25. The school is in Chester County. Don't Edit Avonworth High School Avonworth had a composite ACT score of 25. The school district is in Pittsburgh. Don't Edit Butler Area Senior High School Butler had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit James Robinson/PennLive Carlisle Area High School Carlisle Area High School had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Don't Edit Central Bucks High School - West Central Bucks: composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Conestoga Valley Senior High School Conestoga Valley: had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Cedar Crest High School The Cornwall-Lebanon School District school had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Council Rock High School South The Bucks County school had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Vicki Vellios Briner/For PennLive Cumberland Valley High School Cumberland Valley had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Don't Edit James Robinson/PennLive East Pennsboro Area Senior High School East Pennsboro had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Fox Chapel Area High School The school had a composite ACT score of 25. Fox Chapel School District is located in Pittsburgh. Don't Edit Franklin Regional Senior High School Franklin Regional had a composite ACT score of 25. The school is in Murrysville. Don't Edit Garnet Valley High School Garnet Valley in Glen Mills had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Great Valley High School The Chester County school had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Don't Edit Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School Hollidaysburg had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Jenkintown Middle/High School Jenkintown had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Kennett High School Kennett is the only public high school in the Kennett Consolidated School District. The school had a composite ACT score of 25. Don't Edit Kalim A. Bhatti, For PennLive.com Photo credits: Unless otherwise noted, all school photos were taken from the school disricts' website. Kalim A. Bhatti, For PennLive.com Don't Edit Read More: The Pa. schools with the worst SAT scores Don't Edit OCEAN CITY, Md. -- In this resort town that markets itself as family friendly -- yet puts up with plenty of teen and twenty-something ribald behavior -- there has been a brouhaha over bare breasts, a kerfuffle over women sunbathing sans their bikini tops. At the center of the topless beach controversy, which came to a head last Saturday when the City Council held an emergency meeting and hurriedly passed a municipal ordinance levying a fine of up to $1,000 on any woman who bares her breasts on the beach, is a lone 27-year-old who believes it is her civil right to be bare-chested in public. Her name is Chelsea Covington. She runs a blog called "Breasts Are Healthy." And her cause is what advocates like her call "top freedom." In other words, the equal right for women to go topless in public, just as men have been doing since they won the right to doff their shirts in the sand in the 1930s. PennLive's attempts to reach Covington through messages left on her blog were unsuccessful. But her many blog postings -- complete with pictures of Covington going topless in places like the Washington Monument in D.C. and along the Schuylkill River trail in Philadelphia -- makes abundantly clear where she stands: "I am 27 and live in Maryland," Covington writes in one blog post, explaining how she came to the cause of 'Top Freedom.' "I have always preferred to be nude or bare-chested, since I was a kid, though I had some serious body image issues for a long time that kept me from feeling comfortable in my skin, so I would mostly take my clothes off when I was alone," she continues. "I began walking bare-chested publicly in 2014. I had been to Ocean City, Maryland, several times already and had gone bare-chested there for a couple hours at a time, and I got some looks, and some questions about legality and such, but I didn't have any real negative interactions and the world didn't end, and no police either." Her blog, which contains nudity, is here. But in Covington's odyssey for female Top Freedom, it wasn't enough to simply bare her chest and get away with it. Chelsea Covington, in a photo taken along the Schuylkill River trail near Philadelphia and posted on her blog, "Breasts Are Healthy, advocates for "Top Freedom" -- the equal right for women to go topless in public, just as men have been doing since they won the right to doff their shirts in the sand in the 1930s. She wanted to win the legal right to do so for all women. In the process, Ocean City would become an unwitting battleground. Covington's blog shows her reclining on an Ocean City beach in the summer of 2016 wearing only a bikini bottom. Her arms are back and her bare chest is thrust out. But in the photo, her state of undress doesn't seem to be causing much of a stir at all. In fact, beach-goers in the photo's background seem all but oblivious. This is precisely what Top Freedom advocates like Covington ultimately want -- a society in which women baring their breasts isn't a big deal at all. To press her point, Covington last August penned a 78-page legal brief asserting that Maryland's indecency laws don't cover women baring their breasts. Covington claimed bare-chested equal rights with men. Her legal brief made it all the way to the state's Attorney General, but the office was tardy in issuing its legal opinion on whether female toplessness was legal or not. The office still says an official opinion on the matter is forthcoming. Yet the legal uncertainty left the Ocean City Beach Patrol wondering whether they should blow a whistle on any women going topless in the sand. The head of the beach patrol issued a memo last week instructing his life guards to look the other way -- even if other beach-goers were complaining about bare breasts. At that point, Ocean City was left exposed to headlines, which soon went national, that the beach town with 8 million visitors a year was going topless. Covington couldn't have been happier: "There are no laws making female bare-chestedness illegal in Maryland," she writes in a blog post in wake of the controversy. "That is plainly obvious and has finally been acknowledged this month by the Ocean City Beach Patrol and Ocean City Police Department in statements made to the local press." On this point, Covington is declaring victory: "It appears that the local authorities have finally accepted that Maryland law allows female bare-chestedness. And that's a significant win," she writes. But the battle isn't over. Ocean City's ordinance fining women who go topless up to $1,000 raises an even more fundamental question, according to Covington: Can local governments make what she calls a discriminatory law -- one that fines women for toplessness and not men? In light of the Ocean City ordinance, Covington's question is "whether a local ordinance that treats genders differently would be unconstitutional." Chelsea Covington, in a photo taken near the Washington Monument in D.C. and posted on her blog, "Breasts Are Healthy, advocates for "Top Freedom" -- the equal right for women to go topless in public, just as men have been doing since they won the right to doff their shirts in the sand in the 1930s. To test this, it may take a topless woman getting slapped with a hefty fine for baring her breasts on an Ocean City beach. Covington has yet to announce her next move in the Ocean City topless battle that she all but triggered with her Top Freedom advocacy and legal research. She writes simply, "Stay tuned," in closing her latest blog post. Meanwhile in the sands of Ocean City, where high school Senior Week is in full swing with hundreds of fresh grads frolicking in the sand, there have been wild mosh pits spotted and some suggestive line dancing. So far, however, there have been no reports of any topless women testing Ocean City's new get-tough ordinance compelling females to cover up -- or face fines. By Doug Shields In the wake of President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the international Paris climate agreement, a growing list of governors and mayors across the country have declared that they are not turning away from creating a clean energy future. Doug Shields (submitted photo) Meanwhile, here in Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf helped open a new coal mine in Somerset County. Trump's Paris speech included a snappy one-liner about how he was "elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." Many were likely insulted that Trump would dare speak as if he had been elected by Pittsburghers (he received only 21 percent of the vote), and Mayor William Peduto spoke out forcefully on clean energy. It would have been nice to see Wolf join this movement against Trump's disastrous decision. But Wolf is an ardent supporter of the dirty fossil fuel projects that threaten our air and water, and take us backward in the battle against climate chaos. Wolf tried to have it both ways. After Trump's Paris announcement, the governor urged Trump "not to abdicate the United States' global leadership and seat at the table on climate change." That's all well and good, but wishing that Donald Trump change his tune on energy or climate change is a waste of time. So what is Wolf actually planning to do? He did not join the United States Climate Alliance, a coalition of governors dedicated to meeting the emissions reduction goals of the Paris agreement. This growing group of leaders knows that Trump's claims that the Paris accord will harm America are false, and that implementation creates new jobs and makes for a more secure future. Governor Wolf must make that same level of commitment to develop clean energy here in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Wolf's record in office tells a different story. Though he promised as a candidate to rein in the drilling industry, his administration has done little to address the serious, harmful impacts of fracking. Besides the immediate threats to air and water, fracked gas is primarily methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent in the short term than carbon dioxide. His administration has approved more dangerous fracking pipelines cutting through communities, with private companies in some cases using eminent domain powers to seize private land. The state government is approving new underground injection wells to dump millions of gallons of fracking-tainted water mixed with dangerous chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive material--even though research shows injection wells cause earthquakes. Wolf is trying to force through the Mariner East 2 highly volatile liquids pipeline, even though his own DEP were aware of deficiencies in Sunoco's water quality permits. Wolf is amassing a fossil fuel-friendly record that Donald Trump would endorse. But there's no time like the present to change course. If Wolf wants to stand up for Pennsylvania's commitment to the fight against climate change, he should take bold and immediate action on developing clean energy resources, which would create thousands of jobs and lower emissions. However, he cannot lead on clean energy while doubling down on the dirty energy infrastructure that locks us into decades of more dependence on fossil fuels. The same is true for fracking; governors in New York and Maryland have sent a clear message by banning it. Wolf's actions only increase the likelihood that we will see more dirty drilling in Pennsylvania. There are governors across the country stepping up to challenge the Trump White House by committing to do more to combat climate change. Governor Wolf, will you join them? Doug Shields is the Western Pennsylvania Outreach Liaison for Food & Water Watch. Readers may email him at dshields@fwwatch.org. At their next meeting on June 19, officials in the Harrisburg School District have a chance to seize the moral high ground by by forgiving the back taxes of struggling property owners in the 1400 block of South 14th Street in the city. If they're granted the opening, the district should embrace this opportunity. It would be a rare instance of government doing the right thing instead of making the grab for easy money. First the underlying facts: As PennLive's Christine Vendel reports, city and county officials already have agreed to waive property taxes for homeowners on the block dating back to 2014. City and county officials said they took action because many of the homes are uninhabitable and virtually worthless with the area prone to additional sinkholes. But the school board has not waived back taxes despite repeated requests by school board members Matthew Krupp and Jim Thompson. Instead, School Board President Danielle Robinson has said the board needs to gather more information before agreeing to give up revenue for the financially strapped district. But the position taken by the city and county - that the homes are worthless and uninhabitable - knocks the legs out from under the district's argument. In addition, those properties will come off the rolls in any event, once the city demolishes 52 of the properties and converts the area into green space. If there were ever a jurisdiction in need of every spare penny it could cobble together, it's certainly Pennsylvania's capital city. It, along with the county (which is hardly in a position to pass up on revenue), could have pressed the issue and made the grab for the cash. Both chose to forego that path. If such a strategy is good enough for the city and county, it should be good enough for the school district as well. In an op-Ed published on PennLive on Tuesday, Krupp urged his board colleagues to show some compassion, arguing that the affected residents had already suffered enough. "Even if residents don't immediately lose their homes, owing back taxes may prevent them from receiving federal funds to buy their property and help them get a new start," he wrote. And, "should their homes come up for tax sale, speculators may be able to pick up these properties and cash in on the federal buyout - leaving those the money is intended to help with nothing," he continued. "It is indefensible that my fellow school board members are allowing this to potentially happen," he wrote. Krupp posits, and we agree, that the "search for additional information" amounts to little more than a delaying tactic. Such information is "a simple matter of doing our own research and reaching out to County and City officials to get whatever information they feel they still need," he wrote. And time is of the essence. One property narrowly averted a sheriff's sale this week. More could fall to sheriff's sale in September. If if has the chance, the district should step up and waive those taxes at its meeting next week. Lt. Gov. Mike Stack and his wife's alleged mistreatment of their staff hit home for Aryanna Berringer--enough to inspire her to run to replace the Philadelphia Democrat. Berringer said the allegations hit home because the staff at the state-provided residence who were allegedly verbally abused held positions similar to ones her parents had as a waitress and hotel maintenance worker. "If we're going to elect people to office, we should be electing the kind of people that we feel best represent who we are and I don't think that's the right representation of me," she said Wednesday, as she formally announced her bid to challenge Stack in next year's Democratic primary. The state inspector general's office is currently investigating Stack and his wife's alleged abusive behavior. Allegations prompted Gov. Tom Wolf to make the unprecedented move of rescinding Stack's state police security detail and only provide staffing to perform cleaning, groundskeeping and maintenance chores under supervision. Berringer, a 34-year-old Westmoreland County resident, filed her paperwork Wednesday with the Department of State to form a political action committee to raise money to support her campaign. Beyond the Stack controversy, Berringer, an Iraq War veteran who started a nonprofit to improve nutrition in schools, said she wants to be lieutenant governor to continue to be of service to her community and state. Her desire to give back is rooted in her childhood when her working poor parents dependent on outside help to keep their 10 children fed. Berringer, who was the youngest in her family, said there would have been days when there was very little food to eat if it wasn't for the free lunch program at school, food stamps and food banks. So ensuring proper nutrition for today's young people is important to her and she said to our national security. Democrat Aryanna Berringer announced her candidacy for next year's lieutenant governor race. Shown here with her husband Daren and children (from left) Camryn, Atlee, and Donovan. "One in three young adults are unfit to serve in today's military so if we can offer the good food and teach them nutrition education in school, 10 years from now this problem won't continue to be surfacing," she said. "We can combat it and have young fit adults to join the service and protect the nation." As lieutenant governor, Berringer said nutritional education would be one place she would focus her energies. She also sees an opportunity there to employ a practice she uses in her work as an information technology project manager for Giant Eagle supermarket chain to problem solve. "I'd like to start a task force or collaboration network of thought leaders across industry to help solve some of these tough issues we face," she said. "We've got bright and brilliant minds here [at the Capitol] but we got a plethora of them across the state if we just tap into it." She also believes her background as a veteran, growing up poor, having biracial parents, and being a young woman would provide a perspective that is missing from high-level policy discussions. While she has not spoken to Gov. Tom Wolf about a desire to be his running mate, she doesn't anticipate having any problem working with him. In the military where she worked in radio communications, she had to deal with people from all across the country and beyond and from all walks of life. "I think women in general have a really good knack to open the doors of communication. It's what we're good at," she said. "I could offer a unique perspective especially when we start having a discussion about policy. My background would be a great partnership with him." Berringer is unsure how much competition she will face in her run for the Democratic nomination but plans to work hard regardless with the support of her political consultant husband Daren Berringer and the network she built from her failed run against former U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in 2012. From his perspective, Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-area public relations consultant, suggests the odds in this race appear to be in Stack's favor. First of all, his name will appear on the Democratic ballot with "Philadelphia" under it giving him a boost. As for the controversy surrounding Stack, Ceisler said, "Look, he's apologized for all this. Obviously, it's a negative but unless somebody can raise money for lieutenant governor to push the negative in the media, for the most part people are not going to know about it." Beyond that, he said if one person gets in the race, there likely will be four or five others getting into it, diluting the votes against Stack and gives him the advantage. Stack's campaign expected a challenge, said spokesman Marty Marks. "We've always anticipated from the beginning we would have opposition. You have to prepare that way. We've been preparing for a campaign. We'll be ready." But Berringer believes Philadelphians would support her candidacy because Democrats there are tired of seeing "the same old abuse of power that comes with position and authority" that they have witnessed several times over with their elected officials, she said. The Oregon native said she is prepared to do what it takes to win, starting with having long conversations with her children - Donovan, 11; Camryn, 9; and Atlee, 18 months - and how it will impact them. She told them they will see less of her and if elected, her husband will become a stay-at-home dad but they will remain in their same school district. "There's other families that have to deal with way more challenging things than that every day," she said. "We filed the paperwork today. No matter what, I'm in this. We're doing this." Description Known as "America's First Family of Fireworks," six generations of the Grucci family have been lighting the skies since 1850. After emigrating from South Italy, the family established their headquarters in Suffolk County and have remained here ever since, as their industry and their art spread around the globe. From world record awards to military contracts, tragedy to triumphs, the Suffolk County Historical Society's special summer exhibit celebrates the history of this Suffolk County family through their private family photographs, industry artifacts, and behind-the-scenes videos. Curated by Victoria Berger. Admission Museum Only: Members - No Fee Non-Members: Adults - $5.00 Seniors Age 60+ - $3.00 Families Maximum Fee - $10.00 Children Age 17 & Under - $1.00 Legislation that would make the inspector general a permanent Cabinet post passed the Pennsylvania Senate Wednesday on its way toward House consideration and a possible veto by Gov. Tom Wolf. The little-known government watchdog position, currently filled by former Attorney General Bruce Beemer, carries two main functions within the executive branch. The office's roughly 230 employees investigate waste, fraud and abuse in welfare programs. They also probe allegations of misconduct within state agencies. One of the office's recent investigations found that the Pennsylvania State Police Academy's "academic environment did not strongly act to prevent cadets from cheating." That came after the ouster of dozens of cadets due to an alleged cheating incident. A similar bill that passed both the House and Senate last year would have made the office subject to a two-thirds Senate confirmation vote. That language was removed from Senate Bill 527 prior to Wednesday's 37-12 vote. In October, Wolf vetoed the earlier version of the bill, writing that the office "is vital to ensuring the proper functioning of the executive branch." If it became law, he said at the time that he'd be forced to create a new agency under his purview. The OIG itself was created by Gov. Bob Casey via a 1987 executive order and has continued on through each subsequent administration. However, there's no assurance that a future governor would not eliminate the office. In addition to making the OIG permanent, SB527 formally outlines the duties of the post, requires its budget to be a separate line item, creates a mandate for an annual report and allows the governor to appoint an inspector general concurrent with his term. Under the proposal, the governor could remove an inspector general for cause. Currently, it is treated as an at-will position. Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott said the governor continues to oppose the bill. He has not yet decided what to do if it does reach his desk, Abbott said. Based on Wednesday's vote, the Senate would likely be able to override a veto. In this March 15, 2014, photo provided by Alfredo Flores, from left, Vice Admiral Michael Rogers; Paul Monteiro, vice chairman and co-Founder of Nowruz Commission; Bijan R. Kian and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn talk during the Fifth Annual Nowruz Commission Gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. As Michael Flynn spent last fall campaigning as Donald TrumpAos top national security adviser, Bijan Kian, his little-known business partner supervised much of the foreign political work for Turkish interests that has boomeranged back on Flynn, now the target of a federal criminal investigation and congressional inquiries. (Alfredo Flores via AP) In this April 17, 2017, photo provided by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shows Heather Delaney, left rear, and Riley Delaney care for their conjoined twin daughters Abby, left, and Erin, who had been preparing for separation surgery by undergoing treatment to expand skin on their scalps using implanted balloons, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia. Hospital officials say surgeons successfully separated the 10-month-old twins June 6 during an 11-hour surgery. (Ed Cunicelli/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia via AP) Dairy cows are shown in a barn on a farm in Eastern Ontario on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. The U.S. dairy industry has submitted its demands for the upcoming renegotiation of NAFTA, pushing for freer trade in dairy overall and more specifically for a reversal of new Canadian rules on milk-derived products. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Have a story idea or tip about something happening in the East Village? Or maybe a photo? Or several photos? Or video! We'd love to hear about it. Or see it. Or something. Please go here to submit a tip. Flint City Mayor Karen Weaver speaks to media after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced five water officials, including the head of MichiganAos health department, were charged Wednesday, June 14, 2017, with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of FlintAos lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had LegionnairesAo disease, at the Riverfront Banquet Center in downtown Flint, Mich. (Jake May /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke talks with reporters before touring Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument Wednesday, June 14, 2017 in Medway, Maine. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument is one of more than a dozen that's under review by President Trump. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle) FILE - In this March 16, 2011 file photo, exhaust rises from smokestacks in front of piles of coal at NRG Energy's W.A. Parish Electric Generating Station in Thompsons, Texas. President Donald Trump has made reviving the long-struggling U.S. coal mines the bedrock of his administration's energy policy. But new data show market demand for the dirtiest of fossil fuels is plummeting worldwide. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File) Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, at podium, discusses climate change at a news conference held by Calif., Gov. Jerry Brown, third from left, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Sacramento, Calif. During the event Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, left, signed a subnational climate change agreement that calls for the signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 80 percent to 95 percent, below 1990 levels. Also seen are California Senate President Pro tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, along with several other California lawmakers are other dignitaries. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Which Michigan bands are leading the airwaves this fall? Five albums made a splash on the latest Local Spins Hot Top 5 Chart, representing the local and regional releases that received the most radio airplay at Grand Rapids WYCE. This piece, titled, The New Plague, depicts life in Philadelphia in the age of COVID. Artist and educator Raphael Tiberino began painting at the age of four and has been in the spotlight as a professional creative for over 25 years. The former Palladino's at 1934 E. Passyunk Ave. will become Pistola's Del Sur. Read more Joe Gunn, Casey Parker, and Adan Trinidad backed by longtime manager Adam Anderson are heading down south for a third Pistola's Mexican-style beer bar. That's south as in East Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia. Pistola's Del Sur, aiming for Sept. 1, will occupy the former Palladino's (1934 E. Passyunk Ave.), which has been empty since July 2016 after that Italian restaurant, owned by Luke Palladino, collapsed in bankruptcy. The restaurant's pizza ovens will be used for Mexican pizza. The wood-burning grill won't be used. Don't expect a tame look and feel at Pistola's Del Sur. Parker, who is taking the lead in the concept and its build-out, said the atmosphere will call to mind the Jane's Addiction album Ritual de lo Habitual "trippy, sexy, and awesome. Music-driven. Right now, the outside looks like a Nifty Fifty's." These guys like to set up on corners. Jose Pistola's holds down 15th and Manning Streets in Rittenhouse, and Sancho Pistola's took over in 2014 at Girard and Leopard Streets in Fishtown. On a more, shall we say polished note, this summer East Passyunk will see the debut of Barcelona Wine Bar, the strip's first out-of-town restaurant operation, in the former A Man's Image store at 1709 E. Passyunk (at 12th Street). St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is the subject of litigation that could drag out its sale for years. Read more The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been trying for more than four years to sell or lease 40-plus acres of the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary campus in Lower Merion Township. Thanks to a federal judge's decision late last week in a fight over a real estate deal involving Main Line Health and a New Jersey developer of senior-care facilities, the archdiocese's wait for a payoff from the Wynnewood property could now extend for years. Until the litigation ends, no one can buy the seminary property, which sits across Lancaster Avenue from Lankenau Medical Center. A settlement also could clear the way for a sale. In a 29-page ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter rejected motions for summary judgment by Main Line Health and the seminary, finding that enough evidence existed for a trial to decide whether the health system breached a fiduciary duty to developer William Burris when it decided in 2015 to pursue the seminary property itself, cutting Burris out of a deal he brought to Main Line Health in 2014. The key issue in the case is whether Main Line Health and Burris had a partnership or were at least jointly promoting a proposal to build a nursing home or some other facility for seniors on the seminary property. If either of those relationships existed, Main Line Health may have been in no position to take the deal from Burris. "While email exchanges between Main Line executives, and Main Line's shifting position vis-a-vis Mr. Burris may raise doubts about whether a Burris-Main Line partnership existed, those inconsistencies or shifts are ultimately for a jury, not the court, to evaluate," Pratter wrote. The seminary sale is at least the second proposed real estate deal by the archdiocese in recent years to get bogged down. A plan to sell 200 acres in Marple Township for $47 million fell apart when township officials rejected the developer's proposal. On Tuesday, the archdiocese, which has been using the money from real estate sales to fund pension and other liabilities, and Main Line Health said they are were limited in what they could say about the Burris case. "We still hope to reach a successful resolution of this matter in the near future," said Ken Gavin, spokesman for the archdiocese. "While we will not discuss or comment on pending litigation, we are anxious for all of the relevant facts to come to light over the course of the legal process," Main Line Health said. Burris' lawyer, Paul R. Rosen, was not so reticent. "William Burris was shocked at the underhanded conduct of the St. Charles Seminary in its conspiracy with his partner Main Line Health System as the events unfolded, and he remains so today," Rosen said. When Burris learned in March 2013 that the archdiocese wanted to sell or lease the bulk of the seminary campus, he started working on a proposal for a mix of senior apartments, assisted-living units, and a facility, potentially in partnership with Main Line Health, where individuals could get short-term medical care after surgery or an illness. Main Line Health executives appeared to be on board, but in August 2015 the health system decided to make the purchase without Burris. "I've got to believe we can craft a much more attractive offer and then get the land and sit on it until we decide what we want to do. We can't lose this one," Lydia Hammer, Main Line Health's senior vice president of marketing and business development, wrote in an email in September of that year. In October 2015, Main Line's chief financial officer, Michael Buongiorno, sent Main Line board member Jim Buck an email including Burris' slides and plans on the proposal to buy seminary property for $26 million, $1 million more than Burris offered. "Must say I'm not excited at the prospect (don't sense anyone is, really), but I understand the need to control our destiny, and guard our flank, by considering this seriously," Buck responded. Main Line Health's offer eventually rose to $28.5 million for the lower 40 acres, with a $15 million option on the seminary's 29-acre upper campus, which is set back from the intersection of Lancaster and City Avenues, court records said. China Byrns, 28, a doctoral student who studies brain trauma at the University of Pennsylvania, belongs to No Penn Union. Read more The University of Pennsylvania's academic flow chart seemed to baffle National Labor Relations Board hearing examiner Mary Leach at Wednesday's hearing on whether the agency should oversee a union election for Penn's graduate students. Describing it produced convoluted explanations from Penn's lawyers, the opposing lawyer representing GET-UP, (Graduate Employees Together at the University of Pennsylvania). and Penn's vice provost for education, Beth Winkelstein. But the technical details of Penn's organizational structure could become a key factor in whether GET-UP, the group affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, succeeds in its effort to to gain a union election at Penn. Penn's doctoral students typically receive tuition, a stipend for living expenses, and health insurance, and are usually required to teach or assist in research as part of their training, Winkelstein testified. The union wants a grievance procedure and a say on stipends. The big argument is over whether, as Penn argues, graduate students are students with no right to unionize, or, as GET-UP asserts, their work as teaching and research assistants makes them employees able to unionize. Decisions have gone both ways for more than a decade. The latest case, involving Columbia University, allows unionizing. But, leanings of the five-member national NLRB panel fluctuate as the sitting president fills vacancies. There are two now. Penn's case could rise to the national level. Depending on timing, it could be heard by the full five-member board, particularly if Penn persuades the local NLRB to delay the election until the fall. (The union would like an immediate mail election.) The current hearing is scheduled to go on for several days. Penn's arguments were heavy on the technicalities of the organizational chart. One technicality? "This is a `classic fractured unit,' " argued Penn's lawyer, Daniel Johns, a partner at Ballard Spahr in Philadelphia. When GET-UP organized graduate students to sign petitions requesting an election, they concentrated on the 2,378 doctoral students in the liberal arts, communications, medical, education, social work, and design schools, as well as the biomedical group. They didn't push for signatures from the engineering college or the Wharton School of business, with about 600 doctoral students. Graduate students in all schools have similar responsibilities for teaching and research, Johns argued. The union, he said, unfairly excluded schools where students would be more likely to oppose it. In legal terms, Johns said, Wharton and engineering students have an "overwhelming community of interest," with the others and shouldn't have been split off into a fractured unit. GET-UP's lawyer, Amy Rosenberger, a partner at Willig, Williams & Davidson, in Philadelphia, disagreed. Penn's students don't attend the same schools, don't occupy the same path on Penn's organizational chart, and therefore weren't in the same "community of interest." Johns led Leach into the bureaucratic thicket, explaining that students shared a "community of interest" because many are enrolled in interdisciplinary programs, supervised by professors from multiple colleges. Bioengineering graduate students, for example, are taught by science faculty from the liberal arts college and engineering professors, from an excluded school. Listening in, China Byrns, 28, who conducts research into brain trauma for her dual doctorate in medicine and neuroscience, said she sees herself as a student, not an employee. She describes her relationship with Penn as "mutually beneficial." A member of No Penn Union, she objects to GET-UP's unified strategy because each school's students have different interests. GET-UP supporter Danielle Hanley, 33, a doctoral student in political science, said she worked 20 to 40 hours a week as a teaching assistant. "I think we're grad students and also graduate workers," she said. Penn would like to avoid making a decision that would alienate its graduate candidates, Hanley said, adding. "Penn wants Trump to make it for them." Beyond the red neon sign at the entrance to this innocuous rowhouse on South 12th Street., there's a little vestibule and a door with no handle. We press the antique buzzer, and a narrow window slides open to reveal doorman Guido Martelli's friendly face: "Membership card, please." The reedy tunes of a live accordion filter past him through the opening on a stromboli-scented breeze as he inspects my nervous host's paperwork. Then the door swings open toward us, the club rules are noted (among them, "No reviewing"), and we're allowed to pass through the curtains into the checkerboard-floored wonderland of Italian American history that is the Palizzi Social Club. From the art deco bar in front flanked by colorful vinyl swivel stools to the vintage cigarette machine and signed black-and-white photos of boxer Rocky Marciano and Frank Sinatra and a portrait of Frank Rizzo (of course), Palizzi looks and feels like a South Philly time capsule, save for the lavishly tattooed and bearded young crowd sipping amari and stellar cocktails tinged with an Italian accent. A round of Negronis, everyone? Wooden bowls brimming with perfect Caesar salad topped with croutons of fresh-baked semolina bread? There are hot little triangle fritters stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies that light our appetites. Grilled links of fresh fennel-scented sausage are served over mounds of broccoli rabe beside a torch-shaped Calabrese pepper. And then, as accordionist Ralph Salerno hands his tambourine to a gamely young woman at the bar beside us, she finds the rhythm ching-chinga-chinga-ching and a spirited rendition of "That's Amore" surges through the room just as bowls of spaghetti with crab gravy appear. When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine, that's amore "A lot of restaurateurs come up with concepts like this. But this isn't a concept this is the real thing," says chef Joey Baldino, the 39-year-old son of South Philly who recently inherited the 99-year-old social club from his uncle Ernest Mezzaroba and has given it a very special new life. There were once dozens of private clubs like this across the city, founded by immigrants who wanted to preserve a taste of home and forge support networks for community gatherings, life events, late-night drinks, and funerals. A few others still exist, like the Messina Club on South 10th Street, and the more than century old Little Lit Lithuanian Club in Port Richmond, which is still known for its crabs. A black-and-white photo here from the 1920s shows men from the Abruzzo town of Vasto who founded Palizzi in 1918 exclusively for descendants of their community, naming it in honor of the artist Filippo Palizzi, who was the town's most famous resident. "You don't have to be from Vasto anymore," says Baldino, though he notes, "I had to change the charter for that." But it's still members-only. And rules are rules. So, out of respect for my law-abiding hosts, this is not a rated review, even if Palizzi's $20 membership fee, sold to as many as 10 sponsored newcomers a night, is far more accessible than, say, the Union League. But few new eating experiences in Philly have struck such a meaningful chord in me lately, in part because it's so deftly rooted in a disappearing local heritage. In a city that has let far too many of its old food ways wither, there's immeasurable value in such a talented young chef taking tradition under his wing. You've had escarole and beans, but probably not as silky as these. I've not tasted a crab gravy more profoundly steeped with that briny deep-sea sweetness than this one. (Scroll down for recipes.) The semolina poufs of baked gnocchetti come beneath tender beef braised with Nero d'Avola and leeks. Slow-cooked ribs are glossed in a bittersweet glaze of Chinotto soda. And a giant spinach raviolo "Vasto" as big as the plate oozes with a runny yolk when sliced through its delicate middle, enriching the saucy shine of brown butter and sage. Baldino, who cut his teeth under Marc Vetri, is already well-known for exceptional authentic Sicilian cooking at Zeppoli, his BYOB in Collingswood. But there's an extra soulful resonance to the food he's serving to the members-only crowd at the Palizzi Social Club, because it goes well beyond the familiar cliches of South Philly's remaining red-gravy restaurants, with a knowing touch for recipes handed down by his mother and grandmother, from the Locatelli-crusted stuffed artichokes to the tender pink calamari with silky peas cradled in tiny shell pastas to the crispy loaves of stromboli dough pinwheeled around sweet mozzarella and zesty pepperoni. "I want everybody to taste my culture and see how the people who came before me used to eat." That's also a good thing for those curious to experience what is one of the best new cocktail bars in town, where the spot-on classic Negroni also comes in a citrusy white milk-punch variation, the prosecco cocktails are stuffed with plumes of basil, and the bracing martini is infused with the peppery brine of Ursini olive oil. With chunks of salt cod and tiny gianchette fish crisped in such an airy Peroni beer batter for a fritto misto to nibble on, another drink is always a given especially late at night and into the early-morning hours, when the room fills with a largely restaurant-industry crowd. "My happy place," says Aldine co-owner Jennifer Sabatino in an Instagram post of Palizzi's illuminated front door. "Have you been to Palizzi yet?" pizza king Joe Beddia wrote me in a text. "It's perfect." It's no wonder that finding a generous Palizzi member within your extended circle of friends has suddenly become a popular Philly sport. As though on cue, Salerno's accordion and tambourine appear beside my table just as dessert arrives a tricolor bar of fresh spumoni that Baldino makes from sweet creams infused with pistachio, vanilla, and strawberries frozen into an ice cream version of the Italian flag. Who knew this old trope of trattorias gone by, usually mass-produced and freezer-burned, could suddenly be so vivid, so real, so sublime? Ching-chinga-chinga-ching That's amore! Yeah. It was pretty much perfect. Palizzi Social Club 1408 S. 12th St., palizzisocial.com Thursday and Sunday, 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, until 3 a.m. Members only, though 10 new memberships are sold for $20 at the door each night when sponsored by existing member. Long before a jury began deliberating Bill Cosby's fate in a sexual assault case, a large swath of the black community had already found him guilty of forgetting where he came from. For a people who spent centuries fighting the scourge of racism, there is no greater hero than one who has risen above our collective circumstance. Bill Cosby fit that mold, and he was therefore revered. But some in the black community require heroes to remain silent on the black community's foibles.Those who don't are quickly labeled sellouts, and they sometimes leave the community for greener pastures. When they're in trouble, however, they routinely come back, seeking the community's support. Cosby, who is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in his Cheltenham home in 2004, could face a decade in prison if he is found guilty. His team has repeatedly brought up the racial aspect of his caseCosby is black, his accuser is white. In general, older blacks seem willing to back Cosby in those assertions. Black millennials are not so ready to do so. In some ways, it's hard to blame our young people for abandoning Cosby. After all, the comedian admonished young black men to pull their pants up, criticized poor black parents for the profane public behavior of their children, and did so in a very public way. The rebukes left many young blacks feeling that Cosby had abandoned them. And now, when Cosby is at his lowest, many young blacks feel no obligation to support him. Young blacks are certainly within their rights to do so. But while we can afford to disagree vociferously on the fate of Bill Cosby, blacks can't afford to do so on much else. At a time when black people are being shot down in the streets, when our schools are being defunded, and when the upper echelons of our government seem openly hostile to the fight for black equality, we can't allow our differences of opinion to divide us. If we do, it won't make a difference what Cosby or anyone else says about us, because black lives will no longer matter. It's odd that Bill Cosby has brought us to this moment. None of us, young or old, expected that Cosby would be the one to reveal the generational schism in the black community. For so long, he was a symbol of all that united us. But now the comedian who came out of the Richard Allen Housing projects in North Philadelphia is the embodiment of all that divides us. And the irony is that it was a young black man, comedian Hannibal Buress, now 34, who made the joke that put the Bill Cosby rape accusations back into the public sphere. " Bill Cosby has the fing smuggest old black man public persona that I hate," Buress said at a Philadelphia comedy club in 2014. "Pull your pants up, black people. I was on TV in the '80s. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom.' Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby. So, brings you down a couple notches. 'I don't curse on stage.' Well, yeah, you're a rapist, so I'll take you sayin' lots of mothers on Bill Cosby: Himself if you weren't a rapist." The joke went viral on social media, and the Cosby accusations were back in the news, back in our consciousness, back in the midst of the generational divide that separates black Americans not only by age, but also by viewpoint. I've heard that divide on full display on the radio show I host on WURD Radio in Philadelphia, where older callers such as Sarah from North Philly denounce Cosby's accusers as gold diggers who knew what they were getting into when they went home with a married man and took pills that Cosby provided them. Younger callers, such as Wes from Mount Airy, have a different take. "Bill Cosby," Wes said in a call to my show. "It's a sad situation. But I find the irony of it when Bill Cosby was walking around telling young black men to keep pull they pants up but it's him not keeping his pants up that's got him in this situation. And for me the biggest problem that I have with Bill Cosby, I get tired of black people who become famous who [turn] their back on the community or admonish the community because they weren't successful, but then once they get in trouble, they run back to the community, and then the community every time with open arms sits there and [backs] that person." Perhaps it's time for the black community to go beyond talking about Bill Cosby. His fate is his alone. But if we don't begin to listen to one another across our generational divide, our collective fate will be uglier than we know. We can't allow that to happen. Solomon Jones is the author of 10 books. Listen to him mornings from 7 to 10 on WURD (900-AM). Email: sj@solomonjones.com Twitter: @solomonjones1 One of the perks of writing a newspaper column in a large city is that you get to entertain the delusion that the important folks in town read what you have to say, at least on occasion. No one in Philadelphia has more clout than the well-compensated CEO of cable giant Comcast, Brian Roberts, or his best-known lieutenant, the Philly political powerhouse David L. Cohen (who used to like me before I wrote this). Frankly, I doubt those guys have time to read much besides the stock ticker, but I'd love to get through to someone at Comcast with what I'm about to say. You see, they probably think the guy that have running their NBC News division, which includes the cable channel MSNBC, is doing just a whiz-bang job, with MSNBC surging toward the top of the prime-time cable ratings. I'm here to tell you otherwise. The truth is that Andy Lack is something of a dolt. MSNBC is only popular because viewers are flooding to the people mainly prime-time's Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O'Donnell that Andy Lack wasn't able to get rid of (and he recently, according to reports, almost drove away one of them in O'Donnell). The rest of the day, thousands of people who should be loyal to MSNBC are reaching for the remote so they don't have to watch Lack recruits like Greta Van Susteren, tainted in the eyes of progressive-minded viewers because of her long association with the late Roger Ailes' toxic Fox News Channel, or new "pundits" like George Will, one of America's most prominent climate change deniers. Lack's role at MSNBC has been largely to tarnish the brand and alienate loyal customers, which, as you know, Mr. Roberts (yes, I'm going to pretend he's reading this), is the worst sin you can commit in corporate America. If MSNBC didn't have Maddow who's become the voice of sanity in the Trump era for a few million folks every weeknight at 9 p.m. under contract, Lack's makeover of both MSNBC and NBC News might have gone down as the worst branding fiasco since the launch of New Coke in 1985. The funny part is that I've been meaning to write this rant about Andy Lack long before the events of this week, when the NBC News chief's most disastrous move of all the $15-20 million-a-year hiring of very non-serious quasi-journalist Megyn Kelly from Fox News is already blowing up on the face of Comcast's crown jewel. Last month, Lack told Politico that he hadn't really done a lot of research into Kelly's history as a prime-time star at FNC, so maybe he didn't see her infamous and bizarre rant that Santa Claus was white or her frothing coverage that made a couple of weaponized New Black Panthers briefly hanging out outside a North Philly polling place into the second coming of Watergate. "She is a great journalist, I didn't invest in her because of her 'star power,'" Lack told Politico. "Megyn Kelly is a serious journalist, her work on Fox commanded attention because of who she was interviewing, how she was interviewing them, and the information she was getting every night on that broadcast." Lack's "great journalist" was given an hour of prime TV real estate on NBC's Sunday night, where she promptly lobbed more softballs at Vladimir Putin than Jennie Finch pitching in the Olympics finals. Still, the Putin affair was soon forgotten because Lack's big-bucks hire promptly lurched into a much bigger disaster: A teaser of what looked like a not particularly confrontational interview tentatively slated to air next Sunday with talk-radio conspiracy theorist and all-around nutjob Alex Jones, who's repeatedly called 9/11 an "inside job" and famously suggested the horrific school shooting in Newtown was some kind of "false flag operation" so the government could take away your guns. And look, there's a strong case for aggressive, in-your-face reporting on the threats posed by Jones and his falsehoods (in fact, I'm cited in Jones' Wikipedia entry for doing that), but this doesn't seem to be that story. Instead, this has the appearance of giving a huge national microphone to a dangerous lunatic offending grieving Newtown parents for a couple of ratings points (and this picture of Kelly and Jones making the rounds on Twitter didn't help.) In fairness, Lack's blindness to Kelly's lack of real journalistic chops and his lack of concern toward how amplifying Alex Jones might impact civil society doesn't make him unique in the TV news business; the CEO of CBS said famously last year that Trump "might be bad for America, but he's damn good for CBS" and just yesterday Lack's counterpart at CNN, Jeff Zucker, called 2016 "the best year ever" for cable news because the election of a grossly unprepared and unqualified narcissist with his short stubby fingers on the nuclear button also meant record profits for TV news. The idea that American neo-fascism might be a drag on revenue down the road apparently hasn't occurred to anyone. But I single out Lack because he seems to have a special lack of any clue about the moment that America now faces. When Lack arrived at NBC in 2015, the conventional wisdom was that the MSNBC franchise was in trouble, after a year or two in which Obama fatigue and the break time between presidential elections had progressive viewers more eager to catch up on "Breaking Bad" than obsess over politics. And the cable network did have some problems, which Lack attacked with a meat cleaver when a scalpel would have sufficed. He thought the networks' future was in the bland political center of "on one hand, on the other hand" and so he axed a fiery woman of color in Melissa Harris-Perry while bringing in the tired conventional Beltway wisdom of Chuck Todd and Brian Williams. The moves that really alienated the progressive base, which had saved MSNBC from the ash heap of television history in the latter Bush 43 years not just bringing in frequent Trump apologist Van Susteren (who said in February that it was important for Democrats to applaud the president when he addressed Congress) and George Will but the addition to the lineup of Republican Nicolle Wallace, best-known as Sarah Palin's baby-sitter in the 2008 campaign came later. The near kicker was when Lack nearly failed to renew his 10 p.m. host O'Donnell after now-president Trump had spent six years reportedly lobbying NBC to fire him. In the end, it became impossible for even Lack to deny that a few million hardcore Trump doubters desperately want, and need, some outlet in the media. That's the bigger issue here. Since the 1970s, a large and powerful media eco-system from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to Breitbart and Drudge was created to accommodate the citizens in Richard Nixon's so-called "silent majority" who were largely white, conservative and suburban or rural, and who felt the mainstream media didn't share their values. I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but I'd argue there was nothing inherently wrong with that; my main quibble with conservative media is that they invent their own set of facts. Flash forward to 2017 and there's another, not-totally silent majority in this country the 60 percent of Americans who disapprove of Trump's presidency, don't think he's telling the truth, and can't understand why The System, on Capitol Hill, in corporate boardrooms and especially in the media capitals, doesn't share their concern that the nation is drifting into authoritarianism. Rachel Maddow has become the most popular TV news figure in America by channeling that outrage, yet the Andy Lacks of the world remain determined to make sure that progressive minded people don't have a home. It's not just MSNBC look at what the New York Times did recently in boosting its subscriptions by promising truth in a time of Trump, only to use those new dollars to hire climate denier Bret Stephens. News execs like Andy Lack don't understand the desperation of so many citizens who don't see know-nothingism on climate or other science issues as "an alternative point of view," but as a danger to democracy. The media proved in the 20th Century that it lacked both the gumption and the imagination to stand up to dangerous political movements, and I fear that history is repeating in the 21st Century. A smart TV executive might have watched a Maddow or O'Donnell and seen the potential for a 24-hour network that stood for the truth and for fearless reporting in a time of lies. But that's not what America got. Instead we got Andy Lack, "both sides" of the melting Arctic icecap, and a prime-time love letter to an architect of "Pizzagate." I can get up from my keyboard right now, walk downstairs and see Comcast's big second skyscraper rising slowly and majestically over the Philadelphia skyline. If the people who occupy those big corner offices are smart, they'll think about funding more of the journalism that America right needs now or else those skyscrapers may eventually be surrounded by a city of ruin. Photo: Getty Images When one of Sgt. Andy Callaghan's closest friends committed suicide, he said at his friend's eulogy, "Im sad I couldn't help him." Callaghan heads up the Philadelphia Police Department's Law Enforcement Peer Support Network. He recognized signs that his friend needed help and took him to treatment. "But he walked off the campus where he was being treated and went home and picked up a gun and killed himself," says Callaghan. "It was awful." Yet there are so many more who have been helped. This experience has only further motivated Callaghan to help officers find hope and successfully heal, as he himself did. Police suicide is a growing concern. It's difficult to pinpoint the particulars because there is no standard or requirement for reporting officers' deaths as suicides. But while the incidence of suicide among crime fighters is lower than that of military vets, it is much higher than for those in the general population. And it's high time that law enforcement do a better job of addressing the issue head on, according to Bob Douglas who founded the National Police Suicide Foundation after a 25-year career in law enforcement. "The military has put lots of time and energy into suicide prevention training and they are talking about the problem, but law enforcement is not," says Douglas. However, that is slowly changing. Sgt. Callaghan mourns the loss of his friend, but he knows that the mental health services that helped him can and do help others. "When I saw a therapist and was diagnosed with PTSD, that's when the healing began," he says. He is just one of many dedicated to preventing more police suicides by providing officers the help they need to maintain good mental health so they don't reach their breaking point. Ushering In Change "It doesn't mean you're crazy if you ask someone to help you if you're feeling bad," says Dr. John Violanti, a former police officer who now specializes in research on officer suicides. His simple statement addresses the heart of the problem. There is a stigma surrounding anyone seeking help for mental health issues, especially among those in law enforcement. So much so that officers are often unwilling to talk about their feelings and emotions. They worry that admitting to any emotional or psychological distress could not just label them as weak but also ultimately cause them to lose their jobs. This fear can cause any problems to get worse as officers delay addressing their issues. Then if they reach the point of actually contemplating suicide, they'll likely be even more reluctant to talk about their problems and seek help because they fear that they will be "degunned" for their own protection. Without a duty weapon they can't do their job and they fear never being given their gun back and possibly never returning to full duty again. But it doesn't need to be this way. After officers have been involved in critical incidents such as shootings they can experience major depression and panic attacks as a result. But long-term counseling can greatly improve these conditions, says psychotherapist Stephanie Samuels. She has worked exclusively with law enforcement officers for more than 30 years and runs a national suicide hotline called Copline (www.copline.org). She says it's important for officers to recognize that these are symptoms common among law enforcement and that they can get better. But they need to have that education and awareness and agency support, and they need to get that help. "We need to make talking to somebody normal," says Samuels. "More agencies need to do that." Take away the stigma, and officers are more willing and therefore able to get the help they need. In today's world it's even more imperative that this barrier be removed. Law enforcement is an inherently stressful occupation. And these days the job is getting even tougher. Thankfully, the newer generation of officers is more open to seeking help for mental health issues, and this change in attitude bodes well for the profession as a whole. "In the '50s and '60s, there was no such thing as mental health, PTSD, and that type of thing," says Violanti. And the remaining officers carrying on the tradition of proudly bottling up their emotions are retiring out of the profession, taking their old-fashioned and harmful views with them. "Today we're more aware, and police culture will evolve so more officers will be coming forth," Violanti says. Seeing Signs Everyone should know what to look for to prevent suicide. Specific behaviors that may be signs of someone contemplating suicide include increased use of alcohol or drugs, acting recklessly, withdrawing from activities, isolating themselves from family and friends, sleeping too much or too little, and aggression. These are good guidelines, but they vary based on the person. Experts stress that it's important to note incremental changes in behavior and any other signs that something is "off" before a tragedy occurs. Officers know what's normal for their friends and coworkers and what's not. Samuels is well-versed in the multiple psycho-social stressors that officers experience both on and off the job, and what they can lead to. "Because of what they're exposed to, they end up seeing the world very differently, and their different way of seeing the world can impede their social functioning through errors of communication, detachment, hyper-vigilance, and sleep problems," she says. But talking to someone, especially a professional counselor or therapist, can help before officers reach a crisis situation. When you do recognize signs of trouble in an officer, you need to act. And it can't be a passive gesture. "Sliding somebody a phone number and saying, 'You should call this guy,' doesnt work with our population," warns Callaghan. Instead, you need to show the officer you are there for them. Offer to go with them to seek help or bring someone to them right then if the situation is dire. Make sure it's a vetted person who understands law enforcement to provide the most effective help. And don't beat around the bush when broaching the topic of suicide if you suspect an officer is in danger. Ask the officer directly, "Are you thinking about killing yourself?" "A lot of people would think officers won't tell you, but they will," says Douglas. In fact, many of them will be relieved to get the severity of their problem out in the open, says Samuels. "They actually want to live," Douglas explains. The behaviors they are displaying are usually a non-verbal way of telling others there is an issue going on with their life. They just need someone to bring the issue out into the open so it can be addressed before it's too late. "The most important part is for officers to step in and confront their coworkers and tell them what they see and get help," says Callaghan. "Often when I talk to officers [after a fellow officer has committed suicide], a lot of them report they knew something was wrong, and they wish they had done something." If you notice that you don't feel quite right and seek help on your own, all the better. "Take a good look at yourself, and if things are getting worse in your life, take some stock of what's going on," says Violanti. "It happens a lot after five to seven years of law enforcement work, feeling the crunch of the stress and trauma they see every day." This can happen even if you're doing your best to take care of yourself by eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep, and maintaining a support network of friends and family. Many officers experience cumulative career trauma stress (CCTS) in addition to PTSD. In many cases, symptoms manifest over time as a result of multiple traumatic experiences, not one major incident that can be easily pinpointed. This can make self-diagnosis more difficult. But recognizing signs of problems early on and seeking some form of treatment may prevent them from snowballing into something bigger down the line. What Agencies Can Do Officers shouldn't feel alone in their struggles, which is why more law enforcement agencies are providing resources focused on officer suicide prevention. Many provide Employee Assistance Programs, but experts say most could use more emphasis on normalizing the discussion of emotions and feelings, and honestly discussing officers' very real risk of suicide. "We recognize we have stress, but we cut it short," Douglas says. "We don't tell them that by the age of 35 they might 'check out' because of divorce, alcohol-related issues, cumulative career trauma stress, and PTSD, and that if intervention is not placed with them they are more likely to commit suicide than be killed by a felonious act." But more agencies are starting to provide this information, in the academy and beyond, as well as the services to change the statistics for the better. Back in July 2011, a number of San Diego Police Department officers had criminal misconduct cases, including DUIs, sexual assault charges, and domestic incidents. "This string of incidents reflected a pattern of ineffective coping, to my mind," says Sarah Creighton, who was then a captain with the department. In response, she created and headed up a wellness unit to help officers effectively handle their stress, which has been extremely successful. When Creighton retired in February as assistant chief in charge of the Wellness Unit, she had merged all related programs including chaplains under the same umbrella to pool resources and greatly improve communication so they could better meet officers' needs. And she made sure the unit was heavily involved in training and even regularly showed up to roll calls to get the word out. She had also moved the Wellness Unit to the center of police headquarters, making it a gathering place for anyone who wanted to come in for free coffee and talk with each other as well as with therapists. This made discussion about feelings normal and comfortable, and seeing someone there didn't necessarily mean the officer was seeking therapy for a serious mental health crisis. There is a fine balance between access and anonymity when it comes to providing mental health services, and this set-up struck just the right balance for San Diego PD. The Wellness Unit was able to provide officers with information about healthy coping mechanisms as well as access to therapy for themselves and their families, which greatly diminished the incidence of "ineffective coping" at the department. And considering that relationship problems are the highest cause of suicide, treating family members and helping them understand how law enforcement can change people is extremely significant. "My goal is to be the team involved before there is a suicide," says Sgt. Mike Carleton, who heads up the Tempe (AZ) Police Department's Peer Support Program. "I'd rather spend 100 hours providing help to an officer so he or she doesn't commit suicide, instead of spending 10 hours afterwards to help everybody else recover from the trauma of it happening." This proactive approach is ideal, and exemplified by the fact that Tempe PD actually began its program focused on suicide prevention before the agency experienced any officer suicides, to keep them from happening. And it's been very successful. When rank-and-file officers feel that they are being supported by their administration in every aspect of the job, it helps alleviate a lot of the stress they can feel. One key to a program's success is an agency's administrators supporting rank-and-file officers. And ideally the top brass should model the right behavior by not just recognizing that mental health services are genuinely valuable and effective, but also openly sharing their struggles with mental health and their success in finding help. This lets officers know that seeking help and having issues in the first place are OK. It makes them normal. "If we can be proactive and bring about a better understanding of these stressors, and then give them basic signs and symptoms, and also teach them how to make interventions, we can prevent a lot of suicides," says Douglas. Callaghan has seen this put into action with the Philadelphia Police Department's Peer Support Program. He says one of the keys has been excellent support, communication, and cooperation among everyone at his agency and surrounding agencies. "We know if they get help, they come back with a better skillset, usually better than before because they have better coping mechanisms," he says. Seeking help doesn't mean the end of a law enforcement career. "I see successes every day when I run into cops that got promoted after I helped them get help." For agencies that are interested in starting or improving a suicide prevention program, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has put together a program called "Breaking the Silence: A National Symposium on Law Enforcement Officer Suicide and Mental Health" to aid agencies in combating officer suicide. It provides agencies with a template to follow, with readily available downloadable content at http://www.theiacp.org/preventing-law-enforcement-officer-suicide. Educate Yourself Even if your agency doesn't provide extensive training in suicide prevention, you can be your own advocate. Learn the signs. Look for the signsin others and in yourself. Then be brave enough to follow through and talk to your coworker or friend. Or if you're the one who needs help, reach out in the best way you can. Maybe you just need to talk to a friend. Or maybe speaking with a member of your agency's peer support team would help. They can let you vent your frustrations, gauge the severity of your situation, and refer you to a professional if that is the best course of action. Everything will be confidential. You could reach out to another local agency with better resources than yours, skip directly to speaking with a therapist, or call a suicide hotline geared toward officers. The important thing is for law enforcement officers to get help if they need it. To talk to each other. To look out for each other. To get the word out that asking for help is not a display of weakness. Because one police suicide is one too many. Photo: NYPD/Facebook The NYPD is directing officers to give out civil instead of criminal summonses, in most cases, for a series of minor offenses, according to guidelines issued Tuesday, reports the New York Daily News. The updated patrol guide regulations spell out how officers will overhaul enforcement against quality-of-life offenses under the Criminal Justice Reform Act, which the City Council passed last year. The rules say civil summonses can be given out for instances of public drinking and urination, littering, spitting, excessive noise and violating park rules except under limited circumstances. People who have two or more felony arrests in the last two years, have three or more civil summonses they've failed to answer for in the last eight years, or are on parole or probation will be hit with a criminal summons instead, the rules say. An officer can also cite a "legitimate law enforcement reason" to give a criminal summons, which must be verified by the officer's supervisor who responds to the scene. Officers can still ask someone they catch in one of the small-time crimes for ID to check for warrants, and arrest them if they have an open warrant or cannot produce ID. The new rules take effect immediately. Lt. Patrick Weatherford of the Newport (AR) Police Department was shot and killed Monday while backing up a fellow officer at a traffic stop. (Photo: Newport PD/Twitter) Tyler Calamese, an 18-year-old from Newport, AR, has admitted to shooting and killing Newport police lieutenant Patrick Weatherford Monday night, according to Arkansas State Police. Arkansas State Police confirmed that 41-year-old Lt. Weatherford was shot and killed near the Remmel Park area in Newport. Weatherford was a 15-year veteran of the Newport police force. Investigators said the bullet hit near Lt. Weatherford's heart. Calamese, who turned himself in to police Monday night, has been charged with capital murder in Lt. Weatherfords death. Calamese's grandmother sat in on Wednesday's bond hearing. She said her grandson is innocent. The arrest of an Ohio couple on drug smuggling charges last week illustrated the investigative methods federal agents are using to track down and build cases against people who sell deadly drugs like fentanyl on the dark web. In this case, a Homeland Security agent, a postal inspector and a drug-sniffing DEA dog named Sadie teamed up to gather evidence against James Halpin and Grace Bosworth, according to the new criminal complaint charging the Cincinnati couple. The complaint lays out how federal agents are working together across agencies: ordering fentanyl from dark web marketplaces, picking up the drugs from undercover addresses and comparing mailing labels and handwriting samples. The effort comes as fentanyl, about 50 times stronger than heroin, is spreading quickly across the country. A task force made up of multiple federal law-enforcement agencies was assigned in May to investigate fentanyl sellers operating within the U.S. by making undercover purchases on dark web marketplaces. That same month, agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service found a dark website selling fentanyl with offers like, 100mg of Fentanyl HCL 98% purity $105+35 for Express-1 days shipping. The agents ordered fentanyl from the website on May 30, directing that it be delivered to an undercover name and address in northern Ohio. The U.S. Express Mail parcel they received carried a plastic baggie of fentanyl concealed inside a magazine and bore a return address from an A.P. Schweitzer in Newport, Kentucky. A postal inspector in Cincinnati examined the 11-digit label sequence on the Schweitzer parcel and found four other packages sent from a post office in Norwood, Ohioa 15-minute drive from Newport, Kentuckythat bore the same return name and address and were each sent to a different state, Newsweek.com reports. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print If there was one devastating lesson to come out of Jeff Sessions testimony, it was that Donald Trump never showed concern to the Attorney General about the Russia election hacking. Sessions told Manchin he does not recall any time that Trump expressed concern about Russian interference in the election. Sessions tells Manchin he does not recall any time that Trump expressed concern about Russian interference in the election. Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) June 13, 2017 For that matter, neither did Sessions: King: Do you think Russians interfered with 2016 election? Sessions: Appears so. King: But you never asked about it? Sessions: No. King: "Do you think Russians interfered with 2016 election?" Sessions: "Appears so." King: "But you never asked about it?" Sessions: "No." Roger Simon (@politicoroger) June 13, 2017 According to Sessions, Trump isnt concerned about the Russian election interference. Sessions also has not been involved in any National Security Council meetings about the Russia threat. The Attorney General made it clear that the Trump administration is not prioritizing Russian election interference. The Trump White House doesnt give a damn about Russia because they know that Russian election interference helped them to win the election. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print During an interview on The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) responded to Jeff Sessions testimony, by calling on the Attorney General to come before the Judiciary Committee so that the Minnesota Senator can question him. Clip of Franken on MSNBCs The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for AG Sessions to resign. Sen. @alfranken says Sessions should testify before Senate Judiciary Cmte first: pic.twitter.com/OLDkHHuXuQ The Last Word (@TheLastWord) June 14, 2017 Sen. Franken called out Sessions and virtually demanded that the Attorney General testify before the Judiciary Committee on multiple occasions during the interview. Franken didnt join the calls for Sessions to resign, but he did say no less than three times that Sessions testify before the committee that he sits on. Franken called Sessions answer convoluted and false and added that the Attorney General did not correct his false answer until a story ran in The Washington Post seven weeks later. Franken said that the Trump campaign and the administration have collective amnesia when it comes to meeting Russians, and they dont act like people who have nothing to hide. Sen. Franken was calling out the Attorney General. It was telling that after several appeals for Sessions to testify, Franken said that if the AG refuses he is going to appeal to Judiciary Committee Chairman and Ranking Member to compel him to testify. In other words, Jeff Sessions isnt going to be able to hide from Franken forever. Sooner or later, he is going to have to answer for the lies he told during his confirmation hearing. Al Franken sounds like a man who is going to relentlessly pursue Sessions until he gets answers. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) accused Jeff Sessions of obstructing the Russia investigation by refusing to answer questions. Video: Martin Heinrich says Sessions "obstructing" congressional investigation by declining to answer questions: "Your silencespeaks volumes." pic.twitter.com/t3ZahcaWW3 Good Morning America (@GMA) June 13, 2017 Sen. Heinrich (D-NM) said, There are two investigations here. There is a special counsel investigation. There is also a congressional investigation, and you are obstructing the congressional investigation by not answering these questions, and I think your silence like the silence of Director Coats, like the silence of Admiral Rogers, is telling. Democrats and Independent Sen. Angus King have grown increasingly frustrated during the hearing as Attorney General Sessions has refused to answer questions, but is not covered under executive privilege. Sessions is dodging questions because Trump may assert privilege later. The hearing has been testy as Sessions has not been forthcoming with his answers. The Attorney General has refused to answer questions, parsed his answers, and smothered his answers in I dont recall and I believe. Democrats have not let Sessions get away with this soft shoe routine, and it is not a good look for Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President Trump is so out of touch with reality that he thinks he can threaten special counsel Robert Mueller into clearing him on the Russia scandal. The New York Times reported, That may have been by design, according to a person who spoke to Mr. Trump on Tuesday. The president was pleased by the ambiguity of his position on Mr. Mueller, and thinks the possibility of being fired will focus the veteran prosecutor on delivering what the president desires most: a blanket public exoneration. Yeah, thats not going to work. Robert Mueller isnt a contestant on The Apprentice. Mueller is a former FBI Director who unlike Trump understands how Washington, D.C works. Trumps natural impulse appears to lean towards self-destruction and creating the worst situation possible for himself. The Times reports that Trump was talked out of firing Mueller by his staff, but this isnt the last that we are probably going to hear about the President trying to fire someone who is investigating him because that is what guilty people do. Donald Trump is in way over his head, and his presidency looks like it is living on borrowed time. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President Trump didnt stop at calling his own health care bill mean. While meeting with Republican Senators, Trump also called the bill a son of a b*tch and told Republicans to spend more money. There is more to the story than Trump calling the Republican health care bill mean: There's more: source tells @Acosta that POTUS also called the bill a "son of a bitch" https://t.co/DF6u5AdMGy Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) June 13, 2017 And there's more. Source says Trump also called House health care bill "cold-hearted" and that the Senate "needs to spend more money." https://t.co/XuU0zUy2Mz Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 13, 2017 In a case of even a broken clock being right twice a day, Trump is correct the bill is cold-hearted and underfunded. However, one wonders if Trump really cares about the people who will be hurt by this legislation, or if his concern is based on the fact that the American Health Care Act is one of the most hated pieces of legislation ever proposed? If Trump feels this strongly about the Republican health care bill, why does he keep praising it in public? If the President was a real leader, he would tell McConnell and Ryan that their bill isnt good enough and threaten to veto it if it passes. Trumps outrage really isnt about the people who will lose their coverage. Donald Trump is upset that he is going to get saddled with the political fallout from this bill. Trump is still most worried about Trump, which is why he will continue to praise a piece of legislation in public that hes trashing in private. EU opens legal case against Hungary over migration policy The European Commission has on Wednesday launched infringement procedures against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for non-compliance with their obligations under the 2015 Council Decisions on relocation. New infringement proceeding opened Despite the Commission's repeated calls for action, these three countries remain in breach of their legal obligations and have shown disregard for their commitments to Greece, Italy and other Member States , the EU executive said in a statement on Wednesday.The Council Decisions require Member States to pledge available places for relocation every three months to ensure a swift and orderly relocation procedure, the EC said. Whereas Hungary has not taken any action at all since the relocation scheme started, Poland has not relocated anyone and not pledged since December 2015. The Czech Republic has not relocated anyone since August 2016 and not made any new pledges for over a year. Next steps Background Related article EU opens infringement procedure against Hungary over relocation 13/06/2017 3:51pm German Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz delivered a simple message to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban today. He said that, if elected chancellor, he would push for the EU to cut subsidies to countries that do not take in refugees, politico.eu reported. In essence the message was this: "no refugees, no subsidies".The Commission had announced back in May that those Member States that have not relocated anyone, or have not pledged for almost a year, breaching their legal obligations, should start doing so immediately and within a month. As announced yesterday, since no action has yet been taken by the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to meet their legal obligations,is a first official request for information and the first step in an infringement procedure. Given that the Council Decisions on relocation were adopted in response to an emergency situation and in view of the repeated calls to the three Member States, the authorities of theIf no reply to the letter of formal notice is received, or if the observations presented in reply to that notice cannot be considered satisfactory, the Commission may decide to move to the next stage of the infringement procedure, and send ato the Member States. If necessary, the Commission may then refer the case to theof the EU.The temporary emergency relocation scheme was established in two Council Decisions in September 2015, in which Member States committed to relocate persons in need of international protection from Italy and Greece.The relocation decisions concern the commitment to relocate 98,255 people, after the Council adopted an amendment to the 2nd Council Decision on relocation on 29 September 2016 to make 54,000 places not yet allocated available for the purpose of legally admitting Syrians from Turkey to the EU.The Commission has been reporting regularly on implementation of the two Council Decisions through its regular relocation and resettlement reports, which it has used to call for the necessary action to be taken.As reported yesterday in the 13th report on relocation and resettlement, the pace of relocation has significantly increased in 2017 with almost 10,300 persons relocated since January a fivefold increase compared to the same period in 2016.As of 9 June, the total number of relocations stands at 20,283 (13,766 from Greece, 6,458 from Italy). With most of the Member States now relocating from Italy and Greece, it is feasible to relocate all those eligible by September 2017 if the pace of relocation is further stepped up. Whereas in Greece there are 11,350 persons are currently registered for relocation, more efforts are needed in Italy to identify and rapidly register eligible asylum seekers.The 13th report noted that regrettably, despite repeated calls, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, in breach of their legal obligations stemming from the Council Decisions and their commitments to Greece, Italy and other Member States, have not yet taken the necessary action and announced that the Commission has decided to launch infringement procedures against these three Member States. Hungary's Orban threatened: No refugees, no subsidies! German Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz said that, if elected chancellor, he would push for the EU to cut subsidies to countries that do not take in refugees, politico.eu reported on Wednesday. His personal message to Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban was exceedingly simple: no refugees, no subsidies". We wont accept that solidarity as a principle is questioned, said Martin Schulz, the Social Democrats (SDP) candidate for Chancellor in Septembers parliamentary election. With me as chancellor ... we wont accept that solidarity as a principle is questioned , Schulz said on Tuesday at a conference of a business lobbying group with ties to his party.Schulz stresed the influx of refugees into the Continent in recent years was not a German problem, but a European challenge." Schulz said that, if elected chancellor, he would push for the EU to cut subsidies to countries that do not take in refugees. Related article EU to launch new probe against Hungary on Tuesday 12/06/2017 5:01pm Related article Hungarys Orban warns of start of serious disputes in the EU 12/06/2017 11:11am He said the influx of refugees into the Continent in recent years was not a German problem, but a European challenge."His comments came as the European Commission voted to launch infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary for not taking in refugees under a mandatory 2015 quota system advocated by Germany that aimed to relocate 160,000 refugees across the Continent.East European leaders, particularly Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have repeatedly railed against the EU resettlement plan, Politico reminded.Shulz did not leave that without a comment.Orban said in Parliament on Monday that Hungary will not give in to blackmail from Brussels and we reject the mandatory relocation quota." Schulz shot back swiftly at Orban in his speech on Tuesday.Mr.Orban says Thats a German problem,'" Schulz said. Let me make this perfectly clear: When it comes to agricultural policy, its all Yes, please. When it comes to subsidies, its all Yes, please. And when it comes to solidarity in refugee policy, its No, thank you thats not acceptable. Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Martin Schulz, then President of the European Parliament in Brussels in 2015. Photo by THIERRY CHARLIER / AFP Poland and Hungary are among the largest net recipients of EU funds, while Germany a net contributor to the bloc. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Scattered thunderstorms early, then mostly cloudy overnight with heavy thunderstorms becoming likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near an inch.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then mostly cloudy overnight with heavy thunderstorms becoming likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near an inch. The American Cancer Society will be hosting a Relay For Life Event at Rochester Community and Technical College from 5 p.m. to midnight Friday. Founded by Dr. Gordy Klatt of Washington in 1985, the Relay for Life movement is the world's largest fundraising event to save lives from cancer. As part of this team fundraising event, team members will take turns walking around a track. They will not stop or sleep, symbolizing the nonstop nature of cancer. Funds raised help the American Cancer Society provide free information and support for people facing the disease today, and fund cancer research that will help protect future generations. The Cancer Society has invested more than $4.5 billion in research since 1946, and has funded more than 20,000 scientists at more than 1,000 institutions nationwide. Volunteers are still needed. To get involved, visit RelayForLife.org/olmstedcountymn or call 1-800-227-2345. You do not have to be a modern dance devotee to enjoy a couple hours at "Merce Cunningham: Common Time," on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis through July 30. Applauding this most influential dancer and choreographer, "Common Time" also celebrates Cunninghams collaboration with other arts pioneers, who he invited to stroll with him onto the avant-garde stage beginning in the mid-20th Century. It is not an occasion to be missed. The Walkers "Common Time" was mounted with a companion exhibit at Chicagos Museum of Contemporary Art. Both are part of a larger revival of Cunninghams genius that is also occurring with performances throughout the country proof that in modern dance, "what goes around comes around" figuratively and literally. According to the Walker, the exhibit presents Cunninghams "dynamic artistic collaborations, which grew out of his radical notion that the components of dance movement, sound and visual art could be created independently, coming together only during the common time of a performance." Throughout eight galleries, there are portraits of dance, music, visual arts, and film that Cunningham embraced, as well as a curated snapshot of what was happening in our country at the time of his flourishing, artistically and otherwise. Cunninghams connection to the Walker began in 1963 when he arrived in Minneapolis with composer and partner John Cage, artist Robert Rauschenberg and some dancers. The set pieces for the dance to be presented were strapped to the roof of the troupes Volkswagen Microbus. After Cunninghams death in 2009 at the age of 90, his company disbanded and his foundation presented more than 5,000 items to the Walker in 2011. ADVERTISEMENT 4 must-see pieces of the "Common Time" exhibit 1. The Films, Life-Size Images and Interactive Installations:Dancers, including Cunningham, dance from various performances spanning decades beginning in the 1950s. There are composite images and clips from his made-for-television performances. Dont miss the large helium-filled silver clouds inspired by artist Andy Warhol. 2. The Music:You wont be able to miss the music; its everywhere. There are the sounds of piano, city streets, clanking the sounds that brought Cunninghams dances about life, nature and the soul to life through calculated and timed movements by every dancer. 3. The Costumes and Scenery:Strategically placed throughout the exhibit, the colors and creativity of the artists that became part of Cunninghams company are exposed through costumes and scenery. These include a set creation of Rauschenberg made of fabric and wood and collapsible for transport on top of the Volkswagen (pictured bottom left). 4. The Memorabilia:Interspersed on walls and in protective cases are posters publicizing performances from The Brooklyn Academy and venues in France and Israel; choreography notes and music ledgers from Cunningham and Cage; programs from The New School for Social Research in NYC; and photographs from the days when Cunningham formed his company at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Taken collectively, "Common Time" leaves one with an appreciation for the importance of Merce Cunningham as an unequalled innovator; for the creative forces that moved our country into new artistic realms during the 20th Century as we moved through generations; and for The Walker as playing a role in both. Jessica Joyce is new, new, new. New to Rochester as of October. New to managing a farmers market. And new to serving as market manager for the Rochester Downtown Farmers Market . "I havent slept much in the last week because Im so excited," Joyce said as she began her new job. "Ive been learning a lot about local produce and how great it is. Its a 100 percent good sell to bring local produce to the market." Joyce replaces outgoing market manager David Kotsonas, who went to the St. Paul Farmers Market earlier this spring. During his tenure at the RDFM, Kotsonas built a strong, community-focused market that saw significant growth, with crowds surging to 6,000 people. The market was ranked No. 1 in the state in a 2014 Star Tribune "Best of Minnesota" readers poll. "The market is built up and doing really well," said vendor Bob Kappers, of Kappers Big Red Barn, a milk producer in Chatfield. "As long as (Joyce) keeps that going, well be fine." ADVERTISEMENT Joyce arrived at an opportune time, right as the summer market was beginning. She said she was willing to be there early, and late, ready to handle what needs handling, she said. Joyce, 26, moved to Rochester in October with her partner, who is a student at Mayo Medical School through 2019. The two were married May 13 in Colorado; Joyce took a short time off for wedding festivities, but was back at it in no time. Since moving to Rochester last fall, Joyce has been immersing herself in local life through volunteering. She volunteers at Welch Village on the ski patrol and at Hawthorne Education Center. Thats where she was when the RDFM Board of Directors president called to offer her the market manager job. From the first time she read about the job, Joyce said she had a "butterfly moment." She found the job posting on the market website, applied, and was hired soon after. Though she doesnt have market manager experience, Joyce firmly believes the job is the perfect fit. "Its possibly what Ive been hoping to do for my entire career and I just havent settled into it yet," she said. "Ive always been a behind-the-scenes worker. Also, Im just really passionate about the ideals of the market sustainable foods, bringing health to the community, and helping people make the healthy choices theyve wanted to make." Joyce said she was impressed that the market is a growers market, meaning all the vendors grow or make the products they sell; there is no wholesaling or reselling allowed. The market has been active for more than 30 years, and is a strong one, vendors say. "I think its a great market," said Tonya Sanner of Firefly Berries in Rochester, which sells a variety of berries, grapes, jams, jellies, honey, and, this year, natural-dyed yarn. "We get a lot of traffic and customers are always interested in new, original fruits and vegetables. They seem to genuinely care about where their food comes from, which is a great thing." KASSON The Mantorville-Kasson sewage-piping project that started more than a decade ago as just an idea is nearing completion. Then, Mantorville city officials discussed the idea of piping the town's sewage to Kasson for treatment instead of renovating the town's wastewater treatment plant, which sits on the bank of the Zumbro River. The idea wasn't that farfetched; other southeastern Minnesota communities do it including Dover, Eyota and St Charles; Plainview and Elgin; and La Crescent and La Crosse. After years of planning, the project started in earnest last fall when workers from Kuechle Underground, Inc. of Kimball starting laying the pipeline beginning from the Kasson plant and working toward Mantorville. Once the pipeline is complete and the Kasson plant is ready to receive it the town's sewage will flow as it always did to the local wastewater treatment plant. However, instead of being processed there, it will be pumped through the deeply buried pipeline under the river, along Highway 57 and along County Road 15. Then it takes off cross country to the Kasson wastewater treatment plant. ADVERTISEMENT The Kasson plant wasn't big enough to handle the sewage of 1,200 more people without an upgrade, though. And that upgrade and others needed at the plant slowed the project's completion by years. Mantorville has paid Kasson $409,500 so far, which is half the estimated connection fee of $819,000. That was based on the 364 sewer hookups in Mantorville when the estimates were drafted multiplied by $2,250 for each. Mantorville will then pay Kasson a yearly fee based on flows. One of the last conditions to be met before the project is complete is the construction of a giant tank to hold wastewater in the event the Kasson plant couldn't handle waste produced in, for example, a heavy rainstorm when aging sewer lines might be infiltrated by storm water runoff. The peak-flow storage tank holds the runoff until the wastewater plant can process it. DN Tanks - the same company that built the new water tower at Mayo Clinic Hospital-St. Mary's campus is in the process of building this tank for Kasson. The retention basin will hold 4.3 million gallons, explained local project engineer Kevin Graves of WHKS. Site Superintendent Mike Borst and Project Manager Chris Brown of DN Tanks explained the logistics of building the prestressed concrete tank. After the base was made, 40 concrete panels were poured in May, each weighing 13.75 tons. When cured, each panel was lifted into place with a crane and swung into its precise location. A steel diaphragm is the water barrier in the finished tank and a complex wire-winding system around the outside of the tank seals the panels and the diaphragm. A core crew of only six knows the building steps perfectly and in only a few days, the panels were all standing upright, ready for the next step. No final completion date has been given yet for the project but it should be online by late summer, if all goes according to plan. WABASHA Expect another packed house Thursday evening when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers holds a town hall-style meeting to discuss the draft of its new dredge material management plan beginning at 7 p.m. at Wabasha-Kellogg High School. Freshman U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis said even though he's back in Washington, D.C., he has a staff member who has been working on the issue who will be at the meeting. So will Col. Sam Calkins, district commander district commander for the Corps in St. Paul. Lewis said he first learned about the plan which has met with resistance from landowners who are being asked to sell their property as either permanent storage sites for dredge materials or on-shore transfer sites where the sand and silt would be loaded on trucks back on May 22. Immediately, he said, he realized the plan was going to garner stiff opposition. "I have some experience with eminent domain, and I am sympathetic with the Drysdales." ADVERTISEMENT The biggest piece of land acquisition for the plan would be 298 acres of farmland owned by the Drysdale family just north of Kellogg. Willard Drysdale has said his land is not for sale. The Corps, however, has said the land is crucial to its plan and eminent domain the process by which the government forces a sale for the public good is a tool it may be forced to use. Lewis said in his own case, the government took land that belonged to his business, and offered what it considers "just compensation." "Their idea of just compensation is usually very different from the landowner's idea of what the land is worth," Lewis said. The fact that the landowners were only notified less than 30 days before the original end-date for public comment on the draft plan is troubling, he added. "We need to make sure the Army Corps is exploring all possibilities," he said. "I know (Minnesota) Rep. (Steve) Drazkowski is working with the county to explore other possibilities." Craig Evans, chief of plan formulation section for the Corps and one of the authors of the draft plan, said when he first began working on the plan three years ago, he was certainly not looking at farmland as permanent storage for the dredge material. Area mines and quarries were the first option he explored. "I thought certainly there will be enough capacity in mines that we can put it there," Evans said. "We went about as far as Lake City, roughly 14 miles, but it was clear there would not be enough capacity." With cost being a driving factor part of the Corps' mandate in developing the plan it soon became apparent that filling old mines would not be sufficient. And while the absolute costs of hauling sand and silt five, 10 or 20 years from now is hard to estimate, Evans said a storage site that costs twice as much today will cost twice as much at the end of the plan in 40 years. Considering the hauling cost represents about 32 percent of the overall cost of the $200 million-plus 40-year plan, distance from loading sites to storage is a major factor, he said. ADVERTISEMENT Lewis said while he hopes the Corps can find an alternative to taking good farmland away from a family that is in its fourth generation on the land, he knows the Corps is in a tough spot. "The Mississippi needs to be dredged," he said. "And our job is to promote interstate commerce. The question is, has the Corps done its due diligence?" AUSTIN There are more questions than answers for employees affected by Mayo Health System's plan to consolidate its Austin and Albert Lea campuses. "When it impacts you, it's personal and it's important and it matters," said Kathy Lehman, a nurse with the Albert Lea campus who is a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Nurses Association. On Monday, Mayo Health System announced it would move most of its inpatient services from Albert Lea to Austin. That means patients will soon have to travel to Austin for major surgeries requiring hospitalization, overnight hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit stays, and for childbirth. Meanwhile, the inpatient behavioral health unit in Austin will be moved to Albert Lea. Mayo plans to spend $25 million on the consolidation, which is expected to be completed by 2020. The first major transition will happen in October, when Albert Lea's Intensive Care Unit is moved to Austin. Meanwhile, outpatient care, which Mayo says accounts for 95 percent of the services offered, will remain on both campuses. Those services include the emergency room, outpatient surgeries, family practice medicine, prenatal care, pharmacies and labs. Minnesota Nurses Association Austin spokesman Nick Nelson said the union was aware that management and administration had spent the past 18 months talking about ways to optimize the campuses' operations. But he said employees were caught off guard by the consolidation news. ADVERTISEMENT "I don't think anyone expected that outcome. We were, for 18 months, unaware of the scope of what was being communicated to both our campuses," Nelson said. Dr. Mark Ciota, CEO of Mayo Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday that approximately 1,000 employees work at each site. Ultimately, he said about 30 to 50 jobs are expected to shift to the Austin campus. He said that, at this point, the health system does not expect there to be any layoffs, but he can't guarantee that. "Our workforce is very dependent on our volume, so we can't predict the volume," he said. Ciota said the plan is to give priority to current employees at one campus for jobs that open up at the other location. But nurse union members still have plenty of questions. They want to know whether their members will be guaranteed jobs at the other campus. They are also concerned about whether they will get to keep their seniority when they move. MNA represents nurses at both campuses, but they are separate bargaining units. "Would they add insult to injury and strip Albert Lea nurses of their seniority? We have expressed a desire that the two bargaining units' seniority lists be melded," Lehman said. In a press release issued today, Mayo said the issue of seniority will be addressed in contract negotiations with the nurses unions. "We are required to negotiate effects of this decision on MNA-represented nurses with the separate bargaining units in Albert Lea and Austin, so we cannot specifically speak to what will happen until those discussions have occurred," the statement reads. "Seniority will be one of the issues to be resolved." ADVERTISEMENT A previously scheduled negotiation session for Albert Lea nurses' contract is slated for today. The current three-year contract expires at the end of the month. Employee forums are also planned at the campuses to answer questions. A major concern for Nelson is how the consolidation will affect patient care. "We're concerned because caring for patients is sometimes at capacity in Austin, and we don't know to what this expansion and renovation will include," Nelson said. "We haven't gotten any numbers as to how Austin will be accommodating both communities. We haven't heard any specifics." Mayo Health System leaders insist that the consolidation will improve patient care in the long term by making it easier for the campuses to attract top-tier medical talent. "It's tough in small town medicine these days. One of the things that has really changed is there is a national physician shortage. In some of the positions we are trying to recruit, there are 14 job openings for every one position available," said Dr. Bobbie Gostout, vice president of Mayo Clinic and leader of Mayo Clinic Health System. One of the reasons attracting talent has become so difficult is due to a shift in generational values. Physicians coming out of medical school today place a higher value on work-life balance. They don't want to have to be on call every other day. By consolidating inpatient services at the Austin campuses, she said Mayo can offer these doctors the chance to practice at a rural clinic but only have to be on call once every five days. "This is giving us our chance to recruit brilliant people to staff these medical centers in the future," Gostout said. In addition, Gostout said she expects the move will allow the health system to offer a higher level of care, thanks to the concentration of services. Mayo could invest in technology at the campuses and there would be fewer transfers to Mayo Clinic in Rochester for more complicated cases. ADVERTISEMENT Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said in a statement that he understands the challenges rural health care facilities face, but he is concerned about Mayo's planned consolidation. "I am very aware of the shortages of health care professionals across the state, but particularly in rural parts of Minnesota. That being said the Albert Lea facility is the city's largest employer and this decision by Mayo creates a lot of uncertainty for Albert Lea clinic employees. I want to assure residents in both Austin and Albert Lea that I'll be following this situation closely because it's vital that area residents have close access to affordable, high quality health care Employees say they remain in the dark about many of the plans details and will push for answers. "It's a time crunch, and we we need to get a process figured out so that nurses who are able to move to where their job is going know what the process is," Lehman said. EYOTA For dairy farmers Charlie and Carrie Sachs, hosting the Country Breakfast on the Farm is all about education. But they'll do it with some extra surprises thrown in. "People will be able to go through the parlor, but I'm not going to say what we're going to do there," Charlie said. "They'll have to walk through the parlor to see that surprise." The Sachses own Towerview Dairy, a 2016 University of Minnesota selection for Farm Family of the Year for Olmsted County. They are also going to be second-time hosts of the Country Breakfast on Saturday, an honor only a few others in the county have received. Three generations currently work on the farm. Charlie's father, Chuck, is a third-generation dairy farmer. Charlie and Carrie's children Jay, C.J. and Anna Marie also help out. It's a bona fide family effort to take care of their 60 dairy cows, plus their calves and heifers. ADVERTISEMENT "We've scaled back our operation a bit, and I've found out that lots of cows and lots of employees makes me unhappy," Charlie said. "I want to work with the cows." The Sachses plan to open up their barn and milking parlor to all who attend the breakfast and have no qualms with letting people pet the cows and calves, most of which were born and raised right there, and who produce milk that goes to the Plainview Milk Products Co-op. "It's going to show all around, from birth to older cows, that are being milked," Carrie said. "We're not going to limit anyone from touching cows. They're born here; Anna plays with them from day one." The Sachs family has been at its current location near Eyota since 2002, moving from Farmington. The whole family contributes to the farm Charlie is in charge of the management of the farm, feeding and mixing of all the cow and heifer feed. He's in charge of the herd's breeding program and handles most of the field work. Carrie milks the cows, oversees herd health and the bookwork. She also works full-time off the farm as a nurse at Mayo Clinic Hospital - Methodist Campus in Rochester. Their oldest son, Jay, currently attends South Dakota State University and majors in dairy production. He helps with milking and field work and herd care when he's home. Middle child C.J. is a senior in high school and plans to attend Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar to study dairy. He helps with milking, takes care of manure management, bedding needs of the cows, field work and mechanics. Anna, the youngest, is a junior in high school and hopes to study ag education in post-secondary. She feeds calves and helps with milking as well, and she shows cows. Each of the children owns a couple head. ADVERTISEMENT "You can take all our cows in the house for Christmas dinner," Charlie said. "They might as well be members of the family." Charlie and Carrie feel that letting breakfast attendees interact with cows is part of the educational process that many miss out on being several generations removed from the ag industry. In addition to exploring the farm, groups like the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Plainview Milk Products Co-op and local dairy princesses will be on hand. They also plan to have a veterinarian and nutritionist around. As has become tradition, Chris Cakes will serve breakfast. FFA students will run a petting zoo with smaller animals, always a favorite with the youngest folk. Plus, one of Charlie's anticipated surprises will get their attention in a big way, if it works out as he hopes. Being the second time around, the Sachses are grateful they have a plan from before that they can follow. "I didn't think I could get that many people on the farm and give them breakfast," Charlie said of their first time hosting in 2008. "There were close to 3,000 people, about 2,800. It was just kind of amazing to see the people come through, walk through the barn, the parlor." Most of all, the family hopes to give people a glimpse of how cows are treated. "Everybody is three, four, five generations removed from agriculture now, and they don't have a clue how technology has changed how we do things," Charlie said. "It doesn't change how we care for the animals. There are a lot of things that make that easier nowadays." One unique aspect of their operation is their milk pasteurizer. Baby calves and sick cows drink pasteurized milk, which saves them money on milk replacer. Charlie said the machine paid for itself within a year and helps keep somatic cell count low. It's humming in the background when you walk into the building. ADVERTISEMENT The Country Breakfast on the Farm will be at the start of Rochesterfest this year. Good news for attendees is that the bus ride will be free no need to purchase a button. There will also be a free parking lot down the road, with shuttles on tractor wagons to the property. It's sure to be a packed day of dairy education on June 17. "If all the people we ask to come help teach one person something that day, we've done our job," Charlie said. It was said of the Seinfeld show that it was a TV program about nothing. It occurred to me, reading the transcript of Attorney General Jeff Sessionss appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee this afternoon, that the Russia investigationthis part of it, anywayis also about nothing. Sessions must have wondered, at times, why in the world he was there. He testified that he knew nothing about the alleged Russian spear phishing of the RNCs and DNCs email accounts. That being the case, what questions did the Democratic senators have for him? None of any significance, it turned out. There were a couple of mildly interesting points. Sessions was asked about his conversation with James Comey the day after Comey had his famous one-on-one discussion with President Trump, in which the president allegedly said he hoped Comey could see his way clear to letting Gen. Mike Flynn go. Comey testified that he told Sessions he was uncomfortable about meeting alone with the president, and Sessions merely shrugged as if to say, What can I do? Sessions account made a lot more sense: [W]hat I recall is that I did depart and I believe everyone else did depart and Director Comey was sitting in front of the presidents desk and they were talking. I believe it was the next day that he said something and expressed concern about being left alone with the president. That in itself is not problematic. He did not tell me at that time any details about anything that was said that was improper. I affirmed his concern that we should be following the proper guidelines of the Department of Justice and basically backed him up in his concerns. He should not carry on any conversation with the president or anyone else about an investigation in a way that was not proper. I felt the former deputy attorney general knew the policy a good deal better than I did. Sessions also elaborated on why he concurred with Rod Rosensteins recommendation that Comey be fired as FBI Director. It was a good reminder of what a terrible job Comey did, and how badly he departed from traditional standards of the Department of Justice and the FBI in connection with the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton. The Democrats wandered through various smears without ever asking Sessions the only questions that were relevant to the supposed purpose of the hearing. The craziness peaked with the Democrats dogged pursuit of the question whether Sessions and the Democrats best friend, the Russian ambassador, had been at the Mayflower Hotel on the same day. It was left to Senator Tom Cotton to restore sanity to the proceedings: SEN. TOM COTTON: Well, I am on this side of the dais and I could say a very simple question that should be asked. Did Donald Trump or any of his associates in the campaign collude with Russia in hacking those e-mails and releasing them to the public? Thats where we started six months ago. We have now heard from six of the eight Democrats on this committee, and to my knowledge, I dont think a single one of them asked that question. They have gone down lots of other rabbit trails but not that question. Maybe that is because Jim Comey said last week as he said to Donald Trump on three occasions he assured him he was not under investigation. Maybe its because multiple Democrats on this committee have stated they have seen no evidence thus far after six months of our investigation and ten months or 11 months of an FBI investigation of any such collusion. I would suggest what do we think happened at the Mayflower? Mr. Sessions, are you familiar with what spies call trade craft? SESSIONS: A little bit. COTTON: That involves things like covert communications and dead drops and brush passes, right? SESSIONS: That is part of of it. COTTON: Do you like spy fiction: John le Carre, Daniel Silva, Jason Matthews? SESSIONS: Yeah, Alan Furst, David Ignatius books. COTTON: Do you like Jason Bourne or James Bond movies? SESSIONS: No, yes, I do. COTTON: Have you ever ever in any of these fantastical situations heard of a plot line so ridiculous that a sitting United States senator and an ambassador of a foreign government colluded at an open setting with hundreds of other people to pull off the greatest caper in the history of espionage? SESSIONS: Thank you for saying that, Senator Cotton. Its just like through the looking glass. I mean, what is this? I explained how in good faith I said I had not met with Russians, because they were suggesting I as a surrogate had been meeting continuously with Russians. I said I didnt meet with them and now, the next thing you know Im accused of some reception plotting some sort of influence campaign for the American election. Its just beyond my capability to understand, and I really appreciate, Mr. Chairman, the opportunity to at least to be able to say publicly I didnt participate in that and know nothing about it. COTTON: And I gather thats one reason why you wanted to testify today in public. Last week Mr. Comey in characteristic dramatic and theatrical fashion alluded ominously to what you call innuendo, that there was some kind of classified intelligence that suggested you might have colluded with Russia or that you might have otherwise acted improperly. Youve addressed those allegations here today. Do you understand why he made that allusion? SESSIONS: Actually I do not. Nobodys provided me any information. COTTON: Lets turn to the potential crimes that we know have happened: leaks of certain information. Heres a short list of what I have. The contents of alleged transcripts of alleged conversations between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak, the contents of President Trumps phone calls with Australian and Mexican leaders, the content of Mr. Trumps meetings with the Russian foreign minister and the ambassador, the leak of Manchester bombing the Manchester bombing suspects identity and crime scene photos and last week within 20 minutes of this committee meeting in a classified setting is with Jim Comey, the basis of Mr. Comeys innuendo was. Are these leaks serious threats to our national security, and is the Department of Justice taking them with the appropriate degree of seriousness and investigating and ultimately going to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law? SESSIONS: Thank you, Senator Cotton. We have had one successful case very recently in Georgia. That person has been denied bail I believe and is being held in custody. But some of these leaks, as you well know, are extraordinarily damaging to the United States security, and we have got to restore a regular order principle. We cannot have persons in our intelligence agencies, our investigative agencies or in Congress leaking sensitive matters, so this is Im afraid will result is already resulting in investigations, and Im I fear that some people may find that they wish they hadnt leaked it. COTTON: Thank you. My time has expired but for the record it was stated earlier that the Republican platform was weakened on the point of arms for Ukraine. That is incorrect. The platform was actually strengthened, and I would note that it was the Democratic president who refused repeated bipartisan requests of this Congress to supply those arms to Ukraine. The Democrats are making fools of themselves. But that is what their baseblack-masked antifa hoodlums, the New York Times, the Washington Postwants, so no doubt it will continue for a while. Eventually, though, they will have to admit that their Russia investigation, an attempt to smear the Trump administration with whatever the Russian government may or may not have done, has come to nothing. Colleges are all about teaching critical thinking, though in most places that is a mere euphemism for teaching critical theory, which is not the same thing. Quite the opposite: critical theory is the highly ideologized core of the academic left. And it shows. News item: Exclusive Test Data: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills By Douglas Belkin Freshmen and seniors at about 200 colleges across the U.S. take a little-known test every year to measure how much better they get at learning to think. The results are discouraging. At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table, The Wall Street Journal found after reviewing the latest results from dozens of public colleges and universities that gave the exam between 2013 and 2016. (See full results.) At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years. . . For prospective students and their parents looking to pick a college, it is almost impossible to figure out which schools help students learn critical thinking, because full results of the standardized test, called the College Learning Assessment Plus, or CLA+, are seldom disclosed to the public. This is true, too, of similar tests. In any other industry, this deliberate opacity and failure to deliver the promised service would attract the attention of the Federal Trade Commission and other government consumer protection agencies. But the higher education cartel is too well wired politically for this to happen. Then theres this little gem in the story: Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum. This would be places like Hillsdale, St. Johns, Ashland, Thomas Aquinas, etc. Lets pile on: Flagship institutions such as the University of Kentucky and the University of Texas at Austin attract some of the brightest students in the country. Their students showed little improvement in CLA+ performance. Their value-added score put their ranking in the bottom third of all schools that gave the test in the same year. So how did these universities respond? Kentucky and UT Austin officials criticized the test and said they no longer use it. Accountability is for little people. Now lets shift focus to another aspect of this problem: The Kids Arent Alright: More young voters are rejecting capitalism and democracyfrom the United States to France. It doesnt bode well for our own political future. By Josh Kraushaar Thursdays shocking election result from across the pond could carry bigger long-term political implications in the U.S. than the impact of James Comeys seismic testimony against President Trump on Capitol Hill. Against all expectations, Prime Minister Theresa May saw her governing majority dissipate, despite running against a far-left Labour nominee (Jeremy Corbyn) whose platform was more Marxist than social democratic. Corbyns surprisingly competitive showing was fueled by young voters, who rallied behind Labuor by a whopping 34-point margin (63-29 percent), according to British exit polling. For all the fears of creeping nationalism, its the growing discontent of the millennial vote thats been a consistent theme in recent Western elections. Young voters are more willing to cast ballots for candidates on the fringes, opposing the neoliberalism of the Clinton/Blair variety and the nationalist, anti-European Union/pro-Brexit sentiment increasingly dominant on the Right. Many young voters are rejecting capitalism entirely, attracted to rhetoric promising free tuition and a generous social safety net at a time when many are struggling to make ends meet. Numerous studies also show younger voters are much more skeptical towards the value of democracy than their elders. . . GeeI wonder if theres any connection between this and the critical thinking students receive in college these days? One ought not expect quality reporting, or even simple honesty, from the Washington Post on any matter of partisan interest, and certainly not if it involves President Trump. But the Post outdoes itself in this story by Philip Rucker (with help from Sari Horwitz and Matt Zapotosky) about whether President Trump will fire Robert Mueller. The Posts conclusion? He might, though it seems unlikely and would be big mistake. But shouldnt any story about the prospect of Mueller being fired identify the argument being made in favor of firing him namely, a possible conflict of interest due to Muellers close relationship with James Comey, who would be the key witness in any case of obstruction of justice? I dont expect Rucker to find merit in the argument or even treat it seriously that would be asking too much. But certainly the Post should inform its readers of the way Trump would likely justify the firing, if it occurred. Rucker declines to do so. There is no mention of the conflict of interest issue. In addition, Rucker is dishonest when he tries to create the impression that Trump fired Sally Yates due to her involvement in the Russia investigation or matters related thereto. He writes: Donald Trump. . .[has] dispatched two key officials connected to the probe of Russias election meddling during his first five months in office. . . . Trump last month fired FBI Director James B. Comey, who had been overseeing the Russia probe before the appointment of a special counsel. Earlier in his term, Trump fired acting attorney General Sally Q. Yates after she warned the administration that national security adviser Michael Flynn had misled the White House about his contacts with Russian officials. Rucker knows very well that Yates was fired for refusing to enforce President Trumps first executive order banning travel to the U.S. Her discharge had nothing to do with her involvement, if any, in the Russia probe. Rucker also quotes liberal historian Douglas Brinkley as follows: If Trump fired Mueller, it would be an act of uber hubris never seen before in American history. It would pale, compared to what Nixon did with the firing of Archibald Cox. . . . Brinkleys first sentence seems extravagant. What about Aaron Burrs conspiracy to create by force a new country in North America? What about FDRs attempt to pack the Supreme Court? In any event, Brinkleys second sentence contradicts his first. If Trump firing Mueller would pale in comparison to Nixon firing Cox, doesnt this mean that the uber hubris of a Mueller firing would fall well short of that associated with Nixons act? Brinkley probably meant that the firing of Cox would pale in comparison to the firing of Mueller. But if so, why? Nixon fired Cox over a dispute as to how the Watergate investigation should proceed. There was no claim of conflict of interest. There was no rationale at all, as far as I recall, except that Nixon didnt like what Cox was doing. If Trump were to fire Mueller based on a claim of conflict of interest, that would display less hubris than Nixon did because there would be a rationale with some basis in the law. But, of course, Rucker has concealed from his readers the existence of a conflict of interest claim. The Posts slogan these days is: Democracy dies in darkness. Yet, the Post is more than willing to keep its readers in the dark when it comes to key elements of the stories it reports. , . 1) . 2) 18 . . 3) . . () / / / / . 4) 10 . . . 5) / . . . . 6) . . 7) . . 10 . / . 8) . . . 9) 10) . . 11) . . . 12) . . . 13) . . . 14) . . 15) . . 16) . , . 17) . . 18) . 19) . * * * TERMS AND CONDITIONS GOVERNING PRAJAVANI - WIN GOLD COIN CONTEST- YAARIVARU This offer is applicable only to the readers of Prajavani. This offer is applicable only in the state of Karnataka. 1. 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The statement quoted the managing director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, as saying that it was his interest is to make sure the airports are safe and secure, and to protect lives and provide machines of immense benefits to airlines and others. The FAAN boss also explained that the scanner was intended to complement the Executive Order recently issued by the acting president, Yemi Osinbajo. It will also assist the operations of other agencies at the airport, making them more efficient, the statement said. Our intent is to deploy these scanners to our international airports but this depends on the outcome of its performance in Lagos, Mr. Dunoma added. According to the supplier of the machine, Akin Mustapha, it is an Astrophysics Baggage Scanner which is manufactured in California, USA and can identify hidden threats in carry-on items and checked-in baggages at airports. It has high penetration steel and it can detect explosives and narcotics, Mr. Mustapha added. The statement, therefore, added that FAAN is committed to put all necessary measures in place in line with international aviation standards and recommended best practices to enhance safety and security at the airports. Share this: Twitter Facebook The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, on Wednesday called for the arrest and surrender of Saif Gaddafi. Saif is wanted on war crimes charges for allegedly suppressing opposition to the rule of his father, former Libya ruler Muammar. On Sunday, Saifs lawyer said his client had been released under an amnesty law passed by parliament from prison in the eastern Libyan town of Zintan, where he had been held since 2011. ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in a statement called on Libya and other states to arrest Saif. NAN reports that Saif was freed by an armed group in western Libya where he had been held since shortly after the 2011 revolt against his late father. He was released in the town of Zintan under an amnesty law passed by a parliament based in eastern Libya, lawyer Khaled al-Zaidi said on Sunday, adding that Saif was headed to another Libyan city that he could not name for security reasons. Saif, 44, is the most prominent of the late leaders children, and was touted by some as a reformist successor before the uprising six years ago in which Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed. It is unclear what, if any, role the younger Gaddafi could play in Libya, where a complex array of armed groups and competing governments are vying for control. Gaddafi loyalists outside Libya as well as some in the east of the country, where military commander Khalifa Haftar has been building power, have been pressing for Saifs release amid a push from former regime figures to reassert influence. Saifs lawyer, Zaidi, said Saif could play an important part in national reconciliation efforts because he was popular in Libya. He will play a pivotal and detailed role in this stage. Zaidi told Reuters in an interview in Cairo that Saif would make a statement at some point and would not be turning himself in to the International Criminal Court, which is seeking his arrest. (Reuters/NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook Religious groups must get more involved in the campaign against HIV/AIDS and educate their followers on the need to have their children screened for the disease. The Catholic Archbishop for Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, made the call on Wednesday at an international conference on how to improve faith-based organisations impact in advocacy towards early child screening for HIV and treatment. It was organised by Caritas Nigeria, a Catholic non-governmental organization, in collaboration with UNAIDS and PEPFAR at Transcorp Hilton Hotel. The conference is a three-day regional consultation for distinguished personalities in the health sector, especially those working within the HIV/AIDS scope from Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria and other international donors. It has as theme: Early Diagnosis and Treatment for HIV-Positive Children Strengthening Engagement of Faith-based Organisation. According to Mr. Onaiyekan, it has become crucial to engage religious bodies as campaign tools to enlighten people on the need to get children and young adults tested for HIV as a way of early detection. Stressing the place of religion in advocacy for healthcare, Mr. Onaiyekan pointed out that most of the missionaries who brought Christianity into Nigeria did so alongside health and education. Sickness is everybodys problem and most of the miracles Christ did in the Bible are healing, this shows that he understands the place of illness in the body and care for the sick. HIV is an illness which we all need to come together to tackle. It is therefore not stupid to have a cause to have a spiritual support when addressing our bodily function when it needs care. Spiritualism and health go hand in hand from the religious point of view as we believe healing is the work of God. The cardinal pointed out that some of the problems Nigeria has in curtailing HIV/AIDS were inadequate knowledge and intervention from public hospitals. We keep hearing that there are anti-retroviral drugs to help those who are HIV positive to reduce the consequences of the condition, that we have not gotten the cure yet, just treatment. But even that treatment, what percentage of Nigerians who are HIV positive has access to these drugs? There is no reason why a child should die of HIV/AID. We need more hands on deck on advocacy on early screening for pregnant women so as not to transmit it to the unborn child and also to get young children get tested for the disease for quick intervention. We cannot just rely on the government to do it any longer, religious bodies need to come in. The government statistics even shows that there is still a lot of people yet to be covered, people are beginning to lose interest in the championing of the cause of those with the disease and this is affecting the funding for the drugs. If Mr. Trump and some other countries continue with the policy of their citizens first, then there will be problems in Africa. We should begin to ask question on the money released for funding and those in the Nigerian government, we should ask what is happening to it. He said the Catholic Church was ready to keep partnering with the government. All the government needs to do is tell us they are ready and how much they have and we are ready to partner with them. We have a good relationship with NACA, they have made available to our health facilities some of the funds and drugs they have on HIV project. We used to have a hospital in Kubwa, Daughters of Charity Hospital, which was the best HIV/AIDS facility in the whole of Nigeria, but it has been demolished by the government to make room for the railway, and the government has given us only 30 percent of the money to rebuild it. If I see the Minister of Health, I will tell him he should rebuild the Kubwa facility, it was built for us free of charge by some friends from Italy and when they heard that what they spent millions of dollar to build in Nigeria was demolished to make room for railway, they said what kind of country is this? he added. The Director-General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Aliyu Sani, who also represented the Minister of Health, Isacc Adewole, at the event, said the choice of Abuja for the regional consultation is strategic, since Nigeria accounts for 30 percent of the global burden of pediatric HIV/AIDS. Mr. Aliyu said only 42,000 (20.7 percent) of the estimated 380,000 children living with HIV in Nigeria still have access to anti-retroviral treatment (ART), but that health agencies must understand the modest progress Nigeria has made despite its active embrace of the same strategies implemented all over the world. He said over 80 percent of the comprehensive HIV treatment care centres in Nigeria are offering pediatric ART services. Mr. Aliyu said the HIV facilities in the country have the capacity to cover the estimated 380,000 HIV positive children in the Nigeria even if they were to approach the health services all at once. We have revised our approach to the training of health workers to improve efficiency and maximize the number of health workers trained per Naira spent. We are implementing the entire indigenous clinic meeting that has exposed approximately 64 percent of our secondary level health facilities to focused high quality pediatric training, notwithstanding we are still open to new ideas that will improve and enhance the chances of achieving meaningful reduction of the burden of HIV among children in Nigeria he said. Sylvain Yuma, Head of Cabinet, Ministry of Public Health, DRC, said the consultation is of high importance to his country because it had late response to fighting HIV/AIDs among women and children and also access to ART. We started late but we are committed to bringing forward our fight on AIDs and that is because we have partnered with international health agencies. The health of children is so important and that is why we are discussing it and I hope we will come out with reasonable conclusions which can help us tackle the problem, he said. He added that the country was also working towards improving its budget on HIV/AIDs. Share this: Twitter Facebook A former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, says the destructive activities of Boko Haram contributed to the estimated 11 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, particularly in the north-east. The Boko Haram insurgency has caused about 100,000 deaths since 2009 and displaced millions, particularly in the north-east states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe. Mr. Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in New York that his commission was already intervening in the situation. The UN envoy, who chairs the Commission on Financing Education Opportunity, explained that the commission was giving more funds to help the Nigerian education system move forward. According to him, the commission and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo are already discussing ways to secure global funds to address the education challenges confronting the north-east. We think there are probably around 11 million children that are not in school. We know that the Boko Haram attacks remained a huge problem and the terrain too. These have prevented girls, particularly, from going to school and we know that there have been many abductions. And they are still tragically many of the girls that were kidnapped from Chibok that have not returned, Mr. Brown said. The former British premier, however, said his commission wanted every child to be safe at school, adding there is a new proposal to attract resources to fund the project. The envoy lauded the $30 million Nigerias Safe Schools Initiative launched in April 2014, describing it as a novel idea. We want every girl to be safe and particularly girls but also boys and girls to be safe when they go to school. The Safe Schools Initiative is designed to help fortify the schools and also help the telecommunications between the schools and prevent the attacks. This is so people can get advanced warnings and to give people the security that there might be some better protection in case there was an attack. So, the Safe School Initiative has been something that other countries adopted since Nigeria led the way. The Safe Schools Initiative is being implemented in different parts of the world but obviously we need more resources into the Nigerian system and thats what this new proposal is about. Mr. Brown said ground-breaking International Finance Facility for Education could make it possible to fully finance universal education by 2020 and unlock Sustainable Development Goals. The UN global education envoy commended the UN and the international donors and partners for efforts to raise multilateral education aid to low-income countries from current $1.6 billion to over $4 billion dollars a year by 2020. This up-front investment in education, modelled on the proposals of Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, to convert billions into trillions. It can ensure the delivery of our Sustainable Development Goal promises. Indeed, an International Finance Facility for Education will not only create more educational opportunity than ever before. It will multiply job prospects, slow population growth, reduce infant and maternal mortality and hasten a 70 per cent increase in GDP per head by 2050. And for the millions of children presently locked out of an education, it will be a jolt of hope, Mr. Brown said. Mr. Browns comment comes two days after Senate President Bukola Saraki described the large number of out-of-school children in Nigeria as a sitting time bomb. Additionally, these children could constitute the next generation of suicide bombers and militants. In this regard, education is a national security priority, Mr. Saraki said. Share this: Twitter Facebook The Code of Conduct Tribunal has dismissed the case of false asset declaration against Nigerias Senate President, Bukola Saraki. Mr. Saraki made a no-case submission on May 4, after the prosecution closed its case. In the ruling, the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, said the prosecution had failed to prove its allegations. Details later BACKGROUND The Code of Conduct Bureau had in September 2015 slammed a 13-count charge of corruption on Mr. Saraki. In charge number ABT/01/15, dated September 11 and filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Saraki is accused of offences ranging from anticipatory declaration of assets to making false declaration of assets in forms he filed before the Code of Conduct Bureau while he was governor of Kwara state. According to the charges, the Senate President was also accused of failing to declare some assets he acquired while in office as governor. Among other offences, including allegedly acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, Mr. Saraki was also accused of operating foreign accounts while being a public officer governor and senator. The offences, the charge said, violated sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended. Mr. Saraki was also said to have breached Section 2 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and punishable under paragraph 9 of the said Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. The charges were prepared by M.S. Hassan, a deputy director in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation. The government later increased the charges to 17 on January 11, 2017. In February 2017, one more charge was added, bringing the charges to 18. The Senate President pleaded not guilty to all the charges. In a statement after the charges were filed, Mr. Saraki, said the processes were calculated to rubbish him, saying he was fully ready to assert his innocence. We therefore conclude that this is not an anti corruption driven case and cannot be part of the moves aimed at fighting corruption, the senate president said. It is simply a pure malicious and politically motivated prosecution aimed at undermining the person and office of the Senate President. He said the charges were based on outright fabrication and mischief, will not and cannot stand the test of justice. ALSO READ: Conduct Bureau slams 13-count corruption charge on Senate President, Bukola Saraki Share this: Twitter Facebook The Code of Conduct Tribunal on Wednesday cleared the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of false asset declaration charges, brought against him in September 2015. Mr. Saraki was slammed with a 13-count charge by the federal government, shortly after his emergence as Senate president. He made several attempts to prevent the trial without initial success. In his application for a no-case submission, Mr. Sarakis lawyers argued that the allegations made against their client was based on petitions from complainants who never appeared as witnesses to testify. The lawyers, led by a former Attorney General of the Federation, Kanu Agabi, argued that the petitions upon which the allegations were based, did not form part of the documents presented in court. They prayed the tribunal to dismiss the case, on the grounds that the prosecution failed to link Mr. Saraki with the charges. In his ruling on the application, the CCT said the failure of the prosecution to present witnesses who were fully part of the alleged offence against the senate president, made their evidence incurably defective. An official of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Samuel Madujemu, had appeared in the tribunal to testify regarding the bureaus findings which resulted in the alleged offences. Mr. Madujemu had stated that the evidences he presented in the tribunal were based on information provided by the bureaus investigation team. Another member of the tribunals bench, William Atedze, said it was unlawful to depend on the word team, for the presentation of an evidence, since the law does not recognize team as a source of evidence. He said the evidence alluded to in any court of law should only be given by a witness who saw, heard or took part in the transaction, upon which he is testifying to. The evidence is incurably defective. The prosecution has failed to link the defendant with the alleged offence, Mr. Atedze said. Speaking after the ruling, a prosecution counsel, Pious Kehinde, said steps were already on to get copies of the ruling. He said the prosecution will study the ruling and determine the next course of action. Share this: Twitter Facebook The 140 judges of the Sharia, Area and Customary Courts of Nigeria serving in Plateau State have commenced an indefinite strike over non-payment of dressing allowances owed them since 2009. The judges said they recently gave the Plateau State government a 14-day ultimatum to pay the arrears, but the government did not. Addressing journalists shortly after a closed-door meeting, the chairman of the forum of judges, Ayuba Danzel, said they were left with no option. Since government failed to pay us our outstanding dressing allowances for the past nine years, and its refusal to heed to several appeals and the most recent ultimatum given by our association Sharia, Area and Customary Courts Association of Nigeria (SACCJAN) we have resolved to embark on an indefinite strike from this day 14th June 2017 till our demands are fully met. Mr. Danzel added that we, the 140 judges will be going to our respective offices as required, but there will be no court sitting until we are paid our outstanding nine years dressing allowances. The judge lamented that the state government has deliberately refused to pay them. He said judiciary staff and state assembly workers, who were owed similar allowances, were promptly paid, but that the state government singled out Sharia, Area and Customary Court judges and refused to pay them till date. According to Mr. Danzel, the 14-day ultimatum given by SACCJAN elapsed on June 6 without any response from the government. The state government was yet to react to the strike as at the time of this report. Share this: Twitter Facebook The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has expressed concerns over a recent PREMIUM TIMES report which detailed how some former top officials of the agency were indicted in Switzerland for alleged corruption. The Managing Director of the agency, Hadiza Bala Usman, said the report, apart from being deeply embarrassing to the NPA, was particularly worrisome because it cast doubts on the processes, integrity and business ethics of her agency. It is a development we are deeply worried about because it relates to the integrity of our agency and process, she said. Consequently, Ms. Bala Usman said the agency would request relevant Nigerian agencies to conduct thorough investigations of those named in the foreign bribery saga. We are reviewing the indictments and we will call for a full-scale investigation as it relates to companies and individuals in Nigeria said to have been involved, Ms. Bala Usman said. This corruption revelation is a helpful development. In fact, the NPA boss said, the PREMIUM TIMES report would top the agenda when the agencys board meets next month. In early May, Swiss prosecutors named four former Nigerian government officials in a multinational bribe scandal relating to contract awards at the NPA. A former Managing Director of the agency, Adebayo Sarumi; a former Managing Director of NPAs Eastern Ports, Felix Ovbude; a former Executive Director of Finance at the NPA, Abba Murtala Mohammed; and Sullivan Nwankpo, ex-President Goodluck Jonathans special adviser on technical matters, were said to have received illicit payments from a firm working for the NPA. Swiss authorities believe Daniel Afam-Obi, a former executive assistant to Mr. Nwankwo, acted as front for his principal. The were indicted alongside Dredging International Services (Cyprus) Ltd, which was sentenced to a fine of one million Swiss Francs and asked to refund 36 million Swiss Francs in illegal profits for allegedly making the illicit payments to the Nigerian officials. While Messrs Sarumi, Ovbude and Mohammed allegedly collectively received $2.6 million in kickbacks, Mr. Afam-Obi was said to have been paid $157,000 for unknown reasons. Another $18 million was passed to companies in which some yet unknown Nigerian officials have interests. Mr. Sarumi denied the allegations while Mr. Ovbude claimed ignorance of the matter, even though he was once quizzed by the EFCC over the case. The NPA is amongst the biggest sources of revenue for the country, but it is also an agency fraught with corruption. Even though some investigations were conducted in the past to unravel alleged corruption in the agency, hardly had any official been brought to justice. The conviction of Olabode George, a politician and former chairman of the NPA, by a Lagos State High Court was quashed a few years later by the Supreme Court, in one of the most controversial verdicts of the apex court in recent years. In her reaction to the latest case, Ms. Bala Usman told PREMIUM TIMES the revelations from Switzerland underline her concern about the modus operandi of joint venture firms carrying out dredging work for the NPA. We have been concerned about the joint-venture companies, the way they operate and the attendant high cost of dredging, she said. We have been very busy trying to reform the entire arrangement. Share this: Twitter Facebook Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has urged leaders in South Eastern part of Nigeria to speak out against hate speeches capable of destabilising the country. Mr. Osinbajo stated this Wednesday at a meeting with the leaders. The meeting came as part of consultations sequel to threats of secession by Igbo groups and a recent ultimatum by some northern youth group giving Igbo people three months to leave the region. The acting president gave the same message on Tuesday when he met with leaders from the northern region. Wednesdays meeting held at the State House Conference Centre inside the Presidential Villa Abuja. I firmly believe that we ought to address these agitations and proclamations urgently and decisively, he said, adding burying our heads in the sand and expecting the storm to blow over of their own accord is not an option. But equally not reasonable is falling for the temptation for tit-for-tat. It has never worked or moved us closer to a solution or resolution, he said. He also said, It is in my view the role and responsibility of those privileged in society to be leaders to chart a progressive and lofty course for the ordinary people. As leaders, we carry the burden to secure the peace, progress and prosperity of our people, and that is why our voices ought to be heard and heard loud and clear at moments like this in the defense and articulation of what is truly beneficial to the nation and the people, and what is right and patriotic. Mr. Osinbajo said there have recently been loud and sometimes hostile agitations by youth in the southeast, calling for secession of the region from Nigeria. Then there was the recent ultimatum issued by a group of youth from the North, asking all south-easterners living in the North to leave by October 1 this year, he said. He also reiterated that the Federal Government will deal decisively with any trouble maker who threatens the peaceful coexistence of Nigeria. There is no doubt on the resolve of government not to allow anyone get away with hate speeches and divisive words. Our emotion should not be allowed to run wild so as to threaten the existence of anyone anywhere in Nigeria. We will do everything within our power to protect the lives of every citizen anywhere and in any part of the country, he said. He thanked the leaders for their prompt response to the consultative meeting adding that he expects fruitful and frank deliberations at the meeting, which held behind closed door. Some of those present at the meeting were Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, Governor of Enugu Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Governor of Ebonyi, David Umahi, Governor of Abia Okezie Ikpeazu and Governor of Anambra Willy Obiano as well as Imo governor, Rochas Okorocha, chief of staff to the president Abba Kyari, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno, the chief of Defence staff, service chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, and ministers. Others are former Senate President Ken Nnamani, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Catholic archbishop of Nsukka, Igwebike Onah, Joy Emordi and a former UN envoy, Viola Onwuliri. Share this: Twitter Facebook An Abuja division of the Appeal Court has nullified the October 2016 judgement of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, which found a former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, guilty of false asset declaration. The CCT led by its chairman, Danladi Umar, had ruled that the prosecution had proven its case against Mr. Orubebe, and confiscated the asset a landed property located at number 2057 Asokoro, Abuja. According to Mr. Umar, Mr. Orubebe failed to prove to the tribunal that the property was no longer his, since he had allegedly sold the asset. Mr. Orubebes lawyer, Selekowei Larry, told the tribunal that the property was already sold to a company, Divention Properties Ltd. The tribunal however found Mr. Orubebes liable on the grounds that the documents indicating that the property was sold were not legally sufficient to prove a transfer of ownership. In a ruling Wednesday at the appeal court, a three-member panel of judges, led by Abdu Aboki, said the documents presented at the lower court were sufficient to indicate transfer of ownership. The court also ruled that Mr. Orubebe was not expected by law to declare an asset he had already sold. Mr. Orubebe was first arraigned on a four-count charge for the same offence in November 2015. The charge sheet was later amended to one count. Share this: Twitter Facebook The Ambassador of Finland to Nigeria, Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, has called for more trade relations and business exchanges between Nigeria and Finland. Speaking during the 16th Meeting of Nordic and African Foreign Ministers in Abuja, over the weekend, Ms. Suomela-Chowdhury said the meeting gave a unique opportunity at high level to discuss important issues linked to trade, investment, peace and development. She added that trade promotion was her main focus in Nigeria. Last year we had a very successful visit to Nigeria by our Deputy Minister for External Economic Relations, with a business delegation, and I am looking forward to more exchanges and increased trade between our countries, she said. There are many more win-win opportunities, and mutually beneficial trade relations can go a long way in promoting sustainable development, and a better life for Africans as well as the Nordics. The meeting, hosted this year by Nigeria, focused on the theme of Ensuring Sustainable Development through Trade and Investment: The Africa-Nordic Engagement. A visit by Minister Anne Berber from Finland to Nigeria to participate in the meeting also focused on trade and investment between the Nordic and African countries. Ms. Berner stressed the crucial role of the private sector in promoting sustainable development, and the many complementary roles between Nordic and African countries. Africa is a continent of vast natural resources and human capital, and potentially enormous markets, she said. The mere presence of Nordic and other companies in Africa is a testimony to that potential. The Finnish minister noted that education was an important factor contributing to economic growth, and an area where Nordic partners had added value. In Finland, we believe that the key to our economic success has been in ensuring high-quality education for all, said Ms. Berner. What is very clear is that girls education makes economic sense, in addition to being just and fair. Investment in women boosts economic development, competitiveness, job creation and GDP. No economy can afford to ignore such a huge potential. The Finnish minister also spoke about the strong Nordic-African relations, adding that what started as traditional development cooperation with a few countries had developed into something much more. Today, with ever greater interdependence between Europe and Africa, we in the Nordic countries are expanding our partnership with African countries. Ms. Berber said the prime ministers of the five Nordic countries recently launched the Nordic Solutions to Global Challenges, an initiative aimed innovative Nordic solutions for carbon-neutral development, sustainable cities, food and welfare, and gender equality. Along with meeting Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, and several other African Ministers, Ms. Berner who, in addition to her Foreign Ministry role, also holds the portfolio of Minister of Transport and Communication of Finland held bilateral talks with Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communication. Both sides were keen to and expressed openness to further cooperation in several areas. Finland is one of the five Nordic countries, consisting of Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. They cooperate closely in the Nordic Council, and have had common labour market and free movement of citizens since the 1950s. They share an economic and social model market economy combined with welfare state and are all well developed economies with a strong emphasis on good governance and gender equality. Share this: Twitter Facebook A rights group, Muslims Rights Concern on Wednesday asked Nigerians not to blame the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria for the increase in this years hajj fare compared to that of 2016. In a statement emailed to PREMIUM TIMES, the organisations Executive Director, Ishaq Akintola, said the high exchange rate is responsible, a situation he said is beyond NAHCONs control. The statement reads, This years hajj fare of N1.5 million announced by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has been generating ripples. Prospective pilgrims have wondered why the fare is higher than that of 2016. They have therefore called for a reduction. Other stakeholders have called on the Federal Government (FG) to subsidise hajj fare. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) considers the ensuing controversy unnecessary, uncalled for and a sheer waste of saliva and misuse of calories. The suspicion, distrust and allegations leveled at NAHCON are equally products of misinformation. Our investigations reveal that 98% of the services rendered by NAHCON in Saudi Arabia are determined in US dollars. Although 2016 official exchange rate was N197, recession and the attendant fall of the naira forced 2017 official exchange rate to N305. Whereas a pilgrim needed just $4,003 in 2016, his need in 2017 has risen to $4,805. Now, if we multiply $4,805 by N305, what we will get is N1,465,525 (approximately N1.5m). This is why NAHCON has pegged the 2017 hajj fare at N1.5 million. Further investigation has also revealed that air ticket from the North is $1,600 while that of the South is $1,700. Furthermore, the cost of accommodation in Makkah is $933 while that of Madina is $430. These are easily verifiable. MURIC opposes further subsidy for hajj this year for three reasons. Firstly, FG has already subsidized 2017 hajj because the official exchange rate is N368 whereas FG allowed N305. Pilgrims would have had to pay N1,768,240 (approximately N1.8m) at the prevailing bank rate of N368 per dollar if FG had not subsidized at all. Secondly, Nigeria is in recession and Nigerian Muslims must be prepared to make sacrifices as government cannot afford to play the prodigal son at a time like this. About N34b would be needed to subsidise if pilgrims were to enjoy the 2016 rate of N197 per dollar but this cannot be rationalized in the face of the current recession. Thirdly, every special concession granted to Muslims is most likely to become a subject of controversy as Christian groups are most likely to challenge FG for taking such an action. We must take the diverse character of our country into consideration at all times. It is clear from the above details that it is highly naive to blame NAHCON for the increase in hajj fare. Neither can FG or the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) be blamed. The major correlate which determines hajj fare is the exchange rate. The options before us, therefore, are: one, to ask the National Assembly (NASS) to wade in and lobby for more concession; two, to appeal to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to intervene executively and secure a reduction for Muslim pilgrims and, three, to enlighten prospective Muslim pilgrims and face the reality. The state of the nations economy has automatically knocked off the first two options and unless we want to rely on primordial sentiments, option number three seems the best in the present circumstance. MURIC is therefore constrained to drum the doctrine of manistataa ilayhis-sabiil into the medulla oblongata of 2017 intending pilgrims in particular and all Muslim faithfuls in general (manistataa ilayhis-sabiil means hajj is for Muslims who have the means). This means hajj is not mandatory on those who do not have the money to perform it but it becomes compulsory once a Muslim has the means. But does a Muslim who has the money to perform hajj need governments subsidy or sponsorship? The answer is capital NO. A radical interpretation of the doctrine of manistataa ilayhis-sabiil will render borrowing from other sources to perform hajj or compelling government to subsidise the cost of hajj absolutely unnecessary. However, subsidies and outright sponsorship of citizens on hajj may be rationalized in an Islamic Republic but Nigeria is not one. Nigeria has always been among countries with the largest number of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia every year. Of more than 2 million Muslims from 183 countries who performed hajj in 2016, Nigeria had 76,000. But how many out of this number contribute anything to the growth, development and welfare of the Ummah back home? That is why we want FG to hands off hajj affairs in Nigeria. FG must allow the Muslim Ummah to determine its own destiny. If Muslims are to succeed in becoming owners of Islamic schools, universities, hospitals, libraries, halal hotels and other halal investments, every intending pilgrim must be compelled to pay a particular amount to the coffers of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) before they leave for hajj. Those going for Umrah should pay something higher. MURIC reiterates the need for FG and state governments to stop sponsoring Muslims on hajj. It is counterproductive because it has been abused severally. Politicians have hijacked it. They sponsor political thugs, hoodlums, riffraffs, mistresses and prostitutes who may not even be Muslims. This category of pilgrims become recalcitrant in Saudi Arabia. Some members of the National Assembly also abuse it by seizing those priviledges meant for hajj officials. This practice should cease forthwith as MURIC is poised to monitor the procedure with the aim of identifying NASS members who engage in this immodest behavior. Enough is enough. As we round off, we reaffirm our belief that it is time to correct misconceptions about hajj among Muslims. Hajj is once in a lifetime but we ignore this principle and rush to Saudi Arabia almost every year. Umrah (lesser hajj) is not compulsory but we force it on ourselves as an annual ritual. We must open a new leaf. Gone are the days when anything goes. We must do what is right at all times. Share this: Twitter Facebook A former governor of Rivers State and Nigerias Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday said he once rejected N1 billion bribe when he served as governor of the oil rich state. Mr. Amaechi, who spoke in Lagos at a forum convened to discuss the place of social media in Nigerias political and socio-economic development, said the social media contributed to the erroneous perception Nigerians have about him. The minister, who said he rejected the bribe because of his principled stance on corruption, said Nigeria needed to go back to its value system. My first confrontation with bribe was with a big contractor in Rivers State. After awarding the contract, he brought a billion naira. I screamed. I asked, where did you get the money? and he said from what he got (from the contract) and I said look, that means you overquoted the contract. I said the only reason you are giving me N1 billion was because if the contract was N32 billion, you made it N37 billion. I have been special assistant to the governor for two years; speaker, eight years; governor, eight years; minister nearly two yearsthats nearly twenty years. So I know Nigerian politics well. Very, very well, he said. Mr. Amaechi argued that in spite of its positive uses, the social media is capable of destroying Nigeria if not checked. He said, Social media can destroy this country, true or false? Just look at Biafra; and thats why Nnamdi Kanu can say all he is saying and still get a forum. Most politicians pay young men to post all sorts on social media. While commenting on attacks launched against him on social media, the minister said falsehood spreads online because Nigerians do not verify information. I was governor for eight years, for about seven years people used to say this man is arrogant, how did they suddenly say this man is corrupt?, he said. PDP used to say Amaechi is our response to Fashola. So when did they suddenly say Oh, he didnt do anything. And I say to people, because somebody just went to pay AIT money and, on social media too, theres no rule. AIT came to put some things on their television, then social media came to write nonsense. The first time they attacked us we came out with document. But they (social media users) dont verify. On the controversial $43 million Ikoyi fund, Mr. Amaechi said people claiming that he owned the money were peddlers of false information. When they said that I owned $43 million Ikoyi money I made just a one-page reply: I dont even own a house in Lagos. I thought people would have said, Ah, eight years as governor, he should be a very rich thief, so he should be able to get a property in Lagos and use it as a form of investment. Nobody! Many people started celebrating, Its Amaechis money, its Amaechis money. But people who know me know (that) if I have money, you will know. When people meet me and I am not able to spend, it is just basically because I dont have money The important thing is, money doesnt govern me. But social media twist it the other way; so the problem with social media (users) is that they misinformthey dont verify their information, they have no rules. Only decent ones. Mr. Amaechi said he was principled and Nigerians do not value principled people. Nigerians say I am stubborn, am I stubborn?, he asked. His question generated echoes of Yes! from the audience. Stop there, he continued, Let me tell you why you are wrong: once you are a principled man, then you are stubborn. Nigeria doesnt have any word called principle, Mr. Amaechi said. It just shows that we need to go back to our value system, so that we can put a place where we can add principlewhere they can give you money and you look at the man and tell the man, keep the money. Commenting further, Mr. Amaechi said the removal of Goodluck Jonathan as Nigerias president, was a bigger threat than Biafra. The removal of President Jonathan was a bigger threat than Biafra. Nigeria was inching towards the civil war. So, forget the talk about secession; Nigeria cannot breakup, Amaechi said. He also said that the social media would play an important role in the 2019 general elections. Share this: Twitter Facebook Authorities in Niger rescued 92 West African migrants last week abandoned by traffickers in the Sahara Desert as they tried to cross into neighbouring Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday. The impoverished West African country is a way station for migrants heading to Europe and some experts believe that more African migrants die in the Sahara than at sea. The 92 migrants, most of them Nigerians, were rescued on Friday by an IOM team and Nigerien soldiers, Giuseppe Loprete, head of the IOM mission in Niger, told Reuters. One of the migrants died shortly after arriving at an IOM facility in the north-eastern town of Dirkou, he said. The rest will soon be transferred to Agadez in central Niger before eventually being repatriated to their countries of origin. European countries have promised Niger tens of millions of dollars to combat people smuggling and the IOM said in April that the number of migrants crossing Niger to reach Libya has declined since last year, largely due to a government crackdown. Even so, many continue to take the risk. More than 40 migrants died of thirst in northern Niger this month and Loprete said that IOM teams are currently searching for another 25 believed to be lost in the desert. (Reuters/NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook As the world celebrated the World Blood Donor Day, Nigerians have been advised to form a habit of donating blood. Faith Ajani, a medical laboratory scientist and former National Director, Advocacy, at Blood Drive Initiative, said such a habit goes a long way in saving lives. Mr. Ajani, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on the significance of the day, called for more advocacy in Nigeria as most people do not understand the need for constant blood donation. With this years theme, What can you do? Give blood. Give now. Give often., there is an urgent need to orientate Nigerians on the importance of blood donation, especially as voluntarily givers, as it saves more lives if blood can easily be accessed by the health institution and patients when needed, he said. Voluntary donors are people that donate without incentives. World Blood Donor Day is usually celebrated on June 14 every year to sensitise people on the importance of having safe blood and blood products in the blood bank to assist health institutions save lives and also to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. The World Health Organisation explains that blood is an important resource, both for planned treatment and urgent interventions. Blood can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. It is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care, it stated. According to the health agency, having a blood service that gives patients access to safe blood and blood products in sufficient quantity is a key component of an effective health system. It also stressed that ensuring safe and sufficient blood supplies requires the development of a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service based on voluntary non-remunerated blood donations. However, in many countries, blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety. Nigeria falls under the category of insufficient blood as blood is usually not available when needed for most patients. This has made health institutions in the country depend on patients relatives as donors or paid blood donor services, where people are paid to donate blood for patients. WHO statistics on blood donation shows that about 112.5 million blood donations are collected worldwide and more than half of these are collected in high-income countries, home to 19 per cent of the worlds population. Only 57 countries collect 100 per cent of their blood supply from voluntary, unpaid blood donors. It also noted that one per cent blood donation by one per cent of any countrys population can meet the nations most basic requirements for blood transfusion Mr. Ajani said there is a need for a lot of advocacy on voluntary blood donation on a regularly basis, because blood from a paid donor cannot necessarily be trusted as you are not sure of their ways of life. He said people need to know that they have to donate blood, as one would not know whose life they may be saving, especially with the high cases of accidents and emergencies from disasters and insurgencies. He urged people not to wait for an emergency before they start donating blood. It should be part of our habit. If you go to the blood bank in Nigeria you will hardly see blood in the bank and this is because the advocacy is low. In developed countries, people walk in to donate without being cajoled to do so. He said perception of blood donation varies in Nigeria across the different geo-political zones. From our experiences, we discovered that depending on the geopolitical zones, the perspectives are different. For example, in the East, an average easterner wants to be paid before donating blood. In the North, they believe that if anything happens to anybody, it is Gods will, so there is no much urge to donate blood especially if there are chances that the person is going to die, while in the Southwest, there is also a little bit religious sentiment to it. Someone once scolded me about giving blood, that I was giving my life in the process. It is believed that anytime you give blood, you shorten your lifespan, while some religions do not believe in blood transfusion. Mr. Ajani also said there was a need to debunk most peoples beliefs that blood donated are sold to occultists for ritual purpose. To run an effective enlightenment campaign, he said more funding needs to be put towards advocacy especially in the rural communities. He said Nigerians, especially those who have lost people due to the lack of blood for transfusion and those who have been recipients of blood donation, should be involved in the advocacy. Every organisation in the country can also make it part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, (CSR). Most deaths as a result of loss of blood from accidents in this country can be prevented if there is enough blood in the banks to give when it is needed, he added. The Donor Care Manager, National Blood Transfusion Service Abuja, Jane Akubuiro, said they will be using the day to encourage people to donate blood. Mrs. Akubuiro pointed out that blood donation is also a way of saving lives, in the sense that the donor will also be doing a health check in the process as some screening will be done on the blood and the persons health conditions and history will be asked before donation. We have had cases that it was at the point of wanting to donate blood that some people got to know they are hypertensive because we checked their Blood Pressure (BP). Here we only take sample from voluntary donors, we have about 17 blood donation centres in Abuja. She stressed that the blood collected at their centres are not used for rituals, adding, in fact, it cannot be used because the packets we collect the blood into have some chemicals which are called anticoagulants which preserves the blood, and as such blood from our centres are used strictly in saving lives. According to WHO, blood transfusion is an essential component of emergency health care as emergencies increase the demand for blood transfusion and make its delivery challenging and complex. Mr. Ajani said just one pint of blood saves life and that sometimes in life every woman may need blood once in their lifetime, especially during child birth. There is no replacement for blood and its components, if it is not there you are actually giving the person an option of death. He said a man can donate four times in a year while the female is encouraged to donate three times a year because of monthly loses. Share this: Twitter Facebook A 53-year-old domestic staff, Gbessmehlan John, who allegedly stole his employers bags of rice and vegetable oil valued at N2.8 million, was on Wednesday brought before an Ikeja Chief Magistrates Court. Mr. John, a Beninoise and resident of Ikeja, is standing trial on a charge of stealing. The accused, according to the prosecutor, Simeon Imhonwa, committed the offence on April 6 in Ikeja. Mr. Imhonwa alleged that the accused stole 21 bags of rice and seven gallons of 25-litre vegetable oil valued at N2.8 million belonging to the complainant, Abisola Oshinoiki. The prosecutor said the accused had been stealing the items to different buyers until he was recently caught and handed over to the police. Whenever the complainant travels on business trip, John will go to the store, remove the goods and sell them off. The offence contravened Sections 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised). The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the section stipulates a three-year jail term for offenders. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Chief Magistrate, B.O. Osunsanmi, granted him bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum. Mr. Osunsanmi said the sureties should be gainfully employed and also show evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government. The case was adjourned until August 17 for mention. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook Two men Promise Oluwabunkenoye and Kehinde Abiola on Wednesday appeared before a Surulere Chief Magistrates Court in Lagos charged with anal sex. The accused Oluwabunkenoye, 24, and Abiola, 29 whose addresses are unknown, are facing a two-count charge of same-sex having sexual intercourse and fighting in the public. The duo, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges. The Police Prosecutor, Anthonia Osayande, told the court that the accused with others still at large committed the offences at City Centre Hotel at Ijeshatedo in Surulere about 3.00.p.m. on June 1. Mr. Osayande said the accused were caught by a police patrol team fighting publicly over non-payment of money for sexual acts. She alleged while the police interrogated them, one of the accused confessed to the fact that he was invited to Romeo and Juliet Hotel located at Ejigbo on May 28 at 5.00 a.m. for anal sex. He promised to pay some money if he consented to the act, but the accused refused to pay after enjoying himself. He noted that the offences contravened Sections 54 and 136 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 (Revised). The Chief Magistrate, Ipaye Nwachukwu, granted bail to the accused in the sum of N100,000 each with two sureties each in like sum. She ordered that the accused should submit their passport-size photographs to the court registrar. Ms. Nwachukwu said one of the sureties must be a blood relation of the accused, while the other must be a cleric or a community leader. In addition, the sureties should provide evidence of tax payment to the government. She adjourned the case until August 3 for mention. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, in Lagos on Wednesday said it had acquired new platforms and was currently reactivating old aircraft to better combat contemporary security challenges in the country. The Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Sadiq Abubakar, disclosed this at the inauguration of newly built Air Force Secondary School and Airmen Transit Accommodation at 401 Communications Depot, Shasha, Lagos State. Mr. Abubakar said the in-country reactivation of NAFs aircraft was one of the gains in building personnel capacity, adding that six Alpha Jet engines earlier reactivated were already being flown. He added that recently, we reactivated six engines of Alpha Jets that would have been taken outside the country. Those six engines have been mounted on the aircraft and now flying. We inducted MI-35 helicopter and helicopter gunships in Makurdi recently through the help of federal government. We are tying as much as possible to attend to the welfare of officers and men as they are putting in their best and we are seeing the benefits in their inputs. The chief of air staff said some NAF personnel were being trained abroad and would come back home to save the country of resources that would have been spent abroad. This has contributed immensely toward equipping the service to conduct counter insurgency operations and also contend with other emerging security challenges across the country. Be assured that we will continue to do our best in meeting our statutory responsibilities of defending the territorial integrity of the nation, On the inaugurated school and accommodation, Mr. Abubakar said education was key in human capital development and a key factor in technical advancement and innovation. He said we made a quick assessment of the available primary and secondary schools in our bases and identified some gaps. These gaps necessitated the upgrade of some of the schools, building and additional ones to meet the educational requirements of our personnels dependants and the host communities. NAF School Shasha has 18 classrooms, five laboratories, a library and recreational facilities, as well as offices for the commandant and other members of staff, he said. Mr. Abubakar said airmen would stay in the transit accommodation for some months with a view to ensuring improved mentorship and post-recruitment training for enhanced performance. Each block consists of 30 fully furnished self-contained rooms. Similar blocks are being provided in major Nigerian NAF bases across the country, he said. Earlier, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC), Ibrahim Yahaya, said the accommodation was built to meet the growing accommodation needs of personnel. Two other projects are also currently ongoing in this base a block of 18 flats of two-bedrooms for Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCO) and new Corporals and below mess. The CAS on April 19, last year, promised to construct the classrooms and was reminded of the urgent need for a secondary school to address the difficulty experienced by personnels children. In line with his policy of efficient service delivery, the CAS promptly gave authorisation for the establishment of a secondary school in Shasha. Like many other units and bases across the country, the NAF base Shasha has benefitted immensely from different projects, including the construction of a drainage system. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook Paul Ibe, the Media Adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described as blatant falsehood claims by the President of the Southwest chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Nathaniel Uzomah, that the former Vice President has been silent in the wake of the ultimatum issued by a coalition of northern youth to Igbos to leave the North. Mr. Uzomah was reported in a section of the media on Monday as claiming that Atiku was among northern leaders who had maintained silence following last weeks ultimatum. But responding on Wednesday, Ibe said: We would not have dignified Nathaniel Uzomah with a response but for the implication of the intended mischief of the listing of the name of the former Vice President. For the avoidance of doubt, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar had on June 7, 2017 issued a statement chastising the northern youth coalition for the ultimatum to Igbos to vacate the North. He also took exception to the counter response by a Southeast group, warning that such a scenario was a recipe for crisis. (See Atiku Abubakars press statement of June 7, 2017: https://www.facebook.com/Atiku.org/posts/10155419904159640). Atiku Abubakar restates his abhorrence to the shocking ultimatum by a Northern youth coalition to the Igbos to quit the region and the counter response by a South-east group. He notes that the unwarranted rhetoric is provocative, reckless and poses great threat to national security and peaceful co-existence. Atiku Abubakar reminds everyone that the Southeast and the North are two regions united by a common history. Some of the most prominent South-easterners actually had their humble beginnings in the North. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Odumegwu Ojukwu were both born in Zungeru, Niger State. Many others, too numerous to mention, were also birthed in the North and vice versa. By virtue of their age, many of our youths may not know that the first elected mayor of Enugu was Umaru Altine, a Fulani from Northern Nigeria elected in 1956. Or that a year later a South easterner, Felix Okonkwo, was appointed a member of the Northern Nigeria House of Chiefs. With such rich legacies, we cant afford to allow misguided elements to divide us. Nigerians must talk to each other, not at each other. The whole of Nigeria is greater than the sum of her parts. Atiku Abubakar commends the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo for rising up to the challenge by initiating dialogue with leaders of the zones. He expressed his commitment and willingness to avail the government of the benefits of his experiences in forging lasting peace and stability. Atiku Abubakar believes that we must all become one until, our enemies are none! That Nigeria is one united country because we, who are committed to Nigerias unity are more than those few who are not. Share this: Twitter Facebook The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecutions, Okoi Obono-Obla, said on Tuesday that part of the 2017 budget will be financed by recovered looted funds. Mr. Obono-Obla stated this on Tuesday in Abuja while speaking with journalists on what the federal government was doing with looted funds so far recovered. About 20 per cent of this year`s budget will be financed from our recovery effort, he said. He added that the federal government would, however, liaise with the National Assembly for permission before the funds would be used. The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday signed the N7.44 trillion budget into law. The budget is expected to have a N2.36 trillion deficit, Mr. Osinbajo said. The projected fiscal deficit of N2.36 trillion is to be financed largely by borrowing, the acting president added. On Tuesday, Mr. Obono-Obla did not clarify if the 20 per cent he referred as being funded by recovered funds was of the total budget, or the N5.08 trillion that the government expects to finance itself. The presidents aide commended the All Progressives Congress-led federal government, saying that it had ensured the stability of the country`s polity and had halted corruption in public offices. He stated that the APC was not going through any leadership crisis as was being reported in a section of the media. Mr. Obono-Obla said that the party would continue to be in power as long as it continued to serve the interest of Nigerians by delivering true democracy dividends. He debunked insinuations that the recent raid on the Sun Newspapers office by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was done out of victimisation. They didnt go there because the Sun published a news story that is averse to the EFCC or the federal government. They went there to do their work as part of their mandate to fight economic and financial crimes, he said. The aide said that the media house was owned by a former governor, who was currently being prosecuted by the EFCC. He stressed that the fact that the publisher of the newspaper was under trial, gave the commission the power to obtain a court order of interim forfeiture pending the hearing of the case. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook Acting President Yemi Osinbajo Tuesday evening met with some leaders from the northern region of the country. The meeting took place at the State House in Abuja, where Mr. Osinbajo warned against hate speech and divisive rhetoric. He warned that the government would bring the full weight of the law on those promoting hate speech. Share this: Twitter Facebook The Nigerian Police on Tuesday deployed 600 special squad to Abuja-Kaduna Expressway to check crimes along the road. The Deputy Inspector General of Police,Operation, (DIG) Habila Joshak, made the disclosure while inaugurating members of the special squad in Rijana village, Kachia Local Government of Kaduna State. Mr. Joshak said 500 operatives were deployed, while 100 were mobile police from the intelligence unit of the force. The DIG said the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ordered the deployment of the special squad to ensure maximum security along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway. He added that the 600 special squad were drawn from tactical, counter terrorism and intelligent units of the force. He explained that the operation was to make sure that every road user was protected and safe. He noted that it is the responsibility of the Nigerian Police to protect lives and property of every citizen and we are committed to doing that. The DIG urged the personnel to be professional in discharging their constitutional responsibilities, stressing that you are here to protect lives and to give maximum security on Abuja-Kaduna expressway and everywhere around it. We will collaborate with other security operatives to see that the menace of kidnnaping is addressed. I urge you to make sure you apprehend all the criminals terrorising innocent citizens on this highway and bring them to book. The DIG appealed to the communities to give police maximum support in figting crime and criminality in Kaduna State and the country at large. The Nigerian Police launched operation maximum safety in Katari, in Kachia Local Government in August 2016 to address the menace of kidnaping on Abuja-Kaduna expressway where it deployed 600 personnel. There have been increasing cases of kidnapping and other crimes along that expressway in recent times. The kidnappers always demand huge ransom before their victims are freed. In one absurd case, a report said 20 people were abducted at one and herded into the bush. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook The Alumni Association of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, on Tuesday said it had raised N1,246,500 in two days. Bayo Adeyinka, an alumnus and one of the facilitators of the #Fundlautech project, made this disclosure in a chat with PREMIUM TIMES. Mr. Adeyinka, alongside other former students of the institution, had on Monday in Ibadan unveiled the plan at a news conference organised by the alumni of the school under the tag, #Fundlautech team. The plan was put in place by the Alumni Association to raise N1 billion within 90 days to help the school solve the funding challenge that has crippled it. As at this moment (Day 2), we have raised N1,246,500, Mr. Adeyinka told PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday night. He, however, said that although the project has attracted some form of criticism from certain quarters, the team will pursue its goal to the end. PREMIUM TIMES reports that students of the institution on Tuesday expressed scepticism over the plan. According to the students, any measure that does not offer a lasting solution to the perennial funding challenge is not acceptable to them. Raising funds for LAUTECH may sound good to the society because activities will resume, but this is only a way of putting a temporary smile on our faces, Olatunde Bakare, President of the Students Union Government, had said. He said for that reason, the efforts of the alumni association was not acceptable to the students. But Mr. Adeyinka explained that such form of resistance was not unexpected, adding that the team would go ahead with its plan notwithstanding. People are enthusiastic about the idea but there are a few pockets of critics. Its a new concept here, so a few resistance is not unexpected, he said. We have placed so much emphasis on transparency. The website www.fundlautech.com even has a list of donors for transparency. Our goal is to raise N1 billion in 90 days. However, wage bill is N350 million monthly. So, once we get that we can put that on the table so the school can resume while other things like forensic auditing can go on. I believe if we achieve some measure of success, this may well herald a new vista for resuscitation of the educational sector in Nigeria, he added. Share this: Twitter Facebook Nigerians reacted most of Wednesday to news that the Code of Conduct Tribunal had cleared Senate president, Bukola Saraki, of false asset declaration charges. The tribunal said the failure of the prosecution to present witnesses who were fully part of the alleged offence against the senate president, made their evidence incurably defective. Many Nigerians expressed their views on Twitter and other social media. Read some of the reactions below: Orubebe cleared Justice Ademola cleared Dino Melaye cleared Bukola Saraki cleared Pls never shld anyone say we are fighting CORRUPTION Kemi Ariyo (@d_problemsolver) June 14, 2017 Why You surprise Saraki Case was thrown out by Tribunal? The Case Was Up Cause he had issues with APC! Now they are cool What do you expect? pic.twitter.com/WSw6ghW5ff Osas Cruz (@OsasCruz) June 14, 2017 Now that Saraki has been discharged (as expected) can we bury this charade of an anti-corruption war & focus on the economy? Igala_Alan_Shore (@i_am_Anomeli) June 14, 2017 There are 2 types of laws in Nigeria One for d RICH and d other for the REST of us Saraki is free but Taofik is in jail for stealing garri Banky (@AdeBanqie) June 14, 2017 While Tinubu is some peoples favorite criminal, Saraki is some peoples favorite criminal too At d end, the fight against coreuption is scam Gomez 042 (@Gomeznsude) June 14, 2017 Tinubu is a thief and looter Saraki is a thief and looter Both acquitted of wrongdoings by the CCT but you are only angry about Saraki? LOL . (@Tomyboiz) June 14, 2017 The same CCT that freed Bola Tinubu today freed Bukola Saraki. If I were an armed robber, I would insist on being tried there. pic.twitter.com/x4zjgJ4DHy Dr. Njakiri Damages (@DrDamages) June 14, 2017 The Saraki debacle is one of the reasons why King Solomon prayed for wisdom, knowledge & understanding.Buhari wasted political capital Gege (@nigeriasbest) June 14, 2017 You people should let us agree that SaharaReporters is a national social media problem. Saying Saraki bribed CTC with $2m is outrageous. Demola Olarewaju (@DemolaRewaju) June 14, 2017 The only reason Bukola Saraki wont be President is cos he isnt from the core North. But hands down, he is Nigerias most tactful politician Bashorun Gaa (@Oddy4real) June 14, 2017 First anti-corruption case in Buharis admin. now concluded as no case to answer by CCT trying Senate Pres #Saraki on asset declarartion Boason Omofaye (@BBoason) June 14, 2017 First anti-corruption case in Buharis admin. now concluded as no case to answer by CCT trying Senate Pres #Saraki on asset declarartion Boason Omofaye (@BBoason) June 14, 2017 Today, June 14, 2017, Saraki is declared innocent Corruption 1 0 Nigeria PLANGKAT (@peekaymila) June 14, 2017 Lets not act like the whole Saraki vs Buhari CCT charade wasnt dead on arrival. FAVOUR ONYEOZIRI (@Rouvafe) June 14, 2017 Saraki My leader Saraki my hero Saraki my mentor Saraki my boss Congratulates to @bukolasaraki, you fought and won them. pic.twitter.com/BT68ZNHUMZ Mr Shewn Lawal (@shewn007) June 14, 2017 Saraki went to Aba, took selfies. Visited inosson motors n smiled 4d cameras bt went on to Buy latest Toyota SUV for Senate. Una still mumu? AFOLABI AJIBORO (@AAjiboro) June 13, 2017 Evans kidnapped people. Saraki and his gang kidnapped our budget and rustled it. We are in a shit Okokobioko Master (@comradop) June 14, 2017 A Case that was politically arranged without a statement from the Defendant- Dead On Arrival. Seems Sowore sha cant live without Saraki. Lekan Alabi! (@olalekanalabi21) June 13, 2017 Share this: Twitter Facebook Governor Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State declared on Tuesday in Lafia that the government would not compensate the management of Breeze 99.9 FM over the demolition of the private radio station. The matter is already concluded; compensation will not be paid over governments action, the governor said, while distributing relief materials to 50 communities hit by various crises. He said that government had directed the Nasarawa Urban Development Board, NUDB, to fine the radio station for violating approved land laws. The NUDB, on May 12 demolished the station, citing violation of approved laws. According to information commissioner, Abdulhamid Kwarra, the action became necessary to protect people living in the neighbourhood against radioactive materials from the stations mast. The station has threatened to go to court to challenge the action which it said was a reaction to its insistence on reporting the ongoing workers strike. The demolition was also condemned by local and international groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, and the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ. But Mr. Al-Makura, who reacted to the threat, said that the station would be fined to deter others from committing similar offence. Nasarawa government will not pay any compensation as is being suggested in some quarters. It is the management of Breeze FM that will pay a fine for violating laid down rules. You cannot have a radio station where you have a restaurant, a business centre and a prayer centre. It does not happen anywhere, he said. He added that the demolition exercise that brought down the radio station would also affect other structures that failed to adhere strictly to laid down laws on buildings. All houses built on wrong sites, which have not adhered to development regulations, will be destroyed whether they be residences, factories or radio stations. People must learn to comply and abide by rules and regulations, he said. According to him, government has already directed development control agencies and the Ministry of Land to identify homes, offices and commercial centres that do not conform or abide by regulations and give them statutory notices. After the notices, their structures will definitely go down the way Breeze FM went. So, I want to use this opportunity to call on people to please abide by the rules and regulations, he said. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook The police command in Kogi on Wednesday announced an indefinite ban on rallies, public procession and demonstration in all parts of the state. The Commissioner of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, who made disclosure in Lokoja during a meeting with area commanders, divisional police officers and senior police personnel, said that the ban takes immediate effect. He said unknown gunmen attacked people at a rally being addressed by Dino Melaye in Lokoja on June 12 and the current tensed security situation in the state informed the decision. Mr. Inalegwu added that the decision was approved during an emergency meeting of the state security council held on June 13 and would remain in force until the situation improved. He said no public rally, procession or demonstration would be allowed in the state again without comprehensive threat assessment report from the area commanders and divisional police officers and final approval from him. The commissioner described the invasion of the rally being addressed by Melaye as unfortunate, sad and avoidable, reiterating, however, that the senator did not obtain permission before holding the rally. He directed his officers to start arresting motorists engaging in illegal use of siren on highways in the state as from June 22. He said vehicles with covered numbers plates and illegible number plates should also be impounded and their drivers arrested. The police commissioner said that a task force that would implement the decision had been set up. He, however, added that the state governor, his deputy, ambulances, emergency response vehicles and the Central Bank of Nigeria bullion vans were exempted from the ban. He directed police area commanders and divisional police officers to formally inform local government chairmen, commissioners, traditional rulers and others in writing, about the ban on siren. He said no abuses will be tolerated; it is strictly for crime control and not any other motive. The police boss described the situation in the state as calm, saying that the rate of armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes had reduced. He stressed the need for the police to be ahead of hoodlums always and urged officers to constantly raid criminals hideouts based on intelligence and in line with best practices and respect for human rights. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook The Kaduna State Government on Wednesday formally announced the introduction of residency card for all its residents. The government said the move was to enable it plan and provide social services. The states Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhammad Abdullahi, told journalists the initiative was crucial for planning purposes. He spoke shortly after he was registered for the card at the North West Zonal Office of the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) in Kaduna. He said: Kaduna State Government is currently providing a number of free social services for the people in the state. But to achieve the desired impact, we need to have the accurate figure of those residing in the state. We need to know who and who resides in our state and where. When we know the number of people residing in the state and where they are, it will help us to plan and provide better services and for all residents. He said people would soon be required to present their residency card before they could access such services. Kaduna state is open for everyone due to its strategic location, geographically, economically and politically. But if you are going to stay in the state beyond 180 days, you would be required to register and obtain our residency card. This is very important not only in planning, but also in ensuring security. We gathered that most of the security issues we are having in the state are cause by people from other states, he said. The commissioner explained that the registration exercise was being carried out in partnership with NIMC and open to all residents of all ages. He appealed to everyone to come out en mass and get registered in the more than 31 centres across the state. The NIMC North West Zonal Director, Oyesola Taiwo, explained that registration for the residency card was linked with the NIMC data base. The process is very easy, if you already have the national identification number, all you need to do is just to present the number and you will be captured immediately. In a situation that you do not have, the first step is to register for the national identification number, after, you will be captured for the state residency card, he added. Idris Abdullahi, Chairman, Kaduna House of Assembly Committee on Budget and Planning, said the exercise had legal backing and was appropriated for in the 2017 budget. He enjoined all residents in the state to support the government in meeting their needs by coming out with their families, friends and relations to register. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook "We want Poland to contribute energy security to the Three Seas initiative", President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday at a meeting with business representatives in Zagreb, Croatia. He also encouraged strengthening of economic cooperation between Poland and Croatia. The Polish President, who is on a three-day official visit to Croatia, met with the Croatian Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. Duda emphasized that Poland and Croatia have established numerous business relations which function well and "offer very good prospects". He pointed out that the Polish entrepreneurs present at the meeting were realising the idea of Three Seas through their operations, like infrastructure development or energy security system building, including completion of an LNG terminal in Swinoujscie on the Baltic coast. The Polish president underlined that works were underway to build pipelines allowing Poland to bring gas from the Norwegian shelf, which would mean for a total diversification of gas supplies the country. "It is not our ambition (...) to satisfy our market and to protect ourselves, we also want to be a security provider and therefore protect our partners in Central Europe", Duda pointed out. Andrzej Duda noted that last Friday Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo signed a memorandum with the Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Rasmussen on the construction of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline. (PAP) When regulars call up to reserve a favorite dish long before theyre even seated at their table, you know you got a good thing going. Such is the case with Ristorante Luciano. In Stone Harbor now for 15 years, it has managed to not only survive, but thrive, purely from the word-of-mouth of happy customers. Weve been very blessed, and have a very loyal following its the best part of the job, says Joe Iacovino, who runs the front of house while his brother Luciano Iacovino, the head chef, runs the kitchen. We have done zero advertising its all been word of mouth. From take out to tony The Iacovinos began their restaurant business as Graziellas, a take-out pizzeria in Westmont named after their mother, which morphed into a speakeasy-style restaurant in the late 1980s. People kept asking if they could sit down and eat, Joe says. We only had tables in the kitchen where the family ate, so we opened it up to customers. It was a speakeasy Italian restaurant way ahead of its time. People would come through the back of the restaurant and eat in the kitchen. Luciano was looking to have a place at the shore, as well, so they found another take-out spot in Ventnor Graziellas of Westmont. But having a real sit-down seashore restaurant had always been on the brothers minds, and Stone Harbor was in the short list of locales. When you enter a (new) location, it has a certain feel, says Joe, who also works in hospitality for the Mandarin Hotel and Rainbow Room in New York City, of when they looked for their current location on Third Avenue. This particular restaurant spoke to us. The rest is history. When the family first moved in, the decor was more that of a traditional Italian restaurant. But damage from Hurricane Sandy prompted a massive renovation. The Ristorante Luciano of today, an intimate 70-seat space, is practically unrecognizable from its former self. We were going for a very New York feel, Joe says of the chic, yet still casual, appearance. All the materials in the restaurant are reclaimed. The brick on the walls are from a 150-year-old townhouse in South Philly. Some of the wood is from North Philly, theres some barn wood from Germantown and Churchville. We wanted it a bit rustic with a little bit of history to it. The flavors of Florence and beyond Like all of the Iacovino children, head chef and brother Luciano grew up in his parents restaurant business and was only 18 when he was tasked with running the Ventnor pizzeria. He learned to cook from his mom, who hand makes most of the desserts and pastas, like her homemade fusilli, each one of which she hand twirls into perfectly thin Shirley Temple-like curls (her secret is Semola Rimacinata di Grana Duro flour, which keeps it light). As a kid, Luciano would sit and watch as mom cooked, learning her tricks of the trade. He finished his schooling at La Scuola Cucina Lorenzo de Medici, a culinary school in Florence, Italy. Pub scout Smithvilles Baremore Tavern makes for a wonderful oversight Ive probably been to the Smithville Inn 50 times in my life. Growing up, it was the place w His menu, however, is not just Tuscan-based. His knack for putting opposing flavors together that blend just right take you on a full-blown culinary tour of the entire boot. Take his Amalfi-inspired burrata and speck appetizer ($16.50) special (dont let the word special fool you, they will usually have it available). The outer layer is made of mozzarella, the inside is stuffed with stracciatella and cream that slowly oozes out when sliced. The great saltiness of the speck is a fantastic opposition to the buttery creaminess of the cheese. The roasted peppers app ($10.50) has delightfully sweet red and yellow peppers that blend beautifully with the severe sharpness of the provolone its served with. Luciano enjoys making his famed pasta and veal dishes the most, such as his Veal Valdonstano ($29.50) with prosciutto, fontina and sage or the Penne allAmatriciana ($24.50) with Roma tomatoes, caramelized onions, pancetta and pecorino Romano cheese. Lucianos sous chef of many years, Dan Carney, with whom he works hand-in-hand, develops many of the inventive specials, like the homemade fettuccine with shrimp and lobster ($35.50) in tomato sauce. Dan does amazing things, Luciano says. Everyone puts their heart into it. We love what we do. This place is so special Ristorante Luciano has a very loyal clientele. So much so, that Luciano cant change anything. In 15 years, we changed the menu only twice, Luciano says. People were upset. Its their tradition. They come from Connecticut, Philadelphia ... for the same week or same month ... they want the same dish. When we changed the menu, theyd tell me you know, I really liked that one pasta dish. A favorite pasta dish among customers is Graziellas lasagna special, not on the menu. Diners will call way in advance to see if its being served the night theyll be dining and, if so, will reserve it prior to their seating. They know if they dont, it will surely be sold out by 7 p.m. My mom makes homemade lasagna that people go crazy over, says Luciano of this house specialty. We literally have people ask as soon as they walk in, do you have lasagna tonight? Joe laughs. People have gotten to know our family through the course of the years, continues Joe of the relationship the family and the restaurant have with Stone Harbor. Were a fixture in the town, its a great atmosphere. On Saturdays we see the same faces. Two of those familiar faces on a recent Saturday belonged to Andrew Turner and Jen Minnicozzi of West Chester and Devon, Pa., respectively, as well as Stone Harbor. They discovered Ristorante Luciano years ago from Turners dad Don its his favorite restaurant. The couple has been coming here ever since. I am literally obsessed with this place, says Minnicozzi, who makes her own homemade pasta. And Im super critical, very particular ... and a super picky Italian eater. This place is so special. So enamored by the food at Ristorante Luciano, before they left, the couple had already made reservations for the following Saturday. The consistency in our restaurant is a direct result of my brother being there every single day that were open, says Joe of the not-so-secret recipe for the restaurants success. Hes only missed four days (in 15 years). He touches every single dish before it goes out and puts that much care in every single dish. EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP The husband of slain talk show radio host April Kauffman was arrested Tuesday on charges unrelated to his wife's 2012 killing, after he pulled a gun and barricaded himself inside his medical office here to keep investigators from executing a search warrant, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said. After a tense 45-minute standoff, Dr. James Kauffman, who threatened to kill himself and threatened police with a 9mm Ruger pistol, surrendered, Tyner said. Kauffman, 68, of Linwood, was taken into custody, underwent a psychological examination and was taken to the Atlantic County jail in Mays Landing, where he is held pending a hearing on weapons charges stemming from the standoff. He is scheduled to appear Wednesday in court for a detention hearing. Tyner said Kauffman was very unstable at the time police approached him, and he waved his handgun in a threatening manner toward the officers. He brandished a weapon and pointed it at law enforcement officers, Tyner said. The gun was one of 100 Kauffman owns legally, the prosecutor said. But the intent to harm an officer was a criminal offense, he said. "He was very adamant that he did not want to be served with any type of papers," Tyner said in an afternoon press conference, one of two he held Tuesday. After Kauffman's arrest, investigators from the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, aided by FBI agents and Egg Harbor Township and Linwood police, spent the next several hours searching the medical offices and Kauffman's Linwood home. Special Agent Jessica Weisman of the FBI based in Northfield said Tuesday she could not comment on the matter. She only confirmed the FBI was on the scene of Kaufmans arrest in an official capacity with the county prosecutor's office. The search warrants issued for Kauffmans business and home were unrelated to April Kauffman's killing. Tyner said it was too early to determine whether the search turned up valuable evidence. Asked whether the search warrant was connected to the investigation into April Kauffman's unsolved, May 2012 homicide, he replied, "No, but yes." The current investigation, which Tyner did not discuss in detail, was "ongoing" and "widespread," and connections to the homicide were "yet to be seen." Last month, prosecutors sought a DNA sample from Kauffman, but the results of Judge Bernard DeLury's decision have been sealed. Tyner, speaking outside Kauffman's offices earlier in the day, would not discuss the judge's ruling, saying, We respect Judge DeLurys thoughtful and cogent decision. Tyner did speak about the April Kauffman case in his morning briefing to media. The April Kauffman case is very important to her family and to this community, Tyner said. Though the case has been rather quiet for the past five years, it is a very active case. Every day that passes, we learn more as more people remember things, and I hope that I will be able to bring some peace and some closure to this family and this community. Kauffman, who was processed at the Egg Harbor Township Police Department on Tuesday, will be detained for 48 hours on the weapons charges. Tyner said his office would request that Kauffman be detained until his trial. Neighbors and the curious were busy along the Linwood bike path Tuesday morning. Joe Geromini, a friend of Kim Pack, April Kauffman's daughter, was dropping of lunch at Mainland Regional High School in Linwood when his curiosity brought him past the Kauffman house on Woodstock Drive. He said he was relieved to hear there was an arrest. "I think it is interesting the charges are unrelated to the murder of April Kauffman. But they know what they are doing. They look at other aspects of this guy's life and obviously there was something if they were able to get a search warrant, Geromini said. I am really glad that this is moving forward." Staff Writer Vincent Jackson contributed to this report. A monarch butterfly conservation guide has been published by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The monarch butterfly has experienced a substantial population decrease. The guide shows what steps can be taken to increase its presence in this state, said Commissioner Bob Martin on Wednesday in a statement. Monarch butterflies have a long history in this state, according to the DEP. Every year for the winter, they fly along the East Coast, through Cape May, on the way to Mexico. Monarch butterflies are a species whose health reflects the health of a wide range of insects that have an important pollinating function, the DEP said. Substantial habitat loss in this county and Mexico and the loss of plants on which to feed are among the factors that have contributed to a 90 percent decline in the eastern U.S. population of migrating monarch butterflies during the past 20 years. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is working with landowners and farmers in this state to create and promote a healthy habitat for the monarch butterfly, the DEP said. The guide offers an overview of the butterflys migration pattern and lifestyle, habitat needs, cultural and environmental significance, factors contributing to its population decrease, efforts made in public education, conservation and research and advise on how to help the butterfly. To view the New Jersey Monarch Butterfly Conservation Guide, visit: nj.gov/dep/docs/monarch-guide.pdf PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account. Business Architecture Associates is offering 5 days of training courses, available to the public as an a la carte offering for individuals SOQUEL, California, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Business Architecture Associates training courses are based on the formal framework and best practices outlined in "A Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge (BIZBOK Guide), developed by the Business Architecture Guild. The dates for the training are 31 July to 4 August, 2017 and the training will be held in Randburg, South Africa. This special regional offering will include a full-day Building a Business Architecture Case and Open Practice Workshop on Friday which offers attendees a unique opportunity to exercise what they learned in a live setting. This includes building a case for business architecture within their own organizations as well as applying business architecture. Attendees will bring in business architecture scenarios, mapping requests and solution-oriented challenges, and the instructor will work through the topics, creating a real-time learning experience. Don't miss this unique opportunity to learn alongside an expert in the field. For course descriptions and outlines, please view our curriculum page. Business Architecture Associates Partner Whynde Kuehn will be instructing the course series, with a special presentation from Partner William Ulrich to discuss business and IT architecture alignment. Kuehn and Ulrich are practicing business architects and thought leaders in the field. They have applied business architecture at every level of the enterprise across multiple industries and continue to help drive and evolve the practice worldwide. Attendees new to the field and experienced practitioners will gain value from this week in Johannesburg. Partner Whynde Kuehn says, "We are excited to see growth in the business architecture discipline in South Africa. We are sharing our expertise and helping to build this new strategic capacity across the continent." About Business Architecture Associates Business Architecture Associates (BAA) is dedicated to training businesses in the practice and use of business architecture, an established practice that aligns business strategies with operational tactics. Founded by industry pioneers Whynde Kuehn and William Ulrich, these in-demand experts work across a wide range of industries to successfully establish and leverage business architecture to deliver lasting business value. BAA is a Guild Accredited Training Partner (GATP) with the Business Architecture Guild, a professional association for business architects that promotes best practices and expands the knowledge-base of the business architecture discipline. Contact: Kathleen Ulrich 831-464-5344 info@businessarchitectureassociates.com Related Links http://www.businessarchitectureassociates.com SOURCE Business Architecture Associates NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., a leading global financial services firm, today announced the expansion of its Healthcare Equity Research effort with the additions of Louise A. Chen and Travis Steed. Ms. Chen is joining the Firm as a Senior Research Analyst and Managing Director, focused on Specialty Pharmaceuticals Equity Research. Mr. Steed is also joining as an Equity Research Analyst, focused on Medical Supplies & Devices. Both are reporting to Mara Goldstein, Director of Equity Research, and are based in New York. "Against a backdrop of vigorous growth and innovation in the healthcare sector, Cantor Fitzgerald is further expanding its thought leadership, while providing value for clients in these complex and dynamic industries," said Shawn Matthews, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. Ms. Chen is joining the Firm from Guggenheim Securities, where she launched and led the Specialty Pharmaceuticals research vertical. Louise was previously at several leading firms, including Morgan Stanley. Mr. Steed is joining the Firm from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was a Vice President in Equity Research, focusing on Medical Supplies & Devices. "The addition of analysts of this caliber underscores Cantor's commitment to expanding the depth and breadth of its healthcare research team and to complementing its already highly respected healthcare research coverage," said Mara Goldstein. "I am confident that their deep industry knowledge and insights will add significant value for our clients." As recently as this winter, Cantor Fitzgerald added William Tanner, Ph.D. to its Biotechnology team and Steven Halper to its Healthcare Services team. About Cantor Fitzgerald Cantor Fitzgerald, a leading global financial services group at the forefront of financial and technological innovation has been a proven and resilient leader for over 65 years. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is a preeminent investment bank serving more than 7,000 institutional clients around the world, recognized for its strengths in fixed income and equity capital markets, investment banking, prime brokerage, and commercial real estate finance and for its global distribution platform. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is one of 23 primary dealers authorized to trade U.S. government securities with The Federal Reserve Bank of New York. For more information please visit www.cantor.com. Note to Editors: Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, and Anshu Jain, President, lead Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., the parent company of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/147829/cantor_fitzgerald_logo.jpg Related Links http://www.cantor.com SOURCE Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160119/323409LOGO ) (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/522850/One_Park_Lane_Hemel_Hampstead.jpg ) Commenting on the transaction Jonathan James (Investment Director) said "The sale of One Park Lane represents a compelling commercial return for the fund and underlines the depth of investor demand for well secured long-term income. This transaction enables us to recycle capital into value add opportunities in selected UK growth cities where we can drive performance through asset management." "The sale follows a period of active asset management repositioning the asset into a secure, stable, long term income product. The sale creates excellent momentum for the Business". Greg Davison - Asset Manager - FRE. Bourne Leisure occupies 80% of the building and the acquisition allows the Group to secure their future occupation of the building. Montagu Evans acted for Floreat. Bourne Leisure was unrepresented. SOURCE Floreat Real Estate Fueled by Rapid Growth, Leading Israeli Cybersecurity Company Will Open New U.S. Headquarters Led by CEO Ruvi Kitov BOSTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tufin announced that it will establish a new U.S. headquarters in Boston, fueled by the company's explosive growth resulting from increasing demand for Tufin's Network Security Policy Orchestration solutions, which enable customers to simplify the management of security policies across complex, heterogeneous environments. Tufin's U.S. headquarters will open with more than 20 employees and will be overseen by Ruvi Kitov, Tufin's CEO and Co-founder, who will relocate to Boston from Israel. With the move, Tufin becomes the latest in a long line of successful Israeli-founded cybersecurity companies to establish roots in the Boston technology community. With more than 1,900 customers across the world, Tufin is the established market leader in Network Security Policy Orchestration, making the company an attractive recruitment target for Massachusetts, which has forged a strong relationship with the Israeli cybersecurity community in recent years. Tufin chose to establish its U.S. headquarters in Boston in part because of those ties, and because of Boston's emergence as a hotbed of cybersecurity technology and talent. "We could have chosen any city in the United States, but the commitment that Massachusetts has demonstrated to attracting, retaining, and supporting Israeli cybersecurity companies made this an easy choice," said Ruvi Kitov, CEO, Tufin. "Boston is home to an extremely close-knit cybersecurity community, whose resources and expertise will help as we continue to grow and support our customers across the globe. We're excited to become a part of this thriving local technology community." In recent years, Massachusetts has taken steps to develop close ties with the Israeli cybersecurity community, including a 2016 economic development mission to Israel led by Governor Charlie Baker. According to a 2015 study by the New England Israel Business Council, Massachusetts now boasts over 200 Israeli-founded companies that are responsible for over 9,000 jobs in direct employment and $9 billion in combined revenue. "Israeli companies have a long track record of success in Massachusetts, creating thousands of jobs and opportunities for the citizens of the Commonwealth, and we are thrilled to welcome Tufin into the fold," said Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. "We are proud of our administration's ongoing commitment to strengthen our relationships with Israeli companies, encourage economic development and create thousands of jobs here in the Commonwealth." The move for Tufin comes on the heels of rapid growth and continued adoption of its Network Security Policy Orchestration solutions. Organizations have selected Tufin Orchestration Suite to maintain a strong security posture in the face of increasing cyberthreats and the limited visibility associated with today's complex, heterogeneous environments. Tufin's solutions help customers across industries such as financial services, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, transportation, and others optimize their security policies, reducing the attack surface for mitigating cyberthreats without sacrificing business agility. Tufin simplifies the security management of some of the largest, most complex networks in the world. The company has experienced 12 consecutive years of growth since being founded in 2005, including 80 percent growth in adoption of its automation solutions year-over-year from 2015 to 2016. Tufin now counts 40 Fortune 100 companies among its rapidly-growing customer base, along with several Massachusetts-based customers including Biogen, Fidelity Investments, Kronos, MassMutual, and MFS Financial. "The City of Boston has become a global hub for the cybersecurity industry, and Tufin is a welcome addition to this growing cluster," said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "Boston has the schools, the talent, and the resources to support a thriving ecosystem of cybersecurity companies, and we are thrilled that Tufin has chosen Boston for its U.S. headquarters." The new Tufin office will be located at 2 Oliver Street in Boston and immediately house more than 20 marketing, sales, services, business development, human resources, and operations employees. CEO Ruvi Kitov will permanently relocate to Boston to manage the company from its new U.S. headquarters. Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Reuven Harrison will remain at Tufin's global headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, to continue driving the company's technological innovation. Tufin expects to open the Boston office this summer and to rapidly add new employees in line with its expected growth. "Israeli entrepreneurs have made substantial contributions to our local economy, particularly in the cybersecurity sector here in Massachusetts, and we expect Tufin to continue this strong legacy of cooperation and innovation," said Tim Connelly, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the public agency that works to support the growth of the innovation economy across Massachusetts. "Growing the cybersecurity sector is a core focus of MassTech and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We're focused on working with our partners across the state to leverage our pool of top-tier computing talent, innovative companies, and industry resources that are unique to Massachusetts, in order to add more growing firms like Tufin." "Tufin's arrival in Boston is yet another example of the extraordinary growth of the Israel-Massachusetts economic relationship, which is bringing jobs, revenue, and innovation to the Commonwealth at a record setting pace," said Dan Trajman, CEO of the New England Israel Business Council. "We look forward to doing whatever we can to support their success in the Commonwealth." About Tufin Tufin is the leader in Network Security Policy Orchestration for enterprise cybersecurity. More than half of the top 50 companies in the Forbes Global 2000 turn to Tufin to simplify management of some of the largest, most complex networks in the world, consisting of thousands of firewall and network devices and emerging hybrid cloud infrastructures. Enterprises select the company's award-winning Tufin Orchestration Suite to increase agility in the face of ever-changing business demands while maintaining a robust security posture. The Suite reduces the attack surface and meets the need for greater visibility into secure and reliable application connectivity. Its network security automation enables enterprises to implement changes in minutes with proactive risk analysis and continuous policy compliance. Tufin serves over 1,900 customers spanning all industries and geographies; its products and technologies are patent-protected in the U.S. and other countries. Find out more at www.tufin.com. Follow Tufin on Twitter: @TufinTech Read more on Tufin's blog: Suite Talk Contact: Dan Gaffney fama PR for Tufin (617) 986-5036 Tufin@famapr.com Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/397425/tufin_logo_Logo.jpg Related Links www.tufin.com SOURCE Tufin WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Statement of law firm Fein & DelValle PLLC: The United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered an order on June 2, 2017 authorizing ten (10) Biafran Plaintiffs to sue fourteen Nigerian Defendants for complicity in the 2016 torture and extrajudicial killings under color of Nigerian law to retaliate for peaceful Biafran protests against ethnic or religious oppression. The next step in the litigation is to serve the Torture Victims Protection Act and Alien Tort Claims Act Complaint on the Nigerian Defendants. The Biafran Plaintiffs are seeking millions of dollars of damages to compensate for their grievous losses and suffering. The case name is John Doe, et al v. Tukur Yusuf Buratai et al, United States District Court for the District of Columbia Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-01033. It has been assigned to United States District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton. The District Court's Order noted: "Each Nigerian Defendant allegedly committed crimes against humanity and, as regards each of the Decedents, extrajudicial killings actionable under the Alien Torts Act and Torture Victims Protection Act. The Complaint alleges that Defendants' sole or substantial motivating force behind the extrajudicial murders and torturewas the ethnicity, religious and political beliefs of the victims which match those of each Plaintiff, i.e., Igbo ethnicity, Christian faith, and support of Biafran independence through peaceful means." The District Court added that the "Plaintiffs' allege that identifying Plaintiffs or Decedents would expose them, their families, and relatives to an intolerable risk of death or serious bodily injury at the hands of Defendants or the Government of Nigeria." Attorney Bruce Fein, of Fein & DelValle PLLC, who represents the Plaintiffs with his partner W. Bruce DelValle, explained: "This landmark lawsuit is about justice and the rule of law coming to rescue Igbos, Biafrans and their political supporters who are persecuted because of their Christian religion, their ethnicity and their political viewpoints since Nigeria's independence from its colonial master Great Britain in October 1960. Nigeria's decolonization violated the 1960 United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples. Paragraph 2 declares, 'All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.' Great Britain never allowed Biafrans to 'freely determine their political status' through a plebiscite or otherwise. That stands in stark contrast to the self-determination vote Great Britain afforded the Scots in 2014. Biafrans are decidedly more distinct from other Nigerians in matters of democratic culture, history, religion, language and ethnicity than the Scots are from the English. The time to remedy the flagrant decolonization injustice to Biafrans through peaceful means is long overdue." CONTACT: Bruce Fein or Bruce DelValle, 202-465-8727, bruce@feinpoints.com; brucedelvalle@gmail.com Related Links http://www.FeinDelValle.com SOURCE Fein & DelValle PLLC Since 1973, the JCR has provided an assessment of a journal's standing in scholarly literature through the objective evaluation of statistical information, which only a publisher-independent company such as Clarivate Analytics, can provide. The analysis comprises citation data, impact and influence metrics, and millions of cited and citing journal data points from the Web of Science , the industry's leading citation index in the sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities. "Because we understand the importance that the scholarly community places on the Journal Citation Reports, we remain dedicated to preserving its accuracy and reliability," said Emmanuel Thiveaud, VP, head of research analytics at Clarivate Analytics. "Clarivate uses a consistent, unbiased process to select the world's top-tier journals to include in the JCR." The JCR offers a variety of metrics to analyze journal activity from open access to ranking top journals by disciplines, further enabling publishers, editors and researchers to better understand and measure the impact of their activities on addressing issues such as global health and climate change through their research. Consider climate change: Despite the thousands of papers published on climate change, controversy still lingers. To help add clarity to what the research data is revealing, the JCR identifies the top five research fields in climate change as Environmental Sciences, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences, Geosciences-Multidisciplinary, Ecology and Geography-Physical. Furthermore, based on the Average Journal Impact Factor Percentile in the JCR, the top 10 journals across these five fields are: Journal Publisher Field Average JIF Percentile* 1. Nature Geoscience Nature Publishing Group Geosciences-Multidisciplinary 99.734 2. Nature Climate Change Nature Publishing Group Environmental Sciences; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences 99.427 3. Energy & Environmental Science Royal Society of Chemistry Environmental Sciences 99.340 4. Trends in Ecology & Evolution Elsevier Ecology 99.042 5. Land Degradation & Development Wiley Environmental Sciences 98.719 6. Earth-Science Reviews Elsevier Geosciences-Multidisciplinary 98.670 7. Environmental Health Perspectives US Department of Health Education & Welfare Public Health Service Environmental Sciences 98.284 8. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society American Meteorological Society Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences 98.235 9. Gondwana Research Elsevier Geosciences, Multidisciplinary 98.138 10. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Elsevier Geography, Physical 98.102 *Average JIF Percentile allows for comparison of journals across different categories by providing a normalized score based on the rank of the journal. The 2017 JCR release, which represents 2016 citation data for literature within the sciences and social sciences, features 11,459 journal listings in 236 disciplines with 81 countries represented. A total of 132 journals received their first JIF in this report; 66% of journals saw a year-over-year increase in their JIF and 33% saw a decrease. These high-impact journals are at the heart of the Web of Science, the most comprehensive network of citations of over 33,000 journals. The Journal Impact Factor is the ratio of last year's citations to articles published in that journal in the two previous years. To ensure the JIF remains transparent to the research community, later this year the Web of Science will provide direct links to the source documents comprising the JIF denominator. In addition, with next year's JCR release, direct links will also extend to the JIF numerator. As Clarivate Analytics continues to accelerate its investment in innovation, reinforced by the acquisition of Publons earlier this month, this release of the JCR also includes new enhancements such as Percent Citable Items and new filters making analysis of the JCR easier. Percent Citable Items shows the percentage of a journal's content that is considered "citable" for the JIF calculation. JCR is available on InCites, an integrated web-based platform powered by data from the Web of Science. It is used for measuring research output and impact, monitoring trends and benchmarking articles, journals, institutions and researchers. Additionally, JCR Journal Impact Factor Quartile metrics will be added to InCites Benchmarking & Analytics later this week. Institutions evaluating the impact of their research can use journal quartiles to better understand the portion of their faculty's output that is published in top journals, as well as track changes over time. Learn more about the Journal Citation Reports, proper attribution and data use and how to submit journals. Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Analytics accelerates the pace of innovation by providing trusted insights and analytics to customers around the world, enabling them to discover, protect and commercialize new ideas faster. Formerly the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters, we own and operate a collection of leading subscription-based businesses focused on scientific and academic research, patent analytics and regulatory standards, pharmaceutical and biotech intelligence, trademark protection, domain brand protection and intellectual property management. Clarivate Analytics is now an independent company with over 4,000 employees, operating in more than 100 countries and owns wellknown brands that include Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet, among others. For more information, please visit clarivate.com. Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523019/Clarivate_Analytics_JCR_Infographic.jpg Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/455613/clarivate_logo_for_press_release_Logo.jpg SOURCE Clarivate Analytics DENVER, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 1st Reverse Mortgage USA, a division of Cherry Creek Mortgage Company, Inc., today unveiled its new logo, visual style and a redesigned website: www.1stmortgage.com. "The launch of our new brand strategy is quite telling. It represents our transformative growth pattern, our ongoing, solid commitment to Cherry Creek Mortgage Loan Officers, Retail Direct and our Third Party Originator partners to provide an expanded product line," said Dan Harder, Vice President, 1st Reverse Mortgage USA. 1st Reverse Mortgage USA "Our new look is a show of strength, embodying 1st's high service mentality and culture. Our strategy is to make it easy for consumers to get connected with us and get the info they need to move through the process of obtaining funds efficiently and expeditiously," Harder said. The completely revamped website features a streamlined and simplified design, improved functionality and enriched content areas to help customers and partners make well-informed decisions about their needs and goals. The website also offers updated information on products, press releases, loan officer contact info and career opportunities. In recent weeks, the 1st brand has been making headlines by calling attention to its enhanced product line including its beefed up H4P (HECM for Purchase) division as well as the offering of forward mortgages through its 1st Mortgage Solutions marketing channel. "With our new look, we are putting our customers and partners in the driver's seat," said Harder. "We are thrilled to debut our new website to all our customers, clients, partners, media who are looking to understand the breadth and depth of our products and services," continued Harder. "We believe that this new site will allow visitors to have a very informative experience and allow us to continue to grow and increase our market presence." Explore the newly designed website at www.1stmortgage.com. Please contact Dale Jones, Director of Marketing and Communications: 303-854-3047 [email protected] About 1st Reverse Mortgage USA is a national, full-service mortgage company that provides origination and servicing through retail, wholesale, bank, credit union and correspondent divisions. 1st Reverse Mortgage USA has carved a unique niche in the marketplace by combining the best of traditional mortgage lending with the innovation and expertise of a mortgage bank. The company, a division of Cherry Creek Mortgage Co., Inc. includes over 60 retail branches across the country with over 250 experienced and knowledgeable Mortgage Loan Specialists, ready to serve our clients and their needs. 1st Reverse Mortgage USA and 1st Mortgage Solutions USA offer a diverse set of products including Reverse Mortgages, HECM for Purchase, FHA Loans, VA Loans, USDA Loans and Conventional Loans.The company has direct endorsement authority from HUD, Fannie Mae (FNMA), Ginnie Mae (GNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC). Visit www.1stmortgage.com or call (877) 217-0166. Related Images image1.png image2.png SOURCE 1st Reverse Mortgage USA Related Links http://www.1stmortgage.com SOUTHLAKE, Texas, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dallas Branch of Kumon North America is celebrating its 20th year of providing academic enrichment to thousands of children in communities across four states in the region. The Dallas branch office supports the franchise operations of 60 Kumon after-school math and reading centers throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas. Kumon learning centers in these areas currently provide nearly 12,000 local children in preschool through high school with the skills needed to compete in today's world. Greater Dallas is the largest metropolitan area in Texas with an increase in the area's population by one million since the 2000 census. Southlake is one of the most prominent and affluent suburbs of Dallas known for its superior public schools. Recognizing the value placed on education throughout the region, Kumon established its presence with the opening of the Dallas branch office in Southlake back in 1997. "We are very appreciative of the reception that Kumon has received in this region for the past 20 years," said Neil VanCleve, the Dallas branch manager for Kumon North America. "Kumon's main goal and commitment is to provide as many children as possible with an academic advantage and love for learning. We wouldn't be able to do that without the support we've received from communities across our branch." Discover how Kumon accelerates the learning for children. About Kumon Math & Reading Centers: Kumon is an after-school math and reading enrichment program that unlocks the potential of children, so they can achieve more on their own. As a comprehensive program, Kumon serves children in preschool through high school. Founded in Japan in 1958, the learning method uses an individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Through daily practice and mastery of materials, students increase confidence, improve concentration, and develop better study skills. Kumon has over four million students enrolled in nearly 25,000 learning centers in 50 countries and regions. SOURCE Kumon North America MONTREAL, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Acquisio has announced a strategic partnership as a leading App Directory partner with local marketing authority, Yext. Acquisio's product called Promote will be added to the new Yext App Directory, giving businesses the ability to instantly create local advertising campaigns on Google and Bing. Promote was designed to automatically tailor ad campaigns to specific business categories, so business owners don't have to spend a lot of time and money on advertising, while getting unprecedented results. Promote also provides visibility and tracking on incoming calls and messages. "Accurate business information like location is a key component of successful search campaigns," says Bill Dinan, Acquisio's GM and Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. "With one click, our app in the Yext App Directory imports and syncs Yext location data to further enhance Promote's easy, automated local advertising campaigns for Yext customers." "Acquisio's integration in the Yext App Directory gives businesses a powerful new tool to create tailored local campaigns powered by digital knowledge," said Marc Ferrentino, Chief Strategy Officer of Yext. "The Promote app saves time for businesses and helps them reach their customers in a targeted way." The new Yext App Directory is intended to empower, improve and centralize the digital marketing and business operations of Yext's customers, being announced alongside their Summer '17 Product Release. Yext says their app directory can make business smarter through seamless digital integrations that create opportunity for time-savings and business growth. With over 20 partners integrating with Yext's App Directory including HubSpot and Zapier, Acquisio brings to the table an all-in-one paid-advertising solution for local businesses, powered by machine learning. As the first application of advanced machine learning technology to optimize and scale local, search, social and display marketing, Acquisio holds a unique role in the partnership. As intelligent technology permeates the marketing sector, Acquisio has positioned itself as a leader in local business advertising and this is another major step in that direction. About Acquisio: Acquisio empowers SMBs to thrive in the digital economy. It provides software that facilitates customer acquisition using ad platforms such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, and Bing Ads. Marketers of any size can benefit from Acquisio's advanced data science tools to automate and optimize most of the processes involved in acquiring new customers online. About Yext: Yext puts business on the map. The Yext Knowledge Engine lets companies manage their digital knowledge in the cloud and sync it to over 100 services in the PowerListings Network. Yext Listings, Pages, and Reviews help businesses around the globe facilitate face-to-face interactions that boost brand awareness, drive foot traffic, and increase sales. Contact To learn more about this partnership please contact Chandal Nolasco da Silva, Acquisio, Content Manager 6300 Auteuil, suite 300, Brossard, Quebec, Canada J4Z 3P2 Office : 1 (866)-493-9070 [email protected] SOURCE Acquisio Related Links http://www.acquisio.com New appointments and Chair designation to fill the vacancies left by the departure of founding board members Mac Van Wielingen and Andrea Rosen later this year EDMONTON, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) is pleased to announce the appointments of Ms. Sarah Raiss and Ms. Sharon Sallows to its Board of Directors, effective October 21, 2017. Also confirmed are the re-appointments of Mr. Richard Bird, Mr. Ross Grieve, Mr. Robert "Jay" Vivian, and Mr. Tom Woods, each for an additional term of three years, effective July 1, 2017. The announcement follows the signing of the Order in Council by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta on June 13, 2017. AIMCo would also like to congratulate Mr. Richard Bird on the announcement of his designation as Chair of the Board of Directors, effective October 21, 2017. Mr. Bird was appointed to the AIMCo Board of Directors in March 2014, and has since actively contributed to the effective governance of the organization, serving most recently as Chair of the Audit Committee. He will succeed Mac Van Wielingen who has served as Board Chair since December 2014, and who will have served his maximum allowable term on the board at the time of his resignation. "On behalf of my fellow directors, I welcome the appointments of Ms. Raiss and Ms. Sallows, each of whom bring exceptional qualifications and experience to AIMCo's Board of Directors," states AIMCo Chair, Mac Van Wielingen. "I also commend the Province's decision to designate Mr. Richard Bird as AIMCo's next Board Chair. AIMCo's success is as much a product of strong governance, as it is prudent investment decision-making. The experience and commitment that Richard offers will ensure the leadership and oversight necessary to support our commitment to excellence and to becoming world class for the benefit of all Alberta stakeholders." Biographical Notes New Appointments (Effective October 21, 2017) Sarah Raiss retired in August, 2011 as Executive Vice-President of Corporate Services from TransCanada Corporation. She brings over 35 years of experience encompassing various board positions and executive and management positions in engineering, operations, strategy, merger & acquisition integration, governance, human resources, information technology, and marketing. Ms. Raiss is currently a member of the Board of Loblaw Companies Ltd. (Governance and Pension Committee), Vermillion Energy Inc. (Chair of Governance & HR Committee, and member of HSE Committee), Ritchie Bros (Chair of Compensation Committee), Commercial Metals Co. (Chair of Compensation Committee, and member of Nominating & Corporate Governance). She is a former member of the Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. Board (Chair of Corporate Governance & Compensation Committee, and member of Audit Committee). Ms. Raiss has a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and an MBA, both from the University of Michigan. Sharon Sallows is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of RioCan REIT (former Chair of the Investment Committee, Chair of the Human Resources and Compensation Committees, and a member of the Audit Committee), a member of the Board of Trustees of Chartwell Retirement Communities REIT (member of the Investment, and Nominating, Compensation and Governance Committees), and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (former Chair of HRCC and Governance Committees). Until 2009, Ms. Sallows was a principal of Ryegate Capital Corporation which engaged in merchant banking as well as the provision of financial and strategic advisory services to institutional and corporate clients. Ms. Sallows is a former Executive Vice President, Finance of MICC Properties Inc. and previously held various positions at the Bank of Montreal, including Senior Vice President, Real Estate, Corporate Banking. Ms. Sallows received a B.A. from Carleton University, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, a Ph.D. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and also holds the ICD.D designation. Re-Appointments (Effective July 1, 2017) Chair Designation (Effective October 21, 2017) J. Richard Bird retired from Enbridge Inc. in early 2015, having served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Development, and various other roles including Executive Vice President Liquids Pipelines, Senior Vice President Corporate Planning and Development, and Vice President and Treasurer. Mr. Bird serves on the Board of Directors or Trustees of Enbridge Energy Partners L.P., Enbridge Pipelines Inc., Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. and Bird Construction Company Inc. He is also a member of the Investment Committee of the University of Calgary Board of Governors. Mr. Bird was named Canada's CFO of the Year for 2010. He holds a B.A. from the University of Manitoba, MBA and PhD from the University of Toronto, and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Re-Appointments (Effective July 1, 2017) Ross A. Grieve is the Board Vice Chair of PCL Employee Holdings Ltd. and PCL Construction Holdings Ltd., the senior governing entities of the PCL family of companies. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of PCL from 1997 to October 31, 2009, and as chair from November 1, 2009 to 2016. Recent awards include 2007 Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta and Northwest Territories Business Hall of Fame Inductee and the 2009 Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year sponsored by the National Post, Deloitte and the Caldwell Partners. Ross is Board Chair for Inn at the Forks Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is on the Board of Maggnum Ventures Inc., Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta and Northwest Territories, and Melcor Developments Ltd. He is an Advisor Board Member for KingSett Capital Income Fund. Ross earned a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1969. Robert L. "Jay" Vivian is the former Managing Director of the $100 billion IBM Retirement Funds system. Mr. Vivian is on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee of ICMA-RC, and is the founding Chair of the Investment Committee, a member of the Board and the Executive Committee, and Corporate Secretary, of the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, the $2 trillion trade group of U.S. corporate retirement funds. He is also on the Investment & Pension Subcommittee for the charity United Way Worldwide, and is a member and Governance Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Bowdoin College, MBA from Harvard Business School, and CFA Charter from the CFA Institute. Tom Woods spent his entire career with CIBC and Wood Gundy, the predecessor firm of CIBC World Markets. He started in Investment Banking, advising companies raising financing in the equity and debt capital markets as well as mergers and acquisitions, and later was Head of Canadian Corporate Banking, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer, and retired in 2014 as Vice Chairman. Mr. Woods also serves on the boards of Bank of America Corporation; the CIBC Children's Foundation; the Board of Advisors of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto; Jarislowsky Fraser Limited; and St. Joseph's Health Centre. Mr. Woods has a B.A. Sc. in Industrial Engineering from University of Toronto, and MBA from Harvard Business School. About Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) AIMCo is one of Canada's largest and most diversified institutional investment managers with more than $100 billion of assets under management. Established on January 1, 2008, AIMCo's mandate is to provide superior long-term investment results for its clients. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 32 pension, endowment and government funds in the Province of Alberta. For more information, please visit www.aimco.alberta.ca. SOURCE Alberta Investment Management Corp. Related Links www.aimco.alberta.ca LONDON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alacrita, the transatlantic life science consulting firm, today announced the appointment of Anna Casse BSc, MBA as Managing Partner. Anna was previously responsible for building the European commercial business for ARIAD Pharmaceuticals from scratch and achieving the successful launch of ponatinib in Europe across 17 countries. Prior to this she held several commercial leadership roles including Head of Novartis Ophthalmics Global Business Development and Licensing, General Manager of Novartis Oncology, Finland and Commercial Head of Novartis Oncology, Germany. Anna Casse is an experienced commercial leader and has a rare combination of strategic consultancy, hands-on P&L and deal transaction experience in big pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies, globally, across Europe and within individual countries. Her focus has been on oncology, ophthalmics and rare diseases. She strengthens the commercial arm of Alacrita and is responsible for building the Alacrita business in Europe. Anna has worked with Anthony Walker and Simon Turner at Arthur D. Little from 1992-1999. Anna Casse said, "I am delighted to be working again with Anthony and Simon, who together with Rob have built an impressive company delivering true and implementable value to clients. I am looking forward to driving further growth in the areas of product launch and commercialisation and ensuring that our US clients have access to a European launch platform that is second-to-none." Anthony Walker, Managing Partner at Alacrita, said: "We are delighted to welcome Anna to the Alacrita team and to be working with an ex-colleague that we know and trust. At Alacrita, we are committed to providing greater geographical reach and stronger product-launch capabilities to biotech and pharma companies. I am confident that Anna's hands-on experience and commitment to this area together with the expertise that we have within the Alacrita network will provide a winning formula for our clients." Alacrita Europe: London BioScience Innovation Centre 2 Royal College Street London, NW1 0NH Tel: +44-207-691-4915 Alacrita USA: One Broadway, 14th floor Kendall Square Cambridge, MA 02142 Tel: +1-617-714-9696 www.alacritaconsulting.com Alacrita AG Artherstrasse 7 6300 Zug Switzerland Phone: +41-79-220-4006 For further information, please contact: Anna Casse, Managing Partner [email protected] SOURCE Alacrita Rapport, in partnership with Traction 3D, led the conception and fabrication of the replica build, which will live on one of OUTFRONT Media's largest billboards in Times Square. Standing over seven stories high, with a circumference of around 24 feet and weighing over seven tons, the giant aluminum Echo replica will be on display on Broadway between 44th and 45th Street now through June 25. The Echo installment includes an LED light ring programmed to replicate the pattern activated when a user asks Alexa a question in real time. "Amazon Music's gigantic deployment is a key example of the creative possibilities out-of-home offers brands and we are very excited to be a part of this unique campaign," said Jodi Senese, OUTFRONT Media's Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. "Times Square remains one of the most prominent advertising hubs in the world and brands continue to leverage the high visibility space here and large audiences; our historic work with Rapport and Amazon today marks a new chapter in the playbook." The Echo installation is part of Amazon Music's large scale advertising campaign, "Music Unites," which was inspired in part by John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" billboard campaign. That powerful message, coupled with Amazon Music's popular lyrics search feature when listening on Echo, led to today's Amazon Music campaign, which features iconic lyrics that express positivity and togetherness in famous locations in 15 cities across the U.S., U.K., Germany and Austria. "Rapport has a long and storied history of innovative and dynamic campaigns in the out-of-home space," said Mike Cooper, Global CEO, Rapport. "It's been a thrill to work with a client that regularly pushes the boundaries of advertising like Amazon. We're keen to see the engagement from the millions of visitors in Times Square who will come across this truly impressive ad." Times Square has historically been a prime advertising location for brands and receives over 300,000 visitors daily today. Over the years, Times Square has lead the out of-home industry's shift toward a digital platform, enabling companies to share their story at an impressive scale, with all the benefits of full video, motion and sound. Examples include OUTFRONT's recent launch of their first app-based ON Smart Media Liveboard in partnership with Jetblue in 2016. Working alongside innovative companies like Rapport, has been significant in allowing OUTFRONT to provide brands with a platform that is representative of this industry shift. About OUTFRONT Media Inc. OUTFRONT Media is one of the largest out-of-home media companies in North America with a leading presence in top markets throughout the United States and Canada. We have a diverse portfolio of billboard, transit and digital displays reaching mass audiences, as well as a distinct offering of prime assets impacting select markets. As part of our ON Smart Media technology development initiative, we are developing hardware and software solutions for enhanced demographic and location targeting, and engaging ways to connect with consumers on-the-go. About Rapport Rapport is the out-of-home (OOH) media buying and planning agency of IPG Mediabrands. Best known for the strength of its relationships, and rewarding connections, Rapport is a collaborative and forward-thinking agency that delivers valuable results for both clients and partners. As OOH becomes more engaging, interactive and content-driven, Rapport can seamlessly navigate through the ever-evolving media landscape. About Amazon Music Amazon Music is the destination for customers to have the most choice in how to access and listen to all their favorite music. In addition to streaming with Amazon Music Unlimited and Amazon Prime, Amazon Music offers the world's largest selection of CD and Vinyl, including AutoRip on more than a hundred thousand albums, and tens of millions of MP3 songs to purchase and own. For more information on Amazon Music visit www.amazon.com/amazonmusic. Disclaimer: Website references and hyperlinks included in this press release have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release. SOURCE OUTFRONT Media Inc. NEW YORK, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, today celebrated the Grand Opening of Alexandria LaunchLabs at the Alexandria Center for Life Science New York City and awarded its inaugural Alexandria LaunchLabs $100,000 Entrepreneurship Prize. The Grand Opening was held in connection with the NYC Life Science Innovation Showcase, an annual event organized by Alexandria, in partnership with the New York Academic Consortium. The Innovation Showcase provides select NYC-based academic entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their work to biopharma executives, investors and other community stakeholders. Alexandria LaunchLabs is NYC's premier, full-service startup platform created to satisfy key unmet needs for turn-key office/laboratory space and access to strategic risk capital for seed-stage life science companies, many of which have spun out of NYC's academic medical institutions. The unique platform provides member companies with plug-and-play office, laboratory and co-working space; first-class support resources; shared equipment and services; creative amenities; and strategic programming. In addition, Alexandria LaunchLabs' on-site management team provides member companies with best-in-class resources to enhance their growth trajectories. With a strong background in life science, entrepreneurship, venture capital, laboratory operations and investor relations, the Alexandria LaunchLabs team offers deep expertise in early-stage company building. This fully integrated platform is intentionally designed to accelerate both the commercialization of translational research and the growth of life science companies in NYC. "We are providing new life science companies with a one-of-a-kind solution and an unmatched opportunity to be located at the Alexandria Center, NYC's first and only life science campus," said Blake L. Stevens, Ph.D., general manager of Alexandria LaunchLabs. "Our team is excited to work closely with our member companies as they pursue their cutting-edge science." To date, 13 initial member companies have been accepted to Alexandria LaunchLabs from a competitive pool of over 115 applicants, indicating strong demand for Alexandria's wet laboratory and office space. Each member company is extensively vetted and accepted based on the quality of its technology, foundational IP, business strategy, financing plan and management team. Current member companies represent a broad array of focus areas, including 3-D printing of living tissues, computational drug discovery, gene therapy based cancer vaccines and synthetic genome engineering. These member companies will have the opportunity to apply for seed funding through the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform, which is led by Alexandria Venture Investments and backed by a deeply experienced advisory board of leading biopharma and venture capital executives. "Alexandria is proudly committed to providing dedicated startup space as well as significant human and strategic risk capital to ensure the continued growth and success of the NYC life science cluster," said Jenna Foger, senior principal of science and technology of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Alexandria Venture Investments. "Through Alexandria LaunchLabs and our Seed Capital Platform, we will help catalyze the next generation of life science companies in NYC to develop biomedical breakthroughs that will treat and cure so many otherwise life-threatening diseases." In celebration of the Grand Opening of Alexandria LaunchLabs, Neochromosome was selected as the winner of the inaugural $100,000 Alexandria LaunchLabs Entrepreneurship Prize by an esteemed group of strategic partners from the NYC biopharma and venture capital community. Neochromosome was founded by Jef Boeke, Ph.D., director of New York University Langone's Institute for Systems Genetics, and Joel Bader, Ph.D., interim director of the High Throughput Biology Center at Johns Hopkins University. The company's mission is to address a broad array of applications that cannot be met using gene-at-a-time engineering. Neochromosome designs, builds and optimizes entire synthetic chromosomes that augment a host cell's genetic information, analogous to upgrading a computer's operating system. "We are delighted to be selected for the inaugural Alexandria LaunchLabs Entrepreneurship Prize," said Dr. Boeke. "It's a great reward to see that scientific advances made in our research labs could lead to products and medical advances that will change the world." "New York City has always been a premier location for breakthrough scientific ideas and access to visionaries willing to invest in them," said Dr. Bader. "Alexandria LaunchLabs fills a crucial need for lab space at the intersection of high tech and biotech. We are excited to build our new projects on LaunchLabs' foundation and to join the LaunchLabs community." Alexandria LaunchLabs is cultivating homegrown life science startups and raising the bar for entrepreneurship in NYC as well as creating new demand in the NYC life science cluster by attracting new talent and solidifying a pipeline for the future growth of the cluster's rapidly growing life science ecosystem. About Alexandria LaunchLabs at the Alexandria Center for Life Science New York City Alexandria LaunchLabs is New York City's premier, full-service startup platform designed to satisfy key unmet needs for plug-and-play space and strategic risk capital for seed- and early-stage life science companies in New York City. Located at the Alexandria Center for Life Science New York City, Alexandria LaunchLabs provides move-in-ready office/laboratory space, first-class support resources, shared equipment and services, creative amenities and access to startup capital through the Alexandria Seed Capital Platformall of which are critical for accelerating the growth of seed- and early-stage companies in New York City. The Alexandria LaunchLabs team continues to accept applications for future members. To submit an application, please visit apply.launchlabsnyc.com. MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES: Shared wet laboratory and office spaces, starting at $1,995 per month per month Full-service operations and management Strategic programming and mentorship Connectivity with Alexandria's robust life science network robust life science network Access to seed capital Shared laboratory equipment Comprehensive IT/AV package Open cafe, lounge and conferencing spaces Access to Alexandria Center campus amenities and services About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an S&P 500 company, is an urban office REIT uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, with a total market capitalization of $14.5 billion and an asset base in North America of 28.2 million square feet as of March 31, 2017. Founded in 1994, Alexandria pioneered this niche and has since established a significant market presence in key locations, including Greater Boston, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland and Research Triangle Park. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A properties clustered in urban life science and technology campuses that provide its innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity and success. For more information, please visit www.are.com. CONTACT: Joel S. Marcus, Chief Executive Officer, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc./Alexandria Venture Investments, (626) 578-9693 SOURCE Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Related Links http://www.are.com RICHMOND, Va., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading travel insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance announced that it has joined forces with Mastercard to deliver claims payments in real time to bank accounts through debit cards. Using Mastercard Send, Allianz can now pay customers within minutes of their claim being finalized. This allows travelers to get access to their funds sooner, which may help them to pay travel expenses or replace lost or stolen items while they're still on their trip. Mastercard Send puts money in travelers' hands faster and alleviates the wait that's created when a check lands in a consumer's mailbox while they are still on their trip. Mastercard Send is a Push Payments service that facilitates the delivery of funds quickly and securely. These funds can then be used anywhere a debit card is accepted, including overseas. Through a single connection to the Mastercard Send platform, businesses, merchants, governments, non-profits, issuers and other senders can send money to consumers and small businesses. By digitizing personal payments that are typically handled via cash or check, Mastercard provides greater convenience, choice and security to both payment senders and receivers. In March, Allianz Global Assistance announced the ability to make claim payments directly to customer bank accounts. Those payments are routed through the banking system and usually arrive within about two days. Currently about one-third of Allianz Global Assistance customers are choosing the direct deposit payment option when they file their claim online. "We're pleased to offer consumers two ways to skip the mailbox and receive claim payments shortly after approval," said Joe Mason, Chief Marketing Officer at Allianz Global Assistance USA. "Mastercard Send's technology allows travelers to receive their funds anywhere in the world and use that money to pay for travel expenses, purchase essentials while their luggage is delayed or even make a deposit for their next trip." Earlier this year, Allianz rolled out a suite of innovations and improvements to make filing a travel insurance claim and receiving payment faster and easier. Among the innovations the company announced, were redesigned claim forms that are easier to understand and use and the ability to file an online claim from any device. Consumers can even use the company's award-winning TravelSmart mobile app to file and track claims. Allianz Global Assistance offers travel insurance* through most major U.S. airlines, leading travel agents, online travel agencies, other travel suppliers and directly to consumers. For more information on Allianz Global Assistance and the policies offered for travelers, please visit: http://www.allianztravelinsurance.com. Allianz Global Assistance USA Allianz Global Assistance USA (AGA Service Company) is a leading consumer specialty insurance and assistance company. We provide insurance to over 25 million customers annually and are best known for our Allianz Travel Insurance plans. In addition to travel insurance, Allianz Global Assistance USA offers tuition insurance, event ticket protection, registration protection for endurance events and unique travel assistance services such as international medical assistance and concierge services. The company also serves as an outsource provider for in-bound call center services and claims administration for property and casualty insurers and credit card companies. To learn more about Allianz Travel Insurance, please visit allianztravelinsurance.com or Like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/AllianzTravelInsuranceUS. *Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply to all plans. Plans are available only to U.S. residents. Not all plans are available in all jurisdictions. For a complete description of the coverage and benefit limits offered under your plan, carefully review your plan's Letter of Confirmation/Declarations and Certificate of Insurance/Policy. Insurance coverage is underwritten by BCS Insurance Company (OH, Administrative Office: Oakbrook Terrace, IL), rated "A-" (Excellent) by A.M. Best Co., under BCS Form No. 52.201 series or 52.401 series, or Jefferson Insurance Company (NY, Administrative Office: Richmond, VA), rated "A+" (Superior) by A.M. Best Co., under Jefferson Form No. 101-C series or 101-P series, depending on state of residence. Allianz Global Assistance and Allianz Travel Insurance are brands of AGA Service Company. AGA Service Company is the licensed producer and administrator of these plans and an affiliate of Jefferson Insurance Company. The insured shall not receive any special benefit or advantage due to the affiliation between AGA Service Company and Jefferson Insurance Company. Non-insurance benefits/products are provided and serviced by AGA Service Company. SOURCE Allianz Global Assistance USA Related Links http://www.allianztravelinsurance.com NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Children's Book Council (CBC) has announced the first-ever "READING BEYOND" book lists, created to provide guidance to parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians, and others interested in discovering books for children who read at an advanced level and are seeking more challenging, but still age-appropriate, books. Envisioned and created by the ALA-CBC Joint Committee, the "READING BEYOND" book lists are comprised of 25 titles in each of three categories: Kindergarten -1st graders reading at a 3rd grade level; 2nd- 3rd graders reading at a 5th grade level; and 4th- 5th graders reading at a 7th grade level. These 75 books were chosen from over 600 submitted by publishers and librarians, initially evaluated by the ALA member librarians of the committee and then finalized by the full committee. The books were evaluated for their content as well as the challenge they would present to advanced readers, along with the consideration of a variety of genres and formats. Susan Polos and Janet Wong, co-chairs of the ALA-CBC Joint Committee, stated: "The READING BEYOND list celebrates the power of books to lift and expand children's minds, providing reading experiences beyond levels and limits." The fully annotated 2017 "READING BEYOND" list is now available for download at CBCbooks.org. The ALA-CBC Joint Committee fosters communication and collaboration on mutual opportunities, concerns, and issues regarding the content, format, distribution, and promotion of materials for children and young adults as they relate to both the library and publishing communities. The committee creates bibliographies to provide guidance to parents, grandparents, and others interested in high-quality literature for children, including Building a Home Library, which provides recommendations for assembling a library for children at home, and Books to Grow On , classic books for children up to age 3. The Children's Book Council is the nonprofit trade association for children's book publishers in North America. The CBC offers children's publishers the opportunity to work together on issues of importance to the industry at large, including educational programming, literacy advocacy, and diversity in publishing. The CBC is proud to partner with other national organizations on co-sponsored reading lists, educational programming, and literacy initiatives. Media Contact: Shifa Kapadwala, Publicity Manager, Children's Book Council, [email protected], 212.966.1990 SOURCE Children's Book Council Related Links http://www.cbcbooks.org The two new products will align with the brand's existing portfolio, infusing on-trend iced teas with luscious fruits and exotic botanicals in deliciously unexpected ways. The Arteasan infusions each offer a natural functionality such as 'Glow' or 'Cleanse,' which are derived naturally from the products' beneficial ingredients. The original four flavors include a White Tea with Mango & Passion flower ('Calm'); a Yerba Mate Tea with Peach & Rosemary ('Focus'); a Green Tea with Passionfruit & Elderflower ('Be Well'); and a Black Tea with Blueberry & Ginseng ('Energy'). "We carefully crafted our new infusions using superfood ingredients like matcha and ginger, which are known to benefit both body and mind," says Fernando Rodriguez, Arteasan Founder and CEO. "We're excited for our fans to discover our new and unexpected flavors, and are delighted to continue creating deliciously beneficial iced teas that people can feel great about enjoying." True to Arteasan's mission to craft better-for-you infusions that deliver "a world of good," the new flavors feature only 5 calories per serving, have less than 1 gram of sugar per bottle and use only non-GMO, worldly ingredients. "We're launching our Matcha Tea with Watermelon & Mint and our Oolong Tea with Pineapple & Ginger at a critical time," explains Corina Flushing, Arteasan Co-Founder and COO. "We expect these to be highly successful launches for the warm summer months, and the timing is ideal as we've recently formed new partnerships with three industry-leading distributors. Our expanded portfolio will enable us to offer a wider range of options to prospective retailers while growing sales in existing accounts." Arteasan will launch its new flavors across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South Florida regions. The company will also introduce its six-flavor portfolio in select retailers in the Midwest this summer, expanding distribution through its recent partnership with UNFI. About Arteasans Beverages: Arteasans Beverages crafts delicious ready-to-drink 5-calorie iced tea infusions that contain less than 1 gram of sugar per bottle. Arteasan infusions blend fragrant teas with sumptuous fruits and unexpected botanicals from 5 continents and over 20 countries with the mission to deliver "a world of good" in every bottle. Currently available in four flavors, Arteasan beverages are naturally functional, non-GMO certified, OU Kosher, vegan and gluten-free. Founded by Fernando Rodriguez and Corina Flushing in 2014, Arteasans Beverages is based in North Miami Beach, Florida. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.arteasan.com or contact [email protected]. SOURCE Arteasans Beverages LLC DALLAS, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT) ("Ashford Trust" or the "Company") announced today that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per diluted share for the Company's common stock for the second quarter ending June 30, 2017. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $0.48 per share, is payable on July 17, 2017, to shareholders of record as of June 30, 2017. The Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.5344 per diluted share for the Company's 8.55% Series A Cumulative Preferred Stock for the second quarter ending June 30, 2017. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $2.1375 per share, is payable on July 17, 2017, to shareholders of record as of June 30, 2017. The Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.5281 per diluted share for the Company's 8.45% Series D Cumulative Preferred Stock for the second quarter ending June 30, 2017. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $2.1125 per share, is payable on July 17, 2017, to shareholders of record as of June 30, 2017. The Board declared a dividend of $0.4609 per diluted share for the Company's 7.375% Series F Cumulative Preferred Stock for the second quarter ending June 30, 2017. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $1.8438 per share, is payable on July 17, 2017, to shareholders of record as of June 30, 2017. The Board declared a dividend of $0.4609 per diluted share for the Company's 7.375% Series G Cumulative Preferred Stock for the second quarter ending June 30, 2017. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $1.8438 per share, is payable on July 17, 2017, to shareholders of record as of June 30, 2017. Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing opportunistically in the hospitality industry in upper upscale, full-service hotels. Ashford has created an Ashford App for the hospitality REIT investor community. The Ashford App is available for free download at Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store by searching "Ashford." Certain statements and assumptions in this press release contain or are based upon "forward-looking" information and are being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements about the Company's strategy and future plans. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. When we use the words "will likely result," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "should," "expect," "believe," "intend," or similar expressions, we intend to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside Ashford Trust's control. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are only made as of the date of this press release. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We are not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, changes in expectations or otherwise. SOURCE Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. LONDON, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP) today announced the appointment of Miguel Fernandez as Global President, with responsibility for commercial business operations, effective August 14, 2017. Miguel will report directly to Avon's Chief Executive Officer, Sheri McCoy, and will be based at Avon's headquarters in London. Miguel succeeds John Higson, who will be retiring in September from his role as Avon's Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, following 32 years with Avon. Miguel is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of operating experience, including significant international experience and a proven track record in the direct selling industry. He joins Avon following nearly ten years at Herbalife Ltd., where he most recently served as Executive Vice President and Managing Director for the Americas and Worldwide Member Operations. Previously at Herbalife, Miguel served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Mexico, and Vice President Finance & Distributor Operations. Sheri McCoy, Chief Executive Officer of Avon said: "I am delighted to welcome an executive of Miguel's caliber to Avon's leadership team. Miguel's expertise in general management, global sales, marketing and operational excellence, will help us accelerate changes in our commercial operations and drive profitable growth." McCoy continued, "On behalf of the entire Avon team, I would like to thank John for his countless contributions to Avon, and his many years of dedicated service to the Avon Representatives. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours." Prior to joining Herbalife, Miguel was Chief Financial Officer at OCC Mundial and Business Controller for Microsoft in Mexico. His earlier career included roles in investment banking at JPMorgan Chase in New York, and financial management at Procter & Gamble. Miguel holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering, with honors, from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico and a Master of Business Administration from Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. Contact: MEDIA: Brunswick Group Mathilde Milch (212) 297-3004 About Avon Products, Inc. Avon is the Company that for 130 years has proudly stood for beauty, innovation, optimizm and, above all, women. Avon products include well-recognized and beloved brands such as ANEW, Avon Color, Avon Care, Skin-So-Soft, and Advance Techniques sold through nearly 6 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the acceleration of changes in our commercial operations and the drive in profitable growth. Because forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties, actual future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the possibility of business disruption, competitive uncertainties, and general economic and business conditions in Avon's markets as well as the other risks detailed in Avon's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Avon undertakes no obligation to update any statements in this press release for changes that happen after the date of this release. SOURCE Avon Products, Inc. Additional investors in the round include Blueberry Ventures, Centerman Capital and New Ground Ventures. "The momentum for plant-based protein snacks is undeniable and the chickpea has come out on top," said Rovell. "Our group feels that there isn't anyone in the category that can touch Bienaits texture and flavor profiles are outstanding. Along with the product itself, the passion and clear direction of Poorvi Patodia and her leadership team really sealed the deal for us." Biena grew by 800 percent over the last three years and is on track to more than double its revenue in 2017. The new funds will be used to support continued distribution growth and large-scale marketing efforts for the brand. Since its launch, consumers have responded in spades to the brand's full-flavored taste profiles, clean ingredients and nutritional benefits, making Biena one of the highest velocity healthy snacks on supermarket shelves today. Biena is available in 15,000 locations nationally, including Sprouts, Whole Foods, Safeway and Stop & Shop. The brand also recently launched a co-branded product line with Weight Watchers. Biena is available in six tempting flavors, including Sea Salt, Rockin' Ranch and Honey Roasted. Each serving of Biena chickpeas has an enviable 5-6 grams of protein and 5-6 grams of fiber, and boasts a calorie count that allows consumers to still smile after polishing off the bag. In addition, Biena chickpeas are naturally gluten-free, non-GMO, kosher and made in a factory that is free of peanuts. Biena was developed by Patodia when she was pregnant and searching for a healthier way to satisfy her snack cravings. Inspired by a favorite childhood snack, Patodia started experimenting with roasted chickpeas in her own kitchen, developing a unique way to make them light and crispy while maintaining the protein, fiber and nutrients of a whole chickpea. Leveraging her background in developing brands at Johnson & Johnson, Patodia launched Biena in 2012when the plant-protein snacks trend was still in its infancy. "I'm thrilled to have our new investors join the Biena family," Patodia said. "Their genuine passion for the brand and our mission to help everyday Americans snack healthier makes us the perfect pair. I couldn't be more excited for this next phase of growth." With the chickpea emerging as the star of the plant-protein snacking trend, Biena is well positioned to be a market leader. Later this month, at the Fancy Food Show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, the company will publicly unveil a new indulgent snacka line of chocolate and caramel-covered roasted chickpeas (Booth 5476). This new product line will launch in stores nationwide in July. About Biena Foods Biena is a snack food company that specializes in deliciously crunchy and healthy all-natural bean protein snacks. They are available at Whole Foods Markets, Sprouts Farmers Markets, Safeway and New Seasons as well as online at Amazon.com and SnackAisle.com. Visit Biena on Facebook and Twitter for product information, updates, store demos and other news. SOURCE Biena Foods Related Links https://www.bienafoods.com/ BEIJING, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Several days previously, Coolqi Bike - hailed as a titan of innovative technology - held a launch event at Peking University entitled "Redefining the Future of Travel", where it unveiled the Gold Edition of its unmistakable smart shared bikes. Though not the originator of shared bikes, Coolqi Bike (which was founded in 2016) is constantly surpassing its predecessors, and the launch of the Gold Edition marks its pioneering entry into the smart era. Coolqi Bike (Beijing) Co. Ltd. is an internet company committed to using technological innovation to create green modes of transport and improve people's quality of life. Coolqi Bike not only boasts highly-experienced management, operational and technical teams, but also possesses a powerful production chain, ensuring advantages in the quality and distribution of its bikes. Currently, Coolqi Bike has over 1 million bikes in place in over 50 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Tianjin, Shenyang, Changsha, Taiyuan, and Shijia. Coming on heels of the release of its Lite Edition, every detail of the new Gold Edition has been made by renowned manufacturers to provide users with optimal comfort and convenience. Coolqi Bike has innovatively employed a dustless vacuum coating process to create the gold-colored bikes, while the exclusively-designed single magnesium alloy body is stronger and lighter, the perfect combination of style and technology. Being the first bikes to feature silicone seats, the users' riding experience will become more comfortable. The Gold Edition bikes also feature specially-made tires that offer 50% more grip, greatly enhancing ride safety. The Gold Edition Coolqi Bike are also equipped with independently-developed next-generation smart locks, which are a core component of the bikes. Inside, the locks are fitted with GPS+ Beidou dual positioning, making unlocking easier and positioning more accurate. In addition to enhancements in quality and functionality, one of the most remarkable aspects the Gold Edition is its three remarkable technologies that are leading the way for shared bikes' entry into the smart era. The first such technology is smart raising seats. Users simply enter their height into the app - which, after unlocking the bike, alters the height of the seat based on the user data. Users can also make their own adjustments according to their preferences. All data is recorded, so when using a Coolqi Bike in the future, the seat height is automatically altered to the pre-adjusted setting, truly making this a shared bike which is tailored to each user. The second piece of technology is wireless and wired mobile phone charging cradles that are suitable for all phone models. Users can charge their phones during travel, solving problems of where to place the phone and battery life during navigation. The third is smart voice locking and newly-added talk functionality, enabling the embedding of various practical information such as weather forecasts. It is the first talking shared bike in the market, hugely expanding the application potential of bikes in the future. It's worth noting that the smart seat adjustment and other technological breakthroughs are all the result of independent R&D by Coolqi Bike. The Gold Edition combines over 30 exclusive technologies, most of which are industry firsts. In addition, during the new product strategic launch party for the new bike, Coolqi Bike also announced strategic partnerships with Haier Wireless and Minsheng Bank. Haier wireless will be providing 10 million wireless docks for Coolqi Bike, an order worth 1 billion yuan. Minsheng Bank, meanwhile, will be embarking on a multi-faceted partnership with Coolqi Bike encompassing deposit management, remote messages, joint marketing, and setting-based applications. In particular, monitoring of user care deposits will put users' minds at ease when riding Coolqi Bike. The first batch of the Coolqi Bike Gold Edition will be released in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Xi'an on the 7th June. "Since its founding, Coolqi Bike has adhered to the principle of putting the user experience first, which is what drives us to keep innovating. We're hoping to redefine the future of travel, and the Gold Edition vehicle is only the first step - in the future, Coolqi Bike will continue to employ technology and innovation to reinvent people's travel lifestyles," said Gao Weiwei, a senior figure from Coolqi Bike. SOURCE Coolqi Bike NEW YORK , June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BizBash, the leading trade media for the event industry, has announced its 2017 list of the most innovative people and brands in events. On the list are event leaders from across North America working across industry sectors. These include media and technology companies, lifestyle brands, the hospitality industry, and beyond. These individuals and brands are redefining the future of meetings and events and are the bright lights leading the way. "As more brands see the value of live experiences as a part of their marketing mix, these companies and forward-thinking event professionals stood out," said Beth Kormanik, executive editor of BizBash. "Their creativity, use of technology, and strategic choices are helping them reach key audiences to spread their messages." The Most Innovative Event Professionals of 2017 Are: Bob Bland , Tamika Mallory , Carmen Perez & Linda Sarsour , Women's March on Washington Suzy Jack , Los Angeles Times Betsy McHugh , Hurdl Justin Bolognino , Meta.is Jennifer Heaton , Adobe Steven Dyme & Jo Dickstein , Flowers for Dreams Claire Cummings , Bon Appetit Management Company Faith Smith , Slate Daniel Arsham & Alex Mustonen , Snarkitecture Taylor Carlson , Goop Jeff Stober , Drake Hotel Charles Melcher , Melcher Media & Future of Storytelling Jeremy Gocke , Ampsy Anthony Sargent , Luminato Festival Cathi Culbertson , Forbes Aidan Augustin & Aleksander Levental , Feathr Natalie Angulo , Hyatt Regency New Orleans & 1718 Events Chiara Adin & Aaron Mason , NA Collective Richard St-Pierre , C2 Montreal Scott Harrison , Charity: Water Cynthia Hornketh , Gartner Summits Christian Lachel , BRC Imagination Arts The Top 10 Most Innovative Brands Are: American Express Ford Delta Google Nike AT&T National Geographic Jack Daniel's Casper Refinery29 The "Event Innovators 2017" feature, which showcases the full list of innovative people and the "Top 10 Innovative Brands" list, can be seen at www.bizbash.com/innovators-2017. About BizBash BizBash empowers event professionals with ideas, intelligence, and resources to create smarter events. Each month more than 225,000 unique users across North America and beyond look to BizBash for venue discovery, event style, technology, and tools for their next event. Visit us at www.bizbash.com. Follow us at @bizbashlive on Twitter and Instagram or www.facebook.com/bizbash. Media contact: Grazia Mohren BizBash Media 646-839-6896 http://www.bizbash.com SOURCE BizBash Related Links http://www.bizbash.com/ DENVER, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Six engineers from the recently closed Deerns America office in Denver have joined BSA LifeStructures, a nationally recognized architecture and engineering firm specializing in healing, learning and discovery. Joining BSA LifeStructures as of June 1 are: Kate Allen , who served as managing director of Deerns America and will serve as a principal-in-charge with BSA LifeStructures , who served as managing director of Deerns America and will serve as a principal-in-charge with BSA LifeStructures Clark Bishop , director, engineering services, Denver , director, engineering services, Chris Douglas , senior electrical engineer , senior electrical engineer Joshua Armstrong , senior mechanical engineer , senior mechanical engineer Noble Lilliestierna , mechanical engineer , mechanical engineer Mark Buss , senior mechanical designer "It's not often that a firm, in one move, can add this much talent, experience and market knowledge and relationships," said BSA LifeStructures President Melissa Davis. "The fact that they come to us as a fully functioning team means our clients will benefit immediately." With Deerns, the engineers worked on a number of high-profile projects, including the Denver International Airport, the OVG Unilever Campus and the Green House Data Center. The team also has prior experience in healthcare and higher education with an emphasis on sustainable design. After Deerns announced plans to close its Denver office, Allen sought ways to keep the team together. She contacted BSA LifeStructures Chairman Kevin Token for advice, and he quickly suggested that Allen's team join his firm. This move adds to a BSA LifeStructures office that already was growing. The firm opened its Denver office in 2015, and on the strength of projects such as UCHealth's Greeley Health Center and Carbon Valley Health Center, it has grown from one person to a dozen. "I have always had such respect for BSA LifeStructures, and joining its Denver team means we can continue to work on the kinds of products we enjoy, and we can contribute right away," Allen said. "I was dedicated to keeping this team together, but I had no idea we'd have an opportunity like this." "BSA LifeStructures has always believed that all disciplines architecture, engineering and interior design should work collaboratively rather than in separate silos," Davis said. "Bringing these talented people to our team underscores that belief and commitment." About BSA LifeStructures BSA LifeStructures specializes in architecture, engineering, interior design and planning services designing facilities that support and enhance healing, learning and discovery facilities that are lifestructures. BSA LifeStructures collaborates with visionary healthcare, higher education and research clients to deliver inspired solutions that improve lives. Learn more at www.bsalifestructures.com . Media Contact: Lauren Pachacz, BSA LifeStructures [email protected], 317.819.2023 SOURCE BSA LifeStructures Related Links http://www.bsalifestructures.com BOSTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BzzAgent, a dunnhumby company and influencer marketing leader, has hired media industry veteran John Running as its Chief Technology Officer. Located in the company's Boston office, Running will lead technology, product development and innovation of the company's influencer marketing platform for the world's largest brands. Running joins BzzAgent from EF Education where he was CIO of the Cultural Exchange division, a world leader in international education. John led the distributed global IT organization to define and implement the technology roadmap and digital transformation. His experience also includes an EVP role at Hill Holiday, an ad agency headquartered in Boston. John led technology, user experience and digital production teams in the design, implementation, and delivery of innovative customer experiences, web and mobile applications, and integrated marketing campaigns for clients including Bank of America, Liberty Mutual, Dunkin' Donuts, Capella University and Chili's. "John Running is a key strategic hire for BzzAgent as we continue to innovate our technology, products, and platform to shape the future of influencer marketing," said Steve McLaughlin, CEO of BzzAgent. "John brings extensive experience developing digital innovations and a passion for our purpose to make marketing better through the power of people." BzzAgent drives measurable reach and sales by generating the highest quality consumer generated content, videos and photos that share authentic brand experiences across all types of social media. The company works with many of the world's largest brands in the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, and France, and has "preferred provider" status for several top CPG companies. About BzzAgent BzzAgent helps brands harness the power of human interaction and social media to create influencer marketing programs that drive sales. Our network of over a million consumers create the authentic content, reviews, and opinions that build trust and influence purchase decisions in a managed, scalable and measurable way. BzzAgent is one of the original influencer marketing companies with over 15 years of experience working with the world's largest brands. The company was acquired by dunnhumby in 2011. Learn more at: http://about.bzzagent.com/ Contact: Brian Cavoli 857-268-5091 [email protected] SOURCE BzzAgent Related Links https://www.bzzagent.com AUSTIN, Texas, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Catapult, a leading digital transformation consulting company, today announced that Terri Burmeister has been promoted to president of the organization, effective immediately. As president, she will have responsibility for day-to-day operations, developing new business and building strategic partnerships. Catapult's current CEO, David Fuess, will remain in his role but will focus his energy on directing company strategy and vision for the company's global expansion. Ms. Burmeister is a 10-year veteran of Catapult, joining the company in 2007 as Florida General Manager, and most recently serving as Vice President, Sales. "Over the last decade, Terri has built an impressive track record of strategic and operational accomplishments," said David Fuess, Catapult's Chief Executive Officer. "Terri has been a vital and visible part of Catapult's success, and I am thrilled to be able to recognize her tireless efforts with this new leadership role. Her wealth of experience is a valuable asset as we continue to accelerate our growth and transformation into a modern digital solutions provider." "This is an extremely exciting time for Catapult, with the success of our digital solutions and the launch of our global expansion," said Terri Burmeister, Catapult's new president. "I am humbled by the confidence that Catapult has shown in my leadership abilities and thrilled to be part of this amazing team." Prior to joining Catapult in 2007, Terri spent 14 years in various sales and leadership roles at Software Architects, acquired by Sogeti. Terri has over 23 years of leadership expertise in the IT services industry. She has spent the last ten years strengthening an alignment with Microsoft and expanding and developing the Catapult sales organizations across the United States. She has a degree in Merchandising and Business Management from The University of Wisconsin-Stout. Catapult Systems is a modern digital solutions and services firm that specializes in emerging and business-critical technologies for large and mid-size organizations. We imagine, build and sustain IT-enabled business solutions that people love to use. Recognized as the 2016 Microsoft Partner of the Year (U.S.), Catapult specializes in digital transformation and cloud-based technologies. Catapult has offices in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Tampa and Washington, D.C. Press Contact: Jessica Cowan Marketing Communications Manager Catapult Systems 512-605-3903 SOURCE Catapult Systems Related Links http://www.catapultsystems.com WASHINGTON, JUNE 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Schools across the nation spent over 60 percent of day-to-day expenditures on classroom instruction in fiscal year 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Public Education Finances: 2015 report released today. This graphic looks at the current expenditures for public elementary and secondary school systems. The data from the Public Education Finances: 2015 report provides figures on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets (cash and security holdings) for the nations public elementary and secondary school systems. The report provides figures on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets (cash and security holdings) for the nation's public elementary and secondary school systems. The report, which is released annually, includes detailed statistics on spending such as instruction, student transportation, salaries and employee benefits at the national, state and school district levels. "School systems in all states and the District of Columbia spent $344.3 billion on classroom instruction," said Stephen Wheeler, a project manager with the Census Bureau's Educational Finance Branch. "This includes spending on salaries for teachers, instructional aides and substitute teachers." Classroom instruction is defined as activities dealing with the interaction between teachers and students in the classroom or other learning situations. New York and the District of Columbia led the nation in total per student spending on instructional staff salaries at $8,758 and $9,112, respectively. Per Student Spending Nationally, per student spending was $11,392 in fiscal year 2015, a 3.5 percent increase from fiscal year 2014. This amount represents the largest increase in per student spending since 2008 when there was a 6.1 percent increase from the year prior. Total current expenditures per student include instruction, support services and noninstructional functions, including direct expenditure for salaries, employee benefits, student transportation, building maintenance and other services and supplies. Per student spending increased for every state, with Alaska and California having the highest percentage increase (9.5 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively), except for Arizona (decreased 0.5 percent). Overall, New York and Alaska spent more per student with a total of $21,206 and $20,172, respectively. States with the lowest per student expenditures were Idaho with $6,923 and Utah with $6,575. Of the 100 largest school systems by enrollment, Maryland had four of the 10 public school districts with the highest spending per student. This marks the eighth year in a row Maryland has had four school districts in the top 10 in this category. Nationally, the top five school districts per student spending were New York City School District at $21,980; Boston City Schools at $21,552; Anchorage School District in Alaska at $17,046; Baltimore City Schools in Maryland at $15,818; and Howard County Schools in Maryland at $15,714. Public Education Expenditure Total expenditure by public school systems was $639.5 billion in fiscal year 2015, compared to $613.7 billion in fiscal year 2014. Of the total expenditures for elementary and secondary education, current spending made up $567.7 billion, or 88.8 percent, and capital outlay was $52.1 billion, or 8.2 percent. Expenditures for instruction amounted to $344.3 billion, or 60.6 percent of total current spending. Instructional salaries and wages totaled $216.9 billion, while instructional employee benefits totaled $87.1 billion. Support services expenditures included general and school administration expenditures at $40.9 billion, operation and maintenance of plant expenditures at $51.6 billion and student transportation expenditures at $24.2 billion. Eight of the nine states in the Northeast ranked among the top 15 in spending per student, except for Maine, which was 16th. Out of the 20 states with the lowest per student spending, 17 were in the South or West. The remaining states were Kansas, Indiana and South Dakota, which are in the Midwest. Total school district debt increased by 3.6 percent from the prior year, from $418.0 billion in fiscal year 2014 to $433.1 billion in fiscal year 2015. Public Education Revenue State governments contribute the greatest share of public school system funding at $302.6 billion, or 47.1 percent of total revenue. Revenue raised from local sources, which includes revenues from county and municipal governments, amounted to $286.7 billion, or 44.6 percent of public elementary and secondary funding, while the federal government contributed $53.3 billion, or 8.3 percent of public elementary and secondary funding. The $286.7 billion that schools received from local sources included $196.6 billion from property and other taxes. Public school systems receiving the highest percentage of revenues from the federal government were Louisiana and Mississippi with 14.7 percent, South Dakota with 14.6 percent, Arizona with 13.4 percent and New Mexico with 13.2 percent. Public school systems receiving the lowest percentage of revenues from the federal government were Connecticut and New Jersey with 4.1 percent, New York with 4.5 percent and Massachusetts with 4.6 percent. About the Annual Survey of School System Finances These statistics provide researchers, policymakers and the public with a picture of the revenue and spending by the nation's public school systems. These data are used in a variety of important economic measures. The U.S. Department of Education uses the data in calculating Title I grants. The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses the data in their gross domestic product measure. The data used in the tabulations came from a census of all 15,084 public school systems in the United States. As such, they are not subject to sampling error. Although quality assurance methods were applied to all phases of data collection and processing, the data are subject to nonsampling error, including errors of response and miscoding. For more information, visit the Census Bureau's website at www.census.gov/programs-surveys/school-finances.html. Graphic | JPG | PDF | Blog Amy Newcomb / Kristina Barrett Public Information Office 301-763-3030 / [email protected] census.gov Connect with us on Social media SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau Related Links http://www.census.gov SAN GABRIEL, California, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX) ("CIIX" or the "Company"), the premier financial information website for Chinese-speaking investors, today announces that it has incorporated CBD Biotechnology Inc. in British Columbia, Canada. CBD Biotechnology Inc. will focus on research, development and distribution of health products, including hemp-derived cannabidiol ("CBD") products, as well as hemp-based food and beverage products. In April 2017, fulfilling a campaign pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Canada by the middle of 2018. Canada will become the second country to completely legalize marijuana as a consumer product. The law will require purchasers to be at least 18 years old, and it will limit the amount they can carry at any one time to 30 grams. While the federal government will license and regulate growers, each of Canada's provinces will need to decide exactly how the drug will be distributed and sold within its boundaries. "I am delighted about the incorporation of CBD Biotechnology Inc.," says Warren Wang, founder and CEO of CIIX. "CBD Biotechnology Inc. is strategically located in British Columbia, Canada, known to be a cannabis friendly province. The British Columbia cannabis industry produces 40 percent of all Canadian cannabis, making cannabis among the most valuable cash crops in the province. While CIIX has been laying the groundwork to enter the legal cannabis market for some time, the complete legalization of cannabis in Canada provides another great opportunity for CIIX to enter the market." "The incorporation of CBD Biotechnology Inc. is a promising step forward towards CIIX's goals to enter the medical marijuana industry. Through its expansion into Canada, CIIX aims generate significant revenues through sales of CBD-based health products, while helping the nearly one million Chinese in Canada to improve their overall health," concludes Wang. About ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX) Founded in 1999, ChineseInvestors.com endeavors to be an innovative company providing: (a) real-time market commentary, analysis, and educational related services in Chinese language character sets (traditional and simplified); (b) advertising and public relation related support services; and (c) retail, online and direct sales of hemp-based products and other health related products. For more information, visit ChineseInvestors.com Subscribe and watch our video commentaries: https://www.youtube.com/user/Chinesefncom Follow us on Twitter for real-time Company updates: https://twitter.com/ChineseFNEnglsh Like us on Facebook to receive live feeds: https://www.facebook.com/Chinesefncom Add us on WeChat: Chinesefn or download iPhone iOS App: Chinesefn Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Contact: ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. 227 W. Valley Blvd, #208 A San Gabriel, CA 91776 Investor Relations: Alan Klitenic +1-214-636-2548 Corporate Communications: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) New York, New York http://www.NetworkNewsWire.com +1-212-418-1217 Office [email protected] SOURCE ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. The advisory, co-authored by Lee Farrow, Executive Vice President and Chubb's Life Sciences Industry Practice Leader, and Frank Goudsmit, Senior Vice President within Chubb's Life Sciences Industry Practice, highlights the threat of cyber breaches, supply chain interruptions, merger and acquisition liabilities, and regulatory hurdles as among the most critical risks and exposures facing an increasingly globalized life sciences industry. "These exposures are amplified by the increasingly global nature of the life sciences industry," said Farrow. "Life sciences companies are continually innovating products and technologies to help treat diseases worldwide. However, with these rapid advancements come complex exposures that can have serious financial and reputational impacts if not appropriately addressed." "As life science companies continue to grow, they are likely to find themselves in the international arena," added Goudsmit. "The same global viewpoint that embraces development, suppliers, products and sales should extend to insurance as well. One size does not fit all, so it is important companies work with a knowledgeable partner to understand the associated exposures and the right coverages to supplement existing risk mitigation strategies," he continued. The full advisory can be read here. For more than 25 years, Chubb has been a leader in offering state-of-the-art property and casualty insurance protection to life sciences companies, and agents and brokers can access the Life Sciences Industry Practice throughout Chubb's 48 North American branches. Visit chubb.com to learn more. About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at www.chubb.com. SOURCE Chubb Related Links https://www2.chubb.com/us-en IRVING, Texas, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cicis, the nation's top family-friendly pizza buffet restaurant company, has experienced consistent sales growth including 16 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth through Q1 of 2017 as a result of the company's revitalization strategy launched in 2013. When Cicis CEO Darin Harris joined the company in August 2013, he immediately embarked on a listening tour, collaborating with franchise partners and guests, Cicis Support Center, and operations and marketing teams to identify opportunities for growth and to maximize guest satisfaction. The result was a comprehensive plan to refine brand positioning and improve food quality, menu variety and the guest experience. "We have worked the past four years to reinvent Cicis through a fresh, high-quality brand experience that our guests have really embraced," Harris said. "Our recent 16 quarters of same-store sales growth, despite industry headwinds and a challenging economic environment, is proof that guests are responding positively to our strategy." In fact, a recent Technomic survey showed a 37 percent increase in the number of guests who rated Cicis overall as "excellent" from Q1 2016 to Q1 2017. During that time, Cicis rolled out food quality improvements, new buffet offerings such as Stuffed Crust, Flatbread and Deep Dish pizza, and innovative limited-time items to add fun and flavor exploration. A new store design, launched in 2016, has also resonated. By the end of the year, the company is expected to have nearly 40 of its 430 restaurants reimaged with its updated, modern look and service model. To keep pace with the company's growth, Cicis recently moved its Support Center to larger quarters in Irving, Texas. With a strong development pipeline of restaurant openings in place, store count is also heating up. The company has signed multiple development agreements with franchise partners representing more than 70 restaurant commitments in 12 states, with 15 corporate and franchised restaurant openings planned for this year. "The Cicis Support Office has dramatically improved the value of franchisee investment in the Cicis brand with its focus on quality, guest perceptions and listening to franchisees as changes were considered," said Shane Marlin, president of the Franchisee Advisory Council and managing principal of Marlin Restaurant Group. "There has never been a better time to be a Cicis franchisee." About Cicis Founded in 1983, Irving, Texas-based Cicis invented the Unlimited Pizza Buffet concept, offering guests a wide variety of pizzas, including stuffed crust, deep-dish and flatbreads, along with pastas, salads and desserts for dine-in, carry-out and catering. With nearly 430 restaurants in 32 states, Cicis has been ranked by Technomic as No. 1 in "most craveable pizza chains," and Entrepreneur recognized Cicis on its Franchise 500 list in 2015. For more information about Cicis, visit cicis.com or Facebook.com/cicis. For franchising information, contact Michael Iglesias at [email protected] or 972-745-9313 or visit franchise.cicis.com. Media Contact: Ryanne Dalton or Emily Smith [email protected] or [email protected] 817-329-3257 SOURCE Cicis Related Links http://www.cicis.com Unlike all other options on the market, the simple design of the PMG prevents the need for an outside powerhouse or generator to convert power to electricity and does not require additional cooling equipment. The use of permanent magnets makes the turbine and generator act as one, eliminating the need for transmission gearing as well as separate motors and shafts. The unique all-in-one rim design of the generator removes the need for a central shaft and couplings, resulting in a simplified, compact and efficient generating system that improves efficiency, limits noise and vibration. "Every business and municipality is looking for ways to lower operational costs, improve their bottom line, and show their customers that they are taking steps to be a sustainable organization," said Michael Prendergast, managing partner at ClearPower North America. "Our ClearPower platform can help manufacturers and municipalities achieve all those goals. It will significantly lower the cost of electricity through an automated system, save money while optimizing efficiency, and increase productivity. The use of evolutionary technologies such as this allow us to generate more clean, sustainable electricity, create jobs, and reduce demand on an aging energy infrastructure." The ITG has been designed for simplified installation with potentially no downtime or disruption to a facility or operations. Requiring only 10 feet of clearance, ClearPower's bolt-on platform offers a small footprint that easily becomes part of an existing infrastructure while removing pressure and not affecting flow. ClearPower's services can be used in a variety of manufacturing settings that use a high volume of water, including paper mills, mining companies, glass makers, chemical refineries, and more. The ClearPower solution can also be used by utilities, other major energy producers, municipalities, and agriculture. To learn more about ClearPower's services, visit www.clearpowerna.com, call 1-303-993-5438, or send an email to [email protected]. SOURCE ClearPower North America Related Links http://www.clearpowerna.com/ FORT PIERCE, Fla., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Shelter, LLC is excited to announce that the company's data center at a former bomb shelter in Fort Pierce, Florida has been awarded Tier IV Design Certification, the highest-level design designation from Uptime Institute. The new data center will incorporate the hardened qualities of the original Cold War-era nuclear bomb shelter coupled with the stringent, fault tolerant design requirements of Uptime Institute's Tier IV Certification Standard. Construction is scheduled for completion by spring of 2018. "With downtime incidents on the rise, demand is rapidly growing for data centers at this level and we are proud to be one of just a few certified commercial Tier IV offerings in North America," said Mark Oxley, Chief Technical Officer and founding partner of Data Shelter, LLC. "This is a $100-billion industry and our research confirms that a great number of companies require the maximum uptime possible that only a Tier IV facility like Data Shelter can provide." "Data Shelter worked diligently to successfully complete our demanding architectural, mechanical and electrical design requirements in preparation for the build out of their first Tier IV data center, an important first step toward Tier Certification of Constructed Facility," said Keith Klesner, Senior Vice President, Uptime Institute. Downtime of hours, minutes or even seconds can be devastating for a company. The difference in a Tier Certification award when expressed in downtime can mean tens of millions of dollars lost. "Our facility's state-of-the-art fire prevention system and other enhanced capabilities, position Data Shelter at the forefront of the hardened data center industry," said Mr. Oxley. "We look forward to serving cloud providers, government entities, financial institutions, airlines and other businesses that have experienced the limitations of a lesser facility. It was a tremendous undertaking and this significant milestone could not have been achieved without Uptime's helpful and professional guidance through the process." About Data Shelter, LLC Data Shelter's mission is to provide our customers with the highest level of "uptime" possible by building and operating the most innovative and secure data centers with nothing short of Tier IV 99.995% uptime. Data Shelter is committed to continually pushing the envelope to bring the latest technical innovations to its customers and to be the industry leader Tier IV hardened data center provider. For additional information visit:www.datashelter.com SOURCE Data Shelter, LLC Related Links http://www.datashelter.com Highly regarded industry veteran becomes Managing Director, Brokerage Operations TORONTO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Mark E. Rose, Chair and CEO of Avison Young, the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services company, announced today that highly regarded industry veteran David Jewkes has joined the firm as Managing Director, Brokerage Operations in Las Vegas. Effective immediately, Jewkes will provide overall management and leadership of Avison Young's brokerage operations in Las Vegas. He brings more than 25 years of commercial real estate management and transaction experience to Avison Young, most recently as Senior Vice-President, Nevada with Cushman & Wakefield. "We are thrilled that David has decided to take on this leadership role with us in Las Vegas," comments Rose. "David's extensive work providing strategic client services in all sectors of commercial real estate over the last 25 years and his thoughtful approach will complement Avison Young's collaborative culture." Rose continues: "David has a sterling reputation as an advisor to institutional and regional investors and is known for his business development acumen, having successfully grown asset services portfolios and attracted top transactional professionals in his prior roles. As he serves as Managing Director, Brokerage Operations, his leadership, focus and dedication to innovation will be excellent additions to our company as we continue to execute on strategic expansions domestically and abroad." During his career, Jewkes has served clients in Nevada, California, Utah and Arizona. In addition to managing operations, he has developed specific expertise in business development and investor service. "David's lengthy experience, along with his investment sales expertise and the respect that he has gained in the Las Vegas business community, will be of tremendous value to our clients and company," states Earl Webb, Avison Young's President of U.S. Operations. "Furthermore, David's experience with investment transactions will help us expand our leasing services, and his presence alone will help us recruit top real estate talent." In his former role at Cushman & Wakefield, Jewkes created and managed the firm's entire investor services portfolio, which spanned Las Vegas and Reno. The 5.6-million-square-foot (msf) portfolio included the 1.65-msf Northgate Industrial Center in North Las Vegas the new home for Amazon's 900,000-square-foot western distribution centre. Jewkes also helped to almost double the number of real estate professionals working for the company in Nevada in a 20-month span. Jewkes rejoined Cushman & Wakefield after serving for two years as president of Integris Capital Group, and three years as executive director of Commerce TNP. He initially joined Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce in late 2007 through the acquisition of Burnham Real Estate, where he held senior executive positions in Las Vegas and San Diego. During his tenure with Burnham, he launched the firm's asset recovery services practice and became qualified to work as a receiver. Since 2009, he has acted as a court-appointed receiver in cases covering more than 120 assets in 15 jurisdictions in Nevada, California, Utah and Arizona. Also at Burnham, he expanded the company's Las Vegas operations through the acquisitions of two prominent Las Vegas companies. Prior to joining Burnham, Jewkes spent 11 years at Wallace Associates in Salt Lake City, rising to president and CEO from an associate position. He was responsible for converting the company into the Grubb & Ellis affiliate for Salt Lake City. He also spent two years in a senior position with the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee. "I am excited to have the opportunity to join Avison Young's quality team of professionals in Las Vegas," says Jewkes. "The decision to join Avison Young was driven by my profound respect for the company's Principal-led, collaborative culture. This innovative approach to client service drives a true culture of partnership. I also look forward to working with my new colleagues in North America and Europe." Jewkes is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), NAIOP, the Urban Land Institute (ULI), BOMA, the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), and the International Real Estate Institute (IREI.) He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing and undertook graduate studies in the MBA Program at Brigham Young University. Avison Young opened its Las Vegas office in November 2011 and a second Nevada office in Reno in March 2012. Since then, the company has expanded steadily in the state. Over the past eight and a half years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 80 offices and from 300 to more than 2,400 real estate professionals in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Europe. Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 2,400 real estate professionals in 80 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hospitality properties For further information/comment/photos: Sherry Quan , Principal, Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young : 604.647-5098; mobile: 604.726-0959 , Principal, Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, : mobile: Mark Rose , Chair and CEO, Avison Young : 416.673.4028 , Chair and CEO, : Earl Webb , President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: 312.957.7610 , President, U.S. Operations, David Jewkes , Managing Director, Brokerage Operations, Las Vegas , Avison Young : 702.472.7978 www.avisonyoung.com Avison Young was a winner of Canada's Best Managed Companies program in 2011 and requalified in 2017 to maintain its status as a Best Managed Gold Standard company. Follow Avison Young on Twitter: For industry news, press releases and market reports: www.twitter.com/avisonyoung For Avison Young listings and deals: www.twitter.com/AYListingsDeals Follow Avison Young Bloggers: http://blog.avisonyoung.com Follow Avison Young on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/avison-young-commercial-real-estate Follow Avison Young on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/AvisonYoungRE Follow Avison Young on Instagram: www.instagram.com/avison_young_global Editors/Reporters: Please click on link to view and download photo of David Jewkes: http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/David_Jewkes.jpg SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC) Related Links www.avisonyoung.com "Since expanding our membership eligibility in 2005 to include individuals living or working in metro Atlanta, we've continued to open branches in key communities to further enhance our service and convenience," said Delta Community CEO Hank Halter. "This new branch enables us to better support our existing members in Alpharetta as well as to extend to others the specialized care and value we offer on critical banking services, including savings, checking, credit cards, car loans, mortgages and long-term financial planning." At a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning, Halter welcomed civic leaders and business partners and pledged to continue Delta Community's track record of being a good corporate citizen. "We view it as our responsibility to invest in the communities where we are privileged to operate," said Halter. "As we do elsewhere, we look forward to playing an active role in Alpharetta by providing free financial education opportunities, supporting schools and non-profit organizations and partnering with local chambers and other businesses to foster the greater community good." Additional grand opening events continue throughout the week: Thursday, June 15 from 9 10:30 a.m. Visitors will be treated to doughnuts, coffee and gifts, and will have a chance to learn about the Credit Union's "Meet the Team Day" isfrom 9 Visitors will be treated to doughnuts, coffee and gifts, and will have a chance to learn about the Credit Union's community involvement , philanthropic giving, scholarship programs and the wide array of free workshops and seminars offered through its Financial Education Center. "Food Truck Friday," on June 16 from 11:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m. , will feature free lunches from Happy Belly Food Truck for the first 100 guests and a live remote broadcast with Cassie Young and Atlanta radio station Q100. "Kids' Day" will be on Saturday, June 17 from 9 11:00 a.m. Delta Community will award $50 Savings Accounts to the first 25 children aged 12 and under; all children can enjoy face-painting and fun giveaways and activities. About Delta Community Credit Union Delta Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative with a mission of providing better service and value on the deposit, loan, investment and insurance products consumers use to manage their household expenses and save for the future. Founded in 1940, Delta Community has become Georgia's largest credit union with more than 360,000 members, 24 metro Atlanta branches and three out-of-state branch locations. It now welcomes anyone who lives or works in 11 metro Atlanta counties as well as employees of more than 150 businesses including Chick-fil-A, Delta Air Lines, RaceTrac and UPS. Visit www.DeltaCommunityCU.com to learn more about opening an account at Delta Community or follow the Credit Union on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DeltaCommunity and Twitter at @DeltaCommunity. SOURCE Delta Community Credit Union Related Links http://www.deltacommunitycu.com Demers Ford Transit Ambulance was selected after a team of judges consisting of emergency medical services (EMS) product specialists, physicians, educators, managers and paramedics reviewed a host of products designed to not only improve the ability to deliver optimal emergency medical care to critically ill and injured patients, but that also allow EMS agencies to do it safely, more efficiently and with enhanced comfort for the patient. Products were rated on four distinct categories: originality, functionality, ease of use and need in the EMS setting. Only 30 innovative products received the JEMS Hot Product award. The selection of the final 30 Hot Products appears in the June issue of JEMS and can also be viewed at www.jems.com/2017-hot-products. "The Demers Ford Transit is the next wave in transportation vehicles for agencies that have relied on Type II vans for many years," said A.J. Heightman, JEMS Editor-in-Chief. "The size of the vehicle and its capabilities appear to be just right for the industry. Mixing that with primary basic life support and some smaller advanced life support needs seems to be an ideal package." Unveiled in 2016, Demers Ford Transit Type II Ambulance features an aerodynamic roof to maximize lighting, save fuel and reduce noise; strong aluminum cabinetry with adjustable shelves; ducted five-vent ceiling HVAC system for improved heating and cooling; and maximized cargo capacity to increase storage, equipment and occupant room. "We are proud of our Transit Ambulance and its potential to support the first responder community," said Benoit Lafortune, Demers Ambulances executive vice president. "We are honored to receive this prestigious acknowledgement from JEMS as it shows we are providing a needed industry solution." About Demers Ambulances Founded in 1960, Demers Ambulances is the second largest ambulance manufacturer in North America, delivering more than 18,000 ambulances to more than 20 countries. Recognized as a leader in innovative products that meet and exceed the expectations of medical emergency specialists around the world, Demers Ambulances is accredited by Transport Canada, recognized as a "Qualified Vehicles Modification" (QVM) by Ford, and also holds the US National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) Member Verification Program (MVP) certification. To learn more about Demers Ambulances, visit www.demers-ambulances.com. SOURCE Demers-Ambulances inc. Related Links www.demers-ambulances.com NORTH BERGEN, N.J., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DermaRite Industries, LLC ("DermaRite") announced it has named Barbara J. Osborne as Chief Commercial Officer of the company. In her role, Ms. Osborne will be responsible for driving the company's sales and commercialization efforts. Ms. Osborne is an experienced healthcare industry executive. Most recently, she served as the U.S. Division President and CEO of LEO Pharma. Previously, Ms. Osborne served as the President of Molnlycke Health Care's U.S. Wound Care business. Ms. Osborne has a broad background encompassing sales, marketing, finance, accounting, business development and R&D. During her tenure in the healthcare industry, she also held senior leadership positions at C.R. Bard, Microtek Medical, and Covidien. "Ms. Osborne is joining the company at a key stage in our development," says Naftali Minzer, Chief Executive Officer of DermaRite. "Her extensive experience in the wound care industry and her proven success leading and growing similar size organizations will be a strong addition to our business as we position the company for future growth." "I am honored to be joining DermaRite, and I am looking forward to building on the company's strong foundation," commented Ms. Osborne. "It is an exciting time to impact the next growth phase of the company." Ms. Osborne holds a Master of Science in Accounting from New York University's Stern School of Business and received her undergraduate degree from Colgate University. About DermaRite Industries: DermaRite Industries has been providing high-quality, clinically effective and cost-effective skin and wound care products to nursing homes, home health agencies, hospice and wound clinics for over 20 years. Based in North Bergen, New Jersey, the company's Healing In D.E.P.T.H. program provides caregivers with the tools and services needed to assure optimal care. For more information about DermaRite, visit http://dermarite.com/. Please direct all inquires to Yalitza Hernandez, [email protected], 973-569-9000 x 113. SOURCE DermaRite Industries Related Links http://www.dermarite.com New research by beauty tech brand Braun has revealed a seismic shift in beauty behaviour with two thirds of British women (66%) avoiding salon treatments in favour of DIY beauty in their own homes. Traditionally the preserve of 'the professionals', head-to-toe treatments including hair colour, facials, hair removal, fake tan, manicures and pedicures are now turning DIY, with women increasingly taking their beauty regimes into their own hands. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523012/Braun_at_home_beauty_treatments.jpg ) This latest beauty industry revelation from Braun comes on the back of recent data from professional beauty product supplier Salon Services, which revealed British women who visit the salon for hair removal and facial treatments now wait 50% longer between appointments compared to 2015[1] (6 weeks, instead of 4 weeks). When it comes to the evolution of beauty, women are increasingly refusing to play by the old rules of being tied to time-consuming treatments and exorbitant expense. The Braun range is designed to meet the specific needs of women, to help them to achieve the flawless, salon-worthy results they seek in the comfort of their own home. An appetite for at home beauty Additionally, the survey also shows that those who do not yet practice at home beauty are keen to join the DIY revolution, with only a lack of knowledge and education about specific products (and results) holding them back: Over a third of women (38%) would do more home beauty treatments if they felt confident they'd get the same results as a salon Over a quarter of women (28%) would do more beauty treatments at home if they had more information on which products to use Real beauty shouldn't mean a sacrifice When asked why they were turning to DIY treatments, two thirds of women (66%) said that they now carry out at home beauty because trips to the salon are too expensive. This outgoing is also seen as a luxury by the majority of those polled (69%), perhaps indicating why so many are choosing to take back control of their beauty regimes. Furthermore, an overwhelming 97% of British women say that they can save up to 1200 a year by doing their beauty maintenance themselves. The survey also revealed that women feel that there are more important things to spend this money on such as: New clothes (20%) A holiday (42%) A sensible one in ten of those polled (10%) would even put this money towards their rent or mortgage showing the real dent salon treatments have on the nation's purses! The real cost, however, is more of an emotional one: Nearly half of respondents (45%) resent having to spend this money on salon beauty 50% say the price takes away from their enjoyment of a visit to the salon Taking matters into our own hands This research from Braun clearly shows that when it comes to beauty, women across the UK are seeking treatments that deliver the results they want but at a fraction of the price - and on their own terms: More than a quarter wish facials were more affordable (26%) Nearly half of those polled (48%) wish this was true of IPL or laser hair removal and anti-cellulite treatments The survey also reveals that unwanted hair is the top priority for British women when it comes to at home beauty, with hair removal topping the list of the most popular DIY beauty treatments[2]: Nearly three quarters (71%) of women choose to do this in the privacy of their own homes Over a quarter (26%) of women say that at home hair removal saves them the most money when it comes to DIY versus salon treatments Overall, the research reveals how British women want salon-worthy treatments in the comfort of their own homes and salon-worthy results that don't eat into their overdraft; at home beauty shouldn't mean a compromise on quality. This means that DIY beauty products need to be safe, easy-to-use, and efficient and deliver long-lasting, quality results that women know they can trust. Braun, the experts in at home beauty recognise this need for efficacy, precision, quality and trust when it comes to DIY beauty and hence offer a range of epilators, at-home IPL devices and exfoliation systems that make it easier, more affordable and more comfortable than ever to achieve permanent, visible results in your own home. For more information, images or to request samples, please contact [email protected] or check us out on social media: @Braun_beauty, #BringingBeautyHome -------------------------------------------------- 1. Survey conducted in United Kingdom by Salon Services; 2014 and 2016; 2,557 Respondents; Salon Services customers (salon businesses) - 'Average number of weeks between female visits for hair and beauty salon treatments in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2014 and 2016, by type'. 2. 71% of respondents said they supplemented hair removal treatments with at home beauty About Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Fairy, Febreze, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene and SK-II. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.co.uk for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands in the UK and Ireland. SOURCE Braun "No matter how much we plan, births and emergencies can be unpredictable," said Dominican Hospital President Nanette Mickiewicz, MD. "We are pleased to offer patients peace of mind knowing they'll receive immediate, specialized care no matter when they arrive at Dominican's Birth Center." The benefits of having an OB/GYN hospitalist always onsite are substantial, as these physicians have specialized training and skills to treat pre-, peri-, and postnatal emergencies immediately. The OB/GYN hospitalists will also provide coverage while the obstetrician on call is in transit to the hospital, and will care for patients who don't have an assigned OB/GYN. Dominican's home-like Birth Center offers patients a full service, state-of-the-art, individualized birth experience with the safety of a full-service hospital, including an onsite Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Dominican also offers prenatal and postpartum classes to help guide and prepare families for pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenthood. As a designated Baby Friendly hospital, Dominican prioritizes breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, and provides the support and education needed for a successful breastfeeding journey. Tours of the Dominican Hospital Birth Center are available each Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. To schedule a tour, call 866.478.2613. About Dominican Hospital Dignity Health Dominican Hospital has been caring for the Santa Cruz County community for 75 years. Dominican offers emergency services and is a Certified Stroke Center. Dominican's services include the only comprehensive Cancer Center in Santa Cruz County, a Total Joint Replacement program, advanced neurological and endoscopic services, and an expert heart and vascular team treating some of the most complex cardiac cases in the Monterey Bay area. Dominican has received national recognition for superior patient safety, cardiac care, and stroke treatment from Healthgrades, a leading provider of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Dominican also has received several awards for environmental excellence. To learn more, please visit our website: dignityhealth.org/dominican. Join our community: facebook.com/DominicanHospital twitter.com/DominicanCares instagram.com/dominicanhospitalsc SOURCE Dignity Health Dominican Hospital Related Links http://www.dignityhealth.org/dominican CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy is continuing its commitment to students and the workforce of the future by investing $2.7 million in more than 70 education and training initiatives across North Carolina. The 2017 grants, from the Duke Energy Foundation, will enhance educational programs focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), childhood reading proficiency and workforce development. "Our goal is to build a brighter future for the communities we're fortunate to serve," said David Fountain, Duke Energy's North Carolina president. "That begins with smart investments in the people who will successfully move our industry, workforce and state forward." Examples of this year's grant recipients include: Enable America VetConnect, Eastern NC, to provide disabled veterans, wounded warriors and spouses with job-seeking training and support. "Duke Energy's steadfast support of our transitioning military families and disabled veterans continues to make our mission a reality in the lives of many," said Richard Salem, chairman and CEO of Enable America's VetConnect program. "We are proud to be a Duke Energy partner, working side by side in providing 'hands on' employment assistance programs; truly, 'good things happen when people have jobs.'" Winston Salem Foundation Project Impact, Forsyth County , to help accelerate the reading performance of at-risk first graders. "Thanks to Duke Energy's support of Project Impact and Early Steps, we will significantly expand our reach next year multiplying the impact of a program that builds reading skills in our district's highest-need first graders," said Cynthia Barber, reading interventionist coordinator. NC Agricultural and Technical State University , Guilford County , to support the Helping Orient Minorities to Engineering (HOME) program that attracts and retains minority students in engineering and computer science. "Duke Energy's support of the HOME Program enables us to attract, retain and educate more high-achieving students in Engineering and Computer Science and to develop the engineering leaders of tomorrow," said North Carolina A&T College of Engineering Dean Robin Coger. "We're very grateful to have Duke Energy as a partner in this work, which is not only important for our students, but critical for the future of our state and nation." Richmond Community College Foundation, Richmond and Scotland County , to expand the curriculum for the Electric Utility Substation and Relay Technology program and help build a skilled workforce for the energy industry. "When Richmond Community College recognized the power industry's need to train the next generation of utility workers to replace those approaching retirement age, Duke Energy was on board to help us establish a program that would meet a demand and offer our students an opportunity for high skill, high wage jobs," said Dr. Dale McInnis, Richmond Community College president. "Duke Energy has been a key partner in the establishment, growth and success of our Electric Utility Substation and Relay Technology program, which is unlike any other two-year associate degree program in the country." Read and Feed, Wake County , to support a mobile, after-school literacy program for low-income elementary school children in Raleigh's highest needs communities. "We are grateful to Duke Energy for their support of Read and Feed and our mission to build children's confidence and competence with individualized tutoring," said Kati Mullan, executive director, Read and Feed. "Their grant will allow us to implement tablets and digital learning into our program curriculum this Fall, which will be an exciting and interactive tool for our children and volunteers." Click here for a full list of 2017 Duke Energy Foundation North Carolina grant recipients. About The Duke Energy Foundation The Duke Energy Foundation provides philanthropic support to address the needs of the communities where its customers live and work. The foundation provides more than $30 million annually in charitable gifts. The foundation's education focus spans kindergarten to career, particularly science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), early childhood literacy and workforce development. It also supports the environment and community impact initiatives, including arts and culture. Duke Energy employees and retirees actively contribute to their communities as volunteers and leaders at a wide variety of nonprofit organizations. Duke Energy is committed to building on its legacy of community service. For more information, visit http://www.duke-energy.com/foundation. Duke Energy is a Fortune 125 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center serves as a multimedia resource for journalists and features news releases, helpful links, photos and videos. Hosted by Duke Energy, illumination is an online destination for stories about people, innovations, and community and environmental topics. It also offers glimpses into the past and insights into the future of energy. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Contact: Grace Rountree 24-Hour: 800.559.3853 Twitter: @DE_GraceR SOURCE Duke Energy Related Links http://www.duke-energy.com WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An Egyptian delegation composed of twelve Members of Parliament affiliated with five Parliamentary Committees is visiting Washington, DC this week to meet with White House officials, Members of Congress, and other policy experts in an attempt to alleviate concerns over the massive crackdown on civil society in Egypt amidst its battle against terrorism. This high-level lobbying effort, coordinated by Egypt's Foreign Ministry, is part of a broader effort to gain financial support under the guise of its anti-terrorism initiatives and to convince US officials that this vast crackdown on civil liberties is a necessary price to pay. Egypt's brutal Internal Security has reportedly hired D.C. firms to improve the government's image and the delegation trip is likely part of this comprehensive strategy. The delegation's trip coincides with Coptic Solidarity's 8th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. on June 15-16, 2017. The conference theme is Egypt: Combating Terrorism Without Sacrificing Civil Right. It is the leading annual policy event in Washington D.C. on Coptic issues that brings together top legislators, academics, and policy experts to share their views and recommendation on this sharply contested theme. This substantial crack down on civil liberties coincides with a sharp rise in attacks against Copts as the government has largely failed to protect them or to address the culture of hate and impunity which has become entrenched in every level of government and society in a systemic persecution. The result of this failure is reflected in the increase in homegrown attacks against Copts by Islamists which have risen to unprecedented levels in the past three years and morphed into large scale attacks such as the bombing of St. Peter and Paul Church, the twin Palm Sunday bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, and most recently the bus attack on Coptic pilgrims to St. Samuel Monastery in southern Egypt. Confirmed conference speakers include U.S. and foreign legislators, government officials, policy makers, public figures, think tanks, academics, media personalities, authors, NGO's and advocates. View confirmed speaker list and program. Coptic Solidarity's Annual Policy Day will be hosted in the House Visitor Center on June 15th in room 201 from 9 AM 5PM and the conference will continue its second day at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel on June 16th from 9AM 4PM, for a full day program. Register today. A silent auction and gala dinner celebrating Egyptian and Coptic culture will be hosted on June 16 starting at 5PM at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel. The dinner with keynote speaker U.S. Ambassador John Bolton will start at 6 PM. Tickets can be purchased on the website. The conference is open to the public and press. Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt and we support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens. It advocates in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarite Copte). For more information, contact Lindsay Griffin at 801-512-1713 or [email protected] SOURCE Coptic Solidarity AMSTERDAM, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Demonstrating the company's unique position within the commercial, defense, and executive aircraft markets, three Embraer aircraft will have their Paris Air Show (www.paris-air-show.com) debut during the 52eme Salon International de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace, June 19-25, at the Le Bourget Airport, in Paris, France. This is going to be Embraer's largest presence at a major airshow bringing together a static display that showcases the new E195-E2, the largest member of the second generation of Embraer's family of commercial jets, the multi-mission transport and aerial refueling aircraft KC-390 and the state-of-the-art mid-light business jet Legacy 450, a remarkable union of technology and design aircraft that flies faster and farther than any other jets in its class. These three full fly-by-wire technology new generation aircraft will take part at the airshow's daily flight display. The acclaimed runway legend ERJ 145 from the customer HOP! will also be in static display. Embraer Chalet and Pavilion will be located at #314. Media schedule All media events to be held at the Embraer chalet are as follows: Tuesday 20th June: 11:00 Event to celebrate the ERJ-145's 20 years of operation with HOP! Air France 12:00 Main Embraer Commercial Aviation press conference hosted by Commercial Aviation President & CEO, John Slattery. Wednesday 21st June: 11:00 KC-390 Technical press briefing with Paulo Gastao Silva, VP, KC-390 program 13:00 Press briefing for Embraer's newly established business unit, Support & Services. To be hosted by Johann Bordais, President and CEO Support & Services. CONTACTS: Headquarters (Brazil) Corporate Communications [email protected] Cell: +55 12 98152 4845 Tel.: +55 11 3841 6085 North America Alyssa Ten Eyck [email protected] Cell: +1 954 383 0460 Tel.: +1 954 359 3847 Europe, Middle East and Africa Guy Douglas [email protected] Cell: +31 (0)657120121 Tell: +31 (0)202158109 China Mirage Zhong [email protected] Cell: +86 185 1378 5180 Tel.: +86 10 6598 9988 Asia Pacific Nilma Missir-Boissac [email protected] Cell: +65 9012 8428 Tel.: +65 6305 9955 SOURCE Embraer S.A. Related Links http://www.embraer.com HOUSTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE: EOG) (EOG) will host a conference call to discuss second quarter 2017 results on Wednesday, August 2, 2017, at 8 a.m. Central time (9 a.m. Eastern time). Please visit the Investors/Overview page on the EOG website to access a live webcast of the conference call. If you are unable to listen to the live webcast, a replay will be available on the Investors/Presentations and Events page for one year. If you have any questions, please contact Angie Lewis at 713-651-6722. EOG Resources, Inc. is one of the largest independent (non-integrated) crude oil and natural gas companies in the United States with proved reserves in the United States, Trinidad, the United Kingdom and China. EOG Resources, Inc. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is traded under the ticker symbol "EOG." To learn more about EOG, visit the website at www.eogresources.com. For Further Information Contact: Investors David J. Streit (713) 571-4902 W. John Wagner (713) 571-4404 Investors/Media Kimberly M. Ehmer (713) 571-4676 SOURCE EOG Resources, Inc. Related Links http://www.eogresources.com ATLANTA, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced that Jeff Dodge and Douglas Brandberg of Investor Relations will be meeting with investors in Toronto on Wednesday, June 21st. Dodge and Brandberg will discuss the company's first quarter 2017 performance, as well as the strategic outlook for 2017. An archive of the presentation will be available at investor.equifax.com. About Equifax Equifax is a global information solutions company that uses trusted unique data, innovative analytics, technology and industry expertise to power organizations and individuals around the world by transforming knowledge into insights that help make more informed business and personal decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its database includes employee data contributed from more than 7,100 employers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,700 employees worldwide. Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Named to the Top 100 American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015-2016); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2016); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2017); named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes' World's 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015-2016). For more information, visit www.equifax.com. SOURCE Equifax Inc. Related Links http://www.equifax.com Initial $80 million capital funding round led by Canderel and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec capital funding round led by Canderel and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Acquisition of leading Montreal data center operator MONTREAL, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - eStruxture Data Centers Inc., a new network and cloud-neutral data center operator based in Montreal, announced the creation of its Canada-wide platform. It will serve the increasing demand for large, energy efficient data centers, driven by the adoption of cloud services and a move to store data within Canada. The initial $80 million in capital raised, led by Canderel and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, will be used to expand eStruxture's footprint across Canada through the acquisition of existing data center operators and new data center development. "Cloud adoption and the overall proliferation of data is driving increased demand for hyper-scaled, enterprise class data centers to support processing and storage capacity," said Todd Coleman, President and Chief Executive Officer of eStruxture. "Customers are looking for experienced data center operators with the expertise and financial ability to grow with customer needs. The Canadian market provides competitive advantages that global customers, looking to process and store their data in North America, find appealing, including the low energy costs, cooler climate and business-friendly regulatory framework." "We are excited about developing this new platform with world-class partners. We intend to share our expertise and network with eStruxture to help the company expand in new markets across Canada," stated Jonathan Wener, founder and CEO of Canderel and founding partner of eStruxture. "With this investment in the cloud-data management industry, la Caisse once again supports a promising, fastgrowing sector. eStruxture is backed by seasoned managers whose expertise will benefit local, national and international companies alike that are adopting cloud computing to improve efficiency. We believe in the company's business model and aim to support it in its expansion across Canada," said Christian Dube, Executive Vice-President, Quebec at la Caisse. A first acquisition in Montreal eStruxture completed its first acquisition by purchasing the assets of Netelligent Hosting Services, one of the largest data center operators in Montreal. Netelligent provided now colocation, cloud, managed services and bandwidth to over 850 customers and has developed a cloud-neutral ecosystem enabling its customers to access diverse private and public cloud providers. The downtown data center facility is uniquely positioned to provide eStruxture customers with high-density power of up to 30 kW per cabinet. "This first acquisition gives us access to high-quality infrastructure and a strong enterprise customer base. Thanks to the experience and expertise of the team already in place, we will benefit from growth opportunities in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and elsewhere in the country," concluded Todd Coleman. ABOUT ESTRUXTURETM eStruxture provides network and cloud-neutral data center solutions designed with the capacity, performance and flexibility to run modern, demanding enterprise applications, and the control to rapidly scale in response to unpredictable changes in business processes. Headquartered in Montreal, the company provides access to an ecosystem of over 850 customers that trust and depend on eStruxture's mission critical infrastructure and customer-centric support, including carriers, cloud providers, media, content, financial services and enterprise customers. eStruxture offers colocation, private cloud, managed services, bandwidth, and security and support services to customers of all sizes. For more information, go to www.estruxture.com. ABOUT CANDEREL Now celebrating its 43rd year of operations, Canderel (www.canderel.com) is a national real estate development, investment and management company, with landmark projects in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. ABOUT CAISSE DE DEPOT ET PLACEMENT DU QUEBEC Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at December 31, 2016, it held $270.7 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure and real estate. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages. SOURCE eStruxture Related Links http://www.cdpq.com/ NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights Europe Homeland Security CAGR triple from 2010-15 3.5% to 2015-22 9.5% According to the "Europe Homeland Security, Immigration Enforcement & Public Safety Markets 2017-2022" report, the European homeland security, immigration enforcement & public safety infrastructure will go through a major overhaul, sustaining a 8.9% CAGR in 2017-2022. This 2-volume Europe Counter Terror Market report is a comprehensive review of the European security market available today. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed, time-sensitive and reasoned intelligence analysis. The ISIS-inspired terror attacks across Europe and the migration crisis shook the European governments and their security agencies. The Western European security forces are ill-equipped and ill-trained to encounter 21st century ISIS-inspired and trained terrorists. Europol estimates that up to 5,000 European jihadists have returned to the EU after obtaining combat experience on the battlefields of the Middle East. This Europe Homeland Security report is a resource for executives with interests in the market. It has been explicitly customized for the security industry and government decision-makers in order to enable them to identify business opportunities, emerging technologies, market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans. Europe Homeland Security CAGR triple from 2010-15 3.5% to 2015-22 9.5% According to the "Europe Homeland Security, Immigration Enforcement & Public Safety Markets 2017-2022" report, the European homeland security, immigration enforcement & public safety infrastructure will go through a major overhaul, sustaining a 8.9% CAGR in 2017-2022. This 2-volume Europe Counter Terror Market report is a comprehensive review of the European security market available today. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed, time-sensitive and reasoned intelligence analysis. The Europe homeland security, immigration enforcement & public safety market is boosted by the following drivers: - The ISIS-inspired terror attacks across Europe and the migration crisis shook the European governments and their security agencies. The Western European security forces are ill-equipped and ill-trained to encounter 21st century ISIS-inspired and trained terrorists. - Europol estimates that up to 5,000 European jihadists have returned to the EU after obtaining combat experience on the battlefields of the Middle East. - West European governments understand that they are caught between a rock and a hard place. It is for them to decide how to transform the national counter terror infrastructure, intelligence services, and improve interagency cooperation, strategy and surge in funding. This Europe Homeland Security report is a resource for executives with interests in the market. It has been explicitly customized for the security industry and government decision-makers in order to enable them to identify business opportunities, emerging technologies, market trends and risks, as well as to benchmark business plans. The report provides an updated extensive data (including companies profile, recent annual revenues, key executives, homeland security and public safety products, and contact info) of the leading 119 counter terror and public safety vendors: 1. 3M 2. 3i-MIND 3. 3VR 4. 3xLOGIC 5. ABB 6. Accenture 7. ACTi Corporation 8. ADT Security Services 9. AeroVironment Inc. 10. Agent Video Intelligence 11. Airbus Defence and Space 12. Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia Group) 13. ALPHAOPEN 14. American Science & Engineering Inc. 15. Anixter 16. Aralia Systems 17. AT&T Inc. 18. Augusta Systems 19. Austal 20. Avigilon Corporation 21. Aware 22. Axis 23. AxxonSoft 24. Ayonix 25. BAE Systems 26. BioEnable Technologies Pvt Ltd 27. BioLink Solutions 28. Boeing 29. Bollinger Shipyards, Inc 30. Bosch Security Systems 31. Bruker Corporation 32. BT 33. Camero 34. Cassidian 35. CelPlan 36. China Security & Surveillance, Inc. 37. Cisco Systems 38. Citilog 39. Cognitec Systems GmbH 40. Computer Network Limited (CNL) 41. Computer Sciences Corporation 42. CrossMatch 43. Diebold 44. DRS Technologies Inc. 45. DVTel 46. Elbit Systems Ltd. 47. Elsag Datamat 48. Emerson Electric 49. Ericsson 50. ESRI 51. FaceFirst 52. Finmeccanica SpA 53. Firetide 54. Fulcrum Biometrics LLC 55. G4S 56. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. 57. General Dynamics Corporation 58. Getac Technology Corporation 59. Hanwha Techwin 60. Harris Corporation 61. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 62. Hexagon AB 63. Honeywell International Inc. 64. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd 65. IBM 66. IndigoVision 67. Intel Security 68. IntuVision Inc 69. iOmniscient 70. IPConfigure 71. IPS Intelligent Video Analytics 72. Iris ID Systems, Inc. 73. IriTech Inc. 74. Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. 75. ISS 76. L-3 Security & Detection Systems 77. Leidos, Inc. 78. Lockheed Martin Corporation 79. MACROSCOP 80. MDS 81. Mer group 82. Milestone Systems A/S 83. Mirasys 84. Motorola Solutions, Inc. 85. National Instruments 86. NEC Corporation 87. NICE Systems 88. Northrop Grumman Corporation 89. Nuance Communications, Inc. 90. ObjectVideo 91. Panasonic Corporation 92. Pelco 93. Pivot3 94. Proximex 95. QinetiQ Limited 96. Rapiscan Systems, Inc. 97. Raytheon 98. Rockwell Collins, Inc. 99. Safran S.A. 100. Salient Sciences 101. Schneider Electric 102. SeeTec 103. Siemens 104. Smart China (Holdings) Limited 105. Smiths Detection Inc. 106. Sony Corp. 107. Speech Technology Center 108. Suprema Inc. 109. Synectics Plc 110. Tandu Technologies & Security Systems Ltd 111. Texas Instruments 112. Textron Inc. 113. Thales Group 114. Total Recall 115. Unisys Corporation 116. Verint 117. Vialogy LLC 118. Vigilant Technology 119. Zhejiang Dahua Technology Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04838493/Europe-Homeland-Security-Immigration-Enforcement-Public-Safety-Markets-.html About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. http://www.reportlinker.com __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com NAPLES, Fla., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Modern Living with kathy ireland announces an exclusive interview with Reto and Dorothy Kramer, owners of Coastal Scents, a well-recognized premier cosmetics brand since 2005. The show highlights the history of Coastal Scents, features new products, and interviews with Birchbox, Boxycharm and The Boodle Box about the success and prominence of the brand. Coastal Scents featured on Modern Living with kathy ireland Coastal Scents at the Kathy Ireland Show Dorothy and Reto Kramer with Kathy Ireland "Executives Dorothy and Reto Kramer, the two wonderful minds and hearts behind Coastal Scents, continually listen and respond to their fan base. In the process, they have built a premier cosmetics brand that is the envy of the industry," says Kathy Ireland. This company offers cosmetic and natural products. Their cosmetic line offers everything a woman could want from mascara to eye shadow, and everything in between. One of Coastal Scents best sellers is their makeup brushes. They are long-lasting, providing the same quality as the major brands, without the high cost. Coastal Scents provides more than 800 affordable beauty products. "Today's customers are very knowledgeable. They search the internet to learn more about product quality and figure out where to shop the best deals on products. In the past, we as consumers went to a physical store in order to buy makeup or other similar products," says Dorothy Kramer. All Coastal Scents products are produced cruelty-free and no animals are ever harmed. This helps this company offer "fan-favorite makeup products with a cruelty-free heart." Coastal Scents employs women in the Shea Butter Village of Ghana, where their natural products are handmade. They also provide health insurance for the women and clean water wells within close proximity. Coastal Scents provides this village a way to create revenue and helps them continue to improve their quality of lives. Not only is Coastal Scents a great company to purchase beauty products from because of the quality of their merchandise and their affordability, they are also a great company to do business with because of how they give back. About Coastal Scents Coastal Scents is a family owned business on a very special mission: Creating high quality beauty products to all their customers without the high price tags of the major brands. For more information, visit www.coastalscents.com. Media Contact: Company Name: Coastal Scents Website: www.coastalscents.com Email: [email protected] Phone: (800) 696-0078 Country: United States SOURCE Coastal Scents Related Links https://www.coastalscents.com VC /Accelerator will emigrate over 30 startup teams and their families to the Canadian city of their choice "We will give you mentors, cash, connections, and the guidance to help you scale." TORONTO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In the context of uncertainty in the US and Silicon Valley on travel and immigration policy, Toronto-based Extreme Venture Partners (EVP), a VC fund and accelerator that believes great talent can come from anywhere, today announced its third fund with a special focus on immigrating international startups -- including the U.S. Startups can apply to EVP's accelerator and if accepted, up to five members of the startup team and their families will be immigrated to the Canadian city of their choice and started on the path to Canadian citizenship. It's important to note that EVP's initiative differs from the recently announced Fast-Track Visa Program, which is essentially fast-tracked temporary work permits for qualifying foreign tech workers, akin to the US H1-B Visa. In contrast, EVP's initiative offers the chance for founders and their teams to incorporate their startups in Canada with an immediate path to Canadian citizenship -- similar to the US' Green Card, but without the impediments proposed by that country's immigration policies. EVP is relatively small by Silicon Valley standards, but the company's eye for talent and embrace of diversity has allowed it to punch above its weight: EVP's portfolio companies have created over 3,000 jobs and several hundred million dollars in shareholder value since 2007. EVP and its accelerator, Extreme Accelerator, will work in conjunction with Canada's progressive Startup Visa Program to vet the companies. EVP expects to fund over 30 international startups (two cohorts per year of five startups each or 10 total per year) with an initial $50K to $100K, along with mentorship and access to resources and connections for follow-on funding -- and EVP may invest supplementary funds if a startup shows exceptional promise. EVP will continue to finance promising local startups and is expected to back a further 20-plus startups within fund III as well. "Once we fully deploy and mature this third fund we expect to show that $25 million invested privately will result in over $1 billion in annual salary contribution to the Canadian economy," said Ray Sharma, CEO of EVP. In total, EVP expects its newest fund to invest in up to 50 startups with between $100,000 and $500,000 in capital per investment. EVP and its Extreme Accelerator program have already begun to invest in international companies, including one from the six nations impacted by the Trump Administration's proposed travel ban and immigration limits, and sees those companies as "a tremendous source of talent that we should be welcoming," added Sharma. "We believe that diversity is more than just ethnicity or country of origin -- it also brings cognitive diversity, with new perspectives on how to solve problems -- and that leads to the kind of serendipity that drives startup innovation. Our startups have gone on to be acquired by the biggest names in tech -- including Google and Apple, which underscores that you don't have to be in Silicon Valley to grow an incredible company," Sharma explained. "With so much instability in the world at the moment, we want to send a message to founders in the U.S. or anywhere: We will welcome your team and your families into one of the most fantastic countries in the world. We have a flourishing startup ecosystem. We will give you mentors, cash, connections, and the guidance to help you scale. Join us." Canada's Start-up Visa Program, which oversees the immigration process, was created in 2015 to help companies incorporate in Canada and stoke that country's economic engine. The opportunity is not limited to startups, however; and the "Visa" referenced in the name is actually the opportunity for permanent residency -- what the United States would call a Green Card. Sunil Sharma (no relation), who heads up Extreme Accelerator, said "The companies entering Canadian accelerators like ours will be incorporating in Canada and extended Canadian citizenship. We work with the Canadian government to ensure that any startups we bring here are real companies, and not trying to use the Start-Up Visa program as an immigration workaround." "But the point is not what country you come from or any other demographic criteria: it's, 'Do you have a viable tech startup that can grow and scale? Will you contribute to the Canadian economy?' That's the high bar we are placing in conjunction with the Canadian government, because we have seen that amazing talent can look like anyone, can come from anywhere, and contribute to the Canadian startup ecosystem." Think you could be a fit? To apply to the Extreme Accelerator, visit this link. About Extreme Venture Partners EVP is an early stage investment fund, startup development lab (Extreme Innovation) and global-to-Canada accelerator (Extreme Accelerator) that invites diversity as the spark of brilliance and innovation, quietly launching some of the Canada's most interesting startups. EVP has developed a comprehensive startup ecosystem, as well as a not-for-profit organization (Hackergals) dedicated to addressing the gender imbalance in coding. To learn more about EVP's "firsts," check out https://evp.vc/innovative-firsts/. For more information, visit https://evp.vc. Press Contacts: Merredith Branscombe Leap Public Relations [email protected] +1 720-235-7363 SOURCE Extreme Venture Partners Related Links http://www.evp.vc SALT LAKE CITY, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ivanti CEO Steve Daly received the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 Award in the technology category in the Utah Region. The award recognizes entrepreneurs who are excelling in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Daly was selected by an independent panel of judges, and the award was presented at a special gala event at The Grand America Hotel on Saturday, June 10, 2017. "I'm so happy and humbled to receive this award, but it really goes to my incredible team who make Ivanti's exceptional IT offerings possible," said Daly. "Ivanti is filled with innovative minds and hard-working people, and their ingenuity and grit has led to the success of Ivanti and my success as their CEO. I'm proud of the milestones we've reached together and that these efforts continue to be recognized by prestigious organizations like EY." Ivanti is a Utah-based market leading technology company helping IT organizations successfully automate and secure the digital workplace. Daly has built Ivanti into a global company serving the IT needs of organizations of all sizes by emphasizing on innovation and profitable growth. Ivanti has tripled its size in the last six years due to Daly's tenacity and business prowess, undergoing nine acquisitions and mergers in his time as CEO. Under his leadership, the company also sold to renowned private equity firm Clearlake Capital and rebranded from LANDESK to Ivanti to position itself for further global growth. Since 1986, EY has honored entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, spirit of innovation and discipline have driven their companies' success, transformed their industries and made a positive impact on their communities. Now in its 31st year, the program has honored the inspirational leadership of such entrepreneurs as Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company, Andreas Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks and Pierre Omidyar of eBay, Inc. As a Utah Region award winner, Daly is now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 national program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 18, 2017. The awards are the culminating event of the Strategic Growth ForumTM, the nation's most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. About Ivanti Ivanti is IT evolved. By integrating and automating critical IT tasks, Ivanti helps IT organizations secure the digital workplace. For more than three decades, Ivanti has helped IT professionals address security threats, manage devices, and optimize their user experience. From traditional PCs to mobile devices, virtual machines, and the data center, Ivanti helps discover and manage your IT assets wherever they are located, improving IT service delivery and reducing risk. Ivanti also ensures that supply chain and warehouse teams are effectively leveraging the most up-to-date technology to improve productivity throughout their operation. Ivanti is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has offices all over the world. For more information, visit www.ivanti.com. Press Contacts Helen Carroll Ivanti +44 1344 407005 [email protected] Amberly Asay Method Communications +1 801-461-9776 [email protected] About Entrepreneur Of The Year Entrepreneur Of The Year, founded by EY, is the world's most prestigious business awards program for entrepreneurs, chosen from an independent panel of judges including entrepreneurs and prominent leaders from business, finance, and the local community. The program makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global awards program of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries. ey.com/eoy About EY's Growth Markets Network EY's worldwide Growth Markets Network is dedicated to serving the changing needs of high-growth companies. For more than 30 years, we've helped many of the world's most dynamic and ambitious companies grow into market leaders. Whether working with international mid-cap companies or early stage, venture-backed businesses, our professionals draw upon their extensive experience, insight and global resources to help your business succeed. For more information, please visit us at ey.com/sgm or follow news on Twitter @EY_Growth. About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member of the global EY organization that provides services to clients in the US. For more information, please visit ey.com. SOURCE Ivanti Related Links https://www.ivanti.com NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This year, EY professionals have donated more than 3,000 hours to local, community-based projects in Mexico and Peru through the EY-Earthwatch Ambassadors Program, a collaboration between the EY organization and the Earthwatch Institute, a non-profit organization that engages people worldwide in scientific field research and education in sustainable environments. Through the week-long program, 40 EY professionals traveled to Mexico or Peru to leverage their business and consulting skills to assist local entrepreneurs with improving business practices, as well as to conduct field research that promotes education in sustainable developments. Now in its ninth year, the program has had more than 245 EY professionals participate, donating nearly 20,000 hours since its inception. The number of applications to take part in this year's program increased by 36 percent since last year, demonstrating the dedication of EY people to the organization's purpose to build a better working world. This year, Peru was also introduced as a new location. "The EY-Earthwatch Ambassadors program offers an excellent opportunity for our people, particularly our young professionals, to immerse themselves in a new culture and leverage their skills in a non-traditional workplace," said Deborah K. Holmes, EY Americas Director of Corporate Responsibility. "Over the last nine years, we have witnessed the direct impact that this program has on our people and the quality of their work. Involvement in EY-Earthwatch Ambassadors strengthens participants' teaming skills and they return empowered to directly apply what they've learned offsite to their work at home. They also demonstrate higher engagement with EY." "One aspect of the program that stood out for me was the diversity of our team, which included colleagues from many member firms across geographies and with different backgrounds, skills and abilities. I learned so much about the other service lines at EY and how they compare across countries," said Mala Bingham, a campus recruiter on the Talent team of Ernst & Young LLP in Denver. "With the support of my EY-Earthwatch team, I was able to simultaneously collaborate and project manage, while also developing my public speaking skills. This experience reinvigorated my commitment to giving back to our communities and the earth. I gained confidence in my knowledge of sustainable initiatives and in my ability to explain the concepts to those in my sphere of influence." 2017 Expedition Highlights In Peru, EY professionals provided operational recommendations to AmazonEco, a research expedition business that provides a sustainable financial strategy for holistic, conservation efforts in western Amazonia. Ambassadors also supported research staff by surveying a variety of wildlife species to better understand how climate change is impacting the area. Findings from the project are being used to develop conservation strategies with local indigenous communities. In Mexico, Ambassadors helped to improve marketing and sales strategies for a local farming cooperative that aims to improve the health of the region's ecosystem. They also collected data for water quality in the Xochimilco wetlands, outside of Mexico City, as part of a study on the health of global freshwater ecosystems. Learn more about EY Corporate Responsibility efforts here. About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member firm of EY serving clients in the US. SOURCE EY Related Links http://www.ey.com CARROLLTON, Texas, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced today that CEO Catherine Monson will speak at the International Franchise Expo from June 15-17 at The Javits Center in New York City. Additionally, entrepreneurs are invited to meet Monson and the brand's franchise development team at booth #214 to learn more about franchise opportunities throughout the Northeast, including in the New York City metro area and Long Island. The brand also is seeking international partners worldwide to be master franchisees. Under Monson's leadership, FASTSIGNS has achieved World Class Franchise certification for the past seven years the highest honor bestowed by the Franchise Research Institute and, in 2015, was one of the inaugural inductees to Franchise Business Review's Hall of Fame for being named to its "Top Franchises" list for 10 consecutive years for its high rate of franchisee satisfaction. During the conference, Monson will share insights gained during her more than 30 years in franchising, including FASTSIGNS' expansion into nine countries, and strategies and best practices that helped make FASTSIGNS an international success story. Thursday, June 15 10 a.m. 1 p.m. : "Global Franchise Expansion: Strategies for Lucrative and Planned Growth" Thursday, June 15 2 3 p.m. : "Why Franchising? How Women Can Be Successful in Today's Franchising Marketplace" Saturday, June 17 : 12:30 1:30 p.m. : "The Franchisor-Franchisee Relationship: Striking the Perfect Balance" (with FASTSIGNS franchisee Denise Acquaye , of Newark, New Jersey ) "I have spent my entire career in the franchising industry and am thrilled to share my knowledge and expertise with franchisors, franchisees, and potential franchisees at the International Franchise Expo," said Monson. "FASTSIGNS is a vibrant, growing 32-year-old brand; we are looking for qualified entrepreneurs interested in helping us expand globally. I'm looking forward to meeting with potential franchisees in New York City." On the heels of an extremely successful 2016, fueled in part by the ongoing worldwide need for visual communications and digital signage technology, the company expects to open a projected 45+ locations in 2017. During the International Franchise Expo, FASTSIGNS will showcase digital signage that will serve as an alternative to traditional video walls made up of multiple flat panel displays. The new LED is brighter, seamless, and easy to install. Additionally, author Dean Lindsay will sign complimentary copies of his book, "How to Achieve Big PHAT Goals," at FASTSIGNS' booth from 11 a.m. 1 p.m. and 2 4 p.m. on Friday, June 16, and on Saturday, June 17, from 10 a.m. 12 p.m. and 1 2:30 p.m. (Limited quantities available.) FASTSIGNS International, Inc. closed out 2016 with record-breaking growth and was recently ranked number 1 in the Business Services/Signs category and 95 overall in Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500, the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Acknowledged by entrepreneurs and franchisors as a top competitive tool of measurement, the Franchise 500 recognizes FASTSIGNS for its exceptional performance in areas including financial strength and stability, growth rate and brand power. In addition to more than 400 U.S. and Canadian markets targeted for development, FASTSIGNS is seeking international partners worldwide to be master franchisees. For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or 214-346-5679) or download an eBook that explores the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity at http://amzn.to/1FrnDJu. About Catherine Monson Catherine became CEO of FASTSIGNS International, Inc. in 2009, bringing over 25 years of franchising and management experience. In 2009, she received the International Franchise Association (IFA) Bonny LeVine Award in recognition of her contributions to the growth of the franchising industry and in 2010, the Dallas Business Journal named her a top Women Industry Leader in the Dallas Metroplex. In 2012, Catherine appeared on the Emmy Award-winning series Undercover Boss to learn new ways to advance the FASTSIGNS brand. In 2015, she received the International Franchise Association's first Franchise Action Network FAN of the Year award for her advocacy work in the franchising community. In 2016, she was selected as a Soderstrom Society Inductee for her contributions to the printing and graphic communications industry and was also honored with the 2016 Leadership Award from the Women That Soar organization. Catherine currently serves on the Board of Directors of the IFA and was elected Secretary in 2017. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors for two franchise companies The Learning Experience and Brain Balance and one other industry association, Idealliance. About FASTSIGNS FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of 660 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in nine countries including the US, Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE). FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fastsigns. CONTACT: Ashley Davidson Fish Consulting 571-351-4837 [email protected] SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc. Related Links http://www.fastsigns.com "At Fish, we know that diverse teams enhance the quality of legal services we provide to our clients, and strengthens our position as a top intellectual property law firm," said Kristine McKinney, Chief Professional Development Officer at Fish & Richardson. "We welcome the opportunity to participate in the Mansfield Rule pilot and are confident it will further boost diversity in leadership positions not just at our firm, but in the legal profession as a whole." Firms that successfully pilot the Mansfield Rule over the next year will be designated "Mansfield Certified" and have the opportunity to send their recently promoted diverse partners to a two-day forum to build relationships with and learn from influential in-house counsel from more than 45 corporations from across the country. Fish has supported and participated in many of Diversity Lab's diversity initiatives including the 2016 Hackathon. At that event, Fish principal Michael Florey and his team analyzed structural barriers and challenges that contribute to the attrition of women in law firms. Their research looked at the lack of economic power and influence currently held by women, examined the service partner role and feeling of futility it engenders, and concluded there is a clear need for women to gain more billing and relationship credit within their firms. Fish won second place with a pitch that took on the challenge of helping women attain the critical "client relationship manager" role that drives power and success within law firms. Fish donated its $7,500 prize to the UT Center for Women in Law. Fish was also one of the original 15 law firms to participate in the pilot OnRamp Fellowship Program, a unique re-entry program that matches experienced women lawyers returning to the legal profession with law firms for a one-year paid fellowship. Women lawyers who are selected to participate in the highly competitive Fellowship program are provided with a partner advisor at the firm as well as training and career counseling. Fish's ongoing participation in the OnRamp program allows the firm to access an untapped market of skilled attorneys while increasing its gender diversity. Diversity Lab creates and experiments with innovative ways to close the gender gap and boost diversity in law firms and legal departments by leveraging data, behavioral science, and design thinking. The Lab's first pilot initiative, the OnRamp Fellowship, is now the largest global re-entry platform matching experienced women returning to the workforce after a hiatus with more than 35 law firms, legal departments, and banks for year-long paid Fellowships in the U.S., Australia, the UK, and Canada. Due to the overwhelming success of and interest in Diversity Lab's 2016 Women in Law Hackathon, a series of "Diversity in Law Hackathons" are planned for 2018 in partnership with Harvard Law School Executive Education and other top law schools. Fish & Richardson is a global patent prosecution, intellectual property litigation, and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists in the U.S. and Europe. Our success is rooted in our creative and inclusive culture, which values the diversity of people, experiences, and perspectives. Fish is the #1 U.S. patent litigation firm, handling nearly three times as many cases as its nearest competitor; a powerhouse patent prosecution firm; a top-tier trademark and copyright firm; and the #1 firm at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, with more cases than any other firm. Since 1878, Fish attorneys have been winning cases worth billions in controversy often by making new law for the world's most innovative and influential technology leaders. For more information, visit https://www.fr.com or follow us at @FishRichardson. Contact: Amy Blumenthal or Kelly Largey Blumenthal & Associates Fish & Richardson 617-879-1511 800-818-5070 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Fish & Richardson Related Links http://www.fr.com ATLANTA, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Canadian American Business Council (CABC) is marking Canada's 150th anniversary by publishing With Faith and Goodwill, a beautiful hardcover volume that curates 150 years of Canada-U.S. friendship and cooperation. The book explores the relationships between the Presidents and Prime Ministers of each era and the challenges and opportunities they faced together. To bring those stories to life, the CABC is assembling former U.S. Presidents and Prime Ministers to speak about their time in office. The second in this series takes place tomorrow where former President Jimmy Carter and former Prime Minister Joe Clark will reflect on the Canada/U.S. relationship at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The Canadian American Business Council looks forward to this timely conversation between distinguished leaders. Event details: Thursday, June 15, 2017 Cecil B. Day Chapel The Carter Center 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307 Media arrival time: 8:30am Event start: 9:30am For more information, please contact: Virginia Beckett [email protected] SOURCE Canadian American Business Council CINCINNATI, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, attorneys from First Liberty Institute defend the longstanding practice of opening government meetings with invocations before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. First Liberty's legal team will argue on behalf of Jackson County, Michigan, in the case of Bormuth v. County of Jackson. "Legislatures at the federal, state, and local levels nationwide have opened their sessions with invocations for more than two centuries, as the Supreme Court has twice recognized in upholding this widely accepted practice," said Ken Klukowski, Senior Counsel at First Liberty. "Jackson County's invocations are fully consistent with the Constitution and the Supreme Court's guidance on this issue." A local activist sued the commissioners of Jackson County, arguing that their tradition of beginning monthly meetings with an invocation violates the First Amendment. A federal district court judge upheld Jackson County's practice of allowing each of its nine commissioners to have rotating opportunities to deliver a voluntary invocation. A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court's ruling in a 2-1 decision. But the Cincinnati-based appeals court decided to hold a rare en banc rehearing of the case, meaning all 15 judges of the court will now hear the case. In a similar case, First Liberty also represents the commissioners of Rowan County, North Carolina (Lund v. Rowan County), which was heard en banc in March 2017 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. If the Sixth Circuit and Fourth Circuit issue contradictory rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court could well take up this issue again. Read more about this case at FirstLiberty.org/Jackson. About First Liberty Institute First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans. SOURCE First Liberty Institute Related Links http://firstliberty.org/ NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, GeoQuant, creators of a cutting edge platform for measuring political risk in real time, is announcing the close of a seed round of $4M. The money was raised from Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund based in Tel Aviv, as well as XL Innovate, an insurtech-focused fund in Silicon Valley. Michael Eisenberg, Equal Partner at Aleph VC, and Martha Notaras, Partner at XL Innovate, will be joining the GeoQuant board. The financing will be used to continue developing the company's flagship software product, expand coverage areas and offerings, and grow its client base. "We have been looking for opportunities to bring order to the political and institutional chaos affecting the world right now," said Eisenberg. "Globalization of business and Foreign Direct Investment is increasing while at the same time the world is becoming less stable. It is critical that businesses understand these risks and opportunities and prepare for them with real data, not punditry. We are thrilled to partner with GeoQuant and are certain that they will significantly help global businesses through these rocky times." Adding Politics to the Equation GeoQuant fuses political science with computer science to address current inefficiencies in the field of measuring political risk for investors, executives and other business decision makers. Most political risk analysis available today is ad-hoc at best, based on cherry-picked data that is rarely quantified, and provided by analysts who have limited bandwidth and access to information--an unsophisticated strategy for an increasingly interconnected world, where the impact of politics on markets and industries continues to deepen. GeoQuant is the first in the field to apply technology to this challenge, with a groundbreaking patent-pending software designed to scrape the web for large volumes of reputable data, news and social media content. This data is then enhanced by an in-house team of political scientists and regional experts, generating daily country scores and other high-frequency indicators that allow for more robust benchmarking and pricing of political risks around the world. "By combining our expertise in political science with cutting-edge technologies, we are the first company to systematically identify, quantify and track political risks in real time," says GeoQuant co-founder Mark Rosenberg, PhD. "Our software is essentially a seismic monitor for global political risk. We provide investors with the tools to both anticipate the earthquake-like shocks of geopolitical instability, while monitoring the more frequent 'tremors' of shifting policies, regulations, social contracts and political coalitions." For example, GeoQuant users can more accurately predict how a potential Congressional investigation of President Trump will influence long-term prospects for the U.S. stock market. Or, perhaps, how China's strategy in the South China Sea may affect global oil prices. Or how Brazil's ongoing governance crisis could impede growth in its retail and consumer sectors--all political events that can impact portfolio performance and business objectives across markets. GeoQuant's analytic tool kit will also soon be made available to investment funds, financial institutions, corporates and other global organizations concerned with tracking political risk, via a customizable platform that allows clients to tailor risks to their own portfolios and business objectives. About GeoQuant GeoQuant was co-founded by Mark Rosenberg, PhD, a Berkeley-trained political scientist and former Director Eurasia Group, and Dor Kelman, a computer engineer with deep experience in fast-growth Israeli startups, who was previously lead engineer and first hire at Crossrider PLC. GeoQuant's first hire is Ross Schaap, PhD, former long-time head of Comparative Analytics at Eurasia Group, who now spearheads Data & Analytics team for GeoQuant. The company's Tel-Aviv based engineering team specializes in data science, machine learning and database architecture. GeoQuant's top line Political Risk Scores and data streams for G20 countries are now also available on the Bloomberg Terminal. To learn more, visit www.geoquant.io About Aleph Venture Capital Aleph is an early stage venture capital fund with $334 million under management. Aleph partners with Israeli entrepreneurs to help scale them into large, meaningful companies and globally recognized brands. Aleph is an Equal Partnership of Eden Shochat, Michael Eisenberg and Aaron Rosenson. Aleph invests in a broad range of software and software enabled services companies in industries such as Financial services (Lemonade, Colu), Transportation and Logistics (Freightos, Nexar), Sharing Economy (Wework, Honeybook) and Consumer Applications (Joytunes, Houseparty). To learn move visit www.aleph.vc. About XL Innovate XL Innovate is a venture capital fund focused on investing in companies that address the world's most complex risks with new technologies and products for the insurance industry. Portfolio companies include Lemonade, Cape Analytics, Slice Labs, Embroker, Notion and New Energy Risk. XL Innovate provides companies with equity capital, unparalleled experience in building new ventures in this specific space, and access to XL Catlin's global insurance expertise and underwriting. To learn more, visit www.xlinnovate.com. SOURCE XL Catlin Related Links http://www.geoquant.io DETROIT, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Global Helicopter Blades Market by Helicopter Type (Civil, Military, and Civil/Military), by Engine Type (Turbine and Piston), by Blade Location Type (Main Rotor and Tail Rotor), by Design Type (Symmetrical and Under Cambered), by Material Type (Carbon Composites, Hybrid Composites, and Others), by Manufacturing Process (Sandwich Construction and Others), by End-User Type (OE and Aftermarket), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160831/402975LOGO ) This 280-page strategic report, from Stratview Research, studies the blades market in the global helicopter industry over the period 2011 to 2022. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market. Blades Market in the Global Helicopter Industry: Highlights As per Stratview Research, the global helicopter blades market offers a healthy growth opportunity of 4.5% CAGR during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 and reach an estimated $1.6 billion in 2022. The author of the report stated that increasing deliveries of helicopters, advancement in the blade technology such as electric tail rotor systems, continuous shift from heavy metal blades to lightweight composite blades, and rising helicopter fleet size are some of the major growth drivers of the global helicopter blades market. The research's findings suggest that military and civil/military segments currently dominate the helicopter blades market, driven by high deliveries of helicopters and large fleet size. However, civil and parapublic segment is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period, driven by increasing demand for light single-engine and intermediate & medium twin-engine civil helicopters. Click Here and Ask for a Free Sample on 280-Page Helicopter Blades Market Report In terms of material type, composites are likely to remain the largest and fastest-growing material type during the forecast period. The materials' potential in structural applications has been recognized since long by the Helicopter manufacturers. Major players are increasingly adopting composite blades in their upcoming models. At the same time, there is also an increasing demand for composite blades in the aftermarket. Based on blade location type, main rotor blade is projected to remain the largest type during the forecast period. Both main rotor and tail rotor blades are likely to witness similar growth over the next five years. There is an increasing penetration of composite materials in both the blade types. In terms of region, Europe is projected to remain the largest and fastest-growing market for helicopter blades market during the forecast period. The region is the manufacturing capital of the helicopter industry with the presence of Airbus Helicopters, Agusta Westland, and Russian Helicopters. All the major helicopter manufacturers are producing blades in Europe only. There are independent rotor and tail blade manufacturers as well as OEMs with in-house blade manufacturing capability. The key helicopter blade manufacturers are Bell Helicopter, Boeing Helicopter, Carson Helicopters, Airbus Helicopters, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Kaman Aerosystems, Robinson Helicopter Company, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and Van Horn Aviation. New product development, collaboration with OEMs, and long-term contacts are the key strategies adopted by the key players to gain a competitive edge in the market. Report Features This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report: Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis. Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis. Market trend and forecast analysis. Market segment trend and forecast. Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc. Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities. Emerging trends. Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players. Key success factors. This report studies the blades market in the global helicopter industry and has segmented the market in eight ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. The following are the eight ways in which the market is segmented: Global Helicopter Blades Market by Helicopter Type: Civil Helicopter (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Military Helicopter (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Both (Civil / Military Helicopter) (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by Engine Type: Turbine (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Piston (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by Blade Location Type: Main Rotor Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Tail Rotor Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by Design Type: Symmetrical Helicopter Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Under Cambered Helicopter Blade (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by Material Type Carbon Composites (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Hybrid Composites (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Other Materials (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by Manufacturing Process Sandwich Construction Process (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Other Processes (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by End-User Type OE (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Aftermarket (Regional Analysis: NA, Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW) Global Helicopter Blades Market by Region North America (Country Analysis: the USA , Canada , and Mexico ) Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , France , Italy , Russia , and Rest of Europe ) Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , India , and Rest of Asia-Pacific ) Rest of the World (Country Analysis: Middle East , Latin America , and Others) Stratview Research has number of high value market reports in the global aerospace & defense industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports: Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Aerospace & Defense Industry Some of our other premium market reports in the aerospace & defense industry: Global Aerospace Winglets Market by Aircraft Type (Narrow-Body Aircraft, Wide-Body Aircraft, Very Large Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, and General Aviation), by Platform Type (B737, B747, B777, B787, A320 Family, A330/A340, A350XWB, A380, B737 Max, B777x, A320neo, E 175, C Series, and Others), by Winglet Type (Blended Winglets, Sharklets, Raked Wingtips, Split Scimitar Winglets, Wingtip Fences, Advanced Technology Winglets, Elliptical Winglets, and Others), by Manufacturing Process (Hand Layup Process, Automated Process, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022 Global Aerospace & Defense Composite Ducting Market by Aircraft Type (Commercial Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, General Aviation, Helicopter, Military Aircraft, and Others), by Pressure Type (Low Pressure and High Pressure), By Reinforcement Type (Glass Composites, Carbon Composites, and Other Composites), by Matrix Type (Epoxy Composites, Phenolic Composites, Thermoplastic Composites, and Other Composites), by Application Type (ECS, APU, Avionics Ventilation, and Others), by Manufacturing Process (Mandrel Layup, Rotation Molding, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022 About Stratview Research Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas. We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies. Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making. For enquiries, Contact: Ritesh Gandecha Stratview Research E-mail: [email protected] Direct: +1-313-307-4176 Feel free to drop an enquiry with us in the below page and our team will get back to you very soon: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/contact.html SOURCE Stratview Research INDORE, India, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Surging global Internet user base and applications have led onto various mode of communication such as live messenger, voice calls, video calls and so on. Voice communication via Internet is amongst one of the leading applications. Voice communication equipment tends to offer cost effective, secure, and flexible user interface for communication. Global voice communication market is experiencing good growth (CAGR 17.5%) during the forecasted period 2016-2023. New technological innovations, government regulatory policies, and growing number of Internet subscribers are the key factors driving growth in the global voice communication market during the forecasted period. Some of the key applications of voice communication equipment include, Wi-Fi, VoIP, telecom operators, wireless outgrow wire lines, wireless technologies, hardware and telecommunication equipment. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161024/431641LOGO ) To have a brief overview of the report please click on the following link http://www.occamsresearch.com/voice-communication-equipment-market VoIP technology fuelling growth in voice communication equipment market Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology enables people to have cheaper communication services. VoIP offers comparatively lower cost in terms of hardware cost, line cost, and so on. For example, multiple landline phones in office require something called private branch exchange, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. VoIP eliminates the need for any such initial outlay and other maintenance cost thereby making the call cost cheaper. VoIP offers almost 50% lower line cost as compared to the traditional system. Through VoIP systems, voice signals are transformed into digital signals and carried via IP based network. Both large and small-scale business enterprises are benefiting by merging of voice and data functions. Especially to companies having their customer base abroad, VoIP provides a cost-effective approach to establish communication. Global VoIP industry is projected to grow at an average 9% per annum till 2021 on the back of growing innovations and number of subscribers. Asia-Pacific and Latin America are the fastest growing markets in VoIP with growth of over 49% and 45% per annum due to telecom infrastructure modernization and advent of 4G connections. Video streaming application of VoIP is expected to see the highest year-on-year growth of 57% from 2016-2017. The major driver for this growth is rising demand for video calling services. Thus, growth in VoIP market is expected to boost growth of global voice communication equipment market during the forecasted period. Increasing Internet user base to propel global market growth According to United Nations, the total number of Internet users across the globe in 2016 touched over 3.2 billion in 2016. The number of users is anticipated to reach over 4.1 billion by 2020. The majority of growth of the Internet users will come from low and middle income countries in Asia-Pacific as these countries are witnessing huge infrastructure development, wherein more than 700 million new users are anticipated to connect by 2022. The Internet user growth in Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be driven by emerging economies such as India and China, together having more than a billion Internet users as of 2016. Other countries in Asia-Pacific with significant rise in number of Internet users are Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. Both Africa and Middle East are having the fastest growing Internet user population with an annual 11% new users being added every year. According to World Internet Users Statistics, by 2022, more than 200 million users are expected to get connected across Africa and Middle East. Similarly, Latin American countries specifically, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, and Caribbean Islands, are expected to have over 125 million new users connected to the Internet by 2020. CISCO VNI studies showed majority of the population in developed regions such as North America (89%) and Western Europe (81%) are connected to Internet in 2016. Between 2015 and 2020, over 25 million new Internet users are expected to be added to USA. Increasing number of users would positively impact the sales of smartphones, tablets and other communication devices. Suffice to say increasing number of Internet users would supplement global voice communication market during the forecasted period. Regional Outlook: Europe sees mid-term growth and in long term APAC & Latin America to surge Regionally, the global voice communication equipment market sales is dominated by North America. North America dominates voice communication equipment market in terms of revenue, technology innovation, and increasing adoption of VoIP users. Rising demand for tablets, smartphones, VoIP, demand for convergence services for voice mail and e-mail, instant messengers, large pool of Internet users, and regulatory policies are the factors driving North American voice communication equipment market during the forecasted period. Europe is an emerging investment destination for voice communication equipment with increasing number of VoIP subscriber base for the medium term. According to Pike & Fishcer's Broadband Advisory Service, VoIP is slated to become more popular in Europe. Approximately 40% of the households in Europe with Internet connection are using VoIP services. Since 2014, more than a quarter of household in Europe are giving up landline telephone subscription in favour of mobile phones and VoIP. Germany, Spain, UK, France, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, Sweden are amongst the lucrative investment destinations in Europe for voice communication equipment market, as these countries have witnessed significant growth in number of Internet users. EU has brought into series of amendments to the EU telecommunication regulatory framework towards its last 27 nation states since 2010. The amendment will have significant implications for VoIP and VoIP applications on smartphones. VoIP is anticipated to be regulated as a telephone. The new regulations are expected to ease number portability for VoIP. Moreover, EU largest telecom groups are launching 5G technology (average service speed of 10 gigabits per second). By 2020, at least one city in EU country will have new 5G technology, boosting markets for VoIP. Some of the leading investors are BT, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, and Vodafone. In terms of revenue, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing voice communication market during the forecast period. Growth in Asia-Pacific is led by improving network infrastructure in emerging economies like India and China, followed by South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Increasing population and expanding communication sector, large base for Internet users, and investment friendly government policies are the factors driving Asia-Pacific voice communication equipment market. Other lucrative markets for voice communication equipment include UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, Qatar, Bahrain, Israel, and Jordan. To contact us please click on the following link http://www.occamsresearch.com/contact-us About Occams Business Research & Consulting (OBRC): Occams Business Research & Consulting has been in the business (Market Research) for the past three years. OBRC, based in India, is formed by two women analysts, Shyamal Moghe and Sathya Durga, who started the company after years of working as analysts and project managers for companies such as Frost & Sullivan, Smart Analyst, etc. and have an excellent track record for the best customer satisfaction. You can see their professional profile on LinkedIn: Shyamal Moghe Sathya Durga Contact: Mr. Uday Dange Tel: +91-9713031393 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.occamsresearch.com/ SOURCE Occams Business Research & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. TSX: GPR NYSE MKT: GPL VANCOUVER, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - GREAT PANTHER SILVER LIMITED (TSX: GPR) (NYSE MKT: GPL) ("Great Panther"; or the "Company") reports an update on the previously announced agreement to acquire the Coricancha gold-silver-lead-zinc-copper mine and mill complex (the "CMC") from Nyrstar N.V. ("Nyrstar"). The CMC is located in the central Andes of Peru, approximately 90 kilometres by paved highway east of the city of Lima. Under the terms of the agreement signed in December 2016, the acquisition is structured as a share purchase, whereby the Company's wholly owned Peruvian subsidiary will acquire all of the shares of Nyrstar Coricancha S.A. from subsidiaries of Nyrstar. Recently, the Company and Nyrstar executed an Amended Share Purchase Agreement to reflect the reorganization of Nyrstar's investments in Peru to facilitate its planned divestitures. The amendments to the Share Purchase Agreement do not materially impact the terms of the transactions announced in December 2016. The transaction is still subject to several customary closing conditions which the Company and Nyrstar are aiming to complete before the end of June 2017, or shortly thereafter. Certain of these conditions depend on responses from third parties or authorities and therefore timing is subject to some uncertainty. Once the transaction is completed, the Company's plans include further evaluations of the current mine and processing infrastructure, approximately 7,800 metres of underground drilling, environmental studies, and initiation of a preliminary feasibility study (PFS). Depending upon the outcome of the PFS, development in support of operations could commence in 2018. A resource update is underway and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017. In addition to finalizing the acquisition of the CMC in Peru, the Company continues to seek and evaluate additional acquisition opportunities to meet the Company's growth objectives. ABOUT GREAT PANTHER Great Panther Silver Limited is a primary silver mining and exploration company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol GPR, and on the NYSE MKT trading under the symbol GPL. Great Panther's current activities are focused on the mining of precious metals from its two wholly-owned operating mines in Mexico: the Guanajuato Mine Complex, which includes the San Ignacio Mine; and the Topia Mine in Durango. In addition, the Company has signed an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Coricancha Mine Complex in the central Andes of Peru and is pursuing additional mining opportunities in the Americas. Robert Archer President & CEO CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements regarding: the timing and ability of the Company to complete the acquisition of the CMC, environmental and economic evaluations, including the initiation of a preliminary feasibility study, the timing of completion of a resource update, commencement of drill programs, and the timing of reactivating the CMC. These involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Such factors involve, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political risks involving the Company's operations in a foreign jurisdiction, technical and operational difficulties that may be encountered with reactivation of the CMC, changes in project parameters, permitting risks, physical risks inherent in mining operations, currency fluctuations, fluctuations in the price of silver, gold and base metals, exploration results being indicative of future production, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Annual Information Form and Material Change Reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedar.com and reports on Form 40-F and Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov. There is no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove accurate; results may vary materially; and there is no assurance that the Company will be able to identify and acquire additional projects or that any projects acquired will be successfully developed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. The Company has no intention to update forward looking statements except as required by law. SOURCE Great Panther Silver Limited Related Links http://www.greatpanther.com PARIS, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday, one of the world's largest publishers, Hachette Livre condemned the excessive legal practices of Resolute Forest Products and called on the logging company to do better for the forest in the strongest possible terms. Arnaud Nourry, the CEO of Hachette Livre, released a fiery letter to the CEO of Resolute Forest Products, Richard Garneau, in response to a Greenpeace campaign to protect free speech and forests. Resolute has sued Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA, and Greenpeace Canada in two multi-million dollar lawsuits, in an attempt to silence and destroy the more than 45 year old organization. Greenpeace has called on the largest global publishers, who source paper from Resolute, to join us as allies and live up to their sustainability promises by demanding the logging company both protect the boreal forest and drop these lawsuits. Hachette Livre was the first publisher to show its leadership on this issue. The letter referenced the importance of operating in line with the Forest Stewardship Council's sustainability standards, and called Resolute's legal tactics "excessive." Nourry writes, "At a time when the United States has decided to turn its back on climate change by reneging on its commitment to the Paris Accord, we believe we need more than ever independent NGOs such as Greenpeace. Without them, who will speak up for the environment in the future?" "We applaud Hachette Livre for taking the first step to stand up for the forest and freedom of speech and for Arnaud Nourry's leadership in understanding the high stakes of the threat to Greenpeace and civil society more broadly," said Clement Senechal forest campaigner for Greenpeace France. He continues, "we also call on Hachette Livre to continue to hold Resolute responsible for acting in accordance with the values mentioned in this letter: protection of the environment, the importance of free speech and the value of working with independent NGOs and evaluators. We also call on Hachette Livre to see that while retaining FSC certifications is a must, other controversial logging practices including destroying intact forests and harming threatened species habitat must also be resolved." Amy Moas, Ph.D. from Greenpeace USA, added that, "publishers have the unique ability to make a difference on this massive legal attack on environmental advocacy work as major buyers of Resolute's paper and stakeholders in the global conversation about free speech. Like many publishers, Hachette Livre has a strong sustainability policy that Resolute does not meet, and we look forward to seeing how Resolute resolves this issue." Other major publishers, including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, MacMillan, and Simon & Schuster need to move more quickly on this issue to regain the confidence of the half a million people around the world who have asked publishers to live up the their promises and ensure forests and free speech are not attacked on their watch. [1] Click here to read Hachette Livre CEO letter to Resolute Forest Products CEO, or copy the following URL to your browser: http://www.hachette.com/en/the-environment [2] Click here to learn more about Resolute's massive legal attack against Greenpeace, or copy the following URL to your browser:http://www.greenpeace.org/resolutelawsuits/ [3] Click here to learn more about Resolute's controversial logging practices and how publishers are involved by accessing Greenpeace's recent "Clearcutting Free Speech" report, or copy the following URL to your browser: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/clearcutting-free-speech SOURCE Greenpeace Related Links http://www.greenpeaceusa.org SALIDA, Colo., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Head Kandy, (http://www.headkandypro.com), a leading hair manageability tool leader, has seen an uptick in sales of their Straightening Brush product to beautifully bearded men. The company's Straightening Brush hit the market in 2014 and quickly became the go-to beauty brand for women enabling them to brush their hair straight in half the time it would take using a normal flat iron, all at an exceptionally affordable price. Men are now flocking to use the tool with rave reviews for short to long beard grooming techniques. Head Kandy 2.0 "Beards are not just for hipsters anymore," states Professional Hair Stylist and Founder Kayla McNeill. "Men have taken to really owning the fact that their beards do also need daily grooming maintenance and our Head Kandy Straightening Brush takes just a few swipes through for the perfect groom and go look. If you have a beard that needs taming there is no better tool. It also enables men to cut out much of the pesky and gunky beard wax. It does not matter the hair texture as the brush works amazingly well on fine to coarse hair." Offering salon straight hair, similar to that of a traditional blowout, Head Kandy's new and improved Straightening Brush 2.0 is continuing to create a niche in the beauty market. The company offers a tool that not only provides more effective straightening, but also proves to keep hair stronger and less susceptible to the damage that often comes with traditional flat irons. Men want stylish and healthy hair just as women do, therefore Head Kandy provides the perfect straightening brush for them to use too. It is ideal for people who straighten their hair and spend hours doing it even men with long, thick beards who love to style it from time to time. Head Kandy's straightening brush can help people with extremely curly hair dramatically decrease their time straightening. Head Kandy provides a great product at an affordable price of $74.99, in a variety of awesome colors. Heating up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, which is high enough to handle even the toughest curl patterns and beard thickness, this straightening brush is helping women and men with curly and thick hair achieve a beautiful straight effect. The improved slimmed bristles on the brush heat up as well, and glide through hair allowing for a sleek and easy pull, making each pass much more efficient and quicker. The brand is passionate about helping both women and men save time and money to achieve beautiful hair. They really believe that with their new Straightening Brush 2.0, that they can continue to redefine the industry standards on efficiency when styling your hair. For more information on Head Kandy please email us at [email protected], contact us by phone at 877.841.7244, or visit the website at http://www.headkandypro.com. About Head Kandy Founded in 2014 by expert hair stylist Kayla McNeill, Head Kandy provides a much needed service to the beauty industry, offering an effective and affordable signature Straightening Brush for $74.99 and a uniquely formulated Fiber Lash mascara for $25.00. Head Kandy is becoming a staple brand within the beauty industry providing products that truly work at a reasonable price. Head Kandy's products allow customers of all types to glamorize and update their look without breaking the bank or risking the damaging effects of traditional flat irons. Dana Wieczorek Beautiful Planning Marketing & PR: Fashion, Beauty & Lifestyle Division (877) 841-7244 [email protected] SOURCE Head Kandy Related Links http://headkandypro.com MIAMI and NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- More than one-third of Americans are unaware that Obamacare is another name for the Affordable Care Act, according to a poll conducted by Morning Consult earlier this year. HealthCare.com, a leading privately-owned search-and-discovery platform that helped more than 2 million consumers find health insurance in 2016, today announced the launch of The CheckUp, its new online publication. From individuals seeking coverage on their own to seniors exploring their Medicare options, The CheckUp will equip and empower Americans with the knowledge and insight to make better-informed decisions about their healthcare. "When it comes to healthcare, there's an overwhelming need right now for a resource that helps consumers make smarter, better-informed decisions about their coverage," said Howard Yeh, cofounder and chief executive officer of HealthCare.com. "We created The CheckUp to fill this niche and to become an authoritative resource for Americans who are confused about their healthcare options. It's a natural extension to our core business and will help us identify and educate consumers." The CheckUp is led by Ronald Barba, a veteran startup journalist and former Tech.Co managing editor. The site features original content and unbiased advice that helps consumers navigate the complicated American healthcare system. From tips on selecting a health insurance provider to in-depth analyses of the healthcare debates in Washington D.C., the publication intends to make healthcare easier to understand at a time when healthcare is at the forefront of the national conversation. "Healthcare is a very difficult topic for people - it always has been. Even our lawmakers in Washington are stuck on how to deal with it, " said Barba, director of content and founding editor of The CheckUp. "The CheckUp will work to make healthcare less ambiguous, minimize jargon where we can, provide tips on and answers to complex topics and questions, and offer in-depth analyses and guides to help consumers make smarter healthcare decisions." You can visit The Checkup at healthcare.com/blog and read our Health Insurance 101 guide to brush up on the essentials you need to know about healthcare. Learn from experts at Decision Analytics and the Council of Affordable Health Coverage on things you shouldn't overlook when choosing a healthcare plan, or read about what the doctors in Congress think about healthcare reform. About HealthCare.com HealthCare.com is a privately-owned search-and-compare health insurance shopping platform that connects consumers with its network of licensed insurance brokers and insurance carriers. The website's origins can be traced back to 2006, but launched as a new company in 2014 as a technology- and data-driven platform to help the American consumer efficiently compare health insurance costs and subsidies. HealthCare.com currently serves the individual health insurance market (including both ACA and non-ACA plans) and the senior market with Medigap and Medicare Advantage coverage options. In 2016, the company helped more than 2 million people find healthcare coverage. HealthCare.com completed a Series A round in October of 2014, raising $9.3 from current and former executives of The Priceline Group. The company has offices in New York City, Miami, and Guatemala City. For more information, visit www.healthcare.com. About The CheckUp The CheckUp is an online publication that informs and educates American healthcare consumers through tips, analysis, and news on healthcare. Published by HealthCare.com, a leading privately-owned consumer healthcare shopping platform, The CheckUp features exclusive content that aims to make healthcare less confusing for American consumers and to help people make better-informed decisions regarding their healthcare coverage. For more information, visit www.healthcare.com/blog. SOURCE HealthCare.com Related Links http://www.healthcare.com NACKA STRAND, Sweden, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hexagon, a leading global provider of information technology solutions, will reveal plans today to invest approximately 90 million EUR in a new 52,000-square-metre, state-of-the-art production facility in Hongdao, China. Details will be announced by Norbert Hanke, president of Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence (MI) division, as part of HxGN LIVE, Hexagon's international conference taking place through 16 June at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Mr. Hanke will provide information about the project during his keynote, 'Building the Factory of the Future,' at 1:30 p.m. PDT. The new site, which primarily will produce metrology systems for the MI division, will utilise Hexagon's smart manufacturing technologies to produce and calibrate the systems, as well as house software development and customer support teams covering the wider Hexagon portfolio. The Hongdao facility also will include office and meeting space, recreational areas for employees and a Hexagon solution centre. Construction will be managed using Hexagon's own enterprise construction solution, HxGN SMART Build, and is slated to begin this year, with completion targeted for 2020. "The factories of the future must be flexible, modular working environments with data-driven ecosystems that embed agility and quality into every phase of the production process," said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollen. "Our new facility not only will deliver high-class products and services for our customers in China and the surrounding region, but also pioneer new technologies to support smart manufacturing." For further information, please contact: Maria Luthstrom, Investor Relations Manager, Hexagon AB, +46 8 601 26 27, [email protected] Kristin Christensen, Chief Marketing Officer, Hexagon AB, +1 404 554 0972, [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/hexagon/r/hexagon-to-invest-90-meur-in-new-smart-factory,c2286853 The following files are available for download: http://mb.cision.com/Main/387/2286853/687799.pdf Press release SOURCE Hexagon "The integration of the AppBus platform, featuring our award winning Distributed Control Plane and contextual application delivery, enables a seamless, intuitive and secure user experience. The Hive-IO high-performance fabric in combination with the AppBus platform will accelerate the consumerization of IT," explained Bill Conners, CEO, AppBus. "We're excited to partner with Hive-IO as they offer streamlined VDI, virtual server and storage. This combination will offer Enterprises full control and delivery of their application assets unmodified on the most cost-effective infrastructure offering available." "Hive-IO, the fastest-growing company in the hyper converged infrastructure market, is excited to welcome AppBus to our ecosystem," noted Joe Makoid, CEO and Co-Founder-Hive-IO. "Together, we will provide reliable, interoperable application access with cloud and storage solutions that give enterprises greater agility and control. Customers can now take advantage of innovative solutions that benefit from our engineering excellence." AppBus delivers a platform that allows companies to secure, integrate, and streamline enterprise applications on any device (e.g., consumer, commercial) without changing source code, while auditing all activity. This enables a seamless, intuitive user experience with enhanced security and navigation, increasing employee efficiency as well as the overall customer experience. Hive-IO offers complete hyper converged software solution that reduces storage needs removes vendor sprawl and provides unparalleled security. Hive-IO can be delivered on-premise premise or from a managed services provider. Management of the platform can be done in house or can be sourced externally to Hive-IO certified partners. For more information and to arrange a demonstration of the Hive-IO software-defined infrastructure solution or for architecture details, email [email protected]. Interested companies and organizations can also request a 5-license test drive at https://www.hive-io.com/hiveio-test-drive/. About Hive-IO Hive-IO is an infrastructure innovation company that delivers the power, value and agility of the public cloud with all the security, control and governance of the private cloud. Our secure cloud software infrastructure platform and all-inclusive ground up solution delivers full cloud service out of the box. The Hive-IO solution is in use in some of the largest virtual infrastructure implementations across the world. For more information, visit www.hive-io.com and follow @Hive-IO1 on Twitter. About AppBus AppBus (formerly 51maps) allows organizations easy access to their entire application portfolio to run on consumer devices in a manner that is more secure than locked down PC's behind the firewall. This delivers a seamless, native feeling and role-based experience on any device. Its distributed application bus technology (DCP) securely integrates any application (legacy, custom, cloud, or native) without changing source code which allows employees to pass information between disparate applications. The audit capability allows organizations to gain visibility, down to individual key strokes, around all user activity for the purposes of fraud investigation, productivity improvement, training, time and motion studies and much more. All trademarks and service marks are property of their respective owners. SOURCE Hive-IO Related Links http://www.hive-io.com MIAMI, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, at the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez will meet with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary Rex Tillerson and Secretary John Kelly to request an extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hondurans in the United States. TPS, originally established in 1998, currently allows 60,000 Hondurans to live, study, work and travel legally in the United States. In 2016, Hondurans in this program sent approximately $4 billion back home in remittances, making TPS a key component of the Honduran economy. The current TPS extension expires on January 5. At the conference, hosted in Miami from June 15-16, Hernandez will present the case for renewal -- citing factors like poverty and climate change. Other government officials and civil leaders from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and the United States are also expected to participate in these discussions. "In the past 18 years, TPS Hondurans have integrated into American society, built businesses and raised American children. We will continue our best efforts to achieve TPS renewal for them," said Hernandez. Media Contact: Yael Wollstein [email protected] 202-471-4228 ext. 118 SOURCE Republic of Honduras TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Republic of Honduras' National Police Purification Commission will soon submit 25 names for Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez to consider for police leadership positions. Republic of Honduras The leadership revamp is part of recent government efforts to monitor for police integrity. Efforts include identifying and firing corrupt individuals who have participated in crimes like drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, and murder. Overall, the National Police Purification Commission is working to reorganize the police and only retain officers who have demonstrated their commitment to anti-corruption policies. To date, the commission has dismissed 4,004 police officers that did not meet the requirements for police work in Honduras. Hoping to inject new blood into the police force, the commission is considering both young and well-seasoned candidates for leadership positions, all of whom have received high-quality training and proven their integrity. Omar Rivera, a commission member, stated that the primary challenge is finding police leaders of the future who will champion the current institutional reforms. "We want to enlist an efficient, legitimate and honest leadership," he emphasized. Commission members Vilma Morales, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Justice, Omar Rivera, and Alberto Solorzano, are leading the selection process along with Security Secretary Julian Pacheco. They are evaluating candidates from the first levels of the senior officer ranks. The 25 potential candidates include three generals and 22 police commissioners. The most important open positions are Director General, Deputy Director General, and Inspector General of the Police. Department of Security sources indicate that the commission is looking for candidates that will lead the police force with a dynamic and innovative vision. The National Police Purification Commission was formed in April of last year, under a national emergency law to purge the police force. The commission's members were appointed by the Executive Branch. Under a direct mandate from President Hernandez, the commission is charged with determining suitability requirements for police service, judging the integrity and loyalty of Honduran police, and implementing mechanisms for follow-up and oversight. Media Contact: Yael Wollstein [email protected] 202-471-4228 ext. 118 SOURCE Republic of Honduras The purpose of the events? Provide kids and parents exposure to life-saving water safety skills and build awareness about the vital importance of learning to swim to help prevent drowning. Tragically, drowning remains the leading cause of accidental death for kids ages 1-4 and the second leading cause for kids under the age of 14, due in large part, to lack of adult supervision and misperceptions about the necessary, basic swimming skills needed for water safety. Thanks to the unified voices of thousands of participating pools, swim schools, waterparks and dozens of supporting organizations, WLSL's Swimming Lessons Save Lives message has been seen or heard more than half a billion times since it first began in 2010. And, it's making a difference. Research recently released from WLSL supporting organizations, CPSC's Pool Safely Campaign and USA Swimming Foundation, which also initiated water safety awareness programs in 2010, indicate a decrease in childhood drownings and an increase in swimming skills. The CPSC's Pool Safely campaign showed a 17 percent decrease in fatal drownings in pools among children younger than five since 2010. And, the USA Swimming Foundation study found a 5-10 percent improvement in overall swimming ability from its previous findings. But, more work is needed. In 2014, the American Red Cross, another WLSL supporter, found more than half of Americans (54 percent) either can't swim or don't have foundational swimming skills. Families interested in participating in the global lesson can find participating locations at http://www.wlsl.org/WLSL/Locations.aspx The World's Largest Swimming Lesson was created by the World Waterpark Association. Since its inception in 2010, more than 195,000 children and adults have participated in WLSL lessons. Visit www.wlsl.org to learn more. Contact: Aleatha Ezra Email: [email protected] 913-599-0300 x 11 SOURCE World's Largest Swimming Lesson Related Links http://www.wlsl.org "Being a father is often a thankless job. That's why we wanted to celebrate dads by toasting them with their beer of choice this Father's Day," said Bryan Leach, founder and CEO of Ibotta. "To all the hardworking dads out there, we say thank you. Enjoy a cold one on us." Ibotta recently studied the shopping behavior of more than 90,000 dads since 2013, and found that men are grocery shopping more often, with a 62 percent increase in millennial dads buying groceries. Compared with their childless counterparts, though, fathers aren't buying much alcohol. Instead, they're purchasing more cookies, candy, pasta, breakfast items, crafting supplies, sporting goods and non-alcoholic beverages. So, this Father's Day is a great opportunity to treat them to a free beer from one of Ibotta's many brand partners such as New Belgium, Bud Light and Guinness. To cash in on the 24-hour offer, download the free Ibotta app, choose the 'Hops for Pops' rebate in the Restaurants and Bars category, then order any brew at a favorite bar or restaurant on Sunday, June 18. Upload the receipt through the app, and then voila, $5 will be deposited back in dad's Ibotta account. And with tons of rebate offers in the app, from Kingsford Charcoal to Doritos to Blue Rhino propane, even dads who choose not to imbibe this Sunday can enjoy the ultimate Father's Day BBQ for less, courtesy of Ibotta. About Ibotta Ibotta is transforming the shopping experience by making it easy for consumers to earn cash back on everyday purchases through a single smartphone app. The company partners with leading brands and retailers to offer rebates on groceries, electronics, clothing, restaurant dining, beer, wine, spirits and more. As the premier destination for rewarded shopping on mobile, Ibotta has paid out more than $210 million in cash back to its users, and is the third most popular shopping app in the United States. SOURCE Ibotta Related Links http://www.ibotta.com CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IKEA U.S. announced today that it has created a community donation program - a campaign called 5,000 Dreams - that will focus on supporting newly arrived refugee families in local IKEA store communities. Through three partner refugee organizations, IKEA will donate 5,000 beds and bedding* to refugee families who are making fresh starts with their families. The three established refugee organizations are the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the International Rescue Committee and the Ethiopian Community Development Council. The current international refugee crisis is one of the greatest, most complex humanitarian challenges of our generation. Today, the number of people displaced from their homes by violence and persecution is unprecedented in human history. By the end of 2015, over 65 million people were forcibly displaced, with nearly a third20 millionliving outside of their countries as refugees. "IKEA is committed to creating a better everyday life and that includes respecting the basic human rights of every individual. We believe every person has equal value and that the global family is strengthened when all of humanity is recognized," commented Evamay Lawson, IKEA U.S. Community Relations Manager. Lawson added, "We are pleased we can make a difference in our community's refugee families by donating beds and bedding to help make their new homes comfortable with a good night's sleep." According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, sleep helps your brain work properly. "While you're sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. It's forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information. Studies show that a good night's sleep improves learning. It also supports healthy growth and development."** "The way IKEA has demonstrated leadership in service and support to refugees is so humbling. 5000 Dreams is more than just a warm, safe place to lay one's head. It is a statement of solidarity and compassion for people who never expected to find themselves displaced. As an international business, they are setting a high bar for both business and government leaders to do all they can to support the uprooted," stated Lavinia Limon, President/CEO, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. "ECDC's resettlement network very much appreciates IKEA's leadership in helping refugees. ECDC stands with IKEA U.S. in saying that refugees are welcome," said Dr. Tsehaye Teferra, Director of ECDC. "After experiencing significant hardship, refugees are now rebuilding their lives and will have one of the most basic of comforts---a bed. ECDC welcomes this partnership with IKEA in welcoming refugees to their new life in America." "When refugees arrive in the U.S. they bring little to nothing with them," said David Miliband, IRC president and CEO, "so the little things you and I might take for granted every day can make a huge difference in their comfort and in establishing the feeling of home. Now more than ever, the International Rescue Committee and more importantly, the resilient refugees we serve look to innovative partnerships like IKEA's 5,000 Dreams to help refugees build a home here in America." Some publicly available information from HHS & Pew. Of the 84,995 refugees admitted to the United States in fiscal year 2016, the largest numbers came from the Democratic Republic of Congo , Syria , Burma ( Myanmar ) and Iraq . (Pew) in fiscal year 2016, the largest numbers came from the , , ( ) and . (Pew) Since 1975, the U.S. has resettled more than 3 million refugees, with nearly 77 percent being either Indochinese or citizens of the former Soviet Union . Since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, annual admissions figures have ranged from a high of 207,116 in 1980, to a low of 27,100 in 2002. (HHS) IKEA U.S. has been committed to helping its local communities through many social programs including Early Steps to School Success, Feeding the Future and the Life Improvement programs that benefit community schools, organizations and institutions which need a helping hand through IKEA product donations and IKEA co-worker volunteer support. On a global level, since 2010, the IKEA Foundation has committed over $165 million*** (148 million) to UNHCR to provide shelter, access to education, livelihood opportunities and renewable energy to families and children living in Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Jordan. Working with the social enterprise organizations - Better Shelter and UNHCR the IKEA Foundation has created a safer and more durable shelter. In 2015, UNHCR bought 10,000 shelters to house displaced families in several countries, including Greece, Iraq, Djibouti, Chad and Serbia. The IKEA Foundation Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign in IKEA stores globally raised $34.4 million (30.8 million) in 2014 and 2015, to bring sustainable lighting, energy and education to refugee camps. The IKEA Foundation recently created another refugee program with a positive societal impact; purchasing rugs from Jordan and partnering with local refugee social enterprises/foundations. This program will enable 200 Syrian refugee woman to produce saleable rugs through IKEA. For more information, go to www. IKEA-USA.com/5000dreams NOTE: IKEA U.S. will be working with 3 refugee agencies for the bulk of the donations, however 6 IKEA stores (Orlando, charlotte, West Chester, Portland, Round Rock & Memphis), will be working with local refugee organizations. IKEA Long Island is not participating due to lack of local refugee organization. *5,000 beds will be donated between 2 years, 2017 and 2018 **https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why ***$1.12 US to one (Euro) IKEA Since its 1943 founding in Sweden, IKEA has offered home furnishings of good design and function at low prices so the majority of people can afford them. There are currently more than 392 IKEA stores in 48 countries, including 44 in the U.S. IKEA incorporates sustainability into day-to-day business and supports initiatives that benefit children and the environment. For more information see IKEA-USA.com, @IKEAUSANews, @IKEAUSA or IKEAUSA on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has protected the rights and addressed the needs of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide for over 106 years. Our vision is that immigrants, refugees and uprooted people will live dignified lives with their rights respected and protected in communities of opportunity. In the United States our network is comprised of over 100 local agencies. Learn more at www.refugees.org The International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 28 offices across the U.S. helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future, and strengthen their communities. Learn more at www.rescue.org and follow the IRC on Twitter & Facebook. Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc. ECDC is one of nine resettlement agencies working in partnership with the Department of State and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide initial placement and support services to refuges being resettled in the United States. With a special focus on African refugees, ECDC promotes cultural, educational and socioeconomic development programs to assist refugees and immigrants in becoming productive members of their new homeland. For more information about ECDC visit http://www.ecdcus.org/ and follow ECDC on Facebook and Twitter. SOURCE IKEA U.S. To activate the text-to-speech service, please first agree to the privacy policy below. Taipei, June 14 (CNA) The wife of Lee Ming-che (), a Taiwanese human rights advocate who has been detained in China since March 19, on Wednesday questioned Beijing's motive to provide a lawyer for her husband and she vowed to die with him if it came to that. CHARLESTOWN, Mass., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Indigo, a company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet, was chosen among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum's "Technology Pioneers," a selection of the world's most innovative companies. A mission-driven company, Indigo is bringing naturally derived products to market that allow for crops to better withstand environmental stress, while also engaging in a shared-risk business model with farmers to improve grower profitability worldwide. The World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers are early-stage companies involved in the design, development, and deployment of new technologies and innovations that are poised to have a significant impact on business and society. The 30 Technology Pioneers that made it to the final selection are active in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, microbiology, blockchain, cybersecurity, the (industrial) internet of things, and other innovative technologies. "We welcome Indigo to this group of extraordinary pioneers," says Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. "Indigo was selected for its use of a key emerging technology solutions based on the plant microbiome. Such solutions will impact our ability to meet the global challenge of feeding a growing population while efficiently using natural resources, harnessing the benefits of nature itself." David Perry, Indigo's CEO and Director, will be participating in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions. This meeting, also dubbed "Summer Davos," will be held in Dalian, China, June 27-29. Many Pioneers will also attend the Annual Meeting in Davos, in January 2018, and continue to participate in dedicated Technology Pioneer community events over the next two years. "We are honored to be among this year's class of inspiring Technology Pioneers," said Perry. "Indigo has the opportunity to build a new kind of agriculture company, one that is focused on farmer profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health. Our team is proud and grateful to have the support of the Forum, as we work to change the way that billions are fed." The Technology Pioneers were selected by a committee of more than 60 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate executives. Notable members of the committee include Geoffrey Moore (Adviser, Geoffrey Moore Consulting, USA), Yossi Vardi (Chairman, International Technologies, Israel), and Lee Sang-Yup (Distinguished Professor and Dean, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea). The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact, and leadership. Past recipients include Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Scribd, Spotify, Twitter, and Wikimedia. All information on this year's Technology Pioneers can be found here: http://wef.ch/techpioneers17 Details on past winners can be found here. About Indigo Indigo is a company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. The company utilizes beneficial microbes residing within plant tissues to improve crop health and productivity. Indigo's 2017 portfolio is focused on water use efficiency and yield in cotton, wheat, rice, corn, and soybeans. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with commercial and customer service based in Memphis, TN. (www.indigoag.com). About the World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org). Media Contacts Indigo Lauren Ashbrook [email protected] +617 909 93 90 WEF Peter Vanham [email protected] +1 646 592 59 02 SOURCE Indigo Related Links http://www.indigoag.com NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- There is a simpler way to invest in the Caribbean and the US Caribbean territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. That's the message Dr. Gillian Marcelle, executive director of the Virgin Islands' Specialist Economic Development Agency, the UVI RTPark, brought to potential investors, executives and members of the Caribbean Diaspora, at the agency's VIP Investment Showcase Reception during Caribbean Week in New York on June 7th. "We are ready to help you set up a business in the U.S.V.I. in as little as three to four months," Dr. Marcelle told the some 60 plus VIP guests at the Showcase in the financial capital of the world. "We see the UVI RTPark as an entry point to the US and a bridge to the wider Caribbean. A company establishing in this Caribbean US territory will profit from a number of benefits, including up to 90 percent reduction in income taxes for qualifying income, as well as reductions or exemptions in other taxes. From this base, you can serve clients anywhere in the world. Christopher Halliday, partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, told the audience, the RTPark will foster economic growth, not just in the USVI, but across the Caribbean. Applying for membership to the RTPark program is simple and involves three stages: screening and pre-application; negotiation of a term sheet and a formal application procedure. The RTPark is keen on attracting technology companies in health and medicine, energy research & system deployment, as well as marine science related products and Internet advertising and software development. Meanwhile, Chairman of the UVI RTPark's Board of Directors, Edward E. Thomas, lauded the agency's first Caribbean Diaspora focused marketing efforts and reminded investors that there is no limit to the number of companies who can become clients of the program. And President of the University of the Virgin Islands, Dr. David Hall, said that he looks forward to the ongoing public/private sector partnership between clients of the RTPark and the University as the agency continues to promote the U.S.V.I. as an impact investment hub for the Caribbean. Interested companies can contact the RTPark at 1-340-692-4304 or by email at [email protected]. The RTPark is also on Twitter @UVI_RTPark or on Facebook at UVI Research and Technology Park SOURCE UVI RTPark SALT LAKE CITY, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RizePoint, the global leader in quality management solutions, today announced that John Knotwell, Chief Revenue Officer at RizePoint, is a Utah Business magazine CXO of the Year award winner, an honor recognizing Utah's top C-level talent. "We're fortunate to have John's energy, expertise, and wit on our executive team," said Frank Maylett, president and CEO of RizePoint. "John has transformed our revenue organization into a customer-focused, cohesive team." In his first year at RizePoint, Knotwell grew year-over-year bookings more than 300%. He drives innovation in customer service, partnerships, sales, client account management, and solution architecture. His efforts led to a 50% reduction in new customer on-boarding time, a 20% growth in new customer logos, and customer satisfaction scores topping 96% in 2016. "I've spent my career growing Utah technology companies," said Knotwell. "This award affirms the impressive teams we've built at RizePoint and it's an honor to be recognized among Utah's top executives." Prior to RizePoint, Knotwell was Vice President of Sales at Workfront (formerly AtTask), and held executive sales positions at inContact and Infinite Mind. He has more than 20 years of sales and executive leadership experience and serves as a member of the Utah House of Representatives. Knotwell holds a Bachelor of Science in political science from the University of Utah and an MBA from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. RizePoint At-a-Glance RizePoint mobile and cloud-based software helps organizations improve the quality, safety, and sustainability of their products, services, and facilities. RizePoint's software is used by 5 of the top 8 hospitality brands and 5 of the top 8 food service brands. RizePoint serves more than 387,000 users in 120 countries and territories, speaking 40 languages: 105,000 food service restaurants restaurants 27,000 hotels and resort properties properties 13,000 grocery and retail stores About RizePoint RizePoint is the global leader in Quality Experience Management SaaS solutions. RizePoint software creates a hub of valuable compliance information to align organizational focus on brand protection. Dedicated to helping our customers deliver a positive brand experience, RizePoint serves more than 2 million audits with 300 million questions answered annually. Considered the industry standard for food service, hospitality, and retail, RizePoint is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, visit www.rizepoint.com. About CXO Awards The CXO of the Year awards are given to senior executives for outstanding performance in their roles. The selected CXOs, who are from small, medium, large, public, private and government agencies, demonstrate the importance of providing strong financial leadership, visionary innovation as well as social responsibility to Utah businesses. Honorees will be featured in the June issue of Utah Business magazine and be recognized at an awards event and luncheon in June. For more information, visit http://www.utahbusiness.com Press Inquiries: Whitney McCarthy 801.285.9827 [email protected] SOURCE RizePoint Related Links http://www.rizepoint.com VANCOUVER, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Ritchie Bros., the world's largest industrial auctioneer and provider of asset management services (NYSE & TSX: RBA), is pleased to announce the appointment of J. Kim Fennell and Amy Guggenheim Shenkan to its Board of Directors, effective July 1, 2017. Commenting on the two appointments, Bev Briscoe, Chair of Ritchie Bros.' board said: "We are very excited to welcome Kim and Amy as our newest directors. They each bring unique leadership experience in sectors that have seen significant innovation and growth over the last two decades." Said Ritchie Bros' CEO Ravi Saligram, "With the acquisition of IronPlanet now completed, and integration efforts well underway, the company has accelerated its transformation into an information and insights driven, digitally savvy, multichannel solution provider. Kim and Amy bring a strongly complementary and highly relevant combination of skillsets that will provide great strategic value to the Company as it continues down this exciting path." J. Kim (Kim) Fennell is currently Head, Location-Based Services Partnerships at Uber Technologies, Inc., a mobile application based transportation network that connects passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire. Mr. Fennell had been President and CEO of deCarta, Inc., a location-based services platform company that provided geospatial technologies for online mapping, routing and navigation, prior to its acquisition by Uber in 2015. Prior to deCarta, he held various CEO and other senior positions in the communications and technology sector, principally at Octel Communications, with significant experience in enterprise sales, both in North America and Europe. Kim holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Queen's University. Kim is a Charter Member of the C100 association and sits on the board of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation. Amy Guggenheim Shenkan is President and Chief Operating Officer of Common Sense Media, the leading national not for profit organization dedicated to helping kids, families and educators successfully navigate the media and technology world. Prior to joining Common Sense Media in 2011, Ms. Shenkan was an online and multichannel sales and marketing expert with McKinsey & Company, Inc. advising global businesses across many industries about the use of the internet to make digital transformations. Ms. Shenkan also held leadership roles at Travelocity (formerly Preview Travel) and Wells Fargo as these companies transformed their companies and their industries by leveraging technology. She holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. About Ritchie Bros. Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a multitude of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros.Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offers live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing its exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; EquipmentOne, an online auction marketplace; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales. The company also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Kruse Energy Auctioneers, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about the unprecedented choice provided by Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com. SOURCE Ritchie Bros. TROY, Mich. and BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- KIRCO and KIRCO MANIX announced that they recently broke ground on the newest independent and assisted living community in Birmingham, Ala., called The Bluffs at Greystone. Working together with Phoenix Senior Living and EDT, Inc., KIRCO said The Bluffs at Greystone will be a senior living community that will provide both independent and assisted living. In addition, it will be designed to include memory care units in the future. "We are pleased to partner with Phoenix Senior Living and EDT, Inc. on The Bluffs at Greystone," said Brandon Lesniak, senior vice president of Senior Living for KIRCO. "This marks our entry into the senior living sector in the state of Alabama, where we can apply our four decades of development and construction experience to help create optimal living environments for seniors." "We are people serving people and we know when it comes to a loved one, everything matters. The community, the environment, the care, the programs and our teams represent that core belief at every Phoenix Senior Living community and we live those philosophies each day," said Jesse Marinko, CEO and founder of Phoenix Senior Living. "We are excited to serve seniors, their families and the local community and look forward to a strong partnership with the city of Birmingham." The state-of-the-art facility will include 132 units and is slated to open in July 2018. Amenities will include: indoor pool; wellness center; industry leading dining experience; beauty salon; yoga studio; and demonstration kitchen for social and family gatherings with residents. According to Lesniak, KIRCO and KIRCO MANIX design and build independent living, assisted living, and memory care facilities that nurture and inspire senior residents and their families. For each senior living project, KIRCO and KIRCO MANIX select a specialized team that understands the unique needs of seniors in each market to help capture the local dynamic, including architecture, interior design, culture and climate. To coincide with its Senior Living Initiative, KIRCO and KIRCO MANIX have launched a new website: www.kircoseniorliving.com. About Phoenix Senior Living Phoenix Senior Living is a privately held senior housing owner/operator with properties located within suburban communities throughout the southeast region of the United States. Headquartered in Roswell, GA, Phoenix develops and acquires independent living, assisted living, and memory care properties. Phoenix currently operates 7 properties with 3 under development. With an Executive Team bringing a combined 90+ years of senior housing experience, Phoenix focuses on high quality care with exceptional amenities. Phoenix strives to provide residents and families with a meaningful and purposeful experience from their very first interaction with Phoenix; to fully understand and support the uniqueness of every resident's physical, social, and emotional needs; and to foster a secure, positive, and unified environment with dedicated, tenured employees. www.phoenixsrliving.com About KIRCO KIRCO is an award winning, full service, vertically-integrated commercial real estate organization. Having planned and developed over 30 million square feet, KIRCO is a major developer of build-to-suit own or lease properties coast to coast. The company's vertically-integrated structure, including development, construction and property management, works together as one extraordinary unit to bring out the best in every project in which it plays a role. KIRCO is third-generation family owned and operated, and has expertise in the office, industrial, retail, senior living and healthcare sectors. Founded in 1974, KIRCO is headquartered in Troy, Michigan with presence in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama. About KIRCO MANIX KIRCO MANIX provides construction management services in office, light and heavy manufacturing, distribution, retail, healthcare and community market sectors. The company has operated throughout the region since 1929 and combines the experience of two well-established construction firms, Campbell / Manix and KIRCO Construction. With total construction volume exceeding $3 billion, KIRCO MANIX offers customers a unique, full-service approach by managing the design, engineering and construction phase through the eyes of an owner. For more information, please visit www.kircomanix.com or call 248.354.5100. SOURCE KIRCO Related Links http://www.kircoseniorliving.com Le-Vel Brands, LLC, the world leader in human nutritional innovation and the creators of Derma Fusion Technology (DFT) and the Thrive Experience, has introduced what is destined to become one of the best-selling nutritional products of all time: DFT Duo, the company's first product focusing primarily on weight management. The next level of Derma Fusion Technology, DFT Duo offers a dual-application, enhanced formula concentration with significantly greater absorption a 205 percent concentration increase from Le-Vel's DFT Ultra along with a higher lipid metabolism rate and innovative left/right technology for balanced duo release. Its 40 percent larger surface area means DFT Duo packs a bigger punch to help you meet your nutritional and weight management goals. Worn on both the left and right sides of the body, DFT Duo delivers all-day appetite management, nutritional support, and helps increase the metabolism. DFT Duo is intended to be taken as part of a simple three-step system, alongside Thrive Premium Lifestyle Capsules and Thrive Premium Lifestyle Mix. When used as directed, these three easy steps completed before you even head out the door in the morning provide additional benefits including energy and joint, lean muscle, mood, digestive, antioxidant and immune support. All Le-Vel products are manufactured using the best ingredients available, along with technologically superior delivery systems to maximize results and fuel the body with the premium-grade nutrition it needs to meet the day's demands head-on. Like all Le-Vel DFT products, DFT Duo comes in several different designs, which gives consumers the opportunity for self-expression while they work toward their health and wellness goals and inspire others to do the same. "We're excited to be able to offer a product specifically formulated for weight management," say Le-Vel Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Jason Camper and Paul Gravette. "DFT Duo is based on a game-changing formula. If people are going to make permanent lifestyle changes, we know that simplicity is absolutely key, which is why DFT Duo, like all of our DFT products, is incredibly easy to use and it works. Our DFT products already have a huge following, so we knew the response to DFT Duo would be great, but this product blew past our expectations right out of the starting gate. It's our most successful product launch to date, and it's already changing people's lives in meaningful ways." Le-Vel originally introduced DFT in 2013 as Thrive was first exploding on the direct sales and nutritional supplement scenes. Derma Fusion Technology was a breakthrough in health, wellness and nutritional support. DFT is a category creator that infuses the skin, or derma, with a premium-grade formula of superior ingredients, and with a delivery rate designed to benefit consumers over an extended period of time. In the few years that have followed, Le-Vel has introduced additional DFT products to its Thrive Plus line: DFT Ultra, an enhanced version of Thrive DFT; and Black Label, which offers mood support, among other unique benefits. DFT Duo is for anyone who wants to focus primarily on weight and appetite management. Le-Vel recently celebrated an incredible milestone: $1 billion in lifetime orders in less than five years. It's a remarkable achievement for the direct selling industry's only cloud-based, completely virtual company a cost-effective infrastructure that has enabled Le-Vel to channel its resources into premium-grade raw ingredients, cutting-edge research and technology, and one of the most generous rewards plans in the industry for its independent Brand Promoters. Le-Vel is the recipient of Direct Selling News' Bravo Growth Award in 2016 in recognition for its extraordinary year-over-year growth. The company also was recently named, for the second year in a row, to the DSN Global 100, an exclusive ranking of the top revenue-generating companies in the worldwide direct selling industry. Today, the company has a following of more than 6 million independent Brand Promoters and customers and maintains a presence throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. May was Le-Vel's highest revenue-generating month in its history, with $50 million in sales. For more information about DFT Duo, go to www.le-vel.com About Le-Vel Founded in 2012 by Jason Camper and Paul Gravette, Le-Vel formulates and sells nutritional/health and wellness products and is the only health and wellness company that uses cloud-based technology for its day-to-day operations. Le-Vel's cloud-based infrastructure enables the company to keep overhead to a minimum while increasing commissions to its independent Brand Promoters and putting more money into the THRIVE product line. Le-Vel products include DFT, Thrive Premium Lifestyle Capsules, Thrive Premium Lifestyle Mix, Thrive Kids, Activate, Boost, Balance, Black Label, DFT Ultra, FORM, Move, Rest, Expand, and Pure. Le-Vel has more than 6 million Customer and Brand Promoter accounts, currently ships within the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Mexico and exceeded $450 million in revenue in 2016. For more information about Le-Vel, visit le-vel.com. Related links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LevelBrands/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLVLife Contact: Liz Reuth, [email protected] SOURCE Le-Vel Brands Related Links https://le-vel.com PUNE, India, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Market research future published a half-cooked research report on Learning Management System market. The global market for Learning Management System market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around ~22% during the period 2016 to 2022 and expected to grow at market size of USD ~17 billion in 2022. Growing need of cost effective training & development system is boosting the Learning Management System Market. Market Highlights The global Learning Management System market has been evaluated as growing market and expected that the market will touch high growth figures in upcoming years. Absorb LMS, Moodle LMS, D2L bright space LMS, Edmodo LMS, and Canvas LMS are some of the popular learning management software in the market. Major industries such as IBM Corporation, Xerox Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and Edmodo among other prominent players are serving the demand of learning management software by industries such as corporate and academics among others. Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 40 market data tables and figures spread over 110 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on "The Global Learning Management System Market Research Report -Forecast to 2022. Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1858 Learning Management System Market: The Learning Management System can be segmented into services, deployment model and applications. Learning management software provides various services which include content management, performance management, administration, communication & collaboration among others. These services are provided by using cloud and on-premise deployment model to serve application sectors such as corporate and academics among others. The major participants of this market are Edmodo (California), Blackboard, Inc. (U.S.), IBM corporation (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), Xerox corporation (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), McGraw-Hill Education (U.S.), Cornerstone On demand, Inc. (U.S.), D2L Corporation (Canada), and Saba Software, Inc. (U.S.) among others. Market Research Analysis: A Learning management system is a software which manages and control all administrative framework of educational and corporate training & development context. It provides web based and mobile tools and infrastructure with powerful API and integration process to the management of the industries. The growing concern for quality education and learning system is playing an important role in increasing the market of learning management software in the global region. Also, improving and increasing cloud solutions is supporting the market growth of this industry. The cost-effective solution of the learning management software and increasing government initiatives is also fueling the market growth. However, lack of skilled expertise is the current challenges for the market growth. Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/learning-management-system-market-1858 Commenting on the report, an analyst from Market Research Future (MRFR)'s team said: "Growing need for Learning Management System for training & development especially in academics and corporate sector is the key trend for this market. Growing cloud computing technology is developing opportunity for software developers to build efficient learning management software to serve the growing demand and therefore, America and Asia-pacific countries are taking many initiatives to build strong market of Learning Management System in the region " According to the report, Asia-pacific region is growing due to high demand of cost effective learning management solution by the industries and thereby is increasing Learning Management System market in the region. Further, the report state less maturity in end-users is a challenge to the market growth. Browse Related Report Global Corporate E-learning Market Information, by Technology (Web-Based, LMS, LCMS, Podcasts, Virtual Classrooms, Mobile E-Learning), by Training Type (Instructor-led & Text based, Outsourced) - Forecast 2016-2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/corporate-e-learning-market-1381 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact Akash Anand, Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Market Research Future Related Links https://www.marketresearchfuture.com LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six women are this year's LDEI Legacy Award recipients. Each has earned a mentorship opportunity with LDEI. LDEI's Legacy Awards competition is open to women in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and United Kingdom who have a minimum of four years of industry experience. Established in 2009, the awards are supported by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, juliachildfoundation.org. The Legacy Awards Programs and Winners: Dame Araceli Ramos, Director of PR, Mundo Cuervo/Jose Cuervo in Guadalajara, Mexico, welcomes Kellie Thorn, winner of the Fine Beverage and Hospitality Category, to the world of Tequila crafting. Thorn, a beverage director for Hugh Acheson, will learn all the facets of agave farming, distillation and aging. Dame Susan Ungaro, President of The James Beard Foundation, welcomes Culinary Category winner Paige Bloskey to the James Beard House to work alongside guest chefs during dinners. Chef Bloskey is the first female Head Chef of Farestart, a nonprofit culinary training/catering program in the Pacific Northwest. Dames Carolyn Wente and Amy Hoopes of Wente Family Estates will immerse Wine Category winner Jenny Dorsey in winemaking at America's oldest family-owned winery. Chef Dorsey, an award-winning chef consultant, will expand her wine appreciation and knowledge. Dame Kari Leitch, Vice President of Communications and Corporate Affairs at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, WA, welcomes Wine Category winner Ann Brydle to the oldest winery in Washington State. A wine scholar and educator, Brydle manages Cascadia, a wine/liquor store that focuses on the Pacific Northwest. She will learn about the winery's two locations and wine tourism industry. Dame Barbara Hanley and Shy Brothers Farm, a New England artisanal farmstead cheese company, will host Farm to Table Category winner Shelley Robinson, executive chef and Chopped Canada winner, who will learn about making award-winning cheese. Her experience will enhance her passion for mentoring young chefs. Dame Christine Burns Rudalevige and the New England chapter welcome Vanessa Driscoll Bialobreski, founder of Farm to Table Events in Columbia, SC. Winner of the Farm to Sea to Table Journalism Category, Ms. Bialobreski will tour the New England Food System via fishing vessel, food hubs, and farms. LDEI is an international organization of women leaders in the food, fine beverage and hospitality industries with 2,200 members in 38 chapters. Visit LDEI.org. SOURCE Les Dames dEscoffier International (LDEI) Related Links http://www.ldei.org LEXINGTON, Ky., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexmark International, Inc., a global imaging solutions leader, announced today that David Reeder , Lexmark president and chief executive officer, has resigned for personal reasons, effective immediately. A search for a successor is underway. In the interim, Lexmark will be led by a management team consisting of Brock Saladin , senior vice president and chief revenue officer, and Allen Waugerman , senior vice president and chief technology officer. Reeder began his tenure at Lexmark as chief financial officer in January 2015 . He was named president and chief executive officer in November 2016 . This change of leadership at Lexmark will not impact the impending sale of Lexmark Enterprise Software. Supporting Quote "All of the Lexmark family want to thank David Reeder for his impressive efforts as CEO of the company, and as CFO as well," said Mickey Kantor, chairman of the Lexmark Board of Directors. "We wish him and his family the best in the future. "The Board of Directors, investors and all Lexmark executives are deeply committed to the success of our company and our priorities for the future. The changes we are experiencing will only make us stronger," said Kantor. "Lexmark remains focused on delivering industry-leading products and services to customers, while profitably growing our business with an emphasis on worldwide expansion," added Kantor. Supporting Resources About Lexmark Lexmark creates innovative imaging solutions and technologies that help customers worldwide print, secure and manage information with ease, efficiency and unmatched value. Open the possibilities at Lexmark.com. Lexmark, the Lexmark logo and Open the possibilities are trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc., registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Lexmark International, Inc. Related Links http://www.lexmark.com LANSING, Mich., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Liquid Web, LLC, (www.liquidweb.com), a $100-million managed hosting provider focused on web-reliant professionals, today announced the appointment of Jeff King to the company's board of directors. King brings more than 25 years of technology leadership experience to his seat on the board. "We admire what Jeff did with the GoDaddy Pro brand, and we look forward to his contributions to our business strategy and product development as we focus on fulfilling the hosting needs for small to medium businesses and the designers, developers, and agencies that create for them," said Liquid Web CEO Jim Geiger. "Jeff's appointment to our board signifies Liquid Web's continued dedication to serving businesses that are born in and dependent on the cloud and web to deliver products and services to the masses." Most recently, King held the title of senior vice president and general manager of hosting and security at GoDaddy. In this position, King oversaw the hosting and security business unit. King is also an affiliate of the Webb Investment Network, which provides entrepreneurs with assistance across all areas of the startup lifecycle. The group's dedication to investing in companies that use technology to improve the way the world operates, cements not only King's passion for the industry, but also his belief that the right technology can make or break a business. "I am excited to join Liquid Web and be part of a team with such a stellar reputation for customer service and is focused on helping web professionals that require managed hosting needs," King said. "With its 20 years of industry experience, Liquid Web is a proven leader in managed web hosting. I look forward to helping expand its portfolio and showcasing the individuals that power their incredible customer service experience, which takes the hassle out of hosting and allows customers to focus on growing their businesses." Jeff's vast experience in driving product teams has made him an invaluable resource to some of Silicon Valley's biggest names, and over the course of his career he has held leadership positions at eBay, Magento, Cybersource/Visa, and Sun Microsystems. He lives in California with his wife of 17 years and his two daughters. Outside the office, you can find Jeff traveling with his family or climbing the Santa Cruz mountains on his bike. About Liquid Web Liquid Web powers content, commerce and potential for SMB entrepreneurs and the designers, developers and digital agencies who create for them. The $100 million web hosting and cloud services provider known for its high- performance services and exceptional customer support delivers reliable, highly-available, secure and hassle-free hosting backed with a human touch. Liquid Web offers a broad portfolio designed so customers can choose a hosting solution that is hands-on or hands-off or a hybrid of the two. The company owns and manages its own data centers, providing a diverse range of offerings spanning from bare metal servers and fully managed hosting to managed WordPress and continues to evolve its service offerings to meet the ever-changing needs of its web-reliant, professional customers. With over 30,000 customers spanning 150 countries, the company has assembled a world-class team, global data centers and an expert group of 24/7/365 solution engineers. As an industry leader in customer service*, the rapidly expanding company has been recognized among INC Magazine's 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for the last ten years. Liquid Web is part of the Madison Dearborn Partners family of companies. Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC ("MDP") is a leading private equity investment firm based in Chicago. For more information, please visit www.liquidweb.com, or read our blog posts at http://www.liquidweb.com/blog. Stay up to date with all Liquid Web events on Twitter and LinkedIn. *2016 Net Promoter Score of 71 Media Contacts: Liz Pandzich Phone: 248-304-1444 Email: [email protected] Terry Trout Email: [email protected] SOURCE Liquid Web Related Links http://www.liquidweb.com We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. DENVER, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Colorado real estate brokerage, LIV Sotheby's International Realty, announced today that it would represent one of the most significant listings in the American West. The listing, West Creek Ranch, is a 6,919-acre land and estate property located in Mesa County, Colorado (approx. 6,412 acres) and in bordering Grand County, Utah (approx. 507 acres). West Creek Ranch is the property of John Hendricks, founder and former chairman of Discovery Communications, the global media company that owns Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet networks, among many other ventures. The estate, and the four distinct land parcels included in the sale, are a collection of some of the most enduring and treasured natural geological wonders in the canyonlands of the American West, which, surrounded by natural open space, will be preserved for years to come. "I look forward to reaching out to touch the same emotions in the next curator that inspired John Hendricks and drove him to preserve this fascinating and one-of-a-kind treasure in perpetuity for all to enjoy," said LIV Sotheby's International Realty listing broker, Kerry Endsley. West Creek Ranch is a spectacularly diverse private retreat property boasting one of the finest residences in the world. The many expanses of West Creek Ranch include the scenic and verdant Gill Meadows parcel, with its historic ruins of Driggs Mansion, nestled within the soaring and majestic precambrian rock cliff walls of Unaweep Canyon; the remote Blue Creek parcel noted for its bear and mountain lion habitat; the expansive high plateau country of the Sky Mesa parcel containing a stunning log cabin retreat and helipad, with magnificent views of the La Sal Mountains of Utah; and the West Creek Ranch Headquarters parcel encompassing the 22,000 square-foot main residence, irrigated horse and bison pastures, fishing ponds, grass airstrip and hangar, helipad, stables, astronomical observatory, and trout stream. These unique ranch properties offer their owner the ultimate private wilderness retreat -- all within minutes of one of the finest resorts and spas in North America, Gateway Canyons. This listing also includes the Sky Adventures office building and airplane hangar located at Grand Junction Regional Airport, for buyers who may wish to have commercial rental property, a base of operations or the ability to conveniently hangar their private jet. West Creek Ranch is owned by the developer of the boutique resort Gateway Canyons, also located in Gateway, Colorado. West Creek Ranch's proximity to Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa affords the owner access to dining, spa, pools and other amenities of a resort voted in 2016 by Travel + Leisure readers as the "Best in the West," the #5 Best Resort in the U.S. and the #16 Best Resort in the World. West Creek Ranch is conveniently accessed by nearby Grand Junction Regional Airport and a quick helicopter trip or scenic 55-minute drive through majestic Unaweep Canyon. The ranch headquarters parcel also has a grass airstrip for use by small private aircraft. West Creek Ranch offers a complete range of outdoor adventure and sporting activities. Dinosaur fossils and Native American rock art, scattered throughout the properties as well as on surrounding public land, complete this offering of a unique and spectacular swath of the American West. Land and Acreage In addition to the ranch headquarters parcel (approx. 277 acres) containing the main residence, the West Creek Ranch parcels include Sky Mesa (approx. 5,803 acres), Gill Meadows (approx. 389 acres) and Blue Creek parcels (approx. 450 acres). The deeded lands of West Creek Ranch are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, assuring unspoiled views protected landscapes from all ranch parcels. The expansive natural landscape views in all directions from the West Creek Ranch main residence contain no views of neighboring properties or structures. Main Residence Constructed over a three-year period, from 1999-2001, the West Creek Ranch main residence was designed in stunning Southwestern style by architect Jamie Daugaard of Centre Sky Architecture, designer of luxury homes throughout the West, including the Yellowstone Club in Montana. The main residence features exquisite finishes and craftsmanship throughout more than 22,000 square feet of indoor living space that includes eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms on four levels, oversized elevator servicing all four levels, a great room, formal dining room, breakfast room, chef's kitchen, spacious study, art studio, theater room, game room, gym, staff quarters, pool and spa, four water fountains, six fireplaces, a two-level circular stone library, interior marble archways and columns, modern and geo-thermal heating and cooling, a backup generator, a five-car garage, a helipad, and all furnishings (exclusive of personal items such as art and fossils). The main residence also contains approximately 3,500 square feet of covered verandahs with furniture, thereby bringing the total living indoor and outdoor space up to more than 25,500 square feet. Conservation Land West Creek Ranch includes a tract of 4,040 acres on the Sky Mesa parcel constituting the Cottonwood Canyon nature habitat and wilderness area that has been placed for protection in a conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy. Although this conservation area can be enjoyed for scenic hikes, camping, fishing, and elk hunting, no new roads or structures can be added to this treasured wildlife habitat area. In addition, 78 acres of land containing the ruins of the historic Driggs Mansion on the Gill Meadows parcel have been placed in a conservation easement with the Mesa Land Trust for long term protection. Scenic and Geologic Attributes West Creek Ranch includes one of the most majestic and awe-inspiring viewscapes in North America, containing breathtaking views of soaring red rock canyons, the stunning Palisade landform, the snow-capped La Sal Mountains, the winding green riparian areas of the Dolores River and West Creek, unique geologic features of ancient Unaweep Canyon with its vast exposure of precambrian rock, the undisturbed natural wilderness habitat of Cottonwood Canyon, and wondrous mesa-top overlooks of Sinbad Valley and the Dolores River Canyon. In addition, dinosaur fossils and Native American rock art are scattered throughout the property. Hunting and Grazing West Creek Ranch provides hunting opportunities for mule deer, elk, mountain lion, and bear, and a large variety of small game and waterfowl. The ranch lies within Game Management Unit 61, home to the Uncompaghre plateau herds of over 10,000 elk and 17,000 mule deer. West Creek Ranch also holds BLM cattle grazing permits with an allotment of 520 AUMs. Other features and facilities of West Creek Ranch include: Observatory with 20" Meade Telescope and rotating copper dome Creekside Guest House (2 bedrooms, 1 bath), separate garage, and all furnishings (2 bedrooms, 1 bath), separate garage, and all furnishings Stables with office and shower facilities Two irrigation ponds, pump house, and modern sprinkler irrigation system 2,800 irrigated grass air strip Aircraft hangar Summer Cabin at Sky Mesa (3 bedrooms, 2 baths), helipad, and all furnishings with separate garage Irrigated and wood-post fenced pastures currently containing American bison, American quarter horses, one Belgian draft horse and miniature horses Grazing land with winter pastures capable of supporting a total of 285 cattle pairs More than 1,000 hay-able acres of land In total, the residential structures of West Creek Ranch (including the main residence, guest house, stables, and Sky Mesa cabin) contain a total of 14 bedrooms, 12 full baths, and 2 half baths Sky Adventures Office Building and Hangar at Grand Junction Regional Airport This offering includes the 17,333 square foot Sky Adventures office building and hangar located at Grand Junction Regional Airport. The building and hangar are used currently as a base for owner and VIP guest transport to West Creek Ranch and Gateway Canyons Resort (by helicopter, luxury vehicle or Sprinter van). The Sky Adventures building has 11 offices that may be rented to third parties or recaptured for use by the owner upon expiration of the current leases. Water Rights West Creek Ranch holds significant water rights in western Mesa County, Colorado and eastern Grand County, Utah, that are supplied from the Dolores River and various tributary streams. A monument to the American West, ownership of West Creek Ranch is a rare and special opportunity. For more information, contact LIV Sotheby's International Realty listing broker, Kerry Endsley, at 303.570.0267, or visit www.westcreekranch.com, To service all your real estate needs visit www.livsothebysrealty.com. SOURCE LIV Sotheby's International Realty Related Links http://www.livsothebysrealty.com STAINES-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical company, today confirmed enrollment of the first patient in the company's Phase 2B study designed to assess the efficacy and safety of H.P. Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) as a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously granted the company's request for a Fast Track designation and orphan status for its H.P. Acthar Gel Investigational New Drug application in patients with ALS. The drug is not FDA-approved for the ALS indication. "ALS is a rare and incurable disorder that impacts patients from all walks of life," said Todd Levine, M.D., founder and director of the Phoenix Neurological ALS Clinic and adjunct Professor of Neurology at Kansas University. "The community welcomes new research aimed at further understanding the disease and potential new treatments for ALS." "We are pleased to announce the first patient in this important study of Acthar in ALS patients," said Steven Romano, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President at Mallinckrodt. "This multi-center, double blind, placebo-controlled trial will evaluate the effects of the drug on established measures of disease symptoms and progression, enabling us to assess the potential value Acthar may bring to patients with this devastating disease." About the PENNANT Trial The Phase 2B clinical study is titled "A Multicenter, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of H.P. Acthar Gel in the Treatment of Subjects with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis." The study will enroll patients ages 18 to 75 with ALS and symptom onset (defined as first muscle weakness or dysarthria) two years prior to the screening visit. Subjects will be randomized on a 2:1 basis to receive subcutaneous (SC) H.P. Acthar Gel 0.2 mL (16 units) daily or SC matching placebo 0.2 mL daily for 36 weeks. The efficacy of H.P. Acthar Gel will be assessed using standard measures of functional decline, including change from baseline in the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised, assessed after 36 weeks of therapy. Approximately 195 patients will be enrolled across multiple sites. Find more information about the Pennant trial here on the ClinicalTrials.gov website. About ALS ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neuron cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain and the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their demise and when the motor neurons die, voluntary and involuntary muscle movement is lost. With the progressive loss of motor neurons, people with ALS may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. There is increasing evidence that neuro-inflammation accompanies the death of motor neurons in ALS. Several inflammatory events that appear to accompany disease progression in ALS might be amenable to pharmacologic interventions as a component of disease management, and research in the field is investigating new approaches to implement an anti-inflammatory strategy for treating ALS1. About H.P. Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) H.P. Acthar Gel is an injectable drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of 19 indications. Of these, today the majority of H.P. Acthar Gel use is in these indications: As an orphan monotherapy medication for the treatment of infantile spasms (IS) in infants and children under 2 years of age. Inducing a diuresis or a remission of proteinuria in nephrotic syndrome without uremia of the idiopathic type or that due to lupus erythematosus. Treatment of acute exacerbations of multiple sclerosis in adults. Use during an exacerbation or as maintenance therapy in selected cases of systemic lupus erythematosus. Use during an exacerbation or as maintenance therapy in selected cases of systemic dermatomyositis (polymyositis). Use as adjunct therapy for short-term administration in psoriatic arthritis; rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis to tide patients over an acute episode or exacerbation. Treatment of symptomatic sarcoidosis. Treatment of severe acute and chronic allergic and inflammatory processes involving the eye and its adnexa such as: keratitis; iritis, iridocyclitis, diffuse posterior uveitis and choroiditis, optic neuritis, chorioretinitis; anterior segment inflammation. For more information about Acthar, please visit www.acthar.com. Please click to see full Prescribing Information and Medication Guide. Important Safety Information Contraindications Acthar should never be administered intravenously. Administration of live or live attenuated vaccines is contraindicated in patients receiving immunosuppressive doses of Acthar. Acthar is contraindicated where congenital infections are suspected in infants. Acthar is contraindicated in patients with scleroderma, osteoporosis, systemic fungal infections, ocular herpes simplex, recent surgery, history of or the presence of a peptic ulcer, congestive heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension, primary adrenocortical insufficiency, adrenocortical hyperfunction or sensitivity to proteins of porcine origins. Warnings and Precautions The adverse effects of Acthar are related primarily to its steroidogenic effects. Acthar may increase susceptibility to new infection or reactivation of latent infections. Suppression of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis may occur following prolonged therapy with the potential for adrenal insufficiency after withdrawal of the medication. Cushing's Syndrome may occur during therapy but generally resolves after therapy is stopped. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms. Monitor patients for elevation of blood pressure, salt and water retention, and hypokalemia. Acthar often acts by masking symptoms of other diseases/disorders. Monitor patients carefully during and following discontinuation. Acthar can cause gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and gastric ulcer with an increased risk for perforation with certain GI disorders. Monitor for signs of bleeding. Acthar may be associated with central nervous system (CNS) effects ranging from euphoria, insomnia, irritability, mood swings, personality changes, depression, and psychosis. Existing conditions may be aggravated. Patients with comorbid disease may have that disease worsened. Caution should be used in patients with diabetes and myasthenia gravis. Prolonged use of Acthar may produce cataracts, glaucoma and secondary ocular infections. Acthar is immunogenic and prolonged use may increase the risk of hypersensitivity reactions. There is an enhanced effect in patients with hypothyroidism and those with cirrhosis of liver. Long-term use may have negative effects on growth and physical development in children. Monitor pediatric patients. Decrease in bone density may occur. Monitor during long-term therapy. Pregnancy Class C: Acthar has been shown to have an embryocidal effect and should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus. Adverse Reactions Common adverse reactions include fluid retention, alteration in glucose tolerance, elevation in blood pressure, behavioral and mood changes, increased appetite and weight gain. Specific adverse reactions reported in IS clinical trials in infants and children under 2 years of age included: infection, hypertension, irritability, Cushingoid symptoms, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, pyrexia, weight gain, increased appetite, decreased appetite, nasal congestion, acne, rash, and cardiac hypertrophy. Convulsions were also reported, but these may actually be occurring because some IS patients progress to other forms of seizures and IS sometimes mask other seizures, which become visible once the clinical spasms from IS resolve. Please see full Prescribing Information here for additional Important Safety Information. ABOUT MALLINCKRODT Mallinckrodt is a global business that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. Areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; and analgesics and hemostasis products. The company's core strengths include the acquisition and management of highly regulated raw materials and specialized chemistry, formulation and manufacturing capabilities. The company's Specialty Brands segment includes branded medicines and its Specialty Generics segment includes specialty generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and external manufacturing. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com . Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website. CONTACTS Investor Relations Coleman N. Lannum, CFA Senior Vice President, Investor Strategy and IRO 314-654-6649 [email protected] Daniel J. Speciale, CPA Director, Investor Relations 314-654-3638 [email protected] Media Rhonda Sciarra Senior Communications Manager 908-238-6765 [email protected] Meredith Fischer Chief Public Affairs Officer 314-654-3318 [email protected] 1 The ALS Association, Our Research, Focus Areas, Disease Mechanisms. http://www.alsa.org/research/focus-areas/disease-mechanisms/ Accessed May 22, 2017. SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc Related Links http://www.mallinckrodt.com SAN FRANCISCO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mesosphere the creators of DC/OS, a premier platform for building and running data-rich, containerized applications was selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum's "technology pioneers," a selection of the world's most innovative companies. Founded by engineers from Germany and co-headquartered in San Francisco and Hamburg, Germany, Mesosphere is leading the enterprise transformation toward distributed computing and hybrid cloud. The World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers community are early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society. The 30 technology pioneers that made it to the final selection are active in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, biotechnology, blockchain, cybersecurity, the (industrial) internet of things, and other pioneering technologies. Following its selection as Technology Pioneer, CEO Florian Leibert of Mesosphere will be participating in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions. This meeting, also dubbed "Summer Davos" will be held in Dalian, China, June 27-29. Many Pioneers will also attend the Annual Meeting in Davos, in January 2018, and continue to participate in dedicated Technology Pioneer community events in the course of the next two years. "We welcome Mesosphere in this group of extraordinary pioneers," says Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. "We hope that thanks to this selection, the World Economic Forum can facilitate greater collaboration with business leaders, governments, civil society and other relevant individuals to accelerate the development of technological solutions to the world's greatest challenges." "It's a great honor for Mesosphere to be acknowledged by the World Economic Forum as a technology pioneer," said Florian Leibert, CEO of Mesosphere. "We live in a time of dramatic change, as characterized by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Rapid changes in information technology make possible digital transformation, within enterprises and governments, as well as broadly across society. Our datacenter operating system (DC/OS) provides a fundamental building block in bringing about this transformation. This recognition means that we are on the right track for helping to foster the new connected economy." The Technology Pioneers were selected by a selection committee of more than 60 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. Notable members of the committee include Geoffrey Moore (Adviser, Geoffrey Moore Consulting, USA), Yossi Vardi (Chairman, International Technologies, Israel) and Lee Sang-Yup (Distinguished Professor and Dean, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea). The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact and leadership. Past recipients include Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Scribd, Spotify, Twitter and Wikimedia. All info on this year's Technology Pioneers can be found here: http://wef.ch/techpioneers17. More information on past winners can be found here. About Mesosphere: Mesosphere is leading the enterprise transformation toward distributed computing and hybrid cloud. Mesosphere DC/OS is the premier platform for building, deploying, and elastically scaling modern applications and big data. DC/OS makes running containers, data services, and microservices easy across your own hardware and cloud instances. Mesosphere was founded in 2013 by the architects of hyperscale infrastructures at Airbnb and Twitter and the co-creator of Apache Mesos. Mesosphere is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in New York and Hamburg, Germany. Mesosphere's investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Microsoft. About World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org). SOURCE Mesosphere Related Links https://mesosphere.com CLERMONT-FERRAND, France and NORCROSS, Ga., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Michelin today announced that it has agreed to acquire NexTraq, a U.S. provider of commercial fleet telematics, in an all-cash transaction. Based in the Atlanta area, NexTraq is a subsidiary of FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FLT), a leading global provider of fuel cards and workforce payment products. NexTraq provides solutions for driver safety, fuel management and enhancing fleet productivity. Since its inception in 2000, NexTraq has become a leading provider of GPS fleet management solutions for fleets of small commercial vehicles (classes 35) ranging from two to 50 vehicles. "Telematics and fleet management services are a rapidly growing category worldwide and an important area of Michelin Group's overall business plans," said Ralph Dimenna, chief operating officer for Michelin Americas Truck Tires, the heavy truck unit of Michelin North America. "NexTraq represents a strategic acquisition that accelerates our growth in telematics with synergies that increase our scale, expand our geographic footprint and strengthen overall competitiveness in fleet management technology and services in the United States." "While we were able to grow NexTraq's operating income nearly 400 percent since we acquired the business and to generate a strong return for our shareholders, our decision to divest NexTraq centered on the conclusion that there is insufficient synergy with our core payments business to stay invested in the space," said Ron Clarke, chairman and chief executive officer of FLEETCOR. "We would especially like to thank the NexTraq management team for their hard work and success in building a market-leading telematics business." NexTraq has 117 employees, approximately 7,000 fleet customers and 116,000 individual subscribers. The unit will operate independently within Michelin North America. "NexTraq has technology that, among other capabilities, monitors reckless driving and stops texting while driving. This capability is an excellent cultural fit with Michelin's purpose and long-standing commitment to road safety," Dimenna said. The closing of the acquisition is subject to completion of certain customary conditions, including clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. About Michelin Group Michelin, the leading tire company, is dedicated to enhancing its clients' mobility, sustainably; designing and distributing the most suitable tires, services and solutions for its clients' needs; providing digital services, maps and guides to help enrich trips and travels and make them unique experiences; and developing high-technology materials that serve the mobility industry. Headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Michelin is present in 170 countries, has 111,700 employees and operates 68 production facilities in 17 countries which together produced 187 million tires in 2016. About Michelin North America Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America (www.michelinman.com) employs about 22,700 and operates 19 major manufacturing plants. About FLEETCOR FLEETCOR is a leading global provider of fuel cards and workforce payment products to businesses. FLEETCOR's payment programs enable businesses to better control employee spending and provide card-accepting merchants with a high volume customer base that can increase their sales and customer loyalty. FLEETCOR serves commercial accounts in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. For more information, please visit www.FLEETCOR.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about FLEETCOR's beliefs, expectations and future performance, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "seek," "project," "expect," "may," "will," "would," "could" or "should," the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include statements relating to the anticipated consummation of the transaction. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, such as failure to complete, or delays in completing, this transaction as well as the other risks and uncertainties identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in FLEETCOR's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 1, 2017. FLEETCOR believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and FLEETCOR does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of such statements to reflect future events or developments. SOURCE Michelin Related Links http://www.MichelinMedia.com "MilliporeSigma has developed an incredible tool to give scientists the ability to find new treatments and cures for conditions for which there are limited options, including cancer, rare diseases and chronic conditions, such as diabetes," said Udit Batra, CEO, MilliporeSigma. "This patent decision recognizes our expertise in CRISPR technologya body of knowledge that we are committed to grow." MilliporeSigma has patent filings for its insertion CRISPR method in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the U.S. CRISPR genome-editing technology, which allows the precise modification of chromosomes in living cells, is advancing treatment options for some of the toughest medical conditions faced today. CRISPR applications are far-rangingfrom identifying genes associated with cancer and rare diseases to reversing mutations that cause blindness. MilliporeSigma has a 14-year history in the genome-editing field. It was the first company to offer custom biomolecules for genome editing globally (TargeTron RNA-guided group II introns and CompoZr zinc finger nucleases), driving adoption of these techniques by researchers all over the world. MilliporeSigma was also the first company to manufacture arrayed CRISPR libraries covering the entire human genome, accelerating cures for diseases by allowing scientists to explore more questions about root causes. With MilliporeSigma's CRISPR genomic integration technology, scientists can replace a disease-associated mutation with a beneficial or functional sequence, a method important for creation of disease models and gene therapy. Additionally, scientists can use the method to insert transgenes that label endogenous proteins for visual tracking within cells. In May 2017, MilliporeSigma announced that it had developed an alternative CRISPR genome-editing method called proxy-CRISPR. Unlike other systems, MilliporeSigma's proxy-CRISPR technique can cut previously unreachable cell locations, making CRISPR more efficient, flexible and specific, and giving researchers more experimental options. MilliporeSigma has filed several patent applications on its proxy-CRISPR technology, and those applications are just the latest of multiple CRISPR patent filings made by the company since 2012. In addition to basic gene-editing research, MilliporeSigma supports development of gene- and cell-based therapeutics and manufactures viral vectors. In 2016, MilliporeSigma launched a genome-editing initiative aimed at advancing research in novel modalitiesfrom genome editing to gene medicine manufacturingthrough a dedicated team and enhanced resources, further solidifying the company's commitment to the field. All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany news releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the EMD Group website. In case you are a resident of the U.S. or Canada please go to www.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register again for your online subscription of this service as our newly introduced geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service. About the Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. Udit Batra is the global chief executive officer of MilliporeSigma. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany completed its $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich in November 2015, creating a leader in the $125 billion global life science industry. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company has six businesses Biopharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Allergopharma, Biosimilars, Life Science and Performance Materials and generated sales of 15 billion in 2016. Around 50,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to foster the success of customers and to help meet global challenges. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company since 1668, the company has stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. Holding an approximately 70 percent interest, the founding family remains the majority owner of the company to this day. The company holds the global rights to the name and the trademark "Merck" internationally except for the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials. SOURCE MilliporeSigma "Senator Schupp is a true advocate in Missouri working tirelessly for the citizens of the state who have mental health needs. We are proud to present her with this prestigious award which she has earned through her hard work and dedication. Her continued leadership makes her a lifesaver and ally in AFSP's mission to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide," said John Madigan, vice president of public policy for AFSP . Senator Schupp has made mental health a priority, including sponsoring SB 328 in 2015 and SB 646 in 2016. Provisions within SB 646 were ultimately signed into law, now requiring that Missouri school districts adopt youth suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policies and encouraging suicide prevention training for licensed educators statewide. She also recognizes the need for regular training for health professionals in suicide assessment, treatment, and management, as made evident by her leadership in moving SB 490 forward during the 2017 session. Over 200 advocates from AFSP, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, were present to acknowledge the work of this life saving champion. The advocates were in Washington, D.C. for four days to meet with their members of Congress to encourage them to invest in mental health and suicide prevention. The awards program included volunteers who have lost loved ones to suicide or who have their own lived experience with a suicide attempt, along with mental health professionals, suicide prevention allies, members of Congress and their staff, advocacy groups, and other leaders in the field. Suicide in Missouri Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death overall in Missouri. For people aged 10-24 in Utah, it is the third leading cause of death. For those aged 25-34, it is the second leading cause of death. On average one person dies by suicide every 8 hours in the state. ** Photos of the award being presented available upon request. ** The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that's smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide. AFSP celebrates 30 years of service to the suicide prevention movement. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. SOURCE American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Related Links http://www.afsp.org DALLAS and MUMBAI, India, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MoneyOnMobile, (OTCQX: MOMT) has received the 'The Best Mobile Payment Solution of the Year' Award at the Elets Digital Banking & Payments Conclave held on 18th May 2017, Mumbai and the 'Best Implementation of Digital Payments' Award at the BusinessWorld Digital India Summit, held on 26th May 2017 at New Delhi. MoneyOnMobile launched its ATM to facilitate cash withdrawals at MoneyOnMobile's retail network pan India and has now successfully implemented the ATM at more than 1500 retail stores. "It is very heartening to note that our efforts to democratize digital payments in India has brought us a lot of recognition. Recently MOM ATM received two prestigious awards from the Digital Payment industry. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate team MoneyOnMobile for their efforts in making this possible," commented Jt. Managing Director, Mr Ranjeet Oak. "We are proud and honored to have our team recognized by these prestigious institutions. The team is always thinking of how they can provide our retailers the best products and solutions to help with their business. Recognition like this validates the thoughtful energy and dedication our team gives every day and inspires them to always be striving for continued improvement," said Harold Montgomery, Chairman and CEO of MoneyOnMobile, Inc. About MoneyOnMobile MoneyOnMobile, Inc. is a global mobile payments technology and processing company offering mobile payment services through its Indian subsidiary. MoneyOnMobile enables Indian consumers to use mobile phones to pay for goods and services or transfer funds from one cell phone to another. It can be used as simple SMS text functionality or through the MoneyOnMobile application or Internet site. MoneyOnMobile has more than 330,000 retail locations throughout India. Safe Harbor Statement This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of any entity. This release contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business, which include the risk factors disclosed in our Form 10-K filed on August 19, 2016. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," and "would" or similar words. We assume no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Web site: http://MoneyOnMobile.in Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoneyOnMobile Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoneyOnMobile LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MoneyOnMobile YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxqO4N1z9acnQmEysjqfBaQ SOURCE MoneyOnMobile Related Links http://moneyonmobile.in PASADENA, Calif., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lender Price, the emerging leader in digital mortgage interface technology and real-time, competitive mortgage analytics and product pricing & eligibility (PPE) solutions complete with full mobile functionality and advanced business intelligence, announced that Black Knight Financial Services' Motivity Solutions will use pricing data from Lender Price's industry-leading PPE to provide pricing analytics to its users. Motivity Solutions is a comprehensive mortgage business intelligence offering from Black Knight Financial Services that provides lenders with instant access to information from multiple data sources to help forecast and monitor loan performance. The technology delivers real-time analytics to help proactively monitor, measure and manage lenders' operations through key performance indicators, scorecards, executive dashboards and on-demand reporting. "Combining Lender Price pricing data with the capabilities of Motivity Solutions will deliver robust analytics to help lenders better manage their businesses," said Lender Price founder and CEO Dawar Alimi. "Additionally, through our relationship with Black Knight, we are able to use our fully configurable digital mortgage technology to create synergies with deep analytic opportunities for Motivity users." The Lender Price digital loan application interface, which can be client-branded and configured to each lender's specific requirements, is being integrated with Black Knight's Empower loan origination system (LOS), which enables lenders to originate both first mortgages and home equity loans and lines of credit on a single system. When used together, the Lender Price and Black Knight solutions support the origination process by: Providing consumers the ability to complete a digital loan application using their mobile device; Offering a voice-enabled solution in multiple languages; Delivering real-time product eligibility, interest rates and fees; Securing verification of credit, income and assets through a combination of Black Knight's Exchange technology and proprietary integrations provided by Lender Price; Verifying property and tax details using Black Knight's vast public records database or by leveraging Black Knight's Data Hub, which gathers, aggregates and links Black Knight application and proprietary industry data to provide a holistic view of a client's loans; Obtaining property valuations using a Black Knight automated valuation model, tested for accuracy and reliability; and Uploading documents from any mobile device using optical character recognition (OCR) technology and index those documents in Empower. Lender Price will demonstrate this solution at the Motivity Solutions User Conference, June 19-21, in Colorado. About Black Knight Financial Services, Inc.: Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated technology, data and analytics solutions that facilitate and automate many of the business processes across the mortgage lifecycle. Black Knight Financial Services is committed to being a premier business partner that lenders and servicers rely on to achieve their strategic goals, realize greater success and better serve their customers by delivering best-in-class technology, services and insight with a relentless commitment to excellence, innovation, integrity and leadership. More information on Black Knight Financial Services: http://www.bkfs.com/. About Lender Price: Lender Price is a California-based big data technology innovator and developer of a digital mortgage platform, real-time, competitive mortgage analytics and product pricing & eligibility (PPE) platform complete with full mobile functionality and unprecedented business intelligence. With Lender Price, wholesale and correspondent lenders, banks, and credit unions can knowledgably manage product pricing for all mortgage types: conforming, non-conforming, non-QM, and specialty loans. The PPE platform delivers innovative features that include built-in compliance checks, secondary marketing tools, margin management, lock desk, customized workflows and mobile app. More information: https://lenderprice.com/ or email: [email protected]. *LOGO: Send2Press.com/mediaboom/s2p-Lender-Price-Logo-300dpi.jpg This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE Lender Price Related Links https://lenderprice.com STOUGHTON, Mass., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MSD, a leading alternate site patient supply chain solutions provider in the United States, providing products, distribution services, biomedical services and technology solutions to the Home Infusion Therapy, Home Medical Equipment, and Oncology Markets, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Attentus Medical Sales, a premier distributor of medical, packaging, and USP 797 & 800 compliance products specifically designed to service the Home Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy markets. We would like to welcome Attentus to the MSD family. MSD's acquisition of Attentus allows us to align our highly complementary products and technologies to address the expanding needs of the post-acute care market, which leverages MSD's nationwide infrastructure. The combination will create a highly differentiated distribution, medical device, and technology solutions company uniquely positioned to improve both the delivery and efficiency of care for healthcare providers and patients. The transaction will build on MSD's leadership position in the post-acute market with an expanded offering of solutions across the care continuum. Additionally, Attentus' strong product portfolio and innovative product pipeline will increase MSD's opportunities in fast-growing post-acute market, and the combination will enhance growth opportunities for the combined company. "The quality of the Attentus products, services and most importantly, the people, are exceptional! We are very excited to be combining these two great companies," said Tom Burke, President and CEO of MSD. "This new partnership will be incredibly beneficial to our customers and business partners. No doubt, better together!" "The combination of our two companies makes us a stronger team in serving the infusion, specialty pharmacy and compounding pharmacy sectors," said Jason Jodway, President of Attentus. "Attentus has a long track record of providing customized solutions, product innovation and outstanding care to our customers. MSD provides for the perfect fit to extend our reach across the post-acute care continuum. I couldn't be more excited for the future of our combined efforts." ABOUT MSD: MSD delivers business process outsourcing solutions in the form of supply chain, medical device management and technology solutions, which enable post acute care healthcare providers to strengthen their businesses and to focus on the best possible outcomes for their patients. The MSD customer-centric focus and commitment to quality shapes its entire suite of offerings including an automated First Touch Resolution customer service, white glove delivery programs, and ISO process certifications. MSD's portfolio of services includes formulary development, online ordering, equipment management and tracking, patient direct delivery programs, and an accredited ambulatory pump program serving the oncology marketplace. MSD is an authorized distributor for most of the healthcare industry's leading group purchasing organizations and is also ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 134585:2003 certified. To learn more about MSD visit www.msdonline.com. ABOUT Attentus Medical Sales Attentus Medical Sales, Inc., based in Houston TX, is a leading nationwide manufacturer and distributor of medical products specializing in cold chain packaging, USP <797> & <800> compliance products, infusion pumps and supplies, back packs and fanny packs for portable infusion pumps, and various other medical supplies. Attentus Medical services the compounding pharmacy, home infusion, specialty pharmacy, and HME markets. Founded in 2003, Attentus has experienced tremendous growth every year with a continuous focus on developing solutions for our customer's ever changing needs in this dynamic marketplace. We strive to provide the highest levels of personal attention and consideration to the client. Each client will have a dedicated sales rep and customer service rep as well as have their phone call answered by a live person every time. We are dedicated to providing a high level service and the consultative support for all your business needs. www.attentusmedical.com. The Walden Group, Inc. (Tarrytown, NY) was the financial advisor to Attentus. SOURCE MSD Related Links http://www.msdonline.com Now in its second year, this program at Kripalu features luminaries in different fields celebrating and exploring the role of storytelling in the healing process. Program creator Lisa Weinert states, "Our program is based upon a belief that storytelling is a timeless practice that cannot be separated from a physical and spiritual experience." This year features medical, literary, and spiritual experts, including Dr. Rita Charon, Director of the program in narrative medicine at Columbia University, former Poet Laureate Marie Howe, psychotherapist Stephen Cope, master yoga teacher Jillian Pransky, acclaimed author Nellie Hermann, integrative medical doctor Lisa Nelson, Reverend Jacqui Lewis, and VP of the Writers Guild Paul Morris. Featured experts, including program creator Lisa Weinert, are available for interview to discuss: How narrative medicine works; how storytelling can save lives Why doctors benefits from reflective writing How meditation and yoga impacts the creative and healing path Hands-on narrative and listening tools for the teacher, doctor, caregiver or patient to utilize The transformative healing power of beautiful language The spirituality of storytelling The hope of Narrative Medicine: A Cutting-Edge Approach to Healthcare at Kripalu is to foster a healing conversation and nurture a community to support meaningful reform. Register here. Contact: Lisa Weinert 917.399.5268 @lisaweinert www.lisaweinert.com SOURCE Lisa Weinert Consulting Related Links http://www.lisaweinert.com HOUSTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is traveling to the Portland area June 20-23 to share opportunities for research that could lead to new accomplishments aboard the International Space Station. Astronaut Don Pettit, an Oregon native, will share his perspective on space research opportunities and the special vantage point over Earth that the orbital laboratory provides. Station scientist Camille Alleyne also will participate in events alongside Center for the Advancement of Science in Space's (CASIS) Director of Commercial Innovation Cynthia Bouthot. From 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 20, Pettit and NASA representatives will visit the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry at 1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, to give presentations about life and the science aboard the space station. NASA's "Driven to Explore" mobile exhibit also will be available to the public during this time frame. From 11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 21, representatives from NASA and CASIS will highlight the many commercial opportunities the space station provides for researchers and employees at Adidas at 5055 N Greeley Ave, Portland. From 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Thursday, June 22, NASA and CASIS will be at the Nike Headquarters at 1 Bowerman Drive, Beaverton, OR to meet with Nike representatives and discuss opportunities for research aboard the International Space Station. On Friday, June 23, the NASA and CASIS teams will split their time between Columbia Sportswear headquarters at 14375 NW Science Park Drive, Portland, from 9:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. and FLIR Systems at 27700 SW Parkway Avenue, Wilsonville, OR, from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crews, at: http://www.nasa.gov/station Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram and Twitter: http://instagram.com/iss http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov TUSTIN, Calif., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New American Funding, a leader in the mortgage industry, has named Joe Smith the new Regional Sales Manager over Arizona. Smith, a top-producing mortgage professional, will be responsible for expanding the company's brand statewide by recruiting new Loan Officers, identifying additional branch locations, and growing sales volume. He'll also work one-on-one with Loan Officers to maximize their loan production. "I'm thrilled about this new opportunity," said Smith. "You can do loans anywhere. I came to New American Funding because the culture and people make the difference. They're willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. Furthermore, the marketing for Loan Officers is the best that I've seen in the industry. This winning combination makes it a great environment for the originator to thrive." Smith, who is a 15-year veteran in the mortgage industry, has worked as a branch manager for the majority of his career. In his previous role, Smith was the top-recruiting manager for the western division at an independent mortgage lender. "Bringing Joe on board to New American Funding's team has been an excellent fit. His integrity and first-rate reputation in the marketplace are in direct alignment with our goals and views," said Milt Karavites, Regional VP. "We have the utmost confidence in his ability to lead our Arizona growth. Not only does he possess a passion for mortgage banking but he distinctly understands the needs of the Loan Officer, Real Estate Agent, and buyer." Smith looks forward to building New American Funding's presence in Arizona because it's a prime market for housing growth. He's been in the region for more than 20 years since graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor's degree in Business Management. In his new position, Smith will be based in the Phoenix metro area. About New American Funding New American Funding is a national mortgage banker licensed in 48 states with 130+ branch locations that offer a variety of home loan options including: Conventional, FHA, Cash Out, Fixed Rate and Adjustable Rate Mortgages, VA, HARP 2.0, Jumbo, and Reverse Mortgages. The company is a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae Direct Seller/Servicer, FHA Direct Endorsement, and VA Automatic mortgage lender. SOURCE New American Funding Related Links http://www.newamericanagent.com/ LAS VEGAS, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New Jersey's online casinos have now generated more than $100 million in total tax revenue for the state after posting another strong showing in May, according to analysts from PlayNJ.com. The New Jersey Monthly Internet Gross Revenue Report, which was released Wednesday by the state's Division of Gaming Enforcement, showed that legal online casinos generated $21.1 million in gross revenue during the 31 days in May. That pushed New Jersey to $101.25 million in total tax revenue generated since New Jersey legalized online casino games and poker in 2013. "Even naysayers cannot deny the impact of New Jersey online gambling, which has now contributed more than $100 million to state coffers," said Robert DellaFave, senior analyst for PlayNJ.com. "New Jersey's online gambling industry may be the state's only new revenue stream to both generate more than $100 million in tax dollars and to do it without placing a heavy burden on citizens." May gross revenue was up from $20.8 million in April and nearly reaching the record $21.7 million in March. The impressive tally comes in spite of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which typically suppresses online gambling revenue. Nowhere has the impact of regulated online gambling been felt more than in Atlantic City, which is using the reinvestment tax as part of a state rescue plan to pay down hundreds of millions of dollars of the city's debt. "Atlantic City is inundated with debt, but thanks to tax revenue contributions from online gambling, the beleaguered city stands a stronger chance of making a full recovery," DellaFave said. For more information and analysis on regulated online gaming in New Jersey, visit PlayNJ.com. About The PlayUSA Network: The PlayUSA Network is a leading source for news, analysis, and research related to the market for regulated online gaming in the United States. With a presence in over a dozen states, PlayUSA.com and its state-focused branches (including PlayNJ.com, PlayNY.com, PlayPennsylvania.com, and PlayCA.com) produce daily original reporting, publish in-depth research, and offer player advocacy tools related to the advancement of safe, licensed, and legal online poker and gaming options for consumers. Contacts: Zack Hall, DVA Advertising & PR, 541-389-2411, [email protected] SOURCE The PlayUSA Network Related Links http://www.PlayUSA.com HARRISBURG, Pa., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania ranks 36th among all states when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents and people with disabilities, according to a new, state-by-state Scorecard produced by AARP with support of the nation's leading organizations behind quality long-term care, The Commonwealth Fund and SCAN Foundation. AARP warns that the Scorecard shows much more must be done, at an accelerated pace, to address the need for long-term services and supports in the face of changing demographic demands. Specific areas of concern in Pennsylvania include the affordability and access of long-term care and providing support for the state's 1.6 million family caregivers. Picking Up the Pace of Change: A State Scorecard on Long-Term Services and Supports for Older Adults, People with Physical Disabilities, and Family Caregivers the third in a series of reportsranks each state overall and on 25 specific indicators in 5 key dimensions: affordability and access; choice of setting and provider; quality of life and quality of care; support for family caregivers; and, effective transitions between nursing homes, hospitals and homes. "The vast majority of older Pennsylvanians want to live independently, at home, as they agemost with the help of unpaid family caregivers," says Bill Johnston-Walsh, state director of AARP Pennsylvania which serves more than 1.8 million members age 50 and older in Pennsylvania. "Even facing tight budgets, Pennsylvania is making some progress to help our older residents achieve that goal. However, this Scorecard shows we have more to do, and we need to pick up the pace." SUPPORTING FAMILY CAREGIVERS Today, unpaid family caregivers provide the bulk of care for older Pennsylvanians, in part because the cost of long-term care remains unaffordable for most middle income families. In Pennsylvania, more than 1.6 million residents help their aging parents, spouses and other loved ones stay at home by providing assistance with bathing and dressing, transportation, finances, complex medical tasks like wound care and injections, and more. The value of this unpaid care totals about $19 billion annually. "When it comes to helping older Pennsylvanians live in the setting of their choice, family caregivers take on big responsibilities," explains Johnston-Walsh. "Many juggle full-time jobs with their caregiving duties; others provide 24/7 care for their loved ones. With every task they undertake, these family caregivers save the state money by keeping their loved ones out of costly nursing homes most often paid for by Medicaid. They have earned some basic support." The Scorecard shows Pennsylvania ranks 43rd nationally in supporting family caregivers. To help provide additional assistance to caregivers, AARP Pennsylvania is fighting to modernize outdated rules that will broaden the scope of practice for nurse practitioners and allow them to use all their advanced training and skills to care for patientswhen and where care is needed. The Association is also fighting to allow nurses in Pennsylvania to delegate basic health maintenance tasks to home aides, giving nurses more time and opportunity to focus on treating patients and supporting family caregivers. IMPROVING MEDICAID SPENDING FOR HOME AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES "Pennsylvania has made some progress to improve long-term services and supports for older adults and people with disabilities, as highlighted in this Scorecard. But, proposals in Washington, D.C. to drastically cut federal funding for Pennsylvania's Medicaid program would threaten these advancements, likely resulting in our most vulnerable citizens losing the lifesaving supports that they count on," says Johnston-Walsh. The single strongest predictor of a state's long-term care system is the reach of its Medicaid safety net. That's why AARP Pennsylvania is also fighting to expand services provided at home and in the community, by shifting funds away from undesirable and more expensive nursing home care. The Scorecard highlights additional concerns related to institutional care in Pennsylvania, including high costs, the duration of stays and successfully transitioning patients back into the community. The Scorecard ranks Pennsylvania 30th in the percentage of Medicaid long-term care dollars for older adults and people with physical disabilities that support care provided at home and in the communitythe care setting that most older residents prefer. In fact, just 31% of Medicaid and state-funded spending for long term services and supports goes to home and community-based services for older people and adults with physical disabilities. WHAT'S NEXT The Scorecard reveals that in less than 10 years, Boomers will begin to turn 80, placing new expectations and demands on a still imperfect long-term care system. Further, this generation will have far fewer potential family caregivers to provide unpaid help. Of the 25 indicators measured on the Scorecard, many may be improved through state policy changes, pointing to the importance of AARP's multi-state advocacy campaign, launched in 2014, to help older Americans live independently, at home, and to support the family caregivers that support them. "This Scorecard gives us a snapshot of how well Pennsylvania serves our older residents, those with disabilities, and family caregiversand shows us where we must sharpen our focus to better assist hardworking Pennsylvanians," concludes Johnston-Walsh. "Now is the time for policymakers to act." The full state Scorecard, along with an interactive map of state rankings and information, is available at www.longtermscorecard.org. About AARP AARP has 1.8 million members in Pennsylvania. Follow AARP Pennsylvania on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AARPPA and on Twitter @AARPPA. AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With nearly 38 million members and offices in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and advocate for what matters most to families with a focus on health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also works for individuals in the marketplace by sparking new solutions and allowing carefully chosen, high-quality products and services to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world's largest circulation publications, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media. CONTACT: Steve Gardner, AARP PA (717) 237-6481 or [email protected] Or Jacklyn Isasi, AARP PA (267) 825-9928 or [email protected] SOURCE AARP Pennsylvania Related Links http://www.aarp.org NEWARK, N.J., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ONEder, a leading provider of special education software, today announced that their platform was named a 2017 SIIA CODiE Award finalist in the Best Data Solution category. Finalists represent applications, products and services from developers of educational software, digital content, online learning services and related technologies across the PreK-20 sector. ONEder enables educators to deliver personalized lessons, and provides real-time data to principals and administrators, allowing educators to spend more time in the classroom. ONEder has partnered with over 100 school districts, nationwide, and is dedicated to helping close the opportunity gap. The SIIA CODiE Awards are the premier awards for the software and information industries, and have been recognizing product excellence for over 30 years. The awards offer 93 categories that are organized by industry focus of education technology and business technology. ONEder was honored as one of 160 finalists across the 34 education technology categories. "I am impressed by the level of innovation and creativity demonstrated by the 2017 CODiE award finalists. These products are opening doors for learners of all ages by combining new technologies with research about how people learn in order to respond to student and educator needs," said Bridget Foster, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN), a division of SIIA. "We are honored to be finalists in the Best Data Solution category," stated ONEder's Founder and President, Jonathan Izak. He continued, "the CODiE awards are an important showcase, pointing the way forward for educators everywhere. Solutions like ONEder are already making a difference in closing the opportunity gap." The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry's only peer-reviewed awards program. Educators and administrators serve as judges and conduct the first-round review of all education nominees. Their scores determine the SIIA CODiE Award finalists, and SIIA members then vote on the finalist products. The scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners. Winners will be announced during a CODiE Award Winner Ceremony in San Francisco on July 26 at the Education Impact Symposium, hosted by the Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN), a division of SIIA. Details about each finalist are listed at http://www.siia.net/codie/Finalists About the SIIA CODiE Awards The SIIA CODiE Awards is the only peer-reviewed program to showcase business and education technology's finest products and services. Since 1986, thousands of products, services and solutions have been recognized for achieving excellence. For more information, visit siia.net/CODiE. About ONEder Founded in 2011 by Jonathan Izak, ONEder seamlessly connects special education's many moving parts, enabling educators to deliver personalized lessons, manage student IEP goals, and track student progress through one simple, easy-to-use platform. ONEder provides real-time data to principals and administrators, allowing educators to spend more time in the classroom, and empowering them with new tools for rigorous instruction, while supporting the specific needs of individuals with disabilities. For more information, visit www.oneder.com PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12646344 SOURCE ONEder Related Links http://www.oneder.com CHICAGO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA), one of Chicago's largest public accounting firms, is pleased to welcome Ashley Cejka, Colin O'Neill and Mallory Parker to its Tax Department. The firm also welcomes Carolyn Callahan and James Knowles to its Accounting Services Department. Ashley Cejka, CPA brings more than five years of public accounting experience to ORBA's Tax Department. She specializes in corporate and multi-state tax returns. She also has experience with preparing and reviewing quarterly and year-end tax provisions and responding to IRS and state notices and other tax-related inquiries. Colin O'Neill, JD is adept with preparing individual, partnership, corporate and fiduciary tax returns, as well as completing tax projections and contributing to tax planning projects. Mallory Parker, CPA specializes in preparing complicated federal, state, local, international, gift and trust tax returns. She possess a broad knowledge on state, local and international tax compliance and has experience with researching complex tax issues for clients. Carolyn Callahan brings more than 20 years of tax and accounting experience to ORBA's Accounting Services Department. She is adept in preparing monthly financial statements, administering payroll wage distribution, preparing bank reconciliations, and income tax preparation for corporations, partnerships and individuals. James Knowles is a member of ORBA'S Accounting Services Department. Previously, he was a member of the firm's Tax Processing Department and assisted with the preparation of individual and business tax returns. Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA) is a full-service accounting, tax and business consulting firm located in downtown Chicago serving privately-held companies, individuals and not-for-profit organizations. ORBA's Certified Public Accountants have experience with accounting and assurance, business advisory services, financial and estate planning, fraud investigation, tax, litigation, and mergers and acquisitions. With some of the highest levels of direct client involvement in the industry, ORBA is where clients go to build long-standing, meaningful and successful relationships with resourceful, proactive business and tax advisors. For more information, visit www.orba.com. Subscribe to our blog www.orbablog.com or connect with us on LinkedIn. Contact: Carlo Calma 312.670.7444 [email protected] SOURCE Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA) Related Links http://www.orba.com DAEJEON, South Korea, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Orum Therapeutics announced today the completion of an $8 million Series A financing with InterVest, KB Investment (KBIC)/Solidus Investment, and LB Investment. The proceeds of the funds will be used to advance Orum's cell-penetrating antibody technology to create novel therapeutics. In addition, Yeo Jung Moon, M.D, Ph.D., Investment Division Director at Intervest, will join Orum's board of directors. "We were impressed with Orum's cell-penetrating antibody platform, which can transform antibodies to effectively target undruggable cytosolic targets, without chemical conjugation and with target cell specificity," said Dr. Moon. "We look forward to providing our expertise and guidance as the company creates new treatments for cancer and rare diseases." "We are honored to work with leading Korean venture capital firms, who have the experience in early-stage biotechnology companies," Sung Joo Lee, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of Orum Therapeutics. "The financing will support our first program in oncology targeting activated RAS protein, a highly-validated cancer drug target involved in aggressive cancers." RAS proteins function to transmit signals within cells that control cell growth, differentiation and survival. Mutations found in human cancers result in RAS being constitutively activated. Although the pivotal role of RAS mutants in cancer initiation and progression was discovered nearly 35 years ago, previous efforts to develop agents directly targeting activated RAS have been plagued with the undruggable properties of RAS mutants. Scientists from Ajou University and Orum Therapeutics recently published a paper in Nature Communications describing the preclinical characterization of a cytosol-penetrating and then Ras targeting antibody designed with Orum's technology. The data showed that systemic administration of the antibody could selectively inhibit activated RAS to achieve anti-tumor activity for human colorectal and fibrosarcoma xenograft tumors in mice. "The recent publication supported the further development of our cell-penetrating antibodies as an anti-cancer agent," said Sung Joo Lee, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of Orum Therapeutics. "We believe our technology has the capacity to create the first-in-class RAS-targeted therapeutic antibody for pancreatic, colon and non-small cell lung cancers with RAS mutations." About InterVest Founded in 1999, InterVest Co., Ltd. is a venture capital firm specializing in startups and early stage businesses and provide pre-initial public offering financing through mezzanine and bridge transactions. It typically invests in biotechnology, healthcare, semiconductor, display, metal and non-metal, energy, machinery, nanotechnology, telecommunications equipment and services, wireless communication terminal-related hardware, computer, software and applications and digital content sectors in Korea. About KB Investment Founded in 1990, KB Investment Co., Ltd. (KBIC) is one of Korea's leading investment firms of venture capital and private equity funds with over USD$1.4 billion of asset under management as of December 2013. KBIC is a subsidiary of KB Financial Group, Korea's premier financial group with the largest domestic customer base as well as the widest network of service branches in Korea. For more information: http://www.kbic.co.kr/eng/about/summary.asp. About Solidus Investment Founded in 2011 by CHA Medical Center Group, Solidus Investment Co., Ltd is a venture capital firm focused on discovering and investing in companies with growth potential in green energy, IT, and biotechnology, including agricultural and marine products. For more information: http://www.solidusvc.com/eng/. About LB Investment Founded in 1996, LB Investment is a venture capital firm that is known as one the best and most active fund managers in Korea. The company has repeatedly received the A+ grade since the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) started VC evaluation. LB opened its Shanghai office in 2007 and has expanded its investment area into growth equity since the implementation of capital market act. LB Investment makes trendsetting investments in high-growth industries and technologies and provides proactive post-investment management with value-addition by utilizing extensive proprietary networks in Korea and China. For more information, http://lbinvestment.com/english/. About Orum Therapeutics, Inc. Orum Therapeutics is a private biotech company developing a new class of therapeutic antibodies to bring new medicines to patients with unmet medical needs. Orum leverages its unique cell penetrating antibody platform to inhibit drug targets undruggable by small molecule or current antibody therapeutics. In contrast to other approaches, Orum's antibody platform can target specific cell types, is easily adaptable to target different cell types and different intracellular proteins, and does not require chemical modification. This provides new opportunities to treat severe genetic diseases and cancer. For more information, http://www.orumrx.com. SOURCE Orum Therapeutics Related Links http://www.orumrx.com BELLEVUE, Wash., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OSNEXUS, the leading developer of Software-Defined Storage (SDS) solutions, and Pogo Linux, a leading provider of server and storage products, today announced that QuantaStor SDS will be offered on the Pogo Linux Storage Sentinel Q4236 Secure NAS Appliance. This new storage solution will provide an unprecedented level of security for industries such as law enforcement, financial services, healthcare, and defense. The Storage Sentinel Q4236 NAS Appliance consists of a robust hardware platform supporting data-at-rest encryption combined with the latest version of QuantaStor SDS -- compliant with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) standard. With a combination of both encrypted spinning disk and ultrafast solid state drive storage, the Storage Sentinel provides performance for the most demanding jobs while also adhering to the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specification for encryption. This provides true data-at-rest security, even if an individual gains unauthorized access to the physical media of the storage appliance. In addition to hardware security, the Storage Sentinel Q4236 NAS Appliance is powered by the latest version of QuantaStor SDS which provides security features compliant with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) standard. These features include activity audit logging, strict password strength and expiration requirements, system use notifications, data encryption in motion, and secure data shredding and role-based access controls (RBAC). As a complete package the Storage Sentinel SD provides a robust solution that is specifically designed for secure environments. "With QuantaStor SDS' high-performance platform and the Pogo Linux Storage Sentinel Q4236 Secure NAS Appliance, companies and public sector organizations can now securely and cost-effectively manage large amounts of data across their global datacenters or on-premises sites," said Steve Umbehocker, CEO of OSNEXUS. "By combining our optimal hardware configuration with QuantaStor SDS, Pogo offers a complete solution that solves the traditional issues of scale-out storage while also providing the high level of security demanded by our customers. This is all backed by Pogo's award winning support and warranty coverage," said Erik Logan, CEO of Pogo Linux. The Pogo Linux Storage Sentinel SD Secure NAS Appliance with QuantaStor SDS allows IT administrators to set up and manage complex open source scale-out file (ZFS), block and object storage technologies with only a few mouse clicks for use cases including high-performance computing, big data, virtualization, and backup and archive. Key Features of the Pogo Linux Storage Sentinel Secure NAS Appliance with QuantaStor SDS: Audit Logging - Appliances automatically maintain audit logs of all operations with time-stamps, user ID, task/operation, client IP, and description so that systems meet regulatory security compliance requirements set forth by CJIS. Encryption and Security Policy Compliance Complies with CJIS security policy standards ranging from end-to-end encryption to password policy enforcement to audit logging. Advanced RBAC Security Model - Utilizes role-based-access-controls (RBAC) grouping authorization of actions/operations into roles that are separate from resource groups enabling multi-tenancy and scoping of permissions to a user's objects, all objects in the user's associated resource group(s), or to an entire grid of appliances. Configure a Storage Sentinel NAS Appliance here on the Pogo Linux website or call 888-828-7646 or email [email protected] to speak with an SDS storage expert. About OSNEXUS Founded in 2010, OSNEXUS helps companies manage their storage ranging from small sites to hyperscale deployments across global datacenters with its QuantaStor industry-leading Software Defined Storage (SDS) platform. The QuantaStor Software Defined Storage platform provides scale-out file, block, and object storage as a single, easy-to-manage solution. Deployed by Fortune 500 companies, QuantaStor SDS addresses a broad set of storage use cases including server virtualization, big data, cloud computing, and high performance applications through scale-out physical and virtual storage appliances. About Pogo Linux From a single system to an entire datacenter deployment, Pogo Linux has provided servers, workstations, and storage appliances to universities, corporations, and government institutions for almost 20 years. With a focus on custom configurations, cutting edge technologies, and exceptional support, Pogo has been a trusted advisor to the IT community since 1999. 2017 OSNEXUS Corporation. All rights reserved. OSNEXUS and QuantaStor are trademarks or registered trademarks of OSNEXUS Corporation. Product features, specifications, system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice. SOURCE OSNEXUS Related Links http://www.osnexus.com HARRISBURG, Pa., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This week, Dr. David Volkman, Executive Deputy Secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), discussed the importance of gender inclusivity at a symposium held at Temple University Harrisburg. The symposium, "Gender Inclusivity in PA Schools: Creating a Safe and Supportive School Climate", aims to accommodate and support students and their experiences regarding gender identity and expression. "We know that students need to feel safe to express themselves and to be themselves in order to learn, grow, and achieve," said Dr. Volkman. "It is critical that we work to support all Pennsylvanians, no matter their age, race, gender identity or expression. By providing schools and students with the tools they need to advocate for themselves and bolster systems of support, we ensure that they can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally." Promoting inclusivity at schools across the commonwealth has been a hallmark of the Wolf Administration's efforts over the past year. This spring, PDE released the Equity and Inclusion Toolkit, a resource to help Pennsylvania schools support students and advance existing efforts at the state and local levels to create and maintain positive settings that celebrate diversity and teach students the importance of respect for self and others. In creating the toolkit, PDE's Office of Safe Schools partnered with agencies like the Human Relations Commission (PHRC), the Center for Schools and Communities, intermediate units, and others to bolster efforts to ensure schools have resources to foster a positive culture and climate, and to respond to incidents of hate. PDE also provided resources, including a crisis plan template and curriculum guides, available online to educators. Safe Schools also provides resources on issues from combating dating violence to preventing suicide, and in 2016 introduced a toll-free bullying prevention consultation line (1-866-716-0424), which is available to students, parents/guardians, and educators. For more information about Pennsylvania's education policies and programs, visit the Department of Education's website at www.education.pa.gov or follow PDE on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. MEDIA CONTACT: Casey Smith, 717-783-9802 SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education Related Links http://www.education.pa.gov/ LONDON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Most Progressive Operational Excellence Summit on West Coast Operational excellence and transformation leaders from across the US will be heading to California to hear from 60+ inspirational speakers from some of the world's biggest brands - Kellogg's, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, LinkedIn, Starwood Hotels, Lockheed Martin, McAfee, The Coca-Cola Company, Comcast, Pentec Health, AT&T and many more, are already confirmed to share tactics and insights at the largest operational excellence gathering on the West Coast. For 19 years, OPEX Week has been well established at the forefront of operational excellence, continuous improvement and business transformation. This summer OPEX Week: Business Transformation World Summit Summer is headed to San Diego on August 21- 23, 2017. This year's program focuses on progressive OPEX, the move to value and how to remain relevant. The 2017 line up of speakers offer thought-leadership and in-depth case studies revealing those essential and tangible take-aways. With over 60 speakers and 80 individual sessions key themes include: Customer experience - creating a culture of customer-centricity and designing process with the customer in mind. The move to value - progressing OPEX beyond cost-cutter to strategist, innovator and driver of growth Transformation and change management - how to affect cultural change, acceptance, vision and behaviours to align with corporate strategy Business intelligence and data analytics - launching initiatives in key areas for better decision making and to support strategy and performance Leadership and culture - rethinking how to build motivation, engagement and influence Business architecture - bridging the gap between IT and business operations to build enterprise-wide programs and drive significant value Innovation - best practice approaches to furthering innovation while sustaining a culture of continuous improvement Disruptors and disruption - finding ways to leapfrog the competition using emerging technologies and future-state processes OPEX Week Summer enables opportunity. As the world moves forward and the role of OPEX continues to evolve, equipping yourself with the tools and techniques to not just keep pace with but to leapfrog the competition, is just one of many reasons to the operational excellence community in San Diego! View the full agenda to see the complete list of speakers and topics up for discussion at http://www.opexweeksummer.com. About PEX Network: The Process Excellence Network is a global community for process professionals, business leaders and executives who want to improve their businesses through process and operational excellence. With a global membership of 130,000+, and a burgeoning global portfolio of live events, webinars, and networking opportunities, our mission is to inspire and inform our members with access to practical advice on business improvement tools, methodologies and technologies in order to achieve their business goals. SOURCE PEX Network NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area. You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network it's easy and free! Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/queryform EXPERT ALERTS Americans Not Properly Prepared for Natural Disaster Diversity in Education MEDIA JOBS M&A Reporter Mergermarket (NY) West Coast Correspondent The Independent (CA) Reporter Debtwire Middle Market (NY) OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES 7 Rules for Creating a Successful Lead Generation Form for Your Blog Successful Women in PR: Leaning In & Climbing Up Blog Profiles: Tiny-House Blogs ------------------------------------------------------------------- EXPERT ALERTS: Americans Not Properly Prepared for Natural Disaster Nicolette Louissaint, Ph.D. Interim Executive Director Healthcare Ready "With the Atlantic hurricane season officially in full swing and predicted to be a busier than usual one (estimating up to nine hurricanes), it is important to share key information that can help those communities and people most vulnerable to a sudden impact from a natural disaster to be prepared and find ways to protect their and their families' heath. Natural disasters do not provide ample lead time, so it is important to take steps to prepare now." To take the pulse of American's level of preparedness and confidence in the face of a natural disaster, Healthcare Ready worked with YouGov to conduct a poll of 1,184 Americans. Overall, the findings showed that the second year in a row, the potential of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, tornado, flood or wildfire affecting their community as the greatest single disaster individuals are concerned about. America's concern about natural disasters (34%) continues to exceed worry about terrorist attacks (15%), cyber-attacks (6%), or environmental disasters (6%) combined. Based in Washington, D.C., Louissaint is available to speak on the impact of the survey findings and the importance of building community resilience before, during and after natural disasters and emergency events. Website: www.healthcareready.com Contact: Saara Khadir, [email protected] Diversity in Education Ronald W. Whitaker II, EdD Assistant Professor and Director, District and School Relations, School of Education; Co-Director, Center for Urban Education, Equity, and Improvement Cabrini University "When we talk about equity, we mean that all students -- regardless of their race or ethnicity, regardless of their socioeconomic status, regardless of their sexual orientation, regardless if their first language is not English -- deserve a quality education that prepares them to compete in the 21st century marketplace. We are also talking about addressing the social conditions that can impact the aforementioned. Too many people remain unaware of the true meaning of purpose. Purpose is not about individual pleasures or individual prizes; rather, true purpose, from a social justice lens, is about using your gifts to make an impact in the world." For 15 years, Whitaker has led various programming for black males and has focused his work on culturally relevant programming; identity and stereotype threat; critical race theory; issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and School, Academy, and Community (SAC) partnership development. He is revered amongst colleagues for engaging in "courageous conversations" in a respectful manner. Whitaker has been involved in prison ministry for five years. He speaks regularly at national and international conferences and at churches and community organizations. Whitaker is available to discuss culturally responsive pedagogy; urban education and teacher preparation; educational experiences of African American male students; diversity, equity, and inclusion; black liberation theology and the social gospel. Website: www.cabrini.edu Contact: Lori Iannella, [email protected] **************** MEDIA JOBS: Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers, editors and producers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/community/jobs/ M&A Reporter Mergermarket (NY) West Coast Correspondent The Independent (CA) Reporter Debtwire Middle Market (NY) ***************** OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES: Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line. 7 RULES FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL LEAD GENERATION FORM FOR YOUR BLOG. Blogging can (and should) do more than just update readers on the latest news and events of the day. When done right, your posts can educate readers, establish you as an authority in your field, and help position you as a go-to resource in your audience's time of need. But, you don't want to put all of your coveted information and expertise on the web for just anyone to find. Sometimes it's important to collect quality information about your audience -- before handing over the goods. Here's what you should know: http://bit.ly/2tmB7Se SUCCESSFUL WOMEN IN PR: LEANING IN & CLIMBING UP. There have been countless studies and think pieces published recently about the number of women in PR and their role in the field. Across the board, public relations is a field dominated by women and they're found at every level in the office but the numbers dwindle as soon as you hit the top. This can be found from the smallest agencies to the largest corporations. So, we decided it was time to recognize and celebrate the women who have made it to the top and gain their insight on how they got there. Together we can recognize and celebrate some of the wonderful and successful women in public relations: http://prn.to/2t2voBS BLOG PROFILES: TINY-HOUSE BLOGS. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Relations team selects an industry/subject and profiles a handful of sites that do a good job with promoting and contributing to the conversation. This week, they look at tiny-house blogs: http://bit.ly/2tmuMGz **************** PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire. SOURCE ProfNet Related Links http://www.profnet.com OXFORD, England, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PsiOxus Therapeutics, Ltd. (PsiOxus), the cancer therapeutics company, today announced expansion of operations into a 21,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility on the Abingdon Science Park in Oxfordshire, UK. Additionally, PsiOxus announced the opening of a new US facility in Plymouth Meeting near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This dual expansion will allow PsiOxus to accelerate the research and development of novel immune-oncology products in both the UK and the US. The Abingdon facility will be added to the current laboratory facility at Milton Park to provide a significant increase in both laboratory and office space. The Philadelphia facility represents the opening of the first PsiOxus office outside of the UK and it will initially focus upon business development, clinical development and regulatory activities. The recruitment of new staff is already well underway for both new sites. "We are delighted to be moving into our new state-of-the-art facilities on the Abingdon Science Park, UK," stated Priya Mande, Chief Operating Officer, PsiOxus. "This seven-fold increase in capacity allows us to bring on board new capabilities, expertise and people facilitating the continued growth of PsiOxus as a world leading immuno-oncology company and advancement of potential treatment options for cancer patients." Charles Morris, Chief Development Officer, PsiOxus and Head of the US facility stated, "Our office here just outside of Philadelphia will provide us with a US base to manage clinical trials and business development in close collaboration with our UK colleagues." John Beadle, CEO of PsiOxus added, "These two new facilities allow us to continue our ground breaking internal research and development activities on both sides of the Atlantic whilst also enhancing our ability to work with our globally located collaborators and partners, all with the common objective of developing new treatments for patients with cancer." About PsiOxus Therapeutics PsiOxus Therapeutics aims to be the world's leading immuno-oncolytic virus company, delivering medicines of value to patients with cancer. Our work is product and platform based with a focus on discovering and developing innovative immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors. Our products utilize enadenotucirev, our proprietary first generation oncolytic virus and our proprietary platform technology for next generation oncolytic viruses, Tumor-Specific Immuno-Gene Therapy (T-SIGn). The T-SIGn therapy platform is based on the company's oncolytic virus, enadenotucirev, which has properties that allow it to be delivered systemically via intravenous administration and to replicate only in tumor cells. The anti-cancer capability can be further enhanced through "arming" - a process that involves the addition of new genes into the virus. The armed T-SIGn platform makes possible creation of a broad range of systemically delivered oncolytic immune therapeutics including oncolytic viruses that express one or more antibodies, cytokines, immunomodulatory proteins, or nucleotide (RNA) based payloads. The T-SIGn platform is in preclinical stage, while phase I/II clinical trials are ongoing with enadenotucirev in different tumor types and with different combinations including checkpoint inhibitors and conventional chemotherapeutics.http://www.psioxus.com . Contacts : PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd. Abingdon, Oxfordshire. UK Priya Mande: +44-1235-835328, [email protected] PsiOxus Therapeutics Inc. Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. USA Charles Morris: +44-1235-835328, [email protected] SOURCE PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd. NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Q BioMed Inc. (OTCQB: QBIO), a biotechnology acceleration company, announced today that it will be a featured presenter at the 6th Annual Marcum MicroCap Conference on Thursday, June 15, 2017 in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The Company's presentation by Denis Corin, Q BioMed Inc. CEO, is scheduled to begin at 9:30a.m ET on Thursday June 15th in the Julliard Room. The presentation will cover the company's business strategy, pipeline, recent developments and look forward at milestones for the balance of 2017 and beyond. The presentation will be webcast, please visit this address to attend the webcast http://wsw.com/webcast/marcum5/qbio Since its launch in 2012, this event has become a nationally recognized forum for publicly traded companies with less than $500 million in market capitalization to network with fund managers and high net worth investors who focus on small cap equities. More than 2,000 participants from all segments of the microcap market participate each year, including senior management, finance and legal executives, venture and lower middle-market private equity investors, institutional investors, directors, investment bankers, buy- and sell-side analysts, and service providers to the microcap marketplace. Please sign up for company updates at http://www.qbiomed.com to stay informed and up-to-date with company developments. Follow us on Twitter @QBioMed About Q BioMed Inc. Q BioMed Inc. "Q" is a biomedical acceleration and development company. We are focused on licensing and acquiring undervalued biomedical assets in the healthcare sector. Q is dedicated to providing these target assets; strategic resources, developmental support, and expansion capital to ensure they meet their developmental potential, enabling them to provide products to patients in need. About Marcum LLP Marcum LLP is one of the largest independent public accounting and advisory services firms in the nation, with offices in major business markets throughout the U.S., Grand Cayman and China. Headquartered in New York City, Marcum provides a full spectrum of traditional tax, accounting and assurance services; advisory, valuation and litigation support; and an extensive range of specialty and niche industry practices. The Firm serves both privately held and publicly traded companies, as well as high net worth individuals, private equity and hedge funds, with a focus on middle-market companies and closely held family businesses. In 2015, Marcum's SEC Services Practice group led all non-"Big Four" accounting firms in the performance of audits in connection with Initial Public Offerings ("IPOs"). Marcum is a member of the Marcum Group, an organization providing a comprehensive array of professional services. For more information, visit http://www.marcumllp.com . Forward-Looking Statements: This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements include, but are not limited to, any statements relating to our growth strategy and product development programs and any other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could negatively affect our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated are:u risks related to our growth strategy; risks relating to the results of research and development activities; our ability to obtain, perform under and maintain financing and strategic agreements and relationships; uncertainties relating to preclinical and clinical testing; our dependence on third-party suppliers; our ability to attract, integrate, and retain key personnel; the early stage of products under development; our need for substantial additional funds; government regulation; patent and intellectual property matters; competition; as well as other risks described in our SEC filings. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law. Contact: Denis Corin CEO Q BioMed Inc. +1-888-357-2435 SOURCE Q BioMed Inc. ORLANDO, Fla., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RAPT Touch, a leading provider of touchscreen technology for the fast-growing interactive collaboration market, announced today its SOLAS Gen2 Anytouch Platform. The SOLAS Gen2 Platform, announced at InfoComm17 in Orlando, Florida, uniquely enables large displays with an entirely new set of features, leading to advanced applications which finally convert old 'one-way' LCD panels into fully interactive team work sessions supported by the cloud. "At RAPT we see a seismic shift underway in the manner in which teams collaborate," said Cathal Phelan, RAPT CEO. "Mobile and remote workers want to participate in meeting room sessions but can't because collaboration technology hasn't been available. RAPT's SOLAS Technology brings large interactive screens online, finally supporting full collaboration with the broader team through the Cloud. With SOLAS ideas are shared in an intuitive manner either with multiple simultaneous ultra responsive passive styli or through the full multi-touch experience we've all grown to love." Historically touchscreens for 30" and larger LCD screens have delivered a disappointing experience for users, especially compared to the touchscreen experience they have enjoyed on smartphones and tablets. RAPT's SOLAS Platform delivers a more advanced experience than mobile products via a fully integrated technology. The SOLAS Platform's unique features include: The most natural passive stylus and passive eraser writing experience Pressure sensitivity built in, turbo charging creativity applications A beautiful edge to edge 'flush finish' design users have come to expect Pixel to pixel precision on high resolution screens Unmatched features to cost ratio of any multi-touch technology "RAPT's passive stylus experience is at the heart of this transformation of the interactive display," added Phelan. "For the user to see their writing directly below the stylus on a beautiful 4k 75" display, with pixel level resolution the experience feels as close to pen and paper as one could imagine. Delivering the very best multi-touch experience with no raised bezel and never seen before features RAPT's technology is a key enabler for the fast growing interactive collaboration wave." SOLAS provides Consumer Electronics Companies with the platform necessary to work seamlessly with RAPT Hardware Reference Designs. With SOLAS, RAPT's customers have the ability to fully customize and enhance the experience of RAPT enabled products. RAPT's SOLAS unique features: 'Flush-finish' Designs Extreme Low Latency Up to 20 Simultaneous Fine-tip Passive 'Styli' Passive Eraser Pressure Recognition 'Off-the-shelf' Components No Special Film Layers in Product Ease of Manufacturing Low Cost Basis Established in 2008 by Owen Drumm and Gerry Giblin, RAPT's patented FTIR multi-touch technology is the clear alternative to projected capacitive systems. RAPT's technology provides new breakthrough features at a cost which enables OEMs to sell competitively in mass volume. RAPT is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and led by a world-class team of industry veterans with expertise in launching products to be manufactured in the millions of units. RAPT has offices in Silicon Valley, Taiwan and Switzerland. About RAPT (http://www.rapttouch.com) SOURCE RAPT Touch Related Links http://www.rapttouch.com BOSTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Recorded Future, the threat intelligence company, today launched its Connect value added reseller (VAR) partner program. The Recorded Future Connect Program provides resellers deal registration and competitive margins for selling the most comprehensive threat intelligence product available. The threat intelligence market is growing at 84 percent CAGR and is expected to hit $1.5 billion in 2018 (IT-Harvest), and Gartner estimated that 60 percent of enterprises will utilize commercial threat intelligence services to help inform their security strategies by that same timeframe. The launch of the Connect Program comes at a time of aggressive growth for Recorded Future in which the company continues to scale its operations to meet the rising demand for its solution across North America, Europe, and Asia. VAR partners can leverage Recorded Future's momentum and technology to create a net new revenue stream for growing their topline. Partners that qualify for the Connect Program, can offer their customers Recorded Future's threat intelligence powered by patented machine learning to deliver automation, context, and relevancy, to respond to emerging threats up to 10 times faster. Unlike laborious manual processes that limit the scope of analysis, Recorded Future collects applicable threat intelligence from an unparalleled breadth of sources in real time and delivers customized alerts to dramatically improve operational efficiency and network defense. Some of the many benefits for VARs include: Intelligence briefings from experienced analysts. Access to unique research and insight from the Insikt Group (Recorded Future's world-class domain experts in technical threat intelligence and foreign adversary tactics). Deal registration, margin and renewal discounts. Product trials and resources. Sales training, tools and support. Technical support and resources. Technical and sales certifications. Threat Intelligence marketing campaigns and support. Recorded Future can also be used to enhance existing vulnerability management, incident response, and threat assessment services, and has certified integrations with Splunk Enterprise/ES, HPE ArcSight, IBM QRadar, Resilient, Maltego, and more. These integrations provide a way for Connect VARs to take advantage of security technology they may already be selling to partners. Connect VARs have access to support and resources for Recorded Future productized integrations for building larger security software solutions sets. "We are on a mission to bring threat intelligence powered by machine learning to the masses at a time when enterprises are plagued by an expanding threat landscape. With increasing need for organizations to implement a proactive threat intelligence strategy, value added resellers are the perfect partners to support our aggressive growth." Christopher Ahlberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Recorded Future "The Connect Program is a great opportunity for VARs to differentiate themselves in the market by filling a gap in their security portfolio and providing an innovative offering to existing customers, all while enhancing their trusted security advisor status with their customers." David Sauer, Director of Global Channels at Recorded Future "Strategic partnerships with leading technology vendors such as Recorded Future are critical to the success of Red River and the security of our customers. Joining the Connect Partner Program allows us to better serve our customers by helping to address increasingly complex threat intelligence challenges. Red River's comprehensive arsenal of solutions and services which include critical data center, security, network infrastructure, collaboration and functional mobility challenges will be enhanced with the addition of the Recorded Solution partnership." Dominic Agostino, Partner Alliance Manager at Red River Global Recorded Future Connect VARs Recorded Future is already partnered with industry-leading VARs: Acensi, Angara Technologies Group, August Schell, Bacher Systems, BlackSite International, BlackLake Security, Blue Bay Technologies, Blue Turtle Technologies, Brookcourt Solutions, Communication Valley Reply, Gulf Business Machines, EJADA Systems, HIC Networks, Hurricane Labs, Integration Partners, iSECURE, PacketLogix, Proficio, Red River, RTP Computer Services, S21sec, SecureLink, Set Solutions, StarLink (Distributor), Stratejm, Telexiom, Tiberium Security, Versos, and WavePort Security. How to Participate Participation in the partner program will enable Recorded Future's VARs to strategically become next-generation threat intelligence trusted advisors to their customers. For more information on the Connect Program or to become a Connect VAR partner, please visit go.recordedfuture.com/partner. About Recorded Future Recorded Future delivers threat intelligence powered by machine learning, arming you to significantly lower risk. We enable you to connect the dots to rapidly reveal unknown threats before they impact your business, and empower you to respond to security alerts 10 times faster. To supercharge the efforts of human analysts and SOC teams, our patented technology automatically collects and analyzes intelligence from technical, open, and dark web sources. Recorded Future delivers radically more context than threat feeds alone, updates in real time so intelligence stays relevant, and packages information ready for human analysis or instant integration with your existing security technology. 86% of the Fortune 100 use Recorded Future every day to reduce risk. Learn more at www.recordedfuture.com and follow us on Twitter at @RecordedFuture. SOURCE Recorded Future Related Links http://www.recordedfuture.com Freight charge for the 2018 Sonata is $885. Created at Hyundai's California Design Studio and assembled at Hyundai's manufacturing facility in Montgomery, Alabama, the 2018 Sonata builds on the model's strong legacy. Distinctive new exterior styling transforms Sonata's visual signature. The dramatic new appearance is highlighted by Hyundai's bold new "cascading grille" in front and an all-new rear with more prominent branding and relocation of the license plate in the bumper. New sheet metal for the sculpted hood, front fenders, and trunk makes the dynamic new look possible. In addition, redesigned alloy wheels (16, 17, and 18-inch) and distinctive illumination from vertical LED DRLs, LED headlights, and LED taillights further highlight the assertive and advanced exterior design. Inside, the renewed center stack and instrument panel now create more visual dimension and add a premium feel to echo the exterior's eye-catching new looks. Changes in the cabin include a sporty three-spoke steering wheel and piano-key buttons for the audio and HVAC controls, while the standard seven-inch color display audio system is prominently displayed. The current Sonata has been well received by owners for its ride and handling, and Hyundai engineers further refined the chassis for 2018. To achieve this, the rear suspension receives 21 percent thicker trailing arms to better manage heavy suspension loads, while new bushings allow for more ride compliance and quicker response times. The steering system's torsion bar stiffness has been increased by 12 percent to improve steering responsiveness and new steering calibration further improves on-center feel. The top-of-the-line 2.0T engine is mated to a new eight-speed automatic transmission, which adds ratio range at both the top and bottom for improved performance and efficiency. All 2.0-liter turbo Sonatas ride on 18-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin tires. Adding to an already impressive list of standard safety equipment, every 2018 Sonata is equipped with Blind Spot Detection (BSD) with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA). The Sonata is the only mainstream mid-size car sold with this safety technology as standard equipment. Working in conjunction with the standard rearview backup camera, RCTA gives drivers peace of mind that the road behind them is clear. Furthermore, the available Lane Departure Warning system is now enhanced with Lane Keep Assist function. All 2018 Sonatas are equipped with a standard seven-inch color display audio touchscreen with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration. Models equipped with Blue Link Telematics get three years of complimentary Connected Care and Remote services; including the ability to activate many of the features using the Amazon Echo and Google Home virtual assistants. The available navigation system is enhanced with a bird's-eye-view feature and HERE HD real-time traffic flow data. Furthermore, the inconvenience of outdated map software is now a thing of the past as owners now have three years of complimentary Guidance Package services, which include downloads to maintain up-to-date navigation programming. Keeping on-trend with today's connected passengers, smartphones can now be charged without a plug using the available wireless charging pad (Qi standard) while a second-row USB charge port provides additional charging flexibility. For complete pricing and packaging details, please visit http://www.hyundainews.com/us/en/models/sonata/2018/pricing. HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through 835 dealerships nationwide. All new Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes a 5-year/60,000-mile fully-transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance. For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook SOURCE Hyundai Motor America Related Links http://www.hyundainews.com WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A special meeting of shareholders of Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) will be held at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on July 19, 2017, in the Reynolds American Plaza Building Auditorium at RAI's corporate offices, 401 N. Main Street, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101. At the special meeting, shareholders will be asked to take action, among other things: to approve the Agreement and Plan of Merger, including the plan of merger contained therein, dated as of January 16, 2017 , as amended as of June 8, 2017 , and as may be further amended from time to time (the "merger agreement"), pursuant to which RAI will become an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT); and , as amended as of , and as may be further amended from time to time (the "merger agreement"), pursuant to which RAI will become an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT); and to approve, on a non-binding, advisory basis, the compensation payments that will or may be paid by RAI or BAT to RAI's named executive officers and that are based on or otherwise relate to the proposed transaction and the agreements and understandings pursuant to which such compensation may be paid or become payable. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 12, 2017, will be entitled to notice of, and to vote at, the special meeting and any adjournment or postponement thereof. Subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions as set out in the merger agreement, including approval by shareholders of both BAT and RAI, it is currently expected that the proposed transaction will close on or about July 25, 2017. Web and Social Media Disclosure RAI's website, www.reynoldsamerican.com, is the primary source of publicly disclosed news, including quarterly earnings, for RAI and its operating companies. RAI also uses Twitter to publicly disseminate company news via @RAI_News. It is possible that the information we post could be deemed to be material information. We encourage investors and others to register at www.reynoldsamerican.com to receive alerts when news about the company has been posted, and to follow RAI on Twitter at @RAI_News. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements included in this communication that are not historical in nature, including financial estimates and statements as to regulatory approvals and the expected timing, completion and effects of the proposed transaction, are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this communication and in documents incorporated by reference, forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the benefits of the proposed transaction, including future financial and operating results, financial forecasts or projections, the combined company's plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions and future strategies, and other statements that are not historical facts, and other statements that are signified by the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "objective," "outlook," "plan," "project," "predict," "possible," "potential," "could," "should" and similar expressions. These statements regarding future events or the future performance or results of RAI and its subsidiaries or the combined company inherently are subject to a variety of risks, contingencies and other uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Among the risks, contingencies and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements or could result in the failure of the proposed transaction to be consummated, or if consummated, could have an adverse effect on the results of operations, cash flows and financial position of RAI or the combined company, respectively, are the following: the failure to satisfy required closing conditions, including the failure to obtain necessary shareholder approvals from BAT and RAI shareholders, or complete the proposed transaction in a timely manner or at all; the effect of restrictions placed on RAI's and its subsidiaries' business activities, including RAI's ability to pursue alternatives to the proposed transaction; disruption resulting from the proposed transaction, including the diversion of RAI's management's attention from ongoing business concerns; the failure of BAT to successfully integrate RAI into its business and to realize projected synergies and other benefits from the proposed transaction; the uncertainty of the value of the proposed transaction consideration that RAI shareholders will receive in the proposed transaction due to a fixed exchange ratio and fluctuations in the price of BAT American Depositary Shares; the difference in rights provided to RAI shareholders under North Carolina law, the RAI articles of incorporation and the RAI bylaws, as compared to the rights RAI shareholders will obtain as BAT shareholders under the laws of England and Wales and BAT's governing documents; RAI's directors and executive officers having interests in the proposed transaction that are different from, or in addition to, the interests of RAI shareholders generally; the potential difficulty retaining key employees and maintaining business relationships, and on operating results and businesses generally; the incurrence of significant pre- and post-transaction costs in connection with the proposed transaction; evolving legal, regulatory and tax regimes; and the occurrence of any event giving rise to the right of a party to terminate the merger agreement. Discussions of additional risks, contingencies and uncertainties are contained in RAI's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Due to these risks, contingencies and other uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this communication. Except as provided by federal securities laws, RAI is not under any obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation, to update, alter or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional Information This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed transaction involving RAI and BAT. In connection with the proposed transaction, BAT has filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form F-4 that includes the proxy statement of RAI that also constitutes a prospectus of BAT. On June 14, 2017, the SEC declared the registration statement effective. RAI commenced mailing the definitive proxy statement/prospectus to holders of RAI common stock on or about June 14, 2017. INVESTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS, WHICH WAS ALSO FILED WITH THE SEC ON JUNE 14, 2017, AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BAT, RAI, THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION AND RELATED MATTERS. Investors and shareholders may obtain free copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by RAI and BAT through the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and shareholders may obtain free copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by RAI by contacting RAI Investor Relations at [email protected] or by calling (336) 741-5165 or at RAI's website at www.reynoldsamerican.com, and may obtain free copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by BAT by contacting BAT Investor Relations at [email protected] or by calling +44 (0) 20 7845 1000 or at BAT's website at www.bat.com. RAI, BAT and their respective directors and executive officers and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from RAI shareholders in respect of the proposed transaction that is described in the proxy statement/prospectus. Information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from RAI shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC. You may also obtain the documents that RAI files electronically from the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. Information regarding RAI's directors and executive officers is contained in RAI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, which was filed with the SEC on February 9, 2017, its Form 10-K/A, which was filed with the SEC on March 20, 2017 and its definitive proxy statement/prospectus, which was filed with the SEC on June 14, 2017. Information regarding BAT's directors and executive officers is contained in BAT's Annual Reports, which may be obtained free of charge from BAT's website at www.bat.com. This communication is not intended to and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy or an invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities in any jurisdiction pursuant to the acquisition, the merger or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. ABOUT US Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) is the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company; Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, Inc.; American Snuff Company, LLC; Niconovum USA, Inc.; Niconovum AB; and R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is the second-largest U.S. tobacco company. R.J. Reynolds' brands include Newport , Camel and Pall Mall. , Camel and Pall Mall. Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, Inc. manufactures and markets Natural American Spirit products in the United States . . American Snuff Company, LLC is the nation's second-largest manufacturer of smokeless tobacco products. Its leading brands are Grizzly and Kodiak. Niconovum USA , Inc. and Niconovum AB market innovative nicotine replacement therapy products in the United States and Sweden , respectively, under the ZONNIC brand name. , Inc. and Niconovum AB market innovative nicotine replacement therapy products in and , respectively, under the ZONNIC brand name. R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company is a marketer of digital vapor cigarettes, manufactured on its behalf by R.J. Reynolds, under the VUSE brand name in the United States . Copies of RAI's news releases, annual reports, SEC filings and other financial materials, including risk factors containing forward-looking information, are available at www.reynoldsamerican.com. To learn more about how Reynolds American and its operating companies are transforming the tobacco industry, visit Transforming Tobacco. SOURCE Reynolds American Inc. Related Links http://www.rjrt.com "The appointments of David and Craig are key roles to continuing to deliver transformative, mission-critical solutions for our customers," said Tom Ferrando, President of Salient CRGT. "These individuals exemplify our culture and their decades of combined expertise will provide strategic growth and long-term success for our high-performing teams." Boyle will be responsible for identifying technology efficiencies and expanding technology innovations serving the United States Postal Service (USPS) client base. With more than 30 years of experience designing both business processes and technical updates, Boyle has supported complete end-to-end program management and operational activities. Boyle has consistently succeeded on large and complex projects by leading teams to develop, mature, and transition IT portfolio offerings into steady state operations. Boyle has spent the past 17 years with General Dynamics Information Technologies where he led large teams focused on serving management and technology expertise to USPS, most notably payment processing applications and back office solutions. Park will be responsible for managing day-to-day operations of a large team of software developers, maximizing efficiencies, and implementing best practices of Agile and DevOps methodologies. As a proven leader, Park brings 25 years of experience spanning management and technology consulting, business and contract management, project management, and corporate portfolio expansion. With a strong customer focus, Park brings an outstanding record of achievement optimizing business processes and growth. Park led multimillion-dollar projects and programs for government clients in federal civilian market including Treasury, HHS, USPS, NASA, Energy, and FDA. Additionally, he has held executive leadership positions at REI Systems and RCM Technologies, implementing complex projects in support of government and corporate initiatives. "We are excited to bring David and Craig on board as we continue to support the USPS's overall mission," said Mark Colturi, Senior Vice President, Civilian Services Group. "With our long-standing partnership, we look forward to continue to provide cost effective solutions as they work towards their mission of fostering innovation." About Salient CRGT Salient CRGT provides federal civilian, defense, homeland, and intelligence agencies with expert depth in health, data analytics, cloud, agile software development, mobility, cyber security, and infrastructure solutions. We support these core capabilities with full lifecycle IT services and trainingto help our customers meet critical goals for pivotal missions. The most innovative talent delivery model in the industry, scientifically providing exactly the right people for the customers' most pressing requirements, fuels these critical capabilities. Salient CRGT has earned a record of success with integration and operations of largescale, highvolume solutions. On March 1, 2017, Salient CRGT completed its acquisition of Information Innovators, Inc. visit our newsroom. For additional information on Salient CRGT, visit www.salientcrgt.com . Click to Tweet:.@Salient_CRGT strengthens its USPS team with the addition of industry leaders David Boyle and Craig Park http://bit.ly/1MGSz5l SOURCE Salient CRGT, Inc. Related Links http://www.salientcrgt.com CARY, N.C., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- If you're a CIO who needs help adapting your IT footprint to meet business demands, analytics leader SAS has a solution: The SAS Viya Cloud Foundry release is available now. Cloud Foundry offers a platform as a service (PaaS) that supports a variety of popular cloud providers including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), OpenStack, VMWare's vSphere and Google Cloud Platform. This SAS Viya release helps customers reduce the risks involved with managing complex analytics environments and supports customers building apps using SAS Viya. "Today it's all about making data actionable," said Perry van der Weyden, CIO of Riiksvaterstaat, the Netherlands' government agency responsible for managing infrastructure facilities including roads and waterways. "With SAS Event Stream Processing on Cloud Foundry, we can act directly on the feedback provided by our assets - not in hindsight, but as it happens in near real time. More importantly, the combination of SAS and Cloud Foundry enables us to develop new business models creating even more value for society as a whole. Together they deliver an event stream processing environment that harnesses scalability and agility." Easier, more agile software deployments In addition to easily scaling analytics across an enterprise, the SAS Viya Cloud Foundry release helps: Reduce the cost of software delivery. Increase agility through ongoing software deployment. Support a multi-cloud deployment strategy. SAS now offers SAS Event Stream Processing, SAS Visual Investigator, SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Visual Statistics and SAS Visual Data Mining and Machine Learning for the Cloud Foundry PaaS. The releases are deployed as a collection of Cloud Foundry BOSH releases. BOSH is a general tool for the deployment and lifecycle management of large-scale distributed services. "Cloud Foundry makes it easier for organizations to deploy and scale SAS software, in addition to building, testing, and deploying innovative custom apps that incorporate SAS' industry leading analytics," said Abby Kearns, Executive Director of the Cloud Foundry Foundation. "This will be a great addition to our ecosystem and community." Cloud Foundry is an open source technology backed by Cisco, Dell/EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Pivotal, SAP and SUSE, and is used by leaders in manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services. About SAS SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative analytics, business intelligence and data management software and services, SAS helps customers at more than 83,000 sites make better decisions faster. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 2017 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. SOURCE SAS Related Links http://www.sas.com NEW YORK, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of NIKE, Inc. (" NIKE " or the "Company") Robert S. Willoughby at . Such investors are advised to contactat [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980. The investigation concerns whether NIKE and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here to join a class action] On June 14, 2017, the European Commission's ("EC") antitrust division announced a formal investigation into Nike's licensing and distribution practices. The focus of the EC investigation is "whether certain licensing and distribution practices of Nike . . . illegally restrict traders from selling licensed merchandise cross-border and online within the EU Single Market" in violation of EU competition rules. On this news, Nike's share price has fallen as much as $0.36 during intraday trading on June 14, 2017. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links http://www.pomerantzlaw.com AMSTERDAM, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SkyTeam, the global airline alliance, is taking its customers' airport experience to new heights by opening a new lounge at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) later this year. The alliance's first branded facility in North America, it will offer a luxurious environment for First, Business and Elite Plus customers flying on any of the alliance's nine member airlines currently serving the airport. SkyTeam currently offers six branded lounges around the world in Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London Heathrow and Sydney, serving hundreds of thousands high-value customers each year. In addition to this, the alliance is also working to improve customer travel experiences while gaining its members value from the synergies. "With the opening of Vancouver later this year, SkyTeam will offer more branded airport lounges around the world than any other airline alliance. Increasing the number of shared facilities worldwide realizes significant synergies for our airlines while offering a greatly enhanced airport experience for our top customers," said Perry Cantarutti, SkyTeam's CEO and Managing Director. "Meanwhile, we continue to invest in technology so that we can capitalize on emerging customer trends, drive greater efficiencies and continue to deliver value for our airlines and their passengers." In addition to increasing its global lounge network, the 20-strong airline alliance is focused on projects designed to enhance the customer experience giving SkyTeam airlines the most from their membership. These include: Customer engagement: The alliance has now recruited more than 10,000 high-value travelers as SkyPriority auditors, assessing their airport experience at every SkyPriority touchpoint. Over 50,000 observations have been recorded from over 600 airports globally. From this feedback, we are improving signage at Check-in areas in some airports and focusing more on baggage handling by improving the first-on-belt performance. Loyalty benefits: Customers can ensure they never miss a mile by using SkyTeam's retro-crediting tool that will be available across all members by year end. With a continued focus on technology driven solutions, 50 percent of all SkyTeam award redemptions are now booked via the web/mobile Business solutions: With a growing portfolio of travel products, SkyTeam is the first alliance to offer a dedicated product for Marine and Offshore travel and has also launched corporate contracts specifically for companies in Greater China . Notes to Editors: SkyTeam member airlines serving Vancouver are: Aeromexico, Air France, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Delta Air Lines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air and Xiamen Airlines. For more information about SkyTeam Lounges, click here. About SkyTeam: SkyTeam is a global airline alliance with 20 member airlines working together to offer seamless travel on an extensive global network. From top hubs around the world, SkyTeam members provide reliable and comfortable journeys to over 1,060 destinations. SkyTeam customers can unwind in 672 lounges as they travel, earn and redeem Frequent Flyer Miles. SkyTeam Elite Plus customers are eligible for SkyPriority services. The 20 members are: Aeroflot, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines and Xiamen Airlines. SkyTeam welcomes 665 million customers each year on more than 17,343 daily flights to 1,062 destinations in 177 countries. www.skyteam.com / www.facebook.com/skyteam / www.youtube.com/user/skyteam SOURCE Delta Air Lines Related Links http://www.delta.com Arts Council New Orleans in partnership with the Downtown Development District of New Orleans , Duncan Plaza , New Orleans, LA , , Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Buffalo's Reading Park, Buffalo, NY Reading Park, Downtown OKC, Inc., Kerr Park , Oklahoma City, OK "At Southwest Airlines, we build community wherever we are, whether at our gates, in our planes, or out in the communities we serve," said Linda Rutherford, Southwest Airlines Vice President and Chief Communications Officer. "That is the inspiration behind Southwest Airlines' Heart of the Community program. By investing in authentic relationships and creating spaces and opportunities that bring People together, we can build connections and strengthen communities. We're excited to see the positive impact each of these spaces will have as a result of these grants." Each 2017 Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community grant recipient will be eligible to receive up to $150,000 in total project funding through the Southwest Airlines Foundation, a corporate advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The 2017 grant recipients also will receive technical assistance from Project for Public Spaces. "Our goal in working with the 2017 Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community grant recipients is to help them create great public spaces where everyone in the community feels welcome," said Fred Kent, Founder and President of Project for Public Spaces. "When people in communities come together in this effort, results are tangible and immediate, and the placemaking process itself helps to strengthen the sense of belonging, sociability, and inclusion that great places naturally generate." Since 2013, the airline has invested more than $6.4M in building connections and has awarded 20 grants through the Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community program. This year's grant recipients were chosen from a competitive pool of 75 applicants representing 43 cities nationwide. Learn more. ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO. In its 46th year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) continues to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary Customer Service delivered by more than 54,000 Employees to more than 100 million Customers annually. Southwest proudly operates a network of 101 destinations in the United States and nine additional countries with more than 3,900 departures a day during peak travel season. Service to Turks and Caicos begins Nov. 5, 2017, subject to requisite government approvals. Based on the U.S. Department of Transportation's most recent data, Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded. The Company operates the largest fleet of Boeing aircraft in the world, the majority of which are equipped with satellite-based WiFi providing gate-to-gate connectivity. That connectivity enables Customers to use their personal devices to view video on-demand movies and television shows, as well as nearly 20 channels of free, live TV compliments of our valued Partners. Southwest created Transfarency, a philosophy which treats Customers honestly and fairly, and in which low fares actually stay low. Southwest is the only major U.S. airline to offer bags fly free to everyone (first and second checked pieces of luggage, size and weight limits apply, some airlines may allow free checked bags on select routes or for qualified circumstances), and there are no change fees, though fare differences might apply. The airline proudly unveiled a bold new look: Heart. A new logo, aircraft livery, interior design featuring a new seat and Flight Attendant galley, Employee-designed uniforms, and an updated airport experience all showcase the dedication of Southwest Employees who connect Customers with what's important in their lives. From its first flights on June 18, 1971, Southwest Airlines launched an era of unprecedented affordability in air travel described by the U.S. Department of Transportation as "The Southwest Effect," a lowering of fares and increase in passenger traffic whenever the carrier enters new markets. With 44 consecutive years of profitability, Southwest is one of the most honored airlines in the world, known for a triple bottom line approach that contributes to the carrier's performance and productivity, the importance of its People and the communities they serve, and an overall commitment to efficiency and the planet. The 2016 Southwest Airlines One Report can be found at SouthwestOneReport.com. Book Southwest Airlines' low fares online at Southwest.com or by phone at 800-I-FLY-SWA. SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co. Related Links http://www.southwest.com LAS VEGAS, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SWX) management will meet with equity analysts in Chicago, IL, and Minneapolis, MN, over the period June 21-22, 2017. John Hester, President and Chief Executive Officer; Roy Centrella, Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer; Karen Haller, Senior Vice President/General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; and Kenneth Kenny, Vice President/Finance/Treasurer, will be attending the equity analyst meetings. The presentation materials utilized during the equity analyst meetings will be accessible on the Southwest website at www.swgasholdings.com, the morning of June 21, 2017, beginning at 8:00 a.m. (EDT). SOURCE Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. Related Links https://www.swgasholdings.com URBANDALE, Iowa, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Spotlight Innovation Inc. (OTCQB: STLT) today announced that its subsidiary Caretta Therapeutics, LLC, has signed a manufacturing agreement with Orlando, FL-based contract manufacturing organization (CMO) Maitland Labs, LLC, for the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for Venodol, the Company's first over-the-counter product for the treatment of chronic pain. Maitland Labs is the second CMO producing Venodol's API on behalf of Caretta Therapeutics. The primary CMO has completed the initial API production run, and commercial production of Venodol is expected to begin soon. "We continue to develop partnerships with premier CMOs and supply chain vendors for every step in the Venodol production process, and we are pleased to have Maitland Labs as a member of our team," said John Krohn, Spotlight Innovation's President and Chief Executive Officer. Venodol topical roll-on is formulated to relieve chronic pain associated with inflammation, including joint pain, tendinitis, and arthritis (excluding osteoarthritis). Venodol is tentatively scheduled to be available in the United States in summer 2017. Caretta Therapeutics plans to introduce additional product formats formulated to provide non-addictive alternatives to opioid drugs for the relief of chronic pain. About Spotlight Innovation Inc. Spotlight Innovation Inc. (OTCQB: STLT) identifies and acquires rights to innovative, proprietary technologies designed to address unmet medical needs, with an emphasis on rare, emerging and neglected diseases. To find and evaluate unique opportunities, we leverage our extensive relationships with leading scientists, academic institutions and other sources. We provide value-added development capability to accelerate development progress. When scientifically significant benchmarks have been achieved, we will endeavor to partner with proven market leaders via sale, out-license or strategic alliance. For more information, visit www.spotlightinnovation.com or follow us on www.twitter.com/spotlightinno. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements herein include statements regarding Spotlight Innovation's efforts to develop and commercialize Venodol and additional product formats, and to achieve its stated benchmarks, including but not limited to the production, development and sales of Venodol. Actual outcomes and actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks and uncertainties, such as: the inability to finance the planned development of the technologies; the inability to hire appropriate staff to develop Venodol; unforeseen technical difficulties in developing and producing Venodol; competitors' therapies proving to be more effective, cheaper or otherwise more preferable; the inability to market a product; or the inability to achieve sales of Venodol. All of which could, among other things, delay or prevent product release, as well as other factors expressed from time to time in Spotlight Innovation's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a result, this press release should be read in conjunction with Spotlight Innovation's periodic filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made only as of the date of this press release and Spotlight Innovation undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. SOURCE Spotlight Innovation Inc. Related Links http://spotlightinnovation.com African American Future Achievers (RMHC/AAFA) Scholarship Luncheon. The New York Tri-State Area McDonald's Owner/Operators Association hosted the elegant luncheon for 14 deserving high school graduating seniors from across the New York Tri-State Area who will be attending 4 year colleges and universities in the fall. "The RMHC/African-American Future Achievers Scholarship program was designed to address the reality that many students of African descent face significant financial barriers to higher education," said Christopher Perry, Executive Director or RMHC-NYSTA. "We are incredibly proud to offer 14 generous college scholarships this year to help these promising young students achieve their dreams of obtaining a higher education." "The New York Tri-State Area McDonald's Owner/Operators Association and Ronald McDonald House Charities are always proud to support education in black communities by offering the African American Future Achievers scholarship to deserving high school graduating seniors," said Paul Hendel, McDonald's Owner Operator and McDonald's New York Metro Co-Op President. "We are so proud to offer 14 scholarships totaling more than a quarter million dollars this year, and we look forward to raising more money to support more students in years to come." The following students will receive $16,000 over four years: Name Hometown High School University attending 1. Kelly Bamfo Bronx, NY Stephen T. Mather High School Alfred State College 2. Kamille Banks Lodi, NJ Lodi High School Spelman College 3. Akalah Bobb Brooklyn, NY Uncommon Collegiate Charter HS Marshall University 4. Berlindyne Elie Irvington, NJ Christ the King Preparatory HS Boston College 5. Ryan Emmanuel Brooklyn, NY Cristo Rey High School Fordham University 6. Raniya Martin-Davis Passaic, NJ Paterson CS For SCI/TECH University of Florida 7. Rouwaida Nitiema Newark, NJ Newark Early College High School Gettysburg College 8. Minasdine Rene Stamford, CT Stamford High School Fairfield University 9. Milencia Saintus Roselle, NJ Abraham Clark High School Seton Hall University 10. Samayia Taylor Newark, NJ St. Vincent Academy Howard University 11. Michael Watson Uniondale, NY Uniondale High School Princeton University 12. Adam Wickham New York, NY Stuyvesant High School Princeton University 13. Chris Yankah Elmont, NY Elmont Memorial High School Vanderbilt University In addition, the following student will receive the Lee Dunham Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $25,000 over four years: 14. Nicole Taylor East Orange, NJ East Orange STEM Academy Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute The luncheon was co-hosted by two-time New York Giants Super Bowl Champion, Kareem McKenzie and award-winning actor Tobias Truvillion from the #1 hit primetime series Empire. There were also two amazing musical performances, one from Melba Moore, who sang her heart felt song, "If You Believe," and Alyson Williams, who sang one of her hits, "Just Call My Name". RMHC/AAFA has been able to transform the lives of eligible graduating high school seniors who face limited access to educational opportunities by virtue of their financial background. With its college scholarship program, the nonprofit organization assists students in their efforts to reach their educational goals and their aspirations to become leaders of tomorrow. About Ronald McDonald House Charities New York Tri-State Area For over 20 years, Ronald McDonald House Charities New York Tri-State Area has been creating, finding and supporting programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children. Their signature programs include scholarships to help provide access to a college education for students who need and earn it, and community grants to support a variety of local children's charities in the areas of medicine, crisis intervention, civic and social services, education, and the arts. The organization also provides generous support to 5 Ronald McDonald Houses, which are "homes away from home" keeping families with sick children close to each other and the care and resources they need. For more information, please visit www.rmhcnytristate.org or contact 732-623-8639. 2017 Ronald McDonald House Charities New York Tri-State Area. CONTACT: RMHC NY Tri-State Area, c/o Irving Street Brian Clark 973-643-6262 [email protected] SOURCE Ronald McDonald House Charities of the New York Tri-State Area Related Links http://www.rmhcnytristate.org THE ROCK, Ga., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Steve Harvey, popular television and radio personality, best-selling author and philanthropist, kicks off his 9th annual Steve Harvey Mentoring Program for Young Men National Camp today. With more than 220 fatherless teenage boys from around the country in attendance at The Rock Ranch in The Rock, Georgia, the week-long camp is the largest youth outreach program offered by the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation. Harvey is among a group of hands-on male mentors that includes community leaders, members of the military and businessmen, including Steve Joyce CEO of Choice Hotels, the program's first and largest sponsor. Mentorship activities, such as military-style conditioning, fishing, motivational speaking, sports, engineering games and education guidance, aim to equip the young men to overcome adolescent pressures, instill respect, teach helpful life skills and introduce problem-solving techniques. Concurrently, a Parent Program offers the teens' mothers discussions and educational sessions on family, teenage issues, wellness activities, financial literacy, and applying to college. "I am indebted the role models who donate their personal time to be here as well as the sponsors that have enabled us to host this camp," said Steve Harvey. "Nine years in, we are seeing many former mentees attend and finish college when they could have taken a very different path. Instead, they have grown into fine and productive young men. This would not have been possible without enduring support from the business community." In addition to providing complimentary hotel stays for the mothers, guardians of participants, staff and volunteers at nearby Choice Hotels properties, the company has donated more than $300,000 to the Foundation through its Choice Privileges loyalty rewards program. Funds are raised through loyalty member point donations which Choice Hotels matches dollar for dollar up to $75,000 annually. This contribution assists the Foundation with expenses, including roundtrip airfare for the mentees as well as their mothers and guardians. "Every young person, regardless of their background, should be given the essential tools to develop their life skills. This camp helps through fostering mentorship and positive influences," said Steve Joyce. "While early intervention is key, Choice Hotels believes mentorship should continue through adulthood. As a company, we encourage it for our associates and support it in the communities in which we serve." Created by Harvey in 2009, the Annual Mentoring Program selects fatherless teens, age 13-18, from a large pool of applicants from across the United States. By way of the national camp and regional programs, the Steve Harvey Mentoring Program for Young Men has impacted more than 1,500 youths and continues to grow. In addition to Choice Hotels, the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation also receives support from the U.S. Army and AT&T through AT&T Aspire, the company's signature education initiative focused on school success and career readiness. For more information about the Steve Harvey Mentoring Program for Young Men, other initiatives, or to make a donation, visit www.ChoiceHotels.com/SteveHarvey, www.SMHarveyFoundation.org and www.SteveHarveyMentoring.com. About Choice Hotels Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the world's largest hotel companies. With approximately 6,500 hotels franchised in more than 40 countries and territories, Choice Hotels International represents more than 500,000 rooms around the globe. As of March 31, 2017, 795 hotels were in our development pipeline. Our company's Ascend Hotel Collection, Cambria, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn, Quality, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, and Vacation Rentals by Choice Hotels brands provide a spectrum of lodging choices to meet guests' needs. With more than 30 million members and counting, our Choice Privileges rewards program enhances every trip a guest takes, with benefits ranging from instant, every day rewards to exceptional experiences, starting right when they join. All hotels and vacation rentals are independently owned and operated. Visit us at www.choicehotels.com for more information. 2017 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved. SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc. Related Links http://www.choicehotels.com The Butler Did It par Read more [...] "Children's Miracle Network Hospitals are tremendous assets in our communities and it is an incredible opportunity to work alongside of them," said Eduardo Pereda, VP of Convenience Brands. "We are extremely grateful for the generosity of our customers and team members who raised more than $1.6 million to help continue to support children and their families during some of the most difficult times in their lives." Like all in-store CMN Hospitals fundraisers, 100 percent of funds raised from Sunoco LP campaigns will benefit the community in which they were raised. Those contributions help make miracles happen by funding vital medical care, equipment and therapy programs that save and improve the lives of more than 10 million sick and injured children each year. "It's partners like Sunoco LP that really make all the difference in helping kids get the care they need," said John Lauck, president and CEO, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. "We are grateful to all the Stripes and APlus employees and customers who gave so generously during this year's campaign." About Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN) is a master limited partnership that operates 1,355 convenience stores and retail fuel sites and distributes motor fuel to 7,825 convenience stores, independent dealers, commercial customers and distributors located in 30 states. SUN's general partner is a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE: ETE). About Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Children's Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $5 billion, most of it $1 at a time through the charity's Miracle Balloon icon. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofit's mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why children's hospitals need community support, and learn about your member hospital, at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals. SOURCE Sunoco LP PRINCETON, N.J. and SHANGHAI, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Systech International, a global technology leader in brand protection solutions, announces the expansion of its operations in China. The new entity, Systech Shanghai Consulting Company Limited, enables Systech to extend sales, implementation and customer support services to both its pharmaceutical company clientele, as well as consumer products, medical device and other companies looking to utilize Systech's innovative anti-counterfeiting technology. For clients with Chinese manufacturing, packaging, and distribution, Systech's expanded presence provides local support for its serialization, track and trace, and authentication solutions. Systech customers have relied on the company's 32 years of thought leadership and expertise in meeting pharmaceutical regulations around the globe. Systech's solution for counterfeiting, diversion and product piracy is attracting increased attention from Chinese companies facing these issues. John Milana, COO & CFO, states, "With our China-based cloud solution, we improve our ability to service our customers locally and with optimized performancekeeping with our company's commitment to anytime, anywhere brand protection." In addition to opening this office, Systech recently participated in several Chinese expositions for pharmaceutical, health, medical device, and biotech markets with keynote and panel presentations on anti-counterfeiting strategies at events such as The Health Industry Summit (tHIS), the Sino-Europe Biopartnering event, and the China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF). Systech's global presence includes offices in North America (Princeton, NJ), Europe (Brussels, Belgium and Hull, UK), and India (Mumbai), and a growing partner community that includes companies in North/South America, Europe, India, the Middle East, and Asia. Through its Shanghai base, Systech deploys and services its anti-counterfeiting solution, alongside partnerships with Chinese companies skilled in authentication, allowing clients to protect their local and global brands. Systech's cloud-based authentication services are available immediately to companies who want to uniquely identify, authenticate and trace products anywhere, anytime to ensure the safety of patients and consumers. About Systech International Systech, a global leader in product verification and brand protection, is leading the charge to protect global brandsfor consumer packaged goods, food & beverage, health & beauty, pharmaceutical, and contract manufacturing companies. Its best practices and award-winning technologies guide Product and Brand Protection Officers in their quest to improve patient/consumer safety, increase engagement, decrease counterfeiting, avoid diversion, and reduce harm to coveted brands. SYSTECH CONTACT Erin Dunkel VP, Marketing +1 (610) 761-8960 [email protected] SOURCE Systech International Related Links http://systechone.com The Tapestry-Jeppesen team will support the Executive Airlift mission to provide safe, comfortable and reliable worldwide transportation for officials including the President of the United States, Vice President, First Lady, Cabinet leaders, members of Congress, senior military leaders and foreign dignitaries. "We are honored to be selected for this high-profile program, as it underscores our trusted partnership with the U.S. Air Force to deliver timely, quality services to our senior-most leadership," said Robin Wright, president and CEO, Tapestry Solutions. Under the contract, the team will provide a comprehensive portfolio of flight dispatch services commensurate with existing commercial airline 24/7 world-wide operations. Tasks include tailored mission planning services, enroute flight monitoring, diplomatic clearances, weather assessments, navigation database management, training and ongoing technical support. The services will be performed for the Air Force's "covered aircraft," which include several Boeing platforms. "Our team brings a depth of knowledge that is unparalleled in the industry, backed by Boeing's expertise as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)," said Kurt Meidel, director, Tapestry Solutions. "This opportunity combines the best of Tapestry as the go-to provider of operational support for AMC and the U.S. Transportation Command and the best of Jeppesen with its depth of experience providing flight dispatch services for the U.S. Air Force." ABOUT TAPESTRY SOLUTIONS Tapestry Solutions, Inc. is a global provider of information management software and services for defense, government and commercial markets. Backed by our parent company, The Boeing Company, we provide mission planning, training and simulation support to maximize readiness for our warfighters. We also help solve logistics challenges for the world's largest and most complex supply chains. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Tapestry supports customers from more than 50 locations worldwide, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Afghanistan, Kuwait, the UK, South Korea, Australia, Germany and Italy. About Jeppesen For more than 80 years, Jeppesen has made it possible for pilots and their passengers to safely and efficiently reach their destinations. Today, this pioneering spirit continues as Jeppesen delivers transformative information and optimization solutions to improve the efficiency of air operations around the globe. Jeppesen is a Boeing subsidiary and part of the Digital Aviation business unit within Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. Boeing offers the industry's largest portfolio of support and services solutions, providing customers a competitive advantage by solving real operational problems, enabling better decisions, maximizing efficiency and improving environmental performance intelligent information solutions across the entire aviation ecosystem. Contact: Janet Dayton, [email protected] SOURCE Tapestry Solutions, Inc. VANCOUVER, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; NYSE MKT: TGB) ("Taseko" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed its offering of US$250 million aggregate principal amount of 8.75% Senior Secured Notes due 2022 (the "Notes"). The Company used the net proceeds of the offering, and a portion of its existing cash balance, to fund the redemption of its Senior Notes due 2019 and to repay its senior secured credit facility and the related copper call option. Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO of Taseko, stated, "We are pleased to have reduced our outstanding debt with this transaction, while at the same time pushing out the maturity date to June 2022. Our balance sheet is much stronger today and provides the Company with the security and flexibility to manage our operations at Gibraltar and continue to advance our pipeline of projects. We felt that it was prudent to use a portion of our growing cash balance, from strong operating performance and the recent silver stream sale, to reduce our overall long-term debt." The Company used the proceeds from the Notes offering (US$247.5 million) and a portion of its cash on hand (US$54.5 million), to fund the redemption of its outstanding Senior Notes due 2019 (the "Existing Notes") for US$203.8 million including accrued interest, to repay its senior secured credit facility for US$79.4 million including accrued interest, to buy-out a copper call option held by the credit facility lender (US$11.9 million) and for estimated transaction costs of US$6.9 million. The Notes have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. The Notes have not been qualified by a prospectus in Canada. Unless registered or qualified by a prospectus, the Notes may be offered and sold, only in transactions that are exempt from registration requirements and from prospectus qualification under Canadian securities laws. In the United States, the Notes were offered and sold, only to "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act) and outside the United States, to non-U.S. persons in compliance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes, the Existing Notes or any other securities and shall not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, or a sale of, the Notes, the Existing Notes or any other securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. This press release does not constitute a notice of redemption with respect to the Existing Notes. Russell Hallbauer President and CEO No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the information contained in this news release. CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This document contains "forward-looking statements" that were based on Taseko's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook", "anticipate", "project", "target", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "should" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These included but are not limited to: uncertainties and costs related to the Company's exploration and development activities, such as those associated with continuity of mineralization or determining whether mineral resources or reserves exist on a property; uncertainties related to the accuracy of our estimates of mineral reserves, mineral resources, production rates and timing of production, future production and future cash and total costs of production and milling; uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a mining project; uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses permits for development projects and project delays due to third party opposition; uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings; changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government policies affecting our exploration and development activities and mining operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies; changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the demand and market price for copper, gold and other minerals and commodities, such as diesel fuel, steel, concrete, electricity and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar, and the continued availability of capital and financing; the effects of forward selling instruments to protect against fluctuations in copper prices and exchange rate movements and the risks of counterparty defaults, and mark to market risk; the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover mining risks; the risk of loss of key employees; the risk of changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our financial condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates; environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including processing and stock piling ore; and labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which we operate mines, or environmental hazards, industrial accidents or other events or occurrences, including third party interference that interrupt the production of minerals in our mines. For further information on Taseko, investors should review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com. SOURCE Taseko Mines Limited Related Links www.tasekomines.com LONDON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights The Global Military Aircraft Engines Market 2017-2027 Global military aircraft engines industry is anticipated to value US$9.7 Billion by the end of 2017, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.73% to value US$14.1 Billion by 2027. The combat and transport aircraft engine segments will account for 54.9% and 19.6% of the military aircraft engine market, respectively, followed by the rotorcraft and other aircraft engine segments, with a cumulative share of 25.5%. Over the forecast period, the industry will be led by North America with a share of 28.9%, followed by Asia-Pacific at 26.1%, and Europe at 25.7%. The Middle Eastern market for military aircraft engines is expected to account for 13.2%, followed by the Latin American and African markets with a cumulative share of 6%. Expenditure in the Asia-Pacific region will be driven by China, India, and Australia. European expenditure will be propelled by engine procurement requirements for new fleets and aircraft requiring maintenance. The Middle East is a promising market for the industry, supported by the demand for aircraft to counter terrorism, illegal infiltration, drug trafficking, and border encroachments. Summary Many countries have embarked on a military modernization program, including the development of a range of aircraft covering multirole, fighters, bombers, transport, training, reconnaissance and surveillance. Over the forecast period (20172027), cumulative global expenditure on military aircraft engines will value US$126.4 billion, driven by upgrade projects, fleet replacement and modernization programs. Global military aircraft engines industry is anticipated to value US$9.7 Billion by the end of 2017, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.73% to value US$14.1 Billion by 2027. The combat and transport aircraft engine segments will account for 54.9% and 19.6% of the military aircraft engine market, respectively, followed by the rotorcraft and other aircraft engine segments, with a cumulative share of 25.5%. Due to budget cuts, modern aircraft are required to be more versatile than their predecessors, which necessitate the need for more powerful and efficient engines. With the top-defense spenders investing in the development of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, the combat engines segment is anticipated to dominate the industry over the forecast period, posting a CAGR of 4.96%. Over the forecast period, the industry will be led by North America with a share of 28.9%, followed by Asia-Pacific at 26.1%, and Europe at 25.7%. The Middle Eastern market for military aircraft engines is expected to account for 13.2%, followed by the Latin American and African markets with a cumulative share of 6%. Expenditure in the Asia-Pacific region will be driven by China, India, and Australia. European expenditure will be propelled by engine procurement requirements for new fleets and aircraft requiring maintenance. The Middle East is a promising market for the industry, supported by the demand for aircraft to counter terrorism, illegal infiltration, drug trafficking, and border encroachments. Research and development (R&D) programs being undertaken by major economies are contributing significantly to the industry growth. Top defense spenders are concentrating on the design, development, and production of a line of powerful and more reliable engines. For example, China is already working on the development of fifth generation fighter aircraft (J-20) engine. The report "The Global Military Aircraft Engines Market 2017-2027" offers a detailed analysis of the global military aircraft engines industry over the next 10 years, and provides market size forecasts. It covers key technological and market trends, and analyzes factors influencing the demand for military aircraft engines. Companies mentioned In this report: General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, Snecma S.A, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), CFM International, JSC Klimov About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers http://www.reportbuyer.com For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 208 816 85 48 Website: www.reportbuyer.com SOURCE ReportBuyer Related Links http://www.reportbuyer.com To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's game-changing debut LP The Velvet Underground and Nico , on June 30, 2017, UME is releasing a special vinyl edition of the album that preserves its iconic original Andy Warhol-designed cover art. The anniversary edition will be available as standard black-vinyl and available at retail and online outlets. A limited edition pink-vinyl version with a pressing of only 1000 copies will be available exclusively through uDiscover. In addition to reproducing Warhol's beloved original "banana cover" design, complete with peelable banana sticker, the 50th-anniversary vinyl edition also reproduces the album's original gatefold cover as well as its rare original back-cover "torso" photo, with Lou Reed's face superimposed over the torso of Warhol associate Eric Emerson. The photo appeared in this form on The Velvet Underground and Nico 's initial pressing, but was quickly altered for later editions when Emerson threatened legal action. The shot is restored to its original glory on the 50th anniversary edition, along with a replica of the black sticker that was once used to obscure the disputed image. The sticker will be attached to the shrink wrap of the anniversary LP, allowing listeners to experience the album's full original package. An additional insert has been added for this edition, with vintage images plus new liner notes by Velvets co-founder John Cale and Richie Unterberger, author of the book White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day. On November 16-18, John Cale will celebrate the Velvets' 50th anniversary by curating three nights of special performances as part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival at New York's BAM. For the first two nights, Cale will be accompanied by an orchestra and special guests to perform The Velvet Underground and Nico in its entirety. On the third evening, Cale, backed by an orchestra ensemble and choir, will perform selections spanning his long, wide-ranging career, including his work with the Velvet Underground. Today, the Velvet Underground's immense influence is universally acknowledged. But for most of the band's actual existence, they barely registered on mainstream radar. The Velvets' raw, uncompromising musical vision was reflected in the visionary interplay between Reed and Morrison's wrenching yet nuanced guitar work, Cale's squalling viola runs and drummer Tucker's driving, primal beats. Main songwriter Reed's transgressive portrayals of drugs, sex and violence had no precedent in popular music, balancing unflinching grit with unmistakable compassion and empathy. Early in their career, the Velvet Underground gained a well-connected patron in pop-art icon Andy Warhol, who used his influence to help the band win a recording deal with MGM's Verve imprint. It was Warhol who suggested that the musicians add icily glamorous German chanteuse Nico (nee Christa Paffgen) to their lineup. With Warhol credited as producer, The Velvet Underground and Nico is one of the most auspicious debut albums in rock history. With such essential numbers as "Heroin," "I'm Waiting for the Man," "Sunday Morning," "Venus in Furs," "The Black Angel's Death Song," "Femme Fatale," "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be You Mirror" (the latter three featuring Nico's haunting lead vocals), the album chronicles a seamy urban milieu that had never before been documented in popular music, while also exploring a gentler baroque pop sensibility that provides a complementary contrast to the album's harsher insights. As Cale writes in his liner notes "We focused on trying to inject psychological techniques of hypnosis, drone and repetition into music about topics that we thought were incendiary but within a literary tradition." In its original release, The Velvet Underground and Nico rose no further than No. 171 on Billboard's album chart. Yet the album has emerged as a one-of-a-kind classic, occupying the No. 13 spot on Rolling Stone's list of the top 500 albums of all time, and is included the Library of Congress' prestigious Recording Registry, established "to maintain and preserve sound recordings and collections of sound recordings that are culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." Although they had once been regarded as near-pariahs, the Velvet Underground's stature has grown immensely in the four decades since The Velvet Underground and Nico was first unleashed upon an uncomprehending world. Today, the Velvets' influence looms larger than ever, and the 50th anniversary edition of The Velvet Underground and Nico demonstrates that this incomparable album retains every bit of its original power and beauty. Standard Black-Vinyl: https://UMe.lnk.to/TVU50LPPR Limited Edition Colored-Vinyl (1000): https://UMe.lnk.to/TVU50LPPinkPR Watch the "Sunday Morning" animated video of the 50th anniversary of the album here: http://smarturl.it/TVUSMvideo For more information on The Velvet Underground visit: Velvetundergroundmusic.com Facebook.com/TheVelvetUnderground SOURCE Universal Music Enterprises FELTON, California, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The global titanium dioxide market is expected to reach USD 27.49 billion by 2024 owing to the increasing demand of titanium dioxide in paper, paint & coating, cosmetics, and plastic industries. In 2014, DuPont titanium technologies started a manufacturing facility in Alamira, Mexico having a capacity of 200,000 tons/year which will help in fulfilling the demand worldwide. Rising demand for lightweight automobiles is expected to play a vital role in growth of global titanium dioxide market. Materials such as polycarbonates are used in manufacturing of lightweight automotive which have low scratch resistance value. Also, the product is used in various industries such as chemical intermediates, fiber, technical titanium, inks for printer and rubber. Keeping these driving factors in mind, companies are ramping up their production capacity. In 2015, PPG International entered in a partnership agreement with Henan Billions Chemicals Co. LTD. to setup a new manufacturing unit for titanium dioxide which is expected to produce 100,000 metric tons per year to expand its footprint in Asia Pacific. Companies such as Argex Titanium are using unique patented CTL process which involves low cost feed stock material and solvent extraction method to produce high quality product. Also, companies are focusing on increasing the applications of titanium dioxide int water treatment using techniques such as photo catalysis, in which titanium dioxide is used to speed up the solar disinfection process. Browse full research report with TOC on "Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Market Size and Forecast, By Manufacturing Process (Chloride Route, Sulfate Process), By product (Anatase, Rutile), By Application (Paints & Coatings, Plastics, Paper, Ink, Specialties) And Trend Analysis, 2014 - 2024" at: https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/titanium-dioxide-industry In 2016, paint & coating segment contributed 57.4% in terms of revenue. It was also extensively used in plastics industry, paper industry, inks, and other specialty segments. The growth of these sectors is expected to boost the market positively over the next few years. Plastic industry was the second largest segment due to the increasing applications as an excellent thermal stabilizer. In 2016 plastics segment contributed 23.2% in terms of revenue and is expected to grow with a positive CAGR during forecast period. Paper industry is the third largest user of titanium dioxide and contributed 10.4% in terms of revenue globally. Titanium dioxide is used in manufacturing of decorative papers, these are used in manufacturing of flooring, furniture and wallpapers. Demand for high end furniture is increasing which is expected to boost the demand for titanium dioxide. The paper industry is expected to contribute about 10.4% during the forecast period. The global titanium dioxide market is expected to grow at a very lucrative rate due to its use in various above mentioned industries. Also, titanium dioxide is used as a substitute for talc and kaolin which in turn is expected to boost the market for titanium dioxide. Browse related reports by Hexa Research: Decorative Laminates Market - https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/decorative-laminates-market Conformal Coating Market - https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/conformal-coating-market Antifouling Agent Market - https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/antifouling-agent-market Decorative Coatings Market - https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/decorative-coatings-market Hexa Research has segmented the global TiO2 market on the basis of manufacturing process, ore, application and region: Segmentation by manufacturing process, 2014 - 2024 (Kilo Tons) (USD Million) Chloride route Sulfate process Segmentation by ore, 2014 - 2024 (Kilo Tons) (USD Million) Anatase Rutile Segmentation by application, 2014 - 2024 (Kilo Tons) (USD Million) Paints & coatings Plastics Paper Inks Specialties others Segmentation by region, 2014 - 2024 (Kilo Tons) (USD Million) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany UK Asia Pacific China India Central & South America Brazil ME Africa Key players analyzed: Argex Titanium Inc The chemours company. Cristal KRONOS worldwide Inc. Tronox limited Ishihara sangyo kaisha LTD. About Hexa Research Hexa Research is a market research and consulting organization, offering industry reports, custom research and consulting services to a host of key industries across the globe. We offer comprehensive business intelligence in the form of industry reports which help our clients obtain clarity about their business environment and enable them to undertake strategic growth initiatives. Contact: Michelle T. Corporate Sales Specialist Hexa Research Phone: 1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-800-489-3075 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.hexaresearch.com/ SOURCE Hexa Research WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It is not an accident that smoking rates among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth are twice the rate for the general population. For decades, African Americans, low-income neighborhoods, LGBTQ communities and those with mental illness have been disproportionally profiled by the tobacco industry with aggressive advertising and promotional efforts. Tobacco is not just a public health issue, it's a social justice issue. Earlier this year, truth, one of the most successful and one of the largest national youth tobacco prevention campaigns run by the non-profit Truth Initiative, launched the #STOPPROFILING campaign as a way to shine a light on how the tobacco industry deliberately singles out the very communities that already face adversity and inequality with aggressive and unfair profiling tactics. For years the tobacco industry has made efforts to appeal to LGBT consumers through things like targeted advertisements in LGBT press, cigarette giveaways and free tobacco industry merchandise. Today, the LGBT community is among the hardest hit by tobacco. Smoking rates in the LGBT community According to a 2011 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, researchers "face a number of challenges in understanding the health needs of LGBT populations." There are limited national data available regarding tobacco use among the LGBT community. Data that are available, however, indicate that the LGBT community is disproportionately impacted by tobacco: Overall, 20.6 percent of LGB adults smoke cigarettes compared to 14.9 percent of straight adults. For transgender adults, very little information exists on cigarette smoking rates but this population is considered especially vulnerable. but this population is considered especially vulnerable. Only 11.8 percent of heterosexual young adults indicate that they currently smoke cigarettes, compared to 19 percent of homosexual, 16.9 percent of bisexual and 33.2 percent of transgender young adults. Bisexual women are up to 3.5 times more likely to smoke, try their first cigarette at a lower age and have a higher nicotine dependence than heterosexual women. LGBT smokers are significantly more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes: more than 36 percent of LGBT smokers report that they usually smoke menthols, which are easier to use and harder to quit. The prevalence of smoking other types of tobacco, including water pipes and cigar, cigarillo, or small cigars, is higher for LGBT adults compared to heterosexual adults. Even though youth smoking rates overall are down to 6 percent, smoking rates among LGB youth are estimated to be considerably higher than those among youth in general, based on an analysis of data from 1987 to 2000. More than twice as many LGB students in grades nine through 12 have smoked a cigarette before the age of 13, compared to their heterosexual peers. LGB students also smoke more frequently. Digging even deeper, lesbian and bisexual girls are 9.7 times more likely to smoke cigarettes regularly, compared to their heterosexual peers. Big Tobacco's Long History of Targeting the LGBT Community The tobacco industry has targeted the LGBT community since at least 1991, when tobacco company Philip Morris settled a boycott by pledging large donations to AIDS research and programs. The boycott, led by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, protested the company's support of Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), a leading opponent of AIDS funding and LGBT civil rights. Using corporate philanthropy as evidence of its support of the LGBT community, Philip Morris quickly gained access to the market, leading the way for other tobacco companies to follow suit. Tobacco companies also began to advertise in "gay press" publications in the early 1990s, often depicting tobacco use as a "normal" part of LGBT life. Many ads for products other than cigarettes glamorized smoking, and many articles having nothing to do with smoking were shown with tobacco images. This isn't the first time that truth has called attention to the profiling tactics of the tobacco industry. In 2008 and 2013, truth exposed "Project SCUM" (Sub-Culture Urban Marketing) a 1995 R.J. Reynolds marketing campaign which targeted LGBT and homeless people to boost cigarette sales. On top of donations, giveaways and increased advertising, the tobacco industry made community outreach efforts such as hosting local promotions like "LGBT bar nights" featuring specific cigarette brands. #STOPPROFILING comes at a time when people across the country are using their voice as a generation to evoke real change in the world and lead the fight against inequality and injustice worldwide. truth is sending a loud and clear message and asking for others to do join us and do the same by becoming citizen journalists, and call out tobacco profiling wherever and whenever they see it and be the generation that ends tobacco for good. truth gives teens facts to make their own informed choices about tobacco use and inspires them to use their social influence and creativity in the fight against tobacco. The campaign is credited with preventing hundreds of thousands of teens from starting to smoke, and is working to make this the generation that ends smoking for good. truth is part of Truth Initiative, a national public health organization dedicated to achieving a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco. About Truth Initiative Truth Initiative is a national public health organization that is inspiring tobacco-free lives and building a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco. The truth about tobacco and the tobacco industry are at the heart of our proven-effective and nationally recognized truth public education campaign, our rigorous and scientific research and policy studies, and our innovative community and youth engagement programs supporting populations at high risk of using tobacco. The Washington D.C.-based organization, formerly known as Legacy, was established and funded through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. To learn more about our work speaking, seeking and spreading the truth about tobacco, visit truthinitiative.org. SOURCE Truth Initiative Related Links http://www.truthinitiative.org QUEBEC CITY, QC and MYRTLE BEACH, VA, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - TSO 3 Inc. (TSX: TOS), an innovator in sterilization technology for medical devices in healthcare settings, today announced that the Company now plans to seek 510(k) clearance for its STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer from US regulators for the terminal sterilization of the two duodenoscopes used in the majority of endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) procedures performed globally. Plans are to launch regulatory filings with US regulators for both the Olympus TJF-Q180V and Pentax ED-3490TK duodenoscopes within weeks of each other beginning in July 2017. The Company's goal is to receive US clearance by the end of 2017. Clearances already exist in Europe and Canada for the terminal sterilization of both of the duodenoscopes. TSO 3 's STERIZONE VP4 sterilizer is already validated and cleared in the US, Europe and Canada to terminally sterilize multi-channel flexible endoscopes, such as video colonoscopes and gastroscopes, of up to 3.5 meters in length and with four or fewer channels. "We are pleased to move forward and expand our duodenoscope regulatory strategy. Filing for US duodenoscope clearance is a natural and further step in our quest to help healthcare facilities improve their standard of care by providing sterile duodenoscopes and other endoscopes to their patients," stated R.M.(Ric) Rumble TSO 3 's President and CEO. "US regulatory clearance of duodenoscopes, along with our other healthcare-leading flexible endoscope claims, would help address industry concerns over the safety and effectiveness of less robust high-level disinfection systems." The Company also announced Dr. Mark Pasmore, its Vice President Research and Development, has resigned due to personal reasons. "In the short time Mark was with us, he made a positive and tangible impact on our organization and provided a solid scientific footing for the execution of our expanded regulatory strategy", continued Mr. Rumble. "While we are sorry to see Mark go, we remain well positioned to continue to relentlessly pursue our scientific and regulatory objectives." About the STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer The STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer is a low-temperature sterilization system that utilizes the dual-sterilants of vaporized hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and ozone (O 3 ) to achieve terminal sterilization of heat and moisture sensitive medical devices. Its single pre-programmed cycle can sterilize a large number and wide range of compatible devices, creating a cost-effective sterilization process with error free cycle selection. The device's unique Dynamic Sterilant Delivery System automatically adjusts the quantity of injected sterilant based on the load composition, weight and temperature. This capability removes the guesswork and potential for human error, as there is no need to sort instruments and choose the appropriate cycles as with other machines. The STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer is the only terminal sterilization method that is FDA cleared to sterilize multi-channeled flexible endoscopes (with a maximum of four channels) of up to 3.5 meters in length, such as video colonoscopes and gastroscopes - an industry first for any medical device sterilization process. The STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer is also the only cleared low temperature sterilizer that can process a mixed load consisting of general instruments, single channel flexible endoscopes, and single or double channel rigid endoscopes in the same cycle with load weights of up to 75 lbs. The ability to run mixed loads significantly reduces labor costs by minimizing the amount of instrument sorting required, while maximizing the device turns (more productivity from increased throughput capacity). More information about the STERIZONE VP4 Sterilizer is available through TSO 3 's website, under the Products section at http://www.tso3.com/en/products/sterizone-vp4/. About TSO 3 Founded in 1998, TSO 3 's activities encompass the sale, production, maintenance, research, development and licensing of sterilization processes, related consumable supplies and accessories for heat-sensitive medical devices. The Company designs products for sterile processing areas in the hospital environment that offer an advantageous replacement solution to other low temperature sterilization processes currently used in hospitals. TSO 3 also offers services related to the maintenance of sterilization equipment and compatibility testing of medical devices with such processes. For more information about TSO 3 , visit the Company's website at www.tso3.com. The statements in this release and oral statements made by representatives of TSO 3 relating to matters that are not historical facts (including, without limitation, those regarding the timing or outcome of TSO3's regulatory filings, revenue, business or operations) are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks, uncertainties and hypotheses, including, but not limited to, the ability of the Company to obtain the required regulatory clearances to market its products, general business and economic conditions, the condition of the financial markets, the ability of TSO 3 to obtain financing on favourable terms and other risks and uncertainties. Although TSO 3 believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. The complete versions of the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements as well as a description of the relevant assumptions and risk factors likely to affect TSO 3 's actual or projected results are included in the Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2016, which is available on the Company's website. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and TSO 3 does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless expressly required by applicable securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. SOURCE TSO3 Inc. Related Links http://www.tso3.com SAN FRANCISCO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Twist Bioscience Corporation, a company accelerating science and innovation through rapid, high-quality DNA synthesis, today announced that it raised an additional $27 million in venture financing. This close, combined with the $33 million announced in March 2017, completes the $60 million financing. Twist Bioscience expects to use the funding to facilitate increased growth in the company's core business of gene synthesis and increased investment into two vertical market segments of drug discovery and DNA digital data storage. To date, Twist Bioscience has raised a total of $191 million. Demonstrating strong support from institutional, cross over and strategic investors, the funding includes a key investment from Biomatics Capital as well as new investors Reinet Fund S.C.A., F.I.S., NFT Investment Limited, KANGMEI Group, Bay City Capital GF Xinde Life Science Investment Fund, 3W Partners Capital and Ditch Plains Capital Management LP. "We have built a truly disruptive, scalable DNA synthesis technology platform that is now operating on a commercial scale, providing customers in many different synthetic biology-driven industries with products to accelerate their research and product development efforts," said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO of Twist Bioscience. "Importantly, with top tier investors and strategic partners standing behind us, we look forward to rapidly advancing the growth of our core gene synthesis market, and expanding our focus into two key vertical markets, drug discovery and DNA digital data storage." About Twist Bioscience At Twist Bioscience, our expertise is accelerating science and innovation by leveraging the power of scale. We have developed a proprietary semiconductor-based synthetic DNA manufacturing process featuring a high throughput silicon platform capable of producing synthetic biology tools, including genes, oligonucleotide pools and variant libraries. By synthesizing DNA on silicon instead of on traditional 96-well plastic plates, our platform overcomes the current inefficiencies of synthetic DNA production, and enables cost-effective, rapid, high-quality and high throughput synthetic gene production, which in turn, expedites the design, build, test cycle to enable personalized medicines, pharmaceuticals, sustainable chemical production, improved agriculture production, diagnostics and biodetection. Twist Bioscience is also developing new technologies to address large scale data storage. For more information, please visit www.twistbioscience.com. Twist Bioscience is on Twitter. Sign up to follow our Twitter feed @TwistBioscience at https://twitter.com/TwistBioscience. SOURCE Twist Bioscience Related Links http://www.twistbioscience.com Unata and ShopperKit have created an out-of-the-box integration to simplify the go-to-market process and timeline, and enable the most seamless curbside and delivery experience possible for shoppers. Retailers who work with Unata have access to ShopperKit's grocery fulfilment software out of the box. Through Unata, this integrated solution will provide grocery retailers with: Award-winning UX design that minimizes number of "clicks", enabling faster navigation and increased user satisfaction. 1-to-1 personalized products and recommendations shown throughout the catalogue, in search results and in the cart, all based on each shopper's purchase history. Support for all in-store deal types in the digital catalogue (mix & match, spend & get, etc) to increase shopper spend and engagement. Retailer Management Dashboard to manage, promote and track the entire eCommerce experience in order to optimize the experience. Through ShopperKit, this solution will also enable grocery retailers to: Leverage existing brick and mortar locations to receive, prioritize and process online orders and offer in-store pickup or delivery options for their online customers. Integrate with any storefront, whether a retailer uses a commercial solution or a homegrown solution. Improve customer loyalty and increase basket size with easy, real time customer communication. Guide associates through the store in a most efficient way, allowing for multiple orders to be shopped at the same time, while giving visual product data to the associate for the fastest and more reliable fulfillment possible. Ensure items of the same temperature are bagged and stored together and properly until the customer receives the order. "As eCommerce continues its rapid growth, retailers are seeing their physical stores located close to customers act as natural distribution centers, thereby removing the need for large, costly warehouses and the complex and expensive software needed to run them," said Jack Record, CEO ShopperKit. "ShopperKit enables grocery retailers to process orders from the Unata eCommerce platform in the most efficient and safe way possible. We're excited to work with Unata to deliver a top-of-the-line shopper experience from browse all the way through to getting groceries into customers' hands." "ShopperKit is one of the original members of Unata Connects, our Third-Party Partner Hub created to provide grocers with best-of-breed digital solutions and pre-built integrations that reduce and simplify the go-to-market process," said Marc Faucher, Unata COO & CFO. "With this particular partnership, we're able to provide our current and future retail partners with a true end-to-end solution, leveraging two of the best solutions on the market to ensure our partners are in good hands for every facet of their grocery eCommerce experience." About Unata Unata powers industry-leading digital experiences for North America's most well-respected grocers, with the mission to innovate the future of the grocery shopping experience. Unata enables 1-to-1 eCommerce, eCircular and eLoyalty experiences, powering the entire digital grocery experience through a single platform. Unata's award-winning work is featured by retailers including Lowes Foods, Raley's, Longo's and more. To learn more, visit www.unata.com or follow Unata on Twitter or LinkedIn. About ShopperKit ShopperKit is an in-store order fulfillment platform designed specifically for Click&Collect in the grocery industry. As eCommerce continues its rapid growth, grocers are seeing their physical stores, located close to customers, act as natural distribution centers. ShopperKit's in-store fulfillment platform enables existing brick & mortar stores to receive, prioritize, and process orders from their online counterparts allowing grocers to offer in-store pickup or delivery services to their online customers. Unata Media Contacts Mary Stankiewicz Belle Communications [email protected] 216-337-4636 SOURCE Unata Related Links http://www.unata.com WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Robot cars operating without mandatory safety, security, privacy and ethical standards will pose unprecedented risks to the American public, Consumer Watchdog warned today in a report, Self-Driving Vehicles: The Threat to Consumers. The report is being issued in conjunction with a day-long program, Driverless Cars: The Legal Landscape, sponsored by George Washington University Law School and a hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee, Paving the Way for Self-Driving Vehicles. Harvey Rosenfield, Consumer Watchdog Founder, Joan Claybrook, Former Public Citizen President and Former NHTSA Administrator and John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director, submitted the report to the formal written record of the Commerce Committee hearing. All three are panelists in the GW Law program. "No one disputes that the evolution of motor vehicle technology has the potential to prevent deaths, injuries and property damage. New technologies such as automatic emergency braking, lane keeping, collision warning, and assisted parking are already doing so, and indeed should be made standard equipment in all vehicles," the report said. "The point is that the gradual automation of driving will introduce a new set of risks. These risks will necessarily be far broader than those posed by vehicles today suggesting that the ramifications for liability and insurance will be significant. A fully autonomous robot-based transportation system will likely reduce the number of crashes caused by human error, but that does not tell us anything about the overall impact of a fully autonomous system." Read Self-Driving Vehicles: The Threat to Consumers here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/resources/self_driving_consumer_threat_report.pdf "Lost in the hyperbole over robot cars is a realistic assessment of the likely costs to both consumers and taxpayers particularly over the coming decades, when robot cars and human drivers will share a 'hybrid highway,'' the letter to the Senate Committee said. The letter also expressed dismay at the Committee's failure to include any representatives of consumer groups among the witnesses called to speak at the hearing. "The witness panel includes a spokesman for auto manufacturers, a representative of a company developing robot car technology, and organization developing a test center for robot car technology. A spokesman for MADD has the laudable, but narrow, agenda of combating drunk driving. This is an industry-dominated panel with no representatives of auto safety or consumer protection organizations," the letter said. Read the letter to the Senate Committee here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/sites/default/files/resources/ltrsenatecommere061417_con_watchdog_2.pdf To deal with the challenge posed by autonomous vehicle technology, Consumer Watchdog believes six principles must be adopted. Outlined in the report and letter they are: 1. Protect the civil justice system. The state-based civil justice system open courts, impartial judges and citizen juries is fully equipped to handle the determination of legal responsibility as our transportation system evolves over the coming decades. Disputes over who is at fault in a crash involving a self-driving car or truck will require the full power of civil justice system, with its procedural safeguards of an impartial judge, full public transparency, and trial by citizen juries, to investigate and publicly expose the cause of crashes, compensate the victims for deaths, injuries and property damage, punish the wrongdoer, and force manufacturers to make changes in their products to prevent future harm. When their autonomous technologies fail, hardware and software manufacturers must be held strictly liable. Lawmakers should reject legislation to limit or restrict state consumer protection laws. Manufacturers must not be permitted to evade these consumer protections by inserting arbitration clauses, "hold harmless" provisions or other waivers in their contracts. 2. Enact stronger state consumer protections against insurance company abuses. According to a 2013 report by the Consumer Federation of America, "California stands out from all other states in having the best insurance regulatory system for protecting consumers." Enacted by California voters in 1988, California's insurance reform law provides precisely the stronger protections consumers will require in the era of robot vehicles. The reforms, known as Proposition 103, have protected motorists (along with homeowners, renters, businesses and medical providers) against unjust insurance rates (including product liability insurance rates) and anti-consumer and discriminatory practices. The law's emphasis on rewarding drivers with lower insurance premiums based on their safety record, their annual mileage, their driving experience, and other rating factors within their control that are "substantially related to the risk of loss," will be critical in the new automotive era. Proposition 103's mandate for public disclosure and public participation in regulatory matters are essential components of a system that will be trusted by consumers. 3. Enact auto safety standards. Private companies cannot be trusted to develop and deploy robot cars and trucks without rules. The federal auto safety agency or other relevant federal agencies, or in their absence, state auto safety agencies, must develop standards for the testing and deployment of the multiple technologies required by robot vehicles. These standards must address safety; security; privacy and the software that determines the robot's actions in the event of an impending collision and as it makes life and death decisions. They must be enforceable by consumers in courts of law. 4. Stronger laws are needed to protect consumers' privacy. The laws have not kept pace with the evolution of technology and the collection and monetization of consumers' personal data. Hardware and software manufacturers and insurance companies must be barred from utilizing tracking, sensor or communications data, or transferring it to third parties for commercial gain, absent separate written consent (which should not be required as a condition of accessing the services of the vehicle/manufacturer, and which should be revocable by the consumer at any time). 5. Bar federal interference in state consumer protection laws. Neither Congress not federal agencies should be permitted to preempt or override stronger state based civil justice, insurance reform or auto safety laws. 6. Respect democratic and human values. The sponsors of self-driving vehicles have promoted the myth that machines are infallible in order to justify the wholesale departure from a panoply of norms that form founding principles for the nation, beginning with the rule of law; individual and corporate responsibility; long held legal principles that distinguish between human beings and property; and the transparency of public officials and institutions that is a hallmark of democracy. The strategy of substituting robot values for human values has reached its apotheosis in the determination by robot car company executives to program computers to make life and death decisions, and to keep that decision-making process secret. Lawmakers will need to impose the rule of law and other attributes of American democracy upon the executives of the hardware and software companies that manufacture self-driving cars. The letter to the Senate concluded: "Congress must not succumb to the siren song of the autonomous car developers who are over promising what autonomous vehicle technology can do today. We call on you to require the development of enforceable federal safety performance standards. Responsible regulation goes hand-in-hand with innovation. Voluntary "standards" in the auto industry have repeatedly been proven to be weak and insufficient. Safety must come before the automakers' bottom lines. Consumer Watchdog calls on you to enact the necessary regulations to protect the safety of our highways." View a webcast of the GW Law program, Driverless Cars: The Legal Landscape, here: http://content.streamhoster.com/player/lv_cypavs/broadcast2?autoPlay=1&showPlayPauseBtn=0&bufferTime=2&expandedBufferTime=60 Visit our website at www.consumerwatchdog.org SOURCE Consumer Watchdog Related Links http://www.consumerwatchdog.org GENEVA and CHICAGO, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fast-growing predictive analytics company, Uptake , announced today it has been selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum's "Technology Pioneers," a selection of the world's 30 most innovative companies. Founded in July 2014, Uptake has quickly made its mark on the industrial sector, serving as the analytics and predictive software provider for global businesses in energy, construction, aviation, mining, rail and more. Uptake's platform collects and analyzes massive amounts of data captured from industrial equipment and infrastructure, recommending detailed insights and recommended actions in real-time that helps improve performance, reliability and security. This facilitates the creation of new data-driven business models for customers, equating to a greater competitive edge. The World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers community comprises early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society. Following Uptake's selection as Technology Pioneer, Cofounder and CEO, Brad Keywell, will be participating in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions. This meeting, also dubbed "Summer Davos" will be held in Dalian, China, June 27-29. Many Pioneers will also attend the Annual Meeting in Davos, in January 2018, and continue to participate in dedicated Technology Pioneer community events over the course of the next two years. "We welcome Uptake to this group of extraordinary pioneers," says Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. "By bringing together connected information in real-time, Uptake's platform increases productivity and reliability through previously untapped data. Uptake's meteoric growth is a testament to the appetite for these actionable data insights." "The Fourth Industrial Revolution, a concept born from the World Economic Forum, is unfolding before our eyes," said Brad Keywell, Uptake Co-founder and CEO. "Across the world, billions of people and machines are connected to each other. Through groundbreaking technology, unprecedented processing power and speed, and massive storage capacity, data can be collected and harnessed like never before. At Uptake, we're leading this revolution with our data-driven approach to disrupting how industries and people work. We put products and solutions in action through predictive analytics and insights, helping companies use their own data for the most important decisions." The Technology Pioneers were chosen by a selection committee of more than 60 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. Notable members of the committee include Geoffrey Moore (Adviser, Geoffrey Moore Consulting, USA), Yossi Vardi (Chairman, International Technologies, Israel) and Lee Sang-Yup (Distinguished Professor and Dean, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea). The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact and leadership. Past recipients include Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Scribd, Spotify, Twitter and Wikimedia. All info on this year's Technology Pioneers can be found here: http://wef.ch/techpioneers17. More information on past winners can be found here. About Uptake Uptake is a predictive analytics platform that delivers actionable insights to the industrial sector. Leveraging partnerships with major global businesses in construction, energy, rail, agriculture, aviation and more, our products and solutions apply cross-industry data science to produce high-value output and measurable results. For more information, visit uptake.com . About World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. For more information, visit www.weforum.org. Media Contact Megan Parker [email protected] 312.242.2235 SOURCE Uptake Related Links http://www.uptake.com SAN FRANCISCO and WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and health journalism, announced a five-year extension of its agreement with Doximity, the leading social network for physicians and advanced practice clinicians. With Doximity, U.S. News offers a free online directory of more than 800,000 practicing U.S. physicians, providing consumers with data and tools that help them choose the right medical providers and a new appointment booking platform to more swiftly connect them. Doximity will continue as the exclusive provider of the online physician survey for board-certified U.S. physicians that is used alongside structural, process, and outcomes metrics in the U.S. News Best Hospitals and Best Children's Hospitals methodologies. "Consumers face complex decisions in managing their healthcare," said Ben Harder, U.S. News' chief of health analysis. "Each of our services, including our long-standing Best Hospitals rankings, aims to help guide patients through the tough choices they face. Doximity has one of the richest data sets in the industry, which doctors themselves keep current, enabling us to better assist patients when it comes to finding and selecting their doctors." Doctors in the U.S. News online directory can access Doximity's free network, which is larger than the combined membership of some of the largest medical associations in the country. With Doximity's HIPAA-secure platform, clinicians can use their smartphone or computer to collaborate with other healthcare professionals to discuss patient treatment and connect with specialists for patient referrals. "With more than 800,000 licensed medical professionals as members, Doximity has become the go-to source for physicians researching other physicians, whether it's to manage their career or consult with a specialist on patient care," said Nate Gross, M.D., co-founder of Doximity. "We're excited to continue working with U.S. News and help patients and their doctors find the right physician." More than 70 percent of all U.S. physicians have joined Doximity to connect, collaborate, and collectively provide better care for their patients. For doctors, this continued collaboration offers an opportunity to accurately represent themselves to the online public. Physicians can control whether certain information is shared publicly by simply maintaining an up-to-date Doximity profile. Visitors to usnews.com which number more than 30 million per month have the opportunity to view the hospitals affiliated with a given physician and which insurance plans are accepted. Doximity and U.S. News expect to create processes and tools for health systems and physician networks to more easily and regularly keep their information up to date. U.S. News ranks hospitals in 16 adult specialties and 10 pediatric specialties and rates more than 8,000 health insurance plans. For more information, see http://health.usnews.com. Doximity Media Contact: Jim Rivas [email protected] 415-515-8780 U.S. News Media Contact: Maria Santucci [email protected] 202-955-2031 About U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report is a digital news and information company that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. Focusing on Education, Health, Personal Finance, Travel, Cars and News & Opinion, usnews.com provides consumer advice, rankings, news and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 30 million people visit usnews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C. About Doximity Founded in 2011, Doximity connects physicians and advanced practice clinicians to make them more successful and productive. Doximity is the largest secure medical network with over 70 percent of all U.S. physicians as members, enabling collaboration across specialties and every major medical center. Doximity is based in San Francisco and was created by the founders of Epocrates and Rock Health. To learn more, visit www.doximity.com. SOURCE Doximity Related Links http://www.doximity.com AMSTERDAM, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- VimpelCom Holdings B.V. (the "Issuer"), a subsidiary of VEON Ltd. ("VEON"), announces the pricing of its US$600,000,000 3.95% Senior Notes due 2021 and US$900,000,000 4.95% Senior Notes due 2024 (collectively, the "Notes"), which will be issued subject to market and other customary conditions (the "Offering"). The Issuer intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering (i) to finance the purchase of the: (x) US$1,000,000,000 9.125% Loan Participation Notes due 2018, (y) US$1,000,000,000 7.748% Notes due 2021, in each case issued by VIP Finance Ireland Limited and (z) US$1,500,000,000 7.5043% Notes due 2022, issued by the Issuer (together, the "Existing Notes"), tendered and accepted for purchase in accordance with the terms and conditions of a tender offer launched by the Issuer on 30 May 2017 pursuant to an offer to purchase of the same date and (ii) for general corporate purposes. The completion of the Offering is a condition to the purchase of the Existing Notes in the tender offer, and the settlement date for the Offering is expected to be 16 June 2017. Important Note This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute a prospectus or an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under applicable securities laws. The Notes have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The Notes may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. There will be no public offer of the Notes in the United States (for these purposes, "United States" means the United States of America, its territories and possessions, any State of the United States, and the District of Columbia). In member states of the European Economic Area, this press release is for distribution only to and directed only at persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC (and amendments thereto, including Directive 2010/73/EU) (the "Prospectus Directive"). In relation to each member state of the European Economic Area that has implemented the Prospectus Directive (each, a "Relevant Member State"), the investment contemplated by this press release is not being made, and will not be made, to the public in that Relevant Member State, other than to any legal entity that is a "qualified investor" as defined in Article 2(1)(e) of the Prospectus Directive. Each potential investor located within a Relevant Member State of the European Economic Area will be deemed to have represented, acknowledged and agreed that it is a "qualified investor" within the meaning of Article 2(1)(e) of the Prospectus Directive. Within the United Kingdom, this press release is for distribution only to and directed only at persons who (a) have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended, the "Financial Promotion Order"), (b) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) ("high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc") of the Financial Promotion Order, (c) are outside the United Kingdom, or (d) are persons to whom an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) in connection with the investment may otherwise lawfully be communicated or caused to be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The investment is not being offered to the public in the United Kingdom. This press release is directed only at relevant persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. The investment or investment activity to which this press release relates is only available to, and will only be engaged in with, relevant persons and any person who receive this press release who is not a relevant person should not rely or act upon it. Disclaimer The Issuer considers portions of this announcement to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "will", "plan", "should", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "continue" or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which the Issuer cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Issuer might not even anticipate. Although the Issuer believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions at the time made, the Issuer can give no assurance that such expectations will be achieved. Future events and actual results, financial and otherwise, may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as of the date of this announcement. The Issuer does not undertake to publicly update, except as required by U.S. federal securities laws, any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after such dates or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The information contained in this announcement constitutes inside information with respect to VimpelCom Holdings B.V. and VIP Finance Ireland Limited for the purposes of Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 on market abuse. SOURCE VEON Ltd. PORTLAND, Ore., June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertical Booking, a recognized leader in global reservation technology, launches the company's new Booking Engine Tool Kit which assists hoteliers in achieving higher conversion of direct bookings on their hotel's website. The Vertical Booking Enhanced Tool Kit includes a host of features developed to engage the guest during the booking process. The Recovery Strategy prompts guests who are about to abandon the reservation process with a fully customizable pop-up message to reel them back in. With Secret/Locked Deals, guests can enter their email address to unlock special offers, which grows the hotel's email list and makes the guest feel special. The Alternative Offers tool suggests special promotions for additional nights or services, which translates into higher revenue per stay. The OTA Rate Comparison Pop-up builds guest confidence by displaying OTA rates and can automatically match the lowest rate while remaining in parity. The fully customizable Persuasive Messaging increases conversion by encouraging the guest to proceed with the booking. Finally, the Competitor Rate Checker allows hotels to check their prices against those of the competition in just a few clicks. "Our focus is on enabling hoteliers to stand apart in this increasingly competitive hospitality market," said Mark Lewis-Brown, President/CEO of VBUSA. "These tools allow the hotel to make more informed decisions while optimizing the guest experience and maximizing revenue." Vertical Booking will be exhibiting at the HITEC Hospitality Conference in Toronto, ON, Canada, from June 26-29, 2017. Stop by booth 634 to learn how Vertical Booking can help you optimize distribution at your property. About Vertical Booking Representing over 4,900 hotels, Vertical Booking is a global reservation technology company that meets the needs of chains and independent hotels by optimizing distribution for revenue management. Founded in 1999, Vertical Booking is present in 102 countries, translated into 29 different languages and usable in all currencies, with offices in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the United States. Known for its agility and scalability, Vertical Booking's innovative technology solutions include a central reservation system for GDS/IDS distribution, a robust booking engine including a spa and gift certificate platform, a channel management system, a destination management system and reservation call center services. www.verticalbooking.com / www.verticalbookingusa.com Watch the Vertical Booking Welcome Video: https://youtu.be/8Ii61D6g41g Facebook https://facebook.com/VBookingUSA Twitter https://twitter.com/VBookingUSA LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalbookingusa Media contact Mark Lewis-Brown Vertical Booking USA [email protected] +1 505 263 6128 SOURCE Vertical Booking Related Links http://www.verticalbooking.com AUSTIN, Texas, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- WGU Texas celebrated the graduation of 202 students in May, the largest number of monthly graduates in the school's history. Graduates of WGU Texas, the state's nonprofit, competency-based, online university, now total 6,665, and the university is closing in on 10,000 students enrolledcurrently, 9,327 students are enrolled in WGU Texas undergraduate or graduate degree programs. The student enrollment and graduate milestones come on the heels of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) honoring Western Governors University (WGU), the parent university of WGU Texas. For the seventh time, the USDLA has honored WGU with a 21st Century Distance Learning Award for its leadership in distance education. The USDLA recognizes major accomplishments in distance learning and the instructors, programs, and professionals who have achieved and demonstrated extraordinary results using online, videoconferencing, satellite, and blended learning delivery technologies. "WGU Texas Night Owls know online learning doesn't mean feeling disconnected. From WGU Texas' mentors to our strong online student and alumni networks and career placement support, our competency-based undergraduate and graduate degrees are putting higher education within reach for more Texansand doing so without sacrificing quality or value," said WGU Texas Chancellor Veronica Vargas Stidvent. Mona Horton, a 2016 WGU Texas graduate with a B.S. in Health Informatics describes her student experience, "I love this school! I get to work at my own pace without a financial burden. The support system keeps me accountable and I love that I receive timely assistance. This school has met all of my expectations and more." As a leader and pioneer of competency-based educationan innovative learning model that allows students to learn at their own pace and advance as soon as they demonstrate mastery of subject matterWGU Texas offers affordable, online degree programs designed to meet the needs of busy, working adults. WGU Texas admissions counselors can answer questions, provide resources and help set prospective students on a path toward their degree. Texans and Texas employers can learn more about WGU's student-focused approach and academic experience online here. About WGU Texas WGU Texas is an online, nonprofit, competency-based university established to expand Texans' access to higher education throughout the state. Formed through a partnership between the state of Texas and nationally-recognized Western Governors University, WGU Texas is open to all qualified Texas residents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the high-demand career fields of business, K-12 teacher education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing. Degrees are granted under the accreditation of Western Governors University, which is accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Teachers College programs are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).* Learn more at texas.wgu.edu or call 1-877-214-7011. *Western Governors University offers nursing programs that are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 5380, Washington, DC 20036, 202-877-6791). Follow WGU Texas: http://www.facebook.com/WGUTexas http://www.linkedin.com/companies/western-governors-university http://twitter.com/wgutexas Contact for media inquiries: Kathy Koza, PR Manager 512.225.6644 or 214.674.8057 [email protected] Contact for enrollment information: 877.214.7011 texas.wgu.edu SOURCE WGU Texas ''Our mission is to ensure that in this networking space our American and international filmmaking colleagues, cast, crew and creatives around the world are equipped with all the necessary tools and features that will help them create and crew projects in a timely and efficient manner, build their network, find jobs and advance their careers, no matter where they live or travel to!" say founders Peter Lord and Kosta Nikas. The Green Room, has already attracted industry support who say such digital disruption is a win-win situation for all stakeholders. "It's a great networking tool for our young indie filmmakers. The more resources and support we provide them, the more we stimulate growth and employment in our sector,'' says Adam Scott, Spectrum Films (Alien, Lion, Hacksaw Ridge) Fox Studios Australia. "A smart and useful app for our indie filmmaking community; great tool for production managers" adds Vicki Betihavas, Live Producer of Woody Harrelson's Lost in London. The Green Room allows users to add as much information as they feel necessary to connect them with the right people and projects. They can add their: Personal Details, Availability, Education, Work Experience, Bio, Show reel, Skills, Equipment, Location, Projects, Awards, IMDb link and more. The Green Room also allows users to create a profile regardless of the type of project, format and genre and its production status. Project creators can search for the right crew matching their project criteria simply by posting a job/crew role and adding all the preferences they wish. As with any new social networking application, The Green Room's success depends on its relevance and ability to serve the needs and aspirations of its members and no doubt investor groups in this space will be carefully monitoring its progress. According to the MPAA the USA film and TV industry employed 1.9 million people and contributed 121 billion dollars in wages in 2016 whilst film school graduates are estimated at 50,000 each year. Interested readers can download the app for FREE from googleplay here: https://goo.gl/y7IgkE and itunes, here: http://apple.co/2okBRcG ------------------------------------------------------ NOTE TO EDITORS: Press kits available at http://www.thegreenroom.io Media enquiries: Linda Pickering [email protected] SOURCE Green Room Ventures Pty Ltd Related Links http://www.thegreenroom.io Beijing, June 10 : China's popular instant messaging app WeChat has launched a new feature that warns users if a news item circulating on its accounts is false. The feature will notify users if a piece of news that they have received is deemed fake by Chinese censors, police or official media outlets, reports Efe news. It is one of WeChat's "mini programmes" launched this year that function only within its platform, which Chinese netizens use for messaging, mobile payments, ordering food, and even renting bicycles. The programme will also function as a social game, ranking users based on how many rumour-debunking articles they have read. Users will also be notified if a news item they send to their friends is later found to be false. WeChat has more than 900 million active users in China. Moscow, June 10 : Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks with Qatars Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Moscow later on Saturday amid the diplomatic conflict in the Middle East. Lavrov and Al Thani will take stock of diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, Russian news agency Tass reported. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, the Maldives and Mauritius severed diplomatic relations with Doha earlier this week in retaliation for what they described as Qatar's support for terrorism and extremist ideology. Mauritania and the Comoro Islands joined in later. Jordan and Djibouti downgraded the status of their diplomatic missions. However, Qatar dismissed the charges as "groundless" and said that its foreign policy would remain unchanged. Al Thani said Qatar was firmly against any intervention in its foreign policy. A number of countries had come up with offers of assistance in resolving the crisis. Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah had made trips to Jeddah, Dubai and Doha. US President Donald Trump said he was prepared for arranging a meeting of the conflicting parties in the White House. Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani earlier this week reaffirmed that Moscow was firmly in favour of tackling crises by political and diplomatic means through a dialogue. At the same time, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that he would not say that Russia had any intention of acting as a mediator between Qatar and the countries that severed relations with it. New Delhi, June 11 : Endorsing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make In India vision, French conglomerate Alstom plans to manufacture 800 "super high-power" locomotives in India over a decade, its Managing Director for India and South Asia Bharat Salhotra said. Salhotra said in an interview that the company was also planning to export rail solutions from India to Australia, Central Asia and SouthEast Asia. Awarded a contract to manufacture 800 electric locomotives for Indian Railways, Alstom, a world leader in rail transport business, has decided to produce them in India -- at a factory in Madhepura in Bihar. "The factory will produce 800 locomotives of 12,000 horsepower each. The first phase of the factory should get over in September and the first locomotive will roll out from that plant in February 2018," Salhotra told IANS. He added that almost 85 per cent of the supply chain for all those locomotives would be based in India. "Eight hundred locomotives would be made in India. We would be importing some initial parts. But then we would subsequently move it to the plant in Madhepura." To achieve that, he said, local competency would be developed in India at supplier end through a partnership with France. "Combining French technology and expertise with Indian talent and entrepreneurship would help us make rapid strides." Salhotra, who received the French honour insignia of the Knight of the National Order of Merits from the French Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler on Thursday, added that the company had already started moving towards the Make in India vision. "Four years ago, we started with 30 per cent (of the supply chain) coming from India and 70 per cent coming from elsewhere. Now it is the other way around." However, Salhotra said he had larger plans not just to meet the Indian requirements but to expand the business to Central and SouthEast Asia. "Our strategy is to develop our Indian footprint, first to deliver projects for India" and then to expand to other lucrative markets as well, he said. "Today we have 1,000 plus engineers in signalling who are booking almost 1.5 million hours a year, partly for India and partly for various projects across the world. "On the rolling stock front, we are designing trains in India for other countries. For example, we are going to export trains from India to Australia," Salhotra said. He added that Alstom would invest and expand its existing factories "depending on as-needed basis". "And not to forget we have the new Madhepura plant coming up. Once we have fulfilled the obligation of the Indian Railways for delivering the 800 locomotives, we can use that resource for various other projects," he added. In India, the French conglomerate started with Chennai Metro where it is providing 42 trains of four cars each. For Kochi Metro, it is providing rolling stock, signalling and power supply solutions and receiving sub-stations. It is also providing signalling system for Bengaluru Metro, train control system for Jaipur Metro and is doing track work for the Delhi Metro. In the mainline space, Alstom is working on signalling system and power supply for the World Bank-funded 343-km eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). Salhotra said Alstom's work does not end there as it is looking at building 50 metros across the country over the next 10-15 years, electrifying 4,000 km of Indian rail track every year and transform the transportation system in urban Indian cities. "The 50 metros would take some time. Typically, we would see three or four metros coming every year. "We believe we have the ability and capacity to handle that workload. And in addition to that, to also handle some workload beyond India," the Indian Institute of Management alumni said. (Vishav can be contacted at vishav@ians.in) Panaji, June 11 : The image of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi has been consistently tarnished by the top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders over the years, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik said on Sunday. Naik said more than a decade before BJP President Amit Shah called Gandhi a "chatur baniya" on Friday (June 9), Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had cancelled the Gandhi Jayanti holiday during his first stint as Chief Minister. "The BJP government of Goa some years back issued a gazette notification cancelling Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, public national holiday in the state, along with Good Friday holiday and Old Goa feast holiday, thereby exhibiting their hatred towards the Father of the Nation, and also hatred towards members of one of the minority communities," Naik said in a statement issued here on Sunday. The controversial notification was issued in November 2001 but was later withdrawn after popular outrage. "BJP may be trying to put garlands on the photo-frame of Gandhi in recent years for narrow political reasons, after directly and indirectly abusing Gandhi for decades but they should do some introspection and identify the forces which killed Gandhi," Naik also said. Addressing a gathering in Raipur, Shah had referred to Gandhi as a "chatur baniya" and a man with a vision. Beijing, June 12 : China on Monday dismissed as "nonsense" reports about President Xi Jinping not meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit last week, saying the two leaders met "several times" at the summit. "I can tell you that during the 17th SCO council head of states President Xi Jinping met several times with Pakistani Prime Minister (Nawaz) Sharif and I think some reports are just nonsense and unwarranted," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said. Lu said that "China and Pakistan enjoy an all-weather strategic partnership". He was reacting to news reports that said Xi snubbed Sharif at the SCO summit by not meeting him after two Chinese citizens were murdered in Pakistan's restive province of Balochistan. Xi met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines, but there were no reports in Chinese media about President Xi meeting Sharif. China last week expressed growing concern over the safety and security of its citizens in Pakistan where it has invested billions of dollars in an economic corridor. Two Chinese teachers, kidnapped from Quetta last month, were killed last week by Islamic State militants. "We are now are coordinating with the Pakistani government and we are speeding our efforts to verify the information, Lu said. China is building the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which connects its Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Balochistan. New Delhi, June 13 : The process for electing India's 13th President will be set in motion formally on Wednesday when the Election Commission issues a notification paving the way for filing of nominations for the July 17 contest in which the ruling NDA seems to have an edge. The last date for filing of nominations is June 28. Scrutiny will follow on June 29 and the last date for withdrawal is July 1. The vote count will be on July 20, four days before incumbent Pranab Mukherjee's term ends. The new President is set to take charge the next day. The electoral college for choosing the President consists of 4,896 voters. While the Lok Sabha has 543 voters and the Rajya Sabha 233, the overwhelming majority (4,120) come from state assemblies - MLAs. The total value of votes in the election is 10,98,903 -- 5,49,408 for MPs and 5,49,495 for MLAs. The value of each vote of an MP is 708 but this differs for MLAs from state to state. The value of an MLA's vote in Uttar Pradesh is the highest (208) and the least (7) in Sikkim. The NDA is short of the half-way mark by about 18,000 votes. But it expects to gain the support of many smaller parties besides all the factions of the feuding AIADMK which alone has a vote value of over 26,000. In 2012, Mukherjee, the nominee of the Congress-led UPA, got 7,13,763 votes while his sole rival P.A. Sangma, fielded by the BJP-led NDA, secured 3,15,987 -- of the total vote value of 10,29,750. Mukherjee assumed office on July 25, 2012. The election will see secret ballot and political parties can't issue a whip to MPs or MLAs. The Election Commission has said special pens will be provided to voters in view of a row that sorrounded voting for a Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana last year. "Electors have to mark the ballot only with this pen and not with any other pen. Voting by any other pen may lead to invalidation of the vote," Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said. A nomination paper has to be subscribed by at least 50 electors as 'Proposers' and by at least another 50 as 'Seconders'. The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Every elector can have as many preferences as the candidates contesting the election and the winner has to secure the required quota of votes to be declared elected -- 50 per cent of the valid votes plus one. Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra will be the Returning Officer. Votes will be cast in Parliament House and in state assemblies. The vote count will take place in Delhi. Assistant Returning Officers will be appointed in all state capitals, besides Delhi and Puducherry. Each candidate will be allowed to deploy a representative at the venue of polling. "MPs are expected to vote in Parliament House in Delhi and the MLAs in their assemblies but they can vote at another polling station in case of exigency," Zaidi said. The BJP on Monday said it was for a consensus candidate and formed a three-member committee of senior ministers to talk to other political parties. Its members are two former BJP Presidents Rajnath Singh (Home) and M. Venkaiah Naidu (Urban Development) as well as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The BJP has not given any indication about its likely nominee but opposition parties including the Congress have held parleys to find a consensus candidate. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and tribal leader Draupadi Murmu's names are doing the rounds as possible government's choice for the Presidential election. The opposition parties will meet on June 14 to formally begin discussions on the presidential and vice presidential elections. Congress President Sonia Gandhi has initiated moves to bring the opposition on a common platform. She set up a 10-member sub-group of representatives from opposition parties to take forward the deliberations. The sub-group consists of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Shard Yadav (JD-U), Lalu Prasad (RJD), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Derek O'Brien (TMC), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Satish Chandra Mishra (BSP), R.S. Bharathi (DMK) and Praful Patel (NCP). Gandhi had earlier convened a luncheon meeting of opposition leaders which brought together leaders from 17 parties. The meeting decided to wait for the ruling alliance to reach out to them. The opposition parties have said if a consensual candidate does not emerge, they will field a candidate "who will steadfastly defend the constitutional values". The names of former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar are doing the rounds. NCP leader Sharad Pawar, whose name figured initially, has said he is not interested in contesting. Washington, June 14 : Democratic senators on Tuesday were left infuriated as Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeatedly thwarted their efforts to shed light on the firing of former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey. In a fiery Senate intelligence committee hearing, Sessions raised his voice in indignation as he rejected claims that he had colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 election as an "appalling and detestable lie." According to CNN, he repeatedly declined to go into his private conversations with President Donald Trump -- frustrating Democrats who accused him of "stonewalling" to shield the administration. The Attorney General tried to escape the hearing without major political damage. He also provided resistance that may offer a boost to a crisis-weary White House that has been unable to shrug off the dark cloud over the Russia investigation. Sessions said he did not hold an undisclosed meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a speech by then-candidate Trump at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington last year. Sessions also defended his decision to participate in the firing of Comey. "I recused myself from any investigation into the campaign for president, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honour against scurrilous and false allegations," he said. But the attorney general left Democratic senators deeply frustrated when he declined to go into the reasons for Comey's dismissal and would not say whether the President ordered him out of the Oval Office so he could talk privately with Comey on February 14, in an encounter the former FBI director said included a request for him to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the report pointed out. Baghdad, June 14 : A total of 22 Islamic State (IS) terrorists were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes on IS desert stronghold and clashes with Iraqi security forces in central Iraq. The Iraqi warplanes carried out airstrikes on the main IS desert redoubt in Mteibijah area, which is on the provincial border between Iraq's eastern province of Diyala and the northern central province of Salahudin, Xinhua quoted Udai al-Khadran, the mayor of al-Khalis town as saying. The airstrikes left some 20 IS terrorists killed and five of their vehicles destroyed, including one booby-trapped, al-Khadran said. In Salahudin province, the security forces repelled two attacks by IS terrorists from two directions around the town of Seniyah, just west of the oil refinery town of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. After hours of sporadic heavy clashes, the attackers were forced to withdraw, leaving two of their fighters killed. Three security members were also killed in the attacks, the source said. New York, June 14 : Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has said he was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons, an announcement that comes at a time when the company is dealing with a series of workplace scandals. As part of a note announcing policies to improve its corporate culture, Kalanick said on Tuesday he would step aside for an unspecified period of time to focus on personal matters and reflect on how to build a world-class leadership team, Efe news reported. "The ultimate responsibility for where we've gotten and how we've gotten here rests on my shoulders," Kalanick said. "There is of course much to be proud of but there is much to improve." Kalanick's decision to step aside comes after an internal investigation conducted by a former US Attorney General, Eric Holder, a probe the company launched due to allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. On Tuesday, a report by Holder containing recommendations for improving the company were made public. Uber's board unanimously accepted those suggestions. Among them, Holder said that Uber should "review and reallocate the responsibilities of Travis Kalanick" and search for a chief operating officer who would work closely with the new CEO to improve Uber's corporate culture. Holder also recommended that COO candidates have backgrounds in diversity and inclusion, saying that would reinforce "actions resulting from recommendations ... relating to tone at the top and the need to focus on diversity and inclusion at Uber." San Francisco-based Uber, the world's largest ride-hailing app, last week fired 20 employees - including some in senior positions - after evaluating more than 200 claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and unprofessional conduct. On Monday, a senior vice president at Uber, Emil Michael, stepped down ahead of Holder's recommendations. The company has been under fire since February, when a former site reliability engineer, Susan Fowler, levelled numerous allegations of sexism against her former superiors in a lengthy blog post. Her blog was widely shared online and prompted the company to launch an internal investigation. The ride-hailing app, which has roughly 12,000 employees, hired the services of Holder to look into the company's work culture and contracted law firm Perkins Coie to review the specific harassment allegations. Chennai, June 14 : Producer Anil Sunkara of upcoming Telugu film "Lie", which stars Nithiin and Megha Akash in the lead, on Wednesday said they have completed 75 days of non-stop shooting in the US and are headed back home. The title "Lie" stands for Love is Endless. "Lie' team starting back after non-stop 75 days stay in the US. From Chicago airport," Sunkara tweeted. Being directed by Hanu Raghavapudi, the major part of the film's shooting has been completed. "Nearly 80 percent of the project was shot in the US. The remaining portion will be shot in Hyderabad over the next few weeks," a source from the film's unit told IANS. Tamil actor Arjun plays the antagonist. On why he chose Arjun, Hanu told IANS: "Honestly, I didn't have anyone else in mind for this role. I needed someone to play this very bold character and I could only imagine Arjun. Hanu was very nervous to even approach him with the offer. "I didn't even have the courage to pitch the story. I kept assuming how he will react if I approach him with a negative role but when I finally did, he liked it instantly," he said. London, June 14 : Several people have died and over 50 people have been hospitalized after a huge fire ripped through a 24-storey London apartment block early on Wednesday, according to emergency services. Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at Grenfell Tower, an apartment block located in the neighbourhood of Kensington, shortly after Tuesday midnight, reports Efe news. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said that a number of people are thought to have died. "I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities. I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building. It would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further. "In my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale," Cotton said. Councilor Nick Paget-Brown, who represents the area in which Grenfell Tower is located, said the tower block contains some 120 individual apartments, many of which house young families, meaning the number of people trapped by the blaze could run into the hundreds. Some 200 firefighters and 40 fire trucks were deployed to the scene and emergency workers were battling to get the fire under control. London's Ambulance Service (LAS) said over 50 patients had been taken to five different hospitals across London following the blaze. LAS Assistant Director Stuart Crichton said: "Over 100 of our medics are working hard to respond to this incident, including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, advanced trauma teams from London's Air Ambulance and those staff managing the incident in our special operations centre." Investigators were working to establish the cause of the blaze. London's Metropolitan Police, who also confirmed that there had been several fatalities, said that "a number of people" were being treated for a range of injuries and smoke inhalation and that "residents were continuing to be evacuated" from the tower. Police have closed off roads nearby and asked people to avoid the area. An earlier report said that at least 600 people were believed to have been inside the flats when the fire began. Residents who escaped spoke of others trapped and screaming for help, with some holding children from windows and others jumping from upper floors, the Telegraph newspaper reported. Pictures from the scene showed flames engulfing the block and a plume of smoke visible across the capital, while others showed residents looking out of windows in the block. London Mayor Sadiq Khan called it a "major incident". Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape. "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out of the building as possible," he told the BBC. A witness, Jody Martin, said: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window... hearing screams." Chennai, June 14 : Actress Tulasi on Wednesday announced the Sankarabharanam Awards as a token of respect and deepest gratitude to her guru, filmmaker and Dada Saheb Phalke awardee K. Viswanath. The awards will be launched on June 20, to coincide with Tulasi's 50th birthday. "A director is the one who gives life to an actor. When you perform well, the guru is proud of his pupil. He expects nothing in return. So, this annual award for the very film industry that he is associated with is my small way of paying my respects to my guru, who is also my friend, philosopher and guide," Tulasi told IANS. It's a gesture of her "deepest gratitude for his influence and impact on my life and career," she said. Despite the long list of films in her illustrious career, Tulasi holds very dear her association with the veteran auteur. Amongst her best remembered roles and ones dear to her heart is the role of a boy in K Viswanath's "Seetha Mahalakshmi" and "Sankarabharanam". She doesn't like to call it a "big, formal award ceremony". "I see it as a family get together, with the film family of his well wishers, friends and colleagues coming together for one evening, to celebrate his presence in our lives. I want all the actors who worked with him, to meet him, enjoy spending an evening in his presence, watching cultural activities together," she said. "At the same time, we should also give the industry folks an opportunity to receive the awards they deserve, from his very hands. The people he has worked with all love him as a father figure and as a guru," she added. She plans to make the awards an annual affair which will include not only all the southern film industries but also the Hindi film industry, since Viswanath has worked in all these languages. The awards show will be conducted by an all-women team. "There are 4900 women in my women's organisation. They hail from different walks of life and from various professional fields. Some are dancers and from other cultural fields, some from cinema and media while others are homemakers. All of us will come together to conduct this award ceremony," she added. Whereas normally, film award shows have dance performances and skits by film celebrities, the Sankarabharanam Awards will be different. "We will be having a cultural performance by the underprivileged and physically challenged. We have a group of visually challenged and cancer survivors amongst others, who will be performing. We would like to use this opportunity to honour them and give them a platform to showcase their talent in the presence of Viswanath, whose association with the arts has been deep and longstanding," said Tulasi. The first edition of the Sankarabharanam Awards is likely to be attended by Dhanush, Dulquer Salmaan and Junior NTR. New Delhi : India's 860 million-strong working population (15-64 years), the world's largest, is beginning to age. Over the next 33 years, by 2050, 32.4 million Indians, or 20 per cent of the population, will be above 60 years of age. If pension continues to cover only 35 per cent of senior citizens as it does today, 20 million, or 61.7 per cent of India's elderly population, will be without any income security by 2050. The Centre pays Rs 200 per month under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) to every Indian over the age of 60 and living under the poverty line (the ability to spend Rs 33 per day in urban and Rs 27 per day in rural areas as per the Tendulkar committee on poverty line). The states are encouraged to add to this sum and are free to expand the coverage. Currently, states pay anything between Rs 200 and Rs 2,000 as public pensions. Should public pensions be universal or targeted? What should be the minimum offered by a public, non-contributory pension? From which age should it be granted? To find answers to these questions through opinions of older people, a study was conducted in Gujarat and Rajasthan by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), New Delhi, in August-November 2016. The study, yet unpublished, collected opinions and experiences of 1,505 people above the age of 55 years across 14 locations. The states were chosen because they represent two ends of the spectrum in the universalisation debate: Gujarat, 10th richest state in per capita GDP ranking, offers a targeted pension of Rs 400 only to the poor at the time the study was conducted (since then the amount has been revised to Rs 500), and Rajasthan, 23rd in the per capita GDP list, extends Rs 500 to (nearly) all senior citizens. The study found a wide and conclusive gap between pension policy and public opinion. Opinion across both states was unanimous that public pension should be extended to all elderly and should be initiated earlier than at age 60 years. The popular view was that Rs 2,000 was an adequate pension sum, which is four to six times higher than their present entitlement. Gujarat pursues a narrowly targeted scheme whereby only the poorest senior citizens are entitled to public pensions. Rajasthan has near-universalised pension entitlements whereby women above 55 and men above 58 receive pensions as long as they are not entitled to pensions from any other source or are not taxpayers. Arguments against universalisation suggest that the cost of universalisation is generally lowering the entitlement for those who need it the most. Targeting allows for public funds to be utilised for those who need them the most. On the other end of the spectrum are arguments which propose that universalisation strengthens the moral-politico claim and the delivery of the public good or service in question -- in this case, pensions. The results of the survey showed that public opinion is functioning independent of the policy on the issue of universalisation. Majority (83 per cent) of respondents from Gujarat were in agreement with those from Rajasthan (81 per cent). The public opinion is unequivocally skewed in support of universalisation. Older people living with families supported universalisation of pensions as much as those living alone. This is an important finding because till about 2007, the National Old Age Pension Scheme, as it was then called, considered destitution both a reason and a condition for being entitled to non-contributory, public pensions. In Gujarat, destitution continues to be used as a criteria-senior citizens who have sons above the age of 21 years are not considered eligible for public pensions. Support for universalisation was observed in similar proportion across gender. The support was also consistent across scheduled tribes, other backward classes and other castes. Pensions are an assurance of continuation of consumption levels required for dignified living in the face of reduction in income due to physiological atrophy and comparatively restricted income-generating opportunities. Beneficiaries above the age of 75 years were entitled to Rs 750 a month. These pensions did not allow elderly Indians working in the unorganised sector, who need public pensions the most, to retire. These entitlements don't support lowest official poverty line consumption levels of Rs 27 in rural and Rs 33 in urban per day. People across Rajasthan and Gujarat voiced concerns about the amount of entitlement. Less than three per cent in Rajasthan and 13 per cent in Gujarat stated a figure equivalent to or less than Rs 750 a month was sufficient. Less than one-third mentioned a figure less than Rs 1,000 per month. How much did people think it took to ensure a dignified living? The average monthly "sufficient" pension amount in Rajasthan was Rs 1,875 whereas in Gujarat it was Rs 2,494, the study found. This amount is equivalent to half the minimum wage presently assured. The civil society group Pension Parishad has been making similar demands regarding amount of entitlement. Family/social support and the amount of pension desired by a beneficiary share a counter-intuitive relationship. Elderly respondents singly taking care of themselves consistently quoted a smaller amount than the ones being taken care of by family. This fits in with field observations -- many older citizens expressed a desire to buy petty essentials such as notebooks or a fruit for a grandchild or to pay for the medical expenses of an ailing family member. They thought of their inability to pay for these small expenses as a personal failing. IGNOAPS initiates pensions at the age of 60 like many industrially advanced nations. But the average life expectancy here -- 68 years -- is much lower. Majority of people felt that pensions should be initiated at an earlier age. (In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform. Kinjal Sampat is a Delhi-based researcher and Nandini Dey is a researcher with Centre for Equity Studies. The views expressed are those of IndiaSpend. Feedback at respond@indiaspend.org) Agra, June 14 : A nonagenarian freedom fighter, Chimmanlal Jain, on Wednesday tried to commit suicide to protest against "the Uttar Pradesh government's failure" to implement prohibition -- but was prevented by police. After Jain, 98, tried to hang himself from a rope at the district headquarters here but was prevented from doing so, a senior district officer assured him that his demands will be looked into and the state government informed accordingly. This is the third time that he has attempted his novel way of protest -- earlier he had tried to jump into the Yamuna river as well as before a moving train. The freedom fighter told IANS that he had demanded the shifting of liquor vends from near educational and religious institutions in the city, as well as highways, apart from total prohibition in the state. On December 15, 2016, the Supreme Court had ordered the state governments to not renew the licences of liquor vends operating within 500 metres on either side of the national and state highways after April 1. Mumbai, June 14 : Actor Tiger Shroff, who is gearing up for the release of his forthcoming film "Munna Michael", says he believes he is late pop legend Michael Jackson's biggest fan. &pictures has partnered with Eros International and Next Gen Films to bring a contest titled "Main Hoon Michael" ahead of the theatrical release of Eros and Viki Rajani's "Munna Michael". Tiger will travel to different cities across India to identify the biggest dancing fans of Jackson. Talking about it, the actor said in a statement: "When it comes to Michael Jackson, I like to call myself his biggest fan. And 'Main Hoon Michael' is an opportunity for me to meet people who share the same passion for MJ as I do." Tiger and debutante Nidhhi Agerwal will visit Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Indore between June 18-25 for the auditions. The actors will shortlist participants from each city who will travel to Mumbai in July for the grand finale. "I wish all the best to the dancers for the auditions. It will be great to witness so much talent and shortlist nine winners who will travel to Mumbai for the final face-off," Tiger added. The final dance extravaganza in Mumbai will have the "heropanti" star showcase his stunning dance moves along with Nidhi. "Munna Michael", which is directed by Sabbir Khan, is set to release on July 21. New Delhi, June 14 : The central government has stopped giving subsidised sugar to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) people and also reduced quota for "Antyodaya" families, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday. The Aam Aadmi Party leader told the media that the Centre had cut the quantity supplied from six to one kg for "Antyodaya" families. "Antyodaya Anna Yojana" is a scheme by the Indian government under which food is provided to poor families at highly subsidised rates. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister had taken the decision to end subsidised sugar to poor families across the country, Sisodia said. He said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written to the Prime Minister, urging him to restart the subsidy for sugar given to poor families. Agartala, June 14 : A tribal-based party in Tripura has stepped up efforts to push its demands -- including for a separate state -- even as the ruling CPI-M has warned that a Manipur-like conspiracy would not be tolerated in the Left-ruled state where elections are due early next year. The tribal-based party Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which has been agitating for the creation of a separate state, announced on Wednesday that it would block National Highway-8 and the rail tracks for an indefinite period from July 10. NH-8 maintains the surface connection between the land-locked state and the rest of India through Assam. "In support of our demand, we would block the National Highway and railway for indefinite period from July 10. A rally would also be organised in Agartala on the same issue on August 23," IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma told reporters here. He said: "We had a meeting with Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh on May 17 in New Delhi and discussed our demands. The Minister told us that the government would consider our demands." Singh is also Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER). The IPFT for the past few years has been agitating for the creation of a separate state, carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) area. The TTAADC was formed in 1987 under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to protect and safeguard the political, economic and cultural interests of the tribals. The politically-important council constitutes two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq.km. area and 1,216,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's total 37 lakh population reside in the areas. The IPFT's demand for a separate state becomes a main issue in the Left-ruled Tripura before the assembly elections, due in February next year. Most of the political parties, including the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), have rejected the demands saying that the issue would create ethnic trouble in the peaceful state. CPI-M State Secretary Bijan Dhar said: "Months before the Manipur assembly elections, (the) BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) instigated the Naga group to block the state's vital National Highway to put an awkward position to the then Congress government aiming to dislodge the ruling party from power. Within days of assumption of office by a BJP government in Manipur, the several-months-long road blockade was withdrawn." "BJP might be successful in Manipur, but it would not be winning its conspiracy in Tripura to dislodge the Left Front government," Dhar told reporters. Dhar, also a CPI-M Central Committee member, said that in 1988, the then Congress government at the Centre, headed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi hatched a conspiracy in alliance with erstwhile terror outfit Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) and dislodged the then Left Front government headed by Chief Minister Nripen Chakraborty. "Just ahead of the 1988 assembly elections, the TNV killed around 100 people and the Congress, led by then central minister Santosh Mohan Deb, organised massive rigging before forcibly dislodging the then Left Front government. "But people of Tripura would not allow any kind of conspiracy against the incumbent Left Front government," the CPI-M leader warned. Agartala, June 14 : The Tripura unit of the Congress on Wednesday staged a demonstration here for the "insult of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi by BJP President Amit Shah through his remarks". Congress spokesman Tapas Dey, who took part in the demonstration, said: "If Amit Shah does not tender his unconditional and public apology for describing Mahatma Gandhi as a 'clever baniya', our agitation would be intensified across the state." The demonstration, led by Tripura Congress Chief Birajit Sinha, was held in front of the Gandhi statue near the Raj Bhavan. "Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is silent on the issue? He must react, otherwise we would believe Modi is supporting his party's president on the remark," Dey told reporters. Youth Congress President Sushanta Chakraborty, Former Minister Laxmi Nag, former Tripura assembly speaker Jyotirmoy Nath among other state Congress leaders also took part in the demonstration. Amit Shah, while addressing a gathering in Raipur last week, referred to Mahatma Gandhi as a clever (chatur) "baniya". Kochi, June 14 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday travel on a Kochi Metro train when he inaugurates Kerala's first metro, it was announced on Wednesday. But "Metro man" E. Sreedharan has not been given a seat on the dais. In the first 25-km phase, trains will run for 13 km between Palarivattom and Aluva. Work is on the remaining section. Those on the dais will be Modi, Governor P. Sathasivam, Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Elias George, the Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Corp, told the media that the list of invitees to the dais was prepared and sent to the Prime Minister's Office. "The final list is made by the PMO. We have no role in this." After hearing about the exclusion of Sreedharan, Chennithala and local legislator P.T.Thomas, Vijayan has written to the Prime Minister's office to include these three also. But now Ernakulam Lok Sabha member K.V.Thomas, state Transport Minister Thomas Chandy and Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain have been allowed on the dais. Sreedharan told reporters in Thiruvanthapuram that he is not aware of this issue but was not concerned by it. "There is nothing untoward in this and I do not have any complaints. I am leaving for Kochi now and would take part in the inauguration," he said. Among others who have been excluded from the dais are former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Reacting to the exclusion of Sreedharan from the dais, P.T. Thomas said: "This shows the arrogance of the BJP. "When the foundation stone for Kochi Metro was laid by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, none was left out from the dais. This is Kerala's dream project and key people behind this are now asked to sit in the audience. This is totally unfair." Work on Kochi Metro began in 2012 after the Chandy government entrusted the project to Delhi Metro Rail Corp, with its principal advisor Sreedharan overseeing it. New Delhi, June 14 : The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave its approval for a MoU signed between India and Armenia a month ago on youth matters. The April MoU will remain in force for five years, an official statement said. "The objective of the MoU is to strengthen and encourage cooperation between the two countries on youth matters through participation in events and activities, information and knowledge sharing and youth exchanges," an official statement said. The MoU will also be applicable for extension of invitations to international conferences and seminars on youth matters held in the two countries, exchange of printed materials, films and experiences. Doha, June 14 : Qatar has withdrawn troops deployed on the border between Djibouti and Eritrea, two northeastern African countries fighting over border territory, amid a diplomatic crisis between Doha and the neighbouring Gulf countries. "The state of Qatar informed the government of Djibouti that it has withdrawn all its troops deployed on the border line in Djiboutian territory," Efe news quoted a source from the Qatari Foreign Ministry telling Qatar News Agency. On June 5, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Qatar and implemented a series of economic reprisals after claiming that Doha funded terrorist groups. Several other countries followed suit. Qatar was the country that brokered a peace agreement signed in 2010 between Djibouti and Eritrea in an attempt to resolve the decades-old border conflict and since then the Arab country has deployed units there to maintain stability. Despite the withdrawal, the source said Qatar would remain "an impartial diplomatic mediator" in resolving "crises and disputes between brotherly and friendly countries", and would continue to be a "major player" in the international community. New Delhi, June 14 : "MasterChef Australia" judge George Calombaris says the long-running reality competitive cooking game show has changed the way people look at food, and that it unites families. The show is back with its ninth season where contestants have to win the judges' heart and appetite by whipping up lip-smacking dishes. Doesn't he ever get tired of co-judging multiple contestants, who go through different types of pressure tests? "I love filming 'MasterChef'. I love (co-judges) Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston. We are the three amigos. I'm so lucky to be part of this little show called 'MasterChef'. It resonates with people all over the world and has changed the way people look at food. It brings families together," Calombaris told IANS in an email interaction from Melbourne. He promises to be back for another season. "There will definitely be another season, and I can't wait! This season there are so many terrific cooks, they just get better and better each year," he said. They took the competition to Japan's Tokyo this year. Why did they leave out India? "We've filmed in many places all over the world. India is somewhere we haven't got to yet. This all depends on the producers and the sponsors at the end of the day." "But I know we've got a great audience in India, and I absolutely love visiting the fans there. I usually get there every year," said Calombaris. Since he is a frequent flyer to India, did it ever strike to him to get his cuisine -- inspired by his Greek and Cypriot heritage -- to India? "I get many offers to open restaurants all over the world, India especially is one I'm asked about all the time. We've got some big growth plans here in Australia for the next three years." "Once we achieve the goals we have here, our team will certainly look to expand, but it has to be right, the right people, the right relationship, the right partnership. Maybe one day," said the owner of 10 restaurants in Australia. The celebrity chef surely knows how to connect with people from different countries through food. But when he jets off to an unknown land, what does he expect from there? "To taste local, 100 per cent. I love exploring local delicious cuisine, to meet the people and enjoy the culture. I want the locals to tell me about their favourite places and often through social media, they do. So, on my way over I do a bit of research before I land about the places I'm going to visit," he said. His latest stop was at Sri Lanka, where he was hosted by Cinnamon Life, an upcoming premier lifestyle property in Colombo. (Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in) London, June 14 : A residents' association representing an area of London where an apartment block was engulfed in a deadly overnight blaze on Wednesday had repeatedly warned local authorities and landlords of poor fire safety standards. As firefighters continued to battle the huge fire at Grenfell Tower, in west London, the Grenfell Action Group published blog posts dating back to 2013 that had flagged the sub-standard fire safety precautions to the local council, which owns the property. The company in charge of property management on the council's behalf was also notified, Efe news reported. London Metropolitan Police said at least six persons were confirmed dead in the fire and warned that the death toll was expected to rise. Over 50 persons were hospitalised and efforts were ongoing at the scene to bring the blaze under control. Hundreds of emergency workers were at the scene. "All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time," said the Grenfell Action Group on its blog site. In a blog post titled "Playing with Fire" dated November 20, 2016, the group said it firmly believed "that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO (Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation)." It continued: "It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice!" Firefighters were called out to reports of a huge blaze at Grenfell Tower, near Ladbroke Grove underground station in west London, at around 1 a.m. The flames spread quickly through the complex, gutting much of the interior and carbonising swathes of the external facade. Mumbai, June 14 : Actress Taapsee Pannu on Wednesday started shooting the Mumbai schedule of "Judwaa 2". Last month, Taapsee had wrapped up the London schedule of the movie, in which she features with Varun Dhawan. Now she has started shooting at the Film City here. "We will have a song and a few scenes to be shot here before we leave for Portugal next month. The song 'Tan tana tan' will be shot on a set. We are almost approaching the final leg of filming and can't wait for the fun to unfold on screen," Taapsee said in a statement. The film marks the actress's second collaboration with director David Dhawan, who gave her a debut role in "Chashme Baddoor". With "Judwaa 2", another entertaining side of Taapsee's acting skills will be seen after intense dramas like "Baby", "Pink" and "Naam Shabana". Paris, June 14 : French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that his country and Britain will jointly launch an action plan to counter online terrorist threat. Speaking at a joint press conference after talking to visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May in the Elysee Palace, Macron said the two countries were determined to strengthen their counterterrorism cooperation, reports Xinhua news agency. The two leaders agreed on an initiative to pressure tech companies to abide by their social responsibility of tackling online extremism and to create "a new legal liability for tech companies if they fail to remove unacceptable content". "The counter-terrorism cooperation between British and French intelligence agencies is already strong, but President Macron and I agree that more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online," May said before her trip to Paris. "We are united in our total condemnation of terrorism and our commitment to stamp out this evil," she said. After two terror attacks in less than two weeks in London and Manchester where 30 people were killed, May accused internet companies of providing extremist ideology "the safe space to breed" and vowed to clamp down on internet hatred. In France, the Islamic State group recruited hundreds of French fighters through online propaganda and more than 200 died in terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice in 2015 and 2016, according to reports. May's strategy to tighten internet regulation was criticized by some campaigners, including leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron, who said May's plan "risks turning the web into a tool for surveillance and censorship". This is May's first foreign trip since her Conservative Party lost its majority in last week's parliament election. Macron and May's talks focused on security issues "both bilaterally and on an European basis", said an Elysee official. Chennai, June 14 : Tamil Nadu officials who were attacked by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan are expected to reach here on Sunday along with the 50 cows they have bought for breeding, official sources said on Wednesday. An Animal Husbandry Department official told IANS on the condition of anonymity that the officials and cows had reached Ahmedabad and would travel by road through Maharashtra as well as Karnataka to reach Tamil Nadu. The Rajasthan Police escorted them till they crossed into Gujarat, where the Gujarat Police was providing them security, the official said. He said the Tamil Nadu Police chief had written to his counterparts in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka to provide protection to the officials and the five trucks carrying the cows when they travel through their states. A team of officials from Tamil Nadu was attacked by cow vigilantes in Barmer in Rajasthan on Sunday night on the suspicion that they were smuggling the cows for slaughter. The Tamil Nadu officials had gone to Rajasthan to procure the cows under a central government scheme to breed them in the state so as to protect native cow breeds. They had procured 50 cows and were bringing them to Tamil Nadu when they were attacked. According to the official here, the cows can be transported only at night as they can't stand the summer heat during the day. New Delhi, June 14 : Equating the killing of five Madhya Pradesh farmers with Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, the Congress on Wednesday flayed BJP chief Amit Shah's comment on the Father of the Nation and said the BJP was trying to "deconstruct" his image, ideology and thinking. The Congress said it will launch on Thursday a 'haq-mango abhiyaan' (fight-for-rights movement) for farmers in Uttar Pradesh. "A few days ago in Raipur, a man used a very light word. They are those who want to deconstruct the image, ideology, and thinking of Mahatma Gandhi," Congress leader Raj Babbar told reporters here. On June 9, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah had referred to Mahatma Gandhi as a "bahut chatur baniya" (very clever Baniya) while addressing a gathering in Raipur in Chhattisgarh. "Farmers fighting for their rights are being shot, in the same manner in which Gandhi-ji was assassinated in 1948," Babbar said while referring to the June 6 killing of farmers in Mandsaur district. Babbar said: "They fear if the thinking and ideology of Gandhi-ji remains alive, their divisive politics will not work in India till then and they will have to work very hard to spread that kind of politics." Babbar, who heads the Congress's Uttar Pradesh unit, said Indians had adopted the ideology of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) and rejected the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue (Madhav Sadashiv) Golwalkar. The Congress leader said the BJP leaders must remember that Gandhi-ji sacrified and renounced everything for the Chamaparan Satyagrah in Bihar (in 1917). "At that time, they (right-wing leaders) didn't come with farmers, nor are they coming with them today." Terming the Uttar Pradesh government's loan waiver announcement a "gimmick", the Congress leader said: "During state assembly polls, they shouted about waiving farm loans, but are unable to tell how much amount they waived and who all benefitted." Asserting that the Congress won't allow Mahatma Gandhi's ideology to die, the Congress leader said: "We will fight this suit-boot, band-baaja and bullet sarkar (government)." New Delhi, June 14 : The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Wednesday demanded a special 10-day session of Parliament to discuss the agrarian crisis in the country. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CPI raised a number of farmers' problems such as lack of irrigation facilities, costly fertilisers, non-availability of quality seeds at reasonable prices, irregular electricity supply, and low minimum support price for their produce. "This is to bring to your attention that the country is facing an unprecedented agrarian crisis. There is famine and drought in some states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha, while there is bumper crop in some other areas which is a contrast," the CPI said. It said that the bumper crops and good yields have become "a curse to the peasants" as the prices of onions, tomatoes, chilli and pulses "have fallen by 40-25 per cent" as compared to last year. "Pulses and wheat were allowed to be imported, while the peasant is suffering with low price of his crop of pulses and wheat. Thousands of peasants have already committed suicides and many are on way... The cultivable land is shrinking... Population of farmers is reduced by 1.5 crore in recent period and most of them transformed as agricultural labour," it added. It said that loan waiver to farmers is "only a temporary relief" and it is "not charity but a necessity". "The collective anger of the Indian peasant is manifested in small protests in the recent agitations. If not solved it may take a gigantic form. Hence, we request you to act now, right now," the party said. The CPI also sought early adoption of the recommendations of M.S. Swaminathan Commission, which suggests reforms in the interests of farmers. "The CPI urges you to call a special session of Parliament for 10 working days as early as possible with the only agenda of agrarian crisis and to find immediate and permanent solutions." Washington, June 14 : The upcoming SRM University in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, has said it has signed an agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to license course materials. The university has begun working with MIT for the design and development of curriculum through the use of MITx courses, free online courses from MIT, according to an official statement. "These courses will incorporate the concepts of hybrid learning by utilising both traditional and technologically-enabled teaching methods," the statement said. "SRM is embracing a new method of learning, not before seen in India. We will emphasise practical and application-oriented learning via projects and lab courses rather than monologues that are the typical feature of our classrooms," said P. Sathyanarayanan, President of SRM University, Amaravati. To ensure the effective delivery of these courses, the faculty of the university will participate in annual design camps to learn techniques to blend MITx free online courses and MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) course material with relevant local content into the courses offered. "Developing research-led universities is fundamental to the progress of the state and the nation. We aim to do just that by bringing solutions to the problems that plague today's world," says Dr. Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the university. The university aims to eventually grow from being engineering centred into an integrated multi-disciplinary institution offering courses in management, law, medical sciences, pure sciences and liberal arts. Ghaziabad, June 14 : Ghaziabad authorities have ruled that a retired IAS officer who buried his wife's body in their residential premises here had breached the housing rules. The burial had sparked a huge row. Ghaziabad Additional District Magistrate Preeti Jaiswal said the June 4 burial took place in violation of clause (4) of the sale deed executed by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) in the name of Sheila Gaur, 66, wife of ex-officer Tulsi Gaur. GDA officials had earlier said they found no breach of law in what Tulsi Gaur did. But when the GDA sent the file to Jaiswal, she found that clause (4) specifically states that house owners can only use the plot for residential and not religious purpose. "The burial of the body is a religious act, so it violates clause (4) of the sale deed," Jaiswal told IANS. Jaiswal had faced a tough time when angry residents of Indirapuram objected to the burial of Sheila Gaur in the lawn of the Gaurs' residential premises at Shakti Khand. The retired officer said he buried his wife as that was her wish. He told the protesting residents to move the court. The house was in the name of Sheila Gaur. When some residents objected to the burial of a Hindu, Gaur cited the example of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who was buried in Chennai. "I will send my inquiry report to the District Magistrate and to the GDA for further action," Jaiswal said. Pune/Mumbai, June 14 : Some Pune-based environmentalists on Wednesday objected to a planned welcome rally with 10,000 motorcyles in the honour of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah in Mumbai this week. + In a legal notice to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), activists Asim Sarode and Vishwambhar Choudhary have said that such a rally would create huge traffic problems as well as troubles for the Mumbai commuters. Besides, the motorcycles vrooming across the city would create avoidable air and noise pollution, which would be compounded by traffic snarls, congestion and more noise with people blaring their vehicle horns, they pointed out. "Such unwarranted rallies need to be checked, and as it is not part of any inevitable pollution, the MPCB needs to measure air and noise levels during the rally on June 16," said Sarode and Choudhary in their legal notice. They urged the MPCB to measure the noise and air pollution levels at least four hours before, during and four hours after the rally and make its findings public. For causing noise pollution and disturbing the ambient air quality to make it toxic, the MPCB must lodge suitable complaints against the rally organisers, they demanded. "If the MPCB fails in filing their mandatory legal responsibility, we will be compelled to approach the Bombay High Court or the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Pune, for seeking environmental justice in the larger public interest," warned the activists. Shah is planning to come on a three-day visit to Mumbai from Thursday as part of the third anniversary celebrations of the BJP government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. New Delhi, June 14 : The Bharatiya Janata Party may announce the NDA presidential candidate on June 23, who is likely to file his nomination a day after, informed sources said. BJP sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to complete the process of filing of nomination by the National Democratic Alliance candidate before he leaves for the US tour on June 25. Modi is all set to hold his first-ever meeting with US President Donald Trump on June 26. In a bid to evolve a consensus on its nominee, a three-member committee set up by BJP President Amit Shah on Wednesday approached the Nationalist Congress Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. The panel is also set to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday. The process to elect India's 14th President began on Wednesday with the Election Commission issuing a notification for the July 17 contest. Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra, the Returning Officer for the election, issued the notification that nomination papers may be delivered by a candidate or any of their proposers/seconders not later than June 28. Voting will take place on July 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at places fixed under the rules. The vote count will be on July 20, four days before incumbent Pranab Mukherjee's term ends on July 24. The new President is set to assume office on the following day. Seoul, June 14 : India and South Korea on Wednesday signed agreement for $10 billion assistance for infrastructure development projects in India, including smart cities. The two countries signed agreements to establish $9 billion in concessional credit and $1 billion in Official development assistance (ODA) funding for infrastructure development projects in India," said an Indian Finance Ministry statement. This implemented a decision taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to South Korea in May 2015. With this, South Korea became one of the first non-G-7 countries to become an ODA contributor in India. Both sides also agreed to consider deploying part of this fund towards the Smart City projects in India. "They also agreed to establish a mechanism at senior official levels, to identify good infrastructure projects in India, to draw upon these funds," the statement said. The agreements were signed during the visit of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to South Korea on a four-day official visit to attend the India-Korea Financial Dialogue and the second annual meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Seoul, June 14 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday co-chaired the fifth India-Korea Financial Dialogue here wherein both countries agreed upon the need to stimulate investment flows in times of increasing risk of global protectionism. The India-Korea Financial Dialogue was attended by South Korea's newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon. "Both sides agreed that in the face of uncertainty and the risk of rising protectionism, there was a need for the two countries to increase efforts to stimulate investment flows, support for infrastructure development, and bilateral trade among others," said an Indian Finance Ministry statement. Jaitley arrived in Seoul on Wednesday on a four-day official visit for the India-Korea Financial Dialogue and attend the second annual meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Kim emphasised the importance of development of the special strategic partnership with India, the statement said. The two ministers reviewed the international economic situation, and India-Korea bilateral economic ties in that context. "They agreed that in the face of uncertainty and the risk of rising protectionism, there was an urgent need for the two countries to increase efforts to stimulate investment flows, support for infrastructure development, and bilateral trade among others," it said. "As the world's fastest growing large economy, India offers Korea important opportunities to deploy its capital and technologies in India, and for India, South Korea's interest in finding new openings to diversify its economic partnerships offers India great opportunities," it added. On Thursday, Jaitley will meet the leading Korean financial manufacturing companies in several rounds of meetings. London, June 14 : At least six people were confirmed dead and many were missing on Wednesday when a major fire engulfed and consumed a 24-storey apartment complex in west London housing hundreds. "It was like a scene from a Hollywood movie," said a resident who escaped from the burning Grenfell Tower. Authorities warned that the death toll may go up as nearly 20 of the 70 people warded in hospitals were in critical condition. Up to 600 people were believed to have been inside the 120 flats in north Kensington when the blaze began shortly after Tuesday midnight, The Telegraph reported. The tragedy was compounded because police initially told the residents to stay put inside the complex. By the time they reversed the stand, it was too late. Desperate occupants of Grenfell Tower flocked to the windows and screamed for help, many holding their children. Witness Jody Martin said: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out in the window... hearing screams." A baby flung by a terrified woman from the ninth or tenth floor was caught by the public on the ground. More than 12 hours after the fire broke out, over 250 firefighters continued to battle the leaping flames and thick, choking smoke. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said: "In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale." Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said: "I can confirm six fatalities. This figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days." Media reports warned that the blackened tower could collapse, with cladding already falling to the ground. Explosions were heard when the fire raged. Witnesses described people trapped in the burning tower screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved, the BBC reported. James Wood, a witness, told the Telegraph: "The most traumatic part was seeing children at the window screaming for help. Then the rooms would go up in flames." One resident, Michael Paramasivan, was clear that he survived along with his girlfriend and their daughter because he ignored official advice to remain inside. "If we had stayed in that flat, we would have perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out," the BBC quoted him as saying. Some residents attempted to use bin bags as makeshift parachutes in a desperate bid to escape. Firefighters rescued large numbers of people, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said many were unaccounted for. He said "questions need to be answered as soon as possible". The cause of the fire was not clear. As an investigation into the cause of the blaze began, residents reported that fire alarms had not sounded. Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, escaped. "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out of the building," he told the BBC. Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union said something had clearly gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building built in 1974. Mumbai, June 14 : A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker demanded on Wednesday that the landmark Gateway of India be renamed "Bharat Dwaar" as a fitting tribute to patriots, martyrs and freedom fighters. "The days of the British rule are over now and name of Bombay has been changed to Mumbai. Many railway stations have also been renamed, so the Gateway of India should now be renamed and called 'Bharat Dwaar' henceforth," demanded six-time legislator from south Mumbai Raj K. Purohit. The senior BJP leader said he had conducted informal discussions on this issues with partymen and others who expressed the desire for an "Indian name" for Gateway of India, ranked among the most famous and photographed monuments in India. Terming the majestic building as "a symbol of slavery", Purohit said he has written a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, demanding it should be rechristened to shed off the British legacy associated with it. He said it was a matter of regret that nearly 70 years after the Independence, the building continued to be known by the name symbolising the 150 years of British rule, and which ultimately proved to be "Get-away from India" for the colonial rulers. Purohit said that "Bharat Dwaar" would instill a sense of nationalist pride among all Indians on the lines of several major monuments, roads, buildings, institutions, railway stations and other locations whose names had been Indianised in the past few years. The regal Gateway of India, one of the most prominent and well-known landmarks in India after the Taj Mahal, is a "must-see" for all visitors to the country's commercial capital and is among the most-photographed as well. The foundation stone for the monument was laid by the Governor of Bombay State, Sir George Sydenham Clarke, on March 31, 1911, at what was an erstwhile crude jetty used by fisherfolk and renovated for royal or VVIP landings at Appollo Bunder, at the southern tip of Mumbai in the Arabian Sea. The monument was to celebrate, honour and commemorate the historic visit of Britain's King Geoge V and Queen Mary to India for their formal proclamation as the Emperor and Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar, when they landed here in December 1911. A cardboard model of the proposed monument was presented to the royal couple and the final design prepared by a Scottish architect, George Wittet, was approved later. Shortly thereafter the construction of the monument comprising Hindu and Islamic architectural styles of Gujarat, commenced in yellow basalt and reinforced concrete. It was finally inaugurated by December 4, 1924, nearly two decades after the existence of another global landmark, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, located right opposite the Gateway of India. Visitors are awed by the imposing 85-foot tall (nearly a 10-storeyed) monument combining elements of a Roman victory arch with 16th century Gujarat architecture -- while the arch is of Islamic style, the decorations and designs on it are in Hindu style. New Delhi, June 14 : A man has been arrested on the charge of cheating people by taking money on the pretext of getting them government jobs, the city police said on Wednesday. Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijay Kumar told IANS that Santosh of Uttar Pradesh was arrested from Kirti Nagar area on Sunday. The accused targeted unemployed persons from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and took money from them, promising jobs in the Delhi Jal Board and later went incommunicado, the police officer said. One of his victims complained to the police that Santosh took Rs 3 lakh from him on the promise of securing him a government job. The police said a probe is on to see if more persons were involved in the fraud he played. PLATTSMOUTH Plattsmouth Elementary School students will be able to run and jump on a new playground surface during the 2017-18 academic year. Plattsmouth Board of Education members voted 5-0 to redo the surface of the playground this summer. Mike Brodersen, Mary Caverzagie, Tony Foster, Matt Glup and Shane Jensen cast unanimous votes on a pair of measures regarding the playground Monday night. The board approved a bid from American Paving Asphalt Inc. of Smithland, Iowa, to install a new two-inch asphalt overlay on the playground surface. The overlay will cover 19,480 square feet of playground space. The company will perform the work for $41,492. The board also approved a bid from Taylormade Company of Kansas City, Kan., to install an eco-turf layer of safety surfacing over the asphalt. The 3.5-inch-high surface is designed to protect students from falls of up to eight feet. The company will perform the work for $27,306. Board members inquired if the district had obtained a bid for a longer-lasting cement-based surface. Plattsmouth Superintendent Dr. Richard Hasty said Operations Committee members had received a bid for cement work, but the total amount had been more than $100,000. He said committee members had recommended the asphalt overlay because it was less expensive. Board members are expecting the playground project to be completed by the beginning of the new school year. The first day for students in grades 1-9 will be Wednesday, Aug. 16. The first full day for kindergarten students will be Friday, Aug. 18. New Delhi, June 14 : The Public Works Department (PWD) of Delhi on Wednesday published a WhatsApp number and an email address through which citizens can send complaints or information about water-logging in the national capital. People can send complaints to 8130188222 or email them to monsoondelhi2017@gmail.com and even send them to PWD office address, till June 30. In Delhi, roads and drains are maintained by the three municipal corporations and the PWD. To avoid any blame game in preparatory works to prevent water-logging, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had earlier said that a joint committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and PWD officials has been formed. Locations which were water-logged in the past have been identified and desilting work is being carried out. Jammu, June 14 : After violating the bilateral ceasefire twice earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan Army again resorted to heavy shelling and firing on Indian positions on the line of control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, a defence official said. "Pakistan army again initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, heavy automatics and recoilless rifles on the LoC in Naushera sector," Defence Ministry spokesman, Lt Colonel Manish Mehta told IANS. "Pakistan shelling and firing started again at 8.45 p.m. The Indian Army are retaliating strongly and effectively. "Firing exchanges are presently going on (as of 10 p.m.)," he said. Earlier on Wednesday, the Pakistan Army on Wednesday resorted to unprovoked firing at two places along the LoC, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said. After violating the ceasefire in Poonch district with indiscriminate firing of small arms automatics and 82 mm mortars in Bhimber Gali sector, the Pakistan Army opened fire in Naushera at 9.30 a.m. after which the Indian Army retaliated. The firing ended around noon. The Pakistan Army has been violating the bilateral ceasefire during the last fortnight by resorting to indiscriminate shelling and firing, especially in Poonch and Rajouri districts. The Indian Army says it is being done by Pakistan to facilitate the infiltration of militants into the Indian side. New Delhi, June 14 : Six candidates filed their papers for the presidential election on the first day of nominations, officials said on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the Election Commission issued notification for the presidential poll, setting the ball in motion for the July 17 election to the country's highest constitutional post. Those who filed nominations on Wednesday include K. Padmarajan from Salem in Tamil Nadu, who has earned the moniker of 'Election King' by contesting more than 150 elections. His name figures in the Limca Book of Records for being the "most unsuccessful candidate". Earlier, Padmarajan has contested against political bigwigs like J. Jayalalithaa, M. Karunanidhi, A.K. Anthony, P.V. Narasimha Rao, K.R. Narayanan, S.M. Krishna, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (in Rajya Sabha polls) and President Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential election. Others who filed their nominations were Anand Singh Kushwaha from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, A. Bala Raj from Mahbubnagar in Telangana, Saira Bano Patel from Mumbai, Abdul Hamid Patel from Mumbai, and Kondekar Vijayprakash from Pune in Maharashtra. Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra, the Returning Officer for the election, issued the notification that the nomination papers may be delivered by a candidate or any of their proposers/seconders not later than June 28. Voting will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 17 at places fixed under the rules. The vote count will be on July 20, four days before incumbent Pranab Mukherjee's term ends on July 24. The new President is set to assume office the following day. Rome, June 14 : Italian town and city councils are prepared to take in 6,000 more migrants and asylum-seekers under an agreement with the Interior Ministry, according to data from the national association of municipalities, ANCI, AKI learned on Wednesday. More than 500,000 migrants have entered Italy since 2014, and some 175,000 asylum seekers are waiting in reception centres. In February this year, the government unveiled plans to distribute migrants more evenly across the country and better integrate them, with a goal of 2.5 migrants to every 1,000 residents. The government will provide a total of 100 million euros to municipalities that agree to increase their share of migrants under the plan, which calls for fresh efforts to curb the migrant influx via stronger border patrols and streamlined expulsion procedures for those whose asylum applications fail. The government also plans to close Italy's biggest reception centres "because smaller numbers allow for a different relationship with locals," said Interior Minister Marco Minniti outlining the plans to lawmakers on February 9. Italy currently has 14 migrant and asylum-seeker reception centres, the great majority of which are located in the south of the country. Castelnuovo di Porto, 25 km northwest of Rome houses one of the reception centres but Rome's Mayor Viriginia Raggi on Tuesday asked the government for a "moratorium" on migrant arrivals in the capital, citing "the high migrant pressure Rome is subjected to". London, June 14 : At least 12 persons were confirmed dead and many were reported missing on Wednesday in a major fire that engulfed and consumed a 24-storey apartment complex in west London housing hundreds. "I can confirm twelve fatalities at this time but this figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days. Many others are receiving medical care," Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said. He said it was likely to be some time before police are able to identify the victims, and added that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the fire, The Telegraph reported. "It was like a scene from a Hollywood movie," said a resident who escaped from the burning Grenfell Tower. Authorities warned that the toll may go up as nearly 18 of the 79 persons admitted to hospitals were in critical condition. Up to 600 people were believed to have been inside the 120 flats in North Kensington when the blaze began shortly after Tuesday midnight. The tragedy was compounded because police initially told the residents to stay put inside the complex. By the time they reversed the stand, it was too late. Desperate occupants of Grenfell Tower flocked to the windows and screamed for help, many holding their children. Witness Jody Martin said, "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out in the window... hearing screams." A baby flung by a terrified woman from the ninth or tenth floor was caught by the public on the ground. More than 12 hours after the fire broke out, over 250 firefighters continued to battle the leaping flames and thick, choking smoke. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said: "In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale." Media reports warned that the blackened tower could collapse, with cladding already falling to the ground. Explosions were heard when the fire raged. Witnesses described people trapped in the burning tower screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved, the BBC reported. James Wood, a witness, told the Telegraph: "The most traumatic part was seeing children at the window screaming for help. Then the rooms would go up in flames." One resident, Michael Paramasivan, was clear that he survived along with his girlfriend and their daughter because he ignored official advice to remain inside. "If we had stayed in that flat, we would have perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out," the BBC quoted him as saying. Some residents attempted to use bin bags as makeshift parachutes in a desperate bid to escape. Firefighters rescued large numbers of people, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said many were unaccounted for. He said "questions need to be answered as soon as possible". As an investigation into the cause of the blaze began, residents reported that fire alarms had not sounded. Paul Munakr, who lived on the seventh floor, escaped. "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out of the building," he told the BBC. Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union said something had clearly gone badly wrong with fire prevention procedures at the building built in 1974. New Delhi, June 14 : Three state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Wednesday formalised plans to set up one of the world's largest refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex -- West Coast Refinery Project -- located in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. The three state-owned OMCs -- Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation -- entered into a joint venture agreement for the creation of the proposed complex. Last year, the government disclosed that the three OMCs will build a 60 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) refinery along with a petrochemicals complex in Maharashtra. In 2016, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted that the first phase of the complex will be built with an investment of more than Rs 1 lakh crore. "The 60 MMTPA West Coast Refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex will be a state-of-the-art unit built at an estimated cost of $40 billion, and is expected to be commissioned by the year 2022," the Indian Oil Corporation said in a statement. "It will be a green refinery comprising 50 units designed to operate at the highest level of efficiency, and will be self-sufficient in power and utilities requirements, besides creating a benchmark in environment management." According to Indian Oil, the refinery along with a petrochemicals complex is designed to produce Euro-VI and above grade of transportation fuels. "The refinery will have in-built flexibility for processing a wide spectrum of light and heavy crude oil grades, utilising various blending techniques," the statement said. "It will also be able to produce on-demand product mix of petrol and diesel streams, as well as other refined products and petrochemical streams with the highest level of integration and energy efficiency." The OMC added that apart from the main refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex, the viability of other associated industries in the vicinity of the project is also being examined. New Delhi, June 14 : Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the government for not having created jobs for the youth. "Startup India, Stand up India, Right turn India: but no jobs for the youth of India," said Gandhi on his official Twitter account. Kolkata, June 14 : Accusing the Central government of trying to interfere in the liberty of people in the name of cow protection and prohibition of cattle slaughter, a newly formed joint forum of minority community and Dalits organised a protest demonstration here on Wednesday to demand withdrawal of the new notification on cattle slaughter. The representatives of the forum strongly condemned the new notification under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and demanded the Centre immediately withdraw the notification that puts "ban-like restrictions" on cattle slaughter. "We think the Central Government is trying to interfere in the personal liberty of people with their new notification about cattle slaughter. We strongly condemn this and demand immediate withdrawal of the notification," M. Kamruzzaman, the joint secretary of the forum, told IANS. "According to the central department of Animal Husbandry, 22 lakh people would directly lose their jobs, nearly two crore people involved with related businesses would be affected due to the ban on cattle slaughter. This is a direct attack on humanity," he claimed. Accusing the Central government and the BJP of trying to instigate clashes between Hindu dalits and the Muslims all over the country, Kamruzzaman claimed such attempts would cause great loss to the integrity of the country. "The BJP and the Central government are always scheming to start clashes between the Hindu dalits and Muslims everywhere. We have formed a joint forum of Hindu and Muslim communities to maintain the atmosphere of communal harmony and prevent the fascist policies of the Central Government and BJP-RSS," he said. Dublin, June 14 : Indian-origin leader Leo Varadkar was elected as Ireland's new Taioseach on Wednesday, becoming the youngest and first openly gay Prime Minister in the majority-Catholic country. The new ruling Fine Gael leader won 57 votes in the Irish Parliament against 50 for his nomination as premier, while some 45 parliamentarians abstained in the vote, the Independent reported. Accepting his elevation to the most powerful office in the country, the 38-year-old said: "I've been elected to lead but I promise to serve." "The government that I lead will not be one of left or right because those old divisions don't comprehend the political challenges of today. The government I lead will be one of the new European centre as we seek to build a republic of opportunity," he said. On Wednesday afternoon, Varadkar will meet President Michael D. Higgins to sign the papers that officially make him Prime Minister. He will announce his Cabinet later in the evening, Politico reported. Former Prime Minister Enda Kenny nominated Varadkar to succeed him at the start of Wednesday's parliamentary proceedings, saying that he would carry out the role with integrity and skill. "As the country's youngest holder of this office, he speaks for a new generation of Irish women and Irish men, he represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other," Kenny told Parliament ahead of the vote. The son of an Indian father and Irish mother, Varadkar is a qualified doctor. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and was a member of Young Fine Gael on campus and was elected as a councillor with 5,000 first preference votes a year after he entered politics. He won the Fine Gael party leadership earlier this month. New Delhi, June 14 : Services on Delhi Metro's Blue Line (Dwarka-Vaishali/Noida City Centre) were disrupted on Wednesday when a passenger got down and started walking on the tracks between Noida Sector 16 and Sector 15 Stations. The trains remained stationary for more than 15 minutes and then resumed their run at a diminished speed, due to the stray passenger. "The incident was reported to us around 8.45 p.m. The trains had started running only after slight delay. We decided to keep the speed slower than usual till we were sure that the culprit has been found, " a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Official told IANS. The Central Industrial Security Force, (CISF) which is responsible for security at metro premises, didn't comment on the story and failed to confirm whether the man was found. The metro services on the same stretch were thrown out of gear yesterday when it suffered a short circuit by an eagle which flew into the over head wire near Yamuna Bank Metro Station. The services were disrupted for more than three hours, stranding thousands of commuters. Kolkata, June 15 : An employee of a cable operator was arrested in West Bengal's Serampore town for allegedly uploading obscene photos of women on Facebook, police said on Wednesday. At least six complaints were lodged at Serampore police station in Hooghly district over the past few days of snaps of women being taken at railways stations, roadside eateries, offices, without their knowledge and then posted on a specific Facebook account containing obscene images. "If the culprit is not given exemplary punishment it will be difficult for us to set foot outside our homes. He has snapped the photos of not only college girls but of working women as well. Even women standing at bus stand have been taken," said a victim. "I got to know from my friends that my picture has been posted in a fake account without my knowledge. But when I understood when the photo has been taken, I filed a police complaint," said another victim. Even those who have no knowledge of the social networking site have been spending agonising moments after learning that their images feature on the Facebook account. On inquiry, police found that some of the women were snapped while paying the bills for cable television. According to a police officer, it was a clear case of cyber crime and four persons were identified. On Wednesday night, police arrested a youth employed with a local cable television operator. Cairo, June 15 : The Egyptian parliament approved in a final vote on Wednesday a controversial deal under which Egypt is to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian state TV reported. The approval came during a general session that was held earlier in the day following the approval of the parliament's defence and national security committee. The parliament's legislative committee passed it on Tuesday, Xinhua reported. The Egyptian parliament is divided over a maritime demarcation deal signed last year, according to which Egypt will hand over the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia. The majority of members are in favour of the deal. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his administration see that the two islands originally belonged to Saudi Arabia and it is time to return them to their rightful owners, while opposers of the deal believe that the islands are Egyptian and giving them up will be sacrificing national soil for temporary interests. Egyptian courts have previously nullified the agreement that was signed in April 2016 during a rare visit of Saudi King Salman to Egypt. Saudi Arabia led Gulf support to Sisi's government with billions of dollars and tons of oil supplies following the Sisi-led removal of former President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 following mass protests. AE 6.14.17 Minimum Wage As cities and states consider whether to implement it, they should be mindful of the consequences. Good intentions do not always lead to good results. Express Employment Professionals released new survey results revealing how businesses would react to a minimum wage increase to $15 per hour. In a survey of 1,030 businesses, respondents were asked, What action(s) would you take if minimum wage increased to $15 an hour. They were asked to select all responses that applied. Forty-three percent reported that they would have to increase the lower wages in their companies to comply with the minimum wage increase. Thirty-four percent warned that the $15 minimum wage would lead to increased prices, while 32 percent said they would eliminate positions. Fourteen percent said they would increase wages for their more highly paid employees, while 3 percent said they would close their businesses and 1 percent said they would relocate. Similar responses were given in surveys Express conducted in the previous two quarters, though the number of respondents saying they would increase prices or eliminate positions is down from late 2016. The number of businesses that would increase lower wages is up. In an Express white paper released in late 2016, Great Intentions. Bad Results. The Problem with a $15 Minimum Wage in America lays out the challenges businesses face with this mandate, what the unemployed have to say, and what the government should consider before mandating this increase. Full results are below. The $15 minimum wage has sparked contentious political debates across the country, said Bob Funk, CEO of Express, and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. As cities and states consider whether to implement it, they should be mindful of the consequences. Good intentions do not always lead to good results. After all, a higher wage for some can mean no wage for others. And, workers may end up having to spend the extra cash from higher wages on higher priced goods and services. Its a delicate balancing act. What action(s) would you take if the minimum wage increased to $15 an hour? (Please check all that apply.) Q2 2017 Q1 2017 Q4 2016 Increase lower wages in your company 43% 40% 38% Increase the price of goods or services 34% 34% 40% Eliminate positions 32% 33% 36% Increase higher wages in your company 14% 13% 15% Close the business 3% 2% 1% Relocate your business 1% 2% 2% Other 28% 25% 27% Express Employment Professionals explored the consequences of a $15 minimum wage in depth in a 2016 white paper, Good Intentions. Bad Results. *** If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bob Funk to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Karami, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966. About Robert A. Funk Robert A. Bob Funk is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 770 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Under his leadership, Express has put more than 6 million people to work worldwide. Funk served as Chairman of the Conference of Chairmen of the Federal Reserve and was also the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. About Express Employment Professionals Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $3.05 billion in sales and employed a record 510,000 people in 2016. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com. Keith Oelkers, Director, Data Science This new practice complements our existing Data Warehousing, Analytics and Business Intelligence capabilities and allows us to provide our clients with the full spectrum of data and analytic services, said Navroze Eduljee. DecisivEdge, LLC, a leading business consulting and technology services company is expanding its executive leadership team by hiring industry veteran Keith Oelkers to lead the companys newly established Data Science Practice. Keith has 20 years of experience in Data Science. At MBNA and Bank of America, Keith led analytic activities ranging from credit decisioning, contact center optimization, integrated value modeling and risk analytics. In his most recent role at Aetna, Keith was responsible for member segmentation, channel optimization, and developing a 360-degree view of a member. In this role, Keith will develop the companys data science service offerings, build partnerships and oversee service execution. The company expects to staff the practice with resources both in the US as well as at its location in Pune, India. We are excited to assist our clients leverage data to improve the decision-making process and Keith brings the right blend of thought leadership and practical experience to lead our team, said Navroze Eduljee, CEO of DecisivEdge. This new practice complements our existing Data Warehousing, Analytics and Business Intelligence capabilities and allows us to provide our clients with the full spectrum of data and analytic services, said Eduljee. Keith has an MA in Economics from Syracuse University, an MS in Applied Mathematical Statistics, and a BS in Economics from Rochester Institute of Technology. To learn more about Keith Oelkers, please visit http://www.decisivedge.com/about-us/team/. About DecisivEdge DecisivEdge is a business consulting and technology services company. We support our clients critical business and technology needs by providing them with the customized technology solutions, operational strategies and detailed analytics required to seize their market opportunity. We are knowledge leaders with deep experience. Our clients benefit from our unique ideas, knowledge of industry best practices and our ability to develop creative solutions to overcome their highest priority business and technology challenges. Our collaborative approach is designed to really understand our clients business objectives, and then deploy a seasoned solution delivery team to get the job done right the first time. To learn more about DecisivEdge, please visit http://www.decisivedge.com. Press Contact: Greg Miller Director of Marketing 302.299.1570 x302 greg.miller(at)decisivedge.com Athena Systems announced that it has been featured as one of the Top 10 Trading Platform Solution Providers 2017 in the special edition of Capital Markets CIO Outlook magazine. We are delighted to have Athena Systems in our annual ranking list of Top 10 Trading Platform Solution Providers 2017, said Andy White, Managing Editor of Capital Markets CIO Outlook magazine. Athenas Spark is a multi-featured platform for Hedge Funds and Family Offices that meets the current and emerging requirements needed to compete for assets, manage risk and automate processes. About Athena Systems Athena Systems is the provider of Athena Spark and Athena Aura, the leading solution for hedge funds. Athena Aura provides investment managers with complete front office and back office functionality to ensure their trading and portfolio management operations are handled as efficiently as possible. Used by 70+ highly specialized firms globally, Athena uses state-of-the-art technology to provide Portfolio Analytics, Risk, P&L, Compliance, Reporting and Order Management while providing security, control and integration beyond compare. Athena has offices in Boston, Madrid, Singapore, Austin & Malaga. For more information, please visit http://www.athenasystems.com, email info(at)athenasystems(dot)com or call +1 866-655-2663. About Capital Markets CIO Outlook Capital Markets CIO Outlook is a print magazine published from Fremont, California. It features the viewpoints of CIOs, IT-VPs, CFOs and other decision makers sharing their insights and perspectives on the Capital Market. And, it stands out to be one of the best publishing house from the rest of the crowd that provides the latest trends in Capital Markets arena. For more info, visit: http://www.capitalmarketsciooutlook.com Kansas City, KS: Century Roofing will celebrate over 25 years of exceptional business. Since 1990, Century Roofing has serviced the greater Kansas City area with the finest roofing materials and services. As a family owned and operated business, they take extreme pride in their work and the Kansas City community. In addition to providing exceptional service, Century Roofing has had the privilege of working with St. Jude Dream Home, Habitat for Humanity, and Extreme Home Makeover. Century Roofing takes exceptional pride in being a family owned business. This translates into their care for getting each and every job done right and at a competitive cost. Their handpicked, diligent staff is dedicated to giving homeowners the quality of work they deserve. Century Roofing has a firm understanding that replacing a roof is no easy task. Thats why homeowners looks for quality work and experienced roofers to get the job done right the first time. Everything from materials all the way down to the care that goes into each job is what Century Roofing prides themselves on. About Century Roofing: Century Roofing is a family owned company with over 25 years of experience providing Kansas City homeowners with professional, cost-effective roofing materials and installations. They know that roofing repairs and replacements are daunting to almost every homeowner. Century Roofing makes it easy to receive quality services from people who care. This office in Chicago provides our business with an expanded support center capability as well as being in closer proximity to a number of our key clients. - Mike Britton, President of BDSmktg BDSmktg, an award-winning retail marketing and sales agency that crafts custom brand demand solutions for Fortune 500 companies, has opened its fourth office in the Chicago, Illinois area. This location will serve as a client service office as well as an additional inbound support center for BDS field representatives providing in-store execution services for BDS clients. The support center, which includes a highly trained team of experts, will be on-call to provide specialized troubleshooting support to BDS field representatives who need assistance while in-store. BDS has experienced record growth over the last year and currently employs over 4,600 employees. With this growth comes an obligation to extend the tools and support resources our employees and clients need to implement the solutions our agency provides, said Mike Britton, President of BDSmktg. This office in Chicago provides our business with an expanded support center capability as well as being in closer proximity to a number of our key clients. We also plan to use this office as a Midwest base for team trainings. About BDSmktg BDSmktg is your trusted retail marketing and sales partner. With over 30 years of experience guiding customers through the buying journey, we are experts at powering sales for the worlds top brands. BDSmktg offers our clients fully integrated solutions that drive brand demand and sell-through: Brand Advocacy, Retail Readiness, Retail Environments, Research, and Commercial. We craft custom solutions from our suite of services, and our specialized teams ensure your brand is ready for each new selling season. Founded in 1984, BDS Marketing, LLC. is headquartered in Irvine, California with regional offices in: Heath, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; and Arlington, Virginia. For more information, visit http://www.BDSmktg.com. The planned renovation and expansion of the Nursing and Health Education Building will bring affordable, accessible, and cutting-edge education to our region, just when we need it most. Lake Michigan Mailers announced today that it will donate $10,000 to Southwestern Michigan College (SMC) to support the expansion of its Nursing and Health Education project located on the colleges Dowagiac, Michigan Campus. The expansion of the Nursing and Health Education Building will more than double the size of the current facility, provide state-of-the-art learning space, cutting-edge teaching technology, and allow the college to increase enrollment in its well-known nursing program. The entire expansion and renovation is expected to cost $9.6 million. Funding will be derived from multiple sources including a $4 million appropriation from the State of Michigan, $3 million from the colleges building and site fund, and $2.6 million from a major gift initiative open to community members and regional businesses. The need is clear and the time to act is now, said David C. Rhoa, president of Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc. Our region will face a severe nursing shortage by 2030. The planned renovation and expansion of the Nursing and Health Education Building will bring affordable, accessible, and cutting-edge education to our region, just when we need it most, Rhoa continued. We felt strongly that we had to get engaged and be part of the solution. This gift is the largest donation made to SMC by Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc. comes just one year after company co-founders Robert and Karen Rhoa, donated $7,000 for scholarships at SMC designated for students pursuing an Associate of Applied Science in Criminal Justice degree. This donation to the Nursing and Health Education expansion project, along with the scholarships that Karen and I have created, represent our continuing commitment to improving our regions quality of life, said Robert Rhoa, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc. We are delighted a progressive, community-minded leader such as Lake Michigan Mailers shares our vision. With pressure on hospitals to get patients in and out, its difficult nationally to find adequate clinical space. More clinical access is one of the biggest factors driving this project. Second is the ability to double the number of nurses. Hospitals love our nurses, they just need more, SMC President Dr. David Mathews said. Like Lake Michigan Mailers, this project is very forward-looking as we position the college so that the next generation has access to affordable, highest-possible-quality college education close to home. Besides transforming lives of individual students, community leaders support helps us meet workforce needs of hospitals and health-care providers across our region. About Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc.: Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc. is a family owned and managed company with processing centers in Kalamazoo, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana. The company is a leading provider of document management, mail assembly, mail processing, presorting, data management fulfillment, and distribution services to companies, schools, colleges and universities, health care providers, governmental entities and organizations throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Additional information about Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc. can be found on the companys web site About Southwestern Michigan College: Established in Dowagiac, Michigan in 1964, Southwestern Michigan College has continually expanded its curriculum and now offers more than 30 associate degrees. Accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Southwestern Michigan College is also a member of the American Association of Community Colleges. The mission of Southwestern Michigan College is to serve the community by providing affordable local access to high quality postsecondary career preparation and college education including the total college life experience. Additional information about Southwestern Michigan College can be found on their web site Media Contact: David C. Rhoa - President Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc. 269-383-9333 Ext. 220 / 574-277-5700 Ext. 220 / 269-217-9043 (Cell) drhoa(at)barcodemail(dot)com Jesse Ritvo MD The mantra-based practice of AMI Meditation and easy-gentle yoga taught at the upcoming CME physicians conference is an incomparable technology for calming the mind and relieving both physician and patient burnout. -- Jesse Ritvo MD Jesse Ritvo MD will join the faculty of The American Meditation Institute (AMI) for its 8th annual mind/body medicine CME conference October 24-28, 2017 at the Cranwell Resort and Spa in Lenox, Massachusetts. Entitled American Meditation: The Heart and Science of Yoga, this 30 credit hour training is accredited through the Albany Medical College Office of Continuing Medical Education. In his upcoming lecture on Alleviating Trauma, PTSD and Building Resilience, Dr. Ritvo explains that, The mantra-based practice of AMI Meditation and easy-gentle yoga taught at the upcoming CME physicians conference is an incomparable technology for calming the mind and relieving both physician and patient burnout. While alleviating the symptoms of trauma, PTSD and physicians burnout, these practices can build the kind of resilience we all need to live a more healthy, relaxed, and balanced life. Dr. Ritvo graduated from Harvard College and received his medical degree from the Brown-Dartmouth Medical Program. He is currently the assistant medical director of inpatient psychiatry at the University of Vermont Health Center-Central Vermont Medical Center, in addition to his position as assistant professor of medicine at UVM. AMIs 9th annual Heart and Science of Yoga CME conference will provide easy-to-learn practices that work synergistically (within the intricate medium of the stress system) to reduce inflammation and burnout and allostatic load while working toward establishing homeostasis. With fewer than 75 physicians attending, this intimate program is designed to encourage active participant interaction by combining engaging lectures, panel discussions and Q&A. Although recent studies have demonstrated that 75% of health care costs associated with chronic diseases could be prevented or reversed by lifestyle changes, many clinicians do not offer themselves, or their patients, strategies that encourage meaningful change. The devotion, enthusiasm, and teaching methodology of the entire AMI faculty will combine to create a dynamic and interactive course for healthcare professionals. Each AMI faculty member is committed to the advancement and training of Yoga Science as holistic mind/body medicine. In addition to Dr. Ritvos lecture on Alleviating Trauma, PTSD and Building Resilience, presenters include program director Leonard Perlmutter, AMI founder, meditational therapist and award-winning author; Mark Pettus MD, Director of Medical Education and Population Health at Berkshire Health Systems; Anthony Santilli MD, board-certified in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Prashant Kaushik MD, board-certified Rheumatologist; Sara Lazar PhD, instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Researcher in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital; Susan Lord MD, a private practice holistic physician focusing on prevention and treatment, and former course director for the The Center for Mind-Body Medicines Food As Medicine program in Washington, DC; Beth Netter MD MT, holistic physician and acupuncturist, Albany, NY; Jyothi Bhatt BAMS, Ayurvedic practitioner and faculty member of Kripalu School of Ayurveda and Physicians Assistant at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center; Gustavo Grodnitzky PhD, noted author and psychologist and Chair of The American Meditation Institute's Psychological Education Department; and Jenness Cortez Perlmutter, faculty member of The American Meditation Institute. According to conference faculty director Leonard Perlmutter, Most of the obstacles to health and well beingincluding trauma and PTSDreside in the mind. Meditators learn how to develop the tools that can change the software of the mind and therefore, the reality they experience. By incorporating the practices taught at this conference, physicians can sharpen the focus of their attention, enhance their creativity, and experience a sense of purpose and comfort to better serve themselves, their families, their patients and their medical practices. -30- About the American Meditation Institute The American Meditation Institute (AMI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization devoted to the teaching and practice of Yoga Science, meditation and its allied disciplines as mind/body medicine. In its holistic approach to wellness, AMI combines the healing arts of the East with the practicality of modern Western science. The American Meditation Institute offers a wide variety of classes, retreats, and teacher training programs. AMI also publishes Transformation, a quarterly journal of meditation as holistic mind/body medicine. Call 518.674.8714 for a postal or email subscription. Media Contact: Robert Washington American Meditation Institute 60 Garner Road Averill Park, NY 12018 Tel: 518-674-8714 Fax: 518-674-8714 Addin Lim Given Addin's 20 years plus experience working in agencies within the top 5 Networks and their Global Financial Operations & Management processes, I have to say that no one is a better fit in this job role than Addin WorkBook Software today announced the hiring of senior consultant Addin Lim who will be based in our Singapore office and will work with all clients in APAC, especially within ASEAN & Greater China regions, where WorkBook are currently enjoying high growth. Carl Witton, WorkBooks APAC CEO who confirmed Addins employment with WorkBook, stated, Given Addin's 20 years plus experience working in agencies within the top 5 Networks and their Global Financial Operations & Management processes, I have to say that no one is a better fit in this job role than Addin. Carl went on to add, WorkBook are growing at a rate of 40% a year currently, and adding Addin to our growing team of experts is the right move. WorkBook are really making a statement of intent with Addins hiring as we look for the further growth within Greater China, Asia Pacific and beyond. Addin Lim joins WorkBook with a wealth of industry experience. Addin Lim comes to WorkBook with over 22 years of advertising and media agency experience. After graduating from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, he worked for a time at DDB Singapore and TSS Australia before joining WPP. And for the past 17 years, he has performed various roles within the WPP Asia Pacific companies. After joining WPP Asia Pacific in 1998 Addin worked within the Adept in-house ERP system department as a System Analyst. By early 2006, Addin had transferred from WPP Singapore to WPP Beijing and successfully carrying out his role transformation within the group, starting from project management, then to finance management and finally to company management. Addin's greatest accomplishment, to date, was in 2007, when he was asked to take over the financial management role at Neo at Ogilvy China. In 2009 Addin was then promoted to COO, with a remit to continue supporting and growing Neo at Ogilvy China. Following on from his departure from WPP in 2016, Addin returned to Singapore. WorkBooks Chief Implementation Officer, Christian Arpe Hansen, said, The key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people, and Addin is a very smart guy. Christian went on to state, This is a very positive hire. Addin is joining our already very strong global team and is key for our growth in APAC especially the Chinese speaking markets, where WorkBook have now released the system installed with Mandarin Language within the HTML 5 interface. Christian finalised by saying, "WorkBook is in a tremendous moment of growth globally, China, Australia and ASEAN regions are just staggering in the way they have embraced WorkBooks ERP cloud technology." Addin added, Starting in this new role and working with WorkBook was too good an opportunity to resist and I am very happy to start with this new role. Its a very exciting future with WorkBooks software technology, expansion and client growth. About WorkBook WorkBook Software is a leading ERP software company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark with global offices in APAC & The Americas. A fully integrated software suite: Collaboration, CRM, pipeline and revenue forecasting, scheduling, resourcing, SOW & Top-Notch Project & Resource Management, Budgeting & Estimating, Billing all coupled with a robust accounting module that offers multi-company, multi-currency, coupled with global financial reporting. With the majority of WorkBook clients come from Advertising, Digital, and PR companies, however Architects, Consulting Engineers, and Management Consulting companies also enjoy the benefits of WorkBook. WorkBook Software is the Global leading ERP agency management solution who last year announced the release of their much-anticipated Version 9 solution, built using the latest HTML 5 technology, the best-in-class integrated solution features enhanced scheduling, resourcing, project management and finance modules. https://workbook.net/whos-using-it Contact Carl Witton, CEO - WorkBook Software APAC cw(at)workbook(dot)net DuvaSawko Emergency Medicine Billing Its interesting, the symbolism of climbing Kili and facing cancer treatments. Im sure many newly diagnosed patients feel like they are at the base of a mountain like Kilimanjaro." DuvaSawko, the Emergency Medicine powerhouse based in Ormond Beach, FL has partnered with the ME STRONG charity to help raise funds and awareness. The DuvaSawko and ME STRONG teams will be trekking to Africa this month to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to bring awareness to those suffering from cancer and raise money for MeStrong. The teams will be raising funds through a variety of avenues including their online donation portal. All donations will go directly to MeStrong to help the organization provide financial support for individuals and families that feel the financial effects brought on by cancer. The team at ME STRONG funds a generous research grant to the Foundation for Womens Cancer. The group has a collective goal of $19,431, signifying a dollar for each foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We figured, if 19,431 people donated just a dollar each, we could easily hit our goal, said Matt Branz, one of the key organizers of the climb. One hundred percent of the donations will go to the ME STRONG cause for local families. DuvaSawko is an emergency physician operated Coding, Billing, Accounts Receivable and Practice Management Company. DuvaSawko was founded in 1998 by Dr. Charles Chuck Duva MD FACEP and Dr. William Bill Sawko MD FACEP. Dr. Sawko, VP and CIO of DuvaSawko, along with DuvaSawkos Director of Information Technology Tim Branz, and 10 other members of Dr. Sawkos extended family will be taking part in the climb. The group will include members ranging in age from 10 to 65. As a leader in our industry, we felt a distinct responsibility to raise awareness of the ME STRONG group. Were all excited about the upcoming climb, said Dr. Bill Sawko. Linda Ryan, the founder of ME STRONG said, We are certainly thankful that the Branz, Cervantes and Sawko families are dedicated to raising funds for ME STRONG as they climb Kili. Its interesting, the symbolism of climbing Kili and facing cancer treatments. Im sure many newly diagnosed patients feel like they are at the base of a mountain like Kilimanjaro." Sadly, there are few people who havent been touched by cancer in some way. The fundraising these families are doing will directly make a difference in the lives of people right here in this community who have been diagnosed with cancer. The financial burden cancer can place on a family can be devastating. Its not too late to donate to the cause. The group is scheduled to depart for Africa on June 11th and will begin their climb on June 14th. They will continue to accept donations through July 1st. You can track the groups progress by clicking HERE and view updated pictures and trip reports by clicking HERE; the groups tracking code is WISAX12. About DuvaSawko DuvaSawko is an emergency physician operated Coding, Billing, Accounts Receivable and Practice Management Company. With headquarters located in Ormond Beach, Florida, DuvaSawko works with EM practices across the US. Today, DuvaSawko has established itself as an industry leader in revolutionizing emergency department coding, billing, accounts receivable (A/R) management, practice management software and service and hospital professional fee billing. About ME STRONG The five ME STRONG founding members along with the support of some special volunteers host a variety of events in Central Florida to support the ME STRONG mission. Through a grant process, ME STRONG offers assistance to cancer patients treading to stay financially afloat while undergoing cancer treatment. What sets ME STRONG apart from many other cancer charities is that it is not disease, age, or gender specific. ME STRONG supports Central Floridians with all types of cancer including men, women and children. Today, OSCRE International (http://www.oscre.org) announced the launch of its Blockchain Initiative to explore applications of this emerging technology in the commercial real estate industry. The announcement was made at the RealComm/IBCon Conference, a leading industry conference focused on the intersection of technology, innovation and real estate operations. Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that manages the way information is stored and shared between parties. There is growing acceptance of blockchains value to streamline business operations, and our industry needs to catch up, said David Karpook, OSCREs chairman and a strategic consultant for Planon Software. Given the transactional nature of our business, we cannot afford to be left behind because we chose to do nothing. We must be proactive, he added. The OSCRE Blockchain Initiative is bringing a diverse group of leaders together to explore the possibilities of this emerging technology specific to the industrys operational and investment needs. Blockchain technology can facilitate smart contracts, cryptocurrency transfers and much more. The OSCRE Initiative will identify business opportunities where these technologies will have the greatest impact and follow through with pilot projects. By design, this Initiative will include both a corporate real estate and investment perspective, and will be international in scope. Data integrity is critical to blockchain platforms, and so this initiative complements OSCREs core focus on the development and implementation of real estate standards, said Lisa Stanley, CEO of OSCRE International. We look forward to working with industry leaders to forge new collaborations in blockchain applications and other emerging technologies. About OSCRE International (http://www.oscre.org): OSCRE Internationals mission is to guide and inform the commercial real estate community on how information standards and technology maximize value, today and tomorrow. The recently launched OSCRE Academy and its Data Governance Program (http://www.oscre.org/Innovation-Leadership/OSCRE-Academy) is the first of its kind in the industry to educate participants on the critical areas of data governance in commercial real estate, including data integration and aggregation, and the impact of emerging technologies. Interested in learning how your organization can participate? For more information, please contact us at info(at)oscre(dot)org. Soreide Law Group has been hired by 7 different clients that all have filed suits claiming securities fraud against George Merhoff and Cetera Advisors. Two Oregon retirees, living in Klamath Falls, hired the securities arbitration law firm Soreide Law Group to recover more than $500,000 in investment losses with Cetera Advisors broker George Merhoff Merhoff. The customers accounts were heavily concentrated in only a handful of high risk oil investments, including: Linn Energy, PenGrowth Energ Corp, Cliffs Natural Resources, Teekay Partners, and Vale S.A., to name a few. The lawsuit alleges that Merhoff was reckless with the Claimants money ignoring all warnings and market signals with the energy market collapsing. It is alleged that the Claimants fell victim to the negligence, misrepresentations, breach of fiduciary duty, of their registered representative, Merhoff. Including this claim, Merhoff has racked up twelve (12) reported customer complaints on his U4. The claimant alleges an over concentration in oil investments which were unsuitable for a retiree. The Claimants through their attorney Lars Soreide, Esq., have accused Cetera Advisors and broker George Merhoff, of alleged negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent supervision, breach of contract, fraud and violations of the Oregons Securities Act. The Claimants are seeking damages of $500,000 plus attorneys fees for their alleged violations if liability if found under the Oregon Securities Act. The suit also alleges that Cetera Advisors failed to supervise their financial advisor Merhoff. Cetera Advisors and Merhoff have yet to file Answer to the allegations. Soreide Law has filed other cases against Cetera and Merhoff for customers located in Illinois, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada. The majority of these cases have been oil and gas loss related. Soreide Law represents investors nationwide through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The suit is being arbitrated through FINRA, the FINRA case number is 17-01508 and Cetera Advisors and Merhoff have yet to file a response. Lars Soreide, Esq., expects the case to be arbitrated by the summer of 2018. For more information visit https://www.SecuritiesLawyer.com or call 1 (888) 760-6552. The new partnership is further evidence of the commitment of both organisations to providing innovative products and services to the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne install base. The new agreement represents an exciting opportunity for both parties. For DWS, it sees the addition of a new partner with strong ties to the JD Edwards community across Europe. For Experium Nax, it means the ability to add even greater value to those organisations committed to EnterpriseOne. For customers, using DWS products will ease the burden of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne testing; enabling them to run smaller, faster and smarter change event projects. From June 2017, Experium Nax will introduce and resell DWS innovative test planning, management and automation products, Dimension Focus and Dimension SwifTest. An Oracle Platinum Partner, Experium Nax is specialised in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and was quick to see the value in the testing products DWS has created. Dimension Focus is DWS test planning and management product. It is designed to enable Experium Nax customers to understand the true impact of any ESU (Electronic Software Update) or change event. Better test planning and management is made possible thanks to the products ability to conduct a forensic analysis, down to event or function level. Dimension SwifTest is the only testing product designed specifically for, and integrated with, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. It has been designed with the non-technical end user in mind to make the creation, editing, scheduling and execution of testing as simple and efficient as possible. Together, SwifTest and Focus will dramatically reduce the time, effort and cost of every JDE E1 project, delivering Experium Naxs customers a better and more cost-effective experience. When deployed simultaneously, customers have seen as much as an 85 percent reduction in testing efforts. With CIOs spending as much as 25 percent of their IT budget on quality assurance, the savings can be tremendous. Thomas Poletti, Director of Technology & Innovation at Experium Nax, said We are very excited to announce this partnership today, we believe that DWS products are a key performance enabler for our customers upgrade and change projects, where testing has always been a major subject. Dimension Focus is a very unique product, allowing customers to identify and reduce the testing effort focussing on the change impact. Dimension SwifTest streamlines the testing process, by improving test quality and execution. DWS product suite will also help customers achieving a code current policy, aligned with the new JD Edwards continuous delivery strategy. Barry Burke, DWS Chief Executive, praised the partnership as an exciting opportunity for both DWS and Experium Nax, and one Im delighted about. Experium Nax recognises the benefits of reducing the testing burden with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne change events, and were very much looking forward to getting started. About DWS DWS is a leading provider of Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software services and products. Since 1998, we have been providing development and technical services to organisations looking to customise, integrate, extend, upgrade or support implementations of EnterpriseOne. We also sell testing EnterpriseOne products that leverage our deep domain expertise and that help customers run smaller, faster and smarter projects. DWS serves a global client base using proven methodologies and proprietary DWS Dimension tools. Our approach and eye for detail help us deliver products and services that save time and money and continually drive down your TCO for JD Edwards. For more information, please contact DWS on +44 (0) 1494 896600 or visit http://www.dwsconsultants.com/products. About Experium Nax Experium Nax is one of Oracles leading Platinum Partners, providing consulting and managed services to businesses across France. Their team of senior technical engineers and functional consultants have an average of 10 years JD Edwards experience each, who are supported by a network of expert partners. They pride themselves on a pragmatic vision thats based on understanding the needs of their customers and delivering EnterpriseOne solutions that are personalised, adaptable and add value. For more information, please contact Experium Nax on (+33) 04 72 13 41 01 or visit http://www.experium-nax.com The newest company to join the Science Centers Port business incubator is creating a way to discover new therapeutic antibodies using rabbits that express human genes. ATGC, a spin out of the University of Michigan, will occupy lab space at 3624 Market Street. Founded in 2015, ATGC is a translational genomics company. Its founders are among the first wave of researchers adopting into translational science the genome editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 that allows targeted and permanent modification of genes in living cells. ATGCs rabbit model in development would offer major improvements over existing mouse antibody discovery platforms because it produces a more diverse range of antibodies, and allows the use of more robust tissue sampling and assays. ATGCs commercial goal is to create the first line of transgenic rabbits that carry site-specific, functional human genomic sequences and that could be used to develop new and safer treatments for a wide range of diseases. This genomic approach effectively accelerates the identification and validation of targets that could lead to new gene therapies. The Port business incubator has helped hundreds of emerging life sciences, physical sciences, and digital technology companies launch and grow by connecting them to business-building programs, clinical resources, investors and advice. The Port offers a range of affordable and flexible options for fast-growing companies, from cubicles, fully furnished offices, and wet and dry labs directly in the heart of uCity Square, with coworking available at the Innovation Center @3401 (ic@3401).The Port also connects its residents to Greater Philadelphias diverse and supportive innovation ecosystem. The 28 residents in the Port incubator include startups in life sciences, healthcare, IT, emerging technologies and support organizations. Combined, they deploy more than $60 million in risk capital. About the Science Center Located in the heart of uCity Square, the Science Center is a mission-driven nonprofit organization that catalyzes and connects innovation to entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. For 50+ years, the Science Center has supported startups, research, and economic development in the life sciences, healthcare, physical sciences, and emerging technology sectors. As a result, graduate firms and current residents of the Science Centers incubator support one out of every 100 jobs in the Greater Philadelphia region and drive $13 billion in economic activity in the region annually. By providing resources and programming for any stage of a businesss lifecycle, the Science Center helps scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators take their concepts from idea to IPO and beyond. For more information about the Science Center, go to http://www.sciencecenter.org Making the Top SEO companies list just confirms all of the data CMOs need to evolve how they are using their agency partners, and we are that evolution. karma digital, a boutique SEO company offering SEO services and training, is proud to announce their recent inclusion on two lists that signify the companys status as one of the best SEO companies in both the Chicago area, and the nation. Were climbing our way to the top of the list of the best SEO companies, said Boca, founder of karma digital. Elliott continued, Appearing on the top list of SEO companies in Chicago, with some of the best traditional SEO agencies, shows the growth of our disruptive model in our digital industry and the need for something different. karma digital is featured as an UpCity Certified Partner, and comes in third on UpCitys Top SEO Companies in Chicago. Additionally, karma digital was honored as one of the Best SEO Companies for June 2017 by FindBestSEO. The firm came in at number six, placing near national agencies that karma digital is proud to be associated with. Having launched in late 2016, its an honor to move to the top of these lists so quickly and confirms the unrest companies are having with costly traditional SEO agencies. Heres a snippet from FindBestSEOs current list: 1. Ignite Digital 2. Boostability 3. Lead to Conversion 4. SEO Inc. 5. Over The Top SEO 6. karma digital Cassie Boca, Founder and CEO of karma digital, credits the young companys success to the structure of their services, which are based on teaching SEO methods to business teams. Boca surmised, Making the Top SEO companies list just confirms all of the data CMOs need to evolve how they are using their agency partners, and we are that evolution. About UpCity UpCity uses vigorous research methods in order to provide small and medium-size business owners with a resource that allows them to select the best local digital marketing agency for their situation. In addition to research, UpCity provides certifications for SEO agencies that meet a strict criterion so top agencies get the notoriety they deserve. About FindBestSEO FindBestSEO reviews hundreds of digital marketing companies each month, all in an effort to find the best in the business and highlight their services so businesses of all size can access quality SEO and marketing services at the click of a button. About karma digital karma digital breaks tradition from what has become standard SEO agency behavior. Instead of doing SEO for companies, karma digital teaches SEO while partnering with companies to create an SEO strategy. Breaking away from traditional SEO agencies, consultants, and DIY tools, karma digital is your SEO team for hire. The breakthrough model helps to make small and medium-size businesses self-reliant, able to engrain SEO into all of the content they are creating without breaking their budget, and delivers better results than the traditional models. Indicative of their name, karma digital not only does their best for their clients, but the company makes efforts to change the world. Theyve made the commitment to give $100,000 to a non-profit in Africa that provides bikes to school children to make their commitment to education not only possible, but successful. ### "We are very proud to be among the first MLS's to have achieved the highest level of certification from RESO..." said Annie Ives, CEO of The MLS-CLAW. The MLS-CLAW, a Southern California-based MLS, has been awarded Real Estate Standards Organizations (RESO) Data Dictionary 1.5 Platinum Certification, the highest level of certification offered by RESO. The MLS-CLAW earned this level of certification for its internal system, as well as for the Palm Springs Regional Association of REALTORS and the Imperial County Association of REALTORS, both of which license its software. They stand among three other MLSs, out of more than 700 in the nation, to have achieved Data Dictionary 1.5 Platinum Certification. An estimated 700+ MLS organizations and hundreds of other technology firms collect real estate data. The RESO Data Dictionary serves as the real estate industrys Rosetta Stone for data fields. It creates a common language that allows real estate information to be more easily shared and understood. RESO provides specific Data Dictionary certification services to ensure MLSs correctly adapt to standards and ensuring brokers and technology companies can utilize MLS data in a cost-effective and efficient manner. We are very proud to be among the first MLSs to have achieved the highest level of certification from RESO, on behalf of The MLS-CLAW, Palm Springs Regional Association of REALTORS and the Imperial County Association of REALTORS, said Annie Ives, CEO of The MLS-CLAW. With our own in-house development team, we are able to ensure were always on top of the latest technology while providing standardized data. Our team strives to lead the industry with our technology, data standards and best-in-class customer service. We are ecstatic to see The MLS-CLAW, Palm Springs Regional Association of REALTORS, and Imperial County Association of REALTORS all become RESO Platinum Certified in Data Dictionary 1.5. Achieving the highest level of excellence is no small task and they should be very proud of this accomplishment, noting that to date only three other MLSs have reached this level of standards adoption, said Jeremy Crawford, CEO, RESO. Their commitment to a leading-edge philosophy in providing standardized data greatly benefits their brokers, agents and technology providers and sets another bar in the industry other exceptional organizations will desire to emulate. ABOUT THE MLS-CLAW The MLS-CLAW services more than 15,000 real estate professionals in Southern California; it focuses on the greater Los Angeles area and Malibu, and it licenses its software to the Palm Springs Association of Realtors and the Imperial County Association of Realtors. The MLS-CLAW is recognized as being at the forefront of technology for its wholly owned and operated MLS system. With one-on-one training, webinars, hands-on classes, a YouTube channel and a Help Desk, The MLS-CLAW members have 24/7 support. The MLS-CLAW produces its own in-house publication, The MLS Broker Caravan, a high-end magazine that is distributed weekly to 4,000 plus brokers/agents. TheMLS.com also provides a guest site for consumers looking to find their dream home and/or the real estate professional that can help them find it. For more information on The MLS-CLAW, visit http://www.themls.com. ABOUT RESO The mission of the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) is to create and promote the adoption of standards that drive efficiency throughout the real estate industry. RESO incorporated in November 2011 as an independent, not-for-profit trade organization that was previously a section of the National Association of REALTORS. The RESO has more than 650 active members, including NAR, multiple-listing services, real estate associations, brokerages and industry technology providers. For more information, visit http://www.reso.org. Cambridge Federals Call Center recently achieved its Operational Readiness Review (ORR) and is now operational. This effort is in support of Marylands Department of Health and Mental Hygienes (DHMH) recently awarded contract with Delmarva Foundation as the Maryland External Quality Review Organization (EQRO). Cambridge Federal, LLC, is conducting quality measure assessments on all Managed Care Organizations (MCO) in the State of Maryland. This initiative will validate that the MCOs compliance with access and availability requirements. Delmarva Foundation will utilize all data collected from the Call Center for its final report with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Cambridge Federal was able to create three new positions in their main office located in Cambridge, Maryland due to the award of the contract. The positions that were created are in the Call Center, where they will conduct the telephone surveys. Cambridge Federal was also able to leverage investments in infrastructure and training. Ultimately, Cambridge Federal will provide value to all potential end users of Managed Care Organizations. Cambridge Federal would like to thank Delmarva Foundation for supporting small businesses here on the Eastern Shore. About Cambridge Federal: Cambridge Federal was established in 2012 in an effort to give back to the community by increasing quality employment opportunities, technical training, investment, and overall economic development on Delmarva. Cambridge Federal, founded by a US Navy Aviator and combat veteran who is an experienced government-contracting executive and an Adjunct Professor at Salisbury University. Cambridge Federal is a certified HUBZone and Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) and is currently located in the Eastern Shore Innovation Center (ESIC/Incubator). To learn more about Cambridge Federal, visit our website at http://www.CambridgeFederal.com or like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cambridgefederal/?ref=page_internal. Saint Francis Healthcare announced the addition of pioneering vascular and interventional radiologist Mark J. Garcia, M.D., F.S.I.R., F.A.C.R to our medical staff at Saint Francis Healthcare. Dr. Garcia has over 20 years of experience treating patients using image-guided techniques that include X-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI. The techniques are minimally invasive, using needles and small catheters to direct treatment rather than surgical incisions. He treats patients with many conditions, from peripheral arterial disease, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), varicose veins and pulmonary embolism to many types of cancer, spinal fractures, uterine fibroids and more. As one of the first physicians in the world to successfully treat chronic DVT, Dr. Garcia has brought hope and improved quality of life for many of his patients suffering from Post Thrombotic Syndrome (PTS). Chronic DVT is a condition in which a clot hardens and scars veins, hampering blood flow and causing PTS. Dr. Garcias revolutionary technique involves inserting a small catheter with tiny transmitters that emit ultrasound waves into the vein. He has been able to demonstrate that the ultrasound waves, in combination with balloon angioplasty, have been successful in reopening the vein. Patients reported a significant reduction and even resolution of pain and ulcers following the procedure. Dr. Garcia will perform his first chronic DVT procedure at Saint Francis on a patient from Vancouver, Canada, on Monday, June 12. The administrators at Saint Francis hope that this will become the Comprehensive Vein Center. Dr. Garcia is the Medical Director and President of Vascular & Interventional Associates of Delaware and EndoVascular Consultants, housed at Suite 401 in Saint Francis Healthcares Medical Office Building. In the past, he treated patients at Christiana Care Health Services as a staff physician in interventional radiology. While there, he also served as Chief of Interventional Radiology, Medical Director of the Center for Comprehensive Venous Health, as well as Medical Director of the Center for Heart & Vascular Health Peripheral Labs. He also started and directed the accredited interventional radiology fellowship training program. Dr. Garcia is board certified by the American Board of Radiology, with added qualification in interventional radiology. He completed his residency in 1994 at St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa., and a fellowship in cardiovascular and interventional radiology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. He is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology as well as the Society of Interventional Radiology and was voted a Delaware Top Doctor in 2010 and 2014. He received the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology Distinguished Clinical Study for his ACCESS PTS Study in 2015. His studies have been published in more than 20 scholarly medical journals, and he has presented his research and a variety of techniques at conferences and symposiums worldwide. Dr. Garcia will unveil groundbreaking research in New Orleans this week (June 14-17, 2017) in a presentation at the Society of Vascular Medicines 28th Annual Scientific Meeting. Please join Saint Francis in welcoming Dr. Garcia to their team. Saint Francis Healthcare, a Member of Trinity Health, operates Delawares only Catholic hospital serving Wilmington and Northern New Castle County since 1924. Services provided include Partners in CardioVascular Health and Cardiovascular Services, 24-hour Emergency Services, Ambulance Service, Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence, the da Vinci Surgical System, Gastroenterology Services, Hematology-Oncology Services, Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Advanced Wound Center, Imaging Services, Sleep/Neurodiagnostics Center, Home Care, Outpatient Physical Therapy, Comprehensive Womens Health Services, and three community outreach programs. Saint Francis Healthcare is affiliated with the Saint Francis Foundation and Saint Francis LIFE (Living Independently for Elders), a PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) model. Over 40,000 customizable designs - change color, scale and repeat to create the perfect design. "WeaveUp is in a unique position to help businesses leverage the power of digital printing and met the increasing demand for customization." Eric Jungbluth, CEO, Springs Window Fashions WeaveUp, a software-based surface design customization company, today announced that it has received a strategic investment from Springs Window Fashions, one of the largest manufacturers of window coverings in the world. In conjunction with the investment, a representative of Springs Window Fashions will join the WeaveUp Board of Directors. Demand for customization in surface design applications, including textiles, wallcoverings and flooring, is rapidly increasing as digital printing continues to disrupt traditional printing processes. WeaveUp intends to use the capital to further scale the business, including addressing new verticals and expanding the scope of its platform. In addition, WeaveUp and Springs will also partner on business opportunities to deliver powerful new tools enabling users to leverage the power of digital textile printing. This strategic investment will help us continue to improve our product offering and find innovative ways to help more customers create exactly the look they want, without compromise, said Flint Davis, President of WeaveUp. Springs, which brings a wealth of channel experience in the window covering market, is an ideal partner for our customization and workflow platforms. We are thrilled to welcome them to our robust roster of industry-leading partners. We believe WeaveUp is in a unique position to help businesses leverage the power of digital printing and meet the increasing demand for customization, said Eric Jungbluth, CEO, Springs Window Fashions. WeaveUps innovative technology helps clients decrease product development time, reduce inventory costs and increase customer choice. We are excited about this strategic partnership, which will enable us to deliver an array of new design solutions to our customers and partners. WeaveUp has already secured commercial partnerships with other industry-leading manufacturers within the textile and wallcovering categories, including Valley Forge Fabrics, Koroseal Interior Products and Materialised. These partners use WeaveUp to provide custom solutions to commercial, hospitality, healthcare and government clients across the globe. ABOUT WEAVEUP WeaveUps Design Library and proprietary software allow professional designers and consumers to easily customize and personalize thousands of designs and digitally print them on multiple substrates. WeaveUp was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Durham, NC. WeaveUp. Settle for perfect.TM For more information, please visit https://weaveup.com/our-mission/. ABOUT SPRINGS WINDOW FASHIONS Springs Window Fashions, the Best Experience Company, supplies leading retailers and distributors with a complete line of blinds, shades, specialty treatments and window hardware. Bali and Graber are brands of Springs Window Fashions. Based in Middleton, Wis., the company has facilities in seventeen locations in the United States and Mexico and employs approximately 8,000 associates. For more information, visit http://www.springswindowfashions.com. ### The future of accounting is more than a tool, it is a solution that is automated, timely, mobile, and provides useful analytics for the small business entrepreneur. Charleston-based Ceterus today announced the close of a $6 million Series A-1 extension investment led by Grotech Ventures. Participation in the round includes existing investors, TechOperators of Atlanta, GA, The IDEA Fund of Raleigh, NC, and Alerion Ventures of Charleston, SC. Don Rainey, Grotech General Partner, said Ceterus is an exciting company with impressive traction in the marketplace. We are enthused to partner with them as they address an immense market with an innovative approach to universal issues for small businesses. Pairing next-generation accounting technology with industry expertise, Ceterus provides a complete solution to small business entrepreneurs. The future of accounting is more than a tool, it is a solution that is automated, timely, mobile, and provides useful analytics for the small business entrepreneur, Levi Morehouse, Ceterus CEO and Founder said. This new investment allows for expansion into new small business markets as well as developing additional functionality for our customers. Ceterus Edge gives small business owners instant access to their financials, as well as peer-benchmarks, key performance metrics, and daily balances, from any connected device. Edge aggregates data from customers point-of-sale, bank, and payroll systems, allowing the automation technology to reduce manual accounting processes. Said Mohammadioun, TechOperators Managing Partner and Ceterus Board of Directors member, said, Ceterus is a great young company with the potential to address what small businesses need. Accounting-as-a-service is the most effective way for small businesses to get a professional grade of accounting at a very affordable cost. Ceterus analytics offer insight that currently does not exist. To date, Ceterus has raised $10.2 million in venture capital. Ceterus will use this funding to continue growing its team in Charleston, SC, and to expand to new small business markets. The company is actively hiring to grow their downtown Charleston headquarters. ### About Ceterus Ceterus, a Charleston-based technology and accounting company, empowers small business entrepreneurs by automating their accounting and financial reporting. Pairing Edge, its proprietary, cloud-based technology with professional accountants, Ceterus delivers a complete accounting and analytics solution for small business owners. Ceterus operates from its headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, bringing together a growing team of top accounting and technology talent. For more information on the company and how its solutions, visit http://www.ceterus.com. About Grotech Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures (http://www.grotech.com) is a leading early investor in high-potential technology companies. With more than $1.5B under management, Grotech seeks innovative, early-stage IT companies and continues to invest and add value throughout the growth of its portfolio companies. The firm has a strong combination of industry relationships and deep domain and operational expertise to accelerate growth. Grotech supports early-stage companies through investments starting at $500,000. General partners include Frank Adams, Chuck Cullen, Lawson DeVries, Steve Fredrick, Don Rainey and Joe Zell. The firm has offices in Virginia, Maryland and Colorado. About TechOperators An early-stage venture capital firm, TechOperators was founded on the premise that proven operators make the best partners for technology entrepreneurs. The firm is led by partners with decades of hard-fought operating success and experience founding, building and running world-class venture backed software companies. Based in Atlanta, TechOperators applies market-proven strategic and operational experience to drive growth during all stages of company building. TechOperators seeks entrepreneurs with bold innovative business software solutions in cyber security, cloud computing, mobile computing, and marketing. For more information visit http://www.techoperators.com. BlueFox.io, the company developing disruptive real-time customer engagement solutions for brands and brick & mortar retailers, today announced the closing of its $7 million Series A funding, with participation from Baseline Ventures, Panasonic, NewGen Capital and Pentalog. "Were excited by the strength of our investors. The quality and depth of our sales pipeline illustrate the appetite for our technology from top tier brands and retailers who can now increase sales and manage premises better and cheaper than before, said Guillaume de La Tour, the founder and CEO of BlueFox.io. Steve Anderson, founder of Baseline Ventures, said, "Customers are excited about BlueFox.io's ability to offer a real-time mobile customer engagement solution with no apps or beacons. I am looking forward to partnering with the BlueFox.io team to further accelerate their growth. We are very pleased to join BlueFox.ios journey with this financing round, said Patrick Suel, Senior Venture Partner at Panasonic. BlueFox.io technology has a number of applications, not only in retail but also in numerous connected domains that we believe the market will soon adopt. Homan Yuen, Managing Partner at NewGen Capital, said, "We are very happy to have Baseline Ventures and Panasonic join the Bluefox.io team. NewGen has been a proud supporter of the companys vision and is excited to see the technology and business further validated by these strong partners." About BlueFox.io BlueFox.io technology reinvents traffic counting and customer engagement in physical spaces. It offers a cloud platform that makes counting simpler and more affordable. The company also provides brands and retailers a unique approach to real-time customer engagement on smartphones, without the need for a mobile app or costly beacon installations. To learn more, please visit http://www.bluefox.io. BlueFox.io is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Follow us: Facebook: facebook.com/BlueFoxIO Twitter: twitter.com/@BlueFoxIO Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/bluefox-io Share of Alexa Rank ranges for Solo Build It! and Wealthy Affiliate. From a sheerly human perspective, we dont understand how anyone can do this to someone who wants to build a serious online business, growing profits and equity that make a difference to his/her life. SiteSell, a business that has been helping solopreneurs to create successful online businesses of their own since 1997, recently released a review and study of competitor Wealthy Affiliate that has shocking results and implications. Its unseemly for one business to review a competitor, said SiteSell CEO and Founder Ken Evoy. We would normally never do it because such a review would be biased and lack credibility. Therefore, instead of a typical opinion review, we took it in a completely different direction. SiteSell designed and performed a scientific-level study and let the numbers do the talking. Why take this unusual approach? It is a response to an organized campaign of fake reviews that was initiated by affiliates of another company, Wealthy Affiliate. Fake reviews, written as standalone web pages, constitute a well-known and growing problem. And affiliates of Wealthy Affiliate have acquired a particular reputation. SiteSell CMO Mike Allton adds, This is a very different problem than the fake reviews in review aggregation sites such as TripAdvisor and even Amazon. This issue has become a cat-and-mouse game of measure-countermeasure. But, he notes, that type of fake is under control due to each companys economic self-interest in featuring trusted reviews. TripAdvisor dies the day that visitors no longer believe which is the best hotel in Puglia, Italy, for example. In other words, the provider of reviews-as-a-service self-regulates. Those with the most reliable reviews win. But who regulates product reviews that are presented as individual web pages or blog posts? Surprise!, exclaims Evoy. Its Google. Or at least it should be. He outlines a reasonable argument. Googles job is to deliver the highest-quality, most relevant and useful web pages for any particular search term and its likely search intent. However, many affiliates some as rogues of honest programs, others due to detailed training (e.g., teaching to include the word scam or to find a positive aspect to praise so that the opinion appears subjective) create fake reviews, enough of which rank in the Top 10 to damage sales of SBI!. Reviews of Solo Build It! are particularly important to a product such as SBI!. Think about it, says Allton. We are asking the solopreneur who is interested in SBI! to make a serious commitment. Its not the annual fee, as much as it is the opportunity cost of the time commitment, your pride and self-image, and even perhaps facing the opinion of friends and family who told them so. With all that on the line, its natural to search for reviews. Notes Evoy, We feel that its particularly odious to create fake reviews, especially if they lead people to an inferior product. Youre playing with peoples futures. Wealthy Affiliate provides its affiliates with a list of 175 products to target, and Solo Build It! is near the top of the list. After finding that list, SiteSell quickly discarded the rogue affiliate (for an honest company) theory for some of the fake reviews. They found a widespread campaign where fake reviews win from 2 to 9 of the Top 10 search results for various searches for reviews about its product name (Solo Build It!), its acronym (SBI!) or for its pre-rebranding name. Affiliates of Wealthy Affiliate are encouraged to write reviews about competitors and then refer the reader to their Wealthy Affiliate review. Google has prioritized these search results, so the visitor believes the page to be an honest, balanced review. Few, if any, seem to surpass the European Parliamentary Research Services criteria for a fake review... A fake review can be defined as a positive, neutral or negative review that is not an actual consumer's honest and impartial opinion or that does not reflect a consumer's genuine experience of a product, service or business. The actual content of the so-called review varies, says Evoy. But we have yet to see one that is anything more than a quick put-together. The Google searcher has not found a real SBI! review s/he has unknowingly entered a WA sales funnel, complete with techniques such as fake comments. This alone constitutes fake. We now know what it feels like to be the Washington Generals, jokes Allton, referring to the patsies who always lost to the Harlem Globetrotters. We just never seem to win a review and get the recommendation from these guys. If Wealthy Affiliate really was a superior product, the approach still appears to be illegal. However, the SiteSell team was confident in its product, especially after examining Wealthy Affiliates so-called Certification Courses in detail, states Evoy. There are so many positive Wealthy Affiliate reviews written by Wealthy Affiliate members that its near-impossible to find a negative one. But theres an old saying, repeating a lie 1,000,000 times does not make it true. We guesstimated, based on reviewing their product, that SBI! would be at least several times better. We decided to take it further and discover the truth. Evoy, a former emergency room physician who had taught and practiced Emergency Medicine at a teaching hospital of Montreals McGill University, designed a simple but objective, scientific study. The most important part, he says, is that we provide the entire methodology to enable anyone to repeat the study if they dont believe it. In other words, no one can claim that the data is wrong, because they can check it for themselves. How was that question of bias eliminated? Although they can point out countless reasons why Wealthy Affiliate is inferior, they all boil down to opinion. So if we needed opinion to make our case, no matter how logical, wed lose, reasons Allton. Heck, he exclaims with a note of exasperation, we have a ton of verifiable proof of success. They have none. And folks still believe them. They felt this was a case for numbers, not words, to settle. The Studys results are based on raw data from Alexa, SimilarWeb and SEMrush, 3 well-respected tools that measure site traffic of websites. The study obtained this data for all 17,000 active, hosted sites from Wealthy Affiliate and all 10,000 active, hosted sites using Solo Build It! (SBI!). Originally conducted in April, they repeated it in May, partially because they feared there could be a great difference in performance. Allton says, we couldnt spot any error in the methodology or the math. Its all pretty simple, but we did a last-second repeat to see how reproducible the results were. Aside from the expected minor random deviations, the outcome was identical. Three highlights from what they call, The Study... SBI! sites are 33 times (33X) more likely to achieve Outstanding Excellent levels of traffic than Wealthy Affiliate. SBI! sites are 10 times (10X) more likely to achieve Medium levels of traffic than Wealthy Affiliate. 87% of Wealthy Affiliate sites are Invisible. The only category where Wealthy Affiliate beats SBI! is in that worst level of failure (Invisible meaning that the sites get no detectable traffic). (see chart above) Have there been criticisms of The Study? Nothing valid and substantive, replies Evoy. Most amounted to I dont believe it, a statement that seems to be more a sign of brainwashing than rigorous analysis. Those comments appear mostly in Part 1 of The Study quite a few disbelieving Wealthy Affiliate users and affiliates. Many threads also arose in the Wealthy Affiliate community, but several of them have been deleted, leaving the ones that favor Wealthy Affiliate, even though theyre wrong, adds Evoy wryly. As a result of this review and study, Evoy and Allton have determined to raise awareness among consumers and other businesses regarding the dangers of fake reviews and bait & switch tactics, in general, as well as the potential repercussions for affiliates. While the affiliate as primary actor is the one who has to live with his/her conscience and direct legal consequence, the SiteSell team has found that many simply re-draw the line between good person and bad. Allton notes that Wealthy Affiliate had told them in the training materials that Wealthy Affiliate was the best, nothing like it, and so forth. So, without looking too deeply, they could feel comfortable using what amounts to an illegal technique to present what they may have believed to be superior. That has changed We have now informed every ranking affiliate of the results twice. Only one has looked hard and realized the damage he was going to others. He pulled the review. The rest seem willing to trade their soul or reputation and hurt good people who just want to know what the best product is. Its sad. They have to live with that, as well as potential lawsuits from customers who may only learn of The Study some time after being fooled by a fake review. What about at the company level? Wealthy Affiliate, the company, walks its own ethical and legal line. Ethically, it has an obligation to disclose this study and how it relates to its recommend us because were the best advice. But then again, adds Evoy, its our impression that the advice to create what amounts to fake reviews in order to bait-and-switch already runs afoul of the law. From a sheerly human perspective, we dont understand how anyone can do this to someone who wants to build a serious online business, growing profits and equity that make a difference to his/her life. Then Evoy returns to Google as unwitting accomplice. Sadly, fake reviews dominate the online business space. They do so by the law of large numbers and because some of the MMO (Make Money Online) affiliates have been doing this for a long time and are skilled. Nevertheless, the whole scheme only works because Google fails to discriminate the worst type of content imaginable, much of it written at below the REJECT BY PANDA low-quality level. This is not a small problem. Googles searches that return fake reviews cause loss of money, as well as pain and suffering. It employs fake-review technology for its own commercial Google merchant service. But NOT for search? Frankly, interjects Allton, Im amazed that Google has not cleaned out most of the fake reviews. The technology seems to be there. We can see how RankBrain may have to advance a few levels before it picks up the stuff that is good enough to fool the sophisticated reader. But much of this is basic Panda-type junk. Every affiliate and affiliate program manager for businesses should know that such tactics are immoral and illegal. They should also know that the issue of misleading online advertising is high on regulatory body priorities. Individual fake reviews represent disparagement of a businesss products, goods or services, subject to trade libel laws. A new term called astroturfing has emerged to describe widespread fake reviews (either positive or negative) orchestrated by a profiting company or organization. Although its not a legal term, centrally organized fake reviews constitute misleading advertising. Consumers who have fallen victim to fake reviews and made ill-informed purchases are taken particularly seriously when they report their case to the Federal Trade Commission or regulatory bodies of other countries (links below). Heres how to report it to them: And, of course, you can report high search rankings of fake reviews by Google by clicking Send feedback at the bottom of each search results page. Impress upon them that the reported ranking(s) has/have failed them both as weak information and as the very opposite of what their primary function is to provide high-value, helpful information. Their high ranking adds credibility to some of the worst fake review in existence, helping to perpetuate and propagate what is close to fraud at times. Journalists and influencers who have an interest in protecting the rights of consumers should review the full study Part 1: Background, Summary, Peek at Results Part 2: Debunk vs De-bait, Methodology, Why Traffic? Part 3: Complete Results & Discussion Please contact SiteSell for additional insight & data. ### Contact SiteSell: Mike Allton SiteSell CMO Email: mallton(at)sitesell.com http://www.sitesell.com Earthwatch volunteer measures a tree in Cambridge, which served as a "living laboratory" for this effort to quantify the value of green infrastructure and compare growth rates to model predictions. We know weve got work to do to ensure that our urban ecosystems are resilient in the face of climate change. Theres no better way to do that than to involve citizens directly in the research itself. More than 500 citizen scientist volunteers from school teachers to students, corporate employees, retirees, and more measured and monitored nearly 9,000 trees that comprise Cambridges urban canopy, far surpassing what city officials could have done on their own. Between 2012 and 2015, David Lefcourt, the Arborist for the City of Cambridge, worked alongside the research director, Vanessa Boukili, Ph.D., and volunteers from the Earthwatch Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit that teams citizens with scientists, on a unique urban forest program that essentially turned Cambridge into a living laboratory for researchers. They recently published some of the results in the scientific journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. Boukili, lead author of the publication, is now the urban forestry and landscape planner for the City of Somerville. Accurately assessing the value of green spaces within urban environments is a hot topic, Boukili said. City planners generally rely on various computer models to predict how quickly trees will grow, for example. While tree models offer solid, broad-stroke estimates of growth for city-wide estimates, Boukili said, our study shows they may fall short if youre trying to accurately assess their value for specific communities. It can be really helpful to back up what the models predict with data gathered on the ground, she said, which is the gap the Earthwatch program filled. Boukili also used the program results to author an Urban Forest Management Plan for Cambridge (https://www.cambridgema.gov/theworks/ourservices/urbanforestry), which Lefcourt said will soon be incorporated into an even more comprehensive master plan. Some of the results were unexpected, said Lefcourt. For example, some of the trees in Cambridge grow much more slowly than predicted by current computer models, but they also survive longer. The models tell me the trees we plant ought to last eight to 12 years in an urban environment, but the Earthwatch data suggest its more like 25 to 30 years, he said. Moving forward Lefcourt will also consider planting trees in the spring season only, as opposed to spring and fall because the Earthwatch data indicate the younger trees fare much better in the spring. Each tree he plants in Cambridge currently costs about $1,000, which includes both the initial planting and the maintenance for two years. It was a blast to work with the volunteers who lent a hand on such a powerful program, Boukili said, and we were thrilled with the quality of the data we collected. It really showcases the power of citizen science. Earthwatch took the successes from the Boston program to launch a large program in Los Angeles (http://earthwatch.urbanresiliency.org/) and plans to continue to scale the effort in other cities. Besides their aesthetic value, urban trees can take the edge off city life, cleanse the air, conserve water from runoff, provide shade and cooling, and much more. Several studies demonstrate the human health value of healthy urban landscapes, which are under threat from climate change. Climate change tops Lefcourts worry list, he says, noting that Cambridges trees leafed out much more slowly this year because of last years drought and the irregular spring weather. We know weve got work to do to ensure that our urban ecosystems are resilient in the face of climate change, said Scott Kania, Earthwatch CEO. Theres no better way to do that than to involve citizens directly in the research itself so they become true ambassadors of our shared environment. The Earthwatch work was funded by the Goldring Family Foundation, the Borun Family Foundation, and EY. Cushman & Wakefield Lobby Stacked on top of each other, the OLED display is an impressive 96 tall column of glass. When commercial real estate leader Cushman & Wakefield wanted to make a huge impact in their Phoenix office, they reached out to Immedia Integrated Technologies. The result was a branded lobby that uses cutting-edge technology to differentiate the real estate company and warmly welcome guests. Immedia was hired to implement comprehensive audio-visual upgrades across Cushman & Wakefields state-of-the-art office. Across the five conference rooms and video-conferencing suite, Immedia used Cushman & Wakefields corporate standard of Mersive Solstice, a wireless video-sharing device. But when it came to the lobby, they wanted something more than standard. Immedia collaborated with Cushman & Wakefields interiors team, RSP Architects, to design its first organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. They reached out to NoleWork to build the custom housing for the double-stacked display of transparent televisions. Stacked on top of each other, the OLED display is an impressive 96 tall column of glass. Installed in front of a window, it makes for a striking visual that allows guests to see the branded Cushman & Wakefield content while also being able to look out the window. Across the rest of the facility, Immedia used Crestrons Basic Presentation Controller, a simple, wall-mounted controller. This enables employees to use all of the rooms in the same way, which streamlines functionality and maintains a consistent feel. It was exciting to work with both Cushman & Wakefield and RSP Architects, two of the premier players in the commercial real estate industry, both locally and nationally, shared Zachary Toporek, sales engineer at Immedia. They relied on us to bring some cutting-edge technology to them, and we were able to make a big statement that represents pure collaboration among all parties. The OLED display defines the Cushman & Wakefield brand while adding a focal point to the lobby. Its one simple, clean installation in the middle of the entryway that encapsulates the rest of the design. Pic from Christina Bauer's signing at BEA. Her debut tour has been extended to ALA. Monster House Books LLC (MHB) today announced an extended debut signing for author Christina Bauer. Held in tandem with Distributor IPG and Inscribe Digital, this signing expands the 2017 pre-release debut schedule for author Christina Bauer from BookCon to ALA, the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition (#ALAAC17). Although Bauer has sold more than a half-million eBooks, Wolves And Roses marks her first release with high-volume print distribution. It is also the first novel in a new young adult series that combines fairy tale characters, shifters, and mid-town Manhattan. Imagine Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood and the Evil Queen from Snow White, says author Christina Bauer. Theyre all in a basement in Midtown Manhattan, and theyre attending a therapy group for magical girls who fail at their fairy tale life template. Thats the opening scene from Wolves & Roses. When I wrote it, I thought this is so crazy, it has to exist. I was thrilled when my distributor became excited about the title, and it was even more satisfying to see the response from readers at BEA and BookCon. Christina printed up sample chapters, arrived early to the show, and then handed out pages to prospective readers waiting to enter BookCon, says Jeff Palicki, VP Marketing, Independent Publishers Group (IPG). Christina was simply that excited to get her work out there. The result was dramatic. We had people lining up well before the start time and we went through every copy available in no time. Adding ALA to Christinas debut tour was a no brainer for us. ALA Presence Monster House Books will attend ALA in tandem with INscribe Digital and IPG. A limited number of signed galley copies of Wolves And Roses will be available at the IPG Booth, along with downloadable copies of other titles from Monster House Books. In addition, Wolves And Roses author Christina Bauer will sign galley copies of Wolves And Roses at ALA on Monday, June 26th at 10AM in Booth #2720. Wolves And Roses is set to release on October 31st, 2017, and qualified reviewers may request a pre-street copy by visiting the following page: http://monsterhousebooks.com/blog/wrgalley About WOLVES And ROSES Seventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem. Shes descended from one of the three magical racesshifters, fairies, or witches. That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template. In Bryars case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty. Should being the key word. Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close. She doesnt like birds or woodland creatures. She cant sing. And she certainly cant stand Prince Philpot, the so-called His Highness of Hedge Funds that her aunties want her to marry. Even worse, Bryars having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt. Whats up with that? All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her. And she might be able to do just that--if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell thats ruined her life goes buh-bye. But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy whos literally from her dreams. Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O. If Bryar cant figure out whoor whatshe really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself. About the Author Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatorys Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers. Bauer has also told the story of the Womens March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press releasethe only one sent out on a major wire serviceresulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press. Christina graduated from Syracuse Universitys Newhouse School with BAs in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby. About Monster House Books LLC Monster House Books LLC publishes kick-ass fiction for sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance readers. Like strong heroines, diverse voices and unique storylines? Welcome home. For more information, visit http://www.MonsterHouseBooks.com. About Independent Publishers Group Established in 1971, IPG was the first organization specifically created for the purpose of marketing titles from independent presses to the book trade. With consistent growth year-over-year, IPGs success has come from supporting and encouraging the growth of its client publishers in the United States and worldwide. In 2016, IPG purchased INscribe Digital, a leading edge publishing technology company, which is helping to position IPG as a best in class technology solution for publishers large and small. Contact Information Arely Zimmermann azimmermann(at)monsterhousebooks.com Monster House Books LLC # # # Dominic Fahey, NATG SVP, Strategy & Corporate Development I plan to focus on long-term value creation by seizing market opportunities in fintech and insurtech to benefit our customers and shareholders. North American Title Group, LLC (NATG) has named Dominic Fahey senior vice president, strategy and corporate development. Fahey will provide strategic leadership for the company to establish long-range goals and policies and collaborate in the development of technology for internal and external enhancements. Dominics primary role will be to drive top-line revenue opportunities nationally, said Tom Fischer, NATG president and CEO. He is also tasked with working with our excellent IT team to help scope a holistic strategy that will help meet our customers needs in the future. The assets he brings to this position are exemplary, Fischer added. Not only does he have deep knowledge of the title industry going back to his familys title business, he brings operational excellence and an extensive background in technology. He will offer an integrated approach, as we look at new opportunities and projects across the country. Fahey worked for North American Title Agency in New Jersey from 2003 2016. He returns to the NATG family after more recently serving as vice president, state agency manager for another national title company. In the early 2000s, he spent a number of years managing an information technology department for a title agency in New Jersey, where he implemented solutions to improve operations and profitability. There are a number of excellent opportunities for growth and development in this current environment, Fahey said. In addition to spearheading traditional M&A deal-making, I plan to focus on long-term value creation by seizing market opportunities in fintech and insurtech to benefit our customers and shareholders. A member of the New Jersey Bar, Fahey holds a New Jersey Title Insurance Producers License and is a licensed Title Insurance Producer in New Jersey. He earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Notre Dame, School of Engineering, and his Juris Doctor from Rutgers University School of Law. He will be working out of the NATG headquarters in Miami, Florida. About North American Title With well over 1,200 associates and a network of branches from coast to coast, North American Title Group, LLC (NATG) is among the largest real estate settlement service providers in the United States. Consisting of both agent and underwriter operations, NATG reported annual gross revenues in fiscal 2016 of $360.2 million. The company also has the resources and stability of being a wholly owned subsidiary of an S&P 500 company with over $15.3 billion in assets as of its fiscal year ended November 30, 2016. North American Titles agency network operates nationally under the name North American Title Co. and similar names (NATC) in 18 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia, in addition to the District of Columbia. Through our relationship with our expanding affiliate network, NATC provides real estate settlement services in all 50 states. NATG is headquartered in Miami, Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.nat.com. -30- We are committed to providing the best available courses and resources to the schools and students we support, and these awards recognize our dedication to quality. Connections Education received three BESSIE Awards during ComputED Gazettes 23rd Annual Best Educational Software Awards program. We are committed to providing the best available courses and resources to the schools and students we support, and these awards recognize our dedication to quality, said Patricia Hoge, PhD, Executive Vice President of curriculum and instruction and Chief Academic Officer for Connections Education. The 2017 Connections Education BESSIE Award winners are: Best Middle School Social Studies Website - Texas State History Best Online High School Social Studies Course - World History Best Online High School Math Course - Pre-Calculus Named Best Middle School Social Studies Website for Texas State History, Texas Connections Academy provides a two-semester course delivering state-mandated state history content for middle school students. In Semester A, students examine the geography, history, and culture of Texas from prehistoric times to the secession of Texas in 1861. During Semester B, students explore the history, government, and culture of Texas from 1861 to the present. World History is an online course that provides high school students with a comprehensive examination of world history, from ancient times through the Global Age. The course delivers content in a context that is relevant to students, while challenging them to think deeply about issues, solve problems creatively, and communicate and collaborate with their peers. Throughout, students are engaged with a variety of interactive elements that bring history to life, including: videos; interactive maps; and teacher-led synchronous group discussions. Pre-Calculus is an online mathematics course that uses an interactive, real world approach to help students develop a positive math mindset, and master core mathematical concepts, skills and problem-solving strategies. Students start by setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant and Timely (SMART) goals for themselves for the course. The BESSIE Awards recognize innovative and content-rich programs and websites that provide parents and teachers with technology to foster educational excellence. Winning programs and websites are selected from publishers worldwide. For additional details, visit the ComputEd Gazette website. Enrollment is now open in online schools and programs nationwide; to learn more and check availability of virtual school options in your area, visit http://www.connectionsacademy.com. About Connections Education Founded in 2001, Connections Education is a leading provider of high-quality, highly accountable online education solutions for schools, school districts, and students in grades K12. It serves families and schools with a variety of digital learning and online school solutions including Connections Academy, International Connections Academy, and Pearson Connexus. In the 2016-2017 school year, Connections Education brings full-time online and blended school to 65,000 students across the U.S. and abroad, and delivers online courses to over 340,000 students. In total, over 400,000 students in the U.S. and 48 countries will receive online learning from Connections Education in the 2016-2017 school year. Connections Education is based in Baltimore, Maryland and was named a 2016, 2015 and 2014 Top Workplace by the Baltimore Sun and a 2013 Best Place to Work by Baltimore magazine. Regularly recognized for its outstanding curriculum and leadership, Connections Education is committed to expanding quality education through technology, and helping students achieve both academic and personal success. Connections Education is part of the global education company, Pearson. Longview Strategies, a strategic communications firm focused on financial and professional services, today announced that it has been engaged by The SRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com) to support planning and execution of marketing and communications for its 28th annual event in November 2017. The SRI Conference is the pioneering event for the Sustainable, Responsible, Impact (SRI) investing community. November 13, 2017, some 800 investment professionals and investors will convene in San Diego, CA to learn from top executives, leading edge fund providers, and innovators in the responsible investment industry. The SRI Conference will bring its unique historical perspective to bear on the current investing climate, offering actionable information for professionals looking to better serve clients interested in both profit and positive impact. In its role as marketing partner, Longview Strategies will work to raise the Conferences visibility and expand its reputation as the premier event in the SRI space. Investing for impact is maturing at exactly the time that it is most needed as both an effective investment approach and a lever for positive change, said Steve Schueth, President, First Affirmative Financial Network and Producer of The SRI Conference. Longview Strategies expertise in marketing for financial services makes them a valuable partner in communicating The SRI Conferences leadership in this arena. One of our greatest passions is bridging the communications gap between investors, smart financial solutions, and social change, said Evan Zall, President at Longview Strategies. No event has been more effective than The SRI Conference in bringing together those three elements. We are thrilled to work with the Conference team to help amplify that message. To learn more and stay up-to-date about speakers and updates to the agenda, please visit SRIconference.com. About Longview Strategies Longview Strategies (http://www.longviewstrategies.com) is a boutique communications firm that specializes in financial and professional services. We are award-winning strategists, communicators, and storytellers who are skilled at distilling complex subject matter into digestible content that strikes the right chords with target audiences. The Longview team seeks to make an impact on our clients businesses and on the global marketplace with services including messaging and positioning, marketing strategy, public relations, social media management, and content development. About The SRI Conference The 28th annual SRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com) will be held November 13, 2017, at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, CA. Produced by The SRI Conference and Community, LLC in partnership with many organizations working to direct investment capital toward the creation of a truly sustainable future, The SRI Conference is the premier annual forum for investment professionals and investors engaged in sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investing. Conference participants include investment professionals, institutional investors, and related organizations. The program features educational sessions and opportunities to network with hundreds of like-minded individuals, organizations, and leaders in the field of Sustainable, Responsible, Impact investing. Editors Note For information and/or assistance with The SRI Conference registration and sponsorships, please contact Krystala Kalil, Conference Coordinator at 888-774-2663 or Krystala(at)SRIconference(dot)com. Governments have gone digital and compliance is moving to the transaction level, leaving businesses searching for software and data-driven compliance models that can keep up." Tax compliance and reporting software leader Sovos today introduced the Intelligent Compliance Cloud to help safeguard businesses around the world from the burden and risk of rapidly-evolving global tax and reporting obligations. As governments adopt technology to enforce existing regulations, and to implement new ones, the speed and complexity of compliance is outpacing the solutions most businesses use to comply, leaving business leaders to grapple with increased risk and rising compliance costs. We now live in a world of rapid-response compliance, said Andy Hovancik, president and CEO, Sovos. Governments have gone digital and compliance is moving to the transaction level, leaving businesses searching for software and data-driven compliance models that can keep up. We call that Intelligent Compliance, and were excited to announce the Intelligent Compliance Cloud, which was uniquely built to help businesses grow however and wherever they choose in this new era of unprecedented regulatory risk. While most traditional compliance solutions were built for slower response times, predictable regional regulatory models and less complex integrations with backend systems, the Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud is built for todays complex regulatory and technology environment. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform converts Sovos world-renowned regulatory analysis into secure, reliable cloud and private-cloud software solutions. The unique pairing of world-class regulatory analysis with nimble software is important for businesses everywhere, said Hovancik. Whether a business is feeling the pain today or not, a wave of technology-enabled compliance regimes is changing the way governments regulate and businesses big and small will need to adapt. Since the financial crisis of 2009, governments around the world have been turning to technology to close tax and regulatory reporting loopholes. In Brazil, transaction-level electronic audits have been credited with closing a $50 billion value-added tax gap. Since then, similar e-audit mandates have spread throughout Latin America and are now pushing into Europe this year. At the same time, financial services companies have watched a series of tax transparency mandates spread around the world, starting with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the United States and expanding to more than 90 countries in the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). A recent report from Aberdeen found an increase in both the pace and frequency of audits in the United States as governments use data and software to crack down on sales and use tax gaps. To combat these barriers to growth, Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud gives a wide range of businesses, from manufactures to retailers to financial services organizations, access to: Indirect Tax Compliance: Automates value added tax (VAT) calculation and reporting in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, as well as sales and use tax in the United States. Business-to-Government Reporting: The first global solution for e-audit and e-invoicing, including 10 Latin American countries and new mandates in Europe, from SAF-T to Spain SII. Tax Information Reporting: Aggregates sensitive data securely for financial services businesses for reporting responsibilities such as 1099 reporting, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the United States and CRS around the world. With the announcement, Sovos also unveiled several product enhancements to its tax compliance platform so that customers are automatically ahead of regulatory changes. Now supporting Europes SAF-T and SII reporting requirements, Sovos customers can rest assured they are ready to meet the demand on transaction-level VAT reporting in Europe. Other enhancements, such as global tax analytics, a cloud-based certificate management platform and workflow management for VAT filing, illustrate Sovos commitment to leveraging compliance software as a tool for businesses to automate processes and improve accuracy. In the financial services space, Sovos announced its global solution for Automatic Exchange of Information, now providing full automation for CRS compliance in more than 90 countries. Trusted by half of the Fortune 500, Sovos partners with the Big Four and the worlds biggest ERP providers, including Oracle and SAP, making it the global leader in business-to-government tax compliance and reporting around the world. Thanks to Sovos Compliance, we pay no IRS penalties, have virtually eliminated internal staff time devoted to tax form processing, printing and delivery, and have significantly enhanced customer service, said Teresa Bentley, vice president of deposit operations, Fidelity Bank. To help organizations understand the regulatory landscape on a global scale and prepare them for whats ahead, Sovos has also captured global compliance challenges and trends in a new eBook. Download The State of Regulatory Compliance here and for more information about the Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud, visit http://www.sovos.com. About Sovos Sovos is a leader in global tax, compliance and business-to-government reporting software, safeguarding businesses from the burden and risk of compliance in thousands of tax jurisdictions around the world. As governments embrace technology-driven processes, businesses face increased risk and complexity in an ever-changing regulatory environment. Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud offers a proactive approach to tax compliance and reporting obligations that supports productivity, rather than hindering growth. With a 35-year track record of accurate and complete regulatory analysis and a global suite of software solutions, Sovos helps finance, tax and HR professionals in 4,500 companies, including half of the Fortune 500, stay ahead of complex and fast-changing government regulations. The companys compliance platform integrates with a wide variety of business applications, providing the control and visibility required to manage global tax compliance activities. Based in Boston, Sovos has offices throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. For more information visit http://www.sovos.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Michael Paleo, Senior Tenant Advisor The opportunity to provide my clients with TenantBase's unique client centered platform is really exciting TenantBase, the online platform built for tenants to find and lease commercial space, has announced a new hire, to round out a year of significant growth in the Orange County CA market. Michael Paleo, formerly with Savills Studley, has joined the TenantBase team as a Senior Tenant Advisor specializing in the south Orange County submarket. Michael has over seven years of commercial brokerage experience in Orange County, is considered a top tier broker by his peers and a broker of recognition due to his ability to negotiate on behalf of the tenant and close lease transactions. Just over a year ago, TenantBase launched operations in Orange County under the direction of Max Morris, a 20 year veteran of the market. This time last year, it was just myself and a couple other team members in Orange County. Today we have a team of six Tenant Advisors/Brokers, not including me, and we are aggressively looking to add a select few more. Bringing on someone like Michael (Paleo) that has years of Orange County market experience, coupled with his professionalism and enthusiasm for the job, is extremely positive for our group. I think its a statement about the future of the industry, how far TenantBase has come as a brokerage and the power of what we have created, says Max Morris, Principal. TenantBase is actively looking to add several more commercial real estate professionals in Orange County, to keep up with the rising demand for their services. Our Tenant Advisors assist companies with their office and industrial needs, who have signed up using the TenantBase platform as they go through their search and lease process. This is a fast paced and exciting brokerage, where our Advisors really get to see the positive value add they provide for clients on a daily basis says Morris. Tenantbase is a dynamic innovative company that I think is on the cutting edge of the tenants search, service and leasing user experience. The opportunity to provide my clients with Tenantbase's unique client centered platform is really exciting and I am looking forward to growing with the firm. The continued growth in Orange County follows TenantBases completion of launching in Dallas, TX earlier this year. The company has plans to open operations in Los Angeles and other Texas markets by the end of 2017. About TenantBase TenantBase is a technology enabled brokerage platform built to streamline the office search and lease experience for small businesses seeking commercial space. They make the office space search and lease process easier by combining technology with experienced local real estate advisors at no cost to the tenant. TenantBase now has operations based in Dallas, TX, Orange County, CA and Nashville, TN. Find out more at https://www.tenantbase.com or follow on Twitter: @TenantBase Senator Kelly Ayotte joins Cirtronics' Advisory Board I have great appreciation for the excellent employee driven team at Cirtronics which manufactures high quality products for its customers. I look forward to helping Cirtronics continue to create jobs in NH. Cirtronics, an employee owned manufacturing company in New Hampshire is pleased to announce that former Senator Kelly Ayotte is joining their Board of Advisors. Ayotte is widely recognized as an advocate for employee ownership, receiving the 2013 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Advocate of the Year Award by the ESOPs Association New England Chapter. In addition as Senator, she introduced a pro-ESOP bill because she understands employee ownership can be a powerful business model to increase productivity and enable broader participation in the benefits of shared ownership. Gerardine Ferlins, President and CEO of Cirtronics, said, We are excited to have Kelly join our advisory board. Along with her wealth of experience and her broad perspective, she brings strong support for employee ownership. We look forward to learning from Kelly over the coming years. Kelly Ayotte adds, I have great appreciation for the excellent employee driven team at Cirtronics which manufactures high quality products for its customers. I look forward to helping Cirtronics continue to create jobs in NH." *** Cirtronics is an employee owned contract manufacturer in southern NH focused on electronics, electro-mechanical assemblies and box builds for a wide range of markets including med-tech, robotics, communications, aerospace, military, security, and industrial. Combining dedication to quality with a focus on fostering proactive and positive customer relationships through Precision Engagement, Cirtronics is in the business of building confidence as well as products. To learn more about Cirtronics and Precision Engagement, visit http://www.cirtronics.com Fast Is Good LLC -- workplace communication training in segments of 90 minutes or less in different formats and timeframes launched today. The owners are veteran public relations professionals Davis Young and Scott Juba. Young said, C-suite leaders receive extensive media, crisis response and presentation training. What were doing is very different. Its about back and forth interaction in the workplace at the middle management level which is where communication problems often start. Fast Is Good is about quick, practical instruction that will make these managers better communicators. Weve been talking with experienced business people for over a year and they tell us there is a real need for this. Fast Is Good training is delivered to up to 50 people either in person or online (via computer, tablet or smartphone) based on a clients preference. The curriculum was developed by Young and Juba and addresses four core communication skills listening, verbalizing, writing and communicating using technology in a 21st century workplace. The idea behind our curriculum and format is to offer communication training for the 21st century workplace, said Juba. Peoples attention spans are shorter than ever and companies resources are stretched. We have created a template for a new type of training that is quick, economical and designed especially for middle managers. Our training goes deep into an organization and minimizes time away from the job. Weve tested our approach both in-person and online and overwhelmingly participants tell us they believe they will be more effective in their workplace because of this training. Young and Juba have also authored a new book, Avoid Workplace Communication Screw-Ups: Theyll Cost Money and Get You Fired. Published by Smart Business Books, it is a practical guide to make people better workplace communicators. The book reinforces Fast Is Good training. It is available as an e-book directly from http://www.fastisgoodtraining.com or in soft cover format from Amazon. Young has more than four decades of experience in the public relations industry and was president of the former Edward Howard & Co. He is a recipient of the Best of Silver Anvil Award presented by the Public Relations Society of America to recognize the single best public relations program of the year nationally. In recent years, he has taught more than 200 individual college classes focused on communication topics. He is also the principal of DY Author and Speaker LLC. Juba is a public relations consultant who specializes in social media strategy, online reputation management and the use of technology to communicate. He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Judges Choice Award presented by the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and is a widely experienced communication trainer. He is also the principal of Radar Public Relations & Consulting. Smart Business is the media and marketing partner for Fast Is Good Workplace Communication Training. Young and Juba have a series of columns on workplace communication training appearing monthly in Smart Business Online. Purple Heart Wines presents $10,000 donation to the Purple Heart Foundation Purple Heart Wines (https://www.purpleheartwines.com/), a collaboration between C. Mondavi & Family and the Purple Heart Foundation, an organization which supports veterans in need, is delighted to share the 2017 Check Presentation Celebration to the Purple Heart Foundation (http://purpleheartfoundation.org/), which took place on June 8, 2017. Since the launch of the project in March 2016, Purple Heart Wines has donated $40,000 to the Purple Heart Foundation, which has been used to support U.S. military servicemen and women and their families with services like job-training, counseling and more. Proprietor Peter Mondavi Jr. and Janice Mondavi came to champion the cause and carry on C. Mondavi & Family's history of supporting veterans and the Purple Heart Wines project. Purple Heart Wines winemakerand Air Force veteranJohn Moynier joined Bill Hutton, Senior Vice President of the Purple Heart Foundation, to present the $10,000 check, the latest installment in a series of donations. Moyniers opportunity to work at Purple Heart Wines is a priceless next step for the military veteran and California native who has over 40 years of experience as a winemaker: Working with a brand that combines my passions for winemaking and military service is the perfect finale to a long career in winemaking in Napa. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Purple Heart Wines: Purple Heart Wines launched its proprietary label, Purple Heart, in 2016 created to honor the determination, bravery and commitment of Americas military heroes. Moved by its namesake, it is this noble medal that lead to the creation of the Purple Heart wine a worthy tribute to the nations servicemen and women. It is produced in the United States greatest wine region California. It is an uncompromising wine crafted under the close stewardship of C. Mondavi & Family, whose patriarch, Peter Mondavi Sr., was a proud veteran of World War II. Purple Heart serves as a testament to the integrity and virtue of the Purple Heart Foundation, and aims to help further the organizations cause through both awareness and fundraising. To support these efforts, annual donations will be made to the Purple Heart Foundation. Learn more about Purple Heart Wines at purpleheartwines.com. Purple Heart Foundation and the Military Order of the Purple Heart: The Purple Heart is a congressional military decoration, awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy. Founded in 1958, the Military Order of the Purple Heart is a congressionally chartered veterans organization, dedicated to assisting the needs of U.S. military servicemen and women and their families. More information is available at purpleheartfoundation.org. Jerome Byers Every bank needs a trusted partner like Kiran Analytics in their branch transformation journey. Kiran Analytics, a leader in intelligent branch transformation has appointed Jerome Byers, as a member of its Retail Banking Advisory Board. Mr. Byers will provide advice and guidance on how Kiran Analytics can better address the needs of its customers in the retail banking industry. Jim DeLapa, CEO of Kiran Analytics, Inc. said, We are delighted to have Jerome Byers on our Advisory Board. He brings extensive leadership experience in retail banking. As we continue to grow, were constantly seeking to improve the value of our products and services for our customers. Jerome will provide valuable insights from a retail banking leaders perspective as we continue to extend and enhance the products and services we bring to the industry. Jerome Byers has over two decades of experience in the industry having served in executive management roles for Citibank and Wells Fargo. Mr. Byers commented about Kirans products and services, I am very excited to join Kiran Analytics as an advisor during this time of rapid change. Banking leaders are looking for ways to improve the performance of their business. Predictive analytics driven solutions like Kirans are absolutely necessary to help retail banking executives make better decisions faster. Mr. Byers added, Every bank has a unique branch transformation strategy, unique business and IT requirements, and a unique culture. Kiran Analytics understands the unique requirements of worlds top retail banks and customizes its solutions to address their needs. Every bank needs a trusted partner like Kiran Analytics in their branch transformation journey. Kiran Analytics software applications are hosted in a private cloud utilizing Kirans integrated SaaS platform and infrastructure services. Together, the infrastructure, hosting platform, and applications are called the CloudCords Suite. About Jerome Byers Jerome Byers is a Managing Partner for Coronado Bay Capital. Byers is a career banking executive with over two decades of general banking experience. The former President for Citibanks 500 branch West Region as well as the former U.S. Head of Small Business and Merchant Services. Prior to joining Citi, Jerome was the Regional President of Wells Fargo, Atlanta overseeing 200 banking locations and 5,000 team members. During his time with Wells, he held numerous positions in the commercial and consumer bank including leading retail banking in Virginia, MD, District of Columbia, Georgia and North Florida. Active in the community, Byers has held several significant board positions including Chairman of the Board for Teach for America, board member for Georgia Public Broadcasting and member of the Carter Center Board of Councilors. He has been featured in numerous magazines and articles as well as provided commentary for Fox News and Bloomberg. Byers received his bachelors degree in Communications and Marketing from Jacksonville University. About Kiran Analytics Kiran Analytics drives intelligent branch transformation for retail banks through the application of predictive analytics. Kirans solutions have been deployed in over 15,000 branches helping to forecast optimal branch staff levels accurately, hire better people faster, and to plan and schedule resources efficiently. As a result, retail banks increase sales and customer service while reducing operational costs. Kiran Analytics is a member of Bank Administration Institute (BAI), Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), and British Bankers Association (BBA). Kiran Analytics Inc. headquarters is based in San Diego, California and Kiran Analytics Ltd. is based in London. CloudCords is a registered trademark of Kiran Analytics, Inc. Welcome Home, Dick Van Dyke - Official Poster When school was out , the barefoot summers were mine! I didn't know we were poor, I didn't know what stress was. It was all adventure. It was all play! Now all these years later, I get to share Jerry's and my little Midwest town with the world! Mary Poppins. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Dick Tracy. A Night at the Museum. Even a turn as the voice of Gotham Citys top cop, Commissioner Gordon. Screen legend Dick Van Dyke is no stranger to the worlds of Fantasy and Comic Books. So its only fitting among all the superheroes, monsters, and giant robots, the short documentary film Welcome Home, Dick Van Dyke should screen at this years San Diego Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. Comic-Con hosts a diverse audience of many ages and generations, many of whom have been fans of Van Dyke for much of their lives. Whether its The Dick Van Dyke Show, or the Disney Channel, or even the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns, Van Dykes talent and irresistible grin have impacted everyone over his long, celebrated career, and hes still going. Welcome Home, Dick Van Dyke, directed by Nashville, TN based filmmaker Logan Sekulow, allows the audience to follow along with Mr. Van Dyke on a whirlwind trip back to his boyhood home of Danville, Illinois. Danville is a special place where as I look back at those days on Hazel Street, I realize how lucky I was to have been born in my generation. My childhood was more like Huck Finn than millennial, said Mr. Van Dyke about the small town where he and brother Jerry Van Dyke were raised. When school was out, the barefoot summers were mine! I didn't know we were poor, I didn't know what stress was. It was all adventure. It was all play! Now all these years later, I get to share Jerry's and my little Midwest town with the world! The film is a charming, funny, and emotional trip back in time as Dick tours the house where he grew up. In a state of disrepair, the home was recently spared from the wrecking ball and is soon to be restored as a landmark by The Dick Van Dyke foundation and the people of Danville. Van Dyke also visits his old high school and meets with the marching band and the drama club to share inspiration and tell stories of his days in school. Before its all over, Dick even talks about a man he used to work for named Walt. Produced by Laugh-O-Gram Studios, with Dillon Spears, Lance Kirkland, and Arlene Van Dyke, Welcome Home is an intimate portrait of a true superstar that never lost touch with his roots. The 91 year-olds boundless energy and joy for life are contagious. Dick Van Dyke is not only a beloved film legend who can go toe-to-toe with Oscar winners and dancing cartoon penguins, but as the film shows, he is the embodiment of the American dream. Welcome Home, Dick Van Dyke will screen on Saturday, July 22, 2017 at the Marriott Marquis and Marina Hotel in The Grand Ballroom 3 & 4 , 6:357:10pm. ATBcoin's Project Team reports that over $12 million was raised within the first fifteen-minutes of the cryptocurrencys highly-anticipated ICO, following the largely successful press response of the company's U.S. launch last Thursday. According to CEO Edward Ng, the companys technologically revolutionary cryptocurrency has already attracted excited investors from the U.S., Canada, and China. Ng further elaborated the company is pleased with such a high level of interest and optimism from investors; adding that the ICO will be ongoing for the next four weeks, with a targeted amount of $50 million. ATBcoins ambitious plans for global growth is already in place, and is moving forward with a cryptocurrency developed with the worlds most advanced protocols built-in; including SegWit, Lightning Network, and Smart Contracts. Micro payment transactions across national borders are recorded in as little as seconds, depending on the product involved. Our team is well-positioned to move forward with our intermediate goal of opening offices across the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Asia, said Herbert W. Hoover III, ATBcoin co-founder. Details of ICO: Crowdsdale of ATBcoin tokens began June 12, 2017 and will continue for the next four consecutive weeks. Potential investors will be offered bonuses up to 10%, which will provide an investor with a vehicle for additional capital investment. Altogether, the maximum tokens produced will number 333 million, of which 55 million will be assigned to the Crowdsdale ICO. Information about ATBcoin and ATBcoin ICO can be found on the official website: http://atbcoin.com Jason Kilgore Technical Application Scientist, Thermo Fisher Scientific As part of the Protein and Cell Analysis Education Series Virtual Event, Thermo Fisher Scientific is sponsoring an education webinar offering five steps to secure the best images of fixed-cells, ideal for those new to cell imaging, or an experienced researcher wanting to confirm your knowledge. With more than 40 years dedicated to cell imaging research, the team at Thermo Fisher Scientific offers long-proven tools and protocols to help confidently create quality cell images the first time. In fact, Invitrogen imaging reagents are cited more frequently in published research than any others. Leverage our experience to enable your success and avoid costly missteps. This webinar will provide an overview of cell imagery, along with proven steps to enable powerful images that best reflects the research at hand. Thermo Fisher Scientific has arranged to have Jason Kilgore, one of the technical application scientists at Thermo Fisher Scientific, be the speaker for this webinar. Kilgore joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in 1999, where his initial work focused on the development of dyes and techniques primarily used for microscopy and imaging of cultured cell and tissue section samples. In his current role as a member of the technical support team for cellular analysis and Invitrogen EVOS cell imaging systems, Jason helps thousands of researchers a year to develop and optimize their protocols using cell imaging and analysis reagents, kits, and instruments. Prior to coming to Thermo Fisher Scientific, he earned a Master of Science in Biology from Central Michigan University. LabRoots will host the webinar June 21, 2017, beginning at 7:30 a.m. PDT, 10:30 a.m. EDT, 4:30 p.m. CET. To learn more about this event, the Protein and Cell Analysis Education Series, or to register for free, click here. About Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $17 billion and more than 50,000 employees in 50 countries. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit http://www.thermofisher.com. About LabRoots LabRoots is the leading scientific social networking website, which provides daily scientific trending news and science-themed apparel, as well as produces educational virtual events and webinars, on the latest discoveries and advancements in science. Contributing to the advancement of science through content sharing capabilities, LabRoots is a powerful advocate in amplifying global networks and communities. Founded in 2008, LabRoots emphasizes digital innovation in scientific collaboration and learning, and is a primary source for current scientific news, webinars, virtual conferences, and more. LabRoots has grown into the worlds largest series of virtual events within the Life Sciences and Clinical Diagnostics community. Not only did both our companies excel in this review, but since women-produced coffee is rare in the coffee business, we are thrilled to support those producers who are exceeding in the face of varied pressures Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, a specialty coffee roaster in San Diego, California, announced today that they received a 94 point score on their Colombia La Palma Y El Tucan, a lactic processed Gesha, which also received the 2nd spot in a review this month for the best women-produced coffees in CoffeeReview.com. Like the majority of coffees sold at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters (BRCR), the Gesha was sourced directly at origin from the La Palma Y El Tucan farm by co-owner of BRCR and PT's Coffee Roasting Co. (PT's Coffee), Jeff Taylor, on a trip to Colombia last year. In the same review, PT's Coffee received 95 points on their El Salvador Finca Kilimanjaro, a cascara-fermentation processed coffee by Aida Batlle, which secured the top spot in the U.S. review of women-produced coffees in CoffeeReview.com. There is so much to celebrate in these outstanding reviews, said Jeff Taylor, co-owner of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters and PT's Coffee Roasting Co. Not only did both our companies excel in this review, but since women-produced coffee is rare in the coffee business, we are thrilled to support those producers who are exceeding in the face of varied pressures, including the multiple roles these women play as heads of their family and their businesses. Finca La Palma y El Tucan is located the Cundinamarca region in Colombia, on the eastern range of the Colombian Andes Mountains. It features distinct micro-climates that allow for great biodiversity and unique ecosystems, with ideal conditions for specialty coffee growing. CoffeeReview.com stated, An almost shockingly original Gesha cup, intense, surprising and intricate in its layered aromatics, brisk yet sweet in structure. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters Colombia La Palma Y El Tucan Gesha is in limited supply for $51.00 for 8oz at http://shop.birdrockcoffee.com/coffees/colo_tucan_gesha.html PT's Coffee El Salvador Finca Kilimanjaro coffee is also in limited supply for $35 for 12oz and is available at https://store.ptscoffee.com/products/kilimanjaro-cascara-fermentation For more information on Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, visit: birdrockcoffee.com. For more information on PT's coffee, visit ptscoffee.com. About Bird Rock Coffee Roasters Bird Rock Coffee Roasters (BRCR) is proud to have put specialty, direct trade coffee on the map in San Diego. BRCR has won multiple national and international awards for quality, taste, roasting and socially responsible practices, including: Micro Roaster of the Year in 2012, the Good Food Award in 2016 and 2017, the #1 spot on Coffee Reviews 30 Best Coffees of 2016 and a consistent winner of scores over 90 points for several of their coffee selections. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters staff is sought after throughout the world to judge coffees, consult on experimental lots, and price lots based on their coffee expertise. Going beyond the perfect latte, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters has top quality professional roasters on site, pour-over bars featuring seasonal offerings; and weekly cuppings open to the public for a sneak peak into the newest offerings, the selection process, and all things coffee. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters engages in direct trade with farmers, and is proud to serve the best green coffee, prepared with the utmost respect for those who produced it. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters has three locations in San Diego. For more information, please visit http://www.birdrockcoffee.com. Binary Fountain Logo As the healthcare industry continues to see increased growth in healthcare consumerism, Binary Fountain is excited to be one of the first healthcare technology providers to be included in the launch of the Yext App Directory, said Ramu Potarazu, CEO. Binary Fountain, the leading provider of patient feedback management solutions with one of the largest repositories of online patient reviews and surveys in the healthcare industry, announced today the launch of its self-service integration app in Yexts newly launched App Directory. Binary Fountain is the only healthcare reputation management provider in the U.S joining the Yext App Directory. The app integration further advances both organizations commitment to helping healthcare marketers engage and acquire patients and manage brand loyalty. With the new app available in the Yext App Directory, healthcare marketing teams can accelerate data integration between Binary Health Analytics, which helps healthcare organizations improve patient experience and reputation management, and Yexts Healthcare Knowledge Engine, a purpose-built digital knowledge management solution designed to help health systems of all sizes solve their office, facility, and physician digital knowledge challenges, and ultimately attract new patients. The integration app helps ensure accurate information by seamlessly syncing updated provider data between the platforms. With healthcare consumerism on the rise, healthcare systems, hospitals and physician practices are recognizing the need to manage their online reputation and physician data across online rating and review sites, social media, search and other online sources. As the healthcare industry continues to see increased growth in healthcare consumerism, Binary Fountain is excited to be one of the first healthcare technology providers to be included in the launch of the Yext App Directory, said Ramu Potarazu, president and CEO of Binary Fountain. Through our exclusive partnership with Yext, Binary Fountain will continue to provide healthcare organizations with a holistic approach to engaging patients throughout their journey. Through integrations with more than 20 leading enterprise solutions, the Yext App Directory makes the enterprise more intelligent by integrating digital knowledge seamlessly throughout an organization, while creating more opportunities for growth and time-saving efficiencies. Digital knowledge is fueling the search for healthcare online. Binary Fountains integration in the Yext App Directory helps healthcare systems extend the power and reach of their brands and drive consumer engagement, said Marc Ferrentino, chief strategy officer at Yext. Together with Binary Fountain, we are committed to helping healthcare providers enhance patient acquisition and loyalty. About Binary Fountain Binary Fountain is the leading provider of patient feedback management solutions designed specifically for healthcare in a single cloud-based platform. Its patient experience platform is built on a proprietary healthcare-centric Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine that mines patient feedback from surveys, online ratings and review sites, social media, and other data sources to equip its customers with the actionable insights needed to improve patient satisfaction and loyalty, increase engagement and drive sustainable bottom-line results. Leading organizations, large and small, rely on Binary Fountain to understand the patient experience, drive comprehensive operational intelligence throughout the organization, and engage patients with innovative transparency and reputation management solutions. For more information, visit http://www.binaryfountain.com or follow on Twitter @binaryfountain. The digital marketing technology space gets more crowded and competitive every year, so being recognized for our growth and success alongside a handful of other innovative companies is an honor. Performance Horizon, provider of the market-leading enterprise SaaS platform for scaling partnerships, today announced that it was named one of the 10 Fastest Growing Digital Marketing Companies as published by Silicon Review. The inclusion in the list is based on the companys growth, popularity of its partner and affiliate marketing platform with leading global marketers, and its continuous focus on solving marketing problems for customers. Since the inception of the company in 2010, enterprise brands were finding it difficult to manage disparate and fragmented partner marketing and affiliate initiatives in a global marketplace that was full of potential. Performance Horizon recognized that this created opportunities to address the frustrations and challenges of brands with new technology. Three key findings emerged that defined the vision for the future of partner marketing: 1. Brands wanted to manage and connect with different types of marketing partners and affiliates at scale 2. Brands wanted to understand and consume more data as well as have the flexibility to integrate more deeply with partners 3. Partners wanted to ingest more data to optimize and grow revenue more efficiently for brands The digital marketing technology space gets more crowded and competitive every year, so being recognized for our growth and success alongside a handful of other innovative companies is an honor, said Erik Mikisch, Performance Horizon VP of Marketing, and continues, This honor reflects our singular focus on continuous technology development to better serve our customers. In recognition of Performance Horizon as part of this years select group of companies, Silicon Review spoke with Malcolm Cowley, the CEO and co-founder. The full interview including the companys origin story can be found here. About Performance Horizon Performance Horizon is the leading provider of SaaS solutions for partner marketing, enabling large enterprises to drive significant business through their marketing partners. The worlds top retail, travel and financial services companies rely on Performance Horizons highly scalable platform with currently more than 215,000 marketing partners in 215 countries around the world. The benefits include highly flexible partner and affiliate management capabilities; real-time measurement and analysis of performance on the web and on mobile apps; payment processing and settlement in 60 currencies. With offices in the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan and Australia, Performance Horizon is backed by top-tier investors, including Mithril, Greycroft Partners and DN Capital. For more information, visit http://www.performancehorizon.com or follow @tweetphg. Exquisite luxury penthouse in Portland, Oregon listed by Cascade Sotheby's International Realty We are pleased to market this property through the prestigious Sothebys brand. Their reputation for exceptional service, marketing, and international reach were the drivers for our listing decision. Cascade Sothebys International Realty has been chosen to list the prestigious KOIN Center penthouse owned by the late Earl M. Chiles, grandson of renown supermarket pioneer Fred Meyer. The 5,681 square foot penthouse spans three-fourths of the KOIN Towers 30th floor and boasts a nearly 360-degree view of the Portland landscape and Mount Hood. Among the tallest buildings in Portland, the KOIN Center is home not only to its broadcast media tenant but Fountain Plaza, a group of exclusive condominiums occupying the top eleven floors of the building. Few Portland icons offer quite the history and esteem as this superstructure and its most distinguished double unit: The Plaza Fountain penthouse. The Chiles penthouse is currently on the market and lists at $3.29 million. Cascade Sothebys is honored to have been chosen to represent this landmark property, a home of distinction, said Deb Tebbs, CEO and franchise owner, Cascade Sothebys International Realty. It is an incredible testament to the power of the Sothebys brand, its reputation, world class network, and global reach. The Oregon real estate powerhouse surpassed $1 billion in closed real estate sales in 2016. The company joins an elite 25 Sothebys International Realty franchises in the U.S. in the billion-dollar volume category and is one of the top 20 largest franchises in closed sales revenue in the entire Sothebys International Realty global realty network. We are pleased to market this property through the prestigious Sothebys brand. Their reputation for exceptional service, marketing, and international reach were the drivers for our listing decision, said Scott Howden, longtime Chiles Vice President and Real Estate Manager. The company demonstrates expertise in how to serve buyers and sellers alikeand their understanding of the international market brings a larger audience to this unique home. A lover of the Pacific Northwest and all things quality, local Portland businessman and philanthropist Chiles bought the north half of the penthouse as a double unit while the skyscraper was still under construction in the early 1980s. Chiles later purchased the southwest corner unit as guest and entertaining quarters, creating more than 5,000 square feet of living space across five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The double unit served as Chiles primary home for more than thirty years as he carried out philanthropic work. Chiles was the son of Virginia (Hughes) and Earle A. Chiles, the latter of whom was the stepson of Fred Meyer. The younger Earle ran the Chiles Foundation, a charitable organization founded by his father, from 1968 until his death in 2016. Through scholarships, grants to nonprofit organizations and significant contributions to such institutions as the University of Portland, Portland State University and Providence Health & Services, the foundation has benefited thousands of Oregoniansprimarily in the fields of higher education and medical research. In carrying on the family tradition of knowledge inquiry and philanthropy, Chiles was instrumental in creating the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute at Providence Cancer Center, named in honor of his father. Proceeds from the sale of the Fountain Plaza penthouse will go to the Foundation to continue the legacy. Chiles affinity for quality European design is evident in every aspect of the penthouse. From the blonde and white onyx that lines the master bathroom to the leather tile floors that lead to the wet bar with a French Le Cruvinet wine system, the finishes are thoughtful and of the highest quality. In addition to two wet bars, the penthouse features two top-of-the-line kitchens, recently renovated with nods to design details popular in the 1980s. Three separate living areasone lined completely in grass clothare all ideal entertaining spaces, complete with breathtaking views. The more European traditional style double unit and the more contemporary modern unit are linked, but are also accessible separately through the semi-private hallway that houses the elevator. Other touches include cherry herringbone floors in the main dining room, an onyx pedestal sink with gold plated finishes in the powder room and cedar-lined closets. Vintage components include the original sound, security and lighting systems with room-by-room controls, each top-of-the-line for their time. A Habitat brand, climate-controlled master bath adds another element of retro chic character. A prospective buyer may keep these accents, or choose to renovate and open the double and single units into one open concept design scheme. I am humbled that the Chiles estate has awarded us the opportunity to match this extraordinary property to other extraordinary lives, says Tebbs. Our brokers bring the same level of service and commitment to clients regardless of the property price rangewe aim to marry the Sothebys International Realty celebration of artful living with the unique story and experience residing in each property we sell. Interested parties should contact Cascade Sothebys International Realty broker, Alicia Selliken, at 971-570-4403. Realizing the Cascade Sothebys International Realty Difference A focus on the art of living and an understanding of the importance of a sense of place A dedication to representing the gem properties of every price range The highest-quality marketing materials and brand assets for brokers A dedicated local marketing team Regional advertising partnerships Cascade Living Magazine - the premier regional lifestyle magazine for the Pacific Northwest Cascadesothebysrealty.com, which will launch a fully integrated digital platform from lead generation, social media management, CRM and a responsive website connecting to the Sotheby's International Realty global network. Knowledgeable brokers with unrivaled industry expertise An acute understanding of the Pacific Northwest sense of place and how to communicate it to the world About Sothebys International Realty Affiliates LLC Founded in 1976 to provide independent brokerages with a powerful marketing and referral program for luxury listings, the Sothebys International Realty network was designed to connect the finest independent real estate companies to the most prestigious clientele in the world. Sothebys International Realty Affiliates LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY), a global leader in real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation and settlement services. In February 2004, Realogy entered into a long-term strategic alliance with Sothebys, the operator of the auction house. The agreement provided for the licensing of the Sothebys International Realty name and the development of a full franchise system. Affiliations in the system are granted only to brokerages and individuals meeting strict qualifications. Sothebys International Realty Affiliates LLC supports its affiliates with a host of operational, marketing, recruiting, educational and business development resources. Franchise affiliates also benefit from an association with the venerable Sothebys auction house, established in 1744. About Cascade Sothebys International Realty Harnessing the worldwide recognition and prestige of the Sothebys name, Cascade Sothebys International Realty expertly represents the most distinctive properties at every price range. The firm's 11 strategic locations throughout Oregon and southern Washington form the most expansive luxury real estate network in the Pacific Northwest. Cascade Sothebys International Realty brokers are masters of their craft, combining local expertise and global connections to artfully unite extraordinary places with extraordinary lives. The firm achieved a billion dollars in sales in the first 11 months of 2016, joining only 25 Sothebys International Realty affiliates in the world with this distinction. Exceptional service, continual innovation, and unrivaled market knowledge continue to set Cascade Sothebys International Realty apart as an industry leader. Media Contact: Claudia Johnson, 503-799-2220 Manion Gaynor & Manning LLP (MG+M) is pleased to announce that Raul J. Chacon Jr. has joined the firms Miami office as a partner. Raul is experienced in a variety of maritime matters including personal injury, products liability, premises liability, and commercial litigation. He serves as national coordinating counsel on numerous maritime matters and has represented clients throughout the Continental U.S., Hawaii, Caribbean, South America, and Canada. "Raul is a unique talent, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the firm. He has forged the well-earned reputation, both in Florida and nationally, as an elite maritime and products liability trial lawyer, and our clients are equally enthusiastic that he has joined forces with us, said John B. Manning, Chair of the firms Complex Litigation Group. Raul earned his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1993. He received his B.S.E.E. from the University of Miami College of Engineering in 1990. He is admitted to the Florida Bar, United States District Court for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Raul is board certified by the Florida Bar in Admiralty and Maritime Law. He is currently an adjunct professor of Maritime Insurance Law at the University of Miami School of Law. Transmission Ultrasound technology is especially useful in visualizing detailed breast anatomy. QT Ultrasound LLC has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its Transmission Ultrasound breast scanner. The companys Transmission Ultrasound technology generates high fidelity 360 degree images of the breast with excellent image clarity. The elimination of radiation and breast compression make the QT scan an important additional breast imaging tool for physicians and the women they treat; at this time it is not intended as a replacement for screening mammography. John Klock, M.D., founder and CEO of QT Ultrasound, explains that the companys recent publications have shown that Transmission Ultrasound technology is especially useful in visualizing detailed breast anatomy. The company has initiated a broad-ranging clinical trial program designed to evaluate whether Transmission Ultrasound technology can (1) aid in the reduction of call-back and false-positive biopsy rates; and (2) replace screening mammography. Our clinical trials are progressing to help us answer these important questions and learn how this new technology can make a difference in womens health, added Dr. Klock. About QT Ultrasound QT Ultrasound is a privately held company engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of Transmission Ultrasound technology. Their research has been supported by over $16 million in funding from the Cancer Imaging Program of the National Cancer Institute of the US National Institutes of Health. The companys clinical trials have been conducted at many prestigious institutions in the US and Europe and it is currently enrolling women in trials at the Marin Breast Health Trial Center in Novato, California. For more information about QT Ultrasound, visit qtultrasound.com. For more information about the clinical trials of the QT scanner, visit marinbreasthealth.com. "Intentional Christian: What to Do When You Dont Know What to Do" (Discovery House) by author Daniel Ryan Day 'Intentional Christian' is the book I wish I had fifteen years ago. It offers hope and freedom for anyone struggling to figure out what they should do with their life. Moses got a burning bush. Noah was told to build an ark. Wouldnt it be nice if your calling was just as obvious? In his new book "Intentional Christian: What to Do When You Dont Know What to Do" (Discovery House), author Daniel Ryan Day provides guidance for those who ask, What am I supposed to be doing with my life? Today's Christian culture tends to emphasize specific life callings, and God does call certain believers to particular short-term tasks or even long-term careers. But too many people are waiting for God to hand them a dream job or reveal some big plan for their lives. In "Intentional Christian," Day explains that all they really need to know has already been revealed in Scripture. He defines the difference between specific callings and common callings, so readers can become intentional Christians, finding fulfillment by serving God in all things. I think we as a culture place a lot of pressure on young adults to figure out the rest of their lives when they are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-fourespecially as it relates to choosing an occupation, says Day. As a result, we are left with over-stressed teenagers, major-less college students, and many young adults who bounce from job to job trying to figure out the answer to the question: What am I supposed to do with my life? Day spent nearly fifteen years struggling to find an answer to that question. I was frustrated with God because I felt like God was playing a game with me. According to the Bible God had a plan for my life, but He wouldnt tell me what it was. Or at least I thought He hadnt told me what it was. I felt hopeless. 'Intentional Christian' is the book I wish I had fifteen years ago. It offers hope and freedom for anyone struggling to figure out what they should do with their life. If youre growing tired of waiting for a sign or wondering if God really does have a plan, "Intentional Christian" is for you. Dont waste your energy struggling to figure out the big picture. Just ask the question, God, why am I here? His answer may be simpler than youd ever imagine. For more information on Daniel Ryan Day and "Intentional Christian," visit http://www.danielryanday.com. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Daniel Ryan Day is an author, speaker, blogger, and fellow believer who spent quite a few years trying to figure out Gods call on his life. His search for answersaccompanied by the pursuit of a masters degree from Fuller Theological Seminaryled him to discover that God reveals every Christians broader calling within the pages of Scripture. Daniel attempts to live out intentional Christianity in North Carolina as a husband, father, and businessman. This is the dream holiday for the person who loves to explore the diverse dimensions of cannabis and how it can create the ultimate multi-sensory experience, in nature, in community, and completely bliss-out. There are quite a few 420 yoga retreats happening around the country, this is by no means a unique concept, Yogis have been practicing with plant medicine for decades. So what is it about Cannabliss Retreats that makes this retreat unique and a stand alone of its kind? This is not just a smoke weed and do yoga type of retreat. We are creating the ultimate experience using cannabis and other mood enhancing, mind expanding, plant medicines that will bliss-you-out, expand your mind and teach you more about yourself and how to use the plants as an added benefit and healing aspect to your life," says Sari Gabbay, Creator of this vision. Cannabliss Retreats is creating a 5-day experiential cannabis retreat in Ojai California. The guests will have the opportunity to learn about the plants and themselves through their experiences of connecting with a variety of plant medicines, expanding their mind, awakening their spirit and strengthening their body. In addition to cannabis they will be hosting ceremonies which will include; Cacao, Kava Kava and other various conscious awakening herbs. The food will be primarily organic, family-style, catered by the company GrassFed, who specialize in pop-up cannabis social dining experiences, featuring culinary master chef Andres Marquez. Andres infuses his Latin influenced style cooking with cannabis to create the ultimate elevated palate enhancing experience. Throughout the 5 days guests will be participating in; yoga, meditation, plant based ceremonies, fun physical activities, creative visionary workshops, canvas painting, hiking, exploring nature, drum circles, sound baths, psychedelic black light yoga, cannabis tasting pairings, workshops, panels, dance parties and many more inspired activities! Cannabliss Retreats have partnered with a solid roster of sponsors with their top tiered ones really integrating their brand into activated on-site experiences. Humboldt Brothers will be the official Cannabis sponsor for the infused meals. MERRY JANE is the official media sponsor providing collaboration in brand awareness through their various media channels. Redefining Cannabis is the official brand creation sponsor and KATY will be supplying all the nootropics for the psychedelic black light yoga experience. They also have products donated by: HMBLT, MoonMans Mistress, Mellows, SPRIG and many more! In addition to the experiential side of things there will be a significant emphasis on education through two panels which will feature renowned experts in the industry. Cannabis and my DNA - featuring the top experts in the industry who will be discussing how cannabis is actually part of our physical makeup through our e.cannabinoid system, explaining the healing connection between plant and human. There will also be a fun and interesting panel on Exploring the Intersection of Intimacy and Cannabis Humboldt Brothers is thrilled to sponsor the opening events of the Cannabliss Retreat in Ojai. As a medical cannabis company, Humboldt Brothers believes that maintaining an active, well-balanced lifestyle incorporating the medicinal benefits of cannabis can help achieve an increased quality of mind, body and spirit. The creative programs at this years retreat combine many of the lifestyle activities that HB is passionate about. - Humboldt Brothers About: Founded by Sari Gabbay to create the ultimate mind expanding, spirit awakening, retreat experience. Sari Gabbay has had over 14 years experience in building brands for lifestyle companies through her creative agency, and recently launched Redefining Cannabis a division focused on cannabis businesses. Through her passion for awakened consciousness, wellness and cultivating her connections she created the brand Cannabliss Retreats. Her vision is to expand this business into wellness centers, offer education and integrated methods to understand the most beneficial, personalized use of cannabis. Quotables: We need to be educated on how to use plant medicines properly, the benefits in which they can influence our lives and when used consciously, how they can enhance our life experience. Allowing us to shed what no longer serves us and step into a way of life that elevates our understanding of our existence. Everyday is an opportunity to wake up. - Sari Gabbay Where: Ojai California - June 22-26, 2017 http://www.cannablissretreats.com Additional Sponsors include: Herb Girl, Mondo, Mellows, Apothecanna, Molly Water, Loki Lotions, Organa Brands, Jetty Extracts, CARE, and Timeless Vapes. We join with these health departments in celebrating the fine work that they do to make our communities healthier. A national program to improve and protect the health of the public continued its nationwide expansion this week as 11 more governmental public health departments achieved five-year accreditation status through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The decisions bring another 19.7 million people into a rapidly growing network of communities served by health departments that meet rigorous national standards for delivering quality programs and services. PHAB, the nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that administers the national public health accreditation program, aims to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing and ultimately transforming the quality and performance of the nations state, Tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. Launched in 2011 with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PHABs accreditation program has quickly grown to bring the benefits of national accreditation to 198 million people, or 64 percent of the U.S. population. All of the 11 health departments accredited this week are to be commended for demonstrating a consistent and continued commitment to improving public health in their communities, said PHAB President and CEO Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, FAAN. We join with these health departments in celebrating the fine work that they do to make our communities healthier. Demonstrating the capacity to provide the highest quality of services to the 4.8 million people it serves, the Alabama Department of Public Health this week became one of 26 state health departments to achieve PHAB accreditation. Alabama State Health Officer Thomas Miller, MD, expressed pride in the health departments accomplishment. We sought accreditation to measure our performance against nationally recognized, practice-focused, and evidence-based standards, Dr. Miller said. We engaged our community partners and stakeholders to assess and develop a strategic plan and a community health improvement plan. We received valuable feedback from the Public Health Accreditation Board that will strengthen the role of public health as we work to improve and protect the health of our citizens. We are proud of this achievement, but accreditation is not the end. Public health accreditation means we have an ongoing commitment to performance management and quality improvement to improve the health of our state in the years to come. Seven local health departments also achieved PHAB accreditation this week. Among them is Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department in Lincoln, Nebraska. We had a very good and highly respected department before we started this journey toward accreditation, but the process has brought us to a greater level of excellence, said Interim Health Director Charlotte Burke, MS, RD. From the beginning, we kept the goal of improving the publics health in the forefront. This singular focus helped ensure continued employee buy-in for a process that often required more of their time and frequently took them out of their comfort zone. The result, however, is that we have improved the way in which we do our business of serving our public. Its gratifying to watch these improvements in the quality of our services become our new standard and part of our departments culture. The future of public health is very exciting. To receive accreditation, a health department must undergo a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure it meets or exceeds a set of public health quality standards and measures. Hundreds of health departments are currently preparing to seek national accreditation through the program. National accreditation status was awarded June 6, 2017 to: Alabama Department of Public Health, Montgomery, Alabama Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Division of Public Health, Boise, Idaho Lewis and Clark Public Health, Helena, Montana Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, Lincoln, Nebraska Linn County Department of Health Services, Albany, Oregon Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore, Maryland New Jersey Department of Health, Trenton, New Jersey Olmsted County Public Health Services, Rochester, Minnesota Portsmouth Health District, Portsmouth, Virginia Sauk County Health Department, Baraboo, Wisconsin Stark County Health Department, Canton, Ohio Public health departments are on the front lines of improving and protecting the health and well-being of people and communities. Across the nation, health departments provide services aimed at promoting healthy behaviors; preventing diseases and injuries; ensuring access to safe food, water, clean air, and life-saving immunizations; and preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. For more information, contact Teddi Nicolaus at (703) 778-4549, ext. 118, or email tnicolaus(at)phaboard(dot)org. Learn more about PHAB and accreditation at http://www.phaboard.org. Subscribe to PHAB's E-Newsletter by clicking here. About the Public Health Accreditation Board The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) was created to serve as the national public health accrediting body and is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The development of national public health accreditation has involved, and is supported by, public health leaders and practitioners from the national, Tribal, state, local, and territorial levels. Click here to sign up for the PHAB E-Newsletter. X1.9 LED Rental Panel InfoComm is the premier event for the audiovisual industry, so we couldnt be more thrilled to be exhibiting with Coleder and meeting with customers The Neoti team is excited to announce that they will be participating InfoComm 2017 from June 14-16 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. InfoComm is the largest audiovisual trade fair in North America. It includes over 1,000 exhibitors and regularly attracts up to 40,000 attendees across the industry. This is an amazing opportunity to talk to Neoti experts and see the latest cableless LED display solutions for fixed install and rental applications. Attendees can find Neoti exhibiting with their manufacturing partner, Coleder, in booth #520, where they will be showing off an exciting range of award-winning LED display products, such as the popular Ace Block and Road Ready series, both of which were recently recognized for their excellence in design by the distinguished iF Design Award committee. Attendees will also be able to get a sneak peak of the X1.9 Rental Panel, which, in addition to having an impressive 1.9mm fine pixel pitch, boasts an elegant, industry-leading design for fast, easy, and safe stacking, as well as cutting edge fast-lock and heat dissipation technologies. Neoti experts will be on hand to answer any and all questions about the entire line-up of Coleder cableless LED displays. InfoComm is the premier event for the audiovisual industry, so we couldnt be more thrilled to be exhibiting with Coleder and meeting with customers, said Olivia Reeves, Director of Business Development at Neoti. We think that once customers see the quality of the display products we work with and learn about all the ways we can help their organization from design and installation to our ongoing service options they will walk away impressed. Neoti will be participating during all three days of the event, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Orange County Convention Center West Building, located at 9800 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819. For more information, visit http://www.infocommshow.org. About Neoti Established in 2006 as an award-winning pioneer of innovative digital signage solutions, Neoti has evolved into an industry-leading provider of display technology and a value-added reseller for multiple tier one LED display manufacturers. Additionally, Neoti offers an in-house specialized LED repair and service center. By focusing on the best products available for each application and maintaining a strong dedication to their customers vision, Neoti has set a new standard for custom LED display solutions. Headquartered in Bluffton, Indiana, with an office in the New York metropolitan area, Neoti provides LED display solutions to a broad array of markets, including rental and staging, broadcast, higher education, sports, digital signage, control rooms, hospitality, houses of worship, retail, museums, and transportation. More information can be found at http://www.neoti.com Oum Rugs promotes the quality and authenticity of Moroccan Berber Rugs, while also bringing attention to the artists who dedicate up to six weeks of labor to make each rug. Boston, MA: Oum Rugs Co., a Boston-based designer and marketer of hand-crafted Moroccan Berber Rugs, today announced the official launch of its Corporate Headquarters in Bostons Back Bay, to support the companys global online sales and marketing efforts. Following a style that dates back several millennia, Moroccan Berber Rugs offer a unique fusion of fashion and durability that is well-suited for decorating high-traffic areas in homes or offices. Each piece in the Oum Rugs collection, whether new or vintage, is a unique, hand-woven piece of art that honors the heritage and imagination of the Berber weavers in Morocco and other parts of the world. Oum Rugs charter is to promote the elegance, quality and authenticity of Moroccan Berber Rugs, while also bringing attention to the talented artists who dedicate up to six weeks of labor for each rug. In addition to generously compensating each artist, Oum Rugs also donates a portion of its proceeds to Education For All (EFA) Morocco a local NGO that provides girls from rural Moroccan communities access to education. Company Co-founder Ismail Tazi was inspired by a simple idea, after attending a friends wedding and presenting the newlyweds with a handwoven Moroccan Berber rug from his native country of Morocco. Several in attendance marveled at the beauty of the elegant, yet understated item. This inspired Ismail to travel to the Atlas Mountains in Northwest Africa, and spend time in the villages where Moroccan Berber rugs are made, to learn more about the product, the process, and the artists that weave them. My goal was to offer wide-spread access to the same unique rugs that Id grown up with all of my life, while at the same time, providing greater compensation and new opportunities to the artists that make these amazing items, states Ismail Tazi. Oum means mother in Moroccan. We strive to bridge the gap between the weavers and customers by providing holistic insights into Berber weaving, culture and life - on our online blog and also on social media (@myoumrugs), states Abby DeLaney, Oum Rugs Co. Director of Operations. We invite everyone to check us out online, and view our inventory of unique and authentic handwoven pieces that can be incorporated into most any aesthetic, starting at $390. Anyone interested in viewing the Oum Rugs Co.s online inventory is invited to visit: https://www.oumrugs.com/collections/revival. For this week, a special company launch discount of 20% is available online by using the (OUMFRIEND20) promotional code. Members of the media interested in additional information on the company are invited to contact media(at)oumrugs(dot)com. Oum Rugs Co. is a registered business in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. All products ordered online ship from Boston, Massachusetts, via the UPS Store. More information is available at http://www.oumrugs.com. Follow Oum Rugs Co. on Instragram, Facebook and Twitter (@Oumrugs). Contact: Abby DeLaney abby(at)oumrugs(dot)com 617 820 5139 Delaware County full-service law firm Raffaele Puppio is pleased to welcome family law attorney Alexandra H. Junkin, Esq. to the firm. Junkin joins the firm as an associate after completing an internship with firm partner, experienced Delaware County divorce attorney Kathleen A. Piperno. Junkin focuses her practice on family law, representing clients in matters including divorce, child custody, child and spousal support, and Protection from Abuse. Alex demonstrates a fundamental compassion for her clients, which is essential to becoming a skilled family law attorney, said Michael A. Raffaele, firm partner and head of Raffaele Puppios Family Law practice group. We are proud to have her on our team and know that our clients will benefit from both her legal acumen and empathetic nature. Alex graduated from The George Washington University in 2013 before going on to earn her law degree from Villanova Universitys Charles Widger School of Law, where she also received the Leonard Levin Memorial Award. She completed legal internships with the office of the Delaware County District Attorney, where she assisted Assistant District Attorney Mary Mann in the prosecution of an attempted murder trial as well as in veterans court and mental health court proceedings. An internship with the Honorable Barry C. Dozor gave her experience in Delaware County family law. Junkin is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. About Raffaele Puppio Raffaele Puppio is one of the largest and most established full-service law firms in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Attorneys within the firm are known for their legal prowess among the bench and bar in Delaware County, having decades of experience representing school districts, municipalities, businesses and individual clients, helping to solve legal problems while avoiding future legal issues. The attorneys provide sound legal counsel in the areas of education law, government and municipal services, family law, general litigation, personal injury, commercial real estate and business transactions, elder law, estate administration and planning, and criminal law. # # # Oceans of Hope Foundation Its simply an honor and a privilege to support an amazing foundation like Oceans of Hope. We couldnt be prouder of Danny and the organization he has created to uplift the spirits of so many. The FiltaCares campaign is just a small way we can give back. This week, The Filta Groups customers, franchise owners, and employees exceeded the company goal of raising $5,000 for the Oceans of Hope Foundation through a unique company-wide campaign. The Oceans of Hope Foundation is one that carries a special meaning for everyone at The Filta Group as it was started by Filtas own Danny Paltjon. The foundation, based out of Central Florida, was established to provide adaptive ocean sport opportunities to individuals with limited mobility. Danny was inspired to start the foundation after sustaining a serious spinal cord injury while playing in a Mens softball game. Previously, an avid outdoorsman and athlete, he was unprepared to face his new life limited to a wheelchair. In light of this, Danny started the non-profit organization, which has given many the opportunity to experience the unique thrill of surfing. Its simply an honor and a privilege to support an amazing foundation like Oceans of Hope. We couldnt be prouder of Danny and the organization he has created to uplift the spirits of so many. The FiltaCares campaign is just a small way we can give back to the community and share the positive message behind the Oceans of Hope Foundation. This year, we were especially pleased to increase overall company participation and include the entire franchise network in our campaign, said Jason Sayers, CEO at the Filta Group. Since April, The Filta Group has donated $50 to Oceans of Hope for every new customer acquired by its national franchise network. On top of the $5,000 raised, Filta made an additional $1,000 contribution through a challenge made earlier this year at its annual conference for a total of $6,000 raised. Without the help of our volunteers and corporate sponsors such as Filta, these events would not be possible. On behalf of the entire Oceans of Hope family, we can not thank everyone at Filta enough for their generosity. It means the world to those individuals who participate with us and regain some freedom that was lost due to injury or illness, said Danny Paltjon, Oceans of Hope Foundation. Oceans of Hope hosts seven events each year in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, from the Spring until Fall. If you are interested in learning more, volunteering, or making a donation please visit oceansofhopefoundation.org. The Foundation will be hosting a special training event on July 15 for new volunteers interested in becoming a part of the water team. About Oceans of Hope Oceans of Hope Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization providing adaptive ocean sport opportunities to individuals with limited mobility. The Foundations mission is to broaden the horizons of outdoor recreation for those challenged in life. By doing so, the Foundation provides empowering ocean experiences that gives hope to individuals and loved ones living with mobility challenges. Visit oceansofhopefoundation.org to learn more. About Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions Established in the United Kingdom in 1996 and brought to the USA in 2002, Filta is the worlds leader in commercial fryer and cooking oil management services and offers its services through a worldwide franchise network. Filta is dedicated to saving its clients money, creating a safer working environment, and providing customers with the tools to increase the quality of their product, all while preserving the environment. Filta services over 5,500 customers every week and has recycled over 2/3 of a billion pounds of oil and counting! http://www.gofilta.com Janel Urbanczyk Sivils and Joel Sivils with their two pit bull mixes 7-year-old Toby and 2-year-old Leia Were not some big box retailer we are a locally owned and operated pet food company and we will work with you to find the best food for your favorite companion. Janel Urbanczyk Sivils and Joel Sivils are excited to announce that theyre bringing fresh, high-quality pet food to Brevard County with their new business, Pet Wants Brevard County. Pet Wants carefully developed proprietary pet food is slow-cooked in small batches with fresh, high-quality ingredients once per month, so every kibble is guaranteed to be fresh and packed with nutrition. Pet Wants Brevard County offers free, personal delivery to all of Brevard County as well as the surrounding regions. Janel and Joel were raised in the Brevard County area. They both have degrees in biomedical sciences from University of South Florida Tampa and have been working in water quality control. Theyve been married since 2011 and have two pit bull mixes 7-year-old Toby and 2-year-old Leia as well as a 12-year-old cat named Sox. The Sivils household is also currently home to three foster dogs and theyve rescued everything from cats to chameleons. Their Pet Wants journey started with Tobys vet visits. We call Toby our $10,000 baby because hes been to the vet so many times. His GI issues cause him to bleed and the only thing weve found that helps is high-quality food. Thats how we found Pet Wants, Janel said. Pet Wants just felt like home the product, the mission, the presentation and just the overall genuine care about animals so we decided we wanted to bring Pet Wants to our community. In addition to being made fresh monthly, Pet Wants only sources the best salmon, chicken, lamb, brown rice and other ingredients available. Theres no sugar added, no fillers and no animal by-products and Pet Wants never uses corn, wheat, soy or dyes, which makes the food great for animals with allergies. Pet Wants Brevard County which offers multiple blends of dog food and cat food also offers healing salve, calming balm, anti-itch spray, paw wax and more. We work in quality assurance, so we were extremely diligent about the production of the Pet Wants food and products. I appreciate the transparency of Pet Wants. We know exactly whats in the food, where its sourced and where its made. Ive called some of the major pet food brands for that information for Toby and Ive never gotten a clear answer. When you call Pet Wants, youll talk to a real person who has real answers about our products, Janel said. Our pets are our family and we dont want them to be treated like just another customer or patient on a list. We want to know our pet is a priority. At Pet Wants, your pet is a priority. Were not some big box retailer we are a locally owned and operated pet food company and we will work with you to find the best food for your favorite companion, Janel added. Pet Wants originally launched in Cincinnati in 2010. Owned by Michele Hobbs, the business was built to provide proprietary crafted, fresh, slow-cooked, all-natural pet food delivered to customers through a retail store and a convenient home-delivery service. Hobbs, now the company founder, turned the business into a franchise in 2015 with the help of Franchise Funding Group, an investment and franchise-development company designed to help entrepreneurs scale their companies nationally as franchise systems. To learn more about Pet Wants or to get a free pet food sample, call (321)307-8223, email JanelSivils(at)PetWants.com or visit http://www.PetWantsBrevard.com. About Pet Wants: Pet Wants was started by Michele Hobbs out of love for her pets and frustration. Veterinarians were unable to help relieve her dogs painful skin allergies. After doing much research, Michele discovered the national dog food brand she trusted was not fresh and lacked sufficient nutrition and, when pet food sits in warehouses and store shelves for months and months, it loses even more nutritional value. She was committed to developing a better solution for all dogs and cats. Pet Wants food is exclusively crafted fresh, healthy, and slow-cooked with no sugar added, no fillers, and no animal by-products. Pet Wants sources only the best salmon, chicken, lamb, brown rice, and other ingredients. Fresh ingredients make for better food, which translates into better health for pets. And, since Pet Wants never use corn, wheat, soy or dyes, the common pet health problems associated with these ingredients are no longer worries. Pet Wants fresh food is conveniently delivered to the customer within weeks of production, not months. You can learn more at http://www.PetWants.com. Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Attorneys Jeff Craven and Michael de Leon Hawthorne have joined the firms Washington, D.C. office as Members. Jeff and Michael are outstanding additions to our corporate and securities practice in Washington, D.C., said William T. Burgess, CEO of Dickinson Wright. Each has an extensive track record of excellence in client service, a wealth of knowledge in corporate, securities and regulatory matters, and experience across many important industry segments. Their addition immediately strengthens our nationally-recognized corporate and securities practice. Jeff Craven advises business leaders on corporate structuring, the formation and financing of domestic and international transactions, FCC licensing and regulatory matters, and government contracting. He has extensive experience in the technology, telecom, satellite, and energy sectors and regularly advises on transactions that contribute to his clients growth, including private equity, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and technology licensing. Mr. Craven is a member of the District of Columbia Bar as well as the Federal Communications Bar Association and serves on the Board of Trustees for Georgetown Universitys George F. Baker Trust and the LeTendre Education Fund for Homeless Children. He is recognized as a leader in his field by Washington D.C. Super Lawyers and Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Craven received his A.B. from Georgetown University and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Michael de Leon Hawthorne assists public and private companies in implementing corporate structures that allow them to grow their business organically through capital formation, M&A, and joint venturing with potential business partners. He advises startups and companies preparing for public or private offerings, ensuring these companies are structured properly in all stages of their development. His clients are involved in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, telecommunications, distribution, natural resources, health care, energy, restaurant, and technology. He also represents many family-owned businesses and works collaboratively with their advisors to provide cross-disciplinary approaches that address issues that are unique to these clients, such as succession planning, trusts and estate preparation, and balancing the needs of multiple generations. Mr. Hawthorne is the past Chair and President of the International Association of Attorneys for Family-Held Enterprises, Inc. He is also a member of the American Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar. He is recognized as a leader in his field by Best Lawyers in America, Washington D.C. Super Lawyers and Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Hawthorne received his B.S. from Denison University and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin. About Dickinson Wright PLLC Dickinson Wright PLLC is a general practice business law firm with more than 450 attorneys among more than 40 practice areas and 16 industry groups. Headquartered in Detroit and founded in 1878, the firm has seventeen offices, including Washington, D.C.; six in Michigan (Detroit, Troy, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw); Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Nashville and Music Row, Tenn.; Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.; and Phoenix, Ariz. The firms Canadian office is located in Toronto. Dickinson Wright offers our clients a distinctive combination of superb client service, exceptional quality, value for fees, industry expertise and business acumen. As one of the few law firms with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, Dickinson Wright has built state-of-the-art, independently-verified risk management controls and security processes for our commercial transactions. Dickinson Wright lawyers are known for delivering commercially-oriented advice on sophisticated transactions and have a remarkable record of wins in high-stakes litigation. Dickinson Wright lawyers are regularly cited for their expertise and experience by Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and other leading independent law firm evaluating organizations. Aptech Computer Systems announced Glacier House Hotels completed conversion to the PVNG Enterprise Accounting hotel software system. Arizona-based Glacier House Hotels is a full service development and management company that currently operates six properties. PVNG is Aptechs next generation enterprise accounting hotel software solution that is deployed in the cloud. Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality enterprise accounting, budgeting and forecasting, and business intelligence hotel software systems. Click here for more on Aptechs products and services. Glacier House Hotels wanted to be one of the first hotel companies to convert from Aptechs Profitvue Accounting system to its new PVNG solution, said Ryan Kucker, Glacier House CFO. The conversion to PVNG was smooth and all our templates, chart of accounts, A/P vendors and historical information came over perfectly. PVNG is intuitive and easy to use. Our team only needed a few hours to learn the system. Kucker noted that PVNG is faster to navigate and convenient to use because it is web-based. Aptechs team provided excellent training. We can do rollups for our hotels with consolidated reporting or individual property financials. I can go into the system and find what I need without having to use it every day. It is that simple to learn. PVNG is a totally new financial system with an easy to navigate architecture. The new systems robust functionality emerged from Aptechs legacy application, Profitvue, used by thousands of users. Cam Troutman, Aptech vice president, said, We built PVNG from the ground up for the web based on Aptechs 45+ years of hotel accounting knowledge. We used the most current technology platform incorporating AP, GL, Statistics, Financials, and a Bank Reconciliation, all with easy to use, familiar browser navigation. The PVNG system easily handles single or multi-property accounting, and is deployed as a hosted service, streamlining common daily accounting procedures and offering highly flexible reporting. Glacier House Hotels core focus is the purchase, development and construction of hospitality projects, Kucker said. PVNG handles the enterprise accounting for our six properties very well with all standard reports including trend reporting and trailing 12. We like the system. Aptech Computer Systems is both an IBM and Prophix Business Partner offering Execuvue web-enabled Business Intelligence, Targetvue Budgeting and Forecasting, and PVNG Enterprise Accounting systems that are 100% hospitality specific. Aptech is the only company that provides a complete suite of financial management and analysis solutions for the hotel industry. About Glacier House Hotels Glacier House Hotels is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Our core focus is the purchase, development and construction of hospitality projects. Glacier consists of a team of entrepreneurial individuals who have been successful in all aspects of the hotel, retail and mixed use projects. The Glacier team has many decades of experience, knowledge and expertise in operating planning, development and construction of real estate, including years of experience with top tier hospitality brands such as Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Starwood. The Glacier principals played a major role with Tharaldson Hospitality, who built and operated more than 400 select service hotels since 1984 and sold 130 hotels to Goldman Sachs real estate arm, the Whitehall Real Estate Fund, in a transaction valued at $1.2 billion. Glacier expertise include development, construction, operations, sales and marketing, procurement, revenue management, risk management, finance and accounting, disposition, debt and equity, re-positioning, site selection and brand recommendations. About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement. The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider. Incorporated in 1970, Aptechs state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue, Webvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit http://www.aptech-inc.com. The worlds passenger aircraft fleet above 100 seats is set to more than double in the next 20 years to over 40,000 planes as traffic is set to grow at 4.4 percent per year, according to Airbus latest Global Market Forecast 2017-2036. Over this period, increasing numbers of first time flyers, rising disposable income spent on air travel, expanding tourism, industry liberalisation, new routes and evolving airline business models are driving a need for 34,170 passenger and 730 freighter aircraft worth a combined total of US$5.3 trillion. Over 70 percent of new units are single aisle with 60 percent for growth and 40 percent for replacement of less fuel efficient aircraft. A doubling in the commercial fleet over the next 20 years sees a need for 530,000 new pilots and 550,000 new maintenance engineers, and provides Airbus global services business a catalyst to grow. Airbus has expanded its global network of training locations from five to 16 in the space of three years Air traffic growth is highest in emerging markets such as China, India, the rest of Asia and Latin America and almost double the 3.2 percent per year growth forecast in mature markets such as North America and Western Europe. Emerging markets currently home to 6.4 billion of the worlds 7.4 billion population will account for nearly 50 percent of the worlds private consumption by 2036. Air travel is remarkably resilient to external shocks and doubles every 15 years, said John Leahy, Chief Operating Officer Customers, Airbus Commercial Aircraft. Asia Pacific continues to be an engine for growth, with domestic China to become the worlds largest market. Disposable incomes are growing and in emerging economies the number of people taking a flight will nearly triple between now and 2036. Over the next 20 years Asia Pacific is set to take 41 percent of new deliveries, followed by Europe with 20 percent and North America at 16 percent. Middle class numbers will almost double to nearly five billion as wealth creation makes aviation even more accessible particularly in emerging economies where spending on air travel services is set to double. In the twin aisle segment, such as the A330 Family, A350 XWB Family and the A380, Airbus forecasts a requirement for some 10,100 aircraft valued at US$2.9 trillion. In the single aisle segment, such at the A320neo Family, Airbus forecasts a requirement for some 24,810 aircraft valued at US$2.4 trillion. Airlines adding capacity by upsizing to the largest single aisle, the A321, will find even more business opportunities with the A321neo thanks to its range up to 4,000nm and unbeatable fuel efficiency. In 2016, the A321 represented over 40 percent of single aisle deliveries and over 60 percent of single aisle orders. One of the strongest tools in a secured lenders toolbox is the ability to ask the bankruptcy court to lift or modify the automatic stay. Past News Releases RSS Financial Poise Announces... Financial Poise Announces... Financial Poise Announces... No matter how a person is involved in a bankruptcy proceeding, there is a real chance of litigating an issue. Litigating in bankruptcy court, however, is very different than in any other federal or state court. The customs, rules and players are all different. This Financial Poise webinar series can enhance the knowledge of a general litigator or a business person who has never had to fight in bankruptcy court. Expert panelists explain how to understand commonly litigated issues in bankruptcy cases. The 3rd episode of the "Bankruptcy Battle Royale - Common Litigation Scenarios" series is available now on demand! "Lift-Stay Battles" (Register Here) features Moderator Lisa Vandesteeg of Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Hammer. Lisa is joined by Leanne Prendergast of Fisher Broyles, Chris Wick of Hahn Loeser, and Russell C. Silberglied of Richards Layton & Finger. Most U.S. businesses of any meaningful size have a line of credit or term loan with a bank (or other lender). A lien on the assets of that business secures the loan/line of credit. One of the strongest tools in a secured lenders toolbox is the ability to ask the bankruptcy court to lift or modify the automatic stay. This tool allows the secured lender to get to its collateral. Needless to say, the debtor will often oppose the lenders request. This is one of many litigation aspects surrounding the automatic stay. The bankruptcy code identifies specific circumstances under which relief from the stay is permitted. Commonly, there is litigation over whether the requisite conditions exist. This webinar discusses the scope of automatic stay and the procedure and grounds for seeking relief. Each episode is delivered in Plain English understandable to business owners and executives without a background in these areas. Yet, it is proven to be valuable to seasoned professionals. Each episode in the series brings you into engaging (and sometimes humorous) conversations. Every Financial Poise webinar is designed to entertain as it teaches. Moreover, every Financial Poise episode in a series is designed to be viewed independently of the other episodes. Participants will enhance their knowledge of this area whether they attend one, some, or every episode. ABOUT FINANCIAL POISE: Financial Poise (http://www.financialpoise.com) provides unbiased news, continuing education and intelligence to private business owners, executives and investors. For more information contact Jennifer Storch at jstorch(at)financialpoise(dot)com or 312-469-0135. On Friday, May 19, The Center for Health Affairs announced a partnership with Northeast Ohio hospital members Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth and St. Vincents Charity Medical Center to combat the opioid crisis in the region. Together, the group announced that the newly created Northeast Ohio Hospital Consortium on Opioid Addiction would be hiring an executive director to lead its efforts. The Consortium, which will be housed at The Centers downtown location, will coordinate hospital efforts around opioid addiction and treatment in the community. The executive director will be tasked with providing strategic leadership to the Consortium by working with the board of directors and the executive management team at The Center to establish long-range goals, strategies and policies to address the opioid crisis. For more information about the position and our efforts to combat the opioid crisis, please visit our careers website or contact Tony Gutowski, director of government relations, by phone at 216.255.3610 or Pam Waite, director of healthcare workforce and NEONI operations, by phone at 216.255.3650. With a rich history as the Northeast Ohio hospital association, dating back to 1916, The Center for Health Affairs serves as the collective voice of hospitals and the source for Northeast Ohio hospital and healthcare information. As the leading advocate for Northeast Ohio hospitals, The Center aims to enhance the effectiveness of the healthcare community and the health of the communities it serves by providing expertise, resources and solutions to address the challenges faced by the regions healthcare providers. The Centers efforts focus on areas that benefit member hospitals from a regional approach, including healthcare workforce; emergency preparedness; public policy and advocacy; finance and reimbursement; and community initiatives. And because of its business affiliation with CHAMPS Healthcare, The Center has the resources to provide a broad level of professional services to its members. The Center, located in downtown Cleveland, is proud to advocate on behalf of more than 35 acute-care hospitals located in six counties. For more, visit neohospitals.org. The Center for Health Affairs is honored to be named as one of The Cleveland Plain Dealers Top Workplaces in 2014 and 2015, as well as to ERCs NorthCoast99 List in 2003, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Shady Grove Fertility Co-founder and Director of the UK International Donor Egg Program, Michael J. Levy, M.D. Shady Grove Fertility, the largest fertility center in the United States, with more babies born than any other center in the nation, is hosting an educational seminar in London, England to discuss its International Donor Egg Program. The event will take place on 25 June 2017, at 15:00 GMT +1, at the Grosvenor House, A JW Marriott Hotel, Park Lane, London W1K 7TN. Registration for this event is free. Donor egg treatment in the U.K. is made available through Shady Grove Fertility, the largest donor egg program in the United States. To date, more than 500 babies have been born through SGFs International Donor Egg Program. This streamlined program allows patients to work locally with multiple centers in London, with just two visits to the U.S., while gaining access to SGFs ready to cycle donors through their extensive donor registry. Through this unique program, couples and individuals have the ability to choose a medically, genetically, and psychologically prescreened donor. And because Shady Grove Fertility has the largest database of fresh and frozen prescreened donor eggs, there is no wait for a donor. Co-Founder and Director of the UK International Donor Egg Program at Shady Grove Fertility, Michael J. Levy, M.D. will outline the process and discuss specifics about Shady Grove Fertilitys International Donor Egg Program and accessing treatment in the United States. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about success rates, traveling abroad for treatment, and whats involved in choosing a donor. Shady Grove Fertilitys Donor Egg Program provides patients with a highly effective treatment to overcome infertility, with 82 percent of patients who take advantage of the Shared Risk 100% Refund Program taking home a baby, which is among the many reasons why donor egg patients from the UK choose Shady Grove Fertility over other centers. Affording care is simplified by two exclusive financial programs designed to make treatment less stressful and more successful. Patients can qualify for Shady Grove Fertilitys Shared Donor Egg and Shared Risk 100% Refund Programs. Combined, these programs offer patients up to six donor egg cycles for one flat fee. If the patient does not take home a baby or chooses to opt out of the program before they reach six cycles, they will receive a full refund. To register for the Donor Egg Treatment in America Seminar in London, England, visit the practices events page for more information. About Shady Grove Fertility Shady Grove Fertility is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence offering patients individualized care, innovative financial options, and pregnancy rates among the highest of all national centers. 2016 commemorated 25 years of Shady Grove Fertility providing medical and service excellence to patients from all 50 states and 35 countries around the world, and over 40,000 babies bornmore than any other center in the nation. Today, 35+ physicians, supported by a highly specialized team of more than 700 Ph.D. scientists, geneticists, and staff care for patients in 19 full-service offices and six satellite sites throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Shady Grove Fertility physicians actively train residents and reproductive endocrinology fellows and invest in continuous clinical research and education to advance the field of reproductive medicine through numerous academic appointments and partnerships such as Georgetown Medical School, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the University of Maryland, and the National Institutes of Health. More than 1,700 physicians refer their patients to Shady Grove Fertility each year. For more information, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. Shanghai transcosmos Marketing Services Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of transcosmos inc., earned a Gold Partner Award, the highest award for FY2016 TMALL operation service providers from TMALL, the largest online marketplace in China. For operational service category, TMALL evaluates companies based on four standards operational capability, brand acquisition capability, service capability and future potential. In order to win the Gold Partner Award, companies must satisfy the set standards as well as showcase their collective strength in service operations on TMALL. transcosmos China is the one and only Japanese company which won the Gold Partner Award among the 19 companies that received the award in the same category. transcosmos China has received TMALL Five Stars Service Provider in the second half of FY2016. For evaluation results, visit Taobao's website. As a global company with a 50 year history, transcosmos localizes and delivers the high-quality services with global standards, building upon the companys longstanding operational experience. transcosmos supports prominent Asian and Western brands to make inroads into global market by reducing necessary cost and time for market entry whilst contributing to the brands in expanding sales and strengthening their competitiveness in the global market. Since transcosmos China opened its first service base in Shanghai in 2006, the company has been offering extensive services for nearly 60 companies from 7 bases located in 4 cities in China. The company launched e-commerce business in 2009, providing one-stop service ranging from e-commerce website development/operation, fulfillment (ROG, picking, packing and shipping), customer care, website sales promotion to data analysis and more, along with clients e-commerce and branding strategies. transcosmos China has been recognized as an excellent outsourcer by TMALL for its service in 2009. After signing strategic partnership agreement with taobao, TMALLs operating company, transcosmos China has been supporting brands in various industries including apparel, mother and baby care, electronics, cosmetics and toys on TMALL. In 2014, the company received gold certification in apparel and baby item categories and silver certification in bag/shoes category in the first half and gold certification again in apparel and baby care categories and silver certification in daily commodities and automobile categories in the second half. transcosmos China has been and is highly valued and trusted by TMALL as its partner. transcosmos China continues to deliver its clients superior products to consumers in China, further driving up the companys E-Commerce One-Stop Services business, including cross-border e-commerce, in Chinese e-commerce market which claims significant growth potential. transcosmos is a trademark or registered trademark of transcosmos inc. in Japan and other countries. Other company names and product or service names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies. About transcosmos inc. transcosmos launched its operations in 1966. Since then, we have combined superior people with up-to-date technology to enhance the competitive strength of our clients by providing them with superior and valuable services. transcosmos currently offers services that support clients business processes focusing on both sales expansion and cost reduction through our 172 locations across 31 countries with a focus in Asia, while continuously pursuing Operational Excellence. Furthermore, following the expansion of e-commerce market on the global scale, transcosmos provides a comprehensive One-Stop Global E-Commerce Services to deliver our clients' excellent products and services to consumers in 49 countries around the globe. transcosmos aims to be the Global Digital Transformation Partner of our clients, supporting the clients transformation by leveraging digital technology, responding to the ever changing business environment. Beginning this summer, Uniteds premium cabin customers on all overnight flights between Hawaii and Chicago, Denver, Houston, New York/Newark and Washington, D.C., will enjoy 180-degree flat-bed seats for a more relaxing and sleep-enhancing flight with custom-designed duvets and pillows provided by leading luxury specialty store and New York-bred retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. Beginning December 20, United will increase service from its hubs in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco to Hawaii. The airline will continue operating its daily nonstop service to Honolulu from all seven domestic hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., plus Guam and Tokyo. "As we celebrate our 70th anniversary in Hawaii this year, today's announcement carries a very special significance for our customers," said Jake Cefolia, United's vice president of Sales. The Hawaiian Islands are an important part of United's history. With the maiden departure of a United DC-6 Mainliner from San Francisco to Honolulu in May 1947, United played a major role in helping to make Hawaii an easily accessible destination for tourism and business. In fact, United's West Coast hubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco will remain the country's largest gateways for connecting customers to Hawaii, and in December, United's Denver hub will be another primary interior gateway to Hawaii, offering customers the ability to get to Hawaii from more than 90 destinations in the U.S. and Canada. Denver International Airport (DEN) Beginning December 20, service between Denver and Kona (KOA), Lihue (LIH) and Maui (OGG) will increase from seasonal to daily year-round service. The airline will continue its year-round daily service from Denver to Honolulu. DEN to Current New Schedule Starts Honolulu (HNL) Daily, year round Daily, year-round Now flying Kona (KOA) Seasonal only Increase to daily, year-round Dec. 20 Lihue (LIH) Seasonal only Increase to daily, year-round Dec. 20 Maui (OGG) Seasonal only Increase to daily, year-round Dec. 20 Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) Offering the only nonstop service between Chicago and Hawaii, United will increase service to Maui (OGG) to five times per week beginning December 20. ORD to Current New Schedule Starts Honolulu (HNL) Daily, year round Daily, year-round Now flying Maui (OGG) Saturdays only Daily, year-round (except Tu/We) Dec. 20 Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) From Los Angeles, United offers nonstop service to more Hawaiian Island destinations than any other airline. In addition to United's five times daily service to Honolulu, United will increase service between LAX and Hilo, Kona, Maui and Lihue beginning December 20. United is the only U.S. airline with nonstop service from LAX to Hilo, on the Island of Hawaii. LAX to Current Schedule New Schedule Starts Honolulu (HNL) 5 flights daily 5 flights daily Now flying Hilo (ITO) 5 flights weekly Increase to daily Dec. 20 Kona (KOA) Daily Increase to 2 flights daily Dec. 20 Lihue (LIH) Daily Increase to 2 flights daily Dec. 20 Maui (OGG) 2 flights daily Increase to 3 flights daily Dec. 20 San Francisco International Airport (SFO) From San Francisco, United offers more nonstop service to more Hawaiian Island destinations than any other airline. In addition to its five times daily service between SFO and Honolulu, United will increase service to Kona, Lihue and Maui beginning December 20. SFO to Current New Starts Honolulu (HNL) 5 flights daily 5 flights daily Now flying Kona (KOA) 2 flights daily Increase to 3 flights daily Dec. 20 Lihue (LIH) 1 flight daily Increase to 2 flights daily, year-round Dec. 20 Maui (OGG) 3 flights daily Increase to 5 flights daily Dec. 20 There is no change to United's full-year 2017 capacity guidance. Sessions additionally denied any meeting with Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. It was reported previously that Sessions met in secret with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, at that hotel when President Donald Trump gave a foreign-policy speech during the campaign. Last week, former FBI Director James Comey told the committee in a closed session that there may have been a third meeting between Sessions and Russian officials during the election. Sessions had not spoken about such a meeting publicly. He recused himself from any investigations that could involve the Trump campaign after the first meetings were revealed. "I did not have any private meetings, nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel," Sessions said in his opening statement. "I did not attend any meetings at that event. Prior to the speech, I attended a reception with my staff that included at least two dozen people and President Trump. Though I do recall several conversations I had during that pre-speech reception, I do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian ambassador or any other Russian officials. "If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it," he continued. "After the speech, I was interviewed by the news media, which had gathered as I remember in a different room, and then I left the hotel." Sessions said that any suggestion that he participated in colluding with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump was "an appalling and detestable lie." He later said during questioning from senators that he could have "possibly" had a meeting with Kislyak at the Mayflower but that he did not recall it. Sessions also said he went to the Mayflower that day not knowing that Kislyak would be there. A special counsel, Robert Mueller, is overseeing the FBI's investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to meddle in last year's election. Because Sessions had recused himself from Russia-related matters, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller after Trump fired Comey on May 9. "Let me state this clearly: I have never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election," Sessions said on Tuesday. "Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. "I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," he continued. The former Alabama senator wrapped up his statement by saying that even though he recused himself from matters involving the Russia investigation, he did not recuse himself from "defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations." Read Sessions' full statement: Thank you, Chairman Burr and Ranking Member Warner, for allowing me to publicly appear before the committee today. I appreciate the committee's critically important efforts to investigate Russian interference with our democratic process. Such interference can never be tolerated and I encourage every effort to get to the bottom of any such allegations. As you know, the deputy attorney general has appointed a special counsel to investigate matters related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. I am here today to address several issues that have been specifically raised before this committee, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to questions as fully as I am able to do so. But as I advised you, Mr. Chairman, and consistent with long-standing Department of Justice practice, I cannot and will not violate my duty to protect confidential communications with the president. Now, let me address some issues directly: I did not have any private meetings, nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel. I did not attend any meetings at that event. Prior to the speech, I attended a reception with my staff that included at least two dozen people and President Trump. Though I do recall several conversations I had during that pre-speech reception, I do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian ambassador or any other Russian officials. If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it. After the speech, I was interviewed by the news media, which had gathered as I remember in a different room, and then I left the hotel. But whether I ever attended a reception where the Russian ambassador was also present is entirely beside the point of this investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 campaigns. Let me state this clearly: I have never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign. I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie. Relatedly, there is the assertion that I did not answer Senator Franken's question honestly at my confirmation hearing. That is false. This is how it happened. He asked me a rambling question that included dramatic, new allegations that the United States intelligence community had advised President-elect Trump that "there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump's surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government." I was taken aback by these explosive allegations, which he said were being reported in breaking news that day. I wanted to refute immediately any suggestion that I was a part of such an activity. I replied: "Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it." That was the context in which I was asked the question, and in that context, my answer was a fair and correct response to the charge as I understood it. It simply did not occur to me to go further than the context of the question and list any conversations I may have had with Russians in routine situations, as I had with numerous other foreign officials. Please hear me now. It was only in March of this year that a reporter asked my spokesperson whether I had ever met with any Russian officials. This was the first time that question had been posed. On the same day, we provided that reporter with the information related to the meeting I and my staff had held in my Senate office with Ambassador Kislyak, as well as the brief encounter in July after a speech that I had given during the convention in Cleveland, Ohio. I also provided the reporter a list of all 25 foreign ambassador meetings I had held during 2016. In addition, I provided supplemental testimony to the Senate judiciary committee to explain this. I readily acknowledged these two meetings. Certainly, nothing improper occurred. Let me also explain clearly the circumstances of my recusal from the investigation into the Russian interference with the 2016 election. I was sworn in as attorney general on Thursday, February 9. The very next day, I met with career department officials, including a senior ethics official, to discuss some things publicly reported in the press and that might have some bearing on the issue of recusal. From that point, February 10, until I announced my formal recusal on March 2, I was never briefed on any investigative details and did not access information about the investigation; I received only the limited information that the department's career officials determined was necessary to inform my recusal decision. As such, I have no knowledge about this investigation beyond what has been publicly reported, and I have taken no action with regard to any such investigation. On the date of my formal recusal, my chief of staff sent an email to the heads of the relevant departments, including by name to Director Comey of the FBI, to instruct them to inform their staffs of this recusal and to advise them not to brief me or involve me in any such matters. And in fact, they have not. Importantly, I recused myself not because of any asserted wrongdoing on my part during the campaign, but because a Department of Justice regulation, 28 CFR 45.2, required it. That regulation states, in effect, that department employees should not participate in investigations of a campaign if they have served as a campaign adviser. The scope of my recusal, however, does not and cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department of Justice, including the FBI, which has an $8 billion budget and 35,000 employees. I presented to the president my concerns and those of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, about the ongoing leadership issues at the FBI as stated in my letter recommending the removal of Mr. Comey along with the deputy attorney general's memorandum, which have been released publicly by the White House. It is a clear statement of my views. It is absurd, frankly, to suggest that a recusal from a single specific investigation would render an attorney general unable to manage the leadership of the various Department of Justice law enforcement components that conduct thousands of investigations. Finally, during his testimony, Mr. Comey discussed a conversation he and I had about a meeting Mr. Comey had with the president. I am happy to share with the committee my recollection of the conversation I had with Mr. Comey. Following a routine morning threat briefing, Mr. Comey spoke to me and my chief of staff. While he did not provide me with any of the substance of his conversation with the president, Mr. Comey expressed concern about the proper communications protocol with the White House and with the president. I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policies regarding appropriate contacts with the White House. Mr. Comey had served in the Department of Justice for the better part of two decades, and I was confident that Mr. Comey understood and would abide by the department's well-established rules governing any communications with the White House about ongoing investigations. My comments encouraged him to do just that and indeed, as I understand, he did. Our Department of Justice rules on proper communication between the department and the White House have been in place for years. Mr. Comey well knew them, I thought, and assumed correctly that he complied with them. I will finish with this. I recused myself from any investigation into the campaigns for president, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. At all times throughout the course of the campaign, the confirmation process, and since becoming attorney general, I have dedicated myself to the highest standards. The people of this country expect an honest and transparent government and that is what we are giving them. This president wants to focus on the people of this country to ensure they are treated fairly and kept safe. The Trump agenda is to improve the lives of the American people. I know some have other agendas, but that is his agenda and it is one I share. Importantly, as attorney general, I have a responsibility to enforce the laws of this nation, to protect this country from its enemies, and to ensure the fair administration of justice. I intend to work every day with our fine team and the superb professionals in the Department of Justice to advance the important work we have to do. These false attacks, the innuendo, and the leaks, you can be sure, will not intimidate me. In fact, these events have only strengthened my resolve to fulfill my duty to reduce crime and to support our federal, state, and local law enforcement officers who work our streets every day. Just last week, it was reported that overdose deaths in this country are rising faster than ever recorded. The murder rate is up over 10%, the largest increase since 1968. Together, we are telling the gangs, the cartels, the fraudsters, and the terrorists: We are coming after you. LOT Polish Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines and the 16 members of the International Air Carrier Association (IACA) have officially transformed the association into the Airlines International Representation in Europe AIRE, that will offer airlines a more effective representation, information and access to the European institutions. The strong membership of AIRE urges the European institutions to speed up the delivery of a far more cost-effective business environment for airlines. Gunther Hofman, President of AIRE and Managing Director of TUIfly Benelux stated; The Associations focus remains the implementation of an efficient economic regulation of monopolistic service providers, as well as ensuring good rule-making in Europe. AIRE will bring its recognised expertise into the decision-making process. Rafal Milczarski, CEO of LOT Polish Airlines and newly appointed Vice-President of AIRE added; We are creating AIRE as a new power to be a link to the European institutions for all airlines developing their business to the economic benefits of the European Union. All Members of AIRE share our vision concerning market access, efficiency of operations as well as the relationship between airlines and their monopolistic service providers. We want to assure, that all airlines from Europe have a level playing field. Ahmet Bolat, Chief Investment and Technology Officer of Turkish Airlines commented; We join AIRE as it constitutes our fit-for-purpose representation in the European arena, with a cost-driven agenda and a hands-on approach on issues that must be dealt with on an EU level. Yuri Miroshnikov, CEO of Ukraine International Airlines said; We share the same legitimate interest to benefit from an optimal European operating environment and will be happy to join forces with other airlines through a common platform. Sylviane Lust, Director General of AIRE, concluded; We are delighted to announce today that 19 carriers team up to form a strong airline association. Together, we carry a significant weight in terms of passengers, staff, fleet and destinations. As such, our reinforced grouping of airlines will work together with the EU decision-makers to ensure that efficiency and costs are better taken into account in aviation policies. Rafal Milczarski, CEO of LOT Polish Airlines will succeed Gunther Hofman as President of AIRE at the end of this year. LONDON At least 12 people have died after a huge blaze ripped through a 24-story residential tower block in west London. The Metropolitan Police expects the number of fatalities to rise over the coming hours as the full-scale of the Grenfell Tower disaster becomes apparent. Some 69 others were injured, with 18 in critical care. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said firefighters have only suffered "minor injuries." The London Fire Brigade was called to the fire in Kensington at 12:54 a.m. (BST) and firefighters are still tackling the flames. The cause of the fire is not yet known. London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared it as a "major incident," while Commissioner Cotton told reporters: "In my 29 years as a firefighter, I have never, ever seen anything on this scale." At least 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters responded to the blaze at Grenfell Tower and have been working since the early hours of the morning. Steve Apter, director of safety and assurance for London Fire Brigade, said firefighters will continue to work through the night at the scene. People trapped in tower block People remained trapped in the building hours after the blaze started. There were images of at least one man appealing for help from his window on the 11th floor. The London Fire Brigade entered the building in a search and rescue operation, with 65 people being rescued. Firefighters have now searched all of the building. Labour MP David Lammy Khadija Saye has appealed for information about local artist Khadija Saye. "Several hundred" people would have been in the block when the fire broke out, according to Kensington and Chelsea council. Witnesses claimed that people were jumping from some of the lower floors or creating makeshift rope ladders in an effort to escape the blaze. A witness even reported a baby being dropped into the arms of a member of the public from the tenth floor of the building. Kensington and Chelsea Council has opened an emergency rest centre for evacuees at the Harrow Centre on Freston Road, it said. A cordon is in place, the London Fire Brigade said, and 30 adjacent flats have been evacuated. Local roads, including the A40, were closed. The London Fire Brigade said the tower was not in danger of collapsing. In a statement, it said that a structural engineer had checked it was safe for fire crew to be in the building. "It reminded me of 9/11" Resident Ahmed Chellat told ITV's "Good Morning Britain" that his family were still inside the building. "We don't know where they are, whether they are still in or out. We're waiting for news," he said. Chellat said his brother-in-law was advised not to evacuate initially. This was echoed by other residents, while there are also reports that some didn't hear any fire alarms in the building. Eyewitness Muna Ali told the BBC that the blaze had "completely spread" within 30 minutes. "The flames I have never seen anything like it, it just reminded me of 9/11," she said. As the blaze raged, residents group Grenfell Action Group blogged about the incident. It said it had "posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards." It added: "All our warnings fell on deaf ears." Kensington and Chelsea council declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider. The Grenfell Tower underwent a 10 million upgrade last year. The work was completed by the Rydon construction group. "The large-scale works included the installation of insulated exterior cladding, new double glazed windows and a new communal heating system," the council said. The "insulated exterior cladding" has been a particular area of focus, with residents speculating that it could have exacerbated the fire. Furthermore, Inside House has uncovered a Freedom of Information Act disclosure from Kensington and Chelsea council, which shows Grenfell Tower has not been checked for fire safety for 18 months. This means it has not been assessed since the refurbishment. "Something has gone dramatically wrong here," Geoff Wilkinson, a fire and building inspector, told the BBC. "If there is a fire in any of these buildings, you'd expect it to be contained to an individual apartment." In an interview with LBC Radio, Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick added that Nicholas Paget-Brown, the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, admitted a "thorough investigation is needed." He told the BBC that council buildings undergo fire inspections and safety guidance is issued to residents. The Metropolitan Police said "it is likely to take some time" before they are able to establish the cause of the fire. "Anyone who is concerned about loved ones in relation to the fire should contact Casualty Bureau which has been opened following the fire. If you do not get through immediately please do try again," said Commander Stuart Cundy. The Casualty Bureau number is 0800 0961 233 or 0207 158 0197. Grenfell Tower is close to Latimer Road tube station and Notting Hill. Prime Minister "deeply saddened" The Prime Minister's office released a statement following the fire. A spokesman said: London Mayor "truly devastated" London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was "truly devastated" by the fire. "I want to thank our incredible firefighters and emergency services for their immense courage, dedication and professionalism," he said in a statement. Khan added: " Londoners are offering help to residents affected by the blaze. Nearby community centres, such as St Clement's Church, are offering refuge, spare clothes, and toiletries. Jamie Oliver said on Instagram this morning that he will offer free food at his Jamie's Italian restaurant at the Westfield shopping centre, which is around the corner from the tower. He said: "To any of the 100's of FAMILIES effected by this terrible fire at Grenfell Tower Notting hill today, You are all welcome to come hang out in my restaurant and be fed and watered by my Jamies Italian team." "[...]this is for victims of the fire our thoughts, love and prayers are with you all big love jamie x x x x " Mosques, temples and churches located nearby Grenfell Tower have opened their doors to start collecting things that might be needed by those affected by the fire in the coming days. Some of the centres have reportedly been overwhelmed by donations from locals wanting to help. A list of some of the closeby collection spots is below. A JustGiving page has also been set up to try and raise 1,000,000 to help the families of Grenfell Tower, who have been devastated by the fire which has destroyed their homes. Below, relief fund buckets are also being handed around. People have been gathering clothes, toys and toiletries at the nearby St Clements Church for the residents of the tower, many of whom are just in their pyjamas. Members of the Sikh community from Ealing Gurdwara are understood to have been at Grenfell Tower since 5am handing out food and water. Collections are also being made at the local Rugby club. On Facebook, users were also spreading the word of what, how, and where people could donate clothes too, by copying and pasting the same posts on their newsfeeds: Talk Talk said it has opened up its office to anyone in need of a cup of tea or just a place to rest. Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! A new article in Forbes suggests the US billionaires are making significant land grabs in America's heartland, where the climate is mild and the locations are conducive to survivalism and living on the land. The Midwest is home to several fortified shelters and vacation homes where the super-rich could happily live out their post-doomsday (or retirement) days. Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn and a notable investor, told The New Yorker earlier this year he estimated more than 50% of Silicon Valley billionaires had bought some level of "apocalypse insurance," like a bunker. Real estate developers are capitalizing on the moment with luxury underground doomsday shelters that cost as much as $3 million. These post-apocalyptic homes, often built on retired military bases or in missile silos, include luxury amenities and safety features like nuclear blast doors, armored trucks, and massive stores of food and water. I woke up to dozens of messages from loved ones,family, friends and a few haters who had guts to send direct messages,just because I harmlessly accepted to grant an interview which turned out to be an interrogation. So I went back to watch it all over again and all I could say was Vicky you are a very tolerant young woman, I wont lie. After everything they put my team and I through from 1pm 6pm, I patiently sat through the entire interrogation process till the end..never knew one could easily be called a pathological liar just because they cant remember vividly an incident that occurred in the past. And my entirely life is considered fake cos I had a temperal tat on in the past?Thats it? Why should my showbiz be likened to my personal life? U wanted me to sit on ur show and spell in detail evrything about my personal life? Then what? Some people have advised that i demand an apology but I wil let this slide for personal reasons. For those of you advising that I put a stop to the campaign and hide,sorry, Ive come too far to quit,only God can stop me now. STILL #SayNoToVoilence #LeaveToLive #TGBTG #ThankGodManIsntGod she posted. Abraham Attah will also engage in other activities as part of the tour to a Northern region as communicated by his management. READ ALSO: Efya confirms getting plenty penis photos Abraham Attah gained international prominence playing the lead role alongside Idris Elba in the movie Beasts of No Nation directed by Emmy Award-winning Cary Fukunaga. Playing the character Agu who when civil war tears his family apart, is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transformed into a child soldier earned Attah praise around the world. He won Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at Venice Film Festival 2015, Best Male Lead award at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards, and also Rising Star Award at the Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC). The award scheme called Attahs role as one of the strongest and most phenomenal we have ever seen and added that he had a very bright future ahead of him. The movie was based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Uzodinma Iweala. Shoot in Ghana, it starred Ama K. Abebrese, Fred Amugi, and Grace Nortey. She was then arrested and processed for court pending further investigations. A few days after her bail by the Accra High Court, she took away some equipment including batteries that was relevant to the case of the Republic versus Aisha Huang and four others. The four others are identified as Gao Jin Chec, 45; Lu Qi Jun, 39; Haibin Gao, 26 and Zhang Zhi Peng, 23. She has been litigating with Volta Resources Limited, a minerals exploration company since February 2015 on allegations that she was encroaching on their concession. The Director of Volta Resources, Nana Kofi Sarfo Prempeh has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) regarding the non-seizure of excavators belonging to Aisha Huang. In August 2016, some residents of Bepotenteng with support from national security seized some excavators belonging to Aisha Huang. They arrived in Accra on Wednesday, 14 June, 2017 and most of them were handcuffed. The deportees most of whom had no records on them, are the second batch of immigrants. READ ALSO: 100 Ghanaians deported from USA They were screened upon arrival by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Ghana Police Service. So far, about 100 Ghanaians who have been deported in 2017. The Donald Trump administration has been embarking on massive deportation of other nationals illegally living in the US and some 7000 Ghanaians will be affected. In 2016, the United States deported 108 Ghanaian immigrants for reasons including drug-related offences, staying illegally, overstaying their permits and other crimes. Congrex Switzerland announced that several important long-term contracts have been signed in the last few weeks. The longest contract ever in Congrex Switzerlands history was signed in May with the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), which has decided to re-elect them for another six years as Association Management Company until end of 2022. The contract comprises a multitude of ESO projects including stroke unit and stroke centre certification but also the organisation of the European Stroke Science Workshop and the ESO & Karolinska Stroke Update Conference. We are delighted to sign this long-term contract with Congrex Switzerland. Their team is highly professional and caring and are an important support in implementing ESOs strategic goals, says Valeria Caso, ESO President. Already in April, after a successful delivery of the Registration Services for the almost 12500 participants of ECCMID 2017, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases has decided to extend the partnership with Congrex Switzerland to the years 2019 and 2020. And last week, the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) agreed to sign a three years contract for Registration Services for the International Liver Congress 2018 to 2020 with over 10000 participants. Further new conferences in the portfolio of Congrex Switzerland are: Oral Reconstruction World Symposium Annual Meeting of the Swiss Stroke Society International Conference on Reproduction, Pregnancy and Rheumatic Diseases International Conference of the German Society of Nursing Science Annual Meeting of the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers IAPCO The recent long-term agreements with important international clients confirm our strategy to offer customised solutions in all aspects of the meeting management. says Managing Director Alain Pittet and adds My Key Account Directors and co-owners Julia Bicher and Sabine Adam are excellent strategic consultants to our clients and together with their team deliver conferences and meetings with memorable delegates experiences. The four, who are managers of Geo professional Services, were granted bail to the tune of two hundred thousand each with one surety who must be a Ghanaian. They were also ordered by the court to deposit their passports with court registrar and report to the CID offices every fortnight. The foreigners were said to have mined about 500 acres of land instead of 75 acres originally given them by the Lands Commission at Tontokrom in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region. They arrested following an order by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu during his tour of mining sites in the Ashanti region. The four have pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking small scale mining in Ghana without license. Eyewitnesses say he was shot dead by two armed men on a motorbike. The police, however, acted on intelligence and they were able to find out the hideout of the suspect at Tulaku. When the Police arrived at the hideout around 3pm on Tuesday, the suspect initially shot at the Police, Accra-based Citi FM reports. The Police subsequently responded by firing back at the suspect, killing him in the process. Items found in his possession included two AK47 rifles and ammunition. The suspect, who is popularly referred to as Dogo America has been on Police wanted list for some time now. The police is on a manhunt for the trader because she has kidnapped a 5-month old baby. The mother of the baby narrated that she left the 5-month-old in the care of her 11-year-old daughter so she could attend to other customers. READ ALSO: Man who allegedly killed Michel camp police officer shot dead She continued that the alleged baby thief approached her daughter to buy eggs and offered to carry the baby so she could attend to other customers. Before they realised, the baby thief had bolted with the infant leaving the mother in a sad state. Several attempts to trace the strange woman has proved futile. The Supreme Court Justices also ordered that where applicable, criminal Action should be instituted against accused persons by the Attorney General. Occupy Ghana sued the Attorney General and the Auditor General for refusing to surcharge persons who are said to have misappropriated monies belonging to the state to the tune of over GHc40 billion. Occupy Ghana in 2014 wrote a letter to the Auditor General reminding it to surcharge such persons or face them in court. Below are all three reliefs granted by the court; 1. The Auditor-General must issue disallowance and surcharge in respect of all monies found to have been expended contrary to law. 2. The Auditor-General must take steps to recover all amounts lost to the state, and this covers private persons. The Director General in-charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), DCOP Bright Oduro, told the Daily Guide that the mobile phone - an Iphone 6 was retrieved from the room of suspect Kwadwo Fofie at Diaso but he had bolted and is being wanted. Meanwhile, the police have launched a manhunt for the key suspect said to have fired at the soldier at Denkyira Obuasi on Monday May 29, 2017 before other residents attacked and killed him with cement blocks and clubs. Yaw Amankwa, alias Bulla, is said to have used a double-barrelled gun he was wielding, while other residents rushed to buy petrol and set the body of the deceased ablaze. Police say that he allegedly did that with the support of 11 other key suspects, who are all currently on the run. The suspects are Akwesi Asante; Nana Kwadjo, alias Nana Edjo; John Boakye, Unit Committee Member, and a trader whose name was given only as Sarah, married to Kwaku Brefo, a motorbike rider in the town. The others are Kwaku Diesel, Kaya Rasta and the rest whose names were given only as Daddy, Boadu, Ahinkra, Tikwa and Attipar. A postmortem report of the Ghana Police service has indicated that the suspects involved in the murder of Major Maxwell Mahama shot him severally before setting his body on fire. He further discloses that, some soldiers had earlier attempted to meet with the illegal miners and were nearly killed, but Major Mahama who was unaware of the earlier incident also proceeded to agree on a meeting with them without adequate protection. However, the GAF has expressed worry saying that, such false information had been touted in the media and it is ready to provide clarity on circumstances surrounding the former officers death. READ ALSO: This photo of Barbara Mahama smiling in a recent photo will warm your heart The late Major Maxwell Mahama was lynched and partly burnt by some residents of Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region on 29th May, 2017, on suspicion of being an armed robber. Some reports suggested that the late military man was attacked and killed by the residents because he was in the town to stop illegal mining; an activity most of the residents were engaged in, but that was later discredited. Mr James Barbieri, the Director of Green Global Resources, at a press conference on Tuesday said some high-ranking officials of the Police Service have connived with some individuals to dupe them of the said amount. But the Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service, Sheila Abayie Buckman, has said that she is surprised about the action of the US firm, as the firm is aware that the police officers involved in the scam were undergoing disciplinary action. From Police investigations, we realized that some five officers may be part of whatever allegations have been raised against them for misconduct, and these five officers were interdicted and as I speak to you now, they are facing internal disciplinary charges. The docket on them has also been forwarded to the Attorney Generals office for advice and possible prosecution, DSP Buckman said on Accra-based Citi FM. She said that instead of the US firm organising a press conference, they could have resorted to the Inspector General of Polices office for whatever is not being transparent to them to be made known to them I believe that, as I have been told, the investigative team has made every result of their investigation that they need to know transparent to them. The suspects involved in the case, led by an interdicted East Legon Police Commander, reportedly seized 13 gold bars from the firm under the pretext that the firm was allegedly buying stolen gold. The then East Legon Police Commander, DSP Emmanuel Basintale and 6 others, have so far been interdicted. There are also concerns over whether the gold was pure or fake. The Police Service has said that the gold in its possession from the deal gone bad is fake. A NACOB officer, Maame Serwah is with the Professional Standards Unit of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and has indicated that marijuana use cannot be legalized in Ghana adding that its proliferation in Ghana is as a result of the fertility of the soil. READ ALSO: This orange seller is doing weird stuff to her oranges you need to see nowAccording to her, The proliferation of weed in Ghana is as a result of the fertility of the Ghanaian soil. Marijuana thrives very well in all parts of the country and so people engage in the cultivation a lot and that is why we have more of it on the market. Maame Serwah noted. When you compare it to cocaine, you will realise that cocaine is not that much on the market because it requires a lot of money to bring cocaine into the country. According to her, the laws of Ghana frown upon the cultivation and use of Indian hemp and other narcotics such as cocaine and heroin and they are in such of people producing it.We are looking for the people producing the drugs and so we need information from the various communities on the people who are cultivating the drugs. This was announced by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu on Tuesday at a press briefing in Accra. According to Joewus, the committee had decided it was expedient to bring the date after considering certain factors. He revealed that a vacancy exists as retired Chief Justice Wood has already been appointed to the Council of State. He also disclosed that the decision was reached after a consensus by both sides to close the 14-day interval for receiving complaints and questions on the nominee since there was no petition against Madam Akuffo. Members of the Committee are currently going through the Justice Akuffos past judgment as well other publications to be able to assess her performance at Ghanas highest court. Justice Sophia Akuffo was appointed by President Nana Akuffo-Addo as Ghanas second female Chief Justice in replacement of Justice Georgina Theodora Wood who went on retirement last Wednesday after 47 years of public service. Per the 1992 constitution, a nominee to the position of Chief Justice must be vetted by the Appointments Committee followed by approval by two-thirds of the majority in parliament. This is the second time Justice Akuffo will be holding the position of Chief Justice as she held a similar position in The Gambia under its former leader, Yahya Jammeh. With an eye on first kids who were teenagers or young adults when their parents lived in the White House, as far back as President Richard Nixon, Business Insider took a look at elementary, middle, or high schools they attended. Take a look below to see who attended prep schools in the nation's capitol, and who went elsewhere. Barron Trump St. Andrew's Episcopal School If Barron's $40,000-a-year tuition payment seems steep, it's nothing compared to the cost of secret service protection in New York City for the first family, which is estimated to be $1 million a day. Sasha Obama Sidwell Friends School Sasha is a rising junior at the Washington, D.C.-based school that has educated multiple first kids. The Obamas have said they will stay in D.C. until Sasha graduates from high school. Sidwell costs students about $40,000 a year. Malia Obama Sidwell Friends School Malia graduated from Sidwell last spring, and announced she would take a gap year before starting college at Harvard University. She starts at Harvard in the fall. Jenna Bush Hager Austin High School Jenna, attended Austin High School, a public high school in her town. President George W. Bush was elected to the presidency when Jenna was a high-school senior. She stayed local for college as well and attended UT Austin, where she graduated with an English degree. Barbara Pierce Bush Austin High School The older fraternal twin daughter of President George W. Bush, Barbara also attended public Austin High School, then left her sister for the east coast and attended Yale University for college. Chelsea Clinton Sidwell Friends School Though she attended public schools in Arkansas before her father, President Bill Clinton, was elected, Chelsea is another first kid who went to Sidwell Friends School. Amy Carter Stevens Elementary School and the Rose Hardy Middle School Amy Carter, the youngest daughter of President Jimmy Carter, was nine years old when she moved into the White House. Rose Hardy Middle School. The decision was Tricia Nixon Cox Sidwell Friends School and the Chapin School The oldest daughter of President Richard Nixon, Tricia Julie Nixon Eisenhower Sidwell Friends School and the Chapin School The student fashion week was created by a small group of creatives about five years ago. The show's 2017 edition doubles as the 5th edition and has slowly become one platform to showcase the works of young emerging creatives in fashion and design. "NSFDW has had a successful run over the past four (4) years, and what started with a small group of creative minds has grown to become a big fashion brand which is recognized not only in Nigeria but also in Europe. One of the foremost goals of is to recognize young emerging creatives in fashion and design giving them a platform to showcase their designs and understand the business of fashion" the organizers revealed in a side note. Akin Faminu is a medical student, fashion blogger and a stylist. His style and blog; www.akinfaminu.com has placed him on the list of top fashionable men in Nigeria. ALSO READ:Da Viva X ABC X Swarovski collaboration was stunning Maria Okanrende is a television and radio personality who currently co-hosts 'The Morning Rush' on The Beat 99.9 FM. Registration for designers is currently ongoing. Visit www.nsfdweek.com for more information and follow across social media @nsfdweek. Email info@nsfdweek.com for enquiries. Credits: Photography: Studio24 Nigeria (@studio24nigeria) Akins Outfit: Apex Clothing (@apexclothings) Marias Outfit: Ovems Coutore (@ovems) Stylist: @fabstyle_101 Hair: @myhairltd Makeup: @prettypowderlagos Hair Stylist: @ceciliahaircare Shoes: @ddshoes_ Lashes: @lashedbyryannejohn Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! The little baby, Nathaniel Temitope Ayeni, who was born on March 27, 2017, needs to undergo a heart surgery in India after he was diagnosed with an ailment called TAPVC (mixed), moderate sixe restrictive Secundum ASD L-R Shunt, Mild Valvar PS, RV Dysfunction and Severe PAH. His uncle, Oluwaseun with the Twitter handle @oluwaseun_noble, took to his account to solicit for help for the infant: "I, @oluwaseun_noble, write to seek your support to help save the life of, my little nephew. He is just 2 months and 13 days today. He needs a heart surgery in India ASAP. We will appreciate the support of kind-hearted Nigerians to help with their resources, finances, and prayers. The father, my cousin's account is as follows: Ayeni Olakunle Moses GTB Account number: 0052579997 No amount is considered too much or small. The baby has been on oxygen for survival but we were advised to take him out of the hospital environment to avoid him contracting another viral disease having stabilized him after he was rushed to the hospital in an emergency. Hence, he will not have access to oxygen again thereby being highly exposed till we are able to raise Ten Million Naira (N10,000,000) for the surgery. Doctors have advised that we ensure the surgery is done before the baby is 3 months. All my claims are verifiable as the medical report from LASUTH is available. I appeal and solicit for your help and support in any way you can and deem fit. Here attached is a photo of the boy and father in children emergency ward LASUTH. Thank you and God bless you abundantly as you join the race in saving Nathaniel's life." The family has also set up a GoFundMe account for public spirited Nigerians, corporate bodies and government agencies to help them. The GoFundMe message read: 'Baby Nathaniel was born on 26th of March, 2017. He has been diagnosed with an ailment called TAPVC(?mixed), Moderate sixe restrictive Secundum ASD L-R Shunt, Mild Valvar PS, RV Dysfunction, Severe PAH. This condition has led to a shortage of oxygen to his system causing him to turn blue and also resulting in a conspicuous dark coloring in his mouth; a hint that his system is shutting down. We have been advised that a major surgical operation is paramount before he turns 3-months-old. We have started making plans to fly him to India for the surgical procedure; we kindly solicit your financial assistance in raising the funds necessary for the trip and the medical bills. Every dollar counts. Please help us save our Nathaniel. We have set up the links below to help raise the money for transparency purposes.' Kindly log on to www.gofundme.com/zhsj5p-nathans-medical-fund to help this baby. God bless you as you do so. The Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, made this known at a free medical mission organised by the state government in collaboration with the Rotary International in Sagamu. Ipaye said that efforts were in top gear to prevent its outbreak in the state. There has not been case of cholera outbreak in Ogun for years and we do not look forward to that, because what we have done mainly is to see primary care as our priority. We have heightened our surveillance system to the extent that we have been rated the best in Nigeria in term of diseases surveillance, he said. ALSO READ: Cholera outbreak kills 80 in Zamfara in 1 month Environmental health has contributed more to public health, because if you are able to take good care of your environment, particularly sanitation and water, you will be able to put cholera at bay, he said. The commissioner said that the ongoing construction of bridges and drainages across the state were parts of the major investment of the government to promote environmental health. Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday to mark the World Blood Donor Day 2017, celebrated annually on June 14. She said the 2016 report on the status of blood safety and availability in the region revealed that the number of blood donations between 2013 and 2016 increased from 3.9 million units to 4.5 million units. Moeti, however, added that in spite of the progress, the region could only meet 50 per cent of its annual blood needs. She said that the report further revealed that collecting blood from voluntary, unpaid and regular blood donors was safer, more effective and efficient than family replacement donations. The regional director commended voluntary blood donors and encouraged them to continue giving this valuable gift regularly to ensure sufficient blood stock before emergencies occur. She pledged the support of WHO to blood donor associations, Non-Governmental Organisations and those working to make safe blood available in healthcare facilities. Moeti said the WHO regional office for Africa would continue to support appropriate initiatives aimed at ensuring that safe, life-saving blood and blood products were available for all, particularly in emergencies. She noted that as we commemorate World Blood Donor Day, I urge countries and stakeholders involved in blood donations to support and strengthen advocacy for voluntary, unpaid blood donations to maintain supply of safe blood." This will allow national blood transfusion services to respond in time to the increase in blood demand, especially during emergencies." There are major gaps in some countries and sub-regions, including policy implementation rate, coordination of blood services and legislation." Africa is unable to meet its blood needs and the proportion of blood units collected from family replacement donors is high." Five countries are still not screening all units of blood for major transfusion, transmitting infections such as hepatitis C and syphilis." This is due to the lack of essential reagents and consumables for blood safety and lack of quality management systems in several blood services in the region. Moeti said everybody could play a role in emergency situations by giving blood, adding that blood transfusion was an essential component of emergency healthcare. She noted that the theme for this years celebration is What can you do? Give blood. Give now. Give often. According to her, the theme raises awareness for voluntary, regular blood donation to maintain sufficient stock of blood and blood products in blood transfusion services. She explained that the choice of the theme was particularly significant for the region, which was most affected by crises and outbreaks such as the Ebola virus disease, road traffic accidents, armed conflicts, natural or man-made disasters. The regional director said such emergencies increased the demand for blood transfusion and made its delivery challenging. She said many victims of crises die because of lack of blood and blood products, noting that they also risked infection when transfused with unsafe blood. Moeti said the serious humanitarian crises facing the region in recent decades revealed inadequacies of national health systems in most countries to manage health emergencies. Osinbajo, in a meeting with South-East Governors and stakeholders, on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, said the government will do all in its power to ensure the unity of Nigeria. A group known as the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY) had earlier issued a statement asking Igbos to leave the region. According to Vanguard, Osinbajo said that the Federal Government will not shy away from its constitutional responsibilities. The Acting President also condemned any form of violence, adding that war is impossible to end. Osinbajo said "Burying our heads in the sand and expecting the storm to blow over of their own accord is not an option. ALSO READ:Northern group declares war on Igbos The Acting President said that the reason for the meeting was to address issues arising from the eviction notice decisively. The groups made the declaration at the end of a joint meeting in Sokoto convened sequel to recent threat to evict Igbos from the North. The youths groups stand for one Nigeria and the country will remain one. This is what we will continue to believe and stand for, they said in a statement. The President-General, Igbo Community in Sokoto, Chief Charles Uwaga, and the Ohaneze Ndi Igbo Youth Leader, Mr Kelechi Obonna, told newsmen that they back steps taken by acting President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, to ensure sustainable peace and unity in the country. The dialogue he has so far started with the northern elders and those planned with the leaders from other parts of the country are very commendable. These efforts should be sustained and replicated across the country, while we are condemning any hate speech or statement by anybody from any part of Nigeria," he added. ALSO READ:Northern group declares war on Igbos Also, a member of the Nigerian Youths Parliament, Sanusi Yakubu, said the meeting was to assure the Igbos resident in the state that all is well. There is no cause for alarm here. We also want all the northerners resident in Igbo land to feel free to continue with their lawful activities. We actually wanted to intervene on behalf of the teachers; we wanted to make a case for them, but we have found out that their umbrella body ASUSS is illegal and unregistered, Daniel Oga-Ogazi, the Majority Leader, said on Wednesday in Lafia. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the teachers, under the aegis of ASUSS, embarked on an indefinite strike on May 12, to press for improved working conditions. Oga-Ogazi, Chairman, House Committee on Education, told newsmen that the law makers wanted to intervene on behalf of the teachers but had to reconsider the move after it found out that ASUSS was not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. As lawmakers, we cannot work with an organisation that has no respect for the law. ASUSS is an illegal organisation; we cannot invite them or dabble into their issues. They are not to be considered as an organisation or association. They are not to be considered as a legitimate union of secondary school teachers, he said. He criticised the group for choosing to go on strike when students were writing their National Examination Council (NECO) examination, and described that as selfish. There are moral questions the teachers must answer. Is this the best time to abandon the schools? Dont they know that students are writing external examinations?, he asked. ALSO READ: Nasarawa Governor urges workers to call off strike Reacting, ASUSS chairman in Nasarawa State, Gabriel Angbashi, wondered why government was more interested in chasing shadows rather than addressing the basic issues of teachers welfare and conducive teaching environment raised by ASUSS. He said that ASUSS was given an approval to be registered as a trade union by the Ministry of Labour before the matter was taken to court by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT). We had floored the NUT at the High Court and Court of Appeal before it decided to go to the Supreme Court whose ruling is still being awaited. The matter is already concluded; compensation will not be paid over governments action, the governor said, while distributing relief materials to 50 communities hit by various crises. He said that government had directed the Nasarawa Urban Development Board (NUDB) to fine the radio station for violating approved land laws. The NUDB, on May 12, 2017 demolished the station, citing violation of approved laws. According to information commissioner, Abdulhamid Kwarra, the action became necessary to protect people living in the neighbourhood against radioactive materials from the stations mast. The station has threatened to go to court to challenge the action which it said was a reaction to its insistence on reporting the ongoing workers strike. But Al-Makura, who reacted to the threat, said that the station would be fined to deter others from committing similar offence. Nasarawa government will not pay any compensation as is being suggested in some quarters. It is the management of Breeze FM that will pay a fine for violating laid down rules. You cannot have a radio station where you have a restaurant, a business centre and a prayer centre. It does not happen anywhere,he said. He added that the demolition exercise that brought down the radio station would also affect other structures that failed to adhere strictly to laid down laws on buildings. All houses built on wrong sites, which have not adhered to development regulations, will be destroyed whether they be residences, factories or radio stations. People must learn to comply and abide by rules and regulations, he said. According to him, government has already directed development control agencies and the Ministry of Land to identify homes, offices and commercial centres that do not conform or abide by regulations and give them statutory notices. After the notices, their structures will definitely go down the way Breeze FM went. The resolution followed a motion sponsored by Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan and 104 others. Speaking on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, Lawan noted that since Nigerias independence in 1960, the priority of government has been national integration. That is why it established the , unity schools and the federal character principle amongst other polices, Lawan said. "Various integration policies and programmes in Nigeria have yielded some desired outcome, but there is more to be done as primordial ethnic sentiments and loyalties are still deep rooted. "Some citizens rather than working for integration into a cohesive nation with a common sense of national identity and destiny, are preaching and supporting primordial affiliation for identity, loyalty and security. "Recently, there has been clamouring for ethnically based and regionally supported threat to one united Nigeria in various parts of the country," he said. ALSO READ: Osinbajo breaks silence over eviction threat against Igbos He urged Nigerians to desist from utterances that are capable of jeopardising the existence of the country. Contributing to the motion, Senator Magnus Abe said Nigerias strength is in her diversity. What Nigerians don't know is that the time to split is gone, our youths take it easy, we need this country as one," said Senator James Manager. Senator Musa Kwankwaso urged Nigerians to unite rather than call for the division of the country. This is a time to unite not to fight in this country. We must not be seen supporting the forces trying to divide the country," Kwankwaso said. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe called on elders in the country to talk to their children. Senator Lanre Tejuoso urged religious leaders to spread the message of One Nigeria to all their followers. Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio attributed Nigerias position in the world to her size and unity. "The respect we enjoy all over the World today is as a result of our unity and size, Akpabio said. Look at a country like Sudan, with all their wealth they can't enjoy it again because they are at war. Some people have not witnessed civil war before, I did. And it was terrible, he added. "I'm one of those who fought in the civil war and I totally stand for the unity of Nigeria," said Senator Jonah Jang. Jang urged the federal government to revisit the National Conference recommendation as means of finding a lasting solution to the agitations of Nigerians. Joyce had earlier alleged that the President had died, drawing sharp criticism from Buharis aides. In a post, on his website, the ex-military officer said Nigeria has an extremely capable acting president, of course, but if Mr Buhari is declared dead or permanently incapacitated then it will be the second time in succession that a Northern Muslim president has died and been replaced by his Southern Christian deputy. This is a challenge in a country whose democracy is based upon a complex balance of different regional and religious interests. However, it is a challenge Nigeria is most certainly up to given the great success which was the peaceful handing over of power after the last election. And so, a top tip for Nigerians. Insist that, like most democracies, it is a strict requirement of being president that your people know exactly what your physical condition is at all times. This practice is not historically confined to democracies, of course. Kings of old were routinely watched in their bedchambers; Queens were watched as they gave birth to heirs. This was all to ensure that things were as they seemed. Requiring a president to show he is capable of running his country, and is definitely not dead, is a simple and practical extension of this. For now, with no sight nor sound of the president and no proof even of life for some time, it seems that in a bid to manage the succession the presidency may be lying to the public about the presidents health or even life, and making Nigerias democratic status a mockery into the bargain. The Nigerian media seems to be unconcerned about all of this; unconcerned that he may be dead; unconcerned that if he is alive then he may be too ill to carry on. In the absence of serious newspaper and TV media, then, it is left to social media to do the job. So here we are. We recommend that every Nigerian check their own wardrobes for Mr Buhari, and perhaps ask their children if they have any ideas. If you do this, you will have looked harder for him than the Nigerian media. According to Vanguard, Yakubu said Nigerians have continued to express their support for Buhari through their prayers. The Arewa chieftain also said that no President in the history of Nigeria has been shown such goodwill. Yakubu said There is no Nigerian leader that has received this type of support and prayer in our recent history. I must first of all thank them. The presidents health challenge is something that can happen to anybody. We had President Umaru Musa YarAdua, this type of health condition happened to him. So in the case of Buhari, he had transmitted power to his deputy, as constitution demanded, and I think there is nothing to fear. If he had not transmitted power to his deputy or his case was like that of YarAdua, I would have been more worried. And so far the acting president is capable; he has shown some level of vibrancy, there is no cause for alarm. God forbid bad thing, supposing the president dies today, there is nothing anybody can do. God has appointed a time for every human being to be born and to die. For now, we will continue to pray for our president and wish him quick return to the country. And I will continue to appreciate Nigerians who are praying and supporting the president. He also condemned calls for the President to resign, saying I will not advise him to resign. You will recall that when former President Olusegun Obasanjo was asking the then ailing President Umaru Musa YarAdua to resign, I granted an interview to your newspaper, as the youth leader of Northern Union, telling Nigerians that even on wheelchair, we will support YarAdua to rule the country. Unfortunately he died. "I am also making the same statement today that Buhari should not resign, even if he is on wheelchair, North and people of Nigeria will vote him in 2019. I am not just associating myself with Buhari, I am advocating for good governance under President Buhari. ALSO READ: Buhari instructs Osinbajo to sign 2017 budget I dont think that it is proper for anybody to humiliate Buhari out of office by mounting pressure on him to resign. It is not fair; it is not just, it is not proper. We have election time table, if you dont like him, vote him out during the election, but I will not support anybody that will want to humiliate the President out of office. As long as he is alive, it is not right to demand of him to resign. The EFCC had in 2015 instituted the case against Prof. Benjamin Ogunbodede, the former Director of IAR&T, as well as Zaccheus Tejumola, Clement Adenose and 10 others. Ayo-Emmanuel adjourned the case based on the plea of the EFCC counsel, Mr Adeola Elumero, who said that the commission needed more time to complete its written address. Anything worth doing at all is worth doing well for the purpose of arriving at a just decision on this matter. I think that there is need for an adjournment in this case to enable the counsel to file his written address. This will be the last adjournment at the instance of the prosecution, the judge ruled. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that both the prosecution and all the defence counsel had closed their cases since May 5. The case did not also hold on the last adjourned date at the instance of the EFCC. All the defence counselMr Tunde Olupana, S.A. Salawu and Mrs Yetunde Adegboye had earlier submitted that the anti-graft body was deliberately wasting time and prolonging the stay of their clients in detention. NAN reports that Ogunbodede, Tejumola and Adenose, and the 10 other accused persons had been standing trial over multiple charges bordering on conspiracy as well as conversion and stealing of hazard allowance of staff of IART. According to Daily Post, Fayose also described Sarakis triumph at the CCT as a victory against tyranny. The Governor said I am happy that I predicted that the CCT will absolve the Senate President in my 2017 predictions and it has come to pass. I said it categorically that the Code of Conduct Tribunal will absolve Senate President Bukola Saraki and today, the prediction came to pass. I have maintained that the government of President Buhari is not fighting any corruption. Rather, what is being done is hiding under anti-corruption fight to persecute, humiliate, harass and malign perceived political enemies. They go about trying their perceived political foes in the media, with the aim of destroying their names when they do not have any evidence that can sustain court trial and it is for this reason that they have been losing corruption cases. ALSO READ:CCT clears Senate President of false asset declaration Look at all the noise they made when they started Senator Sarakis case, it was as if he will be sent to jail the following week. But when it was time for them to prove their allegations, they could not. Even the case of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), that they said stole $2.1 billion arms money and that destructive weapons capable of disrupting the peace of any city in Nigeria were found in his possession, why are they the ones seeking for secret trial while Dasuki that they accused is insisting on open trial? Up till today, they have not brought any evidence against Dasuki. They have not even been able to commence his trial. Instead, they have continually disobeyed court orders that he should be released from detention. The CCT recently declared that the Senate President has no case to answer in the 18 count charge against him. He said It is indeed sad that apart from the Southwest states of Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, and Osun, which have doggedly continued to celebrate the hero and later martyr of that battle, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, there has been studied indifference to the June 12 phenomenon by the Federal Government and remarkably, the rest of Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria, should as a matter of honour to the late politician and business mogul, Abiola, who fought and died for the current democracy, make June 12 of every year a national holiday. Adams said this while speaking at an event organised to honour Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12 elections. June 12, 1993, was the day the electorates went to the polls, in what international observers termed Nigerias freest and fairest election. According to him, It is sad today that those that benefited most from MKO Abiolas martyrdom do not want to be reminded of him. And those who used to talk about injustice have since, given the opportunity, inflicted their own injustice on the people. Those who used to swear by Abiolas name have since found new political patrons. Those who proclaimed Abiola as the symbol of democracy and the rallying point for the peoples hopes have since been dancing on his grave. Saraki allegedly committed the offence of not declaring his assets while he was Governor of Kwara State. On Wednesday, June 14, 2017, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) dismissed all charges against the senate president. In the ruling, CCT chairman, Danladi Umar said the prosecution failed to prove its case against the senate president, beyond reasonable doubt. Danladi was right--the prosecution was as shoddy as they come. The anti-graft agencies and the federal government bungled this one, big time. And so, Saraki walked. The federal government commenced its trial against Saraki with a 13-count charge. On April 18, 2016 the federal government had added some more charges. On April 27, 2016 more charges were added to swell the number to 16. Between January 11, 2017 and February 23, 2017, the charges against Saraki had been increased to 18. Why increase the charges when you can't prove just one, let alone 18? According to the tribunal, the 18 charges were predicated on the testimony of the third prosecution witness and Chief Investigation Officer at the CCB, Mr Samuel Madujemu. Madujemu said the information he had tendered before the tribunal was given to him by the team. The term 'team' is invalid in law and has no constitutional or statutory backing whatsoever. According to a ChannelsTV report of the proceedings; "this was a fatal flaw of the prosecution as the evidence rendered all evidence of the prosecution invalid hence the declaration that Mr Saraki was discharged and acquitted". There were times during this trial when Saraki was accompanied to the courtroom by over 50 senators. There were times during this trial when Nigerians regarded the conduct of lawmakers as corruption fighting back. Through it all, Saraki and his legal team remained defiant and filed a no-case submission on June 8, 2017. They knew the prosecution was going to bungle its case. And it did. ALSO READ: Senators say CCT judgement is a victory for democracy After the charges were filed, Saraki described his trial by the federal government as a purely malicious and politically motivated prosecution aimed at undermining the person and office of the Senate President. After the case was thrown out today, Saraki said he has been vindicated. After undergoing the crucible of a tortuous trial, my vindication today calls for celebration, the senate president said. It is my belief however that if there should be any celebration at all, it should be a celebration of the hopes that this judgment gives us as citizens that despite all the challenges that we face as a country, we are well on our way to building a country where the innocent needs not be afraid. On a personal note, I harbour no grudge against anyone, regardless of the role they might have played in the persecution that I had endured in the last two years. I believe that If my trial had in any way given hope to the common man that no matter the forces arraigned against him, he can still get justice in our courts, then my tribulation had not been in vain. In the end, Saraki may just have been innocent or guilty. But in a court of law, cases are decided on the basis of the evidence before the judge. As the prosecution, the federal government and anti-graft agencies offered very little evidence as the CCT chairman rightly noted. This wasn't about corruption fighting back. It was about a lack of attention to detail and technicality on the part of the prosecution. The case against Saraki wasn't diligently prosecuted. The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that Ajibade, until his declaration was a social entrepreneur and founder of an Ekiti-based Non-Governmental Organisation, (NGO) Movement for the Development of Youths and Children. (MDYC) Ajibade hails from Ikere Ekiti, headquarters of Ikere Local Government area of Ekiti. NAN reports that the governorship election in the state would hold in 2018 when the incumbent would have completed his second term of four years. The incumbent governor, Ayo Fayose, was sworn-in on October 16, 2014 for a second term in office. No fewer than 50 aspirants are currently jostling for the seat under the Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress, while no aspirant has shown interest from other political parties. In a statement signed in Ado Ekiti by Ajibade, he said that the inspiration to join the race was derived from emerging trends from across the globe. The main thing across the globe now is that the time has come for the youths to take over leadership from the elders. Look at France, a 39 year-old is currently their President, against all odds. He said he would be contesting as an independent candidate or under a less popular party, saying that he had no plan to join any of the big parties. ALSO READ: Why Governor Fayose has so many enemies Older politicians had allegedly failed the younger ones, going by the way and manner they had continually paid lip service to the welfare of the people each time an election was over. We cannot continue to do things the same way, hence my belief in generational shift in our political landscape. What the Ekiti people deserve in the next political dispensation is a youth that can genuinely move the state from where it is to the next level. This is the youth resolution to usher in a new era of excellence, growth and true development Justice Dimgba had on April 26, 2017, granted Omokore permission to travel abroad for medical treatment. Omokore was arraigned alongside Victor Briggs, Abiye Membere, and David Mbanefo, on an amended nine-count charge of diversion of money. The alleged diverted money was said to be part of the proceeds from the sale of petroleum products belonging to the Federal Government. Two of Omokores companies, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited, and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Limited, were also joined as defendants. When the matter was called up for hearing, the prosecution counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), informed the court of the new application filed by the defendant seeking for permission to travel. Jacobs did not oppose the application, stating that the defendant was granted a similar permission in April to travel for medical treatment and this is a follow up on the treatment. The prosecution, however, urged the court to make the defendant travel within the courts long vacation, to last from July 10, 2017 to Sept. 10, 2017. He also informed the court of another application filled by the 5th defendant (Membere), challenging the jurisdiction of the court. Jacob said the application was on grounds that the prosecution filed additional proof of evidence, which would allow it call more witnesses, but he informed the court that he was yet to file his written address. The EFCC lawyer, therefore, sought for adjournment to enable him file his written address, opposing the application. Osahon Osiyinwen (SAN), counsel to Membere, said that with a new proof of evidence being filed there was need for the defendant to approach the court for interpretation. He added that the prosecution had to prove the need for the additional proof of evidence. Justice Dimgba in a short ruling, granted Omokore permission to travel on grounds that he must sign an undertaking to embark on the trip between July 11, and must be back before the courts resumption on Sept. 10. Nwobike said this while testifying in a corruption trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC had filed an 11-count charge against Nwobike for allegedly perverting the course of justice and offering gratification to public officials. The anti-graft agency alleged that Nwobike offered gratification to some judges of the Federal High Court and National Industrial Court in a bid to influence them to act contrary to their official capacities. The EFCC also claimed that Nwobike engaged in illegal text messages with four registrars of the Federal High Court in a bid to unduly influence cases he was handling before the judges. Nwobike, however, denied all the charges. Nwobike, led by his counsel Mr Olawale Akoni (SAN), said he became a legal practitioner and an arbitrator on Dec. 16, 1992. "I am a SAN, who was sworn in 2010 for the 2009 set; since I was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1992, I have been in uninterrupted legal practice in Lagos and all over the country. "My primary duty as a legal practitioner is to respect the court in conduct either in physical appearances or my processes before the court. "Since I was called to the Nigerian Bar, I have never been a respondent to any form of complaint or been a party to any disciplinary proceeding before anybody constituted for that purpose," he told the court. Explaining to the court how he was confronted by the EFCC and the reasons for giving the judge N750,000, Nwobike said, "I recollect that I did a few cases against the EFCC. "On a particular day, I came back from court and received a phone call from a fellow who described himself an official of the EFCC. "He introduced himself as Mr Zakari and I recollected that in the past, I had cross-examined him in a case involving my client and the EFCC. "He (Zakari) said I should come to his office to clarify an issue. I went to the EFCC thinking that the issue has to do with my client and the EFCC. "Thirty minutes after I arrived at the EFCC office and met him, he showed me a document which I found out was a UBA statement of account of Nwobike and Co. "He showed me an entry where there was a transfer of the sum of N750,000 from the account of Joseph Nwobike and Co. to the bank account of Justice Mohammed Yinusa. "Zakari requested that I put in writing the reasons for that transfer. "In my statement, I said I knew Justice Yinusa for quite a long time back when he was a counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice and we became friends as lawyers. "On one occasion, I saw him by chance and he told me that his mother was ill and was undergoing dialysis and he feared that she will die soon and N250,000 was spent daily on her treatment," he said. Nwobike added, "I pitied him not as a judge but because he had been my friend for over 19 years. I told him that I had no money on me but I will send money when I had some money. "He gave me his account details and we parted. "When I had some money, in my own signature, I transferred N750,000 only for that purpose. "I saw him again by chance and he told me that his mother was getting better but I later found out that she died because she could not continue with the dialysis." Nwobike denied giving any other sum apart from the N750,000 he gave to Justice Yinusa and denied discussing any of the cases he was handling before the judge with Yinusa. "As in practice, I do not discuss cases with judges or persons in authority. I do not discuss matters before, during and after they are heard. "The money I gave the judge was not to make him refrain from acting in his official capacity." His lawyer, Mr Robert Clarke (SAN) told the court that Nganjiwa was absent because he could not get a flight from Bayelsa to Lagos. Todays absence is not deliberate, this is a sitting judge of a federal high court. He called me and said that he could not get a flight to Lagos, he said. However, Clarke had opposed the arraignment of the judge before a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had slammed a 14-count charge bordering on unlawful financial enrichment to the tune of $260,000 (approximately N81.7 million) and N8.7 million against the judge. But Clarke said the court presided over by Justice Adedayo Akintoye lacked the jurisdiction to hear and determine the case. He said that his objection was brought pursuant to Section 6 (6), (a) of the 1999 Constitution. According to him, the defendant, who is a sitting judicial officer as defined in the constitution, can only subject himself to the discipline of the National Judicial Council (NJC). He insisted that any misconduct of a judicial officer should, in the first instance, be looked into by the NJC. Therefore, this case should be dismissed and due process followed. The prosecutor instituted a criminal charge against the defendant while occupying a judicial office. The prosecutor is EFCC for the Attorney General of Lagos State, who are both members of the executive arms of government, Clarke told the court. The 1999 Constitution as amended ensures separation of powers within the arms of the government and provides for discipline of erring judicial officers. He argued that the information filed offended the provisions of Section 158 (1) and paragraph 21 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution which established judicial precedents and authorities. Clarke added:This honourable court lacks the jurisdiction to try the defendant on the basis of the offences contained in the information. But the EFCC Prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, urged the court to dismiss the preliminary objection, pointing out that the application is asking the court to immune the defendant from prosecution because he is a sitting judge. Oyedepo cited Sections 308 and 35 (1) (c) of the Constitution to puncture the argument of the defence counsel on the issue of a sitting judge not being prosecuted. He said that the defendant did not fall within the persons mentioned in provisions of Section 3 and therefore, could not enjoy immunity from prosecution. Oyedepo also said that the NJC only had administrative disciplinary sanction against the misconduct of the defendant. The charge is not against the NJC, the charge is against Nganjiwa in his personal capacity. The applicant (defendant) misconstrued the charge, we are not asking for the removal of the applicant from office. The misconduct in the charge which constitutes an offence in Lagos State is still liable to be determined by this court. The charge is brought pursuant to Section 82 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State and Section 39 of the EFCC Act which alleged that the applicant, being a public official, enriched himself unlawfully, he said, insisting that the court had jurisdiction to interpret the information. I urge this court to dismiss the objection and call the defendant to take his plea, Oyedepo pleaded. The states Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Alhaji Muhammad Abdullahi, told newsmen that the initiative was crucial for planning purposes. He spoke shortly after he was registered for the card at the North West Zonal Office of the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) in Kaduna. He said: Kaduna State Government is currently providing a number of free social services for the people in the state. But to achieve the desired impact, we need to have the accurate figure of those residing in the state. We need to know who and who resides in our state and where. When we know the number of people residing in the state and where they are, it will help us to plan and provide better services and for all residents. He said people would soon be required to present their residency card before they could access such services. Kaduna state is open for everyone due to its strategic location, geographically, economically and politically. But if you are going to stay in the state beyond 180 days, you would be required to register and obtain our residency card. This is very important not only in planning, but also in ensuring security. We gathered that most of the security issues we are having in the state are cause by people from other states, he said. The commissioner explained that the registration exercise was being carried out in partnership with NIMC and open to all residents of all ages. He appealed to everyone to come out en mass and get registered in the more than 31 centres across the state. The NIMC North West Zonal Director, Mr Oyesola Taiwo, explained that registration for the residency card was linked with the NIMC data base. The process is very easy, if you already have the national identification number, all you need to do is just to present the number and you will be captured immediately. In a situation that you do not have, the first step is to register for the national identification number, after, you will be captured for the state residency card, he added. Alhaji Idris Abdullahi, Chairman, Kaduna House of Assembly Committee on Budget and Planning, said that the exercise had legal backing and was appropriated for in the 2017 budget. According to him, the rice mills at Elele Alimini in Rivers and Mbiabet-Ikpe in Akwa Ibom States will be revived with a combined capacity of 210 metric tonnes per day. Ekere expressed displeasure with the non-utilisation of the rice mill which was completed in 2008. He lamented that the firm engaged to run the facility, allowed it to lie fallow for 10 years, which is unconscionable saying the situation will be redressed urgently. What is important is to get this facility up and running and stop the huge waste of government resources. We will negotiate with private investors and set the process rolling in the next couple of weeks, he said. The managing director said that the resuscitation of the two rice mills would encourage the local communities to grow more rice, and expand the agricultural value chain. You cant put the kind of resources that NDDC committed to this project and then allow it to just lie waste. The wasting rice mill in Elele Alimini has the capacity to impact positively on the Nigerian economy, it could have created many jobs and increase the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nigeria as a nation is still importing a lot of rice and we spend billions of dollars importing food, yet we have a facility here that can actually help to reduce the amount we spend on food imports and we just leave it idle. Going forward, we will immediately go into partnership with the private sector to put this facility to use. We want to see that this mill is functional, so that we can begin to employ people. Hundreds of Nigerians will be gainfully employed, if we get this facility working and functional. Many others will be employed indirectly." Ekere explained that re-activation of the rice mills would also encourage local farmers to produce more rice. He said that the commission would develop out-growers scheme, to encourage members of the communities to grow more rice. He promised that NDDC would provide seedlings and other technical support to encourage local farmers to increase their production, knowing that they would have a guaranteed market. Three months after they produce, their products will be bought and the economy in the rural communities will be positively affected and wealth will be created for the people. That is what we want to do. NDDC would do everything possible to ensure that farmers derive maximum benefits from the rice mills to guarantee massive cultivation and production of rice in the Niger Delta, he said. The NDDC boss assured that the contract terms for the operation of the rice mill would be reviewed because the contractor failed to perform. We will terminate the existing contract because the contractor evidently does not have the capacity to run the facility. The event took place at the corpss Badagry District Headquarters, Lagos. Mr Tajudeen Balogun, Commandant, NSCDC, Lagos State Command, said at the event that the corps arrested the suspects at 6.00a.m. on Tuesday at Gberefu Sea Beach a village in Badagry. Balogun identified the suspects as citizens of Republic of Benin, saying that investigation was ongoing to unveil their collaborators. He said that the agency was working in collaboration with other security agencies to protect lives and property. First of all, NSCDC is doing its job the way it should be done. We are working with other security agencies to curtail criminality to the barest minimum, Balogun said. He urged Badagry residents to provide the NSCDC with useful information to track criminals destroying the nations assets. ALSO READ:German NGO trains agency officers on peace mediation Security is everybodys job; we should save our country from these people because they are economic saboteurs. Now, we will go back to the drawing board and restrategise to fight crime to the barest minimum. We promise the public that information giving to us will be treated with seriousness, the commandant said. According to Daily Post, Oshiomhole said the most basic things were not done by Jonathans administration. He said If you follow my commentary two, three years into his government, it was clear that even the most basic things were not properly done. Competence that was expected was not there. The level of fairness was not there. And even if you were to talk about the sentiment of servicing the geo-political zones, the south-south had nothing to boast of. Even the road to Yenagoa didnt show that a president came from that area. I have travelled across Nigeria, so we in the south cannot say this is our dividend. Also, I remember asking the chief of army staff the day the president wanted to postpone the election (from February 14), I said, Two weeks ago, you said the Armed Forces was ready for the election. Now, you are saying Boko Haram is controlling how many local governments. You PDP took over 774 local governments, now you have ceded territories to Boko Haram. ALSO READ:Oshiomhole accused of reckless spending So I was convinced and I arrived at a conclusion that Nigeria was in great danger if we didnt effect a change in the political leadership. That was how we parted ways. I remember he, Jonathan, called me about four days to the election over an advert I did. In the advert, I showed the pictures of the immigration recruitment they purported to have done in a stadium. That was the height of incompetence that the federal government would defraud the unemployed people, ask them to pay some fees to attract a federal job. Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and ICT, Mr Tarhav Agerzua at a press conference in Makurdi, he challenged the commissioner to resign his position and face off against him on a political platform. The governor said, "I am calling on Tsav to honourably resign his appointment with the Public Complaint Commission where he is serving as a commissioner in Benue state because he has been using his office to attack Governor Ortom. "Making spurious allegation against the governor and the kernel of my call is that having been convicted by court of law in the state he should resign immediately and if he chooses not to resign we are sending letter to the national assembly. "As Ombudsman, he is expected to be fair in all issues before him, but he has chosen to be partisan and we expect him to resign and join politics." The governor's call was fueled by a recent court judgement where Tsav was ordered to pay N10 million in damages for libel against Abrahams Kwaghngu, the governor's aide. Tsav has said his lawyer has filed an appeal in court against the ruling, "Our law provides that if a person is not satisfied with the decision of a court of trial, one should appeal to a superior court and that is exactly what we are doing. "It should be noted that before the judgement was read, governor Ortom and the plaintiff were aware of the judgement." In a ruling on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, CCT chairman, Umar Danladi said the prosecution failed to prove the case of false asset declaration against Saraki. Umar dismissed all 13-count charge against Saraki. Saraki had on Thursday, May 4, 2017, filed a no-case submission at the tribunal. The Senate president told the court to discharge him as he had no case to answer. Meanwhile, Saraki has attributed the source of his wealth to hard work and the opportunity of being born into a blessed family. According to Sagay, the prosecution presented enough evidence to secure a conviction. He said To start with, Im shocked, because a lot of materials were put before the court. And for a court to uphold a no-case submission means that there was no prima facie case made. Thats why Im a bit shocked because I followed the proceedings very closely. But theres going to be an appeal. Well just wait and see happen then, but Im thoroughly shocked, yes. Sagay also said that he was concerned that the CCT did not consider the evidence presented by the prosecution, weighty enough to secure a conviction. Speaking after his victory at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, Saraki said he has been vindicated. Describing his trial as 'tortuous', Saraki maintained that he habours no grudge against his prosecutors. On a personal note, I harbour no grudge against anyone, regardless of the role they might have played in the persecution that I had endured in the last two years, Saraki said. I believe that if my trial had in anyway given hope to the common man that no matter the forces arraigned against him, he can still get justice in our courts, then my tribulation had not been in vain. It is my belief however that if there should be any celebration at all, it should be a celebration of the hopes that this judgment gives us as citizens that despite all the challenges that we face as a country, we are well on our way to building a country where the innocent needs not be afraid, he added. Saraki expressed optimism that the 8th Senate would achieve more in the next two years. Now that this distraction is over, we can even achieve so much more. We must now proceed from here with greater vigour to deliver on the expectations of Nigerians and show that this 8 Senate can indeed play a central role in improving the quality of lives of our people. The upper chamber also charged its members to intensify their representative role by embarking on sensitisation in their constituencies to highlight harmonious and peaceful co-existence. This was predicated on `The Need for National Unity and Peaceful Co-existence in Nigeria, a motion sponsored by 108 senators at plenary. They said that the greatest challenge facing Nigeria was the threat to national unity, adding that calls for self determination, ethnic and religious intolerance had enveloped national consciousness. The lawmakers noted that since independence, national integration had been the priority of government. According to them, this led to the establishment of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the Federal Character Commission and others intended to achieve national integration. The lawmakers said that various integration policies and programmes had yielded some desired outcomes, adding however, that there was more to be done as primordial ethnic sentiments and loyalties were still deep-rooted. They decried the situation where some citizens, rather than work for integration of a nation with a common national identity, were preaching and supporting primordial affiliation for identity and security. Recently, there have been clamouring for ethnically-based and regionally-supported threat to one united Nigeria in various parts of the country. The amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates in 1914 was not a mistake, but a design by the Almighty God as a nation of brothers and sisters united in common destiny. We commend the spirit of patriotism and nationalism exhibited by Nigerians in support of our journey to nationhood, they said. Earlier, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC-Kaduna) had stated that since 1960 Nigeria had experienced `series of convulsion in its journey to nationhood. As we desire to have a single nation, it is very important that politicians from all sides of the divide and from all political zones recommit and rededicate themselves to the unity and collective peace of Nigeria. Politicians from the South-East, South-West and South-South must have the courage, conviction and the consistence to insist on one nation. Likewise, politicians from the North must have the courage, conviction and that consistence to insist that this is an in-dissolvable union, he said. Sani pointed out that peace was the soul of a nation, adding that everything was founded on peace. He said that politicians from the South-East must unreservedly, unambiguously and unequivocally condemn this separatist agitation that was coming up. Politicians from the North must unreservedly and unambiguously condemn anarchists that are trying to set this country ablaze, he said. The lawmaker said that it was by taking a definite position and not sitting on the fence that serious issues could be addressed. We need what is necessary to further strengthen our unity; agitations, complaints and grievances are genuine national issues. We are to look at them and address them. We must look at the possibility of reconstructing our country and coming up with a new master plan that will address the very important challenges that we are facing in the 21 century, he said. The Chief Whip, Sen. Olushola Adeyeye, said that the nation was at a point where it was obvious that the leadership and the citizenry had forgotten nothing because they had learnt nothing from our history. The history of the world has clearly shown that unity pays. They realise that having tiny, disparate and non-viable economic units cannot be completed in the world. We must conduct ourselves in such a way that we can stay united. Unity is an end in itself. It ought to be a means to an end and that means should be the progress of our people. We must destroy the myth of the greener grass. Every section of Nigeria thinks that life is better elsewhere. The truth is every part of Nigeria is struggling. We have a duty to turn it into paradise. We can make it if we walk together and stay united, Adeyeye said. Similarly, Sen. Magnus Abe (APC-Rivers) said we have a union that is not perfect but we can make it better. There is no country that becomes a great country merely by circumstance or by chance. Great nations are built by the sacrifice of its citizens. Our diversity is our greatest challenge but it is also our greatest strength. We must come together and build a strong, virile and prosperous nation, Abe said. In his remarks, Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, said that the patriotism exhibited by the senators was one thing that stood the Senate out. We are better off united; we are better off a just and equitable society. It is not time to look at ourselves as either black or white. Our beauty lies in the mix of our colours, he said. He called for restraint from all quarters to ensure a prosperous, united and egalitarian society. We must show leadership as leaders. It is not time to leave the leadership of this country to ad hoc tendencies. In doing so, we must address the fears and complaints of our citizens. I believe this is what we have started today, Ekeremadu said. He made the remark on Tuesday in an address he presented at the 50 conference of the National Association of Law Teachers of Nigeria held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Anambra has become the safest state in the country following my administrations approach in tackling kidnapping and other crimes. Before now, Anambra used to be a haven for criminals, especially kidnappers, and these scared investors. But now investors have flooded the state for different investments, he said. The governor said he was able to tackle insecurity due to the premium he placed on the enforcement of law and order as precondition for growth and development. He said: Anambra stands out today as a shining example of what a people can achieve if they place law and order and national security above every other condition for national growth and development. Anyone who is familiar with Anambra will remember that for decades, our beloved state was held down by lawlessness and insecurity which made all efforts at meaningful development totally impossible At a point in time, Anambra could almost pass for a postcard of disorder and insecurity. But our story has changed in just three years. We have made rapid progress from being an address for lawlessness to an oasis of peace and a destination for wise investors. The Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Wilson Inalegwu, who made disclosure in Lokoja during a meeting with area commanders, divisional police officers and senior police personnel, said that the ban takes immediate effect. He said unknown gunmen attacked people at a rally being addressed by Sen. Dino Melaye in Lokoja on June 12 and the current tensed security situation in the state informed the decision. Inalegwu added that the decision was approved during an emergency meeting of the state security council held on June 13 and would remain in force until the the situation improved. He said no public rally, procession or demonstration would be allowed in the state again without comprehensive threat assessment report from the area commanders and divisional police officers and final approval from him. The commissioner described the invasion of the rally being addressed by Melaye as unfortunate, sad and avoidable, reiterating, however, that the senator did not obtain permission before holding the rally. He directed his officers to start arresting motorists engaging in illegal use of siren on highways in the state as from June 22. He said vehicles with covered numbers plates and illegible number plates should also be impounded and their drivers arrested. The police commissioner said that a task force that would implement the decision had been set up. He, however, added that the state governor, his deputy, ambulances, emergency response vehicles and the Central Bank of Nigeria bullion vans were exempted from the ban. He directed police area commanders and divisional police officers to formally inform local government chairmen, commissioners, traditional rulers and othersin writing, about the ban on siren. He said no abuses will be tolerated; it is strictly for crime control and not any other motive. The police boss described the situation in the state as calm, saying that the rate of armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes had reduced. "You made it through to the next round! You better celebrate @kechi_agt! #AGT," the account stated. She also took to her Instagram page to share the good news. "I MADE IT TO THE NEXT ROUND!!! Thank you @agt for this aMAzing opportunity. God is ever faithful.#agt#agtauditions." Okwuchi had received a "yes" from each of the four judges after her Tuesday, June 6, 2017, performance. On December 10, 2005, Okwuchi became one of the two survivors of the Sosoliso Airline Flight 1145 crash that took the lives of 107 passengers. The crash occurred 20 minutes to landing on her way back to Port Harcourt for a Christmas holiday with other students from her school, Loyola Jesuit College. After she shared her story with the audience and judges on Tuesday, Simon Cowell asked, "How do you deal with something like that, Kechi?" Lying in the hospital bed with bandages from head to foot. Not being able to more or do anything else, music was my escape. And thats why it means so much to me, she said to the judges. "I hope that maybe something is going to come out of this," Okwuchi said before she performed a tribute to the childhood and friends she lost over 10 years ago. Osiberu revisits a familiar plot in this easy-going and pleasant comedy movie, "Isoken," which features Patrick Doyle, Joseph Benjamin, Tina Mba, Funke Akindele, Lydia Forson, Ayoola, Bolanle Olukanni, Marc Rhys, Abimbola Craig, Damilola Attoh, Tina Mba, Akah Nnani among others. The movie follows Isoken (Dakore Akande), a 34-year-old successful but single woman, who is under a lot of pressure from her mother (Tina Mba) to get married, especially, as her two younger sisters are already married. After a string of failed matchmaking, Isoken's mother finally succeeds with Osaze (Joseph Benjamin), who is also from Edo State, successful, handsome and from a good family. In an unexpected series of embarrassing events, Isoken meets Kevin (Marc Rhys) an English photographer, and begins a beautiful friendship with him. She finds herself faced with choosing from two men from different cultural backgrounds, with unique attractive attributes. In a society where an unmarried woman, despite her accomplishments, doesnt command as much respect as her married counterparts, "Isoken" comes in handy. ' She is constantly reminded by her dramatic mother that a degree, MBA or PhD won't get her a man or kids. Isoken is a character some men and most women can relate with. Her travails, sacrifices and story is familiar. The movie is funny - not in a rolling-on-the-floor kind of way, but in the knowing smile and chuckle kind of way. In the 'I know a mother or aunt like this' way. In the 'I have been there' kind of way. The laughs are accompanied by insights into friendship, love, societal pressure, self-confidence, courage and stereotypes. The friendship between Agnes (Funke Akindele), Isoken, Joke (Damilola Attoh) and Kukua (Lydia Forson) is a believable interpretation of how friends interact. They bicker and politely trade insults, advice and comfort each other, and expose their guarded feelings which the society won't even let them share in public. For example, Agnes wants a man in her life - a rich and handsome man. "Isoken" is a movie that allows its female leads to be bold, human, smart, sexy, hilarious and loveable. Their dialogue and conversations, even when they seem a tad long, is alive with humour and wit. The cast of "Isoken" is great fun to watch, each getting his or her own moment to shine and pass a message. Tina Mba puts her heart in her role as Isoken's mother,and the audience is left with no choice but to return the favour as they follow her on her hilarious but realistic interpretation of a typical Nigerian mother. The movie allows Funke Akindele as Agnes to shine in a role she knows how to do best. She is genuine as that friend in a clique, who humorously but bluntly always dishes out the 'truth.' Akande aptly delivers as the titular character Isoken, representing and chronicling the emotional travails, societal and family pressure faced by single ladies. Marc Rhysis lovable as 'Oyinbo' Kevin, dishing out his lines like an expert, winning hearts with his friendship and stolen moments with Isoken, and serving truths like 'you're a very beautiful woman and will find love in your own time.' Joseph Benjamin is convincing and familiar as Osaze, a successful man who is ready for marriage and is in search of a like-mind to settle down with. The love triangle between Isoken and her men is appealing enough to generate genuine warmth and laughs. You would be left wishing the triangle is further explored, at least, for the sake of more drama. If you want a multicultural couple to make you laugh and teach you a little about friendship, confidence and courage, you will find that in the relationship between Isoken and Kevin. The colourful representation of the Benin culture, familiar locations like the popular Balogun market, colourful and high-end costumes, make-up styling and the top notch production values all come together to create a visually exciting picture. From friendship, love, relationships, family, culture, courage, self confidence and racism, "Isoken" explores a lot of topical issues. Maybe not in-depth, but enough to kick off conversations. This movie can be classified as a chick flick, but it's one that can and should be enjoyed by everyone. In a communique signed by the Chief Promoter of the coalition, Chief Perry Opara after a meeting on Tuesday in Abuja, the group directed the committee to get a candidate capable of winning the election. The committee, according to the communique, should interact with all known aspirants in the coming election, irrespective of their party affiliation. It directed the committee not to limit its search to one political party, as the desire of Anambra people was to have a less controversial, experienced and a capable candidate. The group added that the candidate should be a person that could harness the potential of Anambra people and make it the business hub and destination point of South-East states. The person should be an aspirant that can integrate Anambra State into the national political grid of Nigeria as well as have all it takes to win the next gubernatorial election in the state. The communique stated, however, that COPP was willing to work with the All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any other party that with candidate for the election. It called on the committee not to stay in Abuja and choose a candidate, but to visit Anambra to have first-hand assessment of the aspirants. It mandated the committee to make its recommendation in two weeks for consideration and announcement of the consensus candidate. No fewer than 20 aspirants in the registered political parties had indicated interest in becoming the next governor of Anambra. The lawmakers, at a special plenary to mark the end of the first half of the 8th Assembly, regretted that no constituency project had been executed in the last two years. This is our second year and nothing has been said about constituency project; this is not healthy for us. I have been a member of this House since 2007; this is the worst scenario, Ibrahim Baba-Hassan (APC/Jos North) said. I served in both the 6th and 7th Assembly; execution of constituency projects has been a trend over the years. This trend must be followed. Constituency projects gave our constituents the confidence to vote some of us back to the House. This is our second year in the 8th Assembly and nothing has been said about constituency projects; we cannot continue like this, he said. He, however, urged Plateau residents to exercise patience, promising that the House would ensure that resources accruing to the state were fairly shared. Mr Peter Ibrahim (PDP, Barkin-Ladi), in his contribution, urged government to initiate constituency projects so as to save lawmakers from constant harassment by constituents. Government must take the issue of constituency projects seriously; our people expect a lot from us and we cant afford to fall below expectation. This is something that has been the practise over time; we have no excuse to give the electorate because it has been the trend over the years. Bello also called on the Senate to make sure its members are made up of people with good character and integrity. The Governor said this while speaking with newsmen after meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. You see I would rather admonish Nigerians that when a child lacks proper parental care and home upbringing, he constitutes a social menace in the society. And if the society does not take steps to check and correct such a child, he can turn into criminal and take into criminality. "Then it will be left to government to check such criminality. And if government does not, such a child can cause a serious embarrassment. That is what is happening in Kogi State. Then talking of the Senate, let me rather admonish the Senate that it is an institution that is held on very high esteem and I think the Senate and indeed the National Assembly is made up of men of high caliber, high integrity and good character. ALSO READ:Kogi Governor escapes mob attack in Idah I think it is necessary that the wonderful house should as matter of urgency and as a matter of fact check any social deviant that exists within them before they could be adjudged birds of the same feather. I know they are not of the same feather. He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos and stressed the need for prayers for peace and development in the country. Oluwakayode, who also urged Muslims to rededicate themselves to the service of Allah and humanity, added that we have to reflect on our past mistakes and misdeeds and seek for Allahs forgiveness." He stressed the need for Muslims to make positive use of the holy month of Ramadan, saying the period had physical and spiritual benefits. Prof. Imran Oluwole-Smith, the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG) described Ramadan as a sacred period for prayers and devotion. He said Ramadan was a sacred period where prayers of the righteous were promptly accepted and wishes granted. The dean said we should not leave the spiritual aspect of Ramadan, which is alms-giving. Muslims should strive in achieving the noble goal of drawing closer to Almighty Allah for forgiveness and blessings. Alhaja Kudirat Iyabode, the Vice Chairman, Womens Wing of Muslim Association of Nigeria (MAN), urged Muslims to use the Ramadan period for total submission to God, self-denial as well as abstinence from vices. We should continue to show love, forgiveness and respect to one another and ensure that the lessons of the Ramadan reflect in our daily lives. According to a DailyPost report, all five tech companies are expected to defend queries on their failure to remit to government coffers, actual taxes as a result of their activities in Nigeria. Apparently, this is not the first time the lower house has summoned the management of these companies. The DailyPost reports that the Chairman, House Committee on Telecommunications, Saheed Fijabi (APC, Oyo) said this particular summons comes after a couple other invitations by the House to the CEOs, all of which have not been honored. The DailyPost report also revealed that Fijabi said the Green House will not take another snub lightly and it will not accept representatives of any of the companies because such persons cannot provide satisfactory explanations. ALSO READ: Reps probe sale of bandwidth Fijabi, according to the report, said the management teams of the summoned companies have been asked to prepare the reasons for their recent actions, which they will lay before the House. Its hard to tell where all of this coming from seeing as the reasons that may have influenced the layoffs, which the Reps are angry about, are quite obvious. The recession and forex downturn have affected many, many businesses across various sectors of the economy. A direct (or indirect) result of that has been the loss of jobs for Nigerians (thus increasing Nigerias unemployment rate) and the loss of revenue for companies (which is why telcos and other companies have been downsizing). His speech came as ministers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan adopted a joint declaration on strengthening regional anti-terror efforts. Guterres also thanked the countries for their "commitment to jointly addressing and defeating the scourge of terrorism". Central Asia's secular authoritarian governments have cracked down hard on religious groups operating outside state control state amid concerns over the potential spread of religious extremism in a region closely tied to Russia and China. Three states -- Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan -- are designated as "Countries of Particular Concern" regarding religious freedom by the US State Department. The UN has mediated peace talks between Syrian government and rebel delegations for several years to little avail. But a parallel peace process involving allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia and Iran, and rebel supporter Turkey, agreed in May to establish four safe zones across Syria where flights would be banned and aid deliveries ensured. The zones -- where aerial bombardments were supposed to stop -- have ushered in a marked decrease in fighting. But that plan, agreed in the Kazakh capital Astana between some of the war's major players, has stalled as sponsor nations disagreed over the precise outlines and which countries should send in forces to police the zones. A new round of Astana talks had been scheduled for this week but were postponed indefinitely. De Mistura called the advances agreed during Astana talks an "important" part of efforts to end the war that has killed more than 320,000 people and forced millions from their homes since 2011. "We hope that what is being done in Astana can be expanded in order to (reach)... a total ceasefire," he said. The postponed talks could take place "sometime early July," before the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7-8, he said. The UN envoy said he hoped some progress would be made between Assad-backer Russia and the United States during the G20 that may boost peace prospects. Khatami, who during his 1997-2005 presidency oversaw a rapprochement with the West, has been barred from speaking openly since mass protests against the disputed reelection of his hardline successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. The hardliner's replacement by Rouhani in 2013 has seen a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that led to the lifting of most international economic sanctions but is threatened by a tougher stance from the new US administration of Donald Trump. "Mr Rouhani's defeat would mean an increased possibility of a return to international isolation and sanctions," Khatami said on his website on Tuesday. "The interest of the people and the country is in the continuation of Rouhani's government," Khatami added. Rouhani faces a tough campaign against two conservative challengers amid disappointment that the 2015 nuclear deal has not brought bigger economic dividends. Both Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and cleric-turned-judge Ebrahim Raisi have played on the concerns of the poor. Khatami, 73, was an important figure in Rouhani's first-term election victory, convincing reformist candidate Mohammad Reza Aref to stand aside in his favour. But he remains under a domestic media ban over the 2009 protests and both reformist candidates in that election are still under house arrest. In parliamentary elections last year, Khatami skirted the ban by publishing a video on YouTube and mobile messaging apps to call on voters in the capital to choose a pro-Rouhani list. Caijing's report appeared online on Tuesday but it has since been taken down. Anbang said in a statement on Wednesday that Wu is "temporarily unable to perform his duties for personal reasons", but the company did not mention his apparent detention. Phone calls to the regulatory commission went unanswered on Wednesday. The report comes as Chinese authorities are engaged in a battle against corruption in their ranks and in the business world. Financial regulators are also scrambling to ease fears of a looming debt crisis with measures to rein in risky lending and acquisitions in real estate. Official heads have rolled too, including China's insurance regulator Xiang Junbo, who was sacked in April and faces an investigation. His tenure coincided with a surge in speculative investments by Chinese insurers. Caijing, citing an unidentified source in the financial world, said regulators may be investigating Anbang's compliance with insurance products or insurance fund investments. Anbang held controversial negotiations with the company owned by Trump's White House adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for an investment in an office tower on New York's famous Fifth Avenue. But the talks broke off in March after critics of the Trump administration warned of a potential conflict of interest. Established just 13 years ago, Anbang has grown from a domestic seller of property insurance into a financial services powerhouse, making a name for itself abroad by buying New York's historic Waldorf Astoria hotel for a record $1.95 billion in 2014. But in April US insurer Fidelity & Guaranty Life turned down a $1.6 billion acquisition bid by Anbang. Now, following an unlikely legal victory against the feared Federal Security Service, (FSB) Ostryakov's descendants are a step closer to learning the truth about their ancestor. "The figure of my great-grandfather has always remained in the shadows for our family, nobody knew much about him," said 33-year-old Dmitry Ostryakov. Dmitry began his quest for the truth by asking his father, who had scarcely any information. Then, in 2015, the family went on a mission that many Russians consider to be a lost cause: to access his file from the FSB, inheritor of the archives of the KGB that prosecuted him. Vasily Ostryakov was the appointed elder of a small village in southern Russia that was occupied by the Nazis in World War II. Condemned by the Soviets to six years in a labour camp for collaboration, he died in the gulag in far east Russia soon after. In 1998, his case was reviewed, like those of many other victims of Joseph Stalin's massive purges who were convicted between 1930 and 1950. But for reasons that remain unclear, the verdict against Vasily was not overturned and he has never been rehabilitated. 'What could he have done?' The family want to know the precise reasons for their ancestor's conviction, but their requests to see his file have been refused. "Those were difficult times," Dmitry, a doctor, told AFP of his relative living under Nazi occupation in southwestern Belgorod region. "The other villagers elected him as their elder. What could he have done? In any case, I want to learn the truth." Dmitry promised himself he would prise the information out of the security services, taking over a task his father had begun. "I want to really learn everything there is about my relative. Sooner or later I want to succeed." After a protracted legal dispute, the Ostryakov family unexpectedly won a small battle in May, when the FSB tried to sue them to recover its legal expenses. A court in Saint Petersburg rejected the FSB's appeal and sided with the family. Rare victory Winning a case against the KGB's successor agency is practically a miracle in Russia, even if the sum in question of 26,000 rubles ($450, 400 euros) is relatively small. "With this lawsuit against Mr. Ostryakov, the FSB wanted to discourage other people who would like to learn about their relatives," said Darya Sukhikh, a lawyer with Team 29, a human rights collective that fights for freedom of information and is helping the Ostryakovs. "This decision pleased us but it doesn't change anything -- we still cannot receive the file on my great-grandfather," said Dmitry. Two higher courts have confirmed the legitimacy of the decision by the FSB to refuse access to the file. Russian law in theory allows relatives of those killed in political repression to see archived information on their ancestors, but this does not apply to individuals who weren't rehabilitated, as is the case with Vasily. The family has not lost hope however. The case is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court, the highest legal authority in Russia, and Dmitry is ready to take it to the European Court of Human Rights. Many Stalin-era archives, concerning deportations and killings, were thrown open in 1992, after the breakup of the Soviet Union and a new policy of openness under president Boris Yeltsin. But 25 years later, the policy has effectively gone full circle, with many of these files once again classified as secret and those seeking answers rejected in the name of state security. Kadhafi's second son and heir-apparent was said to have been released on Friday by a militia that controls the town of Zintan in western Libya. The group, which had held Seif al-Islam for more than five years, said he had been set free under an amnesty law promulgated by a parliament based in the country's east during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But the prosecutor general's office in Tripoli, where a rival UN-backed administration is based, said the amnesty could not apply to Seif al-Islam because of the severity of his crimes, saying he was still wanted for a 2015 conviction. There was however no independent confirmation of Seif al-Islam's release, which could spark further instability in a country already wracked by divisions and violence. Bensouda said the world war crimes court -- where he is wanted for crimes against humanity including murder -- is now "verifying" Seif al-Islam's whereabouts. She called on Libya, the UN Security Council and "all other relevant" countries "to provide my office with any relevant information in their possession". The ICC also called for the arrest and surrender of Libya's former security chief Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, who is wanted on similar charges for his role in attempting to quash the 2011 revolt against slain strongman Kadhafi. The ICC in April unveiled an arrest warrant for Khaled. "It is imperative for both suspects to be apprehended and immediately surrendered to the custody of the ICC so that their guilt or innocence can be established," Bensouda said. "For justice to be done, and seen to be done." Seif al-Islam's whereabouts remain a mystery and even his lawyer, Karim Khan, has declined to confirm or deny the militia has let him go. Seif al-Islam had been held in Zintan since being detained in November 2011, just days after his father was killed in a NATO-backed uprising against his decades-long rule. The Zintan militia, which opposes Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital, had refused to hand him over to authorities despite several legal cases. A court in Tripoli convicted Seif al-Islam in 2015 in connection with attempts to put down the revolt and sentenced him in absentia to death. His reported release came with the North African country still rocked by infighting, with authorities in the east, reportedly allied with the forces of military strongman Khalifa Haftar, refusing to recognise the GNA. Born in the Janzour area of Libya, west of Tripoli, in 1942, Khaled was known by several aliases, and had "at least 10 different passports, some issued under other identities," his arrest warrant says. "The suggestion that I participated with any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie." Addressing allegations that he had unreported meetings with Russian officials while he advised the Trump campaign, Sessions said he had already acknowledged two meetings last year with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. But he denied an alleged third encounter with Kislyak, at an April 27, 2016 reception for Trump at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. "I did not have any private meetings nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower hotel," he told the panel. Varadkar, who won the leadership of the ruling centre-right Fine Gael party earlier this month, was confirmed by 57 votes to 50, with 47 abstentions. In his acceptance speech, Varadkar emphasised youthful energy, arguing that the politics of the past were no longer fit for purpose. "The government that I lead will not be one of left or right because those old divisions do not comprehend the political challenges of today," he said. Varadkar takes over a minority government from Enda Kenny, who said his successor reflected a changed Ireland. "As our youngest taoiseach, he represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other," Kenny said. He added Varadkar would meet "head on" the challenge of Brexit, an issue of particular concern to Ireland as it shares the only EU land border with Britain. Varadkar did not mention the government's Brexit strategy in his speech, but has previously warned against taking too tough a line with London in negotiations due to begin next week. "It has always been the view of the party that we don't want to see Britain being punished" for voting to leave the European Union, he said on June 2. "We regret that decision but we do respect it and a 'hard Brexit', whether it's a hard Brexit driven from London or forced on London, is one in which Ireland could be a big loser," he said. Varadkar confirmed he would meet this week with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland to discuss Brexit. Although regarded as relatively liberal on social issues such as gender equality and abortion rights, Varadkar has been criticised by opposition parties for his right-wing economic views. Adams said earlier that his party would vote against him noting that "not all young people are progressive" and expressing fears the new taoiseach would "drag this government even further to the right". The abstention of the biggest opposition party, Fianna Fail, allowed Varadkar to gather the necessary votes required to lead a fragile minority government. In a move designed to heal any divisions in his own party, Varadkar on Tuesday appointed the man he defeated, Simon Coveney, as deputy leader of Fine Gael. A dozen lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) have been arrested under the state of emergency that followed last year's failed coup. But this is the first time a deputy from the CHP -- the main secular opposition founded by Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- has been held. The case relates to the controversial publication by the Cumhuriyet daily in 2015 of images purportedly showing the Turkish intelligence service seeking to transport arms over the border to Syria. Video footage showed police opening crates of weapons and ammunition on the back of trucks which Cumhuriyet claimed belonged to the Turkish Intelligence Organisation (MIT). The story infuriated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who at the time warned Cumhuriyet's former editor in chief, Can Dundar, he would "pay a heavy price". Dundar was last year handed a five-year-and-10-month jail term in the case. He has since fled to Germany. Berberoglu was accused of handing over the images to Dundar. He was given a life sentence but this was reduced to 25 years by the court. 'State bullying of CHP' The CHP immediately held an emergency meeting after the verdict by the Istanbul court. After the meeting, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said "we absolutely, certainly do not accept this" decision, which he accused of being influenced "by the palace" referring indirectly to Erdogan. "None of them are judges, they do not administer justice," referring to those deciding on Berberoglu's case. "Those who made this decision will live under the heaviness of its unjust nature. We have devoted our lives to democracy, to justice. We want justice in this country, democracy... freedom of thought," Kilicdaroglu told reporters in Ankara. The CHP leader said he would hold a march on Thursday in the heart of Ankara at 11 am (0800 GMT) "holding only one poster with 'justice' written". The party's deputies also walked out of Wednesday's parliament session in protest, Turkish television said. Before his arrest, Berberoglu said he had been "victimised" and those responsible for the injustice "should be ashamed". Berberoglu's wife, Oya, was quoted by Dogan news agency saying that her husband's morale was "good" but added: "I am protesting against this massive injustice. Enis is going to prison but it is the CHP who is on trial here." The head of the CHP's parliamentary faction Engin Altay slammed the verdict as "state bullying" of his party. "This decision is intimidation of the opposition. This decision is intimidation of those displeased with the (ruling) Justice and Development Party (AKP), those unhappy with anti-democratic practices," Altay said in Istanbul. The AKP was co-founded by Erdogan, who in April won a controversial referendum giving him greater powers that opponents fear will lead to one-man rule. 'Punishing journalism' Cumhuriyet's Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, who is himself appealing his five-year sentence for revealing state secrets, hit back at the court's ruling. "This is a trial trying to prevent journalism in this country. Journalism is really in a grave situation," Gul said. "We are seeing an injustice being done. We are sad. At the same time, this is an arrest of an MP but also this is... a case against journalism, an attempt to punish journalism," he added. Turkey ranks 155 on the latest RSF world press freedom index, below Belarus and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a drop of four places from its 2016 ranking. Western countries and human rights activists have expressed concern over what they say is a deteriorating situation for journalists in the country. According to the P24 press freedom website, there are 167 journalists behind bars in Turkey, most of whom were detained as part of the state of emergency imposed after last July's coup attempt. Although many Americans support the decision and the US business community has welcomed moves to reopen trade, Trump's hardline campaign rhetoric won him support among influential Cuban exiles in Florida. The White House has not let much slip, but a radical turnaround such as a renewed break in diplomatic relations does not yet appear to be on the cards. Instead, Trump may announce a return to restrictions on US tourists heading to Cuba and businesses signing partnerships with Cuban firms. That would be meant to press Raul Castro's government toward democratic reform and appease Cuban-American voters, many of whom fled communist rule. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday acknowledged that increased cooperation helps both countries and provides opportunities for downtrodden Cubans. But he also cited the "dark side" of Cuba's regime, saying Trump's review had concluded that some renewed business relations help fund the regime. "Cuba has failed to improve its own human rights record. Political opponents continue to be imprisoned. Dissidents continue to be jailed," he told senators. "And as we're enjoying the benefits on the economic and development side, are we inadvertently or directly providing financial support to the regime?" "Our view is: 'we are,'" he added, answering his own question. That view resonates with Cuban-Americans such as Senator Marco Rubio, the son of anti-Castro immigrants, who has long warned that detente is moving too fast. "I am confident the president will keep his commitment on Cuba policy by making changes that are targeted and strategic and which advance the Cuban people's aspirations for economic and political liberty," he said. Trump accused Cuba of "cruel despotism" in May, vowing to support its people's hopes for democracy, which raised ironic cheers from rights supporters more used to his cozying up to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other autocratic states. But watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch are skeptical of a return to the terms of the half-century Cold War stand-off, with its total trade embargo and no diplomatic ties. "The previous administration was right to reject a policy that hurt ordinary Cubans and did nothing to advance human rights," said Daniel Wilkinson, the group's managing director for the Americas. "The fact that Obama's approach hasn't led to political reform in Cuba after just a few years isn't reason to return to a policy that proved a costly failure over many decades." Tourism boom On the economic front, business interests on both sides of the Florida Straits are wary of a return to a rigorous enforcement of the still-active US sanctions legislation. Some 50 female Cuban entrepreneurs who have benefited from the island's limited free-market opening have even written to Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka. Inviting her to the island to see for herself, the women insist that "millions of Cubans" now benefit from increased tourism and trade. "A setback in the relationship would bring with it the fall of many of our businesses and with this, the suffering of all those families that depend on them," they wrote. The previous US administration softened many of the restrictions lifting American travel to Cuba, triggering a tourism boom. Some 285,000 people visited the Caribbean country in 2016, up 74 percent over 2015, with Americans the third biggest group after Canadians and Cuban expats. DAVENPORT Iowa American Water officials on Thursday announced the purchase of the water system in Blue Grass, Iowa, for $1.3 million. The purchase adds about 650 customers to the companys customer base. Blue Grass has about 1,600 people and is about 10 miles west of Davenport. In a special election referendum last year, Blue Grass voters overwhelming supported the sale of their water system to Iowa American Water. "We look forward to serving the residents of Blue Grass as their new local water service provider, said Randy Moore, president of Iowa American Water. We want residents to know that we sincerely appreciate their cooperation during this transition period." The current Blue Grass meter reading equipment and billing systems are compatible with Iowa American Waters equipment. Residents should expect to receive their first bill from Iowa American Water during the last week of June. Iowa American Water already provides water to several communities in eastern Iowa, so this is a good fit for us and a continuation of our efforts to expand our presence across Iowa, said Blue Grass Mayor Tim Brandenburg. NEW YORK Sears Holdings says it will cut about 400 full-time jobs as part of the troubled retailers plan to turn its business around. The company, which owns the Sears and Kmart chains, says the cuts include some at its corporate offices in Hoffman Estates, Ill., support functions globally, certain field operations positions and jobs related to store closures. The eliminated jobs represent less than half a percent of the 140,000 full-time and part-time employees it had at the end of January. Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that the job cuts are part of its previously announced plans to save $1.25 billion in costs a year. The retailer, which has been losing money for years, has been closing stores, selling locations and putting some of its famous brands up for sale. The company is reportedly closing an additional 66 stores by early September. Thats on top of the 150 stores that closed in April. We are making progress with the fundamental restructuring of our operations that we initiated in February, Edward S. Lampert, chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings, said in a statement. We remain focused on realigning our business model in an evolving and highly competitive retail environment. This requires us to optimize our store footprint and operate as a leaner and simpler organization. The news comes as Sears Canada, a separate publicly traded company that was spun off from Sears Holdings in 2012, separately announced that it was studying its strategic options, including the possible sale of the company. Sears Canada said that based on managements current assessment, cash and forecasted cash flows from operations are not expected to be sufficient to meet its obligations during the next 12 months. Sears has been struggling with a sales malaise that extended during the first quarter. The storied retailer vowed to make additional spending cuts to offset its slowing business. The company reported in May that its operating loss widened to $222 million, or $2.15 per share, on weak sales in the latest quarter. A year ago, it reported a loss of $181 million. Revenue fell 20 percent, to $4.3 billion, and sales at established stores fell 11.9 percent. In March, Sears Holdings said that there was substantial doubt it could continue as a viable concern, with intense pressure coming from companies like Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com. It has insisted that its actions to turn around its business should help reduce that risk. Shares of Sears Holdings shed 15 cents to $6.88 in morning trading. NEW YORK (AP) A company that owns buildings with Donald Trump and the family of Jared Kushner is a finalist for a $1.7 billion contract to build the FBI's new headquarters. Vornado Realty Trust is one of three finalists to build a replacement for the bureau's current headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., the massive J. Edgar Hoover Building, according to Garth Beall, manager of Renard Development. Renard is hoping the federal agency running the bidding process, the General Services Administration, will choose a Renard site in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the new headquarters. Vornado is a partial owner with the Trump Organization in two buildings, one each in New York and San Francisco. It is also a major investor in 666 Fifth Ave., the flagship skyscraper of the Kushner Cos. Virginia Congressman Gerald Connolly said the White House ties to Vornado create a conflict of interest. Since Trump hasn't divested from his company, "that shifts the ethical burden to his business partners," Connolly said. "We're in a position where once again he shrugged off his responsibilities and sloughed it off to someone else." Connolly, who represents an area in Virginia vying for the new headquarters, called on Vornado to drop out of the bidding. The choice of Vornado as a finalist was earlier reported by ABC News. Requests for comment from Vornado, and its partner in the FBI bid, JBG Cos., were not immediately returned. A spokesman for the General Services Administration said the agency doesn't comment on projects in "active procurement." "Jared takes the ethics rules very seriously and would never compromise himself or the administration," the White House said in a statement. There was no immediate response from the White House about the president's potential conflicts stemming from the FBI building bid. Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser to the president, sold his personal interest in 666 Fifth Ave. earlier this year. The Kushner Cos. declined to comment. Vornado is run by Steven Roth, who has been advising Donald Trump on his plans to revamp the nation's infrastructure. He also is consulting with the White House Office of American Innovation, which is being led by Kushner. Steven Schooner, a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University, said the relationship between Vornado and the White House makes any government deal with the real estate company suspect. "This would absolutely pose an apparent, and, potentially, an actual conflict of interest," Schooner said in an email. "I cannot imagine any modern-era precedent for the president (and his advisor and son-in-law) not recognizing that this is a problem and shutting this down before it gets any worse." Renard's Beall indicated he isn't as worried. He said the bidding process is unlikely to be tainted. "Typically the president doesn't get involved in GSA solicitations," he said. "It's pretty easy for the president to recuse himself." Vornado is a partial owner with the Trump Organization in 1290 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and 555 California St. in San Francisco. The Kushner building owned with Vornado, 666 Fifth Ave., has been at the center of a conflicts of interest debate before. A Chinese insurer considering investing in the skyscraper had to pull out of negotiations with the Kushners after news reports highlighted the insurer's close ties to the Beijing government. The skyscraper was bought by the Kushner Cos. for record $1.8 billion before the 2008 financial crisis, and soon ran into financial trouble. Vornado came to the rescue a few years later, buying a big stake in the building at a discount. The GSA ruled in March that the Trump Organization can keep using a government-owned building in Washington for its new hotel, the Trump International Hotel, a favorite of diplomats and lobbyists. That decision drew criticism from good-government groups and Democrats. They note the contract the president's company signed forbids government officials from being a party to or benefiting from the building. The GSA said Trump was in "full compliance" because profits from the hotel won't go directly to Trump while he's president. The agency has said the winning bidder for the FBI building will have to construct in one of three locations in the Washington, D.C., area. The bidder will also get to take over the old FBI headquarters building to convert to other uses. DAVENPORT A Pulitzer Prize finalist will be the featured speaker at this year's David R. Collins Writers' Conference, which will be presented June 22-24 by the Midwest Writing Center. Hailed by NPR as a "master storyteller with a rock-and-roll heart," Luis Alberto Urrea is a writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore themes of love, loss and triumph, according to his bio. A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction, and a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Mr. Urrea is the best-selling author of 16 books. He has won many awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. He will give a free keynote program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 22, at the Figge Art Museum John Deere Auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St. Mr. Urrea will take part in a meet-and-greet session for conference participants only at 5:30 p.m. in the Figge Community Gallery, and then will attend a free public reception from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. in the gallery. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Mr. Urrea has said, "I am more interested in bridges, not borders." His most recent book, "The Water Museum," a collection of short stories, was a finalist for the 2015 PEN-Faulkner Award and was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews. "Into the Beautiful North," his 2009 novel, was a Big Read selection by the National Endowment of the Arts and has been chosen by more than 30 cities and colleges as a community read. Mr. Urrea has also won an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for best short story (2009, "Amapola" in Phoenix Noir and featured in "The Water Museum"). He also won a 1999 American Book Award for his memoir, "Nobody's Son: Notes From an American Life." In 2000, he was voted into the Latino Literature Hall of Fame following the publication of "Vatos." Mr. Urrea attended the University of California at San Diego, earning an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has taught expository writing and fiction workshops at Harvard. Mr. Urrea lives with his family in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. He is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago. The public also is invited to a free conference social from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, June 23, and a faculty reading session and book signing from 7 to 9 p.m. that night, both at Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island. The three-day conference will be based at St. Ambrose University's McCarthy Hall, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport. Registration for the conference is $45 for MWC members and $60 for non-members. Participation in all workshops costs $220 if you register before Thursday morning. Early-bird registration is $75 for one workshop, $140 for two, or $190 for three. To sign up and to see a full schedule, visit mwcqc.org/events-opportunities/david-r-collins-writers-conference. GENESEO A turn lane will be built off Illinois 82 into the new Mel Foster subdivision on the north end of the city. The Geneseo city council voted 7-1 to approve a $678,634 contract with Brandt Construction for the project. Voting against the project was Ald. Kent Anderson, 4th Ward. He told his fellow council members there might be 45 lots sold within five to eight years, but the citys sludge de-watering project could cost $600,000 more. "Where do we stop?" he asked them. The entire project could include five to eight phases. Meanwhile, city administrator Lisa Kotter said despite state requirements having increased the cost of the project, there would be adequate help from the other taxing districts with which the city has intergovernmental agreements. "I go to conferences where people talk about nothing happening in Illinois," she said. "Well, if you approve this tonight, theres something happening in Illinois." Ald. Paula Simosky, 1st Ward, acknowledged the work with people from the eight or nine various taxing districts that will contribute to the turn lane. "It was a lot of work to bring these people to agree," she said. "I think weve got to keep that in mind." Ald. Martin Rothschild, 3rd Ward, made the motion to approve the project. "People smarter than us are saying its a good project," he said. "There will never be another opportunity like this; I guarantee it," said Ald. Robert Wachtel, 2nd Ward, admitting hed voted against the turn lane project years ago when the city went on its own. Several former Brandt employees and others opposed to awarding the contract to Brandt spoke out during public comments to request the city not award the contract to the firm. City attorney Derke Price said the firm had not been debarred by the Department of Labor or censured by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and two other cities that had disqualified the firm were basing their decisions on their own past experience, not anything that happened elsewhere. The council also approved a balanced fiscal year 2018 budget after moving $600,000 for sludge de-watering into a general capital assets line item rather than have an actual plan to get the work done. The budget includes a 3 percent raise for non-union employees. HASSAN SHAM U2 CAMP, Iraq (AP) Food poisoning at a camp for displaced residents of Mosul has made more than 700 people sick, with hundreds hospitalized, Iraqi officials said Tuesday. The incident at the Hassan Sham U2 camp, about 20 kilometers (13 miles) east of Mosul, has become part of the ongoing dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Saudi media accused a Qatari charity of supplying tainted food to the residents of the desert camp. Iraqi Health Minister Adila Hamoud told The Associated Press that 752 people in the camp became ill following a Monday night iftar the meal breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. At least 300 people remain in serious condition, he said. The Health Ministry reported that two people died, but the provincial governor said there had only been one death, The U.N. refugee agency at first reported one death but later said nobody had died. The conflicting reports could not immediately be reconciled. Amira Abdulhaliq of the UNHCR said it was unclear when the meals had become contaminated, whether it was during its preparation, packaging, transportation or distribution. "So far, we have received around 800 cases. Around 200 have been transported to the hospitals in Irbil," she said. Irbil Gov. Nawzad Hadi said the food was prepared in an Irbil restaurant by a local NGO, Ain el Muhtajeen, and funded by a Qatari charity known as RAF. In Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a recent campaign to isolate Qatar, state media quickly seized on the issue with coverage that implied Qatar was poisoning refugees deliberately. On Twitter, Saudi state television accused RAF of supplying tainted meals and posted images it said showed the camp's children "poisoned by the terrorist Qatari RAF organization." An Iraqi lawmaker who visited the camp overnight also accused the Qatari charity of providing the tainted food. At midday Tuesday, medics were treating patients in a large tent at the edge of the camp. About 20-30 patients, mostly children, lay on blankets on the floor as several more serious cases were taken away in ambulances. Most were suffering from stomach cramps and dehydration resulting from vomiting and diarrhea. Raad al-Dahlaki, chairman of the Iraqi parliament's immigration and displacement committee, visited the camp overnight and said the meal contained rice, a bean sauce, meat, yogurt and water. He put the number of sick at 850. Al-Dahlaki said the food was distributed by RAF, adding that Iraqi officials were to meet those from the organization later Tuesday. The Doha-based charity did not immediately respond to requests for comment. At a joint news conference in the camp, Irbil Police Chief Abdulhaleq Talaat said seven people were arrested in connection with the incident. Since a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and other Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia began June 5, Arab media across the greater Persian Gulf have unleashed a daily barrage of reports highly critical of Qatar. Those reports include stories that alleged Qatar has tried to undermine regional security, often presented without attribution or evidence. RAF is the acronym for the Qatar-based Thani Bin Abdullah Al Thani Foundation for Humanitarian Services, a charity that collects donations for aid work around the world, including meals for needy families during Ramadan. RAF is also among 12 organizations and 59 people put on what Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini officials described Friday as a list of terrorist entities and individuals. On Qatari state television, a repeatedly aired program has discussed how the ongoing diplomatic dispute has stopped it from providing meals to Syrian refugees at a major camp in Jordan. The Hassan Sham U2 camp houses thousands who have fled their homes in and around Mosul after a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive was launched in October to dislodge the Islamic State group from Iraq's second-largest city. According to the U.N. refugee agency, it is home to 6,235 people. Mosul fell to IS in the summer 2014 as the militants swept over much of northern and western Iraq. Weeks later, the head of the Sunni extremist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the formation of a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Months after the start of the offensive, IS militants control only a handful of neighborhoods in and around the Old City, located west of the Tigris River, which divides Mosul into western and eastern sectors. Celebrating Our Service Members Friday, November 11 is Veterans Day, when we honor and show gratitude to all members of our Armed Forces those currently serving, those who... Transit Equity Starts With QueensLink For decades Queens has seen a disinvestment in the necessary transit infrastructure the borough needs to promote equity and sustainability. Most of the time, transformative... Dakar Series China Registration is Open! Key points Open to cars, Side by Sides and trucks, registration for the first edition of the Dakar Series China Rally, scheduled for this coming September 24-30, begins today. Before the final recce programmed from June 24 to July 7, the ultra-sandy route will consist of 3,000 kilometres in Inner Mongolia. A stepping-stone towards the Dakar designed to offer a midterm review to the crews attracted to the adventure, this new rally has all the ingredients to become a rally-raid benchmark event. The Dakar Series China Rally, organised by FBLIFE Racing Planet and A.S.O., precedes the gigantic Hero Festival, event organised by Alxa bringing together more than one million outdoor motor racing enthusiasts and more than 300,000 vehicles. It will be a big challenge for the car, side by side and truck drivers that will participate in a large-scale rally-raid, adhering to the demanding Dakar standards. The route will also have a wide-ranging character, knowing that the special stages in Inner Mongolia visited by the Dakar Series China Rally will be mostly all-new and that have never been featured in other rallies. The route concocted by the rallys Sporting Director and former world rally-raid champion, Tiziano Siviero puts the emphasis on crossing technics. The choice was more than anything else dictated by the nature of the terrain. I have never seen so much sand in my life, admits Siviero who also had a hand in the planning of the routes for the Dakar since its debut in South America. The seven days of competition represent a total distance of nearly 3,000 kilometres. The crews will discover, for example, the Badai Jaran Desert, where the crews will be navigating between dunes and lakes. G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now! After several delays, authorisation documents for the fleet finally arrived on June 12 and the first three trains were commissioned the following day. Westbahn is operating six return WestShuttle services per day between Vienna Main Station and West Station, where they connect with the operators trains to Salzburg. Westbahn is offering special discount fares from Vienna to destinations between St Polten and Salzburg, which can only be purchased onboard the shuttle trains. The shuttle service will operate until December 9, when Westbahn will launch direct trains from Vienna Main Station to Salzburg. Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK Much has been written over the past half century about overdependence in Africa on natural resource extraction, and for good reason. Much of the continent is forced, by virtue of a number of internal and external factors, to ride the boom-bust cycle of the global commodity market to exhaustion. And even as economies on the continent seek to diversify, some companies are following the well-established path of African extraction. According to The Economist, Africa is home to a third of the planets mineral reserves, a tenth of the oil and it produces two-thirds of the diamonds. Yet mining of these riches tends to force unemployment to rise, not fall, all while wealth accrues at the top of the socioeconomic spectrum. This is all dependent on bullish markets for commodities. When these markets turn, as they did in 2014, the fragility of this structure is exposed, and regular citizens suffer. Chinese companies have been investing heavily in recent years in natural resource extraction on the continent, filling a vacuum left by others, including firms in the United States and Europe. As the worlds most populous country has climbed the latter of economic development, however, Chinese investment could well shift from natural resources to other sectors and provide capital for the economic diversification so desperately needed among African nations. Fewer workers are available in China thanks to, among other things, that countrys now-defunct one-child policy, and its likely that Chinese investment in labor-intensive industries will move overseas. Foreign direct investment from other international companies, including those headquartered in the Western world, will hopefully follow. As it does, African development in the true sense -- policies and business practices that foster growth of family-supporting jobs -- should be pursued. This could be a moment of opportunity for the many African nations with large working-age populations and, in turn, a shift away from overdependence on natural resource extraction. But it must be accompanied by appropriate investments in education and workforce development and a rejection of extractive policies, even in non-natural resource sectors. Child labor problems have plagued African nations for years, and Nestle has been criticized extensively for sourcing from farms which employ children younger than 15 years old. A new report by the Fair Labor Association (FLA), commissioned by Nestle, saw researchers visit 260 farms used by the company in Ivory Coast from September to December 2014. The researchers found 56 workers under the age of 18, of which 27 were under 15. While the company is making strides to address this problem, the pattern exists because for too many years it looked the other way and remained content with an extractive business structure that benefited developed-nation profits, not developing-nation growth. Unfortunately, Unilever also falls into this pattern of extractive behavior. The food and consumer goods behemoths footprint on the continent is huge, with operations in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya ranging from tea plantations to soap manufacturing plants. The company has engaged in the numerous public relations efforts on the continent, including the planting of more than 100,000 trees in South Africa. However, theyve also turned to policies which harm local development. In India, local Unilever partners saw the royalty fees, franchising costs paid to the British-Dutch headquartered corporation, double overnight, and profits there fell dramatically. Unilever is now seeking to apply the India model in South Africa, tripling royalty payments at a time when South Africas economy is struggling. This is unsustainable and extractive, and couldnt come at a worse time for the local economy. Long-term economic development is a fickle beast, particularly in Africa, where a legacy of colonialism and an overdependence on natural resource extraction has retarded growth over the past 60 years. A shift in foreign direct investment has the potential to lay the groundwork for real, sustainable development across Africa. It just needs to be done the right way. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate Property details: THIS IS FOR an undivided interest in 51 ACRES IN HUDSPETH COUNTYyou will be getting 12.76 acrescamp , hunt etc.. on your propertyGREAT AREA FOR HUNTING CAMPING, GETAWAY NEAR DELL CITY TEXAS SUBDIVISION ROAD FRONTAGE THIS IS FOR 51 ACRES UNDIVIDED INTEREST YOU WILL BE GETTING 12.76 ACRES ON YOUR TAX BILLCAMPSITE, RV, HUNTING, RECREATION ETC...NICE ELEVATION OF 4100' NICE YEAR ROUND CLIMATEGREAT AREA FULL Purchase Price for the LOT - Plus a $499.00 Document Preparation/Transfer/Closing Fee! LOT DE... Price: $ 399 Seller State of Residence: Arizona Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential City: DELL CITY State/Province: texas Area Acreage (acres): 12.76 Location: 850**, Phoenix, Arizona You will be redirected to eBay Nearby 12.76 Property details: LAND IN LUCERNE, CALIFORNIA LAKE COUNTY! With no reserve you are bidding on a vacant land parcel located in Beautiful Lake County California. Situated in the hills above Clear Lake this property sits near the town of Lucerne, CA. Known as the "Bass Capital of the West." Clear Lake supports large populations of bass, crappie, bluegill, carp and catfish. The corner lot property sits at the plotted interesection of Elliott Trl. and Elliott Rd. The lot itself measures approximately 5,488 square feet... Price: $ 515 Seller State of Residence: Wisconsin Property Address: 4895 Elliot Rd. State/Province: California Zip/Postal Code: 95458 City: Lucerne Location: 532**, Milwaukee, Wisconsin You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Lucerne Property details: Here's another well positioned residential lot near some others we have sold over the last few years or so, that is centrally located between Crestline, Lake Gregory and Silverwood Lake that you might want to look into. You will be bidding on this residential property, that sits in our local Southern California Mountains and the desirable community of Crestline in the Cedarpines Park Tract. The property is located just off of Mojave View Drive close to where it meets up with Burnt Mill Canyon Ro... Price: $ 710 City: Crestline State/Province: California Seller State of Residence: California Type: Homesite, Lot Property Address: Tower Heights Road Zip/Postal Code: 92322 Zoning: Residential Location: 928**, Orange, California You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Residential , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Kris Jenner fears her grandchildren will be bullied as they grow up in the public eye. ADVERTISEMENT The 61-year-old "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star said in an interview published Monday with The Hollywood Reporter that she worries about daughter Kim Kardashian 's children, North and Saint West, and her four other grandkids because of her family's fame. "It's my grandchildren who I worry about because I have six of them; the oldest just turned 7, and my youngest is 6 months old, and they don't have a choice [about celebrity]," she said. "And I worry, I do, because it is such a bullying environment." Jenner is also grandmother to Kourtney Kardashian's kids, Mason, Penelope and Reign Disick, and Rob Kardashian's daughter, Dream Kardashian. She and her family have starred on 13 seasons of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." "We decided as a family that if we're going to do this, we would just show everything," the star said of not removing controversial or embarrassing footage from the show. "With that philosophy, I told the kids, 'Don't get on the Internet' ... You know, haters are gonna hate. You expect it now." FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! "Kim leads the pack, and she's the queen of thick skin," she added. "She counsels everybody else. So if something happens in the family, she's the first one you call. 'What should I do? How should I handle this?'" Jenner told New You Media in May 2016 that spending time with her grandkids is her favorite "indulgence" after traveling, saying, "I think that's why I had so many kids to begin with -- I truly enjoy it." "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" completed a 13th season Sunday. Jenner's daughter Khloe Kardashian divulged during the episode that her boyfriend Tristan Thompson wants to have "five or six" kids with her. On the east side of Athens, pet owners once had to drive out of their way to the other side After a recent spate of big-bang funding of food discovery and delivery apps, experts believe the sectors consolidation might be over and the remaining players are here to stay and thrive. IMAGE: Swiggy is now one of the larger players in India's food tech industry. Indias food technology sector has had a trial by fire. After a bloodbath for more than a year and a half, which saw the demise of as many as 20 companies, the sector has emerged stronger and is on the path to become a billion-dollar industry. According to industry experts, almost $700 million of fresh capital has been infused into the sector in the past four months. After a recent spate of big-bang funding of food discovery and delivery apps, experts believe the sectors consolidation might be over and the remaining players are here to stay and thrive. Swiggy has raised funding of $80 million, led by Naspers, the South African investor, who has backed Flipkart. UberEats, currently available only in Mumbai, is planning a pan-India service. Investors believe after consolidation, the companies have aggressive road maps and profitability, plans which would help them grow. IMAGE: UberEats, which launched elsewhere in the world last year, is now making inroads into India. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters. Zomato has cut their cash burn and profitability has gone up 100 per cent, year-on-year. Yes, there was a bloodbath in the market, however the company focused more on the advertisement side of the business. While they have aggressive plans, they are not seeking more funds at present, said Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and chief executive officer, Info Edge, the main investor in Zomato. Last month, online food delivery platform Foodpanda bagged an investment of $431.5 million (around Rs 3,000 crores) from Naspers. In December, it was merged by its investor Rocket Internet with Delivery Hero, a German online food delivery platform, after the Indian operations reported losses. Till last year, it was a particularly tough patch for Foodpanda. The company now aggregates restaurants in over 150 cities and delivers around 70,000 IMAGE: UberEats began service first in California in 2014, came into Mumbai this year, but has plans to go pan-India. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters. SHUT SHOPS TinyOwl: A food ordering app A food ordering app Dazo: An app-based service for curated and delivered meals An app-based service for curated and delivered meals Zupermeal: A home-delivery food venture A home-delivery food venture Zeppery: A food app that allows users to pre-order dishes at restaurants orders a day, with thrice the number of orders on weekends.Naspers also led an $80-million (Rs 517 crores) round for food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy in Series-E funding, along with existing investors, including Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The platform has 12,000 partner restaurants in eight cities and plans to go on an expansion drive. In April, Zomato raised around $20 million (Rs 129 crores) from existing backers Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital and Info Edge, and new investors, including WhatsApp's Neeraj Arora. According to experts, the remaining players have been able to gain a captive audience who are ready to pay for services and are open to new ideas. The market is now ready. For example, the reason behind Swiggys success is that people are ready to pay Rs 250 or more for a salad, if they know it would be delivered right on their desk, said Anil Kumar, CEO, RedSeer Consulting. According to RedSeer Consulting, nearly 3035 per cent of the business of restaurants comes from the online food delivery partners in India. This industry had amassed $300 million in 2016 and is expected to maintain the growth rate. There were too many players doing the same thing which led to a bloodbath. Now, there are three major players left. The market is still under-penetrated, which would help these companies expand. By the end of next year, the industry might grow to be worth a billion dollars, Kumar said. BSNL told a government panel that it should be allocated 5 MHz spectrum in the 700 MHz band through the equity route In order to cope with the financial stress it is facing, state-run telecom player BSNL has presented an 18-point wishlist to an inter-ministerial panel. Its demands include temporarily allotment of 2100 MHz spectrum for 6 months to a year, allocation of 700 MHz airwaves and reduction in license fees. The panel, formed to look into the telecom woes of the telecom sector, is meeting industry players this week in order to understand their problems. Apart from BSNL, another government-owned firm, MTNL, also met the panel. Presenting its viewpoint, BSNL told the panel that it should be allocated 5 MHz spectrum in the 700 MHz band by the government through the equity route. The telecom firm says temporarily allotment of airwaves in 2100 MHz for 6 months to a year will enable it to move its 3G services to 4G. An official said the government has enough airwaves in 2100 MHz that can be spared for a period of 1 year. The state-run operator also says that since it has a social obligation to offer services in all the areas including non-profitable areas such as Left-Wing extremism (LWE) zones and hilly regions, the revenue collected from such areas should not be calculated as part of the adjusted gross revenue. A BSNL official said most private players have not been offering services in such areas, but BSNL is obliged to, being a state-run operator. MTNL has also submitted its point of view to the panel. The operator, which offers services in Delhi and Mumbai, wants to monetise its land parcels to generate additional revenues. Both the state-run firms though want lower license fees and spectrum usage charges. MTNL CMD P K Purwar said the company needs government support for availability of Rs 8,000-10,000 crore (Rs 80 to 100 billion) capital over a period of time. MTNL has also sought the government's help to take care of its employee costs. Citing the example of Airtel, Vodafone and other private operators, Purwar said these companies are being supported by their promoters. The government is the promoter of MTNL and hence "should not be found wanting" in support with regard to capital requirements of the telecom company. Photograph: Fayaz Kabil/Reuters Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the new timing of the price change was agreeable to the dealers and so daily price revision will be implemented from June 16 Petrol pump owners on Wednesday called off their proposed strike over daily revision of petrol and diesel prices from Friday after the government agreed to change the timing to 6 am everyday instead of midnight. Until now price revisions used to come into effect from midnight but considering the fact that dealers would have to deploy manpower everyday to change rates in the middle of the night, the timing has now been changed. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the new timing of the price change was agreeable to the dealers and so daily price revision will be implemented from June 16 as previously decided. Private pump owners, who make up for three-fourth of the nation's 54,000 retail outlets of the public sector firms, had threatened to go on a strike over concerns of inadequate infrastructure to revise prices every midnight. "There was some practical difficulties which we have addressed in our meeting with leadership of all the three petroleum dealers association today," he told reporters in New Delhi. Instead of changing rates at midnight, it has been decided that prices should change before the start of business, he said. "Daily prices will change from 6 am," he said. Federation of All India Petroleum Traders president Ashok Badhwar said the government has taken the decision of daily price revision in public interest. "And in public interest, we are also withdrawing no-sale-no-purchase agitation planned for June 16," he said. Pradhan said the daily price revision follows successful pilot in five cities and would lead to even the smallest change in international oil prices being passed on to consumers. Till now, rates change on 1st and 16th of every month based on average international oil price and foreign exchange rate of the previous fortnight. IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh said whatever the pump operators were doing at 15-day frequency, they will be required to do daily. Pradhan also said the oil companies will expedite automation of the entire fuel supply chain -- from refinery transportation to fuel pumps -- so that manual intervention is reduced to minimal. Currently, only 20 per cent of the petrol pumps are automated. Indian Oil Corporation, the nation's largest fuel retailer, said it will provide information on daily price revisions through various means, including LED screens at petrol pumps, toll-free number, social media posts, mobile apps as well as through SMS. Photograph: Parth Sanyal/Reuters Of the 3.9 million the sector employs, HR experts say at least 100,000 are likely to lose their jobs by the end of this financial year. Ayan Pramanik and Raghu Krishnan report. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com An audio clip of a Mumbai-based employee at Capgemini, the French information technology (IT) services entity, fighting with the personnel officer to retain her is an indicator of the human cost of the changes under way in the sector. The clip has gone viral on social media. One can hear the employee, with experience of over eight years on manually fixing bugs in codes written by her colleagues, contesting her termination order, in vain. Many like her in other companies who have been laid off have approached the labour department for help. Of the 3.9 million the sector employs, human resource experts say at least 100,000 are likely to lose their jobs by the end of this financial year. Automation is eliminating jobs such as testing and first-level maintenance that typically do not require a high level of skill. And, there is backlash in the United States and Britain over the sending of engineers from India. The gloom is widespread. In 2016-17, India's IT sector grew in single digit. This year looks worse, and sectoral body Nasscom has refrained from projecting growth numbers. The industry has, expectedly, responded by stepping up scrutiny on productivity, efficiency and the ability of employees to learn new skills. And, shifted focus to local hiring for combating protectionist headwinds in their main markets of the US, Europe and Australia. Also Read: India's jobs crisis However, amid the turmoil, many also see opportunity for Indian IT to reinvent and prepare for the future. The big change underway is a shift from "scale to skill", said Nasscom. V Balakrishnan, former board member at Infosys Technologies and a sector veteran, sees this phase as a "time to reinvent the business model". "The immigration issue in the US, appreciation of the rupee and disruption due to emergence of digital technology and automation are changing the dynamics," he added. These changes are forcing a step-up on digital technology and a drive to automate lower-end jobs, to manage the overall cost better. More US-based customers of these IT vendors look at a "completely different model" of services, said Rajesh Gupta, partner (India operations) at ISG: "Clients in the US are going to shift from the traditional model of outsourcing. They seek more of an out-of-the-box solution, where the service provider can offer solutions on-site, through a captive-like model. In short, outsourcing will reduce sharply." Cost rationalisation is inevitable. "These companies used to hire a lot of people at the bottom of the pyramid, who were freshers. That kept the average employee cost low. But, when they are expecting average growth of [only] 6 to 8 per cent annually, the pyramid is skewed and very fat in the middle. Naturally, some of the mid-level managers will be removed to maintain the average employee cost. Otherwise, it will hit the margins," added Balakrishnan. While more companies are focusing on higher utilisation, many are not bringing in replacements for the mid-level managers that have been let go, said Malay Shah, senior director (high tech), Alvarez & Marsal India. What they've done is to sharpen the focus on new deals in digital, cloud and analytics. And, pushing for use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, to remove the dependence on people for delivery of services. It's too early to say if their efforts will pay off in the longer run. "Cost savings play a small role. The larger issue is about IT vendors being able to penetrate accounts with more services, go beyond BPO [business process outsourcing] and infrastructure. Can they win consulting, design, app development? And, grow those accounts in total account value?" asked Ray Wang, founder and chairman of Constellation Research Inc, a Silicon Valley technology research entity. The industry will have to reorient its model, from billing of services to manning the small pay-as-you-use contracts. Customers are looking at short-term service contracts. Some even look at doing a digital transformation of their own, with service vendors as partners. Shah said IT companies should look at better integration between client demand and workforce management. "There should be proper demand supply planning, be it short-term or long-term. While we see trimming of workforce, companies are not able to staff some niche projects," he added. Notwithstanding the shift, what worries Balakrishnan and others is the lack of an alternative industry that can employ hundreds of thousands of people a year. Reskilling is crucial. The application was filed in 2006 by Motorola Mobility LLC, now changed to Google Technology Holdings LLC for method and apparatus of providing text messages The Indian Patent Office has refused to grant a patent to Google for its invention of providing text messages using voice command. The internet giant offers voice-to-text message in Google Voice which can transcribe voicemail into text, among others. The application was filed in 2006 by Motorola Mobility LLC, now changed to Google Technology Holdings LLC for method and apparatus of providing text messages. The patent office describes the method particularly useful for providing text messages using voice inputs processed on a portable electronic device with limited memory and computational capacity. According to one aspect of the invention, there is a method of providing a text message. This includes the steps of receiving voice at an input of an electronic device. Speech recognition is then performed on the words uttered and is guided by a user-defined message template stored in a memory associated with the electronic device. However, speech recognition is defined by matching the words uttered with one of the templates to create a matching template. A text message is then provided from the matching template. Generally typing characters using the keypad of a mobile phone would be a task, however, speaking to the device to convert it into text using speech recognition system would need more processing power and memory than available in most devices. The open vocabulary speech recognition systems and methods require relatively high computational overheads and are not acceptable for portable electronic devices such as personal digital assistants, radiotelephones and other portable devices, the Indian Patent Office said. The company responded to the objections in the first examination report. The patent office fixed up a hearing on June 8, 2017, to hear the company on its objections. This includes claims that the company do not have inventive hardware features and only have conventional hardware features where the invention lies only in the method. The company's agent said that it is no longer interested in pursuing the application and requested the authority to decide the matter based on the document on record and on the merit of the subject matter. Indian Patent Office observed that the invention is not patentable under the Section 2(1)(j) of The Patents Act, 1970, which states that an invention requires an inventive step and capable of industrial application, and Section 3(K), which states that a mathematical or business method or a computer programme or algorithms are not patentable. Photographer: Baz Ratner/Reuters Last updated on: June 14, 2017 14:30 IST Taking yet another trip to Maldives! Maldives has been a favourite vacation destination for celebrities. The Khans, Alia Bhatt, Malaika Arora, Baby Doll singer Kanika Kapoor, Nia Sharma and Shabbir Ahluwalia and Kanchi Kaul have all been to Maldives. It's literally a go-to place for Bollywood! The Devgns recently decided to visit the gorgeous island country and post their own wow pictures. 'Shooting nonstop since past 5 months. Getting a much needed break, waiting for Rohit to leave for Khatron Ke Khiladi!' Ajay Devgn tweeted, explaining their reasons for the family vacation. Of course, no one really needs a reason to go to Maldives! Ajay and Kajol made sure to share pictures from their trip. Take a look: 'Clear skies, clear mind,' Kajol captions this beautiful picture at the Soneva Jani resort. A selfie with daughter Nysa. Nysa poses with her little brother Yug and cousins. Kajol gives us a picture postcard setting and captions it: 'I get along with bikes occasionally.' Ajay joins the boys on their cycling trip. Ajay's sisters Neelam and Kavita accompanied the Devgns. Kajol enjoys some pool time with her six-year-old son Yug. Photographs: Ajay Devgn/Instagram and Kajol/Instagram When Rani Hong was 7, she was taken from her family and sold into slavery. At an age when she should have been enjoying her childhood, she was subjected to treatment that left her close to death. IMAGE: Rani Hong, the activist fighting human trafficking, says India must join the fight against slavery. Photograph: Kind courtesy Rani Hong/Facebook When Rani Hong was just seven years old she was taken from her family and sold into slavery. At an age when she should have been enjoying her childhood, she was subjected to treatment that left her close to death. Today, she is no longer just a survivor. She has devoted her life to fighting slavery. Along with her husband, she runs the Tronie Foundation to educate the public about human trafficking and to support survivors in 20 countries through mentorship and healing programmes. She serves as a special advisor to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking initiative and has conceived the World Day against Trafficking in Persons on July 30. In a conversation with M I Khan in Patna, Rani Hong speaks about her childhood as a slave and why she wants to end human trafficking in the world. You were a victim of child trafficking. Today, you are based in America and working to create awareness about this evil around the world. I was a victim of child trafficking. Today, I speak for those who don't have a voice. I speak for the millions of children who are victims of trafficking around the world. It has become my motto and aim to prevent modern day slavery. I try to reach out to survivors around the world, empower them to become leaders and raise awareness among policymakers to enact new laws about human trafficking in different countries. At the age of 7, a woman known to my family took advantage of our economical background and took me from my house in southern India, saying she would take care of me. She later sold me to a recruiter, who put me to work -- without proper food and a place to sleep. Soon, I became weak and was unable to earn him any money. He then sold me into illegal adoption. Fortunately for me, an American woman adopted me. It was a turning point for me -- I got a humble adoptive mother whose help shaped me in who I have become today. Today, along with my husband Trong Hong, another victim of human trafficking, I run the Tronie Foundation in America, which advocates for human rights and rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking. How serious is human trafficking in our country? India has a massive problem of human trafficking because of its size; there are many victims in India. But people forget that there is human life behind those numbers. We know human trafficking is a $150 billion dollar industry in the world, according to the International Labour Organisation. There are about 46 million victims of human trafficking across the world; 80 per cent of them are women and children. 20,000 Women & children were victims of trafficking in India in 2016 46 mn Victims of human trafficking across the world What should India do to end human trafficking? As India is my country and my birthplace, I returned to help our nation become leaders in the fight against human trafficking. I want to work with the government to come up with a national campaign in coming months. Awareness on a large scale is a must, which should be followed by tough laws and its implementation on the ground without ifs and buts. Child labour is a reality in India. It is a big challenge to ensure that factories and industries become free of all child labour. All the victims of child labour are our people, they are Indian. We have to take this factor into consideration to fight child trafficking. IMAGE: According to government data, there has been a 25 per cent rise in trafficking in India. The government agrees that the actual numbers could be much higher. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters Do you believe your concept of the 'Freedom Seal' could help India in its fight against trafficking? In 2013, I went before the United Nations General Assembly to introduce a private and public partnership. I want companies around the world to join me in the fight against human trafficking. I created something called the Freedom Seal, similar to a fair trade or cruelty-free cosmetics seal. This label helps consumers and investors identify companies, products and services that adhere to a strict set of guidelines designed to ensure humane treatment for all employees. 'We need government support, media support and civil society support as well as the support of the survivors.' 'Only all of us together can bring about global change.' The Freedom Seal has become a symbol, a global symbol, to give freedom to children around the world. I have come to India hoping that the government will help us launch the Freedom Seal in the country. I am happy to return to my country after six years. I am on a visit to Bihar after I got a special invitation by the Human Liberty Network to interact with state government officials, civil society and people working against human trafficking. Bihar is one of the epicentres of trafficking. I wanted to see Bihar personally, so I am here. India should recognise July 30 as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. When I spoke before the UN, I had asked for a day of support to fight human trafficking. About 193 countries have supported to recognise July 30 as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. How important is it for India to join the July 30 initiative? If India is ready, the world is ready to take action. I think it is significant that India is joining the initiative. If India joins me in the fight, we can tackle the rest of the world. India has a large number of victims. If we can save them, imagine how many lives will be saved. What about human trafficking in Bihar? I am happy that the Bihar government has initiated a total liquor ban and plans to launch a massive campaign against child marriage. With no liquor and no child marriage, I believe the situation will change. I will be proud to help the Bihar government in the fight against child trafficking. I think these two initiatives -- the alcohol ban and the campaign against child marriage -- can see a whole new way of preventing children from being exploited in Bihar. These eight odd photos prove it's a mad, mad world! A break dancer stands on his head in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters A man carries his wife over an obstacle while racing in the Wife Carrying competition to mark the City Day in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia. Photograph: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters Vendors dance to exercise at a food market in the afternoon where there are less customers, in Nanning, Guangxi province, China. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters People on roller skates push their children on strollers as they take part in a roller skating race in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia. Photograph: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters An appropriately-dressed visitor attends the Victorian Picnic on the first day of the annual Wave-Gotik-Treffen Goth music festival in Leipzig, Germany. The annual event is among the largest Gothic festivals in the world and draws approximately 20,000 enthusiasts from all over Europe from Goth, Cybergoth, Steampunk, Rivethead and Punk influences. The four-day festival includes performances by 200 bands as well as cultural outings including cemetery strolls and cathedral sermons. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Sand artist Marc Treanor creates a work on the North Beach at Tenby Harbour, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Britain. Photograph: Rebecca Naden/Reuters Participants run through coloured powder as they take part in the Colour Run in Kiev, Ukraine. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters A participant rides a zip line from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, 115 metres above the ground along an 800-metre long route, as part of a free event operating until June 11 in Paris, France. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday stepped up its efforts to get maximum support for its presidential candidate with the three-member party panel speaking to a number of allies as well as opposition parties, amid indication that its nominee will file nomination next week. Party sources have said that the National Democratic Alliance candidate for the top constitutional post is likely to file his nomination before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for the United States on June 25. They ruled out filing of nomination by its candidate this week as the consultation process will take more time with Union ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu, two members of the BJP panel, scheduled to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday as they work to evolve a consensus. They are likely to meet Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist following the meeting with Gandhi. BJP chief Amit Shah is scheduled to be in Gujarat on June 20-21. However, his three-day tour of Odisha starting from June 22 has been postponed, a party leader said. There is a distinct possibility, he said, that the NDA candidate will file his or her nomination any day between June 21 and June 24, he said. The nomination process, which started on Wednesday, will end on June 28. Naidu spoke to Anbumani Ramadoss of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, N Rangaswamy of the All India NR Congress, Satish Mishra of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Praful Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday, sources said. He will also speak to most of the regional outfits from south India. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also a member of the panel, will be speaking to leaders such as Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, while Singh may confer with West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. The home minister is also likely to speak to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Amid consultation among political parties, the BJP has given little indication of its choice for the top post. Opposition parties have made it clear that they will put up their own candidate if the saffron party chooses somebody with strong Hindutva leanings. The arithmetic in the electoral college favours the NDA, which has 48.6 per cent votes of its own. It is also expected to get support of the TRS, which rules Telangana, the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party of Andhra Pradesh and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is in power in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile on Wednesday, no names were discussed as opposition leaders met to chalk out their presidential poll strategy. After the meeting senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the the 10-member opposition panel would meet again to decide on a suitable presidential nominee. The sub-group formed for this purpose met in the chambers of Azad, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. This is the first meeting of the sub-group since its formation a few days ago. Sources said the leaders would discuss names, but await a government initiative in this regard. A united opposition, after several rounds of parleys between leaders of various parties, is hoping to zero in on a 'mutually acceptable' presidential candidate with the ruling dispensation. If that does not happen, it is expected to put up a united candidate against the official NDA nominee. The Left parties, meanwhile, are mulling to propose the candidature of former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the post, said sources in the CPI-M and CPI. "We are thinking of proposing the name of Gopalkrishna Gandhi. He does not have an affiliation to any political party," sources in the Left parties told PTI. They added that the parties would also have no objection if JD-U leader Sharad Yadav was picked as a candidate. "If Sharad Yadav's name comes up, we will have no objection. He is a senior opposition leader...a man of integrity and honesty," a Left leader said on the condition of anonymity. IMAGE: Sonia Gandhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday launched a 72-hour 'satyagraha' here in support of farmers, three days after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan called off his indefinite fast on the issue. Scindia, the Congress' Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, launched the protest at around 3.30 pm at TT Nagar's Dussehra Maidan. The scion of the erstwhile Gwalior dynasty garlanded the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the stage before sitting on the 'satyagraha'. The photos of the six farmers killed in Mandsaur district earlier this month were also displayed on the stage. The farmers' protest, which began on June 1 over various demands, including loan waiver and better prices for their produce, took a violent turn on June 6, when five of them were allegedly killed in police firing at Mandsaur. Another farmer from the district, who was allegedly beaten up by the police, succumbed to his injuries later. The protest spread to the other districts of western Madhya Pradesh subsequently, including Neemuch, Dhar, Ratlam and Jhabua. The farmers' agitation prompted the opposition parties to launch an attack on the BJP government in the state and corner Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the issue. An under pressure Chouhan had launched an indefinite fast here on Saturday with an appeal for peace, but called it off the next day claiming that peace had been restored in the areas affected due to the farmers' protest. On June 8, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was detained by the police while he was on his way to Mandsaur to meet the kin of the farmers killed in police firing. Scindia, his party colleague Kantilal Bhuria and a number of Congress supporters were detained by the police on Tuesday at the Nayagaon-Jaora toll booth in Ratlam when they were headed towards neighbouring Mandsaur. IMAGE: Congress leader and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia paying tributes to the farmers killed in police firing in Mandsaur, during his 72-hour long Satyagraha protest in Bhopal on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday visited Mandsaur, where six persons were killed during a farmers' protest, and handed over Rs 1 crore each as aid to the kin of the deceased. Chouhan, along with wife Sadhna, reached Mandsaur on a special plane and first went to Badwan village to meet the kin of Ghanshyam Dhakad, who was killed in police firing. The state government had on Tuesday sanctioned a financial aid of Rs 1 crore each to the families of six farmers killed during a violent protest staged by them at Mandsaur. Five of them were allegedly killed in police firing, while another farmer, who was allegedly beaten up by the police, succumbed to his injuries later. The aid was sanctioned from the chief ministers discretionary fund. Chouhan assured the family members that strict action will be taken against those guilty of killing the farmers. He later visited Lodh and consoled the family members of Satyanarayan, another deceased farmer. The chief minister then went to Nayakheda in neighbouring Neemuch district to meet the family of Chainram Patidar. On the demand of Chainrams father Ganpat, he announced a tarred road from Kuchlod to Nayakheda, a community centre in the village and a memorial for the deceased farmer. Chouhan handed over the documents related to the compensation to the kin of the farmers. The compensation amount was directly transferred to their bank accounts. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader is also slated to visit Piplyamandi, Barkheda Panth, Budha and Chillod Piplia villages to offer condolences to the kin of the other farmers killed in the recent violence in the state. The district administration made elaborate security arrangements for the chief minister's visit. Five helipads were kept ready at various places, said a senior official. Meanwhile, Congress heavyweight Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was prevented from going to Mandsaur on Tuesday, is slated to sit on a 'satyagraha' at the Dusserah maidan in Bhopal, the state capital, to protest the killing of farmers. Chouhan, who came under a severe attack from the opposition following the agrarian unrest, had called off his indefinite hunger strike on Sunday, 28 hours after he had launched it, claiming that peace had been restored at Mandsaur. Though the protest has died down, five farmers ended their lives in the state in the last one week. Mandsaur, the centre of the farmers' agitation, saw politicians, including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat's quota stir spearhead Hardik Patel, making futile attempts to visit the district. On June 6, five farmers were killed as their agitation turned violent at Mandsaur. The farmers' demands included a loan waiver and remunerative prices for their produce. Besides, a 26-year-old farmer had died in Badwan village of the district subsequently. The locals had alleged that he was beaten up by the police. Two more farmers commit suicide in MP Two farmers have committed suicide in Balaghat and Barwani districts of Madhya Pradesh since Tuesday evening, police said on Wednesday. This takes the number of farmer suicides reported in the state since June 8 to seven. Ramesh Basene, 42, ended his life by drinking pesticide at Ballarpur village in Balaghat district on Wednesday morning. He died at the district hospital, police said. Basene's wife Jankibai said that he was worried, being unable to repay a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh. The authorities however didn't confirm whether indebtedness led to the suicide. A tehsildar has been sent to the village for inquiry," said the district collector Bharat Yadav. Another farmer, Shomla, 60, allegedly committed suicide by drinking pesticide at Pisnawal in Barwani district on Tuesday evening. Sub-inspector R Mujalde of Sendhwa police station said that as per Shomla's wife, he had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh from a private lender and he also owed Rs 1 lakh to a bank. He was finding it difficult to repay the loans, she told police. Photograph: Shivraj Singh Chouhan/Twitter A man carried the dead body of his seven-month-old niece on a bicycle after being denied for an ambulance, in perhaps another shocking display of disregard for humanity. The incident took place on Monday when the girl, Poonam died during a treatment at Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district hospital. The girl was admitted to the hospital after complaints of vomiting and frequent motion. Later, her father Anant Kumar left for Allahabad to arrange some money for the treatment asking his brother-in-law Brijmohan to look after her. "I called an ambulance driver several times to provide, but he refused to come. At last, I had to take my niece on a bicycle," Brijmohan said. "We have taken cognizance of the incident. An inquiry has also been initiated," S K Upadhyay, Chief Medical Officer, Kaushambi said. Reportedly, an FIR has been lodged against the doctor on duty and the ambulance driver, who allegedly refused to carry the body. In a similar incident, on June 5 in Bihar, a man carried his wife's dead body on a motorcycle to reach his home for her last rites as he was denied a mortuary van at a government hospital. On May 21, a man was forced to carry the body of his dead wife on a stretcher after the hospital authorities refused to render an ambulance service to him in Kaushambi. In the year since Modi cast the spotlight on Pakistan's human rights violations in Balochistan, India has not done much more than raise the issue at the UN a few times. Aveek Sen discusses India's Balochistan policy. IMAGE: A Marri tribal guerrilla in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. For years, Balochistan has been a tinderbox with a poor human rights record. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images During his Independence Day speech last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned Pakistan's human rights violations in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. He went on to speak about Pakistan's human rights violations in Balochistan. It led to heightened coverage in the Indian media for a few days. Nothing much has been done by India since then other than raising the issues of Pakistan's human rights violations in Balochistan at the United Nations a few times, including under the Right of Reply. The latest iteration of that was on June 7 at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where India noted, 'Pakistan has systematically abused and violated the human rights of its own citizens,including in Balochistan.' Soon after Modi's speech, Baloch separatist leader Brahumdagh Bugti had requested political asylum in India, but the request is still stuck in limbo. Meanwhile, military operations against civilians in Balochistan intensified after Modi's statement. But the ministry of external affairs press briefings didn't highlight this directly; it mentioned human rights violations in our neighbouring country only tangentially. Much of the Indian media is privately owned, but even the state broadcasters, Doordarshan or All India Radio, only mentioned Balochistan on and off; they didn't cover Pakistan's human rights violations on Baloch civilians in any great detail. The PM's Independence Day speech serves as an annual roadmap and diktat for bureaucrats and, by extension, the state news broadcasters. However, work is stuck in red tapism and bureaucratic lethargy. The Balochi AIR service is in poor shape, and exists just in name. I've often been told by my Baloch contacts that the usage of the language and the dialect won't be intelligible to the rural population in Pakistan's Balochistan. Hopefully, over time, there will be an infusion of quality talent from the separatist Baloch activists who stay abroad. IMAGE: Baloch leader Dilshad Mazdak Baloch during a protest near the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI Some Baloch leaders also misread the PM's comments as to if he wants to go the full mile and reacted immaturely. It is important to keep in mind that Afghan politicians and think-tanks have been speaking for years now on Pakistan's human rights violations in Balochistan, but they too have not gone the full mile. It seems that India's Balochistan policy is very similar to Iran's policy on Yemen. Iran's media goes on a propaganda offensive to bludgeon Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen. Haykal Bafana -- a Yemeni lawyer; MD of the Bafana Advisory, a firm that guides companies on investment; and an occasional writer for The New York Times -- aptly described the situation in Yemen while referring to the Russian deputy foreign minister's recent comments on the Saudi plan to attack Hodeidah port & Sana'a. 'The Yemen card is useful for Moscow to play. But they have yet to invest anything in it, much like Iran's media hysteria of empty support,' he tweeted. He had earlier commented, 'Indeed, Iran pisses me off. They don't send any weapons or help, but gloat over each Yemeni victory against Saudi Arabia as if THEY won.' Similarly, when Pakistan intensified military operations on Baloch civilians after Modi mentioned Balochistan in his Independence Day speech -- for example, the month-long operation in Dasht town -- the Indian foreign ministry didn't even mention Pakistan's actions at any press briefing. IMAGE: At a port in Chabahar, which is part of the Sistan-Baloch province in Iran. India is invested in developing a strategically important port here, and its stand on the Baloch freedom movement has the potential to impact ties with Iran. Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters A lot of other drama also unfolded when some sections of Indian analysts associated with think-tanks, retired bureaucrats and opportunist media fixers tried to milk easy PR money. Instead of projecting political parties and leaders with massive ground support, shady individuals were projected. This led to all the major Baloch separatist groups -- the Baloch Republican Party, the Baloch National Movement, the Free Balochistan Movement and Mehran Marri, the Baloch representative to the UNHCR and the European Union -- condemning the actions. Some other politicians and intellectuals/public persons talked about using Balochistan as a card against Pakistan, whether with respect to Kashmir or the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. This angered the Baloch, and led to separatist Baloch political activists pointing out that Balochistan shouldn't be used as a playing card -- that India should talk of Balochistan irrespective of other developments. There are two points to be kept in mind here, as Kashmir and Balochistan are pretty different: 1. The legitimate counter to Pakistani propaganda on Kashmir is to highlight the situation in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. 2. Even in a war or propaganda war, there are human aspects. Certain things -- like an issue being played up as a counter to another -- even if true as a strategy should not be spelled out explicitly. In this, the Indian government has shown a mature response and kept its cards very close to its chest. It has done the right thing by not equating PoK with Balochistan. PoK is Indian territory, which Pakistan is occupying illegally. On the other hand, India isn't a party in Pakistan's occupation of Balochistan. India's policy on Balochistan is something that analysts or people close to the decision makers have no inkling about yet. It is a closely guarded secret that only a few people in the government and bureaucrats dealing with it know of. This, for now, seems to be very mature diplomacy and politics akin to the Iranians. Aveek Sen is an independent journalist working on cyber security and the geopolitics of India's neighbourhood, focusing on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Bangladesh. He tweets at @aveeksen Also read: The Balochistan problem decoded SPENCER | A Lake Park man who shot himself after being stopped by law enforcement officers has pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a restaurant. Shortly before his trial was to begin Tuesday morning in Clay County District Court, Joshua Mandelkow, 41, entered his plea to a reduced charge of second-degree robbery and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. He had initially been charged with first-degree robbery, going armed with intent and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. Sentencing was set for July 24. Mandelkow entered Barb's Corner restaurant, 1290 U.S. Highway 18, near Everly, on March 11, 2016, brandished a shotgun and pointed it at a worker's head while demanding money. The worker emptied the cash register into a duffel bag, and Mandelkow left. Clay County Sheriff's deputies spotted Mandelkow about 15 minutes later. When a deputy tried to stop Mandelkow, he shot himself. No deputies were injured. Sioux City Journal MASON CITY | The finance director of Mason City Schools has issued a statement regarding his administrative leave and likely end of employment with the district. "I will not be discussing the reasoning provided but will state that I am disappointed with the decision," John Berg said via email Tuesday. "While I disagree with the board action, I acknowledge that they have the right to decide who they wish to hold the position of Director of Finance for the Mason City Community School District." Berg has been in his position since 2015. Before that he was an accountant with the district for three years. He was placed on paid administrative leave June 2 through June 30, the end of his current, one-year contract with the district. Neither Berg or district officials will say why he was placed on leave. Berg in the statement said he "would likely not be issued a contract for future employment" following a closed-session board meeting June 1. The meeting involved "discussing strategy with council of a matter in litigation or where litigation is imminent," according to the agenda. Iowa law allows boards to close meetings in certain instances, such as pending litigation or performance reviews. Berg said in the statement he has appreciated and valued the support he has received after the board's decision was made public. "I believe that Gods plans for my family and I now (are to) continue in a different direction, and with prayer and the support of friends and family, (we) will begin down that path," Berg's statement said. Berg didn't return a phone message left by the Globe Gazette Tuesday. Interim Superintendent Mike Penca wouldn't say via phone Tuesday whether Berg is accused of doing anything illegal or improper. Citing "personnel matters," Penca said he couldn't comment further on the issue. "Everything that was able to be made public was made public," School Board member Jodi Draper said via phone Tuesday. Board members Doug Campbell and Scott Warren declined to comment via phone Tuesday. Phone messages seeking comment Tuesday weren't returned by board members Paul DeRoy, Brent Seaton or board Vice President Lorrie Lala. A message couldn't be left for board President Janna Arndt Tuesday, as her voicemail was full. The Globe Gazette has filed an open records request with the district seeking more information on what may have prompted Berg's departure. The district by law is required to respond within 10 to 20 business days. Globe Gazette reporter Courtney Fiorini contributed to this report. Hungary: NGO law a vicious and calculated assault on civil society Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Hungary: NGO law a vicious and calculated assault on civil society, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940e0404.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The passing of a law stigmatising non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive foreign funding is the latest in an escalating crackdown on critical voices and will hamper critically important work by civil society groups, said Amnesty international. The Law on the transparency of organizations funded from abroad will force NGOs receiving more than 24,000 EUR direct or indirect funding from abroad to re-register as "civic organization funded from abroad" and to put this pejorative label on every publication. "Threadbare attempts to disguise this law as being necessary to protect national security cannot hide its real purpose: to stigmatize, discredit and intimidate critical NGOs and hamper their vital work," said said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Director for Europe. "This latest assault on civil society is aimed at silencing critical voices within the country, has ominous echoes of Russian's draconian 'foreign agents' law, and is a dark day for Hungary." The authorities have attempted to justify the law as a bid to fight against money laundering and international terrorism. In reality, the impact of the law will be the targeting of NGOs that carry out functions such as promoting the rule of law, protecting the rights of refugees, migrants and other marginalized groups, and providing social and legal services not sufficiently offered by the state. The law will introduce selective new requirements for the "transparency" of NGO funding and place unnecessary additional administrative burdens on them. NGOs are already required to publicly report on their foreign funding on an annual basis, and may be audited by authorities at any time. A comprehensive NGO law, adopted in 2011, contains copious requirements, including detailed reporting on funding to ensure the transparency and accountability of NGOs. The law would likely be discriminatory under EU law and contravene the right to association, including the right to seek, receive and use funding from foreign and international sources. Under the law, organizations failing to comply with these new rules face warnings, fines and ultimately the suspension of their right to operate in Hungary. By forcing NGOs - including the Amnesty International's Hungarian section - to label themselves as "foreign funded", the Hungarian government is seeking to discredit their work and turn people against them. The rationale of the proposal suggests that NGOs funded from abroad may serve "foreign interests" and their funding can contribute to "endangering the sovereignty and national security of Hungary". "Prime Minister Orban not only appears to be deaf to the clamour of opposition within the country and abroad but to revel in it," said John Dalhuisen. "This vicious and calculated assault on the rights to freedom of expression and association is a serious miscalculation and contravenes Hungary's human rights obligations. It must be challenged on all levels - from grassroots organizations in Hungary to the European Union in Brussels." Background The proposals echo Russia's "foreign agents law" which has seen the reputation of hundreds of credible organizations tarnished, their staff intimidated and their work bogged down by administrative requirements. Since the Russian law entered into force in 2012, it has effectively made the legal and reputational risks of foreign funding too great for many NGOs. Nearly 30 organizations have closed since its adoption. The law was passed with 130 votes for, 44 votes against and 24 abstentions. Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Dozens of news sites blocked as Egypt ramps up digital censorship Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Dozens of news sites blocked as Egypt ramps up digital censorship, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940e2984.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The Egyptian authorities have shifted their onslaught against media freedom to the digital sphere, blocking access to more than 40 news sites without justification in recent weeks, in an attempt to eliminate the country's last remaining spaces for criticism and free expression, said Amnesty International. At least 63 websites have been blocked in total since 24 May according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, including 48 news sites. Mada Masr, an independent news site which regularly published news and analysis deeply critical of the authorities was among the first to be blocked. Most recently on 11 June the Egyptian news sites Albedaiah, run by independent journalist Khaled al Balshy, Elbadil and Bawabit Yanair were blocked. Access to the global online publishing platform Medium was also cut off on 10 June. "The latest clampdown on digital media is further evidence of Egypt's age-old police state tactics in motion. Even in the darkest days of the repressive Mubarak era the authorities didn't cut off access to all independent news sites," said Najia Bounaim, Amnesty International's North Africa Campaigns director. "With this move the Egyptian authorities seem to be targeting the few remaining spaces for free expression in the country. It shows just how determined the authorities are to prevent Egyptians from accessing independent reporting, analysis and opinion about Egypt. The authorities must immediately stop arbitrarily blocking news websites." On 24 May, state media announced that Egyptian authorities had blocked a group of websitesincluding the prominent independent news platforms Mada Masr, Daily News Egypt, Elborsa and Masr Al Arabia. The authorities failed to provide any evidence of illegal activity or to clarify the legal basis for the decision. Instead officials made vague statements to the media saying this was in connection with "publishing false information" and "supporting terrorism". On 25 May, Egyptian newspapers published reports citing a "sovereign agency" (a term usually used to refer to Egyptian intelligence agencies) justifying the move on the grounds of "combating terrorism" and accusing Qatar of supporting some of the blocked websites, again without providing evidence. Amnesty International has reviewed the list of blocked websites. The majority are news sites but the list also includes sites where VPN and TOR, which can be used to access blocked sites, can be downloaded. Amnesty International was able to identify only one website connected to groups that use or advocate violence. Many of the sites that have been blocked had served as a refuge for Egypt's remaining critical voices who no longer are allowed to appear on TV or in the print media, which have been firmly in the grip of the state since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power. The independent news and analysis website Mada Masr is known for unflinchingly exposing human rights violations committed by the Egyptian authorities in recent years, including arbitrary detention, unfair trials, the crackdown on human rights NGOs, extrajudicial executions and the use of the death penalty. The site's editor-in-chief, Lina Attallah, told Amnesty International that she believes the site was blocked because it publishes well-researched investigations based on verified information. "We publish what authorities don't want people to read," she said. "The Egyptian government appears to be exploiting recent violent attacks by armed groups in the country to crack down on the remaining free space and silence critical voices. Once again the authorities are using national security grounds to justify outright repression," said Najia Bounaim. "Instead of attacking critical and independent voices Egypt should respect the obligations enshrined in its own constitution and in international law not to impose arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression and to protect the right of everyone to seek, receive and share information." The government's decision to block these websites also flouts Egypt's constitution, which prohibits censorship of the media, except at times of war and military mobilization, and protects freedom of expression and press freedom both in print and digital formats. The constitution also upholds the right of all citizens to use telecommunication tools and methods. The legal grounds and authority the government has used to block these sites is ambiguous and it remains unclear whether emergency law provisions were applied. There are, however, a number of Egyptian laws that can be used to censor the media and the internet, on the grounds of national security. After the bombing of two churches in Tanta and Alexandria in April 2017, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency. An hour later, the authorities confiscated that day's edition of Albawaba newspaper, which demanded that the Minister of Interior be held accountable for failing to prevent the bombing. Under emergency laws, the authorities have broad powers to impose surveillance and censorship on media. On 10 April, the head of the Egyptian parliament, Dr Ali Abdel'al announced that these laws will extend to social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. He added that these platforms were being used as means of communication between "terrorists" and warned that online offenders would face prosecution. The vaguely worded articles of Egypt's counterterrorism law also allow punishments of up to 15 years in prison for establishing a website for the purpose of promoting "terrorist ideas" and grant the authorities the power to block websites suspected of promoting "terrorism". Two of the blocked websites, Daily News Egypt and Elborsa, belong to the Business News Company, which is licensed by the government. In November 2016, the government froze the company's assets under the pretext that it belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, without providing evidence to support this claim. The paper's 230 staff have not received their salaries since. Representatives of many of the websites affected have filed complaints with the Press Syndicate, the National Council for Media, the Ministry Communications and the Public Prosecutor, but so far received no response. Mada Masr has filed an appeal against the decision to block its website before an administrative court, but it has not yet heard the appeal. Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Tunisia: Fifth man facing jail term for breaking fast during Ramadan Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Tunisia: Fifth man facing jail term for breaking fast during Ramadan, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940e3204.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The conviction of five people for the charge of "public indecency" after smoking a cigarette or eating in public during the month of Ramadan is a clear violation of individual freedoms in Tunisia, said Amnesty International. In the latest incident, a man was sentenced to one month in jail for "public indecency" in the town of Bizerte, northwest of Tunis, for smoking outside a courthouse on 12 June. A day earlier, dozens of protesters took to the streets in Tunis to demand their right not to fast during Ramadan. He is the fifth man to be sentenced by the same court to a jail term for breaking his fast during Ramadan this month. Four other men were sentenced to one month in prison after eating in public on 1 June. "Imprisoning someone for smoking a cigarette or eating in public is an absurd violation of an individual's personal freedoms. Failing to conform to religious and social customs is not a criminal offence," said Heba Morayef, North Africa Research Director at Amnesty International. "The Tunisian authorities should not allow vaguely worded charges to be used to impose harsh sentences on spurious grounds. Everyone should have the right to follow their own beliefs in matters of religion and morality." There are no laws in Tunisia requiring individuals to fast or preventing them from eating publicly during Ramadan. The insistence of the court to use penal code articles that come under the "offence against morality" section to restrict individual freedoms is inconsistent with Tunisia's progress in terms of the respect of human rights. International human rights law and the Tunisian constitution both guarantee the right to freedom of conscience and the freedom of religion. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, also protects the right not to profess or practice any religion or belief. Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International US/Cuba: Don't Reverse Cuba Policy Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, US/Cuba: Don't Reverse Cuba Policy , 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940eab84.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Reversing the Obama administration's changes in United States policy toward Cuba will not improve respect for human rights on the island, Human Rights Watch said today. President Donald J. Trump may announce a new policy toward Cuba during a visit to Miami on June 16, 2017, multiple news outlets have reported. Critics of the current policy point to ongoing repression in Cuba as evidence that the approach was misguided. "The previous administration was right to reject a policy that hurt ordinary Cubans and did nothing to advance human rights," said Daniel Wilkinson, managing director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch. "The fact that Obama's approach hasn't led to political reform in Cuba after just a few years isn't reason to return to a policy that proved a costly failure over many decades." In December 2014, then-President Barack Obama announced that the US would normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba and ease restrictions on travel and commerce, and called on Congress to consider lifting Washington's decades-old embargo on the island. In exchange, the government of President Raul Castro granted conditional release to 53 political prisoners. The two governments restored diplomatic relations in July 2015. In March 2016, Obama visited Cuba, where he met with Castro, as well as with Cuban human rights advocates and independent journalists. Obama gave a nationally televised address in which he urged the Cuban government to lift restrictions on political freedoms. Cuba remains a highly repressive country. While there were improvements in several areas in the years prior to 2014 - including the relaxation of travel restrictions and the reduction in the number of political prisoners - the government's other repressive practices remain largely unchanged. It represses dissent and discourages public criticism. The Cuban government relies less now than in years past on long-term prison sentences to punish its critics. But short-term arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders, independent journalists, and others increased in recent years. Other repressive tactics include beatings, public shaming, and the termination of employment. But restoring restrictions on travel and commerce are unlikely to lead to improvements, Human Rights Watch said. For more than half a century, the embargo has imposed indiscriminate hardship on the Cuban population as a whole. It has provided the Cuban government with an excuse for its problems, a pretext for its abuses, and a way to garner sympathy abroad with governments that might otherwise have been willing to condemn the country's repressive practices. And insisting on human rights progress as a precondition to a new policy is unlikely to bring about change, Human Rights Watch said. Given the Castro government's longstanding determination to control virtually all political activity on the island, it is very unlikely that such a quid-pro-quo approach would have yielded any more results than it has in the past. Instead it would merely have prevented the rapprochement and left intact the geopolitical dynamic that has inoculated the Cuban government from international pressure for decades. "International pressure on the Cuban government is needed to help create conditions for change," Wilkinson said. "But to be effective, this should be multilateral pressure brought alongside other governments in the region." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Media Blocked, Threatened in Dispute with Qatar Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 14 June 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Media Blocked, Threatened in Dispute with Qatar, 14 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940eb104.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Arab countries engaged in a dispute with Qatar have shut down media outlets with links to or considered sympathetic to the Qatari government, Human Rights Watch said today. The action is a violation of freedom of expression. The countries involved include Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have also threatened criminal sanctions under existing laws against people who criticize the actions these governments have taken against Qatar and its citizens or who have expressed sympathy toward Qatar. "Individuals have a right to express a variety of perspectives on current events," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Governments don't have the right to close down media outlets and criminalize speech to shut out criticism they find uncomfortable." On May 25, 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates blocked Qatari media outlets, including Al Jazeera, after Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, was quoted in state media attacking United States foreign policy, praising Iran, and vowing to withdraw its diplomatic representation from several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia. The Qatari government has since denied that al-Thani made the offending statements, alleging that their state media was hacked. Related Content Also on May 25, Egypt blocked the websites of 62 media outlets it accused of being favorable toward the Muslim Brotherhood, including Al Jazeera and at least four other Qatari government-linked outlets. On June 7, Jordanian authorities closed Al Jazeera's Amman bureau and stripped it of its operating license, stating that the decision was made to ensure regional stability, coordinate the policies of Arab countries, and "end the crises in our region." The next day, Saudi authorities did the same to Al Jazeera's Riyadh bureau, accusing it of promoting terrorist groups in Yemen and of sparking divisions in Saudi Arabia. On June 9, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage ordered hotels and other tourist facilities to block "all channels from the Al Jazeera Media Network" and replace them with other channels, threatening to punish violators with a fine of up to US$26,000. In addition, on June 7 and 8, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates announced that any speech critical of their governments' measures against Qatar or sympathetic to Qatar would be prosecuted as crimes. Citing existing laws that violate free speech, on June 7, the United Arab Emirates' general prosecutor announced that people who express "sympathy" for Qatar or objections to the UAE government's own actions could face up to 15 years in jail. On the same day a state-controlled Saudi Arabian media outlet stated that such expression could be considered a cybercrime offense in the kingdom. On June 8, the Bahraini Interior Ministry also threatened anyone who shows "sympathy or favouritism" to the Qatari authorities either on or off line or critiques Bahrain's actions, with up to five years in prison and a fine under the Penal Code. Authorities should repeal or amend laws that are used to criminalize peaceful expression. International law on freedom of speech prohibits the banning of peaceful criticism of governments, and crimes such as insulting the president or state authorities. "The media need protection from political interference, not official muzzling," Whitson said. "The offending governments should demonstrate they understand and respect the role of media outlets, even those they don't agree with." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Syrian family risks all to flee Raqqa as violence surges Publisher UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Author Areej Kassab Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Syrian family risks all to flee Raqqa as violence surges, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940edc84.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Terrified of being caught up in the fighting currently engulfing Raqqa, Syrian father Mustafa Yousef loaded his wife and three young children onto the back of his motorcycle and headed north, in a desperate bid to escape the northern Syrian city that has been under the control of armed groups since 2014. The family, originally displaced from Aleppo five years ago, had almost reached the safety of a military checkpoint when a mine exploded beneath them, claiming the lives of Mustafa's wife and eldest son. "I was relieved when I saw the checkpoint and thought that we had finally managed to escape," said Mustafa, badly injured and still shocked. "Only a short distance away from the checkpoint the explosion happened. I started waving and screaming for them to come and rescue us." Mustafa and his two surviving children were taken to the border city of Tal Abyad, 100 kilometres north of Raqqa, before being transferred to the Qamishli National Hospital in Syria's far north-eastern Hassakeh governorate. The explosion left Mustafa with a broken right arm and leg, and shattered his left wrist. His three-year-old son Abdul Karim suffered a broken jaw and shrapnel in his left eye, while surgeons had to remove the toes on his left foot. "We did our best here, but he needs urgent specialized ophthalmological surgery, which we can't provide," said one of the doctors taking care of the family. Despite having no visible injuries, Mustafa's one-year-old daughter Laila's condition is the most serious. "She needs chest surgery and paediatric surgery, both of which are not available here," the doctor said. "She has suffered a bruised right lung, and without urgent surgery she could lose her life." Thousands remain stranded inside the city amid rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions, which aside from the fighting include acute shortages of essential commodities such as food, medicine and fuel. Armed groups controlling the city have threatened to kill any people found attempting to leave, while many of the roads out of the area have been heavily mined, those fleeing the city say. Despite the dangers, more than 160,000 people like Mustafa and his family are estimated to have fled fighting across Raqqa governorate since April 1. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, together with other UN agencies and humanitarian partners, is doing what it can to provide life-saving assistance to the displaced. This includes providing shelter and relief items in camps established in Raqqa and Hassakeh governorates. But with only sporadic access in some areas due to the challenging security environment, an effective humanitarian response is more difficult to mount. UNHCR is calling on all parties to the conflict to allow greater and sustained humanitarian access. "With needs growing and displacement rising, access on the ground is challenging," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday (June 13), noting that relief items are being airlifted from Damascus to Qamishli - a costly and complex undertaking. "Until now, there were no viable land routes available to move supplies. With partners we continue to explore all possible supply routes and are working with the authorities to secure greater access to those in need." Having paid a terrible price to make his escape, Mustafa was told that without evacuation and urgent medical treatment, his two surviving children could die or suffer lifelong complications. As a result, UNHCR in coordination with other UN agencies, humanitarian partners and governmental departments arranged to transfer the family to Damascus, where they will get the specialised medical assistance they need. "It is not the first time that we facilitate such evacuations," said Roupen Alexandrian, the head of UNHCR's field office in Qamishli. "Our priority is to make sure that all medical cases are being referred to medical facilities and that evacuation pathways are available for those in critical conditions." "People fleeing for their lives are in urgent need of support to survive," Alexandrian added. "We are working tirelessly to make sure that they receive relief items and have access to a safe place as soon as they reach us." 'Security vacuum' in Central Africa may be exploited by armed groups UN envoy Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as UN News Service, 'Security vacuum' in Central Africa may be exploited by armed groups UN envoy, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940f0294.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The United Nations envoy for Central Africa today expressed his concern that the withdrawal of troops from the regional force by some contributing countries would create a security vacuum that may be exploited by an armed group. The continued threat by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to regional stability should not be underestimated, in particular as the Ugandan and the South Sudanese forces have now disengaged from the African Union Regional Task Force (RTF), along with the United States special forces, Francois Louceny Fall, the Special Representative and head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), told the Security Council. He explained that the Central African Republic national security forces, which could in the long run fill the gap left by the exit of the Ugandan forces, still require training and structural reforms. And the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the country, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, is not mandated to conduct anti-LRA military operations. Any training efforts would need to be in line with the overall security sector reform process and coordinated with other partners supporting the Central African armed forces, he added. Collectively, there is a need to remain focused on efforts aimed at the total eradication of the LRA, he said, stressing that UNOCA will remain engaged, including by reviewing the UN regional strategy to address the threat and impact of the LRA, and ensuring coordination among the various stakeholders working on the issue. His semi-annual briefing also touched on political tensions that have persisted in some Central African countries, mostly related to recent or future electoral processes, including Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. As for Lake Chad Basin, he said that the activities of the Boko Haram terrorist group have undermined development and exacerbated economic hardship in the region. Boko Haram remains a serious threat to regional stability despite the military progress achieved by the Multi-national Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against the terrorist group. In conclusion, he called for a strong commitment of the Security Council to the promotion of peace and security in Central Africa. Conflict in Ukraine enters fourth year 'with no end in sight' UN report Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 13 June 2017 Related Document(s) Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 February to 15 May 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Conflict in Ukraine enters fourth year 'with no end in sight' UN report , 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940f0bb4.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Warring parties in eastern Ukraine have repeatedly failed to implement ceasefire agreements, allowing hostilities to escalate and the cumulative death toll to exceed 10,000 as the conflict entered its fourth year, a new United Nations report reveals. The report, published today, covers the three months through 15 May 2017, during which the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine recorded 36 conflict-related civilian deaths and 157 injuries, a 48 per cent increase from the previous three-month period, according to a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The report finds that there were daily ceasefire violations and routine use of small arms and light and heavy weapons in the conflict zone. Such attacks and the resulting damage to critical infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and water facilities, raise serious concerns for the protection of civilians, the report notes, warning that, as summer approaches, there is a risk of further escalation in hostilities, as in previous years. From the start of the conflict in mid-April 2014 up to 15 May 2017, at least 10,090 people, including 2,777 civilians, have been killed, and at least 23,966 injured, according to a conservative estimate. RELATED: Conflict-displaced Ukrainians struggling to survive UN More than 1.6 million people fled their homes and became internally displaced, while some three million remained in territory controlled by armed groups, the report notes. Among the issues highlighted in the report: The socio-economic deprivation in the east of the country has been deepening. A cumbersome verification procedure introduced in 2016 deprived more than 400,000 citizens of Ukraine of their pensions. The report recommends abolishing the requirement that pensioners from armed-group controlled territory should register as internally displaced persons to receive their pension; The contact line continues to divide families and communities, infringing daily the right to freedom of movement. Long queues at the checkpoints reached a record peak in March and April, with over 900,000 crossings each month, compared with 550,000 in February; The report contains new cases of individuals unlawfully or arbitrarily deprived of their liberty or subjected to enforced disappearances and abductions, particularly in the territory controlled by armed groups. In a number of cases, the victims' families did not have access to those detained and had no information on their whereabouts; and, Boko Haram: Down but far from out Publisher IRIN Author Idayat Hassan Publication Date 24 May 2017 Cite as IRIN, Boko Haram: Down but far from out, 24 May 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940f3a94.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The Nigerian government has declared victory over the Boko Haram insurgency. The capture at the end of December of Camp Zero in Sambisa Forest, the last stronghold of the jihadists, seemed to herald the formal beginning of the post-insurgency phase in northeastern Nigeria. The negotiated return last month of 82 of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls (an estimated 113 are still in captivity) has been presented as further evidence that the back of the seven-year-old insurgency has been broken. The government and its development partners are already starting post-war reconstruction in the three most affected states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa. Humanitarian conditions remain dire, but houses and schools are being rebuilt, seedlings distributed, and empowerment training schemes launched. Concerns Amid all this optimism, it is important to acknowledge lingering causes for concern. While Camp Zero has been dismantled, the reality is that Boko Haram is an adaptable foe. It is reportedly both forming new enclaves in the Lake Chad Basin and melting back into civilian communities. The rumours are of profitable business partnerships being formed - especially in the fish and cattle trade. Some fishermen, for example, are supplying their catch to Boko Haram middlemen who sell on their behalf. And Boko Haram's network is far deeper than commonly realised. The State Security Service is regularly turning up insurgents across northern Nigeria, and in one case as far away as the western state of Ekiti. Boko Haram is known for its attacks on civilians and suicide bombings. So far in May there have been 12 suicide bombings (by nine women, three men) - a tempo that suggests the insurgency is far from over. But since the movement split into two factions led by Abubaker Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi back in August, there has been a change of tactics. Al-Barnawi's group had criticised Shekau for attacking soft civilian targets, tactics that won Boko Haram few voluntary recruits. Al-Barnawi's group is much more explicitly targeting the military. Since November, 11 military installations have been attacked, with 40 soldiers killed. In April alone, 20 soldiers died in raids on four army posts. The weaponry they have captured, and the motorbikes instead of vehicles they favour, means they are mobile and well-armed. Al-Barnawi's faction still loots villages for food, fuel, and medical supplies, even if it does appear to be deliberately avoiding killing civilians - as long as they don't resist. The government's inability to completely block the sources of financing for the insurgents continues to pose a challenge. Boko Haram still has money to wage its war, typically raised through kidnapping, extortion, armed robbery, cattle rustling, and taxes/levies on businesses. The strained relationship between the vigilante Civilian Joint Task Force and the military is also affecting the government's prosecution of the conflict. Since the arrest in February of the founder of the CJTF, Bah Lawan, over his alleged links to Boko Haram, some vigilante leaders are refusing to cooperate with the army. The CJTF, one of the most effective weapons the military has against Boko Haram, has also been reportedly weakened by factionalism and indiscipline. Regular complaints of irregular pay from the Borno State government and the lack of health insurance and even fuel for their vehicles is affecting morale. Power of the word Boko Haram's ideology, that Westernisation is evil, still has resonance. Rural northeastern Nigeria is highly conservative. While the insurgency's violence is not approved of, its broad worldview has power and can still attract sympathy. One 45-year-old woman who was held hostage in Sambisa, and served as a teacher in the camp, was honest enough to tell me she now regretted leaving Boko Haram. Alleged corruption and sexual exploitation by security forces and aid workers also plays into the militants' messaging. There is a powerful narrative that girls and women in IDP camps are either being sexually abused or forced into sex-for-food arrangements. Reports of the flagrant use of alcohol and drugs by the army and the CJTF also do not sit well with traditional cultural norms. The government has a disarmament and reintegration plan dubbed Operation Safe Corridor. More than 4,500 former combatants have surrendered, but the framework for the strategy remains opaque, and it contains real risks. There are fears that some so-called "deradicalised" Boko Haram are not repentant at all. There are questions over their screening, certification, and whether communities are ready for their return and reintegration. Some ex-combatants have been deeply indoctrinated. As one man told me: "You cannot believe in one part of the Koran and not in the other part of the Koran, [which includes] killing". Then there are the detainees accused of being Boko Haram - those who have suffered abuse at the hands of the security forces and have likely been radicalised as a result of that experience but are then released. Negotiaitions Hope that the freeing of the Chibok schoolgirls could be a step towards possible negotiations was dealt a blow by Shuaibu Moni, one of the (at least) five Boko Haram commanders swapped for the released school girls. In a video released barely a week after he gained his freedom, he was threatening to bomb Abuja and denying there could be any dialogue with the government. "Only war is between us!" he declared. While we must give kudos to the military and the Nigerian government for improving security in the northeast, it is safe to say the conflict is far from over. There is still some way to go. The government must immediately prioritise a hearts-and-minds approach. The focus of the war now should be on combatting the ideology of Boko Haram; there should be an emphasis on healing trauma in a society scarred by the violence. And while the path of dialogue is a difficult journey, the idea of peace through negotiation must not be jettisoned. ih/oa/ag TOP PHOTO: Nigerian refugees in Cameroon This series of features and commentary on violent extremism in Nigeria and Sahelian Africa is part of a project with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) Afghan refugees in Greek camp: "If you kept animals in this situation, they would die" Publisher IRIN Publication Date 2 June 2017 Cite as IRIN, Afghan refugees in Greek camp: "If you kept animals in this situation, they would die", 2 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940f3de4.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. At its peak in the summer of 2016, the former Athens airport terminal at Elliniko was home to more than 3,000 refugees. A makeshift camp set up during Europe's refugee "crisis" the summer before, it is now home to fewer than 700 people, nearly all of them from Afghanistan. Over the last few weeks, the Greek government has been trying to persuade them to leave by removing vital services. On 20 May, the NGOs providing medical care, clothing, legal advice, translation, and cleaning were withdrawn. In the days that followed, WiFi, electricity, and water services were cut off and residents were told to accept transfers elsewhere or lose support. Most people agree Elliniko is unfit for human habitation, including Masood Qahar, a 40-year-old refugee from Kabul who has been living there since early 2016. Journalists are no longer allowed inside the camp, but Qahar showed IRIN photographs of people sleeping in the airport terminal corridors in tents or under sheets strung from the ceiling. When it rains, Qahar said, the water comes through the ceiling. He played a video of residents trying to sweep water away from their tents. Masood Qahar Inside the former airport terminal turned refugee camp, people sleep in tents divided by sheets Men, women, and children live together at Elliniko with little privacy. Human rights organisations including Amnesty International have repeatedly warned that women are at risk of sexual assault. "It's not safe," Qahar said. "I've been attacked three times with knives. Once, someone brought a gun into the camp." So why stay? Despite this, Qahar and many of the remaining refugees are reluctant to leave on the uncertain terms they have been offered. When officials announced the closure earlier this month, they told the refugees they would be sent to a new, purpose-built camp at Thiva (Thebes), in central Greece. But the ministry of migration has not issued a formal plan for the transfer, and Qahar, for one, is suspicious. "It's a small jail," he said, showing photographs he had taken during a visit to Thiva. They show rows of shipping containers surrounded by a security fence on an industrial estate outside the town. The camp is to be managed by the International Organization for Migration, but the government has not yet specified what services will be provided. Masood Qahar The new camp at Thiva consists of rows of shipping containers surrounded by a security fence Kyriakos Giaglis, country director for the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Greece, which had been providing support services at Elliniko until it was asked to leave, told IRIN that his organisation is concerned about the apparent lack of consultation with the refugees. "Movement has to be well-informed, principled, and voluntary. This plan has not been properly communicated by the Greek authorities, despite our continuous requests." Giaglis said it was unclear whether the camp at Thiva would be able to accommodate all the remaining residents at Elliniko or if adequate legal services would be provided to help refugees with their asylum claims in Greece or family reunion elsewhere in Europe. The DRC is asking that vulnerable people be moved to some of the 20,000 apartments in Athens provided by the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR. But demand is high and there aren't enough apartments to accommodate all the Elliniko refugees. According to UNHCR, around 100 people have been moved to apartments in recent weeks. Filling the information gap are rumours. Some refugees fear forced transfer to Thiva at short notice; others are concerned by the presence of IOM at the new camp because of the agency's well-known voluntary return programmes for migrants. "They are trying to pressure people to go home," said Qahar. There is no evidence to confirm such suspicions, and in a recent statement the Greek migration ministry blamed the rumours on "constant disinformation by non-institutional actors". But a wider European trend gives Elliniko's mainly Afghan residents cause for concern. One rule for Syrians Broadly, Europe's response to the refugee crisis has been to prioritise asylum for Syrians while granting protection to a dwindling proportion of Afghan asylum seekers and even deporting hundreds of them back to Kabul over the past year, despite the country's worsening security situation. The EU-Turkey deal and the closing of the Macedonian border in early 2016 trapped up to 62,000 refugees in Greece, with Afghans the second-largest group by nationality. Unlike Syrians, they have not been eligible for relocation to other EU member states under the emergency agreement drawn up in September 2015. Similarly, while Syrians in Greece are eligible for a "fast-track" asylum application process, which can take as little as one month, Afghans and others have to wait many months. According to Yonous Muhammadi, a prominent Afghan community activist who works for the Greek Forum for Refugees, non-Syrians applying for asylum today are being given interview dates in February or March 2018, and won't receive a decision for another six to 12 months after that. Muhammadi estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 Afghans are still living in the camps hastily established by the Greek government in 2015 and 2016 (although the Greek asylum service says it has only received about 8,000 applications from Afghans since the start of 2015). He told IRIN that the camps where Afghans have been placed tend to be worse than those housing Syrians, with fewer amenities and services. Aside from Elliniko, he cited "horrific" conditions at sites in Malakasa and Oinofyta. The latter, for example, only received heating in December, and experienced a scabies outbreak earlier this year. Although Syrians also experience poor conditions in camps, particularly in the north of the country, many have been able to leave, while those people with less chance of receiving asylum - including Afghans, Iranians, and Pakistanis - have tended to be placed in more rudimentary camps. "All the focus is on the Syrians," Muhammadi said. "The politics follows the media. And even international NGOs follow it." Suicides and alcohol In the absence of reliable state or NGO support, many Afghan refugees living in or near Athens have come to rely on help from long-term members of the city's Afghan community. Muhammadi estimates there are around 2,000 settled Afghans living in Greece, most of them in Athens. There are also two community associations and a cultural centre through which "people can speak about their problems and be informed of their rights and responsibilities". Mohammad Mirzay is a 25-year-old Greek citizen who arrived in the country as a child refugee over a decade ago. In 2015, he was employed to work as a translator for NGOs based on the Greek islands. Today, he is a community activist in Athens where he uses his language skills and knowledge of the local bureaucracy to help the newer arrivals. "We old refugees are trying to cover the gap," he told IRIN. With limited medical care and legal services available at Elliniko, Mirzay puts residents in touch with a network of volunteer doctors and lawyers based in Athens. On other occasions, he has helped arrange burials of people who have died at the camp. Having dealt with three suicides in the past year, he points out that psychological problems and alcohol abuse have risen the longer people are stuck there. Yet many of Elliniko's residents would rather put up with the poor conditions, and retain the support they have found through the Afghan community and volunteer networks in Athens than be moved elsewhere in Greece. Faced with the prospect of forced removal, Qahar said some Elliniko residents have moved into the city and put up tents in parks. He predicted that others would try to leave for elsewhere in Europe via clandestine routes. According to activists, around 70 men and unaccompanied children have already left Elliniko for the port of Patras, where they are living rough and trying to sneak onto ferries to Italy. "We don't see a future in this country," said Qahar. "If you kept animals in this situation, they would die." The deadly conflict tearing Nigeria apart (and it's not Boko Haram) Publisher IRIN Author Obi Anyadike Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as IRIN, The deadly conflict tearing Nigeria apart (and it's not Boko Haram), 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940f59c4.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Goska is just five minutes up the road from Dangoma in Nigeria's Middle Belt region. But between the two villages are divisions so deep - and so devoid of compassion and understanding - they threaten the unity of Africa's most populous nation. Bullet holes and abandoned, burned-out buildings in Goska are evidence something sudden and terrible happened there. Moses Berde, the village head, explains that more than 40 people were killed and over 100 homes destroyed in back-to-back attacks on 24 and 25 December last year. In this farming village of solid, mud-brick buildings, there's no doubt who the culprits are. They accuse their Fulani neighbours in Dangoma of hiring armed Fulani pastoralists from outside the area to do their dirty work. The interlopers now graze their cattle on Goska's rich farmland, driving off anyone bold enough to venture near. Berde says he himself was shot at recently when he confronted two Fulani youngsters as they were cutting trees for fodder in his field. A week later two women were attacked. "If it wasn't for the security [forces] urging patience, my boys are eager to go into the bush and sort them out," Berde tells IRIN. Dangoma sits on top of a gentle rise. It's a more prosperous version of Goska, reflecting the value of cattle over crops. Its elders assemble in a carpeted room as district head Mahmood Suleiman recounts his community's quite different version of events. "What happened was between Goska people and herdsmen from outside," Suleiman explains. "But people are pointing accusing fingers at us." He then flips the script, without blinking, accusing Goska of attacking Dangoma on 25 December. Seven people died, he says - although there is no visible evidence of the raid. Surreal There are places in the world where divisions are so entrenched, positions so implacable, "truth" becomes meaningless - grievance distorts everything. The area around Goska and Dangoma, the south of Nigeria's northwestern Kaduna State, has been a hotspot of communal violence stretching back to the 1980s. The latest bout began in September last year. IRIN finds some of its victims crowded into the grounds of a primary school in the railway town of Kafanchan, waiting for a daily food ration provided by the Catholic Church and well-wishers. Pastor Gordon Matum (photo right) has registered more than 2,590 displaced men, women, and children for the feeding programme. There are people here from Goska, along with those from other villages - Godo Godo, Misisi, Mile One, Pasakori, Tundun Wada. All have fled attacks by Fulani herdsmen. Matum, busy, and harassed by a crowd of people, pauses in the doorway of a classroom to talk. "We've never terrorised, but instead we're the ones that are terrorised," he tells IRIN. "We have been peaceful, but we will defend ourselves, even though we don't have arms." He is particularly angry over what he sees as a partisan state government that refuses to acknowledge the scale of the displacement. He says that by not declaring the school an IDP camp, it is forcing people to find paying accommodation in the neighbourhood, imposing a double burden on them. "Where is the government? They are totally silent about the IDPs. [Governor Nasir] el-Rufai said southern Kaduna people are exaggerating the scale of the attacks, but he hasn't come here." IDPs queue for a daily food ration provided by the Catholic Church and well-wishers in the grounds of a primary school at Kafanchan. A broad divide Nigeria's Middle Belt straddles the divide between the largely Muslim north and a majority Christian south. It is an ethnically and religiously diverse zone, plagued by conflict over farmland, grazing areas, and stock routes. In southern Kaduna these clashes have pitted the traditionally pastoralist Fulani against farmers who see themselves as "indigenous" to the area. According to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy firm, pastoral/farmer clashes in the Middle Belt accounted for more deaths than Boko Haram last year. The Fulani have ranged across West Africa's savannah with their cattle for centuries, but in Nigeria they have had more than a passing impact on its history. Their 19th century jihad transformed the north. Its legacy is a political aristocracy whose southern border stretches to the emir's palace in Kafanchan. Fulani communities have been in the Middle Belt for over 300 years. Some have settled, giving up the nomadic life, or graze their cattle locally. But there are others who still embrace a transnational existence, annually migrating along at least three international grazing routes - from Cameroon, Chad, and Niger - that pass through southern Kaduna. Climate change and the drying of northern Nigeria is forcing these herders to move southwards, into lusher but more densely populated tropical forest lands. Traditional mediation systems are failing to effectively adjudicate cross-cultural disputes over land and grazing. Ethno-religious identity drives politics in Nigeria. The city of Kaduna, for example, is divided by its river. North, the majority of its residents are Hausa-Fulani, who have traditionally held political power in the state. On the opposing bank are settlers from the rest of the country, mostly Christians, and "indigens" (a troubling concept that recognises "original" inhabitants to the disadvantage of other Nigerians). Newly created chiefdoms in southern Kaduna are both a political and cultural affirmation of independence from the historical control of the Fulani caliphate. The cost of conflict A Mercy Corps study in 2013 found that livelihoods of more than a third of pastoralists and farmers in Kaduna and Nasarawa states have been affected by violence over long stretches of time. The study calculated the micro-economic cost across four Middle Belt states as worth $9.2 billion annually. Without violence, affected households would have seen at least a 64 percent increase in incomes, and potentially as much as 210 percent. Peace could deliver $13.7 billion annually in "total macroeconomic progress" for the Nigerian exchequer, mainly through tax revenues collected. In Kaduna State alone, between 10,000 and 20,000 people are estimated to have died in communal conflict since 1980. Among the most vicious episodes was the political violence triggered by the presidential election result in 2011, which continues to feed the current hostilities. Hausa-Fulani Nigeria was united in its support for presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari. When he lost to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, from the south of the country, Christians and other ethnic groups were attacked in northern Kaduna; their churches, shops, and homes destroyed on the presumption they had supported Jonathan. In southern Kaduna, mobs of Christians retaliated by killing Muslims and burning their mosques and property. Among those trapped by the violence and slain, their cattle stolen, were Fulani herders from outside the country. Haruna Osman is the Kaduna State chair of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBA), a Fulani lobby group. From his office inside the frenetic Mando motor park, he reels off recent incidents in southern Kaduna in which Fulani are still being killed. But in seeming to concede that in the current round of violence most of the victims are farming communities, he is blunt. "Ask them why our people were attacked. What happened in 2011 is the genesis of what is happening now.'' He adds: "No Fulani man will give up seeking revenge. [Fulani] from outside [Nigeria] were killed. They will not seek permission from me [to retaliate]. But no Fulani man will attack first. We're the minority [in southern Kaduna]." Guilt by association Taking a swipe at the vexed issue of citizenship in Nigeria, where full rights are accorded only in your "home state'', he says Fulani have been in the region for centuries; it is their stock routes the colonial road builders followed. "We are also Nigerians! Give us our share of the land!" he demands. Sectarian violence is all about guilt by association rather than weighing any forensic evidence. In identity-driven conflict, any member of a rival group can be attacked in retaliation for a perceived original wrong committed by that community. If a cow tramples a farmer's field, all Fulani tend to get blamed. The cycle of revenge broadens the conflict and inevitably the suffering. It also obscures an element of simple criminality. People aren't just singled out because of ethnicity or religion, but because looting and cattle rustling are profitable. Banditry, it seems, is an equal opportunities employer. Rival communities also share a perception of the security forces and judicial system as partisan, and/or incompetent. Not surprisingly, they tend to take the law into their own hands. The politicisation of ethnicity and religion is seen as the core of the problem. For Mohammed Bello Tukur, legal adviser to MACBA, this goes beyond local politics. He sees the "demonisation" of herders as a tactic by the opposition nationally "to hang President Buhari", a Fulani, finally elected in 2015. He blames a "scaremongering", southern-dominated media for "connecting dots in pockets of incidents" and deliberately conflating the conflict with the jihadist northeastern insurgency of Boko Haram. Social media has upped the ante with scandalous glee. But that is not the view from Goska, or among the weary displaced in the Kafanchan primary school, forced to endure the embarrassment of dependency, their lives on hold. The common thread in all their stories is of sudden attack, being outmatched by men armed with AK-47s who boasted of their political connections. They still do not have the security guarantees that will allow them to return home. Which way forward? Historically demarcated stock corridors and gazetted grazing reserves were envisaged as ways to avoid farmer/pastoralist competition for land and water points. They, in theory, could also provide the development services to encourage the settling of the nomadic population. But grazing routes have been squeezed by expanding and ever larger commercial holdings. According to one study, less than three percent of the grazing reserves "have been acquired, and these are poorly managed". Most of the land, especially in the north, has instead been appropriated by corrupt political and private interests. A new grazing reserve bill was rejected last year, largely due to opposition from southern senators. Atta Barkindo of the Kukah Centre, an interfaith policy forum set up by the Catholic Church in Kaduna, explains why. ''It's seen as a land grab [of the Middle Belt]. The government would also need to find compensation for subsistence farmers, and that will never happen," he says, flatly. ''The government has to choose between the life of a cow and that of its citizens.'' Tukur, of MACBA, and Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, the former chair of the National Human Rights Commission, argue for a forward-leaning livestock development programme to address "access to water, grazing, agricultural extension services, and access to markets" for both farmers and pastoralists. It would also need to monitor and regulate the regional cattle corridors. There is also a raft of NGO-led mediation efforts underway over the Middle Belt conflict, a reflection of the abdication of responsibility by state and federal governments. But Odinkalu worries that these initiatives are moving too slowly or lack real leverage. Urgency is needed because Nigeria is fast-approaching the 2019 election, and the violence will inevitably be politicised and stoked. "If there is no movement this year, forget about it, as the election calendar will overwhelm everything," Odinkalu says. The levels of distrust run subterranean deep on both sides. The disdain, the subtle asides, the othering, is painful to behold. Otherwise genial Goska headman Berde is matter of fact in his assessment: "A Fulani man is a Fulani man; he cannot be trusted." Asked if there could ever be reconciliation with his neighbours, his response is less than inspiring: "By God's grace." It is seven months before the Iowa Legislature begins the second session. More than 200 days to figure out how to raise revenues on the super-rich of Iowa to provide additional funding for K-12, our community colleges and state universities. Two hundred days to present plans to bring down the cost of health care for all Iowans. Two hundred days to have a plan on expanding mental health care and facilities to house the same. Two hundred days to present a plan to attract high-paying jobs to Iowa. Two hundred days to close the loophole that allows a big business to fail to collect millions in what should otherwise be applicable sales tax, thus cheating the state government, our local schools, cities and counties. Two hundred days to present a plan on raising the minimum wage so hard-working Iowans can have a livable wage. I ask, is providing a livable wage too much to ask of the Iowa legislature? When Iowans willing to work can only find jobs at the big-box stores that pay less than a living wage, it is us - the hard-working taxpaying Iowans - who subsidize those big-box stores with food stamps and welfare payments so these workers can have the basic necessities to live. When the owners of the big-box stores are multi-millionaires and billionaires, should hard-working, taxpaying Iowans have some of their taxes subsidize underpaid workers at those big box stores? It is time the Iowa legislature quits catering to the super-rich and begin to work on behalf of all Iowans. Iowans do not need out-of-state lobbyists writing legislation that does not favor the interests of hard-working Iowans. It is time we, the working class, take back our state government. Stan Walk, St. Ansgar Yemen: NGOs demand release of journalists held by Huthi forces for two years Publisher Article 19 Publication Date 9 June 2017 Cite as Article 19, Yemen: NGOs demand release of journalists held by Huthi forces for two years, 9 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5940f8134.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The Huthi and allied forces should immediately and unconditionally release ten Yemeni journalists detained arbitrarily without charge or trial, said nine NGOs today, on the second anniversary of their detention. The organizations remain extremely concerned for the well-being of the journalists. Family members of the journalists told Amnesty International that all ten men are currently held in the Political Security Office (PSO) in Sana'a, after access to their families was further restricted throughout the month of May. Nine of the journalists were also interrogated during this month. To Amnesty International's knowledge, this was the first time that some of these men had been questioned since their arrest two years ago. Abdelkhaleq Amran, Hisham Tarmoom, Tawfiq al-Mansouri, Hareth Hamid, Hasan Annab, Akram al-Walidi, Haytham al-Shihab, Hisham al-Yousefi and Essam Balgheeth have been detained since 9 June 2015 when they were arrested by armed men in a room from where they were working in Qasr Al-Ahlam Hotel, Sana'a. Those who arrested the men were dressed in a mixture of civilian, military and General Security clothing, and some had slogans on their weapons that are associated with the Huthi armed group and its political wing, Ansarullah. According to their families, the men are not aware of the reasons for their continued detention, and have not been formally charged or brought to trial. In the past, family members told Amnesty International that the detainees told them they overheard guards saying that the nine journalists are being held because they are linked to "terrorism" and "tarnishing the image of the Huthi popular committees", as well as "working for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, America and Israel." The journalists work for a variety of news outlets, some of which oppose the Huthi armed group, while others are aligned to the al-Islah opposition political party. On 28 August 2015 a tenth journalist, Salah al-Qaedi, was also arrested by members of the Huthi forces at his home, also in Sana'a. Salah al-Qaedi's family told Amnesty International that he had been tortured during his detention. There are no formal charges against him but his family suspect he is being detained because he worked for the al-Islah aligned Suhayl Channel, which was raided in September 2014 by the Huthi forces and eventually shut down in March 2015. The families of some of the journalists told Amnesty International that they believe increased visiting restrictions were in retaliation for the peaceful campaigning activities some of them undertook around World Press Freedom Day, on 3 May 2017, including an online campaign and vigils in front of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sana'a, as well in Ma'rib, Ta'iz and Aden. At the time of writing, at least seven families confirmed that they were allowed a visit last week, having had restricted access for over a month. All ten journalists have had illnesses and medical conditions caused or aggravated by their detention conditions or treatment, including abdominal and intestinal pain, hearing problems, hemorrhoids and headaches, their families told Amnesty International. Some have been taken to a hospital outside of the prison for medical treatment but have not been given appropriate medication. Others have been denied medical treatment altogether. According to Essam Balgheeth's family, when they last visited him at the end of May, he was suffering from dizziness and regular fainting episodes. The prison authorities refused to take him to a hospital and would not allow his family to bring him natural remedies, such as honey, during their visits. Several other families were also not allowed to bring medication to their detained relatives. Tawfiq al-Mansouri has also been suffering from deteriorating health. According to his family, he was diagnosed with a swelling in his prostate and has only received painkillers and topical medications as treatment. The ten journalists must be released immediately and unconditionally, as they are detained solely for their peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and their perceived political opinions. Pending the journalists' release, the de facto Huthi authorities must ensure that they are protected from torture and other ill-treatment and are given, without delay, regular access to their families, lawyers and adequate medical treatment. There has been a surge in arbitrary arrests, detentions and enforced disappearances by Huthi and allied forces of their critics and opponents, as well as journalists, human rights defenders and members of the Baha'i community since the beginning of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition's aerial campaign in March 2015. Mwatana Organization for Human Rights has documented the arbitrary detention of five other journalists by the Huthi authorities in Sana'a and Dhamar, including one detainee who has been forcibly disappeared since June 2015. Reporters without Borders have documented the arbitrary detention of another additional journalist by Huthi forces. On 12 April 2017, Yemeni journalist Yahia al-Jubaihi, who has been arbitrarily detained since September 2016, was sentenced to death by the de facto Huthi authorities for allegedly communicating with Saudi Arabian-led coalition forces. The death sentence against Yahia al-Jubaihi must immediately be quashed and the Huthi authorities must ensure he is retried in proceedings that conform to international fair trial standards and without the possibility of a death sentence or released. Yemen is ranked 166th (out of 180) in Reporters Without Border's 2017 World Press Freedom Index. *** Amnesty International ARTICLE 19 Committee to Protect Journalists Gulf Center for Human Rights Human Rights Watch Index on Censorship Mwatana Organization for Human Rights PEN International Reporters Without Borders Copyright notice: Copyright ARTICLE 19 Russia: Hundreds detained in anti-corruption protests Publisher Article 19 Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as Article 19, Russia: Hundreds detained in anti-corruption protests, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/594125c44.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Yesterday hundreds of protesters were arrested and detained across Russia during a series of anti-corruption protests initially called for by opposition politician and lawyer, Alexei Navalny. Thousands attended large protests in Moscow and St Petersburg with over 150 smaller protests taking place across the country. Navalny, who was also arrested and sentenced to 30 days imprisonment, timed the protests to coincide with the 12 June Russia Day celebrations in an effort to encourage Russians to express their anger against the high levels of corruption in the country. Protesters were met by a heavy police and National Guard presence who declared the protests 'illegal' and began to detain individual protesters and journalists, bussing them to detention centres where many of them remained overnight without charge. In many of the detention centres protesters were held in cramped and uncomfortable conditions with and there are reports that some individuals were beaten and had their phones confiscated. According to Open Russia, over 1800 arrests were made during the protests with 1550 of these in Moscow and St Petersburg. Katie Morris, Head of Europe and Central Asia at ARTICLE 19 has expressed concern at the actions of the authorities against the protesters. "These arrests and detentions represent a serious violation of the human rights enshrined in the right to protest. The Russian government should immediately release these individuals without charge and bring Russia's protest-related legislation in line with international standards." Those protesters who have already been sentenced in relation to yesterday's protest have received a range of charges, including allegedly having assaulted a policeman ('violence dangerous to life or health' Part 2, Article 318, Criminal Code), 'disobeying the lawful order of a policeman (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and 'violation of the procedure for holding a public event (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). Sentences include between 5 to 15 day's imprisonment and fines of up to 10,000 roubles (approximately 140). Navalny was himself detained yesterday morning on leaving his apartment and charged under Part 8 of Article 20.2 of Russia's Administrative Code for 'repeatingly violating the procedure for holding a public event'. He has been sentenced to 30 days' administrative arrest. Russian legislation requires organisers to request permission to hold protests. Navalny was granted permission to hold the protest at Sakharova Avenue in Moscow but changed the location without permission to Tverskaya Street, closer to the Kremlin. "However, says Morris, "the detention of protesters and the charges made against them violates the universally recognized human rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and are unacceptable within international law". ARTICLE 19 urges the Russian authorities to: Immediately release all protesters and journalists detained during participation in the 12 June protests, including Alexei Navalny, and withdraw the charges made against them Bring protest-related legislation within the Russian Constitution in line with international standards Ensure the protection of internationally guaranteed human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association is applied during all protests BACKGROUND What are the applicable international standards? ARTICLE 19 has long advocated for the right to protest and has published a series of recommendations for both states and protesters to ensure this right is protected. The right to protest is the individual and/or collective exercise of existing and universally recognised human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, among others. According to international standards as outlined in ARTICLE 19's Principles on protection of human rights in protests, states should fulfil the following obligations relating to the right to protest: 1) Restriction: States should not prevent, hinder or restrict the right to protest except to the extent allowed by international human rights law; 2) Legislation: States should abolish all legislation, regulations and practices that require, in law or effect, prior permission or licenses in order for protests to take place. Notification regimes for protests should be voluntary; 3) Location: States should guarantee the freedom to choose the location of a protest, and the chosen location should be considered integral to its expressive purpose; 4) Timing: States should ensure the freedom to choose the manner and form of a protest, including its duration and should refrain from introducing time restrictions on protests in certain locations; 5) Policing: States should ensure that the policing of protests should be guided by the human rights principles of legality, necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination. Decisions to disperse protests should be taken as a last resort, in line with these principles. 6) Use of force: States must ensure, in law and in practice, that they resort to the use of force only against violent protests, and only when strictly necessary and in proportion to the threat of violence; 7) Liability and sanctions:Participation in a protest must never be the basis for suspicion of criminal activity. Any preventative arrests must be based on a reasonable suspicion that a criminal offence is planned; 8) Accountability and transparency: State should investigate, prosecute, and ensure accountability for human rights violations committed in the context of protests and must ensure accessible, effective and cost-free remedies for violations of the rights of protesters; 9) Reporting on protests: States should allow and actively facilitate reporting on and the independent monitoring of protests by all media and independent observers. What is the context in Russia? Russia is rated 'Not free' in Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2017 report with critics of President Vladimir Putin's government attacked and imprisoned and opposition forces side-lined, including during the 2016 legislative elections. The Russian government has increasingly targeted protests critical of authorities, refusing permission to hold protest activities and detaining and charging participants. On 26 March 2017 protests calling for an inquiry into alleged corruption by Prime Minister Medvedev were held in more than 90 cities across Russia. The protests were held in response to a video posted online by Navalny claiming that Mr Medvedev controlled mansions, yachts and vineyards worth much more than his salary. In response, the Russian authorities detained over 1000 protesters, including a number of journalists. Some protest leader leaders received jail sentences ranging from one week to 25 days on administrative charges. "The right to protest is essential to securing all human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights," said Katie Morris. "The arrests made yesterday are just the latest in a series of protest-related human rights violations in Russia which severely restrict the freedoms of expression, assembly and association in the country." Copyright notice: Copyright ARTICLE 19 Bahrain: UN members states should call for release of Nabeel Rajab Publisher Article 19 Publication Date 13 June 2017 Cite as Article 19, Bahrain: UN members states should call for release of Nabeel Rajab, 13 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5941261a4.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. On the one year anniversay of the imprisonment of Bahraini human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, ARTICLE 19 and 13 other human rights organisations are urging UN member states to call for Bahrain to release him and drop all charges. Your Excellency; We, the undersigned, express our deep concern over the continued detention of prominent Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, on the first anniversary of his arrest. We urge you to call for his immediate release and for all charges against him to be dropped. Nabeel Rajab was arrested on 13 June 2016. He remains detained despite a court order to release him on 28 December 2016. He faces three separate legal cases, the trials for two of which have been postponed 23 times. In all cases, Rajab is being prosecuted for exercising his right to freedom of expression and faces up to a total of 18 years behind bars. Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Founding Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Deputy Secretary General of FIDH and a member of Human Rights Watch's Middle East Division advisory committee. Rajab has repeatedly spoken out about human rights violations in Bahrain, resulting in him being in and out of prison since 2012. In one of the three cases against him, in which he faces up to 15 years in prison, Rajab was charged in relation to his social media posts with: "insulting a statutory body"; "spreading rumours in war time"; and "insulting a neighbouring country." In another of the three cases, Rajab faces up to three years in prison on charges of "spreading false news", in relation to interviews given to the media. In September 2016, he was charged again with "spreading false news" after the New York Times published a letter in his name. Rajab has spent nine and a half of the past twelve months in solitary confinement. In May 2017, the UN Committee Against Torture identified Rajab's case of concern, and called for his release, as well as all human rights defenders and journalists detained and imprisoned for their work in Bahrain. We are particularly concerned about Rajab's health, which continues to deteriorate due to poor conditions and mistreatment. On Wednesday, 5 April 2017, Rajab underwent major surgery at a military hospital. Against medical advice, he was returned to his cell at East Riffa Police Station two days later. The following day he was rushed to the police clinic for emergency treatment. On 7 June, he underwent minor surgery. Rajab's health prevents him from attending his court hearings. The presiding judge has refused all requests submitted by his lawyers to release him on bail, despite the length of his detention period in solitary confinement and clear evidence about the deteriorating condition of his health. Urgent international pressure for Nabeel Rajab's release is needed. We urge your delegation to call on Bahrain to end the unlawful detainment of Nabeel Rajab and to release him immediately and unconditionally. As Adam Rajab, Nabeel Rajab's son notes: "without international pressure we will not see him walk out of prison anytime soon." Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest consideration, Signed, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain Amnesty International ARTICLE 19 Bahrain Centre for Human Rights Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy CIVICUS English PEN European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Gulf Centre for Human Rights IFEX Index on Censorship PEN International World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Copyright notice: Copyright ARTICLE 19 August Election Tensions Rise in Storied Kenyan County Publisher International Crisis Group (ICG) Publication Date 14 June 2017 Cite as International Crisis Group (ICG), August Election Tensions Rise in Storied Kenyan County, 14 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/594128854.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The county of Narok is one of Kenya's most economically important regions, home to wildlife sanctuaries like the world-famous Maasai Mara reserve, vast agricultural plantations, and highways linking the East African coast to the interior. Narok is also one of a number of Kenyan counties expected to witness heavily contested, potentially violent, local elections due in August under a system of devolved government that confers considerable power and resources to elected county-level administrators. While a cut-throat competition for the presidency is garnering most attention, the subnational vote will be hotly contested and deserves more focus from the government and international partners. As a new Crisis Group report notes, significant violence could result from the political use of violence to influence county-level voting and acrimonious fallout from the winner-take-all polling for county governor position. Devolution and Ethnic Contest Kenya adopted a new constitution in 2010 as one response to the weeks of violence that followed the 2007 disputed presidential election. The fighting killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. The new constitution sought to substantially remodel the government and reduce the concentration of power and resources in the presidency. The aim was to distribute the patronage power presidents enjoy more evenly, and by that means end the all-or-nothing battles for national leadership that contributed to violent elections in the past. The new constitution created and endowed 47 new counties as primary centres of devolved power run by elected governors and county assemblies. County administrations now receive at least 15 per cent of all national government revenue to run local affairs. The county chiefs appoint cabinets that are in charge of services, including basic education, healthcare, agriculture and local infrastructure maintenance. They control a budget of millions of dollars with wide remit to decide where to channel the funds. Perhaps because Kenyan elites have now witnessed the considerable influence and patronage resources counties command, the 2017 polls are expected to be more hotly contested than in 2013. Many national figures, including former presidential candidates and at least half a dozen senators, are running to lead these governorates. With many counties divided along religious, ethnic and sub-ethnic lines, there are concerns that candidates will play the communal card and exacerbate tensions and political violence. Warning Signs The storm clouds gathering over Narok are partly national. The county is a key battleground in the contest between the ruling Jubilee Party and the opposition National Super Alliance (Nasa). Both are investing heavily in the presidential and governorship races. But the problem is also local. Kenya's National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), a government agency promoting social harmony, has listed Narok as one of the counties vulnerable to an outbreak of electoral violence. A June 2015 commission communique cited "inequitable distribution of county resources, competition (for) scarce resources, cattle rustling and incitement by politicians" as destabilising factors here and in several other multi-ethnic counties in the Rift Valley and northern Kenya. Numerous interviewees report political players are mobilising young people. A youth leader from the large Purko clan of the Maasai tribe told Crisis Group a victory for the incumbent would be "absolutely unacceptable". Surrounded by other young men from the clan at a restaurant in Narok, he said, without elaborating, that the youth were working on an "alternative remedy" if they feel the election outcome does not restore leadership to their group. Intra-Maasai Divisions For decades, Narok had been dominated by members of the Purko Maasai clan. But in 2013, three Purko candidates split the clan vote. That allowed Governor Samuel Tunai, a political newcomer, former civil servant and member of the minority Siria Maasai clan, to win on the ticket of the United Republican Party headed by Deputy President William Ruto. The result was viewed as a disaster by many local elites and described in apocalyptic terms as an "earthquake" and "tsunami" in national media. Although many Kenyans think of Narok as a Maasai county, it is in fact multicultural with a complex history. The Purko are a storied branch of the Maasai community renowned for battlefield victories over rival ethnic groups and clans in the pre-colonial period. But they were settled in Narok after having become victims of mass displacement when British settlers seized their landholdings during the colonial period. Other Maasai clans were moved into districts in south-west Kenya. Since then, Narok has attracted substantial numbers of non-Maasai because of its ample land, large wheat and maize plantations, and location on key transport routes between the Indian Sea coast and Uganda, Rwanda and eastern DR Congo. This diversity drives Narok's county politics. The biggest non-Maasai group is the Kipsigis, a branch of the Kalenjin, Kenya's third largest ethnic group. There are substantial numbers of Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group, as well as Kisii, Luo, Luhya and other communities. It was an alliance of the Kipsigis and Kikuyu, working with smaller Maasai clans, that pooled the numbers to get Tunai over the line in 2013. Losing power in the county triggered months of protests by Purko leaders. The agitation against the governor came to a head with a 25 January 2015 march seeking Tunai's ouster. Running battles between the police and protesters resulted in two deaths and significant property damage in Narok town. Anger Over Lost Power Three major issues dominate local criticism of Governor Tunai's administration. A key point of Purko contention is the sharing of local resources. The renowned Maasai Mara game reserve has long been controlled by local Purko elites. The Kenya Wildlife Service runs most game parks in the country, but the Mara is operated by the county, reflecting the fact that much of the park's land was donated by far-sighted Maasai elders in 1961. The Tunai administration has sidelined many of the Purko youth who previously worked in the park, local leaders say. "Before this administration came in, the Maasai Mara was entirely a local employment space", said Kimaren Riamit, executive director of the Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners, a civil society group. "It's true that there was some graft in management of the funds but at least the money circulated locally". Conservation politics are another source of grievance. Narok is home to the Maasai Mau "water tower", the largest closed-canopy forest in Kenya and a vital source of rivers that feed the county. During the administration of President Daniel Arap Moi (1978-2002), thousands of farmers, many from Moi's Kalenjin community, were settled illegally in the area. Deforestation diminished the Maasai Mau's ability to absorb seasonal rains and then feed rivers for the rest of the year. The Tunai administration has been accused of not pushing aggressively enough to oust beneficiaries of irregular land allocations, many of them from the Kipsigis community that helped him get elected. The Maasai have long bitterly protested these settlements, complaining about the long-term negative effects on the environment that threaten their economic lifeline as semi-nomadic pastoralists. "Maasais have preserved these forests for hundreds of years," Joseph Siameto Pareyio, a Maasai elder, told Crisis Group. "There is a lot of bitterness about the destruction of this heritage to reward illegal political settlers". The third and most pronounced complaint is the dominance of "outsiders" (that is, non-Maasai) in local county administration positions. The governor cultivated his electoral coalition by handing many county jobs to members of other communities. A 2015 audit by the NCIC cohesion agency found Narok to be one of the three most inclusive counties due to the high number of individuals from different communities employed by the county administration. However, many Purko see the governor's strategy as marginalising them. "Devolution was designed to be a form of affirmative action that brings resources closer to the people", Riamit said. "Locals feel short-changed. They are being sidelined while the minorities are happy. Jobs here are shared [evenly] between the communities. But why aren't Maasais given the same jobs in the other counties where these minority groups hail from and where the dominant groups take 90-95 per cent of the jobs?" Together with this complaint comes the question of electoral representation. A consistent issue that came up in interviews is the growing role of non-local communities in determining election outcomes by pooling their numbers to defeat Purko candidates, whose votes are often split among multiple Purko candidates. Political Battle-lines The race for governor is expected to be a three-way affair. Tunai, will seek to defend his seat. He will be backed by the Jubilee party leaders, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. He will face two Purko contenders, despite the best efforts of elders to unite the clan behind one of their own. Musuni ole Tiampati, who was endorsed at a gathering of Purko elders at the end of 2015 as the community standard bearer, will fly the flag of the Orange Democratic Movement and will receive strong support from opposition Nasa heavyweights, led by its presidential candidate, Raila Odinga. The Narok West MP Patrick ole Ntutu, also Purko, will run on the ticket of the Chama Cha Mashinani party that is headed by Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, a challenger for the leadership of the Kalenjin to Deputy President Ruto (no relation). The race for the Senate is attracting attention too, with media reports indicating a youthful Kipsigis candidate, Albert Kimingin, could benefit from divisions among several Purko candidates. A victory for him undoubtedly would deepen local grievances and heighten the danger of violent protests and inter-communal fighting. What to Do? Understandably, competition for the presidency has attracted the bulk of attention. But with a reformed constitutional order having raised the stakes at the local level, steps also need to be taken to help avert poll-related violence in Narok and Kenya's many other ethnically divided counties. First, to minimize the risk of election-related violence, state agencies working on peaceful co-existence such as the NCIC, together with their international partners, should step up peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts in Narok. In particular, the NCIC should continue efforts to record all political rallies to monitor politicians engaging in hate speech. In the same spirit, the agency should work more closely with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to compile strong cases for possible prosecution for incitement, a development that would serve as a deterrent to others. Donors should enhance technical assistance to the agency to improve its capacity on this score. Second, the government and donors should revive support for the substantial grassroots peace-building infrastructure that was established following the 2007-2008 post-election crisis and which largely has been neglected since the relatively peaceful 2013 elections. Informal institutions including peace committees -- district gatherings of elders and local civil society groups that engage in traditional mediation -- can play an important role in fostering reconciliation at the subnational level. Interviews in Narok with members of these groups suggests that backing from the Office of the President for these entities, now known as County Peace Committees, largely has dried up. Members no longer receive honoraria or support to travel to and hold meetings. Even important non-monetary recognition, such as awards for outstanding peace builders, are not extended in the same way they were while memories of the 2007-2008 post-election violence were fresh. This is a mistake. Local level peace committees, particularly in northern Kenya, typically have played a vital role in maintaining harmony at the grassroots and exploring non-violent dispute resolution. Third, formal governmental structures such as the County Security Committee - a body that brings together security officials, including police chiefs and provincial administrators -- should take the lead in ensuring a peaceful election. They should recommend beefing up police presence in the county before, during and after voting day, even as attention is paid to ensuring that police and paramilitary units act in a neutral and professional manner and that they liaise more effectively with the informal elders' caucuses and peace committees to promote peaceful dispute resolution. In particular, security officials should encourage regular dialogue between community elders who still retain considerable sway with potential militants. Fourth, religious leaders, donors and the business community should lean on candidates for office both at the local and national levels to sign a pre-election code of conduct, whose content can be agreed upon by religious leaders and candidates, signalling a commitment to a peaceful election. They should also agree to channel any disputes to the court system. Once the election is over, it will be time for the government to try to address persistent land issues, including by resolving boundary disputes at the root of tension in several parts of Narok, and halt the destruction of forests so vital for the county's water supplies. Australia: Compensation deal must lead to safe resettlement for refugees Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 14 June 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Australia: Compensation deal must lead to safe resettlement for refugees, 14 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59412dd64.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. A landmark settlement that forces the Australian government to pay more than AUS $70m in compensation to nearly 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers for illegally detaining them on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island amid horrific conditions must lead to their safe resettlement, Amnesty International said today. "While the compensation deal is important, it does not remedy the injustices visited upon the refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island or change their present circumstances. The Australian government must finally face up to the inescapable reality that their offshore detention policies are unsustainable and bring all of the people trapped by them to safety in Australia," said Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International's Pacific Researcher. "This settlement is a long overdue but welcome recognition of the harm that refugees and people seeking asylum have endured on Manus Island. Now, the Australian government must dismantle its illegal offshore detention centre and safely resettle these people." The compensation deal came after a class action was brought on behalf of 1,905 people who have been detained on Manus Island as part of Australia's offshore detention policy. It involved 200 witness statements, 200,000 documents, and more than 50 court dates. The law firm that brought the class action detailed the cruel conditions on Manus Island, many of which Amnesty International has highlighted in the past. The settlement agreed by the parties will be paid by the Australian government and its service providers, including G4S and Broadspectrum. In April 2016, Broadspectrum became a subsidiary of the Spanish multinational Ferrovial. "This settlement should send a clear signal to all companies involved in the inherently abusive offshore detention policies of the Australian government that they can be held liable. They should close their operations on Manus Island, and no other company should ever contemplate taking their place," said Kate Schuetze. Last year, the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruled that the Australian-run detention centre was "illegal" and "unconstitutional", but the Australian government has yet to close it down. No plans have been made public about how they will safely resettle the people still immured on Manus Island. Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Sudan: End the miscarriage of justice against Dr Mudawi and his colleague Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 14 June 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Sudan: End the miscarriage of justice against Dr Mudawi and his colleague, 14 June 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59412e534.html [accessed 11 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. The Sudanese authorities must immediately release prominent human rights defender Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam and his colleague Hafiz Idris Eldoma, and halt its misguided assault on dissenting voices in the country, said Amnesty International as their trial begins in the capital Khartoum today. Dr Mudawi and Hafiz are facing six trumped-up charges, including 'undermining the constitutional system and waging war against the state', both of which carry either the death penalty or life imprisonment. "Dr Mudawi has continuously been harassed by the Sudanese government for his human rights work in Darfur and across Sudan for more than a decade. Unfortunately, this latest round sees the harassment take a more sinister turn as both he and his colleague Hafiz potentially face the death penalty," said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes. "Human rights work is not a crime, so Dr Mudawi and Hafiz must be immediately and unconditionally released. Their arrest and continued incarceration is a miscarriage of justice, plain and simple." Dr Mudawi, an engineering professor at the University of Khartoum, was arrested by intelligence agents on 7 December 2016. He founded and is the former director of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), and has won several human rights awards. Hafiz Edris Eldoma, an internally displaced person from Darfur, was arrested on 24 November 2016 at Dr Mudawi's house. Amnesty International is campaigning for Dr Mudawi's release as part of its Brave campaign. 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Smh. I am beginning to think all the big cities have idiots sitting in power. Maybe time for their citizens to start really digging on all their representatives and those who want to represent them. Michele Anderson Oh boy these fireworks sure are scary. We better not have any fun. Guess I will just sit in the mall and stare at the empty store fronts this 4th. Andrew Johnson Trump Budget 20 Trillion of debt somebody has to grab the bull by the horns and make some sacrifices we cannot withstand the debt load it is know are third highest expenditure just to pay the interest Terry Morris The sweet irony is these cuts will negatively effect Trump supporters the worst. It's hard to maintain empathy. Calvin Richards Jobs I think plenty of graduates in certain fields know they can get a job in North Iowa. For example jobs in health care exist all over. The difference is Des Moines has amenities- things to do. It's more exciting. Mason City is trying to retain our youth by creating and offering reasons to stay. So yeah, build a hotel, convention center, and multi purpose arena, because it adds value to our declining downtown. It adds vibrancy, which is desperately needed, to the downtown area. It offers opportunities for events, aka things to do. High paying companies don't want to invest into a dying town. So let's keep it alive and move towards progress. Louisa Maria Montealvo I graduated 11 years ago and left for college. I haven't moved back because there aren't any jobs like there are in Des Moines. Gary Bissig Nokia ground-breaking innovations allow webscale operators and service providers to build the world's most powerful networks Nokia introduces breakthrough IP routing portfolio, including industry's highest density and petabit-class performance No-compromise design delivers performance needed for immersive experiences with the security and intelligence required to support connecting and automating billions of devices Platforms powered by advanced Nokia new FP4 silicon - the world's first multi-terabit chipset, up to 6x more powerful than network processors shipping today 14 June, 2017 Espoo, Finland and San Francisco - Nokia today unveiled the world's most powerful internet routing platforms that will ensure modern networks are faster, safer and dramatically more adaptable. Nokia FP4 silicon provides a generational performance boost over existing solutions while delivering improved network security and intelligence. The "next chapter" of the internet, including immersive communications, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence/automation, will again boost productivity and further transform the way we work and how we live. It will also place fresh demands on the network. In addition to continued rapid growth in video traffic driven largely by social networking and content, the upcoming era will add dimensions of scale, create new security threats, and require more agility in network operations. Nokia Bell Labs forecasts IP traffic will more than double in the next five years, reaching 330 exabytes a month by 2022 while growing at 25 percent compound annual growth rates. Peak data rates will grow even faster, at nearly 40 percent annually. This surge is a direct result of insatiable consumer and business demand for services - including high-definition video streaming and, more recently, virtual reality - combined with the advent of high-speed, low-latency networks that connect people and things. Nokia Bell Labs expects this latter market to reach 100 billion connected devices by 2025. This new set of challenges will require a re-think of the internet infrastructure. According to Basil Alwan, president of the ION Business Group at Nokia, "The internet platform is set to fully subsume HD on-demand video while simultaneously expanding with connectivity to billions of new devices. Stepping forward demands an immense performance increase, vastly improved insight and security and, of course, compelling economics. With today's announcement, we are delivering the technology advances needed to support this evolution. The end game is all-important: an evolved global nervous system for society and certainly the most capable, cost-effective, resilient and secure infrastructure ever built." World's Most Powerful Routing Platforms The Nokia 7750 Service Router (SR)-s series provides the industry's highest-density routing platform that can support a 144 Tb/s configuration in a single shelf. In addition, the company introduces a petabit-class router, the new Nokia 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS)-XC. A leap for Nokia's core router family and the industry, it is the world's highest-capacity router to date. It scales to 576 Tb/s in a single system through chassis extension, without requiring separate switching shelves. The new Nokia platforms are the industry's first capable of delivering terabit IP flows, a 10x improvement over the existing 100 Gb/s links used to construct the internet backbone. A Smarter and More Secure Internet Nokia has also integrated the optimal blend of capacity and performance with deep visibility, fine-grained control, telemetry and security into its new FP4-based routing platforms. This ensures modern networking systems of webscale companies and service providers can meet data demand, adapt to change, and scale cost-effectively and securely for the cloud, 5G and IoT. Enhanced packet intelligence and control technology embedded in the FP4 - when combined with Nokia's Deepfield IP network analytics solution and comprehensive SDN portfolio - maximizes efficiency and opportunity while minimizing and mitigating security threats. This includes DDoS attacks, which impact productivity and commerce and are growing in number and impact each year. According to Deloitte Global's TMT predictions, over 10 million attacks are expected in 2017. Nokia's FP4 Silicon Innovation The foundation of these new systems is FP4 silicon, a breakthrough networking chipset. FP4 features the world's first 2.4 Tb/s network processor - up to 6x more powerful than processors currently available - opening the door to clear-channel terabit speeds and petabit-class routers. This innovation is the result of years of engineering and research and leverages the latest advances in silicon including 16nm FinFET Plus and multi-dimensional design. The FP4 design also delivers many architectural innovations, including novel Nokia-invented intelligent memory, that enhance performance and efficiency, all while minimizing package size. Nokia innovation key facts: Nokia FP4 is the industry's first 2.4 Tb/s network processor silicon Industry-first support for terabit IP flows Industry's first petabit-class router with Nokia XRS-XC delivering 576 Tb /s of capacity New Nokia 7750 SR-s platforms provide highest density. The single-shelf Nokia 7750 SR-14s supports a 144 Tb/s configuration, and can scale up to 288 Tb/s in capacity Up to 6x increase in capacity of existing platforms provides investment protection for broadly deployed systems Unique enhanced packet intelligence and control capabilities to provide deep visibility and fine-grained control, improving quality of experience as well as asset utilization Nokia will begin shipping the solution in Q4 2017. Neil McRae, BT Managing Director and Chief Architect, said: "Every day the networks we build enable our customers and communities to come together and share - from the simplest task of booking dinner for family and friends online to seeing the first picture of your newly born granddaughter. The network has changed our world in ways we never imagined. At BT, being the best network that's there for you when you need it is at the core of our purpose. With demand continuing to rocket, together with more cloud-based applications, innovations like Nokia's new FP4 silicon and routing platforms allow us to maintain our commitment to our customers by balancing capacity, intelligence, visibility and security, so we can transform to an insight-driven, automated networking approach for building and operating our networks. And because these innovations also work with existing platforms, we can gracefully evolve our existing networks to complement new builds to prepare for the next wave of ultrafast broadband, 5G, IoT and machine communications." Daniel Melzer, CTO for DE-CIX, said: "As the world's leading internet exchange operator, DE-CIX values Nokia's multi-terabit FP4 silicon innovation that drives best-in-class capacity, density and efficiency in 7950 XRS routing platforms. DE-CIX continues its partnership with Nokia to deploy the world's biggest and most capable routers at the heart of our exchange. We look forward to being among the very first to deploy the new systems later this year." Ray Mota, CEO & principal analyst, ACG Research, said: "Webscale operators are building bigger networks to connect resources across the globe and bring data centers closer to users for the highest performance. Nokia has managed to combine the raw horsepower required to run historic amounts of traffic between data centers with intelligent, secure and adaptable capabilities necessary for a cloud-connected environment. The company has seemingly struck the right balance with silicon and systems innovations that address investment protection and now has the fastest router on the market." Michael Howard, senior research director, Carrier Networks, IHS Markit, said: "Leading network operators everywhere are adopting big data analytics and software-driven automation to evolve to a modern way of building and operating IP networks - no question! Operators are looking for a very high-performance network that provides not just the requisite jacked-up power and capacity, but they also need intelligence and extensibility to meet their goals of automation and service agility. Operators will want to examine the new Nokia FP4 silicon and the systems that use it - as it delivers against this triplet of critical network capabilities - to support their offered services in this cloud age with IoT, 5G, and machine communications, where networks must become bigger, more adaptable and more secure than any we've seen to date." Frank Ostojic, senior vice president and general manager, ASIC Products Division, Broadcom, said: "Nokia is setting the pace with their FP4 network processor. When it comes to the highest levels of integration and use of cutting edge silicon technologies, including 16nm finFET Plus process technology, Broadcom's industry-leading embedded SerDes, and advanced packaging, Nokia is charting a course that others will have to follow." Market stats at a glance: According to Nokia Bell Labs: Total IP traffic increases to ~ 330 EB /month by 2022 - growing at 25 percent CAGR, with peak data rates growing at a faster 39 percent CAGR 3D/4K/UHD will experience a 4.79X growth from 2017 - 2022 Wireless traffic will experience 7.5X growth from 2017 - 2022 Worldwide IoT devices to grow from 12B in 2017 to 100B in 2025 10 million instances of DDoS attacks in 2017 Deloitte Global forecastsinstances of DDoS attacks in 2017 Key resources: Connect with Nokia Networks: About Nokia We create the technology to connect the world. Powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we serve communications service providers, governments, large enterprises and consumers, with the industry's most complete, end-to-end portfolio of products, services and licensing. From the enabling infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things, to emerging applications in virtual reality and digital health, we are shaping the future of technology to transform the human experience. www.nokia.com Media Enquiries: Sarah Miller IP and Optical Communications, Nokia Phone: 613-720-9716 Email: sarah.miller@nokia.com Twitter: @sarahjmiller2 Nokia Communications Phone: +358 10 448 4900 Email: press.services@nokia.com Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday lifted a travel ban on former opposition chief Sam Rainsy, daring his long-time opponent to return to the country to face a criminal conviction observers have called politically motivated. On Wednesday, Hun Sen ordered Council of Ministers secretary of state Tekreth Samrech to issue a letter notifying the National Police and the Immigration Department of the governments decision to annul the travel ban, imposed on Oct. 12. Yim Sovann, spokesperson for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), welcomed the decision, calling it a positive sign for the CNRP, but refrained from saying when his partys former leader might return to Cambodia. Dont think of other issues yetlets wait and see how things play out first, because this is a developing situation, he said, adding that the partys leadership is discussing how to proceed. Sam Rainsy, who has remained abroad since late 2015 when a conviction he believed had been overturned by a royal pardon was revived, resigned as CNRP chief in February following the introduction of a law that bars anyone convicted of a crime from holding the top offices in a political party. On Tuesday, during a call in show with RFAs Khmer Service, Sam Rainsy vowed to return to Cambodia to face off against Hun Sen in next years general election and called on the prime minister to remove the travel ban, adding that he would dare to be imprisoned and even face death so long as our nation can live. Ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) spokesperson Sok Ey San said Wednesday that the government decided to annul the travel ban after listening to the interview, and questioned whether the former opposition leader dared to return to face his conviction, now that Hun Sen had done as he requested. Sam Rainsy spoke last night in an interview with RFA and everyone heard that he is not afraid [to face the court conviction], he said. So now, he may return by boarding any plane he likes. Please return. Sok Ey San said that the CPP has no plans to negotiate, for the time being. Hun Sen has repeatedly pursued defamation cases against Sam Rainsy, who has faced a total of seven lawsuits filed in Cambodian courts. Game of chicken Lu Lay Sreng, Cambodias former deputy prime minister and a former senior official of the royalist Funcinpec Party, told RFA it is time for Hun Sen to seek reconciliation between the opposition and ruling parties. He said the ongoing spat is hurting Cambodia after successful June 4 commune elections, when the nation should be healing and making progress, instead of continuing to depend on foreign aid. It is time that the Khmers fully learn their lessonenough is enough, he said. We should learn to exist independently, since we always depend on others by begging for [assistance]. Local political analyst Meas Ny called the lifting of the travel ban a new political game of chicken that the government is using to challenge Sam Rainsy. He noted that if Sam Rainsy fails to uphold his pledge to return and possibly face jail time, his popularity will suffer. I think the move may benefit both sides, he said, instead of just the CNRP. The CPP may silence its critics, since the party has been seen as treating Sam Rainsy badly and unfairly during the election. Reported by Zakariya Tin for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A de facto monopoly on Cambodias radio waves has allowed the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to retain political control of the countrys northeast, according to civil society groups and residents, who have called on the government to allow independent media broadcasts into remote areas in the region. Rural residents of Kratie, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces are only able to access independent mediaincluding Khmer-language radio broadcasts from foreign entitiesvia shortwave frequencies, giving government-aligned media groups that use stronger FM frequencies an advantage. While the Ministry of Information officially delegates power to provincial information departments to decide how media groups can broadcast locally, provincial directors routinely refer to the ministry for permission whenever independent outlets request the right to rebroadcast their programs through local FM radio stations. The relay requests are inevitably rejected on the grounds that each radio station should produce its own broadcasting content. Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) executive director Pang Nguon Teang told RFAs Khmer Service that by refusing to grant rebroadcast rights to independent media groups, the government is effectively denying the public access to information and balanced news coverage. People [in rural parts of the northeast provinces] rarely receive information from independent news outlets, so their perspective [on Cambodias current events] is not comprehensive, he said. The government is also failing to provide them with the option of accessing independent news. Pang Nguon Teangs concerns were echoed by ADHOCs Stung Treng provincial coordinator Ho Sam Ol, who told RFA that denying the public access to a range of viewpoints is undemocratic, particularly amid Cambodias commune ballot held on June 4 and ahead of general elections set for 2018. We have seen that residents only receive news from one side, so they only hear about the good aspects [of the government] and tend to make uninformed decisions, he said. In genuinely democratic [countries], citizens should be allowed access [to information from various sources] for their own consideration. While official results from last weeks commune elections wont be announced until June 25, preliminary results showed the CPP won 22 provinces while the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) won two major cities, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, as well as in Kompong Cham province. Government-aligned broadcasts Residents from Stung Trengs Thala Borivath district told RFA they dont know why they lack access to independent media when they can easily tune in to government-aligned broadcasts through the provinces six FM radio stations. Sy Nang said she would like to hear relays of independent media broadcasts through local FM radio stations so that she and other members of her community can understand the realities of society. It is crucial for us to understand what is going on in our society, such as government activities, since we all are Khmers, she said. Another resident of Thala Borivath named Chan Borin said that he used to listen to domestic news broadcasts, but gave up because they only portrayed the government in a positive light. Ministry of Information spokesperson Ouk Kimseng was not immediately available for comment regarding the governments policy on independent media broadcasts. Stung Treng provincial Information Department chief Ouk Theavy told RFA that local radio stations with licenses from the Ministry of Information must comply with terms and conditions as stipulated by the ministry according to the law. He said his department can neither grant nor deny permission for local radio stations to relay broadcasting from independent media outlets, adding that the onus is on local station owners to comply with Ministry of Information standards. All stations must comply with the law which clearly stipulate guidelines for operation, he said. Free flow of information San Chey, the Cambodia network fellow for the Philippines-based Affiliated Network for Social AccountabilityEAP Foundation, told RFA he wants to see citizens from all walks of life have access to comprehensive, accurate and independent news so that they can make informed political decisions. He said news coverage that lacks balance can lead local communities to make choices that can negatively affect their development. This can affect the progress of democracy, such as the implementation of government reform policies and, in particular, decentralization reforms, he said. San Chey called on Cambodias government to find ways to facilitate public access to comprehensive news coverage that addresses the needs of local communities. The free flow of information and ideas is a fundamental resource in democratic countries and is crucial for the genuine respect of human rights, he said. In 2013, the Ministry of Information overturned an order directing all FM stations to cease rebroadcasting Khmer-language radio programs by foreign broadcasters in the run-up to the countrys general elections, after Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration came under fire from the U.S., as well as foreign and local rights groups. Khmer programs of at least three foreign broadcastersU.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA), as well as Radio Australiahad been barred from being aired under the directive, which was seen as a major setback to media freedom in the country and aimed at stifling the voice of the opposition. Reported by Chanthy Men for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A relative by marriage of late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping and chairman of aggressive overseas investor Anbang Insurance is reportedly under investigation by the ruling Chinese Communist Party after becoming "temporarily unable to fulfill his duties," state-backed media reported on . "Anbang Insurance Chairman Wu Xiaohui is temporarily unable to fulfill his duties owing to personal reasons, and has authorized the relevant high-level company officers to carry out his duties," Anbang said in a brief announcement on its website on . Wu, who is married to Deng's granddaughter Zhuo Ran, was taken away by Chinese authorities on , the influential financial magazine Caijing reported on its website, citing unnamed sources. Officials from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission met with a small group of Anbang staff on and didnt provide specific reasons for Wu being taken, the report, which was later deleted, said. Sources also told the English-language South China Morning Post that Wu had been assisting relevant investigations and previously had always returned to his office or home after a few hours of questioning. But this time, Wu hasnt returned, the paper quoted the source as saying. A Chinese financial journalist said the Caixin story reporting Wu's detention needs no further confirmation for her and her colleagues. "If Caixin says Wu Xiaohui has been detained, then he's been detained," the journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, told RFA. "Both of these publications have the backing of [party disciplinary czar] Wang Qishan." 'Far too political' She said that no other Chinese publications are likely to touch the Anbang story now, for fear of being disciplined themselves. "It's far too political for us ... We can't touch the Anbang story; only Caijing and Caixin can do that," she said. And a journalist surnamed Wan said that while the Chinese rumor mill is currently churning out a confusing mass of stories about Wu's detention, a key theme in the investigation appears to be the transfer of capital overseas by China's financial and political elite. Beijing-based political commentator Zhang Lifan said he too is fairly certain that Wu is now under investigation. "The news that Wu Xiaohui was taken away has been deleted, and Anbang has in the meantime made personnel arrangements now that he is unable to carry out his duties," Zhang said. "Actually, I think we can assume that the news that Wu Xiaohui is under investigation has already been confirmed." "I just think that Anbang and the government want to minimize coverage, so as to protect the financial markets from shocks," he said. "That's why they haven't gone public or high-profile with this." Repeated calls to the Anbang Insurance corporate headquarters rang unanswered during office hours on . 19th Party Congress looms Zhang said Wu's detention, like the disappearance last January of billionaire Xiao Jianhua from a Hong Kong hotel in the middle of the night, likely reflects behind-the-scenes power struggles ahead of the 19th Party Congress later this year. "This could be part of an attack on serving leaders ahead of the 19th Party Congress, or it could represent a challenge to the authority of [President Xi Jinping]," he said. "But I think it's more likely to be a form of threat or warning than a direct attack on anyone." Anti-graft campaigner Ma Bo said President Xi's anti-corruption campaign, which critics say is a thinly disguised form of factional strife, is unlikely to end any time soon. "There are two many [high-ranking] tigers and [low-ranking] flies, and they'll never be able to get them all," Ma said. "And a lot of cases aren't being immediately reported on." Anbang is Chinas third largest insurer with 1.97 trillion yuan (U.S.$290 billion) in total assets, and recent reports by financial news service Caixin and the New York Times have exposed complex ownership patterns linking much of its assets to Wu and his wife. Caijing's cover story A Maze of Capital Leads to Anbangs Aggressive Expansion prompted legal threats and counter-threats amid strenuous denials from the company. The company was propelled into the international spotlight with its purchase of New York's iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel in 2015, and has made other international deals worth U.S.$30 billion. However, the company was banned from issuing any new financial products for three months in May by China's insurance regulator, which cited shoddy risk-management practices. Reported by Wong Siu-san and Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Ding Wenqi for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. ATLANTA, June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mueller Systems is collaborating with Senet to deliver advanced metering infrastructure to water utilities across North America, the two companies announced today. Mueller Systems, a subsidiary of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA), provides smart metering solutions to optimize the delivery and use of water. Senet is the first and fastest-growing North American provider of public, low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANS) for long-range Internet of Things (IoT) applications supporting the LoRaWAN protocol. Both Mueller Systems and Senet are members of The LoRa Alliance, an open, non-profit association of members that believes the IoT era is now. Mueller Systems will utilize Senets open standards-based, public LoRaWAN to bring its LoRa- enabled metering solutions to market and to deliver IoT solutions and coverage to its customers throughout North America. This collaboration will bring to market a highly scalable network of wireless IoT sensors for water metering and management applications designed to boost utility provider efficiencies. Senet is excited to be working with Mueller Systems to solve some of the most demanding connectivity requirements associated with the IoT and bring real value to water utilities throughout North America, said John Nye, vice president of business development for Senet. We bring the experience, reliability and flexibility to move quickly, enabling IoT application providers to aggregate sensor data at scale and improve the performance and value of expanding critical infrastructure projects. By utilizing Senets network, we can increase the reach of our AMI solution, enabling even more water utilities to benefit from the Mi.Net Systems capabilities, said Hassan Ali, vice president and general manager of Mueller Systems. By leveraging the Internet of Things, municipalities can transform their water systems into open communications systems enabling them to improve the service they offer their customers and increase the connectivity of all city services. About Mueller Systems Mueller Systems, LLC is a Mueller Technologies company and a subsidiary of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA). Mueller Systems provides smart metering solutions to optimize the delivery and use of water, such as the Mi.Net system. Mueller Systems offers a full line of residential, fire line and commercial meters, AMR / AMI systems and related products. For more information about Mueller Systems, visit www.muellersystems.com. About Mueller Water Products, Inc. Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA) is a leading manufacturer and marketer of products and services used in the transmission, distribution and measurement of water in North America. Our broad product and service portfolio includes engineered valves, fire hydrants, metering products and systems, leak detection and pipe condition assessment. We help municipalities increase operational efficiencies, improve customer service and prioritize capital spending, demonstrating why Mueller Water Products is Where Intelligence Meets Infrastructure. For more information about Mueller Water Products, visit www.muellerwaterproducts.com. About Senet, Inc. Senet, a contributing member of the LoRa Alliance, is the first and fastest growing provider in North America of low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) with its class-leading LoRa modulation for IoT/M2M applications. LPWANs enable value-driven solutions that can unlock immediate ROI by enabling devices to connect over very long ranges (approximately 15 miles) while delivering very long battery power life (approximately 10 years) for an extremely low total cost of ownership. For applications that require low cost, low power, and long range, the secure Senet network has distinct advantages over cellular, Wi-Fi, and other emerging connectivity technologies for the IoT market. For additional information, visit http://www.senetco.com. Authorities in the Chinese capital have warned off a lawyer hired by the family of detained human rights attorney Wang Quanzhang, saying that he will be represented by a government-appointed lawyer instead. Wang has been held at an unknown location without trial or access to a lawyer or family visits for nearly two years after being detained in a nationwide police operation targeting rights lawyers and associated activists. Recently, the Beijing branch of the China Law Association contacted his defense attorney Yu Wensheng to inform him that he is no longer instructed to act for his client. "The Tianjin branch of the Law Association has appointed a lawyer, but we don't yet know who the lawyer is," Yu said in a recent interview. "But I and [fellow defense attorney] Cheng Hai want to stand up for our right to represent him." "We plan to go to Tianjin, because according to the rules, I and Cheng Hai are his lawyers, and we can only have our instructions terminated by Wang Quanzhang himself," he said. Yu said the authorities are likely making it as hard as possible for detained lawyers like Wang to defend themselves. "If there's any point to it at all, then it's to do with stability maintenance," he said. Cheng said the Law Association is working with the judicial affairs bureau to control Wang's choice of lawyer. "I told them that we are his lawyers, that we have already filed the papers, and that we are legally his representatives," he said. "They need to tell Wang Quanzhang to terminate our instructions, otherwise we can't stop acting on them." Making life harder for lawyers He said the move was likely just another way of making life harder for Chinese lawyers. "The Tianjin Law Association is out of line, and it's just another form of insult to the legal profession in China," he said. Meanwhile, Wang's wife Li Wenzu said her father-in-law has been targeted by local officials, who are threatening to cut off his state pension if he doesn't come home and stop trying to find out where his son is being held. ", Wang Quanzhang's father's former employer called him twice, then the local party secretary called him, telling him to go home as soon as possible, or he could wind up with no income," Li told RFA. "We think that they have an ulterior motive ... it's because we have continued to speak out against [Wang's detention]," she said. "They have come up with a new way [to persecute us], but we won't give up; we will remain united, and continue our fight for Wang Quanzhang." Wang once worked for the now-shuttered Fengrui law firm that was the first target of police raids and detentions in that broadened into a nationwide operation targeting more than 300 lawyers, law firm staff and associated rights activists for detention, professional sanctions, house arrest and travel bans, including for family members, In March, fellow Fengrui lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan made a complaint to Beijing's mayoral hotline, likening the crackdown on lawyers to the political violence of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Investigations by RFA revealed that while Beijing Fengrui is still listed as a law firm on the official website of the Beijing judicial affairs bureau, the firm's former premises in the capital are now occupied by a commercial company. But Fengrui cases continue to be cited in the education and information section of the bureau's website. Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Ng Yik-tung and Sing Man for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Two weeks into Ramadan, authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have handed down punishments to at least 100 ethnic minority Muslims for breaking the ruling Chinese Communist Party's restrictions around observance of the religious fasting month, an exile group has said. Since Muslims in China began observing dawn-to-dusk fasting and other restrictions on , the government has been imposing fines and other sanctions on any state employees who refuse to eat in the middle of the day, according to the World Uyghur Congress, which represents the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group in exile. "Since the beginning of Ramadan, at least 100 people have been punished for breaking the Chinese government's policies on Ramadan in Kashgar and Hotan [in Chinese, Hetian]," the group's spokesman Dilxat Raxit told RFA. "Some of them were fined, while others were sent to compulsory reeducation classes aimed at opposing religious extremism," he said. "They are now being forcibly brainwashed, while others were fined 500 yuan." He said that fines of that magnitude in themselves represent an intolerable financial burden for poverty-stricken rural families. Raxit said some of those punished were farmers, while others were state employees or government officials, all of whom are forbidden to fast or pursue any other religious activities under the atheist Communist Party. Anyone in an official job is put under intense pressure to break their fast, to show loyalty to the government, he said. "The authorities will send people to take [Uyghur Muslims] out to lunch, for example," Raxit said. "In the countryside, the officials go into the fields and eat and work alongside the people there ... it's basically a political campaign [against religious practice]." "They go into the fields with food and drink, and they try everything [to get people to eat or drink]," he said. "They have set up a special stability maintenance team which consists of police, citizen security agents and village-level officials, as well as stability maintenance specialists sent from [regional capital] Urumqi." Drastic steps Similar restrictions are being enforced in Urumqi, according to resident of the city surnamed Jiao. "The same stability maintenance work is going on, whether it be in the city or the countryside," Jiao said. "But there are differences between neighborhoods, and some neighborhoods have increased security, with ID checks on anyone going in or out." "I think the authorities are worried about people gathering together, maybe extremists gathering in those neighborhoods; they are terrified of this happening," he said. While authorities in Xinjiang have typically forced restaurants to stay open and restricted access to mosques during Ramadan to discourage traditional observation of the holy month, officials in Hotan prefecture said the local government is taking more drastic steps this year and assigning party officials to each Uyghur family for monitoring purposes, sources told RFA last week. Another Xinjiang source, who gave only his surname Zuo, said the regional branch of the Communist Party's disciplinary arm has fired or demoted dozens of officials for breaching party guidelines on religious observance. "There are two ways of investigating people, overtly and covertly," Zuo said. "These stability maintenance measures are the product of very particular circumstances, both in and outside China." "There is a connection with anti-terrorism measures internationally, which are pretty tight right now." But Raxit said Beijing is using any means it can to step up political pressure on Uyghurs. "They are using all manner of political threats [with these sanctions] to force officials to deliver on Beijing's policies targeting Uyghurs for persecution and control," he said. Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Xin Lin for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar is surrounded by reporters after Malaysian investigators issued arrest warrants for four North Koreans, March 16, 2017. The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was carrying an undisclosed amount of cash when he was murdered at a Kuala Lumpur airport in February, Malaysias police chief confirmed Wednesday, in the latest twist to the case that sparked international attention. Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar declined to give the amount of money that Kim Jong Nam had with him when he was allegedly poisoned to death at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) on Feb 13. Japans Asahi Shimbun on Monday reported that he was carrying U.S. $120,000 (511,806 ringgit) in four bundles that each contained 300 U.S. bills in 100-dollar denominations. The bundles of cash, in mostly mint condition, were in a black bag found among Kims belongings, the article said. Yes, an amount of money was found on the victim but I wont confirm for you the figure, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. Dont believe the foreign media. he said, referring to the Asahi report. The foreign press, when writing stories, tend to make it livelier. According to Asahi, because Kim Jong Nam held a diplomatic passport, his luggage was not subject to thorough screening when entering and leaving the country. Citing Malaysian investigative authorities, the Japanese newspaper also reported that Kim Jong Nam had met with a man believed to have links with a U.S. intelligence agency during Kims eight-day stay in Malaysia. According to the report, an unidentified official said Kim could have received the cash from the man in return for providing information. Two Southeast Asian women have been charged with murder for allegedly poisoning Kim Jong Nam to death by smearing a banned chemical agent on his face as they accosted him at KLIA2, while he was preparing to board a flight to Macau, where he and his family lived. Kim died about 15 minutes later while en route to a hospital. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Hoang were charged in court in March with Kim's murder along with four others who are still at large a reference to North Korean men who were spotted on surveillance cameras at an airport restaurant with the women, moments before the attack on Kim. The men boarded planes and left the country later that day, police said. Malaysia, South Korea and the United States had linked Kim Jong Uns regime to the murder, which strained nearly four decades of diplomatic ties between Malaysia and North Korea. Six weeks after Kim Jong Nams death, two other North Korean nationals identified by Malaysian police as suspects in the killing and who had hid in the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur were allowed to return home aboard a plane that carried Kims body. Malaysian authorities granted custody of the body to the North Korean authorities on March 30 in exchange for nine Malaysians who had been trapped in Pyongyang by an exit ban. North Korea had strongly denied any role in Kims killing and even refused to identify the body as that of Kim Jong Nam, who was carrying a passport bearing the name of Kim Chol when he was attacked. The female suspects are scheduled to appear Friday at a case management hearing in a courtroom at the Kajang Womens Prison in Selangor state. Officials moved the hearing from the Shah Alam High Court because of security concerns. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered authorities in the isolated, communist state to expand a crackdown on illegal cell phone use to cover citizens who have links to defectors in South Korea, sources familiar with the situation said. In the past, authorities targeted only actual cell phone users and sent them to a political prison camp if they were found to have connections in South Korea, they said. North Koreas Ministry of State Security has now extended the crackdown to include cell phone users who might potentially use Chinese-made mobile phones to call defectors, they said. Jiro Ishimaru, a North Korea expert representing the Osaka, Japan-based AsiaPress International, told RFA that the news agencys source in the northern part of North Korean said authorities began enforcing a more extensive crackdown in May after Kim Jong Un decided to root out Chinese-manufactured cell phone users who have links to the countrys mortal enemy South Korea. When the original crackdown on illegal cell phone use was rolled out in late 2000 after a dramatic increase in the number of mobile calls in the border areas, those who used the devices illegally were subject to investigation. But now potential cell phone users are being investigated, and authorities are meting out harsher punishments for offenders, said Ishimaru, who edits Rimjingang, a publication that coves North Korean news. The Ministry of State Security is specifically targeting North Koreans whose families include defectors, and who have had used Chinese cell phones in the past, he said. Authorities are trying to force these individuals along with people who spend more than they earn to turn themselves in and blow the whistle on others for making illegal calls, he said. Though the Ministry of State Security already has information on those who use Chinese cell phones illegally, state security agents and officers are now visiting every household to pressure people to inform on neighbors they suspect of using mobile phones, Ishimaru said. He said the current crackdown on cell phone users is harsher than clampdowns in the past. According to a source, it is on a totally different level now, Ishimaru said. Though people have not made any phone calls, they are being visited by investigators to find out if they have family members who have defected to South Korea. There are plenty of security agents who are conducting investigations, he said. It seems like they are intensifying the crackdown to include not only actual phone users, but also potential cell phone users. This means there are stricter regulations. No forgiveness The number of North Koreans caught illegally using cell phones is increasing as a result of the widened crackdown. Ishimarus source said residents accused of illegally using cell phones are subject to intense scrutiny and sent to political prison camps if they are found to have any links to South Korea. There is a person who got caught for giving information about market prices to families in South Korea, the AsiaPress source said. It will be difficult to get him freed despite all his familys efforts. There is no forgiveness for the ones who have been in contact with anyone in South Korea, so once someone gets caught, it means the end for that person, the source said. Ishimaru noted that the crackdown includes many North Koreans who live near the Chinese border and use Chinese-made cell phones to call relatives in China, though they are not phoning South Korea. This is because many of the family members of North Koreans who have defected to South Korea live near the Chinese border, he said. North Korea is cracking down on potential users among them and treating them like political criminals no matter what their phone conversation was about, Ishimaru said. The purpose of North Koreas crackdown is to find the ones who are leaking internal information to South Korea or other countries, he said. Kim Jong Un considers people who make calls to China to be on a South Korean mission and has issued direct orders to block illegal phone use and to prevent information leakages, Ishimaru said. North Koreans use of cell phones to keep in touch with relatives living in South Korea has dramatically increased in recent years, with security agents scrambling and failing to control and shut down communications links, North Korean sources told RFA in May. Those caught using an illegal cell phones to call their relatives in South Korea usually receive sentences of three to seven years in prison, according to a North Korean source who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity in November 2015. The demand for Chinese-manufactured phones has grown in sanctions-hit North Korea because the devices can handle both domestic and international calls as well as send text messages, two sources in North Hamgyong province near the border with China told RFA in May. North Korean security agents are hunting down cell-phone users in remote areas along the border with China where signals are not jammed, one of the sources said, adding that prohibited calls can be easily made from Chinese-manufactured phones using USIM chips which can access 3G networks. Reported by Jung Min Noh for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Myanmar residents displaced by clashes between the government army and ethnic minority militias stand in front of their temporary shelter near Lung Byeng village, Waimaw township, in northern Myanmar's Kachin state, Jan. 21, 2017. About 400 people who work in the Tanaing gold and amber mining region of northern Myanmars Kachin state arrived on Tuesday night in the town of Hkamti to comply with a national military order to evacuate the resource-rich area by June 15, local officials said. The Myanmar army dropped warning letters by helicopter in the region on June 5, telling mine workers and others living there to leave by mid-June to make way for a clearance operation following a new round of fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic militia, that began two days earlier. The fliers warned that if residents failed to leave the area by June 15, the military would consider them to have connections to the KIA, sources told RFAs Myanmar Service on June 7. A total of 5,000 resident and mine workers who had migrated to the mining area from other parts of Myanmar have left the area and are staying temporarily on ships and boats and in guesthouses as they make their way back to their hometowns in Homalin, Mawlaik, Paungbyin, Minkin, Katha, and Mandalay, local officials said. They are also staying elsewhere in Tanaing township in Kachin states Myitkyina district, they said. More than 300 people on five boats arrived in Hkamti between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. last night, said Thuta Soe, deputy director of Hkamtis Relief and Resettlement Department. They stayed at guesthouses and on ships and will continue to travel to their hometowns in the morning. The boats have to dock overnight in Hkamti because they cant be operated at night. Sa Willi France, director of the Relief and Resettlement Department, said 370 people from the Tanaing gold and amber region arrived in Hkamti on Tuesday night. Some of them have returned to their hometowns, and more will arrive in Hkamti tonight, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. We arranged for them to stay overnight in two monasteries, but they didnt stay there. Instead, they stayed on ships that travel daily between Hkamti and Monywa in northwestern Myanmars Sagaing region, he said. Hundreds of other people fled the mining area last week and sought shelter in Christian churches and Buddhist monasteries. Not only migrant workers, but also local businesses and the KIA are dependent on the regions amber and gold mining activities as a source of income. Reported by Thiri Min Zin for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung (3rd R) is greeted by Vietnamese residents of Dong Tam village, My Duc district, in Hanoi, April 22, 2017. Vietnamese police on Tuesday began a criminal investigation of farmers in Dong Tam village, despite a promise by Hanois mayor not to prosecute them as a result of hostage-release negotiations during an April standoff between villagers and the local government, sources with knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday. The investigation is focusing on the illegal detention of 38 police officers and officials and acts of vandalism allegedly committed by farmers after a clash over the governments seizure of land in Dong Tam village in Hanoi's My Duc district, according to a local media report. A Dong Tam resident who spoke to RFAs Vietnamese Service on condition of anonymity said residents of the village in Hanois My Duc district are on edge about what will happen next. Now everyone here is waiting for the result [of the decision to prosecute], whatever it might be, the person said. Everyone is very nervous and worried. Police arrested several farmers from Dong Tam on April 15 for allegedly causing social unrest during a clash between authorities and commune residents who accused the government of seizing 47 hectares (116 acres) of their farmland for the military-run Viettel Groupthe countrys largest mobile phone operatorwithout compensating them. Other farmers responded by detaining 38 police officers and local officials, and threatened to kill them if security personnel attacked them a second time. Two days after the clash, police released some of the farmers they had arrested. In return, the farmers freed 15 riot police, but continued to detain 20, while three others escaped. On April 20, the farmers boycotted a meeting with Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung who was ordered to negotiate the release of the 20 police officers and local officials. He traveled to the My Duc district Peoples Committee building about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from central Hanoi to discuss the hostage situation, but the farmers wanted him to visit with them directly in Dong Tam, according to a local media report issued at the time. The standoff ended on April 22 when the farmers freed the 20 officers and officials after the mayor pledged to investigate their complaints and not prosecute the villagers. Currently, the two sides [Dong Tam villagers and the Hanoi government] are still working on the land investigation, the villager said. Right now we cant say anything until its clear that Mr. Chung has broken his promise. Wait and see Lawyer Tran Vu Hai, who went to Dong Tam during the standoff to reassure villagers, advised Dong Tam residents not jump to any conclusions about the mayors promise not to prosecute the farmers. We need to wait to see what they are going to prosecute the farmers for and what Hanoi police will say about this, he told RFA. Right now we shouldnt jump to the conclusion that Mr. Chung has broken his promise," he said. "We need to wait until we are clear about the whole situation. Dong Tam people have told us lawyers to be very careful about this issue right now, and not to find a way to fight the government or to criticize Mr. Chung, he said. Land activist Trinh Ba Phuong, who had advised farmers in Dong, said he did not believe Chung would honor his pledge from the start. At that time, I predicted that the Dong Tam villagers would face more difficulties, as well as the emptiness of what Mr. Chung said, he told RFA. Phuong is the son of activist Can Thi Theu, a resident of Duong Noi village outside Hanoi, known for her work organizing and leading protests against land appropriations. Authorities have arrested Theu and husband for their protest activities in the past. Theu is currently serving a 20-month prison sentence for causing public disorder a year ago when she and more than 50 other demonstrators gathered at the Ministry of the Environment in Hanoi to submit petitions seeking a solution to an ongoing land conflict in Duong Noi village. Mr. Chung was also involved in the arrest of my parents and the Duong Noi people, so this promise of his is of no value to me, Phuong said. Their plan is to prolong [the investigation] time to find loopholes so they can [prosecute] the Dong Tam villagers, he said. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. CHICAGO, June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (NCSBN) will recognize its dedicated and exceptional membership and guests at its annual awards ceremony during the NCSBN Annual Meeting and Delegate Assembly, held in Chicago, Aug. 17, 2017. Specific award recipients include: Mary Blubaugh, MSN, RN, former executive administrator, Kansas State Board of Nursing, will be honored with the prestigious R. Louise McManus Award. Individuals receiving this award have made sustained and significant contributions through the highest commitment and dedication to the mission and vision of NCSBN. Linda D. Burhans, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, CPHQ, FRE, board staff, North Carolina Board of Nursing, will receive the Meritorious Service Award, which is granted to a member for significant contributions to the mission and vision of NCSBN. Valerie J. Fuller, PhD, DNP, AGACNP-BC, FNP-BC, FAANP, board president, Maine State Board of Nursing, will receive the Elaine Ellibee Award that is granted to a member who has served as a board president within the past two years and who has made significant contributions to NCSBN. Nathan Goldman, JD, board staff, Kentucky Board of Nursing, Mindy Schaffner, PhD, MSN, CNS, RN, board staff, Washington State Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission and Catherine C. Woodard, board staff, Washington State Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission, will each receive the Exceptional Contribution Award, which is given for significant contribution by a member who is not a president or executive officer and demonstrated support of NCSBNs mission. The Minnesota Board of Nursing will be awarded the Regulatory Achievement Award that recognizes the member board or associate member that has made an identifiable, significant contribution to the mission and vision of NCSBN in promoting public policy related to the safe and effective practice of nursing in the interest of public welfare. In addition, service awards will be given to the following executive officers of boards of nursing (BONs): Five Years Lynn Ansardi, RN, executive director, Louisiana State Board of Practical Nurse Examiners Carina Herman, MSN, RN, executive director/registrar, College of Licensed Practical Nurses of British Columbia Cynthia Johansen, MAL, MSc, registrar and chief executive officer, College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia Cynthia LaBonde, MN, RN, executive director, Wyoming State Board of Nursing Ann Mann, MN, RN, executive director/registrar, College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Nova Scotia Denise Nies, MSN, RN, BC, executive director, New Hampshire Board of Nursing Carolyn Mary Reed, MA, RN, FCNA, chief executive/registrar, Nursing Council of New Zealand Paula Schenk, MPH, RN, executive director, Kentucky Board of Nursing Suzanne Sullivan, JD, RN, executive secretary, New York State Board of Nursing 15 Years Gloria Damgaard, MS, RN, FRE, executive director, South Dakota Board of Nursing Jay Douglas, MSM, RN, CSAC, FRE, executive director, Virginia Board of Nursing Laurette D. Keiser, MSN, RN, executive secretary/section chief, Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing Karen Scipio-Skinner, MSN, RN, executive director, District of Columbia Board of Nursing BONs celebrating 100 years of nursing regulation in 2017 Hawaii Board of Nursing Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association South Dakota Board of Nursing Utah State Board of Nursing About NCSBN Founded March 15, 1978, as an independent not-for-profit organization, NCSBN was created to lessen the burdens of state governments and bring together BONs to act and counsel together on matters of common interest. NCSBNs membership is comprised of the BONs in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and four U.S. territories American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands. There are also 27 associate members that are either nursing regulatory bodies or empowered regulatory authorities from other countries or territories. NCSBN Member Boards protect the public by ensuring that safe and competent nursing care is provided by licensed nurses. These BONs regulate more than 4.5 million licensed nurses. Mission: NCSBN provides education, service and research through collaborative leadership to promote evidence-based regulatory excellence for patient safety and public protection. The statements and opinions expressed are those of NCSBN and not the individual member state or territorial boards of nursing. Nearly four years after Dominion Energy applied, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has opened a path forward for the utility giants contentious proposed transmission line across the James River near Historic Jamestown. The 500-kilovolt line, which Dominion says is needed to ensure reliability on the Peninsula following the planned closure of coal-fired units at the Yorktown Power Station, has been opposed by preservationists because of its proximity to historic sites such as Carters Grove plantation and the largely unaltered views of the James River it would spoil. The corps on Monday issued Dominion a preliminary permit for the project, which faces additional permitting hurdles. Were disappointed, said Elizabeth Kostelny, CEO of Preservation Virginia, which operates Historic Jamestown in conjunction with the National Parks Service. We continue to believe that there are alternatives that would both provide the power the Peninsula needs and preserve these irreplaceable national assets. The nod from the corps, called a provisional proffered permit, hinges on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issuing additional permits. James City County also has yet to approve a switching station for the 8-mile transmission line, which will require up to 17 towers, some as high as 295 feet tall, across the river from Surry to Skiffes Creek. From the switching station, a 230-kilovolt line will run to a substation in Hampton. This is a very positive step in the right direction, but we remain focused on completing the work necessary to get all final permits and ensure 600,000 people who live and work on the Peninsula have clean, reliable energy, said Bob Blue, president and CEO of Dominion Energys Power Delivery Group, in a statement. Col. Jason E. Kelly, commander of the Norfolk district for the corps, was committed to reaching a quality decision on this issue which takes into account the environmental impacts, the historic and cultural resource impacts, our ability to reach agreements on mitigation of impact, and the public interest review, said corps spokesman Mark Haviland. Weighing all those factors is what our regulatory staff and our commander has to do ultimately to proffer a permit. The total price tag is $270 million, including about $90 million Dominion has pledged in mitigation efforts that include landscape and viewshed enhancements, shoreline protection and water-quality improvements in the area, according to Dominion spokeswoman Bonita Harris. Those mitigation measures are part of a 64-page memorandum of agreement between Dominion, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the corps and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Dominion has also identified several properties ... where it proposes to fund additional mitigation projects (e.g., land acquisition, natural and cultural resource restoration or preservation, property or landscape enhancements, etc.) that the signatories conclude will contribute to or improve the overall integrity, most notably the setting and feeling, of the identified properties and the broader historic district, the document says. According to Harris, those areas include Jamestown Island, Hog Island Wildlife Management Area, the Captain John Smith National Historic Trail, Carters Grove, the Colonial Parkway and nearby American Indian settlements. Ratepayers will pick up the tab for that mitigation work, as well as for the rest of the project, Harris said. Once we have a final permit from the corps, we will need to satisfy conditions stipulated under the (agreement) before construction work begins on the portion of the line that crosses the James River, Harris said. Construction is expected to take 18 to 20 months. Though numerous other organizations were invited to sign the agreement, including Preservation Virginia, most did not. We looked to this federal process to ensure the preservation of these resources, so this is not the outcome we desired, Kostelny said. This is not a Virginia issue. This is really a national and international issue. ... Its more than just a view. This has been a stretch of the river that has been uninterrupted for 400 years. The James River Association also declined to sign on with the agreement. Jamie Brunkow, the lower James riverkeeper for the association, said Dominions pledge of $90 million would have been better spent on other options. He added that local governments and residents have beaten back bridge projects for decades because of the significant portion of public lands in the area and the historic value. This is an area that has not been developed that has these unique qualities. Its such an important place for our history as Virginians, he said. This project cannot be mitigated. A report commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation offered what it claimed were an array of less expensive options to meet the power needs, including upgrading existing transmission lines, reconfiguring the electrical system, or building new transmission lines in existing rights of way. But Dominion, the State Corporation Commission that regulates utilities and now the Army Corps of Engineers have determined those alternatives and others are unworkable. NANTES, France, June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OSE Immunotherapeutics SA (ISIN:FR0012127173); (Mnemo:OSE) announces that all the resolutions submitted to a vote at the Combined General Shareholders' Meeting were approved as proposed by OSE Immunotherapeutics Board of Directors. Shareholders approved the nominations of two new independent Directors, Brigitte Dreno, M.D., Ph.D., and Diane Kathryn Jorkasky, M.D., and have renewed the board terms of Jean-Patrick Demonsang, Walter Flamenbaum and Gerard Tobelem. The results of each resolution voted can be found on the Companys website in the Investor Relations Annual General Meeting section (http://ose-immuno.com/documentation/assemblee-generale/). A total of 68 shareholders were present or represented, or voted by mail. Collectively, this group holds 8,533,195 shares (representing 59.50 % of the voting securities) and 9,110,375 voting rights. Shareholders approved the appointment of two new independent Directors Brigitte Dreno, M.D., Ph.D., is head of the Department of Dermatology at the Nantes University Hospital, a department with significant expertise in research and innovative treatments in skin oncology. She is the director of the Biotherapy Clinical Investigation Centre, director of the Unit of Cell and Gene Therapy and vice dean for Research Medical Faculty. Within her operational functions and research responsibilities, Dr. Dreno is very much involved in immuno-oncology innovation. In collaboration with the academic leadership, she supports the implementation of OSE Immunotherapeutics R&D initiatives on the Nantes University campus. Diane Kathryn Jorkasky, M.D., has over 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience in medical and scientific leadership positions with industry-leading companies, including Endo Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer and GSK. She has extensive knowledge of and experience in all phases of drug research and development. Since 2012, Dr. Jorkasky has been executive vice president, chief medical officer, and head of development of Complexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company specializing in treatments for inflammatory and fibrosis related diseases. These nominations follow the departures of David de Weese and Jean Theron who have completed their respective terms as board members. They will both pursue their collaboration with OSE Immunotherapeutics: David de Weese as censor of the board for one year and Jean Theron as a consultant and international business contributor. Emile Loria, chairman of the board of directors of OSE Immunotherapeutics said: On behalf of the Board and OSEs team, I wish to warmly thank David and Jean for their expertise, their commitment and their achievements throughout their director terms. They will pursue their collaboration in performing new missions and sharing with us their valuable network. Dominique Costantini, CEO of OSE Immunotherapeutics, added: We are delighted to welcome Brigitte Dreno and Diane Kathryn Jorkasky who bring strong track records in scientific innovation and international scope to enrich the boards expertise and support the companys growth. Renewal of Board appointments The Ordinary General Meeting renewed the board terms of Jean-Patrick Demonsang, Walter Flamenbaum and Gerard Tobelem. OSE Immunotherapeutics board of directors is composed of twelve members, including seven independent directors. Votes on the following resolutions were also held during OSE Immunotherapeutics General Meeting: Approval of the accounts and consolidated accounts for fiscal year 2016, allocation of the results, approval of the principles and criteria for determining, distributing and allocating the fixed, variable and exceptional components of the total compensation and of the benefits of any kind attributed to the executive directors, approval of regulated agreements (resolutions 1 to 5); Mandatory opinion on the items of compensation of the chairman, of the chief executive officer and of the deputy chief executive officers in respect of fiscal year 2016 (resolutions 6 to 9); Renewal of delegations of authority given to the board of directors to issue shares and/or securities giving access immediately or later to the share capital or giving right to a debt security (resolutions 19 to 22, 24, 26, 27); Delegations of authority given to the board of directors to award preferential free shares, free shares, founders warrants, warrants and stock options (resolutions 30 to 34). ABOUT OSE IMMUNOTHERAPEUTICS Our ambition is to become a world leader in activation and regulation immunotherapies OSE Immunotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies for immune activation and regulation in the fields of immuno-oncology, auto-immune diseases and transplantation. The company has a balanced portfolio of first-in-class products with a diversified risk profile ranging from clinical phase 3 registration trials to R&D: In immuno-oncology: Tedopi, a combination of 10 optimized neo-epitopes to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - Currently in registration Phase 3 trial advanced NSCLC HLA A2+ patients EU /US - Orphan Status in the US - Registration expected in 2019 - A Phase 2 with Tedopi in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in NSCLC is considered in 2017 . to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - Orphan Status in the US in NSCLC is considered in 2017 OSE-172 (Effi-DEM), new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting the SIRP- receptor - In preclinical development for several cancer models. targeting the for several cancer models. OSE-703 (Effi-3), a cytotoxic monoclonal antibody targeting IL-7R - Strategic research collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY In auto-immune diseases and transplantation: FR104, CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - Phase 1 trial completed For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation - Licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development. CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation - to pursue clinical development. OSE-127 (Effi-7), interleukin receptor-7 antagonist - In preclinical development for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases. License option agreement with Servier for the development and commercialization. The portfolios blockbuster potential gives OSE Immunotherapeutics the ability to enter global agreements at different stages of development with major pharmaceutical players. Immunotherapy is a highly promising and growing market. By 2023 Immunotherapy of cancer could represent nearly 60% of treatments against less than 3% at present * and the projected market is estimated at $67 billion in 2018 **. There are more than 80 autoimmune diseases that represent a significant market including major players in the pharmaceutical industry with sales towards $10 billion for the main products. The medical need is largely unmet and requires the provision of new innovative products involved in the regulation of the immune system. *Citi Research Equity **BCC Research Click and follow us on Twitter and Linkedln https://twitter.com/OSEIMMUNO https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/10929673/ Forward-looking statements This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as expect, anticipate, believe, target, plan, or estimate, their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import. Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 28 April 2017 under the number R.17-038, including the annual financial report for the fiscal year 2016, available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics website. Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements. A jury of eight women and four men is still deliberating in the trial of Tracy Stover, who is accused of gunning down Hasheen Slaughter in a South Richmond apartment building in May 2016. Slaughter, 25, of Chesterfield County, was shot nine times including four times to the head leaving his body riddled with 20 wounds. The medical examiner testified that five of the nine gunshots would have caused fatal injuries. Jurors were deadlocked after deliberating for 1 hours Tuesday, the second day of what was supposed to be a two-day trial. They asked Richmond Circuit Court Judge Walter Stout if they could have the night to sleep on it. The foreman said there were people on both sides of whether Stover was guilty. Prosecutors, led by Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Chris Bullard, laid out evidence pointing to Stover, 27, of the 400 block of Westover Hills Boulevard the same apartment building where Slaughter was found. Bullard said Stover was jealous because Slaughter was visiting Stovers girlfriend, Myche Goode. Several witnesses testified that Stover was visibly angry that day, storming into and out of the apartment. Some even noted that Stover changed clothes, though they differ on what items he changed whether it was from shorts to pants or flip-flops to sneakers and then waited for Slaughter to leave to attack him. Stover is charged with first-degree murder, robbery and three firearm counts. His attorney, James Bullard, no relation to the prosecutor, implicated the prosecutions key witness, Kevin Ragsdale, who is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the case and admitted to forging an apology letter from Stover. There were 11 people at or around the Somerset Glen apartment on May 15, 2016, including several who testified over the course of the two days: Goode, whom Slaughter was visiting just before he died; Jaron Jones, Slaughters friend whose birthday they were celebrating; and Ragsdale, one of four men with Stover when he allegedly pulled the trigger. Their testimonies, by and large, corroborated one another, though there were discrepancies on the timeline and on the question of whether certain events or conversations that evening happened inside or outside. Chris Bullard had typed each of the 11 names onto a large poster board for his closing statement and crossed them out as he reviewed the evidence that he said eliminated them as the potential shooter until only Stovers name remained. No one else was described as angry. No one else told Myche to lie to police. No one else intimated Ragsdale, Chris Bullard said. No one else had a motive to want Slaughter dead. James Bullard argued that Ragsdale, who was previously convicted of robbery in Richmond and attempted robbery in Chesterfield, has a history of cooperating in exchange for lesser sentences. He faces a total of 22 years behind bars if convicted of the conspiracy charge in this case and the suspended time from his earlier convictions. You know the system; you know how it works, James Bullard said to Ragsdale on the stand. You were doing that for you. Ragsdale replied: There might be a couple of mix-ups, but I cant change what I saw. Melinda Mitchell said the items that she found strewn on an embankment at the edge of her Hanover County property last September initially didnt cause her any concern. There was a short-sleeved shirt, jeans, a pair of underwear and a cleaning wipe, Mitchell testified Tuesday on the second day of Harshadkumar Jadavs first-degree murder trial in his wifes slaying. There was also a hammer lying nearby. Mitchell said she found the items on Sept. 7 while mowing her property. That was two days after the body of Reena Jadav, a 30-year-old Mechanicsville woman, was found a couple of miles away in a yard in the quiet Honey Meadows neighborhood where she lived with her husband. Mitchell said the hammer looked like it was in decent condition, so she put it in her husbands toolbox. She washed the pants and shirt in preparation for giving them to Goodwill and said she didnt notice any blood on the items. But on Sept. 12, Mitchell saw deputies at a guardrail near her home and asked whether they were looking for anything. She told them what she found and then turned over the items she had. Prosecutors say the hammer was the weapon that was used to kill Reena Jadav. Michael Hays, a pathologist with the state medical examiners office, testified Tuesday that the blunt force trauma wounds that Jadav sustained to her head at least 15 of them were consistent with the hammer found on Mitchells lawn. Jurors viewed graphic autopsy photos of the Jadav. The defendants attorney, Vaughan Jones, objected when prosecutors showed additional close-up photos of the victim at the crime scene, saying they were merely being shown for dramatic effect. The pictures here will unnecessarily inflame the jurors, Jones said. Travis Hughes, an assistant commonwealths attorney, said the photos were needed to show jurors the victims wounds the way investigators saw them at the scene. Hanover Circuit Court Judge Patricia Kelly overruled Jones and allowed the additional photos to be shown. Investigator Kevin LaPlaga, a forensic investigator with the Hanover Sheriffs Office, said Harshadkumar Jadav didnt show any emotion when the investigator spoke with him at the site where his wifes body was found, on a lawn about 8 feet from a sidewalk. Even after seeing a photo of his wifes face, the defendant didnt cry, LaPlaga said. In a black backpack found near Jadavs body, police discovered a pair of Mechanix-brand gloves. There were red and brown stains in the backpack and on top of it, LaPlaga said. Under questioning from the defendants attorney, the investigator said the backpack was not sent to the state crime lab for a forensic examination. Jones peppered LaPlaga with questions about why investigators didnt send more evidence to the states crime lab. Out of roughly 100 pieces of evidence, the state crime lab received about 10 items for forensic examination. Lisa Schiermeier-Wood, a forensic scientist supervisor at the state Department of Forensic Science, said on the stand Tuesday that sending 100 items to the lab would be very unusual because there wasnt enough staff to test that many items. Typically, 10 to 15 pieces of evidence would be passed along, she said. Schiermeier-Wood testified that the mens underwear found in Mitchells yard was indeed one of the items the state lab examined. Testing suggested that DNA found on the underwear belonged to both the defendant and his wife, she said. LaPlaga said a search of the couples home found a bag of tools, but a hammer was not among them. Jones, the defense attorney, said during the court hearing that it was an old bag of tools manufactured by a different company than the one that made the hammer, so its absence wasnt particularly noteworthy. During Tuesdays hearing, prosecutors also presented testimony to support their theory that money could have driven Jadav to kill his wife. Kimberly Townsley, a records custodian at Regions Bank in Nashville, testified that Reena Jadav had three insurance policies, with benefits totaling $1,025,000 in the event of her death. Harshadkumar Jadav was listed as the beneficiary for those policies, Townsley said. Henrico County Public Schools will receive nearly $5.3 million needed to patch a midyear shortfall caused by lagging state sales tax revenues and overestimated student enrollment projections, the countys Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday. The board voted 4-0 to make the division whole, but not without lambasting it for the apparent error. Are they going to call us and thank us for covering their misstep? Three Chopt District Supervisor Thomas M. Branin said during a work session. Im going to wait for the phone call. School officials overestimated the number of students who would matriculate in the 2016-17 school year by 576. Because state education funding is tied to student enrollment, this resulted in less state funding than the county anticipated. What, exactly, that and other factors cost was a matter of contention Tuesday. One school official said there was a $3.7 million gap. A supervisor referenced a $4.1 million estimate from another. I feel like we are playing games, said Varina District Supervisor Tyrone E. Nelson. Its annoying and its frustrating because we work hard every year (to fill the divisions budget request). Several supervisors challenged school officials to explain the miscalculation, with Nelson voicing concerns about a perceived lack of transparency surrounding the divisions finances. I think the most I heard my colleagues talk about is accountability, said Vice Chairman Frank J. Thornton of the Fairfield District. We dont have that accountability, and that has to be addressed. A division spokesman has said the issue would not affect operations in the final week of school. Board Chairwoman Pat OBannon of the Tuckahoe District was absent Tuesday. Assistant Superintendent Bill Bowen said the division had seen annual increases of more than 300 students for several years, but that it lost about 200 this year. Thats what concerns me, Bowen said. It tells me there could be other factors involved that are beyond the control of the school division. The bulk of money about $3.75 million needed to cover the gap comes from savings the school division accrued during the school year. We put them on notice in early 2017 that a plan would need to come forward, and tonight represents the culmination of that effort, said County Manager John A. Vithoulkas. The division saved money through shaving operational expenditures and from employment vacancies that occurred throughout the school year, according to documents. In Virginia, localities control the purse strings for their school divisions, so savings realized by those divisions roll back to the local government unless an entity such as a board of supervisors authorizes schools to hang on to the money. The resolution approving the transfer of savings notes the money will go into a separate account that will be inaccessible for expenditure. It was not immediately clear what those funds would go toward. Vithoulkas has said this is the first instance of an issue with enrollment projections in his two decades with the county. Its troubling when schools miss the mark on projections, said Harvey L. Hinson, interim supervisor for the Brookland District. But the school division is not responsible for lower-than-expected state sales tax revenues, which are ultimately signed off on by the county administration, Vithoulkas said. CHARLOTTESVILLE Stay away and dont engage. Thats the advice Charlottesville civic leaders gave to residents Tuesday at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church about a Ku Klux Klan rally planned for July 8. The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have announced their plans to hold a rally that afternoon in Charlottesville to protest the City Councils decision to remove the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park. In the hopes of keeping people away from the demonstration, the city and a few local activists are planning events in separate locations, including rallies at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and the Sprint Pavilion. Al Thomas, Charlottesvilles police chief, said the best option is to keep away and make sure Klan members are chanting to the rocks and trees. Our concerns is folks who get emotional because this is emotional and make decisions that force us to step in, Thomas said. Their plan is to incite without breaking the law dont take the bait. Councilor Wes Bellamy also made a proposal for people who plan to confront members of the North Carolina-based Klan chapter, if you must go, he said. The plan would be to lock arms around Justice Park formerly known as Jackson Park while silently facing away from Klan members. Under no circumstances are you to yell at them or fight with them, Bellamy said. Most of the African-American attendees who spoke before the crowd or were interviewed at the meeting Monday said they arent interested in attending. Other attendees said they feel the urge to confront Klan members, even if its a silent protest. The statue, already a controversial issue locally, has entered the national debate over monuments to the Confederacy. In May, members of the alt-right a loose collection of far-right-wing political movements held a torch-lit demonstration there. Pictures of the rally ran in newspapers across the country, with many observers comparing the spectacle to a KKK rally. Late last month, the city received a request for a permit from the Pelham, N.C., chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The group is scheduled to demonstrate for one hour, from 3 to 4 p.m., city spokeswoman Miriam Dickler said. Responding to complaints about the citys decision to grant the permit, Thomas said the KKK has the right to hold a public demonstration, just like anyone else. People we dont agree with people we dont like have the same rights as we do, said Thomas, Charlottesvilles first African-American police chief. Thats what makes the world go round. German English Basilea receives a CHF 70 million upfront payment and is eligible for additional milestone payments of up to USD 427 million and double-digit royalties on sales Basilea continues to focus on establishing further partnerships for the commercialization of its anti-infectives Cresemba and Zevtera in key markets around the world Basilea explores partnering opportunities to further strengthen its anti-infectives and oncology R&D portfolio Basel, Switzerland, June 14, 2017 - Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today that Basilea Pharmaceutica International Ltd. has entered into a license agreement with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) for Basilea's marketed antifungal Cresemba (isavuconazole) for the treatment of life-threatening invasive mold infections. Pfizer will have the right to manufacture isavuconazole and to exclusively commercialize the drug in Europe (excluding the Nordics), Russia, Turkey and Israel. Under the terms of the agreement, Basilea will receive an upfront payment of CHF 70 million and will be eligible to receive up to USD 427 million in additional payments upon achievement of pre-specified regulatory and sales milestones. In addition, Basilea will also receive royalties in the mid-teen range on Pfizer's sales in the territory. "Cresemba is a well differentiated drug that addresses a critical medical need in patients with invasive mold infections. This is reflected in its strong launch in the US as well as its solid performance in key European markets where Basilea launched and is currently commercializing the product," said Ronald Scott, Chief Executive Officer of Basilea. "Pfizer is a world leading pharmaceutical company in the anti-infective space with a long and successful track record of commercializing antifungals. This collaboration will allow us to further optimize the value of this key asset in an important region of the world. The transaction will provide Basilea with additional financial flexibility to pursue targeted transactions to strengthen our two portfolio pillars focused on overcoming resistance: anti-infectives and oncology. Basilea continues to demonstrate its ability to complete innovative transactions that optimize the value of our company for shareholders." "The addition of Cresemba to Pfizer's broad anti-fungal portfolio, reaffirms our commitment to provide innovative treatments to patients who are increasingly susceptible to life-threatening fungal infections," said Richard Blackburn, Global President of Pfizer Europe, Africa/Middle East and Biosimilars. "We believe our well established global presence together with our deep knowledge of infectious diseases will enable us to meaningfully address a major unmet medical need." David Veitch, Chief Commercial Officer of Basilea, added: "We have now established partnerships for Cresemba in most of the key markets around the world. We continue to work toward concluding agreements for the few remaining key markets. With regards to our antibiotic Zevtera, we will focus on exploring partnering opportunities in Europe and on initiating within the next few months the phase 3 clinical studies required for a registration in the U.S., which is the most relevant commercial opportunity for branded hospital antibiotics in the world." The agreement is subject to customary regulatory approval. Subject to the transaction closing, Basilea anticipates its financial guidance for 2017 to improve with total operating expenses reduced to approximately CHF 9-10 million on average per month (net of anticipated BARDA reimbursements) and an operating loss of approximately CHF 2-3 million on average per month. Cresemba sales after closing will be booked by Pfizer. Considering the collaboration with Pfizer, Basilea's total product sales are expected at approximately CHF 11 million for the year. The contribution from the transaction in 2017 is estimated at approximately CHF 6 million through revenue recognition and royalty payments. Estimates are subject to adjustment depending on the timing of regulatory approval for the transaction. About Cresemba (isavuconazole) Isavuconazole is an intravenous (i.v.) and oral azole antifungal and the active agent of the prodrug isavuconazonium sulfate. It received marketing authorization in Europe for the treatment of adult patients with invasive aspergillosis and for the treatment of adult patients with mucormycosis for whom amphotericin B is inappropriate.1 It is approved in the United States for patients 18 years of age and older in the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis.2 Isavuconazole has orphan drug designation for the approved indications in Europe and the US. Isavuconazole is being marketed as Cresemba in Germany, Italy, the UK, France and Austria. In the US, the drug is marketed by Basilea's license partner Astellas Pharma US. Outside the US and the EU, isavuconazole is currently not approved for commercial use. The European marketing authorization is valid in all 28 European Union (EU) member states, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Conference call Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. invites you to participate in a conference call on Thursday, June 15, 2017, 4 p.m. (CEST), during which the company will discuss today's press release. Dial-in numbers are: +41 (0) 58 310 5000 (Europe and RoW) +1 (1) 631 570 5613 (USA) +44 (0) 203 059 5862 (UK) A playback will be available 1 hour after the conference call until Monday, June 19, 2017, 6 p.m. (CEST). Participants requesting a digital playback may dial: +41 (0) 91 612 4330 (Europe and RoW) +1 (1) 866 416 2558 (USA) +44 (0) 207 108 6233 (UK) and will be asked to enter the ID 18624 followed by the # sign. About Basilea Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a biopharmaceutical company developing products that address the medical challenge of increasing resistance and non-response to current treatment options in the therapeutic areas of bacterial infections, fungal infections and cancer. The company uses the integrated research, development and commercial operations of its subsidiary Basilea Pharmaceutica International Ltd. to discover, develop and commercialize innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Additional information can be found at Basilea's website www.basilea.com. About Pfizer / Pfizer Anti-Infectives Working together for a healthier world At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.pfizer.com and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @PfizerNews, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer. Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For further information, please contact: Peer Nils Schroder, PhD Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations +41 61 606 1102 media_relations@basilea.com investor_relations@basilea.com This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com . References 1 European Public Assessment Report (EPAR) Cresemba: http://www.ema.europa.eu [Accessed: June 13, 2017] 2 Cresemba US prescribing information [Accessed: June 13, 2017] The big political races dont always turn the voters out. Just ask Petersburg Registrar Dawn Williams, who measured citywide turnout at more than 19.3 percent of registered voters by 6 p.m. on Tuesday and a surging line at one precinct in the final hours before polls closed. Its driven by my locals, Williams said. Petersburg, seething with public frustration over the citys perilous financial condition, had two hotly contested Democratic primaries for commissioner of revenue, with four candidates, and treasurer, with three. Two other candidates were vying to become commonwealths attorney. The primary for the 63rd District in the House of Delegates between incumbent Del. Lashrecse D. Aird, D-Petersburg, and challenger Gerry J. Rawlinson, is kind of a warm race as well, the registrar said. In a primary season dominated by the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor the first time the parties have held dual gubernatorial primaries in Virginia history turnout was mostly a reflection of local and House races in the Richmond area. In Chesterfield County, for example, voter turnout was 11.3 percent by 4 p.m. in an election that is traditionally lightly attended, but the numbers reached as high as 23.3 percent in Bon Air, one of the precincts in the 68th House District primary between three Democrats seeking to challenge Del. G. Manoli Loupassi, R-Richmond, in the fall. The same was true in Henrico County, where countywide turnout had reached 13.5 percent by 4 p.m. The county featured 11 different ballots for voters, reflecting both party affiliation and whether they lived in one of the four House districts with nominating contests for normally uncontested seats. Eight county precincts are split between two House districts, adding to the complexity for voters. On top of that, Republicans were choosing between three candidates for the nomination to fill the Brookland District seat of the late Richard Glover. The GOP primary battle between Gilbert Wilkerson Sr., Benjamin Ben Dessart and Robert H. Bob Witte will set up a general election battle with Democrat Courtney Lynch in the fall that will determine the political balance of power on the Henrico Board of Supervisors. Henrico turnout reflected a national trend that shows Democrats with new energy to seek previously uncontested seats held by Republicans, Registrar Mark J. Coakley said. The Democrats are showing up, it looks like, more than the Republicans. The contrast was strong in Richmond, a Democratic stronghold that showed turnout of about 10 percent among Democrats on Tuesday afternoon but just 1.5 percent among Republicans. One battle between Democrats featuring incumbent Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, and challenger Alex Mejias brought an Election Day dustup over how close campaign workers could come to polling places. The Mejias campaign summoned police to several polling places in Richmond and northern Chesterfield in the 70th House District to enforce a 40-foot buffer amid alleged intrusions by McQuinn campaign workers. But Richmond Registrar J. Kirk Showalter said the dispute stemmed from a misunderstanding of where precinct captains began measuring the distance 40 feet from the entrance to poll itself, rather than the exterior of the building. As a result, the perimeter in some cases measured only 20 feet on the outside. Statewide, turnout was generally low to moderate, said Radford Registrar Tracy D. Howard, who serves as president of the state registrars association. His city, home to Radford University, had turnout of about 8 percent by late afternoon. In contrast, turnout reached 17.7 percent by 4 p.m. in Charlottesville, home of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello, who had been in a tight race with Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam for the nomination. But while statewide campaigns by the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor focused on turning out voters in their strongholds, it was the local contests that prompted a line to form at Petersburg High School in the waning hours of voting. The number of voters at the precinct rose from about 500 at 3 p.m. to 724 three hours later, said Williams, the city registrar. Its healthy; its steady. Is the Fourth Amendment geographically conditional? If that sounds like an odd question, you may not be familiar with the debate over law enforcement access to customer data stored on servers owned by U.S. companies located outside the physical borders of the United States. Do the Fourth Amendments protections specifically, those relating to probable cause and search warrants apply to such data? Or do the laws of the country in which the servers are located take precedence? And who decides? Its a digital-era turf war thats been going on since at least 2013, when the federal government began investigating a person of unknown citizenship at the time who had an email account with Microsoft. The government acquired a search warrant to gain access to the targeted individuals emails, but there was a jurisdictional problem. The data the government wanted access to just happened to be stored on servers located overseas in Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft was understandably reluctant to give the Feds access to the data stored on its overseas servers, based on a U.S. search warrant, because doing so might have affronted Irish law, as well as the Fourth Amendment back home. The legal wrangling has been going on ever since with Microsoft at first being held in civil contempt for not cooperating with the Feds and then winning a dramatic reversal in federal district court last year. That court ruled Section 2703 of Stored Communications Act does not authorize courts to issue and enforce against U.S.-based service providers warrants for the seizure of customer email content that is stored exclusively on foreign servers. Italics added. But the questions which countrys laws apply and how should they be applied? remain unsettled. Which is unsettling to everyone. American tech companies not just Microsoft are in the awkward and ultimately untenable position of not being sure where they stand, legally. Are the obliged to give the government access on demand to their customers data stored on servers overseas, even if that means acting contrary to local laws? What if doing so opens them up to civil even criminal action by the government of the country in which the server/data are physically located? What assurances can they give their customers and clients as to the security of their data? There is no certainty without which the rule of law becomes arbitrary and arguably illegitimate. If you cannot know, ahead of time, what the law is and how to obey it, it is not possible to obey it ... except by chance. Its analogous to a red light that is sometimes OK to run, except when its not. And you might be pulled over at any time, regardless. In addition to the legal uncertainty and all the attendant legal problems there are also problems of international relations. The Irish government is not happy about what it understandably considers overreach by the federal government of the United States which didnt even extend the Irish government the courtesy of a consult over the matter but instead simply tried to seize the data stored on servers located on Irish territory. Microsoft was pressured, ex officio, to give it up. The Feds knew they had no enforceable authority in Ireland. But they also knew they could threaten Microsoft an American company with problems back home, if they failed to comply with the governments request. This is arguably a mafiosi tactic. What if the Irish government were to extend the long arm of its law onto the territory of the United States? How would our government feel about that? And the Irish are friends of the United States. One of the biggest concerns about this Wild West-esque situation is that foreign governments less friendly than Irelands might retaliate in kind, based on the example thats been set by the federal government. For example, Russia or China might make an extra-territorial claim or worse, take action under the table against a native company with business operations in the United States. These countries have no Fourth Amendment protections at all and some are no stranger to mafiosi tactics. This is more than merely bad for business. Its bad business, period. A hearing to try to sort this all out is scheduled for tomorrow in the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte. The chief object of the hearing will be to reconcile Fourth Amendment and other constitutional-legal questions with law enforcement operations those of the United States and of foreign countries in the era of the borderless internet, and to establish above-board mechanisms for dealing with law enforcement investigations that do not use strong-arm tactics on businesses or abuse the due process and other rights of individual people. Thats not just good for Microsoft and other national and international tech companies. Its good for Virginians and Americans. Austin, Texas, June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Austin-based Legend Communities and Crescent Communities, co-developers of the award-winning master-planned Lakeway community Rough Hollow, today announced that their most exclusive neighborhood, The Peninsula at Rough Hollow, home to The Spring 2017 Home Builders Association (HBA) of Greater Austin Parade of Homes Tour, had a record tour with over 9,000 attendees. We are thrilled with the success of this years Parade of Homes and are excited for the continued momentum to sell out these incredible custom homes and homesites, said Haythem Dawlett, Founder and Principal of Legend Communities. This was our third and final time to host the HBA tour and our most successful to date. In addition to the record attendance, Rough Hollow posted its most successful month of May with 25 total sales 21 semi-custom homes and four custom homes, as compared to 18 total sales; 16 semi-custom and two custom homesites in 2016. The Peninsula at Rough Hollow features five custom built homes by award-winning builders specifically chosen for the ParadeArbogast Custom Homes, Jenkins Design + Build, Lake Travis Builders, Laurel Haven Homes and Triton Custom Homes Inc. Currently two of the homes showcased on the tour have sold. The Spring 2017 Homes Builders Association Parade of Homes featured the newest trends in construction, building design, interior decor and landscaping in one of the nations most vibrant real estate communities. Additionally, The Peninsula at Rough Hollow homebuilders and designers received the following awards from Emily Lubbers Blair, President of the HBA of Greater AustinInnovative Design- Jenkins, Main Entry- Triton, Kitchen- Lake Travis, Interior Design- Arbogast, Unique Feature- Laurel Haven, Interior Ceiling Treatment- Jenkins, Master Suite & Bathroom- Laurel Haven, Architectural Design- Triton, Outdoor Living- Triton, Front Elevation- Arbogast and Triton, Use of Landscape- Triton, Study, Laurel Haven Game Room- Laurel Haven, Media Room- Triton, Family Room- Jenkins, Pool-Triton, Floor Plan-Triton, Fire Place- Triton, Garage- Laurel Haven, Stair Case-Triton, Lighting- Arbogast, Cabinetry- Triton and Flooring-Triton. The Peninsula at Rough Hollow, located above Lake Travis, offers an extraordinary private and intimate lake experience unparalleled to any other community. Naturally secluded, this exclusive neighborhood with heightened privacy offers a limited number of estate-sized homesites. Priced from the $300s to $1million-plus, and luxury custom homes starting at $1.65M, The Peninsula is approaching 50% sold out making now the time to buy. Rough Hollow is an 1,800-acre resort-style lakefront master-planned community with breathtaking hilltop views of Lake Travis and world-class amenities located just 25 minutes from downtown Austin and 35 minutes from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in America, and we are incredibly excited to be able to provide luxury homes for both current and future residents alike, said Dawlett. The homes at The Peninsula at Rough Hollow are one of a kind with spectacular waterfront views, and we are excited to see the continued success for this exclusive community. ### About Legend Communities Inc. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Legend Communities is a full-service developer of single-family residential, multi-family residential, active adult communities and associated commercial projects in Central Texas, California and Colorado. Legend Communities and its affiliate company in California have earned recognition for their projects from a number of highly regarded local and national industry associations, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National Association of Home Builders, and the City of Austin Green Builder Program. The company emphasizes giving back to the communities in which it operates through business, civic and charitable contributions. For more information about Legend Communities, please visit LegendCommunitiesinc.com. About Crescent Communities LLC Crescent Communities is a leading real estate investment and operating firm driven to create long-term value by developing thoughtful, sustainable communities that improve peoples lives. Founded in 1963, Crescents original mandate as a land management company continues to inform its commitment to the wise stewardship of natural resources. The company finances, plans and develops properties in the Sunbelt and Mid-Atlantic markets that will represent more than 50 percent of the U.S. population growth over the next decade. Its multi-product platform includes residential, multi-family, mixed-used, commercial and land assets, valued in total at $1.2 billion. Crescents robust capital deployment, seasoned leadership team, and transformative model of sustainability enable the company to maximize opportunity in a recovering real estate market. Please visit https://www.crescentcommunities.com/. About the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin Since 1953, the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Greater Austin has served as the leading not-for-profit trade organization dedicated to residential construction and remodeling in Central Texas. With approximately 750 member firms, the HBA works with government, public, business and community organizations in six countiesBastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Lee, Travis and Williamsonto protect every familys right to home ownership. About Legacy International Resort Properties Legacy is an international real estate sales, marketing, and brokerage firm that provides expertise for master planned communities around the world. The company works to maximize the return on investment to the developer through strategic management of the sales and marketing process, including bulk parcel sales, inventory unit management and memberships. Over the years, Legacy has partnered with development teams in the Continental United States, Mexico, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic, generating annual sales revenues totaling in excess of $1 billion. By leveraging the combined experience of their team members and extensive network of industry partners, Legacy is able to build client success at every level of development. For more information about Legacy International Resort Properties, visit www.LegacyIRP.com. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1c19eb60-bd15-4fc2-a18c-6d044b3d4106 Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dadbb0da-2c7f-4d04-96ab-2672f6d50313 Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b537f88d-8dc1-44f9-92a9-91d5d6b10c17 A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. FINCASTLE The Botetourt ballot this November will include contested races in the Amsterdam District for seats on the county board of supervisors and the school board. Incumbent supervisor Todd Dodson, who is seeking a second term as a Republican, will be challenged by independent Steve Clinton. Clinton is a former long-term member of the board, having served as its chairman five times during a tenure that stretched from 1999 to 2014. Also in the Amsterdam District, veteran school board member and current chair Ruth Wallace is facing opposition from political newcomer Anna Weddle. Tuesday was the last day for independent candidates to file for election. The deadline for party-backed candidates was earlier in the year. For the second time in as many election cycles, Botetourt County voters will not have an abundance of choices for local offices. Two years ago, there was just one contested school board race out of 17 positions up for re-election. This time around, school board member Michelle Crook, who was appointed to represent the Buchanan District in December following the death of Kathy Graham Sullivan, is unopposed. So is Ray Sloan, who is running for the board of supervisors as a Republican to replace John Williamson, who decided not to seek a second term as the boards Buchanan representative. In Troutville, three incumbents Doris Camper, Dean Paderick and Harry Ulrich are the only candidates for three open seats on the town council. Dodson, who is currently vice chairman of the board of supervisors, has said he hopes to continue a string of accomplishments for the county. During his term, Botetourt has joined regional water and greenway commissions and seen major economic development announcements, including news that an automotive parts factory and a brewery will open in the Greenfield industrial park. But Clinton also takes credit for some of that progress, saying his work on the board helped pave the way for Greenfields success. Today, we are reaping the benefits of forward-looking decisions I helped make almost a decade ago, he said. For Wallace, the second-most senior member of the school board, this November will mark the third time shes faced opposition since she was first elected in 2001. She has chaired the board for the last six years. I think most people recognize that education is my passion, said Wallace, who served as a public school teacher an administrator in Michigan before moving to Botetourt County. Her opponent, Weddle, is making her first run for public office after serving as a community volunteer. Weddle is the daughter of former school board member Jack Leffel, who is currently chairman of the board of supervisors. Weddle said she hopes to be an advocate for students and parents so that students are best prepared to be competitive in their career choice. Omaha, Nebraska, June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Seven top designers from leading fabric manufacturer, RJR Fabrics, display their quilts in an exclusive showing in the AccuQuilt Gallery. AccuQuilt is proud to announce a new gallery exhibit featuring thirteen quilts from seven of RJR Fabrics premier designers. This exhibit, entitled RJR Fabrics: A Retrospective 1978-Present, is exclusive to the AccuQuilt Gallery and runs through July 31, 2017. These original quilt designs come in a wide range in styles, making this exhibit an unforgettable experience for fans of traditional quilts and modern textile art alike. RJR Fabrics Redefines Quilting - #Quiltwithlove While RJR Fabrics is steeped in a rich family history that goes back more than a century, its always managed to stay on the cutting edge of fabrics. They are a leading fabric manufacturer with deep roots in the quilting community. This family-run business employs dozens of renowned fabric and pattern designers and produces over 2,400 fabrics per year. They deliver the highest quality cotton fabrics designed exclusively for quilt making. We are pleased to feature quilts from the superstar designers at RJR Fabrics. RJR is a leading fabric manufacturer and, like AccuQuilt, has evolved to keep up with the vibrant quilting community. This exhibit includes a range of quilt styles from talented designers at RJR Fabrics. You wont want to miss this exhibit. All the quilts are truly fabric masterpieces, said AccuQuilt President Greg Gaggini. RJR Fabrics: A Retrospective 1978-Present This exhibit features thirteen quilts from seven renowned designers with RJR Fabrics. Here is a sampling of the quilts youll see: Stained Glass Star by Jinny Beyer A shaded star surrounded by narrow border print stripe makes this a fresh take on the traditional Rolling Star block pattern. This quilt features fabrics from Jinny Beyer Palette Collection. Jinny Beyer was the first designer to create a line of fabric exclusively for quilters. Pieced by Diane Kirkhart. Quilt by Su Gardner. A Quilters Garden by Lynette Jensen Jensen was the first quilt designer ever to create a Block of the Month Quilt Club for retail shops. Her patterns featured Thimbleberries fabrics and patterns. The club ran for over 22 years and had over 300,000 consumer members and 1,000 quilt shops. This quilt design reflects the rich history of the Thimbleberries brand. Pieced by Julie Jergens and heirloom quilting by Clarine Howe. Daisy Daydreams by flaurie & finch This design duo takes a fine art approach to designing quilts and is inspired by nature. This daisy quilt combines black and white batiks with colorful blossom batiks. Pieced by Belinda Love. Applique by Linda Fitch and Vanessa Stevens. Quilted by Vanessa Stevens. Flowering Wreath Quilt by Carolyn Murfitt The pattern features a rainbow wreath incorporating a variety of colors. Its custom quilted with a radiating design and each flower was quilted with a similar pattern for a balanced design. Pieced, applique and quilted by Carolyn Murfitt. Butterfly Garden by Judy & Bradley Niemeyer This quilt design, just made available to the public, was designed for the first Quiltworx University program, held at Madeline Island School of the Arts in Wisconsin. Made by Certified Instructor, Kristen Bender. Kilim by Sarah Schraw This design was inspired by a Kilim rug spotted on Instagram. The quilt was created specifically for RJRs What Shade Are You? blog hop. Pieced by Sarah Schraw. Quilted by Krishma Patel View the RJR Fabrics: A Retrospective 1978-Present exhibit online, or call 888.258.7913 to schedule a tour of the exhibit. Tour Times MonThurs 10 A.M. and 1 P.M. Friday By call ahead appointment only. Reservations recommended. Closed weekends and major holidays FREE Admission for all visitors About AccuQuiltBetter Cuts Make Better Quilts Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., AccuQuilt offers quilters, fabric crafters and retailers a premiere line of fabric cutters, dies, quilting patterns, and other quilt and fabric cutting solutions that help quilters quickly and accurately cut shapes for quilting and fabric crafts. AccuQuilt also offers quilters a wide variety of rich educational resources to enhance their quilting experiences. Cutting with AccuQuilt cutters is a natural evolution of fabric cutting methods. First scissorsthen rotaryfinallyAccuQuilt for fast, easy, accurate fabric cutting. For more information, visit accuquilt.com or call 888.258.7913. ### After sweeping Democratic votes in the 8th House of Delegates District, Steve McBride won Tuesdays primary election and will go on to challenge Del. Greg Habeeb, who has not faced an opponent since 2011. McBride, a teacher, biologist and doctoral candidate at Virginia Tech, beat his primary opponent Bryan Keele to win the Democratic nomination in the 8th House race. The Salem resident who has called himself a political outsider lacked the backing of local Democratic committee chairs, but won the primary race by a wide margin. McBride, 34, has never before run for elected office. McBride attributed much of his campaign success to the uniqueness of his career field. Voters are looking for a bottom-up change in Richmond and they want to see more diversity in their elected officials, McBride said. Folks want teachers, scientists, farmers and others to have their say, too, he said. The voters, they want to see people who represent them that arent just businesspeople and attorneys, he said in a phone interview. McBride learned of his win surrounded by family and friends at his home. During the primary campaign, McBride offered Keele a $1,500 campaign contribution to exit the race and run for a Roanoke County Board of Supervisors seat instead. McBride characterized the offer as an attempt at teamwork because he felt confident he would win the primary. In a Tuesday interview, Keele congratulated his opponent and applauded McBrides ground game. The Roanoke County resident said running for office is something everyone should do so people can understand the importance of learning the issues and meeting voters. Keele plans to remain involved in the community. I entered the race because I care about people and I want to help them, Keele said. Exiting the race doesnt eliminate the reason why I do things, it just changes how I do things. McBride raised three times more campaign funds than his primary opponent, though his money lags Habeebs by more than $100,000, according to data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. Habeeb, R-Salem, has not faced an opponent since he was first elected in the 2011 special election, and has stockpiled his campaign funds ever since. The 8th District, which includes Salem, Craig County and parts of Roanoke and Montgomery counties, is a Republican stronghold. In Virginias first election of the Donald Trump era, Republicans reluctantly returned to normal while Democrats more adamantly resisted an opportunity to lurch left. That seems the inescapable conclusion from Tuesdays primaries, which saw Republicans nominate Ed Gillespie for governor and Democrats choose Ralph Northam. In the end, the real surprise was this: The Republican contest was closer than many expected while the Democratic race was a bigger blow-out than predicted. To that extent, Tuesdays results show how Trump continues to roil Republican politics. Corey Stewart who ran Trumps campaign in Virginia for much of last year called out Gillespie for being insufficiently supportive of Trump. He derided Gillespie as Establishment Ed, which isnt exactly wrong. Gillespie was an aide to President George W. Bush; he chaired the national party. Gillespie also, tellingly, criticized Trump during the infamous Hollywood Access audiotape controversy. If that had been the only campaign plot line, the Republican primary would have been interesting enough. Stewart made it even more interesting by draping himself in the symbols of the old Confederacy. He didnt simply defend Confederate statues; he gleefully appeared with rebel battle flags. To many, that was a sickening throwback to an ugly era wed like to move past. Stewart even repeated some of the code words of the modern alt-right movement that flirts with white supremacy. Either because of that, or in spite of that, Stewart won across much of rural Virginia. (You could say he even did something Robert E. Lee couldnt do: He won in Appomattox.) In the end, though, suburban Republicans carried Gillespie to a narrow victory. The fact that Stewart could run a neo-Confederate campaign and still poll more than 42 percent of the vote against a perfectly respectable opponent raises troubling questions, not just about the Republican Party, but society at large. Whatever happens in November, Republicans across the country should count themselves lucky that Gillespie, and not Stewart, will be the face of their party in Virginia. By contrast, Democrats engaged in what was regarded as a battle for the soul of their party, a battle that ended up being rather anticlimactic. For all the talk about how Tom Perriello was doing a better job of channeling the white-hot fury of the Democratic base, the mild-mannered Northam won and won decisively. The most interesting question is: What does the size of his victory mean? Perriello was endorsed by his partys most popular progressives Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. A Perriello victory would have been hailed as a sign that the party was moving left. Does Northams victory represent a repudiation of the Sanders-Warren wing of the party? Maybe in Virginia. Some relevant facts to keep in mind: In last years presidential primary, Virginia went 2-to-1 for Hillary Clinton over Sanders, so this was never Sanders country to begin with. Northam was also strongly backed by the states top Democratic officeholders Gov. Terry McAuliffe and U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. They bombarded party activists with emails and phone calls in support of Northam in the campaigns final days. In the end, Perriello won mostly in his old congressional district and the parts of Western Virginia where natural gas pipelines which he opposed are a big issue. Northam crushed him in Northern Virginia and in African-American precincts (a combination that also resulted in the nomination of Justin Fairfax for lieutenant governor). In some ways, Tuesdays results simply reaffirmed 40 years of conventional wisdom that has prevailed ever since the liberal populist Henry Howell upset the moderate Andrew Miller in the Democratic primary for governor in 1977 and then went on to lose the governors race to Republican John Dalton. The lesson that Democrats absorbed was that to win in Virginia, their candidates needed to hew the center line. Since then, their gubernatorial nominees both successful and unsuccessful always have. Think Charles Robb, Gerald Baliles and Douglas Wilder. Think Warner and Kaine. Think even McAuliffe, who seems liberal to Republican eyes but who really represents the Democrats business-oriented wing as evidenced by his support of natural gas pipeline for economic development purposes. Its from that tradition that Northam arose. Northam even admitted he twice voted for George W. Bush for president. Two big questions for Northam going forward: Will Perriellos supporters stick around for Northam this fall? And did Northam get pulled too far left in the primary? Or will his low-key bedside manner (he is a doctor, after all) shield him from being depicted as a far-left extremist, which is how Republicans described him on Tuesday night? Northam is a VMI grad and a former Army doctor. Thats not generally the profile of a radical, although Republicans will try to paint him as one. The fundamentals of the fall campaign are mixed enough to give both parties pause. On the plus side for Republicans: Gillespie is a proven candidate, who came within eight-tenths of one percentage point of upsetting the states most popular politician in 2014. Gillespie seems capable of unifying the party in a way Stewart certainly could not. More importantly, he seems capable of winning back the normally Republican suburban voters who were repelled by Trump and defected to Clinton or third-party candidates. On the minus side: This appears to be a hard year for Republicans everywhere. On the plus side for Democrats: Virginia has been trending their way and Northam is their safest choice. On the minus side: Its harder for Democrats to win off-year elections in Virginia than it looks. Warner and Kaine never topped 52 percent in their gubernatorial races. McAuliffe won with just 48 percent. Those figures do not install any Democrat as a favorite. Republicans and the most liberal Democrats had hoped for Perriello for very different reasons. They got Northam instead. Democrats would have preferred Stewart as their opponent. They got Gillespie instead. These are abnormal times, but Virginia just might have a normal governors race this fall. Editor's note: On May 31, we published a letter to the editor, in which the writer complained that Rep. Bob Goodlatte was not responsive to constituents. Among the writers concerns: There is now an email verification system on Goodlattes website for those who want to sign up for newsletters. The writer said: I asked why he added such a high security feature on his contact page right after receiving national publicity for his failed attempt to gut the Ethics Office. The Roanoke Times recently has had several very fine articles about D-Day in Europe, June 6, 1944 some 73 years ago. It was indeed an historical event and closely tied to many veterans from this area, especially Bedford County. It deserves all the attention it is getting as it marked the beginning of the end for the Nazi regime. However, an equally momentous event which is having its 75th anniversary occurred in the Pacific on almost the same date. The battle of Midway occurred between June 4-7, 1942 and United States naval forces decisively defeated Japanese naval forces. The U.S. sank four Japanese carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu plus a cruiser. It truly marked the turning of the tide in the Second World War in the Pacific and Japanese forces were never again in the ascendant. Then in early August of 1942, U.S. naval and marine forces launched an attack on Guadalcanal island pitting U.S. land forces in a six-months bloody struggle to wrest control of the island from the Japanese. YOUNGSVILLE, La., June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RedHawk Holdings Corp. (OTCQB:IDNG) (RedHawk or the Company) announced today consolidated net income of $151,641 ($nil per share) on net revenues of $427,276 for the three month period ended March 31, 2017. On minimal revenues, RedHawk previously reported a net loss of $653,811 ($nil per share) for the comparable three month period ended March 31, 2016. The Company said the significant improvement in its profitability resulted from lower operating expenses and improved margins on sales of its pharmaceutical branded generics and specials through its United Kingdom-based investment in EcoGen Europe, Ltd (EcoGen). For the nine month period ended March 31, 2017, RedHawk said EcoGen, its branded generic pharmaceutical business unit, generated operating income of approximately $270,000 on net revenues of approximately $775,500. The Company also reported that it has reached an agreement with its United Kingdom (UK) partners to resolve certain previously announced business questions that had recently come to its attention during due diligence. With this resolution, the Company said it has resumed negotiations with its UK partners about the possible increase in its ownership position in EcoGen. RedHawk said it hopes negotiations on the new ownership structure will be completed within the next thirty days. In March 2016, RedHawk, through its wholly-owned subsidiary RedHawk Pharma UK LTD, completed the acquisition of a 25% ownership investment in EcoGen, a United Kingdom company specializing in the manufacturing and the marketing of certain branded generic pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Scarlett Pharma Ltd, a United Kingdom company, initially retained a 75% ownership position in EcoGen. EcoGen also holds distribution rights in a number of European countries for Zonis, a patented antimicrobial ionic silver calcium catheter dressing with both wound healing and haemostatic properties. It is designed to be placed directly over the exit site of all vascular and non-vascular percutaneous medical devices. Zonis reduces bacteria colonization and related bloodstream infections by delivering ionic silver directly to the site. At March 31, 2017, the UKs National Health Service discontinued the permitted sale of NP8s and special obtains pharmaceuticals. To address this change, RedHawk has re-aligned its pharmaceutical operations to reduce overhead and has lowered its offered customer discounts to increase profit margins. Further, RedHawk said it has expanded the marketing of its branded generics to Clinical Commissioning Groups in the UK. The Company also said it is in negotiations to expand the number of generic drugs currently being offered by EcoGen. The Company believes the successful implementation of this plan will help offset any short-term lost revenues resulting from the discontinuation of NP8s and special obtains. The Company also said RedHawk Medical Products & Services, LLC has commenced production and sales of its SANDD mini (Sharps and Needle Destruction Device) with an initial sales order negotiated during the June 30, 2017 quarter. In December 2015, the Company acquired all of the tangible and intangible property rights for the SANDD mini (formerly known as the Disintegrator Insulin Needle Destruction Unit), the only needle destruction device approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The acquired assets included all matters subject to the SANDD mini original patent applications, including technical designs, drawings, trademarks, tradenames, FDA documents, clinical test data, and all manufacturing tooling and fixtures. The SANDD mini is a portable, battery operated, insulin-needle destruction device for use at home primarily by diabetics. The device is intended for the destruction and environmentally friendly disposal of 27-30 gauge insulin hypodermic needles that are 5/16 to inch in length. It can be used with most insulin pens with disposable insulin syringes from 1/3 to 1 cubic centimeter in volume. The SANDD mini is used by diabetics for the safe and environmentally friendly disposal of needles following their use and is an effective alternative to hazardous waste needle disposal utilizing sharps containers. The Company further said it is evaluating certain modifications to the original SANDD mini design which, if successful, would significant expand the units market capabilities and will then include the allergy, cosmetology and ophthalmology medical device markets. RedHawk also said it has decided to exit the exploration and production section of the energy sector and instead focus more on possible acquisition of energy service providers where it believes business valuations are more attractive. About RedHawk Holdings Corp. RedHawk Holdings Corp., formerly Independence Energy Corp., is a diversified holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in sales and distribution of medical devices, sales of branded generic pharmaceutical drugs, commercial real estate investment and leasing, sales of point of entry full-body security systems, and specialized financial services. Through its medical products business unit, the Company sells WoundClot Surgical - Advanced Bleeding Control, the Sharps and Needle Destruction Device (SANDD), the Carotid Artery Digital Non-Contact Thermometer and Zonis. Through our United Kingdom based subsidiary, we manufacture and market branded generic pharmaceuticals, certain other generic pharmaceuticals known as specials and certain pharmaceuticals outside of the United Kingdoms National Health Service drug tariff referred to as NP8s. Our real estate leasing revenues are generated from various commercial properties under long-term lease. Additionally, RedHawks real estate investment unit holds limited liability company interest in a commercial restoration project in Hawaii. The Companys financial service revenue is from brokerage services earned in connection with debt placement services. RedHawk Energy holds the exclusive U.S. manufacturing and distribution rights for the Centri Controlled Entry System, a unique, closed cabinet, nominal dose transmission full body x-ray scanner. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than statements of historical fact. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. The words anticipate, may, can, plans, believes, estimates, expects, projects, targets, intends, likely, will, should, to be, potential and any similar expressions are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties. In evaluating forward-looking statements, you should consider the various factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements including those listed in the Risk Factors section of our latest 10-K report. Further, the Company may make changes to its business plans that could or will affect its results. Investors are cautioned that the Company will undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. CHRISTIANSBURG Montgomery County officials announced last Wednesday morning that the localitys Economic Development Authority reached an agreement with Cox Family Farms LLC to buy 124 acres of land adjacent to the Falling Branch Corporate Park. Pending a rezoning approval and geotechnical and environmental studies, the county will buy the land for $2.5 million. The 175-acre park, located off Interstate 81s Christiansburg exit, is home to various mid- to large-size businesses that include Aeroprobe, Backcountry.com, Dish Network and Polymer Solutions Inc. All but 29 acres of the park are occupied by businesses. The park is currently home to a total of seven employers with more than 1,000 employees. The Board of Supervisors is committed to keeping Montgomery County a growing and competitive area that continues to attract new businesses, board Chairman Chris Tuck was quoted as saying in a county news release. Acquiring this property is an important step in expanding our existing corporate park and a decision that will pay dividends in the future by providing the groundwork to attract larger commercial businesses to the county. The countys announcement states that the Economic Development Authority has 180 days to perform due-diligence on the property, a process that includes the rezoning and geotechnical and environmental studies. Rezoning applications were sent to the county and Christiansburg on May 30, according to the release. The countys planning commission, which acts as an advisory arm to the board of supervisors, is scheduled to perform a site visit on June 14 followed by a public hearing a month later. Municipal and regional business figures often tout the park as an attractive site for commercial and industrial employers, whether they are local or national companies. For example, materials testing lab Polymer moved about three dozen employees to the park in 2015 from Blacksburg to accommodate growing operations. Included in the 30-year-old labs long-term future is access to two lots adjacent to its 20,000-square-foot facility on Technology Drive. During a May 2015 event celebrating Polymers new home, lab founder Jim Rancourt spoke about the move also providing a more central and convenient location for employees who live in both the New River and Roanoke valleys. Montgomery Countys commercial and industrial space is currently limited, a situation that can make it tough to attract prospective employers in need of larger areas, Economic Development Authority Chairman Tommy Loflin said in the countys news release. Having a 100-plus acre site thats ready for development will allow the county to compete for much larger projects, Charlie Jewell, executive director of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, said in the news release. This will allow us to better market the county to attract a wider range of businesses to the New River Valley. Some years ago, software giant Microsoft considered the site company officials went as far as touring the property and filing paperwork with local governments for a data center. The project, however, ended up going to the Danville area after a sinkhole opened at the park due to karst terrain common to the area. As far as which potential employers might take up the parks new space, Tuck said its still too early to tell. He said hed like to look at stability, salary and wages and environmental impact as factors. But he said the county needs to have the space. If you dont have the site for a company to come to, youre just not prepared and theyre going to look someplace else, Tuck said. SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Silvaco, Inc. today announced it has agreed to merge with Paripath, a company specializing in characterization software, generating sign-off accurate models for cells, I/Os, IPs and memories. The technology from Paripath complements Silvacos advanced node portfolio including SPICE simulation, 3D RC extraction, and variation analysis solutions for analog and memory designs. The need for generation of highly accurate noise, power and timing models for foundational IP has become very complex with shrinking process geometries. GUNA from Paripath offers a fast and flexible characterization platform for standard cells, I/O pad, complex cells and memories. PASER (Paripath Accelerated Simulation Environment) accelerates simulation performance up to 50x using BEST in class analysis engines. It offers simulator agnostic, ultra-fast and high capacity engines to achieve speedup with no change in design methodology or flow. As Silvacos fifth acquisition in two years, Paripaths technologies are a welcome addition to Silvacos expanding portfolio of EDA tools and we see perfect synergy of GUNA with our advanced circuit simulation engine, SmartSpice, said Dave Dutton, CEO of Silvaco. The acquisition further expands our foothold in the characterization and AMS space and helps us advance our growth objectives by delivering more solutions to our customers. In addition to GUNA, Paripaths inCharge also fits well with Silvacos product direction. It analyzes custom circuits for charge sharing violations. Charge sharing violations slow speed of domino/dynamic circuits and can cause functional failure. The combination of Paripaths characterization and Silvacos simulation technologies is a powerful one, said Rohit Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paripath. Our joint effort will help us scale out these important technologies to customers worldwide. About Silvaco Silvaco, Inc. is a leading provider of IP and EDA software tools used for process and device development and for analog/mixed-signal, power IC and memory design. The portfolio also includes tools for power integrity sign off, reduction of extracted netlist for simulation speed up and variation analysis. Silvaco delivers a full TCAD-to-Signoff flow for displays, power electronics, radiation and advanced CMOS along with a complete production-proven IP portfolio including IP licensing and IP management solutions. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Silvaco has a global presence with offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. www.silvaco.com Dominion Diamond Corporation and R2Net, which owns JamesAllen.com, have signed an agreement which is aimed to bring CanadaMark certified diamonds directly to consumers. JamesAllen.com will be the exclusive online retailer of CanadaMark certified diamonds, and each of the Dominion's stones listed on its website will bear unique serial number, and will have an official certificate of origin from either Ekati or Diavik diamond mines. "We are excited to partner with Dominion, continuing on our path of transforming the diamond industry by giving consumers a better diamond-buying experience in this case, full transparency of their diamond's journey from the mine to their or their loved one's finger, said R2Nets co-founder and CEO Oded Edelman. The CanadaMark diamonds are tracked at every stage from the mine to the polished stone through independent, audited processes. The program is a hallmark guaranteeing Canadian origin, and works with clients to assure end consumers that their diamond is responsibly mined in Canada. We are thrilled to partner with JamesAllen.com to offer increased transparency for diamond buyers, with a complete view into their diamond's source from mine all the way through to the gift box," said Jim Pounds, Dominions Executive Vice President, Diamonds. JamesAllen.com is the fastest growing online retailer of engagement rings and loose diamonds, and Dominion is Canadas largest independent diamond producer. Theodor Lisovoy, Rough&Polished, Moscow Botswana is no longer a mining driven economy due to lower diamond output as well as copper and nickel, an economist has said. Econsult managing director Keith Jefferies told the Botswana Resource Sector Conference in Gaborone that the country was now more of service economy driven by trade, finance and business as well as tourism and construction. He said mining contributed 22 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 down from 53 percent in 1988/89. Jefferies, however, said diamonds will continue to dominate the mining sector in the country although they will not provide economic growth. We have a diamond sector that will probably not grow significantly in the decades to come. I dont think they will disappear, but the message that I struggle to get it clear to many people is that even if you produce 25 million carats every year for ever, the growth rate is zero, he said. so the diamond industry will not contribute to the driving of the economic growth in Botswana. Diamonds accounted for 66 percent of Botswanas mining exports in 2016. Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau from Gaborone, Botswana, Rough&Polished ALROSA and DMCC Discuss Cooperation Prospects 14 june 2017 News ALROSA President Sergey Ivanov and Executive Chairman of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Ahmed Bin Sulayem agreed upon enhancing cooperation in diamond trade, according to a press release from ALROSA distributed on Wednesday. At a working meeting in ALROSAs headquarters in Moscow, Sergey Ivanov and Ahmed Bin Sulayem discussed options for expanding ALROSAs trading activities at the Dubai Diamond Exchange, a trading platform within DMCC. The parties also agreed to step up fight against undeclared synthetic diamonds. Dubai is one of the worlds leading diamond trading centers. In 2016 alone, ALROSA sold rough diamonds worth USD 259.5 million to companies- residents of the United Arab Emirates. ALROSAs affiliate Arcos East DMCC has been successfully operating at the Dubai Diamond Exchange, and we are certainly interested in wider cooperation with our partners from DMCC, noted Sergey Ivanov. ALROSA President accepted the invitation to attend the Dubai Diamond Conference 2017 and visit DMCC. APTA Public transit leaders joined together at the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) annual conference in Baltimore, Md., to discuss and express their concerns regarding the Trump Administration's FY18 budget proposal to phase out the Capital Improvement Grant (CIG) program. The FY18 budget reflects a $928-million reduction in the CIG program and limits the requested $1.26 billion to projects that hold existing full funding grant agreements (FFGA). The budget says, future investments in new transit projects would be funded by the localities that use the benefit from these localized projects. The administration justified the reduction and phase out of the CIG program by stating that federal resources should be focused on making targeted investments that leverage private sector investment and noted that localities are better equipped to scale and design infrastructure investments needed for their communities. APTA says cuts to the CIG program would put public transit projects and the thousands of associated direct and indirect jobs at risk in more than 50 communities. The transit association conducted a study on the cuts, the Economic Implications of Proposed Public Transit Capital Funding Cuts, which found that 800,000 jobs would be at risk and there would be a possible loss of $90 billion in economic output nationally if the proposal was to be implemented. I must emphasize that APTA and its 1,500 members are very concerned about the Trump Administrations FY18 budget proposal to phase out federal investment of public transit programs that are vital to our local communities and millions of Americans, said Doran J. Barnes, APTA chair and executive director, Foothill Transit. The Administrations proposed cuts to public transit impact more than 50 projects in 23 states worth $38 billion in planned projects. A complete list of the more than 50 CIG public transit projects in 23 states that could be at risk if they dont have a FFGA in place us available here. This proposal is wholly inconsistent with the Administrations approach to improve our nations infrastructure, said Richard A. White, APTA acting president and CEO. It is contrary to the 35-year federal partnership that was created under the Reagan Administration, which has led to a rail renaissance that has transformed our nations communities. APTA says it wants the Trump Administration and Congress to reject these cuts and reaffirm its support for these programs as part of the FY18 budget process. Additionally, APTA says it calls on Congress to include increased investments in public transportation as part of any new infrastructure initiative. The release of the presidents budget proposal is the first step of the budgetary process. It must pass through both sides of Congress, including the appropriate subcommittees, before a final budget is solidified. In a stroke of irony, the U.S. Department of Transportation posted a blog entry on June 12, which details 2016 data that found American drivers spend more time stuck in traffic. The blog is written by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Associate Administrator for Operations Martin Knopp and begins, According to new data from the U.S. Department of Transportations FHWA, drivers are spending more time stuck in rush-hour traffic than ever. Increased congestion is outpacing system improvements gained from investments in gridlock reduction strategies, such as road widenings, better intermodal connections and traffic and demand management technologies. Gary Thomas, president and executive director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), said, Sustainable, predictable and substantial federal funding is essential if transit agencies like DART are going to be able to continue providing effective mobility choices for our customers. Our customers and stakeholders are ready for our projects to get going so they can begin taking full advantage in their investment in mobility. Coca-Cola European Partners plc (CCE) announced it will affirm 2017 guidance of modest low single-digit revenue growth, with operating profit and diluted earnings per share growth to be up high single-digits. These growth figures are on a comparable and fx-neutral basis when compared to the 2016 comparable results. At recent rates, currency translation would reduce 2017 full-year diluted earnings per share by approximately 2.0 percent. Coca-Cola European Partners plc will discuss its plans and outlook with investors at the Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference in Paris on 14 June 2017. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News (Agencia CMA Latam) - After spearheading a judicial offensive to cancel Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer victory in the 2014 presidential race, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party decided to keep its current alliance with Temer's government "to favor political and economic stability." PSDB's acting chairman, Senator Tasso Jereissati, said that the party would remain a Temer administration's ally in the name of economic stability and reforms approval. However, he added during a press conference that "we are not government advocates." "I think that a lot of os things is still going to happen and if there's anything too serious that would lead us to a different position, then we would call the leaders to talk," he said when asked about the possibility of PSDB changing in its position. To understand the current conflict in Brazilian , one needs to go back to the 2014 election. At that time, Dilma Rousseff, from the Workers Party (PT), was running for a new term as a president. Michel Temer, from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), was her ally and vice-presidential candidate. PSDB, at that time, was the main opposition party with a presidential candidate of its own - Senator Aecio Neves, which is currently under investigation for corruption - but lost the race to Rousseff and Temer. After the elections, PSDB accused Rousseff and Temer of using illegal tools to campaign for office and asked Brazil's electoral court to cancel their victory. That request, however, was subsided for a bigger effort from opposition parties to impeach Dilma Rousseff - which they successfully managed to do in 2016. Temer then ascended to the Presidency and promised to adopt economic and fiscal reforms to put a contracting on track for recovery, and gathered support to his government from previously hostile parties - PSDB among them. Temer and his new allies had a harmonic relation for a few months, but things went awry after the electoral court decided to analyze PSDB claims regarding the presidential campaign in 2014. The party did not withdraw its claims that Rousseff and Temer received illegal donations even after taking part in the current administration. To make things worse, last month Temer went under suspicion of endorsing and receiving bribery payments. As a result, support from current coalition parties became more fragile. Amid growing pressure from voters, PSDB said it would decide about its support to Temer administration depending on the electoral court decision regarding the 2014 electoral campaign. The trial was scheduled to the beginning of June. After almost a week of debate, most of the judges ruled last Friday that there was insufficient evidence to prove that there were irregularities during the 2014's Rousseff-Temer campaign for the presidency. The ruling meant that Temer would remain in office, and strengthened inner voices from PSDB which favored continuous support to the Brazilian president. Jereissati, however, showed dissatisfaction with the court's decision. "My opinion is that we have to appeal, but we will only speak about this after [the ruling is] published, to search a new joint position," Jereissati said. An appeal, he said, would allow PSDB to remain in government without giving up the belief that there was corruption during the 2014 campaign. When asked if he believed that PSDB's stance was paradoxical, Jereissati acknowledged that "there is certainly an inconsistency in this, but it is a situation in which History has put us, and I will not fail to say that there has been corruption." by Agencia CMA Latam For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Newell Brands (NWL) said Wednesday that it will reaffirm its fiscal year 2017 outlook during its presentation tomorrow at the Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference in Paris, France. The company still expects normalized earnings per share to be in the range of $3.00 to $3.20 for fiscal year 2017. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $3.11 per share for fiscal year 2017. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company reaffirmed 2017 net sales guidance of $14.52 billion to $14.72 billion, representing 9.5 percent to 11 percent growth, and core sales growth guidance of 2.5 to 4.0 percent. Analysts expect revenue of $14.75 billion for the the year. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Memphis has become the first major U.S. city to launch a student loan reduction program for all full-time city workers to help retire their student debt faster. Last week, the City of Memphis announced the rollout of the Student Loan Reduction Program to help employees who are burdened by student loans. The city added that it is dedicated to building and retaining an engaged workforce. With total student debt outstanding in the U.S. exceeding $1.4 trillion, student loan debt is a widespread issue among the workforce. Young workers must pay off these loans before they can start thinking about their financial future. Memphis is a city with a shrinking population. In 2016, student loan debt in Memphis grew by nearly five percent, compared with slightly more than three percent growth nationally. Beginning July 1, eligible Memphis city workers will receive monthly contributions of $50. The contributions will go towards principal repayment of their student loans. The program is being administered by Tuition.io, a platform for employee student loan contributions. "We are proud to be the first municipality in the country to offer this kind of student debt assistance to our workforce. We view this as an important investment in our employees," said Alex Smith, City of Memphis Chief Human Resources Officer. To qualify for the program, an employee must be an active, full-time city employee for at least 12 months. Memphis is utilizing Tuition.io's to coordinate payments directly to the employees' student loan service providers. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News This dynamic helped Gov. Laura Kelly win reelection in Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly won a second term in a historic win in the Kansas governor's race. Her performance in Johnson County helped deliver a narrow victory. Army clashes NPAs, 1 soldier and 1 NPA killed By DPAO, 8ID PA May 11, 2017 CAMP LUKBAN, Catbalogan City A tip from a concerned citizen on the presence of armed group in a community triggered the troops of 43rd Infantry (We Search) Battalion to immediately respond on May 10, 2017 at 10 o clock in the evening that led to a 10-minute fire fight between the military troops and communist terrorists in the boundaries of Barangay Camayaan, Silvino Lobos, Northern Samar and Barangay San Roque, Matuguinao, Samar. This resulted to the death of Pfc Jaime C Mabini Jr (Inf) PA while undergoing medical treatment at a nearby hospital and the recovery of one (1) body count from the enemy side. As of this time, nearby military units and CAA Detachments were alerted to conduct checkpoints along possible entries/exits of withdrawals of the enemy. Further, the 8ID calls for the active participation of the community in immediately informing nearby military units on the presence of this terrorist group in their area. PH exports up by 18.34% in Q1 By DTI-TIPG-EMB May 12, 2017 MAKATI CITY Philippine exports for the first quarter of 2017 grew by 18.34% after it reflected double-digit growth for March 2017 with 21% total increase amounting to $5.58 billion compared to $4.61 billion recorded value in the same period in 2016, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced. In the recent report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the increase for March 2017 exports data, an almost double of the 11% year-on-year growth figure posted in February this year, further lifted the cumulative value of merchandise exports covering the period January-March 2017. Increase for March 2017 exports marked the fourth consecutive positive growth in the value of Philippine merchandise exports since December 2016, explained DTI Export Marketing Bureau Director Senen M. Perlada. For March 2017, electronics remained to be the countrys top export with total receipts of $2.80 billion, accounting for 50.2% of the total exports revenue in March 2017. It increased by 19.0% from $2.36 billion registered in March 2016. On the other hand, exports of manufactured goods were valued at $4.69 billion, accounting for 84.1% share of the total export receipts in March 2017, went up by 16.5% from $4.03 billion recorded in the same month last year. United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), with export receipts valued at $809.93 million, topped other countries as the Philippine top export market for March 2017. It is followed by Hong Kong with revenue amounting to $798.25 million, and Japan as third market with $762.43 million export sales. By economic bloc, East Asia registered to be the top destination of Philippine goods with 46.4% share to total exports, followed by European Union with 16.2% share to total merchandise exports. ASEAN ranked third with 14.9% share in overall Philippine exported goods. Against other trade-oriented economies, the Philippines landed at third place among the top export performers for March 2017, a major leap after landing 9th place for February 2017. Malaysia topped the list with 24.1% export growth followed by Indonesia with 24% for March 2017. PH outward shipments for Q1 Covering the first quarter of the year, exports of Philippine electronic products increased significantly by 15.27% while non-electronic goods also posted +21.48%. Positive performance of the five out of nine subsectors of the electronics industry drive growth which contributed 96.65% share in the cumulative total value of the industry. Semiconductors, which grew +16.3% in the first quarter of 2017, remained to be countrys top electronics exports. Increase for non-electronic goods was driven by the triple-digit growths in Forest Products (+168.1%) and Coconut Products (+133.1%). The rest of the contributing commodities exhibited double-digit increases ranging from 18.7% to 89.4% except for Basketwork (+8.1%) and Travel Goods and Handbags (+7.6%). Top markets for Q1 Except for Japan, cumulative value of export shipments to top market destinations of the country posted substantive growths in the first quarter of 2017. Combined markets of China and Hong Kong with a share of 23.6% which also grew by 35.94% topped the list of exports destinations. Second to the list with total 15.49% share was USA which rose by 13.66%; followed by Japan with 15.34% total share of exports which declined by 17.41%. Dear Editor, Re: Samoas potential is endless Samoa is forever stuck as having great potential. As long as H.R.P.P remains in power Samoa will forever remain as having great potential. Let someone bright enough do a little bit of research online and compare tourism in Fiji and Samoa: How many tourists arrive in Samoa vs Fiji? How much money does Fiji get from tourism compared to Samoa? How many planes arrive daily at Nadi Airport compared to Faleolo Airport? How many resorts/hotels does Fiji have and Samoa have? How many people are employed by the tourism industry (non-governmental) in Samoa and Fiji? Siaosi The Samoa Victim Support Group hosted a forum yesterday to discuss the Nofotane Project yesterday with the general public. Held at the T.A.T.T.E. Building at Sogi, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Laaulialemalietoa Polataivao Schmidt, highlighted the importance of women. O le nofotane, o le paolo tamaitai. O le faiava, o le paolo alii, he said. That is the honorable way in the Samoan culture given to these people. All of us that have gathered here today, we are all paolo. O paolo e malu ai aiga. O paolo e maua ai gafa o aiga." Paolo are people to turn to for peace and safety and also to develop families, your children and your parents." That is why the government of Samoa gives their full support to this project because we want to emphasize this issue considering this is where the heart of unity for our country and families is found." The government also supports this because of the things that we have seen happening in other countries; where mothers and women do not have a voice." They have to fight in order to have that right in everything regarding families, churches including the decisions of the government." Now we have come to a point of life where we are emphasizing the importance of women all over the world and that is a main priority for our government now, to focus our attention to the significance of women in Samoa." We cannot undo what has already been done due to the many changes that we have come to face these days." Given the Samoa Victim Support Group has been a witness to the 85% of women or nofotane who have been victims of abuse, we must address this." A lot of these problems arise mostly because of arguments between a husband and a wife in their own family." It is not our duty to blame the male race when it comes to these situations because the point and the goal of this programme is to have a solution for this; to put an end to this matter." Nofotane has got a place in our Samoan structure and without a doubt, its one of the most respected person in the family but because of the 85% of what has been reported, we must address it so please give all the support that you can. Laaulialemalietoa acknowledged the President of S.V.S.G. and their organization as well as everyone else who took a part in implementing this project. The country programme coordinator for UN Women in Samoa, Suisala Mele Maualaivao said This is the main goal of our agency, to guarantee that our women are empowered through Gender Quality because we see equals in each other." Remember, you can be empower and still be humble. If someone serves you, you can treat them with respect and kindness." This programme has given up to U.S.$7.3million dollars all over the world but theres only been one successful applicant and that is S.V.S.G so congratulations. The President of the Womens Committee, Mulipola Anarosa Molioo said that We wouldnt be able to do this without the help of U.N. Women and they are the reason why we are here today for this programme. Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has downplayed claims by Virgin Australia that government has to pay $9.2 million tala in jet fuel excise rebates. He has also rejected claims by Opposition Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai, that the governments failure to pay reflects badly on its ability to keep its side of international deals. His comments have become very predictable, Prime Minister Tuilaepa said in a statement issued by the Press Secretary yesterday. It is in his nature to criticize the government publicly, without considering that the consequences of his outburst reflect poorly on his judgment and lack of understanding of the due diligence that my administration works hard to carry out. Prime Minister Tuilaepa pointed out that nothing is ever perfect. He said that in every investment the government weighs the pros and cons to ensure maximum benefits for the country and our residents." The decision to enter and withdraw from a joint venture with Virgin Australia is one of them. Asked about the $9.2million claim, Tuilaepa said: Its nothing new. I had expected the claim, in fact there may be more claims not only from Virgin Australia (governments partner in the Virgin Samoa joint airline venture) but we also have claims of our own that need to be sorted out. Simply put, its like divorce proceedings between a couple. Before the divorce papers are signed the couple meets to negotiate how their assets and finances are equally and fairly divided between the spouses. That is the same process that our officials and Virgin Australia are engaging in. Along those lines, the Prime Minister recalled that at one point in the ten-year marriage, Virgin Australia requested financial injection from the government of Samoa to assist with the joint venture. And due to the confidentially of the on-going negotiations with Virgin Australia, I am not at liberty to divulge details of how much money was involved but rest assured government granted Virgin Australias request for funds at the time without hesitation. There is also the issue of outstanding dividends which is one of the unresolved issues on the negotiating table. The demand for the $9.2m payment was made in a letter to Prime Minister Tuilaepa. Dated 29 May 2017, the letter is written by John Borghetti, the Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Australia. It is in response to the notification from Prime Minister Tuilaepa, dated 12 May 2017, that Cabinet had decided not to re-new the Joint Venture between the government, Virgin Australia and owning entity Grey Investment Group. I would like to bring to your attention that Virgin Australia intends to continue to pursue the US$4m in jet fuel excise rebates, which is currently owed by the Samoan Government to the VSAM JV, Mr. Borghetti writes. I understand that the Special Negotiating Team is aware of this issue. Virgin Australia has been actively pursuing the repayment of these monies since April 2015, as noted in the attached letter to the Ministry of Revenue. The letter Mr. Borgetti is referring to was written by Geoff Smith, Virgin Australias Chief Financial Officer to the head of the Ministry of Revenue, Avalisa Viali-Fautua'alii on 22 February 2017. We write to you in relation to Virgin Samoas entitlement to claim a refund for excise paid on jet fuel purchased from Petroleum Products Supplies Ltd (P.P.S.) - the agent appointed by the Government of Samoa to undertake jet fuel distribution at Faleolo International Airport, Mr. Smiths letter reads. All payments made by Virgin Samoa to PPS for jet fuel until 30 June 2016 included an amount of excise at the rate of 0.28 Samoan Tala (SAT) per litre." Article 24 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, to which Samoa is a signatory, provides that jet fuel for international air services shall be exempt from customs duty, inspection fees or similar national or local duties and charges." This position is re-enforced in Article 13 of the Samoa-Australia Air Services Agreement, which provides that fuels shall be exempt from customs duties, excise duties, inspection fees and other national duties and charges. According to Mr. Smith, Virgin Samoa initially contacted the Ministry of Revenue in April 2015 seeking advice regarding the process and requirements involved with claiming a refund of excise paid on jet fuel. Despite numerous follow up communications we were provided with insufficient information and guidance to allow us to commence our claim, Mr. Smiths letter continues. Virgin Samoa is expected to close before the end of the year. The District Court Judge who acquitted the former Director of the National Prosecution Office of a traffic-related charge will now have to sentence her. The decision made yesterday followed the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Judge Fepuleai Ameperosa Romas ruling. Now Mauga Precious Changs sentence for the charge of negligent driving causing injury will be delivered by Judge Fepuleai on 26 June 2017. The matter was before Judge Alalatoa Rosella Papalii yesterday. The Independent prosecutor, hired by the Attorney Generals Office, Satiu Simativa Perese suggested that the matter be referred to another Judge given Judge Alalatoas involvement the Cabinet-ordered Tribunal which investigated the conduct of Mauga. Judge Alalatoa said she expected the matter to be raised. Yes I was going to raise that because as you know I was involved in the Tribunal of Mauga and the reason why its before me is because it was from the Supreme Court, said Judge Alalatoa. And I thought it would be suitable for the matter to be called before my brother Judge Roma as it was he who dealt before with this case. He is familiar with this case and I think it would be more appropriate for him to deliver the sentencing of this case. Judge Alalatoa added that the practice in Samoa is that if an appeal is successful and the case is referred back to the District Court, it normally goes back to the Judge who gave the decision in the first place. But Satui objected. Your honor I don't believe that in this case the sentencing should go back to Judge Roma, he argued. As you are aware his view of the facts was opposite the findings of the Appeal Judge, Justice Tuatagaloa. It would therefore be unfair to ask Judge Roma to sentence the defendant when he didn't think she was negligent. Therefore is it possible for the sentencing to be heard by Judge Atoa, who has not had any previous dealings with the defendant. Judge Alalatoa disagreed. I dont think I agree with what you are saying Mr. Perese because in my experience this has always been the practice, she said. But Im sure my brother Judge Roma can consider your request when the matter is called before him. Maugas lawyer, Aumua Ming Leung Wai supported Judge Alalatoas decision. I agree with your honor about Judge Fepuleai presiding over this matter in relation to sentence, he said. That is the practice weve always had and if my lawyer friend objects to that then a proper application should be filed. I climbed a mountain last week, not simply for the spectacular view, but to survey the landscape Ive wandered for most of my life. The highest mountain in San Diego is a little over 6,000 feet, but just a few miles north into Riverside there is a mountain nearly 9,000 feet tall that offers a commanding view of San Diego County. Toro Peak is part of the Santa Rosa Plateau and stands guard over Borrego Springs to the south and Palm Springs to the north. On a clear day you can stand at the summit and see from the Salton Sea, south into Mexico and west to the Pacific Ocean. Advertisement Mountains that I have climbed, like Cuyamaca Peak, Stonewall, Hot Springs, Sunset, Black, Sombrero, Whale and Angel, were easy to pick out on this clear day. Gazing out over the vast, curdled landscape, I was not seeing nameless mountains and canyons, but rather the geological pages of a human scrapbook. There, to my right, the San Ysidro Mountains, where I hiked 26 miles through spring rain and then desert heat while carrying a fragile, Native American clay pot that I found while hiking with the supervisor of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. San Diego Countys highest point, Hot Springs Mountain, was farther to the west and offered memories of a trip to the summit to interview one of the few female fire lookouts, long before watchful human eyes had been replaced by unblinking instruments. Today there are only ruins of the once important outpost. I could see High Point on Palomar Mountain where lightning struck a huge pine tree next to me while I was fighting a small fire started during a summer thunderstorm as a young Forest Service seasonal worker. Just beyond the broad plain of the Warner Valley and Lake Henshaw I could locate the meadow where I proposed and was later married to my beautiful wife, Kati. When I closed my eyes, I could see even more clearly the white, horse-drawn carriage bringing her to the shade of the stately oak tree where we exchanged vows. Friends still talk about our spring nuptials, referring to it as a three rattlesnake wedding, because of the uninvited guests that showed up. A few miles away my minds eye could see the mountain-to-desert panorama where my mothers ashes are scattered under a towering incense cedar tree. In the growing shadows of late afternoon, the deep cleft of the canyon cut by the west fork of the San Luis Rey River brought back fond memories of a long days hike. With our dogs, a hiking buddy and I had planned a short, 4-mile jaunt from Barker Valley to Lake Henshaw. Thirteen hours later, we reached our destination, but not before an exhausting day of climbing over and slipping off huge boulders into waist-deep water. We may have lost a few hours while catching some small native trout in this isolated mountain stream, but my soaked springer spaniel could not have been happier. Look closely to the south, there is a little bump in the In-Ko-Pah Mountains called Sombrero Peak, obviously named because of its distinctive shape. On a blustery spring day, a group of us hiked to the top of the mountain, but to survive had to cling to one another to avoid being blown off the summit in winds that Im sure approached 100 miles an hour. To the east I see the checkerboard agricultural fields of the Imperial Valley where I have enjoyed many opening day dove hunts with my sons and good friends. Those same fields have provided enjoyable birding trips in the winter months as we went armed with telephoto lenses in search of migrating sandhill cranes and resident burrowing owls. The glory of a spring wildflower bloom may have passed, but thumbing through this scrapbook view before me I can see vast fields of purple sand verbena, dotted with the large, white blossoms of scattered dune primrose, or I imagine the yellow fields of desert sunflowers, or the reddish hue of the ocotillo forest as the tips of these buggy whips are ablaze with their waxy crimson flowers. Its time to leave my perch. I pause for one last look. Before me is a scene that has not changed since the earliest visitors left the first human footprints centuries ago. The only difference is that each carried their own mental scrapbook. As I left the mountaintop, I closed my scrapbook until I can return again with new memories and adventures to add. If you have a story of interest, email ernie@packtrain.com. Visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com. There are desert rats that have spent a lifetime exploring San Diegos arid lands and they have never seen a bighorn sheep. And there is another group of wildlife lovers who spend the hottest days of summer at remote desert locations as citizen scientists counting these beautiful animals. You could be one of those. Kathy Dice, superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, has put out the call for volunteers to participate in the 47th annual Bighorn Sheep Count. This years event is scheduled for June 30 through July 1, with all new volunteers participating in a mandatory orientation in Borrego Springs on June 17. The annual sheep count involves as many as 60 volunteers who travel to about 20 locations from the palm groves of Borrego Palm Canyon to extremely remote springs in the Santa Rosa Mountains. Advertisement The citizen science project provides wildlife managers with valuable information about sheep numbers, habitat conditions, possible early warnings about disease, and overall herd conditions. Counters spend three days at the few desert waterholes that do not dry up during the summer. The limited water sources mean counters are more likely to see animals as they come in to drink. Last summer, sheep counters recorded 296 bighorn while enduring daytime temperatures that reached as high as 107 degrees. The highest number of sheep recorded was in 2009, when 356 were tallied. The June 17 orientation is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University of California Irvine Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center, 401 Tilting T Drive, Borrego Springs. Training will include bighorn sheep natural history, census methods, desert safety and preliminary site assignments. Volunteers interested in participating in the count can contact the Anza-Borrego Foundation at (760) 767-0446, or email ab.sheepcount@parks.ca.gov. This years count will be dedicated to the late State Park Ranger Steve Bier, who served as count coordinator in past years. Youth event The San Diego Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is sponsoring an event for youngsters to teach them about turkey hunting. The annual J.A.K.E.S. event will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 24 at the Escondido Fish and Game Association shooting range, at Lake Wohlford and Old Guejito Road in Valley Center. J.A.K.E.S. stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship and is a program designed to involve local youths in wildlife conservation and wise stewardship of the natural resources. Event Chairman Steve Turigliatto said youngsters will be able to participate in shooting .22s, black powder guns, shotguns, BB guns and archery. They will also learn the history of San Diego turkey hunting and the biology of wild turkeys. The event is free to kids 6 to 15 and $10 for adults. This includes all of the shooting events, a T-shirt, lunch and refreshments. Youngsters will also receive a certificate of completion. Turigliatto said there is a limit of 105 participants. Sign up by calling (760) 803-4868. Fishing license measure A legislative bill that would change how California fishing licenses are issued has passed the state Senate. If the bill advances and is signed by the governor, SB 187 would mean a fishing license would be good for 12 months from the date of purchase. Currently, California fishing licenses are issued for a calendar year and this means many people may not purchase a license late in the year during some of the best fishing times. This bill would not only improve access to recreational fishing, it will protect California jobs dependent on outdoor tourism, said Sen. Tom Berryhill, author of SB 187. Labor unions, state and local chambers of commerce, anglers, tourism groups and everyday Californians recognize that Californias antiquated fishing licensing program has proven to be a barrier to participation. California currently has one of the most expensive fishing licenses in the nation and sales have been dropping. It is hoped this change in the law would encourage more people to buy a license. The effort to change licenses to one-year at date of purchase failed in past attempts, but an impressive coalition of state and local organizations are now backing the change. Leading the effort is the California Sportfishing League, a nonprofit coalition of fresh and saltwater anglers and businesses devoted to protecting access to recreational fishing. Californias 2,795,253 million anglers generate $4.6 billion in economic activity annually, supporting local tourism and jobs, according to the CSL. This bill must still be approved by the state Assembly and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. If you have a story of interest, email ernie@packtrain.com. Visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com. Escondido High School will get a new principal starting July 1, the school board announced at its meeting Tuesday night. The Escondido Union High School District board hired Perris administrator Adriana Lepe-Ramirez to head the 2,385 student campus, where shell replace outgoing Principal Rich Watkins. I think her breadth of experiences as an administrator and a teacher made her stand out, among the field of candidates, said Superintendent Steve Boyle, who described Lepe-Ramirez as an advocate for students, with experience supervising a broad range of academic disciplines. Advertisement Lepe-Ramirez has worked in education for 20 years, and spent the last nine years as an administrator for Perris Union High School District. She has worked as an assistant principal at Perris High School for six years, where she lead the schools Kick Off to College and coordinated its safety and crisis intervention team. She previously worked as an administrator and history teacher in Los Angeles. Shes worked with counseling and college preparedness, and put programs in place to support students, including under-represented students, in getting A through G (college entrance requirements,) Boyle said. Lepe-Ramirez earned a bachelors degree in social science and a teaching credential from Cal State Los Angeles, and then completed a masters degree in educational leadership with a focus on Urban Leadership at Cal State Sacramento. She is completing a doctorate in educational leadership through a joint program with the UC San Diego and Cal State San Marcos, which she expects to finish in the coming year. That degree focuses on professional learning communities, which Boyle said involves organizing teams of teachers to review students work and testing data in an effort to improve instruction. Boyle also said Lepe-Ramirez is supportive of the schools specialized programs, including agriculture and music, and has a track record of bringing people together. One of the things that I like best is her ability to develop caring and nurturing relationships with students and staff, and build trust and respect and transparency, and get people together to move toward goals, Boyle said. I have full faith that shell be able to continue the programs that are strong at Escondido and add to them. Adriana Lepe-Ramirez will start next month, after Watkins moves to a position as director of interventions for the district. In his new position, Watkins will supervise school disciplinary processes and other services. deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan Poway has become the latest city in the county forced to consider changing the way it elects City Council members. A Malibu attorney who has threatened to sue several cities across California including four in North County sent Poway a demand letter last week saying its at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act, and that electing council members by geographic district is the only remedy. Similar threats in recent years have forced cities such as Escondido and Chula Vista to change their voting method. Numerous others are now in the process of making the switch, including Carlsbad, Vista, Oceanside and San Marcos, which have all recently been targeted by attorney Kevin Shenkman. Advertisement The Poway City Council is scheduled to discuss its letter from Shenkman on Tuesday during closed session. To fight the threatened lawsuit could cost the city millions of dollars in legal fees with no guarantee it would win. In fact, cities across the state that have challenged such actions have lost repeatedly. The Voting Rights Act is designed to stop racially polarized voting by creating districts where minority candidates would have a better chance of winning. In Poway, where the Latino population is 15.7 percent, its unclear how any district could be formulated that would give a minority-majority vote to Latinos. The southern part of town, where there are more apartments, would be the most likely, officials said. I think there is some irony. Here you have a city where the mayor and most of the council members publicize their cell phone numbers and are willing to meet folks anytime and anywhere, Vaus said. When somebody calls I dont ask them where they live or what their ethnicity is. I think we do a darn good job of representing everybody everywhere. But Vaus said the council is taking the allegation seriously. If theres a way we can do things better, I feel confident that the council will want to do that, he said. Shenkmans June 2 letter, received at City Hall on June 7, says Poways at-large system dilutes the ability of Latinos to elect candidate of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of Poways council elections. The only example he gives is the 1998 council election in which Latino candidate, Joe Diaz Jr., ran for mayor but lost by a wide margin to Mickey Cafagna. Even in cities that have switched to council districts, however, mayors are elected by a citywide vote. Shenkman says in his letter that the near absence of Latino candidates willing to run in Poways at-large election system is also indicative of the vote dilution of Poways at large election system the lack of Latino candidates is itself a symptom of that vote dilution. He has given the city until July 21 to discuss a voluntary change to the election system. If not, it is implied a lawsuit will follow. Shenkman did not immediately return calls. Poway is home to about 48,000 people. Each of the four council districts would need to have roughly 12,000 residents. jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones UPDATES: On Monday, a Poway Unified School District official confirmed the district had also received a similar letter, on June 8, from Shenkman. The matter has been referred to district attorneys, the official said. Next time Vista voters elect City Council members only half of the electorate will get to weigh in. The other half will have to wait two years. To fend off a threatened lawsuit, the council unanimously agreed Tuesday to carve itself into four districts one per council seat and to set the boundaries for each of those zones. The mayors seat will still be elected at large. Broadly speaking, the new map has a north-central district and an east district, as well as a south and a west. Advertisement The north-central and south districts will elect their council representatives in 2018. The east and west voters will get to elect their respective representative in 2020. Voters citywide will elect a mayor in 2018. Wheres your district? Click here and enter your address. Under layers, be sure to select purple Vista is one of several cities and government districts in the county that have been threatened with a lawsuit by Malibu-based attorney Kevin Schenkman, alleging at-large voting systems disenfranchise Latino voters and violate the California Voting Rights Act. Vista reluctantly opted not to fight Shenkmans demand. Fighting such a lawsuit has thus far proven to be costly and fruitless, since no California city has won a voting-rights lawsuit since the state law was passed in 2001. The map the council selected Tuesday was known as purple plan and was one of two options created by demographers the city hired less than three months ago. It emerged as the favorite during the course of several public meetings and workshops held to discuss possible boundaries. Its not the perfect map. It wasnt my first choice, but you have to compromise, Councilman John Aguilera said shortly before the council voted. Take a look at Vistas new council districts Purple plan map Im OK with it, Councilwoman Amanda Rigby said, noting that it also seemed to be the preferred plan at a workshop she ran a few weeks ago. The boundaries were designed to keep communities of interest together, as much as possible. For example, many of the Vista neighborhoods south of state Route 78 will remain in one district. But Breeze Hill which is south of the freeway is part of a district making up the west end of the city. The Townsite neighborhood is part of the district that stretches to the citys north limits. The district making up the east side of the city uses East Vista Way as a boundary at some points, but stretches as far south as the freeway. In his letter threatening a lawsuit, attorney Shenkman pointed to last falls City Council election, in which one council candidate attorney Erubey Lopez received the majority of the vote in Latino neighborhoods, including the Townsite area where he grew up, but landed in fifth place overall, drawing less than 14 percent of the vote. Vista is not alone in moving to district-based elections. Along the 78 corridor, Escondido has had district elections in place since 2013, and threats from Shenkmans firm led the city of San Marcos to approve districts last year (to take effect in the 2018 election). Faced with those same threats from Shenkman, Carlsbad and Oceanside are also moving toward district elections. It remains to be seen if the move to districts will change the Vista City Council makeup in the next few election cycles. Each of the four current council members whose seats are now subject to districting live in different districts. For all the work that went into it, the districts could change in a few years. When the census numbers from the 2020 count come out, the city will take a fresh look at the population growth Vista has grown since the 2010 count and likely will need to alter the boundaries. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Anita Pallenberg, the former girlfriend and muse of Keith Richards and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, and briefly a paramour of Mick Jagger, died Tuesday in England. Anita Pallenberg passed away peacefully at St. Richards Hospital, Chichester, yesterday, June 13, with her family by her side, a spokesman for Richards said. The cause of death was not revealed, but the statement released Wednesday said Pallenberg had been ill for some time and that her family was by her side. Advertisement Pallenbergs age was in dispute. Most records and all the large newspapers in England reported she was 73. A spokeswoman for Richards, however, said she was 75. Her death was disclosed in an Instagram post Tuesday by Stella Schnabel, a close friend and the daughter of painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. I have never met a woman quite like you Anita, Stella wrote on Instagram. In a brief statement issued Wednesday, Richards said of his former girlfriend: A most remarkable woman. Always in my heart. Pallenberg and Richards became a couple in 1967, after he wooed her away from fellow Stones guitarist Jones, who beat Pallenberg while they were visiting Morocco with Richards. The one woman in the world you did not want to try and beat up on was Anita Pallenberg, Richards wrote in Life, his 2010 memoir. Every time they had a fight, Brian would come out bandaged and bruised. Her leaving Jones for Richards caused a rift in the famed English rock band that contributed to Jones being ousted from the Stones in June 1969. He died a month later, after drowning in his swimming pool. In her 1994 autobiography, Jaggers former girlfriend, Marianne Faithful, credited Pallenberg for transforming the Stones. How Anita came to be with Brian is really the story of how the Stones became the Stones, Faithfull wrote. She almost single-handedly engineered a cultural revolution in London by bringing together the Stones and the jeunesse doree. The Stones came away with a patina of aristocratic decadence that served as a perfect counterfoil to the raw roots blues of their music. Pallenberg and Richards were together for 12 years. They never married. The couple had three children together, son Marlon, now 46 (whose first words, reportedly, were room service), and daughter Angela, now 44. They had a second son, Tara, who died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1976. A rock princess, Pallenberg sang background vocals on the Stones classic, Sympathy for the Devil. By all accounts, she was a force to reckon with, as Richards acknowledged in his 2010 memoir. I like a high-spirited woman, he wrote. And with Anita, you knew you were taking on a Valkyrie she who decides who dies in battle. In a less charitable moment in Life, Richards writes that Pallenberg was like Hitler. Anita Pallenberg was born to German parents on Jan. 25, 1944 or 1942, depending on the source in Rome, Italy. After being kicked out of school at 16, she lived in Rome, New York and Paris, where she became a model. By the time she was in her late teens, she had appeared on the cover of Vogue and other magazines. But the life of a model did not appeal to her. I could make a living out of it and thats basically what I did, but I was not like the models of today, Pallenberg told the Guardian newspaper in 2008. I didnt like photographers too much, I didnt like the fashion world. I still dont. A worldly woman who developed a fascination with black magic, Pallenberg was fluent in four languages when she became involved with the suitably impressed Richards. She knew everything and she could say it in five languages, he once observed. She scared the pants off me. Pallenberg acted in an array of films, most notably the Jagger-starring crime drama Performance in 1970, which was about the time she started using heroin. Her other film credits included Candy, the Jane Fonda-starring Barbarella and 2009s Cheri. She and Richards were almost inseparable in the 1970s, when his drug use became rampant. She was arrested with him in Canada in 1977, when he was charged with heroin possession and she was charged with marijuana possession.. In an interview a decade ago, Pallenberg said she had hepatitis C. At the time, she attended Alcoholic Anonymous meetings several times a week. In 1979, Pallenberg had an affair with Scott Cantrell, a 17-year-old groundskeeper at the home she and Richards shared in New York. While in her bed, Cantrell fatally shot himself in the head with a gun owned by Richards, who was recording abroad with the Stones. I didnt feel anything, Pallenberg later said of Cantrells death. Thats one of the wonders of drugs and drink. She and Richards split up in 1980. In 1994, Pallenberg earned a degree in fashion and textile at Londons Central Saint Martins College. In her 2008 interview with the Guardian, Pallenberg said: I know where all the good toilets are in Rome I know all the toilets! Because I spent so much time in toilets when I was using (drugs). So when I go anywhere, I always go to the toilet right away and check it out. Even now! ...My life has become about little things; it was all about big things at first and now its all little things. In a mid-2016 interview with Alain Elkann, Pallenberg seemed to indicate the end nearing for her. I am ready to die, she told him. I have done so much here. My Mum died at 94. I dont want to lose my independence. Now I am over 70 and, to be honest, I did not think I would live over 40. Twitter @georgevarga george.varga@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 3:05 p.m., June 14, 2017: This article was updated to note the lack of clarity about whether Anita Pallenberg was 73 or 75 at the time of her death. 10:50 a.m., June 14, 2017: This article was updated to include the location where Anita Pallenberg died and a statement about her from Keith Richards. This article was originally published at 6:55 p.m. on June 13, 2017. No visas were required to explore a wonderfully wide world of aural adventure at the 2017 Ojai Music Festival, which concluded its four-day run on Sunday night with a rousing flourish. Now in its 71st year, Ojai has long been regarded as a singular showcase for contemporary classical music. Thanks to visionary pianist, composer and band leader Vijay Iyer, this years music director, the festival grew in a number of exciting new ways. Jazz, Indian classical, chamber music, experimental, free improvisation, Bach partidas and fugues Iyer embraces them all with equal skill and enthusiasm. And he showcased a dizzying array of guest musicians, including some top current and former San Diego artists who played a major role. Advertisement Iyer, the son of Indian immigrant parents, is a 2013 MacArthur Foundation genius grant recipient. He strongly believes music should not be labeled by style, but embraced as a multifarious whole. My approach was that, instead of genre, we should talk about community. Perhaps that is a better term for classical music or jazz. Its about people (and) their shared history, Iyer told a rapt Ojai audience last Thursday. Theres an openness and tolerance to others who might be new. The other thing about a community is it is inter-generational and it turns over. So that gives me a sense of music-making that is not so much about aesthetics, unless we call it an aesthetic of openness, welcome and tolerance. I decided to let that simple truth resound across the music and artists I brought here. Those ideals underpinned the entire festival, which offered 18 concerts and discussions over four days. UC San Diego music professor Steven Schick, who was Ojais 2015 music director, returned to conduct several key concerts. They included the world premiere of Iyers stunning violin concerto, Trouble, and the American premiere of Iyers Emergence, an equally splendid opus for jazz trio and chamber music ensemble that all but eviscerated the differences between jazz and classical. Schick also conducted the West Coast premiere of former UCSD professor and fellow MacArthur Foundation recipient George Lewis wildly ambitious and provocative Afterword, an opera. Ace flutist Claire Chase, a San Diego native who is also a MacArthur recipient, performed at least five times. For violinist Pauchi Sasakis Gama XV, Chase and Sasaki both played while wearing speaker dresses equipped with dozens of small (and functioning) audio speakers. Chase is also the founder of the celebrated International Contemporary Ensemble, which very ably served as Ojais house band this year. ICE, as it is often called, features at least two gifted UCSD music alums, percussionist Ross Karre and flutist Alice Teyssier. For good measure, Fiona Digney, the festivals assistant producer, is a member of the Schick-led San Diego percussion ensemble red fish blue fish. She was in near-constant motion during the weekend concerts at Ojais Libbey Bowl and the adjacent Libbey Park Gazebo. Ojai has fabulous performers and all sorts of music. And its in such a beautiful environment, so I suggest anybody try it, said San Diegos Sharon Griswold, who attended the festival for the third consecutive year with her husband, Bill. The caliber of the performers and the excitement of the audience is really something, Bill added. The audiences at Ojai are absolutely amazing, agreed Daniel Atkinson, UCSD Extensions Director of Arts & Humanities. They have an amazing sense of adventure. The opportunity to be presented with the unknown is why they are there. Under Vijay Iyers borders-shredding curation, that opportunity was greater than ever. He made a festival with a history of daring and risk-taking become more vital and daring than ever. Twitter @georgevarga george.varga@sduniontribune.com San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and his Tijuana counterpart, Juan Manuel Gastelum, shared a podium in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, touting the collaboration between their cities during a conference on cross-border economic competitiveness. We dont talk in terms of two cities, we talk in terms of one region united by so many commonalities, said Faulconer, The two mayors were among the participants of a conference entitled Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border that was hosted by jointly by the Border Trade Alliance and the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for International Scholars. Advertisement The day-long event focused on issues such border infrastructure, binational economic development, and bilateral trade with Mexico. The mayors offered brief opening remarks at a luncheon whose keynote speaker was Doug Ducey, Arizonas Republican governor. Faulconer and Gastelum offer a terrific example of how cities can actually work across the border, said Duncan Wood, the Mexico Institutes director. Earlier this year, the mayors renewed a memorandum of understanding between their two cities formalizing interactions between their staffs. Other cities on the border are also collaborating through various mechanisms such as the Borderplex Alliance that promotes development in El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and nearby New Mexico. Earlier this month, local officials in Laredo, Texas, joined their Mexican counterparts from Nuevo Laredo in launching a Commission on Binational Strategies of the Two Laredos. Geronimo Gutierrez, Mexicos ambassador to the United States, said these cross-border collaborative mechanisms prompt some questions: What are their limits? What are they really useful for? Are they working? What are their best practices? Gutierrez, who was one of the speakers at the conference, stressed the importance of creating spaces where we can jointly address all the challenges that affect border regions. sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com @sandradibble Any parent who has tried to find the right public school knows the frustrations of the Los Angeles Unified School District: the search for seemingly secret knowledge, the decoding of jargon that might once have been English and the hand-me-down lore from one generation of parents to the next. With a little luck, a little skill and $24 million, things should soon be getting better. Pressed by L.A. schools Supt. Michelle King, the Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved an enrollment system that should allow students and families to apply to just about any schools they choose at the same time, through one online application. Advertisement The project is central to Kings strategy for reversing years of declining enrollment. And registering more students is needed to help keep Los Angeles Unified financially solvent. Its a one-stop shop, said King, who said parents have described the numerous different enrollment processes in the current system as too confusing. The idea was that we have to bring everything together in one space at one time so that all parents can have access and knowledge about whats happening in our district, King said. Board member Richard Vladovic said he was concerned about the cost but accepted the project as part of a strategic effort to increase enrollment. Getting the go-ahead on Tuesday was crucial for the district to have any elements of the new system ready by the fall. King had wanted board approval last month but waited because she wasnt sure then that she had enough votes. What is expected to be ready by next October will be modest. During a six-week window, parents should be able to fill out a single online application to apply to three options for the 2018-19 school year: magnet programs, dual-language programs and a small permit program that allows minority students to attend a school in another part of the district if their enrollment would promote racial integration. Other district options are supposed to be added over the following two years. Some of L.A. Unifieds most popular programs are magnets, which also were originally designed to promote integration. Dual-language schools aim to make English speakers fluent in another language while also helping non-English speakers preserve and enhance native-language skills. Independent charter schools are not currently part of the online enrollment plan, and it appears unlikely that the current board majority would have approved a proposal that included charters. Outgoing board member Monica Ratliff said she is not anti-charter, but if you open this to charter schools, then you might as well just not do this. This should be about increasing enrollment in district schools. If the effort recruited 2,383 more students to district schools, she added, this would pay for itself. Board member George McKenna nearly voted against the plan out of concern about unintended consequences, including the possibility that traditional campuses could suffer from unfair comparisons with charters. Charters are privately operated and exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. About 16% of district students attend charters, which are popular with many parents and compete with L.A. Unified for students. Resistance to including charters could crumble as soon as next month, when two board members backed by charter school supporters take office. It isnt clear, however, whether all or most charters would want to be included in the districts system. Board President Steve Zimmer, who, like Ratliff, will be leaving the board, suggested that charters be specifically excluded: Let us codify right now this is for our LAUSD school families. The board stopped short of that approach but backed a revision that excludes charters during the initial three-year rollout. Another revision specifies special assistance for district schools that compare poorly to other schools based on academic performance. When questioned at an earlier meeting, district managers heading the project could not cite a school district in which a unified enrollment system increased enrollment, but they expressed optimism and stressed the importance of providing improved service to families. Board member Monica Garcia offered strong support. There is more success in some of the schools I represent than the neighborhood knows about, Garcia said. We can create alternatives or keep letting others create the alternative. Youve got to take a risk. The districts website currently offers a basic search that allows parents to enter their addresses and learn the names of their neighborhood elementary, middle and high schools. But the search doesnt pull up nearby schools that have available seats. It also doesnt mention particular campuses with special programs. Various district programs also have their own application processes, forms and timelines. Many families dont have the means or time to acquire the necessary knowledge. The revamped online enrollment system will be located at apply.lausd.net, which already has useful, if limited, information. Though the district wants to move beyond paper applications, the new system still will allow families to apply on paper if they choose to or lack Internet access. To read the article in Spanish, click here howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume UPDATES: 7:20 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details. This article was originally published at 10:45 p.m. on June 13. Who should pay for the retired detectives dog sitter? Thats the question at the heart of the latest squabble in the murder case of New York real estate scion Robert Durst a legal battle between experienced prosecutors and a heavyweight defense team. The back-and-forth, which is laid out in a recent court filing, focuses on what accommodations should be made for New York police Det. Michael Struk when he travels to Los Angeles this summer to testify for the defense. Advertisement Durst, 74, is accused of the execution-style shooting of his best friend, Susan Berman, in 2000 a killing that prosecutors characterize as a move to silence her for what she knew about the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen. Struk, who led the investigation into Kathleens disappearance in the 1980s, is one of several witnesses expected to testify when Durst returns to court July 24. But before making the trip from New Jersey, prosecutors said in court documents, Struk has a few requests, including boarding reimbursement for his two elderly dogs one that needs daily insulin shots. Records show that Struk got a quote from a veterinarian hospital $191 a day but suggested a cheaper solution: His daughter, who lives 50 miles away, could care for the dogs and house-sit for $100 a day. Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin who helped coordinate the travel logistics although the retired detective will testify for the other side described the dog-sitting option, as well as Struks request for a business-class plane seat with extra legroom and for his wife to travel with him to California, as reasonable and medically necessary for him and his pets. Dursts attorney, Dick DeGuerin, disagrees. In a letter to Lewin last week, which was attached to the filing, DeGuerin wrote, We decline to provide the type of luxurious amenities you provided to conditional witness Nick Chinga Chavin. Chavin, a New York advertising executive and longtime friend of Durst, delivered bombshell testimony against the real estate tycoon earlier in the year. Court documents said Chavin whose identity was initially withheld from Dursts lawyers flew to Los Angeles more than two weeks before he testified and was under round-the-clock police protection by a team of 14. His wife came along. DeGuerin referred in his letter to an article in Rolling Stone that said Chavins trip to Los Angeles included a first-class flight and excursions to the J. Paul Getty Museum and Griffith Observatory. Chavin was quoted as saying that his police escorts knew the best restaurants. Prosecutors said Chavin didnt fly first class, but rather business class an accommodation necessary for his bad back. Too heavy...bought axe. DID IT. Lift body parts into trash bags. An account prosecutors say Robert Durst wrote about disposing of a neighbors body Chavins wifes trip was paid for, prosecutors said, because it would not have made sense for her to remain in New York unprotected, while her husband was under protection. An L.A. Police Department detective submitted a declaration saying that Chavin was neither wined nor dined, and that he stayed at a hotel that cost $175 a night and got $64 a day for food. During his 18 days in Los Angeles, the detective wrote, he left his hotel no more than five times for reasons unrelated to his testimony. In his letter, DeGuerin wrote that he understands the obligation to include reasonable transportation costs for witnesses but said anything beyond economy airfare, lodging and meal stipends for Struk could be interpreted as conferring a benefit on a witness. Durst isnt likely to stand trial until at least 2018, but the attorneys are calling several witnesses ahead of the trial to preserve their testimony. Dursts 2015 arrest in connection with Bermans slaying came a day before the finale of a six-part HBO documentary about Durst aired. During the last episode of The Jinx, Durst mumbles, What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course. To many, his comments appeared to be a confession to three killings: those of his long-vanished wife, a neighbor in Texas and Berman. In the Texas case, Durst admitted to shooting his neighbor, Morris Black, saying he acted in self-defense during a struggle over a gun. He then chopped him up and dumped the parts in Galveston Bay. Durst was acquitted. Prosecutors filed another motion this week, which included an attachment that Lewin described as a narrative Durst wrote while in custody in Galveston. The document includes a timeline starting in the 1990s and an entry from 2000, when the author recalls getting a phone call from a family member alerting to the possibility of a reopened investigation into Kathleens disappearance. I feel numb, the author wrote, before expressing shock and referring to it as a missing persons case. Still, the author was scared, and hatched a plan to live off the grid in Galveston. I knew, the author wrote, I would rather die than face possibility of jail! The narrative also has an entry for Sept. 28, 2001: Morris removes gun from under yellow jacket, brief struggle, shot. The entry for the next day: How carry Morris out of apartment? Too heavy...bought axe. DID IT. Lift body parts into trash bags. marisa.gerber@latimes.com For more news from the Los Angeles County courts, follow me on Twitter: @marisagerber ALSO Witness in Robert Durst murder case describes bloodcurdling moment while watching The Jinx Secret witness at Durst hearing testifies that her now-dead friend pretended to be his missing wife If anything ever happens to me, Bobby did it the latest testimony from the Robert Durst murder case A Navy man had two to three alcoholic drinks in his system when his pickup soared off the San Diego-Coronado Bridge last fall and plunged into Chicano Park, killing four people attending a festive a motorcycle rally and fund-raiser. Whether Richard Sepolio was under the influence at the time or not was the major issue in a San Diego Superior Court hearing on Wednesday to determine whether there is enough evidence to send him to trial. Sepolio, 25, faces four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as well as charges of having a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more, and driving under the influence causing injury to four other park visitors on Oct. 15. Advertisement If convicted of all counts, the aviation technician stationed at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado could face a prison sentence of 23 years, eight months, Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright said. Sepolio suffered a fractured neck, broken ribs and hand, and other injuries in the crash, his attorney, Paul Pfingst said. A California Highway Patrol officer testified that he conducted two breath tests on Sepolio at UC San Diego Medical Center, with results showing a blood-alcohol level of 0.059 and 0.06 percent. Other blood tests also were done, but no testimony on those results was presented. Stephanie Ruiz, also a Navy aviation electrician at North Island, told the court that she and Sepolio went to brunch in South Park about noon that day. He drank a bottle of alcoholic cider, she had a cocktail and most of a bottle of white wine. Ruiz said the waitress poured about half a glass of wine for Sepolio, and he had a refill that may have been another half-glass or more. They used Uber for a ride back to her home in Golden Hill around 2:15 p.m. They spent about half an hour letting her pets run in the yard, then he text-messaged his girlfriend. When he was ready to leave, she asked if he was OK, and he said he was fine. Pfingst asked if Ruiz had seen any sign that Sepolio was intoxicated. No, sir, Ruiz said. Out of court, Pfingst told reporters that Sepolio was not under the influence when the crash happened. Its a tragedy, he said. A horrible tragedy. CHP Officer Juan Jimenez, who tested Sepolios blood-alcohol content at the hospital, said the Navy man told him he was driving in the right lane from northbound Interstate 5 onto the Coronado bridge and sped up to pass a blue car on his left. Then he lost control of his pickup, hit the side barriers and went over the edge. Jimenez said he conducted one breath test as Sepolio lay on a gurney, riding an elevator from the hospital emergency room to get a CT scan, minutes before 5 p.m. He ran a second test minutes later while Sepolio lay on the CT scanning table, about to be put into the machine. Judge Kathleen Lewis courtroom was nearly filled with more than 30 friends and family members of the crash victims. About 20 others sat near each other as supporters of Sepolio. A series of witnesses testified that they were enjoying their day at the Barrio Logan neighborhood park, which lies at the base of highway ramps leading from Interstate 5 onto the bridge. Several heard a loud bang, a screeching of tires and metal, then watched in horror as a gold pickup launched over the side, flew a distance, then crashed nose-first into a vendors booth. 1 / 11 Police cover the bodies of people that were killed when a pickup truck landed on them after it flew off a ramp to the San Diego Coronado Bridge at Chicano Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 11 Police cover the bodies of people that were killed when a pickup truck landed on them after it flew off a ramp to the San Diego Coronado Bridge as paramedics prepare to put an injured man on a gurney, background. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 11 Police stand near the pickup truck that landed at Chicano Park after it flew off a ramp to the San Diego Coronado Bridge. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 11 Pedro Sanchez hugs Iris Jimenez, who said she was friends with two of the four people killed by a pickup truck that landed on top of them at Chicano Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 11 Paramedics take a man injured when a pickup truck flew off a ramp above Chicano Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 11 Two police officers stand at the perimeter of the taped off crime scene where a pickup truck, background, landed on a crowd of people gathered at Chicano Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 11 The pickup truck that landed at Chicano Park after it flew off a ramp to the San Diego Coronado Bridge killing four people. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 11 Police investigators point to the ramp above Chicano Park where a pickup truck, foreground, flew off the ramp landing on a crowd of people attending an event at Chicano Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 11 A CHP officer looks into the pickup truck that landed at Chicano Park after it flew off a ramp to the San Diego Coronado Bridge killing four people. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 11 A man and a police officer talk as they look at the pickup truck that flew off a ramp and landed at Chicano Park killing four people. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 11 People look at the scene where a pickup truck, foreground, flew off the ramp landing on a crowd of people gathered at Chicano Park killing four, whose bodies are under a yellow tarp in the foreground. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) Killed in the 3:30 p.m. crash were Cruz Contreras and his wife, Annamarie Contreras, of Chandler, Ariz., and Andre Banks and his wife, Francine Jimenez, of Hacienda Heights in the Los Angeles area. Several more people were injured by flying glass and debris, and some were blown and tossed around by the strong wind caused as the truck flew past them. Flora Gonzalez testified that she had gone to the park with two friends to see all of the motorcycles. I heard a lot of screeching. I was taken off my feet, whirled around and thrown under a park bench, Gonzalez said. I saw a truck land on some people. Carlos Ulloa of Barrio Logan testified that he heard the crashing and screeching, saw the pickup soar from highway lanes above him, twist in the air, then hit the booth canopy in the park. While most of the crowd rushed away from the truck, he ran toward it. There were still people under it, Ulloa said. He said he looked in the drivers window and the driver, who had been leaning to his right, sat up. When he popped up he looked like he was disoriented, Ulloa said. He looked dazed and confused. His eyes looked really red to me. He said a few dozen men rocked the pickup to get it off the dead and injured victims. Police showed up quickly and Ulloa said he helped urge the crowd to back away. Elizabeth Maynard, of Covina, said she saw people using jackets and blankets to cover the bodies. She took some cellphone video, but never shared it with anyone. When each attorney asked her why, Maynard first answered, What I seen, I didnt want to see again. She added, I wanted to put it behind me. You dont want to remember it. CHP and San Diego police officers, paramedics, and firefighters soon converged on the park. Victims were taken by ambulances to several hospitals. Sepolios preliminary hearing will continue Thursday. ALSO: 4 dead as pickup plunges off Coronado bridge, lands in Chicano Park Driver in Chicano Park fatal crash arraigned in hospital Judge wont reduce bail for driver in Coronado bridge crash UPDATES: 4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional witness testimony. This article was originally published at 1:30 p.m. A familiar name in Alzheimers disease services is headed for Scripps Health. Mary Ball, chief executive of Alzheimers San Diego, said she will lead the Scripps Mercy Hospital Foundation starting June 19, passing her current role to Shelita Weinfield, her current second in command. Balls nearly six years working on Alzheimers issues in San Diego reached a major turning point 19 months ago when she and her board of directors decided to split with the national Alzheimers Association, deciding to operate under a new name, Alzheimers San Diego. Advertisement The departure came out of concerns about a national consolidation effort of local Alzheimers Association chapters. Local board members said they were concerned that too much donor money was being diverted to headquarters and the national rollup took too much local control away. Today, San Diego County has two nonprofits offering programs and raising money for research throughout the community. Thus far, Alzheimers San Diego seems to have larger direct outreach programs while The Alzheimers Associations San Diego and Imperial County chapter has connections to its parent organizations research program which as made investments in local researchers. Ball, who spent 15 years as an executive at Cox Communications before arriving at the Alzheimers Association in 2012, said she is proud of her organizations focus on local programs that directly help those in need cope with an incurable and unrelenting disease. Im most proud of the team here at Alzheimers San Diego and all that we have accomplished together to serve the community, Ball said. She said that the opportunity to lead the Scripps Mercy Foundation, which is the charitable arm for the regions only Catholic hospital, was too exciting an opportunity to pass up. As a Catholic, Im inspired by how science and faith work side-by-side at Scripps Mercy Hospital to provide great patient care, Ball said. Scripps has as-yet-unannounced redevelopment and expansion plans for the Hillcrest medical center, and the foundation, Ball said, will be a big part of that process. A transformational master plan is being developed, and its exciting to be part of that, Ball said. Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1850 Twitter: @paulsisson San Diego City Council members on Tuesday fell one vote short of overriding Mayor Kevin Faulconers budget veto that boosted funding for police officer retention and trees, but that cut money for council offices and some other priorities. The councils five Democrats voted on Tuesday to reverse some of the changes the mayor made Friday, but they couldnt get one of their four Republican colleagues to join them to have the six votes necessary for an override. RELATED: Mayor uses veto power to restore $5M for special election Advertisement Two separate motions one to override the Republican mayors entire veto action and another to override a portion of it failed in 5-3 votes, with Republican Councilwoman Lorie Zapf absent. So the version of the budget including all of the mayors line-item veto changes will be the final city budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. In addition to making some last-minute cuts and funding increases, Faulconer also restored $5 million for a special election this November that wont take place based on a 5-4 party line council vote against it on Monday. That money will float in the budget as fund balance that the council or mayor could choose to spend during budget adjustments late this year, said Andrea Tevlin, the citys Independent Budget Analyst. Faulconer was criticized by some council members and community leaders for last-minute cuts he made to the office budgets of two council members who opposed the special election: Barbara Bry and Chris Ward. They were described as retaliation, a dangerous precedent and something that could prompt a legal battle and a challenge to the citys charter. Ward and Bry said the cuts will deprive them of funding they provide for things like homeless outreach, Little League and movies in the park. Council President Myrtle Cole said the cuts send a chilling message and Councilman David Alvarez compared Faulconer to President Donald Trump and former Mayor Bob Filner. I think its very unfortunate that the mayor has decided to take such extreme partisan steps in his veto, said Alvarez. The nakedly partisan and petty change to select council office budgets is inappropriate and unprecedented in this city. Some supporters of the special election had accused the Democrats of acting as a partisan block to thwart the Republican mayor. Faulconer, who was in Washington, D.C., did not attend the hearing and his staff did not comment Tuesday. Last week, the mayor noted the council budget reductions would go toward efforts to reduce the citys police officer shortage. Tevlin said Faulconers cuts to council office budgets were not a sound action and warned that they could become a precedent other mayors follow when at odds with individual members of the council. These reductions could introduce an imbalance of budget authority into the strong mayor/strong council form of government, and possibly impede councilmembers ability to equitably and adequately represent their constituents, she said. Council district budgets are essential to the members of the legislative branch being able to carry out their responsibilities per the city charter. Councilman Mark Kersey, a Republican, noted that annual budgets for council offices vary widely, proposing that the councils Rules Committee consider this summer an amendment to the city charter requiring they all be equal. Councilman Chris Cate, whose budget is among the smallest, said he is still able to serve his constituents well with limited city money. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick A man accused of killing another man in a Valley Center home turned himself in at the Vista sheriffs station Tuesday, a sheriffs official said. Leonard Reed, 27, was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of murdering 30-year-old Christopher Lyons. Investigators said Reed left the house on Villa Sierra Lane after Lyons was killed Thursday morning. They had been trying to track him down since then, sheriffs Lt. Kenn Nelson said. Advertisement The two men had been visiting the home, Nelson said. Detectives were trying to determine the relationship between Lyons and Reed. Someone called the Sheriffs Department about 5 a.m. to report an assault at the home and, minutes later, called back to say the victim wasnt breathing. Lyons died before he could be taken to a hospital. Investigators have not revealed how he was killed, only that he had suffered visible trauma to his body. The autopsy report was sealed. Reed was accompanied by a lawyer when he walked into the sheriffs station late Tuesday afternoon. Breaking News Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com Phone: (619) 293-1876 Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez San Diego police raided two illegal marijuana dispensaries this week, arresting seven employees and seizing 75 pounds of marijuana and $22,000 in cash from the North Park and Pacific Beach business. On Tuesday at Universe City store, on University Avenue near Hamilton Street, officers seized 50 pounds of pot, 3,000 edible and concentrated cannabis products, 8 vials of PCP and $5,000 in cash. The owner of the dispensary was booked into jail on suspicion of selling marijuana and operating a business without a license, and a second employee was jailed on similar charges and on suspicion of possessing PCP for sale. Advertisement Two other employees were cited on misdemeanor charges of marijuana sales and operating an illegal business, then released. In Pacific Beach on Wednesday, officers who raided The Seeweed Club on Hornblend Street near Dawes Street seized 25 pounds of marijuana, 2,000 edibles and concentrated cannabis and $17,000 in cash. Three employees were arrested on suspicion of operating a business without a license and sales of marijuana. The three were issued citations, then released. The city has shut down 59 pot shops since March 2016. karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 4:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 10:20 a.m. The county retirement system has decided to get involved in the case of a fired employee who claims the pension fund is owed $60 million by a former Texas investment adviser and his colleagues. Onetime staff investment officer Jeff Baker filed the whistle-blower lawsuit against the agencys former outsourced strategist, Lee Partridge of Houston, and some of the investment firms he worked with. The San Diego County Employees Retirement Association has decided to intervene in the case, which means pursuing it to see whether the claims have merit. Advertisement The boards decision is not an indication that the board or any of its members agree with any of the allegations contained in the complaint, spokeswoman Mary Montgomery said. SDCERA will investigate these allegations and take whatever action is consistent with its fiduciary and constitutional duties. The complaint, filed under the False Claims Act, accuses Partridge and others of deceiving the pension system and exceeding his authority by approving trades he was not permitted to make. Baker has made similar arguments before, in legal actions that saw no success. The most recent 23-page lawsuit was filed early this year by Baker, who was terminated in 2011 after speaking to U-T Watchdog about investment risks he believed Partridge was taking on. The lawsuit, which would likely have gone nowhere without the intervention of the pension system, was unsealed this week. Baker, a chartered financial analyst who lost his career after he was let go by the pension fund, will not be a party to the case. Instead, as the so-called relator who supplied much of the information the retirement system will rely on to proceed with the suit, he is eligible for a percentage of whatever damages may be awarded. In addition to Partridge, the suit names a spate of additional financial advisers who allegedly contributed to the false claims, including one company that continues to advise the pension board. After reviewing SDCERAs new (investment policy), Baker became concerned that Partridge was mismanaging the fund, the complaint states. Partridge served the pension system from 2009 to 2015 and moved back to Texas mid-way through his tenure. He did not return a message left on his cell phone this week. His former employer, Salient Partners of Houston, declined to comment. The Texas investment professional always defended his risk parity strategy as a way to promote safe and steady returns in both up and down markets. He has maintained that all his actions as an investment adviser were sanctioned and driven by the retirement board. People who understand managed futures understand what went on this year, Partridge told Modern Trader magazine in 2014. We were up 22 percent last year and we are down roughly 15 percent year-to-date this year. People like things that are going up, so do I. There is nothing that generates a big positive return without any volatility. Partridge and Salient were terminated as investment advisers in 2015. Last year, Partridge parted ways with Salient. He is no longer registered as a financial broker with the Financial Industry Regulatory Association, which licenses U.S. financial advisers. The lawsuit was filed in February and initially kept confidential. It was unsealed by a San Diego Superior Court judge this week, after the pension fund reviewed the allegations and evidence and determined to proceed. The complaint identifies at least $60 million in damages suffered by the pension fund, which serves about 30,000 current and former county employees and has swelled to more than $10 billion in recent years. The alleged damages include about $25 million in fees paid to Partridge and to Salient in the years he served San Diego County, as well as $35 million in financial losses the fund suffered when Partridge liquidated some U.S. treasury notes he purchased without required authority, the lawsuit states. The retirement system has retained outside counsel to pursue the allegations in San Diego Superior Court. Bakers lawyer, San Diego attorney Josh Gruenberg, said his client is trying to recover money for county employees that was wrongly lost. Mr. Baker is doing this because the employees of San Diego County have been damaged, he said. They have been harmed by Mr. Partridges failure to abide by the investment policy statement. According to the complaint, Partridge withheld key facts from the board and in some cases presented inaccurate information to trustees. He also invested $200 million in U.S. Treasuries with a Texas firm called Hoisington Investment Management, but deposited the money in a fund that was not specifically authorized by the pension board, the lawsuit claimed. On information and belief, before making the original purchase, Partridge knew that investing in the 30-year U.S. Treasury futures would exceed the limits outlined in the (investment policy), the lawsuit states. Baker was first hired by the county in 2007 as an investment officer in charge of the funds global public markets assets. Two years later, when the portfolio sank by more than $2 billion in value amid the worldwide recession, trustees terminated chief investment officer David Deutsch. Instead of replacing Deutsch, who earned a base salary of $209,000, with another staffer, the board hired Partridge, then working for the Texas teachers pension system, as an outside consultant to advise then-chief executive officer Brian White. Partridges initial 39-month contract was worth $4.5 million. By 2010, Baker began openly questioning Partridges investment strategy and noted what he found to be breaches in the adopted risk limits. Baker said he reported the discrepancies to his boss, to the CEO, to the county internal affairs office and, eventually alerted two separate trustees. Few of the warnings were heeded, however, as Partridge and White repeatedly defended their decisions. Eventually, they recommended that the board increase the funds risk limits so they would be in compliance with the higher risks employed by Partridge. Baker was fired in 2011 after his concerns were featured in the Union-Tribune. He unsuccessfully contested his dismissal. In 2014, concerns about risk and leverage in the fund were highlighted in a front page story in The Wall Street Journal and the tide began to turn. By March 2015 county employees and retirees pressed pension trustees to veer away from Partridges heavily leveraged investment strategy, and the board parted ways with CEO White. A few months later, Partridge and Salient were let go and the retirement system reverted back to an in-house chief investment officer and more traditional investments. In addition to Partridge and Salient, the lawsuit names former acting chief investment officer Lisa Needle, financial advisers Hoisington Investment Management Co., Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting Inc., Albourne America, and Integrity Capital, the limited liability company Partridge formed when he was awarded the original county contract. None of the consultancies or Needle responded to requests for comment this week. One of the defendants, Aon Hewitt, is still advising the pension system. The legal dispute is likely to be sent to mediation before it reaches trial. A case management conference is scheduled before Judge John S. Meyer later this year. The Partridge files Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Is Megyn Kelly helping Alex Jones spread his false theory that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax or can she hold him accountable? That is the question at the center of a fiery media debate that, on Tuesday, boiled over when a Sandy Hook survivors group distanced itself from Kelly over an interview that is still set to air on NBC on Sunday. A preview of the interview, her second as a new show host following one with Russian president Vladimir Putin , was teased two days ago. The interview has also been widely criticized as giving the Infowars founder and his false theories a national platform. On Tuesday, Sandy Hook Promise cut ties with Kelly and dropped her as a host of its annual gala. J.P. Morgan Chase announced it would pull ads from her show and the network until after the interview airs. The companys chief marketing officer, Kristin Lemkau, said on Twitter that she was repulsed by the interview. Kelly responded to the criticism and on Tuesday took to Twitter to defend the interview. In a statement, she described Jones hoax theory as personally revolting, but says her goal in sitting down with him was to shine a light as journalists are supposed to on this influential figure, and yes to discuss the considerable falsehoods he has promoted with near impunity. On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother before heading to Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut, where he shot and killed six adult educators and 20 children. He then killed himself. The shooting sparked national outcry, prompting then-President Barack Obama and legislators to push for tighter gun controls. The parents of the children killed that day formed the group called Sandy Hook Promise, which advocates for gun violence prevention. Two years later in 2014, Jones called the shooting a giant hoax orchestrated by the media to blame gun owners. Since then, Jones Infowars show has attracted right-wing conspiracy theorists and got President Donald Trump s ear, as The Washington Post phrased it last year. Trump gave Jones a half-hour live interview in late 2015 as a candidate for the presidency. Kelly worked at Fox News for 13 years, moderating the first Republican presidential debate while making a name for herself before jumping ship to NBC. Her one-on-one interview with Putin did not attract nearly the amount of attention her upcoming one with Jones has drawn. On Twitter, journalists and members of the media debated the merits of airing an interview with Jones on prime-time television. CNNs media reporter Dylan Byers recalled a 2015 interview between CBS News Charlie Rose and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to pose the question: Whats the line for public outrage over who can and cant be interviewed? Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist for The Washington Post, offered one answer to that question. BuzzFeeds Charlie Warzel offered a similar perspective: Its precisely his influence that makes Jones worthy of interrogation on a national news platform. To suggest otherwise is to fall back on an old, outdated idea of the mainstream media as gatekeepers. Others weighed in on that thought. Los Angeles Times national reporter Matt Pearce said put the Alex Joneses under sunlight. Others say Kelly who posed in a selfie with Jones is the wrong person to do that. NPRs media correspondent David Fokenflik dedicated a Twitter thread to argue that Jones interview is newsworthy depending on nature of interview & reporting that surrounds it. For his part, Jones appears to now be unhappy with the way Kelly is characterizing the interview and has called for NBC to cancel the interview. And, in a twist, Sullivan agrees with him. In her The Washington Post column, Sullivan offers a solution that would satisfy those criticizing the interview and media people who say it has merits: Heres the way out: Kill the planned segment as a one-on-one interview, and use the material as one piece of a no-holds-barred investigation of Alex Jones and others like him. Dont leave it up to Kelly, but pull in one or more of NBCs top reporters. Do you think NBC should shelve the interview and never show it to the world? Should it be aired and give Jones theories a national platform? Or should what Sullivan suggests happen, and the interview be expanded into an investigative piece with additional reporting? Have some thoughts to share? Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet. Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @RunGomez Read The Conversation on Flipboard. Reporting your neighbor's rowdy Airbnb guests is as easy as dialing 311, but an anti-Airbnb group comprised of local legislators is streamlining the process even further, with a new hotline dedicated solely to complaints about illegal short-term rentals. As first reported this morning in the Daily News, the ShareBetter coalitioncomprised of elected officials like Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, NYC Public Advocate Tish James, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, along with a number of tenants' rights groupsenlisted former director of the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement Elan Parra to oversee the new hotline, where New Yorkers are encouraged to file "actionable complaints" against bad actor Airbnb hosts. It is illegal for hosts to rent out their entire apartments on the platform for short-term stays, and individuals who choose to advertise their illegal rentals on Airbnb are subject to fines, though as of May the mayor's office had handed those fines out to only a few violators. The ShareBetter group hopes their hotline will encourage New Yorkers to bring more of those violators to light. Though New Yorkers are still able to report on illegal Airbnb rentals using 311, this hotline will convey complaints to the mayor's office directly. "It's just another mechanism, to give people another option," Rosenthal told Gothamist. "This [hotline] is dedicated to the one issue, so it's probably faster than calling 311." Airbnb, which settled with the city last year over a lawsuit claiming New York violated the federal Communications Decency Act by making online ads for most short-term rentals illegal, has its own online resource through which individuals can file complaints on neighboring Airbnb hosts. A spokesperson for the company, Peter Schottenfels, told Gothamist in a statement that the ShareBetter coalition's hotline merely benefits the hotel industry, which has seen a decline as Airbnb's popularity's increased. "Airbnb has a neighbors hotline already that we encourage New Yorkers to use if they're concerned about a listing in their area. This hotel-funded hotline, however, is nothing more than another attempt to pit neighbor against neighbor by a shady hotel front group grasping at straws to protect their ability to price gouge," Schottenfels said. Rosenthal says Airbnb's used this line before. "Airbnb always pushes back on everything," she told Gothamist. "The fact is that every so often they can say, 'Oh look, we've removed all these illegal listings,' but they refuse to. We have to take measures into our own hands." She added, "They removed affordable housing by leaps and bounds, and this is another way to make sure we don't lose more. Airbnb doesn't care about that. They just care about making money." For now, interested parties can snitch on their neighbors by dialing 646-979-4117 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. There will also be an after-hours message forwarding service. Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join For more about Gay Haubners life in the North Country, read the other chapters in her serialized memoir. The Post will publish a new segment each week. When I was 6, we moved out of the Woodland ranch into a fancier neighborhood, one with bigger, older houses and lots of trees. Our new home at 411 Lakeview Drive was a white, two-story house that looked like a childs drawing: doors, windows, slanted green roof. Before moving in my mother remodeled the bathroom, tearing down the 50s black and white wallpaper with cartoon-like drawings of people showering and shaving that I loved, as well as the kitchen, putting in a new-fangled garbage disposal, which terrified me what if my hand got stuck! and a very 60s dropped ceiling of Styrofoam-like tiles. The week we moved in, I smuggled a bottle of Coca-Cola into the house, and put it in the freezer to get cold. When I popped it open an hour later the pop shot up all the way to the ceiling, splashing the brand new white tiles with never-to-be-removed Coke stains and sending my mother round the bend. On one side of our Lakeview house were the McCauleys; they had built a little playhouse in their back yard for their granddaughters, who I never saw once. For some reason, the playhouse was locked, but I could gaze longingly through the windows at the tiny stove, sink, table and chairs. What wonderful grandparents to build a playhouse! I thought, resentful that my grandfather had only built a bomb shelter big enough to hold the entire population of Carlton. Subscribe and get unlimited access to our online magazine archive. Subscribe Today On the other side of our house was a wooded lot, with a little creek that appeared magically in the spring, after the snow melted, just big enough to sail leaf boats down and get soaking wet up to the knees. In the summer there were interesting-looking mushrooms and tiny wild strawberries to collect. There were places in the lot where the trees were thick enough for me to pretend I was in a real forest, and that I was Red Riding Hood or Gretel. The best part was the back yard, which ended in a five-foot scramble up an outcropping of granite. This was an excellent place to play pirates or princesses, with the huge Holy Rosary Cathedral looming behind standing in for a fortress or castle. On this rocky knoll grew blueberry bushes with tiny tart berries, and bushes with shiny red berries that looked tempting but were mouth-puckering inedible. The neighborhood kids called these poison berries and dared each other to eat them. There was one tree with low-slung branches that was excellent for climbing, that I once fell out of, landing flat on my back. I got the wind knocked out of me and then was frightened to death by Nancy Green, who watched me gasping for breath and cheerfully informed me that I had lockjaw and had to go get a shot. I didnt get my longed for playhouse, but my father put up a metal swing set that he didnt bother to set deeply enough in the ground so it threatened to topple over every time we swung too high. If Lani and I got our swings in tandem we could watch the poles, front back, front back, being pulled all the way out of the grass. One winter my dad flooded the back yard to create our own ice rink, where I skated once or twice, before heading over to the big neighborhood rink, which had a warming shed with hot chocolate and Milk Duds and Sugar Babies, and kids to play Snap the Whip with, until the rink guy emerged from the shed to stop us from cracking our heads open. The final transformation of the back yard was into a kennel for two hunting dogs that slunk miserably back and forth for months before disappearing. *** Grownups in Duluth had children and then immediately forgot about them, until they were required to all be some place, like dinner, or Sunday mass, or high school graduation. We were turned out of doors at an early age and expected to amuse ourselves. I stood in the street outside of our new house for about two minutes before being approached by a gang of grubby kids of assorted sizes asking if I wanted to play. They must have sniffed me out by my kid smell, a melange of Cheerios, Crayolas, and new doll. Nancy Green was the first friend I made when we moved into 411 Lakeview. She was a few years older than me, and all her clothes came from the unfortunately named Chubbettes department at The Glass Block, and she was an excellent organizer of spud, freeze tag, and all those other forgotten outside games. Immediately upon meeting me, Nancy eagerly broke the news that Santa wasnt real and the Christmas presents under the tree came from my parents. I went weeping home to my mother who denied this calumny so vehemently and directed such hatred toward Nancy for telling me such a thing, that I ended up believing in Santa for several more years than I should have. My mother decided a better friend for me was the older woman who lived across the street, an amateur naturalist. Her home did not have the usual manicured lawn. Her shadowy front yard was studded with massive pines, a scary miniature Black Forest I had to venture across to ring her bell. She was a stocky woman, with short dark hair and Germanic-looking walking shorts, who knew every tree and wildflower of northern Minnesota and insisted on pointing out all of them to me. After a day spent trailing her around, I would return home late in the afternoon, exhausted and dusty and dying of thirst, having trekking miles through the woods and along ice-cold brooks plashing down to Lake Superior. I dont know if I was relieved or unhappy when the Amateur Naturalist moved away. I much preferred exploring on my own. I would walk to the end of Lakeview Drive, cross Hawthorne Road, and trespass through an immense acreage of someones yard to reach Congdon Creek. Faint trails led up and down the banks of the creek; where they disappeared, I would hopscotch across the brook, usually falling in at least once. If I broke through the ice during a winter walk, I would have to head home immediately, before my two pairs of socks froze up inside my rubber boots and my feet turned blue. In the few months of balmy weather I could venture upstream as far as I liked, turning over rocks, collecting bits of birch bark and wildflowers, and watching water striders scoot across still pools. Vermillion Road ran parallel to our street, I could get there by walking through the wooded lot beside our house and then the Hylecks side yard. Crime was so rare in Duluth that we never locked our house, but Mrs. Hyleck, who was a noted scold, was found clubbed to death in her basement one winter night, and her husband arrested for her murder. My mother attended every day of his trial, as it offered even more drama than her beloved As the World Turns soap opera. Mr. Hyleck was convicted of murdering his wife but always maintained he was innocent; he died in prison and in his will he asked that his ashes be scattered from a plane over the city that had so wronged him. When I took the short cut across the wooded lot and the Hylecks yard, I was headed to the to the homes of two girls my age, Patty and Debbie, who lived next to each other and were best friends, and who graciously allowed me to play with them. Patty was thin and cute, Debbie was pie-faced and voracious; when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said a jar of mayonnaise and a spoon, the idea of which sent me outside to throw up, which I did standing in one place. In September, I stopped playing with Debbie and Patty; good Catholic girls, they went to Holy Rosarys parochial school. I started second grade in my new school, Congdon Park Elementary. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/13/2017 -- Timetric's Construction in Kuwait - Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Kuwaiti construction industry, including: - The Kuwaiti construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity - Analysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in Kuwait - Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Kuwaiti construction industry - Profiles of the leading operators in the Kuwaiti construction industry Browse Research PDF at: http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1153939 In real terms, the Kuwaiti construction industry registered an average annual growth rate of 5.6% during the review period (20122016). This growth was supported by the government's Five-Year Development Plan 20092014, under which the government invested in developing transport infrastructure, industrial parks, healthcare facilities and residential buildings. The country's construction industry will continue to expand in real terms over the forecast period (20172021), driven by the government's focus on the development of transport infrastructure, energy and utilities facilities, and affordable housing. Under the Five-Year Development Plan 20152020, the government plans to spend KWD34.2 billion (US$117.7 billion) to develop roads, rail, airports networks, water infrastructure, power projects and social infrastructure projects by 2020. Furthermore, in January 2017, the government launched New Kuwait 2035 strategy with an aim to transform the country into regional financial and cultural hub by 2035. The government plans to launch 164 sub-programs and projects to develop tourism infrastructure, IT parks, commercial buildings and other related infrastructure by 2035. Scope This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Kuwait. It provides: - Historical (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2021) valuations of the construction industry in Kuwait using construction output and value-add methods - Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project type - Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services) - Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricing - Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in Kuwait Key Highlights - To bridge the gap between supply and demand for housing units in the country, the government is focusing on the construction of residential buildings under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. In 2016, the government announced plans to invest KWD14.5 billion (US$47.6 billion) to build the Mutlah Residential City, Al Subiyah Residential City, Sabah Al-Ahmad township, Bubiyan Island, Al Khairan residential city project and the Kuwait City by 2020. - The energy and utility construction market is expected to benefit from government plans to double the country's water desalination capacity by 2030. The government plans to increase the country's water production capacity from 450 million gallon per day to 900 million gallon per day by 2030. - The government is focusing on the construction of new refineries in the country, driving growth in the energy and utilities construction market over the forecast period. The government plans to increase crude oil production from 3.3 million barrels per day (mmbpd) in 2015 to 4.0mmbpd by 2020. Accordingly, the government plans to build new oil refinery in Al Zour under the PPP model by 2020. - Under the Kuwait Development Plan 20152020, the government plans to transform the country into a regional trade and financial hub by 2035. Accordingly, with an investment of KWD305.5 million (US$1.0 billion), the government plans to build the Mubarak-Al-Kabeer Seaport on Boubyan Island by 2021. - The government is focusing on developing healthcare infrastructure to provide adequate medical support to all citizens in the country. Accordingly, under the Healthcare Infrastructure Development program the government plans to invest KWD2.2 billion (US$7.3 billion) on the construction on new hospitals and healthcare centres by 2020. About ResearchMoz ResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators. Contact Us: Mr. Nachiket Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free) Email: sales@researchmoz.us Follow us on LinkedIn at: http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/13/2017 -- The global genetically modified food market has been significantly growing due to the rise in demand for healthy and nutritional food products by consumers of different age group. Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods which are derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in such a way that it does not occur naturally, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism (i.e. plants, animals or microorganisms). Foods produced from by using GM organisms are often referred to as GM foods. The major advantages of genetically modified foods are better texture, flavor and high nutritional value along with longer shelf life. However, unusual taste over non-GM food and safety concerns as it might interfere with the body normal functioning are some of the disadvantages of genetically modified food. Genetically Modified Foods: Drivers and Restraints The major factors driving the genetically modified food market are high nutritional content in the food, high production quantity and less requirement of pesticides. However, damage to beneficial insects and soil fertility coupled with genetic pollution, absence of any centralized government regulation and lack of awareness about the benefits of GMO are factors which are restraining the market potential growth. Rising demand for healthy food products, year round and easy availability of genetically modified food are main trends in the genetically modified food market globally. Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-889 Genetically Modified Foods: Segmentation Genetically modified food market is segmented on the basis of type and region. On the basis of type genetically modified food is segmented into crops, vegetables, fruits and animal products. Corn and Soya are widely cultivated in genetically modified form as compared to other crops in the US. Furthermore, on the basis of region the market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-889 Genetically Modified Foods: Key Players Major players operating in this category are Monsanto US, DuPont US, Syngenta Switzerland, Bayer Crop Science Germany, Sakata Japan, BASF Gmbh, Group Limagrain France to name a few. The global players are focused on partnership and collaboration with other companies in order to increase its product portfolio, industry offering and global presence. The global giant in genetically modified food are actively involved in collaboration with the Advanced Research Institutes (ARIs) in the industrial countries such as Brazil, Argentina, China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines for significant R&D program in biotechnology and transgenic crops. Companies are also increasing their R&D in some of the African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mali, Nigeria, Egypt and Uganda in order to cater the growing demand for genetically modified food in Africa Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/13/2017 -- Macadamia nut was introduced in the early 1960s to the Kenyan highlands from Australia. Macadamia is a member of the family Proteaceae, native to Australia. Australia and Hawaii are the major producing areas of macadamia with others including eastern and southern Africa, and Central and Latin America. Several species of macadamia exist in Australia but only two species such as M. tetraphylla and Macadamia integrifolia and their hybrids are grown commercially. Production of macadamia nuts in Australia is mainly in eastern shore of Australia (northern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland). Currently, Hawaii is the largest producer of global macadamia, accounting for around 70 percent of total macadamia production worldwide followed by Australia, around 22 percent, rest is produced by other countries including Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Guatemala, Mexico, California, Costa Rica, Brazil, New Zealand and China. Tree nuts include almond, cashew, hazelnut, pistachio, walnut, macadamia, and pecan. Currently, macadamia accounts for around only one percent among all the tree nuts available across the globe. Almond nut dominates the nut segment, accounting for around 34 percent. Increasing health claims for macadamia have witnessed a surge in recent years, which if succeeded is expected to increase the consumption of macadamia nuts among consumers. Global Macadamia Market Segmentation: On the basis of application the global macadamia market is broadly segmented into food industry, and cosmetics industry. In food industry macadamia is widely used in confectionaries including chocolate bar, chocolate covered candy, ice cream and other baking products. In cosmetics industry it is used in shampoos, sunscreens, soaps and others. Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1304 Geographically, global macadamia market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Currently, North America and Western Europe account for major market share for macadamia however, Asia Pacific excluding Japan is expected to grow significantly in the forecasted years. Global Macadamia Market Dynamics: Owing to increasing variety of applications of macadamia, various workshop are taking places in order to increase the international trade for macadamia and since capitalise the growing demand for macadamia. Adoption of macadamia in chocolate and ice cream among consumers is expected to drive the demand for global macadamia in the near future. The biggest restraint for macadamia market is increasing crop losses due to immature nuts and moldy / rotten nuts. The crop losses due to these type of nuts accounts for around 50 percent of the total macadamia wastage globally. Thereby, reducing inclination of crop growers for macadamia and thus, hampering the market growth. Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1304 There is a high opportunity to increase the market share of macadamia in terms of revenue across countries such as Mexico, China, South Africa and others. Companies are investing in these countries through promotional activities in order to increase the footprint of macadamia worldwide. Global Macadamia Market Key Players: Some of the key players operating in the global macadamia market are Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp., Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company, MacFarms, Wondaree Macadamias, NAMBUCCA MACNUTS Pty Ltd, Golden Macadamias, Royal Macadamia (Pty) Ltd., Kenya Nut Company Ltd. and MWT Foods Australia. Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/14/2017 -- Green power is basically production of electrical energy from environment friendly and renewable sources such as wind, geothermal, biomass, solar and low-impact hydropower. There has been an increased awareness among consumers regarding use of environment friendly sources of electricity supply. This in turn has led towards demand for green power sources in the recent past. In order to support green environment campaign, governments of various countries are taking initiatives to enhance consumer awareness as well as availability of green power sources. Globally, there has been integration of renewable energy and equipment installations. For instance, in Iceland 80% of the electricity is generated from earth's heat. Similarly in Norway, 98% of electricity is generated using geothermal, hydroelectric and wind energy. There have been increased number of attempts to offer low-cost, environment-friendly options to low down the negative impact of using non-renewable sources of energy for electricity generation. For instance, in India the untapped market of renewable energy is anticipated to be around US$ 10.5 billion by 2017 end. In order to tap this potential market, government of India is taking various measures such as promotion of small power plants for both biomass and solar, entrepreneurship development for electricity in rural areas through solar power, biomass waste and rice husk, solar cooking initiatives, green campuses and buildings construction, and projects for off-shore wind generation, among others. With introduction of programs offering consumer choice for domestic electricity ensuring price stability balancing the increased electricity price volatility in some countries is leading towards increased adoption of green power sources as a mode of electricity generation. Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2315 Green Power Market Segmentation: Green power market is segmented on the basis of energy resources, equipment type. Different type of energy resources include solar, biomass, wind and small hydropower. Of which, biomass is further segmented into landfill gas and agricultural waste. On the basis of different energy resources, equipment vary and are classified into solar energy equipment, wind energy equipment, geothermal energy equipment and hydropower energy equipment. Further, agricultural waste is sub-segmented into poultry litter and others. Geographically, the green power market is segmented into seven regions namely North America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Green Power Market Dynamics: Factors such as population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, growing per capita consumption, depletion of conventional reserves and increasing concerns for climatic change are contributing towards increasing adoption of green power sources as mode of electricity generation. This is further fuelling green power market growth at a robust rate and is expected to gain significant traction in the near future. However, proper balance of environmental stability and economic development is a concern for government and environment control authorities across the globe. However, barriers towards growth of green power market include low cost of utility default service, high entry barriers for new entrants, lack of existing renewable energy plants and insufficient unbundling of revenue-cycle services. Despite of the aforementioned challenges, green power market is anticipated to grow significantly in the near future. This is attributed to development of solar parks, government initiatives and programs, increasing awareness regarding use of renewable energy sources, among others. Visit For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2315 Green Power Market Key Players: Depending on the equipment manufacturers for energy resources such as wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy and hydropower energy, some of the key solar panel manufacturers are Trina Solar Limited, Yingli Solar, Canadian Solar and others. Similarly prominent wind turbine manufacturers include Siemens AG, General Electric Company (GE Power), and Senvion SE among others. Few prominent geothermal energy system manufacturers include FHP Bosch Group, Earthlinked Technologies Inc., Aquatherm Industries, Inc., and Ormat Technologies, Inc. among others. New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/14/2017 -- 'Personal Accident and Health Insurance in Romania Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides a detailed outlook by product category for the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment, and a comparison of the Romanian insurance industry with its regional counterparts. GET SAMPLE REPORT @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1325444-personal-accident-and-health-insurance-in-romania-key-trends-and-opportunities It provides key performance indicators such as written premium, incurred loss, loss ratio, commissions and expenses, combined ratio, total assets, total investment income and retentions during the review period (20112015) and forecast period (20152020). The report also analyzes distribution channels operating in the segment, gives a comprehensive overview of the Romanian economy and demographics, and provides detailed information on the competitive landscape in the country. The report brings together research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and profiles of insurers operating in the country. The report also includes details of insurance regulations, and recent changes in the regulatory structure. Summary 'Personal Accident and Health Insurance in Romania, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment, including: - An overview of the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment - The Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment's growth prospects by category - A comprehensive overview of the Romanian economy and demographics - A comparison of the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment with its regional counterparts - The various distribution channels in the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment - Details of the competitive landscape in the personal accident and health insurance segment in Romania - Details of regulatory policy applicable to the Romanian insurance industry Scope This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the personal accident and health insurance segment in Romania: - It provides historical values for the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment for the report's 20112015 review period, and projected figures for the 20152020 forecast period. - It offers a detailed analysis of the key categories in the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment, and market forecasts to 2020. - It provides a comparison of the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment with its regional counterparts - It provides an overview of the various distribution channels for personal accident and health insurance products in Romania. - It profiles the top personal accident and health insurance companies in Romania, and outlines the key regulations affecting them. Reasons to Buy - Make strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast market data related to the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment, and each category within it. - Understand the demand-side dynamics, key market trends and growth opportunities in the Romanian personal accident and health insurance segment. - Assess the competitive dynamics in the personal accident and health insurance segment. - Identify growth opportunities and market dynamics in key product categories. - Gain insights into key regulations governing the Romanian insurance industry, and their impact on companies and the industry's future. Key Highlights - The personal accident and health segment is the smallest in Romania's insurance industry, accounting for 3.4% of its direct written premium in 2015. - On March 15, 2017, the Financial Supervisory Authority (Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiar? ASF) introduced a regulation that amended and supplemented Regulation No. 21/2016 concerning reporting requirements for insurance and reinsurance companies. The regulation stipulates financial audit requirements for insurance and reinsurance companies. - The penetration rate of the personal accident and health insurance segment stood at 0.042% of GDP in 2015. - Brokers were the leading distribution channel in the personal accident and health segment during the review period, due to the high level of consumer trust, vast service network and experience of the segment. Table of Content: Key Points 1 Key Facts and Highlights 2 Executive Summary 3 Economy and Demographics 4 Segment Outlook 4.1 Regional Comparison 4.2 Segment Indicators 4.2.1 Gross written premium and penetration 4.2.2 Policies sold 4.2.3 Profitability 4.2.4 Assets and investments 5 Outlook by Category 5.1 Personal Accident Insurance 5.1.1 Premium 5.1.2 Policies 5.2 Health Insurance 5.2.1 Premium 5.2.2 Policies 5.3 Travel Insurance 5.3.1 Premium 5.3.2 Policies 6 Distribution Channel Outlook 6.1 Analysis by Distribution Channel 7 Competitive Landscape ACCESS REPORT @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1325444-personal-accident-and-health-insurance-in-romania-key-trends-and-opportunitie s Get in touch: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/4828928 Twitter: https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts The family of 37-year-old Delrawn Small gathered outside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday, demanding justice on the first day of pre-trial hearings for NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs, charged with fatally shooting the father of three after an alleged road rage incident in East New York last July 4th. Isaacs, who sat quietly in court in a dark blazer and khakis, is the first police officer to be charged by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in his role as Special Prosecutor in police-killing cases. Isaacs was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter last September, after being stripped of his gun and badge. Today's witness testimony, from a police officer, a lieutenant, and an EMT who responded to the scene, seemed to support initial police statements that Isaacs reported being punched through his open car window before shooting Small three times. But Small's family pointed Tuesday to surveillance footage that appears to show Small falling back moments after approaching Isaacs's car. "The video, thankfully, it does exist. That speaks for itself and that speaks volumes," said Small's sister Victoria Davis. "The tapes show something different," added Hawk Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York. "So the honorable thing for Wayne Isaacs to do would be to confess to his crimes, to say that he is guilty, and throw himself on the mercy of the court." Small was in a car with his girlfriend and two young children on the night of July 4th, 2016, as Isaacs drove home from his shift at the 79th Precinct. In an incident of apparent road rage, Small exited his vehicle and approached Isaac, who was seated in the driver's seat when he shot Small. Tuesday's hearing was for the judge to determine whether statements Isaacs made immediately after the shooting, including "he punched me," were made freely and can be entered into the trial as evidence. Assistant Attorney General Joshua Gradinger asked witnesses if they pressured Isaacs to make certain statements in the aftermath of the shooting, and all three denied doing so. "I went over to him [Isaacs] and he said that he was assaulted, punched in the face, and was complaining of pain to his lip," said Officer John Zielin of the 75th Precinct (though, when asked if he saw any facial injuries, he said he did not). Zielin told Gradinger that he didn't know if Isaac had been hit multiple times. But when defense attorney Michael Martinez asked Zeilin during cross examination, "You heard him say, 'He kept hitting me, my lip, my lip?'" Zielin replied, "Correct." FDNY EMT Ebony McBride said on the stand that she observed Isaac with a swollen lip. "I placed an ice pack on his right jaw. I saw swelling to his right jaw," she said. Small's brother and sister speak outside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday. (Emma Whitford / Gothamist) Gradinger told the Daily News earlier this week that the defense called Tuesday's hearing in an attempt to keep some of Isaacs's incongruous statements out of the trial. Defense Attorney Stephen Worth denied this on Tuesday. "The officer did everything professionally in the way he's supposed to," Worth told reporters outside the courtroom. "He didn't run, he didn't leave, he clearly had an injury. All of the statements introduced today are helpful to our case and we're glad to hear them." Worth added that he does not believe the surveillance footage disputes Isaacs's account. "It's an editorial question about whether it casts doubt," he said. "In my mind it doesn't cast any doubt." Victor Dempsey, Small's younger brother, said Tuesday that his brother's death has taken a toll on Small's three children: 18-year-old Sha-riah, 16-year-old Shondell, and the youngest, 1-year-old Zaiden. "Our lives have changed dramatically," Dempsey said. "My nieces are working at a young age, and having them call out of work to be hereit's not like they are calling out to go to the beach or be with their friends. They're being forced to be adults really quickly. That's not the kind of life you want for your children." "If any of us had done what Isaacs did, we would have been handcuffed that night on the scene," Dempsey predicted. "We would not have been met with camaraderie. We would have been put in jail by his officers.... We need him to be sentenced to do prison time and a hefty amount of it." All three witnesses testified on Tuesday that Isaacs was not handcuffed the night of the killing. Judge Alexander Jeong adjourned Tuesday's hearing to September 13th for a final witness to testify. A trial will be scheduled for early October. An international team of archaeologists has provided a window into one of the most exciting periods in human history the transition between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The team, led by Dr. Ladislav Nejman of the University of Sydney, has discovered evidence of ancient artifacts in a cave site in the Czech Republic, suggesting Neanderthals and modern humans occasionally traveled through the area 50,000 to 28,000 years ago. The dig in Pod Hradem Cave in the central part of the Moravian Karst, in southern Moravia, near Brno has unearthed over 20,000 bones of prehistoric animals (reindeer, aurochs, wild horses and woolly rhinoceros) as well as stone tools, weapons, charcoal, and an engraved bone rod that is the oldest of its kind in Central Europe. We found that somewhere between 48,000 and 40,000 years ago people became highly mobile, Dr. Nejman said. Instead of moving short distances near the cave where they lived, they were walking for hundreds of miles quite often. We know that because we found various artifacts where the raw material comes from 60-125 miles (100-200 km) away. The artifacts were also made of different materials from different regions. Some from the North-West, some from the North, some from the East. An analysis conducted by the team incorporated a recently developed improvement to radiocarbon dating, using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, where the pre-treatment of samples is able to give a precise timeline for the numerous human visits to the cave. Such a relatively precise timeline for such an old site would be unthinkable even 10 to 20 years ago. We also gleaned a lot of information about the climate, the plants that grew around the cave, the type of wood that people brought into the cave to make fires and even what they ate, Dr. Nejman said. A pine nut from the Swiss pine (Pinus cembra) which is now extinct in the area because the climate is too warm was roasted and consumed by somebody in the cave between 45,000 to 48,000 years ago. The researchers hope to learn if it was a Neanderthal or a Homo sapiens who roasted the pine, through an emerging technique called sediment aDNA (ancient DNA). Analyzing sediment aDNA can work out what type of animals and humans visited the cave, even without their bones. The most significant thing we found in a 2011 excavation of the cave is a unique bone rod probably part of a necklace that is a testament to the incredible skill and exquisite craftsmanship these people possessed, Dr. Nejman said. This is the oldest portable art object of its type found anywhere in Central Europe and provides evidence of social signaling, quite possibly used as a necklace to mark the identity of the wearer, added co-author Dr. Duncan Wright, of the Australian National University. We can tell by the artifacts that small groups of people camped at this cave. This was during glacial periods suggesting they were well adapted to these harsh conditions. Its quite possible that the two different species of humans met in this area, Dr. Wright said. Neanderthals had a tendency to live in one place and although we know they had very high levels of physical activity, they tended to return to the same place most of the time. In contrast, modern humans tended to move their place of residence much more frequently, Dr. Nejman said. This difference in residential mobility levels probably helped the modern humans to survive in this harsh environment, because they could meet more often with other groups, reducing inbreeding. The research was published recently in the online edition of the Journal of Human Evolution. _____ L. Nejman et al. 2017. Hominid visitation of the Moravian Karst during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition: New results from Pod Hradem Cave (Czech Republic). Journal of Human Evolution 108: 131-146; doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.03.015 [BANGKOK] An emerging viral disease observed in both wild and farmed tilapia could impact global food security and nutrition if biosafety measures are not introduced, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other organisations have warned. The warning appeared in a special alert issued by FAO (May 26). Tilapia lake virus (TiLV) was first detected in Israel in 2009, but was only confirmed as a new disease in 2014. Cases have since been reported in other parts of the world. All countries culturing tilapia and especially those translocating live tilapia should be vigilant about the disease and take appropriate risk management measures to reduce the likelihood of imported stocks being infected with TiLV, Melba Reantaso, aquaculture officer at the FAO, tells SciDev.Net. All countries culturing tilapia and especially those translocating live tilapia should be vigilant about the disease. Melba Reantaso, UN Food and Agriculture Organization Tilapia is a common name for hundreds of species of the tilapiine cichlid fish, and its name comes from the cichlid genus Tilapia. It is the most popular farmed fish in the world, after carp and salmon. According to research, TiLV has been reported in five countries so far: Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Israel and Thailand. Outbreaks in Thailand have wiped out 90 per cent of tilapia stocks. TiLV is part of the Orthomyxoviridae family of viruses, which is related to the anaemia virus that has heavily damaged the salmon farming industry. It is not known to infect humans. Fish infected with TiLV often display sluggishness, lesions of the skin, eye abnormalities and lens opacity. However, there are still knowledge gaps, such as whether passive carriers of the infection can transmit the virus and whether infections through frozen tilapia products are possible. Vishnumurthy Mohan Chadag, a senior scientist at WorldFish, an international non-profit research organisation, tells SciDev.Net that countries vulnerable to the TiLV virus need to put in place monitoring and surveillance strategies. Building awareness about TiLV in all sectors of the value chain is also important, says Chadag, with special attention given to small-scale farmers with limited access to knowledge and information. At the international level, mobilisation is already underway between various stakeholders to assist affected countries and get them to adopt biosecurity measures that include requirements to report unusual fish mortality and restrictions on the movement of live fish. Efforts are also underway to develop a vaccine. China, India and Indonesia are actively monitoring for TiLV. In Israel, an epidemiological survey is expected to determine factors influencing low survival rates and mortalities. According to FAO, tilapia is among the top aquaculture species, in terms of volume, that provide food, jobs and earnings from domestic trade and export for millions of people, including many smallholders. China, Indonesia and Egypt are the three leading aquaculture producers of tilapia, a fish deemed to have great potential for expansion in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, world tilapia production, from both aquaculture and capture, amounted to 6.4 million tonnes valued at US$9.8 billion. This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk. Those looking forward to the launch of the Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket on Tuesday night were in for a disappointment when the launch was canceled for the seventh time -- just after 9 p.m. The launch that was supposed to take off from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia was scrubbed due to cloudy conditions. According to WTOP, the scheduled launch from the Eastern Shore on Monday and Tuesday were both canceled due to cloud cover. Incidentally, the launch was postponed on Sunday night due to the presence of boats in the vicinity of the launch range hazard area. Incidentally, the previous other launch attempts were canceled for numerous other reasons that included poor science conditions and high winds. So, why is this rocket launch highly anticipated by the public in general? It is because once the sounding rocket is successfully launched, 10 canisters will be deployed in the air -- approximately 6 to 12 miles from it. Subsequently, the canisters will cause red and blue-green vapor forming artificial clouds. The main mission behind the technology demonstration flight is to test a new ejection system for the canisters. This will help in future studies of the Earths auroras and ionospheres. The experiment will also enable researchers on the ground to track the motions of particles. Ground cameras at Wallops and Duck, North Carolina, would help in viewing the vapor tracers. NASA says the vapor tracers may be visible from New York to North Carolina, and as far inland as Charlottesville, Virginia, after the successful launch of the rocket. The American space agency has been trying to launch this potentially dazzling mission all month. The launch window opened on June 1 and will close on June 18. Space.com reported that the next launch opportunity would be on Wednesday, June 14 at 9:05 p.m. EDT. Scientists discovered that the European eels or also known as glass eels use magnetism to help guide them in their migration. These critically endangered fish live in the rivers or estuaries across Europe and North Africa. The findings of the discovery were published in the journal Science Advances on Friday. The study was led by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research's Austevoll Research Station and the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The scientists discovered that the glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) faced different directions based on whether the tide was flowing in or out, according to The New York Times. In the study, the team found that the glass eels can detect the magnetic field of Earth and use it just like a compass to lead themselves toward the coast, which is their home. Claire Paris, the senior author of the study and a professor from the UM Rosenstiel School, said that this study is an important factor to understand the mechanisms of eel migration and other species. They found that their magnetic orientation is similarly controlled by a biological clock. Meanwhile, Alessandro Cresci, the lead author of the study from the UM Rosenstiel School, described the finding as incredible as these glass eels could detect the Earth's magnetic field. He further said that the use of a magnetic compass could be a key in underlying the amazing migration of this type of animal. He added that this is the first observation of glass eels keeping a compass as they swim in shelf waters. The scientists observed the glass eels in a semi-enclosed circular aquarium known as Drifting In-Situ Chamber (DISC). They also conducted an orientation behavior analysis using a magnetoreception test facility known as the "MagLab." The glass eels were exposed to artificially manipulated magnetic field like that the E-W and N-S axes were swung by 90 degrees, according to Phys.org. Female black widow spiders usually have a very painful bite, with their venom said to be 15 times more potent than that of a rattlesnake. Getting bitten by a black widow usually results in severe muscle pains and spasms, and even abdominal cramps that could last for up to a week. In Massachussetts, black widows are rare, which is why Kristine Donovan did not expect such creature to bite her 5-year-old daughter, Kailyn. When Donovan first saw the bluish mark on her daughter's leg, she thought it was a bruise. A few days later, the mark turned black, which alarmed her significantly. The concerned mother then rushed her daughter to a nearby hospital, where she was told that her daughter had been affected by a black widow spider bite. Donovan told CBS Boston that her daughter never even felt the spider bite her. The little girl, however, has been treated with antibiotics and dressing changes. Donovan suspected though that her daughter may have gotten the bite in her jeans, in the same location where Kailyn was bitten. Kailyn's doctor, William Durbin, told The Boston Globe that the dark purple and black colors that have marked the little girl were a byproduct of necrosis -- meaning that her cells in the area have died. Dr. Durbin, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at UMass Memorial Medical Center, shared that Kailyn had a very distinctive bite, which alarmed her parents and doctors alike. Over 2,000 people in the U.S. get bitten by black widow spiders every year, although death is rare. Still, fatalities from black widow bites usually occur among young children, the elderly or the extremely ill. However, Kailyn's bite was treated in time, and it seems that it is healing. Donovan also said that as an act of precaution, she will be spraying their house, although doctors presumed the bite to have occurred outside their home. Still, they did not expect black widows in Massachusetts, and this served as a precaution not only for the existence of the spider that bit her daughter but for other venomous animals possibly within arm's length of any child. It is forecasted that a heat wave could hit Southern California at the end of this week. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), it might trigger wildfires and heat-related conditions. NWS stated that an extended period of hot and dry weather conditions will impact regions away from the coast in at least early next week that have temperatures rising daily because of a weak offshore flow. In Antelope Valley, the temperatures will be around 15 degrees higher than the average. Meanwhile, in downtown Los Angeles, the temperatures could be higher in the mid to upper 80s and in the coastal areas could peak up to upper 70s. Lancaster and Palmdale could be high in the mid-100s. Meanwhile, in the San Fernando Valley, the temperatures could peak up to 96 degrees on Thursday and 100 degrees on Friday, according to Los Angeles Times. Ryan Kittell, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said that the hottest temperatures are expected between this coming Thursday and Sunday. He added that the heat could be blamed from the abnormally high pressure developing over the West Coast and a weaker than usual sea breeze. On the other hand, he said that it might not break any records and he further said that some temperatures could hover near records. Meanwhile, NWS warned that the extended period of hot and dry conditions together with drying fuels could heighten fire danger to interior sections of southwest California at least early next week. The agency further stated that the increased grass fire ignition with rapid spread potential will be the main fire weather threat. NWS continually warns the public that this prolonged heat wave could deliver moderate heat risk to those sensitive to heat particularly to those who do not have effective cooling or enough hydration. The agency also added that the heat wave could be intense early next week particularly in some areas of the San Gabriel mountains and Antelope Valley, according to Pasadena Star-News. FLORENCE, S.C. -- McLeod Health and McLeod Physician Associates welcome new endocrinology physician Francesca A. Wilkins, MD to McLeod Physician Associates. Wilkins joins Dr. Aundrea E. Loftley in caring for patients as part of McLeod Endocrinology Associates. Physicians in the endocrinology field commonly treat conditions such as diabetes, thyroid disease, osteoporosis and obesity. Board Certified in endocrinology and internal medicine, Wilkins comes to McLeod having served patients as both a specialist in endocrine conditions and internist in Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi. Wilkins received her doctoral degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and completed her internal medicine residency at the Cleveland Clinic Educational Foundation in Ohio. Wilkins also completed her endocrinology fellowship at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. Wilkins accepts patients by appointment and physician referral. For more information, call (843) 777-7490. HARTSVILLE, S.C. The 17th annual Swamp Fox Quilters Challenge is up for viewing at the Hartsville Museum. Awards were presented to the winners on June 1. Thirty-one quilts are on display and will remain on exhibit at the museum through the summer. The theme for this years challenge was Grannys Block Today. The quilters were challenged to use a vintage block to create something a little more modern than their grandmothers quilt. There was no size limit. The group of 43 quilters and three guests met at the Hartsville Museum on June 1 for judging of categories by members. Ribbons were presented for Best Use of Theme, Best Use of Machine Quilting, Best Use of Hand Quilting, Best Applique, Best Piece Quilt, Best Art Quilt and Best of Show. A Peoples Choice Award, based on ballots cast during the summer by museum guests, will be awarded at the end of the summer. We look forward to this all year long, Johnnie Britton said. Ive only been a member for four years. It took me close to a year to make my quilt. I didnt think Id get to the place where I could put it together. Britton was rewarded for her efforts with Best of Show for her Wild & Goosey guilt, Best Use of Theme and Best Pieced Quilt. Others receiving first-place and second-place ribbons: >> Best Machine Quilt: Harriett Whitlock, first and second place. >> Best Hand Quilting: Pat Couch, first place; Elaine Holmes, second place. >> Best Applique: Harriett Whitlock, first place; Janice Davis, second place. >> Best Pieced Quilt: Britton, first; Rita Studdard, second place. >> Best Art Quilt: Peggy OQuinn, first place; Lorene B. Arnette and Janice Davis, tied for second place. >> Best New Quilter: Brenda Gregg, presented a ribbon by the Quilters of South Carolina. The club meets the first Thursday of the month, except in the summer, in Florence at John Calvin Presbyterian Church. There are currently 60 members. Frances Kelley is president. The quilts can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the museum at 222 N. Fifth St. in Hartsville. There is no admission charge. The NYPD will begin issuing civil summonses for certain quality of life crimes, including open containers and public urination today, as the City Council's Criminal Justice Reform Act officially goes into effect. The package of bills, which were championed by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, directs officers to issue civil instead of criminal summonses when they bust people for littering, public urination, public consumption of alcohol, breaking certain park rules, and making excessive noise. The Times reports that the package of bills, which was passed last year by the Council and signed by the mayor, went into effect after the NYPD finalized their rules for issuing the civil summonses one year after the bills were made law. Under the terms of a civil summons, a person doesn't have to go to court to answer for something like public drinking. Instead, they appear at an administrative hearing run by the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. The reform efforts don't decriminalize the quality of life crimes themselves, which would still be classified as misdemeanors. Under the department's new guidelines, officers will be directed to issue civil summonses for the quality of life offenses, with a few exceptions, according to the Times. If the person committing an offense has two or more felony arrests in the last two years, has received at least three unanswered civil summonses in eight years, or is on parole or probation, a police officer can still issue a criminal summons. Council Member Rory Lancman, who's been an advocate of reforming Broken Windows policing, called the new rules "a great step forward, though I would like to have seen fewer exceptions to them, since they would primarily affect communities of color," in a statement given to Gothamist. Lancman also said that the Council was "going to digest the results of the new rules over the course of the next three to six months. The next thing we might need to do is also look at the fine schedule, to make sure the fines are not excessive. So after a short period of time, we'll be able to see what's working and what needs improvement. I wouldn't be surprised if in January we'll reassess and see what needs to be tinkered with." However, critics of Broken Windows policing have still been critical of the bills. As Brooklyn College professor and police reform advocate Alex Vitale previously pointed out, fines can become a huge financial burden for low-income New Yorkers. "Civil summonsing continues the philosophy of high amounts of interaction with our communities and the NYPD," the Coalition to End Broken Windows Policing wrote in a statement. "Any interaction with police has always been, and remains, a potentially deadly encounter for Black and Brown New Yorkers... The overwhelming majority of Broken Windows enforcement is levied against people of color, street vendors, subway performers, our youth and our LGBTQ and immigrant communities. These patrol guide changes (which didn't prevent cops from putting Eric Garner in a prohibited chokehold in 2014) also includes intentionally discriminatory language excluding people on parole or probation, or those with recent felony convictions from receiving civil summonses." While the reforms had received support from then-Commissioner Bill Bratton when they were first passed, at least some members of the NYPD were willing to "fume" to the Post about the apocalyptic consequences they think the move to civil summonses will have. "Its bulls-t! a "high-ranking police source," told the tabloid yesterday. They shouldnt be doing that. Its just going to make crime go up again." Another source incorrectly told the Post that the reforms decriminalize the offenses, and that quality of life offenders will now be "emboldened" to "do whatever they want." According to Lancman though, this will not result in a subway-esque torrent of pee on the streets of New York. "People are still going to be held accountable for their misconduct, but we're not going to be running people through the criminal justice system for a low-level, non-violent quality of life offenses," Lancman told Gothamist. "This is no different from getting a ticket for not feeding the meter or putting your garbage out the day before it's supposed to go out for collection." Four of the NYPD's highest-ranking officials predicted at a hearing this morning that doomsday would ensue should the City Council pass a bill aimed at shedding some light on what tools the department uses for surveillance and how. "The way the bill is written right now it would be asking us to describe the specific manufacturer and model of an undercover recording device that an officer is wearing in an ongoing terror investigation," said Deputy Commissioner of Counterterrorism and Intelligence John Miller. "That would be insane, and it would endanger lives." The bill being considered by the City Council's Public Safety Committee is the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act. The proposal doesn't explicitly seek the make and model of specific devices, but it does call on police to craft public policies for each of its surveillance technologies, including details about what the tools can do, how they are to be used, what is done with the data they gather, and how officers are trained to use them. The bill would also require that the NYPD solicit public comments on these policies. At today's hearing, Miller and his colleagues said in essence that the world is a very dangerous place, the department is doing a lot to prevent terrorism and fight crime, and the increased transparency called for here would hinder that effort. "In a final analysis, all that this legislation does is provide an invaluable roadmap to criminals, terrorists, and others for how to harm the public," Miller said. The 2013 unveiling of the NYPD's Domain Awareness System (Mayor's Office) The NYPD's arsenal of surveillance gear includes license plate readers, X-ray-equipped box trucks, body cameras, cellphone tower simulators, facial recognition software, a gunshot detection system, and a vast network of cameras and chemical sensors in the five boroughs and beyond. Given that much of what the public knows about New York City police's spyware is thanks to public records requests and courtroom fights, there's likely more that the NYPD is using and not disclosing. For example, in 2014, Miller and former police commissioner Bill Bratton said they had explored acquiring drones, so have they? A reporter's long legal battle over drone documents has shown that the NYPD doesn't want us to find out. "The public should not have to learn about these technologies through costly litigation," New York Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Rashida Richardson testified at the hearing, saying the group supports the bill. Contrary to the premise of the bill and the assertions of legislators and privacy advocates, Miller said that the NYPD is a model of transparency, and follows all privacy laws. "The New York City Police Department is the most transparent municipal police department in the world," he said. "A broad categorization that the NYPD is not transparent would be simply false." The NYPD is not transparent. The department was one of two city agencies to get an F grade in transparency from Bill de Blasio's office when he was public advocate in 2013. In 2014, the department's Freedom of Information Law Office claimed that its public records handbook was exempt from disclosure. When the agency finally did release the handbook, it incorrectly stated the length of time that records officers have to respond to FOIL requests as 10 days, double the actual window of time specified by law. The NYPD also only accepts FOIL requests by snail mail, another violation of state law. No one raised these specific facts at the hearing. Miller did, however, point to the department's privacy policy for its domain awareness systema centralized network of security cameras, license plate readers, radiation and chemical detectors, and other data sources developed with Microsoftas an example of its privacy and openness. The privacy policy, he said repeatedly, was posted online in 2009, no legislation necessary. Councilman Dan Garodnick, sponsor of the POST Act, asked if a subsequent change to allow all officers to access the system from their phones is reflected with an update to the privacy policy. Miller wasn't sure, but said, "It doesnt change the principles of the system. It was always built with the idea that any of our 35,000 uniformed employees or our civilian employees would have access to it." (The change doesn't appear in the policy.) (FlySis/Flickr) Councilman Rory Lancman homed in on the fundamental philosophical question at the base of the debate over the bill: "When you say the department is committed [to transparency]...I believe that you believe that, but ultimately, do you agree that it is the public and their elected representatives who decide the appropriate balance between privacy and security?" Miller did not answer the question, but did say, "I believe that there is a false premise that is a snowball thats rolling down a hill. That is the premise...that there is some broad-based overarching surveillance of some broad swath of the public or populations or cultures outside of a specific investigation." Lancman noted in response, "There's a reason that there's a Handschu Agreement." The decades-old consent decree came out of the NYPD's systematic and unauthorized surveillance and infiltration of activist groups in the 1970s. Still in effect, the agreement mandates that NYPD Intelligence can only investigate purely political activity when it suspects criminality, and must obtain a warrant from a three-person panel before investigating further. It also includes reporting requirements, and restrictions on information sharing. More recently, from 2003 to 2014, the NYPD operated a secret Demographics Unit that sent undercover detectives to predominately Muslim neighborhoods to create dossiers on people's day-to-day activities, including praying at mosques. The unit never generated an actionable lead. A 2016 NYPD Inspector General report found that 95 percent of Intelligence Bureau investigations closed between 2010 and 2015 focused on Muslims, and that more than half of the time, investigators continued their probes after their legal authorization had expired. (Getty) Cellphone tower simulators, commonly referred to by the brand name Stingray, posed another quandary. Their use in New York is only known about thanks to an NYCLU lawsuit. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Affairs Larry Byrne said that the devices are only used with a court order, and are only used to establish a cellphone user's location and call activity, not to obtain the actual content of the calls. The NYCLU records, dating up to 2015, showed that the department had no written policy for use of the simulators, but that it typically relied on pen registers, court orders with a lower burden of proof than a search warrant. Byrne said that since then the department has changed its policy to require a court order showing probable causehe later specified to Gothamist that this is a search warranta move in line with new federal policy. This is news to privacy advocates. Legal Aid attorney Jerome Greco testified that the citywide public defender organization has never seen a case where Stingray use was backed by a search warrant, and that in a case where it identified a pen register being obtained, police tried to obscure the fact that they were using a Stingray from the judge as well as the defense. Other questions, such as whether an X-ray of one's car in traffic requires a search warrant, were not discussed at the hearing. They may yet be debated, extensively if the bill passes. Or, if not, they could come up in some court case months or years from now. After the hearing, we called Byrne and asked him again whether it is the role of elected officials to dictate the actions of the police department. Echoing Bratton, who in 2015 called proposed police reforms "unprecedented intrusions" on his authority, Byrne had this to say: Guntur: Schools re-opened after 52-days summer holidays in Guntur district on Monday. As many as 5, 468 primary schools and 11, 881 high schools opened. Corporate and private schools have already opened in Guntur district on June 5. The education department is making preparations to distribute free books to the students studying in the government and aided students at free of cost. Meanwhile education department today launched 'Badi Baata' programme to admit the school going aged children in the school. During this programme, the teachers will motivate the parents of the students to send their children to the schools and benefits of education and ask them to schools. District Education Officer N.Raghukumar said he will conduct awareness programmes on Badi Baata programme to make it a grand success. We are making arrangements to distribute the text books to the students studying in the government and aided schools. We will distribute free uniform from 1 to 8th class students studying in the government schools. Uniform will be distributed to 4.25 lakh students in the district. About 18-lakh text books will be distributed free of cost. In addition to this NGOs are coming forward to distribute free notes books to the students". Lions from north and south of the River Humber set about collecting 20,500 food tins to lay in a line between the two suspension pillars on Wednesday, June 7 - the official 100 years birthday of Lions Clubs International. Through the generosity of the Lions Clubs on both sides of the river and local businesses, they were able to exceed the original number by over 4,500. Lion Elaine Kitchen, event coordinator on the south bank, said: "I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of all the Lions throughout my district and the number of Lions who turned up on the day to lay the tins and then, after a short ceremony, take them up again. "Local businesses also willingly supported us - Tesco in Barton and Hull, the Co-op, Vending Enterprises, Humber Bridge Board, PPS Containers (Grimsby), Fareshare and John Reid Haulage. The Cleethorpes Sea Scouts, the Brigg Rainbows, Brownies and Guides, Winterton Academy and Winterton Guides, also helped on the day. A group of primary schools in North East Lincolnshire managed to collect over 1,000 tins for us also. I can't thank them all enough." Following the laying of the tins, they lit lanterns in memory of those Lions who have passed to higher service. The food was taken away by Fareshare to their collection centre in Hull to be distributed to food kitchens, food banks, hospices, salvation army and many more venues north and south of the river. Lions Clubs International is the largest service organisation in the world and has a number of clubs in this area. It is celebrating 100 years of service to the community throughout 2017. Lions originally started in Chicago in the USA but was introduced into this country following the Second World War when the Queen Mother went over to Canada and saw them in action. She asked them to come over to England and help start the movement over here. The Lions now have 15,000 members in the British Isles and Ireland. This event will show the public the service that the Lions carry out every week of the year in their communities and also the friendships that they have formed over the years. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Kirmington motorbike star Guy Martin has delivered a scathing assessment of his Isle of Man TT campaign. Martin suffered a miserable return to the Manx event after missing last year and it was not the return he was hoping for. He suffered a crash in the opening Superbike race on the Sunday and only competed in the TT Zero later in the week, pulling out of the blue riband Senior TT on the final day. In January Martin was announced with John McGuinness in what looked like a dream partnership for Honda but that turned into a nightmare at the TT. McGuinness was ruled out of the event after a crash at the North West 200. Then Martin was lucky to escape a massive crash at the fourth gear Dorans Bend on the opening lap of the Superbiek race. A false neutral was deemed the cause of the crash but it visibly shook up Martin and he pulled out of the Senior TT on the Friday morning. However, there was a bit of solace for Martin who took a second place for Mugen in the TT Zero race behind Bruce Anstey. Weve had a bit of an well I dont know what the right word is, I dont want to get my ear chewed, Martin said. But weve had a bit of an interesting week. With what has gone on this week, Im sick to the back teeth with it to be honest. The only good thing I can drag out of it is the whole Mugen thing. I ask myself why am I doing it and then I say, well Im on a Mugen, and thats a good reason for doing it. If I get the chance to come back on the Mugen then yeah, but for owt else then I think I need to have a bit of a rethink. The TTs great, but you can never forget that it is only a motorbike race. It is still unclear if Martin will take part in the Southern 100 next month, which he has always described as one of his favourite races. In a statement the Port of Administration of Buenos Aires said it had evaluated the advantages of several initiatives to encourage healthy and safe operations in the port and went for the Green Award. Since the port is in a strategic location, the metropolitan area of the beautiful city of Buenos Aires, the Port Administration is primarily concerned with issues in port that can affect the local community. Buenos Aires seeks to improve air and water quality and to reduce environmental impacts, the port said. Buenos Aires is the largest transhipment port in Argentina and offers a 10% discount on vessel dues to Green Award ships from 22 May this year. In Panama, President Juan Carlos Varela said in a televised address that [the opening of diplomatic relations with China] represents the correct path for our country. Panama's government said in a statement that it recognised there was only one China, with Taiwan belonging to the Asian giant, and that it was severing ties with Taipei. It came as a surprise since the negotiations had been kept in secret (something quite unusual in Panama) although President Varela had mentioned during his political campaign in 2014 the possibility of switching diplomatic recognition. China is the second largest customer of the Panama Canal whose expansion was inaugurated a year ago with the transit of the 9,472 teu Cosco Shipping Panama vessel. But for the maritime sector and the Panamanian Ship Registry the decision offers undoubted opportunities. Already several Chinese companies are present in the country and many had been awarded juicy contracts. The first one was in 2011 when China Communication Construction Company [CCCC] in partnership with US-based Louis Berger Group was awarded the design contract for the third bridge over the Panama Canal. China Landbridge Group, a privately owned company based in the northern Chinese port of Rizhao has started construction of the 2m TEUs Panama Colon Container Port capable of servicing neo-panamax vessels, in Isla Margarita on the Atlantic side of the waterway. Five Chinese companies are also competing for the prequalification of the construction of the Metro third line in Panama. For the Panama Ship Registry the decision is of utmost importance as it will allow the signing of a Bilateral Agreement in the matter of merchant marine so that Panama can enjoy the most favoured nation status that would allow Panamanian flag vessels to enjoy the advantages and lower port costs applicable to other States which have similar agreements with China. Such an agreement would promote the competitiveness of the Panamanian Ship Registry, because the operational costs of docking in the Chinese ports of the Panamanian fleet are adjusted to the needs of the market. In addition, the new relations will open the door to agreements for the transfer of knowledge and technical control of the documentation of ships and crew onboard Panamanian vessels. From now on, Panama will be able to flag vessels of that country or related to shipping companies of that country, directly in the main maritime cities of the People's Republic of China, including the registration services of naval mortgages and property titles and with full diplomatic relations Panama will be qualified to establish technical offices in China for the control of maritime safety and navigation of its vessels. It is a new challenge for the Panama Maritime Authority and the Ship Registry but we are ready for it since we know it will strengthen our Register as we plan to establish co-operation agreements with the maritime authorities of China, including agreements on maritime transport, Panama Minister of Maritime Affairs Jorge Barakat said. China being the second world economy, our [Panama] 's opportunities to participate with companies in the maritime trade of that country will have a direct relationship in the management of shipbuilding, ports, ship repair, inspections and technology, among others, commented Fernando Solorzano, head of the Ship Registry. On the technological front the opportunities are immense and we will be able to jointly work on the classification, technical documentation, seafarers certification, shipboard working conditions, electronic certification, technology, training and training, which will be of great value for the Register, he added. The company said in a stock market announcement that had "been informed by its controlling shareholder, Dalian Port Corporation that it had received a notice from the Liaoning Provincial Peoples Government in relation to a Port Corporation Framework Agreement entered into between Liaoning Government and China Merchants Group. The giant CMG is the parent of China Merchants Holdings (International) (CMHI), which in turn is a substantial shareholder of Dalian Port. The agreement is aimed at working towards a unified operation platform for Liaoning ports and to establish a Liaoning port group combining Dalian Port and Yingkou Port Group Corporation, which will ultimately lead to the integration of the port management of Liaoning province. The Liaoning government is expected to support CMGs investment into Liaoning Port Group which is expected to be incorporated and set up by the end of the year. The somewhat ambitious timeline to complete the integration of other ports management entities within Liaoning Province is by the end of 2018. CMG is also seen as taking the lead in the management of Liaoning Port Group and promoting the business reorganization and structure optimization of the ports under the jurisdiction of Liaoning Port Group.The move is aimed at "enhancing the cooperation and development of ports, international competitiveness, promoting the development of shipping centres and related industries with Liaoning Port Group as the core enterprise," Dalian Port said in its announcement. It warned however that "as at the date of this announcement, the specific cooperation measures with respect to the cooperation are unknown to the company". "The board wishes to emphasize that the agreement is a framework agreement, it is uncertain that whether, when and how the company will be integrated and how the company will be affected," it concluded..In May this year, the Jiangsu Port Group was formed through the consolidation of the two major port companies in the province, Nanjing Port and Lianyungang Port. It is meant to reduce competition and maximise economies of scale while increasing efficiency of the Belt and Road initiative. Yingkou Port is northeast of Dalian, deeper in the Bohai Bay to serve more inland areas of Liaoning province. Yingkou Port Group has a FTZ and a regular rail connection to Europe which began in 2013 and connects seven cities in four countries in line with the Belt and Road initiative. Press Release June 14, 2017 NANCY WANTS DOT TO PENALIZE AD AGENCIES GIVING 'UNORIGINAL' ADS, CONCEPTS The Department of Tourism (DOT) should start penalizing advertising and creative agencies giving "unoriginal" works, if Senator Nancy Binay had her way. "We should start penalizing ad agencies for giving our departments, especially the DOT, ripped off creative handles or not-so-original work. It compromises the integrity of the government agency, as well as the ad agency itself," Binay, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Tourism, said. The DOT launched on June 12 its "Sights" ad, which advertising agency McCann Worldgroup Philippines made. It drew flak from netizens who said it was similar to an ad the South Africa Tourism Board released in 2014. "Mukhang di pa po tayo natututo sa nangyari sa mga nakaraang pagkakataon na hindi original ang logo, slogan, o design," Binay said. This is not the first time that the DOT and its agencies on record became controversial. In 2010, the department and ad agency Campaigns and Grey were also criticized for its "Pilipinas kay Ganda" logo, which netizens said was lifted from Poland's tourism logo. The "It's more fun in the Philippines'" tagline also became controversial in 2012 when it was said to resemble the "It's more fun in Switzerland" tagline made in 1951. Binay said that advertising contracts between the DOT, including its attached agencies, and the promo/ad/media/marketing agencies should have a legal clause or a disclaimer which stipulates that the agency handling a particular campaign would either be penalized or not be paid if the ad copy, concept, or peg was found to be copied. "Pera ng taumbayan ang ginagastos ng DOT para bayaran ang mga ad companies. Tama lang na maging accountable sila di lamang sa DOT kundi sa taong bayan. Everytime the ad is aired, taxpayers' money is being spent," Binay said. She added that it is the responsibility of the advertising agency if the proposed ad, slogan or logo has similarities on previously ran campaigns locally or abroad. "Dapat maging honest at magkaroon full disclosure ang mga ad agencies para di kahiya-hiya ang Pilipinas," Binay stressed. She added that the DOT should also be more discerning and critical on pegs, concepts, storyboards, and drafts that ad agencies present to them. "Nasa DOT ang final say ng mga in-execute na ads at mga collateral, dahil nasa kanilang area of responsibility ito. It also saves them the time and effort in defending the material that comes out," Binay said. The lady senator added that she is hoping that the next DOT advertisements would not meet the same fate as previous advertisements. Binay said that the criticism on advertising only adds to the negative image of the country, especially for foreign tourists. Press Release June 14, 2017 De Lima urges Filipino women to carry on fight for democracy CEBU CITY - Sen. Leila M. de Lima has urged Filipino women to continue to take the lead in standing up and speaking out for freedom, democracy and human rights amidst sinister attempts by some quarters to silence and undermine their power. In a message delivered on her behalf during a forum entitled "Women Defend Democracy" held in Golden Valley Hotel here, De Lima noted how women are being targeted to misogynistic and sexist attacks. "Not just Filipino women, but women all over the world are always among the first to speak out against oppression and they are the loudest and bravest in their opposition whenever human rights and democracy are under siege," she said. "(But) what is really disturbing is that there are people in power who are brazenly unapologetic in their mistreatment and insensitivity towards women," she added. De Lima has always been subjected to misogynist remarks not only from some members of the present administration but also, most especially, by President Duterte whom she investigated on the death squad in Davao City. The Duterte administration has unjustly implicated De Lima in the proliferation of illegal drug trade in the country as it submitted manufactured evidence and perjured testimonies from publicly-known convicted inmates. But despite the political persecution she suffers in the hands of the present administration, De Lima has consistently spoken out against the glaring human rights violations committed in the government's all-out war on drugs. The former justice secretary called on Filipino women to resist attacks against women's dignity and rights and continue to fight off lies and misinformation being peddled against the administration's political opponents. "At a time when we are faced with a crisis of democracy, where citizens are silenced amid the prevalence of violence in our society, we are all called upon to speak up for what is right - even if it is unpopular - and stand up for our ideals and values," she said. She pointed out that the true test of nationhood comes during times of conflict, and not peace, urging all women to rise up to the challenges of standing up for democracy despite attempts to silence public criticism. "The true test of our nationhood comes not during times of peace and prosperity, but during times of conflict. The time to test and prove who we are as a people is, therefore, now," she said. "Sama-sama, ipaglaban natin ang ating karapatan, ang ating dignidad, ang ating pagkababae. Ipakita natin ang lakas ng Pilipina na itaguyod ang tama at makatwiran, at makiambag sa pagpapaganda ng ating kinabukasan," she added. The Senator from Bicol also said her moves in stepping up criticisms against the atrocities of the present administration is an obligation, not just as a Senator and public servant, but as a Filipino who believes it is simply the right thing to do. De Lima is one of the petitioners who sought the Supreme Court to compel Congress to convene a joint session to discuss the propriety and constitutionality of President Duterte's decision to place Mindanao under Martial Law. Read full speech here: http://bit.ly/2tjExoI As part of an innovative new class, School of Education and Social Policy undergraduates wrestled with some of Illinois most pressing early childhood education issues before formally presenting their recommendations to policy makers at the Illinois Governors office in Chicago. Professor Terri Sabol created the 10-week course Crafting Child Policy after an Illinois Early Learning Council committee member sent her a list of specific research questions drawn up by the state. At the same time, Sabol was looking for a way to make her child development class more relevant and useful. It seemed like Illinois could benefit from the brainpower, enthusiasm and time of the undergrads, while the students would be able to apply their new knowledge of the science of child development to real and relevant contexts and have the potential to inform Illinois child and family policy, said Sabol, assistant professor of human development and social policy. Sabol worked closely with Kathy Stohr, deputy director of the Governors Office of Early Childhood Development to ensure that her students were answering questions that were useful to the state. I was amazed by the extent to which the students got the very real policy issues over such a short period of time, Stohr said. It was also remarkable that they made these recommendations with such confidence and suretyto the very people who are active implementers and policy makers of the program. Representatives from a wide range of agencies and organizations in early childhood education attended the final presentations, including the Illinois Governors Office of Early Childhood Education, Ounce of Prevention, Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Action for Children, Voices for Illinois Children, and Erikson Institute. One audience member in particular -- Stacy Ehrlich, a managing director and senior research scientist at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research -- slightly unnerved Megana Audipudy, Selena Lasota and Samantha Oberman, because the trio used Ehrlichs research in their report on decreasing chronic absenteeism in early childhood education. It was a little nerve-wracking to know that Stacy Ehrlich was watching, but I was excited to see her taking pictures and participating in our discussion, said Audipudy, an industrial engineering major. We really enjoyed talking to her afterward. It was validating to hear an expert explain why she thought our ideas were useful. Ehrlich said she was impressed that the students looked at broad solutions that were more supportive of families and communities. I loved that they understood that absenteeism isnt a result of uncaring parents, she said. Its that they have so many things they are trying to balance. And health is an issue. In addition to chronic absenteeism, the teams of students looked at the attrition rate for preschool teachers, which is almost double the rate of K-12 teachers; the Illinois ExceleRate program; and the effects of socio-emotional interventions in Head Start programs. Elliott Regenstein, senior vice president, advocacy, and policy for Ounce of Prevention Fund, commended the students work. Whats exciting is to see them digging into the inquiry process, said Regenstein, who helped compile the master set of research questions. A lot of these questions are ones that the professionals are still wrestling with the complexity of the answers. It was exciting to see their fresh perspective. I hope some will stay in the field and keep wrestling with it. Many of the students said they enrolled in the class because of the chance to present to the Governors office and key players in early childhood development. It is everything I love and respect about SESP: We are a small school that thinks BIG, and we work to effect real change, said Sarah Lee. It was a huge source of motivation to be able to produce work that really matters and would reach a broad audience of policymakers, educators, and others. It was also great to hear that our policy recommendations could inform the next decisions around education in Illinois, Lee added. After working through all the research and navigating what is a very complicated, not-so-straightforward field, the class put everything we were learning into practice. Working with students from different backgrounds including social policy, economics, human development and social policy and even engineering -- enhanced the learning and working experience, Lee said. The field is beginning to draw more on people with diverse backgrounds to inform their policy and effect better solutions to improving our children's education in the U.S., she said. Senior Lan Nguyen, who in the fall will pursue a masters degree in social work at the University of California Los Angeles, said the class finale at the Governors office capped off her entire college experience. The opportunity to potentially enact physical change motivated us to work really hard, she said. It was the coolest experience I had at Northwestern. In a surprise move, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced the establishment of a new position, curator of contemporary art. Eungie Joo, a peripatetic curator with an international profile, will assume the role June 1. Given its engagement with living artists and its strong reputation for collecting and exhibiting post-World War II art, one might have assumed that contemporary specialists abound among SFMOMAs 20 full-time curators. However, says Ruth Berson, SFMOMAs deputy director of curatorial affairs, contemporary art which the museum considers to be the art of the 21st century isnt their sole and primary focus, which is what we are doing with the appointment of Eungie. Joo (whose first name is pronounced UN-jee), told The Chronicle that she began discussion of a possible position with SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra last year, when she came for the opening of the new building. She was appointed after a vetting process that included interviews with Berson and Benezra, as well as meetings with trustees and senior staff. She will lead a new curatorial department, one of five collecting units in the museum, and will report to Berson. I think that on a day-to-day basis, were looking for the mix to be ever richer and for Eungie to be convening conversations across the curatorial departments, Berson said. We have lots more gallery space, so theres a lot more room for a lot more curatorial voices. Said Joo, When I saw the museum ... I was so impressed by this particular situation of being able to show a major modern collection alongside temporary exhibitions, which would be modern and contemporary, and what that might do for institutions on the West Coast. Because I did live in the Bay Area for about 10 years, and in Los Angeles for about five. Joos past work positions her well to help the museum expand its contemporary offerings. As curator of education and public programs at the New Museum in New York from 2007 to 2012, she led efforts to create what that institution calls a new model for curatorial practice. The program was a partnership with organizations in South Korea, Mexico, Egypt and the Netherlands. She curated the 2012 New Museum exhibition The Ungovernables, which was notable for its international reach of its roughly 50 artists, only four were born in the United States. Joo, 48, was curator of the 2015 Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates, which presented the work of 50 artists from 25 nations and featured many commissioned new works and performances. She most recently served as artistic director of the 5th Anyang (Korea) Public Art Project, a city-sponsored event for which she commissioned works by 23 Korean and international artists. In 2009, Joo was commissioner of the Korean Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale. She was the founding director and curator of the gallery at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater in Los Angeles, serving from 2003 to 2007. She is a graduate of Vassar College and holds a doctorate from the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicles art critic. Email: cdesmarais@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Artguy1 Memorial: A memorial ceremony, hosted by Alameda for Black Lives, marking the anniversary of the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., that resulted in nine deaths. Participants will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the southwest corner of Webster Street and Atlantic Avenue in Alameda. For information: www.alamedaforblacklives.org. Saturday Nuclear weapons march: Womens March to Ban the Bomb, in support of U.N. negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Demonstrators will meet at 11:30 a.m. at El Camino Real and Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto. For information: wilpf.peninsula.paloalto@gmail.com. In San Francisco, marchers are planning to meet at noon at U.N. Plaza. For information: bln.sf.ca@gmail.com. In San Jose, marchers will meet at 11:30 a.m. at Winchester and Stevens Creek. For information: http://bit.ly/2s6WWpz. Anti-Trump discussion: Hosted by the Freedom Socialist Party, a conversation on countering racism and fascism. The event begins at 2 p.m. A $3 to $5 donation is requested at the door. The event is at New Valencia Hall, 747 Polk St. in San Francisco. For information: (415) 864-1278 or www.socsialism.com. Nuclear weapons film: A screening and discussion of The Nuclear Requiem, on the challenges of controlling nuclear weapons. The free, two-hour event starts at 3:30 p.m. at the Los Altos Public Librarys Orchard Room, 13 S. San Antonio Road. For information: wilpf.peninsula.paloalto@gmail.com. June 21 Refugees event: A community briefing on Helping Refugees Today: What We Need to Know, What We Need to Do, presented by immigration and refugee resettlement professionals. The event is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at St. Marks Lutheran Church, 1111 OFarrell St. in San Francisco. Information: gracecathedral.org/refugees. June 22 Coal film: A free screening of From the Ashes, a National Geographic documentary about coal, followed by a discussion on the environment and climate. The film begins at 7 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley. For information: www.nocoalinoakland.info. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. June 24 Climate change: Hosted by the Older Womens League of California, a discussion and postcard writing to elected representatives to push for climate change support. The event is from 10 a.m. to noon at the Northern Police Station Community Room, 1125 Fillmore St. in San Francisco. For information: info@owlsf.org. July 2 Impeachment march: Nationwide marches will call for President Trumps impeachment. The march in San Francisco begins at 1 p.m. along the Embarcadero and will head to Powell and Market streets. For information: http://bit.ly/2sYoEER. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Maritime archaeologists and the Coast Guard announced the discovery Tuesday of what remains of the celebrated Coast Guard cutter McCulloch, which sank 100 years ago off the Central California coast. The McCulloch was a famous ship in its day. It fired one of the first shots in the battle of Manila Bay in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, and then served on rescue and patrol duties out of San Francisco Bay for 20 years, including service in Alaska and the Bering Sea. Identifying the wreckage of the ship is a great day for the Coast Guard, said Rear Adm. Todd Sokalzuk, commander of the Coast Guards 11th district in Alameda. The story of the McCulloch and its crew over the years is an important part of our heritage and legacy, he said. The ship 219 feet long and steam-powered was the largest revenue cutter of its time, and also one of the fastest. But it sank in 35 minutes on the morning of June 13, 1917, after a collision in fog with the passenger liner Governor off Point Conception near Santa Barbara. Formal identification of the ships wreckage was announced at a news conference at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The tale of the ships career and its abrupt end was part history lesson and part underwater detective story. The McCulloch was built in Philadelphia in 1896 for the Revenue Cutter Service, forerunner of the modern Coast Guard. The ship was assigned to service in the Pacific, but instead of sailing the usual route around the tip of South America, it was sent through the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean to its new station in San Francisco. The Panama Canal had not been built yet. When the McCulloch reached Singapore, it was clear that war between the United States and Spain was in the air. The McCulloch was attached to the Navys Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey. When war broke, Deweys fleet sailed for the Philippines, then under Spanish control, where it surprised and sank a Spanish squadron at Manila Bay. The American victory there helped establish the U.S. as a Pacific power. Though the McCulloch was a revenue cutter essentially a patrol ship it carried guns and fired the first shots at Manila Bay. The McCullochs chief engineer, Frank Randall, was the only American fatality in the battle. Later, the ship sailed into San Francisco, which became its home port. It was assigned to rescue missions, including responding to a major shipwreck off Bolinas, and to patrol duty in remote sections of Alaska and the Bering Sea. When it was not on patrol, the McCulloch was a familiar sight in the bay. Its usual base was riding at anchor just off Sausalito, ready to put to sea on short notice. In June 1917, the cutter was heading back to San Francisco from Los Angeles Harbor when it was sunk in 300 feet of water. The wreckage lay undiscovered on the sea bottom until modern sonar detected a mysterious shipwreck 4 miles off Point Conception. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Not long afterward, marine archaeologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coast Guard mounted an expedition to dive on the wreck. Robert Schwemmer, NOAAs West Coast maritime heritage coordinator, described how scientists used a small remotely operated vehicle to explore the wreckage. Though only a skeleton of the ship remained, Schwemmer used what he called clues part of the ships unique torpedo tube, one of the ships guns and the steering wheel to identify the wreck as the long-lost McCulloch They also tracked down the grave of John Johansson, a McCulloch crew member who was injured in the collision and taken off the ship. He died in a hospital a few days after the accident and was buried with honors at a cemetery in San Pedro, at the edge of Los Angeles harbor. There are no plans to raise the ship. Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf When Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson appears before a judge Wednesday, hell be in the Martinez courtroom not as a prosecutor but as a defendant in a rare proceeding that could end in his removal from office. A finding last month by a civil grand jury that Peterson engaged in misconduct and should be ousted kicked off a proceeding that hasnt been seen against a California county prosecutor in decades, legal experts said. It happens three times in a century, said Stanford law Professor Robert Weisberg. Its very, very rare. The case stems from Petersons admission last year that he routinely used campaign funds for personal expenditures over a four-year period. Under California law, when a judge receives an accusation against a sitting district attorney by a grand jury similar to a vote of impeachment by a legislative body the judge must appoint a prosecutor from another county or in this case, a deputy state attorney general who tries the case in front of a jury. The jury may ultimately decide to oust the district attorney, who can appeal to a higher court. The last time California saw such a proceeding was 1982, when a Shasta County district attorney was removed from office on allegations from a grand jury involving workplace intoxication, but a state appellate court reversed the conviction, researchers at Stanfords law school said. Prior to that, there was a 1918 case of a Trinity County grand jury filing an accusation against that countys district attorney in a corruption case that involved extortion and the larceny of cattle. While proceedings like those against Peterson are exceedingly rare, Weisberg said, its much more common for prosecutors to be disqualified from individual cases because of issues like conflict of interest. The Orange County district attorneys office, for instance, is under investigation by both the state attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice for allegations such as failing to turn over exculpatory evidence and misuse of jailhouse informants. A judge recused the entire district attorneys office from prosecuting the 2011 Seal Beach mass shooting because of the accusations. In Contra Costa County, the vast majority of rank-and-file prosecutors want Peterson gone and took a vote of no confidence against their leader earlier this year. But Peterson has rejected calls to give up his seat, and in April filed paperwork to run for re-election in 2018. Peterson didnt return requests for comment. The accusation leveled against Peterson by the grand jury doesnt constitute a finding of guilt, nor is it a criminal indictment. Investigators with the state attorney generals office have separately launched a criminal investigation and are looking through Petersons personal email account, bank records, calendar and personal electronic devices. An affidavit said the items could show evidence of a felony, such as perjury, embezzlement, fraud and grand theft. Peterson has yet to be formally charged with any crime stemming from the investigation, which began in February. Peterson was first elected in 2010 and re-elected, unopposed, four years later. His questionable behavior was highlighted in a probe by the Fair Political Practices Commission, which found that he used $66,372 from his campaign fund for personal items such as dinners, gas, clothing, movie tickets, hotel rooms and cell phone bills between 2011 and 2015. He also transferred campaign funds to his personal bank account, according to a settlement agreement he made with the commission. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Using campaign funds for nonpolitical activities would typically constitute a misdemeanor under California law. The commission levied a $45,000 fine against Peterson, who said that he viewed the money as a loan and always intended to repay it. Its not the first time scandal and criminal allegations have touched a Contra Costa County prosecutor or Peterson himself. In 2008, a senior deputy district attorney was accused of raping a junior colleague, although the charges were later dropped when the alleged victim refused to testify. Two other deputy district attorneys in the office brawled in 2010 during a heated argument over the election, with one prosecutor supporting Peterson and the other his opponent. And after Peterson won the race, several of his deputies sued him, saying they faced retaliation and workplace discrimination for supporting his rivals campaign. Colleagues say that he has been largely absent from the office in recent weeks. One prosecutor in the office, Paul Graves, has announced his intention to run against Peterson. A Santa Clara County prosecutor, Patrick Vanier, has also waded into the race. Colleen Gleason, vice president of the Contra Costa County District Attorneys Association, said that prosecutors are demoralized and called Petersons presence a black cloud hanging over the office. She said that his transgressions have become an issue defense attorneys regularly raise as evidence of unequal treatment of defendants, who are sometimes charged with far lesser crimes than those alleged against Peterson. We are constantly confronted with the disparity between the consequences of his actions and those of the people we prosecute, Gleason said. We dont want the citizens of our county to think theres a double standard for law enforcement. Not only are we held to the same standard, but as district attorneys we try to hold ourselves to an even higher standard. Thats what we preach to our new attorneys the day they come to our office. This has absolutely impugned that. City College of San Francisco has selected a New Yorker with a doctorate in literature and a masters degree in engineering as the schools first permanent chancellor since 2015, the trustees announced Wednesday. Next week, the trustees expect to vote on a contract for Mark Rocha, an experienced college administrator who has earned accolades from the California Community College Chancellors Office but also received no confidence votes from students and faculty over course cancellations when he was president of Pasadena City College in 2013. Once approved, Rocha, 63, would replace interim Chancellor Susan Lamb, who steered City College through several crises as it struggled to retain its accreditation a five-year effort that ended successfully in January. We are impressed with Dr. Rochas qualifications and experience in higher education, said Thea Selby, president of the Board of Trustees. Throughout the search process, Dr. Rocha consistently received high rankings from our constituency groups, particularly our students. ALSO UC opens probe into interference with state audit Rocha is no stranger to emergencies. For the past three years, he has helped run the New York governors Office of Storm Recovery, a program to repair thousands of homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Thats the same year an accreditation commission cracked down on City College. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges cited a broad range of problems, from poor fiscal controls to convoluted governance, but didnt complain about the quality of instruction. Rocha, who has taught at several community colleges and at Cal State Northridge, where he earned tenure, served as president and superintendent of Pasadena City College, where he won the State Chancellors Award for Student Success in 2012. A year later, however, Rocha was forced to defend his record at Pasadena when students and faculty passed separate votes of no confidence in the president after he canceled the colleges winter quarter. Student leaders cited poor communication with Rocha. At the time, Rocha told a packed meeting of the Board of Trustees that human beings see things through different points of view and proposed a continuing dialogue. Rocha could not be reached for comment. Rocha also served as president of West Los Angeles College in 2006. Raised in the Bronx, Rocha earned his masters degree from Cal State University Fullerton and his doctorate from the University of Southern California. He has written scholarly articles on the playwright August Wilson and taught for a year in Venezuela through a Fulbright Fellowship in 1994. Im for the little guy, Rocha told the trustees in a statement before he was selected. My parents started without anything, but they saw to it I went to college. Although City College survived its near loss of accreditation, and won a seven-year renewal this year, the college still faces difficulties. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Enrollment declined significantly during the accreditation crisis, and with the loss of students came the loss of state revenue. Rocha told City College trustees that he increased enrollment and balanced the budget at both colleges he led Pasadena and West Los Angeles and that he first earned his crisis-management chops in 1994, when the Northridge earthquake destroyed the California State University campus, where he had become associate dean. I was part of a great team effort that reopened the college in 27 days in tents and trailers he said in his statement. City Colleges last permanent chancellor, Art Tyler, who was hired in 2013 to help City College manage its accreditation crisis, lasted less than two years before he was reassigned to run the colleges facilities department. Subsequently, The Chronicle learned that as chancellor, Tyler, who earned an annual salary of $289,284, traveled so often that he was absent from campus for roughly a third of his tenure. He resigned in January 2016. Lamb was named interim chancellor in June 2015, earning a base salary of $265,880. The trustees will vote on Rochas contract next Thursday at their meeting in Room 140 of the Multi-Use Building at 50 Phelan Ave. If approved, Rocha will become chancellor July 1. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov Former cops need not apply, but former inmates are being encouraged by the city of Oakland to apply for slots on the citys new police commission. A notice recently posted on the citys website for would-be commissioners says, Must be an Oakland resident. Must be at least 18 years old. Formerly incarcerated individuals encouraged to apply. Barry Donelan, head of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said recruiting ex-cons to help select the chief and discipline officers for misconduct was extremely distasteful. And what really bugs the cops is that the voter-approved measure creating the commission bars current and former Oakland cops from serving, as well as police union employees. Selection panel member Tal Klement, who works as a deputy public defender in San Francisco, said the ballot measures backers thought it was important to consider ex-cons. He said encouraging former convicts to apply to oversee the police was in keeping with the spirit of Measure LL, the initiative that created the oversight commission. Part of the measure itself said they were looking for people who had experienced police contact, and obviously if you are formally incarcerated, you have experienced police conduct and potential misconduct as well, Klement said. The nine commission members and two alternates will be selected by the mayor and the eight-member civilian selection panel. At least one of the picks must be a retired judge or lawyer with trial experience in criminal law or police misconduct. The deadline for applications is June 30. City Council President Larry Reid said the invitation for former cons to apply was news to him. But he added, Well probably wind up with one. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross Nicole Boliaux/The Chronicle Citing congestion that slows down traffic and poses dangers for emergency vehicles, San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim on Tuesday asked Uber for money to help alleviate the problem. Kim has been raising questions about ride-hailing companies for weeks, saying their vehicles take a heavy toll on a city already plagued by traffic jams. Shes drawn ammunition from a new study by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority that shows that companies like Uber and Lyft make 170,000 trips a day throughout the city 12 times the number made by taxis. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Mike Lefiti was a longtime UPS driver who took pride in his work and was widely respected by his colleagues and adored by his large family, friends and relatives said Wednesday. The 46-year-old Hercules resident was one of three people killed when a shooter opened fire in the UPS distribution center on Potrero Hill in San Francisco at 8:55 a.m., relatives said. The gunman shot and killed himself when confronted by police. At least two other people were injured in the shooting. Their conditions were not known as of Wednesday evening, and other than Lefiti, none of the victims had been identified. Several members of Lefitis family converged on the emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital after learning that he had been shot. When word came around 11:15 a.m. that he had died, one of his sons bolted from the hospital and threw his arms into the air, sobbing. Inside, family members wept and held one another. Lefiti was a good-humored man who was fiercely devoted to his family and friends, said his cousin Bob Toia of San Francisco. He would always give the shirt off his back, Toia said. He was a real dedicated person to his family, to his wife, to his kids. If you needed anything, Mike was there for you. He was always there for you. Lefiti grew up in Daly City, where he graduated from Westmoor High School. Hed worked for UPS for 17 years, most recently covering a route in Diamond Heights. On his Facebook page are photos of him with a plaque celebrating 15 years of service, and another picture of his truck after it got a new paint job. Among his Samoan friends and family, he was affectionately known as Big Mike, and he was indeed a large, jovial man. On Facebook, one friend described him as the most upbeat, positive person she knew; others said he was a man who was always laughing and making everyone else feel at ease. Jessica Irvine, who lives in Diamond Heights, said Lefiti had delivered packages to her house for the last five years or so. He knew everybody in the neighborhood, she said. When he dropped off packages, he would ask about family and friends. And he always seemed to know all the latest gossip and neighborhood news. Youd walk by to go to the drugstore and have a conversation with Mike, Irvine said. He was very, very well-loved by everybody. He was very friendly and helpful and honest. Friends and customers set up a memorial of flowers and notes Wednesday outside the Safeway on Diamond Heights Boulevard where he would park his UPS truck. Throughout the afternoon and evening, dozens of people from the neighborhood stopped by the makeshift shrine, many of them crying as they knelt before photos of Lefiti in his uniform. He was more than their delivery man, neighbors said. He was everybodys big brother, said Fredrick Dionisio, a security guard at the nearby Bank of America, as he wiped away tears. Hes the guy that if youre having a bad day, hell make you laugh. Ronald Bandar said Big Mike would always honk when he spotted Bandar power-walking down the street. The two would sometimes eat lunch in Lefitis truck, and Bandar learned that Lefiti was a fan of Kim Kardashian so he recently bought him a book of her selfies as a present. He didnt have any enemies in the world, Bandar said. Toia said he last saw his cousin at their nieces high school graduation party last week. It was the typical big family event, and, as usual, Lefiti was the life of the party, Toia said. We really had a good time, Toia said. He was always laughing, making jokes. Hes like the family clown, in a good way. Toia, who works for Muni, said he raced from his job to the hospital when his brother called to tell him Lefiti had been shot. Its like a bad dream, Toia said. He was one of the good ones. He always lived his life right. Chronicle staff writer Michael Bodley contributed to this report. Sarah Ravani, Evan Sernoffsky and Erin Allday are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com and eallday@sfchronicle.com A 34-year-old man accused of shooting more than half a dozen rounds at a concrete statue in a San Leandro Catholic church was charged Tuesday, authorities said. Eric Mullen of San Leandro was charged with vandalizing religious property, discharging a firearm with gross negligence, being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and resisting arrest. Mullen was held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin under $250,000 bail, jail records show. Mullen showed up at St. Felicitas church in the 1600 block of Manor Boulevard Saturday afternoon, according to the San Leandro Police Department. It was not immediately clear where exactly on the church property the statue is located, but a witness told police he saw smoke coming from the area and a man, later identified as Mullen, leaving. Officers said they tried to detain Mullen, but he did not cooperate, adding that at one point, Mullen reached for the gun tucked into his waistband. He was arrested after a struggle. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. At least seven bullets were fired at the church statue, and at least two rounds ricocheted into the building, police said. No one was injured. Investigators said they werent sure of a motive. Though police initially investigated the matter as a possible hate crime, they said they dropped that possibility after finding a lack of evidence to support it. Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For more than three months, Daniel McHugh has been carrying around a $234 financial burden in the form of a ticket he got for eating a piece of pizza at a San Francisco bus stop. But relief came Tuesday when the police officer who dinged the 64-year-old formerly homeless man was a no-show in court. A San Francisco Superior Court judge had no choice but to dismissed McHughs case, ending the widely publicized matter, which outraged advocates for the citys homeless. Im very, very grateful this is over, McHugh said after sitting through more than 40 other cases for an hour in the traffic court. ALSO Man cited for eating pizza at SF bus stop The episode happened March 5 when McHugh bought a female friend a simple but thoughtful birthday present: a slice of sausage, pepperoni and pineapple pizza from Chicos Pizza at Sixth and Market streets. His friend, he said, is from Hawaii and insisted on the pineapple. Little things mean the most, he said. When you have a birthday its important especially when youre homeless. The two were enjoying their pizza with some other people at a bus stop near Seventh and Market when, he said, San Francisco police officers approached them. His buddies scattered, but thinking nothing was awry, McHugh said he stayed to finish eating his pizza. The officer ran a background check, found no warrants and cited me for eating pizza, McHugh said Tuesday. I have nothing against him personally, but it was embarrassing. The offense was described on his citation as eating in the shelter. Rather than shell out the cash for the ticket which he didnt have McHugh decided to fight the infraction in court. And he wasnt alone: Dozens of advocates from San Franciscos Coalition on Homelessness showed up Tuesday to support him. Police are sending a signal that you are not allowed to be homeless in San Francisco, Bilal Ali said outside the courthouse, while fellow advocates for the homeless held signs and ate pizza in solidarity with McHugh. Were here today sending a signal that were not going to stand for that. With the help of advocates, McHugh, a former cab driver, has since receiving the ticket moved into a studio apartment on Eddy Street in the Tenderloin. He had a speech prepared Tuesday, but when the judge told him his case was dismissed, he kept it short. Go, Warriors, he said. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson resigned Wednesday in a plea deal cut on the same day state Attorney General Xavier Becerras office filed 13 felony charges against him in connection with his admitted use of $66,000 in campaign funds for personal expenditures. Hours after filing the criminal case, state prosecutors appeared in a Martinez courtroom and agreed to drop 12 of the charges in exchange for Petersons resignation and his agreement to plead no contest to one count of perjury for making false statements on state campaign disclosure forms. During the hearing, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Theresa Canepa found him guilty of the single felony and ordered him to perform 250 hours of community service and serve three years of probation. As part of the plea bargain, Peterson cannot run for public office during those years and must be booked in a county jail before the weekend. The actions brought a remarkably swift conclusion to a rare criminal case filed by state prosecutors against an elected county district attorney. Peterson was serving his second term in office and was seeking a third term when state prosecutors revealed last week that they were in the midst of a criminal investigation related to his campaign funds. Investigators served a search warrant at his office, and an affidavit showed they were seeking personal email, bank records, calendars and personal electronic devices that might contain evidence that Peterson engaged in perjury, embezzlement, fraud or grand theft. At the Martinez courthouse Wednesday, Petersons defense attorney, Ted Cassman, likened the case to a Shakespearean tragedy. Peterson may now be barred from practicing law. A felony conviction would be grounds for State Bar discipline, Laura Ernde, a State Bar spokeswoman, said in an email. If the offense involves moral turpitude that would mean summary disbarment after the conviction is final. Otherwise, the State Bar Court would look at the circumstances and recommend discipline up to and including disbarment. The state attorney generals office opened its criminal investigation after the state Fair Political Practices Commission fined Peterson $45,000 in December for using his political account to pay for non-campaign related expenses, including meals, gas, clothes, movie tickets, hotels and phone bills. State law requires that campaign funds be used for a political, legislative or governmental purpose. The campaign watchdog found Peterson made approximately 600 personal expenditures from his campaign account, including transferring money into his personal bank account. Peterson told commission investigators that he considered the money a loan and intended to pay it back. Commissioners opened their probe into Peterson after the district attorney notified them that he had improperly used his campaign account and was paying back the funds. Peterson disclosed the information to the commission after he was notified by the state Franchise Tax Board in October 2015 that his political account had been selected for a routine audit. He was first elected in 2010 then re-elected, unopposed, four years later. Its his 2014 campaign account for which he is charged with siphoning more than $66,000 for his personal use between 2011 and 2015, according to the criminal complaint. Last month, a Contra Costa County grand jury filed a formal accusation against Peterson related to his campaign-fund expenditures. The grand jury recommended that Peterson be removed from office. Those civil proceedings were dropped Wednesday, too, as part of the plea deal. Melody Gutierrez and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez, @KVeklerov The latest approach to tackling the teacher housing shortage takes a page from the world of Silicon Valley startups: investors. Landed, a Silicon Valley startup itself, gathers investors to help educators pay up to half of the down payment on a home. In exchange, the educators must sell or refinance the home within 30 years and give the investor up to a quarter of the homes appreciation. If the home goes down in value, the investors would absorb up to a quarter of the loss. At least 60 teachers in three San Mateo County school districts where home prices have soared and school salaries have not could benefit from the arrangement. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, physician Priscilla Chan, said Wednesday that it will invest $5 million in the venture. The teachers must work in the Redwood City, Ravenswood or Sequoia Union High districts to qualify. We hope this kind of down-payment support will help to make it a little easier for great educators to stay and build successful careers in the region, Jonathan Asmis, Landeds chief executive, said in a statement. In East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, where children attend the Ravenswood City School District, many teachers commute from the more affordable towns of Antioch, Tracy and even Manteca (San Joaquin County) 70 miles away said Ronda White, president of the Ravenswood Teachers Association. White, a reading teacher, said she is pleased that companies are considering how to help solve the problem. But shes skeptical. After 20 years, teachers in her district earn roughly $80,000, White said, while newcomers earn about $50,000. Meanwhile, the cheapest home in East Palo Alto is about $700,000, she said. Im just thinking out loud, she said. But where would this teacher get $100,000 for half the down payment? Company officials say their system does work. Since February, when Landed began using private investors to help pay down payments, they said an Oakland kindergarten teacher was able to buy a home 10 minutes from school, and dozens of others are in the process. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov Responding to the death of actor Adam West, famous for his portrayal of Batman in the 1960s TV series, Brian Copeland describes his 1980 encounter with West. Copeland was 15, writing for a weekly San Leandro paper, the Observer. A huge Batman fan, he tracked down Wests publicist and told him he was a high school kid looking for an interview. West himself called young Copeland, and much to the teenagers surprise, invited him his home in Hollywood. Copeland and his best friend a fellow fan of West managed to raise enough money and get parental permission for them to fly to Southern California. When their plane landed, the boys went directly to Wests house in Pacific Palisades. I laugh like hell every time I think of the looks on their faces opening the door of their multimillion-dollar house to see two teenagers on their porch with suitcases. West showed the boys around and signed autographs. He also told the boys that he wanted to ask them for a favor: Would they go to New York where Warner Bros. was going to announce a Batman feature film and disrupt the news conference by shouting, What about Adam West? and If Adam West isnt Batman, Im not going. If this succeeded, he told them, they might even get parts in the movie. After an hours visit, West drove them to the Greyhound station and the boys took the bus home. Over the next few weeks, the two talked a few times, but Copeland couldnt figure out how to tell him that I wasnt going cross country for him on my money that I didnt even have. That became irrelevant when plans for that movie were killed. Copeland never got his interview. P.S. In Glenn Lovells interview with West, on CinemaDope.com, the actor said he felt a little left out when Tim Burtons Batman movie eventually came out in 1989, but that lasted about 10 minutes. The new version was too dark and sinister, he said. They really need me. ... They need Uncle Batman. San Franciscos nonprofit Circus Bella has been chosen to be one of 15 circuses to perform on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during a Smithsonian festival this month. The one-ring circus was founded by Abigail Munn in 2008, and stands on the shoulders of its pioneering predecessors, the Pickle Family Circus and Make*A*Circus, according to its website, continuing: The company showcases static trapeze, foot juggling, contortion, hula hoop, original clowning and more. I know of no politicians who do hula hoop Nancy, Dianne, Kamala, where are you? but the other skills already abound in Washington. Roger Waters, who performed at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on Saturday, June 10, had dinner a few nights before at Boulevard. And Lupita Nyongo dined there on Sunday, June 11 (and didnt watch the Tonys, I guess). J.A.s monthly In Memoriam tribute, published in the Life Tributes section on Sunday, was to Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress, a pacifist whose vote was the only one against the United States entering World War II. To honor Rankin and trailblazers everywhere, said the notice, Be brave. Stay strong. Live your values. Cake was being served when we arrived, in the middle of Saturdays 10th anniversary celebration of the Switchboard Music Festival. The festivals series of performances started at 3 p.m. and went on, with seven performing ensembles, until 9:30 p.m. or so. There were ensembles of reeds, percussion and even a performance piece by Ryan Brown, a choral/spoken/instrumental interpretation of surgeon Richard Selzers book Mortal Lessons. All the while, new music fans came and went. In the lobby, Dennis Aman was inviting attendees to play three of his hand-built megalyras, floor-standing stringed instruments that made sound when the strings were rubbed by squeegee-shaped metal paddles. Hed built the instruments for his Living Earth Show, which also featured his Jell-O-phone, which is played by striking Jell-O-filled keys that light up and produce sound. Then we went inside to hear the quintet Splinter Reeds. For those of you not familiar with Aaron Noviks music, said festival co-founder Jeff Anderle, member of the quintet introducing a piece called Bobu Rexazobe, he likes to get his titles from the names of your spam email accounts. Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik Public Eavesdropping Its not like Im taking a bottle of Sutter Home into the French Laundry. Dennis Learys bars dont always seem to belong in San Francisco. Theyre not fancy enough. They dont have sufficiently elaborate concepts. The drinks dont have enough ingredients. Their hours can be weird. The chef first got into bars in 2010 when he took over the House of Shields, while he was still operating his restaurant Canteen. That historic bar, built in 1912, found its savior in Leary: someone who would give the bar a much-needed dusting off but leave its history intact. House of Shields today is successful in part because it doesnt fetishize its legacy status; it just exists, as it always has, famously lacking TVs and clocks, attracting the same diverse swath of young and old, cool and uncool, that has flocked there for decades. Then, in 2013, Leary closed Canteen and largely stopped cooking. Subsequently, with the help of partner Eric Passetti, he became a bar imperialist, opening four more bars in as many years: Rx (formerly Trocadero), Natoma Cabana, Cafe Terminus and the latest, open since March Tequila Mockingbird. (Learys culinary sensibilities remain alive in his downtown sandwich shops, Golden West and the Sentinel. And he confirms that he will be picking up his knives again this fall; more about that in the coming months.) John Storey/Special to the Chronicle Tequila Mockingbird: Its the kind of cutesy name you might expect from a Tex-Mex restaurant catering to college students on spring break. (For that matter, so does Natoma Cabana.) But Leary doesnt do cutesy. He insists the name contains no meaningful literary allusion. The appeal, rather, is in the phrases familiarity call it a low-budget PR strategy. Everyone read this book in high school, he says, so the groundwork has been done already, to some extent. True to Leary-bar form, Tequila Mockingbird is low-key, casual, uncomplicated. A utility bar: not a destination but not a dive, either. Still, you cant say its theme-less, since every drink is agave-based, and the interior decor realizes an agave-centric vision. For example: The five large mirrors behind the bar represent the five suns in the Aztec creation myth, Leary says. And hes pretty sure the Aztecs invented Tequila. The wall opposite the bar has been fashioned to look like the exterior of an old house, the sort that might have appeared in a John Ford film, composed of materials salvaged from an East Bay mansion. Leary and Passetti designed and built the entire interior themselves, sourcing much of it from Urban Ore in Berkeley and an antiques dealer in Los Angeles who, Leary notes, incidentally used to be the personal assistant to Mary J. Blige. That door to nowhere, the Aztec mirrors, a neon-lit upstairs lounge whose fixtures came from an adult-video store in Los Angeles, the rodeo-style stars it doesnt totally coalesce, and thats by design. We wanted to make something that felt like a departure from the standard San Francisco vernacular, Leary says. No blond wood, no concrete, no overly serious bartenders. It can feel, sometimes, as if Leary is playing a trick on us: tempting us to guess about what everything means whats the intersection of Atticus Finch and Quetzalcoatl? when, in the end, its all pretty much signifying nothing. John Storey/Special to the Chronicle Anyway, the drinks are good simple, mostly three-ingredient compositions that riff on familiar Tequila and mescal combinations. (All cocktails are $12.) The bars namesake drink is an updated Tequila Sunrise, with Curacao for orange juice and grapefruit for Grenadine. It has tried-and-true elements of a Paloma (Tequila + grapefruit) and a Tequila shot (Tequila + lime). Foolproof. The Eighty Sixed cocktail pairs mescal with prickly pear brandy and tastes spicy and herbal, pierced by mintiness, its acid balanced by a fruitiness that doesnt taste sweet. To love it, however, you must love mescal. And the menu meets its sweet-pink-drink quota with the Brutus (Blanco Tequila, maraschino liqueur, amaro, passion fruit), where Tequila fades into the backdrop of bright tropical fruit. Its the sweetest drink on the menu and shows that Leary and Passetti know their audience, the SoMa after-work crowd. As a bar reviewer, Im all too versed in (and tired of) the tendency of San Francisco bars to over-engineer themselves to impose a concept, a story, a set of values on a bar before it ever opens its doors. Learys bars opt out of that. You cant stage-manage these endeavors too carefully, he says. A place tends to take on an organic life of its own, driven by the crowd itself. Thats certainly true of Natoma Cabana, which Leary never could have predicted would turn into the tech-bro haven it has become. (On a recent weekday afternoon, I arrived to find a large group of twentysomething co-eds engaged in a beer shotgunning contest.) We dont understand Natoma at all, Leary says. Its customers have invented a nickname for it, inspired by its neon sign: the Green Arrow. Leary doesnt even try to interfere. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Noninterference is a lesson he would have learned with House of Shields, which has been around far too long for its personality to be controlled by any modern-day proprietor. Leary sits back and lets the bar happen. And business is good. Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob John Storey/Special to the Chronicle To order: Tequila Mockingbird ($12), Eighty Sixed ($12) Where: Tequila Mockingbird, 86 Second St., S.F. (415) 797-9262 www.tequilamockingbar.com When: Monday-Friday 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday from 5 p.m. Closed Sunday. The aisles of brightly wrapped cigarillos and e-cigarettes crowding the shelves of corner stores around the city could soon disappear, angering the small business owners who stock the goods. San Francisco officials are looking at a ban on flavored tobacco products, ranging from cherry cigarillos and blueberry blunt wraps to menthol cigarettes, e-cigarettes, hookahs and smokeless tobacco. Berkeley recently passed a similar law. The proposed ban is the latest in a string of restrictions on tobacco products, including a $2-per-pack tax that went into effect in the state in April. The legislation was introduced last month, and it will go to the Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee on Wednesday. City officials say flavored tobacco products target vulnerable populations like African Americans and teenagers. Flavored tobacco hooks new smokers and makes them lifelong users, said Supervisor Malia Cohen, who is sponsoring the legislation. At an April news conference to announce the proposal on the steps of City Hall, supporters holding poster boards with tiny drawings of tobacco products and slogans like flavored poison, not so sweet and no mas flocked around Cohen, who represents the Bayview and Hunters Point. She said her grandmother smoked menthol cigarettes for years and died of emphysema. For too many years, the tobacco industry has gotten a pass as it selectively targets our communities with products that have been deceptively associated with fruits, mints and candy, Cohen said, tearing up. Big tobacco loves vulnerable populations. They advertise 10 times more in black neighborhoods, and market gummy bears and cotton candy flavors near schools and in the LGBT community. ... Its done with intent and malice. Mayor Ed Lee said he would sign the legislation into law if it reached his desk, following in the steps of Santa Clara County, which banned the products in October, and Berkeley and Chicago, which banned sales around schools. Oakland is considering a similar measure. The use of tobacco costs the city $380 million annually in lost productivity and health care expenses, he said. Addiction: This is a really bad word, it really is, its addiction to tobacco products, he said. Thats why they flavor it. Theyre getting to the kids. Theyre trying to get vulnerable populations hooked. Its not one cigarette, like try something out. Its being hooked that brings in the profit. Officials from the California Department of Public Health say about 3.1 million Californians smoke. An estimated 34,000 of those die from the habit annually. Currently, federal laws ban the sale of flavored cigarettes, but there are no limitations on menthol or flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes. Under Cohens legislation, possessing flavored tobacco would not be illegal only its sale by local retailers. But small business owners have pushed back, claiming they are being unduly affected by taxes and fees. The tobacco products sold on their shelves help fill their retirement accounts and college savings accounts for their children, they say. Miriam Zouzounis, a board member of the Arab American Grocers Association whose father owns a small corner store, said the community was tired of the fees. She ticked some of them off: state Proposition 56, which added $2 to the 87-cent tax for the sale of each pack of cigarettes, a 60-cent Public Works cigarette litter abatement fee for street cleaning, and an annual tobacco retailer license of $220. Those tobacco products arent 100 percent of our revenue, but they are an anchor product, she said. Even at 15 percent of our stock, its what brings people through the door. We cant compete with Safeway or Walgreens for food and milk items, let alone the online retailers filling the gap for everything else. She said that the corner stores give back to the community and arent trying to corrupt them, like Cohen says. A lot of the preamble to this legislation is how flavored tobacco targets youth, Zouzounis said. Thats not what we are trying to do. We have been a good partner to the city. We just feel like they arent returning the favor. At Liquor & Deli on Union Square, owner Shakib Kaileh, 65, sells things like Gatorade, Marlboro products and toilet paper, menthol cigarettes and sweet shisha tobacco for water pipes. Kaileh moved to San Francisco from Palestine 30 years ago and opened the corner shop soon after. He said the proposed law felt unfair, and that banning flavored tobacco only near schools would be more appropriate. As small businesses, we feel targeted, Kaileh said. Its becoming harder for us to survive, especially with rent and overhead going up. We dont see this as the right way for the city to implement or enforce a law like this. People could easily just get the products online or from neighboring cities, or it will create a black market. The brightly colored products would stay on the shelf just inside his shops front doors, he said for now, at least. Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate It might seem unusual that the multi-platform artist Jared Lees latest album, under his stage name Duckwrth, is titled Im Uugly. But then again, the Los Angeles-bred, Bay Area-repping musician rarely plays to predictable convention. For one, in spite of his electrifying artistic persona, Lee is initially soft-spoken and shyly terse as he calls from Los Angeles in advance of his show at the Phono del Sol Music and Food Festival on Saturday, June 17. But it doesnt take much coaxing before the 28-year-old is tripping excitedly over his own stories and philosophies, including the concept behind the albums name a statement of positive acknowledgment by flipping the ugly label on its head and the meaning behind his albums standout single, Im Dead. The track is a hip-swaying, poppy dance song that bursts from the already vibrant collection of infectious hip-hop and funk fusion that is Im Uugly. In my life, death is a big thing, he says. Im always dying because Im a chameleon. I get bored. Im a creature of stimulation. If something just doesnt stimulate me anymore, then I find the next stimulation. I re-create something and Im always kind of re-creating myself. Im Dead also alludes to the mind-set of being dead to the surrounding negativity as an up-and-coming artist. With its catchy and energetic notions of shape-shifting rebirth, it serves as a theme song for Duckwrth and Lees assorted artistry. Before his handful of mixtapes and albums, Lee first came to San Francisco in 2006 to study graphic design at Academy of Art University, where he spent four years before dropping out to make music and art in the city. The art for Im Uugly all came from his own hand. To promote an upcoming single as Duckwrth, he recently dropped BOY, a mini clothing line that plays with and encourages a gender-nonconforming approach to fashion. In short, Lee pays little attention to the delineations of artistic modes. For me, my main drive is music, he says. And then everything else that I do, it makes the music look bigger. Its an attitude appropriately suited to San Francisco, which Lee adores for its fluidity (and) the openness to create anything with no judgment. Lee, who now lives in Los Angeles but regularly travels back to Oakland and San Francisco, even released a song in 2014 titled Bernal Heights. As for the hip-hop distinction, hes apathetic. Hip-hop is literally just like a jambalaya mixing so many things together to make it what it is, he says. So its like, for me, I do associate with hip-hop because I associate with the whole jambalaya concept of it. But I cant even consider myself a hip-hop artist because if I were to do that, then the hip-hop fans would be disappointed by me. Indeed, Lees persona as Duckwrth bucks against traditional conceptions of a rapper. His funkier take on hip-hop noticeably shies from the brasher trap beats currently dominating the genre, and his entire artistic identity a skateboarding, sometimes skirt-wearing freestyler is rooted in a carefree lifestyle. It makes sense that Lee lists OutKast as a primary inspiration for his music. The legendary rap duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi, he says, made him feel comfortable being an eclectic black man as he grew into Duckwrth. Ironically, while Lee was raised in South Central during the heyday of West Coast hip-hop, he wasnt introduced to the genre until later in life. With gang-related activity all around, his mother deemed hip-hop a bad influence. My mom opened me up to everything except for hip-hop, he says. I have an affinity for just universal, worldly music. Ive never related to one sound. ... When she played classical music to me when I was younger, it kind of opened my mind up to bigger sounds in general. Lees next album as Duckwrth, which he hopes to release later this year, will incorporate this larger scope, with more live instrumentation, he says. The upcoming record might be the one that gives Duckwrth, who opened for hip-hop star Anderson .Paak during his 2016 tour, the larger recognition that seems long overdue. I definitely want to break boundaries. Id be lying if I said I didnt, he says. But I dont sit there trying to break boundaries. I just do what feels right. Brandon Yu is a Chronicle staff writer. Email: byu@sfchronicle.com Phono del Sol Music and Food Festival: Duckwrth performs at 3:30 p.m. Festival runs noon-7 p.m. Saturday, June 17. $15-$60. Potrero del Sol Park, 2827 Cesar Chavez St., S.F. www.phonodelsol.com To see the music video for Duckwrths Im Dead: https://youtu.be/vV71CEm-svU After a night of dancing at a nightclub in Suisun City, Vallejo resident Alicia Saddler was walking to her car when a man approached her. It was just before the clubs 2 a.m. closing time on May 28 when Saddler, 27, was stopped in the parking lot of Ovation Ultra Lounge. The man identified himself as a new Vallejo police officer, but he wasnt wearing a police uniform, Saddler recalled. Then he delivered a chilling message about her brother, Angel Ramos, who was shot and killed by Vallejo police in the early morning hours of Jan. 23 at the home he shared with his family. The man, Saddler said, told her that he knew what her family was trying to do, and that she had better stop. It was clear to Saddler that this was no friendly warning. It was a threat. While its not certain whether the man works for the Vallejo Police Department, he was certainly aware of who Saddler was and what her family is preparing to do: file a civil rights lawsuit against the Vallejo Police Department that alleges excessive force and wrongful death. Melissa Nold, who works in the law offices of John Burris, a well-known civil rights attorney who is representing the Ramos family, told me the family will file a harassment complaint this week. Once you identify yourself as an officer, youre acting in the capacity of an officer, Nold said. But there would be absolutely no cause whatsoever to accost somebody in a public place while off duty and mention anything. But get this: It wont be the first time that Ramos family complains to the Vallejo Police Department about harassment by officers since Ramos died. According to Saddler and Annice Evans, Ramos mother, Vallejo police officers have repeatedly shined spotlights into the windows of their Sacramento Street house. Saddler said police have also parked in front of the house to flash emergency lights and blare sirens. Saddler told me she met with Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou in an attempt to get officers to stop intimidating her family. I told the chief, Can you tell your officers to please stop coming and shining their light in our house? Stop stopping in front of our house pointing and laughing, Saddler recalled telling Bidou. The harassment continued even after that meeting, Saddler said. Could the Vallejo Police Department be so brazen that it allows officers to retaliate against residents who complain about police conduct? A spokesman for Vallejo police said the department thoroughly investigates allegations of misconduct. Lt. Kenny Park said in an email that the department hasnt received a formal complaint from the Ramos family. VPD has not received any retribution complaints from any member of the public after incidents involving Vallejo police officers in the last two years, Park wrote. Still, all you have to do is ask around Vallejo and youll find people who say theyve encountered vengeful cops. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Theres the family of Mario Romero, a black man who was struck 30 times by bullets fired by Vallejo officers in 2012 as he sat in his car in front of a sisters home. The intimidating behavior they said they experienced from police officers included traffic stops and also officers shining lights into their homes. The family complained to the Police Department about the problems and eventually settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the department for an undisclosed amount. Another Vallejo resident, who will be featured in a future column, shared with me that after filing a complaint about how he was treated by an officer during a dispute at a gas station, a police cruiser was then parked outside of his subdivision. Every morning for a week, the cruiser tailed his car as he drove to work. Its really troubling that Vallejo residents fear that complaining to the police about the police will result in retaliation. Whats more troubling is there has been no public pressure to scrutinize the department in light of some of the recent troubling use-of-force incidents. Vallejo officials need to start listening to what some of the citys residents have been saying for years: Vallejo police are unnecessarily aggressive, especially toward black and brown people. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr Theres no sugarcoating it: The California Board of Equalization has had some problems. But, the answer to solving these problems doesnt begin with extreme legislation that strips Californians of their right to bring tax appeals before their elected peers. Yes, an audit report by the state Department of Finance highlighted some issues related to board member and agency practices. And the media have pumped out many stories about the misallocation of taxpayer funds and individual board members stretching the limits of their authority. But the proposed drastic changes to the agency go far beyond these issues, nearly all of which have been addressed and corrected by the board. Creating two new costly bureaucracies the Department of Tax and Fee Administration and the Office of Tax Appeals that would add to the already imposing power of monolithic state government is an overreach and wildly irresponsible of legislative leaders. The professional experience of our current board consists of a certified public accountant, a small-business banker and a former auditor, all of whom understand how complicated taxes are in California. Do we really want to blow up the board and exchange that real-world experience with DMV-type levels of bureaucracy and unelected administrative law judges? Most taxpayers would say no. This last-minute budget power grab also reeks of the type of politics that led to voter approval of transparency laws that force bills to be in writing for at least 72 hours before passage. If lawmakers think this bill is such a good idea, then why jam it through without first hearing from impacted families and business owners? Changes of this magnitude should not be rushed through, bypassing the deliberative budget process. Instead they should go through the normal policymaking process to allow public input. The proposal also completely ignores the many elected board members who have used this platform for good by giving taxpayers a voice against state government abuses and ensuring the states interests are protected from tax cheats. Alone, the Board of Equalization handles 39 tax and fee programs. Just last year, the public approved Proposition 64, entrusting the board with collecting new taxes on marijuana. During debate and discussion on the legalization of recreational marijuana, I dont recall there being much protest over giving the board this responsibility. And for good reason. The boards latest annual report shows that it collected $64.3 billion nearly 30 percent of all state revenue for the fiscal year and did so efficiently and effectively. Total costs for all operations were $601.5 million. Missing from the audit is any hint that the board has failed at its core mission of serving taxpayers. Compared with other government agencies, the board excels at being accessible to the public, resolving taxpayer disputes and providing good customer service. Simply, the board is here to serve taxpayers, resolve constituent concerns, and protect the interests of the state. The agency has had its share of issues, but despite the brouhaha, theyre really not outside the norm of what other government agencies experience. Cooler heads should prevail. Former state Sen. George Runner, a Republican from Lancaster (Los Angeles County), is vice chairman of the state Board of Equalization. The state Board of Equalization is the most powerful tax agency you never knew existed. Overseen by five elected officials and staffed by more than 4,700 employees, it collects more than 30 taxes and fees ranging from hazardous waste fees to sales taxes to property taxes totaling $64.3 billion annually. Its board members also serve as a judicial panel for tax appeals. Unfortunately, the board has struggled to juggle its conflicting roles of tax collector, taxpayer advocate and tax dispute judge. Recent legislative hearings, reports and audits show the board cannot perform all these roles well. Reform is urgently needed to ensure state tax dollars are legitimately collected and distributed. Dysfunction abounds at the agency. Board members blame one another and staff live in fear for their jobs. For example, board members undermine basic principles of fairness by intervening in tax assessments, collections, audits and investigations. Board of Equalization executive staff are unable or unwilling to provide basic fiscal information and often make unsound fiscal requests. This year, the board requested additional positions, despite having more than 600 vacant positions. Additionally, board members have redirected civil service employees from performing revenue-generating activities and spent millions on public relations not related to their work. Under the current system, taxpayers lose. They often wait years to get a tax appeal heard. Enough is enough. Over the last few decades, numerous attempts at reforming the board have failed, faced intense opposition from previous board members, and the problems continue to get worse. After watching the board fail to effectively self-govern and fix its own problems, the Legislature and the governor have proposed systemic and comprehensive reform the Taxpayer Transparency and Fairness Act, which faces a vote in the Legislature Thursday. The act has three main components, all of which have been debated for years. First, the boards elected members will be stripped of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the agency, allowing the board members to refocus on the job the voters elected them to do reviewing, equalizing and adjusting property tax assessments. Second, tax appeal cases will be transferred from elected board members to independent judges with expertise in tax law. With this change, California conforms to standard practice in every other state. It will ensure tax decisions are made in a transparent and timely fashion while treating all taxpayers the same, no matter the extent of their political connections. Third, the board will no longer assess a range of taxes and fees. A new agency, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, will be created. This will ensure California assesses and collects taxes free of political interference, while providing the states civil service employees with a work environment free from the fear of retaliation. These reforms are long overdue to protect basic taxpayer rights. Taxes are not credible if they are not equal. If taxes are not fair, then they cannot be just. Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, is chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. He previously served as the assessor recorder for San Francisco. Multiple mysteries keep Cardinal flying on Hulu Four stars out of five: Cardinal, mystery series, complete first season available on Friday, June 16, on Hulu San FranciscoIts easy to see why mystery fans are attracted to John Cardinal, the taciturn Canadian detective featured in the series of books by Giles Blunt. Like the richly flawed misfits created by Jo Nesbo and Henning Mankell, Cardinal has his inner demons. Billy Campbell plays the title role in Cardinal, a six-part, Canadian import premiering on Hulu on Friday, June 16. As with any competently adapted mystery, its about far more than solving the crime. We get hints of a back story as Cardinal, a rogue member of the Algonquin Bay, Canada, police force, is called back to action after the body of a missing child is found, encased in ice. His boss, Noelle Dyson (Kristen Thomson), has reservations about putting him on the case, which at first appear to be the reason shes paired him with Det. Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse), whose background is in financial investigations. Soon, the body of another victim is found, convincing Cardinal that they are dealing with an especially brutal serial killer. Or, as it turns out, two of them, and we actually meet them early on. While many crime stories try to keep you guessing to the end about whodunnit, the relatively early revelation doesnt kneecap Cardinals effectiveness. One reason is that the killers have captured a new victim (Robert Naylor), but are only torturing him so far. Can Cardinal and Delorme get to him in time to save his life? We care, of course, but the story is as much about character as it is about the mystery. We want to know what Lises real purpose is in moving to the homicide division, we want to know what John Cardinal is up to when he has clandestine meetings with a local no-account, and we want to know where Johns wife (Deborah Hay) is and why. Screenwriter Aubrey Nealon is masterfully stingy with the script, carefully doling out information about Cardinal and other characters in very small but tantalizing doses. The performances are quite good, although Campbell speaks all of his lines is a somewhat loud whisper. It feels at times like an affectation, but otherwise, he invests the right about of credible angst to make the character compelling. A few of the ancillary stories feel forced, including the status of Lises marriage to Josh (Alden Adair). Theyre trying to have a baby, but shes more focused on work and secretly takes birth control pills, which Josh discovers and the discovery of course leads him to suspect shes having an affair with Cardinal. Its overplayed and feels a little desperate. In the end, it doesnt add much to either Lises character or the show. Yet, the minor missteps are forgiven in the miniseries richly satisfying finale. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV Joe Lederer/Associated Press A Fresno man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly uploading a copy of the Marvel action flick, "Deadpool" to Facebook, shortly after its theatrical release in 2016. Trevon Maurice Franklin, 21, was taken into custody by federal agencies for reportedly illegally uploading a copy of the 20th Century Fox film. This led to over 5 million viewers watching the movie for free just eight days after the film premiered, the Los Angeles Times reported. City College of San Francisco has selected a New Yorker with a doctorate in literature and a masters degree in engineering as the schools first permanent chancellor since 2015, the trustees announced Wednesday. Next week, the trustees expect to vote on a contract for Mark Rocha, an experienced college administrator who has earned accolades from the California Community College Chancellors Office but also received no confidence votes from students and faculty over course cancellations when he was president of Pasadena City College in 2013. Once approved, Rocha, 63, would replace interim Chancellor Susan Lamb, who steered City College through several crises as it struggled to retain its accreditation a five-year effort that ended successfully in January. We are impressed with Dr. Rochas qualifications and experience in higher education, said Thea Selby, president of the Board of Trustees. Throughout the search process, Dr. Rocha consistently received high rankings from our constituency groups, particularly our students. ALSO UC opens probe into interference with state audit Rocha is no stranger to emergencies. For the past three years, he has helped run the New York governors Office of Storm Recovery, a program to repair thousands of homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Thats the same year an accreditation commission cracked down on City College. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges cited a broad range of problems, from poor fiscal controls to convoluted governance, but didnt complain about the quality of instruction. Rocha, who has taught at several community colleges and at Cal State Northridge, where he earned tenure, served as president and superintendent of Pasadena City College, where he won the State Chancellors Award for Student Success in 2012. A year later, however, Rocha was forced to defend his record at Pasadena when students and faculty passed separate votes of no confidence in the president after he canceled the colleges winter quarter. Student leaders cited poor communication with Rocha. At the time, Rocha told a packed meeting of the Board of Trustees that human beings see things through different points of view and proposed a continuing dialogue. Rocha could not be reached for comment. Rocha also served as president of West Los Angeles College in 2006. Raised in the Bronx, Rocha earned his masters degree from Cal State University Fullerton and his doctorate from the University of Southern California. He has written scholarly articles on the playwright August Wilson and taught for a year in Venezuela through a Fulbright Fellowship in 1994. Im for the little guy, Rocha told the trustees in a statement before he was selected. My parents started without anything, but they saw to it I went to college. Although City College survived its near loss of accreditation, and won a seven-year renewal this year, the college still faces difficulties. Enrollment declined significantly during the accreditation crisis, and with the loss of students came the loss of state revenue. Rocha told City College trustees that he increased enrollment and balanced the budget at both colleges he led Pasadena and West Los Angeles and that he first earned his crisis-management chops in 1994, when the Northridge earthquake destroyed the California State University campus, where he had become associate dean. I was part of a great team effort that reopened the college in 27 days in tents and trailers he said in his statement. City Colleges last permanent chancellor, Art Tyler, who was hired in 2013 to help City College manage its accreditation crisis, lasted less than two years before he was reassigned to run the colleges facilities department. Subsequently, The Chronicle learned that as chancellor, Tyler, who earned an annual salary of $289,284, traveled so often that he was absent from campus for roughly a third of his tenure. He resigned in January 2016. Lamb was named interim chancellor in June 2015, earning a base salary of $265,880. The trustees will vote on Rochas contract next Thursday at their meeting in Room 140 of the Multi-Use Building at 50 Phelan Ave. If approved, Rocha will become chancellor July 1. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A new restaurant and beer bar called The Snug is opening in San Francisco's Pacific Heights. The bar will feature 20 rotating taps of local brews and a cellar filled with "rare and vintage bottles for true aficionados." Are you ready for Russian River's Beatification release? Get the details here. The Great American Beer Festival, held in Denver from October 5-7 every year, has taken a stand against companies like AB InBev and Miller Coors. Breweries of all kinds (and sizes) will still be able to compete, but only those that meet the definition for "craft" as the Brewers Association has defined will be able to purchase sponsorships. SoMa's Local Brewing Co. is turning 2 years old this month, so it's celebrating with a big party on Saturday, June 17. For the occasion, they're brewing up two beers: cans of Super Juice, a double IPA with "experimental hops and a unique yeast strain," and bottles of Pucker Dubbel, a "pinot noir barrel sour of our Shanghai'd Belgian dubbel." Both brews will be canned and labeled with specially-designed art by a local illustrator named Maska: Temescal Brewing is also celebrating a big milestone with its first birthday. On Saturday, the Oakland brewery will throw a party beginning at 2 p.m. with a special Birthday Party can release and nosh provided by the nearby macaroni & cheese haunt Homeroom. Get excited "surprises" are promised. The excellent and criminally overlooked La Trappe Cafe, tucked away in Russian Hill, is welcoming Affligem's master brewer for an event on Wednesday, June 14 at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Per the cafe's owner, Michael Azzalini, the brewer will "talk about Affligem's long history and to demonstrate the perfect pour of Affligem Blond on tap." Sante Adairius is brewing something up with Athens, Ohio's Jackie O's. No word on what it is yet. Speakeasy is or will soon begin brewing again at their San Francisco brewhouse. They're also doing some construction on their taproom, but promise it will look similar to the way it did before, just with more taps. El Granada's Hop Dogma is working on a mystery "juicy" collab with Belmont's Alpha Acid and the East Bay's E.J. Phair. Bottle and can releases: Out now: Fieldwork has released Travel Notes, an IPA brewed win collaboration with the U.K.'s Northern Monk Brew Co. June 17: Local will release Super Juice, a double IPA with "experimental hops and a unique yeast strain," and Pucker Dubbel, a "pinot noir barrel sour of our Shanghai'd Belgian dubbel." June 17: Temescal will release its Birthday Party IPA, a 6.7 percent beer hopped with Vic Secret, Amarillo, and Simcoe. June 18: Fieldwork releases Father of the Wolf, a Russian imperial stout brewed with Celtic sea salt and get this LEATHER, and aged in Scotch barrels. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. After years toiling away in secret on a car project, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has for the first time elaborated on the companys plans in the automotive market. Were focusing on autonomous systems, Cook said in an interview this month on Bloomberg Television in his most detailed comments yet on Apples automotive plans. Its a core technology that we view as very important. He said its probably one of the most difficult (artificial intelligence) projects to work on. The prospect of self-driving cars has seen a slew of technology companies push into the auto industry, according to McKinsey & Co. Alphabets Waymo unit has signed partnerships with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Lyft to develop the technology. And carmakers from BMW to General Motors have opened sizable Silicon Valley offices and dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire autonomous vehicle startups. Apple had initially been seeking to build its own car, before recalibrating those ambitions last year to focus on the underlying technology for autonomous driving. The iPhone maker had hired more than 1,000 engineers to work on Project Titan, as the car team is known internally, after it started in 2014. Ballooning costs and a growing workforce led to Apple veteran Bob Mansfield being given the reins of the team in 2016. Cook had never before openly outlined Apples plans, though public filings have surfaced in recent months that provided snapshots of Apples efforts. Apple secured a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles in April to test three self-driving sport utility vehicles, photos of which emerged several weeks later. A half-dozen vehicles had been surreptitiously testing the autonomous technology on public roads in and around the Bay Area for at least a year, according to someone familiar with Project Titan. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr declined to comment on how long the company has been conducting road tests. In December, Steve Kenner, Apples director of product integrity, wrote a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealing the companys interest in automotive technology. It became public when it was published on a federal website. In the letter, Kenner wrote about the companys excitement surrounding the potential for automated systems in fields like transportation. There is a major disruption looming there, Cook said on Bloomberg Television, citing self-driving technology, electric vehicles and ride-hailing. Youve got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame. Cook was also bullish about the prospects for electric vehicles, a market which last week helped Tesla become the worlds fourth-biggest carmaker by market capitalization, even as it ranks well outside the top 10 by sales. Its a marvelous experience not to stop at the filling station or the gas station, Cook said. Last year, Apple invested $1 billion in Didi Chuxing, the biggest Chinese ride-hailing service. The announcement came soon after Mansfield took over Project Titan and set about cutting hundreds of engineers. Whereas Apple had initially been building its own car, Mansfield scrapped those plans in favor of building an autonomous driving system. The company will reportedly make a decision this year on whether to proceed with the push. Apple has long been the wild card in the autonomous car game, said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Autotrader. Now we know Apple is all in, and, judging by its track record in other areas, it will be a force. In the interview on Bloomberg Television, Cook was hesitant to disclose whether Apple will ultimately manufacture its own car. Well see where it takes us, Cook said. Were not really saying from a product point of view what we will do. Alex Webb and Emily Chang are Bloomberg writers. Email: awebb25@bloomberg.net, echang68@bloomberg.net Facebook Inc. is planning to open its first San Francisco office albeit a small one. The social media company has a letter of intent for space at 181 Fremont, a new skyscraper in the South of Market district, according to a person familiar with the matter. The space in the building would be a test for fewer than 100 Instagram employees, said the person, who asked not to be named because the details arent yet final. Facebook hasnt signed a lease, and its still looking at other properties, the person said. While Facebook is a behemoth around its headquarters in Menlo Park, it has yet to join other tech heavyweights, including Google and LinkedIn, in having offices in San Francisco. Leasing space in the city would help the company recruit employees who want to live in a more urban area without making the hour-long commute to the main campus, according to the person with knowledge of the matter. The potential deal for space at 181 Fremont indicates a small foray for the company, which has about 18,800 workers, about half of them in Menlo Park. Most of Instagrams employees will remain at the headquarters, the person said. Facebook declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Jay Paul Co., the developer of 181 Fremont, didnt immediately respond to a call seeking comment. Sarah Frier is a Bloomberg writer. Email: sfrier1@bloomberg.net HELSINGBORG, Sweden Green Heinz ketchup? Fat-free Pringles? Colgate frozen lasagna? You dont need to be an expert to know these products werent successful. Which is why these creations, with dozens of others, feature in the new Museum of Failure, a wacky parade of rejected products from years gone by set up in the Swedish town of Helsingborg. Its the brainchild of 43-year-old curator and clinical psychologist Samuel West. The idea came to him while on holiday and he quickly purchased the Internet domain name. West later realized hed accidentally misspelled museum a sure sign the project would succeed. We know that 80 to 90 percent of innovation projects, they fail and you never read about them, you dont see them, people dont talk about them, West says. And if theres anything we can do from these failures, is learn from them. Many items in the museum show companies attempts to diversify their brand. Theres Coca-Colas BlaK coffee beverage and Pepsis Crystal clear soda. Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson makes an appearance with a mens eau-du-toilette, released in the mid-1990s. The fans hated it, West says. They had Christmas ornaments, Barbie dolls, all kinds of other stuff with the Harley-Davidson logo and it sort of trivializes the brand. Even Donald Trump makes an appearance from a time long before he was president. The Im Back and Youre Fired board game from 2004 looks like Monopoly, but players use T branded pieces and the paper notes are adorned with Trumps image. Its a boring version of Monopoly. Its simplified so stupid people can play it, but its also horribly boring, West says. The Museum of Failure is also home to some high-tech devices, including Googles Glass headset with augmented reality display and in-built camera. The problem was Google released it too early, it was still a prototype, so it was full of bugs, West says. Segways two-wheeled electric mobility device is also featured. The Segway was supposed to revolutionize the way we transport people, West says. And we all know that the Segway today is used by tourists before they go get drunk. Experts say innovation is tough and failure is often part of the process. Youre working on the edge of tomorrow, says Nicolai de Gier, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Its like the other part of trying is failing, so its just a very natural thing and very important thing. West says many brands featured in his museum want nothing to do with it. But he says other companies have booked large group visits, perhaps to learn from past mistakes. Its liberating for us, when we try out a new skill or learn something, its OK to fail, he says. The museum does offer some hope. On display is an Apple Newton personal digital assistant from 1993. The bulky black device paved the way for the iPhones and iPads that millions use today. The Museum of Failure opened June 7 and will stay in its gallery space until at least early September. The entry fee is about $11. James Brooks is an Associated Press writer. Sears Holdings says it will cut about 400 full-time jobs as part of the troubled retailers plan to turn its business around. The company, which owns the Sears and Kmart chains, said the cuts include some at its corporate offices in Hoffman Estates, Ill., and others in support functions globally, certain field operations positions and jobs related to store closures. The eliminated jobs represent less than half a percent of the 140,000 full-time and part-time employees it had at the end of January. Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that the job cuts are part of its previously announced plans to save $1.25 billion a year. The retailer, which has been losing money for years, has been closing stores, selling locations and putting some of its famous brands up for sale. The company is reportedly closing an additional 66 stores by early September. Thats on top of the 150 stores that closed in April. We are making progress with the fundamental restructuring of our operations that we initiated in February, Sears Holdings CEO Edward Lampert said in a statement. We remain focused on realigning our business model in an evolving and highly competitive retail environment. This requires us to optimize our store footprint and operate as a leaner and simpler organization. The news comes as Sears Canada, a publicly traded company that was spun off from Sears Holdings in 2012, separately announced that it is studying its strategic options, including the possible sale of the company. Sears Canada said that based on managements current assessment, cash and forecast cash flows from operations are not expected to be sufficient to meet its obligations over the next 12 months. Sears Holdings has been struggling with a sales malaise that extended during the first quarter. The storied retailer vowed to make additional spending cuts to offset its slowing business. The company reported in May that its operating loss grew to $222 million ($2.15 per share) on weak sales in the latest quarter. A year ago, it reported a loss of $181 million. Revenue fell 20 percent, to $4.3 billion, and sales at established stores fell 11.9 percent. In March, Sears Holdings said that there was substantial doubt it could continue as a viable concern, with intense pressure coming from Walmart, Target and Amazon.com. It has insisted that its actions to turn around its business should help reduce that risk. Shares of Sears Holdings fell 18 cents to close at $6.85. Anne DInnocenzio and Joseph Pisani are Associated Press writers. WASHINGTON A unanimous Supreme Court is speeding up the time for generic biotech drugs to become available to the public in a ruling that means a loss of billions in sales to the makers of original versions. The justices ruled this week in favor of generic drug maker Sandoz in its dispute with rival Amgen over a near-copy of Amgens cancer drug Neupogen. The case involves biologics drugs made from living cells instead of chemicals. The drugs have led to major advances in treating diseases, but come at steep prices. A 2010 law allows cheaper generic versions, known as biosimilars, to be produced after a 12-year exclusive run for the original. Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said the law does not require companies making biosimilars to wait an extra six months after gaining Food and Drug Administration approval before selling the drugs. The extra time can add billions of dollars in additional sales to the original drug makers before biosimilars enter the market. The dispute involves the drug Zarxio, a generic that Sandoz developed to compete with Neupogen. Zarxio sells for about 15 percent less than the original product. The drugs help boost red blood cells in cancer patients. Amgen, which has its headquarters in Thousand Oaks (Ventura County), filed a patent infringement lawsuit claiming that Sandoz violated the 2010 Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act. That law requires biosimilar makers to give a six-month notice of sales to rivals. A federal appeals court sided with Amgen in 2015, ruling that the notice cant take place until after biosimilar makers gain approval from federal regulators. Sandoz, a unit of Swiss drug giant Novartis, argued that the appeals court had it wrong and was unfairly giving an additional six months of exclusive sales to the original drugmaker. Sam Hananel is an Associated Press writer. BEIJING President Trump is expected to add six new trademarks to his expanding portfolio in China, in sectors including veterinary services and construction, potentially renewing concerns about his possible conflicts of interest. The latest trademarks expand Trumps business interests in China, the worlds second-largest economy and a country he frequently blamed during the election campaign for the decline in U.S. industrial jobs. Since taking office, he has softened that rhetoric. He has continued to receive approval in China for new trademarks. The countrys trademark office gave the president preliminary approval for six trademarks on June 6, according to the agencys website. Under Chinese law, a trademark with preliminary approval is formally registered after three months if the agency receives no objections. If granted, the trademarks could allow Trump to expand his business interests in scientific and technological services, construction projects and medical and veterinary services. Trump applied for the trademarks in April 2016, the same month that, as a presidential candidate, he accused Beijing of launching an economic assault against the United States. Since then, Trump has eased up, particularly after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April of this year. As a businessman, Trump made money by licensing the use of his name on an array of products around the world. He now has at least 123 registered and provisionally approved trademarks in China. Of those, four are registered under DTTM Operations a holding company while the rest are registered under his name. The latest set of preliminary approvals comes a month after Chinas trademark office gave Trump one preliminary trademark for providing catering services, and four to his daughter Ivanka through her trademarking business. It is unclear how Trump plans to use his trademarks. He does not have any businesses in China and the Trump Organization has said it will not do any further international deals. The presidents two adult sons now run the business. All of our marks in China are registered to an affiliate of the Trump Organization and have nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Trump, Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer at the Trump Organization, said in an email. For Trump, obtaining trademarks in China could allow him to license his name in the country, potentially giving him a new source of income. It also protects his brand name in a country that is known for counterfeiters. In China, many celebrities and foreign companies pre-emptively file for trademarks in a wide range of sectors to prevent expensive and time-consuming lawsuits against trademark squatters people who register the names of widely known brands in bad faith. In Trumps case, leather goods, toilets and cosmetics bearing the Trump name but trademarked by others have been spotted being sold around China. Unlike trademarks in the United States, trademarks in China are generally awarded to those who are first to file with the government, and applicants do not have to give a reason for filing. Because of this, Garten said that since 2006, the Trump Organization has been forced to build its trademark portfolio in China to protect its brand and overall intellectual property rights from third-party infringers. The news of Trumps additional preliminary trademarks in China will give further ammunition to his critics, who allege that his business interests violate the emoluments clause in the Constitution that bars presidents from taking gifts or payments from foreign governments. On Monday, the Democratic attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit claiming that the presidents failure to shed his businesses has undermined public trust and violated constitutional bans against self-dealing. Sui-Lee Wee is a New York Times writer. A 34-year-old man accused of shooting more than half a dozen rounds at a concrete statue in a San Leandro Catholic church was charged Tuesday, authorities said. Eric Mullen of San Leandro was charged with vandalizing religious property, discharging a firearm with gross negligence, being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm and resisting arrest. Mullen was held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin under $250,000 bail, jail records show. Mullen showed up at St. Felicitas church in the 1600 block of Manor Boulevard Saturday afternoon, according to the San Leandro Police Department. It was not immediately clear where exactly on the church property the statue is located, but a witness told police he saw smoke coming from the area and a man, later identified as Mullen, leaving. Officers said they tried to detain Mullen, but he did not cooperate, adding that at one point, Mullen reached for the gun tucked into his waistband. He was arrested after a struggle. At least seven bullets were fired at the church statue, and at least two rounds ricocheted into the building, police said. No one was injured. Investigators said they werent sure of a motive. Though police initially investigated the matter as a possible hate crime, they said they dropped that possibility after finding a lack of evidence to support it. Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley BILLINGS A Billings man denied a homicide charge Wednesday related to the death of his infant son. Grant Edwin Johnson, 28, pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide during a hearing in Yellowstone County District Court. Johnson was watching his 7-month-old son when the infant died on May 27, according to court documents. He did not have full-time custody of the child. He told investigators several stories about the child's injuries but ultimately said that he became agitated while the infant was fussy, charges state. He threw the infant to the ground, according to court documents. An autopsy found injuries to the child's brain and spinal cord. He had broken ribs that had healed from a previous incident, charges state. Johnson's bond remained at $500,000 after Wednesday's hearing. An Arizona State University professor moved NASA T-shirts from the boys' section of a big-box store into the girls' area and snapped a picture for Twitter over the weekend. Katie Hinde's simple action to tell the world that girls, not only boys, can be rocket scientists sparked an explosion of controversy in the Twitterverse. Hinde intended to make a feminist statement, pointing out the presence of sexism and gender stereotyping in retail that makes pink-princess clothing for girls' areas and emblazons boys' clothes with super heroes, race cars and all the cool science stuff. Many got her point and praised her on Twitter. As of Wednesday morning, her June 11 tweet had more than 132,000 likes. Many also criticized her for a host of reasons. A common theme among the attacks was that she created extra work for the store employees. "Did you make the employees' jobs more annoying? Yes. Yes you did," wrote one. "So the people who work there will have to put them back in the proper places? White feminist privilege much? How about online ordering?" shared another. Some people said she should have addressed the issue with management rather than move the clothing herself; others suggested letter writing. People accused her of being upset over something so small. The thread of comments goes on and on and is filled with tangential conversations about everything from the movie "Wonder Woman" to whether a non-Native American using the term "spirit animal" is cultural appropriation. Who would have guessed Hinde's tweet would instigate such a lively discussion? "I was completely shocked by the magnitude of the response, didn't expect that at all," Hinde wrote in an email to SFGATE. "But I also think that some of the pushback has been important- the store (which I never tagged) has worked to improve science and action clothes for girls, that finding ways that protest to minimize impact on staff/workers is important." RELATED GALLERY: Gender neutral vintage toy ads Hinde said that she meant to keep the name of the store out of it so her statement focused on the issue and not the store, but Twitter users were quick to identify the store as Target and the retail giant responded on Twitter, pointing out that Target actually sells NASA T-shirts for girls. Hinde returned to the "big-box store" the next morning to investigate. "The NASA shirts in the 'boys' sections were placed in three different locations (2/3 were prominently on the main aisles visible from 20+ feet away) and positioned at three different eye levels for typical heights in early childhood, middle childhood, and adulthood," she explains what she found in a post on her blog Mammals Suck. "For the girls' staff told me that they definitely had them in the store... somewhere. Turned out, the girls' NASA shirts were in one location at the back of one section, facing a divider, away from the main path. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 San Francisco Black Film Festival Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Strand Releasing Show More Show Less 3 of 3 San Francisco Black Film Festival: The festival is back for another four-day weekend of eclectic short and feature films by filmmakers from all over the world, but it kicks off close to home with an evening with Danny Glover. As many local film fans know, the actor best known for the Lethal Weapon films was born and raised in San Francisco (Washington High School, San Francisco State University) and has been a longtime friend of the festival. At 6 p.m. Thursday, June 15, Glover is to present his latest film, the Nigerian-made 93 Days, a slick real-life thriller set during Africas Ebola crisis in 2014. Hes also expected to stay after the screening for a lengthy Q&A and discussion of his work, which includes not only his movies, but also his humanitarian work as a UNICEF ambassador. WASHINGTON Senators sharply criticized Pentagon leaders Tuesday for not completing a new strategy for the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged that the enemy is surging right now. Just a few hours later, President Trump gave Mattis the authority to make decisions on U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the decision publicly before an official announcement, said the move gives Mattis the ability to adjust troop levels more quickly. Mattis can also end the current cap on Afghanistan troop levels. At the Senate hearing earlier, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., demanded that Mattis wrap up his plan for the war, threatening that, unless we get a strategy from you, youre going to get a strategy from us. He said he had expected the plan in the first 30 to 60 days of the new administration and snapped: We want a strategy. I dont think thats a helluva lot to ask. Mattis, in response, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he will provide details on the new strategy for the war in mid-July. Were putting it together now, and there are going to be there are actions being taken to make certain that we dont pay a price for the delay, he said. But we recognize the need for urgency, and your criticism is fair, sir. Mattis did not say what those steps are. The U.S. has about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan. Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has told Congress that he could use an infusion of U.S. and allied troops to bolster support for the Afghan army. Earlier this year, the Pentagon was considering a request for roughly 3,000 more troops, mainly for training and advising. That decision, however, has been stalled by the broader administration review of Afghan policy and a push for NATO to contribute more troops. Mattis, when pressed again about the plan, said getting a government-wide strategy cant be done quickly, and that there are ongoing efforts to ensure NATO participation so that its not all on the backs of American taxpayers. He added: We are not winning in Afghanistan right now. And we will correct this as soon as possible. The Talibans resurgence has been coupled with a growing threat from Islamic State militants trying to establish a foothold in the country. The increased fight has led to a recent string of American deaths. The Afghanistan war has been dragging on since October 2001, and the U.S.-led coalition ended their combat mission against the Taliban in 2014, but they are increasingly involved in backing up Afghan forces on the battlefield. Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns are Associated Press writers. 1 Tornado lawsuit: A suburban Oklahoma City public school system has reached an agreement with the families of seven children killed in a tornado, ending three years of litigation. The May 20, 2013, tornado leveled large portions of Moore, including Plaza Towers Elementary School, and killed 24 people. Another 377 people were injured by the tornado. In a statement, Moore Public Schools said the families have agreed to accept $14,000 each to settle the lawsuit arising from the destruction of a Plaza Towers classroom addition where the children were killed. The families had alleged the addition was defectively built. 2 Debunked story: A University of Virginia fraternity chapter has agreed to settle its lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine over a debunked story about a rape on campus. The Virginia Alpha Chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity said Tuesday that it is pleased to be able to close the book on the ordeal stemming from the 2014 article A Rape on Campus. Fraternity spokesman Brian Ellis said it has agreed to settle the case for $1.65 million. The fraternity says it plans to donate some of the money to groups that provide sexual assault awareness education, prevention training and victim counseling services. The fraternity had sought $25 million over the story that detailed the alleged assault of a woman identified only as Jackie. WASHINGTON The Republican-led Senate voted decisively to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 election by approving a wide-ranging sanctions package that targets key sectors of Russias economy and individuals who carried out cyberattacks. Senators on Wednesday passed the bipartisan sanctions legislation 97-2, underscoring broad support among Republicans and Democrats for rebuking Russia after U.S. intelligence agencies determined Moscow had deliberately interfered in the presidential campaign. Lawmakers who backed the measure also cited Russias aggression in Syria and Ukraine. Despite Russias bellicosity, theres been no forceful response from President Trump. The president has instead sought to improve relations with Moscow and rejected the implication that Russian hacking of Democratic emails tipped the election his way. Story continues below. Russian President Vladimir Putins brazen attack on our democracy is a flagrant demonstration of his disdain and disrespect for our nation, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said ahead of the vote. But in the last eight months, what price has Russia paid for attacking American democracy? said McCain, who also faulted Congress for not moving more quickly. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered tepid support for the sanctions measure, telling the House Foreign Affairs Committee he agreed with the sentiment among lawmakers that Russia must be held accountable for its meddling in the election. But Tillerson urged Congress not to tie the presidents hands and shut down promising avenues of communication between the two former Cold War foes. He asked lawmakers to ensure any legislation allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Washington Post photo by Melina Mara Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Sait Serkan Gurbuz, FRE / AP Show More Show Less 3 of 3 If the Trump administration decides to oppose the new sanctions, it could be in a bind. The sanctions measure has been attached to a bill imposing penalties on Iran that the Senate is currently debating and which also has strong bipartisan support. So the White House would have to reject stricter punishments against Iran, which it favors, in order to derail the parts of the legislation it may object to. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted against the Russia sanctions package. Once the Iran bill passes the Senate, the legislation moves to the House for action. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, said Trumps failure to act could embolden Russia and lead to interference in future U.S. elections. Richard Lardner is an Associated Press writer. CINCINNATI An American college student who was released from a North Korean prison is finally home but in a coma and undergoing treatment at an Ohio hospital, where he was taken shortly after arriving on U.S. soil. A plane carrying Otto Warmbier, who is from Ohio, landed in Cincinnati late Tuesday night. The 22-year-old was then taken by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor in North Korea for alleged antistate acts. In Warmbiers hometown of Wyoming, just outside of Cincinnati, residents helped tie blue and white ribbons, Wyoming High Schools colors, to trees and said news of his release had sent waves of shock and joy through the community. A hospital spokeswoman said Warmbiers family was expected to hold a news conference Thursday morning at Wyoming High School. The detention of Americans, often sentenced to draconian prison sentences for seemingly small offenses in the totalitarian nation, has compounded tensions between Washington and Pyongyang. Three Americans remain in custody. Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Koreas Supreme Court in March 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for subversion after he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner. Warmbiers parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, said they were told he has been in a coma since his trial, when he was last seen in public, and they had learned of this only one week ago. We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime in North Korea, Warmbiers parents said. We are so grateful that he will finally be with people who love him. A White House official said President Trump had instructed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to take all appropriate measures to secure the release of Americans held in North Korea. The official referred to them as hostages. Matthew Lee, Matthew Pennington and Dake Kang are Associated Press writers. BUTTE Close to 1,000 people lost power in Granite County and commissioners there declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon due to flooding. The worst of the flooding is along Fred Burr Creek, near Rumsey Road, just south of Philipsburg, said Rick Day, Granite County Disaster and Emergency and Safety Coordinator. Day said five people who live along Rumsey Road voluntarily evacuated to the homes of friends. Two other people, temporarily blocked by the flooding, used an alternative route out and are safe. Two bridges on a private drive leading to Rumsey Road were under water. The countys road supervisor was on the scene along with the sheriffs department Tuesday to keep an eye on the situation, Day said. The rain led to about 900 people losing power about 1:30 p.m. south of Philipsburg in the Georgetown Lake area when a tree fell on a power line, said NorthWestern Energy spokesman Butch Larcombe. NWE restored power by about 3:30 p.m., Larcombe said. But another incident in the Hall-Maxville area, about 12 miles north of Philipsburg along Highway 1, led to 35 people losing power. A tree surrounded by water hit a power line near Boulder Creek. Larcombe called it a "challenging situation" and said late Tuesday he wasnt sure when power would be restored. Day said volunteers placed sandbags to protect homes in the Maxville area from Boulder Creek. The Granite County website advertised free sandbags to the public. Granite County Commissioner Bart Bonney said Georgetown Lake is three inches above full. A diversion valve has been opened and the excess water is traveling down the Flint Creek Dam spillway at the lakes north end and into an underground drain. The emergency declaration will put the state on notice and enable the county to ask for emergency funding, if its needed. A spokesperson at the National Weather Service in Missoula said rain would continue through Tuesday night. Meteorologist Genki Keno said Granite County would likely get another half inch by Wednesday, when precipitation is expected to let up. Day said neither Philipsburg nor Drummond was affected by the flooding. But it could be a couple of days before the creeks drop back down to normal. Have you ever noticed the politics of weather? A force of nature, the weather certainly controls our daily lives as well as the agricultural economy, and maybe those are what make weather so political. Folks with gray hair will remember a dysfunctional political group which called itself The Weathermen. They were not forecasters, but created the havoc of a thunderstorm and then disappeared. Observers of Corn Belt weather will frequently say if someone does not like it, just wait and it will change. Our weather certainly has changed from memories of it in the past. Slow-moving warm fronts would bring light showers for several days, but now they are outnumbered by more violent cold fronts that create Weathermen-style havoc and quickly depart. While politics do not drive the weather, they have been more frequently seen hand-in-hand. The politics of weather also may have sneaked into a report released last week by agricultural economists at the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Their lengthy analysis of drought issues indicated that farmers have begun to rely more heavily on federal conservation programs and other economic tools such as crop insurance. Crop insurance policies that cover corn have increased from 20 percent of the acreage in the 1988 drought to 80 percent of the acreage today. The USDA economists said, While farm operators have limited control over their soils water holding capacity, various practices of soil stewardship can enhance its water holding capacity. With drought being the leading driver of production risk in US agriculture, drought risk reduction strategies will have to play a larger role in farming decisions. By paying a portion of the crop insurance premiums, the Federal Government incentivizes greater enrollment in the insurance program and greater reliance on crop insurance for drought resilience. The irony in the release of such a report at this time is that the White House has proposed significant cuts in funding soil and water conservation programs and has proposed disincentives for the use of crop insurance to protect the financial base of agriculture. Whether members of Congress themselves see the analysis of the USDAs Economics Research Service is doubtful. But undoubtedly, the authors of the report have sent it to the Congressional staff members who deal with agricultural appropriations. The White House copy may still be in the mail. Recently the mayors of 124 communities which are part of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative lambasted the White House decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. They linked changing weather to threats not only to their communities but to grain exports. They said the Mississippi River is a 10-state corridor carrying $164.6 billion worth of corn, soybeans, and wheat to export markets, and unabated floods and droughts from the weather would increase because of the political decision. The mayors were concerned because of the impact of the flooding in their communities, but also the interruptions of barge traffic on the river which provides a boost to their community economy. Alton Mayor Brent Walker said, Were now living in a world of climate extremes and the Mississippi River is a good example of that. We dont just get normal spring rains, we get huge, loaded storms. We dont just get patterns of mild weather, we get above normal heat coupled with long dry periods that dip us into drought. He was angry. To deal with the flooding problems on the Mississippi years ago, many locks and dams were built by the Army Corps of Engineers with the help of labor and funds from the Work Projects Administration. And many of those from the 1930s are falling apart from the lack of funds for upkeep. The White House has proposed upgrades of the locks and dams as part of a $1 trillion infrastructure program, but politics has already infiltrated the plans to solve the problems for the communities and agricultural commodity shippers. As Altons Mayor Walker said, the river is either flooded or dry from the increasing weather variability. And as things are shaping up now, there is more likelihood of barges running aground in the river this summer during periods of low water from the increasing potential for a Corn Belt drought. A Jerseyville police officer was shot and wounded and a burglary suspect was killed early Tuesday after the officer responded to a burglary alarm at a downtown bar, authorities said. The shootout erupted about 1 a.m. after the officer went to check on the alarm at DJ's Pub and Grill, which was closed. Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby told the Post-Dispatch that when officers arrived at the bar, a man ran and the officers chased him. The man, later identified as Austin Durham, 24, fired multiple shots when the officer in the lead rounded a corner, Blackorby said. The Jerseyville officer exchanged fire with Durham and was shot multiple times. A deputy with the Jersey County Sheriff's Office also fired his weapon, Blackorby said. Durham was shot four times, according to Jersey County Coroner Larry Alexander, and later pronounced dead. He was from Carrollton, in nearby Greene County, authorities said. The injured officer was taken to St. Louis University Hospital and was in critical but stable condition, Blackorby said during a press briefing Tuesday morning. The officer has been with the Jerseyville department since 2014 and worked as a police officer in St. Louis before that, Blackorby said. "He is awake and alert and talking, and theyre working on him," Blackorby said of the wounded officer. The officer's name has not been released. The officer was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and was hit several times in the vest, Blackorby said. "It was probably imperative that he had that on, that's my belief," Blackorby said. He said officers from the Illinois State Police will help investigate the shooting. The bar is only a couple of blocks from the Jerseyville Police Department. The Jersey County Sheriff's Office is a few blocks in a different direction. Jerseyville is about 43 miles north of St. Louis. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 67F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 67F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Upon his arrival in Yerevan today at the invitation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon laid flowers and planted an evergreen tree at the Tzitzernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial before holding a private talk with his Armenian counterpart at the presidential palace. Sargsyan said that Rahmons visit to Armenia was symbolic, given that this year marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Yerevan and Dushanbe. Officials of both countries will meet to hold talks on a wide-range of matters. Whether she likes it or not, whether shes fully ready or willing to be promoted in this way or not, CA's own junior senator (and former attorney general) Kamala Harris is fast becoming one of the fiery, go-to saviors of the Left, a fast-rising star increasingly adept at taking on, with a sly grin and without so much as a flinch, the old white male loutishness of Trumps toxic regime. And its something to behold. Witness her questioning and apparently easily flustering poor, racist elf Jeff I dont recall Sessions, the U.S. Attorney General and all-around incoherent Trump lackey, merely by asking him a couple simple, pointed questions questioned pointed enough to earn her a scowling reprimand/shushing by not one, but two old white GOP males, Sen. Burr and Sen. McCain, before she could get a full answer from baffled little Beauregard. It wasnt so much the questioning that (again) proves Harris mettle though that was certainly on fantastic display. It was what followed. Within moments of Burr and McCain shutting her down, her staff pounced. The rebuff instantly swarmed Twitter. It was all over social media. My own girlfriend, never much of political buff or one to watch CNN in the middle of the day, instantly texted me, asking if I was watching the Sessions hearing, if I saw how they just shut down Kamala. She was furious. How the f--k did this happen to our government? It is outrageous to see the blatant lying and have no recourse. My girl, she is far from alone. Like millions of others, she's racing right past incensed. She is becoming an activist. She is becoming outspoken. She is becoming engaged, fearless, ready for a new progressive revolution. Unlike Hillary, who she feels was bogged down by megatons of political baggage and years of savage GOP sexism, she sees in Harris a kindred spirit for this (and the next) generation, one unburdened by cronyism or old rules. The power and reach of this cannot be understated. (For the record, a nearly identical shushing incident happened last week, as Harris was pressing Rod Rosenstein on an equally simple yes-or-no question, which he was able to evade thanks to the scolding of, well, the same old, white male Republicans). Burr and McCains shutdown of Harris was, of course, instantly tied to Mitch McConnells infamous nevertheless, she persisted slur of Elizabeth Warren - who was, let us happily recall, reading a letter from Coretta Scott King aloud on the Senate floor, a letter that also, not so ironically, called out Sessions racist, milquetoast character. Top it off by noted Trump troll Jason Miller going on CNN and calling Harris hysterical, AKA the classic sexist slur from the '50s, used against any woman who dared speak for herself, and youve got a fine recipe for, well, for a serious new resurgence. And its sorely needed. Its no secret the Dems are scrambling for fresh heroes and heroines, new and fearless leadership to not only serve as chemotherapy for the Trump cancer, but to forge a new progressive path forward. That forge, increasingly, is #RussiaGate (along with the cruel AHCA and a few other major issues). The more hearings and well-publicized events we get that are damning to the Trump administration's obvious ties to Russian meddling in our election, the more opportunities for Harris, Warren, et al to hone their fighting skills, rally the resistance, and bring new hope to a tattered party. As for Harris, well, as a young, whip-smart, mixed-race female from the most populous, progressive and economically powerful state in the union, Kamala is nothing short of Trumps worst nightmare. And the good news is, increasingly, shes not the only one. Four Sixes Veterinarian and Horse Division Manager Named 2017 Golden Spur Winner National Ranching Heritage Center Will Honor Award Winner at October 14 Dinner Dr. Glenn Blodgett, resident veterinarian and manager of the Four Sixes Ranch horse division, has been named the 2017 National Golden Spur Award winner, the most prestigious honor given by the ranching and livestock industries in recognition of accomplishments by an individual. In his 35 years at the largest individually owned ranch property in Texas, Blodgett has been an industry leader in equine embryo transfer and artificial insemination, and the ranch has become the all-time leading breeder of both racing and performance American Quarter Horses. Blodgett will be honored by industry leaders at a dinner hosted by the National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC) October 14 at the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Honorees for the past 39 years have represented virtually every aspect of the agribusiness industry and all of the major U.S. livestock and ranching areas, said NRHC Executive Director Jim Bret Campbell. This award recognizes that a single individual has earned notable respect and admiration from peers within the industry. Established in 1978, the award is a joint recognition given by six of the leading state and national organizations in the ranching and livestock industry: American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), National Cattlemens Foundation, Ranching Heritage Association (RHA), Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas Farm Bureau and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. When you talk about Dr. Blodgett, you have to talk about credibility, said AQHA Past President Johnny Trotter. The horse business is more of a reputation-based business than it is just a horse-trading business. He has a reputation and its not all about making a quick dollar on a horse. First and foremost, hes a fine person with all the integrity and credibility that goes with it. Second of all, he is a good businessman, good horseman and a tremendously successful veterinarian. A native of Spearman, Texas, Blodgett received his bachelors degree in animal science from Oklahoma State University and his degree in veterinary medicine from the Texas A&M University of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He has since been recognized as an outstanding alumnus of both universities. After receiving his veterinarian degree, Blodgett joined Spur Veterinary Hospital, a mixed veterinary practice in Spur, Texas. Then he became self-employed at Hansford County Veterinary Hospital in Spearman servicing primarily large-animal clientele. He joined Burnett Ranches, LLC (Four Sixes Ranch) near Guthrie, Texas, in 1982 and subsequently earned the ranch numerous awards and distinctions including the coveted AQHA Best Remuda Award in 1993. Blodgett oversees all of the veterinarian and reproductive services at the Four Sixes, as well as horse breeding and management responsibilities. Blodgett was named Equine Practitioner of the Year in 1990 by the Texas Veterinary Medical Association after being cited as a driving force behind the Texas Racing Commissions adoption of medical rules, policies and procedures. He was appointed to the Texas Racing Commission in 1988, served the commission as vice chairman from 1993 to 1995 and received the 2011 Racing Council Special Recognition Award. Blodgett began representing Texas as an AQHA director in 1991, a director-at-large in 2011, an executive committee member in 2012 and president in 2015. He was inducted into the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2015 and serves on the American Horse Council Board of Trustees. The American Association of Equine Practitioners presented Blodgett with a Distinguished Life Member award in 2016 for his leadership and exemplary service. The award dinner will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, October 14. Individual tickets are $100 ($75 for RHA members), and a table for eight is $1,250. Tickets must be purchased in advance by contacting Vicki Quinn-Williams at vicki.quinn-williams@ttu.edu or calling (806) 834-0469. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Steven Anthony Jones will retire as artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at the end of June, concluding a six-season tenure that brought the theater out of crisis and into relative stability, if with reduced output. The company, which is dedicated to plays by and for African Americans and other people of color, announced the news Tuesday, June 13, adding that it will host a reception in Jones honor on Monday, June 19. The farewell to Jones is slated to follow a staged reading of Dael Orlandersmiths Yellowman, which is part of Project1Voices One Play One Day project, by which African American organizations all over the country perform the same play on the same day. Current board President Stephanie Shoffner will serve as interim executive director as the company seeks its next artistic director. When Jones took over in 2010, it wasnt at all certain that the 36-year-old theater would survive. Its two founders, Stanley E. Williams and Quentin Easter, had recently died, and it had lost its longtime home on Sutter Street, running up significant debt along the way. Seven years later, Jones leaves the company with a bare-bones but sustainably sized staff and programming. It has an affordable shared home in the African American Art and Culture Complex and membership in AATAIN, an association of African American arts organizations that share administrative, digital and other resources. It has support from a network of corporations and individual donors, as well as the Hewlett Foundation and the California Arts Council, among others. All those accomplishments, Jones says in a phone interview, signaled it was the right time to step down. Weve kind of turned a corner, he says. Its a good time for a new person to take over. Jones says up until a year ago he hadnt thought much about retirement. At the theater, we tend to have our head down, and we just keep walking into the wind. But a turning point came at his 50th high school reunion last summer. Everybody kept saying things like, Youre still working? Stepping down from LHT wont mean the end of his career in theater, though. Im not going to sit somewhere and read or take up painting, he says, though he adds, I dont want to run any more meetings. Jones says he took the job not because it was his dream to be a producer, but because I felt like somebody had to do it. I didnt want to see the theater close particularly an African American theater. We are an important part of this larger community, and the work that we do is important to the people here in the Bay Area. Retirement, rather, means a return to his first loves: directing and especially acting. Jones has acted at most major Bay Area theaters, especially at the American Conservatory Theater, where he was a member of the core acting company for years. Hell return there next year, in an as yet unspecified role, says outgoing ACT artistic director Carey Perloff. Steven was a beloved member of ACTs acting company long before I came to ACT and has been a seminal leader in the Bay Area theater scene for decades, Perloff writes in an email. I am thrilled he is going to perform with us in my last season at ACT. Thats really where my heart is, being onstage every night, Jones says. Not having the time for that in recent years was like sitting and watching things pass in front of my eyes. Seeing others plays, hed spend the whole time thinking, Man, I wish Id done that show. After June 30, he says, Im not going to have to do that anymore. Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak Attorney General Jeff Sessions' testimony got heated Tuesday during an exchange with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. During the six minutes Harris was allotted to question the attorney general, she interrupted Sessions several times to press him on his responses and ask follow-up questions. "Did you have any communication with any Russian businessmen or any Russian nationals?" Sen. Harris asked. Sessions responded, "I don't believe I had any conversation with Russian businessmen or Russian nationals," before Harris interrupted him with a follow-up. The attorney general snapped back, "Will you let me qualify it? If I don't qualify it you'll accuse me of lying. So I need to be correct as best I can and I'm not able to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous." Harris continued to press Sessions for specific answers, before the back-and-forth was interrupted by another senator, who said, "Chairman, the witness should be allowed to answer the question." Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. reprimanded the California senator, asking that she "let him answer." Shortly thereafter, Harris's time for questioning expired. Throughout his testimony before the Senate, Sessions repeatedly denied meeting with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. while he was acting as a close adviser to the Trump presidential campaign. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee wants to create a city department that would develop rules regulating the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of recreational cannabis in San Francisco. Speaking at his monthly appearance before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday, Lee said his proposed Office of Cannabis would act as a navigator for the public, businesses and city agencies when it comes to legalized recreational pot. Introduced as part of his two-year budget plan, the Office of Cannabis would have to be approved by the citys supervisors. The mayors bill will be reconciled with similar legislation to create a stand-alone city cannabis department introduced in March by District Eight Supervisor Jeff Sheehy. Under Lees proposal, the staff and operating costs for the new department would be supported by fees paid by cannabis businesses seeking operating licenses. The cannabis office would have a staff of three and would be supported at first by $700,000 in city funds, then by the fees. In addition to overseeing the permitting process for marijuana businesses, Lee said Tuesday the Office of Cannabis would create regulations for when and where cannabis may be consumed in San Francisco and how to prevent exposure and access to cannabis by the citys youth. Lee also urged the supervisors to craft a 2018 ballot measure that would shift some of the proceeds from taxes on marijuana to disadvantaged communities. Proposition 64, the 2016 ballot measure that legalized recreational pot use in California, includes provisions that allow local jurisdictions to tax cannabis sales independently. While many of the details of this tax are yet to be developed, chief among the goals must be to ensure that marginalized communities benefit from the revenue, Lee said, adding that such a strategy could mean using marijuana tax revenue to create jobs in the cannabis industry or for a variety of health and social welfare programs. Proposition 64 presents a unique opportunity for atonement of years of misguided drug policies, Lee said. Lee said Tuesday that his office would convene a cannabis tax task force to help ensure that city tax revenue from pot sales is used efficiently and in a socially responsible manner. The task force will be composed of City Administrator Naomi Kelly, Treasurer Jose Cisneros, Sheehy and District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen, whom Lee said would be a a leader and champion on this issue. How the task force decides to classify the ballot proposal would have a crucial impact on how difficult it could be to gain voter approval. Ballot measures that direct tax revenue at the citys general fund need only a simple majority to pass. Proposals that collect money for a specific fund or purpose require a two-thirds majority to be approved. Under Lees proposal, the Office of Cannabis would be housed within the city administrators office. Kelly would appoint the cannabis offices director. Stephen Rechif, who operates the Bloom Room Cannabis Collective in San Francisco, said that in an industry constantly beset by legal murkiness, he welcomed the citys efforts to create more regulatory certainty. I think that people are less likely to invest when its less regulated, and that just leads to a market that doesnt develop, Rechif said. I want clear guidelines and someone to tell us what we can and cant do, so we can obey the rules and operate freely within those rules. But Rechif added that others in his industry are leery about overregulation and overtaxation, which some fear could end up driving up the costs for the consumer, he said. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa Southwest is celebrating its 46th birthday with a new airfare sale. Tickets are on sale now for as little as $39 one-way to destinations across the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Availability varies depending on the route, but most sale prices are available on flights departing Monday through Thursday between August 22 and December 16. Blackout days (think: Thanksgiving weekend) do apply. MOGADISHU, Somalia Somalias security forces early Thursday morning ended a night-long siege by al-Shabab Islamic extremists at a popular Mogadishu restaurant. Survivors of the attack were led by soldiers from the Pizza House restaurant building. The injured were taken by ambulances. Soldiers surrounded the restaurant building and used guns mounted on the backs of vehicles to neutralize the militants. Troops entered the ground floor while the insurgent snipers held positions upstairs. All five attackers were killed and after dawn the soldiers secured the building, senior Somali police office Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. The troops efforts to take control of the Pizza House restaurant were slowed by the darkness of night, forcing them to wait until morning, said Hussein. Survivors recounted harrowing stories of hiding under tables, as armed attackers continued firing in the restaurant and hunted for patrons. Attackers moved from room to room, looking for people, said a survivor. I never thought I would have the chance to see the sun again. They were killing people on sight, said Saida Hussein, a university student who survived the attack by hiding behind a large table downstairs. Another survivor, Aden Karie, was wounded by an attacker who spotted him moving behind a curtain in the dark room. He shot at me twice and one bullet struck me on the leg, said Karie as he was taken to an awaiting ambulance. The roofs were blown off the restaurant and nearby buildings from the powerful blasts. High casualties are feared in the attack on the busy restaurant. The bodies of five girls thought to have been killed by the militants were found in the restaurant, said police. Inside the building, the body of a Syrian man who worked as a chef at the restaurant lay near the rubble of a blood-spattered and bullet-marked wall. The attack began when a car bomb exploded at the gate, police and a witness said Wednesday night, while the extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility. At least 17 people, including foreigners, had died at the time the hostage-taking began, police and an ambulance driver said. An ambulance driver, Khalif Dahir, said early Thursday they had carried 17 bodies and 26 wounded people. Police said the dead included a Syrian man. Most of the victims were young men who were entering the Pizza House when the vehicle exploded, Hussein said. Abdi Guled is an Associated Press writer. 1 Drone strike: Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike killed a militant commander and his aide in the countrys northwest. Three intelligence officials say two missiles hit a house in a village near Thal city Tuesday. The officials said the targeted house was being used by a commander of the militant Haqqani Network named Abu Bakr, and he was at home at the time of the strike. Pakistan frequently objects to drone strikes within its territory, calling them a violation of its sovereignty. 2 Germany shooting: A police officer was shot in the head at a Munich subway station Tuesday after a man grabbed a colleagues service pistol and opened fire, also wounding two bystanders, German authorities said. The officers injuries were considered life-threatening, Munich police spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said. The suspect, identified only as a 37-year-old German man born in Bavaria, was apprehended at the Unterfoehring station after being wounded in an exchange of fire with police. Authorities dont believe the incident had to do with terrorism, saying that the suspect appeared to have acted out of personal reasons and not with political or religious motivations, da Gloria Martins said. WASHINGTON President Trump has a draft plan that would at least partially reverse the Obama administrations decision to ease Cuba restrictions. But even some of his trusted advisers are wondering whether they can bank on it, given the presidents history of changing his mind on the fly. According to people familiar with White House deliberations on Cuba policy, Trump is expected to prohibit companies from doing business with the small countrys military, tighten travel to the island and possibly set conditions on the communist government if Havana wants to maintain diplomatic relations. That kind of plan, if it sees the light of day, could be welcome news for South Florida Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who have been lobbying the White House to impose more restrictions. But it could hurt the American agriculture and tourism industries, whose executives say they have been pushing the Trump administration to keep newly opened, and potentially lucrative, business lanes open. Advisers, having seen how the fight for influence among factions within the administration has played out on other controversial issues, such as support for NATO, say they wont truly know until the words come out of the presidents mouth. Certainly, the group seeking a return to tighter restrictions knows there is a rival contingent inside the White House that opposes Trumps campaign promise to roll back parts of former President Barack Obamas opening to the island. I believe in nothing until the president says it because of what weve seen, especially with what happened with the Article 5 and NATO, said a source familiar with the administrations discussions about Cuba. The president was going to come out with a statement that he supported Article 5 and collective defense and then at the last second, certain elements at the White House got to him and he didnt say that. The announcement is expected to be made by Trump on Friday in Miami. The administration is keeping largely mum on the specifics, sharing details only at the margins with a handful of advisers. A White House official confirmed that senior officials met Tuesday to try to finalize the Cuba policy, but said they have yet to put a bow on it. That person reiterated what the president has said: Trump thinks Obamas policy was a bad deal that doesnt do enough on human rights. The business community is pressuring the former real estate mogul to follow his business instincts and not reverse the course set by Obama. There have been significant business investments, including daily flights, cruise stops and agricultural initiatives. Polls suggest a majority of Americans support greater engagement with Cuba. A Florida International University poll last year showed that 56 percent of Cuban Americans in Miami also favor re-engagement with Cuba. During the Republican primaries, Trump repeatedly said he supported the idea of restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, but criticized Obama for not striking a better deal. Franco Ordonez is a Tribune News Service writer. Black community leaders and citizens want to know who invited out-of-town federal agents and informants into Albuquerque and how the decision was made to focus an undercover sting operation on an impoverished, largely minority section of the city, netting a highly disproportionate number of black defendants. They plan to put those and other questions into a letter to the federal bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the US Attorney's Office. "We want to know exactly what happened and why," said Patrick Barrett, a member of the two organizations drafting the letterthe local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Sankofa Men's Leadership Exchange, a grassroots organization of black men. Barrett and others interviewed for this story were reacting to a NMID investigation of the sting published last month. NMID found 28 of the 103 people arrestedor 27 percentwere black in Albuquerque, whose black population is 3 percent. Blacks composed just 5 percent of drug and gun defendants in federal court in New Mexico from 2006 through 2015. Hispanics also were overrepresented among those arrested, while whites were heavily underrepresented compared to Albuquerque's population. Additionally, ATF appears to have arrested few if any of the high-level gun and drug runners the bureau says it sought, NMID found. Many swept up were homeless, living in cars and drug addicted. Many lacked the lengthy violent criminal histories agents say they used as a prerequisite for targeting. In a follow-up story, NMID reported that ATF imported five confidential informantsthree of whom were black and two Hispanicfrom out of town to help agents choose targets for the operation. The informants, at least some of whom have previous criminal histories themselves, were paid $1,400 a week or more plus bonuses and expenses. Federal officials called the operation an "unprecedented success" that took down "the worst of the worst" in the city. But black residents interviewed by NMID called the findings "appalling" and "disturbing." And they vowed to seek reforms, including questioning mayoral candidates about the ATF operation at a forum in advance of the October election. "After reading your article, a lot of people are alarmed by what this looks like," Barrett said. "I don't think it was fair at all, and I think it was racially motivated." Black citizens, leaders and the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said the operation echoed racial targeting by law enforcement stretching back to the 1960s and raised concerns about constitutional and civil rights violations. They also worried the ATF sting did little to blunt crime in Albuquerque, but instead damaged a tenuous trust in law enforcement among minority communities that had shown signs of improvement. Numerous questions remain about the operation. Russell Johnson, one of the ATF's lead agents on the operation, testified in court in April that "individuals with political power" summoned the federal agency to combat Albuquerque's soaring violent crime rates. He did not name them, but said local agencies assisted in the operation. "We need to know, who are these individuals who have political power?" Harold Bailey, president of the Albuquerque NAACP chapter, said. "We could just eliminate a lot of these concerns about civil rights violations if you bring the proper individuals, African Americans who have standing, to the table at the beginning." No one approached the NAACPor any other black community groupsin advance of the operation, according to Bailey and Barrett, who is the chapter's second vice president. "We live here, we know what's going on," Barrett said. "We have the solutions to a lot of our problems. But again, we're silenced, and this is the fallout from it." The ATF has repeatedly ignored NMID's requests for comment about the operation. Elizabeth Martinez, spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting the defendants arrested in the sting, declined to comment for this story. "If and when the US Attorney's Office receives communications from members of the community and/or community organizations, it will respond directly to the authors of those letters," she said in an email. A spokesman confirmed that New Mexico State Police officers "assisted" in the operation but would not elaborate. And a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez said she was "not aware of or involved in" the planning of the sting. In an email last week, APD spokeswoman Celina Espinoza declined to answer detailed questions about the department's involvement in the operation. "After speaking with the agency in charge of the investigation, they asked that all media inquiries in this matter be referred to them," she wrote. A spokeswoman for Mayor Richard Berry ignored NMID's requests for an interview, and she did not respond to questions including whether Berry was among those who invited ATF to Albuquerque. Berry and APD will face those questions again. Bailey said he plans to request a meeting with the mayor. "I have a good working relationship with Mayor Berry, but let's just say I have some questions here," he said. "It's not that we're against law enforcement initiatives, but sometimes the right intentions can lead to the wrong results, especially for black men in America." Leonard Waites, a member of the Albuquerque Police Oversight Board and executive director of the state Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, is troubled by the operation, too. He plans to ask APD officials at an upcoming oversight board meeting about the extent of their agency's involvement. Johnson, the ATF agent, said under oath in April that the Albuquerque Police Department and other agencies suggested ATF target a swath of southeast Albuquerque known as the International District or, more disparagingly, the "War Zone." APD officers were "assigned" to Johnson's team throughout the operation. The local agencies did not provide ATF with data to show that area of town had higher crime rates than others, however. "I want to know more. You're affecting a minority population, and that's not good to me," Waites said. "I will be asking these questions through the board. After reading your article, I am really concerned about this. I'm a data guy, and if you look at the data28 African Americans when Albuquerque is 3 percent? Come on. We have a real problem here." Waites, an Albuquerque native, said black people have been racially profiled in the city for decades, and learning about the ATF sting deepened old wounds. He recalled a "lockdown" in the Kirtland addition, one of the city's only predominantly black neighborhoods, after the murder of APD officer Phil Chacon in 1980. "Anyone who was African American who was driving around town at that time was being stopped, pulled over," he said. Chacon's killer was never caught. And just last month, Waites said, he was driving his 2005 Lexus when an APD officer pulled up next to him at a stoplight. "I just knew by the expression on his face that he was going to pull me over. And he did," Waites said. The officer said the registration sticker on his license plate was obscured, a claim Waites denied. Court records show the ticket was dismissed. "He stopped me because of profiling," Waites said. "I understand it, I know what that is. And during the stop, I just made sure I did the right things to not make it worse. Janette McClelland, a 55-year-old transplant from South Central Los Angeles who moved to Albuquerque in 2004, said some of the ATF's tactics reminded her of methods federal law enforcement have used throughout American history, including the FBI's infamous Counter Intelligence Program of the 1950s and 1960s. Known as COINTELPRO, that ongoing operation included surveillance and using black informants to infiltrate black civil rights and black power groups. In the 2016 Albuquerque sting, ATF agents sent black confidential informants into black-owned barbershops, a soul food restaurant and into a park in a black neighborhood to look for targets, NMID found. "It's appalling. It's disheartening," McClelland said. "You want people to build trust in your law enforcement, your public officials. But after this happens, how the hell can we trust them? This is how cities explode. Back home, the city would have exploded. And this city is going to explode." She also lamented what she called the slow response to news of the sting operation from local black leaders. "In LA, Maxine Waters would be on their ass right then and there," McClelland said. "Nation of Islam would be on their ass. Urban League would be on their ass. There would be a press conference right then and there. That's not the case here, and that's disheartening, too." McClelland, who spent several months homeless after losing a job in 2012, now lives in a weekly-pay motel off Gibson Boulevard near Kirtland Air Force Base. The motel sits in the area of town ATF targeted, and McClelland said things do not feel any safer since agents pulled up their stakes last summer after the four-month operation. That's no surprise, said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU-NM. Studies have shown that targeted law enforcement operations such as the ATF sting have not accomplished their declared goals. The NMID investigation "reads like an artifact of the failed war on drugs that has done little to reduce crime or recidivism and has contributed to widespread misery in the lives of so many poor families," Simonson said. "On so many levels, it runs afoul of basic values in our Constitution. I'm thinking particularly about the 14th Amendment and equal protection under the law." People in Albuquerque's minority neighborhoods already distrust law enforcement, he said, after decades of negative experiences with APD. As details of the ATF sting spread in those communities, residents could grow unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement in the fight against crime. "How ironic that, in a minority-majority state, you can nonetheless identify a trend of racial profilingeven against that backdrop," Simonson said. "That is pretty alarming. It really stands as a great and terrible example of why we need a deep and far-ranging conversation about the logic of our criminal justice system and how it should be reformed." Barrett, of Sankofa and the NAACP, said black groups had built some trust between their communities and local officials and law enforcement in recent years. He pointed to suggestions APD adopted from the organizations' members to improve the Police Academy and athe collaboration with the Berry administration to remove a Confederate flag in Old Town. There have been "tangible wins" for black organizations through a series of meetings with city leaders, Barrett said. "But when this story comes out, it was like a punch in the face," he said. "The trust that the community's been trying to build is corroded again." Barrett and Bailey said they plan to notify the national NAACP about the sting operation as they seek answers from federal officials. And Sankofa, the grassroots organization in Albuquerque, wants to hear from candidates running to succeed Berry as mayor at a forum planned for August, Barrett said. "We definitely want to them to address this," Barrett said. "We want to take steps to make sure this type of stuff doesn't happen again." McClelland said she hopes exposure of the ATF's tactics and the results of the agency's operation will spark a public debate. "I hope this is a wakeup call for the black community," she said. "I hope they call out the officials, call out the ministers, call out the organizations: speak to us, help us. Our leaders should go to officials and law enforcement and tell them to stop marginalizing us, stop penalizing us for being black. Listen to us. Provide a dialogue, some alternatives. Help us get off the streets. Help us with our housing. Tell them they've got to do better, they've got to be accountable." This story was reported as part of The Justice Project for New Mexico In Depth. Santa Fe Reporter I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. Alvin McEwen [image: 653455 origin 1] Published by The Detroit News DETROIT Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel will retain her seat for four more years after ... Why are Black queer men still deeply invested in casual sex and hooking up? Black queer sex may be more accessible, but it doesn't absolve us of hang-ups a... Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: After earning a third term, Ron Johnson cant even win gracefully. Joe Jervis: Alex Jones Ordered To Pay Additional $473 M... [image: Justine Ward] Cannonball Justine Ward | Sebastian Desrosiers Cannonball Justine Ward is among a number of out talents bringing the LGBTQ pro ... The Republican Party and their mouthpieces in conservative media are licking their wounds as they come to the realization that their promised red wave sw... Variety reports: Paul Haggis lost his civil rape trial after a New York jury found the Oscar-winning director liable on charges that he sexually assaulte... Christopher Short is sitting in a booth at the Santa Fe Airport Grill, eating a late lunch with pals Jennifer Winkel and Laila Nabulsi. In a little more than an hour, Nabulsi is flying out to Los Angeles, via the nonstop jet to Phoenix. "It's fantastic," Nabulsi says of the airport terminal. "It's like a train station. I love small airports." "I don't think they get much smaller," Short chuckles, tucking into his lunch. Nabulsi flew into Albuquerque from LA to start her trip. But for convenience, she's flying back to California out of Santa Fe. It didn't require much more effort than checking a box on an internet travel site. Short, who has lived in Santa Fe for a little more than a year, didn't even know it was an option. "I don't know why," he says between bites of a burrito. "I guess I just never thought of it." In fact, Short mistakenly believed that a flight from Santa Fe would necessarily connect through Albuquerque. He's only ever flown in and out of that city's International Sunport. Rima Krisst for Fly Santa Fe (Rima Krisst for Fly Santa Fe) Santa Fe has only a handful of direct commercial flights linking it to major airportsto Dallas, Denver and Phoenixbut the city, the business community and the tourist industry are hungry for more. City and county governments are willing to shell out cash to guarantee full-flight revenue for airlines when all seats arent sold. Businesses as far away as Taos Ski Valley have kicked in money, too. When those flights land, though, passengers are greeted with a mixed experience. It's something everyone seems anxious to fix. Santa Fe's terminal building looks the way a small airport terminal is supposed to look. From runway 2-20, the northeast-southwest strip of pavement that handles nine out of every 10 flights, the control tower commands the horizon above the low, flat, stuccoed terminal building. Its windows are tinted against the high desert sun, canted outward with an antenna array forming a crown. It's not just the aesthetic of the place that charms, it's the experience. Passengers deplane not into a sterile jetway, but onto the tarmac. The weather is right there. The fresh air. The ground. It's quintessentially New Mexican. Get inside that terminal, though, and things are less quaint. Oh, it's still a cool vibe. The place opened in 1957 and there's reportedly still adobe in some of the walls. The sliding glass doors at the end of the terminal get propped open on nice days and, combined with a southerly wall of windows, natural light floods the place. That's a good thing, because it's tiny. If you're tall, you can practically reach from the rental car counter to the United Airlines ticket kiosk on the other side of the terminal. The dozen or so seats outside the secure area fill up fast. There's only one TSA checkpoint, and it's not always open. The cafe serves solid airport fare, but seating there is limited, too. Like Nabulsi said, it has an old-school bus terminal vibea nice onebut it'd be small even for that. Santa Fe is at a crossroads. A recent state study says better than 80 percent of the people who buy an airline ticket to visit Santa Fe actually fly to Albuquerque. There's plenty of room to grow, and doing so could give the city and the region an economic shot in the arm. But the community needs to figure out how to manage that feat without throwing money after ever-shifting airline routes and endless improvements to buildings, roads and runways. It just might succeed. More Flights Santa Fe Municipal Airport Manager Cameron Humphres has the perpetually busy look of a guy with an ever-expanding job description. His smile comes easier than you might expect, though. His tidy office is testament to his past career in the Air Force. So, too, may be his apparent comfort with the fact that it's in a manufactured building that has taken on an air of permanence. Santa Fe Airport Manager Cameron Humphres has been on the job a little over a year. (Matt Grubs) Comfort or no, Humphres has more to do than worry about where his desk is. He started the job in March 2016 and has hardly had time to catch his breath. Nearly one-fifth of the state's flight traffic comes through Santa Fe. That's an astounding amount, considering the airport handles just three round-trip commercial flights a day between Santa Fe and Dallas, two with Denver and one with Phoenix. The vast majority of the traffic in and out of Santa Fe is accounted for by private planes. And it gets fancy. On a recent visit, former British Prime Minister David Cameron's jet was on the tarmac. Texas tycoon Trevor Rees-Jones' plane glided into town a few weeks back. Partners in Goldman Sachs and Hollywood directors park their planes in the sun and enjoy Santa Fe's fineries without most of us ever knowing they were here. Those who enjoy that rare air may never see the inside of the terminal. Their flights are handled by two fixed-base operators; private flight companies Jet Center at Santa Fe and Signature Flight Support. Flanking either side of the terminal, the operations each have well-equipped, swanky lobbies, lounges and business centers. This is overstuffed-leather-chair, here's-a-courtesy-car, bring-your-dog, grab-some-mouthwash-in-the-bathroom territory. For a host of reasons, the Santa Fe airport works pretty well for the jet set. For the masses, though, there's some work to be done. "We want to make this the airport of choice for people who are traveling to and from Santa Fe and the Northern New Mexico community," Humphres tells SFR. Right now, it isn't close. Humphres says the last time he saw a fare comparison, Santa Fe was within $20 of Albuquerque on many flights. Add time saved, plus gas and parking costs, and the more convenient option is actually cheaper, too. But the state Department of Transportation says Santa Fe misses out on $240 million in direct economic impact generated by people who are coming to Santa Fe, but doing it via Albuquerque's airport. That's almost 1,500 jobs, Humphres says. Getting even a small piece of that pie would be a big deal. "To be clear, Santa Fe Municipal Airport is never going to be a Sunport or a Dallas-Ft. Worth or anything like that," Humphres adds. Right now, only 5 percent of the airport's traffic is commercial. Doubling that would be a coup for the airport. He's not alone in thinking that way. The Northern New Mexico Air Alliance formed last year, a venture of the city and county, along with Taos Ski Valley and the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce as lead sponsors and administrators. The group won $700,000 in federal and state grants and leveraged the money to negotiate a once-daily flight from Phoenix. The money can be used for advertising and revenue guaranteesessentially paying American Airlines if its passenger loads are too low. The flight started in December and city tourism director Randy Randall says the alliance expects to come close to breaking even with the flight in just its second quarter. With two years of pledged support to the airline, Randall thinks the flight can become a reliable moneymaker for American. It's a different strategy than before, when the airport lost a direct flight to Los Angeles on American in 2015. The surprise blow was also the kick in the pants the community needed. "I think that we realized that by doing nothing except getting excited when a new flight was announced and disappointed when a flight left, we weren't doing anything to get off that rollercoaster," Randall says. The alliance started with a phone call from Chris Stagg, vice president at Taos Ski Valley. Stagg, who's been at the ski area since the 1970s, says the resort's new owners were eager to get in on expanded air travel. The current terminal seating area outside of security fills up fast. (Matt Grubs) In the early 90s, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, Telluride and Taos all did the same number of skier days, more or less, he tells SFR. Taos was actually a little bigger. Now, they are all doing twice as many skier days as we did here last year. One of the reasons is air service. Taos has its own airport, of course, which is getting a new runway that should open in the middle of August. But Stagg says the local airport will never serve all the people who want to come to the resort, which is about 20 minutes away. And even if the community does score regional jet service, it will likely be seasonal. "To me, one of the advantages of Santa Fe is you don't have to do that. You can have this year-round destination," he says. The trip from Santa Fe to Taos Ski Valley isn't as short as Salt Lake City to Park City, Utah. But it's easily comparable to the trip from Denver to the closest major ski areas in Colorado. Or from Montrose, Colorado to the boutique Western Slope ski town of Telluride. People in Texas know about Santa Fe and Taos. People in LA do, too. But one of the challenges for the alliance is convincing people in Phoenix that Northern New Mexico isn't just a mildly different version of Sedona or Flagstafftwo Arizona communities that are within a couple hours' drive from Phoenix. As if to reinforce the point he made to Randy Randall when he pitched the alliance, Stagg says Santa Fe's airport had to do something. "You could look to airlines and the community of Santa Fe now and say, 'Look, we're making something happen,'" Stagg says. "We weren't just standing around talking about it." The alliance landed early donations from the city, county and Taos Ski Valley of $50,000 each and went hunting for more business partners to leverage the grants, which require matching funds. The city has since added $100,000 for advertising to the effort, and $15,000 to hire an executive director: former College of Santa Fe president Stuart Kirk. "It's a focus on the airport, but the real reason for getting the airlines to fly here is to stimulate economic growth in Northern New Mexico," Kirk tells SFR. "It's been proven by lots of research that a good, active airport has become a foundation for economic growth." That's the pitch to local businesses, and it's had success. Part of the reason is the city plans to spend a lot of money improving the plucky little airport. Terminal Improvements In fact, the city recently dropped $1.1 million making basic accommodations for post-9/11 security measures. As the US improved its pre-flight screening, the demands for safe travel ate into the convenience of it. The airport's single TSA checkpoint is not usually busy (airport officials say arriving an hour early is plenty of time). But it takes up space. These days, passengers like to clear security so they can relax. Up until last year, that meant getting through a checkpoint into a cramped room that didn't have food or even bathrooms. Not terribly relaxing. The walk onto the tarmac before boarding must have felt like stepping out of prison if the flight and waiting area were full. Now, there are bathrooms and vending machines. There's a separate arrival area, too. It's unquestionably a better experience for passengers once they're past the TSA checkpoint. But it was all crammed into the existing footprint. And if passengers gained space past security, they lost room before it. The space needed for other airport operations has encroached on the passenger experience, too. "I don't think Santa Fe Municipal Airport is living up to being a good representative of our community," Humphres, the airport manager, says frankly. "It's a great airport, it has a charming terminal buildingbut nevertheless, we need to make sure that we have the infrastructure that can support both the flight operations and our passenger operations. The terminal really isn't nearly adequately sized to handle its current operations." That's diplomatic of him. Perhaps grossly so. The terminal measures 9,700 square feet. To handle the airport's needs now and a couple of decades into the future, the facility should be 30,000 to 40,000 square feet. A memo presented to City Council committees this month suggests spending $35 million over the next five years to design and build a new terminal. It makes sense, of course, that if taxpayers are going to pay to improve the place, they should make sure it will hold up to more use and not just handle what's there now. But that's a big commitment, especially when the airport is still trying to lock down its current handful of commercial flights Paying for those improvements can be an arduous process, made more difficult by a puzzling wrinkle in state law: New Mexico is the only state in the country that pulls state funding from airports that charge landing fees for private aircraft. The prohibition is enshrined in state law. That might seem like an egalitarian consideration, but at airports like Santa Fe, it costs the city $200,000 to $300,000 each year. That's money that has to be made up in other charges. The airport assesses larger ramp fees to planes kept overnight and it gets a few more cents of every gallon of aviation-grade fuel pumped at the airport. Private pilots who have smaller planes may be spared a landing fee, but they're not spared the higher cost of gas or the greater charge to keep their plane on the tarmac. Bob Hudson, president of the New Mexico Airport Managers' Association and the airport manager for Moriarty, says that many smaller airports wouldn't bother charging landing fees even if they were able to do so. An airport like Moriarty's, for example, doesn't get the kind of heavier jet traffic that causes the wear and tear that necessitates a landing fee. "When they come here, they stay in our hotels and eat food at our restaurants," he tells SFR of recreational pilots. That's business Moriarty can use. Fixed-based operators handle service for many private pilots who use the airport. Jet Center at Santa Fe was the site of a business gala this month. (Anson Stevens-Bollen) Heavier jets, though, like the kind that fly into Santa Fe privately but in some cases rival the size of commercial regional jets, do have an impact on the runways, taxiways and parking areas (ramps) that cost money to maintain. If Santa Fe could charge landing fees without risking state funding, it could exempt lighter planes, keeping the city accessible for recreational pilots while finding a more equitable way of paying for the maintenance and facilities necessary to handle heavier private planes. Airport managers figure out all sorts of ways to keep the runways and doors open at their facilities, but Hudson says New Mexico's system takes one useful option off the table. "We are the only state around that does this," he says. "I don't know what the arguments were [when the law was passed] or why it was set up that way." New Mexico Department of Transportation spokeswoman Emilee Cantrell would not respond to SFR's request to interview someone about the history of the law, its impact or efforts to change it. It's not something that could be done administratively; the Legislature would have to change the law to return the option to charge landing fees. As much as Santa Fe might like to have a bigger terminal, it needs a better runway first. The city is in the midst of a $4.7 million project to improve runway 2-20. The vast majority of the money comes from the Federal Aviation Administration; the city and state split the roughly 6 percent that's not paid for by the FAA. The city hopes to go to bid on the project as soon as the FAA gets a budget from Congress. That's just part of what needs to be done. The city has closed a crosswind runway because it's in such disrepair. It only handled 1 percent of the airport's traffic and was technically a third runway option, so the FAA won't pay for its repair. Of greater concern is the taxiway that planes use to get from the southwest end of the main runway to the terminal. Called Taxiway Delta, it's underdesigned for the heavy planes now using it. It's dipped, unstable and will cost another $6.6 million to repair. Again, most of that comes from the FAA, but it also takes time and effort for Humphres and other city staffers. The city has drafted an amendment to the master plan that anticipates a new terminal, but the reality of running an airport that first handled traffic in the early 1940s is safety first, comfort later. A Grand(ish) Entry If all of this is going to come together for Santa Femore flights, better runways, a more functional terminala new way to actually get to the airport is critical. At a recent city committee meeting, Reed Liming, a division director in charge of long-range planning, euphemistically described the approach to the airport on Aviation Drive this way: "Passengers get to, um, experience our wastewater treatment plant as they drive to the terminal." They also get to pass a junkyard full of old cars. It doesn't look good and, when the wind is wrong, it doesn't smell good either. But Humphres isn't turning up his nose at what's there. "Those are important aspects of any city, you know? You're going to have light industrial and that type of use. But nevertheless, it doesn't really provide a very good visual entrance or exit," he says. There are plans for that, too. In May, the City Council approved a resolution that adds to the Impact Fee Capital Improvements Plan a $1.7 million extension of Jaguar Drive from the as-yet-unopened interchange with Highway 599 to the airport's front door. "It's a grand entrance. And I don't think that we have to spend a lot of money on a grand entrance, but I think it's appropriate to have an entrance to the gateway to the community that well represents the community," says Humphres. The road would be just across the highway from the Village Plaza at Tierra Contenta development. Theoretically, the entire area could see a development boom, though it's a ways off. The developer, Katharine Cook Fishman, and her late father Richard Cook, actually agreed to pay for the road in an annexation agreement signed eight years ago. As is common with such contracts, though, there's no timeline for constructing the extension to the airport. "There's a reason for that. The councilors who are sponsoring this, and the mayor as well, would like to see that road built sooner rather than later," Santa Fe Asset Development Director Matt O'Reilly explains. By adding the project to the capital improvements list, it qualifies for an impact fee offset credit. It's a little complicated, but it's basically an incentive. If the developer builds the road now, at current costs, the price of the project can be used to offset future impact fees. Scott Hoeft of the Santa Fe Planning Group says the road extension isn't a short-term priority for the developer, who has sunk millions into the project already, but it has the potential to make a difference. The extension would open up 300 acres of land that belongs to the developer on the south side of it, a project tentatively called The Pavilions. It would also create access to 85 acres of city-owned land that O'Reilly says people have long assumed would be a city-owned business park. Revenue from that kind of development, both leases and taxes, would go a long way toward helping the airport pay its bills. O'Reilly likes the look of the planeven without much in the way of detail. "Air travel is a big part of economic development," he tells SFR. "And by the way, if that road isn't built, the city land is not able to be developed." Getting everything to work in concert at the airport isn't easy. It looks simple from the outset; as simple as sprucing up a classic terminal, pouring some new concrete on the runway and building a short road. Like flying itself, though, what looks simple often is not. There are seemingly endless variables and the commercial aviation industry offers no guarantees. If Santa Feand Northern New Mexicocan expand the city's airport sensibly, creating convenience without losing character, the airport could be piloting an economic renaissance into the coming decades. Santa Fe Reporter When every interaction we have is viewed through the lens of politics, even discussing a smoothie or a sedimentary rock can get polarized and exhausting. Theater is no different; every show that has come across Santa Fes stages so far this year could be looked at in an us- versus-them, black-versus-white context. The Quality of Life, however, does throw into sharp contrast one stark, inevitable truth: Were all going to die. Presented by the New Mexico Actors Lab and co-directed by Robert Benedetti and Nicholas Ballas, playwright Jane Anderson's play details the interactions between two couples: Dinah and Bill, a staunch Christian couple from Ohio still reeling from the murder of their only daughter, and their Californian cousins Jeannette and Neil, aging hippies who live in a yurt in the woods and smoke plenty of weed. Oh, and Neil is dying. It's cancer, and it's bad. To say that the play is just about the end of life, though, lessens its accessibility. "It's more about how the living deal with death than about death itself," Benedetti says. The interactions and evolution of the characters outside the topic of Neil's imminent death are potent and vital, especially considering the current political climate and the general leaning in Santa Fe. Initially, it feels very red-state-blue-state (but, as in all good writing, the lines quickly get blurred). While many folks in our town would likely identify more with Jeanette and Neil, played by Barbara Hatch and Ballas, Benedetti cautions the viewer not to view Dinah and Bill's Bible-thumping ways as backward. The Quality of Life opens this weekend at Teatro Paraguas and tackles tough subjects, featuring Barbara Hatch as Jeannette and Nicholas Ballas as her husband Neil. (Robert Benedetti ) "Just in the way that Shylock has never been the same since the Holocaust," he says, referencing the grotesque Shakespearian caricature of a Jewish stereotype, "characters who represent particular points of view are enormously influenced by the environment in which the play is performed." With the rise of the Westboro Baptist Church and politicians from the Christian right, then, it is important that we view these characters as humans rather than as archetypes. The God-fearing cousins would likely be the heroes of this show in West Texas or East Tennessee, but in Santa Fe, the characters take a little more caressing. Dinah, here portrayed by Jody Durham, is the more sympathetic of the two, more flexible in her beliefs and more willing to understand her left-leaning cousins. Benedetti says he chose Patrick Briggs to play the hardliner conservative Bill because "he's the kind of person you enjoy being around, and that helps to take some of the sting out of Bill." While the theme of religious conflict and what Benedetti calls "a juicy argument about medical marijuana" will be welcome in a social and political climate like Santa Fe's, putting on a show partly about end-of-life issues could be a risky proposition here. Santa Fe has, after all, become a retirement hotspot. Benedetti points out that 70 percent of New Mexico Actors Lab tickets sold last year were at a senior discount. Will those folks necessarily want to be confronted by a play that looks death in the eye? "Some people are extremely excited and supportive, and other people just don't want to go near it," Benedetti says of his perception of the Santa Fe audience. "And there's not much of a gray area." It seemed appropriate for NMAL to pair up with Coming Home Connection, a nonprofit that places volunteer companions with anyone who needs in-home careincluding those with terminal illness. Glenys Carl, who founded CHC, was first drawn to the concept of companionship by brutal necessity. After her adult son suffered a traumatic brain injury, she cared for him for three years. When he eventually died from his injuries, Carl only grew more resolute in her mission to provide help to those most in needlow-income, uninsured, and those without families. After working with ALS, Parkinson's and AIDS patients, she founded CHC in 2007. The organization trains volunteers to provide round-the-clock care to sick or disabled Santa Feans. In 2015, more than 300 volunteers helped almost 150 families. There is an erroneous perception that those who retire to Santa Fe have pots of money and big adobe mansions to live out their days, but Carl points out that that just isn't the case. Couples may lose their homes to medical bills, and social security doesn't always cover what's needed. "When they become ill, they don't have enough money, and there's nowhere for them to go," she saysso that's where CHC volunteers step in. CHC operates on a skeletal budget, and Carl hopes to soon purchase a modest home in town to provide live-in care for a few patients at a time. Accordingly, Wednesday June 21 features a special benefit performance for the nonprofit. The first two Sunday performances (June 18 and 25) include a talk-back session with Carl after the show about questions and themes raised in the play. Caring for someone with terminal illness or in hospice isn't just walking on eggshells and waiting solemnly for the inevitable. It can be very much about life, and celebrating the living someone's already done. There's always more left to say and do. The Quality of Life 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays June 15-July 1; 2 pm Sundays June 18-July 2. $15-$20. Benefit performance: 7:30 pm Wednesday June 21. $25. Pay-what-you-wish performance: 7:30 pm Wednesday June 28. Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie, 424-1601 Santa Fe Reporter Post-school daze Summer break is in full swing for kidsand parentsin Santa Fe, and a growing number of hardworking families are looking for a place for children to be active and under adult supervision. The city says it works hard to find a spot in planned programs for everyone who's interested, but SFR spoke to parents who weren't aware of city efforts. The school district and a number of other nonprofit groups are all working to make summer programs not just more widely available, but more useful to kids who are ready to learn whether school's in or out. More hearings, more Heinrich New Mexico US Senator Martin Heinrich's seat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has been a high-profile post as of late. He recently questioned fired FBI director James Comey about his conversations with the president and Russian interference in US elections. Yesterday, he attempted to take a former colleague, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to task over about the same investigation. LANL goofs another waste shipment A barrel containing chemicals used to clean cooling pipes at Los Alamos National Lab was than advertised, a Colorado disposal facility found last month. LANL admits the error, but says it didn't make a difference to the disposal process. The mistake has echoes of the improperly packed barrel that fed a fire at the WIPP nuclear waste site in Carlsbad. County Commission delays development approval People who live in the quasi-rural part of Santa Fe County near the end of St. Francis Drive and Rabbit Road, just south of I-25, showed up to yesterday's County Commission meeting to urge commissioners to take a of a proposed development there. The project, a mixed-use development that would include warehouse space, medical offices, apartments and homes, has been in the works for years. The commission agreed to the delay and will take up the issue once more next month. New Mexico doc heads AMA Local oncologist Dr. Barbara McAneny will for the next year. McAneny has been serving as president-elect for a year already. It's a feather in her capand New Mexico's, to be surebut it's not like the state has oncologists to spare. ABQ hot spot on the market Green Jeans Farmery, the shipping-container retail development just off I-40 and Carlisle Boulevard, is for sale. The innovative spot is home to a Santa Fe Brewing Company taproom and other restaurants and shops. The looks like a sign that business is robust and the developer is on to other things. Black community seeks ATF answers A sting operation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that used five well-paid black and Hispanic informants netted a disproportionately high number of black defendants on drug and gun charges. After the story became public, the black community in Albuquerque says it felt like "a punch in the face." Community groups tell SFR contributing editor Jeff Proctor they feel targeted and plan to , which purportedly went after the worst criminals, but nabbed very few higher-level drug dealers. Dose of cute There's a at the zoo in Albuquerque. That's probably all that needs to be said, but in the interest of providing the information you crave, he's a day old, can already stand and doesn't have a name yet. Thanks for reading! The Word thinks "Reporty" is a decent name. Or maybe "Esseffar" would do? Don't judge! You know there's going to be a big ol' marketing plan to name the little guy. Subscribe to the Morning Word at sfreporter.com/signup Santa Fe Reporter Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Island hopping in Cambodia Cambodia coast Koh Rong Koh Rong Samloem Koh Sdach Where to stay? Any travel story to Cambodia starts with the phenomenal, and often that's where most tourists spend most of their time. Some do make it to the coasts and spend time on it's beaches as well. However, one of the most underrated way to explore Cambodia and it's gorgeous coast is island hopping.As a traveller, I love to explore offbeat destinations, whether I am in Dubai, Hong Kong or in Mumbai, and Cambodia was no different. I was meeting some friends there and we all decided to postpone a visit to the temples for another visit and spend all our time on the islands of Cambodia. My mother almost rebuked me for this, and still can't comprehend why I skipped the iconic temples.Cambodia's coastline is located on the southern part of the country and is about 445 km long. It's coastline is well known for beautiful beaches and silky smooth sand. The water is absolutely clear and swimming in them is as close to paradise as you can get.However, what I recommend is going beyond the coastline and exploring it's islands every few days. Start your journey from the coastal town of, which also boasts of some really. Enjoy for a day or so and then spend the next few days exploring the islands near the coast.Here are the three islands I recommend -Koh Rong island is the second largest island in Cambodia and is 25 kilometers off the Sihanoukvilles coast. There are four small villages and the island has a beach-line of about 43 km!With no roads, no traffic and very few people, it's a great place for those who are seeking solitude. However, if you are looking at one reason to visit the islands, then it has to be swimming with the lights plankton after dark.Koh Rong Samloem is only about 9km long and 5 km wide, and it's actually easy to explore the entire island on foot. Saracen Bay is the most popular beach of the island and the one where boats from Sihanoukville and other islands drop you. The beach is clean and beautiful, and there are numerous cottages and resorts on the coast.However, I would recommend walking away from the Saracen Bay and hiking through the thick forest to reach the other side of the island where magic happens - the Lazy beach.Sunsets are particularly great here and at night you will hear no one else but the sound of the water and perhaps some music from a bar close by.Located in the gulf of Thailand, Koh Sdach island is one of those places where you won't visit just to relax on the beach, but to explore the local way of living as well. It's primarily a fishing village and you can always see small fishing boats around the island.The island is also great for snorkelling and the equipment can be easily rented for only $5 or less.All the islands are connected by boats or speedboats, and you don't always need to book in advance, except when you leave from Sihanoukville. Check with the locals with the boat timings as the frequency to the smaller islands is fairly limited.Thai baht is almost always accepted at these islands as they are fairly close to Thailand.Over the past few years of travelling, I have completely fallen in love with airbnb and have been using it even for my international trips, like Barcelona and Hong Kong. So if you plan to hop across islands in Cambodia, you can do the same. Yes, the islands are remote, yet each one of them, including Sihanoukville have properties listed on airbnb. Here's a secret - someone of these cost less than Rs 1000 ($15).Plus, you can avail great offers on Airbnb with Citi cards on all listings outside India. You can check it outGo beyond the conventional, get out of your comfort zone, and do something new this summer!----------Disclaimer: This post is written in collaboration with Citi cards. Needless to mention, all the views expressed above are based on my personal experiences and original research. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The owner of Dominick's Bakery has apologized to the family of late Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis after he took to social media to express concern about the closure of New Dorp Lane for a run and festival honoring the soldier. "I was able to contact the family and apologize face-to-face, and they were gracious enough to speak with me," said Dominick Di Lillo, owner of the New Dorp bakery. "I told them I would do whatever it takes to make up for this horrendous incident." More than 800 people gathered Sunday for the first Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis Memorial 5K Run/Walk and Street Festival, which resulted in street closures on New Dorp Lane for three hours. In 2013, at the age of 24, Ollis was killed in Afghanistan while shielding a wounded Polish soldier from an insurgent's suicide vest. "I have so much appreciation for the sacrifice he's made," Di Lillo said. He added that he told the Ollis family he would give free food to runners participating in the event in the future. And he said he would donate 100 percent of profits made on the Fourth of July every year in Ollis' name. A spokesman for the Michael Ollis Freedom Foundation confirmed that Di Lillo met with the Ollis family and apologized. Di Lillo said he made a mistake and a bad judgment call. He explained his initial negative posts about the road closure were geared toward movie crews, because he assumed New Dorp Lane was closed for filming as it has been in the past. Screenshots of the bakery owner's comments were shared on a Facebook post, which got more than 400 shares and more than 150 comments. One of Di Lillo's Facebook comments read: "I am all for supporting our military and the losses they have sustained. Isn't there another way to show appreciation without adversely affecting a neighborhood filled with small mom & pop businesses?" Several Staten Islanders took to social media to express their outrage. One commenter said: "It's sad that my family has been going there for years and this is how he shows his respect for the military. I was raised in New Dorp and am currently finishing my 6th year in the U.S Army. I wish I could have been back home to take part of his remembrance run. May you Rest In Peace SSG Ollis." Another commenter said: "Very upsetting that people disrespect our military (active, fallen, wounded and/or retired). I will never patronize this business ever. I have family who fought in Vietnam and are still working in the Air Force. You should be ashamed for disrespecting a fallen soldier who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country. By the way, he was from New Dorp!!!! If anything you should of put a flag on your business and/or sponsored/made a charitable donation towards the event. If not, do not disrespect a member from the community who fought for you! Shame on you!" Di Lillo said his comments were "never geared toward the Ollis family" and "he owes everything to the military and what they do for us." He said he posted an apology to his personal Facebook page, but deleted two of his social media accounts after receiving threats. "Everybody makes mistakes," Di Lillo said. "I'm just hoping everyone is kind enough to make good on the mistake I made. I do apologize to anyone and everyone involved." STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Soupman Inc., the Staten Island-based company which licenses the names and recipes of Al Yeganeh, the real-life "Soup Nazi" character from the classic "Seinfeld" TV series, has filed for bankruptcy protection, according to USA Today. The Chapter 11 filing comes weeks after Robert N. Bertrand, the company's chief financial officer, was indicted for alleged tax evasion. According to the article, Soupman had estimated assets between about $1 million and $10 million, and debts ranging from approximately $10 million to $50 million. The company has secured capital from an independent private investment firm to keep the company functional, the report said. Last week, Bertrand was suspended from his job and claimed he could not afford an attorney to represent him, according to the Daily News. Bertrand, 62, a Connecticut resident, short-changed the government of nearly $600,000 in tax revenue, authorities said. He was charged under a 20-count indictment with failure to pay Medicare, Social Security and federal income taxes, said Bridget M. Rohde, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and James D. Robnett, special agent in charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Division, New York Field Office. Between 2010 and 2014, Bertrand paid Soupman workers on the side in unreported cash amounts and compensated certain employees with large, unreported stock awards, officials said. Bertrand never reported that employee compensation to the IRS and didn't pay Medicare, Social Security and federal income taxes on the cash payments or the stock awards, said authorities. Bertrand failed to do so despite an external auditor warning him in 2012 that those payments should be reported to the IRS, officials said. Soupman's unreported cash and stock compensation totaled more than $2.8 million, resulting in a loss of about $594,000 in tax revenue, said authorities. "As alleged, the United States was fleeced out of more than half a million dollars through the defendant's corporate misdeeds," said Rohde in a statement. "Tax crimes like those alleged in the indictment hurt every American citizen." Bertrand faces up to five years behind bars if ultimately convicted. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In a rambling 30-minute statement he gave before being sentenced Wednesday to the maximum prison term for a deadly wrong-way crash on the West Shore Expressway two years ago, former Linden, N.J. cop Pedro Abad swore he couldn't remember the events of that tragic evening. He apologized to victims' families, assured them their loved ones are "happy" in heaven, complimented prosecutors and the media on their work and invoked God's name. Abad also suggested the victims should have taken an Uber home instead of getting into his car. Finally, the defendant, who read Bible verses outside court to the media most mornings during his trial, begged a judge for mercy. "Just start me off with a year, see what I can do," Abad, who has shaved his beard and cut his long hair, implored Justice Mario F. Mattei. "With grace, there is so much I can do for Him. I'd like to come back here some day and have people say, 'Pedro, how are you doing this?' and I'd say, 'God gave me a second life, and Judge Mattei gave me a second chance." Mattei wasn't buying it. "You almost had me ... but then you tell me they should have called Uber, they shouldn't have gotten into your car," said the judge, who sentenced Abad to eight and one-third to 25 years in prison. "You are all about you. How anyone can stand here and use the term 'happy' with regard to those victims is beyond me. ... They got there because of you, and I don't think they were happy to get there." Mattei said Abad had written him from jail while awaiting sentencing and asked to be put on probation or sentenced to a year behind bars and then re-assessed. The minimum sentence the judge could have imposed was one to three years in prison. 'YOU WERE A TIMB BOMB' "You have no idea of the magnitude of what you did. You weren't an accident waiting to happen, you were a time bomb waiting to explode." Mattei said, referring to Abad's three arrests for drunk driving, including the fatal March 20, 2015 crash that killed of his passengers. Last month, a jury convicted Abad of all nine charges against him - four counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, two counts of aggravated vehicular assault, and single counts of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment - stemming from the early morning wreck that claimed the lives of two of his passengers. According to evidence and testimony, Abad, 29, and three friends - Frank Viggiano, Joseph Rodriguez and Patrik Kudlac - had been drinking at Curves strip club in Charleston for about two hours before the 4:50 a.m. crash in which Abad slammed into a tractor trailer. The defendant was driving northbound on the southbound highway, evidence showed. Viggiano and Rodriguez, both 28, were killed; Abad and Kudlac, 25, were seriously injured. Prior to that, Abad and Kudlac had spent about six hours eating and drinking at Central Park, a Roselle, N.J. bar and restaurant, before the foursome headed to Curves. During the trial, a prosecution forensic toxicologist testified Abad's blood alcohol content was .24 percent - three times the legal limit for driving while intoxicated. That figure was derived from a blood sample drawn from Abad in the hospital about 90 minutes after the crash, the witness said. The defense contended those results were tainted by blood transfusions, fluids and medicine, which Abad received at the hospital. Jurors did not accept that argument, convicting Abad after deliberating only three hours. REJECTED PLEAS Before the trial and during its course, Abad rejected plea offers. The first consisted of a range with a sentence of no less than five to 15 years in prison and no more than seven to 21 years behind bars. The second offer was for six to 18 years in prison. Abad plans to appeal the conviction and sentence. The sentencing proceeding took about 90 minutes, longer than usual. It was highly emotional; the victims' family members wept often, while others muttered their contempt of Abad. After court clerk Sal Aronica opened the floor for statements, Roseann Rodriguez, Joseph Rodriguez' sister, said her family remains devastated over her sibling's death. "Losing my brother was the most horrible thing that could ever happen," she said, as her father, Angelo Rodriguez, stood by her side. "His life was taken by someone's decision to drink and drive." "All you were concerned about was not getting caught," she told Abad. "You never cared about the lives in your car. This crash was 100 percent preventable. I will never forgive you. You killed my brother. I hate you. I don't care what happens to you. I actually hope you die before you are released." 'YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL' Before concluding, she took a swipe at Abad's prior comments to the media in which he said he has spoken to God. "I also spoke to God and he told me what the plan was, and you're going straight to hell," she said. Kathleen Viggiano, Frank Viggiano's sister, also addressed Abad and the court. "It's hard to accept my brother is gone," she said, as her dad, Rudy Viggiano, held a framed photo of the victim. "The past two years have been surreal. I can only hope Pedro can live with the knowledge he has killed two men, and that will be a prison sentence in itself." Both families asked Mattei to impose the maximum as did prosecutor Mark Palladino. Palladino excoriated Abad as a "hammered, bombed driver, drunk to obliteration." He called Abad a "narcissistic, self-centered, reckless criminal. A man who has no regard for those around him ... who disgraced an entire police department." "You're a guy who gets drunk at a strip club and killed two people," said Palladino, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant District Attorney Frank Prospero. "You should be an example of how you should not live your life." Defense lawyer Mario F. Gallucci asked the judge to craft a "reasonable" sentence. He said Abad had lived a law-abiding life for nearly 30 years, except for the three drunk-driving arrests. (Abad was twice arrested in New Jersey for driving while intoxicated). Gallucci said his client has worked to deal with his alcohol issues, and over the years had raised money for a number of charities. "I'm sorry that the families had to sit through the trial," said Gallucci. "Mr. Abad stands here willing to be punished for his actions." ADDRESSED COURT Abad was garbed in an orange Correction Department jump suit. His hands were manacled behind him throughout the proceeding. He placed what appeared to be several sheets of folded paper on the defense table, but did not open or refer to them while talking. He spoke in a clear, deliberate voice, pausing often as if collecting his thoughts, while about a dozen photographers and reporters snapped photos of him. Gallucci, his lawyer, has often said Abad wanted to talk about the case - and he did, touching on an array of topics in a stream-of-consciousness type statement. He praised Palladino and Prospero for their work and acknowledged the media as a vehicle through which he has tried to spread the word of God. He apologized to the victims' families and said he talks to his victims every day. "It bothers me every single day that any of this happened," said Abad. "It shouldn't have happened. I know that they did not deserve this. I'm sorry that any of this happened. ... If it helps you, just try to be happy knowing they're up above us and they're happy and they want you to be happy," he said. "God bless each and every one of you." Abad insisted he couldn't recall what happened on the night of March 19 into March 20, 2015. "I swear on my life and I swear to God, I don't remember any of this," he said. "Regardless, I am sorry I put you through this." Abad said he couldn't accept prosecutors' plea offer because he didn't know what happened. "How am I to just accept it and spend 'x' amount of years" in prison, said Abad. "I felt like I am looking at God right in the face and lying to him. I could not do that." But then, he seemed to cast some blame on the victims. 'SHOULD HAVE TAKEN AN UBER' "This whole thing doesn't make sense," he said. "We were four grown men. I did not force them to get into my car. If I was so belligerent, they should have take an Uber home. I wish I had taken an Uber home." Mattei was not impressed, and came down hard on Abad. "Your conduct that night was reprehensible," said the judge. Abad must serve the minimum eight and one-third years before he's eligible to apply for parole. Outside court, Gallucci, the defense lawyer, told reporters Abad was "fine" with the judge's decision. "'I guess it's God's will that I go to jail and do good there,' " Gallucci said his client told him. Angelo Rodriguez, Joseph Rodriguez's father, fought back tears outside court. "I never use his name, but I will use it today," he said. "To Pedro: You took the most precious thing from a parent -- you took my precious little boy from me." In a statement District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said justice was served with the conviction and sentence. "This sentence ensures Mr. Abad is held accountable for the lives he destroyed when he decided to get behind the wheel and drive drunk," said McMahon. "My thoughts and prayers remain with the families and friends of all the victims affected by this tragedy." STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Pedro Abad, the former Linden, N.J., cop convicted in a fatal wrong-way crash on the West Shore Expressway two years ago, will spend time in a New York prison, and on Wednesday he'll find out just how long. Abad, 29, is scheduled to be sentenced in state Supreme Court, St. George. He faces up to a maximum of eight and one-third to 25 years on the top charge of his conviction, aggravated vehicular homicide. Technically, Abad could receive the minimum of one to three years behind bars for that crime, although such a scenario seems extremely unlikely. He's expected to receive a prison term closer to the higher end of the range. The defendant was originally slated to be sentenced last Thursday but the proceeding was adjourned for scheduling reasons. Last month, a jury convicted Abad of all nine charges against him - four counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, two counts of aggravated vehicular assault, and single counts of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment - stemming from the March 20, 2015 wreck that claimed the lives of two of his passengers. According to evidence and testimony, Abad, 29, and three friends -- Frank Viggiano, Joseph Rodriguez and Patrik Kudlac -- had been drinking at Curves strip club in Charleston for about two hours before the 4:50 a.m. crash in which Abad slammed into a tractor trailer. The defendant was driving northbound on the southbound highway, evidence showed. Viggiano and Rodriguez, both 28, were killed; Abad and Kudlac, 25, were seriously injured. Prior to that, Abad and Kudlac had spent about six hours eating and drinking at Central Park, a Roselle, N.J., bar and restaurant, before the foursome headed to Curves. During the trial, a prosecution forensic toxicologist testified Abad's blood alcohol content was .24 percent -- three times the legal limit for driving while intoxicated. That figure was derived from a blood sample drawn from Abad in the hospital about 90 minutes after the crash, the witness said. JURY TAKES JUST 3 HOURS The defense contended those results were tainted by blood transfusions, fluids and medicine, which Abad received at the hospital. Jurors did not accept that argument, convicting Abad after deliberating only three hours. Before the trial and during its course, Abad rejected plea offers. The first consisted of a range with a sentence of no less than five to 15 years in prison and no more than seven to 21 years behind bars. The second offer was for six to 18 years in prison. Mario F. Gallucci represents Abad. Assistant District Attorneys Mark Palladino and Frank Prospero are prosecuting the case. By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree Buyers of apartments in the Esque building in Flemington Road are being asked to pay for their own electricity meters, in a re-run of the debacle that beset the Ivy building just before last year's election. The demand comes despite Chief Minister Andrew Barr saying in September last year that he would move to ensure the situation would never happen again. The Esque building on the corner of Flemington Road and Manning Clark Crescent in Franklin: The developers has offered to pay for electricity meters for apartment owners who can't get their chosen colour scheme. Credit:Rohan Thomson "People should not be given a certificate of occupancy on a property if it is yet to be hooked up to power and water," a spokesman said then, with Mr Barr promising to look at changing regulations after the election. Buyers are due to settle and start moving into the 90-unit Esque building in July when settlement is complete, but were surprised this week to be told they must pay $563 before Monday if they want an electricity meter. Market analysts have welcomed moves by infant formula company Bellamy's to stabilise the business, saying the steps resolved significant uncertainties surrounding the company and gave it a clearer pathway for sales into China. A Citi research note to clients also highlighted "slightly improving" momentum for Bellamy's, after the company revealed that sales in the six months to June 30 were above the mid-point of the $105 million to $120 million guidance. Citi has lifted its target price for the Tasmanian-based company's stock to $5.75, a jump of 34 per cent. Credit:Kate Geraghty Citi also lifted its target price for the Tasmanian-based company's stock to $5.75, a jump of 34 per cent. The company's shares closed at $5.76 on Friday before the long weekend. CPA Australia CEO, the ubiquitous Alex Malley. Credit:Louise Kennerley Lowy paid Rupert Murdoch's News Corp $840 million for Ten's east coast network in 1986, and lost most of it before the decade was out. Ten was in receivership by 1990. Lowy said that owning Ten was "like trying to hold a fish. The tighter we gripped it, the more it slipped out of our hands." Illustration: John Shakespeare His fellow billionaires could say much the same thing all these decades later. They, along with Packer, gave the broadcaster a debt guarantee in 2013 in return for Ian Narev's Commonwealth Bank giving Ten a $200 million loan with no financial covenants. Gordon and Lachlan in his capacity as guarantor and private investor have joined forces to try to nut out a restructure proposal that would see the secured debt repaid and guarantee removed "over an appropriate period". The smart money says the appropriate period will end when media ownership laws change and the duo can take the broadcaster private. Ten degrees of separation at Lachlan's network The media industry is pretty incestuous at the best of times, but the tangle at Ten has taken this reputation to new heights. Bruce Gordon is Nine's largest shareholder, owns Ten's regional affiliate, WIN, and is closing in on Ten. But all roads at Ten seem to lead to Lachlan. Here's a quick recap. Lachlan Murdoch owns 7.7 per cent via his private media group, Illyria, which is now in the driver's seat as it attempts to broker the debt restructure with Gordon's Birketu. Foxtel has a 13.8 per cent stake. Foxtel is 50 per cent owned by the Murdoch family's News Corp, which also has managerial control of the pay TV provider. Lachlan's day job includes his role as co-chair of News Corp. Siobhan McKenna, who runs Illyria for Lachlan, was named in the documents regarding the restructure proposal being cooked up by Illyria and Gordon's Birketu. She resigned as Lachlan's representative on the Ten board a few months back to take up an executive role at Foxtel. We did mention who ultimately controls Foxtel didn't we? Lachlan's other day job is as executive chairman of 21st Century Fox. One of Ten's big financial headaches is the content deals it signed with US studios all those years ago which reportedly cost it up to $100 million a year. One of those deals it has been trying to renegotiate is with CBS, the other is with you guessed it 21st Century Fox. No wonder the Australian Shareholders Association on the eve of Ten's collapse was calling for the appointment of more independent directors to help explore other options for the broadcaster, "given the substantial conflicts of interest and potential related party transactions at play". This would have ensured independents had a majority and could "out-vote all of the conflicted directors if necessary to ensure the interests of minority shareholders are protected and conflicts of interest are appropriately managed". That ship has now sailed. High noon CPA Australia's rapidly dwindling board met on Tuesday to discuss the civil war brewing in its ranks over the organisation's dubious corporate governance and monstrously paid CEO Alex Malley. Not that the current chairman, Jim Dickson, would see it that way, of course. Despite three board resignations in less than a week he railed against the media pressure saying, "The toll it is taking on individuals and our organisation is unacceptable". But the bean-counting body posted an update on Wednesday promising that Dickson and Malley will "make significant announcements on Friday". Dickson said further details will be provided in due course, without any further clarification. Corporate zombies Activist shareholder Elliott Management has fired its latest salvo at BHP, calling on the mining heavyweight to appoint a new chairman who is "strong, experienced, and visionary". And such an appointment to replace Jac Nasser "would only be a first step", the New York-based fund said in a hard-hitting statement released on Wednesday. "BHP has an entrenched board, with long-tenured directors having approved the disastrous acquisitions and poorly timed share buybacks that are at the root of much of today's underperformance. A significant upgrade in directors is needed," Elliott said. Mr Nasser, who joined the BHP board in 2006 and became chairman in March 2010, has signalled that he would not stand for re-election to the board this year. The average tenure of the people on BHP's board is four years. Anita Pallenberg, who has died aged 73, was sexual muse to three of the Rolling Stones; she did drugs, sadomasochistic sex and dabbled in black magic, yet lived to tell the tale. A ravishing beauty with a shock of blonde hair, heavily kohled eyes and a stick-thin frame, she epitomised the '60s "rock chick". Anita Pallenberg and Keith Richards became a devoted couple during the 1960s. Credit:AP She had an autocratic foreignness that people found both scary and seductive. She herself sometimes claimed to be a witch. Her effect on some members of the group was calamitous. When she first met the Stones in 1965, she was just 21. But she had already appeared in films and fashion magazines, knew Andy Warhol and "everyone else" in New York, could say "f--- off" in six languages, knew about drugs and was highly qualified in the arts of sex; her model agency billed her as "too beautiful to get out of bed". The scriptwriters are probably already at work on a blockbuster film about Russian influence peddling in the 2016 US election campaign, based in part on the sensational hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee into "the Russia thing" that have transfixed Washington. There's equally rich material to be mined from the joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation into China's influence-peddling in Australian politics. It would more likely be an arthouse film than a blockbuster, not because it's less important but only because the characters and storyline are regrettably less familiar to a mass audience. It is quite clear the Chinese Communist Party is waging an opaque campaign to interfere in Australian politics and institutions, using the political donations system to gain access. ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis and Defence Department secretary Dennis Richardson have warned of the worsening threat to our sovereignty, our democratic institutions and our safety. Attorney-General George Brandis has acknowledged that threat. Huang Xiangmo with Malcolm Turnbull at Chinese New Year celebrations in Sydney in 2016. The fact that these deeply troubling activities may be within the law is no comfort, but only shows that the laws are inadequate. It's also telling that the scriptwriters on "the China thing" would need to rely primarily on the work of investigative journalism. That's because there has been no parliamentary scrutiny of the links most recently revealed between Australian political parties and operatives reasonably suspected of placing the interests of the Chinese Communist Party above those of Australia. Consider what has come to light. In early 2015 Duncan Lewis of ASIO warned the top administrative officials of the Liberal, Labor and National parties to be careful in accepting donations from two billionaire Chinese businessmen, Chau Chak Wing and Huang Xiangmo, who are believed to have deep and loyal connections to the Chinese Communist Party. Between them the two men have already spread $6.8 million between the parties. A year ago, Mr Huang threatened to withdraw $400,000 pledged to the ALP after its then defence spokesman criticised Beijing's South China Sea activities. Labor Senator Sam Dastyari then contradicted the ALP's position on those activities at a press conference alongside Mr Huang. Months later it emerged that Mr Dastyari had asked Mr Huang to donate $5000 to settle a legal bill outstanding from when he was Labor party secretary. Why have we become so damn mean? Annastacia Palaszczuk opening up and being photographed with her partner Shaun Drabsch becomes a bitch about how much superannuation she gets. Paul Pisasale, under investigation after being found with $50,000 cash, is now the brunt of crass and defamatory jokes - before we know all of the facts. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Treasurer Curtis Pitt copped a barrage of personal abuse after the budget. Credit:Tammy Law And gorgeous Carrie Bickmore, who lost her husband to brain cancer, has to defend herself against vicious attacks because her campaign for us to donate clashed with another! The list goes on, and on, but it is the personal, pejorative and noisy delivery of the criticism that signals a new low in public debate. This week's ABC Four Corners program that revisited, after 30 years, Chris Masters' revelations of police corruption in Queensland, "The Moonlight State", brings to mind how widespread corruption in Australian politics has been since then. Yet we remain relatively unconcerned by the parade of corruption and its near neighbour, unethical insider lobbying, in our public affairs. Too often, revelations are treated as individual instances the occasional bad apple rather than part of a pattern that reveals the stench of systemic decay. Former trade minister Andrew Robb has profited well from his political knowledge and influence. Credit:Andrew Meares A similar failure to see the big picture is also true of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse's revelations. These criminal outrages are compartmentalised by concentrating on crimes by churches rather than put into a broader social framework by linking them to evidence revealed by other inquiries into sexual harassment in the armed forces, and bullying and corruption in the union movement. We are afraid to join the dots, and gain comfort in restricting our anger to individual sectors or states as if there was no wider social problem. The replay of the Moonlight State corruption, which reached up to police commissioner Terry Lewis and other high-ranking police officers, showed how deeply infected the police force was and how intertwined it was with guilty criminals. Together, they fought back to put immense pressure on the lives and careers of Masters and his brave informants within the force. All was eventually revealed by the Fitzgerald inquiry into police and government misconduct, called, to his credit, by police minister and acting premier Bill Gunn. Labor and independent senators are facing calls to abandon their opposition to media ownership reforms after Channel Ten fell into voluntary administration on Wednesday. It is understood crucial members of the Senate crossbench are reassessing their position after the country's third-largest TV network moved into insolvency. KordaMentha were appointed as voluntary administrators on Wednesday morning after billionaire backers Lachlan Murdoch, Bruce Gordon and James Packer walked away from guaranteeing a new $250 million loan to rescue the 53-year-old TV station. The ailing network could have been saved if changes to the laws had not been caught in Senate gridlock, potentially allowing for a takeover by Mr Murdoch's News Corp or for an increased ownership share for Mr Gordon, the mogul behind WIN TV. Greens leader Richard DiNatale has slammed as "highly inappropriate" a move to inquire into foreign political donations and influence-buying within Australia's governing parties via the secretive Parliamentary Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security. The Greens believe the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters is the appropriate mechanism rather than the often closed and exclusively Labor-Coalition constituted Intelligence and Security committee. Senator Richard DiNatale is seeking access to intelligence committee hearings. Credit:Graham Tidy. The minor party has also ratcheted up the pressure on the government over former trade minister Andrew Robb who took an $880,000 job with a Chinese firm immediately upon leaving Parliament. Mr Robb, the key architect of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed a "confidential" consultancy deal the day before the last election to work for the billionaire businessman Ye Cheng, who is regarded as well-connected with the Chinese Communist Party. The Turnbull government's plan to save nearly $1 billion by axing carbon tax compensation for new welfare recipients appears dead on arrival. The Nick Xenophon Team has confirmed it will join with Labor and the Greens to vote against the government's legislation in the Senate, guaranteeing it will fail. But Social Services Minister Christian Porter says he is not giving up, vowing to press ahead with negotiations until a final vote is taken. The government has been trying to scrap the Energy Supplement - a top-up payment Labor introduced alongside its carbon price - for more than a year. It failed to get the cut through Parliament as part of its omnibus savings bill but has now reintroduced it as an individual measure. A former Kendall man who allegedly took $420,000 from a construction company he co-owned was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to five months in prison and fined $3,000 for tax evasion. Jeffrey L. Overton, 57, now of McGregor, Iowa, co-owned Four Bears Construction, of Elroy, with three other men. While his partners worked as project managers, Overton alone kept the books for the firm. However, between tax years 2008 and 2011, Overton used company funds to buy trucks, tractors, an all-terrain vehicle, and guns and ammunition for himself. Then he changed company financial records to make the purchases appear to be legitimate business expenses, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wegner. Overton also did not report the stolen money as income amassing an unpaid tax liability of $127,000. Overtons scheme was discovered when the firm hired a new bookkeeper in 2010 who found that Four Bears had incurred almost $600,000 in accounts payable, with $366,000 past due at least 30 days, Wegner wrote the court. When confronted about the stolen money, Overton said he believed he was entitled to it because he worked harder than the other owners, Wegner wrote. Due to its financial problems, Four Bears dissolved in the summer of 2013, according to Wegner. Four Bears co-owner Elmer Hanson blamed Overton for the companys demise. He told District Judge William Conley on Tuesday that Overton was motivated by greed and dishonesty and it resulted in Hanson losing his home, filing bankruptcy and divorced. Ive personally lost everything Ive worked for, Hanson said. His actions are reprehensible and no sentence is too stiff. Under questioning by Conley, Hanson acknowledged that another owner had concluded that the company was not going to make it due to the recession and other owners taking money out of the firm, too. Theres not enough evidence to say the company failed due to the defendants malfeasance, Conley told Hanson. Wegner asked for a sentence within the 18-24 guideline range which was based on the amount of revenue loss to the government, the duration of the offense, the delay in prosecution, Overtons lack of prior convictions and his entering a timely guilty plea. Conley told Wegner that he could not sentence Overton for stealing $400,000 because the government charged him with tax fraud and not embezzlement. He didnt plead guilty to defrauding his partners but to not paying taxes on the money he took from the company, Conley said. Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth dropped theft from a business charge against Overton in 2012 saying the evidence showed other people also had access to the companys funds. Overtons attorney, Paul Schwartz, asked Conley for a probation-only sentence contending that his client had otherwise lead a crime-free life and is now working as a grounds supervisor at the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution. The sentencing goal should be to allow him to keep his job and pay off his tax debt, Schwartz said. Overton has paid it down by $16,000. Overton said he regrets what happened to Four Bears Construction attributing his offense to bad judgment and bad decisions. I will not be making that mistake again, he told Conley. Others also took money out of the company, Overton said but when he told the judge that he did not know if he took more than others, Conley replied, You maintained the books, you were in the best position to know what others took. In sentencing Overton to prison, Conley said it sends a message to would-be tax evaders and embezzlers that there are consequences when they are caught. However, he did not impose any supervised release, saying the IRS can collect the tax debt without the courts supervision. I dont pretend its the perfect sentence, Conley said. After court Hanson agreed. I feel it was too light. (Overton) didnt take full responsibility for (his offense) and didnt show any remorse, Hanson said. When you're an Australian entrepreneur trying to break into the US, the one thing you don't need is a scandal that targets the very audience you're trying to attract. But that's exactly the kind of own goal Mamamia publisher Mia Freedman has on her hands after appearing to "fat shame" acclaimed feminist author Roxane Gay on her website. By Wednesday, the story, including Gay's accusation of the "cruel and humiliating treatment" she suffered from Freedman, had received international coverage, including in the New York Times and several US women's news outlets. "It is helpful, in that I think people get to see, in real time, what fat-phobia looks like and just how careless people can be in considering that fat people deserve dignity," Gay told the New York Times. Madi Craig knew she was at risk of dropping out of school. She struggled with tests during high school. And then, in year 10, she fell further behind after her single mother had a heart attack and was rushed to hospital. She refused to leave her mum's side for three weeks. Madi Craig says she was at risk of disengaging from high school but perservered with the help of the Smith Family. Credit:Pat Scala "I thought that school wasn't for me," she said. "I didn't have that role model who went through school because mum dropped out of school." Disengaged young Australians are costing taxpayers a staggering $18.8 billion by increasing crime, clogging health services, relying on welfare and reducing tax revenue. Trains will be slashed to hourly on most lines over three upcoming Sundays to cope with extra services needed for winter sporting events. A "stress test" conducted on the Queensland Rail timetable identified key points over the next 12 months, but confirmed the current timetable should stay in place. A new report has identified several "stress points" over the next 12 months. Credit:Jorge Branco It comes after numerous issues were identified in south-east Queensland's rail operator, including a shortage of drivers and an overreliance on overtime, leading to mass cancellations in October and December, and the Strachan inquiry. Queensland Rail chief executive officer Nick Easy said the stress test identified several stress points, including the upcoming school holidays in June and July. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors around 'mumpreneurs' mothers who are entrepreneurs. There is a naive perception it's simple to build an app or come up with a product to sell online. Once you've done that, all you need to do is run the business while the kids have their afternoon kip. The reality is quite different for most women in business. Prue Houston training a client. Research backs this up. A study published last year by Sydney University academic Meraiah Foley found many entrepreneur mothers were isolated socially and professionally. They lacked career direction and many had taken a significant pay cut compared to when they had a real job. Without holiday and sick leave, almost two-thirds had stopped contributing to their super. Sobering findings indeed. Of course there are plenty of successful female entrepreneurs who also have a family. But from my experience talking to mums with businesses, making a go of a family and a company at the same time requires considerable sacrifice. Put simply, the dream of having it all is just that. A young man who was gunned down in a suburban garage after playing video games with friends is believed to be among the latest innocent victims caught in the crossfire of Melbourne's gun violence. It's believed Muhammed Yucel, 22, was killed in a tragic case of mistaken identity when two gunmen opened fire on the garage of a Church Road home in Keysborough on May 2. Mr Yucel had been playing video games with friends in the garage. He said goodbye to his friends about 10pm and opened the garage door that opens onto a rear laneway to walk the few hundred metres home when at least two men unleashed a volley of shots into the garage. The gunfire killed Mr Yucel and injured two of his friends. His three other friends escaped uninjured. A very, very unlucky Victorian has been targeted by car thieves twice in two months. A gold Holden Commodore was stolen from the victim's house in Park Lane, Wodonga on May 2 and was used in a petrol drive-off before being found burnt-out in Albury, NSW, days later. Another vehicle, a white Hyundai Accent, was stolen from the same address on June 10. This time, it's believed the thief entered the home, removed the car keys and stole the vehicle. Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Three senior Turnbull government ministers will be hauled before the Supreme Court of Victoria to explain why they should not be charged with contempt after accusing the judiciary of advocating softer sentences for terrorists. In an explosive development, the Supreme Court has ordered Health Minister Greg Hunt, Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar and Human Services Minister Alan Tudge to appear on Friday "to make any submissions as to why they should not be referred for prosecution for contempt" . A letter from Judicial Registrar Ian Irving obtained by Fairfax Media says comments by the three ministers published in the The Australian accusing the judiciary of going soft on terrorists would appear to bring the court into disrepute. "The attributed statements were published whilst the judgements of the Court of Appeal were reserved," the letter says. A high-speed police chase has taken place in Melbourne's CBD with a driver narrowly missing pedestrians on Spencer Street. A grey Holden Commodore was spotted driving erratically on Bourke Street on Wednesday about 10am before speeding through a red light with several police vehicles in pursuit. According to one eyewitness, the Commodore slowed and narrowly missed pedestrians crossing the intersection. The driver's side of the vehicle and a passenger window were both smashed in. The driver turned left on Spencer Street toward Crown Casino and Southbank, driving down the tram tracks with a police wagon pursuing. Police have released an image of a man who may have been involved in assaulting conservative commentator Andrew Bolt in Melbourne last week. Footage of the incident on June 6 showed a hooded man approaching Bolt from behind and throwing a substance, believed to be glitter and shaving cream, at his head, initiating a brawl on Lygon Street, Carlton. The ensuing scuffle sees Bolt pushed into a pole and then falling over chairs and tables outside a restaurant. He fights back, kicking and punching his two assailants in the face and groin before they start to walk away. Toothpaste saved a life. Thats what tipped off Heather and Troy Burkhalter that something much more than a low-grade fever was affecting their daughter Chloe who was 10 years old in April 2016. Two days before a fateful toothpaste incident, a Wednesday, Chloe was sent home from school with a fever of 100.3 degrees, Heather Burkhalter said. Students who are sent home with a fever must wait at least 24 hours without medicine before they can return to school. After staying home Thursday, Chloe was set to return to classes Friday morning but then began acting odd, Heather Burkhalter said. She was getting ready for school and ... she was just not listening ... and I told her to go brush her teeth, she said. She was putting toothpaste on her toothbrush, but then she screwed the cap back on and then she screwed the cap back off again and she just started squeezing the whole tube. Thats when Heather Burkhalter realized it wasnt a case of being ignored by her daughter. She called her husband and they immediately took Chloe to La Crosse Chloe also an unrelated heart condition and she figured if something was wrong, at least her doctors were there. By the time the Burkhalters reached the hospital, Chloe couldnt walk; her father carried her inside. Chloe doesnt remember much until that point. (Mom) said I kept on squeezing the toothpaste; I dont remember that, she said. I just remember getting to the hospital, dad was carrying me over his shoulder because I couldnt walk. I remember mom asking me (en route) what our phone number was, who I was, who (they were). Once at the hospital, it was a whirlwind, Heather Burkhalter said. (Doctors) told us that she had some pressure, some build-up in her head, she said. Basically what happened is she must have had a sinus infection that was basically the perfect storm. Its called streptococcus F. She said it would have caused in ear infection in an adult, but with Chloe it didnt, it traveled up. Initially, doctors were going to drill a small hole into the skull to let the fluid drain out; however, an MRI revealed a crack in her skull where the infection tunneled and settled on the right side of her brain. A partial craniotomy was performed to relieve the pressure and remove the infection. The condition is incredibly rare, Troy Burkhalter said. Doctors said theyve heard about it, but theyve never seen a case of it, it was so rare, he said. The surgery resulted in temporary Bells palsy, paralysis or weakness of the muscles on one side of the face. In Chloes case, it was the left side of her face, and it also impacted the use of her left hand and her ability to walk. Despite everything, Heather Burkhalter said the neurosurgeon was extremely optimistic about Chloes long-term prognosis but was surprised how quickly she recovered. Everybody else ... thought that she wouldnt bounce back the way that she did, she said. He always thought that she would be fine, just needed some time. We were there for about six days ... by the third day she was starting to walk, using a toothbrush and stuff like that. ... She definitely proved everybody wrong. Complete recovery, however, would take time. Chloe had to receive antibiotic treatment daily at the hospital for a month, but she still wound up having to have a second surgery in November after the infection returned in the form of a lump on the scar, Heather Burkhalter said. The original infection attached itself to a piece of the hardware that she had had in her head at that time she had to have four screws to hold her skull in place and stuff, she said. But this time it wasnt inside of the skull, on her brain, which is good, it was just on the outside. (Doctors) had to go through and do the surgery, and luckily her skull had already fused everything together, so they basically took the hardware out, and then she had to go another month and have the same medicine and stuff. Shes now fully on the mend, Troy Burkhalter said, with few lingering issues. He described his daughter as a fighter. The whole time she has always been positive, good-spirited its just amazing, he said. Her journey is what caused the Childrens Miracle Network to name Chloe one of the five Hospital Heroes, which honors patients who show perseverance. The Childrens Miracle Network assisted the Burkhalters with meal tickets and helped cover the cost for home-infusing training after Chloes second surgery so she wouldnt have to travel to the hospital daily to receive her antibiotics. It was a huge help, Heather Burkhalter said. It seems so minute that when you say, They gave us meal vouchers, she said. You dont think about things like that. They paid for gas cards. Its a lot to deal with between the doctors visits. Then on top of everything else, your child is sick. It seems so small to other people, but when youre actually living it, just having dinner is one less thing to worry about. It just really helped out a lot. The biggest help was the training, Heather Burkhalter said, which made life much easier the second time around. Going to the hospital was a hassle for her, because you had to go the same time every single day it was just kind of a pain in the butt, she said. Then you have to sit there. They hook up an IV, and the medication took at least an hour because it was on a slow drip. Then when they came in the second time, it took like 10 minutes for us to do it at home. So it was just a lot less stressful on her, on us, just in general. Chloe is thankful for the recognition. When I heard it I was like OK, its not a big deal, but then when we got to the first lunch, they said how thousands of kids were nominated and these were the only five chosen, she said. I finally realized that it was a lot more than I thought it was ... I was actually really happy to be chosen. The Burkhalters, to show their gratitude, are now giving back to the Childrens Miracle Network. They, along with families of the four other children honored, are helping to raise funds and awareness for the network, and all the money will stay local to assist area children. Detectives have charged a man with attempted murder after an altercation with another man at a Perth restaurant last week. Police will allege sometime between 7pm and 9:30pm on June 9, a physical altercation took place between two men who are known to each other at a restaurant on Cumberland Way Bassendean. The man will face court today. The 39-year-old victim of Queens Park received several puncture wounds, resulting in life threatening injuries. He is currently in Royal Perth Hospital. West Australian public sector employees suffering domestic violence are now entitled to 10 days per year of special leave. The state government said the flexibility, commencing Wednesday, would allow victims to attend medical appointments or court hearings. Rates of domestic violence in WA are only topped by the Northern Territory. Credit:Dimitri Maruta WA has the second highest rate of reported physical and sexual violence perpetrated against women in Australia, second only to the Northern Territory. Simone McGurk, WA minister for the prevention of domestic violence, told Radio 6PR that policies needed to be introduced to tackle the soaring rates of domestic violence in the state. Beijing: There are signs of hope for China's notoriously polluted waterways. A study published in Nature Geoscience has shown phosphorus pollution - a major cause of algal blooms - has fallen by a third in China's lakes. A tourist cruise boat berths at Little Putuo Temple on Erhai Lake in Dali. Credit:Sanghee Liu Researchers from China's Renmin University, Peking University and Tianjin University, along with the Norwegian Water Research Institute, sampled water from 862 lakes. The number of extremely polluted lakes fell by two-thirds between 2006 and 2014. Washington: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has denied any knowledge of, or participation by, members of the Trump campaign in Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but, as he testified before a Senate committee, refused to discuss conversations with Donald Trump. Any suggested involvement by him in collusion with Russia was a "detestable lie", Sessions declared - and had he been made aware of such collusion, he would have quit his key role in the campaign. Sessions' appearance was about defending his reputation after sacked FBI director James Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee last week - but the optics of his persistent rejection of questions on conversations with the President were yet another headache for the White House. Independent senator Angus King accused the Attorney General of being selective in claiming he was upholding Justice Department policy on the President's private conversations with members of his cabinet. An explosive feud has broken out publicly in the family of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as his two younger siblings declare they have lost confidence in the nation's leader and fear "the use of organs of state against us." Lee Hsien Yang, a prominent businessman and former CEO of Singtel, and his sister Lee Wei Ling, a well known neurosurgeon, said in a joint statement they feel "threatened" by their brother's "misuse of his position and influence over the Singapore government and its agencies to drive his personal agenda." Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong's siblings have accused him of misusing his position to "drive his personal agenda". Credit:AP "We are concerned that the system has few checks and balances to prevent the abuse of government," they said. "We feel big brother omnipresent." New York: An inmate at a Kansas prison has been released after 17 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, after researchers tracked down his lookalike. Richard Anthony Jones was sent to prison for a robbery in Roeland Park, Kansas, in 1999. Richard Anthony Jones, right, was released because investigators found his lookalike, left. Credit:Kansas City Police Department There was no DNA evidence nor fingerprints linking him to the crime scene. At the trial Mr Jones said that he was with his girlfriend and other family members in Kansas City on the day of the robbery. POINTE BLANCHE:--- Port St. Maarten is being represented this week at the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) PAMAC meeting in Aruba. PAMAC brings together Platinum Members of the FCCA who meet with over 30 high-ranking FCCA Member Line cruise executives as part of a relationship and business building process. Port St. Maarten representatives will be delivering the news that for five consecutive months (January May), cruise numbers have been positive showing a 5.1% growth when compared to the same period of 2016. The destination received during the past five months 923,600 cruise passengers from 347 cruise calls. PAMAC will kick-off with a reception on Wednesday evening and thereafter a series of meetings and networking events are planned for Thursday and Friday to discuss industry trends and standards and develop relationships and mutual benefits for the cruise lines and members, companies and destinations. Representing the Port will be Bertrand Peters, General and Government Affairs, and Ichel Moeslikan, Sales and Marketing, and Alexander Gumbs, Business Development Officer as well as a representative from the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau, Cherinah Franken, Product Development Officer. Reinventing Cruise St. Maarten is an on-going process for Port St. Maarten. We are looking forward to attending PAMAC in order to renew our relations with the cruise line industry and to attract additional cruise business for the country. We want to continue to foster mutual growth. Its an opportunity to network and better understand each other especially when we look at different cruise industry developments, Port St. Maarten Management Team said on Monday. The PAMAC event is one of many that the FCCA coordinates for its Platinum Members and Member Lines to stay at the forefront of information about both the industry and destinations while finding ways to maximize the benefits for all. The FCCA is a not-for-profit trade organization composed of 19 Member Lines operating over 100 vessels in Floridian, Caribbean, and Latin American waters. Created in 1972, the FCCAs mandate is to provide a forum for discussion on tourism development, ports, safety, security, and other cruise industry issue and to develop bilateral relationships with destinations private and public sectors. By fostering an understanding of the cruise industry and its operating practices, the FCCA works with governments, ports and private sector representatives to maximize cruise passenger, crew, and cruise line spending, as well as enhance the destination experience and increase the amount of cruise passengers returning as stay-over visitors. The PAMAC conference is taking place in Aruba at the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino. GREAT BAY (DCOMM):--- Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Development and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI), announces that there will be a temporary interruption in the traffic flow on the A.J.C. Brouwers Wednesday evening. The road closure will be Wednesday evening, June 14 from 9.00pm to 5.00am. Motorists are advised to be observant of a detour and directional signs during the aforementioned hours. Motorists heading to Cole Bay/Simpson Bay from Philipsburg/Cul de Sac will have to use the Arlett Peters Road (old Cake House Road) or the Alexis Arnell Boulevard (Link 1 Phase 2). All motorized traffic coming from the Cole Bay area to Philipsburg/Cul de Sac must use the Alexis Arnell Boulevard. The aforementioned closure is related to the painting of road markings on the A.J.C. Brouwers road from the Round-a-bout Cay Hill intersection to the Arlette Peters Road. The aforementioned works will be carried out by Soualiga Infrastructure. Ministry VROMI apologizes for any inconveniences this may cause. Cole Bay:---- On Friday the 2nd of July the Director of the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation Tadzio Bervoets and Nature Foundation Projects Officer Melanie Meijer Zu-Schlochtern met with the President of Parliament the Honourable Sarah Wescot-Williams to present her the Nature Foundations Document outlining the steps necessary to have Sint Maarten move towards a ban of single-use plastic bags. The meeting was a follow-up to a previous meeting requested by the President of Parliament some weeks ago asking for the Nature Foundations feedback on implementing a Ban the Plastics Initiative on Sint Maarten. The Nature Foundation drafted a guiding document which lays forth the steps necessary for Parliament to draft and vote on a law which would ban single-use plastic bags, one of the most environmentally damaging products on the island and a major contributor to the current situation at the Philipsburg dump. We were very excited to meet with the President of Parliament the Honourable Sarah Wescot-Williams in order to present our findings officially to Parliament, including draft legislation, supporting documentation, a guideline for policy makers drafted by the United Nations and the steps which other countries, including Aruba, took in order to ban plastic bags. It is now up to our decision makers to push this initiative through, commented Tadzio Bervoets, Nature Foundation Manager. Single use plastic bags are some of the most environmentally damaging products on the island. They do not biodegrade and stay in the ecosystem, causing health impacts to the environment, animals, and humans. Single use plastic bags are especially harmful to sea turtles, sea birds, coral and fish that are smothered, chocked and otherwise harmed or killed by the plastic bags. Single use plastic bags are also made of petroleum by-products that have been shown to cause cancer in humans. Nature Foundation Project Manager Melanie Meijer Zu-Schlochtern also presented President of Parliament Wescot-Williams with the results of the Nature Foundation petition calling for Government to find an immediate solution to the situation at the dump in the Great Salt Pond. Some 1800 residents have signed the petition calling for a solution to the most significant environmental challenge on the island. Plastic bags are one of the major contributors to the situation at the dump. Wescot-Williams, during the meeting, also confirmed that she was also working on a draft law and has been in contact with decision makers in Aruba who worked on establishing the ban there. MP Wescot-Williams has also been engaging the community on public opinion of banning plastic bags and the social and economic impacts a ban would have as well as looking at various alternatives to single-use plastic bags once a possible ban goes into effect. PHILIPSBURG:---- Minister of VSA Emil Lee confirmed on Wednesday that several hotels on St. Maarten were tested positive for legionella which can happen based on various causes. Lee made the announcement after SMN News published an article about a number of hotels that tested positive for Legionella and E-coli which was confirmed by the Inspectorate of Health. The Minister said that the hotels that were tested positive do have a program to follow to ensure that containment and contamination are contained and prevented. The Minister said that the Inspectorate and the hotels are working very well together to ensure that the laws are adhered to and that public safety is protected. Minister Lee said that at no time there was any public health risk on St. Maarten otherwise the Inspectorate would have informed the public whenever there is a public health risk. He said based on the results that are fairly widespread which is not contained to a particular location on the island, sparked some of the hotels to begin testing the water that they were receiving and found some inconsistencies which triggered a discussion with the Inspectorate and they initiated a quick snapshot of the water that is being distributed around the island. He said at some point of concerns, thus they are in dialogue with GEBE and they will initiate a dialogue with the water producer Seven Seas. Minister Lee said that after the snapshot tests they found that some parameters within the law were not being adhered to. He further stated that one of the points of concern is the level of PH in the water that is being distributed. The Minister said that the PH in the water is way too high thus it defeats the purpose of the chlorine that is placed in the water. He said the law clearly stipulates the level of PH allowed to be in drinking water which consumes more chlorine. Asked by SMN News who is responsible for the high level of PH in the water if it is GEBE the distribution company or Seven Seas the water Production Company? Minister said it is somewhat premature to discuss this because Seven Seas have a contract with government and he is still trying to understand the guidelines set in the contract. He made clear that he still do not know who is responsible for the high PH and he also does not know if the law stipulates the level of PH that is allowed to be in drinking water. Asked about the committee he said that is working with CPS to contain the bacteria if the chairman is working with one of the hotels that were tested positive for Legionella. Minister Lee said he would not confirm the information but the chairman of that committee is only responsible for calling meetings. It should be noted that the chairman of the committee works for Princess Heights Hotel. The Minister went on to say that if anyone else on the committee is ready to take on the chairmanship of the committee he believes that that person will be more than willing to give up that position. SZV, APS, and Bankers to invest in New General Hospital SMN News also understands that the Minister is busy negotiating the financing of the New General Hospital with SZV and APS. Asked if the two entities are the ones that are going to finance the New General Hospital. Minister Lee said that the two entities meaning SZV and APS are two major players in the discussion while some bankers are also involved. He said it is his hope that the those involved in the discussions will be the ones to finance the project. SMN News further learned that the investment committee of SZV already indicated that they will give a negative advice to the Supervisory Board regarding the financing of the New General Hospital especially since they have not yet received any of the funds they invested in the Government Building. IT Problems may delay finalization of budget 2018 --- Minister Gibson Sr. --- SZV and APS not yet paid. PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr. announced on Wednesday that while in Curacao last week he received a receipt from the government of Curacao showing that they have deposited NAF.59M which has been derived from the division of assets from the former Netherlands Antilles. Asked now that government has received that monies which he said in prior press conferences will be used to pay off the debt owed to SZV and APS have been paid to the two entities and if the government of St. Maarten began paying back SZV for the investments they made in the New Government Building. The Minister said that while the monies are on government accounts the payment to SZV and APS have not yet been made. As for the rent for the government building Minister Gibson said the rent is due in the month of July. Cleaning of Tax System ---COM approved the legislation to clear up the clutter, succession to be repealed. The Minister of Finance also announced that the Council of Ministers approved the legislation to clear up the clutter in the tax system. Gibson said that the focus is to shift from direct taxes to indirect taxes while stabilizing government revenues that would allow government to meet its obligations to the general public. He said currently the revenues is at a level that is insufficient to meet its obligations while maintaining a balanced budget. Gibson said reforming the tax system is complicated and it is also quite a challenge, thus the process has been tackled in segments. He said laws that are hardly used and those that no longer serves the best interest of the people will be removed. Laws that will be removed (repealed) are the following: The succession law, which the Parliament of St. Maarten indicated they want to be repealed. The Property Tax law which has never been implemented on St. Maarten while it is implemented in Aruba and Curacao will also be removed since it is also considered a clutter. This also includes the surcharge that goes with property taxes. Dividend tax which has not been producing anything. The law on Economic Zones which have been on the books for many years. Tax Industry Tax Facility, which is used by hotel owners will no longer be offered to hoteliers. Tax Facility for the development of land. Minister Gibson said all of the laws that will be stricken based on a decision taken by the Council of Ministers were done based on the recommendations they received from the experts since 2015. Gibson made clear that while the COM took the decision to repeal the various laws, they still have to follow the various channels before it can be expedited. He said the Council of Advice will have to look at the decision prior to it going to the Parliament of St. Maarten for debate and finalization. IT System vexing issues --- will cause a delay in finalizing 2018 budget. Gibson said that it has been some time now the government of St. Maarten have been having some time now and it is indeed a vexing issue, he assured that government will solve its IT problems. The Minister of Finance said he already got some type of indication that the CFT will approve a substantial loan (NAF 40M) to St. Maarten since they have already produced two balanced budgets. He said that goal is to bring the tax department, Inspection and the Receivers Office in one building and improving the IT system to ensure they have an efficient system since this is what have been hampering compliance over the years. Gibson said due to the IT problems facing government has caused a major setback because the information that had to be registered and recorded for them to make their financial statements were not recorded due to the IT issues. He said the finance department have a backlog of 4 months. The Minister said this is a vexing issue because they do have a deadline to meet, such as the budget, annual statements all of which could be in jeopardy. 5G Will Provide Major Benefits For Mission Critical Communications, But Narrowband Technologies Are Still Essential Says ETELM At 5G World London, England, 14 June 2017 Now is an exciting time to unify legacy and new technologies for Mission Critical Communications (MCC) to ensure that users retain existing functionality whilst adding new advanced LTE services, says Paul Ward, International Sales Director for ETELM, a leading manufacturer of advanced Mission Critical communications infrastructures. Speaking today at 5G World in London, Ward commented: LTE high speed mobile broadband will have a major impact on the mission critical communications market, bringing new advanced functionality and applications to users. However, LTE standards for Mission Critical users are still relatively new, and so LTE services should complement, not replace, PMR services. Ward explained that as LTE evolves it will add new standardised MC functionalities for Video & Data (MCVIDEO and MCDATA) and users will be able to choose when and where to deploy these services. With the ability to integrate other standard technologies, the user will get far greater flexibility as they can retain existing subscriber equipment whilst introducing new smart technologies and data applications. It also allows for lower cost, wider coverage, narrowband services to be deployed where cost-efficiencies are required. Ward continued: Every country has different frequency regulations, and in some areas private LTE systems may not be possible, so the user has the choice of obtaining 4G services from operators or retaining their own private narrowband solution. It is likely that these users will need to have a combination of services PMR for highly secure, mission critical services and LTE for business-critical applications. With ETELMs 4GLinked fully integrated solution, operators can also offer MVNO Services with seamless broadband and narrowband services on their existing core networks. ETELMs 4GLinked solution provides the ideal platform for users to benefit from the best features of different technologies. 4GLinked is the only system in the world that allows TETRA (and other PMR technologies) to connect directly to the LTE Core, without any gateway interface allowing direct connectivity between subscribers of different technologies over a single network, ensuring fast call-setup and seamless roaming between technologies. ETELM has invested significantly in its own LTE & TETRA base station technology as we believe a unified technology solution is the future and offers users the best option in respect of functionality, security, coverage and cost, added Ward. Continuing, he explained how Smart Cities will benefit from technology integration offered by 4GLinked, allowing the administrators to select the most appropriate technology for the specific needs of each type of user group. Ward finished his presentation with one clear message: 5G is the future for mission critical communications and the benefits are enormous for emergency services, professional users, operators and Smart Cities. However, there are still many areas to consider in terms of how the market implements these advanced services. Although 5G will provide dramatic new functionality for mission critical users, the implementation must be carefully planned and the transition risks carefully managed. ETELM is well known for its more than 35 years experience developing advanced radio communications infrastructure. With continuous innovations, ETELM has overcome legacy issues by integrating its TETRA solution to the LTE Core, which enables its TETRA base stations to connect directly to the same LTE Core network as any 4G LTE base station. If youd like to hear more from ETELM, visit booth 5G140 at 5G World in London (13-15 June 2017), where it will be exhibiting, or for further information, visit the website at: http://www.etelm.fr/. GTX Corp Expands Distribution in Hong Kong and Chile and Files New Patent LOS ANGELES, CA (Marketwired) 06/14/17 (OTC PINK: GTXO), an IoT platform in the personal location wearable and wandering assistive technology business, announces expanding distribution into Hong Kong and Chile, as well as the filing of a new patent for its wearable yet invisible, monitoring and wandering recovery GPS SmartSole. We are excited to be the first company to launch the GPS SmartSole in Chile and expect that this highly innovative, discrete product will bring relief to the many caregivers across Chile who struggle to look after loved ones afflicted with debilitating diseases such as Alzheimers and Dementia, said Manuel Vargas, one of the founders of Centro de Dia Damos Vida. Founded in 2010, Centro de Dia Damos Vida is the first adult day care center established in Chile specializing in people living with dementia disorders such as Alzheimers, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia, providing a professional, compassionate and attentive . After several months of testing, we are pleased to begin offering our senior residents the possibility of carrying out their normal lives while being securely and discretely monitored by our caregivers in case they wander and get lost, said Jenny Choi at in Hong Kong. Founded by the Rt. Rev. Bishop R.O. Hall of the Anglican Church in 1949, St. James Settlement began as a club for boys and girls and by 2016, had 59 service points in operation across Hong Kong, with around 1,200 staff members to provide a vast range of high quality services for people of different ages and needs. Our new alliances in Chile and Hong Kong are part of our efforts to expand our brand and establish the patented GPS SmartSole as the premier wandering assistive solution, stated Andrew Duncan, GTX Corp Director of Business Development. In addition and as part of its ongoing efforts to augment and expand its IP portfolio, GTX recently converted a provisional patent application filed last year into a new utility patent application. The patent application covers certain important manufacturing methods and structures of the GPS SmartSole while leveraging prior filing dates. Larry Henneman, GTXs patent attorney, commented, GTX Corp continues to improve and innovate around the implementation of tracking technology in wearable products like footwear. These second level inventions clearly distinguish the pursuit and commitment of true technology developers, like GTX, from late to the party inventors that attempt to dabble in the field of wearable tech. This application builds upon GTXs ongoing patent strategy to dominate and protect its business in the wearable tracking market with 14 patents already issued and hundreds of claims covering design and utility with priority dates going back to October 2002. GTX Corp has been at the forefront of wearable tech for over a decade and holds numerous patents in the field of wireless communications and embedding miniaturized electronics inside footwear. With several footwear wearable tech products currently in the market place and more expected out this year, the Companys flagship GPS SmartSole is a stigma free, safety and security wearable technology solution placed in the wearers shoes that contain a GPS tracking chip connected through Telefonica SA groups global cellular network that sends location information to the GTX Corp proprietary IoT platform, showing the exact location of the individual wearing them. The patented is a non-visible tracking device, initially created as a wander guard recovery solution for those at risk of wandering due to Alzheimers, dementia, autism or traumatic brain injury, designed to monitor the location and whereabouts of people afflicted with cognitive memory disorders who have a tendency to wander, become lost or disoriented. They can also be used by people at risk of GTX Corp (GTXO) is a pioneer in Smart, Mobile and Wearable GPS tracking and recovery location based solutions, supported through a proprietary IoT enterprise monitoring platform. GTX offers a complete end-to-end solution of hardware, software and connectivity. The Company develops 2 way GPS tracking technologies which seamlessly integrate with consumer products and enterprise applications. GTX Corp utilizes the latest in miniaturized, low power consumption GPS, Cellular and BLE technology and offers a proprietary platform that enables subscribers to track in real time the whereabouts of people or high valued assets through a complete end to end customizable transceiver module, wireless connectivity gateway, smart phone Apps, middleware, and IoT portal. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with distributors in 14 countries and customers in over 35 countries, GTX is known for its award-winning Think Dr. Scholls meets LoJack, the worlds first invisible wearable technology device created for those at risk of wandering due to Alzheimers, dementia, autism and traumatic brain injury. Currently there are 100 million people worldwide who are part of this at risk wandering group and that number is expected to reach . The Company doesnt just make and sell the best GPS tracking products, they deliver innovative, miniaturized, low power consumption wearable tech that provides safety, security and peace of mind at the touch of a button. We put the in Wearable Tech. #withyou #smartsole Disclaimer: GTX Corp does not warrant or represent that the unauthorized use of materials drawn from the content of this document will not infringe rights of third parties who are not owned or affiliated by GTX Corp. Further GTX Corp cannot be held responsible or liable for the unauthorized use of this documents content by third parties unknown to the company. This news release contains forward-looking statements. The terms and phrases expects, would, will, believes, and similar terms and phrases are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by GTX in light of its experience and its perception of current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that GTX believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause GTXs actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Certain risk factors that may cause actual results to differ are set forth in GTXs Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (which may be obtained at ). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on GTXs forward-looking statements. GTX has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. 213.489.3019 Consumer Purchase of GPS SmartSoles GTX Corp United Kingdom In the UK, GTX Corp operates from its London office. For more information, please contact: Nelson Skip Riddle Email: Tel: +44 7785 364100 Resounding Win for Comba Telecom against Commscope in Patent Infringement Case SAO PAULO, BRAZIL and HONG KONG, CHINA (Marketwired) 06/14/17 (Comba Telecom or the Group) (HKSE: 2342), a global leading wireless solutions provider, announced victory and closure of a civil patent infringement case brought against it by Commscope Holding Company Inc. (Commscope) and its subsidiary Andrew LLC (Andrew) in Brazil with regard to RET (Remote Electrical Tilt) antenna technologies. Comba Telecom was victorious at the trial court and at the appellate court; all instances found that Comba Telecoms products do not infringe on the multiple patents asserted by Andrew. The final decision by the 1st Business Chamber of the Sao Paulo Court of Appeals therefore refuses permission for Andrew to pursue further legal action and the case is now closed. said, We are delighted that this case is finally over and the Group has been exonerated at all levels by the courts of Brazil. This outcome follows a similar case where Commscope and its subsidiaries were soundly defeated by Comba Telecom in the courts of China. Additionally, Comba Telecom overcame legal hurdles in USA regarding antenna technology and Commscope. We firmly believe in fair competition and have the utmost respect for intellectual property rights. Despite the lengthy legal proceedings, we will [always] staunchly defend ourselves against baseless allegations of intellectual property infringement. concluded, Comba Telecom owns thousands of patents and invests heavily in R&D to bring technologically advanced solutions to the global market and as such, we have grown to become one of the leading base station antenna vendors in the world. We will continue in our efforts to sharpen our competitive edge, bring value to our customers and advance the industry as whole. Comba Telecom is a leading global wireless solutions provider with its own R&D facilities, manufacturing base, and sales and service teams. The Company offers a comprehensive suite of products and services including wireless access, wireless enhancement, antenna and subsystems and wireless transmission to its global customers. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Comba Telecoms global operations include manufacturing bases in China, R&D centers in China and the U.S.A. and more than 40 offices worldwide. In December 2016, the Company won the Technological Achievement Grand Award at the 2016 Hong Kong Awards for Industries. Comba Telecom has been included into several indexes including the MSCI China Small Cap Index, Hang Seng Composite Index (Information Technology Industry Index, MidCap & SmallCap Index and SmallCap Index), Hang Seng Global Composite Index, Hang Seng Internet & Information Technology Index, as well as the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index. For further information, please visit: . Contacts: Ken Man Senior Director of Corporate Marketing Comba Telecom Limited +852 2116 6024 Heidi Chu Assistant Marketing Manager, Corporate Marketing Comba Telecom Limited +852 2116 6071 UCI Division of Continuing Education Secures Global Partnership With IEEE Computer Society IRVINE, CA (Marketwired) 06/14/17 and IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Global Partner Program (GPP) that allows the two organizations to jointly provide additional educational benefits and learning options in key technology areas to DCEs existing students and to IEEE members worldwide. Both organizations will leverage existing content and utilize shared expertise to define future educational needs and create related material for their shared membership and students. The partnership between DCE and IEEE CS will leverage the strengths of an academic resource and an esteemed industry organization to provide a wide variety of additional options to professionals seeking continuing education, said Dave Dimas, Ph.D., director of engineering, sciences and information technology programs at DCE. Our students along with the membership of IEEE CS will benefit from DCEs university-level learning solutions and IEEE CSs information, networking and career-development resources. DCE offers more than 15 information technologies certificate programs designed for professionals who wish to expand their knowledge in their field of interest. Each program offers courses and curriculum to help professionals develop the skills needed to succeed in this rapidly expanding field. From on campus to online offerings, DCE programs provide the flexibility and most up-to-date knowledge required for participants to advance their career development. DCE is well known in the Orange County community for its dedication to the highest quality instruction on campus and online designed for the working professional who seeks career advancement and personal enrichment, noted Andy Chen, IEEE CS Vice President. The IEEE CS education modules offer both fundamental and top-trend courses, including professional certification. The fundamental courses based on the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) focus on the career oriented skills such as software development, testing, maintenance and management; the top-trend courses address such competitiveness driven training topics, for example, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, and Internet of Things. The mutual cooperation between the two organizations will help enhance our products and expand our client base. This is a unique opportunity to combine the expertise and resources that the University of California, Irvine offers with IEEE Computer Societys global reach and worldwide influence, said Professor Jean-Luc Gaudiot, IEEE CS President. It will synergize our respective goals and enhance the reach of this major institution of higher learning at the same time as reinforce the quality and timeliness of the professional education offered to the members of this international professional society, be they researchers or practitioners. To learn more about UCI DCEs Information Technologies programs, visit or call (949) 824-5414. The University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education (DCE) provides lifelong learning opportunities to thousands of students worldwide each year fulfilling the schools 60-year curriculum platform to connect degree programs to the world of work and achievement after graduation. The Division offers a broad range of certificate programs, specialized studies, and sequential courses to local, regional and global markets through online, on-campus and on-site delivery. A leader in the open education movement, the Division offers free and content through the initiative. For more information about UCI Division of Continuing Education, visit . Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. Located in one of the worlds safest and most economically vibrant communities, its Orange Countys second-largest employer, contributing $4.8 billion annually to the local economy. : IEEE Computer Society, the computing industrys unmatched source for technology information and career development, offers a comprehensive array of industry-recognized products, services and professional opportunities. Known as the community for technology leaders, IEEE Computer Societys vast resources include membership, publications, a renowned digital library, training programs, conferences, and top-trending technology events. Visit for more information on all products and services. Vivian Slater 714-573-0899 x235 A Taiwanese company that assembles Apples iPhones and other electronics is considering building a plant in Wisconsin that could employ thousands of people and give Gov. Scott Walker a huge political boost as he prepares to run for re-election. A person with direct knowledge of the negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to the Associated Press on Wednesday that the state is in talks with Foxconn. At least one other upper Midwest state, Michigan, is also pursuing the plant. President Donald Trump alluded to negotiations with an unspecified company during a visit to the Milwaukee area on Tuesday, saying Walker might get a very happy surprise very soon. We have a lot of companies moving into the United States, Trump said. Were negotiating with a lot of companies. Just backstage we were negotiating with a major, major incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions, and I think theyre going to give the governor a very happy surprise. Foxconn assembles smartphones and other devices for Apple, Sony, Blackberry and other brands mostly in China, where its plants employ about 1 million people. It has been the subject of complaints for years about its labor practices and worker suicides at plants in China that manufacture Apple products. Walkers administration deferred comment to the states chief economic development agency. Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. spokesman Mark Maley said the agency doesnt comment on pending or potential opportunities. It would be great for Wisconsin for a lot of reasons, said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, who noted that Wisconsin is already home to similar electronics manufacturers. I am assuming Foxconn was attracted by the fact theres already a skilled workforce here, and theres a foundation to produce more such workers through the tech colleges and the other parts of the education system, Still said. Foxconn was founded in 1974 and purchased Japans Sharp Corp. last year. It announced in January that it was considering investing $7 billion in a U.S. factory to produce display panels that would create as many as 50,000 jobs. To put that number in perspective, the number of jobs associated with economic incentive awards made by Walkers job-creation agency since 2011 totals 45,607. Walker made a brief, previously unannounced trip to Japan the weekend of June 2 to pursue an undisclosed economic development opportunity. That same weekend, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was also in Japan. Snyder has been increasing pressure on Michigan lawmakers to approve tax incentives for large-scale business expansions in the state as it tries to convince Foxconn to locate in his state. Michigans Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof said this week in advocating for the incentives to lure Foxconn that we should put our best foot forward so that we dont lose all of it or part of it to a neighboring state. Wisconsin state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, said Wednesday he would jump at the chance to work with the Walker administration to pass any economic development incentives deemed necessary to land the Foxconn plant. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, a member of the WEDC board, declined to comment on the details, but said were a long ways away from knowing it will happen. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he didnt have first-hand knowledge of the negotiations, but added any potential job announcement is good news for Wisconsin. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said in January that a decision would depend on factors including whether a state where the factory might be built would be willing to provide low-cost land or power. He also said Pennsylvania was a leading candidate, but that the company was in discussions with other states. A Foxconn partner, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, said after a December meeting with then-President-elect Trump that the company was considering a $7 billion investment in the U.S. A spokesman for the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce said the business group hasnt heard anything about the company looking to locate in the Madison area. Were certainly rooting for it, though, Erik Greenfield said. Jim Paetsch, vice president of Milwaukee 7, the regional economic development group for southeastern Wisconsin, declined to comment. A man who is charged with stabbing another man to death in his Downtown apartment in March was charged Wednesday with two separate attempts to escape from the Dane County Jail within the past three weeks. Two criminal complaints against Darrick E. Anderson, 24, of Columbus, indicate that those attempts didnt get very far at all. But after the most recent attempt, according to one of the complaints, Anderson told a Dane County sheriffs detective that he was trying to go home, and that he wanted to get out pretty bad. In one of the attempts, on May 24, a complaint states, Anderson hid in a shower stall at the jail. Attempts to find him were unsuccessful until jail staff reviewed recordings of video monitors and saw that Anderson went into the shower area, which is out of camera range, and then wasnt seen on camera again. Anderson appeared in court Wednesday in a restraint chair with his ankles shackled, wearing a suicide prevention smock, and guarded by extra sheriffs deputies. His lawyer, Tim Kiefer, said that Anderson has a mental health issue and has been held in solitary confinement. I have no special proposal, Kiefer said, but what were doing now isnt in his best interest. Court Commissioner Brian Asmus said he didnt have the authority to tell the sheriffs office how to manage inmates. Anderson was charged in April with first-degree intentional homicide for the March 27 stabbing death of Andrew Nesbitt, 46, at Nesbitts apartment on North Butler Street. Dane County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Vincent Tranchida testified at a hearing in April that Nesbitt suffered 70 knife wounds. Anderson has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to the murder charge. According to the complaints filed Wednesday: On May 24, deputies began looking for Anderson about 11 a.m. after he appeared not to have come out of his cell at the City-County Building for a canteen delivery. He was not in his cell, though. Deputies looked for him at all possible locations he could be before reviewing video footage and seeing that he had gone into the shower area hours earlier. After Anderson was found squatting in the shower area, he was taken back to his cell, where a deputy interviewed him. He initially wore a sheet draped over his head. Asked why he was in the shower, Anderson said it was because the other inmates annoyed him. He said he planned to try to dash into a hallway from the shower, but you guys kept closing the door so I could not. While his plan initially was just to run into the hallway, he said his eventual plan was to escape from jail. On June 5, Anderson bolted from a deputy who was doing a security check of Andersons cell block. He got down a hallway but was stymied when he couldnt find another unlocked door from there and was captured after some initial resistance. The next day, Anderson told a detective he was trying to get out and go home to his family. Four Eastpointe citizens filed a federal lawsuit against Mayor Monique Owens Wednesday alleging their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when they were not allowed to speak during audience participation at a recent city council meeting. Guest Commentary By Charles Lammam & Milagros Palacios Consider thisif you had to pay all your taxes for the year up front, you would have worked for the government (federal, provincial and local) every minute from New Years Day until June 9. Thats why we call it Tax Freedom Day, because June 9 is the day you finally start working for yourself. And if you think working 159 days of the year to pay taxes is too long, hang on. In the future, you may have to wait even longer for Tax Freedom Day because higher taxes are on their way up. Its actually easy to lose sight of all the taxes we pay throughout the year, which include everything from income taxes, payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, carbon taxes, profit taxes, import taxes, to various sin taxes and much more. Some of these taxes are visible but many are hidden, making it difficult for the average Canadian to get a clear sense of their total tax bill. Thats why the Fraser Institute calculates Tax Freedom Day every yearits an easy way to help Canadians understand how much they pay in taxes. And its not an insignificant amount. In 2017, the average Canadian family with two or more people will pay $47,135 in total taxesthats 43 per cent of their $108,674 annual income. But believe it or not, 43 per cent isnt even enough to pay the full freight of government. Remember, the federal and many provincial governments are running deficits, meaning theyre spending more than theyre collecting in revenues. A deficit today is nothing more than a deferred tax that must be paid by taxpayers in the future. Collectively, our governments are spending $41 billion more than the taxes we currently pay. Which leads to another calculation. If governments in Canada, in an effort to balance their budgets, increased taxes to match their spending, Tax Freedom Day would actually arrive nine days later. That means you would start working for yourself on June 18after working for the government for the first 168 days of the year. Many governments have also announced significant tax increases so the spectre of a higher tax burden in the future is real. For instance, take the Trudeau governments plan to impose carbon pricing on all provinces starting next year at the equivalent rate of $10 per tonne, with the rate reaching $50 per tonne by 2022. This tax will directly raise the cost of many goods we consume including fuel for our cars and natural gas to heat our homes. Well all pay indirectly as higher production and transportation costs drive up consumer prices. And then theres the higher payroll taxes working Canadians will pay for the expansion of the Canada Pension Plan, which starts in 2019. Once fully implemented in 2025, Canadian workers will pay a two per cent higher tax on eligible earnings up to the current limit, and an additional eight per cent above the current limit (up to a maximum amount of earnings). All this doesnt even account for the potential for higher taxes at the provincial and municipal levels, too, which would drive the tax burden higher still. June 9 may seem late for Tax Freedom Day, but without a change in direction, all signs point to an even later day in the future. Charles Lammam is the Director, Fiscal Studies, Fraser Institute and Milagros Palacios is Senior Research Economist, Fraser Institute. By Phil Gurski in Ottawa New Canadian Media I have come to know the journalist Michael Petrou over the past few years. He would sometimes call me to seek my views on terrorism when he was with Macleans magazine and I relied heavily on his book Renegades the story of Canadians in the Spanish Civil War for a section of my second book on Western foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. I happen to think he is a great writer and a solid scholar. In a recent piece of analysis on the CBC Web site Michael noted that Afghanistan is teetering on the edge of a dark abyss and that Canada, which lost 158 soldiers in its decade-long post 9/11 deployment, should join its closest allies and return to Afghanistan. He argues that much progress has been made in Afghanistan since 2001 (infant mortality, a fledgling democracy, female school attendance) but that true advancement will be measured over decades. For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to be leaning towards a peacekeeping mission in West Africa (possibly Mali) although even there the government is waffling. And so the question remains: should Canada recommit to Afghanistan? Great question with no easy answer, especially in the context of the bombing in Kabul on May 31 that killed over 150. I will play the classic Canadian card and straddle the fence (joke: why did the Canadian cross the road? A: to get to the middle), providing views to supporting both a yes and a no response. It is not that I am normally wishy-washy: its just that there are solid arguments on both sides. Afghanistan needs the help of the international community and that community must respond. I fully believe that we cannot abandon Afghanistan. We tried that once after the ragtag mujahedin kicked Soviet ass (with oodles of outside help it must be added) and look where that got us. Warlordism, brutality and the arrival of the Taliban, which in turn played genial Afghan hosts to Al Qaeda. Afghanistan became a de facto failed state (it is hard to describe the Taliban regime as a state) and we know that failed states are prime real estate for terrorist groups (Somalia, northern Nigeria, Iraq, Yemen, etc.). If we dont want to see the rise of yet another terrorist organisation on the scale of AQ we might want to keep our presence there robust. Besides, dont the Afghan people deserve a normal life? Given that the Afghan government appears incapable of providing the conditions for one shouldnt we offer, on humanitarian grounds if nothing else? We will still run into the problem of Western ways clashing with Afghan culture but surely there are universal principles we can help maintain. On the other hand, Afghanistan is not known as the graveyard of empires for nothing. Many have tried to tame and control the country and none have succeeded. In addition there is the problem of how long. We were there for more than ten years and while, as Michael points out, some progress has been made the place is still a mess and may be getting worse. Will we need to establish an open-ended mission? How much will it cost? Are Canadians willing to accept more casualties in a country far away and little understood? Is the Canadian military equipped (materiel and human resource-wise) to continue multiple tours for our men and women in uniform? What is the end game? How do we measure our success? What is our exit strategy? Does anyone have an answer to these? Carleton Universitys Steve Saideman has an interesting blog on lessons learned the first time around. I fear that this conundrum falls into the damned if we do and damned if we dont category. We cannot turn our backs on Afghanistan even if we seek to measure it solely through the lens of national interests and security. Afghanistan needs the help of the international community and that community must respond. And yet those questions are still there. Furthermore why Afghanistan and not Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Central African Republic? Arent they as worthy? Canada may be taking its time with this decision, and that may be frustrating to some, but a sober second thought is indeed required in this instance. If we are both to honour the deaths of those 158 soldiers and prevent 158 more we need to think this through. Phil Gurski is a 30-year intelligence veteran and the author of the forthcoming The Lesser Jihads: Bringing Islamist extremism to the world. This piece was originally appeared in New Canadian Media. See http://www.newcanadianmedia.ca/component/k2/41684-what-to-do-about-afgha... Canadian Armed Forces legacy in Afghanistan The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) conducted operations in Afghanistan for more than 12 years in a number of different roles involving air, land and sea assets. CAF activities included combat, security, development, support and training operations in varying capacities and regions in Afghanistan. Since the beginning of the mission, more than 40,000 CAF members have deployed to Afghanistan, many more than once, making the military engagement the largest deployment of CAF personnel since the Second World War. Canada was part of a larger NATO-led and United Nations-sanctioned mission that included several NATO and other like-minded nations. The international community is focused on helping the Government of Afghanistan assume responsibility for security, governance and development and to help the Afghan people rebuild their nation as a stable, democratic, self-sufficient society. The first step in this transition process (known as Inteqal) focuses on transferring the responsibility for security from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the Afghan national security forces (ANSF) by 31 December 2014. Successful transition requires that the ANSF be fully capable of tackling security challenges on a sustainable and irreversible basis. Non-existent in 2001, the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police have grown in size and strength. Today, there are nearly 350,000 uniformed Afghan soldiers and police that are planning, leading and conducting across the entire country. The transition process is on track to be completed by the end of 2014. Canadas ultimate goal is to help Afghans rebuild Afghanistan into a viable country that is better governed, more stable and secure, and never again a safe haven for terrorists. To this end, Canadians have assisted in improving security, diplomacy, human rights and development. CAF activities aimed to establish the security required to promote development and an environment conducive to the improvement of Afghan life. CAF members: conducted combat operations to root out and drive out insurgent groups such as the Taliban to create a secure environment for development and reconstruction to take place; maintained security in various areas to allow Afghans to rebuild; facilitated the delivery of programs and projects that support national economic recovery and rehabilitation; and trained members of the ANSF and senior officials in the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence to provide them with the tools necessary to sustain their own security. Afghanistans challenges cannot be overcome by military means alone. As well as military personnel, the Canadian effort in Afghanistan included diplomats, development workers, police officers, and experts in human rights, good governance, the rule of law, and the institutions of a healthy democracy. This wide range of expertise was assembled to bring a whole-of-government approach to the complex task of nation-building. The CAF were one component of this effort that also included other Canadian government departments, such as: the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Canadian civilian police departments; Public Safety; Correctional Services Canada; and Canada Border Services Agency, among others. What does a 'Strengthen Our Schools' win mean for Penn-Harris-Madison? One of three candidates backed by a conservative-leaning group has flipped a seat on the Penn-Harris-Madison school board. Here's what we know. An Oregon motorist will stand trial for allegedly running a pair of bicyclists off of a rural Fitchburg road in 2015, a Dane County judge ruled Wednesday. Circuit Judge William Hanrahan denied an attempt by a lawyer for John Dohm, 62, to call the bicyclists to testify, finding that a preliminary hearing was not the proper venue to argue competing inferences raised using the same evidence, but instead to decide whether the evidence could plausibly show that a crime was committed. Hanrahan told Dohms lawyer, Charles Giesen, that arguments about evidence and the credibility of witnesses was an issue for trial, not a preliminary hearing. Giesen argued that Dohm had a right to present testimony at the hearing. Dohm is charged with two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and two counts of reckless driving causing injury. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. In January 2016, another Dane County judge dismissed the charges against Dohm, finding that probable cause hadnt been established after the prosecutor in the case at the time refused Giesens call for testimony by one of the bicyclists. But in March, a state appeals court reinstated the case, which led to Wednesdays preliminary hearing. A criminal complaint states that in August 2015, after some words were exchanged between Dohm and the bicyclists, Dohms car made contact with one of the bicycles, which collided with the other bicycle, causing both riders to fall and suffer injuries. The family of a windsurfer who was killed on Lake Mendota last month in a crash involving a UW-Madison lifesaving boat plans to ask a Dane County judge to grant them access to evidence that their attorney says is being withheld by the university, the Sheriffs Office and the state Department of Natural Resources. Evidence from the crash that killed Yu Chen, 43, likely will form the basis of a wrongful death lawsuit, said attorney Jay Urban, who is representing Chens mother, Xiao Xu. Under state law, any such claim involving state employees must be filed within 120 days of the death. But Urban said the Dane County Sheriffs Office has withheld records of the crash and doesnt plan to release them until its investigation is complete, which he said could take longer than 120 days. The state and county records will likely show that the boat was traveling too fast for conditions, that the boats crew was inattentive or both, Urban said. Sheriff Dave Mahoney declined to comment on the cause or details of the May 31 crash, citing the open investigation. The lifesaving boat was returning from a call on Governors Island when the crash occurred straight out from the area between the UW Lifesaving Station and The Edgewater hotel. In a statement Tuesday, Urban said Chen was hit from behind, where his body was chopped by the power boat propellers despite the fact that the crash happened on a clear day when Chen should have been visible from about a mile away. Among other things, the family is asking the state to help recover Chens arm, which was severed in the crash and held a GPS watch that could provide evidence related to Chens speed and coordinates that day. The motion, which had not yet been submitted, seeks permission to depose the three operators of the boat that struck Chen, as well as access to all documents, photos and videos related to the incident, including any videos from the Governors Mansion in Maple Bluff, which overlooks the lake. Attorneys are also seeking UW Lifesaving training and maintenance records. The motion also seeks to examine the boat that struck Chen, which Sheriff Dave Mahoney confirmed to the State Journal has been released back to UW Lifesaving. Urban said the boat has been put back into service, and the DNR has refused to share data about it or permit it to be inspected. Urban said the Sheriffs Office told him the DNR was doing GPS analysis or mapping. Mahoney said he didnt know how DNR was involved in the investigation. A DNR spokesman referred questions to the Sheriffs Office. Remembering Chen Through his tenacity and kindness, Chen made friends everywhere he went, said one of those friends, Dandan Zheng. She said around the world, those friends are mourning the loss of the physicist and windsurfer they knew and loved. Chen was born in Zhengzhou, China, in 1973, and was an only child. After graduating with a masters degree in nuclear physics, Chen moved to the United States to earn a doctorate in nuclear and medical physics from the University of Michigan. He researched new and better methods for radiation cancer treatment. Chen moved to Madison in 2007 and worked as a senior medical physicist. He began to windsurf with the Hoofer Sailing Club and became an instructor with the club. When we were out there windsurfing together, he always had his eye on you, and you felt his intensity and joy whether he was a mile away or greeting you when passing nearby, windsurfer Chamond Liu said. Chens compassion for his friends and all that he did made him a treasured friend to many people around the world, Zheng said. Zheng met Chen in 2006 at the University of Michigan. While Zheng became a clinical physicist, working with cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy, Chen believed he could help more people by going into research. He really loves research, and he is a very persistent person, Zheng told the State Journal. He thought he could make a bigger impact on these cancer patients (as a researcher). Making others happy The need to help others was a common thread throughout Chens life. After Chens passing, his mother wrote a letter to her son detailing her love for him and the kindness he showed to others throughout his life. Zheng provided the State Journal with an English translation. You volunteered and devoted your time to all those people in need, simply because making them happy would also make you happy, she wrote. In his professional life, Chen took time to help those around him while working on products that would help thousands of cancer patients, said former co-worker Weiguo Lu. Not only is his (research and development) so important, he also spent a great deal of time helping other researchers, Lu said. He is the person who cares for others more than himself. A Madison after-school program working to boost academic achievement among at-risk youth hopes a new $50,000 grant will help it better prepare for high school the middle school students it serves. The Simpson Street Free Press recently received a two-year, $50,000 grant from the Afterschool Alliance and New York Life Foundation to equip students at three South and Southeast Side middle schools Wright, Badger Rock and Sennett for high school, said Simpson Street Free Press editor Taylor Kilgore. Our plan is a laser focus on the six Rs reading, writing, arithmetic and revision, revision, revision, Kilgore said. Theyll practice writing, literacy, math and science with large doses of close reading support. The 25-year-old Simpson Street Free Press serves students in third through 12th grades from low-income neighborhoods. Students report and write stories for six student newspapers, with program graduates enrolled in college acting as mentors and editors. Math support is also part of the award-winning program, said Mike Ivey, Free Press board president. It also runs book clubs and a youth center at South Towne Mall. We will flood three South Side newsrooms with focused, project-based, one-on-one academic support for middle schoolers, said Sarah Useche, a Madison Area Technical College student and a Free Press graduate. I like this plan because we can watch and mentor a specific group of students, Useche added. We can measure and see their academic progress. Georgetown, SC (29440) Today Thunderstorms. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Thunderstorms. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement IS lays them everywhere: in the sand, hidden in artificial rocks, in wells, door thresholds, generators, toilet doors and even corpses. Sometimes the detonations are triggered by almost invisible filaments, others are set off by pressure or movement sensors. A mine somewhere is almost sure to go off after every heavy shower. "It always happens after rain when mud is splashed onto their sensors," the driver says. "You can't make any false step!" For Kurds on the Syrian side of the border, the brother of the imprisoned PKK leader founded a Kurdish party and military arm in 2004, the People's Protection Units, or YPG. Since 2011, the party and its militia have demonstrated significant flexibility as they seek to negotiate the convoluted Syrian civil war. First, the YPG entered into a tacit agreement with the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad according to which the Kurdish force would refrain from participating in the rebellion. In return, they were allowed to take control of all Kurdish regions of Syria in 2012 without a fight. Then, when IS besieged the Kurdish enclave of Kobani in 2014 -- only failing to conquer the city due to help from the U.S. Air Force -- YPG became a perfect partner for U.S. President Barack Obama's Syrian strategy. Obama wanted to fight IS, but not Assad, something that Syrian rebels refused to agree to. YPG, though, proved a willing partner. Tenacious Ignorance of Reality Since then, the Kurds have joined forces with both the U.S. and Russia. Among those forces assembled under the SDF umbrella, they are the only American ally worth mentioning. They receive air support, weapons and ammunition deliveries and battlefield assistance from U.S. Special Forces, which have several bases in Kurdish-controlled areas. In tenacious ignorance of reality , U.S. generals praise the Syrian YPG as their most reliable ally -- while in the same breath pledging Turkey their support in the fight against the terrorists of the Turkish PKK. Turkey, meanwhile, has sidelined itself since 2012 with its focus on fighting the Kurds. For years, Ankara allowed IS supporters to cross the Turkish border to Syria unhindered because Islamic State targeted the Kurds. But IS ultimately became the world's Enemy No. 1 and the U.S. lost trust in its NATO ally. Ocalan's pliable military, meanwhile, soon had the strongest military in the world on its side -- a ludicrous ascendency, and one which, if the party leadership has anything to say about it, isn't over yet. The Raqqa offensive, though, is an advance into foreign territory for the Kurds. That's why their use of revolutionary names from the past to refer to battlefield positions also has a practical reason: "We aren't familiar with the villages here at all," says the officer next to the radio operator prior to the launch of the offensive. "Few of us have ever been in this area." The SDF front line to the west, north and east of Raqqa stretches kilometer-for-kilometer through the gently undulating steppe-land in an endless chain of modestly sized outposts. Hardly any of them are larger than a dozen fighters, sometimes nestled in an apricot orchard, other times on the roof of a farm building, protected by a sniper surveying the surrounding area while lying on a foam mattress -- armed with a self-made, 1.5-meter-long weapon called a Zagros, which can fire large-caliber, 12.7 mm ammunition at a distance of up to 2 kilometers. Every outpost commander has a tablet with a constantly updated map of skirmishes. Mines are cleared from every new position. Reconnaissance teams or those who recently fled provide a rough description of the situation at each site: How many IS troops are there and where can they be found? Which paths are mined? Are there tunnels? One Step in a Larger Conflict U.S. Special Forces, which operate just behind the front, occasionally fly camera drones to keep an eye on the IS side of the front. Several units then advance in a pincer movement and, once they have conquered an IS position, they set up camp, defuse mines and blow up tunnel entrances. It has been the same procedure for almost an entire year. The conquest of Raqqa is just one step in the larger conflict, says a commander who has named herself after Clara Zetkin, the German women's rights activist and communist who died in Moscow in 1933. "We aren't just seeking to liberate the country, we also want to change the mentality of the men here. We don't just want to be a Kurdish women's organization, but a power for all women in the world! There have been so many revolutions, but nothing has changed." The diminutive woman in her late 30s speaks of the difficulties of growing up as a woman in an arch-conservative society under Arab and Kurdish influence and says that she is also fighting for their freedom. The Kurdish project of expansion, though, is not without its shortcomings. It does, in fact, aim to liberate women from the brutal patriarchy of IS . But those liberated go from an oppressive system to an air-tight and cleverly disguised regime of party dominance. And the more powerful the Kurdish fighters become, the more rigorously they pursue this goal. Even as Washington, in early May, officially announced its intention to provide significant military support to democratic forces in Syria, YPG secret service units stormed the last remaining offices belonging to Kurdish opposition parties in Qamishli, the largest city in northeastern Syria, and arrested 11 people. A Steadily Expanding PKK Even before that, opposition activists in their own ranks were arrested, beaten and deported to Iraq. Their offices were closed or burned down. Demonstrators who protested the arrests were shot. Freedom, it seems, ends where the party's absolute hold on power is questioned. The same is true when it comes to the liberation of Raqqa: Only those who display obedience are allowed to take part. The result is that one rebel group -- which has fought against IS longer than any other, doesn't belong to the Islamist camp and took part in extended negotiations for American support -- is being kept away from the fighting by force of arms. "Things actually began quite cooperatively," says Abu Isa, a leader of Raqqa Revolutionaries' Brigade who is basically under village arrest in the Kurdish region of Syria. He can receive visitors, but he isn't allowed to leave. "We set up a joint operations headquarters together with the Kurds, just as we had done with the Free Syrian Army. But following the victory in Kobani, everything changed. The YPG officer with whom we had negotiated our cooperation was transferred and his successor said he knew nothing about it and was just following Ocalan's orders. The Americans wanted to support us, but they then changed their minds. Sorry, they told us, but our only allies now are the Kurds." The final break came when Abu Isa and others demanded that Raqqa be liberated by rebels from the city and that residents be allowed to choose their own city council. "That's why we took to the streets in 2011, for freedom and rights," Abu Isa says. Everybody in Raqqa knows, he adds, that the Arabic-Kurdish military alliance, the SDF, is just a guise for the PKK-allied Syrian Kurdish party and its militia, the YPG. "How do the Kurds hope to control Raqqa? It's an Arab city. It won't go well." But one of the rebels' weaknesses is now becoming a significant problem. Like Abu Isa, they also took to the streets in 2011, but they had no plan. They were unified by the idea that Assad had to go, but even today, they still don't have a well-practiced apparatus, an administrative team or resources to replace the state whose dictator they wish to topple. The PKK, on the other hand, has all that in the form of decades of experience as a united, disciplined group that can both conquer and administer. And they have a strategy -- for Raqqa as well. And there are several reasons to believe it might work. 'We Began Hating Islam' One of those is the fact that the war has displaced fully 100,000 people in Raqqa and its immediate surroundings. There are refugees everywhere and often there isn't enough room for them in the camps, leaving them to sleep in the steppe with their overloaded pickups and tractors. Tired and afraid, many of them are from Raqqa, while others have been on the run for years -- having fled from Assad's bombs in 2012, been overrun by Islamic State, been taken into custody or been used as human shields. "Our children have had to drink cow urine. We don't have anything left," says one father. "We are from Salamiyah in western Syria," says another, "and have been on the run for four years, from place to place. When we wanted to flee from Raqqa, IS shot out our front tires. We bought a new tire with the last of our money. Now we are here and the Kurds have been friendly to us." A third man says that it's only here that he started praying again. IS "pushed us so far that we began hating Islam, hating prayer. Anything, anything at all, is better than Daesh," he says, using the local acronym for Islamic State. Most only managed to escape just a few days ago, with the men often still working on helping each other shave off the scraggly beards that IS forced them to grow. Until recently, the only women they saw were completely veiled in black, from head to toe. Now, they are suddenly encountering female Kurdish fighters in fitted uniforms, Kalashnikovs slung around their shoulders and cigarettes dangling out of the corner of their mouths. It is surprising, they say, "but totally okay, really completely okay." New York, June 14, 2017 (SPS) - The Frente POLISARIO invited the Decolonization Committee, through its representative in United Nations, Mr. Bujari Ahmed, to visit the territory to be able to know the reality on the ground, stating in the same time the POLISARIO's willingness to cooperate with all the missions they want to visit. Bujari Ahmed, on the other hand, emphasized the great work of the Fourth Committee, which is in charge of following the resolutions of the General Assembly on the Western Sahara, while reminding that to be able to carry out its work, it is pertinent to visit the territory since the last visit made by this organ was in the year 1975. The Saharawi diplomat clarified in his speech that it is important to assign a date for the already agreed meeting on Western Sahara, which according to Bujari would remove the cause of forgetfulness and media blockade, adding that it is a historical, legal and ethical responsibility of the international system on Western Sahara. In the same regard, Bujari Ahmed, urged the international organization to take action against Morocco's plundering of Saharawi natural resources such as phosphate and fishing, noting that such looting supposes more than five billion dollars for the Moroccan State , Which ends up imposing the rejected status quo. The Saharawi representative recalled that the POLISARIO took legal action against companies involved in the plunder, and that the European Union is expected to respect the judicial decision last year, which ruled that Western Sahara and Morocco are two different territories, Therefore, Saharawi natural resources cannot be included in bilateral agreements originating from Western Sahara.SPS 125/090/TRA This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD The family of a slain Westhill High School grad is confident that justice will be served, despite accusations the New York authorities illegally obtained incriminating statements from the murder defendants that has complicated and delayed the case. In the days after Joseph Comunale was killed, defense attorneys who are now seeking to have their clients tried separately claim an undercover cop coerced information from one suspect, while police obtained a confession from another defendant even though they knew he had a lawyer. But Robert Abrams, an attorney for the Comunales, said the family believes the defendants will be held accountable. We are thoroughly behind the New York District Attorneys Office and we have great confidence they will do a great job and make sure those arrested will be held accountable for their actions, he said. James Rackover, 26, of New York, and Lawrence Dilione, 28, of Jersey City, N.J., were each indicted last month for the Nov. 13 murder. They were also previously charged with hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and concealing a corpse. A third defendant, Max Gemma, 29, of Oceanport, N.J., has been charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence. But their attorneys say the New York authorities made critical mistakes because of the intense pressure to find Comunale, 26, whose father reported him missing to Stamford police on Nov. 14. The point we are trying to make is the police were under tremendous pressure to locate the missing person, and we feel that they did whatever it took to get that information with the end justifying the means, Diliones attorney, Michael Pappa, said. The District Attorneys Office has already agreed to not use some of the information, including statements made by Rackover while sitting on a bench for nearly eight hours with an undercover narcotics officer in the New York Police Departments 13th Precinct. My friend talked. They wouldnt know anything if he didnt talk. [I had] a good life and now its over, Rackover told the cop, according to a court document obtained last week by The New York Daily News. Rackover was born James Beaudoin and spent time in prison in Florida before becoming a surrogate son to celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover when he moved to New York several years ago. James Rackover told the undercover officer he had a bout of roid rage when he attacked Comunale in his posh Upper East Side apartment. Rackovers attorney, Robert Caliendo, called the undercover cops role improper. He said the prosecution agreed in March to not use the statements after he filed a motion in January to have them suppressed. We were convinced those statements were unlawfully obtained and the District Attorneys Office has since agreed to not use those statements at Rackovers trial, Caliendo said. Pappa is preparing to refile his own 25-page motion to suppress all of Diliones statements he claims were made during 40 hours of interrogations outside the presence of counsel. Pappa originally submitted the request in January for the lesser charges and is filing again on the murder charge. Pappa claims Dilione immediately contacted an attorney when police first picked him up for questioning. Papa also said police were repeatedly told Dilione had an attorney but continued to interview his client. According to his arrest affidavit, Dilione admitted he punched Comunale in a fight over cigarettes at Rackovers apartment. Dilione told police Rackover then kicked Comunale until he was unconscious and stabbed him to death, the affidavit said. Dilione said Rackover used a serrated knife to try to dismember Comunale in the apartments bathtub, according to the affidavit. Dilione led police to Comunales partially burned and stabbed body in a shallow grave in Oceanport, N.J., the affidavit said. Gemmas attorney, Mark Bederow, is seeking more information about the apparent letters Rackover exchanged from jail with Carri Lyn Ciamarra, a fitness model and former mistress of Christie Brinkleys ex-husband. The letters were revealed in another court document obtained last week by the Daily News. Ciamarra claimed on a now closed Facebook page, Justice for Joey C, that she had spoken regularly with Rackover. Bederow wants to know if Ciamarra provided the DA with information that would exonerate his client although it was not clear if she spoke with prosecutors. Ciamarra told the Daily News last week her social media account was hacked and she did not create the Facebook post. Bederow said Rackover and Dilione have told others Gemma was not involved in Comunales death. If the same thing happened with the person who purported to contact the Justice for Joey C page, if Rackover made statements, we want to know what they are, Bederow said. Bederow also sent a letter last month to the DAs office, requesting all information regarding narcotic and controlled substance laboratory reports for steroids, hypodermic needles, cocaine, scales and marijuana recovered from Rackovers apartment or elsewhere. Defense attorneys plan to file a motion to have the defendants tried separately when they return to court on June 28. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com; This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD The citys Emergency Medical Service marked its 25th anniversary last month with an event at the Jewish Community Center. Stamford EMS employees, volunteers and supporters, along with members of local government and vital safety departments, commemorated the history and success of this private, nonprofit organization that serves Stamford and Darien, the organization said in a news release. Michael Wiederlight and Jay Sandak were the evenings honorees, recognized for their efforts in founding the organization. Our organization went from a fledgling paramedic ambulance provider to a service that is recognized as one of the premiere organizations in the state of Connecticut and the United States, Wiederlight said, noting the groups status as the only accredited ambulance service in the state. Ambulance service in Stamford evolved as population grew, transforming from a city-run operation to a nonprofit organization serving nearly 150,000 people, according to the group. Twenty-five years ago, Stamford had a very good ambulance service for our community. It was a combination of city ambulances connected to the fire houses and ambulances operated what was then called the Stamford Ambulance Corps. The system worked pretty well, Sandak said. But it was essentially a transport service with limitations. As a result of these limitations, if someone suffered a heart attack unfortunately, the chances of survival were slim to zero. Stamford EMS has responded to about 300,000 calls since 1992. There are people in this community who dont know how wonderful this organization is. It is extraordinarily professional and I could not be prouder of what they do, said Mayor David Martin, a former member of the Stamford EMS board. For those of you at Stamford EMS, when you put that uniform on, we know you go into some really hairy situations and that you put your own health on the line. I want you to know that I get it, I respect it and I extend a heartfelt thanks that you put yourself on the line every day. The following excerpt is from the staff of Entrepreneur Medias book Finance Your Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes One option for financing a small business thats often overlooked is the family office. Family offices operate as private companies that manage investments and trusts for a high-net-worth family or group of families. Theyre typically very private and misunderstood, but if you unlock the secrets to how family offices invest in new ventures and the criteria they look for, it could be the key to funding your business. Related: Landing a Revenue-Sharing Deal to Finance Your Business What a family office is Family offices are a particularly important source of capital for small-to-medium-sized businesses. According to the Family Office Club, there are currently more than 3,000 family offices in the U.S., and these offices, which generally have a minimum of $100 million in assets, often look at alternative investment opportunities -- which could be your startup. While family offices can be elusive and highly selective, referrals, trusted networks or entrepreneurship conferences may provide entry. The company seeking funding must also align with the family offices investment criteria and philosophy. Many have a predisposition to invest in companies directly or indirectly related to the core business on which their success is built. Ultimately, any new investor is betting on both the business plan and the founder/CEO. Conversely, the founder/CEO needs to find and identify a new investment partner who has a long-term view and the time and interest to help propel the business forward. If youre being introduced to a family office by a financial firm, there can be fees associated with the transaction. All investors will want to understand the exit strategy of the investment and clearly articulate that its important. If a family office chooses to invest in your business, you may find that family offices: Provide incredible connections Are able to take advantage of a situation where markets may cease to function in a regular manner Are more patient than institutional investors or private equity Appreciate how much work has to go into starting a successful company Serve as mentors When Morten Middelfart went searching for seed investors for Social Quant, his Twitter analytics company in Tampa, Florida, his banker suggested pitching Atlantic Merchant Capital Advisors, a local family office. One informal meeting with the private investment firm, which manages the wealth of individuals and their families, was all it took to land Middelfarts venture a high-figure investment early in 2015, along with ongoing advice, customer introductions, and part-time office space. Such experiences are rare, but they do happen, and more family wealth-management groups are betting on private equity deals. There are some drawbacks: Family offices can take longer to seal the deal than traditional angels and VCs, and they generally have a lower tolerance for startup failures, warns David McCombie III, founder and CEO of McCombie Group, a Miami-based private investment firm that has invested about $10 million in half a dozen startups in the past three years. But, he adds, many enjoy advising and supporting founders beyond simply writing a check. Plus, they have buckets of cash. How to find a family office So how do you go about finding a family investment office to back your business? Not all family offices are so named, making them tough to pinpoint via web or LinkedIn search. Some dont even have a website. To broaden your search, McCombie recommends creating a wish list of wealthy people youd love as backers and using LinkedIn to identify mutual contacts to introduce you. Networking offline is equally important. Get out into the community first. Get to know everybody, says Mike Kawula, who joined Social Quant as CEO in April 2015. He credits that tactic with securing Social Quants funding. Its best to let the investment community know who you are and what your company does before you go actively trolling for funding. Once youve got some leads on family offices, call to ask whether they invest in early-stage companies, what startups their current portfolio includes, and what industries interest them. The reality is, if you had a list of 100 family offices and personal contacts at each of them, only five or so would be legitimately interested in directly investing, McCombie says. Diego Villarreal, who raised $60,000 in seed capital from a family office for his nightlife app Banter!, warns that chasing after cold leads is a waste of time. People say fundraising is a full-time job. But if you only go for the hot leads that might actually convert into investments, its not, he says. Related: Grants and Loans for Women-Owned Businesses Cut to the chase by emailing an abbreviated version of your pitch deck to hot leads. It should be designed to grab their attention. Three to four slides are plenty, says Jeremy Office, founder of Maclendon Wealth Management, a multifamily wealth-management practice in Delray Beach, Florida, that caters to entrepreneurs. The idea is to avoid overwhelming them and instead intrigue them enough so they want a follow-up meeting. If you get the meeting, let investors know youre attracted to their experience or interest in your industry, McCombie advises. Emphasize that youre not just looking at them as another rich person, says McCombie, but you came to them specifically because you think they can add some value. In other words, show respect for the fact that these families constantly get tapped for capital, and theyll be more likely to welcome you into their world. Related: Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved W all Street raider Elliott opened up a new flank in its battle against BHP Billiton today by taking aim at its board of directors. The US hedge fund, fighting for change at the miner over criticism it has lagged peers, slammed the quality of the boardroom, a move timed to coincide with the looming appointment of a new chairman. BHP has an entrenched board, with long-tenured directors having approved the disastrous acquisitions and poorly timed share buybacks that are at the root of much of todays underperformance. A significant upgrade in directors is needed, it said in a statement. BHP declined the comment. The Anglo-Australian miner has an 11-strong board, including former UK minister Baroness Shriti Vadera and Scottish non-exec Anita Frew. The group is due unveil a replacement for chairman Jac Nasser in the coming days, with non-executive Carolyn Hewson and former Westpac chief Gail Kelly considered front-runners. Elliotts campaign, led by portfolio manager James Smith, is pushing BHP to sell of its petroleum assets and simplify its dual-listed structure in a bid to gee up shareholder value. Elliott claims to own a 4.1% "long economic interest" in BHP's London listed shares although that works out as a smaller percentage of the group's total shares, which are also listed in Australia. It wants it to set up an independent committee to look at its proposals. BHP chief Andrew Mackenzie, who met Elliott in Barcelona last month, has indicated he considers the plans too costly. PEWAUKEE President Donald Trump announced Tuesday during a visit to Wisconsin that he and Gov. Scott Walker were negotiating to bring a major, incredible manufacturer to the state. Trumps second visit to the state this year was to promote apprenticeships and attend a $1,000-per-ticket fundraiser that Walker billed as one of the biggest events weve ever had for a statewide elected official. During a panel discussion with Walker, cabinet secretaries, students and CEOs, Trump mentioned that he and Walker were negotiating with the manufacturer behind the scenes. We have a lot of companies moving into the United States and we are negotiating with a lot of companies, Trump said. I think theyre going to give the governor a very happy surprise very soon. It wasnt immediately clear to which company Trump was referring, but Walker recently traveled to Japan for a trade mission. Trump said the company made phones, computers and televisions. A Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. spokesman said the agency doesnt comment on pending opportunities. Walker thanked the president for putting a focus on workforce issues, something the governor raised as the top issue in Wisconsin during a meeting earlier this year with all governors from across the country. He noted Wisconsins unemployment is at its lowest level in 17 years. We have jobs, Walker said. We need to find more people to fill those jobs. Just after disembarking from Air Force One, Trump met with four Wisconsin residents Michael and Tammy Kushman, of Marinette, and Robert and Sarah Stoll, of Burlington whom he described as victims of Obamacare. Obamacare is one of the greatest catastrophes that our country has signed into law, Trump said. We will come up with a solution, and a really good one to health care. Trumps health care replacement plan has passed the House and is moving quietly toward Senate passage, though details of changes to the House bill have not been made public. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, who is considering a run for governor, said the Affordable Care Act has dramatically reduced the ranks of Americans without insurance, established key protections for those with pre-existing health conditions, reduced uncompensated care costs for hospitals and expanded access to preventative health care services. He said most people want both parties to work together to improve the law, not destroy it. What the vast majority of us want is to start with the existing Affordable Care Act and make it better, and address what needs improvement, Soglin said. Tour of Waukesha Tech Trump toured Waukesha County Technical College with an entourage of White House staff. Trump toured several training classrooms, including an integrated manufacturing center classroom, with Walker, U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and daughter Ivanka Trump. Other participants in the panel discussion included White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, of Kenosha, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, Wisconsin Secretary of Workforce Development Ray Allen, Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Mark Hogan, Mike Shiels, dean of the WCTC School of Applied Technologies, WCTC board chairwoman Mary Wehrheim, Waukesha School District Superintendent Todd Gray, three students, and the CEOs of Rockwell Manufacturing, Oshkosh Corp., Briggs & Stratton, Mercury Marine and Quad Graphics. Wisconsin has been at the forefront of creating apprenticeship programs to help workers prepare for technical fields. Its registered apprenticeship model began in 1911 and became a model for the nation. Last year, the program had more than 2,400 participating employers and more than 11,000 participants, a 6 percent increase over 2015, according to the Department of Workforce Development. Walker has made workforce development a priority since failing by nearly half to make good on his pledge to help create 250,000 jobs in the state during his first term. There are nearly 100,000 job openings in the state. Walkers signature program has been Wisconsin Fast Forward, which has provided more than $19 million in grants to local businesses supporting more than 18,000 workers. It also has provided $35.4 million to school districts and technical colleges to reduce wait lists in high demand fields, as well as offer employment skills training for persons with disabilities, including disabled veterans. Mike Rosen, president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 212, called Trumps visit a photo op show and real hypocrisy. Trumps budget proposal cuts workforce training programs by 40 percent, including a $1.5 million cut to Wisconsins $20 million in federal career and technical education grants. Rosen also criticized Walkers support for eliminating the prevailing wage for public construction projects and project labor agreements, in which local governments require companies bidding on projects to be unionized. If we want to attract people into the field, the last thing you should be doing when theres a shortage is reducing wages, Rosen said. When there are shortages, the way you address shortages if you use a market mechanism is to raise the price, not to lower them. Theyre moving us in the wrong direction. Walkers fundraiser After the tour, Trump attended an early evening fundraiser for Walkers campaign at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Milwaukee where tickets were $1,000 apiece and photos with the president cost an extra $10,000. Walker told a national conservative talk radio host Monday that he advised Priebus recently that people in Wisconsin and around the country still support Trump, despite polls showing his approval rating sinking into the mid-30s. People outside of Washington still like his policies, still very much want him to move this country in the right direction, Walker said. Democrats sought to tie Walker and Trump together, saying Walkers policies of tax cuts and austerity government have benefited the wealthy at the expense of workers. The one thing President Trump got right about a year ago is when he said Wisconsin is a disaster under Gov. Walker, said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, referring to the GOP primary campaign. Though Walker and Trump clashed during the primary, Trump previously supported Walker during his recall campaign and Walker has been a Trump defender during his tumultuous first four months in office. The visit to Wisconsin is Trumps second since his inauguration. In April, he signed executive orders aimed at helping U.S. workers compete in the global marketplace at Snap-On Tools Inc. in Kenosha. He also visited the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in West Allis in December for a victory tour rally. State Journal reporter Mark Sommerhauser contributed to this report. S adiq Khans business chief has called on firms to teach Londoners additional skills to ensure nobody is left behind as new technologies continue to shake up business. So-called disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation have already led to job losses. Speaking yesterday at The Europas, an event at the Here East campus in Stratford during London Tech Week, deputy mayor for business Rajesh Agrawal warned Londons workers must be upskilled to avoid more cuts. Changes create some challenges. When there is a disruptive technology it destroys certain jobs, but then it creates a lot of new jobs too, he said. So weve got to make sure that our workforce and our talented people are constantly upskilled to adapt with the technology. Otherwise there will be people who will be left behind and weve seen what happens when large chunks of the population have been left out and left behind. Agrawal, who is also the founder and chairman of London-based money transfer firm Rational FX, told the audience it is very important that nobody is left behind and everybody is included. Thats why the mayor is very keen that the economic growth in London is what we call good growth, which means everybody is party to this success. Because everybody works very hard, he added. P urplebricks is dreaming of California, with the online estate agent on Wednesday revealing it has chosen the home of Hollywood for its US debut. The AIM-listed firm, which marries an online platform with local property experts to charge a fraction of traditional agents fees, said it aims to make the move this year because of the states strong housing and economic fundamentals. Ahead of the launch, it has started talking to hundreds of local estate agents who Purplebricks hopes will list on its site. The US business, which will be headed by technology expert Eric Eckardt, plans to expand into other states afterwards. He said: Our plans are progressing well as we remain on course to launch in the second half of 2017." The firm in February raised about 50 million through a share placing to fund the expansion. Michael Bruce, the founder and boss of the firm, said: We will be giving sellers and buyers a unique and seamless experience. Shares in Purplebricks rose 3.91p to 418.9p. T hames Waters shareholders took 100 million out of the business as the company was facing record fines for pollution and failing to hit leak targets, it emerged today. Results from the UKs biggest water company showed its international roster of investors decided to pay themselves a dividend shortly before it was fined a record 20 million for polluting the Thames with 1.4 billion litres of raw sewage in March and just months before the former owner, Macquarie, sold out to new investors. Thames repeatedly allowed untreated effluent to enter the river in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 2013 and 2014, making people ill and killing thousands of fish. Sewage could be seen along nine miles of the river, blighting regattas and other events. Today Ofwat said it would also hit the UKs biggest water company with an 8.6 million fine, the maximum penalty it can impose, because the privately owned business failed to control leaks of clean water from its pipes. Customers will see lower annual bills in 2020. Thames Water admits it missed the target by 47 million litres a day. It has been owned by a group of pension funds and other investors led by Australian infrastructure bank Macquarie, since 2007. Macquarie agreed to sell its remaining 26% stake in March to investors including Borealis Infrastructure, part of Omers, a Canadian pension fund, and the Kuwait Investment Authority. Macquarie will have received about a quarter of the 100 million payout, with other investors, who remain shareholders, splitting the balance. A spokesman for Thames Water said it missed its intentionally tough targets despite spending an extra 16 million on the problem. The fact that the target was missed despite significant additional expenditure clearly points to the need to improve both our planning and delivery. New chief executive Steve Robertson, who joined last September on a package worth up to 2.1 million, says Thames will spend an additional 150 million to get leakage under control. We fully accept our responsibility, he said. Robertson said the company would spend 20 million a week, one of the highest amounts in the sector, to meet its targets on water quality, leakage and other measures. But Ofwats chief Cathryn Ross called the leaks unacceptable and has warned it is looking into whether it can take further action against the company, so significant is its failing. Ofwat could force it to spend more on controlling leaks. Thames says it has been reducing leaks by 100 million litres a day but recognises that it needs to do more. It is aiming to replace more of its biggest trunk mains and replace some of the citys oldest sewers with projects including the Thames Tideway super sewer. A ndrew Adoniss proposal that, as part of a long-term settlement, we should persuade the EU to decouple free movement of people from free movement of goods and services is unrealistic (Comment, June 12). This would imply a halt, even a reversal, of the economic integration that is fundamental to the European project which the EU will never agree to. A better answer would be to educate the British public about the way EU immigration is integral to the success of our economy and public services. The impending crisis in the recruitment of nurses for the NHS should be a wake-up call. Rohan Moorthy Could someone remind the hard-Brexit Conservatives that almost half of those who voted in last years referendum voted for Remain, so the will of the people argument for Brexit is misleading? Whats more, nobody voted for a hard Brexit. We need to guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK and be members of the customs union and single market, as advocated by business leaders. It is time for MPs to stand up to the minority of those pushing a clearly unworkable policy. Tanya Firth If Labour is to retain its credibility in the capital its London MPs need to make it absolutely clear whether they will break with their leaderships position of supporting a hard Brexit. Labour MPs in the capital who promised to fight to keep Britain in the single market and customs union must keep that promise to London voters. Elaine Bagshaw, Lib-Dem parliamentary spokesperson for Poplar & Limehouse and eight other Lib-Dem representatives I cannot believe you are still publishing letters from Liberal Democrats such as Alasdair Hill and Jack Karen (June 12) arguing that Brexit is not viable and that Leave voters should accept it was never a credible solution and move on. Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have confirmed they will honour the EU referendum result and that Brexit will happen. Only the Lib-Dems have refused a party which campaigned almost exclusively on a Remain platform yet secured only 12 seats out of 650 and less than eight per cent of the vote. It is astonishing such an unpopular minority can still shout so loud, so self-righteously. Peter Kenwright So Theresa May has apologised to Tory backbenchers. Well, good for her. But what about an apology to the nation for getting us all into such an appalling situation? C J Stephens We cant have a PM who takes such risky gambles Enough is enough, Mrs May. You took a gamble, and you lost. More important, you have lost the trust and confidence of your country. Your credibility is now shot. Vanity, hubris and arrogance were your downfall. We do not want a lame duck, caretaker Prime Minister, arguably the most uninspiring Conservative leader in history, at risk of becoming a laughing stock. Let us now witness you demonstrate how essentially strong and stable you are by admitting defeat, and graciously resigning with honour and consummate class, for the sake of your party, and of our nation. Indeed, let this be your final U-turn, one we will all respect. Gavin Littaur This letter is an amended version to the version that appeared in print on April 13 Why our polling system is outdated I was very disappointed to read about the young man who tried to vote for the first time, only to find out that his name had already been crossed off the register by the time he arrived at his polling station (News, June 12). There had clearly been a mix- up with another name and address but he seems to have been dismissed as a liar by both the staff at the polling station and by the council. Our polling system is archaic: anyone can walk in and state a known name and address to vote and human error can easily occur. When I went to vote, I spotted that my sons name had not been crossed through. I called him to ask why he was wasting his vote only to find out he had voted that lunchtime. I hope the young man in your report disregards the insensitive treatment he received and tries again next time, as is his right. Christine Youpa-Rowe PR is still the fairest electoral method The results of the election show how broken our voting system is. Together the main parties won 80 per cent of the vote but received 90 per cent of the MPs. The SNP got less than half the vote of the Lib-Dems but won three times as many seats. Worse, instead of talking about a grand coalition to govern in the best interests of the country, as happens elsewhere in Europe, our two main parties are developing battle plans for the next encounter. We need an electoral system based on proportional representation. This will persuade parties to focus solely on victory and create a political discourse based on compromise and consensus. Only then will we have a parliament that represents the diversity of the country and governs in the interests of all UK citizens. Jon Burden More young should have voted last time Many plaudits are due to our young folk for turning out in numbers to vote. If only they had done so in last years referendum we would not now have todays Brexit mess. Margaret Jackson-Roberts Join the conversation: #eselection2017 Carers must all be properly regulated We read with great dismay your story about Mairead Tansley (June 12), the carer who was jailed after leaving the vulnerable older man she was paid to care for in a state of extreme neglect. This case highlights a major regulatory failing in our care system. Ms Tansley was not an unregistered carer but a personal assistant, a role which the Government chose to remove from the regulations that govern those working in similar roles with vulnerable people, such as home helps. Leaving such relationships unbound by any sort of regulation or code of practice is a recipe for disaster. Gary FitzGerald, chief executive, Action on Elder Abuse We need a greater police presence I am a former detective who served with the Metropolitan Police and now lives in Australia. I recently visited England just prior to the most recent terror attack in London and was appalled at the lack of police presence on the streets. The only place we saw officers patrolling was outside Parliament House and at Horse Guards Parade. I intend no criticism of the men and women of the Met. But it came as no surprise before we left England to read in your paper that clear-up rates for burglary are around eight per cent (June 2). In my day we spent time on the streets talking with local people and we used to achieve clear-up rates of around 25-30 per cent. Graham Lewis Fitting tribute to Mayflower tragedy Your article on the centenary of the German bombing of Mayflower School gave me goosebumps (School marks 100 years since 18 children died in WW1 air raid, June 12). It was such a heartbreaking tragedy. Neil McPhee Our article was accompanied by a photograph of six-year-old Jack Brown who we said had been killed in the raid. In fact, he survived the bombing and lived to the age of 97. Join the conversation: #esnewsviews Venetia Scott has been appointed Fashion Director at British Vogue, it was confirmed today. The news marks incoming Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful's first appointment at the magazine, before officially taking up his role in August. "Visionary, influential and inspiring are overused terms", Enninful commented while announcing the appointment, "but in this case appropriate to describe Venetias work." "Venetia will continue the legacy of creativity and innovation for which British Vogue is known, positioning it for its next century, Edward Enninful - in pictures 1 /21 Edward Enninful - in pictures Edward Enninful with Naomi Campbell after he received his Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace on October 27, 2016 Getty Images Edward Enninful and Jourdan Dunn at a Diane von Furstenberg dinner Rex Features Naomi Campbell, Steven Klein, Edward Enninful, Laverne Cox, Stefano Tonchi at The Daily Front Row awards on September 5, 2014 Getty Images for the Daily Front Row Lewis Hamilton and Edward Enninful at the Balmain Aftershow Dinner on March 5, 2015 Getty Images For Balmain Stefano Tonchi, Edward Enninful and Giovanna Battaglia at the Brandon Maxwell show during New York Fashion Week on February 14, 2017 Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows Venetia Scott and Edward Enninful at Edward Enninful's OBE dinner at Mark's Club on October 27, 2016 Dave Benett Edward Enninful, Coco Rocha, Seslie Lopez and Raquel Zimmerman watch the photos that were taken to create a flipbook during the screening of Coco Rocha: She's A Genius on September 10, 2009 Courtney Love and Edward Enninful at the Prada Resort show on May 7, 2017 Getty Images for Prada Edward Enninful and Creative Director of La Perla Julia Haart backstage during New York Fashion Week on February 9, 2017 Getty Images Edward Enninful and Naomi Campbell attend the British Fashion Awards on December 1, 2014 Getty Images Stefano Tonchi, Claire Danes and Edward Enninful attend The Daily Front Row awards on September 5, 2014 Getty Images for the Daily Front Derek Blasberg and Edward Enninful arrive at the Fenty x Puma by Rihanna show during Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2016 Getty Images for Fenty x Puma Edward Enninful and Anna Ewers at the 2015 CLIO Awards at The Plaza Hotel on May 5, 2015 Getty Images Naomi Campbell and Edward Enninful at the Met Gala on May 1, 2017 Getty Images For Entertainment Weekly Kerry Washington and Edward Enninful at the Accessories Council ACE Awards on November 3, 2014 Getty Images for ACE Awards Edward Enninful at the Prada Iconoclasts by Edward Enninful during Milan Fashion Week on February 20, 2014 Getty Images Having began her career at the magazine as assistant to Grace Coddington, Scott went on to cement her position as a stylist while working with Vogue Italia, AnOther Magazine, i-D and Nova, where she was appointed Fashion Director. In 1997 Scott began consulting for American fashion label Marc Jacobs before becoming Creative Director for the brand in 2001 and directing the Marc by Marc Jacobs line. In 2005 Scott moved into photography, working for British Vogue, American Vogue, Vogue Paris, AnOther Magazine, Dazed & Confused, i-D and W magazine - where Enninful was Creative and Fashion director before his appointment at British Vogue. The appointment comes just one month after Lucinda Chambers stepped down from the role following 36 years at the magazine. Chambers announced her move just a few months after Alexandra Shulman revealed she would be quitting British Vogue having edited it for 25 years. Alexandra Shulman - in pictures 1 /13 Alexandra Shulman - in pictures Alexandra Shulman and Model Kate Moss at the Business of Fashion Gala Dinner on September 19, 2016 Dave Benett The Duchess of Cambridge with Alexandra Shulman and Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas Cullinan at the "Vogue 100: A Century of Style" exhibition on 4 May 2016 Ian Gavan/AFP/Getty Images Kim Kardashian West and Alexandra Shulman at British Vogue's Centenary gala dinner at Kensington Gardens on 23 May 2016 Dave Benett Alexandra Shulman, Victoria Beckham and Anna Wintour attend the launch of "Vogue: Voice Of A Century" on 18 September 2016 Dave Benett Alexandra Shulman signing copies of her latest book 'Inside Vogue: A Diary of my 100th year' at Selfridges on 28 November 2016 Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images Alexandra Shulman and Mario Testino in the winners room after winning the award for 100 Years of British Vogue at The Fashion Awards 2016 on 5 December Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images Jasmine Guinness, Alexandra Shulman and Laura Bailey at the launch of the new Design Museum on 22 November 2016 Dave Benett/Getty Images Alexandra Shulman and Valentino at the preview of The Glamour of Italian Fashion exhibition at Victoria & Albert Museum on 1 April 2014 Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Alexandra Shulman at the British Fashion Awards at London Coliseum on 1 December 2014 Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Christopher Bailey and Alexandra Shulman at Vogue and Burberry's cocktail reception as part of 'Fashion's Night Out' on 10 September 2009 Chris Jackson/Getty Images Speaking of Chambers's decision, Shulman said: "Lucinda has been the most wonderful creative collaborator, as well as friend, throughout my whole editorship." "She has produced many of the most influential and inspiring fashion shoots in the world during her time as fashion director of this magazine as well as a huge number of our most remarkable covers." "It is impossible to overstate her vision, commitment, imagination and her ability to bring the best out of teams that work with her. I, like her many admirers, will be excited to see what she produces in her next chapter." F rench chef Daniel Boulud is celebrating the best of Provencal cuisine during London Food Month. He will cook a four-course menu for a one-night celebration at his London restaurant, Bar Boulud, at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. Boulud has been based in New York since 1982 and holds two Michelin stars for his eponymous restaurant in the city. His special menu will start with a feast-like aioli provencal crudites, seafood, quail eggs and grissini served with garlic mayonnaise and continue with red mullet and olive-crusted lamb loin, followed by two classic desserts. The dinner, on June 20, will cost 85 including wine. Boulud, who will enjoy a glass of wine as he mingles with guests, said: Bar Boulud was always about celebrating the best of French cuisine. Not in an old-fashioned way, but by making classic dishes with originality. In June, we are celebrating Provence and the delicious food from the region with an emphasis on local produce. H eston Blumenthal's restaurant Dinner is hosting an evening dedicated to truffles in one of the more extravagant events for London Food Month. The chef will open his private dining room for a handful of guests to indulge in a six-course feast at which the Australian truffle will take centre stage. The head chef at Dinner, Ashley Palmer-Watts, said the event, on June 19 and 26, will be for food enthusiasts who wish to learn more about the delicacy. Costing 450 per person with wine pairings, the menu will include dishes such as chicken oysters, salsify, horseradish cream and truffle. Palmer-Watts, who first started working for Blumenthal at his Berkshire restaurant, The Fat Duck, in 1999, said: We wanted to do something that would celebrate the Australian truffle, which is often forgotten. It will be a six-course dinner designed to make the most of them. I imagine it will be a dinner for food and truffle enthusiasts, a workshop-style dinner where people will learn about the truffles and the wines that we pair with the dishes, most of which will be quite unusual. Palmer-Watts, who opened Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in 2011, is considered one of Blumenthals most successful proteges. He has also designed a five-course tasting menu-style lunch for London Food Month, which he described as an introduction to the food at the two Michelin-starred restaurant. The lunch includes perhaps the restaurants most famous dish, meat fruit a chicken liver parfait served with grilled bread created to appear like a mandarin. Palmer-Watts said: It is a five-course menu which is something that we dont really do, we are very much an a la carte restaurant. It will be a challenge for our chefs. T he Old Vic Theatre raised more than 500,000 at its annual summer party as its boss warned that it could cease to exist unless it continued to receive support. Stanley Tucci and Noma Dumezweni, star of stage play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, were among the guests at the party, hosted by Rob Brydon. There were performances by Madness and pianist Joe Stilgoe as well as an auction hosted by Sothebys chairman Lord Dalmeny. The money raised will support the development of new shows. Artistic director Matthew Warchus said he also wanted to refurbish the theatres historic fabric and revitalise this building and confirm its place as a crucial and indispensable part of Londons cultural landscape. He added: If we dont succeed, theres a genuine risk that The Old Vic will cease to exist as a theatre producing work, or potentially as a theatre at all. Among the lots auctioned were a walk-on part in Ridley Scotts new film, which went for 16,000, and the chance to have a Bond villain named after you in Anthony Horowitzs new novel, which sold for 38,000. Others included a Christian Louboutin clutch bag and the chance to spend a week with fashion designer Bella Freud and create your own bespoke jumper. London theatre to see in June 1 /10 London theatre to see in June Anatomy of a Suicide at the Royal Court Common at the National Theatre The Ferryman transfers to the West End Hamlet transfers to the West End Ink at the Almeida Theatre Gloria at Hampstead Theatre Tristan and Yseult at the Globe Hir at the Bush Theatre Hir at Playwrights Horizons/Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Joan Marcus Miranda Hart in Annie Committee at the Donmar Warehouse Several of the theatres big name stars donated prizes, with John Boyega, currently appearing in Woyzeck, contributing signed Star Wars merchandise. Daniel Radcliffe, who starred in a revival of Rosencrantz And Guilderstern Are Dead at the theatre earlier this year, signed Harry Potter books. @RobDexES K emi Badenoch, the new Conservative MP for Saffron Walden, is telling me how voters treat our elected representatives. They dont look at us as public servants any more, but as punching bags, she proclaims. They dont do it to your face, but behind a keyboard. During the campaign, I was told, you better watch out. Threats are so common, they were discussed at the 1922 meeting on Monday night. So many female MPs talked about how theyd been abused. One man said his wife and kids received threats. Theres a new intimidating atmosphere. This mood had convinced her she wouldnt win her seat, despite inheriting a 24,991 majority from Sir Alan Haselhurst. But hers was only 25 votes lower, and she gushes with gratitude about her electorate: People say: Theyd vote for a donkey if it stood for the Conservatives here. They wouldnt. Ive got to be perfect as an MP now! The night, though, was bittersweet, given the partys performance. Her election post-mortem downplays the importance of social media - Young people know how to switch off ads. The strategy wasnt the issue it was the content, while pointing to Labours activist army, and a Tory failure to convey the benefits of their manifesto to the young: People are used to it being a basket of goodies for older voters. This was about inter-generational fairness. The terror attacks, she adds, made it hard to go out and talk about things. It flattened the mood. Was it a mistake to make the campaign so presidential? No. Given there was only six weeks, I could barely get up and running, so it was a choice about who we wanted to deliver Brexit. Until the manifesto wobble, the reaction was 100 per cent positive. People loved Theresa May. Theyre fickle. She is still Team May. As a female MP, having a female Prime Minister is so important. I dont want to see her dragged through horrible experiences. It does put women off politics. When she was on the London Assembly, she sometimes disagreed with May - Badenoch supported stop-and-search, for example - but she says she always respected Mays position: This is not the time to start making trouble, because it will bring the government down if were not united. At the 1922 meeting, MPs rallied. Theres a tendency in politics to go after someone whos wounded, and we didnt have that. Mrs May struck the right note. In fairness, she got 43.7 per cent of the vote. Ive bumped into some Labour MPs including one who told me she is going to be the next Prime Minister and they really feel triumphant, like theyve won. We may not have done as well as we hoped, but they didnt win. Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Were sitting in Portcullis House at the MP-only tables. I first met her as a candidate (and London Assembly member) two weeks ago while she was door-knocking, her blue rosette pinned to her trenchcoat. Badenochs daughter Eni, aged three, and son Ralph, seven months, had an infection but she was unflustered: Im always dealing with 100 things at once. Saffon Walden is Tory country. One house even had Churchillian inscribed above the door. Its verdant. Quiet. Some might call it parochial. And Badenoch is the kind of Tory who provokes Spectator journalists into breathless hagiography. As a teenager she worked at McDonalds and did her A-levels part-time: My hair smelled of fries. Her career included spells at the IT consultancy Logica, the Queens banker Coutts and, yes, as the Speccies head of digital. She passes the would you have a drink with them? test with ease. Oh, and shes a Brexiteer, who - despite being born in and living in London (though she grew up in Nigeria and the US) has criticised Londons liberal elite. Brexit actually split her family. She recalls leaving the train station one day and having a leaflet thrust in her face by a Remain campaigner. It was her husband, who works for Deutsche Bank. Though she admits Brexit will be tough initially, she still considers leaving the EU the right decision. What if we get no deal? My husbands nervous. If companies think: We dont want to be here it will impact a lot of people. But I dont think it will get to that. People talk about a divorce bill. You cant be married to 27 people. It wasnt a marriage it was a business partnership that we have decided isnt quite working for us. Will it be tough? All change is tough. Badenoch is a take-no-prisoners type. On the health service, she says we need tough conversations about what to fund: People who work in the NHS say it needs to change, but as soon as you try to change anything, its: Save our NHS! I dont envy Jeremy Hunt. She is, though, very grateful to the NHS, whose staff (at Kings) prevented her miscarrying her daughter. I have a weak cervix. I went into labour at 20 weeks, had emergency surgery and they were able to reverse it. The amount I have cost the NHS for maternity services is phenomenal. It is on race, though, that I suspect Badenochs views will surprise most people. Following the election, the Conservatives now have 19 ethnic minority MPs, compared with 32 in Labour, which has fewer seats. But Banedoch still says the Tories are doing very well - I got one of the safest seats. Its difficult for people of ethnic minority backgrounds not to think that not getting on as a candidate is because the party isnt doing enough. There are many white men who really want to get on, and theyre not getting on. Its very competitive. Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures She has accused Labour of thinking it owns minorities and believing race trumps all: Its: Youre black, this is what you care about. But identity is multi-faceted. Im black but Im also a woman, a Mum. They talk about a black community theres nothing really like that. People have the same issues wherever they come from. Schools. Hospitals. She believes Labour is stuck in the Seventies. There were lots of problems then in areas with ethnic-minority populations. People who went through that think certain parties she means the Tories didnt do as much to tackle the problem. Things have moved on. My children are mixed race. I want them to think: This is our country, our fathers family has been here for thousands of years. Her worst experiences, she says, were as an ethnic majority in Nigeria (she left at 16 when the country was under a military dictatorship and the universities closed). The police also earn her praise: Theyre the best in the world. We dont have all the horrible stuff thats happened in America here. People pick on one bad experience, blow it up and say: This is institutional racism. Thats not to say race relations are perfect, but [Britain] is as good as it gets. Has she experienced racism? Errm. It might have happened and I didnt notice, I just thought: This person is a dick. But then she gives me an incident list. A woman once said Badenoch wasnt really African because I was wearing expensive clothes (Zara!). I told her what I thought of her views... and she whacked me on the cheek. At Sussex university, the father of a student she reported to the police for drugs came to local bars to find her. I felt that was because of my skin colour. I wasnt the only person involved but I was the one he was fixated with. A woman on the doorstep asked her: Why arent you standing in a black area? Ill vote Ukip. Banedoch sounds blase as she says this. I also know this woman doesnt want a playground built on the village green, so shes obviously a crank. She tells me she has a very high benchmark for what constitutes racism. But when we discussed the huge majority shes inheriting, she mentioned two people who have lost large ones in the past Dawn Butler and Oona King: both Labour, but non-white women. She could have named Zac Goldsmith. Badenoch helped with his failed mayoral bid and was repeatedly told by friends its a racist campaign for its fixation on spurious allegations about Sadiq Khan and extremism. It was a horrible campaign for us. I wish I could go back in time and say, Stop! This will backfire! She adds, though, that the key attack line was not about Islamic terror it was: This is Jeremy Corbyns man in London. That was negative and I didnt really believe it. And then [it was] that Sadiq flip-flops he tells people what they want to hear. One of the examples was the hanging out with Islamists [the idea was] it didnt matter who they were as long as there were votes in it, not that he was sympathetic [to them]. She notes that she has learned an important lesson from Goldsmith - not to make promises (his was resigning over Heathrow). She smiles: Though I always tell people what I think. District attorneys from two Wisconsin counties have been recommended to fill the vacant U.S. attorney position in Madison. U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson wrote in a letter Monday to President Donald Trump that they are recommending Waushara County District Attorney Scott Blader and Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox for nomination as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, the top federal prosecutor for the western half of the state. The two were among candidates considered by a bipartisan commission that screens applicants. The post has been vacant since March, when former U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil resigned at the request of Trump, who had asked that all U.S. attorneys resign. Presidents generally appoint prosecutors of their own choosing to lead U.S. attorneys offices. Trump will make the final selection for each post. This week, the White House announced the first wave of nominees to fill U.S. attorney posts in eight federal court districts. The nominees must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Blader, a Republican, has been district attorney in Waushara County since 2007. Before that, he was a private practice attorney in Wautoma. He received his law degree from Marquette University in 1999. Fox, a Democrat, was elected district attorney in Jackson County in 2006. He is a former U.S. Army JAG officer who served in Iraq. Fox received his law degree from UW-Madison in 1995. Between 1999 and his election as district attorney, he was a state assistant public defender in Black River Falls. P ractically on our doorstep and with a lively food scene, Brussels is the ideal weekend stopover. Amira Hashish checks into the Pullman... Where is it? In Brussels Centre Midi station, the ideal location for Eurostar travellers as it is a five-minute walk from the platform. Design details: designed by the architect Jean-Philippe Nuel, the Pullman is a smart and functional space. Specially commissioned photographs adorn the walls, striking brass and gold coloured structures make a statement in the public areas and the guest rooms play around with shades of white to create a calming environment. ABACApress/Didier DELMAS Why now? The hotel is hosting the first Artist Playground, part of a wider initiative by Pullman to showcase the work of creatives. The brand has joined forces with Artlead.net, Europes online marketplace for contemporary art, to develop the project. This particular exhibit, that has pride of place in the lobby, focuses on the works of Remy Ficheroulle. Which room: the superior rooms are contemporary and calm with white bed linen and beige corner sofas. Large shower rooms are a treat and there is an all important Nespresso Machine. On the menu: breakfast comprises a generous spread of yoghurts, cereals, cheese, meats and hot options. The chef will rustle up a sweet or savoury waffle, a must in Belgium. Best for: a business break. Creative scene: Mont des Arts in Kunstberg is one of the many great cultural institutions / Visit Brussels How to get there: Eurostar operates up to 10 daily services from London St Pancras International to Brussels with fares from 29 one-way (based on a return journey). Splash out on Business Premier for a check-in time of around 10 minutes, flexible ticket conditions and an on-board three-course meal by Raymond Blanc. Plus, access to the lounges with power sockets, magazines, newspapers and a range of snacks and drinks. Available from eurostar.com or 03432 186 186. How do I book? visit pullmanhotels.com. EAT AT Gramm On the buzzy Rue de Flandre, full of great bars and restaurants, Gramm is an intimate space which offers fine dining in a cool setting. You can't miss the giant neon sign which takes up the window entrance. Minamilist wooden furniture goes with the stripped back style. Self-taught chef Erwan Kenzo Nakata, half Japanese and half Breton, serves up an inventive menu which fuses his roots. A five-course tasting menu is priced at under 40 Euros which is very good value. A great late night dining option, grammrestaurant.be. A post shared by Amira Hashish (@thedesigneditor) on Mar 18, 2017 at 5:43pm PDT Bozar Brasserie This buzzy restaurant is part of the Centre for Fine Arts. Reviving the the ideas of architect Victor Horta, the ceilings are high, the flooring is parquet and Arne Jacobsen style chairs create a studio feel. Michelin starred chef Karen Torosyan will give you a very warm welcome. Passionate about his cuisine, his open kitchen is a joy to watch. Traditional and innovative Franco-Belgian classics come together and Torosyan's signature pastry dishes are divine. Fine dining with a fun ambience, bozarbrasserie.be. TOP TIP Buy a Brussels Card for 24, 48 or 72 hours with free public transport, free access to 39 museums and discounts to tourist attractions and tours. For more information head to visit.brussels. The site has useful suggestions for activities in the city too. Follow Amira Hashish on Twitter @amiranews and Instagram @thedesigneditor T he aristocratic landlord who owns swathes of oligarch country in Belgravia and Mayfair is to build 1,500 rental homes for key workers such as nurses and teachers. The proposed 500 million build to rent development in Bermondsey marks a dramatic change of direction for the Grosvenor property business controlled by the Duke of Westminster and his family for 340 years. A draft masterplan unveiled at a public consultation starting today shows that the company plans to build as many as 11 new blocks of up to 25 storeys and retain one of the existing buildings on the former Peek Frean biscuit factory site. Grosvenors executive director for major projects in London, Simon Harding-Roots, said the scheme would provide affordable accommodation, some of it discounted to market rents, for local people. He said: Were not going to build and flog off, we will be here to operate it so its got to work for us. All the units should be affordable in the broadest sense of the word. We dont want to create a student ghetto or a yuppie ghetto or any of one concentration of type. We certainly dont want a gated community. We want to create a long-term community feel rather than people saying Ill rent for a year until I can afford to buy. We expect people to grow through the project starting in a studio and moving to a bigger flat. Why should they ever move away? Its a different approach. Grosvenor, which has assets of over 12 billion, plans to invest further in the area to build a third London estate alongside its West End holdings in two of the worlds most exclusive neighbourhoods. Mr Harding-Roots said: Mayfair and Belgravia are known for their ultra-high-end properties but there is a lot of social housing in both, a lot of it on land that has always been part of the Grosvenor holdings. The plans, drawn up by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, include rooftop spaces and ground-floor shops, restaurants and workshops. There will also be a 600-place secondary school. Craig McWilliam, chief executive of Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, said: Londons housing shortage is too often creating polarised outcomes, with homes for the few who can afford to buy them, and those allocated social rented accommodation. We are sharing our ambitions in Bermondsey to meet the needs of many on low- and middle-incomes who are locked out of Londons housing market. We want to help create one of Londons greatest neighbourhoods for people of mixed incomes, backgrounds and life stages. The 12-acre site was occupied by Peek Frean from 1866 to its closure in 1989 after a takeover. The area was known as Biscuit Town because of the smell that emanated from the factory. Grosvenor intends to apply for planning consent in September and hopes to start work by the end of next year with completion around 2023. B orough Market reopened today in a poignant show of defiance as Londoners were told: "This is your market". Hundreds of traders gathered less than two weeks after terrorists launched a knife and van rampage, leaving eight people dead. The market fell silent for one minute at 9.30am in honour of those killed and injured in the June 3 atrocity. Many wept as they linked arms in a show of solidarity following the attack. Others wore t-shirts emblazoned wit the message 'We Are Family' alongside the Borough Market logo and date of the attack. Borough Market reopens - In pictures 1 /28 Borough Market reopens - In pictures Traders and visitors pause for a minute's silence to remember the victims of the London Bridge terror attack before the market bell is rung to mark the opening of Borough Market PA London Mayor Sadiq Khan applauds in Borough Market, which officially re-opened today Reuters Market trader Paul Wheeler rings the bell to open Borough Market for the first time since the London Bridge terrorist attack PA Police officers stand inside Borough Market, which officially re-opens today following the recent attac Reuters Traders and visitors pause for a minute's silence to remember the victims of the London Bridge terror attack before the market bell is rung to mark the opening of Borough Market PA People walk through Borough Market in central London following its re-opening after the June 3 terror attack AFP/Getty Images Stall holders prepare to open their stall in Borough Market Reuters Pedestrians walk past Borough Market, which officially re-opens today Reuters A stall holder speaks to a woman in Borough Market, which officially re-opens today Reuters Cheesemongers work in Borough Market, Reuters A police officer stands in front of an entrance to Borough Market Reuters A woman sticks a sign onto a window in Borough Marke Reuters Two women embrace in Borough Market, which officially re-opens today Reuters Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joins traders and visitors for a minute's silence to remember the victims of the London Bridge terror attack before the market bell is rung to mark the opening of Borough Market PA The Shard is seen behind Borough Market, which officially re-opens today following the recent attack Reuters Customers queing up to buy paella from a stall in Borough Market whic has opened for the first time since the London Bridge terrorist attack PA Customers at Borough Market which has opened for the first time since the London Bridge terrorist attac PA Crowds gather a Borough Market as it re-opens Getty Images People buy produce from a market stall in Borough Market, which has officially re-opened Reuters People buy produce from a market stall in Borough Market Reuters The market bell and plaque at Borough Market which has opened for the first time since the London Bridge terrorist attack PA The market bell tolled at 10am, hailing the reopening of the buzzing foodie hub. Chair of trustees, Donald Hyslop said in a moving speech: "London is open, Borough Market is open. "This is our market. This is your market. "Thank you for being here today and thank you for bringing the summer sunshine with you." Minute's silence: the reopening of Borough Market / PA London Mayor Sadiq Khan looked on as jubilant stall holders hugged and wished each other luck as they sold their wares for the first time since Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking Saturday night revellers in the market. Speaking as news broke of a blaze of a west London tower block killing several people, Mr Khan added: "There are mixed feelings at Borough Market today. "Our thoughts are with those who lost their lives and were injured. "There are traders who lost business. "Come to Borough Market, buy their things and support these traders" Heroes bravely fought off the attackers as they carried out the rampage before being shot dead by armed police. Spaniard Ignacio Miralles de Imperial, 36, used his skateboard as a weapon as he battled to protect a woman before being knifed to death. Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, 28, ran towards danger to tend to the injured before being fatally stabbed. A second Australian, 21-year-old nanny Sara Zelenak was also killed in the attack along with James McMullan, 32, from Hackney and Frenchmen Sebastien Belanger, 36, Xavier Thomas, 45, and Alexandre Pigeard, 27. Canadian Christine Archibald, 30, was the first of the dead to be named. T he Evening Standard photographer who watched a raging fire rip through Grenfell Tower has said the tragedy was one of the most traumatic events he has ever photographed. Jeremy Selwyn - whose 30-year career has seen him photograph warzones in Bosnia, Lockerbie and the Troubles - called it "a scene of total devastation" and "one of the worst things I've seen". He arrived at the Notting Hill social housing block at 3am on Wednesday as flames tore through the building. At least 12 people were killed and 18 critically wounded. Jeremys powerful picture of the inferno taken from a neighbouring tower block was shared widely and was printed on the front page of today's Evening Standard. He told the newspaper: "I have been in wars, at Lockerbie. This wasnt a war and it wasnt Lockerbie but it looked like a warzone. Jeremy Selwyn's photo on the front of today's Evening Standard "I took pictures of buildings on fire in Bosnia - when the Serbs left Kosovo after the war they set lots of buildings on fire and it just reminded me of that." He added it was "definitely one of the most traumatic events" he has ever photographed. It was a scene of total devastation," he said. "It just got worse in front of my eyes. I felt useless as you could hear screams from people inside the building. After about an hour it all went quiet. The tower block on Wednesday. / Leon Neal/Getty Images When it all went quiet was the worst part for me. The whole thing just went silent, it was just eerily quiet. From being really loud to being really quiet, that was frightening as everybody knew that wasnt good. In a televised interview with the BBC, he told of arriving to scenes of carnage". He said: I parked nearby, walked towards the scene to see the whole tower block engulfed in flames. Blaze: Charred debris is strewn across the floor / AP I felt helpless. When I arrived it was just carnage. I could hear screaming. I couldnt do anything. What can you do as a photographer? He added: It looked like a scene from a warzone. I cant describe it in any other way. It was shocking and it still is. Its hit me for six, to be honest." Evening Standard photographer Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters battled flames through the night after the alarm was raised just before 1am. Some of the hundreds of residents inside the building reportedly leapt from the tower as others, trapped inside, desperately tried to make ropes from sheets or used lights on their phones to signal for help from windows and the roof. Jeremy said the harrowing scenes would stay with him. He added: It wasn't a pleasant night. Ive walked away from it but its still there, I can see it. I feel like Im still there. The photographer described watching in horror as the flames consumed the tower with devastating speed. He said: I arrived at 3am and it wasnt engulfed in flames, it was sort of half covered on one side. But then I just watched it get light and it became completely engulfed. "As you can see in my picture, nearly every floor was alight. Within half an hour it became completely engulfed. Then sun came up behind it and it was an extremely eerie scene with the smoke and the sunshine. He also hailed the roughly 200 firefighters who put their life on the line to battle the inferno. The acts of the bravery there were just beyond belief, he said. "Im just hoping that the numbers of dead people and injured just stays down as much as possible." The Met confirmed at least 12 people were confirmed dead and warned the figure is "likely to rise". Police added that it was set to be "some time" before victims could be identified. NHS England added that a total of 79 people are being treated in hospital, with 18 of those critically injured. D esperate relatives and friends of Grenfell Tower residents were still seeking information about loved ones on Wednesday evening as the Mayor of London said the fire operation had moved from rescue to recovery phase. At least 12 people are now confirmed to have died in the horrific Grenfell Tower blaze, police have said. Many more of the blocks hundreds of residents are unaccounted for and Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy said he expects the death toll to rise. The first bodies of victims have been removed from the smouldering remains of the building, which contained 120 flats and was thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people. These are the missing people we know about so far. Jessica Urbano A 12-year-old girl, Jessica Urbano, who lives on the 20th floor, was also reported missing. She phoned her mother from a fire escape at 1.39am but was not heard from afterwards. Her auntie, Sandra Ruiz, said her family were desperately worried after she was fleeing the building with her father but they became separated. Dennis Murphy Stevan Racz shared a post seeking information about his uncle Dennis Murphy, whom he said had called while trapped on the 14th floor of the building. "We haven't heard anything since. Can anyone with any information contact me please," he said in the post that has been shared nearly 2,000 times. One commenter on another post seeking Mr Murphy wrote: "I've been around asking everyone, going to the centres, no one's seen him." Mohamed Neda A friend of missing Mohamed Neda, Ariana Neumann Rodger, posted on Facebook that "his family are severely injured and in hospital and desperate to find out where he is". She added: "We know a family that's been involved in the fire last night. They are called the Nedas and are the most wonderful family of Afghan Brits who have worked with us for many years. "They lived on the 20th floor and Mohamed Saber was last seen on the stairwell injured and helping neighbours. "The helpline is telling them nothing understandably and we want to help find Mohamed." Zia Popal, who described Mr Neda as his uncle, also posted on the social network and said: "He was on the top floor of the building trying to help (people) and went missing since. "If anyone has links with emergency services please take a look at his photos and pass them on just in case anyone has spotted him. "We have already been to all (the five) major hospitals but they do not have him registered." Mariem Elgwahry Emma Evans shared an appeal to find long-time friend Mariem Elgwahry, who lived on the 19th floor of the tower block and was said to be missing with her mother. Ms Evans told the Press Association that Ms Elgwahry had last been heard from when she spoke to another friend in the tower block - who was since confirmed safe - at around 2.30am. She added that she had been to a number of rescue centres in the area "with no luck yet". Ali Yawar Jafari Ali Yawar Jafari, 82, is thought to be among those missing. His son, Hamid Ali Jafari, said his father had lost contact with his mother and sister, who lived with him in Grenfell Tower, on the 10th floor. Ali Yawar Jafari, 82, who is thought to be among those missing following the Grenfell Tower fire / PA The younger Mr Jafari told the Press Association he had been to several rescue centres throughout the day since first reporting his father missing on Twitter just before 8am. Asked if he had any news since then, he said: "No." According to the Telegraph, Mr Jafari said: "He was with my mother and sister in the lift and she said the lift stopped on the tenth floor and he said there was too much smoke and he couldn't breathe and he got out of the lift and then the doors shut and it didn't stop again till the ground floor." Raymond "Moses" Bernard A family friend has confirmed that Raymond Bernard, known to friends as Moses, remained missing after the fire. Rania Ibrham Believed to be a mother of two small children, Rania Ibrham, 30, uploaded a harrowing Facebook Live video as she appeared to be stuck at the top of the tower block, and has not been heard from by friends since. In the footage, she can be seen seeking help in the smoke-covered corridor of the block before going back into her home and looking down on the street below from her balcony. Friend Rahmana Rashid posted a picture of her and two young girls on Facebook saying: "Rania Ibrham my friend is missing from the grenfill tower, if you have seen her or have any news on her pls contact me." Another friend, named only as Maseen, told the MailOnline: "My friend, Ranya Ibrahim, lives on the top floor with her two children who are just three and five years old." "I received a Snapchat video from Ranya at 3am just after the fire started and I haven't heard from her since," she added. Hesham Rahman Noha Baghdady shared a picture of her brother Hesham Rahman, 57, across a number of platforms, saying he lived on the 20th floor of the tower block and had not heard any news since the fire broke out. She said her nephews were "currently searching hospitals" and added: "I'm feeling so helpless all we can do is pray he is safe and well." According to Sky News, Mr Rahman's last contact with his family was at around 3am when he told them he could smell smoke. It was also reported that Mr Rahman has diabetes, making it difficult for him to walk down stairs. W ell-wishers have raised more than 250,000 for victims of the Grenfell Tower inferno just hours after flames ripped through the building. More than 10,000 people have donated to four verified fundraising pages set up to help hundreds of families affected by the devastating fire that gutted the 24-storey social housing block on Wednesday morning. The Evening Standard's Dispossessed Fund also launched an appeal to support residents after the blaze that killed six people and destroyed homes on the Lancaster West estate in Notting Hill. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Londoners also rallied on Twitter to offer beds, telephones and shelter for those left stranded, using the hashtag #GrenfellTower. Two women bring water and other supplies to help victims / EPA One JustGiving page, launched as the horrific scale of the blaze was still emerging, had raised more than 120,000 by Wednesday afternoon. Another had racked up more than 99,000 in donations after setting an initial target of 10,000. Founder Haley Yearwood wrote: "In this tight-knit community, many families have lost everything they own, whilst others have lost their lives. Others no doubt will have lost family members, friends and colleagues. "The money raised will be for those residents of Grenfell Tower affected and will hopefully, even in some small way, help them with whatever they may need in the aftermath." JustGiving said it was "working with page owners to make sure all the money raised gets to those in need". The Standard's appeal, which you can donate to here, will distribute funds to those who have had their home and belongings destroyed by the fire, Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /28 Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures The moment a resident is carried out of the Grenfell Tower block by fire bridage and riot police carrying shields Sky News Members of the public receive treatment at the scene of a huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White Cit Guilhem Baker/LNP A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Firefighters rest as they take a break in battling a massive fire that raged in a 27-floor high-rise apartment building in London AP Sandwiches are handed out to local residents close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Resident Michael Paramasivan and his daughter Thea Kavanagh, 5, who managed to escape a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA A woman who is awaiting news of her friend who was caught up in a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA A man comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West Londo Reuters Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Local resident Amanda Fernandez reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA People terrified for their friends and family trapped inside Grenfell Tower @ellenwhinnett/News Corp Australia Women donate clothes to a stall which has been set up to help people near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West Londo Getty Images Eddie Daffarn wrapped in a towel speaks on a mobile phone near the scene of a serious fire in a tower block, in north Kensington, West London Reuters A woman comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West London Reuters Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA woman reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA Emergency service responders and local people at a cordon surrounding the fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Volunteers bring food and water to local residents following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA A women reacts following the blaze at t Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road Alex Lentati Volunteers also called on Londoners to donate blankets, food, clothes, water and other basic necessities as the capital sprang into action to help stranded victims. Nearby mosques and churches threw open their doors to offer shelter to those affected by the blaze. Victims and family members have taken shelter in the Latymer Community Church, with a nearby rugby club also caring for people affected. Volunteer Bernadette Walsh, 41, said: "My friend woke me up at 4 o'clock this morning so I came out the front to see what all the noise is. "We've donated clothes and a few suitcases are here. I've sat with a family just comforting them. "It's just really sad. I've just seen a man having a panic attack." Every floor of the 24-storey building was damaged by the fire / Jason Hawkes Bottles of water and sandwiches are also being handed out to people as they desperately search for missing friends and family. Horrifying accounts have emerged of people jumping from upper storeys to escape flames and thick black smoke, while parents were also reported to have dropped babies from windows in a bid to save them. The Metropolitan Police has established a casualty bureau for people to call on 0800 0961 233 if they are concerned about a friend or relative. T heresa May said she was "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life" in the Grenfell Tower inferno as she called an urgent meeting over the disaster. Police and Fire Minister Nick Hurd will chair a cross-government meeting on Wednesday afternoon to co-ordinate the response to the devastating blaze. At least six people died after flames tore through the 24-storey social housing block in Notting Hill in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with police warning the death toll is likely to rise. "The Prime Minister is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower and is being kept constantly updated on the situation," a Downing Street spokesman said. He added: "She has asked for a cross-Government meeting at the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to take place at 4pm to co-ordinate the response and ensure the Government is ready to assist the emergency services and local authorities as necessary. "The PM's thoughts are with all of those affected by this terrible incident and the emergency services, who are working tirelessly in very difficult circumstances." Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /28 Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures The moment a resident is carried out of the Grenfell Tower block by fire bridage and riot police carrying shields Sky News Members of the public receive treatment at the scene of a huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White Cit Guilhem Baker/LNP A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Firefighters rest as they take a break in battling a massive fire that raged in a 27-floor high-rise apartment building in London AP Sandwiches are handed out to local residents close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Resident Michael Paramasivan and his daughter Thea Kavanagh, 5, who managed to escape a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA A woman who is awaiting news of her friend who was caught up in a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA A man comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West Londo Reuters Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Local resident Amanda Fernandez reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA People terrified for their friends and family trapped inside Grenfell Tower @ellenwhinnett/News Corp Australia Women donate clothes to a stall which has been set up to help people near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West Londo Getty Images Eddie Daffarn wrapped in a towel speaks on a mobile phone near the scene of a serious fire in a tower block, in north Kensington, West London Reuters A woman comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West London Reuters Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA woman reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA Emergency service responders and local people at a cordon surrounding the fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Volunteers bring food and water to local residents following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA A women reacts following the blaze at t Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road Alex Lentati Mr Hurd has spoken to London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Steve Apter to assure him that the Government will offer assistance. The minister said: "My thoughts are with the residents and families of everyone caught up in this dreadful event. London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police have confirmed there have been fatalities and I extend my condolences to their loved ones. "The search and rescue operation is still going on and I wish to commend the brave actions of firefighters and other emergency responders who arrived at the scene within minutes and have been at the scene throughout the night. "I should like to stress that this is an ongoing incident and I would urge anyone in the area to stay away from the scene and follow the directions of the emergency services." Mayor Sadiq Khan on the Grenfell tower block fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was "devastated to see what's happened at Grenfell Tower". He added in a tweet: "My thoughts are with those affected. Thank you to our firefighters & emergency services." London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was "truly devastated to see the horrific scenes", adding: "My heart goes out to the family and friends of the victims and everyone affected." He said there were "questions that need to be answered as soon as possible" about the fire, including on advice previously issued to residents about evacuation procedures. Tenants were told in 2014 that they should remain in their flats in the event of a blaze. Mr Khan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Thankfully residents didn't stay in their flats and fled to safety. "One of the concerns that we have is it's a 24-storey building but for obvious reasons, with the scale of the fire, our experts weren't able to reach all the way to the top, so of course these are questions that need to be answered as soon as possible." He added in a statement: "There will be a great many questions over the coming days as to the cause of this tragedy and I want to reassure Londoners that we will get all the answers." R esidents of Grenfell Tower have given shocking accounts of threats and neglect, as they claim warnings over safety concerns were repeatedly ignored before Wednesdays huge blaze. Concerns about fire safety in the 24-storey building in west London have been raised for years and were not investigated during a renovation which was completed in May 2016, the residents claim. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which manages the councils housing stock, the local council and construction firm Rydon, which carried out an 8.6m refurbishment project in May 2016, have all been criticised. Rydon carried out the project to modernise the outside of the building, and it saw new cladding and windows installed. Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /49 Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures A blaze rages through Grenfell Tower block in Notting Hill Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter investigates a floor after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Exhausted firefighter rest on steps of houses after ours of tackling the blaze Alex Lentati Jeremy Selwyn Residents wave frantically at a window during the blaze Nigel Howard Emergency personnel operate during the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 27-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Debris and ash surrounding Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer road Jeremy Selwyn A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured AFP/Getty Images A firefighter rests during the battle against the blaze at Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA Nigel Howard Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill AFP/Getty Images This shocking image shows flames engulfing the 27 storey tower Jeremy Selwyn Police and Emergency services at the scene of a major fire in Notting Hill after a block of flats Grenfell Tower is engulfed in flames Nigel Howard A person peers out of a window from the building on fire in London AP Firefighters react as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower AFP/Getty Images Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Aw omen react followign the blaze at Grenfell Tower Alex Lentati Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Jeremy Selwyn A water jet douses the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block seen through a fence in North Kensington EPA Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower PA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Firefighters on the scene at Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road early this morning Alex Lentati A view of debris from the Grenfell Tower fire covering a football pitch EPA Aerial view of the closed of Westway follwing a the fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer Road. Jeremy Selwyn Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA The huge fire, which gutted the building, has left at least six people dead and 20 fighting for life. David Collins, of Grenfell Tower residents association, told the BBC: We repeatedly reported concerns to the tenant management organisation of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, including fire safety concerns, which were not investigated during the regeneration works. Concerns over locations of boilers, concerns about escape, concerns about fire escape lighting, the list goes on. David Collins says concerns weren't listened to / BBC I spoke to Nick Paget-Brown [Kensington and Chelsea Council leader], I spoke to councillors and they refused to investigate. They wouldnt believe the residents were concerned. 90 per cent of residents signed at independent petition asking to there to be an investigation into the organisation that runs this building because they were so incompetent and the council turned it down. 68 per cent of residents felt they had been threatened, harassed, pressured or bullied by the same organisation or by the contractors doing the work. I personally had someone come round and threaten me at my own door, so that was the conditions we were dealing with, and they didnt listen to our concerns. London fire: At least six dead in Grenfell Tower blaze Other residents told the BBC that the council was managing decline in a desire to eventually get rid of the tower block. One said: We believe the council and the TMO have been really managing a decline in the social housing here to add justification to their plans to regenerate another word for demolish the whole area, so there are people who have been prophesying a catastrophe like this for some time. Theres no doubt the whole thing went up way too quickly for a block that has 500 people in it. Another added: Theres two options they could either regenerate the blocks or they can knock them down. Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /28 Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures The moment a resident is carried out of the Grenfell Tower block by fire bridage and riot police carrying shields Sky News Members of the public receive treatment at the scene of a huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White Cit Guilhem Baker/LNP A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Firefighters rest as they take a break in battling a massive fire that raged in a 27-floor high-rise apartment building in London AP Sandwiches are handed out to local residents close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Resident Michael Paramasivan and his daughter Thea Kavanagh, 5, who managed to escape a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA A woman who is awaiting news of her friend who was caught up in a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA A man comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West Londo Reuters Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Local resident Amanda Fernandez reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA People terrified for their friends and family trapped inside Grenfell Tower @ellenwhinnett/News Corp Australia Women donate clothes to a stall which has been set up to help people near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West Londo Getty Images Eddie Daffarn wrapped in a towel speaks on a mobile phone near the scene of a serious fire in a tower block, in north Kensington, West London Reuters A woman comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West London Reuters Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA woman reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA Emergency service responders and local people at a cordon surrounding the fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Volunteers bring food and water to local residents following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA A women reacts following the blaze at t Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road Alex Lentati Regeneration that happened last year to apparently make these blocks better and then these fires have never happened, Ive lived here my entire life, my mums lived here a very long time, and these kind of things have never, ever happened in this area. I dont know what they spent 10m on. Robert Black, Chief Executive of Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, said today: The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking Along with my colleagues, I have been supporting residents since the early hours, working with the emergency services and the community. Currently were focusing on helping those residents and London Fire Brigade is investigating the safety of the towers structure but we will issue a further statement in due course. Londoners gather free supplies for the fire victims Tory council leader Nick Paget-Brown said: Theres always concerns about high-rise buildings. Blocks are regularly inspected. The organisation that runs the councils housing stock and the management organisation will commission regular inspections. "Obviously there will need to be a thorough investigation into what the cause of the fire was and why it appears to have spread so rapidly. Rydon said its work "met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards", following the devastating fire which killed at least six people. In a statement, the Sussex-based firm said it was shocked by the "devastating" blaze, adding: "Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016 for KCTMO (Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation) on behalf of the council, which met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards. "We will co-operate with the relevant authorities and emergency services and fully support their inquiries into the causes of this fire at the appropriate time." A survivor of the London Bridge attack today returned to the bistro where he was dining to tip the staff who saved his life and launch a 250,000 fundraising campaign to help other hero market workers. Richard Angells defiant pledge to finish his meal and settle his bill at the Arabica Bar and Kitchen went viral on the internet in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity. The 33-year-old was with friends when three Islamist terrorists stormed the area, stabbing diners and pedestrians in an eight-minute rampage through Borough Market. He and his fellow diners were barricaded inside the restaurant by members of staff who blocked doors to prevent the knifemen entering. London Bridge terror attack: All murder victims named As Borough Market re-opened for business this morning Mr Angell, director of Labour think-tank Progress, launched #TipLondon to raise money for those working on the night of the attack. He said: None of us paid the bill on the night, none of us left a tip. But if putting your foot in the door and body against the glass to stop an assailant getting in does not get you your tip doubled Ive no idea what does. Many of the staff are not from London but they are true Londoners, while this traumatic thing happened all around they thought about us. Heroes of London Bridge attack - in pictures 1 /9 Heroes of London Bridge attack - in pictures Dr Malcolm Tunnicliff, clinical director and consultant in emergency medicine at Kings Malcolm Tunnicliff featured in TV programme 24 Hours in A&E Ex-police officer Darren Jaundrill Matt Writtle Joe Palermo, a bouncer from Italy Joe Palermo helped people to shelter in Bill's Matt Writtle Baker Florin Morariu Journalist Geoff Ho was stabbed in the neck while trying to help others Twitter They surely deserve a night out or a drink, a flight home to see their family or parents, take some time off or take time to think it through and get some help. Mr Angell witnessed casualties fleeing steak restaurant Black and Blue covered in blood during the rampage, helped a pregnant woman trapped in the restaurant with him and texted his worried sister Louise to let her know he was safe. He also praised the truly brilliant paramedics who ran into the melee to save those injured. He hopes to raise 250,000 in the campaign, with 10 per cent donated to charities Mind and the Samaritans. He said: This is the best of London. This is the London they tried to attack, tried to divide, and we will show we are better than that. We will stay united. The market was closed for ten days while forensics officers cordoned off the area as investigations were carried out. To donate to the campaign go to www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/3769/the-tiplondon-fund A t least 12 people are now confirmed to have died in the horrific Grenfell Tower blaze, police have said. Many more of the blocks hundreds of residents are unaccounted for and Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy said he expects the death toll to rise. The first bodies of victims have been removed from the smouldering remains of the building, which contained 120 flats and was thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people. Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon: "Sadly I can confirm that there are now 12 people that have died that we know of. Grenfell Tower in north Kensington. / Leon Neal/Getty Images "This is going to be a long and complex recovery operation and I do anticipate that the number of fatalities will sadly increase beyond those 12." Flames tore through the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in the Lancaster West estate throughout the night after the blaze broke out at shortly before 1am. People in the north Kensington tower block were trapped overnight with witnesses describing seeing a mother throwing her baby out of a window and others jumping from flats. Blaze: Charred debris is strewn across the floor / AP The fire brigade rescued 65 people from the tower after sending 40 fire engines and 250 firefighters. Fire crews are continuing to tackle "pockets of fire" in the building with many people still unaccounted for. Steve Apter, director of safety and assurance at London Fire Brigade, said: "I can confirm I have had firefighters manage to get through particularly arduous conditions up to the top floor." Mr Cundy added: "Whilst we may have accessed every floor that is not the same as a full search of the whole building, and as I said while we currently sadly have 12 fatalities, I do believe that figure will rise and sadly I don't anticipate that there will be further survivors." Paul Woodrow, from the London Ambulance Service said 68 patients were taken to six hospitals across London, 18 of whom are receiving critical care, while a further ten patients self-presented at hospitals. Wisconsin Chamber Orchestras conductor and music director Andrew Sewell has accepted a new position as music director of the San Luis Obispo Symphony. Its a job hell be able to do while still conducting the WCO. In fact, theres precedent for him performing two conducting jobs at once. For 10 years when he first came to Madison, Sewell was music director of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra as well as for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra in Kansas. That lasted from 2000 to 2010. He lived in Madison, but commuted to Wichita, which had the bigger symphony at the time. Sewell signed an initial three-year contract with the San Luis Obispo Symphony, and plans to commute to that central California coastal city. He will start the job July 1 and will officially take the podium there on Oct. 7. Theres great opportunity to grow the orchestra and do something similar to what Ive done in Madison, Sewell said Wednesday from California. The San Luis Obispo Symphony is a full orchestra with about 88 players. WCO has 36 members. Both the San Luis Obispo Symphony and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra are 57 years old. They were looking for a music director who had been around a long time, and I saw an opportunity to make a difference, said Sewell, a native of New Zealand. Sewell said he had a week of candidacy with the San Luis Obispo Symphony in October, and got to know the community. He was chosen from among five candidates for the position during an 18-month search. The San Luis Obispo Symphony has a indoor season of about five classical concerts as well as a couple of outdoor pops concerts, and is looking to do some more outdoor concerts, Sewell said. The California orchestra also has a chamber music series and an educational program. The schedule fits very neatly between my duties and concerts that I do in Madison with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. So it actually has worked out very, very well, he said. Sewells contract with the WCO lasts until August 2019. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestras free Concerts on the Square series starts Wednesday, June 28, and can draw up to 40,000 people per week. Theres no reason for me to not continue, Sewell said. They were looking for a music director who had been around a long time, and I saw an opportunity to make a difference. Wisconsin Chamber Orchestras conductor and music director Andrew Sewell A chimney effect could be the reason the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze spread so quickly, a top fire and explosion expert has said. At least 12 people have been killed after the huge blaze turned the 24-storey west London tower block into an inferno in the early hours of this morning. The blaze is thought to have started on the third or fourth floor of the block soon after midnight with hundreds of people inside. It spread to every storey of the building with firefighters unable to reach beyond the 19th and 20th floors. Dr Claire M Benson, a Research Fellow at London South Bank University, told the Standard the speed at which the fire took hold could have been caused by air flow and a chimney type effect that funnelled the flames upwards. Aerial footage shows the full scale of the fire She said: There are two main factors. It could be down to the material that is used. It could be down to air flow causing a chimney effect that can really drive a fire very quickly. The investigation is going to be key to establishing how the fire spread and where it spread. Dr Benson added that tall buildings should be designed using compartmentation throughout to prevent fire or smoke spreading from one section of a floor to another. She said: The idea is that you evacuate the compartment affected by fire and those around it but everybody beyond that should be safe. The correct materials should be in place. This should also allow the fire service time to tackle the fire. Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /49 Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures A blaze rages through Grenfell Tower block in Notting Hill Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter investigates a floor after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Exhausted firefighter rest on steps of houses after ours of tackling the blaze Alex Lentati Jeremy Selwyn Residents wave frantically at a window during the blaze Nigel Howard Emergency personnel operate during the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 27-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Debris and ash surrounding Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer road Jeremy Selwyn A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured AFP/Getty Images A firefighter rests during the battle against the blaze at Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA Nigel Howard Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill AFP/Getty Images This shocking image shows flames engulfing the 27 storey tower Jeremy Selwyn Police and Emergency services at the scene of a major fire in Notting Hill after a block of flats Grenfell Tower is engulfed in flames Nigel Howard A person peers out of a window from the building on fire in London AP Firefighters react as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower AFP/Getty Images Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Aw omen react followign the blaze at Grenfell Tower Alex Lentati Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Jeremy Selwyn A water jet douses the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block seen through a fence in North Kensington EPA Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower PA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Firefighters on the scene at Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road early this morning Alex Lentati A view of debris from the Grenfell Tower fire covering a football pitch EPA Aerial view of the closed of Westway follwing a the fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer Road. Jeremy Selwyn Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Speaking to reporters about the Grenfell Tower blaze, Fire Brigade Union safety expert David Sibert said: The principle that tower blocks are built on is that every flat is a fire-resisting box, every flat is completely surrounded by fire-resisting construction from the rest of the building. "So you should be able to set fire to your own flat and leave it to completely burn out and it won't affect anybody else in the building." Dr Benson said the materials used in the design of the building could also have had an impact on how quickly the fire spread. According to some experts, adding cladding to tower blocks could create an additional fire risk. The process of applying the rain-proof frontage can create a 25mm-30mm cavity between the cladding and the insulation behind it, Arnold Tarling, chartered surveyor and fire expert with property firm Hindwoods, said. He said this can have the effect of creating a "wind tunnel and also traps any burning material between the rain cladding and the building". Dr Benson also believes sprinklers could have helped prevent the fire from taking hold so fast. The burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block / Leon Neal/Getty Images She added: For me and most fire safety professionals, we would like to see sprinklers and automatic fire suppression installed in these buildings. New buildings above 30 metres have them. The fire safety industry would like to see more of this. Ideally I guess you would want it installed in your escape locations. A lot of people say they dont want them installed because of damage but its not like in the Hollywood movies, sprinklers dont set off by accident. The Grenfell Tower was built in 1974 and contains 120 homes. It was refurbished recently at a cost of 8.6 million, with work completed in May last year. The exterior of the tower was modernised with cladding and replacement windows, while additional homes were added using vacant space in the building. On its website, Rydon Construction said: "Externally, rain screen cladding, curtain wall facade and replacement windows were fitted, improving thermal insulation and modernising the exterior of the building." A huge blaze ripped through the tower block / Jeremy Selwyn The work also included the installation of new double-glazed windows and a new communal heating system. Based in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, it is around half a mile from the Westfield shopping centre and close to many London Underground stations. It is run by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the council. Rydon said in a statement today: We were shocked to awake this morning to the scenes of the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower and our immediate thoughts were with those that have been affected by the incident, their families, relatives and friends. "Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016, meeting all required health and safety standards. "We will cooperate fully with the relevant authorities and emergency services and await the outcome of their enquiries. Robert Black, Chief Executive of Kensington & Chelsea TMO, says: "The fire at Grenfell Tower is devastating and the reports of injury and losses of life absolutely heartbreaking. Along with my colleagues, I have been supporting residents since the early hours, working with the emergency services and the community. Respite centres are at Latymer Community Centre, St Clement's Church, Harrow Club and Rugby Portobello Trust. The Casualty Bureau Number is 0800 0961 233. "Currently we're focussing on helping those residents and London Fire Brigade is investigating the safety of the tower's structure but we will issue a further statement in due course. T hese dramatic pictures show the devastation caused as flames raged through a 27-storey tower block in Notting Hill. The inferno ripped through the tower as hundreds of fire fighters, police and paramedics were scrambled to the scene near Ladbroke Grove. Burning debris could be seen crashing down the side of the Grenfell Tower in Lancaster West estate as flames engulfed the block from the second floor upwards. Horrifying images show the people who appear to be trapped in the building at their windows as the fire wraps around it. Smoke billows into the air / Jeremy Selwyn Others show the scale of huge plumes of smoke billowing in to the air as fire crews tackle the towering blaze that was raging from the early hours of Wednesday morning. One pictures a number of fighter fighters preparing to enter the building as the fire still raged on. A number of fleets of emergency services can be seen surrounding the area in west London, as shocked on-lookers watch the terrifying scenes continue. Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill / AFP/Getty Images Another reveals the damage caused to the charred tower as water jets douse the flames in North Kensington. Aerial footage shows the full scale of the fire Witnesses described the horrible scenes and London Fire Brigade has confirmed a number of fatalities. They could not say how many were killed due to the complexity of the operation. A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured / AFP/Getty Images Forty fire engines with 200 officers were called shortly before 1am as the fire rapidly engulfed the block within seconds. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage, London Fire Brigade said. London Ambulance Service said 30 people had been taken to five hospitals following the fire. Witnesses reported other people trapped on the upper storeys. A firefighter rests during the ballte against the blaze at Grenfell Tower / Jeremy Selwyn London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Dan Daly said: "Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus are working extremely hard in very difficult conditions to tackle this fire. "This is a large and very serious incident and we have deployed numerous resources and specialist appliances." London mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: "Major incident declared at Grenfell Tower in Kensington" D evastated families and neighbours today gathered to light candles at a vigil in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. At least 12 people are confirmed to have died and many more of the blocks hundreds of residents are unaccounted for following the huge fire that raged through the west London block overnight. Heartbreaking photos from the evening service outside Notting Hill Methodist Church show many people moved to tears after a moment of silent contemplation on the horror. The Rev Mike Long invited those present to light candles before playing Amazing Grace on his flute as members of the crowd sang along. Moving: A woman sobs as she and a child light candles. / Getty Images He said: "There are times when all the words we can say are not adequate and sometimes words fail us because no words can do justice to how we feel, or what we have seen or what has happened. Today is one of those days. "What we can simply do is look to all that we have seen today which is good, which is fabulous - people getting together." A community left reeling by what has happened. / PA He added: "Let light triumph over all that is rotten, that is desperate and that defies our understanding." Police expect the death toll to rise as they continue to search the upper floors of the building. The fire is thought to have started on the third or fourth floor shortly before 1am before destroying flat after flat. Witnesses described seeing people leap for their lives while others, trapped inside, tried to signal for help. A baby was reportedly saved from the burning building after being thrown and then caught by a member of the public several storeys below. R esidents caught in a tower block while it rapidly turned into an inferno after catching flame were told to stay in their flats in the event of a fire. A council newsletter for those who lived in the block advised them to stay put during a blaze unless the flames entered their flat or reached the hallway outside it. The policy was thrust into the spotlight after at least six people were killed as the huge fire tore through Grenfell Tower, in Notting Hill, overnight. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan condemned the advice, saying questions need to be answered about the advice given to residents in the 24-storey block. The newsletter, which was published on Kensington and Chelsea Council's website in 2014, states the policy worked because the block was designed according to rigorous fire safety standards". Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /49 Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures A blaze rages through Grenfell Tower block in Notting Hill Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter investigates a floor after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Exhausted firefighter rest on steps of houses after ours of tackling the blaze Alex Lentati Jeremy Selwyn Residents wave frantically at a window during the blaze Nigel Howard Emergency personnel operate during the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 27-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Debris and ash surrounding Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer road Jeremy Selwyn A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured AFP/Getty Images A firefighter rests during the battle against the blaze at Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA Nigel Howard Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill AFP/Getty Images This shocking image shows flames engulfing the 27 storey tower Jeremy Selwyn Police and Emergency services at the scene of a major fire in Notting Hill after a block of flats Grenfell Tower is engulfed in flames Nigel Howard A person peers out of a window from the building on fire in London AP Firefighters react as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower AFP/Getty Images Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Aw omen react followign the blaze at Grenfell Tower Alex Lentati Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Jeremy Selwyn A water jet douses the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block seen through a fence in North Kensington EPA Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower PA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Firefighters on the scene at Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road early this morning Alex Lentati A view of debris from the Grenfell Tower fire covering a football pitch EPA Aerial view of the closed of Westway follwing a the fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer Road. Jeremy Selwyn Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA It added that doors installed on the properties can "withstand fire for 30 minutes, which gives plenty of time for the fire brigade to arrive. But Mr Khan said: Thankfully residents didn't stay in their flats and fled to safety. "One of the concerns that we have is it's a 24-storey building but for obvious reasons, with the scale of the fire, our experts weren't able to reach all the way to the top. He added: These are questions that need to be answered as soon as possible." People look on as firefighters battle the blaze / Alex Lentati Hundreds of people were in the tower as the fire rapidly tore through flat after flat shortly after midnight on Wednesday. The Met confirmed at least six people were confirmed dead and warned the figure is "likely to rise. More than 50 people have been rushed to hospital. Paul Embery, regional secretary of the FBU in London, said the stay put policy is standard procedure issued by the London Fire Brigade. He told the Standard: The official advice from the London Fire Brigade on fires in a tower block is that unless the fire is in your flat, or in the hallway outside, you should stay there until told otherwise. The idea is that the design of the flat, doors etcetera should be enough to keep you safe, whereas if you leave the flat you could become exposed to the flames and smoke. But the flat itself is compromised by the fire, the advice given is that you should try to self-evacuate. London fire: At least six dead in Grenfell Tower blaze Mr Embery said the policy was put in place following discussions after the Lakanal House blaze, in Camberwell, that left six people dead in 2009. The emergency fire arrangements, as displayed in the 2014 newsletter, read: Our longstanding stay put policy stays in force until you are told otherwise. This means that (unless there is a fire in your flat or in the hallway outside your flat) you should stay inside your flat. This is because Grenfell was designed according to rigorous fire safety standards. Also, the new front doors for each flat can withstand a fire for up to 30 minutes, which gives plenty of time for the fire brigade to arrive. The Standard has approached Kensington and Chelsea Council for comment. T he company that manages Grenfell Tower was ordered to make safety improvements to two other tower blocks after a serious blaze in 2015, it emerged today. The London Fire Brigade enforcement notices followed a blaze in Adair Tower in North Kensington, which was caused by arson and resulted in several residents being taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which manages the councils housing stock, was required to fit self-closing devices to the front doors of all 78 flats in the 14-storey block and improve safety in the escape staircases. The same requirements were made for adjacent Hazelwood Tower, the KCTMO annual accounts reveal. Riot police shelter from debris under shields as they rescue a man / Sky News Today it emerged that Grenfell residents had been complaining that safety concerns had been falling on deaf ears for years. In other developments: Residents claimed no fire alarm sounded and there was no central sprinkler system. They told of concerns about previous power surges. Signs had been erected telling residents to stay put in their flats in the event of fire, unless their own property was affected. Only smoke alarms inside the flats worked, according to residents. There were claims Grenfell Towers recently-fitted Polystyrene-type cladding helped the fire to spread rapidly. Modernisation work by Kensington and Chelsea council on Grenfell, a 120-home tower originally built in 1974, was completed in May last year at a cost of 10.3 million. Paul Munakr, who lived on the seventh floor, told Sky News that no fire alarm sounded. He said he was only alerted to the fire by the screams of residents pleading for help and others telling them not to jump. Without them, he said he may not have escaped. He had never witnessed a fire alarm test at the block. They only do these fire alarms in the day when the majority of people are working, he said. Residents suggested that there had been problems with the gas supply in the days preceding the fire, and that engineers had been called in. Labour councillor Judith Blakeman said: After the refurbishment was finished the gas board came along and said theres a bit of a problem here with the gas and we want to replace some of the gas pipes there. Debris strewn on the ground after the fire / EPA Residents asked for a fire inspection from the local fire brigade, this was carried out and they were told everything was fine. The Tory-run council first approved a 6 million refurbishment in May 2012 but the work was repeatedly delayed when two subcontractors for main contractor Rydon went into liquidation. The changes, completed by last May, also included a new entrance, replacement windows and a new communal heating system. Nine additional homes were added. The company also made improvements to the first-floor Dale Youth Gym, where Olympic gold medallist James DeGale and WBA super-middleweight champion George Groves trained. Grenfell Action Group claimed in a blog last November that KCTMO had previously breached health and safety legislation and was ignoring their fears. The group said: All our warnings fell on deaf ears and we predicted that a catastrophe like this was inevitable and just a matter of time. Rydon said in a statement today: We were shocked to awake this morning to the scenes of the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower and our immediate thoughts were with those that have been affected by the incident, their families, relatives and friends. "Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016, meeting all required health and safety standards. London fire: At least six dead in Grenfell Tower blaze "We will cooperate fully with the relevant authorities and emergency services and await the outcome of their enquiries. Robert Bond, boss of Rydon Group, was paid 424,000 in the year to September 30. He also gained dividends of 734,000. A resident of the 17th floor of the block, identified as Methrob, told LBC Radio the real issue was when it caught fire to the cladding outside. He added: Thats when I noticed the fire from outside when I looked out the window. "By the time that we got downstairs, the fire had gone all the way up and it was just about reaching our windows on the 17th floor. The whole one side of the building was on fire. The cladding went up like a matchstick. Tory council leader Nick Paget-Brown said today: Theres always concerns about high-rise buildings. Blocks are regularly inspected. The organisation that runs the councils housing stock and the management organisation will commission regular inspections. "Obviously there will need to be a thorough investigation into what the cause of the fire was and why it appears to have spread so rapidly. Four years ago, an inquest jury ruled that a blaze at 14-storey Lakanal House in Camberwell, in which six people died, was due to a serious failure by Southwark council and its contractors in a botched refurbishment. A pastor has blamed the disgusting treatment of poor people in Notting Hill for the fatal tower block inferno and said residents had been neglected in the area. Danny Vance, an Associate Pastor at Notting Hill Community Church, said the deadly blaze at Grenfell Tower would not have happened in nearby 5million flats and that he wasnt surprised by the fire. He also pointed to authorities ignoring complaints from residents over fire safety, with the 24-storey block of flats undergoing a 10m renovation in May 2016. Al least six people were killed when an inferno engulfed the 24-storey tower block in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /28 Evacuation from Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures The moment a resident is carried out of the Grenfell Tower block by fire bridage and riot police carrying shields Sky News Members of the public receive treatment at the scene of a huge fire at Grenfell tower block in White Cit Guilhem Baker/LNP A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Firefighters rest as they take a break in battling a massive fire that raged in a 27-floor high-rise apartment building in London AP Sandwiches are handed out to local residents close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Resident Michael Paramasivan and his daughter Thea Kavanagh, 5, who managed to escape a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA A woman who is awaiting news of her friend who was caught up in a fire that engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA A man comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West Londo Reuters Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Local resident Amanda Fernandez reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA People terrified for their friends and family trapped inside Grenfell Tower @ellenwhinnett/News Corp Australia Women donate clothes to a stall which has been set up to help people near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West Londo Getty Images Eddie Daffarn wrapped in a towel speaks on a mobile phone near the scene of a serious fire in a tower block, in north Kensington, West London Reuters A woman comforts a boy after a tower block was severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West London Reuters Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA woman reacts following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA Emergency service responders and local people at a cordon surrounding the fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Volunteers bring food and water to local residents following a huge fire at the Grenfell Tower EPA A women reacts following the blaze at t Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road Alex Lentati Mr Vance told the I Newspaper: The disparity in this country between rich and poor is disgusting. This would not have happened in those 2m, 5m flats around the corner. In 2012 they were told they were deficient and their fire checks were out of date and they did nothing, they did absolutely nothing. The Grenfell Action Group have since said they had predicted a catastrophe but claimed safety warnings were ignored. In a chilling blog post just seven months ago, the group said only a catastrophic event would make concerns heard. Mayor Sadiq Khan on the Grenfell tower block fire The charred wreck of the Notting Hill tower block is set to be examined to establish the cause of the fire. The group claimed it had repeatedly warned Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO,) which manages the social housing block, and the council, which owns the building. Mr Vance added: This isnt a surprise to me. Anyone whos worked anywhere in the inner city this isnt a surprise. The poor are constantly neglected. Smoke billows out of Grenfell Tower / Jason Hawkes When I started in Peckham there were 10 youth centres. By the time I left there was two. Things like this are going to keep happening if the poor are ignored in this city. Horrifying accounts of residents jumping from windows have since emerged, while numerous Londoners have began donating clothes and food to the victims. The tower, on Latimer Road, is part of the Lancaster West Estate, a social housing complex of 1,000 homes. It is believed several hundred people could have been inside when the fire broke out. R esidents were trapped screaming for their lives as flames raged through a 27-storey tower block in Notting Hill, killing at least six people in the early hours today. Witnesses described horrible scenes as firefighters battled the inferno at Grenfell Tower in the Lancaster West estate near Ladbroke Grove. Police confirmed six people were killed, adding that the investigation was in the "very early stages" and the figure was expected to rise. London Fire Brigade said large numbers of people had been rescued. There was speculation from witnesses the blaze may have been caused by a faulty fridge on one of the lower floors of the building. Fire officials said it was too early to establish any cause. The fire raging at the Notting Hill tower block this morning / Jeremy Selwyn Met Commander Stuart Cundy said: ""I can confirm six fatalities at this time but this figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days. Many others are receiving medical care." Forty fire engines with 200 officers were called shortly before 1am as flames engulfed the block from the second floor upwards within seconds. Hundreds of fire officers were joined by police and paramedics to wake and evacuate residents as set up an exclusion zone around the base of the tower as burning debris crashed down the side. London Ambulance Service said 50 people had been taken to five hospitals following the fire. Witnesses reported other people trapped on the upper storeys. Fire fighters were initially unable to access beyond the 10th floor of the building after arriving within six minutes of receiving the first call. There were reports of people leaping several storeys to their deaths (JEREMY SELWYN) / Jeremy Selwyn In a statement at 9.40 am, London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said fire fighters had managed to access all floors. There were unconfirmed reports on social media of residents using bedsheets as makeshift ropes while others were reportedly seen jumping for their lives. Ms Cotton said: "This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a fire fighter I have never ever seen anything of this scale. You must recognise fire fighters are working very hard at the moment. Residents wave frantically at a window during the blaze / Nigel Howard This is a major fire that affected all floors of this 24-storey building from the second floor upwards. I have over 200 of my fire fighters and officers attending this incident, with 40 fire engines and a range of specialist vehicles, including 14 fire rescue units in attendance. Based on the level of resource needed we declared this a major incident very early this morning. London Ambulance Service have confirmed that 30 people have been taken to five hospitals. This shocking image shows flames engulfing the 27 storey tower / Jeremy Selwyn At this time I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities. I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building, and it would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further. Equally, the cause of this fire is not known at this stage. London mayor Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's very distressing, not just for those of us watching as lay people, but also very distressing for the emergency services. "We declared a major incident very early, which meant not just the fire service but also the London Ambulance Service, the police and the others were involved at the scene." Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /49 Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures A blaze rages through Grenfell Tower block in Notting Hill Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter investigates a floor after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Exhausted firefighter rest on steps of houses after ours of tackling the blaze Alex Lentati Jeremy Selwyn Residents wave frantically at a window during the blaze Nigel Howard Emergency personnel operate during the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 27-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Debris and ash surrounding Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer road Jeremy Selwyn A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured AFP/Getty Images A firefighter rests during the battle against the blaze at Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA Nigel Howard Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill AFP/Getty Images This shocking image shows flames engulfing the 27 storey tower Jeremy Selwyn Police and Emergency services at the scene of a major fire in Notting Hill after a block of flats Grenfell Tower is engulfed in flames Nigel Howard A person peers out of a window from the building on fire in London AP Firefighters react as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower AFP/Getty Images Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Aw omen react followign the blaze at Grenfell Tower Alex Lentati Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Jeremy Selwyn A water jet douses the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block seen through a fence in North Kensington EPA Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower PA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Firefighters on the scene at Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road early this morning Alex Lentati A view of debris from the Grenfell Tower fire covering a football pitch EPA Aerial view of the closed of Westway follwing a the fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer Road. Jeremy Selwyn Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA More than 100 police officers were on scene, alongside 100 medics and 250 firefighters, he said. Pressed on reports that residents had been advised to stay inside their flats in the event of a fire, Mr Khan said: "Thankfully residents didn't stay in their flats and fled to safety. "Our experts weren't able to reach all the way to the top, so of course these are questions that need to be answered as soon as possible." Loading.... The first call came in at 12.54. Our first fire engines were on the scene in under six minutes. Crews wearing breathing apparatus and extended duration breathing apparatus have been working in extremely challenging and very difficult conditions to rescue people and to bring this major fire under control. Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill (AFP) / AFP/Getty Images London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Dan Daly said: "Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus are working extremely hard in very difficult conditions to tackle this fire. "This is a large and very serious incident and we have deployed numerous resources and specialist appliances." London mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: "Major incident declared at Grenfell Tower in Kensington" Stuart Crighton, London Ambulance Service assistant director of operations, said: "We have sent a number of resources to the scene including our hazardous area response team and over 20 ambulance crews. The fire brigade said 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters had been called to the blaze in Grenfell Tower / AFP "Our priority (is) to get people to safety and ensure they receive the medical help as quickly as possible. "Our initial priority is to assess the level and nature of injuries and ensure those in the most need are treated first and taken to hospital." Members of the public were warned to avoid the area as surrounding roads were closed, with flames and smoke visible for several miles around. A resident posted a message on Facebook saying the fire had begun on her floor. Warning family members of residents to check their relatives were safe, she added: A fire on my floor has led to this. Im out and Im safe but not sure yet if my flat will be. Andy Manfrego, lives yards away, was desperately searching for a relative trapped inside at 3am. Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames / EPA He said: It went up in seconds. Its been burning for nearly two hours and you can see people at the top still in there. Bits of the building keep dropping off its awful. Everyones waiting at the cordon trying to call there family members who could still be in there. The fire brigade said 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters had been called to the blaze in Grenfell Tower / Jeremy Selwyn My uncle was in there but managed to nip out. He called me saying he is fine. There are still people in there you can see them through the windows. The police arent telling us anything about it. A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured (AFP) / AFP/Getty Images Residents had warned that the building - which has around 120 flats reportedly served by a single main entrance - was a fire hazard last year when rubbish piled up in a communal walkway. The Grenfell Action Group raised their concerns in a blog post last January, saying: The potential for a fire to break out in the communal area on the walkway does not bear thinking about as residents would be trapped in the building with no way out. A firefighter rests during the ballte against the blaze at Grenfell Tower / Jeremy Selwyn It was given a 10million refurbishment a year ago, with the installation of insulated exterior cladding, double-glazed windows and a communal heating system. Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Nick Paget-Brown described the blaze as a "very, very severe fire". He told Sky News: "Clearly it's an absolutely devastating fire. "Several hundred would have been in there. It's a question of establishing how many people were in there at the time of the fire. "I'm really not in any position to answer any questions about the structure. "Clearly there's a lot more work to do to evacuate the building and to establish how safe it is." A cross-party deal for a softer Brexit inched closer today when one of Jeremy Corbyns closest allies said Labour could support some element of European free movement. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey indicated her party could be flexible in the interests of securing impediment-free trade with the EUs single market of 500 million customers. On the Conservative side, former chancellor Kenneth Clarke, the Father of the House of Commons, warned Theresa May that a deal with Northern Irelands DUP would not rescue her promise of a so-called hard Brexit because the Tory party would split. Senior MPs and ministers believe there is no clear majority for any of the official positions advanced by the main parties in their manifestos, forcing compromises to avoid a stalemate. Call for cross-party work: Labour's Rebecca Long-Bailey / PA Tory MPs and ministers who want a deal to protect the economy and jobs are looking to Chancellor Philip Hammond to give a lead in his annual Mansion House speech tomorrow. He has argued in private for Britain to stay in the borderless customs union in order to maximise trade with the EU, Britains biggest export market. Ms Long-Bailey said the Prime Minister would have to seek consensus by talking to other parties. She told BBC Radio 4: We accept the fact that, if we are going to have impediment-free access to the single market, then there will have to be some element of free movement. Europhile: Ken Clarke I think we know that, the Conservative party know that, but the specific points are open to negotiation. Downing Street said talks between Mrs May and the 10-strong Democratic Unionist Party were ongoing this morning. A deal would allow Mrs May to pass the Queens Speech in return for concessions, which are thought to include an economic package for Northern Ireland. A senior Conservative source said: We are making a lot of progress. However, Mr Clarke scoffed at the idea that the DUPs support would allow her to carry the Commons with her on a hard Brexit, because Tories were divided on key negotiating points.He said: You cannot carry out this negotiation on the basis that every aspect of it is going to be negotiated with the DUP to get their vote in support of it, and then you are going to try to get the entire Conservative prty to agree with each other on whatever you have tried to negotiate. Both parties, major parties, are hopelessly split on the issue. Pressure on Mrs May to change her approach also came from Tory predecessors David Cameron and John Major. Mr Cameron said Parliament deserves a say and urged the Government to consult more widely with the other parties on how best to achieve a deal. He also highlighted the role of Scottish Tories, led by Ruth Davidson, who are opposed to a hard Brexit. Speaking in Paris last night, Mrs May stressed that Brexit would happen and the timetable remains on course. She said: I think there is a unity of purpose among people in the United Kingdom. Its a unity of purpose, having voted to leave the EU, that their Government gets on with that and makes a success of it. At a joint press conference with her, new French president Emmanuel Macron said the door was still open for the UK to remain in the EU. But EU Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said Britain will lose the rebate won by Margaret Thatcher and its single currency opt-out if it tries to stay in. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU needed to work more closely on defence and refugees. @JoeMurphyLondon T im Farron has resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats. The party leader made the shock announcement on Wednesday evening, citing scrutiny over his Christian faith as reasons contributing to his decision. Mr Farron, who joined the party when he was just 16, will serve until the next Parliamentary recess begins next month. At a speech to staff in party HQ in London, Mr Farron said: From the very first day of my leadership, I have faced questions about my Christian faith. I've tried to answer with grace and patience. Sometimes my answers could have been wiser. At the start of this election, I found myself under scrutiny again - asked about matters to do with my faith. I felt guilty that this focus was distracting attention from our campaign, obscuring our message. Tim Farron winning his seat in last Thursday's vote. / Dave Thompson/Getty Images Journalists have every right to ask what they see fit. The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader. A better, wiser person than me may have been able to deal with this more successfully, to have remained faithful to Christ while leading a political party in the current environment. To be a political leader - especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 - and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible's teaching, has felt impossible for me. I'm a liberal to my finger tips, and that liberalism means that I am passionate about defending the rights and liberties of people who believe different things to me. There are Christians in politics who take the view that they should impose the tenets of faith on society, but I have not taken that approach because I disagree with it - it's not liberal and it is counterproductive when it comes to advancing the gospel. Even so, I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in. In which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society. That's why I have chosen to step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats. The shock came just hours after the party's openly gay home affairs spokesman Lord Paddick announced he was quitting citing "concerns about the leader's views on various issues". During the General Election campaign the Lib Dem leader, who took the helm of the party in 2015, was repeatedly questioned on his views over homosexuality. He faced accusations of believing homosexuality was a sin in a row which dragged on for several weeks. He had made clear he supported equal marriage and LGBT rights, but in a broadcast interview did not say whether or not it was a sin. After days of pressure to clarify his stance on the issue, he finally made clear he did not believe gay sex is a sin but continued to face questions in interviews. Tim Farron during the election campaign. / AFP/Getty Images Announcing he was quitting on Wednesday, Mr Farron added: This is a historic time in British politics. What happens in the next months and years will shape our country for generations. My successor will inherit a party that is needed now more than ever before. Our future as an open, tolerant and united country is at stake. The cause of British liberalism has never been needed more. People who will fight for a Britain that is confident, generous and compassionate are needed more than ever before. That is the challenge our party and my successor faces and the opportunity I am certain that they will rise to. I want to say one more thing: I joined our party when I was 16, it is in my blood, I love our history, our people, I thoroughly love my party. Imagine how proud I am to lead this party. And then imagine what would lead me to voluntarily relinquish that honour. In the words of Isaac Watts it would have to be something 'so amazing, so divine, (it) demands my heart, my life, my all. This story is being updated. A number of people are believed to have been injured following an incident at a military training base in West Wales, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. A spokeswoman for the MoD said it was aware of the incident at Castlemartin Ranges in Pembrokeshire. She said: "My understanding is that there are casualties. As I understand it people have been injured." A firing notice for Castlemartin on the Government's website suggests live firing was due to take place on the range from Monday to Friday. A notice said the road from Bosherston to St Govan's Chapel and the footpath from St Govan's Head to Broadhaven would be closed every day. The notice adds that night firing was due to take place on Tuesday and Thursday. The MoD spokeswoman added: "This is still being investigated and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further." According to the Visit Pembrokeshire website, a large part of the Castlemartin peninsula was taken over by the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) tank range in the late 1930s and further developed during the Cold War period. It is now the only UK Army range available for armoured units for direct-fire live gunnery exercises. A spokeswoman for Dyfed-Powys Police said: "Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an incident at MoD Royal Armoured Corps range in Castlemartin range at 3.30pm today. "This is being investigated and a further update will be provided when appropriate." A 21-year-old soldier died at Castlemartin in 2012 after being shot in the head while relaxing at a safe location just outside the training range. A 2013 inquest into the death of Michael "Mike" Maguire heard he was hit in the temple by a single machine gun bullet fired by a fellow soldier during a training exercise and that the fatal bullet was fired one kilometre (0.6 miles) away inland towards another group of recruits on a live fire exercise. All live fire should have been safely aimed out to sea, the inquest heard. The inquest jury ruled Ranger Maguire, who was a member of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment, had been unlawfully killed. Watching Attorney General Jeff Sessions confound Senate Democrats during his Intelligence Committee testimony was like watching a puppet show. Sessions was the hand. And the Democrats were the socks. Oh, they flapped their mouths, occasionally twisting their necks, and grimaced before the TV cameras as part of their performance. But that was about it. It is the way of things in a sock puppet show. The socks are limited. Republicans know what thats like. Theyve played the sock puppets, too. But on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it was the Democrats turn. They didnt like it. But there was little they could do. Sessions challenged them by refuting unfounded allegations he may have colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election, invoking his honor and his service and using that Alabama drawl, and after that they couldnt really push back. Let me state this clearly, colleagues, said the former Alabama senator. I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference in any campaign or election in the United States. I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, he said. And the suggestion that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government, or hurt this country which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie. And Democrats just sat there, turning their sock heads this way and that, moving their mouths, perplexed. They tried pushing him on what the president told him about firing former FBI Director James Comey. Trump had publicly stated he had wanted Comey fired for his handling of the investigation into Russian collusion. Comey had testified he told the president three times he was not a target of the investigation, but Comey wouldnt go public with the information. And Trump sacked him. But Sessions declined to answer particulars, preferring to reserve the presidents right to perhaps later claim executive privilege. Such confidentiality was respected by Democrats when they had the White House. So Democrats sputtered on, some accusing Sessions of obstruction and stonewalling, though many of them are lawyers. As such, they knew their arguments had no sharp teeth. Then again, sock puppets have no teeth. Democratic U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich, Kamala Harris, Angus King and the theatrically disgusted Ron Wyden tried repeatedly to have Sessions break that confidence. He refused. At least Harris, a former prosecutor and potentially a Democratic candidate for president in 2020, had the smarts and the style to smirk a bit. She understands how this works. Unfortunately, a few journalists apparently do not, and while scanning a few of their tweets, I could feel the absolute rage emanating from their sockless thumbs on Twitter. Executive privilege isnt absolute. And it is historically a point of contention between the legislative and executive branch. But its been that way almost since the beginning of the republic. Washington Democrats werent all that upset a few years ago, when one of their own, Attorney General Eric Holder, and others from the Obama White House didnt want to say much about their failed and tragic Mexican gunrunning operation in the Fast and Furious scandal. And a loud silence greeted Republican allegations that the White House used the Internal Revenue Service to target and intimidate grassroots conservative groups before the 2012 elections. The interesting thing that probably wont make headlines was this: The Senate committee is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, but few if any questions about this were asked by Democrats. For months, and 24/7 on breathless cable news networks, all we heard and read were allegations without evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians. It helped derail his legislative agenda. And it provided cover for Hillary Clintons pathetic campaign. But now the Russian thing doesnt seem to excite Democrats anymore. Theyve moved away from collusion with Russians to process, and have pushed the obstruction of justice angle. But what happened to the Russians and those damning emails hacked out of the Democratic National Committee the emails that demonstrated collusion between Democrats and Beltway journalism that so embarrassed Hillary Clinton? Thats what Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton wanted to know. Did Donald Trump or any of his associates in the campaign collude with Russia in hacking those emails and releasing them to the public? Cotton asked. Thats where we started six months ago, and we have now heard six of the eight Democrats on this committee, and to my knowledge I dont think a single one of them asked that question. Theyve gone down lots of other rabbit trails, but not that question, Cotton said. Cotton did ask Sessions about his favorite spy fiction, John le Carre or Jason Bourne movies, and that got a laugh. Its just like Through the Looking-Glass, Sessions said. No, actually, its more like a puppet show. And in Washington, every few years depending on whos in and whos out, the socks change hands. T housands of street parties, picnics and baking competitions will be held across London this weekend to remember Labour MP Jo Cox a year after her murder. A giant picnic at the Olympic Park and a street party on Bankside are among the highlights of more than 115,000 community events across the country. The late MPs sister Kim Leadbeater said the Great Get Together would be a fitting tribute to a woman who believed people had more in common than issues that divided them. She told the Standard: It is more important than ever that every city, and particularly London in light of recent horrific events, uses this as an opportunity to come together. Mayor Sadiq Khan, who will attend the Olympic Park picnic on Sunday which closes the commemorations, and new Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street, put aside political rivalries to urge Londoners to get involved or hold their own events. Writing a joint article, they said: Both city regions are capable of showing how people from different backgrounds and cultures can live, work and thrive alongside each other. Earlier, Ms Leadbeater described the 12 months since her older sister was killed as a constant rollercoaster. While she has occasionally found herself sobbing in the middle of the night, she said the family had been buoyed by public support. Jo wouldnt want this to take any more from us than it already has done, she said. Mrs Cox was shot and stabbed on June 16 last year as she arrived for a constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. Right-wing loner Thomas Mair was given a whole life term for her murder at the Old Bailey in November. The Great Get Together is expected to be the biggest expression of national unity since the Diamond Jubilee. It is inspired by Mrs Coxs maiden speech in Parliament, when she said: We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us. The late Batley and Spen MPs husband Brendan added: After the election, and even more so after the horrific attacks in Manchester and London, there is a huge groundswell of people who just want to focus on the things that unite us. I think people are sick of the narrative of hatred and division... I hope these events play a wider role in bringing us closer together. I also hope they are fun, full of energy and laughter. Thats what Jo would have wanted. R ichard Hammond is up and walking after he was involved in a horrifying supercar crash. The former Top Gear presenter, 47, was airlifted to hospital on Saturday when he lost control of a Rimac Concept One electric car while filming the Hemberg time trial for Amazon series, The Grand Tour. Hammond showed off the extent of his injuries to fans on his DRIVETRIBE social media site by posting a picture of a long scar on his leg. I'm pleased to announce that after two sleepless nights and several hours' surgery, my Swiss Army Knee is finished and works, he wrote. It bends in the middle and whilst a problem at airport security, is at least rustproof. 'Swiss Army Knee': Richard Hammond showed off his wound / Drivetribe Showing he is clearly on the mend, he joked: Being a Swiss Army Knee it may even contain attachments to meet some of the basic tasks outlined in the weird office-boy fantasy outlined in Clarkson's recent post. We must give him some leeway though; he'd been up quite early looking for a crayon. Terrifying': Richard Hammond escaped serious injury in the crash / PA Hammond also shared a picture of himself up and about on crutches and promised fans he will be back in action soon. The pictures come days after the TV presenter apologised to his wife Mindy and daughters Izzy and Willow for being a colossal idiot. His co-stars Clarkson and James May were with him when the crash happened, with Clarkson describing the incident as the most frightening he has ever seen. He said his legs turned to jelly when he saw the wreckage of the 2m car and told how May had been left in a It is the second time Hammond has suffered a serious crash while filming after he was left with life-threatening head injuries following a high-speed crash on To Gear in 2006. L ily Allen has offered a bed and tea to those affected by the devastating tower block fire in West London. Residents were trapped screaming for their lives as flames tore through the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in the early hours today. More than 50 patients have been taken to five different hospitals, with the London Fire Brigade confirming there have also been a number of fatalities. Allen reached out to those affected on Twitter to offer help, posting: If anyone need a bed or a lift, or tea tweet me and I'll follow back. #NorthKensington. Allen was hailed as an amazing human as followers from as far afield as America praised her for helping out. Aerial footage shows the full scale of the fire Emma Freud offered a roof" to the hundreds who have been made homeless, tweeting: If anyone needs help and a roof, please let me know. We live very near and can look after you. Fearne Cotton also tweeted her support, posting: Praying for all those involved in the west London fire today. A tower block that I used to live close to. Love and prayers for all involved. Rita Ora - who grew up near the tower block - posted a link to a list of helplines for victims. Jeremy Clarkson encouraged the people of Kensington to donate clothes to those who have been left homeless by the terrifying inferno. He posted: People of Kensington. Remember to give what you can spare - clothes etc - to those made homeless by that terrible fire. Forty fire engines with 200 officers were called shortly before 1am as flames engulfed the block from the second floor upwards. There were unconfirmed reports on social media of residents using bedsheets as makeshift ropes while others were reportedly seen jumping for their lives. Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade described the incident as unprecedented". Speaking this morning he said: Crews wearing breathing apparatus and extended duration breathing apparatus have been working in extremely challenging and very difficult conditions to rescue people and to bring this major fire under control. At this time I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities. I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building, and it would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further. Equally, the cause of this fire is not known at this stage. An exclusion zone around the base of the tower was set up as residents were evacuated. A primary school close to the building will be closed today. More than 1,000 has been raised to help those affected after a JustGiving page was set up. A fter rumours that producers were begging the contestants to hurry up and have sex, two of this years Love Island couples have sealed the deal. Jess and Dom and Kem and Amber were shown getting close under the covers in last nights x-rated episode. It was Jesss birthday and she and her partner Dom were chosen by the other housemates to have an evening alone in the hideaway. It couldnt have come at a better time as the villa erupted in rows during the party, with Chris and Olivias budding romance causing friction with their respective partners Chloe and Sam. Dom, who has been grafting (coming up with schemes to get Jess into bed), couldnt have been happier. And despite Jesss warning that she doesn't believe in sex before marriage, the pair didnt waste any time getting down to business. The evenings series of dramatic showdowns didnt put a dampener on the amorous mood for Kem and Amber either, who have been coupled up since last week. However, their intimate encounter could prove a little awkward for the other contestants as all the islanders have to share one big bedroom. Love Island 2017 new villa - in pictures 1 /20 Love Island 2017 new villa - in pictures The bedroom where all the couples will sleep ITV An outdoor bed ITV A view of the house ITV A view of the outdoor space ITV The hot tub ITV The hideaway ITV The gym ITV The living room ITV The beach hut ITV The infinity pool ITV Another outdoor seating area ITV A bathroom complete with a bath big enough for two ITV Views of a dating area ITV The beauty zone ITV A view of the outdoor area ITV Love Island has become notorious for its scandalous bedroom scenes. In last years series a covers-off session between Emma and Terry received several complaints from viewers and one contestant, Zara Holland, was stripped of her Miss GB title after an evening in the hideaway with Alex Bowen. Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2. Hivelys Self-Induced Blindness: Law professor Brian Soucek has this paper online at The Yale Law Journal Forum. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin to retire after decades of pushing boundaries: Sean Fine has this front page article in todays edition of The Toronto Globe and Mail. Tonda MacCharles of The Toronto Star reports that Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin to retire from Supreme Court of Canada; McLachlin has led the countrys top court for more than 17 years, in the process transforming it into a modern institution. From CBC News, John Paul Tasker reports that Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin retiring from Supreme Court; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hails McLachlin as a judicial leader and trailblazer. And Peter Zimonjic has a report headlined Can Trudeau put his stamp on the Supreme Court? Thats not how it works here, say experts; Appointing a chief justice is the most important appointment a prime minister makes, says Anne McLellan. John Ward of The Canadian Press reports that Beverley McLachlin, Supreme Court Chief Justice, To Retire In December. And at Macleans, John Geddes has a report headlined How Beverley McLachlin changed the face of the Supreme Court: As she gets set to retire, her record conveying what the court was all about matters as much as her rulings. Liberty Counsel Hosts Internships in Washington, D.C., VA, FL and Israel Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit ORLANDO, Fla., June 14, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- Liberty Counsel is providing valuable experience through a variety of internship opportunities in Florida, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Israel. This summer, there are seven students who attend Liberty University Law School, two who attend Liberty University, as well as individual students from Antonin Scalia Law School, John Hopkins University, Taylor University and Southeastern University. Photo: 2017 Washington D.C. and Virginia Interns In Washington, D.C, students work on national and state public policy. They attend legislative hearings, research legislation, write articles and receive media training. The subject matter varies but covers the gamut of domestic and international public policy. Law students participate in litigation internships, and some participate in the Constitutional Litigation Clinic, where they work on actual cases that have national importance. Other college students receive valuable internship experience in areas of Israel, public relations, religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and marriage and family. This year, Liberty Counsel's affiliated ministry, Covenant Journey, will also host an intern from Liberty University in Israel. The internship program in Israel began last year with students who participated in a Covenant Journey tour. Liberty Counsel created Covenant Journey to take Christian college students who have leadership potential to Israel to strengthen their Christian faith and equip them to be goodwill ambassadors for the Holy Land and the Jewish people. "Liberty Counsel provides unique, practical experience to prepare students for careers in law, public policy, communications, and anything related to Israel," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "It is critical that we invest in our future generation to equip them to be world-changers," said Staver. Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics. Ninth Circuit Reverses Its Own Commercial Speech Ruling: Helen Christophi of Courthouse News Service has an article that begins, Reversing its earlier ruling on a free speech challenge to Californias ban on compensating retailers for advertising alcohol products, an en banc Ninth Circuit on Wednesday potentially handed final say on the issue over to the U.S. Supreme Court. You can access todays en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at this link. Trump judicial nominee says political blogging wont affect his rulings: Ryan Lovelace of The Washington Examiner has this report. Was A Possible Judicial Nominee Told To Curb His Twitter Use By . . . The Trump Administration, Of All People? Not exactly but other authorities have asked him about the subject. David Lat has this post at Above the Law. Ohio execution case reaches federal appeals court: Jim Provance of The Toledo Blade has this report on a case reargued before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit this afternoon. You can access the audio of the en banc reargument via this link. Feinstein defends blue-slip tactic to block judges: Josh Gerstein of Politico.com has this blog post. Beverage tax upheld by Commonwealth Court: Julia Terruso of The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article that begins, A panel of judges has upheld Philadelphias beverage tax, dismissing complaints from the American Beverage Association and local retailers who argued that the levy is unlawful. You can access todays 5-to-2 ruling of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania at this link. Update: In other coverage, The Associated Press reports that Appeals court upholds Philadelphias tax on sweetened drinks. The Saucy Sock Puppet of the Trump-Nominated Judge: An attorney up for a federal bench seat made his views plain while writing blog posts under a pseudonym. Eleanor Clift has this essay online at The Daily Beast. This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page Published: 14 June 2017 Turnover in manufacturing increased by 12.2 per cent in January to March According to Statistics Finland, turnover in manufacturing in the January to March period was 12.2 per cent higher than in the corresponding period of the year before. Domestic sales grew by 10.0 per cent and export turnover by 13.8 per cent from one year ago. Three months' year-on-year change in turnover in manufacturing (C) sub-industries (TOL 2008) Turnover went up from the corresponding period of the previous year in all manufacturing (C) sub-industries . Turnover increased most in the chemical industry, by 20.9 per cent, and in the metal industry, by 14.8 per cent. Growth was slowest in the food industry, 0.8 per cent and in the textile, clothing and leather industry, 2.5 per cent. Three months' year-on-year change in turnover in main industrial categories (TOL 2008) The turnover of nearly all main categories of manufacturing industries grew year-on-year. Turnover grew strongest in the industry of mining and quarrying, 24.4 per cent. Turnover contracted from the previous year by 1.3 per cent in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply. The index of turnover in industry describes enterprises whose main industry is manufacturing. The calculation of the indices is based on the Tax Administrations self-assessed tax data which are supplemented with data obtained with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnovers of manufacturing enterprises can vary considerably, especially in the metal industries. The variation is mainly due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major machinery deliveries and projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the delivery had required the work of several months or years. Changes in the Tax Administrations self-assessed tax data have not so far had an effect on the data of turnover indices The effects of the changes in the Tax Administration's self-assessed tax data have been analysed in Statistics Finlands turnover indices. Based on the analyses, the changes have thus far not been found to have significant effects on enterprises VAT reporting in terms of statistics production. More information about this in Changes in the periodic tax return data used in turnover indices. Source: Index of turnover in industry 2017, March, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Maija Sappinen 029 551 3348, Kirsi-Maaria Manninen 029 551 2681, myynti.teollisuus@stat.fi Director in charge: Sami Saarikivi Publication in pdf-format (347.4 kB) Updated 14.6.2017 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover in industry [e-publication]. ISSN=1798-596X. March 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 11.11.2022]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tlv/2017/03/tlv_2017_03_2017-06-14_tie_001_en.html A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms. The National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) is to convene today in order to discuss the ministers' job assessment, as well as a possible reshuffle. On Sunday evening, national leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea stated that "there are many areas with problems" and that the assessment report will be made public. According to him, it's important for the governing programme to be enforced and he mentioned that a discussion is to take place inside the National Executive Committee if there is a need to replace some ministers, adopt some administrative measures, ease paperwork circuit, improve internal collaboration or other measures. He expressed hope that it won't get to the reshuffle. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu mentioned that from his point of view, his relation with Liviu Dragnea is a respectable one and that he daily consults with him, but pointed out the fact that there is "someone" who "wants to deliberately support this so-called tension" between him and the Social-Democrats leader. The PM mentioned that he has his own analysis and showed contentment with the effects of the measures taken by the Government. agerpres. The UK Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon is paying an official visit to Romania, today and tomorrow, to meet Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu and his Romanian counterpart Gabriel Les, and also to attend a demo drill at the Getica Joint National Training Centre at Cincu. As many as 1,000 British troops are attending these days a NATO exercise conducted at Cincu and called "Noble Jump 2017," planned and conducted by the Joint Force Command Naples, according to a press statement released by the British Embassy in Bucharest on Wednesday. Fallon will also tour the "Mihail Kogalniceanu" air base to meet pilots and technicians taking care of Typhoon aircraft taking part in NATO air policing missions in Southern Europe. Fallon is scheduled to meet PM Grindeanu and Defence Minister Les on Thursday, according to the embassy's statement. agerpres. MEXICO CITY Mexican and U.S. brewers have reinvented President Donald Trump as a gun-slinging mariachi folk musician to promote a new beer celebrating cross-border cooperation. The label of the new Amigous Cerveza craft beer, showing a frowning Trump in a sombrero, his trousers held up with a swastika belt buckle, mocks his divisive campaign rhetoric against Mexico and his pledge to build a border wall. The rear label declares that the 71-year-old New Yorker belongs "in a mad house, not the White House." "We knew that a Trump label was going to be controversial, but it's been selling extremely fast," said Luis Enrique de la Reguera, chief executive of brewery Casa Cervecera Cru Cru. Launched in May, the beer that misspells "amigo" to poke fun at a bad American pronunciation of the Spanish word for friend, surprised its creators. The original batch of 1,200 bottles and 400 liters on tap sold out in the very first week. A kind of New England Indian Pale with a dash of mango, the beer was dreamt up by Cru Cru, Mexican partner Error de Diciembre and Epic Brewing of the United States shortly before Trump's election victory on Nov. 8. Trump sparked dismay in Mexico by saying the country was sending rapists and drug runners across the border, and angered business groups by threatening to tear up a joint trade deal. Qatar will sign a deal to buy as many as 36 St. Louis-made F-15 fighter jets from the U.S. as the two countries navigate tensions over President Donald Trumps backing for a Saudi-led coalitions move to isolate the country for supporting terrorism. Qatari Defense Minister Khalid Al-Attiyah and his U.S. counterpart, Jim Mattis, completed the $12 billion agreement on Wednesday in Washington, according to the Pentagon. The sale will give Qatar a state of the art capability and increase security cooperation and interoperability between the United States and Qatar, the Defense Department said in a statement. Congress last year approved a sale of as many as 72 F-15s in an agreement valued at as much as $21 billion, providing authorization for the deal completed Wednesday. But that was before Qatars neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, severed diplomatic, trade and transport links last week in a move they said was aimed at isolating the country for its support of terrorist groups and Iran. The F-15 sale highlights the complex position the Trump administration finds itself in, forced to balance its focus on fighting terrorism against regional rivalries between key allies. Qatar hosts the regional headquarters for U.S. Central Command, which includes a state-of-the-art air base the U.S. depends on to target Islamic State. It is confusing, and the worst thing you want to do in a heated, delicate situation like this is to give mixed messages, Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University said of the Pentagon announcement. The F-15 is assembled by Boeing in St. Louis County, but a network of suppliers mean the job impact of a Qatar deal will be widespread. Qatars Defense Ministry said the deal would create 60,000 jobs in 42 U.S. states while reducing the burden on U.S. forces. The F-15 accord will lead to closer strategic collaboration in our fight to counter violent extremism and promote peace and stability in our region and beyond, the ministry said . After the Gulf countries moved against Qatar, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson initially declined to take sides in the crisis, but his cautious stance was overshadowed almost immediately by Trump, who sent a series of tweets that appeared to take credit for and praise the decision. The U.S. position was further muddied Friday, when Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia to ease the blockade, only to have Trump say hours later the move had been the right one. The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level, Trump said in a speech at the White House last week. We ask Qatar, and other nations in the region to do more and do it faster. The Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. Ratatouille is a classic vegetable dish starring eggplant, zucchini, peppers and tomato that is deeply steeped in the culture of Mediterranean France. When I married a man from the heart of Provence, one of the first lessons I received from my new mother-in-law Muriel was how to make a proper ratatouille. (The other was how to pluck feathers from a newly butchered turkey, but thats a story for another day.) Turns out, my American sensibilities had me cooking a ratatouille far too long, making it a gloppy stew of indistinguishable mixed vegetables, a crime Ive seen committed more often than not here in the U.S. Muriel was kind in her rebuke and showed me her way instead. The most important lesson was to cook each vegetable separately, to honor their individuality. Moreover, the vegetables needed to be cooked in the same pan, in a specific order, so that the flavors would be built just right. (The order, in case you are wondering, is: eggplant, zucchini, peppers, onion, tomatoes, and I use the acronym EZ-POT to remember.) I was skeptical. But her version is easily the best I have ever eaten, so I follow it without fail, even if the rebellious part of me wonders if I dared to cook the zucchini out of order, would anyone really notice? But, why mess with genius? Unless its barbecue season and I want to grill out. After years of following proper EZ-POT protocol, I decided to try an outdoor grilled version of ratatouille. A little summertime char on the veggies could be a good thing. And indeed it was. The result was a tasty dish that was somewhere in between a grilled vegetable salad (but not quite as acidic) and a traditional ratatouille (but not quite capturing that synergistic vegetable vibe). Still, a worthy summertime side dish in its own right. Grilled ratatouille is a happy complement to any grilled meat or fish, and its hearty enough to be the main dish for vegetarians. And leftovers can be spooned on top of roasted potatoes, rice, a green salad, or even spread on toast, sprinkled with cheese and broiled for a quick lunch. JEFFERSON CITY Activists on both sides of the debate over abortion descended Wednesday on the Missouri Capitol to rally for and against legislation being debated in the House and Senate. Against the backdrop of a special session called by Gov. Eric Greitens, groups including NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of Missouri and Progress Missouri kicked off a rally in the morning opposing the legislation. In the afternoon, Greitens headlined an event designed to lobby lawmakers to support his order for tougher regulations on abortion providers. We believe every life has value, Greitens told a crowd of about 200 gathered in the Capitol. In the middle of that, senators who had been scheduled to debate legislation on the floor spent much Wednesday behind closed doors negotiating a revised plan to impose more regulations on abortion providers. Just after midnight on Thursday, they voted 20-8 to send a bill outlining stricter regulations on abortions to the House and then adjourned until June 22. The House, meanwhile, also debated legislation in a committee room with an eye on bringing a final version to the full House next week. Greitens called lawmakers into special session in reaction to the passage of an ordinance in St. Louis that would bar discrimination against employees who have had an abortion or use birth control. The governor also acted in response to a May 2 federal court ruling that struck down requirements that doctors performing abortions have hospital privileges and abortion clinics meet specific physical requirements. That ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs, ruled that a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Texas clinic laws meant Missouris were no longer enforceable. After that ruling, Planned Parenthood announced it was planning to open clinics in Springfield, Kansas City and Joplin. Currently, the lone abortion clinic in Missouri is in St. Louis. In the Senate, lawmakers worked into the night to approve a measure that includes provisions for more pathology reports on fetal remains and increased protections for abortion clinic employees who report violations of laws. It also includes language to nullify St. Louis anti-discrimination ordinance and it would give the attorney general more power to prosecute abortion providers, so long as local prosecutors are given 10 days notice. But, the legislation falls short of meeting all of the 15 goals Greitens offered when he called lawmakers back. Among the dropped provisions are a call for increased clinic inspections and tighter controls over counseling, as well as a proposal to make it a crime to ask ambulance crews responding to clinics to do so without sirens. Greitens was hopeful the final version would not be watered down. Were encouraging our senators to stand strong in the cause of life, Greitens told reporters after the rally. Opponents of the special session say the issues could have been taken up by the Legislature during its regular session that runs from January to May. There are many other issues in Missouri that need to be prioritized, such as infant and maternal mortality rates, hunger levels and a lack of health coverage for low-income families. To call this special session for the purpose of restricting reproductive health is dangerous and a waste of taxpayer money, a release from NARAL read. At least 200 protesters attended a gathering in the Capitol rotunda to oppose the special session. They held signs that included Dissent is Patriotic and 20K per day, in recognition of the amount of money it costs to hold a special session. That brought criticism from anti-abortion rallygoers. What price tag do you put on a human life? asked Steve Rupp, president of Missouri Right to Life. Jeffrey Mittman, director of the ACLU of Missouri, told the abortion rights activists that any changes approved by lawmakers and Greitens would likely be subject to a court fight. A womans right to choose is a constitutional right, Mittman said. For some lawmakers, the changes dont go far enough. Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, told members of a House committee that he favors challenging the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. In seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade, Moon said, The court is not perfect. Moon, who farms, earlier expressed his dissatisfaction with Greitens call for a special session by posting a video on Facebook of himself killing a chicken. Warwick Crown Court A WOMAN accused of injuring a police motorcyclist whose legs and pelvis were broken in a crash is expected to stand trial in September, writes our court correspondent. Lisa Perkins, aged 47, of Meadow Road, Alcester, has pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to causing serious injury to PC Ian Jamieson by dangerous driving. The charge follows a collision on the B439 Evesham Road near Luddington between Perkins, driving a Citroen C2, and police motorcyclist PC Jamieson at 3.15 in the afternoon on 2nd November last year. PC Jamieson was riding a Kawasaki ZG1400 during a police advanced motorcycle training course at the time. He suffered multiple fractures to both legs and to his pelvis, and was flown by air ambulance to University Hospital in Coventry where he underwent surgery the following day. Prosecutor, Glyn Samuel, was asked by Judge Andrew Lockhart QC during a recent hearing: You are not saying it was a deliberate act? And Mr Samuel confirmed: Not a deliberate act to drive across the path of the other vehicle, but we say she should have known the police vehicle was there. Discussing witnesses for the trial, Tom Gent, defending, said PC Jamieson was not required to give evidence. Judge Lockhart, pointing out that today is the last day for credit for a guilty plea, asked Mr Gent whether he required any more time to discuss the case with Perkins. But the barrister said he did not. So Judge Lockhart adjourned the case for trial, which is expected to last three days. The trial was not given a fixed date, but is to be put into a warned list for a period in September, and Perkins was granted bail. The Israeli regime is set to reduce electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip, worsening an already severe shortage in the besieged Palestinian enclave. Israeli media said on Monday that the security cabinet decided Sunday to reduce the daily amount supplied to Gaza by around 45 minutes. Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told alleged that the reduction was due to an ongoing row between Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas. Hamas has run Gaza since 2007, when it seized it from Abbas's Fatah following an electoral dispute over parliamentary polls won by the resistance movement. Abbas runs the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Palestinian leadership based in the occupied West Bank. Multiple attempts at reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah have failed. The PA however had continued to pay Israel for some electricity delivered to Gaza. The PA decided to cut electricity payments for Gaza in April. Hamas said then the "catastrophic decision" would have "dangerous" consequences. Electricity supply is a major concern in the hot and cramped territory, which is currently marking the holy fasting Muslim month of Ramadan. Gazans currently receive only three or four hours of electricity a day. The electricity is delivered from the territory's own power station and others in Israel and Egypt. Residents who can afford it use generators to power their homes or businesses in the impoverished Palestinian enclave of some two million people. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has recently warned of a looming humanitarian crisis due to prolonged power outages in the Gaza Strip. The reduction has also fueled anti-Israeli sentiments and sparked fears of another upsurge against the Tel Aviv regime's occupation. The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty. Israel has also launched several wars on the Palestinian sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The Israeli military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war. Hyderabad: 3 0 people from a house where firefighters broke up late on Wednesday at Shamsabad in suburbs of Hyderabad. The fire, suspected to be caused by short-circuit, engulfed first two floors of the eight-storey building of Anupama Residency lodge. The guests were trapped on top floors. Fire tenders rushed to the scene and the firefighting personnel, with the assistance of police, rescued the people with the help of ladders. A police officer said the fire tenders controlled the fire. He said quick response by the firefighting personnel prevented loss of life. Senior officials rushed to the spot. Police began an investigation to find out the cause of the fire. A delegation of German MPs refused to meet with the Israeli Internal Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, in his office in east Occupied Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew-speaking Yisrael Hayom newspaper, Erdan cancelled a projected meeting with the German delegation after the latter said it firmly rebuffs to have the meeting convened in an area located beyond the Green Line. Erdan reportedly refused to meet with the delegation in another place, claiming he will never accept to cooperate with parties that consider east Jerusalem an occupied territory. Whoever wishes to draw lessons from our knowledge and experience in fighting terrorism has to step into the Internal Security Ministry, even if it was located in east Jerusalem, said Erdan. It is high time Germany recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and respected our sovereignty over the city, added Erdan. Seven German MPs from different parliamentary blocs were expected to meet with Erdan over terrorist threats and disaster management. As part of the search for missing Arohena woman Kim Richmond, the Police National Dive Squad has been searching Lake Arapuni, Waikato today. Police commenced a new phase of Operation Viaduct on Tuesday this week as part of the ongoing search for Kim, who has been missing from her home since the morning of July 31, 2016. The dive squad has located the 2014 silver Ford Ranger ute that Kim was believed to be driving prior to her disappearance in late July last year. Specialist equipment will be brought in tomorrow to help salvage the vehicle. Once the vehicle is recovered it will undergo a forensic examination. Kims family has been informed of todays developments and are being supported by Police. If anyone has information regarding this case they should contact Acting Detective Sergeant Ian Foster or Detective Senior Sergeant Ross Patterson at the Te Awamutu Police Station on 07 8720 100. Alternatively, information can be reported anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Zespri chief executive Lain Jager has been revealed as the winner of the 2017 Ravensdown Agricultural Communicator of the Year. The announcement was made at a dinner in Hamilton this evening, with Lain presented with a trophy and a cash prize of of $2500. Having joined the company in 1999, Lain has served as Zespri CEO since 2008. During his time with Zespri, global sales have increased from just over $500 million to $1.9 billion in 2016/17, with $1.1 billion of that returned to communities around New Zealand. Recognised for his open, accessible and direct style of communication, he was nominated for the Business Herald Business Leader of the Year in 2015, and the Rural News editorial team also acknowledged him earlier this year as the top leader in the agribusiness sector in its 2016 in Review. Lains understanding of complicated information and the way he can make this accessible to a wide range of audiences makes him an outstanding communicator. Organisers described him as generous with his time, addressing forums such as the Kelloggs Rural Leadership programme each year as well as delivering monthly CEO video updates to all Zespri staff and even jumping out of a plane for the Drop Your Boss charity drive. This is the 31st year the Agricultural Communicator of the Year title has been awarded, and is the first year of involvement by the new sponsor Ravensdown, after 30 years of sponsorship by Landcorp. This year there were seven people nominated and the decision was reached by a panel of 10 judges from around the country. New Zealand Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators president Ali Spencer said: There was a range of high standard nominations from our members this year, but for our judges, Lain stood out as most excellent primary sector communicator in 2017. We salute his skills and knowledge, and congratulate him on this award. She also congratulated him on his decision to donate his prize money to the Child Cancer Foundation. Ravensdown provides the prize for the winner, part of a sponsorship package of nearly $6000 for the Guild. The additional funding assists with administration costs for the award, including the awards dinner. The Maori Kiwifruit Growers Forum has been officially launched in Tauranga, representing a first for the kiwifruit industry. The forum has been created to advocate for the interests of Maori growers in the sector and is a partnership between Maori kiwifruit growers, Te Puni Kokiri and Zespri. Minister for Maori Development, Hon Te Ururoa Flavell attended the launch yesteday at Te Hua Whenua Orchard in Welcome Bay. Zespri CEO Lain Jager says Zespri works for all kiwifruit growers to provide the tools and information they need to grow their businesses and Maori growers are an important and growing part of the kiwifruit industry. This is about supporting the development of a really strong and cohesive eco-system for Maori growers in the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Maori have recognised the need for this forum, where specific skills and information sharing will help grow the success of their kiwifruit investment, and we are proud to support them, says Lain. As Russians seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine in the opening stages of the war, mayors, civilian administrators and others say they have been abducted, threatened or beaten to force their cooperation. In some instances, they have been killed. Human rights activists say these actions could constitute a war crime. Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said he was abducted from his office and the bullying and threats did not stop for a minute." He said they tried to force him to continue in his role but he refused. After six days in detention and an intervention from Ukraine's president, he was exchanged for nine Russian prisoners of war and expelled from the occupied city. DAMASCUS, Va. Joy Munsey placed a shiny new trophy in a hallway display case, another reminder of the success of her students at Holston High School. Munsey and Sammy Campbell, who team-teach economics and personal finance at the school, recently accepted honors that are putting the Washington County school at the head of the class in financial literacy education. Holston High School in Damascus has ranked number six in the country for the highest 2016 student test scores in a Financial Literacy Certification program, a required program in all Washington County schools that teaches students real-life lessons in managing money. Schools in 46 states participate in the program. Developed in 2003, the program is sponsored by Working in Support of Education [W!SE], a New York-based national educational nonprofit that recognizes an urgent need for financial literacy and education among young people. According to W!SE, most students drop out of college because of personal debt instead of academic failure. In fact, W!SE says the fastest growing group filing for personal bankruptcy is young people ages 18 to 25. The award-winning program provides schools with the curriculum and resources to support their personal finance instruction and to measure students financial literacy when they take the Financial Literacy Certification test. Students who pass become Certified Financially Literate. Last month, Munsey and Campbell attended a ceremony at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York City that brought together teachers of top performing schools in the nation. During the ceremony, W!SE released the 100 Best W!SE High Schools Teaching Personal Finance. For the past five years, Holston High has been named a Blue Star School, ranking in the top 30 high-performance schools each year. Our number six ranking is the best weve received yet, said Munsey. The small-town, rural school received the high marks along with some big-city schools, including New York Citys High School of Math, Science and Engineering at the City College of New York, Richmond Community High School and Marine Academy of Science and Technology in New Jersey. Other Southwest Virginia schools that ranked in the top 30 include Honaker High School, which placed 10th, and J.I. Burton High School, an 11th-place winner. Munsey was surprised the school was set to receive an additional honor at the ceremony. To commemorate this years fifth anniversary of the 100 Best ranking, W!SE awarded silver anniversary cups to Holston and four other schools with the highest scores for the past five consecutive years. Our school was the third one to be called at the ceremony, and I squealed and ran to the front, said Munsey. I was very humbled and excited but so proud of Holston High School for placing along with such high-caliber schools in the country. Schools that also received the silver anniversary cups are Aviation High School in New York; High School for Math, Science & Engineering at the City College of New York; Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne, New Jersey; and Utah County Academy of Sciences in Orem, Utah. Real-life lessons Both teachers use the W!SE program to help prepare students for financially sound futures. During the school year, students learn about credit, insurance, buying versus leasing, investing, planning for retirement, budgeting and overall money management. I think students are surprised at how many decisions they will make on a daily basis about every dollar they spend and the choices they will have to make, said Munsey. She was the first teacher in Washington County to administer the standardized Financial Literacy Certification tests to her students in 2012 after she and Campbell enrolled in workshops offered by Virginia Tech for economic and personal finance teachers. During the workshops, the teachers were tested on the curriculum and earned licenses in Certified Financially Literate. I tell my students all the time I have learned so much just since teaching this class. If I had known in my 20s what I know now, I would have done things differently. At 53, I would be better off in terms of my retirement if I had made better choices. Munsey said curriculum for the schools personal finance class basically teaches youth about real-life skills. Thats what I love about the class. I could teach it out of my hip pocket if I had to because its real life. I tell my students they may not use trigonometry every day of their lives, but by George, youre going to have to know how to manage your money. The Financial Literacy Certification program is a win-win, said Munsey. The test not only prepares students for managing their money after graduation, but it satisfies a Virginia requirement for all high school students who must earn one industry credential. Beginning in the 2013-2014 school year, high school students earning a standard diploma must earn one standard unit of credit in a career and technical education concentration. Highlands Union Bank sponsors the program in Washington County, Smyth County and Bristol, Virginia, schools. Mark Farris, business banker and Southwest Virginia regional executive, presented all the students with their certificates. ABINGDON, Va. A dozen couples participated in a mass wedding ceremony Saturday in downtown Abingdon. Payton and Cody Collins, of Johnson City, Tennessee, were among six couples who tied the knot, while six others renewed their vows during the Summer Lovin Concert event at the Market Pavilion. It was sponsored by the town of Abingdon. We had just wanted to get married and we were told about this, said 20-year-old Payton Collins. This was the smartest choice, money-wise. The two have known each other for about two years and have been engaged for seven months. They wanted a traditional wedding, but money was short. When we heard about this we were like, well, we can do this and then renew our vows and do a big ceremony, said Cody Collins, 25. A number of supportive family members and friends turned out for the big event. Shortly before the ceremony, the couple said they were excited and a bit nervous. The single ceremony was officiated by Ben Casteel, whos non-denominational. Casteel said hed never officiated so many couples at one time. The only difference, he said, was changing the dialogue to include both new marriages and renewals. Eva and Ed Higginson, of Gray, Tennessee, renewed their vows Saturday. We actually got married in the islands, 62-year-old Eva Higginson said. We got married in Barbados and we didnt actually have a ceremony. It was just a real quick island-type wedding. Nineteen years ago, the couple eloped. We came back and said, guess what, were married, she said. We didnt tell anybody yet that were renewing our vows. I figured when we get home, Ill tell them. The pair has children and grandchildren, who they said will be surprised and happy. They know were just off the wall, Eva Higginson said. The couple has lived in several states, and once lived on a sailboat and in an RV. Were adventurous, Ed Higginson, 68, said, adding that theyre also compatible. The retired couple has only lived in Tennessee for a year, and said Saturdays event gave them an opportunity to get to know the community. They hope to be married for at least another 20 years, they said. Were happy and were both retired, Eva Higginson said. Ashley Russell and Timothy Helton have known each other for 14 years. The Bristol, Tennessee, couple said the event gave them a chance to finally to make it official. Abingdon Special Events Coordinator Sara Saavedra said the idea for Saturdays mass wedding started when they hired the Carolina Breakers, a beach band, for a concert. We were brainstorming, and we thought you know what, everybody hires beach bands for weddings, said Saavedra, so they decided to host a mass wedding. And we put the word out and I honestly thought maybe five couples would respond. We had 20 couples sign up to either get married or renew their vows. There were no requirements. Anyone who wanted to get married just had to get a marriage license. Preparing for the ceremony was a bid stressful, Saavedra admitted, as she wanted to make sure to create a perfect memory for the couples. It was a bit stressful, but Im an event planner, Saavedra said. I at least made it pleasant. Even if its not the wedding of their dreams, hopefully, its a good wedding. Some of the newlyweds, she added, had a hard time paying for a more traditional wedding. The expense of a wedding is so much, so it was a great opportunity for them, Saavedra said. At no cost to the couples or guests, the Abingdon Convention and Visitors Bureau provided an officiant, wedding cake, party favors and a band. Those getting married Saturday included Ashley Russell and Timothy Helton; April Taunton and Daniel Jenkins; Lacey Rasnake and Jarrod Ball; Cynthia Green and Phillip Snider; Melanie Patrick and Eric Douglas; and Payton and Cody Collins. Those who renewed their vows were: Karen Adkins and Charles Reese; Mark and Karlee Strahorn; Kathleen and James Carlton; Leslie and Brenda Mulkey; Eva and Edward Higginson; and Robert and Dianna Black. One goal of the event, Saavedra said, was to renew interest in weddings in Abingdon. As a tourism employee, were always trying to establish Abingdon as a music destination, or Abingdon as a theater destination, she said. Abingdon is a wedding destination. Saavedra said weddings are regularly held at the Martha Washington Inn, which hosted one couples honeymoon, the Heartwood and the Virginia Creeper Trail. Citing one of the states official mottos, Saavedra added, Virginia is for lovers. Former Rolling Stones muse Anita Pallenberg is dead at 73, her friends and family announced Tuesday. "I have never met a woman quite like you Anita," Stella Schnabel wrote on social media. "You showed about life and myself and how to grow and become and exist with it all. The greatest woman I have ever known." A cause of death has not been announced. Pallenberg was a model and actress who appeared in "Barbarella" and 1970's "Performance," which co-starred Mick Jagger. She also also a fixture in Andy Warhol's New York art scene and appeared in Madonna's music video for "Drowned World / Substitute for Love." But she may be best known for her 12-year relationship with guitarist Keith Richards. The longtime partners had three children together: Marlon, 46; Angela, 44; and Tara, who died of pneumonia at just 10 weeks old. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones rock group and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg relax at his home in London, Dec. 8, 1969, after he flew in from the U.S. where the group had been on tour. Rolling Stone reports Richard and Pallenberg both struggled with heroin addiction and were arrested for possession days apart in Toronto in 1977. They split three years later, but remained close. "It was tough," Richards told the magazine in 2010. "At the same time, there is an underlying love that goes beyond all of that other stuff. I can say, 'I love you, I just won't live with you.' And we're now proud grandparents, which we never thought we'd ever see." According to People, Pallenberg was born in Italy in 1944 and met the Stones backstage at a concert in Munich, Germany. She had a two-year relationship with Brian Jones before leaving him for Richards. In later years, she earned a degree in fashion design from Central Saint Martins in London, and continued acting in the late 2000s. "There was none more beautiful, more unique and more inspiring! The official 'sixth Stone,'" Bebe Buell, mother of Liv Tyler, wrote on Instagram. "I will love you forever, dearest Anita." SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A court security officer handcuffed a reporter for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard this morning after the reporter took pictures of an arrest in the hallway of the Onondaga County Courthouse. The New York state court officer ordered the reporter, Douglass Dowty, to turn over his cell phone then handcuffed him about 10:45 a.m. Dowty's hands were cuffed behind his back for about five minutes and he remained in police custody for 10 minutes before other court officers released him. Dowty was not charged. The state's top court security official, Chief Michael Magliano, was quickly notified about the incident, according to a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration in New York City. "We're aware of it and it's being investigated," said Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for OCA. "We told them we want everything by the end of the day. Whatever action is taken depends on what transpired." Chalfen did not have the officer's name or other details. "They're supposed to be professional," he said of court officers. Douglass Dowty, reporter for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard, was handcuffed by a court security officer Tuesday morning after taking this photo of officers arresting a man following a brawl on the third floor of the Onondaga County Courthouse. Journalists have long been allowed to take photos and videos in the courthouse's hallways. About a year ago, signs were posted warning the public not to take pictures in the hallways. Court administrators, however, said journalists could continue to film and shoot pictures. Dowty, 33, the courts reporter with Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard for 3 1/2 years, was covering courts this morning when a fight broke out outside the trial of a man accused of murder. Court security officers had surrounded a man who was pressed against a window, Dowty said. One of the officers told the man repeatedly to relax, but he appeared agitated and told them he wasn't resisting, Dowty said. Dowty took a photo of papers strewn on the ground then crossed at a safe distance between the man and a courtroom door, he said. He then took two more photos of the officers surrounding the man. As the officers led the man away, Dowty took two more photos, he said. "As I was doing that, an officer came running at me," Dowty said. He'd seen the officer at the courthouse before, but didn't know his name. The officer ordered him to surrender his cell phone, which Dowty did. The officer told Dowty to turn around. "I'm going to cuff you," the officer said. Dowty complied, and the officer applied the handcuffs. Here's what happened next, according to Dowty: Other officers arrived and asked what was going on. The officer told them Dowty had been videotaping the incident. "Was he told not to?" one of the other officers asked. "It was in the courthouse," the first officer said. Two officers led Dowty to an elevator. The officers carried his company backpack and phone. They assured him the situation would be worked out. The officers had Dowty sit at a desk behind a security counter, where they immediately removed the handcuffs. The two officers expressed bewilderment about what had happened. About five minutes later, the officers told Dowty he was free to go. They returned his backpack and phone. The phone did not appear to have been accessed. Dowty headed back to a courtroom where he'd been covering a trial. On his way, he saw the officer who'd detained him. Dowty said the man patted him on the shoulder and said, "Thank you." The area's administrative judge, James Tormey, did not respond to a request for interviews. A court administrator, Gerald Neri, said he and Tormey could not comment until the Office of Court Administration finished its investigation. Advance Media New York, which runs Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard, sent a letter about the incident to Tormey and the state's chief administrative judge, Lawrence Marks. TULLY, N.Y. -- Three bodies were removed from an SUV that was found submerged in a pond in southern Onondaga County, the New York State Police said Tuesday. The identities of the deceased people has not yet been confirmed, state police said. Troopers blocked off Gatehouse Road near Route 80 in the town of Tully Tuesday afternoon. A helicopter appeared around 3 p.m. and circled for a time before leaving. State police divers were called in as well as a tow truck and rollback. A crowd of people gathered near Route 80, but several declined talk to a reporter. One said it was "a family affair." Shortly before 6:30 p.m. an ambulance arrived. State police said a Ford Explorer with three people inside was found. State police did not say if the vehicle recovery is related to a missing person alert they put out earlier Tuesday afternoon. State police earlier Tuesday had sought the public's help in trying to find two women and a child who were last known to be driving to a barbecue on Song Lake in Preble on Monday. Song Lake is about 3 miles from where police were working. Missing are Jamie A. Bell, 34; Melissa M. Avery, 26; and Maryssa F. Houston, 5. They were last seen traveling in a 2011 Ford Explorer. Avery is Houston's mother and Bell is Avery's aunt, according to family members on social media. Troopers received a tip from a neighbor who saw a vehicle Monday on Gatehouse Road matching the description from the missing person alert, state police said. Troopers were driving and searching along Route 80 and Gatehouse Road. Near Gatehouse Road and Route 80 a trooper noticed a sign bent and then spotted an SUV that was mostly submerged in Gatehouse Pond state police said. LAFAYETTE, N.Y. -- The LaFayette Central School District is mourning the loss of a district parent and two family members who were known and loved by students and staff, the district posted on its website this morning. Jamie A. Bell, 34; Melissa M. Avery, 26; and Maryssa F. Houston, 5; all from Tully, were headed to a barbecue along Song Lake in Preble on Monday. State police believe the driver struck and flipped over a guardrail before landing in a pond. All three were killed, police said. Bell was a parent in the district. Avery was Bell's niece and Maryssa was Avery's daughter, according to family. All live in the LaFayette school district, according to the district. Melissa M. Avery, (from left to right) Maryssa F. Houston and Jamie A. Bell were reported missing on Monday evening. Their bodies were removed from an SUV that was found submerged in Tully pond Tuesday evening. Houston went to school at the Syracuse Academy of Science; LaFayette provided transportation to the charter school. "The district's crisis team is in place to work with students and staff members to help them deal with their grief," according to the district. Counselors are at Big Picture for those who want support. Staff and parents/guardians are also invited to contact school counselors for advice on how to handle grief or other concerns that their students and children might be experiencing. The family of those killed is planning a candlelight vigil for 7 p.m. Thursday at the corner of Route 80 and Gatehouse Road, according to a Facebook post written by Mary Godfrey, Avery's mother. SYRACUSE, N.Y. --The raid of a Syracuse nursing home Tuesday by criminal investigators could be unprecedented in New York state, according to an expert on nursing home care. Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, said he'd never heard of a search warrant being executed at a nursing home in New York in his 15 years with the watchdog agency. Dozens of armed investigators from the state attorney general's office started executing a search warrant at James Square Health and Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday morning. They were still searching the facility's offices by 4 p.m. The raid was part of an investigation into patient care, an AG's spokeswoman said. "To me, it would indicate this is pretty serious," said Mollot, whose office is in New York City. It's especially disconcerting because the number of deficiencies state health inspectors found at James Square in January was more than four times the state average, he said. James Square, at 918 James St., had 27 deficiencies compared to the state average of 5.7. Its reported staffing levels were "abysmal," Mollot said. The average time a registered nurse spent per resident per day was 43 minutes, he said. The state average is 97 minutes. The state inspection in January cited James Square for violations such as failing to assist residents who needed help eating, failing to ensure that residents were safe from serious medication errors, and failing to properly care for people needing injections, colostomy care and other special needs, according a state report. James Square received the lowest rating -- one star -- in the most recent ratings by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The best nursing homes get five stars. "That means it's the bottom of the barrel," Mollot said. The administrator of James Square has not responded to a request for an interview. Contact John O'Brien anytime by email, Twitter, or at 315-470-2187. Syracuse, N.Y. -- Every summer, the Baldwin boys come to Skaneateles to rent homes and be closer to their mom, Carol Baldwin. This past summer, as Daniel was packing to go back home to California, his mom told him she wished they spent more time together. So Baldwin decided to move to Central New York and do just that. He and his family bought a house in Cleveland, on Oneida Lake. He brought his wife, his two young children, and his passion: helping families struggling with addiction. Baldwin said that since he settled in Central New York in October, he's met with dozens of families whose children are struggling with addiction. He knows their road because he's traveled it: Baldwin is an addict. His drug of choice was cocaine. He talks about this journey Thursday on WCNY's "Cycle of Health" at 8 p.m. The episode is also available online following its airing. In an interview with Syracuse.com, Baldwin said the region needs better options for kids than what exists right now. "The money that's being spent is a Band Aid on a bullet wound," Baldwin said. Longer stays in rehab, between six months and a year, are what people really need. And they need rehab that's comprehensive, treating the addiction as well as the underlying problem that started it all, he said. Baldwin often finds himself in the living rooms of parents whose kids have overdosed on heroin. And he finds himself on the phone with the district attorneys in Onondaga and Cayuga counties, trying to make deals where he thinks better outcomes are possible in rehab instead of jail. Baldwin estimated he's directed about 100 people, between the ages of 17 and 27, to rehab since he came to Central New York. He found success at the SOBA Recovery Center in Malibu, Calif., and thinks the model used there is better than what's available locally. If people can't pay, Baldwin sometimes pays the bill for them, but mostly he works to convince the kid, and the family, that it's time to go to rehab. He does it as a part of his own recovery. "This is what helps keep me sober," Baldwin said. In 2015, more than 50,000 people in the U.S. died from opiate overdoses. "I don't see this slowing down," Baldwin said. Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people, life and culture in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2246 WATERLOO, NY -- The New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, has rejected an appeal from Karl Karlsen, a Seneca County man who killed his son for insurance money in 2008. The four-line decision filed June 6 denied Karlsen's appeal. Karlsen has now exhausted his direct appeal opportunities in New York. He lost at both the Appellate Division Court in Rochester in February. The appeals courts rulings upheld Karlsen's murder conviction in Seneca County Court. Karlsen, 57, pleaded guilty in November 2013, to murdering his son Levi Karlsen for insurance money. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder shortly after a jury trial began in the Seneca County Court. A month later the court sentenced him to 15 years to life. Karlsen is awaiting trial later this year in Calaveras County, California on charges that he murdered his wife Christina under similar circumstances in 1991. If convicted, Karlsen faces the death penalty in California. The Karlsen case in Seneca County made national news when it broke. On the morning of Nov. 20, 2008, Karlsen took his 23-year-old son, Levi Karlsen, to a bank where he had a notary public witness Levi sign a hand-written will naming his father as sole beneficiary. Later that day in a detached garage on Karlsen's property in the Town of Varick, Karlsen jacked up the front end of his pick-up truck with a wobbly jack. He took off the front tires, and then asked Levi to perform work underneath the truck. While Levi was lying underneath the truck, Karlsen caused the truck to fall off the jack and land on Levi's chest, killing him. Karlsen then abandoned his helpless son. Some 17 days before the murder, Karlsen took out a $700,000 life insurance policy on Levi's life. Karlsen was named as the sole beneficiary. After the murder, Karlsen received the insurance money. Levi's death in 2008 was originally ruled an accident. In late 2012, Karlsen made statements to his estranged wife and then to the police admitting that he caused the truck to fall off the jack and onto Levi, and that he walked away, allowing Levi to die. In his application to the Court of Appeals, Karlsen's attorney John Cirando argued that Karlsen was improperly denied an attorney during the police interrogation, that his statements to the police were not voluntary, that his guilty plea was not knowing and intelligent, that his statements to his estranged wife should have been precluded under the spousal privilege law, that he did not waive his Miranda rights, and that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel. The Court of Appeals agreed with Seneca County District Attorney Barry L. Porsch on all issues and denied Karlsen's appeal. This is not the end of court appearances for Karlsen. He is currently awaiting trial in Calaveras County, California, where he has been charged with the murder of his first wife, Christina. He will return to New York to serve his sentence once the trial is over, Porsch said. Christina Karlsen's 1991 death had originally been ruled an accident. Authorities reopened the case in 2012 after Karlsen was arrested for the murder of his son. Karlsen had taken out a $200,000 life-insurance policy on Christina the month before she died in a house fire. Contact Charley Hannagan anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2161. delta lake.JPG State police said they were called to the drowning of a Rome woman in Delta Lake on June 11, 2017. In this file photo, a couple walks their dog along the beach at Delta Lake park in early spring. (Glenn Coin|gcoin@syracuse.com) Town of Western, N.Y. -- New York State Police say they are continuing their investigation into Sunday's drowning of a Rome woman in Delta Lake. Troopers are asking that anyone contact them who may have witnessed the drowning incident, been in the area, seen the victim in distress or being helped back into the boat. Maryellen Hall, 55, of Rome, was swimming with family members in Delta Lake when she became distressed in the water, police said. Family members were unsuccessful in attempting to help Hall back to the boat. A passing boater was able to assist with getting Hall into the boat and began CPR, police said. State Police were called at about 6 p.m. Sunday to a report of a drowning on Delta Lake near 8794 State Route 46 in the Town of Western, Oneida County. Delta Lake is also known as Delta Reservoir. Hall was taken to Rome Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call Investigator Laura Croneiser in the Bureau of Investigation at Marcy at (315) 736-8802. Contact Charley Hannagan anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2161. Blog_DavidCWebb-TaftPark (2ndbat.JPG Blue-green algae seen in this 2014 file photo shut down the David C. Webb Memorial Park Bathing Beach on Oneida Lake in the town of Constantia. (Provided photo) Syracuse, N.Y. -- This summer could be a bad one for toxic blue-green algae blooms, says one expert. All the conditions are in place for the blooms, which can sicken people and render drinking water unsafe. "A lot of things will start to explode this week because of the warm weather," said Greg Boyer, a biochemistry professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. "We're predicting it's going to a big bloom year." The blooms are becoming an increasing problem in New York. Last summer, Verona Beach was closed for a week due to a persistent bloom, and the city of Auburn's drinking water was contaminated by algae blooming in Owasco Lake. The algae can cause liver and nerve damage in humans, and blooms have killed hundreds of dogs in the U.S. Three ingredients are necessary for the blooms: nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into lakes, lots of sun and heat, and lack of wind. The wet spring has flushed plenty of nitrogen and phosphorous into lakes, said Boyer, whose lab conducts tests on toxic algae from samples around the state. "Unfortunately, the very, very, very rainy weather we've had the last couple of months has really super-charged all the water bodies, so there are lots of nutrients coming in," Boyer said. Buffalo had its wettest spring on record. Rochester had the second-wettest, and Syracuse's spring was the fourth rainiest on record. Now comes the sun and hot weather, which help the algal blooms develop. "These 80- to 90-degree days we've been having are beautiful conditions to establish blooms," Boyer said. Many areas of Upstate hit 90 degrees this week for the first time in 2017. More heat is on the way this weekend. Temperatures are likely to reach into the mid to high 80s Saturday and Sunday across Upstate. The third condition for the blooms is light or no winds. Strong winds will break up the blooms at the surface and push them down into deeper water, Boyer said. Winds up to 30 mph forecast for Sunday could help break up any blooms that form this week. Blooms are already developing. Five Upstate lakes have suspected or confirmed blooms already this year, including Lake Neatahwanta, in Oswego County. Lake Neatahwanta is a perennial spot for the blooms. Boyer said once a lake has the blooms, it's more likely to have them in succeeding years. "They're like dandelions in your lawn: It's not easy to get them out next year," he said. The major nutrient in Upstate that feeds the blooms is phosphorous. Boyer said that comes from a variety of sources, and it can vary by lakes and watersheds. In some areas it's runoff from farms; in others, such as Sodus Bay, the phosphorous might be coming from Lake Ontario. Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251 St. Lawrence River.JPG In the past few years, fewer American anglers are fishing on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River days because of Canadian rules and regulations. A new law should change that, U.S. and Canadian officials say. (1000 Islands International Tourism Council) Both houses of the Canadian federal government have passed a new law that when enacted will lift several years of uncertainty concerning the rights of American boaters and anglers on the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River - in fact, on any border water of the two countries. Under this new law, which recently passed the Canadian Senate and the Canadian House of Commons, American boaters who do not anchor their boat or step foot on Canadian soil will not have to report to Canadian Customs. In addition, the measure will also exempt Canadian boaters from being required to report to their customs officials when they return to Canadian waters, as long as they met the same requirements while they traveled in U.S. waters. The bill will become law after it receives "Royal Assent." which could come as early as next week, according to New York State Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-St. Lawrence, who has been actively involved in the issue. Canadian bills may be given Royal Assent in two ways: by the Governor General or his/her deputy in a formal ceremony that takes place in the Senate before an assembly of both houses, or by written declaration. The new law was authored by two Canadian lawmakers: Sen. Bob Runciman and House member Gordon Brown. It needed to be approved by the end of this month to become law for this year's boating season because that's when both houses adjourn for the summer. Runciman represents the Thousand Islands and the Rideau Lakes area. Brown represents Leeds, Granville, the Thousand Islands and the Rideau Lakes area. In February, Ritchie, who represents Oswego, Jefferson and parts of St. Lawrence counties, traveled to Ottawa to testify before the Canadian Parliament's Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense in support of the measure. The need for the legislation has its roots in a 2011 incident involving Roy Andersen, a then-22-year-old, Baldwinsville resident who spent his summers in Thousand Island Park. He was out fishing in the Gananoque Narrows on the Canadian side with a friend when two Canadian Border Services agents bordered Andersen's boat and seized it. The agents told Andersen that he and his buddy had not reported to a Canadian port of entry upon entering Canadian waters. Andersen and his buddy both had Canadian fishing licenses and their boat met all the safety requirements. All that didn't matter. Canadian officials told the boater he would need to immediately pay a $1,000 fine or face being handcuffed, having his boat towed to Canada and pay $25,000 in penalties. While the fine was eventually reduced to $1 after lawmakers got involved, the incident has kept many American boaters and anglers from venturing into Canadian waters. Ritchie worked closely with Runciman and Brown to get the fine reduced, which also led to the formation of the binational "Legislative Border Caucus." This caucus has since worked jointly on issues involving the border and looks for new opportunities to bolster the bonds between the two countries, Ritchie said. Prior to the Andersen incident, in most cases fishermen and recreational boaters who were just passing through and didn't anchor or set foot on the Canadian side (either on the shoreline or on a Canadian island) weren't required to call Canadian customs. A passport was required by Canadian law, but rarely asked for. Today, all American boaters crossing the Canadian side must put a call in to Canadian customs (1-888-Can pass). In addition, they are required to report information from (and have in their possession) certain documents. Anglers and recreational boaters alike must have either a passport, birth certificate or enhanced driver's license. If they have a DWI, drug charge or any firearms charges on their criminal record, they are not allowed to enter Canadian waters. "This legislation will end the confusion and ensure that Canada treats U.S. boaters the same way the Americans treat Canadian boaters," Brown said. Ritchie added: "The waterways our nation shared with Canada are scenic gems that not only provide endless opportunities for recreation, but also help to drive economies on both sides of the border. I cannot thank Senator Runciman and Member of Parliament Brown enough for working with me to ensure boaters can enjoy our shared waterway without headaches, which in turn will strengthen the local tourism industries for our nations." Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Future versions of Google's flagship Pixel smartphone may feature a significant change under the hood if a new report from Variety is accurate. The publication claims Google has hired Manu Gulati, a veteran chipmaker that has spearheaded Apple's internal SoC development for nearly eight years. Sources familiar with the hire say he joined Google within the past few weeks - details corroborated on Gulati's LinkedIn page where he is listed as the lead SOC architect at Google from May 2017. As Variety correctly highlights, losing Gulati could be a big blow for Apple. The Cupertino-based company has utilized custom-designed SoCs in its mobile devices since the arrival of the A4 chip in the original iPad in 2010. Developing both hardware and software under one roof has given Apple a significant advantage in terms of overall performance and efficiency and it's clear that Google and others are now interested in bringing hardware development in-house for the same purposes. Google is also looking to hire additional chip experts in hopes of further refining future Pixel hardware as evident by recent job postings for positions including Mobile SoC CPU Architect, Hardware Engineer / Mobile SoC Architect and Mobile SoC Memory Architect. It's unclear who Apple will be replacing Gulati with. When contacted by the publication, Apple didn't immediately respond and Google declined to comment. Lead image via Shutterstock It's common knowledge that Russian hackers attempted to interfere with the US electoral system last year, but it seems the true extent of those attacks is only now being revealed. According to a new report by Bloomberg, a total of 39 states were targeted - double the number that was previously reported. Citing people "with direct knowledge of the US investigation" into the Russian hacks, Bloomberg reveals that one of the states - Illinois - saw the perpetrators gain access to the voter database and compromise as many as 90,000 records. The situation was so bad that it led to then-president Barack Obama directly complaining to Vladimir Putin on the "red phone," a cyber-hotline set up in 2013 by both presidents designed to de-escalate cyber conflict between the two countries. Thirty-seven other states reported finding traces of hacker intrusions, including the critical election systems of both Florida and California. While not all of these represented a compromise, it shows the sheer scope of the Russian's operation. The news comes after a top-secret NSA report leaked last week. It revealed that Russian military intelligence launched a hacking campaign against at least one US voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to over 100 local election officials. There's still no evidence that the hackers were able to alter the vote counts or election results in any states, or tamper with the voting machines. It seems they either took note of Obama's warning or the numerous different systems used by each state prevented them from altering the outcomes. The Kremlin has long denied trying to influence the US election, though Putin recently said that "patriotic hackers" may have meddled in the process. After the debacle that was the Galaxy Note 7, some suspected that the explosive handset would be the last to carry the Note name. But a successor to the device that's thought to have cost Samsung around $17 billion in lost sales is on its way, and the latest rumors say it'll arrive at Berlin's IFA event in early September. The Galaxy Note 7, which helped Apple temporarily knock Samsung off the top spot as the world's biggest smartphone company, was released in mid-August last year. Some recent reports, which cite Korean news site The Bell, claim the Note 8 will follow its predecessor and launch around the same time, but others, including the often reliable leaker Sammobile, say an early-September launch at IFA is more likely. "We've reached out to our internal sources and have received word that Samsung is planning to release its successor to the Galaxy Note 7 at the conference, though it may share some details sooner," notes the publication. Samsung was asked to verify the report, but it rolled out the old "does not comment on rumor and speculation" statement. Samsung no doubt wants to beat Apple's iPhone 8 to market. The Cupertino company's next handset is expected sometime in September or slightly later, meaning the Note 8's arrival at the start of the same month or earlier seems likely. The Note 8 is rumored to become the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm's upcoming SoC, the Snapdragon 836. Google's Pixel 2 handsets are reportedly set to be next line for the components after Samsung. Other Note 8 specs include a 6.3-inch 3840 x 2160 Super AMOLED curved Infinity display, a vertically-aligned dual-lens camera, and a fingerprint scanner embedded under the screen. Its a delicious possibility that could make it possible for astronauts to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread in space. Slated for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) next year, Bake In Space will test a new dough mixture and oven specially created for the ISS and surviving microgravity conditions. Crumb-Free, Fresh Out Of The Oven While improvements have been made on ready-made space meals over the years, food and nourishment on long-duration missions such as a trip to the moon or planet Mars are a different matter. This is why NASA and other groups have started to explore new methods, such as being able to grow vegetables in space. NASA has in fact dovetailed the human mission to Mars with a plan to develop a reliable food supply to sustain human crews for longer periods on Mars. Programs such as the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) are preparing the ground for growing vegetables outside earthly environments. This is why Bake In Space, a company based in Bremen in Germany, also ventured into the ambitious project. The planned specimen: the typical weekend German bread roll, the firm noted on its website. As space tourism takes off and people spend more time in space we need to allow bread to be made from scratch, said Bake In Space founder Sebastian Marcu in a New Scientist report. Their specific goal in the project, which was presented at the UK Space Conference in Manchester earlier this month, is to make it crumb-free, as bread can prove life-threatening out in space. Back on the 1965 Gemini 3 mission of NASA, a corned beef sandwich was smuggled on board, and the crumbs flew everywhere. These crumbs are a threat in microgravity: they can get into the eye or into electrical systems where fire could start. Now, Bake In Space is working with food scientists as well as the German Aerospace Centre to create a dough mixture and process that will create crumb-free bread. Texture poses quite a challenge, as tough, chewy bread may not produce crumbs but would also likely be less palatable. The oven design plays a role in addressing this issue, as German specialists are developing a convection oven that can adapt to ISS conditions. Exterior surfaces, for instance, should not exceed 45 degrees Celsius, so the oven should retain heat properly. Fascinating Experiment The company will blast the baking experiment in April 2018 to the ISS via the Horizon mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It will be with astronaut Alexander Gerst. Ground personnel will receive live video feeds from inside the oven, so astronauts wont have to watch over their loaves while on duty. The doughs initial batches too will be pre-baked here on the planet. Eventually, the team is keen on also exploring sourdough bread and selling original space rolls here on Earth. Spectators couldnt help but get fascinated over the nice-smelling prospects. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museums Jennifer Levasseur believed freshly baked bread on board the ISS could energize astronauts both physically and psychologically. New York-based baker Miranda Bucciero told Gizmodo its a truly awesome possibility. [B]rownies would probably work the best the dense fudgy/chewy type of brownie, she quipped. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. After more than a year of negotiations, it's finally done. Verizon has purchased Yahoo for $4.5 billion, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has resigned from the company. Goodbye Mayer Mayer joined Yahoo in 2012 at a time when the once-mighty tech company was on its last legs. Increased competition from the likes of Google, especially in the areas of search and email, slowly eroded Yahoo's dominance in the market. Mayer attempted to turn things around, but, by the time she was brought on, there was little that could be done. Reports indicate that Mayer tried to rebrand the company and solicit new ideas, but it simply wasn't enough. For its part, Verizon has released a statement wishing Mayer well in her future endeavors. "Given the inherent changes to Marissa Mayer's role with Yahoo resulting from the closing of the transaction, Mayer has chosen to resign from Yahoo," said a Verizon spokesperson. Verizon wishes Mayer well in her future endeavors." The End Of Yahoo And The Beginning of Oath Regardless of one's opinion on Mayer's tenure, her departure marks the end of an era. While it is a shadow of its former self, Yahoo is still one of the internet's defining companies and paved the way for Google and many others that would follow. Verizon's Marni Walden has said that the acquisition of Yahoo represents an important step in Verizon's plans for digital media and "will create exciting new ways to captivate audiences across the globe." Beyond Walden's statements, Verizon's plans for Oath aren't clear, but the expansion into digital media is likely an attempt to "future proof" its brand. While the vast majority of Americans continue to buy phones from carriers and Verizon is the largest of them the market for unlocked smartphones is growing. Verizon's plans with Oath are likely an attempt to diversify the company to ensure they it doesn't suffer Yahoo's fate a few decades down the line. Verizon owns a number of tech and media brands such as Huffington Post as well as Yahoo's associated brands such as Tumblr. The fate of these individual brands is unknown, but it is likely that Verizon will leave the more popular ones as is. While this deal may bode well for Verizon, it will represent a problem for about 15 percent of Yahoo's workforce as they will be losing their jobs. As part of the restructuring program, Verizon plans to cut 2,000 jobs. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. To say the last few months have been difficult for Uber would be an understatement. Scandals have dominated the news since the start of 2017 and have only gotten worse. Between the Waymo lawsuit and the legal probe into work culture, Uber has been looking for some way to start turning things around. It looks like the execs have, but one is having to bite the bullet. Kalanick Takes Leave It's being reported that Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick has informed staff that he will be taking a leave of absence without a return date. For the time being, the company will be run by a management committee until Kalanick decides to return. When Kalanick returns, he will be stripped of some of his duties and will have to appoint an independent chair to limit his say. This is according to a report being prepared for Uber's board. This is coming on the heels of former Attorney General Eric Holder's probe into Uber's company culture over accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Holder came back with a list of 47 recommendations to address the problems he found. This included rewriting Uber's cultural values, reducing alcohol use at work events, and a board oversight committee. These were voted on by Uber's board on June 11 and passed unanimously. After the vote, head of business Emil Michael, who was tied to several of the scandals, announced his departure. "The ultimate responsibility, for where we've gotten and how we've gotten here, rests on my shoulders. For Uber 2.0 to succeed, there is nothing more important than dedicating my time to building out the leadership team," Kalanick addressed the situation in a company email. Can Uber Recover? While Kalanick taking a leave of absence could be a first step in bouncing back, the question going forward is how much can Uber recover? While Kalanick found himself at the center of several of the controversies, he wasn't the only executive caught up in this mess. Eric Alexander, who was recently fired over his handling of a rape case in India from 2014. Alexander had gotten his hands on the medical files for the case and shared it with multiple execs, including Kalanick, questioning the authenticity of the story. This is just one example of the problems that start at the top. Then there's the Waymo lawsuit that Uber got hit with earlier this year. The lawsuit claims that former Alphabet employees shared trade secrets with Uber after it purchased Otto, another automated car company founded by the former employees. Uber has been ordered to hand over reports to Waymo pertinent to the case, and it even resulted in the firing of Anthony Levandowski, one of Otto's founders. That said, Uber has been able to remain successful despite everything going on, but it has opened doors that competition is trying to take advantage of. Lyft has been making up ground on Uber and expanding its own service to more cities in the United States. There's also the possibility that business partners could leave due to the internal strife that has gripped the company. Either way, Uber has a hard road ahead. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. While previous reports claimed that Samsung may launch the Galaxy Note 8 sooner than expected, a new report from SamMobile reveals that Samsung could still announce the highly anticipated flagship smartphone at IFA 2017. As the announcement date for the Galaxy Note 8 remains clouded, the bigger question is whether Samsung will have enough time to fix arguably the worst feature on the Galaxy S8 before carrying it over to the Galaxy Note 8 or if the flawed design will once again be used for the upcoming device. Samsung Galaxy Note 8 At IFA 2017 According to a previous report from earlier in the month, Samsung is looking to launch the Galaxy Note 8 in August, ahead of Apple's planned debut for its next batch of iPhones in September. Such a timeline will help Samsung steal some thunder from Apple and its premium iPhone 8, similar to what the company did last year with the Galaxy Note 7 against the iPhone 7. Unfortunately, Samsung's rush to get the Galaxy Note 7 into the market before the iPhone 7 resulted in perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the company's history, as it had to recall the smartphone due to an exploding battery issue before eventually shutting it down. Many would think that Samsung learned its lesson in rushing out its products, and according to SamMobile, the company did. Instead of announcing the Galaxy Note 8 in the same time as the Galaxy Note 7 last year, Samsung will hold off the launch until IFA 2017, the consumer electronics trade show that will be held in Berlin starting Sept. 1. SamMobile said that the information was acquired from internal sources. Samsung may still release some details of the Galaxy Note 8 sooner, but the launch is reportedly planned for IFA 2017. Final Touches On The Galaxy Note 8? While a couple more weeks is not that long, it will give Samsung a bit more time in applying the final touches to the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung fans, meanwhile, are also hoping that the extra time is enough for Samsung to come up with the solution to be able to place the fingerprint scanner of the Galaxy Note 8 underneath its display. A report from last week claimed that, despite Samsung's best efforts, the fingerprint scanner for the Galaxy Note 8 will still be placed at the back instead of embedded under the smartphone's screen. The placement of the fingerprint scanner at the back of the Galaxy S8 beside the camera lens is considered as a design flaw, as its placement is in an awkward spot and increases the risk of users smudging the lens with their fingers. A new leak, however, gives a glimmer of hope that Samsung is working toward eliminating the mistake for the Galaxy Note 8. A photo of the smartphone seemingly shows a dual rear camera with no fingerprint scanner, which would be great for Samsung fans. The authenticity of the picture, however, could not yet be confirmed. There are still many questions surrounding the smartphone, and for now, users have no choice but to wait for official confirmation from Samsung on what the Galaxy Note 8 will offer. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Mario Kart, one of the most loved franchises of Nintendo, will likely receive a further boost in popularity as it arrives on virtual reality. Bandai Namco will open a virtual reality arcade in Shinjuku, Tokyo next month, and one of the planned activities is a virtual reality version of the 2005 arcade game Mario Kart GP. Mario Kart VR: Nintendo's First Virtual Reality Game The official website of the arcade, named VR Zone Shinjuku, revealed a variety of familiar titles that will be offered as virtual reality experiences, including Dragon Ball, Evangelion, and Gundam. Mario Kart, however, stands out because it is the first Nintendo property that will arrive on virtual reality. The official video released by Bandai Namco for VR Zone Shinjuku provides a glimpse on how Mario Kart VR will play. The arcade will use HTC Vive virtual reality headsets to immerse players in virtual reality, and for Mario Kart VR, each player will be given their own station with a racing wheel and wrist-strapped motion controllers. The screen time of Mario Kart VR is brief, but it does show players driving their karts while using the motion controllers to launch shells at opposing racers. It is unclear how involved Nintendo was in the development of Mario Kart VR, especially as the company mostly handled only publishing for Mario Kart GP. However, it can be considered as Nintendo's first try at diving into the virtual reality industry, despite the virtual reality title not expected to arrive in the United States anytime soon. Perhaps virtual reality support will soon be added to the Nintendo Switch? While Mario Kart VR will not be widely available, it offers a unique experience for fans of the racing franchise if they ever find themselves visiting Japan. Players who are able to visit VR Zone Shinjuku can also try out the other activities that were previewed in the video, including piloting the massive mechs of Evangelion, riding flying bikes, going fishing, and mastering the Kamehameha. There is also a field VR activity based on the Ghost in the Shell anime, and it appears to be a shooting game that resembles laser tag. Mario Kart In Real Life Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was successfully launched for the Nintendo Switch earlier this year, as the improved version of the Nintendo Wii U classic proved to be even more fun for players. Some fans of the Super Mario racing series, however, would love to play Mario Kart in real life. In addition to Mario Kart VR, there are also go-kart tour businesses in Japan that offer Mario Kart experiences, complete with costumes and accessories. However, these companies are being sued by Nintendo for copyright infringement. The next best thing to real-life Mario Kart would likely be a planned ride for the upcoming Super Nintendo World. The Mario Kart ride, which will run on a rail, will have one player controlling the vehicle and the other focusing on weapons and power-ups. The construction of the theme park in Osaka has already started and is planned to open its gates before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Flint water crisis that started back in 2014 was a situation handled poorly by state officials. The result was lead exposure among thousands of Flint residents and an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that killed over a dozen people. Nearly three years after the crisis started, Flint is still struggling to recover as the city institutes new regulations to prevent this from happening again. Steps are also being taken to make sure that those who failed are held accountable. Michigan Officials Charged Bill Schuette, Michigan's Attorney General, has filed criminal charges against five state health officials for their handling of the 2014 crisis. This includes Nick Lyon, the head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. This makes Lyon the highest-ranking official charged in the criminal investigation. Lyon, along with the other four officials, are being charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to alert the public about the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. Specifically, the charge stems from the death of 85-year-old Robert Skidmore, who contracted Legionnaires' disease as a result of lead exposure. Michigan's chief medical officer, Dr. Eden Wells, is also facing charges as a result of the investigation. However, she is being charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer. Schuette took to Twitter, expressing his thoughts on the matter: Children have been exposed to lead. People in Flint have died as a result of decisions made by the individuals we are charging today. A.G. Bill Schuette (@SchuetteOnDuty) June 14, 2017 Gov. Rick Snyder did voice his support for Lyon and Wells, saying that the pair is presumed innocent. Snyder also said that the two will continue to serve at the Department of Health and Human Services despite the charges brought against them. He didn't comment on the four other officials. Lyon's Handling As mentioned, a key part of the charges goes back to how Lyon handled alerting residents to the contaminated water and Legionnaires' outbreak. Lyon was reportedly briefed about the danger of a potential outbreak in January of 2015, but didn't alert the public. As a result, there were almost 100 cases of Legionnaires' disease between 2014 and 2015, leading to the deaths of 12 people, including Skidmore. Lyon admitted to knowing about the threat of an outbreak, but wanted to wait until a probe from the Health and Human Services. They wanted to find a solution for the crisis before bringing it up with the Governor's office, but which proved to be harder than anticipated. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the factors moving Inmarsat from a satellite connectivity company into technology solutions. Satellite isn't the answer to everything, every single problem, said Paul Gudonis, President of Inmarsat Enterprise. We need to be able to offer a wide portfolio of solutions to meet the customer's requirements. Sometimes it might not be satellite at all. It might be cellular, fixed line.We dont want to put the customer into one solution when its not the right answer. Founded in 1979, Inmarsat has provided mobile communications services for nearly 35 years, starting with the maritime industry and expanding to governments, broadcast media, oil and gas, mining and humanitarian aid organizations. As the need for connectivity has expanded beyond voice services around the globe, data and IoT have become increasingly more important. A showcase for Inmarsats recent IoT efforts in Africa is Kigali, the capital of the Republic of Rwanda and home to more than one million people. Last month, Inmarsat launched a set of digital service pilots with the Rwanda government. A LoRaWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) with satellite connectivity provides a gateway for several projects, including a distributed air quality monitoring suite; a smart bus with satellite Internet providing connectivity for remote communities; and a precision farming initiative intended to increase crop yield and better manage water resources. Information collected through sensors is sent back for analysis to whichever transport layer provides the best transport layer, be it cellular or satellite. SLAs on satellite are higher than cellular, Gudonis said. SLAs for cellular are on a best-case basis. Cellular gives exceptional data capacity. The point is we believe you do need both to provide in order to provide the right solution to the customer. Depending on the application, satellite can prove to be more economical according to Gudonis, with satellite providing a single price point and contact point for service delivery on a global basis, while cellular can be more expensive once roaming across multiple regions is factored in. Inmarsat has established cellular partnerships with Vodafone and Jersey Telecom so it can offer the best connectivity fit for customers depending on the requirements for an IoT solution. IoT solutions deployed in the United States using Inmarsat services include partnering with ORBCOMM to deliver a truck fleet monitoring solution for Walmart and working with Galaxy 1 Communications to provide utilities and oil and gas with monitoring solutions for transmission grids and pipelines. We're starting to think about IoT in different ways, Gudonis said. It's a very exciting time in the IoT world. We're at the point where technology is starting to drive some really exciting solutions. We're looking at types of solutions that help us both from a revenue perspective and solutions that have a big global impact. Inmarsat's interest in and experience with IoT has given it traction with established global system integrators such as HP Enterprise, GE, and Capgemini. Certainly, in the short to medium term, [Inmarsat] is working in partnership with an ecosystem that can target certain sectors, Gudonis said. Rather than becoming a system integrator overnight, how can we enable services working with existing channel partners and also working with new companies and organizations? We're enabling digital services rather than delivering a pure connectivity pipeline. Longer term, where does our future lay? Will it be more niche? Or system integration? It's too early to tell... Our main effort is the ability to deliver value within that chain [of partners] and not become an commodity providing a connectivity type. Adding more value to IoT solutions is something Inmarsat already is examining. The company has worked with geospatial and imaging companies to integrate IoT data with positioning information and imagery, providing situational awareness beyond raw numbers. An IoT alarm on a pipeline could trigger an asset to deliver a visual of a piece of equipment with an unmanned flying UAV drone or via satellite to provide confirmation of a pipeline break. A relief agency could use on-the-ground photography taken with a smartphone to trigger a larger search of relevant satellite imagery, providing a larger, more complete picture of conditions in an area. Malware called CRASHOVERRIDE or Industroyer was likely to blame for last years power grid attack in the Ukraine that left Kiev in the dark for an hour. And that malware represents the most dangerous threat to industrial control systems since Stuxnet. These revelations come from separate, but related, reports from Dragos and ESET. Senior Malware Researcher Anton Cherepanov of Slovakian security firm ESET in a blog earlier this week explained that Industroyer is especially dangerous given its ability to control circuit breakers and electricity substation switches directly using native industrial communication protocols. Those protocols have been in use since before the Internet became commercialized, and predate control systems being connected to the outside world. So security wasnt a consideration at the time they were designed and put into service. That means that the attackers didnt need to be looking for protocol vulnerabilities, Cherepanov explained, all they needed was to teach the malware to speak those protocols. The ability to speak that language apparently enabled Industroyer to turn off remote terminal units controlling the power system in the Ukraine on Dec. 17, 2016. According to The Hill, its believed that Russia is to blame for the attack. Industroyer reportedly can be used to alter settings, shut down systems, and wipe files. It can be used on various kinds of industrial control systems. And it contains specific attacks for one type of Siemens system. That said, Robert Lee of Dragos in a blog earlier this week noted that the electric grid is extremely reliable and that, because of that fact, any outages it might suffer would last hours or days as opposed to weeks or months. That said, Lee commented that CRASHOVERRIDE represents alarming tradecraft and the ability to disrupt operations. Lee added that ESET on June 8 called on Dragos to validate its findings to reporters covering the new revelations discussed above. Dragos was able to confirm much of ESET's analysis and leveraged the digital hashes to find other undisclosed samples and connections to a group we are tracking internally as ELECTRUM, Lee said. (ELECTRUM is the adversary group behind the 2016 attack of the Ukraine electric grid, Lee explained.) As for the Stuxnet malware referenced above, that was used by the U.S. and Israel to sabotage the Iranian nuclear arms program. The Court of Appeals of the National Court of Justice announced Thursday the annulment of the eight-year sentence against the former vice-president of Ecuador Jorge Glas and six others... | Read More At a free forum event at The Heartland Institute headquarters on Wednesday June 7, Charlie Katebi a fellow in health care reform at the Millennial Policy Center at the Liberty Group in Denver spoke on the topic of A Health Care Agenda for Millennials. Katebi, who also writes for the Federalist , explained how Americas health care system is rigged against Millennials. Under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), young people face higher costs, fewer choices, and less access than ever before, even though they can stay on their parents insurance until age 26. This is the result of increased government interference in our health care system. It is worth noting that prior to introducing Katebi, Heartlands Government Relations Director John Nothdurft prefaced the event by pointing out how important it is for Heartland to maintain a team dedicated to delivering free-market solutions to lawmakers all over the country. Charlie Katebi speaks In speaking about the difficulty of repealing Obamacare, despite it collapsing under its own weight, Charlie Katebi took aim at powerful groups that come out to tell how untold hardship and suffering will occur should Obamacare be repealed. Notable is that these comments are not coming from groups consisting of young people. As such the group Katebi represents (Liberty Group) is trying to give young people a larger voice in the discussion. About premiums for young people: They are high under Obamacare, because they must cover the cost of older people who are likely to have a number of costly medical problems. These inflated costs discourages young people from buying insurance. Only 1/3 of adults under 30 are insured, and only 2% of millenniums are starting businesses, because they don't have the money to do so. Obamacare isn't the only reason why healthcare is so expensive. According to Katebi, a barrier to healthcare reform is employer provided insurance. 160 million rely on their place of work for health insurance. Benefits are excluded from taxation, making employer provided insurance the 2nd largest entitlement besides Medicare. Often companies offer only one healthcare plan, and many times they pay 80% of the premium. As noted in a Health Affairs article titled, Employment-Based Health Insurance: Past, Present, and Future: Most employers offer a single carrier; their insurance companies give them incentives to do so or even require it. Because, understandably, people want to be able to choose their doctors, delivery systems that limit patients choice of doctor are not suitable candidates for the single-carrier role. Many employers who do offer such alternatives contribute much more (like 80100 percent of the difference) on behalf of the more costly, usually FFS, alternatives. When employers do this, they do not provide an incentive for employees to choose the economical alternative, and it is not possible for the efficient systems to gain market share by superior efficiency. Employers are reluctant to expose employees to full cost differences in tiered networks. In other words, despite appearances, in most of the employer insurance market, competition over value for money is ruled out. A somewhat heated argument arose over the discussion of employer-related healthcare by a firm supporter of it, who suggested that employer-related healthcare encouraged employees to stay loyal to a company which then resulted in less turnover. Not so said Katebi. It caused job lock, as it tied people to their work and therefore discouraged people from moving to other jobs offering higher wages. Katebi suggested that a cap be placed on employee-based healthcare, or that this practice be ended entirely. Instead, Katebi said, employees should be offered a tax credit and a health savings account. Allowing a person to remain in an insurance plan despite a debilitating illness raises insurance costs for everyone. A separate, high risk market pool for these people would help lower insurance costs. For if young people don't buy health insurance because it is too expensive, no health care reform plan will succeed. Most importantly, individuals should be able to purchase a healthcare plan in accordance to their need (individualize), with exclusion as a necessary option. Men should not be paying for healthcare that only women need and women for problems encountered only by men. Katebi cited that Obamacare has 78 mandates. What the new GOP healthcare bill means for employers? The House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act Thursday, May 4, 2017, which was then sent to the U.S. Senate for debate, amendments, and then a vote. Heres what employers need to know about the revamped healthcare plan. It gets rid of the employer mandate. The American Health Care Act (AHCA) eliminates the controversial requirement under the ACA that employers provide health insurance to employees. However, this is unlikely to have a significant impact on most organizations, which will continue to offer health benefits to attract and retain top talent. It pushes back implementation of the Cadillac tax. It gives states greater control over whats included in health plans. It gives states la say in pre-existing-conditions cover. It opens up HSA's by repealing taxes on health savings accounts. Under the Houses GOP plan, individuals can put $6,550, up from $3,400, and families can put $13,100, up from $6,550, into a tax-free HSA. Senate version of AHCA still uncertain Senate Republicans are now struggling for consensus as they seek to keep the partys campaign promise to repeal and replace the ACA, in an atmosphere where there is no Democratic support for the Republican bill. One of the few components of Obamacare that received bipartisan backing and broad support was protection for those with pre-existing condition In an article published on June 8, 2017, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican leader, told news reporters when addressing the needs of people who already have serious or chronic health conditions, that this is a key priority in negotiations for a Senate bill, although the specific approach has not yet been finalized. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell likewise backs ACA pre-existing illness policy. Addressing the needs of those with pre-existing conditions could help McConnell attract votes of moderate Republicans including Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. A measure that could prove positive to lowering insurance premiums is now under discussion. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota is helping to draft a measure to create a federal reinsurance pool for people with chronic illnesses, so they won't be worried about losing affordable coverage because of a pre-existing condition. At the same time, a Reinsurance Pool would help lower premiums for those who remain in the regular insurance market. Salient points by Charlie Katebi For health insurance to work, it must be perceived that everyone is getting a fair deal and that young people don't have to pay too much for their health insurance. Health care is expensive. Someone must pay for it, but no one can define what a person's fair share should be. When asked by young people whether healthcare is a right, Katebi tells them that your right doesn't matter as long as those who need healthcare get it. When a Heartland guest made the observation that all roads in the healthcare debate seem to lead to a Single Payer System, Katebi gave this grim outlook: If a Single Payer System ever came to fruition, Death Panels would be a necessary component of it. BBC Studios Head of Comedy Chris Sussman has appointed James Farrell as Head of Development. BBC Studios, the corporations commercial TV production arm, makes comedies including Mrs Browns Boys, Still Open All Hours, This Country and Inside No. 9. Farrell started his career as a script editor in BBC Comedy before becoming a development producer. He went on to produce Mrs Browns Boys, as well as Our Ex-Wife, Crims and Flat TV. Since last year he has headed up production on Mrs Browns Boys, including the live programme which broadcast last summer. BBC Studios launched as a commercial business in April 2017, able to make programmes for other UK and international broadcasters as well as the BBC. In this new role Farrell will oversee the development slate of projects for new audiences and channels as well as the BBC. Sussman said: James has a great editorial eye and an uncanny ability to attract the best talent in the business. As BBC Studios begins its exciting future, hes going to play a key role in growing our development slate and building relationships with new broadcasting partners. He takes up his role with immediate effect. Share this story Irvine CA (SPX) Jun 12, 2017 An increase in mean temperature of 0.5 degrees Celsius over half a century may not seem all that serious, but it's enough to have more than doubled the probability of a heat wave killing in excess o ... more Houston TX (SPX) Jun 12, 2017 Rice University chemists can thank the mussel for putting the muscle into their new macroscale scaffold fibers. The Rice lab of chemist Jeffrey Hartgerink had already figured out how to make b ... more Cape Cod MA (SPX) Jun 12, 2017 If projections for melting Antarctic sea ice through 2100 are correct, the vanishing landscape will strip Emperor penguins of their breeding and feeding grounds and put populations at risk. But like ... more Washington DC (SPX) Jun 12, 2017 Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have found that independent estimates from geology and biology agree on the timing of the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent into today's co ... more Kabul (AFP) June 13, 2017 A rare Afghan marsh that was once a royal hunting ground is set to come under the official protection of the UN environment agency, with the aim of saving hundreds of migratory bird species. ... more Tokyo (AFP) June 12, 2017 BAKER The council voted Tuesday to approve a $17 million city budget that includes 2 percent pay raises for all city employees. The budget for 2017-18 was approved in a 4-1 vote late Tuesday, with council members Charles Vincent, Glenda Bryant, Doris Alexander and Pete Heine voting in favor and Brenda Jackson dissenting. "I have serious concerns about this budget and the (2015-16) audit," Jackson said. Baker officials try to explain how city landed on state auditor's non-compliance list BAKER Baker auditor Melvin Davis tried to explain to the City Council and about 50 members Auditor Melvin Davis discussed the audit and the city's accounting problems earlier in the meeting. Jackson also contended the budget for the coming year was not complete, a claim Mayor Darnell Waites denied. "It's not true that it is not complete," Waites said. "We have a balanced budget." However, he later conceded the budget would have to be altered to include raises for firefighters and that other amendments would probably be necessary. In May, the council passed an ordinance raising the starting firefighters' pay from $9.11 per hour to $12 per hour. Waites vetoed that ordinance, saying that he wanted to give the firefighters a raise over a period of three years, rather than all at once, citing the city's financial situation. Baker mayor vetoes pay raise for city firefighters, proposes alternative hike Mayor Darnell Waites vetoed an ordinance the council passed at its May 23 meeting which woul After the meeting, Waites said firefighters are now on board with his plan, which calls for a $1.50 increase in 2017-18, another $1.50 raise in 2018-19, and a 50 cent increase in 2019-2020. The budget the council passed Tuesday contains a 2 percent raise for all city employees, Waites confirmed. In response to a question from the audience, Baker Fire Chief Danny Edwards said the average pay for firefighters in the city is less than $30,000 per year, with drivers and captains making more money. The council also voted 3-2 to post city budgets following their adoption to the city's website. Alexander, Heine and Jackson voted in favor and Bryant and Vincent voted against. Jackson, who brought the ordinance before the council, characterized the move as improving accountability with the city. "You want to post the budget you voted against," Waites said to her. "I'm just doing what's best for my constituents. It's their money," Jackson countered. Bryant said that she liked the idea of posting the budgets, but that the system needs to be improved before the city can make such a move. Vincent commented that the budget is already available to any citizen who wants to see it and expressed concern over allowing it to be available to anyone on the web. Waites also announced that Tracy Lane is resigning as finance director and that he has appointed Mary Sue Stages to fill in on an interim basis for 12 to 18 months. Stages has served as the city's auditor in the past and more recently has been helping the city fix accounting problems uncovered by auditor Melvin Davis during his examination of the 2015-16 budget. Baker council wrestles with negative audit findings, freeze on state grant money BAKER The city council met in a work session early Tuesday to discuss the negative finding The city still needs to hire someone to conduct an audit for the 2016-17 fiscal year, since Davis has declined to sign another contract with the city. Waites announced that the first Coffee with the Mayor will take place 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. July 19 in the Municipal Building for any residents with concerns in the city. Interested residents can call the city to reserve their place. In other business, the council voted 3-2 against a resolution that would have opposed moving the Baton Rouge Zoo out of Baker. Alexander, Bryant and Jackson voted against and Vincent and Heine voted in favor of the resolution. "We don't get any tax revenue from it and it's a done deal anyway," Bryant said. Consultants first suggested relocating the zoo in 2016 and since then the East Baton Rouge Parish Recreation and Park Commission has developed plans to move the zoo and spend $40 million improving neighboring Greenwood Park. BREC has estimated that relocating the zoo would cost $110 million. BREC will hold a meeting regarding the issue 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the BREC building on Florida Blvd. A Baton Rouge police officer injured during an Alton Sterling-related protest last summer cannot sue Black Lives Matter or prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson because Black Lives Matter is a "movement" and not an entity that can be sued, Mckesson's attorney argued before a federal judge Wednesday. But a lawyer for the unnamed officer asked Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson to allow the officer's suit to go forward, arguing that Black Lives Matter is an "unincorporated association" capable of being sued under Louisiana law. +2 BRPD officer injured during Black Lives Matter protest sues DeRay McKesson, national organization A Baton Rouge police officer who lost teeth and suffered other injuries during a protest out In a hearing Wednesday on the suit that was filed in November, Jackson observed that the word organization is "often an ill-defined term." The judge took under advisement arguments presented by Mckesson's attorney, Billy Gibbens, and Donna Grodner, the lawyer representing the officer. He said he'll issue a ruling within the coming days. Mckesson has asked Jackson to throw out the officer's suit. +4 Why Black Lives Matter activist Mckesson wants officer's lawsuit tossed An attorney for a prominent Black Lives Matter activist urged a federal judge Monday to dism The judge said a key question is whether, under Louisiana law, Black Lives Matter is capable of suing and being sued. Gibbens said the answer to that question is a resounding "no." He called Black Lives Matter a "community of interests." Gibbens also said Mckesson is not an agent of Black Lives Matter. Gibbens said he has seen no evidence that Black Lives Matter has insurance, dues, a membership hierarchy or articles of association. "I don't think there's any hard facts that this is an unincorporated association," he argued. "This is a movement." Grodner, though, alleged that Black Lives Matter solicits and accepts donations, has meetings, and has national chapters. Black Lives Matter, she argued, has "revenues or capital with a purpose." Grodner suggested part of that purpose is to pay for protesters' transportation and lodging. Grodner's client, who attended Wednesday's hearing but has asked the court to be identified only as "John Doe" for his safety and that of his family, claims he lost teeth and suffered other injuries when someone threw a chunk of concrete at him during a July 9 protest outside Baton Rouge police headquarters at the intersection of Airline Highway and Goodwood Boulevard. His suit alleges Mckesson, of Baltimore, came to Baton Rouge last summer "for the purpose" of "rioting to incite others to violence against police and other law enforcement officers." The suit also claims Mckesson organized the July 9 protest, was in charge of it, gave orders throughout the day and night. The unknown person who injured the officer was "under the control and custody" of Mckesson, the suit alleges. Mckesson has denied those allegations. Mckesson is one of about 80 protesters who are eligible for cash payments ranging from $500 to $1,000 if U.S. District Judge John deGravelles approves a proposed settlement of a class action suit that accuses law enforcement agencies in Baton Rouge of violating the constitutional rights of protesters who were arrested during the demonstrations. Police arrested nearly 200 people at protests in Baton Rouge after a white police officer fatally shot Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, during a struggle outside a convenience store on July 5. The settlement's class is limited to protesters arrested only on charges of obstructing a highway. Mckesson and two other arrested protesters are the named plaintiffs in the suit against the city, BRPD, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office and Louisiana State Police. The U.S. Justice Department announced last month that no federal charges would be filed against the two officers who struggled with Sterling. The Louisiana Attorney General's Office is now probing whether any state charges are warranted. Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan pollster, political analyst and publisher of LunchtimePolitics.com, a daily newsletter on polls. Hes authored or edited six books on politics, including Running for Office, and is president of Clarus Research Group. Good morning Canberra. Expect a chilly start to Thursday with temperatures climbing from minus 3 to a top of 14 degrees. There's plenty of fog out there and a cloudy day will follow, but rest assured a bit of cover will mean overnight temperatures are not predicted to be sub zero again until Monday. Ready to tuck into the news? Gungahlin apartments sold without an electricity meter In her 32 years, Andrea Fitzpatrick has not given much thought to how she would fund her retirement. So when she recently came into contact with a major Australian retirement village through her work, the process was "eye-opening". "From palliative care, to simple accommodation, [like] an apartment ... I found it can be the same cost as a house. That's when I started thinking about my superannuation a lot more," Ms Fitzpatrick said. "I thought about what I could afford when I stopped working. And about what would happen if my husband passed away and I was on my own, on one income or with one super [balance] ... I think it's quite realistic for women to expect to have less than their counterpart." Sunnyvale, California: Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer has announced her resignation in a message to employees, confirming the firm's $US4.5 billion ($6 billion) sale to Verizon has closed. "It's an emotional time for all of us," Mayer, 42, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "Given the inherent changes to my role, I'll be leaving the company." Mayer is to receive a $US23 million golden parachute, according to a Yahoo regulatory filing. Tuesday's closure of the sale ends Yahoo's 21-year history as a publicly traded company. Uber chief executive officer Travis Kalanick has told staff he plans to take a leave of absence, without disclosing a return date. The company will strip him of some duties and appoint an independent chair to limit his influence after a slew of scandals, according to an advance copy of a report prepared for the board. Reuters reported Mr Kalanick cited a need to greive the recent death of his mother in his email to staff and wrote: "If we are going to work on Uber 2.0, I also need to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve." At a staff meeting on Tuesday, the company will convey the results of a probe conducted by Eric Holder, the former US attorney general whom Uber hired to look into allegations of harassment, discrimination and an aggressive culture. The 47 recommendations include creating a board oversight committee, rewriting Uber's cultural values, reducing alcohol use at work events, and prohibiting intimate relationships between employees and their bosses. Children with early inheritance syndrome feel a sense of entitlement to their parents' assets. They are not prepared to wait until their parents die. These impatient children seek ways for their parents to give them money, or interfere in the management of their parents' assets to protect what they see as their entitlement. Financial abuse is the most common, and fastest-growing, type of abuse of older people. It involves taking or misusing an older person's money, property or assets. It also includes persuading an older person to change their will through deception or undue influence. As economic conditions worsen, older people are at a greater risk than ever of being financially abused. Credit:Virginia Star As economic conditions worsen, older people are at a greater risk than ever of being financially abused. People who are locked out of the housing market may expect access to their parents' assets, even though their parents are still alive. As the vulnerability of older people increases, their dependence on family members also increases. Often they do not want to say "No" to their children's requests for money or asset transfers for fear of upsetting these relationships. Senior Turnbull government ministers have mobilised in the wake of Tuesday night's heated meeting of Coalition MPs on the vexed issue of climate change and energy policy. Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann emphasised on Wednesday morning that "business as usual" is not an option and the recommendations contained in a recent review by chief scientist Alan Finkel are just the beginning of a long-term policy process. In the special meeting, a core group of backbenchers - led by former prime minister Tony Abbott - pushed back against a proposed Clean Energy Target (CET) proposed by Dr Finkel. Others were supportive of the plan. The confrontation has reignited tensions over climate change within the Coalition. The collapse of Network Ten may push the Senate crossbench in favour of the most significant changes to media laws in a generation. Just hours after Australia's third-largest TV station moved into administration on Wednesday, the Nick Xenophon team confirmed its in-principle support for the legislation and members of Pauline Hanson's One Nation team began "reassessing" their position. If it were to happen, Australia would see decades of strict ownership restrictions overturned, setting off a wave of mergers and acquisitions that would shore up media investment but also result in a concentration of media ownership. The Australian government will pay $70 million in compensation to more than 1900 asylum seekers detained at Manus Island in a landmark deal thought to be Australia's largest-ever human rights-related settlement. The government will also pay the asylum seekers' legal costs, estimated at $20 million. Billed by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton as a "prudent outcome", the settlement will avoid a six-month damages trial that would have seen the Commonwealth and its contractors accused of negligence and false imprisonment. Law firm Slater and Gordon, which brought the class action on behalf of former detainee and lead plaintiff Majid Kamasaee, heralded the "very good and strong" result for the 1905 men, many of whom are still on Manus Island. Respected lawyer and president of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Rosalind Croucher, is tipped to replace Gillian Triggs in her controversial role as head of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Several well-placed sources indicated Professor Croucher would be tapped by Attorney-General George Brandis for the high-profile job, with an announcement likely in the near future. Rosalind Croucher, head of the Australian Law Reform Commission, is tipped to replace Gillian Triggs. Professor Croucher is well regarded within the legal fraternity and her politics were described by compatriots as moderate or "unknown". But her support for free speech is seen as more strident than Professor Triggs'. Under her watch, the ALRC identified section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act as a "target" for reform, arguing it may be "too broad" and that declaring "offence" on the basis of race unlawful was "too low a threshold". Labor is also focusing on power prices, while seizing on Coalition divisions over Finkel's proposed clean energy target. The media is focused on whether Turnbull's leadership will survive trying to implement something less ambitious than John Howard's plans a decade ago. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott speaks of the need to protect coal as if it is a rare and precious breed of dolphin, not something that actively pollutes the planet. The federal Department of Environment and Energy's own website says the climate is changing due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal and gas), which has lead to ice melting and sea levels rising, influenced rainfall and wind patterns and makes the ocean more acidic. It adds that scientists agree the "worst effects" can be "largely avoided" if carbon dioxide emissions are reduced. Australians also largely agree climate change is real. According to the Ipsos 2016 Climate Change Report, 81 per cent of the 1000-plus Australians surveyed agree climate change is at least partly caused by human activity, while 58 per cent say the "burning of fossil fuels" is a top cause of climate change. More than half say climate change is already destroying the Great Barrier Reef and causing more frequent and extreme floods, storms, droughts and bushfires. Almost 60 per cent say Australia should be "doing more" to address the problem. But there is not even a puff about this in Canberra. Indeed, there is huge concern about whether our children and grandchildren will be able to buy a house. But not whether said house will be under water or impossible to insure because of the frequency of extreme weather events. "The onus is going to be on the federal government to either invest in or build a coal fired power station," Mr Christensen says. "What's wrong with that? We invest heavily in renewables; no one complains about that." He says it is fair for the federal government to invest in coal as much as it does in renewable energy. "If politics and government have caused the problem, we have to come up with the solution." The Defence Department will pay $5.5 million for the services of just eight contractors hired as part of its future submarine program. The contractors come from a subsidiary of the International Centre for Complex Project Management, a Canberra-based not-for-profit whose contracts on another big Defence-linked job were sharply criticised by the National Audit Office last year. Senior Defence Department official Kim Gillis Credit:Lyn Mills Kim Gillis, the man at the top of Defence's Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) which has granted the lucrative contract, is a "fellow" of the ICCPM and used to work there as a director. But the giant department says Mr Gillis has never been a signatory to contract with ICCPM or had any involvement in awarding work to the group. Public servants at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority have voted to accept a new pay and conditions deal, at the fourth time of asking. The 85-per-cent yes-vote, for a three-year deal with an average pay rise of 2 per cent per year, will be encouraging to other public service bosses around Canberra who are holding workplace votes this month. 'Long and difficult': Murray Darling Basin Authority Chief Executive Phillip Glyde Credit:Noel Towell The giant Defence Department will begin voting on Thursday for the fourth time on a proposed enterprise agreement and about 4000 Agriculture public servants are currently voting in an unprecedented fifth ballot. Bosses at several departments have backed off the harsher elements of the Coalition's controversial public sector bargaining policy in an effort to finally settle the industrial disputes that have wracked government workplaces for three years. "I'll always remember the words 'provisional winner'." David Renshaw says he saw that term flash up on a screen when he presented his Oz Lotto ticket at the Granville railway station newsagency, in Sydney's west, in September 1997. David Renshaw is suing NSW Lotteries Corporation, claiming he won $3.3 million Credit:Nick Moir Two decades later, he is suing the NSW Lotteries Corporation, claiming a shopkeeper at the newsagency threw out his ticket during a heated exchange, and that he is entitled to more than $3.3 million in winnings, plus interest. "I questioned the attendant when I witnessed the words 'provisional winner'. He stated to me, 'No winner,' " Mr Renshaw told the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday. The sister of a man accused of kidnapping his girlfriend and forcing her into an Islamic marriage has cast doubt on the allegations, saying the couple were excited to wed. The 31-year-old, who can't be identified, was charged with sexually assaulting and kidnapping his 18-year-old girlfriend from her south-west Sydney home on Monday. The man's family deny allegations he forced his girlfriend into a Islamic marriage. Credit:Facebook Police allege the tradesman drove his girlfriend to a house in Lakemba where a sheikh married the pair. The man is then accused of driving the teen to the Novotel hotel in Brighton-le-Sands and sexually assaulting her. It was lunchtime on July 27, 2015, when a man with a backpack walked past security on the ground floor of the historic Argus building and ascended the stairs. He was a lithe man named Shane Newman, with a long neck, reptilian nose and distinctive tattoos. The historic Northcote mural after being tagged by Nost. Credit:Joe Armao At the time, he was also an ice addict. He walked up two flights of stairs, then took a lift to the sixth floor. He walked up more stairs, and tried the doors to the rooftop. They wouldn't budge. The City of Mandurah is investigating claims a massage parlour in the region is offering sexual services. A youth worker raised allegations this week the business was offering the services, which could contravene the City's planning laws. Under investigation: A massage parlour is under investigation after a youth worker claimed he was offered sexual services. Josh, who asked for his surname to be withheld, said he went into the parlour for a massage only, but was propositioned to pay for sex after he had stripped. "My wife told me to go and get a massage because I've been pretty sore," he said. It doesn't take much to provoke US President Donald Trump into blocking a follower on Twitter - anything from an insult to an unflattering gif to a mild "covfefe" joke seems enough to do the trick. So it perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise that bestselling author Stephen King was abruptly added to the #BlockedByTrump list on Tuesday. The horror fiction maestro has been one of Trump's most consistent and creative Twitter critics since well before the November election. "A Trump presidency scares me more than anything else," he told Ron Charles, editor of The Washington Post's Book World, during a Facebook Live interview in September. "I'm terrified that he'll become president." Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major Credit:Getty Images Another former prime minister, David Cameron, said there would now be pressure for a "softer Brexit" - which is usually code for staying within the common market and/or customs union. The latter would preclude Britain striking a free trade deal with Australia, as is currently being planned. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn hasn't led the left out of the wilderness. Credit:Getty Images According to The Financial Times, Cameron also reminded a business conference in Poland that there was a "new player on the stage" - the Scottish Conservatives, whose leader Ruth Davidson has expressed a preference for an "open Brexit". He said the government would need to "talk more widely, listen to other parties" on Brexit. British government sources briefed journalists that only minor details remained to be settled with the DUP, and the deal was as good as done though one DUP member of parliament told Sky News that they were much further from agreement, and there might be no deal until the weekend. French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Credit:Thierry Chesnot This could put the already-delayed Queen's speech, in which the government is supposed to set out its agenda, back another week. May then had to face the first meeting of the new House of Commons as the head of a minority government. DUP leader Arlene Foster Credit:Charles McQuillan It was a brief, formal sitting of the house whose only business was to re-elect Conservative John Bercow as the speaker and congratulate the new 'father of the house' Kenneth Clarke. But it was a revealing rehearsal for the resumption of hostilities in the now-hung parliament. While May was greeted by near-silence from her fellow MPs, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn entered the house to a standing ovation from his colleagues. Corbyn said he and May could agree that "democracy is a wondrous thing that throws up some very unexpected results". He taunted May with her own election slogans, saying "I'm sure we all look forward to welcoming a Queen's speech just as soon as a coalition of chaos has been negotiated [and] if that is not possible Labour stands ready to offer strong and stable leadership". He added: "We look forward to this parliament, however short it may be", referring to speculation that the government would have to call an election long before its five-year term is up. Mrs May made a short statement saying all MPs wanted a stronger, safe, secure nation and "shared values must bring us together in a spirit of national unity". Labour is likely to make its move on the Conservatives as soon as they try to put forward a Queen's speech, British political scientist Philip Cowley told Fairfax on Tuesday. Rather than attempt to trigger an election through a vote of no confidence which they would lose if the Conservative-DUP alliance holds Labour could try to amend the Queen's Speech with policies that could appeal to the majority of MPs, Professor Cowley, from Queen Mary University of London said. "I suspect that if Labour thought it could get a second election, it would go for one," he said. A post-election poll published on Sunday suggested Labour would win a majority if an election were to be called straight away. "But they know they won't get (an election)," Professor Cowley said. "So their tactics will be more about embarrassing the government highlighting issues with the DUP and Northern Ireland, for example." On Tuesday Sinn Fein's seven elected MPs set up their new office in London, from where they will lobby politicians without taking up their seats in parliament. At a briefing for journalists, the Sinn Fein MPs insisted they would stick to their commitment to abstain from the parliament, and were committed to re-establishing power-sharing devolved government in Belfast. Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew said the British government could not now be seen as an 'honest broker' in the negotiations between her party and the DUP. The proposed confidence and supply deal was causing "a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear" among republicans, she said. And Sinn Fein warned that any Westminster deal would have to be acceptable to their side of politics, as it would be administered by the shared government once that was re-established in Stormont. Meanwhile, the UK has just one week until Brexit negotiations are supposed to begin. According to reports, British diplomats asked the EU if they could start technical talks led by civil servants while the new government settled in. But the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said they would not talk to a British counterpart unless they had a clear mandate from the new government. May ended the day in France, where she had a pre-planned meeting with new president Emmanuel Macron. She said she had confirmed to him that the "timetable for Brexit negotiations remains on course and will begin next week". Macron said France desired negotiations to begin as soon as possible. Loading He also echoed comments made earlier in the day by German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble, that Britain could still choose to stay in the EU if it wanted. Residents who escaped the inferno said they had ignored advice to stay in their homes. Smoke and flames rise from the tower early on Wednesday. Credit:AP Firefighters with breathing apparatus repeatedly stormed into the smoke-filled building to try to rescue residents. There were also reports of people jumping from windows to escape the flames, which gutted the building as the fire raged for several hours. Firefighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London. Credit:Getty Images The building appeared to either have no central fire alarm, or it had not been working. The fire began just before 1am on Wednesday, starting on one of the lower floors and spreading quickly upwards. Fire fighters and emergency services gather at the building after the huge fire. Credit:Getty Images Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, called it an "unprecedented incident". "In 25 years I have never seen anything of this scale," she said. A massive fire raced through the 24-storey high-rise apartment building in west London early Wednesday, sending at least 30 people to hospitals, emergency officials said. Credit:AP Over 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines were at the scene. Crews "have been working in extremely challenging and difficult conditions", she said. A fire still burns and smoke rises from the building after dawn on Wednesday. Credit:Getty Images "At this time I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities." Commander Stuart Cundy, from the Metropolitan Police, said police would soon contact next of kin of those killed. "It is likely to take some time before we are in a position to confirm the cause of the fire," he said. There is likely to be an extensive inquest. The London Ambulance Service said they had taken more than 50 patients to five hospitals, with more than 100 medics working at the scene, alongside a "hazardous area response team". London mayor Sadiq Khan said a number of people were unaccounted for. There were big questions that needed answering, on the advice tenants received about staying put, and recent maintenance to the building, he said. "All of these questions of course deserve a full answer and explanation," he said. "We have many many tower blocks of similar scale across London, across the country," he told LBC radio. "We've got to make sure we do everything we can to keep our citizens safe." He hoped the tragedy would compel the councils and private management organisations that run such estates to take more fire precautions, if needed. Kensington council said its "focus for now is supporting rescue and relief operation. The causes of the fire will be fully investigated". Australian Jody Martin, who lives nearby, said he grabbed a fire axe and ran into the building to help people escape before being driven back by smoke. He ran outside the building and screamed at residents to get out. "They were screaming back to me 'we can't get through the smoke, we're trapped in here'," he told a radio station. "I've just been watching the apartments of people at the windows slowly screaming at the windows, flashing their phones for help, and slowly each apartment gets burnt out." He saw people in smoke-filled apartments "slowly slump down", he said. Another witness, Sofia, said she heard many young girls crying out for help. "There are loads of people screaming for help and they are just not getting the help ... and they are dying." A building resident told the BBC there had recently been works on the gas supply to the building. She added that the fire department had come to check the building on the weekend. "They said it was fine - it's not fine," she said. Several residents said they had been previously advised to stay in their apartments if there was a fire. One, Michael, told the BBC they had been told "if ever there was an outbreak of fire you must stay in the premises, they're fireproofed for up to an hour and by then you would have been rescued". "If we had stayed in the flat we would have perished," he said. Michael said he had escaped in his boxer shorts through smoky corridors carrying his daughter wrapped in a dressing gown. "Everyone was in shock, everyone was fleeing, screaming," he said. "The block was just going up, it was like pyrotechnics, it was just unbelievable how quick it was burning." Paul Munakr, from the seventh floor, told the BBC he had been alerted to the fire by the sound of people outside shouting "don't jump". "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out the building as possible," he said. Churches, mosques and community centres in the area opened their doors to those fleeing the blaze. Councillor Robert Atkinson of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea told the BBC "one of the questions we will be asking is why the fire alarm system didn't work". "We had received assurances that the system was looked at and it was given the all-clear," he said. "There are very serious questions to be asked as to how this could have happened." New Audi A8 Makes Its Debut in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" Official launch of the Audi A8 on July 11th at the Audi Summit in Barcelona, Spain INGOLSTADT - June 14, 2017: Before the official world premiere, the new Audi A8* appears on the silver screen. The flagship of the premium brand makes a guest appearances in the Marvel blockbuster ?Spider-Man: Homecoming, in theaters worldwide in July . Therefore, movie fans will be the first to catch a glance at the luxurious sedan at the film premiere which takes place in Los Angeles on June 28. In the Marvel blockbuster, Tom Holland plays ?Peter Parker whos chauffeured around by ?Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) in the new Audi A8 L. The movie scene allows a first impression of the front and side design of the new sedan. Besides that, moviegoers also get a demo of new innovations such as highly automated driving in traffic jams: while driving ?Happy takes his hands off the steering wheel and, like magic, it continues to turn all on its own. The Audi A8 takes over the task of driving when the Audi AI traffic jam pilot is turned on. In addition to the Audi A8, two other Audi models make guest appearances in ?Spider-Man: Homecoming: ?Tony Stark stays classy with the Audi R8 V10 Spyder*, whereas ?Peter Parker himself drives an Audi TTS Roadster*. The new Audi A8 will be officially presented to the public on July 11th at the Audi Summit (www.summit.audi) in Barcelona, Spain. ?Spider-Man: Homecoming featuring the new Audi A8 will be in movie theaters around the world in July. About Spider-Man: Homecoming A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine - distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man - but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. Directed by Jon Watts. Produced by Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal. Screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley and Jon Watts & Christopher Ford and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, Screen Story by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley, Based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Don't Miss 2017 Eyes On Design - This Weekend At The Edsel and Ford Eleanor House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan 2017 EYES ON DESIGN SHOW The Best Fathers Day Show Anywhere From Delahaye to Model A Car Show Preview by Steve Purdy The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau The Edsel and Ford Eleanor House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan is an ideal venue for a premier classic and collector car show. Broad, expansive lawns, stately hardwoods and a meticulously maintained Tudor-style mansion overlook Lake Saint Clair the setting for the 30th edition of the best Father's Day car show ever EyesOn Design 2017. A couple of elements distinguish the EyesOn Design show, among the five best shows in the country according to some experts, from all other Concours-style (invitational) shows. First, its focus is not on the rarity, restoration or prestige of the invited cars. Rather, it is all about design. The show was started, and has been sustained, by designers. The selection of cars, and other things vehicular like bicycles, boats, motorcycles and the occasional farm tractor, are based on an overall design theme for the show and often sub-themes for specific classes. But design as it reflects culture is the key. Second, the original purpose for the show that has continued though these three decades is to raise research and service funds for the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology, an organization that is on the cutting edge internationally of breakthroughs in the science of restoring functional sight to people who are visually impaired and completely blind. In fact, a team of visually impaired judges do some of the judging for the show. Youll see them going over the cars using their other senses including gloved hands and smelling interiors. For 2017 the general theme for EyesOn Design is Body Styles, from the earliest days to the present, arranged around classes that show how these styles reflect the lifestyles of their times. Classes include: Concept Cars, the Lincoln brand, Limousines, Retractable Hardtops, 4-Door Hardtops (sometimes called pillarless hardtops) of the 1950s, Continental Mark Series cars, Motorcycles and Farm Tractors. Other classes and special displays include: Crosleys, Classic Era, Touring cars of two different eras, Rumble Seat Roadsters, Bathtub-styled cars, Station Wagons, Ypsilanti, MI-built cars and even historic Michigan State Police vehicles. For the first time the EyesOn Design Lifetime Achievement award has gone not to an auto designer but to a renowned visual futurist, Sid Mead of Pasadena, California. After starting out as a designer for Ford Motor Company he quickly moved to broader interests imagining the future for industrial clients, the film industry and a variety of vehicular clients including boats and motorcycles. Mead also created the event poster imagining what EyesOn Design will look like 30 years hence. A few of the special vehicles were on display at a press event earlier in the week; Most striking as we entered the grounds was an exotic super car none of us had heard of called Lykan Hypersport by a Dubai company. Think Ford GT meets Bugatti Veyron meets McLaren now in production at $3.2 million. Right behind it sat a tall, gangly 1937 Ford prototype tractor powered by a flathead V8 of the day. Henry Ford intended to produce it but was dissuaded by a fellow tractor maker, Harry Ferguson, who encouraged Henry to make a smaller one. Next to that sat one of the most elegant cars ever built, a 1938 Delahaye Coupe, a French classic with a grille painted in colors from the French flag, a political statement of its day. We previewed other show cars like a 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, a 1934 Vauxhall BX, a 1959 Ford with retractable hard top, a 1957 Corvette and a massive 1960 Chrysler Imperial pillarless hardtop. Just a few examples of the breadth and depth of cars youll see at EyesOn Design. The EyesOn Design show at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House on Jefferson Avenue (between 9- and 10-Mile roads) in Grosse Pointe Shores, opens at 10 AM on Fathers Day and goes until 4 PM. Admission is $25. Children under 12 free with an adult. Active duty military free with ID. Related events include tours of two of the areas premier car collections on Saturday the Lingenfelter Collection in nearby Brighton and the collection of Larry Smith, founder of Autometric Collision near Pontiac. (Larry Smith is also getting the Preserving the Vision award.) A black tie event on Friday will honor Sid Mead and a special luxury brunch at the show is an option as well. Get all the details at: www.eyesondesigncarshow.com Hope to see you all there. Steve Purdy Shunpiker Productions A recent Texas A&M graduate testified Tuesday that she felt "scared" after interactions with a 26-year-old doctoral candidate at Texas A&M University. The testimony came during the second day of the civil commitment trial for Yuchen Lei, a mathematics PhD candidate at A&M. Prosecutor and defense attorneys agreed in August 2016 that Lei was not guilty by reason of insanity for the stabbing of nurse James Rhinehart while Lei sought medical attention for acute bronchitis around 1 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2014. Dr. Ross Taylor, forensic psychiatrist and clinical director of operations at the Vernon campus of North Texas State Hospital, testified Monday that Lei suffers from a delusional psychiatric disorder, and Lei's attorney, Shane Phelps, noted that Lei had been paranoid at the time of the stabbing because he believed the Chinese government was targeting him for creating a crypto-currency. With the criminal proceedings finished, Lei now faces a bench trial before 361st District Court Judge Steve Smith to determine if he should be committed to a state-run inpatient mental health facility for up to 180 days. Tuesday morning's testimony centered on Lei's interactions with a Texas A&M student with whom Lei had become obsessed after serving as her teaching assistant in a recitation of a mathematics course. The 2017 Texas A&M graduate testified that after Lei had been her teacher's assistant, he had given her a Tiffany engagement ring in a classroom on A&M's campus on the last day of class in 2013. She said she initially had not accepted the gift but felt she had to take it to safely leave the room. After repeated requests, the woman said she gave Lei a cell phone number he had thought was hers but was actually her brother's. "I told him I wasn't interested in a relationship with him," she said of the interaction, which she said left her "scared" and "worried he wouldn't stop even though I told him no." "I felt scared for my safety," the woman said. The woman and her brother testified Tuesday that Lei repeatedly called and texted the telephone number. The woman said Lei also tried to friend-request and follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and that she had been contacted by two separate third parties asking her to speak with Lei. "It seemed kind of never-ending," she said of the repeated attempts to speak with her. Testimony revealed Lei eventually had been asked by A&M not to appear on campus without permission, which Lei ignored in March 2014 when he stood outside a building where the woman had class. Authorities arrested Lei that day -- March 20, 2014 -- and he has not been free since. The recent graduate testified Lei had never physically threatened her or her family and never said anything obscene or lewd to her, but did appear to have, in her words, an "obsession." Lei had not made an attempt to contact her since his arrest in March 2014, she testified. Phelps -- who noted his client had been taking medications since July 2016 and has made many positive life changes since 2014, including admitting he has a mental illness and expressing remorse for his actions -- asked the woman if she thought Lei should be committed, given his progress since 2014 and the time that has elapsed in the three-and-a-half years since. "I believe he needs to get help," said the woman, who will be pursuing a graduate degree from a school outside Brazos County. "I'm still concerned about my safety right now." Another former student who graduated from A&M in 2017 and now lives in Dallas testified Tuesday that Lei had asked him to write a letter "for a job." The man said he had written the letter without knowing about Lei's aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge after the stabbing at the Med, and he had not known Lei would use the letter in his conduct review meeting with A&M. The former student said he had written the letter to speak "to [Lei's] ability as a math teacher and his caringness for students," writing that Lei had been "by far the best [teaching assistant] I ever had." "At the time, with the information I had, that was how I felt," he said, but he had changed his mind after learning of the crime of which Lei had been accused. Phelps, noting Lei's struggles with his mental illness in 2014, said, "that doesn't change the fact that he was the best T.A. you ever had." "I never had a T.A. charged with assault before," he eventually said of his former instructor, who has not been convicted of that charge. Timothy Proctor, a psychologist with a private practice in Dallas, testified Tuesday afternoon that "it's totally clear" Lei suffers from a mental illness and that, though most people with mental illnesses are not prone to violent behavior, he believed that if Lei were to stop taking his medications he could exhibit dangerous behavior, given his violent and antisocial behavior in the past. Proctor said that the fact Lei had been taking his medications since last July was "an excellent step forward," but "there has not been enough time where he's been compliant with medication," though he did acknowledge he and his colleagues are not in complete agreement regarding whether they recommend Lei's release back into the public. Five former Texas A&M University students who lost their lives during the course of military service in World War I have now officially taken their place alongside more than 1,200 fellow Aggies killed in wars over the past century. Texas A&M officials announced Tuesday that local researchers from the Brazos County World War I Centennial Committee uncovered the connection of the five men to the university, adding them to the list of 55 other known former students who lost their lives during the war. The five men are John W. Butts, class of 1910; Ira W. South, 1917; Hubert R. Florence, 1911; Joseph Z. Sawyer, 1916; and George W. Splawn, 1917. Their attendance at the university was confirmed by The Association of Former Students. Officials said the men were honored among the Aggies lost in the war for the first time during the May Memorial Day ceremony on the Texas A&M campus. The discovery comes during the centennial anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I. Altogether, more than 116,000 of the nearly 5 million Americans who served in the conflict died in the line of duty. University Archivist Gregory Bailey -- who discovered Butts' death and connection to the university -- said while none of the men reached graduation at Texas A&M, the finding is significant in that it is a reminder of the cost paid in their service to the country by the Americans of the past. "A lot of people pay lip service to honoring those who went before us in service of the country, and over time, it's lost on people that as they get further and further away from wars they forget about [those who died]," Bailey said. "We're in the centennial of the United States' involvement in World War I, and it's bringing that conscience back to people." He said he believes part of the reason the five men were not recognized before now is because many of them did not spend more than a few years at the university. Bailey noted this is not the first time the number of Aggies who died during the war has been adjusted. In the 1920s, multiple separate memorials on the campus featured differing lists of former students being honored, resulting in a combined list of the 55 names previously recognized before the recent discovery. Lisa Kalmus, curator at the Sanders Corps of Cadets Center at Texas A&M, said it is difficult to maintain accurate records of military service largely because it often occurs after students graduate. Since the university does not keep detailed files on their students, Kalmus said it is research like this and the contribution of outside people that often results in the discovery of new A&M students who served or died in military service. "Until more research is done on everybody [who attended the university], there will continue to be revisions made," Kalmus said. "Especially as time passes [from a war], it makes a big difference when people reach out with new information." She added that a fire on campus in 1912 damaged a number of academic records, making it difficult to have an accurate count of the A&M students who served and may have died during military service. "The numbers have had to be negotiated over the years as discoveries are made," she said. Kalmus said she sees the often tedious work as a "mission of love" for those who take the time to carefully reconstruct information such as the connection of the five men to Texas A&M. In addition to the 60 former A&M students who died in service during World War I, Kalmus said 953 died in World War II, 58 died in the Korean War, 161 died in the Vietnam War and three are known to have died in the First Gulf War. She said today they know of 29 Aggies who have died in military service since the terrorist attack on 9/11. Kalmus said the only conflict A&M students are known to have served in but that officials do not have good numbers for is the Spanish-American War. Bailey said he and a few other researchers are continuing their look at the World War I era while conducting research for a book that he said is planned shine a light on the military organizations at the time and stories from the Bryan-College Station area. "We're interested in talking to people who have family members who were participating in the war effort here in Bryan-College Station," Bailey said. "We're trying to bring those stories forward. We would love to talk with anyone who would like to come forward and is interested in this." June 4, 1948 - June 12, 2017 Vancy Mae Mayes of Bryan, who devoted her life to helping others, passed away unexpectedly in her sleep on June 12th. She was 69. For more than 20 years, she was a program administrator for the Brazos Valley Community Action Agency, which provided services for the poor in a seven-county area. These included Head Start, child care, Meals on Wheels and other food programs, and reconditioning homes to make them more energy efficient. For five years, until she retired in 2015, she served as the local leader of Catholic Charities, which provided utility and monetary assistance, parent education and legal services for those in need. She helped launch the Bryan office and establish its permanent location on Cavitt Street. Vancy was the only child of Robert F. Manning, a cotton farmer and cattle rancher, and Callie Saladino, whose Italian heritage Vancy held with great pride. She was born in Bryan on June 4, 1948, and is a 1966 graduate of Stephen F. Austin High School. She met her future husband Dave in a journalism class at Texas A&M, from which she graduated in 1970. They would have celebrated 45 years of marriage on June 24. Together they had two children: Logan Manning Mayes, now a youth minister at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in northwest Austin and married to Sadie Kline, and Sarah Elisabeth Mayes, a financial accountant at Texas A&M. Vancy was devoted to her Catholic faith, prayed the Rosary daily, and volunteered for numerous church endeavors. She prayed her husband into the Church and supported his ministry as deacon at St. Thomas Aquinas parish for the past 10 years. She loved her family dearly, and constantly saw Christ in others, treating them with warmth and kindness. She was an amazing cook, enjoyed reading romance novels and loved working word puzzles. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Anthony's Catholic Church at 10 am on Friday. Interment will follow at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Bryan. A Vigil is planned for 5 to 8 pm on Thursday at Hillier Funeral Home in Bryan. A Rosary will be said at 7 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to St. Anthony's Catholic Church. Please visit Vancy's tribute page at www.hillierfuneralhome.com to share memories and stories. Tres Santos also filed lawsuits against six of the most visible activists who voiced opposition to their project, including John Moreno. In a move clearly meant as intimidation, the activists are accused of invasion of property and dispossession. As no evidence exists to back up Tres Santos' claims, and despite yet another hearing last Friday, none of the lawsuits have moved forward in court. Negotiations between the fishermen and the development company stalled in early 2016, after the latter refused to drop charges against the activists that supported the community's struggle. The lengthy process of starting a class-action suit on environmental grounds began, while international capital continued to pour into the Tres Santos project. On February 3rd 2017, Ambassador Alberto Szekely, an internationally-known environmental lawyer, jointly filed with John Moreno a Citizen's Complaint against Tres Santos in the Federal Environmental Prosecution Office (PROFEPA), suing for environmental damage at Punta Lobos beach and for failure to comply with environmental and zoning laws. Many local residents signed the complaint and, after a long and difficult struggle to persuade the authorities to start enforcing the contravened laws, on April 17th PROFEPA inspectors finally carried out an inspection of the beachfront development. Results are still pending. Yet the hotel nonchalantly began accepting reservations in April as if no social conflict had ever existed, and as if the legality of their project was never in question. On May 12th, Carlos Mendoza Davis, the Governor of Baja California Sur, was photographed visiting the grounds of Tres Santos next to a beaming Javier Barrios, the CEO of Mira Companies (the Mexican subsidiary of the Colorado company Black Creek Group, financers of this development). He publicly declared his full support of investments such as Tres Santos, deeming them beneficial to the State as, he claimed, they opened the region to the world in an "environmentally and socially responsible manner". Local Authorities Intervene-in Support of Developers John Moreno's arrest came scarcely a week after the Governor's visit to Tres Santos. He had been expecting it. Word had reached him that the Attorney General of Baja California Sur, Erasmo Palemon Alamilla, had met with Javier Barrios on the grounds of Tres Santos on March 8th. Moreno knew that the authorities were combing though some of his old cases to see if they could find one that could be used against him. He did not know that the case that would be brought up, through an illegal manipulation of the file and the falsification of documents, was one that he had won three years before. The case involved his former client Joella Corado, a dual Mexican and American citizen who was never actively involved in the struggle against Tres Santos. In 2014, Moreno successfully evicted a squatter, Enrique Chavez Ugarte, who had illegally taken possession of a property in Todos Santos owned by Corado. Now, three years later, the case has been mysteriously re-opened, but this time, John and Joella are no longer the plaintiffs. Instead, in a reversal of roles, they are now themselves accused of aggravated property theft by Mr Chavez Ugarte, the same person they had successfully evicted before. Like Moreno, Joella Corado was arrested and denied bail. According to the case documentation, John Moreno was notified of his change of status from plaintiff to accused on April 5th, 2017 in Todos Santos, before police witnesses. However, that entire day he happened to be in court in La Paz, and he was able to provide documentation to back up his alibi. A forensic document examiner soon discovered that Moreno's signature accepting the lawsuit notification was false, and that the accompanying witness statements had also been forged. The photocopies of the identifications included in the file clearly had been lifted from other cases, and the official stamp on the document was incompatible with the one from the town of Todos Santos. In a May 24th press conference on John Moreno's case, his defense lawyer Arturo Rubio Ruiz directly linked the blatant irregularities of this case to the Attorney General of the State of Baja California Sur, Erasmo Palemon Alamilla, asking: "What kind of criminal is in charge of our state's justice system? This isn't John Moreno versus a company, this is us against a man who utilizes his power to service personal, toxic and mysterious interests. I blame the State Attorney exclusively and specifically. No prosecutor would dare do something like this without orders from above." Despite the crude obviousness of the forgery, the acting judge, Rosalia Cota Dominguez, refused to even consider the forensic evidence and ordered both Moreno and Corado to prison without bail on May 25th. Since then, the court has repeatedly used every stalling technique at its disposal, alleging excess work when asked for case documents. Yet the arrest warrants for John Moreno and Joella Corado were processed and executed in record time. In a state that in 2016 had some 55,000 unsolved cases, and that still today has more than 2,000 arrest warrants pending, this selective efficiency becomes all the more outrageous. It should be no surprise that in a 2015 study by CIDE (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economica), Baja California Sur was ranked last nationally with regards to transparency and access to information. The judicial system of Baja California Sur clearly has the uncanny ability to speed up and slow down its processes at will. The travesty of justice that is evidenced by Moreno and Corado's illegal incarceration can only be traced to the undue influence of international capital in a country where the highest level of government defends large-scale development at all costs. The fragility of Mexico's driest state, and the dire long-term consequences of such an environmentally irresponsible policy, seem to matter little in the rush to monetize natural resources. The same can be said of the basic human rights of its citizens. Although John Moreno was granted special protection from the Mexican Federal Government as part of a mechanism designed to protect defenders of human rights and journalists from violence and the deprivation of freedom, this protected status has done nothing to ensure his release. Local Protests Surge Against Corruption and Impunity Since the illegal arrest of John Moreno and Joella Corado on May 19th, numerous protests and vigils have been held, both in the town of Todos Santos and in the state capital of La Paz. Many consider Moreno a political prisoner of the government, and see Corado as collateral damage in a political campaign to clamp down on community resistance to community resistance to predatory and unsustainable development. In a state that has seen the influx of drug-related violence rise drastically in the last few years, with 55 murders reported in January 2017 alone, civil society demands a transparent end ethical leadership that truly defends the rights of its citizens to live in dignity, safety and peace. John Moreno and Joella Corado are now symbols of a broad struggle for justice and human rights in Baja California Sur. How You Can Help: Sign the Liberate John Moreno Petition here This Author Viviane Mahieux is Associate Professor of Latin American Literature at UC Irvine WACO gets a crack at the first state championship game in school history Image: pibphoto.nic.in Seoul, June 14 (IBNS): On the first leg of his 4-day official visit to Republic of Korea, Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Defence, Arun Jaitley arrived in Seoul, capital of Republic of Korea on Wednesday. After his arrival, Jaitley co-chaired the Fifth India-Korea Financial Dialogue with newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of the Republic of Korea Kim Dong-yeon. Noting that Jaitley is the First Foreign Dignitary to be received in his tenure, the Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Republic of Korea (ROK), Kim emphasized the importance that the new Government of ROK attaches to the development of the special strategic partnership with India. The two Ministers reviewed the international economic situation, and India-Korea bilateral economic ties in that context. They agreed that in the face of uncertainty and the risk of rising protectionism, there was an urgent need for the two countries to increase efforts to stimulate investment flows, support for infrastructure development, and bilateral trade among others. As the worlds fastest growing large economy, India offers Korea important opportunities to deploy its capital and technologies in India, and for India, South Koreas interest in finding new openings to diversify its economic partnerships offers India great opportunities. Later, the two Ministers witnessed the Signing of Agreements to establish US$ 9 billion in concessional credit and US$ 1 bn in ODA funding for infrastructure development projects in India. This implemented a decision taken during the State visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to South Korea in May 2015. With this, Republic of Korea became one of the First non-G-7 countries to become an Official Development Assistance (ODA) contributor in India. Both the Ministers also agreed to consider deploying part of this fund towards the Smart City projects in India. They also agreed to establish a mechanism at senior official levels, to identify good infrastructure projects in India, to draw upon these funds. Earlier in the day, Jaitley met the Korean Defense Minister, Gen. HAN Min-koo. The two Ministers discussed the rapidly growing bilateral defence partnership. With the earlier signing of an Inter-Governmental Agreement on Strategic Partnership in Defence Production, and the finalization of a Make-in-India Project to manufacture 155mm Self-Propelled Artillery Guns in India, the two Ministers expressed satisfaction at the rapid growth of ties since the last meeting of Defence Ministers in April 2015. They also welcomed the progress in building ties in Defence Education and looked forward to the expansion of this relationship through Policy Dialogue (a 2+2 dialogue) and through service-to-service ties. Jaitley will call on President of Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in on Thursday. He will also meet the leading Korean Financial Manufacturing Companies in several rounds of meetings. Shutterstock Typically, CEOs already rake in a whopping amount of money through annual salaries and other bonuses. However, tack on an appearance on CNBC and they can see that number skyrocket. The recent study, "The Relationship Between CEO Media Appearances and Compensation," examined 4,452 CEOs from 2,666 U.S. companies, 104,129 news articles and 6,567 CNBC interviews between 1997 and 2009. The researchers discovered a massive compensation increase for CEOs who appeared in the media. In fact, on average, CEOs who made an appearance on CNBC saw a $210,239 jump in yearly compensation. WESTPORT While the Internet may have changed many industries, gallery owners and artists maintain the best way to view art is in person. In an effort to highlight this idea, and the abundance of contemporary art in Connecticut, two local arts organizations will host the first ever CT Contemporary Art Fair. Hosted by the Silvermine Art Gallery and the Fairfield County Cultural Alliance, the art fair will offer a look at what is happening in the states major contemporary art galleries. The event will take palce June 23-25 at Bedford Square, the newly designed town center in Westport. This first-of-its-kind event brings together galleries from all over the state to give a broader understanding of Connecticuts gallery landscape and provide an opportunity for people to encounter galleries they might not usually have the chance to see, said Jeffrey Mueller, Silvermine Arts Center gallery director and event co-organizer. CT contemporary is the culmination of the three-part Cultivating Collectors series organized by the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County and Silvermine Arts Center. The exhibit will be open noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. A special reception for the public, artists and gallerists will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. June 24. There is an ever-growing contemporary art-gallery scene in the state, Mueller said. We wanted to highlight and celebrate that, and we plan to make CT Contemporary an annual event. Galleries participating in the show include Amy Simon Fine Art from Westport; EBK Gallery from Hartford; Fred Giampietro Gallery from New Haven; Isabella Garrucho Fine Art from Greenwich; Ober Gallery from Kent and New Canaan-based Silvermine Galleries and Sorelle Gallery. Each gallery will present visitors with background on their history and the art work they have on display. Gallerists and curators will also be available to talk with the public, and browsing is encouraged. The galleries all recognized that their symbiotic relationship with the local community was still a key part of their identity, said David Green, FCCU program director. The event is sponsored by Bedford Square, Chilton & Chadwick, Moffly Media, U.S. Trust/Bank of America Private Wealth Management and the Westport Downtown Merchants Association. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt The bright garnet glow of the wine was highlighted by sunny slices of citrus. Beads of water gathering on the pitcher promised a cool drink on a warm day. Sangria was an ideal summer sipper for lazy afternoons and humid evenings. Sangria is a cherished tradition in Spain where theres plenty of red wine, locally grown fruit, and thirsts to quench. Fruity red wine, infused with citrus, lightly sweetened, and fortified with a tot of brandy, is popular across the Iberian peninsula. Beyond the basic ingredients, there are lots of recipe options to make Sangria. Some recipes get their fruit kick plus added alcohol from flavored liqueurs like Triple Sec or Cointreau. Juices like pomegranate or orange can be added. For a little fizz, chilled club soda can be added just before serving. A few recipes called for lemon/lime soda, but if you must, use a real juice brand like Pellegrino. A cinnamon stick can be tossed in for an exotic accent. Watch out though! Some of these concoctions approach high octane pool-party punch instead of a refreshing wine cooler. I like to keep it simple with natural fruit flavors and lower alcohol. Even with the traditional approach of wine, fruit, and brandy, there are plenty of variations on the theme. I spoke to writer Arlen Gargagliano author of Mambo Mixers, and Calypso Coolers who has spent some time in Spain. Sangria is very present in everyday Spanish life, she told me, either at a bar with tapas or mixed up at home. At a bar it can be ordered by the glass or drawn from a colorful bar-top dispenser. Each establishment has their specialty tapas, usually something salty, to be washed down with the house Sangria. At home, its made by the pitcher. Sangria isnt a reason to splurge on wine. Well-made, modestly-priced, fruit forward are just the ticket. I think first of Spanish wines, but there are a number of options from around the world that can work just as well. Holly at Anconas wines in Wilton put me on to Lo Brujo Garnacha, a Spanish red from Aragon and Agua de Piedra, a Malbec from Argentina both from the Two-for-$10 table. Their bright color and lavish fruit flavor make a great base for Sangria. Joanne at Stew Leonards Wines stuck with Spain. Abrazo Tempranillo ($8) from Carinena was a choice for red. She surprised me with a rose suggestion, too. What a great idea! Roses are popular and have the perfect flavors and lovely color for a new take on Sangria. Borsao Rose ($8) is 100 percent garnacha and loaded with berry flavors. White and sparkling wines can also make delicious Sangria. Again, I would look to Spanish wines first. Albarino and Verdejo are widely planted white wine grapes that make bright, easy-drinking wines. Sparkling Spanish Cava is delicious, too. Chill it in advance, and add it at the last minute to keep the fizz. Sangria is traditionally made with red wine, brandy, simple syrup and citrus fruits, all marinated together as the wine chills. I was surprised to see the brandy, but it turns out Spain is a major brandy producer. Its a natural addition giving the Sangria more body, taking it up a notch from flavored wine. A little sweetness is essential to contrast the sharp acidity of the fruit. I held back a little until I could taste the chilled Sangria. You can always add more, but too much makes it sticky-sweet rather than refreshing. Making a simple syrup is the way to go, dissolving sugar into boiling water so it will mix easily with the wine. Harold Grossman in his Guide to Wines, Spirits, and Beers, quotes a recipe from the legendary La Fonda del Sol restaurant: Boil up cup sugar and 1 cup water; take it off the heat and marinate a thinly sliced orange and lime in it for at least four hours. He suggests adding a half cup of the flavored syrup to a bottle of wine along with the marinated fruit. The intensely flavored syrup adds a lot to the final flavor. No brandy in this recipe! In the June/July issue of Fine Cooking magazine Jeffrey Morgenthaler makes a sweeter syrup of 1 cup sugar and cup water. He doesnt marinate the fruit, but adds a little orange juice to the wine instead. Add 2 cups of fresh fruit and a cup of brandy and let it all chill for at least 4 hours. I tried both recipes with red wine. Each was a hit my tasting panel only wanted more. Just before serving, I added some fresh strawberries, chunks of pineapple, and some frozen peaches instead of ice cubes for a colorful and festive look. I tinkered with the sweetness to get it just right. With the brandy, the Sangria was more complex and satisfying. A third batch (we worked hard on this over one weekend) was made with the Borsao rose. I added a little orange juice which unfortunately dimmed the bright rose color included brandy, and used up the leftover infused simple syrup, basically a mashup of the two recipes. This mix was a big hit, too. It seems you cant go wrong with Sangria. Keep a couple bottles of Spanish wine on hand this summer along with some oranges and limes, and youll be ready for a festive, spontaneous Sangria party. Ole! Frank Whitmans Not Bread Alone column runs every Thursday in The Hour. Frank can be reached at notbreadalonefw@gmail.com. Television reporters covering the Capitol were told midday Tuesday to stop filming interviews in Senate hallways, a dramatic and unexplained break with tradition that was soon reversed amid wide rebuke from journalists, Democratic lawmakers and advocacy organizations. The episode heightened existing concerns about reporters' access to Washington leaders in an era when hostility toward the political media has increasingly become the norm. For a short period Tuesday, the move to protect senators from impromptu on-camera interviews seemed part of a wider Trump-era move to roll back press freedoms, whether by barring reporters from interviewing officials or denying them access to briefings, trips and events. "These are actions that are without precedent in the history of the White House and Congress," said Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union and director of the group's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. "Even if some of the violations are of norms rather than rights, the effect is to make the government less transparent at precisely the moment when congressional oversight has been at its weakest," Wizner said. Correspondents from major television networks said staff from the Senate Radio and Television Gallery told them they could no longer conduct impromptu interviews with lawmakers in the hallways without prior authorization from the Senate Rules Committee and the lawmakers' own staff. "Reporters were in hallways this morning per usual. Gallery staff were dispatched to issue verbal directive: Stop filming," Kasie Hunt, a congressional reporter with NBC News, wrote on Twitter. "Gallery staff told us the decision was from the Senate Rules Committee and to call them for future interview permission." Other reporters shared similar experiences. "I was just told I cannot stand outside of the Budget Committee hearing room to interview lawmakers," Bloomberg TV chief Washington correspondent Kevin Cirilli wrote on Twitter. He added he had scheduled an interview with Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., that was "canned last second" because of the alert. The Senate Radio and TV Gallery, which helps to manage the logistics of networks' presence on Capitol Hill, declined to comment. "I've got no news for you," a staffer at the gallery told The Post. She declined to give her name and hung up. Gallery director Mike Mastrian did not respond to several other requests for comment. Rules Committee Chairman Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., denied that his panel has placed any additional restrictions on reporters. "The Rules Committee has made no changes to the existing rules governing press coverage on the Senate side of the Capitol complex," Shelby said in a statement. "The Committee has been working with the various galleries to ensure compliance with existing rules in an effort to help provide a safe environment for Members, the press corps, staff and constituents as they travel from Senate offices to the Capitol. Once again, no additional restrictions have been put in place by the Rules Committee." The apparent change in practice comes as the number of reporters on Capitol Hill has increased dramatically, reflecting the high stakes facing Republicans as they respond to controversies involving Trump and attempt to advance their policy agenda. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minn., the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, told reporters the policy was not formal and that Shelby had called it a "staff inquiry." She said Shelby hadn't notified her of any changes, but assured her over the phone on Tuesday that he wouldn't move forward on a major shift without first consulting her. "He seemed to imply they weren't going to change the policy, but I'm not going to put words in his mouth," Klobuchar told reporters. Were Shelby to go forward with the new press restrictions, Klobuchar said she would oppose it, calling it an "assault on the First Amendment." "You don't shut down the press if you don't want to do interviews," she said. "You just say 'I don't want to do interviews today.' " Both Klobuchar and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., insinuated that Republicans want to reduce press access because they're involved in crafting an unpopular, partisan health-care bill. "They're trying to keep senators from being held accountable with respect to health-care policy, and I think it runs contrary to the openness and transparency the American people deserve," Wyden told reporters. A bevy of Senate Democrats condemned the restrictions that were communicated Tuesday morning to reporters. "Press access should never be restricted unfairly, particularly not when one party is trying to sneak a major bill through Congress," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on Twitter, alluding to the Republican health-care bill. "This is cowardly and unilateral," Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wrote on Twitter. "Maybe worried you [journalists] will catch the group of guys writing health care bill in backroom somewhere," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., wrote on Twitter. Echoing Shelby, Republican staff director of the Rules Committee Bill Duhnke denied the panel had authorized additional restrictions on reporters. "The Rules Committee has done no such thing," he said in an interview. "We have not directed anyone to restrict anyone's access." --- The Washington Post's Paige Winfield Cunningham contributed to this article. --- Video: Are TV crews being kicked out of Senate halls? It's complicated. URL: http://wapo.st/2reoKXW Embed code: --- Video: Journalists crowd Capitol hallways URL: http://wapo.st/2rBRZpU Embed code: Hall County will continue to have committees and committee substitutions will be allowed if approved by the committee chairman, the Hall County Board of Supervisors decided on Tuesday. The county board voted 4-3 in two separate votes not to abolish all committees and to allow substitutions of committee members if the committee chairman approves the substitution. Supervisors Karen Bredthauer, Pam Lancaster and Gary Quandt voted to abolish all committees and not to allow committee member substitutions. Despite having two separate agenda items and votes, the items were discussed simultaneously. Quandt placed the item to consider abolishing all committees on the agenda Monday morning. His proposal was instead to have meetings on the off Tuesdays when the county board does not currently meet, effective Aug. 1. He said this would allow for a more open and honest government. The board meetings on off Tuesdays would cover the same work currently covered in committees. If we were to take committee meetings and do them on the off Tuesdays, we would have better attendance for some of these committee (meetings) that are not always attended by board members, Quandt said. But for people like Mrs. Bredthauer and me that have jobs, it would be easier for us. The public would know what is going on, and we (supervisors) would know what is going on. Lancaster said she recently learned about the Grand Island City Councils study sessions and thought it was a great way to do business to go ahead and have the discussion. She added this was something she would like to see the county board adopt. The Grand Island City Council frequently has nonvoting study sessions on Tuesday nights when it does not have meetings at which votes can be taken. Supervisor Doug Lanfear said he opposed the idea of abolishing all committees because more can be accomplished with fewer supervisors due to the issue of getting bogged down with ideas with more supervisors involved. Supervisor Scott Arnold also opposed Quandts proposal, saying it did not allow elected officials to do their jobs and present ideas fairly. It (a committee meeting) is informal and leaves the atmosphere open for those ideas and for the discussion of those ideas in a manner that becomes fairly productive, Arnold said. Never is there a decision made that hasnt been brought to the full board for their approval. I believe committees are an open arena for ideas without having to have the worry of public misconceptions and misinterpretations of what is really going on. Supervisor Jane Richardson said having the committee meetings be open would create a notice nightmare as an agenda would have to be posted and a public meeting notice would have to appear in The Independent ahead of time. Bredthauer questioned whether Quandts proposal is the direction other county boards in Nebraska are going. Now that we are a metropolitan county, and if bigger counties and city councils are doing this, are we just not getting with the times? she asked. Are we not coming up to new government and new open-policy government that is being very much in the media right now? Are we just trying to stay in the old shoes and not trying to have change? With the approved substitution policy, Richardson called the vote a clarification matter. She proposed that supervisors let the committee chairman know when they will be absent and who they will substitute. Arnold agreed with Richardson. My opinion on absences and substitutions is that you let the chair know if you cant be there, and it is up to the chair to ask someone else to attend or invite someone else to attend, he said. I think that keeps the continuity there because I see people being able to play games with this. The discussion on absences and substitutions in committee meetings was not free of criticism. Supervisor Steve Schuppan claimed that Quandt wanted to be involved in committee meetings as a substitute yet never bothered to show up to meetings when he was on the zoning committee. You couldnt come to the meetings, and if you came you were there for two minutes and you took off again, Schuppan said. I would try to schedule them so that everybody could be there, and youre the one that could never make it. But now, you want to double your way into one of them all the time. I just dont get it. I will put my attendance against yours any day of the week as far as committee meetings, Steve, Quandt responded. I will put my attendance against anybody on this board. Bredthauer said she felt the discussion was about her as she recently traveled outside the country and missed a facilities committee meeting. So if anybody wants to yell at me like Jane (Richardson) does at meetings, so be it, she said. After Tuesdays meeting, Richardson called Bredthauers accusations false, saying there has never been any yelling at any meeting. In other action, the county board: Voted 4-3 in two separate votes to approve a conditional use permit and a siting application for ONeill Wood Resources for a construction and demolition waste disposal area. Bredthauer, Lancaster and Quandt voted no. Voted 7-0 to reinstate the election commissioner position to full time following current Election Commissioner Dale Bakers retirement after 16 years. Bhopal, June 14 (IBNS) : Prohibitory orders under Section 144, clamped in Mandsaur following farmers' agitation was lifted on Wednesday ahead of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's visit, reports said. Chouhan will on Wednesday visit the families of the farmers who were killed in police firing last week. The Mandsaur district has been on boil after farmers staged a violent protest demanding better prices for their produce and waiver of loans. The agitation turned violent and police opened fire killing five farmers. Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the BJP and the incident had a significant political fallout with the parties like the Congress launching a bitter attack on the state Government. Deborah Deb (Gray) Novosad, 64, of Grand Island passed from this earth into the arms of her Savior on Monday, June 12, 2017. Celebration of Life services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at First-Faith United Methodist Church. Pastor Trudy Kenyon-Anderson will officiate. All Faiths Funeral Home is entrusted with arrangements. Deb is survived by her husband, Mike, of Grand Island; children, Michelle (Tyler) Millsap of Lincoln, Jeff Gaasch of North Platte, Cheri (Mickie) Hunt of Oregon, and Sheila (Mike) Holden of Georgia; brother, Dan (Theresa) Gray of Grand Island; sister, Jody (Rick) Seymour of Grand Island; 12 grandchildren; and a host of extended family, friends and neighbors. She was preceded in death by her parents and grandparents. Deb was born on April 23, 1953, in San Diego, Calif., daughter of Lawrence and Beverly (Cole) Gray. Deb grew up in the Holdrege area until moving with her family to Grand Island when she was 16. Following graduation from Grand Island, she continued her education and received her Associate degree from Central Community College and her Bachelors in Psychology from Northern Colorado University. Throughout her career as a substance abuse counselor, Deb was able to put her gentle and caring nature to use. She was employed by several substance abuse counseling centers in Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska. In 2000, she returned to Grand Island to be near her parents. On March 9, 1980, she was united in marriage to Michael Novosad. In 1995, Deb was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Through all of her health struggles she was always upbeat and never let her illness dampen her spirit. Deb loved to bake, her cinnamon knots being a family favorite. She loved large family holidays to bake and share stories. Deb adored animals and would be there for an animal in need and welcome them into her home and heart. Memorials are suggested to the Central Nebraska Humane Society. Words of comfort and kindness may be left for the family at www.giallfaiths.com. We hear a lot about reducing the burden of property taxes in rural communities. But since a large portion of property taxes are used to support education in these rural communities it is important to consider the cost of education in rural Nebraska compared to the cost in urban districts. The average per-student cost and revenue for the 245 school districts in Nebraska, contrasted to the average per-student cost and revenue for the 10 smallest and 10 largest school districts in Nebraska are shown in the accompanying table. The per-student costs for the 10 smallest districts are more than twice the per-student costs of the statewide average because of the inefficiency of small student size which requires more facilities, teachers, administrators and superintendents per student than in larger districts. This difference in per-student cost is even more stark when compared with the 10 largest districts. It would appear, smaller districts are not as financially efficient as larger districts. Local taxpayers in these smaller districts are paying the bulk of the extra costs incurred by the smaller districts through property taxes. But also note that the state is funding some of this increased cost. The sources of revenue for small districts noted above is even more stark when compared to the largest school districts. In my study, I analyzed all 245 school districts in Nebraska and found a uniform pattern of cost increases and local taxpayer revenue increase as district size decreased. Nebraska has one of the best public education systems in the nation. Simply reducing property taxes and not replacing that lost revenue would hurt an education system that is already stretched to the bone by past reductions in revenue. We cannot allow this solution, which will result in program cuts and increased class size, ultimately hurting our children and grandchildren. Reducing property taxes from local taxpayers and replacing it with increased funding from other taxpayers should not be considered until all solutions have been exhaustively dealt with by educators and legislators from all over Nebraska. One such solution to consider is consolidation for some districts in Nebraska. That consolidation may take the form of: (1) consolidation into one district by merging the schools; (2) leaving the elementary schools as they are now and merging the middle and high schools; (3) combining middle and high schools so teachers can be used in both; or (4) using one superintendent over two or more districts. Other solutions also need to be considered before simply shifting the costs for smaller district financial inefficiency to other taxpayer. For some districts, there may not be reasonable solutions that dont hurt students, but the public needs to be assured that all options have been exhaustively explored and that the inefficiency of size has been dealt with as far as possible before transferring that burden to other taxpayers. It seems like the state of Nebraska keeps taking two steps forward and one step back when it comes to reducing its prison population. Nebraskas prisons hold 5,200 inmates, while they were designed to hold 3,275. Many believe this has created unsafe conditions for both prisoners and corrections officers. One step taken to ease the burden on the prisons was to expand probation services so that more low-level felons could be released from prison and put on probation. That was a good move that was designed to lower the prison population, improve safety and allow former inmates to begin to transition back into society. However, after only being expanded for two years, probation services are now being reduced. This $4.6 million funding reduction will have a major impact on what probation services can accomplish. The funding cut is understandable. The state was facing an approximately $900 million shortfall. The governor and senators were looking everywhere for cuts. Few departments were spared, no matter how worthy the need. Thats where the Office of Probation Administration fell. Its funding was surely needed, and would move the state forward, but it still wasnt spared. Senators thought there was no other choice. But it is a step back for the state. Probation officers have a difficult job. Keeping track of the 14,000 adults and 3,000 juveniles on probation is a monumental task. Making sure they are following the guidelines of their probations takes time and meeting with the individuals. The effort to do that has now been set back. The states 238 adult probation officers and 171 juvenile officers will now have larger caseloads, and as a result, will be unlikely to keep as close of track of those on probation. This could be a public safety issue and could lead to more resignations among probation staff. Furthermore, Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican has warned that if probation services arent adequate, judges will be more likely to sentence offenders to prison, even if otherwise they would be a candidate for probation. If the chief justice is right, and he likely is, then the prison population will grow, not shrink. The probation funding cuts are a setback for prison reform. The overcrowding conditions are likely to continue. So the question now is will the probation cuts end up costing the state more in the long run. Srinagar, June 14 (IBNS) : Pakistan violated ceasefire once again on Wednesday as its army resorted to indiscriminate firing along the Line of Control at two locations in Jammu and Kashmir, reports said. The Indian Army posts retaliated the firing and the exchange is still underway in Bhimber Gali and Naushera sectors. On Sunday, the Pakistan Army had violated ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmirs Naushera sector. This followed the ceasefire violation in the Krishna Ghati sector the previous day. The Hadley House, West House and Griffin House form a fascinating trio of architecturally and historically significant homes on St. Louis Street once referred to as the marriage triangle. The Hadley House, owned by District 7 since 1954, has a history that intertwines with the West and Griffin houses, which are located across the street from it. The story of that marriage triangle will be told on Saturday, June 17 when the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America comes to Edwardsville to hold its annual meeting. The group has held 18 such meetings, each time in a city with buildings and residences that were designed by the famous Chicago architect. The event takes place Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday activities include several presentations and tours on the SIUE campus, historic St. Louis Street in Edwardsville, and in downtown St. Louis. The cost is $35. Registration is Saturday at 8 a.m. The program kicks off at 9 a.m. at the Abbot Auditorium in SIUEs Lovejoy Library with the first of three half-hour long presentations. The final talk will be given by John Celuch, founder of Inlandesign, on North Main Street in Edwardsville. Celuch will be speaking about the Louis H. Sullivan Architectural Ornament Collection at SIUE. After lunch, visitors will likely have time to peruse the Sullivan collection themselves, Celuch said. In the afternoon, the group visits several homes on St. Louis Street and others with Frank Lloyd Wright's influence. Both are Prairie School architects. The most notable house in the area may well be the Griffin House, at 705 St. Louis St. Walter Burley Griffin designed it in 1909 at the request of his brother, Ralph Dustin Griffin. Ralph Griffin and Julia Hadley Griffin had been married in 1903 at a mansion that later became known as the Hadley House, according to a 2013 Intelligencer article by Edwardsville historian Cindy Reinhardt. They were married in the brides home, a gracious mansion on St. Louis Street across the road from where she and her husband would eventually build their new home, Reinhardt wrote. Julia Hadley Griffins grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. E.M. West, lived across the street on the lot east of Julia and Ralphs future home. The house was later used as a funeral home. They called it a marriage triangle; three homes, owned by three generations of the same family, located in a triangular pattern across St. Louis Street, Reinhardt wrote. The new bride and groom each came from affluent families, and the home that Walter Burley Griffin built for them was unlike any house ever built in Edwardsville, Reinhardt wrote. While other homes on St. Louis Street were built in the Victorian, Georgian and Colonial style, the Griffin House was designed and built in the Prairie style tradition and had a more contemporary look to it. There were upturned gables, a symmetrical placement of windows and doorways, a split level pattern of rooms flowing from one to another and the incorporation of landscape design to compliment the building, according to the article. The Griffin House has long been recognized as one of the best examples of architectural design in Illinois. It was featured in a 1996 documentary for PBS, Walter Burley Griffin: In His Own Right. Celuch said the group will probably stop by the West House first, then the Hadley House and finally the Griffin House. On Sunday, the group will go to downtown St. Louis to tour the historic Wainwright Building, at 705 Chestnut. The structure was designed for Ellis Wainright, a wealthy St. Louis brewer. A masterpiece of architecture, it is considered to be the first skyscraper in the world. Later, they will travel to the Wainwright Tomb, in Bellefontaine Cemetery. Ellis Wainwright commission Louis Sullivan to design the tomb for his wife in 1891. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Maybe its not how most other people would choose to spend a Saturday morning in June, but brothers Jim and John Jatcko joined by a handful of others from the Edwardsville Knights of Columbus - showed up at historic St. Marys Cemetery and spent several hours fixing the place up. Established on Oct. 16, 1843, the cemetery sits today at the corner of Kansas and Cass Avenue in Edwardsville. Up until 1915 it was presumed that most Catholic Edwardsville parishioners had been buried there. For decades now, Jim Caulk and his father have been mowing and trimming the grounds at St. Marys Cemetery. They take pride in keeping it well maintained. When Jim Caulk put the word out recently that some of the white marble stones were sinking and others had fallen over or were otherwise in need of repair, the Jatckos agreed to help. Others soon agreed to help, including Jerry Kapp, Dennis Hessel and Dr. Kenneth Hyten. St. Marys Pastor Daniel Bergbower helped as well. It went really well, Jim Jatcko said Monday. We had a great group of guys out there. We had a lot of fun doing it. We just kind of put things back in place that needed some attention. A week earlier, on June 3, the Jatckos had visited the cemetery and fixed 18 old stones that were in need repair. Then last Saturday they and the K. of C. volunteers repaired or straightened more than 40 grave markers at the cemetery. Many of the soft white marble stones commonly used in the 19th century had been broken, and the volunteers repaired them with epoxy. They also straightened other headstones and markers, leveling their bases in an effort to prevent them from toppling in the future. It certainly wasnt the first time the Jatckos had fixed up old cemeteries. Their grandfather had been in the cemetery business for years. When he retired, their father, John Jatcko, bought him out and operated Mount Olive Monument works in Mount Olive. Over the years, the boys did repair work at cemeteries across Southwestern Illinois. A few decades ago, John Jatcko, Sr. took a group of Edwardsville K. of C. members out to St. Marys Cemetery to repair old stones that had fallen over and to make general repairs. It has been about seven years since their father passed away, and when Jim Jatcko learned recently that Caulk was looking for volunteers to do a similar public service project at St. Marys Cemetery, it felt like old times again, he said. Jim Jatcko concedes that he loves old cemeteries for the history they can tell and the stories that are buried there. Even in St. Marys Cemetery, there are people there that are Civil War veterans, he says. People that have lived through world wars and fought in world wars. People that helped establish the town. Its kinda cool. Theres a lot of history there. "My wife probably thinks Im strange but I love stopping in cemeteries and walking around and just looking. There are three or four large headstones at St. Marys Cemetery that still need to be repaired. They may go back later in the summer or fall and try to find someone with a Bobcat or other heavy equipment who can help with lifting the headstones up and then resetting them. No specific cemetery service projects have been scheduled, he said. But if another opportunity comes up, Im sure we can get some guys together. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reidinar Juliane (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 People are busy exploring options for life on Mars why dont they fix and protect our Earth instead? said Krishna, a college student in environmental management, when asked about his interest in environmental protection. Krishna, 21, participated with 19 others in a boot camp as part of the World Resources Institutes (WRI) Indonesian Young Thought Leaders on Environment program. The 20 were selected from almost 100 applicants through a nationwide essay competition. When it comes to voicing concerns globally, youth are taking charge and acting to protect the environment and support threatened livelihoods. In the United States, for instance, a movement to fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline began with a group of teenagers who later established the International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC). The youth movement believed their cause had to spread, not because they necessarily believed they could stop the pipeline but because the movement had brought together youths who initially were disconnected and unfamiliar with this issue. Young Hollywood actress Shailene Woodley has also been consistently vocal in the protest. Youth like Krishna and the IIYC are indeed important key actors in fighting for environmental protection and promoting sustainable development. Data from UNESCO suggested that people under the age of 30 made up half of the world population at the beginning of 2012 and have an increasingly strong social and environmental awareness. Asia especially has the largest share of young people, but their environmental awareness may not be as high as that of their contemporaries in the developed countries. In particular, the understanding of Indonesian youth about the environment might be limited to issues concerning waste, air pollution and saving energy. While these sectors are important, theres more to sustainable development that Indonesian youth can champion. Almost half of Indonesias national greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and land use change, as a result of the conversion of carbon-rich tropical forests and peatlands into plantations and agricultural land. Energy use also contributed 35 percent to the national greenhouse gas emissions, with energy used for transportation being the major contributor in cities. Another factor that is important for climate change, yet is often neglected, is food loss and waste. WRI research suggests that if food loss and waste was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. It is particularly alarming to see people waste so much food while millions of Indonesians cant afford to bring any to the table. Today, when climate stability is at stake, young people have so much to offer in raising awareness, promoting sustainable lifestyles, conserving nature and implementing adaptation and mitigation projects. That said, it might be easy to say that young people are important because of their demographic power and potential, but how should society, including policy makers, create a meaningful engagement with youth? Several rules of thumb for a meaningful engagement must be observed. First, we need to invest in resources, be it with money or time, to start the engagement and create meaningful activities. An example of such a movement is Hutan itu Indonesia (Forest is Indonesia), founded by a group of young people trying to make forests a part of the national identity and bring forests closer to individuals everyday lives by telling stories from the forests, introducing forest products and recently, campaigning about their messages through a music concert called Musika Foresta. Today, the movement involves well-known musicians such as Glenn Fredly, while the numbers of its young supporters are increasing. Second, we must create a sense of purpose. In his Harvard University commencement speech, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, mentioned that youth generally already have a sense of purpose, but the challenge is to create a world where every single person has a sense of purpose. Purpose is that sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to work for. This years WRI-Indonesias youth boot camp aimed at instilling that sense of purpose by introducing sustainable development to participants and training youth in research and messaging. Perhaps most importantly, participants found themselves among like-minded peers concerned with sustainable development and this might be how we can create a sense of purpose for others: by building a community. Third, we should make young people subjects rather than objects. Programs such as Hutan itu Indonesia and the boot camp on environment should be treated as a trigger to start the snowball rolling. For a movement to grow and last, it has to be internalized within youth themselves. Big movements often emerge out of crisis, as is the case with the Dakota Access Pipeline in the US and the 1998 reformasi in Indonesia, but we dont have to wait for a crisis to make youth engagement sustainable. The youth engagement program has to be mainstreamed rather than allowed to continue on an ad-hoc basis. Policy makers, for instance, could treat youth as subjects by actively engaging some youth groups in the early stage of formulating environment-related policy rather than only making youth the awareness-spreading machines. Finally, just as Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, a 19-year-old Pakistani activist working for the education of girls, has sparked an international movement for equitable education and youth empowerment, we might need a few dozen more Malalas for our environmental issues, given their dire need for serious attention. For now, lets continue spreading seeds for youth like Krishna to build a sense of purpose for promoting sustainable development. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Guwahati, June 14 (IBNS): The first wave floods that hit Assam claimed five lives so far, while over 13,000 people have been affected in four districts of the state in the fresh floods. According to the reports, the flash floods claimed three more lives in Guwahti as the death toll rose to five in the capital city of Assam. Two persons fished out in Bahini river and Silsako beel in Guwahati city and a lady died after ambulance had unable to reach in her house as she trapped in house in floods. Local people and police on Wednesday had recovered two bodies from the Bahini river and Silsako beel identified as Pintu Das and Deven Nath. On June 13, two persons including a student were electrocuted during massive inundation in Guwhati following heavy downpour. The Kamrup (Metro) district administration has declared Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased persons. The district administration also ordered a magisterial enquiry to probe the deaths caused in the city. Meanwhile, a person hailing from Birkuchi area is still missing following drowned in flood waters at Bondajaan in the city. Incessant rains caused caused water logging at Anil Nagar, Nabin Nagar, Tarun Nagar, Kahilipara, Kalapahar, GS road, Zoo road, VIP road, Narengi and other areas in Guwahati. Several houses were damaged following massive landslides in the city. On the other hand, flood waters inundated over 39 villages of four districts and affecting over 13,000 people. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, water levels of Brahmaputra river and its tributaries Jia Bharali, Puthimari and Katakhal river in Barak Valley flowing above danger level mark. Over 10,000 people affected alone in Lakhimpur district, while 2000 people in Guwahati in fresh floods. Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal offered his heartfelt condolences at tragic loss of life caused by flash floods last night in Guwahati city and expressed his deepest sympathies with the bereaved families of the victims. In a press statement, Sonowal termed the incidents very unfortunate and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (Metro) district to personally handover Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia payment to the next of kin of those killed in the deluge. The Assam has been keeping close watch on the situation of flash-flood in the city and directed District Administration, District Disaster Management Authority and Guwahati Development Department to be ready with relief materials and reach out to the affected people in case of any exigency. He also instructed all concerned officials to visit the affected areas and take stock of the situation and extend all possible help to the affected people. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 08:16 1976 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a5190b4 4 Editorial #Editorial,armed-robbery,crime,gun-control,gun-procurement,firearms Free In what was supposed to be a peaceful fasting month, residents were shocked by the news of two armed robberies that ended in murder within just three days. Davidson Tantono, 30, was shot in the head and died instantly on Jl. Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, when he chased after two men who were robbing him of a bag containing Rp 350 million (US$26,327) in cash. We also reported that on Monday afternoon Italia Chandra Kirana Putri, 22, was fatally shot attacking two men with a broomstick when she caught them attempting to steal her motorcycle in Tangerang, Banten. Jakarta Police chief Brig. Gen. Suntana said that police are carrying out raids to search for illegal firearms and explosive materials and to update police records of authorized firearm holders. Apart from the loss of lives, the relative ease criminals have for acquiring guns is no less alarming, exposing any resident to the risk of being shot. Police added that they are monitoring distributors of homemade firearms in West Java and Lampung in southern Sumatra. Last month police said they had shot dead one suspect of a criminal syndicate in Lampung, a syndicate police suspect was involved a string of armed robberies to steal motorcycles in Koja, North Jakarta. Indeed, even without firearms robbers have used sharp weapons to fatally injure victims. However, the possession of guns by criminals heightens the risks to any resident. Despite police limiting permits for gun possession among civilians to those in certain professions, such as lawyers, who must pass psychological tests, sources including lawmakers nevertheless cite the ease of acquiring guns. Thousands of firearms are reportedly in the hands of civilians, while police estimate half of them are illegal as owners do not seek to extend their licenses. Especially in the cities, criminals operate any time of the year, but criminals particularly see Ramadhan as providing much opportunity particularly through, among other things, the increasing need of people to purchase new or used motorcycles as they are a favorite mode of transportation for people heading to their hometowns. Other opportunities for robbery lie in the couriers and shoppers who are carrying a lot of cash, especially when employers distribute the annual Idul Fitri bonus to employees. Police have also urged neighborhoods to step up their night patrols. As we near the holiday season, which this year starts in late June, we are reminded to keep our homes as secure as possible especially when we leave them to head out of town for family gatherings. The heightened flow of money, increased consumption and vacant homes particularly in areas where neighbors dont really know each other provide many opportunities in the eyes of thieves. It is of little comfort that police recently arrested the suspected members of the motorcycle syndicate, as they made a similar announcement last year about a syndicate they said was also operating in both southern Sumatra and West Java. Tightening controls over firearms in the hands of civilians is only one of the urgent steps needed to make us a little safer. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Primandanu Febriyan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 16:01 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a538f99 3 Opinion sukuk,infrastructure-development,infrastructure,financing,state-owned-enterprises,islamic-finance Free The infrastructure development is one of the most important elements in achieving national development goals. With the availability of infrastructure and other public facilities, basic human needs, both economically and socially, can be met properly. In recent years, the Indonesian government has put a strong emphasis on infrastructure development such as toll roads, ports, railway, including an emphasis on access to affordable housing, and electricity. However, Indonesia a lot of funds to carry out such important projects. The funding needs are reflected In the Government's Mid-term Development Plan (RPJMN). Based on the RPJMN, it is estimated that Indonesia will need Rp 5,519 trillion in funds to finance the government's infrastructure development plans for the 2015-2019 period. However, through the state budgets (APBN), the government can only deliver Rp2,216 trillion or roughly 40 percent of the required funds. The remainder should originate from regional budgets (APBD) reached about Rp 545 trillion or about 10 percent of total funds are expected to come from regional budgets, Rp 1,066 trillion or about 20 percent from State Owned Enterprises (BUMNs) and Rp 1,692 trillion or about 30 percent from the private sector. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Indonesia needs at least US$450 billion in investment to develop infrastructure facilities between 2010 and 2020. With the limited funds, Indonesia faces difficulties in realizing the infrastructure development plans. This situation has emphasized the need to financial innovation. To date, in financing the infrastructure projects, Indonesia still relies on traditional sources of fund such as those from banks. Given the nature of infrastructure assets are long term while bank loans are short to medium term-maturities, excessive reliance on banks to finance long-term projects is less than ideal and has created the risk of maturity mismatch. As a consequence, alternative sources of financing are needed to support infrastructure development. In this context, Infrastructure can be financed using different capital channels and involve different financial structures and instruments. Given the nature of infrastructure projects that normally require large scale and long-term financing, much attention has been recently paid to the capital market instruments such as Islamic bonds or sukuk. The method of raising funds through sukuk has become an integral part of Islamic finance and a pivotal pillar to support and partly shoulder infrastructure financing needs. The infrastructure sector has seen a large portion of the Sukuk fund raised around the globe. In fact, in the past, not only by Muslim countries, but also non-Muslim nations have tapped into the Sukuk market to finance infrastructure projects. For example, in 2013, Nigeria and Senegal both issued sukuk to finance large infrastructure investments. In 2014, the United Kingdom became the first Western government to issue a sovereign sukuk this particular issue was linked to real estate property. There has been growing recognition that Islamic finance offers a variety of financing structures that are viable alternatives to conventional finance. The sukuk market has been particularly instrumental for fundraising and investment activities. It also suits well for filling the long-term infrastructure financing gap and supporting the development of sustainable infrastructure. Considering that infrastructure investment is the key for Indonesia to achieve a sustainable economic growth, Islamic financing such as sukuk has great potential to provide an alternative solution for infrastructure financing. The contribution of sukuk for infrastructure development is supported by a number of catalysts. First,sukuk can potentially have wider market segment compared to conventional products, as it targets both sharia and conventional investors. Second, there are large number of state owned enterprises and their subsidiaries. The important role of SOEs will have significant contribution for Indonesias sukuk market to grow larger. Especially, at the same time Indonesia government is aggressively encouraging infrastructure development which needs a lot of money. In that case, SOEs can issue Sukuk that can attract domestic and foreign investors. Third, given its role in the mobilisation of long-term funds, sukuk is the most proper instrument for infrastructure financing as its underlying is the project itself. Thus, there will be no bubble as all Sukuk issuance are backed by a certain underlying asset. Finally, with regard to policy incentives, Government Regulation No. 11/2014 regarding OJK Levies, requires that registration fees of public offering is 0.05 percent of total amount of issuance or maximum of Rp750 million. Special for sukuk offering, the maximum fees has been limited to Rp 150 million only for each Sukuk issuance. Infrastructure plays a key role in promoting and sustaining rapid economic growth. In order for this role to be realized, unlocking the great potential of sukuk will be necessary to function as a bridge between infrastructure projects and funding needs. *** The writer works at the Islamic Capital Market Directorate of Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK). The views are his own. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to academia@jakpost.com. For more information click here. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Wed, June 14, 2017 Reaping a successful harvest of chili from a 20 meter by 20 meter plot next to his house was enough to get Indra Irawan excited to learn more about growing other crops to supplement his primary income. Since then, his success has inspired his neighbors and friends to learn about horticulture. The local government, impressed by the results, lent him 5 hectares of land to manage and now Indra, together with 19 others, formed a farming community. For years, the 32-year-old, who manages a 7 hectare plot of land for palm oil, had been worried about his monthly earnings being affected by the instability of commodity prices. But the skills he picked up from attending the Integrated Farming System (IRS) program, a community development initiative led by PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP), helped to allay his fears and breathed new life into his farm. For example, as part of the IRS program, Indra and his community of farmers were taught the best planting times to avoid harvesting during periods of oversupply when prices normally fall. One way to do this is to widen the planting cycle of sweetcorn to regulate its production volume. Another tip is to plant crops that will be in demand during Ramadhan and fetch a high price, like watermelon and ground nuts. Sellers are tricky. They like to play on prices. If the commodity is limited, then they will scramble, said Indra. Through his newly acquired horticultural and entrepreneurial skills, the father of two is now earning between Rp 4 and 5 million (US$300 and US$400) monthly. By selling mustard and bitter gourd soup, Indra managed to earn Rp 17 million (US$1,275) from produce grown on a quarter of his land. This produce, which was originally just a side business, is now contributing more than his regular income. Palm oil is unstable. Now I can get around Rp 3 million (US$225) monthly through horticulture, he said. -(-/-) PT RAPPs programs, like the one Indra has benefitted from, educate farmers on better land use methods and encourage farming. It includes sharing knowledge on planting management and bookkeeping, as well as education on seeds and fertilizers. PT RAPP also invites experts and academics to provide specialized training to the group of farmers. The success of their farming and sales depend on the tenacity of each community, where Indra sets a strong example. At the time, it was me who proposed to PT RAPP to help our community, Indra recalled. They are now planting chili, sweetcorn, fruits and vegetables using the knowledge they have acquired. The local government also provided farming tools. I can say that our tools are complete. We even have tractors, Indra said. Now that his efforts are paying off, Indra is rethinking his strategy of only growing palm oil on his plantation land; a combination of land inherited from his parents and some he has purchased. The higher yields from his horticultural efforts are motivating him to make a gradual shift toward other commodity crops. These are fast becoming his steady flow of income while waiting to harvest palm oil, which takes from 4 to 5 years to mature. Indra and other members of the farming community are now planning to purchase more land to expand their farming enterprise, imagining a future in which they can be vegetable tycoons. To be entrepreneurs, skills like setting the planting period, searching for markets and bookkeeping are necessary, said Indra. These are all skills weve learned as part of the IRS program. For this high school graduate who had previously worked as an employee at Futong Port, earning less than Rp 2.5 million (US$180) a month, things have come a long way. Since devoting his time to horticulture he says he has been happier because he is able to earn more and be closer to his family. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington Wed, June 14, 2017 07:05 1976 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a518c66 2 Health diabetes,heart-disease,health,#health Free An anti-diabetic drug that lowers blood sugar levels for type 2 diabetes sufferers also significantly cuts the risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease, according to a study published Monday. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, came in a clinical trial of more than 10,000 patients in 30 countries, using canagliflozin. It found the drug reduced the overall risk of cardiovascular disease by 14 percent and reduced the risk of heart failure hospitalization by 33 percent. It was also shown to have a significant impact -- 40 percent less -- on the progression of a serious kidney decline. The George Institute for Global Health study has major implications for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which affects around 450 million people worldwide, the authors said. "Coronary heart disease is the biggest killer by far for people with type 2 diabetes. Our findings suggest not only does canagliflozin significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, it also has many other benefits too," said the group's Bruce Neal. "We found it also reduced blood pressure and led to weight loss. "Type 2 diabetes is growing rapidly all over the world and we need drugs that not only deal with glucose levels, but also protect many millions of people from the very real risks of stroke and heart attack." The study was presented at the American Diabetes Association Conference in San Diego. Read also: Cut your risk of diabetes through these lifestyle changes The findings were cited as particularly relevant to Australia where around 65 percent of cardiovascular deaths occur in people with diabetes or pre-diabetes, and diabetes is also the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease. "Both patients and physicians should be tremendously reassured by the results," said co-author Vlado Perkovic, executive director of The George Institute Australia. "It not only reduces the risk of heart disease, it also provides real protection against kidney decline, which affects many people with diabetes." However, a significant downside of using the drug was that it doubled the risk of amputation of a toe, foot or leg. Diabetes can cause a narrowing of blood vessels between the knee and the toes, causing a decrease in oxygen circulation that prevents healing. Canagliflozin works by blocking the body's reabsorption of sugar or glucose. This results in more glucose being released in urine and a drop in glucose levels. Most other diabetes drugs work by managing insulin levels. Neal added: "We don't know why there was an increased risk of amputation, and further work is needed in this area." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) San Francisco, United States Wed, June 14, 2017 14:05 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a5326fb 2 Science & Tech Apple,self-driving,self-driving-car,technology,#technology Free Apple views autonomous driving systems as a "core technology" for the future, chief executive Tim Cook said in an interview aired Tuesday. Cook told Bloomberg television that Apple wants to move into the automotive sector because "there is a major disruption looming" from new technologies. The auto sector, Cook said, is being transformed by artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technology as well as by the development of better electric cars and the growth of ridesharing. "We are focusing on autonomous systems," he told Bloomberg. Read also: Apple eyes 5G technology to increase iPhone internet speed He said Apple sees this as "the mother of all AI projects" and that this is "a core technology that we view as very important." While Apple has given no indication of specific projects for autonomous vehicles, it has joined the list of companies with permits to test self-driving cars in California, according to state records. The California-based tech giant is expected to focus on software systems, letting partners manufacture vehicles, but would understandably want to be able to test its navigation technology in cars. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Julie Charpentrat and Rob Lever (Agence France-Presse) San Francisco, United States Wed, June 14, 2017 11:34 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a528bd2 2 Science & Tech Uber,travis-kalanick,CEO,#Uber Free Uber said Tuesday its chief executive Travis Kalanick would take an indefinite leave of absence as it unveiled steps aimed at restoring confidence in the scandal-plagued ridesharing giant. The pioneering company has been facing pressure to rein in a no-holds-barred management style led by Kalanick and to reform its workplace culture, which has sparked charges of harassment and discrimination. "If we are going to work on Uber 2.0, I also need to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve," the 40-year-old Kalanick said in an email to Uber employees. Kalanick said one of the reasons for his stepping aside was the recent death of his mother, explaining he needs time off "to reflect, to work on myself and to focus on building out a world-class leadership team." Kalanick said he would remain available as needed during his absence for "the most strategic decisions." Uber simultaneously released a 13-page document calling for major reforms at the company based on a probe led by former US attorney general Eric Holder, who investigated allegations of misconduct and ethical lapses. Read also: Uber CEO leaves Trumps advisory council amid controversy Implementing the recommendations "will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated," said Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief human resources officer. "While change does not happen overnight, we're committed to rebuilding trust with our employees, riders and drivers." The report, recommendations of which were adopted by the board, said Uber "should reformulate its written cultural values" to "reflect more inclusive and positive behaviors." The Holder investigation was aimed at cleaning up a corporate culture marred by accusations of harassment, discrimination and cutthroat practices to thwart rivals and evade regulators. The company is facing questions about its covert use of law enforcement-evading software and tactics apparently aimed at disrupting rivals in the ridesharing business. Read also: Uber nearly removed from App Store by Tim Cook 'Tone at the top' The report said the reforms should focus on "tone at the top, trust, transformation and accountability." It said the company should "review and reallocate responsibilities of Kalanick," and that creating the job of chief operating officer, which was discussed in recent months, "should address this concern to some extent." Uber should also consider installing an independent board chair, "to serve as an independent check on Uber's management" and to show it is taking reforms seriously. The Holder report called for "an ethics and culture committee" to oversee Uber's efforts to maintain ethical business practices. Uber should implement mandatory training for managers and key leaders, create a "robust" complaint process and take steps to ensure more minorities are hired, it added. An audio recording of Tuesday's meeting released by Yahoo Finance indicated some tense moments. Board member Arianna Huffington referred to Kalanick as "the elephant in the room," but she also called the change "a seminal moment" for Uber. When Huffington spoke of bringing another woman to the board, fellow board member David Bonderman commented that this would lead to "more talking." Bonderman later apologized, according to a statement released to HuffPost. Read also: Uber set to employ former prostitutes, ex-criminals as drivers A statement released by early Uber investors Mitch and Freada Kapor said they were encouraged by the "thoughtful and extensive" recommendations. Vivek Wadhwa, a Carnegie Mellon University fellow who follows the technology industry, welcomed the "solid recommendations" unveiled by the company. "Also commend (Kalanick) for stepping aside and doing what is right for company and employees. Expect he and company will be stronger & better," Wadhwa tweeted. Uber, which is the world's richest venture-backed startup valued at some $68 billion, operates in dozens of countries despite problems with regulators in many jurisdictions and protests from established taxi operators. The San Francisco group parted ways this week with its number two executive, Emil Michael, who had been reportedly linked to a number of questionable practices at Uber, including a visit to a South Korean escort-karaoke bar and an attempt to dig up embarrassing information on journalists. Last week, Uber said it had fired 20 people following preliminary results of the investigation, after examining 215 claims of discrimination, harassment, unprofessional behavior, bullying, retaliation and "physical security." It remains to be seen what impact will be felt by the absence of Kalanick, who has been the driving force behind Uber despite a series of embarrassing missteps. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura Wed, June 14, 2017 13:47 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a530b5c 4 Environment Papua,cendrawasih,endangered-species,wildlife-trade,environment Free Papua Governor Lukas Enembe has issued a circular banning exploitation of the provinces endemic Cendrawasih birds for accessories and souvenirs to mark World Environment Day. The ban was announced by the provincial administrations secretary, Heri Dosinaen, during an event in Nimbokrang, Jayapura regency, on Friday, as they found that Cendrawasih birds were on the brink of extinction as a result of rampant poaching of the animal. The ban prohibits the sale of stuffed Cendrawasih and use of the birds feathers for souvenirs and accessories. Cendrawasih parts were sometimes placed on heads of visiting officers or guests as a gesture of respect. Read also: BOSF aims to release 200 orangutans by end of 2017 All of that has to be stopped. As a replacement they can use imitation products of the birds, Heri said. The preserved birds can now only be used during a sacred Papuan procession in which bird parts are adorned on the head of an indigenous group leader. The administration also mulled a plan to soon raid souvenir shops while finalizing a bylaw specifically detailing the ban of Cendrawasih for accessories and souvenirs. The governors move received a nod from Piter Roki Aloisius of WWF Indonesias Papua program, who urged the administration to immediately introduce a measure to detail the implementation of the ban. The circular has to be announced to the world [to show] that the Papuan administration is very committed to protecting the endemic bird, he said, later calling on everyone in Papua to obey the circular. Read also: Whale sharks draw tourists to Nabire A similar show of support came from Steven Rumawar, a producer of Cendrawasih imitation products, who urged everyone to join the cause. Lets join hands to save the heavenly bird, said Steven who, along with some of his friends grouped under the Noken Set Awin club, had in 2007 started an initiative to produce Cendrawasih imitation products. The products, made of chicken feathers and wood, were painted white, yellow and brown to resemble Cendrawasih feathers. A set of head accessories was priced at around Rp 200,000 (US$15). The Papua Environment Agency has designated five locations in the province for development of Cendrawasih conservation ecotourism and watching, including two monitoring sites in Jayapura regency Amay in Depapre district and Rhepang Muaif in Nimbokrang district. The others are Baraway in Yapen Islands; Sawendul in Raimbawi district and Poom in Pom district both in Yapen regency. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Safrin La Batu, and Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 22:05 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a545e72 1 National #KPKInquiry,KPK,corruption,house-of-representatives,Agus-Rahardjo Free Amid a public outcry, the House of Representatives is insisting on continuing with its agenda to investigate the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), with the House inquiry committee holding another closed-door meeting on Wednesday to arrange a schedule to summon representatives of relevant institutions. "There are pros and cons; even our validity is still questioned. We'll invite parties that support and oppose this inquiry and let the public see the facts," inquiry committee chairman Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of the Golkar Party said. Critics say the inquiry is another attempt by lawmakers to weaken the KPK, one of the country's most credible institutions according to many surveys. The move was launched late April amid a KPK investigation into a high-profile e-ID graft case. Read also: Inquiry not suitable' for us: KPK Many of the inquiry members, including Agun, were mentioned in trial hearings of the case, suggesting that they had received some of the illicit money from the budget of the multi-trillion rupiah project. Former home minister Gamawan Fauzi (right) and Golkar Party politician Chairuman Harahap prepare to testify during the e-ID graft trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday.(Antara/Wahyu Putro A) Agun said the committee aimed to redefine and return" the KPK to its role as a trigger mechanism to push police and prosecutors to eradicate corruption. The committee has set out framework in this regard, he claimed. Committee deputy chairman Taufiqulhadi said they would summon former lawmaker Miryam Haryani -- now a perjury suspect related to the e-ID case -- on Monday to confirm testimony she gave in court saying she had been intimidated by several lawmakers not to reveal her knowledge about the e-ID case. We will send a letter to the KPK to summon Miryam. We'll see if the KPK would approve it, the NasDem Party lawmaker said. Miryam is currently detained by the KPK. Suspected: Former Hanura Party lawmaker Miryam S.Haryani arrives at the Corruption Eradication Commission to attend an interrogation session in connection with the e-ID graft case on May 19. (Antara/Wahyu Putro A.) Later on Wednesday, Agus said it would be not necessary for Miryam to come to the House if the inquiry team only wanted to hear her clarification. Agus also said the tape of Miryam's testimony during the KPK interrogation would not be given to the inquiry. "The tape would be played in [Miryam's] trial anyway," he said, adding that the KPK would soon hand over Miryam's dossier to the Jakarta Corruption Court. Another committee deputy chairman, Risa Mariska of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the team would soon establish a public complaints desk to accommodate input from the public about the inquiry. Meanwhile, opposition to the inquiry has grown stronger. Read also: KPK should ignore "legally flawed" House inquiry: Constitutional experts Members of the Constitutional Law and State Administrative Law Lecturers Association (APHTN-HAN) and experts from Andalas University's Constitution Study Center (PUSaKO) have called on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to ignore the controversial inquiry by the House into the antigraft body. The KPK shall obey the Constitution and law, not the inquiry committee, the establishment of which contradicted the laws, said APHTN-HAN chairman and former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD said at the KPK's headquarters in South Jakarta on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com. Meanwhile, KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said the leaders of the antigraft body would announce their official stance concerning the inquiry in a meeting on Thursday. We have gathered input from constitutional law experts in the last two days, Agus said at the House. Read also: House, KPK on collision course President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has yet to declare a clear stance regarding the controversy. On Tuesday he said he agreed that the KPK needed to be improved. However, he refused to give an opinion on whether the inquiry would weaken the KPK. That is the House's area, he said. Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham denied his party, as a supporter of the government and the inquiry, had approved the move to weaken the KPK. "This also has nothing to do with the 2019 elections," he told kompas.com. Support for the KPK has also continued to grow on social media. An anti-corruption watchdog held a survey on Twitter, asking whether Twitter users agreed Rp 3.1 billion of taxpayers' money should be used to finance the inquiry. The result: 89 percent of almost 1,800 voters "disagree". Apakah kalian setuju jika uang negara sebesar Rp 3,1 milyar digunakan untuk membiayai Panitia Hak Angket KPK? ICW (@sahabatICW) June 13, 2017 (bbs) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 15:03 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a535b3d 1 City Djarot-Saiful-Hidayat,Obama,BarackObama,Barack-Obama,kalijodo,Kota-Tua Free Acting Jakarta governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat plans to invite former United States president Barack Obama on a trip down memory lane during the 44th US presidents visit to Jakarta early next month. In a highly anticipated visit, Obama is scheduled early next month in Jakarta to deliver his first speech in Asia since leaving office. He is expected to speak about globalization and pluralism. Obama is set to open the fourth Indonesian Diaspora Congress held by the Indonesia Diaspora Network Global (IDNG), for which more than 6,000 Indonesians who live abroad have registered to attend. It will be held at Kota Kasablanka Mall in South Jakarta between July 1 and 4. It will be the second visit for Obama to his childhood home after his memorable presidential visit in 2010, during which he charmed thousands at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java, with a speech. At least he has to [visit] his school first [in] Menteng. After that, maybe [we will invite him to visit] Kalijodo and Kota Tua. If he is willing, we could then take him to Thousand Islands, Djarot said at City Hall in Central Jakarta on Tuesday as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com. However, the Jakarta administration has not prepared a special event to welcome Obama because he will be visiting Indonesia as a state guest, he added. The central government is the one coordinating the protocol. If he wants to [take a] nostalgic [trip], then we will provide it, said Djarot. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 11:07 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a523629 1 City kalijodo,building,demolition Free The Jakarta administration has cleared semi-permanent dwellings built underneath the toll road over Kalijodo park, North Jakarta, with the assistance from police and military personnel. The demolition, which was conducted on Wednesday morning, did not face resistance from squatters, who voluntarily tore down their own makeshift homes. One of the squatters, Tunyatin, had been living under the toll road for the past two months and started tearing down her home on Tuesday after hearing news of the clearing. "I have been taking down the house since yesterday, together with [my husband]. We will move," Tunyatin said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com. Two bulldozers were on standby to help the squatters to tear down the buildings. Previously, North Jakarta Police raided the dwellings and seized weapons, bottles of liquor and condoms. Over the past few weeks, dozens of people have started building semi-permanent dwellings under the toll road. The buildings were reportedly used for prostitution. Kalijodo is a former red-light district that was demolished under the leadership of then-governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in February last year. The administration transformed the neighborhood into a child-friendly integrated public space (RPTRA). (cal) Topics : kalijodo building demolition Image: www.awallpapersimages.com New Delhi, June 14 (IBNS): The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ministry of Agriculture & Farmersa Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture in the State of Palestine on agriculture cooperation. The MoU was signed in May 2017 during the visit of the Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs to India. The MoU provides for cooperation in the fields of agricultural research; veterinary field including capacity enhancement of Palestinian Veterinary services and Animal Health; irrigation and climate change. It will also be extended to areas such as plant and soil nutrition; exchange of experiences in the field of sanitary and phytosanitary legislation and plant protection Animal husbandry, modern irrigation technology including exchange of experiences, and training and capacity building, etc. would also come in its purview. Under the MoU, an Agricultural Steering Committee will be constituted to determine the programs and action plans to achieve the objectives provided in the MoU It will also set the agenda for cooperation. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Brussels Wed, June 14, 2017 09:55 1976 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a51cae4 2 World European-Union,Hungary,Poland,Czech-Republic,RefugeeCrisis Free The EU launched legal action Tuesday against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for refusing to take in their share of refugees under a controversial solidarity plan. The move shows the frustration in Brussels over the slow response to the scheme, which aimed to relocate 160,000 migrants from front-line migrant crisis states Italy and Greece but which has so far seen only 20,000 moved. I regret to say that despite our repeated calls, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have not yet taken the necessary action, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a news conference. For this reason the (European) Commission has decided to launch infringement procedures against these three member states, he said at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Brussels last month set a June deadline for Warsaw and Budapest to start accepting migrants under the plan to ease the burden on Italy and Greece, or risk sanctions. Prague also came under pressure after effectively dropping out. The three eastern European states all reacted defiantly to the decision after having led resistance to the plan since its outset in 2015 at the height of the migration crisis, when more than 1 million refugees landed on Europes shores. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said his government had been active on the crisis but tweeted, Quotas are not working. Polands Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski hit out at the illegal decision, insisting that most of those being relocated were migrants who should be sent home and not refugees needing international protection. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his government would not give in to blackmail. Brussels is already at odds with Budapest over rights issues, including a crackdown on foreign-backed civil society groups approved by the Hungarian parliament on Tuesday. Avramopoulos, who is Greeces European commissioner, insisted those selected for the relocation scheme had all been carefully screened and identified as needing international protection. He also criticized the three countries for expecting the benefits of EU membership while not taking on responsibilities. Europe is not only about requesting funds or ensuring security, Avramopoulos said. Europe is also about sharing difficult moments and challenges and common dramas. UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi expressed disappointment that the lions share of protecting refugees on such a wealthy continent should fall on so few countries, such as Italy, Greece, Germany and Sweden. Amnesty International hailed the EU decision, with the rights groups European head Iverna McGowan saying it makes it clear that countries will not be allowed to get away with dragging their feet to avoid accepting refugees. Under infringement proceedings the European Commission, the 28-nation EUs executive arm, sends a letter to national governments demanding legal explanations over certain issues, before possibly referring them to the European Court of Justice. EU states can eventually face stiff financial penalties if they fail to comply. Avramopoulos said Hungary and Poland were targeted because they had failed to admit one single person under the plan to redistribute among other member states 160,000 mainly Syrian, Eritrean and Iraq asylum seekers from Greece and Italy by September. He said the Czech Republic was targeted for having relocated nobody in the past year and failed to issue any new pledges to admit asylum seekers. Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania opposed the scheme two years ago but were overruled by a majority vote that is legally binding. Poland reluctantly agreed to the plan but took an even harder line when a new right-wing government assumed power weeks later. Hungary and Slovakia have since taken their case to the EUs top court. In the latest EU figures, just over 20,000 people have been relocated under the plan, which was in response to Europes biggest ever migration crisis. European sources have blamed the delays on a series of factors: governments trying to screen jihadists in the wake of terror attacks, a lack of housing and education for asylum seekers, and logistical problems. They said some countries were setting unacceptable conditions by refusing Muslims, black people or large families, with Eastern European states the worst for discriminating on religious or racial grounds. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nety Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura Wed, June 14, 2017 09:09 1976 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a51bf48 1 National Papua,Papua-Police,Papua-gubernatorial-election,Papua-elections,Golkar,GolkarParty,PDI-P,PKS Free Former Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw has registered to run on the Golkar Partys ticket in the 2018 Papua gubernatorial election. I registered to run for Papua governor to respond to both the demands and questions of the Papuan people, who had frequently asked whether I was serious to run in the election, Paulus said after submitting his application at the Golkar Regional Executive Centers (DPD) office in Jayapura on Monday. The National Police have yet to grant him permission to run in the election. However, Paulus said he was certain he should go on with his plan to register his nomination, adding that he had also applied to become a gubernatorial candidate on the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) tickets. I am hoping to run in the election. Whether Golkar will endorse me or not depends on the party, Paulus said. Taha Al Hamid, a notable public figure in Papua who is also the Papuan Presidium Council (PDP) secretary general, said Papuans wanted Paulus to become governor. He was sure Paulus could properly execute Papuas Special Autonomy Law. All this time, Papuans have been disappointed with the implementation of the law because it does not take the side of the people, tending to support the interests of elites only. Thats why we need a figure like Paulus, Taha said. (foy/ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 12:55 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a52d5dc 1 City transjakarta,strike,intimidation,#TransjakartaTrouble Free The home of PT Transjakarta president director Budi Kaliwono was attacked with a petrol bomb, or Molotov cocktail, on Tuesday evening, a day after Transjakarta employees carried out a strike demanding better employment benefits. It was reported that Budi was home at the time of the incident, which occurred on Jl. Bandeng, Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta, at around 8.40 p.m. "[Budi] and his wife extinguish the fire [from the explosion] with a wet cloth," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Wednesday as quoted by tribunnews.com, adding that Budi reported the incident to the Pulo Gadung Police. Investigators are currently working on tracking down the perpetrator. Earlier on Tuesday, Budi made a controversial remark in response to a recent strike held by Transjakarta workers, threatening to fire anyone who joined a second strike planned for Wednesday. Mondays Transjakarta strike left thousands of commuters stranded across the capital. (agn/van) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jon Afrizal (The Jakarta Post) Jambi Wed, June 14, 2017 15:50 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a5383cc 1 National Jambi,inmates,jailbreak,flood,zumi-zola Free The heavy downpour that struck Jambi overnight on Tuesday has led to flash floods that damaged a wall at Jambi penitentiary, allowing at least 51 inmates to escape. Jambi Police chief Brig. Gen. Priyo Widyanto said police and military personnel had been deployed to retrieve the escaped convicts. So far, we have arrested 19 of them, he said on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the head of Jambi's Law and Human Rights office, Bambang Palasara, added: I appeal to the 34 [remaining] inmates to surrender, we will treat them well if they surrender. Read also: 60 inmates transferred after prison riot Floodwaters had reportedly inundated prison cells, reaching chest-height, according to kompas.com. Following the incident, 59 female inmates were temporarily evacuated to the Jambi Immigration Office while some other prisoners were moved to Muarabulian Prison and Muarasabak Prison. Jambi Governor Zumi Zola said he had asked the police and Indonesian Military (TNI) to secure the correctional facility and build a temporary wall. "It costs about Rp 200 million [US$15,000] to rebuild a permanent wall, he said. In March, Jambi penitentiary prisoners ran amok when officials from the provinces narcotics agency arrived at the facility to conduct a raid against rampant drug deals from behind bars. The inmates set fire to several cells in protest over the raid. (ecn/bbs) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 14:51 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a535210 1 National Five-day-school,FullDaySchool,MuhadjirEffendy,Education Free Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy intends to strengthen religious education for students by excluding it from the regular in-classroom curriculum and offering various religion-based extracurricular activities. He made the statement to clarify recent media reports that claimed Muhadjir had planned to remove religious lessons altogether. In fact, religious education, which is currently considered insufficient during religious lessons in schools, will be strengthened through extracurricular activities, the ministrys spokesperson, Ari Santoso, said in a statement on Tuesday. Read also: Parents, madrasah teachers concerned about five-day school policy According to Culture and Education Ministry Regulation No. 23/2017 on school days, schools can cooperate with educational institutions that implement character education in accordance with religious values. Ari went on to explain that Muhadjir had focused on implementing stronger character education. He cited an example in Siak regency, Riau, where students attend school until 12 p.m. and continue with religious lessons led by clerics. Lunch for students is provided and funded by the regional budget. In Pasuruan regency, East Java, students receive religious lessons in madrasah (Islamic schools) after normal school hours. The ministerial regulation also pushes for strengthening religious character-building through extracurricular activities. It includes activities in Islamic schools, short-term studies at Islamic boarding school, religious sermons, retreats, catechesis, as well as reading and writing the Quran and other holy scriptures, Ari said. (bbs) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 20:47 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a54360b 1 City great-sale,Jakarta-Great-Online-Sale Free Jakartas 490th anniversary will be enlivened by the annual Jakarta Great Online Sale (JGOS), which will indulge customers with items from numerous online shops discounted up to 95 percent from Thursday to June 22. Being held for the fifth time, the online sale, which is supported by the Trade Ministry, Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives (SMESCO) and the Jakarta administration will have 150 e-commerce businesses and marketplaces participating. "JGOS aims to build public trust toward online shopping and promote the products of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) so that they will become widely known, Jason Lamuda, Berrybenka CEO, said while launching the program on Thursday. Trade Ministry director for enterprise development, Fetnayeti, said this program would facilitate the SMEs to prepare themselves for entering the digital market. The ministry would use this event to inform SMEs about the draft government regulation concerning trade transactions through electronic systems, she added. The grand sale involves numerous prominent online shops, such as fashion trader Berrybenka, beauty care center Sociolla and airline service Garuda Indonesia. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 16:21 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a53ca69 1 Business Pinnacle-Investment,ETF-funds Free Asset management company Pinnacle Investment has launched two exchange traded funds (ETF) -- Pinnacle Indonesia Large-Cap ETF and Pinnacle CORE High Dividend ETF. An ETF is a mutual fund, which investors can sell on the secondary market and trade like a stock. "The product is suitable for both retail and institutional investors. These products have risk profiles similar to the entire market, but provide higher returns," said Pinnacle Investment chief investment officer Andri Yauhari Njauw at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) building on Wednesday. In the primary market, an investor must buy from a dealer, with a minimum purchasing amount of 100,000 participation units, called a 'creation basket.' Participation units can then be sold, with a minimum amount of 100 participation units, known as one lot. Currently, the price of both ETFs are Rp 500 per participation unit. A creation basket is, therefore, worth Rp 50 million and one lot on the secondary market is worth Rp 50,000. Pinnacle Investment president director Guntur Surya Putra said the previous ETF product, issued in October, 2016, had proven to have Beta closed to one, meaning the fund has a risk profile equal to Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), but provides 200 to 300 basis points (bps) higher return than JCI. Pinnacle Indonesia Large-Cap ETF focuses the investment on stocks that have large market capitalization while Pinnacle CORE High Dividend ETF focuses on stocks that provide big dividends. Pinnacle investments is working with Indopremier Sekuritas as broker-dealer and Bank Central Asia (BCA) as custodian. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 22:33 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a54bca4 4 City Davidson-Tantono,deadly-shooting,armed-robbery,West-Jakarta Free The Jakarta Police claimed on Wednesday that they arrested the perpetrator behind a deadly robbery at a gas station on Jl. Daan Mogot, Cengkareng, West Jakarta, in which Davidson Tantono, 30, was shot dead at close range. We have arrested the Cengkareng robber, who is being questioned, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Iriawan said on Wednesday night as quoted by kompas.com. Iriawan did not disclose the identity of the alleged perpetrator, saying that the police would make an official statement after the questioning session. Davidson died on Friday afternoon after two robbers shot him in the head and fled with his bag carrying of Rp 350 million (US$26,319). Davidson had reportedly withdrawn the money from a bank in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, before driving to the gas station to check on a flat tire. Read also: Robbers shoot man in head, flee with millions in West Jakarta When he got out of the car, the robbers grabbed his bag, which he had placed near the steering wheel. The victim fought the two robbers for control of the bag before getting shot. Davidson, who ran a cooperative, had withdrawn the money to cover the cooperatives general expenses and to provide loans to members ahead of Idul Fitri. (fac/dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 08:48 1976 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a51b51f 1 City explosion,restaurant Free Three people suffered injuries from a gas explosion at a restaurant kitchen in Pondok Gede, Bekasi, on Tuesday afternoon. The victims, Alim, Yono and Sandi, were employees of Raja Fried Chicken fast food restaurant in Atrium Pondok Gede shopping mall and were preparing food for customers when a 50-kilogram gas canister exploded, said Bekasi Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Erna Ruswing Andari. The victims were rushed to Kurnia Asih and Asrama Haji hospitals, Erna said. The explosion destroyed some portions of the restaurant. (dra) Topics : explosion restaurant Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) London Wed, June 14, 2017 22:15 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a5467ad 2 World British,tower-collapse,London,power-deal Free British Prime Minister Theresa May faced further delays in forming her new government on Wednesday, June 14, after her would-be allies said their agreement would be put back following a deadly tower block blaze in London. The Conservative leader lost her parliamentary majority in last week's election and is now desperately seeking the backing of the 10 MPs from Northern Ireland's ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). EU leaders have voiced growing impatience to start Brexit negotiations, which have already been delayed by the parliamentary election and on which the clock is ticking. An initial round of talks between May and DUP leader Arlene Foster ended with no agreement on Tuesday, although both sides said they were hopeful of a deal. "The talks are continuing but I think the events in London today probably will have some impact on that. I think it's unlikely there will be any announcement today," a DUP spokesman told AFP. Media reports suggested an agreement could be delayed into next week, but the spokesman said: "I certainly have heard nothing on this side to indicate that." At least six people died and dozens were injured when a massive fire tore through a 24-storey London apartment block overnight, a fresh blow to the capital less than two weeks after the London Bridge terror attack. May's office issued a statement saying she was "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life" but made no mention of the talks with the DUP. On a visit to Paris on Tuesday evening where she met with French President Emmanuel Macron, May described the talks with the DUP as "productive". The talks are being closely watched in European capitals as they could delay the expected start of Brexit negotiations next week, as well as change Britain's entire approach to its EU withdrawal. 'Softer Brexit' May has dismissed calls to resign following the dismal election result after calling a vote three years early in the hope of bolstering her slim majority, only to actually lose seats. A lackluster campaign saw her high approval rating slip away, and support for her "hard Brexit" strategy pulling out of the European single market and customs union now hangs in the balance. Former prime minister David Cameron, who called last year's EU referendum and resigned after losing it, told a conference in Poland that "there will be pressure for a softer Brexit". Parliament now "deserves a say", he said, adding that there was "perhaps an opportunity to consult more widely with the other parties on how best we can achieve it". Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator, warned Tuesday that "the current uncertainty cannot continue" and on Wednesday issued five "pressing questions" on Twitter. Among these was whether Britain's position would "be the same as in the letter of March 29" when May triggered the two-year Brexit countdown. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also warned Tuesday that time was passing. "It's passing quicker than anyone believes... That's why we're ready to start very quickly. I can't negotiate with myself," he told the Financial Times newspaper. Barnier dismissed the suggestion of postponing the negotiations and said such a delay would only prompt further instability. At a press conference with May, Macron said the door was "always open" for Britain to remain in the EU as long as the negotiations on Brexit have not finished. 'Very unsettling' The DUP is believed to be more favorable to a "soft Brexit" that would keep Northern Ireland's border with the Republic of Ireland free-flowing. Under the proposed deal, the DUP would likely support May's Conservatives on big issues such as the budget, Brexit and defence legislation on a vote-by-vote-basis. They would not form a coalition. However, the prospect of a deal has prompted warnings that it could upset Northern Ireland's fragile peace. London's neutrality is key to the delicate balance of power in Northern Ireland, which was once plagued by violence over Britain's control of the province. "The danger is that however much any government tries they will not be seen to be impartial if they are locked into a parliamentary deal," 1990s Conservative prime minister John Major told BBC radio. The Irish republican Sinn Fein party -- which won seven seats in the election although their MPs traditionally do not take up their seats in protest -- is also wary of the alliance. "This new arrangement is very unsettling and people are concerned and worried about what it may mean," Sinn Fein MP Michelle Glidernew told AFP. New York, June 14(Just Earth News): Showcasing the centrality of the energy sector to address global sustainable development challenges, United Nations agencies in Kazakhstan at EXPO 2017 have urged the global community for new momentum to ongoing efforts towards transition to clean energy. I hope EXPO 2017 will advance dialogues between governments, climate scientists and engineers to find practical solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while generating energy, said Cihan Sultanolu, the UN Commissioner-General for the Organization's participation at the EXPO, currently underway in the Kazakh capital, Astana. We need to maintain, strengthen and support the transition in all possible ways, she added. At the EXPO, which kicked off on 10 June, UN entities have been highlighting the importance of ensuring universal access to energy, global best practices in reduction of carbon emissions, greening the economy, and adaptation of innovative technologies. They have also setup interactive models of energy and irrigation systems that are powered by hydro-, solar and the wind power for visitors to get a first-hand experience on how these work. The energy sector, accounting for more than two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions is at the heart of efforts to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, as envisioned in the Paris Agreement on climate change. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by all UN Member States in September 2015 also calls including a specific goal (Goal 7) on ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. These are the bases for a clear roadmap, drawn by the international community towards a clean and sustainable future, noted a news release issued by the UN team at EXPO 2017. The release also highlighted the role that cities around the world are playing in shaping the evolution of energy markets. The influence of cities ranges from support for smart grid investments in urban infrastructure, to the setting of ambitious renewables targets in cities like San Diego and Copenhagen, it added. This is all the more important given that experts have forecasted that renewable energy could become cheaper than fossil fuels within a few years, freeing resources for use in other initiatives. Photo: UNIDO Source: www.justearthnews.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 21:00 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a54390e 1 City waste-bank,South-Jakarta Free The South Jakarta Environment Agency has said it could reduce the citys trash volume by establishing more waste banks. South Jakarta Environment Agency head Syarifudin said the municipality produced an average 1,502 tons of waste every day, 1,306 tons of which was sent to the Bantar Gebang dumpsite. The rest of the waste, around 135 tons, can be cut each day thanks to the waste banks in South Jakarta, Syarifudin said on Wednesday, as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com. Currently, there are115 waste banks in South Jakarta. Syarifudin said he appreciated people who became more aware about the importance of a clean environment, including those developing waste bank as one of the solutions for waste management in the capital. "We keep asking subdistricts to make more waste banks and asking people to utilize their waste through waste banks, Syarifudin said. (hol) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Indonesia Thu, June 15 2017 Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii sent off 324 Indonesian prospective nurses and caregivers to Japan on Monday in a ceremony, calling them an important bridge in Japanese bilateral relations with Indonesia. Comprising the group, the tenth batch sent off since the Japan-Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement took effect in July 2008, were 29 nurses in training and 295 caregiver and geriatric nurse trainees. The health workers, who flew to Japan on Monday and Wednesday, took part in Japanese language intensive training since November 2016 in Jakarta. They will get another six months of language training upon arrival in Japan before starting their jobs. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, June 15 2017 The Jakarta Environment Agency is urging schools to establish waste banks in a bid cut down on the citys trash output. Agency head Isnawa Adji said 100 schools in five municipalities had already set up waste banks. However, the number should be increased to cope with the capitals growing trash problem. We will push all schools in Jakarta to establish waste banks, he said on Tuesday as quoted by beritajakarta.id. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan Thu, June 15 2017 Its unique characteristics make the pangolin the worlds most trafficked wild mammal and an attractive target for hunters. Believed to hold many benefits, the elusive ant eater is sought for its meat and scales. Some believe pangolin meat is good for health and sex drive. Their scales, meanwhile, can be used for traditional medicine, fashion items like shoes and even as an ingredient for narcotics like crystal methamphetamine, locally known as sabu-sabu. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post) Venice, Italy Thu, June 15 2017 Taking part in the worlds oldest and most prestigious art festival the Venice Biennale is the dream of almost every artist. If you are not invited by the Venice Biennales curator for the main exhibition, representing ones national pavilion is equally important. Visited by hundreds of thousands of people from the entire art world and beyond: art lovers, curators, museum directors, gallery owners, actors and actresses world celebrities and what not, the over a century old biennale this year has 89 national pavilions with their own curators and 120 artists in the central exhibition space overseen by the biennale director Christine Macel, the chief curator at the Musee National dArt Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. When the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) announced it was replacing the Tourism Ministry as caretaker of Indonesias participation in the worlds most prestigious art festival the Venice Biennale, and that all costs would be borne by the State Budget, there was great expectation and hope that this years participation would be able to build on the two earlier successful editions of the Indonesia Pavilion in the Arsenale (2013 and 2015). This years artist selected to represent the Indonesia Pavilion in Venice is Tintin Wulia, an artist who has had a presence in many international events and with Enin Supriyanto as artistic director, as well as Agung Hujatnikajennong as curator, respected names in their profession, expectations are high for Indonesias third time in the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale. The Bali-born Tintin, who lives and works in Australia, is known to have been engaged with borders, migration and identity from the beginning of her artistic career. Works like the series (Re)collection of Togetherness and Nous Ne Notons Pas les Fleurs have enjoyed multiple displays internationally. Her concept for the Venice Biennale, which suggested a global network without borders was therefore encouraging. On paper, it even had a science fictional and pseudo-documentary treat. Digitally linking the fateful year of 1965 with life on another planet seemed to be an idea that included the future of todays population while looking back at the black pages of our history, including also her personal history. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Markus Makur (The Jakarta Post) West Manggarai, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara Wed, June 14, 2017 08:03 1976 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a518e3e 1 News komodo,Komodo-Island,KomodoNationalPark,Komodo-National-Park,#komodo,#KomodoNationalPark,travel,#travel,traveling,#traveling,documentary,#documentary Free The Tourism Ministry reportedly made a documentary featuring Komodo National Park in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. Komodo National Park is home to endangered Komodo dragons. In addition to the rare species, the area is also known for its breathtaking landscape. Titled Cerita Destinasi [Destination Story], filming took place in West Manggarai regency, said the ministry's spokesperson, Andi Marpaung, adding that the production team had visited several destinations, such as Cunca Wulang Waterfall, Rangko Cave and Komodo National Park, for the documentary. Andi said the government was working to promote Flores through several activities and creative endeavors, including the film. Labuan Bajo was listed as a a top ten priority destination in Indonesia, which led the ministry to collaborate with private institutions to make a documentary featuring the national park. Read also: Tips for visiting Komodo National Park Local musician Ivan Nestorman and model Advina Ratnaningsih reportedly participated in the documentary. Ivan told The Jakarta Post that Komodo National Park in West Manggarai was a popular diving, snorkeling and trekking destination among local and foreign tourists. I hope there will be improvements in West Manggarai tourism that benefits the locals, he said. Meanwhile, Advina shared her experience diving in Pink Beach. "The coral reefs and marine life attract tourists who visit the island," she said, adding that she was excited to see Komodo dragons. (jes/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, June 14, 2017 16:03 1975 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a5397bc 1 News Qatar-Airways,Ireland,#airlines,new-route,Airlines,Dublin Free Qatar Airways landed in Dublin on Monday, inaugurating a new daily service connecting the Irish city to the airline's growing network, according to a statement. The flight, with its next-generation Airbus A350, marked the special occasion, as Qatar Airways' daily Dublin service would continue to operate with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which has a two-class configuration that includes 22 seats in Business Class and 232 seats in Economy Class. Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker welcomed the new route as an "important milestone" for the airline. "The new service will connect the Irish people with more destinations globally and provide them the opportunity to experience our five-star service," Akbar said in a statement on its website. Read also: Qatar Airways to loan laptops to passengers The Dublin route marks the airline's first service to Ireland, which connects passengers to its network to the Middle East, Asia and Australia, as well as easing connections to Australia and Hong Kong. The route also provides Qatar Airways Cargo customers 80 metric tons of belly-hold capacity each week, a service that boasts temperature-controlled facilities, including for perishables, the statement further said. Following the Dublin launch, the carrier is set to add flights to more destination through 2017 and 2018, including Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Accra, Ghana; Canberra, Australia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Chittagong, Bangladesh; Mombasa, Kenya; and Utapao, Thailand. (kes) New York, June 14(Just Earth News): The mitigation of the threats posed by landmines and other explosive remnants of war is vital to the success of United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions, as well as to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the return of displaced persons, and sustainable development, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Tuesday. As an integrated component of peacekeeping and special political missions, mine action is critical to the safety, security and mobility of mission personnel and to effective and efficient mandate implementation along with its critical importance for protection of civilian populations, especially children and women, said Alexander Zuev, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, during a thematic debate. The debate, titled 'Comprehensive Approach to Mine Action and Explosive Hazards Mitigation,' was proposed by Bolivia, which holds the Council's presidency for the month. Explosive hazards have been a key concern, especially for troop contributing countries. Nathalie Ochoa Nina, of the UN Mine Action Service in Colombia also addressed the meeting. Explaining how mine action contributes to UN activities on the ground, Zuev said that, for example, in Iraq, risk education campaigns and humanitarian clearance of improvised explosive devices allows the safe return of displaced, populations and delivery of humanitarian assistance. In South Sudan, the use of explosive detection dogs ensures that the sites sheltering civilians are free from explosive hazards, he added. He went on to explain how the destruction of anti-personnel mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices is vital to conflict prevention because those explosive materials could be "recycled" to construct new improvised explosive devices. He also said that employing former soldiers in the field of mine clearance could help create conditions conducive to peace. UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is also coordinating development of standards for the disposal of improvised explosive devices. These standards, expected to be completed by the 72nd session of the General Assembly, will ensure conformity in training, equipment and operations, Zuev said. Photo: MINUSMA/Marco Dormino Source: www.justearthnews.com The family of David A. Cohen, a longtime Lower East Side landlord, has sold a strip of low-slung buildings at 162-166 Bowery (near Delancey Street) to investor Ari Zagdanski for $23.5 million. [The Real Deal] Our Congresswoman, Nydia Velazquez, released a report showing that Donald Trumps budget proposal would mean a $3 billion loss in funding for New York. For someone who calls himself a New Yorker, President Trumps budget is an insult to our city, Velazquez said. [New York Post] State Sen. Daniel Squadron says the Republican-controlled Senate is holding mayoral control of NYCs public schools to its conservative policy agenda. [WNYC] We told you yesterday about an elderly Lower East Side resident who went missing. Good news: 80-year-old Yulun Zeng has been found. Katzs Deli is named the best casual restaurant in America. [The Daily Meal] The millennials of the Lower East Side (those aspiring socialists!) are loving the Lenin statue, now standing proud atop his new home on Norfolk Street. [Channel 11] Its Mind F*ck Night at the Lower East Side Film Festival. [Facebook] New York, June 14(Just Earth News): A major intergovernmental meeting got underway at the United Nations on Tuesday, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders to ensure the full implementation of a landmark treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities. The Convention [on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or CRPD] is one of the most progressive human rights treaties, recognizing the role of the people it is trying to impact, Georgi Panayotov, the Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the UN and the President of the 10th session of the Conference of States Parties to CRPD, said at a press conference on Tuesday at the UN Headquarters in New York. This is the beginning of the second decade of the CRPD, in the first decade it saw nearly universal ratification [and now] we will have to achieve universal ratification, added Theresia Degener, the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities a body of independent UN human rights experts who monitor the implementation of the Convention by its states parties calling on all stakeholders to protect the normative standard set by the Convention. Upholding these normative standards and ensuring legal capacity, institutionalization, medical treatment, as well as laws and policies to ensure non-discrimination and full participation of all persons with disabilities are extremely important, she highlighted. In the same vein, Collin Allen, the Chair of International Disability Alliance, expressed commitment on behalf of organizations of persons with disabilities to work with governments and States parties on the implementation of the Convention. We want to ensure that persons with disabilities are heard, and most importantly, involved so that we have meaningful participation and full inclusion, he said, assisted by sign-language interpreter. We want to ensure that persons with disabilities are heard, and most importantly, involved so that we have meaningful participation and full inclusionCollin Allen, Chair of International Disability Alliance When we say nothing about us, without us it is very significant, he added, recalling the major achievements of the CRPD over the last decade and highlighting that persons with disabilities as the experts on the issue are critical to realizing the aspirations of the Convention. Held under the theme of 'inclusion and full participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in the implementation of the Convention,' the current session of the Conference of the States Parties will also discuss addressing the impact of multiple discrimination on persons with disabilities and promoting their participation for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in line with CRPD. It will also seek to ensure inclusion and full participation of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action, as well as promoting inclusive urban development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda. Also speaking on Tuesday, Catalina Devandas Aguilar, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities termed the Conference as an unprecedented one and hailed the efforts of its bureau to ensure that has full and direct participation of persons with disabilities. However, she also expressed concern over the lack of accurate and complete data on persons with disabilities, calling for a clear recommendation on ensuring disaggregated data as well as methodology to collect it. Without baseline data, we will not be able to measure any impact of important tools [such as the SDGs and CRPD on] advancing the cause of persons with disabilities, said the Special Rapporteur. Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work. UN Photo/Evan Schneider Source: www.justearthnews.com London, June 14 (IBNS): A massive fire broke out at a tower block in London on Wednesday, officials said. As per London Fire Brigade, forty fire engines and over 200 firefighters are fighting to bring the fire under control. "The Brigade has received multiple calls. The fire is from the second floor to the top floor of the 27 floor building," the London Fire Brigade posted on Facebook. Fire crews from North Kensington, Kensington, Hammersmith and Paddington and from surrounding fire stations are in attendance.{image2} The cause of the fire is not known at this stage, the London Fire Brigade said. Several people have been injured. Evacuation processes going on. "Residents continue to be evacuated from the tower block fire in #NorthKensington. A number of people being treated for a range of injuries," the Metropolitan Police tweeted. Images: London Fire Brigade Twitter page Leicester, with a population of 342,000, is arguably one of the most diverse and multicultural cities in the UK. Its been all over the news in recent years with the discovery on Richard IIIs remains under a car park, and one of the biggest underdog stories in the history of sport - Leicester FC winning the Premier League in 2016! As well as an incredibly interesting history and sporting culture, Leicester has a lot to offer in terms of arts. Not only is theatre, film, and music celebrated, but there are several religious and multicultural events which bring the whole city together every year. It would be impossible to list all of Leicester's incredible events and exciting venues, but here are a few of the best. THEATRE THE Y The Y is a much smaller venue than the Curve, however as DMU student Kelly-Mae Matt, who works part-time at the theatre, said: "The Y Theatre hosts a lot more variety and has a much friendlier feel to it. The building is old, so it has its history." She cites it as a place that creates community, something which Leicester prides itself on. The theatre has hosted several acts such as Jonathon Pie, Reginald D. Hunter, and Josie Long. Its also renowned for its show 14/48, The Worlds Quickest Theatre Festival. During the festival, 14 plays are written, rehearsed, designed, scored, and performed within 48 hours with seven different plays being performed each night. Leicester also hosts a Comedy Festival each year with many of the performances being held at The Y. ATTENBROUGH ARTS CENTRE The Attenbrough Arts Centre could have been listed under any one of these categories, as it is a cultural hub of Leicester. It has a gallery, hosts live music, spoken word and dance performances , and has theatre and comedy shows. You name it, theyve got it. Events this summer include: Sunday 9th July, 1-4pm: Contact Improvisation Jam, which involves dancing and contact improvisational skills development. Sunday 9th July: 5-6pm Shes 12. This event features Nadine Knew, who explores what its like to be a 12-year-old in todays society. Both events are pay what you feel, in order to open up these opportunities to everyone. FILM PHOENIX The Phoenix is an independent cinema also situated in the cultural quarter near the Curve. It plays a variety of low budget, independent films, and tickets are much cheaper than the Showcase Cinema at 5 a ticket for students. The cinema also has a cafe with several veggie and vegan options, which also offers student discount. In addition to a regular film schedule, the cinema hosts events such as a yearly film festival organised by students, the most recent being Sentient Film Festival which ran for a week in March featuring classic films such as Metropolis and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ben Wheatley also hosted a preview screening of his film Free Fire with a live Q&A. LITERATURE CULTURAL EXCHANGES Each year, DMU hosts the Cultural Exchanges Festival, organised by Arts and Festival Management Students, including events opening to not only students but the wider community. Events have hosted the likes of Carol Ann Duffy, Benjamin Zephaniah, Kanya King, Nina Stibbe, Paris Lees, Rod Duncan, and David Baddiel, to name but a few. A particularly noteworthy talk from 2016 was from Alistair Fruish, who discussed his work as a writer-in-residence at a local prison and the benefits of rehabilitating prisoners through learning to write. The festival attracts people from all over the East Midlands and the majority of tickets are free or under 5 per ticket. STATES OF INDEPENDENCE States of Independence is a yearly book festival in the Clephan Building on DMU Campus, showcasing published work from independent book publishers. Its a great place for any young and budding writer to hang out and network. Not only can books from local writers be purchased but there are also readings from well-known writers. MULTICULTURAL CELEBRATIONS DIWALI Each year Leicester hosts many religious festivals which welcome everyone, regardless of religion. These include Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light, and the celebration in Leicester is one of the biggest outside of India. Around 40,000 people attend the switching on of the lights every year, with even more participating in celebrations along Belgrave Road and the Golden Mile. The celebrations include exchanging of sweets, fireworks, and traditional dancing. HOLI As Leicester hosts a large Hindu population, Holi is always celebrated. At De Montfort University, the Indian Society hosts a celebration of the Spring season in Bede Park for the all students, which involves throwing coloured powder symbolising of good triumphing over evil. Students then donate the proceeds from selling the coloured powder to the DMU Square Mile India Fund, helping children in Ahmedabad. MUSIC THE COOKIE One of the most popular underground music and comedy venues in Leicester is The Cookie. Situated on High Street in the city centre, the venue has hosted bands such as Jaws and Blaenavon and is a venue used throughout Leicester Comedy Festival. Despite the venue being small, its known as a great place to discover new music in the Midlands. New York, June 14(Just Earth News): True peace requires building bridges, combating discrimination and standing up for the human rights of the world's people United Nations Secretary-General said, kicking off the 100-day countdown to the International Day of Peace, with a strong appeal to citizens, governments and leaders everywhere to aput peace first.a Recalling that his very first act as he took up his duties as Secretary-General in January was to issue an appeal for peace, Guterres said the International Day, marked annually on 21 September, embodies our shared aspiration to end the needless suffering caused by armed conflict. Moreover, the Day offers a moment for the peoples of the world to acknowledge the ties that bind them together, irrespective of their countries of origin, the Secretary-General said, adding: It is a day on which the United Nations calls for a 24-hour global ceasefire, with the hope that one day of peace can lead to another, and another, and ultimately to a stilling of the guns. The UN chief explained that there is more to achieving peace than laying down weapons, True peace requires building bridges, combating discrimination and standing up for the human rights of all the world's people. As such, the theme for this year's International Day of Peace is, 'Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All' with a particular focus on the plight of refugees and migrants throughout the world. Our obligation as an international community is to ensure that everyone forced to flee their homes receives the protection to which they are entitled under international law. Our duty as a human family is to replace fear with kindness, he continued. Guterres urged everyone over the next 100 days to remember that millions of vulnerable members of our society, many of whom have lost everything, need our understanding and assistance. He encouraged people to strategize together about what we can do to help them. Let us recognize the many ways in which they contribute to and strengthen their host countries and communities. And let us redouble our efforts to address the root causes of conflict, advance our work for the Sustainable Development Goals, and heighten our emphasis on preventing violence in the first place, stressed Guterres. By opening our hearts, joining hands and reaching out to refugees and migrants, we can move closer to attaining peace, prosperity and protection for all, concluded the Secretary-General. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras (file photo) Source: www.justearthnews.com There's no denying that dads are the most difficult people to buy for. There's only so many years you can recycle the same old 'best dad' card and cheesy socks combo. However, if your dad is anything like mine, he knows what he likes, and likes what he knows. Innevitabley, this means always bringing something new to the table with a matching gift-reciept. So this year, why not take your classic dad prezzie and give it a fresh twist? Keep him happy and keep yourself cool, by not having a dad who loves a socks and sandals combo (please stop trying to make it happen). This is a gift the whole family will appreciate! Your dad will be groomed to perfection and your mum will thank the heavens for no more beard hairs around the sink. I know socks get a bad rap when it comes to gift giving, but c'mon! They're always practical and will be used until their worn through. Why not upgrade the usual days of the weeks for something a little more exciting? One glipmse of these in the pub after work and your dad will be leader of the pack. If he's going to insist on wearing ugly shirts, you may aswell try and make it look deliberate. Foul Fashion offers a range of different garments, however the shirt can be used at weekends, for office meetings and your cousins wedding (however we wouldn't recommend stealing the bride's thunder). 4. Cufflinks and tie clip Imagine your dad going back into the offfice the Monday after Father's Day, and watching the light shine off of everyone else's brand new cufflinks. "This one say's 'best' and the other days 'Dad,'" the pompus twit from HR will say, waving his arms about. From there on, battle for best display of a child's love will begin. Only joking, but give your dad something to shut him up anyways. Chuck the tie clip in to stop Mr HR from bragging in the first place. Retro sportswear has been making a resurgance for a while now, so why not get your dad in on it? Chances are he probably wore a bomber jacket before it was cool, so take him back to his youth. If labels mean nothing to your old man, there's plenty of decent knock-off versions of the classic Fred Perry design. Let your dad think he's still embarrassing you while secretly relishing in his fashionable new threads. For a more casual look, go for a t-shirt. Perfect for summer barbeques and dads who never got to live out their surfer dreams. To the naked eye, your dad is a well-dressed man of business. To those in the know, he's the coolest guy in the room. Mix business with intergalactic battle and give him the gift he never knew he needed. Tell him he's welcome. Tried and tested, my dad LIVED for his reverable belt. Brown leather on one side, black leather on the other, the buckle works on a pull and twist mechanism to switch between the two. No more mismatching black leather shoes with a brown leather belt - result. If you're lucky enough to have a dad who knows there's more to hair than an all over trim every couple of months, you're one of the few. So why not indulge him in some hair care specials? This set from Aussie brand Uppercuts includes everything he needs to look like he's fresh out of the salon - and a passport holder, which could come in handy too, I guess. Heidi Klum is set to collaborate with Lidl, designing an affordable fashion range that will be released across the chains UK stores. When asked about the partnership Klum said: Lidl is known for making quality products at affordable prices and Im proud to partner with them on this fashion collaboration. She continued: I had so much fun designing the pieces in this collection and cant wait for you to see it. I hope you love it as much as I do!" Klum is not the first celebrity to team up with Lidl - Paris Hilton previously partnered with the brand to release a collection of budget-friendly haircare products. Fashion for everyone! Heidi Klum & Lidl! We're happy to announce we've partnered up with @heidiklum. Stay tuned, surprises coming soon!pic.twitter.com/cj541d9G9g Lidl UK (@LidlUK) June 6, 2017 The range included hairbrushes from 1.99 and hairdryers from 9.99. Lidl UKs commercial director, Ryan McDonnell, said: Heidi is an incredible source of inspiration, which we think will really resonate with our customers. We are extremely excited about offering our most premium fashion range to date, and look forward to the first collection going on sale later this year. Lidl is not the only chain to dip its toes into the fashion market. Asdas George, Sainsburys Tu and Tescos F&F are all popular supermarket fashion outlets. Klums fashion range is just one segment of Lidls expansion, with its upcoming opening of 20 stores across the United States in June 2017, entering into the US grocery market. Lidl is planning to open 100 new stores across the US by the end of 2017. Now that I'm 21, I am trying to stop myself feeling old. Sadly writing this article did not help as some of my favourite films are already turning ten (how are they a decade old?). So here is the run down of everyone's favourite films celebrating their tenth birthday this year. 1) Atonement Every year, two films battle it out for critical supremacy, and 2007 saw Atonement battle No Country for Old Men for a series of awards. So, in true critics style, I gave only one a place here and - for me - it has to be Atonement. Starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, the film employs a clever concept as it documents the repercussions of a crime over six-decades allowing for a whole range of responses and interesting plot developments over the two-hours. The script-writing is what made this film such a success, though the acting performances are very impressive. Let alone the film of 2007, many had this on their top list for the film of the decade come 2010. 2) Elizabeth: The Golden Age As historical movies go, this is by far one of the best. Cate Blanchett's enigmatic portrayal of Elizabeth I is rousing and passionate, and works perfectly against Geoffrey Rush as spy-master Francis Walsingham. As well as presenting a period of history with great vigour (and without the ridiculous creative license often taken), Elizabeth: The Golden Age manages to evoke a sense of English pride as it depicts the defeating of the Spanish Armada. It may have been near-500 years ago, but we love to be proud of our country. Somehow I can't see a successful film version of Theresa May in another 500 years time... 3) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Controversial, but I thought this was the best film of the whole franchise. Dolores Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton, made the film for me ("I'm sorry/ I must not tell lies"). I loved the fighting scenes at the end, I cried at Sirius' death, and I laughed at the comical moments cleverly inserted in to the film. The whole thing is such a rollercoaster. 4) Hot Fuzz The name is Skinner. Simon Skinner. And there is a loose swan. Oh yes, its Hot Fuzz. Arriving at the top English village of the year, DI Nicholas Angel is set for a quiet life. But quickly things escalate, and three murders and several disappearances later, it turns out that the village is dark. The whole film is wacky, unbelievable, funny, cleverly written, well-acted and the kind of thing that you re-watch every year. Its made its name as one of the films that encapsulates our generation as children. (P.S. It's also on Netflix, if you fancy a nostalgia trip!) 5) Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End So - for me - this was THE film of 2017, and perhaps perfectly timed to be reminisced with Salazar's Revenge having just been released. The showdown between Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones is the stuff cinematic dreams are made of, and Johnny Depp's portrayal as the quirky Sparrow captured the hearts of millions of fans. And there is a cute monkey. I mean, what more could you want? 6) Shrek the Third Who doesn't love Shrek? To be fair, my favourite was always Donkey but there is no need to split hairs! For me, the third film was the best in the franchise. Attempting to find an heir to the kingdom of Far, Far Away, the troops must hunt for Arthur while avoiding the evil Prince Charming who aims to steal the throne. What makes this film is its ingenious sense of fun and its multi-talented vocal cast including Eddie Murphy, Julie Andrews, Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. The only shame was that Jennifer Saunders left after the second film! 7) St Trinian's People might challenge this one, but the legacy it has made for itself means it deserves its place on this list. Apart from the infamously bad Girls Aloud song that we can forget about, the film encapsulates the fun of high school and although it can become cheesy at points, it encapsulates the films of my childhood. This film is basically 11-year old me to a tee. 8) Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street I didn't watch this when I was 11, but it now deserves its place on this list. Though opening to mixed reactions, Johnny Depp's portrayal of the demon barber was full of tension and a quirky villainous side. Depp and Helena Bonham Carter's relationship here is perfect and they fully deserved the Golden Globe Award that they picked up for their performance on this film. It also has a strong musical score, with cleverly comprised lyrics and a very skilled team of costume and set designers to give the film the perfect eerie-Victorian feel. 9) The Simpsons Movie Do I need to say any more? This was everyone's favourite film. The Simpsons trapped under a dome fighting for their lives. It was everything we all had ever dreamed off. Now I wonder where the idea for America's 'The Dome' came from... 10) There Will Be Blood Daniel Day Lewis' critically acclaimed performance as Daniel Plainview feels too young to be turning 10 but, alas, it is. Based on Southern California's Oil Boom in the 1890s, the film poignantly explores the limitations and attractions of wealth, and its potentially poisonous and dark nature. It does a fantastic job of presenting the history behind the curtain and, although it enlists a fair deal of creative license, it remains believable and representative throughout. Its Guild Award was much deserved! Manchester's popular Parklife Festival celebrated its seventh year this year, with a huge line-up starring The 1975, Frank Ocean, Two Door Cinema Club and more. Thankfully, the weather behaved for the most part. The odd drip came down - which was actually quite refreshing - and the wind mostly stayed away. Although it did show its face on Sunday a fair bit. It was muddy, as most (all?) English festivals tend (need?) to be. The stages were fantastic. From the shipping container-style of the Temple Stage, to the openness of the Sounds of the Near Future stage, it worked splendidly. Each stage was easy to find, and if you were cold, you could wander into the Greenhouse to find some warmth. First up, we caught Chaka Khan. The performance was only marred when some people whistled during the minute-long silence she requested for those who passed in the recent attack at Ariana Grande's concert. Not many artists I saw got the same reaction to a song than Chaka Khan got to 'Im Every Woman' and 'Aint Nobody'. Full of passion and joy, she completely set the mood for the weekend. We arrived just in time to catch the end of Tom Mischs set, and thus thankfully caught all of Loyle Carner. We also found ourselves pleasantly surprised at Loyle Carners use of other artists. He engaged with the audience extensively, played the songs that exactly matched the mood of his crowd. He was brilliant. His movements on stage meant that plenty in the audience felt as though he wasn't just singing, he was performing for them. Anderson Paak and The Free Nationals will definitely go down as a favourite set of the weekend. Showing just how marvellous he is, he tirelessly kept going. The switching of red and blue lighting so perfectly coupled with the rich blue of the tent, as well as guiding his performance. Seeing his genuine pleasure at being there, performing for us, brought a personal aspect to the performance. Plus, mixing some of the very well-known songs with the lesser proved to be a huge success. Im not one to often listen to Damian Marley, but his set was impressive. The visuals behind the stage were great, seemingly flowing in the wind. Lights werent too effective as it was still light, but the way the Temple Stage was built was awesome. Cue spits of fire, etc. Perfectly fitting the crowd, limbs flailed and feet stomped over and over again. One of the acts I had been particularly excited to see was Sampha - I even gathered a group of six friends to accompany me. It wast too bad by any means. It was just a bit more mellow than I had expected, and it kind of felt like I wanted to have a lie down. Not because of the bad music, but it just made me sleepy. The visuals I felt lacked a bit, and it just wasnt as much as I thought itd be. As has been fairly pointed out, Frank Ocean is more of an artist than a performer. Having said that, he did come to perform and I was extremely disappointed in his set. Unable to adequately read the mood of his audience, he stumbled about stage, stopping songs and then starting over. He played songs that were extremely slow, and too much so for the vast, excitable crowd. He was also 45 minutes late on stage. It looked like he was completely out of it, and that he barely knew where he was. He barely had a stage presence. Although, it has to be said the lights in the sky looked amazing in the clouds, but thats about as much praise as I can give for his performance. Not to take away from his talent, of course. Just stick to the Spotify playlists. A minimum of six people have died and more than 70 are being treated in hospital after a huge fire broke in Grenfell Tower, north Kensington, around 1am this morning. "They were trapped. They couldn't come downstairs ... People have been burned" Eyewitness of #GrenfellTower fire https://t.co/RvtFZxZe4S pic.twitter.com/px56XEsFri Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 14, 2017 Casualties are expected to rise further, since the extensive fire engulfed the full height of the 24-storey block, and burned strongly for more than six hours. The London fire commissioner, Dany Cotton, said that "In [her] 29 years of being a firefighter [she has] never ever seen anything of this scale." The tower had risen concerns about fire safety in 2012, when a health and safety review found firefighting equipment had not been checked for up to four years, and in 2016 when a group of residents warned that if the exit were to become blocked in a fire, people would be trapped inside. A two-year 10m refurbishment was therefore completed by Rydon Construction last year. The new plant included modern exterior cladding, replacement windows and a communal heating system. Witnesses on the scene have spoken of hearing screams and seeing some people escaping using bedsheets as improvised rope ladders and others jumping from the burning building. There was a storng Police and the London Fire Brigade presence in the area all night, with heroic officers trying to douse the fire and rescue as many people as possible. At 4.40 AM this morning policemen were also seen in the nearby buildings urging residents to evacuate. It is not yet known what was the cause of fire, but Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said "a full investigation will need to be undertaken at the first possible opportunity". The last bloke fire in the city was in a building In July 2009. Six people were killed and more than 20 injured in a blaze at Lakanal House, a tower block in Camberwell, south-east London. For those who are looking for relatives or friends following the fire, the police have set up an emergency line at this number: 0800 0961 233. You find more about how to help here. today ruled The Supreme Court, the UKs highest court, hasthat anyone from Northern Ireland seeking an abortion on the NHS in England will not be entitled to this service. In 2012, a 15 year-old young woman from Northern Ireland travelled to England with her mother to get an abortion and was forced to pay around 900 for the procedure in a private clinic. They launched an appeal against Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, which came before the Supreme Court last year, arguing it was unlawful he would not allow residents of Northern Ireland to access free abortions on the NHS in England. In Northern Ireland, abortions are only allowed if a womans life is deemed to be at severe risk, which does not include cases of rape, incest or danger to the foetus, and if the woman is under 9 weeks pregnant. However, residents of England, Scotland and Wales are protected under the 1967 Abortion Act and can access a free abortion if they are up to 24 weeks pregnant. In March, Parliament passed a bill in its first reading to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. This means there is an extreme disparity between all the other countries in the UK and Northern Ireland, where women are forced to choose between delivering a baby they may not want or be capable of having, for example as a result of traumatising assault, or paying a large amount of money for both flights to England and the costs of a private abortion procedure. This is a landmark case and was ruled against by a majority of 3-2, with Supreme Court Justice Lord Wilson stating that allowing the appeal to pass would complicate issues of devolution and cause a substantial level of health tourism into England. This is a devastating blow for Northern Irish women, especially at a time when the Conservatives are making deals with the anti-abortion DUP. Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. 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